Standard Disclaimer: The show, Brimstone, and all characters in it, including
Ezekiel Stone and the Devil, belong to Fox and not us. We have just borrowed
them for a while and will put them back when we're done. Honest! We are poor
as ragged churchmice and what's left belongs to the Universal Unconscious. Sue
at your own risk. We're so broke we can't even pay attention.



Mother
by LadyRhian and LadySerez
LadyRhian@aol.com and LadySerez@aol.com

"Where's Hornboy?" A woman, smoking ciggies and wearing a Harley leather
jacket leaned on Margot's desk. Margot looked pale.

"Let me check," Margot reached for the phone, but the woman smashed her hand
down on the reciever.

"Never mind, I'll go check if Lucy's in myself." The woman crushed the butt
out on a pile of paperwork, and took off her black helmet, revealing a kindly-
looking face with closely-shorn silver hair. Appearances could be deceiving,
though, and in this case, they definitely were.

Mother Nature advanced across the floor, her leather boots making thumping
noises on the stone. She opened the door to Satan's office. "Hey, Lucy! You in
there?" she called out in her whiskey-roughened voice.

Miriam hardly gave her a second glance. After years of incidents like this,
she'd learned to ignore it. "No, Mother. He's down torturing sinners again.
Level 14."

There was an inarticulate sound of rage from inside the office. "Damn you! I
told you never to call me that again!"

Mother Nature laughed. "Pipe down, Lucy. Take me on, and you'll regret it."

The secretary turned and frowned at the door. "He must have taken the cargo
Hellivator again." She shook her head and made a notation. "Go right in,
Mother. You might want to duck when you do. He tends to throws sharp things at
visitors he doesn't like."

A belch of flame came from inside the office. She stared at the flame, and it
stopped inches from her leather-clad body. "Very nice, Lucy. I see you've been
practicing again." She snapped her fingers and the flame evaporated.

Miriam silently groaned and checked her rolodex. After the, um, Eblis and
Nergal incident, the cleaners had refused to come again without a rise in pay.
She'd had to juggle some budgets...

From across the room, Alicia shivered. The boss would be in a rage for hours
after she left. Just like every other time she came to visit. She glanced down
at the floor, which had sprouted grass and flowers where the old lady had
stepped.

That was Mother Nature for you. After some time of seeing her work, Alicia had
begun leaving off the "Good Old" part of the title. Neither fit the rather
dumpy figure in the black leather.

But she did appreciate the grass and flowers, even if the imps came to eat
them...speaking of which, here came one. 

"Get away if you don't want me to mail your ass to a place you don't want to
be," she quietly threatened. The imp thought about it, then decided. Jumping
on the patch of grass, he wriggled his back in ecstasy.

Inside the office, Mother Nature advanced on Satan. "I've heard about your
slip, Lucy. Your escapees are roaming *my* earth, raising havoc, killing
people who weren't meant to die yet. What exactly do you intend to do about
it?" She glared at him and perched the edge of her hip in his desk. The
pointed studs on her black leather jacket dug into the fine wood.

"I *am* doing something, old woman. I've sent one of my own, Ezkeiel Stone,
back to hunt them down. Right now, he've sent about...15 back, by now.
Miriam!" Lucifier yelled for his secretary. 

"Yes?" she appeared at the door. "How many have Zeke sent back?" 

"According to my records..." She glanced down on the paper in her hand, "17."

Lucifier's shout could be heard all over Hell. "Get off my desk! You're
ruining it... Damnit!" 

Mother Nature bared her teeth in a vulpine grin. "Another one of your 
charges? How... original of you." She pulled a packet of cigarrettes from her
jacket and lit it with a snap of her fingers. She took a deep puff and blew it
in Lucifer's face.

He choked. Ordinary smoke was no problem for him, and she knew that. So she
deliberately smoked clove cigarettes when she was around him.

It drove him up a wall, but she outclassed him in every way he knew. So he
simply clutched the edge of the desk. A loud crack let him know he'd
splintered the wood. He let go, a little too late. A chunk of wood fell to the
floor.

She took another long puff, giving every appearance of pleasure. "I want to
see him," she said, exhaling the smoke in a long plume.

Lucifier smothered. It was never fun dealing with a woman that could screw
with the world... Hell, was the world! 

"See who?" Morningstar grinned. Two could play this game.

"I want to see this Ezekiel Stone you say you've sent out to bring your
mistakes back home." She leaned across the desk to stare into his eyes. Hers
were large and black and deep. Inside, he could see a faint sprinkling of
stars. An aura of clove-scented smoke engulfed him, making his lungs ache for
clean, sulfur-filled, smoky air.

He remembered her as she had once been, young, lissome and beautiful, with
long hair the color of sunshine. He'd been hopelessly entranced by her. But
time hadn't been kind. And ever since the Industrial Revolution, she just
hadn't been the same.

