Satyr Play 03 Pt. 02

He turned to Marisa. "No, she's back on top of that office tower in Manhattan. The Castle was moving when it jumped out. I wonder what effect that had on its arrival there. Shall we go see?" he said with a grin.

She noticed his eyes were still glassy, so something was affecting him here like alcohol. "Yes, let's get back to our real bodies!"

He glanced up. "She made quite a mess. It took me so long to fix all the rips and tears she'd made." He froze then looked back at her with wide eyes. "That's why the healing spell is so saturated! She must have flooded the spell with Wild Magic," he gasped.

She recalled her former urgency, so Marisa took his hand. "Henry, take me back to my body. I've never left it before. Certainly not for this long. Will I be able to get back?"

Fright appeared in his eyes.

The sensation of being tossed along on a raging current returned with a vengeance, but this time she felt Henry guiding them, timing their leap from torrent to stream.

She no longer had a body, nor did Henry, but she could feel his mind surrounding hers and picked up his worry for her. She wanted to assure him, but all she could do was concentrate on who she was as she began to feel a lethargy creeping over her.

Henry's lips were on hers, and he blew air into her lungs. His hands were on her chest, and he was about to start compressions when she gasped a breath.

He touched her face and pressed his forehead against hers, and she felt his tears drop onto her face.

"You've come back to me. Please promise me you won't ever try that again," Henry whispered.

"The baby?" she gasped softly, fearful of what her reckless act might have caused.

"She's fine. Perfect," he said, resting his hand over her belly.

Marisa's eyes widened. "She?"

"Can you two stop making googly eyes at each other and help?" Siobhan growled.

Meixiu swooped down to give Henry a hug, and he returned it as he suddenly became aware of the battle raging around them. The buzz he'd felt while immersed in the Wild Magic was gone, and reality was sinking its teeth into him once more.

The air was foul, and everything was soaking wet. Almost every surface showed scorch marks. The boardroom table and chairs were destroyed, and black ichor was splashed everywhere.

Huddled behind the energy shield Marisa was somehow continuing to maintain, he saw an ashen Lorelei kneeling next to a prone Camila, who had a nasty gash on her side. Her glamor wasn't active as she was stronger in her Succubus form. Four people in cloaks were behind them with Meixiu's two Vampire friends.

Minkah was unconscious and had a terrible scorch mark on her left shoulder.

A bolt of plasma was fired across the room, and the Silver People standing between them and the battle leaned away from the heat. It struck the energy shield, and Marisa cried out as her energy was finally exhausted. She passed out, and their protection was gone.

Henry felt the dome of energy flicker and fade and realized everyone protected by it was now at risk.

Rand shouted another battle cry, rolled past Roy, giving him another gash on the leg as he passed. The dwarf immediately hopped to his feet and charged directly at Henry. Leaping into the air, he swung his axes at the silver guardians. They moved faster than the eye could track to grab his wrists, but he was stronger than they expected, and the blades continued their arcs towards their necks. Either they let go to jump away, or the axe blades would connect.

Henry's big Satyr fist shot forward to connect with Rand's face, smashing the dwarf backward, blood spraying outwards from his crushed nose.

The axes fell from his nerveless grip as Rand fell to the ground, unconscious and bloody from the Satyr's punch. The Silver People moved in a blur to safely snatch the falling weapons out of the air.

Henry looked to where Sigrid was battling two demons. A third was dead, bisected, and collapsed against the wall.

Who the fuck unleashed demons?!?

He could feel energies collecting across the room for another deadly plasma bolt. He couldn't let Lise-Anne finish that. As he charged across the room, he suddenly realized he wouldn't get there in time. He reached inside to see if he had any spells left after his battle with Mab and found one land mine spell. He didn't even let himself think as he flung a disk of Wild Magic infused light at the floor beneath the hovering fairy.

When the trap triggered against the floor, it flung its payload of prickly pear cactus upwards. Lise-Anne screamed as the needles pierced her skin and tangled her wings. Her blast was nudged off course and shot past Henry to punch a hole through one of the demons.

The odds now against its survival, the final demon made an attempt to run, but Sigrid thrust her spear through its head from behind.

Sigrid kicked the body loose from her weapon, then spun it to flick it clean. She approached Henry, who was inspecting his handy work. Lise-Anne couldn't move without a needle pulling out or poking in. He hadn't realized how effective the nature-based weapon would be on the fairy.

