angry men don't write the rules, and guns don't right the wrongs

[notwitty]

“This isn’t up for debate, Della.” Patrick Brighton stands tall at the head of the room, staring down the witches with a wave of his hand. His wife, Frida, sits on his right, and his daughter Bridget on his left, and while he respects Della and the work she’s done for the coven over the years, this is a line he doesn’t intend to cross. “We’re not joining Tamara Monroe.”

“Well. Playing favorites again, are we?” Della crosses her arms in front of her chest as she stares up at the stage. “You’ll let Eliza come in here and bring that beast —”

“Name calling is beneath you, Del. But then again, maybe it’s the company you’re keeping.”

“Eliza,” Patrick gives her a look. “Not helping.” Eliza holds up her hands in return. “And I haven’t decided whether or not I’m going to give Isaac the opportunity to speak.”

“I just don’t understand why you’re taking the side of monsters.” Della glares at Isaac, and Isaac steps behind Eliza, almost as though she might be able to intercept the glare. He then holds up a hand.

“I’m being called a lot of names and I haven’t even said anything yet.”

“And you shouldn’t be allowed to say anything at all! You’re not one of us!”

“No, but I’m trying to help you.” Isaac’s spine straightens as he takes a step closer. “Those hunters that you want to team up with? They’re not doing it to help you. They’re doing it because you’re powerful and they want to control you.” He holds up his hands again. “Tamara Monroe doesn’t want to ally with you to save you. She’s not looking out for your best interest. She’s just making a note of who to kill last.”

Della looks furious. A gasp of silence rolls through the room, but Isaac isn’t one to sugarcoat things, and beating around the bush hasn’t really caused things to sink in. Before she can try to get the upper hand, Isaac interjects again.

“The hunters are here. They tried to kill me this morning for walking down the street. They will come after your coven and your families, and there is no time to debate this anymore. You need to keep your people safe.”

Patrick looks over at Frida, concern in his features. Della looks like she’s going to argue her case, but before she gets too far, someone stands in the back of the room, and there’s the sound of a gun slide being pulled back. Everyone turns, and a man stands in the middle of the crowd, and he has a gun pointed at Isaac.

“What are you doing?” Patrick demands, stepping forward. “Put that down!”

“I don’t have to listen to you, witch.” The man has a wild look in his eyes. Isaac can see another man looking horrified in a way that’s more personal. The hunter had a partner. “If I had a say in any of this, I’d take every one of you abominations down. But right now, I’m just here for him.”

He turns and fires. The bullet shoots through the air, and Isaac quickly steps in front of Elijah, taking two bullets to the chest. Neither of them were kill shots, but they hurt, and the werewolf stumbles backwards into the witch behind him.

“Oh, I forgot how much that hurts,” Isaac grumbles.

“There’s no wolfsbane in these bullets, but I’m sure a headshot will do the trick.” The hunter prepares to shoot again, but the metal begins to heat in his hand, burning his skin and the hunter hisses before dropping it to the ground.

Patrick is on the stage, hand on the staff that marks him the leader of the coven. “That is enough.”

That should have been the end of things. It wasn’t. Instead, the hunter pulls out another gun, extending his hand and shooting Patrick Brighton at center mass. His body jerks three times as the bullets collide and the room erupts into screams, none more than the women at the front of the room. The witches begin to run, trying to find the nearest door to escape the carnage. Another shot sounds, and Frida Brighton follows her husband, landing on the stage in front of them.

Bridget Brighton doesn’t hesitate, however. There’s a reason she’s been designated her father’s heir, and she acts quickly. She takes the staff, letting it settle into her hand before slamming the end of the staff down into the ground, chanting as she does. A shockwave echoes out through the center of the room, blowing down the walls of the building down and sending people flying.

The other hunter in the room had tried to come to his compatriot’s aid. Instead, he gets sent flying, a jagged piece of wood slicing through his chest from behind. The hunter who shot her father gets knocked to the ground, but he comes to his feet again, staring her down.

