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I kinda blame myself, WoW got ahold of me again... but yeah. This is one of the big climaxes I'd had planned for a while.\n\nFranklin is a madman and he uses the Mundane Blade for evil, but he's not entirely wrong either. He's evil, but there's a lot worse out there than a lunatic with a magic-eating sword.\n\nAs for Carman, she's a real figure in Irish legendry. I took some liberties with her story though. Some say she's the goddess of evil magic, others say she's just a stupidly powerful sorceress who came to Ireland from Athens when Rome was trying to conquer the British Isles. While Nelen referred to her as a goddess however, it's possibly more accurate to say that she was a mortal who obtained godhood, which is what allowed her to stay alive even after being cut off from her powers. She was too strong to die, but they could still seal her away as her body withered.\n\nI also enjoyed how it forced Franklin to work together with Arja's group, albet for a short time, to take down the larger threat. Franklin would wipe out supernaturals, Carman would destroy EVERYTHING. In her legend she blighted all of Ireland and its a safe bet that, had she been allowed to run free, that would've just been the start for the vengeful goddess.\n\nIt was also nice to finally introduce Catherine Fullmoon. While Rajesh and his wife, Iravati, have more or less adopted Simoni as a second daughter she does still have her biological parents. Nelen had been keeping in contact with them, letting them know that 'Stephanie' was alright and that he was doing everything he could to keep her safe, but still... Catherine is her mother and she's going to make sure anyone who even has a chance of putting her daughter in danger is going to get a severe shouting at.\n\nShe's nowhere near as powerful magically as the others, having ignored her own magic for so long (ever since her father, Franklin, took over the clan thirty years ago infact), but she's still a mother and knows how to scare a kid into line.\n\nBut yeah, this one was a bunch of things I wanted to do and I had a blast with it.\n\nOne thing I will say here that we didn't get to put in the story is the reason why the magical prison worked... The prison was actually built in the crater where Ireland's void iron meteor landed, the same one that went on to make Franklin's sword! Enough bits of void iron got chipped off in the impact that, while it doesn't have the same power to consume magic, it does create a sort of anti-magical field that negates any sort of spellcasting or supernatural abilities within it.\n\nAlso, yes Inishmor is a real island. Its off the coast of Ireland and it's the first one I found with a good sounding name on Google Maps. To anyone who lives on Inishmor, I'm sorry I blew up your island! I'm sure its a very lovely place! ^_^;;;","description_bbcode_parsed":"<span style='word-wrap: break-word;'>Took us a while to finally get going on this one. I kinda blame myself, WoW got ahold of me again... but yeah. This is one of the big climaxes I&#039;d had planned for a while.<br /><br />Franklin is a madman and he uses the Mundane Blade for evil, but he&#039;s not entirely wrong either. He&#039;s evil, but there&#039;s a lot worse out there than a lunatic with a magic-eating sword.<br /><br />As for Carman, she&#039;s a real figure in Irish legendry. I took some liberties with her story though. Some say she&#039;s the goddess of evil magic, others say she&#039;s just a stupidly powerful sorceress who came to Ireland from Athens when Rome was trying to conquer the British Isles. While Nelen referred to her as a goddess however, it&#039;s possibly more accurate to say that she was a mortal who obtained godhood, which is what allowed her to stay alive even after being cut off from her powers. She was too strong to die, but they could still seal her away as her body withered.<br /><br />I also enjoyed how it forced Franklin to work together with Arja&#039;s group, albet for a short time, to take down the larger threat. Franklin would wipe out supernaturals, Carman would destroy EVERYTHING. In her legend she blighted all of Ireland and its a safe bet that, had she been allowed to run free, that would&#039;ve just been the start for the vengeful goddess.<br /><br />It was also nice to finally introduce Catherine Fullmoon. While Rajesh and his wife, Iravati, have more or less adopted Simoni as a second daughter she does still have her biological parents. Nelen had been keeping in contact with them, letting them know that &#039;Stephanie&#039; was alright and that he was doing everything he could to keep her safe, but still... Catherine is her mother and she&#039;s going to make sure anyone who even has a chance of putting her daughter in danger is going to get a severe shouting at.<br /><br />She&#039;s nowhere near as powerful magically as the others, having ignored her own magic for so long (ever since her father, Franklin, took over the clan thirty years ago infact), but she&#039;s still a mother and knows how to scare a kid into line.<br /><br />But yeah, this one was a bunch of things I wanted to do and I had a blast with it.<br /><br />One thing I will say here that we didn&#039;t get to put in the story is the reason why the magical prison worked... The prison was actually built in the crater where Ireland&#039;s void iron meteor landed, the same one that went on to make Franklin&#039;s sword! Enough bits of void iron got chipped off in the impact that, while it doesn&#039;t have the same power to consume magic, it does create a sort of anti-magical field that negates any sort of spellcasting or supernatural abilities within it.<br /><br />Also, yes Inishmor is a real island. Its off the coast of Ireland and it&#039;s the first one I found with a good sounding name on Google Maps. To anyone who lives on Inishmor, I&#039;m sorry I blew up your island! I&#039;m sure its a very lovely place! ^_^;;;</span>","writing":"Inishmor isn't a very big island, nor is there an Airport there, the plane having to touch down on the mainland and the group having to get a ferry over to the island itself. Nelen is noticeably tense, but then he has good reason to be. Ireland is very much Clan Fullmoon's turf and, after this, Franklin will know for certain that they are, infact, there. If he gets word the whole of Clan Fullmoon will be on them like Lupe on leftover steak. They need to get in, get them out, and run for the hills as quick as they can. Hell even getting back out of the country is going to be a trick, Franklin may well decide to head for the airport and try to trap them in Ireland.\n\n\"Well, here it is...\" he mutters, looking across the way at the island. It looks like any other island, there's no building that screams 'prison' or anything like that, \"You guys get what you need from Bethandi?\" he asks, turning to Drusilla, Aisha, and Trixie.\n\nTheir plan was simple enough. Stephy had gone onto Bethandi’s spaceship to negotiate the alien’s help in rescuing the captive witches of Clan Fullmoon. In exchange for him staying aboard the ship for a few earth weeks to help the crew (and to examine the boy who had been human but was no longer) she would supply them with both weaponry and the means to rescue Franklin’s captives. A series of teleportation tags, small beacons like the kind you might microchip a pet with (only bigger) would be given to the witches during an assault on the prison. At the appropriate signal, Bethandi would transport everyone who was given a tag all at once to the spaceship, pulling them all out of Franklin’s clutches in one fell swoop.\n\nAisha nods, she had refused any weapons from Bethandi's ship, but under her street clothes she wore what looked like a tight white set of under armor, able to provide protection better than the typical knightly plate mail without making her look like she just stumbled out of a Ren Faire. Drusilla didn't need anything from the aliens, the Cyclops girl in charge of holding onto the teleport beacons that'd be used to free the women and girls. Trixie, though, was grinning wide, under her coat on her right hip was a small shiny metal gun shaped object, though it didn't have any slots for ammo or the like. It was a potent laser weapon, she knew it wouldn't demolish the Fullmoon toughness, but it'd hurt way worse than bullets, and thanks to the energy cells it had much more shots. In the back of her pants, just in case, was her revolver, all six shots loaded with explosive rounds to serve as her version of a hold-out for this kind of job.\n\nThe three girls were the only ones who would be able to do this job. According to the information they received from Merlin in the Nightside, the prison acted as a sort of anti-magic zone. No magic would work inside of it. It would explain how Franklin was able to use it to contain his captives. Members of their group like Simoni and Arja would be left as powerless human girls (an experience neither one of them wanted to repeat), while it could outright kill Nelen or Dawn. Nelen because of the demonic entity known as Merihim that he had in place of blood, and Dawn because she was a creature of almost pure magic.\n\n\"Good as we're gonna get.\" Aisha grinned, flexing her hands, \"Need to get my hands on one of their weapons when we get in, any chance you know the layout, where an armory or something would be? No offense to your alien friend but I was kinda raised with a narrow list of 'honorable weapons' and all, and at least one good thing about this, I know these guys all should have plenty of 'honorable' blades.”\n\nNelen shakes his head, \"I didn't even know this place was more than a rumor until Simoni and Arja brought it up. It's one of Clan Fullmoon's biggest secrets after all, this is where they send everything they can't kill so they can forget about it.\" he sighs, \"Still, remember the plan. Get in, get those beacons to as many of the girls as you can, and then haul ass before the cavalry shows up. Magic might not work, but I’m pretty sure telephones do. Its a safe bet Franklin will know we're here within minutes of you guys getting in.\" he glances to the north, \"If nothing else we're at least a good drive from Castle Fullmoon so it will take time for them to arrive, but still, we need to hurry this one up.\"\n\nDawn, wearing her usual human disguise, walks up behind Nelen and smacks him on the back, \"Oh calm the hell down or your beard'll start falling out!\" she grins, \"We've been running away from these meatheads for years now, we can handle this.\" she laughs. Nelen rolls his eyes at her, \"I hope you're right...\"\n\nAisha nods, looking at the island, as Arja pipes up, \"Trust me I'm not wanting to hang around.\" she comments, \"Simoni and Lupe will be able to scout, me and Nelen and Nat can take out any guards that come, and if things get really bad the fae boys have a back door out they can use to get help. We should be able to give you a decent bit of time, but it won't be forever, we're on their turf this time and as fun as it is to roast them, I imagine this is where their big hitters are, we just probably won't be able to hold them off as long as we could take care of the assassins and all.\"\n\nNelen gives a grim nod as the dock comes into view, about twenty minutes later the group disembarks in a town so rural that it's practically not there at all. There's a few small houses and shops, but otherwise nothing but empty farmland and swamps. The group heads inland, Nelen trying to follow the directions he'd managed to puzzle out thanks to Merlin's hint and Google Maps, until he motioned for the group to stop.\n\nHidden by the tall grass they could see a cave ahead of them, a large hole in the side of a mound of dirt leading sharply downwards... and standing outside it were two men with red hair. One wore a green teeshirt with the name of an Irish football team on it and a pair of beat up jeans, the other was in a red flannel shirt and jeans as well. It wouldn't stand out in Ireland, except that these men were almost seven feet tall and had the kind of muscle that Chuck Norris memes are made from. \"This must be the place...\" he whispers.\n\nAisha nods, \"How are we doing this? Think we can take them out fast?\" she asks as Trixie reaches to the weapon on her hip, waiting for a signal while Dru grins wickedly, knuckles popping, she's been eager for this since she found out Fullmoon's nullification doesn't work on natural strength.\n\nOne small ace in the hole they have on their team is Drusilla. The cyclops is strong, but it’s not magic that makes her strong. Her people are just born that way. It’s the same principle that lets Franklin Fullmoon, a man in his eighties remember, wield a huge sword like the Mundane Blade without getting his arms ripped off by the sheer weight of it. The mundane blade can cancel out and devour magicks such as shapeshifting and spellcasting, but an inborn trait like superhuman strength didn’t count as far as it was concerned.\n\nNelen looks around, then holds out two fingers and tries to aim them at the men... he flexes and a spurt of blood shoots out from his bandaged fingertips with the force of a small bullet, each one finding it's mark on the guards. They look down in surprise, then up at where the group is hiding... and then their eyes roll back in their heads as they fall over. \"At least we know our magic still works outside.\" he nods, \"They'll be out for about a week, get going.\" he says to the trio as Simoni changes forms, already shooting up into the air with Arja on her back.\n\nAisha nods \"Come on.\" she says as she moves to the cave, Trixie and Drusilla right behind as she slowly looks around, careful to avoid any alarms or traps in the entrance meant to stop anyone who got around the guard. \"Alright Trixie, go up ahead and see if you see anything.\" she instructs, the young girl nodding as she crouches down. She had been hunting more than a few times, she knew her way around tracking and sneaking, and considering Drusilla was as subtle as a truck and Aisha wasn't trained in scouting, she was all the group had for recon.\n\nShe's able to make her way down the tunnel without much difficulty... and then about fifty yards or so in she feels a sudden chill through her body, like being doused in icewater, and she knows... flat out –knows- what it meant. Her magic is gone. Its not as harsh as the Mundane Blade, but the message is still clear. She's found the entrance to the dead zone... and to Clan Fullmoon's prison. The inside of the cave is enormous, so deep that it's hard to see the bottom, and all through it are Fullmoon warriors in full armor. Not just the usual easily hidden and disguised chainmail shirts that they wear under their clothes when they come after them out in the open, but full plate mail that looks as shiny, fresh, and -strong- as it did the day it was forged.\n\nThe prison is built up of rings, each one leading downwards in a spiral, and along the rings are cells built right into the rock walls of the cave. She can just make out movement inside them as well... it looks like they've found their target.\n\nTrixie lets out a soft breath, yep, this was exactly what the ultimate prison of this clan would be...She looks around from her position, trying to get a rough count for how many soldiers there are before creeping back to the group. \"Yea, the magic nullification kicks in about there…\" she points, though neither of her companions used magic, “Lotta guys, all in armor, hope that space armor can hold up compared because that's some tough lookin plate they have…\" she says as she grabs her blaster, Dru and Aisha both nodding. \"I'll get in front.\" Drusilla replies, scooting over to take point, \"I hate to say it but let's try to avoid a fight as long as possible, if it looks like a bunch of rings that means as soon as we start brawling everyone hears. That's how cyclopian jails are too, just a big pit so we can always hear what's going on.” she nods grimly.\n\nIt seems that the guards move in pairs, their armor clattering with each step, and while the people in the cells don't appear hurt or anything there is a sort of resigned feel about them. This place wasn't a prison, it was an oubliette. A place where you lock someone away and just forget about them. The Clan had used it to house all sorts of magical heavy hitters since they first began after all, the ones that they couldn't just kill outright for whatever reason. As they creep inside a voice comes from one of the cells. \"Hsst... oi lasses. Who the ruddy 'ell are ye?\" it says, sounding like a very old woman.\n\nAisha jumps as she hears the voice before realizing it's a woman's voice, the group turning around to look into the cell. \"Kinda a long story…\" Trixie whispers, \"We're here to help you women get out though, we're against Franklin's...\" she frowns, trying to remember the wording Arja used before Aisha leans in and interjects, \"… usurpation of power from the matron.\"\n\nThe woman shuffles forward, a hunched and bent old crone with long stringy white hair and a face full of wrinkles. \"Oh ye are are ye?\" she cackles. \"And just how are ye gonna do that lass?\" she asks, sounding amused and... a bit off kilter honestly. She seems somewhat crazy, and its quite possible she's been down here a very long time. \"Yer magickal tricks willnae work down 'ere ye know...\" she grins toothily, then looks over the groups shoulder's, \"Whoopsie, ye got company gels.\" she smirks as a loud yell comes from behind them, the sound of heavy footfalls and metal coming up fast!\n\nTrixie frowns a bit as the trio spins around to meet the footfalls, \"I'm gonna enjoy freaking you out with this…\" she grins, reaching into Drusilla’s pouch and tossing a teleport beacon to the woman \"Hold this, you let it go you don't get out of here.\" she nods before pulling her phaser out and aiming it at the incoming guards.\n\nThe laser gun is powerful and lets out a stream of focused energy... which arcs at a ninety degree angle and smashes harmlessly into a wall when it hit's the warrior's -polished- armor. It seems Bethandi and her extraterrestrial kin never considered refraction of light when they made these things, or maybe plate mail just isn't a thing they encounter.\n\nThe woman looks at the beacon, and the advanced weaponry, and sighs, \"Oi, one eye, 'ere.\" she nods, shoving a wrapped package out from under the bed in her room. \"That belonged ta me son before these arseholes draged me in 'ere. Ah managed ta smuggle it in with me.\" she nods. Inside it is a rather vicious looking battle axe with a serrated edge. The guards stopping dead and hesitating when they see it.\n\nDru grins as she sees the axe, \"Aisha, axes are honorable right?\" The woman nods \"Yep, lots of great knights used axes\" she says as she leans down to pick it up, Dru grinning wider \"Good, I didn't wanna be rude to an old lady but I was looking forward to punching a hole in some armor\" she says as Trixie curses \"How the fuck does metal reflect lasers, fuckin movies lied to me\" she grumbles as she looks for any bit of exposed body to take aim on as Aisha and Dru charge the guards, each of them taking one.