Ranma ½ Divine Blood
- Thread starter Thrythlind
- Start date
Kurz and his team took position overlooking the clearing where the killing took place and scanned the surrounding area through a sniper scope. The rest of the rifle, which he wasn't supposed to be using this mission, was surreptitiously broken down and in his pack.
Just in case.
At the moment, he was holding base camp and waiting for the US team with one of his own while the other two ran a perimeter check for any tracks of lingering guards of the Canadian authorities.
"Not much longer, I hope," Kurz said quietly.
A flash of movement caught his attention and he focused across the bloody clearing to see one of the other pair of his team quietly and subtly waving back.
"Looks like we're clear of rangers or mounties," Sergeant Weber noted confidently.
"That's good to hear at least," the other mercenary said, shrugging.
The crystals on the left hand side of each of their amulets had started growing weakly red as they got close to the killing ground, with a trace of blue if you squinted enough in the crystal on the right. Though Kurz was noting more that the white crystal was getting brighter slowly.
Kurz was known for being a laid-back womanizer and somewhat undisciplined. It was a reputation that a lot of his former co-workers extended toward his work in the field, especially given his tendency to make quips.
The man behind the sniper was one such person, a member of the Primary Response Team temporarily attached to the Special Response Team sniper. The very fact that Kurz was leading the mission here gave him the impression that this entire situation was a nothing task. It also seemed to imply that Mithril was more than a little stretched out.
He was just thinking that there the SRT reputation was more than a little inflated when Kurz whipped around, drawing his pistol in a blur. The mercenary's hands shot up as he stared in shock. His face was slowly moving toward an affronted expression when Kurz spoke.
"Out of the way, Sanchez," he said, eyeing a figure moving in the vegetation behind his team member.
Then someone, a darker-skinned woman with long brunette hair, stepped out of the trees toward Weber's side, as he directed his submachine gun in that direction. He lacked a third limb, however, for the next individual to appear, a thin man with dark somewhat unkempt hair.
"Whoa there," the man said in a calming tone. "Let's just take a moment and breath here. We're the SG team. You're mithril?"
"Sergeant Weber," Kurz said suspiciously.
"Major Shepard," the other man said, lowering his own weapon and signaling for the other woman to do so as well before gesturing toward where the first sound that had alerted Weber originated from. "Quinn, get on out here."
Kurz slowly relaxed and stood up, holstering his pistol and keeping his P90 up and ready. He gave Sanchez a scathing look as he noticed the man still didn't seem to have caught up to the situation.
"Put your hands down," he said. "You're embarrassing us."
"I didn't mean to startle you there," Shepard said, turning a look toward another man to walked out.
This person was clearly a civilian despite his short hair and his competence at holding his weapon. For that matter so was the woman with the brown hair. The fourth person, however, was another clear military man wearing glasses and dressed in fatigues.
"P90s and pistols?" Kurz noted, taking in the equipment of the other team and raising his own for comparison.
"Well, it is recon," Shepard said. "So, that's Sgt. Siler. Teyla's our sensitive and Quinn's our bookworm. How are you fixed?"
"I've got two PRTs looking to transfer to SRT, and one psionic," Kurz said.
He raised the crystal amulet up and indicated the glow about the crystals. Taking it off for a moment, he gestured it towards Teyla and watched as the white glow got significantly brighter, moving past the point when it could have been merely an optical illusion. Then he pulled back the amulet and slipped it on.
The woman nodded and turned toward Shepard.
"The crystals appear to react to psionic energy," she said.
"That's very clever way to rig a substitute sensitive," the man named Quinn said.
"Well," Shepard said. "You said you had two more men, should we be expecting them to get the drop on us soon and go back to the whole heroic misunderstanding thing."
"I saw them a moment ago," Kurz said. "They should be back here soon. I sent them to look for tracks or signs. Unfortunately, our quarry teleports, so I'm not expecting much."
"That just makes things fun," Shepard said sarcastically. "We're told you had intel to pass on, care to share?"
"The theory is that this group tried to reach a set safehouse or safe region despite orders to avoid anything on their lists," Kurz said. "If that's true, we think there might be a facility in the area. We're looking to confirm that before the Ranger service here stumbles on it."
"Yeah," Shepard said. "I can just see the new story after that happens."
As they spoke, two more figures came to join the group, Kurz nodding to recognize their arrival and calm down the Americans.
"Shall we finish introductions then?" Teyla asked.
Kurz nodded as he pointed toward the other members of his team.
"You've met Sanchez, that's Mason," he came and finished off by pointing to the one female in his group. "And that's Ichi."
Nimu nodded to the other soldiers quietly and politely, especially as a frown started to come over the face of the two soldiers.
"You look familiar," Siler said.
"I have a large family," Nimu said simply.
"Let's just focus on the objectives," Weber said. "Did you find anything?"
"These crystals glowed a deeper red on the other side of the clearing," she said. "Maybe they came from that direction."
"I agree," Teyla noted with a nod. "I feel they came out from that direction as well."
"There are some hills in that direction," Quinn said. "They have the right make-up to produce a cave system."
"Let's get to it then," Shepard said.
As they walked along, Kurz dropped slowly back and gave Teyla a broad smile.
"So, how sensitive are you?" he asked.
She gave him a silent, long look, rolled her eyes with a small smile and looked ahead down the trail.
******
Nimu wished briefly that she had on of the Ni's with her. If she had her absolute choice, it would have been Yonjuu. She could have used the sensor's reports on scents and other assorted information in this. But Mithril was only willing to send her on this task.
Actually, if Captain Testarossa had had her way, Nimu's volunteering wouldn't have been accepted yet. The girl wanted all the daughters to have at least a few more months of training before going on real missions. Fortunately, Testarossa's superiors had insisted on accepting Nimu's offer, if only to have at least one psionic on hand to support the recon team.
The fact that Nimu's telekinetic ability wasn't the most useful for this task hadn't been addressed.
Now, they were coming up to the base of a tree-covered ring of rocky hills, and the crystals they were wearing were quite clearly reading the presence of what she had been told was Demonic energy.
"If I understand the way those things work," Shepard said. "That means our targets are in the area."
Kurz nodded quietly.
"How about your team take the south approach," Kurz said, "and mine will take the north."
"You're a sniper normally aren't you?" Shepard asked as he eyed the high ground Kurz was indicating. "Our orders are not to engage, yours?"
"Confirm and report," Kurz agreed.
"Let's get on with this," Sanchez muttered. "Then we can get to something a bit less fluffy and new-agey."
Several eyes turned to look at him and frowned.
"Better idea," Shepard said. "Quinn, Siler, and two of yours, hold base camp, the rest of us break up and return with what we find."
Weber thought about it and nodded, pointing toward the two PRTs he had under him and giving them that instruction.
"You remember that I'm telekinetic, not a sensitive," Nimu asked quietly.
"I do," Kurz agreed. "And I might need something small and distant moved."
"If you say so," Nimu noted.
****************************
Okay, so using Stargate characters gives me a ready supply of side characters for cameos (of course now I have to have something suitably bad ass occur off screen to account for them....)
Just in case.
At the moment, he was holding base camp and waiting for the US team with one of his own while the other two ran a perimeter check for any tracks of lingering guards of the Canadian authorities.
"Not much longer, I hope," Kurz said quietly.
A flash of movement caught his attention and he focused across the bloody clearing to see one of the other pair of his team quietly and subtly waving back.
"Looks like we're clear of rangers or mounties," Sergeant Weber noted confidently.
"That's good to hear at least," the other mercenary said, shrugging.
The crystals on the left hand side of each of their amulets had started growing weakly red as they got close to the killing ground, with a trace of blue if you squinted enough in the crystal on the right. Though Kurz was noting more that the white crystal was getting brighter slowly.
Kurz was known for being a laid-back womanizer and somewhat undisciplined. It was a reputation that a lot of his former co-workers extended toward his work in the field, especially given his tendency to make quips.
The man behind the sniper was one such person, a member of the Primary Response Team temporarily attached to the Special Response Team sniper. The very fact that Kurz was leading the mission here gave him the impression that this entire situation was a nothing task. It also seemed to imply that Mithril was more than a little stretched out.
He was just thinking that there the SRT reputation was more than a little inflated when Kurz whipped around, drawing his pistol in a blur. The mercenary's hands shot up as he stared in shock. His face was slowly moving toward an affronted expression when Kurz spoke.
"Out of the way, Sanchez," he said, eyeing a figure moving in the vegetation behind his team member.
Then someone, a darker-skinned woman with long brunette hair, stepped out of the trees toward Weber's side, as he directed his submachine gun in that direction. He lacked a third limb, however, for the next individual to appear, a thin man with dark somewhat unkempt hair.
"Whoa there," the man said in a calming tone. "Let's just take a moment and breath here. We're the SG team. You're mithril?"
"Sergeant Weber," Kurz said suspiciously.
"Major Shepard," the other man said, lowering his own weapon and signaling for the other woman to do so as well before gesturing toward where the first sound that had alerted Weber originated from. "Quinn, get on out here."
Kurz slowly relaxed and stood up, holstering his pistol and keeping his P90 up and ready. He gave Sanchez a scathing look as he noticed the man still didn't seem to have caught up to the situation.
"Put your hands down," he said. "You're embarrassing us."
"I didn't mean to startle you there," Shepard said, turning a look toward another man to walked out.
This person was clearly a civilian despite his short hair and his competence at holding his weapon. For that matter so was the woman with the brown hair. The fourth person, however, was another clear military man wearing glasses and dressed in fatigues.
"P90s and pistols?" Kurz noted, taking in the equipment of the other team and raising his own for comparison.
