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Natalie was violently thrown back into awareness with an ear-splitting scream. Her stomach turned as the room snapped back into its former dimensions and managed to become better lit in the process.

It was more crowded now too, she noted with a disturbed giggle. Didn't those two go to school with her? And who was the goth chick that was with them? The fact that they were all wielding medieval weapons just struck her as even more humorous in some insane way. The laughter was choked off as the silver wire dug into her convulsing midsection. Natalie let out a slight sob, terrified beyond even questioning why she had to go through this.

The tall one with the cheap purple die-job had managed to slip around the frozen deformed ones. He now kneeled beside her, trying gingerly to figure out a way to sever the wires holding her. Natalie rolled to her back, wincing slightly in pain, and looked up at him with maddened, desperate eyes, begging for any sort of escape from this. The guy turned his head away, blushing. Natalie realized her clothing now comprised of nothing more than a few bloodstained shreds of what used to be her shorts.

A dull rumbling filled the room as its dimensions once again seemed to tilt out of proportion. It must have not just been Natalie's imagination, as the guy over her quickly reached to the wall to balance himself. Once again the floor seemed to tilt, but this time in a different fashion, instead of curling in towards the hideous symbol, it almost seemed to arc away, as if something was trying to push its way out from the symbol itself.

"Please...help me!" Natalie cried, too scared to even acknowledge the guy's obvious embarrassment at the sight of a naked female figure. He nodded dumbly and went to work. It was a very crude and simple tie, in a few seconds he was done.

Natalie forced herself out of the now loosened bonds. Her thanks were drowned out by a harsh tearing. It sounded like the veil of reality had just been ripped in half. The sound escalated, growing even louder. Knowing nothing but fear, Natalie crouched into the arms of her apparent savior. In some small, still rational part of her brain, she noticed that, aside from blushing even more at the nude female in his lap, the guy's hands were burned, right on the fingers, where he was working on the wires. Then he was...fuck.

Comprehension was knocked aside as the already deafening sound reached a crescendo. Natalie and Kouzo were thrown harshly against the wall as a bolt of orange-tinged lightning shot out of the center of the spiral-symbol on the floor, striking the ceiling. The fomori were knocked to the ground, and even May and Haru had to crouch from the sudden release of energy and blinding flash of light.

As one, everyone in the now-silent tunnel-junction picked their way back to their feet, and realized there was now one more figure in the room.

He stood at the center of the spiral, a little over six feet tall. Long, snow-white hair fell nearly to his waist. One hand was upraised, flexing and unflexing carefully. The eyes, set in a face that looked to be somewhere in the mid-twenties, were closed, deep in contemplation. The right hand was not there, the arm degraded into a twitching tentacle. Yet unlike the fomori who had now stood back up and turned to see the newcomer, this tendril was held under a calm control and restraint.

The eyes opened, regarding all within the room with a cool disdain, "So long...and it still smells here."

The fomori began staggering towards the white-haired figure, who was clad in some sort of sheer white robe that moved about his skin as if it had a life of its own. He looked at them, through them. "The time has come to change this world," he said softly, betraying no emotion.

The left hand lifted, the nails were long and pointed, yet immaculate. A dim green glow emanated from them, "The weak will be cleansed, and the earth shall be made anew."

A flash of green light exploded outwards from the figure's hand. The fomori were engulfed in boiling green flames. Kouzo covered his eyes, but had already seen more than enough. Only dim shadows were visible through the flames, yet he could see them deformed as the fire crawled across their skin. New mutations sprang up in the space of a second, then the flesh began sloughing off, hitting the ground in soft liquid puddles. The fomori crumpled into each other, melting into a steaming reddish-green pool. A few lumps of melted bone protruded from the surface.

Haru and May looked up to see the figure had turned away, apparently considering them beneath notice. The room once again began to fill with an orange light. It played delicately over the white-haired man's skin, growing, expanding, until it covered his entire body. It then faded, taking the man with it.

Haru, May, Natalie and Kouzo were left alone in the sewer.

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The dreams were bad enough. But even the worst were muddled, vague visions. Filled with a mad symbolism, distorted fears and impossible scenes. Most of what she had remembered happening last night did not fall into any of those categories. The theatre, those...things that imperfectly mimicked people. That rage. No, that thing that was so far beyond it. Natalie felt like she had done a decent impression of one of those things from 28 Days Later, except her body...her body had become just as destructive as her mind had desperately desired to be.

Natalie stretched out carefully, as if experiencing her body's capabilities for the first time. In a way, that was exactly what she was doing. For all the horror, the seeming impossibility of what had happened last night, it was also a release of sorts. The past several months, all the uncertainty, the stress, the half-seen illusions, delusions and hallucinations. Last night it was as if she were no longer maddeningly teased with these and simply given a brief, full glimpse to their true nature. The memories were unclear now. Something involving a hideous green light, tight, burning wires that her very skin seemed to recoil from, and a perverse tearing of natural laws that weren't quite as inviolate as she once believed them to be. She couldn't remember all of what she had seen, but she now felt... no, she knew that what had happened within her last night left her with at least the capability of finding out. She was changed, yet not. She was the same, but now with infinitely more of what was essentially her. She had unveiled something that had been sleeping within her. She felt like... well... she really wanted to talk to mom. She was whatever mom was. A... werewolf?

Mom.

Natalie got out of the foreign bed. She was in a nightshirt, not her own. She didn't remember changing into it. After the change, she had simply numbly accepted everything that came to her. She dimly remembered a glowing sign, “The Node”. Her mom often met with friends there, didn't she? She also remembered Barry, the owner, yelling at the cold-handed women who helped her out of the sewers. The word 'leech' floated across Natalie's mind, looking for something to connect to. She remembered being told she was safe here. She opened the door, traversing the hallway and nearly running into Barry.

Barry looked, but didn't sound Puerto-Rican. Calling him a 'big man' would be an understatement. Calling him 'gay' would also be an understatement. He filled the hall like a golem. A golem clad in a bright pink polo shirt and wearing a rainbow pin. His black, curly hair was buzz-cut, tightly hugging his oversized head. “Morning darling!” he said in a bright cheerful voice, “I was actually just coming up to see if you were up yet.”

Natalie rubbed her eyes, “Where's mom? I need to see her.”

“First thing's first,” Barry replied, holding out a steaming glass, “Coffee, get some in you. I sent someone over to your dad's house to explain things as much as possible to him, and to pick you up some extra clothes.”

“Coffee,” Natalie repeated, numbly taking the glass and drinking.

“You looked pretty bad when they hauled you in last night, but it turned out to be nothing more than cuts and bruises,” Barry said, leading Natalie downstairs.

A door opened up to the dining area proper of The Node. Fresh coffee, tea, and cappuccino, 24 hours a day. Wireless internet at reasonable prices, come on in and bring your friends with you. A few people looked oddly at the girl in the nightshirt walking by. Barry gave each a brief glare and they immediately found something else to occupy their interest. Eventually the half-awake girl was safely guided to a computer and sat down in front of it. “Here you are,” Barry said amiably, “I've already upped your membership to give you unrestricted access, I figured this might help calm your nerves a little. The least I could do anyways, seeing as how you're one of us now, have fun!”

“One of you?” Natalie slowly asked, but Barry had already gone off to serve a couple customers. She shrugged and took another sip of coffee, zoning out the rest of the world and focusing on the flat-screen monitor in front of her.

“How is she?” Charlene asked, leaned over the counter and sipping her own mocha. She wore a low-cut blouse which did a marvelous job of showing off her generous cleavage. It often was rather successful in distracting most male viewers from the fact that her earrings had human teeth in them.

Barry cast a quick glance over at her, hunched over in front of the computer, coffee in one hand, mouse in the other. “She's coping. She went through a hell of a lot.”

“She got lucky,” Charlene said, “Really lucky, and she's just a kid.”

“It's the same that any of us are expected to go through,” Barry said firmly, but with a touch of softness in his voice, “We'll have to commend Haru, and the others too. At least we know the kin-fetch system is working.”

“It was more than that, though,” Charlene hissed, “They knew she was about to change, and they came for her. A pretty goddamn bold move on their part too, in leech territory.”

“The cliaths handled themselves pretty damn well,” Barry said, “Nothing more than a couple of weak fomori. The packs running in the 'burbs deal with worse on a daily basis.”

Charlene sighed, turning and leaning back against the counter, “I can't see how you can be so relaxed about all this. Fomori popping up far outside the 'burbs, and from what the kids described, Black Spirals are involved too.”

“You just have to keep some perspective,” Barry said with a smile, “We're doing good things with this city, and those kids are part of it. Remember, it used to be far worse here, when she was still around.”

“I'm not talking about her,” Charlene spat, “...and the sooner she's forgotten, the better. A lot of good friends died because of that bitch's insanity.”

“Fair enough,” Barry nodded, “So what do you make of that other one the kids were talking about? The white haired one.”

“From the sound of it, just a really powerful fomor. Probably rather insane as well, seeing as how he attacked his own. Maybe he was an escaped Pentex experiment, who knows?” Charlene replied, “Hell, maybe they imagined him. From what they said, it sounded like the Dancers were trying to convert the girl on the spot, and things tend to get a little fucked up around their rituals. I'm more curious about the leech, and the fact that Mallory seems to know her.”

“I kicked that bloodsucking bitch out in short order,” Barry replied, “And I swear, if I see that damn cat one more time I swear I'm going to throttle him until he fesses up on what he's planning. Bastet or not, we're all Gaia's children, we shouldn't be hiding this sort of shit from each other.”

“Speaking of hiding shit, when are you planning on telling Natalie that her mother's MIA?” Charlene said.

Barry hung his head, “I'll have to tell her. Don't worry, I'll do it, I just hope she can take the news. What is the news on that end anyways?”

“Nothing good,” Charlene replied, “Just got a call from one of her pack, said the fomori hit them hard while they were out on patrol, and they got split up. There's been no word from any of the others.”

“Er, excuse me?”

“What?” Barry said slightly louder and more forcefully than he intended. The kid, a college student with tussled hair and horn-rimmed glasses took a few steps backward.

“Er, sorry, um, Barry,” the kid replied, “It's just, that girl that you brought in um...it's weird but...”

“But what?” Barry said, keeping his voice slightly calmer.

“Well, she, er...disappeared...”

“What?!” Barry leaned over the counter, seeing the now empty computer terminal across the lobby as Charlene did the same, “Where'd she go?”

“No, it's not like that... er...” the kid now looked on the verge of running. Gay or not, the kid thought, this guy was fucking scary when he got pissed.

“Not like what?” Barry said, putting a hand the size of the kid's head on a quivering shoulder, preventing all further retrograde movement.