"A cactus? What kind of sicko are you?" Sigrid asked with a grin. Her eyes sparkled with joy at seeing him, but she was covered in the blood of her enemies, so she refrained from hugging him.

Lise-Anne was trying to say something, but it might have been a spell, so Sigrid lifted her spear and slammed the butt end against the fairy's forehead, hard. Confirming the Minister of Security was out, she looked to Henry's surprised expression. "Don't be fooled. They're tougher than you think."

With Lise-Anne out of commission, they turned to see Roy kneeling on Rand's back as he bound the dwarf's arms behind his back with Mary's help.

"Who unleashed the demons?" Henry asked.

"This asshole had three in a quantum paradox trap. He sprung them on me when he discovered his weapons couldn't get through my shield, and I hit harder than he did. Keeping enslaved demons as pets is a crime punishable by death, so I wouldn't feel bad about lopping the bastard's head off," Sigrid snarled.

Henry shook his head, then caught Camila's pained expression and rushed over to see her. The doctor, Eleanor, was giving him a worried look as she knelt next to her.

"We need to perform surgery now. The edge of this cut looks chewed!" she exclaimed.

Sigrid joined them but stayed back from the injured as she was still coated in demon blood. It was the only stuff that stuck to the Valkyrie's armor and body. "The dwarf was using enchanted weapons. Sharper, stronger, and the nasty things cause much deadlier wounds," she spat.

Henry looked to the two Silver People holding the axes. He tried to recall their names. "Sam? Jake?" They moved closer. "Can I ask you two to drop those weapons over there, a few feet away from the wall?"

"Uh, sure," Jake said.

When they moved back, Henry opened a small tear, and the axes dropped through. Heat poured up through the hole as the lava was only a few feet down. A terrible shrieking wail began, and words came through that none could decipher. This cut off abruptly when the tear snapped shut.

"NUH!" Rand jolted awake, hearing the cries. He thrashed around, looking around him, but he was securely bound. "Where... mmph—my axes!" he bellowed at Henry through his swollen face.

Henry held his eyes. "You shouldn't have used them on my friends."

"They were mmph... meant for you! Where are they?" the man roared.

Henry was becoming annoyed as he needed to help Camila. He glared at the dwarf. "They're melting down into their base elements in a lava flow."

Rand screamed and thrashed with insane fury, but he couldn't free himself. Everyone froze and watched his manic struggle. Panting as he settled down, he stared at Henry with death in his eyes. "You—you've damned the souls of my ancestors, who sacrificed their lives to be bound to Zult and Zort for vengeance and victory! I, Rand von Deussel, vow to end your miserable life and the lives of every single person you love—"

Rand disappeared through another tear. His screams had just begun when it snapped shut. Henry was shaking as he stared in shock at the spot.

Eleanor spoke gently. "Henry? That's done. We need to help the injured. Can we do that now?" This seemed to draw his attention back to the room. He glanced at the woman and nodded. He kept his eyes averted as he was afraid to see the fear and disgust he was sure he'd see in his friend's eyes.

He sucked in a surprised breath as Sigrid kissed his cheek. Siobhan and Meixiu pulled him into hugs, and he had tears in his eyes as his body began shaking again. Roy pulled him into a firm hug, and Henry clung to him.

"It's no time fer cryin'. We can do that later, aye? Now, we have work to do," Roy said quietly, and Henry nodded, getting control again.

"We... we need to be outside so I can draw on the healing magic," Henry muttered. He pulled the gurney over to Camila.

"Use the back patio," Sigrid suggested. "It's relatively private, yet open to the sky."

"Uh, we have a patio?" Henry asked quietly, wiping his eyes dry.

Sigrid looked at him in surprise. "Haven't you ever eaten your lunch out there?"

Henry awkwardly shook his head. "I usually eat at my desk or skip lunch."

"No more! You take your lunch hour and make sure you eat— outside of your office," the Head of HR insisted.

Henry looked at her seriously. "That assumes life as we know it will continue after tonight."

They were all quiet as they contemplated that idea.

As they carefully lifted Camila onto the gurney, one of the cloaked women, a Fae, moved forward. "What do you intend to do? Are you a wielder?"