\n\nThe woman cackles from behind them as the axe tears through the plate mail like tinfoil, as well as the guard under it. He falls screaming to the ground as blood gushes out from where it ripped into him, trying frantically to cover the hole up. There doesn't seem to be much honorable about this, but at the moment beggars can't be choosers unless they want to be corpses, especially as his screams echo through the prison. Inside the cell the woman waves Trixie over, \"Take yer trinket back and use yer fancy pistol on the lock would ye? Ah dunna wanna miss this.\" she smirks, her old eyes sparkling dangerously, \"Ah wanna see this lot get whats comin' to 'em.\"\n\nAisha blinks at the vicious axe, \"Well, not keeping this... but hey, not like I have something better to pick…\" she mutters as Drusilla slams her fist as hard as she can into her guard's chest, trying to, as said, punch a hole in the armor and him. Trixie shrugs at the request, aiming the gun at the lock and firing, \"Try not to get in the way though, I'm gonna catch hell if I let some crazy ol’ lady die on this run.\"\n\nThe woman grins, \"Oh you dunna worry about me lass. Ah'm a tough old biddy.\" she cackles, hobbling along behind the group as they fight their way through the onrushing guards. The axe takes them down quickly, even quicker than Drusilla's monstrous strength, as the group moves along and slips the tags to the women in the cells, explaining what they are and how they'll get them out as quick as they can.\n\nHowever, the guards seem to run out surprisingly fast. Either they're holding back near the lower cells or there never were that many. After all, few people even know this place exists and magic doesn't work in it. Manpower might not be a major concern. That or, perhaps, the axe that Aisha is wielding really is causing that much damage, it'd explain the trail of bodies behind them.\n\nAisha takes in a few breaths, looking around for any dropped swords from the mess of bodies around her, \"No offence Dru, but as much fun as you're having tearing armor up I think this axe is more fitting for you. Very hard to focus on chivalry and honorable combat when you're tearing guys up like tissue…\" she says as Trixie goes to scout ahead, looking for any signs of an ambush or trick up ahead, \"This is getting too easy, this is where their magic VIPs were and they're already out of meat walls?\"\n\nThe woman smirks, \"Aye, well, they dinnae expect anyone ta ever come 'ere. After all, magic dunnae work in the crater. Asides, ah've been hearin' from th' guards that they be havin' manpower issues on account o' some crusade th' family 'ead is doin'.\" she explains, hobbling over to one of the fallen guards, pulling off his helmet, and giving him a few good kicks. Still, its quite possible that they've already signaled for reinforcements by now. Its probably time to get the hell out of here.\n\nAisha nods, \"Let's motor then, don't wanna give them time to regroup...\" she says as she and Drusilla start moving further down, Drusilla and Trixie splitting the beacons up, throwing them into the cells and explaining quickly to hold on to them, it didn't take a lot of convincing at this point that the woman and girls carving through Fullmoon brutes were PROBABLY on the side of the women who were imprisoned for no reason.\n\nThe women's reactions range from confused, grateful, anxious, and so on, until they get to one and the woman grabs Trixie's arm before she leaves. \"Wait!\" she calls out, \"You... I know you!\" she says, her voice sounding very... American. Inside the cell is a plump redhaired woman who looks to be in her fifties, her hair just starting to go gray. She seems disheveled and for a moment Trixie thinks she looks familiar. Then it hits her... she saw her before any of this started back at school, with Simoni... or rather with Stephanie!\n\nIts a good thing they came when they did. The occupant of the cell is Catherine Fullmoon, Simoni's biological mother. \"What are you doing here!?\" she demands, \"Is my daughter with you? Is Stephanie here?!\" she yells, sounding panicked. Nelen had told them that his parents had gone into hiding shortly after he’d informed them that he’d met up with ‘Stephanie’ to keep her safe... but apparently they’d been found out.\n\nTrixie blinks, taking a moment to recognize the woman, she's known Stephanie as 'Simoni' so long it honestly took a second to remember she used to be a little Irish girl. \"Oh shit!\" she yelps when she recognizes the woman finally, \"She's out front keeping watch, we're here to help you. Look I want to catch up and all but we're pressed for time here.\" she explains before resting her hand gently on the woman's, \"She's ok though, ok? Everything's fine, we're all here, Nelen, Steph… er, Stephen...too, you're all gonna be ok, you just need to hold onto that thing and we're gonna get you all out in one go.\"\n\nThe woman doesn't look convinced, but gulps and nods, clinging to the tag with both hands. \"You have to go, now! I heard the guards, Franklin and the rest of the clan are already on their way here... He's out of his mind, he's going to kill everyone with that awful sword of his...\" she shudders, the woman a total mess. She must've gotten captured only recently, but it's clear that the boys were not kind to her...\n\nAisha blinks, \"Fuck, ok, Trixie, Dru, finish up in here, activate the beacons as soon as you give the last one, I'm gonna go warn the others.\" She says, the girls nodding, Trixie giving one last squeeze to the woman's hand before they run off to finish delivering the beacons, Aisha sprinting to the entrance of the cave, axe in hand, whispering a soft prayer to keep herself focused.\n\nAs Aisha emerges from the cave Nelen is already staring at the coastline, Lupe thrashing her tail and growling. Simoni swoops down low, Arja on her back, as she calls out, \"Guys, lots of boats headed this way... and Franklin is with them!\" she says to the group. She looks a bit panicked at the last bit, she can feel his sword even from here. Like the Crocodile and Captain Hook, the sword had a taste of her and it wants more...\n\nAisha nods, joining the group, \"The munchkins are giving the last of the teleports out, the guards are cleared but they still have a couple rings to do, when they finish they're gonna activate the beacons and we're out of here.\" She grips her axe tighter, glaring at the ships, \"Until then we hold the line.\"\n\nNelen nods as the first of the boats makes landfall and a good dozen Fullmoon warriors in full armor jump off, charging down the group with a roar like a whole gang of bears, bearing down on them until Nelen drops three of them with his magic, Lupe snarling and diving atop one's face, clawing frantically at him as he yells out and falls over. The others ignore their fallen though, they know what's going on. Their goal isn't to kill everyone, just get inside and stop the escape!\n\nUp above Simoni summons up as much wind as she can, turning the waters around the island choppy and chaotic to slow the reinforcements. The harder it is to get close, then longer it'll take them. Still, this gives a new problem... how the hell are they getting out of here?!\n\nAisha growls faintly as she brings her axe across a warrior's head, pausing every once in a while to mumble a prayer. Oddly, probably, her prayer was in Arabaic, the assertion of Allah and Muhammad's divinity that every Muslim considers core to the faith. It did make sense, there was a debate in the few scholars who really studied the knightly mythos in this detail if Arthur's Moorish knight was a 'proper' Christian or a more liberal Muslim. The prayer seems to calm Aisha, keeping her from getting too lost in her anger as the axe makes carving through warriors easy. \"Think Bethandi is smart enough to figure out we're in a pinch and beam us up too when she makes the grab?\" Arja asks as she sends a torrent of flame at a charging warrior.\n\nSimoni pauses in her whistling, \"Maybe... I hope so anyways.\" she replies as another boat makes landfall. As it does however Drusilla, Trixie, and the old woman emerge from the caves, having finished giving out the tags to the witches inside. \"Finally, Drus are we set?\" calls Nelen, launching another several blasts at the onrushing knights. He's starting to look rather pale. As he does Lupe pounces another as two of the warriors stumble to a halt, look around in a dazed sort of way, then begin to panic and attack their allies, Dawn appearing crouched next to Nelen with a devious grin.\n\nAisha smirks a bit at the chaos as the cyclops nods, \"Yea, come on everyone bunch up, if we're a big group surrounded by these idiots it'll be easy for Bethandi to grab us\" she says as holds up the signaler, pressing the button to broadcast at Bethandi's nearby ship, floating in low orbit over their location, that they were ready for pickup, every beacon lighting up with blinking red lights as she does.\n\nThere's a sudden sound like thousands of little thunderclaps as all the prisoners they'd given the tags to vanish... however...\n\nNelen looks around, blinking in confusion, \"Uh, guys? Why are we still here?\" he asks as Simoni lands, changes forms, and presses her finger to the comm implant behind her ear. A moment later she says, \"Bethandi says there's something interfering with the teleport. She was able to get the witches out, but she can't pull us up!\" she eeps.\n\nAisha sighs, \"Great, she got the prisoners out at least?\" she asks, Simoni nodding in reply as Drusilla growls, \"Gonna have to make our own way out then, nothing new there...\" Trixie nods at that, grabbing her cards from her pocket now that her magic was back, \"Everyone stay close, no stragglers.\"\n\nAs they do Simoni suddenly yelps and stumbles backwards. They feel it, they all feel it. Striding towards them across the field is Franklin Fullmoon, sword unsheathed and a murderous look on his face. \"You... I should have known straight away you were behind this.\" he growls, \"This time you're not getting awa- WHAT IN ALL THE HELLS IS SHE DOING OUT?!\" he yells, pointing a finger at the old crone standing next to Aisha.\n\nThis is different however. He doesn't sound angry, if anything... he sounds afraid.\n\nAisha frowns, but when Franklin reacts she looks over to the old woman curiously, \"Yea she's out, they're all out, someplace even you can never get to them... that scares you doesn't it?\" she grins a bit at that, looking between the elderly woman and the armor clad man, \"Who are you anyway?\" she asks the hunched old woman.\n\nYeah, it scares him... but there's something else... Nelen, Simoni, and Stephy are backing away too. \"Oh fuck fuck fuck... son of a bitch that story was real?\" stammers Nelen. As he does the woman's arm lashes out and snatches the axe away from Aisha with surprising strength as the warriors begin to fall back, muttering amongst themselves.\n\n\"Many thanks m'dear, for givin' me this fine sacrifice...\" she cackles, a long tongue snaking out and licking the blood off the axe. \"I told ye it belong ta me son, Dian... Him an' his two brothers, Dub and Dother, used ta help me cause all sorts of mischief... oh about four thousand years ago.\" she grins, her teeth suddenly shiny, and sharp, as the shadows around her seem to darken.\n\nAisha blinks, taking a step back as well, \"Well now I'm nervous...\" she mutters as Arja just furrows her brow in confusion, \"Ok, who wants to fill in the Hindu, who the heck is she and is she on our side?\"\n\nFranklin glares at her, starting to move forward, but as he does the ground under his feet turns to mud and he finds he can't get purchase on anything. \"Her, all the damn things we locked away down there and you released her!\" he snarls.\n\nThe shadows warp around the woman, twisting and covering her body as she seems to swell under them, her wrinkles vanishing. \"Son of a bitch... She's a goddess, a very old and very evil goddess.\" gulps Nelen, \"She almost destroyed the whole country last time she was here, but she's supposed to have been killed by Tuatha De Danann...\" he steps back further as the clouds begin to swirl above them, a harsh laugh filling the air as the shadows take shape, forming into an impossibly tall woman with night-black hair, pure white skin, and eyes like two black holes on her face. Her nails are long and sharp, and her lips are painted with what looks like blood. She's wearing what appears to be a toga, like something that would have been worn in Athens in it's heyday.\n\n\"Finally...\" she grins, her teeth shining like a shark's fangs, \"I am FREE!\" she raises her hands to the sky as lightning strikes all around the group, slamming into the ground and turning the world to nothing but light and noise. Somewhere in the flashes Simoni lets out a frightened scream and the sound of Lupe's claws scrabbling can be heard, then the world inverts as Dawn manages to grab everyone she can reach and pull them across the island, as far away from the chaos as she can. The group lands with a loud crash about a half mile from the mound, Dawn falling to her knees and clutching at her head as blood drips out of one of her nostrils. \"... ow...\" she winces. Teleporting that many people, out of that kind of a magical event, had taken everything she had.\n\nAs the group collects themselves a wave of fear washes over them. The prison wasn’t just built to hold Franklin’s political prisoners… it was an old old building, as old as the mundane blades themselves, and was meant to contain everything that the clan couldn’t kill outright… and from the look of things they just released a bad one.\n\nAisha groans, rubbing her head as she recovers, Trixie just looking shocked as she lays on the ground, \"...I thought she was one of the ones we went to rescue...\" she mumbles, staring up at the sky as Arja looks around, \"Simoni?\"\n\nNelen gets to his feet and picks up Dawn, holding the cat next to him as he looks back at the storm, the clouds swirling and black like a fresh bruise, as if a gigantic fist had punched the sky itself. Simoni landed a few yards away, clutching at one of her arms... the arm sporting a very bad electrical burn. \"... how... lighting doesn't hurt me...\" she stammers, staring at it. One of the quirks of being a garuda is immunity to electricity. Her body doesn’t get hurt by it, rather it -absorbs- it, but somehow… this creature could cancel out her inborn resistance.\n\n\"You're lucky thats all it did sis.\" says Nelen grimly, \"That woman back there... dammit I never thought she'd be in there. She's supposed to have died four thousand years ago, killed by one of the Tuatha De Danann.\" he shakes his head, \"I mean, there was a rumor that they turned her over to Clan Fullmoon for safekeeping, but still...\" he winces as another crash of thunder, like the sound of a bomb exploding, echoes across the field. \"That's Carman, Celtic Goddess of Evil Magic.\"\n\nAisha hisses in pain as she walks over, holding her ribs, \"Well, I hate to say it then we have to help Franklin take her out... I mean... Franklin is scum, and if you see the chance you should totally kill him too but... goddess of evil magic, that's like, one of the worst things I can imagine let lose in the modern world right now. I'd be less worried if you said 'goddess of nuclear bombs'.” she nods.\n\nNelen winces, \"I may as well have, but... dammit we can't fight her.\" he nods, looking around, \"Find a boat, find anything, we're getting the hell out of here.\" he nods, helping Dawn stand as she struggles to stay conscious.\n\nLupe rrfs as Stephy looks up at him, \"Hey, hang on, we're seriously going to let -that- loose? I mean, yeah that woman is scaring me shitless too, but...\" he starts, Nelen cutting him off. \"She's a goddess guys, she's out of our league. Either Franklin will manage to stop her with the Mundane Blade or she'll blow him to bits.\" he nods firmly.\n\nAisha shakes her head, \"I'm with Stephy, this is like, well again like leaving a ticking bomb and hoping that someone else will diffuse it, you guys can get a boat but I can't just walk away, besides this is our fault...\" she nods grimly. Trixie frowns, \"I let her out, only right I try to fix it, she hurts just one innocent person and that's on me...\" \n\nArja nods as well, \"I'm divine, not a full on goddess but if any of us have a chance of standing up to her it's me, this kinda comes with the territory. All the fun powers and junk mean nothing if I don't do my duty.\"\n\nNelen shakes his head again, \"Dammit, listen to me! That thing is one of the reasons weapons like the Mundane Blade exist! Even if you all attack her at once she probably won't even feel it. Hell her magic is powerful enough to ignore your own defenses!\" he points at Simoni's burned arm. \"That woman is black magic incarnate, she's powerful enough to kill someone by looking at them. Yeah she's bad but... fuck's sake do you kids even know what the word 'suicide' means?!\" he yells.\n\nArja frowns, but shakes her head at the warlock, \"Well we HAVE a mundane blade! I hate to say that but Franklin having one of those blades means we have a chance here! If we can distract her, draw her anger away from him, he can do what he does best and gut her from behind! I'm not exactly jumping for joy at this plan either but this is what we DO, this is why the gods allow things like us to be made, to come together. We are guardians of the world, and we guard against EXACTLY what we just let out!\"\n\nNelen is about to open his mouth to protest, but an explosion rocks the entire island as a whole group of warriors go flying. Even from this distance the group can see what's happening. On one side a malestrom of shadows and fire, crackling with energy and on the other, nothing... emptiness, a void created by what can only be the Mundane Blade as Franklin goes toe to toe with Carman.\n\nSimoni looks at her arm, winces, then lets out a pained hiss as she changes forms, darts under Arja, and without a second thought speeds off towards the fight, eyes tearing as she tries to ignore the pain in her arm just from the wind hitting it.\n\nAisha nods as Trixie and Sammi go running after, putting a hand on Nelen's shoulder, \"They're noble kids, but they're not suicidal, they'll be ok.\" she says with a soft smile before moving after them. \"Come on,\" Dru says, taking Nelen's hand with surprising softness, \"Let's get a boat ready, they'll need it to get out regardless...\"\n\nNelen looks like he's going to have a stroke as he sees Simoni and Arja darting off towards the eruption of dark magic, then scoops up Dawn and nods, \"Right, fine... but if they survive this... I'm gonna fucking kill them!\" he snarls, running off towards the village.\n\nBack at the field Franklin is slashing away at Carman, the dark goddess managing to parry his blows using her son's axe. Her son's names, translated from old Irish, are Darkness, Evil, and Violence... and this was the latter's weapon. It shows too. Deadly enough already in Aisha's hands, any warrior who comes near her is shredded into mince, their bodies ripped apart. Those who hang back will find themselves no safer. Carman's most famous power is to curse someone thrice, her magic utterly destroying them upon the third curse. Even with the Mundane Blade constantly absorbing her magic she shows no signs of slowing, she's like a black sun made of magical power. She doesn't even notice as the others get close, cackling at the chaos and destruction she's causing. \n\nThe girls go to try to harass and distract the goddess as Aisha grabs a sword from the ground, going to join Franklin's assault as the only member of the group going over that could even be near him. She frowns as she swings at the goddess next to Franklin, trying to find a weakness in her defense with her jabs and slashes. \"If we make a hole in her defenses, can your cursed blade kill her?