Halo Squad

Chapter 17

"Why is he unconscious?" asked Baby, "Probably the strain of trying to resist the belt" replied Dominic. "Never mind that, how the H did you do that? Angels don't do blessings, especially not blessings that powerful" said Uriel, "Um, I don't know? I just learnt a bunch of blessings from the books" "Books? What books?" "The books in the hidden library" "Hidden library? Wait...do you mean 'The Forbidden Library'? The one that was locked away in the main library?" "Um, yes? But it was hardly 'locked away', it opened for me. For some reason I was authorised for access. Aren't you?" "No, no-one is. They were sealed off a while back, and for good reason. That knowledge is dangerous in the wrong hands" "Well, clearly someone decided that my hands are the right ones". That shut Uriel up. "Okay guys this is nice and confusing and all, but did you hear what that Phanuel guy said? Uriel, who gives him his checklist?" "Um well. It's...Gabriel. Gabriel makes Phanuel's checklist". Before Dominic could say anything, his halo began ringing. He brought it down from his head, hit the answer button then turned it to speakerphone. "Where the hell are you guys? There's some serious stuff going on down here" said Lavinia from her halo.

Dominic heard screaming and explosions in the background "We went on a little mission with Uriel. What on earth is going on over there?" "It was the doves, Dom. They all flew to different parts of the citadel, then blew up. They were like crazy massive explosions. They blew straight through the ground, and opened gateways to hell. There are de-mons everywhere. They're taking the people that live here as prisoners back to hell. We lost our weapons in the explosions, they even took Rogelio! We're managing to fight them off with our fists, but just barely. We need your help" "Okay, don't worry, we're on our way". Just as Dominic hung up, he heard two massive explosions coming from within the complex. Uriel looked out of a window "Guys, they blew up the training sector. That means...most of the angels are dead. And the survivors will probably be taken prisoner. This really isn't good. But we need to get back to the others". Uriel whistled, and 15 seconds later Faye had crashed through the windows and was perched, waiting for them to get on. "Where are the other two?" asked Emilia, "They flew off and blew up the training sector, you must have seen" replied Faye. Emilia, Baby and Dominic climbed onto Faye's back, who promptly flew back towards the others.

"Oh. My. Lord." gasped Baby as she looked upon the citadel. Everything was burning, and there were de-mons everywhere. People were being shackled in chains and marched through the holes into hell. Faye looked around on the ground, then finally saw a small patch of white amongst all the red and black. Faye looked closely, then realised that something was wrong. "Dominic, look. They're being taken away by de-mons! We're too late" said Faye. Dominic saw that she was right and shouted "Go down! We need to save them!". Faye attempted to dive downwards, but was stopped by massive fireballs flying towards her. "Leave it, Dominic. There are too many of them to fight. You'll be taken aswell!" said Uriel, but Dominic was angry "I don't care! They're my team, I can't just do nothing!" "Listen to me. The de-mons won't kill them, just take them prisoner. That means that we can go and rescue them. But right now, what's important is getting out of here. You're no use to them dead. Okay?" "Fine. Let's get out of the citadel. Faye, fly to the the gates".

Faye started moving towards the gates, but quickly met an obstacle. "There are flying de-mons now?!" exclaimed Emilia. She reached down to the holster at her waist and began shooting at the de-mons' heads with her rifle. Dominic brought out his katanas, and sliced up every de-mon that got too close to Faye. Baby triggered her hidden blades, then leapt onto one of the bigger de-mons and stabbed it in the heart. She leapt off it onto another one before it disintegrated and repeated. They all kept going like this, until Faye was close enough to the gates to descend safely. Baby leapt back onto Faye and they all put their weapons away. Faye landed on the ground next to Uriel and the rest of the team. Uriel tapped his halo on the identification pad and they all passed through the gates. De-mons gathered at the gates, but they couldn't go through. The four of them were safe for now.

