ic Hell's Strings[IC]

[Ari]

GM

 

The pianist awoke slowly, blinking confusedly up at Pitch for a few seconds before her eyes widened and she jerked away from her. Looking around frantically, she caught sight of the wrecked Infernal Instrument and stopped dead, following the chain to her hands. She looked up at the three others, a look of helplessness and loss in her face as she spoke at last, her voice much softer and gentler than it had been before. "I...I am sorry. But I have to see this out, I have to do what I said I would. I've failed everyone else" she added with a weak smile at Celeste, who was staring down at her in horror "an artist has to have standards right? I can't back down now, this is the only way I can be worthy again. The only way I can be loved"

 

"M-Mary," the older woman breathed, tears filling her eyes as she sank down to meet the pianist's gaze "I haven't stopped loving you, this is a mistake, please stop this!" she pointed at the demon "Reject that, free yourself and we'll work this out, please, listen to me! You're wonderful, you're amazing, just not perfect and that's fine! Nobody can be perfect, and tinkling the ivories was never the only thing I loved about you!"

 

Tearful as well, and the misery of before changed to fearful hope, Mary Venn looked imploringly up at Pitch and Riff "If...if I want to leave-free myself of the Instrument, how can I do it?"

[Supercape]

"That depends on you" answered Pitch, solidly. 

 

"And...it..." she finished, pointing at the infernal instrument. 

 

She brought up her hand and summoned the power of the infernal forge, a dimension of metal, fire, and smoke. With a flick of her wrist, and length of coiled, smoking and black metal chain flew to the demon and wrapped around it. 

 

"You have to relinquish your bond, your pact" she explained. 

 

"Hush not a word!" she said, fingers to her mouth before Mary spoke. 

 

"And so does that thing you played!" she explained emphatically. 

 

"Which means you better tell me all you know about it, because we need every lever and hold we have, to get it to agree..."

[Ari]

GM

 

Mary nodded hastily "Alright, okay." she said, getting unsteadily to her feet and awkwardly waving away Celeste when she tried to help, then turned to face the demon that was starting to shift and smoke. Evidently the feel of the chain was enough to awaken it.

 

"It can't lie unless you lie to the Instrument, it loves the souls of musicians more than anything else, and music can dull its mind including the music of the human voice." the young pianist rattled off quickly, checking the list on her fingers before nodding and squaring herself as the Hellbeast got ponderously back to its feet. The face examined the four mortals warily, then turned its attention to Mary "Shall we continue?" it asked warmly. The young woman gulped and responded with a form "No. I want to break this deal, it's not what I want anymore." The demon looked more disappointed than surprised.

 

"I trust you have something to offer. Those two others will have to be returned, and I must go back to Hell with something. Our Father does not allow those who bring back no food another chance" it said with a frozen sneer. Mary Venn glanced at the others, obviously fighting back panic. Souls were difficult to quantify or exchange at the best of times.

[Supercape]

Pitch paused, mind whirling. She had a natural instinct to distrust demons - an instinct that had served her very well. She would never trust them, not completely. And she had an ingrained hate for them - for screwing up her life so badly - that would never fade. Although in her more reflective moments, she wondered about how much of that hate was displaced from her father. 

 

"So, you have to bring back the good's do you?" she asked, brinstone of her own in her words - quite literally, as Tazel poured forth smoke and sulphur from her mouth. The little demon in her stomach was agitated. 

 

"Well, I don't fancy handing over any souls today. Or any day. And I'll face any demon who tries to take them..."

 

Pitch didn't know exactly what demon's where. She doubted sometimes that even demon's did. All she knew was they didn't belong in this world. 

 

"So you better take something else, or nothing, or bring your father here so he can collect them himself..."

[Ari]

GM

 

The demon stared at the humans in bafflement, eyes wide and mouth agape. After a few seconds it burst out laughing, a raucous sound like a saw hacking metal that echoed crazily into the rafters.

