Chrysalis *HF* - Chapter 8
By Gomurr
Chapter Eight:
Fog stirred and swirled in dizzying eddies, as the sleek black
craft wrapped in its cloaking fields set down. The door opened
with a hiss and the figures inside seemingly stepped out of
mid-air into the cold rainy English countryside.
"It's amazing," said Psi-Shot as he felt the cool damp metal of
the plane where only raindrops and clear air appeared before his
his eyes. "How does he do it?"
Avalon overhearing the young man's words, replied simply. "It's
not as difficult as you think, El. It's all a trick of light. I could
wrap all of us in cloaking fields if the human body had the
capacity for the hardware it would take."
"I need no help from the likes of you, tinkerer," hissed Maul
almost invisible in the shadows. "Now let us begin the hunt."
"He's right, gentleman," Jack Silver put in. "Everyone be on
guard lest we all suffer the same fate as Claudia."
A hush fell over the party as Silver's words sunk in, and they all
began their careful stalking towards their target. As the
surrounding forest and fogs swallowed the last member of their
party, an uninvited guest leaped nimbly from the plane and began
to follow with a look of grim determination on their face.
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Deep within the subterranean cavern, screams of rage and
frustration erupted from the lips of Harry Tanaka. The
somewhat frail looking asian man pulled and tore at the thick
chains binding him to the ancient stone walls. The dim inner
chamber seemed to vibrate with the force he was exerting, and
Pyre watched the man they had dubbed the Link closely.
"They Come!!" Harry roared. "The ones that hurt me before. The
ones that thought they could trap me. Lick their flesh...eat their
souls...crack their bones!!"
"What the Hell's wrong with him?" said the demon-hybrid, Pyre.
"The Necromancer should be here watching over him. It's
probably her fault he's in this state anyway. She always did push
her....pets too far."
"Our role isn't to question her, Pyre," Gargoyle boomed from his
position on the other side of Harry. "She comes and goes as she
pleases."
"Leaving us on guard duty over this poor bastard," Pyre huffed
and then settled into a sulk.
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Gomurr led the party through the forest until they began to thin
into low rolling hills that provided very little cover. The fog was
still fairly thick, but that could play to their disadvantage as
well in case of ambush. Avalon lifted a specially shielded palmtop
computer to his face.
"We're still a few miles from Stone Henge, Gomurr. Why are we
stopping?"
"This isn't something we need to rush into, boy," the old mage
said at a near whisper. "That circle of stones is a place where
magical forces beyond your reckoning converge. No fewer than
five different and highly varied societies used that exact spot
for their rituals and the residual mystic energies alone could
destroy an unwary mage if not handled properly."
"So don't be throwing around your hex bolts and we'll be fine,"
said the proud Dark Lord, known as Avalon. "My magnetic powers
have got nothing to do with magic. I'll bring those stones down
around their heads for what they've done."
"If I'm right they aren't by the stones, but under them," said
Gomurr almost distractedly as he pulled a small book from the
folds of his robes. "Everyone gather around look at this."
The group converged around Gomurr with a practiced familiarity.
Many of them had actually been students of his at one time or
another so they were accustomed to his voice as it took on a
somewhat lecturing tone.
"Stone Henge wasn't built all at once. It's the work of several
different cultures and they all used it for varied purposes. Even
I am only partially familiar with why this spot seems to be the
focal point for so much mystical energy."
Gomurr used his staff to draw glowing pictures in the air as he
spoke.
"Even before the main stones were actually placed, the area was
practically honeycombed with caverns and tunnels. The
excavations of these so called barrows was mainly for the
purpose of burial of the dead."
"You mean to say it's a grave yard?" Psi-Shot put in nervously.
"And those big rocks are like headstones."
"Not exactly," said Gomurr absentmindedly patting the youth's
hand. "The barrow openings are a fair distance from the stones
themselves. The construction as I said before was done in stages.
If you'll notice surrounding the stones there's a series of fifty
six shallow holes that have been dug and filled in countless times.
It's theorized that they were originally wooden post holes, but
recent testing has shown that the posts either rotted away or
were pulled up and the holes were filled with the human bone
remains of a very early bronze age society."
The group shifted uncomfortably as Gomurr continued.
"Additionally, there are several types of stones used in the
construction itself. The first or the Blue Stones are much smaller
and of a different type of rock than the mammoth "temple doors
formations" which made the site famous. It's said the Blue Stones
are always a good deal warmer than their ambient temperature.