"Well, it is recon," Shepard said. "So, that's Sgt. Siler. Teyla's our sensitive and Quinn's our bookworm. How are you fixed?"
"I've got two PRTs looking to transfer to SRT, and one psionic," Kurz said.
He raised the crystal amulet up and indicated the glow about the crystals. Taking it off for a moment, he gestured it towards Teyla and watched as the white glow got significantly brighter, moving past the point when it could have been merely an optical illusion. Then he pulled back the amulet and slipped it on.
The woman nodded and turned toward Shepard.
"The crystals appear to react to psionic energy," she said.
"That's very clever way to rig a substitute sensitive," the man named Quinn said.
"Well," Shepard said. "You said you had two more men, should we be expecting them to get the drop on us soon and go back to the whole heroic misunderstanding thing."
"I saw them a moment ago," Kurz said. "They should be back here soon. I sent them to look for tracks or signs. Unfortunately, our quarry teleports, so I'm not expecting much."
"That just makes things fun," Shepard said sarcastically. "We're told you had intel to pass on, care to share?"
"The theory is that this group tried to reach a set safehouse or safe region despite orders to avoid anything on their lists," Kurz said. "If that's true, we think there might be a facility in the area. We're looking to confirm that before the Ranger service here stumbles on it."
"Yeah," Shepard said. "I can just see the new story after that happens."
As they spoke, two more figures came to join the group, Kurz nodding to recognize their arrival and calm down the Americans.
"Shall we finish introductions then?" Teyla asked.
Kurz nodded as he pointed toward the other members of his team.
"You've met Sanchez, that's Mason," he came and finished off by pointing to the one female in his group. "And that's Ichi."
Nimu nodded to the other soldiers quietly and politely, especially as a frown started to come over the face of the two soldiers.
"You look familiar," Siler said.
"I have a large family," Nimu said simply.
"Let's just focus on the objectives," Weber said. "Did you find anything?"
"These crystals glowed a deeper red on the other side of the clearing," she said. "Maybe they came from that direction."
"I agree," Teyla noted with a nod. "I feel they came out from that direction as well."
"There are some hills in that direction," Quinn said. "They have the right make-up to produce a cave system."
"Let's get to it then," Shepard said.
As they walked along, Kurz dropped slowly back and gave Teyla a broad smile.
"So, how sensitive are you?" he asked.
She gave him a silent, long look, rolled her eyes with a small smile and looked ahead down the trail.
******
Nimu wished briefly that she had on of the Ni's with her. If she had her absolute choice, it would have been Yonjuu. She could have used the sensor's reports on scents and other assorted information in this. But Mithril was only willing to send her on this task.
Actually, if Captain Testarossa had had her way, Nimu's volunteering wouldn't have been accepted yet. The girl wanted all the daughters to have at least a few more months of training before going on real missions. Fortunately, Testarossa's superiors had insisted on accepting Nimu's offer, if only to have at least one psionic on hand to support the recon team.
The fact that Nimu's telekinetic ability wasn't the most useful for this task hadn't been addressed.
Now, they were coming up to the base of a tree-covered ring of rocky hills, and the crystals they were wearing were quite clearly reading the presence of what she had been told was Demonic energy.
"If I understand the way those things work," Shepard said. "That means our targets are in the area."
Kurz nodded quietly.
"How about your team take the south approach," Kurz said, "and mine will take the north."
"You're a sniper normally aren't you?" Shepard asked as he eyed the high ground Kurz was indicating. "Our orders are not to engage, yours?"
"Confirm and report," Kurz agreed.
"Let's get on with this," Sanchez muttered. "Then we can get to something a bit less fluffy and new-agey."
Several eyes turned to look at him and frowned.
"Better idea," Shepard said. "Quinn, Siler, and two of yours, hold base camp, the rest of us break up and return with what we find."
Weber thought about it and nodded, pointing toward the two PRTs he had under him and giving them that instruction.
"You remember that I'm telekinetic, not a sensitive," Nimu asked quietly.
"I do," Kurz agreed. "And I might need something small and distant moved."
"If you say so," Nimu noted.
****************************
Okay, so using Stargate characters gives me a ready supply of side characters for cameos (of course now I have to have something suitably bad ass occur off screen to account for them....)
not to mention how to explain how the Go'auld could have interfered the way they did when there were already species on Earth with a few million years worth of development over them
.....
though I must admit that I'm still tempted to end this with the various immortals going off to harass the vorlons and shadows
.....
though I must admit that I'm still tempted to end this with the various immortals going off to harass the vorlons and shadows
cool,. . . . hey just out of question, will you being keeping the ARX-7 arbalest or will you be updateing to the ARX-8 Laevatein when the shit really hits the fan?Mao grimaced as she ducked around behind a corner and a wolf-like thing leaped past her into the empty street ahead of her. She emptied the remains of her clip into the creature and reloaded as she stepped around the corner to see another monster pushing its way forward.
Out of another alley further along the street, two of her troopers dodged out, pursued by a small swarm of insects that glowed in the night like fireflies but looked more like wasps. Her eyes widened briefly, and she realized that she didn't have anything to handle insects.
Which was when a cloud of smoke whipped through the area, wrapping about the mutated insects and presenting itself as a sort of thick and insubstantial wall between the humans and the animals.
Glancing briefly over her shoulder, Mao looked to see the form of Mara reaching out toward them, looking grim as she stood beside Persephone.
"We need to get more organized," Mao called back. "There's a lot of more of these things than I expected."
As she spoke, the monster she'd noted earlier was trying to push through the thick smoke and choking as it did so. Mao took a moment to gather its position in the thickest part of the smoke, which seemed to be clumping around the creature, and then casually shot a few pistol rounds into its head.
"The entire forest will be cursed," Persephone noted. "There will be thousands of these monsters crafted out of the adult animals of the forest. It will take decades before it is safe for casual travel and more normal animals return to the area."
In the background, the sound of a helicopter gunship landing washed over the scene for the moment, the gunner stepping out quickly and moving up toward Mao.
"Sergeant Major," he said, snapping a brief salute. "These beasts seem to be falling back into the trees, but we've confirmed they're on all sides of this village."
Mao nodded, remembering that the village was in the middle of the hilly forest from what she'd seen on the pass over. She looked over to one of the buildings she'd just been taking refuge behind and proceeded to climb up to the top of the roof.
It was a much easier ascension than she'd expected as she ricocheted from one building's wall to the other until she was up top at a place where she could see the fighting going on.
Naiki was finishing off a fight with one of those dragon creatures along with two other Rakshasha. Unfortunately, the Demon AS had been hidden in the trees and was now swarming with these mutated animals and not in an easy place to reach.
Elsewhere, she could see a one-armed woman rather casually tossing about tornadoes and smashing monsters with her rugbeater. Another woman was elsewhere finishing off the stragglers of the small horde of creatures with a ribbon that seemed to be on fire.
*****
Add to that the handful of Rakshasha and her own squad of troops, and she had a fairly good idea of what they had available. And it wasn't all that much.
"So, what would our Captain do in a situation like this?" she wondered.
"The primary benefits of Project Ainur is that a recipient Whispered doesn't have to worry about losing their individuality to Resonance ever again," Tessa explained. "The modifications basically act like a psychic filter, letting some information through, but keeping some out."
"You've given yourself a firewall," the Intelligence divisions director noted. "And does this now limit your ability to develop technologies."
Tessa smiled.
"Not at all," she said.
*****
For a moment, she was distracted by a flitting awareness of what was happening where Naiki and Mao were. More specifically, she was finding herself idly taking in the tactical situation.
Coming back down from the building with a single leap, landing in a roll that she'd performed many times over, Mao moved over to join Mara and Persephone.
"Okay, I've got both helicopters, one's probably running low on fuel right now, and seven soldiers still fit for combat," Mao noted. "I think I saw five Demons in what I guess is a soldier's uniform."
"That's about what we have on hand," Mara noted.
"And Naiki along with two human martial artists I saw," Mao said.
"And approximately thirty thousand assorted Nidhog civilians and humans mixed," Persephone noted idly. "Most of whom are injured in minor to severe manners."
"These things seem to be showing some thought," Mao said.
"Yes," Persephone said. "I would assume that means that my daughter is present somewhere and observing."
Mao's eyes widened.
"Okay, so...Domains and Realms," she asked.
*****
"Actually," Tessa said. "I've found it much easier to find the information I want when I want it without extraneous information. I suppose this limits the chances for a spontaneous realization, but it makes the ability more reliable."
"Can you give any specific example of how this would be an improvement," one of the skeptics asked.
"Imagine for a moment," Tessa noted. "A Whispered finding herself in a sort of tactical situation where an enemy is behaving uncharacteristically. If they wanted, they would be able to access my ability to analyze the tactics and strategies."
"So they would let you take over for a moment?" someone asked.
"Maybe in the past," Tessa said. "In this case it would be more like receiving an electronic report and being able to read it on the spot. What they would do with that information would be dependent on the character of the person involved. I tend to focus rather on avoidance of necessary conflict, for instance, and some people are a bit more...combative."
Ranma looked at her as she sensed something behind the woman's tone of voice. As if she weren't exactly speaking in hypotheticals.
*****
Hecate smiled as she looked below at the mass of Demons, a pleasant bonus to this attack, and humans gather in the center of town, trying to consolidate their lines against her beasts. Just like she'd expect of the average group of fodder given a bit of breathing room.
There wouldn't be enough Rakshasha down their to really stand up to what she was bringing, and there would be even fewer humans capable of doing anything. The Demons wouldn't be able to escape with Nidhog down, being unable to return to Nifelheim and unable to bounce off the dimensional barriers to do a long distance teleport.
