Rescue Mission (Michael's gang)

[sarah]

Sarah grimly stared at Chris for a moment as she saw the two turrets. Standing up against the rock face she sighed turning her gaze to the way he had come "Did you pick up the cloth?" She asked before looking away to the incampment. "Secondly, I need you to investigate something." She pointed to the tablet showing the strange empty tents, the empty space with nothing there that seemed to have forced the tents into a semi-circle on the dangerous mountain side. As she waited for Chris to do his stuff she stared up trying to find the location of the sun which was no doubt going down by now in her mind it was a good sign. But also a bad one. IT would provide cover but also cover for them, that's when she saw it. A Black hunch up above them, not even a blind spot but just so inconspicuous. Cursing violently she grabbed her gun and took aim to peer through her scope not getting much of a better gaze at the figure due to the canvas of snow. "Holy Michael on a Catdonkey... MOVE!" Taking no chances she grabbed her bag and kicked Joseph a little too hard to get moving back the way they came. She had a plan. Back a little way was a indent in the mountain they could hide in, a small cave like structure that was too thin to be seen at a distance, if they hid there for the person or creature to lose interest they could scale higher and gain a better vantage and surprise it before it could relay a message back to its friends. For
now she had to presume it was an enemy. Sarah led the way standing to the side of the indent motioning for the others to hurry. They could read the tablet whilst they waited.

[joseph]

Joe smiled when Chris approached, turrets in hand. He couldn't help but let out a short giggle at the image. The brief moment of comedy was broken when Sarah spoke and snapped Joseph back their mission at hand.

He yelped when Sarah kicked him to get moving, and rubbed his leg as they scrambled to a safer location. He looked over his shoulder and saw the sillhouette Sarah had pointed out and frowned. He couldn't tell what it was from here, but he had a bad feeling about whatever it was.

Now in the cave, Joseph caught his breath after the short sprint, the cold air and the altitude making it harder to gather sufficient oxygen. "What do you think that thing is? Is it a daemon? Or something else entirely?"

[cris]

Chris ran with both of them into the indent and then inside the cave, parking the two turrets down he places one of them just hidden near the cave entrance to cover them, just in case any of the enemy had noticed them and decided to try and take a trip over. Now they were undercover he took the time to quickly program them both, one of Chris' talents was to make a weapon (so long as it had a targeting computer) into something similar to a runic weapon for a brief period, so that it would not be entirely useless if something particularly nasty came through that cave entrance.

"It doesn't matter what it was," he said, looking at Joseph and then putting a hand on his chest, looking at him. "Calm down, the air in 'ere in thin. You will only get yourself 'urt."

He removed the hand and put the second turret down inside, taking the time to reprogram that while they awaited to Sarah's next order. He turned his head up toward her, once he was done with the full reprogram he stood up and gave her a salute, much like Joseph had previously except his salute was more correctly presented simply because of having military experience. "I know we should worry about ze one we saw, but I zink we should focus on taking out ze machine giving off ze frequency. If zat thing is a proper daemon, zen ze major is ze only one with powers able to fight it."

He wasn't making out that Michael was better than them, it were mere fact at the moment that out of the four of them, Michael's abilities were the only ones capable of fighting a proper sentient daemon. Sarah was an excellent marksman and soldier, but a true daemon would fling her aside like a ragdoll, Chris while he was a powerful technopath had no powers at his disposal that could directly assault such a being except under certain specific circumstances and none of them were really sure exactly what Joseph's abilities fully were and he surely was not ready for such a battle even if they did.

[thomas]

With his head tilted to watch the dying rays of sun, Thomas did not noticed the commotion below him. it didn't concern him anyway. When all traces of light finally disapeared, he leapt down from his ledge, landing in a crouch with a muted crunch of snow.

His wings now folded behind him like a bizarre cloak he made his way towards the tents, slowly so as to make as little sound as possible. He held his crossbow braced against his lower arm, having modified it a long time ago to be usable one-handedly; a mechanical reloading arm and a slot that could hold up to seven bolts made the weapon far more useful in combat than the usual model. He held it in his left hand to make his most accurate shots while drawing his broadsword with his right, prepared for anything that should jump out at him.

