A-Cup Angst Ch. 10

They walked down the hallway for a minute, before the corridor came to a dead end. The wall of the dead end was made of metal. "Okay, this is it," Felicity said. "Disclaimer! If you touch anything in there, it will kill you dead! Most of the things inside won't kill you as soon as you touch them, but they are made to kill whoever uses them. And they are made to consider anyone that touches them as a potential user. So, nobody touch anything."

"That's an order," Jamie darkly said. Everyone nodded their understanding and compliance. "Alright, Felicity, open Sesame."

Felicity smiled and leaned in close to the doors. She whispered, "Fluffy wants a cuddle." The metal wall began to glow and an outline of a doorway flashed into existence. The newly formed door shimmered like the surface of a stormy sea until a sudden wave splashed from its surface towards them. Everyone but Felicity startled and jumped back. The shimmering stopped and the protruding wave bent backwards and solidified into a massive doorknob.

Felicity turned to her startled companions and grinned. "Everybody ready," she asked.

They shot back unappreciative looks and Rose said, "Fluffy wants a cuddle? That's the passcode into a vault filled with the most dangerous things archaeologists have ever discovered?"

Felicity shrugged and said, "What did you expect? Abracadabra? Come on, let's go in. Just remember, everyone, touching means dying."

"No touching," Jamie said. "That's an order! And, Felicity? No more surprises!"

Felicity smiled and winked at him. She grasped the knob and turned it. The large doors swung inwards easily. They peered over her shoulders into the darkness. The air inside it smelled old, unlike the air in the corridor, which smelled of dampness. The glow from the corridor did little to illuminate the chamber ahead. "The lights should come on in a moment, don't be scared by the-" A soft, grating noise was heard in the darkness. Two bright lights blinked into existence and illuminated the room before them. The lights came from the lanterns held by two statues that flanked the doors. "Lightbringers," Felicity finished her warning, naming the statues.

Despite her warning, everyone was looking apprehensively at the two giant statues of toga clad men, standing on guard and holding up giant, metal lanterns. They leaned in the door to get a better look at the statues that were facing the room. As they did so, they spotted two more statues standing against the wall beyond each of them. All six stood still and cast the light of their lanterns into the room. Jamie's instincts told him the statues weren't dangerous. They were just pretty light stands that had no ability to attack interlopers. He breathed a sigh of relief. The idea of fighting animated stone had been terrifying.

"Like Felicity said," Jamie said, "They're not dangerous. Ignore them." Everyone nodded and obeyed. "Where are the captive monsters?"

"They're all encapsulated into stone statues of themselves," Felicity said, "and kept in magical stasis. But that doesn't mean you can touch the statues of ugly monsters! The only statues we can safely touch are the Lightbringers."

"Don't touch the Lightbringers," Jamie ordered.

Felicity lead the way inside. In the flickering light of the large lanterns, they could just make out that there was some forty feet of free space between the door and the nearest large object, whatever it was. As they crossed half the distance, standing on guard the whole time, the soft grating noise was heard again, only this time it came from the sides, instead of from the door. Jamie just caught, out of the corner of his eye, a glimpse of the statue moving its hand from the shutter of its lantern. The resulting illumination made Jamie's eyes shut in reflex and he gaped at the now illuminated large shapes in the room.

They were rows of large storage cases, made of clear glass and varnished wood. Each case was a yard wide and deep and three yards high. As Jamie examined them, he saw that the cases were really three identical glass and wood boxes stacked upon one another. They had a door to each side. The gaps between the cases were equal on every side and they formed orderly rows and columns while allowing for each of them to have their contents viewed from every angle without the need to remove them from the cases.

They all stood around the nearest case and gaped at the undeniably pretty objects inside. Felicity then assumed the role of their tour guide and informed them that nearly all of the things inside were stolen from digs in modern day Iraq and were used in ancient Sumeria to cause sickness in the wielder's enemies at the cost of sacrificing innocent lives. A few were meant to prevent sickness in sheep. Their sense of wonder evaporated. Jamie indicated they should go to the end of the vault and examine the fountain there. Felicity lead the way and they no longer flinched at the statues opening their lanterns to illuminate the room.

