50 Thread Synopsis

-THE SUMMARY-

The story began with Sierra Beckhoff, who had a few months prior fled from her foster home to escape the consequences of losing control of her powers in a school. She fell into the good graces of Benjamin ‘Monster’ Cook, second in command of a gang known as the West Side Cobras, who tried to help her out of a tough spot by giving her a place to stay. Eventually, she started participating in the gang, helping to mark territory, burglarize cars, and sell drugs.

The first day she was trusted with moving product on her own, she is accosted by Ian, a member of a rival gang known as the Crips. She discovers from him that Trevon, an upstart in the rival gang, is planning to attack Cobra Manor, the center of operations for the Cobras, and the place of her residence.

She warns the gang, and they mount a defense against the imminent attack. In the crossfire, it is revealed Trevon has some kind of incredible regenerative ability. Monster takes a hit for the team and dies. Sierra is distraught, and loses control of herself. When she awakes, everything is dead or on fire. Trevon comes at her, revealing he has claws just like she does. He offers to tell her about what she is.

Sierra refuses and attempts to fight him. She starts losing, but before Trevon can strike a mortal blow, a mysterious guy with a crossbow interferes by shooting him in the back. Sierra takes advantage of the distraction and flees, while the hunter pursues. She runs into police officers, and seeks refuges from her unidentified attacker in their custody.

The police interrogate Sierra, and try to push her to detail events of what happened. She refuses, even when they put enormous emotional pressure on her. She nears losing control, and eventually has to use her powers to force a break in the interrogation. Meanwhile, she overhears (through soundproof glass) a conversation between the chief of police and who she suspects is the person who tried to kill her. He apparently knows what she can do.

Later, when she is in a holding cell, Sierra awaits her inevitable release. The police have no witnesses and they don’t have any evidence to connect her with the shootout last night. Her crossbow armed attacker comes to speak with her while she’s still in lock up. His name is Isaac Hallow, and he’s a demon hunter. He did his research and found out about parts of Sierra’s past, and offers her a place to stay since her old place got burned down.

With no other real prospects with Monster dead, Sierra begrudgingly agrees. She is told she’s hellborn, part demon, part human, and has done a pretty good job of not turning into a complete monster while unsupervised. Then she meets Isaac’s family – identified as demonbane, or angelkin, he and his children are part angel, part human. His daughter Rowan, about Sierra’s age, is distrustful of Sierra’s presence. Harvey, Isaac’s son, seems to find the whole matter interesting and pretty cool, and doesn’t really have any problem with it. Cassandra Hallow, Isaac’s wife, goes out of her way to take care of Sierra, and make her feel welcome.

After a day or two, Sierra is bewildered by the Hallows’ hospitality, and freaks the hell out. She winds up screaming at Harvey, who doesn’t really react. He helps calm her down, and later she watches Robocop with the family and talks to Isaac about why he’s letting some crazy hellborn person stay in his idyllic household. Isaac reveals that, based on tragic past experience, he really doesn’t think Sierra has much a shot at ever being able to lead an okay life without somebody who knows whats what looking out for her, and thinks she’s worth giving a chance.

The first several nights after the shootout, Sierra suffers from horrific reoccurring nightmares featuring the circumstances the deaths of her mother, Cornelia, and her identical twin sister, Nevada. This is mostly a boat and lots of drowning. Her deathly phobia of scissors also finds its way into her dream, and generally her sleep is tormented by images of those she loves being killed before her eyes, right before she’s killed herself.

Though fighting through dreamscapes, Sierra has no real other plans. Gradually, she is lured into a normalish lifestyle, getting back into school and associating with non-crazy people her own age. Having revealed she is mysteriously gaining new abilities, Isaac thinks the best course of action is to push and master everything as fast as possible, so she can get a handle on everything before it gets out of control.

In the meantime, Sierra attends school with Rowan, and finds that she makes good company, and shares several of her interests. She also finds that, despite being a cool half angel demon hunter, she has some rather silly mundane problems with a disgruntled soccer team captain that just can’t accept that Rowan quit the team. Rowan meanwhile discovers that Sierra likes art and comics, has holdups about school because she doesn’t know she needs glasses, and generally doesn’t take crap from anybody.

