{"submission_id":"782639","keywords":[{"keyword_id":"743","keyword_name":"adventure","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"2920"},{"keyword_id":"60","keyword_name":"cat","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"110716"},{"keyword_id":"44319","keyword_name":"contemporary","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"101"},{"keyword_id":"10159","keyword_name":"cyclops","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"379"},{"keyword_id":"398","keyword_name":"demon","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"18403"},{"keyword_id":"2602","keyword_name":"fairy","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"2015"},{"keyword_id":"2193","keyword_name":"fantasy","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"11600"},{"keyword_id":"123","keyword_name":"female","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"519905"},{"keyword_id":"112296","keyword_name":"garuda","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"51"},{"keyword_id":"1440","keyword_name":"human","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"46904"},{"keyword_id":"191","keyword_name":"magic","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"11599"},{"keyword_id":"165","keyword_name":"male","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"639893"},{"keyword_id":"3313","keyword_name":"monkey","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"4907"},{"keyword_id":"73143","keyword_name":"neanderthal","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"14"},{"keyword_id":"10129","keyword_name":"supernatural","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"375"},{"keyword_id":"233429","keyword_name":"surreality","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"1"},{"keyword_id":"1400","keyword_name":"troll","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"724"},{"keyword_id":"1146","keyword_name":"vampire","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"3972"},{"keyword_id":"1859","keyword_name":"zombie","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"1489"}],"hidden":"t","scraps":"f","favorite":"f","favorites_count":"0","create_datetime":"2015-02-02 09:08:22.988632+01","create_datetime_usertime":"02 Feb 2015 09:08 CET","last_file_update_datetime":"2015-02-02 08:49:36.01118+01","last_file_update_datetime_usertime":"02 Feb 2015 08:49 CET","username":"Simoni","user_id":"279733","user_icon_file_name":"75728_Simoni_simoni_barjar.gif","user_icon_url_large":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/large/75/75728_Simoni_simoni_barjar.gif","user_icon_url_medium":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/medium/75/75728_Simoni_simoni_barjar.gif","user_icon_url_small":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/small/75/75728_Simoni_simoni_barjar.gif","file_name":"1057824_Simoni_part_19_the_knight__the_magician__and_the_nightside.doc","file_url_full":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/full/1057/1057824_Simoni_part_19_the_knight__the_magician__and_the_nightside.doc","file_url_screen":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/1057/1057824_Simoni_part_19_the_knight__the_magician__and_the_nightside.doc","file_url_preview":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/1057/1057824_Simoni_part_19_the_knight__the_magician__and_the_nightside.doc","files":[{"file_id":"1057824","file_name":"1057824_Simoni_part_19_the_knight__the_magician__and_the_nightside.doc","file_url_full":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/full/1057/1057824_Simoni_part_19_the_knight__the_magician__and_the_nightside.doc","file_url_screen":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/1057/1057824_Simoni_part_19_the_knight__the_magician__and_the_nightside.doc","file_url_preview":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/1057/1057824_Simoni_part_19_the_knight__the_magician__and_the_nightside.doc","mimetype":"application/msword","submission_id":"782639","user_id":"279733","submission_file_order":"0","full_size_x":null,"full_size_y":null,"screen_size_x":null,"screen_size_y":null,"preview_size_x":null,"preview_size_y":null,"initial_file_md5":"8314f8d49fe35e972cb91bd4b685d19f","full_file_md5":"8314f8d49fe35e972cb91bd4b685d19f","large_file_md5":"","small_file_md5":"","thumbnail_md5":"","deleted":"f","create_datetime":"2015-02-02 08:49:36.01118+01","create_datetime_usertime":"02 Feb 2015 08:49 CET"}],"pools":[],"description":"This is what I WANTED to do with the story the last time we were in the Nightside, but reality (and Warlords of Draenor) intervened and threw that one completely off track. A frantic flight with all sorts of oddballs attacking the group.\n\nAlso, fun little tribute to the works of Simon R. Green, English author and creator of the Nightside book series. My writing partner just got the first of his stories, Something from the Nightside, but I don't think he's gotten a chance to read it yet. Hopefully he does. Its -really- good.\n\nAs for the guys in it... Alex Morissey, Betty and Lucy Coletrain, Merlin Satinspawn, and the bar Strangefellows are all in the books and I did my best to make sure Alex and Merlin were as close to the stories as I could get them... though to be honest Merlin would probably have squished the group like bugs for waking him up... but he made a damn neat plot point and I wanted to have him in here.\n\nAlso the Hell's Neanderthals are indeed from the Nightside too, having been encountered by series protagonist John Taylor on multiple occasions. The other bounty hunters were our own creations. I did the troll and brought in the Neanderthals while my writing partner did the shadowy Japanese guy and the undead cowboy.\n\nCoyote was thrown in more for fun at the end than anything, and to give a good bit of tension as the group tried to take down the luck vampire without Trixie's help this time. All luck isn't good however as he found out, Dawn's illusions tricking him into thinking he'd captured Simoni when, in reality, he'd grabbed Nelen instead.\n\nAnd yes, this is why Natasha has never fed on Nelen, and why Dawn prevented her from giving him some of her blood in Part 13: Natasha and the Hannukah Goblins. Merihim HATES vampires, but manages to grudgingly tolerate Natasha because Nelen is holding him back. Any time vampire blood comes into contact with him, whether his host ingests it or a vampire tries to feed on his host and ingests him, he goes berserk as Coyote discovered right before he wound up painting all the nearby buildings.\n\nStill, lots of fun, got to do some stuff I really wanted to do, and it came out quite well... which is surprising considering we had to start this one FOUR times due to a virus scare, my roommates getting nosy, and sudden indigestion. Fate conspired against us, but fate can suck it. o_o\n\nAlso yes I'm going to stop putting the parts that were actually in the RP in italics. Honestly its just annoying to do it every time I post something and it takes long enough to edit these into something resembling a short story as is.","description_bbcode_parsed":"This is what I WANTED to do with the story the last time we were in the Nightside, but reality (and Warlords of Draenor) intervened and threw that one completely off track. A frantic flight with all sorts of oddballs attacking the group.
Also, fun little tribute to the works of Simon R. Green, English author and creator of the Nightside book series. My writing partner just got the first of his stories, Something from the Nightside, but I don't think he's gotten a chance to read it yet. Hopefully he does. Its -really- good.
As for the guys in it... Alex Morissey, Betty and Lucy Coletrain, Merlin Satinspawn, and the bar Strangefellows are all in the books and I did my best to make sure Alex and Merlin were as close to the stories as I could get them... though to be honest Merlin would probably have squished the group like bugs for waking him up... but he made a damn neat plot point and I wanted to have him in here.
Also the Hell's Neanderthals are indeed from the Nightside too, having been encountered by series protagonist John Taylor on multiple occasions. The other bounty hunters were our own creations. I did the troll and brought in the Neanderthals while my writing partner did the shadowy Japanese guy and the undead cowboy.
Coyote was thrown in more for fun at the end than anything, and to give a good bit of tension as the group tried to take down the luck vampire without Trixie's help this time. All luck isn't good however as he found out, Dawn's illusions tricking him into thinking he'd captured Simoni when, in reality, he'd grabbed Nelen instead.
And yes, this is why Natasha has never fed on Nelen, and why Dawn prevented her from giving him some of her blood in Part 13: Natasha and the Hannukah Goblins. Merihim HATES vampires, but manages to grudgingly tolerate Natasha because Nelen is holding him back. Any time vampire blood comes into contact with him, whether his host ingests it or a vampire tries to feed on his host and ingests him, he goes berserk as Coyote discovered right before he wound up painting all the nearby buildings.
Still, lots of fun, got to do some stuff I really wanted to do, and it came out quite well... which is surprising considering we had to start this one FOUR times due to a virus scare, my roommates getting nosy, and sudden indigestion. Fate conspired against us, but fate can suck it. o_o
Also yes I'm going to stop putting the parts that were actually in the RP in italics. Honestly its just annoying to do it every time I post something and it takes long enough to edit these into something resembling a short story as is.","writing":"Its early morning inside Hanuman's Temple. Arja and Simoni had wanted to stay and keep an eye on Akul to make sure he'd recovered before leaving for the UK. This trip wouldn't be any diplomatic 'let Rajesh do his thing while we have fun or more likely try to dodge another hired killer' thing though, the team's goal is to find the hidden prison run by Clan Fullmoon and free the dissenters that Franklin has locked away there in the hopes of starting a revolt among his ranks. Simoni is sleeping next to Arja in one of the rooms of the temple when she's woken up by what sounds like shouting voices. \"Mnn... huh? Hey, Arja?\" she shakes her awake, looking out the door.\n\nWhen the girls get outside they find Nelen and Dawn staring down one of Arja's relatives. A young ape who looks about seventeen, his eye still blackened from the fight with the naga. \"You cannot expect us to accept this!\" he yells at Nelen, glaring out of his one good eye, \"Those... barbarians attacked our home, they murdered our family, and they weakened us enough to allow the naga to enter and almost kill Akul... and now you want to go HELP them?!\" he roars, jabbing a finger at the blood mage. Behind him are a few more monkeys close to his age, who look to be in agreement with the young hothead.\n\n\"Ugh...\" grumbles Nelen, rubbing at his forehead, \"Look. I explained this. From what we found out not all of Clan Fullmoon wants to follow Franklin, he's holding their families hostage and forcing them to fight. If we free them we'll get new allies AND deprive him of warriors.\"\n\n\"I WILL NOT FIGHT ALONGSIDE THOSE BASTARDS!\" growls the young ape, \"My brother died when they attacked us! I don't care if they're fighting willingly or not, they're murderers and their patriarch is a madman!\" he snarls, the others nodding in agreement as Dawn hisses back at them, flexing her own catlike claws, \"Just say the word Nelen and I'll have those monkeys chasing their tails and singing 'Merry Go Round Broke Down' for a week...\" she mutters as Nelen holds a hand infront of her and shakes his head.\n\nArja and Simoni are woken by an argument occurring between a group of her ape-like kin and Nelen, with Dawn at his side. He and Dawn were discussing their more recent plans to rescue his relatives in Clan Fullmoon in the hopes of converting some of Franklin’s soldiers to their side in the upcoming conflict, but apparently some of Arja’s kin can speak English and they were overheard… some of her relatives didn’t take the news well.\n\nArja frowns a bit at Dawn as she walks to the conflict, moving between the groups \"Easy, easy\" she says, looking to the young monkey. \"I understand your anger, but you have to control it. The men who attacked us were usurpers to their clan, they're no more Fullmoons than I am Garuda just because I live in the same temple as them,\" she says, trying to keep calm.\n\n\"Simoni once was part of that clan, do you think she's not trustworthy? Franklin and his allies have upset the natural balance in the clan, and their women suffer for it, would Hanuman turn his back on suffering because of what family the victims belong to? The men who came to our temple, the murderers you're angry at, they won't be given any mercy. I swear this to you, I'm going to make all of them suffer, but I won't give in to hate and rage as Franklin did and turn my wrath on everyone with their name.\"\n\nThe monkey's fur bristles, but he bites back his anger, knowing better than to snap at Akul's heir. \"Lady Arja... I cannot accept this. Whether they wanted to or not, they raised their swords against us without provocation.\" he growls, still clearly furious, \"Simoni is no longer one of them, she has proven herself to us... but this... The blood of our brothers and sisters is on their hands.\" he grits his teeth, turning his back to her as the other youths nod, the group walking off into the temple.\n\nNelen rubs at his forehead, \"Ugh... shouldn't have discussed this with Dawn here I guess. Didn't occur to me that there'd be some besides you and Akul who can speak English.\" he grumbles, Dawn hissing at the retreating monkeys as her tail thrashes around behind her. \"I think we'd better make ourselves scarce around here girls, I doubt they're the only ones who won't be keen on our plans after whats been happening.\"\n\nArja shakes her head, \"My people's anger is our power, but it can also be a great hindrance. I hope when they actually meet these women and understand their pain better their hearts are cooled a bit\" she says, sighing softly as she looks back at the group walking away before turning back to flick Dawn on the head, \"And you, stop provoking them. Even you have to understand at a certain point you're just kicking them when they're down...\" It was fairly true. Two brutal invasions right after each other, nearly losing their leader, the alchemy lab still being restocked… the temple wasn't in a good way.\n\nDawn yelps, then rubs at her head, \"Mrf... I ain't provoking them... but if they attack Nelen I'll have them convinced that their toes are made of candy.\" she frowns, Nelen heading towards a portal to the Mundane World with Dawn behind him. Simoni nods to Arja, \"He's right though, we should probably get going. Akul is healed and I don't think there's enough nagas in the entire jungle to attack us anymore.\" she says, \"Still... even if this is the right thing to do, can we do it?\" she asks her, \"I mean... we're going to have to go really close to Castle Fullmoon... If Franklin is there then he won't pass up a chance to come after us.\"\n\nArja just frowns at that \"Then we'll fight him, this is important, not only is it right to do, these women could provide help in our plans, we have to get this done if we want to take him down fully.\" she says, taking a breath as she walks through the portal, also seeming nervous about the situation under all the bravado...\n\nSimoni takes her hand and gives it a squeeze, smiling at her as they step into the waters and come out back in the city near Arja's house. When they arrive they find that the others have been preparing to leave for the UK all morning. \"Get what you need and get ready to head out you two.\" says Nelen, \"We're going to be heading to England first. I want a chance to find out exactly what we're up against before we head in. A whole group of witches, trained or not, can't be held somewhere without some means of keeping their magic in check after all.\"\n\nArja nods, gathering her own bag, packing light, \"Alright, sounds good.\" she agrees, sighing just a bit as she packs, \"Maybe we can get some good intel in the Nightside and make this less...impossible...\"\n\nArja is hesitant to tangle with Clan Fullmoon so soon after their last encounter with Franklin and his kin. Losing her powers, having to survive a naga invasion without magic, and almost losing her grandfather has left the normally impulsive girl rather cautious. She has her fire back, but the past month has been very sobering for her.\n\nNelen nods, \"Thats what I was thinking. My usual hangout in London has a few too many guys who might decide to 'sell' that info to someone else... but I know a couple places in the Nightside we can check.