Silver and Glory visit Tecumseh

Characters in this scene: Silver, Glory, Seamus

Location: Tecumseh

"Well, we better start making our way to Tecumseh then." Glory started to make her way out of the Silver's room.

"I'll be in here for a bit, if you don't need me out there." Silver gestures to her crafting table, where a mostly-carved box is sitting. "I'm nearly done."

Glory stops at the door and looks back at Silver. "I was actually going to have goblins drive us there. Well, just Shatbraggart actually. He's actually a better driver than me." She pokes her head out of the room and yells for Shatbraggart to do just that. She heads back into Silver's room as the van is back onto the road.

She sits down onto a chair at the crafting table. "I think I'm going to need all the energy I can get once we enter into Tecumseh. And for when we finally meet Seamus face-to-face."

That's one way to force Silver to actually have multiple chairs in her room. She tugged it out of the floor, a little metal flower-like thing, and settled beside Glory for the crafting. She got back to carving, using one of the silver knives from her gloves.

"You are meeting a war mage on their own ground for their own specialty, to my understanding," Silver remarked. "Which is... honestly seeming pretty unwise of us, particularly given I'm agreed to stay out of your contest."

"Well, I'm good at fighting, especially at the kind where it's more of me attacking, running away, running back to attack again, then running away again, and rinse and repeat."

"I guess you should count yourself lucky Seamus requires it fair, then, and Alornerk is out. In straight combat, I do expect Seamus to win. His thing is combat that's fair for him, far as I understand, so I doubt you'll get your specialty out of it."

"Well, it depends on what you mean by fair" And she has air quotes for when she says that. "I never met or fought a war mage before, so this'll be mostly new to me. But, I think I get the basics of how it works."

"It's entirely fair for you both to have to fight barehanded or alone, no? But that plays into what’s good for him, but not good for you. So be careful, partner mine." Silver twists the box carefully in very particular patterns; something sticks, and she carefully carves it out.

"Yeah." She then looks down, and starts tapping her foot. She puts her hands in her face, and then away, before looking back at Silver. "I have to win."

"It'll definitely make things difficult if you don't." Silver twists the box again, and this time it comes apart into a completely different configuration; she hums cheerfully and starts pulling out bottles and other materials, then looks at Glory. "I do have faith in you, you know," she says seriously. "And not just because I swore it to you."

"This'll all fall apart if I lose, and he takes leadership." She fidgeted in her seat, looking away from her. "We can't have Grey and Stella both on our tails at once. I have to win. I have to win."

And in her eyes, Silver saw a familiar look in Glory. A look of pride and almost self-destructive determination. A look that she saw most recently on Stella Myers.

All her materials in place, Silver turns to her partner and reaches out, resting her hand on the back of Glory's neck, and tugs her in to rest their foreheads against each other. "I'm here for you, Glory," she murmurs. "However it goes, however it ends, success or failure... I don't, fundamentally, care that much. You're mine, and I'm yours, and we can get through this. Breathe."

Glory took a breath, and seemed to calm down in Silver's arms. They sat like that for a good long while. "Yeah. Yeah. I... think I'm okay now. Thank you."

Silver shifted and nuzzled Glory's head. "I've got you. Don't forget that. I might be out of this particular fight, but I'm still with you. Even if I'm not right there, you should be able to feel me - and even before this whole Familiar thing, you had the right to call on me. Hmm?"

Glory nuzzled against her neck. "Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for that, by the way."

"It was quite selfish, I assure you. Not being able to find you worried me." Silver drew back, cocking her head; "How close are we by now, d'you think?"

"Not sure. Shatbraggart should tell us when we get into town, though." She then took a deep breath, and sat up a bit straighter. "Let's move onto something else now, for the time being."

"This box has definitely been fun to make." Silver shifts, picking up the box, and twists it again. It settles into another configuration. "Probably not really his thing after all, but I think he needs to expand his horizons anyway."

"I don't like puzzles. I find most are pretty bullshit in their solutions."

"Well, yes." Silver laughs, twisting the box again into a third configuration, before folding it back into a box carved with geometric sequences. "That's part of the fun. And it’s not like this puzzle will hurt him, unless he... I don't know, I smoothed out any splinters... I guess he could get frustrated and throw it at the wall, I suppose."

"That's what I always do, when I'm stuck on something I don't like." Glory shifted her posture, seemingly back to her usual self. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask, but have you ever eaten Erectus's apples? I know you aren't exactly oath-bound anymore to do so, but I'm curious."

"Haven't, as yet. Glamour in my system right now is poisonous enough, and I haven't been inclined to get more intoxicated."

"Hmm. Well, I've poisoned my own body before, so I guess I'll try them for myself later. The apples produce Glamour, right?"

"Have Glamour in them, yes. I suppose they'd produce Glamour if you kept an eye on them, but I'd expect them to decay before making a noticeable amount. Whether the decayed apple will produce Glamour I'm... not sure."

"I'll go pick up a few of them now and put them in my pack. Save them for later, when we're out of Tecumseh." Glory stands up and leaves the room. She heads over to where Erectus was planted, and plucked a few fresh-looking apples from his branches, and puts them in her pack. He shivers in delight, and she smiles back at him.

The van screeches to an abrupt halt.

There is a tall, thin man standing in the middle of the road.

Glory turns, and runs up next to Shatbraggart on the couch with the wheel. Her heart skipped a beat, at the thought that it may have been Kenny, but that wasn't likely. She frowns, and whistles in her goblins to prepare for... something. She narrows her eyes toward the thin man, trying to get a better look at him from their position and distance.

Whoever it is planned this well. The setting sun is behind them, from your perspective, making it hard to see their face. They're wearing a long trench coat and you think have reddish hair. Their hands are in their pockets.

"I suppose it was too much to hope we'd just be able to walk in," Silver remarked, stepping up behind Glory.

The man pulls a hand out of his pocket and waves at you.

Glory moves toward the door, and steps out. She yells out to the man before them. "I'm guessing we're in Tecumseh now, aren't we? You the welcome party?"

"Just outside the legal limit of the charter, actually. I'm here to find out what brings you to our town, little lady." The man sounds cheerful, but something about him makes your skin crawl.

Confidence and calmness is where it's at for these kind of situations. Something that she picked up on from meeting with Stella again. "I'm here to settle some business with a resident in your little town here. Shouldn't take any longer then the night. Then, got other places that I gotta be at after."

"Ah." The man sounds... disappointed? "I'm afraid I have to ask you to tell me who that might be and who sent you, miss. It's rude of me, I know, but it's... well, it's never a good time 'round these parts, but you've picked a bad night all the same."

"On here on my own business, for my own reasons." She was putting on a more southern accent, and was absolutely killing it. She didn't know why she chose to, but her instincts were telling her it was the right choice. "I ain't nobody's little messenger girl."

"Then it might be best, miss, if you head back the way you came. If you ain't cleared it with the folks who're keeping an eye on things, they might take offense." He points upwards. You notice... you can't quite make it out, but there's some kind of black, smudgey thing hovering above the town in the direction the man is pointing.

Glory squints, trying to shield her eyes from the sun. "That a UFO or some shit, boy?"

"That's Windsor, keeping an eye on things. Detroit -" the man spits on the ground "- isn't the type to let us know they're still watching. So if you haven't talked to either of them, miss, you might want to think twice before you go poking your nose in the place they've chosen to keep what might be metaphorically described as the skeletons in their closet."

Glory also spits on the ground. "So what, I gotta be signing papers or some shit? I ain't crossing the border here! This is a FREE country! I know my rights, boy!" She angrily waves her fist in the air at him.

"And like I said, I only here for the night. I don't plan on staying in your shit hole town any longer than I hafta!" She spits on the ground again. "Boy!"

The man laughs. "Whatever business you got here, miss, if we don't approve of it? It gets harder. I don't much care what you think your rights are."

Silver sighs, and steps out. "Will a promise that we're not here to make trouble for you and yours help?" The phrasing is Silver's usual, but the accent is pretty close to Glory's current one (I just can't write it). "Apologies for the trouble. We have a discussion we need to complete, is all. I don't think our business will make trouble for you, and more likely the opposite."

