I've put this off long enough
This is Chapter/Episode 2 of Sons of The Morning Star: Habilitation
It is a very nice morning in the Wagner-Thorn-Langdon-Kline-Young house, FROM THE OUTSIDE, AT LEAST.
Inside, emotional tensions are high, with Michael and Lucius having another glare down, Jack struggling to get Dog to let go of a plate, and Damien struggling to get Adam out of his room. It has been less than a week, and the news don't know about the future Senator's new home life.
Damien gives another knock on Adam's door, trying his damndest to not lose his mind.
"Adam, come on. We're about to eat breakfast, the food's gonna get cold, and you need to eat. GET. UP."
"I'll eat later," Adam calls from on his bed, though if this was an actual TV show, we'd only see Damien at the door. "Leave me alone."
Damien groans, "Fine." With a twitchy eye, he joins the others for breakfast.
Michael and Lucius avoid each other as best as they can while Jack smiles at Damien, successful at getting his plate back.
"Still no luck with him. He won't come out."
"Let him starve, then," Michael scoffs. "Maybe Crowley and Azriel can come pick him up and adopt him."
"Aziraphale," Jack corrects.
Jack deflates, but finishes his breakfast and turns to Lucius.
"So anything interesting planned today?"
Lucius writes a message and slides it to Jack. 'Just a couple meetings. Nothing special.'
"Well, you'll always have us to call, if you get bored. And Damien."
Lucius groans as Damien grabs his things.
"Okay, I'm heading out. Michael, Jack, please don't kill each other and make sure Adam eats, got it?"
Both nod, though Jack is more enthusiastic, and Damien turns to Lucius and gives him a one armed hug.
"Have a nice day at work, honey!"
Jack and Michael burst into a fit of laughter as Damien dodges a punch from Lucius and leaves the house.
Lucius leaves soon after, telling the two to keep an eye on Adam and Dog, and to keep the radio on incase they hear anything new.
Michael nods and Jack full on agrees, waving his phone to Lucius and offering again that if he gets bored, he can call.
Lucius leaves and Michael gets up and grabs his coat.
"Where are you going? We're supposed to stay here and keep an ear out for any news."
"Lucius is not our father."
"He is now. And Damien," Jack states matter-of-factly.
"Neither of them are here. And what will you do to stop me from leaving? Flood the continent? Cause a plague? Start a world wide famine?"
When Jack doesn't have answer, Michael smirks and leaves.
If this was a TV episode, the camera would follow and face Michael as he leaves the house and revels in his small victory, and would show that the window to Adam's room is opened, something for astute viewers to notice.
Lucius is having a time of it as he can barely concentrate, but still tries to listen.
It TOTALLY has to do with the fact he is now a father.
One of his campaigning partners is talking about people's sightings of people with wings and graffiti of pentecosts(THAT'S the evil, devil, Satan symbol, not a pentagram. A pentagram, the avatar/profile pic for this Tumblr, is a wiccan, pagan symbol for protection) on court houses and churches, when his phone rings.
He puts it on silent, and shows himself doing it, but he still gets phone calls.
His 'staff' tell him it's okay, and he opens a FaceTime-esque call from- guess. Just guess.
"Lucius? Is that you? Can you hear me?"
Lucius nods as he fights the growing urge to smash his cellphone on the ground.
"Michael left. He told me not to bother telling you, but I am anyway because he's not listening at all."
"Mr. Wagner, who is that?" One of his campaign advisers asks.
Before Lucius can hang up, Jack shouts out, "Who are you talking to? Are you working? CAN I SEE!?"
More advisers speak up and Lucius cringes as he turns his phone and reveals Jack, who's covered in flour and chocolate and some peanut butter; a surprise for Lucius when he gets home.
"Jack Kline," Jack replies. "Lucius adopted me and the rest of our broth-"
Lucius hangs up, turns off his phone, and tosses it on to a near by table with coffee and refreshments on it.
'What were you saying about all the vandalism recently?'
His staff, however, isn't listening, now more eager on the fact that Lucius has adopted someone, or multiple people, and taken them into his care.
"Mr. Wagner, what if we show the public you're caring these orphans? Your brothers? We have heard complaints lately that you're coming off as an 'iron fist' sort of guy."
Lucius is literally speechless, groaning into his hands as they pitch more ideas, even noting that if he stops the vandalisms and shows his 'soft' side to the public, he'll get more supporters.
