Xaviers!

V looked around quickly, her mind spinning. It was all falling apart, the monsters never came to her and then the thing with the shelve. This tripped a thought, there was another time and place that this happened, she was sure of it. The place with the Beacon, under the Beacon...she couldn't use...something big and important, something she feared would break with her touch.

Nothing comes to her though and now there are the sounds of people screaming out in the street. And the bookshop is on fire.

Sean hadn't really had time to react, but began moving towards the entrance to the second level before looking back at Vivienne and Chase.

"I'm not sure how flammable the two of you are, but it might be time for those of us who are to get outside," Sean said, "And maybe save a couple blokes along the way."

"Completely flammable. Let's go," Chase said with a nod before following, bow ready. "And then we figure out what's really going on here, because this... feels off."

"Right, fire." She stood and followed, the stray thoughts filed away for 'later'.

Outside, hell had come to Hollydale. There were some demons ransacking a shop a little ways down the street and shambling corpses coming from the other end of the street. Overhead was that horrible screeching noise again and a dragon of some sort, mostly made of black armor and spikes soared overhead and out of sight.

"Well, damn." She gripped Cal tightly. "Who wants the 30,000 on the left?"

Chase responded by head-shotting a zombie.

"29,999."

Then he just kept slinging arrows. Even a few exploding ones where the undead clumped together.

"This escalated rather bloody quickly," Sean said his hair standing on edge as he began to draw energy towards himself. There was a flash of light as Sean threw a lightning bolt at the pack of demons picking over the shop.

Chase Delacroix wrote:Chase responded by head-shotting a zombie.

"29,999."

Then he just kept slinging arrows. Even a few exploding ones where the undead clumped together.

The zombies fall over pretty readily, but more push forward to fill the empty spaces, the entire horde moving towards them, picking up a little speed now that they have an obvious target.

Sean Hall wrote:"This escalated rather bloody quickly," Sean said his hair standing on edge as he began to draw energy towards himself. There was a flash of light as Sean threw a lightning bolt at the pack of demons picking over the shop.

A couple of the pack of demons vaporize in the lightning bolt. The remaining demon raises its head in a reverberating call. Several more demons spring off the roofs of the nearby building, sailing directly down at the small group. One of the demons heading for Vivienne loses a wing as a spinning rainbow light severs it. The creature crashes into a building and the light arcs back, resolving itself into the shape of a sword in the hand of a small woman with pointed ears who... is currently dressed like a librarian. The space around her occasionally pixelates as if reality is starting to violently disagree with her.

"Well, that's not any magic I've ever seen," Sean remarks though whether it's about the pixilation or the rainbow light is unclear. He frowns before tossing a rather nice looking lighter up into the air and uses it as reagent for his next spell. The lighter explode into a larger ball of fire than should be possible in the path of the demons coming down towards the group.

"Good timing Gemma, I have always wanted to sly a dragon." V says to no one in particular.

"You, toast for brains. You don't belong here!"

The fireball does a good job of deterring the demons' active intent, though it does so by causing them to rain down in flaming chunks on to the small group.

The dragon swoops closer, bigger now than it was before. It slams the facade of a building with its tail, causing large falling chunks of rubble to join the flaming demon bits in slamming into the group.

Gemma scoots over to Vivienne, holding her shield up to ward off some of the debris. "Got here as soon as I could," she said.

Sean's frown deepened as falling burning demon bits rained from the sky, and deepened further as it was joined by rubble from the dragon. He crouched and raised a shield of white light and strange runes over his head while trying to make himself as small as possible beneath it as debris rained down.

"Why in the twelve hells did I think fire would make demons coming from the sky better," Sean groused to himself.

Chase danced around the falling debris like an Olympic gymnast, using a final chunk to leap over a lucky old lady zombie and put an arrow through the top of its skull. He landed next to Sean's shield. He was actually smirking.

V waited for the debris to finish falling before stepping out and heading directly for the dragon.

"This is my home. You are not welcome here." as she moved her color shifted to blue-green and her ear tips sharpened.

Sean Hall wrote:Sean's frown deepened as falling burning demon bits rained from the sky, and deepened further as it was joined by rubble from the dragon. He crouched and raised a shield of white light and strange runes over his head while trying to make himself as small as possible beneath it as debris rained down.

"Why in the twelve hells did I think fire would make demons coming from the sky better," Sean groused to himself.

Chase Delacroix wrote:Chase danced around the falling debris like an Olympic gymnast, using a final chunk to leap over a lucky old lady zombie and put an arrow through the top of its skull. He landed next to Sean's shield. He was actually smirking.

After a few seconds, the rain of demon chunks and building debris stopped, though the building that had been hit gave an ominous groan as it started to lean in their direction.

Down the street, the undead had begun to move fast, actually breaking into a sort of a run as they closed in on their prey. A few in the front lept at the group, landing near Sean and Chase.

Vivienne Chinnoir wrote:V waited for the debris to finish falling before stepping out and heading directly for the dragon.

"This is my home. You are not welcome here." as she moved her color shifted to blue-green and her ear tips sharpened.

Vivienne's change cause the world around her to begin pixelate and warp, much like it was around Gemma. The dragon beat its wings and made a banking turn, coming around for another pass, this time belching fire down the street. Gemma shoved Vivienne out of the way of the brunt of the blast and raised a temporarily much larger shield to hide behind as she caught the blast full on. There was a strange sort of shimmer around her, one that didn't seem associated with anything she was doing and while the fire licked at her, it didn't actually seem to harm her, leaving Gemma looking *very* confused.

