Liam Mitchell's Story

Fel was completely taken aback by Arc's offer that she join him going to Brazil. She was even more surprised when he left the room without waiting for her response. Was she expected to go to Brazil with him and just wait in a safehouse? The thought of waiting around in a safe location while other people got hurt made Fel feel sick to her stomach.

If she went to Brazil with Arc what if something happened to one of her fellow agents and friends while Fel wasn't aviable. Or what if a normal person saw her during this operation. The thoughts keep coming causing a gaint knot to form in her stomach.
As if understanding the negative thought loop Fel was going through. Montana's touch was a gentle reminder of that he would be there to help her no matter what. Moving her hood in Montana's direction she spoke up. "I agree, I don't think I'd be useful to anyone if I waited in a safe house in Brazil for an hour. I can take care of myself when talking to the werewolf population if need be."
After she spoke Fel looked around the room quietly observing everyone's reactions. Issac was worried about them, it was a sweet sentiment but his wording towards the higher ups came off as more brash than kind.

Jonah and Liam, two men trapped in children's body her, heart went out to the pair. Curses of any kind were never fun. As the duo named off the witch that had cursed them she could not help but wonder if the pair were part of scion out for revenge.
Then there was Stride, sitting there looking like she was about to laugh. The Medusa always had a way with words. Even if Stride was blunt to a fault her words were always the truth. The truth seen by the Medusa that is.

It was at this point her hood tured to look at Issac. She felt the start of his attack, the feeling of pain radating from the solider grew stronger with each passing second. It was at this point Fel stood up starting to approach the man as his hand feel to the gun at his side. Before she could reach Issac the pain faded to the normal background hum that usually accompied the man.
As Fel reclaimed her seat Kate spoke up and a smile appeared on Fel's unseen face. Kate was as sturdy as a the rock she was. Having the lifespan of a rock gave the miss Opal a timeless wisdom. Fel silently agreed with the way Kate chided their new rookies.

Oh Kora, the werewolf viking princess tended to think of battle first and emotions second. While frustrating to Fel at times it made Kora's reactions predicable to a tee.

When Christina appeared Fel was not surprised, after all Christina was known to go overboard with an experiment or two. In the same way Oren tended to go overboard researching. That was perfectly fine with Fel after all Christina's illusion magic was the only way Fel could go out into the world without every mortal around staring at the fallen.
---------

Crystal wanted to sink lower into her seat. Issac's word's echoing in her head, making her want to cry. The painful memories were starting to resurface, the loss of her own family so recently making her want to cry. Now was not the time to morn, now was the time to kick some crazy supernatural's ass.

Then came her fellow rookies, Liam and Jonah's, outburst about their age. Followed by the talk about young werewolves ripping people apart. Yeah the feeling of wanting to disappear and was back again.

Instead she put on a fake grin and replied to her fellow rookies "Nice to meet ya shorty. I'll make you a deal I won't underestimate you if you won't underestimate me."

When Christina appeared about of thin air Crystal couldn't help but jump in her seat. She was not expecting someone to pop out of thin air. On the bright side if this was the reason the mysterious ghost rumors had started occurring then she could clean up the salt circle from around her bed.

Trying to cover up the fact Crystal had been surprised by Christina's appearance she spoke up. "I want to know that too Liam, are we going as groups or individually. Also are we responsible for our own transportation? Cause I can't afford anything but a bus, and buses in my experience take forever and are usual late.

Alexander simply waved leo's comment off as he addressed the werecat " Saffiya my dear..why did you not tell them to let you lead with that... cults practicing magic is worrisome.. Human sacrifice magic even more so... and its linked with the wolves to add the proverbial cherry on top" he said for once addressing one of the leaders by her first name, more so in a sign that his words should not be taken all that seriously, though with the commotion that followed round him they probably wouldn't take much notice.

Along with most of the room his attention was brought to the new recruits, who had in spectacular fashion managed to garner more attention than they intended, however he stayed quite content in simply watching the situation unfold as various people chastised the recruits. Though soon he decided to speak up, towards now visible woman who had just appeared " That explains the wall seeming to give off body heat"

" Speak of team composition's as some have suggested" he motioned to Stride with his hand " I think the limits will be as needed... For example it would be Extremely useful if i could borrow Norrevinter for the first meeting with the wolves but then give her to team two to police the festival" he changed his focus onto Kora " Of course if that's acceptable to you.. it would only be for the wolves.... i will spare you from listening to cryptic shit when i go speak with the vampires"

Issac haddn't seen Fel's movement so he couldn't react to that.

