Chapter III

Jenny

            Jenny froze in terror, staring in incomprehension at the five before her. They made no move to seize her, which should have been warning sign enough. That distracted her long enough for a strong pair of hands to clamp down on her wrists with a grip like a vise. Jenny stomped back with her boot of cleated fury, but received a sharp, heavy blow to the back of the head in response, and she was then dragged forward into the center of the room.

She was irreverently slammed onto the stone altar, and after poorly woven -yet strong- ropes were tied around her ankles and wrists, she was flipped onto her back by two of the cloaked figures. She looked up, in a daze, at the one who had captured her. It took Jenny a few moments before she recognized the person standing before her, and her expression shifted from vague confusion, to surprise, to bitter anger, all in a matter of seconds.

            Standing before her, dressed in a similar hooded robe that was slightly too big for her, but still with a somber look of purpose on her face, was Kat. Her face was taut and pale, even more blood-drawn than before. Around her waist was a rusted and tattered chain-mesh belt, with a wicked-looking dagger sheathed. Her robes were lined with crimson, not gold, and she wasn’t wearing the spiky goth gaunts like the others, but at the same time, there was something about her that made her want to curl up in a tight little ball in fear, and give up. Then she noticed it; Kat’s eyes, once pleasant, albeit somewhat dead-looking glassy green eyes, were nearly entirely engulfed by a beady blackness, with only the whites of her eyes remaining.

            “How… on EARTH could you do this, Kat?” Jenny whispered hoarsely, her eyes searching Kat’s earnestly, for some sign of mercy, or memory, but there was none. “I’m your friend. It’s me, Jenny. Please, don’t do this.”

            Something flickered slightly in the depths of Kat’s eyes, but it quickly vanished. “If my Lord is to be awakened from the depths, there must be a sacrifice,” she said calmly, as though she were simply stating the time of day. “You are a servant of the Enemy, and a child born from the line of the Captain. Your blood is perfect for awakening our Lord.” In spite of the circumstances, Jenny smirked darkly.

            “You’ve already said all that. Look, who is this “lord” of yours anyway? If I don’t come home tonight, there will be trouble. My mum will worry. You remember my mum, right? And little Rory?” All of this didn’t seem to have any affect on Kat, as she stood there apathetically, the same calm, emotionless mask plastered across her face.

            “Ignorant child, you know not what you speak. Our Lord is supreme above all others. The Dark One is the one who has given to us power over the High Magick, and the elements, and many other things. But your godling, in a childish fit, imprisoned him deep in the earth. But tonight, after so long, his bonds will be broken, and we, the Iblis Brotherhood, shall rejoice at long last.” Jenny’s eyes narrowed, wavering between Kat’s still perfectly calm face, and her sheathed dagger.

            “So, wait… your Lord is… Satan, by chance? There’s a bloody good reason why he was cast down. He rebelled against God, and was prideful enough to try and get His legions to worship him, so God stripped him of his power, and cast him and his supporters down onto the newly-formed Earth. And you do know you’re a girl, right?” In spite of the danger she was in, Jenny couldn’t resist the temptation to mouth off at Kat, her blood rising in fury.

            Kat spat on the ground with annoyance, and smirked at Jenny, her eyes glistening with mild entertainment. “Your deluded kin call him Satan, yes. In the elder days, he was the mighty Serpent. In current day, the world has been deluded into believing him as a red man with a pitchfork. But tonight,” she grinned, a dangerous light twinkling in her eyes, “They will see just how much power he has left.”

            She stepped back, and spoke aloud. “Gag her, and hold her down.” Jenny thought she was speaking to her robed minions, but she was suddenly pinned down by something unseen, and a dirty rag was shoved in her mouth, and secured. Waves of fear rushed through Jenny’s body, her eyes wide with horror, locked on Kat. This was really happening.

             Kat placed a hand on the pommel of her dagger, and began chanting, and the hooded figures picked it up. As Jenny lay there, gagged and bound, she could hear the words more distinctively. They were words of destruction, and bloodletting, and chaos overrunning humanity, and other such happy, delightful subjects. She could feel senseless fear, uncontrollable terror, coursing through her veins like a toxin, unable to do anything but listen to the words of the cultists preparing to take her life, when one thought, gentle, soothing, crossed her fearful mind, three simple words: God With Us.

