Tuesday June 1, 1999 (O -3)
12:02 - Moderate Rain, Shootouts and Stalking
Abandoned Hospital Lobby / 3F
Guy cursed and ducked back down the stairs a few steps. From here he could still see the first floor through the railing, but he wasn’t immediately in the line of fire for another attack.

He pushed the thoughts of the scalding pain and the care he would have to take to hide it out of his mind. With practiced ease Guy brought his mind to a stable centre, a place from which he could broaden his thoughts and harness his talents.

As he had so many times already that evening, Guy opened his mind’s eye toward the future, but this time he used his power of foresight to continuously look scarcely a few seconds into the future, perceiving the result of every motion as it happened.

His defences prepared, the young seer cast about for a new weapon, preferring something with a moderate heft that he could move quickly to send flying at the fire-starter and his minion as soon as they reappeared. The lobby was mostly empty, but as he looked over the dark shapes of the cafeteria below, his keen eyes fixed on a table and a few chairs.

He reached out with his mind and scooped up the table from the floor, raising it carefully, nearly letting it slip his grasp once, to hover in the air just off the stairs to his side. Guy reasoned that the table could provide some rudimentary protection as a solid wall between him and his enemy, though it was too heavy to casually throw. He would have to exert the channelled energy of his will in order attain the strength of mind to make a weapon out of it, which was tiring in a way that lifting within his capacity was not. Guy grimly hoped his enemies wouldn’t outlast his endurance. Allies of circumstance notwithstanding, that was a situation he didn’t care to run into.

While Guy was levitating the table from the basement floor, Lily was lunging past the woman as she frantically reloaded, headed for the hellspawn magician next to her.

The lanky man snarled the word that focused his energy into fire again, drawing what little power he could summon up in the heartbeat that stood between him and the enraged werebeast hurtling toward him.

When the man pointed at her, Lily was already sailing through the air only a few feet away from him. It was too late for her to stop herself from flying into the attack. She twisted sharply away from her prey as the magic fire sprung forth from his hand. Flames kissed her left flank, singeing the fur on that side but not burning her flesh.

Lily landed on all fours and immediately sprang up on her hind legs, twisting with her momentum to deliver a swift, high kick at the man who had the power to make fire do his bidding. She struck him hard in the side of the chest, sending him stumbling back into the wall with a thump and a groan. (15dmg)

Meanwhile the raincoat trio each made for better positions, the leader and the blond boy making it to behind the circular greeting desk while the raven-haired girl with the shotgun crept alongside the wall a dozen metres from the hall that concealed the cultists.


“It’s still not too late to throw down your weapons!” The redhead called. Guy could see the auras from all three of them slowly building with energy while steadied the table he held aloft.

“Shut your mouth, witch,” the woman with the gun called, “Even if you kill me here, the True Lord will have you in the end. The weak can’t deny the Coming any longer. I’ll be rewarded for my faith when others choked.” She shut and cocked the revolver. “So you’d better kill me now before I take you all with me—starting with your damned beast.”

Behind cover the red-haired woman swore, growing frustrated with the circumstances. She didn’t know how badly the fox creature was wounded, but she could clearly see that it had lost a lot of blood from the large red blot that covered the dimly illuminated patch at the front door.

“Hip,” she turned to her companion, “I want you to save your energy for saving the fox if things go nasty.”

The blond hair boy nodded in confirmation as her irises glowed softly with silvery light. She cast her gaze into future as the cultist woman pointed her gun at Lily, looking to see where to aim, to minimize the chance of a rogue shot or a mistake doing more harm than good.

Guy -8 Life ----- -4 Essence
---Precognition 0/2 rounds Aaron -20 Life ----- -3/-4 Gun Cap
Lily -68 Life (+4 regen) ----- -3 Essence (10 in use, 10 ambient)
RC Red Hair
---Precognition 0/2 rounds RC Black Hair -8 Life ()
RC Blond Hair -8 Life ()

Gunner1 -14 Life () ----- -3 Gun Cap ----- Dead?
Gunner2 Full Gun Cap (+6 reloaded)
Gunner3 (disarmed) Fleeing
Knife -56 Life () [Probably Dead]
Fist1 OMGWTF Gone
Fist2 OMGWTF Gone
Baseball Cap -15 Life (-15 broken ribs and bruised pec)
Marcus Anderson

He needed to see what was going on, and it seemed as though now would be a good time to find better position. The Fox's predicament worried him though he should aid it somehow. Guy would move so that he could see the gunner that had spoken of ending the Fox and attempt a disarm with his power.

