Hybrid 20!

I know. It's earlier than the others.

I couldn't wait, although you might not like me at the end. :3

Mia Teresa Davenport: "Yes, frown. You'll be prepared."

ShyMusic: Go, spies!

So let's do this! Akani?

"Zara doesn't own Lab Rats or anything you recognize. If you don't recognize it, it's probably hers."

"If it looks real and feels real, do you think it matters if it's real?"

Daniel Nayeri, Another Faust

"Within you is the power of unlimited creation."

Bryant McGill, Voice of Reason

Chase

Hey, Hellcat! Want to go on a mission in the middle of the night?

Sure. Sounded fun. It's not like I needed sleep or anything. I could stay awake for days, damn it!

If you haven't caught that I'm being sarcastic by now, then you might need some sleep yourself.

When Perry heard about an embezzlement sting, she decided that it would be a fine idea to loose the hounds of hell on the Hunters. A double-pronged attack. It was reasonably sound, but did it have to be at night?

Perry had decided to join us as we laid in wait. She was watching Kevin's apartment through binoculars while somehow balancing on a tree branch as well as I was. I was perched as a raven on a branch above her for two reasons. I had to be slightly higher to see into the apartment without binoculars, but - more importantly - the branch she was balanced on was groaning alarmingly.

Perry let out a snort. "I wish that blond homewrecker had volunteered for this himself."

I agree, the little voice in my head started. He dies, and you get to shove this one out of the tree. Fun all around.

I rolled my eyes, watching Kevin as he sat in his chair. Or, rather, the illusion of Kevin. Remember when I mentioned a long time ago that I could create sensory illusions?

I could make sensory illusions.

Of course, at a distance, it was harder for me to control. Usually, I would only throw around my illusionary weight when summoned, making me the epicenter of the effect. With this image of Kevin being a good hundred feet or so away from me, each little movement it made was a major effort for me. If I was going to pull off my part of the plan without passing out, my Kevin puppet had to be very still until everything went to metaphorical hell.

Static suddenly hissed irritatingly out of a small radio on my bird ankle. "When is this going to happen?"

Perry answered back on her own radio watch. "Shut up. You're annoying me."

The imp who spoke the first time - a little golden furred fox named Akani - growled over the radio. "Look -"

"Shut up," Perry interrupted. "Where do you have to be, anyways? Back with your Master? And if your answer is anything but 'nowhere,' I'm going to come down there and start a fight you'll never forget, mutt."

I could hear Akani growling faintly in the night down beneath us somewhere while one of the djinns she was waiting with snorted arrogantly at Perry's threat. The afrit was quiet, but I didn't doubt that he was equally skeptical. "You know," I began, "I wouldn't make enemies of these guys. You never know when -"

"Stuff it, mutant," Perry muttered excitedly. "I see somebody!"

I resisted the urge to peck her and glanced at the window. Sure enough, I could see someone picking the lock on Kevin's door. I made the illusion get up, wincing at the energy drain. He would have to fight the Hunter to sell this whole thing.

It was bad enough that I had to make him appear real. I had to make him tangible, too. The lengths I had to go through for this whole thing was insane.

I know what you're thinking: Why couldn't someone else make the illusion?

Simple, random citizen.

See, Perry had only rounded up a few demons for this particular operation. While everyone else was out there trying to find the newest home base - finding a needle in multiple haystacks would be easier, in my opinion - we were playing Mission Impossible. And, with the exception of Akani, I was the weakest demon involved.

Why that put me up here is something I'll explain momentarily.

Perry was giving go-aheads through her radio watch to the demons below when the apartment door finally popped open. I made "Kevin" drop into a defensive crouch, but the bitch that broke in demonstrated that, after fighting demons, humans were no threat. She flung a knife that buried itself very, very accurately in "Kevin's" chest, slipping between the ribs to undoubtedly pierce his heart. I made him do a whole bit to buy everyone time. He clutched the knife handle, looking betrayed as he sunk to his knees and twisted very slowly to fall on his side, his breathing loud and raspy until I finally stopped creating that effect. I made blood pool around him as the assassin crouched down and pressed her fingers to his neck. Luckily, illusions didn't have pulses, so she looked quite satisfied when she stood again.

A bit upset at having murdered a former comrade, but satisfied.

Quite the professional, really.

As quickly as she arrived, she left again, trotting downstairs. I allowed the Kevin illusion to fade out, relieved and drained. My part was finished for the evening. The ground crew, though, were about to start theirs.

See, when the assassin returned to her car, she would go to collect her reward. And, traveling to the base with her, were two djinns, an afrit, and an imp that had all stowed away in her trunk. Once there, the djinns and afrit would tear up any Hunter they found and bring the money to Perry while Akani sniffed out any information she possibly could.

That was why I made the illusion. Perry wanted the strongest demons fighting against experienced demon hunters. And, should that all go wrong and the demons died, Akani was small enough to make an escape with as much intelligence as she could.

It was as sound an operation as Perry could make, and I was - reluctantly - glad that Douglas had thought of getting her involved.

Now, if I could just get her to carry me home so that I wouldn't have to wearily stumble there, that would be perfect. Maybe if I turned into a cat?