Glory grumbles a swear out, feigning frustration at someone else taking the negotiations from her.

The man shrugs. "Might be that's how it is. I'm afraid I still need to ask you to tell me who it is you've got business with. Very real prospect that if I don't, I'll never hear the end of it."

Silver considers him, then shrugs. "Seamus. I'm sure you can guess which one, if you have several."

"Ah." The man's smile noticeably shrinks. "That's... you could have picked a better Dougherty, miss, if you don't mind me saying so. But it ain't Bondarenkos, I guess. Small mercies." He starts walking to the side of the road, as if to let you pass.

"He recently promised to make difficulties for us," Silver remarks. "I'd like to discuss that with him." Silver grins. "Until later, sir."

Glory grumbles out another scowl and swear, and heads back inside the van.

With a cheerful wave, Silver steps back inside herself.

You hear gunfire in the distance.

"Drive," Glory ordered, and Shatbraggart stomped onto the accelerator. They continued their way down the road again.

"Do we actually know his address?" Silver asks thoughtfully. "Or are we just looking for the bunker? I could try and figure out where the Connection to him is pointing, I guess, but that's... frustrating."

"I traced the location of where he was sending most of his messages from. Got his location on GPS right now." She tapped onto the screen in the dashboard. "We should be there in a few minutes. By the way, I totally had that on my own."

Silver hummed. "I got bored."

"Well, don't steal my fun!" Glory pouted, stomping up and down.

The GPS directs you towards a small hill on the outskirts of the town. There is... more smoke above it than there should be.

"Huh. You think they're having a big bonfire blowout?" Glory asks, her attention being drawn to the smoke.

"I expect he was recently set on fire because people here hate him. But I guess we'll see." Silver twists a bit, and then reaches into herself, and draws out a silver sword. She winces, pain vibrating momentarily down the bond, but it fades quickly. "Shall we say hi?"

Glory nodded, and whistled her goblin weapons into her hands. "Yeah. Hopefully, saving his ass will improve his view on us."

As you approach the hill, you begin to notice clumps of sod in places they shouldn't be. Like impaled on tree branches, or on the road. There appear to be pits of freshly overturned dirt. Some of the grass is smoldering. If you exited the van, you'd realize the air reeks of gunpowder.

"Did someone try to blow him up?"

"Well, what else you gonna do to a guy that's basically indestructible?" Glory shrugged.

The road abruptly ends at a crude stone wall, and a wooden gate. There's fresh tire tracks in front of the gate, leading into the grass. A few vehicles have been here lately, and for whatever reason, they didn't stay on the road.

Past the gate is a path further up the hill. You can see a small, one-story house. The windows are boarded up.

"So... what're the chances of us stepping on a landmine, you think?" Silver plucks up her saddle, doing something with her Glamour and slinging it on her back; it seems like a backpack.

"If I remember correctly, the landmines are only off the track. We should be good as long we stay on the trail." She then looks back at Shatbraggart, and passes a small device to him.

"You stay here. If this starts beeping, bang on that three times." She points to an old, rusty trash can in the corner of the room. He nods excitedly. "Good."

"Okay. Let's go." Glory stepped out of the van.

Silver followed half a step behind, sword slid through her belt. She studied her surroundings with bright curiosity, an attitude more appropriate to a field trip than a war zone clearly apparent.

There's a remarkably fat man, missing his shirt and his shoes, sprawled across the path about halfway between the two of you and the house. He doesn't seem to be responding to your presence.

Glory steps over him, barely registering his presence.

He doesn't move. He doesn't breathe. There's three holes in his back. There's strangely little blood. on this side, though a bit of a pool of it is starting to leak out from underneath them.

"Well, sure seems like he's been busy lately." Silver skirts around the body.

"Hmm, should probably hire someone to clean that up." Glory continues on.

The door to the house is shut. Surprisingly, the house is pristine - there's no visible damage.

Glory knocks.

Her fist impacts something solid about an inch before it reaches the door. You hear movement on the roof. The top of half of someone's face, covered in tattoos, pokes over the ledge.

"You have a talent for making relatively simple problems worse, you know."

"I'm guessing you're Seamus, then?" Glory yells back.

Silver takes a half-step back, and then there's a giant silver bladed wolf behind Glory. Without actually saying anything, she crouches down and then leaps; she lands hard on the roof about arms length from Seamus - I expect it can more than handle her weight - and makes a scraping-yipping noise. "Hi there!" Somehow, even scraping with metal, she sounds delighted.

Seamus flinches. "Miss Woods."

Silver half-circles him, and then settles down on the roof. "Seamus," she retorts. "I'm glad to finally meet you. How's things?" Her ears flick, and she's highly amused-sounding.

"Rapidly deteriorating." His voice is level, and his face is impassive. "Why are you here?"

"Can you let me in, Seamus?" Glory yells out from below.

"I'm not sure why I should, Glory. I think I've got something of an inkling as to why you'd show up here after I asked the two of you not to come."

"I don't want to fight in your home. We need to talk. It's important. It's about Stella."

Silver pokes at Seamus with her nose, and runs into the wards. She raises a paw and very lightly pokes the wards - not enough to damage them at all, just to notice they're there. She seems very amused.

The man sighs. "I'll be a second." He stands up and starts unlatching a skylight. "You're probably going to want to use the door, Silver."

Silver sighs unhappily, which is a very strange sound when it’s made by scraping metal. "Oh, very well." She bumps her nose off Seamus' wards again, and then jumps down; she scrapes up a lot of dirt in the process. She flicks back to human easily, bouncing over to Glory and hugging her tight.

Glory gives her a weak smile, and pats her on the head.

About a minute later, the door opens. Seamus is behind it. Inside is... it'd be a stretch to call the house furnished. There's furniture, sure, but it's just kind of haphazardly strewn about the place. There's maybe three rooms in the place, and one of them connects to the door you're looking through. There's nothing hanging on the walls. You see a trapdoor on the floor in a corner.

"If you don't plan to start shit, I suppose you can come in."

Silver lets go after a last nuzzle at Glory's hair, and stays at Glory's back.

"Standard rules of Hospitality?"

"I'm aware of how karma works, yes. I don't intend to hurt you under my roof, if you don't give me a good reason to."

Glory nods, and steps inside. "I'll do what I have to do to defend myself."

Silver stays at Glory's back.

She looks around. "Nice place you got here. By the way, you should probably get rid of that body out in the front."

"What body?"

"Looks like a dead person."

"The one that's currently bleeding on the path up here."

Seamus leans to the side to look around you. The path from the door to the gate is clear. There's a faint red smudge on the ground.  He says nothing.

Silver glances back as well, then looks at Seamus and shrugs.

"Ran into one of the townsfolk on our way in." Glory continues walking around, taking a look at the place. Getting to know the layout of a potential battleground. "Apparently, you need permission in order to even enter."

"May've mentioned your name. Apologies, they're stubborn-seeming."

Seamus goes very still. "Describe them."

"Tall, thin guy. Sun was in my eyes, didn't get a good look at them." Glory glanced back over to the window.

Silver nodded. "Hair seemed red, think they were wearing a trench coat. Creepy kind of cheerful."

"Said at least it wasn't the Bondarekos, or something when we mentioned we were coming to see you."

Seamus relaxes. "Sounds like Fred Chamberlain. It's very unlikely you need his permission for anything." He pauses. "If you were here for Bondarenkos, I'd have to shoot you and feel bad about it later."

"They some nasty folks?"

"He doesn't currently have a host that can practice, and one of the only things folks around here agree on is that it'd be best if he doesn't get one again."

Glory glanced at him, and then away. "I won't ask more about this guy. Are things always this tense in Tecumseh?"

"No." There's a tiny hint of bitterness in his voice. "You came at a very bad time, Aubrey. I'm wondering how deliberate that was."

"How much of a schemer do you really think I am, Seamus?" She gives him a sympathetic look. "I'm not smart enough to time or plan for things like that."

"Pretty sure I'm the schemer of the pair, and I'm not really interested in fucking life up for you, funnily enough." Silver shrugs, poking a wall and then leaning on it when it doesn't attempt her murder.

"And yet you're here."

"I'd have loved to message ahead, I really would."