Reaching the tents, he moved to the back the one nearest him and spun the sword in his hand so that the blade was facing backwards. Pausing to take a breath, he quickly lunged forward and stabbed the blade through the canvas of the tent, pulling it down to create an opening he could enter through. At the same time, he fluidly raised his crossbow and pointed it inside the tent, ready to fire at anything inside.

Not that he needed to. The inside of the tent was empty and almost completely bare, holding nothing of interest. Unfazed, he turned and moved towards the next tent, keeping his weapons ready.

[sarah]

Sarah seemed to have not heard the two since they entered the cave, she was already onto their next move. "What ever that was, it hasn't come after us..." she mumbled to herself, a tone that was barley audiable. It seemed to her much like her battle in the holy lands.. back then she made the choice to ignore the figure that was there but this seemed different. Turning with her mind made up she stared at the two. "Here's what we're going to do. Joseph lead Chris to the incampment, but I want you to take an above route to keep away from the creature from earlier. Keep above until you know it's safe and can easily continue forwards for a better look. We will keep in contact via the ear pieces, I will personally be setting on foot into the campment on ground level. I do not want any objections, it may seem stupid to break us up but I have the best combat experience and I believe I can get a closer inspection on that creature. If anyone would be ready for a battle, even if it meant a one sided one, I'd be better off with the highest chance of survival." She fixed her ear piece into place as she edged closer to the exit of the caves mouth. "You will keep frequant updates on your progression and what you find, we will rendevous when appropriate. Your goal is to figure out what is with the huge space forcing the tents to cluster in a semi-circle. Move out."
She didn't wait for rebukes this time, she didn't want to waste time and this was a sound enough plan she knew how to play out each persons strengths on their battle field. Neither was she stupid enough to engage combat with something she couldn't defeat, but just because battle wise they are at a disadvantage dosn't mean they couldn't gather the right information. Besides... something hadn't settled right with her about that creature. It had been watching them and yet made no advancement...

[joseph]

Joseph managed to calm his breathing quickly after Chris removed his hand from his chest, a shy smile on his lips as he looked up into Chris' face. It was strange, seeing him like this for the first time. Joseph knew that he wasn't all that younger than Chris, yet he had so little experience in comparisson that Chris seemed to handle everything like someone twice his age would.

At Sarah's orders, Joseph nodded. He led the way out of the cave and around to a twisting path up the mountain going in the opposite direction from the camp. He assumed that at some point it would double back on itself, and he was proven correct as the pair reached a ledge just above where the dark figure had been before. Of the creature there was no sign that he could see nearby, but he saw it move through the camp as he trained his rifle's sights there.

"Come in, captain. We're in position." he spoke into his communicator.

[cris]

Chris shot a smile back at him when he saw the shy smile on Joseph's face, picking up both of his turrets again he followed him out of the cave and up the twisting path upward, he had an idea for what the turrets would come in useful for. Once they reached the ledge he kneeled down and placed both turrets on the ground, adjusting their path for fire so that the arc would aim down, toward the camp. He looked at Joseph with his sight trained on the person moving through the camp, but it was clear that whatever he was doing he was not a member of the Vaticanus group.

"'e's carrying a weapon," he said pointedly, holding a pair of electronic binoculars which included distance readings to relay to a sniper if need be. "I don't zhink 'e is on zhere side."

Watching Thomas making his way through the camp, he felt uneasy as he repeatedly looked into tents to apparently find them empty, every single one was completely empty. There had been no activity at the small camp, now it was obvious why - it was a decoy but that meant their foe was still out there somewhere. "I don't like zhis," he said, pressing a finger into his earpiece. "Captain, don't move in yet. The one from zhe ridge is not on zhe enemy's side, but 'e seems to 'ave found the camp empty. Zhis could be an ambush, the device is down zhere at the camp I can feel it... maybe zhey wanted us to go to it."

He looked around, his headache had become worse since getting closer, but far more so than it should due to the simple but admittedly somewhat advanced piece of technology in the small camp. He felt like he was surrounded by advanced technology, yet he couldn't see any of it and then it dawned on him and he threw himself onto his back, hidden by the left from the view of the camp and its apparently single occupant. "Fucking 'ell!" he hissed, pressing in his ear piece again to talk to Sarah.