“Kill me if you want. But there’s more of us here. We’ll take our pound of flesh either way.”

“So you want to play a game, then?” There’s a dangerous edge to her voice.

“Bridget,” Eliza’s voice is calm, but there’s an undercut of fear to it. Bridget is a good girl, but she’s also a grieving one. “Bridget, we’re better than this.”

“Maybe we are. But that doesn’t mean we don’t deserve to defend ourselves.” The wind picks up around her and she draws her hands out in front of her. She chanted another incantation, before drawing her hands together. The world flickers, and Eliza’s eyes widen.

“What did you do?”

“I trapped them in here with us.”

The hunter’s eyes widen. “You can’t do that.”

“Oh, I can do whatever I want. You’re the one who started this.”

“We’ll find a way out. We’ll stop the spell, even if we have to kill you.”

Bridget smirks. “You’ll have to catch me first.” And with that, she disappears from sight.

The hunter tries to leave but Isaac is there before he can get far. The werewolf clotheslines him down to the ground, before shoving a hand into his chest, claws first. The man cries out in pain, before looking up at him, eyes still filled with that wild energy.

“You’re one of Scott McCall’s wolves. You won’t kill me.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.” Isaac twists, feeling the blood start to leak through the wounds. “But you forgot two things. One, Scott’s not here right now, and you shot me. Twice.”

The hunter snarls as Eliza comes up over Isaac’s shoulder.

“And what’s the second?”

“It’s not the head of my coven you just killed.”

Comments

[positiveinfluence]

[Coop's eyes are still on his brother. He moves closer, hands reaching out to pull at Lucas' shoulders as though that will allow him to wrench the body free.]

I can't ... I'm not gonna leave him here.

[How is he going to carry a body through the chaotic streets of London? Fuck if he knows, but grief isn't logical. He tugs sometimes harder than others, but the body won't give and eventually he stumbles back.]

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.

[pumping]

( He shakes his head, his own eyes trying to focus. But, he has to. If Coop falls apart, Mickey needs to step up. He steels himself, swallows, and looks down as Coop, shit, falls back. He moves around the bodies, crouching down. )

Coop. Hey. We have to get out of here.

[positiveinfluence]

[Coop knows he's right, and that they have to go, but he doesn't want to. He can't just leave his brother here to rot. At the same time, he knows what Lucas would say to him.

He's alive. Lucas is not. He needs to stay alive if he's going to be of any good to anyone else. Closing his eyes, he takes a deep breath and shoves himself up to his feet.]

Yeah. Yeah, let's go.

[pumping]

( As Coop comes to his feet, Mickey reaches out, pulling him towards him as he moves Cooper away from the bodies, away from his brother's body, to the double doors at the back. )

Do we rendezvous?

[positiveinfluence]

We have to. We get caught by the witches in these streets and we're dead.

[With their leaders dead, they're going to be out for blood. He glances around, before seeing an alleyway that seems to let out into another street.]

C'mon, this way.

[pumping]

( He agrees, following closer, ready to pull a firearm on anyone as he keeps quiet. )

What happened?

[positiveinfluence]

Weller lost his shit.

[Because that's what it came down to. The meeting wasn't going the hunters way, and Weller blew his cover.]

Then the witches lost theirs. When everything got blown back, I hit my head. I have no idea where Lahey went.

[As far as he knows, that's the biggest concern on the ground. Staying away from the werewolf, who helped stirred this pot will hopefully keep them alive.]

[pumping]

But - why was Weller meeting with them, anyway. It looked off the books.

( He sticks to the shadows once they're outside, listening for every sound around them, even the slightest wisp of middle of evening wind. )

[positiveinfluence]

It wasn't.

[He makes a face.]

Monroe's been recruiting witches. Trying to exploit the tensions between the species.

[pumping]

What does she do with them after she recruits them? Aren't they the enemy?

( He understands an inside man, but what happens to the inside man afterwards. Or, what happens when this happens. )

What is she promising them?

[positiveinfluence]

She uses them for the power they have. And when they've outrun their usefulness, she probably kills them.

