John headshots

"That sounds ominous," Zed told them. "Let's say that if you try that, I'll end up turning this volume knob up all the way. And the voices in the static here will get agitated."

"Try, and we'll agitate your insides," Bluntmunch told Zed.

"Let's not start a fight," Avery said. "Can we-"

"We can't," Gashwad growled. Doglick yipped.

"He won't budge until we make him," Bluntmunch said.

"Get in there, so John doesn't have to," Snowdrop said, off to the side.

Avery swayed on the spot, then backed up.

"We keep getting told, there's something wrong with outside practitioners," Verona said, as she backed up as well. "This might be your last chance to prove them wrong."

"Well, cat-faced Verona, that's an interesting detail all on its own."

*

"It's not meant to be."

"Back off?" Verona asked.

"No. Sorry."

"I'm sorry too," Avery said, off to Zed's right.

Zed turned to look, but Avery was gone.

She was in the woods on the other side of the road, almost behind Zed.

And John emerged shortly after, striding forward, gun in hand.

Zed didn't even see, but Brie did.

"Zed!" she shrieked, before lunging forward, grabbing Zed's arm, and pulling him to the ground, as John fired three times in quick succession.

"Cassette!" Zed kicked the bumper of the car, and the car radio kicked on, blaring the opening sting of some old music.

"Crying…!" the radio blared, top volume.

John dropped his gun to point at Zed or Brie, when he twisted. He was tackled by a man with a mullet, a wispy mustache, a tight shirt, and short-shorts.

"…cold tears!" the radio continued.

They hit the ground, and the gun went off, pressed against the attacker's chin. The bullet seemed to take the top of the man's head off. John put two more bullets in the man's chest as he rose to his feet. The car's cassette player skipped. Returning to the opening sting.

Verona put her hands to her ears, too late to matter, because they were ringing painfully.

"Crying cold tears!" the cassette player was still audible. The song playing over from the beginning.

The man with the mullet was gone, reappearing, resuming the attack. The foggy air around the car headlights had taken on a sunset tint.

The goblins swarmed, attacking the car. Static silhouettes met them, wrapping arms around them and then blurring in shape, like they were amoebas trying to swallow them up.

Doglick was ferocious, snarling and clawing like he was on a video being played at double speed. Snatch raked one with her messed up hand, snaring its 'arm', with Gashwad following up by biting the arm and nearly tearing it off.

John fired a bullet, dispatching the mullet man, which prompted the car's cassette player to skip, and the mullet man's reappearance. He couldn't find a free second to aim at anything else.

The gunshots seemed to make all of the static figures flicker or fade a bit.

Verona drew a card from her pocket, a marker from the other, and pulled the cap from it with her teeth.

But Zed had grabbed the radio, and cranked up the volume.

A static figure manifested out of nowhere, bright, and loud with static.

"Wartime, people everywhere scared, loss of life, and fear, panic-" the static man whispered at her.

The figure grabbed her wrist.

"We're cut off from everyone, we're surrounded by darkness, it's hopeless, and this message can't get out," it whispered.

She dropped the marker, reached into her pocket with care, and pulled out the thorn. She jabbed the static figure.

It dimmed, weakening, and all the others dimmed too. The static quieted, just a bit, the voices becoming less distinct.

"A distress call, from anyone to everyone, it doesn't matter when we're all gone," the figure whispered, quieter.

She was able to pull her hand free. She kicked at it, which pushed her back more than it pushed it away, then shouted, "Card!"

She threw the card.

John and Avery both covered their eyes. Zed and Brie didn't. The card flashed, lighting up the area.

It served to incapacitate the mullet man, giving John the opportunity to twist around and fire bullets into the hood of the car, apparently aiming at the cassette player from the outside. The bullets bounced off the hood, hit the windshield, and sparked there too.

He aimed at Zed, who was already taking cover behind an open car door, radio tucked under one arm.

"No killing!" Avery called out. "Incapacitate, then we try negotiating again!"

The mullet man tackled John again.

It was chaos, so much noise.

The flash hadn't affected the static figures, but it had affected the goblins. They were being overwhelmed with the static radio at full volume, swamped and swallowed.

Avery cut through them with the hockey stick, weakening them enough that the goblins could fight free.

"Cherry!" Avery called out, lowering her stick.

"Yaha!"

Once the goblin had grabbed the stick, Avery used it to fling her forward, into the open window. Or at it. She clipped the side, grabbed it, then jumped into the back seat.

Verona reached for her cloak, finished the circle to drench herself in darkness, and stepped around the light, holding the thorn, still. There was a chance it could hit the car's protection, or if she could stick it where this 'Zed' practitioner couldn't see it, it could be a way of getting him to back off.

More of the static rose up in her way.

"Here!" Toadswallow, beneath the car, tossed something Verona's way. "A loan!"

A gnarled and knobby stick.

Sure.

It was something she could use to swat at the static figures. Zed and Brie were in the car, and it looked like their whole setup was a nigh-indestructible car exterior and a whole bunch of gizmos that produced Others.

John reloaded. The mullet man came after him, and John shot him without looking. The man reappeared, and John shot him again, picking up speed as he jogged, then ran toward the car.

The car squealed on the road, backing up. It looked like Brie was trying to catch Cherrypop, who was rampaging around inside beneath the seats, and Zed was reversing, to keep some distance between them and the Dog of War John Stiles.

Except the car made it about a foot before stopping. Tires squealed and the car fishtailed, fish-headed? The back tire caught.

It was Butty, the pear-shaped goblin, lying down behind the tire. His face contorted as the tire skidded against his side and hip, finding no traction against his flesh. It did catch the frilly granny panties the goblin wore, and made them ride up, never quite making them tear.

Goblins are chaos. They make a controlled situation messy.

Bluntmunch jumped onto the hood. He began pounding. Two of the other goblins soon followed, so that the car itself was their high ground against the massing static.

Verona backed away from more of the static, trying to find an angle to get through. She wasn't good at this.

At the car, John had caught up. He got to the window, which was rolled up, and said something to his gun, touching his dog tags.

He pressed the gun to the window.

"Don't kill them!" Avery warned.

The car headlights, the static, and the blaring noise of the cassette player all stuttered at once. Many of the static figures disappeared.

An advantage? Had someone figured out something to do?

The gun made a dull sound as John pulled the trigger. He looked down at it, then cast it aside.

A trick on Zed's part.

- Out on a Limb 3.7