Henry looked at the ancient Fae's face and saw the burning curiosity in her eyes. The thing Xiong's doctor friend added to his brain meant he was, but he still couldn't really feel the magic. Would he call himself a wielder? He had some limited ability to make magic do things, but he was a long way from being an expert. "I'm a beginner at best. Considering I'm better at feeding power to others, maybe conduit is still a better term. We need to get upstairs to operate."

He looked at Minkah and saw she was still unconscious. "Raymond, can you carry Minkah upstairs as well?"

"I'll stay here with Marisa," Siobhan said, and he nodded.

Henry knelt down next to Lorelei, who didn't look so good. "What's wrong? What can I do?"

Her lovely eyes locked on his. "Hudson." Her voice was raw and hoarse.

His eyebrows went up. "The river? You need to get to the river?"

She nodded desperately.

His energy reserves were pretty low, but he had to try. He was actually finding it easier to open the rifts between the two dimensions but keeping them open was where the effort remained. He concentrated on a clear section of the floor next to them, and it opened to show them red grasses. Keeping the first tear open, he opened a second just below the first, which opened just inches above the Hudson River. The strain of holding both open at the same time was terrible. "This is the Hudson just offshore from where I live," he said through clenched teeth.

Before he could say anything else, Lorelei leaned forward and dropped through the opening to fall into the river. Water splashed back onto the floor where she'd been only a moment before. Henry blinked in surprise at the dark waters, but she was gone. He let the tears close and stood to help move the gurney. He looked down at Camila, confused about Lorelei's departure.

"She's a Naiad. The river will take care of her. She's safe," the woman told him as her lips trembled from her pain. He lifted her hand to press it against his chest. He closed his eyes and willed the Wild Magic from the source inside him to feed her. He heard her suck in a breath and sigh. When he opened his eyes, she was resting, but she didn't look as weary. Eleanor watched him with wide eyes, but he just ignored that until he saw the four cloaked women also watching him with interest. He turned from them to help get the gurney moving.

They wheeled the mobile bed around the fairy trapped in her cactus trap.

"We'll send someone to extract you soon," Henry mumbled as they passed.

Roy was listening to his earpiece and frowned. He looked to the others. "We have two groups of guests on the main floor. An attack squad from Hidden Races Council tried to storm the building, but my team put them down with gas. While they were putting restraints on them, a squad of Silver People in army uniforms entered lightning fast and took control. My guys locked in the security office have the building locked down. No elevator or stairwells access, so we're safe here."

"That also means we're stuck here. We can't wait down here! Camila and Minkah need help, now," Henry insisted.

"If we go up, the secrets out—" Roy began.

"Oh, I think the secret's out already, without our assistance. Besides, if we don't stop Mab, she's going to extinguish all life," Henry insisted.

"What?" Jake gasped.

Henry looked to the four Silver People. "Mab's the mad, homicidal ex-queen of the Fae. She's vowed to murder her people for betraying her, then she'll kill us and everyone else. She's also one of the most powerful witches on the planet."

"She was the one screaming at you back in the forest?" Jake asked, and Henry nodded. "She's that dangerous, and you pissed her off?"

"She was going to kill everyone with the green light. I locked her out of the healing spell by adding my firewall code," Henry explained with a slight grin, which quickly faded as he looked to Roy. "She has plenty of other ways to kill, though. We have to go up."

The big redhead sighed and finally nodded to him grimly, then looked to Sam. "Can you explain to them we need to heal our friends before they do whatever they're here to do?" he asked.

"Yes, we can try."

Sigrid pointed towards the gym entrance to indicate she was going to wash up.

Roy and Mary guided the gurney into the first elevator, and Sam got in last to be the first off.

When they left, Henry called another elevator and stepped inside with Meixiu, who clung to his arm, Eleanor, and Raymond, still carrying Minkah. The four cloaked females pushed on, then the three remaining Silver People.

The doors closed, but it didn't move. Henry eased closer to the door as he was the only one who could activate it. He pressed the lobby button, and the elevator moved.

When the doors opened, they faced the largest silver being they'd seen yet. He wore a tattered dress uniform.

"Can you give us a little space, GI Joe?" Jake asked belligerently.

The big silver man stepped back, but he held Jake's eye until the others began leaving the elevator. "Which one of you is Henry Gable?" he asked a little stiffly, glancing between Raymond and Henry.

Another Silver Soldier approached and pointed to Henry. "It's him according to the image we received."

"You need to come with me," the large soldier said, moving closer.

