Ult. Hellblazer #7 - The Great Annihilator Pt. 2

[liquidsword34]

Ultimate Hellblazer #7
The Great Annihilator Part 2 of 2

The small car rumbled through the hamlet of Floydbank, hidden up in the East of Scotland, away from prying eyes. Aside from a boarded up village shop and a few fences where homes used to be, a solitary signpost was all that marked Floydbank's existence. Floydbank was, at best, somewhere you drove through on your way to somewhere interesting. John Constantine peered out of his open windows as Chas slowed the car to a halt at the side of the road. Kay Challis was laid asleep in the back seat, having used an old coat as a pillow and wrapping her own jacket over her shoulders, her hair draped over her eyes like a blindfold and one shoe having fallen off.

"You know John," Chas said, "this all sounds like the set-up to a joke."

"Some people go to banish an alien-demon-thing in Scotland?"

"Nah, a scouser, a cockney and an escaped mental patient go to meet a one-legged-biker, a nun and a magician."

"You've got a point," John laughed as Chas put the handbrake on and turned off the engine. John turned around to Kay, who had started stirring. "Jane? Jane?"

The small woman picked her head up off the jury rigged attempt at a pillow and rubbed her eyes. "Jane's gone to bed, it's Sun Daddy," she replied as she sat up, stretching her arms out and yawning. The trio climbed out of the car and looked around at their surroundings. Hills and fields constituted the only scenery, and a small flock of black birds swooped around overhead.

"So, where are they?" Chas asked John, who shrugged.

"They said they would all get here as soon as they could."

"Hopefully they take their time," Kay called over as she sat on the bonnet of the car, looking up at the clear blue sky. "I love sunny days like this, when you can just sit and look at the sky. I'm not that used to it, of course. Sitting in a garden with orderlies and doctors and nurses and patients sat around you isn't really the same." Kay's voice was quickly followed by the sound of banging inside of the old shop. Eventually the door swung open, filling the air with dust as Anne-Marie, Judith and Frank trudged out of the shop. Anne-Marie wore the same clothes she'd worn for the past twenty years - a traditional nun's habit, complete with a crucifix necklace. She hadn't aged as much as John had expected, which he put down to her having found a way to deal with what happened the last time the group was together. In contrast, Judith could pass for a woman pushing into her fifties despite being just over forty. Small, dark bags hung beneath her eyes, and her clothes were ill fitting and second hand. The third person in the group, Frank, was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, marking the first time any of the others had seen him not wearing something made of leather like his biker's jacket. Although he hid it well, he still wasn't used to living with a false leg, primarily because he'd lost the ability to ride his motorbike. Every time he tried, no matter what style of bike, he couldn't get used to the difference with his new leg. In his younger days, Frank had travelled across four continents on his bike, experiencing everything the world had to offer. But the man John saw in front of him was not that same Frank. He looked more subdued, like middle age had hit him hard and he hadn't recovered.

"Thought I heard voices," Frank smiled and stepped forward, stretching his hand out to John. The two met in a quick handshake as the four other members of their group stood back. As the two relinquished their grip, they found themselves stood in an awkward silence, staring at each other as the wind blew past them.

"How've you been?" John asked.

"You know how it is. Got a job, little one's coming up on five," Frank shrugged and looked John up and down. "What about you? Still wearing the same old coat I see."

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," John said with little enthusiasm.

So, are we gonna do this or not?" Kay interrupted while still sat on the car sunbathing, much to the annoyance of Chas.

"If we knew where they were, sure, but from what I gather Ben was pretty vague," Anne-Marie said, keeping her arms folded up against her chest and her voice hushed.

"Last time the girl was in a shower room in a factory," Kay hopped off the car. "Dark and damp, right?"

"Like woodlice, yeah," Judith said.

Kay walked over to a small stone wall which outlined where a house used to be, followed by the rest of the group. "Pepper's Ghost's telling me to check over here," Kay walked over to a wooden board and yanked it up, revealing a dark pit going as far down as she could see. Make-shift steps of stone had been carved out descending down into the blackness.