"They tried to be too clever-and that was their undoing."

Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles

"The sinister, the terrible never deceive: the state in which they leave us is always one of enlightenment. And only this condition of vicious insight allows us a full grasp of the world, all things considered, just as a frigid melancholy grants us full possession of ourselves. We may hide from horror only in the heart of horror. ("The Medusa")"

Thomas Ligotti

Bree

Hanging on a ceiling in an office building was something Bree could handle. She climbed up walls and ran along ceilings all the time to evade security. As far as she was concerned, the mission was mundane. She could put her agility to much better use. For example...

She couldn't think of anything right then, but there had to be something. Of that, she was sure.

Over her comm. set, Mr. Davenport was giving her instructions to hack her way into the computer in the financing office of Mission Creek's City Hall. She wished he could talk faster. She could out-type his words by a long shot. Even if she didn't understand it, she could type it in an instant.

Not that it was working.

When nothing happened again, Bree sighed heavily. "Mr. Davenport, it's not working."

"Have you tried hitting it?" Adam asked.

Bree rolled her eyes.

She could hear Douglas saying something in the background of Mr. Davenport's comm. set. A few seconds later, Mr. Davenport responded. "Okay, try this."

Bree typed rapidly as Mr. Davenport gave instructions, hoping that it wasn't in vain again. However, she was pleasantly rewarded with the home screen. "Hey, that worked. Now, what am I supposed to be looking for?"

"Just download everything into the USB drive I gave you," Mr. Davenport instructed. "Then stay vigilant. It'll take a while."

"Got it," Bree acknowledged, inserting the small device into the computer and set the files to download. Then, she leaned back in the chair. The files were set to take an hour or so to transfer, so she had time to think. Or, rather, to sleep. The place was dead. Not a security officer in sight, Adam was watching the front doors downstairs, and the cameras in the room had been disabled by a series of swift kicks. She was safe. Besides, she had school in the morning. She had to sleep sometime.

About midway through her nap, though, she was very rudely interrupted.

A hand grasped the back of her neck, dragging her to her feet while long nails dug painfully into her skin. Air, cold as ice, made her shiver as a man hissed loudly in her ear. "What are you doing here?"

Bree yelped loudly, struggling. She didn't know where she heard it before, but she knew that voice. And it raised so much fear in her that she forgot all of her training.

"Bree?" Mr. Davenport asked, alarm lacing his voice. "What's happening?"

"Are you here to stop me?" Continued her captor in his very deep, menacing voice. "Or those Hunters?" After a second, he laughed a bit. "Actually, it doesn't matter. Both interfere with my plans, and I can't let that happen, can I?"

Adam's voice came to her this time. "Bree! I'm coming! Stay calm!"

"Adam," Bree managed to say before the comm. set was ripped away from her ear. She heard a loud crunching sound, and Mr. Davenport's and Adam's voices stopped altogether.

"Who was that?" hissed the man. "Are they coming for you?"

Bree thrust her elbow back hard, connecting soundly with what felt like a stomach. The man yelped and released her, allowing her to bolt away. She couldn't use her speed – she might be caught on a working camera – but she could still outrun a politician, damn it.

But she couldn't run through the circle of fire that suddenly sprang up around her.

Bree slid to a stop, biting down a panicked scream. The building was going to burn, and she was trapped inside it with a man who obviously wasn't entertaining friendly ideas for her. At least she was safe from –

Or not. Bree got her first glimpse of the man when he walked through the fucking fire like it was a wall of water. And he seemed nonchalant about it. Like he did it all the time. Like it wasn't inhuman to safely walk through flames. Bree's shuddered. "Who are you?"

The man grinned maliciously, walking towards her. "We've met before. Have you forgotten me already?"

Bree took a small step back, once again struck with the idea that he sounded familiar.

"I'm offended that you don't remember me," he said mockingly. "But don't worry. Everyone will remember me soon enough. But, until then, I can't have you messing that up."

"I know how to fight," Bree threatened, but her words sounded hollow in her ears.

The man laughed condescendingly. "That means nothing to me."

"And I have someone outside who's coming inside right now to help," she tried, bluffing. She had no doubt that Mr. Davenport was sending Adam through the building towards her, but who knew how long that could take?

"They'll find you," the man responded. "But you won't see them again."

Bree felt the blood draining from her face. The morbid curiosity about what he meant triggered the bead of her bracelet, allowing her to flit through seven planes. And, on the seventh, she blanched. Before she could say or do anything, the most agonizing pain she had ever felt tore through her. Her screams of pain soon faded with the fire, the room, the light. Everything. It all vanished before her, rearranging before her in the strangest, most twisted, terrifying world she had ever seen.

Panicking, Bree looked around wildly, unable to take in the details of her surroundings in her fear. She was focused too much on the hundreds of pairs of wicked eyes that locked on her. A set of sharp teeth glinted in the darkness nearby, grinning. "Hello, little mortal."

As the pairs of eyes started converging on her, Bree let out another scream of terror.

Not that anyone would hear her.

Holy shit, what happened to Bree?!

Who was that?!

Guess we'll have to wait and see.

So, until next time, feel free to review. Or don't. Meh.

And enjoy.

*Bows and exits*