Last Daughter of Krypton: Legion IC

[AmenRa]

Flashback (thanks Chas, Tears!)

Gotham City, 2012

The sleek black thing cruised silently on the surface of the Gotham River. The vessel was matte black and could not so easily be seen among the glassy, black water. Here and there the water reflected the moon as it was uncovered by clouds, and the black thing crossed that reflection for an instant. It made not a sound as it glided effortlessly.

It was black and stealth and made of composites and RADAR absorbing material, and it was all angles and curves. It was long, and it sat low to the water on hydrofoils and was powered by twin pump jets set below the waterline.

In the middle of the night it cruised up to a dock near the old river ferry landing, long since abandoned just like the old, dilapidated warehouses that lined the riverbank here. With an almost inaudible whine the vessel slowed its propulsion system. It touched the dock gently as it came along side. The top forward portion of the craft unhinged and slid aft. The Batman stepped up and out of the pilot’s seat. He turned his black cowl toward the dock.

Martian Manhunter reverted from the invisible to the tangible on the dock. He stood beside a shipping container; the kind used by large sea freighters for international transport. A breeze blew from the river and J’onn’s cape moved slightly.

The Batman’s own scalloped cape spread across his back and its pointed edges whipped across the dock as he exited his watercraft. The breeze took the cape and flailed it once so that a bat shadow was cast across J’onn and the shipping container. The whited-out eyes of The Dark Knight’s mask came to bear on the Man From Mars.

“So, that’s the last of it?” Batman asked.

“It is,” J’onn replied. “All the remnants of Kryptonite that I could locate within this galaxy have been collected.”

The Batman touched a button hidden on his utility belt. There was a hiss, and the watercraft’s forward compartment opened. When it had opened fully the Martian Manhunter effortlessly lifted the shipping container and set it in the hold. The compartment closed.

“See you at the cave,” Batman said as he stepped down into his craft.

J’onn nodded as the vessel’s canopy slid closed and locked. With no sound detectable to human ears the vessel powered up and cruised away from the dock. The Martian Manhunter disappeared.

The Batman piloted the vessel over the river’s surface. The boat was sluggish with the added weight of the shipping container, yet he still reached admirable speeds. He followed the river into the old town, past the riverfront homes and condos. As the river began to narrow somewhat, the Batman flipped two levers on his command console.

There was a spray of water and a sharp hiss as the vessel opened its ballast tanks and took in water. The craft submerged quickly. Batman’s forward view through the one-way canopy went dark and was then immediately replaced by real-time projected images from high-resolution laser line scan cameras mounted on the submersible’s exterior hull. SONAR came online and began a passive imaging of the river bottom ahead of the craft.

Batman navigated the vessel to a waypoint marked on his heads-up display. He slowed and turned the boat 90 degrees to the right, adjusting buoyancy to precisely enter an underwater cave. He followed this narrow passage that was barely wide enough for the craft for about 300 meters until it opened up into a larger tunnel. This one he traveled for nearly another 2 kilometers until he reduced speed and blew the ballast tanks and surfaced. The vessel coasted on top of the water until it came to a metal dock.

Batman powered down the boat and opened the canopy. Large LED lights came on overhead. He was in his cave in a cavern off from the main room. The underground stream that ran here fed the waterfall at the front of the main room where his laboratory, computers, car, and other equipment were located.

J’onn J’onzz was waiting on him at the dock.

In short order they unloaded the shipping container from the vessel. J’onn carried it across the cavern to the far wall where a massive vault door made of lead had been installed. The Batman entered a code on the door’s electronic lock and servos whined as the huge door opened. Inside was tons of green meteor rock. J’onn eyed the remaining space available inside the vault and then took a quick estimate of the shipping container’s dimensions.

“I believe this will fit,” he announced to The Dark Knight.

“Of course it will fit,” Batman replied.

Martian Manhunter lifted the container and set it inside the vault. Once it was resting safely on the vault’s stone floor, Batman closed the door and engaged the lock.

“It is now impenetrable,” Batman stated.

J’onn nodded. “And its contents safe from those who would use it to harm Kara Zor-El.”

The Martian Manhunter turned to the Batman. He fixed him with a gaze.

“If it ever came to that,” Batman said in his low, dangerous whisper, “you know I would if I had to.”

“Yes,” was J’onn’s reply, “I know.”

The Martian Manhunter took to the air, rising up and becoming intangible as he passed through the solid rock of the cavern’s roof. He rose up until he reached the ground above the cave with the sprawling estate of Wayne Manor below him. As he flew away, he concentrated, seeking out her presence.

He flew to Metropolis, passing across the night sky and touching down gently atop the Daily Planet. Supergirl stood with her hands clasped behind her back beneath the spinning globe. Her Kryptonian uniform was a brilliant contrast against the dull bronze and gray of the building top.

“Kara Zor-El, we have rendered the last of the Kryptonite safe.”

“Thank you, J’onn,” she told him, “and tell Bruce ‘thank you’ for keeping it for me.”

“You are welcome,” he replied.

Supergirl smiled, and then she brought her hands in front of her.

She was holding a package of Oreo cookies.

 

[ChasNicollette]

North.

The term "holding pattern" became moot pretty quickly.

Obviously, Dawnstar was the leader. (Should she be "Hawkstar" now? Was that a thing?)

But down there--

--as they flew up, one by one by two by two by dozen by dozen--

--they saw her.

They saw Her.

They saw Caroline next to Her, sharing in the glory.

Bearing the Symbol.

And-- Kara and Caroline and their shared Symbol, they were flame to moths.

The Legion descended... down around them.

Maybe there wasn't a "holding pattern," as such, but they descended, touched down...

...and as they touched down, they formed a circle. A great wide ring around the battlefield, the crumpled mountain, the shattered permafrost, the ice torn up into trenches, The Legion came down and down and around and around.

Even amongst this, a blue flash of light crackled the air, and Batman 3010 emerged with The Remnant and The Fifth Brainiac. And, while Brainy wished most desirously to run to Caroline's side-- curse these organic instincts, curse these impulses, curse her beautiful beautiful bioelectric face --he, too, joined with his comrades as they came down and down and around and around.

They made a circle.

Just as the statues formed circles in the lobby of Legion Headquarters, the rings of Leaguers surrounding and centered on The Trinity-- The Detective, The Icon, and The Amazon Princess.

Here, now, there was The Icon come again. Two Icons for the price of one, no less, two Supergirls.

...and just as the stone depictions of The Second Age of Heroes encircled The First Supergirl, so too did this generation, The New Age of Heroes, so too did they encircle The First Supergirl and The Newest Supergirl.

Kara Zor-El had returned.

And her legend had come, well.

Full circle.