"You're kidding," Chas laughed as he peered down. "Thank Pepper what's-her-face for us, will you?"

"Sure," Kay sat on the edge of the hole, her legs hanging down. "She's pretty boring, but she's smarter than most of us in here. It looks like there was a big house here. Big house, big cellar."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," John descended the cellar steps as he spoke, followed one by one by the others. As they reached the mould ridden cellar area beneath the ground, the group found that the stairs kept going, becoming more uneven and carved from newer, smoother stone. The six walked into pitch blackness, going deeper and deeper.

"John?" Kay muttered from the back of the line.

"What is it, Sun Daddy?" John hissed back, keeping his eyes forward.

"I'm scared. It's...it's dark."

"What?"

"I don't like the dark, I like the sun."

"Then...just let somebody else take over," John replied angrily, trying to keep his voice down.

"Who?"

"Somebody who isn't scared of the dark," Frank grumbled as he almost slipped on a cracked step.

"Okay, just, just hang onto me," Kay said, causing Anne-Marie and Judith to turn around and grab her by the arms. In one smooth motion Kay fell forward into her friend's arms, closed her eyes, shook around violently, put her feet back onto the steps and opened her eyes again. "It's Jane," Kay said as she managed to balance herself again. The group managed to put themselves back into single file and carry on walking. After over five minutes of silent trekking the ground levelled out into a hallway, with candles hanging down in torches and thick wooden support beams stopping the dirt caving in.

"Those nutters really put some effort into this," Chas mused out loud as he led the group down the dingy hallway and their footsteps echoed through the gloomy underground passage. Eventually the tunnel opened out into a larger room, carved out from the dirt and rock to form a chapel. The roof went high up and curved into a dome, supported by make-shift beams of wood and scrap metal. A legion of hooded figures knelt on the hard stone floor, their matching black robes making them resemble a single solid black shape. In front of them was a gigantic circular portal, sown together from slaughtered animals ranging from cows to dogs, nailed up to the wall. A pool of purple energy stretched across the portal, lighting up the congregation with its unnatural glow. The mangled mess of carcasses still convulsed and bled, but the blood defied gravity and steadily crawled into the portal instead of falling downwards.

"This...this is too much," Judith mumbled, starting to back away. Anne-Marie grabbed her friend tightly by the arm, keeping her in place.

"You can get through this, Judith," she whispered to her friend. "We beat it before, and we'll beat it again. Trust me."

"No, heretics, you will not beat us," a deep voice boomed out through the darkness. A single hooded figure approached the group, this one wearing robes in a rusty, dark red colour. "The Great Annihilator will take this world, and the six of you will be fortunate enough to witness it expunging earth from the fabric of reality itself."

"Or, we'll rip that thing down," John pointed at the portal, "then let PETA have words with you about it. That sounds fair enough to me."

"Humour in the face of death? Admirable," the leader chuckled as he turned away to face his congregation, who were still on their knees. "Worshippers of Jallakuntilliokan, the portal is operational. The time has come."

"What the fuck are we supposed to do?" Frank barked at John, throwing his arms up as his face fell into a look of despair. The congregation began chanting an incomprehensible combination of syllables and sounds, making the chapel itself shake as the portal's pulsating began to intensify. The skin from the mutilated animals began to flay, pulling itself into the portal which became a darker shade of purple.

"ONE OF YOU MAGICAL BASTARDS DO SOMETHING!" Chas roared at the cowering group as he dove towards the leader, punching him in the face and knocking him to the ground.

"The Weird Sisters are screaming too loud," Kay whimpered as she dropped to her knees, clutching her head. "Merry Andrew just soiled herself...Black Annis hopes Chas, John and Frank are burnt alive bollocks first." Kay's eyes widened as she watched the animal's flesh rip from their bones gruesomely, punctuating the chanting with the sickening sound of meat being torn apart in strips. "Crazy Jane wishes none of this was happening."

