An Evening To Remember

Air in Louisiana almost turns from a gas to a solid after rain in the summer.  Donning black felt suffocating but at least the skirt Elaine wore gave her legs some air to breath.  Fixed under a small hat atop her pulled back hair, a veil draped down ever so slightly over her left eye.  Elaine felt at odds leaving her pistols behind, but substituted them out for a pair of delicate looking gloves with a minor adjustment to allow them to course electricity through them for short bursts.  Hiding her face from the crowd swarming the exclusive Claude Manor, Elaine pressed a stick mounted black mask over her eyes.  "Ame..."  Elaine spoke into a tiny microphone in her mask.  "Did you get it?"



"Security here really aren't covering their bases against magic."  Keeping in her regular corset and white skirt, Amethyst found an unlocked door with the help of her magic to help her get into the gala.  "Odd if this cult actually is working out of this place." 

Following up on the occurrence from Amethyst's childhood, Elaine and Ame tracked down a clue pointing to this very manor.  Where and how the thing would show up was beyond them, but the two girls successfully infiltrated the place, so they were one step closer to the grand prize.  While fleecing the room, they hoped to pick up on any semblance of occultist talk to slip in casual innuendo.  Working the room would take some time, and time slowly slipped further away. 

"You start take the floor right now..."  Pulling down the mask to prevent any feedback, Elaine began to explain her plan of keeping Ame on the floor to soften up the big wigs.  "...I'm going to check the staffing parts of the house.  Cults are known to spring up in places that employ large staffs."

"I can get in to locked doors though."  It was a legitimate power for this and Ame knew it.  "Maybe I should take the staffing areas."

"No, you'll need your strength for the upper rooms and the actual hiding place for the clues."  Tugging at a set of thieves tools built into her belt, Elaine gave Ame a sign of good faith in her own abilities.  "I can take care of this."

"If you say so."  Turning her back to Elaine, Ame started to move towards a server passing out drinks.  She slid the drink off and began looking for someone who looks interested in a conversation, but not excited by it.  A raven nosed man speaking with a woman who looked to be on a track for back problems given her sexualized posture and over emphasis on the man's anecdotes.  "Excuse me, but I can't seem to find a friend of mine."  Her face lit up under the glow of the chandelier lighting. 

"I'm sure a friend of yours must be a friend of mine..."  His silky hand took Ame by the palm and led her hand up to his lips for a kiss.  "And if nothing else, I'm sure I could replace your friend..."  He broke the kiss.  "For the evening at least."

Elaine maneuvered the crowd to the revolving door at the back of the ballroom.  Pushing her back against the door, Elaine spun into an empty serving room.  While the party seemed in full swing, only the main kitchen looked to be in operation.  No matter.  Given the solitude, Elaine began opening the drawers to dig through any pertinent information.  She tore through the cupboard, flipping through the dishes already placed with care.  Nothing. 

Out of frustration, Elaine let the door close without the gentle approach she gave the others.  With a hollow thud, the door echoed through the wood.  "Hollow?"  Like Ali Baba before her, Elaine knocked on the wood to try and reveal the the hiding place hidden within the cupboard.  Prying a board from the side, Elaine revealed a hidden compartment.  She peered inside, but nothing came to her attention.  She led the board slide back into place before placing her balled up fist against her hips.  With a deep breathe, she pulled her hands up to her chest and set her gaze downward.

She saw it then.  Red dust against the glove she pulled the board with.  Recognizing something important, Elaine began to try to unfasten the nail from the foundation.  She wanted to take this board and get an etching of whatever cryptic message lay hidden in its shadow.

Feeling more uncomfortable about her current disposition of the dapper man's imposition, Ame tried to find a way to excuse herself.  After a veiled exchange rounded her back into his words, more damp with innuendo than his aroma was of aftershave and overpriced alcohol, Ame broke her gaze to look upon the spectacle ushering into the ballroom.  Traipsing an entourage of near perfect humans, a woman with deep red hair stole the attention of all, but appeared to not want it-- or at least pretended not to.  

