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Ivy and Duncan Lessons: The Condensed List

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[7/17/14 - 2:00 AM - Shibusen North Pole]

It began with a ringing phone. Ivy Cera groped out in the dark and grabbed it, about to chew out whoever was on the other end, but when she saw the number, her blood ran cold.

"Hello?"

"Ivy?"

It was Beatriz, and she sounded scared. She was doing a good job being brave, at least, but Ivy sat bolt upright.

"What's happening?"

"There's a strange woman in the house, she has dad," Bea said, her voice low. "She's--"

Beatriz was cut off in a strangled cry and a new voice took over on the phone.

"Ivy Cera of Shibusen North Pole Branch?" the voice said.

"I am," Ivy said, throat dry.

"Listen carefully. If you want to see your little sister again you're going to have to come for her personally. If you haven't come for her within the day, she'll be dead, and there will be nothing you can do. Am I clear?"

"As glass," Ivy said. She was shaking a little. The phone clicked off. She had no real information except that she needed to go to Brazil and she needed to be there soon if she wanted any hope of catching a trail to follow.

[7/17/14 - 2:30 AM - Shibusen North Pole]

I know I don't have time to waste. I'm writing this down because I don't have time to try and think it out just in my head. I have to see it on paper because ultimately that will help me figure out what to do faster.

I can't do this alone. That was a witch on the phone, I heard her casting before she took it from Bea.

But Dru just got married and she isn't anywhere close to here and Chester is going to be a father. I can't drag either of them into this, not even for Bea.

But I need help.

Ford is with Dru. Davy is on his hunt. I need someone, and I keep thinking of meisters I could ask, but the truth is that isn't what I need.

I need a demon weapon. This is my fight, I need to be the technician. And for some reason one name keeps coming into my mind.

The question is whether or not Duncan Dare will do it.

I'll have to ask him and find out. Bea's life might depend on it.

[7/17/14 - 3:00 AM - Shibusen North Pole]

She pounded on his door until he answered. He opened it with both eyes narrowed  and his lips pursed.

"Do you know whot time it is?" Duncan asked.

"I need your help," Ivy said. "My little sister is in trouble, there's a witch involved. You're a deathscythe now, I need a weapon and I can shoot well. Please, come with me?"

"You're at my door in the  middle of the god damn night asking me to help you with some mission? We don't even work together," Duncan said.

"No, but you work with a fox and you're here and you're a gun," Ivy said. "Please. I'll owe you a favor."

Duncan rubbed his face.

"Fock. Fine. You're crazy, but fine. Let's go."

[7/17/14 - 3:15 AM - Airborn]

15 minutes later they were on the school plane on their way to Brazil.

"Whot do you even know about this?" Duncan asked, looking at her sidelong.

"I know where she was taken from, she called from a landline, and I know there was a witch involved. I have tracking magic, we can find them when we get there," Ivy said.

"Okay," Duncan said. "So we'll go and look, we'll fight if we have to. This is my charitable deed for the decade."

"You're more caring than you let on," Ivy said, She leaned back against the wall of the plane and then froze. "Duncan?"

"Whot is it now?" he asked.

"I know you don't smell that," she said, "but we're not alone."

And she was right. On the shelves where one's belongings were usually stored, three mongoose familiars were crawling and staring at them through blood red eyes.

[7/17/14 - 3:17 AM - Airborn]

In a flash, Duncan was in her hand. Ivy wished to god that she'd have tested their sync before now but it was solid; at least they didn't have to learn it on the fly in front of a witch.

Two of the mongooses--mongeese? Mongi? Whatever they were they were leaping at her with their stupid teeth flashing.

She shot one in mid-leap and with another shot took care of the one still in the storage compartment but the third sunk its teeth into her leg.

"Shit! Shit fuck!" Ivy screamed, kicking it. It hit the wall and she took aim, pulling the trigger until Duncan started clicking out of protest.

"Fock," he said, "calm down, you got 'em."

And she had. It was a pity though, that they were just animals and not kishin eggs. She dropped into the seat.

"Shit," she breathed. "How did they even get in here? The witch is in Brazil..."

"I don't know," he said, but he sounded distant. Then, after a pause added, "at least it wasn't snakes."

[7/17/14 - 3:30 AM - Airborn]

"Snakes?" Ivy asked. "Why snakes?"

"I hate them," he said, twitching a little. "They're focking creepy. My girlfriend has one and I guess it's not that bad, but most of them? Hell no."

