Chapter One: Another Day, Another Call
Author note: This story is the twenty-seventh in the Magical Flashpoint series. It follows most of "In the Paws of the Lion".
Although all original characters belong to me, I do not own Flashpoint, Harry Potter, Narnia, or Merlin.
Team One spread out in the field, each of them racing to their assigned search areas, choosing speed over stealth and caution. Even Sarge and Spike, normally left in the truck, were hurrying to their assigned grids, weapons up and ready. The team's armor blended in with the night, giving them a slight measure of camouflage, but it was unlikely to protect them once the moon rose.
"No sign of them," Wordy called from his grid, disappointment and frustration marking his transmission. "Moving to the next grid."
"Nothing here, either," Spike reported next. "We've got ten minutes left before moonrise."
"Current search grid clear," Ed announced, "I'm heading west from my position."
"Copy that, Eddie," Parker agreed, "I've hit the far west for my search grid, heading north."
Seconds ticked by, marked by the negative reports coming in from all members of the team. "Come on, guys, we got to find them," Sam cried, his frustration slipping its leash.
"We're looking, Samtastic," Spike bit back, just as frustrated. "I don't see you coming up with any leads here."
"Easy, guys," Sarge intervened, "We're not going to find them by ripping each other to shreds. Keep your weapons ready, pretty soon we're going to have company."
The reminder brought a few uncharacteristic phrases from his team, but the Sergeant understood. He shook his head and kept searching, pushing hard at his 'team sense', wishing bitterly that his missing teammates hadn't been hidden by wards…again.
Ed approached a ramshackle building near the northwest corner of the field, gun up and his eyes on the move. Wind whistled past the building, sounding an eerie spine-chilling howl as it went. The constable shuddered, darting another look around before he put his shoulder to the building's decrepit door.
It gave so quickly that Ed all but fell into the room, drawing immediate attention from right below him. "Ed!" Jules cried, the relief in her voice obvious.
As Ed caught his balance, Lou quipped, rather weakly, "What took you so long?"
"Wards," Ed growled, swinging himself down to his teammates and glaring at the chains they were bound with. "Just like when Sam and Spike went missing," he added, drawing looks of comprehension from the pair. The team leader crouched, his eyes narrowing as he realized the chains had no locks on them; instead the ends were magically fused together. "Sarge, I found 'em; let's get out of here," he called on the radio.
A wolf's howl echoed around them, drowning out any reply from the rest of the team.
7 hours earlier
"Okay, Jules, Lou, get these people out of here," Ed ordered from his position behind Wordy and the Sarge. Their subject had finally agreed to let four of his hostages go, after what felt like hours of negotiating and 'testing' by their subject of the four he'd just released. The team leader rolled his shoulders just a bit, letting out some of the built up tension, and resettled his weapon, keeping it aimed at their subject, a shaggy looking man who was a self-proclaimed 'werewolf hunter'.
"Copy," Lou acknowledged; he and Jules shepherded the four former hostages away to be debriefed and turned over to the on-scene patrol Aurors.
The rest of the team stayed focused on their subject and his remaining six hostages. With no records for any of room's occupants – subject and hostages – tech-side and pitifully few magic-side, Spike was in the field, backed up by Roy and Onasi at the opposite entrance to their subject's hideaway. Sam was the only member of the team not in sight; he'd found a Sierra shot a bit further up, perched above and out of sight of the subject.
The subject ignored Sarge's quiet, yet sincere thanks for letting the four released hostages go; he was examining his remaining hostages, an intensity in his eyes and movements that made Ed a bit wary…their 'werewolf hunter' moved like someone who'd had training, who knew exactly what he could do and how he could do it.
"Sir, I think it's important that we keep talking," Greg called, no hint of the frustration they were all feeling in his voice. "Maybe if you could explain why you think these people are werewolves?"
Silver eyes came up, focusing on Greg with the merest hint of interest. "You still wish to talk?" he inquired, a smoothness to his tone and a curious lilt to his voice. "I gave you the innocent ones…the ones who are not wolves; now leave me be, to do what I must."
