Vlindrel:A True Antagonist

Wednesday October 21st 1999, 1:30 AM
Wildomar, Lawless Ranch

**A deep humming rumbles across the farm, causing the ground to tremble slightly as six golden beams, three from each of Avarada's taloned hands, rip their way through the misty night air towards Chris, cutting a vertical "X" shape in the air that centers on him.**

Nemo: **He holds his hands up, the book floating in front of him. His face lightly illuminated with the blue from his cigarette and the glowing rays of light from the demon behind him.** Let's see what you got Chris!

Chris: **He immediately ducks under the beams and shrinks back to his human form as he presses himself to the ground, evading them. In an instant he leaps from the earth and in the blink of an eye returns to his huge reptillian form. Running on all fours with huge leaps, closing the fifty feet between him and Nemo almost immediately.**

Nemo: **As Chris reaches Nemo, the Serpentine slams into a huge six-pronged golden sigil. Nemo smiles villainously, a wild look in his eyes.** I hope you didn't think you could just charge at me uncontested! **Avarada slashes down with his hands. The barrier vanishes just in time for the avian demon to sink his talons deep into Chris's shoulders.** *Wake*!

**The cold moist air of the farm immediately rushes away, replaced by freezing rain. Their surroundings change to the parking lot of a run down motel. A single red sign reads "WAKE MOTEL" in glowing red letters, with the "E" in motel flickering dimly. Around the motel and its parking lot are countless tall pine trees. Avarada and Nemo have pulled Chris far from the farm to some northern forest.**

Chris: **The change of surroundings and the pain in his shoulders from Avarada's hold doesn't distract him enough to affect his serpentine reflexes, and his huge hands rush up with supernatural agility and grab the Demon's beaked face on both sides, crushing it to mush in his powerful grip. His serpent-like eyes look to Nemo and his bestial voice rumbles up from his chest and out of his mouth.** Ya'know how long I've wanted to do that?

Nemo: **Some of the dark blood drips down onto his baseball hat and slides off the side of the brim as it mixes with the falling raid, and he looks upwards at his, now very dead, demon.** ...A very long time?

Chris: *Yesssss*... **His long fingers and claws dig down into Avarada's throat and hook into the muscle and bones in the demon's upper-chest. He then pulls both of his huge arms in opposite directions and rips what's left of the devil right down the middle like it were made of tissues, throwing each half out to his sides.**

**Meanwhile...**

Tate: **He presses the tip of his shoe into the smoldering trails in the earth left by those blazing beams from that creature. Though they were glowing molten a moment ago, they've already cooled unnaturally fast. There's a smell of burnt earth and light sulfur in the air.** Where the fuck did they go? **He looks around at the suddenly quiet farm, the mists quickly closing in.**

Ahiga: Was that the kid from school? **He stays alert. Without Dzeh his senses are greatly diminished and he can't control or move the fog.** ...Nemo? The guy that Shane hung out with?

Tate: He had a hat on and smoked, so I'd say that's probably an accurate guess. **The smoldering on the ground has gone out.**

**There's a light in the fog in the distance and the sound of heavy footfalls. Ahiga doesn't need supernatural senses to know who is on the way.**

Ahiga: That's my dad. **He looks in the direction of the light, it's still far off but moving closer.**

**A light suddenly shines on them from the opposite direction, behind them.**

Jason: The hell is happening out here? What was noise!? **He's running towards them in a shirt and jeans, having obviously ran out of the house in a hurry. His shotgun in one hand.**

Ahiga: There was a few mountain lions in your barn again Mr. Lawless. **He looks to the barn.** We scared them off.

Jason: **Without another word he starts moving towards the barn.**

Tate: **He quickly follows after his dad, not knowing if its safe.** We-it-the thing only got one cow this time!

Jason: **He shines the light on the broken barn door as he nears it.** We just repaired this! **He walks into the barn, ahead of Tate and Ahiga.**

**Meanwhile...**

**Blue flames suddenly blasts outwards in every direction from Nemo, like a powerful explosion, launching Chris away from him.**

Nemo: **He adjusts his hat, wiping off some of Avarada's blood. The air is now full of steam that's quickly cooling to mist and flowing down to the ground in the rain.** How do you want to do this? Because the last time we were here you tried to kill me.

