RepoDemon - Part 2.

[xp_daytripper]

Confusion, mayhem and costumes… Sounds like Halloween to me.




***

After several intense minutes of Wanda shoving through the thinning crowd, (thankfully most were heading towards the exits) cursing the high heels and cape from her costume, she finally reached the wall. She blinked and stared at it, in shock for a few seconds. It seemed familiar somehow and yet she couldn't place it.

Her gaze went from the wall to the girl to the side of the wall, who was bent over a table with something spread out in front of her. Frowning, Wanda headed over to her, recognizing her as one of the students. Was she injured? If she was, she was going to have to get evacuated as soon as possible.

Suddenly a muffled thump could be heard from the other side and Wanda saw the girl flinch slightly. She blinked as she stopped, a foot away. Marie-Ange, from the boat house. She didn't recognize her without the bright red hair. She glanced behind her, the crowd was nearly gone but there were some stragglers, hoping to catch a glimpse of what was going on. She wasn't sure what to do with the girl or if the wall needed to stay or come down.

Marie-Ange pressed her hands down hard flat on the table. With every thump against the interior walls, it was growing harder and harder to concentrate on them. As something hit the stones, her back spasmed again and she gritted her teeth.

Wanda studied the wall for a quick second and then turned back to the remaining crowd. Whatever touched the walls, Marie-Ange felt, that was apparent. And these idiots were pressing too close. Calmly, she reached over and flipped over an empty table, pushing it towards the spectators. They jumped back, allowing her time to shove a couple of more tables and chairs between them and the wall. After glaring at them, she walked over to Marie-Ange, not sure if she was about to collapse or not but ready to catch her should she go down.

"Ms.. Maximoff?" Marie-Ange asked, voice strained. "Did you get Doug out? He's still -hurt-." She'd caught glimpses of the older woman positively herding people out of the building, but between the thumps, which felt like rocks inside her skull, and the crowd, she hadn't seen Doug leave. 'Please, God, if you are listening, after last week. Please let him be safe...'

She frowned and thought about it. "...no, I don't think I did. Unless he managed to get out when I was opening the side doors, he wasn't with the groups of people I saw leave." She'd even seen Manuel heading in the right direction. Marie-Ange stiffened suddenly at the news and Wanda looked up, at the wall. "Oh, no."

"Merde. Merde, merde, merde. He is an -idiot-" Marie-Ange shook her head furiously, uncaring that she had just sworn - repeatedly – in front of … well, she was fairly sure Ms. Maximoff would end up teaching something, eventually. "I cannot believe... " she looked up, glared at the tower walls, and then they vanished.

And Marie-Ange collapsed, buckling at the knees. "Oh, that may not have been a good idea.." she said quietly. "Ow, my head..."

"Merde is right," Wanda muttered, catching Marie-Ange easily and supporting her weight. "And I would triple that..." Her eyes widened at the scene in front of them and she glanced over her shoulder at the remaining crowd. "MOVE!" she snapped, gesturing with her free hand. The floor trembled slightly, she had only played across that string, but it seemed to get them moving

***

The demon roared again, letting loose a stream of what had to be fairly unpleasant threats to judge from the expression on Doug's face, and swung at them... only to halt its swipe at the last minute as Jubilee jumped in the way. She hadn't had time to fire off her paffs, but the demon still retreated back a couple of steps, turning and taking a swing at Sarah and Illyana who were still hacking away regardless.

Doug blinked at the demon's behaviour. "That... was odd," he opined. "It's a little hard to read a demon's body language, but it's like... I dunno, not necessarily that he's scared of Jubes, but almost like it's impossible for him to touch her or something. When she moved in front of us, he just turned around and did something else mid-swing, did you see that?"

Jubilee nodded and fired off a small round of paffs at the demon's head again. Her eyes widened in surprise as it roared and turned back towards them. "Dude, colour me shocked. What the hell is going on?"

"I dunno why exactly, but you can hurt it, Lee. Maybe it's allergic to Californian mallrats or somethin'." The demon made a half-hearted grab at the witch as she spoke, but she ducked behind Jubilee and it retreated, before turning back on Sarah who was determinedly hacking away at its hamstrings with a pair of bone knives. Jubilee sent another stream of sparks at it, larger this time, and it roared in real pain, growling something at her that was almost accusatory.

