“Don’t kill her!” Raven yelled as she moved to check on Pieran.

"Pieran!" Only now did she register that Pieran had fallen under Erinyes vicious machinations. Iona didn't even feel the pain in her leg as she dashed over to him, kneeling by his side to inspect his wounds. She was still clutching the pepper spray, knuckles whitened.

"Come on, Pieran, say something, please. Pieran?!"

Pieran tried to focus but the pain was great. A deep wound in his left shoulder allowed blood to flow freely. Whatever was coating Erinyes dagger was burning the muscle tissue like acid. Opening his eyes, the fine feminine features of both Raven and Iona swam into view. And the legs and lower wings of Erinyes as well.
“They are too close to the winged one”, he thought.
“Ma’ladys, Get back!” Pieran yelled the warning and tried to wave them to get behind him. With his right hand, he wrenched the whip off his hip and flung the tip out toward Erinyes, arching the braided leather just above the grass. It wrapped around her leg but as he snapped it back, Pieran lacked the angle and the leverage to cause her any damage. The whip slipped off the limb effortlessly. Pain again filled his eyes as he rolled onto his back.

Iain wrenched himself free of the Fyral’s grasp. He brought the silver dagger to bear on the demon’s well muscled chest and drove the point home, to the hilt. As Iain withdrew the dagger, it made a wet sucking sound as the demon fell onto its back. Iain turned and threw the dagger at Erinyes. As it stuck into her, she emitted another scream.
“Helm Me!”, she screeched through her gritted teeth.

Alex tried to duck the incoming fist and would have if it were a normal sized hand. But, being larger then normal, the demon connected with a righteous right cross, and not the religious kind. Focused on hitting Alex, it failed to note Dren was moving. A kick to the back of the knees toppled the beast and Dren wasted no time as he followed through his attack. Driving the arrow shaft into the pre-made hole in the skull, the ear, he threw his weight into the thrust. This caused the silver tipped head to pass through the twin chambers of the demon’s sinus cavities. The force splashed out the contents like stepping on two water balloons. The now combined demon mucus coated Dren’s fist and arm and even got Alex’s left foot and lower leg. The thick goop solidified quickly, rooting Alex in place by one foot and cementing Dren’s left arm to the dead demon’s head.

“A final time.” The deep male voice seemingly from everywhere intoned. The skin of all persons present prickled as dark energy rolled across the park.

Erinyes beat her wings hard and shot into the sky. “Hear me Sisters, do not fight me!” she commanded.

Iain instinctively reached for his second sword, only then remembering that he had only taken the dagger with him, figuring he was going to face a couple of Fyarls. So much for being a good boy scout...

He looked around, trying to pinpoint the source of the voice: "Woah, wait a second, Lord Vader... You weren't on the brochure!"

Turning to Raven, he asked: "You know this guy?"

Huh. She'd been hoping for a simple "I'm OK, don't worry about me," but that clearly wasn't Pieran's style. Even when he was down, his first priority was to try to protect them. Sweet, in a medieval kind of way. Iona would have smiled, but then he collapsed again, after trying to bring down the witch-on-wings with his whip.

"Oh no you don't, stay with me now, Pieran, no passing out... Pieran? Pieran!"

Iona's hands worked fast, trying to stem the red flow from his shoulder wound. She ignored the slightly burning sensation and kept talking to him as she worked. Still, nothing Iona did seemed to ease Pieran's pain, despite her best frantic efforts.



Grinding her teeth together, Iona turned her now completely violet stare towards Erinyes. She was quiet at last, mostly because her jaws were so tightly clenched they hurt; but also because she couldn't hear anything over the rushing in her ears as adrenaline coursed through her body. An all-consuming fury seemed to envelop her every sense, and all she could to was focus on the dark silhouette of Erinyes up in the sky.

In hindsight, it might not have been the smartest move. But in all honesty, Iona hadn't really been thinking things through at that moment. She'd just reacted, no holds barred. See, this was exactly why she hated getting emotional, or even emotionally involved.

So there were no quips, no clever remarks. Just the heat from her eyes... and fire.

Alex's world spun for several seconds after the demon's fist collided squarely with her.  Shaking her head to try and clear the cobwebs, she recovered her senses in time to see Dren finish the Fyral off.  She flashed a small smile at him as the demon was felled; a smile that quickly changed into an 'o' of surprise when she realised her foot was firmly stuck.  Rooted to the ground, she could only glare helplessly as Erinyes took flight, aided once again by her mysterious, sinister benefactor.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:47, Mon 24 Jan 2005.

   "Nine hells of abyss," Johnny murmured, completely losing his zombie-guise. They didn't train for these kinds of situations in med-school - he had a wounded passenger in the car, and now Pieran was downed, whilst Iona still needed further treatment.