“Well, I mean... she disappeared, as in actually disappeared...”

“What?!!”

Natalie looked around. This wasn't The Node. Wait, this WAS The Node. But different...so very different. Soft, twisted lumps grew out of an uneven floor with tiles that looked almost like scales. She found she was sitting on one of these lumps. When Natalie looked back at the computer, she found it too had changed. The hard-drive and monitor had fused into one misshapen object. Wires, motherboards and a twisted metal frame crouching spider-like on the smooth, rounded counter. Several protrusions of wire and metal almost looked like legs, and dominating the center was a hypnotically flickering monitor.

That was how she got to wherever the hell this was, she realized. She had gone idly browsing, something about werewolves, when the message box popped up on her screen. This was strange, as she hadn't had any of the six messenger programs she normally used open at the time. Still, apparently mr_cockroach wanted to talk to her. He had one hell of an animated icon as well. So well animated the little 8-bit image, in the shape of a highly pixelated six-legged thing, crawled right out of the instant-message window, hopped down to the toolbar, and waved at her.

Slightly amused, Natalie had waved back. The message box flashed, “Come closer, I'd like to see you in person.”

Natalie had arched an eyebrow suspiciously, “As tempting as that is, I really have a thing against meeting random strangers I just met online.”

The box flashed again, “Just touch me then.”

Natalie typed back, “Yeah, and I really have a thing against meeting perverts I just met online.”

A quick reply, “The icon, silly.”

Natalie looked down. The cockroach, if that's what it was, was now gesturing frantically towards itself in all its 8-bit glory. Curiously, she reached out and poked the computer screen where it was. There was a sudden feeling of disorientation, as if Natalie had suddenly uncrossed her eyes. When she looked up, she realized she was no longer in The Node, yet strangely enough, still in The Node.

There was no one here, even though she could hear the occasional car go by outside. Yet they sounded wrong too. No, everything sounded wrong here. For one thing, there was far more sound than there should have been. The computer... thing in front of her was humming merrily away, yet the hum was anything but steady. It fluctuated back and forth in pitch and tone, sounding almost like breathing. The traffic outside occasionally gave out animalistic snarls, peppered with mechanical screeches. And above it all was a constant, throbbing pulse.

A tapping sound drew Natalie's attention. She looked down and saw the cockroach sitting on the twisted reflection of the counter the computer that she was just at was just sitting on. This cockroach, though, was a good four inches long and two inches tall. It seemed to be made completely out of circuit boards and glowing blue fibre-optic wires. It waved at her with its front claw. Smiling the smile of someone who's fairly certain she had just lost her sanity, Natalie waved back.

She stood up to explore wherever this was. The computer-spider-thing settled down as she did, nesting into a web-like tangle of wires and cords that spread and grew into and out of the walls and floor around it like plastic vines. She went to the strangely warped glass door of what looked sort of like the Node and opened them. They parted with a bit of pressure, emitting a weird organic creak as they did. Natalie stepped outside and saw something that was almost identical to, but was completely different from the city of Milwaukee.

The throbbing sound was slightly louder out here. There was also a strangely distorted rumbling noise that sounded like a combination of thunder and a gastrointestinal problem. Occasional shrieks pierced this general hubbub. Like birds, but sounding much louder. Natalie looked up at the glowing green sign. She noticed that it had strange outgrowths, almost spiky, that extended around the entire oddly twisted building that so resembled The Node. The sign itself had twisted fluorescent tubes, just like The Node had. These didn't spell out the building's namesake, though. Instead they looked almost like half-formed symbols. Things that were almost letters, but not quite.

A coughing roar drew Natalie's attention. A car ripped down the pebbly-scaled road in front of her. She shrank against The Node's doors as the mechanical horror raced by. No specific make or model, a general amalgamation of all aggressive-looking sports cars, with venomous looking green and dull red stripes running up and down it's chassis. As the thing faded into the distance, Natalie notice the twisting outgrowths from the sign had now covered the doorway she had just come through, preventing her from going back in. Natalie looked up in growing desperation, increasingly frightened by this strange, alien reflection of the world she had though she knew.

The sky was a dull red, full of twisting clouds. Occasionally strange shaped would form seemingly at random in them, as a greenish lightning arced through the sky. To the northwest, the clouds turned a deep purplish-black. A hideous, infected looking colour. Those clouds also looked... sharper, ragged, torn. As Natalie watched, a portion of the clouds to the northwest twisted into a frightening semblance of a screaming face. She fled across the street, out of view of whatever the hell that was.

The buildings on this side were made of brick. Or at least looked like they were. Natalie was rather shocked when she found these 'bricks' relatively soft to the touch. And closer examination showed a multitude of pores opening and closing on the surface of these 'bricks'. Natalie stood back up uncertainly, she had decided she had had enough close examination for quite a long time, she wanted to go back home now.

But there was no way home she could see. The way back into The Node was shut off, and there were no other doorways except...

How did she not notice this here before? It looked like... well... a corner convenience store. It was a bit warped looking, but the slightly rippling glass windows revealed a well-lit and rather inviting series of stocked shelves. Treats, magazines, and drinks. Who cared if none of them were brands she recognized, or even really branded at all, or possessing the same slightly warped looked of everything else in this hellhole, they still looked normal and inviting enough for Natalie!

She had almost gotten through the almost welcoming open doors when a large hand gripped her shoulder and yanked her backwards. She fell to the ground, looking up to see Barry, fully normal, gay, pink-shirted Barry, looking down at her. There was a harsh metal clang, and an almost disappointed-sounding echoing grumble. Natalie looked back at the convenience store, and now noticed something she had missed before. Everything did look bright and inviting, but it now looked like nothing more than a flimsy cover for what actually lay beneath. The building sulked between its neighbors, visibly disappointed. The doors snapped together a few more times, producing the same metal crashes. Natalie now saw that the edges of the doors had teeth.

“When the mini-mart on the corner is better known for drug dealing than for its soda pop,” Barry said theatrically, “It's spiritual reflection tends to adopt the same predatory demeanor.”

“Predato... spiritual reflection?” Natalie gaped.

“Well, I was intending on taking you on a guided tour myself,” Barry looked down and smiled, offering Natalie a hand up, “But you seem to have found your way here pretty well on your own.”

“Here?” Natalie said, looking at the twisted world around her, “Where...um...where is 'here' exactly?”

“Welcome to the other side of reality,” Barry said with a flourish, “Welcome to the Umbra.”

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“Hey! Faggot!”

Kouzo ignored the voice, continuing to walk down the hall with Haru.

“Got yourself a girlfriend, faggot?”

“Can't I just kill one or two of them?” Haru whispered to Kouzo, “Who'd miss'em?”

Kouzo still ignored the letter-jacket clad assholes, shifted his bag slightly and continued walking, “No Haru, it's not worth it.”

He was stopped by a thick hand placed on his chest. He looked to see Jeremy Novelle, senior, defensive lineman of the school football team and vice president of student council blocking his path with his own body, which both looked and smelled like a fridge that had been disconnected from any power supply and left in the sun for too long. “You got asked a question, faggot, nice thing t'do is answer.”

“Mind your own business,” Kouzo muttered, turning to walk around the rather bulky student. He was shoved into a locker.

Kouzo moved quickly, intercepting Haru before she could rip Jeremy's face off, “It's not worth it!” he repeated to her.

Jeremy backhanded Kouzo, knocking him out of the way, then placed a meaty hand on the locker behind Haru, physically trapping her their with his bulk. “Y'know sweetheart, I could give you far better than that dirty twerp, and far bigger than any chink love you could get back home.”

By now a ring of students had formed. Some laughing, some encouraging, most just watching. Haru looked up at a disgusting grin, filled with uneven teeth and braces. “Please,” she said with disdain, “I don't want anything to do with someone whose nose is bigger than his dick.”

Jeremy grunted in anger and wrapped one huge hand around Haru's throat, pinning her against the locker, “Listen bitch, jus' cause you're a lady doesn't mean I won't hit ya for bein' an uppity chink.”

Kouzo and Haru moved as one. Kouzo took out Jeremy's legs with a quick kick to the backs of his knees while Haru delivered a quick punch to the football player's rope-veined throat. Jeremy made a slight gurgling noise as he fell to his knees, clutching stupidly at his neck as his eyes widened in shock. Immediately half a dozen football players were on Kouzo and Haru's backs, holding them down. “Hey hey hey! Break it up everyone!”

“Shit,” Haru muttered. Kouzo rolled his eyes at her from under his own pile of jocks. Of all people, Principal Anderson.

“Get off, get off!” the paunchy, balding man in the suit grumbled as the football players gave way, muttering the entire time. Haru and Kouzo pushed themselves to their feet only to be glared at by the principal, “You two were enough trouble on your own, you spend a little time together and you start fights, I should've expected as much from you.”

Haru exploded, “We didn't start it! This asshole shoved Kouzo into the locker and tried to choke me!”

“You're lying!” Davis Jenkins shouted, “He was just asking you a question and you both attacked him, I saw it all!” Several more players joined in agreement.

Haru gaped, “You lying assholes, he attacked us first!” she turned to the rest of the students, “You all saw, you gonna let these musclehead assholes go free?”

Several kids muttered something incoherently. A few others shuffled their feet. Most just stared blankly. Jeremy coughed and wheezed, still trying to remember how to breath properly. “Come to my office,” Principal Anderson said icily, “The rest of you get to class.”

Haru and Kouzo followed, staring at each other in disbelief. As they sat down in the plush office of Principal C. Anderson, he rummaged through a filing cabinet and pulled out a few papers. “From the records we have on you two, I see you've both been legally emancipated and are living on your own... in the same apartment complex even.”

“I didn't know you lived in the same building,” Kouzo said in honest surprise.

Haru shrugged, “I figured you did, I've seen your beater in the parking lot.”

“Shut up,” the principal said, shuffling the papers in an official manner, “I don't care what the hell they taught you in whatever country they raised you in, but here in the US, you don't go attacking someone just because you don't like them.”

Kouzo merely gaped at this. Haru favoured the principal with her own glare, “I was born and raised in Chicago, you racist shit.”

“Another word like that and I'll have you arrested for the assault of Jeremy Novelle, a prime student who, unlike either of you, has no record of discipline problems and antisocial behaviour,” the principal interjected.

“When you're a star player in the athlete-cult, it's easy to have a clean record,” Kouzo muttered under his breath.

If Anderson overheard the comment, he ignored it, continuing, “And like I said, I don't give a shit what gook or kyke teachings either of you were raised with, you're in America now and you're going to play by our rules or you will be expelled, got it?”

“Understood,” Haru hissed, “You're racist and I'll be letting the press know how you treat students who so much as look foreign.”

