lt_safe_house | Not a Star in Heaven

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Not a Star in Heaven

Date: June 1st, near sunset
Location: In the woods, behind the Manor
Status: Public -COMPLETE
Summary: Raphael fights a Hellbeast and wins. Part of the Riddle Plot

For some reason, I keep thinking of High School Musical’s, Breaking Free as I wrote this. Despite the violent nature of this post, it kinda fits.

Not a Star in Heaven…

“Now, Pudge, that was uncalled for…”

Despite the animal throwing acorns at him, Raphael chuckled and shook his head. “Hurry up and catch a mouse, okay?” He shot another look to the horizon, at the dark clouds quickly covering the night sky like a particularily ominous blanket.

Pudge soared down to his shoulder and ruffled his feathers indignantly. Raphael was about to gladly oblige his feathered friend into going back inside when he saw a dark shape disappear into the twisted shadows of the woods.

Ice slid into his stomach. Rose liked to go into the woods by herself and he knew others sometimes did too. That… thing could hurt one of his family!

Swallowing the knot in his stomach he let Pudge return on his own and forced himself to step into the gnarled shadows that seemed to be grabbing at him, as if they had solidified into claws to pull him into the twisted darkness. Above him, thunder rumbled.

There is blood… so much blood…

A young girl is injured, claws are tearing into his soft flesh…

“You are the Healer of God!”

“RAAAWRR!”

Raphael leaped around and quickly dodged out of the way of the shrieking animal. His sword and belt materialized and he grasped its hilt, staring down the creature that could tear him into shreds.

Was it just him, or were those teeth longer than what was normal for a Hellbeast?

…One of the Seven that Stand Before the Throne!”

He whirled around, the creature catching his shoulder but thankfully only managing to pull a few tufts of fuzz from his tiny wing. Another howl ripped through the air and Raphael realized with a clear horror that the Hellbeast was searching for someone. And it wasn’t him, not like the last one had been.

Heart thumping in his chest he leaped after the creature, gripping at the scruff of its neck. The animal snarled and rolled over, crushing the angel beneath its heavy weight.

Raphael bit back a cry of pain but he pulled an arm free, the other with the sword still crushed, using it to grip the animal’s snout. If it would just rain, maybe he could…

Lightning flashed, flickering through the dark silhouettes. Melting it wouldn’t be a good idea. Not while crunched on top of him like this. He remembered the burns from where the first creature had dissintegrated on him, but at least that had melted away from him. This was determined to crush him.

He brought an arm up, concentrating, ignoring the snarl as the animal’s teeth sank into his shoulder again. In a moment of time that could have easily been missed by a human watching, a particularily sharp branch fell from one of the trees and, right as the beast realized it and twisted off, the pointed end sunk deep into its neck, skewering it to the ground.

Then it started raining.

For a moment, Raphael let the water wash over him as he lay there, staring up at the canopy above as his injuries slowly healed. He watched the flecks of lightning dance across the sky, his unnecessary breath slowly becoming more even and steady.

That creature was after somebody.

Wait.

That thing… was searching for somebody.

He forced himself to his feet, stumbling a few times onto his knees before regaining balance and racing into the Manor.

((*))

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Jarod looked up at Michael. "It's called science," he said patiently. "You dissect something, you draw charts and stuff, and detailed drawings of what it looks like inside, and you write down all the sizes and where what is and so on. Maybe we'll even be the first people in the world to study this kind of animal!"

He nearly added "too bad it's dead", but caught himself just in time.

To Raphael he said: "I've tried ice cubes before. They work for a time, but they still melt and the bodies still stink. I couldn't shower in my hotel room for a week because of the guy in my bathroom."

Raphael tried not to stare, nearly forgetting to keep the dome around them up. "When... was that?" He tried to sound non-chalant.

"A few years ago," Jarod said. "He was an assassin, and someone else had killed him in his hotel room, so I stored him in the bathroom and took his place. I couldn't have done that if his body had turned up somewhere after all!"

He made a face at the memory and decided to relief the 'angel'. Oh, all of them seemed so concerned to hear someone had done anything that smelled of a crime.

"I brought his next two victims to safety - a husband and wife just recently split up - , helped them make up and then tied up his clients for the police."

Raphael slowly nodded. "I've gone undercover to help people," he said. Not as an assassin, but the point still stands. He forced his confused mind back on the situation at hand. "So ice cubes would be a no then," he said, trying not to make a face.

Michael sighed. "So weird," he mourned.

The last one was a lot better.

"Listen, I've been covered in the entrails of these things plenty of times. It's nothing too exciting. It kinda burns, and really smells. Point is, if you really want, I can try catching you a live one sometime, but can we just get rid of this one?"

