Wonder City Stories II #68
Oct. 11th, 2011 09:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wonder_cityResolving Powers
The wind was screaming. Simon leapt between Sator and Brainchild, teeth flashing. The Equestrian and Maelstrom banished the spell that entrapped them.
For one hollow second, the right side of Sator's face darkened and his eyes opened wide, mouth frozen mid-incantation. A pink mist coalesced in the air to the right of Sator. Then Sator dropped to the floor, his flesh crumbling stickily around his bones. The mist rained down and was lost in the general oversupply of gore.
The wind blew itself apart and the gears stopped cold.
There was silence.
"Well," said the Equestrian, staring at the remains of Sator. "That's a thing."
Holy shit, Simon said. Did she...?
My god, Ira said, she killed him. Took all the water... or blood... or something right out of his body.
It was the only thing to do, Suzanne said firmly, but I could feel her reeling with nausea.
We'll deal with that later, Watson said grimly. Start cleaning up, we're on our way.
Be careful, Maelstrom said. Magicians generally leave nasty surprises for posthumous applications.
So a few minutes later, a handful of Gold Stars bounced through the portal and found the Equestrian exclaiming, "I found your hand, Wire. I... think it got in the way when Nereid did her thing, though." She looked up from the object on the floor and said to Sekhmet, "Oh, hello. About bloody time you got here."
"My gods!" Sekhmet said, staring around the blood-spattered room in horror. "Who...? How...?"
The Equestrian snapped, "Later. Look, we've got a massive injury over there--" pointing to Wire "--and another couple of people down. Could you, perhaps, lend a hand?" She looked back at the floor. "I mean, help out?"
Simon was gently nudging Nereid with his cold nose, and Nereid was waking up slowly. I noticed he wasn't trying to, say, lick her face. She was blood, head to toe. (Of course, so was everyone else.)
Sekhmet and her compatriots (I recognized the Blue Eagle costume, but knew it had to be a new one -- or maybe not, if he'd somehow come back to life, which wasn't unusual for the spandex teams -- and the Green Hood) spread out, inspecting Megan and Nereid and Wire from a distance and looking up at the ceiling, where the hole was slowly closing up.
Watson and G went through the portal together and straight to Megan, who was still out cold (because I do my work right). They struggled a little -- she's a big girl -- but between them (and their minor superstrength) they backboarded her (why wasn't I surprised that Watson knew how to do that correctly?) and got her onto the giant-sized stretcher they'd brought.
Professor Fortune, in his cape and with his wacky Einstein hair looking especially Einsteinian, strode into the room like he owned it. "Ah, Molly," he said, smiling benignly at the Equestrian. He looked around quickly, and his gaze lingered on the funnel. "Oh, good," he said softly. "Nice to see the thing with the machine worked out."
Watson and G were slowly walking Megan out, and paused at the door while Watson gave the professor a strange, unreadable look. Her mind was shuttered completely from me. G shook her head at the solicitous Eagle and Hood, and gestured to Watson with her chin. Watson nodded and moved forward; they carried Megan out into Sator's shop, and the Eagle and the Hood followed them.
Sekhmet knelt next to Wire, producing a thick band of leather from some part of her costume to tourniquet the girl's arm.
"Bugger off, you useless toad," the Equestrian said to Professor Fortune. "This is my gig, not yours."
"Molly, my dear," Professor Fortune said, beaming at her, "I'm just here to help out with an analysis of the situation. The Gold Stars called me in."
"Analyze this, Harvey," the Equestrian said, flipping the bird at him (she did it both ways, in case he was too dim to figure out the British way). "Get out of here before Her Nibs notices that the self-styled Grand High Poobah of Earth is standing on her turf, from which, I note, he has been banned for more than four decades. I won't be responsible if she shows up."
The pool of blood on the floor rose up and coalesced gracefully into a replica of Nereid. It wasn't an exact twin: the replica was wearing a long gown streaked with all the shades of red and brown found in blood. Her face kept shifting and it took me a moment to figure out why: I was seeing her through the eyes of several people, and I guessed that her face altered according to the viewer's ideals of beauty. It was like looking at a very peculiar animation, especially since it was still recognizably Nereid's face.
