“How do you know our real names?”
"I don't actually. I saw Joan's name on your cell." he replied with a slight smile. Had he forgotten already what Guy's gift was?

Maud fished a business card out of her back pocket and gave it to Guy. It said Magical and Paranormal Consulting, with Joan’s contact info underneath.

“I don’t think that was a very normal incident,” Guy said.

“I take it you felt the same presence we did? We think it may have been the driver, but that’s just guessing at this point.” She bit her lip in thought before adding, “Fl—Joan thinks the fiend spirit may have found a new host and might be still running around. We hadn’t thought about it at the time, but I suppose you and the hitman may be in trouble if it comes across you.”

Hip returned. “Just a skinned knee and some rattled nerves. The ambulance will have some disinfectant and a bandage for her when it gets here in another minute. She’s lucky you were there.”

“Now, would you mind telling us your name so we can establish a bit of a basis of communication here? You seem to know a bit about us but you’re still a complete mystery. Don’t be a stranger now, eh?”
"Call me Guy. I will probably be seeing more of you, but I can't say for sure." Guy still didn't know what the cabal would be expecting from him. "Thank you for helping the girl, kindness too often goes unrewarded." Guy added as a kind of apology for being so forward with them. Maybe using Joan's name was an unnecessary move.

"Oh, no, not that I can think of." Lily replied, smiling, "Thank you very much for your time."

After seeing Joan off, she contemplated a moment on the things revealed to her.

I can feel things are starting to get a bit more active, on the other side of things... at least, that's what my intuition tells me. Fillærra noted as Lily picked her up, Your encounters... I am not one to believe in coincidence; you'd best take care.
"I know how to take care of myself." Lily nodded to herself, "If I have to."

I know, but I thought it was worth saying aloud. Fillærra replied.

~

After her mother returned, Lily nodded, "Okay, I'll just tidy up back here for you." She called after her, quickly doing so and taking Fillærra upstairs, back to the mask room. Once that was done, she saw her mother had already taken up her position behind the counter.

~

"Pizza hm? Alrighty, I'll go get ready." Lily replied, quickly heading upstairs to her den. She would require supplies of the utmost importance.

Once she got her shoulder bag ready, Lily made her way outside, and leisurely walked down the sidewalk. She watched people out of the corner of her eyes, passing either way, on both sides of the road, vaguely wondering where their destinations were.

Then she felt it. Something out of place.

She tilted her head back just slightly to sniff at the air. There was no mistaking that scent, the scent of raw power flowing outward, as a ripple on the surface of a still pond. Lily knew now that it meant something was happening, or someone similar to her or the others was nearby. But what?

There was only one thing to do. She was in no hurry, and she was at least part cat (though the actual details as to her ancestry seemed rather unclear), and even if she wasn't, she was curious. One hand strayed to her shoulder bag, squeezing it. She nodded, the binoculars were there. Good.

She started down the path, tracking her target by scent, with the hopes of being able to find an advantageous locale from which to spy on it.

Tuesday June 1, 1999
Mid-Morning
Neighbourhood
The psychic impression washed over Lily. It persisted while she checked her bag, but abruptly cut off as she started moving. Who or whatever was building up the energy had clearly put it to use. In the wake of the power source the traces of energy blurred and waned, but the initial impression was strong and likewise left lingering residual patterns.

Lily travelled about a block before she traced the source of the quickly fading trail to the area of an alley. Carefully, surreptitiously Lily snuck a peek down the alley for signs of what may have been going on.

Whatever the young were-fox might have been expecting to see, what she found in that alley wasn’t it. A large tan-coloured dog, apparently a pit bull, lay on the ground, unmoving. While her human nose wasn’t nearly as refined as that of her fox body, Lily could clearly smell blood in the alley, picked out among the many and varied typical odours of the alley.

She listened carefully and scanned the alley for any signs of movement, but determined that it was empty save for the dog. Of the dog itself, by sight alone she could tell little from this distance, but a dark stain on the alley floor around it offered a possible source for the sharp metallic scent of blood.

Afternoon
Martin Taylor Elementary School
Tension never left the would-be hitman’s form as Aaron slowly and deliberately pronounced his failure, nor as he recounted the location and terms of their later meeting. How could he have missed that?