The body beneath the leather was raddled and scarred, with great open wounds
that oozed. And her maturity had grown to bitterness, thanks in part to his
own actions.

*cough* Miriam was at the door again, and coughing. She wrinkled up her nose,
while noting the damaged desk. "Well, at least there's no blood..." 

"Miriam! Kindly send this... lady to where the good Detective is." And
hopefully he'll play his incubus games with you, too, Morningstar thought.

"Thank you, Lucy." She grinned at him, revealing her intensely white teeth.
"That's a good boy." She got up from the desk and walked out, her hips wagging
sexily beneath the leather.

What a grand old bitch, the Devil thought. Then, he caught sight of the
daffodils growing out of the wood of his desk and wanted to scream again. Damn
her!

Miriam handed her a piece of paper. "That's his current address. He've got a
gun, and a cat, so be careful." 

"Thank you, my dear." The lady fished in her jacket and brought out a rose.
She handed it to Miriam and, still holding the piece of paper, walked back out
across the floor, leaving more patches of grass and flowers behind. Outside,
the secretaries heard the rumble of her motorcycle start up.

Miriam blinked at the rose in her hands. Then smiled, upended the vase on her
desk and shook what was left of Nergal, along with a small imp, out of it.
Poured some water in the vase and stuck the rose in it. And smiled. 

Morningstar was screaming again. 


Mother Nature rode her Harley up into the real world. Anyone would have taken
her for just another motorcycle mama, except that instead of the smell of
exhaust, her Harley gave off the smell of grass and flowers instead. The
exhaust smell she reserved for the times she went to see the Boss man in
Heaven. Old Yahyah really hated it, and so did those fluffhead secretaries of
his.

Once, she'd enjoyed their company, even perhaps loved them a little. But she
couldn't forgive that it was their followers that had reduced her to the state
she was in now. By giving his adherents total dominion over her body, Yahyah
had made it morally acceptable to kill her animals and mistreat her.

And Lucy was no better. Him with his "sin now, pay later" philosophy....

But those ladies in Hell were crack secretaries--they'd had to be, with
Morningstar as boss. She shuddered. How had that girl from Poland handled him
for the last 45 years? Just went to show that still waters ran deep...

She pulled up outside Stone's building and thoughtfully sniffed the air. The
whole place was filled the smell of sex and lust, radiating out in waves that
were almost visible to her eyes. Hmmm. Interesting.


Meanwhile, back in the Hellish secretary pool, Alice grinned cruelly and
lifted the bazooka she'd lifted off Patton. She aimed it at the blissful imp,
careful not to ruin the flowers and grass. The sharp report of a projectile
echoed moments later, with the screaming of an imp accompanying it. 


Very, very intersesting. What had Lucy hissed before she'd left? Something
about the detective's incubus tricks...

This was getting more and more interesting by the minute...

She kicked the stand down on her Harley and went stomping inside, past the
desk where the lady with the short hair was scribbling furiously with a pen. 

Ignoring the mortal woman, she followed the smell of sex up the stairs and
right to Stone's apartment. Pausing for a moment, she pounded on the door.
There was no answer. After a moment, she removed her helmet and pounded again,
the flat of her hand making a loud booming noise on the door, rather like
thunder.

Zeke yanked open the door, the incubus instruction manual in one hand. "Yes?"
he asked.

The lady at the door pushed past him and into the room, ducking under his
extended arm. Once inside, she turned around and examined him. "So, you're
Lucy's playtoy, hmm?"

Her eyes ran over his body with the intensity of a laser beam. His skin
actually felt scorched by her regard.

Wincing, he focused on the one word that didn't make sense. "Lucy? I don't
think I know anyone by that name..."

The cat hopped up on the counter and purred at the woman.

The woman gave a husky laugh. "Not many people get to call Morningstar that.
But I'm one of 'em. We go back a long way. A looong way."

She calmly stepped over to the cat and began to stroke it, making soft noises
at it. The cat meowed back. Zeke had the curious feeling they were holding a
conversation. From the way they both occasionally looked his way, he had the
even stranger sensation that it was about him.

"Mor-r-ringstar?" Damn, he hated it when he stuttered. He tried again.
"Morningstar?" A unpleasant suspicion started to form in his mind. "By any
chance, did you tunnel out of Hell?" Zeke asked, his hand on his gun.

The old lady looked at him. "Would it make any difference if I had?" she
asked, her black eyes intent on him.

My, my, my. He does take himself so seriously, Mother Nature thought. The cat
had confirmed he was generally a good and kind person, so how had he ended up
with Lucy and the horn and tail crowd?

"You bet, ma'am." Zeke raised his gun, aimed it at her eyes. "Can't have the
escapees running around, raising havoc. Of course, there was Miriam, but she
was a special case." 

