by Grimm, thedoctor, Captain Sammitch, Danny and GoozX
Danny Hearn heard the motorcycle pull up behind him, but couldn't take his eyes from what was happening. Priest and Blackwulf got off the bike, Priest filling Wulf in on what had happened along the way. Priest had pulled Ameristar out of the basement and had left her in a safe place near the ruins before taking off with Blackwulf to fight the Beast. The usually jovial giant's face had grown very solemn.
"Comrades, this is not being good. I am afraid there is being only one solution." Priest and Danny both turned to look at Wulf, curious as to what that solution would be. "I am going to have to attack Comrade Chance."
Before either of them could do anything, Blackwulf took off toward Chance, who was still attempting to prevent the Beast from devouring any more souls. Wulf ran at a speed that belied his very size and rammed full force into the chemist-turned-adventurer. Instantly, he was knocked backward and flung into the ground, sliding almost all the way back toward where he had started out from. Priest and Danny found themselves looking over his limp form, wondering what in the world he had hoped to accomplish by this seemingly random act.
Then, they knew. Blackwulf the Everchanging's unconscious form was slowly replaced with that of a wolf, but not just any wolf -- a wolf easily fifteen feet tall. This was the great devourer of legend, Fenris. The mighty wolf looked at the beast and roared its challenge.
At the Royal Crown Tower ruins, Grimm, Dirk Bell, and Grissom Montag climbed out of the basement while fending off vicious vampires. "I think I smell gas," Grissom commented as they climbed.
"Must have busted a gas line somewhere," Grimm said between swings of his axe. Dirk simply smiled.
When everyone was out, the gunslinger said, "I'd suggest that everyone run." Grissom was about to ask why when he saw a grenade come out of Dirk's coat.
As the first vampires began to claw their way our of the hole, a large ball of flame erupted. More debris filled the air.
"I don't believe I've run that fast in my whole life," Grissom commented when his ears stopped ringing. "How long is that going to burn?"
"Until someone shuts off the gas that's feeding it," Dirk commented. "Until then, our little pointy-teethed friends are getting a sneak preview of Hell."
"Damn!" Grimm mumbled as he looked beyond the flames. "It's the hurricane's back wall. It's almost here. We better find cover." Once again, they were all running from the storm. The latest vampire trouble had almost made them forget that a powerful force of nature was ripping across the island.
"Over there!" Grissom shouted as he pointed somewhere to his left. "It looks like a shelter."
"It's better than nothing," Dirk said as they changed direction for it.
Grimm used his enormous strength to pull the heavy steel door open. "Holy shit, dude!" came a strange voice from inside. A guy with long, braided hair, a purple goatee, leather pants, and Titans football jersey stood inside with a jet-black electric guitar strapped to his body. His pinky and forefinger were extended from his fist. "Fucking A! Skank told me shit like this happened, but I never thought it'd happen to me. What up, Satan dude?"
"You've got to be kidding me," was Grimm's only reply. Grissom carried Ameristar down into the shelter. Dirk pushed the guy out of his way as they came in. Grimm closed the door and bolted it.
"What are you dudes doing hangin' out with Satan? I thought he'd have a meaner-looking crew." When he wouldn't move out of Dirk's way, the gunslinger kicked him in the balls and continued a hunt for a flashlight. "Okay," the guy wheezed, "you're cool."
"This should work," Grimm said as he lit a lantern. "We're mostly underground, and the door seems strong enough to handle the winds."
"Dudes!" the guy screamed out once again. "No need to worry. The Thrasher is here. I can jam like no one's business. Dude, my riffs are super-awesome. Just let me crank one loose, and that hurricane is done for." He began to turn up the volume on his guitar.
"If you play Rock You Like a Hurricane, I'll shoot your nuts off," Dirk said while unholstering a gun. After a pause, the Thrasher set his guitar down across his amp and remained silent.
"I hope the others are safe," Grissom said.
How long was I out? Phil Smith sat up slowly, trying to ignore his pounding headache. He looked around and tried to assess the situation. He heard screams of both fright and pain, not telepathic ones, but audible ones.
He clambered out of the cave and stopped in his tracks when he saw the scene being played out not fifty yards from him. The Beast had been hard at work while Phil was unconscious. Bodies littered the beach.
Then he remembered. Stupid people! I tried to stop them!
But the Beast looked to have its work cut out for it, as it was being approached by a fifteen-foot wolf. Phil didn't need too many guesses to figure out who that might be.
Two sounds in the other direction distracted Phil from the fight. The first sounded almost like a really big train, crossed with a 747, crossed with a Saturn V. It looked like a solid wall of gray. That would be the trailing wall of the eye, the first assault in the onslaught that the second-half of Hurricane Jason pledged to deliver. And Phil sure didn't want to be above ground when that thing came through.
But the second sound kept him from returning to the cave. It was clearly a woman's voice. "Hey! You there!"
The voice was coming from a small cave about forty feet up the beach in the direction of the approaching wall. Phil saw a hand waving, then a head popped out of the cave -- no more than an indentation in the rock, really -- and called to him again. "I need some help!"
Afterward, Phil remembered that it was the most beautiful face he'd ever seen.
Phil ran over to the cave, fighting the steadily increasing winds. "What are you doing here?" he asked.
Then he saw M'xy's unconscious form lying on the ground next to her. Phil looked at the woman questioningly, but she shrugged. "He was here when the guy with wings dropped me off."
Phil frowned, then scooped M'xy up and slung him over one shoulder. "This isn't going to keep you safe when that hits." He pointed at the approaching wall.
"Where should we go, then?" the woman asked.