"Instead we get Mong...whatever the plural of mongoose is," Ivy said. "And those eat snakes."

"Yeah," Duncan said. "How focking ironic is that?"

"Pretty damn so," Ivy said. "I don't mind snakes, but you know what I don't like? Heights."

"You're kidding."

"Not at all. That's part of why I'm glad I got teleportation and not flying," Ivy said. "I don't know if I could do it."

Duncan chuckled.

"I don't admit that shit to just anybody, you know," he said. "I guess you're alright."

"You too. But I already knew that or I wouldn't have asked you along," Ivy said. "But let's not talk about this anymore, negative things aren't going to help us get shit done."

"So whot do you want to talk about then?"

[7/17/14 - 4:00 AM - Airborn]

"Let's try hopes," Ivy said. "what's something you want more than anything else?"

"Let's not go there, mine's kind of a downer too," he said.

"No," she said, "go ahead. We're going into the line of fire together, I can stand to hear the dark parts of you."

"There's someone I killed that I wish I could bring back," he said. "I didn't do it on purpose."

"Oh," she said, and knocked her heel against the bottom of the seat she was in. "I can't say the same about anyone I've slain, but I do have people I wish I could bring back."

"I think everyone does," Duncan said. "but if everyone got to do that, then death would be meaningless."

"Yeah," she said, looking up at the plane cieling. "But what about like, where you want to go with your life? You're a deathscythe now, that's pretty badass."

"There's a sliding scale," he said. "And honestly I never wanted to make a real go of Shibusen, I want to go do something else."

"Tell me about that," Ivy said.

[7/17/14 - 4:30 AM - Airborn]

"I want to make clocks," he said.

Her first reaction was to laugh at him.

"Oh shut up, like you don't have anything silly that you want to do," Duncan said, pursing his lips. "Go on then, whot do you want to do with your life?"

"I'm going to be a pirate."

"Because that's so much less silly than a clockmaker," Duncan said, furrowing his brow at her.

"Hush!" Ivy said. "It's not silly, it's totally do-able, my boyfriend is going to kill a pirate king and take over his ship."

"So then you're just going to go all over wiv him and hang onto his thing huh?" Duncan said. "Then again, Bridget wants to be a rock star and I'll be travelling quite a bit wiv her."

"I have my own thing too," Ivy said. "Like I said, I have tracking magic, and I'm a good shot. I'm going to be quite the huntress, and I can just teleport back whenever I feel like it."

"Must be focking convenient."

"Well, I do owe you a favor, you could use it for rides you know," Ivy said.

"There's another thing," Duncan said. "If you're such a badass teleporting witch then why didn't you just teleport us?"

Ivy coughed.

"I'm not the best at doing it yet," she said.

"Right," Duncan said, snickering.

"But it doesn't matter, cause we're here," Ivy said, pointing out the window. He leaned over to look.

[7/17/14 - 5:00 AM - Maraba, Brazil]

They moved through the town as quickly as they could and it didn't give Duncan much of a chance to see the place. It was a city, but her house was on the outskirts of it so really it seemed more like a suburb than anything.

There were buildings burning and people walking so that they had to go against the stream of them. Had the witch really caused this much damage so quickly?

"It's right there," Ivy said, pointing. "And there's my dad."

He was a bigger man, Duncan noted, and his eyes fell on them. He looked lost, and then his brow furrowed.

"Ivy," he said, in that foggy way lost people do, "you're a witch?"

[7/17/14 - 5:05 AM - Maraba, Brazil]

"We don't have time to talk about that right now," Ivy said. "It's what's going to help me find Beatriz."

"Like hell we don't have time to talk about this right now, why didn't you tell me?" Luiz asked, putting his hands on her shoulders.

"It's been busy, I just tracked down a spellbook," Ivy said. "I'm really sorry, okay?"

"Shh," Luiz said, hugging her close. "You kids are going to give me a heart attack mi hija. Go ahead, do what you have to do. What do you want me to do?"

Ivy hugged him back tightly; she had been afraid of how he would react, but this was her father, he could never judge her. And she could tell he knew what her reasons had been.

He'd have done it for her mother.

"Go to DC," Ivy said. "Take the plane it'll give you a lift, when we get Beatriz we'll meet you there. Have the plane come back here okay?"

"Sure," he said. "I'm proud of you. You've got this."

"I know, papa," Ivy said.

Duncan came up at her shoulder.

"Good," he said, "now show me these tracking powers of yours."