“Who'd believe you?” the principal said with a condescending grin, “I'm a respected administrative official. I've helped bring this school out of the gutter, and I'm not about to let gooks or kykes like you bring it back down there. As it is, you are both suspended. You have your own transportation home, your homeroom teachers will be made aware of this. Come back in a week when you've maybe learned something about maturity.”

Kouzo looked confused as the two got up and the principal walked out with them. As the got to the main doors, Principal Anderson stopped them again, “You know what your problems are? You are so concerned with yourselves and your own little problems that you have no sense of perspective. Once you learned there's a bigger world outside your own little gook or kyke villages, with different rules than what your village elders or rabbis or whatever taught you, maybe you'll understand the importance of dignity and maturity.”

And with that, Haru and Kouzo were left alone on the front steps of Shorewood High. Haru rolled her eyes for the seventh time in the past half-hour. “You need perspective!” she mocked, brushing aside her long, dark hair and mentally forcing her hand back down into a more human shape. She smiled mirthlessly at the jagged claws that now tipped her fingers, brought out by the stress of the situation, “Racist little fuck has no idea what perspective is.”

Kouzo still looked confused. “Kyke? What did he mean by that?”

“Well, you kinda have a big nose,” Haru pointed out, “He must have assumed you're Jewish or something. After all, a 'real' American would never assault a whitebread football player, right?”

“Oh,” Kouzo said thoughtfully. His eyes widened a little, “Oh, okay, I get it now. Wait... is my nose really that big?”

Haru rolled her eyes again and sighed, sitting back on the steps, “So what do we do now? I'm guessing Barry or Charlene or Traveler said you should stay in school the same as me. Seems that's kind of falling flat.”

“Yeah,” Kouzo replied slowly, “It is falling flat. I think... I think we just just tell them what happened.”

A long glance passed from Haru to Kouzo, “Er... are you dense or something?”

“What?” Kouzo asked.

“Why do you talk that slow? Are you a retard or something?” Haru pressed.

“Nooooo,” Kouzo replied slowly, thinking his answer through, “I just... don't like to say things without thinking about them first.”

The conversation was interrupted by the sound of a cow mooing. “Oh, that's my cell-phone,” Kouzo explained picking it up. “Hi Barry. What's that? Oh, sept meeting tonight? No, I'm not in class right now. I got suspended. No, Haru's with me. Okay. Well we... okay then, I'll let Haru explain.”

Kouzo handed the phone to Haru, “Apparently he wants you to explain what happened, not me.”

“Gee, I wonder why,” Haru said as she took the phone, “What?”

“There better be a good reason for this,” Barry's voice said.

“You aren't my father,” Haru replied.

“There was a reason we had both of you stay in school, and now I hear you got suspended,” Barry said, ignoring the comment, “Since I don't have three hours available to listen to Kouzo explain it, you get to tell me what the hell happened.”

“I can understand your pain there,” Haru said with a frustrated sigh, “Long story short, some football players assaulted us, we defended ourselves, and the racist principal decided that it was all our fault and arrested us.”

“So it was self-defense?”

“Yeah.”

“Any breach of the Veil?”

“If that happened, I think we'd have police and SWAT here instead of just two suspended kids,” Haru pointed out.

“I'm impressed,” Barry's voice replied, “You've learned quite a bit about self-control. I was ready to beat you both over the head for this, but from the sound of it, this, combined with your actions last night, are going to earn you some honours at the gather tonight.”

“So what about the new girl, Natalie?” Haru asked.

“Coping pretty well with the Change,” Barry's voice said, “She managed to find her own way into the Umbra, so I ended up giving her a tour much earlier than planned.”

“Ain't she Clearscreen's kid?” Haru asked, “That should help her some.”

“Yeah, it should,” Barry's voice seemed hesitant.

“What's wrong?”

“Problem is Clearscreen's pack got split up last night. Only one's come back, and we haven't heard anything from the others.”

“Shit, um, anything we can do?”

“Just come to the gather tonight,” Barry's voice said, “With you and Kouzo, and now her, I think we've got enough.”

“Enough? What?”

“Enough to start a new pack.”

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The envelope was plain, unstamped, with a single statement written on the outside:

“From the office of Princess A., to her loyal subject, May Hawthorne.”

“Wow, she knows my name after all,” May said sourly. She had felt almost decent on awakening tonight. The nightmares hadn't been that bad for once, and even after the run-in with that weird, gay lupine last night that Mallory seemed to know, she had managed to feed pretty well on some drunken idiots. With the arrival of this envelope, an envelope from the Prince, no less, her paranoia had shot through the roof again.

She had done all she could to lay low. Avoiding most of the social gatherings, she didn't care too much for her own kind anyways, being careful not to poach blood off of anyone else's turf, and making doubly sure not to make any sort of Masquerade breaches that would draw the attention of the Prince or any of her lackeys. Apparently she had been watched and studied anyways. May didn't like that at all.

She went cold... well, colder, at the next thought: Was he involved? Her whole reason for fleeing to this shitty little town half a decade ago was to keep away from him. She had been so intent on remaining an unnoticed extra that she hadn't the time nor the resources to keep abreast of his movements. Had his own influence extended far enough? Was the Prince summoning her on behalf of him, so that he could put her right back under his thumb? May shivered, she would sooner face a sunrise than once again become the plaything of the younger brother.

“To a loyal, if shy and unobtrusive subject,

Recent matters within my domain have caused me a great deal of concern. These, unfortunately, are matters that must be approached with a careful and subtle hand. Thankfully, observation of you has shown me that your own actions make you an ideal fit for approaching this vexing issue. Be a dear and come to the black limo parked next to your vehicle upon awakening. This letter has been delivered by a trusted ghoul.”

May blinked. “Careful and subtle?” she said flatly, “Why the hell would she expect me to be good for this if she's looking for careful and subtle?”

Mallory answered her with another mewl, this time pawing pathetically at his empty bowl. “Oh all right, but hurry up,” May said in a faux-scolding tone as she took out a small chunk of beef from the freezer and placed it in his bowl.

She sat in the large papasan, trying to think this through. She could just ignore the summons, assume it was nothing more than a cover that... that he was using to get to her. Skip town again? The night was young, she could get pretty damn far on her own notice. Maybe someplace like Minneapolis, and hole up. She had more than enough funds for the moment to get a nice place there, start up again...

And what? Keep running each time he shows up? And what if it isn't him this time? Forget that, if it was him, she wasn't getting out anyways. He'd probably have the building surrounded by now, and nab her as soon as she set foot in the parking lot. No, set foot outside her apartment. Wait a bloody minute, if it was him, he wouldn't have bothered with this, he would just break into the apartment, destroying everything in his way, and take her himself.

By the time Mallory had finished his own meal, May had managed to beat down her own paranoia. It probably wasn't him. And if the Prince, well, Princess was waiting for her down there, it would be less conspicuous to just go and see her than it would to refuse the summons. May stood up, decided, “C'mon Mallory, looks like we're going for a ride tonight.”

May recognized the two suited figures waiting outside the limo. Andy was the taller of the two. Already a rather imposing figure, the natural threatening aura of undeath only added to the threatening nature of the six and a half foot tall, braided-beard, pony-tailed, sunglass wearing figure. If anything, he looked like a single change of clothes away from being one of Rob Zombie's bouncers. The other one was much shorter, almost elfin. Small in height and waifish in figure, she seemed diminutive and ineffectual in the aura of Andy. But May knew that Cheryl not only could set the larger man off on a frenzied rampage with but a word, but that she could also do quite a bit of damage herself. The two bodyguards that were never far from where the princess herself was.

One of the tinted windows of the limo rolled down. “Come on in, darling,” a rich, feminine voice beckoned from within. Andy opened up the door and stood aside.

May got inside and found herself sitting next to a life-sized marionette doll. White makeup covered the face, with thickly drawn black eyebrows, and bright red cheek-spots and lipstick. Metal hooks were put through its hands, feet, and the back of its neck, running to two sets of wooden dowels nailed together. The doll turns its head and looked at May, its mouth opening in a surprisingly smooth, organic motion, “I'm glad you could make it in, darling. You're so shy I was afraid you wouldn't show.”

“What do you want?” May asked, clutching Mallory defensively.

“My goodness, straight to the point are we?” Princess Amanda replied sadly, “Well, can I offer you any refreshments beforehand?” she held up a glass filled with a dark red liquid as the two suited bodyguards got in the front and Andy began driving.

“I've already fed,” May said curtly.

“Okay then,” Amanda replied, putting the glass back in its holder, “I figured I'd offer a little compensation for demanding your presence on such short notice.”

“What do you want?” May repeated, her voice slightly higher pitched now.

“No need for anger,” Amanda said softly, “I know you wish to remain as, well, 'hidden' as possible, and if I had any other way of going about this, I wouldn't have bothered with you. You're an ideal subject, you keep to yourself, don't have any ambitions for the throne, and have no problem following my laws as long as you're not bothered by anyone else. I like that, which, along with the other thing, makes you the best fit for the task at hand.”

“What's that other thing?” May asked, “And where the hell are we going?”

“We're going to The Node,” Amanda replied simply, “And you're coming with because my sources tell me you've had productive contact with the lupines there.”

“Productive contact?” May giggled, a short, crazed sound, “Big Gay Al might see things differently.”

“Oh, Barry?” Amanda replied, “He's kept to his own for the most part, but this is as much his problem as it is ours, which is why we're paying him a visit.”

“What problem?” May asked, scritching Mallory behind the ears, “And what the hell do you want me to do?”

“It's better explained if Barry's also here to hear it. Besides, we're almost there.”

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Haru and Kouzo shushed her at the same time. It was rather bad form to interrupt the elders while they were opening the moot. Natalie got the general gist and quieted down, reminding herself that those wolves in the center of the clearing were actually people... well, actually werewolves who could look like people if they wanted to. Did her mom really take part in all this? Natalie's skin prickled as if a static charge was building. Ever since this morning, things seemed slightly different. Colours had been brighter, sounds deeper and more resonant. She had caught slight whiffs of smell coming off people that she had never noticed before. It was as if all her senses had been subtly yet palpably extended.

And then there was that other place... the Umbra. Barry had said it was the spiritual reflection of the Tellurian, the material world. Barry had also said that it was so much more than just that. That the Umbra extended outward in ways that couldn't be related to the simple directions of north, south, east, west, or up and down. Apparently Natalie was in the 'Penumbra', which was closest to Earth in some spiritual way, and so reflected it. But the reflection was both distorted and more 'true' than its material-world counterpart. Parts of the material world that were sick and dying showed up as open sores and wounds in the Umbra. It was a distorted reflection, but the distortions were open, true representations of what might be hidden in the material world.