Although Lily knew, being a member of one of the local drama clubs, that drama had its place, she certainly would not have chosen this time and instance were she the gun-woman. Especially if she were to actually think and realize that Lily was actually... well, language aside, pretty damn close to her, though granted, perhaps that woman didn't know the human-level intelligence within the beast. Regardless, ignorance wouldn't save her in this battle. Whirling around quickly, Lily took a lunging leap at her, slightly askew with one paw aiming directly for the gun arm. If she landed as intended, she'd bring her teeth to bear and try to tear into the muscle in that arm. If not... well, she'd settle for just trying to pin the woman's arm for now.

She knew she was taking a risk, not finishing off the flamethrower, but right now she considered the woman's gun to be the biggest threat, and so, that needed to be taken care of.

Tuesday June 1, 1999 (O -3)
12:02 - Moderate Rain, Shootouts and Stalking
Abandoned Hospital Lobby / 3F
Aaron ignored his target’s taunts as the mindless gibbering sometimes emitted from cornered prey and focused instead on the direction the voice was coming from. It could hardly be soon enough that he was looking down over the man’s cooling corpse.

The hitman slid up to the corner stealthily and took a peek down the hall. The heavy clouds of the storm still obscured the full moon and precious little else existed as a light source. Even his superior vision struggled pierce the darkness and failed to discern any sign of his prey.

Though as for that, Aaron knew the man was just down there somewhere, judging by the direction of the sound of his voice, he merely needed to provoke him into giving away his position and distract him from whatever it was he was planning.

The thrown gun trick wouldn’t likely work a second time and besides which, it would be far too subtle for the effect he was trying to achieve.

He ducked back behind the cover of the corner and drew one of his pistols with his left hand, then, after a beat of silence, leapt out of cover and shot down the length of the hallway.

There was movement and cursing at the other end of the hall as Mr. Anderson dove to the floor out of gut reflex. There was only a vague shadowy motion, but it was enough for Aaron to make an educated guess.

He tossed the handgun aside, taking his sniper in both hands, pointed, braced himself, and fired.

There was a pronounced, drawn-out supersonic roar followed immediately by a dim flash further down the hall. Aaron had to step back to keep his balance, then leapt for cover behind the opposite corner before he could assess the damage, if indeed there was any.

Almost as an afterthought he slid his handgun to a secure spot behind the cover from where it landed.

~***~

Lily rounded her sly, narrow fox eyes on the woman with the gun pointed at her. The woman stepped back as she aimed, her eyes wild and her lips parted wide in a drug-maddened grin that bordered on feral.

The great red-stained and grey fox coiled to leap at the woman’s gun arm to try to pin the weapon just as a loud shot rang out, but no hot sting of lead came. Instead, the woman screamed in bloody pain, even through her toothy, wild-eyed grin, arching her body over backwards.

The final gunner fell to her knees and then collapsed back from there. Over her body Lily could see the striking silver eyes of the red-haired woman behind the helpdesk, holding her pistol in two hands, still pointed at the cultist woman.

The animal spirit conjoined with Lily’s at birth that made up her more instinctual, impulsive side was mildly disappointed at being deprived the chance to repay the woman’s insult with injury, but she didn’t dwell on it. She whirled around to face the fire-thrower to finish what she had started.

He took a few uncertain steps back, realization of his situation beginning to catch to him.

“Damnable cur! Flamas!” he growled, throwing a column of flames at Lily, licks and sparks dancing in the air around him from barely controlled energy. The werefox transitioned smoothly from all fours to a hand spring as the heat washed through the spot she had been standing in a moment before.

Lily landed on her hind legs right next to the man. She could smell the fear well up in him and rippling through his personal qi. He turned to bolt, but he had hardly taken a step when Lily’s clawed hand caught him by the shoulder, dragging him back and throwing him to the ground with a strangled gasp.

She dropped onto the man and sank her narrowly spaced teeth into his collar and tore into the area between his neck and shoulder, the iron tang of blood filling her mouth.

His eyes glazed over and he fell limp, still breathing shallowly. The stresses on his body overwhelmed him and forced him into unconsciousness.

Guy appeared at the entrance to the hall behind Lily, his own eyes alight with silvery energy. The Indian-Native-American boy’s eyes darted from shadow to shadow, looking for more hostile foes to smite down but found none—conscious at least.