"Don't be such a pussy, Schofield. This is investigation, not going to - " Issac listened to Kora with his moot face, He respected her as a co-worker but questioned her blood-lust since he had met her. He smirked at the Roman bit and Montana again, clarifying what Issac had meant. He'd have to thank the man later.

Issac found him self nodding to Strides comments, tossing those into his considerations as well.

Christina appeared as if from thin air, Issac seemed not to notice, he'd probably ask her about it later tho.

Liam had spoken to the group as a whole, the 10 year old side showed fairly well.
Issac gave an apologetic smile and shrugged his shoulders. " I''ve seen many FNGs with the same spark meet an early grave because of lack of planning, not just in this organization." Several faces skirted the edges of Issac vision, and he felt his stomach slither down through his bones and gather at his boots like sand. He'd rather not lose anymore comrades, egotistical or otherwise. " As for your liability, well we are a bit like the knights of the round table here now arnt we? Would you really be here ;if you were going to be a liability I mean?" he'd talk a bit more to the new recruits if they pressed for conversation but his attention would fade, politely, back to the groups discussion rather quickly.

Issac watched the rest of the group as the conversation went round and round, he'd wait to speak again until it was his time again.

" If the first group would like a little extra security I wouldn't mind going with them" He chimed in while the others requested positions, later when the conversation circled back he added " Assuming we do as Alex suggested and the plan works well, what are we gonna do if we do make contact? Less than lethal, or shall we burn that bridge when we cross it?"

Christina smiled a bit when several other reacted with shock to her reappearance to visibility. The young trainee's, Crystal's reaction, was especially amusing, though the girl played it cool pretty well after the initial shock.
"Yes, good morning everyone!" she greeted, looking around at those that had spoken specifically, then turned to address Montana and Alexander individually. "Technically, I was here from the start," -said cheekily, to Montana- and "So you could sense me but not see me, right?" -asked of Alexander, while she pulled out a small notepad, that was scribbled over with notes already, to record the vampire's information.
The goal had not been complete invisibility, only visual disappearance and Christina was sure she'd succeeded from the tests she'd done during the three days she'd waited for the capsule to wear off. First things, first, it was clear that she'd vastly overpowered the charm, which had been meant for 12 hours, not approximately...68. She jotted that down as well, after checking her watch twice to make sure. And the overpowered nature of the charm also meant that either her calculation had gone completely wrong Unlikely she thought, or she'd made a mistake in the etching More likely, or the two most likely, either that the material or shape had somehow amplified the power, or that it had somehow sucked in excess magic before affecting her. More notes were written down before she again looked up.
"All good questions," she chirped, flipping to a fresh page in her notepad. She fixed her eyes on the mission heads, waiting to hear their answers and then write down the responses.

"Technically you were my dear." He replied, shooting a playful wink back in her direction. "But regarding our current matters, Mr.Wiseman," He turned his head to face the Elder Vampire when he spoke. "Given the sordid history between Vampires and Werewolves they might not react well to your questioning."

His face grew thoughtful for a moment.

"Then again, that might work in our favour, a violent outburst, if maintained, can lead to useful information." "Possibly of course, it's always possible they know nothing, however unlikely. For that reason I second the idea to have rotating teams. Aside from those escorting Ms.Kovalenko of course. They will be working with her for hours at a time, and I'd rather not see their cover compromised. Or their train of thought disrupted."

"New recruits, I hail from a Cold War era of espionage. I will not be openly interacting with many of you. If I receive a message via earpiece, and it's not urgent, I will wait a minute or two to respond, or not respond at all. The same for messages received on our devices."

Also drop boxes, but he wouldn't mention that now. Some methods he'd prefer to keep to himself and one or two other people.

"Your cover is important. Practice it. Posing as lovers or friends is common, but it must be practiced. You must look and be comfortable around that person. It makes exchanging information and moving as partners much easier. If you have a skill, work it into your persona, be yourself. Or someone else, it's up to you."

"So, who do we know in York?" Liam asked as they entered their room. "Didn't we go there once?"

Jonah turned to face him. "Yes. I do. I am surprised you don't, considering you made out with a five hundred year old vampire there who was in the body of a nine year old girl".

