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"Justice without strength is helpless
Strength without justice is tyrannical
Unable to make what is just, strong
we have made what is strong, just."
Blaise Pascal
"We will fight not out of spite
For someone must stand up for what's right."
Jewel
"So what do we do now?" Helen asked as she leant back on the foyer couch. She looked about her for answers but none came quickly. Beside her Uma was pensively quiet, probably trying to decide what any of them could do.
The four Irish girls in denim were squashed onto a single sofa with Gwen hovering in front of them. The four looked nervous but the leprechaun was lost in silent meditation. Winona seemed more scared than she had when they were fighting the vampires but that had been her element and this was beyond anything they'd known. She held a silver dagger firmly in her hand and Helen could see her white knuckles clearly. Christina Ricci stood, looking edgy as if she wanted to hit something but couldn't find the right target.
"It's the antennas" Billy said, looking at data on a palmtop computer. "Remember how I said you could control the human race with a broadcast signal but you'd need a flying building to do it? That's what we have here."
"So what does that mean." Helen asked.
"Well I don't know my bible that well but I don't think this is judgment day, at least not in the sense that we thought it. But I'd wager that the thing floating out there is the honest to god, pardon the expression, Tower of Babylon."
"So it's two thousand years old?" Uma raised an eyebrow.
"More. A lot more. It's near the beginning of the bible.
Do you all know the story?"
Uma shook her head as did Helen.
"Catholic upbringing." Edele spoke for the four.
"Centuries old." Gwen pointed out.
"Okay so I'll recap. Correct me if I'm wrong. People waned to build a tower so big it would reach heaven. God didn't want it so he created different languages and no one could communicate anymore. Okay now let me speculate. Suppose someone wanted to build a psychic focus, the tower. Only when they went to use it something went wrong. Rather than control people it drove them mad, screwing up their communications. Time passes, the tower gets forgotten and the myth changes."
"So what does that mean for us?" Winona asked. "Someone found the tower and is using it?"
"Something like that. Some one pretty smart. They seem to know magic too. I'm willing to bet that we're in for more of fights. Someone wants us dead."
"And who are they going to send to kill us?" Sinead asked, getting to her feet. "We can dissolve any magic creatures."
"I have no idea." Billy admitted.
All right Billy." Uma finally agreed. "If we're going to fight then we could use reinforcements. How many mind control buddies do you have out there?"
"I'd hardly say I have buddies. I've been in contact with a few once or twice but I don't think can help us. I was in touch with one guy who tried to subvert the spice girls. He got one then tried to use the same pre-programmed technique on the others. I tried to tell him that each person has a different brain and you have to use different methods."
"I take it he didn't listen."
"Of course not. I've no idea what happened to him but the girls were probably pretty screwed up. If you ask me he's what split the group. You know as well as I that mind control is a delicate business."
"No others?"
"Well there was one guy who called himself the Real Estate Agent but he never told me anything. That's about all I can think of. It's not like we have chat rooms or anything."
"So there's no one else you can call in?"
"Well.. maybe one girl.."
"Well get her if you can," Uma stated plainly, "We need all the help we can..." she stopped and looked over her shoulder. Helen did likewise.
"Did you feel that?" Uma asked concerned.
"Feel what?" Chris wondered.
"I was like a ripple." Helen explained. "As if there had been some psychic surge. It's hard to explain."
"Where did it come from?" Winona asked, griping her knife.
"Somewhere in that direction." They both pointed through a wall.
"Well maybe.." Edele began and stopped. The four girls and the leprechaun exchanged glances.
"Let me guess," Chris figured, "A magic impulse?"
"That direction." All four girls said in unison pointing the opposite direction to Uma and Helen.
Uma hopped to her feet quickly.
"All right here's the plan. Helen and I go investigate this psychic surge. Billy and Chris, you go and pick up this other girl if you can, You four girls go and investigate that magic. Winona and Gwen, could you stay here and protect Neve, Kate and Jennifer?"
The vampire hunter and the leprechaun nodded.
"Right. Lets go!"
***
The four light blue blurs slowed and came to rest on the footpath.
"Not exactly a lot to see is there?" Sinead looked around the empty street.
"Much like every other city we passed on the way here."
Keavy nodded in agreement. "But something came from this direction. Something magical."
"That would have to be me."
The four spun on their heels in unison. Behind them in the middle of the street was a young woman. She wasn't standing. She was floating. Her feet were a good meter from the ground. She wore a strapless red dress that seemed to cling to her so tightly that nothing was left to the imagination. To match she wore elbow length red gloves and red shoes, each seeming to have the same taste for clinging to her skin. Her red hair didn't just flow, it billowed, as if she was in a wind tunnel. Strangest of all was the glowing red aura she seemed to emit about herself. Edele swallowed nervously. It didn't take a practitioner to tell that some serious magic was in play here.
