Stronger Together chapter 119

Luckily for us, everyone was more than eager to move up the date of  engagement. I'd expected some of them to be busy but I suspect like us  they were all preparing for what we would find. I'd seen vampires galore  and thralls by the bucketful but I'd only seen the area surrounding the  captives. There was a decent chance there were even more down there. We  decided to meet at out place in the backyard to plan everything and I  even bought a grill so we could make a barbecue of it.

Kara  was delighted by the normalcy and left for a minute coming back with a  kiss the cook apron she bestowed on me with great pomp and circumstance.  I decided that would set the tone for this little shindig. Everything  lately had been grim and necessary but this would be a party. Plan a  raid with some friends, eat some burgers. If this world wasn't going to  let me catch my breath I'd damn well make the time. I informed the  others of my goal and they all seemed to think it was a great idea.

Harry  brought Susan along, even though she wasn't going into the fight she'd  had some hardcore training with the fellowship and seen some shit, plus  he wanted his baby mama to enjoy the festivities. She brought potato  salad. Barb and Yang took positions on either side of the pregnant half  vampire, with Yang being her usual upfront self and asking "Can I feel  the baby? I know you're only a month or two along but I bet she's a  fighter like the boss, she's probably kicking up a storm or doing magic  nerd research in there somehow."

Barb  let out an offended gasp, theatrically putting her hand to her chest.  "Why I never. She definitely gets her intellect from Harry. She's  probably a magical prodigy. Don't worry Susan, I won't let Yang  reinforce any of Harry's bad habits. He's a wonderful man, but he needs a  bit of guidance sometimes. Yang is the same way." She stuck her tongue  out at the blonde who rolled her eyes with a small smile. Susan looked  at both of them with fondness. It was obvious how much they cared for  Harry and considered themselves Maggie's surrogate sisters already.

I  cleared my throat. "How about we let them raise the baby themselves and  stick to spoiling her with secret candy and expensive presents when  they aren't looking like good siblings." I shot Susan a wink "I've got  your back Susan, I'll keep them from being too much of a bother. On an  unrelated note Cameron is a fantastic middle name and is in fact unisex.  Works for a boy or a girl." I scooped her some of her own potato salad  and slapped a burger down on her plate as soon as I finished grilling  the first one. "For you."

She  just grinned. "Thank you. And I can't tell you guys how nice it is to  know you'll be around. With the baby coming Harry will probably need to  cut back on cases. With the whole extended family here though, not to  mention Charity and Michael who have been reaching out to offer support I  feel like we can actually do this." Left unsaid was the fact that she'd  been worried about Maggie's safety, but with an alien demi-goddess, an  ascending fall maiden, a demonic titan half breed, whatever the hell I  was now, and fucking Batgirl around Maggie had much more security. I was  glad we could give her that peace of mind though.

The  next burger was swiped from the grill and popped onto a bun as Hana  plopped down on the cooler sitting next to the grill. The pretty kitsune  took a big bite of the burger and said with her mouth full "Baby huh?  Cute. Congrats. We're not bringing an expectant mother on our little  escapade are we? Because I can manage astounding levels of 'shut up and  do your job' but bringing pregnant ladies into vampire dens is way  outside my comfort zone." She managed to get sprays of burger all over  my shoes but somehow avoided her own black leather pants and red bandana  top.

Yang  grinned at her "I like you. And no, the baby mama is staying behind. No  way in hell we bring her into vamp central. Susan kicks all kinds of  ass, but we can't risk anything happening to little sis. " She leaned  down to coo at Susan's only slightly distended belly "Can we little one?  Gotta keep you and mommy safe don't we, that's why big sister Yang is  going to immolate all the nasty vampires into charcoal briquettes long  before you're born." Oddly Susan seemed comforted by that declaration  rather than disturbed to hear the brawler talking about deep frying  humanoids in a baby voice.

A  rumbling chuckle floated over from the direction of the house as River  stepped into view, Cinder walking a step behind him and Sam clinging to  his arm. "It is always good to hear the young seek to protect the  future. I look forward to fighting alongside you miss Yang. After seeing  what your companions were capable of and hearing from them of your  greater experience and power I have high hopes for you in the upcoming  conflict." He smiled at us all "I also look forward to working with you  all again against the undead. Miss Rodriguez, congratulations on your  pregnancy by the way, I will be sure to look out for your child as harry  has looked out for mine."

Despite  his massive size and imposing presence I wasn't sure that Susan  understood exactly what a big deal that was. We continued to make small  talk as more people trickled in, Ebenezar, Lily, Fix, their  subordinates, the girls, Inari, Thomas,  and Lara. Lord Raith wasn't  welcome with twenty miles of my fucking house obviously but his daughter  was free to come socialize and visit her sister. Obviously Harry's  brother was welcome as well. Luckily Harry didn't know Thomas was his  brother and Thomas was still playing aloof, which allowed Ebenezar to  tolerate them for the sake of uneasy allies.

