Stealth's Office, Rodenberry Building, The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles, Saturday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

Max had waited until all of Kathy's friends had been tracked down and brought to the war council chamber. His nominal reason was because he figured they'd have a vested interest in knowing the timetable had moved up a lot, since they were the ones with a way out. Kathy was pretty sure that both he and Stealth were coming up with ways to convince the Fandom contingent to stay and help out.

Kathy wasn't sure how either of them hoped to pull that off. Neither Stealth nor Max had made a great impression the last time they'd dealt with anyone in Fandom.

Once everyone had been fetched and gathered, Max stood up again to explain why their situation had grown so much more dire with Josh's escape. For once, he didn't seem to be putting on a show for those benighted souls less educated in the ways of sorcery than he was; he seemed geuinely concerned about them understanding what was going on. Honestly, that worried Kathy a lot more than even the things he was saying. Max Hale hadn't done solemn even in the midst of the zombie outbreak. For him to do it now was chilling.

Eliot	"So what you're sayin' is," Eliot summarized, his arms folded firmly over his chest. "Y'all're fucked." He didn't look much interested in letting Max or Stealth make that Fandom's problem, no.
Raven	Raven stood to the side with her back to the group, looking over Stealth's monitors. The only sign she was paying any attention to Max's speech was the soft, amused snort she let out at Eliot's response. They'd made it through the city to get here. She really wasn't sure why they weren't just barreling their way right back up to the Observatory.
Dante	Dante didn't know much, except that he didn't believe a word out of Max Hale's mouth no matter what he was saying. He frowned, but he said nothing, mirroring Eliot's folded arms. One of his eyebrows was up. He didn't know what to think.
Anders	Anders sighed explosively. "We get it," he said. "It's awful out there. Is there still a way to fight it, or should we just give up and start scooping people through portals?"
Kathy	"Can we open portals inside here?" Kathy asked, eagerly. Look, she wanted to go home. "If Hardison could just open a portal inside the Mount, that would solve pretty much every problem we have." Not that Kathy was entirely sure she wanted to let the population of the Mount stay in their world, either, but that was a problem for another day.
Eliot	"That's a helluva lot of refugees to rehouse," Eliot noted. "Not sayin' that we shouldn't, but that ain't a simple proposition even if Hardison could get a portal in here. Which, far as I know, he can't." He'd have dropped them all off much closer if he could.
Max	Max had perked up at the talk of 'portals' and 'leaving,' but with Eliot shooting down that idea, he was slumping back down again. "If 'leaving' is off the table, then fighting it is. Not with Cairax!" he added hastily, before St. George could go all 'I fought him once!' again. He didn't seem able to comprehend how many handicaps Cairax had been fighting under back then. "But with Jo-- hang on." Max ran a hand through his hair, looking tired. "Okay, look. The whole reason Cairax Murrain can't manifest is because any host needs to meet two major conditions. They have to be alive and they need to be durable enough to survive the process of possession. That's why I kept refusing to let St. George go past the barriers. It could kill anyone, but it could actually possess him." Were folks picking up what he was putting down here?
Dante	"You think Cairax is gonna go after the big guy?" Dante asked, frowning. He was pretty sure he could take the big guy, but he didn't exactly want to.
Stealth	"Before Josh Garcetti was known as Regenerator, he went by the sobriquet 'The Immortal,'" Stealth said with a nod. "We have yet to find anything that could kill him, as you saw the last time you were here." And she'd shot him point blank in the head. Other than staining the carpet, there hadn't been much of a lasting effect.
Max	"Exactly," Max said. "He can take all the damage Cairax can dish out and survive. So the instant he says yes, Cairax is going to start moving in, just like I did with Jarvis' body. And once he's got flesh, he's going to march in here and kill every man, woman, child, and fluffy goddamn kitten."
Barry	"But we're safe inside, right?" Barry waved his arm at the window. "That's the point of the symbols."
Max	Max shook his head. "We're not safe. This isn't remotely safe anymore. We might be safer dumping barbecue sauce on us and streaking past the exes." He started pacing back and forth. "The wards only block his essence. That meant he couldn't just make someone pop inside the Mount. Once he's got a body, he can walk over those hexagrams just like you or--err, sorry Barry, just like me. And then everyone in here dies."
Danielle	Danielle played with the edge of the table. You sure do talk a lot about how awful this thing is."
Max	"Because I know you're not getting it," snapped Max. His pacing carried him from one side of the room to the other. "You all keep thinking back to George and some high school kid beating up Cairax and telling yourselves he's no big deal." He stopped pacing and pointed out the window. "That thing out there? His whole existence boils down to two things. Fear and death. Someone being scared of dying is like sex for him if sex gave you a full stomach and did your laundry. Someone actually dying is him getting that same rush but on New Year's Eve at midnight. And once he's got a host, believe me, it's going to be midnight here in the Mount for a very, very long time."
