Athena simply returned her gaze, ignoring the icy snake coiling in her stomach. “So I assume this is going to be with swords?"
"That's the plan, yes."
"Well, where's mine?"
Sif snorted. “You're a fucking idiot, Athena. If you didn't hold that stupid cow's life more important than your own, you could have your minions gun me down, take my sword from me, and chop off my head. Instead, you're going to risk everything for a bunch of vermin."
"Vermin? Is that really what you think of them?"
"You have to ask? They breed like rats, consume everything in sight, and pollute the whole world with their waste. The Masters—you'd call them ‘the Enemy'—have the right idea. These mortals are too stupid to have free will. They need a strong hand to guide them, and this,” she held up a clenched fist “is going to be that hand."
"You'd throw in with the creatures that destroyed our world?” Athena didn't want to believe it, but the proof stood before her eyes.
"Don't sound so surprised, dear sister. I don't want to be on the losing side this time. And, whatever you can say about them, they're winners. That's what they do. They win."
"They're fucking bugs!"
"Yeah, well.” Sif shrugged. “Not that I give a damn. When these slugs knuckle under their rule, I plan to be standing on top of the heap."
"You'll be lying beneath it,” Athena snapped. “Someone throw me a fucking sword!"
She hadn't really expected it, but a three-foot section of razor sharp steel spun through the air. She reached up and snatched it by the haft without taking her eye from Sif for even an instant. Renee, I hope you can hear this. If I go down, have someone put a bullet in Xevon's eye, then put as many holes in Sif as they can manage. Or have them do both at once. I don't care. If she kills me, take her goddam sword and kill her with it.
She had no way of knowing if Renee heard her. Didn't matter anyway. One way or another, this was going to happen, and it was going to happen now.
Sif charged, blade howling as it swept across in a horizontal slash obviously meant to take her head in one stroke. Rather than risk her steel blade against it, Athena spun away, letting it cleave empty air. She struck once, a short upward slash that bit deep into Sif's shoulder as she stepped past her. That blade will cut through this one in an instant. She knew it at first glance. Steel can't kill her, but I'm sure that crystal can kill me.
So they danced. Sif had astounding skill, and only made that one mistake. Her strikes were swift and sure and only Athena's daily drills with Shea—now months behind her—gave her any chance to evade without placing her sword in harm's way.
"Stand still, damn you,” Sif hissed into the air, silent except for the scuff of their feet against the stage floor and the smooth whisper of their breathing. Athena fired off a grin, skipped over a line of electrical cable, and settled into a waiting stance, feet placed just so, with sixty-five/forty-five percent pressure between back and front, respectively.
Sif uttered a deep growl and literally flung herself at Athena, skidding to a stop at the last second and reversing the direction of her blow. Taken by surprise, Athena could only bring her own blade up in line to defend.
With a sickening sound, the crystal weapon sheered straight through her sword and clipped her forearm just below her wrist. A couple of inches more and her hand would've bounced off the floor along with the twenty-six inches of steel blade.
Before Sif could press the advantage, Athena's foot snapped out and caught her in the knee. She pivoted swiftly and drove the toe of her shoe into Sif's gut. Air exploded out of her in a whoosh. Athena dropped the foot back to the floor and skated forward, thrusting the broken end of her blade deep into Sif's chest.
A collective gasp filled the club as Sif brought the hilt of her own sword up and struck Athena hard across the side of the head, throwing her back and almost over the side of the stage. She turned, the hilt and quillions plainly visible in the middle of her chest as she reached out and plucked the blade fragment from her flesh. She threw it to the floor and wiped her hand in the copious blood pouring from between her breasts. “Impressive,” she said, with a bitter twist to her lips. “It's too bad you didn't have a real sword to work with. You might actually have won."
Athena took a deep, shuddering breath and waited for Sif to make her next move. It didn't take more than a second. She hopped forward, driving the point of her blade directly at Athena's own chest. Athena leaned to the side, feet sliding a few inches out of line, and dropped her left hand over Sif's wrist. Her right hand shot up, driving the heel of her hand onto the crystal weapon's slim quillion and forcing her hands together. Sif screeched as her wrist snapped and the weapon flipped in her grasp.
Athena rotated her hip and drove the weapon backward, plunging it deep into Sif's chest. Nearly screaming with the pain of grasping the weapon with her injured hand, she yanked it out and made a single vertical slash.
Sif's head struck the stage with a meaty thump.
* * * *
The hush was palpable. Athena switched the sword to her left hand and her gaze swept the crowd. A roar of animal rage jerked her gaze down, toward Xevon. His huge hands slid up, wrapping themselves around Mrs. Bolt's head as the knife fell to the floor with a loud clatter. Like a pale white streak clothed in blackness, Fenris caught his right elbow in a massive fist and jerked. Mrs. Bolt flopped to the floor as Xevon was hauled around straight into a fierce right cross that sent him staggering through the crowd. People screamed as they scattered.