"Ah yes, the one time either of us could make out without it being weird" Liam remembered. "And you are one to judge. You have had a strange relationship with Rebeca for the past few decades. Yes, she might be struck with the same curse as us, but you two get along so great but never stay in the same place for too long".

Jonah blushed, and threw a pillow at him. "Shut up Liam. Lets just get there".

It took awhile, but the two eventually made it to Yorkshire. Jonah had to use a bit of magic, but he made sure no one noticed. When they did arrive, they started to head towards the safehouse. But shortly after leaving the airport, contact was made with them. A high ranking White Rose Vampire named Tomas, and his guards. "You two are back. You don't plan on making any trouble this time, right?"

While most might be tense in this situation, Jonah was not. Liam, on the other hand, was face to face with that one vampire girl's father. Jonah took the lead and smiled. "Only the fun kind!"

"Good answer. It is nice to see you again, friends" he said with a smile, shaking Jonah's hand. He then looked towards Liam. "Relax, I am not going to kill you or anything like that. What brings you both here anyways?"

"The blood, and the possibility of a large black magic ritual. And the fact I am actually using the term Black magic should let you know how concerned I am".

"You are opposed to using the words unless it seems like the most darkest and most dire of magics. You believe your witch might be connected? How is the search for hher going anyways?"

Liam smiled. "Well, we just tipped off SCION to her, so hopefully it will get a lot easier. Anyways, what do you know about the blood?"

"Just that we are forbidden from drinking it, and that there are rumors any vampire that does will die. I won't deny this, several vampires believe this is some attempt to taint our blood supply and starve us out. They believe sorcerers or werewolves might be behind this, and are calling for revenge".

"Please tell me this is nowhere close to action" Jonah said.

"If vampires acted everytime something like this came up or these words were spoken, we would be in constant war. That said, it is stronger then normal, so there is a chance. Everyone has their own opinions. I would recommend seeing Granny. She always knows the most, and you are on good terms with her still. Just, be careful. I don't have that many interesting friends".

And with that, Jonah and Liam continued their trip towards the safehouse. Liam sighed with relief.

Click, the conversation was over. Regardless of how Montana felt about his side ops, Arc knew how to operate, and take care of himself. Their conversation would have to wait a bit, he had more pressing matters to attend to. Taxi!

York was a very historic city, filled with architecture of a more stylistic era, where presentation might have been at its peak, as far as architecture went. He had no doubts that some of this cities inhabitants had watched these buildings go up, piece by carved piece. Some probably sat on council seats to this day, advocating for every old stone on every old street.

An interesting thought, perhaps some of these elders would be a good place to start. Cryptic things aside as Kora said. Montana gave his thank you to the cab driver, and tipped him. His first stop was one of the two cottages he had rented for the duration of their operation here. The keys had been mailed to him with copies made of each key, with the expectation that his fellow members would have access to one, or two of the four spots. S.C.I.O.N had also coped the keycard needed to access the hotel room. Light work for their tech department. 'Available upon request', was the text message he had sent out once he had deposited Christina's trinkets, after arming himself with a few of course, in the cottage.

A second text was sent out, giving Christina the address of the cottage, some of his weapon stash spots, and the obscure hiding place of his extra key. The next taxi he hailed was headed for the four star 'Hotel Du Vin York'. Pleasantries were exchanged and he checked in. He left his clothing here, but naught else. Next and final stop? The morgue.

Text three was sent out to the team, informing them he had arrived the destination, and was en rout to where the body was held. He'd wait nearby for Oren, and busy himself with the occupation of his cover identity. Photography.

Fel felt the pain Arc was in before the man had even gotten halfway through the house.
In response to Stride's thanks at the hot packs she gave the medusa a smile. "It was no problem really, supplies are meant to be used."

Before Fel could respond to Issac about his concerns Christina arrived. Fel wheeled over to the box the enchanteress had sat down. "This seems like so much for such a small mission, you've really outdone yourself Christina."

On Fel's wrist a purple and white wire were woven together with little hooks jutting out around it. It was a simple braclet that served the purpose of carrying the charms. Going on through the box was not an easy task for the fallen her missing fingers made the process long. Eventually though she found her prize, glass beads that changed color based on the light level. Illusion charms that would help her out if she needed a quick disgue. "These are wonderful Christina, thank you so much for bringing these. They are always such a sorrow to break as they are so beautiful."