Wraith had shown his own mighty power, shown that no mere Kryptonian could stand against a Scion of Shadow, any more than a mere Kryptonian could stand against The Last Daughter. With his great and mighty blow he had shattered Nam-Ek's jaw and scattered the blood of that vile henchman across the snow. And so, then, he gestured to her--

--it was her move.

The Legion was watching.

(...but even as The Legion was watching Kara-- okay, Brainy was watching Caroline --with their collective breath bated--

--a drop of the blood cast off from Nam-Ek began to sizzle down through the snow, and slither down, and sink.

Unnoticed, perhaps, but for the eyes of an angel.)

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

"Damnit Kara, did you have to teach us the bad words first?" Kyle muttered in English.

The curse words were half of the fun... despite what Kara told her children (at least until they were older). After she had had her laugh, Kara folded her arms across her chest and watched as Nam-Ek was 'allowed' to get one hit in on Kyle.

It would be his one and only chance to prove himself.

And he failed.

Miserably.

Kyle's act of retribution was swift, and Nam-Ek was sent reeling, his jaw shattered and his pride wounded.

If there was one thing Kryptonians prided themselves on, it was their ability to take quite a beating, but, despite the warm embrace of the yellow sun, Nam-Ek found himself outmatched.

In a way it was almost unfair for the two warriors caught up with a proverbial noose around their neck.

But then it had been their decision to take the road to damnation.

Kara Zor-El looked up towards the sky as the Legionnaires descended towards the ground, and she looked around at each of them as they formed a ring around her group, but what 'surprised' her the most was the flash of light and the emergence of Batman along with a young version of Brainiac. Or at least he resembled some form of Brainiac.

Kara had unfurled her arms, but she made no move against him.

He joined with the others, and Kara felt compelled to trust him.

And then... then she realized he was staring at Caroline.

Like a moth to the flame.

She was smiling at him.

It was cute, actually. A little weird, but cute.

Honestly, though, she'd seen much weirder things than that.

Kara Zor-El finally turned her attention towards the two warriors that were effectively trapped. She approached them slowly and clenched her fists as she dropped her arms to her sides.

"What we represent... can never be destroyed."

There was no time for Aethyr to respond. Kara moved quickly, and she drew one of her closed fists up towards the dark-haired female's chin, and the force of the blow was strong enough that the ground beneath Kara's feet cracked and split apart, creating a small crater where she stood. Aethyr was sent hurtling towards the portal leading to the Phantom Zone, a world where she'd spend the rest of eternity.

 

[Wyldfire]

"Damnit Kara, did you have to teach us the bad words first?" Kyle muttered in English.

The curse words were half of the fun... despite what Kara told her children (at least until they were older). After she had had her laugh, Kara folded her arms across her chest and watched as Nam-Ek was 'allowed' to get one hit in on Kyle.

It would be his one and only chance to prove himself.

And he failed.

Miserably.

Kyle's act of retribution was swift, and Nam-Ek was sent reeling, his jaw shattered and his pride wounded.

If there was one thing Kryptonians prided themselves on, it was their ability to take quite a beating, but, despite the warm embrace of the yellow sun, Nam-Ek found himself outmatched.

In a way it was almost unfair for the two warriors caught up with a proverbial noose around their neck.

But then it had been their decision to take the road to damnation.

Kara Zor-El looked up towards the sky as the Legionnaires descended towards the ground, and she looked around at each of them as they formed a ring around her group, but what 'surprised' her the most was the flash of light and the emergence of Batman along with a young version of Brainiac. Or at least he resembled some form of Brainiac.

Kara had unfurled her arms, but she made no move against him.

He joined with the others, and Kara felt compelled to trust him.

And then... then she realized he was staring at Caroline.

Like a moth to the flame.

She was smiling at him.

It was cute, actually. A little weird, but cute.

Honestly, though, she'd seen much weirder things than that.

Dawnstar had taken in the entire scene as she had made her approach. She had landed and taken her place dutifully among her fellow Legionnaires.

Kara Zor-El finally turned her attention towards the two warriors that were effectively trapped. She approached them slowly and clenched her fists as she dropped her arms to her sides.

"What we represent... can never be destroyed."

There was no time for Aethyr to respond. Kara moved quickly, and she drew one of her closed fists up towards the dark-haired female's chin, and the force of the blow was strong enough that the ground beneath Kara's feet cracked and split apart, creating a small crater where she stood. Aethyr was sent hurtling towards the portal leading to the Phantom Zone, a world where she'd spend the rest of eternity.

Like an arrow from the bow, Dawnstar went to the Guardian of Mars. She went to him in his blue regalia and looked him dead in the eye. "J'onn, you S.O.B., why did you make us wait so long? And where the hell is Carter?"

 

[AmenRa]

He watched as the Last Daughter of Krypton exacted justice upon Zod's disciple.

The Martian Manhunter moved quickly and was standing before Supergirl. He said nothing at first. He looked at her long, and at last he gave her a smile.

"Kara Zor-El," he said to her in greeting as he stepped closer. He reached out and took her by the shoulders. He held her at arm's length. The Ring he wore on his right hand shone brightly with hope. He then stepped closer to her and bent down and placed a kiss on her forehead. He moved back, still holding her, and then he let go.

J'onn stood there with a slight smile on his face at this reunion. The two of them were the last of their kind, the last to be born on worlds that no longer remained what they once were. And, although J'onn's planet still lived, Kara's was gone; destroyed in a fiery cataclysm much the way Sanctuary had only recently been.

J'onn turned to Caroline and gave her a nod in greeting and appreciation.

You have risen. You have made your kin and kind proud.

It seemed, though, this reunion of two of the founding members of the Justice League would be short-lived.

Like an arrow from the bow, Dawnstar went to the Guardian of Mars. She went to him in his blue regalia and looked him dead in the eye. "J'onn, you S.O.B., why did you make us wait so long? And where the hell is Carter?"

Martian Manhunter turned to face Dawnstar.

"Patience was never a virtue for you, was it My Angel?"

And then he considered her last question.

He gazed towards the Heavens.

"The Hawkman is," he pointed to the sky, "somewhere out there. Or, perhaps he is somewhere within? The answer to this only Carter Hall knows."

 

[Varshanka]

Allana Lang

Wraith had shown his own mighty power, shown that no mere Kryptonian could stand against a Scion of Shadow, any more than a mere Kryptonian could stand against The Last Daughter. With his great and mighty blow he had shattered Nam-Ek's jaw and scattered the blood of that vile henchman across the snow. And so, then, he gestured to her—

--it was her move.

The Legion was watching.

(...but even as The Legion was watching Kara-- okay, Brainy was watching Caroline --with their collective breath bated—

--a drop of the blood cast off from Nam-Ek began to sizzle down through the snow, and slither down, and sink.

Unnoticed, perhaps, but for the eyes of an angel.)

Armored boots nearly touched the ice and stone, as the armed and armored Knight landed. Powering down the gravitic repulsor field the knight sank deeper, but even know some unseen, undetectable energy held her aloft. The ice around her melting.

