A Good Time to Disappear

Bones stood tapping one of his shoes, the black shining leather now dulled with dust and mud from the roads of Nebraska. He was getting sick of how his clean cut suits were getting dirtied whenever he stepped out of any car. Bones glanced at the Gorilla as he stood anxiously listening to the little phone in his hand. It was weird to him how such a little thing could have replaced the big clunky things that Frankie only saw in his childhood. The world had changed so much while he had been haunting a backwater mob safe-house. Towers along every horizon had sprouted up like grass and they had become shining beacons of light during the night. Car’s had changed, women had changed, fashions had changed. It really made him feel old when he thought about stuff like that, so he tried to ignore it and listened out for Maxie’s voice on the other end of the phone.

No luck, apparently, because Archie carefully pawed the thing out of his hand with one of his big... paws. Bones didn’t try and stop him, however, because you don’t try and stop a 490lb Gorilla from doing anything.

And then the door opened, which made Bones glance instinctively towards the sound. And in walked what looked like... Well. Things had changed, but Bones could still tell when a guy walking into a place intended to do something stupid or bad. He had picked up the instincts from his early years in the Mob, when noticing a man walking in with a violin case containing something not meant to be played was the difference between life and death. Also, the crowd of shady evil looking creatures seemed to speak a couple of volumes about the dude, as did the costume.

Though to be fair, he was judging a book by its cover.

“Miss, you wouldn’t happen to know the number of a cab company capable of handling people like us, would you?” Bones stopped from groaning in embarrassment as he reached forward and gentle tapped the big-ape on his shoulder. Sometimes Archie could be a little bit dumb when it came to things like this. Carefully, Bones tried to tug him back from the guy and his gang of... Shadow monster things. His other hand carefully moved up his body, to slip under the jacket he was wearing. The hilt of the Mauser slipped into his gloved hand.

And then Rockie came back in, lumbering through the door and glaring at the back of the guy’s head. She said something about a creep-o-metre and Bones smiled absentmindedly as the little Dryad slipped behind his back and agreed. In his skull, he was already figuring an attack out. Firstly, the crowd control might be difficult. They looked to be... Maybe... Magical constructs? Or other worldy things. So that means that Rockback, with her magic sword and shield, could carve up a few of them while Bones threw about his energy shots. That would leave Archie and Terra to try and stop the creep, with the woman named Bliss helping them...

Bones glanced at her, wondering what had caused a guy like that to come tramping in.

"Is that creepmeter out of 10? Because I place him higher." Bliss kept her head focused on Dante even though her target audience stood behind her when she muttered that phrase. Hiding the Asian girl in Nebraska always proved a challenge and it looked like deja vu. She starred down the large armored man, looking for any weakness in his defenses that she could find.

A vast army of darkness stood behind him, shepherded by a line of shades. The blackness of the horizon brought all the focus on the intimidating figure of Dante. "Yeah." She cocked her head to the opposite side that she shifted her hips. "That's me." It almost looked like she spoke to herself and not the armored man.

Winds blew through the street around Bliss. Her ponytail whipped over to her shoulder, while she slowed her motion. Heat lent her no allies, even in the presence of this man she could not conjure a sweat bead. If she could produce any moisture she could test to see if she brought the molecules to a standstill like she did in the lab. Emotions powered her more than anything that day, but if she wanted to produce that power for real, she would need to replicate it on a regular basis. Seeing no other options around her she opted for the most abrasive form. She spit. Gravity brought it down low and it impacted on the ground in a splatter or failure. "Sorry." She muttered in a sterile tone. "Hair got in my mouth."

Heaviness brought her eye lashes together in a slow blink. Everything about Bliss seemed to slow down in the presence of this absurdity. A modern day black knight with an army of darkness in trail. "Do you need me to point you towards Bruce Campbell?" Her eyes diverted over to the specters that appeared shapeless in multitude. "Or, are you just passing through?"