\" she asks, clearly upset having to work with him. \"You may only get one shot and it may cost us everything to get just that, are you able to make it worth it or should we leave you to fall like a stubborn old fool?\" Her voice is deadly serious as she keeps attacking, not even looking over at him as her eyes focus on the axe. \"I held that axe, I know its power...\" she says more to herself. From above, Arja was hurling flaming spears at the woman's head, shouting at her in Hindi as Sammi sends shards of ice bursting from the ground under her. Trixie, meanwhile, tries to draw a spell from her cards, but the goddess' raw power seems to be feeding the demons she deals with, nose already bleeding as she barely manages to cheat out a pair of twos to try to siphon her luck away...\n\nFranklin glances at Aisha, then lets out a sudden gasp as he's sent flying backwards, the goddess ducking under his guard and slamming her fist into his gut before spinning around and backhanding Aisha across the jaw, sending her spinning into the bushes. \"You wait your turn child. I've been in the care of this Clan for a long time and I wish to have a word with their leader.\" she sneers, turning to the others. A sudden whirlwind sends Simoni and Arja spiraling out of the air as the ground erupts under Sammi, a burst of superheated steam washing over the fae boy. As for Trixie, she simply snaps her fingers and her cards burst into flames in her hand before turning back to the aging patriarch, the old man struggling to his feet just in time to block her axe with his sword.\n\nAisha almost blacks out from the pain of her blow, the woman didn't even use a fraction of her strength and it feels like she knocked a few teeth loose. Nelen may well have been right... this woman was toying with them. Its only because the Mundane Blade is cancelling out most of her power that they can even be near her... and yet...\n\nA sharp whistle comes from next to her as a tall hindi woman in beat up jeans and a tank top crouches next to her, a long thin case strapped to her back. \"Jeez, you guys really cocked up didn'tcha?\" she asks, glancing at Aisha. \"I mean, all the nasty bastards down there and you let that one loose... You know the only reason she was in the top cell is because they couldn't force her any deeper, right?\"\n\nAisha groans in pain, the wounds from the toss before only getting worse when she's knocked away again like a bug, from the blood coming out of her mouth she knew something was punctured inside... still she was kneeling, using her sword as support as the woman comes from seemingly nowhere. At that point she actually laughs, softly, a pained, wheezing, cough following it as the sheer absurdity of her plan seems to sink in. \"Maybe they shoulda hung a sign, Danger, goddess of evil and destruction, maybe don't listen to her... Not all of us are versed in ancient Celtic mythos\" she says, struggling to try to stand again.\n\nThe woman looks at her, then tilts her head, \"Hmm... you ain't Irish, and a normal sword won't do dick against her.\" she sighs, \"Well, you're related to one of Arthur's old boys, maybe that'll be good enough for it. Here.\" she says, handing the package on her back to Aisha before standing up and sighing. \"Figures, more than enough and Franklin is right there, but she'd get in the way. I can't even try to get closer than this without her seeing me and then we'd really wind up in trouble.\" she nods, then turns and steps behind what's left of a tree... not emerging again.\n\nAisha smirks when the woman says she's not Irish, \"Nooo, what gave it away?\" she laughs weakly, sounding a bit punch drunk from that attack. When the woman leaves the case, though, her brow raises, figuring this as only the third oddest thing about the day so far, she reaches over to open it up, \"This better be a god killing bazooka or something...\"\n\nIts not, but it definitely is close... Inside is an old Irish sword, still in it's scabbard. Celtic runes decorate the leather, but the sword's guard and hilt seem to simply be nothing more than ordinary steel... until she unsheathes it. Aisha almost has to shield her eyes as a flash, brighter than the sun, lights up the area around them. Its like Moriaen's sword, but moreso, the edge of the sword shining like there's an invisible spotlight under it. There's some old celtic writing on the blade itself, though she can't read it.\n\nAcross the field both Franklin and Carman falter, Franklin backing away and getting his guard up as the dark goddess twists around, hissing angrily at the sword's appearance.\n\nAisha grins a bloody grin as she gets to her feet, holding the shining sword with both hands, \"Alright, magic sword from god knows where with vague and unknown use, now we're talking my language!\" she laughs, taking in a deep breath before charging Carman.\n\nCarman snarls, a feral animal sound as she points at Aisha and shouts a word in Celtic thrice. \"Bas! Bas! BAS!\", a burst of crackling black magic erupting from her finger and flying towards the young woman... only to have it shatter into nothingness as the sword's light touches it. Carmen roars in fury, ignoring Franklin completely as she dives forward, moving faster than any human, or non-human, ever should be able to as she raises her axe, aiming for her throat.\n\nAisha laughs when the magic fades away in the light of her blade. \"You don't scare me now! I don't know what this sword is, who blessed it, or why, but I know it scares a dark, twisted, thing like you, and that's good enough for me!\" she roars in anger at that, putting all her strength behind an attack of her own, blade swinging at the goddess' neck as well, simply hoping her passion and faith were enough to make her blow hit first...\n\nBoth miss, Carmen twisting away at the last moment to avoid the edge of the sword as her own blow goes wild, sinking into the earth for a second before scything back out like a hot knife through butter. She charges again, but the sword seems to have some sentience of it's own, blocking the serrated edge of her axe with enough force to almost send Aisha's arms numb.\n\nThe two trade blows back and forth, steel crashing together, until suddenly Carman's black hole eyes go wide and she lets out a horrible scream, her jaw stretching like a snakes to show row upon row of razor sharp teeth as the tip of the Mundane Blade suddenly bursts out through her stomach.\n\nBehind her, Franklin glares at Aisha. He's bloody and bruised himself, but has the grim determination of someone who's fought things like Carman his whole life. \"What are you waiting for girl?! You have her bane! Put it through her heart!\" he demands. Even with the sword through her the goddess is still powerful enough to resist, twisting and writhing... if she gets free...\n\nAisha doesn't need any more signals from that, enemy or not giving them, as soon as he says that she thrusts her blade forward, aimed right to go through where her heart should be, \"Your age is over, monster!” she roars, a torrent of acidic black blood spurting out where the shining metal sinks into the goddess’s flesh.\n\nCarman howls in pain and rage as the shining weapon joins the shadowy one, plunging through the goddess's chest as the axe tumbles from her grasp. She doesn't even look remotely divine now, her hands like hooked claws, her eyes like black flames, and her face twisted and in human as she struggles to free herself, fiery black blood pouring out of the wound caused by the sword. As he struggles grow weak Franklin kicks his sword free and sneers. \"Do you know what happens when a goddess dies girl?\" he laughs, \"That bitch just solved two of my problems.\" he grins wickedly, then turns and all but sprints back to the pier...\n\nAisha frowns, still holding the sword as she chases after him, \"We're not done here Fullmoon!\" she snarls, adrenaline surging through her to push her to chase the still spry old man back to the waiting boats.\n\nDespite his age Franklin is extremely fast on his feet as he leaps aboard one of the boats, the others already out in the water. \"Go! Go dammit! We might not even have minutes! GO!\" he yells, the boat immediately setting out at top speed from the island...\n\nAs it does Aisha gets a sudden sense of foreboding... what did he want to get away from? She's answered when, behind her, the air begins to crackle again as Carman, the goddess of evil magic, begins to die. All that magic, all that energy, was focused by her... what would happen if it lost it's focus?\n\nThe knight blinks as she sees the crackling, \"Oh shit...\" she whispers. Thankfully Arja, while not knowing for certain what would happen, had a fairly good damn good idea, already gathering Simoni, Sammi, and Trixie and sprinting to the town with them in tow. Aisha shakes her head, ignoring Fullmoon's escape as she runs to join them, whispering a prayer under her breath that Nelen and Drusilla had managed to get a boat.\n\nNelen yells for them as he sees them running towards him, having 'borrowed' a fairly sizable motorboat. \"Get on, quick!\" he calls out, Drusilla already untying from the dock as Dawn lays on one of the seats, the cat having passed out. The minute everyone is on board he pulls on the motor and sets off, pushing it as hard as he can as it cuts through the water.\n\nBack behind them the crackling burst of black flame grows bigger and bigger, as if threatening to engulf the entire mound... the burst of magic growing further, faster, as Simoni tries to summon up as much of a tailwind as she can manage... and then, suddenly... Carman dies.\n\nIt's not a sound, it can't be called sound, it’s too LOUD to be sound... the world turns upside down, the boat is sent flying across the water, all that they can do is hold on and try not to panic... and when they look back...\n\n\"Fucking hell...\" whispers Nelen. Nothing, absolutely nothing. Inishmor is gone. The goddess's death destroyed the entire island, the seawater rushing in to fill where it once was.\n\nAisha groans, thankfully everyone managed to hold on, Arja bracing Simoni to compensate for her wounded arm and Aisha driving her blade into the back of a seat to use as support to keep inside the ship. \"Good\" Arja nods, panting heavily, \"That place is gone... they can't use it to hurt any more creatures...\" she says with a frown as Aisha shakes her head, \"To be honest I'm not that happy... look I know I don't have the... the ‘background’ with these people you do, and I'm not gonna pretend this Franklin guy sounds like a winner, but... from what I've been reading the core philosophy of your clan isn't far from the round table's... we forsake magic too, no knight can learn sorcery or they risk losing their title and honor... I'm not saying imprisoning an entire half of a clan is the way to do it but... well that jail was also holding in something like that Carman thing... places like that DO have a purpose...\" \nArja huffs at that, but nods after a bit, hating to admit that something Franklin supported wasn't inherently bad. \"Still, in his hands it wasn't keeping order, it was oppressing, I'm not gonna shed any tears about what could have been if it means hurting him...\" she finishes.\n\nNelen glances at her, \"Right, whatever...\" he mutters. Really Franklin's philosophy wasn't the clan's at all. Clan Fullmoon was just about protecting people from supernatural threats, Franklin just wanted outright genocide. He pauses though, noticing Aisha's sword. The glow had faded down to about something equal to a candle flame, \"... where did you get that?\" he asks, looking from her to it.\n\nAisha looks at the sword, pulling it out of the seat, \"Kinda crazy, even for that. Some lady just walked up to me and gave it over. She said since I came from a knight of the round table it may work for me... I think she was Indian?\" she shrugs, \"She just kinda... vanished after, I kinda assumed she was someone you knew?\"\n\nNelen shakes his head, \"No... maybe...\" he replies, looking it over as his eyes run over the inscription. \"... you're sure she was Indian?\" he asks, straightening up, \"Because... that sword sure as hell isn't. My Celtic isn't perfect, but unless I'm mistaken you're holding Claiomh Solais, one of the four treasures of the Tuatha De Danann.\" he nods, \"They're the guys who originally defeated Carman.\" he explains as he gets the boat going again, heading towards the mainland. Franklin and his men are still busy counting all their bits to make sure they have them, time to get the hell out of here.\n\nThe sword that Aisha was wielding was one of the weapons used to defeat the evil goddess eons ago in the days before Christianity ever came to Ireland. It’d certainly explain why Carman ignored Franklin the minute she saw it. Such a weapon is not easy to forget.\n\nAisha shakes her head, \"Nope, Indian for sure, woman, kinda young womanish? She seemed pretty casual about being in the middle of a warzone...\"\n\nSimoni blinks, then sits up, \"... wait...\" she mutters, wincing as her arm protests the movement. \"Was she kinda... punkish? Torn up jeans and that sorta thing?\" she asks, leaning on Arja as the boat starts moving again. Aisha nods in reply, \"Yea, I liked the look, kinda cute punk...\"\n\nSimoni blinks, then looks at Arja, \"Hey, that girl from the supernatural world. Y'know, the one that beat up Vritra right infront of us? You don't think maybe...\" she shrugs, gesturing with her uninjured arm as the boat makes landfall and Nelen guides the group back to where they hid the rental truck, getting everyone onboard before they start driving back to the airport.\n\nThankfully they don't encounter any of Clan Fullmoon's men on the way. Perhaps the clan is already in revolt, or perhaps Franklin has unofficially declared time out... or hell maybe he just thinks they didn't make it off the island.\n\nArja frowns, \"Huh...who the hell is she...\" she mutters, crossing her arms as she thinks on who she knows of that would saunter into multiple danger zones casually... honestly it sounds like what SHE'D do, but she wasn't a monkey... \"Hm, I'll ask grandpa about her... speaking of, for gods' sake signal Bethandi, let's make sure all your family got out.\"\n\nSimoni blinks, then nods and reaches behind her ear. \"Ah jeez, right... after all that I'd totally forgotten...\" she blushes in embarassment. She nods, hearing Bethandi's voice echoing in her head, \"Um, okay, yeah looks like everyone is accounted for. Seems like whatever was blocking her from teleporting us didn't affect anyone in the caves...\" she says.\n\n\"It was probably Carman.\" comments Nelen from the driver's seat. \"She wanted to make sure she had an audience before the smiting began, but her powers wouldn't be able to enter that cave, so she could only keep anyone on the surface from getting beamed up.\"\n\nTrixie speaks up at that, kinda unsure how to bring it up after all this chaos... \"Uh Simoni, you should probably have her beam us up... your mom was in that prison...\" she says awkwardly.\n\nSimoni and Nelen both react to this, Simoni letting out a sudden yelp as Nelen almost swerves off the road. They both shout in unison, \"WHAT?!\" before Simoni starts fretting and squirming in her seat, \"Oh jeez oh man oh crap this is gonna be awkward... I mean how the heck do you explain all this to her...\" she stammers as Nelen bangs his fist on the steering wheel, \"Fucking hell I thought she was taking too long to reply to that email! I only sent it a few days ago but I figured it was nothing serious and then godsdammit all straight to hell!\" he snarls, his eyes almost going bloodshot for a moment before he calms back down.\n\nTrixie holds her hands out at that, \"She was ok! A little banged up but she wasn't bad. She was more worried about you than anything. I'm sure seeing you will help her out.\" she replies quickly, trying to calm the two back down… especially Nelen. Road rage takes on a whole new meaning when you’ve got a wrath demon living inside you.\n\nSimoni squirms in her seat, \"Um, yeah... thats what I'm worried about.\" she nods, \"Her seeing 'me'...\" she says as Nelen winces in sympathy, pulling over on the side of the road. He lets out a long sigh and looks back at Simoni, \"Yeah, well, we knew she had to eventually sis...\" he shrugs, \"Wanna have E.T. pulls up up then? I mean, we could probably use some medical attention after that...\" he nods, gesturing to Sammi's steam burns, Simoni's arm, and the fact that Dawn is still unconscious.\n\nArja reaches to take Simoni's hand softly, smiling at her as Aisha nods \"Yea, tell her we have wounded and let's get the hell away from this island... or lack thereof...\" she confirms.\n\nSimoni gives Arja's hand a squeeze, then nods and reaches up, with her uninjured arm, pressing the implant again, \"Bethandi? Um, could you get us up there? We've got a bunch of injured here and... yeah...\" she says as the reply comes... and then there's a flash before an empty pick up truck is sitting on the side of the Irish highway.\n\nUp in the ship Bethandi smiles as the beam brings the group onto a large teleportation pad, nodding approvingly as a small group of similar aliens comes over to scan them for injuries and the like \"And that makes everyone, wonderful.\" she smiles \"Excellent job everyone.\" she nods, the blue-skinned alien walking over to the group.\n\nStephy looks at the crew, then lets out a dramatic sigh as he says, \"Guess I'd better go hold up my end of the bargan.\" before heading off to get in uniform. That was the deal after all, they help out and, in exchange, one of them joins the crew for a few weeks. Mostly though he just wants to get out of the danger zone before it happens.\n\n\"So, you're Bethandi huh?\" asks Nelen, stepping in as the scanners note the injuries that Dawn, Aisha, Simoni, and Sammi have all sustained during the fight. In all honesty they're extremely lucky it wasn't worse... either they've got something watching out for them (which they kinda do apparently), or they're just stupidly lucky. \"Um, where are the others who got beamed up? Simoni and I... kinda need to see one of them...\" he winces, Simoni letting out an awkward whine.\n\nShe nods, motioning for one her assistants and speaking in her strange musical language, the younger looking female bowing her head happily. \"Come this way please…\" she says, Arja looking over at Simoni, \"Want me to come too?\" she asks.\n\nSimoni does, hell she's pratically hiding behind her... except that they don't get more than a few steps when the far door opens and an angry voice echoes through the chamber. \"NELEN BALINT FULLMOON! WHERE! IS! MY! DAUGHTER?!\"\n\nNelen's eyes roll back as he mutters, \"Oh gods kill me now...\" as the disheveled, red haired, red faced, aging woman with 'angry mother' written all over her stomps past the aliens and into the room, glaring daggers at the bearded warlock. \"You rotten little man, you told me she would be safe with you around and you brought her with you to Inishmor?!