Unseen inside the armor, runes buried inside her skin flickered and flashed as the strained against the unseen that lurked within. So many runes were flaring that the armor was beginning to glow, even though the darkness within was restrained. Teeth ground hard as she growled. So many people. So many INNOCENT LIVES!!!

Souls torn from their flesh before their time. Souls sent beyond before their time. Eyes twitched as the auspex unit tracked potential targets, identifying allies and everything else. A sizzling drop of blood nearly drove her over the edge, each drop screaming about the glory of pain and terror they had inflicted.

And even as a Kryptonian fist impacted with a jaw, the growl became a roar. Spikes ripped from the knights arms, shoulders, and fists. A chain shimmered into existence wrapping around her shoulders and tightened in her fist.

“Guilty…” she snarled, a shimmering red halo of flame coruscating along the skin of her armored shell. Steam flashed around her as she took a single slow step towards the remaining foe.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Ceriel, GL 2261. North.

As Allana stepped forward, seething with the overflow of guilt from these two accessories to planet-cide...

...so too did Ceriel.

She held one silvery hand before Allana's breastplate, and spoke with the mighty tones of an angelic oversoul--

"Hold, Knight. Zarathos. Hold."

"These are fated to receive their punishment in the plane of The Book--" which was to say, The Realm of Creation, not of Purgatory or Sheol or any of a countless array of Perditions rolled into one. "Not at thy hand."

She looked again at the spot where the blood had sizzled and sank.

"But I promise you, I promise both of you. There will be more where that came from."

The Earth gave another rumble, then, another hint of queasiness.

This could be anything, of course, a residual side effect of Zod's teleporting his lackeys here through the geothermic matrix...

********​

Speaking of punish, however.

Liz Greystone adjusted her hand, flexed her fingers around the Ring that had held open The Phantom Zone for Kara to punch Aethyr inside.

And she glanced at the singularity that J'onn's Hope had brought to life.

"What do you think, my love?"

"Shall we do the honors?"

"Flush him out?"

 

[AmenRa]

Liz Greystone adjusted her hand, flexed her fingers around the Ring that had held open The Phantom Zone for Kara to punch Nam-Ek inside.

And she glanced at the singularity that J'onn's hope had brought to life.

"What do you think, my love?"

"Shall we do the honors?"

"Flush her out?"

"Oh, do let's," he answered.

And J'onn, too, heard the planet rumble. It reminded him of...thunder.

 

[ChasNicollette]

North. Bereavement and Unraveling.

Matter-Eater Lad stared in abject bewilderment at the woman who had-- just gotten all spikes and chains and-- vengeancey?

He squinted over his sunglasses and glanced at Rond Vidar.

"Is it bad that I still think that's kinda hot?"

Rond blinked at him. "...probably. (Did you feel that?)"

********​

Nam-Ek, healing momentarily in the sunlight-- though that scar on his face would never fully heal --rose in the grip of the Blue's Lantern's gravity well, met the gaze of the raging Demon Knight that approached him, and he set his teeth on edge even as his broken jaw knit. He never had been much for words, but now he spoke, eloquent and at length, famous last words: "You frighten me not, mystical little thing. My people stamped out magic amongst our culture millennia ago, and while your fires might singe my flesh, my psyche, know only this: hotter fires yet are coming."

His eyes flickered to the Green Lantern, and then to the Blue. "Darkness your light cannot penetrate, Ringbearers, will be lit by a fire that will scorch you even now, Lawgiver, even now that you have mastered your race's fear of flame, still you will burn."

And then, impossibly, against the tremendous force of the singularity, he stepped forward, there came a tearing of sinew and a cracking of bone as-- with sheer force of his own will, he forced himself forward, superstrong and fearing nothing, defying gravity in a whole new context-- he broke his body all over again to escape the pull of the singularity into which Wraith's punch had put him, and with that, he snapped upwards into Liz' waiting Phantom Zone Rift.

"There will be more," his voice echoed as he fell up up and away, "where that came from."

Liz stared up at the Phantom Zone Rift for a moment more, before extinguishing it, zipping it shut, and gazing worriedly at J'onn.

For a moment, she felt something not unlike Fear, and the light of her own Green Ring flickered but did not extinguish.

********​

The Doctor stood, gazing with his hands in his pockets at the vanishing Rift, and he remembered once, long, long ago, gazing into a rift not unlike it, a particularly murky subdimension.

"Best of British," he wished upon the man who'd just fallen away to join his uppercutted fellow. Though he wished this with a great deal more irony than he'd done John Smith, once upon a time.

But then the ground again rumbled. Like thunder... like thunder only angrier, and deeper, and from under the world and within the world rather than above it...

It is a curious thing, the mixing of magics at times of great crisis.

Any manner of unpredictable thing can result.

But there are few greater intersections of ley-lines than the poles of a world, and to have a Shadow Scion draw blood from a minion stained with hell-taint, well, that's a potent mixture indeed.

Blood sizzled through snow and burned through ground and there came a hole, faster-growing even than Parícutin, wide wide wide it opened like a maw... it stank of sulphur and of brimstone and of all the greatest stenches of decay and dismay...

...like a gyre, it widened, and The TARDIS, the Clever Blue Box, it tilted, it teetered, it toppled, and tumbled in, and The Doctor screamed in horror beyond all calculating "NOOOOO!" ...but it was gone.

Lost to an abyss that gazed also.

...as it widened, widened faster than any of them could believe, there came from within it a howl of triumph, of glee, deep and terrible and frightening...

...and thence rose monsters primordial indeed.

Monsters of fire and bone and leather and tooth and oh so many claws.

Demons.

There was here born a Hellmouth, and only The Legion could stem its tide.

 

[ChasNicollette]

The Cruiser. Unwriting.


"Thanks Rokk," she said coolly. "Let's get to these sprocks and show them that we are the sprocking law."

"You heard the lady," Rokk glanced over his shoulder at the others.

"Let's Go."

She turned to Jenni. "The second the last of them are onboard you catch us up to them. Go sprocking between if you have to. I want us on them like shadow on Tass's hard ass."

Tasmia glanced back at her hindparts. "Tch. Glad to know someone's noticed the work I've put into it, given how often I've been turned down lately."

Jenni gulped. "Yes ma'am," and she waited. Just as soon as the last of the team was aboard she kicked the cruiser to full throttle. "On them as quick as I can Jo."

As XS throttled, put her serious pedal to some serious metal, Wildfire sat in the banks of seating with Jonah Tennylson, and glanced from him-- erstwhile Fate, current Kid Eternity --to Merick's Ghost.

Merick declined to sit, he just braced himself with his forcefields and, holding one hand over his head, formed a force-construct hand-strap like the kind you'd see on the subway.

