SHN 10.12: The End

Star Harbor Nights is an ongoing serial anthology. Visit www.starharbornights.com to get the whole story.1

"Kill Bishop O'Halloran? I threw him out a window and he was treated for shock," Pamela said. "He's invulnerable... not nigh-invulnerable. Not partially invulnerable. The real deal."2

"He's invulnerable because of a spell. We break the spell, then we kill him," Dani said.3

"Young lady, the 'spell' that you're talking about is a ritual of the highest m-magnitude," Alcheman said. "It's not something that young er, Pussywillow here can just say a few, a few magic words and, and... undo."4

"Alcheman?" Perfect asked, concerned.5

"It's n-nothing. My patch is, is running out," he explained as his stammer began to creep back. "I've been o... overu... relying on it too much lately. Growing t... tolerant."6

"In that case, save your next dose," Perfect said. "You should make sure it'll be able to work full strength if you need to do any chanting. Anyway, I think Dani's judgement might be a little clouded..."7

"Clouded?" Dani repeated angrily.8

"...but she's got the right basic idea. We need to go on the offensive. I'm going to e-mail copies of my files to the district attorney, Department 4B, the archdiocese, and all the media outlets. We need to shut Bishop O'Halloran off from official support... right now, if we make any move against him, we're the bad guys. He doesn't even have to fight back."9

"That's the plan?" Dani asked. "A spam attack? This guy killed my family!"10

"He killed a lot of families," Perfect said. "He's going to kill a lot more if he wins, so we've got to keep our heads. Oh my God... Jessica!"11

Jessica Powers was standing silently in the doorway. She was pale, her hair frazzled. Her body quaked in the aftershocks of excess adrenaline. 12

"I need a doctor," she said. "Downstairs, right now."13

"I'm a d-d-d...," Alcheman stuttered.14

"I'm a healer," Dandy added. "What is it?"15

"Lily," Jessica said.16

At the mention of her sister in trouble, Dandy and Willow rushed from the conference room, almost bowling Jessica over where she stood. Alcheman and Perfect followed close behind. What they saw downstairs in the living room was sickening.17

Lily Binder and her lover, policewoman Stacy Bishop, lay broken, bloody, and unmoving on the floor where Jessie had gently telekinetically lifted them, carefully buffering their bodies so as not to exacerbate the internal injuries she knew they both had.18

"Oh, s-s-sweet mer-merciful..." Alcheman said, clamping a hand over his mouth as his bile rose.19

"Lily!" Dandy cried, anguished. She ran to her fallen sister's side and immediately laid on her hands, applying her innate healing gifts, taking her own strength and transforming it into healing energy. Alcheman took the other woman, rubbing pungent unguents on her body and administering a potion between her lips. "Oh, who did this to them?"20

"She... did it to Lily," Jessica said, nodding towards the unconscious body of Stacy. "And I did it to her... couldn't help it. I felt everything. For months. She'd been controlling. She snapped... started beating her. Kept her drugged. Mental torture. Oh, God, I need to lie down."21

Jessica slumped into the soft, overstuffed couch, her head in her hand.22

"That's not possible," Dandy denied, even as her mind ran to the inconsistencies in Lily's injuries following the fight at the Astro Center, and her behavior since then. "She's my sister... we're triplets. Womb mates. I would have known."23

Jessica felt too weak to argue. Her mind felt like an open wound, and it hurt even more to keep everything she'd felt inside of her. She answered the only way she could... she opened up, and let everybody present bathe in the lingering memories of Lily's emotional pain. She felt slightly better after having done so, as if she'd released the pressure built up within her mind.24

Willow hissed and spat at Stacy's prone form. For a long moment, everyone was silent, and then Dandy spoke.25

"I should have seen  it... Stacy Bishop," Dandy said. "Get it? Bishop! She's the bishop's agent."26

"No," Jessica said, shaking her head. "She isn't."27

"No, it makes sense," Dandy said. "She must have used evil magic, which is why Lil didn't fight her... didn't try to contact us, let us know what was happening."28