The fox, though its fur was matted with copious amounts of blood, was alright, standing over the two hold-out cultists as they bled out onto the linoleum tiled floor of the hospital.

Guy let out a slow breath, steadying his nerves. He had complete faith that everything would turn out as it was meant, but nevertheless, it was hard to deny hundreds of years of survival instinct.

Something stirred behind Guy—the woman who had gone down after the chair impact. He did not jump at the motion, his mind’s eye showing him before she could even surrender that she was getting up slowly and peaceably.

“You said you would let me go if I surrendered,” She stated cautiously, directed at the leader of the raincoat triad.

The red-haired woman nodded. “Not to tell you what to do with your life, but perhaps you had best stay away from such groups in the future.”

The woman said nothing, submissively retrieving her revolver and heading out into the rain and the night, cradling her right side.

Guy -8 Life ----- -4 Essence
---Precognition 2/2 rounds Aaron -20 Life ----- -4/-4 /-1 Gun Cap (-1 left, -1 sniper)
Lily -60 Life (+8 regen) ----- -3 Essence (10 in use, 10 ambient)
RC Red Hair -1 Gun Cap (-1)
---Precognition 2/2 rounds RC Black Hair -8 Life ()
RC Blond Hair -8 Life ()

Gunner1 -14 Life () ----- -3 Gun Cap ----- Not Dead but Out
Gunner2 -40 Life (-40 shot in the back) Dead probably ----- Full Gun Cap
Gunner3 (disarmed) Fleeing
Knife -56 Life () [Probably Dead]
Fist1 OMGWTF Gone
Fist2 OMGWTF Gone
Baseball Cap -39 Life (-24 savaged trapezium) Unconscious and bleeding out
Marcus Anderson (shield flare)

Lily absently licked her teeth, the taste of blood making her feel just a bit hungry. Her form shifted slightly as she took back to all fours, once again taking the full form of an oversized fox. The threat seemingly passed, thought arose. She tilted her head slightly as she scanned around the room. She vaguely wondered what they were if they weren't actors... but then again, first thing was first... she needed to go to her den... and Elly was probably getting worried.

Without a word, not that she'd likely say any to begin with, she focused inward, taking in her surroundings, and causing her fur to match. With that done, she quickly bounded out the door, destination first to where Elly was waiting, and then onwards to her home.

Well, things had worked out so far. Guy grinned and the briefest of laughs escaped him. Things always worked out, but the was sometimes a surprise. He then realized that he was with strange company, that is people that he had not "seen" before the night began. He didn't think that that could bode well for him, but his other option appeared to be leaving, but this night was not yet over. Indeed there were more things to take care of and at the moment these newcomers were not against him.

Because of the later bit of information, he thought that he need not waste time looking into their past, the more reliable use of his ability, to find their motives here. In his vision there had been more than just the fox and, with this character's disappearance, the way before Guy had been made clear. He must find the man with the motorbike... perhaps one of the newcomers could aid him with this, but until he knew more about these people, he would keep to himself as much as possible.

"Where are you headed now?" Guy spoke addressing the group in general. Hopefully this would tell him a little more about them. With the wording he had not said that he would go along, but he didn't want it to sound as though he would not follow. Guy was reserving decision till after he knew the destination.

Now all that Aaron could do is wait from where he was and see if Mr. Anderson had been killed or not. If he had, there would be a delayed silence. If he had missed, the cult leader would be angrier then a hornet and would lip him off again. If he had hit, but nothing vital, gurgling and moaning would take place.

Trying to be as silent as he could, Aaron tries to reload his sniper rifle. It seems that the target has an amazing resilience against bullets; otherwise there would have been one embedded in his skull at the beginning of this whole encounter.

Tuesday June 1, 1999 (O -3)
12:03 - Moderate Rain, Shootouts and Stalking
Abandoned Hospital Lobby / 3F
The grey fox returned to an entirely bestial form, shifting with dream-like fluidity. It stood over the cultist’s body and seemed to shake its head in a very human gesture. The supernatural animal remained still for another breath, then, as Guy watched, its fur blurred and shifted to match the colour of the hallway around it, rendering it close to invisible in the darkness. Evidently it would not be joining them for crumpets and tea after all was said and done.

