"That Ol' Black Magic"

Mission Link

The chill and elegant fall air wafted through the hills as the two made their way to the rumored haunted grounds. It was not in Selina's nature to go out on jobs like this, but then again-- she wasn't the type to ignore a challenge. Besides, she had been so busy of late she needed a chance to cut loose. It wasn't stealing a precious diamond or artifact, but a good night out to wander a pumpkin patch sounded like fun for her 'twisted' sense of amusement.

Selina was dressed in her 'witch attire', the black top and cowl, a short skirt and robe behind her as she moved, wafting in the fall air. On her shoulder, was none other than her faithful companion. Hex the Exceed cat. Since she was a child, she had been blessed to have the Exceed as her witch's familiar and she accepted that role with pride. The unusual black cat wore a pair of odd claw gloves that looked adorable on her-- but more importantly despite Selina without a witch's hat, the cat wore one with her long pointy ears sticking out of the sides of it.

"Think we can still make it back for Agile's Halloween Party before this job is done?"the cat meowed, looking around the hills that began to see pumpkins crop up as they ventured further into the haunted fields. "I'd hate t o waste our Halloween on wacking some gords around. Not that i don't mind. After all you see that video of the tigers playing with the pumpkins on Ilac videos?" the cat said with a chipper tone if a bit sassy.

Selina, or rather "Temperance" as she liked to be called, smiled at her cat's comment. "Trust me, I doubt this will take all night. After that, we can portal right back to the Black Cat Lounge and party the night away. Besides..." Temperance said as she eyed the creeping fog that began to grow thicker as they progressed... "Fall fog is so not good for my hair." she said as she ran a hand through her long black hair.

They ventured further in slowly now. Hex could fly them in but it be risky to fly in into unknown danger. As they walked, they reached the pumpkin patch, surrounded by a grove of trees. The eerie sounds of distant crows. At the entrance of the pumpkin patch, they saw a lifeless, seemingly creepy scarecrow hung up with a creepy pumpkin head on its head. It wore a hat and dressed like some decayed corpse.

"Well, he looked like something the cat dragged in. " Hex commented as they passed it by.

Temperance passed on, not afraid.

As they ventured deeper, anticipating anything... oddly nothing happened. Only the number of crows began to grow in the dark sky above them. "I really hope this isn't a dumb 'trick or treat' gag to have us come out here for nothing..." the woman said, a hand on her hip in impatience.

WC: 503

The caw of the birds soon began to grow louder overhead. Hex on the girl's shoulders perked her ears up as she heard and looked over up. The crows now had amassed far greater, like the clouds above. With the series of caws-- they moved as a flock and dove right towards them.

"Uh oh... Hitchcock alert," the cat meowed, causing Selina to look up. She saw the crows and they came... but Selina didn't move as they came in.

The crows came in with the intent to strike as the lead ones aimed with the pointy beak to peck right at them. However, something happened.

The moment the crows collided with the woman and her hat-wearing cat, the two vanished in a flurry of sparkled lights. Excited caws came as the crows hit nothing, the woman standing there has been a type of illusion. One to easily fool the crows.

While the crows squawked and flew in confusion, a good distance away was Selina with Hex on her shoulder as before. They stood in the shadow of a nearby tree. A chuckle escaped Selina as she raised her hand, revealing a series of cards spread out in it. "Typical bird-brains..." she said as she drew her hand back-- then throw the cards towards the birds.

As she threw her cards, the cards soon caught fire mid-flight, leaving trails of flames as they flew. The moment the cards truck the cloud of birds, they exploded and catching fire to the birds. A chaotic cry of frightened birds sang through the air, a good part of them now fluttering flickers of flames as they would die off.

"Mreow! Nice shot, Temperance," the cat said. With that, the cat hopped off her shoulders and took flight with a pair of black wings that magically appeared behind her.

As some of the remaining crows came out after Selina-- the cat took act too and swiped with her paw, slashing a couple out of the air for her own fun.

The remaining crows could have come right for Selina-- who would have fought them off. However... something else ominous happened in its place. What remaining crows began to flock around themselves, and seem to blend together, becoming black feathery creatures into shadows. With a sudden glow of dark magic-- the crows seemed to merge, becoming a single humanoid entity. It let out a fierce cry as it stretched its large arms and taloned hands, and revealed a large crow-like head with glowing yellow eyes.

"Mrrrr... another overgrown feather-duster? Why can't we ever fight a giant fish or something yummy." Hex meowed overhead, flying in what shadows of the moonlight were there.

The crow monster let out a harsh cry as it eyed Selina in the distance, still standing there cooly. All the while, the woman held her cards with a soft smile on her face. "Flock off, feather face," she replied.