"Who.. are you?" Lindsay stared at the strange woman.
The woman smiled at them, her eyes seeming to flare red for a second.
"Once I was Willow."
She waved her hand at them and the street before them erupted into fire, knocking them to the ground.
"But now," she said, advancing towards them, "I am War."
***
Uma and Helen ran down the street, neither having any idea what they would find but both knowing that it was another key to the puzzle. They expected a battle. They expected an opponent which would require their mental powers to defeat. What they didn't expect was.
"Ally McBeal?" Uma asked aloud.
Sure enough, standing in the center of the street was Ally McBeal, complete with micro-mini skirt and skimpy blouse.
"Her real name is Calista Uma." Helen pointed out.
"Whatever. What is she doing here?"
"Why don't we ask her?" Helen shrugged.
She walked over to the woman who seemed almost oblivious to their presence.
"Calista? Can you hear me?"
"Yes." The woman replied without emotion.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm hungry."
"Hungry? Uma I think we might have to get into her head."
"Agreed. We don't have time to waste on twenty questions. Count of three?"
Helen nodded.
"One. Two. Three!"
Helen and Uma placed their palms on Calista’s head. And were sucked into the vortex.
***
Billy pulled up outside the building and exited his van. Normally he didn't drive it out in public, the technology packed in the back too hard to explain. Since there was no public anymore the problem was solved. He jumped out, not bothering to lock the vehicle, and lifted a tracking device. The electronic arrow was pointing to the building in front of him. He and Christina strolled casually into the foyer of the hotel, void of customers.
"Chris, keep look out down here. I'll go up and get her."
"You don't need help?"
"She won't be a problem."
He entered the lift and rode to the fifteenth floor.
"Deserted as usual." He noted as he walked down the hall, the arrow on his locator beeping faster and faster. He reached a door and swung it open.
"Hello?" he called into the room. "Anybody in here?"
"Who's there?" a scared voice called from with the apartment.
"My names Billy. I'm here to help you."
He watched as she emerged from the dimly lit flat. No doubt she was terrified after the last twenty four hours or so. He had to admit he would have been too if he'd been alone with no idea of what was going on. She wore a white tee shirt and blue jeans, remarkably non-descriptive clothing that only seemed to highlight her youthful features. Her short blonde hair was messy but fashion could be excused at a time like this.
"I'm Claire." she said. "Claire Danes."
Billy smiled and nodded.
***
"So could you teach me magic?" Winona asked as she rested back on the couch.
"No." Gwen replied plainly.
"Why not?"
"Because it can't be taught. It can be focused but you have to possess a latent talent for it like the girls. Sorry."
"Never mind. It just might be handy in my line of work."
"You know, I've never met a vampire." Gwen mused.
"Never?"
"Well I might be old but I don't exactly mingle with human society."
Winona noticed as Neve Campbell nervously entered.
"How are they?" the vampire hunter asked.
"Jennifer’s still out cold. I think Kate's having a nightmare or something."
"What!" Winona was up to her feet and moving in a shot. She pushed past Neve into the room, ignoring Jennifer who was lying on a couch.
On the bed, Kate Winslett was moaning, rolling over in the sheets. A layer of sweat was visible on her topless body as she moved.
"Damn it!" Winona swore aloud.
Neve came rushing up along side her. "What's going on?"
"I don't know. Something went wrong. The injection I gave her should have countered this but it didn't. There's some other factor at work here. Maybe it's this mind control effect. I don't know."
"You.. you mean.." Neve stammered.
"Yeah." Winona nodded grimly.
"Kate Winslett is becoming a vampire."
***
Lindsay got to her feet first, brushing her black hair away from her eyes.
"All right miss War. If it's a fight you want you've got it!"
She gestured with her hand, motioning upwards. As she did an entire slab of the road ripped up from the ground and smashed into the red figure. She was knocked back a little but her magical shield seemed to hold. Each of the four girls had their own elemental power. Lindsay’s earth power wasn't quite as strong as it might be here in the city but she had her ways of using it.
Another volley of rock missiles flew in at Willow but she managed to deflect them. She was knocked forward by a jet of water that burst below her, pumping up from a burst pipe. Keavy concentrated, pulling it into the tightest, most powerful blast she could to keep the girl on her feet. The red woman snarled at the water, muttering something. Instantly it began to solidify, turning into pure ice which tumbled down to the street.
The pillar shattered into hundreds of smaller shards that lay there for an instant before a sharp gust of wind sent them back through the air, flying like daggers at the woman. Sinead blew the shards towards the woman but at the last second a magical wave melted them back to water. An instant later a blast of fire knocked War back, the air crackling with heat.
"Nice shooting sis." Keavy smiled at her sister.
