The following morning Chris arrived at Islington Police Station at 07.45 eager to start his first day as a member of the Metropolitan Police. He entered the station and asked at the front desk for Detective Sergeant Winters who was gong to be his line manager in his new job. The officer behind the desk told Chris to take a seat and said that DS Winters would be with him shortly.
Ten minutes later a woman that Chris guessed was about forty years old approached him carrying a bundle of paperwork in her arm. She was about 5' 6" tall, slim build with shoulder length blond hair and was wearing a pair of blue jeans, a plain black top and a pair of trainers. When the woman was in front of him she said in a friendly manner, "Hi, I'm DS Laura Winters and you must be…" She paused to check the paperwork she held then continued, "Chris Perry Halliwell?"
"That's me Sergeant, pleased to meet you!" Chris replied standing up and offering his hand to shake with DS Winters.
Ds Winters then shook Chris' hand and led him through a security door and along several passages until they reached a wide open plan office. The office was a large rectangular room with doors leading off from all four sides. The walls were covered with posters ranging from crime statistics to information on current operations and there was about twenty five desks placed around the room in groups of five which made the room appear very cramped. DS Winters led Chris to one of the groups of desks and explained that this is where her team was based and as he was now part of her team he would be using one of these desks. She told him that as the rest of the team was off today, he would meet them all tomorrow and he had her undivided attention for today.
At four o'clock that afternoon as Chris walked out of the police station he felt quite confident that he would settle into his new job very well. He had spent the entire day by DS Winters side getting educated on the finer points of life at Islington Police station and exactly what he'd be doing in his new job role, when he actually got around to doing the job that is. Ds Winters had informed him that in order to get access to all the different computer packages needed to do his job, he would need to attend an individual training course on each one. She had said that these courses would take up most of his first week and Chris didn't tell her that thanks to a little magical intervention, he was already well versed in the police computer system.
Chris had hoped that he would have found time to compose a spell to summon the Stratagem demon at some point during the day; however, as he had spent the whole day with DS Winters, this had proved impossible. As he walked home he began to try and work out a spell from memory and as he reached his front door it believed he had finally figured it out. As soon as Chris walked through the door, Damian orbed in behind him and said cheerfully "Hey! Thought you'd never get home"
"Nice to see you too but can I point out that you are way to chipper for someone who is about to vanquish a demon"
"I guess, maybe I'm just glad to see you" Damian replied with a cheeky wink.
Chris blushed slightly and smiled saying, "I have that effect on all the boys", which caused them both to start laughing.
"Enough ego bolstering for one day, did you manage to come up with a summoning spell for our Stratagem friend?
"Yeah, I just worked it out on the way home. I was thinking though, since we won't be able to vanquish the demon just yet, should we go somewhere else to summon him?
Damian thought for a moment then replied, "Good idea, that way it'll be harder for it to retaliate while we sort out the vanquishing potion!"
"OK, I'm just gonna get changed, a suit ain't the best outfit to wear when vanquishing demons. I still don't know this place very well, can you think of anywhere we can go to summon it?"
"Sure, I know just the place. One problem though, if we use the summoning spell now, won't the demon be ready for it a second time around? It will know why we want a lump of its flesh."
"You're probably right so I figured we could scry for it using the piece of armour we borrow to cut the flesh we need."
"Good point, hurry up and get changed then so we can get this over with."
A short while later Chris and Damian orbed into a large open grass area which Damian explained was a playing field used by local schools so no one should be around at this time of the evening. Just to be sure they separated and had a look around to ensure the place was empty. When they met up again Chris told Damian to go and hide behind some trees and be ready to orb him out if things went wrong. Damian had argued with him for a while but then realised the logic behind Chris' plan; he had no active powers and was much more useful as back up than as an actual fighter.
As soon as Chris was sure Damian was far enough away, he took out three white candles and placed them around him forming a triangle with him as the centre, lit them and began to chant:
"In this night and in this hour,
I call upon the Halliwell power,
Magic forces hear my plea,
Bring the Stratagem demon to me"
As Chris finished chanting he felt a wind begin to blow around him. The wind continued to build in strength collecting leaves and other debris from the ground and it reached a peak as a mini tornado about five metres in front of him. The wind then began to clear and Chris couldn't help but stare open mouthed at what was standing in front of him. The demon looked a lot like the picture from his computer but was a lot bigger and more terrifying than he had imagined. It was at least 7' 6" tall and had huge, broad shoulders with eerie yellow eyes that seemed to glow. The demon let out a low rumbling growl which sent a shiver through Chris' body and snarled, "Who dares to summon Degra of the Stratagem?"
Chris recovered from the shiver he felt when the demon spoke and decided to not show any fear. He mustered all his confidence and said as brashly as he could, "I dare, I think it's time we have a little chat"
The demon made another growling noise which Chris could only interpret as laughing and said "A witch! A witch has the audacity to summon me! I will crush your bones for you little man!"
Before Chris had the chance to reply, the demon lifted one of his arms and shot a lump of bone at him. As the projectile came hurtling towards him Chris gestured with both hands intending to freeze both Degra and the bone. Unfortunately, the bone was the only thing to freeze and Degra again to make the same low growling noise,
"Pathetic witch, you think your little powers can affect me! I am Stratagem! I am much too powerful for you!" the demon bellowed.
