Phoebe Stride's Story

Oren had already been prepared well in advance at that point, and had been preparing a workspace to examine any samples without any risk of contamination.

For that reason the smell of blood hanging in the hallway was met with far more distaste than concern, especially as her vampiric sense of smell told her exactly who the culprit was and gave her cause to speak up as she swept past the room.

"Longbow clean the fuck up after yourself. If I find your DNA tracked into the clean room then whatever you're bleeding of is going to be the least of your problems." the vampress muttered something under her breath in irritable magyar before she appeared in the doorway facing the others.

"Oren's been here the whole time." she remarked, pinning on her photo ID.
"All the pre-preparation is done. We'll be expected there shortly. You should not have to do any of the talking but if asked you are part of the team deployed by the coroner and in interest of the investigation you cannot talk in any detail about the case. I hope everyone is clear on that."

---

Kora was walking along with her, or at least Anja Torresson's supposed luggage in a backpack when she spotted the car, and shortly afterwards, the vampire.
"Of course you got a car." she chuckled wryly and she dropped into the seat, the pack (which in truth had some of her field kit stashed inside) sat across her lap.
"Flash bastard."

The young woman leaned against the side, watching out of the window at the moors speeding past, considering how best to answer the man's question.

"From what I know there's about one major born-wolf family in the general area. Fenns. Not a very old bloodline, but they do alright. Originally lived further south but ended up moving south as the Exsanguis vampires encroached on southern england and targetted wolves. Anyway supposedly, if the talk amoung the old bloods is that some wolf went on a rampage on the moors about twenty years back and attacked a whole bunch of people round here, turned maybe, twenty. Obviously you can't have all those people running around not...managing their condition. The White Rose was all for...taking care of the problem the way that clans do.." she drew her hand across her throat in a fairly decisive indication of this.
"But the born family stepped in and ended up organizing to take these new wolves in an attempt to keep them from causing problems. And from what I've heard, there have been mixed results. From what I know they live out at an old farm out on the yorkshire moors and mostly keep to themselves. The old bloods aren't overly impressed with the idea of borns and turneds mixing together, but whatever makes them happy I suppose."

She shrugged, demonstrating little opinion either way. Kora certainly had, in herself, some sense of superiority, but she also hadn't the inclination to try and get too involved in the businesses of others. Unless work required her to, of course.

In spite of Issac’s obvious worry, Stride hardly seem affected. In fact, she seemed just as relaxed as before, having taken an even more masculine posture in response to the other’s comment. A remark of her own had weaved itself upon her tongue soon enough, and it was only through the presence of Christine that it wasn’t released.

“Took ya long enough,” Stride noted, catching sight of Issac’s shift in character out of the corner of her eye. Why he acted so warily when it came to his co workers, she had little idea; it wasn’t like they were about to stab him through the heart or anything. Shrugging it off, she turned once more towards their new company, observing the charms Christina withdrew with a keen eye. While she didn’t tend to ask for any of them- after all, it was fairly easy to guess that, in her line of work, she would just end up accidentally breaking all of the little bits and pieces on the very same day she got them.

Nevertheless, she nodded, pulling her own bag into her lap to draw out the mask. Seeing that everyone else was leaving soon, there was no point in Stride sticking around any longer. “Surprised you never use rings,” she continued as she dug her way into the recesses of her backpack. “Be easy to carry ‘round, that’s for sure.”

It was around that time that the door had opened yet again, a clearly wounded Arc stumbling in soon after. He limped across the floor, into the hall, and to one of the rooms…
And, almost humorously, Stride gave little reaction. She followed her fellow fighter with her gaze, head turning in the process to watch him as he went, although she said nothing on the subject as it occurred. One might think it was a result of surprise, yes, although it wasn’t until the man had left that Stride finally spoke up in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Call dibs on not havin’ to clean that shit up.”

