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Description
Not So Easy

Written by Nitrinoxus, Jonas Belford and Throne Zwei
Edited and Formatted by Nitrinoxus

Chapter 3

Midnight fell across the city of New Orleans like an ebon tide, though a great many people still roamed its streets even at this hour. The Big Easy was not as sleepless as the Big Apple, of course, but even in this coastal city there was a crowd for all hours, a crowd mostly found in the bars and taverns scattered across the city like magnolia petals on the breeze; few, however, found their way to the wide rooftops over these late-night havens, and fewer still had even the faintest inkling of what transpired above their heads on a dark night such as this.

Jack found himself enjoying his athletic new body for once as he moved from shadow to shadow, like something out of a horror movie or a James Bond flick's opening. He would be the lynchpin here - with luck, he could slay their self-proclaimed master and regain their souls. He'd reach the rooftops soon - he just hoped the man would buy their lies.

Nathan soared above the buildings, great stone wings beating silently as he watched Victor and Jack cross the rooftops below. Free from the juju's chill, he could almost enjoy the feeling. Almost. He wouldn't be able to relax and enjoy anything until they had their souls back.

He dove on seeing the man's rooftop. Chiseled paws thudded down on the concrete surface. Victor joined him within moments, effortlessly leaping over a balcony.

"You took your time," their 'master' said irritably. "Where's my dog and what has been delaying you?"

Like before, the warmth of the orders tugged at Nathan. The strength of the compulsion was unexpected. "Jack is coming," he said bluntly. This fragment of truth was all he could manage to produce.

"Forgive our tardiness, Master," Victor interjected, feigning the same obedience his body had once displayed of its own accord as best he could. "There were far fewer eligible virgins in the city than anticipated. But the deed is done. Jack is bringing the three we captured."

The man rolled his eyes. "Of course there were. Humans can't resist the flesh. When he arrives I'll inspect them to make sure they're real—some temptresses will do anything for the illusion of purity. If any of them aren't, you three will get some fun." He flashed a sadistic grin.

Behind the man, one of the shadows cast by a ledge being near a light seemed to move as if it were alive. It was, in fact - Jack had used the numerous shadows in the area to position himself behind their self-proclaimed master. He made no sounds at all as the man was busy rambling on about temptresses and flesh and whatever other inane babble he loved to talk about. And just as silently as he'd arrived, he emerged from the shadows, two shadow-tendrils driving themselves into the man's upper chest.

The man's eyes widened as he was run through. Jack's tendrils were coated red as they withdrew. The man staggered. A trembling hand clutched the gaping wound. Then he stood up straight, brushed off a few stray drops of blood, and grinned. "Interesting, but ineffective. I've long since moved past that particular obstacle." He turned and faced Jack. "So it seems my dog has some new tricks." He glanced over to the gargoyles. "As I'm sure you two have as well. No matter."

He spoke a syllable and then intoned, "Kill him."

The words struck Nathan even harder than the last. So warm... so comforting. All he had to do was fight...?

"Resist, Nathan! He isn't giving the orders anymore!" Jack growled in irritation as his attack seemed to just mildly inconvenience the man.

"Order...?" Nathan mumbled. "It's an order... but it's not—is it? I... want to do this..."

He leapt at Jack, stone claws raised and bared.

As Jack leapt backwards, a number of shadowy tendrils lashed out, trying to hold the gargoyle off. He didn't want to fight Nathan, but he didn't seem to have much choice. One of the shadowy whips lashed the animated statue's face. "No you don't!"

"Keep him busy!" Victor growled, shaking off the mental fog of the man's commands and lunging towards their speaker; their former master held no real power over him, he knew, and this knowledge bolstered his resolve to stop him. "This one's mine!"

Nathan thrashed at the bonds and bit down on the mass trying to entangle his face. The man laughed at the two friends fighting and sidestepped Victor. "I will not indulge your base instincts. Serve or be annihilated!" He thrust out a hand and jabbed Victor in the shoulder. The fur around the impact seared and withered, rotting away.