"Last I've heard from you, the Worm had hijacked your communications. Is it still on you? Has it manifested yet?" Glory had a concerned look on her face.

"Manifested?" Seamus asks.

"Once Trojan Worm drains enough of a person's Connections, it physically manifests and impersonates its target." Glory then took a step toward him, brow furrowed. "Wait, didn't Silver or Landis tell you before you cut off communications?"

"I was told that it takes control of its victims accounts on websites. I have four."

Silver shrugged. "Technomancer bullshit isn't my job to figure out."

"Well, you talk with him more than anyone else! I would've figured that you would've brought it up at some point." Glory rubbed her eyes, and looked back at Seamus. "Stella sent a Trojan Worm onto you. It's a digital doppelganger."

"And you drove here to tell me this? I was quite literally on the phone with Silver two days ago. You could have told me then. You've got another reason."

Glory looked down sadly onto the floor. "Let's sit down for this. May be better for this kind of news." She makes her way to the living room.

There are two chairs. Alornerk is perched on one. She cocks her head at you.

Glory nods at her. "Hey Alornerk."

The raven makes a gurgling noise.

Silver waves at the raven, then shrugs, and leans into the wall by the door.

Glory takes a seat into one of the chairs, the one Alornerk isn't on. She waits for Seamus to sit down as well, with a serious look on her face.

He doesn't.

Glory sighs, and stands back up. "Standing it is, then. I don't there to be any weird positional power dynamic here. First, have you been tired lately? Maybe weaker? That's the Worm draining you. Stella is the focus of why I came here today, so it's relevant."

"I have been. It's going to be handled. When it is, that'll be the third time me and her have been at odds via Others from a distance. That matters."

"I know. Which is why it's likely she's going to send something else after you. Something stronger, more subtle, or more effective against you, before you can claim this victory from her."

"I figured as much. The two of you have fae attempting to sabotage your endeavours. I asked you not to come and help me, for this reason."

Glory nodded. "I'm guessing you had Ronald get rid of the Worm for you? Unless there are any other technomancers in town."

"He's sworn he'll do it. Today, actually. His prices are extortionate. He's lucky I'm not the kind of person who gets hung up over money. "

Glory nodded, and sighed. "Told you before, the guy's a perv. He charges extra when he's working for a dude. If you a cute girl or lady, then the price would probably only be a third less of what he'd ask of you. And might try to plant hidden cameras in your home in the meantime as well."

"Tell me why the fuck you're in Tecumseh, Glory."

She gave him a saddened, almost-pitying look. "I'm here to ask you to rejoin the Alliance, Seamus. Please."

"You given up your claim to leadership, then?"

She shook her head. "No. Please Seamus, whatever Stella's going to send to you, it's going to come soon. Today, if she knows that's when the Worm is going to removed. She's done her research on you, she's going to send something going to hit hard. Something that someone like me or Ronald probably won't be able stop in time, not until it's too late. Please."

"I understand that it's a possibility Silver didn't tell you about our deal. Or the deal I made with Grey, which she's privy to. So I could understand if you think me going along with this is even possible. But serve under you, Aubrey? I don't see why you think that's something I'd willingly put on the table."

Glory eyes lowered. She gritted her teeth, with her fists clenched. "Maybe if I'd realized sooner that she was going to focus her efforts against you, send something that would assuredly deny your victory, I would've stepped down then. Swallow my pride, and recognize when I need to stand down."

She looks back up to him again, sadness in her eyes, almost starting to water. "But it's too late now. Too late to take back my choices. Too stand down when I should've. But we're past that point now. I'm sorry, but I can't stand down as leader of the Alliance."

“My partner can swear oaths,” Silver remarks. “It can be in name only, with us sworn not to take advantage.”

"This isn't about pride. Me trying to take the title away from Glory is central to two oaths, Silver, which I told you. Do you have any idea what you two are asking of me? You haven't even told me why being part of the Alliance again would help."

Silver shrugs. "If I recall correctly, you're sworn to try, over succeed."

"We can stop whatever she is going to send to you."

"What makes you so certain I need you to? You've done little to inspire confidence in me so far, Glory. Confidence in your judgement, in your character, or in your intentions. You're trying to keep something from me even now. I can tell. "

Glory sighed. Her look hardened as she stared back up to Seamus. "A few days ago, most of the team met up with Stella for a meeting. The meeting in discussion for a truce, a ceasefire with Stella. The Tiny Alliance will no longer be pursuing Stella for a maximum of 8 months, and the same will go for her toward us. It was a call that I made."

Seamus's expression doesn't change. "Get out of my house, you backstabbing, opportunistic, selfish prick."

Glory didn't flinch. She didn't move from her spot. "I didn't do it for myself. I didn't do it for power. Silver and I cannot continue with both Stella and Grey hunting us down. Chaska has to deal with being an Other and a Familiar without Stella in his case. Landis would like to be able leave Indianapolis without Stella going after him the moment he steps out of the city. It was a choice that had to be made. We can't afford to keep fighting Stella."

"And like so many other choices you've made, Glory, you've failed to consult me, and expect me to just accept that my loss is your gain. No, Glory. I'm not going to be rejoining your alliance while you're in charge. You're lucky, Glory, that I think you've done this out of stupidity rather than malice. Get. Out. Of. My. House."

"Stella is going to continue after you if you aren't protected under the truce. She'll never let up, not until you are gone or worse."

"Did you not hear me? Do I have to say it again?"

"Was the whole challenge thing an oath that you two have to go through?" Silver asks. "Because honestly in that case, let’s get it over with before folks forget that they're not allowed to murder each other. I do recall a promise about that."

You hear tires screech, several thumps, and a car alarm.

Glory looks over to window. "Looks like your previous visitors are back," she scowled.

Three trucks, various diagrams spray-painted onto them, have slammed into the van. They're parked in such a way that none of the doors can swing open. One apparently hit the van a little too hard, and its forward section is crumpled. That'd be the one with the car alarm going off.

Several unfamiliar people, all of them armed, are milling about the vehicles.

“... Do they want us to stay in this town? Would’ve thought they’d want us to leave.” Silver’s hand has dropped to the sword at her waist, while the other is reaching into her bag. “I didn’t exactly suggest this was going to be a friendly chat, that I can recall, not to any of them.”

"You've got things worth taking. If they think you can be made to give them up, I don't think what you told them matters."

Glory sneered at the windows. "Just guns? Easy shit to deal with for a technomancer." She carefully holds her jammer in her hand, ready to press if need be.

“I’m rather stubborn about things I own, myself.” Silver pulls a neon green wasp out of her bag; Glory might recognise it, given the last one she’d pulled out had been an explosive. She sighed. “This is going to be uncomfortable, I think. Thank you for speaking with us, Seamus - I do hope to do so again, weirdly enough. You don’t mind us getting into a scuffle with those folks out there, right? Might get onto your property a bit, by the look of it.”

Seamus doesn't answer. In fact, he's already left the room. He's halfway up a ladder to the skylight in the kitchen.

Glory looks toward the door, and takes a few steps toward it. But she stops, and a frustrated look comes over on her face, with her hands clenched. She turns around and heads for the kitchen and begins to climb the ladder up, following Seamus.

As she reaches the top of the ladder, Seamus is pulling a tarp off something. It looks like a musket, but... it's nine feet long, and you could fit your fist down the barrel.

"You have a fucking cannon loaded on top of your house?" She stands up onto the roof, facing toward him.

Well, if Glory isn't leaving. Silver does something, and the little green wasp is trapped in ice and no longer struggling, and follows; she reaches into Glory's bag and pulls out two of Erectus' apples, smooshing them together and weaving them into something vaguely like a grenade. Only vaguely, though. "So are we working together for this?" Silver prods.

"It's not a cannon, and it's usually not up here." Seamus drags the gun's barrel over to the edge of the roof, then grabs the other end and starts pivoting it so the barrel faces the vehicles. "If there's a good reason for me to not shoot your van, now's the time to let me know."

You hear shouting. The people by the vehicles have stopped milling about. They're running behind the trucks.

"You can try all you want, but unless that thing shoots giant fuck-off lances forged by Faeries for the specific purpose of punching through it, you're not going to make a dent." She walks over near him and looks over the edge. "Who even are these guys? The Chamberlains again?"