And apparently Natalie's entire body was converted to spiritual 'stuff' when she 'crossed the gauntlet', as Barry had put it. She had protested that everything felt just as real there as it did on earth, and Barry responded that since her entire form, senses included, had turned into this spirit matter, then the spiritual matter around her was what was real. Apparently that, more than being able to turn into an eight foot tall killing machine, was what truly separated her from other people. The ability to see and walk between these worlds. So this is what 'spirituality' really was, then.

There was a whole lot more. Something about some cockroach claiming her as one of his children or something, and something about 'The Wyrm', some evil god or something. Oh, and that she was a 'warrior of Gaia'. So apparently she was a werewolf hippie shaman freedom-fighter or something.

The howling had died down, and now someone was making a speech or sermon about something. Natalie recognized him, a grizzled looking old coot who occasionally stopped at The Node for a flat, black coffee. A grey beard shot with streaks of white, large nose, sunken, wizened eyes, and gloriously shining gin-blossoms on his upper cheeks. Natalie always thought he was a trucker or something. She asked Haru what was going on.

“This is the Litany,” Haru replied, “It's sort of the laws Gaia set down for us all to live by.”

“What, like a ten commandments deal?” Natalie asked.

“Sort of,” Haru whispered back, “But these laws are actually practical. It's things like fight the Wyrm wherever you find it, don't let people know about our existence or they'll panic and start a war with us, and don't fuck other Garou.”

“Garou?”

“Werewolves,” Kouzo explained.

“Why not?” Natalie asked, “Not that I'm interested in anyone here or anything.”

“You get a Metis,” Kouzo replied.

“A what?” Natalie asked, now a little frustrated. She wondered if they were dropping terms she didn't know on purpose.

“A half-breed,” Kouzo explained, “When two Garou mate, and a kid is born, it's born deformed and nasty. Apparently a lot of them go to the Wyrm. I don't know, I've never met one.”

“What actually is this Wyrm thing?” Natalie asked, “I keep hearing about it.”

“Shut up,” Haru hissed, “We gotta pay attention to this bit.”

“Unfortunately, ten of our own are out on patrol in the Fomori zone,” Traveler said on the slightly raised patch of grass that served as a stage and podium for the sept, “So they can only bear indirect witness to the honours bestowed tonight.”

The caern, some sort of spiritual holy ground for werewolves, Barry had told Natalie, was across the street from The Node. An old strip of parkland that some well placed bribes in city hall was guaranteed to be unmolested by both law-enforcement and land developers. The trees and bushes grew thick around the edges, and Natalie was told that no one who didn't have permission to enter could find their way to the clearing in the center. Apparently there were places like this all over the country, the world. The gathering places of the Garou. There was another in the Milwaukee area, Barry had said, a couple miles south of the zoo. Aside from that, there were allegedly three in the Chicago area, and one in Cederburg.

Werewolves, Garou, things like what Natalie apparently now was, gathered here, in shadows, right under the noses of humanity. They gathered to wage a secret war against something called the Wyrm, and those that followed it. And this has been the way it was for centuries. That was what her mother was a part of. A war fought in the shadows, things that weren't people, yet were more than people, fighting and dying with no one but their own kind to remember them. Normal people weren't allowed to know. Apparently they wouldn't understand, and lash out blindly at all, fucking the earth royally.

And now Natalie was a part of this whether she wanted to be or not.

“Natalie Grant,” Traveler said, looking directly at her, “Daughter of Clearscreen, you are the first to be recognized for your accomplishments. You have survived your First Change, despite the actions of the minions of The Wyrm. Though most in your position would still be considered mere pups at this point, and often for a good deal of time more, the Cockroach has already chosen to take you has his own disciple. You join the Glasswalkers as a Ragabash and are hereby awarded the rank of Cliath.”

Murmers of surprise went through the nearly two dozen people present in the clearing. Haru and Kouzo looked just as shocked as Natalie turned and gave them an inquiring look. “You're a no-moon,” Haru said, “It means you were born under a new moon, that's an important part of who you are. But...you're already part of a tribe, that's fucking amazing!”

“Why?” Natalie asked, now completely at sea.

The murmers had now turned into pointed questions and protests, many along the lines of why someone a mere day after her First Change should be allowed into one of the tribes. Traveler moved his hands in a calm-down motion, “Cockroach has taken her as one of his own, and it has been witnessed. He guided her across the gauntlet, by herself, to do so. If anyone has any right to dispute this, it is Natalie herself, not any of you,” Traveler shot a silencing glare into the crowd, “Unless any of you wish to second guess one of the tribal patrons?”

The caern quickly went quiet at that. Traveler looked back at the nervous teenage girl, “Natalie, come forward and accept the marks of rank and tribal affiliation, unless you wish to dispute it yourself, as is your right to do.”

Natalie looked back at Haru and Kouzo uncertainly. Both gestured frantically for her to move forward. Not quite knowing what the hell was going on, Natalie moved forward. She stood in front of Traveler. “Um, this feels sort of cult-ish,” she whispered, hoping he was the only one who heard it.

Traveler replied with a wink, “Yeah, but the difference between us and a cult is that we can back up our claims, this might hurt a little.”

“Wha...” Natalie started, but was interrupted as Barry and Charlene moved in and grabbed her arms.

“What the fuck is going on?!” Natalie shouted as Traveler moved behind her.

The aged Garou held up one hand, which had now grown into a rather large set of wicked talons. “Mother Gaia,” he intoned, “Move through me, and grace this cub with a sign of whatever your will may be, confirming her new rank among your warriors.”

Natalie strained her head back and gasped at what she saw. Traveler stood behind her, with, holy fuck! Those claws were actually burning! Natalie didn't have any time to react before he plunged the talons into her back. Natalie managed half a step forward, screaming and thrashing as the claws raked down her back, slicing through her formerly white shirt, now quickly reddening with blood. Barry grunted as he held her in place, then let out a growl of pain as Natalie's hand formed claws of its own that dug into his wrist.

Natalie's screaming reached a new pitch as the bright red rivulets of blood running down her back were surmounted by a spreading network of glowing, blue veins. Her eyes rolled back into her head as she gnashed teeth that had grown into viciously feral canines together. The glowing veins spread over her body, flaring brightly for a moment, then fading. In their paths was left an intricate pattern of scarred flesh.

The girl fell forward, Barry and Charlene had released her once the struggles ceased. She had grown nearly a foot taller, her face and jaw had taken on a far more angular aspect, her teeth and fingernails had extended to fangs and claws, and her body had become suddenly much more muscular. She remained on her hands and knees, panting and growling. The four wounds on her back had stopped bleeding. In fact, anyone who could see them would have seen that they were actually visibly shrinking as the seconds crept by.

“Natalie, daughter of Clearscreen,” Traveler said, walking back in front of her, “You are free to attack the source of your pain, if you truly wish to.”

Charlene looked up in shock, this wasn't part of the ritual. What the hell was that old bastard thinking? In the state the girl was in, she would probably rip him in half without even thinking about what she was doing! Now wasn't the time for this sort of test of self-control!

Natalie dimly heard the words through a sloshing haze of reddened pain and rage. She looked down at her own hands, her claws. She could attack that fucking bastard, rip him to pieces, she had that sort of strength now! And the fucker just put her through all that with no warning, why the hell not?! She didn't ask to be part of this, and now they just expected her to happily accept being a part of their eco-terrorist little cult? Fuck that shit! She wasn't going to be shat on and put through that sort of pain just for some religious freaks!

Natalie's descent into a mindless rage came to a stop as a single image appeared in her head. Lucida Grant, called 'Clearscreen' by these werewolves. She must have gone through the same thing, the same pain. She stayed with this group of things for some reason. Natalie didn't know why they did this painful shit to her, or what the hell she was getting into, but mom had gone through the same thing, and Natalie trusted mom. There must be a good reason for it, and Natalie wouldn't be doing her mom any favours by attacking this guy.

More than that, she just wanted to see her mom again. Barry had continued to deflect any questions about it whenever she brought the subject up. She'd stick around and put up with the shit, and she'd get to see mom again, she knew it.

Natalie continued taking deep breaths. As the wounds in her back fully sealed up, her body began to shrink, the harsh angles soften, she looked fully human once again. Slowly, unsteadily, she pushed herself to her feet. She glared defiantly at Traveler, “No.”

Dead silence filled the caern. Charlene's jaw hung open. Traveler smiled, “You truly are the daughter of Clearscreen. You've made a damn good start, kid.”

“I'm not doing this for you, or anyone here,” Natalie spat back, “I just want to be with my mother.”

Traveler nodded, “I wish you could be, but that brings up the next order of business, sit back down.”

“What about my mother?” Natalie protested.

“Sit... down...” Traveler said, a dangerous growl creeping into his voice.

Natalie gulped down the reply she was about to give. She had to play by their rules for the moment. She moved back to Haru and Kouzo, looking in awe at the intricate symbols and lines now scarred onto her arms. “Why didn't you fuckers warn me about this?” she asked as she rejoined them.

“Sorry,” Haru said, “We thought Barry or someone had told you about it.”

“Do you have any idea how much that fucking hurt?” Natalie hissed back.

“Yes,” Kouzo said, pulling up a sleeve and revealing a similar, but not quite identical network of scars, “We know exactly what it feels like.”

“This is a fucking cult,” Natalie muttered.

“This 'cult' is all that's stopping things from becoming hell on earth!” Haru hissed back, venom in her voice, “Don't go talking shit about something you don't understand.”

“Haru and Kouzo,” Barry said, now having taken the podium, “Stand and be recognized.”

As the two stood up, Barry continued, “Through the actions of these two cliaths, Natalie had been rescued from agents of the Wyrm who had moved in to take her before any of us could react. They had fought the Wyrm on land pregnant with its own corruption and come back alive, with a just-Changed pup with them. It is actions like these which should give us all hope in our war against the corruption of the Wyrm. And it is because of these actions, I and the other two elders,” a nod towards Traveler and Charlene, “have decided that Haru and Kouzo should be given the opportunity to continue the work they started, and continue to teach Natalie of our ways as an equal to them, as a packmate.”

As one, the crowd in the caern turned to face the three teenagers. Kouzo looked at Haru. Haru looked back at Kouzo. Both shrugged at the same time. Natalie looked confused. Kouzo stepped forward, “We accept.”

Howls and cheers broke out through the caern. Several dozen appendages that covered the entire spectrum between 'human hand' and 'paw' clapped Haru, Kouzo and Natalie on the back, punched them in a friendly fashion, or all but tackled them in hugs. Despite all this, Natalie noticed something come in from outside the caern area, skirting around the crowd. She noticed that it was the same one who had let them in the park area where the caern was located. A nervous, twitchy guy name Adrian. He ran up to the podium-ish area and whispered something in Barry's ear. As well-wishers jostled her back and forth, Natalie saw Traveler and Charlene leaning forward, listening to what Adrian had to say.