 

After the last whispers had faded from the air, the Instrument recovered itself and replied "Our Father of Noise and Havoc? Bestir Himself to oversee a bargain this small? Impossible!" seeing their faces it went on "I grant you, He might decide to take part in this matter if we came before the low seat and it amused Him, but that is hardly even to be considered! The way is perilous  and full of all sorts of dangers fit to overthrow the most virtuous soul. And you, Pitch" the monstrous face slid like oil across its body to glare at her "are hardly what even such a bedarkened fiend as I would term 'virtuous', any more than those two sinners" it flicked two wires at Celeste and Mary "or that material-minded savage" it finished with a furious look at Riff.

[Supercape]

Pitch seethed inside, a very visceral feeling, her rage connecting her to the plane of the infernal forge. She could almost smell the sulphur of that horrible domain. 

 

"Well, I ain't no good two shoes" she said, prodding the demon with Cantos cane, and twisting it, simmering smoke coming from the end. 

 

"But I don't buy your good and evil. I don't buy your sin, I don't buy your virtue. All I know is that you don't belong in this world. And you should keep the hell out!" she shouted, furiously. 

 

"If you are going to take this soul. If I can't stop you. Then I'm going to make you pay for it. I'm going to make it hurt. And I'm going to make sure I come for you" she screamed, smoke and tar and fire over her body. 

 

And with that, she brought the Cantos Cane down, with furious strength, on the chain that bound the demon and the pianist. 

[Ari]

GM

 

The sound of tearing metal as the link between the Infernal Instrument and Mary nearly drowned out their simultaneous shrieks of pain, the young woman falling onto her knees clutching at her well-dressed gut as the demon's face multiplied until it covered its entire body while flailing like a dying beetle. Celeste looked aghast "That is not what I would have suggested" she said carefully, quickly embracing the agonized younger woman and helping her to an intact chair, ignoring the demon's jumps and wails.

 

"What have you done?!" the Instrument howled after a few seconds of the racket "I can't return with no payment! I can't, they'll...they will..."

 

Very suddenly it realized that while it spoke, the floor beneath it was getting darker, until there was a circle of total blackness underneath its bizarre body. Terror seized it, but the circle seemed to keep it perfectly still, and fear made it mute. A new voice spoke, low and cold and placid. "Oh, my child" it said, a gnarled, stony claw reaching up from the circle, "You have done poorly. Perhaps your siblings will fare better". The fingers stood taller than Riff before they closed around the monstrous infernal piano, slowly dragging it into the darkness.

 

Its captive seemed galvanized into action, struggling frantically to escape as it yelled desperately "Humans! Please, have mercy on me! Don't let Him take me back! Don't let him eat me!"

 

And then it was gone, and the circle closed with a snap, and in their place staggered two young men also in formal dress, looking around in shock. Catching sight of Celeste and Mary one of them, dark-haired and with the beginnings of a beard yelled excitedly "Miss Beaudrie! We-we're back? How?" seeing the two superheroes he approached them unsteadily, wonder and surprise stamped on his young face "Did you do this? Beat up that crazy demon and that-" at a look from Celeste he cleared his throat and went on "-captive of his? If so, thank you! I'm Arnold Freebourne, this guy" he jerked a thumb over at the sandy-haired clean-shaven man behind him who looked deeply displeased with the situation "is Zachariah something-Jewish"

 

"Steinstahl, it's Austrian" snapped his companion.

 

"Yeah, Stencil, so is that demon guy gone? For good?" Arnold asked hopefully.

 

With a snort, the other young man turned on his heel and opened the front doors, vanishing under a sudden mass of policemen on the other side who fell on him like a tidal wave, emerging from it very angrily explaining himself to two very thoughtful officers against the wall. The main press of Freedom's Finest dodged around the little knot and quickly swept the auditorium, their captain marching up to Pitch and Riff, nodding shortly and saying "Anything you folks want to tell us? Maybe help explain just why the heck that patch of carpet" he gestured to where the demon had eaten away at the material world "is gone?"