On the topic of these vandalisms, Damien has to take pictures of the symbols for the newspapers and online articles, noting that he could draw some better than what the 'artists' have done.
One in particular makes him freeze, and makes the hair on the back of his neck stand on end:
A message written in white paint and surrounded by crosses and with what looks like blood underlining the letters. Beneath it is a bowl, a really large bowl, of water:
God help the sons of the devil. Save them from damnation, or let them battle for eternity.
It unsettles him, to say the least, and he goes to wash it off with the water.
ONLY TO BURN HIMSELF AS HIS FINGERS DIP INTO THE BOWL.
Yes. Someone put HOLY WATER under this message.
Damien resolves to simply take a picture, with his phone not his camera, and leave, running into Michael.
"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be home watching Adam and Jack!"
"Sorry, Brother dearest, I don't really HAVE to listen to you."
"If I get home and the house is in ashes-"
"Relax," Michael shrugs as he begins to walk away. "Knowing Jack, he probably doesn't even know how to blink."
He chuckles, but stops as he passes by the creepy, holy water message, not looking at it, but feeling the holy water and the crosses.
And the blood, which he inspects, and finds is from a lamb.
It goes from bad to worse when they notice a pair of men striding toward them.
Damien leads Michael away, warning him, "Ignore them. Hopefully they just walk away."
Neither do, even when the two begin walking faster.
When the two males start gaining, and when one unsheathes a flaming dagger, the brothers make a run for it, but the men give chase.
"What the hell is they're problem!?" Michael snarks, "Why are they following us!?"
"Just keep running!" Damien barks back.
They round a corner, and Michael throws a ball of fire, hitting the unarmed male in the arm, the fire making him howl more than the average person.
The armed male, however, manages a slash across Michael's chest, just enough to leave him heavily wounded.
With Michael now useless, Damien slings him over his shoulders and races for a store full of people, using some telekinesis to throw a stream of water in a foutain to throw off the armed man pursuing them.
He stops when everyone is staring, the man, who I'm aure you've realized by now is an angel, stands in place, unaware of what to do.
"Go 'head," Damien eggs on. "Do it. You can kill us, but wanna try doing it infront of everyone here!?"
The angel eyes all the people, who are whispering and have their phones out, before glaring at Damien and a now standing Michael, sheathing his dagger, and storming away, miracling around a corner to avoid detection.
Both breathe a sigh of relief as they take a seat.
"Any idea on what just happened?"
Michael huffs and rubs some hair out of his face. "Take a guess. Why do Crowley and Aziraphale want was to stay together?"
TV perspective time as the camera zooms in on Damien, who looks over at the wall the angel vanished behind and then down at his feet.
With growing dread music, CUT TO JACK!!!!
Jack is humming as he takes out a tray of chocolate chip cookies, where we that he's also baked 'Welcome Home' cakes, pies, cupcakes, and just about anything else he can think of; don't worry, he made sure to keep the kitchen spotless.
He sets the cookies on the stovetop to cool and admires all the pastries, which makes Aziraphale applaud; he decided to pay Jack a visit because he's the most pleasant, and is closest with Adam.
Speaking of whom, Jack notices the time and calls out to him.
"Hey, Adam! You getting hungry?" He knocks on Adam's bedroom door, ever the good big brother. "I can make you a sandwich, if you want. Grilled cheese, PB and J, bacon-lettuce-tomatoe, even a breakfast sand..."
Jack opens Adam's door to find there's no Adam or Dog in sight and the window is wide open.
CUT TO LUCIUS, who's screaming into a bathroom sink full of water because his campaign officers won't shut up about painting him in a good light to appeal to people's emotions.
He pulls his face out of the water and dries off, growling on frustration when he gets a call from Jack(possibly the hundredth call that day).
This time, when Lucius answers, he sees Jack running with Aziraphale beside him.
"Lucius, hi! How's your day? Great! We're fine! I don't know where Adam is, so Aziraphale and I are looking for him!"
It hits Lucius like a ton of bricks as he writes, 'I thought he was in his room!?'
"So did we, dear boy," Aziraphale replies. "However, he must have left while no one was looking!"
Lucius starts to wonder why no one's kept an eye on him, until he realizes who ALSO left the house and hangs up on Jack, who objects to the action, to call Michael.
CUT TO MICHAEL AND DAMIEN! The two are having lunch in the food court of the mall to shake off the adrenaline of being chased by killer angels, when Lucius calls.
