slayers_desire | the case of the disappearing daughters ((Ed thread))

Mama Bug Demon chitters, and a line of baby demons form to show Ed and April the way down the right tunnel.

"Thank you. Take care." He turns to follow the line of baby demons, careful not to tread on any of them, bringing out his flashlight once more so he can see. He's a man of his word: the race is, to all appearances, peaceful; Mama Bug Demon kept her end of the bargain, and none of the bug demons have tried to hurt him or April. So he's happy to leave them be.

The tunnel leads them to a section under the school that has a cement floor. They baby Bug Demons stop at the very end of the tunnel. There is vibrating music from above them.

Ed tilts his head, straining to hear the music. "Well, there's something up there," he mutters. He sweeps the end of the tunnel with his flashlight, looking for a way up—probably a ladder. He can always transmute one if it isn't there, though.

They are underground, surrounded by dirt, and above them several feet of cement. April pressed her hands on the ground above them... "There is a dozen of them. Just the Demons."

Gulp. "A dozen? Davric demons?" he asks, making sure he's understanding her correctly.

"That is what I am sensing. It is a whole clan."

"Yikes," Ed breathes out, slowly. He clenches his hands into fists, then starts to tense into his 'ready for a fight' stance again. "This is going to be a huge fracas," he breathes to her. He smiles a bit. "You've got my back, right?" His tone indicates that as far as he's concerned, there actually isn't any question about that. He knows she'll make sure nothing happens to him. But sometimes you just need to hear these things said out loud.

"Of course I do. Father is getting into position too. We are under the gymnasium... so he will have to work to get to us. But he will get to us."

He smiles. "Oh, I know. I've seen my reality's Spike in action." He brings his hands together in another clap, and reaches up to touch the ground above him and transmute a hole in the ground he and April can get up into the room through. Then he claps again, and transmutes his arm into a blade, as she's probably seem him do several times now. Finally, he crouches down for a moment, then springs up off his left leg and grasps the edge of the hole he made, pulling himself out of the tunnel and into the gymnasium.

The ground crumbles onto them, as Ed trasmuted the hole. They come up into the gymnasium, in the middle of the Davric demon clan. They seemed surprised by their appearance, and all of them step back.

The Davric are all wearing white robes. There are runes on the floor, as they were about to partake in a ritual.

The eldest Davric sniffs the air. "We have another... claim him!" She points right at Ed. And the Davric start to surround April and Ed.

((feel free to take control of any action. Writing combat scenes is not my strength))

"Oh, Hell no!" Ed growls, bringing the blade-arm up into a guard, going back-to-back with April, and slashing at any Davrics who get too close to either of them, following the slashing strike up with a harsh kick to the chest to knock them back. No way in Hell is he letting any of them eat him. If they do, there's a particular girl he's saving himself for who's going to be pissed off enough to cross over to the other side and drag him back to the land of the living with her. And then hit him over the head with a wrench for dying on her in the first place.

((I dunno, you've done pretty well with sparring matches in the past, and with the Sabbat raid :).))

April projects a mental shield, forcing several of the demons away from them. She turns, the smell of blood attracting her attention and sees her... the missing girl. "Ed!" April points to a 'prom throne', to which the bleeding girl is chained.

((doing my best. Just letting you know it is free game))

Ed turns to the throne, spots the girl, and lets out a growl, then takes a lunge at the Davric directly in front of the prom throne, running her through with the blade-arm and taking advantage of the extra pull with physics he has in that arm to fling her off of the blade again and off to the side. Then he rushes to the girl's side, and breaks the chains with Alchemy, gathering her up in his left arm and bringing his right back into a guard.

He's killed again. Some part of him recognizes that. He tells himself that these are demons, the evil kind who do nothing but maim and destroy. They don't deserve mercy, they don't deserve to be spared. And the sight of the bleeding girl has caused enough rage that he really doesn't care right now if that's the kind of logic that sends you down a real long, slippery slope.

He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you...

His tactic brings screams from the other demons, when he kills one of their own. Eight of the Demons advance upon him, determined to get their prey... both of their prey claimed.

The other three remaining surround April. There is a thud at the door, as Spike works on breaking in, putting his whole strength into breaking the wooden barriers that are still preventing him entrance.

Ed hears the pounding, and knows it's Spike. They need the back-up, and Spike's a very accomplished fighter. Tell your dad to get away from the door for a second! I'm breaking it down for him! Ed sends to April. Then he claps his hands together, slaps the ground... and creates a giant, vaguely cartoony stone fist out of the gymnasium floor some distance away, past the demons that are surrounding April. He sends it rocketing towards the door to bust it open. The moment the door's gone (and it probably will be gone, or at least shattered into a billion splinters, because the fist is heavy and moving fast), he returns the stone fist into its original state (which is to say, it's now the floor again), and takes a step back, raising his arm into another guard.