"No," Jessica repeated. "I can see her mind, okay? She's... she's sick and she's wrong, but she's... that's all she is. Just wrong."29

"But there has to be a reason... it just doesn't make any sense!"30

"Of course it doesn't!" Jessica yelled back, jumping to her feet. "It's completely senseless, okay? The whole thing is senseless! It's ugly and brutal and it makes no sense!"31

Whatever reply Dandy might have made was drowned out by a sound like ringing thunder. All eyes turned to the foot of the stairs, where Pamela stood. She'd just clapped her hands. Dani stood behind her, along with Hollywood.32

"We don't have time for this," she said. "There's a lot of stuff going on that I'm not real clear on, but this much is obvious: everyone's going crazy and so far only one person is saying anything that makes sense."33

"Thank you," Perfect said.34

"Dani's right. We need to take the bishop down."35

"What?"36

"During his big Shakespearean monologue, he said something about not being sure what would happen when the ritual was completed. It's the energy that's built up in him that makes him powerful... when the ritual's over, the energy flows out and he's just a regular guy."37

"Until his boss comes through and gives him the whole world!" Perfect pointed out.38

"But what if that doesn't happen right away?" Pamela asked. "Rory sure didn't think it would, or else he would do it already. He's worried, and that's a good thing."39

"You want to gamble everything on 'what if'?" Perfect asked, incredulously.40

"What other kind of gamble is there?" Pamela asked. "Hey, Kittylitter..."41

"Dandelion."42

"Whatever. You want to blame O'Halloran for what happened to your sister? Go right ahead... but don't sit around moping. Use it," Pamela said. "Let's do something about it. He said there was only one more church to go. I say we accelerate his schedule."43

"So we torch a church and he's vulnerable?" Dani asked.44

"The church," Alcheman corrected. "A... special one. He h-h-had them prepared, back b-before the f-first... er, fire."45

He held up a page from Perfect's print outs, a memo ordering special renovations on five churches, along with a hand drawn map of their location, with lines traced between them forming a shape that resembled a jagged irregular letter s, or the numeral 5, or possibly a snake. Four of the churches were the ones he'd already destroyed. The remaining one was the one that formed the central joint of the figure.46

"He's... here," Willow said, pointing to another point on the map. "In another church. Praying. To someone. He'll be there for a little while longer."47

"My sister, the deus ex machina," Dandy said. "She usually only does that when I hide her catnip."48

"Catnip?" Willow asked, perking up.49

"Later, Will."50

"Alright," Perfect said. "If we're doing this, we're going to do it right. Even if the doorway's only open for a little while, there's no telling what will get through it, so we need to set up a  tight containment zone. Ray, Dandy, and Pummella... you guys are all close quarters fighters so I want you near ground zero to hold... whatever... back. Where does the gate open, Alcheman? One of the sacrificed churches, or where the bishop is?"51

"I... d-d-on't know."52

"Okay, if it's going to be one of the churches, it's probably going to be the central one, the final sacrifice... or the bishop's location. We'll divide between them, but concentrate on the bishop's location... because he would be an active threat whether or not anything gets opened."53

"Okay, Perfect, you set up your teams and your perimeter however you want," Dani said, "but I want to hit the bishop. I want to take him down, and I want to do it my way."54

"Dani, that's just... that's..."55

"What, Perfect?" Ray asked. "What is it?"56

"You're right, Dani," Perfect said. "It's got to be you who takes on the bishop. It won't work any other way."57

"Okay, what am I not getting here?" Pamela asked.58

"The message... the prophesy," Perfect said. "Pamela, the bishop's prophesy didn't say that your child would kill him, it said a child would slay him as a result of your wedding."59

"So?"60

"So," Perfect said. "Dani's parents were killed at your wedding. If she kills him because of that, then that's the only way the prophesy can be fulfilled. If the Seeress really is infallible... then Dani will be, too."61

"How is Dani a child?" Ray asked skeptically. Although Dani had revealed her true age and origin to Perfect, nobody else present knew it, except possibly Raven, and she sure wasn't telling.62