As she was rummaging through the box for more defensive charms the familiar feeling of pain crossed her senses. As it move through the safe house the sense of pain grew greater and harder to ignore. So she backed away from the box and was alarmed to see a blood trail running through the house.

Wheeling her chair to follow the blood trail on the floor it led to a bathroom. Before she could ask if the occupant inside was okay Oren was at the door. Oren took a more direct approach to the situation then Fel would have liked.

After the angry and somewhat scary vampire walked away Fel moved up to knock on the door. Before she could knock Arc was out and approaching her chair

"Arc are you okay?" The answer was no Arc was most definitely not okay but it was always polite to ask anyways. Reflexively Fel reached out touching Arc to let her powers go over and heal the man. Unfortunately another power of Fel's activated at the same time. Her eyes rolled up in her head until only the whites were visible. A vision of how the injury occurred flashed through her mind.

When her eyes finally returned to normal Fel removed her hand from Arc and gave the man a reassuring smile. "It's okay Arc you did what you had to do. Protecting what you believe in is always an important task to handle." If Arc wanted to lie about what happened Fel would respect his wishes.

As she spoke to Arc her attention briefly turned towards Issac, responding to his wave she offered him one back. "Good Luck on your mission Christina, Issac, and Oren. Keep safe and call me if I need anything." With that Fel turned her attention back to Arc.

Her voice was soft and gentle when she spoke to him. "I'm ready to go when you are, would you be okay with pushing my chair for a bit my arms are getting a little tired."
----
Crystal was bouncing up and down on the way back to the festival responding to Stride's text.
'Yeah, can give you the address if you want the drugs -C'

'Let me know when you get here we can meet up and search for clues. If we find a dog while we're here then it'll be like scooby-do shit. -C'

'Meet me by the vendor's area -C'

Then around round of excited texts were sent out to the other people on festivial detail, Liam and Jonah.

'Hey Shorty 1 and Shorty 2 did ya guys find out anything yet? -C'

'Oh and if Sec catchs you both I can pretend to be your older sister. -C'

'P.S. I'm in charge of the rookies because I'm taller than you both (JK). -C'

As she finished texting Crystal grinned going over to the vendor's area to talk gossip with the other festival goers.

Giving a brief salute towards the remaining occupants of the safe house (and a snort at Arc’s completely blatant lie), Stride stepped outside, hailing a taxi once she was far enough and setting off to the hotel. Luckily, given the circumstances of where they were, her mask didn’t even cause a second glance in her direction, and she was able to make her way to her room in the hotel with little trouble at all. Stride didn’t stay long, however, simply placing her suitcases neatly in the corner of the room before leaving once more. Needed to get to the festival as soon as possible- after all, from the frequent buzzing emanating from her pocket, it was easy to tell that Crystal was having a field day in her place.

On the way to the festival, Stride took a moment to shrug into a fluffier jacket to match her mask, and examine her phone. Three new messages- in spite of the fact that Crystal was very much a newbie, it looked like she had enough of a head on her shoulders to give frequent updates. Good. She scrolled through, chuckling a little under her breath at the other’s apparent enthusiasm, before setting about typing up a few responses of her own.

‘but then we’d have to buy some for everyone else, and im pretty sure some of them r already potheads. u ever listened to some of the oldies talk? they gotta be on drugs.’

‘nah, when kora comes back, she can b scooby. ill let her borrow my mask, and we can find mr jenkins or whatever the fuck his name was lol.’

‘almost there. btw, u seen the shining twins anywhere? they werent at safehouse, and i dont wanna end up having to babysit u rookies the whole time. ill have to put on of those leashes on u guys and tie u to a lamp or something.’

Shortly after sending out the last message, the driver had stopped the car and announced that they were there. Muttering a quick thanks and paying both fee and tip, Stride exited the taxi and began to make her way to where Crystal claimed she would be. As she had expected, her “cosplay” wasn’t enough to attract much attention as she went along, and she traversed the crowds with ease. It didn’t take long for her to reach the vendor’s area, and, idly, she reached into her pocket and began to type once more.

‘here. where r u? wave to me or something, i cant see u. im the one in the half assed costume.’

