The Brotherhood
Disclaimer: I don't own anything save a cat (Lucifer) and an ancient computer. I can only fantasize like us all about the sexiness of the charmed sons. Plug for a TVquel.
1x01- He do what Shedu
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- The Triad was afraid of this. He thought as he watched through the open window. Summer was ending and a calm cool breeze flew in through the house gently. His eyes scanned the exposed rooms.
He could see the blonde man coming down the stairs fussing with his hair. The red head singing along with the radio as she poured a bowl of cereal in the kitchen. Then there was the brunette male walking out the door in a rush, pushing past the pair of dark brunettes sipping coffee on the steps. The Halliwells. The next generation. "Damn." he muttered as he watched the completely oblivious witches.
"This should be easy."
The voice behind him made him want to shiver and that said a lot. "It's never easy." he muttered. "That's why they have such a long name." Nomed turned to the demon who had joined him. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to make sure we don't get caught."
Nomed shrugged smiling. "And how are you planning that?" In the blink of an eye, the pair disappeared.
- At the steps of the mansion, the two girls talked amongst themselves oblivious. "Well?" asked Melinda. She was sporting white boy shorts and a tattered Aerosmith tee.
The other was clad in a spaghetti strap top and pink flannel PJ pants. "Well what?"
"Abby. What's the deal?" Melinda sipped her coffee. "Is she staying?"
Penelope shrugged. "Where would you have her go?" she asked a little offended.
"I love her, but if she's gonna stay, that means she'll need a room. Not just a cot in the corner."
There was a pause. Penelope looked over across the street. Something felt off, but she shrugged it off as stress. "Is there room for her?"
Melinda frowned. "I need to move some stuff around, but…maybe."
Pulling herself abruptly, yet gracefully to a standing position Penelope turned to Melinda and looked down. "She's family, Mel. Move the damned stuff."
Melinda shook her head as she stood and watched her cousin move up the steps to the door. "Why's it gotta be 'the damned stuff', huh?" she muttered angrily despite her smiling.
- Across town, a young boy about 15 emerged from a small one story home smack dab between two big apartment buildings. The sounds of a man and a woman screaming at each other poured through the walls. He shook his head as he turned on his music player and stuffed it into his pocket. With a backpack sitting lazily on his shoulder, he turned .
Passing a dirty alleyway, he glanced at his watch and cursed under his breath. Turning and jogging into the alleyway, he lost himself in the shadows. From the street, a scream rang out but is covered by the ringing of a car alarm. No one notices.
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- The high school was packed. It was the first day back and most of the students had been able to lazily rise out of bed and walk into the school. Many looked like they had literally done just that.
Chris grunted as he realized he was out of coffee. "Great." he muttered. He looked down the hall to his office. I just have to make it there. He thought desperately as he pushed through the hoards of kids.
The principal was waiting inside when he finally made it. Great. He muttered in his head. "Hey Chris." He helped by taking a pile of folders that Chris had balanced from the main office on his fist.
"Hey Paul." The name felt weird seen as the man had been the principal during his stay at the institution. Both he and Wyatt had attended their entire career. Melinda, on the other hand, had been expelled and forced to go to St. Mary's, a catholic girls school that she had indeed turned upside down.
Paul watched as Chris unloaded his bags beside the desk and his papers onto it. "I know you're going to be busy today. Schedule changes will make you suicidal for the first few weeks." he said with a joking smile. "Once you get through that, though, you've survived the worst of it."
Chris shot him the patented Halliwell charm smile. "Thanks for the heads up." Paul left at some point in the next few minutes, but Chris barely noticed as he turned to log onto his computer.
- At the manor, Melinda had dragged Wyatt up to the attic. The place was filled with, for lack of a better word, crap. The book stood on it pedestal surrounded by boxes. "Lets get to work." Melinda said as she chewed on a power bar.
Wyatt shook his head. "You said that way to chipper."
Laughter. Melinda found a stereo and shoved in a Nina Simone CD. Bobbing her head acceptingly, She approached a mountain of boxes. "You are my Everest." she muttered softly tossing her wrapper into a nearby trash can.
- Coming out of a shoe store down town, Abby and Penelope laughed at a joke they had just cracked about the sales woman. Abby's hands were filled with job application forms. Penelope sobered. "Want to get some lunch?" she asked motioning to a nearby café.