\" she shouts as Nelen steels himself, then shouts right back, \"Godsdammit woman I couldn't have kept her away if I tried! You think I haven't at least made the attempt to talk them out of stuff like this?!\"\n\n\"DON'T YOU TAKE THAT TONE WITH ME YOUNG MAN! You are her brother! It is your RESPONSABILITY to protect her!\" she snaps right back, waggling a finger in his face as he retorts, \"YOU OLD BAT! I've been doing my damndest to keep her alive! Do you think it's easy with all of Clan Fullmoon up my ass?!\" he snarls, to which she screams, \"OH LIKE YOU CAN'T HANDLE FRANKLIN'S GOON SQUAD! You've survived them this long haven't you? You ought to! Every time I hear rumors from them at Thanksgiving and Christmas about the close calls you've had another five of my hairs go GRAY!\" she shouts, Nelen snarling, \"HEY! Its not like I enjoy dodging death squads every damn day of my life and taking mercenary jobs just so I can buy food!\"\n\nAnd then, quick as a blink, the two hug each other. \"Thank god you're alright son.\" she whispers as Nelen replies, \"You too Mom.\"\n\nArja sighs softly, having to chuckle just a bit at the display \"Fun family\" she says, squeezing Simoni's hand softly before looking to the woman, \"Ma'am, with all due respect, the raid on the prison was mostly my idea, and like he said he really can't stop me, like... I can kick his ass...\" she smiles a bit playfully at Nelen at that \"If it helps any, I was sure Simoni... Stephanie... was safe outside with me.\"\n\nNelen rolls his eyes at her as the woman straightens up, looking her over, \"Oh was she now...\" she frowns. She's a witch, she can use magic, but she -barely- uses it, magically speaking Arja could run rings around her, and yet... she's a mother through and through. Just the tone of her voice makes Arja feel like a toddler who got caught with her hand in the cookies. She looks around at the group, noting all the different creatures in it as Lupe lets out a soft yip and shrinks back behind Natasha, peeking out from behind the vampire's cape with her tail between her legs. Even the impulsive werewolf knows better than to risk upsetting this woman.\nArja meeps softly as she hears that tone, \"Uh... yea…\" she says, smiling a bit nervously, \"Uh this is... the group\" she chuckles awkwardly, motioning to them, \"That's Natasha, she's a vampire, there's Drusilla, she's a Cyclops... you know Dawn I'm sure, Lupe is a werewolf, Sammi's a fae, he and Stephy....\" he eyes go wide, freezing up on how to say 'oh yea and your nephew is a fairy now too'.\n\nShe looks around at them, her vision icy, \"So I see...\" she replies, looking over Arja's shoulder. Simoni is practically hiding behind her now. \"... Young lady, is that my daughter behind you?\" she asks, her tone carrying the same sensation of realizing you'd just stepped on a landmine and that it didn't matter which way you moved, something was going to go boom.\n\nFrom behind Arja comes a very small, timid sound, \"... h-hi mom...\"\n\nArja lets out a little squeak, stepping to the side, \"Yea she's... kinda nervous...\" she says sheepishly, \"She's afraid you'll be upset because, ya know... she's changed a lot... but only on the outside, she's still the same girl she always was...\" she nods as the red haired woman glowers at her.\n\nSimoni is practically trembling as she looks up at the woman, her mother's eyes running over the girl's body. She was a far cry from how she used to be. Pale skin with freckles turned chesnut brown, her frizzy red hair now straight and jet black, her eyes still green however (eyes were -hard-), and wearing a green silk sari (slightly beaten and torn due to the fight). One arm is still showing the burns from where Carman's lightning grazed her, the goddesses's magic charged with enough malice to override her natural immunity to such things.\n\n\"Hm...\" she nods, \"Yep, that's my girl alright.\" she smirks, \"Still shakes like a leaf when she knows she's in trouble.\" she chuckles, then bends down and kisses Simoni's forehead, \"Honey, go have the nice aliens check your arm, I need to have a word with your friend.\" she says, giving the small girl a push before turning and glaring at Arja.\n\nArja meeps once again as the aliens lead Simoni off. \"Hi there,\" she says with a little smile, \"It's an honor to meet you ma'am, really.\" she says, giving the woman a respectful bow. \"I'm Arja Barjar, of the line of Hanuman, born to Rajesh and Iravati Barjar and heir to the temple of monkeys.\" She says rather quickly. Obviously the woman knew who she was, but she was trying to do things properly with her girlfriend's mother!\n\n\"Oh I know who you are, Nelen filled me in on most of what's going on.\" she replies icily. \"Lets see if I remember the details. You kidnapped my daughter, took her away to India by hiding behind Diplomatic Immunity so I couldn't get her back, and made me desperate enough that I risked getting in touch with my lunatic of a father to try to rescue her, which caused him to go full on crazy and declare her excommunicated from the family and make him obsessed with killing her. Did I get it all?\" she asks.\n\nArja blinks at that, laughing nervously, \"That is... not an INACCURATE way to put things no... Some WOULD argue that's how things went yes but... well I mean, in fairness the Franklin affairs seemed like an inevitable aspect of his megalomania regardless, right?\" She offers, going into full diplomat mode... or con artist mode perhaps…\n\nCatherine however cuts straight through it, \"Young lady don't feed me bullshit and call it chocolate.\" she replies, \"I moved to America and raised a family there to get as far away from my father and his madness as I could. I had two kids and did my best to make sure they wouldn't learn magic, fat lot of good THAT did, to try to keep his attention off them. Nelen went and learned his blood magic and had to flee the town because of what he did to those boys, justified or not, and I thought that maybe... just MAYBE I could keep my daughter safe. No magic, no spells, no nothing. She would grow up into a normal woman with nothing supernatural at all... and then some monkey girl from halfway across the planet grabbed her!\" she shouts.\n\nArja winces. The woman wasn't wrong… \"Ma'am, with all due respect, and really I don't mean to hurt you when you've already been through so much but... do you really think she ever wanted to be a 'normal woman with nothing supernatural'? I've seen her fly, ma'am... she's so happy when she does, we had our powers taken for a time and she was a 'normal girl' and... it truly hurt her badly... I understand you just want her safe, but you have to believe me when I say I do to... I... care very much for her...\" she says, trying to be delicate around that last bit, not sure just how much the woman knew.\n\nShe notices Arja's hesitance around the last bit, \"You two are lovers.\" she says bluntly, \"Oh don't act so damn shocked girl. Anyone with half a brain could tell that. Nelen sent me pictures, she's always right next to you in every single one. You kids are so damn bad at hiding it.\" she frowns, \"And yes, I know. You think I never flew when I was her age? I did it to keep her ALIVE. Franklin would come after her in America just as readily as he would anywhere else if word got out she used magic. Hell, when you grabbed her thats what I assumed had happened!\" she frowns, then sighs, \"I wanted just one kid, one of them, to grow up safe and normal...\"\n\nArja sighs softly, looking down, \"I'm sorry I made you think she was in danger, at the time I had no idea about that stuff... Still though, I want to keep her alive too, we're not in opposition there but... in my culture, the belief is the best way to stay alive when a man like Franklin wants you dead is to kill Franklin... I think that's something we both share. I want her to have a safe, happy, life, I want ALL the women in the clan to and... I have the advantage of not being her mother... I don't have the fear that you do, and that fear is very good for a mother to have, it shows you love her, and care for her... but I love her in a different way...I want to stand beside her, in a world where she's safe and protected from men like him, because she can fight for herself not because I'm there to block everything that comes. We want the same for her, we just have different views.\"\n\nShe raises her eyebrow at her, then looks around at the rest of the group. Nelen nods firmly at her, Lupe giving a bark as well, and then she turns back to Arja. \"Yes, you will. You are going to stand by her and you are going to keep my daughter safe and alive because, if anything happens to her, then if Franklin doesn't run you through I'll come after you, and either of my kids can tell you that's a far worse fate than anything he could do.\" she replies, folding her arms across her chest. \"Though I will say this...\" she leans in and stares Arja right in the eye, \"If I don't see my daughter for Christmas next year then I don't care which king you're descended from, I'll pull you over my knee and give you one hell of a belting.\" she smirks, crackling her knuckles.\n\nArja chuckles, nodding, \"If anything ever happens to her I'm afraid you won't get your chance to get revenge, because I’ll already be dead.\" she smiles, nodding \"Or you could come to India for the next Holi festival,\" she smiles again, \"But yes, I promise you, by next Christmas this will be settled, and you will be able to see your daughter like any other year.\"\n\nShe nods firmly, \"Good. You! Alien!\" she snaps at Bethandi, \"Take me to my daughter!\" she says in a tone that, even across species, say that the person will do it or they WILL go to bed without supper. When she's gone Nelen leans against the wall and pulls his hat down low, \"Freaking hell that woman...\" he mutters.\n\nBethandi blinks, but nods at the command, \"Of course, she should be fixed up by now…\" she says, leading the woman along as Arja lets out a relieved breath. \"So...you wanna tell her the best place for them right now is probably India where Franklin doesn't have the balls to try to attack again or...\"\n\nNelen shakes his head, \"Nah, she knows that. You notice she didn't demand that Simoni go back to America with her right?\" he asks as he straightens up, \"Hell after that he may not have the manpower either. I'm sure the witches will find some way to let their husbands and brothers know that they escaped Inishmor before it got destroyed, but still... Franklin is gonna have his hands full already.\"\n\nAs he says this Lupe pipes up, \"What about cave?\" she asks. Nelen blinks, then looks at her, \"What -about- it? It got blown to bits with the island. Anything in there we didn't get out either got killed in the explosion or drowned.\" he replies. Lupe rrfs and tilts her head, \"But... cave for big bad things, stuff hunters can't kill... would boom and water kill?\" she asks.\n\nNelen blinks slowly, \"... yeah... I'm sure that nothing could've made it out alive... though... Carman's explosion might not have actually reached the cave itself because of the anti-magic field and if anything inside could swim or something...\" he hesitates, \"... ah fuck.\"\n\nArja blinks, \"What... on a scale of mild annoyance to Cthulhu what are we looking at here?\" she asks.\n\nNelen sighs, \"Not a godsdamned clue.\" he replies, leaning back, taking off his glasses, and rubbing at his eyes. \"But that prison has been there since, well, forever... so who knows what could've been locked away?\" he grumbles.\n\nArja sighs, \"Well that'll be fun, we'll deal with that later, hopefully being trapped underwater at least slows them down... So, you think a lot of his guys will defect when they can fly out to be with their wives and daughters? Could wind up starting our own lil’ community near the temple, raven refugees?\" she winks, \"Lakshmi would like that...\"\n\nNelen nods, \"Yeah, she would... but, what about your relatives?\" he asks, glancing at Arja. There was that altercation right before they left for Europe. \"I mean... I do get where they're coming from, hell I'd be uncomfortable around half of them...\" he nods. As he does however a door to the right opens and an elderly woman walks in between two younger girls. The woman looks to be at least in her late seventies, perhaps older, though her attendants are about twenty at most. \"That willnae be necessary.\" she says.\n\nArja shrugs, \"Grandpa is fine with it, and those who aren't can learn to li-\" when the old woman comes up and speaks she raises a brow at that, \"Come again, ma'am?\"\n\nThe woman looks at Arja, squinting her eyes behind a pair of very thick lenses, \"Aye, you're th' one alright. Me mam told me about ye.\" she nods, \"I am Jeanne Fullmoon, an' until me brother's coup I was ta succeed me mam as Matriarch. As of now, Ah'm takin' charge o' our refugees.\" she nods, \"Ye have me thanks fer gettin' us outta that hellhole lass, but we have places yet that Franklin dunnae know of. Yer blue friends can drop us off at one o' those when they're done treatin' me gels and we'll let the boys know we got out alright.\"\n\nArja blinks a bit, bowing when the woman introduces herself before straightening back up to speak, \"With due respect ma'am I really do think the temple is the safest place for you and your clan. Franklin may know of it but we repelled a full on invasion from him before, any attack he launches now will be crippled before he even steps foot on the temple grounds. He knows it's a suicide run, especially when your sons and husbands start leaving him to be with you. Besides, I legitimately think there is some ancient bond between our families, or at least yours and the garuda, if you come with us not only can we keep you safe but who knows how many of your daughters could further awaken like Simo-...Stephane did.\"\n\nShe lets out a wheezing laugh, \"Oh just call 'er Simoni, she's taken quite well to th' life from what we've seen.\" she smirks, \"Hm... well, ah dunnae see the harm in at least lookin' ah suppose, but like 'e said...\" she gestures to Nelen, \"... yer people may not be too keen on us bein' neighbors.\" she nods gravely. \"My fool of ah brother has sinned greatly against ye, ah cannae blame them fer wantin' us ta leave them be.\"\n\nArja nods, \"I won't pretend my people don't have valid anger, but let me at least talk to them, if they don't want you then I'll happily help you find another safe place. I suppose I see you all as my family as well thanks to my relationship with Simoni.\" she smiles faintly, \"I want to at least try to bring all my family together.\"\n\nShe chuckles, \"Gel, you may not realize exactly how right you are about that statement yet...\" she smirks, then blinks as she looks over at Aisha, recognizing the sword at her hip, \"Hm?” she blinks, then hobbles over to Aisha, looking closely at her weapon, “That sword… where’d ye get it?” she asks.\n\nAisha chuckles softly, \"Good question, we have no idea but someone who's apparently helped these girls before just popped over to give it to me and then vanished.\"\n\nShe looks at her curiously, then gets the details about the strange woman's fight with Vritia in the supernatural realm, listening carefully to what she's told, \"Hm... I see... Things are really getting interesting then if the Lady is making an appearance.\" she muses. Nelen blinks, looking up as he leans against the wall, \"Wait... what?\" he asks, sounding confused as Jeanne rolls her eyes at him, \"Oh come now boy, yer supposed ta be the wizard 'ere! Ye know that sword canna be gifted to a mortal by just anyone!\" she snaps, Nelen wincing as he says, \"Well, yeah, but the woman was Hindi...\" to which she replies, \"Aye, well, she would look it wouldn't she? Espionage an' disguise are part o' war now, which means they're part o' her.\" she smirks, Nelen shrugging a bit and looking away, \"Yeah, well I suppose...\" he mutters.\n\nArja blinks in confusion, \"Hellooo, still Hindu, no clue who this Lady is... That's it, when we get to the Temple I'm gonna start talking to my family about all the avatars of our gods and see how you guys like it…\" she pouts teasingly as Aisha raises her brow, looking the sword over, \"I think she's talking about the maven of war...\"\n\nJeanne smirks, \"Aye, this one's got a good 'ead on her shoulders.\" she nods to Aisha, \"That woman who handed ye the sword was almost certainly Clan Fullmoon's own patron, Lady Morigann of War. Th' gods cannae come ta our world without ah great source ah magic though... perhaps it was fortunate ye accidentally released Carman after all...\"\n\nAisha blinks a bit in shock before holding the sword out to the woman, \"You should have it then, my lady, this belongs in your clan, she obviously just meant for me to hold it to defeat Carman before restoring its rightful owner.\"\n\nThe woman looks at her, then pushes it back to her and frowns, \"Dammit gel ah just called ye smart!\" she snaps, \"Ye think that Clan Fullmoon is right ta hold th' Sword o' Light when it's patriarch wields the Mundane Blade like 'e does, causin’ all sorts ah chaos?\" she retorts, \"Lady Morigann gave that sword ta ye, ye gotta hold it until she takes it back herself! Ah daresay ye'll find ah good use fer it soon enough.\" she nods.\n\nAisha blinks again, but nods, clearly still surprised though, \"It's an honor ma'am, I'll treasure it, and if I get the chance to I'll drive it into Franklin's chest myself.\" she says before going down to her knee, “If you'll have me, I will pledge myself to Clan Fullmoon, the true Fullmoon and its true matriarch.\"\n\nThe woman looks at Aisha, tilts her head, and then smirks, \"Aye aye, whatever, why not? Get off yer knees afore ya get yer pants all dusty gel.\" she replies, \"Let th' boys have their knightings and stuff, just sayin' 'point me at someone ye dunnae like an' I'll gut 'em' is good enough fer us.\" she chuckles.\n\nAisha smirks a bit, \"Alright, then point me at someone you don't like and I'll gut em\" she says with a little chuckle as Arja nods happily. \"Lucky for you all it's a lovely sunny day back home, I'm sure with your magics you're eager for a nice day.\"\n\nAs she does the door to the medbay opens and Simoni walks out, her arm already starting to heal as she quickly slips over next to Arja. Catherine follows her out and looks around, \"Right, all settled then Aunt Jeanne?\" she asks, to which the Matriarch replies, \"Aye, looks like we'll be stayin' in India fer a while.\" she nods. \"Ah, good, ah could use some warmer weather after that damn cave.\" she nods back.\n\nThe matriarch looks at Arja and grins, \"Well gel, guess we'll be heading off with ye then. Franklin kept us locked away fer a long time, an' if there's one thing we know how ta do, its hold a grudge...\" she smirks, her eyes glinting like knives, \"When we want ta be, we can be very wicked witches indeed. Lets show my idiot brother ah thing or two...\"","writing_bbcode_parsed":"<span style='word-wrap: break-word;'>Inishmor isn&#039;t a very big island, nor is there an Airport there, the plane having to touch down on the mainland and the group having to get a ferry over to the island itself. Nelen is noticeably tense, but then he has good reason to be. Ireland is very much Clan Fullmoon&#039;s turf and, after this, Franklin will know for certain that they are, infact, there. If he gets word the whole of Clan Fullmoon will be on them like Lupe on leftover steak. They need to get in, get them out, and run for the hills as quick as they can. Hell even getting back out of the country is going to be a trick, Franklin may well decide to head for the airport and try to trap them in Ireland.