Stride seemed more focused on the mask she had managed to dig up- a wolf, by the looks of it, something she found rather funny, what with the species of some of her co workers- than the man dragging himself to get dressed. After all, while the fact that he had been wounded so early on an intel mission was bizarre, it was a common enough sight that she wasn’t too concerned. The gash was on his leg was nothing lethal- as long as he didn’t wait around to let it bleed out, of course- and, besides; if he had been attacked, he would have most likely said something about who was lethal or what got him. He didn’t seem like he had been with his comrades, either, which was stupid enough to give a proper explanation of how he got such an injury in the first place in Stride’s eyes.

Probably went and pissed some random vamp off or something.

Upon hearing the familiar voice of one Dr. Kovalenko, Stride seemed to exhibit more surprise than she did Arc’s injuries, blinking from beneath her goggles and peering up at the vamp. “Fuck, you were still hangin’ around? Thought you would’ve been gone by now.” Slumping slightly after the initial shock wore off, Stride began to straighten out her mask, fluffing it up and peeling the straps away from the faux fur. “Nobody here right now’s a rookie, doc,” she commented, rising from her chair to head to one of the spare rooms. Didn’t want to remove her goggles out there, after all. “Anyway, it’s ‘bout time I head out. See you all later.”
It’d probably be a while, Stride mused, given the fact that she was on a completely other offshoot of the mission, and most likely staying in a completely different place from the others.

Issac watched Arc titter into the building and stubbornly head off to the restroom to apply first aid, very macho, the distant thought skittered off the surface and off into the distance.

Issac answered Oren's question "Yes, Ma'am." while tugging his backpack onto his shoulder. He looked well enough like a wanna be lab rat at least in his eyes. Distantly he wondered how much she had been listening to and what it would mean for him in the long run. Nothing I can do about it now. " Ready when you are Dr.---Drake?" He said reading her name tag.

He gave a shallow smile to Stride and a small wave to Fel as he went to the door. "Stay safe." and with that, he was out the door.

“Call dibs on not havin’ to clean that shit up.”

Arc chuckled as he heard stride speak in the distance, and scoffed as Oren finished speaking herself. He didn't respond, rather, he grabbed a towel and some disinfectant, and cleaned up. He hated cleaning, and silently cursed Oren underneath his breath. He walked out of the bathroom with a slight limp, and immediately knew hew as going to have some questions to answer.

"Was just a dog, no big deal." He was clearly lying, but this was also nothing new Nobody bothered really questioning him anymore, they knew he'd just keep his story the same. Lying was not his strong suit, then again, anything that wasn't taught at the academy wasn't his strong suit.

It was time. He nodded to Fel, and made his way to her chair. "You ready?"

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’

“Well, each object can only hold so much power and a fireball is much stronger than a candle’s flame” Christina answered, thinking for a second that things had changed before the human got up and left, having ignored her completely after his initial response. “Rude.” She muttered quietly under her breath, irritation overriding her insulted shock as she levelled a quick glare at his back.
He was always like this, this Issac, claiming some sort of past issue with mages, but that didn’t mean he needed to treat her like something distasteful every time they spoke. He was a grown man, for god’s sake, he should have some control over himself. Even if the issue was with her magic, she hadn’t used any just now. /And if it is that bad…/ -she shook her head, almost wishing her updo would fall apart so she could feel the swing of her braids- /why is he even allowed on the field?/ She knew nothing of his past, and she had tried not to judge when she’d been younger, fresh out of schooling and full of idealism, but years of this sort of behaviour had taken their toll.
She’d be polite.
She’d smile and make an attempt at friendliness at the start of each mission.
But hell to the no would she keep making an effort when the dick acted this way though she’d done nothing to deserve it. He should be grateful she, at least, cared for the professionalism of their jobs.
But personally, if Christina was ever sent out on the field with only Issac watching her back, she’d have her will ready before heading out.
Done with her mental rant, Christina brushed her scowl off her face, her thoughts out of her mind, and turned first to Fel, who was sweet as always. “Most of them were premade and this is all I ever do on base.” she told the Fallen, smiling at the honest compliments. “But thank you, it is never a problem.” she wanted to help Fel search but was hesitant to trust in her ability to offer without insulting the other, and after seeing that Fel was managing, albeit slowly, she turned to Stride – who at least didn’t see the need to remind her that they weren’t close with every interaction. “Decided to look around a bit and it took longer than I expected.” She admitted, then listened to the comment about rings. “They need to break easily and accurately.” She explained, making sure to not sound like Stride should have known this somehow. “Rings would be easier to carry but the charms would be harder to break. And I don’t know how to set rings.” She finished with a wry smirk.
This conversation was interrupted by Arc’s entrance, and although she was concerned for his health, he’d also been one of the ones to walk out of the briefing. Instead, she watched as he was reprimanded and forced to clean up his mess, before turning back to Stride only to find the other had already left. The sorceress shook her head at that, wondering if she had zoned out, and made a mental note to ask one of the healers about combined magical exhaustion and lack of sleep.
“Hello Oren.” she said politely, bowing her head. “I'm sorry I took so long, I didn't readjust my watch” she explained, though she knew that wasn't a good reason. But then again, she hadn't been contacted either… “I'm ready to go now,” she informed the elder scientist, and held up her false identification to confirm this.