Whether this is an element of the stone or some residual energy
matrix surrounding them is unknown."
Gomurr continued on in this manner for several more minutes
before Silver finally interrupted.
"Gomurr, I'm sure this is all fascinating, but we aren't here for a
history lesson. What does all this mean to us and what we're
about to go up against."
Gomurr stopped in mid-sentence look confused for a moment at
the interruption, then began to speak.
"Honestly, I'm not sure. There's no way of telling what we may
face. These Illuminati obviously have a plan of some sort in
regards to the stones, but the allignments and magicks possible in
there are near limitless."
"Then your wasting our time," said Silver coldly. "Let's move
people."
Gomurr simply grimaced and fell in line with the rest mumbling to
himself, and occasionally whispering warnings to his apprentice
Rune.
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Deacon Faust paced back and forth in the underground chamber
clenching his fists. The light glinted off of his silvering
sideburns, and his menacing gaze swept back and forth like that
of a predator. His current paramour, Magdalene, watched him
from her seated position on the floor.
"They grow nearer..I can feel their thoughts regardless of the
child that foolishly attempts to mind block me," Faust said in a
grimace, "but the accursed being known as Darque Feonix isn't
among them."
"No matter, my love," Magdalene almost giggled. "When we have
overcome this pitiful band they send against us, then you can hunt
down your long lost son and bring about his demise at your
leisure."
"Yes," Faust breathed. "Time as always is on my side."
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As the Hellfire Club party entered the barrow entrance, they
instantly felt the chill as the damp earth seemed to suck the heat
from their bodies. There were no markings or artifacts to mark
this as more than a simple small cave entrance, due to the heavy
amounts of study and excavation that most of these sites around
England had gone through. Gomurr's small frame led the party
with the feral mutant vampire Maul breathing heavily at his
shoulder. As they approached the back of the small stone room
Gomurr held up his hand for silence. Maul sniffed the air heavily
and the old mage could feel his hot breath against his neck. The
wizened wizard ran his fingers along the solid wall before them,
and examined it closely as the party's tracker began to speak.
"There's more tunnels further down," Maul growled. "but I don't
think you're going to like what we find though. It smells like
death. Old blood and new. The stench of rotting flesh is so sharp
even your meat senses should pick it up."
"Silence your mongrel, Grover," the Black King hissed. "There's
no need to exacerbate this already tense situation with his
overactive imagination."
"His senses haven't failed us yet, Jack, and I don't appreciate
the name calling. Let's just do this," The White King countered.
"I'm sorry," said Silver shrugging his shoulders. "I just have a
terrible feeling about all of this. I think the pressure of the last
few days is getting to me. I apologize Herr Mauler."
"Your apologies are nothing to me, meat," the vampire hissed.
"I'm not here to play nice. I'm here to take down the opposition.
If you want to challenge me again, I'll be more than happy to see
just how...metallic...YOUR blood tastes."
Tensions were running high as Mufasa tried to put a steadying
hand on Maul's shoulder. The vampire shrugged it off violently
and a growl came from the back of his throat. Jack Silver
morphed the wrist band on his hand to a bladed guantlet and took
up a defensive posture.
"Silence," roared the little mage that everyone seemed to have
forgotten. "We're doing our enemy's work for them. We're going
further in now. Be prepared and watch out for anything. I can't
probe beyond this wall mystically so that means I'm being
blocked."
Nytshade smiled to herself as the old man continued his probing
of the rough stone wall. Finally he pulled a slightly colored bit of
stone from the dust below him, and fitted it into a groove in the
wall. The air was filled with a slight rumbling and a tiny crack
seemed to spread from floor to ceiling. Slowly with a grating
creak the wall continued to split until there was room for two
men to walk through abreast. The charnel house stench that only
Maul had recognized before slipped from now opened doorway
and Psi-Shot suppressed a heave.
"Very clever," Nytshade said in a whisper as the wall stopped and
they began to enter the caverns below.
Without warning a blast of hellfire came from the darkness
below. Silver's quick action was all that saved the party leaders
from being burned alive. Reflexively, he used the metal in his
uniform to throw up a makeshift shield that brunted most of the
blast, but even with this intervention some of the heat got
through and Silver's forearm was burned badly. The smell of
newly burned flesh mixed with the smell of old death in a
decidedly unpleasant manner.
Nearly before they could recover, the battle was joined by the
other members of the Illuminati.
"Back to back everyone," the White Queen, Blackfire screamed
as she countered the flame blasts with one of her own. "Here we
go."
To Be Continued.