\" he says, Lupe trotting by as she says 'Lupe all packed' around what looks disturbingly like the upper arm bone of a naga being held in her jaws. It takes about another hour to get packed, then another to get ready, and another to find a good way to sneak a coffin onto the plane (even in India, where the supernatural is widely accepted, that would raise some eyebrows), but finally, around lunchtime, the plane takes off.\n\nThe trip is pretty uneventful, landing in London around sunset for them. As the group disembarks Nelen looks to the others, \"Alright kids. Arja, Simoni, you two come with me and Dawn. Rest of you guys get settled in at the hotel, Rajesh already booked us, and for fucks sake try to remain inconspicuous. We don't want Franklin to find out we're here.\" he says, mostly looking at Lupe growling and gnawing at her trophy as he says it.\n\nArja nods as she follows, Nat grunting a bit in her coffin as it’s unloaded, thankfully the sun starting to set on them... \"I'll keep em in line.\" she says through the fake trunk walls, making the bellhop jump in surprise as Arja giggles.\n\nNelen rolls his eyes, Dawn smirking (already in her 'human' disguise of baggy pants, sunglasses, a sock hat, and a teeshirt to hide her cat bits), as they head off to the nearest entrance to the Nightside. Nelen leads the group down an alleyway heading towards a brick wall, then looks around and picks up a can of spraypaint sitting nearby. \"Hm... lets see... what was it again?\" he thinks, then nods and sprays the words 'Diagon Alley is for Pussies' on the wall. There's a sharp cracking sound and the wall splits in two, Nelen sitting down the can and whistling as he and the other three head on through, coming out between a pair of shops. The one on the left sells paintings from alternate timelines ('This week only, special on prints by an Adolf Hitler who didn't get rejected for art school') and the one on the right is a drugstore ('New Item: Bath Salts that really do turn people into zombies').\n\nAll around are the signs of a world gone both supernatural and insane that represent their transition into the Nightside. Atop one of the stores is an old stone gargoyle who appears to be trying to spit on passerby and laughing in a loud gravely voice when he manages to hit someone. Up the street is a man with ten arms playing a one man band, a guitar case open on the ground infront of him. Down the block a promethian, a tall gangly creature with stitches holding it's various body parts together is arguing with a mummy, all rotten flesh and bandages (not buried as securely as Sadeh was), about what sounds like the last World Cup game.\n\nThe biggest sign is, as always, the moon. Ten times larger than it'd ever be on earth and glowing much brighter despite the fact that nobody has ever seen a sun in the Nightside for it to reflect light from. Something large and serpentine with huge wings flaps across it, vanishing into the inky blackness surrounding it a moment later.\n\nOnce again, Nelen and the team arrive in the Nightside, the supernatural world hidden within the city of London, away from the prying eyes of the mundane world. A place where ancient sorcery and super-science sit alongside one another and often join forces just to see what will happen. Named for the fact that the sun never rises and that its always three in the morning and has been since humans first crawled from the ocean, the Nightside has always existed as far back as anyone, human or not, can remember.\n\nAs the group begins their walk around, they would start to hear some buzz about the current events, as it were. There were a few things going around, some visiting 'dignitaries' from assorted mystical courts, some shops restocking with exotic goods. There was one bit of talk that was going around, though. Someone new was making themselves known in the areas, a bit of a minor celeb in the mortal world, but of course, the Nightside didn't much care about that. What was making people talk was the thing she was carrying with her, and what she was saying...\n\nA few feet back from the group a lady known in the mundane world as Aisha DeLane walked down the street, the young woman getting a few stares from other people (and otherwise) as she does so. Of course, unlike in her normal life the people didn't recognize her from magazine ads or wanted to check out her clothes. No, people were looking at the sword she had on her hip, bouncing against her designer jeans in an ancient looking sheath of black leather... The hilt and pommel were shining like new despite their age, its hand guards were curved up rather than down, not really guarding the hands really, more designed to catch and break another person's blade...The sword itself was European, but the hilt looked Moorish, like some kind of strange blend of cultures. The strangest blend, though, was the golden crest on her sheath, the crest of Camelot and the court of King Arthur, the symbol all his knights had next to their own, though oddly it was the only heraldry visible, the other looked like it had been carved off.\n\nThe sword wasn't magic, per say, but it sure projected an aura of power around it, very old and very strong in its own right... Aisha didn't seem to notice the stares she was getting, either not knowing or not caring as she passes right by the group...\n\nNelen notices her, then shrugs. The London Knights, descendants of the survivors from Mordred's invasion of Camelot, still operated in London Proper and while they would refuse to enter the Nightside on principle it wasn't unheard of for one or two of them to show up for whatever reason. \"Right, first things first. I need a drink after that flight.\" he nods firmly, \"C'mon, I bet there's one place you two haven't had a chance to look at yet.\" he grins, heading down the block. After about ten minutes of walking he turns down an alleyway and walks down a set of steps, a door at the bottom, opening it up and heading inside.\n\nThe room inside is a pub, but not a nice kind like one might see in a trendy downtown part of London. This one is like the kind that most people don't want to go into, or are at least ashamed to admit they do. The floor looks like it hasn't been cleaned in the better part of a year and the last preacher who came in to use the bathrooms wound up running away screaming and lost his faith, becoming a contract killer. There's two women by the door that would make Drusilla swoon just at the sight of them, more muscular than three WCW fighters pushed into one. \"Hey Betty, Lucy.\" nods Nelen to them as they grunt and nod in reply.\n\nThe tables are full of various oddities, even for the Nightside. There's a pair of lesbian water elementals at one, using straws to drink each other and giggling as their body mass changes. Another table has an absolutely filthy man in a shabby gray trenchcoat surrounded by flies and a stench even worse than the flies are. He only has a glass of water and is cleaning his fingernails with what looks like an impossibly sharp straight razor. Every so often a fly will get too close and drop dead.\n\nNelen heads up to the bar and leans in, \"Alex, how's life treating ya?\" he asks to the proprietor. The man behind the bar is dressed in all black with an expression that could not only curdle milk, but burn it. He's skinny with a sallow face and wearing a black beret on his head, a pair of sunglasses over his eyes. \"Like it caught me sleeping with it's wife, Nelen. Bunch of bullshit as usual...\" he glances at the girls, \"The cat is fine, those two over twenty one?\" he asks with a raised eyebrow. \"Yeah, they're midgets.\" replies Nelen as Alex mutters, \"Pervert.\" and hands over a coke for him and a glass of cream for Dawn, Nelen nodding to Arja and Simoni.\n\nThere's normal beers behind the counter, a few wines and other spirits, and some with outright bizarre names like Angel's Urine, Behemoth Blood, Tears of a Mandrake, and so on. Some of them look disturbingly honest in their naming...\n\nThe group has come to the oldest bar in the world, Strangefellows. The proprietor, Alex Morissey, is a thin streak of piss who it seems has the entire world lining up to shit in his cereal every morning… or at least that’s how his personality makes it seem. He dresses all in black because a darker color hasn’t been invented yet, is a third degree blackbelt at giving out incorrect change, and is the reason why nobody with any sense ever tries the bar food. He’s bound to Strangefellows by a geas preventing him from leaving his position as bartender unless someone takes his place and takes it out on anyone who catches his ire in the way that only a bartender with a bellyfull of spite can manage.\n\nThe two behemoths at the door are his bouncers, Betty and Lucy Coletrain. They’re practically identical and some may assume sisters, but the truth is they’re actually married. Homosexuality is perfectly acceptable in the Nightside, if only because there’s so many targets in a place where sin of all varieties is both common and sold at markdown prices that a Christian Fundamentalist who’d wander in there would have a stroke trying to figure out where to aim his shouting first.\n\nArja smirks a bit as she sits, nodding \"Yea.\" she teases, \"I gotta know what tears of a mandrake taste like...\" she says before looking around, \"So, you got a source here who'd be able to point us in a good direction?\" she says, looking around again as the door opens once more, Aisha making her way in and walking a path right to a table where a man in a black suit was already sitting, \"Does she look familiar to you guys?\" Arja mumbles as Aisha sits down, starting to have a rather heated conversation with the man in the suit.\n\nNelen shrugs, \"Well, there's information brokers in the Nightside.\" he replies, taking a long pull from his glass. Its -real- coke too, the true coke classic, the kind they made back in the fifties and that you can usually only find in places like Mexico now. \"Honestly I was just thirsty.\" he smirks, Dawn halfway through her own glass, chugging it down like a frat boy with a budweiser.\n\n\"A broker?\" asks Alex, \"What kind of shit are you stirring up this time Fullmoon? Last time you were here it took us ages to clean all that blood off the walls.\" he grumbles, \"Good thing there's no health department in the Nightside or else I'd have had to close down.\"\n\n\"Like you wouldn't love an excuse to shut this place down Alex.\" smirks Nelen in reply as Alex retorts, \"Hey, if you were bound to a bar by a geas, by Merlin himself no less, you'd be in a bad mood about it too...\" he glares, then sits down a glass of the mandrake's tears infront of Arja, Simoni requesting a coke herself. The 'tears' taste slightly salty, but with an almost electric/metallic aftertaste.\n\nIt'd seem the person Aisha was talking to was actually one of those brokers... and the negotiations weren't exactly going well... she was holding him by the tie, fist balled right in front of his face whens he hears the word 'Merlin' from the bartender. \n\n\"Wait what?\" she says, pausing in mid-beat down, looking towards Nelen, Alex, and the girls as the man she's 'negotiating' with take in a deep breath \"S-see? I said I'd find you him... and I did... kinda...\" he sputters with a little grin as Aisha shoves him backwards, getting to her feet. \"So Merlin really does live in this... bar?\" she asks, walking over.\n\nAlex looks up as Nelen turns to face her, \"This your first time in the Nightside? Everyone knows about Merlin and this bar.\" he says, tilting his head, \"He's here alright, but 'living' is the wrong word. He's buried in the basement. Merlin is dead.\" he explains as Alex nods to confirm it, \"Yep, Nume the witch took his heart out right about a week after Camelot fell. Dead and buried.\"\n\nThe woman huffs a bit as she adjusts herself, throwing a glare at her broker who was apparently just as new as her. \"So he's dead, well crap...\" she sighs, obviously not very versed in the magical world despite her access of this place. Arja just smirking a bit, \"Well...\" she says to Nelen, \"If anyone'd know magic jails and stuff...\"\n\nNelen holds up a hand, \"Hey hang on. This is [i]Merlin[/i] we're talking about. He's dead, but that doesn't mean a whole lot to a guy like him.\" he nods as Alex looks at him, \"Hey...\" he starts as Nelen waves him down, \"Why are you looking to talk to Merlin anyways?\" he asks.\n\nAisha frowns, \"I need to know about where a knight is buried, and APPARENTLY he's a pretty obscure one because everyone seems to know that twat Lancelot's grave and all, but oh no ask about a guy without fifty songs written about him and suddenly no one knows...\" she huffs again at that, clearly having been on this search for a bit and now annoyed to find her target was apparently common knowledge here, \"So I figure the guy who was THERE would probably know...\"\n\nNelen scratches his beard, \"Hmm... well, he probably would know... Might know a bit about what we're trying to do as well...\" he nods as Alex begins to sweat, \"Fullmoon don't you fucking dare...\" he starts as Nelen holds up his hand again, \"Still... They call him Merlin [i]Satanspawn[/i] for a reason... but it would cut down on our search a lot if we could get his help...\" he nods, glancing at his hand as he says that. One demon to another perhaps?\n\n\"Nelen you bastard don't you even think about it!\" snarls Alex, \"You don't know what it's like when he gets summoned! I have to stop existing so that he can take my place!\" he protests, Nelen finishing his drink. \"Yeah, but you come right back when he leaves right?\" he asks, as Alex starts, \"Yeah but-\" before Nelen gets to his feet and clears his throat. \"Right then...\"\n\nAlex looks at him, seeming about ready to panic, \"No, no way. You are not doing this to me you bloody bastard! LUCY! BETTY!\" he yells, the two huge women turning and moving towards the group, cracking their knuckles as Nelen smirks, then calls out, \"Merlin Satanspawn! I request an audience with you!\"\n\nThere's a crash of lightning so loud that it feels like the bar exploded as all the lights go out, a sudden stampede heading towards the door as the rest of the patrons flee in panic, almost knocking over the two bouncers.\n\nSlowly, a light appears, but this time it's different. The bar is gone, a huge gnarled old tree in it's place with things hanging from the branches... mostly skulls. There's a giant iron throne infront of it, the designs on it making Arja's eyes ache slightly as she tries to look at them. Nelen guides the group back from the throne while Betty and Lucy fall back on their own. With another loud crash an ancient man appears seated on it, his skin green and decayed, dressed only in a loincloth. In his chest there's a huge gaping hole, bloody and old, where his ribcage was broken open and his heart was removed, and when he opens his eyes there are only flames in the eye sockets. The saying goes 'he has his father's eyes', but there's a reason he's called 'Satanspawn'.\n\n\"Who calls me...\" he says, his tone like ice. Despite being dead he radiates power, as imposing as Mammon was. If this is what he's like dead, the living Merlin must have been a terror to behold. \"Answer me lest I get bored and turn you into something amusing.\"\n\nMerlin Satinspawn, the name is both title and literal. Some legends name Merlin as the son of a noblewoman and an incubus, but the truth is that he is, infact, the true heir to the throne of Hell, the only son of Lucifier, the great Adversary. This is not some kindly old man like many legends would have one believe, and certainly not the goofy old eccentric that Disney made him out to be. This is the most powerful sorcerer in the known world, even in death.\n\nAisha blinks as she looks at the sight in front of her, taking in a deep breath to steady herself. \"Ok... wow.\" she says, looking at the tree, then throne, then finally the man himself... \"You have got to, like, sue the BBC or something because... man they have it wrong...\" she nods, the woman clearly impressed by the creature sitting before them.\n\nMerlin turns his fiery gaze to her and chuckles, his broken ribs rattling as he does, \"Not what you were expecting girl?\" he grins, his teeth old and rotted. \"I am Merlin Satanspawn, child of the Adversary. I was to be the Antichrist, but I declined the honor. Did you think me just some mere conjurer like this one?\" he asks, gesturing to Nelen. \"Now... tell me why I have been woken from my sleep, and it had best be good...\" he sneers, leaning back into his throne.