‘btw, ur my cousin now, k? im too cool 2 be ur sister. ;p’

Issac'a weapon traded targets as the double doors bounced open, and was instantly lowered upon seeing Rafael , Montana....Toby and Spire. Why where those two here? Were they the ones Rafael had blown their cover on? Figures...

" You both were told to stop freelancing after that botched raid on that vampire group I had been watching." He said leering at Spire, who he guessed had been the 'brains' of that operation. It had been a rogue group of vampires involved in human trafficking, Issac was watching him to hopefully learn who they had been working for but Toby and Spire and managed to get involved, Issac involved him self since he hadn't wanted the young men to die, he hadn't known they were sups until after the fact.

He didn't want these two to get anymore involved then they already were... Who knows who they had come in contact with in the last few years. He smiled a bit before he spoke. " At least the gang is all here now." It was a lie that Montana and even Rafael should be able to catch with tweezers. Issac didn't want Spire or Toby to know that the group was larger than it was until it was too late, what ever was going to happen, they'd at least have to be taken for questioning to see how much Rafael had leaked to them... Issac distantly wondered who's side Rafael was on...

A itch formed between Issac's shoulder blades, worse than the sweat and dust caught between his near-skin-tight-body armor. It was the feeling you'd get when someone held a knife to your back... As for who held that knife Issac had little idea.

He turned his back to the double doors and re-aimed his weapon on the creature. " So, what are we gonna do?" He said to Oren, half glancing to where Toby and Spire was, to convey he wasn't talking about the creature. Lovette would deal with that... after we move it that is.

Issac wondered how the other groups had been doing... hopefully better than them.

The cryptid who had been huddled against the wall, trembling and staring wide-eyes at the team, seemed moderately pacified by Christina's promise that they were going to help fit it, and had, with some difficulty, pulled its broken body over to the bag. That was until hearing Isaac speak up and suddenly shot back clumsily, colliding with the forcefield on the door once again before hunching up with its knees drawn up to its open chest, eyes held shut and tears starting to stream down its cheeks.

"Nice going, hero. You're casually going to execute an currently crippled cryptid that we don't have any proof has even committed any kind of crime?" Oren remarked, regarding Isaac with utter contempt in her dark grey eyes.
"While we're at it do you want to wipe out some of the staff members? If that's how we're going to conduct business I'd quit right here on the spot."

Her gaze then turned to Christina. Generally speaking Oren had little to do with magic. Not because she had a problem with its use, she just disliked having much to do with things she had not satisfying scientific explanation for. As much as she'd attempted to write up a proper unified theory on magic use, she'd as of yet not been able to do so, and as such she preferred not to count on it.

With all that was going on here... well hopefully the sorceress knew what she was doing. Otherwise they were not in a good place at all. If the place was quarantined then they'd all be looked at by doctors. Even if Isaac did break all ethical codes and killed the cryptid and by some miracle nobody got arrested for that, then someone was still going to find out, in the course of quarantine, that Oren herself had a pulse about half the speed it should be, and a body temperature usually reserved for dead things.

Essentially, it would be bad.

Of course the supernatural world had its own methods for keeping the facade of normality more or less constant, but how they dealt with it was not pretty.

----

"Yup, I'm ready to go, hope the rest have something to report." Kora replied as she went to hop back in the car.
"Damn, all this talk about pizza has made me want some. Really should not just hop off to a mission right after a transformation. I'm always freakin' starving for days after."

Unless wolfy was stuck outside, in which case she'd usually wake up the morning after cuddling up to one half of a dead stag or surrounded by blood and chicken feathers. She'd once coughed up half a pink collar and nametag. Being hungry afterwards was kind of preferable.

As they started back to town Kora started firing off texts to those assigned to investigate the town. Stride, Crystal, Fel, Arcturus, Liam and Jonah.
'Hey losers. Just made a deal with the local wolves. They're staying out of the city. Start questioning any other wolves you see about stuff. Also does anyone want pizza?
-K'

Jonah and Liam went to visit one of the Elders in town, the one known as Granny. As one might expect to be in an old child's book, Granny ran a bakery that specialized in sweets. She was also extremely old, extremely influential, and knew nearly everything that went on in this city. Fact is, she probably knew where each and every SCION operative in the city was, as well as their safehouses, phonenumbers, and even their favorite types of treats. Jonah was convinced magic was involved for her to know this, but Liam was not so sure...he figured she might just have a great intelligence network.