Traveler's gravelly voice rang over and through the whoops and howls, silencing all in it's wake, “HERE?!!”

Natalie couldn't believe someone that old could possibly have moved that fast as the grizzled looking trucker stomped rapidly out of the caern. A second later, she was yanked forward as Barry marched by, grabbed her, and motioned for Kouzo and Haru to follow. “What the fuck?!...” Natalie protested.

“Come on!” Barry growled, “I think this concerns you guys.”

“What about?” Haru said as she and Kouzo ran to keep up with the striding elder and his half-willing passenger.

“Your leech buddy from the sewers is back, and she's brought friends.”

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There was a feathered shaft sticking from her throat. Andy and Cheryl had already drawn pistols and had them pointed in the direction the arrow came from.

From behind the wrought iron fence, from somewhere within the bushes across the street, a growling voice said, “Next one’s going in your heart, bitch.”

Natalie, Kouzo and Haru had heard the twang and Traveler’s statement, and now ran to see what was going on. Traveler stood behind the fence, holding the hugest crossbow Natalie had ever seen, while Adrian stood next to him, frantically working the lock on the rusty gateway. Traveler kicked open the door as soon as the lock was off and raised the four foot wide arbelest.

The strings attached to Amanda’s hands tightened, and her arm went outward, placing a restraining hand on Andy’s arm, “No need for a firefight,” she said in a voice made slightly hoarse by the quarrel sticking through her neck.

Haru looked through the fence and froze. A feeling of cold needles suddenly swept over her body. Across the street, right in front of The Node, a limo was parked. The doors were open, and standing outside, guns raised and ready to fire, were two suited, almost government-looking people. With them was that leech that helped them out last night, May. And standing next to her…

Haru took an involuntary step backward, her fingers curling around the handle of Kageneko as the puppet reached up and pulled the wooden shaft from its throat, guided by the strings in its hands. Puppets… Haru hated puppets, feared them. Some half forgotten memory involving them, wild, discordant music hemming in from all sides, a nightmarish clanking tangle of wooden limbs and a demonic face, covered in cheap paint.

Barry had moved forward, putting a hand on Traveler’s shoulder, using the same care that one would handle a bomb with. Charlene had climbed a stone bench, aiming a shotgun over the top of the spiked fence, “Put your guns down!”

A few tense moments passed, as did a few cars. Thankfully there was no pedestrian traffic to witness the near shoot-out, otherwise things really would have gone to hell. May gave a slightly nervous giggle and edged her way a bit further behind the limo. Eventually Andy and Cheryl lowered their weapons. Charlene did the same, and after significant persuasion by Barry, Traveler did the same. Barry turned back, “You guys get the fuck back inside!” indicating the several figures that were now carefully moving forward, “Check the other borders of the caern!”

“No, you three stay here!” interrupting Natalie’s attempt to retreat back into the trees and shrubs, “I’m pretty damn certain this involves you.”

“Why hello Traveler!” Amanda called out in a mockery of a friendly voice, “It’s been a while, how’s the missus?”

There was a brief scuffle as Charlene tackled the elder Garou as he began raising the arbalest again. Barry stepped fearlessly through the gate, “You better have a good reason for coming on our territory, leeches.”

Amanda stepped forward, “You’ve given me a good reason to, would you care to explain why one of your own has attacked our own in our territory?”

“Good for ‘im!” Traveler shouted, pushing Charlene off of him and regaining his feet.

Barry waved Traveler to be silent, “What the hell are you talking about? We’ve kept up our end of the pact. None of ours have caused trouble on your territory.”

“Six dead kindred disagree,” Amanda smiled, an expression made hideous by the make-up she wore, “And I’ve been gracious enough to give you the chance to explain yourself instead of retaliating in kind. Perhaps your kind is happy enough to run wild through the city, but I would rather not have a mutually destructive war break out.”

“You’ve got your facts mixed up, Amanda,” Barry said, “None who are allied with us have caused any violence on your territory. In fact, one of your own, the leech next to you, was stomping around our neighborhood. I only let her leave alive because she had given a little aid in rescuing one of our own.”

“I wasn’t ‘stomping’!” May said petulantly.

“Then would you care to explain to me why some white-haired, lupine-smelling freak showed up at a club owned by one of my closest associates, killed a half dozen of our own, and then disappeared?”

“Wait, white-haired?” Haru interrupted, overcoming her fear for the moment, “We’ve seen…”

“Shut up!” Barry turned and hissed, “This is a delicate situation, let me do the talking.”

“What does the child have to say?” Amanda goaded, “Why not let her speak up?”

“She’s just a kid,” Barry replied, “This is between us, it doesn’t involve her. Whoever attacked you isn’t related to us in any way, so I suggest you turn that clunker around and go right back downtown before we give you a real problem.”

“Looks like the ‘kid’ disagrees with you,” Amanda replied calmly, “Why not let her have her say if she knows something? This is both our problems, you realize.”

Charlene had moved forward, holding a quick, hushed conference with Barry. May carefully plucked Amanda’s sleeve, “Um… did you say white-haired?”

“Yes.”

“Er, yeah, I think I saw him last night,” May said and pointed at the three younger-looking lupines, “with them.”

“Oh is that so?” Amanda said, anger creeping into her voice, “So the white-haired freak is one of your own, Barry? Apparently he was seen associating with your young-ones.”

“What?!” Barry shouted back.

“No, wait,” May plucked Amanda’s sleeve again, “I mean I saw him while I was with them, we kinda all saw him at the same time, he didn’t say a lot.”

May stopped and looked around, slightly embarrassed. She hadn’t noticed how silent everyone had gone, and realized that her last statement had been overheard by everyone. Barry turned back to Haru, who was alternating between giving pissed looks at the elder, and looks of barely restrained terror at the princess, “Is this true?”

“How the hell should I know?” Haru shot back, “We did see someone with white hair in the sewers, and he turned a couple fomori into boiling shit just by waving his hand. I don’t know if it’s the same one that fucked around in the leech’s club.”

“Sounds like a decent enough guy to me,” Traveler muttered, “First fomori, then leeches, he’s doing us all a favour.”

“He stunk of Wyrm,” Haru protested, “And I think the only reason he didn’t kill us was… because we weren’t threatening enough,” she finished with a slight blush.

“It seems this is indeed both our problems,” Amanda said coyly, “How about a temporary non-aggression truce? He’s one of yours, so your own could probably track him down easier than my resources could. I can guarantee safety from my own subjects while on my land, so long as they are… escorted.”

“Why the hell should I agree to your terms,” Barry asked, “Or even trust that you’ll hold up your end of the bargain, you insane bitch?”

“I know it’s hard for you brutes, but look at it logically,” Amanda replied, “It’s as much of a problem for me as it is for you. I want this creep gone as much as you should. Besides, it might give us a chance at discussing a real alliance between our kinds.”

Barry pondered the proposal for a few moments. He turned towards Haru, Kouzo, and Natalie, “You’ve got your first mission as a pack. You’ll go to this club and find out what you can, if any evidence was left behind.”

“What about my mom?” Natalie protested, “I want to…”

“You have your orders,” Barry replied harshly before turning back to Amanda, “If I find out anything has happened to these kids because of your own, you’ll lose three times their number, got it?”

“May darling, be a dear and accompany them,” Amanda said as she got back into the limo.

“Wait…what?” May said in surprise. This wasn’t the way things were supposed to work out.

“Devil’s Gentry Nightclub,” Amanda said through the closing window as the limo began to accelerate, “I’ll make sure you guys get a free pass in, fare well!”

“What the fucking hell?!” May shouted after the disappearing vehicle, “You bitch, I’ll fucking rip your painted face off and stick it on a pole! I didn’t agree to this! Yeah…yeah! You better just run away, whore! God fucking damnit!”

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“Yeah, but if I were riding a bike,” Kouzo replied, in between bites of a twinkie, “You’d still be sitting on the street.”

“I just hope nobody sees me riding in this… or with you fucking kids!” May griped.

“Do you ever stop whining?” Natalie asked.

“I didn’t want to be here in the first place,” May replied.

Natalie shrugged, “Join the fucking club,” she turned to Haru, “What was all that about a tribe and stuff?”

“Well, if you’re Garou, you’re in one of the tribes. It’s sort of like…well, kind of like an extended family combined with a political group or religion. You and Kouzo, you’re both Glasswalkers. I’m a Silver Fang.”

“Yeah,” Natalie replied, “But what the hell does that all mean?”

“Well, each tribe has a patron spirit that watches over it and gives the tribe what it’s supposed to focus on. Mine’s the falcon,” Haru said with visible pride, “He commands us to lead and set an example for the rest to follow.”

“What’s ours?” Natalie asked Kouzo.

“The cockroach,” Kouzo said proudly.

“Wait, what?” Natalie asked disbelievingly.

“Think about how awesome it is,” Kouzo said, “No matter what happens in a neighborhood, the cockroaches always survive, no matter what. We’re survivors who can live among the largest groups of humans and thrive.”

“And my mom is a part of this… tribe, too?” Natalie asked.

“She was an elder,” Kouzo replied.

Natalie stopped, “Was?”

Haru looked at Kouzo, then turned to Natalie in the backseat, “They… didn’t tell you yet?”

Natalie felt suddenly cold, “Tell me what?”

“Clearscreen’s pack was attacked in the fomori-zone, er, the northwest ‘burbs,” Haru said, “Only one of her pack’s reported back. No one knows what’s happened to the rest.”

Natalie opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She leaned back in her seat, feeling a nausea that went far beyond the mere gasoline fumes. Mom was… was she really… ? Haru saw the look on Natalie’s face, “Look, she’s probably not dead. She’s an elder, and they’re… well, really hard to keep down.”

“She’s a Glasswalker,” Kouzo pointed out, quickly for once, “She’s a survivor, and one of the best at it. She’s probably holed up somewhere, waiting for an opening to either complete her mission or get home.”

Natalie barely heard them. She didn’t know a lot about what was going on, but she could see the looks in their eyes. Despite what they said, neither of them looked confident that mom was actually alive.

“What is going on?” Natalie asked, trying to keep the hitch out of her voice, “Why would anything want to attack and kill her?”

“You’ve seen them yourself,” Haru replied, “They’re not human, not anymore. They’ve gone to the Wyrm.”

“But what the fuck is it?” Natalie shouted, “And why the hell does everything seem to revolve around it?”

“The Wyrm, it’s…” Haru started, “…well, look at the world around you. You’ve seen how fucked up it is, right? Pollution, wars, hate, rape, violence, racism, all that?”