The gargoyle recoiled in pain, withdrawing his attack for only a moment before redoubling his assault; while his shoulder still burned with pain, he now knew what would happen if the man touched him, and so focused on striking and withdrawing fast enough to avoid another touch.

A loud, eerie howl echoed through the area - the tendrils were just as much a part of Jack's body as his own arms were. Fighting through the pain, he tried to bind Nathan's arms to his sides and keep his rather powerful jaws away from the other tendrils. Keeping the gargoyle in his grasp was proving an incredibly difficult task - the stone creation didn't seem to tire or need to breathe. "Remember who you are! You are not his slave!"

The man and Victor continued their dance of hit-and-run while Nathan struggled under the increasing weight of the shadows. His knees buckled and pounded against the rooftop, sending cracks through the concrete. With enormous effort, the gargoyle roared and spread his wings wide, snapping the tenebrous ropes. Too wide—the man was clipped by Nathan's left wing.

"Watch out, you fool!" he snapped, quickly recovering from the stagger. His gaze left Victor momentarily, but it was enough.

The pain of having the tendrils broken was like getting hit by a car to Jack and the shadowy wolf sank to his knees, numb with pain. He just hoped this wouldn't give his friend the opportunity to kill him.

Seeing and seizing the chance, Vic swung, catching the man solidly in the jaw with a powerful blow and sending him reeling for a few seconds; he swung again and again, the pent-up rage unleashing itself on this man responsible for it all.

The man reeled and bled and bruised from the onslaught. His hands darted for Victor again and again but each time they were knocked away by another punch. He didn't stop trying, though, and his broken face cracked into a bloody smiled when he grabbed hold of Victor's chest.

"You are done!" he snarled as his hand glowed. Something wormed its way into Victor's chest. He could feel it penetrate just as the juju bag had done. "Enjoy this sight of me while you can, cretin. It will be the last thing you ever see."

As the glow intensified, Vic cringed in pain, the radiating burn of the eldritch light turning to the piercing cold of stone; he could feel his body stiffening, hardening, turning to chiseled rock even in the pitch blackness of midnight. "N-no!" he growled, willing his body to keep moving as he tried to knock the man aside, but with each passing second his movements became slower, more labored.

Nathan's stone ears swiveled at the sound of Victor's protested petrifaction. The sight of his friend approaching something worse than death triggered something in Nathan that Jack's pleas couldn't. The gargoyle lunged. He collided full force with the man with a resounding crack of bone as his arm was painfully ripped away from Victor's chest. Nathan's momentum sent them both sailing over the edge of the roof and hurtling towards the street.

"NATHAN! VICTOR!" As soon as he could move, Jack rushed over to check on Victor - the petrification seemed to be subsiding in the darkness now that the man's hand was no longer inducing it, and the gargoyle seemed to be recovering well enough. Without a moment to spare, the shade-wolf seemed to flow over the side of the building using his body. The two had fallen near the entrance to an open-air cafe area of some kind, surrounded by a wrought-iron fence with spikes. While Nathan didn't seem to be stirring, the man was. "No you don't... we aren't your slaves! Never! Again!" As he spoke, more tendrils grew out of his back and wrapped around the source of their misery, slamming him down onto the posts, then lifting him off and slamming the man down once again, with greater force.

The man howled in pain. The agonizing sound echoed off the buildings, but no one inside reacted. He had trained them all too well in the consequences of investigating strange occurrences in the neighborhood, and now the man was rendered helpless by it. He struggled to extract himself, curses forming and dying upon his lips.

Nathan staggered to his feet, then stumbled and caught himself on one of the cafe tables. His side had cracked from the fall. "I'm... ok..." he heaved. His voice was like rattling gravel. "Get... the dolls... in his coat..."

