our hospital facilities are nationally acclaimed

cross_and_bow

"Do you know where he is? Did he follow them, can you hear him or smell him or anything -"

eversomuchfun

"One moment," he says, and risks a glance over the side of the truck.

As he resumes scrabbling after squares, he also points.

"That way. Bottom of a tunnel. I'm not sure which one, but that's where his scent is coming from."

cross_and_bow

Bella tries to wish him dead. She tries more specificity - wishes his throat slit, his neck broken -

Nothing doing.

"Square won't touch him," she says helplessly. "We might have to kill all the Defenders before I can get at him without getting pulverized."

eversomuchfun

"Fire?" he suggests.

cross_and_bow

Bella grabs at the wand again, peeps over the edge of the truck, floods all the holes there and the intervening spaces with flames.

The Defenders keep coming. She kills the fire so she can concentrate on wishing. "Can you tell if I got him?"

eversomuchfun

"Not sure yet."

cross_and_bow

Wish. Wish. Wish. Wish. God, there's so many. "I have never been more annoyed than I am right now that Shell Bell didn't invite me to break her arm for one - damn - pentagon -" Wish wish wish wish wishwishwishwishwish.

eversomuchfun

Sherlock pops up again, just for a moment.

"Don't think you got him," he reports. "Not deep enough, you think?"

cross_and_bow

"Or he's protected from fire somehow - But I have to know where to send the fire and I don't know which way the tunnels turn -"

eversomuchfun

"I could make a try for him," Sherlock offers. "These things could make my life very unpleasant but they'd have a hard time actually killing me unless they managed to pull my head off."

cross_and_bow

"But they could probably do that. One of them carelessly stepping on me would probably've killed me if it weren't for Amariah's work." Wishwishwishwish -

eversomuchfun

"Of the two of us I'm still better suited to make the attempt if we run out of squares."

cross_and_bow

"If we run out," agrees Bella.

eversomuchfun

That time has not yet come, but it is fast approaching.

On the other hand... there are fewer Defenders pouring out of the ground than there used to be.

cross_and_bow

Bella concentrates her efforts on the direction in which their master supposedly hides, so it will be safe for Sherlock to make a break for it while she covers them on the other side sooner.

eversomuchfun

Sherlock keeps going for the nearest Defenders, because it won't do them any good if they clear a path in one direction and get clobbered from the other.

cross_and_bow

And now they're - as far as Bella can see -

out of squares.

"Get him! I'll try to lead the last Defenders away," she says, vaulting out of the back of the pickup and sprinting through the grove, taking flying leaps over fallen trees.

eversomuchfun

He leaps out in the other direction and flings himself down a tunnel that doesn't presently have a Defender climbing out of it.

cross_and_bow

There is a Defender on its way to rectifying that situation!

eversomuchfun

There's room in the tunnel for both of them, more or less.

Sherlock dives straight past it.

cross_and_bow

It makes a grab for him, but this isn't its lucky day. It does turn and chase him, though.

eversomuchfun

It can do that if it likes. Sherlock bets he is faster.

cross_and_bow

The tunnel leads to the throne room, where the man who was originally sitting in a circle of dancing Defenders is pacing. He is most alarmed to see Sherlock approach, but if he can conjure up a new Defender on short notice, he doesn't do it right then. Instead he chooses this time to deliver insults.

"Interfering brat! Do you know what you've -"

eversomuchfun

That was a poor time to deliver insults.

cross_and_bow