Slowly, a mass of reconstituted animal anatomy started to protrude from the portal, leaking a foul smelling paste from its grizzly mass. Instinctively John and Judith averted their eyes from the otherworldly beast, knowing from experience that staring at such a thing too long is a fast track to madness. Judith slipped her hand over Anne-Marie's eyes while telling her to look away, while Chas focused on trying to beat a solution out of the cult's leader and Jane clamped her hands over her ears and shut her eyes as tightly as possible. Frank, on the other hand, didn't have anybody to tell him not to stare directly at the abomination which was slowly dragging itself through the portal.

"Kill them, and I'll take you back to the otherworld," it seemed to whisper to Frank in a soft, feminine tone. The thoughts filled his head - how easily he could kill the others. He could go through the portal to a better life, away from crying babies and doctor's appointments and unpaid overdrafts and broken down cars. He clenched his fists and charged, tackling Chas off of the leader of the cult. "Rip his throat out for me, Frank. Show me how devoted you are," the voice continued as Frank drove his fist into Chas's nose, breaking the bone. The two rolled around on the dirty ground, striking at each other until Chas ended up knelt on top of Frank, his knee pushed against the ex-biker's neck. A red blood stain spread across Frank's chest as he silently screamed at Chas, feeling his lungs deflate like a punctured balloon.

"I'm sorry mate," Chas sighed, wiping his knife on his jacket reluctantly. Chas stepped away from Frank, leaving him lying in a heap clutching the gash on his stomach, mumbling threats towards Chas. The cult leader charged at Chas waving his arms wildly, giving the bigger man the opportunity to side step his hooded assailant and knock him off his feet with a punch hard enough to break Chas's middle finger on impact, not that he noticed."Do you have a plan, John?"

"Tear it down," Constantine called back as he walked over to Chas, keeping his eyes locked on his friend to try and keep the influence of the beast away from his mind. "Judith, I need you to slow it down. Try and turn off the magic in the portal or something"

"On it," Judith said back as she started to draw a peace sign on the cave floor in blue magic. She sat cross legged on the ground, reciting a spell to try and dampen the magical power emanating from the portal.

"Anne-Marie, look after Jane," John ordered, "we'll need her if this doesn't work."

"Need her?" Anne-Marie replied as she crouched down next to Kay. "For what?"

"We don't have time for this," John snapped back, instantly ending the conversation and prompting Anne-Marie to start trying to comfort Kay. Along with Chas he turned towards the portal. "Eyes away from that...thing," John said to his friend while looking down, trying to keep the festering, slimy mess out of his eye sight. In unison the two charged forward, shoulder barging past the praying cult members, who were seemingly too deep in their trance like state of worship to notice. As the two reached the stone steps leading up to the portal John ran for a skeletal horse which was part way through the process of having the meat pulled off its bones and towards the monster. John sunk his hands into the dead meat and started to pull it, trying to tear it away from the portal's grip.

"What the hell are you doing?" Chas asked angrily while following suit, grabbing onto the animal's leg and trying to pull it away.

"We stop it getting enough flesh to fully form, it'll be stillborn," John grunted as the meat slipped from his hands and sunk into the mass making its way out of the portal. "It's all I can think to do, Chas," John yelled out in defeat.

"Can't you cast a spell? Abra-cadra or something?" Chas replied as the two sprinted back towards the rest of the group. Judith's face was scrunched up in a look of complete concentration, and the blue peace sign had lit up, wrapping her in an aura of blue light.

"Judith's barely managing to hold it off and she makes me look like nothing," John gasped as he crumpled down next to Kay out of breath. "Jane."

"Wh...what is it?" Kay asked in a hushed tone, her face still buried in her hands.

"I need you to help me. All of you."

"All of us?" Anne-Marie said to John with a look of worry on her face. Anne-Marie had discarded the headpiece of her nun's practise, allowing her black hair to flow freely.

