The General of Smoke

1

The Lonesome October was partially full. It was Story Night. Three, or four, regular story tellers looked ready to try their hand at telling their latest creations to the audience. Some would earn groans, but some would earn a small spatter of applause.

Cal Callum saw it as a means to make the Lonesome unique so people came back. And they did over and over. He smiled when he saw his customers enjoying their dinners and drinks.

He had hired a good crew of people and they were making the Lonesome the place to be, even on Story Night.

"I told Mike to get the lantern guy's usual ready for him," Ridley Harris, the night bartender said as he handed a customer a glass of beer.

"Good." Cal smiled. "Looks like this is going to be an okay night for stories. K.C. is back. I wonder if we'll get another cheerleader versus animate furniture story."

"Did she do something with her hair?" The assistant wiped his hands on a rag he kept in his apron.

"I don't know." Cal squinted as he tried to figure out the difference in his customer. "I don't think I have seen her smile before now."

"That's true." The other man nodded in agreement. "Oh, no. Gertrude is lining up first."

Cal groaned. He couldn't just boot her before her time was up. Gertrude liked to tell stories about sweet little kittens having adventures in her garden of fun. The use of cutesy dialogue and descriptions made most of Cal's customers groan.

"I'm glad I can hide in the back." The bartender made for the kitchen door.

"If you leave me out here alone, you're leaving the Lonesome for good." Cal put on his serious face. "I'm not listening to Bootsy Wootsy by myself."

"But, Boss, I have diabetes." The bartender shrugged. "Fine. My injector is in my pocket in case I fall over."

The two sat through three stories of varying likability. Gertrude's kittens were the worst as far as they were concerned. The other two were ghost stories from other parts of the world. They were gruesome and just the answer to Gertrude's fluff.

K.C. took the stage last.

Cal glanced at the clock. They would be closing down in minutes. People were already leaving to get ready for work for the next day. That was the problem with holding Story Night on a Wednesday.

"Hi, guys." K.C. adjusted the mike on its stand so she could talk into it without having to bend over. "I'd like to tell you a story about my heroine, Kyra Lake, and how she stopped the invasion of demon furniture with the help of a gray monk."

Someone choked in the audience. Cal couldn't make out who had made the sound.

"It all started at cheerleader practice . . .

Kyra Lake went through the routine on automatic. She knew all of it by heart, and doing it gave her time to think about her real problem. How was she going to stop the demon invasion?

Fighting them day in and day out was exhausting. She needed a break from having to track the monsters down and dealing with them. Her parrot was a big help, but they were being pushed back. They would lose the city eventually if they didn't turn the war around.

She needed someone who could help her find the source of the things and deal with them.

Anyone facing the demons was keeping it as secret as she was. How did you find someone like that?

Maybe she should advertise on Craig's List and see what she got in reply.

She smiled at the thought that demon hunters advertised.

Maybe they did. She put that idea aside to listen to their coach. She could research the idea after practice. This was one of the nights her parents were engaged with their jobs, and she had the house to herself.

She could put aside her patrol for the few hours it would take to see if there was something on the Internet.

If she could find such a person, maybe he would help her find the source of the demons and put an end to it. Even a little advice would be welcome at this point.

If she cut the invasion off, it would save so many lives after all the struggling she had done so far. Reacting to the brains and brutes didn't save anything since they killed people before she could stop them. She couldn't bring back the dead no matter how much she wanted that.

And all they wanted was to murder and spread misery before they were stopped.

"What you doing after practice, Kyra?," Allison Krause asked. She was bigger than the other girls, played softball in the spring. She tended to squint her brown eyes when looking at something.

"Homework." Kyra smiled. "I have to get an A in Chemistry, no matter what. What are you doing?"

"We were going to hang out." Allison pointed at a knot of other girls. "Lydia got her license and a car."

"That's great." Kyra paused. "I thought she was still in the doghouse over that thing last week."

"I don't know." Allison squinted at the group. "Do you think she's still grounded?"

"I don't know." Kyra smiled. "Go have fun. You guys deserve it. As soon as I'm done, I'll come down to the mall to look for you, or whatever."

"That's cool." Allison smiled. She undid the scrunchies holding her brown hair out of her face. "I don't know why you're so worried. Everybody thinks you know everything."

"I don't." Kyra placed her pom-poms in her bag. "That's why I have to study like crazy so I can get in a school my parents will like, and I can get a scholarship so they don't have to pay that much."

"I'm in the same boat." Allison nodded. "I'm hoping to get a softball scholarship to pay some of my tuition."

"You can do it." Kyra zipped her bag up. "I'll see you when I get done, or tomorrow."

"Don't study too hard." Allison picked up her bag. "Your brain will melt."

"Thanks." Kyra picked up her own bag. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"That's a lot, Ky." Allison walked over to the group of girls. She shook her head at some question. When she looked over her shoulder, Kyra Lake had vanished as silently as a ghost.

Kyra walked along the bleachers toward the western edge of the school. She had to get home if she wanted to get her research done in a reasonable amount of time. She still had time before her parakeet would show himself. Until then, she would have to do the best she could on foot.

If she could find an expert to help her, she might be able to give up her dangerous double life and be a normal student again.

She could try to be normal for the first time in a long time. It would be a good reward for all the years she had fought the animating forces arrayed against her.

She might be able to hang out with her friends without worrying that the time off was getting someone killed.

Balancing her life was a juggling act she could do without after doing it so long.

She cut across a yard adjacent to the school and then the neighborhood beyond. She didn't have a car, but she had learned how to cross terrain in a straight line to get to where she was going faster than using sidewalks and paths.

Climbing fences and dealing with dogs was just as easy as staying to the main road for her now.

She supposed that was the benefit of chasing monsters all over the city.

She reached her house minutes later. She dropped her bag in her room before cleaning up and changing clothes. She put a frozen dinner in the microwave as she waited for her desktop to boot up.

If she could find an expert, she had to be ready to persuade him to help. A refusal would put her back where she started.

And if he was useless, then she would be spending her time protecting him, or her, instead of solving her problem.

She had to be right the first time.

2

Kyra made it home without incident. She had become an expert in getting around the neighborhood without being seen. It helped in her nocturnal pursuit of her enemy.

She decided to search online for anyone who might be able to help her. There had to be stories she could follow up on that would point her in the right direction. After that, she would look at classified lists for someone advertising their services.

She couldn't be the only one trying to stop this menace in the world. There had to be others who saw what she did and had the ability to fight back. She couldn't be alone.

If she couldn't find anyone who would help, what was her next move? She needed to be ready to start looking for more of the beasts if it came down to taking them alone.

She had already dealt with a number of the things. She had fought brains that infiltrated places and tried to build up a nest for more of them to arrive. Brutes were the opposite and attacked anything that got in their way.

Both killed humans that got in their way.

Kyra dumped her bag next to her closet, glad to have the house to herself while she conducted her search. Her parents wouldn't understand what she was doing. They would want her to let the demons win instead of letting her do what had to be done.

She had tried to reveal her double life to them. She had wiped their memory so they would stop trying to keep her from her job.

She regretted having to do that, but she felt it was better than letting them get killed trying to get in the way, or sacrificing strangers for her safety.

They had taught her better than that despite not wanting her to risk her life.

Kyra turned her desktop on. She let it power up while she showered and changed into jeans and a sweatshirt. She called on Google to give her something she could use. She needed a way to track the things to their source and someone who could help her eliminate the threat to the city.

She decided to ask for any urban legend about moving furniture. Maybe there was something there that she had overlooked. Then she could expand the search.

Google gave her several stories she could track down in her free time. She saw an image of a man in gray exploding something with his hand. He frowned at the effort the image displayed.

She searched the image with her eyes. She spotted a smashed chair in the background. This might be the man she was looking to recruit for her private war.

The man was bald, looked between fifty and sixty. The gray was a long coat buttoned over gray pants. He looked like a monk from an old movie. She doubted any order had gray for their clothing.

She checked the link that went with the picture. It told her that something had been haunting a family south of the city. Someone had known someone who had asked the chaplain Mark O'Toole to look into things.

She made a note of the names mentioned in the article. She smiled. Maybe Mister O'Toole could help her with her problem.

She had nothing to lose by asking. First she had to find him. The article was years old. And it didn't give an address for O'Toole she could go to ask him if he could help her. That meant asking people what they knew and then wiping their memories after she was done.

Getting civilians involved in her little war simply meant getting them killed when they tried to stand up to the demons. The picture suggested that O'Toole had stood up and lived to tell the tale.

If she could find him, maybe he knew something she didn't. Anything was better than waiting for a new incursion and more deaths.

And if he didn't know anything, maybe he could point her to other allies she could use.

There had to be someone out there willing to help her fight the demons.

The first place she should start was the place where the photo was taken. She could work her way from there. Someone had to know where O'Toole was. It just meant finding that person first. Then she could use that to get to the guy.

Kyra made her notes before going to her window. She looked outside. She didn't see her parrot. That meant starting without the ability to change into her other form. She grimaced. The parrot would show. She just had to do something until it did.

At least she had a few hours before her parents came home and asked questions about why she wasn't home when they got there.

She started reviewing excuses as she headed out the front door. She found it better than trying to come up with something on the fly. That way led to a memory wipe.