"Does she look familiar to you?" Sinead asked to her friends.
"A little... Willow?.. Yeah like from Buffy." Keavy said, sending another wave of water at the woman in red. "What's her name?"
"Alyson." Sinead. "Alyson Hannigan."
"I am NOT Alyson!" the girl growled, her red aura flaring up. "I am Willow. I am War and you are nothing!"
She threw her hands out and a wave of red energy knocked the girls off their feet again. Edele rolled with the force, getting to her knees. Her skin felt a tingle. Almost as if..
She fell forward to her hands, moaning aloud as she felt an orgasm blow the energy out of her. She could here similar cries of her friends, crying out at the unexpected pleasure. She turned her head to see Lindsay, hands pressed into her crotch at the surprising sensation. Then another orgasm hit and she fell to her side, the force rushing through her weakened body yet again. She lay on the ground looking up, her body twitching as she came for a third time. She saw the face of Alyson, or Willow or War or whatever she was looking down at her with a cold smile.
"Sometimes," she said, "Making war is like making love."
Edele screamed as a fourth bombardment of pleasure assaulted her senses.
***
Uma and Helen clung to each other hand, knowing that if they let go they would never find their way out of the abyss. They were caught in an ever descending spiral, lights flashing and spinning. It took their strongest mental link not to surrender to the hypnotic images. But they knew they were weakening. They had to do something. And they had to do it soon.
***
"You should come with me Claire."
"Why? Who are you?"
"There are a lot of people in trouble. The whole world. We need to work together."
"Where is everyone?"
"I don't have time to explain. Please just come with me."
"No! Not until you tell me what's going on."
Billy bit his lip and began to recite.
"O speak again, bright angel."
"What? What are you.. doing?" Claire put a hand to her temple, feeling a strange rush of blood.
"For thou art as glorious to this night being o'er my head."
"No." Claire raised her other hand and grasped her temples, feeling a force long buried emerging from her mind. "Get out!"
"As is the winged messenger of heaven."
"No! I won't let you do it to me again! Not again!"
"Unto the white upturned wondering eyes."
"No!" Claire could feel it encompassing her, pressing at her conscious mind.
"Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him, when he bestrides the lazy pacing clouds."
"please.." She whimpered, falling to her knees as she looked up at him through teary eyes
"And sails upon the bosom of the air."
Claire face went instantly blank. Billy wished his own face was quite so emotionless.
"Come with me Claire."
"Okay." She agreed.
***
Billy exited the lift followed by Claire.
"Easy enough?" Christina asked, looking at Claire.
"I wish I could use shorter trigger phrases for one thing." Billy confessed.
"Well that's what you have to expect when you give them psychic immunity.
"I seriously hate doing this. She gives me the creeps. That whole purity thing. That was why I let her go in the first place."
"Sorry." Claire apologized.
"Never mind." Billy shrugged. "lets get to work and.. what the hell?"
Pounding on the side panel of his van with a baseball bat was a young woman. Her hair was a chaotic mess. She wore a pick lycra top and similar shorts that were blurred with other colors and sickly to look at. She looked as if she'd just got out of a swimming pool but Billy guessed it was sweat. She turned to them snarling. He wasn't a doctor but her sunken eyes and pale complexion were a dead give away that she was seriously unhealthy.
It was Britney Spears. Or had been once. There was very little of the bouncy teenager that graced the music videos. Now she looked more like a rabid animal.
"Billy." Chris noted. "I'll deal with her, you get Claire out of here and integrate those training protocols."
"You think you can handle her?"
"Oh please Billy, she's only a pop star. I'll keep in touch."
She indicated a radio she had on her belt.
"Okay. But if you need help you call me got it?"
"Sure."
Chris flipped down the steps and jumped at the wild eyes starlet, shoving her down to the ground. Britney’s arm tore on the road but she seemed totally oblivious either to the pain or the blood. She leapt at Christina who flipped her backwards, doing her best to grapple with the girl who looked so ill. Billy ran for the van, stopping only to swab up some of the blood from the road. He had the equipment to analyze it in the van. Until then Chris would have to hold her own.
***
"I have to go." Gwen said suddenly and before either of the girls could argue she was gone.
"What was that about?" Neve asked Winona.
"I don't know. But I hope the others are okay."
"What about Kate?"
"I don't know. Her state isn't like any I've seen before. I don't want to speculate what's going to happen. And I don't want to do anything to make her worse."
Winona shivered suddenly.
"Did you feel that?" she asked Neve.
"Yeah. Like some one just walked over your grave?"
"Something like that. You stay here."
Winona hurried out into the lobby, ready to fight. Even so she dropped her guard in surprise. She felt another chill run down her spine. She had expected to face something like a vampire. Instead she was facing Death.
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