"Zhey are 'ere, zhey're all around us." he said, clenching his teeth. "Stealth devices, like on zhe ship."

[sarah]

Sarah moved forwards on her knees, her gun kept in both hands with the scope pressed up against her right eye as she stayed as silent as possible. Her position was kept a secret thanks to a large brown boulder of stone at the edge of the platform containing the camp. The snow layed over half of the area, though it was visably thinner at the area that had been left with no tents. It troubled her greatly as to why the area was empty and secondly why there was this large empty space, it reminded her of something.. something she saw back when she met Michael. But she couldn't think of it no matter how hard she strained her mind back to that day. Staring through the scope she aimed at the dark figure, a horrid character that seemed to have escaped straight out of a Edgar Allen Poe story. She moved forwards as Joseph told her to the first already cutt down tent hiding behind the shadow of a desk from within the clothed pyramid. As Chris explained over the mic she frowned staring around the cloth, she could hear the tear of each tent and the frustrated exasperations from the figure. Staying very still she slowed her breathing till it was barley a gentle gust from her parted lips, her movement non existant in her rigid stance. She was ready to move when given the word, if she could figure out how this creature would react she could determine how to move next, she only hoped the two would be figuring that out now.

[thomas]

By the time he cut through the final tent, his hands were clenched tightly around the weapons he carried. Seeing the last was empty, he stabbed his sword into the ground so that it stood upright and closed his eyes. The voice at the back of his head was whispering, as it always did when he was angry. The one begging him to lose control. The hiss of the Devil in his mind.

Still holding his crossbow he reached for the cords around his neck and pulled the metal symbols out of his shirt, fingers brushing over them until he found the cruicifix. Tightening his hand around it, he stood still until his his breathing became regular again. Calmed, he reached once more for the device in his pocket and stared at the screen, searching for whatever he had missed. Something was here, the readings were obvious, but then why couldn't he see it?

A chill ran up his spine as his mind flashed to when he had found the ship he now flew. Roswell, half a century ago. He had felt the same confusion then, when he had known something was there but had been unable to see it.

Reaching the same conclusion Chris had moments before, he yanked his sword out the ground and spun round to look out over the cliff, fear now showing in his eyes. It didn't bother him when he was fighting near impossible odds that he could see. At least then he could find out what the enemy was doing, look for a weak spot. Here he had nothing.

He started backing away across the camp. It was possible that whoever was there hadn't seen him. Unlikely, but possible. If he could find cover he could come up with a plan. Little did he know that he was now rapidly moving towards the spot were Sarah was hidden, leaving himself open for being stabbed in the back.

[joseph]

Joseph tensed as soon as the words escaped Chris' mouth. There enemies were cloaked, and there was nothing any of them could really do about it. Thoughts of impending death entered his young man, and he began to shake uncontrollably out of fear. Paralysed at the edge of a cliff and with no way of knowing where his death would come from, he was completely overcome with fear. He burried his head in the crook of his arm, unable to look at anything anymore.
"We need to go. Now. There's no way we can do anything up here. We're sitting ducks. They're going to kill us all and there's nothing we can do to stop them.."
He spoke to himself in a hushed tone, forgetting that his communicator would no doubt pick up his ramblings.

Just then, Joseph felt the undeniable grip of one of their enemies tighten around his neck, lifting him up from the ground. The cold steel of a knife pressed against his neck as his assailant let out a satisfied chuckle. His right arm was pinned painfully behind his back, his shoulder dislocated from its socket. He closed his eyes and cried out in pain.

Instinct took over him then as he reached over his head with his left hand. He grasped the cloaked assailant by the hair and pulled hard. When he opened his eyes again, he saw that he held the severed head of the sorcerer who had tried to kill him, the cold dead eyes stared at him accusingly. He dropped it on the ground and fell to his knees, where he evacuated the contents of his stomach on to the bloodstained snow.

[cris]

"Josef!" he cried, about to try and get to him when the area was suddenly swarming with people.