Dante turned to his attention to the other more evident witnesses, especially the ones that looked out of the ordinary, specifically the obviously magical misfits. Dante cared not for their insulting words, he has spent over 7 centuries with slander being thrown at him and it wasn't much of a thought for him now. His attention was more to the potential dangers that could occur with the band of magical misfits. The woman was obviously a Dryad, Dante had met them several times in the past. The skeleton seemed to be the work of very powerful voodoo magic, from a practitioner that was beyond Dante's skills. The next to draw Dante's attention was the gorilla, whether he was created by magic or science was unknown, but Dante took his best bet on magic, seeing the company he kept with him. The last was the insulting golem, which would have some magic in it, seeing from the magic resonating from it, and Dante thought to himself how to think of the style of golem this one was.

A Dryad, a voodoo skeleton, a gorilla, and a golem Dante thought to himself They could be potential threats, but the situation can be resolved easily if I play my cards right

Dante raised his hand in a gesture of peace as he looked towards Bliss as he a light chuckle came from his mouth. If one were to listen carefully, they could hear the ancient tone that Dante possessed. Dante moved closer to Bliss and snapped his fingers to make sure that the shades moved away. But while they moved, some managed to sneak and transform into pedestrians while no one was looking, for just in case scenarios. However, the ones attending to the creatures from the Path of Hungry Ghosts made it their mission that the creatures didn't get their way and go ballistic on the people. Dante looked at Bliss again, using an old trick he obtained, he activated his Necklace of the Gypsy Soul while still inside the armor and removed his helmet to reveal his now completely feminine appearance.

"I'm a friend of Ashley's I came to pick you up for her, I sensed some magical creatures around so I thought you could have possibly been in danger" Dante said in a lighter tone with his new feminine voice "She hasn't been able to contact you so she wanted me to find you"

Archie was startled when he first looked past the man in armor and noticed his group of… spirits? Ghosts? Demons? He wasn’t quite sure what they were but they certainly looked menacing. Archie took a quick look around the area to count the amount of civilians and think up a quick plan of action in case things were to get ugly. If they did he would send Bones and Rockback after the ghosts while he and Aurora dealt with Drakontas. He wasn’t sure what help, if any, this Bliss girl would be so he had to assume she wouldn’t be much of any. She certainly didn’t seem scared of the man in armor but that didn’t mean much.

Archie tried to keep himself as outwardly calm as possible, but he wasn’t sure how calm he looked with all the tension he was feeling. He looked to Bones as if to ask him “what now?” but he could tell Bones was as nervous about Drakontas and the hungry ghosts as he was. Bones might have been hard for some to read due his lack of a face and all that, but Archie could just tell.

The armored person removed it’s helmet, revealing itself to be a female. It seemed this day was full of surprises. Doesn’t make her any less of a threat he thought, but maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to judge this woman still he couldn’t help but feel there was something very wrong about Drakontas.

"Have you tried her cellphone? It seems to be working just fine out here."

Rockback wasn't exactly sure what she was supposed to be thinking right now. She could have sworn that guy was a male. Magic armor probably could be .... "programmed" to disguise a voice or appearance, but other than the appearance of a feminine face and the sound of a feminine voice, the general look of the guy was enough to tell her it was male. But she was wrong. Whatever. It's not like the difference meant much. So the woman preferred to run around with hungry looking spirits whilst wearing huge, thick armor that made her look like a man whilst also possessing the tendency to then reveal herself as a woman to random passersby. It wasn't her problem, and seeing as she felt the woman was creepy anyway, the only thing that mattered was assuring that the Abnormals' robot did what she could to protect her teammates and defeat a creepy foe.

The armored being claimed to be a contact through which Bliss-girl's friend was communicating, but Rockback thought that was suspicious. She looked to her teammates to see if they thought the same thing and then resumed watching the interaction in the middle of the restaurant.

Bones hand shifted under his coat as his fingers curled harder around the butt of his gun, his finger curling into the softly curled trigger. With a jerk of his bony wrist, he could snap open the latch on the holster and swing the hexagon shaped barrel of the gun towards the guy in the knight costume. He wondered whether or not his armour piercing bullets would be effective against the ghost things, probably not, so with his hand he pulled back his wrist and curled his fingers, focusing his spiritual energy into the palm of his gloved hand. His fingers closed around the energy and he pumped it up to a good level, but held back just a little, faltered at the barrier that he had been afraid to cross, his little well of energy.

