Sunday
The Manor.
Even with the unknown potions analysis sent over by Inspector Cortez, both Piper and Prue experiments had resulted in them finding it impossible to make. Its toxic nature had already resulted in Piper and Prue each receiving a serious burn which Leo had to heal. While they were fairly sure they knew most of the ingredients, the analysis did not tell them in what order they were added or the amounts. That one or more ingredients might also be missing could also be a possibility and that could be fatal if the potion was not effective as a result. And without a Wolfen to test it on, they had no idea if it would work.
By now they knew the identity of the woman killed in the park however tracing her family was proving very difficult. A DNA match to an unsolved case had led to her name. Her parents and a brother had disappeared in a camping trip in the mountains several years ago under strange circumstances involving an animal attack. A highly tramatised Sarah and her younger sister had survived but vanished soon after. It was thought they had joined some cult but no one knew anything about the other members or how to contact them. Like so many in America, they had vanished into the population.
Monday
Monday: South Bay Social Services.
As early as she could make it, Nightstalker arrived with Gutter, Sprinter and Watcher, although she took care to call them by their hated human names. As she spun her tale of her and children's mistreatment by her 'husbands' family, the children took care to appear suitably distressed. Laughing internally at the ease in which Nightstalker fooled the humans, they waited patiently as some financial arrangements were discussed.
The human known as a Mr Cowan, told Nightstalker that another worker by the name of Paige Matthews had been assigned her case. Paige would advance them money and help them acquire a new home. Seeing that Paige had arrived and was now at her desk, he called her into his office.
As Paige walked over to her boss's office she paused to look at the three quiet and scared looking children, currently being fused over by several of the social workers. What stopped her in her tracks, was what she felt when she reached out to their minds. While she could not read their thoughts, their intentions were plain as they wanted nothing but to kill those round them and the fact they could not, was proving highly frustrating. The difference between their outward manner and their internal desires, caused Paige to stop and shake her head to clear the discontinuity from her mind.
At the same time, Mr Cowan was shocked as Nightstalker, who he knew as Narsay, suddenly noticeably sniffed the air and rose rapidly from her seat and turned towards the door. From a quiet and scared women, in seconds her demeanor had changed into something Mr Cowan had only seen on peoples faces as they had attempted to attack him in a rage. He couldn't help himself as a burst of fear made him step back away from the suddenly dangerous woman.
Nightstalker recognised Paige's scent from saturday's encounter on the rock and prepared herself to attack. Outside the office Paige also felt the sudden change in Nightstalker's mind set and she recognised the mind as the one she had encountered before as a animal. As Nightstalker appeared in the office doorway, Paige stepped back and raised her hands as she prepared to defend herself. Instantly Nightstalker realised that she could not risk a fight with a powerful witch, especially with so many humans around, which meant retreat was her only option. Ordering the children to follow, she ran from the building.
Mr Cowan burst from the office and tried to catch up with them, only to be stopped by Paige. Before he could get an explanation, Paige ran from the building, pulling her cell phone out and pressing the speed dial button to contact her sisters. As it was now too late to follow and since no one else had known what was going on, Mr Cowan had no choice but to return to his office and wait for Paige to return.
As Paige orbed from behind a dumpster onto the top of a building in front of the still running Nightstalker, she informed Piper of what had happened. Within seconds Leo had orbed with Piper and Phoebe onto the roof alongside her. Prue was contacted and left a photo shoot to climb into her SUV and join them as soon as possible. Cole called and asked her to pick him up from a street on the way. He had obtained some weapons from an old stash that could be useful. The family began to close in on the four Wolfen.
Orbing carefully from one location to another, to avoid detection by Nightstalker or anyone else, the sisters and Leo watched as the Wolfen entered a park and then settled under a tree. Looking for all the world like a mother with three children out for the day, it seemed normal although some would have wondered why the oldest was not in school.
Prue and Cole who had been carefully following some distance back in Prue's SUV, now closed the gap and moved to the far side of the park to block any possible escape.
Discussing tactics via their cell phones, it was decided that any attempt to confront the Wolfen directly was too great a risk. Far too many innocent bystanders were close by and if the Wolfen scattered, tracking them would be impossible.
And as the Wolfen were only directly effected by only the most powerful of spells, this limited the magic that the sisters could use against them. However Phoebe suggested an alternative. Instead of using spells to attack them, a spell could be used to hide them from the public. This would let them use their powers, especially Prue's and Piper's when they confronted the Wolfen.
Conferring with Prue and Cole, a plan was decided on. Leo, Piper and Phoebe would orb to where Cole and Prue waited and Paige would wait to keep an eye on the Wolfen. Leo and Piper would act as a couple out for a walk together and choose a place as close to the Wolfen as possible without spooking them.