When Stride arrived Crystal was decked out in cheap viking souvenirs. Complete with a historical inaccurate hat with horns. Grinning like a little kid Crystal waved at Stride trying to get her attention.

Once Crystal got with-in ear shot she called out to Stride. "Hey cous, how's it going?" It was clear that the werewolf had gotten Stride's earlier message.

"Nice cosplay, you have on but it's not complete just yet." With that Crystal grinned as she placed a historically inaccurate hat on Stride's head.

"There we go! So now that your outfit is complete you should buy me alcohol in gratitude. Anyways cous, it's great to see you again it has been way long." With that Crystal moved closer to Stride for a hug.

As she moved closer to Stride Crystal's tone grew serious as she whispered to the Medusa. "I haven't encountered anything so far and rumors are few. I think our best bet might be to stick together and see if people are more willing to talk to a pair of girls then just one." With a big smile Crystal released her 'cousin' before starting her bubbly chat.

"I saw some cute guys here, maybe we can find one here for you. Other nerds that like cosplaying and vikings as much as you do."
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As Arc and Fel took the bus downtown the scenairy grew more and more dilapated. The feeling of pain grew each coming from different directions along with the urge to heal them.

Which led to Fel having conversations with those on the bus with her. It was uncanny on how easily the scarred Fallen was able to get through to others. Throughout the bus ride she had consoled an old business man about the loss of his late wife, and assured a young teen mother that she could go home for help.

The small comfort she got from helping others momentarily relieved the pain, but it wasn't enough. It was never enough as the pull to relieve the pain came from all different directions when they stopped.

The only reason she was able to focus on the mission at hand and not run off to relieve all the pain she could was Arc's presence. Also the fact that he was the one pushing her wheel chair so she couldn't run off was part of it.

As Arc moved her wheelchair down the steep stairs she felt pain at every bump. That pain was a welcome relief from the mental one that came from ignoring the pain of others. When they were at the bottom of the dreaded stairs Arc spoke up, asking for someone named Ba'al.

The exchange looked tense, with Arc demanding and Ba'al surprisingly obliging.

As soon as Ba'al finished a laugh was heard from the staircase. A beautiful pale woman wearing a sun dress and hat with a white rose lapel could be seen.

"Ba'al dear I think you mistook your contact for the evening." The woman clicked her tounge as she graceful walked down the stairs. "Tsk Tsk, I can't believe you mistook one of these simpletons for one of ours. Really none of us would look so out of place and tacky." She glanced at Fel and Arc with a look of disgust before turning back to Ba'al. "Also your information was pretty useless, we already knew that so you wont be getting paid."

