Demagogue Claudine Vega and Two Fisted Exorcist Barry Vredenberg stacked the door of Dr Piter Ataturk's apartment in the Upper East Side. He was the one who summoned the demon that possessed Nico Ambrosio's daughter Art, which was why the mob had helped find the Doctor's apartment and sent greaseballs Troy Gottardi and Slow Eddie as muscle. They also had the demon, imprisoned in a manakin borrowed from the aging videomancers of George Gets Fired.
Claudine knocked on the door while everyone else stayed out of sight. The Doctor opened it. He was tall, bald and had a sunken torso. She said she had something of his. The demon swore at him from its plastic prison. The mobsters freaked out and ran away from the talking manakin. Dr Ataturk was excited to see a new demon containment system and invited the Pioneers to bring it inside.
Dr Ataturk was eager to learn about demons and Claudine agreed to trade information. She learned that he summoned the demon for some friends and didn't know that it had been used to possess a mobster's daughter. He gave her a draft of his latest paper on the burned books of Rebbe Nachman, an enigmatic pair of lost tomes. The connection to demonology was not immediately clear. The manakin swore at him and revealed that Dr Ataturk was working with the sleepers. He got annoyed and tossed a pair of underwear over its head, quieting the spirit. He could summon them and silence them and put them in host bodies but the exorcism technique with the clothing shop dummy was a new one.
Someone shot a gun in the hall outside. The Pioneers were worried but Piter wasn't. Barry looked outside and saw Slow Eddie curled up on the ground like a spider in a growing halo of blood. A guy who looked like a cross between Larry David and Aliester Crowley brandished a pair of black powder revolvers. Don't worry, said the Doctor, that's just Gravis. It's all under control, he shouted, and went out into the hall. Gravis shot him too. Barry slammed the door and the demon laughed, no longer silenced. It told Claudine to run out into the hall and stand still. She took the clothing holding the demon and hung it above the door so it would fall on Gravis if he broke it down. They went out the fire escape with Barry hauling the manakin, which he carefully handed down to Claudine on the street ten feet below.
They called Lobsternado and let the chef who picked up know that they were working on tracking down the culprit in the demon possession plot. They didn't say one of Nico Ambrosio's guys got gunned down. It wasn't the type of thing you said over the phone. They walked back to the car and a swarm of crows gathered. The birds were not happy the Pioneers were working with the mob. They heckled them with two word phrases.
Bad men!
Olive oil!
Garlic breath!
Hurt birds!
Barry gave one a shiny bolt from his toolbox. The corvid picked it up, hopped over to a storm drain and dropped the offering inside. The Pioneers walked faster. The crows swooped overhead. Again, closer. They pecked Claudine and clawed Barry. They ran for the exorcist's work truck and got inside before the birds ate them alive. They drove away and had to stop at the next block, allowing the birds to keep pace. The next block was the same. The crows perched on the moving vehicle and tried to get inside. Claudine talked to them and tried to convince them it was all part of the plan, they weren't with the mob. A trashbag man like the one she'd seen the day before stepped out of the alley and tried to open the door while they were trapped at a red light. Another in a raincoat stepped in front of the car. Barry got mad. He got out of the vehicle and hit the ragpicker obstructing his path with a chin jab. The raincoat fell to the ground empty and a swarm of crows flew out of the trash bag beneath, exorcised. A cop car passed them, headed toward the sound of the shooting.
The Pioneers needed info on Gravis the Sleeper, who they surmised had cleaned up Dr Ataturk to protect the operation from discovery but come slightly too late. They needed to figure out where this guy lived and what he was up to. They could wait until tomorrow and hit up the videomancers in the park again, but they decided to try another number. Yitzhak Yadon the diamond merchant owed Claudine a favor. He practiced an obscure form of shame based magick but was ignorant of the underworld and relied on her to take him to fun places where he could see people cast spells. She called up his shop and one of his sons answered. After some kibitzing they got dad on the line and Yadon agreed to meet them in Bryant Park for lunch.
Barry put his work truck (covered in birdshit) in a car elevator while Claudine met Yadon in the park outside the big Carnegie Library. The diamond seller wore a homberg just a little bit too wide at the brim, making him look more like an anime character than a Hasidic Jew. He played it cool and pretended not to notice the shiksa who sidled up to him and explained the supernatural mystery, but he was really excited. She told him about Gravis the Sleeper hunting mages. Yadon told her that if this guy had a reputation, there was to find him maybe something he could do. But he'd need more juice. Goyisch women were immodest by nature, but he apologized for this next part anyway as he unbuttoned his pants.
Their walk took them in front of the carousel, full of children and parents and food vendors. Yadon tripped over thin air and accidentally yanked Claudine's top down, exposing her tits while his own cock flopped out of his black trousers. She wasn't expecting this but she played her role expertly and ran for the public restroom rather than button up in front of everyone. It was all part of the plan, not because she was embarrassed.