As they approached, Jonah checked his Magilator. It was an enchanted calculated that measured the magical excess/residue in the air. The stronger it was, the more magic was being used in the area. It was not above the normal levels though, which already disqualified any mass magical event....at least, one that went on for long periods of time. It might just be short spikes.

As they entered, their favorite sweets were already waiting on the counter with Granny waiting for them. "Glad to see you remembered to visit".

"Hey Granny" Jonah and Liam mentioned. "Nice to see you again".

"Nice to see you two, dearies" she said...and Jonah cringed because he hated being called that...as they sat down. "So what do you need to know?"

Jonah laid out some questions, and Granny answered them. They did not get much information, but whatever it was none of the local groups seemed to know anything. Whoever this was was keeping it super secretive, because if Granny did not know about it, it was almost certainly nothing done by an organized group....or done by a group that is really good at keeping hidden. Additionally, the blood was not having any terrifyingly negative side affects, not like that holy water that made people's heads explode, though it apparently made any vampire sick that drank it.

"If I hear anything more, I will let you know though" Granny told them, as she gave them some treats for the road. "Now excuse me, I have business to take care of".

As Jonah and Liam left, they got Kora's text. Liam texted back.
"Pepperoni and Sausage with extra cheese, unless you all think you can't handle...."

He was then interrupted by sirens of police and ambulances heading towards where Oren's group was. The police seemed to be making a perimeter, and not going past it themselves. Jonah took out his phone. "Guys, why are the police setting up Biohazard alert Checkpoints. Even if SCION did not deal with this, the local Cryptid population should have. Could they be here for something else, or what? Also, I second the pizza. #Multitask. Sorry, I just missed breakfast is all".

Lulu's gaze was well met, and her searching mirrored Montana's own, somewhat younger gaze. Her baby blues were guarded, but intent. Even with the painkillers that ran through her veins her eyes held the focus needed to study who she was talking to. "Not a Wolf, no. My humanity is an issue I only debate with myself." A small joke, but one that held a small amount of truth behind it. Something to set the mood between them. 'Your mind is in good company with mine' Not in the sense that she struggled with the same things, but that one intelligence wouldn't find anything amiss in the other. That implied a lot.

"My associates simply helped you because you needed it, I imagine. I saw a person wounded in a way that didn't exceed my knowledge, so I did the same."


Stifled honesty might be best at work here, in his opinion. Crystal inadvertently said as much when she brought up the murders There was nothing to gain from outright lies. They had taken the woman to their safe house, she had seen their faces and knew the diagram of their blood. She could be a well placed spy of the White Rose, or even the Cult they were looking for. The options, were endless. One of those options was that she was a wounded vampire that meant them no ill intent, and was attacked for reasons native to herself. If they needed to wipe her mind, Derrick had his well polished loafers on ground. A memory wipe was that mans bread and butter.

"Our help has no strings attached, but if you could tell us who attacked you, it could shed some light on our situation." Our was the word he used in particular, for very good reason. Our meant, we have involved ourselves in an attempted slaying, or warning of some kind, and I'd appreciate knowing a little of what we've gotten ourselves into. He didn't expect her life story, or what she might have done before that influenced the situation. Just a what. The rest would come later.

"I can go into that in detail in a short while." He replied to Stride. "It's a bit of a long story." Loosely translated, I'd rather not talk about it in front of the vampire in case she's not receptive to who we might be.

He'd send out the message now, and quickly, pocket texting as he always did. One message. "Advise caution. Arcturus, followed White Rose member alone" He set it on a minute timer, to all standing SCION operatives.

(Normally I would do some more tagging, but as I am currently unaware of exactly who is and isnt in the safehouse right now, I did the best I could)

"Did someone say Pizza" Jonah mentioned, as he and Liam showed up. It was kind of weird, because they hadn't made a single noise at all before now and just slipped in. This was actually a form of concealment charm that Jonah had placed on them to avoid everything inbetween them and the safehouse seeing as how things were so violent and hot.

The fact was, Jonah did not like how active things got. Between the police, the cryptids, and who knows what else, Jonah did not want to deal with anything they did not have to avoid. The concealment charm was not a strong one, but most concealment charms only lasted a short time, or at night, or some other stipulation. Magic cannot hide someone forever, it seemed. Not without a price. Jonah's concealment charm simply hid them from anything not looking for them. Since they had not engaged anyone in a fight, nor had they been seen other then by their contacts, Jonah figured they could safely get back to the safehouse using the concealment charm. Had anyone been looking for them though, the thing would have been absolutely worthless, or worse, revealed they had magic.