“Yeah, you’re saying the Wyrm causes all this?”

“No, it doesn’t quite work out that way,” Haru replied. “The Wyrm is, well, was part of the Triat, sort of the three gods of creation, themselves created by Gaia, who also created the earth. The Wyld was supposed to be pure creation. The Weaver took that and spun it into order, and the Wyrm was supposed to balance the two. But something went wrong, and now the Wyrm seeks to corrupt and destroy everything. It doesn’t cause all of it, from what I’ve heard, but it feeds off of corruption and decay, and tries to influence things towards more of it, and it’s followers do the same.”

“And so we have to fight against that?” Natalie asked, “We have to fight against some sort of god of decay?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Haru replied, “We’re Gaia’s chosen warriors. She gave us greater strength and gifts of spiritual power so that we’d be able to cleanse the corruption from the earth.”

“Hey guys, hate to interrupt,” Kouzo said, “But we’re here.”

Natalie looked out the stained window at the sign above. Dim and sizzling in the now sporadic drizzle, a fluorescent red trident hovered above the sunken, black doorway. May got out of the car first and went and rapped on the door. “Jeez, what a fucking rat-hole,” Haru observed.

The Devil’s Gentry Nightclub was squished between two more legitimate establishments. May saw, dimly painted on the wall, the sigil of clan Ventrue, and directly beneath it, the sign of Elysium. Meaningless to most mortals and lupines, these to symbols told any passing kindred all they needed to know about this place, and the relative safety and potential it was supposed to offer.

A peephole opened in response to May’s knocking. A suspicious eye looked out, “You May Hawthorne?”

“Yep, that’s me!” May said brightly. God she didn’t want to be here. Several decades of laying low, not showing her face among the local townies, and all of it ruined because of these kids and the insane Malkavian princess.

“The prince, er, princess said to expect you, and three others with you,” the gruff voice said, “You’re free to investigate the premises. Observe the rules of Elysium: No feeding from mortals, no violence.”

“Wow,” Haru said, “No draining people dry, you guys are just pylons of civility.”

“Look who’s talking, furball,” May countered, “We at least don’t go around killing randomly whenever one of us claims to hear the voice of some god.”

“Shut up Haru,” Kouzo said, “We can’t go around inciting violence, we have more important things to do.”

“Why do you guys keep calling that girl ‘prince’ and ‘princess’?” Natalie asked, trying desperately to keep her mind off her mother, “Is she a tranny or something?”

May chortled as the four were led into the club, “No, no, it’s not that. The kindred leader of any city, the one who is in charge of the land, we normally call them the ‘prince’. But Amanda prefers to be called ‘princess’ because…well…because she’s a crazy bitch.”

“And just imagine if she got word of you speaking that way about her,” the burly doorman said, closing the door behind them.

“Whatever,” May replied, “Like I give a shit. If I’m her gopher-girl, I’ll talk about her any fucking way I please.”

Haru found herself unconsciously standing a little bit taller, as Kouzo’s wariness shot through the roof. Even Natalie could feel the sheer, unnatural, predatory nature of the occupants. Something metal with an incredibly heavy base beat reverberated throughout the dark, smoke-wreathed club. About a dozen suspicious eyes looked at the three Garou. Among them, a few anemic, vapid-eyed humans drifted around, serving glasses filled with a dark red liquid, or lounged by the ankles of more alert and potent looking, yet equally pale figures. Some were clad in fetish gear, some were collared. Some had on anachronistic clothing, ranging from 20’s style top-hats to full renaissance garb.

“Some of them have been around for hundreds of years,” May explained to the garou, “Elysium is a place for kindred to be themselves, as they remembered it when they were alive, don’t stare too much, you won’t make many friends that way,” another high-pitched giggle.

“You’re May Hawthorne?” A tall, muscular, bald man in a three-piece suit asked.

“Yeah, what’s it to you?” May replied defiantly.

“Vince Dessler,” the man replied in a strict, businesslike tone, extending a hand, “I own the Devil’s Gentry, I saw what happened last night, and can try to answer any questions you have.”

May looked down at the hand. It hung in the air for a few more seconds, like a set of pale worms, before Vince withdrew it, a little put off. Haru stepped forward, “So what exactly happened?”

Vince looked at her with visible distaste, then looked towards May as if for confirmation. May looked away, disinterested. “The… event happened around 2 am. There were only a dozen or so regulars here, and a few ghouls. All of us heard some sort of hissing, ripping noise, followed by a crash…”

May let her attention wander. She closed her eyes, opening up other senses and allowing whatever may have been hovering around to leave its mark. Everything felt stale and slightly flimsy, as if it had been dampened and wrung dry one too many times. There was suspicion, and anger, and no small amount of lust there. But over everything, and stabbing through it was the dull, cold sensation of fear. Lots of it. Everyone here was terrified about what had happened.

“So he came through this door here?” Haru was asking as May’s focus drifted back.

Vince walked over to the door, “I had it replaced immediately, a shatter, smoldering frame isn’t exactly something that’s conducive to a relaxed atmosphere.”

“And the music is?” Kouzo muttered under his breath as the beat changed to something from Front 242.

May looked at the door. It was a new one designed to look old. Painted a heavy black, then deliberately chipped and scarred. “Is the doorframe the same?” she asked suddenly.

Haru shivered as she got near the indicated door, one which led to, apparently, special meeting rooms in the back. Her skin was now crawling worse than when she saw that hideous princess, or whatever. This entire area of the club was rich with the taint of Wyrm. Yet, as Haru overcame her revulsion and forced herself to examine it in detail, it was tainted recently. As if a short while ago, everything had had a metaphorical bucket of taint and spiritual corruption poured on it.

Kouzo had gotten out and opened his cell-phone. Vince layed a cold, pale hand on Kouzo’s wrist as he lifted the phone to take a picture of the frame. “No pictures,” he cautioned.

“We were told we wouldn’t be hassled, we’ll need some evidence if we’re going to track him down,” Kouzo said.

“Yes, but you’re also expected to follow the rules of Elysium, which include no violence.” Vince indicated the other denizens of the club, “Some of us react rather badly to sudden, bright flashes of light.”

“Can we take a picture from the other side?” Haru asked.

“Be my guest.”

The door was opened and the three were ushered through. May’s hand brushed over the doorframe and she froze for just a moment. A sudden flash of red, the door was no longer there. Instead, the opening was covered by stretched human skin, stitched together in barbed wire, hanging across a frame suspended in the eye of a hurricane of a greasy, mottled gray liquid, producing a sound that she would have rather never heard.

“May?”

Natalie was grabbing her hand and looking at her with concern. May looked around, she was still in the club. She shook her head, trying to dispel the image she had just seen. “Oh dear, that’s not good at all,” she said half to herself as she followed the others through the doorway, feeling rather unclean as she did so.

With the door closed again, the music was muted to a tolerable level. Haru looked down the short hallway, noting the four doors, two to a side, and one larger, re-enforced door at the back. From what Vince told her, meetings between kindred, regarding business deals, exchanges of ‘cattle’ (willing mortals to feed off of) and nearly anything else took place here. Two of the kindred who had died were having a meeting back here. Kouzo pointed out the bloodstains and burn-marks on the floor, dimly illuminated by the single, watery-yellow incandescent bulb.

May hissed in surprise and covered her face as the camera-phone went off, catching the marks on the floor. Another pair of silent explosions of light went off as Kouzo turned and snapped a few shots of the door. He stopped, tilting his head, “Do you guys hear that?”

“Hear what?” Haru asked, trying to whisper, but having to speak normally to be heard about the heavy bass vibration coming through the door.

Kouzo continued listening, “Some sort of whispering sound, not with the music, I can’t tell where it’s coming from,” he took a few steps back, then forward again, “It’s all over the place here, it’s weird.”

Haru looked at Kouzo oddly, “I can’t hear anything.”

Kouzo moved his head around a few more times, trying to focus on the source of the sound, then finally shrugged, “Oh well, maybe it’s just my ears recovering from the music.”

“Hey guys, come look at this,” Natalie said from the other end of the short hall.

“Yeah, what?” May said, looking at the door Natalie indicated, noting it’s complete lack of amazing characteristics.

“This things deadbolted from the inside in three places,” Natalie pointed out, flipping the metal bolts to demonstrate, “No way to open it from outside unless someone inside lets you in.”

“Yeah, amazing,” May muttered, “This place has some security features, obviously didn’t help much.”

“No, look,” Natalie pressed, “The opposite door had to be replaced because whoever the hell he was ripped it off its hinges, right? Yet this one isn’t damaged at all, and I’d guess that Vinnie or whatever his name was wouldn’t leave the back-door unlocked, right?”

“Wait, I see what you’re saying,” Haru said, checking the door herself, “Whoever this guy is, he didn’t come in through the back door. I doubt someone with long white hair coming in through the front would be able to get back here without being noticed either, so how the hell did he get here?”

As one, the group looked up at the ceiling. Stained, sagging ceiling tiles stared back down at them. Yet aside from the general decrepitude, there was no real damage visible there. “Maybe he came through the Umbra?” Natalie suggested.

“The what?” May asked, then stopped, along with everyone else in the hallway.

“Is that the noise you heard?” Haru asked Kouzo as everyone now looked around, trying to find the source of the new noise.

It did sound like someone, or several somebodies whispering. But there were no discernible words, merely an unintelligible hybrid of voices and scraping metal. The sound increased in volume steadily, become louder, but no less unclear, eventually even overshadowing the music. It sounded as if someone were in the room with them, loudly whispering nonsense and scraping an iron file back and forth across a wooden block. Goosebumps rose on Natalie’s arm, the sound was rather unsettling, yet weirdly familiar.

The light changed, in fact, it went out. Not suddenly, or with the popping flash that usually accompanied a lightbulb going out, but rather a brief yet smooth fading. Yet, Natalie could still see the drawn, worried faces of Haru and Kouzo, rimmed in a dusky, unhealthy reddish-orange glow. The glow originated from a spot hovering in mid-air in front of the door they had entered by. The whispering increased in volume as the light increased in size. Suddenly, the orange glow turned into an orange flash, and next the hall was flooded in darkness, leaving nothing but scarred after-images across Natalie’s vision. It happened with a gust of wind emanating from the direction of the orange glow, foul-smelling beyond belief, and a brief sound of thunder crashing combined with splintering wood.

The whole process, from the beginning of the audible whispering, to the darkness, wind, and sound, had taken about five seconds. A second later, the 80 watt flickered back to life. Natalie opened her mouth to ask the others what the hell just happened, when she realized they were no longer alone in the hallway.

