The Underworld, Friday afternoon [NFB]

Jul 18, 2008 18:37





Cole
When Cole and Sam appeared in the Underworld, along with their unexpected passenger, Cole let go of Sam and grabbed hold of Veronica's arm. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he hissed. "You're going back to Milieux."


Sam
Sam groaned audibly as he came up beside Cole. "That argument worked so well when you tried it on me, you had to try it again?"


Veronica
"Piper is my best friend," Veronica argued, wrenching her arm out of Cole's grasp. "I'm going to help."


Cole
"It's too dangerous!" Cole insisted. "You have no idea how powerful Zankou is."


Sam
"You didn't stop me from coming along," Sam pointed out.


Veronica
"Exactly. And I can take care of myself," Veronica retorted. "Let's stop arguing and find Piper."


Cole
"I didn't want either of you coming along," Cole snapped. "But Phoebe would freak out if I came alone, and that's not good for the babies." He sighed and rubbed his temple. "Fine. Just stay close. Don't do anything stupid."


Sam
As if Sam needed persuasion to stay close. Just not that kind of close.

"Can't believe I actually backed her up on something," he muttered under his breath, one hand dropping to the hilt of one of his belt knives.


Veronica
Veronica had her taser, a silver knife and a flask of holy water all close at hand. "Can't believe you're actually risking yourself to save Piper," she muttered under her breath.


Cole
"Quiet, you two," Cole said. "This way." He couldn't sense Piper, but Zankou's power was unmistakable, akin to that of the Source. Unfortunately, by using his powers to sense Zankou, he was also putting himself on the demonic radar, a fact that was made clear a few minutes later when two demons shimmered in front of them. They immediately summoned up energy balls.


Sam
It was probably not the most reassuring thing for anyone that Sam immediately went for his knives, but at least he threw them rather than following his first instinct (charging straight at the nearer of the two).

He'd been practicing that skill, but possibly not as much as he could have.



Veronica
Veronica pulled out her flask of holy water and let a stream of water fly at the demons.


Cole
Energy balls sailed toward them. Cole threw one back, striking one of the demons and vanquishing him. Sam's knife hit the other in the arm but didn't slow him down much. However, the demon started laughing when Veronica squirted the holy water on him. "Do I look like a vampire, you stupid human?"


Sam
Sam had been half tempted to say something snarky about the vampire comment, but --

"Whoa!" he yelped, diving to one side and flattening himself against the ground, when an energy ball threatened to clip him.


Veronica
Veronica managed to dodge out of the way of the energy ball.

And landed closer to the demon that had laughed at her. She quickly pulled out her knife and sliced at his leg with it.


Cole
The demon howled as Veronica's knife cut into his leg. Then three more demons shimmered in, drawn by the fight. Cole fireballed the demon attacking Veronica, then grabbed hold of her and Sam and yanked them around a corner, hoping the new arrivals had only seen him, not them. "This isn't going to work," he said. "We can't fight our way through. Well, I could, but. . . ." He peeked around the corner, and an energy ball narrowly missed him.


Sam
"The hell I'd let you," Sam finished for him; maybe it wasn't the way Cole had meant to conclude the sentence, but it was Sam's version. "How close can we risk shimmering in?"


Veronica
"Could you... is there some way you can distract them while Anders and I find Piper and see if we can get her out?" Veronica suggested.


Cole
"Yeah," Cole said thoughtfully. "There's one way to do this." Before Sam could stop him, he stepped out into the open. Immediately three energy balls converge on him. He staggered and threw his own fireball and killed one of the demons. The other two struck him again, and this time he fell. His invulnerability prevented him from getting killed, but not from getting knocked out.

The two remaining demons picked up Cole's body between them and started to drag him further into the Underworld, talking about the bounty they were going to collect.



Sam
Sam smacked the palm of his hand into his forehead before he could stop himself.

"Oh, fan-frakking-tastic."


Veronica
That hadn't exactly been what Veronica was advocating, but she supposed it worked.

"Come on," she hissed, grabbing Sam's arm and following quietly.


The Oracle
The demons made their way through the stone corridors of the Underworld until they reached an open cavern. At the far end was a large stone slab, upon which Piper was lying unmoving. At her head stood a dark-haired man dressed in black leather. His eyes were closed in concentration, his hands at either side of Piper's head. His hands glowed, and Piper rose a few inches off the slab.

A scantily-clad woman detached herself from the man's side and moved toward the two demons and their prize. "What are you doing here?" she demanded. "Leave, now!"

"I don't think so," one of the demons said. They dropped Cole to the ground.

"Tell Zankou we've captured Belthazor," the other demon said.

The woman smiled. "Leave him. I'll make sure you get the credit."

"We're not going without our bounty," the second demon said.

"Then you'll wait," the woman said, returning her attention to Piper.



Sam
"Well, shit," Sam said -- spoke as lowly as possible, not whispered; he wasn't risking the way a whisper would echo off these corridors, not when they were this close. He hadn't brought his gun because of the whole ricochet factor and he only had one knife left, not having gotten a chance to retrieve the other two, which left him with the sword sheathed on his back and pretty much no options for a ranged fight.

"Upside, we found her, but now'd be a hell of a good time for him to wake up . . ."


Veronica
"Give me a minute," Veronica whispered, worrying her bottom lip. "I think I have an idea, but it's a little risky."


Zankou
Cole . . . just kind of laid there.

The two bounty hunters stood, their backs to the entrance to the chamber, watching Zankou as he concentrated on Piper. "Say the spell, Piper," he murmured. "You'll set yourself free. You know you want to."