Chris: **He whips his tail around to shift his weight into a backflip and he lands on all fours, his claws cutting lines into the wet asphalt as he slides to a stop.** I've never been here before, but that sure sounds like an idea I'd have! **He leaps across the small parking lot, clearing the entire thing in a single jump as he practically flies towards Nemo.**

Nemo: **He quickly raises his hands as Chris leaps at him and twin jets of concentrated super-heated plasma scream forth from his hands. The lances of neon-blue flames slam into Chris, knocking him from his path and to the side, causing him to miss Nemo.**

Chris: **As he rolls to the side in the air, his tail whips out, a long transluscent blade slides out of its end and slashes through Nemo's left forearm like it were made of air, cutting it off. Chris lands on his feet and immediately runs at Nemo without pause.**

Nemo: **He watches his forearm fall to the ground. Dark blood sprays from the wound and he actually looks mad as he turns.** You're not the only monster here-**He steps fowards throwing his left arm forwards as his body turns pitch-black and his skeleton glows bright white-blue from within. His left hand immediately grows back as he transforms and his fist slams into Chris and explodes with plasma, causing the falling rain and dwindling steam to ripple outwards away from them in a loud blast that sends Chris tumbling backwards.** Shane taught me that! Well he taught me the punch -not the explosion, I made that up.

Chris: **Again, he lands on his feet, and cracks his neck. His jaw makes a low crack as his lower mandible aligns back to its proper place.** You're a whole lot stronger than when you worked for my mother. **He stands up straight and his legs quickly merge into a long powerful snake-like lower half.** Either that you were were holding back... **He grows taller, looking down at Nemo as he grows to a monstrous height, his long and powerful, tail lengthening to thirty feet.**

Nemo: **Black ichor begins to cascade off of his form like a cloak as he looks up at Chris's monstrous form grow even more monstrous.** I don't think I have a quip for this situation, could you give me a second to think of one?

Chris: *No*. **The brunt of his tail whips from the darkness and slams into Nemo without warning, launching the small boy across the parking lot and sending him flying through a wall and into the motel's front office. In an instant Chris slides across the parking lot and bursts through the wall after him. Upon seeing where Nemo landed he lashes out with his huge claws to cut him to ribbons.**

Nemo: **The floor under him collapses and he falls into a basement full of junk. A pillar of blue flames explodes up from the dark of basement and slams into Chris, blasting his huge form up through the ceiling and sending the serpentine monster through the roof. His voice rings out as the pillar vanishes.** Wake! **He appears standing in the parking lot and looks to the roof as he steps forwards with one leg and throws his body down into a duck and cover position. All around him rippling torrents of profane black chemicals burst from the ground like geysers, spraying like water from multiple firehoses. The liquid spontaneously ignites and explodes, completely blasting apart the front office in a blinding flash, leaving only the basement and the adjacent rooms.**

**Meanwhile...**

Rudy: **He's standing with Tate's dad, looking down at the cow.** So just the one then? **He has his rifle slung around his shoulder and looks around the barn.**

Jason: Yeah... Looks that way. **He's hunched down, looking the mutilated cow over.** Where the hell are these mountain lions coming from?

Ahiga: In ag class at school, they said that if predators are hungry enough in the winter, they'll come down into human towns and look for food, usually finding the farms first. **He looks from Tate's dad to his own.** Like what happened last year.

Tate: Was around this same time too... Almost exactly a year ago.

Rudy: **He lets out a tired grunt and puts his hand to his head.** The mountain lions are probably being pushed out of their territories by all the houses that've been going up in the mountains these passed few years, so they're come'n down here to the few farms left, looking for an easy meal.

Jason: **He stands up and turns, stepping out of the stall and looking back to the front of the barn.** Strange that it didn't dig in here like last time. **He points to the broken front doors, one of them barely hanging to its hinges.** And I know I locked that before I headed into the house, so how the hell'd that thing get in here?

Rudy: You think someone undid the lock? **He looks to the front of the barn, adjusting the rifle slung over his shoulder.**

Tate: Wasn't me. **He looks to Ahiga, widening his eyes as he tries to think of something to explain that away.**

Ahiga: **He decides to just play dumb.** Who would do that kind of thing Mr. Lawless? **He looks to Tate's dad and then to the unhinged doors.**

Jason: Well I can think of some people that would want something like this to happen. **He looks to Rudy.**

Rudy: **He has a stern expression, but doesn't say anything. His eyes tell Jason that he knows exactly who he means.**

**Meanwhile...**

Chris: **He didn't expect the ichor to explode, causing it to catch him off guard and send him flying away from the office roof and heavily crashing through the roof of one of the motel rooms. A few seconds pass, then without warning the asphalt near Nemo erupts as Chris bursts up from the ground, sending the demonic boy tumbling through the air. As Chris pulls himself up from the ground he lands with his huge palm slamming down onto Nemo, pinning him there. Chris slowly inches his monstrous face over Nemo's until his mouth hovers and inch from Nemo's head.** You want to tell me why you're helping those farmboys?

