Who: Raelle and Rory What: Dealing with the Replicators When: Thurs March 24 Where: Electric Lady Nightclub Rating: low
To say that Raelle had ever been in this position before would be a lie. She’d seen a lot of things and fought some bad guys, but weird mechanical spiders? That was new. They seemed really aggressive too and Raelle was pretty sure she saw one spit out some sort of acid liquid onto one of the amps on stage at the nightclub.
She had come to visit Rory at work - it was a bit early for the actual nightclub to kick off, but she knew Rory would be there. She had been bringing her friend caffeine. Now she was running down a hallway with her friend while way too many mechanical bug things were chasing them. They came to a ‘dead end’ with a custodian closet. Raelle turned and sent a windstrike. It sent a propulsive burst of air that struck at the replicators. A few disbursed, but most were just pushed back a little. Shit.
How. The. Bloody. Hell. did Rory and Raelle end up in this situation? Also, there went the brand new amp the nightclub bought a month ago. She ran with the latte Raelle brought her for the start of her shift.
“What the fuck?!” Augh. Rory knew the supply closet would have enough room if necessary. She plucked a feather off her wing and inhaled sharply at the pain. The half-angel threw one to see if it had an effect. Of course not.
“Closet. Left. Second door.”
Raelle noticed Rory pulling out her feather and made a mental note to ask, but right now there were more pressing matters. Raelle headed in that direction and pulled open the door with a bit more force than maybe she needed to, but her adrenaline was pumping. Strategically, this was probably a stupid idea, but there wasn’t a lot of options and at least this came with a door.
“Hurry!” Raelle held the door open, ready to close it the moment Rory made it into the small room.
Rory threw herself into the closet, avoiding smashing into her friend, so Raelle could close the door behind her.
Then she realized where they found themselves and wondered if this idea was as terrible as it seemed. Plus, they currently found themselves without much space.
“This. Can fucking end. Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I think so.” She nodded after the door was closed and she was very closed to Rory. Great. What surprised Raelle was the replicators didn’t exactly rush to break down the door like in a horror movie. Instead, she could hear them outside clicking about like they were thinking which was way more terrifying, really.
“Are you?” She paused, then as she looked around, she added, “At least we have a mop to defend ourselves.”
Might as well try to lighten the mood, right?
Rory couldn’t stop herself and started laughing at the sheer terror and ridiculousness of the whole situation.
“You’re kind of hot when you’re running and doing magic.” A bad time to pay Raelle a compliment? Probably.
“Think they’re plotting a surprise party for us?”
Raelle looked surprised, but her natural reaction to things like that was to retort with something and so she found herself saying, “I have a lot of practice.” Which wasn’t what she’d choose for a reply had she had more time to think about it. Still, it was a nice compliment even in such a scary time.
“Not any party I want to go to.” That was for sure. Raelle eyed Rory’s wings. “Is your wing okay? I can try to heal you if you need it.” Not that Rory probably needed it considering how powerful she was.
Rory couldn’t help the eye roll directed at Raelle’s response. “I like that I just called you hot and that’s your response.” She nudged her friend’s shoulder with hers, though, to show she joked. Mostly.
“Yeah. I mean, it feels a bit more intense than tweezing an eyebrow, obviously, but it’ll be fine. I mostly wanted to see if it would work.” Obviously her wing’s feather had no effect. “Somehow I don’t think a surprise party of theirs would be enjoyable for anyone but them.”
“Sorry.” She admitted. Raelle didn’t exactly do great with real compliments, though it did dawn on her that Rory gave her an actual compliment if she was saying what she did now.
“What does it do when it works?” Raelle wondered if maybe there was a way she could boost Rory’s power. Though she knew enough not to suggest they phone Rory’s dad for help. “We’re two powerful women… we have to have a way to figure this out.” Though the tap-tapping outside was distracting and extremely unsettling.
Rory would usually wait for her words to sink in, but given their current situation, she left it for a minute. “I have no idea. I only use them for flying, but since they’re sharp as blades, I thought maybe they might stab them?” Honestly, the half-angel thought it was a bad idea, but at this point?