I didn't even try to get near that mind. I'm stupid, not suicidal.
She turned and stared at Professor Fortune with the mad, cold expression of a bird of prey. He tried to smile urbanely and failed. She said in a voice that resonated in several registers, "You know the penalty, of course. I need not insult you by repeating it."
The Equestrian radiated an unholy glee as Professor Fortune backpedaled toward the door. I felt unadulterated terror from Tam Lane, who was trying to shrink behind a bit of debris.
"No offense meant, of course, Your Majesty," he said, pausing at the threshold and producing a handkerchief to mop his suddenly gleaming brow. "We had no idea that the door led to..."
The woman stared at him, motionless. Her dress rippled toward him liquidly where it met the floor.
He caught his cloak in both hands and bounded hastily through the door.
The Equestrian and Maelstrom both executed handsome bows to the creature that had manifested from the blood. "Your Majesty," the Equestrian said. "My apologies for not detecting this mess sooner."
She lifted a hand and gazed incuriously around the room. "You have stopped it, according to your bargain."
"I think we've a good bit more to do," Maelstrom muttered ruefully. The Queen ignored him as she swept into a walk so inhumanly graceful that it reminded me of a jellyfish.
Tam actually ducked his head beneath his arms as she glanced in his direction; I wasn't sure, but I thought I caught the traces of a smile on her face through the Equestrian's eyes.
The Queen paused and looked down at Nereid. Simon, who had turned human in order to lift Nereid's face out of a puddle of blood, looked nervously up at the Queen and I could sense from him that she didn't smell right -- not like blood, not like anything he'd ever smelled. "It is impolite to tamper with the lifeblood of another's realm, yet sufficient unto the day is the repayment thereof." She turned her head towards the Equestrian. "I forget the words," she said sweetly, with an undertone of malice so clear it was like metal. "How is it I should curse her?"
Nereid, who only just recovered real consciousness, looked up into that face and began leaking blood incontinently: I could see it dripping from her fingertips and it streaked her face like tears. I could feel her sheer, bone-draining terror: the closest I can describe it is that of an acrophobic being pressed to the edge of a sheer precipice.
The Equestrian blinked. Then her expression hardened, and she answered, "Your Majesty, I believe it is him you usually threaten, at least in the songs I am familiar with."
Tam came out from under his arms for long enough to shoot the Equestrian a hateful look.
The Queen raised a hand with impossibly graceful fingers -- and possibly too many of them -- to her lips. "Ah, now I remember. I cannot call shame upon her face, because after all, I am using it. Such shame as her ill-favored face may have is only that which she herself shall bring upon it. Let it be so."
She smiled at the Equestrian, as though she had just won a round of a game, and said, "Be off with you all, I want no more of you." With that, the figure collapsed to the floor in a viscous splash, the blood spreading once more into a shining pool.
"Can we get out of here now?" Simon asked the Equestrian. "Before someone changes her mind?"
Maelstrom strode over, nudged Sekhmet aside, and, with an interesting impulse of protectiveness I didn't poke at, picked up Wire, who looked grey and chalky. "Let's."
Sekhmet acquiesced to Maelstrom's preference and walked over to Simon. "May I? At least if I carry her, I can feel like I did something here."
"Please," Simon said. "Feels like she's broken her right arm and maybe some other things." He turned wolf again.
Sekhmet moved around to Nereid's left and carefully picked her up. Nereid's eyes closed.
Tam looked cautiously out from his hiding place, then rushed out to Nereid's side. He reached out for her hand, paused and grimaced. It was coated and shining with blood. Overcoming his squeamishness, he gripped her hand and looked into her face, murmuring, "Ah, my dear, my dearest." He trotted alongside as Sekhmet carried her out.
"Don't move her arm, you git," the Equestrian called after them. "It's broken!"
Nereid's eyelashes didn't so much as flutter. I couldn't parse the terror and anxiety I could sense from Tam, so I didn't try. Then they were through the door to Earth.