The cat meowed frantically. Mother waved a hand, and it calmed down, its
haunches going down.

The old Lady grinned when she saw the gun. "That won't have any affect on me,
laddybuck," she told him. She walked up to him quickly and threw him against
the wall with a thump. A second later, she was on him, holding him there.

He turned his face away from her, not wanting her to rip out his eyes. "How do
you know, old lady? Two bullets to the eyes will take out anybody....even you,
if you're a member of the 113."

"I approve of your devotion to duty, but you're really going to have to learn
to distinguish between the fallen and those of us who have... powers of our
own."

His shirt slipped down enough for Mother Nature to see the tattoos.

She looked at them closely. "Well, well. I see Lucy isn't taking any chances."
Despite her small stature and apparent old age, she was showing no sign of
strain holding him in place.

She pried the book out of his other hand with a grip strong as steel and
glanced at it. "Lucy trying to make you over in his image, is he?" She
chuckled. "How... conventional of him."

"Make me over? What a... what a joke!" Despite himself, Zeke started to laugh.
"No, no... ma'am. Seems I was born half incubus. But it didn't trigger until a
week ago, when an incubus showed up and did *his* thing." He laughed again,
but bitterly this time. "I told Morningstar to take it off, but he said he
couldn't. That only God could!" 

"And the worst part is, it looks like I'm the equal of a incubus genius." He
picked up the book. "This is written in a fourth grade language... and dirty,
at that."

She released him, and he fell to the floor. With apparent unconcern, she
turned her back on him and opened the door. "Just remember, boyo. Lucy and his
boys were angels until they made the choice to fall. Let any choice *you* make
be your own."

The cat ran over to Stone and jumped in his lap, purring.

Zeke started to pet the cat, still laughing. "Just *who* was that woman? Do
you know, cat?"

Then, without warning, the cat's fur fluffed up, it hissed, and ran off. Stone
heard the Devil's voice from the other side of the room. "Tsk, tsk. Is that
any way to treat a lady?" The sarcasm could have cut steel. "Of course, that
old bitch was never a lady."

Zeke blinked at the smoke coming out of the Devil's ears. 

"Never a lady? Well, what was your first clue? Mine was when she slammed me up
against the wall." 

"Mother Nature has always been a problem. Quite the bitch, isn't she?" His
voice had a certain reluctant admiration to it.

A voice echoed back, "You would think so, Hornboy!"

"Why *does* she call me that?" Lucien blinked his eyes, puzzled. "I don't have
horns." 

"You do, in people's imaginations." 

"Well, I think I look pretty damn stupid." 

Something the Devil had said finally made an impression. The cop's mouth fell
open. He pointed toward the door, then at the Devil. "Mother Nature? *That*
was Mother Nature?" 

"What?" The Devil asked. "Not exactly the picture you had in mind?"

"Nooooo--I thought she'd look more sexier. You know the picture they have of
her..." Zeke was frantically looking from the Devil to the door and back
again.

"A long white dress and all the animals of the forest gathered about her in a
ring?" The Devil asked sarcastically.

"Something like that. Yeah." Zeke nodded. "Guess we're wrong, right?" 

"Ha! You'd be more likely to find her with a machine gun in her hand shooting
down the locals. She's come to hate humanity. And I and God, of course."

"I... can see why."

He shot Zeke a hard look. "Ignore the bitch. She may seem sweet, but she no
longer has the best interests of you, or any human, at heart. Not that she'd
be able to do anything about you," he took a step closer to Zeke, one finger
stabbing into the other man's chest. "You're still mine, Zeke. Until every
last tattoo is gone, you're mine, and nobody else's."

"And after that? Then what?" Zeke shot back.

The Devil laughed, pushing his body closer to Zeke's, feeling the heat of the
taller man's body against his own. Kept pushing until they were almost
touching, smelling the sex and attraction that flowed off his toy's skin in
waves. He could almost taste the scents of the Detective's sexual arousal,
feel the bulge at the other man's waistline pressing against his own belly.

"You have to get there first," he reminded the other man maliciously. "After
that..." he laid his hand on Zeke's waist, almost but not quite touching his
erect cock through the cloth. "I'm sure you'll make the right decision..."

Zeke smiled. "I'm sure I will. Right now, through... do you want to do
*something*?" And he grinned broadly, making the Devil curse and vanish.

"Going so soon?" he called. Then laughed. 

He looked down at his body and cursed softly at seeing his erection. Now he
was going to have to deal with this all over again. What was it about his boss
that caused him to get so excited? Whatever it was, he couldn't take much more
of this.

As he touched himself, he murmured. "I've got to stop." As he gave himself
over to the pleasure, he sighed. "Yeah, in about a hundred years."

The end

Comments to the authors Lady Rhian and Lady Serez

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