No they were stuck where they were.
The sheer numbers of Demons and traitor-Gods had to explain why the first wave was so unsuccessful at getting anything done. Still, this would be a massacre, perhaps she would even step down herself to engage in the slaughter first hand.
With a self-satisfied smirk on her face she gave the mental command to her beasts to charge forward and she stretched out her fingers, adjusting the grip on the artifact blade in her hand.
*****
"There has to be another way," one of the villagers was saying.
"Yeah," Mao noted. "We can all get eaten by monsters. It's just stuff, you can get it back."
"We shall be on hand to help rebuild," Belldandy promised.
"Everybody keep their head down," Mao called out to the large crowd of civilians over a loudspeaker. "This is going to get dicey."
Mara glanced over toward Mao and smiled.
"I have to say," she said. "I like this plan."
"Of course you do," Kurumi noted irritably. "Things going boom is a Demon's stock in trade isn't it?"
"I think there are examples of that breed in all three species," Persephone noted.
*****
Hecate was at the lead of the newest wave of monsters, several of her stolen relics equipped and ready for a fight that she was sure was beneath her notice.
She turned a corner and looked to see a horde of humans and Demons mixed together and staring fearfully at the monsters swarming in from all directions.
And then, in an instant, practically the entire group in front of her vanished in a massive cloud of smoke.
Hecate blinked in confusion and surprise as it seemed that every demon present teleported away from the town, taking the humans with them, despite her early assertion that they couldn't teleport far under current circumstances.
She barely had half a second to notice that a handful of individual who'd been around the edges remained behind when explosions started ripping through the town around her.
The first few were probably standard explosives, but then it went on like dominoes. She watched as a small plastic device nearby her erupted into fire and force, wrapping around her as she raised the sword in her hand to ward off the attack.
Even as the artifact pushed the mundane explosion around her however, she saw the force of the explosion bend downward into the ground, seeking out the gas mains which erupted into a tumultuous wall of fire that came in an overwhelming flow over her beasts.
The smoke and shrapnel flew and twisted in the air with lethal accuracy that she herself was hard pressed to push off and keep from inflicting some form of serious injury on her.
Meanwhile those animals that weren't being ripped to pieces by the shrapnel, burned by the fire, choked by smoke or otherwise torn apart, were finding themselves seized with sudden and crippling pain.
"Mother," she muttered with narrowed eyes as the display ended.
She watched as the cleared slightly, being held above for further use, and took in who was left facing her.
Five Demons and one traitor-God that she recognized as Nifelheim residents. Two of them were category two, but the rest were category three. She took a moment to consider their Realms and the God's Domain.
Traps. Ash. Imbalance. Illusion. Debris. And the God's Domain was Conflict.
And with them two other Demons she hadn't expected to see.
Mara, 1st Category Demoness of Smoke and Naiki Satomi, whose Realm she wasn't familiar with yet.
Then she noticed her mother, Queen of the Dead, the Iron Queen. Beside her was Urd, Goddess of Fate, 2nd Category only as a formality. She had the skill and power of a 1st Category, only her denial of the promotion kept the added benefits of a 1st Category out her hands.
Beside them were two powerful sources of human Chi, sisters by their auras. One of them a cripple.
Then there were seven humans led by an eighth that suddenly took in all her vision.
The human at the head of their little band had facial marks like those of the Gods and Demons, and yet she had no trace of either species's blood. The aura that she had showed that the marks were not faked.
Humans had discovered the next step.
As the small group moved in around her, she readied her sword and scanned about.
"Daughter," Persephone said. "I urge you to surrender and face judgment for what you've done."
"In case you haven't noticed, Mother," Hecate said. "I'm barely scratched by your little trap here. I'm wielding Durandal and wearing Anansi's cloak. These aren't the only relics I have on hand."
Her eyes drifted toward Mao as the soldier took up a position of cover supporting the martial artists and Demons moving to surround her.
"Yeah, that's right," Mao said. "Go ahead and stare Flipper."
"What did you just call me?" Hecate asked irritably.
"Flipper," Naiki said harshly. "And I'd rather you didn't surrender. That way I can take your head to my mother."
"Where'd you take the rest of the filth?" Hecate demanded, ignoring Naiki deliberately.
"They've been gone about thirty minutes," Urd said. "Seems like some of the humans found one of the hidden worlds."
Hecate's mouth twitched, she hadn't even considered a dimensional teleportation to somewhere other than the three main worlds.
"It is time to surrender," Persephone noted again.
Slowly she shook her head and smiled.
"I have more six hundred thousand years of experience as a warrior," she noted. "Einherjar, Angel of Wrath, Eye of Ra. I've been the foremost of all such things. And I have not allowed myself to die and be reborn more than once. What do you think you can take me with?"
She looked toward her mother and Urd.
"A bureaucrat and a slacker?" she asked before turning to Mara. "An incompetent Faustian who couldn't perform as a Shadow and five Rakshasha recruits?"
Then she looked toward Mao, Natsume and Kurumi.
"A freak upstart, a cripple and a mortal hero with a bevy of warriors?" she asked.
Then looked toward Naiki.
"And the worthless half-breed trash of a pathetic soul too weak to defend themselves?" she asked.
"Face it, you have nothing to truly threaten me with," Hecate sneered.
And that's when Naiki rushed in, breaking their formation to start the attack. Spinning as she came in, black lines trailed behind her as she called on the Yamasen to call forth crescent blades launching out ahead of her.
Hecate smirked as she slashed outward with Durandal in her hand, the divinely sharp blade slicing through the pishogue vacuum blades so that they dissipated harmlessly. Naiki came in behind, a wavering black blade of energy in one hand as she tried to copy what she'd seen Ryuu using earlier.
The Harpe slashed out, destroying the fragile blade and just barely passing by Naiki as she ducked under the weapon last instant. That left her unbalanced and Hecate easily swiped her feet out from under her.
On her back, Naiki was already moving to return to her feet, until Hecate's foot slammed into her side. The Goddess's eyes were turned another way, however, as two demons came in on either side of her and she had to step away from Naiki to face this new attack.
There was a casualness about her still as the Goddess turned to unleash a blast of raw mana against the oncoming Demons, who only managed to survive as a row of trees erupted between her and her targets.
The smoke came down out of the sky moving to attempt to cling to the Goddess as Mara worked her own Realm. Ash was mixed in as one of the minor Rakshasha aided the Demoness in her attacks, but the ash and smoke seemed to peel off the cloak of the trickster spider that Hecate had stolen.
Before the Demons and other humans reached melee range, Mao and her soldiers fired a stream of automatic fire, hoping to catch the Goddess unprepared.
In a flash she stomped her feet down, raising a wall of pure black energy that blocked the bullets and sent them careening back into the crowds of warriors.
The sound of crackling above alerted Hecate to one of Urd's bolts striking downward and she stepped aside of it, holding out Durandal to catch some of the energy and swirl it away from her towards a Demon and one Mao's soldiers.
It struck them both, sending them flying backward to lie still.
The wind started to pick up around the field and she glanced to see the human sisters performing some sort of combined chi attack. Frowning at the absurdity of even challenging her she lashed out with a blast of energy against the two sisters, only to find it blocked as Naiki entered the fight again and raise an shield of vacuum blades to cut through Hecate's attack.
Demons entered briefly into melee range around Hecate, each taking one strike and leaving the area around her as quickly as possibly in scattered directions. One didn't get out of reach fast enough and Durandal neatly sliced through his neck to send his head rolling to the ground.
Then Natsume unleashed her attack down through the heated spiral of Kurumi's ribbon, it slammed into Naiki's back, but the Demoness merely let it pick her up and carry her forward, spinning as she did to add vacuum blades to the blast.
Automatic gunfire called some of her attention again, as did the various pishogue, mana and chi assaults that slammed down into her. When she turned around to face Naiki's launched approach, it was to find the shark-girl's feet inches from slamming into her face.
Contact was made and the Goddess rolled back, Durandal flying out of her hand briefly before she lashed out and a thread from her cloak zipped out to grab the weapon. A red, flaming ribbon reached the sword that had beheaded Medusa first and whipped out and away from the battle.
Rolling back away, Hecate found her feet and lashed outward at the people around her, sending her power out in a rain of raw energy in hopes of catching many of her attackers.
Mao ducked just in time, but grimaced to see one of her squad's head evaporate from a strike.
Naiki and Natsume were then in Hecate's face. The human swinging out with her rugbeater and trying smash it into the Goddess's face.
Hecate merely smiled indulgently as she dodged the masterful attacks casually and idly shifted her wait to send Natsume flying out across the field. In almost the same motion she passed between all of Naiki's attacks and opened a blast of pure energy almost straight into the half-Demon's chest.
Naiki struggled up to her feet, a trickle of blood from her mouth as she clutched at her chest and looked toward where Hecate was driving the fight forward, following as Mao and the others fell back.
Kurumi and Natsume were back in the fight already as Naiki still struggled, the sister mistresses working in a even tandem that still failed to break the millenia old mastery of the woman they were fighting. Instead, their assault quickly became a mere attempt to survive and not be struck.
Still, they were doing better than Naiki had up to now.
The Satomi Demoness was about to go back into the battle when she noticed where the battle was moving just at that moment. They were almost in position, best to get ready.
Mao and her soldiers fell back evenly, securely as the two Tendos were thrown violently out of the battle with the Goddess, there extra decades of experiencing saving them the injuries that Naiki had suffered.
The smoke continued to swirl, stinging occasionally at Hecate's eyes as Mara supported the fight along with Persephone, who continued to raise barriers to stop her daughter's attacks.