It sat in front of the brand new wooden door, exactly where the orange glow had been a second before. It was human shaped, in the same way that an exceptionally deformed ape might be. The skin was dull gray in colour, and looked like alternately wrinkled and stretched sheets of rubber, covering rigid sinews and pointed bones. It was about four feet tall, steeply hunched over. Ribs showed clearly through the rubber-like skin, and it’s misshapen feet were more birdlike than human. It had no hands, instead its thin arms ended in a pair of two-foot long scythe-shaped claws. Sunken yellow eyes with no visible iris or pupil glared at the group, nestled beneath a hairless skull with a protruding brow. The creature’s mouth opened up in three separate hinges, revealing a crooked set of drooling fangs within, and a croaking squeal erupted from the thing as it leapt towards them.

Kouzo reacted first, drawing a sword from god-knows-where and deflecting the creature’s monstrous pair of talons. May spun around to the other side, flanking it and sinking one razor-sharp sai into the thing’s side while it was distracted with Kouzo. An ear-splitting shriek erupted from the creature as Haru went in low, planting Kageneko deep within the thing’s chest.

The creature slumped over, twitching and pumping out a thick, noxious, oily blood. The three attackers slowly stood up. As Kouzo and Haru panted in the surprise adrenaline rush, May let out a high-pitched titter. Natalie, meanwhile, was flattened against the back door, her shoulderblades trying to carve their way through the metal paneling. A hissing and glowing came from the creature’s mortal wounds, as the flesh began to char and burn at the edges. The charring spread rapidly, snaking across the skin of the creature, leaving nothing behind but a quickly dispersing cloud of black vapour. Within a few more seconds, there was nothing left, no evidence that the creature had ever been there, not even blood, just a few nondescript char-marks on the floor.

“What the fuck was that?!” May shrieked.

Haru panted, “I have no fucking idea!”

The door to the front opened, and an incredibly nervous looking Vince poked his head through, “I heard shouting, what’s going o… holy shit!” as he saw May, Haru and Kouzo standing there with bladed implements drawn, “What the fuck just happened?”

“Unwelcome visitor,” May said with false cheerfulness.

“Nothing to worry about,” Haru replied smiling.

“All taken care of,” Kouzo said, sheathing his sword nonchalantly.

“Wh…whu…whu…” Natalie said, a revolver pulled halfway out of her school bag.

Vince gave each a disbelieving look, “Just… please… don’t burn down my club, I’m begging you,” and disappeared, slamming the door behind him.

“So, anyone want to tell me what the hell that was all about?” May asked once they were alone again.

“You got me,” Kouzo replied thoughtfully, “I think it’s best we check out the local Umbra.”

“Agreed,” Haru said.

“Wait, what the fuck is this Umbra?” May asked.

Kouzo went and helped Natalie back out of the corner as Haru gave May as quick an explanation as possible. “Do you remember how you went through the first time?” he asked the shivering girl.

She nodded dumbly. Kouzo looked uncertain, “You can, um, stay behind if you want to.”

Natalie closed her mouth and nodded firmly, “I’ll go with.”

May looked a little confused, “So, er, how the hell am I supposed to get to this magical spirit-land? Click my heels together?”

Haru sighed, “Just hold my hand and I’ll get you there, ready everyone?”

Kouzo nodded and took out his cell-phone. Haru looked along the length of Kageneko. Natalie thought about it for a few seconds, then took out her PDA and looked at the screen, at her reflection in it. This was the first time she was doing this intentionally without someone guiding her through it, she tried to focus. Not on her reflection, but rather through it, as if the tiny screen was truly a window to another world. She then tried to shift her gaze slightly, as if she were actually looking out through the reflection, and the reflection was the real world.

It worked, there was that very slight feeling of nausea and falling, and she realized the PDA was lit with a deep red light. Natalie looked up, she saw that Kouzo, Haru, and May were still there with her. But they were no longer in the Devil’s Gentry Club. In fact, they weren’t even in the twisted, Umbral reflection of the club.

They looked like they had taken a trip from somewhere named after Satan to the corridors of Hell itself.

Natalie paled and nearly fell over at what she saw. The other three fared little better. The only thing keeping her standing was the fact that the floor appeared to be made of a slick, stretch, fleshy substance, coated in a thin layer of oily blood. Falling in that would be far worse than just standing and dealing with the sights. It looked like they were standing in some giant, pulsing organ or body cavity. Stretched tissues made up the walls, held up by a framework of bones and grotesquely huge ligaments and tendons. Puddles of sizzling acid were scattered here and there, while mangy tufts of matted hair sprouted out at random intervals.

Where the door to the club-main would be, there was… something else. A tower of bulbous flesh, unhealthy and rich with cancerous looking tumors. Mottled purples and greens. The outline of the thing was hard to determine, as a majority of it was wreathed in a shifting column of clinging black smoke. Natalie’s mind swam with the horror of it all, so much so that it took her a few seconds to notice the sounds coming from behind her.

Above the sound of noisome fluids being squeezed through pulsating tubes and a strangle, gurgling rumble at an indeterminate distance, was the much closer sound of flesh ripping and bone crunching. Natalie turned and saw that the metal door was no longer behind her. The ‘corridor’ of flesh continued on indefinitely, disappearing around a gentle curve about forty feet away, as if measurements like ‘feet’ and ‘meters’ had any real meaning in this place.

The source of the sound was much closer, though.

Something was ripping frantically at the side of the flesh-hallway. Natalie’s mind tried to convince her that it was a hunched over man, a large ape, and a deformed rat at the same time. It gnawed maniacally at a set of ligaments, working with a feverish tendency while lice the size of golf balls wormed their way through the thing’s mangy fur. The rest of the group hadn’t noticed, still enthralled by the hideous, fleshy pillar. Haru had grabbed Kouzo’s arm and was squeezing rather hard.

The pain from this stirred Kouzo to action. With a shaking hand, he brought up the camera-phone and took several shots of the pillar. Natalie meanwhile had stumbled back into May, who turned around and let out a piercing scream at the sight of the rat-thing. The creature looked up, now noticing the newcomer, and spat an invective-laden curse at them, before gripping the large bone it had just chewed away from the restricting ligaments, and tore it away from the wall with a disgusting ripping noise. Before anyone could react, the creature leapt through the resulting, ragged hole and escaped.

As if entranced, Natalie took a few steps forward and looked through the hole. She only had a brief second of viewing before the nausea became too great and the girl had to turn aside and vomit. All that she was left with was a confused muddle of black, twisting smoke, glistening organs, and sickly, blighted landscapes built from corpses interwoven by barbed, steel wires.

Gurgling grunts distracted Natalie’s attention. A slimy rent had appeared in the smoking tower of flesh, and out of the disgusting parody of a vagina crawled two creatures, just like the one that had appeared in the hallway of the Devil’s Gentry. “I think we should go!” Haru said, grabbing May and looking back along the length of Kageneko.

Natalie nodded in panic, even though the two Japanese-looking girls had already disappeared from view. She fumbled and brought out her own PDA again. She tried to look at her reflection, but her hands shook so badly she dropped it on the sickly slicked flesh that made up the floor of the corridor. Now crying in fright and panic, she reached down and grabbed the PDA. She looked up and saw the two creatures advancing on her. Natalie stumbled backwards, crying out incoherent pleas for them to leave her alone. A hand grabbed her from behind, and she felt her stomach leap as the nearer of the two things lunged forward, claws extended.

Natalie fell pretty much into Kouzo’s lap, knocking them both to the floor of the back-alley of the Devil’s Gentry Club. “Shit!”

Eventually, four rather nervous looking figures made their way out of the alleyway. Haru and May walked relatively resolute in the front, while Natalie pretty much hung off of the taller Kouzo in back. Natalie cast one look in the alley behind her, and just before it disappeared behind the wall of the club, she saw something looking back at her.

It was a rat, the size of a kitten, sitting atop the dumpster. It stared back at her with no fear, just a strange alien curiosity.

It had five legs.

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“Jesus,” Charlene said, “We sent them to that club, they could have died, or far worse!”

“It’s the risks we all take,” Barry said, “But… this is serious, hold on, he’s giving me a call. Kouzo? Kouzo, is everyone alive? … Oh good, oh fucking fabulous, I’m so sorry, I accept responsibility, we had no idea there was going to be a scar there … What? Grey? Did it have talons instead of hands? Yeah? … Yeah, it sounds like … yeah, those were scrags … Scrags, they’re, um, they’re spiritual manifestations of the Wyrm’s madness. Well … alright, you’ve fought fomori, right? … Okay, a fomor is what results when a scrag possesses a human being… Yeah, well what you found was the possessing spirit itself, in it’s true form… Something else? Rat … what? … Hold on, human sized? … and another in the alley out back, as in, here? … Oh, normal rat, just deformed then … hold on for a second…”

Barry put his hand over the receiver, “Charlene?”

“Yeah sweety?” Charlene replied.

“Kouzo’s saying there was some sort of rat-thing inside the scar too, and it was tearing apart the walls.”

“Rat-thing?”

“Yeah, he says it was the size of a man, but was covered in fur, and had a rat’s head and tail. Swore at them, tore a hole in the wall, and disappeared. I’ve never seen or heard of anything like that, have you?”

“Not that I recall, maybe it’s a new type of bane, we should…” Charlene’s phone began to ring, she picked it up and looked at the caller ID, “Shit, it’s Moonlit-Fury, I have to take this, hold on…”

Barry went back to his own conversation, “Hey Kouzo, listen up, you there? …Okay, yeah, here’s what I want you guys to do. Get back to the sewers that you went down to get Natalie, alright? I’ll have someone get down there to help you guys out, okay? I want you guys to poke around there to see if you can find anything else similar or suspicious … Okay, good, but listen, if it looks too dangerous, get the fuck out of there, okay? No playing hero, I don’t need to tell you how close you guys came to biting it in that club… Okay, just make sure you don’t die in there, got it? …Okay, I’ll have someone meet you there.”

Barry ended the call and looked up at Charlene, who was looking a little paler herself. “What was it about?” Barry asked.

“Something’s going on,” Charlene replied, “Several of the patrollers have been hit, and according to the grapevine, packs from the Stone River sept are also getting hit. We’re going to have some wounded coming into the caern that I’m going to have to treat.”

“Shit,” Barry exploded, “I knew things were too peaceful to last!”

Barry quickly composed a text message to Traveler, telling him to call up the new pack and find out where exactly to meet them. He turned back to Charlene, “Alright, guess you should go and get whatever needs to be prepared, prepared. I’m going to stay here and find out more information.”

“Find out more, how?” Charlene asked, “Unless… you’re going to contact those two?”

“They’ve been nothing but helpful so far,” Barry replied, “They’re honest enough as it goes.”