            In spite of the circumstances, a faint smile graced her face. Why didn’t I think of it before? She thought to herself. Carefully, so as not to attract attention, she closed her eyes, and while she appeared to be curling up and surrendering to her inevitable demise, she had a trick up her sleeve.

 God Almighty, hear my plea. I am surrounded by enemies, and am about to die. You have long promised that you would not forsake us, or abandon us to our fates. If it is your will that I must fall, for your longer plan, I am ready, but if it is not, send me help. Get me out of here. I ask all this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

As she concluded her prayer, she felt a cool wave of calm sweep over her, driving the fear and darkness from her mind. The drone of the brotherhood’s chanting seemed flatter now, duller. Subtly, above the continuous chanting, she picked up a familiar noise; music, but akin to a goose being trampled by an Irish dance team, or- bagpipes? As they slowly grew louder, her eyes widened in surprise and excitement, as she recognized the tune her father used to play for her when she was a child, reeling and lilting and making her heart beat faster from the sheer joy in the music; help was coming. Kat seemed to be mildly unsettled by the crescendoing drone of the bagpipes, growing louder and closer, and picked up the pace herself, the chanting becoming faster and more intense, until all of a sudden, it stopped.

Jenny stared Kat in the eyes, fear starting to infect her again, when Kat finally drew her dagger, its blade glinting in the low light as she raised it for the final kill. It was that moment when it happened. Around the same corner that Jenny had been dragged from came tramping a short, armored and helmeted person, continuing to play The Black Bear on the bagpipes as though he were simply strolling through the Highland Games, the mouthpiece tucked somewhere under the helmet’s brim. The hooded cultists recoiled from him, as though his mere presence was painful, and Kat stared back at him with- for the first time that evening- a glint of fear in her eyes. Whoever he was, he was possibly Jenny’s only way out of this.

His armor was like Vicky’s, but unlike the man Jenny had followed into the mansion, his armor wasn’t heavily beaten up, and was painted a pleasantly faded forest green, with dull red Celtic knots twirling around his armor, and a broken white stripe down the center. In the center of his chest-plates, at the origin of all the knots, there was a cross, embossed in gold, with six streaks of silver arcing away from it. His helmet was also identical to the blue-armored man, but like the armor, it was painted the same shade of green, broken up by the peeling crimson around his T-slit, and the scintillating black of the visor. On his belt, what looked like a sheathed katana slapped against his thigh plate, but the grip was bigger than normal, with a small red button indented unto the grip. Also tucked into his belt, to Jenny’s surprise, was a battered iron cross, blackened with age and scratched up in places; it was entirely identical to the cross that Jenny wore, but much larger.

As he finally concluded The Black Bear, he removed the mouthpiece from under his helmet, slipped the bagpipes over his shoulder, and placed his hands on his hips in a pose that pretty much said Look at Me, I’m Awesome. The hooded brethren hissed uncomfortably, and withdrew smoky, dark blades from the excess of their robes. The piper simply ignored them and swaggered towards Kat, still frozen with the dagger raised over Jenny’s bound form. It was then that he spoke.

“You know, that’s my friend you’ve got there. And I’d be thanking you very, very kindly if you let her go. Right now.” If Jenny wasn’t gagged, her jaw would have dropped in shock. Her rescuer, bold as brass, was Jake. He nodded in her direction. “Jen, you okay? They haven’t hurt you yet?” Jenny shook her head eagerly, and tried to get her gag out of her mouth with her tongue, but failed miserably.

Kat growled under her breath, and slashed out at Jake, standing calmly, patiently, but the blade simply skittered across his armor plates, scratching away a sliver of paint. Jake looked down at his plates, and if his face was uncovered, Jenny figured he probably would have been grinning. He half-bowed sardonically, making sure to keep his field of vision level with Kat; he wasn’t foolish enough to take his eyes away from the knife-bearing Kat. With a rumble of barely kept temper, Kat approached, with tints of fear still in her eyes, but quickly being swallowed by anger- and hatred.

