C. D. - character development

(Go right ahead. Sorry Andrew....)

((Sweeeeet ))

Ezekiel reached Andrew and grabbed him by the wrist.
"Stop!" I yelled uselessly. Like he'd stop because I told him to!
Golden light surrounded Ezekiel and Andrew, blocking them from view. Another pillar of light fired back up into the sky, fading from sight.
"Bye-ee!" Aria sang before disappearing in the same manner.
And just like that, they were gone. Gone, back into the Upper World. Into Heaven.
With Andrew.
Oh shit.
I touched down to the ground, sinking to my knees in defeat. My shoulders sagged. One mortal! One human!
"I couldn't protect him..." I spoke to no one. "I couldn't protect one soul..." Then, louder, "What kind of demon am I if I can't save one human?!"

The heavy guns of the aero-dreadnought track Dan and Stella as they pull closer. Kraf Ventrix's voice booms out of the speakers "IDENTIFY YOURSELF," he bellows. "OR YOU WILL BE FIRED UPON."

Evan came out of the bushes, completly oblivious to what had happened. He was back to normal and was wearing Ezra's clothes. "What's wrong?"

"Andrew's gone," Liz sobbed.

Dan:
I look down at the flash of light and seeing that Andrew is gone I say, "Damn it" quietly. Then louder I say, "My name is Dan and she is Stella. Now stop pointing your guns at me before I blow them up!"

Stella:
"Dan drop me I need to go talk to Leslie" I say looking down. He nods and drops me from our altitude of at least 500 feet and I land and snap my spine and my legs. They heal almost immediately and I walk over to Leslie and say, "Its okay, its not your fault"

Ezra pockets the rest of the potion after putting it in vials. "It could come in handy," he shrugged. (Hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

"That is not much of an identification," remarks the Kraf to one of his aides. "But it will have to do for now. Open the front ramp."
The front ramp hisses open, showing serried ranks of Norlan soldiers. They wear black tunics and breeches with gold buttons and white frogging. Their shakos are black and unadorned except for a small golden badge and a metal faceplate attached to the brim. They all level short wide-bore muskets at Dan.
Kraf Ventrix's amplified voice booms out again. "DAN AND STELLA, SIGNAL YOU ALLEGIANCES."

"What's with the airship?" said Evan, looking up.

"It is my fault!" I lamented to Stella. "Demons are supposed to protect humans from angels...that's our job...it's what we've been doing for ages! And I failed..."
I stared at the runes on my hands, feeling horrible. Useless. What good was this magic if--?
Magic.
I looked at Ezra, a small bud of hope growing within me. Maybe, just maybe...
"Ezra!" I said. "You have magic derived from angel magic! Do you have any spells that let you transcend the Worlds?"
I might not have been able to keep Andrew from getting captured, but I might just be able to get him back.

"I could see..." said Ezra pulling out a large book, which he handed to Leslie.

((Surely some method of flight would be advantageous in a place known colloquially as 'cloudy-land'?))

(It would be, but we may need it when we're there.)

Stella:
"Never heard that before, I always heard angels protected humans from demons!"

Dan:
"Um... THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!" I yell back.

"Neither have I," smirked ezra

"The what of where?" murmurs the Kraf. His aide shrugs. "It sounds foreign."
The airship descends towards the ground, and lands in a green space near the gaggle of people. The Norlan soldiers march out of the belly of the Helden Ohto Halgrim and stand waiting for orders. After a moment, Kraf Ventrix leaves, attended to by his aides.

((The thing about cloudy-land...or the Upper World, or Heaven as it's better known...is that you can't get there by conventional means. Yes, it's technically in the sky above the Middle World, but it's also in a different dimension. Right now, Leslie's looking for magic that will take them there. She could use her own, but the angels would immediately be able to sense demon-made magic.))

"Of course that's what you heard!" I told Ezra and Stella. "The angels have you decieved! They've had you mortals decived for centuries! It's the demons who have secretly been working to protect your kind." I returned my attention to the book, quickly flipping through pages. "No...no, no...not this one..." I looked back at Ezra. "Do you have, like, an index or something? Some form of organization here?"

"In the front," said Ezra.

"Oh..." How had I missed that? "Let's see here...aha! Transportation spells." I flipped to the appropriate page, murmuring to myself as I scanned the words.

((Does he have one in there? It's your book ))

(Idk...go with yes)

((Alrighty.))

Leslie
"Here we are!" I declared, grinning. "'Transportation to paradise.' That's gotta be it! It looks right, too. Got the words for travel, and if I'm not mistaken, the structure for transcending dimensions. Um, Ezra, would you do the honors? I'm not really good at scroll-and-book magic at all." I held the book up to him.

((Now we should wait for everyone else. However, we could do stuff in Heaven... *evil smile*))

Aria
I appeared in the dingy, gray, abandoned warehouse, where the rest of the mercenary ring was gathered. They were all crowded around Ezekiel and the mortal soul, trying to get a look.
"Alright, everybody, back up!" I called. They turned to me and shuffled backwards, clearing the space. I may not have been the leader of the ring, but I had some respect. I was a Cerzan, after all.
"Thanks for that," Ezekiel breathed. He was still holding the mortal's wrist in a death grip...not that the kid was getting away any time soon.
"Oh, look at you!" I cooed to the mortal. "You're in Heaven now, isn't that wonderful?" I flashed him a cold smile. "Welcome to eternity in paradise."
The rest of the mercenaries started cracking up.

"Let. Me. Go." Andrew said, trying to get out of Ezekiel's grip.

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Ezra grabbed the book, and began speaking in a foregin tongue. There was a bright flash of light and the group stood in "cloudie" land.

((Hey, I said to wait for everybody else before we transported! We'll pretend that that didn't happen.))

Aria
"Fat chance of that!" Ezekiel laughed. "You'll fetch a nice sum on the black market."
"That's right!" I sing-songed. "Hm, I wonder if those magical friends of yours will be coming here...? Oooh, we could lay a trap for them! And then I could finally fill out that demon contract!"

"You people are disgusting,' Andrew spat.

Aria
"We're making a living," I told him. "You know what they say: it's a dog-eat-dog world out there. You gotta take every opportunity you can get." I turned to one of the mercenaries. "Tie up the mortal. We don't want him escaping, now."

"Ha! I'd like to see you try," Andrew laughed.