peryton

[shesepankh]

Summer vacation elapses, and sees their storefront doing one heck of a business in the Avalon with the help of their griffin employee. There is a suggestion box for new spells they should invent, some of which have to be long-term projects but others of which are converted into new product fairly promptly.

School starts up again. Darren and Bella are both skipping straight into twelfth grade. (Bella looked into just starting college early, but while she does technically have the sort of resume that can lead to that kind of thing, she can't exactly write an essay about how she saved the life of another person and this caused her to have Moral Character, let alone about how she started a small business - so skipping one grade it is.)

They apply to colleges. They both get into University of Washington and get sufficient scholarships to accommodate both going there.

Summer ensues again.

One afternoon, Bella is over at Darren's, and has fallen asleep - in purring fullform - across his lap on the couch.

Comments

[morethanimaginary]

"You wanna explain the torture equipment to the ambulance?" hisses Savannah. "Because I don't. Just - carry me out, I need cell reception, I know someone that can help -"

[alicornucopia]

"Paramedics won't have to go far enough in to see anything," argues one of the guards.

"Do you know how to get the dark thing someplace they won't see it, though?" asks one of the others.

"...Point. Boss? How do we control the dark thing?"

[morethanimaginary]

Fuck.

"You won't be able to," she says, thinking on her feet. "Too complicated - I've got it, but I have to be close, drag me to it, I'll get it. Then - paramedics."

[alicornucopia]

"Right then," and they move towards her voice.

[morethanimaginary]

"Some of you - I need you to check on the anti magic field, if it's intact that's where we need to be, paramedics or no, I don't know if the sphinxes are still here."

Meanwhile, in Savannah's head - maniacal laughter. It's working, it's working. Ha.

[alicornucopia]

"Garcia, Johns," says the guard in charge, "you get him, we'll check the antimagic."

Garcia and Johns obligingly peel off towards Savannah.

[morethanimaginary]

How nice of them.

Savannah just needs to wait until the other guards are out of sight, and then she swoops around and glides behind the two of them, landing on quiet shoes. She has the absurd urge to say, "I am the night" but then she realizes where that's from and decides that she's been spending too much time with her brother. The nerdiness is spreading.

She stalks the one in the rear, and then when the other's eyeing something else - slice. One more, down. One to go, then she deals with the other group.

[alicornucopia]

The other group knows where the antimagic field is. The entrance to it is - right behind Darren and Bella, actually.

They're invisible, but the ice isn't.

"What the hell -"

[morethanimaginary]

Savannah takes care of the second guard, and then she's in the air and heading towards Darren -

[castmyown]

Darren barely dares to breathe.

He needs to shield himself and Bella from gunfire, but - but they'll hear him if he chants. So he stays absolutely still and just - waits. To see what they'll do.

[alicornucopia]

"Sphinxes?" asks a guard dubiously.

"Doing what? Well, step careful."

They go over the ice, step by step.

[morethanimaginary]

Savannah - doesn't know if Darren's inside that ice circle, but she has suspicions. That wasn't an accident, he deliberately did that, it must have been to protect himself and Bella from the ink monster. Worth giving up the element of surprise if it means her brother doesn't get shot.

"We're doing stuff," says Savannah, in her own voice, from behind them in the air, adding a laugh for theatrics. "The others are gone with her, we win, fuck you. You can tell 'cause of the ice circle, for future reference, it means they teleported."

[alicornucopia]

Now there are guns firing in her general direction.

[morethanimaginary]

Of course there are. She expected that. She expected that, right? Fuck, this was a bad idea. Darren owes her one.

One of her wings catches a bullet, and she hisses and uses the other to - spin to the floor, shifting mid-way to full human to get her delicate wings out of the way of any more harm. She's had better landings, certainly, but this one's hard to hear over the gunfire.

She hopes to hell Darren is actually there and can use the distraction she just bought him.

[castmyown]

Darren is both there, and he can use this to his advantage.

A scroll, a mumbled chant, and then - the guards are all on fire.

[alicornucopia]

They stop, drop, and roll.

[morethanimaginary]

That's time enough for Savannah to get another knife and - well, rush in to do some stabbing while they are dealing with this 'on fire' problem.

"No AoEs!" she growls, for Darren to hear. Then she realizes what she just said, as she is slicing open a guard's throat. Oh, hell, it is spreading, she's becoming a nerd, too, she just used a word that Darren would use and used it perfectly. She'll nerd out every full moon and go running off to live in a basement or something. Great, just great.

[alicornucopia]

When one of them sees another's throat opening up he gets up, still slightly on fire, and tackles the general area Savannah's in.

[morethanimaginary]

Oof. Down Savannah goes.

She struggles, and then she starts trying to stab her attacker.

[alicornucopia]

He's still got a gun, although he's sort of unclear on what to aim at.

Bang.

[morethanimaginary]

It hits her shoulder. Ow.

Savannah, unlike the guard, has a much better idea of what to aim at. Knife, knife to heart, knife to face, knife to literally anything she can reach, get the gun away from her she doesn't want to die.

[castmyown]

Darren has finally retrieved another scroll that will not blow his sister up along with the other guards -

Chant, chant, and a guard goes down from having a very severe case of brain freeze.

[alicornucopia]

Death. Death.

One live'un left.

He isn't on fire anymore; he scrambles over the ice towards the source of Darren's voice, firing.

[castmyown]

Darren abruptly realizes that he probably should have created a shield before speaking and letting people know he's here. This is about the same time that a bullet enters his right arm. Ow. Pain. Lots of it.

[morethanimaginary]

Savannah shoves the corpse off of her, huffing and ignoring the pain in her shoulder -

Darren.

She doesn't think, she just reacts, and then there is a knife in her hand. Then it ceases to be in her hand, because it's buried in the guard's back. Then she retrieves her kill's gun, because she is officially pissed and if they touch her brother they get to die with extreme prejudice.

And then she gets up, and she stalks over to the guard, and she shoots him.

Over. And over. And over. Until she is out of bullets.