Broken; Fire & Lightning (updated 2017/06/06)
Cypher had been having a recurring dream for about a week now. In it he was standing near the summit of a mountain overlooking a great forested valley. In the distance was another chain of mountains just as high as the one he stood upon.
It felt like it was summer, the sun high behind him as it baked the stone he stood barefoot upon.
At least it had to be a dream. There was no other way to explain how he looked when he checked himself. It was no child's body he had, he could tell just by looking at his own hands. His shoulders were broad and his body had a classic 'V' shape to it as it ran down to his hips. He was well muscled but not overly big, toned to a balance of speed and strength. Even his left arm was completely natural.
But the dream never lasted long. As soon as he realized it the dream was gone, the valley dissolving to black so he could open his eyes to the ceiling of his bedroom.
It was way too early in the morning for anyone, normal person and shadowrunner alike, when Cypher roused himself from bed to check on Seraphina. Their place felt a lot like the old storage facility office they used to live at in Denver, and their bedroom was previously one of the back offices of the old auto garage they were now living in.
Seraphina was still in the common room of their place (formerly the reception area for customers), still sitting in a well worn recliner, right where he had left her hours ago.
Two weeks ago it had not been one infusion that Seraphina had gotten dosed with, but three. The Inspiration one had been expected, and even as they had dropped Bishop off at Underworld 93 Cypher had noticed the change in her. She was focused on some new project of inspiration, so engrossed in research and whatever that she had barely noticed it when he helped her out of Ironhide and into their home.
One of the other two was evident almost as quickly, though not identified until two days later. Endure was its common name, an infusion that allowed the user to keep performing constantly for almost a week without sleep. Cypher looked up more information on infusions in general when he found that she had not slept at all for those two nights, and found out about it and its effects.
But after a week the Endure infusion had run its course and Seraphina crashed hard. It was the better part of a day that she slept, and Cypher had to keep himself calm as the twenty-four hour mark approached that she would wake up. He was quite relieved when she did wake back up again.
The third was not so noticeable right away, but became evident when he had managed to talk her into coming with him to get some food. For the week she had a ravenous appetite, and he had thought it was a side effect of the Endure infusion.
Their home was in the southwest corner of Auburn, and the neighborhood was rated about a C security rating by Knight Errant, so the neighborhood was a bit rougher than your typical idealistic slice of suburbia, and it showed, particularly if you checked out the neighborhood west of the train tracks where there were numerous abandoned homes and business.
It had happened when they were walking out of a bakery that was about four blocks from the abandoned workshop that was now their home, Seraphina happened to be distracted by one of her many projects on her commlink and she bumped into one of three local high school seniors. Not really noticing him she had kept on walking, and Cypher was a few steps ahead and had not seen it happen.
The high school student had taken offense when he did not get any kind of acknowledgement or apology, and when he grabbed Seraphina by the shoulder to turn her around she simply blew up in his face for distracting her from what she felt was a very important project. She stepped into him with balled fists and had landed three impressively heavy blows into the much larger boy's stomach before his friends tried to intercede.
Cypher had dropped the bags he was carrying to turn and help, and it took a simple backhand from his cybernetic arm to dissuade the teenager from pressing the fight.
The three had ultimately opted to flee instead of press the fight, leaving behind a thoroughly enraged redhead girl who had managed to do more than just bloody her knuckles against two of them. And it took Cypher to restrain her in a tight bear hug to keep her from chasing them down the street to vent her rage.
That evening, well after Seraphina had more than just calmed down about what happened on the street (forgotten completely, in fact), Cypher had gone back online to do a broader search about infusions. From what he was able to figure out he guessed that she had also gotten dosed with something called Braveheart, which explained her increased appetite.
However there was more that was starting to worry Cypher. Along with the strange recurring dream he thought he was starting to see things that he could not otherwise explain. It was when they had their fight against the three high school students that he first really noticed it, seeing little yellow sparks about them as they fled. He had blinked a few times and they had vanished, but still he wondered.
But this he set aside as he pulled himself from bed. He was alone in the room they had established as their bedroom, so barefoot he went on the cold concrete floor to find her.
Seraphina was in another office, just sitting on a matt and looking at nothing in particular. As he walked over to her he saw little blue wisps of flame dancing about her. Eyes closed he shook his head and they disappeared.
But there was more that he could see that was different, her eyes listless, the fire that had blazed in them for the last two weeks now gone and cold as windswept ash. Not even the sparkle they had before was there. Quietly he walked over to her, kneeling before her to look up into her eyes. If she saw him she did not react.
"Hey, you feeling alright?" he softly asked.
Seraphina hissed, closing her eyes tightly shut as if she was in extreme pain. "Don't yell." he hissed, her voice even softer spoken than Cypher's.
"What's wrong?" Cypher asked, matching her soft tone, his voice barely above a whisper.
Her eyes opened again just a little, glancing at him before looking away. Cypher did not need his emotive program running to see that she was on the verge of tears.
"Is this how it felt?" she asked.
"How what felt?"
"When you started losing your… connection?"
Maybe it was, but Cypher was not certain. There was a lot more established medical and arcane data on what happened to any awakened person when their bodies were tinkered with, even with something as seemingly minor as DNA might seem to be. They both knew quite clearly that her magic would be weakened if an infusion managed to take hold, and Cypher believed that this would have been similar to when his technomancer abilities began to fade a little, but would not progress beyond that.
And apparently one had managed to take hold if she was talking about weakened magical abilities. It was now just a day over two weeks and any infusions would have worn off by now.
"At first, yeah." Cypher told her, "Like things were a little fuzzy at the edges."
Her gaze turned back to him and she could not hold the tears back any longer. She virtually lunged at him, wrapping her arms around him as they both tumbled to the floor.
And there they lay for quite some time, with Seraphina weeping softly as Cypher held onto her. After a few minutes her sobs softened and he realized that she had fallen asleep right there. As gently as he could he slipped out from beneath her and carried her to bed.
Seraphina had slept for a full eight hours before she woke, but she was still not her old self. She seemed distracted though focused on something online. Cypher could have very easily seen what it was she was doing, but decided letting her keep her privacy was more important.
And whatever it was certainly seemed quite important to her. Beyond the matrix she seemed to take long stretches of time in meditation. Beyond that what little she did not spend there was used for eating and trips to the toilet.
Then finally she broke her silence.
"Alright, I want to do it." she told Cypher.
Cypher looked up from the collection of ARO windows he had open, putting on hold his own coding project that he had otherwise been spending his time on. "Do what?" he asked.
"What? Oh, right." Seraphina said half handedly, "A couple of things. One, get fixed."
"Alright." Cypher said, nodding. It seemed a bit simpler to him than that, something that would not have really taken three days of constant thinking just to decide upon.
"But that's not what I was trying to think about." she told him. "No, it's after that I was figuring out."
"And that is?"
"This." She tapped her head. "I want what you've got."
"What I've got? Wait, you mean a 'link in your head?"
Seraphina nodded.
"Didn't think it'd be that hard to decide." Cypher said.
"I… I've had troubles thinking. Remembering things. I've taken notes, but it's just not been enough sometimes." She shook her head. "I just wanna be me!" she cried.
Cypher was right at her side, taking her in his arms to hold her. She hugged him back, clenching to him tightly.
"I'll call Bull." he whispered softly. "Maybe he'll know someone that can help."
The virtual world version of Underworld 93 was identical to the real world version in just about every way. There was, however, one glaring difference between the two, and that came in the form of the low-res visuals that were used for the objects that decorated the club and the occasional line of code that rippled through the textures. It was by no means as sharp or abstract as other online clubs he had been to, but there was something different about Underworld 93 in its classical matrix styling, something that bespoke of outlasting endurance.
