Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 07:40:08 GMT From: Blake Alexander Subject: Tales of the New Phoenix: My Immortal chapters 6 Note from the Author: I'm so sorry I've been late. To make it up, if the Nifty Dude (clearly not a robot) allows me, I'm posting 2 chapters. I've been really busy, and had more family crisis than I thought possible. Really, I know one other person who's family is more screwed up than mine and she is one messed up kitten. Anyhoo... enjoy the chapters. I'm at a bit of a block around chapter 11, hopefully I'll be inspired by Spring Break. Laterz!!! My Immortal Chapter 6: The Circle of Power Jubilee ran forward, hearing Albus Dumbledore calling to her from behind, through the portal. She looked about, seeing nothing but rock. "Great, fucking great. An entire other realm and I'm stuck on a giant fucking mountain." She ran straight ahead, brown glass jar tight in hand, trying to spot soil, any soil. "Dare thee mortal enter our realm? Dare the lesser being stand before the Gods?" The voice boomed from everywhere all at once. Jubilee stopped and looked towards the sky, which was darkening and filling with clouds. "Fucking great." She started running again and spotted some grass. She ran for all her might as spires of stone began hurtling from the ground thrusting towards the heavens. She screamed and dove away as one erupted from bellow her. "Twenty feet Jubes, you can do this." "No, ye can not." A woman said, forming to her right, directly beside a spire. "Fuck!" Jubilee screamed, rolling away from a blast of lightening from the woman. She pointed her hands at the woman and let a blast of plasma fireworks fly. The destructive flashes of light slammed into the woman, sending her sprawling. Jubilee started running again, and slid to her knees in the grass. She ripped a clump of grass up, exposing soil, and scooped a handful into the jar. She slammed the cork stopper in place, and turned to stand to be met by the woman's hand. "How DARE you strike a god?" She bellowed as Jubilee flew through the air. She saw one of the spires moving towards her, and threw her hands up. The sting of her palms slapping into the stone was momentary as seconds later she felt her head slam into it. She felt herself falling to the ground, and then felt the ground. She pushed to her hands and knees, then looked up to see the woman walking towards her again, with black holes where her eyes should have been. "Ok, a quick flash right in the eyes, let's get this music hopping!" Alison squared off against the Fire Beast. She was up against a rare breed, the Ice Mountain Blue. Roughly the size of a horse, this species took to living in snow capped mountains around the world when their home mountain was destroyed millennia ago. On the top of an icy peek, miles from Hogwarts, Alison had been brought by Hagrid the grounds keeper. She had been warned by Hagrid that this was a breed that had softer scales, but was quicker. Alison started darting about, flowing to the dance music coming from her headphones. She pulled off her gloves exposing glowing skin. She held up her palms and started setting off strobe blasts of bright light. The dragon started screeching, sending out blasts of fire. Alison back flipped out of the way of a near miss, letting up on the light show. The dragon screeched and rushed at her. Alison panicked and set up a few holographic clones of herself. The dragon rushed the nearest, and Alison left forward. She grabbed at a fleshy spine on the dragons back and ripped it off. The wound on the dragon began to bleed, sending the beast into a rage. "Crap." Alison muttered, pointing her finger at a rock outcrop above and behind the dragon. She let a laser shoot out at the ledge, slicing clean through, bringing a tumble of stones crashing down. The dragon turned to the falling rocks, and Alison started running. "Well, I have what I need." She said pulling off her headphones, and shoving the spine into a red jar, slamming a cork stopper in place. She swung behind a boulder to take a breath. When she looked down she saw seven large eggs. "Oh fuck." She whispered, then heard a growl coming from her left, and a hiss from her right. Professor McGonagall rowed out in a small boat along side Tabitha in the waters of the lake. "I will call the mist that will take you to the waters of Avalon. Be wary of anything you hear. Avalon is filled with many good entities, but also an equal number of dark. Turn about once you have retrieved the water, then call out the name Hogwarts. Start rowing forward, and you will be delivered back here." "Gotcha." Tabitha said after popping a pink bubble with her gum. Professor McGonagall gave a disapproving glance, then held up her wand. She muttered an