"Um," Perfect hedged, "she's the child of her parents. See? It all comes together. Mindfyre, you'll be able to set off the church the quickest, so..."63

"I can't," Jessica said, the memory of what her pyrokinetic talent had almost done still fresh in her mind. "A fire that big... it's too dangerous."64

"Okay... well, I've got a few other ideas for the church. We'll keep you in reserve for the fighting, then."65

"I don't think I can do that, either," Jessica said. "I'm sorry... but I can't. My powers got away from me with Stacy. I don't want to risk that in the thick of battle. I'll help anyway that I can, but I don't want to be... I don't want to hurt anybody else."66

"Alright... can you do a communication link?" Perfect asked. "I know your range is limited and you're not used to dealing with so many minds, but... it would be really helpful to coordinate things, if it does come down to a big battle."67

"And don't these things always?" Ray asked.68

"I think so," Jessica said. The truth was, she was having a hard time not joining thoughts with everyone. She felt like the walls of her mind had been torn down, leaving her open and exposed. Under better circumstances, it might be liberating... right now, it was somewhat frightening. She pushed past her fear and unease... if it did come down to battle, she was damn well going to do her part. "Yes, yes I can."69

"Alright," Perfect said. "I think I've got our plan."70

A little more than an hour later, Bishop Rory O'Halloran was leaving St. James Cathedral, having concluded a communion of a sort very different from the one usually administered in such sanctuaries. The towering stone building was one of the largest and oldest churches still standing in Star Harbor. It had been built early in America's history, during a time when Star Harbor was an important military port and an attack by military forces was more than a distant possibility. As such, it resembled a gothic fortess, even down to the ten foot tall stone wall that surrounded its grounds... but in the spirit of modern openness, the gates had been removed from the wall long ago, leaving a large gap facing the front of the building. 71

The tall wooden double doors recessed beneath an arched overhang usually required multiple people to open them... thus they were only opened for Mass. For convenience, a regular sized door had been installed in one of them. Bishop O'Halloran emerged from this door, carefully locking it behind him.72

"O'Halloran!" a voice shouted, falling down from above. "Rory O'Halloran!"73

His eyes turned upwards, searching for the source of the sound. As the luminous winged figure drifted down into view, he found himself making the sign of the cross.74

Dani banked, her mystically constructed wings straining as the wind continued to rise. The sky was growing darker by the second, the clouds were fat and heavy with rain to the point of bursting. When she achieved a stable balance against the wind, she raised her hands up over her head and clasped them together. The glittering blue jewel on her ring shone, and then a pulse of pure blue light streaked upwards, cutting the heavens. As if in answer, the sky lit up to the south, then the east, the north, and the west; it was illuminated by brilliant flashes of lightning which raced from cloud to cloud, coalescing into a single point... directly overhead the fifth church on his diagram.75

Riding the winds, Raven had seen Dani's signal. On her mental command, the gathered power pulsed downward. The top of the church was studded with lightning rods, which the bolts slammed into eagerly, pounding them continuously, making them glow red and then white, turning them into so much hot slag which sizzled in the rain. Inside the church, Hollywood joined in, shooting twin jets of searing light from his hands, playing them all over the interior. Childhood conditioning had repressed his ability to directly create candescence to the point where he didn't believe he could do it... defeating that particular mental block had been the gift of a madman whose mind control devices had completely short circuited his training. Outside, Vine directed the shrubs and trees surrounding the church to belch forth oxygen at an accelerated rate, feeding the growing blaze. 76

The three of them alone had been dispatched to handle the church... Alcheman's best guess was that the opening would be centered on the bishop himself, and aside from being jointly best suited to starting an enormous fire, they could also travel to the other site the quickest, once they were sure that nothing was happening at their site. On the chance that Alcheman had misjudged, their raw power would have the best chance of keeping until the others arrived.77

"What are you doing?" O'Halloran yelled. As the distant church burned, he could feel the power that had built up within him rising, bubbling up from the depths of his soul to escape.78