It was the middle of the day and there were not many people logged on, but there was only one user icon that Cypher was interested in.
Sitting alone at one of the tables near the bar was a person with a head that looked like the old "Have A Nice Day" smiley faces, but in red with a pair of minotaur horns and a tusked smile. Cypher went straight to the table and sat down on the opposite chair, musing how less imposing William "Bull" MacCallister looked when he wasn't towering over him.
"Not often I get a call like this." Bull said, his voice the same in cyberspace as in the meat world.
"It isn't often I need this kind of help." Cypher told him, his own voice altered to sound like a dozen different people talking in unison. He had told Bull to expect this as this was part of his online persona he would not change when he was "himself."
"So why not tell me what's up?" Bull asked. "I know that last job didn't go too smoothly at the end."
"My partner got doused with a bunch of goop. Turned out to be a bunch of infusions." Cypher looked down to the virtual representation of his left hand, looking past the dark green, almost black, armor plates to think of the hairs he had stored in his real cybernetic hand. He had not even opened the little compartment in his palm to check, but he could still feel the tiny chip box that held something so very precious to Seraphina: copies of her unaltered DNA.
"Nasty stuff, infusions." Bull commented. "Too many people die from that drek."
"And one of them took hold in her. She wants to get it reversed, get healed."
Bull nodded. "So she wants to get herself fixed."
"We can't go to just any place, you know that. And it's not just because of who we are."
"Right, because you're changelings and not really the kids that you look like."
Cypher's helmeted head nodded. "A little hard to get parental consent."
"Yeah, I know someone. Might be in a ritzier place in town, but he won't ask questions about any gene treatments."
"What about implants? She's considered getting some headware after this. Not enough to damage her magic more."
"Depending on the quality that might be… trickier."
"I've got the base design, but it'll have to be tailored to her brain. We're talking delta grade."
Bull nodded. "That will take some time."
"I think we've got it."
"Let me make some calls. Feel free to hang out here for a while, but be careful of the drink."
Cypher watched as the doctor and a nurse attended to Seraphina, checking her vitals and setting I.V.s.
It had barely been an hour ago when she had been pulled from the tube, covered in the blue gel that had helped sustain her while a specially made virus had worked through her body to correct the genetic abnormalities that the Braveheart infusion had created, as well as other things that Cypher did not quite understand beyond their restorative and reconstructive purposes.
No, all that mattered to him now was that genetically she was back to the way she was, just as she wanted to be. Mentally might be another story as the experience would have forever marked her, but beyond that she would be more herself now than she would have been with the Braveheart infusion.
The hospital staff had been rather gracious, too. A simple bed had been set up in the room Seraphina would be moved to after her treatment, and he had slept in it every day for the last week. There was a nearby McHugh's about two blocks away that he went to for a few meals a day, not eating a whole lot but just enough. And the majority of the time he otherwise spent not checking on Seraphina he spent in what looked like silent meditation but additional coding to enhance what he had already created.
But that would have to wait now as she spent her first morning hours sleeping off the sedatives in a sterile hospital bed as opposed to being suspended naked in a tube while being plugged into medical equipment.
But this was only half of what she wanted. For reasons only she understood best she wanted to have an implanted commlink similar to what he had. As best as he could understand those implants would be only slightly more damaging to her than the infusion was, but wouldn't weaken her magic any further.
His thoughts drifted to worry about her getting addicted to implants, that she would destroy what magical power she had left in pursuit of some ideal of cybernetic perfection. These were interrupted when the door to their room opened up.
"I'll bet you're hungry." said an orderly as he wheeled in a cart laden with trays of food.. His AR nametag identified him as Floyd Burris, and Cypher's facial and voice recognition programs automatically created new and cross connected entries.
"Oh, yeah." Cypher said, now realizing he had not yet had breakfast.
"Thought so. Managed to get an extra tray for you." Floyd said, setting down a second tray on the table next to Seraphina's bed.
Cypher collected the tray after Floyd had left, bringing it over to his bed to sit and eat, scrambled eggs with cheese, hash browns, a few links of sausage, and a squat glass of orange juice.
While he ate he thought about the build for Seraphina's commlink, but soon was finding it hard to think. He had barely eaten a fifth of the food before he fell over on his bed.
This was certainly not how Alice Cairns wanted to spend a Saturday night, taking in the Tacoma Aroma as she stood in the parking lot for the Doctors Hospital Of Tacoma. She was far from alone this evening. She and her sister had developed some reputations in Seattle, and with Alice was a large troll who went by the name of "Golem." Edward Smith was his real name, and a registered felon in Seattle. This was largely due to being the wrong race in the wrong place at the wrong time, but meant little to the Humanis supporters that had managed to get the charges to stick.
To look at them was to see a stark contrast of people. Alice's straight dark hair nearly blended in to her equally dark long coat, her petite frame making her almost look like a young teenage girl of half her true age, while Golem towered over her at nearly three meters in very light gray clothing that concealed the body armor he wore, his broad curling horns almost giving him a demonic appearance.
And it did not help that Golem was also a changeling. Trolls in general had dermal deposits, callus like skin growths that gave them a modicum of protection, but Golem's dermal deposits were much more pronounced than average, thicker and covering more of his body. On top of that he had massive calcite inclusions in his flesh that gave his skin a gray and stone-like texture. Even his horns were laced with these inclusions, securing them strongly to his skull and making them potentially deadly weapons.
Golem was Alice's bodyguard tonight, and while she watched the entrance to the parking lot for someone his granite marble eyes were everywhere else, looking for any potential threat.
They heard an engine before they saw who was coming. It was not long before they saw someone drive in on a black Suzuki Mirage, wearing a black leather jacket and matching black helmet. The biker pulled up next to them, and Alice noticed the driver had four arms.
The driver used her upper arms to remove her helmet, keeping hold of her motorcycle with the lower pair. She had bright green eyes with matching tiger stripes running down over them and her cheeks.
"Deacon, is it?" Alice asked, using the name a fixer had given her.
"Uh, yes." the biker answered.
"I'm Alice Cairns. This is Ed Smith, though you can call him 'Golem.'" Alice said, introducing them. "You have a proper name? I don't care if your ID's fake or not, and I don't need to know if it is or isn't. Just a 'real' name."
"Veronica Morgan. R… Roni." Deacon stammered.
"Are you new to this?" Alice asked. Partly she did want to get to know Deacon a little bit, but this was also business so she needed to know just how green the four armed woman was, besides the eyes and striping she saw.
"Um, no. I just… I'm not good with people." Deacon softly said.
Alice looked her up and down. Deacon seemed confident enough on her motorcycle, and had come recommended for her needed hacking skills by the fixer that had recommended her. The job would be simple enough, she hoped, so she figured Deacon would be a good choice for tonight's work.
"Right, so here's the pitch." Alice said, "Last week we had someone check into this hospital here for treatment. I don't know what for, and that doesn't matter. What does matter is that they've disappeared and I have a client that wants him found. Now this isn't like any job you might've done before, this is above board. I'm here with a legal search warrant for this hospital."
"You're with Knight Errant?" Deacon asked, her voice picking up with a touch of fear.
"Technically, no. I'm an outside contractor. Guess you could say I'm a bounty hunter, of sorts." Alice said, "My client has some pull, and managed to get this cleared with Knight Errant, who won't allocate the manpower for this. Not important enough for them. Fortunately who I call upon for support doesn't really matter quite as much, and I know shadowrunners are usually just as skill as legitimate security hackers but have less qualms about… shadier things."