"See, here's my thing," Wildfire began. "I know who you are. Or at least-- you're one of two people, but I've pretty much ruled out the other one. When I found out the pretty little Greystone girl had done this whole buncha diggin' about her family history, well, I-- both of me-- we got the hankering to do the same thing. And we came up on some weird stuff. Like how everyone in our family is born twins, going back to way way back in the day-- but that's-- I'm digressin'."

"You're time-traveling, right? Like he is?" he spoke to Merick, but pointed with his thumb at Jonah.

"No, no, this is my power outside of being Fate, out from under the helmet," Jonah explained. "I'm Kid Eternity. I can summon people back from the dead. But only one person at a time, and only once each, and only for a little while-- or until they're killed again."

"That's one of the things that's bugging me, though," Wildfire insisted, after processing this for a moment. "There wasn't anything in the records about how you died. All these conflicting rumors, like you were abducted by aliens or you died on the toilet, or you were stabbed in Tijuana or someone beat you to death with a broken antique coffee table-- granted, there were a lot of records lost a couple centuries back when England sank, and all that time you spent in London got washed away, but still. There shoulda been somethin'. Somethin' concrete. About how you died. There was a reason that Jaymie couldn't find nothin' on her grandcestor Wraith, there, 'coz he never died, but I know for a fact you ain't immortal."

"So you died," Wildfire continued, like anyone could stop him from talking once he got going, "and now he brought you back, and now I'm dying to know: how'd you kick it, grandcestor?"

Merick's Ghost paused. And frowned. And shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not dead. I mean-- obviously, I'm dead, it's a thousand years later, but I've, like, never experienced dying."

Fate blinked, at this. "That doesn't make any sense. Of course you've died. I couldn't bring you back if you hadn't."

Wildfire nodded easily. "Knew I smelled something fishier than a Hykraian, just didn't know what."

Merick shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you. The last thing I remember--" he hesitated. "The last thing I remember--"

He went quiet, and he frowned. "--I-- I don't know. It's all foggy. Like I'm remembering someone else's memories of me, and I don't have anyone to fill in the blanks. Even that story about Times Square and pajamas-- it was like someone else had told it to me."

Jonah shook his head. "There was something a little weird about the way you came back. Not like the others. Usually they were surprised that they were drawing breath, but you, you were-- waiting to happen."

"What can I say?" Merick's Ghost grinned, nothing could put him down for long. "I never could follow the rules. Physics, magic, or otherwise."

Wildfire fistbumped him. "No-one in our family ever sprockin' could. That's what makes us so bad-nass."

 

[Varshanka]

North. Hellmouth.

...and thence rose monsters primordial indeed.

Monsters of fire and bone and leather and tooth and oh so many claws.

Demons.

There was here born a Hellmouth, …..

Chains ripped from armored fists, destroying four of the foul beasts before they even crossed the edge of the maw.

Launching herself forwards the Knight charged the oncoming horde, armored heels snapping cracks into the ice, even as those self-safe boots melted the ice in steaming pits. Vengeance had been denied her. Vengeance would not be denied!! Vengeance MUST NOT BE DENIED!!!

“GUILTY!!” She yelled, her fingers wrapping around a howling throat and squeezing. Staring into the beasts eyes she whispered a name. The true name of the demon. Screaming as it’s form was forced back to the bottom of the pit, the demon cursed her to die an eternity of torment.

The blade on her back shimmered as she reached back and grabbed it. The razor thin edge whipped around, slicing several of the demons in a single swipe. Heads tumbling free as their forms dissolved.

But even as she fought like a Fury she was being slowly overwhelmed, One daemon, standing well over fifteen feet tall was slowly wrenching at her helmet, claws sinking into a material that was nigh unto impervious and indestructible.

If it succeeded, the daemon would rip her head off, and feast on her brains.

 

[ChasNicollette]

North. "I Kill With My Heart."

The beast that burned in the coin and in Allana's blood was not the only Spirit of Vengeance; there were many kinds of vengeance and many kinds of spirits.

The twin guns at The Remnant's belt held spirits such as these. The spirits were fettered by ritual, but if they were to be truly unleashed-- the guns would never need loading, or aiming, or triggering-- they could fire forever and never miss their targets-- and the gunslinger would get powers of their own-- but the soul of they who wielded the guns would be swallowed up by the weapons' vendetta. They would become an extension of the guns, rather than the other way around.

It was a precarious balance.

The Remnant could use the guns for trick shots, and shoot to wound, but if she slew any living, sentient being, regardless of innocence, she would forfeit her very self and her Oath of The Bat.

...but then again, these were demons.

Where shooting, say, The Emerald Eye would be a grey area? ...demons were decidedly not.

She slapped leather.

Her guns cleared her holsters before the average human being could blink.

She pulled her triggers so simultaneously that their twin BOOM sounded as one united.

And blew the eyes of that fifteen-foot demon back out through the back of his head.

With an echoing shriek, its corporeal form-- decorporealized-- and thus its mystical fingernails ceased their relentless corkscrewing at Allana's helmet.

There weren't a lot of things in this world immune to magic. But then again, neither were magickal things.

"'Guilty,'" Carrie growled, succinctly.

She rather liked that word.

 

[ChasNicollette]

North. Reunions, Actual and Attempted.

Thoroughly satisfied that Allana and Zarathos were wreaking the right kind of havoc for once, Ceriel turned her angel eyes elsewhere.

...The Doctor stood, gazing into the abyss, his dark eyes darker, perhaps, than ever they'd been.

"Always with falling into holes with The Devil," he mumbled, panic-stricken, achingly, seemingly oblivious to the screaming snapping snarling going on around him. "Always with this."

He clawed his hands into his hair.

"What do I do? WHAT THE HELL DO I DO?"

Behind him, a slavering thing dark as dried blood loomed tall, claws upraised to rake The Doctor to shreds from the tips of his hair to the soles of his shoes-- but then a blade, black and ornate, jutted out through the demon's forehead like a third eye. And then slashed downwards as the beast dispersed in a billow of mist the color of dried blood.

Ceriel of The Raven Host had once been human, mortal, as had The Doctor-- and when Ceriel had been mortal, her job had been to babysit the mortal Jamie David Hamilton, to keep him alive when his madcap antics and razor-wire intellect got him nearly dead.

The more things changed.

The more they stayed the same.

She slashed left, right, wings billowing, red eyes flashing, she carved a swath around him that was demon blood and bonedust, removing them from The Book as soon as they tried to touch one spiky hair on The Doctor's head.

But still he stood, oblivious, staring after his lost TARDIS.

Even an angelic bodyguard has her limits.

"JAMES!" she barked, with a voice not unlike the thunder that Liz Greystone had so recently summoned.

"SNAP OUT OF IT."

This, somehow, reawakened The Doctor, and he wheeled about in place to stare at Ceriel in wonder.