Michael, reluctantly, answers and waves at him, not talking because his mouth is full.
'YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO WATCH ADAM AND JACK! WHY DID YOU LEAVE!?'
"Calm down, Lucius," Damien groans. "In case you haven't noticed, we've been having a bad day, too."
"Having lunch at a crowded mall because we got attacked by angels."
Lucius furrows his brow in confusion and Damien sends the picture of the creepy graffiti he found.
"Saw it while I was working on an article. Guess we're not as evasive as we thought."
As Lucius inspects it, Michael explains, "The red is lamb's blood, and there's holy water in the bowl. I think someone or something doesn't want us around."
Lucius shakes his head and writes/sends/signs, 'Do either of you know where Adam is? Jack said he ran away.'
'Looking for him with Aziraphale.'
"So now Jack AND Adam are gone?" Michael gapes.
All three jump out of their skin when Crowley shouts, "WHAT!?" and throws open the bathroom door.
Michael hisses out of emotional-esque pain and Damien groans into his hands as Crowley takes the phone from Lucius and gets really close to it.
"Where are those two right now!?"
"Like we just said, we don't know," Damien replies. "Adam ran away with Dog, so Jack and Aziraphale are going-"
"AZIRAPHALE'S OUT THERE, TOO!?"
Crowley drops the phone on the floor, something we see from Michael's and Damien's perspective, as he shouts, "Hold on, angel, I'm coming!"
With Lucius, the Wagner senator picks up his phone and gulps as he puts all the pieces together:
The message sent by Damien was written by angels, who know that all five brothers are on Earth, and are now planning to wipe them off the face of the planet, whether because of the grand plan or because each can cause the apocalypse, or because Jack and Adam fucked up bringing the apocalypse.
Eother way, he writes to Damien and Michael to, 'FIND THEM NOW.' and hangs up before he sprints out of the bathroom and out of the building, telling his lead secretary to cancel every single one of his plans because of a family emergency.
Now, I lnow what you're wondering, "Where's Adam right now? Did Gabriel get to him first?"
No, silly goose, he's fine.
Adam is walking through the streets with dog at his side, growling at anyone that gets too close. He's been crying for a while, but has stopped now because he just wants to walk and not think about London, which is hard because it's everyone's favorite subject at the moment.
He also wants to get away from his new brothers for a little while. In his mind:
Lucius is not around at all, and when he is, he's kimd of creepy with the whole "not talking" thing.
Damien's too pushy and doesn't give him space to be emotional or get used to his new environment.
Michael's just an asshole- not his words, but true all the same.
And... well, there's no real complaint with Jack. He's okay.
But not even Jack's good nature can change Adam's opinions on the rest of his new brothers.
It doesn't help that Aziraphale and Crowley can't just adopt him, either, because they don't know how his powers fully work, hence why they gave him to the other four.
Too lost in his head, Adam does not notice a trying-not-to-be-angry Gabriel walk up to him from behind, hiding a bottle of holy water as he says, "Hello, Adam."
Adam turns and pales. "Gabriel!? What are you doing here!?"
"I just wanted to check on you. See if you were ready try again with armageddon, all things considered."
Adam backs away, now very disturbed. "Stay away from me," he stammers.
Thank goodness Dog is more observant and bites the bastard, which gets Adam to focus and makes him realize NOW is a good time to run like hell.
He smacks Gabriel with his backpack and flees with Dog following. Gabriel is behind as he clutches his hand before giving chase, cursing that he can't miracle to Adam, that power being taken away from him since his 'falling out,' so he's left to run to chase after Adam, which draws a lot of negative attention, I must say.
Doesn't matter, though, because Adam is simultaneously loosing Gabriel and seeing that he's gaining on him.
That's when a hand grabs his arm and pulls him into a nearby store, throwing him behind a shelf of souvenirs, i.e. knickknacks and plushies, and a rack of keychains.
Gabriel looks through the window and bamgs his forehead against it before leaving, scowling as he trudges away.
Adam watches him as the male that pulled him whistles at the pouting angel.
"I knew Gabriel was always too eager to wear his big boy pants. Glad to see he hasn't changed. Evn though I knew he wouldn't."
Adam looks up at him, a sort of short, kind of stumpy man that looks kind of like if Aziraphale had actually taken being an archangel seriously; culry hair that's a dirty blond-ish, brown, alert eyes that see nothing and everything all at once, dark, sharp clothes, and a know-it-all smirk as he holds a hand out for Adam.
