When we reached Jackson Park, Nate and Jack were already on scene. There were two other Fomorians in the vicinity, as well as a thin, nearly skeletal looking creature moving so quickly it was nearly a blur. I took this to be the Japanese entity Nate had spoken of earlier. There was another....Fomorian?...on the equestrian statue, reclining backwards on it. He--it--was much more visually attractive, even handsome, with a shock of close cropped blonde hair upon its head and an especially wicked looking black Katana in its hands, resting lazily across its shoulders.
I could hear Jack conversing with it, and I could detect a familiar Irish brogue in its reply, but I couldn't really make out the words of the conversation from my vantage point. Jesus, Jack, less talky, more punchy!, I thought, with some irritation.
I did catch the creature's name, though..."Caleb".
Caleb gave a quick order to the Japanese creature, which began moving so very rapidly in an apparent ritualistic pattern around the statue, trailing a trail of human blood behind it. Jack had been standing on the rump of the horse statue, when suddenly it seemed to begin to collapse and sink, and I watched Jack perform an impressive aerial backflip off the statue to stay on his feet. The other Fomorians also sprang into action, and battle was joined.
Once again, Laurel commanded the attention of the lesser Fomorians, who turned to face her and were seemingly transfixed, or at least highly distracted, which would make them more vulnerable to our coming onslaught.
I took to the air and when my opportunity came, I felt horribly tempted to hurl Gae Bolga at the nearest available Fomorian, these bane of the Tuatha now wrecking havoc on American soil...but I realised the spellcasting, summoning ritual, whatever it was, of this Japanese creature probably needed to be stopped more urgently. I'd seen the look of frustration in Nate's face when Camilla had leveled her rifle at a Fomorian instead of the Jinkiniki and fired off a round. I figured that since Nate was half-Japanese himself and knew something was up, I should set aside my personal lusts and do something to stop this magical ceremony before something even worse showed up. I gathered up all my courage and poured it into one mighty heave of Gae Bolga, a throw that would have impaled one of the lesser Fomorians, I think, but alas, the unspeakably nimble creature performed a graceful pirouette and dodged the mighty spear, which clattered uselessly to the ground nearby.
To my horror, the next thing I knew, Caleb had grown to an enormous size, and his sword had grown with him. He took a flying leap in our direction. Gunnar and Laurel opened fire, to no apparent effect. Caleb chuckled then smashed his fist onto the ground, which rippled strangely and then turned into...ye gods, quicksand!!?? in a large circular radius around him. I was already airborne, but I watched in horror as Laurel and Gunnar slipped into the muck.
I pulled out my M-16 and let loose a full auto burst into Caleb, but he either deflected or absorbed harmlessly every last round I fired. I looked over and noted that Jack and Nate had cornered the Japanese being but that Jack was struggling hard to keep it immobilized. I felt badly for Gunnar and Laurel, but I was going to be useless to anyone without Gae Bolga, so I flew over to where it had fallen and intended to lend a hand bringing down the Japanese entity. I swooped down, retrieved the mighty spear and lunged at the creature. It dodged my attack only to place its head inadvertently in the direct path of the barrel of Nate's birthright firearm.
"Dodge this.", Nate said, and let loose a ferocious volley that brought the creature down. Caleb summoned the last of the lesser Fomorians to him, then sliced off his minion's own head, to our great surprise. He summoned forth two spirits of African American children, twins apparently, one of which we later confirmed was Odette. He made horrific, disrespectful demands upon these holy creatures then broke the neck of Odette and vanished into the night air.
Quicksand is largely water, so I figured that diving into it with Gae Bolga, which confers water-breathing ability, would be like diving into a fierce dust storm.
It was worse than that.
But, using the blunt end of Gae Bolga to fish around in the muck, I manged to put it into Gunnar's one free hand almost immediately. In Gunnar's other hand was Laurel. They weighed a ton and it was a heavy burden, but I dragged them dripping and muddy and wet to the surface and carried them a safe distance to terra firma.
I looked Laurel in the eyes (well, looked her in the eyes after she wiped the muck out of them) and said simply, though with a sudden well of emotion I hadn't expected of myself..."we're even."
Even covered in muck she was strikingly beautiful...ever seen lady mud wrestling? you get the picture.
I cursed and resolved there was nothing for it but to at least go commit several mortal sins of self-abuse back in my bunk the nature of which would turn the faces of the good sisters back at Saint Mary's redder than baboons arses.
I realised only later that I think I had said this aloud. Ah well.
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