<br /><br />&quot;Well, here it is...&quot; he mutters, looking across the way at the island. It looks like any other island, there&#039;s no building that screams &#039;prison&#039; or anything like that, &quot;You guys get what you need from Bethandi?&quot; he asks, turning to Drusilla, Aisha, and Trixie.<br /><br />Their plan was simple enough. Stephy had gone onto Bethandi&rsquo;s spaceship to negotiate the alien&rsquo;s help in rescuing the captive witches of Clan Fullmoon. In exchange for him staying aboard the ship for a few earth weeks to help the crew (and to examine the boy who had been human but was no longer) she would supply them with both weaponry and the means to rescue Franklin&rsquo;s captives. A series of teleportation tags, small beacons like the kind you might microchip a pet with (only bigger) would be given to the witches during an assault on the prison. At the appropriate signal, Bethandi would transport everyone who was given a tag all at once to the spaceship, pulling them all out of Franklin&rsquo;s clutches in one fell swoop.<br /><br />Aisha nods, she had refused any weapons from Bethandi&#039;s ship, but under her street clothes she wore what looked like a tight white set of under armor, able to provide protection better than the typical knightly plate mail without making her look like she just stumbled out of a Ren Faire. Drusilla didn&#039;t need anything from the aliens, the Cyclops girl in charge of holding onto the teleport beacons that&#039;d be used to free the women and girls. Trixie, though, was grinning wide, under her coat on her right hip was a small shiny metal gun shaped object, though it didn&#039;t have any slots for ammo or the like. It was a potent laser weapon, she knew it wouldn&#039;t demolish the Fullmoon toughness, but it&#039;d hurt way worse than bullets, and thanks to the energy cells it had much more shots. In the back of her pants, just in case, was her revolver, all six shots loaded with explosive rounds to serve as her version of a hold-out for this kind of job.<br /><br />The three girls were the only ones who would be able to do this job. According to the information they received from Merlin in the Nightside, the prison acted as a sort of anti-magic zone. No magic would work inside of it. It would explain how Franklin was able to use it to contain his captives. Members of their group like Simoni and Arja would be left as powerless human girls (an experience neither one of them wanted to repeat), while it could outright kill Nelen or Dawn. Nelen because of the demonic entity known as Merihim that he had in place of blood, and Dawn because she was a creature of almost pure magic.<br /><br />&quot;Good as we&#039;re gonna get.&quot; Aisha grinned, flexing her hands, &quot;Need to get my hands on one of their weapons when we get in, any chance you know the layout, where an armory or something would be? No offense to your alien friend but I was kinda raised with a narrow list of &#039;honorable weapons&#039; and all, and at least one good thing about this, I know these guys all should have plenty of &#039;honorable&#039; blades.&rdquo;<br /><br />Nelen shakes his head, &quot;I didn&#039;t even know this place was more than a rumor until Simoni and Arja brought it up. It&#039;s one of Clan Fullmoon&#039;s biggest secrets after all, this is where they send everything they can&#039;t kill so they can forget about it.&quot; he sighs, &quot;Still, remember the plan. Get in, get those beacons to as many of the girls as you can, and then haul ass before the cavalry shows up. Magic might not work, but I&rsquo;m pretty sure telephones do. Its a safe bet Franklin will know we&#039;re here within minutes of you guys getting in.&quot; he glances to the north, &quot;If nothing else we&#039;re at least a good drive from Castle Fullmoon so it will take time for them to arrive, but still, we need to hurry this one up.&quot;<br /><br />Dawn, wearing her usual human disguise, walks up behind Nelen and smacks him on the back, &quot;Oh calm the hell down or your beard&#039;ll start falling out!&quot; she grins, &quot;We&#039;ve been running away from these meatheads for years now, we can handle this.&quot; she laughs. Nelen rolls his eyes at her, &quot;I hope you&#039;re right...&quot;<br /><br />Aisha nods, looking at the island, as Arja pipes up, &quot;Trust me I&#039;m not wanting to hang around.&quot; she comments, &quot;Simoni and Lupe will be able to scout, me and Nelen and Nat can take out any guards that come, and if things get really bad the fae boys have a back door out they can use to get help. We should be able to give you a decent bit of time, but it won&#039;t be forever, we&#039;re on their turf this time and as fun as it is to roast them, I imagine this is where their big hitters are, we just probably won&#039;t be able to hold them off as long as we could take care of the assassins and all.&quot;<br /><br />Nelen gives a grim nod as the dock comes into view, about twenty minutes later the group disembarks in a town so rural that it&#039;s practically not there at all. There&#039;s a few small houses and shops, but otherwise nothing but empty farmland and swamps. The group heads inland, Nelen trying to follow the directions he&#039;d managed to puzzle out thanks to Merlin&#039;s hint and Google Maps, until he motioned for the group to stop.<br /><br />Hidden by the tall grass they could see a cave ahead of them, a large hole in the side of a mound of dirt leading sharply downwards... and standing outside it were two men with red hair. One wore a green teeshirt with the name of an Irish football team on it and a pair of beat up jeans, the other was in a red flannel shirt and jeans as well. It wouldn&#039;t stand out in Ireland, except that these men were almost seven feet tall and had the kind of muscle that Chuck Norris memes are made from. &quot;This must be the place...&quot; he whispers.<br /><br />Aisha nods, &quot;How are we doing this? Think we can take them out fast?&quot; she asks as Trixie reaches to the weapon on her hip, waiting for a signal while Dru grins wickedly, knuckles popping, she&#039;s been eager for this since she found out Fullmoon&#039;s nullification doesn&#039;t work on natural strength.<br /><br />One small ace in the hole they have on their team is Drusilla. The cyclops is strong, but it&rsquo;s not magic that makes her strong. Her people are just born that way. It&rsquo;s the same principle that lets Franklin Fullmoon, a man in his eighties remember, wield a huge sword like the Mundane Blade without getting his arms ripped off by the sheer weight of it. The mundane blade can cancel out and devour magicks such as shapeshifting and spellcasting, but an inborn trait like superhuman strength didn&rsquo;t count as far as it was concerned.<br /><br />Nelen looks around, then holds out two fingers and tries to aim them at the men... he flexes and a spurt of blood shoots out from his bandaged fingertips with the force of a small bullet, each one finding it&#039;s mark on the guards. They look down in surprise, then up at where the group is hiding... and then their eyes roll back in their heads as they fall over. &quot;At least we know our magic still works outside.&quot; he nods, &quot;They&#039;ll be out for about a week, get going.&quot; he says to the trio as Simoni changes forms, already shooting up into the air with Arja on her back.<br /><br />Aisha nods &quot;Come on.&quot; she says as she moves to the cave, Trixie and Drusilla right behind as she slowly looks around, careful to avoid any alarms or traps in the entrance meant to stop anyone who got around the guard. &quot;Alright Trixie, go up ahead and see if you see anything.&quot; she instructs, the young girl nodding as she crouches down. She had been hunting more than a few times, she knew her way around tracking and sneaking, and considering Drusilla was as subtle as a truck and Aisha wasn&#039;t trained in scouting, she was all the group had for recon.<br /><br />She&#039;s able to make her way down the tunnel without much difficulty... and then about fifty yards or so in she feels a sudden chill through her body, like being doused in icewater, and she knows... flat out &ndash;knows- what it meant. Her magic is gone. Its not as harsh as the Mundane Blade, but the message is still clear. She&#039;s found the entrance to the dead zone... and to Clan Fullmoon&#039;s prison. The inside of the cave is enormous, so deep that it&#039;s hard to see the bottom, and all through it are Fullmoon warriors in full armor. Not just the usual easily hidden and disguised chainmail shirts that they wear under their clothes when they come after them out in the open, but full plate mail that looks as shiny, fresh, and -strong- as it did the day it was forged.<br /><br />The prison is built up of rings, each one leading downwards in a spiral, and along the rings are cells built right into the rock walls of the cave. She can just make out movement inside them as well... it looks like they&#039;ve found their target.<br /><br />Trixie lets out a soft breath, yep, this was exactly what the ultimate prison of this clan would be...She looks around from her position, trying to get a rough count for how many soldiers there are before creeping back to the group. &quot;Yea, the magic nullification kicks in about there&hellip;&quot; she points, though neither of her companions used magic, &ldquo;Lotta guys, all in armor, hope that space armor can hold up compared because that&#039;s some tough lookin plate they have&hellip;&quot; she says as she grabs her blaster, Dru and Aisha both nodding. &quot;I&#039;ll get in front.&quot; Drusilla replies, scooting over to take point, &quot;I hate to say it but let&#039;s try to avoid a fight as long as possible, if it looks like a bunch of rings that means as soon as we start brawling everyone hears. That&#039;s how cyclopian jails are too, just a big pit so we can always hear what&#039;s going on.&rdquo; she nods grimly.<br /><br />It seems that the guards move in pairs, their armor clattering with each step, and while the people in the cells don&#039;t appear hurt or anything there is a sort of resigned feel about them. This place wasn&#039;t a prison, it was an oubliette. A place where you lock someone away and just forget about them. The Clan had used it to house all sorts of magical heavy hitters since they first began after all, the ones that they couldn&#039;t just kill outright for whatever reason. As they creep inside a voice comes from one of the cells. &quot;Hsst... oi lasses. Who the ruddy &#039;ell are ye?&quot; it says, sounding like a very old woman.<br /><br />Aisha jumps as she hears the voice before realizing it&#039;s a woman&#039;s voice, the group turning around to look into the cell. &quot;Kinda a long story&hellip;&quot; Trixie whispers, &quot;We&#039;re here to help you women get out though, we&#039;re against Franklin&#039;s...&quot; she frowns, trying to remember the wording Arja used before Aisha leans in and interjects, &quot;&hellip; usurpation of power from the matron.&quot;<br /><br />The woman shuffles forward, a hunched and bent old crone with long stringy white hair and a face full of wrinkles. &quot;Oh ye are are ye?&quot; she cackles. &quot;And just how are ye gonna do that lass?&quot; she asks, sounding amused and... a bit off kilter honestly. She seems somewhat crazy, and its quite possible she&#039;s been down here a very long time. &quot;Yer magickal tricks willnae work down &#039;ere ye know...&quot; she grins toothily, then looks over the groups shoulder&#039;s, &quot;Whoopsie, ye got company gels.&quot; she smirks as a loud yell comes from behind them, the sound of heavy footfalls and metal coming up fast!<br /><br />Trixie frowns a bit as the trio spins around to meet the footfalls, &quot;I&#039;m gonna enjoy freaking you out with this&hellip;&quot; she grins, reaching into Drusilla&rsquo;s pouch and tossing a teleport beacon to the woman &quot;Hold this, you let it go you don&#039;t get out of here.&quot; she nods before pulling her phaser out and aiming it at the incoming guards.<br /><br />The laser gun is powerful and lets out a stream of focused energy... which arcs at a ninety degree angle and smashes harmlessly into a wall when it hit&#039;s the warrior&#039;s -polished- armor. It seems Bethandi and her extraterrestrial kin never considered refraction of light when they made these things, or maybe plate mail just isn&#039;t a thing they encounter.<br /><br />The woman looks at the beacon, and the advanced weaponry, and sighs, &quot;Oi, one eye, &#039;ere.&quot; she nods, shoving a wrapped package out from under the bed in her room. &quot;That belonged ta me son before these arseholes draged me in &#039;ere. Ah managed ta smuggle it in with me.&quot; she nods. Inside it is a rather vicious looking battle axe with a serrated edge. The guards stopping dead and hesitating when they see it.<br /><br />Dru grins as she sees the axe, &quot;Aisha, axes are honorable right?&quot; The woman nods &quot;Yep, lots of great knights used axes&quot; she says as she leans down to pick it up, Dru grinning wider &quot;Good, I didn&#039;t wanna be rude to an old lady but I was looking forward to punching a hole in some armor&quot; she says as Trixie curses &quot;How the fuck does metal reflect lasers, fuckin movies lied to me&quot; she grumbles as she looks for any bit of exposed body to take aim on as Aisha and Dru charge the guards, each of them taking one.<br /><br />The woman cackles from behind them as the axe tears through the plate mail like tinfoil, as well as the guard under it. He falls screaming to the ground as blood gushes out from where it ripped into him, trying frantically to cover the hole up. There doesn&#039;t seem to be much honorable about this, but at the moment beggars can&#039;t be choosers unless they want to be corpses, especially as his screams echo through the prison. Inside the cell the woman waves Trixie over, &quot;Take yer trinket back and use yer fancy pistol on the lock would ye? Ah dunna wanna miss this.&quot; she smirks, her old eyes sparkling dangerously, &quot;Ah wanna see this lot get whats comin&#039; to &#039;em.&quot;<br /><br />Aisha blinks at the vicious axe, &quot;Well, not keeping this... but hey, not like I have something better to pick&hellip;&quot; she mutters as Drusilla slams her fist as hard as she can into her guard&#039;s chest, trying to, as said, punch a hole in the armor and him. Trixie shrugs at the request, aiming the gun at the lock and firing, &quot;Try not to get in the way though, I&#039;m gonna catch hell if I let some crazy ol&rsquo; lady die on this run.&quot;<br /><br />The woman grins, &quot;Oh you dunna worry about me lass. Ah&#039;m a tough old biddy.&quot; she cackles, hobbling along behind the group as they fight their way through the onrushing guards. The axe takes them down quickly, even quicker than Drusilla&#039;s monstrous strength, as the group moves along and slips the tags to the women in the cells, explaining what they are and how they&#039;ll get them out as quick as they can.<br /><br />However, the guards seem to run out surprisingly fast. Either they&#039;re holding back near the lower cells or there never were that many. After all, few people even know this place exists and magic doesn&#039;t work in it. Manpower might not be a major concern. That or, perhaps, the axe that Aisha is wielding really is causing that much damage, it&#039;d explain the trail of bodies behind them.<br /><br />Aisha takes in a few breaths, looking around for any dropped swords from the mess of bodies around her, &quot;No offence Dru, but as much fun as you&#039;re having tearing armor up I think this axe is more fitting for you. Very hard to focus on chivalry and honorable combat when you&#039;re tearing guys up like tissue&hellip;&quot; she says as Trixie goes to scout ahead, looking for any signs of an ambush or trick up ahead, &quot;This is getting too easy, this is where their magic VIPs were and they&#039;re already out of meat walls?&quot;<br /><br />The woman smirks, &quot;Aye, well, they dinnae expect anyone ta ever come &#039;ere. After all, magic dunnae work in the crater. Asides, ah&#039;ve been hearin&#039; from th&#039; guards that they be havin&#039; manpower issues on account o&#039; some crusade th&#039; family &#039;ead is doin&#039;.&quot; she explains, hobbling over to one of the fallen guards, pulling off his helmet, and giving him a few good kicks. Still, its quite possible that they&#039;ve already signaled for reinforcements by now. Its probably time to get the hell out of here.<br /><br />Aisha nods, &quot;Let&#039;s motor then, don&#039;t wanna give them time to regroup...&quot; she says as she and Drusilla start moving further down, Drusilla and Trixie splitting the beacons up, throwing them into the cells and explaining quickly to hold on to them, it didn&#039;t take a lot of convincing at this point that the woman and girls carving through Fullmoon brutes were PROBABLY on the side of the women who were imprisoned for no reason.<br /><br />The women&#039;s reactions range from confused, grateful, anxious, and so on, until they get to one and the woman grabs Trixie&#039;s arm before she leaves. &quot;Wait!&quot; she calls out, &quot;You... I know you!&quot; she says, her voice sounding very... American. Inside the cell is a plump redhaired woman who looks to be in her fifties, her hair just starting to go gray. She seems disheveled and for a moment Trixie thinks she looks familiar. Then it hits her... she saw her before any of this started back at school, with Simoni... or rather with Stephanie!<br /><br />Its a good thing they came when they did. The occupant of the cell is Catherine Fullmoon, Simoni&#039;s biological mother. &quot;What are you doing here!?&quot; she demands, &quot;Is my daughter with you? Is Stephanie here?!&quot; she yells, sounding panicked. Nelen had told them that his parents had gone into hiding shortly after he&rsquo;d informed them that he&rsquo;d met up with &lsquo;Stephanie&rsquo; to keep her safe... but apparently they&rsquo;d been found out.<br /><br />Trixie blinks, taking a moment to recognize the woman, she&#039;s known Stephanie as &#039;Simoni&#039; so long it honestly took a second to remember she used to be a little Irish girl. &quot;Oh shit!&quot; she yelps when she recognizes the woman finally, &quot;She&#039;s out front keeping watch, we&#039;re here to help you. Look I want to catch up and all but we&#039;re pressed for time here.&quot; she explains before resting her hand gently on the woman&#039;s, &quot;She&#039;s ok though, ok? Everything&#039;s fine, we&#039;re all here, Nelen, Steph&hellip; er, Stephen...too, you&#039;re all gonna be ok, you just need to hold onto that thing and we&#039;re gonna get you all out in one go.&quot;<br /><br />The woman doesn&#039;t look convinced, but gulps and nods, clinging to the tag with both hands. &quot;You have to go, now! I heard the guards, Franklin and the rest of the clan are already on their way here... He&#039;s out of his mind, he&#039;s going to kill everyone with that awful sword of his...