Immersed in the darkness, Raph made his way through the rooms downstairs, practically praying there wasn’t a basement in this house to check through. If there was, he figured it would be nearer to the kitchen anywhere else. And that would make it Dexter’s problem. But it wasn’t like anything would bust into a house through an underground room anyway.
He moved as quietly as possible over the shards of shattered glass into the lounge. With his eyes all black, his peripheral vision was just as clear as everything else, and a useful amount wider. But that didn’t mean he could see through furniture. He leant around to check behind a couch when a flash of movement outside drew his attention- a figure moving past the window at speed. Instinctively, he snapped upright, watching past the lingering shards of glass around the window’s edge. Though it had clearly already gone by. As fast as Raph could get out there to follow it, he knew it would still be too slow to do anything about it. He would just be outside looking while that freak hid in a bush somewhere, waiting. This was the distraction phase. It was a classic. And either way, anything running away from the house wasn’t really a problem worth his time. As long as Raph was inside, that thing wouldn’t be. If it was smart at least.
Stubbornly deciding not to be led away from the building like some idiotic suburban human dad, Raph turned to head back to the kitchen. He’d barely reached the doorframe before he heard behind him,
“Oo we got a lone wolf in here!”
He spun around, fists balled and ready for a fight, but the voice was somehow behind him again at a distance. “You think you’re their guard dog or somethin?” Its cheery tone made Raph grind his teeth as he turned again to see nothing behind him. Until one flicker of movement grabbed his attention. He zeroed in on it, launching into a sprint. As if surprised by his speed, the intruder lost out on time and headed up the stairs, Raph following the man closely to tackle him at the top. Yet Raph was the one hitting the floor with no demon beneath him. As he tried to roll forward with the momentum before his face hit the ground, he heard that voice a third time, muttering something angrily.
It wasn’t a tidy movement, but Raph got back onto his feet quickly, looking around the empty space around him.
“You better stop playin around and get your teleportin ass back here!” He yelled out, taking a few heavy steps away from the staircase.
“Or you could stop playing the victim.”
“The hell’s that s'posed to mean” Raph grumbled back. He turned into one of the bedrooms to see the intruder, sitting confidently on the window ledge inside, legs crossed and a skeevy smile on his face. A face that looked far too familiar. One he’d seen growing up, and in the mirror every day since.
“Its good to see you again, Razz.”
Raph’s eyes were wide as he watched the demon vanish from the ledge, reappearing beside him and making him jump.
“I’m a little surprised though.” There was an almost teasing tone to every word the intruder spoke, somewhere under a real layer of glee. “I thought you were down under. And you do know who’s house this is don’t you?”
“I know who’s house it isn’t.” Raph’s tone returned, low and gritty, an obvious threat. The other man only gave a bewildered laugh back as he disappeared once again, moving a foot or two out to a different doorway.
“Don’t tell me you actually live here!” He snorted. “I checked, Razz, I saw the symbols on the doors. This is an exorcist house. Unless..” The man’s face dropped. “Don’t tell me you’re one of them now.”
“FFF- what are you, their pet??!”
“Shut it, ‘fore I break your head off”
“This? This is where you’ve been hiding all these years?!”
“Shut up!”
“Do they have you on a leash? Do I need to rescue the big bad demon from the bad guys?”
“I said shut up!” A wave of energy burst out from Raph, knocking the other demon just enough to shake his balance. “You don’t belong in here, so you can get your ass out, and you’d better move fast because I am really not in the mood for your crap, Nox.”
“I don’t belong here?” He scoffed again. “Reality check- you’re losin it. You don’t belong in here either, numbskull. Come on, let-” he didn’t get to finish that sentence before Raph had grabbed him by the wrist and yanked him into a moving punch. Nox hit the floor inside the bedroom and laughed before getting back to his feet, rubbing his jaw. “Ohhohohh, that’s where we’re going with this. No, "thanks Nox, how ya been, 'sbeen a long time, Nox”. Without warning he vanished again and his arms wrapped around Raph’s neck in a choke hold from behind. “Nope, you just wanna fight me. Well that’s fine. I think I’m big enough to take you.”
With enough struggling, Raph pulled his own arms back to grab his brother and throw him overhead, almost falling over in the process. Nox rolled far more skilfully than Raph had managed to before and was back on his feet in barely a second, teleporting back to slam a knee into Raph’s ribcage. He grabbed Raph’s left arm and pulled it back to avoid getting hit himself, and kicked again. Raph dropped, feeling the awful pull on his shoulder, and snapped his arm forward to freedom. But Nox’s hands hadn’t lost their hold, and he twisted, causing Raph to let out a loud sound just short of a scream as something in his shoulder tore.