Sam
"We're in the Underworld," Sam said through his teeth, making frantic gestures for her to just spit out the idea already. "How much riskier does it get?"


Veronica
"All right, all right," Veronica said. "If I cause a distraction, can you get to Cole and use this to wake him up?"

She held out her taser.


Cole
Cole? Still laying there.


Sam
Sam stared at her in appalled horror for a moment, but nodded and grabbed the taser. "This would be so kinky if it wasn't . . Go. Do whatever it is."


Veronica
"If you blow this and leave my daughter without a mother, I will haunt your ass until the day you die," Veronica swore.

Without waiting for a response, she checked her knife and boldly walked into the chamber.

"This is unacceptable," she said, amazed by how steady she was keeping her voice. "When Zankou is finished, he will not be pleased to find such a worthless demon in his presence."


Random Demon
"Who the hell are you?" one of the demons said, looking at Veronica. "Price that's on his head, I'd hardly call him worthless."

Both the bounty hunters had their attention on Veronica now. Zankou was entirely focused on Piper, and the female demon hovered around him anxiously.


Sam
"Sure," Sam muttered, "just put all the pressure on me . . . 's not just your kid who's gonna be out a parent if . . ."

Gritting his teeth, he sprinted straight toward Cole and dove, just like a good hard headfirst slide into the plate, the taser held in his outstretched hand.


Veronica
"I shouldn't be surprised that lowlifes like you don't know me," Veronica said, brazenly bluffing her way through this and trying desperately not to glance over at Cole to see if he was waking up.

"Zankou has much bigger fish to fry than Belthazor these days. Clearly you peons didn't get the memo."


Cole
The taser jolted Cole's body. "Dammit, Veronica," he mumbled, still not completely awake. "I don't care if you think it's fun, that hurts!" Then he opened his eyes, blinking furiously, shaking his head to clear the last of the haze of unconsciousness. "What? Where. . . ?"

He pushed himself up, taking in Sam next to him, Zankou with Piper, and Veronica standing in front of the two demons. "Veronica, duck!" he yelled, throwing a fireball at the demons.


Sam
Sam grunted and lay still for a few moments; rock floors were a whole hell of a lot more painful than the infield dirt, and he was pretty sure he was bleeding from at least a half dozen minor scrapes. He did, at least, have the presence of mind to pull the taser away from Cole's body, although given that he wasn't going to be moving much for a few minutes he kept it in hand.

"Go get 'im," he mumbled, wincing. "That's m'boy."


Veronica
Veronica ducked the moment that she heard Cole's voice. Her hand was also on the hilt of her knife... just in case.


Cole
The fireball struck one demon before he could even turn around and vanquished him. The other demon spun around, but a second fireball smacked him in the chest.

The female demon watched this, still beside Zankou. "Finish this, you're in danger!" she urged him, but he was still focused on whatever he was doing to Piper and appeared not to have noticed the commotion around them.


Sam
Sam started to lever himself back onto his feet, slowly, and made it to his knees before his ribs protested -- if he'd cracked them again he was going to be pissed later, so it had damn well better be just a bruise.

The one knife he had left on his belt was just a plain old dagger, nothing that would do lasting damage, but maybe he could buy them a crucial second or two. From his kneeling position, he drew it from its sheath and let it fly toward the female demon with a snap of his wrist, aiming for her thigh or maybe the kidney area.

. . . if demons had kidneys. Did they?


Veronica
Veronica wasn't really thinking about demon physiology.

When Cole took out the two demons she had been distracting, she started making her way towards the female, knife drawn.


Cole
The female demon cried out as Sam's knife struck her thigh. She stumbled backwards toward Zankou, and as Veronica drew closer, a protective shield flared up and pushed Veronica back.

"Stand back," Cole said. He conjured up a fireball and threw it at Zankou. It hit the shield and fizzled away. Undeterred, Cole threw another. And another. And another.

The female demon, hand clutched to her injured leg, frantically pleaded with Zankou. "Break the connection or he'll kill you!" she cried.

Cole was exhausting himself, but he refused to give up. He wasn't going to let Zankou finish whatever he was doing to Piper. He threw several more fireballs in rapid succession, until finally the shield around Zankou flared again and disappeared. Another energy ball struck the demon himself, and he flew backwards, away from Piper, and hit the wall.

Zankou stood up, touching his hand to his side, where thick black blood began to soak his clothes. He snarled in rage, staring at Cole, then taking in Veronica and Sam as well.

Cole held both hands in front of him, summoning the largest fireball he ever had. He raised his arms over his head and threw.

"No!" the female demon screamed. She threw herself in the path of the fireball. It struck her and she disappeared, vanquished.

"You'll pay for this, Belthazor," Zankou said. "You and your friends." He flamed out of the cavern.


Sam
Sam got to his feet now, relieved to find that the pain was mostly subsiding, and made his way to Cole's side. Laying a hand on his arm, he growled, "The hell I'm letting him touch you."

Then his gaze slid toward Piper, and his brow furrowed with concern. (Probably more concern than he typically showed her when she was conscious or sober.) "Mars," he called, "is she gonna be okay?"


Veronica
Veronica had immediately rushed to Piper's side. "She's breathing. I think she'll be okay, but let's get her to the clinic."


Cole
Cole was pretty drained, but did his best not to let it show. He scooped Piper up in his arms. "Grab hold of me," he told Veronica and Sam. As soon as they were both touching him, he shimmered them all back to Milieux, straight to the clinic.

[ooc: preplayed with beenthroughthat and notabondgirl and secondsexiestdemonintheunderworld and thesmokedbint. NFB due to distance, not for interaction.]

the smoked bint, underworld, sam, zankou, piper, brain drain, veronica

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