 

[Darksider42]

Riff watched on as the demon was dragged back to hell, bereft of it's prize as it would no doubt meet it's end. The guitarist was getting close to feeling sorry, until he remembered that there were other victims of this demons influence and the fact it was apparently quiet evil. Those sorry feelings faded along with the smell of brimstone in the air.

 

"Looks like it man." Warren Said to Arnold as he looked at the burnt remains on the floor. "Quick thinking there." He said to pitch as he hung his guitar over his back.

 

"Demon-Like extradimentional entity was causing havoc in the theater and influencing the minds of others. We managed to kick it back to where it came from." Even with the strangeness of FCPD had to deal with, he did have doubts they would believe demons were involved.in this incident.

Edited October 5, 2013 by Darksider42

[Supercape]

Pitch kept quiet initially, smoking with that nasty odour of sulphur, a haze that gently flowed from her body. 

 

I don't know what rules forged those chains, but I'm going to break every last one of them...she etched onto her brain. 

 

Like the rules that enslave me? asked the demon grumbling in her belly. A question Pitch was not inclined to answer, but knew it itched. 

 

She gripped the Cantos Cane firmly and took a deep breath, exhaling the smoke and flame of Tazel. She did not, she realised, look exactly reassuring when one was discussing the infernal. 

 

"I guess you could charge them for stealing some carpet" she joked, trying to make light of the situation. "But I doubt they would be interested in a return" she explained, shrugging her shoulders. 

 

"Portal, and case, closed" she finished. Although in her head, there was far more to understand of the mysterious history here...

[Ari]

GM

There was a meaningful pause after the two explained what had gone down in the theatre.

"Well, I'll take your word for it" said the captain, lifting his hat to rub his forehead wearily "if Mz. Beaudrie doesn't make any complaints I won't hold the damages against you." He smiled "Not that we would otherwise, thanks to you both. Could have been ugly."

 

Marching over to the opera house's patron, still silently embracing Mary with her head on the younger woman's shoulder, the captain knelt down and said quietly "' Scuse me? Celeste Beaudrie? I'm FCPD Captain Matthews, I need to take your statement about what happened here and-"

 

"What happened?" Celeste disentangled herself from the pianist's arms and got unsteadily to her feet, glaring at the captain furiously as she crossed her arms and began "I'll tell you what happened young man! A mighty struggle for the soul of an innocent! A titanic battle where strangers took it upon themselves to rescue my Mary" she fondly lifted the shaking girl up and supported her on her arm "for no reason other than it was right! I saw-"

 

"I don't doubt it Mz." Matthews cut in, visibly nervous "but if we could start at the beginning-"

 

"I saw a clash between otherworldly evil and human kindness, captain, and kindness won! I saw..."

 

Celeste went on like that for a while, but she slipped in enough chronological notes for the captain get an accurate picture, forgave Pitch and Riff entirely for the "Slight discoloration of the carpet" and saw them out, thanking them profusely as the just-arrived reporters from the smaller papers and news shows surged up the steps to meet them, begging for a chance to hear what had gone on inside. Around the Opera House for almost a block a cluster of Freedonians(many of whom had been their audience!) raised a hearty cheer, praising the duo to the skies for their quick action!

 

---

 

Meanwhile...

 

The last shreds of the Infernal Instrument spattered to the ground. Lord Raucous, the Father of Noise and Havoc, sat in the Hellish mire that coated the surround landscape of spires and skewed houses. Even in the demon-city of Dis there was filth, but that didn't bother the beasts of corruption. His clanging, rustling thoughts were far above, where the humans lived with their bright souls surrounded by the wracking songs of Heaven, and one soul he had glimpsed that was darker, with a demon's voice so close to it...

 

"I shall return" he said, and with a screech of claws on iron he unfurled his wings and dove into the abyss; he would gather strength, and watch, and wait.

 

THE END