Previous Post Adventures in Parodyverse: The Wedding Part 5     The crowd beginning to close around Vinnie De Soth and Pandemonica tried to shield themselves as a flash of light blinded them, and then the wind kicked up violently.  A powerful bolt of lightning shattered the stone altar, exploding it with such violence that pieces of rock flew, forcing all the guests to duck.     Liu Xi Xian handed the book to Lara Night, and then she turned the full wrath of her elemental power upon everyone present.  Hundred foot high stone pillars tore through the grass and headed skyward.  The winds approached hurricane strength, blowing out fires, and whipping dresses violently.     One of the De Soth elders started to call out a curse to put a stop to it.  Two words in, a bright blue bolt of lightning hit just where he stood, sending him airborne and forcing everyone to cover their ears from the explosion.     There was one fire that remained, and could not be quenched by the high winds.  Liu Xi knew what it was...it was practically the essence of pure evil.  She reached for the book quickly.     But those two words the old man spoke were enough.  The flame rose as a pillar, high in the air.  Then a deep voice echoed into the winds.     The voice said, “Your sacrifice has been accepted.”     Flames from the pillar reached out began to envelop Pandemonica.  She started to scream, and Vinnie held firm onto her arms, as the fire started to burn through his tuxedo, and into his skin.  He started to search his brain for some spell he might have remembered to save her, but things were going too fast.     Lara Night attacked the flame pillar with powerful lightning; but it was intangible, and unaffected.  Liu Xi tried to will the fire to dissipate, but it wasn’t under her control.  Water launching over the coastal wall and spilling onto the flame pillar had no effect.  She fumbled with the book, trying to reading a spell from it.  But between that she wasn’t well practiced, and she wasn’t a native speaker of English or Latin, her voice faltered, and she wasn’t loud enough to be heard.     Pandemonica was torn from Vinnie’s burned hands and arms.  She screamed, “Help me!  Help me please!”     Vinnie growled loudly and unintelligibly in anger and frustration, but he wasn’t heard over Pandemonica’s screaming, or the roar of the pillar of flame.     And then there was a deep, loud laugh.  And then a voice echoed which said, “Beware, champions of Earth.  I am complete.  I have returned to claim that which is mine.”     A burst of flame suddenly attacked Liu Xi and Lara.  The blonde was quick and raised a shield, but even protected by it, temperatures quickly and dangerously rose, and the two screamed.     Then there was darkness, and silence.  Pandemonica was gone.     Vinnie rose, ignoring his badly burned arms, and the darkness in his eyes was more than a match for the darkness of the surroundings.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“That was his demon curse.”  Liu Xi whispered as she gasped on the ground.     Then Vincent De Soth looked directly upon his own family, and the family of Pandemonica.  He tore at his own burned skin with his own fingernails, let the blood stream down his arm and hand, and drip on the spot where the altar had been standing earlier.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I banish you,”  he said.  “As Acting Sorcerer Supreme, I banish you!”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You stop this nonsense right now!”  Vinnie’s his own father growled threateningly.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“He can’t say it once more--”  Liu Xi whispered in panic, but she never finished the thought.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I banish you!”  Vinnie De Soth repeated, in a voice louder and angrier than he had ever spoken with before.     The wind suddenly picked up again, and lifted both families into the air, spinning around violently as if trapped in a tornado.  In what seemed like an eternity, but was little more than the blink of an eye, they all vanished.     All that was left on that dark island was Vinnie, Liu Xi, and Lara.     Then Vinnie collapsed.  Lara rushed over to him, and grabbed his arms tightly to try to heal him fast enough so that he would stop bleeding.  The blood streamed like a river, at first, across her own fingers, but stopped within a few seconds.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh, Vinnie, what have you done?”  Liu Xi whispered to him sadly.     He looked up, and he could see the sadness in her eyes, just before he lost consciousness. ---     Ã¢â‚¬Å“He can only banish temporarily,”  Liu Xi explained to Lara once they were at Phantomhawk Memorial, waiting to hear an update on Vinnie’s condition.  “He is not strong enough to keep them away permanently.  When they return they will be angry.  