\n\nAisha takes in a breath again before stepping forward, \"I'm Aisha DeLane... and I'm seeking the grave of my ancestor Sir Moriaen, son of prince Aglovale and knight of your king's court.\" \n\nShe tries to keep her voice authoritative and strong, but obviously is fairly nervous in front of such a creature she wasn't expecting... but then unless one knew of Merlin’s true state it’s hard to prepare for him. \n\nMerlin looks at her, leaning in and breathing in deeply as if trying to catch her scent, \"Hmm... yes yes... I remember Moriaen. Aglovale took quite a fancy to that moorish princess of his.\" he smirks, \"I didn't realize that line had survived to the present day. Shouldn't you be with the rest of the London Knights girl, keeping up the 'good fight'...\" he says this like he's spitting, \"... and cursing my name whenever you raise a toast to Arthur?\" he asks.\n\nAisha frowns a bit \"I sound like a London type?\" is all she says, it was true while she maybe had a pinch of French in her voice, her accent was all American, southern at that... \"And if you can point me to great great great whatever many great grandpa's grave I can promise I won't be cursin’ your name any time soon...\" she pauses, her own curiosity getting the best of her, though... \"All the stories I heard and all, you and Arthur were friends...\"\n\nMerlin nods, \"Oh we were...\" he replies, his eyes narrowing, \"I knew of Hell girl, but Arthur... he made me believe in Heaven.\" he sighs, gripping the armrests of his throne as he does, gazing into the distance for a moment before refocusing his burning orbs on her.\n\n\"They curse me because I wasn't there when Camelot fell. They blame me for Arthur's death. I was busy hunting down that bitch Moriganna le Fae, but she was trickier than I could have imagined and by the time I caught her... and I [i]did[/i] catch her...\" he grins wickedly, \"... it was too late. Arthur and Mordred had killed each other and Camelot had burnt to the ground.\" he frowns. \"You must really be out of the loop if you don't know about this tale...\" his fiery gaze shifts, looking at Arja and Simoni, \"Hm... you're definitely not from around here. What would one of Hanuman's children want with an old dead wizard?\" he asks, the ancient wizard sounding almost curious.\n\nAisha shrugs, \"I know the story just don't understand why folks who model themselves after his knights would ignore you...\" she says as Arja smiles at Merlin. She’s definitely a bit intimidated, but after everything she’s been through she’s better equipped psychologically to deal with a being like him, \"I bet you'll like this.\" she says almost teasingly, \"You know anythin about Clan Fullmoon, and more importantly, their big ol’ magic jail?\"\n\nMerlin looks her over, one ancient eyebrow rising. \"... yes, I do...\" he says, \"Its hidden on an island off the western coast of Ireland, called Inishmor...\" he replies, \"But why would you want to...\" he pauses, breathing in again as his half-mummified lungs visibly expand through the hole in his chest. \"... I see. So one of them has found [i]that[/i] sword...\" he nods, smirking to himself, \"Oh if only they knew what they held...\"\n\nArja nods \"Mhm, you see a lot for a dead guy. We're going to break into Inishmor, and could use any help you can provide, I'm sure you know how incredibly bad it is for a bad guy from that clan to have one of those weapons.\"\n\nMerlin smirks at her, \"Child, you don't know what 'bad' truly means...\" he replies, \"Yes, I know how to get there... but it won't matter. None of you will be able to escape.\" he nods, \"The prison you speak of is hidden in a cave system under the island. The caves are...\" he thinks, \"Hm... there isn't really a word for it... Some places are... sacred, or enchanted, for lack of a better term. Magic flows more freely through them, and they sometimes lead to other lands, like Arcadia.\" he strokes his long beard as he speaks. He was Arthur's teacher, perhaps some part of him still enjoys it, \"But that place... its the opposite of that. It isn't like the blade that your enemy wields, it doesn't eat magic... but something in the caves nullifies all magic so long as the person is within them.\" he frowns, \"No magic can function in those caves, even mine. Its why Clan Fullmoon used them to house all the dangerous beings who they couldn't kill outright.\"\n\nArja grins, \"What if we had a Cyclops girl with us who'd love to bust some heads and walls down, would that even the odds?\" she asks. If Drusilla was immune to the draining powers of the Mundane Blade then a prison that blocks magic shouldn’t be any challenge for her.\n\nMerlin raises his eyebrow, \"Possibly, possibly, if she had no problem entering alone.\" he replies, \"Mind you, she would face down all of Fullmoon's finest and most loyal knights alone, but if that doesn't worry her...\"\n\nArja just laughs at that a bit, Drusilla would only want to go more after hearing that, but Aisha frowns, looking between Merlin and the hindi girl. \"I'll go with her.\" she says after a moment, \"Magic, right, that's the problem? That's why a... cyclops... can get in? Well I don't have any magic either, we can both go in and... do whatever this job is... and then when we get out you…\" she says, nodding to Merlin, \"Take me to where Sir Moriaen is buried, sounds like a good deal, right?\"\n\nMerlin raises his eyebrow, \"Young lady you do whatever you damn well please. As for your ancestor, I won't be taking you anywhere. I can't leave Strangefellows and even if I could I have no reason to help you.\" he replies, resting his head on his hand as he smirks at her, then looks at his crusty and decaying fingernails, \"Your ancestor is buried in a graveyard in Northern Africa, just south of Spain.\" he shrugs. \"Do what you want with him, I've long since stopped caring.\"\n\nAisha smirks faintly, \"Stopped caring so much you were interested why a descendant of one of his knights didn't seem to hate you, right\" she says before looking to the group, \"Well, offer still stands, if you need extra help there, I'm there.\" she says as Arja nods, looking to Nelen for his opinion, it was his girlfriend after all. \"Regardless\" she says after a bit, \"You said you can get us there, right?”\n\nMerlin looks at the group, \"Get yourselves there, Inishmor isn't a fortress or anything, mundanes who live on the island wouldn't even know the caves exist.\" he replies as the room starts to fill with fog, Merlin's presence fading. \"Still... a young girl like you with an enemy like that... you will be interesting to watch...\" he sneers as the fog thickens, only the flames of his eyes visible now. They blink out as the fog evaporates, returning the bar to how it was.\n\nAlex picks himself up off the ground, glaring at the group in a furious way, \"Right. That tears it. Betty! Lucy!\" he yells as Nelen, Arja, Simoni, and Aisha are all grabbed from behind, dragged to the door, and tossed out into the alleyway in a heap, Dawn appearing next to them as they land. \"Soooo... Nelen?\" she asks as he sits up and adjusts his glasses, \"Yeah yeah, add it to the list of bars I'm banned from.\" he sighs.\n\nAisha huffs as she's tossed out as well, \"Assholes!\" she calls back \"Still, that was kinda... wow... didn't expect Merlin to be... that\" she says, frowning a bit, \"He got kinda fucked up huh...\"\n\nNelen nods, adjusting his hat, \"Well, having your heart literally ripped out by your lover will do that... but then he's Lucifer's son so he was pretty fucked up to begin with.\" he replies, getting to his feet and dusting himself off. \"Dunno why the hell he's buried under a [i]bar[/i] though...\" he frowns, then shrugs, \"But he is.\"\n\nAisha nods, \"Well... educational, and interesting, regardless.\" she says as she looks around, \"So, what is this prison break thing you're planning?\" she asks before Arja fills her in on a very truncated version of the story...\n\nDawn grins, adding her own bits to make it more exciting, though Nelen bops her when she tries to claim she magicked an entire squad of Franklin's men into doing the can can right into a tiger's den. \"So yeah, thats the idea. He's out to kill the hell out of us, but if we free his captives a good half the clan could defect, not to mention the witches would probably be eager to help out if only to get some payback against the old bastard.\" Nelen explains.\n\nAisha nods, \"Well I guess I kinda got drawn in with fate or whatever, I'm kinda on a... get to know myself type dealie here, and I guess part of that should be, ya know, actin’ like an actual knight... so yea. That dude sounds like bad news, if you still want my help to get past the whole no magic thing, I'm happy to back up your... is she actually a Cyclops or just like, lost an eye?\"\n\nNelen brings out his smartphone and shows her a picture of him and Drusilla that they took while they were still in Texas, \"Thats her.\" he says, letting her take a look at it before putting the phone back away. \"I'm about the only one of our group that actually is human honestly, and even then I've got a bit of a... travelling companion.\"\n\nAisha just laughs softly, \"Well shit, I wanted to see more of the whole supernatural world thing, looks like I got that.\" she says, smirking, \"So, me and a kid are gonna fuck up a bunch of deranged Irish knights? Sounds like a party...\"\n\nNelen winces, \"Um... yeah, these guys aren't really normal either...\" he says as the group walks back out of the alleyway past a group of gay vikings heading off towards the nightclub called 'Divas!', their bodies painted with blue woad and their lips painted with bright pink lip gloss. \"Each one of them is blessed by Morrigan, the Irish goddess of war. Seriously, they wrestle bears for fun.\" he nods.\n\nAisha grins, \"Well, they have skin, right? I can stab them, right? Seems to me it doesn't matter what kinda woodland creatures they hug, if they can be cut I'm gonna be able to cut ‘em.\" she laughs a bit, \"Don't worry about me,\" she says, patting the sword's hilt, \"The guy I come from was a tough guy, I have his strength.\"\n\nNelen nods, \"I sure hope so... because I'd assume that if magical abilities get taken out in that cave then it'd also mean magical [i]items[/i] won't work either.\" he says, sighing. \"Figures that Franklin wouldn't just lock them up in a normal prison...\" he grumbles, \"I hate it when I have to sit out a mission...\"\n\nArja pats his arm, \"Yea, me too, I don't like just waiting around, still neither of us would be any use, we'd just be targets for the guys to take out...\" she says with a little sigh, \"So, what now?\"\n\nNelen shrugs, \"Well, you'd be a target. I'd just be dead.\" he nods, then he looks at the group, \"Hm... dunno honestly. We know where to go, but we need to figure out the general layout, how we'll get there, and how we'll escape once we've freed everyone. The real worry is that while it's a no-magic zone we'll still have to worry about mundane tech. I wouldn't be shocked if they have some way to contact Castle Fullmoon that they'll use the minute they realize that we're trying to do a jailbreak.\"\n\nArja then grins at that \"Mundane tech... what about advanced tech?\" She giggles, nudging Simoni, \"I bet Bethandi has stuff to jam communications, and we get get some teleportation tags from her and then it's just a matter of getting them on everyone!\"\n\nSimoni nods, \"Hmm... she might... though...\" she blushes, \"She'd probably want some kind of repayment for it...\" he says as Nelen raises his eyebrows, \"Hum, yeah that would definitely be the one thing that Franklin wouldn't see coming. He's so focused on us he probably doesn't even consider the possibility of aliens.\"\n\nArja giggles, \"I'm fine with that, seems like a good plan to me, jam him up, get our hitters in, put the tags on the girls, we're all out before he even knows what happened. Hopefully by then we're on a plan to India...”\n\nSimoni nods, \"Well, maybe... or we could just have Bethandi drop us all off there. No plane required.\" she adds, \"I mean she's got a spaceship, orbiting a planet is probably like driving down the block to her.\" she replies as Dawn glances at Aisha, \"Um, guys? I think we lost the newbie.\" she says, waving a hand infront of the knight's face.\n\nAisha blinks, looking a little punch drunk at their discussion. She’d never been involved with the supernatural before and running into Arja and her friends is like being taken out of a kiddie pool and dropped into the middle of the Atlantic. \"Sorry just trying to get past the fact that you're talkin’ about having an alien help you break out bird wizards from a bunch of corrupted Irish knights...\"\n\nNelen shrugs, \"Yeah, I guess we've kinda gotten desensitized to it.\" he replies, \"I mean this is an average thing for us these days.\" he nods. Dawn grins at her, \"Heck, last week we helped a bunch of monkey-guys and bird-people fight off an invasion of snakes in another plane of reality. This is pretty tame by our standards.\"\n\nAisha just chuckles, shaking her head, \"Well at least you're used to it, you can tell me if things get ACTUALLY fucked up in the prison.\" she smirks faintly, looking around slowly. \"So, what do we do first?\"\n\nNelen shrugs, \"Well... I guess we got what we came for, we know where to go now and all... so...\" he blinks, \"... so I can just do THIS!\" he spins around and lashes out with one of Merihim's tendrils, a strangled cry coming from the shadows behind the group as he hauls a young punkish-looking man in a leather trenchcoat and jeans forward, slamming him against the wall until he drops the silver-edged daggers in his hands. \"Rule one of sneaking up on someone kid, leather squeaks.\" he frowns, \"Who are you?\"\n\nThe punk coughs as Merihim wraps tighter around his torso and throat, \"Ain't tellin ya nuffin...\" he says, but it sounds less like a rough would-be-assassin and more like some kid who's been caught dropping stink bombs behind the toilets at school.\n\nAisha frowns as Arja growls, both making their way over to the captured youth, \"Hey, kid, trust me you want to talk now. I've been with these folks for all of like ten minutes but I already know you don't want to fuck around with them. Now, I'm gonna be all knightly and noble and shit and say I can't accept mister... blood ropes here... choking you out without giving you one more chance to spill, but after that I really don't know these folks well enough to keep them from doing whatever they do to assholes who sneak up with knives.\" she says, Arja grinning to expose her shining iron monkey fangs.\n\nNelen smirks as Dawn hisses, showing her sharper feline teeth as she flexes her claws, a few teeth sprouting along the outside of the tendril. \"Merihim, not yet.\" says Nelen as the teeth reluctantly sink back down, \"We don't want to shred him until after he talks.\" he nods.\n\nThat's about all it takes though, he breaks about as easy as a high school student too. \"Awright! Awright!\" he yells, his accent rather thick, \" 'ere's a bounty on yer 'eads! Some Irish arsehole says 'e'll give us fifty thousand a' 'ead fer ya an' yer friends!\" he says, his eyes panicked as he sees the razor sharp teeth sprout and sink along Merihim, especially the ones close to his throat.\n\nNelen raises an eyebrow, \"He contracted someone like you for that much? Jeez... he must be getting despa-\" he pauses, noticing the punk is laughing. \"Oh 'e ain't contracted me guvnor...\" he snickers, \" 'is an open contract it is.\" he replies as Nelen blinks, his eyes widening. \"I just saw ya gettin tossed outta Strangefellows an' decided ta try me luck! Its open season on ya!\" he smirks as Nelen winces, then lifts him up and flings him across the alleyway, the punk slamming into the far wall and slumping unconscious to the ground.\n\nAisha frowns, \"Ok... new here and all but the words 'open season' in a place like this have me a bit worried... should we be running to the exit?\" she asks, Arja already nodding, \"Yep, we need to move, now. Lotta people who could use a payday here and we look like an easy hit...\" she confirms as the group begins to hurry towards the exit of the alleyway. To some of the major players like Merlin they may be recognized as the girls who are going up against Clan Fullmoon, but to others they look like a group of kids with a chaperone. Nothing more. Even if they could handle most, someone could still get in a lucky shot.\n\nNelen nods, \"Fucking hell, he is getting desperate.\" he says as the group reaches the main sidewalk, \"The Nightside is full of mercs and bounty hunters, if we don't get the hell back to London we're going to get mobbed to death!\" he nods as he ducks out into the street.