"Nah. That's Wicks, van Saars, and one Heikkinen. I advise covering your ears."

Silver tugs into her hair, pulling out shadow, and stuffs it in her ears.

Glory takes a step back from him, and followed as well.

The gun's astonishingly loud. It's less a shot, and more a pound of gunpowder blowing up. The glass on the trucks breaks. Holes appear in most exposed surfaces. A thick stench of sulfur appears on the roof.

The gun jumps back about a foot. Seamus is sent sprawling.

"Shit!" Glory falls back from the blast as well.

Silver copes by instinctively changing shapes and crouching down; her weight and blades should leave scratches in the roof, but she manages to nearly stay in place. "Fuck," she swore. She glances at Seamus, then looks over the roof; she's tensed to spring, or change back and send in her grenades, depending on how their opponents seem.

Glory soon stands up as well. She sees Seamus, and quickly goes over to and tries to help him back up onto his feet.

Her hands lose momentum about half an inch from his sink. It feels like she's touching something slippery and rubbery, although she's clearly not touching anything at all.

Seamus groans and starts to pick himself up. The tattoos are slightly fainter than before.

"Shit, you alright?" Glory has a worried look on her face. She looks genuinely concerned for him.

Silver is back to human a moment later, and with a shrug she breaks the ice on her little wasp. She tosses it into the air in the direction of all the trucks, a buzzing vicious little thing with one purpose.

It's not honestly a very powerful grenade - Silver had made her explosives out of cleaning products, fertiliser, belief, and internet instructions. But it's quite, quite determined to go straight for the face.

A small goblin with comically oversized legs and a bulbous, gaping jaw leaps from behind one of the trucks and swallows the wasp. There's a flash and a bang, and suddenly there's no more goblin, just chunks of red something splattered on nearby objects.

You hear laughter from behind the trucks.

Seamus doesn't respond to what you're saying. He looks... out of it. Blood leaks from his nose.

"Seamus? SEAMUS!" Glory stands in front of him, trying fruitlessly to shake him back to his senses. The concern on her face was growing. "C'mon, can't you hear me?!"

Silver reaches through her own skin and scoops up... flowers. She tosses them at Glory. "Spring," she identifies. "Poisoned Spring, granted, but I doubt his wards are set up to cope very well with Glamour. Should act as a smelling salt. And a pretty strong one too."

She then smooshes the Erectus apples again, and tosses those in a sweep of apple smoosh. Not so easily eaten by a single frog. Far less deadly, granted, but these apples were intoxicating, and Silver had just set them up to turn to droplets on impact. A bit of Glamour was handy to have in one's opponents.

Seamus winces at the noise, and starts blinking.

Glory puts the flowers directly under his nose.

Seamus recoils. "Ah, fuck!"

Silver giggles brightly. "That's a judgement! C'mon now, it's not like there's any Autumn in those flowers! Wake up, Seamus, it's not time for a nap!"

"You're awake. Great." Glory looked relieved. "You almost getting knocked out happens a lot when you use that thing?"

"Use... wha?" Seamus tries to stand up again. In short order, he's back on his knees.

You hear gunfire from the trucks. There's a weird smacking noise at it hits the house's wards.

Glory rolled her eyes. She walks over to the roof, careful to not peek her head over the edge to give them a chance to hit her. She holds out her jammer, and presses. All at once, the gunshots die down. It's soon replaced by the sounds of guns being reloaded and checked, and confused and angry shouts.

Silver settles down, smoothing Glamour over herself; feathers sprout, a small quick bird starts taking shape in short order. It's painfully slow by her standards, but after watching Octane's fumbling efforts, it's clearly an expert's work still. "I can head in if you like," she remarks through her new beak. "Dive bomb. Not sure what they can do, though, and he doesn't seem to be in any shape to let me know what they've got other than guns, so this could be very uncomfortable for the pair of us if I misjudge my durability. Elsewise we can try and talk 'em down, but they sure seem stubborn."

You hear Seamus puking in the background. Very faintly, you can hear Alornerk laughing downstairs.

"Uh, you alright there?" Glory asks, walking back toward him. "I didn't accidentally shut down a pacemaker on you, or something like that, did I?"

"I'm relatively ok."

"Okay. Is it safe for Silver to dive down there, or do these Wicks and so on have more tricks up their sleeve? Will they leave now that all their guns are all down?"

"They're goblin monarchs. They have goblins, presumably. The van Saars have... they collect trophies made from body parts." Seamus has resumed blinking. "Natalie's down there too. I don't know what she brought."

As soon as he says this, you hear a whine as a loudspeaker comes to life. A woman is speaking.

**"YOOHOO! YOU HEAR ME UP THERE?"**

Glory walks up and peeks over the edge of the roof.

A blond woman with an eyepatch is standing on the hood of one of the ruined trucks. She's got what appears to be an old-style paper loudspeaker. As in, the cones people used to use to yell slightly louder before actual loudspeakers were invented.

**"HELLOOOO! ARE WE STILL BEING STUBBORN UP THERE?"**

**"EARTH TO SEAMUS! COME IN, SEAMUS!"**

"I'm guessing that's Natalie?" She turns back to Seamus.

Silver hops up onto the edge of the roof. She's not especially worried about being shot - she is a fucking tiny bird. "Seamus is being stubborn," Silver calls back. She doesn't have a megaphone, but her voice still carries; a cute little Glamour trick. "Why don't you go fuck off and let us talk to him a bit longer, hey? Accosting the van of people you don't know is pretty rude!"

There is a slight pause. **"WHO THE FUCK IS THE BIRD, SEAMUS?"**

"None of your fucking business, bitch!" Glory yells out, poking her head out from above the rooftop. "Now why don't you all just fuck off!"

You're not quite sure how the paper megaphone works, because you're fairly certain you shouldn't be able to hear the woman giggle.

**"YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER THAN TO BRING IN OUTSIDERS, DOUGHERTY! THESE FINE GENTLEMEN DOWN HERE DON'T LIKE THAT, MUCH!"**

Seamus has his hands over his ears. He doesn't appear to like the loud noises much.

"He didn't bring us in, and frankly we were wanting to leave soon, lady! But if you insist on involving us, well, fuck you too." Silver ruffles her feathers, irritably, crouching down. "Now shut the fuck up and go away. We were pissing him off until you arrived, so good job interrupting that!"

**"YOU THINK YOU'RE A REAL SMOOTH TALKER, DONTCHA BIRDY? YOU AND YOUR PRACTITIONER AIN'T PAYED THE LOCALS FOR THE WORRY YOU'RE PUTTING THEM THROUGH!"**

There's laughter from behind the trucks.

Glory peeks her head over the edge again. "I'm gonna give ya'll three seconds to fuck off, or else you fuckers are about to get fucked!" She yells out to them.

"ONE!"

There's additional laughter from the trucks. "EXCUSE ME, BITCH?"

"TWO!"

Silver takes flight, heading up, up, up; well out of the radius of whatever Glory's got planned, but still heading over to the vans. She's too small to really hit with a gun if anyone tries, unless they're a damn good shot.

Them's the risks, but Silver can take it.

"THREE!" She then whispers into her phone. "Fuck 'em up."

Shatbraggart puts the van into reverse, getting it out of being squished between the two other trucks. He drives toward their side, carefully positioning and aiming the van to be hitting all the trucks, and the maximum number of people as possible. He uses just a touch of Octane's Zoom Juice, and gleefully stomps onto the accelerator.

The trucks, which are already in poor shape, crumple as the massive van slams into them at high speeds. People dive out of the way. Or at least, they try to. You're fairly certain several somethings made of meat went under the wheels.

There's a loud whump. A pillar of earth rises from under the van. It tilts up on its side, running on two wheels for a moment, then rolls over. It smashes through the stone wall surrounding the property and digs a deep furrow in Seamus' yard. Something blows up. The van doesn't seem to take damage from it.

Glory then presses her switch. Inside the van, Shatbraggart's device start blinking, and he hits switch in the van. In a few miles-wide radius around the van, all plumbing and electricity goes out.