Barry walked away from the car elevator when the alarm in his truck went off. He turned around and saw that the window was broken. Someone apparently climbed up the gantries and smashed it to loot the vehicle. He spotted the perpetrator walking away through the crowd. A full head taller than everyone else, wearing a wop top under a sun hat and jacket and carrying a manakin. Barry shouted and the thief turned, excited to be recognized. He stood on his toes and put the clothing shop dummy on the second story cornice of the brownstone in front of him, so nobody could snatch what he'd rightfully stolen. He pulled a rapier from his belt, still in its scabbard, and held it above his head as he waded through the crowd toward the ghost punching pipefitter.
Stella Hurtwater, Culteurgic duplicate of Stavros, cornered the Demagogue in the public bathroom. She was tall enough to look over the stall door. She told Claudine she had been sent to kill her, but just stabbing her for a sig charge was boring. And if she wasn't going to just kill her she could think of a more fun way to spend an hour than a brawl she would inevitably win. Claudine asked what she had in mind and Stella stuck her tongue between her index and middle fingers. The Pioneer was conflicted. She didn't trust Stella not to kill her anyway and she didn't want to prostitute herself to a Sleeper. On the other hand, Stella was hot. Claudine's sojourns to the clubs and bars of the Village were not entirely a cynical ploy to build her power base. Even better, an hourlong sexual encounter would give the Demagogue ample time to work her magic and convert the Sleeper to her cause, assuming her tongue wasn't otherwise occupied. Either way, she asked Stella to let her out of the restroom as a show of good faith. The giant Culteurge reached over the stall door, unlocked it and then stepped aside.
Barry disappeared into the crowd and hid in the entryway of a building. He tried to snatch the sheathed rapier from Stavros. He flubbed the attempt but the Culteurge offered it to him anyway. It wasn't an epee or a foil or a smallsword, it was a real sharpened fighting sword. He had his own on his belt and they were going to fight. The crowd parted when they saw the naked blades, unsure if this was a real fight or a street performance.
Barry thrust at the muscle mage and almost died instantly when his clumsy parry turned Stavros' blade toward his eye. Stavros' rapier slid through the handguard of Barry's blade and the pipefitter was duly disarmed. Stavros quickly realized that the skill disparity would make this a short fight if they used weapons, and while he could just get a sig from killing Barry in a physical fight it would be boring. Barry agreed to disarm if Stavros did, and they both dropped their swords on three.
Barry lunged for Stavros' legs, thinking the giant's legs would be his weak spot. Stavros kneed him in the face. Barry tanked another hammer blow and noticed the Culteurge had an erection. He was an experienced martial artist and had run into this phenomena before, but this time felt different. The blue collar pipefitter interpreted his opponent's hardon as a sincere expression of predatory interest and freaked the fuck out. They wrestled and he caught his opponent in a blood choke. The Culteurge broke free with a savage elbow to Barry's ribs and the fight continued.
Stella and Claudine watched from across the street. Yadon stumbled into Claudine and spilled ice cream all over the Demagogue. He made a groveling apology and tried to clean her up, and in doing so stuffed a piece of wax paper in her pocket. Claudine made sure the killer amazon was distracted by her clone-brother's fight with Barry and opened the folded page.
EMPIRE STATE BUILDING 51ST FLOOR
Something small fell out of the folded paper. Yadon swore in Hebrew and knelt to pick up the itty bitty diamond inadvertently inserted into the note. He found a promising pebble, rose to examine it and inadvertently tripped a passerby. Claudine admired his act. He knew fuck all about the rest of the underworld but within his own magickal tradition the man was an artist.
Stella yelled insults at Stavros. They were supposed to be robbing and killing these people, this wasn't a damn exhibition match. Stavros yelled back. He didn't see her killing Claudine. He left Barry bleeding on the ground and crossed the busy street to argue with his clone-sister, slamming his hand on a car hood and denting it when the driver honked at him. The clone Culteurges argued, then began headbutting one another to establish their authority. Claudine slipped away and joined Barry, who gave her a boost so she could retrieve the manakin. They fled the scene before the muscle wizards could catch up.
The Pioneers woke up in Claudine's rent controlled apartment to someone banging on the door. Claudine peered through the peephole. A short woman in a trenchcoat held up a badge: Detective Alejandra Matachin, Library Cop. She demanded entry on suspicion that the Pioneers were flushing book related evidence taken from the home of Dr Piter Ataturk, rare book enthusiast, who had certain materials from the library system in his possession which were now missing. The Pioneers pled innocence of any murder and the Detective angrily rebuked them. She wasn't a murder police. She wasn't going to dirty them because she didn't give a fuck about a homicide charge. She was here for the books. We didn't take any books, said Barry, only an unpublished academic paper of the Doctor's own writing. So you removed evidence from the scene? Give it here, said the Detective. The Pioneers removed the binder clip and shoved the pages under the door one at a time. Detective Matachin lit a match on the door and smoked while she waited. Claudine got upset and the Detective asked her how it felt to have someone blatantly violate the sanctity of something important to her. Maybe next time her gang of perverts would think twice before pissing all over New York Public Library property.