"And how do you know that you do, in fact, have werewolves in here?" Greg countered, his voice intense. "How do you know that these people are a threat?"
The werewolf hunter waved a negligent hand. "It is evident to me that they are," he claimed, "I have hunted their ilk for decades; I have no need to explain myself to you and yours, Auror Sergeant Parker."
"No one has to get hurt here today," the Sarge argued back. "You let those people go because they were innocent; what if these people are innocent as well?"
Something flashed in the hunter's eyes. "Innocent?" he mused thoughtfully. "An interesting choice of words, Auror Sergeant Parker; so few people are truly innocent." He paced back and forth, examining his hostages, his wand raised enough that none of Team One could risk moving and endangering his captives. Curiously, the hunter also trailed his eyes over Team One, an intent expression on his face as he looked at them. Abruptly, he turned, letting the cloak he wore flare a bit in the turn, and announced, "Very well, Auror Sergeant Parker; I will prove my words, if you will permit it."
"And how will you do that?" Greg asked cautiously.
"In two stages, though I will need to use my wand," the hunter replied, with a grand gesture, like a showman on a stage. "A simple Lumos charm, on my honor."
Team One traded looks and a few head tilts, but it was Sergeant Parker who finally replied, "Go ahead, sir." Softly, he added to his team, "If he uses anything else, move in."
But the hunter was true to his word. "Lumos," he called, his wand lighting up. He shifted the wand over the closest of his hostages. "Observe, if you will, Auror Sergeant Parker, the premature graying of our friend here." The man, who did have graying hair, glared at his captor, but said nothing in his own defense. The wand was moved lower, illuminating a nasty looking scar right at the man's neck. "And here, sir, what was likely the initial bite from another werewolf. The scars from a werewolf attack do not fade as other scars do; even many years after the initial attack, the scars often look as fresh as the day they were first inflicted."
The first man was ushered by his captor to the side and a woman pulled close enough for Team One to see. "Again," the hunter lectured, his wand close enough to light up the graying blonde hair of the frightened woman. "We have here an excellent example of the premature graying common to so many of the wolves in our society." The hunter gripped the woman turning her and tugging her shirt down enough so that his wand lit up a scar right on her shoulder. "Alas, this bite likely interferes with this young lady's mobility, reducing her ability to handle everyday tasks that you and I would find effortless."
One by one, the remaining hostages were moved close to Team One so their captor could lecture on their 'obvious' werewolf traits. None of them fought the treatment and all of them looked ashamed as their scars were put on display. Ed, in his position, noticed something else: the hunter was watching Greg almost more than he was watching his hostages.
"Boss, he's watching you," Ed warned, "Not sure what he wants, but he's up to something."
The slightest nod told him that Sarge had heard him, but other than that, Sarge didn't even twitch. He listened to the lecture gravely, his expression sympathetic as the werewolves were all but paraded past. The Sergeant attempted to briefly meet the eyes of the hostages, but none of them would even look at him.
"Ed," Sam hissed from his spot above, "Have Lou and Jules come back yet?"
Ed blinked, a frown crossing his face. No, they hadn't and they should have been back by now. The team leader shifted back, just a bit, and scanned for his two teammates. "Spike?" he questioned, flicking his eyes towards the tech. The building's construction was interfering with the usual range of their radios, a fact they'd discovered when Spike had tried to report on his progress – or lack thereof – in pulling records on their subject and his hostages.
"They didn't come up this way," Spike reported at once, "Just me, Giles, and Roy over here."
"Is something amiss, Auror Sergeant Parker?" the werewolf hunter queried politely; Ed swore to himself, how the heck had their subject figured out something was wrong so fast?
Greg, to his credit, didn't miss a beat. "Nothing that you need to be concerned about, sir." He paused, considering a moment. "You make a very persuasive case that your hostages are werewolves, but how do you know they're a threat, sir?"
