The Kansas Incident. - Aspect 3
Nov. 25th, 2009 07:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
It was, let me tell you buddy, an ugly battle. I thought it was going to go like the battle at Redbud Valley, where my friends, in their various Aspects took care of business and hacked and slashed the 'Bads to bits, while I held my own against some of my own demons. Granted, I did my part, but I think those wonderful folk that stood with me turned the tide.
Don't get me wrong. I still think that they won the points at the battle of Sedan, but the enemy was a whole nuther thing all together.
Back at Redbud, the 'Bads were poorly directed by Ammit, or I am just now beginning to suspect, some other agent of his. The 'Bads were savage, attacking en mass and trying to win through pure force. It was relatively easy to hold them at arm's length and just hack 'em to bits.
At the Battle of Sedan, however, we met a different breed of 'Bads. These were cunning and crafty, organized beyond what I imagined their little shadowy minds to be able to reach. Maybe it was Ammit, being so close to the front, who was able to control them better. Maybe the 'Bads, having inhabited human bodies for so long a time, had begun to develop an intelligence that I severely underestimated.
I don't know, and I don't even know enough to guess.
The 'Bads swarmed through the rip in the fabric of reality into the Otherwhere. My friends and I stood at the ready, while Chris climbed the Windmill to free the eye of Osiris, which I needed to send Ammit back to where he came from.
Tim, in his armor, standing to my left, was the first to take the brunt of the attack. The 'Bads flowed over him like nasty black water, and he disappeared under the wake. I caught sight of the top of his helm and the flash of his sword as he fought against the tide, but the 'Bads just parted around him, not bothering him at all. I could see the rends and tears of where his sword ripped into the fabric of the 'Bads, and I could see where he was doing them some actual damage, because the destroyed 'Bads would puff away like so much black glitter. But the 'Bads didn't fight back. They didn't do anything to him, except part further away from him until he was completely encircled by them, standing like a rock in a stream as the black river flowed around him.
I thought, at first when I saw this tactic, that they were ignoring him and coming straight for me, or maybe Chris, since Chris was the one climbing the tower. I tensed up and prepared myself to call upon some serious mojo. I cautioned April to stand ready for anything as I was thinking we were about to have a full face on attack.
Instead, the black river of the 'Bads swarmed to the left, past where I stood and circled around the Windmill. Once they had completed the trip around the base of the mill, they swamped around Craig, so that his matte black armor sort of merged with the colorless black of the 'Bads. And just as they did with Tim, there was no attack on Craig, even though I could tell he was slashing and hacking at great chunks of shadow, which fuzzed out of reality, just as they had with Tim.
It was as if the 'Bads had something else in mind and couldn't be bothered with a little thing like a few knights in armor slashing away at a few of their members. I mean, I knew the 'Bads could be hurt, even wounded and killed. I had done it myself a couple of times, and usually a deep enough hurt would cause them to back the heck off. Not this time, however.
Once the head high surge had passed in front of April and me, it joined with the part of them that was surrounding Tim. Right then and there, I started to suspect that this was a planned thing, that someone or something was controlling the 'Bads... someone other than Ammit. But, like I said, I'm still not sure.
I looked at April, who was standing straight with a bow cocked with a three foot long arrow, and was sighting down that shaft at the roiling black snake that was the 'Bads, directly in front of us, to the sides of us, and behind us.
"April," I muttered out the side of my mouth, "I think we're surrounded." I looked up to Charity hovered, her body tense and her face determined. "Charity," I called out, "can you tell me what's happening?"
"It looks like nothing at all," she said, her voice two octaves higher than normal. If her voice rose any higher she would begin to deafen dogs and break glass. "Those shadowy things are just sitting there, surrounding us. Tim and my honey are trapped by them!" She started to flap in Craig's direction, but stopped, caught between going to her love and holding true to her duty to protect Chris. "I don't know what to do," She cried.
"Don't do anything," I told her. "The 'Bads don't appear to be hurting any of us, so just wait, okay?"
"Okay," she said with more than a little uncertainty. "If something happens to Craig, I'm holding you responsible!"
"So will I, sweetheart," I told her. "So will I"
It seemed like a stand-off for a while. The 'Bads completely encircling us but not doing anything, and we were unable to hurt them. For a long few seconds, nobody and nothing moved.
Suddenly, the thick black wall bulged and surged upward, straining high overhead. At the same time, I heard Chris cry out, "I've go it! A gold thingy with a big ol' emerald!"
That was when hell broke loose. The surge rose over my head like a tidal wave and crashed against Charity and Cat, knocking them to the side. A thick shaft of black shoved at Chris and he cried out, losing his grip and falling from the Windmill. He was quickly swallowed up in the black mire, disappearing from sight.
"Dammit!" I heard Sherry swearing. "Get... out... of... my... way!" I looked over head and she was hacking and clawing her way through the black goo, trying to get to where Chris had disappeared. She had called up lighting and was blasting her way through the 'Bads as well as she could. For every batch that she blew apart, three more would show up to block her.