She didn't like using the wipe. It created gaps that needed to be filled in. It was better to have a real reason for something than a command to forget the problem.

She wasn't sure the wipe didn't create some kind of dementia when used on someone more than once.

She didn't want to push her parents into premature Alzheimer's because of hiding her secret life from them.

Kyra headed through the neighborhood until she found a bus stop. She could use that to get to the other side of the city to the address she had written down. The rest would require a small amount of detective work and smooth talking.

She doubted that anyone would want a stranger to dig into what had occurred in the photo. It would be treating the family as freaks because one weird thing happened.

She didn't think the events in the photo was the family's fault. A brain probably haunted them instead of killing them on the first day of the infiltration. The rest of the story was what had led to it being vaporized.

O'Toole must have some kind of ability to banish the demons. Even if he knew nothing, learning that ability would help her own problems.

She couldn't expect her parakeet to defend her from the demon things more than usual. Giving her weapons and armor, helping her clean up after battles, was the most she expected from the beast. She certainly didn't want it in direct combat where it could be killed and take her powers with it.

If it died, what happened to her?

She boarded the bus and took a window seat. She watched the street flow by as the bus took her in the direction she wanted to go.

She saw her stop and pushed the bell. The bus rolled to a stop with a hiss and clank. She stood up and got off through the side door. She checked her bearings before she started looking for the house number.

She started walking, looking at addresses on mailboxes. She paused when she reached the address listed in the story. She looked at the oncoming night. Did she want to do this right now? She decided to walk up the three concrete porch steps, hand on railing, and cross the concrete porch. She knocked on the door after a moment of checking for a bell.

The worse they could do was deny something had happened in their house. She could live with that outcome if that was all she gained from the talk.

A dumpy woman opened the door. She wore a sleeveless shirt and cutoffs. Small eyes peered from the folds in her face. Gray hair formed a mushroom cap on her head.

"Yes?" Her expression conveyed the fact that strangers knocking on her door at night was something she didn't like.

"My name is Kyra Lake." Kyra decided to go with the truth. She had nothing to gain with a lie. "I'm looking for a man named O'Toole."

"Brother Mark?" The woman opened the door wider. "Come in. We'll talk."

"Thank you." Kyra entered the house, examining the photos on the walls and the shelves of bric-a-brac. "I'm sorry about this. The article I found didn't list a place I could find Brother Mark."

"It wouldn't." The lady walked to the kitchen. She pulled a cup from the drainboard by her sink. She started coffee boiling in a glass coffee pot. "Brother Mark likes to move around. He doesn't like to stay in one place."

"How did you find him in the first place?" Kyra didn't know if she should sit down, or stand.

"The Church found him and asked him to help us with our problem." The woman watched the dripping liquid. "He was our last resort."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Kyra crossed her arms.

The woman nodded.

3

"It started when we moved in. At first it was small things. Footsteps walked around when we were all in bed. Things appeared in the windows. The water turned to blood for a moment while I was getting ready to shower.

"Then something started after the animals. I came home and found my prize poodle lying dead. It was like she was scared to death. The cats ran off instead of hanging around for their handout.

"Finally something clawed and bit my eldest son, Paul. We took him to the hospital. The doctors couldn't figure out what had caused the wounds. His arms and legs were bad, and some of the bites needed stitches.

"It looked like we were going to have to move out. You can't let your children get mauled by an invisible bear trap.

"Luke ran into his old priest somehow. I forget now. He came home and told me about Brother Mark. It came down to trusting some rumored ghostbuster, or leaving our house behind. We literally had nothing to lose and the house would have been sold at a loss in any case.

"So Luke's priest found Brother Mark for us. He started pushing the bad emotions out with a steady chant. The ghost attacked then so he couldn't finish the chant. Brother Mark battled with it for a bit. Then he said some words and the ghost blew up.

"Everything settled down. We haven't had a problem since, and things seem to be going better now than before we needed to call Brother Mark in the first place.

"If you need to get in touch with Brother Mark, Luke told me he usually helps out the soup kitchen down next to the East Horizon Plaza. I don't know how long he stays there, but you might be able to find him if you hurry."

Kyra stood. It was a different type of thing than the ones she needed to deal with permanently. The similarity to a brain didn't escape her notice. The thing bothered the family until it felt strong enough to attack.

She wondered if Brother Mark could deal with her spirits as well. She needed to ask him. If he said no, she would try to find someone else who could help her.

"Thanks for the help." Kyra went to the door. She checked her watch. She had a small amount of time to look for O'Toole before she had to be home to deal with her parents.

She didn't think they would understand that she needed someone who could deal with the spirits better than she could. She had mastered the chopping, the leaping, the martial art involved in fighting animated furniture. These skills were kept hidden from her parents so they didn't think anything was strange about their little girl.

Kyra jogged toward the Plaza. She needed a license so she could drive wherever she needed to go. Running across the city was a pain and a half.

She reached the plaza with little time for a search. She started by walking around the open area, looking at the soup kitchen for a clue that someone was inside the building. The lights were off, so it had closed earlier than she expected.

She paused when she spotted the gray cassock from the picture moving away from the Plaza. She rushed to catch up.

"Brother Mark?" She waved her hand to attract his attention.

He turned. The face wore deeper lines, the eyes burning from deeper sockets. He had a hangdog air as he looked at this intruder in his life.

It was the same man. That was the most important part as far as she was concerned. She sensed something inside of him. Maybe this was the one person who could get her out the war she had stumbled into.

Maybe he would believe her without needing convincing. She knew from experience that people who hadn't dealt with what she had tended to brush things off as bad weather, swamp gas, and airplanes.

No one wanted to admit something got into furniture and killing people they knew.

She wanted to avoid that with the gray monk as far as she could. A small test should be enough to get in his good graces without causing him to think of her as the enemy.

She couldn't think of anything except revealing her secret. She didn't see how she could get around that. He would have to know at least a small part of what was going on if she wanted him to help her.

"I need some help." Kyra decided to try to be as honest as possible now. She couldn't take the risk that he would brush her off. "I need an exorcist."

"I decided to stop doing that." Brother Mark crossed his hands in front of him. "Some of the people I was trying to help died. Maybe you should get someone else."

"I have an emergency." Kyra tried to keep her voice calm. "I need someone who can help me figure out the source of things so I can stop it. You're the only one I found that seems to have a clue about how to stop the things I'm dealing with."

"What kind of things?" O'Toole's eyes glittered in their sockets. Despite his claim, he looked ready to leap into battle once more.

"They infiltrate furniture and use that to kill people." Kyra looked at her watch. "I have to get home and deal with my parents. They don't know anything about this, and I don't want them to."

"Why not?" O'Toole frowned. "They should know something."

"No." Kyra shook her head. "It would just get them killed. It's better that they don't know anything, and they stay out of the way."

"I don't see how I can be much help." O'Toole made a gesture with his hand that could mean anything. "You have a problem that I know nothing about, a desire to keep your parents out of the process of fixing the problem, and a wild story."

"I know it sounds weird, but I tried to explain things to my parents before." Kyra had hoped it would make her double life easier. She had wound up deleting the memory. "It caused too many problems."

"So what do you want to do?" O'Toole put his hands behind his back as he glared at her.

"I would like to meet with you somewhere so I can lay everything out for you without having to rush home to deal with my parents. Once you see my problem, I hope you can help me solve it in some permanent way." Kyra checked her watch again. "Would four o'clock tomorrow be okay?"

"We'll meet here then." The man in gray turned. "I will be looking forward to your explanation."

"Thank you." Kyra smiled. "I really do need the help."

"Everyone needs help at one time, or the other." O'Toole glided away. His cassock resembled fog flowing in the early evening.

Kyra turned to trace her way back home. She might still have time to beat her parents if she hurried. She should have waited until she had a clear day, but she couldn't wait. The smoke things might decide to cause trouble while she waited for a good time to talk to the gray monk.

She had an opening. She had to follow it until the chance closed. Waiting until the next day might be too long, but she had to weigh the chance of a random death against stopping the demons for good.

If she could find their source and stop them there, she might not have to deal with them again. The city would be safe. She could go back to living a normal life, with normal problems.

She might even be able to get a normal night's sleep instead of the nap she had to endure at the moment.

Hopefully Brother Mark would come through for her so she could settle things once and for all.

4

Kyra returned to the spot on time. She had ducked her parents and the other cheerleaders with excuses. Then she had crossed the city as fast as possible. Chasing demons had built her knowledge of the city to such an extent that she knew where all the shortcuts were for people on foot.

Brother Mark appeared. He wore his gray cassock and serious demeanor like armor. You didn't ask for a favor from him unless you really needed it.

"Let's sit down on the bench." He indicated a bench set aside for people shopping in the nearby stores that wanted to take a break. "Then you can tell me your problem."

"All right." Kyra followed him to the bench. She didn't have a lot to lose by telling this man her problems. Maybe he would give her the illusion of control she needed.

They settled on the bench. Brother Mark gripped a rosary in his hand. He ran his fingers along the beads as he waved for her to speak.

"I have been fighting this invasion for a long time." Kyra gestured with her hands as she talked. "They mostly possess furniture and kill people with surprise attacks. I try to stop them before they can spread around and make things bad for more than a few people. What I need is a way to trail them back to where they come from and put an end to it."

"And you think I might have a way to do that." Brother Mark looked at his rosary in his hand. "Why?"