The teenager let a brief, relieved laugh past his lips. He turned to the other three, the ones who had come in unannounced. The young woman with the black hair came up on his right, shotgun at rest. She nodded at him and stepped past, moving over to the man who had been brought down. Her brow furrowed in concentration for a moment, and Guy felt the energy around her discharge. Almost at the same time, the cultist gasped suddenly, twitched, then fell still again.

The red-head and the blond boy came out from behind the info helpdesk and approached Guy, both of their weapons held down as well.

“So, where you headed now?” Guy asked the raincoats.

Their apparent leader, the red-haired woman with the glasses responded. “The man in the basement said that the leader of this cult is probably hiding upstairs. That guy with the sniper rifle seemed capable enough, but he probably has no idea what he’s facing. We’re going up to make sure this Mr. Anderson doesn’t get away. You in? You seem to have an idea what you’re doing—we could use your skills.”

The girl gave the boy a ring and he held his hands out toward her. He murmured something unintelligible and the both briefly gasped as blue sparks danced over her legs and feet.

“Better?” he asked.

“Idiot—you should have done yourself first. Now you’ll have to wait to gather more power,” she replied with equal parts concern and exasperation.

“Aww, No points for chivalry?” he joked through gritted teeth, unsuccessfully feigning affability in spite of the circumstances.

~***~

It had taken two tries and some calming breaths, but no one saw Lily slip out of the old abandoned hospital into the night—or at least she didn’t think anyone saw; that Indian boy had very keen vision. The rain had reduced to an earnest shower from the torrential pounding earlier. The wind still kicked up in her face every now and again, but mostly maintained a low gust.

Lily tried to keep to the shadows and stay completely out of sight, but the bullets buried in her hide still pained her greatly, and she may not have been as careful as she hoped. At one point she had to wait in the shadows as a pit bull ran passed her, but she reached the alley where she stowed her stuff without further harassment.

A small stream flowed along the centre of the alley down toward a gutter, but the sheltered location where she hid her clothes and masks remained above water level. As she padded up to her clothes, the last and deepest lodged bullet dropped out onto the concrete, the wound beginning to disappear. In another moment she would be completely uninjured again—an effect of her nature that she had previously only had fairly limited experience with, amounting for the most part to minor cuts and bruises.

~***~

The reverberating roar of the rifle round died slowly over the next few seconds as Aaron waited for signs that his target was still alive. There was a brief moment of stunned silence, then a clear, audible curse.

“Puny, pathetic philistine! Do you not yet get that you are but a mere mortal playing on the level of the gods!? Your antics amuse, but nothing more, and now the high ones have grown weary of you. As Apollo decreed at Delphi, ‘Know thyself’, mortal!”

Aaron heard these ravings as he reloaded his rifle. He had scared the man, he observed, judging by the sudden surge of aggression and the slight waiver in his voice. Not enough to force him to actually trigger a sudden flight away, however—indeed Anderson seemed convinced enough of his own superiority that the close call hadn’t seemed to impinge on his resolve at all.

But, again, it was true that the shot had seemed a close call, and thus another, better placed shot may punch through where the previous two hadn’t. Aaron had no idea what kind of force the man was employing to deflect bullets out of the air, but he had at least the suspicion that it was not impenetrable.

Aaron Smith stepped out into the corridor again, rifle raised to do some damage, but he quickly identified something was wrong.

“Invocare Ignis!”

The flicker of orange that betrayed itself to Aaron grew and swelled in a blink and burst toward him as a great ball of flame. He barely had the time to throw himself to the ground as the meteor soared over his head, the heat rolling off of it sharp on the back of his neck. It continued past him and met with the wall and dissipated.

After the attack had passed, Aaron wasted little time. Laying on his stomach he pointed up at the figure of his mark, embers still dancing in the air around him. He held steady for a heartbeat to make sure his aim was true and squeezed the trigger.

The rifle roared like a shorter, sharper peal of thunder like what had been filling the skies all afternoon. In the whitish shield flare, Aaron could see Anderson stumble back with a cry. The force field robbed the bullet of much of its momentum—that much he knew already anyway but was proven again—but it had penetrated, striking the man presumably in the abdomen.

He didn’t waste time on congratulating himself, however. If the bullet had done its job properly, there wouldn’t have even been enough time for a cry of pain from the target. He would consider it a non-fatal shot until the corpse proved him wrong in person.

“Invocare Ignis.” The tone of the incantation was substantially different from the angry, arrogant voice a moment before. Aaron rolled aside a much smaller fireball as it struck the ground near where he was laying.

