Fallen Angels 2 - Chapter One
AU2: Harkham's Vault PenitentiaryShe-Martian Manhunter stepped out of the transport one long leg at a time, instantly attracting the attention of every guard present in the hangar, all of whom turned to watch the green-skinned heroine saunter down the ramp. {Careful boys, you're drooling.} She admonished them telepathically. Behind her, now also coming down the ramp, was Green Quasar, the scowl on his face evident before he ever reached the floor.
"What happened? Why the emergency broadcast?" GQ demanded of the guards standing before them in the docking bay. "Why couldn't you tell us what happened over the radio instead of this cloak and dagger crap?"
"W-w-we were afraid it m-m-might attract the wrong kind of attention..."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Shemmie turned her attention to the obviously nervous guard.
"W-w-we've had a p-prisoner escape. H-he...uh...he killed his cellmate and escaped into the prison. We...uh...well we can't find him..."
"Which prisoner?" GQ growled. "How can you lose someone on an asteroid? Are any transports missing?"
"N-no transports are missing, sir."
Another, higher-ranking guard stepped up to answer for the stutterer. "6756...the one you brought in a few months ago. He's been comatose the whole time so we went ahead and moved another prisoner in with him last night. We had to make room for Iceberg - he takes up two cells all by himself, so we had to shift some of the prisoners around. We're filled considerably past capacity and understaffed, and Steel Man, Captain Glory, and the rest of you super-types keep bringing us more..."
"Save the speech for the next funding drive. We left specific instructions to keep that creature isolated!" She-Martian Manhunter objected loudly. "We TOLD you people he had to be kept away from human contact at all cost! What were you people THINKING!"
"Uh, ma'am, I just work here. The prison director's in critical condition on level three if you want to speak to him about his decision."
GQ shook his head. "Just show us the cell. Maybe we'll find something you missed."
"I-It won't do much good, it's like he v-vanished off the face of the a-asteroid."
"It's pretty rough in there." The senior guard added.
"Show us anyway."
***** Level 6, cellblock E
"Woah." The two Justice Avengers stepped into the cell and gasped. Shemmie was already green so her color didn't change, but GQ's face took on a slightly less healthy tinge.
What was left of the prisoner took up roughly one half of the room; individual internal organs lined up in a neat double row, both eyes staring vacantly up at them from the concrete floor. Most of the former inmate's upper and lower intestines were draped over and around the two beds, making them look like something that had escaped from the inner reaches of hell. Darkening blood covered two walls in intricate glyphs, swirls and indecipherable writing. Random splatters graced the concrete floor amidst a few small pools that were already congealing into brown goo.
Shemmie stepped carefully over the bone fragments that were scattered around haphazardly and moved toward the third wall of the cell. It was painted solid with the sticky fluid, somehow forming an open gateway leading into the next cell. This room was in a similar state, except the two prisoners in it were merely torn open at the chest, ribs shattered and sticking out at odd angles. Most of their internal organs still seemed to be intact. The far wall here, too, was painted brown and led in turn, to the cell beyond.
"He went through three more cells before breaking out into the hallway. He killed two guards and attacked the director before we lost track of him." The senior guard seemed unfazed, he'd seen this mess before.
"How did he manage to...mutilate...this...guy, this badly, without alerting anyone?" The empty husk that had once been a prisoner was mangled beyond hope of identification, and neither Shemmie nor GQ had thought to ask who the deceased was before entering. "Did he get hold of a weapon somehow?"
"As we said, he'd been comatose since he was brought in, and the guards in this section had gotten a little...lax, since most of the prisoners in this section are pretty much harmless. Well, at least before this happened, we thought they were harmless."
"What about the weapon?" GQ asked, repeating the second half of Shemmie's query.
"Apparently he used his bare hands."
"Great. So who was this guy?" GQ gestured down to the remains of the body, then immediately wished he hadn't. He went back to studying the wall portal, letting Shemmie question the guards. It had strange traces of energy remaining around it, but it wasn't a form he could identify - it seemed almost magical in origin.