“What do you think you are doing here, Guardian?” she asked, spitting the word “Guardian” like it was something foul-tasting and wretched. Jake shrugged, circling Kat, and still ignoring the cultists behind him. From out of the shadows seemed to linger more hooded figures, more than Jenny had figured. Jake was entirely surrounded, but he didn’t seem to care. His hand seemingly casually slipped down to his belt, where Jenny could see an abnormally-shaped holster, snapped shut.

“I already said, dearie. You’ve got my friend there, on your wee table. You were going to hurt her. Also, I’d be thanking you very kindly to leave this place, while you still can. Thanks.” A smile far older than Kat’s youthful years crossed her face, cynical and devious. The two continued to circle each other warily, but the reflective T-slit visor of Jake’s helmet seemed to unsettle her.

“We know, Guardian. We know that your brethren fought and died here by the dozens, to protect your dying Order. This manor was one of the last of your safe-houses, after you failed so miserably to spot the threat right in front of you.” Kat paused, for effect, then added “Surrender now, and you can go to join them in peace. No more fighting, no more sorrow. Just-” Before she could finish, Jake interrupted her.

“You asked why I was here, yes? Well, there’s one other reason.” Kat smirked, and stopped cautiously.

“And what’s that?” she asked, her eyes locked on his T-slit.

 “Oh, no reason in particular, other than to be a distraction,” he said casually, too calmly. While he was talking, a small, blinking metal ball rolled out from the shadows, a small indicator light on its side blinking faster and faster, and unseen to all but Jenny. All of a sudden, it exploded into blinding light, hurtling Jenny into near unconsciousness.

She felt herself fall to the ground, blinded, but in spite of her ringing ears, she could still hear what was going on around her. There was a constant buzzing drone, fluctuating and whizzing and humming, occasionally punctuated by unearthly shrieks, followed by a zap like the world’s largest Tesla coil going off, and a whispering hiss. As her vision returned, slowly, she could pick out figures locked in intense combat. Moments later, when it finally stabilized, she was astonished. There were many more armed cultists, maybe fifty in all, but Jake wasn’t alone.

She recognized the crimson armor of Vicky, now helmeted (half of her helmet was decorated with what looked like a white Phantom’s mask, Jenny noted), and armed with a curious staff, sparring against a handful of blade-wielding cultists. Dodging their attacks, she slashed out with her staff, and with a crackle of electricity, two of them vaporized. She parried two more attacks with her staff, and smacked one in the head and ran the other through with her taser staff. Two more empty robes and heavy gauntlets thudded to the floor, and as Jenny looked around, there were quite a few similar piles around the room. Vicky nodded in satisfaction, and leaped back into combat against a cluster of other robed wraiths ganging up on Jake.

Jake, however, was doing quite fine. In spite of being surrounded by a few dozen cultists, he was laughing. Instead of a taser staff, he was holding his unsheathed katana two-handed, its dulled, blunt blade crackling with energy. Around him were growing mounds of scorched robes, and as Jenny watched, the immediate circle around him all attacked at once, blades arcing in. Jake carved through them with lightning precision, reaping down rows at a time, while Vicky stabbed and smashed her way through the horde.

In a corner, another slightly-built, armored figure, clearly a young woman, was pinned down by a few handful of wraiths, but she was by no means helpless. At her feet were a few piles of robes, testimony to her capabilities. Without warning, she leaped forward, slashing into the unprepared ranks of the hooded cultists with twin blades buzzing like demented hummingbirds on steroids. The wraiths didn’t stand a chance. She dusted herself off with exaggerated care (a few of the cultists while vaporizing had left patches of ash on her brown-and-gold armor), and she quickly rejoined Jake and Vicky in polishing off the wraiths.

And in the center of the room, locked in pitched warfare of the strangest kind, was Kat, and- Him, Jenny thought. He’s here. He bore a paint-stripped round shield in one hand, and a long, slender taser blade in the other. Whoever he was, he was unstoppable; Kat summoned a storm of icy shrapnel from the murky cloud of shadow at her feet, sending them hurtling at him, but he took the brunt of the attack with his shield, unharmed. When she slashed out with her dagger, hoping to get around the unstoppable wall of armor, he parried it with ease, almost with contempt. Blow after blow she rained down on him, stabbing and slashing and hacking away at his defenses, but not a single strike landed.