"Someone showed me a video of you in action." Kyra wasn't going to reveal the name of the woman. That wasn't her job. "I hoped that you could stop one for me so I can question it and find out what is really going on."

"That's a lot of hope." Brother Mark looked up. "What makes you think I can do any of that?"

"If you can't, I'll look for someone else to help me." She shrugged. "They keep coming. Sooner, or later, there will be so many of them I won't be able to stop it."

"Do you have an idea where one of these things might be?" Brother Mark put his rosary away.

"Not really." Kyra spread her arms. "I banish them as soon as I can hunt them down."

"I'll need a fresh one so I can try to translate what I know into a path for you to follow." Brother Mark waved his hands at their surroundings. "I can't just magic up a trail."

"I don't have a way to locate one of these demons fast." Kyra frowned at him. "Usually I can see their influence and track that until I find them."

"Let's do that then." Brother Mark nodded. "Where do you want to start?"

"I'll need a high place in the city so I can look around for their aura. If I see one, I should be able to locate it like normal." Kyra looked up at the sky. "Then I guess I can chase after it."

"Show me how that works." Brother Mark stood. "That way I might be able to help you."

"All right." Kyra stood. She put her hands in her pockets. "There's a place I like to use late at night after I am done with my patrol."

"Do you have any problem going there now?" Brother Mark put his hands behind his back. "We could capture one before midnight if we hurry."

"I don't think I can." Kyra looked at the sky. "I usually can't use my power until after dark."

"That will be in a few hours." Brother Mark frowned at the calculation. "We can go there and get ready to work at least."

"Do you have a car?" Kyra gestured at the empty places around them. "I don't have one."

"I think I can borrow the church's car." Brother Mark sighed. "I will be right back."

Kyra watched him walk away. She checked her watch. She was going to have to call home soon and explain why she was so late. She didn't like the thought of that. And she didn't have any power until her parakeet showed up to sing her armor around her.

Maybe the bird would show up when she needed it to get started. Brother Mark acted like he wanted evidence for him to believe. She couldn't do that without her armor.

She had to press on and hope she could provide a viable suspect for him. He probably thought she was crazy and needed to be put down.

How many others had she tried to enlist only to have to wipe their memories later? Some people weren't ready for the type of war she was fighting in the shadows. It meant living under a cover of ignorance for most of your life.

One bad move and the demons would come to take your life. They didn't like anyone that could oppose them.

Brother Mark rolled into view behind the wheel of a used station wagon. It looked like primer and wire were the only things holding it together. Smoke drifted from the tailpipe as it lurched to a stop in front of Kyra.

"Is this a car?" Kyra gestured to include the whole thing between her hands. "The church couldn't afford better than this?"

"No." Brother Mark scowled at her. "Get in. I want to be where we have to be before it breaks down."

"I guess that makes sense." Kyra pulled the passenger door open with some effort. She climbed in the passenger side of the car. "I use Titan Tower as my lookout point."

"That makes a lot of sense." Brother Mark sent the car lurching from the curb. "How long have you fought this war with demons?"

"A while." Kyra looked out the window. "It just keeps getting worse."

"In what way?" Brother Mark kept his eyes on the road as he tried to keep the car rolling in a straight line.

"No matter how many I chase down, they just keep coming." Kyra didn't try to keep the weariness out of her voice. "I have had to erase people from memories after these attacks so the survivors wouldn't suffer because their refrigerator decided to kill them. And it gets harder and harder to justify things to myself."

"I see." Brother Mark drove the bucking car toward the tower. It banged a cloud of smoke behind them as they turned on the street with the Tower reaching for the sky. He pulled into a lot provided for guests.

They got out and walked toward the bar on the steps. It was already locked down for the night.

"Usually I can open the gate after nightfall." Kyra looked around for her bird. "Then I climb up to the top to look around."

"Why nightfall?" Brother Mark hopped over the bar. He walked up to the gate and examined the lock.

"Because that's when they are operating mostly, so as their counter, that's the only time I can operate." Kyra shrugged. "The bird made the rules."

"Bird?" Brother Mark shot her a look. "What bird?"

A parakeet dropped down from above them. It sang its song. Kyra stepped into the music. It changed her clothes into the white top and rainbow skirt she wore as her other self. She was taller, stronger, tougher in this form.

She still almost got killed battling her enemies despite her power.

"Young lady?" Brother Mark raised his hand. Light started playing over the palm.

"It's me, Brother Mark." Kyra smiled. "I told you I fight the bad guys. This is what I fight as when I do. Let me get the gate, and we'll go up."

"Go ahead." He stepped out of the way.

Kyra hopped over the bar on the steps. She touched the lock on the gate. It opened and rolled forward out of the way. She started up the staircase, frowning at the lack of images that she usually saw when she climbed up the metal steps.

Brother Mark glided after her. He looked out of the open spaces to the city below. Everything seemed normal to him as he moved toward the top of the tower.

"I like to walk around on the observation deck to see as much of the city as I can." Kyra pointed upwards with a gloved hand. "Usually if one of the things is in the city, you can tell it by the blot it leaves."

"What kind of blot?" Brother Mark paused to catch his breath as he leaned against the railing.

"There's a black spot on the city." Kyra shrugged. "You can see it against the rest of the city."

"And that's how you know one of these demons are possessing furniture?" Brother Mark struggled up after her.

"Some of them like to dig in and hide." Kyra paused on the observation deck. "I call them brains because they like to summon troops where they are and build up until they can crush a normal force in a few minutes."

"And you have fought them?" Brother Mark paused on the observation deck to catch his breath again.

"If it gets bigger than I can handle on my own, I try to separate them and kill them individually before they get so big a nest I can't deal with the infestation." Kyra frowned. "I can't see anything in the daytime."

"The sun will go down in a few minutes." Brother Mark smiled slightly as his heart slowed down. His breathing sounded better in his own ears. "Then you can show me one of these demons."

"All right." Kyra shook her head. "I can show you where one of the demons might be hiding. We'll still have to dig it out if we want to do anything about it."

"I'm prepared to help dig one of these spirits out so we can talk to it." Brother Mark nodded. "We need information if we want to find your source."

"They only give threats." Kyra went to the rail. "I don't think I have ever heard them do more than scream at me."

"That is why you wanted an expert." Brother Mark smiled. "Trust me. I have talked with all matter of things before I put them back where they belong."

"I hope you're right about that." Kyra paused. "Okay, the sun is going down."

She smiled as the familiar lines of the city caught fire below. Small spirits became visible as they floated around the tower. A giant hand held up the docks so they wouldn't fall into the river. She scanned the scene for a trace of her enemy.

"Okay, there's one." She pointed at a black spot in the net.

5

Brother Mark drove them to the edge of the blacked out area. He raised his hand. Glowing letters danced in the air. He frowned at the display. Something was close by, something the church would want him to deal with as their champion.

"What's going on with that?" Kyra pointed at the floating letters. She still wore her ridiculous outfit.

"Something unclean is close by." Brother Mark stopped the car. "Stay here while I look around."

"No chance." Kyra shook her head. "Stopped cars are death traps. I go where you go until we figure out how to solve my problem."

"All right." Brother Mark got out of the car. "I suppose that will be safer than leaving you here on your own."

"All right." Kyra got out of the car. Her parakeet rode her shoulder. It chirped as she scanned the area.

Brother Mark turned on his side of the car. The flare from his hand formed into a circle of letters revolving around his hand as he tried to home in on the source of the signal.

The parakeet chirped. It fluttered to a bush in front of a dark house. It chirped again.

"Let's see what's around that house." Kyra pointed at the brick thing hunching on the end of its sidewalk. "That might be where your problem is."

Brother Mark said nothing. He walked toward the house, the fire from his hand spinning up as he closed in on the steps leading up to the door. He frowned at the dark front, before looking at the other houses around the suspect place. He firmed his face into something like determination. He knocked on the wooden door with his normal hand.

"What's the problem?" Kyra pulled her sword from its resting place next to reality.

"This is the only dark place on the block." Brother Mark held up a hand so she wouldn't speak. He listened at the door. He knocked again to the same indifference that replied to his first knock. "I don't hear anything moving. I'm going to open the door. Stay behind me until we figure this out."

"All right." Kyra stepped back to give him room. "Anything jumps at us, and I will slice it into a million pieces."

Brother Mark nodded. He felt the same way, but didn't want to state the obvious.

He grabbed the knob with his glowing hand. The locks unlocked with a set of clicks. He pushed the door open, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the only light being his glowing hand. He stepped inside the house, looking left and right for anything that didn't like people like him.

Kyra waited for him to clear the door before she entered. She didn't like the darkness. It felt unnatural. She held her sword ready to defend herself from any attack.

Brother Mark headed toward the center of the house. The pale light of his hand revealed pieces of rooms and furniture so he could get around without stumbling over anything.

"Brother Mark." Kyra kept her voice down. She had dealt with this kind of scene enough to know the hidden dangers that could be lurking around. "Come here for a minute."

O'Toole turned and joined her. He followed where her sword's point indicated. He frowned at the ripped apart corpse of some kind of dog. He couldn't tell what kind from the mutilation.

"That's bad." He raised his hand.

"No kidding, Sherlock." Kyra shook her head in the light. "We need to search this house and see if the killer is still here so we can deal with it."

