Chapter 92: Friends On The Other Side
POV Sebastian Shaw
After leaving Ethel, it took a few days to reach New Orleans and another day to find my target. He wasn't really hiding, but that didn't mean I would underestimate him. If I've learned anything from working with Ethel for the last several years, it's that magic users are dangerous and crafty. And I would be a fool to think I can just walk over to the target without either spooking him or getting ambushed by him.
But that's why I wasn't working alone. I may not have as much political power as I used to, but I still have plenty of connections. As such, I set up an old associate of mine to distract my target. I know how my target thinks, as I have dealt with countless poeple like him throughout my life. Greed drives him, and if he sees a juicy target, he won't resist taking the bait, especially not when he thinks he holds all the cards or that his magic will keep him safe.
I smirk as I see the charlatan take the bait. Now all that was left was to slowly close the noose around his neck while he was distracted. As for the safety of those associates of mine, I couldn't care less about them. They had long since become a liability. Better to discard weak pieces to gain stronger ones.
POV Shift Dr. Facilier
(AN: You can play Princess And The Frog - Friends On The Other Side on YouTube if you want to listen along as it goes. There's likely some instrumental if you look for it as well. )
"Don't you disrespect me, little man!
Don't you derogate or deride.
You're in my world now, not your world.
And I got friends on the other side!" I shout at the stooge with my target.
"He's got friends on the other side," say my spirits.
"That's an echo, gentlemen. Just a little something we have here in Louisiana. A little parlor trick, don't worry..." I say to make them think nothing was amiss.
"Sit down at my table
Put your minds at ease
If you relax, it will enable me
To do anything I please
I can read your future
I can change it 'round some, too
I'll look deep into your heart and soul."
"You do have a soul, don't you, Lawrence?" I joke at the stooges' expense.
"Make your wildest dreams come true
I got voodoo, I got hoodoo!
I got things I ain't even tried!
And I got friends on the other side!"
"He's got friends on the other side," my spirits sing from behind them.
"The cards, the cards, the cards will tell. The past, the present, and the future as well. The cards, the cards, just take three. Take a little trip into your future with me," I say mysteriously as I theatrically shuffle my cards.
"Now you, young man, are from across the sea
You come from two long lines of royalty"
"I'm a royal myself, on my mother's side," I say while showing my mother's shrunken head.
"Your lifestyle's high
But your funds are low
You need to marry a little honey whose daddy got dough!"
"Mom and Dad cut you off, huh, Playboy? Now y'all gotta get hitched. But hitchin' ties you down. You just wanna be free, hop from place to place. But freedom takes green," I explain while slipping in some parts of the deal we are about to make.
"It's the green, it's the green, it's the green you need!
And when I look into your future, it's the green that I seen!"
Now comes the big part.
"On you, little man, I don't wanna waste much time.
You been pushed 'round all your life.
You been pushed 'round by your mother and your sister and your brother.
And if you was married.
You'd be pushed 'round by your wife.
But in your future, the you I see.
Is exactly the man you always wanted to be!"
Now that I have laid the foundation, I just need one little thing.
"Shake my hand. Come on, boys, won't you shake a poor sinner's hand?" I said with a pitiful voice as if this wasn't a big deal.
When they shook my hands, I got a wide smile as the fools did it.
"Yes...
Are you ready?"
"Are you ready?"
"Are you ready?
Transformation Central!"
"Transformation Central!"
"Reformation Central!"
"Reformation Central!"
"Transmogrification Central
Can you feel it?
You're changin', you're changin', you're changin', all right
I hope you're satisfied
But if you ain't, don't blame me
You can blame my friends on the other side!"
"You got what you wanted!
But you lost what you had!"
"Ahahahaha!" I laugh to myself as I collect those fools' souls.
'All for a little change.'
Clap Clap Clap
I am surprised to hear the sounds of clapping.
"Bravo, Bravo, excellently done," says a man with a red helmet on.
Before I can ask who he is, I feel a faint ripple and can sense some familiar magic on him.
"Oh shoot, are you with Ethel? Knew someone like you would come for me eventually. Now, if you're here to kill me, you should probably know..." I say, while backing up a bit and gathering my supplies.
"You'll never take me alive, you enslaved sumbitch!" I shout while tossing a bundle of smoke pellets down, creating a distraction and allowing me to slip away.
Or so I thought.
Wizz
A yellow beam of energy shoots through the smoke and nails me in the chest.
"I'm afraid I can't have you leaving so soon after we finally meet," the man says.
I grimace as I feel a strange energy permeate my being.
'Magic Poison! That damn hag!'
I try to flee, but with a nasty burn on my chest, followed by the poison, and then the next beam that hits my leg, I am unable to move.
'Well, might as well try.'
I order all my puppets and creatures to distract him while I use my spirits to carry me away. But that too fails as the puppets and creatures don't seem to even slightly slow down my foe as he rushes towards me, and I see a bright yellow fist approaching my face before darkness takes me.
POV Sebastian Shaw
'That was easy... Too easy.'
I wasn't going to drop my guard, as this felt far too easy to make any sense. Sure, I caught him off guard, but this was still far too easy for someone that Ethel didn't want to deal with personally.
My caution was well rewarded as the puppets, creatures, and shadow beings all coalesced into a large beast.
'Now this is more expected.'
POV Shift Lady Ethel
"Hahaha! That fool," I say to myself with joy as I watch Shaw foolishly fight that charlatan's guardian.