Xevon threw his cloak back and changed, the cloak expanding outward to transform into what looked like a pair of bat wings as he drew himself up to his full height. The screams grew louder as the crowd recognized, in their midst, something that could only be described as a demon.
Fenris let out a ragged howl that sent the hairs on the back of her neck leaping skyward. One second he was merely an overlarge human, the next he was a great hairy beast with a massive wolf's head perched atop monstrously muscled shoulders. Claws like a handful of daggers shot out, ripping four great rents in the demon's chest. Xevon keened a note that sent people to the floor, clutching at their ears.
Both creatures roared as they crashed together—two titans mad with rage and bloodlust. They spun around the center of the room as mortals scurried to the edges, some screaming, some sobbing wordlessly, and others—obviously the bravest among them—trying to shield others behind them.
Except for the wait-staff. As the mortals fell, they tossed whatever they were carrying and threw out their arms, changing into smaller, but barely less imposing, versions of whatever beast of hell Xevon had transformed into. Athena froze where she stood, feeling lightning flowing down the blade and crackling around her arm. There must be twenty of them in here.
Other than the two roaring beasts, werewolf and demon-thing, battling in the center of the room, everything else went as still as a photograph, monsters, mortals, and immortals staring at one another like they'd been suspended in amber.
The street-side window shattered as a motorcycle flew through, sending glass buzzing like a swarm of wasps through the room. The bike struck the floor and skidded as its rider, another veritable giant in black leather biker gear and raven hair streaming behind him like a cape, leaped on top of it and surfed it across the floor. As it slid beneath a table he vaulted into the air and seemed to somersault slowly until his feet rotated beneath him once again.
He landed squarely less than two feet from one of the demons. His left hand shot out, seized the creature by the throat, and snapped its neck with a sudden twist of his body. He hurled the corpse back through the window he'd entered and turned glittering black eyes on the next one.
Mortals scrambled to get out of the way as Fenris and Xevon battled, snatching up tables, chairs, and whatever else came to hand, battering at one another with mindless fury. A chair shattered against the werewolf's face and he shook his head to clear it as he backed away.
In one corner Athena spo
tted Nemesis standing guard over several civilians, her service pistol in hand, a look of horror on her face as she watched three demons stalk toward her.
Renee appeared on the scene like a spirit made flesh, snatching one of the demons off its feet and slamming it into the floor with bone-crushing force. She plunged a hand into its chest and snatched out a bloody heart. She spun, tossing the still-beating organ at another demon, who caught it reflexively, then dropped it as if it were a hot coal. Renee smiled at him and slowly licked blood from her fingers.
Athena saw one of the monsters standing over a supine mortal at the very rear of the club, behind a row of pool tables, its claws extended, ready to reach down and tear him into pieces, and stabbed outward with the sword in her hand. Lightning poured through the air, cascading over the demon's form and slamming it into the wall above the semi-conscious mortal.
She saw Loki, confronted by one of the beasts, grin up at it as if he were greeting a long, lost friend. As it cocked its head quizzically, Loki, laughing, ducked between its legs and slammed a knotted fist where its groin would be.
A particularly brave—or particularly stupid—television cameraman stood against one wall, slowly panning across the scene. One of the demons turned slowly, attracted by the movement, and began advancing on him.
Athena hopped down from the stage, running that direction, knowing she'd never make it in time.
The kitchen door exploded inward and a mob of goblins rushed in, swarming over the demon, stabbing with their short swords, biting with their long, jagged teeth. In less than five seconds the creature was down, its bloody corpse little more than a trail of butchered meat on the floor. Kali strode through the open door and launched herself at another one of the demons. She caught it within her six-armed grasp and tore it in two.
The smell of blood and death filled Athena's nose as she slowly turned in place.
Xevon and Fenris were locked in a snarling, clawing embrace. Slowly Fenris forced Xevon's head backward, exposing the long expanse of his throat. His head snapped forward, teeth sinking deeply before his massive head twisted sideways. Xevon tumbled from his arms and crashed to the floor.
The mortals who'd survived the attack—which, thankfully, appeared to be most of them, cowered in a shivering heap in one corner of the room, next to the stage. Breed, pistol smoking in her hand, stood side by side with Renee. The vampire's beautiful dress hung in rags, torn by demonic talons in vain attempts to tear her undead flesh. From where Athena stood, she couldn't see a single mark upon her skin.