The team was muttering, doing their little things as they tried to work out just what was about to happen. Somewhere behind him, the French guy called Robert was muttering under his breath about calling the police, but Frankie slowly and carefully slid his skull around in the slow, creepy ways he had seen monsters do it in movies. The chattering, obnoxious guy fell silent almost immediately, his jaw snapping closed as Frankie heard the pretty girl with the shoes stop speaking. Then, with a jump, he snapped his skull back and would have blinked his eyes if he had the muscles.

The guy was a girl?

Bones blinked once, pulling his hand out of the jacket pocket and glancing about in what felt like stunned silence. From what he could see, the others were confused as him, or maybe more sceptical. Rockback was shaking her head and generally exhibiting an air of confused anger, although he supposed that it was more of her “default” state. Behind him, Aurora was shifting nervously too, but Archie seemed to be more sceptical and aware of the situation, when he said rather loudly, "Have you tried her cellphone? It seems to be working just fine out here." Bones tried not to snort his agreement, but he was rather impressed with the quick thinking simian.

And then behind him, came a sweet little voice, asking a... odd and interesting question. "Is he a transvestite?" Bones raised his gloved hand from behind his back, now empty of the magical energy, and pressed it to his permanent grinning mouth. Gently, he coughed once, his humour now suppressed under his more serious thoughts. He was feeling a little guilty, that they had been so readily able to fight someone simply because of the way they presented themselves. It was what Robert had just done to them, turning them away from the help they needed just because they appeared to be something different to them.

Instead of fighting, or calling out, Bones did what he did best. He stuck his hands into his pockets and glanced at the young woman in the shoes, watching as he kept his skull facing forward. The illusion was that he wasn’t really watching her; he was instead watching the big girl in the armour. Carefully, though, he reached back with one of his gloved hands and patted the Dryad on her shoulder once or twice, in a absent minded comforting manner.

Her ears deceived her in perception. Before her stood a tall statured woman with a voice that threw off Bliss's preconceived perceptions of the environment. The gorilla brought sense back into the the area by asking about the cell phone. Her heart beat rose as she took a step back towards the group she just met.

"Why did Ashley stay behind then? Looks like you had enough room to bring your entourage." She moved her hand to levitate the cell phone back to her hand and sent a quick text to Ashley. Hopefully either a message would come back, or give the location of the phone if Dante had it. "I'm not big on getting into cars with strangers, so how about Ashley comes here and tells me how great going with you would be."

Bliss began to step back towards the group when a thought popped into her head. What if the others behind her consorted with the armor clad woman before her? What if they would take Bliss from behind while Dante and his ghouls posed a threat in front of her. Her heart raced faster than her confidence. She began to lose her inner confidence, but kept up a look of control in the guise of her usual bitchiness. She raised her eyebrow and cocked her hip in the opposite direction, bringing her hand onto the apex of the joint and waiting for Dante's response.

Dante chuckled at the comments and obvious suspicions from the other, less than ordinary customers with a feminine laugh. He himself didn't favor using the power of his Gypsy Soul, but he was famous as his alter ego and his face was plastered on every tabloid and newspaper in Europe and some in the Americas and the rest of the world. He wasn't about to give his secret identity to a girl and a bunch of magical misfits. He cared little for the comments that they had made to them, as well as Bliss' distrusting attitude. It wasn't uncommon for things like this to happen, and Dante cared little for the ideals and questioning others after living 7 centuries.

Dante snapped his fingers and the armor around him disappeared, revealing a much smaller and thinner body than the armor portrayed. Rather than the 7 feet body that Dante possessed, he appeared in the body of a 5'6" woman, with a more feminine figure. The power of his armor usually cancelled out the power of his other items, which caused discrepencies many times, but in this case it a more of a blessing, it confused the others.

Dante walked into the diner and went to the counter and ordered himself a cup of tea, paying a little extra so that they wouldn't bother him with returning the cup, because if things went wry, the entire place was going sky high. Dante turned back to Elaine and the others, whose names he did not know, and began to speak.