"The only name we had for the uh, deceased was 'Cortez'. We don't know if that was his real name, or an alias, or what. The escapee and he were brought in at the same time, though, and seemed to know each other. We're going to try to match dental records...when we find the rest of his skull."
"Find...the rest?" It was Shemmie's turn to go pale. She wisely decided not to push the question. "What makes you think they knew each other?"
"Well, 'Cortez' spoke to him, even thought he was in a coma. It was weird. Chatting away in some freaky-ass language, then begging us to let him out of the cell."
"Maybe you should have listened to him." Shemmie turned to GQ, who was still studying the portal in the wall. "Are you ready to get out of this mess?"
GQ nodded. "I should be able to track him down, if he's still on the asteroid. This energy signature's pretty unique."
***** The green and black garbed Protector of the universe stood silently in the last cell where the massacre had occurred. He concentrated and his Power Bands glowed with emerald energy, The Power Oan.
"What's he doing?" The Warden's assistant asked She Martian Manhunter as they stood in the hallway.
"That's one weird light.""He's scanning." She said, as though that would explain it adequately.
"I don't like this, Shemmie." Wendell Jordan said aloud. "These were mystical forces, dark energies at work. This place needs an exorcist." Must focus. Green Quasar told himself.
His Power Oan was attuned to scientific principles, not magicks, but there was science even in magic, and that was what he was going for.
"There's been some bending of time and space." He announced to his teammate in the hallway. He could sense that the laws of physics had been bent, and bent hard. He narrowed his probe further, into the sub-atomic.
"WHOA!" He exclaimed. "I didn't know he could do THAT!"
"Do what?" She Martian Manhunter asked. "What do you see?"
"He not only tore into the fabric of space-time, but in doing so he created a gateway out of our universe. The path is sealed up now; just a few atoms are still agitated. Judging by them and the time since the aperture was created, it was pretty big, too."
"How big? How powerful?" She asked him, worriedly.
"Big enough that he could have gone almost anywhere in the multiverse. Where do you think he'd go?"
"I don't know, GQ. But, judging by the mess he made, he was really ticked."
"Yeah. So where would you go if you were an angry psycho, Shemmie?"
"After whoever pissed me off, I suppose."
Chapter 2
Morning - several weeks after Fallen Angels issue 1"Jayna, Michael's here. Again." Jayna looked up to see David at the basement door, carefully remaining solidly in the doorframe, not a hair sticking out over into the basement itself. "He wants to speak to you."
Jayna looked around and sighed. The last thing she needed to before reopening the shop was to rearrange the basement a little bit. It didn't look like that was gonna happen today. "Did you let him in?"
"Yes."
"Good. Tell him I'll be out in a minute, and ask him to have a seat in the kitchen."
"All right."
***** "Hi, Mike!" Jayna exclaimed cheerfully, closing the kitchen door behind herself. "How'd your date go?
I never did get any info out of Az.""It went about as well as can be expected, I think."
"I'm not going to be getting any details out of you either, am I?"
"Not a word. You know better than that." He gave Jayna a wide grin. "I don't anything and tell."
"Fair enough. What's in the bag?" She pointed to a brightly colored department-store bag sitting beside the legs of his chair, out of the way.
"Just a little something for Ciela. Is she here?"
"You just missed her, she said she was going out for the day. Meaning she'll probably be home around lunchtime." Jayna laughed. "She's still trying to get used to J Street, you know?"
"I know. Well, if it's ok with you, I'll just leave it here. I've got a pretty busy day today. Have her call me when she gets in if it's not too much trouble."
"Can I look?" Jayna grabbed the bag from the floor, but didn't open it.
"Be my guest."
"Oh isn't that cute?"
"I thought so, yeah."
"Any particular reason for this?"
"I thought she'd like it."
"No telling. She probably will." She placed the bag safely on top of the refrigerator.
"Not to change subjects, but have you had any luck finding out about David?""I have a friend, a customer actually, on the JSPD. He's looking into it, but hasn't found anything out yet. I'm waiting on him to contact me before I do any real heavy research. You understand." He frowned, looking around the kitchen, still cluttered from breakfast. "You would think there'd have been an investigation from hell, but my friend's been looking for a couple days and hasn't turned anything up within JSPD's databanks. Not even what was done with the body."
