Justice, Like Lightning... [IC]

[trollthumper]

In the second before the car took off, the horses whinnied. Nick hunched down as the car sped forward, knowing what was coming next. Sure enough, elf-shot punched right through the roof of the car, one arrow going right through his dashboard.

Nick focused inward, and the car grew unnaturally cold. So did the road behind it. A low moaning began to fill the air, the voice of mournful souls denied Valhalla. It had been enough to drive mortal men to weep on occasion.

But it did nothing for faeries, apparently, as the hunters and their steeds managed to keep apace of the car. One began to break ahead, closing in.

"Coming in at 3 o'clock!" Nick shouted to Justice.

[Moira Morley]

The horses and elves were something out of a beautiful nightmare. I really need to stop watching Lady Gaga videos, Justice thought sarcastically, This is getting all too familiar. Then the arrows came. She flinched out of reflex, not fear. This was followed by the chill and moans. That was something that was slightly creepy. Nick shouted out an order, they had a bogey! "Right," she shouted. It sounded like she was acknowledging him, but she was really trying to remember the terminology of the time-based positions. 3'oclock was to her right. Reaching for the sword she stabbed outside the window with a grunt. It barely grazed her target. Well, so much for first impressions.

[trollthumper]

The hunter at the window glared at Justice. He drew a sword from his scabbard, holding it in his off-hand, and tried to drive it forth. Justice, however, managed to deflect it with minimal effort. Behind them, the hunter's cohorts kept pace, peppering the air with elf-shot. One arrow went shattering through the rear windshield, and another followed through towards Nick... but managed to bounce right off his jacket.

Cold's obviously not working, Nick thought. I wonder how tough they are without their steeds... Nick funneled the power from the half-open gateway to Nilfheim into a new working. Down the road, the unnatural chill and the laments of the dead cut out in half a second... but the hunters barely had time to register the change before they felt their mounts going under as invisible hands dragged them to the asphalt. Nick could hear the horses whinnying; it sounded like a mare being stabbed while a nail file was being run down the gates of Hell.

"Yeah, don't wanna hear that again," he said.

[Moira Morley]

It was vehicle-to-vehicle combat! Sword fighting with cars and horses! Though in readily apparent danger, Justice couldn't help but think of how this played like those 'Press X To Not Die' style video games. She swore she connected with that... thing, but apparently it was just too glancing! Nick (or maybe the car Nick drove, you could never tell these days with heroes) continued with the ghosts and the cold. this time it was harsher and more ear rending. She tried to swing her sword out of the window again but apparently the noise was a little too distracting. She agreed with Nick, "Maybe the loud ghosts aren't working against them in particular? Got any quiet spirits?"

[trollthumper]

"Working on it," Nick said, as he felt the impact of another arrow that went soaring through the broken rear windshield. He looked in the rearview mirror, back to the pinned hunters. He tried to find some way to get them off his trail...

...and saw a wrought-iron fence, sitting right outside a Tudor-style apartment building. That should do it. He reshaped his will, aiming to rip the hunters right off their horses and throw them into the iron fence... but he let it slip for one second too long, and felt the hunters burst forth from their ectoplasmic prison. In the rearview mirror, he saw them quickly gaining.

"Yeah, that's just what we need."

[Moira Morley]

Justice nodded when he assured her that there would be a plan. though it looked more like she was agreeing with the faerie hunter to her side that was still dogging her. The first two swings were just measuring blows. This time she had it lined up perfectly.She reached back and slammed the blade into the thing's side. it went through the slits of wooden plates and tore through the leather it was wearing underneath. Justice even felt the blade tear into her pursuer's flesh. A heavy hit indeed. Nick said something and she looked back to where he did with the mirror. "Great. They're ghosts too?"

[trollthumper]

"Not quite," Nick said, as he pulled the Pale Horse into a bootlegger's U-turn. "They're just fairies who are very, very in tune with death. Like the cu sidhe -- death's an aspect of them the same way nature would be part of a dryad."

He bore down on the hunter, who was reeling in his saddle. He drew together stray traces of ectoplasm in the air, which solidified on his left hand into cruel talons. As he passed the hunter, he lashed out.. and felt satisfaction as the talons punched through a weak point in the hunter's armor. The hunter almost fell off his horse, but somehow managed to keep his balance.

"Go for his buddies," Nick said, "or go back around?"

[Moira Morley]

Justice held on as the car screeched. These cooshie are like dryads? Didn't I play with those things as a kid? Right, the little forest faeries. "That's very interesting, Nick," she said jokingly with a dry voice, "I always wondered if the Smurfs were real. Looks like they're pretty evil guys. Would hate to see Smurfette." When Nick clawed at the horseman, she followed up with a quick sword stab. She hoped Nick didn't mind. It did seem ten kinds of crazy to thrust a sword right by the driver's face. Hopefully he would forgive her on count of death chasing them.

[trollthumper]

"Yeah," Nick said as he weaved the car between two oncoming arrows. "But they don't like terms like that. There's a reason the legends are full of terms like 'the Fair Folk' or 'the Good Neighbors' or 'the Kindly Ones' -- calling 'em the F-word is reason enough to get the more fickle among 'em angry at you."

The Hunters were gaining on the two, notching their arrows. Of course, this time, it was because Nick was aiming the car right at them. He bore down on the one on his left, claws still extended, and reached out just as the Hunter came by his side. He swept upwards, and felt the Hunter's ebony breastplate part like butcher's paper. He looked back; the armor seemed to have stopped the worst of the damage, but it was in ruins and the Hunter was still trying to catch his breath.

