Ch. 4

About an hour after I got back to my room, I had finished packing was about to hit the streets when Iv4n called and told me I had an appointment with a guy named Balthus, who happened to be the dean at the local university. It was in a few hours, so I waited in the room, took a nap. When my phone went off three hours later, I was good to go. I took a shower and headed out to the university.

When I got to Balthus' office, I meet with the same old man I saw at the bank. He was muttering something about miscounting pennies and that the teller would never be able to get rid of these pennies. I raised my eyebrow and went into his office.

There were three men waiting in the office: one man behind the desk (I assumed, correctly, that he was Balthus), a scholarly looking man and what appeared to be a mad scientist. Balthus introduced himself and gestured for me to sit in the last open seat. I sat and began to describe what I had seen. I was hoping Balthus would tell me what it was and how to kill it. No such luck, none of the three knew what it was.

After we finished talking, I introduced myself, the mad scientist introduced himself as Dr. Edwin Coppersmith, and the scholar introduced himself as Todd Gamble. Balthus mentioned that the two would be helping me catch/kill the little green-eyed beastie, since it definitely was a threat to the city. Iv4n, who apparently is always listening in to such things, (I think it has to do with my ADD, I wasn't really paying attention) decided to join the conversation at this point by mentioning what I was and what I did for a living, and that if I stayed here for long, I would lose clients and work (I had to roll my eyes at this, all my clients are dead) and I wouldn't' be paid. Also, I had not permanent place to stay here.

"You will be hired by the university." Balthus replied.

"In what capacity?" I inquired. Hey, if I'm going to work for the guy, I want to know what I'm going to be doing.

"A porter." He said with a wry grin on his face.

I rolled my eyes, "Is there an empty dorm I can stay in or something?"

"I'll see what I can-" Balthus began.

"Actually, you can stay with me. I have plenty of spare rooms." Edwin interrupted.

"Ok then, that settles it. I'll stay with you and we'll keep looking for that thing."

As we were leaving, Balthus called Todd back into the office:

"Oh by the way, Todd, you have an apprentice now. He'll be here in a few moments." Todd groaned, "Why me?"

"Better you than the House."

"Yeah"

So we wait, and a few moments later a young man walks in, and I don't know what his problem is, but he can't stop staring at me. Balthus made the introductions; and I found out his name was Randal. I don't' think I ever heard his last name, but I didn't really care.

We left, and Edwin helped me gather my stuff from the hotel and move it into his guest room. It turns out he lived in the abandoned church I had seen earlier. He called his car the Ethermobile, and it was like the car in Ghostbusters and perhaps the coolest car I had ever ridden in. I had a room with a bathroom and a small kitchen. I wandered into the main kitchen, and ran into a small dragon. That's the only way to describe Zeek. He's the size of a large dog/small pony, he's green and French (oh and a very good cook). I'm not ashamed to admit that I freaked out when I came face-to-face Zeek, he's a dragon for Pete's sake.

After we moved my stuff, we went to help Randal move in. I didn't like his roommate; the guy had a serious love affair with leopard print in all forms and colors. He kept saying "Scuzi, scuzi" and bumping into us; he was also very hairy.

Edwin and I left and headed back to his place for the night. I slept for maybe three or four hours, then meditated for the rest of the night. I must have dozed off, because when I woke up, Zeek was right in my face. I jumped back a little, and he thrust a tray in my face. "Breakfast?" he asked in his odd French accent. It looked a little burnt, but I took it anyway. I heard Edwin yell, "Tap it with a spoon!!!" I didn't know if he was talking about breakfast or some thing in his lab, but it couldn't hurt. I tapped the charcole, and the burned stuff came off to reeal perhaps the most perfect crossant I had ever seen. I thanked him for the meal and went off to find Edwin.