"I need to help my friends first, then I'm all yours," Henry said, pointing to the nearby gurney and to Minkah.

"No, you're coming with me now!" he barked. His agitation seemed elevated unnaturally.

The soldier who'd identified Henry watched her fellow soldier with concern and spoke gently. "We don't need to go anywhere, Gunny. We just need to hold the fort until the others arrive."

"Sergeant, there is something unnatural going on, and the General said this guy's central to it. He's not getting away this time."

"Unnatural? Says the big Silver Soldier," Henry said in frustration.

Apparently, this was the wrong thing to say to the agitated soldier as Henry suddenly found himself slammed face-first against a marble tile wall with his arm bent up behind his back.

"Gunny!" the sergeant cried.

Meixiu leapt at Henry's attacker, who slapped her from the air midleap. She fell to the floor in a crumpled ball.

Henry stared at her in shock, and his mind said enough. The silver man pinning him to the wall was strong, but he could be strong too. He dropped his glamor.

He heard the big man make a noise of surprise as Henry's now much thicker arm ripped from his grip. His big hand gripped the soldier's face and gave him a mighty shove, making him stumble back. Before the man could regain his balance, Henry opened a tear behind him and snapped it shut after Gunny passed its threshold. Henry engaged his glamor once more and quickly knelt down next to Meixiu to check on her.

Sigrid came up with the next elevator and saw everyone frozen in place and staring at Henry. She glanced over at Roy, but he was just pinching the bridge of his nose wearily. She saw Meixiu sitting up tenderly. Henry looked to Sigrid with an anxious expression.

"I think she may have a concussion," he asserted.

"How did that happen?" Sigrid asked.

"Where's Gunny?" the soldier cautiously asked Henry.

"The asshole? He's cooling his heels on Eden," Henry said with a scowl.

The sergeant looked at Sigrid in question, who shrugged. "It's like an alternate dimension Earth, where the Glass People are now living."

"Sigrid!" Roy snapped.

"What! You heard Henry, we need their help against Mab, or none of us are going to survive," the tall blonde insisted. That sent a ripple of unease through the soldiers within earshot.

Eleanor knelt in front of Meixiu and examined her. She looked to Henry. "Yes, I think you're right. She may have a concussion. She'll be okay, though. We really need to address the axe wound."

"Axe wound?" the soldier asked weakly.

Sam approached. "Sergeant, I can fill you in faster," he said, holding out his hand. She eagerly gripped it. Seconds later, she let go and stared at the gathered people, her mouth working, but no sound came. Finally, she got control. "What do you need?" she asked Henry.

He relaxed and smiled. "We need to be outside, on the back patio, which is sheltered but open to the sky."

"Yablonski! Green! Dane! Inspect this patio and secure it from the street," the Sergeant called out. Three soldiers rushed past, each giving Henry a wide berth.

"I'm Mick," the Sergeant said to Henry, who nodded to her as he helped Meixiu to her feet. "Can we get Gunny back?"

"He seemed like he was freaking out. Maybe he's not coping with all the changes. Are you sure you want him back immediately?" Henry said, offering his wrist to Meixiu.

She looked around nervously, so Henry gently pulled her back to his chest and hid her from the others. He felt a brief prick, then a cool numbing of his wrist.

When he turned back to the Sergeant, the soldier was staring at Meixiu with her mouth open again. The youthful-looking Vampire blushed in embarrassment.

"She needed a feeding to help with her recovery," Henry explained gently. Meixiu moved to stand with Sigrid.

"We-we need the marine back now, please. The General will be expecting to see him when he gets here," the Sergeant insisted. "It'll be bad if he isn't."

Henry sighed. "It's draining to keep a tear open. I've opened too many already tonight. I'll try, but if he isn't close to where I dropped him, I'm not keeping it open as I need my strength for the operations."

She nodded, and Henry gestured for her to stand back. He concentrated and opened the tear again. The big Silver Marine leapt through the opening the moment it was large enough to take him. Something black was right behind him, and Henry cut its head off when he released the tear. Everyone shouted in surprise and jumped back, but the head of the black ribbon beast wasn't moving.

"What the FUCK!" the marine bellowed.

"Settle down, Gunny. Why don't you go wait on the curb for the General to arrive," the Sergeant suggested.

The marine stared back at Henry, who just scowled at him. He looked down at the severed head, and a tremor went through him. He turned and walked away stiffly.