\n\nAs he steps out however two more men are rapidly approaching, one from each side of the street. To their left is what appears to be a huge wall of granite with small beady eyes and diamond teeth, a club the size of a tree trunk balanced across one shoulder. Its wearing a blackened leather loincloth that may have been leather pants before it tried to put them on, and rather than tattoos it's arms are carved with various symbols.\n\nAisha narrows her eyes, one hand holding the hilt of her sword as she runs along with them. To the right of the group a tall, gaunt, man dressed in all black over his pale skin was advancing, seeming to flicker in and out of existence, hopping from shadow to shadow in the alleyway, avoiding any source of light... \"Oh, cool, so we got that dude from Neverending Story on one side and something out of a bad Japanese horror movie on the other....\"\n\nNelen growls, then nods to Dawn who scrambles up on his shoulders and flashes her eyes at the advancing stone man. Its not a rockbiter, rather a troll... but the only real difference is size. The troll blinks, then looks out across the street before grinning and charging out into the oncoming traffic. As it does a taxi swerves towards it as the grill opens to reveal rows of razor sharp teeth, snatching the unfortunate stone man right off the road and barreling away, engine snarling as it chomps him up.\n\n\"Thats why we walk everywhere when we come here girls.\" nods Nelen as he turns to face the pale man.\n\nAisha chuckles, \"Yea that'll do it.\" she says, looking around before grabbing her sword again, \"He likes shadows, alright...\" she says, nodding to the group, \"Get ready for this.\" she says, yanking the sword out of the sheath, suddenly flooding the area with bright white light, removing all the shadows. The man screams in pain as he hunches over, skin seeming to sizzle in the light... before it ACTUALLY sizzles, Arja throwing a fistful of flames at him to finish him off.\n\nSimoni whistles as Nelen looks at Aisha with a raised eyebrow, \"Okay. That was pretty impressive, some sort of light enchanted sword?\" he asks as the group starts moving again before more of them can show up. \"I know it's not Excalibur or else Merlin would have said something...\" he nods as they pick up the pace, running around the group of tourists who'd stopped to watch their fight, still dazzled and blinded by the sudden light show. In the Nightside a good bit of street theater is always appreciated.\n\nAisha nods as she sticks close to the group, \"Enchanted, it belonged to my ancestor, that's why I need his grave, I'm bringing it back to him. I swore I wouldn't draw blood with it while I'm on the way... figure a light show isn't drawing blood, right?\" she says with a little smirk.\n\nNelen nods, then glances over his shoulder and lets out an involuntary whimper, \"Well, you might not be able to keep that promise.\" he replies as a sudden roar fills the air. Behind them, tearing up the road between the other vehicles, both the ones that are cars and that only [i]look[/i] like cars, is about a dozen Harley Davidson motorcycles, each one being ridden by a giant man with huge muscles, low hanging brows, thick square jaws, and matching leather jackets. They're swinging chains, clubs, and any salvaged weaponry they could find, hooting war calls to each other. \"Dammit dammit dammit, Hell's Neanderthals!\" he yelps as he looks around at the group, picking up the pace, \"Right, Simoni, Arja. Do something!\" he nods as Simoni shifts into her garuda form and swoops forward, lifting up Arja onto her back as she sails out over the road, keeping just high enough to keep out of their reach as well as the reach of the other cars. \n\n\"Right, got an idea...\" she nods, \"Arja, gimme some fire!\"\n\nAisha blinks \"What the fuck...\" she simply says, staring a bit in disbelief at the massive men as Arja nods, \"Fire comin up\" she says, wrapping her hands in fire, \"Where do you need it?\" she says, already forming a small ring of flame around them.\n\nSimoni glances back, then ahead just in time to dodge a large grasping hand that came out of what appeared to be the top of a Ford, then nods, \"That's good, just like that.\" she nods, whistling up a wind around them to catch the flame, shape it into two large wings superimposed over her own, and spin around, flapping her wings as hard as she can at the pursuing bikers. Rather than flames the spell releases a blast of superheated air at the neanderthals, the huge primitive men growling and snarling in pain as their bike's handlebars suddenly become too hot to hold (though a few still try)... and then there's several loud popping sounds as the rubber their tires are made from glows cherry red before melting and popping. The bikes, unable to maintain speed like this, suddenly swerve out of control and crash into each other, into other vehicles (with a good deal of gore depending on which they hit) or just fall over leaving the rider to bounce along the pavement until something else finishes the job.\n\nSimoni winces at the carnage, but swoops back over to Nelen and the others, staying in her garuda form for now. \"I was thinking about how Stephy can freeze stuff with his wind and, well... thought maybe we could do the opposite.\" she explains as she glides along over the other three.\n\nAisha sighs a bit as she pulls her sword out once more, another bright flash of light before the blade is fully revealed. Despite the eastern style sword breaker grip, the blade is entirely traditional English, long and straight, almost looking silver thanks to the aura of light still around it, \"Welp, hope great whatever many grampa understands…\" she says as Arja starts lobbing fire at the surviving bikers before the traffic takes care of them. \"Nice work Simoni!\" she grins.\n\nAs the girls clean up, though, a loud gunshot rings out, a bullet hitting the wall right next to Nelen! A man in a long black overcoat with a matching Stetson hat slowly walking to the group from the direction of the shot, holding a still smoking jet black revolver. On his chest was what looked like a Marshal's badge, broken in the middle where a bullet went in. \"Huh... who was betting on 'cowboy' for the next one?\" Aisha blinks, the man simply still walking to them, aiming his gun once more. As he gets closer it becomes clear his skin is a sickly greenish blue... \"Oh, ZOMBIE cowboy, of course…\" Aisha adds in, sighing, \"Because just a normal six shooter using cowboy would be too BASIC for this place, this guy's a fuckin... Shit!\" she says, bumping Nelen out of the way of the next bullet...\n\nNelen ducks away and curses, summoning up a blood shield to block his bullets, \"Yeah, don’t question it until AFTER we take care of it. Do something guys, my magic doesn't work on those!\" he nods as Dawn hisses at it. She could teleport it, but zombies tend to have some other nasty tricks while Nelen's blood magic only works on living targets, or at least biologically alive ones (the troll didn't have blood per se) with the only exception being vampires. Dawn's illusions won't stop it either, anything that has the sheer willpower to overcome death won't be fooled by her eyes.\n\nAisha frowns, \"Alright... no blood in a zombie, right? Still technically in the right here!\" she says. She may be new to this but at least she understood one major rule about geases and such, it was all about loopholes for both sides... With a little yell she charges forward, weaving past a few panicking tourists before, with a rather satisfying THUNK her blade strikes into the zombie's neck where it connects to the shoulder! There's a bit of a pause before a low 'hisssss' comes from the zombie, the sword seeming to literally be burning through it's body like a hot knife through a block of ice... \"Someone stomp on its head or something when it comes off... That's legit, right? I kinda don't know what's real and what's media anymore...\" she says as, with a low groan of discomfort, the zombie's head hits the ground, its body dumbly trying to re-aim the gun, winding up entirely missing Aisha even though she's right in front of it. \"Man, these things really suck...\" she nods.\n\nSimoni shudders at it, then conjures up a gust to make it roll out into the street where... well... imagine a very old pumpkin infront of a truck. \"Ewww...\" she gags, the splatter having almost reached her as the rest of the zombie's body goes limp, the brain's destruction having turned it from living dead into just dead. Nelen looks around, then nods, \"Right, there should be an exit down that way. Once we get out I'm calling Drusilla and telling her to meet us at the plane.\" he nods, \"These guys aren't afraid to pull shit in the mundane world either, we need to get out of London.\"\n\nAisha nods in agreement, then asks, \"Hey wait... do you need a distraction when we're coming out? If you do I could get us a smoke screen…\" she says, pushing her sword back into the sheath after wiping some burnt skin off it.\n\nNelen nods, \"Might not be a bad idea.\", as Aisha pulls her phone out, \"Cover me for a sec...\" she says \"And when you call your friends tell them to look as human as possible, we're gonna have cameras\" she says, texting a few 'anonymous sources' that she'd be in the area of London with a 'strange young man', figuring that should at least draw a few paparazzi types, not a huge cover, but enough for them to be too 'public' to murder in the streets at least... \n\nHe heads down the block with the others behind him, looking around for what he needs, then spots a pay phone built into a wall and nods, \"Okay yeah, that should do it.\" he says, then curses and jumps back as something jumps down infront of it.\n\n\"Well lookie who it is!\" says the newest bounty hunter, \"Didn't expect to run into you guys again so soon...\" he smirks, straightening up to reveal pale skin, a beaten up leather jacket, and bluejeans tucked into cowboy boots. He's got an earring in one ear made to look like a dreamcatcher and his teeth shine in the moonlight to reveal long sharp canines. \"But then, I guess I'm just lucky~\" he laughs as, out of the shadows, saunters the vampire known as Coyote, the bohagande who steals luck as well as blood from his victims.\n\nAisha jumps when he appears, \"Wait what\" she says as she sees the man \"The fuck is this... No seriously did the 90's just come roaring back into the murder for money business because holy shit...\"\n\nSimoni steps back as Nelen frowns, recognizing him immediately, \"Something like that. We know this one.\" he says as the Texan vampire steps forward, his eyes glowing red in the night. \"Well well well, no huckster around to help you this time kids.\" he sneers as Nelen lashes out with a blood tendril, the vampire stepping back just enough for it to miss him by a hair's thickness. \"Oh come ON! Don't tell me you forgot already!\" he laughs, then vanishes... or rather moves too quickly for any human eyes to follow... and is suddenly punching Nelen in the chest. The blood mage flies backwards several feet, coughing as he rubs at where Coyote hit him. Only his Fullmoon ancestry kept him from getting his ribcage crushed... and then only just as the vampire darts backwards out of the reach of the girls, hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face as if he’s just going for a stroll.\n\nAisha frowns, \"So it's like that huh?\" she says, grabbing her sword again \"Let's see if this actually works...\" she says, yanking her sword out and once again filling the area with light. She didn't know if a blessed sword's light counted as 'holy light' or sunlight or whatever to fuck a vampire up, but she sure as hell hoped that at the very least her sword would burn him like it did the zombie...\n\nCoyote hisses narrows his eyes against the glare as he burns some of his blood, looking at Aisha as he does. Up above her the gargoyle who was spitting on pedestrians, leaning over to watch the show, lets out a sudden yelp as the stonework under it crumbles, falling forward and crashing down ontop of the knight, pinning her sword and sword arm under it's stone body as it lays there stunned from the impact. \"Oooo, bad luck there girl.\" he laughs as Simoni, Nelen, and Dawn try to pull the woman free, the heavy rocklike creature keeping her arm held firm however.\n\nAisha yells out in pain as the heavy rock crushes her arm. It wasn't broken but it sure hurt like hell \"Nnngh, fuck!\" She groans as she tries to push it off her, Arja adding her own strength to push the gargoyle, \"Hey buddy, come on, help us out here!\" she says, prodding the gargoyle’s head with her hand.\n\nThe gargoyle is out cold however, the fall landing it on it's head and rattling it's brain. As the three struggle Coyote saunters forward, then reaches out a hand and grabs Simoni roughly by the arm, pulling her away from the others as he grips her firmly. \"Hmmm, the bounty says dead or alive... so I guess I can have a quick snack...\" he sneers, grinning as he shows his fangs, Simoni struggling and kicking but unable to pull free. \"I haven't had a decent bite to eat since you little brats axed McCall, soooo many people in Houston wanted to settle old scores with him out of the way it was all I could do to get out of the city before they found me... but then...\" he sneers, \"I'm just a lucky lucky guy~\" he chuckles, then bares his fangs and plunges them into her neck, Simoni's eyes going wide as he starts to greedily drain her.\n\nAisha grunts and strains as she works on the gargoyle… but Arja suddenly stops, eyes going huge as she watches Simoni get drained before a low growl comes from her... \"GET OFF OF HER!\" she snarls, grabbing Aisha's fallen sword and charging at Coyote, her eyes turning gold as her fur comes out, the girl filling with divine rage, trying to overcome his powers over luck with pure unnatural force of will as she charges him with the sword out and ready...\n\nCoyote snickers and twists at the last moment, holding his leg out and catching her ankle to send the normally agile monkey girl sprawling. He laughs at her around a mouthful of blood, then pauses and blinks, pulling free of Simoni as he reaches into his mouth and feels around. \"The fuck?\" he mutters, then looks at what he's holding. A short, coarse gray hair, like the kind in a beard... He pauses and looks at who he's holding... finding Nelen all pale-faced and tired with two puncture wounds in his neck. Back by Aisha Dawn grins, her own hands over Simoni's mouth as the garuda shudders, having just seen... well... herself getting sucked dry by a vampire.\n\n\"Lucky guy...\" smirks Nelen in a tired voice, \"But luck isn't always good, looks like you won the booby prize.\" he says as Coyote drops him and steps back a bit, looking confused. \"You guys might wanna get behind something. This is gonna be messy.\" nods Dawn, reaching down and teleporting Aisha free, then pushing Simoni into a convenient alleyway before teleporting forward, grabbing Nelen, and warping him in as well.\n\nAisha rubs her arm as Arja ducks in with the rest of the group, returning the sword and grabbing Simoni protectively before looking to Nelen, \"Thanks... seriously...\" she says to him as he leans against a wall, breathing heavily as he tries to remain conscious.\n\nNelen smirks, \"Hey, she's my sister remember?\" he says as Coyote looks at himself, able to tell something has gone horribly wrong, \"What...\" he starts, then his eyes bulge out as he convulses, doubling over and clutching at his chest. \"AGH! W-what did... what did you do to me?!\" he gasps, his veins suddenly standing out against his skin.\n\nDawn peers out at the vampire, \"Ugh, this is gonna be gross... y'know how we haven't let Natasha feed on Nelen or give him her blood?\" she asks, then ducks back into the alleyway, \"This would be why.\" she nods as Coyote convulses again, falling to his knees as he begins to drip blood out of his tear ducts, his whole body shaking. \"No... no! Dammit no! I... I'm the luckiest vampire in the world! How...\" he gets out before there's a loud and very wet sounding explosion, his heart ripping itself from his chest as all his veins burst through his skin at once, splattering blood all along the walls of the building and the street nearby, hitting the windshields of passing cars (some of them extending long tongues to lick it up) as what's left of him falls to the ground before crumbling into a fine dust, leaving only a human skeleton with long pointed canine teeth wearing a leather jacket, jeans, and cowboy boots all soaked through with gore.\n\nAisha just stares at the scene, Arja smirking a bit as she surveys the battleground... \"Huh...\" Aisha says \"Didn't expect that... Well, guess that's what you get for trying to drink kids for lunch...