"Right." Jack moved to where the man still lay bleeding out and rummaged around before his furred hand settled on the three dolls, mercifully intact, despite the savage impalement that had been visited upon the man. As he turned to go back to Nathan, Jack spat on the dying sorcerer. "We belong to nobody. I hope that hurts."

Nathan took the statue-shaped doll and held it against his heart. It sank into his cracked chest. A soft, soothing light began to filter through the broken half of his body. The stones started to sift, coming back together, cracks merging away and healing. It wasn't until just now that the gargoyle realized how fake the warmth of the man's orders had been. This... this feeling that was flooding through his chiseled body... this was true warmth.

"Wow..." he mumbled. "I feel... great! I feel—I feel alive!"

Jack flowed up the wall, taking his and Victor's dolls with him. After tossing the right doll to the other gargoyle, he pressed his own into his chest. It sank into the shadowy surface of his chest. And like his friend, warmth flooded through him - the warmth of once more being fully alive. He was himself once more - his cheer, his humor, his positive attitude... all were his once more. "Oh man... this is... so warm..."

As he returned his contained soul to his body, the warmth of life radiating outwards from his core, Vic couldn't help but smile. He still hurt, sure, but the pain had been worth it... after all that, they'd finally done it. "...We're free..." His smile gave way to a pained chuckle. "I can't believe it... we actually did it!"

Nathan flew up and rejoined his friends. "Not quite yet. He's still alive down there--need to figure out what to do with him."

"We should have Jean take care of him... I figure a man who's been around this long would know better than we would."

"Or we could just leave him there," Victor suggested, peering over the edge of the roof at the scene below. "Normally I wouldn't suggest that, but... really, we don't need to worry about him now. We got what we came to get."

"Then someone would just find him, get him off, and this whole thing could start again," Nathan pointed out. "But I do have an idea..."

XXX

The funeral home would report a break-in and the theft of a coffin, but that would be the last sign anyone would find of the nameless man and his legacy. With Pierre's help, the three had hefted the man—iron pole and all—into the coffin and bound it in chains. Nathan flew it into the Gulf of Mexico, dropping the tomb beneath the waves. He made it back just as the sun was starting to creep up over the horizon.

"Done," he said, stepping into Pierre's apartment and dusting off his hands. "Bastard's done now."

"Finally..." Vic breathed, a weight lifting from his mind at the news.

"Good riddance to bad rubbish." Jack gave a grim smile as he scarfed down a cinnamon bun. If they were lucky, they'd never see the man again.

Pierre smiled and passed the tray around. "Jean will be overjoyed, I'm sure."

"One less thing for him to worry about, yeah," Victor nodded, smiling up from his seat as he accepted a bun. "One less thing for all of us, really."

"Ayup. Might not be human anymore, but I think we can help in keeping the city safe. Guy probably wasn't the only one on Earth."

"I guess we really didn't change back though," Nathan added as he took his own breakfast. "Gonna miss the sun."

Vic nodded again. "Yeah, that's the big downshot to all this..." He munched on the glazed pastry in his hand. "Still, we're free to do whatever we want now. That's gotta count for something, eh?"

"Hmm..." Pierre set the tray down and vanished into his bedroom. He reappeared with a large glove. "Try putting this on, it should be flexible enough to fit."

Nathan accepted the glove and awkwardly pulled it onto his hand. He was glad his claws didn't pierce the leather.

"Try the sunbeam now," Pierre encouraged.

Though unsure, Nathan complied. He stuck his gloved hand into the sun. He waved it around.

"Thick enough fabric to keep out the sunlight keeps us safe... makes sense."

"Not just that..." Nathan mumbled. The sun was heating the leather. He could feel it on his hand. "We can feel the sun still." His face broke into a wide, stony smile as he scooped Pierre into a bearhug.

Vic gave a hearty laugh. "Looks like things're starting to look up already!"

"Haha... this calls for a celebration! Time to find out if shadows and gargoyles can get drunk, eh?"

"...Eh, let's not push our luck TOO far."