[7/17/14 - 5:15 AM - Maraba, Brazil]

Following a scent was a little bit like following paths in a maze. Turn the wrong way and you might lose it but it's pretty easy to pick back up.

I ran along the path with Duncan's weapon form in my hand. The scent was almost familiar but I was chalking that up to the smell of the mon...geese...gooses...

To the smell of the whatever on the plane.

She had set up shop on the south end of town, in a warehouse. It looked like it wasn't the only one she owned because there were splashes of all kinds of places here. And most importantly, there was Bea.

But once we got inside, there the witch was, and she smiled widely at us.

It was very clear we were going to have to fight to get to my little sister.

[7/17/14 - 5:30 AM - Maraba, Brazil]

Ivy found herself throwing her body out of the way as a fireball came rushing at her. That explained a lot. She whipped around and pulled the trigger a couple of times and the witch bobbed and weaved to avoid it.

Ivy rolled forward flashing partial in her free hand. she tried to catch the witch's arm and succeeded. A moment later, there were claws scraping her chest.

Ivy fired into her at point blank then teleported back to the front of the room. The witch smirked, shaking out the arm Ivy had grabbed with her partial.

"Haha," the witch said. "Good, I'm glad you came."

"Yeah," Ivy said, "I'm fucking here, what do you want with me?"

"Not you, little girl. Him," she said, extended a black clawed hand at Duncan.

[7/17/14 - 5:45 AM - Maraba, Brazil]

"Whot the fock are you talking about?" Duncan asked, reflecting in the gun.

"You're my flesh and blood, child," the witch said. "I am Metra, do not tell me you don't remember me."

Duncan flashed out of weapon form.

"Remember you? You're out of your bloody mind," he said.

The witch started to walk forward and Duncan looked at Ivy sidelong. Ivy nodded, and ran for Beatriz.

"How does calling in someone else get to me?" Duncan asked, folding his arms.

"Don't be dense, she had no reason to think of you. When I called, I layered a suggestion under my words. She went to you because I told her to," Metra said. She reached forward and dragged her claws along Duncan's cheek. "You look an awful lot like your father, but you have my hair."

"I look fock all like my father, you stupid bitch," he said, pulling back. Not fast enough. She backhanded him across the jaw.

"Honor thy mother, boy," Metra said. "The man I left you with was not your father. Though you'll be meeting him soon enough. Come along now."

Duncan didn't hesitate to shoot the hand that was reaching for him.

Metra swore and she more glared through him than at him.

"Child, you will regret that," she said. "And I will be back for you."

She was gone in the blink of an eye.

[7/17/14 - 5:50 AM - Maraba, Brazil]

Ivy picked Beatriz up. She was light, unconscious, and her arm had a gash in it from something. Her fingers came away bloody.

She missed most of what Duncan and the witch were saying to each other; he had given her this chance, and she had taken it. Ivy got to her feet to find the witch was gone.

"Did you kill her?" she asked.

"Do you see a soul?" he asked. "No. I didn't. But I will. I'm calling in that favor now, I want you to help me hunt her down."

"You know it can't be official, we haven't been gathering souls together," Ivy said, bringing Beatriz over to him.

"I don't care," Duncan said. "Do you want to do this wiv me or not?"

"Yes," Ivy said. "She hurt my dad and Bea, that's unacceptable. We're doing this."

They shared a nod. Sometimes that was all it took.

[7/17/14 - 6:30 AM - Death City, Nevada]

"Oh my god."

Kaleb caught her in a tight hug almost the second Ivy stepped off the plane, and then he took Bea from her and did the same.

"What happened? Tell me everything," he said.

So she did. While they were walking Ivy filled him in.

"It's crazy, but I think Dad wants to stay here for a while, are you okay with that?" Ivy asked.

"Of course," Kaleb said. "No place safer. Bea is gonna be alright. I'll get her enrolled in the elementary school here, maybe some NOT classes. You know she's a weapon?"

"Yeah," Ivy said. "Don't stress about it though, I'll do that."

"You're feeling all overprotective aren't you?" he asked.

"I can't help it after what just happened. You have all week to dote on her."

"Are you not staying?"

"Duncan and I have a witch to kill. Beatriz?"

"Mm?" she asked, looking up at IVy.

"You feel like meeting your new teacher?"

Beatriz smiled and nodded. IVy got the feeling she was just trying to be strong, but that was good for her. It meant she'd do okay later on.

[7/17/14 - 7:00 AM - Death City, Nevada]

Ivy held Bea's hand as they waked into the colorful classroom. She didn't have any supplies but she didn't seem to need them for right now, all she had to do was meet her teacher.