\" she nods.\n\nNelen limps out and holds his hand over one of the puddles of blood, Merihim extending upwards from it to re-enter his body as Dawn steps carefully around the rest. Simoni looks like she might be sick, gazing around at the splatters everywhere. \"Yeah, Merihim can't stand vampires, so if he comes into contact with vampiric blood, whether I eat it or they eat him...\" he gestures around them, \"Anyways.\" he goes to the phone and syphons Merihim's leftovers off it, then picks up the receiver and dials 379 into the phone, saying simply, \"London Proper\". A beat up old door next to the phone pops open, nothing but blackness visible through it.\n\nThe group heads through and as soon as they're back in the mundane world Nelen takes out his phone and calls Drusilla. \"Wake up the others and get packed, we've gotta get the hell out of here. No time to explain, just get to the plane. I'll fill you in once we're in the air.\" he says, hanging up and heading for the tube station. After a ride on the underground the group emerges at the airport, Arja's diplomatic passport getting them quickly through security despite their strange appearance and the sword on Aisha's hip.\n\nOn the other end of the phone Drusilla nods, the cyclops quickly throwing on a pair of large shades to hide her eye as she gathers the group, Natasha thankfully awake at night, able to simply look like a mini goth rather than a large trunk... As they get to the airport Aisha's 'distraction' is waiting, a small group of press and entertainment bloggers and the like quickly moving around the plane. It'd take a bit of explaining why the Indian ambassador's kids were seemingly tagging along on a date with a model and... well Nelen just looked like a rather odd normal guy (thankfully these days being seen with a mysterious odd looking guy was good for buzz...) but luckily he had experience covering for them, simply saying Aisha was a friend of the family's who was kind enough to take Arja and her sister on a surprise trip while he was busy with work... \n\nThe trip to the plane was safe thanks to the crowd, not even a Fullmoon agent crazy enough to try to take down a kid in front of a bunch of cameras... Aisha keeping up her act of 'can't we have any privacy', even knocking one guy's camera down to keep the crowd active until the plane was loaded and ready...\n\nThe group heads onto it and the plane takes off, Nelen looking out the window with a raised eyebrow. \"... care to explain that?\" he asks her, \"Seriously, model?\" he says as Stephy giggles, \"Well [i]I've[/i] heard of her... but I pay attention to fashion magazines.\" he says, leaning into Trixie as the plane flies higher and higher.\n\nAisha smirks, rubbing Stephy's head, \"See? She knows me.\" she teases, mistaking Stephy for a girl it seems, though neither he nor Trixie correct her. Drusilla, meanwhile, huffs lightly, grabbing Nelen's arm almost possessively after that. Nelen winces, still a bit wobbly as he wasn't able to re-absorb all of Merihim's body into his before they fled, stuck waiting for the demon to rebuild itself so that he'll be back at full strength.\n\n\"Right, well, we know where to go now, but we're going to have to put the rescue mission on hold. Its a safe bet Franklin will notice that we were in the Nightside after that and he'll be watching for us now.\" says Nelen, \"He won't know where we're heading, besides us Merlin was the only one around when we got directions, but he's nothing if not paranoid.\" he sighs, glancing at Aisha, \"So... he said Northern Africa right?\" he asks her, taking out his iPad, \"Shouldn't be too many graveyards these days that are still that old...\" he nods, then points at google maps, \"Okay, I think I found the right one... its near Rabat in Morocco. Sound right to you?\" he asks her.\n\nAisha thinks on that for a moment, \"Rabat was a pillar of the Moorish empire, would make sense that he'd want to be buried there.\" she says, nodding, \"That'd work well, and Morocco's a place that people would totally expect me to be hanging out anyway... yea, that's a good plan. Don't suppose Google has a 'list magical traps and trials' option yet does it? I'm just assuming gramps wouldn't just leave his tomb alone and exposed...”\n\nNelen shakes his head, \"Nope, probably should've thought to ask Merlin that... but I was trying to keep him from noticing Merihim.\" he nods, then looks at her and sighs, conjuring a blood tendril. \"Him, this guy. Demon, lives in my body.\" he explains, the tendril nodding to Aisha before sinking back down into Nelen's body as if tired.\n\n\"Still, good a way to kill time as any until the heat's off.\" he shrugs, \"Haven't been there yet... ought to at least be interesting.\" he nods as he lays back, giving Drusilla's hand a squeeze as he does. \"Arja, let the pilot know where we're going... I'm gonna take a nap.\" he nods, taking off his glasses and sliding his hat down over his eyes.\n\nArja goes to tell the pilot where to head before returning to sit next to Simoni, the garuda nuzzling into her shoulder as the plane flies on. Dawn takes care of introducing Aisha to the others, enjoying the girl’s reactions to their rather unusual family… especially when Lupe tries to ‘shake hands’ in a rather wolf-like fashion. After Natasha drags her off to explain why you don’t sniff a woman there, especially there, because it’s not polite even if it feels like how she’s supposed to do it Dawn grins at Aisha and says, “Well, guess you’re bunking with us for now Miss Model-Knight. Welcome to our wild little family.”\n","writing_bbcode_parsed":"Its early morning inside Hanuman's Temple. Arja and Simoni had wanted to stay and keep an eye on Akul to make sure he'd recovered before leaving for the UK. This trip wouldn't be any diplomatic 'let Rajesh do his thing while we have fun or more likely try to dodge another hired killer' thing though, the team's goal is to find the hidden prison run by Clan Fullmoon and free the dissenters that Franklin has locked away there in the hopes of starting a revolt among his ranks. Simoni is sleeping next to Arja in one of the rooms of the temple when she's woken up by what sounds like shouting voices. "Mnn... huh? Hey, Arja?" she shakes her awake, looking out the door.
When the girls get outside they find Nelen and Dawn staring down one of Arja's relatives. A young ape who looks about seventeen, his eye still blackened from the fight with the naga. "You cannot expect us to accept this!" he yells at Nelen, glaring out of his one good eye, "Those... barbarians attacked our home, they murdered our family, and they weakened us enough to allow the naga to enter and almost kill Akul... and now you want to go HELP them?!" he roars, jabbing a finger at the blood mage. Behind him are a few more monkeys close to his age, who look to be in agreement with the young hothead.
"Ugh..." grumbles Nelen, rubbing at his forehead, "Look. I explained this. From what we found out not all of Clan Fullmoon wants to follow Franklin, he's holding their families hostage and forcing them to fight. If we free them we'll get new allies AND deprive him of warriors."
"I WILL NOT FIGHT ALONGSIDE THOSE BASTARDS!" growls the young ape, "My brother died when they attacked us! I don't care if they're fighting willingly or not, they're murderers and their patriarch is a madman!" he snarls, the others nodding in agreement as Dawn hisses back at them, flexing her own catlike claws, "Just say the word Nelen and I'll have those monkeys chasing their tails and singing 'Merry Go Round Broke Down' for a week..." she mutters as Nelen holds a hand infront of her and shakes his head.
Arja and Simoni are woken by an argument occurring between a group of her ape-like kin and Nelen, with Dawn at his side. He and Dawn were discussing their more recent plans to rescue his relatives in Clan Fullmoon in the hopes of converting some of Franklin’s soldiers to their side in the upcoming conflict, but apparently some of Arja’s kin can speak English and they were overheard… some of her relatives didn’t take the news well.
Arja frowns a bit at Dawn as she walks to the conflict, moving between the groups "Easy, easy" she says, looking to the young monkey. "I understand your anger, but you have to control it. The men who attacked us were usurpers to their clan, they're no more Fullmoons than I am Garuda just because I live in the same temple as them," she says, trying to keep calm.
"Simoni once was part of that clan, do you think she's not trustworthy? Franklin and his allies have upset the natural balance in the clan, and their women suffer for it, would Hanuman turn his back on suffering because of what family the victims belong to? The men who came to our temple, the murderers you're angry at, they won't be given any mercy. I swear this to you, I'm going to make all of them suffer, but I won't give in to hate and rage as Franklin did and turn my wrath on everyone with their name."
The monkey's fur bristles, but he bites back his anger, knowing better than to snap at Akul's heir. "Lady Arja... I cannot accept this. Whether they wanted to or not, they raised their swords against us without provocation." he growls, still clearly furious, "Simoni is no longer one of them, she has proven herself to us... but this... The blood of our brothers and sisters is on their hands." he grits his teeth, turning his back to her as the other youths nod, the group walking off into the temple.
Nelen rubs at his forehead, "Ugh... shouldn't have discussed this with Dawn here I guess. Didn't occur to me that there'd be some besides you and Akul who can speak English." he grumbles, Dawn hissing at the retreating monkeys as her tail thrashes around behind her. "I think we'd better make ourselves scarce around here girls, I doubt they're the only ones who won't be keen on our plans after whats been happening."
Arja shakes her head, "My people's anger is our power, but it can also be a great hindrance. I hope when they actually meet these women and understand their pain better their hearts are cooled a bit" she says, sighing softly as she looks back at the group walking away before turning back to flick Dawn on the head, "And you, stop provoking them. Even you have to understand at a certain point you're just kicking them when they're down..." It was fairly true. Two brutal invasions right after each other, nearly losing their leader, the alchemy lab still being restocked… the temple wasn't in a good way.
Dawn yelps, then rubs at her head, "Mrf... I ain't provoking them... but if they attack Nelen I'll have them convinced that their toes are made of candy." she frowns, Nelen heading towards a portal to the Mundane World with Dawn behind him. Simoni nods to Arja, "He's right though, we should probably get going. Akul is healed and I don't think there's enough nagas in the entire jungle to attack us anymore." she says, "Still... even if this is the right thing to do, can we do it?" she asks her, "I mean... we're going to have to go really close to Castle Fullmoon... If Franklin is there then he won't pass up a chance to come after us."
Arja just frowns at that "Then we'll fight him, this is important, not only is it right to do, these women could provide help in our plans, we have to get this done if we want to take him down fully." she says, taking a breath as she walks through the portal, also seeming nervous about the situation under all the bravado...
Simoni takes her hand and gives it a squeeze, smiling at her as they step into the waters and come out back in the city near Arja's house. When they arrive they find that the others have been preparing to leave for the UK all morning. "Get what you need and get ready to head out you two." says Nelen, "We're going to be heading to England first. I want a chance to find out exactly what we're up against before we head in. A whole group of witches, trained or not, can't be held somewhere without some means of keeping their magic in check after all."
Arja nods, gathering her own bag, packing light, "Alright, sounds good." she agrees, sighing just a bit as she packs, "Maybe we can get some good intel in the Nightside and make this less...impossible..."
Arja is hesitant to tangle with Clan Fullmoon so soon after their last encounter with Franklin and his kin. Losing her powers, having to survive a naga invasion without magic, and almost losing her grandfather has left the normally impulsive girl rather cautious. She has her fire back, but the past month has been very sobering for her.
Nelen nods, "Thats what I was thinking. My usual hangout in London has a few too many guys who might decide to 'sell' that info to someone else... but I know a couple places in the Nightside we can check." he says, Lupe trotting by as she says 'Lupe all packed' around what looks disturbingly like the upper arm bone of a naga being held in her jaws. It takes about another hour to get packed, then another to get ready, and another to find a good way to sneak a coffin onto the plane (even in India, where the supernatural is widely accepted, that would raise some eyebrows), but finally, around lunchtime, the plane takes off.
The trip is pretty uneventful, landing in London around sunset for them. As the group disembarks Nelen looks to the others, "Alright kids. Arja, Simoni, you two come with me and Dawn. Rest of you guys get settled in at the hotel, Rajesh already booked us, and for fucks sake try to remain inconspicuous. We don't want Franklin to find out we're here." he says, mostly looking at Lupe growling and gnawing at her trophy as he says it.
Arja nods as she follows, Nat grunting a bit in her coffin as it’s unloaded, thankfully the sun starting to set on them... "I'll keep em in line." she says through the fake trunk walls, making the bellhop jump in surprise as Arja giggles.
Nelen rolls his eyes, Dawn smirking (already in her 'human' disguise of baggy pants, sunglasses, a sock hat, and a teeshirt to hide her cat bits), as they head off to the nearest entrance to the Nightside. Nelen leads the group down an alleyway heading towards a brick wall, then looks around and picks up a can of spraypaint sitting nearby. "Hm... lets see... what was it again?" he thinks, then nods and sprays the words 'Diagon Alley is for Pussies' on the wall. There's a sharp cracking sound and the wall splits in two, Nelen sitting down the can and whistling as he and the other three head on through, coming out between a pair of shops. The one on the left sells paintings from alternate timelines ('This week only, special on prints by an Adolf Hitler who didn't get rejected for art school') and the one on the right is a drugstore ('New Item: Bath Salts that really do turn people into zombies').
All around are the signs of a world gone both supernatural and insane that represent their transition into the Nightside. Atop one of the stores is an old stone gargoyle who appears to be trying to spit on passerby and laughing in a loud gravely voice when he manages to hit someone. Up the street is a man with ten arms playing a one man band, a guitar case open on the ground infront of him. Down the block a promethian, a tall gangly creature with stitches holding it's various body parts together is arguing with a mummy, all rotten flesh and bandages (not buried as securely as Sadeh was), about what sounds like the last World Cup game.
The biggest sign is, as always, the moon. Ten times larger than it'd ever be on earth and glowing much brighter despite the fact that nobody has ever seen a sun in the Nightside for it to reflect light from. Something large and serpentine with huge wings flaps across it, vanishing into the inky blackness surrounding it a moment later.
Once again, Nelen and the team arrive in the Nightside, the supernatural world hidden within the city of London, away from the prying eyes of the mundane world. A place where ancient sorcery and super-science sit alongside one another and often join forces just to see what will happen. Named for the fact that the sun never rises and that its always three in the morning and has been since humans first crawled from the ocean, the Nightside has always existed as far back as anyone, human or not, can remember.
As the group begins their walk around, they would start to hear some buzz about the current events, as it were. There were a few things going around, some visiting 'dignitaries' from assorted mystical courts, some shops restocking with exotic goods. There was one bit of talk that was going around, though. Someone new was making themselves known in the areas, a bit of a minor celeb in the mortal world, but of course, the Nightside didn't much care about that. What was making people talk was the thing she was carrying with her, and what she was saying...