"No, all of Kay. Crazy Jane, Baby Doll, Stigmata..."

"John you can't..." Anne-Marie started, but John put his hand up to silence her aggressively. Behind him he could hear the sounds of the cult members gasping for breath as The Great Annihilator drained their energy, having worked through the animal's strapped to the portal.

"We'll do it, just tell me what to do," Kay replied in a hush tone as she stood up, straightening out her dress. "We want it to stop." John grasped Kay by the hand and pulled her along with him, stepping over the corpses of the cult members who had sacrificed themselves to the monster. An ear splitting whistle filled the chapel, chiselling rock from the walls and making every air hair on the back of John's neck stand on end.

"You remember when you were a kid, and you went out and didn't tell your parents where?" John yelled into Kay's ear, making her wonder if John had a point or had simply succumb to The Great Annihilator. "That's this thing. If all of you go in and just...try to draw attention, maybe other things out there will come top stop it leaving.

"WHAT?" Kay yelled back while shutting her eyes to stop the cloud of hot gas now seeping from the portal stinging her eyes.

"Please, Kay, we need to try. It's this or nothing," John said, ordering Kay almost as much as he was trying to convince her. John pushed her towards the portal while digging his heels into the ground. "If this works the portal will die," John told Jane meekly, as if even he didn't believe it. "Me and Judith'll cast a spell to pull you back, so just don't go too deep into their world."

"And what if it doesn't work?" Jane tried to ask, but the words wouldn't leave her mouth. Instead she found herself being pulled in towards the portal, passing through the purple gateway and into the monster's domain.

***

"Hello?" Crazy Jane shouted into the abyss as she floated through the out world. She tried to think about where she was, but instead could only picture herself. Not Kay, but her as she really was. Her black coat wrapped around her pale white flesh like a straight jacket, and a pair of pixie boots like the one's the nice man with a shield in the comic books The Engineer used to read back at the home, when it was his turn to control Kay's body. She could hear the monster roaring nearby, telling her that its head still hadn't got through the portal. "Anybody there?"

"I think it's just our thoughts in here," Flit said to Jane, making the gothic girl turn and face her more spunky, upbeat counterpart. Flit had styled her hair in a sort of afro and wore a t-shirt emblazoned with 'Frankie Says Relax'. Her outfit was topped off with some washed out jeans and roller-skates. Jane always hated Flit's faux eighties outfits. She was born in the nineties just like the rest of us, she thought. "Pretty far out, right?"

"Flit?"

"Yeah baby girl," Flit laughed. "We can all get out in this world, we don't even need a physical body or nothing. Guess that's why that square trying to kill us all needs to steal meat from horses and stuff, right?" Flit skated towards Jane and stopped in front of her. "But hey sister, that means I can hear your thoughts. I was born in the nineties but my soul lives in the eighties, OK?"

"Look, Flit, we don't have time for this, where is everybody else?"

"Right through here," Flit spun around behind her to face a set of grand ballroom doors which had appeared. With a mighty heave Flit threw them open, revealing a packed room containing a bar, a dance floor and over sixty people, all of whom Jane knew. Tiny little Penny Farthing sat at the bar in her emerald green traditional Victorian dress, too shy to talk to anybody else. Lucy Fugue, a smiling Vietnamese girl dressed in tacky bright green overalls, danced erratically with Driver 8, the man in his mid-thirties wearing a waiters tuxedo who helped get the different girls where they need to be in Kay's head. The tall, slender form of Spinning Jenny cowered in the corner while being comforted by The Secretary, who's face was stuck in a stony scowl. The hall itself was elegantly designed, with comfy red chairs dotted around beneath the many chandeliers, and a number of potted plants standing in the far corner of the room where Jill-in-Irons was chained to a chain, calmly sipping a drink placed at her feet through a long blue straw.

"We're supposed to be saving the world, and everybody's just drinking and dancing?" Jane walked down the short flight of steps alongside Flit.

