Doubled Edge 9a/10

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Doubled Edge by Katt Solano
Disclaimers & further hoopla in part 0
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
University of Hilo
Hilo, Hawaii...

Jetblayd came awake with a jerk, his tanto already out from under his pillow
and in his hand. He shook his head hard; he felt as if something had thrown
his astral body back into the corporeal one with a catapult. His senses
hummed, honed by years of training and Joyce's residual tele-empathy. With a
whispered spell, he was dressed in his armour, weapons tucked in their
proper places. He drew three throwing balls from his pouch, for his shaking
hands to fiddle with as much as they were for the enemy.

Plastering his body against the wall beside the door, Jetblayd pushed the
door open with his katana. The sizzling bite of a Caelum spear hissed Past
his arm, the spear itself embedded in the wall.

"Noohuat(1)," he swore, putting feeling into each guttural vowel. John. If
those spawn of were-cockroaches hurt John, no force on Earth was going to
keep him from unleashing all the wonderfully horrible things he knew crawled
just under his psyche.

Jetblayd crouched down and peered around the corner of the threshold. Four,
no, five Caelum were gathered in his living room. One stood over John who
was, thankfully, still asleep. Jetblayd prayed that he would stay that was
for just a few minutes longer. His parents had to rely
on the local fae for transportation since no portals opened into this place
at this moment. He just had to keep John and his blades safe until they
came.

No problem. There were only-- Jetblayd took another quick look-- eight
Caelum. He could take on eight.

The first throwing ball was solid. Jetblayd charged it and let it rip
through the bigger gaggle of Caelum. The explosion threw five of them all
over the room, waking John up. The teenager gaped at the vampiric faces that
surrounded him. Then he let out the granddaddy of all bellows.

The scream pushed Connor's blood to the limit. "Johnny!" He ran to the
deck-- to Hell with keeping hidden! Two of the Caelum split from the
peripheral guard to meet him. Connor sliced into the belly of the male and
whacked off the arm of the female without breaking his stride. Vaulting over
the low railing of the deck, he threw off the attack of another Caelum only
to be met with a seven footer with a wicked looking spear.

Hooked-back blades ran down the first foot of his spear and, if the way he
handled it was any indication, they were not just for decoration. Connor
feinted to the right then crouched down at the last minute and lunged his
katana up. It was blocked and thrown off, the force landing Connor hard on
his ass.

"Did you think I would be fooled by that move again, Highlander?" Without
waiting for an answer, the Caelum hurled the head of his spear down,
intending to attach Connor to the wooden floor through his forehead. Connor
rolled away clear to the other side of the deck then threw his arm back into
a vicious back-slash.

Sparks flew. Connor's triceps screamed; the Caelum was a _lot_ stronger than
he looked. Grunting with the effort, Connor let his arm fall forward, making
the spear slip down to the ground, and kicked back. There was a Satisfying
crunch as his foot split a bone in half. But he didn't get a chance to
savour that victory before the Caelum twisted around and planted his foot
between Connor's ribs.

"Do _not_ underestimate Castevent," hissed his foe, "I defeated you once. I
can defeat you again."

Connor coughed. "Thanks for the tip. Did I show you this move?" He slammed
his fist in the Caelum's instep. When the monster stepped back, Connor
uncurled his body and brought his sword up. It burrowed into the dense
muscles of Castevent's upper thigh and wedged into the bone. Connor yanked
but it wouldn't budge.

"Shit," muttered the Highlander. Then he ducked back just in time to miss
the sharp blade headed for his jugular. Castevent's fist pummelled into the
side of his head instead, throwing him through the glass doors. He landed on
the shards. ::Ignore the itch, ignore the itch.:: Connor rolled to his feet
and searched for a weapon.

"Duck!" Beauregard bellowed.