Ivy didn't want to let go.

It was hard, harder than letting your little sis take of for her first day of school in most cases because of what had just happened. She had stitches in her arm, she should have been taking the day off, but Bea wouldn't hear a word of that.

Ivy was proud of her.

This had taken guts.

Now she had to do something that would take guts too.

[7/17/14 - 1:00 PM - Death City, Nevada]

They were so tired they just crashed in a guest room in DC.

Duncan woke up first to find Ivy still crashed out on the other twin bed in the room.

They had nice lodgings here. The walls were papered, the carpet lush, the windows looking out on the sprawling city that was Death's.

He had never thought this would be a place he'd sleep, particularly not until afternoon, but neither he or Ivy had gotten to much of that the night before. They'd be rearing to go now, and that was important.

At least everyone was safe. But he didn't want to waste any time on waiting around.

He grabbed his jacket and put it on in spite of the heat, and headed of for a computer lab.

[7/17/14 - 1:30 PM - Death City, Nevada]

It took some digging but eventually I found her. Metra. There wasn't a whole hell of a lot on her, she was a pretty subtle witch overall, but whot pictures I found only seemed to support whot she'd told me.

She had my hair.

She had a lackey that looked creepily like me. More than my father ever had.

I didn't like that, it made me feel really uncomfortable, but it wasn't the worst that I'd ever seen. I didn't know either of them.

Maybe we were blood. Maybe she'd sent her stupid minions to attack Ivy through me. Whotever. All that meant was that we had to take her down so she couldn't do it again.

I had a plan. And a way that all of this could just be her fault.

I knew better, really. But it took some of the pressure off of me to think that way. I had a location, a vague enough one that we could narrow it down from there.

Now all I had to do was find Ivy and tell her that much. She'd be back in the room, right?

[7/17/14 - 2:00 PM - Death City, Nevada]

"Ivy wake up," he said. She sat up and gave him a groggy, questioning expression as though she'd forgotten where they were and what they were doing. "I'm sorry to do this to you right now, but I have to tell you whot happened. That person that I want to bring back? He was my friend. The first time I transformed I shot him on accident. I could have known whot I was if this bitch hadn't kept it from me, put me in the hands of some guy like that. It didn't have to be like this."

Ivy stared at him for a moment, then she nodded.

"Do you know where she is?" she asked.

"That's it?" Duncan asked. "No, 'how could you'? No 'I'm so sorry that happened'?"

"You've heard all that before, haven't you?" Ivy asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, that's not what partners are about. Partners just accept everything about you and move on," Ivy said. "Can we do that?"

"I'd appreciate it," Duncan said. "The plane is ready to go, we can be there in a half hour."

[7/17/14 - 2:30 PM - Mexico]

The witch had golems. Neither of them had expected that. Ivy was lying on her belly watching them and Duncan was crouched next to her, his back against a wall as he looked over his shoulder.

"There's a lot of those," he said. "Whot do we do about them?"

"We could try sniping," Ivy said. "But I don't know if we want to do that it might call too much attention. This has to be her main base, she has a lot of shit here. Do you feel all that power below? You can't see them because there's some kind of tectacite interference, but I can feel a shit ton of kishin eggs down there."

"Yeah," Duncan said. "Me too. So whot do we do?"

"Try to sneak by them?" Ivy asked, looking up at him. Duncan's eyes widened.

"Ivy, I don't think that's gonna work..."

[7/17/14 - 2:35 PM - Mexico]

"I thought the idea was /not/ to get caught!" Duncan shouted, transforming. He drew the attention of the few they hadn't caught already.

Ivy started shooting.

"Holy crap Duncan, you're a terrible ninja!" she shouted back. Then she teleported into the middle of them, shot one right in the core, and teleported out again, putting the barrel of the gun against one's middle back and shooting again.

There were at least seven more of them. Crap. Crap. Crap.

"That's working," he said. And just when he said it a metal limb came crashing into Ivy's shoulder and knocked her back. They were pinned.

"Oh fock," Duncan said.

In an instant, he was staring through Ivy's eyes.

[7/17/14 - 2:40 PM - Mexico]

"Why do I always have to have boobs?" he said. It was in his own accent but Ivy's voice. She was glaring at him from the gun, and Duncan fired.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Four.

He dropped a golem each time then he rolled to his...her...feet. Ivy was bustier than Kimi or Knite had been and the weight was throwing him off.