"It's here." Brother Mark waved his hand around. The blue letters lit the air. A hat rack with a television on the central pole for a head moved in the light. It came right at the gray monk with fingers made of silverware.

Brother Mark stepped out of the way. He swung with his glowing hand. He hit with a spilling of glowing letters in the air. The thing kept going with part of the television broken away.

Kyra raised her sword. She didn't want to get too close if the thing kept going after Brother Mark. He seemed to be able to take care of himself. If it came after her, she planned to chop it to pieces before it got too close.

The thing swung at her with a wooden arm as it righted itself from the glowing punch. She stepped under the wild swing. Her sword cut it in two with a backhand motion. She reversed the swing and sliced the parts in half, then she knocked the pieces apart with her body.

She stepped back as smoke boiled up from the wrecked hat rack. She pulled one of her feathers to get rid of it. That would wipe the smirk off its face.

O'Toole grabbed the core of the smoke with his glowing hand. The thing screamed as the letters touched it with little sparks of light. He shook his captive to get its attention.

"I want you to answer my questions." Brother Mark squeezed with his glowing hand. "I will send you home when I get done with you."

"Never." The smoke had to push the words out around his hand. "I will never betray my brothers."

"Who are your brothers?" Brother Mark let the flame from his hand burn a little brighter. "Why are they doing these random attacks?"

"I will never tell." The fragment of a monster growled after the statement to show how tough it was.

"Then we don't need you." The letters spilling from the fire around the gray monk's hand sped up. Kyra heard chanting in the air. It sounded familiar but she couldn't place it. "Goodbye."

"Wait!" The smoke looked scared of what was coming. "The King finally has enough to cross over and take over this world. Let me go. I will make sure he won't kill you with the rest of the humans."

"Where is this king?" O'Toole let the flame dampen down as he considered the words. "Where can we talk to him?"

"You don't talk to the King." The smoke laughed. "He talks to those who interest him when he calls them to his presence. You don't see him until then."

"So we can only see him when he thinks the time is right?" Brother Mark frowned. More letters wrapped around the fragment. "You tell the King that I am coming to destroy him and all of his army. You tell him if he wants to live, he'll go home. Otherwise, he will be hurt."

"I can't tell him that." The monster's eyes were wider than its face. "He'll expel me."

"He'll listen to you." O'Toole smiled. "After all, you're my emissary now. You have been defeated and bound by your name. That means you have to do this one task for me. Tell your King I am coming. Tell him to mass all of his people to try to stop me."

"All right, but he is the General of Slow Death." The smoke hissed. "It will be a dishonorable end for me. I hope he tortures you for a long time."

"I hope he kills you quick." Brother Mark opened his hand. "That is the only mercy you deserve."

The smoke drifted through the ceiling. Letters dripped from it as it flew away from the house. Brother Mark nodded as he headed for the front door.

"What just happened?" Kyra jogged after him, putting her sword away so she didn't cut things by mistake.

"I put our enemy under a geas." Brother Mark walked to the car at the curb. "He has no choice but to try to see this General of Slow Death. That means he is leading us to this central area."

"That means we can deal with a bunch of them and possibly stop these attacks." Kyra smiled. "That means I won't have to fight anymore."

"You still might have to fight." Brother Mark got behind the wheel and started the engine. "You just won't have to fight any of these smoke demons that we kill trying to kill the King."

"That's good enough for me." Kyra jumped in the passenger seat after letting her parakeet perch on the chair.

"If we can break his power, it might stop these attacks." Brother Mark looked up at the sky as well as he could through the side windows. "Let's see where our stool pigeon takes us."

"Thanks for the help." Kyra watched for the floating indicator from her side of the car. "I couldn't even get one of the little goons to talk to me."

"You have to know how to threaten the unnatural before they will give you their secrets." O'Toole smiled as he drove through the city. "Sometimes what you are dealing with are not smart enough to be threatened. Then you have to move to disposing of them."

"That part I have down pat." Kyra smiled. "I've exorcized dozens of the monsters."

"This will be your chance to exorcize whatever the King has in attendance." Brother Mark pointed at the trail of letters falling to the ground to their left. "It looks like he's headed for the Gordie junkyard."

"Of course he would be heading there." Kyra tried to estimate the numbers of monsters waiting for them. "There must be thousands of things they can possess and use for bodies."

"They can probably build some major things if they had time to practice with the junk in the park." Brother Mark drove down a side street to keep the smoke in sight. "That's where he's headed. This could be bad for us."

"You can stay out here if you want." Kyra frowned. "Someone has to try to rally some kind of defense against these things."

"I think you're the one that needs to rally the defense." Brother Mark pulled over next to the gate keeping people from walking, or driving, into the yard. "I am the only one from the church who can do anything at this point."

"Then we go in and see what we can do." Kyra glanced at the parakeet. It whistled slightly at her regard.

"We're the only ones who can." Brother Mark got out of the car. "Let's go in. They probably already know we're here if they can see the marking I put on their fellow."

The monk grabbed the lock holding the gate closed. It opened in his glowing hand. He pushed the gate out of the way so they could enter. Letters danced around his hand as he led the way inside the grounds.

Kyra pulled her sword as she tried to keep an eye on all the piles of junk around them.

This might not have been as good an idea as she first thought she conceded as she made sure to keep O'Toole on her free hand side. She didn't want to stab him by accident.

Crackling and groaning surrounded them as the junk moved on its own accord. Fairy lights indicated eyes as they paused.

"Who challenges the General of Slow Death and Long Torture?" The voice surrounded them with a grinding malice.

"We do." Brother Mark held up his burning hand.

6

Kyra didn't like the moniker of their enemy. General was good and could mean anything. The slow death and long torture were what bothered her. Only villains went with a label like that.

"What is this about?" Kyra leveled her sword, ready to slice up any of the possessed metal in the junkyard. If she could get the general to start talking instead of trying to kill them, maybe she could think of something they could turn to their advantage.

"Expression of ourselves." The General shifted on his seat. "We want to write our will on this material world. You have held us down for too long. Tonight we will fight on the other end and finally earn the right that we have sought for so long."

"That you go back to where you came from?" Kyra turned in a circle to look at all of the shifting metal around her. "This world doesn't need more trouble from the likes of you. It has enough problems."

"What was here does not concern us," said the General. His voice was rivets clicking together in rhythm. "What will be here when we are done is all that matters."

"You're not doing anything to my planet." Kyra glared at the metal constructs. "This is my place to defend. This is my place to hold against monsters like you."

"I think you are too confident in your own abilities." The General stood on legs of steel and brass. He looked down on the pair of defenders with eyes made of lamps. "You will cease to exist if you oppose us."

"We oppose you," said O'Toole. "We oppose everything like you. If you want to take this planet, then take it from us if you dare."

"You will suffer." The General gestured with a metal hand. "Take them to the door. We will make use of them to power our forces."

"Take this." Kyra sliced through the nearest golem with her sword. She slammed the pieces away from her as she leaped at the General. Once he was down, the others might break and run.

They might also rally and try harder to kill her and O'Toole before she could deal with them all.

That was a risk she would have to live with if she wanted to get home and return to her regular life.

A giant hand batted her away. She hit the ground in a dusty roll before coming to a stop next to a stack of flattened cars. She tried to collect her wits after the hit she had just taken.

She couldn't remember a time she had been hit so hard she couldn't move after the impact.

She brushed the grit out of her eyes as she tried to stand up. She had to stop these things before they made things worse for her city. They had already hurt so many. It wasn't right for them to continue to cause pain to normal humans who just wanted to mind their own business and stay of harm's way.

Two of the smaller metal demons grabbed her and picked her up. They trotted with her to a shifting metal circle. Inside the circle was a changing floor of orange and purple. They threw her over the border of the ring. She fell inside the artifact and kept going.

Kyra looked around her as she fell. She didn't see land anywhere. This was definitely a flier's paradise. How did she get back to her reality?

Was O'Toole all right? She shouldn't have included him in her private war. He had abilities, but what good was that going to do against magic robots? If he got clear, he should just keep running to get away from the demons before they conquered the whole Earth.

She pushed thoughts of him from her mind. She had to get herself out of the mess she was in. Then she had to deal with the General and his minions. Worrying about the gray monk had to be the last thing on her priority list.

If he couldn't take care of himself, it was already too late from the way the demons were acting.

She tried to spin herself in the gummy atmosphere. She saw a hole in the sky above her. There was no way she could get back up that way. She couldn't fly under her own power. And was she supposed to fall for eternity without seeing anything else of value.

A form exited the hole in the sky. It started falling toward her. She grimaced as she realized that O'Toole had not been able to get away from the General.

How did she save both of them from their long fall to the bottom of the well?

Her parakeet dropped in the hole after them. He swooped down to catch up to them like a miniature falcon. He sang a few notes and the sky took on lines that became solid masses for them to aim for so they could think of a way to get out of the parallel reality.

Kyra reached out as the small island floated away from her. She summoned her sword from lines tracing in the air. She used the point to catch the end of the island. She jerked to a stop and hung from the blade for a moment.

She reached out for O'Toole to catch him. She missed the grab for his hand. The island drifted on some weird current in the air and it floated away from the monk. She strained to grab his coat as he passed.