If you watched the show Lucifer on Netflix, you know EXACTLY who this guy is.
Dog doesn't growl at this guy, sensing that he's not going to hurt them.
"Sorry to scare you like that, Adam. I'm your uncle, but please just call me Uriel."
Adam lets Uriel help him up, now really confused.
"How do you know my name?"
"Father's talked a lot about you and your brothers, and I just wanted to see you myself. See just how busy my brother got while he visited this planet." Uriel looks out the window and fights a smirk. "Speaking of brother..."
Cue Jack and Aziraphale racing down the sidewalk as fast as they can before Jack spots Adam and sprints into the store with Aziraphale on his tail. Both are tired, both are a litttle sweaty, but they're so happy to see Adam is okay.
"Adam, there we are!" Jack cries as he and Adam hug and Jack spins him as they do. "We were so worried! I didn't hear you in your room, I'm so sorry!"
Aziraphale lants and simply gives a wave before pushing both boys behind him.
"Aziraphale. Nice to see you."
The two have a stare down before Aziraphale asks, "Are you going to lead us to a trap or some kind? You know as well as I do there isn't any sort of plan to-"
"Don't talk to me about plans, Aziraphale. I'm the guy who actually MAKES them."
It silences Aziraphale and the brotjers a little on edge.
"Anyway, your brothers will be walking aroumd the corner a block away in about five minutes in the same direction you and Aziraphale were running down. Better get going."
Jack nods and thanks Uriel, leading Adam down the street.
Aziraphale eyes Uriel for a little bit before following the boys, to keep them safe.
Uriel's power holds true as the three meet Damien and Michael.
They all catch each other up as they walk to try and catch a bus.
There are angels in the city and a lot of them don't want the brothers around.
"But Uriel helped me hide from Gabriel. I don't think he wants to hurt us," Adam wonders.
Cue some major confusion from Jack and Michael not wanting to deal with all this because, "We've already got London and the Southwest to worry about. We don't need a bounty on our heads."
The brothers don't have time to think on it because every parent's worst nightmare happens when an angel strides up behind them and throws something down, maybe a holy water bottle and powdered salt to make the brothers back away before flying off with Adam.
The only one to see it happen is Aziraphale and Dog barks at the sky where his master was taken.
The brothers compose themselves and are silent as they realize what's happened.
Not all is lost as Michael gets a text from Crowley on his phone: an address to an old church that was closed down because of poor funding and evrn worse staff that didn't practice what they preached.
Transition from a taxi cab to A few minutes ago and a jet black car SPEEDING down the street fast enough to make Crowley proud, which he is, as Lucius gets filled in on the situation by Damien.
He's actually heading to what could be a very solid guess to where the angel has taken Adam, and Crowley shouts at him to, "Step on it!" when Aziraphale brings up Gabriel and Uriel.
Funny he brings up Uriel, because Lucius has been following him wherever he appears, the archangel having told him about finding Adam and that Lucius needs to trust him to keep Adam safe.
They wind up at an abandoned church, which Crowley hisses at and makes Lucius gag from the sudden nausea, and the senator steps out, gesturing for Crowley to wait in the car.
Lucius gives a thumbs up and leaves, though, TV perspective, the camera would linger on Crowley as he notices a car approach through the rear view mirror.
CUT to Lucius carefully walking up to the church doors as he forces back coughs and gags as he tries opening the door. Key word is tries because it's locked, though he does here someone complaining about how, "The brat has sharp teeth," and, "He won't stop kicking."
To which Gabriel replies, "Just hold him down and keep him quiet."
Stealth time as Lucius ditches the door and walks to the side of the church and climbs up a pipe to reach a window, damn near falling to his death as the pipe gives and falls and leaving him to grab onto and dangle from the leadge of the window as two angels come to inspect.
Lucius scrambles inside and just barley avoids getting caught as he hides against the wall, having a clear view of the inside of the church.
Two angels are working on a salt and lamb's blood symbol much like the one Aziraphale made, the one that sent him to Heavan on accident, as a third angel holds onto a struggling Adam and Gabriel supervises.
The two 'scouts' report that they didn't find anything, just a pipe that broke, which Gabriel comments may have been because of a fat raccoon, and even smells the air a little, before turning to Adam.
