If You Want Blood

"Blood on the streets, blood on the rocks,
Blood in the gutter, every last drop
You want blood? You got it."
AC/DC, If You Want Blood (You've Got It)

So. Back from my latest near death experience. I haven't had one of those in a while, actually.
Fucking hell.
I need a shower, but some of this I want to get in text before it slips away.

So.
After the Baron split and Gunnar got his body back, we were all kinda at a loss for something to do.
I consulted Sibyl, with a little bit of trepidation after remembering the last infusion of prophetic knowledge. No Scary Mary this time, though. Praise Apollo.
It started with darkness. Not much else. Just a... putrid smell. Then some light, and a vision of a tall guy, not bad looking, all clad in leather, swimming (so I was in water?) down to get... some sphere. And then the scenery must have changed, because suddenly there was a field, and he was holding the sphere above his head. He used it to burn away some zombies, with an army (think legion) of Fomorians behind him.
No, not ominous at all.
For the record, I would very much like a vision of rainbows and unicorns and fluffy puppies sometime. Maybe some sparrows or glittering peacocks holding aloft a banner that says, "And they lived happily ever after and were never bothered by serpents or titans ever again. EVER."
I won't hold my breath.

Jack and Camila went to go check on Vader. Nate went with them. Gunnar was so bored, and kinda bummed at having missed the fight (and this was before I even mentioned standing around in my underwear), that he decided to go try to figure out what the hell that picture was that Jack and Camila had sent us. Brendan, ever the curious type, elected to join us as well.

I rented a car, since mine is in the shop, and Jack still hasn't really told me why. Something about a spike strip. I'm about to start bugging Camila now. The rental was a nice car, fast and sleek. We got down the freeway, about where Jack said it would be and started looking for tracks. We pulled to the side of the road, and I stared at the ground.
I was just observant enough to notice that, yes, that was in fact the ground and not the sky. I used to be better at this stuff. Though, to my relief, Gunnar didn't do too much better. Brendan tried too but I think his expertise lies in varieties of supercomputers and alcohol. Then, to my embarrassment, Nevermore outdid us all. He flew up and around, before settling back on the ground and eying the indentation.
After a moment, he hopped over to Gunnar. "Hey, viking." He waved his wings.
"Sup?"
"Act like a monkey," he more or less commanded Gunnar.
And Gunnar did. I kept a straight face.
Nevermore did not.
When he stopped cackling he said, "Yeah, that's good. Now, act like an ape."
Gunnar almost leaned forward, then realized what the bird was getting at. "OOoooohhh..."
We were debating whether to go to the trouble of tracking it down when we got another text. More Fomorians, wreaking havoc in Jackson Park. The rest of the Band was en route, and I told Gunnar just to drive like James Bond. Not that I have to tell him.

I got the details on the drive, they'd seen a newscast with two of the big uglys holding handfuls of people.
"I think I can probably make those guys easier to handle," I mused while describing the situation to Gunnar. I could already see the wheels turning in his head, developing battle plans while he half listened to me. "And I'm pretty sure I can do it without being naked this time." And that got Gunnar's attention.
"Wait, you were naked?" Wow. He didn't even glance in the mirror at Brendan.
"Well not completely, there was a fire at Odette's, and I ran into it - " I started telling my harrowing tale of courage and heroism but Gunnar cut me off. I didn't even get to the part where I wasn't really completely naked, it's just more succinct than saying "without burning all of my clothes except my bra and panties off."
"You were on fire?!"
"No! Fire doesn't really bother me, I guess."
"Ok, so where did your clothes go?"
"Well, it didn't bother me, but my clothes were extremely bothered. Too bothered to stay on me."
"Oh, so you were on fire like a badass," he grinned. I think there was a little bit of pride there, maybe.