Doug shook his head. The demon kept asking Jubilee why she had summoned it, if not to do what was required (claim Amanda, he assumed). He doubted Jubilee had the know-how to summon a demon. It didn't make sense. He frowned and tried to think. The chaos inside the club was starting to threaten the structural soundness of the building. Just as he was starting to have a thought about needing to get clear of the building, Marie-Ange's walls abruptly came down. 'Excellent timing, love,' he thought quickly before turning to Amanda and Jubilee. "We need to fall back, get this guy out in the open," he told them. "Amanda, it's focusing on you, so get moving, we're right behind you." As Amanda made a dash for the back door, Doug grabbed onto Jubilee's sleeve. "Jubes, why does this demon think you summoned it?" he asked quietly.

Jubilee shrugged off his hand, frowning. "I don't know why it's sayin' that. Maybe it just wants to play with your head. How about you ask it, hey? And while you're doin' that, I'll just get out my magic wand and magic us a way out of here. Do I look like a magic user to you, Doug?"

"No, you don't," Doug replied, "but then, I sure don't look like one, and remember Asgard?" He gave some thought to asking the demon precisely what it meant, but then those large claws hammered into the floor again and he abandoned the thought in favour of grabbing Jubilee and running as well.

Jubilee was pulled along by Doug, her head turning to notice that the Demon had seen Amanda's flight and was fast approaching. By the way it's strides were eating up the distance, she didn't think they'd make it out ahead of the thing. "Um, Doug?"

The demon roared, drowning out Jubilee's voice and she growled in frustration, pulling back on the hand that gripped her wrist. "YO! DOUG! We ain't gonna make it that way, Dude." she shouted, pointing back toward the demon as Doug turned his head.

"Where's 'Yana?" Jubilee asked, realising that the demon had stopped and her voice had been somewhat loud in the silence.

"Right here," Illyana replied grimly, appearing suddenly beside Jubilee -- the floor flashed underneath her momentarily as she 'ported back. "And sorry, kids, but we've got to to go." No sense in giving them a choice in the matter; no one was getting ripped to shreds on her watch tonight. The three of them sank through the floor, avoiding certain death, and found themselves in an empty, echoing throne room. She threw a glance at a mirror on the far wall, which was showing the demon stomping angrily through the club with relatively good picture for a mirror. "Now, we clearly don't have much time, but can someone -please- explain what's going on? I don't happen to speak whatever it is that thing's babbling in."

"Reader's Digest version from those of us who _do_ speak whatever that thing is babbling in. It's a demon. It wants Amanda. Thinks Jubilee summoned it." Doug grinned wryly. "There you go, ten words or less." He looked around slightly confusedly. "Now, uh, here's my question. Where the heck are we?"

Jubilee looked around, only half listening to Doug's explanation to Illyana. She already knew all that he was saying, so she had time to look around. A room with a very large chair, and a mirror. It would appear that they weren't in Kansas any more, Toto.

She brought her attention back to Doug and Illyana just as he asked her where they were. She didn't particularly have anything to add and had a feeling she knew exactly where they were. But she wanted to hear it from 'Yana.

Illyana looked irritably at Doug. "Disneyland," she said. "Bermuda. Cancun. Where do you think? Limbo, where may I remind you there isn't some demon chasing you. And back to the matter at hand, why did Jubilee allegedly summon a demon?" She paused, then shook her head, and went into her best authoritative mode, doling out orders like they were going out of style. "Never mind. I don't really want to know right now. Where do you want me to stick you two? Back at the mansion? I've probably got some kind of bloody responsibility to go and try to kill that thing, and Jubilee, if you've somehow summoned it, you're coming with me to try and -unsummon- it, because damned if I know what the hell is going on with that thing."

Jubilee shook her head. "Dude, I so did not summon that thing. Don't even know how you go about summoning a demon. But I'd like to know whose trying to screw me by gettin' that thing to say I did."

She stared at the mirror for a moment, watching the demon being slowed by a few of their fellow students.

"I think we need to get outside, maybe the parking lot. It looked like it was actually being hurt by my powers, so maybe I can take it out. We need to get everyone out of the way, though. I'm not exactly in tight control when I go full out and something tells me anything less with this thing wouldn't touch it."