It  didn't hurt that the old man was wrapped around Kara's finger and she  was obviously nuts about Inari, who wasn't a vampire yet and was pretty  much impossible to not like. As a result our grand teacher was seething  but not homicidal around the kids of the person he hated most in the  world. If he though Harry was falling under their sway it might be  different but the surrogate daughter of a knight of the cross being in  love with a non turned member of the family was off kilter enough to  slip through his defenses. He did spend a substantial part of the  barbecue glaring at Thomas and Lara but hey, small miracles.

Finally  everyone was assembled and chowing down, talking mostly amicably (or at  least non violently in the case of Ebenezar) and I decided to start the  meeting in earnest. I cleared my throat. "Excuse me everyone. Welcome  to our home, thanks for coming and I hope you're enjoying the food. The  burgers were on me and the potato salad was courtesy of Susan, and i  suspect it's the real reason you all seem so upbeat, I know I had  thirds." I raised a can of pepsi (Harry had been seething when he saw it  but I don't drink heathen swill unless it's shipped in from mexico in a  glass bottle) "Thank's Susan it was delicious and you're way too good  for Harry."

There  was a smattering of chuckles and a faux outraged "Hey!" from the wizard  in question but I soldiered on, trying to keep the mood light. "Anyway,  I think it's time to get down to brass tacks. I'm open to plans of  attack for the raid. Barb has drawn out a handy map she teased out of my  brain with her astounding detective skills because she's way more  amazing than me." And partly because my mind had every detail of the  vision seared into it mixed with it's new efficiency post godsteel  rewiring. "I'm the first to admit I've never planned an engagement like  this so the map is right here, we're open to input."

Lara,  having lived through at least the renaissance stepped up to study it.  "I notice the placements of these forces is a generalization, which is a  good idea. Trying to predict mobile enemies with a static map is a  mistake few make twice. My first suggestion is not to overcommit our  forces. The corpses will keep their strong in reserve, most likely  veiled and waiting to spring. I'd say our best course of action is to  send a wave of physically strong front liners to soak up their renfields  and low level grunts while the rest circle around to deal with their  leadership."

Kara  of course was all for this. Though it limited her effectiveness  somewhat it allowed her to control how many of the thralls survived. She  was still hopeful we could save some of them. Given the success Raven  had mentioned on some of her work with Morgan it wasn't impossible and I  was happy to let her try since it kept her away from Raucus and Mavra.  Black Court psychic bullshit could probably affect her given her time as  Darkseids girl friday. I didn't want her to have to live through that  again and I definitely didn't want to have to fight her.

Morgan  volunteered too, which also wasn't surprising given her fondness for  both Kara and violence and between those two even a thousand plus  thralls and vampires should be doable. Even holding back so she didn't  kill them I trusted Morgan to have Kara's back. Lily also offered Simon  the swordmaster and Savannah the blademistress to round out the team,  though Kara requested they focus on the vampires and let her handle the  thralls. Neither seemed averse to the idea. Finally Lara spoke up. "As  you requested we'll be sending a delegation, my father will lead them  personally. There will be twenty to match your forces, including Thomas  and I."

I  nodded "Lord Raith can be in group two and the rest of the vampires can  go with Morgan and the fae to work on the vampires while Kara handles  the thralls. Hana, vague estimate on your foxfire, how many of them do  you figure it'll uncover? I know hard numbers will be impossible but a  ratio would work." This would be a huge factor in our plans so we needed  to get as close to accurate with it as possible. Though aside from  foxfire there was one other possibility I hadn't asked about yet.

Hana  looked pensive "Honestly hard to say, depends on how many nobles are  around. I only have one tail so my foxfire isn't strong yet. Still it's a  natural counter to the corpses so I should able to get at least half of  their people out in the open assuming they aren't all nobles or  something." She seemed apologetic about the number, but half would be  plenty. The Wizards could pierce veils with their Sight, though that  would be a last resort, and River could probably see through most of  them in his sleep. But we might not need him to.

I  turned to Raven. "One last question before we settle on this plan and  start preparing to go. Rae, can you use your shadow magic to somehow  eject them from the darkness or strip off their cover? There might be a  few dozen with strong veils on the high end, can you manage that." Her  answering raised eyebrow just made me grin. I clapped my hands together  in glee "That's all I needed to know. Now there's a few more details to  handle but otherwise, we move out tonight. Everyone good with that?"  Unsurprisingly there were no dissenters. Everyone wanted a piece of the  Black Court. Tonight they would get it.