Lucius sneaks closer as he watches Gabriel take a small amount of blood from Adam and drip it onto the angel symbol, activating it so it can rid Adam of the devil inside him, aka remove his soul, aka kill him.
LUCIUS IS HAVING NONE OF THAT.
He shakes his head and leaps off the upper level he's been hiding on, landing directly ontop of Gabriel, who throws him off and onto the ground
Lucius wheezes as he sees the abundance of crosses around them and a large bowl if holy water, one that used to be used for baptizing children. He also sees Gabriel dip his fingers into it before kneeling down to get a better look at this new demon that arrived univited.
"Lucius Wagner. I thought I smelled smoke." He flicks his fingers at Lucius, who hisses at the holy water as it touches his skin. "You're oddly more... pleasant to look at than I thought you would be. Then again, evil has a way of looking good, doesn't it?"
Lucuis smirks and signs to him, 'No wonder Heaven doesn't want you either, then.'
Gabriel smacks him for this and checks to see if the symbol is done, which it is, so he orders the three free angels to scout around the church, so no one else interrupts the brothers being exorcised.
Too bad the three can't seem to get the door open, even though they're the ones who locked it.
When the door doesn't budge, Gabriel and the other angels join, leaving Lucius and Adam unguarded, the former crawling towards the bowl of holy water as Adam scooches away from the angel symbol as much as he can, even toward the bowl as well, despite the blistering he feels all over.
Cut to Gabriel trying to open the door and suddenly feeling a little weak as he tries breaking the door, wondering what's going on.
CUT TO OUTSIDE AS AZIRAPHALE AND A SNICKERING URIEL HOLD THE DOOR, HAVING MIRACLED AHEAD OF DAMIEN AND JACK, AS MICHAEL REJOINS THEM, SAYING HE WILL NOT BE PLAYING SANTA CLAUS AGAIN ANYTIME SOON!!!😁
Cut back to inside the church, where Lucius pulls a cross down on the alter and starts getting a little more strength back before he picks up Adam.
Two fallen crosses will have to be enough to allow him some strength as he holds Adam and kicks the bowl of holy water, which washes away the angel symbol and seeps away through the floor boards.
Gabriel sees and hear this and shouts, "No!"
Lucius switches his grip on his brother as he holds up a flaming hand, glaring at the angels.
They retaliate by snagging crosses and charging forward.
Too bad Lucius is good at thinking on his toes and fans some fire out to the back wall behind the alter, which is lined with tapestry and wood.
The flames catch at rise, scaring away the angels and a scowling Gabriel, who has a glare down with Lucius as he carries an unbound Adam in both arms.
Cut to outside as the fire grows. News reporters, police officers, and our squad are outside as firefighters rush in.
Jack is racing between people to get a better look at the tragedy and then holds his hands out before Damien stops him.
"Relax, they're going to be okay."
The firefighters race out with an unconscious Gabriel and a coughing, hunched over Lucius, who's still holding Adam. All three are covered in soot and everyone notices that Adam and Lucius are a little injured, but Gabriel is unharmed.
When news reporters crowd Lucius, who is seated in an ambulance and given a shock blanket as he refuses to have Adam taken out of his arms, they start asking the basic and REAL questions:
"Mr. Wagner, were you attacked just now?"
"Did you jump into a burning building to save this boy?"
"Do you know the man that attacked you?"
"Who is the boy you saved?"
"Is it true you adopted three boys into your care?"
"Are you in any ki d of relationship at the moment?"
Before Lucius can answer, Jack plows through with Michael and Damien in toe, Jack hugging a now conscious Adam and Lucius and apologizing for not being a good brother.
Also cue Dog jumping up and kissing Adam and even Lucius.
The press gets a lot of pictures of this, and Damien hugging Lucius, calling him, "snuggle-bug" as he hugs him.
The police see Lucius giving the, 'I'm done, make them stop' signal, and start pushing everyone away, telling them he'd like time alone with his family.
But not after one more question:
"Mr. Wagner, is this your family?"
Lucius nods with a smile, nodding at Jack, Damien, Michael, and Adam.
He also types on his phone to them all, 'No more running away, okay?'
The "episode" ends with Gabriel being locked up in a jail cell for araon and assaulting a politician and a minor and the brothers returning home from the hospital after Lucius and Adam are checked out at the hospital.
There they see all the desserts in a spotless kitchen, surprising Michael and making Lucius start warming up to having a family.
