Tower Offence (part 22)
Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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8th November 2012
12:43 GMT -5
Quinn doesn't say anything; he just raises his sceptre and makes the Order-aligned crystals shine in an attempt-.
Purple clouds leap from the lower portion of the room, ripping apart Quinn's shields and forcing him to tighten the protective spells around his body. There's a tremendous-
KLANGKLUNK!
-noise above us as Dr. Balewa finishes ripping through main support and the whole assemblage slips sideways, slamming the platforms rotating around in into side platforms and armatures! The armatures respond by snapping, portions of the machine-.
I grab and catch the wheel The Demon Constantine was bound to with a construct claw and throw it aside.
Dr. Balewa shimmers and vanishes as the magic discharges in earnest, and I-. I dash to the side of the chamber, raising construct shields and trying to track pieces of falling machinery and exploding crystals.
Alan takes cover next to me a moment later.
"Did we win?"
"I hope so, because I can't think of another way to-."
A giant golden arrow manifests and flies at my shield! My eyes widen as I deploy a flak construct and Alan adds a shield of his own before it hits. The flak shot does nothing and the Order arrow is spinning as it starts fracturing our combined shields!
Fine. FEED-.
Warning! Low Power.
Um. Okay, yes, that does rather thrash the batteries. Ah.
I use filaments to wire my construct into my tattoos and pull, the arrow weakening as I pull the Order into my soul. I'm a little uncomfortable at the idea, but I don't think that being a little more orderly will do me much harm. The fracturing slows-.
Alan drops his shield, manifests a 100 ton weight construct just above it and drops it. The arrow is crushed, raw undifferentiated magic exploding outwards in a form my shield can easily cope with.
Another lump of machinery lands hard next to our corner of the room with a CRASH and a wince from us.
And then, quiet.
Not silence. Some of the crystals are still in the middle of discharging. I see one cluster break together and reform a lump of metal into a series of perfect cuboids, causing the loose wreckage above to fall a little further.
Cautiously, Alan and I float up and towards the centre of the room. One of the major platforms has wedged the central shaft against the side of the chamber, preventing the entrance area from getting buried. Still, that doesn't look stable.
"Everyone dead!?"
Alan gives me a mild glare, looking decidedly put out. "Paul."
"Between the immortal wizard and the man made of Dream sand, it's really more a matter of working out what happened to them and bringing them back. If anyone has died, it'll be the Johns."
I sigh.
Yes, Demon John II was an arse who actively tried to betray us, but he didn't commit the crimes that Demon John I did so I shouldn't lump the two of them together. And given that they weren't the same person, we put him in prison and ended his relationship with Ms Ryan and dragged him on a mission which stood a good chance of killing him without just cause.
That's on us.
"What do you think Quinn meant?"
"I'm not sure."
I look through the wreckage for any sign of life. Nothing right now, though I can see dream mist through the gaps in the wreckage. Okay, calculate the load-bearing qualities-.
Are the walls getting closer?
Confirmed.
"Alan, the room is shrinking. Most likely due to the fact that the crystals are broken and so the room isn't channelling power anymore."
He nods. "Yeah, I noticed. My ring can calculate how I can shift this stuff around-." His eyes flicker blue. "Thought as much."
A crane construct hauls a snapped-off part of a platform out of the way, while a construct blowtorch welds a girder to the snapped shaft to create a solid 'ceiling'.
"You remember what 'we' sounded like when I merged with the Ophidian for the first time? How we thought and acted?"
"Yeah, I remember."
"I guess it was the same thing. With parts of his mind dropped off in another body, things that… Wouldn't have made sense to him normally suddenly made perfect sense."
"John Constantine's the sort of man who might decide that the universe shouldn't exist? I mean, I… I talked with John Quinn several times. He seemed like a good guy. And that… Our demon John didn't."
"He had the run of the Earth since breaking out of Belle Reve, and the worst thing he did was pretend to be someone else while trying to woo his old girlfriend. If I was more self-absorbed, I can't imagine that I'd have killed a fraction as many people as I have." he looks-. "They were all bad. But the point is that if you don't feel strongly about things, there's no motivation to do anything really bad. Cut away a chunk of someone's mind and they decide some strange things. Decide to do things that they wouldn't do in a normal state of mind."
"Ah…"
Dr. Balewa shimmers into being, his skin knitted back together but his clothing still burned. He takes a moment to catch his breath, then looks at us.
"Are you well?"
Alan nods, digging deeper towards the last known location of John Quinn.
"Think so. What happened to the Johns?"
"Arcane diffusion. He should be-."
"A little help down here?"
I send out claw and excavator constructs, pulling apart rubble and detritus until there's a clear path to the lower portion of the room.
Sanderson clambers out, carrying a bruised and battered…
Well, he's in the blue and gold getup that Quinn was wearing, Helmet strapped to Sanderson's equipment harness. But the face isn't Quinn; it's too careworn and the hairline has receded. I mean, I can see parts of Quinn, but parts of The Golden Man and the Demons as well.
In short, it looks like John.
But to check, I look at Dr. Balewa. He holds out his hands for a moment, then nods.
"I believe thet it is him. But I think that we should evacuate before making a definite evaluation."