All around us the 'Bads had started to break apart into individual masses, taking on shapes of... something or other. They looked like the nightmare shapes of people that almost weren't. Some had long arms with sharp knives for hands and some hand heads the size of children's balloons with horrible eyes. Some had long pointy feet and some had long pointy teeth. Take a person, melt them a little bit, add some scary bits here and there, and that was what the 'Bads were turning into. OH, and paint them matte black, just for fun.
"Sherry!" I called out. "Can you see where Chris went?"
"Kinda busy here!" She let loose with another bolt of lightning and a Evil looking half bear - half toad thing blasted into slivers. She paused before letting loose a kick that took off the head of something like a man-steam shovel half-breed and scanned the area where Chris had disappeared. "I think I see something shiny over," she punted the bodiless head north, 'there!"
"Thanks!" I pulled a snapping tendril from around my neck, and looked over at April. She was using her bow as a less than blunt instrument, slicing through tentacles and arms and legs and necks of whatever came close to her. "Don't worry, April," I tried to assure her, "we'll get to him."
"Hell," she said, slamming her bow into the forehead of a black cougar, splitting it like a melon. "I'm not worried about him. I figure he's just loafing off somewhere, waiting for the timing to be better." She looked over her shoulder at me, grimly. "But if you want to, I'd appreciate if you would look after him."
I called a small word and shot white light into the belly of a monkey whose arms were like chainsaws. It erupted and flashed away from me. "Okay," I told April, "but just because you asked me to."
"I'd do it myself," She said, "but I'm kinda busy right now." Three black octopuses... octopusies... three black eight legged things were attacking her from all sides and she was busy cutting and thrusting. "If he gets hurt, I just know he'll be a big baby about it for months, so if you could check on him?"
I focused some will before me, drawing from the ground below my feet and pushing it out in front of me forming a tunnel. "I'll see if I can keep him from harm," I said to April.
I shoved the tunnel before me and walked into it, pulling the end closed behind me. From the outside, I probably looked like I was walking in a big hamster ball. Using this method to travel, I moved through the soup of blackness in the direction that I saw Sherry indicate.
It was slow, slow, slow going. Moving through the black mess was like traveling through thick molasses. The misshapen creatures whose forms the 'Bads had taken threw themselves at my hamster ball, clawing to get in. I was starting to grow an itch in the middle of my forehead. Not a headache. An itch. Now I know it meant that I was pushing energy out at an incredible rate, and that the creation of the hamster ball was something that not even a major class crazy wizard would attempt. I was constantly pulling field energy in and constantly pushing field energy out in the maintaining of the ball as I moved through the 'Bads.
Every now and again, I would see a flash of the night sky, with someone, either Sherry or Charity flashing through the sky to find someone to fight. I think it was Charity, because I could hear a high pitched Amazonian battle cry as the body flashed by. I didn't see anything of Cat, and I hoped she was all right. More than likely, she was so small, the 'Bads just ignored her.
Now, I haven't mentioned anything about Tim and Craig's plight and battle. That's because while I was rolling my ball across the battlefield, they were kinda of stuck in one place, like the beaters of a mixer trying to stir peanut butter. The more they slashed and hacked, the more 'Bads showed up and so they were unable to budge an inch. This they told me afterwards, while they nursed their sore arms and elbows. It takes a lot to swing a sword, even an ethereal sword, for an hour or more. They did tell me that not once did the 'Bads make a threatening move. It was as if they were just being held in one space, so they were unable to help in any way except to stand and fight.
This isn't to say that the two Knights escaped without a bruise during that time. They were shoved around quite a bit, and a few times completely engulfed in the black cloying mass of whatever the 'Bads had changed into. A few times, they were sliced at, but more from simple reflex than anything else. I could see the scars on their armor, and whatever had hit them looked like the business end of a four foot long serrated machete.
Regardless, my point is that I can't tell you what all the others were doing at that point. I was busy rolling blindly, looking for either Chris or a shiny needle in a very black haystack, or preferably, both at the same time.
I rolled about thirty feet and then ran against something solid. I pushed my ball a bit harder and saw the broad back of a leather shirt. I had found Chris, and before I could open up the front and pull him in to safety, the 'Bads plucked him off the ground and pulled him somewhere else.
"Son of a bitch!" That didn't make me very happy. "How did this things get so smart," I muttered as I started pushing my hamster ball again. Now, keep in mind, this ball was about eight foot in diameter, and it wasn't light, either. My arms were starting to get tired. I briefly thought about making the thing larger, pushing the 'Bads out of the entire area, but then I second thought it, as I realized how tired I was already getting.
