L.A. Confidential

[Narrator]

Disguised as agents disguised as cops the team grabs a key from the little lockbox on the wall and, after some waving around of the remote fob (State of the art!) they find themselves in a red convertible. Too late to go back in the hopes of finding something more appropriate the group piles in with Tosh in the driver's seat, Sam riding shotgun and Miriam and Will wedged in the backseats to each side of Leo. Following the other agents through the garage is easy enough until they pull through a gate and they suddenly find themselves driving out of some kind of seemingly disused repair shop and into the low-hanging California sun, right onto Sunset Boulevard.

The Agency car immediately in front of them is heading off in the rough direction of the fancy part of Beverly Hills, but chatter from the police radio hidden in the glove box is talking about some kind of potential terrorist attack at the Sunset Tower Hotel and calling in emergency services to assist in evacuating the building.

[Will Stanton]

The sudden transportation is disorienting for those not used to it, and Will grips the side of the car tightly as she shakes her head to clear the cobwebs -- the sudden burst of bright light not helping much, either.

"So, if Ryn's the one causing problems, we probably just have to follow the sounds of things getting blown up, right?" she said, as cover.

[Leo N. Eskandari]

"Sounds like she's on the warpath. But you know her better than anyone, what do you think?" the tall agent asked "Katarina".

[Will Stanton]

"...If the reports are true, than perhaps I didn't really know her at all," Will said, looking out over the '80s skyline.

[Narrator]

They're still a way out from downtown, but much closer and just about rising above the surrounding buildings is the afore-mentioned hotel. It's easy to see the reason for the radio chatter. The top corner of one of the vertical window-fronts is smashed in and while the dust rising from it doesn't seem to be from a fire, the hole is large enough that something the size of a car or small helicopter must have smashed into it. Not that there are any immediate signs of whatever did this.

[Leo N. Eskandari]

Leo gazed up at the hole as he got out of the car. "Looks, like whatever she's after went inside."

[Will Stanton]

"Or perhaps they're just renovating. Some new trendy style."

[Miriam Bell]

"That is not what 'open concept' means."

[Leo N. Eskandari]

He checked his fake badge and tried to get into the headspace of a young LAPD detective. Nodding to himself in satisfaction, he led the way forward, flashing his fake badge to get them inside the perimeter. Approaching the first person who looked like they might be in charge, he asked, "Detective Osbourne. What do we know?"

[Narrator]

"Fuck all. Unless you count lunatic eye-witnesses claiming they saw a dragon crash into the building." one of the nearby fire-fighters shakes his head with a chuckle. The evacuation at least seems to be going fairly well and the people filing out of the building seem uninjured. "No injuries so far. We were going to go in but call came down to hold and there's been no sign of a fire, so..." he shrugs. "Something came down. My guess? Something came off a plane and picked up enough speed to do a number on the window."

[Leo N. Eskandari]

"A dragon?" he snorted derisively, "I swear, people imagine the wildest when they're scared."

"I have no such orders. So if it's all the same to you, my partner and these three rookies can go in and get started figuring out what's making people imagine monsters."

[Narrator]

The fire-fighter frowns slightly but this is hardly his call to make. "Be my guest and butt heads with whoever made that call." he shrugs. "We did turn off the gas and water main; can't say how structurally sound the upper floors are so be careful."

The straggling people leaving don't pay the team much mind as they make their way inside. Down in the lobby everything seems fine, even the elevators still seem to be working, all but one cabin sitting on the ground floor according to the light-up display above them, the only odd one out being up in the penthouse.

[Samantha McManus]

"Sure doesn't do anything by halves," Sam mutters as they make their way through.

[Will Stanton]

"I guess this what happens when there's not a large, empty forest to be brawling in," Will muttered back. "A beast outside their normal habitat"

[Leo N. Eskandari]

"Odds are that we're going to be walking right into a fight, so you three get ready," Leo said as he stepped into an available elevator to wait for everyone else. Once they were moving up, the agent brought out his very big revolver and double-checked his ammo.

Satisfied, he snapped the weapon shut with a flick of the wrist. "And try not to shoot Agent Ryn. You'll just piss her off."

Tosh was more worried about Ryn's reaction to seeing them. Well, okay, even more worried about what kind of monsters this world had crawling around. He hoped this Leo was as good in a scrap as he looked.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

As the elevator rises there's a couple of distant thumps that shake the building and makes the cabin light flicker just a bit.

When it finally stops and the doors open they reveal a large, ostentatious penthouse. At least it used to be. On one side a large bar has been emptied and instead filled with some kind of lab setup that's smashed and smoking with acid corroding the equipment, including broken glass beakers and distillation tubes. In the center of the room a large L-shaped couch is in compete shambles, as is the grand piano to the side. Bookshelves on one wall are broken, the marble floor is cracked in places and the stone cladding on the walls has broken away around roughly human-sized impact points as well as larger ones.