Nemo: **He struggles to breath.** Not... Really... **He squirms slightly as his ichor flows out around him in a pool.**

Chris: **He presses his hand down onto Nemo.** You're one of those guys I don't leave alive. **He slams his hand down, crushing in Nemo's chest.**

Nemo: **Instead of being crushed he sinks into the pool of black chemicals and vanishes. The ichor then bubbles up and a massive mouth with glowing blue teeth snaps down onto Chris's arm like a bear trap. It bites down with incredible force and its demonic teeth bite clean through his forearm. Nemo rises from roiling black tar about fifty feet away.** A little pay back for cutting off my arm! **The mouth vanishes almost immediately after, turning into black tar.**

Chris: **He roars in pain as the mouth bits his forearm off and he recoils away from it, pushing himself backwards. He looks to Nemo and immediately lunges at him.** You *slipper- slimey bastard*! **He closes the gap fast by pulling himself with his remaining arm and using his lower snake-half to slide across the ground.**

Nemo: **He watches Chris rush towards him.** ...Gemini. **His voice booms out like thunder.** *Akresh*! **As Chris reaches him a massive skeletal hand rushes out from the ichor around Nemo and slams down onto Chris, bending him backwards and pinning him onto his own tail.** You think *I* would be beaten by *you*?! **The huge demonic arm pressed him down harder into the ichored ground and Chris can feel the asphalt below it crumble and crack as the pressure slowly makes an indentation with his body.** You're a fucking *lackey* Chris! You're *nothing*. I'm a *main antagonist* for fuck's sake! I have one of the most powerful demons *ever* at my command! What do you have?!

Chris: **He struggles against the impossibly strong arm, trying to overpower it with brute strength alone, pushing against the large skeletal fingers with his remaining arm, but it barely budges. He struggles breath and to speak.** I'm gonna... Fuck'n kill you... Nemo!

Nemo: Remember that you brought this upon yourself! I gave you a choice, Chris! We could be on the same *side* right now! We could've *always* been on the same side! **The arm suddenly presses down even harder, so much so that the ichor and rainwater splash up around Chris as the asphalt pops with huge cracks radiating outwards from the serpentine monster. It's quickly crushing him to death.** But you chose *mommy*!

Chris: **Suddenly he whips what's the little of his tail that isn't pinned down out around one of the fingers and pulls with it as hard as he can, using the leverage to quickly pull a long length of his tail free. The snake-like appendage instantly darts up and around the demon's wrist with predatory speed and constricts around it tightly. He flexes all the monstrously powerful muscles in his tail as hard as he can. There's a sudden snapping boom as the demon's wrist bones break.**

**There's a thunderous roar and the hand is pulled back down into the ichor. There's a tremor that shakes everything, followed by a second unearthly roar.**

Nemo: **He narrows his eyes as he listens to the demonic roars.** I think you pissed him off.

Chris: **He slowly rises up on his tail. His body is misshapen and smashed into a flattened shape. Some of his prominent muscles attempt to flex as he moves, but they only pull at broken bones with their tendons, and many of those bones in his chest and neck have broken up through his scaled hide, causing blood to cascade down his form from their wounds in thick rivulets, being washed away by the pouring rain.**

Nemo: You're a real piece of work, you know that? I think that would've killed anyone else I've fought. **He looks Chris up and down. The earth trembles again as a third roar tears across the night.** Course you might still die from your injuries, so I guess it might not be *that* impressive.

Chris: **He pauses in agony and takes a deep, miserable, breath, and almost like a cartoon character, his muscled chest expands from its flattened shape, many of his bones snapping back to where they should be as his muscles try to squirm within his broken body, some of the more superficial wounds already healing. He opens his reptillian eyes and he stares down at Nemo. He immediately attempts to lunge at the boy but instead he only jerks a little to the side and involuntarily lets out a painful low growl. His body is so heavily traumatized on the inside that he simply can't move as fast as he could before. He quickly slams his hand into the ground and pulls himself towards Nemo for what seems like the tenth time, quickly closing the distance between him and the warlock.**

Nemo: **He watches Chris stand upright and then make his way towards him.** Gemini... **A waits until Chris is in range. There's a rumbling demonic laughter that fills the motel parking lot.** Akresh. **A second arm, the right hand this time, bursts up from the ichor in front of Nemo and two of it's long skeletal fingers thrust into Chris, impaling him in the abdomen and chest. It lifts him up like he's practically weightless and then flings him to the side with a flick of its wrist, sending Chris flying through the air, over the driveway that leads up to what's left of the Wake Motel, and crashing through the tall pine trees beyond, a good one hundred feet away. Nemo quickly runs down the driveway and into the woods, blue flames igniting his hands to light the way as he frantically searches for the serpentine to finish him off.**

**As Nemo follows the path of broken trees and flattened bushes, it suddenly ends in a large hole in the ground. Chris is no where to be seen, having had just enough strength left to burrow away to safety.**