A few feet back from the group a lady known in the mundane world as Aisha DeLane walked down the street, the young woman getting a few stares from other people (and otherwise) as she does so. Of course, unlike in her normal life the people didn't recognize her from magazine ads or wanted to check out her clothes. No, people were looking at the sword she had on her hip, bouncing against her designer jeans in an ancient looking sheath of black leather... The hilt and pommel were shining like new despite their age, its hand guards were curved up rather than down, not really guarding the hands really, more designed to catch and break another person's blade...The sword itself was European, but the hilt looked Moorish, like some kind of strange blend of cultures. The strangest blend, though, was the golden crest on her sheath, the crest of Camelot and the court of King Arthur, the symbol all his knights had next to their own, though oddly it was the only heraldry visible, the other looked like it had been carved off.
The sword wasn't magic, per say, but it sure projected an aura of power around it, very old and very strong in its own right... Aisha didn't seem to notice the stares she was getting, either not knowing or not caring as she passes right by the group...
Nelen notices her, then shrugs. The London Knights, descendants of the survivors from Mordred's invasion of Camelot, still operated in London Proper and while they would refuse to enter the Nightside on principle it wasn't unheard of for one or two of them to show up for whatever reason. "Right, first things first. I need a drink after that flight." he nods firmly, "C'mon, I bet there's one place you two haven't had a chance to look at yet." he grins, heading down the block. After about ten minutes of walking he turns down an alleyway and walks down a set of steps, a door at the bottom, opening it up and heading inside.
The room inside is a pub, but not a nice kind like one might see in a trendy downtown part of London. This one is like the kind that most people don't want to go into, or are at least ashamed to admit they do. The floor looks like it hasn't been cleaned in the better part of a year and the last preacher who came in to use the bathrooms wound up running away screaming and lost his faith, becoming a contract killer. There's two women by the door that would make Drusilla swoon just at the sight of them, more muscular than three WCW fighters pushed into one. "Hey Betty, Lucy." nods Nelen to them as they grunt and nod in reply.
The tables are full of various oddities, even for the Nightside. There's a pair of lesbian water elementals at one, using straws to drink each other and giggling as their body mass changes. Another table has an absolutely filthy man in a shabby gray trenchcoat surrounded by flies and a stench even worse than the flies are. He only has a glass of water and is cleaning his fingernails with what looks like an impossibly sharp straight razor. Every so often a fly will get too close and drop dead.
Nelen heads up to the bar and leans in, "Alex, how's life treating ya?" he asks to the proprietor. The man behind the bar is dressed in all black with an expression that could not only curdle milk, but burn it. He's skinny with a sallow face and wearing a black beret on his head, a pair of sunglasses over his eyes. "Like it caught me sleeping with it's wife, Nelen. Bunch of bullshit as usual..." he glances at the girls, "The cat is fine, those two over twenty one?" he asks with a raised eyebrow. "Yeah, they're midgets." replies Nelen as Alex mutters, "Pervert." and hands over a coke for him and a glass of cream for Dawn, Nelen nodding to Arja and Simoni.
There's normal beers behind the counter, a few wines and other spirits, and some with outright bizarre names like Angel's Urine, Behemoth Blood, Tears of a Mandrake, and so on. Some of them look disturbingly honest in their naming...
The group has come to the oldest bar in the world, Strangefellows. The proprietor, Alex Morissey, is a thin streak of piss who it seems has the entire world lining up to shit in his cereal every morning… or at least that’s how his personality makes it seem. He dresses all in black because a darker color hasn’t been invented yet, is a third degree blackbelt at giving out incorrect change, and is the reason why nobody with any sense ever tries the bar food. He’s bound to Strangefellows by a geas preventing him from leaving his position as bartender unless someone takes his place and takes it out on anyone who catches his ire in the way that only a bartender with a bellyfull of spite can manage.
The two behemoths at the door are his bouncers, Betty and Lucy Coletrain. They’re practically identical and some may assume sisters, but the truth is they’re actually married. Homosexuality is perfectly acceptable in the Nightside, if only because there’s so many targets in a place where sin of all varieties is both common and sold at markdown prices that a Christian Fundamentalist who’d wander in there would have a stroke trying to figure out where to aim his shouting first.
Arja smirks a bit as she sits, nodding "Yea." she teases, "I gotta know what tears of a mandrake taste like..." she says before looking around, "So, you got a source here who'd be able to point us in a good direction?" she says, looking around again as the door opens once more, Aisha making her way in and walking a path right to a table where a man in a black suit was already sitting, "Does she look familiar to you guys?" Arja mumbles as Aisha sits down, starting to have a rather heated conversation with the man in the suit.
Nelen shrugs, "Well, there's information brokers in the Nightside." he replies, taking a long pull from his glass. Its -real- coke too, the true coke classic, the kind they made back in the fifties and that you can usually only find in places like Mexico now. "Honestly I was just thirsty." he smirks, Dawn halfway through her own glass, chugging it down like a frat boy with a budweiser.
"A broker?" asks Alex, "What kind of shit are you stirring up this time Fullmoon? Last time you were here it took us ages to clean all that blood off the walls." he grumbles, "Good thing there's no health department in the Nightside or else I'd have had to close down."
"Like you wouldn't love an excuse to shut this place down Alex." smirks Nelen in reply as Alex retorts, "Hey, if you were bound to a bar by a geas, by Merlin himself no less, you'd be in a bad mood about it too..." he glares, then sits down a glass of the mandrake's tears infront of Arja, Simoni requesting a coke herself. The 'tears' taste slightly salty, but with an almost electric/metallic aftertaste.
It'd seem the person Aisha was talking to was actually one of those brokers... and the negotiations weren't exactly going well... she was holding him by the tie, fist balled right in front of his face whens he hears the word 'Merlin' from the bartender.
"Wait what?" she says, pausing in mid-beat down, looking towards Nelen, Alex, and the girls as the man she's 'negotiating' with take in a deep breath "S-see? I said I'd find you him... and I did... kinda..." he sputters with a little grin as Aisha shoves him backwards, getting to her feet. "So Merlin really does live in this... bar?" she asks, walking over.
Alex looks up as Nelen turns to face her, "This your first time in the Nightside? Everyone knows about Merlin and this bar." he says, tilting his head, "He's here alright, but 'living' is the wrong word. He's buried in the basement. Merlin is dead." he explains as Alex nods to confirm it, "Yep, Nume the witch took his heart out right about a week after Camelot fell. Dead and buried."
The woman huffs a bit as she adjusts herself, throwing a glare at her broker who was apparently just as new as her. "So he's dead, well crap..." she sighs, obviously not very versed in the magical world despite her access of this place. Arja just smirking a bit, "Well..." she says to Nelen, "If anyone'd know magic jails and stuff..."
Nelen holds up a hand, "Hey hang on. This is Merlin we're talking about. He's dead, but that doesn't mean a whole lot to a guy like him." he nods as Alex looks at him, "Hey..." he starts as Nelen waves him down, "Why are you looking to talk to Merlin anyways?" he asks.
Aisha frowns, "I need to know about where a knight is buried, and APPARENTLY he's a pretty obscure one because everyone seems to know that twat Lancelot's grave and all, but oh no ask about a guy without fifty songs written about him and suddenly no one knows..." she huffs again at that, clearly having been on this search for a bit and now annoyed to find her target was apparently common knowledge here, "So I figure the guy who was THERE would probably know..."
Nelen scratches his beard, "Hmm... well, he probably would know... Might know a bit about what we're trying to do as well..." he nods as Alex begins to sweat, "Fullmoon don't you fucking dare..." he starts as Nelen holds up his hand again, "Still... They call him Merlin Satanspawn for a reason... but it would cut down on our search a lot if we could get his help..." he nods, glancing at his hand as he says that. One demon to another perhaps?
"Nelen you bastard don't you even think about it!" snarls Alex, "You don't know what it's like when he gets summoned! I have to stop existing so that he can take my place!" he protests, Nelen finishing his drink. "Yeah, but you come right back when he leaves right?" he asks, as Alex starts, "Yeah but-" before Nelen gets to his feet and clears his throat. "Right then..."
Alex looks at him, seeming about ready to panic, "No, no way. You are not doing this to me you bloody bastard! LUCY! BETTY!" he yells, the two huge women turning and moving towards the group, cracking their knuckles as Nelen smirks, then calls out, "Merlin Satanspawn! I request an audience with you!"
There's a crash of lightning so loud that it feels like the bar exploded as all the lights go out, a sudden stampede heading towards the door as the rest of the patrons flee in panic, almost knocking over the two bouncers.
Slowly, a light appears, but this time it's different. The bar is gone, a huge gnarled old tree in it's place with things hanging from the branches... mostly skulls. There's a giant iron throne infront of it, the designs on it making Arja's eyes ache slightly as she tries to look at them. Nelen guides the group back from the throne while Betty and Lucy fall back on their own. With another loud crash an ancient man appears seated on it, his skin green and decayed, dressed only in a loincloth. In his chest there's a huge gaping hole, bloody and old, where his ribcage was broken open and his heart was removed, and when he opens his eyes there are only flames in the eye sockets. The saying goes 'he has his father's eyes', but there's a reason he's called 'Satanspawn'.
"Who calls me..." he says, his tone like ice. Despite being dead he radiates power, as imposing as Mammon was. If this is what he's like dead, the living Merlin must have been a terror to behold. "Answer me lest I get bored and turn you into something amusing."
Merlin Satinspawn, the name is both title and literal. Some legends name Merlin as the son of a noblewoman and an incubus, but the truth is that he is, infact, the true heir to the throne of Hell, the only son of Lucifier, the great Adversary. This is not some kindly old man like many legends would have one believe, and certainly not the goofy old eccentric that Disney made him out to be. This is the most powerful sorcerer in the known world, even in death.
Aisha blinks as she looks at the sight in front of her, taking in a deep breath to steady herself. "Ok... wow." she says, looking at the tree, then throne, then finally the man himself... "You have got to, like, sue the BBC or something because... man they have it wrong..." she nods, the woman clearly impressed by the creature sitting before them.
Merlin turns his fiery gaze to her and chuckles, his broken ribs rattling as he does, "Not what you were expecting girl?" he grins, his teeth old and rotted. "I am Merlin Satanspawn, child of the Adversary. I was to be the Antichrist, but I declined the honor. Did you think me just some mere conjurer like this one?" he asks, gesturing to Nelen. "Now... tell me why I have been woken from my sleep, and it had best be good..." he sneers, leaning back into his throne.
Aisha takes in a breath again before stepping forward, "I'm Aisha DeLane... and I'm seeking the grave of my ancestor Sir Moriaen, son of prince Aglovale and knight of your king's court."
She tries to keep her voice authoritative and strong, but obviously is fairly nervous in front of such a creature she wasn't expecting... but then unless one knew of Merlin’s true state it’s hard to prepare for him.
Merlin looks at her, leaning in and breathing in deeply as if trying to catch her scent, "Hmm... yes yes... I remember Moriaen. Aglovale took quite a fancy to that moorish princess of his." he smirks, "I didn't realize that line had survived to the present day. Shouldn't you be with the rest of the London Knights girl, keeping up the 'good fight'..." he says this like he's spitting, "... and cursing my name whenever you raise a toast to Arthur?" he asks.
Aisha frowns a bit "I sound like a London type?" is all she says, it was true while she maybe had a pinch of French in her voice, her accent was all American, southern at that... "And if you can point me to great great great whatever many great grandpa's grave I can promise I won't be cursin’ your name any time soon..." she pauses, her own curiosity getting the best of her, though... "All the stories I heard and all, you and Arthur were friends..."
Merlin nods, "Oh we were..." he replies, his eyes narrowing, "I knew of Hell girl, but Arthur... he made me believe in Heaven." he sighs, gripping the armrests of his throne as he does, gazing into the distance for a moment before refocusing his burning orbs on her.
"They curse me because I wasn't there when Camelot fell. They blame me for Arthur's death. I was busy hunting down that bitch Moriganna le Fae, but she was trickier than I could have imagined and by the time I caught her... and I did catch her..." he grins wickedly, "... it was too late. Arthur and Mordred had killed each other and Camelot had burnt to the ground." he frowns. "You must really be out of the loop if you don't know about this tale..." his fiery gaze shifts, looking at Arja and Simoni, "Hm... you're definitely not from around here. What would one of Hanuman's children want with an old dead wizard?" he asks, the ancient wizard sounding almost curious.
Aisha shrugs, "I know the story just don't understand why folks who model themselves after his knights would ignore you..." she says as Arja smiles at Merlin. She’s definitely a bit intimidated, but after everything she’s been through she’s better equipped psychologically to deal with a being like him, "I bet you'll like this." she says almost teasingly, "You know anythin about Clan Fullmoon, and more importantly, their big ol’ magic jail?"
Merlin looks her over, one ancient eyebrow rising. "... yes, I do..." he says, "Its hidden on an island off the western coast of Ireland, called Inishmor..." he replies, "But why would you want to..." he pauses, breathing in again as his half-mummified lungs visibly expand through the hole in his chest. "... I see. So one of them has found that sword..." he nods, smirking to himself, "Oh if only they knew what they held..."
Arja nods "Mhm, you see a lot for a dead guy. We're going to break into Inishmor, and could use any help you can provide, I'm sure you know how incredibly bad it is for a bad guy from that clan to have one of those weapons."
Merlin smirks at her, "Child, you don't know what 'bad' truly means..." he replies, "Yes, I know how to get there... but it won't matter. None of you will be able to escape." he nods, "The prison you speak of is hidden in a cave system under the island. The caves are..." he thinks, "Hm... there isn't really a word for it... Some places are... sacred, or enchanted, for lack of a better term. Magic flows more freely through them, and they sometimes lead to other lands, like Arcadia." he strokes his long beard as he speaks. He was Arthur's teacher, perhaps some part of him still enjoys it, "But that place... its the opposite of that. It isn't like the blade that your enemy wields, it doesn't eat magic... but something in the caves nullifies all magic so long as the person is within them." he frowns, "No magic can function in those caves, even mine. Its why Clan Fullmoon used them to house all the dangerous beings who they couldn't kill outright."
Arja grins, "What if we had a Cyclops girl with us who'd love to bust some heads and walls down, would that even the odds?" she asks. If Drusilla was immune to the draining powers of the Mundane Blade then a prison that blocks magic shouldn’t be any challenge for her.
Merlin raises his eyebrow, "Possibly, possibly, if she had no problem entering alone." he replies, "Mind you, she would face down all of Fullmoon's finest and most loyal knights alone, but if that doesn't worry her..."