Deacon nodded.
"But that won't be the end of your job." Alice continued. "For your services in tracking down and finding the missing person you'll be paid five thousand nuyen."
Deacon thought about this for a few seconds, then nodded. "Alright. But where's everyone else?"
"We're it." Alice answered. "I'm not just a Ms. Johnson tonight, I'm heading up this investigation personally. Here's a data chip with the details you need on who we're looking for." She handed Deacon a data chip.
Deacon nodded, accepting the chip.
Golem followed behind the women as they walked across the street and into the hospital. Alice walked right up to the reception desk.
Without looking up at them the receptionist pushed a digital clipboard to Alice, saying flatly, "Fill this out and someone will be here shortly to see you."
"I don't need medical attention. I need to see the chief of staff."
"He is busy at the moment. Just fill out…"
"I'm looking for a man named Anthony Dawson." Alice interrupted, "I have information saying he came here under the name Howard Solum. I'm here on behalf of Knight Errant to find him. Here," she pulled out a piece of electronic paper and slapped it down on the receptionist's desk, "is a search warrant to search the premises for him, granting full access to the hospital and networks to find him under either name. Now, you will either get me the person in charge tonight or I'll see to it you're charged with obstruction in a legal investigation."
The receptionist had looked up as soon as Alice had slapped down her warrant. The electronic paper was wirelessly enabled, the information burned into it so it could not be edited. She glanced at Alice and could see the rock hard determination in the woman's eyes.
"I'll call the doctor." she told Alice.
Alice nodded, collecting her warrant.
They did not have to wait long.
"Doctor William Cantero." the doctor said, extending a hand. He was human, balding, and wore the stereotypical white lab coat and black slacks. He also wore glasses with square lenses, but it was easy to tell that they were for AR and not to correct any vision problems.
"Alice Cairns." Alice replied, standing where she was.
William brought his hand up to stifle a cough. "Well, yes, I'm told you're here looking for a man named Anthony Dawson. I'm afraid we have no such patient registered here."
"How about Howard Solum?"
"Him neither." William replied without pause or hesitation.
Alice pulled out the warrant. "This gives me and whoever's working for me full legal right to access everything in the hospital." Alice told him. "Now I can either have you removed for obstruction or you can show me to your security station so we can access your network."
"I'm telling you…" William started to protest, stopping when she slapped the warrant against his chest. It did not matter if he happened to keep the e-paper or not, she had more copies and Knight Errant had it on file to boot.
William did take the e-paper and looked it over. Looking rather upset he said, "This way."
They followed the doctor back past the examination rooms to a simple door labeled "SECURITY." He opened the door for them and Alice stepped in first.
There was an elf in an office chair looking at a collection of trideo screens. As soon as he noticed them he bolted to his feet, decrying, "You can't come in here!"
"Back off, George." William barked, "They're with Knight and she's got a warrant."
"Bulldrek! We've not done anything!" George cried.
"Take it up with the judge who feel's otherwise. Name's in the warrant." Alice coolly countered, "So we've got the legal right to investigate. Now if you've truly done nothing wrong then you should have no problem letting us access your networks. If you do, then my associate here can show you the door." She gestured to Golem.
George got up from his chair and stepped back.
"Roni, you're up." Alice said.
Deacon seemed a little nervous as she stepped in and took George's vacated seat. She pulled out a data cord from the back of her head and plugged it into a port at the desk. She touched nothing else as the central screen flickered and changed, reflecting her access into the network.
"You didn't ask for access." George said, watching Deacon.
"She didn't need to." William told him solemnly.
"I found something." Deacon announced. "A Jack Shand matching Anthony's appearance and biometrics was admitted on the twentieth."
"Almost two weeks ago." Alice said.
"Last Saturday he was moved from his recovery room to another ward." Deacon continued. "Someone tried to delete the data, but I got camera footage of him being loaded up into something that looks like an ambulance. And…"
Alice let the pause hang before pushing, "And?"
"And two kids were put in with him." Deacon said softly. "This was just yesterday."
"Copy and save everything. I need all the data on that ambulance you can get. I also want all the digital footprints of whoever had access to the footage and deleted it."
"Y… Yes." Deacon nervously said.
"Is that even legal?" asked George.
William looked up from his copy of the warrant. "Says here it is." he said.
"I've got the data." Deacon announced. "And it was George Perry who tried to purge the records. Him." She pointed at George.
"Ed." Alice said sharply.
Golem stepped into the security office, laying a heavy hand on George's shoulder.
"Hey! You can't do this!"
"I can." Alice countered, "As a legal representative of Knight Errant in this investigation I'm charging you with tampering of evidence and obstruction of justice. You're under arrest until we can transfer you over to an officer of Knight Errant for detainment. I'm required to tell you that you have the right to remain silent…"
"I know my rights!" George yelled.
"Very well." Alice said with a curt nod. "Roni?"
"I'm tracing the ambulance now." Deacon said, pulling her connection to the hospital's security terminal.
"Then let's go."
Getting an arrangement to turn George over turned out to be difficult, but ultimately they were able to meet up with a Knight Errant officer to take him for booking and holding. All the while George did exercise his right to remain silent and said nothing the whole time.
After that Deacon led the way, using the temporary account access Alice had been given to legitimately use Knight Errant's system to trace the fake ambulance as it had left the hospital. This had worked well until they got down into Puyallup. Despite the wonders of the wireless matrix they could only trace the ambulance as far as Loveland. Alice was not sure if it was a stroke of inspiration or a desperate guess when Deacon said they had turned off onto some back country road before the signal was lost entirely.
Along the way Alice pondered why she had been asked to search for Anthony in the first place. When she had asked for a reason she had gotten an obscure answer that a vampire might have been behind his disappearance.
She hoped it was true.
It was one of the things that Alice was known for, a burning hatred of the Infected. To Alice it did not matter if a ghoul fed from flesh discarded for cybernetic implantation or a vampire drained the soul from a willing participant, the Human-Metahuman Vampiric Virus and those it infected were monsters and abominations that needed to be exterminated.
Now that was not to say there were exceptions that she made in her crusade. Ghouls that did feed on flesh willingly given were left alone, while those that hunted the living would be killed without exception. And one of her contacts actually happened to be a vampire, and there was a singular reason why she just barely tolerated his existence. He lived, and gave her information on other infected in return, because he exclusively fed his soul sucking need on condemned prisoners about to be executed. This she had verified, finding the prisons he visited for feeding and knew he was living up to his word. Still, even this vampire knew she would kill him if given the chance.
She was shaken from her reverie when Deacon suddenly stopped. Despite her motorcycle not being built for the rougher road she had still kept the lead while tracking down the fake ambulance, and Alice thought that maybe something had finally given out on the street bike. That idea changed when she saw Deacon set her motorcycle and rush up ahead on foot, discarding her helmet.
Alice stopped the van just beside the motorcycle, kicking the headlights on bright to better see. Realizing what was up she too jumped from the van to rush up to her.
Walking towards them was a child, naked and alone in the cold December night.
Deacon whipped her leather jacket off to wrap around the shivering girl. She barely looked at Deacon, not really even acknowledging the hug the woman gave her.
"What the hell's she doing out here?" Golem asked.
"I know her. She's one of the kids taken from Doctors Hospital yesterday." Deacon told them, holding the girl steady with her upper set of hands as she moved her lower pair over the girl, hovering them just a centimeter away.
"What're you doing?" Golem asked.
"I… I have… scanners in my secondary hands." Deacon answered.