"I set 'em up, you knock 'em down," Chase said to Sean before he launched a bola arrow into the cluster of undead.

"Hopefully the zombies appreciate how expensive this is," Sean said grabbing three vials filled with god knows what in them from a pocket. He crushed them in his fist as he chanted. He opened his fist towards the zombies and a slow moving orange ball of energy moved towards the undead. The street beneath the orb melted as it passed by. It would hopefully explode among the slowed zombies creating quite a satisfactory result. If not well, Sean had died and come back to life before.

The zombies readily burn, but there always seems to be more behind them. But they're promptly distracted from that as a pair of demons slam into Sean and Chase from behind, forcing them even closer to the gnashing, groaning horde.

"This thing we're doing, do you know what it is, can you control it?" She motioned to a bit of pixleation around them.

Chase quickly found himself too close to use his bow so he tossed it aside. He delivered a jumping snap kick to a zombie' skull with a satisfying crack before he grabbed two arrows and resorted to putting arrows in things manually.

Narrator wrote:The zombies readily burn, but there always seems to be more behind them. But they're promptly distracted from that as a pair of demons slam into Sean and Chase from behind, forcing them even closer to the gnashing, groaning horde.

While Chase focused on zombies Sean focused on Demons. He detonated the energy orb he'd launching hoping to make a dent in the zombie horde before turning towards the demons. He pulled an incandescent spear from someplace, it was unclear where exactly and moved to parry demon limbs with his weapon of light.

Vivienne Chinnoir wrote:"This thing we're doing, do you know what it is, can you control it?" She motioned to a bit of pixleation around them.

The shimmering is gone and Gemma still looks confused, "No. I..." The dragon slams into the street behind her, batting her down the road and temporarily out of sight.

Chase Delacroix wrote:Chase quickly found himself too close to use his bow so he tossed it aside. He delivered a jumping snap kick to a zombie' skull with a satisfying crack before he grabbed two arrows and resorted to putting arrows in things manually.

The zombies fall, but hey're not smart enough to not just attempt to push on their numbers advantage. One of the zombies manages to get a hold of Chase's arms with it's teeth, but the teeth seem to connect, ending up feeling more like a gumming than a bite.

Sean Hall wrote:While Chase focused on zombies Sean focused on Demons. He detonated the energy orb he'd launching hoping to make a dent in the zombie horde before turning towards the demons. He pulled an incandescent spear from someplace, it was unclear where exactly and moved to parry demon limbs with his weapon of light.

His defensive fighting is great, but these demons are faster and better coordinated. One makes an intentionally clumsy attack to draw his parry while another swipes across his stomach. Except something unseen bumps the demon a bit and rather than the fatal stomach blow, its claws instead rake across his arm.

Chase's fictional Hollydale life flashed before his eyes: the boat crash, all that time on the island, the murder spree, and finally becoming the hero the city needed. It had taken ten years of his life, and now that was going to end in fire gnashing teeth. Hold on... was he old enough for all that?

He cocked an eyebrow when the bite didn't break the skin and took the opportunity to pull free and snap its neck. His mind did a little pulling free of its own.

Kick. Stab. Kick. "Guys! I'm getting the distinct impression this is all bull!" Stab.

Apparently having been riding the dragon, a tiny figure jumps off it's back, wielding two daggers in a backwards grip. The little goblin is maybe four feet tall, green skin with long pointy ears and dashes between the various zombies and monsters before pouncing on Chase in a pirouette of slashing daggers.

His powers and training kicked in and he twisted and sidestepped around the spinning dagger slashes, feeling a blade pass through the air a hair's width from his face. Whether it was his skill or what protected him from the zombie, he couldn't tell. He used the two arrows in his hands to block the next blow and attempt to use the arrowheads to trap and twist the dagger out of the goblin's grip.

The dagger is wrenched from the small creature's hand and clatters away. The goblin hops away a little, landing in a crouch a couple feet from Chase and baring her teeth at him.

"What this place?" she snarls, a lot of her aggression just a cover for her confusion.

"I don't even know anymore," he answered, "Why did you attack me?"

"'Cause... 'cause you are enemy!" she says, eyeing Chase warily. "You hunt and fight me and mine..."

"I've never even seen a... wait are you a goblin? Since when are goblins a thing we fight?" he asked. How did he ever think this town made sense?

"Don't know! But you with elves!" she gestures at his bow and companions.

"I am not a elf and I've never hunted a goblin before. They...don't exist." Obviously they did because there was one shrieking at them now. "I have only hunted the tainted creatures, never untainted fey."

A short distance away, the dragon roared and began thundering in their direction, squashing zombies as it zeroed in on the small knot of people.

"And now what a goblin?" Sean grumbled staring at Shari. "Have we bloody well stepped into the Lord of the RIngs..."

"Confusion later! We've got Smaug to worry about!" Chase urged, rushing to snatch up his bow and get to higher ground in stylish kung fu fashion.

"Ya! Dragon'll chomp ya!" the goblin snickers as she backs up a little bit towards the dragon.

And chomp the dragon did, scooping the goblin up into its mouth and chewing into the green creature. For the goblin, it was a strange sensation being bounced around like that. From somewhere, a chime sounded and a soft, melodic voice said, "Participant defeated."

The chewed up goblin goes flying off to the side in a tumble that even if the dragon's teeth hadn't torn her apart probably would have broken numerous bones. Instead she briefly seems to be enveloped in the pixelated glow of the Danger Room safeties.