While training one day with Rowan and Isaac, he gets a hit on Trevon, who is not dead, but was marked with a magical tracker. Sierra is angry with Trevon for causing Monster’s death, and desires revenge. She accompanies the Hallows, and forces herself into the attack on Trevon’s boss’s hideout. His boss is a Stygian named Nabuth, and he is not prepared for the surprise attack. Sierra utilizes skills she didn’t tell Isaac about in order to beat the demonbane to the punch and corner Nabuth’s human lieutenant before he can retreat.

Trevon ambushes Sierra, and gives her a run for her money. Despite his injuries he regenerates wounds faster than she can inflict him. Sierra makes use of her heightened senses, and destroys the light, and is able to disorient Trevon enough to light him on fire, and then claw him to death.

She then discovers that Nabuth’s human lieutenant is actually Nabuth himself. Nabuth tries to broker his way out of being captured or killed, by offering Sierra help with killing Meckor, and more information about her past. Sierra insists that Nabuth discuss this with Isaac. Nabuth insists he escape, and is worried that Isaac will kill him no matter what he says. Sierra holds her ground, and Nabuth threatens to take her down with him if she doesn’t let him go. Sierra refuses again, and Nabuth attacks her, forcing her to lose control of her powers.

When she awakes, she is by an unidentified dead guy, and is a mess. She is highly unsettled by the incident, but manages to put it out of mind. Eventually, she works her way back to an area she knows, and makes contact with the Hallows via payphone. They have a Russian druid named Borislav Zerevskii pick her up. He takes her to the hospital, where she finds she has wounded Rowan quite badly during her uncontrollable rage.

Cassandra says Ro wants to talk to her, and Sierra acquiesces, feeling guilty. Rowan and Sierra talk for a while, and eventually reach an understanding between one another. Rowan sees that despite her monstrous powers, Sierra is really an insecure girl her own age who really doesn’t understand anything that’s happening to her, and would rather just be able to function normally, and Sierra sees that Rowan was legitimately worried about the safety of her family, based on the horrible things she did when she lost control of herself.

A few days later, while coming home from school, Rowan and Sierra are attacked by a demon sent by Nabuth’s demon boss, a former general named Meckor. The attacking demon is named Stirn, and unleashes several hellhounds to kill the girls. Sierra reveals the full extent of her power while trying to defend Rowan, who still hasn’t recovered from the injuries sustained by Sierra’s freak out, but is overwhelmed by the number of hellhounds.

She holds them off long enough for Rowan to get to safety, but finally succumbs to their numerical superiority. It’s then that Stirn’s biggest hellhound shows up. Surprisingly, it doesn’t attack Sierra. Instead, it kills the remaining hellhounds, and then shows Sierra a friendly side. Sierra vaguely recalls the hellhound as a family pet from her childhood days, named Reeber.

Stirn shows up then, angry at the loss of his hounds, and assuming Sierra used magic to sway Reeber away from his control. He goes to finish her off. Meanwhile, Sierra sees Cassandra and Harvey driving down the road fast, and stalls him long enough that they can run him over and shoot him to death.

Isaac isn’t pleased that Sierra lied to him about the full extent of her demonic nature, but is willing to forgive her based on the fact she saved his daughter. Sierra then learns that her heritage, that of Infernus fire demons and Verwelken shadow demons, should mean she is extremely unstable and prone to spontaneous combustion. However, since she hasn’t exploded, it also means that she should never stop growing more powerful.

A week goes by, and Sierra and Rowan are kept under careful guard while they recover from their injuries and go to and from school. Sierra grows restless, and goads Rowan into going out on the town with her friends.

Sierra and Ro sneak off with Baron and Vikrama, two other highschool seniors who Rowan helps with the school paper. They go shopping at Haight street, and Sierra acquires a swanky dress, an awesome jacket, and a book about time travel. She also discovers another mysterious figure following them around, and assumes it’s another of Meckor’s demons.

She confronts the man, and leans his name is Waldric, and that he’s a Belphegoran, an emotion vampire. While his assignment is to assassinate Sierra, based on her killing Nabuth and Stirn, he doubts his ability to do so. Fearing reprisal for his lack of duty, he explains, he desires to defect to Sierra’s cause, and help kill Meckor and his other lieutenants, who are in a bid to take over San Fransisco. While suspicious of his offer, Sierra accepts.

