N22 Nice Weather We're Having

I don't know what to do anymore.

Who am I kidding? We were all making this up as we were going. Shoot.

“Lynn, you closed the gate, right?” Chris—erm, shoot what's he want—Nexus asks. Why do I keep forgetting that? Nexus, Nexus, Nexus. It sounds cool. Kinda like—

“I don't know!” Lynn answers. “I don't know!”

It's cold. We're in some underground cave in Russia, surrounded by these black as coal freaks of nature. All of them with blood in their eyes, blood on their minds. Demons are no joke. At least no more are coming in, but still—

“So we gotta fight these guys again?” Ha, even Nexus doesn't sound too thrilled about that, and he's mister guy who wants to fight everything.

“Are you crazy?” Kai speaks up. “They don't die! We need to run!”

“Run?” I say. “Running sounds good. Let's do that! Lynn?”

“Okay, give me a minute.” I hear her swear under her breath. Darn it, of course she's going to need time. She just used her magic to shut that Hellgate. She's gotta be winded after that.

“They're moving in!” Kai says pointing out the obvious.

“Then fight them off!” All of a sudden, I'm barking out orders like I'm in charge. “We can't kill them, but we can at least hurt them! Lynn, take all the time you need, but—no pressure or anything—but try to get it together before we all die.”

Did that come off mean? I don't want her to feel bad, she's clearly losing her mind over this already, but still.

As the demons move in, everyone braces themselves for the worst. Nexus is already in motion. First one to move, first one to strike. Kai, does his fire thing, literally igniting both his arms and going in fists blazing. I've always wondered how he's able to keep his clothes from burning. Dude's got a real handle on his ST.

Then there's me. Since the other two are running all around the place, I figure it's best for me to hang back here with Lynn. I see a light flickering around her out the corner of my eye. I guess she's doing a healing spell. Ha, this kinda feels like an RPG. That's kinda amusing.

This ugly mole looking tar face lunges at me with its four arms full of sharp talons. I put up a wall of ice that it shatters through. It's okay, though I'm ready. One fully charged, hide piercing spike coming right up. I shoot the thing straight through its chest and wait for next one to leap at us.

This time it's a bat like creature, dive bombing from above. The thing is huge, too. Like a fat, flying pig or something. The thought of rushing it comes to mind, but without even thinking, I roll out of the way.

I see Lynn shooting out some pink and white beams at some demon bear things. Dang, they don't let up. I gotta get to her. Come on, stand up. That's it. I'm running towards her, charging this blast as I go. I see another demon run at her from the other side. Darn, which one do I hit? Which one's the closest to—what was that?

Like a blur, Nexus comes in and slices the first demon's head off. He then looks up at me and instinctively knows to duck down, and I do the coolest thing I've ever done in my life. I hop over him like a fence, do a half flip in the air and punch the second demon in the face. The ice blast that I fire forth right after freezes the beast right then and there.

Ha ha! That's what I'm talking about! The synergy! The teamwork! We're the best. I feel good about that. I almost feel good about everything.

That feeling quickly fades as I see Kai face off against the rest of the horde. And the few demons that we already took down, they start regenerating. Good as new. Yeah, that feeling fades real quick. Shoot, I really shouldn't stop moving. It's way too cold to be standing still, and—this is probably why Nexus is always running around—the moment you stop moving is the moment it all sets in.

Come on, Noah! Keep it together.

“Lynn! How you holding up?” I ask.

“Doing fine! How about you?” she's fine. She's fine? I hope she's fine. Jokes. Gotta laugh about something. We stand side by side, firing off different blasts in different directions.

“Oh, I'm great. Nice weather we're having.” I say.

I'm worried that her helping out like she's doing—it'll keep her from recovering as well or at least slow it down, but at the same time—what can you do? If she doesn't help put up a fight, we just won't survive. That's the simple truth.

Look at us all. We're scattered. Nexus is fast enough to be fighting over there and be back when he needs to be but Kai—

“Kai!” I shout at him. “Get over here!”

He acknowledges the call and makes his way to us. “I need you to stay close. Put up a wall. Stop thinking about attacking. We're on defense now.”

I see him start to say something, but he stops himself and nods in agreement. That surprises me. He actually listens and does exactly what I ask him. No wonder the world's ending.

“Lynn,” I say to her. “Stop helping.”

“Stop what?” she asks.

“We don't need you to fight, we need you to—”

“I'm not some damsel in distress. I can—”

“I know you're not, but we can't risk you doing all this crap at once and taking forever to do the thing that we need you to do. The sooner you recover, the sooner we can go. Get it?”

“Got it.”

“Good.”

Me and Kai form around her. I'm shooting my ice storm one way, he's lighting a fire storm the other. The demons fall, and then they get right back up, unscathed, unfazed, unrelenting. I'm getting more worn out by the second. Still throwing out whatever I can to hold them back, but I do have to take a knee. Kai's still as fierce as ever, though, and it doesn't look like Nexus is showing any signs of fatigue.

Lynn takes notice and asks, “Are you okay? Do I need to—”

“I'm fine.” Didn't mean to snap at her. “And no, just tell us when you're good.”

“Well, I think I can—”

Darn it to Hell! I get caught slipping for one moment—one moment—and those freaks of nature—shoot! One of those demons practically teleports in from no where and with its huge, roided out, gargantuan claw swipes at Lynn from behind. I try to react. I shout to the top of my lungs some odd word or phrase in some gibberishy language that means nothing.

Luckily it catches everyone's attention. Lynn moves out of the way. Kai aims his fire storm in the demon's direction. I send a gusty wind at it too, and Nexus manages to rush in and impale it from the back.

But like the others, the creature goes down, and it gets right back up. Nexus keeps hacking at it though.

I look at Lynn. Don't even have to say anything. She already knows, but I say it anyway. “Are you ready? We need to go, now.”

But before she can answer, all the demons around us—they stop. Whatever it is they were doing, they stop. And then they explode. One by one, from the furthest to the closest. Like time bombs that just went off. Nothing big or catastrophic, just a small boom, and then a black mist.

And out of the ashes or vapor or whatever demons turn into after self destructing, something emerges. We don't know what to think. More demons? Will? Ian? Jabari back from the dead? A girl?

It's a girl. Or a lady. A white lady with long white hair. An ol' lady, but she doesn't look old people old. Just older than us. Adult old. She says something to us as she walks up. Don't understand a word.

“What?” Kai bluntly asks.

She responds, this time speaking in English. “The portal?” A Russian accent? I guess that makes sense. “Wasn't there a portal here a short while ago?”