&quot; she shudders, the woman a total mess. She must&#039;ve gotten captured only recently, but it&#039;s clear that the boys were not kind to her...<br /><br />Aisha blinks, &quot;Fuck, ok, Trixie, Dru, finish up in here, activate the beacons as soon as you give the last one, I&#039;m gonna go warn the others.&quot; She says, the girls nodding, Trixie giving one last squeeze to the woman&#039;s hand before they run off to finish delivering the beacons, Aisha sprinting to the entrance of the cave, axe in hand, whispering a soft prayer to keep herself focused.<br /><br />As Aisha emerges from the cave Nelen is already staring at the coastline, Lupe thrashing her tail and growling. Simoni swoops down low, Arja on her back, as she calls out, &quot;Guys, lots of boats headed this way... and Franklin is with them!&quot; she says to the group. She looks a bit panicked at the last bit, she can feel his sword even from here. Like the Crocodile and Captain Hook, the sword had a taste of her and it wants more...<br /><br />Aisha nods, joining the group, &quot;The munchkins are giving the last of the teleports out, the guards are cleared but they still have a couple rings to do, when they finish they&#039;re gonna activate the beacons and we&#039;re out of here.&quot; She grips her axe tighter, glaring at the ships, &quot;Until then we hold the line.&quot;<br /><br />Nelen nods as the first of the boats makes landfall and a good dozen Fullmoon warriors in full armor jump off, charging down the group with a roar like a whole gang of bears, bearing down on them until Nelen drops three of them with his magic, Lupe snarling and diving atop one&#039;s face, clawing frantically at him as he yells out and falls over. The others ignore their fallen though, they know what&#039;s going on. Their goal isn&#039;t to kill everyone, just get inside and stop the escape!<br /><br />Up above Simoni summons up as much wind as she can, turning the waters around the island choppy and chaotic to slow the reinforcements. The harder it is to get close, then longer it&#039;ll take them. Still, this gives a new problem... how the hell are they getting out of here?!<br /><br />Aisha growls faintly as she brings her axe across a warrior&#039;s head, pausing every once in a while to mumble a prayer. Oddly, probably, her prayer was in Arabaic, the assertion of Allah and Muhammad&#039;s divinity that every Muslim considers core to the faith. It did make sense, there was a debate in the few scholars who really studied the knightly mythos in this detail if Arthur&#039;s Moorish knight was a &#039;proper&#039; Christian or a more liberal Muslim. The prayer seems to calm Aisha, keeping her from getting too lost in her anger as the axe makes carving through warriors easy. &quot;Think Bethandi is smart enough to figure out we&#039;re in a pinch and beam us up too when she makes the grab?&quot; Arja asks as she sends a torrent of flame at a charging warrior.<br /><br />Simoni pauses in her whistling, &quot;Maybe... I hope so anyways.&quot; she replies as another boat makes landfall. As it does however Drusilla, Trixie, and the old woman emerge from the caves, having finished giving out the tags to the witches inside. &quot;Finally, Drus are we set?&quot; calls Nelen, launching another several blasts at the onrushing knights. He&#039;s starting to look rather pale. As he does Lupe pounces another as two of the warriors stumble to a halt, look around in a dazed sort of way, then begin to panic and attack their allies, Dawn appearing crouched next to Nelen with a devious grin.<br /><br />Aisha smirks a bit at the chaos as the cyclops nods, &quot;Yea, come on everyone bunch up, if we&#039;re a big group surrounded by these idiots it&#039;ll be easy for Bethandi to grab us&quot; she says as holds up the signaler, pressing the button to broadcast at Bethandi&#039;s nearby ship, floating in low orbit over their location, that they were ready for pickup, every beacon lighting up with blinking red lights as she does.<br /><br />There&#039;s a sudden sound like thousands of little thunderclaps as all the prisoners they&#039;d given the tags to vanish... however...<br /><br />Nelen looks around, blinking in confusion, &quot;Uh, guys? Why are we still here?&quot; he asks as Simoni lands, changes forms, and presses her finger to the comm implant behind her ear. A moment later she says, &quot;Bethandi says there&#039;s something interfering with the teleport. She was able to get the witches out, but she can&#039;t pull us up!&quot; she eeps.<br /><br />Aisha sighs, &quot;Great, she got the prisoners out at least?&quot; she asks, Simoni nodding in reply as Drusilla growls, &quot;Gonna have to make our own way out then, nothing new there...&quot; Trixie nods at that, grabbing her cards from her pocket now that her magic was back, &quot;Everyone stay close, no stragglers.&quot;<br /><br />As they do Simoni suddenly yelps and stumbles backwards. They feel it, they all feel it. Striding towards them across the field is Franklin Fullmoon, sword unsheathed and a murderous look on his face. &quot;You... I should have known straight away you were behind this.&quot; he growls, &quot;This time you&#039;re not getting awa- WHAT IN ALL THE HELLS IS SHE DOING OUT?!&quot; he yells, pointing a finger at the old crone standing next to Aisha.<br /><br />This is different however. He doesn&#039;t sound angry, if anything... he sounds afraid.<br /><br />Aisha frowns, but when Franklin reacts she looks over to the old woman curiously, &quot;Yea she&#039;s out, they&#039;re all out, someplace even you can never get to them... that scares you doesn&#039;t it?&quot; she grins a bit at that, looking between the elderly woman and the armor clad man, &quot;Who are you anyway?&quot; she asks the hunched old woman.<br /><br />Yeah, it scares him... but there&#039;s something else... Nelen, Simoni, and Stephy are backing away too. &quot;Oh fuck fuck fuck... son of a bitch that story was real?&quot; stammers Nelen. As he does the woman&#039;s arm lashes out and snatches the axe away from Aisha with surprising strength as the warriors begin to fall back, muttering amongst themselves.<br /><br />&quot;Many thanks m&#039;dear, for givin&#039; me this fine sacrifice...&quot; she cackles, a long tongue snaking out and licking the blood off the axe. &quot;I told ye it belong ta me son, Dian... Him an&#039; his two brothers, Dub and Dother, used ta help me cause all sorts of mischief... oh about four thousand years ago.&quot; she grins, her teeth suddenly shiny, and sharp, as the shadows around her seem to darken.<br /><br />Aisha blinks, taking a step back as well, &quot;Well now I&#039;m nervous...&quot; she mutters as Arja just furrows her brow in confusion, &quot;Ok, who wants to fill in the Hindu, who the heck is she and is she on our side?&quot;<br /><br />Franklin glares at her, starting to move forward, but as he does the ground under his feet turns to mud and he finds he can&#039;t get purchase on anything. &quot;Her, all the damn things we locked away down there and you released her!&quot; he snarls.<br /><br />The shadows warp around the woman, twisting and covering her body as she seems to swell under them, her wrinkles vanishing. &quot;Son of a bitch... She&#039;s a goddess, a very old and very evil goddess.&quot; gulps Nelen, &quot;She almost destroyed the whole country last time she was here, but she&#039;s supposed to have been killed by Tuatha De Danann...&quot; he steps back further as the clouds begin to swirl above them, a harsh laugh filling the air as the shadows take shape, forming into an impossibly tall woman with night-black hair, pure white skin, and eyes like two black holes on her face. Her nails are long and sharp, and her lips are painted with what looks like blood. She&#039;s wearing what appears to be a toga, like something that would have been worn in Athens in it&#039;s heyday.<br /><br />&quot;Finally...&quot; she grins, her teeth shining like a shark&#039;s fangs, &quot;I am FREE!&quot; she raises her hands to the sky as lightning strikes all around the group, slamming into the ground and turning the world to nothing but light and noise. Somewhere in the flashes Simoni lets out a frightened scream and the sound of Lupe&#039;s claws scrabbling can be heard, then the world inverts as Dawn manages to grab everyone she can reach and pull them across the island, as far away from the chaos as she can. The group lands with a loud crash about a half mile from the mound, Dawn falling to her knees and clutching at her head as blood drips out of one of her nostrils. &quot;... ow...&quot; she winces. Teleporting that many people, out of that kind of a magical event, had taken everything she had.<br /><br />As the group collects themselves a wave of fear washes over them. The prison wasn&rsquo;t just built to hold Franklin&rsquo;s political prisoners&hellip; it was an old old building, as old as the mundane blades themselves, and was meant to contain everything that the clan couldn&rsquo;t kill outright&hellip; and from the look of things they just released a bad one.<br /><br />Aisha groans, rubbing her head as she recovers, Trixie just looking shocked as she lays on the ground, &quot;...I thought she was one of the ones we went to rescue...&quot; she mumbles, staring up at the sky as Arja looks around, &quot;Simoni?&quot;<br /><br />Nelen gets to his feet and picks up Dawn, holding the cat next to him as he looks back at the storm, the clouds swirling and black like a fresh bruise, as if a gigantic fist had punched the sky itself. Simoni landed a few yards away, clutching at one of her arms... the arm sporting a very bad electrical burn. &quot;... how... lighting doesn&#039;t hurt me...&quot; she stammers, staring at it. One of the quirks of being a garuda is immunity to electricity. Her body doesn&rsquo;t get hurt by it, rather it -absorbs- it, but somehow&hellip; this creature could cancel out her inborn resistance.<br /><br />&quot;You&#039;re lucky thats all it did sis.&quot; says Nelen grimly, &quot;That woman back there... dammit I never thought she&#039;d be in there. She&#039;s supposed to have died four thousand years ago, killed by one of the Tuatha De Danann.&quot; he shakes his head, &quot;I mean, there was a rumor that they turned her over to Clan Fullmoon for safekeeping, but still...&quot; he winces as another crash of thunder, like the sound of a bomb exploding, echoes across the field. &quot;That&#039;s Carman, Celtic Goddess of Evil Magic.&quot;<br /><br />Aisha hisses in pain as she walks over, holding her ribs, &quot;Well, I hate to say it then we have to help Franklin take her out... I mean... Franklin is scum, and if you see the chance you should totally kill him too but... goddess of evil magic, that&#039;s like, one of the worst things I can imagine let lose in the modern world right now. I&#039;d be less worried if you said &#039;goddess of nuclear bombs&#039;.&rdquo; she nods.<br /><br />Nelen winces, &quot;I may as well have, but... dammit we can&#039;t fight her.&quot; he nods, looking around, &quot;Find a boat, find anything, we&#039;re getting the hell out of here.&quot; he nods, helping Dawn stand as she struggles to stay conscious.<br /><br />Lupe rrfs as Stephy looks up at him, &quot;Hey, hang on, we&#039;re seriously going to let -that- loose? I mean, yeah that woman is scaring me shitless too, but...&quot; he starts, Nelen cutting him off. &quot;She&#039;s a goddess guys, she&#039;s out of our league. Either Franklin will manage to stop her with the Mundane Blade or she&#039;ll blow him to bits.&quot; he nods firmly.<br /><br />Aisha shakes her head, &quot;I&#039;m with Stephy, this is like, well again like leaving a ticking bomb and hoping that someone else will diffuse it, you guys can get a boat but I can&#039;t just walk away, besides this is our fault...&quot; she nods grimly. Trixie frowns, &quot;I let her out, only right I try to fix it, she hurts just one innocent person and that&#039;s on me...&quot; <br /><br />Arja nods as well, &quot;I&#039;m divine, not a full on goddess but if any of us have a chance of standing up to her it&#039;s me, this kinda comes with the territory. All the fun powers and junk mean nothing if I don&#039;t do my duty.&quot;<br /><br />Nelen shakes his head again, &quot;Dammit, listen to me! That thing is one of the reasons weapons like the Mundane Blade exist! Even if you all attack her at once she probably won&#039;t even feel it. Hell her magic is powerful enough to ignore your own defenses!&quot; he points at Simoni&#039;s burned arm. &quot;That woman is black magic incarnate, she&#039;s powerful enough to kill someone by looking at them. Yeah she&#039;s bad but... fuck&#039;s sake do you kids even know what the word &#039;suicide&#039; means?!&quot; he yells.<br /><br />Arja frowns, but shakes her head at the warlock, &quot;Well we HAVE a mundane blade! I hate to say that but Franklin having one of those blades means we have a chance here! If we can distract her, draw her anger away from him, he can do what he does best and gut her from behind! I&#039;m not exactly jumping for joy at this plan either but this is what we DO, this is why the gods allow things like us to be made, to come together. We are guardians of the world, and we guard against EXACTLY what we just let out!&quot;<br /><br />Nelen is about to open his mouth to protest, but an explosion rocks the entire island as a whole group of warriors go flying. Even from this distance the group can see what&#039;s happening. On one side a malestrom of shadows and fire, crackling with energy and on the other, nothing... emptiness, a void created by what can only be the Mundane Blade as Franklin goes toe to toe with Carman.<br /><br />Simoni looks at her arm, winces, then lets out a pained hiss as she changes forms, darts under Arja, and without a second thought speeds off towards the fight, eyes tearing as she tries to ignore the pain in her arm just from the wind hitting it.<br /><br />Aisha nods as Trixie and Sammi go running after, putting a hand on Nelen&#039;s shoulder, &quot;They&#039;re noble kids, but they&#039;re not suicidal, they&#039;ll be ok.&quot; she says with a soft smile before moving after them. &quot;Come on,&quot; Dru says, taking Nelen&#039;s hand with surprising softness, &quot;Let&#039;s get a boat ready, they&#039;ll need it to get out regardless...&quot;<br /><br />Nelen looks like he&#039;s going to have a stroke as he sees Simoni and Arja darting off towards the eruption of dark magic, then scoops up Dawn and nods, &quot;Right, fine... but if they survive this... I&#039;m gonna fucking kill them!&quot; he snarls, running off towards the village.<br /><br />Back at the field Franklin is slashing away at Carman, the dark goddess managing to parry his blows using her son&#039;s axe. Her son&#039;s names, translated from old Irish, are Darkness, Evil, and Violence... and this was the latter&#039;s weapon. It shows too. Deadly enough already in Aisha&#039;s hands, any warrior who comes near her is shredded into mince, their bodies ripped apart. Those who hang back will find themselves no safer. Carman&#039;s most famous power is to curse someone thrice, her magic utterly destroying them upon the third curse. Even with the Mundane Blade constantly absorbing her magic she shows no signs of slowing, she&#039;s like a black sun made of magical power. She doesn&#039;t even notice as the others get close, cackling at the chaos and destruction she&#039;s causing. <br /><br />The girls go to try to harass and distract the goddess as Aisha grabs a sword from the ground, going to join Franklin&#039;s assault as the only member of the group going over that could even be near him. She frowns as she swings at the goddess next to Franklin, trying to find a weakness in her defense with her jabs and slashes. &quot;If we make a hole in her defenses, can your cursed blade kill her?&quot; she asks, clearly upset having to work with him. &quot;You may only get one shot and it may cost us everything to get just that, are you able to make it worth it or should we leave you to fall like a stubborn old fool?&quot; Her voice is deadly serious as she keeps attacking, not even looking over at him as her eyes focus on the axe. &quot;I held that axe, I know its power...&quot; she says more to herself. From above, Arja was hurling flaming spears at the woman&#039;s head, shouting at her in Hindi as Sammi sends shards of ice bursting from the ground under her. Trixie, meanwhile, tries to draw a spell from her cards, but the goddess&#039; raw power seems to be feeding the demons she deals with, nose already bleeding as she barely manages to cheat out a pair of twos to try to siphon her luck away...<br /><br />Franklin glances at Aisha, then lets out a sudden gasp as he&#039;s sent flying backwards, the goddess ducking under his guard and slamming her fist into his gut before spinning around and backhanding Aisha across the jaw, sending her spinning into the bushes. &quot;You wait your turn child. I&#039;ve been in the care of this Clan for a long time and I wish to have a word with their leader.&quot; she sneers, turning to the others. A sudden whirlwind sends Simoni and Arja spiraling out of the air as the ground erupts under Sammi, a burst of superheated steam washing over the fae boy. As for Trixie, she simply snaps her fingers and her cards burst into flames in her hand before turning back to the aging patriarch, the old man struggling to his feet just in time to block her axe with his sword.<br /><br />Aisha almost blacks out from the pain of her blow, the woman didn&#039;t even use a fraction of her strength and it feels like she knocked a few teeth loose. Nelen may well have been right... this woman was toying with them. Its only because the Mundane Blade is cancelling out most of her power that they can even be near her... and yet...<br /><br />A sharp whistle comes from next to her as a tall hindi woman in beat up jeans and a tank top crouches next to her, a long thin case strapped to her back. &quot;Jeez, you guys really cocked up didn&#039;tcha?&quot; she asks, glancing at Aisha. &quot;I mean, all the nasty bastards down there and you let that one loose... You know the only reason she was in the top cell is because they couldn&#039;t force her any deeper, right?&quot;<br /><br />Aisha groans in pain, the wounds from the toss before only getting worse when she&#039;s knocked away again like a bug, from the blood coming out of her mouth she knew something was punctured inside... still she was kneeling, using her sword as support as the woman comes from seemingly nowhere. At that point she actually laughs, softly, a pained, wheezing, cough following it as the sheer absurdity of her plan seems to sink in. &quot;Maybe they shoulda hung a sign, Danger, goddess of evil and destruction, maybe don&#039;t listen to her... Not all of us are versed in ancient Celtic mythos&quot; she says, struggling to try to stand again.<br /><br />The woman looks at her, then tilts her head, &quot;Hmm... you ain&#039;t Irish, and a normal sword won&#039;t do dick against her.&quot; she sighs, &quot;Well, you&#039;re related to one of Arthur&#039;s old boys, maybe that&#039;ll be good enough for it. Here.