It was then the woman turned back to look at Fel and Arc a hint of curiousity in her green eyes. "However you did help us find something of value. Neither of you appear to wolves or vampires so I wonder why you are interested in our little /local/ matters." The woman smiled at each of the two making sure they could see her nice white sharp fangs.

"So let me properly introduce myself, my name is Vericonia and I'm part of the White Rose, and you are?"


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A quivering female laid curled up in an ally, above her a man in suit wearing sunglasses stood.

He shook his head as he looked down, it was sad how one chance cryptic encounter could make a human act like this. He knelled down sitting besides the woman who whimpered in response. "shh now, I won't hurt you. I'll make the pain go away."

With that the man took off his sunglasses revealing icy blue eyes. Gently the man grabbed the woman's chin and stared into her eyes.

Within moments the woman passed out and the man put his sunglasses back on. As he turned to walk away from the passed out woman he straightened out his tie. It was then his phone started ringing.

With a quick and decisive motion the the man pull out his phone. The man's tone was cold and polite as he answered.

"Hello. Oh no you didn't interrupt anything, I was just finished taking care of a business matter." As the muffled voice through the other spoke the man raised an eyebrow. "Really now, they pinged on our radar. Well it was only a matter of time I guess. I'm half way across the world but I'll make my way there. After all it has been years since I've talked to them."

There was a hint of a sinister smile on his lips as he closed the phone and hailed the nearest taxi cab.

Later the woman woke up in her house with no memories of the strange man or any events that took place. All she remember was a pleasant afternoon window shopping around town.

It didn’t take long for Stride to catch sight of Crystal, and, shoulders slumping in a nonverbal “finally”, she began to maneuver her way over. Upon reaching the other, she scratched at the sleeve of her costume, extending it slightly in the process.

“Fine, if you don’t count me regretting all of my life choices up until now.” The complaint was evident in her voice as she spoke, pawing at the fabric for a few more moments before letting her arms rest at her sides. “I should’ve put something on with longer sleeves this morning; this stuff is itchy as hell, and I can’t take it off without taking the entire thing off, and I’m supposed to be in character. Me and commitment, eh?”

With that, Stride chuckled, growing a tad louder as Crystal placed the helmet atop her head and made a comment about alcohol in exchange. “Thanks, but, ah, I don’t think your parents’ll be happy if they found out I got you drunk and dragged you around a festival. Sorry, cuz’, but I think I’ll pass on dying today.”

In spite of Stride’s disagreeable attitude and her tendency to rush, guns ablazing, into battle, one couldn’t say that she wasn’t somewhat capable on missions. It had taken years to properly act when on the field, but she had managed to get at least some skill when it came to playing pretend. As such, she didn’t give much indication of Crystal’s words; merely returning the hug with gusto and giving the lycan a hearty slap on the back.

“How’ve you been, anyway? Can’t exactly drag you outta the house to play Mario Kart and catch up anymore.” The comment on “cute guys” earned a snort from the hybrid. “Pretty sure anyone who’d be interested in me like this,” a gesture towards her costume- a weak attempt at portraying a wolf of legend, “are more interested in chicks with more...fluff, if you catch my drift.”

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.

Crystal had spent sometime at the festival with Stride before getting bored. Nothing was going on, she had bought tacky souvenirs and eaten viking-esk food and had done pretty much everything. It was at this point an idea popped into Crystal's head.

"Hey cous, want me to show you the thing I found earlier. After all maybe we could talk to them and see if they've seen anything suspicious since those people tend to be super aware and paranoid." Also those people were slightly less boring Crystal mentally tact on.

Without waiting for a response Crystal headed in the direction she had gone earlier.

As soon the newly turned werewolf was outside of the festival radius a strange scent hit her nose. The metallic scent smelled familiar yet out of place, stopping Crystal in her tracks. After taking her a moment to process the scent her eyes widened, it smelled like blood and alot of it.

"Stride, I smell a large quantity of blood coming from around here. I'll lead you to it but I need you to be ready in case whatever attacked the person attacks us."