"Stuff like that happens all the time on J Street, though."
"That's true, but they don't generally misplace dead bodies. And, well, hand me those papers from the bag, will you?"
Jayna complied, pulling several Photostat pages from inside the paper bag, then replacing it on it's perch. "Here you go."
"Thanks." He shuffled the pages around until they were in the correct order. "I checked the library database, looking through old issues of The J Street Tribune-Democrat-Daily-Times-Herald, starting at the date of the newspaper clipping of David's." He handed Jayna the first few pages of paper. "I had no problem finding the original article. It made the front section of the paper."
He picked up the next page in his very small stack. "The next articles are about the funeral of the two kids who were killed in the bomb blast, and the arrest of the two self-proclaimed 'punks' who were responsible for their kidnapping." He handed her the paper, which she looked at closely.
"This says they didn't know about the bomb."
"I know. Now look at the next page. It's from two weeks later."
"Only suspects in recent tower bombing found dead in their cells. - Officials suspect suicide." She read the headline and the following line. "Isn't that wonderfully cut and dried."
"Right. And that's it. Nothing else. No further mention of them, or the blast."
"Nothing? You've got a couple pages left."
"Well, these are a bit more recent, from the same time Ciela said David 'found' them."
Michael handed Jayna the last of the pages. "First is a pretty accurate artist rendering of a 'psychotic' who allegedly broke into a citizen's house and beat the hell out of him. It was issued along with an arrest warrant for said 'psychotic'. The sketch looks amazingly like David, doesn't it? The NEXT one is more interesting. The following day, the paper printed a retraction. Turns out the guy 'made up the whole story to bilk his insurance company'. Those were his exact words to the police when they questioned him in the hospital."
"That's bullshit!" Jayna looked at both articles, and focused on the sketch. "We should ask David about this. If it's true this is the first I've heard of it."
"If you want to ask him, go ahead, but I'd wait until Ciela was here." He stood up to leave. "I need to get to work. I'll let you know if anything else turns up."
"You don't need Az here to ask me a question. Go ahead and ask."
David had appeared in the room silently, without alerting either of them to his presence. "Jayna, Michael? What was the question?" His voice had an odd tone to it that Jayna didn't care for. It was almost accusatorial. She couldn't figure out why, but then it hit her.
...David felt threatened by Michael, somehow.Michael took the papers from Jayna, holding the sketch up in front of their resident corpse. "Ok, fine. Is this you? Did you beat the hell out of this guy?"
David studied the sketch and the article for a moment before replying. "Yes, and yes." He handed the copies back to Michael, who placed them back with the others. "But he had it coming."
"Nobody had that coming...and I think I've heard enough." Michael moved towards the door, which David effectively blocked, arms spread against the doorframe. "Move." Michael glared at him angrily but didn't raise a finger towards David, Jayna noted thankfully.
"You're not going to let me explain, are you."
"Save it. I'm late for work as it is."
"The bastard was beating his daughter."
"So you beat him. An eye for an eye, huh?"
"Yes, exactly." David's voice was very low and he fixed his stare straight at Michael as he moved from the doorway. He leaned against the opposing wall and crossed his arms. "There was nothing wrong with what I did."
Michael broke away from David's little staring contest, looking over to Jayna. "Good luck and be careful, Jay." He stormed from the room, leaving David to smirk at his back. Jayna shoved David back against the wall as he started to follow.
"Stay here. Don't push your luck." She quickly followed Michael out to the curb, where he was fastening the strap on his helmet. "You know something, don't you. Michael..."
"I don't know anything yet, but he's starting to confirm some of my suspicions."
"You going to tell me or not? Don't play games with me, Mike."
"I'll tell you when I'm sure, Jayna."
Jayna turned her back as the Harley roared off, heading back into the kitchen and the waiting David.
