IC 2077 Pt 2
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IC 2077 Pt 2
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“Right on, baby,” Al said. “I knew all that. Was jist testin’ ya. You’ll be happy ta know ya passed. So ya gon’ talk all day or we goin’ in?”
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I nodded and shrugged: “I’ll take the lead. With a bit of luck, my mundane ass won’t even be picked up and as long as you don’t assense you are probably saf-ish too. Sian, you’ll most likely be hit, but your hunger or virus or whatever it is in your dimension should keep your mind safe long enough to get a good look on the other side. Just don’t ripp my head off when I pull you back.”
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Al understood all the things Shrike was saying intellectually, but had no experience to help him conceptualize the threats he was talking about. So he figured they must be no big deal. Besides….”Well hell, amigo, if not bein’ a Satanist counts fer something, then ol’ Al’s gon’ be yer star player. Granted, my personal bubble ain’t crowded with bad juju like some folks I know, but reckon I got a clean bill o’ health in the arcane department, Her best enticements notwithstandin’.”
And then, as if referring to Her brought Her running, there She was standing on a limestone outcropping near the edge of the police tape. Tongue hanging out, dumb grin on Her face. She yipped once, offering. But it wasn’t worth his soul, and he knew the voodoo gods wouldn’t appreciate it.
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Sian nods, her face not giving up her thoughts. “I am ready, my friend. My dual nature may be both a blessing and a curse in this situation. Pull me back when you think you need to and I will promise to not take it personally, even if it hurts.” She smiles to punctuate her comments and readies herself.
284
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[Evening, Thursday March 25, 2077; Underground Caverns nr Devil’s Den, Yellowstone Park, Sioux Lands]
The next few steps were like stepping in to a virtual syphon as mana, wildly fluctuating on one side suddenly disappeared somewhere in the space of a heartbeat. For all, even Shrike, it was as if the air suddenly dropped in temperature by several degrees (impossible in an underground setting)…and then there were the whispers…they started sporadically and grew in intensity until they were scratching at the back of the ears…except they weren’t really there as no digital device could detect them. Sian should have lost all her gifts in the presence of a mana void this strong, and yet somehow she could see the astral still overlaid on her vision…they were standing on the edge of an impossibly vast chasm…and on the other side…something…something terrible and glorious… and the whispers grew…
#93
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“Ah yes, I think we have reached the place.” I replied. The whispers sounded muffled to my mind and although I couldn’t understand what they said, it was both enticing and somehow horrible. Now was the time to take the plunge and keep your head about it…
“Whatever you can do to steel your mind, do it now. And whatever you do, don’t think of a pink rhinoceros…” -
Sian laughs loudly. “Damn you, Shrike! There are pink rhinoceros all over the place, now.” She calms herself down and does a good cleansing to give her whatever edge she can get. “Does everyone else see the impossibly vast chasm in front of us, or is it just me?”
285
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“Yup, baby. Big ass fuckin’ chasm. Yer basic bottomless pit sorta thing. I can see that. It’s the other shit I can’t quite make out.”
Al figured Shrike’s advice meant he was supposed to think of pink rhinos. But just to be contrarian, he thought of purple baby harp seals with green polka dots. Not that it mattered – he guessed that the idea was to keep the mind focused on something other than the whispers.
The trick was, he couldn’t quite make out what the whispers were saying. Or what the thing on the other side of the chasm was. Which had to be what the other side was after – get him curious enough, just get him to reach out, meet them halfway with a mental query. So that was the thing to ignore.
Except that he was curious. Of course he’d disregard it as soon as he satisfied the morbid desire to just know what it was. Sure, they were counting on some cocky know-it-all thinking that way. But they weren’t counting on him. So he decided to just take a quick peek, a quick moment of….
And then he remembered the thing from the island. The thing that still haunted his dreams. If something like that was on the other side of these alluring riddles, he wanted to part of it. If something like that was on the other side of these bewitching enticements, then the world couldn’t afford his curiousity.
He went back to the psychedelic baby harp seals.
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[Evening, Thursday March 25, 2077; Underground Caverns nr Devil’s Den, Yellowstone Park, Sioux Lands]
Pink rhinos and psychedelic seals aside there was something about the other side that drew the gaze, even with the firmest will set against it. The overriding impression was of age, deep deep age, eyes watching, far too many eyes…and teeth, lots and lots of teeth. The whispered blandishments were still incomprehensible but they seemed to promise so much…knowledge, knowledge and power…
As the team reviewed their edge of the chasm they could see that it was almost universally flat with no sudden outcroppings or bridges, as if something or someone had walked it time and time again and smoothed away any projections…so much for the theory of triangulating the spikes with real world locations, somebody had been flattening them out, presumably, hopefully, as fast as they could be built…
#94
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“Well, not that I had hoped to find a bridge, but it seems this was kind of a waste of energy after all. Unless this is an elaborate deception.