"We're opening the gateway," Dani shouted. "Your power is gone!"79

"My power may be gone... but his power is come!"  the bishop said, cackling madly. His eyes begain to glow a sickly green. The light poured from his eyes, his mouth, and then his skin lit up. "Foolish girl, you just signed your death warrant!"80

"Actually, it's yours," Dani said. She circled once to gain more elevation, then went into a steep dive, holding her enchanted sword in front of her like a ram. She released it right before pulling out of the dive. The enchanted missile flew spear-like straight and true, impaling the bishop just below the ribcage and pinning him back against the church door. Dani circled back around and came in for a landing in front of the cathedral.81

The light continued to spread from the bishop, no longer as brilliant. It seemed to diffuse as it spread, forming a translucent green bubble around him.82

"Who are you?" the bishop croaked as she approached, stalking through the rain like an angel of vengeance "Who... sent you?"83

"There used to be a boy named Danny Harris," Dani said. She stepped into the still-expanding green light and planted a booted foot on the bishop's chest then yanked the sword out, and brought it up and in line with his heart. 84

"Wha... who?"85

"You didn't know him," Dani said. "Nobody really knew him, but he was a nice kid. You killed his parents."86

"Please!" O'Halloran pleaded. He seemed to be getting stronger again, healing by the moment. "I feel... feel him coming. So close. Just a... few minutes... and I can give you anything you want!"87

"The people you killed?" Dani asked, hope fluttering in her heart. She let the tip of her sword slip down.88

"Sacrificed... they can't be given back... but I can give you such things in return... riches... power. Your own island. Your own country."89

"You have the whole earth and I get a country?"90

"A continent... half the world!" the bishop said, he waved his hands out wide, his eyes sparkling.  "You pick which half, and you can do with it however you like!"91

"You get to be God, and you offer me real estate?"92

"You can be my archangel, or a demigod... you can be a Goddess and rule beside me! Just name it... whatever you want!"93

"I want my parents," Dani yelled, swinging her sword with both hands. The blow took O'Halloran's head off at the shoulder, sent it bouncing off the arched overhang that sheltered the entrance and rolling out to the grounds. Her sword fell from her limp hands. Her body swayed, and she collaped against the door, sobbing.94

The green light continued to expand. All around the church, on the roofs and in the street, the gathered heroes watched in sickening realization of what it portended.95

"The gate... it's still forming," Dandy cried.96

Suddenly the green light winked out, and for a moment, it seemed as if the portal had collapsed... but as it turned out, it was merely obscured from sight by the living, writhing mass that poured out of it.97

The creatures were two and three feet tall, all grossly misshapen, all unique as snowflakes. Some had two or three heads, or two mouths on one head. Some had five arms and no legs. There skin was mottled red and purple, the ugly purple of a bruise. Their jagged, crooked teeth glittered like diamonds. They unleashed a gibbering, howling chorus that competed with the sound of the still fiercely blowing wind and driving rain. Behind them came black, hairless dog-like humanoids armed with spears and swords. They were swarming out and filling the church yard, and they showed no signs of stopping.98

The first ranks made it to the break in the wall. Ray greeted them by exhaling a gout of his inner flame, which washed over them without effect. He did a handspring to avoid a thick mass of the deformed goblins, landing within arms-reach of two of the wrinkled ebon skinned warriors, who he quickly deprived of their cruelly serrated curving swords. He put the purloined blades into action quickly, first ending the lives of the stunned ex-swordsmen, then spinning and sweeping low, scything down several of the lesser creatures at a stroke.99

"Everybody hold your positions," Perfect shouted, though her speech was also being relayed by Jessica, who stood on another rooftop in the pouring rain, closed to her immediate surroundings as she mouthed the words. "Drive them back!"100

The creatures from the portal were legion, though... more and more poured forth all the time. They stepped out of the green light like bodies rising out of the water, limbs and weapons emerging first.101

Pamela was able to destroy one of the low creatures with each powerful kick and stomp of her legs, but her immense size worked to her disadvantage confronting the relatively thin stream coming out of the churchyard.102