"Well, to address our primate friend here, I am a person who uses magic, and my teachings have always been to use as little human technology as possible, thus I did not bother to call Bliss, for I do not have one to call her with" Dante said, and up to that point, it was the truth. "In addition, I had said that I sense some sort of magical anomoly, to which case, I decided that it was best to go in with precautions rather than be caught off guard."

Dante took a sip of his tea as he spoke, taking pauses in speech to make sure that he caught the flavour.

"To address the Dryad, no I am not a transvestite, I am a perfectly normal woman, I use the armor for protection" Dante said in a quaint tone, not giving any sign of hostility, for he had none. Violence was always the last resort, he didn't want the situation to get out of hand. "And to continue with Bliss' comment, if I had sensed possible danger as my response had dictated, I wouldn't have brought Ashley along, it would be too dangerous. In addition, if you want me to bring Ashley, that is all fine conditions, but I would have to walk back and then return again. This whole process would take me a considerable amount of time, since it took me 2 hours to get to her from where I met Ashley again, I would be back in about 7 hours, if you wish to wait that long. Otherwise, we can even take your friends along with us, it would be a nice experience."

Dante looked at Bliss with a smile and crossed arms, he didn't enjoy toying around with children, but he did what needed to be done.

"So it is really up to you Bliss, either we go, all of us. Or you wait here while I get Ashley, I'm sure she won't come to any harm within the time it takes for me to get there, but if you hadn't heard, there are rumors that a strange monster has been terrorizing the area, but I'm sure that Ashley will be fine, I have her in the safest place possible, for a barren area such as this anyway"

"Is he a transvestite?"

Archie’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped at the Dryad’s question, “Aurora!” he snapped. He would have been bright red were it possible for him to blush. Aurora tended to have that effect on him no matter what the situation. She still had a lot to learn about people and manners; he’d have to remember to lecture her at another time.

He simply nodded at the now armor less and much shorter woman’s explanation; it seemed farfetched to him. He figured his question must have caught her off guard. Something was most definitely wrong here; this woman obviously had quite a bit of magical power. Despite being almost clearly male in appearance when she arrived she was now female. Archie wondered if it was a man taking the guise of a woman in order to possibly put them more at ease. It seemed like a bit of a stretch but Archie didn’t want to rule out the possibility just yet. He decided to press her further, “That is interesting company you keep; I don’t believe I’ve seen anything quite like them in all my years. What exactly are they?” He tilted his head as he observed the hungry ghosts; he doubted anyone friendly would keep such things around and wondered if people felt the same way about Bones.

With each passing moment, Bones was getting to like the broad with the missing friend even more. If he was a hundred years younger and not a skeleton from the 1930’s, he would have hit on her by now. In fact, he was probably going to do it later. But the broad in the armour, she didn’t sit right with him, like something was off. Her explanations were way too long winded and if she was so interested in helping out a friend. But maybe that was because she was just weird like that; you find a lot of eccentrics in the Cape community, which he was probably a part of now. Archie hit something else too, the black clawing monstrosities that had surrounded her. They weren’t nice looking things, although again that could be easily explained away by simple aesthetics.

Behind him, he heard little Aurora mutter about how she was sorry for blurting out a little question that she didn’t really understand. Bones, still watching everything with a keen detective eye, put an arm around the Dryads shoulders and gave her a half hug to cheer her up, even though she would probably bump against his ribcage and feel like she was getting hugged by a sack full of twigs. It felt nice to just reassure her.

But then something in his head clicked and he glanced at the chick who wore the armour. ”Did you say something about a monster attacking the area?”

"Yes, she said a monster." Situations came and went, but odd endeavors never left her. "Fine." This looked like it would work. "We can go over details in the..." The situation failed to present itself in full disclosure. "Whats taking us to where Ashley is?" Whether the grandeur of the armored woman or the army of shadowed minions distracted her seemed irrelevant to her now. She could defend herself if the need arose. "Once we reach somewhere a little more private I'll ask you some stuff about whats going on." Bliss moved out into the open air, hoping to see what kind of vehicle the woman arrived in. "But first, I want to know what all this is about."

