Shock plus Awe PT1

Posted on Sun Nov 20th, 2022 @ 8:11pm by Jaclyn Morrison & Unawakened Kai Irving & Head Mistress Absynthe "Syn" Drake & Private Mattias Tonelly

Mission: Tales of the Unawakened
Location: 1-25, Wyoming

Previously:

“Let's go.” Jac knew that her things had not been unpacked and she was pretty sure Kai’s had not either, as they had been given clothes by the church.

“They never gave you back your things right?” she chose to confirm though.

“No, they left it in the van.” Kai replied “your puppy is outside.”

Jac nodded and they headed for the backdoor, slipping out into the dark in silence. Within minutes they were moving through the chaos, Artemis wrapped tightly in Jac’s arms as the pair made it to where the Church had left Jaclyn’s van.

Jaclyn was not surprised at the fact it was unlocked and her keys were laying on the driver's seat. She had managed to pull the wool over their eyes with the help of the doctor so she and Kai climbed aboard without this time being stopped.

Jaclyn started the van while Kai closed the doors and sat with Artemis in the passenger seat.

Jaclyn put the van in gear and headed for the main gates. “Seatbelt.” She reminded Kai as they drove out of the compound in the chaos. She didn’t care what happened to those in that dumb church, she hoped whoever it was attacking them, that they took them all out.

20 minutes after they had left the compound, she turned south onto I-25. It was a risk she knew to head south but she needed to keep them moving and they could always double back.

And Now:

They had not gotten far on the 1-25, before the van started to slow. Jaclyn managed to get it to the side of the road and put it into park. She and Kai exchanged looks. “Not good. Get back into the back of the Van with Artemis Kai.”

The younger girl nodded and did so. The puppy followed and they both sat huddled at the back of the Van.

Jaclyn locked the doors and slid from the driver seat and kept an eye out the window. It was too dark to walk anywhere for help, but she was also not about to just accept that this was not someone’s plan.

After a few minutes and no cars slowing or stopping, Jac slid out the passenger side door to check the van over. She left the keys with Kai and heard the doors lock as she shut the door. Slowly, she moved around the van, running her hands over the panels gently.

A chilling wind swept across the road, stirring up a small dust devil which teased its way along, vanishing rapidly into the growing darkness, leaving a swirl of fallen detritus in its wake. The soft shuffling sound of its small interference with the world that had spawned it, was like that of a room full of whispered voices.

Search as she may, Jac found no obvious reason for the van having stalled. Before long another sound joined the soft blowing of the wind, this one more mechanical, more terrifying. Small pinpoints of light were coming up the road from behind them, the night carrying the boom of voices shouting out as they searched the night for their quarry.

Jac cursed and went back to the van door. She rapped three times and it unlocked and she scrambled inside. She locked the door and Kai passed her the keys. Jac tried to start the car again. To no avail.

“Get down on the floor of the van” Jac said as she scrambled back to join her. The two girls pressed themselves to the floor and held the puppy between them even as there was the sound of tires on gravel outside the van.

"And behold! Our wandering sheep, trying to escape the slaughter!" The Reverend's booming voice rang clear in the night. "Bring them to heel, boys!"

Each of the doors started to rattle and shake as the Reverend's goons tried to open the van doors.

Jaclyn pushed Kai and Artemis under the bunk and pushed herself to her feet. She was so done, so over this whole thing. She lunged for the steering wheel and laid onto the horn to startle the men back as the noise pierced their ears.

The assault on the van seemed to stop as quickly as it started. Then, suddenly, the driver's window was smashed by something resembling a baseball bat. Almost immediately after, a pair of strong hands grabbed Jaclyn and hauled her out of the vehicle, tossing her to the ground.

A second set of hands roughly grabbed at her again, forcing her arms behind her back painfully as they were bound together. Once that was done, her feet were forced up and she was hogtied.

Despite her being tied, Jaclyn began cursing them all, calling them all names and trying to keep them from getting to Kai. Some of the names she called the reverend were really colourful.

Another swirling wind played across the violent scene, kicking up dust that blew into the faces of the men that were assaulting the young woman, causing some of them to shield their faces as they waited for the battering of the sudden winds to die down. Blue sparks seemed to glitter in the whirlwind, the air becoming static, causing every hair on every man to stand on end.

The men looked to the Reverend, their leader in all things, to get his take on the situation.

Standing among his men, the Reverend merely sneered as he grunted. "Fucking Mutation! Show yourself! Or are you as cowardly as the Satan spawn you are??"

“You are the only coward!” Jaclyn didn’t know what was going on but if he was distracted, Kai would be safe.