The crow monster let out another cry and attempted to rush towards her. He was fast and moved with black claws that could easily rend flesh to bits.

Selina this time didn't stand idle as she moved. With cards in hand, she slung them forward-- this time they were just the same cards-- but they were sharp when thrown at the right speed and accuracy. Several made their way towards the crow-- some struck it, causing nicks and cuts into its form, others passed by, missing and landing elsewhere among the pumpkin patch.

Now within reach, the Crow lunged and reached for her with its talons.

WHOOSH!!

The moment it slashed, Temperance vanished in a blur, the claw grasping nothing but air. Confounded again, the crow remained confused as it looked for his target. However, in the same flash far behind him, Selina reappeared. She now knelt down by one of her thrown cards, showing the Tarot Card of "The Magician". Using it, she could teleport herself to any card she wished, making it easy for her to dodge such a simple enemy.

"Hex, if you would?" she replied.

The crow had not noticed the flying cat above as she had a smirk on her face and her paws glowed. "Pum-Pumpkin-Pumpkin! Halloween Cannon!!" she meowed and released a glow of dark magic in the shape of a jack-o-lantern. The magic projectile shot forward from the flying cat and slammed right into the crow.

The jack-o-lantern projectile exploded on impact, consuming the crow-man in its fiery blaze. Between the card attack and the attack from Hex, the two were able to easily take it down.

As the blaze began to die down, the ominous of the pumpkin patch remained while Hex began to hover a bit in the air, trying to loosen up and get back towards Selina. "HOpe we can fly from this coop soon. I wanna go back to the real party." the cat said.

WC: 814

Though the oversized crow monster was defeated, their job was not done yet. Selina knew that much. The goal was to eliminate the creature that was cursing this pumpkin patch. The giant crow was a menace but no more menacing as say a certain werewolf stalker Selina knew that wouldn't let up.

(Elsewhere... Free the Werewolf sneezes.)

As the flying Exceed perched herself softly on her companion's shoulder, they pressed on. However, before they got too far, the woman glanced behind her and sensed something was off. She could still see the exit to the pumpkin patch and noticed something off.

"Hex?" she asked nervously.

"What's up?" the cat meowed, licking the palm of her gloves paw to run over her long ears.

"Is it my imagination or wasn't there a scarecrow back there?" she said, pointing to the spot where they entered. The scarecrow that they had seen there was now gone, as if it was never propped up. All that remained was its stick.

The cat's ears went up in concern. "Oh brother... whoever came up with the idea of living scarecrows really had a tacky sense of taste..." the cat meowed grumpily.

The rustle of leaves and wind made it hard to tell where it was. The small sound of metal could be heard-- and then the wild cackle of some kind that made Selina's hair stand on end.

The woman ducked and just in time as the slice of a scythe came right for them-- though Hex wasn't so lucky as her hat was slitted on top of the tip. Grabbing hold of her Exceed, Selina jumped back.

There, with a scythe in hand, the scarecrow from before stood on its own two legs. With a crazy looking scythe in hand, it snickered and sneered like a madman, its face just aglow by the fire of the magic used to animate it, illuminating the features of the jackolanturn with it.

Hex was startled, but soon reached up with her paw, finding that the tip of her pointy hat was gone. "Oh no you DIDN'T! I'm gonna turn you into a scratching post for that!!" the cat meowed angrily.

Selina didn't waste time as she drew a card of her own, which fanned out into many. IT was that moment the Scarecrow charged again, swinging his scythe madly to try and sever something off her. However, Selina had already threw her cards into the path of the attacker. The cards glowed blue, the symbol of 'cups' on it. As they landed on the ground in front of the scarecrow-- they glowed and suddenly released a far colder chill in the air around him.

Ice suddenly erupted from where the cards landed, snaring the Scarecrow in its magic.

WC: 461

Stuck in the ice, the scarecrow wouldn't be able to get anywhere and it was in too much of a frenzy state of mind to really grasp to try and slash at the ice around its legs. As it struggled, the cat on her shoulders hissed at it. "Now's its personal! No one ruins my hat!" the cat said as she urged her partner to act. "Come on Temperance, let make him pay!"

A chuckle escaped the woman. "Sure," she replied simply and drew another hand of cards. "Suit of AETHERS!!" she called, and caused the cards she threw to become encased with lightning magic.

As she did that, the cat hopped up into the air, conjuring another pumpkin-shaped projectile. "Halloween Cannon!!" she meowed, lobbing it at the stuck Scarecrow.

