Title: Pearl of Great Price Author: Kat Solano Email: orchydd@hotmail.com Rating: PG-13 Keywords: Action, Clan Denial admirer Characters: DM, M, J, RR, lots of OFC's Summary & Disclaimer in 0/5 ****************************************** ~*~*~ Rydr burst through the deadly tangle of branches, flowers, and tree sap. If he’d been a mortal, he’d have died at least twice by now if the amount of blood fertilizing the soil was any indication. He kept one eye and a Brakka on the suddenly quiet tree line and the other ahead to the farmhouse. He pressed down on the mic at his throat. “Ffayz, ye all right, lass?” The answer came through a bit breathlessly. “Running. Catch you up.” Rydr broke into a sprint, both guns still firmly in hand. He could see people milling about the main house and pouring out of the barn. They fell into ranks pretty quickly, the first two rows shouldering their rifles. Eight dozen big black holes staring down at him. Rydr took a deep breath. If Ffayz didn’t get here soon, he was going to be in a lot of pain. ~*~*~ Ffayz burst through the tree line just in time to see Rydr at a dead run. She cursed under her breath. “Yeah, yeah, waiting for me to save your ass again, aren’t you, MacLeod?” Forming a ward spell in her hand, she took a flying leap and threw it out and down towards her partner. She saw him give her a thumbs-up sign just as she landed. The spell had covered him in a pale blue light and would be good enough protection for ten minutes or a shot from bazooka, whichever came first. “Take the back door,” he commanded, “I’ll keep these people busy.” “Cocky Scot.” “Aye, would ye like a wee peek?” “Not even if you paid me in diamonds.” Ffayz unhooked the holster on her own hand-blaster out. Weak hand for the firearm, strong one for the spell casting: Witch/Warlock Battle Tactics 101. The spell threw the front door off of its hinges, flattening a couple of people on the way in. The stun gun took care of the ones that came down the stairs. As another follower barrelled through a threshold, Ffayz yanked her collar and used a spell to pin her arms up behind her back. The man spat at her feet. “Where’s the Pearl?” Ffayz yelled. “Go to hell!” the followed retorted. His eyes were all iris and the sclera stained yellow. They glowed with a menacing light. “Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, rode the guided tourbus.” She added the sensation of a knife at digging about his insides. “Let’s try that again. Shall we?” “Never, hellspawn! You cannot disturb the order! You cannot destroy perfection! You cannot--!” “Oh, jeez, shut _up_ already!” Ffayz popped him a short burst of the stun ray. “I hate fanatics, I really, really, really do.” She looked at the stairs. It led both to the second floor and the basement. ::If I were an artefact in the hands of a group dedicated to social cleansing, where would I be?:: Up. Switching her gun to blast, she shot a good-sized hold in the roof and jumped through. Four guns and two knives greeted her on the way up. The ward took care of the bullets but the effects of ricochets were horrendous. Ffayz tuned herself out of it, focusing on the magickal throb of the Dragon’s Pearl. “Done yet?” Rydr gasped through the comme-link, “I beginning tae think these folk dinna like me!” “Nag, nag, nag.” Ffayz flew into the next room, a bedroom: still nothing. “I’m working on it.” “Well, by all means, take yuir own sweet time about it.” “I will, thanks.” “Dinna mention--“ The rest of his sentence was cut off, presumably since he ran out of breath. The next bedroom: still nothing but another half-dozen bad people with big guns. Ffayz shut that door and reflexively ducked away from the rain of high velocity projectiles than came through the door. Inadvertently, she rammed into the bathroom... ...and was almost knocked out by the power of the Pearl. “The bathroom.” She rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah, I’m definitely going to insist on being assigned to the Ethos next time.” In place of the tub, a huge tank sat on the far end. Thick, translucent red liquid burbled inside. The basketball-sized Pearl bobbed in the tank. The heat of it drew tears in Ffayz’s eyes. “Found it!” she coughed to Rydr. “And now you’ve lost it.” Whirling around, Ffayz found herself on the business end of a spear. Four spears actually. The glowing, pale faces of Casteleau, Castevent, Castebrise and Casteglace met her dropped