"You got pepperoni right?" Liam asked as he went over to grab a slice.

"Oh just shut up and enjoy the pizza" Jonah told him, before turning to face Kora. "Thank you. Its nice to know someone here has good taste in food. I don't suppose you brought back any of that Fruit Punch stuff they serve in the soda machines? Its really tasty".

"By that he means he is addicted to the stuff" Liam mentioned, causing Jonah to throw a conjured snowball into his head. Though, conjuration is the wrong word. He actually transmuted the air into water at sub-zero tempatures, AKA snow. But to appearance of others, it would have likely seemed like a conjuration. "Speaking of which, did anyone else learn anything?"

"Yeah. We learned some things, but not enough. Apparently, the blood might make vampires a little sick, but its not toxic to them. Or anything, from what I have heard so far. Additionally, I sweeped the entire city searching for magical buildup or excess magical energy in the air. Not even that old wishing well scam where people try to build up magical energy by absorbing the small amount of magic made in every wish to build up for a large ritual. Much less messy then the ritual sacrifices everyone used to make. It seems like whatever is behind this, they kept their tracks clean. We even checked with the biggest information broker in town, and she didn't seem to know anything either".

"I guess there is a second time for everything" Liam mentioned, slipping a little. He immediately went back to eating as if nothing happened, but Liam had all but confirmed they had gone to her before with something else she could not find out.

"It seems our goals continue to run parallel Lady Lulu." In the absence of a surname, he opted to combine the two names she had given. There was a regal tone to the coupling that was not lost on Montana. "We could speculate she was simply turned of her own free will, but the opposite can be said as well, and a corpse dripping with green ichor seems to speak of a more sinister direction."

He patted her bedside softly. "I don't want to bore you with what you've already thought, as I said, I won't ask you to name your employer. However if you feel as if this person is in any danger, feel free to tell us." If she requested, he'd have eyes put on her immediately. This offer for protection was less about protecting assets, and more about protecting people. A paycheck was a means of survival, but not his reason for joining SCION.

"There have been a number of missing persons in the area, as I'm sure you know." Montana removed his hair-tie, and gently shook his hair free. He swept his hair back, and placed the hair tie in his pocket. "Your help is appreciated of course, any information we find on your clients daughter we'd be more than willing to share. We've got the muscle to question the York Moors Pack, if subtle inquiries prove unsuccessful."

Who was that? Kora? To his knowledge, she'd been talking with the local wolves today, along with Mr.Wiseman. "Would one of you mind informing the newcomers we've got a guest If they haven't been informed." Montana's dark eyes looked toward the door for a moment, then back to the deep green of The Lady Lulu's. His tone wasn't commanding, it was a request, polite, and direct.

Stride gave a slight roll of her shoulders. “Got no problem with it,” she said. “Just call me Stride, yeah?” She took a moment to grin slightly under her mask. An odd, mystery organization rescuing someone out of the blue, a woman with something that sounded like a codename...Made her feel like one of those badass secret agents on a quest for justice.

Like James Bond, except with more werewolves and vampires and whatever. Which was even more badass-sounding than regular James Bond.

After the moment of pride had passed, Stride adjusted her mask slightly, pushing it back into place. The woman- Lulu- had reminded her just how uncomfortable the thing was, especially in comparison to her usual wear. She’d have to take a brief trip to one of the rooms to trade it for her goggles, as she didn’t feel quite up to making the long trip back to the hotel while still dressed like this.

She had done her duty for the day; now, she could properly take a breather.

Stride had been about to inform the little gathering of her decision when echoes of a voice had reached the room. It was a bit hard to understand what, exactly, the words were, but simple enough to match the voice to the name.

And that name brought a well-earned meal.

“I’ll go take care of it,” Stride said. “Need to go out n’ change outta this shit, anyway.” Eyes flicking back down to Lulu, she added, “But yeah; ya don’t have to worry ‘bout the case or anythin’. And, eh,” a slight grin, “might not wanna thank me too soon, there.”

Cracking her knuckles, she then proceeded to exit the room, taking a quick detour to the one suitcase she had left behind at the safehouse. Stride merely peeled off the remains of her jacket and changed her mask before leaving, however; after all, while Kora’s reaction to her waltzing up in a wolf mask and bloody costume would probably be funny, dealing with a giant head over hers usually made eating quite laborious.