Shaw could kill it eventually, but that would give more than enough time for that charlatan to escape. But that was why I didn't leave this only to Shaw. There are plenty of desperate monsters that had nowhere else to go after Monstropolis was destroyed. As such, they were more than willing to take on some bad deals to survive. Such as some foolish Redcaps that can't fit in anywhere else. Or the last Ettercap Warrior who has no matriarch to serve. They would do what was needed.
First was to capture that charlatan and retrieve his magic items. The second was to leave behind a fake amulet that Shaw will use to try to betray me with, thus breaching the contract and removing any protections he once had. Allowing me to finally rid myself of that pest. It's the perfect plan.
Ripple.
"Tch. The visitors. Of course, they had to appear now, of all times," I mutter with annoyance.
I quickly shift into my human disguise and make sure my kind old lady act is up. To better sell this idea, the area was under a powerful illusion spell, with my minions acting as innocent animals. All to sell the idea that I am an old witch hiding away from the terror of the world.
POV Shift Rio
As soon as I enter the pocket dimension, I immediately notice that everything is supposed to be under an illusion. I can tell because a Redcap is pretending to be a sheep. And then there was a Bugbear pretending to be a cow.
"Moo!" the bugbear says loudly.
If I didn't have immense willpower and training, I might have started to laugh. Everyone else with me, however, didn't seem to notice anything immediately wrong. But to help everyone out, I connected everyone mentally to help them see past the illusion. Or if that failed, they would at least be on alert and avoid getting too close to the 'animals' in the field.
"Well, hello dearies. What brings ye by my humble home?" says an old lady, whom I immediately see is a fairly grotesque creature.
"We are here for Shaw," Eric says calmly.
"Ah, yes, that one. Well, I wish to make it clear I have nothin' to do with whatever he did. He asked for a place to stay, and I couldn't turn away a hungry soul. But he isn't here and hasn't been here for a while," the hag says calmly.
"You're lying," I reply equally as calm.
"What? What do you mean, Dearie?" the hag says in a nearly perfect innocent voice.
"What you said is almost entirely a lie. Just like everything is under an illusion to make this place look safe and hospitable," I reply while giving my best smug grin.
I was in the form of John Constantine for this operation as it fit best for what was needed.
"Now, dearie, didn't yer momma ever tell ya it's rude to call somebody a liar?" the hag says as she drops her illusions, and her real form is revealed to everyone.
"I must have missed that lesson," I say with an unbothered shrug.
"I've been plenty accommodatin', but now I'm gonna tell you this. Leave or else!" the hag threatens.
"Hmm, hey Magneto," I call out.
"Yes?" Eric asks.
"Wanna know something interesting about Fey?" I ask rhetorically.
The Hag was somewhat interested, as was everyone.
"Many have a crippling weakness to iron," I say with a smile.
Eric thinks for a moment before understanding, and suddenly, every metal piece starts to shake, and a large number of metal pieces are levitated into the air.
"Shite," was all the Hag said before she started running for her life.
To say it was a massacre would be the understatement of the century. I had more than enough Iron in my inventory that everything in this realm was constantly running for their lives from the metal death that Eric created. The hag tried her best to defend herself, but even magic couldn't do so much against an Omega-Level Mutant in close combat. Combined with the sheer versatility and deadliness of metal shrapnel attacking from all angles, and yeah, there was nothing anyone could do to stop Eric.
I walk to the corpse of the Hag and cast a spell.
"AHHHHHHHH!" the Hag screams in agony as I easily capture her soul.
"Nice try, but I know most tricks a Fey could try and pull, especially a Hag like yourself," I comment dryly.
"Jut cause she is an enemy doesn't mean we should insult her," Selene jokes.
"The bloodsucking slut is right," the Hag insults Selene while backing her up.
Selene doesn't give in to the Vicious Mockery and chooses to ignore her.
I don't care for someone being rude to my friend, so I make my thoughts known.
"What is that? No no no no no no no! Wait, wait, wait, wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait!!!" the hag screams as I slowly open my palm to reveal a ball of purity and light.
I let the light touch the Hag's soul, and she screams in agony as she is exposed to the unadulterated purity of a Unicorn. I had learned a while back that the aura of purity was actually a bit more useful than I thought. Amalthea had taught me how to better utilize it, and that was how I discovered it was far more effective on a soul than on a person. As such, a wicked soul as this Hag was a prime target for the weaponized Aura.
Now I wasn't doing this just to torture her. I needed to do this to weaken her soul so that it would be easier to tear out the answers we seek. If I took my time, I could get everything out of her, but simply put, I didn't want to do that. Holding onto a soul for too long goes against my morals. No matter how evil someone is, they should be sent off to judgment where they will face their due. There is a natural cycle to things. Even the souls that were given to Satina were only there for a few months before they were released, though in that case, it was because their demonic forms or Satina herself were killed, thus releasing the souls.
"You guys can go and look around. I've got this," I comment.
Nobody argues, as they don't care to listen to the screams of the Hag. Even I didn't care to listen to her, as she had a really nasally voice, and it wasn't pleasant to hear.
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Author's Note:
Bonus Chapter today cause... I feel like it? I suppose where I am in writing, which is about 30 chapters ahead of you guys, I am approaching the end of the story. It's shaping up to end around chapter 150 or so. Until next time, Ciao.