"We sent for somebody to come and talk to us. All of us at once, Jane! Stuff's weird in here. It's not like out in Kay's body, where one of us gets to go on stage and the rest of us have to stay in the hotel. The hotel isn't just in Kay's head any more, it's part of the world! Isn't that surreal? We're not just thoughts any more, this groovy dimension is making us into full beings. It's totally righteous!"

"Sent for who, Flit?" Jane snapped, getting slowly more fed up with Flit.

"I don't know, that scary monster guy's dad, I think. Take a chill pill, CJ."

Jane approached the bar and sat on a stool next to the crying girl with bleach blonde hair and a thick layer of orange spray tan caked over her body. The empty glass which had been sat in front of the blonde girl for twenty years gently rattled, drawing Jane's attention. "Flit?"

"What is it doll?" Flit called over her shoulder as she put a pink umbrella in her cocktail behind the bar.

"Why is everything shaking?" Jane stood up and walked back towards the door she entered from. With a great heave she threw them back open, revealing a cold empty street, with rippling rain puddles sitting in the gutters beneath shattered street lights. The London night sky was blocked out with thick rain clouds which seemed like they were threatening to burst at any time, but Jane ignored them and carefully sat down on the hotel's steps next to a mass of woollen scarves and jumpers.

"I'm sorry about the shaking, dear," the being beneath the clothing whispered to Jane in a subdued, feminine voice. "Your creation isn't very solid, and a being such as I must try oh so hard not to destroy it on impact."

"No problem," Jane meekly replied. "So, where are we?"

"Come on, you know better than me. You all live here."

"Right, Kay created it. I think it brought back happy memories of something, but why am I suddenly in a body? In my world, this is all just things Kay imagines. Me, Flit, the others, we're not alive, we're parts of her."

"You're in our world now, Jane. Here, ideas aren't just things you have in your head, they're physical things which live. I'm actually larger than your entire home universe, but if I came to you in my true form you probably wouldn't be able to handle it. So you imagine me as this, a bundle of clothes. I communicate telepathically, what I want to communicate to you is being put into your own language, because that's what you think it sounds like. In my dimension, things are what you think they are."

"You're awfully friendly for an otherworldly...thing."

"What, just because I'm not from your world, I'm supposed to be evil and murderous? That's rather xenophobic of you."

"I guess it sort of is," Jane laughed under her breath. "Look, I'm here for a reason."

"Well I know that, somebody phoned from inside of the hotel. I just need to know what that reason is before I put you back in your dimension."

"There's a thing from your dimension called Jallakuntilliokan, or at least that's what it's called in my world. It's trying to...well, I'm not too sure. Last time it got into our dimension, it killed the friends of the girl who I'm a part of, and it created me. We stopped it, barely, but this time it's bigger."

"Ah, Jallakuntilliokan," the bundle laughed heartily. "Yes, my son is troublesome. He wishes to be a warrior, but we have everything we need, so we have no need for war. That...doesn't please him."

"Well, can you pull your son back through into our world? If you don't, many people will die."

"Of course," the bundle of rags slithered up the stairs, to the amusement of Jane. As the two entered, all eyes in the ballroom turned to the moving clothes and Jane. "We do the best we can, but sometimes our children go off the rails," Jane turned to the bundle of rags in time to see it dissolve into the hotel floor. Its voice went directly into Jane's head, and by the looks on their faces Jane guessed everybody else's head. The doors slammed shut as the hotel shook wildly, making the lights flicker erratically.

"Jane?" Flit bounded towards Jane. "What the fudge was that?"

"Honestly? I have no fucking idea, Flit. All I know is it's the mother of the thing trying to get into our universe, and it's powerful enough to sort out all our problems." The rattling of glasses and sounds of hushed arguing made it hard for Flit to hear what Jane was saying, but her point was narrated by the hotel spinning around wildly as the doors once again flew back open. In the white abyss, each of the halls inhabitants saw their own Jallakuntilliokan, representing only what they believed the monster to be. Half of the monster was poking through a hole in the abyss, the hole the hotel was plummeting towards.

