CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO
10 NOV 2011, 20:35 MST
“Sir, Air Force One is down.”
“God Damn it,” stormed General Shepard. “The president?”
“No way of knowing, sir. It’s not looking good.”
“No it isn’t,” the General growled. “Get me Faulkner. They better have a damned good explanation, or...”
“Or what?” asked Agent Brown. “They not only survived a 150 kiloton nuke, but put the city back afterward.”
The General winced. “I don’t know. What do we do about someone like that?”
“I’d suggest not pissing them off. Faulkner’s on the line.”
“What the hell are you doing out there?” growled the General. He got a sharp look and a headshake from Brown.
“Sorry about the plane,” came Donna’s voice from the crystal. “Got attacked by a demon, the plane was collateral damage.”
“This is important. Is the president dead?”
“The president died two years ago, in Detroit. A demon was animating his corpse, and using some kind of illusion to hide that fact.”
“Holy... the president was under enemy control?”
“Yes. Much of your government is, in one way or another. But that can wait. Right now, we’re heading to Detroit to see if we can close the portal. The Worldspell that was holding the demons at bay collapsed when you nuked the Worldstone. Apparently, that was their plan all along.”
“Oh hell,” breathed Agent Brown. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. Our priority is to get the portal closed, then chase down the surviving demons. If you’ve got any resources that can track them, that’d be fantastic.”
The General looked around. “Do we have anything that can track whatever the hell she’s talking about?”
“Yessir. Colonel Morrow had us observing the Detroit anomaly with everything we’ve got on orbit, and we found they have several characteristic radiation signatures. We developed some filters that should isolate them.”
“Bring it up then, come on, let’s see how bad it is.”
The main screen lit up with a map of Detroit and the surrounding area. After a few moments, several blobs of colour got added. One large white blob covered several blocks in the downtown core, and scattered smaller blue flecks were moving about in the general area.
“Interesting,” said the tech who was working on the filters. “It looks like some of the signatures are specific to the portal. I’ll tweak the colours to make the mobile ones stand out.”
The blue flecks turned red, and became somewhat less fuzzy as adjustments were made. “There. That’s better.”
“What’s the cluster of them up to the northwest?” asked Agent Brown.
The view zoomed in on the cluster. “That’s the Detroit Zoo. Did they evacuate the animals?”
The General looked to Agent Brown. “More importantly, why was Detroit evacuated? I’m fairly sure I have the wrong of it.”
Brown nodded. “The Fermi reactor story was a fabrication, yes. Abetted by magic censorship, it’s not like we were able to tell most people the real story.”
“Which is?”
“Hey, we’re almost to Detroit,” interrupted Donna’s voice over the crystal. “Where’s the zoo?”
“Northwest of the city center, about ten miles out.”
*** *** ***
JUST OUTSIDE THE DEATH ZONE
DETROIT, MI
10 NOV 2011, 22:38 EST
“I see the zoo!” called Donna.
“Oh yeah, there it is. Let’s drop lower,” replied Gwen from her position a few hundred meters ahead of Donna. A moment later she called out “Whoa! Back off, back off!”
Donna teleported backward several hundred meters and came to a stop. “What?”
“Can’t you feel the death magic in the air?”
Donna switched to her magic senses and spread them wide. “That is... a lot of death. I thought the disaster was two years ago? The death magic should have dissipated by now.”
Gwen swept the area with a tighter focus. “It seems to be focussed downtown...” She scooted off to the right, keeping the same distance from the source. “Ah! I can see it now.”
Donna teleported beside her. “Oh! It’s... kind of pretty, really.” Then she scanned it in the magical realm and shuddered. “And it’s laced with death magic. I guess the ghoul pulled in too much, and...”
“Maybe. Let’s keep well clear, this is not a healthy place to be. It’s trying to corrode our souls, keep your shields up.”
They skirted around the danger zone, and soon found themselves over the zoo. Donna spotted a cluster of the winged-monkey demons congregating around a helicopter. “What are they up to?”
As they dropped lower, several of the monkey-things looked their way, and darted forward at a quite alarming speed – their flight appeared to be at least partially magic-fuelled, though using a kind of magic that Donna did not recognize.
They backed off, but three of the monkey-things pursued. Gwen tossed a bolt of lunar power at one, but it seemed to pass right through it. Duncan lit off a few of the weapons he’d been working on as they’d flown. The railgun flechettes seemed to injure them, slowing them down. The monkey-demons hesitated, then with a screech darted forward again. Switching to cobalt-laced fragmentation rounds worked far better. Each hit turned its target into a wisp of greasy black smoke that soon dissipated.
“Hm. That’s not good,” said Gwen.
“What’s not good?”
“That smoke is nasty stuff. You wouldn’t want to be close to one of those things when they died. Wouldn’t want to be close at all, really. Anything within 20’ or so, and the death field will get you pretty quickly.”
Duncan tossed Gwen some of their cobalt. “Try again.”
They swept in closer, and the remaining monkey-demons watched them warily. As they landed, four more jumped at them. Four quick rounds finished them off, and the remainder took to the air and fled to the south, back toward the portal.
“Much better,” reported Gwen. “Pity you didn’t get to test more of your toys.”
“I completely forgot the lightning gun!” groused Duncan. “Oh well, aiming it would have been a pain. Cobalt-tipped ammunition and protective cobalt, now... that’s useful to know.”
They moved closer to the helicopter. “This looks like military gear. And why are uniforms scattered around?” asked Gwen.
Donna lifted up one of the uniforms via telekinesis. A little bit of ash drifted out of it. “They don’t leave much behind. Efficient.”
“Makes it hard to ID the victims. We should call this in.” Gwen tossed a small crystal to Donna. “Here, this’ll connect you to their network. I have speed dial for Brown and Cooper set up.”
Donna absorbed the crystal, then opened the link to Agent Brown. “Hey, we’ve found one of your helicopters at the zoo. Looks like the monkey-demons targeted it. Looks like a half dozen soldiers dead, and one suit. They only left ash behind.”
“Thanks. Is the tail code still visible on the helicopter?”
Donna glanced at it, and read off the letters and numbers. “Does that help?”
“Checking... Assigned to the Vice President’s protective detail. The suit, is there any way to ID it?”
Donna scanned it thoroughly. “Wallet, ID... yeah, I’m sorry. The demons got him.”
“Crap. Between taking out Air Force One, the nuke, and now this... God, I don’t think anyone knows who’s actually in charge.”
“The nuke?” asked Duncan.
“There was a big event at the National Gallery. We’re having trouble getting usable information, as every radio in DC is fried... but it looks like all the attendees are...”
“Dead, yes. Sorry, things moved too fast and I couldn’t save them.”
Agent Brown chuckled softly. “You really are Canadian, apologizing over our attempt to nuke you.”
“Pretty sure the Worldstone was the intended target. We’re just... puzzled. We could take out all the flying monkeys in moments, but the shadow-demon claimed they’d already won. What are we missing?”
*** *** ***
CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO
10 NOV 2011, 20:40 MST
“The big picture,” mused Agent Brown. “We’re missing the big picture.” He glanced up at the display that was still highlighting the locations of the demonic forces. Their numbers were still growing, but they didn’t seem to be doing anything. Yet.
“The big picture! Can you zoom back out? Are there any other signatures?”
The view pulled back, showing the state, then the entire eastern half of the US. Nothing looked amiss, even the portal at Detroit had become just a single oddly coloured pixel. “Just a minute, I need to tweak the display to highlight areas with... oh hell.”
The view zoomed out again, and flecks of red were appearing all over the world.