Issue #59 – Return of the Magi
Part 3
Occult’s whole body stiffened. In her peripheral vision, she saw the Knights Amore Destestabilis: Wayne was fending off the stone golem while Dana warded off the squirrels, who were now being bolstered by the arrival of a small air force made up of jays, starlings, thrushes and robins. The birds didn’t try to attack, they just flew everywhere, keeping Dana flailing wildly and off balance. Somewhere in the midst of this, Jeremy occasionally wrested the sword away, forcing Dana to lose time re-summoning it.
Things looked to be at a stalemate; though Dana was cutting down swathes of animals with every stroke, her weapon wasn’t meant to kill living creatures. After a short period of recovering from having their emotions and instincts nullified, that got back into the fray unless Dana had managed a lucky hit to the sigils on their heads. Only in that event did the creatures finally run off. At the same time, Wayne was fighting a defensive war in back.
But it wasn’t a stalemate. It was just part of their fighting style; eventually, they would switch off, Dana would make quick work of the golem with her sword once she got the right angle of attack, and Wayne could slam the animals back en masse with his shield if Dana cut him some breathing room first.
Even estranged as they were, they fought as one; a cohesive battle pair whose understanding of each other’s body language and stances bordered on telepathy.
And once that happened, would the college magi have any more tricks left to stave off the inevitable?
As much as she knew she should, as much as she chided and agonized with herself in her head, Occult wasn’t focusing on that.
Instead, her head was in the past, reliving halcyon days before Morganna had entered her world and changed it’s course with the violence of a tropical. Days she spent with her aunt Tay.
Lisa’s twin brother, Zach, was on the sickly side and only made it worse being timid and nervous. Their parents doted on him greatly, but never made Lisa feel left out. It was just that everything they did as a family had to be tame enough for Zach’s fragile sensibilities.
So when her Aunt Tatiana was in town, Lisa took any invitation to come over immediately. Even lunch with Aunt Tay could be thrilling, as the woman knew all the spots to go to if you wanted to run into a celebrity or two. And it didn’t hurt that there would always be a present with her name on it and a story from some exotic locale, possibly with pictures of video.
She remembered so many evenings just sitting at the kitchen table in her aunt’s apartment, laughing and having pizza while talking about anything and everything. Those were some of her best memories and they wouldn’t have just been memories if it wasn’t for Morganna.
The Manikin stood patiently while she processed the fact that she just might get it all back. All she had to do was not fight so hard, be late in joining what would surely be a fight at the tower by now. All she had to do was fail. And let Morganna have her body back, along with whatever advantage she was looking for from it.
Her decision was interrupted by a golden blur streaking from the sky to collide with Manikin.
Facsimile struck like a hawk, but she took the ‘fat bully’ approach to grappling, ending up sitting on Manikin’s chest with her knees holding down the construct’s arms.
“We’ve never been introduced.” she said, her gruff words faltering awkwardly as she got her first clear look at just how much Manikin’s glamor resembled Lisa Ortega from two years in the past. It took a second for her to rally, but she did admirably. “You’re that face stealing, nutball helping, gobhead that’s responsible for those two over there, plus Inexorable, plus Morganna pulling disappearing acts on us. I hate when the bad guys get away. So you’re going to be a good little clone… or whatever and sit right here.”
Instead of responding to that, Manikin trained her gaze past her, though her golden feathers, to Occult. “This may be your only chance.”
Facsimile turned her head around like an owl, without moving the rest of her body. Normally, she used the trick at home to squick everyone out, but this time, she was doing it to avoid shifting her weight in any way that might give Manikin an opening. “Your last chance for what?”
A powerful wind forestalled Occult’s revelation as Chaos dropped from the sky to land between the Knights. Before they could even react, he unleashed hurricane force to either side.
Dana was thrown off her feet and sent tumbling across the broken ground. Wayne wasn’t so lucky; he was cannoned into the chest of the golem hard enough to topple it over. Theresa reacted swiftly to this, causing the fallen golem to wrap one arm around Wayne and lock it into place.