"You'd do that?" Jarod beamed at Michael. "That's cool. Really, that'd be great! Where do you think we could keep it? What do they eat by the way? We can't very well feed it people."

He glanced down at the dead one. "And let's not waste this one. Maybe we can just put it where no animals will get to it while I talk to the perosn who owns this place about setting up a lab, maybe, and bringing in stuff? It'd be a shame if it was eaten before we can have a proper look."

"They only eat humans if they have to. They prefer angels." He shrugged. "But I haven't done a lot of exploring so I couldn't tell you where we should keep it..."

Michael relooked at the beast corpse. "I hope nothing eats it. Doesn't strike me as edible. Not that I've ever tried."

Jarod looked slightly concerned as he bent to start dragging the cadaver out of the open and towards a sheltered place along the building.

"Do you think something might be ... I don't know, demonically changed if it ate that?"

Concern mingled with curiosity in his voice, though.

Michael shrugged. "Only one way to find out!" He drew his sword and cut off a piece of its hide. He picked it up, sniffed. "Smells like lame." He nibbled. "Tastes like bad."

"Hey!" Jarod protested. "You can't eat my sample! A.) It might be toxic, B.) It might make you sich and C.) It's not scientific!"

Michael spat it out. "Wha'evah," he said, "Thienth ith thtupid, becauth y' need t' be han's-on in life. Mah tong ith nom now, bah nah you know tha ea'in' i's a ba' idea."*

He regarded the dead beast thoughtfully. "I' coul' a' leatht ha' tha dethenthy t' tathte goo', tho' Ah wondah wha' would happ'n if a worthe anthel ate it."**

* "Whatever. Science is stupid, because you need to be hands-on in life. My tongue is numb, but now now you know that eating it is a bad idea."

** "It could at least have had the decency to taste good, although I wonder what would happen if a worse angel ate it."

Raphael sucked in a sharp breath, blinking in shock at what his big brother had done. He reached over with his fingers, still slightly smudged with blood, and touched Michael's cheek with it, willing healing into him. "Be more sensible, Michael," he said with a fond smile. And to be honest, he rather liked that he had acted within his purpose. Healing...

"I think we should keep it!" he continued, shooting gleaming excited eyes at the Warrior. "Wouldn't it be fun to see what these things are really made of?" The Patron Angel of Science grinned at Jarod, already imagining what lay beyond the beast's tough exterior.

"Is he going to be okay=" Jarod asked Raphael with a somewhat worried glance at Michael.

To the blonde angel he added: "You don't go around eating people's samples, as I said! I'll want a tissue sample of you to learn more about the reaction. And of you," he said, again, to Raphael.

"You... You want a what?" He sure hoped he hadnt made the idea of cutting into a Hellbeast sound so fun he wanted to dissect everything...

"Just a few drops of blood and a few cells I can use for studies.. Like form a swab. Stuff like that. Won't hurt a bit, I promise!"

The reaction did bring him back to his original impression of experiments, though. He just wished those so-called angels were a bit more forthcoming and a bit less reverential.

Well, if the Son wanted it... He was still visibly cringing. Way to go, Raphael. You've turned the Son of your Creator into a mad scientist.

"Still, you sound less like a concerned scientist and more like a dude who just wants to collect samples of people, like a crazy serial killer," Michael pointed out.

Had this been anyone else, he would have eaten some more of the hellbeast just out of spite. But this wasn't anyone else, this was Failchrist, and, well, better to be safe than sorry.

"Crazy serial killers," Jarod pointed out, "don't collect samples. They collect souvenirs. Kind of like keepsakes, you know."

He considered the cadaver. "Let's see if we can find something to cover this with."

"That was sort of my point," Michael muttered, "You know, pieces of flesh are your souveniers." He looked at the dead creature. "I guess we can just get a blanket from back inside? There's a lot of leaves around but they're pretty light. And now I wanna go look for more hellbeasts."

"Here." He shrugged off the outer robe and dropped it over the animal. It was torn and bloody anyway. He tried not to make a face at the idea of the Son cutting him open or pinning his wings. Jarod was too sensible for that, right?

Michael put his own coat over his younger brother's shoulders reflexively. "So are we done here?"

"For the moment," Jarod said. "I'll try and find the guy who owns this place, talk to him about the lab. Keep me appraised if you find any more of those?"

Michael gave him a thumbs-up. "Aye aye, cap'n."

Raphael smiled up at his big brother gratefully, snugging into the fabric and enjoying the Warrior's lingering presence. He almost purred, before realizing he forgot about the shields protecting them from the rain and thus, the windows of Heaven opened and fell in complete fury as the storm continued.

Raphael waved his hand again to bring the shields back up, cheeks burning, though it mattered little now. "Sorry..."

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Not a Star in Heaven

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