jaw. “You are about to meet your rightful end, Xeno,” Castebrise sang. Ffayz held her hands up, sighing, “Didn’t I cream your face in a couple months ago? What does it take to get rid of you guys?” The four tittered in merry harmony. “Perhaps you begin to see the futility of your Balance,” Casteleau said, “There can be only the Sot’é or the Ethos in power.” “And we guarantee,” Castevent ended, “Those Ethos scum will not win.” “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Ffayz rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you guys probably don’t want to know that you have the same script-writer as those ‘Ethos scum,’ yeah?” Castevent backhanded her. Or at least, tried to. Ffayz’s ward was still in effect; the Caelum’s hand bounced right off with a sharp zap of electricity. That gave Ffayz enough time to shatter the tank holding the Pearl and attach herself on the ceiling where the acidic fluid wouldn’t be able to touch her. The four Caelum quickly built up their own protections: a press of a button and they were covered head to toe in clear armour. Ffayz and Castevent reached for the Pearl at the same time. Castebrise threw a heat-blade through her spear but again, it bounced off of Ffayz’s ward. The amount of energy it took to keep three spells going was taxing the witch’s strength, however. This time, the blade stopped a scant six inches from her hand. Castebrise didn’t miss this; she signalled for the others to keep shooting. Ffayz cursed. Given a choice, she would rather let go of the ceiling but the red fluid would burn her into a messy blob; the ward only worked against _direct_ attacks on her person. If she warded herself against everything, the Pearl wouldn’t be able to get through the ward either. Kicking the Pearl was out of the question-- besides the fact that there was no telling which way the Pearl would go, kicking an energy-filled artefact was just Not Done. It was akin to playing Hot Potato with a time bomb. “Here I come tae save the day!” The green-yellow blast of a Brakka took out the top half of Casteleau’s head. Another blast cut off his spear-hand. Casteglace twisted around to meet Rydr. “About time!” Ffayz yelled. “Nag, nag, nag,” retorted her partner. His two Brakkas were going like mad; Caelum body parts were flying all over the small room. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to stop them. The headless, armless Casteleau was wriggling his way to the Immortal, three small bumps signalling the regrowth of his limbs. Casteglace managed to reach Rydr, attaching her teeth into his calf. “Sonuva_bitch_!” yelped the Immortal. He shot off both her arms and sliced her neck, but her head kept right on chewing. “Dammitall!” Rydr took out a short sword and hacked her off. “Ffayz! Give me some good news!” “I’m workin’ on it!” Ffayz, having leapt clear of the acid now, was fighting Castevent and Castebrise for the Pearl which was rolling down the hall. She searched her memory for something that would put the Caelum out of commission for at least ten minutes. Even just five minutes, please Goddess, just five! “Ffaaaaaaaaaaaaaayz!” She pinched off two bits of clay. Rolling them around in her hands, she spoke two spells, one of adhesiveness, and another for implosion. Then, Ffayz did something truly insane: she took off her ward. As the Caelum came at her, she ducked down into a crouch, arms out. The clay stuck fast on their robes. Then, she spoke her ward back on, doing several backward rolls until she was goon five feet away from both Castevent and Castebrise. “Rydr! Duck!” The Scotsman tipped himself over the railing and onto the first floor, forcing Casteleau and Casteglace to follow. Snarling, Castevent reached out to snatch at Ffayz’s hair. But he found that his arm was immobile. Or, more precisely, his arm was being dragged towards his body. With a gasp, he looked down. Where the piece of clay had attached itself, a tiny hole had formed. His clothing was slowly being sucked in, then the strands of his long white hair, his skin, his muscle tissue... all being wrenched into the hole. Frantically, he looked towards Castebrise only to see that she was already half-gone. “May you be in eternal pain!” he cursed at Ffayz. Grinning widely, the witch only fluttered his fingers at him. “Buh-bye!” The Caelum’s last sight was Ffayz hugging the Pearl to her breast and kissing it. _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.