When Dana tried to right herself, she found that she was staring down the business end of an albino skunk with its tail held high.
“Sweet Clyde would like you to know what he thinks of you hurting his friends.” Elle said from somewhere to her right. Shortly thereafter, the skunk let fly a stream of noxious spray across Dana’s face. When she went to escape it, Elle was there to put her foot on her back and hold her in place.
Chaos was quick to come and zip cuff her arms behind her back. “These are the two that sent everyone’s emotions haywire?” he asked, not seeming impressed.
“They aren’t warping the astral anymore.” Occult said, never taking her eyes off Manikin. “That probably means they have more control now, which makes them more dangerous, not less.” The sounds of fighting back at the top of Campus Walk was starting to distract her. She needed to get to the tower.
“Untrue.” said the Manikin. “The unbalancing effect is not their power, but a terrible curse. It has been temporarily sealed.”
“Good to know.” said Facsimile. “But what I want to know is what this ‘last chance’ thing is?”
“I’m getting a ‘snake in the garden of Eden’ feeling about that.” Said Chaos. Of course, he would, even with knowledge of Occult’s true identity, he was wary of magic as a rule. Occult didn’t blame him.
“It’s my aunt.” said Occult, now staring at nothing in particular. “She said that is Morganna gets her body back, my aunt will get hers back too.”
“Well it’s a lie obviously.” Facsimile said immediately.
Chaos nodded in agreement. “Morganna doesn’t care if anyone else lives or dies and she’s not the type to cut a deal. She even screwed over demons when it was convenient.”
Manikin shook her head. “None of you understand how this magic works. All of you are ignorant—even the one I expected more of. This isn’t a matter of sparing your aunt; if the transference occurs, it will be just as it was when you were released.”
Occult remembered the nightmare of being possessed by Morganna. And she also knew first hand how easily she was discarded for a body the sorceress thought was better. Lisa had been left abandoned on a rooftop because Morganna didn’t give her a second thought or care about her once she wasn’t part of her plans. She would likely do the same this time.
All Occult would have to do was lose this one on purpose.
“So it’s over?” Jennifer approached cautiously with Theresa partially hiding behind her.
“Not yet, we’ve got—“ Facsimile started.
“For you it is.” Chaos interrupted. “We’ve got business at the tower still.”
“Might be nice to have some mystical muscle against Inexorable.” Facsimile shifted to flip Manikin onto her stomach in preparation to cuff her.
The construct didn’t have any use for human affectations like smiling, but if she did, she would have. “You also know nothing about the Knight Amore Detestabilis: They are one. Their powers are one.”
Chaos looked to Occult. “Some kind of magic riddle?”
“More like a reminded.” said Wayne, lifting her free hand to his chest. “Locum in manu mea defendit ferro.”
***
The stone blocks at the base of the tower shifted against one another with a continuous grinding sound as an arc formed. From it strode Inexorable with the sledgehammer in one hand, the head dragging the ground. As soon as he was out in the open, the tower stones began to resume their original positions, sealing the tower behind him.
“We all know the deal here.” He said, a haggard impatience in his voice. “Crazy woman’s at the top, I’m at the bottom. The only way up there–” He pointed to himself with the thumb of his free hand, “starts right here. And since we all know how things went last time…”
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a ski mask, which he pulled over his head. His confident smirk was hidden by the material of the mask as he hefted the hammer into a ready position. “Ain’t nobody getting in here.”
“Right. We wouldn’t think of insulting you by trying the same trick twice.” Codex selected the maximum safe setting on the ADS and turned it on. The only indication that anything was happening came in the form of a low hum from the machine.
A wave of discomfort washed over Inexorable like the feeling of thrusting one’s arms into a hot oven, only all over. In the next moment, that sensation intensified a hundredfold, leaving him with the sudden and distinct sensation that he now knew what it felt like to burn to death.