"You."

She eviscerated a rhyming demon mid-stanza.

"Me."

His eye twitched, as he tried to process this-- memories of a human heart did not always translate so well to a Time Lord across the arc of a Chameleon Arch, but this, this was a loss as fresh as yesterday and yet centuries gone and.

"Weeping Angel," he breathed.

She grinned grimly, bisecting a Tempter from sternum to groin.

"Fireplace Man."

The Doctor stared at her a moment more. "You're a-- an actual--" he hesitated. "They fixed your teeth."

Ceriel scowled. That was the first thing he noticed? Of course it was. "Remind me again why I loved yeh?"

He grinned from ear to ear. "'Aven't a clue, sorry."

And then he quick-drew-- even The Remnant would be impressed by his draw speed, for a fellow who professed to despise guns --a yellow water pistol, spammed the trigger--

--holy water spattered an insectoid demon in compound eyes and as it wailed in anguish and rage, Ceriel whirled and brought her blades together, scissoring its head off.

"You look lovely," The Doctor told her, and he meant it.

Ceriel smirked faintly. "Missed you, too."

"But I know who the love of yehr life really is. Shall we go get her back?"

The Doctor hesitated. Then glanced back behind him.

And he laughed softly.

"'Fireplace Man,'" he chortled. "Well, that's a Fire-Place, if ever I've seen one. Loose connection, need to get a man in."

"Then let's get yeh in there."

Ceriel's wings snapped wide, bowling two more demons off of centipedal feet, she sheathed a sword and flung an arm around The Doctor's slender waist, diving down with him into that Bottomless Pit.

And the Doctor roared, perhaps for the only time in his long, long life: "GERONIMO!"

 

[Wyldfire]

The North. I am Legion for we are many.

The maw opened and all hell began to pour out. The new kids struck first with somewhat questionable wrath. But the others weren't too far behind them. Lamprey and Nightwind teamed up to blast one of the demons and to their surprise the thing shriveled and seared under the combined force of electricity and wind.

Dawnstar was a blur as she stabbed and thrusted her way through a gaggle of imps her Nth metal spear made them explode as she struck.... Gim Allon saw what came through next and ran towards it growing as he charged. He met the colossus striding through the maw. It stood twenty five feet tall so he went to thirty as he met it. The two clashed and spun off to the side of the maw grappling and throwing blows.

Grev Mallor engaged a shade as it went for Nightwind and Lamprey. He let his shadows spill over it and as it engulfed it, the shade was ripped apart and absorbed into his shadows.

Karate kid and Ferro stood back to back taking demons down, one with brute strength the other with skill and grace. The two stood resolute as teammates and friends, Confident in the other's ability to watch each others backs.

In the Legion Medbay Duplicate boy gasped and rose up into a sitting position. Before Vi could say anything, Ord said "Gates." As he said this a portal opened around him. He appeared in the monitor room. He took note of who was where and opened another portal. Arriving at the pole he took only a second to assess the situation. "M'onel."

He blasted into the demons leaving a swath of destruction, intent to direct his anger at an enemy he could hit as hard as he wanted.

 

[AmenRa]

His eyes flickered to the Green Lantern, and then to the Blue. "Darkness your light cannot penetrate, Ringbearers, will be lit by a fire that will scorch you even now, Lawgiver, even now that you have mastered your race's fear of flame, still you will burn."

Martian Manhunter gazed right back at him, unmoving, his face an unreadable mask. He took two steps forward, and then he stopped when he saw Nam-Ek's intention. He shook his head in sympathy for the feeble-minded fool.

I suppose the word invulnerable is beyond his capacity to understand, much less utter.

And all hell literally broke loose.

Liz's worried look did not go unnoticed.

J'onn J'onzz of Mars looked long into the abyss that opened. It, however, did not look long into him. He turned to Elizabeth, and his eyes flared for an instant.

We must fight as one, he thought to her.

We must be unyielding, now, here.

His mouth curled into the faintest of smiles. I will never leave your side.

Ever.

And then, with a shout, Martian Manhunter attacked.

His was a curious display, summoned on a whim with his Blue Ring. Energy pulsed from the ring and formed a cloud above them, and then a hundred meter-long objects flew from this cloud as its energy formed them.

They were accurately modeled replicas of the Starship Enterprise, straight out of a long lost Star Trek series enjoyed during the late 1960s.

A hundred Enterprises, glowing brightly and blue.

And they descended, bringing their Hope-powered impulse engines online, and bringing their Blue fueled weapons to bear. They converged on targets, some engaging singly and others two and three at a time with phasers and photon torpedoes.

J'onn then reached out telepathically to the Legion, to Liz, to Kara Zor-El, to Caroline, to all save Wraith. He connected with them, with their minds, and he himself became the conduit for their thoughts. This battle meld was faster and a hundredfold more efficient than any transceiver because now they could not only see what each other was doing, they could feel it. Their thoughts and actions and reactions could now be as if they had been preconceived by each other. Their attacks would be defense while their defenders would be attackers.

Single column! he thought as he pointed to an area before the spread of the demonic horde. Single column! as he pointed to another place. He knew forming here would present the invaders with a unique offensive and defensive position to overrun: a phalanx.

Hold the line! Push them back!

J'onn then shouted to Wraith, "We will hold them! Seal the pit!"

 

[ChasNicollette]

North. When All Hell Breaks Loose, We Fix It.

The Remnant moved like razors and grace. Gun kata. BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

Batman 3010 had shades of Val Armorr to his movements, though not as refined-- red-and-black batarangs emerged from the backs of his wrists and he fired them in hails-- if a demon got through his barrage, electricity would pulse through the skin of his suit and pop the thing like a bird on a wire.

Catspaw and Timber Wolf had taken a similar back-to-back-badasses approach to Ferro and the aforementioned Karate Kid-- clawing and shredding and biting--

Kent Shakespeare blurred between attacks, hitting back a hundred times in a second, herding as many demons as he could find--

Night Girl still found herself supercharged by the darkfield from earlier, but she kept as close as she could to Grev just in case that wore off anytime soon. Everywhere her fists fell, demons shattered.

Chameleon was a tangled, amorphous windmill of limbs, lashing out in every direction at once-- only keeping his familiar head atop the blob of orange violence so that his friends wouldn't mistake him for one of the demons.

Rond Vidar kept his objects simple, mind fluid-- walls and fists and bladed edges-- basic cause, predictable effect, a fair showing for a cadet.

A raging, scarred hulk came at Tenzil, a halberd in his arms encrusted with rust, swung it for M-E Lad's neck...

...Tenzil blocked the axe with his grin, sparks flying as the weapon connected with indestructible teeth-- and then the axe-head was gone, and Tenzil burped-- and the demon took a wide-eyed step back. "Yeah," Tenzil nodded, all bluff and bravado, "that's right, run!"