Right now, he's very glad Clark told him to come up with more ranged applications for Alchemy. It came in handy this time around. But now is also one of those times he wishes he knew how to use medical Alchemy. The girl's still bleeding. But he focuses instead on the incoming Davrics, knocking one down with a harsh side-kick with his left leg... to the head. And he's no longer wearing the old pair of plain red and black boots he used too, having switched them out for military surplus steel-toed combat boots a few months back. His Automail leg already hits harder than his flesh-and-blood leg... the steel toes only add to that.

Luckily, April is very skilled with her abilities, so she can contact her dad... and still telekinetically throw around the Davric that surround her. When the door shatters, Spike steps through, surrounded by dust, in classic Buffyverse-style.

He growls, shifts into vampire-mode, and rushes forward. He pulls two of the Davric away from rushing Ed, and pounds their heads together.

"Can you get her out of here?" He yells to Ed, referring to the bleeding girl.

"As soon as I'm no longer surrounded, yes!" Ed answers, slashing at the neck of one Davric with his blade-arm, delivering a straight, high kick to the chin of a second, again with his left leg. He can only make so many martial arts strikes while he's holding the girl in one arm. Another clap, and there's another stone fist right in front of him, this one delivering a 'punch' to the chin of a third Davric that will probably send the demon flying. He doesn't bother to revert the fist back to its original form afterwards; there's no time.

Six down. Two more near him to go... and April has the three that were surrounding her well in hand. Plus the elder. He's not (as) worried about April right now. He's (mostly) worried about the girl, whose blood has started to seep into the left sleeve of his jacket.

Two left. The girl doesn't have long. He decides to trust Spike to handle the remaining Davrics until Ed can get the girl to safety and administer first aid. So he hoists the girl into a fireman's carry, and makes a run for the door he smashed open. Weighed down as he is by the girl, he can't run quite as fast as he's normally able. That doesn't stop him.

"I know... I know... I got them..." Spike reaches the two other ones that were near Ed, slamming their heads toward too. He nods at the six Davric's that Ed has defeated, and heads towards April.

His daughter is able to handle herself against two of the demons, but it is the Elder who is the problem. The Elder Davric has magical spells, that she is starting to use against the young vampire. Spike growls, getting between his daughter and the Elder.

Ed almost runs into Wes in the hallway. "I can heal her." The former Watcher holds out his arms.

Ed grits his teeth and nods, passing the girl to Wes. "Take care of her. I've got to go back and help Spike and April." He spins and sprints back down the hall, back to the gymnasium.

Focused as the Elder is on April and her father... Ed is in a perfect position to deliver a sucker punch. Her back is turned to him. A grimace of determination crosses his face; he claps his hands again, creates a sort of ramp that will allow him to leap and attack the Elder from on high, takes a few steps back, and sprints forward again, lifting his blade-arm as he leaps. He twists his torso a little, and brings his blade-arm down in a swift, harsh chopping blow aimed at the Elder Davric's neck, going for a decapitation.

His jump and harsh chopping blow strikes true, and the Elder is decapitated. The last two Davric's are scared now, and they attempt to run for it.

But Spike grabs them both quickly. "Where are the other girls?" He growls.

The Davric's looked at each other, scared. "Gone. Taken."

Ed lands from the leap with a mild grunt, rises to his feet, and stalks towards them, face twisted into a cold, angry scowl. He snaps his arm off to the side in a quick gesture to clear the blade of Davric blood, and approaches both of the demons Spike's holding with as much of an intimidation factor as he can manage. Which, on most days, is actually pretty damn intimidating, though he's got nothing on his little brother. Al didn't like being thought of as scary... unless the people who thought he was scary were the kind of people he and Ed made it their business to stop. Then Al was perfectly happy to crank up the intimidation factor and play it for all it was worth. And in that suit of armor... Al was really scary sometimes.

~~Sometimes, scary people come in tiny packages as well as big ones.~~

This is like the hunt with Sam and Dean for Ed. Even if the girls aren't alive, he's still going to make sure their families have bodies to bury. "Where are they?" he demands of the remaining Davrics, his voice a bladed growl, brandishing his blade-arm at them. This is the weapon that killed their Elder; if they're not terrified of it, they should be. "Whether the girls are alive or dead, either way, you're telling us."

"Gone. Taken." The two Davric replied.

April narrowed their eyes. "They don't know. They are the youngest of the clan. Tonight was their ceremony."

((bedtime))

Ed lets out a tiny growl. Dammit. He looks over at Spike, and then back to April for a moment. "What do you guys want to do with these two?" he asks them. "I don't feel a particular desire to let them live, after what they've done. We let them go, they'll set up shop somewhere new and start the cycle all over again in a new community."

He who fights monsters...

"They are just children." Spike growls softly. He knocks them out, by banging their heads together.

"We will gather those still alive... and banish them." April decided. It had worked for the Scourge that had kidnapped her.

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