"My dear..."  The twang emanating from the man's charisma pulled Ame's attention like a hook pulling a pinned fish by the mouth.  "I feel the night grows too odd for my attention.  Perhaps we should go..."

"No."  Turning her head to see the woman leave towards the back Ame failed to even make eye contact with her suitor.  

Pressing a piece of paper to the loose board, Elaine began etching what images she could get.  Ancient markings and long lost texts eluded her, but she held hope for her partner to give it a once over without arising suspicions from any prying eyes.  Eyes not including the ones gazing upon her unfinished work.  "Trouble."  She spoke into the mask as she placed it on the carving table next to the board.  "Come here often?"  Fitting into disguise caused Elaine to be without her pistols, but she still knew a thing or two about using these gloves.  Outmatched, Elaine placed the etching in her bag and picked up the board.  She hoped to escape the room, but didn't know the layout well enough to know which way would result in her escaping.  

"On my way..."  Ame began to move with purpose towards the spare kitchen to back Elaine up.  Without any heads up for the trouble she could expect, Ame began to think it over.  Without any warning, she knew Elaine didn't want her to stay away, otherwise she would present that information.  She could not be hoping for her to enter from any other way than the one she saw Elaine take, because it would throw off the timing for her to find a new way.  Maybe all of this analyzation pulled her too far from the reality of the situation, but it came with the territory for Ame.  

Not heeding caution, Ame threw the door to the spare kitchen open and prepared for whatever Elena did to Elaine.

"I think we both know how this is going to end..."  Ambiguity over who Elaine actually sought to address seeped out into the kitchen.  Whether or not this board she found would lend any relevant clues now stood as the second most important thing in this predicament.  Thwarting Elena Marie from taking any advantages was the nail Elaine hoped to drive into the board.

"Was that directed to her..."  Confusion caused Ame to point towards Elena.  "...Because I really have no idea what you are planning?"

"Don't say things like that."  With only a few weeks of partner work, the two still found themselves at odds with planning.  "It ruins the feint."

"Don't say it was a feint.  That is worse than what I said."  The door closed as Ame finished her appeal.  Standing on opposite side of the room, flanked by menacing looking individuals, Elaine and Ame looked to put together an impromptu show of cunning. 

"We can put this thing back together when we are done..."  A single piece of wood snapped over Elaine's leg, granting her two blunt clubs to fight with.  "Even the score, Ame."

"Right..."  Before either Lucy or Ivan could lay a hand on Ame, she hoped to drop her flask of overwhelming stench.  She would run out of the area towards Elaine and Elena before the stench could truly set against her stomach, but Lucy and Ivan would need to step through the vial of vile bile. 

With the distraction making further involvement from the newcomers at the door more difficult, Elaine made a break for the door to shadow jump out into a side corridor to get out of the quickly cramping room.  The hall ran directly into the ballroom and carried all the noise and excitement from the event.  Not knowing if the Ame could secure an escape or not, Elaine turned and delivered a swift kick at the handle of the door,  knocking it ajar.  Without any attacks, Ame would have gotten herself just past Elena and almost to the door.  "Faster is better."  Elaine yelled with her back to the ballroom.

"One more thing..."  Binding light burst forth from Ame to try and restrain Elena from following them.  Ame hoped she could make it carry out these plans under the obscurity of not having her powers readily known by a superior opponent.  Whatever counters or immunities Elena could conjur would through a thorn in their plans, but escaping without incident stood atop their list right now.

A wrench flew into the cogs of their barely functioning plan.  Ame ran face firs into the light barrier; she turned back to face the less than amused group she just attacked.  Michael held a gun on her.  In no way would Ame be able to defend against such a threat.  Surrendering with her hands raised above her head, Ame waited for what would come next.  
"Can one of you get some ventilation going in this room?  The smell will only get worse..."