The Pioneers took the tube back to the park and picked up Barry's vehicle from the elevator. They had to pay for the full night but at least it hadn't been impounded. It would be important for their next trick. They drove down to the Empire State Building and parked illegally in the load/unload area, like a maintenance worker would when there was an emergency and they needed to get stuff out of their work truck fast. They went in through the tenant entrance and told the concierge they needed to get up to the fifty first floor to fix a plumbing emergency. With their hi vis and tools they made a convincing argument, but the building management had strict instructions from the 51st floor tenant not to let anyone in. The concierge phoned the tenant and was surprised when they immediately gave permission for the Pioneers to go up. The cabal got the special elevator key and up they went.
The 51st floor had no interior walls except around the elevator and plumbing stacks. There were support beams with wood and brass fittings and a carpet so shiny and red and thick it looked like blood. There was a map pinned to a pillar, a bunch of tables and a freestanding door. A power cable snaked from the central stack to the door. The old World's Fair tourist map of the city was covered with darts, which were wrapped in cloth. One of the darts was stuck to the address of Art's apartment. Barry surmised it was a tracking system for the demons the Sleepers were using to terrorize the city's mages.
The Pioneers opened the door. It led to a flat plain of hard packed dust, lit red by an enormous giant star. Three sets of footprints led through the door to a building in the distance. Two large sets, almost identical, and a smaller set of tracks. The smart thing would have been to close the door and either get backup or just destroy it, trapping the Sleepers inside. The Pioneers weren't interested in wasting time or begging for more help. They used PPE from Barry's duffel to improvise hot weather clothing and went through.
It was almost a half hour walk to the hacienda in the distance. The red sun didn't move. Barry realized the giant star was tidally locked. Claudine felt bad. There was something missing. Something wrong.
The little palace had cacti in pots and a beautiful columned courtyard. The footprints in the dust led inside the great room. Someone yelled at them to stop wasting time and come inside. Claudine shouted back that he had not been respectful of their time up to this point and if he wanted a swift confrontation he shouldn't have made the Pioneers come to him. She realized then that her powers did not work in this realm. She couldn't feel the spark she usually got from arguing.
It was Gravis, clad in a black robe and sandals and sitting in a concrete carving of a chair with one pistol laid across his thigh. My powers don't work here, he said, but neither do yours. The Hurtwaters failed to assassinate you because they're easily distracted wo/manchildren but I don't care anymore. If you want to kill me then I'm going to die the way I lived, protecting the city from you people. He merely asked that the Pioneers not put his body in the cabinet with the other strange corpses lining the walls of the room. Claudine's powers didn't work but she argued with him, because if he was going to die the way he lived then so was she.
Stavros and Stella heckled Gravis from the second floor balcony of the great room. He had no standing to bitch them out for time wasting if he was going to do the same thing. Gravis turned to argue with them and Barry lunged for his pistol. The blue collar exorcist grabbed the gun. The elderly Warrior fired into the ceiling. Claudine joined the struggle and got the gun away from him. Stavros and Stella leaped from the balcony to join the fight. Claudine shot Gravis point blank and killed him, cutting right through his nonfunctional Warrior defenses in the antimagick realm. The Hurtwaters leaped forward with their swords. Stavros stabbed Barry in the hand with his rapier, who closed his fist and yanked the blade out of the Culteurge's hand. Stella laid into Claudine with her sabre. The Pioneers realized they weren't winning this fight. In the deterministic realm of the otherspace the guy with the higher skill, bigger damage number and more health would prevail in a battle of attrition.
The Pioneers turned and ran. The clone sibs pursued them across the desert. Despite their overall physical fitness the musclebound mages actually struggled with the pursuit and couldn't use their powers to compensate. Stella tossed her sabre and narrowly missed Claudine as she went through the door. Barry barricaded it after him and knelt to remove the restraining bolts on the floor, hoping to disassemble the doorframe and destroy the portal. The Hurtwaters kicked the door down in concert. The Pioneers ran for the fire escape. Claudine made it but Stavros tackled Barry and knocked him out. He carried him back into the 51st floor and laid him down on the table to confirm the kill Aztec style. Stella argued with him. It wasn't victory in a physical confrontation if you killed him while he was unconscious. So what, I should wait for him to wake up, asked Stavros?
Outside the red sun otherspace, Claudine's abilities worked again. She told the Hurtwaters to spare her friend. Without the Sleepers backing them up they had minimal social capital and no ability to organize anything important. With her backing them up they could hold a big fencing tournament, with a big enough audience to get another major charge if they won. We don't need another major, said Stella, we already got what we wanted. Did I get all the fun parts when we split, asked Stavros? Is there really nothing you can think of that you'd do with ultimate power? Stella thought about it, then demanded the Demagogue sweeten the pot. Claudine still owed her a beer.
So Barry avoided ritual exsanguination and Claudine got to end the night where the adventure began: a gay bar in the Bowery. The patrons of H'ist Dat Rag would not bat an eye at a six foot musclebound butch fondling a woman in public. If anything Stella would have the opposite problem. She wouldn't be able to keep the lesbians back with a sabre. Which, if the Culteurge reneged on the deal and decided to kill Claudine, would give her ample opportunity to slip away.
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