St. George	The room got quiet. Most of the LA heroes stared at the window. Max put his hands on the table and let his head hang. "Okay," said St. George. "What do we have to do?"
Max	The sorcerer shook his head. "I'm not sure," he said. "This is way bigger than anything I ever planned on. I mean, even in my worst-case scenarios, I never figured he'd get a usable host. Once he's flesh..." Max shrugged, then turned towards the guests. "You guys got any bright ideas?" he asked. "I know at least some of you have experience with demons. Anything beyond banging one?"
Dante	Dante rolled his eyes. Fucking christ, Max. "I know how to punch 'em until they stop moving, how's that, asshole?"
Anders	Anders was telegraphing his dislike of the situation through folded arms and heavy eyerolls of his own. But since Max had asked ... "My world has its own demons," he said tightly. "I trained to avoid and fight them for years."
Max	"So, we have punching and avoiding," Max said, nodding. "Great. Definitely good. One of the Reaver Lords of Hell, rubbed elbows with Sparda, but, sure we'll just brawl him. Anybody else?"
Anders	Anders opened his mouth to object, but stopped himself before he could. For one thing, Max didn't need to know the full scope of his powers. He folded his arms and contented himself with some glaring.
Kathy	"Why are you even asking us for help?" Kathy asked. Her voice was quiet, but it fell with heavy finality. "Who says we're even going to be here?" Max started to bluster and Kathy cut him off with a single raised hand. "You said that possessing Josh was going to take hours. Hours where presumably he's too busy to do much else. Why the fuck should me and mine do anything but take advantage of that time and bail?"
Nick	"Baby, you can't mean that," Nick said softly. "Cairax threatens everybody in the world."
Kathy	"Fuck the world, I already died for it once," Kathy said grimly. "That's as much as any of you have a right to ask. And you know what? This isn't my world anymore. And it's not theirs, either. We wouldn't even be here as part of this discussion if it wasn't for Max's little spell that dragged me here. By mistake." She was glaring at him now, all of the suspicions that Dante and Anders and Eliot had mentioned clicking into place. "So unless someone in here can give me a damn good reason why we should stand on the front lines for a demon problem that Max created, I'm collecting my family and we're leaving."
Raven	Raven shifted her weight so she was positioned very firmly behind Kathy. As she was currently sporting about the mass of a pro-football player, it made for a bit of a spectacle. She gave Max a narrow-eyed, probing look. By mistake was the party line, but she was starting to wonder just how true it was.
Dante	"Kathy should go home," Dante agreed, danger flashing in his eyes. "She shouldn't be here to begin with."
Kathy	"None of us should be," Kathy pointed out. "So we should all go home."
Dante	Dante turned his head and looked at her. "I can help," he said.
Kathy	Kathy looked at him, incredulous, for a long, tense moment. And then just burst into gales of bitter, helpless laughter. If they brushed up against the edges of hysteria, she'd thank nobody to mention it.
Eliot	Eliot shot Kathy a concerned look and reached over to give her knee a reassuring squeeze. "Right," he said with a sigh. "Dante, you wanna stick around and see what you can do, I'll hang back too. I might not know demons, but I know tactics, and I know survivin' hopeless situations. The rest of you should get Kathy home, let Hardison know we'll be followin' in a day or two." More than that, and he'd figure out a way to knock Dante out and drag him home himself if he had to. There was helping out a lost cause, and there was suicide. Eliot knew when to retreat.
Anders	"I'm staying too," Anders announced. "First, I won't leave Dante. Second, a healer's a handy thing to have around -- especially if there are humans running around trying to bring down demons." Besides, he wanted to be there so he could drag Dante home by the hair in a few days if he had to. Kathy would kill him if he didn't.
Kathy	By the look on her face, Kathy might not wait till he got home to murder him. She'd stopped laughing, at least, and probably for the best because it had been making some of the folks from the Mount nervous. "You have got to be kidding me with this," she said in disbelief, shaking her head. "Absolutely kidding me." St. George cleared his throat to offer some kind of explanation and Kathy glared at him. "Save it," she told him, voice tight with anger. "I've learned to recognize a losing battle when I see it. So just..." She struggled to come up with something to say and turned to Max instead. "Okay, so skip all the fucking hand-wringing. This is your demon, start spitting out something useful. Like, how long are we looking at before all literal hell breaks loose?"
Max	"Well this is fun," Max said, grinning a moment before getting down to business again. "So, there are rules to this. For any sort of conscious possession to work, astral cords have to be entertwined, souls married, contracts agreed on, all sorts of stuff. It takes time." "Contracts?" St. George asked. "Married?" "Yeah, sounds like bullshit, I know, but legit. A demon can't just jump into your body like it's a car with the engine running. You have to agree to it. It can lie and cheat and bend words but there needs to be an agreement. A contract." He shook his head. "I think our best bet is going to be killing him."