When Aaron finished, ‘Mr. Smith’ said nothing, but merely nodded his head and kept his eyes on the floor, clearly cowed. He collected his janitorial equipment and took his cart, leaving Aaron alone in the empty washroom.

That business taken care of, Aaron reconstructed his Avalon persona for the rest of the day’s classes. After that, he would swing by his house to pick up his equipment, and then head back to the abandoned Copper Island General Hospital for another night of entertainment.

After School
Intersection Crash near Metro Station
“On my –?” Hip seemed confused for a moment when he returned to hear Guy’s answer, but he quickly realized what the young man was talking about. “Seer. Right. I didn’t know you could do that with premonitions—Joan’s certainly are not usually so lucid.”

“Pleased to meet you, Guy. You can call me Jessie, when we’re not on a mission. Tall dark and gloomy there is Rebecca, and Becky if you have a thing for pain.” On the queue of well-practiced habit, the girl swatted Jessie on the arm.

“Hopefully if we run into each other again we can work together better,” Jessie said, “We’re only a small group, but we will do what we can to help you keep the monsters where they belong.” He waxed mock-grandiose, “The unsung heroes of the night.”

“Seriously though, things are happening. Take care of yourself out there.”

The patrol cars and ambulance rolled up. “Looks like this is where we part. You ever reported an accident before? Word of advice—the authorities don’t like hearing about things like spiritual senses and psychic impressions. Talk to you later!”

The police collected accounts of the accident and had the car towed. The cops who talked to Guy all had positive things to say about the youth and let the crowd go about their business. Guy figured that if he headed directly home from here he would probably make it home just in time to be only a little late for supper.

(Guess what? Today is the same day, minus the position in the week, as the game began (unless you're reading this tomorrow, in which case you're on today). I figured it only fitting that I finally turn this post in today since it was such a special occasion ^^)

As he hurried back home, Guy did not doubt Jessie’s warning, there was indeed something much bigger going on here. In quick succession he had been contacted and taken into a secret organization, followed by a shady individual, nearly been run over by a car, and saved a girls life. Things like this don’t happen very often and guy didn’t really understand how it was all linked.

The man that had been following him, why would he leave when there was a crowd for cover? Maybe he didn’t. With this thought guy gave a quick look around and made a more conscious effort to be stealthy on his way. He didn’t want the man to discover where he lived as it might be the only safe place he has left. Although this was assuming that this man was ordinary with no special gifts to speak of (Guy didn’t remember sensing whether or not his pursuer was anything other than ordinary); if he did then Guy doubted that him being followed was not really avoidable.

For now his stealth was his only defense as he made his way home.

As Guy walked in the front door, “You’re late for dinner. It’s Chinese take out on the counter.” rasped Delilah, his foster parent, from the TV room. “How was school today?”

Guy grabbed a box of rice and sat down in another chair in front of the TV. “It was alright” he said.

"You know Guy, of all the kids that I have Fostered you are the best student. You may not get A's very often but I don't think that I have seen anything worse the a C out of you." she said almost proudly to Guy.

The praise was lost on him though as he had been trying not to stand out. All the same, Guy smiled to Delilah's satisfaction and left it at that. She was one of his nicer Foster parents so it wouldn't very advantageous to upset her.

Noticing that the news was on, guy’s heart skipped a beat as he heard the announcer talking about a car wreck and a high school hero. I should have just told the police that I was psychic and had seen the event take place before it happened so I would be written off as crazy. He watched it for a bit but there was no image of him there just the announcer standing at the scene where bits of glass and plastic marked where the car had been. A bit of relief, he wasn’t going to have to endure the attention that being a “hero” would bring.

“Hey that isn’t too far from the library where you go after school is!” Delilah exclaimed. “Did you see any of that?”

“No I was still in the library, but I did see the wreck before the police towed it.” Guy replied smoothly.

“Did you see the kid that saved the girl there?” She asked curiously. This was a bit more questioning than guy normally had to go through, and that bothered him a little.

“I think so the police were taking a statement from this one kid, but I didn’t recognize him.” Guy continued, “I’m going to finish my rice up in my room. Good night.”

Delilah gave a grunt of approval as Guy went down the hall to his room. Guy ate a few more bites as he went over his options. The Cabal and Joan’s group seemed very different, the Cabal, of course, seemed more exclusive than the other. Guy wanted to contact both groups but didn’t know whether that might burn one or both of these opportunities. Guy thought that Joan was the better resource at the moment so he would contact her first. Tomorrow he would go and see her. He had seen enough TV shows to know that the phones weren’t always as private as one thought.