   Failing to figure out whether the strange creature was really an enemy, confused by Raven's words urging not to kill her, he looked up from the ground with a gruesome rage in his eyes, speaking extremely audibly, as if in a prayer:

   "Fury of fire, whirls of water, unleashed, untamed, nature aid thy Daughter.
   "Flames and fire, fiery and dire; come to my aid, Nature, be my blade!"

If one thing could be said about Dren, it wasn't that he was magical, or a vampire, or trained to slay deamons... it was that he was Irish, and with that came an inhuman, or insane, level of determination.

After a wicked smile to Alex, the looked over at the girls paying particular attention to Raven whom he felt to distanced from to protect. With a savage growl Dren hooked his free arm around one of the Fyral's horns with his elbow and kicked off the ground as he drove toward Raven, trying to scurry as quickly as the demon's carcass would permit him.

Raven had half a thought to say Yeah, we went to school together. He had trouble making friends, what with him being just a disembodied voice and all. But she instead decided to avoid the wise-cracks. She was left wondering why they all seemed to think she had all the answers, though. Would it scare them to know that she was just flying by the seat of her pants? Speaking of flying… Raven watched Erineyes take to the sky and felt relieved that the creature was moving away. “We mustn’t hurt her.”

Iain cautiously approached Raven: "I'm sorry, did you just say we are not supposed to harm the murderous bitch? 'Cause you might want to explain that to..."

Iain turned to look at Pieran, and saw the look in Iona's eyes - incidentally noticing that they weren't the same color as just a few minutes before: "Iona? Are you-"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:22, Mon 24 Jan 2005.

Erinyes flew over the group in a lazy circle. “Sisters, Protect me!” she directed. She painfully pulled the silver Paul Revere dagger free from her body where it was imbedded. Eyeing Johnny and Jamal, she made ready to dive toward them, a dagger in each hand.

Jamal looked around in a confused fashion while his girlfriend grabbed both of Jamal’s wrists and pinned them behind his back. With Jamal’s injured shoulder, he did not have the strength to resist her as she looked up at Erinyes and smiled. Jamal looked like a trussed up beast ready for slaughter.

Setting her jaw firmly, she pulled in her wings as she dove toward the ground, daggers set to slice the men in her path. First her right wing flared and then her left wing flamed up as she neared the ground. Sensing the heat, Erinyes screamed. She changed the course of her dive into a swooping climb as she beat her wings trying to put out the flames. She dropped the silver dagger and with her free hand, tried to put out the fire.

“You promised I would succeed this time!” she screamed at the darkness.

“I promised you would be once again of this reality. I did not promise that you would remain a part of it.” the darkness replied. “Thrice I assisted you and thrice you have been thwarted by Cornerstone! You are not worthy and I assist you no more!” The male voice boomed with distain. There was a sudden sense that something had left, as if a breath of fresh air just entered the park.

Screaming as the flames consumed her, Erinyes tried to climb higher in the sky. “NOOOOOoooooooo!” She flared brightly and like the phoenix, she was ablaze. Falling from the sky, she fell into the lake. With a splash, the flames were extinguished, but a strange bluish light illuminated the water. It faded out as it it descended into the depths.

Jamal winced in pain as his arms were pinned behind him. Suddenly his girlfriend released his arms.
“Oh my goodness, what am I doing? Jamal, Sweety, I am so sorry, come back to the van, we are going to get you some help.” She began to help Jamal back toward the SUV.

Dren watched the winged one crash into the sea, "Damn!" then over the Alex he held his hand out and shouted, "I need y'sword."

Alex watched Erinyes plummet down into the water, suddenly feeling the urge to throttle the spirit if she so much as dared resurface.  Sisters indeed.



"What?"  A quick glance at the corpse attached to Dren's arm and she nodded.  "Oh, right.  Here."  She sent the sword his way, hilt first.

Looking down again at her encased foot, she raised her voice slightly, hoping someone could help her out.  "Uh, guys?  No rush, but could someone send that super soaker my way?"

Iona ignored him, all her focus on Erinyes, even as Johnny started to chant:





As if somebody had cut off the strings of an Iona puppet, she crumpled to the ground right next to Pieran.



Iona lifted her head, just in time to watch the fireworks. "Crispy-soggy," she muttered, not really caring if she made any sense. The sight had reminded her of the Buffalo wings served at her favorite hang-out back in NYC. She shook off the disturbing thought.



Iona looked around. Had she left it in the van, or just dropped it on her way over to Pieran? Ah, there is was, right behind her on the ground. "Here." She tossed it over to Alex. "There should be some left."