He runs over and hits the trash can in the corner. A little souvenir she got in New York. A portable gateway that leads directly into the nearby Warrens. Can be used to escape into their quickly, or bang three times to summon waiting goblins that you've recruited. And on their way here, Glory recruited a wide number of goblins. Shatbraggart stepped back as dozens of goblins began to crawl their way out of the trash can, with seemingly no end to them.

Silver circles the area. "Are you going to leave us to talk yet?" she asks, voice still very clear. "Because it really didn't need to go like this, you rude bastards."

Strangely, the various practitioners, goblins and boogeymen don't seem to be paying attention to you. Something about a van plowing through their trucks, an explosion, and a screaming horde of goblins charging at them seems to be distracting them.

There's bellows of rage as the local goblins and the Wicks rush forward to meet Glory's goblins. The two unruly mobs collide, and begin to brawl. It's hard to describe everything that happens, because there's too much for any of you to keep track of. Human and only-vaguely-humanoid figures colliding, grappling, smashing, tearing, biting. Screams, yells, awful wet crunching noises.Things that appear to be fireworks going off.

Below you, Silver, you notice a familiar shirtless fat man staring directly up. His face is a rictus grin, his torso covered in bleeding puncture wounds. He watches you, unblinking.

Concerning. Silver shifted her path, heading back; they didn't seem to need her interference, no immaterial creatures in need of silver. She lands on the roof, keeping one eye on the boogeyman. Benefit of prey shapes. They could look in two directions at once, with some difficulty.

"Well, this is a mess," Silver remarks.

"Nothing much we can do about it," Glory says next to her, calmly watching the battle unfold.

All the goblins that Glory recruited weren't bound, but she made a deal with them to make the area around the van more tolerable for them, allowing them to freely wreak havoc. After they were done, they could then easily return to the Warrens through the trash can. She had no control over them, just the release of them. Her own goblins, meanwhile, were already working on lifting the van back up to its original position, getting closer as the battles raged on.

The hairs on the back of your necks (or in the case of Silver, feathers) begin to stand up. You feel as if someone is watching you, or failing that, walking over your grave.

The skylight is open. Seamus is no longer on the roof.

"Whoa," Glory said, turning around, looking for Seamus. "Did you feel that?"

It couldn't be the boogeyman, right? Glory wouldn't be feeling it if it was... "Think so," Silver said. "Seamus, where the fuck -" Silver took flight, up, then dropped by the skylight, looking in.

"Fucking hell, war mage, keep us informed!"

The feeling doesn't dissipate. It recurs, every few seconds. You develop a vague awareness that Seamus is somewhere below the building's ground floor. Alornerk squawks in annoyance.

Glory quickly looks back over to the battlefield in front of the house. Her van was already back onto all four of its wheels, and the goblins that she recruited were starting to overwhelm the visitors; a good number of them just screwed off to do their own thing, but a number of them were happy enough for the prospect of a good fight.

"C'mon, let's go find him. The goblins can take care of themselves," Glory said, running back to the ladder and starting to climb back down.

Silver flitted onto Glory's shoulder, clinging close rather than going off on her own. She preened herself irritably, feathers ruffling. "What the fuck is that? Name calling doesn't feel like that, does it? What is he doing?"

A bead of sweat poured down the side of Glory's forehead as she slid down the ladder. "Dammit, I don't remember what it is specifically, but this... feels familiar. I think I've heard of something like this before, but I can't remember where specifically.”

She looked around the kitchen frantically, with a nervous look in her eyes. "But I can take a guess. I think Stella's new gift for Seamus has just arrived. We need to find him, now."

"Trapdoor." Silver gestures in the correct direction to find it. "Thattaway."

Alornerk is flapping around the room. She seems genuinely upset.

"Alornerk, you feel it too?" Glory asks, as she rushes over to the trap door. "Is he down there?"

"Something from those goddamn boxes latched on!" the bird shrieks. Alornerk doesn't seem particularly rational at the moment.

“Then let’s deal with it,” Silver snapped. “Steady and get over here, Alornerk. Just tell us where he is.” Silver shifted to Glory’s other shoulder, giving room for the bird to perch. “We want to help him, now unless you want to lose your meal ticket focus.”

"I'm guessing when she says 'boxes' she's talking about his computer or phone." Glory opens the trap door, and looks down it. "Which means it is Stella."

Below the trapdoor is a crudely dug out space. Plywood sheets and rebar bracing, usually with diagrams painted on, holds back the surrounding soil. On the floor there's... stuff. Stuff in boxes, stuff in bags, stuff in piles, stuff in unmarked metal drums. Some of the stuff is weaponry, some is more everyday objects. Some of it isn't anything you'd recognize.

At the far wall, there are workbenches, things that look like industrial machinery you'd need a closer look to identify. There's also a green, rusty pickup truck, and what appears to be a garage door.

Seamus is putting duffel bags in the truck. His phone is dinging in his pocket several times a second. He appears to be ignoring it, and you.

"This your secret bat cave?" Glory asks, going down and taking a good look around.

“Time to leave town then?” Silver says, nearly simultaneously. Her tone is hopeful.

"This situation is untenable." His voice, usually blank, now has a hint of vitriol in it.

You hear the roar of engines and gunfire upstairs. Funny. Didn't you jam the guns, and break the trucks?

"Stella's new arrival for you is here, and just latched on. You're leaving town? Got a back-up base somewhere else?"

"No."

Silver glanced up, then with a flutter of wings she’s off Glory’s shoulder and dropping to the ground as a human. Silver assists with packing up the truck - she’s not sure exactly what he’s trying to get, but she at least easily stays out of his way with the current supernatural awareness of his location, so she’s not a hindrance.

“Something to figure out once out, then,” Silver remarks. “Maybe you could drop into Sanctuary, much as you distrust it.” Despite attempts, some amusement is slipping into Silver’s tone.

Glory's phones starts beeping. She looks down at it, and frowns. "Shatbraggart says that your visitors back-up has just arrived. They're going to move the van away, and try to meet us somewhere where they can pick us up safely. Maybe out of town boundaries, if those guys decide to chase after them."

Glory glances over to Seamus and the truck. "Don't suppose you got room for two more, do you?"

Seamus gives you a look of extreme aspiration, and pulls one of the duffel bags out of the truck.

Glory blinks in surprise. "Whoa, seriously?"

Seamus opens the front door of the truck and tries to turn the keys. The engine sputters and dies. He closes his eyes and tilts his head up at the ceiling.

*Oops. Guess the Jammer reached all the way down here.* Glory thinks to herself. She doesn't say it out loud, of course. Hopefully Seamus doesn't realize that it was her. "Must be a pretty old truck. Give me a couple of minutes, and I can probably fix it up."

Seamus doesn't visibly react. He is breathing deeply and regularly.

"I'll take that as a yes." She quickly makes her way to the front, and pops open the hood.

Silver reaches into her bag, yanking out a scalp; a few remaining leftover items, including the discarded bag, were shrunk in an overdose of Glamour and added to Seamus’ stock. Not many, all things considered, but some.

Glory pulled out a couple of tools out of her pack, and began working on the van. As she did so, a frown came over her face. "Did the gremlins work on your car while they were here as well?"

"So far as I can tell, the only one who's fucked up my truck is you."

"Cause I'm seeing a few gremlin-like modifications on here. Not anything major that can slow me down, but it's strange." She then closed the hood back down again. "Okay, it should be good to run now. Let's go."

"I am going. If you are coming, you should get in the truck." Alornerk swoops down from the rafters and latches on to the vehicle's roof.

Silver got in.

Glory followed in. "Okay, I think I got a good idea of what Stella sent onto you. It's a Spammer. It pings off its victim's Connections constantly once they latch on. It must've caught hold of you through the Trojan Worm's Connections it took from you before Ronald took it down." She sat down next to Silver.

"We need to get as far from here as possible, and meet back up with my van. As long as it's still latched on, everyone with a Connection to you is going to know your rough location. I can remove it, but the equipment I need is back in my van."

Seamus crouches and starts fiddling with a bundle of something. "Please stop speaking as if you're giving me directions."