Alice shifted her perceptions from the material to the astral to read the girl's aura. There was some damage, but it was systemic with something other than vampiric feeding, and not quite as extensive. Beyond the obvious of being chilled to the bone she was in relatively good health, and despite her non-reaction to their presence there was fear clouding her emotions. Alice wondered if the awakened girl had just expressed her magic for the first time and done something that terrified her.
"I can't find anything seriously wrong with her." Deacon said as Alice shifted back to the material world. "She's still got some chemical traces of a gene bath on her, so I think whatever drugs she was on for it are fogging her mind."
"Gene bath?" Alice asked.
"I… downloaded the details on the two kids that were taken. Crystal Wilcox is her name. She was at the hospital for a genetic treatment. Corrective therapies, the records said." Focusing on the girl Deacon asked, "Hey, you alright? You with us?"
Crystal's brown eyes shifted, gazing at Deacon but not really focusing on her. Then she burst into tears, lunging into a hug.
Ahead of them they all heard an explosion.
"Ed, get her in the van, now." Alice said grimly, looking down the dark road ahead of them, and towards the sound of that explosion.
Cypher was confused when he felt a sense of weightlessness. It was further added when he felt something hard hit him fast, and that weightless feeling changed when gravity regained her grip on his body and he came crashing down. He could not catch himself, his face smacking a rough wood floor, feeling like coarse sandpaper against his skin.
"Ya need to quit playing with your food, Fang." chided someone, a male.
"Null sheen, I like to… tenderize the meat first." another, likely Fang, said.
Cypher felt himself get lifted up, a large hand holding him by his neck. He tried to lash out at whoever was holding him, but felt his flesh and blood hand hit something unyielding.
Again he was weightless, but cognitive enough to realize he was thrown into a stack of boxes.
He found himself standing atop the same mountain again, overlooking an expansive valley at midday in the middle of summer. Checking himself, like all the times before, he found he had his more idealized body. When this dream did not end as quickly as before, he checked his ears. He found elfin points instead of blunt human ears.
Was this heaven? Hell? Had he been just knocked unconscious and straight into this dream again?
None of those are right.
"What? Who's there?" Cypher asked. This was the first time he actually had spoken in this dream.
I have many names.
"Great. So where is this? Earth?"
It is nowhere of consequence.
Cypher groaned. "If you pulled me here then you gotta send me back. I don't wanna die."
You are not dead. Our time here is but the blink of an eye in the real world. We are between the tick and the tock, and have all the time we need.
"Oooookay…" Cypher said, sounding confused and skeptical, "And what do you want of me?"
To guide you. You have finally found how to stay long enough for us to talk.
"Found how to…? Listen, I have no fuckin' clue how I got here in the first place!"
I called you each time. Pity you do not know how. In the end it does not matter. Only now do you even begin to realize your potential.
"Potential? Shit, I had potential before. I could see the matrix, hack computers and networks, and all with just my brain alone! I could breach the heaviest securities, be in and out in seconds, and no one was the wiser!"
That is nothing compared to what you may obtain now. Though you are too grounded, I can show you the path.
"Grounded? What the fuck do you mean, grounded?" Cypher paused before adding, "Shit, I must be going insane if I'm arguing with a voice inside my head."
Your lover is not grounded, though she has her own crisis of faith to deal with. You can help her, repay her for when she fought to keep you at her side.
"Seraphina." Cypher said softly. "Fuck, if she needs me then let me go to her!"
Do you accept me, my aid and my guidance?
"Who or what the hell are you?"
I am the stalker of the hinterlands, the hunter in the shadows, culler of the weak and protector of the strong.
"Sounds good, but doesn't really answer the question."
Then turn around, and see for yourself.
Cypher did as he was asked, and for the first time saw the towering mountain behind him, the sun baked and smooth rock face as it climbed even higher than the small cliff face he stood upon.
It was only a split second to see, a phantom predator that rushed him, tawny and as big as a truck, front legs out with claws to rend steel digging into his chest as they both flew from the cliff to fall to the valley far, far below. In that instant he knew, and accepted the Lion.
I give you this taste of what you can achieve. The blessing and curse my chosen each bear, and more. For a price I shall crack open the door for you. Fear not, for it is the same price any spirit might ask.
Cypher never reached the valley floor, never even really passed the tree line before he found himself in his child's body again, heavy boxes tumbling onto him.
He was suddenly feeling better than ever, and barely felt the sharp edges of cardboard that should have cut his skin like paper is want to do. And there was a new color to what he saw, then more, colors that he could not explain or describe, like trying to tell a person blind from birth what a sunrise looked like.
It was like his body moved of its own volition, pushing and tossing aside a cardboard box like it was nothing. He knew its weight when it came crashing back down, yet when he had pushed it aside it might as well have been empty for all the effort he needed.
"Oooo, looks like I got a fighter." commented Fang. Cypher could see now that Fang was an ork with oversized and very pointed tusks, with wiry wisps of hair and pallid skin, and milky gray eyes. His body glowed with eerie colors.
Infected. Ghoul.
What? Cypher thought.
I am a spirit of the hunt, of warriors. I am within you, giving you strength beyond the mortal, and I am telling you that ork is a ghoul.
Looking around Cypher saw others. Most were human, save the ork Fang and a troll. All of them looked normal except the troll that had the same eerie colors about him.
Then he saw Seraphina, stripped of her hospital gown and being roughly handled by another human.
Rage erupted within him, growing as Fang approached, standing between him and Seraphina.
"C'mon, I dare ya!" chiding Fang.
Do not think. Do.
With speed he had never known before Cypher rushed Fang, twisting his shoulder into a tackle. The ork had to have out massed him three to one, yet Cypher had hit him with such force that he went flying back into the human holding Seraphina. The three went tumbling, but it looked like she was starting to come out of whatever stupor she had been in as she groggily pushed herself back up.
"Mina! Run for it!" Cypher yelled, his eyes jumping from one to another, watching for who would attack him next.
"Whu?" Seraphina groggily asked.
Fang was back up and on him, coming in quick for a backhand slam that should have sent Cypher flying. The move seemed to come in so slow that he easily ducked the ork's fist. With a twist of his body he brought his own right fist up into the ork's gut, dealing a punch with such power that he lifted the ork up off his feet a few centimeters at least. He carried through with the punch, tossing the ork aside like a sack of vegetables.
Then he saw the horror on Seraphina's face as adrenaline and fear brought her closer to her senses.
"Mina! Run!" Cypher yelled, a voice that was not just his but also from the spirit from within him.
The troll was on him quick, fingernails like claws to try and rend his flesh. Cypher was not quick enough to evade this, but the ghoul's claws did not even break the skin as they raked his arm. Cypher shoved him away, putting all his strength into the push, and sent the three hundred kilogram troll flying like it was nothing.
He barely caught sight of Seraphina as she made it out the door of the building they were in. Cabin, warehouse, whatever it was did not matter to Cypher now. What did matter was that he had found a name for this new color he could see.
And it was red.
The van bounced on the dirt road as they continued deeper into the forest. There had been no junctions, no decisions or trails for the fake ambulance to make, and Deacon's confidence was unshakable that it had turned off onto this road back at Loveland.
Then there was the explosion out in the middle of nowhere. That had to be evidence of people, and maybe Anthony was there too.
The girl was practically catatonic ever since she had been found. She now sat in one of the middle row seats, an emergency blanket covering her and making her look like an infant as she lied in the troll sized passenger seat. Alice was not sure if she was still awake or had passed out from exhaustion.
"I still got nothing." Deacon said over their wireless connection.
"There's gotta be evidence of that explosion." Golem said.
"I know, but we couldn't see it." Alice said, "And in these trees it'd be easy enough to miss it entirely."