All around the peak the enemy were appearing, the only fortune on their side was that the devices they deactivated yielded no signs of daemons, but the strigoi present were nearly as bad as. Chris grabbed the handle of his sabre, pulling it from its scabbard and holding it ready to fight, taking hold of his side arm as well so that he could use one hand for his sabre and fire with the other - it was the way all officers in the Midnight Society had been taught to fight, range and melee in equilibrium.

"Oh good, I 'aven't 'ad a good fight since I arrived." he said, refusing to show the fact he was frightened, they were after all surrounded. For a moment he saw what Joseph did out of the corner of his eye, but there was no time to question what the boy had done, the battle at hand took precedence.

There was no time to check the ridge below, but that too was swarming with the sorcerers and strigoi, all of them in their Catholic regalia. They had not expected Thomas, this trap was meant for Michael's companions. Still, they would take him out too, he was in the way after all and the vaticanus hated things that got in their way.

On the ridge, Chris forced Joseph to his feet using the hand holding his gun, pulling the boy up and giving him a firm glare he had never done before. "Stop cowering, zhe enemy will not treat you any better just because you are afraid." he said, then let him go and fired his gun at one of the strigoi, turning it to dust as the energy surrounding the bullets sprang to life due to the runes on their surface and the weapons firing them. Unlike Michael's sabre, Chris' had runes on its surface too and gave off a similar red energy when it cut through one of the sorcerers who had been preparing a spell.

[sarah]

Sarah stayed perfectly calm as she waited, the sounds of footsteps echoeing across the mountain as the nightmarish creature ascended it's way closer to her tent. It hadn't noticed she was there, by now Sarah's mind and hearing was tunnel visoning due to her adrenaline, her concentration on that single being moving towards her. She heard the distant drone of Joseph and Chris fighting, but there was nothing she could do for that now. She had to make a choice, a very smart choice about what she was to do with this creature.

Ever since she had first spotted it through the scope she had noticed how it stared at them with little interest as it vacated back to the campsite. It was a long shot to say that this creature was an ally, but from what she could gather, he was not friendly with the people currently attacking her fami-.. friends. Silently moving forwards with a lightly placed foot she watched the creature move past her tent, she had been un-noticed but just as she was about to step out, waves in the air began to shimmer vertically, like when looking across the street in a heat wave. Each shimmer one of many creating the shape of a cylander, these shapes soon gave birth to cells, cells that turned to clothes, skin, faces, weapons. All aimed at the monster.

It was that split second that changed Sarah's mind, she wasn't going to allow these monsters the relish of killing another person. It might not be the best thing, but by fucking Joe she wouldn't hear the end of it from Michael. Sarah had made an interesting choice in her weapon, usually there are two types of riffles, bolt-action or semi-automatic. She had managed to not only combine the two keeping the reliable and lighter aspects, due to fewer moving parts in the mechanism. Also the weapon has a more versatile fire-positioning, and the absence of uncontrolled automatic cartridge case ejection helping to avoid revealing her position. But she had also taken the best elements of the Semi-automatic allowing a greater rate of firing, so she can adapt to each situation, the gun itself had been updated to a multi-verse tool, not unlike her hand gun she was originally given from Michael. She learnt fast. It was made to kill immortals.

Aiming the gun at the first man she pulled the trigger, boom! Head shot. Moving to the next she shot at the persons chest, then the next one who was about to run towards the monster, in the legs snapping its ligiments in half before finishing him off with a shot to the chest. She continued her precise firing to those that had gained ground near the creature, moving around her tent to avoid being noticed. Occasionally using the torn material as a cover she relatively had a good thing going on right there, better than the others.

[thomas]

Thomas froze when the cultists started appearing, the fear vanishing and being replaced with shock that such unholy creatures had the affront to wear the robes of priests. Shock that only intensified when the first ones head exploded.

Making a mental note to thank whoever had just saved his life when he saw them, he sprang into action, powered by the anger their sacrilege sparked in him. Raising his crossbow, he fired all seven bolts in rapid succession, each one finding it's mark in the eyes or heart of it's target. He had designed the fragile silver heads to shatter on impact, piercing the flesh of the victim and mixing a drop of his own blood stored in the tip with their own. The bolt itself dealt with the mortal sorcerers, and while it was questionable wether the silver would harm a daemon or strigoi, the blood certainly did.