There's a roar from an adjoining room and one of the walls explodes into the room as an almost three-feet long dragon head crashes through it and slams into the ground. It's scales are curved up and sharp at the edges, long needle-spines stud it's serpentine neck and it's tongue is flicking saliva that sizzles where it hits the ground. It is also missing an eyes and bleeding from multiple tears and gouges in it's hide and judging by the bloody bone stubs it used to have horns.

And clutching it's neck and riding it to the ground as if she just choke-slammed the giant monstrosity into the ground is a four foot-couple inches figure. She's covered in blood, some of it flaking off already, one arm is limply hanging at her side and from her back billow thousands of filigree fibers, most of which have lodged themselves in the throat and jaw of the dragon, moving on their own as they burrow deeper and blood oozes from hundreds and hundreds of tiny puncture wounds. The dragon doesn't get up, doesn't even move except for where Ryn has skewered it and her own movement is pulling on scales and flesh.

A single heartbeat later Ryn's head snaps towards the elevator, black sclera surrounding pin-points of electric-blue flames that scream primordial terror down every nerve like an ice-cold wave. Embers floating in a vast expanse of darkness that belies any reason as to how it fits into such a small creature.

[Will Stanton]

"Jesus Christ..." Will mumbled, taking a half step back from the sheer pressure of Ryn's stare. "Morrigu déan sinn a chosaint."

[Leo N. Eskandari]

Tosh, defenseless against the dreadful stare, instinctively hid behind the professional paranormal agent. "Oh, sweet Jesus... That's Ryn?"

Leo, being rather great and terrible himself, didn't shrink away. His primal side was still somewhat afraid, but it saw the situation as a challenge. He growled inhumanly and stepped forward. Catching himself before he made the situation worse, he took a calming breath.

"We're not here to fight you, Ryn. We're here to hear your side of things before the more trigger-happy agents show up."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"My side? There's no sides, there is only me and this is what I am!" Ryn snarls and a heavy bass drops in in time with her grabbing one of the dragon's fangs and pulling it free with a twisting wrench.

♪♫"I made my choice, I'm not gonna stop.
This is what's my purpose to do.
I slay the monsters, tear their souls to shreds.
Won't stop now, got no regrets.
Won't stop now, got no regrets."♪♫

♪♫"I was made for this.
I was made for this!
Born in the night,
Formed in the fire,
Built for the battle, oh..
I was made for this.
I was made for this!
Fueled by the hatred,
Screams getting louder,
I have the power, oh
I was made for this!"♪♫

On the last word her eyes bore into the fake Katarina and flings the dagger-sized fang right into the shapeshifters eye with enough force to nail him to the back of the elevator.

[Will Stanton]

The fang pierced 'Katarina''s head, the momentum sending Will flying back to the wall and small shower of clay on the four other passengers.

She'd be fine in a minute. Probably.

[Leo N. Eskandari]

"You... Why would you..." Believing Ryn had just murdered Katarina, Leo stood shocked for a moment before growling again. "To think you have the nerve to call me a monster."

Disregarding his own safety, he opened fire and he rushed towards the Deva. "Get to safety! I'll keep her busy!"

[Miriam Bell]

"Nope! Nope nope nope!" Miriam says as she presses herself against the side of the elevator cabin. "Absolutely not. Fuck this." she says as the space behind her unfolds into a rickety wooden stairwell. Panic, it seems, does not make for the most sturdy of mental constructs, but as far as Miriam is concerned it's still better than whatever the fuck she got dragged into here.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn does not see a need to explain herself further. Words. Useless.

She ducks the first couple bullets by dismounting the dragon, ignores another as it punches through her arm and charges at Leo in turn. She goes low and heaves him off his feet with his own momentum, flipping the much bigger man onto his back and jumping to land on his chest as a follow-up, one leg kicking at the hand holding the gun. She's not even really trying to disarm or disable him. She wants him to unleash his own monster so things can be simple. Why do humans have to make everything so complicated.

[Leo N. Eskandari]

Had it not been for the serum keeping his form human, he would have had the strength to keep his gun and throw her off. But, as it was, he was forced to throw awkward punches as he tried to get a hold of the Deva and wrestle her off of him.

"If you're trying to piss me off, it's working," he snarled through sharpening teeth. His blood was up and he knew he had to fight back if the rookies had any chance to get out. But he was terrified of letting the power inside of him out when he was this furious. She had just murdered the one person she seemed remotely close to with zero hesitation. She was a threat to more than just monsters.

"Is that what you want, for me to let go? To let you still believe I'm the monster here?"

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"We both are! Stop pretending! All of you!" she screams and claps her hand against Leo's ear hard enough and with just the right cupping of her hand to spike the pressure in his ear canal enough to burst his ear-drum.

[Samantha McManus]

"You don't want me to stop pretending," Sam said, stepping forward and shedding the likeness of Molly Ringwald.