The next bend in the road they came around was the last, and Deacon skidded her motorcycle to a stop once more. Even Alice would admit she was dumbfounded at what she saw as she stopped her van.
There was a relatively small clearing, and just off from the center were the ruins of some kind of building. Bodies could be seen in their headlights and the shadows they created, and the fake ambulance on its side against the trees.
But most startling to the three of them was the sight of a young boy covered in nothing but blood trudging towards them.
The humans were practically nothing, coming at him with knives and improvised clubs. Cypher nearly ignored them, wading into their futile attacks while he struck back, his cybernetic left hand breaking bone with greater ease than he had ever expected.
Then his gaze fell to the human that had been manhandling Seraphina, and his world became just that man.
Vampire.
Cypher could see it, the gnashing fangs dripping with blood interwoven in the man's body and the eerie color that surrounded him.
And he was more than just a vampire. He whipped a hand out before him, and yellow arcs of electricity came at Cypher.
Of its own volition his right hand came up, batting aside the crackling magical lightning like it was nothing.
You know it in your heart. You know your reply.
It was almost like there was something heavy in his right hand, like a three kilo cannon ball. Back came his hand, then launching forward like he was throwing a shot-put, and with it came a blue-white bolt of his own fury.
There was a substantial difference between the two lighting spells. The vampire's was like that of most any magician, crackling electricity to short out electronics and harm the living. Cypher's was closer to raw power, like Mother Nature's own in the singular arc that briefly connected the two of them, the hum of powerful electricity, and the thunderclap that deafened as it sent the vampire flying into the far wall.
Legs wide, arms bowed as he flexed taught muscles, Cypher roared his fury heavenward, and the world around him exploded.
"Grab a blanket and the medkit." Alice ordered as she baled from the van.
Deacon had tossed her helmet aside as she rushed up to the boy. It looked like whatever had caused the explosion had severely burned his left arm, and he was holding something in his right hand.
"Hey, hey, you alright?" Alice asked, putting herself right in front of the boy. She held back her surprise as she looked up into nearly solid blue eyes, shadowed almost to black by the play of the blood on his face and illumination from the headlights.
"He's the other kid taken." Deacon said, "Damien Gibson. Crystal's friend. He was staying there while she was treated."
"Other? C… Crystal?" Damien asked, not really looking at either Alice or Deacon.
"Yes, other." Alice said, trying to push aside a bone chilling feeling she was having, "Crystal's fine. She's in my van." Was it because he was coming off as the psychotic killer in countless slasher videos?
"Oh… Okay." Damien said, his eyes glazing over.
Alice almost missed it as Damien began to fall over. Heedless of the blood she grabbed him, bringing him down to the ground in her arms in a gentler fall. But something felt wrong once she caught him.
Pushing the unconscious Damien to sit upright she saw what had felt wrong, and it was her hand abrading against a nasty gash running from his right shoulder down towards the base of his spine. There was a distinct separation of blood on his body, and it looked like what was on his back was all his own.
"Oh drek." hissed Deacon.
With a thought Alice activated her centering focus, a silver ring she wore on her right middle finger, then the pentagram amulet that was her power focus. Then she gathered all the power she could into a healing spell and funneled it into him. She could feel some of the power bleeding away from him as she desperately held the spell, feeling the power beginning to burn her own body.
Still she held the spell, watching as the gash in his back began to heal.
"Is he gonna be alright?" Deacon asked.
Alice gritted her teeth and only managed to nod. She had no idea why her spell was slipping from him, but at least most of it continued to work.
Once the spell had run its course, was no longer working to repair his injuries, did she finally release its power. The gash had healed over but she was not sure his body was fully healed. Certainly he would be weak for some time, depending on how much blood he had lost.
"I've got him." Golem said, kneeling down next to Alice. She had been so focused on her sorcery she had not noticed him beside her.
The stone skinned troll gently took Damien into his arms, using a blanket to wrap up the boy.
Alice felt too tired to stand, her heart aching from the magical energies that had burned her, pounding as if she had just ran the one hundred meter dash.
"You okay?" Deacon asked.
"That spell… It just took a little more outta me than I expected." Alice answered.
"I guess… I… I'll go look around." Deacon said.
Alice simply nodded. After Deacon had left she noticed something on the ground close to her, and it looked like the object Damien had been carrying. Slowly she picked it up and realized what it was.
Damien had been holding the broken off end of a troll's horn.
While she rested, kneeling on the ground, Alice shifted her perceptions to the astral. The whole area was hazy from violence and destruction, and she could see the area of the spell she figured destroyed the building and sent the ambulance tumbling. That was about all she could discern.
After a few minutes Alice found the strength to stand again. Keeping hold of the horn she slowly walked towards the ruins, looking at the bodies and seeing only strangers.
"Drek! Alice! You've gotta see this!" Deacon yelled.
Maybe if Alice had not worked such a powerful spell she could have rushed to Deacon. All she managed was a normal walking pace.
If they had not already seen numerous dead bodies Alice might have been more shocked to find a dead male troll here. The dead troll still shocked her, though, as it was missing the head.
"What's that?" Deacon asked, pointing to the object Alice was holding.
"A broken troll horn." she answered, staring at the body before them.
"Whoa." Deacon said softly. "Think he managed to break it off this guy?"
"I doubt he's that strong." Alice answered, eying the troll's body. "Especially since I think that troll was a ghoul."
"What?"
Alice knelt beside the corpse. "I've studied the Infected, many kinds of them. I wouldn't know for absolute certainty without a blood test, but I'm confident that this troll was a ghoul. He's got all the physical hallmarks."
"Dear god…" Deacon whispered.
"Just be careful, and try to use those cybernetic hands of yours to handle what might be infected." Alice advised as she stood back up.
"About its head… Maybe the explosion?"
"I… I don't know." Alice answered. She was at a complete loss to try and explain what had happened from what she was seeing.
"Just keep looking around. We need to find out if Anthony's here."
"Yeah. Right." agreed Deacon, her voice still soft.
Instead of looking around as well, Alice trudged back to the van. The passenger side sliding door was open and Golem was just stepping out. He had a heavily bloodstained blanket in his hands, and his light colored clothing was streaked with red.
"I think that gash on his back was his only wound." Golem told her. "His arm's cybernetic. Didn't look like there's anything wrong with it. He's lying on the back seat, still out of it."
"There's a troll body among the dead, and it's probably a ghoul." Alice told him.
Golem immediately tossed the bloodied blanket aside. "Great." he muttered, "So Infected are involved after all."
Alice nodded. "I think I still need to rest. Deacon's looking around for Anthony."
"I'll go help her. Should be safe enough, I think."
"I'll ask a spirit to help watch over us, if it'll make you feel better." Alice told him with a wry smile.
"You know it would. Just don't push yourself.
She simply nodded as Golem walked away from the van before she climbed in and closed the door behind her, sitting down in the other troll sized seat before calling an earth elemental to stand guard.
While she rested she opened an ARO with a mental command, accessing the list of contacts on her commlink.
Once she was done with the call she turned her attention to Damien, and something she felt she should have done much sooner.
She brought her perceptions over to the astral again, this time focusing on Damien as he lay on the back seat. Compared to Crystal his aura was more muted and cloudy. The cloudy was weird to her and not something she could recall having seen before.
Despite this she could see that he was actually awakened, his magical potential looking rather weak compared to even Crystal's might, and though she knew that at least his arm would be damaging to his aura she could not identify any implants. Despite that she could still see the bright gash running along his back as the most serious of his injuries and no signs of any infections.