Not having time to reload the empty crossbow, he dropped it in the snow and tossed his sword from his right hand t his left, grasping the blade in his right and dragging it down in a sharp but practiced movement. The cut to his hand healed almost immediately, but not before the sword received a coating of devil blood. Flaring his wings behind him, he yelled and charged at the amassed cultists, swinging his blade with both hands for extra force. Blood began to fly around him as he began hacking through limbs and necks, beheading whenever he could. Silently he prayed that his victims would be forgiven.

[joseph]

Everything moved in slow motion as Chris picked Joseph up from the ground. As Chris spoke, all Joseph heard was a low pitched groan as each word was stretched out. His spacial awareness was completely gone - objects which were close to him seemed far away and those which were far away seemed closer. Adrenaline flooded through his body, warping his senses. He thought he spoke, but he couldn't be sure. The headless man's blood dripped from his fingers, and each droplet which struck the ground sounded like the tolling of a rusted church bell in his ears.

His senses returned to him as a strigoi lept at him, its fangs dripping with saliva in anticipation of an easy kill. The only thing it tasted was a bullet as Joseph rounded on it and drew the pistol from its holster strapped to his leg in a split second. His aim was perfect, his senses sharp and his hands steady. Something had come over him which he couldn't exactly complain about. The sorcerers and strigoi all seemed incredibly slow as he dodged and twisted past their blades, claws and fangs, firing a single shot from his semi-automatic pistol into each of their heads.

With each worshipper of the damned that he slayed, Joseph's smiled grew wider, until he actually laughed. The initial shock of killing another human being had faded and was replaced with a sense of justification. These were the enemies of humanity, and he was helping rid the world of their vile taint. This was what he had signed up for, and there was no turning back.

[Brett]

The skill of those facing the Vaticanus numbers was far superior to what they had expected, Joseph's suddenly turn and the appearance of this other individual Thomas had particularly thrown them off, they had thought Michael was the threat and yet now his companions and this newcomer were proving this assessment to be false - they were all a threat. So brutal was the response of these four individuals, that the Vaticanus numbers dwindled rapidly and their master found himself with no choice.

The sacrifice was made as a pentagram drew itself in fire upon the ground amidst the circle of tents, which were sent ablaze due to the unnatural flames licking at them. Once the circle connected the five points, it broke away to reveal a swirling whirlwind of flames and the surviving sorcerers and strigoi had the flesh torn from their bodies in the form of ash, their lifeless skeletons falling to the ground as the ash poured into the vortex and acted as a sacrifice with enough energy to bring a single, powerful daemon lord through.

First two large, raven wings came out of the vortex torn and battered, their feathers torn to the point only a few whole ones still hung off the wing frames. Lucifer, raven haired and red eyes with pale skin rose out of the small hellgate, wrapped in what seemed like black Roman armour with the crest of a dragon on the front, the crest of his father and a red torn cloak around his shoulders that nestled over his wings. He raised his hand to show a young girl held in one arm, she had brown hair like that mirrored the bark of trees and eyes as green as grass.

"Let me go!" she demanded, kicking around and very defiant for an apparent child. "You just wait until Sir Michael gets here, he'll beat you up you big bully!"

The girl bit down on Lucifer's hand as he went to hit her, growling at him and he pulled the hand away, laughing darkly and then looking in the directions of all four of the fathered individuals. He finally placed a finger on the little girl's temple, making her gasp and fall into a state of sleep with her eyes closed, giving off very faint snoring sounds. Lucifer took a few steps forward, the gateway behind him finally snapping shut but perhaps unnoticed by Lucifer, it had also swallowed the device creating the frequency during its creation.

"I believe - at least some of you..." he began, looking at Thomas when he said 'some' because he was a newcomer, though not unknown to Lucifer. "Have come here seeking this little brat."

He pointedly raised the girl in his arm. Chris moved to the edge of the ridge he and Joseph were on, staring down at Lucifer and cursing internally in every language he could speak, which was fairly vast because when he was bored he had delved into computer systems and just taught them to himself. Lucifer put the sleeping girl down, she was no threat now and she was so close to him they'd never be able to reach her and get her back before he noticed and knocked them away again.