The hunter reared back. "They are werewolves," he argued. "Isn't that enough?"
"Sir," Sarge replied earnestly, "If you have evidence that these people have committed crimes, that evidence needs to be turned over to our division to be investigated. But taking the law into your own hands like this doesn't help anyone, least of all the innocent people you're trying to protect."
The werewolf hunter examined the negotiator, a cunning and satisfied look in his eyes. "An interesting counterargument, Auror Sergeant Parker. As it happens, I do have evidence; shall I give it to you?"
"I'm willing to look at any evidence you have, sir, once these people are released from your custody," Greg promised.
The hunter shrugged, ever so briefly, and tossed down his wand. "I will hold you to that, Auror Sergeant Parker."
The six former hostages were politely asked to remain after Giles got his first look at the hunter's evidence, but Sam had other things on his mind. The sniper frowned as he returned from talking to the patrol Aurors and a quick check of the building.
"Spike," he called, waving the bomb tech over, "Could you run a quick search for either Lou or Jules' phones? I can't find them and the patrol Aurors say they never got the four hostages the subject released."
"You got it," Spike agreed, darting off to the Command Truck.
Sam looked back at the building and sighed to himself. The building was one of the few the team had run across that interfered with their radios. Oh, the radios still worked, if you were in close enough proximity, but Team One's radios hadn't been able to cover even a tenth of their normal range inside the old, magic-saturated building. Sam suspected the only reason they'd worked as well as they had was because they'd traded up for runic radios after Wordy's EMP-proof radio had been blown out by Anderson, the no-good rat. With another sigh, Sam trekked over to the Command Truck himself and swung up into it.
"Sam?" Spike questioned from his spot at his computer, sounding unnerved.
"You find them?"
Spike shook his head. "Both their phones are being blocked…and I mean, blocked like mine was when we got kidnapped."
Sam froze, fear racing up his spine. "You can't find them?"
"No, and if what Lou told me is right, Sarge won't be able to find them either," Spike reported grimly. The tech reached down, keying his radio, "Sarge, could you take a minute to see if you can find Lou and Jules?"
His unnerved tone was enough to keep their Sergeant from protesting; Sarge hated to use his 'team sense' like that, even on-duty. After a minute, Sarge came on the comm, "Spike, their phones?"
"Blocked," Spike replied at once. "I'll keep trying."
"Okay, let me know if you get anything from their phones or their radios," Sarge ordered crisply. "Eddie, Wordy, see if you can figure out where they disappeared and let's see if we can find pictures of our missing hostages, too. Sam, talk to our former hostages, see if they know anything about the four who were with Jules and Lou. I'll let Giles and Roy know and then see if our friendly 'werewolf hunter' has anything to say."
Sam and Spike traded looks; Sarge had just gone on the warpath and Lord help anyone who got in his way right now.
Author note: On a RL note: I have an offer letter! I'll be moving to Texas, so, yeah, definitely not going home, which is sad, but, well, that's kinda what I signed on for. But Texas! Definitely a good place to go, eh? We're still waiting, though...things are...interesting, to say the least. We still officially start the 31st, but our onboarding date is...to be determined. *sigh*
Thank you for all your prayers and support thus far. Please keep praying, I've still got a ways to go. I don't know which company I'll be ultimately working for (my new employer hires us out as consultants) and although I have a city name, that could change and well, it's hard to look for an apartment when you don't know where you'll be working.
Praise to God for giving us more information and also Praise to Him that I've still been hanging onto my COBRA from Micro Center...means I don't have to get a new COBRA since I'll be losing current company's health benefits on the 31st. He is Good and He has provided thus far: I believe, with all my heart, that He will not let me fall now.
Also, in celebration of the offer letter, I've posted a new Side Story in the Flashpoint/Harry Potter archive. Go check it out, I hope you'll get a chuckle out of it.
Friday update: I'm going home! Hallelujah, Praise the Lord, I'm going home! Well, I'll still be moving to Texas, but for now: Homeward Bound and not even glancing back.