Post by Brett on Aug 21, 2011 20:35:52 GMT -1
Isaan reached over the coffee table offering a cigarette from the old and well worn silver case he still carried. Michael took one and Isaan lit it for him before both men leant back into their armchairs, considering one another for a moment before one of them spoke.
"What did you want, Isaan?"
"Oh, you know it's rude to talk to an elder god like that."
"You're not my Isaan, besides, aren't you tired of yes men?"
A smirk curled Isaan's lips as he took a long and satisfied draw on his cigarette, the sweet smelling smoke filling the room as he exhaled.
"So I am." he said, "Well, why don't you tell me about your own universe?"
"Why are you interested?"
"I like to know the people working for me."
Michael shifted in his chair and seemed reluctant to go on with the conversation. Eventually he gave a small sigh and fixed Isaan with a level stare.
"What do you want to know?" he asked.
"Anything. Did you have a special someone?"
"Almost."
"How cryptic."
"I almost fell in love, but she didn't live long enough to reciprocate."
The silence that followed could have been cut with a sword. Isaan creased his brow in a frown and for about a minute the only sound in the room was the drags both men took on their lit cigarettes.
"So what happened?"
"I suppose I could say it was your fault, well my universes you."
"How so?"
"Well..."
The air filled with the sound of battle as the daemon forces of Baelze fought with the human forces whose weapons had been blessed by Seth so that they could damage the supernatural beings. Michael was in a uniform unlike the soldiers around him, it was black and looked like something an officer would wear in the late nineteenth century, officers sabre included with the grey talon of the Midnight Society stitched into the right upper arm.
Nearby Seth was locked in combat with two daemons who posed no challenge to the old devil, who saw them off with a mere wave of the hand that saw the creatures crumble into dust before their eyes. Despite Seth's presence in the field they were pinned down by a daemon position high in a church tower, which they were using to weave their unnatural magick and rain it down on the human and society forces.
"Major Sanford!" Seth called over the sounds of battle.
"What is it sir?"
"I need that position in the tower taken out, major."
Michael looked up at the tower and frowned as he tried to calculate the odds of success, not high that was for sure but they hadn't spent the past years training relentlessly for this day just to fail to take on tower.
"I'll need Lieutenant Powell and her team, sir."
"You have them, get moving major!"
"Sir!"
He ran with his head down through the city square and into the nearby alley, entering one of the buildings and up several flights of stairs until he came into the room where Sarah Powell and her team special operations team were awaiting orders. Sarah wore a similar uniform to Michael but without only a grey strip on the shoulders rather than the grey decorative pauldrons of Michael's which denoted rank.
"What's up, Mike?" she asked.
"Boss wants us to take down that church tower."
"Right. Come on boys and girls, Major Sanford needs us."
Michael gave a small twitch at her calling him by his formal rank to the society footsoldiers, though footsoldier was hardly the word for the highly trained humans who made up the society's numbers, each with their own unique power. Sarah seemed smirk at his discomfort with her addressing him this way and walked past him, squeezing his hand and winking.
"Well, come on major. Don't want to keep those daemons waiting."
"What?" he stammered, flustered by her touch on his hand. "Ah, right. Come on everyone, you don't want to let General A'vron down do you?"
The dozen society soldiers who made up Sarah's team rose to their feet without pause, checking their weapons and ensuring the clips were full. The group then made their way from the room, down those stairs again and out into the alley. They would have to cut through three alleyways to get to the tower without being noticed, fortunately the enemy seemed to be focusing their efforts out in the square.
"So, Sarah was the one?"
"Aye. That she was."
"I don't see how I come into this though."
"I'm getting there."
"Alright, please continue."
The church tower went up like fireworks with its rubble flying in all directions. Michael smirked as the daemons fell back and walked out of the front with Sarah and the team, none of whom they had lost in the fighting. Seth approached them with a smile and clapped both officers on the shoulder.
"Good work."
"Thank you."
"Lieutenant Powell did most of the work."
Sarah nudged him in the ribs at which he flashed a grin. Seth gave them both the once over and shook his head, about to retort he froze in one position as his mind was gripped by a familiar sensation. In the distance there was a burst of energy so large it rose like a pillar and was seen by them even in Edinburgh, despite the source being thousands of miles away in Tokyo.
"What the fuck was that?!" Sarah yelled.
"I know that power. We're moving out, all forces converge on Tokyo immediately."
"Sir?"
"Now, major!"