Vinnie has started a war.”     Lara nodded.  She understood now why Liu Xi was so upset over what he had done.  “And now we apparently have a demon on the loose.  One that’s completely immune to my energy attacks, and your elements.”     The blonde sighed, and leaned back on the small guest waiting room couch, slouching a little.     Liu Xi was more uneasy.  She paced the room instead, still holding that book.  “Only magic can affect that demon.  That’s what the book says.  It’s not physical unless it chooses to be.  Even natural elements won’t work.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“So basically it’s all up to you,”  Lara guessed.  “Until Vinnie recovers.”     The Chinese girl sat next to her and opened the book.  “Not necessarily.  You see, control over magic is just control over the energy source inside things.  You just can’t use it because you your energy is too pure.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Wait...so if I siphon energy from things around me instead of myself...?”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Maybe,”  she answered.  “Maybe.  But it’s not so easy, because things around you resist having their energy pulled from them.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yeah, you’re right,”  Lara noted.  “That’s why it’s easier to just draw it from myself.”     Liu Xi continued.  “You almost had it, you know.  You almost had the right combination of willpower and energy.  Or we would have been dead from that flame.”     Lara frowned and thought about that.  Liu Xi was right, the two of them should have burned to death, if her powers had no effect at all on the demon.     The two stopped talking when Hatman and Yuki entered the room.  The two didn’t say anything right away.     Lara stood then, and faced the two Legionnaires.  “I take responsibility for everything,”  she said quietly.     Yuki spoke up first.  “No need.  We would all have gotten our butts kicked,”  she said.  “You did as well as you could.”     The blonde looked at Hatman to see if he agreed.  He was nodding quietly.  It was late at night, so Lara didn’t expect much conversation from the tired man.     Everyone fell silent just then as nurse Grace O’Mercy opened the door and stepped into the room.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“He’s awake now,”  Grace said.  “He’s almost completely healed now, he mostly just needs rest.”     The vampire nurse looked directly at Lara Night, knowing that the blonde was the cause of Vinnie De Soth arriving almost healed.  She had seen Lara’s work before.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Go ahead.”  Lara nudged Liu Xi.  “I know you want to talk to him first.” ---     Vinnie De Soth looked up when Liu Xi Xian entered his curtained room in the Recovery area.  She headed directly to his bedside, and sat alongside him, and then hugged him tightly.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Where’s Lara?”  he asked.  “I want to thank her for saving me.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“Why did you have to banish your family?”  Liu Xi asked, since she had that question foremost in her mind.  “I know they made you angry but...this is scary, what you did.”     Vinnie sighed sadly.  “I...I thought you would support me.”     Ã¢â‚¬Å“I would, except you can’t keep them banished,”  she pointed out.     He then gave Liu Xi a sad and worried look.  “What do you think I should do?”     The Chinese girl finally smiled.  The Acting Sorcerer Supreme, and he still valued her advice.  “Prepare an ambush,”  she said.     Lara Night entered the room silently, watching the two of them to wait for her cue to speak.  Vinnie saw her, and waved her over.     He took her hand gently.  “Lara, I was kind of prepared to die after I banished my family.  But you saved me.”     The blonde smiled.  “You would have done the same for me.”     Vinnie shrugged.  The truth was, his job as Acting Sorcerer Supreme meant that sometimes he couldn’t.  But he didn’t want to say that.  “I have to ask one more favor, though.  I need your help getting Pandemonica back from that fire demon.”     Lara shook her head, and moved closer.  “It’s not your problem alone anymore, Vinnie,”  she said.     She looked over toward the door as Yuki Shiro and Hatman entered the room as well.     Ã¢â‚¬Å“You have the whole Lair Legion on the case now.” TO BE CONTINUED...? Story written and copyrighted (C) 2011 by Jason Froikin, and may not be reprinted without permission.  Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow.  Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin.  Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin

And really, it's not a proper wedding unless somebody does something worthy of banishment. Usually it's just some unfortunate, drunken dance moves however.

The stakes have been raised... Let's see what comes next.