[Damage Control] in which there is damage and no control
Series: Damage Control
Characters: Ariana, Devin, Vampires, mentions of Humans
Warnings: Uh... a bit of Twilight-ragging. Otherwise, Ari, is, well, crazy.
This was written for Halloween of '09. Ari and Devin have undergone some minor character changes since I wrote this, but that's irrelevant, really.
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Like always, she is late in picking him up, and he has to wait by the school gates for half an hour before she arrives.
He suspects that he is in trouble when he sees a sleek, red car pull up in front of him with her as its driver. He could swear that the car looks new and that she has never owned a car before now.
He knows that he is in trouble when he sees the package that is almost the same height as her in the backseat.
It looks like it's going to be one hell of a night.
Cautiously, as if the car is on fire, he enters.
"What's that?" he asks, pointing to the back.
She grins. "Flamethrower."
"Oh-- Oh," he suddenly realizes what that means, "It can't be..."
Her grin grows wider. "Yes."
Oh god. "Vampires?"
"Uh-huh."
A million curse words run through his head. However, he does not voice them because he knows that she is certainly not a fan of four-letter words which begin with "f" and end with "k". He also knows that she has a mean right hook.
"Don't be such a wuss," she says, noting his expression. "I had them check and there aren't any Royals. Just the usual Half-Breeds and level Cs."
A visible sigh of relief. "Oh, so it isn't anything serious."
She scoffs. "If it was something serious, then they wouldn't just be coming tonight on Halloween. The Royals would just break through the Rift; they don't need to wait around for the appearance of a Hole."
She is right. The Royals are powerful, much too powerful even for them to defeat.
"Why are they attacking anyway?"
The Vampires, as a policy, keep to themselves. They have a mild dislike and contempt for Humans, but so long as the Humans keep out of their way, the Vampires tolerate them. It really isn't that hard, considering that most Humans have forgotten about the existence of other Dimensions.
"Apparently it's something about this book that a Human wrote." A laugh. "They're calling it out as a 'defamation of character'."
"A book?"
"Yeah. It's called Dusk or Sunset or whatever. Something about Vampires glowing in the sun or some stupid thing like that."
"Glowing in the sun?"
"Something like that."
He almost understands now why the Vampires would do this. It sounds so completely and utterly ridiculous that if he had been born a Vampire, he would've wanted to blow up some Humans too.
"Well, the reasons for this job don't really matter," she says, parking the car roughly alongside the curb. "What matters is that I need a raise, darnit!"
"If you can afford this car, I don't think you really need a raise," he points out.
"Of course I can't afford this car."
"Wait. You stole this?"
A shrug. "I borrowed it."
Even though that had been expected, her audacity still surprises him. "Oh. I see. Borrowed."
She ignores his obvious skepticism.
Instead, she focuses her attention on the Hole--a thin, translucent opening--in front of them. It connects to the Dimensional Rift, where the so-called "doors" of several hundred other Dimensions are located. The Hole is necessary so as to lessen the burden on the Rift, but it takes a hell of a lot of work to maintain.
Of course, to ensure that none of the "Dimensional Travelers" wreak too much havoc, they assigned a Damage Control team to each of the Holes.
And, they just so happened to be that team.
It is a complete pain in the ass, in his opinion, though she seems to enjoy it, for whatever crazy reason.
"They're here," she says, as the opening begins to darken and bulge.
"Great," he mumbles, sarcastically.
"You're going to use your gun again?"
"Yeah." He isn't like her, always changing weapons for fun. A gun is efficient enough, to him, especially when it's loaded with enough Magical Power to kill even an upper class C Werewolf.
She scoffs, "Boring," and gets out of the car, grabbing her packaged flamethrower before heading directly into the site of the Hole.
He sighs and follows her, pulling out his weapon with much more caution.
"We're Ariana and Devin, the two Keepers of this Hole. Please get the hell out of here or we will use force," she says to the first Vampire that materializes, without a hint of hesitation. Her overconfidence is admirable, if not more than a bit frightening.
"Hm, two lowly Human Keepers, eh? As I am in a kind enough mood right now, I will allow you two the blessing of getting a head start before we come and rip you apart."
Typical class C Vampire: arrogant, demeaning, and downright stupid. Ari is fairly infamous for keeping lifelong grudges, and added to the fact that he hadn't even bothered to confirm their True Form, well...
She smiles a chilling smile, positions her burden without revealing what it is, and pulls back the trigger. Fire erupts from the concealed nozzle and instantly sets the opposing Vampire on fire. The cloth slips away to reveal the bulky frame and long tubes of the flamethrower. Because it seems to lack an actual fuel source, Devin assumes that it is powered by Magic.
And, well, an infinite supply of flames is exactly Ari's style.
"Anyone else?" Oh, she dearly hopes that there would be someone else.
She isn't disappointed. "Lowly Human," the others hiss, "How dare you!"
Smiling that same sinister smile, she pulls the trigger again and burns another couple of the blood-suckers.
He is almost grateful that she is on his side.
Of course, his almost gratitude lasts about five minutes, until she starts to fire haphazardly every which way, not even bothering to aim. And, he is forced to dodge both her and the Vampires. If he had been Human, his chance of survival would be zero.
"Behind you, idiot!"
Before he can completely register the warning, he feels cold claws sink into his flesh, digging into his body and breaking through the skin on the other side. He has to give the Vampires credit; they had good aim and some great destructive power--the pain from the broken blood vessels is pretty overwhelming.
"Are you blind?!"
He crumbles to the ground, not having enough energy to even muster a retort. He feels a bit pitiful--forced to expose his weakness--but supposes it can't be helped. The Vampire had aimed for his Heart, after all.