Tuesday June 1, 1999 (20d)
Late Night
Copper Island General Hospital
Come at your leisure and your own peril. Perhaps Aaron could have excluded that part. Whether his mark was scared off or simply too lazy to arrive punctually, he didn’t know which was more frustrating.

The hitman shifted, causing the flies furiously populating the corpses in the lobby to scatter for less than a half second before they returned to their feast.

Whatever had happened down here while he was hunting the insolent Mr. Anderson was serious business. A large swath of linoleum flooring was charred, dried pools of blood were everywhere between the entrance and the hall to its right. In that space lay one man and his knife, dead for a bloody lack of his entire throat, a woman by a revolver, dead from a bullet wound in her back, presumably (he hadn’t checked) and the robed cultist with the baseball cap, dead from a savage bite to his neck, apparently, as well as some bruising visible under portions of his shirt. The bullet casings littering the ground besides that suggested that either there were some terrible shots present among the crowd, or else those they had been shooting walked off with a number of holes in them—something that didn’t seem as unlikely to Aaron as it once did.

Aaron decided to head back upstairs where the smell of death was less overpowering. He stalked the halls for another half hour before finally calling the showdown a complete ruin of an evening. It was now 2:13 and the other hitman had not shown up. He cursed privately to himself. He was not going to get any sleep for school the next day.

Aaron (next day) -3 Endurance (-3, 4-hour sleep)

(Nothing is going to happen for the next handful of days, so actions can be dictated up to, let’s say, a week. Guy can go ahead and start talking with Joan and/or meeting with the Cabal members in the city. Aaron and Lily… well, if you can think of something, go ahead. Next part coming (hopefully) soon(ish))

As rolled lazily up and out of bed he noticed the slight protest from his muscles and smile a little. Who would have guessed that research that ended up being unnecessary would have involved this much physical strain? He threw on one of his three sets of cloths and, grabbing the paranormal consulting card, hurried on down the stairs to grab some toast before heading out.

It was a school day but Guy figured he could afford to miss class today. He made sure to grab his backpack as even his simple minded caretakers might suspect him of skipping school before he even got out the door.

It was early morning so he had to strain a bit to see the contact info under the name on the card...

There was a Phone number and an email address. Guy felt better about using the phone than email to contact Joan. Making his way to the nearest pay phone guy inserted what little change that he had and carefully dialed the number. After a few rings he got an answering machine, "Joan this is the seer from the hospital. I met the other two yesterday as you may or may not know, and they gave me your info. I have some questions about everything that is going on and would appreciate your help please meet me outside the public library downtown I should be there all day if not I'll leave you another message tomorrow." Guy knew that the message would be a little on the long side and was pleased to see that he got it all in before the machine cut him off.

Guy moved off to the library to wait and watch.

Lily tentatively sniffed at the air. The scent of blood confirmed her suspicions. The little-distant-cousin was probably gone. She shrugged a bit, before looking up and down the alley a moment.

Her intuition told her that there wasn't anything she could do at this point; the person who had wielded power was gone, and without the scent of power to guide her, she wouldn't be able to find them. Not to mention, they'd likely spot her tailing them, and any creature discovering that they were being followed would be bound to counter with suspicion and possibly aggression. She didn't need that.

As for what had happened here, well, she had a pretty good feeling for what happened. These particular distant-cousins were noted for aggression. It wouldn't be too likely that the cousin had 'aggress'd' against a trespasser, and they, in fear or in retaliation, wielded power to counter it.

It would seem the cousin's aggression had gotten the better of it, not realizing the capability of their adversary.

Investigation complete (or at least as far as she was going to take it), Lily quickly jot down her location on her notepad, intending to send a message to Joan later, before heading back out along her original path and towards her original destination.

Mm... Pizza.

Wednesday June 2, 1999 (19d)
Afternoon-Evening
Adelaide Public Library
After making his call, Guy headed off to the Library, passing by the very spot where not twenty-four hours ago he had been declared a hero. Life went on, as it usually did, with no more indication of what happened there than a smattering of shattered glass where the black car came to its final parking.