Glory looked down at her phone again. "Shatbraggart and the others are waiting for us on the outskirts of town. It shouldn't take too long to get there, as long as there isn't more in our way."

There is a large thump upstairs. People whoop in the distance. The entire building shakes. Soil crumbles off the walls. Seamus is still fiddling with the bundle.

Silver reaches into her bag, pulling out something slippery and shiny, and starts feeding Glamour into it. "Got anything to keep this vehicle intact, Glory?" Silver asked. "I don't think I can make this last through more'n one hit, even if it should technically handle two, if I try and use it to cover the entire truck."

"The only thing I can do with what I have right now is keep the engine running, if it goes out again." Glory just shrugged. "Other than that, just gotta hope this thing's fast enough to avoid any more hits till we reach the others."

Silver sighs, but shrugs. She starts stretching the shiny thing carefully, feeding in more Glamour.

Seamus very carefully places the bundle down next to some barrels, grabs a jerry can, and sloshes gasoline over them. He rather hurriedly returns to the truck and tries to turn the keys again. The engine roars to life, although it doesn't sound healthy as engines go.

The garage door starts to open.

"Are you blowing up the house?" Silver sounds delighted.

"You planning on leaving this town for good?" Glory asks.

"They're not taking what's mine. Not if I can help it." Seamus sounds considerably less than delighted.

The garage door slides up, and up, and is soon open for a truck; there's the sound of stomping feet above, and a sound like the trapdoor slamming open.

Seamus floors the accelerator. The truck skids out of the weird tunnel-garage-thing and onto the hill. You hear a crackling noise behind you.

Glory holds on tight, trying not to fall out of the truck as it speeds down the hill.

There is no more crackling noise. There is an earth-shattering kaboom. Your eardrums pop almost immediately, and for a long while all you think you'll be able to hear is the ringing, punctuated by the occasional bang of munitions cooking off.

Seamus brings the truck around the hill, heading for the hole in the wall the van came through. It's pandemonium. There's goblin parts everywhere. It's hard to tell who won, but the local practitioners are still around. A few of them are running from the house, a few of them are crouched down by what used to be their trucks. Three cars that weren't previously there have pulled up. You recognize one tall, red haired man standing there slack-jawed.

The fat boogeyman from before is standing in the middle of the hole in the wall. Seamus doesn't appear to be slowing down.

The truck slams into the fat bogeyman. He rolls onto the hood of the truck, over the windshield, and over into the back of the truck, where all of Seamus's stuff, and Glory and Silver were sitting in. It lands right in front of the pair. It then looks up, and momentarily makes eye contact with the both of them.

Its face is a rictus grin, and it's eyes are full of mirth. "Youuuuuu left me there," it rasps.

Glory pulled out her shotgun, and fired into his face.

Most of its head is punched in by the impact. There's surprisingly little blood. Most of it appears already clotted, its innards weirdly pale. It's as if it's been dead for a long while.

Nevertheless, the impact knocks the thing off balance. It rolls off the back of the truck. As the party continues to drive away into the night, you can see the mostly-headless thing start to stand up.

"That's disgusting," Silver remarked. Silver raised her voice; "You got a direction in mind there, Seamus, or can we tell you the way to our van?"

"You're not going to the van yet," you hear him yell from the driver's seat. "You're binding this goddamn spammer before the rest of the locals show up!"

"I can't do that with just a phone!" Glory yells back over to him, holding her phone up. "That could take hours! My computer is back in my van! Take us there, and I should be able to remove it in half an hour!"

There is a moment of silence. "Where is the van?"

Glory looked down at her phone. "The last message from Shatbraggart says they parked somewhere southwest of town. I'll message them for more specific coordinates..." her words then trailed off, as her eyes then widened.

"I don't have a signal. But that shouldn't be right, I should always have signal. Something's blocking me." She then gritted her teeth. "Stella."

"How much time would it take to make the Spammer latch onto someone who isn't me instead?"

"Depends on how determined it is to stick onto you, and how deep it's claws are onto you. Since it was sent by Stella, I would say it's probably hella determined. And since it had latched on through a Trojan Worm, I would say it's claws are pretty deep in you. Maybe take about two hours, probably more with just a phone."

She looks back over to Seamus. "Shatbraggart said they were in the southwest point of town. If we can to their general area, and get close enough to them, I think I can strengthen the signal enough to be able to pinpoint where exactly where they are."

Seamus turns Northwest.

Glory not having a compass in hand, did not notice they were heading in the opposite direction. Instead, her attention was directed to their surroundings. Her eyes narrowed, as she began to frantically look around.

"Hey, didn't we pass by this street already?" She said, sounding a bit more panicked.

Seamus stops the truck. You hear him punch the dashboard in frustration.

Silver steps out of the truck, glancing around; she tilted her head, considering. A gunshot sounded, too close; Silver flipped off that direction and there was a bright, silver wolf of blades. She leapt away in a blur, and in the dark Glory can't see what she does - but someone screams, and then Silver's jumping back into the truck. She's covered in blood and looks like she got into a tussle with Erectus, covered in apple muck and vines. "That should be that broken," Silver said, shaking herself like a dog. She laughs brightly. "Feel like driving some more, War Mage?"

Seamus has exited the vehicle. He is using a small brush and can of white paint he's pulled out of his backpack to paint a diagram on to the back of his left hand.

A bird flies over him, and a wet drop of poop plops onto the back of his left hand. A number of them began to fly over them, and droppings began raining down on them all.

Seamus bends over to shelter his hand, and continues drawing the diagram. He doesn't seem particularly upset about being pelted with shit. You think. He doesn't exactly wear his emotions on his sleeve.

When it's done, Seamus cups his hand, raises it to his mouth, and yells astonishingly loudly.

**"MEMBERS OF THE COURT OF THE BRIGHT SPRING; HEED MY WARNING. I HAVE BARGAINED WITH ONE OF YOUR COURT'S HIGHEST AUTHORITIES.  I HAVE BEEN PROMISED THAT, SHOULD MEMBERS OF THE COURT INTERFERE WITH CERTAIN BUSINESS BETWEEN MYSELF AND THE PRACTITIONER SEATED IN MY TRUCK HERE, I WOULD BE FREE TO USE THE MEANS AT MY DISPOSAL TO PREVENT FURTHER INTERFERENCE. YOUR MARQUIS HAS ASSURED ME THAT, IN DEFENDING THIS BUSINESS, I WILL NOT FACE RETALIATION FROM THE COURT."**

He pauses to inhale.

**"THE MEANS AT MY DISPOSAL ARE BINDING AND VIOLENCE. HAVING ISSUED THIS WARNING, I SEE NO REASON TO DISPLAY MERCY TO ANY OF YOU I CATCH."**

The birds disappear, very rapidly. Silver blinks, tilting her head; if Glory uses Sight her eyes are amber, she's a touch furred. "Oh my. ... So that's what it smells like when there aren't forty nine Fae keeping an eye on us. I'd forgotten."

Up ahead, Glory could see a section of the street, one they haven't gone down yet. "Yeah, I've been missing that smell for a while now."

"Instead, things seem to mostly smell like goblins."

"And bird poop." Glory smiles back at her."Just how I like it."

A stray bullet bounces off Seamus's face. He rather hurriedly climbs back into the truck.

"Van?" Silver sounds hopeful.

"Yeah, we are headed toward it, right?" Glory asks.

"Eventually." Seamus continues driving north-west.

"... So where are we currently going?"

"Around."

"Wait, we're taking the long way around?"

There's no response.

Silver starts scrubbing blood and apple gunk off herself.

They continued driving off to the northwest, quietly riding along, until they eventually reached the outskirts of town. Soon, they are surrounded by trees everywhere around them. Dark clouds came over, and rain began to wash down over them, obscuring their sight, as if it already wasn't before.

Seamus turns, following the outskirts. It appears that he's planning to circle the town until you get to the van, albeit from the opposite direction you'd be going if he'd chosen to follow simple instructions.

The group drives down the darkened road ahead. As they make their way through the night, Silver just barely hears something making a beeping sound in her bag, over the harsh rain pouring onto them.

Silver opens it, looking in - what?

Oh.

"Gremlin trap!" Silver's voice pitches up, Glamour offering clarity. "There's a fucking gremlin trap!"