This was the problem. Doug was sure that Jubilee was telling the truth, between her body language and the fact that he didn't think she knew _how_ to dissemble. But, from what little he could understand of the demon's alien body language, it was convinced that Jubilee _had_ summoned it. A definite conundrum, but one that could be pondered later, preferably _after_ the demon had been returned from whence it came.

"I can handle getting everyone clear of the parking lot," he said shortly. He had noticed that Manuel was looking injured and in pain, so he rather doubted the empath was up to the job, and none of the telepaths at the mansion had come along as chaperones. So that meant it was up to Doug. Again. Angie was going to have words for him after this was all done, he expected.

"Then let's go." Jubilee said, not wanting to waste any more time.

Illyana didn't bother asking for further clarification from Jubilee -- she suspected that would come later. What was she thinking, of course it was. "Off we go, then," she said, sliding them out of the throne room and into the parking lot -- a bit off to the side of all the people. "Go do your thing," she told Doug shortly, and a few moments later she and Jubilee were back in the club, as far from the demon as she could get them without actually being out of its sight. Better tactical advantage that way, she figured.

***

Run like fuck. Finally a plan Amanda could get wholly behind. Holding onto the gouges along her side, she half-ran, half-staggered towards the rear door, aware of the demon turning to follow her. She'd gotten half way across the dance floor when suddenly the link flared, burning with pain, and she stumbled, trying to draw breath into a ribcage that suddenly felt like it had been shattered. She coughed, tasting blood at the back of her throat, but when she spat on the floor, there was none. Outside, Manuel was slumping into unconsciousness and losing his grip on his powers.

~Manny? Love? Are you all right?~ she thought desperately down the link, even as the approaching heat told her the demon was advancing, despite the efforts of the others to hold it back.

Manuel didn't respond at all to Amanda's mind-query. The link felt loose, barely-anchored. Instead, all she got was pain - pain of broken ribs, the pain of something inside the burned with each breath, and the pain of failure. The pain of shame.

Amanda slumped, fighting the sensations down the link, the sensation of the link, the tenuousness of it. ’Get up you moron, or both you and Manny are toast,’ she told herself, and she pushed herself to her feet again, weaving drunkenly. Out. Draw the demon out so they could hit it full force. With that goal in mind, she forced her feet to move towards the rear doors again.

Sarah saw Amanda stumble, and when it was clear that she was struggling to get out, Sarah pushed her way over to her. "Come on, trouble. I'm going to get you out of here. He's going to have to go through us first."

"Manny... There's something wrong... the link..." Amanda took the offered arm. "Fuckin' well _hurts_."
"
"We are -all- getting out of here," she reassured, helping Amanda along as fast as she could get her moving. "You're not gonna let a little pain stop you, yeah?"

It felt like a lot more than 'a little pain', but Amanda took the hint. "Not bloody likely," she grated, taking a bit more of her own weight with a wince. It really did feel like her insides were grinding against each other. "You... all right? It didn't hurt you?"

"I'm going to outlive the cockroaches. You know that." She caught Amanda's wince, and offered some more support. She'd carry her out if she needed to. Though, she really hoped she didn't need to.

"Tougher than you look," Amanda said with a pained-sounding chuckle as they reached the back door. A roar from behind them indicated the demon was unhappy at the turn of events - Terry's sonic scream was drowning out almost everything, but the demon was louder. "Sorry, mate. This is all my fault."

"What, I don't look tough?" Sarah pushed the door open with a grunt, and managed to get them out before a table crashed against the wall. "We're all trouble magnets here. This time just happens to be yours"

"You do... mean yer tougher 'n that, even." There weren't large number of people outside - most had gone for the bigger front doors - but enough. Amanda grimaced at the sight of the ambulances. Ambulances meant people were hurt, and hurt people were her fault. "I don't know how, but it came for me... I must've done somethin'..."

"Stop that. We've got other things to worry about right now." Sarah panted, slowing as they moved away from the building. "Like how the hell do we get rid of this fucker."

"Jubilee... She can hurt it. Dunno why. If we can get this lot clear..." She jerked her head at the small crowd of evacuees. "She should be able t' go all out on it." The link was pulsing faintly, and she looked over in the direction of one of the ambulances. "Manny's over there - get me to him?"