"You've broken the oldest laws against me. Laws older than men. You've mistaken my forbearance for weakness."

"Tell me why I shouldn't just cast you through the final door."

[Leo N. Eskandari]

Leo was too distracted by the sudden pain in his ear to register Sam's change of appearance. He'd heal, but it was enough to trigger him to release some of his true strength and send Ryn flying. "For the last time, I'm not what you think I am!"

Despite his words, his muscles were already becoming more defined, filling out his clothes and popping the buttons on his shirt. She was getting what she wanted.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

She'd recognized 'Katarina' as Will, though she'd assumed it to be the Wyldclay. She had not noticed the Morrigan. The fledgling one from another world but she doubts that matters. Nor does the fact she did so at the Wyldclay's behest. She's sent flying and only just manages to somersault in the air and land in a crouch.

"Because even you cannot. You think the gods would have cursed and banished me if they could have killed me?" Though who knows what the world would be by the time she'd re-awaken. Katarina would certainly be long gone. "Gods." she spits. "I stole from an endless spring and you cross worlds for a drop of it?"

[Samantha McManus]

"I welcomed you to my hearth, and I did so after you attacked me unprovoked. I vouched for you."

"Your kind have hounded men until they collapsed for less."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"You want your pound of flesh? Then come and get it. I've finished what I came here for." The Agency, Gods from Elsewhere, if they want their own 'justice' they'd have to take it, she's done playing by any of their rules. Simple. Like things used to be. Hated and feared by all.

She vaults over the pseudo-dragon's head (who appears to be in the process of sagging and coming apart already) and runs for the large window front. She leaps, crashing through the window and clearing the length of the large balcony, one hand catching the railing and swinging her over the edge.

[Leo N. Eskandari]

Leo forced himself to stop changing with all the will he could muster. With a calming breath that only half worked, he got up and gave the young Morrigan an angry, confused look. Then he looked to Katarina and back to Sam. The unprovoked attack suddenly made sense.

"Okay, what the fuck is going on here? Who are you people? Cause that's obviously not Agent Kane." He glanced over at his gun on the ground, measuring the time it would take to retrieve it.

[Samantha McManus]

"Figure it out on your own bloody time, Leo." She snarls and breaks apart into a frankly shocking amount of ravens, pouring out the window after Ryn.

[Will Stanton]

"We're the good guys. Most of us," Will agreed, pulling her head out of the spike and diving out to follow Sam, swan diving out the window.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"For the love of... Some of us can't fly, you know!" Tosh called after them as he ran to the edge of the window, not loving being left with the angry agent to deal with.

"Yeah... So..." he said to Leo nervously. "Would you believe we're from another universe?"

[Miriam Bell]

"You can't take these guys anywhere." Miriam says, poking her head out now that the disaster area seems to have flown out the window.

[Leo N. Eskandari]

"Would you believe you?" Leo asked, growl still creeping into his voice.

Tosh responded quickly, "Well, no, I guess I wouldn't if I were you. But we aren't your enemies."

"Why are you after Ryn, then? Is it related to why she's gone off the deep end?" Leo asked.

[Miriam Bell]

"Well, there's still the portal that brought us here to begin with. This..." she gestures towards the balcony, "is more personal. She showed up out of nowhere and attacked Will. Sam is... There's some kind of mythological beef involved and she's pissed. Which tends to bring out this kind of shit."

[Leo N. Eskandari]

"Pissing off other powers seems like Ryn being Ryn. And as far as mythological beefs go, she has one with me. So... let's say I look past tricking me and believe you... What next? You'll help us bring her to her senses?" Leo asked.

"Not sure that's within our power, but we definitely can be quite useful. I know we're young--well, all of us but Will--but we have... abilities. A lot of people in our world do and not with a veil of secrecy about the whole thing, but they aren't supernatural either," the science major answered.

Leo snorted. "You make it sound like you have superpowers."

"Well... yes. Exactly. I could show you but mine would just make me look like something you'd hunt," Tosh said uncomfortably.

"Believe me, I'm the last agent to assume the worst. Plenty of agents would just assume put me down."

Tosh shot Miriam a look that said, "Should we?"

[Miriam Bell]

"Like we don't make people back home uncomfortable either." Miriam huffs. "I read minds and manipulate thoughts. And seeing how three people just threw themselves out a window in broad daylight, I'm guessing you spooks would prefer the people outside not to remember that. Plus even just looking at 'Ryn' right now is like pressing my mind against a razorblade, so I'll let someone else figure out what to do about her."

[Leo N. Eskandari]

"Yeah, don't draw any more attention to yourselves. I'm going to be in enough trouble with the agency for getting bamboozled as it is. At least secrecy is maintained if you really aren't from this reality." Leo retrieved his gun and holstered it before heading to the elevator. "We should take the mundane way down. Come on."