Arja just laughs at that a bit, Drusilla would only want to go more after hearing that, but Aisha frowns, looking between Merlin and the hindi girl. "I'll go with her." she says after a moment, "Magic, right, that's the problem? That's why a... cyclops... can get in? Well I don't have any magic either, we can both go in and... do whatever this job is... and then when we get out you…" she says, nodding to Merlin, "Take me to where Sir Moriaen is buried, sounds like a good deal, right?"
Merlin raises his eyebrow, "Young lady you do whatever you damn well please. As for your ancestor, I won't be taking you anywhere. I can't leave Strangefellows and even if I could I have no reason to help you." he replies, resting his head on his hand as he smirks at her, then looks at his crusty and decaying fingernails, "Your ancestor is buried in a graveyard in Northern Africa, just south of Spain." he shrugs. "Do what you want with him, I've long since stopped caring."
Aisha smirks faintly, "Stopped caring so much you were interested why a descendant of one of his knights didn't seem to hate you, right" she says before looking to the group, "Well, offer still stands, if you need extra help there, I'm there." she says as Arja nods, looking to Nelen for his opinion, it was his girlfriend after all. "Regardless" she says after a bit, "You said you can get us there, right?”
Merlin looks at the group, "Get yourselves there, Inishmor isn't a fortress or anything, mundanes who live on the island wouldn't even know the caves exist." he replies as the room starts to fill with fog, Merlin's presence fading. "Still... a young girl like you with an enemy like that... you will be interesting to watch..." he sneers as the fog thickens, only the flames of his eyes visible now. They blink out as the fog evaporates, returning the bar to how it was.
Alex picks himself up off the ground, glaring at the group in a furious way, "Right. That tears it. Betty! Lucy!" he yells as Nelen, Arja, Simoni, and Aisha are all grabbed from behind, dragged to the door, and tossed out into the alleyway in a heap, Dawn appearing next to them as they land. "Soooo... Nelen?" she asks as he sits up and adjusts his glasses, "Yeah yeah, add it to the list of bars I'm banned from." he sighs.
Aisha huffs as she's tossed out as well, "Assholes!" she calls back "Still, that was kinda... wow... didn't expect Merlin to be... that" she says, frowning a bit, "He got kinda fucked up huh..."
Nelen nods, adjusting his hat, "Well, having your heart literally ripped out by your lover will do that... but then he's Lucifer's son so he was pretty fucked up to begin with." he replies, getting to his feet and dusting himself off. "Dunno why the hell he's buried under a bar though..." he frowns, then shrugs, "But he is."
Aisha nods, "Well... educational, and interesting, regardless." she says as she looks around, "So, what is this prison break thing you're planning?" she asks before Arja fills her in on a very truncated version of the story...
Dawn grins, adding her own bits to make it more exciting, though Nelen bops her when she tries to claim she magicked an entire squad of Franklin's men into doing the can can right into a tiger's den. "So yeah, thats the idea. He's out to kill the hell out of us, but if we free his captives a good half the clan could defect, not to mention the witches would probably be eager to help out if only to get some payback against the old bastard." Nelen explains.
Aisha nods, "Well I guess I kinda got drawn in with fate or whatever, I'm kinda on a... get to know myself type dealie here, and I guess part of that should be, ya know, actin’ like an actual knight... so yea. That dude sounds like bad news, if you still want my help to get past the whole no magic thing, I'm happy to back up your... is she actually a Cyclops or just like, lost an eye?"
Nelen brings out his smartphone and shows her a picture of him and Drusilla that they took while they were still in Texas, "Thats her." he says, letting her take a look at it before putting the phone back away. "I'm about the only one of our group that actually is human honestly, and even then I've got a bit of a... travelling companion."
Aisha just laughs softly, "Well shit, I wanted to see more of the whole supernatural world thing, looks like I got that." she says, smirking, "So, me and a kid are gonna fuck up a bunch of deranged Irish knights? Sounds like a party..."
Nelen winces, "Um... yeah, these guys aren't really normal either..." he says as the group walks back out of the alleyway past a group of gay vikings heading off towards the nightclub called 'Divas!', their bodies painted with blue woad and their lips painted with bright pink lip gloss. "Each one of them is blessed by Morrigan, the Irish goddess of war. Seriously, they wrestle bears for fun." he nods.
Aisha grins, "Well, they have skin, right? I can stab them, right? Seems to me it doesn't matter what kinda woodland creatures they hug, if they can be cut I'm gonna be able to cut ‘em." she laughs a bit, "Don't worry about me," she says, patting the sword's hilt, "The guy I come from was a tough guy, I have his strength."
Nelen nods, "I sure hope so... because I'd assume that if magical abilities get taken out in that cave then it'd also mean magical items won't work either." he says, sighing. "Figures that Franklin wouldn't just lock them up in a normal prison..." he grumbles, "I hate it when I have to sit out a mission..."
Arja pats his arm, "Yea, me too, I don't like just waiting around, still neither of us would be any use, we'd just be targets for the guys to take out..." she says with a little sigh, "So, what now?"
Nelen shrugs, "Well, you'd be a target. I'd just be dead." he nods, then he looks at the group, "Hm... dunno honestly. We know where to go, but we need to figure out the general layout, how we'll get there, and how we'll escape once we've freed everyone. The real worry is that while it's a no-magic zone we'll still have to worry about mundane tech. I wouldn't be shocked if they have some way to contact Castle Fullmoon that they'll use the minute they realize that we're trying to do a jailbreak."
Arja then grins at that "Mundane tech... what about advanced tech?" She giggles, nudging Simoni, "I bet Bethandi has stuff to jam communications, and we get get some teleportation tags from her and then it's just a matter of getting them on everyone!"
Simoni nods, "Hmm... she might... though..." she blushes, "She'd probably want some kind of repayment for it..." he says as Nelen raises his eyebrows, "Hum, yeah that would definitely be the one thing that Franklin wouldn't see coming. He's so focused on us he probably doesn't even consider the possibility of aliens."
Arja giggles, "I'm fine with that, seems like a good plan to me, jam him up, get our hitters in, put the tags on the girls, we're all out before he even knows what happened. Hopefully by then we're on a plan to India...”
Simoni nods, "Well, maybe... or we could just have Bethandi drop us all off there. No plane required." she adds, "I mean she's got a spaceship, orbiting a planet is probably like driving down the block to her." she replies as Dawn glances at Aisha, "Um, guys? I think we lost the newbie." she says, waving a hand infront of the knight's face.
Aisha blinks, looking a little punch drunk at their discussion. She’d never been involved with the supernatural before and running into Arja and her friends is like being taken out of a kiddie pool and dropped into the middle of the Atlantic. "Sorry just trying to get past the fact that you're talkin’ about having an alien help you break out bird wizards from a bunch of corrupted Irish knights..."
Nelen shrugs, "Yeah, I guess we've kinda gotten desensitized to it." he replies, "I mean this is an average thing for us these days." he nods. Dawn grins at her, "Heck, last week we helped a bunch of monkey-guys and bird-people fight off an invasion of snakes in another plane of reality. This is pretty tame by our standards."
Aisha just chuckles, shaking her head, "Well at least you're used to it, you can tell me if things get ACTUALLY fucked up in the prison." she smirks faintly, looking around slowly. "So, what do we do first?"
Nelen shrugs, "Well... I guess we got what we came for, we know where to go now and all... so..." he blinks, "... so I can just do THIS!" he spins around and lashes out with one of Merihim's tendrils, a strangled cry coming from the shadows behind the group as he hauls a young punkish-looking man in a leather trenchcoat and jeans forward, slamming him against the wall until he drops the silver-edged daggers in his hands. "Rule one of sneaking up on someone kid, leather squeaks." he frowns, "Who are you?"
The punk coughs as Merihim wraps tighter around his torso and throat, "Ain't tellin ya nuffin..." he says, but it sounds less like a rough would-be-assassin and more like some kid who's been caught dropping stink bombs behind the toilets at school.
Aisha frowns as Arja growls, both making their way over to the captured youth, "Hey, kid, trust me you want to talk now. I've been with these folks for all of like ten minutes but I already know you don't want to fuck around with them. Now, I'm gonna be all knightly and noble and shit and say I can't accept mister... blood ropes here... choking you out without giving you one more chance to spill, but after that I really don't know these folks well enough to keep them from doing whatever they do to assholes who sneak up with knives." she says, Arja grinning to expose her shining iron monkey fangs.
Nelen smirks as Dawn hisses, showing her sharper feline teeth as she flexes her claws, a few teeth sprouting along the outside of the tendril. "Merihim, not yet." says Nelen as the teeth reluctantly sink back down, "We don't want to shred him until after he talks." he nods.
That's about all it takes though, he breaks about as easy as a high school student too. "Awright! Awright!" he yells, his accent rather thick, " 'ere's a bounty on yer 'eads! Some Irish arsehole says 'e'll give us fifty thousand a' 'ead fer ya an' yer friends!" he says, his eyes panicked as he sees the razor sharp teeth sprout and sink along Merihim, especially the ones close to his throat.
Nelen raises an eyebrow, "He contracted someone like you for that much? Jeez... he must be getting despa-" he pauses, noticing the punk is laughing. "Oh 'e ain't contracted me guvnor..." he snickers, " 'is an open contract it is." he replies as Nelen blinks, his eyes widening. "I just saw ya gettin tossed outta Strangefellows an' decided ta try me luck! Its open season on ya!" he smirks as Nelen winces, then lifts him up and flings him across the alleyway, the punk slamming into the far wall and slumping unconscious to the ground.
Aisha frowns, "Ok... new here and all but the words 'open season' in a place like this have me a bit worried... should we be running to the exit?" she asks, Arja already nodding, "Yep, we need to move, now. Lotta people who could use a payday here and we look like an easy hit..." she confirms as the group begins to hurry towards the exit of the alleyway. To some of the major players like Merlin they may be recognized as the girls who are going up against Clan Fullmoon, but to others they look like a group of kids with a chaperone. Nothing more. Even if they could handle most, someone could still get in a lucky shot.
Nelen nods, "Fucking hell, he is getting desperate." he says as the group reaches the main sidewalk, "The Nightside is full of mercs and bounty hunters, if we don't get the hell back to London we're going to get mobbed to death!" he nods as he ducks out into the street.
As he steps out however two more men are rapidly approaching, one from each side of the street. To their left is what appears to be a huge wall of granite with small beady eyes and diamond teeth, a club the size of a tree trunk balanced across one shoulder. Its wearing a blackened leather loincloth that may have been leather pants before it tried to put them on, and rather than tattoos it's arms are carved with various symbols.
Aisha narrows her eyes, one hand holding the hilt of her sword as she runs along with them. To the right of the group a tall, gaunt, man dressed in all black over his pale skin was advancing, seeming to flicker in and out of existence, hopping from shadow to shadow in the alleyway, avoiding any source of light... "Oh, cool, so we got that dude from Neverending Story on one side and something out of a bad Japanese horror movie on the other...."
Nelen growls, then nods to Dawn who scrambles up on his shoulders and flashes her eyes at the advancing stone man. Its not a rockbiter, rather a troll... but the only real difference is size. The troll blinks, then looks out across the street before grinning and charging out into the oncoming traffic. As it does a taxi swerves towards it as the grill opens to reveal rows of razor sharp teeth, snatching the unfortunate stone man right off the road and barreling away, engine snarling as it chomps him up.
"Thats why we walk everywhere when we come here girls." nods Nelen as he turns to face the pale man.
Aisha chuckles, "Yea that'll do it." she says, looking around before grabbing her sword again, "He likes shadows, alright..." she says, nodding to the group, "Get ready for this." she says, yanking the sword out of the sheath, suddenly flooding the area with bright white light, removing all the shadows. The man screams in pain as he hunches over, skin seeming to sizzle in the light... before it ACTUALLY sizzles, Arja throwing a fistful of flames at him to finish him off.
Simoni whistles as Nelen looks at Aisha with a raised eyebrow, "Okay. That was pretty impressive, some sort of light enchanted sword?" he asks as the group starts moving again before more of them can show up. "I know it's not Excalibur or else Merlin would have said something..." he nods as they pick up the pace, running around the group of tourists who'd stopped to watch their fight, still dazzled and blinded by the sudden light show. In the Nightside a good bit of street theater is always appreciated.
Aisha nods as she sticks close to the group, "Enchanted, it belonged to my ancestor, that's why I need his grave, I'm bringing it back to him. I swore I wouldn't draw blood with it while I'm on the way... figure a light show isn't drawing blood, right?" she says with a little smirk.
Nelen nods, then glances over his shoulder and lets out an involuntary whimper, "Well, you might not be able to keep that promise." he replies as a sudden roar fills the air. Behind them, tearing up the road between the other vehicles, both the ones that are cars and that only look like cars, is about a dozen Harley Davidson motorcycles, each one being ridden by a giant man with huge muscles, low hanging brows, thick square jaws, and matching leather jackets. They're swinging chains, clubs, and any salvaged weaponry they could find, hooting war calls to each other. "Dammit dammit dammit, Hell's Neanderthals!" he yelps as he looks around at the group, picking up the pace, "Right, Simoni, Arja. Do something!" he nods as Simoni shifts into her garuda form and swoops forward, lifting up Arja onto her back as she sails out over the road, keeping just high enough to keep out of their reach as well as the reach of the other cars.
"Right, got an idea..." she nods, "Arja, gimme some fire!"
Aisha blinks "What the fuck..." she simply says, staring a bit in disbelief at the massive men as Arja nods, "Fire comin up" she says, wrapping her hands in fire, "Where do you need it?" she says, already forming a small ring of flame around them.
Simoni glances back, then ahead just in time to dodge a large grasping hand that came out of what appeared to be the top of a Ford, then nods, "That's good, just like that." she nods, whistling up a wind around them to catch the flame, shape it into two large wings superimposed over her own, and spin around, flapping her wings as hard as she can at the pursuing bikers. Rather than flames the spell releases a blast of superheated air at the neanderthals, the huge primitive men growling and snarling in pain as their bike's handlebars suddenly become too hot to hold (though a few still try)... and then there's several loud popping sounds as the rubber their tires are made from glows cherry red before melting and popping. The bikes, unable to maintain speed like this, suddenly swerve out of control and crash into each other, into other vehicles (with a good deal of gore depending on which they hit) or just fall over leaving the rider to bounce along the pavement until something else finishes the job.
Simoni winces at the carnage, but swoops back over to Nelen and the others, staying in her garuda form for now. "I was thinking about how Stephy can freeze stuff with his wind and, well... thought maybe we could do the opposite." she explains as she glides along over the other three.