The way her breasts bounced when they moved...yet her hands were steady and he gunned down a fifth and a sixth. There was just one more.

"Holy crap," his own voice said. "What in hell is this, what in hell are you doing?"

"Saving our asses!" Duncan shouted back in Ivy's voice. He lined up the last shot and took a badass pause before pulling his own trigger.

Oh god, he was glad he didn't have a dick right now.

[7/17/14 - 2:45 PM - Mexico]

"Okay," Ivy said when she was back in her own body. "As cool as that was, what the actual fuck?"

"Sorry," he said. "You asked me to do this, I forgot to mention what I can do."

"Right?" Ivy asked. "I'm not even going to start with you."

"Oh hush," he said, twitching a little. "We keep going now, right?"

"Sure," Ivy said. "Just let me finish telling you what I'm telling you first."

"Whot's that?"

"You are a good god damn shot," she said. "And you're kind of a badass. If it helps to do that again, feel free."

[7/17/14 - 3:00 PM - Mexico]

"It's locked," Duncan said, pursing his lips.

"I can take care of that," Ivy said, taking a knee in front of the door.

"You can pick locks?"

"It's a thing," Ivy said. "My best friend challenged me with it all the time."

"With locks?"

"I'd have to break into his room to get him to do things outside it," Ivy explained. "Just a second more."

"Wow, you're pretty good at this," Duncan said.

"It's just another test," Ivy said, smiling. "We got this."

There was a click and a moment later the door swung open.

"Ready?" she asked.

"As ever," Duncan said, smirking, and he transformed back into a gun.

[7/17/14 - 3:30 PM - Mexico]

The compound was vast and it took them a while to get through it. The entire time, Ivy kept thinking about getting closer to that mass of souls she felt.

The witch would be behind the tectacite.

The crazy thing was, there was a golem guarding the door to the elevator that lead down below. Her heart was hammering.

"One more golem," Duncan said. "We can handle that."

Ivy took a deep breath and nodded, stepping out into the room. One more fight to get to the big fights.

[7/17/14 - 4:00 PM - Mexico]

Ivy took aim and shot.

The golem's core wasn't visible. She weaved out of the way as it came down at her with a buzz saw. It missed her by half a foot and she shot at it again.

There was a loud ping and one of the hinges holding its breast plate on came loose.

"Like that," Duncan said. "I bet the core's in there."

"Override," Ivy said.

So he did.

He took aim and shot, and shot. They hit and in moments the front panel came off, smacking into the ground with a clatter.

There was the glowing core. He smirked with Ivy's mouth and shot into it. There was a bright flash, and the golem fell to its knees.

Duncan dropped out of weapon form.

"Is something wrong?" Ivy asked.

"No," Duncan said. "I think I remembered something."

[7/17/14 - 4:05 PM - Mexico]

"She wasn't lying," Duncan said.

"Did you ever think she was?" Ivy asked.

"No, but it's different to actually remember it," Duncan said. "She was in our house. My dad? He wasn't my dad, but I always thought..."

"Tell me," Ivy said.

"She threatened him. I wasn't supposed to see it but I did. He told me to forget and I  did my best to do that."

"So you did?" Ivy asked.

"So I did," he said, and sighed. "And she was terrifying. And she probably still is. This isn't going to be easy."

"It never was," Ivy said. "But we can handle this. One elevator ride down, more fighting, and when we come out it's over."

"What if we can't?" Duncan asks.

"We have to try."

So they stepped into the elevator, and it lurched to move. The lights above them flickered, and went out.

[7/17/14 - 4:10 PM - Mexico]

Duncan could still feel the elevator moving down, but the dark was all-encompassing. For a long while it was just the sound of moving gears and rust.

And as they moved down the feeling of immense power washed over him. He couldn't, wouldn't, activate his soul perception to look, but he could feel it.

More of it.

Closer to him.

Goosebumps rose over his arms and he took a deep breath.

This was going to be difficult.

[7/17/14 - 4:15 PM - Mexico]

The elevator jolted to a stop at the bottom of the shaft. Ivy took his hand and he squeezed it, flashing into weapon form.

They could feel the mass on the other side. There had to be a small army of them. There had to be.

After a moment, the doors of the elevator swung open...

...and they found themselves face to face with a single man.

After the lights go out on you
After your worthless life is through
I will remember how you scream
I can't afford to care
Story time. I wanted to see if I could do it all in one day. Now I just have the witch fight left to write.
© 2014 - 2024 ArcanaFire
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