12:43 GMT -5
Quinn doesn't say anything; he just raises his sceptre and makes the Order-aligned crystals shine in an attempt-.
Purple clouds leap from the lower portion of the room, ripping apart Quinn's shields and forcing him to tighten the protective spells around his body. There's a tremendous-
KLANGKLUNK!
-noise above us as Dr. Balewa finishes ripping through main support and the whole assemblage slips sideways, slamming the platforms rotating around in into side platforms and armatures! The armatures respond by snapping, portions of the machine-.
I grab and catch the wheel The Demon Constantine was bound to with a construct claw and throw it aside.
Dr. Balewa shimmers and vanishes as the magic discharges in earnest, and I-. I dash to the side of the chamber, raising construct shields and trying to track pieces of falling machinery and exploding crystals.
Alan takes cover next to me a moment later.
"Did we win?"
"I hope so, because I can't think of another way to-."
A giant golden arrow manifests and flies at my shield! My eyes widen as I deploy a flak construct and Alan adds a shield of his own before it hits. The flak shot does nothing and the Order arrow is spinning as it starts fracturing our combined shields!
Fine. FEED-.
Warning! Low Power.
Um. Okay, yes, that does rather thrash the batteries. Ah.
I use filaments to wire my construct into my tattoos and pull, the arrow weakening as I pull the Order into my soul. I'm a little uncomfortable at the idea, but I don't think that being a little more orderly will do me much harm. The fracturing slows-.
Alan drops his shield, manifests a 100 ton weight construct just above it and drops it. The arrow is crushed, raw undifferentiated magic exploding outwards in a form my shield can easily cope with.
Another lump of machinery lands hard next to our corner of the room with a CRASH and a wince from us.
And then, quiet.
Not silence. Some of the crystals are still in the middle of discharging. I see one cluster break together and reform a lump of metal into a series of perfect cuboids, causing the loose wreckage above to fall a little further.
Cautiously, Alan and I float up and towards the centre of the room. One of the major platforms has wedged the central shaft against the side of the chamber, preventing the entrance area from getting buried. Still, that doesn't look stable.
"Everyone dead!?"
Alan gives me a mild glare, looking decidedly put out. "Paul."
"Between the immortal wizard and the man made of Dream sand, it's really more a matter of working out what happened to them and bringing them back. If anyone has died, it'll be the Johns."
I sigh.
Yes, Demon John II was an arse who actively tried to betray us, but he didn't commit the crimes that Demon John I did so I shouldn't lump the two of them together. And given that they weren't the same person, we put him in prison and ended his relationship with Ms Ryan and dragged him on a mission which stood a good chance of killing him without just cause.
That's on us.
"What do you think Quinn meant?"
"I'm not sure."
I look through the wreckage for any sign of life. Nothing right now, though I can see dream mist through the gaps in the wreckage. Okay, calculate the load-bearing qualities-.
Are the walls getting closer?
Confirmed.
"Alan, the room is shrinking. Most likely due to the fact that the crystals are broken and so the room isn't channelling power anymore."
He nods. "Yeah, I noticed. My ring can calculate how I can shift this stuff around-." His eyes flicker blue. "Thought as much."
A crane construct hauls a snapped-off part of a platform out of the way, while a construct blowtorch welds a girder to the snapped shaft to create a solid 'ceiling'.
"You remember what 'we' sounded like when I merged with the Ophidian for the first time? How we thought and acted?"
"Yeah, I remember."
"I guess it was the same thing. With parts of his mind dropped off in another body, things that… Wouldn't have made sense to him normally suddenly made perfect sense."
"John Constantine's the sort of man who might decide that the universe shouldn't exist? I mean, I… I talked with John Quinn several times. He seemed like a good guy. And that… Our demon John didn't."
"He had the run of the Earth since breaking out of Belle Reve, and the worst thing he did was pretend to be someone else while trying to woo his old girlfriend. If I was more self-absorbed, I can't imagine that I'd have killed a fraction as many people as I have." he looks-. "They were all bad. But the point is that if you don't feel strongly about things, there's no motivation to do anything really bad. Cut away a chunk of someone's mind and they decide some strange things. Decide to do things that they wouldn't do in a normal state of mind."
"Ah…"
Dr. Balewa shimmers into being, his skin knitted back together but his clothing still burned. He takes a moment to catch his breath, then looks at us.
"Are you well?"
Alan nods, digging deeper towards the last known location of John Quinn.
"Think so. What happened to the Johns?"
"Arcane diffusion. He should be-."
"A little help down here?"
I send out claw and excavator constructs, pulling apart rubble and detritus until there's a clear path to the lower portion of the room.
Sanderson clambers out, carrying a bruised and battered…
Well, he's in the blue and gold getup that Quinn was wearing, Helmet strapped to Sanderson's equipment harness. But the face isn't Quinn; it's too careworn and the hairline has receded. I mean, I can see parts of Quinn, but parts of The Golden Man and the Demons as well.
In short, it looks like John.
But to check, I look at Dr. Balewa. He holds out his hands for a moment, then nods.
"I believe thet it is him. But I think that we should evacuate before making a definite evaluation."
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Couldn't happen to a nicer fellow. And while he's pressed like that, he won't be as able to strike out at them. At least the other John knows his stuff, and isn't afraid to use it.