incantation, then a mist erupted from the waters. Tabitha started rowing right away, hearing that the Professor had not stopped muttering her incantation. She rowed on for about ten minutes, then started seeing rocks in the water around her. She stopped rowing and just coasted, thinking back to the lake. There had been no rocks sticking up out of the water. Realizing that she was near the shores of the island, she pulled out the clear jar she had been given then dipped it into the waters. She pulled it out and stuck the cork in place. "Ok, now to get back." She said sticking the jar into a pouch in the leg of her uniform. "You will be going no where." A woman's voice, heavily laced with a British accent, said. Tabitha started looking about, then spotted a woman standing on the waters near her. Around her neck was a necklace of water, flowing in a circle. "And why not?" Tabitha asked, nervous. In her time working with the X-Men, she had learned it was never a good sign when someone had creepy powers like controlling water enough to wear as jewelry. "Because you are lost within the mists of Avalon." The strange woman said. "Uh... yeah, saw the movie, read the book, don't feel like living the life." Tabitha started rolling her fingers forming a handful of time bombs. She threw them at the woman, who lifted her hand creating a wall of water. The bombs exploded in the wall, sending out blasts of water, but didn't hurt the woman. "Fuck me harder, I SO wanna get off." Tabitha said as the woman started walking towards her. "I can't stand the waiting!" I yelled, slamming my fist on one of the long tables in the dining hall. "There's nothing else we can do." Devin said, taking another drink of his Butter Beer. "Uh... excuse me." They both turned to see a girl, in her early teens, walk into the hall. "Uh, hello. My name is Hermione Granger. I'm a student in Gryffindor House. I was wondering if I could ask you some questions." "What sort of questions?" I asked. "Well... mainly about your powers. I've read about Mutants, also called humans of touch, but from what I understand... you aren't a mutant. You're also not a human. I was just curious about what your powers are." The young girl asked, clutching a book to her chest. I smiled. "Come sit with us." I said motioning to a seat near me. She sat down, settling her skirt neatly over her lap. She pushed her book to the side, then neatly laced her hands together. I smiled at her. "Well, this ring..." I said holding up my hand, "is the source of my powers." "Is it enchanted?" She asked. "No, it's alien technology. The most powerful weapon in the known universe from what I understand. I inherited it from a friend. I've never met another with a ring like mine, nor have I met its creator." I smiled at her, happy for the distraction from not knowing how the girls were doing. My smile faltered a bit, remembering that they were out set on their tasks, but I quickly went back to focusing on the girl. She sat with Devin and I, asking questions, and it was nice. She was a very smart young woman. I asked her questions about the school, which she knew the answers to all of. Devin was learning about the school he had attended too. "The hunts in Germany and other parts of Europe were horrid. The school was closed off, and the Ministry of Magic stationed guards at all entrances. Diagon Alley was locked down, as was Hogsmead." She looked down. "The Vampire War put all within the realm of magic in danger." I looked at her and my heart broke. "That's what we are fighting to stop. The world of Magic has been exposed, and humanity is scared. They don't understand, and what isn't understood is feared, and fear can create hate." "Yes. Only through teaching can this be ended." She said looking up. She gave a weak smile, then looked away. "I need to get going, I have a class soon." "It was a pleasure meeting you Hermione." Devin said. "It was. You are a very capable young woman." I said holding my hand out to her. She shook it with a big smile. "Coming from one of the people that helped put an end to the Vampire War, that's an honor." She then turned, and left. "What now?" I asked. "No idea. We wait, I guess. Jubilee laid hurt, and tired, but not out. "You know what lady? I really don't like you. I just want a little bit of fucking dirt. DIRT! I mean, come on! The fucking stuff you walk on. And you get all freaking butt hurt!" Jubilee stood, staring down the woman. "Really, get a fucking grip bitch," Jubilee aimed her hands at the woman's face, "it's...", blast, "just...", blast, "DIRT!" Each blast hit the strange woman in the face, the last landed plasma blasts in the elder gods empty eyes. She started screaming, causing the ground to shake. Jubilee spotted the brown jar and grabbed it. "You have hurt me mortal, ye shall pay dearly!" The strange woman bellowed. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that one." She began running towards the portal, trying to keep her footing on the shaking stone ground. Wind began blowing against her, sending her yellow trench coat flowing like a cape. She slid down her red glasses and started leaning into the wind. Guessing that the elder god was behind her, trying to blow her to her, she held her hands back and started firing an endless stream of plasma sparks. She kept this up for a few minutes then heard the woman scream out as the wind died. Jubilee started running again and spotted the portal. It was a white hole surrounded by a cloudy frame. She sprinted the distance as fast as she could, but sensed movement from the side. She jumped as hard as she could, blasting plasma towards the ground. The force of her blast caused her to dart higher, causing her to fly high above the woman that came flying from the right. All Jubilee could make out was a flurry of white and black. She came down in a roll, then leapt through the portal. She fell down at Professor Dumbledore's feet. "CLOSE IT!" She screamed. Dumbledore waved at the portal, causing it to fade. A piercing scream could be heard as it closed, cut off by the portal vanishing. "That, was really fun!" Jubilee said standing up slowly, hand against the wall. "You know, in that way where it wasn't?" Alison slipped her headphones back on and turned the volume up full blast. The music screamed out of the headphones and she tore her shirt off exposing her sports bra. She let the lit her skin as bright as she could, and started running. As she ran she started projecting mirages to her left and right. It strained her concentration to the max, but as bright as she was she knew that they would only see a bright spot so she just made other bright spots running beside her. The dragons began chasing her, firing blast after blast of flame, but they couldn't keep their eyes open. The fire went far wide with each shot, but she knew that they would eventually get lucky. She needed a plan. Then it struck her, the eggs. They were obviously protective of the eggs. She stopped and turned back up the mountain. The two blue dragons were stumbling along with their eyes almost completely shut. She looked to her left and sent two of her bright doubles hurtling back up the mountain towards the eggs. This caused the dragon she had hurt to start snapping at them, then go chasing. The other dragon was still coming. She let the mirages to her right to fade, then let herself fade. The dragon stopped and started blinking. It focused on her and hissed, then Alison let as bright a flash of light as she could muster blast off her. The light was hot enough to feel like she was out in the sun on a really bright day. The dragon threw its head to the side let out a howl of pain. It then began thrashing its head, blinded. Alison smiled, turned, and started running again. She reached the place that Hagrid had stopped to wait for her. "Lassie, where did yer shirt go? And why are ya glowin?" "Lost to the cause, and I am too tired from the use of my powers to tone it down. Give it some time, it'll fade." She said with a smile. "Well, we best be getting you back to the school then. The others will be wanting to know you're ok." I was just finishing a glass of pumpkin juice, a surprisingly good drink, when Jubilee came limping in. I jumped to my seat and ran to her. "Are you ok?" I asked. "Yeah, I just pissed off a goddess. Not with the big G though, if it was the big G I'd be dead. Just a bitchy immortal chick or something." Jubilee said. I helped her hobble to one of the benches. "Where's Professor Dumbledore?" Devin asked. "Off to get the nurse, Madam Pompfrey I think he called her?" She said. "Yeah," Devin said. "She'll get you all healed up in no time." "You got a nasty bruise kid." I said. "Thanks." She said smiling. "You know what lady?" Tabitha said rolling her hands together. She started pushing as much energy into the bomb as she could. "You strike me as a bully." "You have seen the extent of my power." The lady said smiling. She walked slowly towards the boat. "Do ya not thing that I am deserving of the role of superior?" The bomb was a bit bigger than a basket ball, and getting bigger. "Well, you need to know how to control your power. How to use it properly. You are just showing off. Pushing people around." Finished Tabitha stood carefully in the boat, holding the bomb over her head. "You have seen that your powers are useless against me." The lady of the lake said stopping, and raising a shield wall again. "Who said it was for you?" Tabitha said, throwing it over her head into the water just behind the boat. She