"Does that mean stop the truck?"

And at that, they all suddenly hear something make a popping sound under the truck, as it begins to veer off the wet dirt road, and into the dark of the forest.

Seamus, calmly and deliberately, steers into several small trees.

Out from the other side of the road, a firework shoots up, lighting up the raining sky above them. The sound of war horns then echo out throughout the forest all around.

Seamus steps out of the truck. A firearm that appears to be homemade appears in his hands. Alornerk flaps off into a nearby tree.

Silver peers out, cautious, one of her swords in hand.

Glory also looks around, with her shotgun in hand. The Gremlin Detector in Silver's hand doesn't stop beeping. But a few minutes pass, and nothing seems to be coming for them. All around them, there's just darkness and rain.

"They're gremlins," Glory growled. "They're not going to fight us head on. They want to lure us into their traps."

Seamus speaks. His voice has a strange quality to it, almost as if it's utterly unaffected by the background noise of the rain or the horns. "You came here to do me harm. I am here. I am waiting. Come hurt me, if you think you're hard enough. If you don't, flee, and let your weakness be Known."

"They might not even be anywhere near around us. Does that still work if they can't hear it?" Glory whispers.

"They'll hear."

Out in the darkness, Glory then see's something shifting toward them. Something big. As she narrows her eyes to make it out of the dark and rain, a strange and yet familiar sound then comes from it. She then remembers and realizes it from when they faced Ted on the bridge, before her arm and leg were crushed.

"Everyone run!" She jumps out of the way as the explosive rocket flies toward the truck.

Seamus does not run.

Slippery, shiny, woven from a story of legend - Silver is the protective sort. It’s not as flashy as it should be. The narrative just... arranged itself differently, and the slippery thing in Silver’s hands is gone.

The rocket launcher smashes into a tree and explodes, sending splinters everywhere. The remnants of it smash on Seamus.

The large figure growled and roared in anger. Lightning flashed across the sky, and Silver and Alornerk could make out who it was. The Armored Gremlin, the same that fought alongside Stella in Greenesville. standing in waiting behind it, was a large group of gremlins.

It growled at them, and threw aside the empty rocket launcher in its hands. It then barked something out to the gremlins behind it, and they could see them carrying another launcher towards it.

"You used your gun. It's only fair if I use mine." Seamus reaches into the back of the truck and pulls out a strangely damp, ornate firearm. At least, you think it's a firearm. It makes a musket look cutting edge.

He points it at the large gremlin, and fires. Well, try to, anyway. The mechanism clicks, but there's no noise, no flash. Suddenly, the two of them are soaked to the bone. Gallons of water start pouring out from underneath Seamus’s clothes, and the gremlin's armor. Suffice to say, everything on their persons that can't survive being dunked in the ocean, hasn't.

Silver disappears into the forest. Even Glory isn’t entirely sure where she is. She hasn’t changed her shape, but... she’s not in view.

The Armored Gremlin growls, and throws away the launcher. It then speaks, in a deep and raspy voice:

*"I accept your challenge, War Mage. I shall Hunt you, and your allies.*

He then points into the dark of the forest. "There, your ride awaits, just miles from here, untouched by me or my horde. All of you reach it alive, and I shall accept my defeat, and leave you. For fairness, only I shall hunt you. The horde will only watch, as you all will suffer.

Seamus takes a moment to think before answering. "Ok."

He turns and legs it. It's... not natural, how fast he can run.

The Armored Gremlin smiles under his helm, as he runs away, and he turns and fires a rusty arrow out from his gauntlet - but not at Seamus. Watching from the dark, behind a tree, the arrow pierces through the tree Glory was hiding behind, and into her body.

She cries out in pain, and coughs up blood as the Armored Gremlin charges toward her.

For a moment there’s nothing in the way, and then there’s Silver slipping into the gremlin’s path, and then there’s a wolf - she only scratches the armour, but she still trips the giant thing up, even as she is forced to withstand its weight. Then she changes shape again, human and quick, into the trees and the dark.

The arrow is lodged in the tree and Glory's body at once, pinning her to it. The tip of the arrow had opened up into the clump of hooks and blades, preventing her from pulling her body out of it. She desperately tries to yank the arrow out of the tree as the Armored Gremlin quickly picks himself back up and continues heading toward her.

There's a burst of gunfire from the direction of Seamus's truck. He's circled back. Bullets ping off the armored gremlin's face. It has to raise a hand to shield its eyes.

"Glory! Get the van rolling. Get it to come here!"

Silver is fast in dark and shadow, and she beats the gremlin to her partner. Swords slice through the knife and Silver does something - something, that ends with Glory in her saddle with a shallow slice along her leg. "Saddle has all my stuff in its bags, if you want the wound-tape," Silver remarks, watching the gremlin. Silver can't see in this shape - the world is a web of Connections, tracked by scent-sight. She still isn't familiar enough yet not to be clumsy in confined spaces, where the Connections are both slight and many - she circles back to the truck herself, this open space.

Glory makes a sound of agreement, and uses the wound tape. She pulls out the arrow still stuck in her, as well as her injury. She looks down at her phone - still no signal - and scowls. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the Armored Gremlin reached into a hollowed out tree, and pull something out.

Grenades. It pulls the pins off of several of them at once, and throws them with a strong toss at the wheels of the truck, near where Glory and Silver were.

There is a sudden, massive gust of wind. The grenades roll backwards.

Seamus has taken off his jacket, and is waving it in the breeze. It now sports a freshly painted set of air runes. His ward tattoos are noticeably fainter.

The grenades went off, away from the truck - but near Silver's feet.

Silver's ears flick, and she tenses, then leaps; the grenades explode, sending shrapnel and heat and force up into her. There are cracking noises, and Silver lands hard on top of the truck with a snarl.

Seamus can see that Silver's legs are semi-melted, but she's... repairing herself, staggering, shrapnel being incorporated into her body. "I'm assuming the van isn't coming to us right now," Silver murmurs. She looks at the forest, and growls; she hops down behind the van. "Can I put you down now, Glory?"

"Yeah," she hops down from Silver's back. "I still don't have a signal. Stella is still blocking me. I can lead us to van through my Connection to it. It leads through the forest."She then points into the wet darkness of the forest.

"We can't wait here forever." She glances over the Armored Gremlin, equipping new weapons and tools that weren't soaked in salty water. "We're goddamn sitting ducks here."

"So call your goblin's name three times. Allegedly, you're a practitioner." There's another burst of gunfire.

"Oh. Yeah." Glory said. She takes a deep breath. "Shatbraggart, get your ass over here! Shatbraggart, get over here, you lazy fuck! Shatbra-"

She's cut off to cough and throw up from a yellow cloud that suddenly appeared over them The Armored Gremlin threw stink bombs, and powerful ones at that, at them. The gremlin horde, still around, cheered for it, and jeered them.

Silver, still a wolf... seemed mostly irritated by it. With a growl, she jumped, clearing the truck-forest gap, and then the silver metal vanished into the forest again.

An engine roars, and Seamus' truck slams into the big gremlin. There's nobody in the driver's seat. Seamus has just wedged a rock onto the accelerator. The truck tips over, spilling weaponry and knicknacks onto the forest floor. The waiting gremlins descend on the stuff.

Seamus runs into the forest, cursing under his breath. They never told him where the fucking van is.

Glory runs after them. "The van's this way! Just keep running! Don't hit any traps!"

They all run into the dark forest, just barely keeping themselves within view of each other. Glory could already hear the traps being set off all around them.

Seamus steps forward, and plummets several meters onto a pile of broken glass coated in what is probably goblin feces as the forest floor gives way.

Another firework shoots up. A way to keep track of where their prey might be. Glory runs over to the pit, and takes out one of her goblins weapons. It transforms into a long barbed chain, which Glory drops one end down into the pit. "Grab on! I'll pull you up!"

Seamus grabs on. His face appears to doubt a woman who has recently been impaled can lift him.

Glory, maybe, maybe not. But there's a flicker of silver metal, blades amidst the trees and Silver is crouched at Glory's side, curled protectively around her, lightly nosing her. Strength passes through the bond quite easily, capability - metaphors are Silver's stock in trade, and frankly, a car-sized wolf can carry Seamus without any difficulty.