"We have to take the battle to them," Pamela declared, and she reached up for the top of the stone wall and vaulted over, slugging her way through the smaller humanoids up to one of the newly emerged horror, a seven foot scaly yellow skinned behemoth with two heads that weilded a massive double bladed pike. With a feral growl, she grabbed both of its heads and smashed them together, crushing the twin skulls. She yelled triumphantly and set off towards the next such creature, but the malformed imps boiled over her, climbing and grasping until they pulled her down by the weight of their sheer numbers.103

The attempt to confine the creatures from the portal to the churchyard had failed... many of the smaller ones had scrambled over the ten foot high wall, and the larger ones had simply smashed through in multiple places.104

"What now?" Willow asked, from the adjacent rooftop where she had been positioned to watch.105

"We fight," Diana said. She made a gesture that might have been a roll to loosen her shoulders, or it might have been a shrug. She reached up inside the back of her coat and seemingly from nowhere pulled her gleaming katana blade. "Until they stop coming, or we do."106

"Okay," Willow said, and she pitched herself off the side of the building, falling three stories to disappear into the boiling melee below. Diana blinked in surprise, then, kissing the flat of her blade for luck, she stepped off into space and followed.107

"Ray!" Perfect yelled. He heard her three times... once as Jessica relayed her thoughts to the others, then over the communicator, and then her shout faintly echoing down the urban canyon. "Pummella's down!"108

Then, impossibly, Pamela's bellowing voice cut through the muffling weight of foebeasts and the unholy din of battle.109

"Don't call me Pummella," she yelled. Suddenly, the mass of goblinoids that had enveloped the giantess began to writhe, and then they were shed like water, many flying through the air whole or in pieces as she got to her feet. Her coat and the ill-fitting borrowed undergarments beneath it had been torn away, exposing her beautifully proportioned muscular form. She spun around, holding one of the fifteen foot giant pikes like a helicopter blade, then balancing it at the ready against her shoulder as she surveyed the gap in the battlefield she'd created. 110

"I'm Amazonne!" she cried triumphantly. She hefted her new weapon by the haft close up by one of the wickedly bladed ends and swung it with all her strength, baseball style. The fiends struck by the other end were sliced in two; the ones who got the shaft were pulped.111

"Something's coming!" Dandy shouted over the rising maelstrom.112

"Yeah, all hell," Ray yelled back.113

"No," Dandy called. "Behind us."114

"If that's the cavalry, they're right on time," Ray said. "I hate to say it, but we're losing."115

Through the sustained mental link, each hero had a picture of the whole battlefield. Although Jeroboam could very easily handle himself in close combat, he was deadliest with his enchanted guns, and so he'd taken up position well down the street, shooting into the fray, and especially any uglies the ran past the defenders to make a break for the wide world. Perfect and the Dock Shadow, mere human vigilantes, were also sniping, from opposite rooftops... Perfect with metal balls from her wrist blasters (she'd ironed out the kinks in the repeater system, limiting the need to reload) and Shadow with a device that was a hybrid of a crossbow and a machine gun.116

Dandy and Ray still fought at the ever-expanding edge of the horde, seeking to hold them back... but continuously giving up ground to avoid being surrounded.117

Willow was leaping around furiously, keeping dozens of opponents tied up as they futiley tried to strike her... more often hurting each other or themselves... but there many thousands more. The newly re-chirstened Amazonne was doing an impressive amount of damage with the battle pike, but she had chosen her battlefield where the combat was the thickest, and so the scores she downed were a drop in the ocean.118

Ever the perfect warrior, Diana had easily slain everything that came within reach of her blade, her hand, her feet, her elbows... even her forehead was a deadly weapon. At least until she found herself facing a fifteen foot giant made out of shapeless gray putty-like ooze. Its head was a smooth, formless blob, although as her sword blade cut through its trunk-like leg without lasting effect, a mouth formed long enough to laugh mockingly. Amorphous and unliving, the thing wasn't susceptible to either vibration or chi attacks. It wasn't able to score a hit on her, but it was able to keep her occupied and tied up.119