She picked up the papers and shoved them at David's chest. "Here, keep yourself amused." She spun on her heel and headed out of the kitchen. "I'll be downstairs. DO NOT bother me."***** Michael unlocked the shop, flipping on the lights automatically as he entered. No one waited outside for him, but inside he had several messages on his machine - he'd neglected to check the machine last night, busy searching out information on Ciela's 'friend'. He had a cancellation - a girl who he'd been trying to talk out of getting a tattoo until she was positive she was ready, and a request for a rescheduling. He'd just gotten off the phone with the latter, when a tiny alarm went off, letting him know someone had entered the shop.
He glanced around the door but didn't see anyone offhand. Stepping around into the main part of the shop, he finally found his visitor, staring at the wall that held most of his favorite designs.
"Well, this is a surprise. Hi, Ciela." He laughed as she flinched just a little bit and turned to face him. "Don't tell me you decided to get a tat."
"Um, no. I was just looking."
"Too bad. It would give you an excuse to show up more often."
"Quetz, I didn't know I needed an excuse..." She murmured, just loudly enough for him to hear.
"You don't...So why'd you come by? Did you pick up the stuff I left at Jay's?" He smiled at her warmly and noted that while she was looking at him, again, she wouldn't meet his eyes for more than a fleeting moment. He wondered if this avoidance was because of some sort of cult programming? He would have asked her about it but at least today she was attempting to talk to him, and asking about it probably would have sent her off into another of those awkward silences she was becoming so famous for when she was around him.
"Oh, no, I just was at the mall and thought I'd drop by and say hi." She grinned lopsidedly at him, paused and asked, "Why were you at Jay's, did you find something out about David?"
"Nothing concrete yet. I left some papers with her for you to look at." He crossed the room and put both hands on her shoulders, losing his smile as he spoke. "I know you don't want to hear this, but it's important. Your friend is dangerous. I'm sure of it."
He noticed she had to clear her throat before she could speak. "You told me that before." She finally managed, weakly.
"He's shown a tendency towards violence before. Just because he's calm while he's around you doesn't mean..." He stopped mid-sentence. Something was nagging at the back of his mind, something that could possibly clear this up, if he could just see it... "What is the name of that god you keep invoking?"
"Quetzalcoatl."
The nagging thoughts were closer to the surface now, if he could just... "Aztec. God of...?"
"Knowledge. Light and knowledge." She answered, noticing how far away he seemed. "Are you ok?"
He blinked, looked down and smiled again. "I'm just fine. I was trying to figure something out...about David."
She laughed. "That's good. Can you let go of me now, please?"
"Sorry." He noted with a slight grin that she had goosebumps on her arms. "Is it cold in here or is it just me?" He asked, releasing her shoulders and walking across the room to the thermostat.
"Um, actually it's a bit warm...I think." She fidgeted a bit, and started to move towards the door without taking her eyes from him. "Um, I'll check the stuff you left at Jayna's and get back to you, ok? I'd stay longer but I have a little bit of shopping to do."
"Good idea. Call me, ok?"
"Right. Jay's got your number?"
"She should."
"Ok, great. I'll just get it from her."
"Good idea."
"Yeah...ok, later then."
"Right. Later."
Michael managed to stay silent for a few long seconds after Az had left. When he was positive she was out of earshot, he started laughing. "This is gonna be an interesting day."
***** Rydgen parked his Hummer and grabbed the pizza he was supposed to be delivering. Just in time. He thought to himself, looking at his watch. Checking the address again, he walked up the short driveway and knocked on the door. When no one answered, he knocked again, louder. When there was no answer, he cupped one hand to the window and peered in. The front door flew open, surprising him and almost causing him to drop the pizza.
Turning to face the overly rude guy standing in the door, he asked. "Hey, you ordered a... Aqua?"
"Pizza. I ordered a pizza."
Rydgen was still staring at Aquarius with his mouth hanging open, pizza balanced on his hand forgotten. "You're alive? You're not DEAD!!!!!!"
Aquarius looked himself over, then laughed. "Not last time I checked." He handed Ry the money for the pizza, plus a tip, and moved to close the door. When it was just halfway shut, he changed his mind. "Hey, are you still on speaking terms with Az?"
