FIC : Fimbul (9/11)

["C S Armitage" <soren_nyrond@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Almost finished !!! Someone keep the hounds off !!!


 
TITLE: Fimbul (9/11)
AUTHOR: Soren Nyrond
DISCLAIMER: Several characters in this belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. I'm still poor, I'm still harmless  
SUMMARY: No smut: death count up; temperature down.
SPOILERS: None -- except for anyone's peace of mind
AUTHOR'S NOTES: All nice feedback welcome
ARCHIVING: If I ever finish the thing, whoever wants it can probably have it (if there's anybody left reading this).

 

 
 
FIMBUL  
By Soren Nyrond
Part 9: "I Just Drifted"
 
 
 
It was one of those flash-point synapse moments.
Xander was slightly-off balance anyway - the vase whistled past his cheek and crashed into Angela. He was just turning, in shock, to see how she was,when he saw that her hand, reaching out for him, was glowing, and he noticed how the temperature had dropped.
"Get away !" Willow was calling. Another vase flew across the room (Giles wasn't sure whether or not to protest - he didn't want the whole place wrecked, but he didn't want to die either.
Then Buffy was vaulting over the sofa, waving what looked like a spear.
Angela was just regaining her volition, from dodging the vases, when the broomstick caught her low in the chest. Had she been alive it would have winded her, badly. As it was, it knocked her back, towards the door, still-ajar.
Buffy followed up, with a side sweep with the wooden pole, and then, as Willow opened the door with a wave of her hand and a whispered conjuration, Buffy stabbed out again, with all her force and Slayer art, and caught Angela, the Jotun-Child, full-square and knocked her through the opening.
The door slammed and Willow spoke a spell of sealing. 
"I can undo it later," she said, "But I though, for now . "
"Excellent," Giles said.
"Excellent ?" Xander echoed. "What just happened ?"
"You," Buffy said, helping him up, " just didn't turn into a Popsicle - is that a problem ?"
Her tone hinted to Xander that the appropriate reply was :"No - no problem at all,and thanks, guys."
He made it.
 
 
Outside Angela Morrice was furious.
She would have been on fire with her rage, but for a Child of Jotun, that wasn't really appropriate. And the Jotun itself would be waiting to hear ofthe success she had promised it .
And she could sense, through the power with which the Jotun had invested her that the Slayer's hideout was protected, by arcane forces she still wasn't powerful enough to challenge.
This was Not Good. Angela picked a direction and stalked off. Perhaps, with more power .
 
Over the next hour Sunnydale High lost four athletes, a prize-winning vice-captain of debates, and a clutch of cheerleaders whose Sapphic method of keeping toasty warm received some extra vim and vigour, ending in toasty warmand semi-naked becoming deep-frozen, totally naked and very very dead.  
Angela licked her lips as she left their little lust-den (in the back roomsof what had been St.Heloisa's Convent School gymnasium) but it still wasn't enough. If that spell-cast barrier was to be pierced . (not that the cheerleaders hadn't been succulent - in the midst of what little self-will she had left, Angela Morrice was starting to regret not walking the A/C routesooner)
 
 
"Looks like my luck is right up to par," Xander said. "After a demon mantis and an undead princess, this time I pick an undead demon chiller cabinet."
"Frosty the Snow -- . " Willow's voice trailed off as Xander fixed her with an unamused gaze.
"Still leaves us not knowing how to fight this Jotun thing - or its creations," Buffy pointed out.
"But we do know who the Child of Jorun is . "
"No - we know who one of them is - we can't be certain that there aren't others."
Suddenly the telephone rang.
Giles picked it up, listened, then passed it to Buffy. "Your mother."
"Hi, Mom."
"Are you all right ?" Joyce Summers' voice asked. "The news is talking about snow-drifts."
"We're all fine, Mom - no problems at all."
"This is . Slayer stuff, isn't it ?" Joyce asked.
"Looks like it," Buffy replied laconically. It was so much easier now thatJoyce understood - even if she didn't approve. "Look, Mom - stay away till this is over, would you ? It'll make . it . so much easier if I don't have to look out for you."
"All right, Buffy." There was a pause . a pregnant pause, and then Joyce said: "If I'm staying here - well, it's just that I saw something and I bought it and had them send it back to the gallery by Express. I don't know why - it's . well, you have to see it. Very primitive. I hope it's not likethat mask thing that you had to smash. Anyway, it will arrive . well, it might already have. Could you just get it, and look after it till I get there - just in case there are looters or anything. Oh, my battery's nearly dead. Do take care and I'll - "
Buffy put the phone down and wrinkled her face. Something was tickling thetendrils of her Slayer-sense. Something about .
It was gone.
"All right," she said. "I need to call Express Delivery and see if they got something here before the roads closed. And then, even if it's not here,I'd better go back to Becquerel, to the gallery. Then, when Mom rings back, I can at least tell her the place is all right."
 