"You've got it." She nodded, and headed towards the Ambulances. She shook her head, as they walked and grinned. "I think you owe me cigarettes when this is all over. Cigarettes and vodka. Sounds fair, yeah?"

"Definitely fair." Blood was oozing between her fingers, and there was loud crashings and bangings from inside the club, but Amanda focussed on the prone form being worked on by the EMT guys. "Next time we have a party, drinks're on me. All you can drink."

Sarah got Amanda to the ambulance, and a couple of workers grabbed at her, reacting to the blood. "I think she wants to go that way..." she started, and shrugged. "You got it from here, Amanda?" Let her argue with the EMT's.

"Yeah. You good t' start on crowd control? 'Cause that thing's comin' after me. I can feel it." Amanda straightened, trying to shrug off the EMTs. Then she caught sight of Bethany, standing out of the way, but still close enough to keep an eye on Manuel. "Hey babe."

"Hah. Me doing crowd control. Who'd have thought." Sarah grabbed a bone, and headed off. Hopefully they'd move without her threatening to feed them to big and ugly.

***

Doug surveyed the parking lot, and the various people running around it frantically, screaming their heads off in fear. With the demon being herded out, getting everyone clear of the battle zone was a high priority. He remembered the projective body language trick he had tried to use on Manuel back when Marie-Ange had been going insane. It hadn't worked, because it was too similar to empathic manipulation, but it should work here... he needed everyone to listen to him and follow his instructions. But how to do that with his body language... his eyebrows furrowed for a moment before he snapped his fingers. Cyclops. Rolling his shoulders back and assuming his best 'I'm the field leader of the X-Men and you're going to do what I say' pose, he strode purposefully toward the crowd.

"Everyone listen up!" Doug called, projecting his voice as far as he could and his body language radiating command and assurance. Slowly, some of the panicked crowd turned to face him, and as he repeated his call, more and more joined the group. "I need everyone to calmly but quickly vacate the parking lot," Doug said loudly, moving towards the crowd and directing them with his hands. Concentrating on his body language was starting to give him a raging headache, but he pushed through the pounding behind his eyes as the crowd began to gradually disperse.

Repeating his injunction while trying not to continually glance over his shoulder nervously and ruin the effect, Doug finally got the crowd moving quickly after an agonizing minute or two. Slumping up against a light pole, he rubbed the bridge of his nose and wondered how the big battle scene was playing out.


***

After being shouted at to slow the thing down by someone from Xavier's (who Alex couldn't tell but in the massive crowd did it matter?) Alex looked around for Terry. Spotting her, he moved through the rushing crowd until he was standing beside her. "Can you help me slow this thing down so these people can get out of here?" He shouted about the noise, wanting a back up plan, just in case his instinct decided tonight wasn't its night.

Terry nodded, taking a deep breath as she looked around the room. The crowd was being herded to the door with minimum, though hardly no, panic. She frowned, thinking quickly, “I’ll follow your lead. I don’t want to scream in here if I don’t have to. These people probably want to hear tomorrow,” she shouted back, easily beating out the noise level in the club. She tilted her head back and scanned the ceiling. “Can you block him from that direction if you take down those lights?”

Alex followed the direction of her thought and looked up. "I'll try!" He shouted before taking a deep breath and putting his hands up at the indicated lights. Thankfully, that end of the room was mostly vacant, so there was little chance of hitting someone by accident. Closing his eyes, he began imaging in his head Tuesday again, but the demon was there, as was Shiro and Lorna. Bigger trouble and more at stake! Frowning, two bolts shot from his hands, taking out two rows of strobe lights, blocking the direction and as an added bonus, half of one landed on the demon, getting a roar out of him. He opened his eyes stunned. "I didn't think that would work."

Terry snapped her head around and stared at him, “You didn’t? I thought you knew what you were doing!” Well, this just got a whole lot worse. The demon was blocked in on one side, at least. “Well, now what?”

"Hey you said go for the lights! And I thought everyone knew I have power troubles?!" Getting slightly frustrated with the red head, he looked around. Thankfully, the club was emptying quickly, but they had to buy Amanda and Jubilee every second they could. "You can probably scream now, keep it busy! I'm going to go take out that balcony!" he nodded across the room. There was a balcony with chairs and stuff that overlooked the dance floor. If it fell, it would block another side for the demon.