~***~

(Room remains for chatting with the NPCs, I just felt the initiative to wrap things up and fill in the details after)

Guy and the two women stepped into the stairwell, followed by the young man in back.

“Let’s make this easier on us, shall we?” The leader turned to Guy, “You have the powers of premonition, too, am I right? We can combine our strength to determine which way they went.”

Another with the gift? She did not seem to act as an agent of Fate, but having the power to glimpse scenes from beyond her own time was interesting enough. He did not have time to consider the implications or if those implications even meant anything, though. He nodded and invited her to lead.

“We’re going to try to see the path taken by the cult leader and the hitman just earlier. Simply focus on that and I will do the same—our minds will work in concert and between the two of us we should get a good idea of what happened.”

Guy looked at the stairs and focused his mind. Instead of reaching ahead to look at the next page in Fate’s great tome, however, he looked to see what had been written while he was elsewhere.

He felt the woman’s strength adding onto his own, clarifying the picture. He had never used his powers in this way before, so he hadn’t realized that he had actually taken over until he heard the woman draw in a sudden startled breath.

The cult leader, Marcus Anderson paused while his flock scrambled mindlessly on. Without a word he turned and ran up the next flight of stairs, then the next, to the third floor. The vision followed him as he glanced backward once, and then pushed through the creaking door of the third floor.

The vision skipped, then the tall, black figure of the hitman appeared, running up to the second floor, testing the door, then moving onto the third and entering.

The vision ended and the woman shook her head. “You are strong in the ways of the Sight, child,” she said. “Come, let’s get going—we know the hitman found him, but we don’t know if he was successful, yet.” Lightning flashed in the lobby behind them, and thunder roared overhead.

~***~

Aaron tugged on the bolt handle and discharged the old round, loading a new one. Before he could take sufficient aim, however, he saw Anderson’s silhouette climbing onto the window in the in the meagre light cast up by the streetlamps.

The man had lost it! Aaron quickly adjusted his aim but not before his target took flight.

With a protest from his chest, Aaron leapt to his feet and ran to the line of windows, looking down into the pitch black roof of the hospital’s lobby.

He searched the shadows, rifle at the ready, but not even his superhuman vision could detect anything that would reveal whether Anderson had lived or died from the fall.

Aaron held vigil, growing steadily more infuriated with the situation when another of the errant bolts that populated the sky struck overhead, throwing brilliant light onto the hospital. On the roof, stumbling away, Aaron saw the image of the hunched Mr. Anderson.

The light from the bolt faded, but it had done enough. Aaron aimed for the spot where he spied Anderson, leading him by a couple feet not to account for speed, but for how much he moved in the last seconds of his life.

The rifle roared into the night for the third time, resounding at the same time the thunderclap from the bolt rolled through. There was another flare of Anderson’s shield—the target was struck, all that remained to be seen was whether or not it had been a killing blow.

Aaron could barely keep himself from spreading a satisfied grin across his face. It had been a very interesting hunt. Whether or not he would reap the spoils, however, depended still on finding and retrieving the pentacle from the body, provided that there was one. He didn’t let this slight doubt ruin his satisfaction, though.

Bullet-deflecting shields aside, there was a limit to how much one man could take before going down. Aaron was near the top of this range, and he presumed Anderson would not be in nearly as good of a condition. Between the abdomen shot, the fall, and the last shot, he was expecting to find a corpse when he got down there. Nevertheless, he would not assume that the mark was dead until he could see it with his own eyes.

Even though the fall had not killed Mr. Anderson, evidently, falls were capricious things and he did not trust to make it down in similar order. Besides, the broken ribs courtesy of that demon-thing in the basement were souvenir enough in the interesting injury department, he decided, stowing his rifle over his shoulder. The second floor windows would do nicely.

As he was getting back to the stairwell where he left the appropriated torch the leader of the raincoats was just coming through the door with the Indian boy right behind her. She recoiled briefly, though she didn’t startle any more than that.