Before her plea could be acted upon, Elaine sprung to her aid.  While the barrier of light did a good job of keeping Ame stuck inside, it did a less than stellar job of keeping Elaine from shadow jumping in.  She threw one of her clubs to try to disarm the gun from Michael, while swinging her leg to try and catch Ivan in the chest.  Fighting in the smaller black dress felt much more different, but Elaine kept up with her regular combat flow.  

Needing to aid in the assault, Ame made her way away from the door, but could only go so far with he stench of her potion permeating the room.  "This could be trouble."

"Then cause a diversion."  Moving with the ebb and flow of combat came naturally to the limber Elaine, but Ame needed to get past her over planning.  Fiddling through her bag, Ame pulled out one of her plasma flasks, but could hardly bring herself to use it.  The sheer force of the explosion would probably burn Elaine and herself as well, and she could not throw it through the light barrier.  


"Put down the barrier..."  Ame held up her flask.  "Or, I'll set this off."  Holding her finger up to the edge of the mouth of the flask, Ame prepared to ignite the plasma.  She hoped her trick would work.

"Don't do that!"  Elaine shouted.  While lowering the barrier sounded good in theory, it would actually allow Lucy to return to the fight after Elaine outmaneuvered her by shadow jumping through the barrier.  She knew Ame was making a mistake, but could not say anything without tipping it off.  If she could just hold off a little while longer she would grab Ame and jump through the barrier again, but Elaine needed to make sure she didn't get swarmed by then.

Taking the pistol from Michael's hand and sending Ivan into the door felt like good enough reasons for Elaine to move with some confidence.  While Ame negotiated for something possibly outside of what could help the two of them escape, Elaine continued to move away from the nauseous gas still permeating in the room.  "Ame..."  All the confusion and chest pain assisted for communicating between the two.  "Catch." 

Even if Elena's people could fight together, Elaine still felt confident in her ability seeing what she did to Ivan and Michael.  Even with her confidence, she still needed to make sure both pieces of the cryptic board were separated.  Little did she know, one turned into a werewolf while the other possessed turned a broken piece of wood into a spirit weapon.  Ame caught a glimpse of the change in the situation just as the barrier went down.  "Elaine, trouble!"  Echoing the same call from before, Ame barely got the words off before Lucy came down on her. 

Ivan and Micheal both swung for Elaine.  Instead of standing and fighting the club wielder or the beast, she took a step to her left and shadow jumped towards the door.  Her closer proximity to the gas grew in intensity, causing her to stumble in her follow up attack to attempt to incapacitate one of the new comers.  Elaine lowered herself into a more defensive position, but lost a good deal of her momentum from the style of aggressive movements she built her style around.  Rubbing the lace lining of her gloves against each other, she triggered the electricity of her hidden weapons and prepared for her next assailant. 

With Lucy accosting her from behind, Ame felt her grip on the flask loosening.  Flicking her fingers into a spark, Ame lit the metal catalyst atop the glass to begin the change reaction.  A poorly placed toss flew towards the two men to keep them off of the stumbling Elaine.  Without the force of a major throw, the flask rolled on the ground towards the men.  In a few seconds the glass would erupt under the incredible pressure, but for a while it would spin around on the ground eliciting hues of blue and yellow energy in a dazzling display.  Much to her chagrin, Lucy still held the grab on Ame, keeping her pinned.

All this turmoil and bruised feelings for some etchings Elaine couldn't even make heads or tails of.  Fortunately, or possibly the polar opposite, Ame could.  After Lucy left her alone long enough to begin to take a look at the etchings sprawling across her half of the plank.  Arcane marks moved along a circular path with pylons acting as gateways in between as substations for large quantities of energies.  While she could garner the general outlook of the boards, it would take more time to understand the ritual-- and where the energy came from.