Happily, that's when Ord blew through the guy faster than a speeding bullet and Tenzil didn't have to demonstrate that he wasn't so eager to actually eat demon.

Half made Tenz flinch out of his skin, though-- "JUMPIN' FISH-HOOKS!"

Zor-Sen and Rose Var-Sen worked as a team-- Rose's exhalations froze demons to crystal and Zor-Sen's heat vision swept across the frozen monsters and turned them to vapor. (They knew a thing or two about fire and ice. Just a thing. Or two.)

Then they suddenly had air cover... a thousand little ships, like a twentieth-century dream of the tomorrow that had been yesteryear...

Liz smiled her invisible smile at J'onn.

I am right here.

We are one.

We always were.

Her Ring hand went aloft, and suddenly those Enterprises of great pith and moment were joined by a fleet of green-glowing D'deridex-class Romulan Warbirds-- a symbol of unity despite disparity, adding next-generation disruptors and quantum torpedoes to J'onn's classic phasers and photons...

Martian mind touched minds around him, and it was like being in The League of old, this ancient beautiful dusty voice providing ever-flowing ever-changing tactical advice and advantage-- Brainiac Five couldn't help but feel how familiar it was, longing for the cyberspace of his homeworld, from which his Brainiac status had banned him; between J'onn's coordination and Tomorrow Woman's, Batman fought like he was an omniscient force of nature --they were already immensely powerful individual pieces, but now they moved with the precision of a chessmaster...

J'onn called out to Wraith to seal the pit...

...and then Kinetix and Dragonmage were there beside Wraith, each of them glowing with power.

"We know magic," Zoe promised. "We can help."

Xao Jin managed to keep his voice from cracking. "What do we do?"

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith

A hellmouth.
on Earth.

I have had nightmares about this, and unfortunately I wasn't asleep right now.

Demons were pouring out, the restrictions that kept them from the waking world nullified by the gate that was open before me. The kids and J'onn were tearing into them, but unfortunately, I knew something that they didn't.

These were babies they were fighting. The least of Hell's host. They numbered into the billions, so they would always be at the vanguard.

But that opening would ring like a bell throughout the entire dark plane, and somebody higher up the food chain would be here soon.

Hold the line. I said, then I concentrated.

Shadows swirled around me, and I left Earth, reappearing in my throne room.
I was going to need something if that portal was going to get closed.

I made my way to a special room, one I had not been in for a long while.

I was going to need Dirge.

 

[ChasNicollette]

North. Once I Rose Above the Noise and Confusion.

Dragonmage and Kinetix stared for a moment at the spot where Wraith had been, and then stared at each other.

"Apparently he's got it covered?" Xao Jin wondered.

Zoe chortled. "Power I smelled coming off of him, I wouldn't be surprised. But just in case--"

She narrowed her eyes. "I can walk you through an advanced binding sigil, maybe if we project it into the sky over the hole it'll slow 'em up a bit? It's called a 'Devil's Trap.' How good are you with Enochian?"

Dragonmage shook his head. "I know a couple of jokes. But that does not matter: with you teaching me, I could learn anything. Lead on!"

Kinetix smirked as she aimed her Flight Ring for the top of the sky. "Well, aren't you just the teacher's pet."

 

[Varshanka]

Celestial Knight - Hellmouth

With the pressure on her neck and skull released, Allana sighted on the biggest, ugliest, meanest, baddest daemon of the bunch. Easily a upper echelon beast with dripping acidic drool it roared in hatred and anger as she charged it.

Boots flared as graviton destabilizers engaged, launching her upwards.

But inside her helmet all was not normal anymore. Yves was warning her of temperature destabilization, ectoplasmic overload, as well as penta-, hexa-, and tetragrammatical wards.

In other words, even as hell as breaking loose on Earth, it was wreaking havoc within the Celestial Knight.

Flying upwards, she dove downwards into the gapping maw of the massive behemoth, vanishing down it’s throat as it gurgled in pleasure and howled in victory.

****

Storming forwards the Demon Lord shoved minions from it’s lurching path as it began to glow. A light brighter than the sun growing within it. Pustules began growing on it’s skin, pustules that writhed with an inner glow as they grew larger and larger.

With a final step it’s great hooved foot slammed downwards, crushing a dozen demons, as the pustules burst opens in unison. Whipping chains of glowing fire ripped from the gaping wounds. Moments later it’s form detonated, incinerating a thousand demonic entities in a singular gigantic detonation. The blast was of such magnitude, that the Hellmouth was cleared for a brief moment in space/time.

And over that gaping hole stood a demon. A demon of Hell and Vengeance and Wrath and Pain. The blade in it’s hand glowed with Righteous Fury. Chains lashed downwards, spearing through wounded demons, banishing their forms, even as it anchored itself over the hole into the Abyss.

“Guilty!!” it demanded.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Protectors of the Earth - Two Steps From Hell

Kara Zor-El was aware of the slight tremblings beneath her feat, and she quickly drowned out all other noises and focused on those disturbances. What was happening to the Earth was not some natural phenomenon, but perhaps the machinations of something far more insidious. Her vision pierced through rock and stone without the slightest bit of trouble, and what she saw made her tighten her fists in anticipation.

Demons.

Lots of demons.

The other Legionairres responded quickly to the opening of the Hellmouth, fighting with all their might to stem the tide that rushed from the fiery portal.

Kara Zor-El fought alongside her descendent, and the elder Supergirl was pleased to see that Caroline had some sense of fighting skills.

Not for nothing, however, was Kara Zor-El the Scion of Earth. She threw herself into a horde of demons and struck them down, then turned and used her heat vision to cut them down with a type of fire that they'd not known before. Kara couldn't help but smile as Caroline picked up a demon wearing a hockey mask and used his body like a club to bat away at a group of lesser imps before tossing him aside like a rag doll.

The older Kryptonian drew away from the group and turned as four massive Demon Lords approached and surrounded her.

Each one of them almost certainly possessed the strength of a thousand men.

They would have presented a challenge... had Kara still been a teenager just coming into her own.

Her clear blue eyes soon turned red.

"You... shall not pass."

 

[ChasNicollette]

The Doctor and Ceriel. Downstairs.

There was screaming.

And despair, such despair.

And darkness lit only by jagged surges that seared the eyes into beholding horrors.

And fire that was ever-burning without consuming.

The Doctor could handle heat. He had once taken part of a living sun into him and lived to tell the tale. But this fire... this fire burned the soul, this fire reflected back on you all the pain caused by your sins.

...and The Doctor had destroyed whole worlds back before the world was new. And yet he fought. He fought.

Wraith's magic had given Ceriel mortal flesh, and her weapons were made now of Earthly matter, for the stuff of Heaven wrought untold damage when brought into the pages of The Book. But her wakizashi were still engraved with the language of Heaven, and they were wielded in righteousness through faith, and they were devastating to demonic flesh, and she used them to devastating effect.