Shifting herself back to the real world she sighed in relief. He had gotten lucky, she felt, not contracting the Krieger strain of HMHVV.
Still she could not shake the uneasy feeling she was getting about him.
"I can't believe this is happening again." Deacon muttered to herself.
"What're you talking about?" Golem asked.
"Drek. Sorry."
"Don't be." Golem told her, kicking over another body. "Past job?"
"Last month." Deacon paused before asking, "You really care about the details?"
"Just enough for the 'happening again' part."
"During the job we came across a guy that was keeping three kids in his home." Deacon said, "Boy and two girls. Kept 'em… He…"
"Sex slaves?"
Deacon clamped her eyes and mouth shut, nodding vigorously.
"I think I can imagine." Golem said softly, kicking over another body. "Drek, I think I found Anthony. We were more than too late before we even started."
"So what do we do now?" asked Deacon.
"Tell the boss and see what she has in mind."
"Hang on, I found something weird." Deacon announced as she knelt down next to the body of a human man. It was weird in that it the back of his neck had been torn out. She took some detailed scans with the drone sensors in both of her secondary hands.
"How so?"
"It looks like some kind of big… predator ripped out his neck."
"I think she'll want to see that."
"I'll scan it."
"Will it mess things up if I handle him?" Golem asked.
"Yes."
Golem waited patiently for Deacon to finish. Her hands waved over the head and back of the neck several times before she finally said, "I'm done."
Golem had less to worry about than most when it came to the Infected. The naturally tough hide of being a troll combined with the extra stony calcite that infused his skin made it difficult to get cut, especially the accidental way by unforeseen sharp objects. So when he turned the dead man's head over and forced open the mouth he was not worried about getting poked by a set of rather prominent and sharp canine teeth.
"I don't think he's pale because he's dead." Golem said.
"Vampire?" Deacon asked.
Golem only nodded, dropping the dead man's head. "Would explain the torn neck. Vampires can regenerate quickly, but some things are hard or impossible."
"I just took the scan and compared it to a human anatomy file I downloaded. He's missing the C2, C3, and C4 vertebrae in his neck. That's a chunk of his brain stem right there." Deacon said.
"Whoever did this knew where to hit a fang face where it don't grow back. We're definitely telling Alice this."
Once Alice had known that Anthony was found dead she had paid Deacon. She was a bit surprised that the four armed woman was going to stay with them until Golem explained that she was still concerned about the kids. Alice stressed that there would be no extra pay in it, but Deacon seemed more than fine with that.
When Alice saw the composite images Deacon had created from the dead human, she agreed that the odds were really good he was a vampire, supporting Golem's assessment about why the back of his neck had been torn out in such a vicious manner.
But what she did not tell them was something more she had seen in Deacon's scan. She had studied zoology and parazoology, both with a focus on North American predators, and from what she saw she knew no animal of any kind had made those wounds. To her it looked like they had been human or metahuman hands that had done it.
And again she looked at Damien as he slept. Herself, Deacon, and the kids all had hands small enough for the trauma she saw in those images, but when Crystal had no bloodstained hands and Damien had been practically showered in blood it left only him as the suspect.
She thought about what she knew of magic, of sorcery, and she had only theories and ideas on how it could have been done. There were spells that to make one stronger and spells that could protect one like armor, but the more spells a magician tried to hold the harder it was to do much anything else.
She hoped the person she had called could help shed some light on what happened.
It was just over two hours before another vehicle showed up, a large RV that handled the rough rode surprisingly well. Alice looked unconcerned so Deacon figured it was the other person she had called.
Well, two people actually. First was a human woman taller than Deacon, with lightly tanned skin, her dark hair hanging well past her shoulders in a mane of dreadlocks. She wore a black leather jacket, very dark blue jeans, and a corset-like top of dark blue material. What was most striking was the face paint she had on, mostly chalk white with inky black spots to make her face look like a grinning skull.
Behind her was an ork, also lightly tanned, with short cropped dark hair and well polished tusks. He wore a denim jacket and bluejeans, and his left ear was pierced with a collection of silver rings.
And both of them were carrying large sacks from McHugh's, and the ork two additional sacks that looked like it was from some small chain convenience store. Alice triggered the van's door as the two approached.
"Hope you don't mind the food being a bit cool 'n the drinks warm." the ork said, setting the bags he carried into the van. "Figured it'd be better hitting up near Parkland for food instead of Loveland."
"I don't think the kids'll mind." Alice said. "At least it's something to eat."
The ork took the bags the other woman was carrying and passed them inside.
"I've also got a change of clothes for the kids in the RV." the woman added. "Which, by the way, what the frag are they doing out here without clothes?"
"Was hoping you'd be able to tell us that." Alice answered. "We've only got ideas and theories."
"And you think I can do a reading and get the answers? You know it doesn't always work like that."
"Something's better than nothing."
The woman sighed. "Alright, but have you got something I can focus on?"
Alice nodded towards Golem, who tossed her the broken troll horn.
"Belonged to a troll ghoul." Alice said as the other woman examined the horn. "You'll find his headless corpse out there. We don't know where the head is."
The woman looked up to Alice in disbelief. "Seriously?"
Alice nodded. "The intensity and violence should help make it easier, and we're talking only a few hours ago too."
"I'll get on it." she said, sounding just a touch afraid now.
Deacon followed Golem and Alice out, closing the van's door behind her. The others stopped at the edge of the carnage while the skull faced woman walked into the ruins of the building itself.
"What's she doing?" Deacon asked, speaking in a whisper so she hopefully would not disturb what was happening.
"It's called psychometry." Alice answered, also speaking softly, "Cambra's using her ability to read auras to read the troll's horn and this place to find out what happened here."
Cambra suddenly looked up, spinning to face the far corner of the building that was still standing. The way she moved it looked like she had slipped a chip and was now watching a simsense movie. Whatever visions she saw now were real enough to her.
She spun about, changing her view as the vision progressed. At one point she even ducked out of reflex as something must have flown at her, and when she recovered she shielded her face from something only she saw.
Then Cambra turned towards where the human vampire's body lay, dropping the horn as she brought her hands to her mouth, then turning towards the dead troll. Her chest heaved, her breath quickening and apparently horrified by whatever she saw. Suddenly she dropped to all fours and vomited.
Alice was the first to break, rushing towards Cambra, down on her knees at the woman's side and an arm over her back to comfort her.
Deacon took it as her cue that the vision was over, and rushed over as well so she could hear what was said.
"It's alright, it's done, it's history." Alice told Cambra.
"I saw it… saw it all." Cambra panted, trying to catch her breath. "There were three ghouls here, and a vampire. The vampire had a girl, had stripped her and was toying with her…" Tears started coming to her eyes.
"He's dead and gone. What happened?" pressed Alice.
"One of the ghouls was an ork, he pulled out a boy and started tossing him around like a cat with a toy. He… He threw the kid over there…" she indicated the one of the ruined corners of the building, "The boy… he…" She panted, trying to find the words.
Seconds painfully passed, and just as Deacon thought Cambra had lost her vision the silence was broken.
"The boy came back at the ork, awakened and enraged! A spirit's with him, empowering him. He just swatted the ork aside like it was nothing!"
Cambra panted several deep breaths before continuing, "The troll tried to claw him, shred him, and the boy shoved him aside like it was nothing.
"The girl, she was barely awake and he's telling her to run. She's terrified, so she runs. Then the vampire goes after him. He throws lighting and the boy pushed it away, then returns with his own, a thunderbolt that send the vampire through the wall!"
Deacon looked to where the vampire now lay. True, it looked like he was outside whatever building had been standing, but to be sent through the wall while it was still standing?