"I guess so, haven't heard anything from her since I, uh, went on 'reserve' with the JSS. I haven't heard from any of them for a while, now that you mention it. Why?"
"She quit. She's been hanging out at Jay's new place. Maybe you should drop by and say hi. I think she sorta misses you and Sil."
Rydgen blinked in surprise. "I didn't expect that. Not from her anyway."
"Well, stop by and say hi, willya?" Aquarius disappeared through the door and reappeared seconds later with a business card with the shop's new address on it. "The phone's connected but she's not answering it too much yet, not until she's ready to open up the shop. She still has a lot to do - she plans to open up next week if all goes well."
"That's great, man. I'd ask you how you recovered from being scattered around the street, but I'm working, and I need to get back. Maybe I'll see you at Jayna's?"
"Could be." Aquarius winked at Ry. "I prefer her cooking to pizza, but..."
"Hey, say no more. I don't want to know."
"Then get back to work!"
"Right." Ry pocketed the card, jumped in the Hummer and took off, Guns 'N' Roses blasting louder than should have been humanly possible to withstand and still have any vestiges of hearing remain. But due to Ry's abilities, that didn't pose a problem.
***** "What do you mean, go home? My shift's not over!" Ry looked out the window of the pizza shop in disgust. "It's not even DARK out yet! How am I supposed to make any money on deliveries???"
"Jeremy, it's-a been-a slow day. Just-a enjoy the rest of-a the day, the other guys will-a cover it. Tomorrow'll be-a better."
Ry muttered in annoyance, letting the door slam on his way out of the Mama Guido's. He drove down the street in slight disgust, not minding where he was going, blasting his hearing into oblivion with the same Guns 'N' Roses CD. Eventually he stopped, pulling into an empty parking lot, realizing where he was. Outside the park where Tezcatlipoca had sliced his chest open, after having killed Thanos. He knew if he got out of the Hummer and walked a little bit, he could eventually find the 'natural' entryway into Zen's
Dimension.He wondered why nobody had bothered to tell him that Az had quit, and why on earth she had taken up with Jayna and Aquarius, of all people. Not that they were bad, they'd helped the JSS beat Tezcatinthehat, but...
He shook his head clearing the cobwebs of memory from his mind and pulled out of the parking lot into the light traffic that passed by, and turned the Hummer towards home.
Chapter 3
J Street
Rydgen's Apartment"Where is she?!" he screamed again, for what seemed to be the hundredth time. He picked up Rydgen and tossed him violently out the window. Of course it was closed, so Rydgen's body crashed through it, and he was sliced up by shards of glass on his trip down to meet the pavement in a most unfriendly way. Rydgen landed with a wet thud, splatters of blood decorating the concrete with green.
"Guh-god damn it!" Rydgen spat out, along with more blood and a couple of teeth. He strained to raise himself up from his face first meeting with the sidewalk, and managed to sit upright. He looked up just in time to see blackness surround him, pulling him back down to the ground. The force bent his body in unnatural angles.
"I'll ask you again," the darkness hissed. "Where. Is. She!?" He punctuated each word by slamming Ry's head into the ground hard enough to fracture bone. "Tell me you FREAK! Where is she HIDING?"
"Rage... taking over!" Rydgen screamed, suddenly twisting out of the darkness' grasp and lunging successfully at it. Ever since the attack had started in his apartment, taking him completely by surprise, Rydgen had been getting the business end of the beating. But that was it, broken bones, numerous cuts, open wounds; Rydgen had taken enough of this maniac's abuse.
"I've had enough of your shit!" He yelled into the dark figure's face. "I don't know who the hell you a-" Suddenly, he did know who it was, for the darkness pulled away to reveal the face of Warren Falconer. That little shock gave Warren the upper hand once again. With a grin only a true madman could manage, he grabbed Rydgen by the wrist and casually flung him across the street. He stalked over to where Rydgen lay, trying to catch his breath and muster his strength enough to fight back. Warren shook his head in exasperation, pulled back his foot and kicked Ry squarely in the ribs. As Ry tried to fend off the blows, he continued kicking, repeating the question over and over.