Guy was at the receiving end of the occasional double-take or odd look as he entered the library. When teens weren’t in school during the day for whatever reason, one hardly expected to find them at the library. Nevertheless, he was not disturbed in his mission.

He selected for himself a handful of books to keep himself busy with, choosing on a whim a small stack of occult and supernatural lore books among the variety. His haul in hand, Guy found a small secluded table in a corner of the library to set up base for the day.

An hour and a half later Guy found himself in a morass of common practices and conflicting theories and interpretations without much solid information on ‘real’ supernatural affairs. He idled, wondering if the Cabal had access to more legitimate information.

His train of thought was quickly interrupted, however, when he noticed a man watching him. It was definitely the same man from the previous day. He got a better look at the man. Guy figured he was maybe in his mid-to-late twenties, with light brown hair. He wore dark black aviators and the same black coat, hanging open.

Guy watched him in return out of the corner of his eye for a moment, just to be sure the other man was actually looking at and not near his direction. In response, the man nodded at him, acknowledging that each was clearly aware of the other’s observation. He walked up to Guy’s table and took a seat across from him.

“Hello again,” he said. “As someone with a refined interest in the supernatural, I imagine you can understand my distress when I saw you, the very kid I came here to meet, leaving before we had a chance to talk. I almost doubted myself for a moment, but then you leapt out to save that girl, and I knew you were the one. I figured at first I would see if I could catch you when you showed up at the House, but then I had another foresight and had to return again today—you know how it goes.

“I’m Damiel, by the way—an esper much like yourself. Also like you I have a certain talent for understanding the nature and flow of Fate. Don’t feel that folk like us are all that common, though. Between you, I, and that woman you were speaking with yesterday, we make up probably the only major ‘foreseer’ espers in the entire Keewinaw Peninsula at the moment.

“But that’s enough out of me. If I’m going to convince you to join us, I may as well take the time to ask your name.”

---

(For expedience, these we can carry on these two conversations simultaneously)

Around four-thirty in the afternoon, the person whom Guy had set out to meet had finally arrived. He put aside thoughts of his previous visitor and signalled Joan to his table.

Even before she sat down, Guy could sense an aura of nervous energy around the older woman. She did a good job of hiding it, but she was worried about something.

“We’ve met, but we haven’t been formally introduced yet,” she said amicably enough. “I’m Joan, pleased to meet you, Guy.”

(Heaven forbid. I started this post almost a month ago. I was ambushed! Ambushed I say!)

The next day, Samuel Avalon was tired, and held less patience for his students; though his temper was still held in check. He kept an eye out for his target; it was obvious that Aaron Smith would need to settle things in the near future.

It was really bothersome, but grading was also required... not much since it was kindergarten, but catching would be required for the past few nights of gallivanting around shooting the s*** out of things.

He would also need to make sure that his money was wired to him for his hit the other night... there were plenty of things to do.

Wednesday June 2, 1999
Evening
Unknown Location, USA
“Yo—we got a message from Adelaide, Michigan. One of our contacts there has called in to report an unidentified supernatural running around causing a bit of destruction. We have a couple suspicious animal attacks, a traffic incident, and some minor property damage.”

“Sounds like it’s probably a low-level fiend spirit acting independently of a summoner to me. The pattern of destruction is too random to be a directed attack.”

“That’s what I thought, too—I’m just checking what Agents we have in the area right now.”

“Adelaide you said, huh? Who’s there? No names spring to mind for that division.”

“That’s because there aren’t—Adelaide is considered low on the supernatural radar, despite being a fairly large city. They have a healthy number of non-Agent Gifted living there and, for reasons unknown, relatively few serious cases of monsters. Things generally take care of themselves. At any rate, if anything serious were to go on up there, Agents from Chicago could be brought in fairly quickly to sort things out.”

“Ah, not enough problems and even less manpower, huh?”

“Exactly. Here, I got the list of Agents in the area right now. It’s just one—” the man broke off the let out a low whistle.

“What? Who is it?”

“Trismegistos is the only Agent currently staying in Adelaide.”

“Oh, dear.”

“I’ve never felt sorry for these bastards, but—you kind of got to have some sympathy for the devils at times like this. Here, I’ll make the call. You file the contact’s report.”