"The boy, he roars to the sky… A monster…" Cambra went on, sounding more and more afraid. "His rage exploded but it's hardly done. He's like the lightning he threw, on the vampire, pounding him, beyond furious, beyond enraged. The vampire, he tried to escape, but the boy pounced on him and… tore away a chunk of his neck like it was clay!"
Deacon tried not to think, not to ponder the why of this night. She was barely believing that the boy had bare handedly taken on a vampire, a notoriously fast, resilient, and powerful monster, and not only killed it but had terrified it just before it was killed.
"The troll recovered, and he's mad. Grabbed the boy and tried to throw him. Instead the boy grabbed on. They wrestled, but he's too quick for the ghoul. He got on the troll's back and… and…" Cambra's voice faltered, and instead of saying it she pantomimed like she was lifting a great weight.
"He lifted the troll's head, tore it off?" Alice asked.
Deacon could see around the face makeup that Cambra had gone pale. And apparently unable to speak she only nodded.
"Bob!" Alice called out.
The ork was quickly at Cambra's side.
"Get her in the RV, let her rest." Alice ordered, "I don't care what she says, she's done for the night."
"Yes ma'am." Bob said.
"No!" protested Cambra as Bob lifted her to her feet. "I… I gotta see him. I gotta see the boy who did this."
"No you don't." Alice barked back.
"Yes. He demands it."
Alice sighed. Deacon had no idea who "he" was, but it apparently held some weight.
"Fine." Alice relented, "You get to read him once, just a look, and that's it! Understand?"
Cambra nodded, accepting the deal.
Bob helped her back to the van, and Golem opened the door for her. Deacon actually climbed in first, but offered a hand to Cambra to climb in.
It looked like Cambra took a little more time than Alice might have wanted or expected. If Alice noticed maybe she let it go since Cambra first looked to Crystal at length, then back to Damien. Despite the ruckus, their activity, the kids were still oblivious to the world around them.
Cambra closed her eyes, and it looked like she had deep and empty sockets instead. Then she nodded and turned back towards the door. She willingly accepted Bob's help down and over to the RV.
"What was that all about?" Deacon asked.
Alice said nothing as she climbed up into the Van. "Give us a minute, please." she said back towards Golem.
Golem simply nodded, closing the door behind her.
Alice was silent as she walked up to the driver's seat, gesturing to Deacon to take the other front seat.
"You know about shamans and their animal guides, right?"
Deacon nodded. She had not worked with many, but the few she had ever met had all mentioned something about a spirit guide or a totem, some kind of animal that showed them the path of their magic.
"Well, there's more than just animals. The houngans that practice voodoo have their loa, and the Shinto priests have their thousand kami, and more. In Cambra's case she found what we call an idol. It's like a shaman's spirit guide, but it's not an animal of any kind."
"And… he?"
"Yes, he. He likely came to her tonight, was here while she performed her psychometry, and whispered to her, telling her to see him."
"You… sure she didn't… you know… make it up?"
"Very sure. He is, what's the best way to try…" Alice said, pausing to think. "He is like the lord of the underworld, the afterlife."
"Satan?"
"Hardly. No, more like Hades, if you know Greek mythology. Not evil, but just what watches over the dead. Sorta."
"So… The face paint?"
Alice nodded. "Yes, well, part of it. But now I think I should check on Cambra. You'll be okay with the kids?"
"Uh, yeah, sure." Deacon replied.
Alice simply nodded and got out of the van via the driver's door.
Deacon looked back at the kids, still oblivious to the world around them. She drew her legs up to her chest and hugged them tight with all four of her arms.
Bob held the door for Alice as she stepped into the RV. Cambra sat at the table, holding a steaming mug of something in her hands.
"Could you give us a minute?" Alice asked Bob.
Bob simply nodded and stepped outside. Golem followed, closing the door behind him.
"Are you alright?" Alice asked, sitting down at the table opposite of Cambra.
Cambra nodded, then took a sip of her drink. "Didn't think you'd be giving me a trip like this when you called."
"Didn't think it'd hit you like this at all."
"Everything's so recent… So powerful… I think even a novice would've had a full vision like that here. And the boy…"
"Damien."
"Damien, you've noticed the chill about him? You must have."
Alice nodded. "I think we all have, though I know Golem will deny it."
"It's why he demanded I look at him, at his aura." Cambra told her, taking another sip of her drink. "I don't have a word for it, if there's even a name for it, but he's… Something must've happened to him before."
"It wasn't what happened here? I mean, when we found him he had this really long, nasty slash down his back."
Cambra shook her head. "I could see it in the psychometry. It was before the last ghoul came at him with a sword, a focus, and…" She apparently could not finish the sentence, but Alice figured that this last ghoul had been dispatched viciously.
"And he whispered it to me, not in words but… an impression." Cambra told her.
Alice nodded. What some idols or totems told their students, the little tidbits of advice they might choose to give in those rare and enigmatic moments, was often hard to articulate into words.
"It's like… He's walking in two worlds." Cambra told Alice. "I don't mean like a spirit or shifter. It's between living and dead."
Was that the reason for the chilling feeling Alice got when she looked at Damien? Was this some kind of fantasy soul chilling effect because the kid had somehow cheated death itself?
"So it's like he's haunted, like the classical sense?" Alice asked.
"I guess. There's no spirits hanging around him, though something powerful possessed him earlier tonight."
"Possession? Drek, I should've figured that out. Hell, I even mentioned houngan and the loa to Deacon when I was trying to describe him to her."
Cambra took another drink. "Yeah, possession. I could see its effects on him. The way he moved, his inhuman strength and speed. Even his hair was longer, like a wild child's. But the spell that blew apart everything, it had his signature but it was way too powerful for him to have done."
"Something came to his aid, then? Maybe that spirit?"
"Or an idol."
Alice nodded.
"So, what're we gonna do with them?" asked Cambra.
Alice turned to look out the window. "Honestly, I don't know. Deacon tried looking into them, but it seems their parents are dead."
"Dead? That means foster care."
Alice thought back to when they found Damien. "We didn't find them together, but… When we found Damien and he learned we'd found someone else he seemed so relieved that she was safe. It was like he was gonna walk down that road, catch up to her, on shear willpower alone."
After another sip of her drink Cambra asked, "So what now?"
"The reason we're out here in the first place was to find someone. Golem found his body, and if you're up to it I'd like you to do a more focused reading on him." Alice told her. "Once I've got whatever more you can gain about his death we'll be taking his body back to the people who hired me to look for him. You and Bob will take the kids back to The Gallery for the time being until we can figure something out."
Cambra tried to relax in the front passenger seat of Bob's RV, but found she could not. No matter what it seemed that if she was ever in a moving vehicle she could not sleep or even catch a quick cat nap.
Instead her thoughts replayed what happened this night. It was rare for Alice to call on her abilities of psychometry, and this was the first time she had been on the scene of such violence so recently after it had happened.
The power that the boy, Damien, had displayed was impressive. She was far from no slouch when it came to power, and she was also quite skilled in sorcery, but the power of that possessing spirit was beyond anything she could potentially conjure, the force of the spell that turned a building to scrap and kindling exceeded what she could handle. For her that kind of power was potentially fatal, yet in her vision he had whipped out such forces with impunity.
But when she had actually read his aura she had barely seen any magical potential beyond the murkiness that infused it. His power had to be minimal, a cigarette lighter compared to a flamethrower (if she knew that spell). Even the girl, Crystal, had more potential, though it was still less than what Cambra was capable of. If Crystal was stronger still…
"We've got company." Bob announced.