With the simple warning Crystal checked to make sure her gun was in the easy to access place before taking off.

Sprinting as she tried to find the location of the smell. It was easy to follow as it grew stronger the close they got to the source. Until Crystal and Stride arrived onto the grizzly scene of an unfamiliar woman covered in blood and torn to shreds.

Crystal stopped dead in her tracks and stared at the woman on the ground, vile filling her throat.
Her tone held a hint of panic in it "Stride what are we supposed to do?"

Festival duty was turning out to be a bit...well, peaceful. Too peaceful for a position that SCION gave out, Stride mused.

She had tagged along with Crystal for the most part, keeping an eye on both the rookie and surroundings. However, the most interesting thing so far was a teenager who- quite evidently- had far too much to drink, and even then it was a momentary source of entertainment. She had paused to take pictures with tourists obviously enthralled enough to put everything to photo, attempted to try some “mutton” (although it had proved to be quite the difficult task, considering how large of an obstacle her mask served), and generally played the part of a regular tourist.

However, when Crystal suggested that they go visit the druggies, Stride couldn’t have been more happy to tag along. Nothing of interest was going on, after all, and it seemed like the best lead available at the moment. Besides, she reasoned; if anyone asked, she could just say that she was trying to babysit the rookie, and ended up getting dragged along in the youth’s wandering.

“You know how I am about ‘things’,” Stride replied, attempting to put an edge of mischief into her tones as she followed. “Lead the way, o’ captain of mine!”

Stride wondered how anyone managed to do the “acting” part of field work for long. Even though she was currently giving herself a pat on the back for keeping up the front, it was annoying to do so. After all, she wasn’t exactly the most welcoming person, but posing as one was part of the job-

Before she could muse further upon the subject, Stride became aware of Crystal suddenly freezing, and slowed in her own steps to listen. Blood...it seemed that the festival would be quite interesting, after all. Giving a brief nod to acknowledge the werewolf’s comment, she pressed on, fingers brushing against the sides of her coat to feel for her own guns. They weren’t the best if they needed to sneak up on a scene in progress, granted, although it would at least prove handy if a cryptid suddenly came charging around the corner.

Upon arriving to the alleyway alongside Crystal, Stride quickly halted in what had become a jog, taking in the scene before her. Although it wasn’t easy to catch the coppery scent through the amount of fabric hiding her face, she would have had to been blind not to see the mauled victim curled on the ground, and the amount of blood pooling about her. Stride would have to take a better look, but from the looks of it, it was either a bear attack or something far, far worse.


Aware of her comrade’s rising fear, the hybrid lifted an arm as if to stop her from doing...something, staring down at the curled form all the while. “We follow procedure,” Stride eventually answered. “You learned how to use a gun, right? Well, you better have paid damn good attention; need ya to cover me.”

With that, Stride moved forward, steps echoing throughout the alley among the victim’s ragged breathing. As she approached, crouching somewhat to get a better look, she scowled upon viewing the full extent of the wounds. A definite werewolf attack, from the looks of it; even if she hadn’t seen the bite and claw wounds, the black trails running down the woman’s flesh served as enough of a sign.

Glancing up to ascertain there was no lurking figure hunched further down the alleyway, Stride lowered her gaze once more, one hand resting on her bent knee.

“Hey,” she began, before raising her voice slightly. “Hey, lady, can ya hear me? We're gonna getcha outta here."

Questions on the hows, the whys; they could wait until they had gotten the victim away from the scene, to a place where she would not be seen, and, more importantly, where they could get the proper treatment. The steps she had heard repeated over and over in training, had performed several times in the past, and, now, was performing once again.

The scent of another approaching wolf should have caused Lulu to jump, but the pulsating agony of her wounds inhibited any reaction beyond a slight flinch. There were people near her, walking to her, and then someone very, very close to her face. The heat signature closest to her was faint, nearly reptilian in coolness.