Description
Not So Easy

Written by Nitrinoxus, Jonas Belford and Throne Zwei
Edited and Formatted by Nitrinoxus

Chapter 3

Midnight fell across the city of New Orleans like an ebon tide, though a great many people still roamed its streets even at this hour. The Big Easy was not as sleepless as the Big Apple, of course, but even in this coastal city there was a crowd for all hours, a crowd mostly found in the bars and taverns scattered across the city like magnolia petals on the breeze; few, however, found their way to the wide rooftops over these late-night havens, and fewer still had even the faintest inkling of what transpired above their heads on a dark night such as this.

Jack found himself enjoying his athletic new body for once as he moved from shadow to shadow, like something out of a horror movie or a James Bond flick's opening. He would be the lynchpin here - with luck, he could slay their self-proclaimed master and regain their souls. He'd reach the rooftops soon - he just hoped the man would buy their lies.

Nathan soared above the buildings, great stone wings beating silently as he watched Victor and Jack cross the rooftops below. Free from the juju's chill, he could almost enjoy the feeling. Almost. He wouldn't be able to relax and enjoy anything until they had their souls back.

He dove on seeing the man's rooftop. Chiseled paws thudded down on the concrete surface. Victor joined him within moments, effortlessly leaping over a balcony.

"You took your time," their 'master' said irritably. "Where's my dog and what has been delaying you?"

Like before, the warmth of the orders tugged at Nathan. The strength of the compulsion was unexpected. "Jack is coming," he said bluntly. This fragment of truth was all he could manage to produce.

"Forgive our tardiness, Master," Victor interjected, feigning the same obedience his body had once displayed of its own accord as best he could. "There were far fewer eligible virgins in the city than anticipated. But the deed is done. Jack is bringing the three we captured."

The man rolled his eyes. "Of course there were. Humans can't resist the flesh. When he arrives I'll inspect them to make sure they're real—some temptresses will do anything for the illusion of purity. If any of them aren't, you three will get some fun." He flashed a sadistic grin.

Behind the man, one of the shadows cast by a ledge being near a light seemed to move as if it were alive. It was, in fact - Jack had used the numerous shadows in the area to position himself behind their self-proclaimed master. He made no sounds at all as the man was busy rambling on about temptresses and flesh and whatever other inane babble he loved to talk about. And just as silently as he'd arrived, he emerged from the shadows, two shadow-tendrils driving themselves into the man's upper chest.

The man's eyes widened as he was run through. Jack's tendrils were coated red as they withdrew. The man staggered. A trembling hand clutched the gaping wound. Then he stood up straight, brushed off a few stray drops of blood, and grinned. "Interesting, but ineffective. I've long since moved past that particular obstacle." He turned and faced Jack. "So it seems my dog has some new tricks." He glanced over to the gargoyles. "As I'm sure you two have as well. No matter."

He spoke a syllable and then intoned, "Kill him."

The words struck Nathan even harder than the last. So warm... so comforting. All he had to do was fight...?

"Resist, Nathan! He isn't giving the orders anymore!" Jack growled in irritation as his attack seemed to just mildly inconvenience the man.

"Order...?" Nathan mumbled. "It's an order... but it's not—is it? I... want to do this..."

He leapt at Jack, stone claws raised and bared.

As Jack leapt backwards, a number of shadowy tendrils lashed out, trying to hold the gargoyle off. He didn't want to fight Nathan, but he didn't seem to have much choice. One of the shadowy whips lashed the animated statue's face. "No you don't!"

"Keep him busy!" Victor growled, shaking off the mental fog of the man's commands and lunging towards their speaker; their former master held no real power over him, he knew, and this knowledge bolstered his resolve to stop him. "This one's mine!"

Nathan thrashed at the bonds and bit down on the mass trying to entangle his face. The man laughed at the two friends fighting and sidestepped Victor. "I will not indulge your base instincts. Serve or be annihilated!" He thrust out a hand and jabbed Victor in the shoulder. The fur around the impact seared and withered, rotting away.