With a smirk, Hecate glanced at the Demoness and Goddess as she continued to walk forward, throwing about the lesser attackers like rag dolls. With a casual gripping and pulling motion, a nimbus of energy appeared behind her mother and Mara slamming into their backs and smashing them down into the ground.
Gritting her teeth, Mara reached over toward Persephone and both vanished in a puff of sulfur smoke before Hecate's next attack could do more to them.
The Goddess continued to smirk as the two sisters fled away from her approach and the Demons and humans alike broke and ran full out away from her. Some part of her told her that this was too easy, that they were retreating with too much precision to truly be panicking, but it was blinded by her hubris.
She was dealing with humans and Demons for the most part, nothing more.
Mao lingered at the back of her retreating formation sending bursts of fire at Hecate as she moved from cover to cover. She kept the smile off her face as she looked to see her survivors getting into position.
Hecate stepped forward into a circle of debris, failing to notice the Tendos in the middle of another combined assault as Naiki took a deep breath and reached out toward the earth. The Goddess did start to notice the tremors around her feet, however, but deciding it was weak, she only turned about to give Naiki an arrogant glance rather than looking at the circle of eight claymores the girl was rising out of the earth around Hecate's feet.
"Here goes," Mao whispered as she ducked around a corner to reach out and arm the mines.
"Hecate! You'll pay for your crimes!" a voice called out.
A far too young voice that was not a part of Mao's plan. Glancing out, she had time to see a young Demon girl, looking about twelve years old. And she was reaching out with her hand arrogantly at Hecate, apparently inhibiting the Goddess's actions somehow judging by the way the woman was suddenly struggling to move.
They were both there, far too close to seven armed mines that would trigger with the first person to trip their sensors.
"Hel-chan," Natsume shouted out, moving out of position from her combination with Kurumi.
Kurumi herself looked up to see Natsume starting to pass around her.
Urd, who'd been preparing to drop a bolt of power out of the sky, let the power fizzle away with a curse as she saw the Demoness on the field where she shouldn't be.
Naiki let the earth go and was dancing into the Yamasen instead, moving carefully as she herself eyed the child on the field.
In the next second, an explosion ripped upward around Hecate as the Goddess stepped forward, knocking into one of the armed claymores. Six more explosions followed in a split motion afterward as a small body was thrown clear of the sudden burst of smoke.
The smoke collapsed inward at Mara's insistence to reveal Hecate sprawled out unconscious, blood trickling out from where something, most likely one of Naiki's vacuum blades, had severed her left leg at the knee but left it mostly cauterized. Besides that she was covered in bruises and cuts all over.
Mao was running out of cover, cursing up a storm as took in a visual measure of everyone's status. Naiki was collapsing down to her knees, obviously heavily injured despite managing to get her part done for the last attack. Natsume was untying her sister's ribbon from around her legs. Mara was sitting down and breathing deeply.
And then there was the body that had been thrown clear of the explosion, apparently at just the last moment as Hel was dizzily sitting up and appeared to have broken her crippled leg judging by how badly it was bending.
Which brought Mao to look at the other body at the center of the explosion.
Persephone was at the woman's side, and trying to heal the wounds she'd suffered. But it was a losing body. The martial artist's battle aura had prevented her from being obliterated, but her concentration had been split toward saving the girl on the field and keeping her sister out of harm.
The protection had been incomplete and there were too many injuries for Persephone to heal her quickly enough.
"Kurumi!" Natsume said, coming to her sister's side. "Why...for a Demon?"
"I didn't save the Demon-kid," the woman said hoarsely. "I saved you, big sis..."
And she didn't finish the word.
Out of another alley further along the street, two of her troopers dodged out, pursued by a small swarm of insects that glowed in the night like fireflies but looked more like wasps. Her eyes widened briefly, and she realized that she didn't have anything to handle insects.
Which was when a cloud of smoke whipped through the area, wrapping about the mutated insects and presenting itself as a sort of thick and insubstantial wall between the humans and the animals.
Glancing briefly over her shoulder, Mao looked to see the form of Mara reaching out toward them, looking grim as she stood beside Persephone.
"We need to get more organized," Mao called back. "There's a lot of more of these things than I expected."
As she spoke, the monster she'd noted earlier was trying to push through the thick smoke and choking as it did so. Mao took a moment to gather its position in the thickest part of the smoke, which seemed to be clumping around the creature, and then casually shot a few pistol rounds into its head.
"The entire forest will be cursed," Persephone noted. "There will be thousands of these monsters crafted out of the adult animals of the forest. It will take decades before it is safe for casual travel and more normal animals return to the area."
In the background, the sound of a helicopter gunship landing washed over the scene for the moment, the gunner stepping out quickly and moving up toward Mao.
"Sergeant Major," he said, snapping a brief salute. "These beasts seem to be falling back into the trees, but we've confirmed they're on all sides of this village."
Mao nodded, remembering that the village was in the middle of the hilly forest from what she'd seen on the pass over. She looked over to one of the buildings she'd just been taking refuge behind and proceeded to climb up to the top of the roof.
It was a much easier ascension than she'd expected as she ricocheted from one building's wall to the other until she was up top at a place where she could see the fighting going on.
Naiki was finishing off a fight with one of those dragon creatures along with two other Rakshasha. Unfortunately, the Demon AS had been hidden in the trees and was now swarming with these mutated animals and not in an easy place to reach.
Elsewhere, she could see a one-armed woman rather casually tossing about tornadoes and smashing monsters with her rugbeater. Another woman was elsewhere finishing off the stragglers of the small horde of creatures with a ribbon that seemed to be on fire.
*****
Add to that the handful of Rakshasha and her own squad of troops, and she had a fairly good idea of what they had available. And it wasn't all that much.
"So, what would our Captain do in a situation like this?" she wondered.
"The primary benefits of Project Ainur is that a recipient Whispered doesn't have to worry about losing their individuality to Resonance ever again," Tessa explained. "The modifications basically act like a psychic filter, letting some information through, but keeping some out."
"You've given yourself a firewall," the Intelligence divisions director noted. "And does this now limit your ability to develop technologies."
Tessa smiled.
"Not at all," she said.
*****
For a moment, she was distracted by a flitting awareness of what was happening where Naiki and Mao were. More specifically, she was finding herself idly taking in the tactical situation.
Coming back down from the building with a single leap, landing in a roll that she'd performed many times over, Mao moved over to join Mara and Persephone.
"Okay, I've got both helicopters, one's probably running low on fuel right now, and seven soldiers still fit for combat," Mao noted. "I think I saw five Demons in what I guess is a soldier's uniform."
"That's about what we have on hand," Mara noted.
"And Naiki along with two human martial artists I saw," Mao said.
"And approximately thirty thousand assorted Nidhog civilians and humans mixed," Persephone noted idly. "Most of whom are injured in minor to severe manners."
"These things seem to be showing some thought," Mao said.
"Yes," Persephone said. "I would assume that means that my daughter is present somewhere and observing."
Mao's eyes widened.
"Okay, so...Domains and Realms," she asked.
*****
"Actually," Tessa said. "I've found it much easier to find the information I want when I want it without extraneous information. I suppose this limits the chances for a spontaneous realization, but it makes the ability more reliable."
"Can you give any specific example of how this would be an improvement," one of the skeptics asked.
"Imagine for a moment," Tessa noted. "A Whispered finding herself in a sort of tactical situation where an enemy is behaving uncharacteristically. If they wanted, they would be able to access my ability to analyze the tactics and strategies."
"So they would let you take over for a moment?" someone asked.
"Maybe in the past," Tessa said. "In this case it would be more like receiving an electronic report and being able to read it on the spot. What they would do with that information would be dependent on the character of the person involved. I tend to focus rather on avoidance of necessary conflict, for instance, and some people are a bit more...combative."
Ranma looked at her as she sensed something behind the woman's tone of voice. As if she weren't exactly speaking in hypotheticals.
*****
Hecate smiled as she looked below at the mass of Demons, a pleasant bonus to this attack, and humans gather in the center of town, trying to consolidate their lines against her beasts. Just like she'd expect of the average group of fodder given a bit of breathing room.
There wouldn't be enough Rakshasha down their to really stand up to what she was bringing, and there would be even fewer humans capable of doing anything. The Demons wouldn't be able to escape with Nidhog down, being unable to return to Nifelheim and unable to bounce off the dimensional barriers to do a long distance teleport.
No they were stuck where they were.
The sheer numbers of Demons and traitor-Gods had to explain why the first wave was so unsuccessful at getting anything done. Still, this would be a massacre, perhaps she would even step down herself to engage in the slaughter first hand.
With a self-satisfied smirk on her face she gave the mental command to her beasts to charge forward and she stretched out her fingers, adjusting the grip on the artifact blade in her hand.
*****
"There has to be another way," one of the villagers was saying.
"Yeah," Mao noted. "We can all get eaten by monsters. It's just stuff, you can get it back."
"We shall be on hand to help rebuild," Belldandy promised.
"Everybody keep their head down," Mao called out to the large crowd of civilians over a loudspeaker. "This is going to get dicey."
Mara glanced over toward Mao and smiled.
"I have to say," she said. "I like this plan."
"Of course you do," Kurumi noted irritably. "Things going boom is a Demon's stock in trade isn't it?"
"I think there are examples of that breed in all three species," Persephone noted.
*****
Hecate was at the lead of the newest wave of monsters, several of her stolen relics equipped and ready for a fight that she was sure was beneath her notice.
She turned a corner and looked to see a horde of humans and Demons mixed together and staring fearfully at the monsters swarming in from all directions.