Guy Full Life (+8 say thank you) ----- Full Essence (+4 regen)
Aaron -20 Life ----- -4/-4 /-2 Gun Cap (-1 sniper)
Lily -12 Life (+48 regen [1 min]) ----- -9 Essence (-5 failed attempt, -5 camo, +4 regen, 10 in use, 10 ambient)
RC Red Hair -1 Gun Cap (-1)
RC Black Hair Full Life (+8 healed)
RC Blond Hair Full Life (+8 ")

Gunner1 -14 Life () ----- -3 Gun Cap ----- [Not Dead but Out]
Gunner2 -40 Life (-40 shot in the back) [Dead] ----- Full Gun Cap
Gunner3 (disarmed) [Fled]
Knife -56 Life () [Dead]
Fist1 [OMGWTF Gone]
Fist2 [OMGWTF Gone]
Baseball Cap -41 Life (-2 soul poke) [Dead]
Marcus Anderson -12+ Life (-12 gutsniped, -? Fall, -? sniped)

Tokers1-3 [Fled]
OD [Dead]
Wardmaster [Dying-Dead]

(If you’re wondering about the recovery rates posted, note that Lily has run on ahead a minute)

(Now maybe onto a little of the other thing that makes WC an awesome game--ample roleplaying set-up due to mandatory characterization during creation. Have fun and chat (or have fun and don't chat... don't worry if your character doesn't want to talk right now, there is more in Act 2))

Aaron scowled at the group of peons before him. It was getting way to crowded; luckily none of these guys looked like they were with Mr. Anderson. They looked clean... mentally and inwardly speaking. On their exteriors they were just as s***-faced as he was. It must have been a rough night all-round.

“Who the Hell are you?” Aaron spat out. They should feel proud to have gathered enough of his attention that he would speak to them directly. He had asked the question to the woman at the forefront. Before anyone had time to speak, Aaron burst out once more “I don’t have time for the likes of you. Get out of my way or take the challenge. I got a kill I need to confirm!”

Lily looked up, blinking a bit as she watched the rain. It didn't seem to be letting up soon enough, so she nodded to herself, waiting a few moments for the aching in her body to fade, stepping to the side before feeling her body shift back to its alternate form. She shivered a bit, feeling the water on her body, quickly putting her clothes back on. They'd get soaked, but she knew they would have anyway in this rain.

Lastly, she took out her umbrella, and opened it. She couldn't really carry it in her natural form, so... She shrugged to herself, before Lily picked up the plastic bag.

Did you forget me? The inquisitive voice asked in her mind.

Lily shook her head, "Sorry about that." She whispered, "Things got a bit... complicated."

Strange to hear you say that. Elly giggled, So, where are we going now?
"To my den." Lily replied, "Home."

Reassured that Elly had survived, Lily walked down the alley, den-ward-bound.

Where was the leader? That seemed to be the most important piece of information at the moment, but it didn't seem like the hit-man wanted any help any of the people before him at the moment. It would be difficult to get him to tell, but it wasn't necessary, just convenient. "Where is their leader?" Sometimes it pays to be straightforward, and if that didn't work and he just pushed past the group here guy may have to divulge a bit of his vision to the hit-man...

"You'll save time if you go straight to the third floor." He would check the second floor anyways guy knew but it would cause the desired wonder. He wondered how effective it might be with this man...

The other gifted persons sudden appearance still. It also bothered him that one of their number, a woman, was gifted as he was, seeing time in a way that others cannot. Why should this be kept from him in his searching previous to tonight? The woman had paid him what she must have perceived as a compliment, but she had obviously not noticed that this betrayed what she didn't know as well as giving Guy the unwanted feeling of standing out. Somehow she had divined what his gift was all that she could have seen was his ability to move things with his mind...

Until he could find out more about these people, he would need to keep contact to a minimum. Maybe even splitting off from them to go with the hit-man was an option? Though he was definitely not as overtly friendly as the new group, Guy had known that he would be there and that gave him quite a bit of comfort.

Tuesday June 1, 1999 (O -3)
Few minutes after midnight - Moderate Rain, Shootouts and Stalking
Abandoned Hospital Lobby / 3F
“Who the hell are you?” Aaron spat out. Before the woman could respond, he cut her off. “I don’t have time for the likes of you. Get out of my way or take the challenge. I got a kill I need to confirm!”

The red-haired woman who led the raincoat wearing newcomers wrinkled her nose, but stepped out of hitman’s way. Aaron proceeded down the stairs to the second floor before Guy even had a chance to ask his question.

The two on the stairs glanced at Aaron as he passed, then looked to their leader for instruction.

“Keep your shields up. This isn’t over until the leader of their circle has been proven dead. Hip, prepare for a healing spell—use the ring. That man is badly injured, whether he’ll admit it or not.”