The parakeet sang again. The island extended toward O'Toole, reaching for him with a rounded end growing from the rest in a heap of lines writing themselves on the air. He grabbed the edge with his fingers before he drifted away. He hung there, catching his breath.

Kyra pulled herself up to a standing position on the island. She yanked her sword out of the false ground before she walked over to where her companion struggled to pull himself up from his precarious position.

"Grab my hand," said Kyra. She extended her arm so he could grab her hand. "I'll pull you up."

He heaved himself up and reached out. He grabbed her hand in a grip of death. She pulled as he tried to throw more of his weight on the floating land. He got to his feet after getting most of his body on solid ground.

"Looks like we're in a mess." He looked up at the hole far above them and falling behind every second. "How do we get out of this problem?"

"I don't know." Kyra shook her head. "I was hoping you had some idea we could use."

"Fresh out." O'Toole looked around. "Maybe we can use whatever created this island out of thin air."

"I think we can do that." Kyra gestured at her parakeet gliding through the air above them. "I think we can do something to change direction so we're heading back up to the entrance."

"Excellent," said O'Toole. "How does he do that?"

"I don't know," said Kyra. "We need something that will lift this thing up there. We need something like a balloon."

The parakeet sang some of its song. A line resembling a Google pointer came to life and attached itself to the island. The balloon lifted the island toward the entrance.

"Do you have a plan?" O'Toole watched the hole in the orange sky grow closer.

"We have to take out the General." Kyra swung her sword in the air. "Once we do that, then the others should flee or be easy pickings in a straight fight."

"Do you think it will be that easy?" O'Toole shook his head. "I think we will have to fight the whole army to make them come back here."

"We have to do whatever we can," said Kyra. "There's no telling how many innocents they will kill to get their way."

"So we try to take out the General and then we'll see what his fellow demons do to stop us." O'Toole rubbed his hands together. They caught fire in the strange atmosphere.

"It's either that, or we let them kill however many people they feel like killing until they are done." Kyra swung the sword in a circle on her left side. "We can't let them win."

"Let's see what happens if we can force some of them back here." O'Toole nodded as the hole in the sky came within arm's reach. "Let's do that."

He leaped through the gate. He stepped away from the hole. His hands ignited something out of view.

Kyra jumped through the hole. She landed on the other side of the gap. She stabbed two of the golems from behind. She sliced them to pieces as she pushed them out of her way. The parakeet landed on her shoulder as she stepped away from the ring.

She turned and cut through the ring. The hole to the other place closed like a door slamming shut.

Let's see what happens now.

7

"You weren't supposed to do that." O'Toole glared at Kyra. "We wanted to get rid of them, not keep them here with us."

"We don't want them going home." Kyra sliced through one of the possessed metal structures. "They'll just keep coming back."

"Now we're in a battle we can't win." The gray monk punched one of the living statues. It went down as some of the writing and flame around the exorcist's fist wrapped around it and drove it away from the other animated statues.

"We can win." Kyra ducked a punch that would have knocked her head off. "We just need an area where they can't surround us."

"I don't see anything like that." He paused to look around the battlefield. The rows of junk kept him from leaving. That didn't mean he wouldn't as soon as he could.

"Then we have to make a space." Kyra sliced the bottom of a pile of junk. It fell down to her right side. She smiled as the demons froze at the sudden half-wall surrounding one side of where they were fighting.

"Can you do that again?" O'Toole stuck glowing fingers into the eyes of one of the metal monsters. Blue lightning collapsed the pile of mobile steel into a heap at his feet.

"I don't see why not." Kyra leapt over grasping hands to strike at another pile next to the one she had already pushed over. The crushed cars tilted, then fell on top of the crowd of golems.

She blocked an attack with her sword as she tried to survey her handiwork. She had a small wall that formed an L between her and O'Toole, and the living statues. It helped them, but not enough to win the fight.

They needed some advantage that could take the monsters down as a mass.

The General brought his hand down on top of the fighters. They hit the ground as the weight crushed them down. He closed his hand, scooping them up with some dirt from the junkyard's ground. He lifted them up in the air.

"This fight is over." He closed his hand. That kept the two humans from resisting him as they were crushed by the metal fingers. "I told you. You will suffer until I have no more use for you."

The demons looked at the cut circle. They fitted the two pieces together, but they couldn't join the metal around the slice. They chittered to their leader about the problem.

"Take some blood." The General held his prisoners close enough for the small demons to touch his captives. "That should help join the circle again."

The metal men pulled a piece of skin from Kyra's leg. They captured some of the blood in their metal appendages. They wrapped the skin around the circle's thin shaft and dripped blood on the flesh.

The circle spun to life. The orange and purple other place swam into view as Kyra watched. She tried to get leverage to swing her sword. One cut might free them if she could deliver it.

The hand placed them in the circle. It opened and they were falling in that other space again. Things gathered around them this time. Green pinpoints denoted eyes for the creatures. The swarm circled their visitors silently.

"This can't be good." Kyra swung her sword around her. "It looks like we need another way out of here with these things ready for us."

"The door is closed anyway." O'Toole gestured where the hole used to be in the sky. "I'm open to suggestions on what we can do about this."

"I don't know." Kyra frowned at the growing crowd of monsters. "Can they hurt us without bodies?"

"I don't know." The gray monk raised a hand. The blue aura ate at the orange air around them, turning it black with his touch. "You're still bleeding too. We need to do something about that."

"If the bird was here, he would be able to stop the bleeding." Kyra reached down to touch the open wound. "How long do you think I have before this becomes a problem?"

"I don't know." O'Toole floated closer to her. "What are they waiting for?"

"I don't know." Kyra raised her hand. The blood from her wound drifted from her fingers. It turned into a fish and swam away through the orange air.

"That was random." Kyra watched the fish lead some of the spirits away. Finally, one of them snapped the fish up and swallowed it whole. It glowed down the length of its body as it turned in the orange air. "I think they know they can eat us now."

O'Toole frowned as he watched the circling mass. Numbers would bring them down. They didn't have the power needed to fight a war of attrition with the spirits. They needed a game changer.

The glowing serpent launched itself at Kyra. She had the dripping blood. She had to be delicious.

She stabbed the creature in one of its five eyes. Her blade sank in to the hilt. Then the serpent exploded from the contact.

"Go for the eyes," she said. She tried to stab another of the creatures but it fled from her blade.

O'Toole waited for one of the monsters to come after him. He raised his hands. The beast opened a mouth full of daggers to clamp down on him. He grabbed the jaws and burned the flesh away with glowing blue letters of exorcism. Flesh fled from the contact, breaking off and swimming away where it could.

Ash drifted around him like a halo as he looked for another victim to use his ability on.

Kyra stabbed at another demon. This one looked like a frog and an insect had a child that grew to giant size. It hopped out of the way of the blade as she started to rotate in the air.

It latched on her, biting at the wound in her leg. Blood dripped from its lips as it started taking on colors. A stab through the head spilled its innards on the air in an explosion of swimming gobbets.

The other spirits grabbed what they could as the small pieces tried to escape.

"That hurt." Kyra looked at the open wound. It was wider now after the bite. "I need to do something about this right now."

"Let me see it." O'Toole floated closer. He touched her leg with his glowing right hand. The flesh sealed under the fire he emitted. "That should help you until we find a solution to this problem."

"How are we going to do that?" Kyra glared at the monsters closing on them. "We're screwed."

"No." O'Toole brought his hands together. "I deny that. I deny the loss of hope. I deny failure. I deny it."

The glowing blue flame annihilated the orange air. It sucked more and more in like a whirlpool. The bigger creatures tried to swim away from the sudden current. The smaller ones touched the ball of flame and turned to ash in a second.

A hole appeared in the air above them. Kyra swam upward, dragging the gray monk after her by his collar. He kept pulling in more of the spirit atmosphere, dragging it behind them as they ascended.

Kyra paused at the edge of the hole. The metal golems stood outside the metal ring. They looked ready to take her on. How did they handle this trouble without becoming victims once more?

They had to get away from the junkyard and regroup. That had to be the goal. They couldn't fight the embodied spirits gathered to keep them in their homeland. They had to take them one at a time where the fighters had the advantage.

If they could kill the General, that might hamper things to move the advantage to their side of the war.

How could they do that? Could they even match him since he was stronger than the others by a large margin?

"Run." Kyra treaded water in the air. "I'll cover for you."

"All right." O'Toole didn't release the burning fire from his hands. "Whenever you're ready."

"Here we go," said Kyra. She tossed her burden over the line. He hit with a solid thump. She jumped through the hole before it could close on her.

O'Toole grabbed one of the golems closest to him. He released the blue light from his hands against its frame. The spirit inside burned away in a puff of green points in the air.

Kyra helped him to his feet while slicing around her. She pushed him ahead toward the fence. One of the living statues grabbed her arm. She cut its arm apart with the sword in her other hand.

"Go." Kyra pushed the bigger O'Toole in front of her. "We have to get out of here."

They struggled away from the battlefield. The army chased after them. The song of a parakeet sounded and a wrecking ball swung through the moving mass of metal. Statues flew everywhere from the impact.

"Where have you been?," said Kyra. "We needed you before now."

The bird chirped a reply before singing an opening in the fence for them to run through to escape to the street.

8

"That was a total bust." Kyra inspected the wound in her leg. At least it wasn't bleeding after the cauterizing Brother O'Toole had done.