“We can figure it out. Worst case I’ll text my dad and say help.” The black haired girl stopped. “Oh. Yeah. I’m pretty much okay with Lucifer these days. I mean, we still need to work on our relationship, but I talk to him on a regular basis and call him Dad.” Rory didn’t feel the need to broadcast how well or terrible her current relationship with her dad was, but Raelle was a good friend.
“I’ve kind of mentioned you to him. And Hope, my sort of sister.”
Well, that was good to know. Raelle knew about complicated family stuff, but not having to navigate on eggshells always made things easier. Plus it was probably good for Rory to have found some sort of balance with her father.
Her eyes widened a little at the idea of Lucifer knowing who she was. The fact she was mentioned to her sort of sister too was surprising, but not in a bad way. In a way she felt herself blushing just a little. Oh
It took her a second to reply which meant that the fact the machines sounded like they were slowly digging at the door could be heard better. Ugh.
“I wish I could say I mentioned you to important people to me… but I don’t have any family here or my unit…” Another pause before she risked adding, “and it would be weird to tell you about yourself.”
Rory wished, not for the first time, that some of Raelle’s friends from home would show up for her. She knew it must be lonely sometimes to have no one from home. While Rory missed Sabrina, she still had T, Hope, her parents, Dan, Aunt Eve…
She liked a blush on Raelle’s face quite a bit. Not that it distracted completely from their current predicament. “Okay, fuck it. I’m calling.” Rory stopped. Dan was human. Linda needed to keep Charlie safe. Her mom would possibly get hurt. She took a sip of her now room temperature beverage while she thought.
“At the risk of terrible timing, I like like you, but now is probably not the time to tell you.” A pause. “I could probably fly us out of here, but I’m not sure where to take us.”
Well, okay, this wasn’t exactly the best time, but Raelle had to admit it was kind of on-par with her life in general. Though she also felt a bit of a relief. Whether that showed on her face or not, she had no idea. “I like you too… Probably for longer than I realize.” Because of Scylla, which she could admit, but she’d come to terms with the idea that she was here now and needed to live her life.
Raelle looked like she was going to say more, but the door shook a bit. Raelle wasn’t a carpenter or anything, but if she had to guess, they made their way through the first layer of the door. She was pretty sure doors to closets only had two layers.
“Okay, I have an idea.” She hadn’t done this here yet, but she was pretty sure she could. It’d probably take more effort since the Mycelium wasn’t in the Earth and all around her, but it was in her and that was what mattered.
“I can do this thing. They call it a witchbomb. But I think it’ll take a lot out of me. So I can buy us enough time for you to carry us? I think if we go somewhere with no tech, they won’t follow.”
Rory nodded and squeezed Raelle’s hand. The pair could figure things out later when they made it to safety. At the door shaking, Rory sighed. They’d basically run out of time.
“Deal. I’ll fly us if you can buy us some time.” A pause. “Where should we go? Tech kind of exists everywhere.” In fact, this closet seemed like one of the less tech filled things in Madison.
“There’s this old Norse Settlement. I don’t think people live there anymore, but it’s all old school cabins and stuff. Might be looked over from these guys.” Maybe. She knew there was no guarantee, but she decided anywhere other than here was better. “I can give you directions.” If Rory didn’t know where it was.
“Okay…” Said mostly as a way of hyping herself up. She managed to do a small turn to face the door. “Count to four and open the door.” It would give Raelle some time to gather her energy. Around her, from her, little particles started to coalesce. When Rory opened the door, Raelle sent a witchbomb blast towards the crowd of replicators. As she suspected, she started to sway after, feeling drained.
Rory could try and get them there. “Works for me.”
She nodded. “Deal.” Rory didn’t know what to expect when Raelle used her power in this form. After counting to four out loud, Rory threw open the door. As soon as the blast ended, the half-angel scooped up Raelle and took to the air, still holding her coffee.
“You did great.” Rory took off in the direction, hoping their plan worked.
Raelle had seen many of those things blast apart, but she knew from the network that they’d reform. They had time though and that had been the point.
She offered Rory a weak, but genuine smile. “I try.”