"So, why don't you all come here for a little parley?" he asked, raising his arms with that sly grin of his. "Or, I can sacrifice the girl here and unleash Armageddon."

[sarah]

The smell of burning soil and wood filled the air causing a thick dark grey smoke to elope the area currently inhabbited by Sarah who was too slow to move. Too slow to get away as she crouched stunned at the unfair change of events, they where all so powerless right now and she was supposed to give an order to save the sleeping child. Tears streamed down Sarah's face, only half due to the increasing smoke soon met by an orange glare that rose up from the left side of the tent into flames so high the tips where out of reach from her current position. She had to get moving, do something to sort out her current disposition and about the smoke she was inhaling.

Coughing violently, Sarah had to place her weapon onto her back again to try and find a cloth to stop her spasms from the toxic gas. The wet soggy ground from the rapidly melting snow provided terrible footing, like that of a trench causing her to slip and fall banging her head onto the table knocking her unconcious. The crackling of the flames roared as if laughing at her, consuming the whole of the tent now, she was unable to do anything about it.

She had returned to a frightend human for a mere matter of seconds as she faced that creature, her calm collected state wavered for that split fraction of time, and now she had made her greatest mistake that would take her life.
The blackness that had greeted her seemed relaxing, the pain and suffering she had been feeling for the past few months washed away leaving her with a sense of harmony. But even in this state, when death was to greet her with a curled firey hand she knew at the back of her mind that -that- other Sarah had been here and done this before. Was she really going to be sucked up into the constant shadow of this person for all eternity? Never to break free and be her own person? 'How fucking typically cliché.'

'Michael..'

[michael]

OOC: Sorry, had to slip this in since Sarah's post made it a good time to do it, it doesn't effect the current situation yet anyway.

Michael lay still upon the bedding, his face now clean and the nosebleed stopped, he at least looked peaceful. But inside his mind was in chaos, it tried with all its might to cast off the shackles of the frequency, enraged by how useless such a simple thing had rendered all of his abilities. He had no idea what was happening up in the mountains, no way of knowing whether his companions were even alive, but then something happened he had not expected - the screeching stopped.

He felt peace in his mind again, the stress on it slowly began to fade and the haze started to lift, he remained still with little exterior signs of coming around. Matsudi looked concerned, he had never seen Michael like this before, he knew he had a pulse and was breathing but whether or not his mind would start responding again was another question entirely. Then from what felt like a great distance words filled his mind, he could hear thoughts from far further away than he had before, they were the thoughts of people fearing for their lives - something had emerged to scare them so greatly.

The single word that whispered the loudest, felt like it screamed to him in the darkness.

'Michael..'

With a snap his green eyes opened and focused to the world around him as Michael sat bolt upright, so surprised was the elderly Matsudi that he jumped back and nearly stumbled into the wall.

[thomas]

As the heretics started to disintegrate, Thomas swore briefly but explosively, lending the words force that only comes from one who rarely uses them. He had seen this tactic before in cultists though never to the extent which he was seeing now. Sprinting his way clear of the opening hellgate, he grabbed his crossbow and quickly reloaded it while he had the chance.

Upon seeing the monstrous figure that emerged, everything suddenly became clear to him. What demon would have the nerve to dress his followers in the cloth of the church but Satan himself? It also became clear that he would not survive this encounter- none of them would.

Seeing the girl clutched in Lucifer's claws made him understand just how much he had misinterpreted the situation. Clearly the other people were demon hunters of some sort too, and they were trying to save this girl...but then who was she? The answer leapt into his mind almost instantly. An angel, what else could she be to draw this much attention?

Raising his bow slowly, he pointed it at the Daemon lord but did not fire, did not move any further. He was of no importance at the moment, Satan wished to speak with the humans that had come to find him and only they had the chance to deny him what he wanted.

But he was prepared to go down fighting.

[joseph]

Joseph stared in horror as Lucifer stepped from the Hellgate with Rhea in hand. A flicker of anger was overthrown by sheer guilt as the daemon lord placed her under his spell and put her on the ground. No amount of planning could have prepared them for this. Joseph knew that even if Michael were with them that they would have little chance of overcoming this latest obstacle on their little rescue mission.