"If that's the cavalry, then guess who's the Indians," Jeroboam shouted, and he turned around and began shooting fire and thunder streaked bullets down the street in the direction of the thundering hordes. He hit and downed every target, but it was like trying to hold back the ocean. He leaped down behind the front steps of a brick apartment building, flattening his back against the concrete stairs to avoid being tampled by the oncoming assault.120

At the front of the advancing army were three score of the swift-moving Bone Lord wraiths, the only foot soldiers that the King of Bones had been able to raise and keep in the face of ongoing predation by the city's heroes. They were lead by two dozen armed skeletal figures riding spectral horses... the captains of the Bone Lords, held in reserve for this moment. Behind them marched the clanking and clunking forces of the Soul Wrecker, stone and metal automatons as well as the animated hulks of "dead" cars, outfitted with weaponry that resembled a vision of a robot fighting show from the seventh circle of hell.121

They reached the front gates just as the advancing demons spilled out. The two sides came together like freight trains. The skeletal Bone Lords waded through the the ranks, grabbed the smaller monsters and rent them apart, while the Soul Wrecker's golems engaged the larger hulking brutes. The ghostly mounts of the Bone Lord Captains galloped across the empty air, allowing them to make strafing runs at the opposing army, using their swords and axes to mow the invaders down like grass. The undead cars zoomed back and forth, running down those who tried to flee the battle.122

Although they took no care to avoid crushing or trampling the embattled heroes, they took no action to harm them, either.123

"Are they helping us?" Ray asked. 124

"Helping themselves," Jeroboam corrected. He popped back up from his cover and resumed firing at every clear target, as fast as he could fire and reload. "Anything the bishop's guy takes over, that's one less thing up for grabs."125

With a lightning burst, they received more reinforcements. Raven appeared in a shower of sparks on the edge of the melee, joining Ray and Dandy's efforts... but she fought on two fronts, smiting nearby opponents with an iron-bound club and calling lightning strike after lightning strike into the masses nearest the portal. Brilliant white light streaked overhead as Hollywood made multiple passes, raining burning death upon the monstrous creatures. In the ruined grounds of the church yard, a trampled pine tree gave entrance to Vine, who immediately began growing green thorny tentacle-like protrusions which whipped out mercilessly, clearing space around her. She worked her natural magic and shaped the earth beneath her feet into an elemental warrior, a large body of hard-packed soil which lifted her above the fray and promptly engaged several of the more giant monsters. 126

The elemental was making good headway, with Vine's vines trailing down to squeeze the life out of many creatures, until a large group of humanoids grabbed hold of one and pulled her down from her perch. Howling with sickeningly glee, they tore their claw-like nails into her green fibrous flesh, ripping and rending her limb from limb.127

"No!" Jessica shrieked in horror128

"It's okay," Vine's voice sounded in her head. "My body's not me, it's just a shell... I'll grow another one. It'll take me decades to get my tits just right, though."129

Suddenly, an ugly green cloud began to coalesce over the bottleneck at the  biggest break in the wall, and literal acid rain fell down, dissolving infernal flesh. The chemical attack was a signature of Alcheman, and signaled that another ally had arrived.130

"Maxim," Perfect thought to him, "what did you learn? How do we shut this down?"131

"The gate needs a living human to form," Alcheman projected urgently. "Until the expanding tendrils of the evil army connect the gate to the five sacrifice points, at which point it becomes stable and permanent. If Dani killed the bishop... what happened to her after that?"132

"I can see her," Pamela answered. She was fairly deep into the churchyard, where the imps were now streaming forth in such numbers that they were climbing over each other five and six deep. She had to struggle to swing her pike, but she had to keep moving in order to avoid being swamped again. When the crowd parted enough she could see the glowing gateway, the sphere of pale green light pouring out of the archway. There was a dark spot in the center of sphere, resembling slit-like pupil of a great reptilian eye. "Floating in the middle of the portal."133

"I'm going in after her," Perfect said. 134

"No!" Ray cried out. "You'll be killed before you even get close... let Raven go."135

"Focus on your fight, not me," Perfect shot back. "Raven's buried... everyone else is tied up. I can move rooftop to rooftop."136