Almost unable to say anything but curses, Inexorable started forward to smash the offending device, only to slip on the sheet of ice covering the ground in front of the tower. He was saved from a spill only because he smashed the hammer down through the ice, giving him a temporary support.
That didn’t last either as Zero and Darkness blasted his legs, knocking them out from under him with help from the ice. Within seconds, he was sprawled on the frozen ground and struggling to rise.
Codex kept the ADS trained on him. “I figured this should have some effect because magic is a very literal force: if a spell says you’re going to get something, you’ll usually get it to the letter and nothing more or less. You’re strong without having any extra muscle, tough without having thicker skin, and none of that protects you from irritants or directly causing you pain. Not my preferred way to do things, but just like you, I remember last time.”
Inexorable stopped fighting and lay face-down on the ice to catch his breath.
“Cute. How do you stop the unstoppable? Make sure he can’t get started.” He didn’t try to rise to his knees, knowing he’d just be knocked down if he did. He just reared up and sent a punch into the ice from a prone position.
Codex was right; the magic didn’t protect him from pain or irritation or anything that didn’t do Morganna’s idea of ‘harm’ to him, which was actually a narrow definition. But it did give him the strength to overcome what opposed, and that too was literal. His strength wasn’t a static thing, but scaled up based on what he needed to win.
And at the moment, that strength was enough to shatter the ice and pavement below for about three feet in ever direction, leaving shards of ice and asphalt all around him.
Inexorable seized on of those chunks and slung it like a frisbee at the ADS. While he lacked the angle and the piece of ice he threw lacked the durability to break the machine, it did manage to jar loose one of the hastily assembled brackets holding the central rod designed to focus the beam. With the beam skewed, the pain it cause vanished.
With teeth gritted, He got to one knee. Zero sent a blast of psychokinetic energy at him, but he caught his fingers beneath the ice sheet and lifted a piece larger than himself into the path of it. The impact only made him grunt, and, anticipating Darkness’s response, he flung the sheet at her and forced her to dodge instead of attacking him.
He used that time to get to his feet on the now clear space in the center of the ice sheet and reclaim the hammer. “Maybe you girls need a dictionary. Take some time out and look it up. When you type in ‘invincible’, ‘unbeatable’ and ‘hardcore son of a bitch’, this is the picture you get, got it?”
Codex didn’t bother trying to fix the ADS. She’d only expected it to be a short term distraction anyway, and more importantly, something to get Inexorable angry. So she took the collapsible bo staff off her belt and extended it. With perfect confidence, she stepped out onto the ice.
Knowing that slick ice sheets were always an option with Zero on her side, her boots, like the entire team’s had a high grip polymer on the soles. It was like she was walking on normal ground.
“Is that so?” She held her staff out to her side with her free hand on her belt. Behind her, Hope took up a position and shifted her focus from the crowd (who no longer needed the incentive to get away) to Inexorable. “And why would that be? After all, we’ve already beaten you. And as for hardcore, you’re so scared of a person half your weight and delusional that you’d do everything she tells you instead of walking away.”
Zero and Darkness held back, hovering overhead at angles.
“Working for her keeps me strong that’s the deal for the powers.” Inexorable insisted.
Codex laughed a sneering laugh as she circled around him, putting her back to the tower. “Power isn’t everything. For example: I’ve barely got any defensive powers, but I’m about to kick your ass.”
Inexorable lifted the hammer, dark thoughts filling his head.
He wasn’t scared of Morganna, she just made him uncomfortable—which was normal when it came to her. And there was no denying that his powers were worth that. Maybe not the betrayal that felt inevitable, but worth discomfort, right? He didn’t have to prove anything to Codex of all people. He remembered her; she’d needed to use a ship’s cannon to even slow him down last time. And now she dared to say she’d kick his ass?
Time to put her in her place.
He put all his strength into lunging forward hammer raised.
Codex fell into a ready stance before the oncoming unstoppable force.
About Vaal
Landon Porter is the author of
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