After several minutes he stopped. "Where is she, Rydgen?" Warren asked sweetly. "I'm getting tired of beating on you. It's just no challenge. I've seen tougher piņatas." He picked the battered form off the ground with one hand and held him up to eye level. "Pathetic. Unconscious already?" He let go of the limp form and it crumpled to the ground. "You will tell me where the Quetz-spawned bitch is, you pathetic little man, one way or another." Warren said quietly. Then he slipped into the shadows and was gone.
After a few minutes unconscious, and a few more minutes trying to catch his breath, Rydgen stood up painfully, setting broken bones and letting them heal while there was a smidgen of daylight left. He didn't know how Warren had found him, or why he didn't just go find Azangel himself. Hell, he hadn't even given Rydgen a chance to answer him between poundings! All Ry knew was that Azangel had been bumming with Jayna and *shudder* Aquarius.
Now it looked like he'd have to find her, try to warn her. His major injuries were healed now, just leaving the internal ruptures, breaks and tears to repair. He plucked the business card, still intact in his flannel pocket, and read the address. It wasn't too far from here, fortunately. He was in no condition to drive, so out of breath and weakened from the battle, Rydgen made his way up the street.
By the time Rydgen made his way to Alexander the Great's, he was as healed as he was going to be. He still ached all over, but at least the internal injuries and bleeding had stopped. He looked a mess, but considering the bizarre circumstances most J Streeters lived with daily, a green-haired, limping, meta with shredded, stained clothing barely warranted attention.
***** "David, get the door, will you?" Jayna called from the kitchen. "And bring me the phone, I'm gonna call Az - she should have been home before now."
"What do I look like, a butler?"
"Yes, Jeeves..."
"Geez..." David grabbed Jayna's cell phone and slipped it into his pocket before going to the door to silence the insistent pounding. He pulled the door open instantly upon seeing the disheveled figure leaning heavily on the doorframe, pounding with one hand, holding on to the knob with the other.
"About time..." Rydgen said before looking up at David's pale, concerned face.
"Ry, what happened? You look worse than I do."
"Davey, long story. Where's Az? I gotta talk to her. Jayna too."
David moved aside, letting Rydgen enter. "Jayna's up in the kitchen. We're not sure where Azangel is. Jayna was about to try to call her."
"Damn! He might have gotten to her already!"
"He, who?" Jayna asked from the bottom of the stairs before David could speak again. "What's this about Azangel?"
"If you can get hold of her, do it!" Rydgen shouted. He looked a mess, and Jayna wasn't going to press the issue just yet, at least not until he was semi-coherent. She took the phone from David as he handed it to her, punched a button and held the phone to her ear expectantly. There was a short moment of silence, then a muffled ringing could be heard from upstairs. "She left the phone here. It figures."
Ry slumped against the nearest wall. "Dammit. This is so not good." He rubbed his forehead with one hand, still leaning heavily against the wall. "I'm not feeling too good, guys. Jayna, have you got anything around here to eat? I need fuel before I fall down again."
"Plenty. But what's this about Azangel? You show up looking worse than him," she jerked a thumb in David's direction, "shouting about Az, and then want food?"
"Let me sit down and eat something, I've gotta replace some of the body mass I lost when that lunatic attacked me." Ry moved away from the wall, staggered slightly, and held on to Jayna for support as they went upstairs to the kitchen.
"What lunatic?"
"Warren." Ry said, sliding into one of the chairs in the kitchen and taking the food Jayna offered. "Warren attacked me at my apartment, beat the daylights out of me, and left. I figure he's looking for Az right now, he was practically foaming at the mouth about finding her." He glanced over to David, whose expression showed both concern and confusion. "He's a nutcase. Total psycho. He used to be Azangel, before Ciela got the helmet. He tried to frame Az for murder, brought Tezwhatchamacallit to J Street, helped kill a friend of ours, tried to kill Az..." Ry trailed off, letting David absorb the information.
