Chapter 70 – Action Part 2

Melody and Chrissi had found another agent patrolling the building and had dragged him into quiet corner.

“Where is our stuff?” Melody held the flame from her welding enchantment precariously close to the man’s face.

“You have to do better than that.”

“Yea… no. I enjoy a good interrogation but we don’t have the time for this. Kuria?”

“How far do you want me to go?” Kuria answered using Chrissi’s voice.

“Maybe don’t kill him, but honestly? Even if you do while extracting what we need, I really don’t care.”

“I will see what I can do.” Kuria put Chrissi’s hand on the agent’s head as Melody withdrew the flame.

The agent gasped for air a few times before tipping over.

“He isn’t dead, don’t worry. Last he knew, they haven’t picked through our stuff, just threw it into a crate to take home. It’s all in the reception office on the ground floor.”

“Should we leave him here?”

“As long as we tell whoever is currently arriving to rescue us. Someone is teleporting right in front of the building.”

“Let’s go meet them then.”

Chrissi shuddered. “Wow that’s weird. Feeling yourself talk like that with someone else in your head. Even more weird that it’s weirder than Kuria moving me… Anyway… you’re right, let’s go.”

“I lived with that for a bit over ten years, you get used to it. Can be quite relaxing, or in Anne’s case a bit kinky.”

“I can imagine both… yea.”

Superintendent Clementine Muller, several heavily armed RICA agents, Famine and Thrasir, both in heavy armour, had just teleport to the building Melody and Chrissi were currently attempting to escape.

Clementine glanced around. “Been a while since I did this… especially with demons at my side. Suggestions?”

Thrasir grimaced. “I go in there and kill everyone who tries to put their hands on my girl. Famine redirects all teleport attempts right in front of your guns. If there is anyone left crawling out of here once I am done, you can have them.”

“That’s certainly a plan. I won’t get in your way, have fun, we will be here.”

“Good. Famine?”

Famine nodded and Thrasir drew her blade. One moment to breathe passed before Melody’s mother cleaved through the front door.

Melody and Chrissi made their way through the hallways of this old industrial building and down the stairs in the back. Every time they found another agent, Kuria reached out magically, made them discard their weapon and incapacitated them. Only once one actually surprised them. He didn’t live very long with Melody’s snap reaction being a plasma welder to the face.

They paused and hurried into cover in the nearest room the moment they heard the inevitable: screaming, shooting and human bodies being slammed against various objects.

Melody peeked around the corner. Something about this massacre felt familiar. “Ma?”

The fighting suddenly stopped and Thrasir walked back into the hallway, dragging a human in a suit with her. “Melody!” She discarded the half-conscious man to rush towards her daughter for a hug.

“Hey Ma.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, but I’m also not the one to worry about.”

“Christina Brooks?”

Chrissi nodded. “Yes, that’s me. You must be one of Melody’s mothers. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“I wish it was under better circumstances. Are you okay?”

Chrissi shook her head. “Rattled, feeling a bit dizzy, I don’t know what they put in my coffee… but Kuria has kept me standing.”

“Then we get you both out of here.”

“Thank you. They still have our stuff, it’s in a crate in one of the rooms near the front door.”

“We can get it on the way, there is no one else alive back there. Are there other enemies still alive upstairs?”

Melody nodded. “Yes, but one let me go. He might cooperate if we give him that choice.”

“Then I will advise Clementine to just take them as prisoners. Christina, you mentioned Kuria?”

Chrissi nodded. “She is here. It’s weird, she is in my head.”

“A good place for her to be right now. Let’s get out of here and let RICA clean up.”

With RICA heading into the building, Chrissi, Melody and Kuria, in her separate body, were sitting on the pavement outside. Thrasir had conjured water and small biscuits for them.

“I should call Malice to check on you, Christina. Are you okay with being treated by a demon? I could also just ask RICA to find someone.”

Chrissi shook her head. “It’s fine… if you just want someone to make sure I’m okay, doesn’t matter if they’re demon or human.”

“Good, hold on.” The old demon conjured a paper, wrote down a few words and teleported it away. Malice arrived only moments later.

“I heard there is a rattled human?”

Chrissi waved. “Hey.”

“Oh dear they really bumped you on the head. How are you feeling?”

“A bit dizzy.”

“That makes sense, anything else?” Malice crouched down before her patient.

“I don’t know, it just all feels sore. I’m sorry I can’t be more specific.”

“That’s okay. May I touch you? I can tell what’s wrong by touching people.”

“Whatever you need to do, just do it.”

“Alright.” Malice gently put her hand on Chrissi’s. “They made you ingest something that rendered you unconscious. I can cleanse that from your body easily and heal the haematomas. You were tied up, right?”

Chrissi just nodded.

“And tossed around a bit on the way here. You will need some rest after this, the best way to feel better after being healed is a good nap.”

“Hm.”

“You don’t want to be alone, right?”

“No, not if there is a way for a guard to be there.”

“I can guard you myself if that helps, just need to make sure Melody is alright too.”

“That would be nice.”

“Then we have a plan. Now let’s heal you properly.”

Anne was practically glued to Melody the moment she, Kuria and Thrasir arrived in the apartment. Valefor had come by too after a few minutes.

“And you are really alright?”

Melody chuckled. “Yes, I’m really alright. Malice made sure of that.”

“Not that Malice can stop me from nursing you back to perfect health.”

“I am perfectly healthy.”

Anne pouted playfully. “Not until I made sure of that.”

“Got me there.”

Valefor shook her head in amusement. “We will give you room to find that out after dinner, but we would like to remain here for the night, just to make sure that everything is fine.”

Anne nodded. “Yes please! We need someone here until Famine confirms that everything is safe again.”

“Here or at our place? Not the one in Hell.”

Melody looked at Anne. “Everything is like it was when we moved out. Would be nice and nostalgic and very safe.”

Melody’s egg mate pondered her options for a moment and then committed. “Only if we do it like one of the first times I was over. We order from that one restaurant in Hell, get all the nice things to share, and play some Heroes afterwards. Just like the old days.”

Valefor nodded approvingly. “The old days from three years ago. Sounds like a great plan, let’s do that. You should pack some stuff, like clothes for tomorrow. We have plans.”

“Plans?” Kuria raised an eyebrow.

“Yes. Did you really not pay attention to the thing happening right under your nose? It’s the last weekend of October, this city celebrates it with a medieval fantasy town faire and the librarians are deeply involved with that. We wouldn't want to miss it.”

“Right, and Halloween is on Thursday. I forgot about all that in the chaos.”

“Good thing we didn’t. Let’s have a fun day tomorrow, maybe invite your parents too, Anne. Just like the old days.”

Anne nodded giddily. “Just like the old days, yes! Perfect!”