"Okay, let's make our way to the training centre" said Dominic, which was met by two loud "Are you insane?!"s. "Dom, guaranteed there will be de-mons everywhere. We probably just didn't see them because we left straight away. There's no way the hellhound came through alone. Plus, who do you think messed with the doves?" said Emilia, "So? We can fight them. We can't just stay here. Plus, I'm the only one wearing my field uniform" retorted Dominic. Emilia turned to Uriel, who nodded at her "While I don't think the training centre is the best place to retreat to, we should probably at least have our essentials before we make a plan. That means we need your orbs. I'll fly there alone and bring them back". Uriel leapt into the air and flapped his wings powerfully and quickly.

Dominic waited until Uriel was too far to hear them, and he said "I'll see you guys in a bit, I got something to do". He jumped onto Faye's back and said "Fly to the training centre please". Faye took off and started the journey to the training centre, flying faster than she had the last time she had carried him there. "Why are we going to the training centre?" asked Faye, "Well, I have some unfinished business. As you know, Gabriel won't let us have our wings. And now that he's probably evil, I doubt we're ever getting them. But I was working on something, a pair of artifical wings. I haven't finished them yet, but all my work and research is still there. And I'm not giving it up without a fight". Faye didn't reply, just made a "Hmm" sound and continued flying. A few minutes later, they arrived at the training centre, with Dominic flipping off of Faye's back before she landed and running in, swords out.

He dashed through the centre, slicing every de-mon he encountered, moving too fast to be bothered by the high temperatures caused by the fire everywhere. He made his way to the library, and was about to go to the hidden library entrance, but had a thought. He went over to the computer and did something he had discovered a couple weeks prior while looking for other hidden secrets. He swiped his halo in front of the library computer screen, and watched a secret menu appear. It had many options, but he ignored most and went straight to 'Emergency Transport'. The options on the screen were replaced by 3 new ones; 'Library Re-location', 'Pocket Mode' and 'Escape Pod'. He hit the second button, and a drop-down menu with two options appeared. The first said 'Main Library' and the second said 'Private Library'. Dominic figured that the second one was referring to the hidden library, and selected it. The screen went blank white, then spat a dice-sized black cube onto the desk. Dominic put it in one of the many pockets on his suit then left the library.

As he ran out of the library and out of the centre, he passed the combat room, where Uriel was still struggling with the orbs. Dominic sighed, then went back to help Uriel. Using his Blessed Sight, Dominic could see the wispy tethers attaching the orbs to the centre. He pulled his halo from his head, used it to slice the tethers, then ran out to Faye. Dominic could hear Uriel asking "What are you doing here?" as he left but decided to ignore it. He jumped onto Faye and she flew back to the gates. Minutes later, Faye landed and Dominic jumped down. Baby shot him a questioning look but he decided not to say anything as Uriel was just flying in. He wasn't sure whether or not to tell him about the artificial wings he was trying to make.

As Uriel landed, there was a loud bang. Dominic looked over to the source of the sound, to see that the de-mons had been joined by numerous massive beasts, including hellhounds, who were trying to break the gates down. At first, the 4 of them laughed at the monsters banging their heads and shoulders, until something changed. The gates started to give way. "Um Uriel, we can't fight all those de-mons and beasts, even with our weapons" said Baby. "Yes, I know. I need to get you three out of here" replied Uriel, then he pulled his halo down from his head. He threw it at the cloudy boundaries behind them, a hole started opening, then it quickly returned to him like a yoyo. There was then a massive cracking sound as the hinges on the citadel gates. "Go through the hole. I didn't have time to set a destination, so I don't know where you'll end up, but it's safety. I'll hold off the de-mons. I don't mind staying behind, even if it means being captured or possibly killed. There's no point me hiding, especially since my whole team has probably been taken prisoner", "Except for Gabriel, that is" snipped Dominic under his breath, then Uriel continued "You guys are our best hope. But right now is not your time to fight".

The gates fell down with a crash and the hordes of de-mons charged forward. They all jumped into the swirling portal that Uriel had made one by one, until only Dominic was left. He looked back at Uriel, who had been swarmed by de-mons, said "We will come back and fix this", then jumped in.