And then, in an instant, practically the entire group in front of her vanished in a massive cloud of smoke.
Hecate blinked in confusion and surprise as it seemed that every demon present teleported away from the town, taking the humans with them, despite her early assertion that they couldn't teleport far under current circumstances.
She barely had half a second to notice that a handful of individual who'd been around the edges remained behind when explosions started ripping through the town around her.
The first few were probably standard explosives, but then it went on like dominoes. She watched as a small plastic device nearby her erupted into fire and force, wrapping around her as she raised the sword in her hand to ward off the attack.
Even as the artifact pushed the mundane explosion around her however, she saw the force of the explosion bend downward into the ground, seeking out the gas mains which erupted into a tumultuous wall of fire that came in an overwhelming flow over her beasts.
The smoke and shrapnel flew and twisted in the air with lethal accuracy that she herself was hard pressed to push off and keep from inflicting some form of serious injury on her.
Meanwhile those animals that weren't being ripped to pieces by the shrapnel, burned by the fire, choked by smoke or otherwise torn apart, were finding themselves seized with sudden and crippling pain.
"Mother," she muttered with narrowed eyes as the display ended.
She watched as the cleared slightly, being held above for further use, and took in who was left facing her.
Five Demons and one traitor-God that she recognized as Nifelheim residents. Two of them were category two, but the rest were category three. She took a moment to consider their Realms and the God's Domain.
Traps. Ash. Imbalance. Illusion. Debris. And the God's Domain was Conflict.
And with them two other Demons she hadn't expected to see.
Mara, 1st Category Demoness of Smoke and Naiki Satomi, whose Realm she wasn't familiar with yet.
Then she noticed her mother, Queen of the Dead, the Iron Queen. Beside her was Urd, Goddess of Fate, 2nd Category only as a formality. She had the skill and power of a 1st Category, only her denial of the promotion kept the added benefits of a 1st Category out her hands.
Beside them were two powerful sources of human Chi, sisters by their auras. One of them a cripple.
Then there were seven humans led by an eighth that suddenly took in all her vision.
The human at the head of their little band had facial marks like those of the Gods and Demons, and yet she had no trace of either species's blood. The aura that she had showed that the marks were not faked.
Humans had discovered the next step.
As the small group moved in around her, she readied her sword and scanned about.
"Daughter," Persephone said. "I urge you to surrender and face judgment for what you've done."
"In case you haven't noticed, Mother," Hecate said. "I'm barely scratched by your little trap here. I'm wielding Durandal and wearing Anansi's cloak. These aren't the only relics I have on hand."
Her eyes drifted toward Mao as the soldier took up a position of cover supporting the martial artists and Demons moving to surround her.
"Yeah, that's right," Mao said. "Go ahead and stare Flipper."
"What did you just call me?" Hecate asked irritably.
"Flipper," Naiki said harshly. "And I'd rather you didn't surrender. That way I can take your head to my mother."
"Where'd you take the rest of the filth?" Hecate demanded, ignoring Naiki deliberately.
"They've been gone about thirty minutes," Urd said. "Seems like some of the humans found one of the hidden worlds."
Hecate's mouth twitched, she hadn't even considered a dimensional teleportation to somewhere other than the three main worlds.
"It is time to surrender," Persephone noted again.
Slowly she shook her head and smiled.
"I have more six hundred thousand years of experience as a warrior," she noted. "Einherjar, Angel of Wrath, Eye of Ra. I've been the foremost of all such things. And I have not allowed myself to die and be reborn more than once. What do you think you can take me with?"
She looked toward her mother and Urd.
"A bureaucrat and a slacker?" she asked before turning to Mara. "An incompetent Faustian who couldn't perform as a Shadow and five Rakshasha recruits?"
Then she looked toward Mao, Natsume and Kurumi.
"A freak upstart, a cripple and a mortal hero with a bevy of warriors?" she asked.
Then looked toward Naiki.
"And the worthless half-breed trash of a pathetic soul too weak to defend themselves?" she asked.
"Face it, you have nothing to truly threaten me with," Hecate sneered.
And that's when Naiki rushed in, breaking their formation to start the attack. Spinning as she came in, black lines trailed behind her as she called on the Yamasen to call forth crescent blades launching out ahead of her.
Hecate smirked as she slashed outward with Durandal in her hand, the divinely sharp blade slicing through the pishogue vacuum blades so that they dissipated harmlessly. Naiki came in behind, a wavering black blade of energy in one hand as she tried to copy what she'd seen Ryuu using earlier.
The Harpe slashed out, destroying the fragile blade and just barely passing by Naiki as she ducked under the weapon last instant. That left her unbalanced and Hecate easily swiped her feet out from under her.
On her back, Naiki was already moving to return to her feet, until Hecate's foot slammed into her side. The Goddess's eyes were turned another way, however, as two demons came in on either side of her and she had to step away from Naiki to face this new attack.
There was a casualness about her still as the Goddess turned to unleash a blast of raw mana against the oncoming Demons, who only managed to survive as a row of trees erupted between her and her targets.
The smoke came down out of the sky moving to attempt to cling to the Goddess as Mara worked her own Realm. Ash was mixed in as one of the minor Rakshasha aided the Demoness in her attacks, but the ash and smoke seemed to peel off the cloak of the trickster spider that Hecate had stolen.
Before the Demons and other humans reached melee range, Mao and her soldiers fired a stream of automatic fire, hoping to catch the Goddess unprepared.
In a flash she stomped her feet down, raising a wall of pure black energy that blocked the bullets and sent them careening back into the crowds of warriors.
The sound of crackling above alerted Hecate to one of Urd's bolts striking downward and she stepped aside of it, holding out Durandal to catch some of the energy and swirl it away from her towards a Demon and one Mao's soldiers.
It struck them both, sending them flying backward to lie still.
The wind started to pick up around the field and she glanced to see the human sisters performing some sort of combined chi attack. Frowning at the absurdity of even challenging her she lashed out with a blast of energy against the two sisters, only to find it blocked as Naiki entered the fight again and raise an shield of vacuum blades to cut through Hecate's attack.
Demons entered briefly into melee range around Hecate, each taking one strike and leaving the area around her as quickly as possibly in scattered directions. One didn't get out of reach fast enough and Durandal neatly sliced through his neck to send his head rolling to the ground.
Then Natsume unleashed her attack down through the heated spiral of Kurumi's ribbon, it slammed into Naiki's back, but the Demoness merely let it pick her up and carry her forward, spinning as she did to add vacuum blades to the blast.
Automatic gunfire called some of her attention again, as did the various pishogue, mana and chi assaults that slammed down into her. When she turned around to face Naiki's launched approach, it was to find the shark-girl's feet inches from slamming into her face.
Contact was made and the Goddess rolled back, Durandal flying out of her hand briefly before she lashed out and a thread from her cloak zipped out to grab the weapon. A red, flaming ribbon reached the sword that had beheaded Medusa first and whipped out and away from the battle.
Rolling back away, Hecate found her feet and lashed outward at the people around her, sending her power out in a rain of raw energy in hopes of catching many of her attackers.
Mao ducked just in time, but grimaced to see one of her squad's head evaporate from a strike.
Naiki and Natsume were then in Hecate's face. The human swinging out with her rugbeater and trying smash it into the Goddess's face.
Hecate merely smiled indulgently as she dodged the masterful attacks casually and idly shifted her wait to send Natsume flying out across the field. In almost the same motion she passed between all of Naiki's attacks and opened a blast of pure energy almost straight into the half-Demon's chest.
Naiki struggled up to her feet, a trickle of blood from her mouth as she clutched at her chest and looked toward where Hecate was driving the fight forward, following as Mao and the others fell back.
Kurumi and Natsume were back in the fight already as Naiki still struggled, the sister mistresses working in a even tandem that still failed to break the millenia old mastery of the woman they were fighting. Instead, their assault quickly became a mere attempt to survive and not be struck.
Still, they were doing better than Naiki had up to now.
The Satomi Demoness was about to go back into the battle when she noticed where the battle was moving just at that moment. They were almost in position, best to get ready.
Mao and her soldiers fell back evenly, securely as the two Tendos were thrown violently out of the battle with the Goddess, there extra decades of experiencing saving them the injuries that Naiki had suffered.
The smoke continued to swirl, stinging occasionally at Hecate's eyes as Mara supported the fight along with Persephone, who continued to raise barriers to stop her daughter's attacks.
With a smirk, Hecate glanced at the Demoness and Goddess as she continued to walk forward, throwing about the lesser attackers like rag dolls. With a casual gripping and pulling motion, a nimbus of energy appeared behind her mother and Mara slamming into their backs and smashing them down into the ground.
Gritting her teeth, Mara reached over toward Persephone and both vanished in a puff of sulfur smoke before Hecate's next attack could do more to them.
The Goddess continued to smirk as the two sisters fled away from her approach and the Demons and humans alike broke and ran full out away from her. Some part of her told her that this was too easy, that they were retreating with too much precision to truly be panicking, but it was blinded by her hubris.
She was dealing with humans and Demons for the most part, nothing more.
Mao lingered at the back of her retreating formation sending bursts of fire at Hecate as she moved from cover to cover. She kept the smile off her face as she looked to see her survivors getting into position.
Hecate stepped forward into a circle of debris, failing to notice the Tendos in the middle of another combined assault as Naiki took a deep breath and reached out toward the earth. The Goddess did start to notice the tremors around her feet, however, but deciding it was weak, she only turned about to give Naiki an arrogant glance rather than looking at the circle of eight claymores the girl was rising out of the earth around Hecate's feet.
"Here goes," Mao whispered as she ducked around a corner to reach out and arm the mines.
