Chapter 27

Chapter 27

“The what does what now?” Mars asked as he and the pair of still shackled Angels worked their way through the crowd of Bourbon Street.

After finding the amulet and giving it to Mars, the trio weighed their options. According to Gabe, they had to get that amulet to the location where the ritual was taking place. Unfortunately, as Mars explained, they didn’t know where the ritual was taking place, so they might as well be running through New Orleans randomly asking people if they knew where an actor might be trying to raise an army of demons to take over the world. 

That was about five seconds before Kaplan cut a hole through the roof of his car, and they ran into the Cage Spot, the newest bar on on Bourbon street that they just discovered had a Cave theme. That was when they decided to fight their way through the crowd: Mars and two Angels, still completely shackled. With the excitement of a car passing through, followed by another car with a bunch of people in robes, followed by the police, followed by Nicolas Cage on an Action Action News Van, no one really seemed to mind that now a guy was walking through the crowd holding what looked like a crushed can spraypainted red on the end of what looked like a string. 

Following his reunion with the Angels that named him one half of the team that was supposed to be saving the world right now, they managed to get out of Nicolas Cage’s not so secret lair which was remarkably easy, as most security guards had gone to the Cage Spot for the ritual. The ones that were left were to stupid to figure out what was going, and were left behind for that reason.

There was some debate about what to do about the Demon Jacob Whelan, who was nursing a head wound thanks to a ceramic dead eyed Santa, but was currently not a threat. As they realized there was no way for Gabe or Raph to affect him because of the official rules, and Mars was woefully unprepared to deal with fighting a demon on his own, they would take their chances heading towards the car chase. In the very least, they’d be back together with Kaplan, Evie, and that other person who was in the car, and they might have a chance to fight Jacob Whelan together.

“I’m not going to explain this again,” Gabe shouted, “That’s the amulet Nicolas Cage originally used to summon the demon to our world.”

A young man wearing no shirt and a hat off to the side got right in Gabe’s face, “WOOO! NICOLAS CAGE DEMON!” 

She pushed him back with her shackle.

“So if we can figure out a way to destroy it, possibly by throwing it in the purified fire that they’re going to use to sacrifice Alice, Jacob Whelan will go back to his own home dimension, and Nicolas Cage will be powerless.”

The same well muscled young man got in Gabe’s face again, “AW, MAN! POWERLESS!”

She pushed him back again.

“But will still make the movies he makes,” Raph finished, “I don’t believe that was part of the original deal.”

Mars didn’t like the word “possibly” thrown in there. Also, he didn’t understand why the amulet was literally  a crushed can of soda spraypainted red.

“Look, magic isn’t pretty,” Gabe said, “he probably didn’t have anything else more valuable.”

The truth was, Nicolas had a proper amulet when he was in the process of attempting to summon the demon. The night before he took some cast members out for a few drinks, and when they awoke he found himself an hour before the peak summoning hour and without an amulet. Being resourceful, he crafted the world’s worst amulet out of a piece of string and yes, a can of Pepsi he managed to find and flatten. The red paint came later, when Jacob Whelan decided that he didn’t want to endorse one brand of soda over another.

“I’m still not digging the word ‘possibly’,” Mars repeated, noting that the Angel didn’t answer his question.

“Well, we can’t be sure about anything right now,” Gabe said.

The same young man stuck his head in her face again, “WOOO! LET’S BE SURE, BABY!” 

“WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?” She shouted back.

“Sorry, I just thought you were kind of cute,” he said, looking sincere.

Gabe blushed, “Well, I got this whole world saving thing going on, but maybe afterwards...”

“Enough, Romeo,” Raph replied, “She’s a little bit older than you. Let it go.”

Rejected, the young man started to walk away. Gabe was about to say something when they realized where they were. They were standing outside of the Cage Spot, and the situation didn’t look pretty.

Two cars were haphazardly parked out front, one with the roof cut out, one with the windows broken. The Action Action News Van had also joined them at some point, and was now also awkwardly blocking the street. The difference was that seeing sensitive equipment on the van as opposed to the regularness of the two cars meant that there were already a bunch of people climbing on top, trying to break off a piece of the Action Action News for themselves.

The problem came with the Police, who weren’t very pleased that there had just been a car chase through a group of drunken partiers. They were surrounding the cars, trying to find their way into the now locked building. This was even more difficult as the large man wearing all black was now standing in front of the locked door, insisting that they were not on the list. At which point a police officer would show them a badge, then the large man in black would indicate that he had seen this somewhere before. Mars, Gabe, and Raph watched this loop for a good five minutes before one of them finally spoke up.

“How the hell are we getting in?” Gabe asked.

“I have an idea,” Mars said, turning to the two Angels.