Not needing much explanation for where the energy came from, the flask erupted.  For the good of all within the kitchen, Ivan took the blunt of the shot heading towards Elaine's side.  With the distraction and devastation sure to allow an open blindside, Elaine shot through the fray with a shadow jump to attack Elena head on.  

With no standing between her and the impact, Amethyst crawled along the ground to try and pull herself up.  Not much of the heat blew past her, but the impact of the blast put her equilibrium into a moratorium.  She just needed a moment to catch her breath when she pried down to see the more vivid details of the etching.  They no longer bore then poor charcoal Elaine used, but now the writing took on a life and breadth of its own right.  Energy coursed and crawled through both and the board let lose a stream of energy to the board within Elaine's hand.  

Just before Elaine could land a terrible blow against Elena's head, the board shot out of her hand.  Without the weight of the board, Elaine felt her hand blow past Elena and impact against the light barrier she tried to get inside of.  Going from on top of the situation to the ground beside Elena, Elaine looked over to see what could have pulled her weapon away.  

Bracing together and pulsing with unstable energy, the marking on the board started to disappear from the naked eye.  To everyone but Amethyst that is.  While the markings faded from sight, they became more clear-- and permanent, within Amethyst's mind.  Every minor detail became a part of Ame's very mind, all of the information about the energy, except for the minor fact of what would come from enacting this ritual.

Forsaking the age of the architecture, the bearings of the floor gave way and all the occupants plummeted towards the basement.  Feeling her arms slip through into thin air as she tried to pick herself off the floor, Elaine fell harder than a young girl's self esteem after Mardi Gras.  Not far behind her, Amethyst landed with the grace of a brick on what felt like the hardest stone the eighteenth century could put together.  

Elaine tried to reach for her guns out of instinct, but could only get halfway to the disappointment of not having them before she gave up and let her head fall upon the stone.  Knowing the best chance of fighting now laid in staying alive long enough to get help, Amethyst began the parlay.  "How about we help each other..."  She lifted her hands in surrender, sitting up with her legs in front of her.  "You'll need me and her since the engraving kind of wound up in my head."

The ritual would require some memory, but the hardest part still would come when the gateway needed closing and someone would need to step through, but Amethyst decided keeping that part a secret would act as some hidden information.  Now she could unserstand why Imena kept it hidden.  Still a dirty move, but it got Amethyst to thinking, [i]Where is Imena[/], as she kept her hands up.

"The ritual is..."  Looking around the room to see only the charred remains of a deteriorating mansion occupied by a host of creatures with really no reason for being called from Oblivion, Amethyst settled on the words culminating around the gravity holding the situation in line.  "Odd."

Moving from her back and into an upright sitting station, Elaine looked around the room at the assortment of evil.  "Dumb..."  She pointed to Ivan.  "Possible homosexual.  Investigate later..."  She fingered over to Micheal before sauntering her hand down the line of suspects holding back from attacking the duo.  

"It will require me to access a means of linking this world, with a relay..."  Amethyst knelt down and began to make notes within the stone.  "Well, a relay of some power that I do not exactly..."  Choking on trepidation, Amethyst began to mutter out the last of her sentence.  "Comprehend."

"Is it a man made horror?"  Elaine stood up from her stance and sized up the room.  "Because Tesla said this would happen."

"Tesla?"  Didn't they know someone who knew him?

Oh yeah.

Moving along the top of the caved in kitchen, a figure draped in the surrounding darkness of the crevices of destruction gazed down into the pit.  

"I'm not sure just how stable this will be, and from what I hear the way to shut it is..."

"Oh my God, even I want to inflict harm on you now."  Hurrying the situation into a frantic haste, Elaine pushed the event to a dire event horizon.  

And horizoned the event did.  Not completely sure as to what she did, Amethyst stood back as the vortex began to form at her feet.  She skittered back, but not before her hat toppled into the growing portal.  "This could get rough..."