The Fire and the Fury

The Fire and the Fury Chapter of Beneath Cold Boughs
Chapter 8 of Beneath Cold Boughs
Chronology
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An attack on one of the Children is an attack on all of them, and revenge is wrought in fire, blood and pain.

What Happened

Aftermath

Diana hunkered down behind her car as bullets send bodywork spalling all about her, rage rising like fire within her. How dare these people attack her? The indignation and righteous fury rose within her until it burned its way out through her skin, immolating her in phoenix fire and turning the very air to flame. In an instant she crossed the distance between herself and the van. The guns stuttered into silence, their wielders frozen in horror at her imperious rage before one fell, bleeding and screaming and burning at the touch of her talons. Their leader hammered on the driver's partition, shouting for him to drive. The driver needed no more instruction and the van accelerated for the exit with a scream of tyres and staccato hammer of gunfire to keep the thing pursuing them away.

The rage and adrenaline subsided enough for rational thought. She had to get herself and Price out of there and she could taste the Chamber carved into the world by her attackers' terror, so she reached out and greedily claimed it for herself before tearing herself, Price, and her car into the Lair. Jane found them soon after, drawn by the echoes as the Lair was reshaped. She was promplty enlisted to drive the other two to Stanton General through a pathway opened by Diana before the last of the adrenaline faded and she started to actually feel how hurt she was. Before Diana gave herself up to the mercies of the best medical professionals available, she ordered Jane to find Morris and deal with this. The driver had been the ganger who shot him, making this his problem, and he had 2 hours to fix it or she would tell the police everything.

A Quiet Evening

Morris had been having a pretty decent evening since getting back from the bar and his evening call to the PI. Sure, he'd had to sit through one of those Marvel movies with the kids but it had been fun and he was a couple of drinks into a good, mellow buzz. Which was right about when Jane had called. Linda had answered it, fussed over her like a mother hen for a bit before passing him the phone. Shit. He spun Linda a story about Diana getting shot, which was true, that he was going to go over to help her deal because they'd had a bit of a rapport with the arcade deal, which was mostly true. By the time he had finished explaining, Linda was even more worried about what was going on in the city with all these shootings, just in time for Jane to pull up in a car that had definitely seen better days. Just as well Linda had to go deal with the kids or there would have been more questions, like when exactly Jane had learned to drive.

Lacking any other ideas, the two drove to Jack's to try and catch themselves a thug for 'questioning'. It would be simple - Morris would unleash the ocean to degrade the lights and weapons inside, then they slip in during the confusion, grab the nearest shithead and run. Unfortunately things did not go according to plan. After a few minutes of waiting for the last few lights to flicker into darkness, they stepped inside and were met with gangers waiting inside and the iron-willed bastard who lead the crew who shot Diana and Price calling them out as miscegenated subhuman monsters. Morris' pistol barked a reply which the bastard shrugged off with a roar and violence began in earnest as half the bar stormed into the two armed with baseball bats, chains, and, in one case, a fire axe.

No Plan Survives First Contact

Morris traded blows with the bastard and most of his followers, weaving through the half-light to avoid wild swings and retaliating with fists like iron until the world changed around him. Ancient pipework twisted the shadows of what had once been wood panel walls and broken light fixtures fractured into echoes of fractal roots, Jane had torn the walls of the world down and the Basement was pushing into reality. With a roar of exertion Morris bodychecked the bastard backward, through what had once been a door and deeper into the Lair before the worlds parted again and the bar was a bar once more. And Jane stood alone against an angry mob.

Within the lair, Morris barrelled the bastard into the burning asphalt of the car park so recently claimed by Diana. Flame washed ineffectually over them both, one protected by a brood-bond while the other seemed not even to notice the pain. The melee escalated; cars became weapons in Morris' hands while the bastard fought back with heroic will and utter brutality, eyes wild with adrenaline and hate as he exulted every blow that he struck against the monster. It was then, the bastard laid Morris low and seemed on the cusp of victory, that the phoenix struck. Its talons struck him, tearing an eye from his head and sending him into the waiting arms of Morris' raging Soul. Fighting for its very existence even as its flesh slipped toward death, it tore him asunder and howled in triumph.

Meanwhile, in the bar, poor Jane had become the focus of the mob's rage. Even without the commanding words of the bastard they were still dangerous, and blows rained down on Jane despite her desperate attempts to shield herself from harm. Yet help came from an unexpected source, in the form of Elias and Rose. They seemed happy to just lay into the AL mob with fists and knees and elbows as Jane lingered at the edges of the melee until a lucky blow caught Elias and sent him sprawling, and a bonfire of rage began to burn within Rose. Her body contorted and twisted into a bipedal lupine monstrosity and the room became quailed before she began tearing the mob apart with claws wide as a man's chest. Elias caught Jane's eyes even as he gritted his teeth, spitting out a plea for her to run as he fought to hold back his own rage. Jane wisely did so, but not before making sure the mob knew this was all a punishment for their sins, and the bar became a place of terror and death behind her.

Epilogue

A few hours later, Jane was woken from an attempt to sleep through all the pain and adrenaline and fear by a tapping on her window. Outside, Rose was sitting in the branches of the apple tree in the yard, level with the bedroom window, looking disarmingly human aside from her choice of seat. Her gaze was disturbingly level, eyes gleaming gold in the moonlight, "Now do you understand?" Jane nodded, she did. "Are you going to cause any more shit for us?" Jane shook her head, definitely not now. "Good. Then we're square." And with that, Rose dropped out of the tree and slipped out of the garden into the night.

People Appearing (in order of appearance)

• Diana Graves: Spent the evening in Stanton General while the Phoenix hunted.
• Price: Saved only by kevlar and the preparedness to wear it. Taken to Stanton General to recover from his wounds.
• Jane Barrows: Enlisted Morris for revenge and pest control.
• Morris Mayfair: Always happy to put down some nazis.
• Linda Mayfair: Present for a phonecall from Jane. Worried about the poor dear, concerned about her husband's nocturnal trips.
• Sidney Holmes and his Aryan Legion followers: Assaulted, routed and destroyed by Jane and Morris.
• Rose and Elias: Appeared in the melee at Jack's, assisting Jane or just taking the chance to beat on fascists.

Locations

• Stanton General Hospital: Where Jane took Price and Diana for treatment after the shooting in the carpark.
• Morris's home
• Jack's: A scene of terrible violence and vicious retribution.

Notes

• The Children earned a point of Lair through their actions defeating Sidney Holmes. There may be consequences.
• Video evidence exists of Diana's explosive response to being shot. There may be consequences.
• Rose and Elias decimated Jack's. There may be consequences.