[He makes a face as they make their way closer to the alley, glancing back over his shoulder to make sure they're not being followed.]

Lahey had a line about signing up to be murdered last and he's not entirely wrong about that.

[pumping]

( He does see the value in it. Find someone, use someone, promise them something, and then pull the rug out. They're your means to an end. But, it still leaves a bad taste in his mouth and feels like it does, Cooper, too. )

Great. Lahey's pissed off. Witches are pissed off. Maybe our best bet is to split up, drop equipment and play civilian.

[positiveinfluence]

Not if we can get out here before anyone sees us. I think we're almost -

[He's cut off as his shoulder collides with an invisible barrier in front of him. He pushes back with a grunt, before lifting one hand and placing it against an invisible solid surface.]

Shit.

[pumping]

( He hits the barrier first before Mickey follows suit. He turns back to see if they were followed and makes contact with - well, with something invisible because nothing is there.

He frowns, pushing his cheek against it. )

What is this, Under the Dome?

[positiveinfluence]

Barrier spell. They locked us in.

[Which is so many flavors of not good.]

We need to figure out how far it goes. Maybe there's a break somewhere.

[pumping]

Then we need to split up.

( He pats the spell once or twice before snatching his hand back. He doesn't... know if it will do something.

He starts unzipping the tactical hoodie and drops it down. He does keep his piece underneath his waistband, just in case. He just doesn't want to look like a hunter. )

Ditch our gear. Only way.

[positiveinfluence]

[Coop nods, starting to ditch some of his heavier weaponry.]

You find the break or the witch, you call.

[He doesn't give instructions further than that, because while he knows what has to be done if the witch doesn't release the spell on her own, he doesn't want to actually put it out into the universe.

They can talk her down. They have to.]

I'll do the same. And be careful, Mick. There are going to be a lot of pissed off witches running around.

[pumping]

( He doesn't know that, he's just going to bring him in to it. He takes Coop's lead. Always does. )

You too. Anyone grabs you, you're on vacation with the other lads. How's your English accent.

[positiveinfluence]

[He laughs.]

Pretty shitty. But I'll find something that works. You head North, I'll head west.

[And with that, he disappears into the streets, leaving Mickey to fend for himself.]

[pumping]

( Mickey will... fend. He heads North like Cooper tells him, eyeing what he believes must be the edges. He tests it, hitting the edge before he's expecting it to be, but that gives him a great base of measurement. He's confident with what his side of the outline must be. Which... doesn't help. He doesn't find any hunters or the witch they're looking for.

He hears voices around the corner, though, and decides to fling himself like he's running. )

My god - there's -- do you know what's happening? I was trying to get back to my car and I -- can't? And I saw - I don't know, I can't explain it. But I saw something.

[blackstarred]

[Mia doesn't really know what's going on, mostly because the witches they're staying with didn't know what's going on. Powerful as they may be, they're not one of the elders. All they knew was that a big spell was cast, which meant trouble might be coming.

When Mickey barrels into her, however, she snaps into information-gathering mode. He might know more than he thinks. She catches him by the arms.]

It's okay. Tell me what you saw.

[pumping]

( Faith and Spike are on it. Faith's ready for action and Spike takes off in the direction Mickey came from. )

I don't know what I saw. It was like - something moved but nobody was touching it. And, and, my car it's -- I can't get to it. It's like I reached this -- invisible wall.

( He even looks to Faith, who frowns, and then back to Mia. )

But that's not possible.

[blackstarred]

[She nods slowly, not really sure what to say to him.]

There's a lot of weird stuff happening right now. It might be something in the air.

[Yeah. Because that's a good, convincing lie.]

Do you live around here?

[pumping]

No, I'm on - there's a Bachelor party.

( And Spike comes walking back.

"Some sort of barrier spell." )

Spell?

[blackstarred]

[Mia flashes Spike a look for the magic talk around the civilian, before giving Mickey a small smile.]

I'm Mia. What's your name?