Returning her attention to Pieran, Iona once more resumed her pathetic administrations to his shoulder. "Johnny! Some help here?"

There'd be be time later for explanations and talks.

The moment Alex's sword was in hand Dren began to savagly cut away at the demon's neck, all the while paying mind to the potential spitting that could still expell from it. He sawed and hacked until he'd removed the head, even paused to watch Alex playing with the super soaker a bit.

But remeber Iona's word, There may be a little left. he wasn't about to stick around to find out. With the 25lb demonic head still glued to his hand, Dren produced one of his glow sticks, which he promptly snapped against the demon's head and then chaged toward the lake like a man possessed.

   "By the...the hands of the Godess, by the..." Johnny resumed, his voice fading away as the situation seemed to fall under the slightest control.



   Johnny shrugged, looking around himself as if nothing much had happened. "Oh well, yeah, um, second dear," he said, trying to recapurate from his slight adrenaline rush. "Oh, Pieran...bloody..."

   He quickly moved over to the bleeding man, trying to figure out what might be his medical emergency with a grim look on his face.

“Damn it!” Raven exclaimed as she watched the remains of Erineyes disappear into the lake. “I was hoping to keep her alive long enough to ask who or what the voice from the sky was.” Raven glanced at the table with the scrawled mark. “There’s something else going on here. Somebody manipulating things and whoever it is, I’m willing to bet that they’re the same one responsible for transporting an army of vampires to Ninti’s realm. If they could do something like that to her world, they can certainly do the same, or worse, to ours.”

Jamal and his girlfriend sat on the edge of the sliding door of the SUV. Jamal looked over at Johnny as he attended to Pieran.

"Hey you, Doctor, or Witch, or Witchdoctor!" he called over to Johnny. "How did you do that?" Jamal pointed to where he had seen Erineyes burst into flames. "Never mind, hey, can we please take me to a hospital now. I am bleeding here."

In fact, most of his bleeding had stopped, but when his girlfriend pinned his arms while under Erinyes's command, she had reopened the wound some. Jamal would live and he would even have a cool scar to impress the ladies with. The story? Well, the truth would be too unbelievable. Better to say it was a bar fight or a mugging he broke up. Anything but the real truth.

   Johnny sat bent over Pieran's limp body. He was bleeding fiercely, and he felt rather insecure about what to do with him. He hadn't even begun attending the university yet - practical education should still be five years off.
   "Bandages!" he asked, for a moment forgetting where he really was. Shaking his head, fearing he couldn't do this with improvised tools, he resumed: "Please? There should be a first-aid kit in the SUV or something...right?"
   For a moment, he felt ashamed with his own display of insecurity.



   "Hey, can you please shut up for a moment?" Johnny snapped. "If anybody would just give me a hand here, we'll be heading back to HQ ASAP."
   Lost in the action, he forgot all about the strange bird-like creature for a moment, and its uncanny combustion.

"Hands kinda busy," Iona muttered, trying to keep up the pressure on Pieran's shoulder with one of her hands while simultaneously shrugging off her shirt with the other, leaving her in a white tank top. "Here, you can use this." She handed the item to Johnny, then cast a look around to see what the others were up to.

"I guess you could say Dren's got his hands full at the moment." She would have giggled under other circumstances.  My kingdom for a camera, Iona thought, wishing she hadn't left her bag with the camera phone in the SUV. She had a feeling this was a Kodak moment: Dren, with his arm up to his elbow in a Fyarl head, like a really ugly hand puppet. Or maybe a ventriloquist's dummy. Although in that case, Dren wouldn't have his hand up the demon's head... Eww, change track.

"Ah, Iain, Raven? Think you can help with the carrying of the wounded?" She gestured with her head at her injured leg. "I can barely carry my own weight right now. If we can just get Pieran in the car, I'm sure Johnny can patch him up on the road - at least well enough for him to make it back to our own sick bay."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:27, Wed 26 Jan 2005.

"Of course..." Iain quickly moved closer to them, checking to see if there was something lying around to build a makeshift stretcher with.

Pieran concentrated on controlling the pain.
"No need to carry....I think I can walk. Anyway, it's nothing a package of Rolaids won't fix. Just help me up," he said, extending his right arm.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:51, Thu 27 Jan 2005.

“Sorry,” Raven said as she moved towards Pieran and Iona. It had been a long time since she’d had to worry about a crew beyond Dren and herself. Raven figured Iain’s vampire strength would be all that was needed to assist Pieran, so she went to help Iona. “After we get them in the van, we should do something about the remaining Fyrals. Maybe we could tie weights on them and sink them in the lake,” she said to Iain.