His eyes flickered for a second as the pain hit, before grinding his teeth and twisting himself quickly. That tearing feeling spread as he wrenched his arm out of Nox’s grasp and brought his other arm around, forcing all of his energy to that point in his powers’ seal. The force sliced two long lines through the skin up his arm, winding around it like a screw as a shockwave of energy forced Nox to his knees. For a second, Raph thought he felt the ground shake a little.
“Leave.” Raph snarled down at him. His voice was dark as the room they were standing in, an almost metallic element to the sound as he gave his order. The energy he’d let out was drawing back in slowly, and his left arm dangled by his side, but still, just for a moment, his brother looked frightened.
Nox disappeared, letting Raph breath a short sigh of relief as the rest of the energy returned to its rightful place, loosely sealed away inside him, before a pair of hands grasped his shoulders.
“You didn’t say I had to go alone.”
In a split second, they were outside- but something was wrong. The air rushed up around them, and when he turned his head to look, the roof of the house flew past foot-level. Raph reached back to grab Nox’s hands, arms, anything, and found that he was gone already, leaving Raph falling to a driveway death. He tried to pool that energy again, but the panic only grew like a distracting rock in his stomach, pulling him down faster and faster. His eyes shut tight, arms bracing over his head as he faced the ground shot towards him.
Suddenly, Nox’s voice was back in his ear, laughing.
“Psych!”
Raph felt himself thrown sideways, hitting the padded back of a sofa and even knocking that over with the momentum. “Like I would actually kill you like that. I mean, you’d think you’d at least get out of that one yourself. I know you can.” Nox stood in the doorway, hands on his hips as he continued. “It’s just no fun if you’re not even trying. And what does it prove? Oh, yay, I beat a barely half-powered Rastus, woo hoo. No. So don’t worry. I’m leaving. But just so you know, I’m leaving disappointed. You can scheme around with your exorcist overlords and fix whatever’s wrong with you. And I’d better get a rematch when you’re on top again.” He glanced out as footsteps neared, and waved to Raph who was still picking himself up off the floor, with just two words before disappearing one last time.
Penelope rooted round for a few moments more and then sighed. “Konan can you..?” Konan nodded and Penelope took Hanna and Konan raised her spare hand. A small ball of lightning crackled to life and Konan used the light to locate a torch and several candles, which were quickly zapped alight. The flames grew uncontrollably for a second and then dimmed, flickering naturally and providing an eerie light to the kitchen. The room was a mess. Glass littered the floor, and blood dripped wherever Dexter had been. Even now he was beginning to look a little pale as he leant against the counter, a good portion of his toned body soaked in blood. The bodies of the demons and the smouldering mess that Konan had left added to the mess, and several pieces of furniture had been thrown across the room.
With a distant look in her eye, Konan thrust her sword through the bodies and one by one they seemed to dissolve, her sword glimmering brighter for a few moments before simply returning to spark happily. At least the demons would be easier to clean up that way. Dexter did not like the ease in which Konan did it. She barely seemed to be paying attention to what she did. “Konan.”
Konan looked up at him and blinked, her eyes normal again, or at least normal for her. “I know.” The sword vanished and Konan looked back towards the door that Raph had run through, wondering why he had not come to help. It was entirely possible that she had not heard whatever fight he had been involved in due to their own battle. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologise, control it.” Dexter told her, relief clear on his face as some colour appeared in her face once more, it was minimal because it was Konan, but it was better than the pure alabaster that it had been moments before. The house seemed silent for the most part, and then Konan heard the sound that reminded her of a scream from above. There was a moment where no one moved, and Dexter stretched a hand out to Konan as if to stop her. “Konan, stay—”
Konan had already turned and bolted. Dexter swore, and took a step to hand Nile to Penelope and almost stumbled as a wave of dizziness hit him. Penelope grabbed Nile and held both children against her chest as Dexter tried to regain his strength, both hands white as they gripped the counter. “She’ll be fine.” Penelope reminded him, voice soft as if to comfort her husband.
“That’s the problem. She doesn’t know what she’d capable of anymore, even Fi had a hard time—” Dexter was cut off by Penelope.
“Now is not the time, now sit.” Penelope pointed to a dining chair with a finger and then put the babies in their high chairs, waiting for Dexter to brush any glass away. Then she helped Dexter out of his shirt and went searching for the first aid kit, glancing at the ceiling and hoping that Konan wouldn’t push too hard.
Konan practically scrambled upstairs, eyes wide and desperate as she looked in every room for Raph. She almost cursed having a house that had its own wings. Then she heard a crash behind her and doubled back, convinced that she had checked every room in that wing and almost ran right into Raph as he exited a guest room. Despite the scream she had heard, he seemed unharmed, and she assumed that it had been the demon’s cry that she had heard. Before Raph could react, Konan wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
It was a desperate kiss, full of relief to see that Raph was alright but even as she kissed him, something felt off. Although her eyes told her that it was Raph in front of her, instinct told her otherwise. For the moment however, she was more than happy to ignore instinct.