Abby nodded, still smiling. "Sure." They went in and were immediately seated. "Not many people."
"Considering it's lunch hour." Penelope concluded. "So…what's the scoop."
"Scoop?" Abby looked confused as she rolled the papers and stuck them into her bag.
Penelope picked up a menu and scanned it. "You're getting a job, obviously. Why here?" Guy?
Abby smirked. "I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing you already know that."
Penelope shrugged. Of course. "Well, I am a cupid." She paused. "You planning on moving in with him?"
It was Abby's turn to shrugged as she picked up her menu. "He hasn't asked yet."
"Melinda's going to move some stuff around so that we can set you up downstairs." Penelope's thoughts rested on the basement.
Melinda had done quite a job with it. Part of it was still used as a training room. The corner she had declared as hers had band posters for bands like Queens Of The Stone Age, Rammstein, and Pearl Jam. The wall was also adorn with photos of her and her friends from high school. Many of them had Penelope in them as well, she had followed Melinda to St. Mary's as a teen. They had grown up best friends.
She suddenly felt a little bad for Abby. Abby was only a few years younger than the girls, but they hadn't been close enough to get the same bond. Maybe that'll change.
- Wyatt held up yet another old worn teddy bear. "Wanna get rid of this one?"
Melinda was sitting on the floor with her hair pulled up and dust on her face. She sighed. "Yes Wyatt. I said trash em all."
Wyatt shrugged and tossed it into a trash bag. "So what, you don't see kids in your future?"
Melinda rolled her eyes. "I don't see the future, Wyatt." she replied smartly.
"Very funny." he muttered.
She saw it half a second before she screamed. The fire ball coming straight for her.
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- Abby and Penelope ducked behind a dumpster with a demon at their heels. Scorch marks appeared on the wall behind them as the fireballs the two had evaded hit it. "Shit." Abby muttered. "What do we do?"
"Fight." The word barely escaped before the dumpster disappeared, barreling out of the way revealing four smirking demons. "Shit."
- Melinda was vaguely aware that she was still alive and thankful for that as her instincts kicked in. Wyatt had orbed them both behind the couch, but the mass of fireballs kept him from sneaking out and kicking some demon ass.
Wyatt muttered curses in French as Melinda froze a set of fireballs above her head. Then she immediately turned and used her levitation power to help pick up the couch and toss it across the room at the three demons. When she'd done that, she stood seeing that the demons were pinned down and that her face was right in front of the still frozen fireballs. She ducked as they came to life.
Her brother was up now and the scorch marks on the floor told her he had taken care of them. She looked around the destroyed room. "Great. So much for organizing the attic." She stared at the floor now littered with burnt or burning items.
- Abby ducked behind another dumpster as Penelope stopped two fireballs hurling at her and sent them back to their original demons. Two down…
Suddenly, an astral Abby appeared behind a third demon. The forth noticed her and sent a fireball at her. She disappeared and the fireball hit the third demon.
Penelope watched as astral Abby appeared again and wrapped her arms around the demon's neck. It snapped by the time Penelope got to her. Her projection disappeared and she climbed out from her hiding place. "Can we go home?" she asked a little shakily. Penelope laughed a little and nodded. "Sure." She noticed a small stream of blood falling from Abby's hairline. "You're bleeding." she mentioned conversationally.
"Hit my head on the wall."
- Finally. He thought to himself. Coffee. Chris finally had a pee break. It was getting to him a little. Was I that petty in high school? He'd thought that one over a million times that day.
The teacher's lounge was pretty empty. The acoustics were just right that he could sit on one end and still eavesdrop on the conversation the women on the other. "The police made an appointment with Principal Snyder."
"Why?"
"The news said that all the kids went here. One of them, Mitchell Warner, was in one of my classes."
"Jesus." Chris was up and at the door now. "What kind of monster gets off on taking high school kids?"
He pulled out his cell phone. "Mel?" Pause. "I need your help."
- Wyatt was upset. He had told her not to see that inspector guy anymore months ago. Melinda was upset. She had told Wyatt to stay out of it months ago, days ago, hours ago. "He's no good for you and you know it, so why go out with him."