"We know where they are." The monk looked back at the junkyard they had fled. "We just need to turn this to our advantage somehow."

"I don't see how." Kyra leaned against a light pole. "There are more of them in that one place than I have ever seen. We can't beat them on our own."

"We just need reinforcements to turn things our way," said O'Toole. "The Abbot might know something we can turn into a weapon against these spirits."

"We'll have to avoid our metal friends." Kyra looked back at something crashing through the fence. "Here they come."

"We can't split them," said O'Toole. "There's too many of them for that to work. We need to whittle down their numbers while staying out of their reach."

"Go ahead to the highway." Kyra pointed to the road in the distance. "I'll buy time for you to get there so you can think of something we can use against these monsters."

"We can't split up." O'Toole looked around. "Head for the park. We'll make a fighting retreat through there."

He jogged toward the island of grass and trees two blocks down from where they stood. He vanished in the dark as soon as he crossed the boundary line.

Kyra struggled to follow. Her leg caused her to hop along. How was she going to explain that to her parents if she lived through the night? What would they say about the giant bite mark?

She decided that she would figure something out if she got away from the things chasing her. There would be time when she wasn't running for her life.

She paused at the edge of the park. She didn't see O'Toole anywhere. Where had the man gone?

She thought she saw a blue flash next to the jungle gym in the middle of the playground. Why had he stopped there? Was he waiting on her?

Should she try to lead the demons away from him? What was the right move in this situation? What would Batman do?

She decided to head for the monkey bars. She might be able to make a stand if she could get to the top of the thing. That would give her height to reach the top of the taller golems. Then she could hold the portion off that came after her.

She realized she had made an error when she reached the climbing equipment. The horizontal ladder was barely high enough to get her off the ground. If she tried to fight on it, she would be a sitting duck.

She decided to make her stand instead of trying to limp over to where O'Toole seemed to be waiting in the dark. At least she could provide him cover while he could escape from the demons in their metal suits.

That was the least she could do for dragging him into her fight.

She pulled her sword, and leaned against the climbing equipment. She nodded when she saw the metal suits coming into the park after her. She hoped O'Toole retreated while she kept them busy.

Glowing embers invaded the dark air. Roars shook the nearby playground gear. The weight of heavy metal clumped in the grass, and pressed down on the asphalt running trails. They rushed at Kyra as she waited.

She made a speculative cut in the air. The blade produced a keening sound as it moved. They were both as ready as they were going to be.

Her parakeet made a chirping sound at her shoulder. She wasn't going to be fighting alone.

Kyra waited for the charge. When the first monster reached her spot, she attacked with a slice to the leg. She wanted to cripple it so she could take it apart at her leisure. Her blade swept in and out. The demon hit the monkey bars and caught itself from falling to the ground. She stabbed it in the face as it tried to right itself. Then she cast one of her feathers into the cut. The spirit within burned away.

The parakeet sang behind her. The inert body turned into stakes that struck at the other demons rushing the monkey bars. Some of them were able to slide out of the way. Some found themselves immobilized by the beams sticking out of their bodies.

"Good job," said Kyra. She hurled her rainbow feathers at the trapped bodies. She struck in the eyes since the bolts wouldn't go through protection. She smiled as the demons burned up.

More of the things rushed at her. She wondered how many could she cut down before they took her. She didn't plan to go quietly. Her sword waited to attack as the demons threw their comrades' shells out of the way. She went for the legs as she swung the sword at her targets.

The demons took the cuts, and counterattacked as she backed away from them. One brought his fist down on the monkey bars and it bent down near the ground. It chortled at the destruction.

The parakeet sounded off as it took wing. Some of the exorcized shells joined together into a cage around some of the still active fighters.

Kyra chopped at them as they tried to get out of the cage. Limbs fell to the ground and stopped moving. Then she attacked with the exorcism bolts. One by one, the demons burned away.

She smiled. She was winning the battle. She couldn't believe it. She thought she would be dead by now. If she could hold out, maybe O'Toole had come up with a solution to her problem. She didn't see the blue fire that rode with him when he performed his office.

Was he all right? She spared a glance where she had seen the blue fire before the battle had started. All that came from that direction was darkness.

How could she get over there to check on him? It was her fault that he had joined the fight. She couldn't let him get killed trying to stand up to the demons. She had to find him and get him off the battlefield before he died.

Something hit her in the back. She tried to spin to strike this unexpected assailant. A metal fist drove her across the playground. She hit and bounced. More of the metal statues grabbed her before she could do anything to slice them apart.

"This war is over for you, human." The General picked her up in one metal hand. "You will fuel more of the doors we need to overrun this place. That is your fate."

Kyra looked around. One of the demons held her parakeet in one hand. The implied threat was being crushed if it tried anything. She didn't see the monk. Maybe he had got away while she had battled her enemies.

Then one of the demons crossed her field of vision with the monk on its shoulder. Blood seeped from a wound to his scalp. It looked like he had been surrounded and pummeled into submission.

She held back tears. She had lost for good now. There was no one who could take up her fight. The only ones who had helped were going to share her fate. The world was going to follow sooner or later as the demons took over more things to use to kill people.

She had failed spectacularly to save the day. This didn't happen to the Power Puff Girls. She blinked the mist out of her eyes. She still had skills. There had to be something she could do to turn this around.

What would a real heroine do in this situation? What could she use to her advantage? How did she escape the grip around her middle, and free her comrades before they were hurt too badly to be healed?

If she could exorcize one of the monsters, or even the General, she might be able to change things around. Maybe if she could free her bird, that would help them somehow. He definitely couldn't help as long as he was trapped in the grip of the giant lugnut.

She grimaced as she considered what she could do against their sheer numbers. It didn't look good as long as she couldn't get away from her captor.

What was her plan? Splitting up hadn't worked. They had damaged, or put down, maybe a quarter of the attacking force. The only way they could win a war of attrition was to be able to attack from a distance and retreat out of range of the monsters. They might keep up a rush to overwhelm the defenders, but they might hole up in the junkyard until they had what they wanted from the humans in the city.

How did she stop their plan?

She had to free herself and her allies. Then she needed a place to fight from so she could attack while being able to defend herself from the demons. Then she needed a way to shut their door down for good.

The door was there to let them keep drawing spirits from that realm and let them take over inanimate objects on this side and shape them into what they wanted to use.

Kyra took a deep breath. Did she give up? Did she go down fighting? She closed her eyes. She opened them, summoning her sword to her hand.

Her arms were pinned to her sides by the General's fingers. Her hands were free below his grip. She twisted the sword in her hand to slice through the bottom finger which freed that arm a little which let her pull the sword through the next finger.

"What are you doing?" The General started to squeeze with the two fingers he had left. "You will not escape."

Kyra poured rainbow after rainbow inside the open wounds she had created. Light roared out of the statue's eyes as the exorcism strived to work against the demon's protection. The General froze as it fought the feathers.

She cut the last two fingers away before he could recover and finish turning her into paste. She dropped to the ground and tried to keep her feet. Now she was free, what did she do with it?

She charged the demon holding her bird. If she could free her aide, it might change the odds for the better.

The demon turned and ran from her. It made some kind of noise in the back of its neck as it ran away.

9

Kyra didn't have time to fool around with the metal thing running from her. She needed her parakeet. Then she could free the monk so they could retreat and regroup. They needed help to deal with this problem.

They had done some fancy trickery, but that wasn't enough against the sheer numbers they were facing. They needed more exorcists to send the monsters back where they belonged.

Kyra summoned some of her inner energy. They needed to change things around. The first step was getting her bird back from the demons.

She exploded across the space between her and the fleeing menace. Her sword sliced through limbs as she rocketed by the steel creature. The monster collapsed as she appeared on the other side of the fallen menace.

She freed her ally with a slice across the fingers. The bird flew free with a chirp. It landed on a pile of crushed cars.

Kyra drove a feather into the eye of the thing. Energy exploded from its mouth as the spirit was driven out of the automaton it had constructed for itself. She stood back and looked around.

She spotted O'Toole. The demons had put him on some kind of rack. It was such an obvious trap. If she went for him, they would descend on her.

She didn't have a choice. She had to walk into the trap, and fight her way clear again.

Then they had to retreat from the junkyard until they came up with a better plan. If O'Toole was seriously hurt, he couldn't help her anymore. She would have to do the best she could with what she had.

"Create a distraction for me." Kyra felt she had enough left for a couple of speed tricks. Then she would have to recharge a little. Then she could come back and see how many more of the things she could take down.

The bird winged across the lot. It sang at the metal monsters. That apparently didn't do anything except more were looking at it than at the rest of the yard. Kyra smiled as the brutes lined up to take a shot after what had happened.

Kyra activated her speed trick. She leaped across the intervening space and sliced with the weapon. The blade cut through the metal as the fist tried to squeeze its hand and snap off the fingers through the bending sections.

O'Toole dropped to the ground. He didn't make a sound. Was he dead?

Kyra picked him up and flopped him over her shoulder. She ran toward the front of the yard. If she could pass through, she just had to worry about them chasing her on the street.

She doubted any thought that she wasn't combat ready and able to deal with this problem.

The ground shook as the metal men chased after her. They didn't want her getting out of their sphere of influence. She was going to have to drop O'Toole and turn to face their enemies.