Then, I got a bright idea and stopped rolling the ball. I was entirely encased in a nice safe bubble, just like I was in Redbud, but this one was mobile. I realized I could roll that damn ball all over the place and every time I found anything, IF I found anything, the 'Bads could just move Chris or the eye somewhere else. Now, I figured that Chris still had a hold of the eye of Osiris, otherwise he would have just been left behind while the 'Bads fled the scene with their prize. I figured that if I found one of 'em, I'd find both of them.
So I stopped rolling the ball, left enough of my forebrain active so that I could maintain it, and pulled the rest of me into myself. Since I was already in the Otherwhere, I couldn't make a kite and send it out like I would if I was on the outside. Instead, I did the opposite. I reached my mind out to the real world, and let my Sight work in reverse.
Chris was standing stock still, with one hand on the windmill, right where he was when we crossed over. Now, keep in mind, the Otherwhere is sort of like a Virtual world, and our physical bodies don't move much while we're there. Oh, they may twitch a bit, as if we are having a bad dream, but other than that not much happens. Of course, it is possible to be hurt or even killed while your mind is out a-wandering, and that is why I usually make sure I'm in a nice protected place, or if I have other folks with me, like I did that day, I create a hard shelled bubble to keep us safe.
And so, I pushed my Sight at Chris, shoving my mind's eye against his forehead and pushing in hard. I broke through his skull, which is as thick as April says it is, and found myself sitting in his head back in the Otherwhere. Yeah, I know. I've been told since then that I shouldn't have been able to do this. Both the Coven in New York and the Grand Council have experts that took a long time explaining to me why I couldn't have done what I did.
"Hey Chris," I whispered, hoping that he could hear me. I needed to see what he was seeing, because his eyes were screwed shut. I could feel what he was feeling, thought and if felt like he was being raked through a threshing machine. I needed to find him, and he needed me to be quick about it.
"Wha?" Chris’s mind screamed at me. "What are you?"
"Be calm, chum," I whispered. "It's Chester, okay."
"Holy Crap," he mentally shouted at me, "Get me the hell out of here!"
"I'm working on it, Chris," I tried to sooth him. "I need you to try to be calm and open your eyes."
"Hell with that," he yelled. "I'm not a coward, but good God, Chester... you should see what they've been showing me. April and Daniel being torn apart in front of my eyes, and... And... Other things."
"Other things?" I prodded.
"Don't ask," he whispered, "Cuz I won't tell you. Just take my word on it that it was very, very bad."
"Aw, Chris," I soothed, "I'm so sorry. That's how the 'Bads work, see? They work on your fears and your doubts. They try to drive you to a point where you feel you have no hope or are at a loss, and then they ride you forever. Those things they are showing you? They aren't real, Chris."
"I know that," he snapped angrily. "But it's just the thought of it all. I don't even want that."
"Then put them away," I told him. "If you know those things aren't real, then shove them back to the back of your mind, or better yet, shove them back at the 'Bads. You can do that here, you know?" An idea grew. "I want you to do that, Chris. I want you to take hold of those images in your mind, turn them into how you truly feel about your family and shove it back at the 'Bads as hard as you can. I want you to blind these suckers with the love you have for your family. You push hard enough; I promise you'll hurt them."
"Really?" He paused in his thoughts and I felt a calmness, and an almost joyful sense of revenge fill his mind. "I can hurt them?"
"I'm hoping," I whispered to him, "that you can hurt them good. Think you can do it? Just gather all you love about your family and shove it out of your head, and into their faces."
I felt his mind smile, wickedly. "Oh, I think I can do that." A worry passed nearby. "Can you find me if I do?"
"Chris," I said confidently, "I'm expecting you to shoot off like a sky rocket. We'll all find you."
"Cool," he said calmly. "When do you want me to start?"
"When ever you want," I said. "I'm out of here."
I withdrew back from his head, back through normalspace and back into the Otherwhere. Gods, I was tired. Tired and my head throbbed like a fresh cut. I reached up and rubbed my eyes, and I was pretty darned glad I did. A flashbulb went off nearby with the intensity of a Hiroshima Bomb. It was strong enough that it literally blew my hamster ball into shreds.
"Way to go, Chris," I thought blindly, because I was. Blinded by the light. By Chris' light. "Way to go."
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-26 01:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-26 02:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-26 06:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-26 06:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-26 06:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-26 06:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-28 03:33 am (UTC)The problem with Ammit and Pan is that they aren't true Aspects (Yep, I'm letting slip a bit of a secret here). The persons carrying them is a true incarnation.
If Pan wanted to, he could totally take over the body of the host he's in. Pan is lazy, and there just aren't that many believers in him any more. Ammit made his believers, by having the 'Bads inhabit the population of Sedan.
Reincarnated Gods, or even Demigods like Pan and Ammit, gain their power from the belief that is given them.
Still, once in control, the Aspects tend to run the show. So, to answer your question, they don't reside in any particular Chakra - they are an entire personality set that lies dormant in the host until something brings them out.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-29 12:11 am (UTC)