They passed countless cases, some containing a hundred small, handheld objects on each level, some containing just one large object. Felicity told them of the more interesting ones as she noted them in passing. Nearly each was powered by human sacrifice, yet their uses ranged from summoning thunderstorms or calming the sea to instantly brewing a barrel of perfect ale or peeling potatoes. Jamie actually stopped and had Felicity repeat herself three times at that one. It had been an Aztec artifact, shaped like a large tobacco pipe. It worked by stabbing the thinner end of it into a person's chest, all the way to the heart, at which point the thicker end would unfurl and open up to reveal a set of teeth and a tiny tongue. A potato would be placed into the mouth and it would scrape off the skin of the potato in a moment and spit them out, separately. This was powered by the blood of the person in whose chest it was stabbed until the tiny thing drained the host of too much blood to survive.

Jamie was stunned beyond belief that a magician from ancient Aztec times would create such a thing. "Fucking shit on a motherfucking stick," he whispered in disgust. He thought he could see rusty blood on the narrow end of the artifact. He shuddered in disgust and gestured onwards.

"And here we have the rift spells you mentioned," Felicity said.

Jamie frowned and looked into the case she was indicating. "Um, where." he said.

"The leather loops," Felicity said and pointed to the pile of brown, leather loops that were haphazardly stacked on the see through bottom of the topmost box. Jamie peered dubiously at them but quickly saw the trickle of magic that was waiting there. Waiting for someone fool enough to take it and activate it.

"Yessiree," Felicity said, "those are the preconstructed rift spells. Dependable atomization at the low, low price of your own life," she said, channeling the voice of the stereotypical used car salesman.

"Yeah," Jamie said, sarcastically, "what a good deal." He thought about them for a minute. Someday, they might come in handy. If he could get an enemy to use them, he'd be taking care of two birds with just one stone. "How could I make a caster commit suicide," he mused aloud.

"That cauldron over there," Felicity said and pointed to what looked like an ordinary kitchen item, "can make a charm stick in a caster's mind, for a couple of hours."

"How does it do that," Rose asked.

"You hold the caster's face over it and cast your charms at them," Felicity said. "You just gotta fill the pot with-

"The blood of innocents," Jamie finished with her. "Now, how did I know you were going to say that," he asked, sarcastically. "Fucking useless. Let's keep moving!"

They were reaching the far end of the vault and the orderly rows of cases were replaced with free standing objects, each roped off at a generous distance and arranged in a seemingly haphazard manner, yet still allowing for ample space to walk all the way around each and every object without running the risk of accidentally touching one of them.

Most of the free standing objects were very large statues of hideous hybrids of humans and random beasts. Some were bizarre, like a ten foot wide ball that looked to be made of solid marble. As they approached it, the ball was touching the part of its circular rope enclosure that was nearest to them. As they passed it, it slowly rolled along the rope encircling it, seemingly in order to stay as close to them as possible. "The fuck," Jamie said. "Is the giant ball of stone trying to follow us? What does it do?"

"I don't know," Felicity said. "The Johanssons didn't know either. They found it in some dig in India and never figured out what it does. It's been here for a quarter of a century. The fountain is right behind this obelisk." The six statues that stood against the back wall opened the shutters to their giant lanterns, banishing the last of the darkness from the room. The things they revealed looked like something that was created by a drunken surrealist one night and then rejected by them in the sober light of morning. One object stood out like a healthy thumb in the middle of the eyesore forest.

"Is that the blood fountain," Jamie pointed and asked.

"Yes," Felicity said.

"Why isn't it roped off," he asked.

"It doesn't do anything until and unless you hold someone over it and slit their throat," she said. They all came closer to it. It had four tiers, each wider than the one above it, and the spout at the top resembled a snake's open maw. Otherwise, the fountain was unadorned by any carvings. "It's practically the only thing in here that you can safely touch." Despite her assurance, no one came within arm's reach of the thing.

Jamie stared at the fountain for a long time in the flickering light of the lanterns. "What's it made of," he asked.

"The Johansson's don't know," Felicity said, "but they guess it's some kind of ensorcelled stone. It's harder than concrete."