had it seat for two seconds. She fell to the bottom of the boat just as it went off blasting the boat hundreds of feet into the air. She screamed out as she hurtled back the way she came "HOGWARTS!" As she began to fall again the mist began to fade. She had a flash of Professor McGonagall before she plunged into the water. When she stopped sinking she started kicking for the surface. Every muscle in her body hurt as she got her head above water. She started paddling for the professor's boat, and then clutched the teachers hand to be pulled aboard. "That lady of the lake is no lady." Tabitha said, then she blacked out. Alison was being looked over by Madam Pomfrey, and Jubilee was drinking a healing potion, when Professor McGonagall came in with Tabitha floating in front of her. "Oh my god! Is she ok?" Jubilee jumped up and rand, dropping the remains of her potion. "She will be fine, she just swallowed a bit of lake water." McGonagall explained. Madam Pomfrey went over and held what looked like a glowing smelling salt under Tabitha's nose. Tabitha awoke immediately and looked at Jubilee. "Hey Baby." "Hey you. You ok?" Jubilee said. "Yeah, that bitch couldn't take me down." She said smiling. Then she frowned. "You have a big bruise on your face. Who slapped you?" "A demigoddess. That bitch couldn't take me down." She said smiling. "Ok, well, we have the Water, Fire, and Earth elements. What is my task?" I asked. "You must give of your blood." Dumbledore said walking towards me. "Excuse me?" I said. "The blood of a true person with pure spirit. You, my dear, fit that description." He took my hand, and spoke quietly. "Tell me, you have a most powerful weapon. You could use it to claim whatever you want. How do you use this power?" "I just want to help people." I said meekly. "Precisely. You are tempted, but you use your powers for the betterment of those around you. To make the world a safer place." He handed me a purple vile. "Purple, the color of royalty. For to be royal you must be righteous, and that you are. Your life's blood deserves nothing less than that treatment." I nodded and pointed by ring at my left wrist. "I hate it when I get cut, and here I am doing it to myself." I neatly sliced my wrist, and let the blood collect in the vial. When it was full I closed it and pressed my hand against the wound. "Madam Pomfrey, would you tend to Green Falcons wound?" Dumbledore asked. "These visitors are hear at sun up, and now at sundown I am tending to the wounds of all but Mr. Charles." She said shaking her head. "I would hate to see what a hard day for this lot is like." She sprinkled something on my wrist and it began to flow closed. "Correction," another British voice said entering the room. We all turned to see a very handsome young man in a suit with a brown jacked with leather elbows walk in. "the sun has gone down." "Mr. Talbot, I presume." Professor Dumbledore walked over and extended his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you Professor." He turned towards us, "Green Falcon, Owl, Jubilee, Boomer, and Dazzler. It is good to see you again Birds of Prey." "It's good to see you too David. Thank you for coming." I said. "It is nothing." "Mr. Talbot, I am going to be the one collecting your breath." Devin stood holding a light blue vial and walked towards him. "I've enchanted it to pull in the breath and hold it until it is needed." Devin held it up towards David who simply breathed out. The vial sighed as it pulled in the breath. "That's it?" Jubilee asked. "I got slammed into a freaking stone spire!" "And I almost got barbequed!" Alison yelled. "None of you had to open a vein." I countered. "No, I just had to blow up my freaking boat, and then I nearly drowned!" Tabitha said, still lying in her floating cot. "You all used your talents to do what was needed. Devin has been extensively trained in magic, and none of you would have been able to enchant the vial to hold the immortals breath." Dumbledore said. Well all looked about and laughed. "He lucked out cause he's smart." Jubilee laughed. "Damn, I knew I should have done better in school." Dumbledore smiled and shook his head. "We should get back to San Francisco." Devin said. "The spell needs to be done within the next twenty-four hours." "I will lobby the Ministry, just as the White Council is Devin." Dumbledore looked at him softly. "I feel they won't punish you for this." "If they do, it will be worth it. This spirit must be stopped." Devin said. "Agreed." Dumbledore said. He escorted us to the jet, along with David. "Contact me if you need any help." David said with a smile. "Will do." I said. "Good luck Birds of Prey." Dumbledore said. "Thank you for your help Professor." Devin said. We boarded and headed for home.