 
"This makes no sense at all."
"Agent Finn - it's Control."
The radio-telephone link was crackly, as if there were heavy static - sunspots or the like. Which would have been fine if the thing hadn't been triply-shielded and running on a modified version of directly-transmitted energy.
"What news, Colonel ?"
"I'm sorry, son - we've had all the archives working flat out: none of what's happening there makes sense."
"Colonel, we are - "
"I know, son: 'on a Hellmouth'. But this isn't anything like we were expecting. How are things going ?"
"Twenty-six wolves - the last three were the size of ponies, with teeth like razors. Jukes and Menies should be getting back to you shortly - neitherof them will be fit for duty for at least seventy-two hours, if then."
"Any sign of the hominoids ?"
"They're laying low - the sun is up and I think that inhibits them."
"Weather radar says another anomalous front's heading in, son. You can expect more snow tonight."
"Damn - that brings them out. We know there are at least six of them. We also know that they don't reproduce like the vampires. Something selects which ones come back."
A cry.
"Got to go, Colonel - I think Alpha team's found another wolf."
 
 
The Davisons never knew what killed them. They hadn't been into their basement for months . not since the incident with the funny glowing-eyed children. After that, none of them had exactly wanted to go down again, and they'd made do without the various household things they had stored down there.
And they had no idea that their basement was next to a storm drain.
The Jotun wasn't really interested in who they were: they were simply warm,alive, and in an area its servants hadn't yet visited.
So the lumpy ice-covered shapes just smashed their way through the cellar walls, and lumbered up the short flight of stairs.
Mom and Pop were in the kitchen, where the stairs came out. They died quickly. Little Ian was playing with his Playstation in front of the 24-inch rental TV. He never did get to Level 84 on Mutant Monsters from Mars, and would never get the chance to use the cheat he'd swapped forty-two bubblegumcards for, the one that supposedly unlocked the topless pictures of PamelaLee that you got to see if you got past Level 125. And Sindy was upstairs, getting ready for her date - she heard something, ran down the stairs in case Larry was early, slipped on the ice already covering the floors, and was swallowed up.
Then the Davisons' house just got swallowed up itself, in a gigantic sheet of ice, that started to spread, little by little, into the neighbouring yards and across the street.
 
 
"Is that it ?"
"It must be - according to the depot, the driver said he'd put it round theback."
The small wooden crate was about the size to hold a man's forearm, not thatBuffy imagined that the contents were anything like that. She checked thedespatch label and confirmed that it was both for and from her mother.
"All right - we'd better put it inside . "
"Sslayerr."
Buffy and Xander span round, trying to locate the source of the growled word.
Suddenly what had looked to be just another mound of snow and ice moved, shaping itself in to the form of one of the Spawn of Jotun.
"Get the box," Xander said. "I'll hold it off."
Buffy grabbed the box, finding it quite heavy, and wondered quite what, apart from rapid sprinting (and on the icy ground that didn't seem to be a good idea), Xander thought he could do against the ice-behemoth.
 
At that moment Xander Harris was wondering the same thing. He, too, had recognised (especially against an adversary who seemed to have control over cold) that running was probably not the optimum tactic. But someone had mentioned salt, and he had made sure to load up before he'd left home.
"Here !" he shouted at the Spawn, as it advanced: "Try this !"
Then he ran - for a few yards, at least - to encourage the thing over the patch of ice he had just liberally doused with salt crystals.
The Spawn stepped onto the doctored area, and then gave a bass scream.
"Keep going !" Xander shouted at Buffy, whilst hurling another handful of salt the creature's way.
"Going !" Buffy called back. "Aren't you coming ?"
"That was Cordelia," Xander jested as he caught up to her. "Which way backto Giles's is going to be faster ?"
 
 
Rage filled the Jotun. With impersonal viciousness he summoned one of his newest Spawn and, when it arrived, consumed it, drawing back the power it had put forth to create it.
Then it reached out and summoned the clouds back - heavy clouds, pregnant with the moisture he'd seen to it that they gathered. Soon they would be over Sunnydale; soon they would obscure the sun, and the snow and wind would come again, and the ice would spread still further. The Spawn were but itspawns - the eternal ice was its true weapon, building up until the sun could never melt it.
Then it would send its Spawn out to conquer more of Midgard, and finally the frost giants would return and eternal bitter Fimbulwinter would fall everywhere and the sun would be forever helpless.