"What's your name?" Phil asked her.
"I'm... I'm Leslie," she answered.
Phil extended a hand. "Well, Leslie, come with me. We're gonna get to the other cave before things get really ugly."
Leslie Kline took the hand she was offered and walked over in the direction of the larger cave with Phil, who was still carrying M'xy. Leslie stopped in her tracks when she saw the fight between Blackwulf/Fenris and the Beast. "Looks like things are pretty bad as it is," Leslie commented.
"You're not kidding," Phil replied as they reached the cave mouth.
Leslie shook her head in disbelief. "I have no idea what's going on."
Phil chuckled. "Happens to me all the time."
Leslie felt herself strangely calmed, even in the midst of what was happening. Whoever this new person was, he seemed all right. It was funny, but Leslie didn't recall having gotten his name.
Sprouting wings and leaping at the demon, Danny attempted to run his razor-sharp tiger's claws up its face, hoping to wound it, blind it, hurt it, anything.
He paused for a moment, perched on its head, and looked down. In that briefest of split seconds, three things caught his notice. First, he had cut it. It was bleeding, but not a lot. And it probably wouldn't count for a whole lot. But he was satisfied that he'd made a start. Second, Fenris, the wolf that had been his friend Blackwulf until moments ago, was charging at the creature. Third, the creature's huge left arm was coming up to meet Danny.
A second later, Danny was standing up, rubbing his head. The creature was twenty feet away. It had punched him, throwing him off his head and across the beach, into a rock wall. Danny was in a little pain.
Mostly unrelated to this, but still relevant, if a hailstone could talk, this is what one of them would probably be saying right now:
"Woo! Yeah! Ready to jump! Ready to get the hell off this cloud and cause some DAMAGE! Three! Two! One! Jump! GERONIMO!
"WOO! I'm falling now! Damn, I'm pretty high up... no matter! The farther I fall, the harder I hit! I plan to hit as freakin' hard as I can! I'm a HAILSTONE, man, a force of nature, and nobody can stop me now!
"Wow! Look at that! All around me... there's hundreds of us! Thousands! MILLIONS! We're going to OWN this bloody island!
"The ground's getting closer! I hope I hit someone! YEAH! I think I'm gonna hit that guy! Watch out, mister, here I come!"
"Ow," Danny said softly as a hailstone struck his arm. He looked up and noticed that it was beginning to hail.
"Damn. Hal? Insect exoskeleton," he said. Hal complied, and within seconds, Danny was coated in a sleek black exoskeleton. For all intents and purposes, he was armored against the elements. He was also a lot heavier, but his muscles adjusted accordingly, so he could still move with relative ease, a perk to his whole metapower deal.
Looking out to the horizon, he saw what he'd been terrified of for the last few minutes: the back wall of the storm, getting closer by the second.
He got up and ran off down the beach. He waved his arms, motioning to the others.
"It's Danny..." Chance said.
"So?" Priest answered.
"He's got a shell."
"I see."
"PEOPLE! UNDERGROUND! NOW!" Danny yelled, approaching them.
"Right," Chance said, running off to look for an alternate entrance to the underground caves.
Danny and Priest stood silently for a moment.
"I don't take orders from you," said Priest.
"I don't give orders to people I don't trust."
There was another moment of silence.
"DANNY! I found an entrance!" came a voice from just over a nearby hill. Danny and Priest ran toward the voice and found Chance standing over a hole in the ground, a meter or so across. They were both grateful for the distraction.
"How'd you find it?" Danny asked.
"Tripped over it."
Danny nodded. "Right! Get the survivors in here NOW!" Danny yelled, running back over the hill to start rounding people up.
He saw Fenris battling the creature and hoped he'd be all right. For a second, he doubted himself, wondering whether he should be saving innocents from the storm or helping his friend fight the creature. Danny wished that the answer was clear. But knew that it never would be.
Priest's left hand clutched his side; his fingers digging into his flesh as blood still slowly flowed. He grunted to himself, his exhaustion almost bringing him down to one knee.
Danny noticed this out of the corner of his eye. "You're hurt." The Aussie didn't care much for the man next to him; hell, he wished that he would just go back to wherever he had come from.
"Not the first time." Priest avoided eye contact with Danny. For a moment, Danny wondered why this stranger was out for his blood.
"What do you want from my team?" Danny finally asked.
"Nothing." Priest's abrupt answer took Danny a little offguard. The two men's eyes made contact for a split second. In that second, Danny was sure that he knew this man. The thought was just at the edge of his subconscious, almost locked away.
"What do you want from me?" This was the real answer that Danny wanted, why he was hated and wanted dead.
"You kille--" Before Priest could finish, a vampire appeared from nowhere, taking both men off their feet and tumbling down the hillside. Priest grabbed the ground as he slid downward, scraping his arms up. Danny easily stopped his fall with claws, thanks to Hal.
This vampire was different, dressed in a red robe and his eyes fully black. The vampire jumped into the air, and his boots came crashing down onto Danny's chest, taking the young man down through the ground and into a ditch bellow. Priest lost his grip and followed.
Fifty feet down, both men made it to their feet. The ditch was small and confined; there was no way out except straight up.
The vampire, a pureblood, grabbed Priest by his upper body and slammed him into the half-stone-and-dirt wall. The vampire then threw the large man across the ditch like a rag doll. Priest slammed into the wall and hit the ground unconscious; his body had taken too much punishment.
Danny stood above the body of Priest, a stranger who had tried to kill him. Fifteen feet away was a very strong and deadly vampire. Fifty feet up was the exit. Decisions, decisions...