D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

— Kat —

With the Travis’ weakness worked it out their numbers were culled… eventually. It was a rather time consuming process not helped by the fact that occasionally Pebbles’ box would have a few phasing through the walls after their death. It was still likely faster this way, but it meant Kat or Meg had to chase them down to ensure they didn’t escape. In those chases they found a few Travis’ that had managed to escape already…

So Kat took to the air to search on high, or at least as high as the cavern allowed. Meg and Pebbles were better at killing them anyway. While flying around she couldn’t see Strdl, Hunter or Ronldo but with ceiling in the way she couldn’t see very far at all and certainly not past the walls. Continue reading at empire

At this point issues started to arise. Kat could spot Travises without too much issue but culling their numbers was the problem. It would take Kat some time to workout the best solution. At first she tried to find them close together which was basically impossible and something she quickly gave up on. Next she tried to carry one around but she found that any sufficiently strong grip to keep them contained would kill them, especially if she was dragging them around.

In the end Kat found the best solution was just to throw them back towards Meg and Pebbles. It still took some technique, as they needed the be thrown in a particular way, supporting them from the front and back around the chest area without pressing too hard and caving in the ribs. Though even with that, if Kat threw one too hard they just died anyway with no wounds on them. Perhaps the g-force messed up something inside? It was hard to tell.

Once Kat had rounded up all the stragglers… and creating a few more that would be sent back as well Kat slowly made her way back. Making sure to check for signs of a Travis getting around. Luckily the houses here were all empty, and in fact didn’t seem like they’d ever had anyone living in them. Most were missing furniture entirely and Kat felt a bit better about the fact they’d had such a big fight in town.

It did mean Kat started to grow tempted to just trash the buildings to be completely certain she’d found them all but it’s not like they were quiet, so once things were cleared out and the only sounds she could hear were back towards Meg and Pebbles it meant she was probably fine. The constant “I’LL GET YOU” whenever a new Travis was created made for a great indicator of if she’d missed a group or not. Sure Kat did still check around, it wouldn’t do for one to escape that way, but in the end it seemed none were even smart enough to try hiding away or simply not saying the line. T

The closest they got were the rather obvious attempts at breaking in through the walls. Kat could even see a few times where nobody had added a door yet… and they’d still tried breaking in through the walls. Clearly if any intellect of the original Travis had remained it was long gone.

Kat made her way back to help with clearing out the dwindling number of temporal clones. Lily had taken to helping somewhat with bits of paper to slow the straggles down, or corral the ones that were trying to leave. Those papers shields were apparently one of the few things that didn’t kill a Travis just by blocking him… though with his ethereally sharp claws they didn’t delay him long either. Still, Lily could just throw out nearly as many as she wanted while remaining guard over Kamiko.

Once the numbers finally hit single digits the obvious next problem presented itself. How do you contain or remove the final two Travis? Because even if you got a whole bundle killed at once they still split into at least two. Kat went over some ideas in her head but never really found anything practical. The wings would shred cloth used to restrain one and anything with a bit more defence to it would likely still be sliced through… or rammed into until the Travis died.

Pebbles had massively shrunk the big box he was using before, and had moved to stand near Meg. Not too close of course… but he remained within sight of both demons and was clearly checking their progress. He didn’t have too many Travis clones left himself but the stone walls made the sounds distort and echo so it was hard to tell just how close they were.

While helping Meg clean up the last few of them, Kat asked, “So did you figure out anything important?”

“They’re all clones,” stated Meg.

“Um… yes?” said Kat unsure.

“Clearly you are missing the point. Every single Travis mutant we’ve taken care of was a clone, and after checking my memories so was the first one. That means that at the very least there’s one more clone running around in the vault, or the area nearby. We’ve got a good reason to take these out now, no sense in letting them spread and the crystal in them means we do NEED to kill him…

“But the final one is back at the vault. Not sure if it’s going to be a clone or not but we’ll need to clean up the place either way. I’m hoping that we can either find the original Travis, or the crystal itself up there once we’re done. Destroying either will hopefully destroy them… but I still can’t tell how to stop these.

“Looking through their list of weaknesses nothing stands out I’m afraid. They are simply too fragile… but that does give us a hint. It’s something ELSE that’s forcing them to split. It’s not entirely a capability of the clones. So it makes finding the crystal or original more important,” explained Meg.

“If that’s the case… then what are we doing cleaning these ones up?” asked Kat.

“Just because it’s going to stop them doesn’t mean the crystals will get destroyed. I worry that they could recombine into the dragon if there’s too many clones remaining at the end. In addition… I suspect that Hunter is off dealing with the original. If anyone can manage to kill him, it’s Lil Sis,” explained Meg.

Kat nodded as she slammed three Travis clones together. “I suppose that’s fair… but I feel like there’s something else,”

Meg shrugged, “Feel that way all you want I’d give you the same answer. Besides we’re nearly done here, we can go help soon. Assuming you did get all of the others?”

“Er… well I’m certain I found all of the ones inside of the walls Pebbles put up. I’m not certain if any snuck outside it… I mean… I think we’re fine? I was listening pretty carefully and they aren’t exactly quiet or subtle. I swear I’ve got ‘I’ll get you’ burned into my brain at this point,” explained Kat.

“It’s going to have to be good enough,” announced Meg with a shrug. “Frankly you’re right in that we’d hear a lot more screaming if they managed to get into the rest of the city where there’s some actual people. Consider the fact I can’t hear any we’re probably fine… until they start streaming out the manor vault or wherever that explosion went off,”

Kat cringed at the thought… but it was probably correct. “Are you sure we shouldn’t rush to that area?”

“Pretty sure yeah. Though… any ideas on how to get rid of the last few?” asked Meg.

“No!” hissed Kat. “I was really hoping you’d have got something ready…”

“Sorry, but good as I am there are sometimes things like this. Admittedly it’s been about… ooh… I want to say maybe a decade? At least a decade, probably closer to two… but no more than eighteen years I think? Since I found something with no quite so obvious way to destroy them,” explained Meg.

“That… hmmm… you don’t seem all that mad about it?” stated Kat.

“Is that meant to be a question?” retorted Meg.

“Ah… right… um… I was under the impression, with your personality, that you’d find it at least annoying that your skill wasn’t working… so I was wondering why that doesn’t seem to be the case? I mean… I know you’re probably good enough to hide that annoyance but I also doubt you’d bother?” elaborated Kat.

“I suppose I might seem like that on occasion… but to me it removes the challenge. It would feel too much like cheating if my ability never failed. Sure many would argue it still is… but knowing it isn’t perfect? That makes me quite pleased and I never regret making use of it. Think of it like… being glad you don’t have a sword that can slice through anything. Sure it would be strong but nothing would ever challenge you. Perhaps that’s a bad example… hmm…” Meg trailed off to think of other examples.