Some time later, Sierra is contacted by Waldric in her school. He gives her inside information on where to find two more of Meckor’s lieutenants, a slaver Belphegoran named Cordeliate and an Infernus soldier named Ranthix who handles Meckor’s security operations. Sierra takes this information to the Hallows, and Isaac decides the family needs to train together for the upcoming operation.

They go to Muir Woods, and meet with Borislav, who also works as a park ranger there. They spend an entire day training, sparring, and becoming familiar with one anothers abilities. Sierra also learns about the general nature of magic and the world, finding magic isn’t really a secret, but most people just don’t want to believe in it. Isaac himself is actually a Marshal, a specially US appointed arcane cop for the region.

While staying, Sierra has a dream flashback to when her mother was still alive. She remembers her mother in demon form, and being in hell. She also recalls her demon name, Sakheris, as well as an unknown figure who she suspects had something to do with her sister and mother’s deaths.

Also while in Muri Woods, Borislav shows Sierra the heart of the forest, a cynosure of natural magic called a landwell. Sierra feels compelled to touch the landwell, and is in for a shock. The landwell aligns itself with her, changing color to her favorite shade of crimson, and granting her an increase in power. When Sierra recovers from the experience, she finds she has horns in addition to new abilities. Isaac and Borislav explain to her that she’s a landmaster, and has the capability to claim landwells. She will never die of old age, and should be capable of things that neither Isaac nor Borislav really understand, as landmasters are quite rare.

Continuing, everybody comes together to lead an assault on Cordeliate and Ranthix’s hideout, a mansion up in the hills. Through fierce fighting, their captives bound for slavery in hell are liberated, and Cordeliate is slain by Sierra’s claw. Sierra gains Cordeliate’s lightning enchanted sword, Zelathis, which is pretty awesome. Ranthix is wounded and is in full retreat when Sierra tries to finish him off.

Ranthix defeats Sierra handily and almost without effort, and carries her off while asking her questions. Eventually Sierra talks, and Ranthix puts her down and, for some reason, proclaims that she bested him in battle and that he is at her mercy to be killed. Sierra is weirded out, and refuses to kill Ranthix, who makes confusing and grand allusions to glory and honor and who knows what. Eventually, Sierra comes clean and reveals she really doesn’t know anything about hell or demons. Ranthix is surprised, and leaves suddenly and without warning. Sierra can’t really stop him, and is forced to go back.

Later at school, Sierra has her own classes, art being among them. There she encounters Moriah Crowther, a Gothy loner kind of girl who likes pentagrams. The two hit it off, and a friendship is begun. At home, Sierra bonds with the Hallows. She watches Harvey play video games, and does shadow puppets with Rowan, and gets Isaac to help her with Russian homework. Feeling troubled about being unable to control her stress and anxiety issues, she comes to Cassandra with the problem, and in turn learns some about meditation and anger management techniques.

A month goes by, and Sierra learns more about landmaster powers, learning that she can summon creatures to her command from pure force of magic. She also deepens her relationship with Rowan and her friends, as well as Moriah. It’s about this time that Moriah suggests that they hang out to finish a project. Sierra agrees, wanting to see where she lives.

As it turns out, Moriah lives in a huge creepy house and has a tall creepy dad. While working on a collage and trying not to freak out about the use of scissors, Moriah reveals that she is, in fact, an avid game master, and invites Sierra to participate in her family gaming session. Sierra, willing to give anything a shot, agrees, and the two head down to dinner.

Sierra then meets Wolfgang, a nineteen year old Freshman college student studying law, who is Moriah’s older brother. She also meets Maviel, Wolfgang and Moriah’s older sister. With Maviel is Waldric, who is Maviel’s very serious boyfriend. Waldric and Sierra are surprised to see one another at the gathering, but don’t say anything over the table, choosing instead to let their antagonism stew in secret.

Sierra enjoys the rest of her dinner with the Crowthers, and then Moriah helps her put together a character for her Star Wars RPG. The whole family plays together, Waldric included,  and Wolfgang gives Sierra a ride home due to the lateness of the hour.