She turned to Guy, fatigue beginning to show on her face. “How about you? You want to say hi? It can be tough to face down inhuman monsters without any help—perhaps we can help each other out? I am Flandre, the kids are Hippocrates and Maud—not our real names, obviously. You take precautions where you can.”

---

Aaron climbed easily out one of the windows on the second floor onto the roof of the lobby. Faintly, over the pattering rain, he could hear police sirens. He didn’t know if they were approaching or on some other heading, but nevertheless it would be best to wrap up here quickly and get away.

He remembered where the body should be from where Anderson was when he sniped him. It took only a few seconds to come across the corpse. He kicked it once in the ribs to be sure, and then knelt over to check for a pulse. The body was already cold, due to the rain and there was no discernable pulse.

Roughly he rolled Anderson’s body over onto its back. Aaron grabbed the pentacle around his neck and removed it with a sharp tug. Proof of successful hit acquired. Now it was time to leave.

He turned to go, but a sudden pang in his chest caused him to flinch, briefly. Damn, he must have moved in just such a way that it caused fresh pains to erupt from the constant, manageable pain that his injury was sending to his brain.

When he made it back inside, the group was there again—not obstructing his path, but there. The red-haired woman spoke up.

“That’s quite a shot you made,” she said, nodding at the windows. “At least allow us to offer you a patch-job on that nasty mark you got there—and before you refuse, consider that I don’t think the hospitals will accept ‘attacked by an evil manifested spirit’ as an appropriate explanation, and a scratch like that, not to mention the broken ribs you must be nursing, must take weeks to heal properly. It’ll only be just a second.”

Guy
Aaron -20 Life ----- -4/-4//-2 Gun Cap
Lily Full Life (+12 regen ) ----- Full Essence (+9 regen, 10 ambient) [Left Scene]
RC Red Hair -1 Gun Cap (-1)
RC Black Hair
RC Blond Hair

Marcus Anderson -62 Life (-40 Found Dead) [Dead]

It was time to leave! For the time being it seemed that the hit-man would be fine, and Guy needed time to try and learn more about these other gifted humans. Guy didn't want to be noticed leaving as he didn't want to answer any questions or become to friendly with anyone that he had not seen in his vision. He would try and slip away while they were talking to the not so ordinary man, but if the group started to include him he felt that it would only serve to make enemies of them to continue to retreat without an excuse. Humor might serve him well in offering a reason... it was past his bed time!

Aaron spat a rebuke at the bitch. How dare she look at him as if he were weak!
"You assume too much broad! And you are now starting to get on my nerves!" He then pulled out his handguns. They were pointed at the ground by his side for now, but that could change very soon.
"I fly with the wings of Hermes, A messenger to the world.
I can warn you of the soon-to-be, if you heed my word." His eyes glare at the woman with a stern and cold intensity. "Answer me this riddle correctly, and I will allow your fault to go unnoticed. Answer it wrong, or refuse, and I will deal with you in the same manner as I did the wretch outside..."

Tuesday June 1, 1999 (O -3)
Few minutes after midnight - Moderate Rain, Shootouts and Stalking
Abandoned Hospital Lobby / 3F
“You assume too much, broad, and you are now starting to get on my nerves!” Aaron drew his handguns suddenly.

All three jumped at the sudden threat, alarm in their eyes—the boy half raised his gun and the dark-haired girl brought the barrel of her shotgun up. The red-haired woman who had been leaning against the wall jumped up, but left her gun pointed down.

“I fly with the wings of Hermes, a messenger to the world. I can warn you of the soon-to-be, if you heed my word,” he said, cold fury in his eyes.

“Answer me this riddle correctly, and I will allow your fault to go unnoticed. Answer it wrong, or refuse, and I will deal with you in the same manner as I did the wretch outside.”

“Easy, there’s no reason to fight. I did not mean to offend you,” she said, her tone cautious and diplomatic, “I merely wanted to know if you would like some help. I apologize for anything I might have said to upset you—if it’s alright with you, I’d rather not stay to find out if somebody heard us and called the cops. What do you say?”

The whole team watched Aaron, scarcely breathing as they waited to see if the hitman would insist on getting an answer before anyone left.

Guy [Left Scene moments ago]
Aaron -20 Life ----- -4/-4//-2 Gun Cap
Lily Full Essence (10 ambient) [Left Scene]
RC Red Hair -1 Gun Cap
RC Black Hair
RC Blond Hair