Her bird swooped down behind her and sang. Loose junk came together and formed a wall to give Kyra room to move. It settled somewhere out of sight amid the junk with the flap of its wings.

Kyra propped O'Toole against the door of a wreck. She inspected him carefully. It looked like he might have a fractured skull. She needed her bird to fix him so they could get him back in the fight against the walking monsters.

She felt that if she did nothing, he would die. She couldn't let that happen. He wouldn't even have been hurt if she hadn't asked him to help. And here they were trapped like rats.

She stood and looked around. The monsters were on the other side of the wall. She had to go to them if she wanted to extract some measure of coexistence from the demons. After that, she could do anything else she wanted.

"Hey, Birdie!" Kyra hated to raise her voice with her enemies on all sides. "I need some help with the brother."

The colorful parakeet fluttered into view. It sang a five-note song before dropping down into a hole in the wall it had constructed. Metal approximations of faces loomed over the wall. It covered its face with its wings as it tried to hide from the predators.

"It looks like I'm on my own for the time being." Kyra readied her sword. "This has turned into one thing after another."

Articulated hands with too many fingers reached for her. She leaped up, slicing with her sword to bite into the limbs of the lead demon suit. If she could get a clear shot of its essence inside the metal body, she could try to exorcize it with a rainbow feather.

One of the other golems swatted her out of the air. She hit the ground and rolled. Maybe running was a better idea at the moment.

Would that distract them from Brother O'Toole while the bird's healing worked to heal his wounds? Could she count on it? She doubted they would leave him alone to sleep things off.

She had to get rid of these lummoxes before more joined the party. She had to charge them.

Kyra activated her step again, moving through the rings into a blur of invisibility. She appeared on the other side of the group of four. She leaned on her sword long enough to turn around and assess the damage she had caused.

The walking metal came apart in chunks as they turned to orient on her new position. Their heads dropped from necks last and fell on the pile of parts.

Kyra flicked her wrist. Feathers shimmered between her fingers. She flung them into the pile. The bright flash of demons burning away blasted up from the pile.

She took steady breaths to equalize the pressure in her head. She had pushed into this battle, and now it looked like she could lose just from overextending herself. She had to slow the pace of things.

She had to keep them in the junkyard and deal with them one at a time instead of in gangs that might be able to overwhelm her defenses.

And she had to hide the monk somewhere until she could get him out of the yard without the demons seeing him and trying to take him hostage again.

She had an uphill battle without having to worry about whether he would wake up in time to help her.

She climbed up on top of her wall. She turned in a circle. Metal shapes marched around among the piles of crushed cars and broken parts. Anyone coming in there would be in for an unpleasant surprise.

The worst part from what she could see was that they were moving in a pack. She couldn't see one that was on its own and out of view of the others. If she attacked one, the others would converge on the spot and try to stop her from doing what she wanted.

She couldn't take them all on by herself. That would lead to another beating as far as she could see. Maybe she could get away with a few hit and runs if she kept away from having to fight more than one of them at a time.

She would have to leave O'Toole and her bird under cover until she had punched some kind of hole in the net for them to slip through. She couldn't let the monk get killed after dragging him into her private war.

She dropped down behind her wall. She needed to check on her charges before she started executing the flimsy plan she had.

"We're trapped, aren't we?" O'Toole's eyes glowed unhealthily. He had propped himself against the wall for comfort.

"They're circling around like they don't know we're here." Kyra knelt beside him. "You took a bad knock."

"Don't worry about that." O'Toole smiled. "I have a plan to get us out of this."

"I don't think you're in any shape to come up a workable plan," said Kyra. She touched his forehead with her forearm above her glove. He burned.

"The brain is still working." O'Toole smiled.

10

"Can you see where they are?" O'Toole coughed into his hand for a second. "We need to take a small one prisoner if we can manage that."

"How small?" Kyra frowned at him. "They are all really tall as a rule. This junkyard has given them a perfect breeding ground for that."

"This is the biggest that you have ever seen one of them?" O'Toole closed his eyes. Light still seeped through his closed eyelids.

"Yes." Kyra nodded. "I usually face possessed objects. What they have done here is more ambitious than the ones I usually put down."

"Pick the smallest one out there," said O'Toole. "We need one to carry out my plan."

"Hold on." She leaped to the top of the wall they were using as cover. She picked one moving by itself that looked smaller than the others. It had not assimilated enough of the loose junk to make it a match for its brothers. She wondered why it didn't try to change shape into something larger. She put it down that it was stuck in that form until she did something to its body.

She dropped down before they spotted her standing on the wall. She wiped her forehead with the back of a gloved hand.

"I think I got one," she said. "How do you want to do this?"

"We need to take it down without any of the other demons noticing what we are doing." O'Toole opened his eyes. "I'm going to need time to do what I have to do. Can you handle that?"

"I think so," said Kyra. "Do you need the thing in one piece?"

"I need the demon to still be inside and unable to cause problems for us." O'Toole shrugged. "I think all I need is the head and torso."

"I can do that with an ambush." Kyra almost smiled. "Holding off the rest is going to be the real problem."

"I have faith in you," said O'Toole. "Once we have our victim, we will have to depend on circumstances to let us do our work. If I can't get things done, I will put the thing down and we can find another one we can use to our advantage."

"All right." Kyra swung her sword gently. "Let's get started before they find us."

"Go ahead and take it," said O'Toole. He levered himself to his feet. "I will be right behind you to carry out my part."

"Right." Kyra moved to the end of the wall closest to where she had last seen their target. She peeked around the edge. The thing lumbered toward them, moving in a slow walk.

She charged the embodied demon. She moved as silently as possible to avoid causing attention. It didn't seem to see her until the last second. Then it paused to cry out for its brothers to defend it. She sliced through its legs before it could shout. She sliced off both hands before it could stop its fall.

"They're over here!," it shouted. The sword chopped through its jaw to keep it from saying anything else.

"Let me go to work." O'Toole raised his hands. He shoved them into the eyes of the demon. Blue light poured from his eyes as he willed a change in his victim. The demon lights changed to reflect his talent at work.

"Here they come," said Kyra. "How much time do you need?"

"As much as you can give me." O'Toole sounded raspy. "I don't need you to kill any of them. I just need you to pin them down away from me."

"I'll do what I can," said Kyra. She walked to meet the first one charging toward the scene. She hoped she didn't have to fight the horde by herself for long.

She decided she didn't have to engage them enough to get at their inner core. She just had to keep the demons from O'Toole. The easiest way to do that was to cripple them as much as possible.

They could exorcize them later if O'Toole's plan worked.

Kyra slashed at legs as she tried to block the giants from getting at the monk. The possessed wrecks fell over, or hopped on one foot as she fought to keep them back. She kept moving instead of concentrating on one and getting rid of it with her fiery feathers. She danced around giant fists slamming against the ground. She didn't bother retaliating against the hands. She just needed her enemies crippled for the moment while her comrade did what he was trying to do.

"Get ready to run." O'Toole's eyes had stopped glowing. "This is going to be loud."

Kyra gritted her teeth as she sliced open a hand trying to close around her. She didn't have enough energy to step around the demons. She felt like she didn't have enough to walk away from this battle.

"Go!" O'Toole yanked his hands away from his victim. He limped down its body, using the metal ribs and the back of its skull as a shield from whatever he was trying to do.

Kyra followed him, jogging speed as fast as she could go. She glanced over her shoulder at the crippled metal things. More appeared to join the skirmish. She groaned as she ran. If they caught up with the humans, it would be over for the exorcists.

Her parakeet appeared. It flew ahead of them, scanning the yard for monsters in their way. All of them couldn't be converging on the battleground from one direction.

Blue light blew out from the demon body O'Toole had used. It struck most of the other demons with blue lightning. The bodies jerked as the onslaught added their energy to the exorcism and called for more demons to eat. Some of the still intact giants turned to run to avoid the growing storm. The blue lightning swept over them, ripping out their control through the eyes as the wave advanced across the junkyard.

"What is that?," called Kyra as she caught up with the brother. "What did you do?"

"I forced a lot of energy into the demon who wore the crippled body." The exorcist paused as he looked for demons not caught up in the display. He doubted they were hiding from the likes of him. "When I released my hold, the energy advanced to gather more. I doubt it will continue for much longer if most of the demons are killed by it."

"What happens if it reaches that circle?" Kyra didn't know enough about the effect. Maybe it would die down and things would go back to being normal.

"I don't know." O'Toole paused in his flight to look around. "Which way is the thing?"

Kyra slammed to a halt. She turned in a circle. She frowned as the demon infested cars ran away from the growing cloud of destruction. She didn't have any pity for them.

They had arrived in the city and killed people who weren't doing anything to them, didn't even know about them. Wiping them out was the same as putting down a rabid dog to her.

Her eyes locked on a tiny glow through the maze of stacked flattened cars. That was the circle. She checked the direction of the wave. It was turning in its course, splitting as part of it still chased the fleeing demons, and the other reached for the circle.

"It's going to hit," she said. "We can't stop it."

"Take cover." O'Toole dropped down behind a wall of stacked cars. He covered his head with his hands as he waited for the inevitable.

Kyra threw herself down next to the next stack of flattened cars. She didn't like that he didn't know how big the effect was going to grow. Would it eat the city? How many others would be affected by this wave of blue lightning?