The last few demons seemed to realize their situation and ran for the broken window. The biker caught one with a clothesline maneuver even as Kali leaped forward and snagged the wingtip of another, spinning the monster into a nearby support column. It slithered bonelessly to the floor.
The last one, only a few paces from the window, was flung backward by a burst of sound and fury, skin sizzling and peeling as yellow fire flickered across its body as it flopped madly around the floor. Thoth stood in the window, both hands surrounded by a nimbus of light.
"Leave that one alive!” Athena yelled to the biker. His head snapped up and he nodded. His fist came down and the creature lay still between his outstretched legs.
Once the mortals had been calmed a little, Athena took stock of the situation. Only two humans had died, both of them healthy adult men, probably caught up in the urge to play hero. She told herself that, pretending it made her feel better about it.
"Where's Thor?"
At that moment she heard the rumble of thunder outside, close enough that the floor shivered beneath her feet. What the f—
She ran to the window, vaulted through, and nearly fell on her ass as her feet struck the sidewalk. In the center of the street stood the former rock god, toe-to-toe with another one of the demon things. They traded blows, one after another, until, finally, Thor got in a shot that sent the creature crashing to the pavement.
He wiped blood away from his mouth. “What the hell is that?” he asked her.
"I forgot you were doing door duty,” she said, shaking her head. “The place was crawling with those things not ten minutes ago."
"This was the limo driver,” he growled, kicking it in the side of the head. “I think. I heard the ruckus inside and it jumped me from behind.” His gaze swept the broken window. “Somewhere after that some big fucker drove a motorcycle through the window."
"Yeah. He was here to help, I guess. Don't have the faintest idea who he is, but I suspect he's one of us."
"Good guess. Everyone okay?"
She winced. “A couple of mortal casualties,” she answered. “We're lucky it wasn't worse."
"And Sif?"
"Dead."
He grinned at her. “I knew you could take the bitch."
"Glad someone did,” she replied. “Where are all the reporters?"
"Lurking somewhere around here, I imagine.” He sounded more amused than she could stand. She turned around, walked through the door, and surveyed the scene again. Despair washed over her as she made her way to the first injured person she saw. “Stay still,” she murmured to a woman clutching her thigh, blood welling around her fingers. She held her hands a few inches above the bloody gash. “Let me see what I can do."
Twenty
Found on the web. Unsubstantiated. Link to alleged video currently inactive. Further investigation required.
Immortals among us?
Brandon Stagg; Free Media
January 12th, 2006
Tacoma, Wa—Athena Cross, President and CEO of Shea Industries, set aside her obvious contempt for the press yesterday and agreed to an interview regarding the video shot at her company's New Year's Eve celebration at the downstairs nightclub, ‘The Infinity Ballroom.’ Ms. Cross recently inherited Shea Industries after the disappearance of its founder, Deryk Shea, late last summer.
In this interview, conducted by notable vid journalist Silver Dawn, Ms. Cross states that she is one of some two hundred refugee immortals who fled to Earth several thousand years ago to escape a non-human threat against their homeworld.
Ms. Dawn, at the top of her game, played hardball, asking the tough questions, which Ms. Cross answered with the aplomb one would expect of a corporate CEO. She offered no direct proof of her contention, instead referring directly to the now famous—or infamous—New Year's Eve video.
The video—in case you haven't seen it—shows Ms. Cross and several others battling a host of demonic invaders, as well as a small blond woman tentatively identified only by the name ‘Sif’ dying at Ms. Cross's hand. You can find a copy of the video on several web-sites, including this one:—insert link here—Be aware that the video includes scenes of graphic violence and is not suitable for younger children.
A panel of experts have already analyzed the video and determined that it shows no signs of tampering. This suggests that the scenes depicted are recorded exactly as they occurred.
Ms. Cross also contends that the Earth itself is in danger of attack by the same creatures that invaded her own world and that the sudden appearance of ‘freaks’ such as the ‘Burning Man’ and ‘Kali', to name two, are symptoms of changes initiated by the immortals themselves in an attempt to strengthen the Earth's defenses against these invaders.
She also states that magic—the stuff of legend, not the tricks of your common stage illusionist—is making a comeback. Apparently the alien race—which she simply calls “the Enemy” introduced a specially tailored virus several centuries ago to block the human capacity for working magic. The immortals, after several centuries of waiting for our technology to catch up to their knowledge, have allegedly reversed this genetic block.
In related news, President Keel announced yesterday that he's authorized the formation of a commission to investigate and make recommendations regarding ‘paranormal’ activities. Ms. Cross's name is one of those specifically mentioned in Keel's press release.
Source: ‘I’ Division archives, Federal Bureau of Investi
gation headquarters, Quantico, Virginia.
Meet Saje Williams
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