Damn.
His vision flickers before going out altogether, and his brain functions shut down.
Ari's face twists into one of obvious annoyance. "Jeez, useless," she mumbles, scowling.
"Hm, now that your little friend is dead, what will you do now?"
Her scowl deepens at the taunts of the Vampires. Oh, how dearly she wishes to completely destroy them right this minute, but it just simply isn't possible without severe repercussions at this point.
Carefully reigning in her anger for another time, Ari repositions her flamethrower, and, with speed that would be impossible to almost anyone else, she torches a fourth of the congregation. She is only stopped by a sudden attack from her blind side, resulting in a a deep cut on her right shoulder.
Switching the flamethrower to her left side, she begins again in the same fashion but, once again, is stopped. This time, it is a stab aimed for her stomach, which she narrowly avoids and allows to scrape her side.
"Just give up, little girl. Without your partner, you can't possibly defeat us."
She is about to snap back a cutting response but stops herself. Her scowl slowly turns into a smile as she realizes that her senses are correct--like they always are--and the Vampires are about to wish they had never even thought about looking down on her.
"It isn't that I can't defeat you. I'm just not allowed to."
She signals, and, almost immediately, a nearly transparent wall begins forming around them--a Barrier.
She jumps backwards, landing neatly next to her bloodied partner. "Jeez, took you long enough."
He shrugs, too busy trying to brush the blood and dirt off himself to really take offense. "Couldn't help it. They are Vampires. It took me longer than normal to regrow and reconnect my blood vessels. Regenerating blood isn't a cake walk either, you know."
"You two--"
"--are not Human!"
She rolls her eyes. As if that hasn't been obvious.
"When I attacked him, I was not able to grab his heart. I had assumed that it had simply been too brittle, but if--"
"No heart? Then--"
"Yes, then you two must be--"
"--does seem most logical to conclude--"
"--Zombies!"
She reacts instantaneously to that. "Hell no! Don't compare us to those disgusting corpses!"
"Just because we don't have Hearts doesn't mean we're dead," Devin adds, wearily. Recreating cells always makes him tired.
Already bored with the conversation, "Well, enough talk. Now, let's see... How shall I deal with all of you?"
"What? Are you going to send us all back? How laughable. Even a powerful Mage wouldn't be able to handle transporting nearly fifty Vampires."
She smiles her usual disconcerting smile. "Who said I was sending you back? I never planned on sending any of you back. Actually I was thinking of just leaving you here. See how much devastation you can wreak for... oh, let's see... the next four hours or so."
They are obviously suspicious. "You will allow us to kill the Humans?"
"Yeah. I never liked the Humans anyhow. Crazy people, they are."
Devin remains silent. Mind games had never been his forte.
"Why give us a time limit of four hours? The Hole disappears in only three and won't reappear for another year. We have all the time in the world to destroy mankind, unless, of course, you were to stop us."
She laughs. "Oh, I certainly won't stop you. I won't have to."
"What in the w--"
Then, realization dawns, and it becomes mayhem.
"Yes, oh glorious sun will stop you all for me," she says, delighted at the panic, fighting back fits of laughter.
"We must leave at once--!"
"--hurry!"
"--before the Hole closes!"
Ari, of course, doesn't take too kindly to that idea. She easily steps in between the Vampires and the Hole, effectively stopping them in their tracks. "Oh, you guys aren't going anywhere. Remember I said that I never intended for you to return?"
"Using your enemies' weaknesses against them is a coward's way--"
She interrupts them, "Who said I was going to let the sun kill you? I just said I was considering it. Actually, I have an even better idea, to pay you all back for these injuries," she gestures to the already closed wounds, "that was so kindly given to me."
"You can't be honestly thinking of fighting us," they laugh, "Even if you aren't Human, we still vastly outnumber and overpower you."
She grins, predatory. "You might be right about outnumbering me, but overpowering?" She tosses her flamethrower to Devin with a flourish. "Completely wrong."
Instinctively, Devin steps backwards. Ari seems to be serious, and he almost feels sorry for the Vampires. They wouldn't know what hit them.
She steps backwards and reaches a hand into the Hole, and he is sure that even the Vampires can feel her gathering of energy. The Magic feels massive; she really is serious.
"You see, I can be much more powerful if I choose to be."
One last smile.
Then, she lets the Magic run rampant.
A couple moments later, Devin finds himself coughing up dirt and grime with Ari kicking him for good measure.
"Get up, wuss," she says, "It wasn't even as powerful as last time's. I restrained myself."
He picks himself up with considerable difficulty. It seems that her blast had taken out a chunk of his left leg. Great, more regrowing to do. "Right. Sure. Restraint." He isn't even sure if she knows the meaning of the word.
She pointedly ignores his sarcasm and instead focuses proudly on the destruction that she had created. The ground is a mishmash of concrete, metal, and dirt, with some suspicious maroon that he suspects is blood. The surrounding buildings seem to all have a chunk or two taken out of them too--thankfully there had been an evacuation; Human deaths always require an enormous amount of paperwork to sort out.
"We'll need to clean this up, you know," he points out.
She frowns a bit, but her good mood is undeterred. "Tomorrow's Sunday. You'll have plenty of time to do it."
"Me?"
"Of course. No way I'm going to do it," she replies, matter-of-factly, without a hint of guilt.
Surveying the devastation, he sighs. He had learned long ago that there is no arguing with Ari, and, at least, it isn't as bad as last year's. But, even so, he still feels a twinge of bitterness, augmented by the pain in his leg.
"I hate Halloween."