“But I can’t…” she started to protest as he hurried away, “focus it like that,” she finished more quietly. “Hell.” She took another deep breath, drawing this one in with the careful control of a classically trained vocalist. “HEY!” she shouted at the demon to draw its attention, running forward just a bit. With a purely mental prayer that this worked, she began to scream, throwing all her power into it and mentally shaping it into a spear so that it would only hit the demon.

The force of her scream hurt his ears and he had to pause to cover then for a few moments. Wincing, he threw one hand up, the pain adding to his instinct and the rather large blast swept the balcony, sending it crashing down and blocking another exit for the demon. Once it was down, he covered his ears again, heading back to her, waiting until she stopped screaming before he approached her.

From his expression, her focusing hadn’t been successful. “Sorry,” she said instantly. To her dismay the demon didn’t even look slightly phased. “I guess I can’t use powers for this.” But now what? She couldn’t use powers, his were sketchy at best and the demon was swatting away attacks like they meant nothing.

"What?!" His ears were still ringing and he shook his head, hoping it would help him clear his ears. Finally he got something of his hearing back. Alex surveyed the room, biting his bottom lip thinking. "It's going to figure Amanda's not in the room soon! Let's just go all out! I'll hit it with all I got and you shout as loud as you can! it's got to do something!"

“I can’t do that! I’ll kill you!” Terry knew that most people underestimated her power. Giving Alex an object lesson on why that was bad did not seem like a good idea right now.

"We have to do something and I doubt I can hold it on my own! You’re more powerful than I am, Terry and we need you!" Alex gave her a pleading look before turning back to the demon. Biting his lip and digging up all the bad scenarios he'd come up with, he thrust out his hands, closed his eyes and fired. He wasn't going to give up.

Terry winced. She didn’t know how she was going to do this without killing the blond boy. He was too close for her to even…wait, close. She wasn’t affected by her own power because there was a shield around her. If she was close enough it might cover Alex too. Quickly she darted up behind him and leaned forward, speaking into his ear, “If this starts to hurt, make me stop. I swear to God, Alex, I can kill you with just a single note.” She waited for his nod then covered his ears with her hands. Hoping this worked, she drew in another breath and started to keen.

When he felt her hands cover his ears, he opened his eyes slightly to see if their combined effort was working. Though they weren't making a scratch, they were holding him in place. But as he lost his thought, his instinct didn't find anything to protect and stopped. Alex was weak from all the power he'd drained that night, but he stayed where he was to not disturb Terry, his ears beginning to ring.

Terry could hold a note for a period of time even Alison had found exceptional. She doubted the demon was impressed. By herself, she was only annoying the demon. With her normal voice she shouted through her hands into Alex’s ear, “When I stop screaming, run. We can’t do any more here.”

He nodded slightly, took a deep breath, and the moment she stopped, the two were out of there. Once they were outside the club, Alex slumped against a wall, totally drained and amazed at how quiet everything was...

Not a moment too soon. “Duck!” Terry shoved Alex out of the way as the door and the wall surrounding it vanished in a giant fireball. They hit the ground and Terry looked over her shoulder to see the demon stalk out past them, completely ignoring their existence. She looked down at Alex, “Sure and we both need to work on our powers.”

His shoulder was still sore from Friday and Shiro's shockwave and he fought the cry of pain. The world was still strangely silent. Alex looked up and saw Terry's mouth moving, but nothing coming out. "What?"

***

The back doors burst open with a clang, blown clean off their hinges by the fireball the demon generated. "~ENOUGH!~" it boomed, clearly pissed off beyond measure now. "~No more delays! I have come to collect what is mine, what is due to me, and I will not tolerate any more interference from you insects!~” There was no translation needed as it scanned small collection of retreating evacuees until it spotted its prey. Amanda was too exhausted, too weakened by sharing Manuel's pain to run any more, and she merely watched dully as it advanced on the tattered group by the ambulance. The medics gamely held their ground, as did Bethany, but Amanda realised she couldn't let anyone else be hurt on her behalf. Grimacing as the movement caused the gashes on her side to re-open and begin bleeding sluggishly, she pushed herself to her feet.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Bethany hissed, grabbing at her arm. "You can't face that thing, babe! It'll kill you!"