You look a mess, Suzanne said as she envisioned throwing her arms around Simon gratefully, and I let that go through, just to Simon.
He gave a wolfish grin and bounded out through the door.
The Equestrian took a last look around after the others had left. This is going to be a long night, she said.
Surely you're done? I said.
Not a chance, the Equestrian said, and let me have a little of her Faerie sight. I could see gaping holes ground into the dimensional wall as far as I could see. This is all over the realm. All over the Earth. We've got to gather up the escapees.
"Speaking of escapees," she added aloud, spinning one of her green balls of fire into a net. Her gaze moved to Brainchild, whose spirit was standing, looking around her with a horrified expression, in the corner of the room furthest from where the machine used to be.
Damn, girl, you have a rough job, I said.
"Yep," she said, flicking the net over Brainchild, who shrank down inside it into a green ball of light. The Equestrian strode over to pick her up, absently tucking Wire's mummified hand into her belt as she bent to receive the ball of light with both hands. She sighed.
Beer first, she said to me. Then onward. She strode through the door.
---
Note from the Author:
Okay! The cliffhangers are over, and the denouement has begun. What loose ends are you most looking forward to seeing tied up?
(Also, much gratitude to Akycha for helping me with the Queen's characterization.)
Remember to vote for WCS!
The wind was screaming. Simon leapt between Sator and Brainchild, teeth flashing. The Equestrian and Maelstrom banished the spell that entrapped them.
For one hollow second, the right side of Sator's face darkened and his eyes opened wide, mouth frozen mid-incantation. A pink mist coalesced in the air to the right of Sator. Then Sator dropped to the floor, his flesh crumbling stickily around his bones. The mist rained down and was lost in the general oversupply of gore.
The wind blew itself apart and the gears stopped cold.
There was silence.
"Well," said the Equestrian, staring at the remains of Sator. "That's a thing."
Holy shit, Simon said. Did she...?
My god, Ira said, she killed him. Took all the water... or blood... or something right out of his body.
It was the only thing to do, Suzanne said firmly, but I could feel her reeling with nausea.
We'll deal with that later, Watson said grimly. Start cleaning up, we're on our way.
Be careful, Maelstrom said. Magicians generally leave nasty surprises for posthumous applications.
So a few minutes later, a handful of Gold Stars bounced through the portal and found the Equestrian exclaiming, "I found your hand, Wire. I... think it got in the way when Nereid did her thing, though." She looked up from the object on the floor and said to Sekhmet, "Oh, hello. About bloody time you got here."
"My gods!" Sekhmet said, staring around the blood-spattered room in horror. "Who...? How...?"
The Equestrian snapped, "Later. Look, we've got a massive injury over there--" pointing to Wire "--and another couple of people down. Could you, perhaps, lend a hand?" She looked back at the floor. "I mean, help out?"
Simon was gently nudging Nereid with his cold nose, and Nereid was waking up slowly. I noticed he wasn't trying to, say, lick her face. She was blood, head to toe. (Of course, so was everyone else.)
Sekhmet and her compatriots (I recognized the Blue Eagle costume, but knew it had to be a new one -- or maybe not, if he'd somehow come back to life, which wasn't unusual for the spandex teams -- and the Green Hood) spread out, inspecting Megan and Nereid and Wire from a distance and looking up at the ceiling, where the hole was slowly closing up.
Watson and G went through the portal together and straight to Megan, who was still out cold (because I do my work right). They struggled a little -- she's a big girl -- but between them (and their minor superstrength) they backboarded her (why wasn't I surprised that Watson knew how to do that correctly?) and got her onto the giant-sized stretcher they'd brought.
Professor Fortune, in his cape and with his wacky Einstein hair looking especially Einsteinian, strode into the room like he owned it. "Ah, Molly," he said, smiling benignly at the Equestrian. He looked around quickly, and his gaze lingered on the funnel. "Oh, good," he said softly. "Nice to see the thing with the machine worked out."
Watson and G were slowly walking Megan out, and paused at the door while Watson gave the professor a strange, unreadable look. Her mind was shuttered completely from me. G shook her head at the solicitous Eagle and Hood, and gestured to Watson with her chin. Watson nodded and moved forward; they carried Megan out into Sator's shop, and the Eagle and the Hood followed them.