"Warren, huh?" Jayna shook her head in disgust. "You two stay here. I'm gonna go grab a few things, we may have to go looking for Az. I don't think she took the helmet with her when she left this morning." Jayna made certain that there was enough for Rydgen within easy reach then she started for Az's room, only change her mind once outside the door. She decided to give her friend more time to return home before rooting through her things. If this Warren was the same person who had been the priest of Tezcatlipoca then there was a chance that he would still be under the dark God's taint, and that could be BIG trouble. Going to the basement and pulling some of her 'big guns' would be a very prudent move.
Chapter 4
"David, tell whoever's at the door we're already closed, ok? I don't care WHO it is, we're closed." Jayna shouted from the basement of the shop, to the nearly skeletal figure darkening the doorway. "Try not to scare them to death, either, all right? You look like total sh*t. I can't seem to find what I'm looking for so, after you get rid of the visitor, tell Rydgen to give me a few more minutes.""Right, Jayna." David replied quietly, then instantly vanished from view, causing Jayna just a few seconds of worry. She was quite relieved that he hadn't come down after her, she'd asked him never to step foot in the basement, and so far he'd listened to her. David wasn't too bad considering no one knew what he was, other than that he was dead. After a few long minutes, when he hadn't returned, she started up the stairs. Hopefully he'd gotten rid of their visitor, and it wasn't just some kid trying to sell cookies to a guy who didn't eat. She locked the basement, replacing all the various physical and mystic restraints.
"Dave, who was it?" She called out, still seeing no sign of him. "You're taking the 'creepy 'spirit of the undead' thing too far kid, it's not nice to play with 'ol Jayna, considering she can kick your ass out on the street." She made her way to the front of the shop, with still no sign of David, or of Rydgen. "Hey, Azzy can only convince me to let you stay for so long, kid, and she's not here right now. So knock it off and show your face." With still no reply, she called out to her other guest, and headed towards the kitchen where she'd left him. "Hey, Ry, are you ok?"
Jayna heard heavy footsteps behind her and turned, prepared to chew out some reanimated ass. "Who wa-"
The fist that slammed into the bridge of her nose caught her off guard, as did the foot that followed it, connecting to side of her head even as the first punch somehow, inexplicably, knocked her to the floor. Even as she tried to pick herself up she saw the booted foot coming towards her again and rolled, quickly scrambling to her feet. "Look, David, you have no idea how big of a mistake that was. Consider yourself evicted, you idiot!"
Michael had warned them David could become violent at any time, though why he'd decide to attack HER of all people she couldn't understand, especially since he didn't seem strong enough to hurt her. Annoy her, yes...she could feel his punches, but hurt her? Funny guy.
She swung a fist at the pale face that hung in front of her like a ghost, taunting her with its unconcerned smile. Her punch connected solidly and with a satisfying crunch, but the expression on his face didn't change. The only thing that DID change was the position of his head. His eyes stayed solidly open but his head slowly lolled to one side, suddenly limp as a rag doll. His right arm moved slowly, the hand wagging up and down in a lifeless, almost comical, attempt at a wave.
Jayna backed up a step, mouth widening as she heard an eerily familiar laugh issue from behind David. Then she heard the same laugh behind her, above her, all around the room, and she suddenly noticed that the entire room was considerably darker than it should have been.
"Oh hell."
Jayna turned and sprinted across the room, displacing the mystic locks on the basement door while still in motion, pulling it open and slamming it behind her.
Various wards back in place, she searched the room quickly for what she wanted, and finding it, relaxed a little, pulling her cellular phone from her pocket and hitting automatic dial for Aquarius. After the seventh ring she cursed at him and hung up. From upstairs she could hear breaking glass as her 'visitor' broke into one of her many display cases. A loud thud that was probably a bookcase toppling over in one of the other rooms sent dust raining down from the basement ceiling. Jayna shook her head, imagining how much damage was being done to her shop. As a precaution she wanted backup, but she wasn't about to let this joker destroy her place. She hit autodial again, a different number. It rang repeatedly but no one answered.Jayna hung up in disgust, and turned to go back upstairs. She froze as she heard a light rap on the basement door. Jayna chided herself for her reaction. "You don't have a god backing you up this time, pal, and you're not getting past the wards on the door unless I decide to let you." Her visitor knocked again, a bit louder. Jayna shouldered her choice in weapons and put both feet on the stairs, taking a step upwards.