"The fountain's outer shell is made from bone," Nova said, after it flicked the side of the fountain several times. "Bone of mammalian origin."

"Human," Jamie asked.

"I am unable to answer that by optical and tactile analysis alone," Nova said.

They examined the fountain and tried to determine the nefarious magic it was infused with. All they could figure out was that the spell was completely dormant until there was blood in the fountain. "So," Rose said, "does anyone prick their finger and let their blood drip into the fountain?"

"Hell, no," Jamie said. "That might be enough to start the thing draining your life force, for all we know. Isn't that right, Felicity?"

"Ben didn't know how exactly the thing worked," she said. "All he knew was what he was told by Eric's post mortem recording, and that was that he needed to drain thirteen people of all their blood to bestow magic on a mundane born Johansson."

"Still, we best not chance it," Jamie said. He glanced at Jessica Stansfield. "Touch it and tell us what you feel," he told her.

The vampire laid both of her hands on the fountain. She moaned in appreciation. "Oh, yes," she said. "This was made by grinding the bones of the enemies of a sorcerer into dust. I can just feel the hatred. The fountain was made with magic, wrath and the bone dust. I can't tell if a single drop of blood activates it or not."

Jamie grimaced and shook his head at the information. He asked Felicity which items served tactically valid purposes, like locating someone by rough description and such. He was disappointed to learn all of those were readily defeated with commonplace antidetection wards, like the ones they were wearing.

"So, it comes down to it that there isn't a whole hell of a lot of things we can use in here," he said. Felicity confirmed his conclusion with a sad shake of her head. "Fine. We'll destroy all of it. Jessica, activate the rift spell by taking its leash in hand and saying that you wish to vaporize everything in this room except for us, our possessions and the Lightbringers. Then do so, starting with the fountain. The rest of you, follow me!"

They walked to the door. "Shouldn't we keep the things with unknown purposes," Sandra asked.

"Nah," Jamie said. "They're probably even worse than the stuff the Johanssons knew about. I'd rather not risk someone finding out about this shit someday and causing an apocalypse, or some such."

They stood by the door and waited. They could hear Jessica state her intended targets. Soon, they could hear the faint, crackling sounds of matter being atomized and teleported to who knows where. A steady breeze swept passed them by the door and replaced the missing matter in the room with air. Some of the objects let out a soundless explosion of light when atomized. Others oozed darkness that flowed down to the ground like a thick fog, only to dissipate when the last of the object was annihilated. Yet others glowed in all the colors of the rainbow while they were destroyed. It took the vampire more than half an hour to annihilate everything in the vault. The rift's purpose was complete and the leash released her wrist. The rift itself lay down on the floor for her to step into it.

Jessica gave Jamie a look and then bent over to touch the outer edge of the rift. Before they could react, she drained its power into herself. Jamie's jaw dropped. "What just happened," Ray shouted. Everyone stepped back in fright.

"I acted in self defense," the vampire calmly said.

"Stop right there," Jamie shouted. "Don't move!" He ordered her to take out her box cutter and cut her eyes out. She did so and he sighed in relief. She was still enslaved by the bindings. "What the fuck did you do with the rift?"

"I drained it," she said. She grimaced and groaned in agony as her eyes reformed themselves in their sockets.

"You drained a rift spell," Sandra asked, incredulously.

"Yes."

"How is that possible," Jamie shouted.

"It was made of the life force of eighteen magicians," the vampire said. "I drained it away to save myself. I am a vampire after all."

"You were supposed to go in," Jamie shouted.

"You gave no such order," she said. "You only said to destroy all the items and destroy them I did."

Jamie stared at her incredulously. He left he wiggle room in his order and was now left with an actual vampire to deal with, instead of having her disposed of, like the rest of her kind were. He exchanged exasperated looks with the rest of his crew before yelling, "Go to the far wall and stand still, facing it in silence!"

The vampire turned and walked to the far wall. They watched her go until she reached the far wall and stood there. "So, now what," Helena asked.

"Now we go kill The Suit and then we'll make a pair of magic-proof robots and stick them here, in the vault, so Nova can tell us if it's breached," Jamie said. "Also, they'll shoot and kill any magic wielding intruders."