A violent flash and explosion of electricity, the sting of the cards themselves and pumpkin bombs went off, consuming the scarecrow with a violent roar and cry from it. The scythe it had went flying elsewhere among the field as the hay of the scarecrow caught fire and exploded. Its pumpkin-shaped head went rolling off, the embers inside dying away.

The cat landed back on Selina's shoulders and watched the head roll away. "If only he had a brain..." the cat said, before realizing still her favorite hat was trimmed at the tip, making the cat look sad.

"Hex, calm down. I promise I will get you a new one, okay? For now let's keep focus. We need to find that monster who hexed this field in the first place..." she said, and pressed on, while the cat grumbled on her shoulders.

As they walked further into the pumpkin patch to find the final foe... things were quiet as the ominous fog began to grow thicker and thicker. Selina looked around, cautious of anything dangerous around while her cat companion rested on her head and back. The fog made the cat nervous as she clung to her partner, being ready just in case of any kind of emergency.

It was ominous silence, till a cackle could be heard in the distance. Two glowing embers of eyes pierced the fog, causing Selina to stop. "Here it comes..." the woman said.

A sudden blast of energy punctured through the fog and tried to sear the woman-- but at the right moment, Hex took action. Using her Exceed wings she flapped up and pulled her companion with her. The cat now soared airborne, carrying Temperance with her as they both looked down. From above, Selina could see it-- the odd pumpkin-shaped spirit. The pumpkin patch king spirit who looked like an ugly ghost with the head of a grinning pumpkin. It let out a haunted howl at them, intending to scare them.

But Selina grinned, amused and ready to bring the fire. "Hex... It's showtime," she replied almost with glee.

"Mreow! You go girl!" the cat said as she held on to her.

Once more, she drew a series of cards from her hands. Poised, she threw them downward, slashing and slicing up towards the Pumpkin King. As they they scratched the surface and littered the ground around him. Furious, he lunged towards them, flying into the air to give chase to the woman and her cat.

WC: 545

The two were very much in sync as Hex dropped the girl, allowing her to fall towards the incoming enemy, but in that instant-- she blinked out of existance right before his poison claws could slash at her.

In the blink of an eye, Selina landed on the ground after reappearing just inches above it, teleporting to her cards much as she did before. The moment she touched ground, she turned and fired another round of cards, this time, aliht with light magic. With the cards thrown, they slashed and pattered against the monster. Followed by another volley of cards too to wack into him. The pumpkin specter roared as he endured the onslaught but that wasn't going to stop it alone. It flew back down towards her...

... and almost didn't notice Hex lobbing another Halloween Cannon at it. The explosion went off, adding to the damage but it wasn't going to stop it completely. She threw cards that would slash him, adding more and more as he flew after her-- till she was close to Selina.

However, right as claws would attack, she did a more elegant move to evade him. She arched back and entered a swift flip backward, using her acrobatic skills to escape his grasp. With a final flip backward in her series of flips, she knelt down to see the target surrounded by the cards she threw earlier...

... and snapped her fingers.

The cards, the Suite of Wands suddenly flashed with magic-- and erupted in a vicious explosion around him. The flames bust into his form, turning him into a flaming jackolanturn . The creature wailed as he fired another blast of darkness, trying to hit her. This time in his enflamed state, it was easy for her to dodge with a mere side step to her left.

"Trick or Treat, Jack-ass," she said with a mischevious, witchy grin as she took out a single card-- containing the image of a Raven and the words "The Death". "Teloc P Vpaah!(Wings of Death in Enochian)" The words caused the card to glow with a dark aura and her own shadow grew in size. Darkness swelled below and rose up, lines of magic giving the shadow shape and power-- till it towered well overhead of her and arched-- becoming the image of a large raven with orange linings to outline it.

The vicious crow cawed as it flew forward for the flaming evil creature, and exploded, delivering critical damage and caused all in its path to be dissolved into the darkness. The pumpkin king let out a shrill cry before he was consumed by the shadows under the witch's command.

With the last bit of shadows gone-- it revealed the patch now left with a black scar in it-- caused by her shadowy crow spell. The creature was gone and already the fog, the haunted aura from the field began to dissipate.

Relived, Hex fluttered back down and her wings vanished as she landed upon her friend, her chin on Selina's head. "Can we go home now, Pumpkin?" she said with a hint of a tease.

Selina smirked, as if the entire endeavor was a minor chore. "Sure, let's go. There is a party waiting for me to crash," she said as she drew a card-- one with the Black Cat Lounge logo on it. With a toss into the air, the portal opened that led back to Agil's establishment. With a swift jump through, the two vanished and the portal closed behind them.

End. :

WC:592
TWC: 2915