"Hecate! You'll pay for your crimes!" a voice called out.
A far too young voice that was not a part of Mao's plan. Glancing out, she had time to see a young Demon girl, looking about twelve years old. And she was reaching out with her hand arrogantly at Hecate, apparently inhibiting the Goddess's actions somehow judging by the way the woman was suddenly struggling to move.
They were both there, far too close to seven armed mines that would trigger with the first person to trip their sensors.
"Hel-chan," Natsume shouted out, moving out of position from her combination with Kurumi.
Kurumi herself looked up to see Natsume starting to pass around her.
Urd, who'd been preparing to drop a bolt of power out of the sky, let the power fizzle away with a curse as she saw the Demoness on the field where she shouldn't be.
Naiki let the earth go and was dancing into the Yamasen instead, moving carefully as she herself eyed the child on the field.
In the next second, an explosion ripped upward around Hecate as the Goddess stepped forward, knocking into one of the armed claymores. Six more explosions followed in a split motion afterward as a small body was thrown clear of the sudden burst of smoke.
The smoke collapsed inward at Mara's insistence to reveal Hecate sprawled out unconscious, blood trickling out from where something, most likely one of Naiki's vacuum blades, had severed her left leg at the knee but left it mostly cauterized. Besides that she was covered in bruises and cuts all over.
Mao was running out of cover, cursing up a storm as took in a visual measure of everyone's status. Naiki was collapsing down to her knees, obviously heavily injured despite managing to get her part done for the last attack. Natsume was untying her sister's ribbon from around her legs. Mara was sitting down and breathing deeply.
And then there was the body that had been thrown clear of the explosion, apparently at just the last moment as Hel was dizzily sitting up and appeared to have broken her crippled leg judging by how badly it was bending.
Which brought Mao to look at the other body at the center of the explosion.
Persephone was at the woman's side, and trying to heal the wounds she'd suffered. But it was a losing body. The martial artist's battle aura had prevented her from being obliterated, but her concentration had been split toward saving the girl on the field and keeping her sister out of harm.
The protection had been incomplete and there were too many injuries for Persephone to heal her quickly enough.
"Kurumi!" Natsume said, coming to her sister's side. "Why...for a Demon?"
"I didn't save the Demon-kid," the woman said hoarsely. "I saved you, big sis..."
And she didn't finish the word.
"Okay, we've got to be about this quick," Shepard said as he arrived and glanced at the circle uncovered by Nimu and Kurz. "Teyla?"
"It's a black magic ritual circle," Teyla noted calmly. "I'm copying it down to show Jonas once we rendez..."
They all paused as the circle began to glow, and scattered for cover. A moment later, figures starting coming into view around the circle. As the dust settled, two of the new arrivals, in somewhat more extravagant clothes started to take to the air.
And then one of them paused and held a hand out to the other and those on the ground.
"This doesn't look good," Shepard noted from his cover as he carefully clicked the safety off of his gun.
"Do you smell ozone?" Nimu asked cautiously.
"I do..." Kurz said.
Shimmering into view above the scene, three slender machines appeared above the group. Kurz cursed under his breath as he recognized the Shadow model that had recently been used to support Gauron in the last engagement that had involved the psychotic.
"Where did they come from?" Kurz wondered as the Arm Slaves attracted the Demons' attention.
Kurz grabbed Nimu and ran across the field. Seeing the German sniper pass them, Shepard looked across at Teyla and then joined them in the flight.
"I'm taking it that those aren't your people," Shepard asked as they left ahead of the start of the gunfire.
"Not at all," Kurz said, thanking the heavens, well...somebody anyway, that none of the models he'd seen were one of those armed with a lambda driver.
*************
Lord Mallory looked away from the holographic display a moment before turning back to the board.
"The rest of this meeting shall have to take place another time," he said. "We just received word of terrorists taking hostages on one of the smaller Pacific Islands. Reports indicate it Gauron is leading the operation. Captain Testarossa, I think you should deploy immediately."
"I agree," she said. "In the meantime, you have my report."
She stood up and away from the table gesturing for Ranma to do the same.
"It's a black magic ritual circle," Teyla noted calmly. "I'm copying it down to show Jonas once we rendez..."
They all paused as the circle began to glow, and scattered for cover. A moment later, figures starting coming into view around the circle. As the dust settled, two of the new arrivals, in somewhat more extravagant clothes started to take to the air.
And then one of them paused and held a hand out to the other and those on the ground.
"This doesn't look good," Shepard noted from his cover as he carefully clicked the safety off of his gun.
"Do you smell ozone?" Nimu asked cautiously.
"I do..." Kurz said.
Shimmering into view above the scene, three slender machines appeared above the group. Kurz cursed under his breath as he recognized the Shadow model that had recently been used to support Gauron in the last engagement that had involved the psychotic.
"Where did they come from?" Kurz wondered as the Arm Slaves attracted the Demons' attention.
Kurz grabbed Nimu and ran across the field. Seeing the German sniper pass them, Shepard looked across at Teyla and then joined them in the flight.
"I'm taking it that those aren't your people," Shepard asked as they left ahead of the start of the gunfire.
"Not at all," Kurz said, thanking the heavens, well...somebody anyway, that none of the models he'd seen were one of those armed with a lambda driver.
*************
Lord Mallory looked away from the holographic display a moment before turning back to the board.
"The rest of this meeting shall have to take place another time," he said. "We just received word of terrorists taking hostages on one of the smaller Pacific Islands. Reports indicate it Gauron is leading the operation. Captain Testarossa, I think you should deploy immediately."
"I agree," she said. "In the meantime, you have my report."
She stood up and away from the table gesturing for Ranma to do the same.
Bullets struck into the stone and dirt, splintering trees and sending up fragments of rock and deformed metal as the demons scattered away from the heavy weapons. The two in charge formed their raw pishogue into a shield to deflect at least some of the fire, as they pushed in underneath to attack the Amalgam ASes directly.
The first dived in from the sky, weaving a circle around the incoming fire so that only an occasional bullet struck into his shield, deflecting off on a random course before he slammed into the mecha. Then the pishogue was focused more precisely into a burst of energy slipping through the machine.
The pilot inside cursed bitterly as his machines computers momentarily seized up. He was joined in frustration when the Demon attacking his machine slammed a momentarily clawed hand into armor and found himself unable to pierce completely through the armor of the shadow and he had to teleport away as the AS recovered its systems and swiped at the Demon.
The Demon appeared behind a tree and frowned as he compared that to what happened when a second category Demon or God came onto a Mantle or Carapace with a distracted pilot. Even without Nidhogg to enhance him, he should have been able to tear the machine open like a pillow.
Of course, by the time that the Carapaces and Mantles had been developed, it had been a long time since either Demons or Gods had invested much in heavy physical armor. Even the Amalgam shadows were heavily armored compared to that.
As the Demon of Disruption disengaged from the combat, one of the Amalgam AS pilots grumbled under his breath as he again tried to target one of the handful of small, fast moving targets. The ASes were armed with anti-personnel weaponry, but those were still designed for large groups of infantry rather than eight to ten people running around at speeds more appropriate to small motorized vehicles than human.
Kurz looked up from his sniper rifle and turned toward the other three people with him.
"It's a stalemate," he said.
"Think it will stay that way?" Shepard asked, bringing down his binoculars. "I'm seeing three more units of these unknown models heading into the area from the north."
"There's something else coming," Teyla said. "And they've cut us off from rendezvousing with the others."
"Our job here is to make to gather information, isn't it?" Nimu asked. "And as long as they're not aware of us, we're in the perfect place to gather information on both elements in this conflict."
Kurz glanced over at Nimu and considered what she said.
"How long have you been at this game?" Shepard asked.
"About seven years," Nimu noted.
"You would have to have been a child," Teyla noted.
"Yes, well, my family is interesting in addition to being large," Nimu said.
"Something's up down below," Kurz said.
Shepard turned his binoculars away from the oncoming reinforcements down towards the ritual circle they'd found earlier. The earth opened up below allowing a large dinosaur like machine to leap up out of the Earth, glowing bright red.
"What the hell is that?" Shepard asked.
"It's putting out a massive amount energy," Teyla said, pointing to the crystals they had and how they were glowing bright red even so far away as they were.
"What we have calls them 'Carapaces'," Kurz said. "Apparently some sort of demonic AS, our information says that they were supposed to be mothballed thousands of years ago when the Demons and Gods first called truce."
"That looks to be in prime working condition to me," Shepard noted as the machine tore easily through the shadows that were trying to surround it and then escape it.
"I'm going to try something here," Kurz noted in a warning tone.
"And what might that..."
The sniper rifle fired off shortly.
"What the hell are you doing, trying to give away our position?" Shepard asked.
"Just a second," Kurz said. "That one bounced off."
"And now that we've proven that the enemy armored vehicle is obviously bulletproof," Shepard noted. "What else do you think we can accomplish?"
"I once disabled a savage with a basic sniper rifle," Kurz noted. "This is top of the line, I could reliably snipe through a military issue humvee. Granted, that's not most ASes or tanks, but..."
At the site of the battle, the red dinosaur AS focused its aura toward blocking an incoming rocket. The rocket exploded well in front of the machine as a lash of red energy destroyed the last of the shadows.
And Kurz fired again.
This time the impact showed below as the Carapace shuddered and collapsed to the ground in an inert mass.
"How did you do that?" Shepard asked.
"Distraction," Teyla guessed. "The mindset of the pilot has been abnormally focused the entire time, I'm assuming there's something about the machine that is psionic in nature."
"And how did you know that would work?" Shepard asked.