And before I knew it, we were there. We had to run the last little bit of the way, but that wasn't really a problem for us. It's good to know Gunnar can keep up if I wanna go parkour-crazy sometime.
The scene was... unholy. Some asshole was sitting on the statue, while two Fomorians and a Jinkininki were literally stuffing the park's fountain with limbs. Then I realized that the asshole on the statue was the same one I saw in the lake, in front of the army. The one Sibyl showed me. Bad news.
Even better, there was a helicopter circling the park, catching everything on camera.
In the blink of an eye, the Jinkininki made circuits around the park, just... well, the best (and most gruesomely accurate) word is "pulping" some of the limbs from the fountain. He... I think it was a he... made it all the way around the park like, four times before he returned to the fountain and chanted some weird shit. I was frustrated that it took me so long to take this all in before I thought to act.
"Eyes over here, boys," I shouted over the chopper.
I felt it working again, whatever it was. I thought I'd have been too horrified to pull it off. There were seriously gallons of blood on the pavement, rivers of it like Sibyl showed me the night I met Mary... Shit. I should pay more attention to what Sibyl shows me. Or maybe that I might have to lose some clothing again to make it work, but all four of them turned.
The guy on the horse shook it off pretty quickly, but the other three were incapacitated, for now. Even being almost completely disabled, it looked like they were tough to deal with. Nevermore said earlier that the skin of the pus-troll was tough, stony.
Still, between Camila, Nate, Jack, Brendan, Gunnar and Nevermore, one Fomorian and the Jinkininki fell. Eventually.
The problem with this strategy was that eventually, the horse guy (whose name was Caleb) figured out what his lackeys were staring at.
Me.
So he lumbered towards me, a little miffed that I'd interrupted his plans. As he ambled over he got taller. And angrier. And looked like he was about to manhandle me like King Kong on Fay Wray.
A lesser woman, maybe a wiser woman, might have tried to run or escape. Cried out for help. Or do pretty much anything else but what I did.
I said, "Fuck you," and aimed for his nuts.

It was a good, solid kick. I planted my left foot, pivoted my hip and struck out straight with my right leg. The blow landed, I just didn't have any strength behind it. Or he was just too big and angry to care. Probably a little of both.
I was swearing a storm at him (so much for helping Gunnar with that Lent thing) when he grabbed me, pinning my arms painfully to my sides. I'm normally pretty good at slipping out of holds and handcuffs, but this guy was just too effin' strong. I didn't really think that was a problem, at first. I was wrong, by the way.
Then Gunnar, partly being sweet, partly being heroic, and mostly being stupid, ran up the guy's back, told the freak to get his hands off me and tried to plant a few bullets in Caleb's neck. I guess Caleb found the argument to be less than convincing, because those monster hands were on me like bees on an unfortunate bear.
I couldn't even tell what the others were doing anymore around Caleb's massive head, but I kept hearing gunshots and flapping wings and not a whole lot of agonized screaming. I assumed all was going well. Then Caleb stomped the ground and it... I'm not sure what it did. I couldn't see. But apparently it was bad, because Camila sounded annoyed. Then I felt like I was sinking, but still in Caleb's hands. There was a ... a look of some sort on Gunnar's face, and then as we kept sinking I saw the quicksand, giving me just enough time to close my eyes and take a deep breath.
Time slowed down after that, for me. I was stuck in a vise grip and couldn't wriggle out no matter how hard I was trying. Then something, probably Gunnar, pulled Caleb's freaky-huge hands free from me and I was just stuck in the quicksand. And more than a little bit screwed, I remember thinking. I pushed away from Caleb, at least.
After a second or two, or maybe it was even a minute, I don't know, I felt a hand grab at me. Not the way Caleb grabbed, not maliciously. My lack of earth-vision made it impossible to see, but I figured it was Gunnar again, unless some other crazy bastard had jumped in here with me. Somehow he'd managed to find me. I should ask him how he did it. Guy is magical.
I remember thinking that if I were a little sappier, I might have thought to myself, "At least I'll die with Gunnar."

But I'm not. So instead I was thinking, "Gods dammit Gunnar." It's becoming a mantra. "You know, I'd really rather you didn't die at all. I love you, to death." Ah, irony. "But this is probably the stupidest fucking thing I've ever seen you do."
So I had no idea which direction was which, or how to really propel myself in any direction to figure it out. The seconds ticked on and I was the most certain I have ever been that I was going to die, in the quicksand, with Gunnar's arm around me. That comforted and infuriated me all at the same time.

Then we were moving, slowly, towards... some direction. Either it was the surface and I'd get to breathe again and there would be my rainbows and puppies or we were being dragged farther down and I wouldn't be alive much longer to care.
It was, thankfully, option A. minus the rainbows and puppies. Someday...
Brendan had smacked Gunnar with the blunt end of that wicked looking but awkwardly named spear he carries and used it to pull us up.
I was so glad to see all of those faces, but especially Gunnar's, I could have cried.

Ok, that's done. Now I can get shower and get all of this gunk off of me, then go rejoin the Band. Gunnar looks like he's got something on his mind, too.