"Mind you, in this case, that's exactly what we're aiming for."

[Moira Morley]

A malicious smile crossed Justice when she heeard Nick's little tidbit of information. "Don't like to be called faeries, eh?" She repositioned herself out of her window looking to the horseman. She quickly whistled. "Hey, faerie boy. How about you and My Little Pony slow down a bit I got a nice little surprise for you." She followed up her verbal jab with a stab at the horse rider, hoping that the taunt would throw him off.

[trollthumper]

The taunt obviously inflamed the fury of the rider, as he brought the horse about to face Justice -- and was thus caught unaware when she lunged and caught him under the armpit. The rider reeled in his seat as the Pale Horse sped on. Nick looked in the real view mirror, and noticed the two hunters were struggling to retain their hold on the reins.

Like I'd pass up an opportunity like that, he thought. He shifted to reverse and backed the car up at full speed, leaning out the window. He swept at the rider to his left, and cut right through the reins that held him on the horse -- and carried on to punch right through his breastplate. The rider fell from his saddle as his mount raced away, dragging his helmed head as it bounced on the street.

"That leaves yours!"

[Moira Morley]

A quick thought crossed Justice's mind to stab the steed from under the rider, but the rider seemed pretty out of it. She was sure she could knock the sitting duck off the pedestal. No fancy words this time, just a grunt of exertion. She wanted this little living nightmare to be over. With a heavy heave, she aimed the sword across the rider's chest hoping to knock him off while putting some hurt on him.

[trollthumper]

The sword managed to bite deep, deep enough to cause the hunter to reel in his saddle. Trying to gain his bearings, he scraped his sword -- which seemed to be made of obsidian rather than steel -- against the window of the Pale Horse.

"Haven't you done enough to my car?" Nick yelled as he threw the car into Drive. He bore down on the hunter, but his timing was off, as the horse managed to trot two steps and keep its rider from Nick's claws.

Putting him right on Justice's side...

[Moira Morley]

Justice sighed as the rider stood not-so-tall in the saddle. She dodged the blade as at lazily came towards her. "Won't you ever fall down?" she said angrily, "Alright, faerie boy, let's get this over with." Rearing back she barely scraped the rider's leg. With a heavy pull reared back and stabbed againthis time hitting his exposed side again. Maybe just maybe, she thought in a split second, it's over now.

[trollthumper]

The sword almost knocked the hunter out of his saddle... but somehow, he managed to keep his balance. It seemed to take a lot of effort, however. As the Pale Horse sped past the struggling hunter, Nick threw the car into reverse. He knew he didn't have enough space to put himself within easy melee range of the guy, but maybe if he reached...

He lunged out past Justice, but even with the claws up, he wasn't able to scratch the hunter. Justice, on the other hand...

"How 'bout sending him back to Faerie with saddle sores?"

[Moira Morley]

It was weird, Justice felt... tired after that. Like it took all her might just to swing the sword twice. Here she thought the whole being not alive thing precluded having to deal with such things. She guessed that it had something to do with the fact that she still had normal living functions that disguised the whole not alive thing. She could still 'breathe' and 'swallow' and she wasnt dried out or rotting. She guessed there had to be something bad to show up. She wondered why her line of thinking went this way... Fatigued as she was, she was still angered that this Neverland reject wouldn't fly off into the first star on the right. When Nick encouraged her, she nodded and smiled happily. She was glad the emotions still stayed. Its like they burned brighter ever since her dark rebirth. "Let's do this!" The horseman received another lash.

[trollthumper]

The blow managed to catch the hunter right in the chest. Already on uncertain ground, he lolled back in his saddle. His horse seemed to register the problem, and strode back to try to right the rider -- strange behavior, but it was a strange horse -- but to no avail. The hunter began to list in his saddle, and fell to the street soon after. The horse sped on without him, leaving the knocked out faerie in the middle of the road.

Nick pulled the car to a stop. "Great," he said. "Guess we need to get this one to Eldrich."

[Moira Morley]

Justice braced for impact as they knocked over the horseman. And then there was a still quiet. The site was something out of a strange gothic novel. Justice never read those, but she equated it to such based on knowledge. Whatever it was, it was sort of beautiful in it's weirdness. She looked to Nick with a confused smile, "What's Eldrich?" She was never a study into the mystic arts, so she had no idea who the Master Mage was. That and she looked tired out for some reason. She tried to yawn away the sleepy feelings, but it hung on her, like death itself.

[trollthumper]

"Adrian Eldrich," Nick said as he got out of the car. He winced at the damage to his ride, then looked down to the stranded faerie. He pulled some rope out of the trunk and started tying up the prone hunter. "He's an expert in occult matters. He's also very good at diplomacy with deities and other nobles of the realms beyond. He'll know who to turn this guy over to."

[Moira Morley]

Justice said following Nick out of the car. It was really dinged up good. She thought about pulling an arrow out, but didn't know if that would help the car or the owner's mood. She tried to take his mind off of it with a smile and conversation elsewhere. It seemed like what he was trying to do. "You mean Eldrich is a wizard, like that old white-haired guy from the kid's book? Sounds like quite a guy to be around." She held her sword tightly, just in case that faerie thing tried to jump up at them.

[trollthumper]

"Well, not quite old or white-haired," Nick said, "but other than that, yeah, kind of. He helped show me the ropes when my necromancy started to come in." He made sure the prone hunter was tied tight, then tossed the bound faerie in his trunk. After locking the hood, he turned to Justice. "He also taught me the value of a good square knot."