Had they nuked the city's supernatural underground by mistake?

What would happen to their abilities?

What would happen to her parakeet?

The bird in question settled in her armpit and sang a song. The cars wrapped around her in a cocoon that extinguished the light from the sky. She frowned but thought that was the best option they had. She didn't want to lose her powers.

She didn't have time to help O'Toole as the ball of metal formed around her. He was on his own. Hopefully the blast wouldn't kill him when the lightning hit the circle.

Kyra felt the wave wash over her as the cloud expanded to cover the city. She hoped they hadn't killed innocent people trying to use their abilities to help people. Having them die because they were in the crossfire between her and the demons was bad enough. She didn't want to kill them with an out of control spell breaker.

Her bird chirped weakly as it nestled against her. A small light appeared to light the inside of the ball up. She drew herself into a sitting position.

"What do you think?," Kyra asked. "Did we kill every supernatural force in the city?"

The bird fluffed its wings. It gave her a look that said it didn't know.

"Let's get out of here." Kyra pushed against the sphere's inner wall. "We have to know how much damage we did to the city."

She drew her sword out of the air and applied the rainbow blade to the metal wall. She cut a door in the ball. She pushed on it and it dropped out on the ground.

She pulled herself through the hole. She swung her legs over the edge. She slid down to the ground. Her parakeet dropped on her shoulder. It whistled as they looked around.

"O'Toole?" She frowned as she didn't see the monk anywhere. Where was he? He should be close to her ball since he threw himself down at the base of the column in front of hers.

Had the wave ripped him apart? Had it pulled all of his ability from him before it reduced him to dust? Had he been turned into a shadow by the lightning?

"O'Toole!" She spun in a circle. She shouldn't have gotten him involved. She should have handled things by herself. Things had escalated out of control and she didn't know if she had done the right thing.

How many had they killed with their giant exorcism wave?

Was anybody alive in the city after what they had done?

Had she killed her parents trying to stop the demons from invading her reality? What about her friends and teachers? Had she exorcized them to death trying to do the right thing?

"It's okay." O'Toole stepped into view. "We stopped them from invading us from the looks of things."

"What about the city?" She blinked at his glowing eyes. What had the effect done to him?

"It stands." O'Toole nodded wearily at her expression. "It looks like we were able to keep the effect to the junkyard."

"So we won?" Kyra couldn't believe the war was over. What would she do now?

"Looks like it." He nodded reassuringly.

Epilogue

K.C. Locke looked at the audience. Some of them clapped their hands at the end of her story. She smiled.

"Last call, guys." Cal Callum smiled at the crowd. "We're shutting down for the night."

"I got a question, K.C.," said Dunbar Hughes from the front table. "How did O'Toole nuke everything? That sounds like a left field save."

"Because O'Toole took his special exorcist power and mixed it up with the demon life force and used that to chase the other demon things and blow them up." K.C. shook her head at him. "The more it took, the bigger it got until it hit the circle. Then it blew stuff up."

"And the city?," asked Hughes.

"It was saved by the fence around the junkyard." K.C. shrugged. "Is there anything else, Dunbar?"

"No," said Cal from the bar. "Let's get your last orders in, and head for the door."

K.C. jumped from the low stage. She straightened her jacket as she walked through the tables. One of the customers stood, dropping some money on the table.

"How's it going, Donovan?," she said with a smile. "Chased down any more pet eaters?"

"O'Toole?" Donovan held up the lamp chained to his wrist. Gray eyes stared from a mostly expressionless face that was almost as gray.

"It's Irish, isn't it?" K.C. smiled at him. "What more do you want?"

"A better story." He looked around as the crowd slowly dispersed. "Gaylord?"

"He's waiting outside." She hooked a thumb at the door. "I can't ask him to come in here with all these people. He would freak out."

Donovan said nothing. The black bird was a spirit animal. If he decided to do something, someone would take a beating.

"I'm looking to earn some extra money." K.C. waved for him to lead the way to the door. "I was wondering if you needed an assistant."

"Why would I need an assistant?," asked Donovan. "Most of my jobs are one-person only."

"I know you can't operate in the daytime." She waited for him to open the door and step outside. "I thought I could fill in those hours for you, especially in the summer time."

"I find things, K.C.," said Donovan, leading the way to his van. "I can't teach that."

"Gaylord and I can find things." She shrugged. "We're just not as good as you."

"I don't have room for more people." Donovan leaned against his van. "I can barely support myself."

"We can do maintenance on your van." K.C. waved at the vehicle. "You know Gaylord can fix anything wrong with it in a second."

"Why the sudden need for money?" Donovan held up his lamp to see her face more clearly.

"I just want to lead a more normal life, and a job will help me do that." She shrugged. "I'm going back to school and that costs money too. I thought that I could look around and find something I can do for a job while I am getting my GED."

"I know a guy who needs someone to look after him." Donovan dropped the lantern so it didn't shine in her face. "I can call him. He's trouble prone, and he will need someone who can protect him."

"How trouble prone is he?" K.C. didn't like the sound of being someone's babysitter. If the pay was good, that might make up for having to bail this problem child out.

"I have worked four jobs for him this year alone." Donovan's words said it all. He didn't seem like a man with a lot of repeat business considering what kind of jobs he specialized in. Working four for the same man showed that client was nothing but trouble.

"And you want to palm this misfit off on me?," asked K.C. "What does he do that he needs to hire you?"

"He is a professor at Gull U." Donovan almost smiled at her reaction. "He attracts problems while he researches his specialty."

"What's that? Mummies, vampires, or demons?," asked K.C.

"Women." Donovan opened the door of his van. "I'll set up a meeting. Be here tomorrow, so I can give you the details."

"All right." K.C. nodded. "What's this guy's name?"

"Dexter." Donovan climbed behind the wheel of his van. "He works in the medicine part of the university doing research. I doubt you will have that many problems with him."

"I might have to punch him if he is a playboy." K.C. frowned at having to punch a boss she hadn't got a job with yet.

"He'll deserve it." Donovan closed the door. He cranked the window open. "Just be here tomorrow."

"All right." She nodded. "Thanks, Donovan."

He cranked the van's engine and rolled away from the Lonesome October. His lamp cast dancing shadows from the interior of the vehicle as the Ford turned on the street and headed into the night.

K.C. smiled. That had gone better than she had thought. Donovan was notorious for only helping for money. He must really hate the guy he wanted to set her up with as a bodyguard.

She wondered what kind of trouble a professor could stir up that someone like Donovan had to step in and bust someone's head. If you needed someone like Donovan, then someone was getting their head busted. That was the nature of his business as an investigator. She knew that from experience.

Following him around as he tried to follow the trail of the animate things chasing her and Gaylord, and a couple of chance encounters since had shown that usually he dealt in unusual problems that required unusual solutions like setting things on fire, or beating them in the face with that ball of metal chained to his arm.

She admitted she didn't have much room to talk since she wore black armor and sliced monsters to pieces with a glowing sword. She didn't get much of a chance to talk things down before they tried to eat her.

She hoped Donovan came through. She and Gaylord were living in his old house with demons trapped in a bottle of upstairs. More seemed to crowd in all the time. She didn't want to battle all of them, but she felt that they would escape and cause a massacre in the city.

A job meant they could buy things to keep the bottle from growing too big for the house and maybe breaking the circle pinning the little monsters in place. She had killed so many of them, killing a few more wouldn't hurt her feelings. She wanted a better option than open warfare. She had already seen what they could do to people firsthand. She didn't want to wish that on anyone else.

Gaylord settled on her shoulder with a flap of his shadowy wings. He chewed at a wing gently before holding himself in place.

"Donovan said he was going to arrange for us to look after one of his problem clients." K.C. started walking toward home. "It looks like I'm going to have to be on my best behavior to get this job. Then we'll see how much work we'll have to do for this job."

Gaylord whistled slightly to show his understanding. He was the source of her power. If anything happened to him, she wouldn't be able to call the black armor or her sword. She knew that giving that up would never make her normal. She had seen too much of the monsters in the city to go back to someone blind to the underworld interacting with the normal humans trying to make their living in the light of day.

If she lost Gaylord, she would be at a disadvantage, but she would never give up her fight. Sword, or no sword, she was still K.C. Locke. She would still fight the darkness even if she had to resort to other means.

She wondered if Gaylord felt the same way sometimes. If something happened to her, would he still carry on with someone else as his shield and weapon?

He had become what he was fighting his parents. She doubted he would bend to lesser menaces after she had died. He would probably die in the same action that had killed her, or continue fighting on his own.

She wondered how much of his life his parents had taken from him when he had become a spirit animal trying to protect her and her fellow cheerleaders from what his parents planned so they could have immortality.

"You want to go back to school with me?" She glanced at the black eye near her cheek. "A little schoolwork might be great for you."

He cawed a negative. His feathers ruffled in disgust. Then he settled once more on her shoulder.

"I'll take that as a no," she said with a smile. "I might need a handsome tutor to bring me up to speed. Someone who looked like Ed Sheeran might be just the thing."

Gaylord gently gnawed at her ear before taking flight. He vanished into the night silently.

"Come back." K.C. laughed. "I was just joking, buddy."

She walked on alone, blending into the night with her dark clothes turning her into just as much a shadow as her familiar.

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