"We can't outrun it, not as long as there are still so many traps in our way." Glory then took out her Canteen of Piss, and began spitting out goblins. "You guys got anything on you that can slow it down? Buy us some time?"

Seamus pulls a coil of barbed wire out of his backpack. He squeezes it, hard, digging deep into the flesh of his palm. "Gremlin. The big one, with the armor. Make it hurt. You demonstrate to me that you can follow instructions, might I let you hunt again, if the situation calls for it. Disappoint me, I send you back to the Abyss your parts come from before it kills me."

You can't see what's released from the barbed wire in the gloom. That's probably for the best. You catch a glimpse of too many limbs, too many mouths. Awd Goggie scuttles off into the woods.

"Can it beat it?" Glory asks. "My rough estimation for the Armored Gremlin is mid-tier, maybe upper level."

"Lower mid tier," Silver murmurs. "I remember Leer. Lower."

"That thing was purpose-built to cripple the denizens of the spirit worlds of two entire towns." Seamus spits. "It shouldn't be allowed to exist. I don't know if it can kill it, but it can make it hurt. About as bad as it's possible to hurt."

"Okay. One more thing." She turns toward the two of them. "Every time we set off a trap, it shoots off a firework to signal the gremlin of where we are. Even if it's slowed down, it could still catch up to us fast if it knows where we are."

She then gestures out to something on the ground. A clump of grass, tied into a knot. "Goblins can just as easily trigger their own traps as their targets. So, they leave markers. I can tell you what they look like, and if we're careful enough, we can get through to the van without triggering any traps. Just follow me."

Silver's her Familiar shape again, human and easy. Despite her pink clothes and the silver in her hair she seems to fade in the gloom. "I'll follow you nearly anywhere," Silver tells Glory.

Glory nods, and glances over to Seamus.

"Move."

And so, they move forward. Behind them, they could hear the roars of a clash of two powerful beings colliding against one another. They hurried forward.

Glory tells them of how to identify Gremlin Markers on the way, quickly explaining and using examples as they trudge through the treacherous forest. They still triggered a few a couple times early on, but Silver and Seamus were quick learners. After half an hour of walking, they were soon able to notice and identify almost all traps that they came across.

Eventually, they came across something unexpected. The corpse of a Faerie, brutally skewered on three spears that shot out of the ground. "I guess a couple of them decided to follow us in." Glory murmured.

"Don't touch the body. I don't trust them much more dead than I do alive."

Glory doesn't recognise the emotion that very, very strongly hits the bond, but its clamped down before she can try, disappearing from Glory's thoughts. Silver ducks away from the corpse, keeping the other two between her and it. "Not planning on it." She eyes the way back warily.

Glory glances over to Silver. "You alright there? You think Grey would be pissed at his folks getting skewered like this?"

"I'll manage. I imagine he'll be pissed." Silver's tone is harsh. "Can we get a move on now?"

Glory nods. "Let's go."

And so, they continued on. Off in the distance, every now and then, they hear more fireworks going off. And every now and then, then comes across the body of another Faerie.

After a while, they begin to hear more fireworks in the distance. As they keep going, the sound of fireworks become more consistent, despite them not setting any traps off. Eventually, they all start to come to the same conclusion:

- By now, the Faeries probably should have realized not to enter into the forest anymore.

- Most of the fireworks are being set off from the same direction.

- That direction is where the town is at.

Glory quickly pops a goblin ear into her mouth, and chews. She listens in, far in the distance, past the rain, to hear something: Voices. The townsfolk were here.

The feeling slithers back up with every corpse they encounter, and despite Silver's desperate attempts at repression, it comes through pretty clearly. Hunger.

"I think it's time to pick up the pace," Glory says. "We've got company coming."

They hurried forward. They ended up setting off a few more traps, but Glory could hear the townsfolk, and Natalie's voice gaining on them. Up ahead, Silver and Seamus could make out a figure, suddenly now standing before in their way: The fat bogeyman was back.

Silver snarled, and apparently frustrated hunger was now just anger. Human to wolf, she leapt... but before hitting she changed back, human diving past in a roll to avoid whatever it was doing. Then the wolf-shape was back and she swiped out with her claws for its legs.

The boogeyman's flesh gives way surprisingly easily. It's fairly putrefied. It doesn't turn into chunks, but huge portions of the body's outer layers are abraded away under the force of a car-sized collection of blades slamming into it.

The boogeyman tries to get back up. It's not really possible with most of its tendons severed, most of its bones broken by the sheer weight of the impact, and most of its muscles only connected to the main body by ribbons.

Silver stomps it into the floor viciously. "It is entirely reasonable to ignore a corpse who I believe to have attacked a friend," she snaps at it. "If you wanted to stay intact, maybe you shouldn't have chased us you little shite." With a snarl Silver turns away again, sniffing at the air; how much further to the van?

The boogeyman gurgles wetly in what you assume is protest, but it doesn't really have vocal cords anymore. Or lungs that aren't punctured in half a dozen places.

They weren't too far. The van was only a few more minutes away.

With her enhanced hearing, Glory could hear gunshots being fired from Natalie's group, as well as the war cries of dozens of goblins colliding against one another. "Sounds like Natalie's group is occupied, for now at least. We're almost there."

As Glory began to move forward, she then paused. She doesn't hear the Armored Gremlin among those that are fighting. And that many gremlins would charge at them if commanded. Which, likely means -

Grenades were then scattered out of the dark, cluttering around at all of their feet. It was here.

Silver's ears flick; she's familiar with the sound of grenades, now, but she still can't see them, and she most certainly can't afford to change back and find out where they are.

Seamus is closest. But Seamus is warded. He never moved when she poked at him. He can see, anyway.

Silver leapt without another moment of consideration, slicing through several tree branches as she retreats to try and put herself between Glory and the grenades.

(She was probably going to have to abandon this shape in a moment. Again. Silver hated healing this shape.)

The grenades go off. There's a deafening bang, and Silver could feel the swords in her back shattering from the explosion. As the explosion cleared, Glory coughed, and looked past the cloud of smoke to see the Armored Gremlin back, armed with a grenade launcher in one hand, and a flame thrower in the other. It's attention was turned to Seamus, as it aimed both at him, and fired.

The backwash of pain went across the bond vividly before Silver abandoned her true shape for her Familiar bond, falling to one knee and gasping. The pain mutes to almost nothing for Glory. It's too dark to see the blood staining the back of her shirt.

The grenade redirects off him, exploding somewhere in the forest behind him. Seamus is engulfed in flames. The burning liquid slides off the wards and onto the ground. He trips, and collides head first with the van.

The Armored Gremlin glared at Seamus at the van, and then turned its attention to Glory and Silver. The Challenge was that everyone had to reach the van. As long as one of them died, victory was theirs.

It aimed, and showered the forest in flames, creating a wall of fire between Glory and Silver, and Seamus and the van. It then carefully began to aim the grenade launcher toward them, before Glory frantically pulled out a jammer and shut it down. The Gremlin throws his weapons to his side in frustration, and charges at them with a rusty knife in hand.

Silver hissed, and dug her gloves into her skin; she cut through, bringing up blood, and reached deeper, and pulled out one, single, snowflake. It was absolutely soaked in blood, and Silver threw it in the direction of the van, coming up with a flurry of snowflakes that rapidly turned to water. "Hate doing this," she muttered, and yanked on Glory, tugging her into motion to just go straight through the damn fire.

It would still burn, but a little bit of winter, a little bit of cold, would get them through it without severe injury.

They landed right in front of the van. Glory glanced up, and saw the Armored Gremlin. already charging through the flames toward them. They quickly picked themselves up, and threw themselves against the side of the van.

At the moment of contact, the Armored Gremlin paused. It glared at them in rage and anger through its eye slits.

"By the terms of your challenge, give up and fuck off."

The Armored Gremlin glared at him, and skulked back off, through the flames, and back into the dark of the forest. Glory and Silver were both breathing heavily from their injuries, Silver especially.

"We made it." Glory let out with a sigh of relief.

Immediately Followed by: Seamus Roasts Glory