&quot; she says, handing the package on her back to Aisha before standing up and sighing. &quot;Figures, more than enough and Franklin is right there, but she&#039;d get in the way. I can&#039;t even try to get closer than this without her seeing me and then we&#039;d really wind up in trouble.&quot; she nods, then turns and steps behind what&#039;s left of a tree... not emerging again.<br /><br />Aisha smirks when the woman says she&#039;s not Irish, &quot;Nooo, what gave it away?&quot; she laughs weakly, sounding a bit punch drunk from that attack. When the woman leaves the case, though, her brow raises, figuring this as only the third oddest thing about the day so far, she reaches over to open it up, &quot;This better be a god killing bazooka or something...&quot;<br /><br />Its not, but it definitely is close... Inside is an old Irish sword, still in it&#039;s scabbard. Celtic runes decorate the leather, but the sword&#039;s guard and hilt seem to simply be nothing more than ordinary steel... until she unsheathes it. Aisha almost has to shield her eyes as a flash, brighter than the sun, lights up the area around them. Its like Moriaen&#039;s sword, but moreso, the edge of the sword shining like there&#039;s an invisible spotlight under it. There&#039;s some old celtic writing on the blade itself, though she can&#039;t read it.<br /><br />Across the field both Franklin and Carman falter, Franklin backing away and getting his guard up as the dark goddess twists around, hissing angrily at the sword&#039;s appearance.<br /><br />Aisha grins a bloody grin as she gets to her feet, holding the shining sword with both hands, &quot;Alright, magic sword from god knows where with vague and unknown use, now we&#039;re talking my language!&quot; she laughs, taking in a deep breath before charging Carman.<br /><br />Carman snarls, a feral animal sound as she points at Aisha and shouts a word in Celtic thrice. &quot;Bas! Bas! BAS!&quot;, a burst of crackling black magic erupting from her finger and flying towards the young woman... only to have it shatter into nothingness as the sword&#039;s light touches it. Carmen roars in fury, ignoring Franklin completely as she dives forward, moving faster than any human, or non-human, ever should be able to as she raises her axe, aiming for her throat.<br /><br />Aisha laughs when the magic fades away in the light of her blade. &quot;You don&#039;t scare me now! I don&#039;t know what this sword is, who blessed it, or why, but I know it scares a dark, twisted, thing like you, and that&#039;s good enough for me!&quot; she roars in anger at that, putting all her strength behind an attack of her own, blade swinging at the goddess&#039; neck as well, simply hoping her passion and faith were enough to make her blow hit first...<br /><br />Both miss, Carmen twisting away at the last moment to avoid the edge of the sword as her own blow goes wild, sinking into the earth for a second before scything back out like a hot knife through butter. She charges again, but the sword seems to have some sentience of it&#039;s own, blocking the serrated edge of her axe with enough force to almost send Aisha&#039;s arms numb.<br /><br />The two trade blows back and forth, steel crashing together, until suddenly Carman&#039;s black hole eyes go wide and she lets out a horrible scream, her jaw stretching like a snakes to show row upon row of razor sharp teeth as the tip of the Mundane Blade suddenly bursts out through her stomach.<br /><br />Behind her, Franklin glares at Aisha. He&#039;s bloody and bruised himself, but has the grim determination of someone who&#039;s fought things like Carman his whole life. &quot;What are you waiting for girl?! You have her bane! Put it through her heart!&quot; he demands. Even with the sword through her the goddess is still powerful enough to resist, twisting and writhing... if she gets free...<br /><br />Aisha doesn&#039;t need any more signals from that, enemy or not giving them, as soon as he says that she thrusts her blade forward, aimed right to go through where her heart should be, &quot;Your age is over, monster!&rdquo; she roars, a torrent of acidic black blood spurting out where the shining metal sinks into the goddess&rsquo;s flesh.<br /><br />Carman howls in pain and rage as the shining weapon joins the shadowy one, plunging through the goddess&#039;s chest as the axe tumbles from her grasp. She doesn&#039;t even look remotely divine now, her hands like hooked claws, her eyes like black flames, and her face twisted and in human as she struggles to free herself, fiery black blood pouring out of the wound caused by the sword. As he struggles grow weak Franklin kicks his sword free and sneers. &quot;Do you know what happens when a goddess dies girl?&quot; he laughs, &quot;That bitch just solved two of my problems.&quot; he grins wickedly, then turns and all but sprints back to the pier...<br /><br />Aisha frowns, still holding the sword as she chases after him, &quot;We&#039;re not done here Fullmoon!&quot; she snarls, adrenaline surging through her to push her to chase the still spry old man back to the waiting boats.<br /><br />Despite his age Franklin is extremely fast on his feet as he leaps aboard one of the boats, the others already out in the water. &quot;Go! Go dammit! We might not even have minutes! GO!&quot; he yells, the boat immediately setting out at top speed from the island...<br /><br />As it does Aisha gets a sudden sense of foreboding... what did he want to get away from? She&#039;s answered when, behind her, the air begins to crackle again as Carman, the goddess of evil magic, begins to die. All that magic, all that energy, was focused by her... what would happen if it lost it&#039;s focus?<br /><br />The knight blinks as she sees the crackling, &quot;Oh shit...&quot; she whispers. Thankfully Arja, while not knowing for certain what would happen, had a fairly good damn good idea, already gathering Simoni, Sammi, and Trixie and sprinting to the town with them in tow. Aisha shakes her head, ignoring Fullmoon&#039;s escape as she runs to join them, whispering a prayer under her breath that Nelen and Drusilla had managed to get a boat.<br /><br />Nelen yells for them as he sees them running towards him, having &#039;borrowed&#039; a fairly sizable motorboat. &quot;Get on, quick!&quot; he calls out, Drusilla already untying from the dock as Dawn lays on one of the seats, the cat having passed out. The minute everyone is on board he pulls on the motor and sets off, pushing it as hard as he can as it cuts through the water.<br /><br />Back behind them the crackling burst of black flame grows bigger and bigger, as if threatening to engulf the entire mound... the burst of magic growing further, faster, as Simoni tries to summon up as much of a tailwind as she can manage... and then, suddenly... Carman dies.<br /><br />It&#039;s not a sound, it can&#039;t be called sound, it&rsquo;s too LOUD to be sound... the world turns upside down, the boat is sent flying across the water, all that they can do is hold on and try not to panic... and when they look back...<br /><br />&quot;Fucking hell...&quot; whispers Nelen. Nothing, absolutely nothing. Inishmor is gone. The goddess&#039;s death destroyed the entire island, the seawater rushing in to fill where it once was.<br /><br />Aisha groans, thankfully everyone managed to hold on, Arja bracing Simoni to compensate for her wounded arm and Aisha driving her blade into the back of a seat to use as support to keep inside the ship. &quot;Good&quot; Arja nods, panting heavily, &quot;That place is gone... they can&#039;t use it to hurt any more creatures...&quot; she says with a frown as Aisha shakes her head, &quot;To be honest I&#039;m not that happy... look I know I don&#039;t have the... the &lsquo;background&rsquo; with these people you do, and I&#039;m not gonna pretend this Franklin guy sounds like a winner, but... from what I&#039;ve been reading the core philosophy of your clan isn&#039;t far from the round table&#039;s... we forsake magic too, no knight can learn sorcery or they risk losing their title and honor... I&#039;m not saying imprisoning an entire half of a clan is the way to do it but... well that jail was also holding in something like that Carman thing... places like that DO have a purpose...&quot; <br />Arja huffs at that, but nods after a bit, hating to admit that something Franklin supported wasn&#039;t inherently bad. &quot;Still, in his hands it wasn&#039;t keeping order, it was oppressing, I&#039;m not gonna shed any tears about what could have been if it means hurting him...&quot; she finishes.<br /><br />Nelen glances at her, &quot;Right, whatever...&quot; he mutters. Really Franklin&#039;s philosophy wasn&#039;t the clan&#039;s at all. Clan Fullmoon was just about protecting people from supernatural threats, Franklin just wanted outright genocide. He pauses though, noticing Aisha&#039;s sword. The glow had faded down to about something equal to a candle flame, &quot;... where did you get that?&quot; he asks, looking from her to it.<br /><br />Aisha looks at the sword, pulling it out of the seat, &quot;Kinda crazy, even for that. Some lady just walked up to me and gave it over. She said since I came from a knight of the round table it may work for me... I think she was Indian?&quot; she shrugs, &quot;She just kinda... vanished after, I kinda assumed she was someone you knew?&quot;<br /><br />Nelen shakes his head, &quot;No... maybe...&quot; he replies, looking it over as his eyes run over the inscription. &quot;... you&#039;re sure she was Indian?&quot; he asks, straightening up, &quot;Because... that sword sure as hell isn&#039;t. My Celtic isn&#039;t perfect, but unless I&#039;m mistaken you&#039;re holding Claiomh Solais, one of the four treasures of the Tuatha De Danann.&quot; he nods, &quot;They&#039;re the guys who originally defeated Carman.&quot; he explains as he gets the boat going again, heading towards the mainland. Franklin and his men are still busy counting all their bits to make sure they have them, time to get the hell out of here.<br /><br />The sword that Aisha was wielding was one of the weapons used to defeat the evil goddess eons ago in the days before Christianity ever came to Ireland. It&rsquo;d certainly explain why Carman ignored Franklin the minute she saw it. Such a weapon is not easy to forget.<br /><br />Aisha shakes her head, &quot;Nope, Indian for sure, woman, kinda young womanish? She seemed pretty casual about being in the middle of a warzone...&quot;<br /><br />Simoni blinks, then sits up, &quot;... wait...&quot; she mutters, wincing as her arm protests the movement. &quot;Was she kinda... punkish? Torn up jeans and that sorta thing?&quot; she asks, leaning on Arja as the boat starts moving again. Aisha nods in reply, &quot;Yea, I liked the look, kinda cute punk...&quot;<br /><br />Simoni blinks, then looks at Arja, &quot;Hey, that girl from the supernatural world. Y&#039;know, the one that beat up Vritra right infront of us? You don&#039;t think maybe...&quot; she shrugs, gesturing with her uninjured arm as the boat makes landfall and Nelen guides the group back to where they hid the rental truck, getting everyone onboard before they start driving back to the airport.<br /><br />Thankfully they don&#039;t encounter any of Clan Fullmoon&#039;s men on the way. Perhaps the clan is already in revolt, or perhaps Franklin has unofficially declared time out... or hell maybe he just thinks they didn&#039;t make it off the island.<br /><br />Arja frowns, &quot;Huh...who the hell is she...&quot; she mutters, crossing her arms as she thinks on who she knows of that would saunter into multiple danger zones casually... honestly it sounds like what SHE&#039;D do, but she wasn&#039;t a monkey... &quot;Hm, I&#039;ll ask grandpa about her... speaking of, for gods&#039; sake signal Bethandi, let&#039;s make sure all your family got out.&quot;<br /><br />Simoni blinks, then nods and reaches behind her ear. &quot;Ah jeez, right... after all that I&#039;d totally forgotten...&quot; she blushes in embarassment. She nods, hearing Bethandi&#039;s voice echoing in her head, &quot;Um, okay, yeah looks like everyone is accounted for. Seems like whatever was blocking her from teleporting us didn&#039;t affect anyone in the caves...&quot; she says.<br /><br />&quot;It was probably Carman.&quot; comments Nelen from the driver&#039;s seat. &quot;She wanted to make sure she had an audience before the smiting began, but her powers wouldn&#039;t be able to enter that cave, so she could only keep anyone on the surface from getting beamed up.&quot;<br /><br />Trixie speaks up at that, kinda unsure how to bring it up after all this chaos... &quot;Uh Simoni, you should probably have her beam us up... your mom was in that prison...&quot; she says awkwardly.<br /><br />Simoni and Nelen both react to this, Simoni letting out a sudden yelp as Nelen almost swerves off the road. They both shout in unison, &quot;WHAT?!&quot; before Simoni starts fretting and squirming in her seat, &quot;Oh jeez oh man oh crap this is gonna be awkward... I mean how the heck do you explain all this to her...&quot; she stammers as Nelen bangs his fist on the steering wheel, &quot;Fucking hell I thought she was taking too long to reply to that email! I only sent it a few days ago but I figured it was nothing serious and then godsdammit all straight to hell!&quot; he snarls, his eyes almost going bloodshot for a moment before he calms back down.<br /><br />Trixie holds her hands out at that, &quot;She was ok! A little banged up but she wasn&#039;t bad. She was more worried about you than anything. I&#039;m sure seeing you will help her out.&quot; she replies quickly, trying to calm the two back down&hellip; especially Nelen. Road rage takes on a whole new meaning when you&rsquo;ve got a wrath demon living inside you.<br /><br />Simoni squirms in her seat, &quot;Um, yeah... thats what I&#039;m worried about.&quot; she nods, &quot;Her seeing &#039;me&#039;...&quot; she says as Nelen winces in sympathy, pulling over on the side of the road. He lets out a long sigh and looks back at Simoni, &quot;Yeah, well, we knew she had to eventually sis...&quot; he shrugs, &quot;Wanna have E.T. pulls up up then? I mean, we could probably use some medical attention after that...&quot; he nods, gesturing to Sammi&#039;s steam burns, Simoni&#039;s arm, and the fact that Dawn is still unconscious.<br /><br />Arja reaches to take Simoni&#039;s hand softly, smiling at her as Aisha nods &quot;Yea, tell her we have wounded and let&#039;s get the hell away from this island... or lack thereof...&quot; she confirms.<br /><br />Simoni gives Arja&#039;s hand a squeeze, then nods and reaches up, with her uninjured arm, pressing the implant again, &quot;Bethandi? Um, could you get us up there? We&#039;ve got a bunch of injured here and... yeah...&quot; she says as the reply comes... and then there&#039;s a flash before an empty pick up truck is sitting on the side of the Irish highway.<br /><br />Up in the ship Bethandi smiles as the beam brings the group onto a large teleportation pad, nodding approvingly as a small group of similar aliens comes over to scan them for injuries and the like &quot;And that makes everyone, wonderful.&quot; she smiles &quot;Excellent job everyone.&quot; she nods, the blue-skinned alien walking over to the group.<br /><br />Stephy looks at the crew, then lets out a dramatic sigh as he says, &quot;Guess I&#039;d better go hold up my end of the bargan.&quot; before heading off to get in uniform. That was the deal after all, they help out and, in exchange, one of them joins the crew for a few weeks. Mostly though he just wants to get out of the danger zone before it happens.<br /><br />&quot;So, you&#039;re Bethandi huh?&quot; asks Nelen, stepping in as the scanners note the injuries that Dawn, Aisha, Simoni, and Sammi have all sustained during the fight. In all honesty they&#039;re extremely lucky it wasn&#039;t worse... either they&#039;ve got something watching out for them (which they kinda do apparently), or they&#039;re just stupidly lucky. &quot;Um, where are the others who got beamed up? Simoni and I... kinda need to see one of them...&quot; he winces, Simoni letting out an awkward whine.<br /><br />She nods, motioning for one her assistants and speaking in her strange musical language, the younger looking female bowing her head happily. &quot;Come this way please&hellip;&quot; she says, Arja looking over at Simoni, &quot;Want me to come too?&quot; she asks.<br /><br />Simoni does, hell she&#039;s pratically hiding behind her... except that they don&#039;t get more than a few steps when the far door opens and an angry voice echoes through the chamber. &quot;NELEN BALINT FULLMOON! WHERE! IS! MY! DAUGHTER?!&quot;<br /><br />Nelen&#039;s eyes roll back as he mutters, &quot;Oh gods kill me now...&quot; as the disheveled, red haired, red faced, aging woman with &#039;angry mother&#039; written all over her stomps past the aliens and into the room, glaring daggers at the bearded warlock. &quot;You rotten little man, you told me she would be safe with you around and you brought her with you to Inishmor?!&quot; she shouts as Nelen steels himself, then shouts right back, &quot;Godsdammit woman I couldn&#039;t have kept her away if I tried! You think I haven&#039;t at least made the attempt to talk them out of stuff like this?!&quot;<br /><br />&quot;DON&#039;T YOU TAKE THAT TONE WITH ME YOUNG MAN! You are her brother! It is your RESPONSABILITY to protect her!&quot; she snaps right back, waggling a finger in his face as he retorts, &quot;YOU OLD BAT! I&#039;ve been doing my damndest to keep her alive! Do you think it&#039;s easy with all of Clan Fullmoon up my ass?!&quot; he snarls, to which she screams, &quot;OH LIKE YOU CAN&#039;T HANDLE FRANKLIN&#039;S GOON SQUAD! You&#039;ve survived them this long haven&#039;t you? You ought to! Every time I hear rumors from them at Thanksgiving and Christmas about the close calls you&#039;ve had another five of my hairs go GRAY!&quot; she shouts, Nelen snarling, &quot;HEY! Its not like I enjoy dodging death squads every damn day of my life and taking mercenary jobs just so I can buy food!&quot;<br /><br />And then, quick as a blink, the two hug each other. &quot;Thank god you&#039;re alright son.&quot; she whispers as Nelen replies, &quot;You too Mom.&quot;<br /><br />Arja sighs softly, having to chuckle just a bit at the display &quot;Fun family&quot; she says, squeezing Simoni&#039;s hand softly before looking to the woman, &quot;Ma&#039;am, with all due respect, the raid on the prison was mostly my idea, and like he said he really can&#039;t stop me, like... I can kick his ass...&quot; she smiles a bit playfully at Nelen at that &quot;If it helps any, I was sure Simoni... Stephanie... was safe outside with me.&quot;<br /><br />Nelen rolls his eyes at her as the woman straightens up, looking her over, &quot;Oh was she now...&quot; she frowns. She&#039;s a witch, she can use magic, but she -barely- uses it, magically speaking Arja could run rings around her, and yet... she&#039;s a mother through and through. Just the tone of her voice makes Arja feel like a toddler who got caught with her hand in the cookies. She looks around at the group, noting all the different creatures in it as Lupe lets out a soft yip and shrinks back behind Natasha, peeking out from behind the vampire&#039;s cape with her tail between her legs. Even the impulsive werewolf knows better than to risk upsetting this woman.