Looking back Cambra saw Crystal walking up to them, blanket wrapped about her body and over her head.
"Hey there sleepyhead." Cambra said sweetly.
"Where is he?" Crystal asked somberly.
"Your friend's in the very back bedroom." Bob told her, "He's fine. Just sleeping it all off."
"Okay." Crystal said softly, nodding just a little. She then turned and started walking back.
"Hey, hold up!" Cambra called out when Crystal passed the first sleeper room where she had been.
Crystal did not stop until Cambra caught up to her, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. Cambra barely managed to lean back to avoid the girl's flying backhand fist as it came at her face.
"Don't touch me!" Crystal yelled.
"Okay, fine!" Cambra told her, hands up. "Just that your room's back here."
"Fuck it, I'm not sleeping there." Crystal growled, turning towards the back again.
"Hey…" Cambra said, again reaching for the girl.
The girl's response came quickly, her temper flaring into reality as fire leapt at Cambra. She was barely able to suppress the magic, hands up to deflect and douse the flames almost as quickly.
Cambra focused her own power, staring Crystal down as she channeled a stunbolt spell at her. The instant the spell went off she knew it had failed utterly.
The astral.
Cambra shifted her perceptions to look at the girl astrally. She saw the last remnants of her stun spell fading, looking as if it had impacted some kind of shield.
But behind the girl was of greater concern. It appeared vaguely humanoid, with hands and head like an eagle's and a pair of wings coming from its shoulders. Though it was not materialized there was no mistaking the fire elemental Crystal had just conjured.
Cambra weighed her options. She could call a bound spirit but the elemental had the edge in already being here. She could try to use a stunbolt on it, but then Crystal would likely conjure up more fire, and something told Cambra that the girl was more than willing to follow the old shadowrunner axiom of "Go big or go home."
"Fine." Cambra said, blinking slowly as she closed herself off from the astral. She then turned to walk back to her seat.
"You sure that's a good idea?" asked Bob as Cambra settled back down in her seat.
"I'd be more worried about that fire elemental she conjured on the spot than two preteens doing something stupid together." she told him.
"I thought I saw something…"
"That was just a fire spell, and not exactly a slouch either." Cambra told him. "And my stun spell was like a spit wad to a brick wall."
"Whoa, seriously?"
"She's initiated. Maybe a few times, even, considering how easily she shielded herself from my spell."
For the first time that night, or morning considering the hour, Cambra pondered the idea that the names she knew the kids by were not their real names.
Seraphina was angry and tired as she closed the door behind her. She wanted to sleep, but the bed she had woken in felt empty and she could not rest. Then angry because of that skull faced woman's interference.
The elemental had come quickly, though it seemed put off about being called by someone as weak as her. Last month it would have obeyed with less malice, but she had still managed coerce a few tasks from it. For now it would stand guard over her and Cypher.
Holding the blanket to her with one hand, she pulled back the blanket covering Cypher. He was lying on his stomach, face towards the door and still sound asleep. She could see a new scar running from his shoulder down to his back, and she gingerly touched it, running her finger along its length. His skin felt hot to the touch, but it looked like whatever healing magic had been done on him had held strong.
She unwrapped the blanket from her body before carefully climbing over Cypher to lie beside him, pulling her blanket over the both of them. His warmth was soothing to her, the smell of his sweat sweet and calming. Like countless nights before she pressed herself up tight to him, one arm across his back and one leg between his.
That skull faced woman would go to hell if she tried to separate them again, and Seraphina would see to it personally.
Tears finally broke as the anger passed. Now she was simply relieved that he was okay, alive and well. His slow steady breathing soon lulled her back to sleep.
Alice hated dark alleys. They were the fuel for urban myth and legend, where the Infected would stalk to capture their hapless prey when one walked by.
Now Alice was far from defenseless or alone. Golem was close by, well within earshot to come to her aid, and she still had her conjured earth elemental with her. And these alone would dissuade all but the more powerful or most desperate Infected from attacking her. They walked the real and astral worlds at the same time, could see her magical potential in her aura as it glowed in the astral, would see the elemental as brightly as a spotlight if it did not hide itself well enough.
"I can see your disgust for this. And I could smell the blood before I saw you." came a man's voice from the shadows. A voice she knew.
"And I know you hate this just as much as I do, Phillip." Alice bit back.
Phillip Wilson, the one vampire she barely tolerated to live, and tolerated only as long as the information he gave her was useful.
She extended herself to the astral to look at his aura. Not much about it had changed, though it looked like he was between times in feeding on a person's soul.
"Vicious night? Are we okay?" Phillip asked.
"I'm fine, but there's one less blood sucker." Alice replied as he pushed herself back to the material world.
"So, what are you looking for this time?" Phillip asked as he stepped into the poor light.
She pulled out a piece of e-paper. On it was an image of the dead vampire earlier that night. "Information. Who is he, and if you know, what kind of person was he before?"
"Patrick Rogers." Phillip said with just a glance. "He was new to the shadows, had that romanticized view of what it's like to be a vampire."
Alice pocketed the e-paper. She already knew the details of this "romanticized" view many had, thanks to stories like Twilight and such similar drek that kept resurfacing, even in the sixth world when vampires were real and established predators of humanity. When it came to stories about vampires she was a fan and proponent of the works of Martin de Vries.
"He only thought of the immortality of being a vampire." Phillip continued, "Thought of having himself a harem of vampire lovers at his beck and call."
"That include little girls?" Alice asked, her voice a knife's edge.
"Whoa, hey!" Phillip exclaimed, hands up in defense. "Whatever perversions like that he was into I didn't know! He's just the kind of guy that'd give the rest of us a bad name."
Alice glared at him.
"Alright, a worse name." Phillip amended. "So, looks like he didn't even make it through his first month. Can ya tell me who did him in?"
"For what I know he tried to turn a ten year old girl tonight." Alice told him, "Her boyfriend of about the same age awakened and tore his neck out with his bare hands."
Phillips eyes went wide, but he could see the lethal edge of the truth in Alice. "Is he… Are they…" he tried to say.
"They're alive and well." Alice told him, scowling at the parroted attempt of concern. She knew his greater concern was competition for sustenance.
Phillip whistled. "Hey, if ya see him ya can tell him thanks from me."
"Get the hell out of here." growled Alice.
In a flicker of color Phillip's body dissolved into a fine gray mist. He floated away into the shadows.
Scowling, Alice turned and walked back out the alley.
Creeping sunlight warmly touched Cypher's face, rousing him from the oblivion of sleep. He did not open his eyes right away, allowing his mind first to clear away the fog before anything else.
As his thoughts slowly came to speed he took stock in what he was feeling. He was in a very soft bed, on his side, with someone at his back and their arm draped over him. His first thought was this had to be Seraphina, especially how familiar the touch of bare skin to his naked back was. This would not be the first time they had slept in such a position.
His eyes still closed he mentally accessed the Globetrotter orientation system implanted in his brain, the commlink nestled next to it telling him it was past quarter to eight in the morning, and in a second he had gotten his coordinates at just south of Spring Lake in Seattle, close to a rather upscale neighborhood.
Then he looked up the current access ID for Ironhide. It took a bit longer to locate it, finding that it was still near Doctors Hospital, well over thirty kilometers away as the dragon flies. It was still where he had left it in the parking lot, undisturbed and relatively ignored for the time being.
The arm over him shifted and a hand came over his chest. Slowly he put his cybernetic hand over it and reflexively their fingers laced together.
"Mina?" he whispered.
She said nothing, answering only with a tightening hug. It sounded like she was trying to hide it, but he could hear her sobbing softly, and he felt the softness of her tears at his back.