The gargoyle recoiled in pain, withdrawing his attack for only a moment before redoubling his assault; while his shoulder still burned with pain, he now knew what would happen if the man touched him, and so focused on striking and withdrawing fast enough to avoid another touch.

A loud, eerie howl echoed through the area - the tendrils were just as much a part of Jack's body as his own arms were. Fighting through the pain, he tried to bind Nathan's arms to his sides and keep his rather powerful jaws away from the other tendrils. Keeping the gargoyle in his grasp was proving an incredibly difficult task - the stone creation didn't seem to tire or need to breathe. "Remember who you are! You are not his slave!"

The man and Victor continued their dance of hit-and-run while Nathan struggled under the increasing weight of the shadows. His knees buckled and pounded against the rooftop, sending cracks through the concrete. With enormous effort, the gargoyle roared and spread his wings wide, snapping the tenebrous ropes. Too wide—the man was clipped by Nathan's left wing.

"Watch out, you fool!" he snapped, quickly recovering from the stagger. His gaze left Victor momentarily, but it was enough.

The pain of having the tendrils broken was like getting hit by a car to Jack and the shadowy wolf sank to his knees, numb with pain. He just hoped this wouldn't give his friend the opportunity to kill him.

Seeing and seizing the chance, Vic swung, catching the man solidly in the jaw with a powerful blow and sending him reeling for a few seconds; he swung again and again, the pent-up rage unleashing itself on this man responsible for it all.

The man reeled and bled and bruised from the onslaught. His hands darted for Victor again and again but each time they were knocked away by another punch. He didn't stop trying, though, and his broken face cracked into a bloody smiled when he grabbed hold of Victor's chest.

"You are done!" he snarled as his hand glowed. Something wormed its way into Victor's chest. He could feel it penetrate just as the juju bag had done. "Enjoy this sight of me while you can, cretin. It will be the last thing you ever see."

As the glow intensified, Vic cringed in pain, the radiating burn of the eldritch light turning to the piercing cold of stone; he could feel his body stiffening, hardening, turning to chiseled rock even in the pitch blackness of midnight. "N-no!" he growled, willing his body to keep moving as he tried to knock the man aside, but with each passing second his movements became slower, more labored.

Nathan's stone ears swiveled at the sound of Victor's protested petrifaction. The sight of his friend approaching something worse than death triggered something in Nathan that Jack's pleas couldn't. The gargoyle lunged. He collided full force with the man with a resounding crack of bone as his arm was painfully ripped away from Victor's chest. Nathan's momentum sent them both sailing over the edge of the roof and hurtling towards the street.

"NATHAN! VICTOR!" As soon as he could move, Jack rushed over to check on Victor - the petrification seemed to be subsiding in the darkness now that the man's hand was no longer inducing it, and the gargoyle seemed to be recovering well enough. Without a moment to spare, the shade-wolf seemed to flow over the side of the building using his body. The two had fallen near the entrance to an open-air cafe area of some kind, surrounded by a wrought-iron fence with spikes. While Nathan didn't seem to be stirring, the man was. "No you don't... we aren't your slaves! Never! Again!" As he spoke, more tendrils grew out of his back and wrapped around the source of their misery, slamming him down onto the posts, then lifting him off and slamming the man down once again, with greater force.

The man howled in pain. The agonizing sound echoed off the buildings, but no one inside reacted. He had trained them all too well in the consequences of investigating strange occurrences in the neighborhood, and now the man was rendered helpless by it. He struggled to extract himself, curses forming and dying upon his lips.

Nathan staggered to his feet, then stumbled and caught himself on one of the cafe tables. His side had cracked from the fall. "I'm... ok..." he heaved. His voice was like rattling gravel. "Get... the dolls... in his coat..."