Wednesday June 2, 1999
Late Evening
Somewhere in Adelaide
Nivit tried to concentrate on what form of mayhem he would gleefully wreak next, preferably bringing him closer to slaughtering the creatures who had showed up to prevent his summoning. He tried, but it was difficult; he couldn’t shake the pervading sense of dread.

It probably had something to do with the dark figure that had been following him for several blocks now, namely with the projected attitude of menace clearly radiating from it. Nivit realized he might have to kill this annoyingly persistent human. He tried not to let his eagerness at this thought show on his human face, though he would never know how poorly he was doing, passing no one on the way.

The fiend directed his human host down a dark alley—a time tested strategy for his subtler kills that he had already used the day before. He hid his man body in a dark corner and waited with the same expectant glee as a child on Christmas day.

Sure enough, the figure kept up the chase—as soon as the human rounded the corner, he could feel the strength of its spirit. A worthy prey, and a suitably delectable feast. He let out a miniscule whimper of anticipation.

Nivit drew his host’s knife slowly and prepared to strike from the shadows, but his shadow spoke, addressing him.

“Show yourself, hellspawn. Make this easy on yourself and let me get back to the hotel. I’ve got a date with a hot bath that I don’t want to be late for.”

“I think not, little human child. Your pain will almost be as delicious as your essence—if I can restrain myself for as long.” Nivit commanded his human body to leap out and strike the human.

Before he came close, however, energy exploded around his prey, channelling just as fast into a magical invocation directed by its words. He felt himself suddenly torn forcibly from his host body, leaving his physical form to collapse to the pavement below. Immediately he could feel his energy ebbing slowly to maintain his spiritual form in this world.

“Restrain it.” The magician commanded. An earth spirit that he didn’t notice before, lurking in the pavement beneath the human’s feet, called up slabs of rock and pinned Nivit to the spot, the spiritual battle not harming the physical man below at all.

“I could have merely banished you back to the hell you came from. We needn’t have done this the hard way. As it stands, though, you’re getting everything you and your kind deserve. Moreover, I’ve decided I don’t like you.”

As it spoke, the human’s personal aura radiated with gathering essence again, rapidly drawing on a sizeable amount. The human raised its hand and spoke the last words Nivit would hear out of his prey.

“Puros antitolmos.”

A font of magical fire lambasted Nivit’s body, devouring spiritual flesh in a swath of intense heat. Within a moment, the fiend need not worry anymore about securing an anchor in this world to protect it from energy drain, lacking enough substance even to be worried about it.

As soon as the psychic scream ceased, Trismegistos checked the fiend’s victim. There was no pulse. The magician cursed softly and examined the body. Several bite wounds, presumably from some sort of dog, bruising such as from the car crash described by the contact, and a well-disguised glancing bullet wound marked the man’s body. The only thing holding the man together was likely the fiend’s power itself.

The Agent codenamed Trismegistos sighed. There was nothing more to be done about it now.

“At least two dead—maybe more that I don’t know of, and countless others endangered,” the magician recited. “Another monster ended and the world can go on a little safer.”

Trismegistos yawned. “Damn, it’s been a long day; you’re starting to get sentimental on yourself. And don’t you say a thing,” this latter comment was directed at the incorporeal elemental beneath her feet. He, as per usual, said nothing in kind.

(X3 This post, too, would have been up last night, but the RDInn decided that I should only be allowed to update you once out of the blue, and that another would have to be delayed an appropriate period)

Damiel's forward statements took Guy without really much warning though this in itself seemed reassuring as it was a move he could see himself doing. This Guy was very obviously led by fate as he himself was. Trusting the force that brought them together Guy let himself relax. This was meant to be.

"My name is Guy, and it is a pleasure to meet you Damiel." Guy spoke the traditional introduction with a slight grin. "If you don't mind my asking how is it that you come to think that the woman I spoke to yesterday, you and I are the only ones with strong foresight? I have known nothing of you or yesterday's acquaintance till you came to me. Which lead inevitably to this question what do you want of me?" This would prove to be quite entertaining... though the disturbing thought crossed his mind that there must be something quite large coming up in the future that fate should lead him to so many allies.

*************************************

"The pleasure is all mine." Guy said in reply. "You seem a bit out of sorts. I hope that I'm not troubling you to much, but I really needed to ask if you know anything about the Cabal of the Psyche, among other things."