"It's too dangerous," Ray argued.137

"We have to get her out of there!" Perfect yelled back, mentally and physically. "Shut the gate down!"138

"You can't," Alcheman replied silently. "The gateway won't give her up. The only way to close it is..."139

"No," Perfect said. "There has to be another way... the gate doesn't care who's holding it open, as long as someone is?"140

"I'm closest," Pamela thought. "I'm going for it."141

"No!" Perfect repeated. "Pamela, she's only fourteen years old!"142

"And you're only nineteen," Pamela replied. "I know what you're thinking kid, and you're right... but it's not you. Just make sure they don't put 'Pummella' on my tombstone."143

She released her grip on the great hafted weapon. The minions clinging to it were caught by surprise and fell to the ground with it, and those teeming immediately above and behind them collapsed as well. Pamela took the opportunity to charge forward through the break, lifting her long legs up high. The diamond-like teeth of the fiends left bloody scratches and tiny punctures in the surface of her skin, but she pushed through the still-unfamiliar pain. It was more like swimming uphill than fighting. 144

"Pam!" Ray howled. Through the mental link, he caught just a peripheral impression of her view, her thoughts. Just enough to know where she was heading, and what she meant to do.145

"Out of my mind, fry-boy," Pamela replied wryly. "But since I won't have another chance to say this... you were right, and thank you."146

Then, she was there, the periphery of the sphere barely five feet ahead of her. She plunged forward, stumbling over the beasts that clung to her legs, but it didn't matter... her momentum was enough to carry her forward. Her goal was in reach... until two enormous hands popped out of the edge of the light field and grabbed her outstretched arms. Two of the faceless behemoths stepped forward into reality, paying no mind to the goblin creatures squished beneath their feet. They straightened out, lifting her off the ground, and moved apart, out of the reach of her powerful kicking legs, stretching her arms out wide. Held aloft and without leverage, she was defenseless. She felt her dense body, with its extra strong ligaments and bones, being strained as it never had been before.147

"Nooooo!" she screamed, her face red with frustration and rage.148

From her rooftop perch, Perfect Jones watched it all, helpless. Before she knew what she was doing, before anybody could register her thoughts or actions over the mental link, she was moving. There was not time for caution... she leapt the gap between the buildings until she was as close to the church as she could get. She loaded her grapple line into her wrist launcher and fired it at the ledge just above the arch of the doorway. The bolo-like projection on the end spun around and looped around the arm of a saint that protruded from a relief carving. She secured the line on her end and then, gripping it tightly with her gloved hands, she slid off into the open air. This particular rope was extra-smooth edged, with a friction reducing coating designed for just this operation... the fingers in her gloves locked into place, freeing her from the need to hold on. She unlocked them just before she would have slammed into the stone overhang, dropping heavily to her feet in the doorway... in both doorways.149

The edge of the light represented a gateway to the extradimensional creatures, but it was just light to her. Looking back through it, she could see more monsters pouring out all the time. While they were still half submerged, she could actually see their bones and rotted innards... at least, for those that had them. She tore her eyes from the hideously fascinating sight... it wasn't what she'd came for.150

Suspended in the center of the spherical green area was the winged form of Dani. She floated upright, her feet a short distance above the ground,  her eyes closed and her head back, as if looking up to the heavens.151

"I hope this works," Perfect said.152

She realized that once she was accepted as the gateway's host, she'd be incapacitated as Dani was. She reached into her hip pouch and fumbled open the special compartment, pulling out the special projectile she'd been saving for field testing. It was a round ball, about an inch across, the same size as her normal wrist launcher ammo. She put it her mouth, turning it until she could feel the dimpled depression against her tongue. Then she through her arms around Dani's frozen legs and pulled. She almost fell over backwards... the girl's body moved without resistance, though it remained supported perfectly motionless in the position it was in when she stopped pulling. 153

"At least one thing's going my way," she thought.154

She kicked out the lock and pushed open the inset door. The spherical gateway extended into the church, but the evil creatures were all pouring out into the wide world where they could seek to stablize the gateway, not into the dark confines of the cathedral. She turned Dani horizontal, facing up and lowered her down to near the floor then pushed her outside the sphere of light.155