"Right." Jack moved to where the man still lay bleeding out and rummaged around before his furred hand settled on the three dolls, mercifully intact, despite the savage impalement that had been visited upon the man. As he turned to go back to Nathan, Jack spat on the dying sorcerer. "We belong to nobody. I hope that hurts."

Nathan took the statue-shaped doll and held it against his heart. It sank into his cracked chest. A soft, soothing light began to filter through the broken half of his body. The stones started to sift, coming back together, cracks merging away and healing. It wasn't until just now that the gargoyle realized how fake the warmth of the man's orders had been. This... this feeling that was flooding through his chiseled body... this was true warmth.

"Wow..." he mumbled. "I feel... great! I feel—I feel alive!"

Jack flowed up the wall, taking his and Victor's dolls with him. After tossing the right doll to the other gargoyle, he pressed his own into his chest. It sank into the shadowy surface of his chest. And like his friend, warmth flooded through him - the warmth of once more being fully alive. He was himself once more - his cheer, his humor, his positive attitude... all were his once more. "Oh man... this is... so warm..."

As he returned his contained soul to his body, the warmth of life radiating outwards from his core, Vic couldn't help but smile. He still hurt, sure, but the pain had been worth it... after all that, they'd finally done it. "...We're free..." His smile gave way to a pained chuckle. "I can't believe it... we actually did it!"

Nathan flew up and rejoined his friends. "Not quite yet. He's still alive down there--need to figure out what to do with him."

"We should have Jean take care of him... I figure a man who's been around this long would know better than we would."

"Or we could just leave him there," Victor suggested, peering over the edge of the roof at the scene below. "Normally I wouldn't suggest that, but... really, we don't need to worry about him now. We got what we came to get."

"Then someone would just find him, get him off, and this whole thing could start again," Nathan pointed out. "But I do have an idea..."

XXX

The funeral home would report a break-in and the theft of a coffin, but that would be the last sign anyone would find of the nameless man and his legacy. With Pierre's help, the three had hefted the man—iron pole and all—into the coffin and bound it in chains. Nathan flew it into the Gulf of Mexico, dropping the tomb beneath the waves. He made it back just as the sun was starting to creep up over the horizon.

"Done," he said, stepping into Pierre's apartment and dusting off his hands. "Bastard's done now."

"Finally..." Vic breathed, a weight lifting from his mind at the news.

"Good riddance to bad rubbish." Jack gave a grim smile as he scarfed down a cinnamon bun. If they were lucky, they'd never see the man again.

Pierre smiled and passed the tray around. "Jean will be overjoyed, I'm sure."

"One less thing for him to worry about, yeah," Victor nodded, smiling up from his seat as he accepted a bun. "One less thing for all of us, really."

"Ayup. Might not be human anymore, but I think we can help in keeping the city safe. Guy probably wasn't the only one on Earth."

"I guess we really didn't change back though," Nathan added as he took his own breakfast. "Gonna miss the sun."

Vic nodded again. "Yeah, that's the big downshot to all this..." He munched on the glazed pastry in his hand. "Still, we're free to do whatever we want now. That's gotta count for something, eh?"

"Hmm..." Pierre set the tray down and vanished into his bedroom. He reappeared with a large glove. "Try putting this on, it should be flexible enough to fit."

Nathan accepted the glove and awkwardly pulled it onto his hand. He was glad his claws didn't pierce the leather.

"Try the sunbeam now," Pierre encouraged.

Though unsure, Nathan complied. He stuck his gloved hand into the sun. He waved it around.

"Thick enough fabric to keep out the sunlight keeps us safe... makes sense."

"Not just that..." Nathan mumbled. The sun was heating the leather. He could feel it on his hand. "We can feel the sun still." His face broke into a wide, stony smile as he scooped Pierre into a bearhug.

Vic gave a hearty laugh. "Looks like things're starting to look up already!"

"Haha... this calls for a celebration! Time to find out if shadows and gargoyles can get drunk, eh?"

"...Eh, let's not push our luck TOO far."