"Great sex." she spat out bitingly as she shrugged on a coat. Wyatt looked like he was going to be sick. "It's my life, not yours. It's my business, not yours. Figure out things with the elders and I'll be back soon."
"Who says they'll know."
Melinda shot him a comforting smile. "They always do." She paused. "Make sure Penny and Abby are okay before you go, though. I have a feeling."
Wyatt crossed his arms. "So do I. I don't think you should be seeing this guy."
"Stop calling him 'this guy'. His name is Zach." She took her keys from the table by the front door. "See ya." she called as she escaped.
Wyatt groaned as Penelope and Abby appeared behind him in a fit of orbs. "Guess what we did today." Penelope muttered with sarcastic happiness.
- "It's sad, you know. I mean they're just kids…" Zach droned on and on. Emotional pressures of the job, yada yada yada. Wyatt was right. Melinda cringed at the thought. Zach was depressing and draining, but they did have great sex. I can have great sex by my damned self. This isn't worth it. She tried to look interested in what he was saying.
"They disappeared in the same area? Why didn't the news mention that?"
Zach shrugged. "Chief left it out of the press conferences. It's the only lead we have to catch this guy."
"But, you could warn the public. Otherwise it looks like you're using us as bait."
Zach shrugged again. "We warn the public, he moves business to another part of town or worse out of town, then we may never catch him." He took a sip of his drink. "There's a profiler coming in from the FBI to help, who knows? Maybe he can."
- -
- "Are you going to tell us what's going on?" Penelope asked as she joined Abby who had taken it upon herself to pick up the attic.
Chris stared at the book carefully. "What?"
"You've been in the book for hours." Abby contributed. She dumped a dust pan filled with ash into a waiting basket.
He looked up momentarily. "What demons attacked you?" he asked changing the subject.
Penelope shrugged. "Minion demons. Wyatt went up to the Elders to see what's going on."
"And Mel is on a dinner date?"
"Lunch." Penelope said.
"What difference does that make?" Chris asked absently.
Abby opened her mouth to explain but Penelope shook her head at Abby. Chris didn't notice. No one spoke again until Melinda walked in. "Police think it's a serial…killer, rapist, or something, but he doesn't fit any normal profile." Melinda looked around at the work Abby had done impressed as she made her way to Chris and the book. "The only link between the victims is location."
Chris looked up. "Location?"
"Same relative area."
"So, what is it?"
Melinda pushed Chris gently out of the way and flipped the book to a specific page. "A Shedu."
"What's a Shedu?" Abby asked.
- Penelope had volunteered to stay behind and clean. Abby worked on the potion downstairs with Chris while Melinda had scryed for the demon. Now the three stood at the location the crystal had said. "You said they like dark dirty places?" Abby confirmed.
"Nope. Just said it for my amusement." Melinda joked, smiling.
Chris shook his head as they started down the alleyway.
- The attic was finally clean-ish. The floor still had scorch marks and the couch was a lost cause. Since most of the stuff had been destroyed, almost all of it got thrown out. It looked empty. That isn't exactly bad.
Suddenly, in a whirl of orbs, Wyatt appeared in front of her. "Where is everybody?"
Penelope ignored the question. "What did you find out?"
Wyatt glanced at the broken and burnt couch still in the corner. "Maybe you should sit down."
- One thing the book didn't mention was that the demons could fly. Melinda tried to freeze them, but they moved too fast. Abby threw two bottles of potions before she realized she couldn't hit them.
It was Chris that was able to slow it all down. He called for the little bird demons using his tele-orbing, that resembled his Aunt Paige, and sent them flying into the corner. Melinda froze the confused bunch and Abby threw the last remaining potion.
The burst of fire brightened the night reminding Chris of a vague, blurry dream. "Let's go home."
"I'm hungry." Melinda muttered. The way her voice sounded in the night make Chris chuckle. He and Abby orbed her home.
- Second's before the trio appeared, Penelope stared at Wyatt. "Are you saying evil is destined to gain the upper hand?"
The three appeared carrying KFC boxes. Chris had a goofy smile on his face. "We got chicken!" he said laughing.
"Or something that tastes like it." Melinda said as she chewed on a drumstick.
"Very lady like." Abby commented as she handed her bag to Penelope. "I gotta pee."
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A/N: What do you think??
R&R. Tell me what you think. I'll try to incorporate your thoughts.
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