"Because we've got our own version," Kurz said. "And recently been getting some training on how to face and counter the tech. The first rule seems to be distract or disrupt their attention."
"Why do you guys get the best toys first?" Shepard asked, irritably.
"Maybe because we build them and test them to make sure they don't explode in your faces in the field?" the sniper noted.
"While we discuss that, perhaps we should start getting out of here," Nimu suggested, walking to the sharper edge of the hill looking to scale down it.
"Yes, I agree," Teyla noted.
Kurz and Shepard looked as the two women started down the sheer side of the cliff as if there were nothing to it.
"Is there some rule that says that women in the field have to show us up at any given moment?" Shepard asked.
"What are you talking about?" Kurz asked as he moved toward the cliff and followed the two women.
Shepard rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"Why do people always want to do things the hard way?" he asked as he followed behind.
The first dived in from the sky, weaving a circle around the incoming fire so that only an occasional bullet struck into his shield, deflecting off on a random course before he slammed into the mecha. Then the pishogue was focused more precisely into a burst of energy slipping through the machine.
The pilot inside cursed bitterly as his machines computers momentarily seized up. He was joined in frustration when the Demon attacking his machine slammed a momentarily clawed hand into armor and found himself unable to pierce completely through the armor of the shadow and he had to teleport away as the AS recovered its systems and swiped at the Demon.
The Demon appeared behind a tree and frowned as he compared that to what happened when a second category Demon or God came onto a Mantle or Carapace with a distracted pilot. Even without Nidhogg to enhance him, he should have been able to tear the machine open like a pillow.
Of course, by the time that the Carapaces and Mantles had been developed, it had been a long time since either Demons or Gods had invested much in heavy physical armor. Even the Amalgam shadows were heavily armored compared to that.
As the Demon of Disruption disengaged from the combat, one of the Amalgam AS pilots grumbled under his breath as he again tried to target one of the handful of small, fast moving targets. The ASes were armed with anti-personnel weaponry, but those were still designed for large groups of infantry rather than eight to ten people running around at speeds more appropriate to small motorized vehicles than human.
Kurz looked up from his sniper rifle and turned toward the other three people with him.
"It's a stalemate," he said.
"Think it will stay that way?" Shepard asked, bringing down his binoculars. "I'm seeing three more units of these unknown models heading into the area from the north."
"There's something else coming," Teyla said. "And they've cut us off from rendezvousing with the others."
"Our job here is to make to gather information, isn't it?" Nimu asked. "And as long as they're not aware of us, we're in the perfect place to gather information on both elements in this conflict."
Kurz glanced over at Nimu and considered what she said.
"How long have you been at this game?" Shepard asked.
"About seven years," Nimu noted.
"You would have to have been a child," Teyla noted.
"Yes, well, my family is interesting in addition to being large," Nimu said.
"Something's up down below," Kurz said.
Shepard turned his binoculars away from the oncoming reinforcements down towards the ritual circle they'd found earlier. The earth opened up below allowing a large dinosaur like machine to leap up out of the Earth, glowing bright red.
"What the hell is that?" Shepard asked.
"It's putting out a massive amount energy," Teyla said, pointing to the crystals they had and how they were glowing bright red even so far away as they were.
"What we have calls them 'Carapaces'," Kurz said. "Apparently some sort of demonic AS, our information says that they were supposed to be mothballed thousands of years ago when the Demons and Gods first called truce."
"That looks to be in prime working condition to me," Shepard noted as the machine tore easily through the shadows that were trying to surround it and then escape it.
"I'm going to try something here," Kurz noted in a warning tone.
"And what might that..."
The sniper rifle fired off shortly.
"What the hell are you doing, trying to give away our position?" Shepard asked.
"Just a second," Kurz said. "That one bounced off."
"And now that we've proven that the enemy armored vehicle is obviously bulletproof," Shepard noted. "What else do you think we can accomplish?"
"I once disabled a savage with a basic sniper rifle," Kurz noted. "This is top of the line, I could reliably snipe through a military issue humvee. Granted, that's not most ASes or tanks, but..."
At the site of the battle, the red dinosaur AS focused its aura toward blocking an incoming rocket. The rocket exploded well in front of the machine as a lash of red energy destroyed the last of the shadows.
And Kurz fired again.
This time the impact showed below as the Carapace shuddered and collapsed to the ground in an inert mass.
"How did you do that?" Shepard asked.
"Distraction," Teyla guessed. "The mindset of the pilot has been abnormally focused the entire time, I'm assuming there's something about the machine that is psionic in nature."
"And how did you know that would work?" Shepard asked.
"Because we've got our own version," Kurz said. "And recently been getting some training on how to face and counter the tech. The first rule seems to be distract or disrupt their attention."
"Why do you guys get the best toys first?" Shepard asked, irritably.
"Maybe because we build them and test them to make sure they don't explode in your faces in the field?" the sniper noted.
"While we discuss that, perhaps we should start getting out of here," Nimu suggested, walking to the sharper edge of the hill looking to scale down it.
"Yes, I agree," Teyla noted.
Kurz and Shepard looked as the two women started down the sheer side of the cliff as if there were nothing to it.
"Is there some rule that says that women in the field have to show us up at any given moment?" Shepard asked.
"What are you talking about?" Kurz asked as he moved toward the cliff and followed the two women.
Shepard rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"Why do people always want to do things the hard way?" he asked as he followed behind.
Sitting at the side of her sister's still form, the characteristic stoic expression usually found on Natsume's face was understandably gone, replaced with one that was merely blank. It was a subtle distinction, and one that most in the world were not able to distinguish, preferring to paint both such expressions with the term "emotionless" and leaving it at that.
The warrior; God, Demon and human; around her understood and sympathized for the most part.
Hel sat at the edge, wanting to move closer to the human she'd only recently met, but afraid to do so, her own face clean of her supreme attitude to reveal the expression of a twelve year old child faced with unforeseen and unexplainable shame and tragedy.
"So, you're a Demon?" he asked. "How old are you?"
She didn't answer right away.
"Let me guess, two hundred years old," the man said.
She frowned in a huff and turned to face him.
"I'm fifteen thousand years old," she snapped, then softened slightly twiddling her fingers. "I just...don't remember all of it."
"Oh the thing about being reborn?" the soldier asked. "We heard the sergeant being told about that. So how old are you right now?"
"Twelve," Hel said after a moment's hesitation.
"Well, twelve year-olds are expected to make mistakes," the soldier noted.
She quietly wondered if that would make any sort of difference to her.
"So you live in Hell?" the soldier noted.
"No, I was just visiting when the attack happened, they were holding examinations..." Hel explained. "I live in New Jersey at some orphanage."
"Okay, so you live in Hell," the soldier confirmed.
Hel frowned and crossed her good arm over her chest in a huff as she narrowed her eyes.
The man's laugh did not improve her humor, but it did further distract the child from her situation.
Natsume glanced toward Hel momentarily, meeting the young Demoness eyes momentarily before the girl looked away, the shame clear on her face. Slowly, the martial artist walked over toward the collection of artifacts that the Demons had stripped off of Hecate.
Naiki leaning against a rock with her eyes closed as Persephone busily attended to healing her, with help from Urd's alchemical skills. Of the survivors, she was the most heavily injured, but the expressions on the two Goddesses' faces spoke of confidence that she would recover quickly enough.
Mara looked over toward the other dead as they were lined up, two Demons, the God that had served with the Rakshasha and three other humans. Given their opponent, it was a smaller list of casualties than she'd expected. Then again, between her, Urd and Persephone she thought they should have been able to do more.
"What does category 1 mean then?" she muttered to herself.
"Corporal," Mao said, looking up from a cell phone. "Start preparing the prisoner for transport, we're going to have to be moving out ASAP."
Mara looked up at that.
"With all due respect, Sergeant-Major," one of her soldiers said. "I'm not sure there's anyway to secure this prisoner. Shouldn't we just take care of her now."
"I agree with the human," one of the other demons said as Mao's medic attended to her minor injuries. "Let's kill her and be done with it."
Persephone looked up sharply, but seemed frozen on whether to say anything or not. The situation seemed to war within her between the fact that it was her daughter being discussed and the fact of her daughter's crimes.
"We can't just kill her," Mara said, drawing looks of surprise from those gathered. "We need things from her."
"Like what?" one of the Demons asked. "She's the cause for the deaths of countless beings. Evil like her is a waste of the Creator's resources, it should just be cleansed away."
Persephone winced at that and Urd reached out a steadying hand toward the older Goddess.
"We're going to need some information," Mao reminded the Demon. "Leaders, how many of these Mantle things the Gods have, what other magic weapons she snuck out with."
"That's obsolete information," a Demon noted. "Didn't one of you say her plan was already shot to hell? What could she have told us."
The a dull sound like that of a butcher's hatchet cleaving through thick flush came to the ears of those present and all eyes turned to see Natsume standing over Hecate's form, Durandal impaled down through the Goddess's unconscious chest and blood flowing freely out of the wound.
She looked around at all the faces turned toward her, challenging them to say anything before she removed the sword from the body and walked toward where Persephone stood, staring at her daughter's dying form as the human martial artist walked closer toward her in the silence.
"A life for a life," Natsume said coolly, handing the sword over toward Persephone hilt first, the blade pointed directly toward her own heart.
Persephone reached out to take the hilt in hand as Natsume released it and held her arm out wide, waiting for the Goddess to do respond.
The Iron Queen's expression hardened as she took the blade in hand and stared into Natsume's eyes, and the moment was long and tense. Then her attention was distracted briefly by something behind Natsume and the moment ended.
The face softened and the sword was allowed to fall to the ground.