Paige would then also join Prue and Cole who had obtained some silver throwing daggers and two silver swords that he assured everyone would be effective against the Wolfen.
Nightstalker began considering moving on, as they had stayed in one place long enough. While the couple who had settled close by only a minute before, ignored them completely as they seemed to have eyes for only each other. However they still made her nervous, something about them did not seem right.
Phoebe and Paige, each took one of the dagger's while Cole kept the swords. He would protect Prue's real body while she was in her astral form. Now that Piper and Leo were in place, the three sisters said the spell that would hide the confrontation from the general public.
In this place and in this hour
I call upon the ancient powers
Hide us and this Evil
now in plain sight
So we might fight
Then the world changed, became quieter and slightly darker and Nightstalker realised that a spell had been cast on their surroundings. Which meant that not only had the witches found them but they were about to attack.
As she got to her feet, Gutter snarled a warning, as a tall dark haired women appeared just in front of Nightstalker. Everything about her confused Nightstalker as while some of her senses said she was there, others insisted that she was not. At the same time, the couple which Nightstalker had been nervous of, got to their feet and turned to face them. And from the other side, the witch from the Social center and another women arrived to confront them.
Effectively surrounded, Nightstalkers first thought was for the children, the future of the pack. "Wait" said the first women as she held up her hands, "we want to talk, maybe there is a way around this without anyone dying".
Nightstalker immediately turned to the children and said "Home". As she turned back towards the black haired women, she started to change into her Wolfen form. Her clothes, carefully weakened with this in mind, either fell off or ripped as her body, driven by the fear hormones now surging through her blood stream, started the change with painful speed. Snarls and a yelp, behind her showed that the children were also changing rapidly.
To give the children time to scatter and to take at least one witch with her, Nightstalker attacked Prue who had appeared to having made the mistake of coming too close. Prue responded instantly, as she used her power to throw a still changing Nightstalker back into the solid tree trunk behind her, slamming her into it with considerable force. Before a stunned Nightstalker could recover, Piper froze her.
Meanwhile Sprinter, living up to her name, changed fast enough to run between Prue and Paige to reach cover inside a tree and bush covered area that extended across most of the park. As a changed Gutter charged towards Prue, he leaped for her throat, only to slammed into the ground as Prue used her telekinesis to stop him. As he struggled to get to his feet, Prue again used her powers to pick him up and throw him into the tree. Hitting head first, he slumped to the ground unconscious. Watcher finished the change the slowest and charged towards the last two witches to arrive. Both Paige and Phoebe threw their dagger's, one sinking into Watcher's left front leg and the other penetrating her shoulder deeply. Watcher rolled over in pain as she was unable stay on her feet. Ending up only a few feet from the Witches, she lay on her side and tried to look as hurt as possible. Maybe one of them would come too close, however neither Phoebe or Paige were prepared to make that mistake.
Prue astral body faded, with both her and Cole walking quickly into the spell hidden area. Cole with one of the swords was joined by Phoebe to keep a careful eye on Gutter while Leo who had been now been given the second sword, joined Paige who was regarding Watcher warily. Prue and Piper moved to interrogate Nightstalker. Wondering if the Wolfen had changed too far and could no longer speak, Piper unfroze Nightstalkers head.
As Nightstalker looked around, everything had changed, Gutter was unconscious next to her and a pain filled whine drew her attention to the badly hurt Watcher. Sprinter was nowhere to be send, so hopefully she had escaped.
With the two cubs, each being watched, the remaining two witches approached her. One hung back, but the tall dark haired one from before came close. This time, all her senses confirmed that the witch was here.
The dark haired witch spoke, "Can you understand me, Wolfen?" and she waited for a reply. As the Wolfen ignored her and continued to just look around, Prue added "We can vanquish you and these two easily".
With both cubs either unconscious or unable to move, Nightstalker finally turned to look at the witch who had questioned her. In a guttural voice due to her partial change, she said "What will you do with us?".
"That is up to you" replied Prue, "we know that you are Wolfen, that you have killed humans and there are many more of you. If we wanted to kill you, you would be dead. I want to find a way to get you out of the city, without anyone else dying". "Don't trust it, remember they are killers" called out Cole.
As Prue looked up, she found Paige looking first at Nightstalker and then as she looked at Prue, she shook her head, backing up Cole's comment. Prue turned back to look at Nightstalker and added "We have dealt with demon's, warlocks and many other magical creatures, don't underestimate who we are".