Immediately, gravity took hold and Dani fell a few inches onto her feathered back. Her eyes opened in shock. Immediately, Perfect felt limbs going dead as she was drawn up and back towards the center of the anomaly. With her last act, she tongued the switch inside her mouth. Ray's final thought floated into her mind, carrying with it a wash of warm tenderness and pure, perfect honesty.156

"I love you, perfect girl."157

Still caught up in the link, Jessica fell to the rooftop, clutching her head in pain.158

From outside the gateway, the others watched as whatever force was holding the illumination in a perfect sphere gave way, and the light drifted outward and dissipate. It wasn't like an explosion... it was more like watching the falling embers of exploded fireworks fading away. All at once, the twisted minions, the black humanoids, the two-headed reptiles, the clay giants, and the other assorted horrors seemed to deflate, falling in on themselves, crumpling like an empty container. Their deflated forms were pulled backwards in eerie silence, driven towards where they'd emerged. Even the bodies of the slain were taken. 159

It was over in surreal quickness, leaving only the trampled ruins of the church grounds and the surrounding neighborhood to prove that the battle had taken place. That, and the other combatants. The skeletons, the metal monsters, and the heroes all stood, regarding each other uneasily. Then, without a word or any warning, the skeletons faded away. A voice spoke from a speaker on the roof of the idling rusted-out hulk of an old pickup truck.160

"The battle izzz over... I claim right of zzzalvage."161

"E... excuse me one m-m-moment," Alcheman said. He peeled a two inch bandage-like patch off his forearm, then applied another, pressing it on firmly. "Ahhhh... that's better. Now, what was I going to say? Oh yes..."162

He pulled forth a reddened rod of iron from the billowing sleeve of his silk shirt and let forth a stream of incomprehensible syllables. Abruptly, all the metal automatons and undead vehicles underwent several hundred years of rust, falling into pieces and in some case, even dust. Likewise the golems and gargoyles crumbled under the onslaught of the ages.163

"That takes care of that, I suppose," he said, wiping his hands together in an effort to clean them... the artifact had also faded away into greasy red dust.164

"Perfect!" Ray yelled, running towards the church. When he reached the entrance, there was nothing there... no bishop, no Perfect. He fell to the ground, sobbing. Dani, her wings faded away into the ether from which they'd formed, stumbled out through the open door. She put her hand on his shoulder, but said nothing, for there was nothing to say.165

FINAL INTERLUDE166

On the grounds of another ruined church, the place where the champion of Hecate, Neoluna, had made her stand... the place where Dani had become a woman... the King of Bones took his first step forward onto the material plane in a very, very long time. He was not at all surprised to see the Seeress standing there, waiting for him.167

"I see you've kept your end of the bargain," he wheezed. "My freedom, in exchange for helping you turn back the exile's bid for his own. Though I never guessed the method you'd already found for breaking my imprisonment... you could have told me that this was the purpose behind the death of so many of my minions that night... the Hecatean's defilement of this church allowed the exile's ritual to be co-opted, letting my burned children act as a sacrifice that enabled me to ride along."168

"I told you what you needed to know," the Seeress said. "If you had known any more or any less, things would not have worked out the way that they needed to."169

"And now," the Bone King laughed, "I feel my captains and my remaining children coming to greet me... I shall rebuild their numbers and spread over this world like a plague."170

Out of nothingness, the wraiths of the Bone Lords and the mounted captains appeared, boldly approaching their patron. Their eyes glowed an angry red in the darkness.171

"You may want to ask them how they feel about that," the Seeress said. "They don't seem too happy to see you."172

"What?" the King gasped as the hungry, grasping bony claws reached out to him. "What are you doing? You are my children! We had a deal! I promised you eternal life!"173

"And you gave them eternal death," the Seeress said, turning and sweeping away. "Goodbye, King of Bones. We shall not see each other again."174

This story resumes November 1st, via e-mail subscriptions. 175

See www.starharbornights.com for details.176