"My daughter chose her path," Persephone said sadly, before turning back to finish healing Naiki.
"We're getting called in," Mao said to break the scene. "There's another emergency developing and they want as much of my normal team on it as possible."
"And what are we going to talk about in the mean time?" Mara asked, glancing toward the dead Hecate with a regret that was far from sympathetic.
"Mom's going to be in Tokyo," Naiki said, standing up.
Mara winced involuntarily.
"That is acceptable," Persephone said quietly staring as Natsume walked back to sit beside her sister's body.
"I'm going to tell people that they can start bringing people home again," one of Mara's Demons noted before receiving a nod from Mara and vanishing into smoke.
"You two stay here," Mara said to the other Rakshasha. "Guard the town from any other monsters. A cursed forest doesn't get solved in one battle."
"We're leaving a couple here as well," Mao said.
"I can stay," Naiki said starting to stand up.
"I would prefer, granddaughter," Persephone said. "That you find somewhere to rest for a few days. I can tell that you have been healed several times in the last few days, not all recovery can be done with power."
Naiki wanted to snap out "I'm not your granddaughter!" but kept her tongue for once, instead simply opting to fume as she was being mollycoddled.
"She's my pupil," Mara reminded Persephone.
"Wow, I would have thought you'd be afraid my Mom would..." Naiki started as Mara's eyes widened momentarily.
"But I agree, she needs to take some time off," Mara said.
"Coward," Naiki protested.
"Go visit your friend, that girl with the camera," Mara noted. "I'm sure she'll be worried."
"And, how about this kid?" one of the soldiers asked, indicating Hel. "Are we going to take her back to this orphanage she's supposed to be at?"
"She'll stay here," Natsume said firmly, but without looking toward Hel.
The girl swallowed nervously as the one-armed martial artist spoke.
"But I've always grown up in an orphanage..." Hel protested weakly.
"This will be an exception then," Natsume said.
The various individuals split towards their individual tasks until Persephone was left mostly alone as she stood over her daughter's body and looked about the area, not seeming to focus on any of those engaged in activity around her.
"Daughter," the death-seer said in a whisper. "If you hear me, then pass on. It's over, this isn't anything to concern you any longer."
The warrior; God, Demon and human; around her understood and sympathized for the most part.
Hel sat at the edge, wanting to move closer to the human she'd only recently met, but afraid to do so, her own face clean of her supreme attitude to reveal the expression of a twelve year old child faced with unforeseen and unexplainable shame and tragedy.
"So, you're a Demon?" he asked. "How old are you?"
She didn't answer right away.
"Let me guess, two hundred years old," the man said.
She frowned in a huff and turned to face him.
"I'm fifteen thousand years old," she snapped, then softened slightly twiddling her fingers. "I just...don't remember all of it."
"Oh the thing about being reborn?" the soldier asked. "We heard the sergeant being told about that. So how old are you right now?"
"Twelve," Hel said after a moment's hesitation.
"Well, twelve year-olds are expected to make mistakes," the soldier noted.
She quietly wondered if that would make any sort of difference to her.
"So you live in Hell?" the soldier noted.
"No, I was just visiting when the attack happened, they were holding examinations..." Hel explained. "I live in New Jersey at some orphanage."
"Okay, so you live in Hell," the soldier confirmed.
Hel frowned and crossed her good arm over her chest in a huff as she narrowed her eyes.
The man's laugh did not improve her humor, but it did further distract the child from her situation.
Natsume glanced toward Hel momentarily, meeting the young Demoness eyes momentarily before the girl looked away, the shame clear on her face. Slowly, the martial artist walked over toward the collection of artifacts that the Demons had stripped off of Hecate.
Naiki leaning against a rock with her eyes closed as Persephone busily attended to healing her, with help from Urd's alchemical skills. Of the survivors, she was the most heavily injured, but the expressions on the two Goddesses' faces spoke of confidence that she would recover quickly enough.
Mara looked over toward the other dead as they were lined up, two Demons, the God that had served with the Rakshasha and three other humans. Given their opponent, it was a smaller list of casualties than she'd expected. Then again, between her, Urd and Persephone she thought they should have been able to do more.
"What does category 1 mean then?" she muttered to herself.
"Corporal," Mao said, looking up from a cell phone. "Start preparing the prisoner for transport, we're going to have to be moving out ASAP."
Mara looked up at that.
"With all due respect, Sergeant-Major," one of her soldiers said. "I'm not sure there's anyway to secure this prisoner. Shouldn't we just take care of her now."
"I agree with the human," one of the other demons said as Mao's medic attended to her minor injuries. "Let's kill her and be done with it."
Persephone looked up sharply, but seemed frozen on whether to say anything or not. The situation seemed to war within her between the fact that it was her daughter being discussed and the fact of her daughter's crimes.
"We can't just kill her," Mara said, drawing looks of surprise from those gathered. "We need things from her."
"Like what?" one of the Demons asked. "She's the cause for the deaths of countless beings. Evil like her is a waste of the Creator's resources, it should just be cleansed away."
Persephone winced at that and Urd reached out a steadying hand toward the older Goddess.
"We're going to need some information," Mao reminded the Demon. "Leaders, how many of these Mantle things the Gods have, what other magic weapons she snuck out with."
"That's obsolete information," a Demon noted. "Didn't one of you say her plan was already shot to hell? What could she have told us."
The a dull sound like that of a butcher's hatchet cleaving through thick flush came to the ears of those present and all eyes turned to see Natsume standing over Hecate's form, Durandal impaled down through the Goddess's unconscious chest and blood flowing freely out of the wound.
She looked around at all the faces turned toward her, challenging them to say anything before she removed the sword from the body and walked toward where Persephone stood, staring at her daughter's dying form as the human martial artist walked closer toward her in the silence.
"A life for a life," Natsume said coolly, handing the sword over toward Persephone hilt first, the blade pointed directly toward her own heart.
Persephone reached out to take the hilt in hand as Natsume released it and held her arm out wide, waiting for the Goddess to do respond.
The Iron Queen's expression hardened as she took the blade in hand and stared into Natsume's eyes, and the moment was long and tense. Then her attention was distracted briefly by something behind Natsume and the moment ended.
The face softened and the sword was allowed to fall to the ground.
"My daughter chose her path," Persephone said sadly, before turning back to finish healing Naiki.
"We're getting called in," Mao said to break the scene. "There's another emergency developing and they want as much of my normal team on it as possible."
"And what are we going to talk about in the mean time?" Mara asked, glancing toward the dead Hecate with a regret that was far from sympathetic.
"Mom's going to be in Tokyo," Naiki said, standing up.
Mara winced involuntarily.
"That is acceptable," Persephone said quietly staring as Natsume walked back to sit beside her sister's body.
"I'm going to tell people that they can start bringing people home again," one of Mara's Demons noted before receiving a nod from Mara and vanishing into smoke.
"You two stay here," Mara said to the other Rakshasha. "Guard the town from any other monsters. A cursed forest doesn't get solved in one battle."
"We're leaving a couple here as well," Mao said.
"I can stay," Naiki said starting to stand up.
"I would prefer, granddaughter," Persephone said. "That you find somewhere to rest for a few days. I can tell that you have been healed several times in the last few days, not all recovery can be done with power."
Naiki wanted to snap out "I'm not your granddaughter!" but kept her tongue for once, instead simply opting to fume as she was being mollycoddled.
"She's my pupil," Mara reminded Persephone.
"Wow, I would have thought you'd be afraid my Mom would..." Naiki started as Mara's eyes widened momentarily.
"But I agree, she needs to take some time off," Mara said.
"Coward," Naiki protested.
"Go visit your friend, that girl with the camera," Mara noted. "I'm sure she'll be worried."
"And, how about this kid?" one of the soldiers asked, indicating Hel. "Are we going to take her back to this orphanage she's supposed to be at?"
"She'll stay here," Natsume said firmly, but without looking toward Hel.
The girl swallowed nervously as the one-armed martial artist spoke.
"But I've always grown up in an orphanage..." Hel protested weakly.
"This will be an exception then," Natsume said.
The various individuals split towards their individual tasks until Persephone was left mostly alone as she stood over her daughter's body and looked about the area, not seeming to focus on any of those engaged in activity around her.
"Daughter," the death-seer said in a whisper. "If you hear me, then pass on. It's over, this isn't anything to concern you any longer."
I think it was a mistake to have had her killed off, I can easily see it coming to haunt them. The blockage in Ranma for example being one thing she might have been able to answer... some of her other plans and backups she may have had in place. We know as readers of her enslavement of deamons... will they be found now... other questions.
Also, why would they immediately be able to go back once Hecate was killed, that makes little sense... Asgard is still partially sealed, power struggle in Hell, and there is rouges eveywhere killing each other. I cannot see all that coming to a halt and them being able to go back home with her death... it has grown beyond that.
Also, why would they immediately be able to go back once Hecate was killed, that makes little sense... Asgard is still partially sealed, power struggle in Hell, and there is rouges eveywhere killing each other. I cannot see all that coming to a halt and them being able to go back home with her death... it has grown beyond that.
Well... If her own mother looking over the body believed her dead, not to mention all the other gods and demons there, for now at least we would have to believe it as well.
I suppose it could have been a doppleganger or some other trickery, but I doubt it would have fooled them all, and why carry all those artifacts they liberated if she was not the real one.
Actually, it almost does not matter... as*they* believe she is dead. There actions from this point forward will assume it.
I suppose it could have been a doppleganger or some other trickery, but I doubt it would have fooled them all, and why carry all those artifacts they liberated if she was not the real one.
Actually, it almost does not matter... as*they* believe she is dead. There actions from this point forward will assume it.