Nightstalker quietly assessed the witches manner and found confidence and little fear. She would have to move fast when the magic wore off to kill this witch and distract enough of the others to allow Gutter to escape. Her own pregnancy was not as important as Gutter was a proven Wolfen. Watcher would have to take her chances as she was too badly hurt.
As the magic that held her weakened, Nightstalker found herself able to move. Noticing this Prue took several steps back and Piper raised her hands. Nightstalker finished the change and charged Prue, staying low as she tried to get under Prue's guard. Before she could get close to Prue, Piper tried to blow her up, hitting her on the shoulder. Nightstalker was badly hurt and sent flying sideways to land and roll over as she hit the ground. With nothing to lose, she forced herself to her paws and charged Prue again. This time Piper was ready and hit her with all her power, and Nightstalker vanished in a ball of fire.
Gutter also started to regain consciousness and rolled over to try get on his feet. Cole without hesitating, immediately stabbed the young Wolfen in the chest with his sword. With a yelp of pain, Gutter tried to turn his head around to bite the sword, now deep in his chest. Before he made contact, he also disappeared in a ball of flame, the sword falling to the ground.
As Watcher began to trash around, apparently in considerable pain or distress, Piper took pity and froze her.
"Damn" said Prue and as Cole picked up the sword and turned towards Watcher, she said "wait, we need to know more and you can't talk to dust". In a strong passionate voice, Cole said "It's a Wolfen, a killer and they are like that from birth, if it isn't killed then it will kill humans, maybe one of us". "We need to know more about them" replied Prue, stepping between Watcher and Cole, "we can muzzle and cage it. Its hurt, can barely move, I think we can deal with it". "Her actually, assuming their physical appearance is the same as dogs" remarked Paige who had taken the time to more closely examine Watcher.
"We take her back to manor, muzzle her and place in a crystal cage, the most powerful we have. If we can get her to talk, then we can learn" stated Prue. "And if she escapes, then you have a killer with no compassion lose in the Manor" argued Cole. "It won't be the first time" replied a by now angry Prue, who then paused as a shocked silence followed her last comment. "Sorry, that was not called for" she said to Cole in a quiet voice, looking down at the ground. Looking back up, "Still she comes with us" Prue stated.
"On your head be it" replied an equally angry Cole as he turned his back on Prue.
Leo agreed to orb the still frozen Wolfen cub back to the manor with Piper. Paige would follow while Cole and Phoebe would return with Prue in her SUV.
Over a 100 meters away, hiding under a thick dense bush, Sprinter watched with horror that changed to deep hatred as both Nightstalker and Gutter died and like all magical creatures, vanished in flame as the magic unraveled. The witches except for three, disappeared in what appeared to be a cloud of bubbles, taking Watcher with them. The remaining three walked out of sight towards the road.
As she started her journey to return to the pack, Sprinter fought to follow her training and not succumb to her blood lust and start killing all around her. She would have to take the news to the pack but first she had to make sure that there was no way she could be followed back to the lair.
Police Headquarters (mid morning)
Meanwhile Jumper had entered the police station to contact Inspector Cortez. Using his persona as a private investigator who had been tracking similar deaths in other cities, he was able to convince both Cortez and Darryl to listen to him. As he showed off his knowledge of the killings in other cities, Inspector Cortez decided to bring him onto the team in an informal manner.
Jumper or James as he was known to humans, quickly made useful contacts among the members of the police team that had been put together to investigate what was now called the Park murders. As James had just arrived in the city, Inspector Cortez asked Darryl to find him a motel close by and provide him with lunch.
Given the circumstances and the information that James had to offer, Darryl first rang Sheila to check that it would be OK if he and several officers had lunch at their apartment. Joined by Cortez and three other officers from the investigating team, Darryl took James to meet Sheila and have lunch at their apartment. This allowed for a long and interesting discussion as James revealed what he wanted the police to find out. Mixing truth with carefully made up stories, James guided the investigation away from any possibility of the Wolfen being considered as part of the case.
Instead a picture emerged of large dogs controlled by a group of sick minded people who trained them to kill humans. While James knew little about the group, it was implied that they were a cult or involved in dog fighting. Highly secretive and very mobile, this group, according to James had proven to be very difficult to track down.
As none of the press had yet made any connection between the two known killings by these dogs, it was decided that secrecy had to be maintained. All the officers had no problem imagining what would happen if the general public learned about these killer dogs and their controllers. Panic and mayhem would ensure with random shooting of dogs and even their owners.
Refusing the offer of a motel, James implied that he preferred to continue with his own investigation, for personal reasons. However he promised to met regularly with the police team to swap information.