<br />Arja meeps softly as she hears that tone, &quot;Uh... yea&hellip;&quot; she says, smiling a bit nervously, &quot;Uh this is... the group&quot; she chuckles awkwardly, motioning to them, &quot;That&#039;s Natasha, she&#039;s a vampire, there&#039;s Drusilla, she&#039;s a Cyclops... you know Dawn I&#039;m sure, Lupe is a werewolf, Sammi&#039;s a fae, he and Stephy....&quot; he eyes go wide, freezing up on how to say &#039;oh yea and your nephew is a fairy now too&#039;.<br /><br />She looks around at them, her vision icy, &quot;So I see...&quot; she replies, looking over Arja&#039;s shoulder. Simoni is practically hiding behind her now. &quot;... Young lady, is that my daughter behind you?&quot; she asks, her tone carrying the same sensation of realizing you&#039;d just stepped on a landmine and that it didn&#039;t matter which way you moved, something was going to go boom.<br /><br />From behind Arja comes a very small, timid sound, &quot;... h-hi mom...&quot;<br /><br />Arja lets out a little squeak, stepping to the side, &quot;Yea she&#039;s... kinda nervous...&quot; she says sheepishly, &quot;She&#039;s afraid you&#039;ll be upset because, ya know... she&#039;s changed a lot... but only on the outside, she&#039;s still the same girl she always was...&quot; she nods as the red haired woman glowers at her.<br /><br />Simoni is practically trembling as she looks up at the woman, her mother&#039;s eyes running over the girl&#039;s body. She was a far cry from how she used to be. Pale skin with freckles turned chesnut brown, her frizzy red hair now straight and jet black, her eyes still green however (eyes were -hard-), and wearing a green silk sari (slightly beaten and torn due to the fight). One arm is still showing the burns from where Carman&#039;s lightning grazed her, the goddesses&#039;s magic charged with enough malice to override her natural immunity to such things.<br /><br />&quot;Hm...&quot; she nods, &quot;Yep, that&#039;s my girl alright.&quot; she smirks, &quot;Still shakes like a leaf when she knows she&#039;s in trouble.&quot; she chuckles, then bends down and kisses Simoni&#039;s forehead, &quot;Honey, go have the nice aliens check your arm, I need to have a word with your friend.&quot; she says, giving the small girl a push before turning and glaring at Arja.<br /><br />Arja meeps once again as the aliens lead Simoni off. &quot;Hi there,&quot; she says with a little smile, &quot;It&#039;s an honor to meet you ma&#039;am, really.&quot; she says, giving the woman a respectful bow. &quot;I&#039;m Arja Barjar, of the line of Hanuman, born to Rajesh and Iravati Barjar and heir to the temple of monkeys.&quot; She says rather quickly. Obviously the woman knew who she was, but she was trying to do things properly with her girlfriend&#039;s mother!<br /><br />&quot;Oh I know who you are, Nelen filled me in on most of what&#039;s going on.&quot; she replies icily. &quot;Lets see if I remember the details. You kidnapped my daughter, took her away to India by hiding behind Diplomatic Immunity so I couldn&#039;t get her back, and made me desperate enough that I risked getting in touch with my lunatic of a father to try to rescue her, which caused him to go full on crazy and declare her excommunicated from the family and make him obsessed with killing her. Did I get it all?&quot; she asks.<br /><br />Arja blinks at that, laughing nervously, &quot;That is... not an INACCURATE way to put things no... Some WOULD argue that&#039;s how things went yes but... well I mean, in fairness the Franklin affairs seemed like an inevitable aspect of his megalomania regardless, right?&quot; She offers, going into full diplomat mode... or con artist mode perhaps&hellip;<br /><br />Catherine however cuts straight through it, &quot;Young lady don&#039;t feed me bullshit and call it chocolate.&quot; she replies, &quot;I moved to America and raised a family there to get as far away from my father and his madness as I could. I had two kids and did my best to make sure they wouldn&#039;t learn magic, fat lot of good THAT did, to try to keep his attention off them. Nelen went and learned his blood magic and had to flee the town because of what he did to those boys, justified or not, and I thought that maybe... just MAYBE I could keep my daughter safe. No magic, no spells, no nothing. She would grow up into a normal woman with nothing supernatural at all... and then some monkey girl from halfway across the planet grabbed her!&quot; she shouts.<br /><br />Arja winces. The woman wasn&#039;t wrong&hellip; &quot;Ma&#039;am, with all due respect, and really I don&#039;t mean to hurt you when you&#039;ve already been through so much but... do you really think she ever wanted to be a &#039;normal woman with nothing supernatural&#039;? I&#039;ve seen her fly, ma&#039;am... she&#039;s so happy when she does, we had our powers taken for a time and she was a &#039;normal girl&#039; and... it truly hurt her badly... I understand you just want her safe, but you have to believe me when I say I do to... I... care very much for her...&quot; she says, trying to be delicate around that last bit, not sure just how much the woman knew.<br /><br />She notices Arja&#039;s hesitance around the last bit, &quot;You two are lovers.&quot; she says bluntly, &quot;Oh don&#039;t act so damn shocked girl. Anyone with half a brain could tell that. Nelen sent me pictures, she&#039;s always right next to you in every single one. You kids are so damn bad at hiding it.&quot; she frowns, &quot;And yes, I know. You think I never flew when I was her age? I did it to keep her ALIVE. Franklin would come after her in America just as readily as he would anywhere else if word got out she used magic. Hell, when you grabbed her thats what I assumed had happened!&quot; she frowns, then sighs, &quot;I wanted just one kid, one of them, to grow up safe and normal...&quot;<br /><br />Arja sighs softly, looking down, &quot;I&#039;m sorry I made you think she was in danger, at the time I had no idea about that stuff... Still though, I want to keep her alive too, we&#039;re not in opposition there but... in my culture, the belief is the best way to stay alive when a man like Franklin wants you dead is to kill Franklin... I think that&#039;s something we both share. I want her to have a safe, happy, life, I want ALL the women in the clan to and... I have the advantage of not being her mother... I don&#039;t have the fear that you do, and that fear is very good for a mother to have, it shows you love her, and care for her... but I love her in a different way...I want to stand beside her, in a world where she&#039;s safe and protected from men like him, because she can fight for herself not because I&#039;m there to block everything that comes. We want the same for her, we just have different views.&quot;<br /><br />She raises her eyebrow at her, then looks around at the rest of the group. Nelen nods firmly at her, Lupe giving a bark as well, and then she turns back to Arja. &quot;Yes, you will. You are going to stand by her and you are going to keep my daughter safe and alive because, if anything happens to her, then if Franklin doesn&#039;t run you through I&#039;ll come after you, and either of my kids can tell you that&#039;s a far worse fate than anything he could do.&quot; she replies, folding her arms across her chest. &quot;Though I will say this...&quot; she leans in and stares Arja right in the eye, &quot;If I don&#039;t see my daughter for Christmas next year then I don&#039;t care which king you&#039;re descended from, I&#039;ll pull you over my knee and give you one hell of a belting.&quot; she smirks, crackling her knuckles.<br /><br />Arja chuckles, nodding, &quot;If anything ever happens to her I&#039;m afraid you won&#039;t get your chance to get revenge, because I&rsquo;ll already be dead.&quot; she smiles, nodding &quot;Or you could come to India for the next Holi festival,&quot; she smiles again, &quot;But yes, I promise you, by next Christmas this will be settled, and you will be able to see your daughter like any other year.&quot;<br /><br />She nods firmly, &quot;Good. You! Alien!&quot; she snaps at Bethandi, &quot;Take me to my daughter!&quot; she says in a tone that, even across species, say that the person will do it or they WILL go to bed without supper. When she&#039;s gone Nelen leans against the wall and pulls his hat down low, &quot;Freaking hell that woman...&quot; he mutters.<br /><br />Bethandi blinks, but nods at the command, &quot;Of course, she should be fixed up by now&hellip;&quot; she says, leading the woman along as Arja lets out a relieved breath. &quot;So...you wanna tell her the best place for them right now is probably India where Franklin doesn&#039;t have the balls to try to attack again or...&quot;<br /><br />Nelen shakes his head, &quot;Nah, she knows that. You notice she didn&#039;t demand that Simoni go back to America with her right?&quot; he asks as he straightens up, &quot;Hell after that he may not have the manpower either. I&#039;m sure the witches will find some way to let their husbands and brothers know that they escaped Inishmor before it got destroyed, but still... Franklin is gonna have his hands full already.&quot;<br /><br />As he says this Lupe pipes up, &quot;What about cave?&quot; she asks. Nelen blinks, then looks at her, &quot;What -about- it? It got blown to bits with the island. Anything in there we didn&#039;t get out either got killed in the explosion or drowned.&quot; he replies. Lupe rrfs and tilts her head, &quot;But... cave for big bad things, stuff hunters can&#039;t kill... would boom and water kill?&quot; she asks.<br /><br />Nelen blinks slowly, &quot;... yeah... I&#039;m sure that nothing could&#039;ve made it out alive... though... Carman&#039;s explosion might not have actually reached the cave itself because of the anti-magic field and if anything inside could swim or something...&quot; he hesitates, &quot;... ah fuck.&quot;<br /><br />Arja blinks, &quot;What... on a scale of mild annoyance to Cthulhu what are we looking at here?&quot; she asks.<br /><br />Nelen sighs, &quot;Not a godsdamned clue.&quot; he replies, leaning back, taking off his glasses, and rubbing at his eyes. &quot;But that prison has been there since, well, forever... so who knows what could&#039;ve been locked away?&quot; he grumbles.<br /><br />Arja sighs, &quot;Well that&#039;ll be fun, we&#039;ll deal with that later, hopefully being trapped underwater at least slows them down... So, you think a lot of his guys will defect when they can fly out to be with their wives and daughters? Could wind up starting our own lil&rsquo; community near the temple, raven refugees?&quot; she winks, &quot;Lakshmi would like that...&quot;<br /><br />Nelen nods, &quot;Yeah, she would... but, what about your relatives?&quot; he asks, glancing at Arja. There was that altercation right before they left for Europe. &quot;I mean... I do get where they&#039;re coming from, hell I&#039;d be uncomfortable around half of them...&quot; he nods. As he does however a door to the right opens and an elderly woman walks in between two younger girls. The woman looks to be at least in her late seventies, perhaps older, though her attendants are about twenty at most. &quot;That willnae be necessary.&quot; she says.<br /><br />Arja shrugs, &quot;Grandpa is fine with it, and those who aren&#039;t can learn to li-&quot; when the old woman comes up and speaks she raises a brow at that, &quot;Come again, ma&#039;am?&quot;<br /><br />The woman looks at Arja, squinting her eyes behind a pair of very thick lenses, &quot;Aye, you&#039;re th&#039; one alright. Me mam told me about ye.&quot; she nods, &quot;I am Jeanne Fullmoon, an&#039; until me brother&#039;s coup I was ta succeed me mam as Matriarch. As of now, Ah&#039;m takin&#039; charge o&#039; our refugees.&quot; she nods, &quot;Ye have me thanks fer gettin&#039; us outta that hellhole lass, but we have places yet that Franklin dunnae know of. Yer blue friends can drop us off at one o&#039; those when they&#039;re done treatin&#039; me gels and we&#039;ll let the boys know we got out alright.&quot;<br /><br />Arja blinks a bit, bowing when the woman introduces herself before straightening back up to speak, &quot;With due respect ma&#039;am I really do think the temple is the safest place for you and your clan. Franklin may know of it but we repelled a full on invasion from him before, any attack he launches now will be crippled before he even steps foot on the temple grounds. He knows it&#039;s a suicide run, especially when your sons and husbands start leaving him to be with you. Besides, I legitimately think there is some ancient bond between our families, or at least yours and the garuda, if you come with us not only can we keep you safe but who knows how many of your daughters could further awaken like Simo-...Stephane did.&quot;<br /><br />She lets out a wheezing laugh, &quot;Oh just call &#039;er Simoni, she&#039;s taken quite well to th&#039; life from what we&#039;ve seen.&quot; she smirks, &quot;Hm... well, ah dunnae see the harm in at least lookin&#039; ah suppose, but like &#039;e said...&quot; she gestures to Nelen, &quot;... yer people may not be too keen on us bein&#039; neighbors.&quot; she nods gravely. &quot;My fool of ah brother has sinned greatly against ye, ah cannae blame them fer wantin&#039; us ta leave them be.&quot;<br /><br />Arja nods, &quot;I won&#039;t pretend my people don&#039;t have valid anger, but let me at least talk to them, if they don&#039;t want you then I&#039;ll happily help you find another safe place. I suppose I see you all as my family as well thanks to my relationship with Simoni.&quot; she smiles faintly, &quot;I want to at least try to bring all my family together.&quot;<br /><br />She chuckles, &quot;Gel, you may not realize exactly how right you are about that statement yet...&quot; she smirks, then blinks as she looks over at Aisha, recognizing the sword at her hip, &quot;Hm?&rdquo; she blinks, then hobbles over to Aisha, looking closely at her weapon, &ldquo;That sword&hellip; where&rsquo;d ye get it?&rdquo; she asks.<br /><br />Aisha chuckles softly, &quot;Good question, we have no idea but someone who&#039;s apparently helped these girls before just popped over to give it to me and then vanished.&quot;<br /><br />She looks at her curiously, then gets the details about the strange woman&#039;s fight with Vritia in the supernatural realm, listening carefully to what she&#039;s told, &quot;Hm... I see... Things are really getting interesting then if the Lady is making an appearance.&quot; she muses. Nelen blinks, looking up as he leans against the wall, &quot;Wait... what?&quot; he asks, sounding confused as Jeanne rolls her eyes at him, &quot;Oh come now boy, yer supposed ta be the wizard &#039;ere! Ye know that sword canna be gifted to a mortal by just anyone!&quot; she snaps, Nelen wincing as he says, &quot;Well, yeah, but the woman was Hindi...&quot; to which she replies, &quot;Aye, well, she would look it wouldn&#039;t she? Espionage an&#039; disguise are part o&#039; war now, which means they&#039;re part o&#039; her.&quot; she smirks, Nelen shrugging a bit and looking away, &quot;Yeah, well I suppose...&quot; he mutters.<br /><br />Arja blinks in confusion, &quot;Hellooo, still Hindu, no clue who this Lady is... That&#039;s it, when we get to the Temple I&#039;m gonna start talking to my family about all the avatars of our gods and see how you guys like it&hellip;&quot; she pouts teasingly as Aisha raises her brow, looking the sword over, &quot;I think she&#039;s talking about the maven of war...&quot;<br /><br />Jeanne smirks, &quot;Aye, this one&#039;s got a good &#039;ead on her shoulders.&quot; she nods to Aisha, &quot;That woman who handed ye the sword was almost certainly Clan Fullmoon&#039;s own patron, Lady Morigann of War. Th&#039; gods cannae come ta our world without ah great source ah magic though... perhaps it was fortunate ye accidentally released Carman after all...&quot;<br /><br />Aisha blinks a bit in shock before holding the sword out to the woman, &quot;You should have it then, my lady, this belongs in your clan, she obviously just meant for me to hold it to defeat Carman before restoring its rightful owner.&quot;<br /><br />The woman looks at her, then pushes it back to her and frowns, &quot;Dammit gel ah just called ye smart!&quot; she snaps, &quot;Ye think that Clan Fullmoon is right ta hold th&#039; Sword o&#039; Light when it&#039;s patriarch wields the Mundane Blade like &#039;e does, causin&rsquo; all sorts ah chaos?&quot; she retorts, &quot;Lady Morigann gave that sword ta ye, ye gotta hold it until she takes it back herself! Ah daresay ye&#039;ll find ah good use fer it soon enough.&quot; she nods.<br /><br />Aisha blinks again, but nods, clearly still surprised though, &quot;It&#039;s an honor ma&#039;am, I&#039;ll treasure it, and if I get the chance to I&#039;ll drive it into Franklin&#039;s chest myself.&quot; she says before going down to her knee, &ldquo;If you&#039;ll have me, I will pledge myself to Clan Fullmoon, the true Fullmoon and its true matriarch.&quot;<br /><br />The woman looks at Aisha, tilts her head, and then smirks, &quot;Aye aye, whatever, why not? Get off yer knees afore ya get yer pants all dusty gel.&quot; she replies, &quot;Let th&#039; boys have their knightings and stuff, just sayin&#039; &#039;point me at someone ye dunnae like an&#039; I&#039;ll gut &#039;em&#039; is good enough fer us.&quot; she chuckles.<br /><br />Aisha smirks a bit, &quot;Alright, then point me at someone you don&#039;t like and I&#039;ll gut em&quot; she says with a little chuckle as Arja nods happily. &quot;Lucky for you all it&#039;s a lovely sunny day back home, I&#039;m sure with your magics you&#039;re eager for a nice day.&quot;<br /><br />As she does the door to the medbay opens and Simoni walks out, her arm already starting to heal as she quickly slips over next to Arja. Catherine follows her out and looks around, &quot;Right, all settled then Aunt Jeanne?&quot; she asks, to which the Matriarch replies, &quot;Aye, looks like we&#039;ll be stayin&#039; in India fer a while.&quot; she nods. &quot;Ah, good, ah could use some warmer weather after that damn cave.&quot; she nods back.<br /><br />The matriarch looks at Arja and grins, &quot;Well gel, guess we&#039;ll be heading off with ye then. Franklin kept us locked away fer a long time, an&#039; if there&#039;s one thing we know how ta do, its hold a grudge...&quot; she smirks, her eyes glinting like knives, &quot;When we want ta be, we can be very wicked witches indeed. Lets show my idiot brother ah thing or two...&quot;</span>","pools_count":0,"title":"Part 1.21: Inishmor","deleted":"f","public":"t","mimetype":"application/msword","pagecount":"1","rating_id":"2","rating_name":"Adult","ratings":[{"content_tag_id":"5","name":"Strong Violence","description":"Strong violence, blood, serious injury or death","rating_id":"2"}],"submission_type_id":"12","type_name":"Writing - Document","guest_block":"t","friends_only":"f","comments_count":"0","views":"45","sales_description":null,"forsale":"f","digitalsales":"f","printsales":"f","digital_price":""}