The knocking stopped, and she could hear even more crashes and clatterings from around the shop, coming from multiple directions. She finished climbing the short flight of stairs, reached out and flung the door wide.David started towards her immediately, his face still utterly expressionless. Jayna bounded towards him, slamming the gun-butt into the center of his face, sending him sprawling backwards onto the debris-laden shop floor. David shook his head as he got up slowly, with the same blank look still etched on his pale countenance, muscles tensing visibly, preparing to attack her again.
"Sorry about this..." she intercepted his arm in mid-punch, turning David's momentum against him and flipping him quickly onto his back. Not letting go, she wrenched the arm she held sharply, and his shoulder separated with a loud crack. Immediately her boot came down hard on one knee, breaking it as well.
Unconcerned with the damage being done elsewhere on his body, David's free arm shot up and grabbed the back of her leg, trying to drag her to the floor.She pulled her leg away and brought the gun down solidly on his still - functioning arm, which also splintered with an audible crack. She looked down, the unyielding blank stare looking back up at her.
The arm she'd dislocated was already healed somewhat, well enough to have grabbed the gun barrel, and even though the leverage was against him, he was doing a good job at trying to pull it away from her.
She exhaled loudly. "You asked for this..." she said, and pulled the trigger on the 'Liefield-esque' gun, his hand and arm up to the elbow dissolving in the powerful blast."Bravo. I didn't think you'd actually shoot him."
Jayna glanced up to see her visitor, a nearly invisible shadow standing against a dark, swirling portal that was for some reason taking up part of the middle of her place. "Get the hell out of my shop." He was a lot bulkier than he'd been the last time she saw him, and his dark face was covered with a skeletal-half mask. The damn thing looked real. His hair, which before had been somewhat longish, had been shaved close to his head. But how many blue skinned psychos do you know, after all? "Get out of my shop, Warren." She fairly spat at him.
"If I don't, do you think your little gun will stop me?"
"I think I can stop you, yeah."
"I think you're stalling." He pointed to the cell phone on the floor where she didn't realize she had dropped it. It had probably been knocked from her pocket during her little tussle with David. "Who did you call?"
"None of your business, you psycho." Jayna took her eyes off of Warren long enough to see David crawling slowly towards one of her nastier non-magical items, a sword that was almost as old as she was.
"Now, David, this isn't like you at all." She admonished, bringing her foot down on his arm so that it snapped again. Then she quickly moved the sword out of reach, along with one or two other items she thought he could use easily. Warren obligingly stood by the portal without moving any closer."I'll bet you called your friend Aquarius. He'll do anything for money, won't he? I really wouldn't mind seeing him again, I feel I owe him a debt just as much as I do you. Maybe I'll even be a little nicer to him, after all the work he did for me last time." He paused, looking around the shop, and at the damage he'd done while Jayna had been safely tucked away in the basement. "Or maybe you think Rydgen 'the unstoppable' will be helping you?" Warren grinned at her. "He's not going to be helping you. He's a bit tied up at the moment"
"I told you to get out of my shop."
"Jayna, I'm not leaving. I'm waiting right here until Ciela shows up. We have unfinished business to take care of." He laughed slightly and started towards her, the mass of swirling, scarlet-tinged shadows that she'd taken to be a portal following him.
Jayna waited until he was almost at point-blank range before shouldering the weapon and firing. She was mildly surprised, and a bit relieved, when his body evaporated into nothingness after the first shot, leaving just the 'portal' behind. She was therefore very disappointed when his body reformed, unscathed, mere seconds later. The 'portal' started to fade, melting to the floor, then shooting up, covering the walls, the floor, the ceiling, and eventually both herself and David.