Sekhmet knelt next to Wire, producing a thick band of leather from some part of her costume to tourniquet the girl's arm.
"Bugger off, you useless toad," the Equestrian said to Professor Fortune. "This is my gig, not yours."
"Molly, my dear," Professor Fortune said, beaming at her, "I'm just here to help out with an analysis of the situation. The Gold Stars called me in."
"Analyze this, Harvey," the Equestrian said, flipping the bird at him (she did it both ways, in case he was too dim to figure out the British way). "Get out of here before Her Nibs notices that the self-styled Grand High Poobah of Earth is standing on her turf, from which, I note, he has been banned for more than four decades. I won't be responsible if she shows up."
The pool of blood on the floor rose up and coalesced gracefully into a replica of Nereid. It wasn't an exact twin: the replica was wearing a long gown streaked with all the shades of red and brown found in blood. Her face kept shifting and it took me a moment to figure out why: I was seeing her through the eyes of several people, and I guessed that her face altered according to the viewer's ideals of beauty. It was like looking at a very peculiar animation, especially since it was still recognizably Nereid's face.
I didn't even try to get near that mind. I'm stupid, not suicidal.
She turned and stared at Professor Fortune with the mad, cold expression of a bird of prey. He tried to smile urbanely and failed. She said in a voice that resonated in several registers, "You know the penalty, of course. I need not insult you by repeating it."
The Equestrian radiated an unholy glee as Professor Fortune backpedaled toward the door. I felt unadulterated terror from Tam Lane, who was trying to shrink behind a bit of debris.
"No offense meant, of course, Your Majesty," he said, pausing at the threshold and producing a handkerchief to mop his suddenly gleaming brow. "We had no idea that the door led to..."
The woman stared at him, motionless. Her dress rippled toward him liquidly where it met the floor.
He caught his cloak in both hands and bounded hastily through the door.
The Equestrian and Maelstrom both executed handsome bows to the creature that had manifested from the blood. "Your Majesty," the Equestrian said. "My apologies for not detecting this mess sooner."
She lifted a hand and gazed incuriously around the room. "You have stopped it, according to your bargain."
"I think we've a good bit more to do," Maelstrom muttered ruefully. The Queen ignored him as she swept into a walk so inhumanly graceful that it reminded me of a jellyfish.
Tam actually ducked his head beneath his arms as she glanced in his direction; I wasn't sure, but I thought I caught the traces of a smile on her face through the Equestrian's eyes.
The Queen paused and looked down at Nereid. Simon, who had turned human in order to lift Nereid's face out of a puddle of blood, looked nervously up at the Queen and I could sense from him that she didn't smell right -- not like blood, not like anything he'd ever smelled. "It is impolite to tamper with the lifeblood of another's realm, yet sufficient unto the day is the repayment thereof." She turned her head towards the Equestrian. "I forget the words," she said sweetly, with an undertone of malice so clear it was like metal. "How is it I should curse her?"
Nereid, who only just recovered real consciousness, looked up into that face and began leaking blood incontinently: I could see it dripping from her fingertips and it streaked her face like tears. I could feel her sheer, bone-draining terror: the closest I can describe it is that of an acrophobic being pressed to the edge of a sheer precipice.
The Equestrian blinked. Then her expression hardened, and she answered, "Your Majesty, I believe it is him you usually threaten, at least in the songs I am familiar with."
Tam came out from under his arms for long enough to shoot the Equestrian a hateful look.
The Queen raised a hand with impossibly graceful fingers -- and possibly too many of them -- to her lips. "Ah, now I remember. I cannot call shame upon her face, because after all, I am using it. Such shame as her ill-favored face may have is only that which she herself shall bring upon it. Let it be so."
She smiled at the Equestrian, as though she had just won a round of a game, and said, "Be off with you all, I want no more of you." With that, the figure collapsed to the floor in a viscous splash, the blood spreading once more into a shining pool.