Joseph dropped both his rifle and pistol to the ground, the snow around them melting due to the heat emanating from their barrels. Victory had seemed so sure, and yet now it had was unatainable. Joseph cursed violently under his breath. Why did this have to happen? His eyes fell on the poor girl Rhea, who they had fought to save so desperately sleeping so peacefully on the cold ground. He let out an anguished cry which echoed through the mountains. A violent gust of wind battered its way around the rocky peaks and cliffs, mocking his attempt at displaying anger. It was as though the earth itself was voicing its frustration, and Joseph was sure he heard a myriad of voices on the wind cursing Lucifer's name.

"Lucifer!" he cried at last, fighting back tears. He needed to be brave now, if only to appease his own guilt at their failure. "Take me! You wanted me months ago, so here I am! Just give Rhea to my friends and let them go."

He was sure that he would be castrated by Chris, Michael and Sarah for even thinking something so absurd, but he had to try, not even considering that the deamon had perhaps claimed the ultimate prize in Rhea, and would probably kill them all anyway, regardless of what they offered.

[Brett]

Chris shot a look of horror at Joseph when he offered himself in place of Rhea, Lucifer on the other hand just gave off a mocking laugh. "Stupid boy," he spat, placing his foot on Rhea's back whilst she lay asleep on the floor. "I already have what I need." His foot did not put any heavy pressure down, he had no intention of spoiling his prize until the sacrifice, so eventually the foot was removed and placed beside the sleeping child. He took a step forward and then stopped, lifting his head to the sky and a frown creasing his brow as though he could see something the others could not.

"Well, this is a development." he said, as Michael landed nearby after apparently using his telekinetic powers to fly to the scene in an unusual show of power.

"'Ey! 'Ow long 'as 'e been able to fly?!" Chris exclaimed, pointing at Michael.

Michael paid no attention to anyone present as he rushed to pull Sarah out of the tent where she was trapped, unable to breathe due to the gas surrounding her. Once he had her far enough into the fresh air again he knelt beside her and checked her pulse, all the while Lucifer looked on in silence, until he finally seemed to have enough of being ignored and spoke. "How nice of you to join us, Michael."

Turning his head, he stood up slowly and approached Lucifer, looking him in the eye without wavering. "You did this on purpose," he said, left hand running across the hilt of his sabre. "I was never meant to make it up here, but they were. How petty, I wouldn't give you what you wanted so you decided to to hit me where it'd hurt."

"Nobody says no to the devil," he said, a sly grin on his face.

"You are not a devil! You daemon, scum." he spat, pulling his sabre. "Let's end this now, I'm right where you want me."

Lucifer took a step forward, summoning a black longsword to himself which burned with the unnatural fires of Hell, it seemed he was going to take Michael's off to end things. There was a faint cough from nearby however, and as they turned around three men appears sat on different rocks around the area.

"Ah now, let's not be hasty." Lance said, waving his hands from the highest rock perch. "Don't go having all the fun without us."

"I don't think they were thinking about us, Lance." Seth said, shaking his head dramatically. "Hey Cyarno, I think they forgot about us."

"Clearly," Cyarno grunted.

Though Lance had red hair and the other two black, the resemblance in appearance between them and Isaan was remarkable, Lance of course looking more like their father due to their shared hair colour too. Their purple eyes seemed filled with half-amusement that Lucifer had thought he could walk among mortals without the divine order noticing, especially the Underworld.

"Ugh, the princes of the Underworld show up to flaunt." Lucifer hissed, grip on his sword tightening. "Can we get this-"

Lance raised a hand and Lucifer frowned, but stopped talking as the trio rose from their perches and dropped to the floor to be on even footing with Lucifer.

"Lucifer," Cyarno said, his voice more gruff than the other two. "To coin a popular human phrase, 'know your place, bitch'."

Lucifer flared up with anger, but was silenced again before he cough talk, this time by Seth.

"I don't think this daemon knows his place," he said, then turned away from his brothers. "Dante, could you explain please?"

Chris and Michael sighed and scratched their foreheads, they sometimes forgot how eccentric immortals could be. This seemed like they were needlessly goading Lucifer into attacking them, although he supposed he found it a little funny that the King of Daemons was being verbally bitch slapped by the sons of the God of Chaos.