Finally, the tide turned; he steadily walked forward, launching his own attack, his blade in an elegant and hypnotic dance in the air. She began to slink back, barely managing to block or deflect his thundering blows. In a fit of desperation, she planted her feet firmly on the ground, and sprayed a jet of intense flame at the advancing Guardian. Once more, he dropped to his knee and held his shield securely in front of him, deflecting the fire cleanly. Kat summoned a wraith into existence behind him, but he casually stabbed back at it and vaporized it without looking. As the jet of flame sputtered out, the Guardian got to his feet, walked forward, and with a horrendous crack of bone on metal, he pulled his head back and smacked her clean between the eyes with his reinforced steel helmet.

From Jenny’s position, still bound on the floor, she could see as Kat’s eyes rolled back into her head, and she collapsed in a black heap at the Guardian’s feet. As if her consciousness was their sole connection to the physical world, the remaining wraiths vaporized on the spot, leaving the room shockingly quiet, the four Guardians the only ones left standing. The battle was over just as quickly as it had begun. The brown-painted Guardian noticed Jenny (if having her T-slit moving in her direction counted as noticing), and rushed over, unsheathing a knife from her belt and carefully cutting her free. Jake and Vicky carefully laid out the unconscious Kat in a comfortable position on the ground, and began mopping up the now heavily disfigured pentagram on the floor, destroying any chance of any further activity there.

The brown Guardian helped raise Jenny to a sitting position against the makeshift altar, and removed the gag from her mouth. Jenny nodded weakly, her eyes starting to glaze over, smiled blearily, and promptly turned away and vomited. This was all too much for her to handle at once. Crazy blood-sacrifice cults, walking tanks pounding the snot out of demonic entities, and now she was supposed to get back to normal life? To her surprise, the brown Guardian rubbed her back comfortingly, encouragingly.

“Hush… hush you now. You’re safe. Nothing is going to hurt you now. I promise.” The hairs on the back of Jenny’s neck prickled, as her mind placed a face with her voice.

“Lex?...” Lexie slipped her helmet off and let it fall with a clatter to the ground, and shook out her red locks, now slightly damp with sweat. She grinned wryly, and helped Jenny back to a sitting position again, using the rag in her hand to clean her up as best as she could. Jenny nodded towards the still-standing blue-armored Guardian, who had since flicked off his blade and sheathed it, and slung his shield over his shoulder like a knapsack.

“What about him? Is that Jason under there?” Lexie smiled hesitantly, and was about to say something, when Jake called out.

“Chief, we need backup over here! She’s got a bugger!” A grim expression flashed across Lexie’s face, and she got to her feet and slipped on her helmet, but the blue-armored Guardian got there first, and he promptly instructed Jake and Vicky to hold her arms down, and pray. As they huddled over her slowly struggling form, whispering and praying desperately, the Guardian stood over her, and tore the iron cross from his belt, and kneeled down, placing it on her chest gingerly. Kat screeched ear-piercingly, and writhed violently as they continued to pray. As they reached their final “Amen”, the blue Guardian peeled off his helmet, and let his shaggy red hair hang in his face.

“In the name of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, I command you, demon, to be gone from her!” Kat shrieked one last time, before a billowing, jagged-edged black cloud wafted from her lips, avoided the Guardians entirely, and planted down into the ground with a crack. As it sank into the ground, it left behind a smoking indentation in the concrete. Jenny felt weakness return to her body, and she slid to the ground, shivering slightly.

Lexie turned back, and saw her state. As blackness swallowed Jenny’s field of vision, the cries of Jake and Lexie seemed distant as they ran towards her, but the hairy, ginger Guardian outdistanced them all, calling for Vicky to get his medic bag. She felt strong hands lift her up, and the last thing she saw before passing out was a pair of concerned, storm-blue eyes, a battle-scarred face, and a bushy, untrimmed goatee. Will…