Chris saw this as his opportunity and said "You may not freeze but I bet I can still make you fly" and he put all his strength behind a telekinetic blast at the demon who immediately stopped laughing and was launched into the air and propelled backwards from where he stood. Degra managed to use the momentum of the throw to his advantage and back flipped in the air landing on his feet, surprisingly agile for his bulk. He then raised both arms and began shooting a volley of projectiles towards Chris who reacted quickly and dropped into a roll to the right. From his position on the ground Chris telekinetically threw as many of the projectiles as possible back at the demon but it dodged every one. While the demon was distracted Chris got back on his feet, grabbed one of the projectiles and began running towards it, then using his levitation power he launched a roundhouse kick to the demons head. When Chris' foot connected with the demon he felt like he had kicked a brick wall and fell onto his back on the ground. Degra then reached down, grabbed Chris by the shirt and lifted him in the air with one hand. Chris held onto the bone projectile as he knew he would only get one chance to get the piece of flesh. The demon then threw Chris away from him with his considerable strength but the second Chris left the demons grasp, he orbed out and orbed back in behind the demon. He then used the projectile he had in his hand to cut a lump of hairy flesh of the demons muscular thigh. Degra roared in anger and swung his arm around knocking Chris to the ground. Chris felt like he had been hit by a lorry but he knew that if he stayed in one place the demon would finish him once and for all. He saw the piece of flesh lying on the ground near him and began to crawl towards it while the demon growled and told him how much it was looking forward to ripping him apart. Chris couldn't understand every word the demon said as he was in so much and pain and was completely focused on getting the piece of flesh and getting away with his life and his body still intact. As Chris almost reached the piece of flesh he felt Degra's iron grip on his ankle. Knowing what was in store for him, he used his telekinesis to fling the piece of flesh into his hand and orbed out of the demons grasp.
Seconds later Chris materialised on his sofa at home. He was in agony from where the demon had hit him and he could feel the bruising starting on his ankle where it had just grabbed him. Almost immediately Damian appeared beside Chris with a pained look on his face,
"Chris, are you OK? I'm so sorry, I wanted to help you and get involved but I knew I would have just got in the way and distracted you!" he said with his voice full of compassion.
"It's ok, you did the right thing. It almost went completely to plan, except the plan didn't involve me getting my butt kicked and it did involve leaving with a piece of bone to scry for him with, but hey, what can you do?"
"How can you joke at a time like this? You just got the crap kicked out of you!"
"Hey, I don't need reminding, so can you please heal me? Cos these bruises really hurt!!"
"Of course" Damian said and he held one hand over Chris' face and the other over his stomach, both emitting a warm golden glow which immediately made Chris feel better.
When Damian had finished healing Chris, he said, "OK so that's the evidence of the butt kicking eradicated and I got a piece of demon bone so I guess we are closer to plan than you thought!" He then reached down beside the sofa to where he had orbed in and produced one of the demons bone projectiles.
Chris laughed and said "Damian you are a star! How did you get it?"
"I saw you orb out without it so I grabbed one before I left, they shoot pretty far so more than one landed near me! Guess I'm lucky it didn't land in me!" He laughed nervously as though the thought had just occurred to him.
"Don't sweat it, we got the demon flesh, the bone to scry with and we're both safe! All in all, not a bad days work! Now let's get this potion made so we can go back and kick his butt. I kinda owe him!"
Chris then printed out the potion details and the spell from his laptop and both men went to the kitchen and began to prepare the vanquishing potion. When the potion was ready for the piece of demon flesh to be added Chris said to Damian,
"Stand back, vanquishing potions for upper level demons have a tendency to explode when the flesh is added"
Both Chris and Damian took a few steps back from the cooker and Chris used a pair of tongs to toss the piece of flesh into the pot, as he had predicted the liquid exploded in a puff of red smoke and changed from a pale grey colour to a dark red.
When the smoke cleared Chris used a turkey baster to fill two potion bottles with the mixture and corked both saying to Damian, "Always pays to have a back up in these situations"
Damian laughed and then followed Chris into the living room and watched as he consecrated a crystal using a candle and the demons bone. Damian was shocked by the size of the crystal that Chris was consecrating so he asked "Why are you using such a large crystal?"
"I don't scry the traditional way. Billie, a friend of my mom's, taught me how to do it using a laptop. It's much easier because it means I can scry the whole world without needing reams of paper maps!"
"Cool, when we have more time you'll have to show me how to do it, might be useful to some of my charges."
"Yeah no sweat" Chris said as he sat down at his laptop with the consecrated crystal and opened his scrying software to begin searching for the demon with Damian avidly watching over his shoulder.
A few minutes later Chris felt the necessary tug on the scrying crystal and released he had found the location of the Stratagem demon, "Got him, it's not too far from where I first saved Rita from the warlock!" he said to Damian.
"Wicked, shall we go do this then?"
Chris stood up and shook his head saying, "No, there is no we in this Damian. I really appreciate your help but you've seen how strong this thing is, it's not safe for you to come with me. This is my responsibility!"
"You're right Chris, I have seen how strong this thing is, and that's exactly why I'm coming with you. You need back up in case it gets the better of you! After earlier on the demon is going to expect you to attack and he'll be prepared for you!"
"Damian, I can't let you to put yourself in danger. You're a whitelighter, fighting demons is not your job!"
"No, it's not but protecting witches is my job and I'm coming with you whether you like it or not!" Damian stated adamantly.
Chris resigned himself to the fact that he wasn't going to win this argument "OK! OK! But you have to promise to stay back and only get involved if I get knocked out or something, deal?"
Damian smiled and replied, "Deal. I'll only show myself if you need me! Now can we do this already?"
"Sure, just let me get you a bottle of the vanquishing potion! At least it'll offer you some protection; won't vanquish the demon without the spell, but it should still sting it like hell!"
Chris then walked out of the room and returned a few seconds later and handed Damian a bottle of vanquishing potion saying, "Shall we go?"