Later on a Saturday, Sierra gets aa phone call from Waldric, explaining that in the wake of the attack that killed Cordeliate, General Meckor has gone insane, and has changed his plan to that of a full-scale invasion of San Fransisco from hell. As Isaac redoubles his efforts to find and stop the demon baron, Sierra winds up scoring a job as a deputy marshal, legitimately recognized and paid as Isaac’s assistant.

In order to secure the job, however, she must speak with the Magistrate, an old Chinese fortune teller woman. While being interviewed, the fortune teller, Ms. Song, reads Sierra’s fortune, and also reveals some facts to her about her mother, whose name was not actually Cornelia, but Corithis. Sierra’s mother was the queen of an empire called Chthonia, which dissolved when she died. Sierra is challenged to remember the night her mother died, and when pressed, experiences a flashback in which she realizes she has repressed memories that she cannot access.

Later, Sierra finds that Beatrice, Rowan’s old soccer captain, has stolen Moriah’s sketchbook, and goes on a hunt to reclaim it. She confronts Beatrice in the gym, but when a fight ensues, she accidentally falls into the pool and nearly drowns. Baron, who followed Sierra to make sure she didn’t do anything stupid, leaps in after her, drags her out, and revives her with CPR. In the wake of the accident, Beatrice returns Moriah’s sketchbook and decides to leave Rowan and her friends alone.

Later, it is revealed that Meckor’s plan to invade San Fransisco is not possible except with the use of an unclaimed landwell or a landmaster. Since he doesn’t have a landmaster, it is assumed there is a landwell within San Fransisco that he plans to use for the task. Borislav takes Sierra and searches the city for the well, relying on Sierra’s sense of land magic to detect the well and claim in, thereby putting a stopper in Meckor’s plans.

During the search, Isaac is contacted for a job by Deletrius Crowther, Moriah’s father, who is also a Magister, a federal judge who presides over magical affairs in the area. Being busy with other tasks, Isaac tells Borislav and Sierra to take care of it. They meet with Crowther, and find out the details of the task. Goblins have acquired the first American flag, and are refusing to sell it back to the US government. Sierra, being part Verwelken, is the only means whereby the flag can be retrieved through stealth.

Borislav, Sierra, and her hellhound Reeber head to a meeting with the leader of the warren, a goblin named Boneskin, under the guise of making a trade for the flag. However, after they go through a mirror and end up in a magical plane of existence which is removed from the material plane of Earth, which place is the place of residence of the band of goblins, Sierra sneaks off and finds her way around the dark space to locate the flag.

Through stealth and liberal application of shadow powers, she eventually locates the vault where the goblin treasures are stored. After desposing of the guards, she leaves the last one alive to help her open the vault. The goblin, Tarris, is surprisingly prepared to pick the vault door, and Sierra and the goblin head inside. They locate the flag, but as she is about to retrieve it, another two thieves come in the vault behind her and try to secure the flag from her.

Sierra tries to execute a psychological attack on them, but instead of the magic having effect, it backfires and explodes. The explosion sets off the vault’s security mechanism, and it seals shut behind them. While trying not to freak out about being sealed in a goblin vault, Sierra speaks with the other thieves. Their names are Frederick and Zote, and they are freedom fighters from a nation on another plane of existence. Derick is a mage who can control fate, which is how he managed to get lucky and get in the vault through Sierra. Zote is an unidentified creature with a number of technological gadgets that are unfamiliar to Sierra. They desire the flag to help their side win their war of independence.

Sierra is unsure the flag, a symbol of national strength for the United States, will work for a foreigner. After trying unsuccessfully to pick the goblin vault door from the inside, Derick comes up with the idea that Sierra should try to use the flag to aid their escape. Sierra takes up the flag, and gains marvelous powers of freedom and liberty. The group smashes out of the vault, fights through animated goblin statues, and picks up Borislav and Reeber from their fight with Boneskin and his goblin warriors after their stalling tactics have run out.

The group flees to the entrance of the warren, and Sierra refuses to give the flag to Derick for his alleged war of independence, and instead tells him to talk to the Magister and see if he can’t negotiate terms for borrowing the flag. They return to San Fransisco after narrowly escaping the warren, and meet up with Crowther. Sierra returns the flag, and Crowther refuses to let them borrow it for their fight, and sees to it that they’re sent back to where they belong. Derick is disappointed by this turn of events.