She registered the scent of fresh blood in their veins, close enough that if she could just reach them, could close the inches between them... But that would entail her working up the energy to move, or being able to register more than a foggy infrared image of those around her.

The nearest figure, apparently female, now clear from her voice and scent, was speaking. Saying something about hearing, moving…. Lulu forced her eyes to open, and clenched them back immediately shut upon seeing the face of a wolf close to her own.

They had come back for her, it seemed, or another wolf had come to discover the source of its kin's scent. A cold terror settled into her gut, mind racing in fear that her ordeal was far from finished. “I- I’ll k-keep…” she stammered, brain reeling to try and piece together the right thing to say to the beast. “I won’t t-talk. I'll- Just d-don’t…”

Her shaking limbs fell limp for a moment as she phased out and back into consciousness, vision darkening and recovering in a matter of seconds. "P-Please."

"Yes I know how to use one."

In a flash a small pistol came from her jacket pocket and she stood at the entrance way of the alley keeping an eye out for any hostile. With none spotted she moved on to step two of procedure.

Crystal's voice was initially shaky but grew steadier at Stride's reassurance. Procedure, yeah she could follow that. With a deep breath Crystal pulled out her cell phone and dialed SCION HQ.

"Yeah could you get us a cab driver who doesn't mind some blood and doesn't ask questions. We have an attacked woman here in need of transport to the safe house for healing."

"Yeah super urgent, okay thanks." With a click Crystal hung up her phone and turned to Stride. "Someone should be here asap." Normally she would have tossed in some joke about a taxi driver who doesn't asked questions but now wasn't the time.

As the mysterious woman muttered something about not talking, Crystal's face paled.

"What? No I don't, it's okay I'm not..." Flashback to that terrible night less than a month ago played through her mind as the faint scent of another wolf hit her senses.

Somewhere along the line the hand with a gun in it started shaking. "Str... Stride I think this was the work of a w..wer..were wolf. I can smell the fact there used to be one. Maybe we should tell the others once she is safe and alive."

Crystal's green eyes full of fear turned to glance at the strange woman and Stride "She is gonna be alright right?"

“She’ll be fine, ‘s long as we don’t sit around with our thumbs up our asses,” Stride drawled, the urgency of the situation adding a bit of a gruffness to her voice. Shrugging off the faux fur coat, the gorgon began to tear into the fabric, ripping away shreds of material before moving to wind them around the woman’s gashes to the best of her ability. The new holes and damage inflicted on her jacket hardly bothered her; after all, if she needed to use it again, it would only add to the effect.

Soon enough, however, Stride found that she didn’t have enough fabric to cover the broad marks running across the victim’s torso. Muttering a curse under her breath at the fact, she picked up the remainder of her coat and pressed it firmly against the gashes, turning to glance at Crystal over her shoulder once she had a proper position.

“As for it bein’ a wolf that attacked her, I had a hunch. Either that, or there’s some random ass bear wanderin’ ‘round the festival, and I don’t think we gotta worry about those.” By now, the grey of her coat began to shine with maroon, earning yet another curse from the Fighter.

Adjusting the fabric, Stride lowered herself more comfortably on the ground, seeing as they would still have to wait for the taxi to arrive before they could do any real medical care. “Mind sendin’ a text to the others to warn ‘em about this?” A slight jerk of her head towards the woman. “Don’t want them flippin’ their shit about havin’ a random lady bleedin’ out on the table or anythin’.”

While the matter of "not talking" grabbed her attention rather quickly, she chose to not comment on it. After all, even if they were in a hurry to get some answers, it would be difficult getting any real information out of a corpse.

Somewhere a mere three kilometers away from the festival, an exceptionally well-kept looking cab had just left off passengers and punched a small button on his console to indicated that the vehicle was empty. 

Conveniently in time, as well, for the screen on his dash lit up immediately in blue and flashed the familiar symbol of a crescent moon. It rang with a low beep, and he pushed the button is response. “Operative Meryl reporting, come in dispatch,” he replied, pulling away from the curb and heading north. 