Great massive things moved in the pit and the pitch, things bigger by far than the advance guard that had moved up beyond the lip of The Hellmouth, but by some Grace that still followed them in this place outside of the grip of Grace, they still fought minions, toilers, lost souls that had given themselves up to the depredations of their torturers and become dark spirits themselves...

The Doctor swatted one off of the cliff path on which they walked with a backhand from a stolen trident and then sagged, coughing bitterly, against the wall of cell doors beside which that path wound.

Ceriel divided another rhymer's head from his voicebox and whirled to a stop, her wings casting a puff of sulfur and volcanic ash as she did so.

"S'funny," The Doctor wheezed, feeling his skin crack and his respiratory system protest every breath, "this place didn't look so deep from the outside. S'pose that's irony for you."

"Stay on yehr guard, James," Ceriel warned him, pointing with her right hand blade. "The whole point of Hell is that it's relentless."

"Oh, don't mind me," The Doctor smiled a weary, game little smile, forced himself to stand tall, pitchfork at the ready. "I fought on the front lines of The Last Great Time War. I can handle a little Hell."

"'Handle' doesn't mean 'enjoy,'" Ceriel reminded him, twirling first her right blade, then her left, fingers flexing with anticipation and determination.

"Truer words," The Doctor replied, wryly.

And then they were in the thick of it again, leathery wings and long claws, wailing and gnashing of teeth. They fought back to back, at first, but a cleaving greatsword blow drove them apart-- nearly slicing off some of Ceriel's flight feathers in the process --and The Doctor quickly found himself overwhelmed by numbers. Dragged down.

Even flat on his back, he kept fighting. Bashed left with the handle of the fork, slashed right with its rusted, encrusted tines, kicked with rubber soles and swung a fist trained in Venusian aikido.

He remembered another daughter, long, long ago, not Rose McCrimmon but a lovely blonde young woman named Jenny, she'd been a fighter-- he wondered if he would have made her proud by going down fighting.

There was one on top of him, it dragged him, threw him against the wall. Its claws found his throat. But his respiratory bypass was as worn out as the rest of him-- he couldn't breathe the filthy air even if he wanted to --its weight was crushing him--

--he wondered what regeneration would look like in Hell, if they didn't devour both his hearts before he could be reborn in bioluminescent conflagration--

--he wished he could live just a little longer, apologize to more people--

--pay more penance--

--see The TARDIS one last time--

--and then the beast was screaming, screaming in agony, clawing at its eye socket--

--he'd been stabbed, stabbed with a dagger made of sharpened bone, right in the eye--

--The Doctor roared and caught up his pitchfork in his right hand and stabbed the thing right in the heart, driving it back off the cliff, the pitchfork with it. Grabbing up another fallen weapon, he whirled to find the source of the rescuing dagger.

...and found a bony, scraggly hand reaching out from the bars of a cell next to which The Doctor had been slammed and throttled. He couldn't make out the face at first-- the half of the face that he could see had been flayed right to the bone, like Hela of Norse myth, she was half-alive and half-undead.

But then she turned her face into the agonizing light of Hell, and on seeing that face, that half a face still made flesh, The Doctor staggered back. "What--?"

The half of her face that could still smile crooked into a grin. "Hulloh, James."

The Doctor sputtered again. "--what?"

And then Ceriel landed beside him, her ruby-red eagle-eyes wide in horror.

"Great God," she breathed. "Claire."

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Wraith: Menmoth castle

In the few minutes it took me to reach the bottom of my keep thirty seconds had passed up in the arctic. The time distortion in Shadow was going to help, but this particular chamber could not be opened except by very particular means. I would have to be quick while also being methodical.
It had to be protected. The damned sword it guarded has eaten a god.

Two minutes later found me standing before a portal of darkness blacker than the darkness found in the deepest recesses of the earth. The pool was so black it seemed to suck what little light remained in the chamber into it. A pool of anti-light, anti-life.

I stood before it, and started tracing letters of blue-white coldfire in the air. Streamers of cold white light were pulled into the circle and started to create pinpoints of light in the blackness. Three minutes later the darkness collapsed in on itself and a doorway was revealed. I stepped through into a simple circular chamber with only a single object in the room, a sword hanging suspended in midair.

It was a simple blade, no gold or jewels adorned it's hilt, just a leather wrapped handle over a bright metal, but it gave off power. The hair on your arms would be standing up just from being near it, a hum in the air you feel more than hear. It was a subliminal response warning of the danger wrought in that simple metal housing.

I walked forward and grasped the hilt in his hand. Immediately the power of the sword slammed into me. It wound through my mind, looking for a weakness, for a chink in his willpower so it would master my flesh, transforming me into a extension of it's will. It did this every time I took up the blade, the sword hoping that this time it would be the master, and as before, the willpower of the Lord of Shadow saw, measured, and conquered the blades hungry power, and made it my own.

"Ahhhh, Kyle Alec Greystone, you take me up again. What matter of threat requires you to release me from my tomb?" The words rippled through my mind, a dark rich velvet sliding through my thoughts.

"Hell has broken the compact and opened a portal on the mortal world of my birth. The scion of Damnation is following no rules and seeks dominion over all realms and realities. The Balance is threatened, and he seeks to break all compacts.

Then he is an honorless cur that deserves my wrath. Let us face him and his mewling demonlings, and I will sing the song of his death as I slake my thirst with his soul.

A scabbard formed at my side and I slammed the blade home, then, with the wards down, Shadow swirled around me and I was back on Earth, with what was probably the most dangerous weapon in this universe at my side.

Hopefully it would be enough.

 

[AmenRa]

Martian Manhunter

Wraith disappeared into a swirl of inky shadow.

J'onn knew Kyle had heard his plea to seal the pit, and he worried none. Surely Wraith had left them to return again with.....the weapon.

The Manhunter knew of Dirge. He knew the power it possessed when wielded by Wraith. And that gave the Martian Manhunter an idea.

J'onn's blue ring glowed with power. In his right hand formed a war hammer; a mighty hammer patterned after one he had kept hidden and safe for centuries in his Martian home.

And, although J'onn J'onzz lacked the mystical powers of the Asgardian who wielded this hammer's namesake, he did have powers of his own. So, J'onn imbued his construct with the flame of hope and energy of a Blue Lantern.

And those vilest of creatures that crawled forth from the hellmouth were struck down by J'onn's Mjolnir as he spun it and swung it. The Manhunter lept and struck and spun his body as he flung the hammer to and fro.

He stopped for an instant to speak to the demons.

"I say thee 'nay'!" he shouted.

And he swung again.

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

The Legionnaires responded well to J'onn's commands, and the strength of their attacks, coupled with their incredible defensive skills, was enough to hold back the scores of demons that issued from the hellmouth. But Kara knew that J'onn was right: the portal had to be closed.