Somehow the trapmaker has come into our world, so there should be at least one spike to be found.”
I voiced my thoughts – partly to inform my comrades and partly to drone out the whispers in my head. -
Sian
Evening, Thursday March 25, 2077; Underground Caverns nr Devil’s Den, Yellowstone Park, Sioux LandsSian nods. “A bridge would be nice, but probably too much to expect. I am a bit wary of using spells to cross over, just in case there is some sort of mana shift out over the chasm. I suppose that I can try to shape the earth here to create a bridge?”
286
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“NOOOO! No, Bridges. I repeat, do not create bridges. Bad, bad things happen to this reality if there is a bridge to over there.”
That came out a bit more vehement than my usual easygoing self, but I deemed that situation to be appropriate to ramp up the drama a bit. After all, I did not fancy being with the group that called the scourge back early… -
Sian
Evening, Thursday March 25, 2077; Underground Caverns nr Devil’s Den, Yellowstone Park, Sioux LandsSian smiles. “OK, no bridges. So how do we stick our head through a portal to try to determine where other such dangerous portals may exist?”
287
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“Seems ta me we come here ta find, what? The starts o’ bridges or beacons or spikes inna freaksomeness or somethin’, right. An’ even though we was figurin’ on findin’ some, they ain’t none. So could be they’s some Lovecraftian ne’er-do-well here with us on this side, goin’ round an’ erasin’ all the signs. Hell, they gone ta the trouble o’ neutralizin’ the Choir, they could certainly’ve thought o’ this too.”
It was time to see if cigarettes worked in this reality. A flip of his Zippo later and he was delighted to find that they did. Exhaling thoughtfully, he said, “So what say we go see if we can find this rascal. Anyway, we come here, we’d best take a good look around. What? Ya expect ever’thin’ ta jist pop out at ya with a neon welcome sign the first moment ya took a gander?”
And with that he started moving along the chasm edge, focusing on the ground for any sign of passage by anything….else.
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[Evening, Thursday March 25, 2077; Underground Caverns nr Devil’s Den, Yellowstone Park, Sioux Lands]
As if summoned by talk of bridges, or perhaps just the act of looking, from the distance the team saw a nightmarish figure approaching them along their side of the chasm. It was a tall humanoid figure with a dark hooded coat shielding its visage. As it got closer they could see that its chest was a mass of cybernetics and what little flesh could be seen was pale and sallow, almost zombie like. The clawed cyber hands were down by its sides but it was the glowing Aztech runes that really drew their attention…
#95
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Sian
Evening, Thursday March 25, 2077; Underground Caverns near Devil’s Den, Yellowstone Park, Sioux LandsSian gives the approaching form a good look then shakes her head. “That thing remind anyone of anything, say, Boston, perhaps? It is not Zig or Zag, but it might be a brother of some sort. How close do we let it get?”
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“Exactly this close.” I had lifted my shotgun unconsciously and gauged the distance. It didn’t matter to me if this was a hallucination or a real foe. “reconnaissance by fire” was a true and tried tactic after all. I sent a welcome greeting with a tripple shot of armor piercing death aimed to penetrate this things likely considerable armor.
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Al’s thinking went like this:
If Shrike’s shot was effective, then another round from Al’s rifle would be redundant.
If Shrike’s shot was ineffective, then another shot would likely be pointless, or in any case could be taken in a half second from now when they knew more.
And if Shrike’s shot was ineffective and, they learned, ill advised – as in, this was someone useful to talk to – then Al would have the luxury of being able to say he’d never fired at the guy.
So he unlimbered his rifle, sucked on his cigarette, and watched what happened.
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Sian
Evening, Thursday March 25, 2077; Underground Caverns near Devil’s Den, Yellowstone Park, Sioux LandsSian watched the action unfold and readied sacred blade, but made no overt hostile action, waiting to see if Shrike had called it right. Besides, her attacks would be limited to close in and she does not want to race out into what might be withering friendly fire.
289
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[Evening, Thursday March 25, 2077; Chasm, the Metaplanes somewhere]
Shrike’s salvo hurtled towards the cyberzombie with a thunderous roar, bang on centre mass…but with the merest twitch of one hand they suddenly careened off in a new direction as the air rippled in to a semblance of solidity meters from their target…since when could fragging cyberzombies cast deflection spells? The hand clenched and suddenly Shrike was being wrestled for control of his weapon as an unseen telekinetic force attempted to hurl the offending firearm in to the chasm beside them…although her usual view of the astral was distorted by this place Sian could see the spell and recognise that it was cast with prodigious force that barely dimmed on contact with the void around Shrike
Spoiler:#96
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