Connor didn't question the order. He flopped back on the ground and covered
his head. He heard the roar of an explosion and felt heat sting his newly
healed back. ::Ignore the throbbing, ignore the throbbing.:: His trenchcoat
was probably dead. Damn, he _liked_ this trenchcoat. Castevent's arm landed
inches away, still clutching the spear. Connor grabbed it just in time to
parry a sword intent on separating his head from his shoulders. A quick
thrust and twist into the Caelum's abdomen and he was incapacitated enough
to let Connor back up on his feet.

"Where's Johnny?" he demanded of Jetblayd.

"My room," came the reply, "Safe." Somehow, Connor knew the boy hadn't used
his voice. It was like he had spoken in his head, like Ramirez and Nakano
when they were feeling mischievous. Besides, Jetblayd didn't look capable of
speaking at the moment; his teeth were bared and his jaw clenched as he
fought off the four Caelum who had ganged up on him. His katana parried and
sliced so quickly it could barely be tracked by the naked eye. Every once in
a while, he would throw glowing balls that exploded in mid-air.

Connor evaded an oncoming spear and threw his body into a responding cut. To
his surprise, it was Castevent blocked it. With Connor's own katana, too!
The Caelum smiled, his thin grey lips wide and ugly.

"What does it take to kill you?" panted Connor.

"Much more than you have, Immortal." He thrust again. Connor sidestepped it,
twisting his body around and down and managed to cut into the Caelum's arm.
Not giving him time to recover, Connor turned again, this time throwing the
head of the spear upward. The blade scored deep in the Caelum's chest. The
Highlander managed two more slices before a female Caelum plunged a Dagger
in his side. He was about to roll over and give her a taste of her own
medicine but one of Jetblayd's throwing balls got her in the face.

::Keep them away from John!:: the Xeno screamed in his mind.

Connor had had the same idea all along. He realized that Jetblayd had
purposely led most of the Caelum away from the bedroom door. He didn't care
about keeping the Caelum down anymore; he just wanted them out of the way so
he could get to his son.

The next few minutes dragged into centuries, all blurring into a jumble of
blood, sweat, explosions, and the steady hum of the voices in his head
commanding him to parry, parry, duck, up--behind you!--twist, parry,
parry...

John was screaming. His son was screaming, pure fear colouring every note.
Connor went crazy.

"It's all right!" Stiletto said, cupping her hand over the kid's mouth,
"We're the good guys. Dammit, Darcfyr, pull your mask down and stop scaring
the kid!"

Darcfyr obliged. Under that mesh of metal and red cloth, John saw Tyce's
features but harder, more worn. A jagged scar marred the handsome features
from hairline to jaw, twisting the man's lips up into a permanent but
grotesque smile. That didn't scare him. What scared him was the fact that
the man's hands were on fire and he didn't seem to care. In fact, it had
looked like he _made_ the fire appear right there on the palm of his hand.
Tongues of flame arced up to his face, igniting his red on black eyes.

"Better?" asked Darcfyr, "Good." To his wife, Luc said, :~:I'll take him.:~:

:~:I'll help Jean and Connor.:~: Stiletto reached behind her back, drawing
out her blades. The alien metal didn't shine but absorbed light in its matte
blue finish. She ran her claw down the flat and licked her lips. "Come on,
babies. Time to play."

When she disappeared around the door, Darcfyr pulled his mask back on. It
revealed nothing but his flaming devil's eyes framed by rough, twisted
metal. He grasped John's chin between his gloved fingers, making the boy
meet his eyes. "You follow everyt'in' I tell you, got it?"

"Get away from me, man," said John shakily, still not willing to put his
life in this demon's hands.

Darcfyr gave John's head a short, rough shake. "Wrong answer. Can't help
y'dad if we're worryin' 'bout you."

"D-Dad's out there?"

Darcfyr inclined his masked head curtly.

John had only caught the first few minutes of the battle and it had been
pretty terrible. If the sounds that had seeped through the thin walls were
any indication, it was worse than before. "What should I do?"