Freedom	"Killing him?" Freedom echoed. "Can we do that? You just got done going on and on about how terrifying this thing is and how we weren't going to fight him."
Max	"That was before I knew that the demon-Pokemon trainer was sticking around to help. Besides, I didn't say it was a good bet. I just said it was our best." Max pressed his fingers against his temples for a moment. "We're trying to kill a concept, an idea made flesh. So we have to fight it with an idea that's just as powerful. We'll need a sword." He looked around the room at a lot of blank and confused stares. "You know, a sword? Long piece of metal? Handle? Pointy end? Symbolic since the Garden of Eden?"
Kathy	"Explain." Kathy's voice was cold. "If you intend to use one of my boyfriends in this magic plan of yours- " not that she was looking at either of them right now, considering she might end up losing what thin control of her temper she still had if she did "- I want more than just a one word explanation about what you're talking about."
Max	"Demons aren't vulnerable to much," Max said. "Silver, holy water, blessed items, all that stuff. The pope has a couple of rings that would be super-useful right now, like the Annulus Piscatoris. That would save of a ton of effort, actually. Too bad he's probably wandering around Vatican City looking for a hot meal." Kathy made a warning noise in her throat; it sounded a lot like a growl. Max quickly got back on track. "Demons are also fairly susceptible to symbolism. Stuff that carries the weight of humanity's collective belief over hundreds or even thousands of years? That carries a lot of weight. Belief is its own kind of power. That's why the truly faithful, rare as they are, can't be touched by demons. Their faith acts as literal armor."
Kathy	"And...?" This explanation still wasn't a fucking plan, Max.
Max	"And so we're going to use as much demon-killing symbology as we can to kit out whoever is going up against Cairax and hope that does something," Max said."He might not be able to be stopped by someone wielding a sword and standing up for love and justice, but he sure as hell won't be stopped without it."
Barry	"Does it have to be a certain type of sword?" asked Barry. "Like a broadsword or a claymore or something? Or will any kind of sword work?"
Max	"We're not gonna beat him with a collectible lightsaber, if that's what you're asking," Max said. "It needs to be a real weapon, not a display replica or something. Something that's actually spilled blood would be great, but past that, anything goes."
Stealth	"There are three museums with historical edged weapons within a mile of the Big Wall," said Stealth, "and very likely several dozen personal collections with functional swords. However, all of them are beyond your wards."
Freedom	"The scavengers carry a lot of non-standardized weaponry," Freedom pointed out. "Lady Bee tells me some of them use knives, machetes, other things they find out on runs. Maybe someone's found a sword and brought it back here."
Stealth	"Only one of the scavengers carries a sword," said Stealth. "Daniel Foe wears a replica katana in a back sheath. He wears it in an attempt to look imposing, hoping to impress Lynne Vines. He has never drawn it."
Nick	"There are also the studio prop houses," Nick reminded. "It's possible that there's a real weapon mixed in with the various fantasy and historical movie props." He turned towards Eliot. "Eliot, don't you have--" He broke off, seeing Kathy delivering him a glare that could peel paint. With an awkward cough, he continued, swallowing back his original question. "Uh, don't you have experience with weapons? Could you maybe help us look through what we've got in storage?"
Eliot	Eliot leaned back, shooting a quick glance at Kathy. Hopefully she was the only one from this world who would recognize the faint amusement in his face. "Yeah, I can take a look." If these guys weren't going to remember that he'd literally shown up here wielding swords, he wasn't going to volunteer the information. His swords were special to him. No one would be using them who he hadn't trained himself.
Max	"Okay, it's a good place to start," Max said. "Now all we need is an angel to wield it, so if any of you have a hotline to God, now would be a great time to mention it." "An angel?" Stealth demanded. Max looked at her. "You know, a creature born from the radiance and divine will of God and shaped in his image. Think of all the stuff you think of when someone say 'holy' and then increase that by ten. C'mon, I thought you were the smart one."
Stealth	Stealth crossed her arms. "If this were an impossible task, why didn't you just say so from the start?"
Max	"It's not impossible," Max was telling Stealth. "Just being hopeful, okay? An angel would be even better than the pope's ring right now. But anyway we're talking symbolism, remember? So, barring a real angel, we need the holiest, purest person we can find. Anyone come to mind?" He pointed at himself. "I'm out. With all the magic I've done? I may not count as evil, but I'm a long way from pure. It's the nature of the beast, no pun intended."
Nick	"Yeah, nobody was going to nominate you anyway," Nick scoffed. "Anybody else? I don't think any of us are that holy or pure. Especially after the past few years."
Stealth	"I would be unfit," said Stealth after a moment. "I have been an atheist for thirty years."