"I'm going to puke," a voice called out over Jane's shoulder, followed by the sound of footsteps as somebody rushed away to throw up. Flit fell against Jane's shoulder, struggling to stay awake as the hotel's windows shattered and the monster pushed away at the abyss, trying to escape. Then, in a flash of light, the being Jane had spoken to attacked. To Jane, it was still a bundle of clothes, wrapping around the monster and dragging it out of the portal. To Flit it was a literal wave of peace and love, pouring bright flowers over the monster and making it shrink. Each of the personalities in the hotel understood the battle in a different way, but the result was the same - Jallakuntilliokan was clawed away into the abyss by its mother, as the hotel barrelled back into its own dimension.

***

"She's not fucking dead," Judith yelled as she pushed into Kay's chest over and over, trying to restart her heart. The cultists were lied on the ground, dead, as John, Chas and Anne-Marie stood over Kay, who had been spat back out from the portal just before it disapeared, taking Jallakuntilliokan along with it. Frank had bled out from his stab wound some time ago, while Kay's pulse and breathing had both stopped. Judith had forgone magic, instead relying on traditional CPR to try and revive Kay.

"Come on girls, who's gonna take over? Kay's laid out on the floor of the cave, one of you'll need to do something or they'll get freaked out."

"Look, Judith, she's barely breathing," Chas said reluctantly as he looked down at Kay. "Maybe-"

"After that? We could all use a rest, Driver.

"She survived whatever was past that portal, Chas," John said calmly as he puffed on a cigarette. "She'll live." Judith hammered on Kay's chest again and again, trying desperately to restart her heart.

"What would you know about that, Jill? You spend all your time sat their drinking, why don't you get off your arse and do something for once."

John pushed past Anne-Marie and started giving Kay mouth to mouth as Judith carried on pushing into her chest at a steady pace.

"Fuck it, I'll do it then."

Kay spluttered and coughed as she started breathing again, jolting upright and almost headbutting Anne-Marie.

"There she is," John reached down, hoisting Kay up to her feet. "Is it..."

"Still Jane," Kay muttered as she looked down at herself. Her body had changed. She wasn't Crazy Jane in Kay Challis's body any more. Her hair was longer and darker, her skin was a chalky pale white, and she was wrapped in a long black coat and flowed elegantly around her. She was Crazy Jane - in Crazy Jane's body. "Whoa."

"One of you lot gonna explain this?" Chas said as Jane dusted herself off, smiling.

"Well, I went to the monster's home dimension."

"And then?"

"Told its mum that he was being naughty," Jane laughed.

"And this?" Chas threw up his hands at Jane. "You're..."

"Me," Jane cheekily smiled as Chas then turned, walking towards the steps back up to the surface.

"Guess we're lucky that's all that happened to her," John said to Chas as the group slowly departed, following Jane. John turned away from Chas to find Anne-Marie stood in front of him, her hands on her hips and her face red with anger.

"Guess we're lucky?"

"Look, An-" John was cut off by a hard slap across the face. He turned his head away and grimaced in pain, trying not to react.

"You had no idea what would happen through there, but you shoved a troubled young woman into that portal like it was nothing. Why? Because you were too scared to do your own dirty work? She could've died, John. We don't even know what's happened to her, and you're happy to act like everything's all well and good. Frank's dead, Kay's worse than ever, all these people," Anne-Marie gestured to the sea of robe clad corpses, "are dead, and that's all you've got to say?"

"What should I say?" John retorted.

"How about apologising to the poor girl?" Anne-Marie spat angrily before taking a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. The two stood face to face in silence, working up the courage to say something. "Sorry about slapping you, John. You're not a bad person but-"

"But sometimes I have to be," John shrugged in an apologetic way. "I could've handled it all better, but I'm not some super hero. I did the best I could."

"I know," Anne-Marie turned to stand side by side with John as the two started making their way out of the chapel.

-The End-