Michael gave a nod and went about calling all society forces in with orders to use transportation runes to reach Tokyo in a pre-defined set of co-ordinates. Not moments later they were all looking upon inner city Tokyo which was eerily quiet with its streets abandoned making the metropolis little more than a ghost town.
"Why are we here, sir?" Michael asked, cautious because of the look on Seth's face.
"I felt something that shouldn't be here."
"Which is?"
"My father."
"I'm the reason you all went to Tokyo."
"Aye."
"You told me of the battle of Tokyo before in your world. It was where your defeated Baelze in your universe."
"It is. But it is also where Sarah died."
"I see. So if I hadn't emerged, you would never have gone to Tokyo and she would be alive."
"In a manner of speaking. But it's also my own."
"How did she die?"
The battle of Tokyo raged about them as Michael, Sarah and a company of society forces that had been cut off from the main battle held back a daemon regiment around the Hanazono Jinja shrine. Michael sent bursts of telepathic energy to throw daemons away from the shrine stairs, protecting an injured soldier who had taken a daemon sword through the right side of his abdomen.
"Sarah! Take command!" he cried, lifting the soldier up and pulling him into the shrine to get him to the society medic.
Outside, Sarah took charge of the company while Michael saw to the safety of the soldier. They were falling to the daemons but then the daemons too were falling to them, the bodies littering the ground made it difficult to move. The failure of the daemon assault had drawn out of the commander of the regiment attacking them.
Without Michael commanding outside it fell to Sarah to be the target of the daemon officer. He cut a path through the society forces until he loomed over her, at least two feet taller than the already smaller framed woman. They exchanged blows, Sarah's unique ability to wield fire came in useful only briefly as the fire merely angered the enemy.
"Stay here." Michael said, getting up. "You'll be alright."
Quickly he ran out of the shrine on time to see the officer's sabre pierce Sarah's stomach and run her through, Michael gasped and yelled in mixed shock and horror. The officer despite his daemon blood seemed to show a flash of remorse as he looked at Sarah and drew her off his blade, letting her drop to the floor as he turned to face the man who was clearly in charge.
It was Michael's good fortune that this daemon was perhaps somewhat unique, as his company had been killed to the last and now he alone stood before the remainder of the daemon regiment and their leader.
"Regrettable," he said, "I am Colonel Makvhug of the sixty sixth regiment. You command here?"
"Yes," Michael spat the words, angry at the man's disregard for Sarah and the company's lives.
"Yes it is common courtesy for officers to introduce themselves."
"Major Michael Sanford."
"I see. Well Major Sanford, it is also common courtesy for the defeated officer to relinquish his sword."
Michael looked briefly at the sabre which he had not pulled from its scabbard for the entire fight, dropping his gun he took a step forward and pulled the sword out with the point immediately aimed at this Colonel Makvhug.
"If we're playing by those old fashioned rules, then I demand satisfaction."
"Satisfaction? For what?"
"The lieutenant you killed."
"Ah, the girl. Yes, I had thought by the look in your eyes you might. Very well, major."
Makvhug raised the sword that was still stained and wet with Sarah's blood. Michael lifted his sabre and looked directly at Makvhug, their swords clashed several times as both of them appeared to be testing the other. It was probably a testament to how different this daemon was that he fought Michael fairly, a being of his power could crush a human like Michael even despite his psychic powers.
Their duel continued with both skilled swordsmen exchanging continuous blows. The daemons of Makvhug's regiment had vacated the area to rejoin the forced fighting the main society force, which meant Michael and Makvhug were hindered only by those already dead still littering the grounds around the shrine. Finally Michael gained the upper hand, as he parried a blow and darted forward in a daring manoeuvre which could well have gotten him killed.
His sword pierced Makvhug through the stomach just as his foe's blade had pierced Sarah, the sword was enchanted and carved with immortal runes which meant the blow was very much fatal for the daemon colonel.
"You are a rare human," Makvhug panted, his final words as he fell to the ground dead.
Michael rushed to Sarah's body without any regard to his own sword which he simply left impaled in Makvhug's stomach, but when he arrived she was already dead. He brushed some of her sandy blonde hair from her face.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered, though her ears no longer heard. "I did love you, I was just stubborn."
"So you did love her."
"That's beside the point now."
"But you said you almost fell in love, yet you just admitted to me you said you did love her."
Michael bit the inside of his lip and placed his burned down cigarette in the ash tray on the table, standing from his armchair and looking down at Isaan still in his.