A distance grew between her and the Abnormals. Dante stood in between them, cutting the flow of friendly banter off from Bliss. No matter, Bliss never needed it before. Why start with it now. Today really looked nice. It seemed odd to think of it just now, but the sun bathed the area in a beautiful hue that made her feel pleasant inside. A refreshing breeze whipped by her legs and through her ponytail over to the side of her shoulder. All things aside, no one could wish for a better day for this to partake on.

Dante smiled at Bliss' "companions" questions. The summons that Dante created often did arouse suspicion, but Dante never cared to be secretive about himself, for it mattered not if they took advantage of it, they would be dead in a couple decades and Dante would be without their interference. Dante pointed towards a shade and the Hungry Ghost that it was holding onto and smiled towards the gorilla.

"These creatures are in fact ghosts, the spirits of people called into this world, mutated by their own religion's Hell" Dante explained in his non-chalant, somewhat cheerful voice "I use ancient magic to summon these creatures into the human world and have them perform battle or aid me in other tasks. You don't know how fast cleaning and cooking can be with these helping me"

Dante watched Bliss walk past him and thought to himself how his attempts were a success. It would not be long before his plan would be set in motion. Dante then realized the questions about his monster statement and began to speak once again.

"Yes, there has been reports of a monster attacking people while they travel. It is said to look like a massive bull with claws, razor sharp teeth and glowing red eyes. Most people would shake it off as an urban myth to attract tourists, but being a mage I know better. This is also another reason why I came here" Dante said and then moved to touch Bliss' shoulder as a sign of reassurance. "Don't worry, Ashley is safe for now, but just to be sure, we should hurry"

Dante then snapped his fingers and his summonings appeared before him, minus the minotaur and the butterflies. His shades and the Army of Hades kept rank and file in front of him. Dante snapped his fingers again and all the shades formed into a large, dark carriage while the Army of Hades and the Hungry Ghosts acted as steeds and pullers for the carriage. Dante resummoned his armor, returning to his true form while his armor wrapped around him in the form of shadow tentacles before the armor took shape. Dante himself stepped inside the carriage, his summons Efreet and Shiva stood waiting at his seat within, which had the interior of a large and long limousine. With all of them out at once, Dante's summons had no fighting ability and were technically useless in combat. However this didn't matter, they were to "serve and attend" not "battle as companions" Dante looked towards Bliss and the misfits and called out to them in his original, ancient voice.

"It is best to come in, this is the fastest and most comfortable way for all of us. Climb aboard if you want to get there" Dante called to them "Don't worry, there is full service here"

Shiva came towards Dante's ear and whispered so that no one could hear.

"Master, when does your plan begin?" Shiva asked in a hushed whisper, which Dante shook off with a chuckle

"Do not worry yourself Shiva, just serve these people at the best of your ability" Dante said, which was his way of saying "Soon, very soon..."

“A monster, you say?” Archibald paused and stroked his chin, as he often did when thinking, and spoke again, “If you believe that it is, in fact, a legitimate threat, I must insist that my friends and I accompany you.”

Archie looked to the rest of the Abnormals to confirm that they were all on the same page before stepping towards the strange, newly formed carriage. The mere formation of the carriage left Archie uneasy. He was took a deep breath before placing a paw on the outside of the carriage in order to test it, to reassure himself that it was real. He had been immersed in the worlds of magic ever since his transformation, but magic still never ceased to both amaze him and fill him with terror. He was a man of science, and magic went against everything he had been taught his whole life. Magic was something that just didn’t fit into his perfect world of real, solid, scientific fact. Magic was the opposite of all that.

Archie took a step into the dark carriage, surprised that it didn’t shift under his weight like most cars would, and equally surprised by the inside. It didn’t look like a carriage at all, instead it looked more like a modern limo. Magic was truly an amazing thing. Dante sat in the back with servants on either side, and they looked as if they had just finished a hurried and hushed discussion. Archie had no idea where the servants came from but it didn’t really matter right now. “Interesting mode of transportation.” Archie eyed the three curiously, hoping they wouldn’t be able to tell just how uncomfortable the whole situation was.