St. George	The heroes all looked at each other and then at St. George. "Whoa, hey," he said. "I may be named for a saint, but that's as far as it goes. I just kinda fell into it." He looked at the Fandom crowd. "How about you lot? Anyone feeling particularly symbolically angelic?"
Kathy	Kathy caught Dante's eye and gave him a subtle shake of her head, gesture easily overlooked. Maybe it was just two weeks of paranoia and now frustration that they weren't just leaving, but she had no intention of giving Max any more information than they had to. He'd gotten too happy when everyone had decided to stay. "Max already got the vapors after finding out I've been in intimate contact with a demon," she said, rolling her eyes. "Not it."
Anders	"That leaves me out too," Anders announced loudly. "Not to mention, I'm not all that angelic to begin with."
Eliot	"I don't think anyone has ever used that term to describe me," Eliot said. Even before he'd spent his early adulthood killing people for money.
Raven	Raven just snorted.
Ezra	As did Ezra. He'd been content to watch the proceedings until now - well, he'd known he'd go with the majority on whether to stay or go, so there hadn't been much reason to pipe up - but this seemed like a time where everyone was saying something. So. "Being a fox is the pinnacle of evolution," he said. "But no god is cool enough to make me angelic. Pass."
Barry	Barry shrugged. "I guess I'm an okay guy, but unless I'm going to fight a demon in my wheelchair, I couldn't hold a sword anyway."
Danielle	Danielle frowned. "Wait a minute, maybe you could. Max, how did you describe an angel again? Your exact wording."
Max	"A creature born from the radiance and divine will of God and shaped in his image," Max said slowly. "Are you thinking...?" He leaned back and grinned. "You know, Danielle, I could kiss you right now."
Danielle	"Hard pass," she said, before turning back to Barry. "As Zzzap, what are you?" she asked. "Like, how do you describe yourself to people?"
Barry	"A...man-shaped ball of living energy!" Barry said, grinning as recognition dawned. "And I'm only man-shaped because I wanna be! I hold that form by willpower alone. Danielle you are a genius!" A minute later, though, he frowned. "I still can't hold a sword though. Or anything for that matter. It'd melt before I went two feet."
Freedom	Captain Freedom stroked his chin thoughtfully. "What if you just held it long enough to deliver the killing blow? It might not all slag."
Max	"We'd still need someone good and pure to fight him long enough for Zzzap to be able to land that killing blow," Max said. "And a sword. We still need a damn sword or this is all for nothing. There's nothing symbolic in killing him with a gun or a bat or a creepy bone-whip." He looked at the weapon Josh left behind and shuddered. "I can't believe you guys didn't tell me he was here."
Kathy	And just like that, Kathy figured out what had been nagging at her since she'd arrived. If Max had really set a spell to summon all the surviving heroes to his side, why hadn't Josh arrived in the hospital room with her? He should have been summoned, just like she was. He hadn't been. Just Kathy. And because of Kathy - her friends. The ones with the skills to fight off a demon and portals that opened to different dimensions. She'd been bait.
Raven	Raven recognized that expression. As the others continued to discuss, she leaned down, giving Kathy a quizzical eyebrow. Care to share with -- well, not the class, but at least your bestie, Kathy?
Kathy	"He brought me here," Kathy hissed. "Deliberately. Not all that bullshit he spun. Otherwise Josh would have appeared right next to me. Either he cast that spell on my specifically...or he knew where Josh was all along and intentionally left him out." But if he'd known about Josh the whole time, why all this fake outrage and confusion now?
Raven	Raven looked up at Max again and narrowed her eyes. She'd never liked that guy. She gave Kathy's shoulder a firm, reassuring squeeze and decided not to let the man out of her sight, if she could help it.
St. George	"Okay," St. George was saying as Kathy tuned back in. "We'll work on getting a sword for Zzzap to use...somehow. And until then, Dante and I will tag-team against Cairax again. Nick and Eliot, you two can talk to the scavengers and go through props looking for something good. Max, you work on your spells; Stealth, you figure out what you're gonna do if we all fail; Captain Freedom, you...uhhh...do you have any ideas?"
Freedom	"I do, actually," Freedom said softly. "Stealth, you mentioned there are historical swords outside of the Wall but nearby?" Stealth's balaclava shifted in a single nod. "Could I get those locations? I wanna go see if there's anything to the old adage, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'."
St. George	St. George blinked, clearly having no idea what Freedom was talking about, then turned to Kathy and offered her a tentative smile. "And you, Kathy," he said softly. "You get ready to go home."
Kathy	Kathy gritted her teeth together and gave him a bright smile, unsure what to do with the idea that there was a traitor here in the Mount.

[Many thanks to all my beloved preplayers! NFI, NFB. Adapted and improved from Chapter Twenty-Three of Ex-Communication by Peter Clines. Previous post, Next post]