"I have work to do," he said, then left Isaan sat there looking half-amused and half-sorry for the man.
"What did you want, Isaan?"
"Oh, you know it's rude to talk to an elder god like that."
"You're not my Isaan, besides, aren't you tired of yes men?"
A smirk curled Isaan's lips as he took a long and satisfied draw on his cigarette, the sweet smelling smoke filling the room as he exhaled.
"So I am." he said, "Well, why don't you tell me about your own universe?"
"Why are you interested?"
"I like to know the people working for me."
Michael shifted in his chair and seemed reluctant to go on with the conversation. Eventually he gave a small sigh and fixed Isaan with a level stare.
"What do you want to know?" he asked.
"Anything. Did you have a special someone?"
"Almost."
"How cryptic."
"I almost fell in love, but she didn't live long enough to reciprocate."
The silence that followed could have been cut with a sword. Isaan creased his brow in a frown and for about a minute the only sound in the room was the drags both men took on their lit cigarettes.
"So what happened?"
"I suppose I could say it was your fault, well my universes you."
"How so?"
"Well..."
The air filled with the sound of battle as the daemon forces of Baelze fought with the human forces whose weapons had been blessed by Seth so that they could damage the supernatural beings. Michael was in a uniform unlike the soldiers around him, it was black and looked like something an officer would wear in the late nineteenth century, officers sabre included with the grey talon of the Midnight Society stitched into the right upper arm.
Nearby Seth was locked in combat with two daemons who posed no challenge to the old devil, who saw them off with a mere wave of the hand that saw the creatures crumble into dust before their eyes. Despite Seth's presence in the field they were pinned down by a daemon position high in a church tower, which they were using to weave their unnatural magick and rain it down on the human and society forces.
"Major Sanford!" Seth called over the sounds of battle.
"What is it sir?"
"I need that position in the tower taken out, major."
Michael looked up at the tower and frowned as he tried to calculate the odds of success, not high that was for sure but they hadn't spent the past years training relentlessly for this day just to fail to take on tower.
"I'll need Lieutenant Powell and her team, sir."
"You have them, get moving major!"
"Sir!"
He ran with his head down through the city square and into the nearby alley, entering one of the buildings and up several flights of stairs until he came into the room where Sarah Powell and her team special operations team were awaiting orders. Sarah wore a similar uniform to Michael but without only a grey strip on the shoulders rather than the grey decorative pauldrons of Michael's which denoted rank.
"What's up, Mike?" she asked.
"Boss wants us to take down that church tower."
"Right. Come on boys and girls, Major Sanford needs us."
Michael gave a small twitch at her calling him by his formal rank to the society footsoldiers, though footsoldier was hardly the word for the highly trained humans who made up the society's numbers, each with their own unique power. Sarah seemed smirk at his discomfort with her addressing him this way and walked past him, squeezing his hand and winking.
"Well, come on major. Don't want to keep those daemons waiting."
"What?" he stammered, flustered by her touch on his hand. "Ah, right. Come on everyone, you don't want to let General A'vron down do you?"
The dozen society soldiers who made up Sarah's team rose to their feet without pause, checking their weapons and ensuring the clips were full. The group then made their way from the room, down those stairs again and out into the alley. They would have to cut through three alleyways to get to the tower without being noticed, fortunately the enemy seemed to be focusing their efforts out in the square.
"So, Sarah was the one?"
"Aye. That she was."
"I don't see how I come into this though."
"I'm getting there."
"Alright, please continue."
The church tower went up like fireworks with its rubble flying in all directions. Michael smirked as the daemons fell back and walked out of the front with Sarah and the team, none of whom they had lost in the fighting. Seth approached them with a smile and clapped both officers on the shoulder.
"Good work."
"Thank you."
"Lieutenant Powell did most of the work."
Sarah nudged him in the ribs at which he flashed a grin. Seth gave them both the once over and shook his head, about to retort he froze in one position as his mind was gripped by a familiar sensation. In the distance there was a burst of energy so large it rose like a pillar and was seen by them even in Edinburgh, despite the source being thousands of miles away in Tokyo.
"What the fuck was that?!" Sarah yelled.
"I know that power. We're moving out, all forces converge on Tokyo immediately."
"Sir?"
"Now, major!"
Michael gave a nod and went about calling all society forces in with orders to use transportation runes to reach Tokyo in a pre-defined set of co-ordinates. Not moments later they were all looking upon inner city Tokyo which was eerily quiet with its streets abandoned making the metropolis little more than a ghost town.