The whirlwind shifted only slightly on its oddly directed path, suddenly sending tendrils of static shocks out at the men surrounding the van, the glittering column of dust and air reaching into the clear night sky. Before long, little jolts of electricity began dancing ominously at the top of the miniature cyclone.

"Thou shalt not strike fear in me, Satan!! The Almighty Father is on my side! None shall escape His sight and judgement!!"

As one of the Reverend's men started to turn and run, the Reverend pulled out the Colt .45 that was hidden in his back holster and shot the retreating man cleanly in the back of his head. "All unbelievers will burn in the fires of HELL!! Only His true children will ascend to paradise!!"

Jaclyn cringed as he waved the gun around. The man was a lunatic.

After the rest of his men corrected their thinking and fell back into line, the Reverend told them to get the girl from the van, and if that mutt was still in there, to shoot it. He then stepped closer to Jaclyn and kicked her in the ribs as he snarled down at her. "You filthy little bitch! I took you into my house when no one wanted you! Gave you food, work, a bed and this is how you repay my generosity?!"

He knelt down and put the barrel of the pistol against the side of her head. "You are not worthy of His love! You will burn with all of the other sinners, for all time!" He started to squeeze the trigger.

The ominous crackling of electricity intensified as the sinister reverend began abusing the seemingly helpless young woman on the ground in front of him. Then a bright flash seemed to set the entire column ablaze with lighting that swirled rapidly down the previously sparkling column of air and dust, shooting lighting out as it descended, blasting the group of menacing men ten feet, all of them twitching as electricity coursed through their bodies.

When the odd lighting touched Jaclyn, her body arched, the flow of the electrical arc tattooing burns that gleamed with that same odd blue energy. Another arc shot from her and coursed over the entirety of the van. The metal creaked and groaned, the body of the vehicle twisting, as though it was attempting to stand up.

The Reverend was slowly dying, he could feel his body starting to burn. As his last effort to thwart the Devil and his spawn, he activated the deadman's switch. He smiled when he knew that he had won. "Y-you…you…won't get…th-their…souls!!"

Jaclyn however was too busy screaming in pain, her head thrown back, to pay attention to him or what was happening around her and even as the ties burned away on her limbs, she was bent back, eyes wide screaming.

By the time the van had made its strange transformation, it stood on two legs, towering behind Jaclyn. Two guns that glowed dimly were attached where hands should have been. Inside the cockpit style chest sat Kai, her eyes wide, terrified, clutching the dog to her for dear life.

The energy being spent on the strange transformation on the van then shifted, returning to Jaclyn, the ropes burning, releasing her from the literal bondage of the reverend and his minions. She rose into the air, electricity coursing over her, through her, drawing her upright, hovering three feet off of the ground, her strange new gaze on the downed reverend, her left eye an ominous, glowing blue. The evenly patterned burns still pulsed with that same blue glow, and half of her wildly blowing hair had gone so shock white that it could be seen in the darkness all on its own.

Jaclyn, stared down at the Reverend and emotions rolled through her as she stared at him. She knew if he survived he would simply continue on his path..She raised a hand and found it swirling with electricity. She then slowly aimed her hand towards the Reverend.

Suddenly a woman dropped from the sky, landing between Jaclyn and the downed reverend, her landing creating a thundering boom, asphalt cracking, throwing a thick cloud of dirt into the air. The feminine figure that was clad in black, skin-tight leather that resembled scales, the lines of a dragon etched in gold, red reptilian eyes gazing from the golden-lined dragon eyes on her headgear.

After a moment of silence, the woman’s head tilted curiously to the side as she regarded Jaclyn, her back to the reverend, as though he was of no real concern. “I am Wyrmwood. I am here to help. I’d prefer it if you didn’t kill him. At least until I’ve verified that the kill switch has been nullified,” the woman spoke, her voice serious, but kind. “And even then, I would prefer to turn him over to some friends to deal with, rather than stain your hands with his blood.”

“His crimes are too evil,” Jaclyn replied. “He tortures, brainwashes and enslaves. And he deserves to join his so-called Lord.”

“We know. We got word. That’s why we’re here. And the only thing awaiting this man is demons. Trust me,” Wyrmwood said, and a sense of calm seemed to wash over Jaclyn. A small smile touched the lips of the dragon-esque mask as the man behind her began writhing and squirming in terror on the ground. “My friends specialise in dealing with his type, and the aftermath of the suffering they cause. Let me help you and your friends,” she said, nodding towards the strange van-turned-mech behind her.

Jaclyn turned and stared in shock before falling the distance to the ground, as she stared at what was behind her. “What the...!” She landed with a thump on her butt. “Ow!”

----------
TBC
----------