Approval made Darcfyr's eye-flames fly wider. "Stick t'me." He hugged the
boy close with his right arm. The fireball he held in his left crawled up to
his shoulder then burst into white-hotness. A short stick appeared in his
head that elongated into a bo which was also quickly covered in the white
flames.

With the bo, Darcfyr set the room afire, touching the bed and the wooden
furniture with the tip of his weapon. Then, after making sure the coast was
clear, he jumped out of the window, dragging John along with him. They
rolled into the grass, the boy tucked safely under Darcfyr. The Xeno came up
from his roll standing at ready position. No Caelum yet, thank God.

Spoke too soon. Two emerged from the main entrance, armed with spears and
non-projectile rifles.   Darcfyr pushed John behind him, twirling his bo
like those Catherine wheel firecrackers.

Casteours pressed out three shots, which were easily blocked by Darcfyr's
quick reflexes. But that had just been a distraction. Castebrise came In
with her spear ready to tear a hole through Darcfyr into the boy behind him.
Darcfyr slipped to the side, still keeping John at the lee of the action,
then swung his arm up and around to whack the Caelum between the shoulder
blades. He threw the boy over his shoulder and jumped up, swinging his bo at
a wide arc. Casteours' forehead hit the metal bar with a hollow _thwack_.
The Xeno flipped, landed on one knee, and set John back on his feet.

"Run."

They managed to get a full four yards away before Castebrise launched
herself at Darcfyr. He parried the spear but bore the full brunt of the
Caelum's weight as she landed on his chest. He pushed Johnny away. The
teenager landed on his back and, wisely, crab-crawled away. Castebrise
dragged the barbed end of her spear across Darcfyr's chest. Blood welled up
and was absorbed by the black spider-spin. The Xeno grasped Castebrise's
spear and lit it. He buried his fist in her neck and kicked her off while
she was trying to remember how to breathe.

Nonchalantly, he looked down at his chest. "That hurt."

John couldn't stop his yelp when the air above the Caelum went up into A
giant blue-white fireball. It dropped and engulfed Castebrise; Johnny could
vaguely see her dark silhouette writhing inside.

Casteours came charging with two others at his back. Darcfyr swore
viciously, his eyes glowing. He wanted to fight, _needed_ to feed the
Beasts. He sent his look at the boy. "Come here."

John immediately obeyed. Darcfyr gave him a Sartha blade, whose hilt locked
on the wielder's hand. At first, the boy looked shocked at the tight fit of
the ball around his fist, then, recognising the advantage, smiled weakly.

"Defence only," Darcfyr said. His eyes spat faire to emphasize the point.

"Yessir."

Satisfied that the boy took the order seriously, Darcfyr activated the
blade. Energy shot up the thin collapsible rod, doubling the sword's
diameter. The pulse was strong enough let a toddler cut through a steel
telephone pole.

"Cool!" John gave it an experimental swing. "Like a lightsabre."

Darcfyr smiled behind his mask. He threw his flames into a whip and, with a
snap of his wrist, slammed Casteours across the street. The two unknown
Caelum attacked at the same time. One, sensing that John was a weak point,
tried to get at the boy but Darcfyr wrapped the whip around the Caelum's
neck. He pulled it tight. With his bo, he expertly cracked the neck of other
Caelum then set him on fire.

"Dark spawn!" screamed Casteours.

Darcfyr flipped and twisted in mid air to deliver aroundhouse kick. As he
descended, he brought his bo down on Casteours' nape. The Caelum swiped it
away by swinging his forearm. His other hand delivered a hard chop to
Darcfyr's right side. The Xeno blocked it with the bo and countered with his
own series of jabs and kicks. An isolated part of John's mind recognized
some of the moves, moves that Connor MacLeod used in his harder katas. Then
Darcfyr roared, extended his arms, and Casteours was swallowed up in flames.

Darcfyr held out his hand. "Come."

John took it gratefully.

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