Upon stepping into the main room, Stride found that more of her coworkers had arrived. The rookie boys- their names had slipped her mind- asking about information before saying something about not finding anything about blood or magical energy or whatever.

“Well,” she started, stretching an arm out lazily, “we ended up findin’ a new lead out on festival duty. She got pretty fucked up; had to patch her up over in the medical place. Ended up seein’ too much n’ gettin’ caught.”

Stride would wait until the food was out of Kora’s hands before she mentioned the topic of the local werewolves being involved.

Instead of continuing on the topic for the moment, she turned her attention back to the two boys, squinting at them through her goggles. “Hey, weren’t you two ‘pposed to be on festival duty? The hell where did ya go off to?”

Alexander seemed to follow a string of people into the safe house, Though he was not as loud as Kora entering nor as silent as the two new ones. Taking his black leather gloves off he tucked them inside his inner coat pocket. Catching the tail end of a conversation he arched a brow as he addressed the new blood " Biggest in town?....Don't let Her hear that.. it will only go to her head" he said. He has dealt with the one called Granny before, it wasn't a meeting he was prepared to recall so readily though.

Seemingly intent on not stopping he placed his cane against one of the chairs before slipping out of coat and throwing it over the chair. It would become clear Alexander had a taste for the color black the shirt that was hidden before under the closed coat was also black, the only difference being the waist coat he wore was a shade of grey. All of it seemed of very high quality though. " My day has been thankfully uneventful so far... Now excuse me" he said seeming to head off in the direction of the medical area. Stopping briefly he turned to glance at the little group " Oh and keep that food away from my coat" he said before carrying on walking.

Soon he found himself in the make-shift medical area where he found Montana and a female form upon a bed to which he had no knowledge who she was.He spoke softly towards Montana as to not worry the woman " Forgive me for intruding....When you have a moment i wouldn't mind hearing the short version of what you know has transpired today" he said as regarded the female once again, it did not take him long to figure she was a vampire. " Am i going to have to put a request back to HQ for an extra allocation of packs" he said subtly asking Montana whether or not this a simple recovery job or whether she was useful or not.

<Test>

As soon as the car rolled to a halt, Christina swung out of the door, releasing her grip on the handle as soon as she had her balance. She unlocked the door to the safehouse and walked into the hall.

“We need the medical bay!” she warned loudly, wondering which of his coworkers had made it back in the failure circus their mission had become. Hell, the superiors were probably waiting to pounce on them for messing up…

Pushing the thought away, she went back to hold the door open so Madison could carry the injured cryptid into their hideaway without injuring it any further. That wouldn’t probably get them into even more trouble and the thought of more trouble than what she’d get just for being present made her want to squirm.

“Come on!” she called to Madison, then turned her head back towards the house. “And can someone come clean the car?” or hold doors, she guessed, either would work fine.

“Actually, I think we should save that job as a punishment,” Madison commented cheerfully, turning to pick the crypid up once again before approaching the safehouse. “Would definitely teach them a lesson, don’t you think?”

As expected of the vampire, he maintained his breezy demeanour in spite of sporting large, bright green patches of ooze upon the front of his dress, and having spent the past several minutes attempting to drive as carefully over speed-bumps as possible. He opened the door handle with his fingertips in favor of waiting for someone to open it for him, slipping inside once the gap was widened to his satisfaction.

Instead of marching right on through like Oren, however, Madison smiled at his coworkers as he passed by. “Kora, Phoebe, boys,” he greeted calmly, as if he were merely carrying around bags of groceries instead of a dying cryptid.

Upon reaching the medical bay, he was surprised to find that it was already quite filled. Not only were several of his fellow SCION agents already there, but so was an unfamiliar woman, laid out on one of the cots. Their attention did not seem to be on the stranger, however, but on each other.

It looked like his fellow vampires were quite irate at the moment.

“Oh, let her rant, Alex. From the sound of it, a lot of them have been having a rough day.” Speaking with nothing short of familiarity, Madison continued into the bay, pausing to place the cryptid gingerly upon a cot before turning back to the gathered.

“Besides, while I’m not an expert on these sort of things, I don’t think arguing while someone has their insides falling out is good bedside manner.”