"Can we get out of here now?" Simon asked the Equestrian. "Before someone changes her mind?"
Maelstrom strode over, nudged Sekhmet aside, and, with an interesting impulse of protectiveness I didn't poke at, picked up Wire, who looked grey and chalky. "Let's."
Sekhmet acquiesced to Maelstrom's preference and walked over to Simon. "May I? At least if I carry her, I can feel like I did something here."
"Please," Simon said. "Feels like she's broken her right arm and maybe some other things." He turned wolf again.
Sekhmet moved around to Nereid's left and carefully picked her up. Nereid's eyes closed.
Tam looked cautiously out from his hiding place, then rushed out to Nereid's side. He reached out for her hand, paused and grimaced. It was coated and shining with blood. Overcoming his squeamishness, he gripped her hand and looked into her face, murmuring, "Ah, my dear, my dearest." He trotted alongside as Sekhmet carried her out.
"Don't move her arm, you git," the Equestrian called after them. "It's broken!"
Nereid's eyelashes didn't so much as flutter. I couldn't parse the terror and anxiety I could sense from Tam, so I didn't try. Then they were through the door to Earth.
You look a mess, Suzanne said as she envisioned throwing her arms around Simon gratefully, and I let that go through, just to Simon.
He gave a wolfish grin and bounded out through the door.
The Equestrian took a last look around after the others had left. This is going to be a long night, she said.
Surely you're done? I said.
Not a chance, the Equestrian said, and let me have a little of her Faerie sight. I could see gaping holes ground into the dimensional wall as far as I could see. This is all over the realm. All over the Earth. We've got to gather up the escapees.
"Speaking of escapees," she added aloud, spinning one of her green balls of fire into a net. Her gaze moved to Brainchild, whose spirit was standing, looking around her with a horrified expression, in the corner of the room furthest from where the machine used to be.
Damn, girl, you have a rough job, I said.
"Yep," she said, flicking the net over Brainchild, who shrank down inside it into a green ball of light. The Equestrian strode over to pick her up, absently tucking Wire's mummified hand into her belt as she bent to receive the ball of light with both hands. She sighed.
Beer first, she said to me. Then onward. She strode through the door.
---
Note from the Author:
Okay! The cliffhangers are over, and the denouement has begun. What loose ends are you most looking forward to seeing tied up?
(Also, much gratitude to Akycha for helping me with the Queen's characterization.)
Remember to vote for WCS!
Tags:
- brainchild,
- g,
- gold_stars,
- ira,
- maelstrom,
- megan,
- nereid,
- prof_fortune,
- renata,
- sator,
- sekhmet,
- simon,
- suzanne,
- tam_lane,
- the_equestrian,
- watson
no subject
Date: 2011-10-11 02:02 pm (UTC)What loose ends are you most looking forward to seeing tied up?
TAM DROWNED IN A BUCKET. SERIOUSLY.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-12 02:31 am (UTC)THIS.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-12 02:35 am (UTC)LITTLE NELL DEADTAM DROWNED YET?no subject
Date: 2012-01-28 09:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-11 09:12 pm (UTC)Nereid will continue to be embarrassed about herself as she always has been? Also I'm not sure why she was to be cursed at all.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-11 11:49 pm (UTC)As for why she has to be cursed, Nereid took a life-and-death decision within the Queen's domain. In medieval times, within their domain only the lords had that right. I suppose Faerie works under similar laws.
BTW, anyone know why I can't log with OpenID?
no subject
Date: 2011-10-11 11:54 pm (UTC)No, but I'll check the settings. I could've sworn I'd made it possible for OpenID to log in. Hrm.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-12 02:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-11 11:53 pm (UTC)http://tam-lin.org/versions/fair.html
no subject
Date: 2011-10-12 02:36 am (UTC)to a newt or a snake
But hold me tight and fear not,
I am your baby's father.
//turns green
NEREID BABY. THE MORNING AFTER PILL COULD BE YOUR FRIEND....no, it's probably too late for that isn't it? And wouldn't work on Faerie shit. I am hoping this does not happen.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-28 09:29 am (UTC)