"Why are we here, sir?" Michael asked, cautious because of the look on Seth's face.
"I felt something that shouldn't be here."
"Which is?"
"My father."
"I'm the reason you all went to Tokyo."
"Aye."
"You told me of the battle of Tokyo before in your world. It was where your defeated Baelze in your universe."
"It is. But it is also where Sarah died."
"I see. So if I hadn't emerged, you would never have gone to Tokyo and she would be alive."
"In a manner of speaking. But it's also my own."
"How did she die?"
The battle of Tokyo raged about them as Michael, Sarah and a company of society forces that had been cut off from the main battle held back a daemon regiment around the Hanazono Jinja shrine. Michael sent bursts of telepathic energy to throw daemons away from the shrine stairs, protecting an injured soldier who had taken a daemon sword through the right side of his abdomen.
"Sarah! Take command!" he cried, lifting the soldier up and pulling him into the shrine to get him to the society medic.
Outside, Sarah took charge of the company while Michael saw to the safety of the soldier. They were falling to the daemons but then the daemons too were falling to them, the bodies littering the ground made it difficult to move. The failure of the daemon assault had drawn out of the commander of the regiment attacking them.
Without Michael commanding outside it fell to Sarah to be the target of the daemon officer. He cut a path through the society forces until he loomed over her, at least two feet taller than the already smaller framed woman. They exchanged blows, Sarah's unique ability to wield fire came in useful only briefly as the fire merely angered the enemy.
"Stay here." Michael said, getting up. "You'll be alright."
Quickly he ran out of the shrine on time to see the officer's sabre pierce Sarah's stomach and run her through, Michael gasped and yelled in mixed shock and horror. The officer despite his daemon blood seemed to show a flash of remorse as he looked at Sarah and drew her off his blade, letting her drop to the floor as he turned to face the man who was clearly in charge.
It was Michael's good fortune that this daemon was perhaps somewhat unique, as his company had been killed to the last and now he alone stood before the remainder of the daemon regiment and their leader.
"Regrettable," he said, "I am Colonel Makvhug of the sixty sixth regiment. You command here?"
"Yes," Michael spat the words, angry at the man's disregard for Sarah and the company's lives.
"Yes it is common courtesy for officers to introduce themselves."
"Major Michael Sanford."
"I see. Well Major Sanford, it is also common courtesy for the defeated officer to relinquish his sword."
Michael looked briefly at the sabre which he had not pulled from its scabbard for the entire fight, dropping his gun he took a step forward and pulled the sword out with the point immediately aimed at this Colonel Makvhug.
"If we're playing by those old fashioned rules, then I demand satisfaction."
"Satisfaction? For what?"
"The lieutenant you killed."
"Ah, the girl. Yes, I had thought by the look in your eyes you might. Very well, major."
Makvhug raised the sword that was still stained and wet with Sarah's blood. Michael lifted his sabre and looked directly at Makvhug, their swords clashed several times as both of them appeared to be testing the other. It was probably a testament to how different this daemon was that he fought Michael fairly, a being of his power could crush a human like Michael even despite his psychic powers.
Their duel continued with both skilled swordsmen exchanging continuous blows. The daemons of Makvhug's regiment had vacated the area to rejoin the forced fighting the main society force, which meant Michael and Makvhug were hindered only by those already dead still littering the grounds around the shrine. Finally Michael gained the upper hand, as he parried a blow and darted forward in a daring manoeuvre which could well have gotten him killed.
His sword pierced Makvhug through the stomach just as his foe's blade had pierced Sarah, the sword was enchanted and carved with immortal runes which meant the blow was very much fatal for the daemon colonel.
"You are a rare human," Makvhug panted, his final words as he fell to the ground dead.
Michael rushed to Sarah's body without any regard to his own sword which he simply left impaled in Makvhug's stomach, but when he arrived she was already dead. He brushed some of her sandy blonde hair from her face.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered, though her ears no longer heard. "I did love you, I was just stubborn."
"So you did love her."
"That's beside the point now."
"But you said you almost fell in love, yet you just admitted to me you said you did love her."
Michael bit the inside of his lip and placed his burned down cigarette in the ash tray on the table, standing from his armchair and looking down at Isaan still in his.
"I have work to do," he said, then left Isaan sat there looking half-amused and half-sorry for the man.