Kara saw Kyle disappear into Shadow.

She saw Ceriel and The Doctor go into the pit.

The spirit of battle filled her.

Kara unleashed an intense blast of thermal energy on the lesser demon lords that had risen up to challenged her... reducing them to ash. She rose up into the air, flying high above the ranks of Legionnaires so that she could see where she was needed the most.

She eventually touched down beside a group of young fighters that seemed to be having a difficult time holding the line.

The golden-haired Kryptonian rallied them to her side, and encouraged them to focus their attacks.

They were stronger as a team.

As Legionnaires.

Kara Zor-El looked towards J'onn, and, inspired by his hammer's spinning, she flew towards the center of the hellmouth and began circling around its opening. She flew faster and faster, becoming an intense red blur and causing a violent rotation of air as she continued to spin around and around and around. Those closest to its edge were sucked up into it, unable to fight against the strong gravitational pull of the vortex.

Kara used her heat vision to pick apart the smaller demons that had been pulled up into her cyclone, and her clenched fists pummeled the stronger beasts as they struggled helplessly in the air.

The chaotic winds continued for several minutes even after she had flown away, flinging many of the demons right into the arms of the Legionnaires. Kara touched down next to Kyle as he reappeared, and she looked towards the hellmouth.

"I think it's time to shut this baby down."

 

[ChasNicollette]

The Doctor, Ceriel, Claire. Downstairs.

"I don't understand!" The Doctor staggered back, shaking his head, shaking his head, the hand-axe he'd just grabbed clattering to the ground beside him. "I-- I don't understand."

"You-- you joined the side of good! You helped us! You fought alongside us, fought The League, fought Emil!"

"There's more to redemption, it turns out," Claire McCrimmon rasssped, with the whole and hearty half of her face smiling resignedly, "than just changing what you do. I never could change who I was. Even that whole time, inside I was always a killer."

"But I thought--" Ceriel shook her own head, ruby red eagle eyes narrowed. "The brothers of The Raven Host, The Eagle Host, they assured me that they had seen you in Purgatory. Nothing wonderful about that gloomy place, but it's not Hell."

"There's been a war," Claire reminded them. "Oh, so many drafts and prisoner exchanges. Backroom dealings dividing up the souls in Purgatory between Heaven and Hell, 'I'll see your Tommy Monaghan and I'll raise you Jesse Custer.' Well, war's over now, and here's where I ended up in the shuffle."

"Pardon my language," The Doctor snarled, "but the Hell it is."

He whipped the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and the lock on Claire's cage shattered in a puff of sparks and brimstone and bonedust. "We're getting you out of here. You don't belong here."

Claire laughed brokenly and through the exposed half of her ribcage you could see her remaining lung shudder helplessly with that laugh. "Sort of not how Hell works, James. There's no out. Not of here."

Ceriel hauled the barred door aside, and it crumpled under her angelic strength, and she shouldered her sister's half-skeletal weight as though she were nothing. "There is right now. There's a Hellmouth. Any denizen of Perdition that makes it through there... they can enter the Earthly plane, The Plane of The Book, and remain corporeal."

But no sooner were these words proclaimed than all of Hell shuddered. Rumbled.

Somewhere, high high above, Kinetix and Dragonmage had worked their binding, their Devil's Trap, containing the escaped demons in a boundary their Hellish bodies could not cross.

And Kyle Alec Greystone, Lord Azrakel, had returned from Shadow almost as soon as he had departed, with the power to weld shut the fiery pit beyond all revocation.

"We're out of time," Ceriel groaned. "They're sealing the breach-- as a Raven Angel my strength is legend but I can't carry both of yeh fast enough to get out--"

But the Doctor wasn't looking at either of The Sisters McCrimmon. He was staring at his sonic screwdriver.

And his sonic screwdriver was strobing. Not making its standard whistling noise, but the VWORRRP of its elder sister--

"Go," he murmured, joy, dangerously joyous glee, addicted to adventure and the skin of his own teeth. "Go. Get her out. I'm going to fetch my motor."

He walked to the lip of the cliff on which they stood, and below that cliff, across a canyon and another forty stories below, surrounded by a swarming horde of insectoid demons that from this distance looked like enough army ants to devour a continent--

--laying on her back, about to be swallowed from view by those demons perhaps for the last time--

--stained with soot, scratched by clawmarks that had marred the wooden surface without being able to penetrate--

--was The TARDIS.

"Oh," The Doctor breathed, eyes lighting up even in the darklit light of Hell, "you sexy thing."

Claire closed her one lidded eye, and laughed that broken laugh again. "He never looked at me like that. You?"

Ceriel hmphed softly. "Almost. But not quite."

But then The Doctor vaulted off of the cliff, dove headfirst deeper and deeper down into Hell, the sonic screwdriver held beside him as he dove like he was shining its light on his falling flight path, just like he'd once dived to the heart of a Library planet...

...Ceriel spread her great black wings and gathered up her sister in a bridal carry before launching at the speed of a star fallen from Heaven...

...Ceriel blew upwards and The Doctor hurtled down.

Black chitinous clicking clattering demon antlings pawed at The TARDIS but The Doctor fell towards it, towards her, thirty stories twenty stories ten--

--all the hosts and hordes of Hell were clamoring to get out into Creation, into Earth, before they missed their chance, they were bottlenecking and rubbernecking in that opening even as it began, grindingly and inexorably, to iris shut, under the will and power of Wraith--

--even flying at her maximum speed, Ceriel became tangled, thrashing and twisting and yawing and rolling and pitching through the gnashing gnarling smashing snarling--

--Claire begged Ceriel to just drop her, to fly free, but Ceriel ignored her--

--The Doctor raised his hand as he fell, and he snapped his fingers.

The TARDIS' doors swung downward and inward and in a billow of brown coat like a superhero at Serenity Valley The Doctor knifed through that opening and fell straight through down to The Console, he flung his arm around The Time Rotor, that great slender column, felt a crack as even his best fighting arm couldn't support catching his weight at that distance, but even as he screamed in pain he hung on, swung the sonic upward--

--it whistled and shone and the doors slammed shut before the scrawling, scrabbling army-ant demons could get inside.

And then another whistle, another shine, and the parking brake shifted, a row of switches snapped and clicked.

VWORRRP.
VWORRRP.
VWORRRP.

And the Doctor crumpled, laughing with delighted insanity, sprawling on the deckplates and cradling his arm as The TARDIS faded out of Hell and once more appeared on Arctic snows...

...just as The Hellmouth corkscrewed very nearly shut.

...just as Ceriel, Angel of The Raven Host, screamed like the Blackest of Canaries and tore up into the sky through the barely-there gap cradling her long-lost fallen sister.

Like a Bird out of Hell.