"No, it won't. 'M too valuable. It just wants t' take me back with it, an' if I don't it'll just keep hurtin' people until it gets what it wants. There's been too much already." She glanced down at Manuel's unconscious form, and her eyes brimmed with tears. "Take care of him, make sure he gets back t' the school for me, babe?"

"Do it yourself," Bethany replied, grabbing the witch's other arm and turning her to face her. "There's got to be a way to beat this thing."

"~Gemile!"~ the demon thundered, coming closer. Flames erupted from the tarmac as its feet touched the ground. "~One final chance to accept your fate, witch!~"

"That's me name, don't wear it out," Amanda retorted - she couldn't understand the words, but the demon's impatience was clear. As was the way it was hanging back slightly. It was giving her the chance to surrender. All the better to mess with her head, she supposed. Still, it was the only choice she had left that she could live with. Leaning forward, she kissed Bethany softly, then pushed her gently back towards the others. "Bye, B. Love you."

"No, godammit, don't you dare..." Bethany seemed ready to tackle Amanda to the ground and sit on her if need be.

"Gotta be done, babe. Now get back before you get hurt." And with that Amanda turned to face the demon. "All right, sunshine, you want me so bad. Here I am."

Jubilee had watched all this from the spot she'd been ‘ported to by Illyana, waiting for Doug to have moved all the people out of the way that her powers might hurt. She called out to Amanda now.

"Mandy, stop being so fucking stupid and get your ass over here. That's of course if you're done bein' all noble and shit. Ain't no one gettin' taken to fuckin' hell on my watch and that's a fact."

"It is, is it? Then why don't you stop mouthin' off an' bloody well do whatever it is yer gunna do before anyone else gets fuckin' hurt!" Amanda retorted. The demon, hearing Jubilee's voice behind it, glanced over one thick shoulder at the Asian girl. For the first time, something like fear crossed its face.

Jubilee smiled grimly at the other girl. "Better hold onto ya shield then, girly girl. Cause you're about ta get the light show of your fuckin' life."

She'd started glowing by that stage and anyone looking closely could have seen the curls of plasma crawling around her hands. Lifting them up, she suddenly darted towards the demon, her smile radiant as she let go of the power she'd been holding. It exploded out from her, surrounding both her and the demon in a multi-coloured expanding circle of super heated plasma, the blast wave heading outwards with a loud 'THUP' sound. She gritted her teeth, holding onto consciousness with grim determination as she fed more and more power out of her hands. She wanted to see the fucker burn.

Amanda had opened her mouth to tell Jubilee that she _couldn't_ shield with her magic blocked by the demon, but then the firecracker had let loose with a power display beyond anything she'd ever seen the girl use before. Even if she had been able to shield, she wasn't sure her magic would have been able to stop that much energy. Then she was grabbed and yanked back from behind, and the momentum knocked her backwards into Bethany. Together they tumbled to the ground, as the heat wave washed over them, but not burning them - the protection charm Amanda had given Bethany was glowing blue-white.

The demon screamed, the sound drilling into the heads of all there. Those remaining clapped their hands over their ears, trying to block out the sound as it went on and on. Under Jubilee's assault, the demon writhed, its skin blackening and peeling away in layers, its eyes beginning to boil in its sockets.

Jubilee could feel herself fading fast, she couldn't keep this up for much longer without doing some serious damage to herself. She could feel an ache starting over her entire body but kept pushing power into her hands and out at the demon. Even as it burned, it reached for her. She could feel one clawed hand clamp down on her shoulder and screamed as she felt the claws grip for a moment, drawing blood. Reaching deep inside, she let out one last final burst of power directly at its head.

"DIE! DIE! FUCKING DIE!" she screamed at it.

The hand dropped away, burning to ash as it did. With one final roar, the demon threw back its head, arms flung wide open, a gout of flame erupting from its open mouth. And then it exploded, blackened fragments raining down on the parking lot like lumps of coal

Jubilee blinked and staggered back slightly as her hands glowed for a second more before her power sputtered and went out. She could see shadows at her peripheral vision and knew she was about to pass out. 'What the hell did I do?' she wondered as she quickly sat down, noting the bits of demon scattered about.

"And do I ever want to do it again?" she asked out loud before toppling slowly backwards in a dead faint.

***