Aisha sighs a bit as she pulls her sword out once more, another bright flash of light before the blade is fully revealed. Despite the eastern style sword breaker grip, the blade is entirely traditional English, long and straight, almost looking silver thanks to the aura of light still around it, "Welp, hope great whatever many grampa understands…" she says as Arja starts lobbing fire at the surviving bikers before the traffic takes care of them. "Nice work Simoni!" she grins.
As the girls clean up, though, a loud gunshot rings out, a bullet hitting the wall right next to Nelen! A man in a long black overcoat with a matching Stetson hat slowly walking to the group from the direction of the shot, holding a still smoking jet black revolver. On his chest was what looked like a Marshal's badge, broken in the middle where a bullet went in. "Huh... who was betting on 'cowboy' for the next one?" Aisha blinks, the man simply still walking to them, aiming his gun once more. As he gets closer it becomes clear his skin is a sickly greenish blue... "Oh, ZOMBIE cowboy, of course…" Aisha adds in, sighing, "Because just a normal six shooter using cowboy would be too BASIC for this place, this guy's a fuckin... Shit!" she says, bumping Nelen out of the way of the next bullet...
Nelen ducks away and curses, summoning up a blood shield to block his bullets, "Yeah, don’t question it until AFTER we take care of it. Do something guys, my magic doesn't work on those!" he nods as Dawn hisses at it. She could teleport it, but zombies tend to have some other nasty tricks while Nelen's blood magic only works on living targets, or at least biologically alive ones (the troll didn't have blood per se) with the only exception being vampires. Dawn's illusions won't stop it either, anything that has the sheer willpower to overcome death won't be fooled by her eyes.
Aisha frowns, "Alright... no blood in a zombie, right? Still technically in the right here!" she says. She may be new to this but at least she understood one major rule about geases and such, it was all about loopholes for both sides... With a little yell she charges forward, weaving past a few panicking tourists before, with a rather satisfying THUNK her blade strikes into the zombie's neck where it connects to the shoulder! There's a bit of a pause before a low 'hisssss' comes from the zombie, the sword seeming to literally be burning through it's body like a hot knife through a block of ice... "Someone stomp on its head or something when it comes off... That's legit, right? I kinda don't know what's real and what's media anymore..." she says as, with a low groan of discomfort, the zombie's head hits the ground, its body dumbly trying to re-aim the gun, winding up entirely missing Aisha even though she's right in front of it. "Man, these things really suck..." she nods.
Simoni shudders at it, then conjures up a gust to make it roll out into the street where... well... imagine a very old pumpkin infront of a truck. "Ewww..." she gags, the splatter having almost reached her as the rest of the zombie's body goes limp, the brain's destruction having turned it from living dead into just dead. Nelen looks around, then nods, "Right, there should be an exit down that way. Once we get out I'm calling Drusilla and telling her to meet us at the plane." he nods, "These guys aren't afraid to pull shit in the mundane world either, we need to get out of London."
Aisha nods in agreement, then asks, "Hey wait... do you need a distraction when we're coming out? If you do I could get us a smoke screen…" she says, pushing her sword back into the sheath after wiping some burnt skin off it.
Nelen nods, "Might not be a bad idea.", as Aisha pulls her phone out, "Cover me for a sec..." she says "And when you call your friends tell them to look as human as possible, we're gonna have cameras" she says, texting a few 'anonymous sources' that she'd be in the area of London with a 'strange young man', figuring that should at least draw a few paparazzi types, not a huge cover, but enough for them to be too 'public' to murder in the streets at least...
He heads down the block with the others behind him, looking around for what he needs, then spots a pay phone built into a wall and nods, "Okay yeah, that should do it." he says, then curses and jumps back as something jumps down infront of it.
"Well lookie who it is!" says the newest bounty hunter, "Didn't expect to run into you guys again so soon..." he smirks, straightening up to reveal pale skin, a beaten up leather jacket, and bluejeans tucked into cowboy boots. He's got an earring in one ear made to look like a dreamcatcher and his teeth shine in the moonlight to reveal long sharp canines. "But then, I guess I'm just lucky~" he laughs as, out of the shadows, saunters the vampire known as Coyote, the bohagande who steals luck as well as blood from his victims.
Aisha jumps when he appears, "Wait what" she says as she sees the man "The fuck is this... No seriously did the 90's just come roaring back into the murder for money business because holy shit..."
Simoni steps back as Nelen frowns, recognizing him immediately, "Something like that. We know this one." he says as the Texan vampire steps forward, his eyes glowing red in the night. "Well well well, no huckster around to help you this time kids." he sneers as Nelen lashes out with a blood tendril, the vampire stepping back just enough for it to miss him by a hair's thickness. "Oh come ON! Don't tell me you forgot already!" he laughs, then vanishes... or rather moves too quickly for any human eyes to follow... and is suddenly punching Nelen in the chest. The blood mage flies backwards several feet, coughing as he rubs at where Coyote hit him. Only his Fullmoon ancestry kept him from getting his ribcage crushed... and then only just as the vampire darts backwards out of the reach of the girls, hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face as if he’s just going for a stroll.
Aisha frowns, "So it's like that huh?" she says, grabbing her sword again "Let's see if this actually works..." she says, yanking her sword out and once again filling the area with light. She didn't know if a blessed sword's light counted as 'holy light' or sunlight or whatever to fuck a vampire up, but she sure as hell hoped that at the very least her sword would burn him like it did the zombie...
Coyote hisses narrows his eyes against the glare as he burns some of his blood, looking at Aisha as he does. Up above her the gargoyle who was spitting on pedestrians, leaning over to watch the show, lets out a sudden yelp as the stonework under it crumbles, falling forward and crashing down ontop of the knight, pinning her sword and sword arm under it's stone body as it lays there stunned from the impact. "Oooo, bad luck there girl." he laughs as Simoni, Nelen, and Dawn try to pull the woman free, the heavy rocklike creature keeping her arm held firm however.
Aisha yells out in pain as the heavy rock crushes her arm. It wasn't broken but it sure hurt like hell "Nnngh, fuck!" She groans as she tries to push it off her, Arja adding her own strength to push the gargoyle, "Hey buddy, come on, help us out here!" she says, prodding the gargoyle’s head with her hand.
The gargoyle is out cold however, the fall landing it on it's head and rattling it's brain. As the three struggle Coyote saunters forward, then reaches out a hand and grabs Simoni roughly by the arm, pulling her away from the others as he grips her firmly. "Hmmm, the bounty says dead or alive... so I guess I can have a quick snack..." he sneers, grinning as he shows his fangs, Simoni struggling and kicking but unable to pull free. "I haven't had a decent bite to eat since you little brats axed McCall, soooo many people in Houston wanted to settle old scores with him out of the way it was all I could do to get out of the city before they found me... but then..." he sneers, "I'm just a lucky lucky guy~" he chuckles, then bares his fangs and plunges them into her neck, Simoni's eyes going wide as he starts to greedily drain her.
Aisha grunts and strains as she works on the gargoyle… but Arja suddenly stops, eyes going huge as she watches Simoni get drained before a low growl comes from her... "GET OFF OF HER!" she snarls, grabbing Aisha's fallen sword and charging at Coyote, her eyes turning gold as her fur comes out, the girl filling with divine rage, trying to overcome his powers over luck with pure unnatural force of will as she charges him with the sword out and ready...
Coyote snickers and twists at the last moment, holding his leg out and catching her ankle to send the normally agile monkey girl sprawling. He laughs at her around a mouthful of blood, then pauses and blinks, pulling free of Simoni as he reaches into his mouth and feels around. "The fuck?" he mutters, then looks at what he's holding. A short, coarse gray hair, like the kind in a beard... He pauses and looks at who he's holding... finding Nelen all pale-faced and tired with two puncture wounds in his neck. Back by Aisha Dawn grins, her own hands over Simoni's mouth as the garuda shudders, having just seen... well... herself getting sucked dry by a vampire.
"Lucky guy..." smirks Nelen in a tired voice, "But luck isn't always good, looks like you won the booby prize." he says as Coyote drops him and steps back a bit, looking confused. "You guys might wanna get behind something. This is gonna be messy." nods Dawn, reaching down and teleporting Aisha free, then pushing Simoni into a convenient alleyway before teleporting forward, grabbing Nelen, and warping him in as well.
Aisha rubs her arm as Arja ducks in with the rest of the group, returning the sword and grabbing Simoni protectively before looking to Nelen, "Thanks... seriously..." she says to him as he leans against a wall, breathing heavily as he tries to remain conscious.
Nelen smirks, "Hey, she's my sister remember?" he says as Coyote looks at himself, able to tell something has gone horribly wrong, "What..." he starts, then his eyes bulge out as he convulses, doubling over and clutching at his chest. "AGH! W-what did... what did you do to me?!" he gasps, his veins suddenly standing out against his skin.
Dawn peers out at the vampire, "Ugh, this is gonna be gross... y'know how we haven't let Natasha feed on Nelen or give him her blood?" she asks, then ducks back into the alleyway, "This would be why." she nods as Coyote convulses again, falling to his knees as he begins to drip blood out of his tear ducts, his whole body shaking. "No... no! Dammit no! I... I'm the luckiest vampire in the world! How..." he gets out before there's a loud and very wet sounding explosion, his heart ripping itself from his chest as all his veins burst through his skin at once, splattering blood all along the walls of the building and the street nearby, hitting the windshields of passing cars (some of them extending long tongues to lick it up) as what's left of him falls to the ground before crumbling into a fine dust, leaving only a human skeleton with long pointed canine teeth wearing a leather jacket, jeans, and cowboy boots all soaked through with gore.
Aisha just stares at the scene, Arja smirking a bit as she surveys the battleground... "Huh..." Aisha says "Didn't expect that... Well, guess that's what you get for trying to drink kids for lunch..." she nods.
Nelen limps out and holds his hand over one of the puddles of blood, Merihim extending upwards from it to re-enter his body as Dawn steps carefully around the rest. Simoni looks like she might be sick, gazing around at the splatters everywhere. "Yeah, Merihim can't stand vampires, so if he comes into contact with vampiric blood, whether I eat it or they eat him..." he gestures around them, "Anyways." he goes to the phone and syphons Merihim's leftovers off it, then picks up the receiver and dials 379 into the phone, saying simply, "London Proper". A beat up old door next to the phone pops open, nothing but blackness visible through it.
The group heads through and as soon as they're back in the mundane world Nelen takes out his phone and calls Drusilla. "Wake up the others and get packed, we've gotta get the hell out of here. No time to explain, just get to the plane. I'll fill you in once we're in the air." he says, hanging up and heading for the tube station. After a ride on the underground the group emerges at the airport, Arja's diplomatic passport getting them quickly through security despite their strange appearance and the sword on Aisha's hip.
On the other end of the phone Drusilla nods, the cyclops quickly throwing on a pair of large shades to hide her eye as she gathers the group, Natasha thankfully awake at night, able to simply look like a mini goth rather than a large trunk... As they get to the airport Aisha's 'distraction' is waiting, a small group of press and entertainment bloggers and the like quickly moving around the plane. It'd take a bit of explaining why the Indian ambassador's kids were seemingly tagging along on a date with a model and... well Nelen just looked like a rather odd normal guy (thankfully these days being seen with a mysterious odd looking guy was good for buzz...) but luckily he had experience covering for them, simply saying Aisha was a friend of the family's who was kind enough to take Arja and her sister on a surprise trip while he was busy with work...
The trip to the plane was safe thanks to the crowd, not even a Fullmoon agent crazy enough to try to take down a kid in front of a bunch of cameras... Aisha keeping up her act of 'can't we have any privacy', even knocking one guy's camera down to keep the crowd active until the plane was loaded and ready...
The group heads onto it and the plane takes off, Nelen looking out the window with a raised eyebrow. "... care to explain that?" he asks her, "Seriously, model?" he says as Stephy giggles, "Well I've heard of her... but I pay attention to fashion magazines." he says, leaning into Trixie as the plane flies higher and higher.
Aisha smirks, rubbing Stephy's head, "See? She knows me." she teases, mistaking Stephy for a girl it seems, though neither he nor Trixie correct her. Drusilla, meanwhile, huffs lightly, grabbing Nelen's arm almost possessively after that. Nelen winces, still a bit wobbly as he wasn't able to re-absorb all of Merihim's body into his before they fled, stuck waiting for the demon to rebuild itself so that he'll be back at full strength.
"Right, well, we know where to go now, but we're going to have to put the rescue mission on hold. Its a safe bet Franklin will notice that we were in the Nightside after that and he'll be watching for us now." says Nelen, "He won't know where we're heading, besides us Merlin was the only one around when we got directions, but he's nothing if not paranoid." he sighs, glancing at Aisha, "So... he said Northern Africa right?" he asks her, taking out his iPad, "Shouldn't be too many graveyards these days that are still that old..." he nods, then points at google maps, "Okay, I think I found the right one... its near Rabat in Morocco. Sound right to you?" he asks her.
Aisha thinks on that for a moment, "Rabat was a pillar of the Moorish empire, would make sense that he'd want to be buried there." she says, nodding, "That'd work well, and Morocco's a place that people would totally expect me to be hanging out anyway... yea, that's a good plan. Don't suppose Google has a 'list magical traps and trials' option yet does it? I'm just assuming gramps wouldn't just leave his tomb alone and exposed...”
Nelen shakes his head, "Nope, probably should've thought to ask Merlin that... but I was trying to keep him from noticing Merihim." he nods, then looks at her and sighs, conjuring a blood tendril. "Him, this guy. Demon, lives in my body." he explains, the tendril nodding to Aisha before sinking back down into Nelen's body as if tired.
"Still, good a way to kill time as any until the heat's off." he shrugs, "Haven't been there yet... ought to at least be interesting." he nods as he lays back, giving Drusilla's hand a squeeze as he does. "Arja, let the pilot know where we're going... I'm gonna take a nap." he nods, taking off his glasses and sliding his hat down over his eyes.
Arja goes to tell the pilot where to head before returning to sit next to Simoni, the garuda nuzzling into her shoulder as the plane flies on. Dawn takes care of introducing Aisha to the others, enjoying the girl’s reactions to their rather unusual family… especially when Lupe tries to ‘shake hands’ in a rather wolf-like fashion. After Natasha drags her off to explain why you don’t sniff a woman there, especially there, because it’s not polite even if it feels like how she’s supposed to do it Dawn grins at Aisha and says, “Well, guess you’re bunking with us for now Miss Model-Knight. Welcome to our wild little family.”
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