Later, Sierra gains a tail, and talks to Cassandra about the difficulties of hiding her true self from everyone around her. She takes refuge in Cass’s understanding, and Cassandra hints that if Sierra wants, the Hallows would adopt her. Sierra doesn’t have an answer, and takes off for school with Rowan. Later in the day, Rowan and Sierra get ready for a Halloween rave. Rowan goes as Batgirl, and Sierra decides to go as herself in demon form.

They go to Vik’s house, where Sierra meets and plays with Vikrama’s younger sisters and waits for Rowan to help her finish the final touches on her costume. Then they go to the party, and meet up with Baron, who is in a Tron lightsuit, and Nathan, one of Baron’s friends, who is dressed as Captain Kirk. They go into the rave and party hard. During the party, Sierra ends up challenging Draco Malfoy to a dance off, and narrowly managing to beat him. It isn’t until she’s engaged in the dance battle that she realizes that Draco is actually Wolfgang in costume.

Wolfgang and Sierra hang out after their encounter, and Wolfgang hints that he knows Sierra’s costume isn’t actually a costume. Sierra is surprised, but Wolfgang says Moriah is also present, and will be happy to hear the news. They meet Moriah outside, and Moriah is ecstatic. She reveals she and her family are secretly Hellions, and is delighted to find out that Sierra is hellborn.

They go back into the party, and Sierra introduces the Crowthers to her friends, and the group parties the rest of the time together. Along the way, Rowan meets a guy named William who is dressed as Red Hood. The two hit it off and they spend the rest of the party in one another’s company.

After the party, the Crowthers leave. Sierra gets a phone call from Waldric, saying that he knows where Meckor is. Suspecting a trap, she and Rowan decide they can’t risk not showing up to the location described by the Belphegoran. They borrow Vikrama’s car under the pretense of a family emergency, and Sierra heads in along while Rowan stays outside and keeps guard.

Sierra goes to the location and finds that it’s Waldric’s apartment. When she goes inside, she discovers Waldric critically injured and unconscious, and Meckor, Ranthix, and Philostrathus, a Tataran seer, in the house with her. Meckor tries to incinerate Sierra, but is stopped by Ranthix, who demands the right to kill Sierra for defeating him in battle. Sierra takes advantage of the distraction to flee, but is disabled by Khel, another demon who was waiting outside.

When she comes to, she is being thrown through the window by Ranthix, while Meckor attempts to stop him. As she’s falling, the window out of which she was thrown explodes. Once she recovers and gets up, she finds Philostrathus barring her path at every turn with numbers of summoned snakes and an ability that lets her teleport every time she’s about to be injured.

Sierra runs, and the face of the apartment building explodes, knocking her to the ground. Meckor descends from the rubble, searching for Sierra to kill her. She flees, and repeatedly has to fight through Philostrathus, who always manages to be in front of her.

She makes a rendezvous with Rowan, who has rescued Waldric from being burned to death, even as the rest of the building evacuates. Sierra fights off Khel once more, and they make a beeline for the car.

Meckor descends from the sky and destroys the vehicle, and then tries to burn Rowan, Sierra, and Waldric to death. Though, as he has been deprived of his fire throwing trident, Ro is able to hold off the onslaught long enough for Sierra to discover she’s immune to fire and make a counter attack. Sierra lures Meckor away from Rowan and Waldric, but finds she is unable to hurt him even with Rowan’s assistance.

She tries to flee, and is cut down. Meckor comes over to finish the job, but Ranthix reappears, accusing him of treason for trying to kill Corithis’s heir, and engages him in battle. Meanwhile, Sierra fights off Philostrathus, snakes, and Khel and makes a break for it. She can’t ever escape Philostrathus, who is always around every corner. Tired and beleaguered, she is cut off by Meckor. She cuts through a building and is pursued, during which time Meckor is soaked with water from fire sprinklers.

Sierra exits the building only to find her way of escape cut off by Philostrathus and innumerable snakes. Meckor grabs her, and begins choking the life out of her, accusing her of making the queen weak and able to be killed. Isaac finally shows up then, and uses his magic piercing crossbow to injure Meckor. Meckor sounds a retreat, and runs off, trying to burn off the water in order to fly away. Philostrathus demands Sierra be killed, and sends her snakes.