They turned around and left the vault. Felicity explained that the vault does nothing to prevent anyone from leaving, only entering. As they were walking along the corridor back towards the entrance, they felt the presence of some kind of magic. In the distance, they saw a glow over the doors. "Relax," Felicity said, "it's just a spying spell they made with some crystals that Genghis Khan had used."

"Uh, ok," Jamie said, in mild alarm, "but didn't we just see everything in the vault destroyed?"

"Everything in the vault, yes," Felicity said. "The stuff that hides the vault, kills intruders and," she pointed at the floating image of the storage room beyond the doors, "tells you when it's safe to exit unseen, is walled off." She rapped her knuckles against the cold, concrete wall. "We didn't destroy those."

"Oh," Jamie said. He hadn't even thought of that. "Alright, then. When will it be safe to go out?" He gestured at the shimmering image of a man in a white lab coat that was rummaging through a large, wooden crate.

Felicity shrugged. "We can go out, right now and charm the guy into not remembering seeing us magically emerge from the wall. The image is just here to show us all those who might notice that, so we don't leave witnesses. Oh, wait, here we go!"

The man in the image straightened up and brandished a small, worn looking statue. He smiled and checked a clipboard he had been carrying. He nodded to himself and walked out of the storage room, carrying the statue and clipboard. The floating image showed him exiting the room, walking down a corridor and pressing the button to call the elevator. As soon as the elevator doors closed behind him, the floating image disappeared.

"I'm guessing it's safe to exit, right now," Felicity said and pulled open the doors. They left the basement complex of the Smithsonian pretty much the same way they had gotten in and got in their cars.

"Alright," Jamie said, "let's go to The Suit's house!"

They drove off to the suburb in question. As soon as they parked down the street from their target, Helena leaped out of her car and ran over to the Cayenne. She knocked on the passenger side window insistently and Jamie pointed her to the back seat. She opened the door and got in, sitting next to Nova.

"The fuck are you doing," Jamie hissed, "drawing attention to us, like that?!"

"Jamie," Helena raised her hands in a reconciliatory gesture, "I only want to talk to you about this."

"I heard all of your talking," he said, "and I done all that thinking. I'm snuffing this shit, or at least making a very terrifying attempt at it."

"But, Jamie, if you do this, then you'll risk an all out war with Section! And they kind of outnumber and outgun us."

Jamie regarded her coldly. "It'll never come down to that," he said. "One of their top priorities is to hide the existence of magic from the general population and I've already demonstrated that I can sweep their pathetic illusions aside and reveal them. But, please, let's consider the alternative that you so eagerly advocate. Tell me, what happens if we just drive off, right now? Does The Suit realize the error of its ways and firmly decide to never, ever have our families raped and mutilated again?

"Cause, let me tell you this! I don't give half a flying fuck if it does! Once was too many times, already! I for one will not tolerate that piece of shit running the nation's supernatural law enforcement! I'm guessing the only reason our families are still alive is because that shit kept hoping we'd die fighting the Syndicate, or hunting vampires. I'm going in there and I'm making absolutely certain the horror we went through never, ever happens again!"

Jamie jabbed at her forehead. "You had better get your head on straight, missy, or you can just get out of this fucking car and take a fucking hike! Nova, suit up, get the Saiga, the water rounds and the package!" He picked up the walkie talkie and said, "Let's go!" He shot Helena one last look of disapproval and exited the car.

He led the way to the house. Nova followed at his side, wearing a fireproof asbestos suit and brandishing the Saiga openly. Rose followed at his other side and the twins walked behind them, side by side. A rush of adrenaline made Jamie's pulse beat in his temples. He stretched out his Jedi-like senses and tried to assess the opposition. He couldn't sense anyone in the house. He smirked. Their wards might hide them, but they won't save The Suit.

He used a powerful blast of kinetic energy to make the door swing open. Nova ran in and the lethal spells that covered the entrance made themselves known as they attempted to destroy the intruder. The twins dispatched three stored spirits, Jamie couldn't tell whose they were since they looked identical, and those deadly spells were undone.

Five casters stood in the lobby as Jamie entered it. Rose and the twins followed close on his heels. "What's the meaning of this," asked one of the Section operatives.