“10-4. This is dispatch,” the system chimed, “We have a pickup 2.7 kilos North of you. Can you make it?” 

“10-4. I can make it.” 

“10-12. Sending coordinates now.”

“10-76.”

The screen lit into a blinking map of the city, a red dot radiating around an address in shady part of town. Operative Meryl swung a quick left turn, darting deftly through the streets toward the pickup location.



———

Back in the alley, Lulu’s perception of the world around her was clouded at best. The pressure being applied to her injuries sent fresh tears springing to her eyes, but she lacked the will and strength to resist. 

There was nothing left for her to do, and the vampire let out a pathetic whimper as the heat of an approaching vehicle came tearing toward her.


A man sprung out of the car, a cab, and his boots landed with a crunch against the gravel and broken rubbish on the ground. “You needed an 87?” he asked, holding a door open, looking at the scene with little more than mild interest.

Crystal didn't trust herself to speak, she hadn't expected her first mission to involve an attack by werewolves. Unconsciously the teen reached up putting a hand on her neck, even if the turtleneck covered the scar it felt more visible than ever.

Instead she kept watch, anxiously waiting for the cab to arrive. Her first instinct was to shot at the man who sprang out of the car. Repressing the instinct Crystal nodded, the man had said the magic code word meaning that this was their ride.

Finally getting the courage to speak Crystal walked over to Stride and the bloodied stranger. "Here I can help lift her, on the count of three. One, two, and three!" The new werewolf evidently did not know her own strength as she single handily lifted the bloody stranger and moved her into the vehicle.

Once Lulu was properly settled, laying out bleeding all over the backseat Crystal spoke.

Her voice was quiet and serious, very unlike the laid back joking teenager from moments ago. "Stride you have more medical experience than I do so you should be in the back with her, I'm going to text the others okay?"

She didn't wait for a response as she passed off her jacket to the half-breed and started texting like the teenager she was.

'Found victim of werewolf attack, seems to know something. Will be taking her back to safehouse as she is in serious need of medical help. Would like Fel to come help out as soon as possible. -C'

The text went out to the group of operatives before Crystal turned to look at the backseat of the vehicle reaching to help Stride anyways she could. Even if that meant taking off her own shirt and tearing it to make more makeshift bandages.

Silently Crystal hoped that they would get to the safehouse soon.

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'

While Crystal’s sudden hefting of the women by her lonesome would have been fairly surprising to some, Stride, having worked with a few werewolves in her time, hardly bat an eye. Although the fact that she had developed such a strength- without seemingly realizing it- was somewhat brow raising, Stride merely used the opportunity to keep her focus on stemming the blood flow from the stranger as they moved into the cab.

In spite of the seriousness of the situation, the hybrid had to stifle an incredulous snort at Crystal’s comment on “medical experience”. There was no denying that she had handled several events such as this in the past, as opposed to the rookie’s complete lack of real experience gathered from the field, it was a bit of a novelty to be the most medically knowledgeable one to handle something like this.

The car had rumbled along a fair distance when Stride became aware of her phone vibrating in her jacket pocket once again. Glancing down at her now-bloodied gloves, she scowled slightly, before drawing one hand back to bring out her phone. Better be important was all that she thought before running her thumb against the keys, smudging them with red.

…

And it was a text from Kora asking if they wanted any pizza.

Granted, while there was also a helpful bit of information before the question, and while Stride adored pizza, she didn’t feel so positively about getting her phone all bloody. It was enough of a piece of shit as it was. Nevertheless, in spite of her irritation, she typed out a message anyway with her free hand.

‘fuck yeah i want some pizza. get some of that stuffed crust theyre selling these days. thats the shit.’

A few moments later, another message came.

‘bringing back company. wolf attack. u know if anyone else is in the medical place?’

Placing the phone on the seat beside her, Stride gave one attempt to clean it with her sleeve, and, seeing that her efforts were once again in vain, brought her hand back to push against the woman’s torso.

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".