Isaac is unsure if he should kill Meckor or stop Philostrathus from making Sierra freak out, but Sierra yells at him to kill Meckor, which he does. Then Sierra gets covered in snakes and loses control.

She awakes on a freeway in a scene of horrible carnage. Shell shocked, she leaps off the overpass to avoid incoming law enforcement, and breaks her leg. She hobbles off into a construction site to hide in the dark, and suffers a psychological breakdown from the innocents she’s hurt or killed.

Isaac and Reeber show up some time later and retrieve her.

Isaac blames Sierra’s episode on his own irresponsibility, and excuses her from her job as a deputy marshal. He offers to look after her for real, like he does for his own children, and tells her adoption is still on the table. Sierra accepts.

Sierra meets later with the Crowthers about Meckor being dead. As it turns out, the only viable candidates for the demonic fief of San Fransisco are Waldric and Philostrathus. Since their vote in the conclave is deadlocked, it is likely that hell will send another demon over to take the fief. Then it is revealed there’s someone left to break the tie, however, he is voting for Sierra to become the new baroness. Ranthix barely survived his fight with Meckor, and reveals he is loyal to the daughter of Corithis, Sierra.

Being advised by Isaac to refuse the fief, Sierra tells Ranthix to let Waldric be the baron. She, meanwhile, is given a seat on Waldric’s conclave.

A week later, Sierra is training with Ranthix to learn to control her more animalistic urges. When coming home, Isaac calls to inform her his step cousin once removed, an angel named Sattler, has heard the news of San Fransisco’s demon problems, and has come to help him hunt down Philostrathus, the only reportedly still living demon.

Sierra meets Sattler, and goes under the guise of being a landmaster pyromancer, knowing that angels and the US government have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to demons. That night, feeling cooped up with having to hide her true nature in her own home, Sierra begins having PTSD related to her most recent freakout. She leaves the house in the middle of the night to clear her mind, but she begins having a breakdown and panic attack.

She winds up calling Moriah so she can have somebody to talk to, and after some time she calms down. After her conversation, she still feels wired, so she decides to run to the top of San Bruno mountain, just because she can. At the top of the mountain, she begins feeling the impression of a landwell. Still tired from her run and not thinking very clearly, she finds the landwell and wanders right into a trap Philostrathus has set up for her.

Sierra is overcome by snakes, and Philostrathus almost manages to succeed in dragging Sierra into a hell portal fashioned from the landwell, but Sierra manages to break free at the last instant and claim the landwell. Using her newly acquired power, Sierra overcomes Philostrathus and exacts revenge by burning her to death.

She calls Isaac and lets him know what’s going on, and him, Harvey, Rowan, and Sattler come to pick her up. Sierra feels she has some extra power meant to be shared, and winds up giving it to Rowan. Rowan sprouts angel wings and a halo, her own power amplified by the landwell empowerment.

Sattler decides that she likes the area, and decides to stay for a while, even though all the demons she knows about are dead. Sierra goes and talks to Harvey after they get home, and finds him making a chainmail shirt and talking to his friend Sydney, an elf girl, over skype. Sierra discovers that they’re planning a beach party to celebrate all the hostile demons in San Fransisco being dead, and they invite Sierra to come along.

Sierra invites all of her friends, and then goes to the party. She builds sandcastles and plays volleyball with all of her friends, and then Moriah and Wolfgang arrive. Sierra and her friends enjoy a few drinks and get a little drunk, and Moriah has a negative reaction to alcohol due to her Hellion physiology. Sierra goes on a walk with Rowan, and decides with her to eventually reveal their angel and demon natures to their friends, Vikrama and Baron.

Later, Ranthix arrives, and cooks everybody sandwiches. Rowan is surprised by William’s arrival, and the two hang out. Sierra checks up on Moriah to make sure she’s all right, and finds Baron looking after her. She goes to find Wolfgang and see how he’s doing, and chats a little with him. In the isolated and somewhat romantic setting of a nighttime beach, Sierra perhaps accidentally acts on her attraction to Wolfgang, and kisses him.

Wolfgang sheepishly reveals he has a girlfriend, and spaghetti spills from all of Sierra’s pockets.

And that is what happened.