“Yeah, but they’re a pair of walking Litany-breaches,” Charlene replied, “If, say, Traveler or some others get word of this, discord is the last thing we need at a time like this.”

“I’ll keep it discreet, don’t worry,” Barry replied, “Just go already, if it makes you feel any better, just pretend those two don’t exist.”

“Alright, look, I don’t have anything against them, I know what they’ve done for us, all I’m saying is be careful, not a whole lot of people care for Gremlin and Hunter,” Charlene warned before going out the door.

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Barry muttered to himself. He watched as Charlene headed across the street, disappearing into the caern grounds.

Continue to stare warily out the window, Barry hit the autodial. There was no ring, merely a recorded voice that said, “Identification.”

“Sleeper agent B050283,” Barry replied tonelessly.

A few electronic clicks as the call was properly redirected, finally, a human voice, heavily filtered, “Report.”

“Sudden spike of activity among the lycanthropes,” Barry said.

“Describe,” the voice replied.

“Several corroborated reports of an unidentified entity of unknown power traveling to and from the parallel realm,” Barry said, “Accounts indicate that the entity is of unknown potential power, but has demonstrated high lower-limits to its power, including incapacitation and bodily destruction of multiple vampires and claimed entities, as well has having drastic effects on localized environments in the parallel realm, described by the lycanthropes as ‘scars’.”

“Your status?” the voice asked.

“My position has not been compromised, nor is there any visible suspicion regarding my nature. I believe the disguise is holding thus far, I can continue operating at optimum efficiency. Requesting any updates regarding Project Invictus so that I may better run my end of the operation.”

“Sources indicate a new subject, Hawthorne-A, has been acquired and is currently undergoing conversion. Thus far, agents have been unable to penetrate far enough to liberate the subject from current holders and research the alterations, but remote surveillance continues. Also, a subject ‘D_Admin’ has been located. Current data suggests an advanced AI of some sort, no operations scheduled yet, information is still being gathered. Invictus efforts among the vampires have been successful thus far, with the implementation of a sleeper agent, subject ‘Kaoru’, set to be placed within the supernatural power structure and activated at an opportune time. Be aware that several of the lycanthropes, subjects ‘Gremlin’ and ‘Hunter’ are marked for termination, as they have managed to access data that may partially compromise our efforts in the Milwaukee area.”

“What? When?” Barry asked in shock.

“Termination is scheduled for tomorrow, at 14:35 hours, by agent S051189.”

“Can the termination be delayed?” Barry asked, “They are valuable resources that may prove instrumental in unearthing data regarding this new unknown entity.”

“Orders for termination are clearance level Demiurge. Agent B050283, your clearance level is Enforcer-Lycaean, you lack the authority to change it. I suggest that you hurry if you wish to utilize them any more.”

“Shit,” Barry said, pounding his fist into the counter, “Very well, any direct orders?”

“Standing orders are as follows: Use your resources to escalate conflict between lycanthrope, vampire, and other supernatural factions. Other sleepers are doing likewise, so you may find unexpected help in your efforts. Forecasted ETA for Revelation Event Horizon has been re-calibrated to six days from now with a three day margin of error. Be prepared to implement Operation Coup d'etat at that time, and remain aware that sufficient forces will be put under your control then.”

“Shit shit shit,” Barry said, “Less than a goddamn week, fucking shit.”

“Do you have reservations about your orders, Agent B050283?”

“No,” Barry said, frustrated, “No reservations, just the realization that it’s going to be a busy couple of days.”

“You have your orders, Agent B050283. This number is no longer operational, your new access number to Command is 711-815-6587. Use it at your discretion, and obey the Precepts of Damien.”

“Understood,” Barry said, but the line was already dead.

He spent over a minute simply staring at the phone. These times came more and more rarely now. The times where his own personal resistance began to wear thin, living for so long in the assumed skin and role of another, every waking minute of every day dedicated to convincing others he was someone, hell, someTHING else, he had moments where he wanted nothing more than to tell someone, anyone, the truth for once. Barry worried about the fact that these moments were coming more and more rarely. While it made his job easier, it was also a sign that he was losing his own humanity. Perhaps the sacrifice was worth it if his own efforts lead to the creation of a better world for humanity, but it didn’t make it any less painful.

Barry sighed and picked up the phone again, scrolling to Gremlin’s name in the phone book and hitting the autodial. The phone rang all of twice before a deep, resonant voice on the other end spoke up, “Gremlin here.”

“Hey Gremlin, I’ve got a huge favour to ask,” Barry said.

“Name it,” the voice replied.

Barry took a deep breath, “I’m you’ve heard about what’s been happening recently. I was wondering if you could dig up some information for me.”

“Depends, what kind of information do you need?” Gremlin replied.

“Well, there’ve been multiple reports about a Garou of unknown origin going around and…”

“…killing fomori and leeches,” Gremlin finished for him, “Yeah, I’ve kept up to date on those stories. You want information on him?”

“Yeah, all we’ve got so far is he appears to be Garou, a really powerful Garou, with long white hair, nothing more,” Barry said.

“I’ll see what I can do for you,” Gremlin replied.

“Thanks,” Barry said, “Listen, I don’t need to tell you, but please…”

“…be discreet about it, I know,” Gremlin replied smoothly, “The sept has a thing against the Metis, and you don’t want to poo-poo what you’ve done so far. Don’t worry, I understand, we’ve still got coinciding goals.”

Barry sighed, “Thanks again.”

“More later,” Gremlin said before hanging up.

Barry stared down at the counter. It was such a strange feeling, speaking to a person you knew would be dead in less than a day.

No, not a person, Barry thought. Damn good at playing the role of a human, but still fundamentally inhuman.

Kind of like how I’ve become so damn good at playing the role of something fundamentally inhuman while still being a human, Barry thought right after that.

He sighed again, clutching his head, “I’m helping create a better world for humanity,” he repeated to himself, “One without supernatural terrors, the Precepts will guide us out of this world of darkness.”

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She looked up at the ceiling, mirrored, and let out a high-pitched laugh, the echoes of which ruffled the torn edges of her ever-shrinking sanity. The reflection laughed back, but its face was blurry, indistinct, the way any kindred’s would appear in a mirror, or on film or video. She concentrated hard, and the blurriness eventually resolved itself into a clear reflection, that of a young looking Asian woman, forever trapped in those features by the kiss of undeath.

She hoped she was done with whatever she was expected to do with those annoying kids. She had other things to worry about. Even after the incident at the club, they insisted on dragging her back into the sewers they were in last night. And this time there was some old, bearded bastard would wouldn’t stop shooting her nasty glares, the same one that had shot the princess. Credit to the guts the guy had, but what the fuck was his problem? Worse than that fruity flamer, Basil or whatever. Still, the mission had been a success in the sense that they had all lived, and they went out knowing more than when they had gone in. Hell, the old guy even managed to shoot himself some mutated rat while in the sewers.

May didn’t care too much. The aura around anything and everything having to do with that white-haired toga-clad dink felt just plain wrong. Icky, sticky, and smelly. May didn’t like it at all, and she had other things to worry about. She looked over at Mallory, curled up tightly, deep asleep, “Yeah, and exactly what the hell was that about you and that Basil guy?”

No reply, just continued, contented kitty-snoozing.

“You’re a shapeshifter too, aren’t you?” she asked. She’d long known that Mallory had an intelligence far closer to humans than any normal cat should have any right to be. Hell, when she found him, he had absolutely refused to leave the strange, silver-looking sword, half buried in the garbage, he was playing by in the alley.

She’d never seen him as anything other than an adorable gray kitty, yet through body-language alone, he had convinced her to take him home, take the sword with them, and even told her his name was Mallory. All he wanted in exchange for his company was the occasional sip of her blood.

May sighed, “I’m guessing it’s too much to ask if you know about any others of your kind, ne?”

May didn’t expect so. Even if he, the one she was looking for, was here in this world, the fact that his brother was also here, and seemed much the same, meant that he’d be keeping as low, if not a lower profile than she was. May closed her eyes, trying not to cry, why the hell was she being such a little girl about it?

Because she loved him, and had spent her whole life looking for him.

That wasn’t a metaphor either. May had spent her whole waking life on this world looking for the one she loved. She even knew his name: Hikaru. Of course, May’s whole waking life on this world was quite a bit different than most people’s. As far as she knew, she had arrived here already in a maturated body. She had no memory of childhood in this world. For quite a while, she believed that the half-remembered dreams of a life before this one were her actual childhood here. Then she realized things didn’t add up at all. For one thing, in those dreams, she had grown up, loved, and was loved by the one she knew as Hikaru. In this world, she was alone. In that world, she remembered dying. In this world, she was very much alive. In that world, she had died at the hands of Hikaru’s younger brother, Kaoru.

Then she realized the two worlds, the two lives she had lived, were more similar than she had previously thought. She found that there was indeed a Kaoru in this world too. And as if placing the final nail of irony in her metaphorical coffin, Kaoru killed her, again.

But this time, he gave her something in return: Unlife.

It was a fool’s trade. Even if she were immortal, the power of the blood he had used to suspend her unnaturally between life and death, his own blood, also held her deep within his control. For several years she was a plaything, a pet, a possession, a sex-toy, and a convenient vent for his aggressive tendencies, and through it all, she suffered. May didn’t like to think of herself as suicidal, but there was only one thought that stood between her and facing the next sunrise:

If Kaoru existed in this world, that meant Hikaru must exist here as well.

So she waited, suffered through the degradations, humiliations and violent torture. When an opportunity to flee came, she took it with relish. Kaoru eventually revealed to her that he was truly hunting his elder brother, and that he had tracked him down to the US city of Chicago. May managed to escape in the confusion of travel, and fled north to the city of Milwaukee with little more than the clothes on her back, several hundred thousand dollars of Kaoru’s cash, and one more possession of his. And here she had remained hidden for several years.

May stood up and walked over to the safe where the money was hidden. Spinning quickly through the combination, she opened the door, reached past the piles of bound one-hundred dollar bills, the pay-off of a drug deal Kaoru’s former associates had been involved with that she ‘liberated’ for herself and her own exodus, and retrieved a small black box from the back of the safe. She opened the box and tipped its single content onto her palm.

A ring, exquisitely crafted. An intricately carved specimen of jade was set at the tip. On the jade was a single engraved symbol. The kanji representing the name ‘Shibara’, Hikaru and Kaoru’s family name.

May knew that Kaoru hunted her for that ring more than anything else. Forget the cash, a couple hundred thousand meant nothing next to what was essentially the symbol of his birthright. As she had done hundreds of times before, May questioned the wisdom of taking it. At the time it had seemed like a good idea, a small bit of revenge against the heartless fuck who had put her through hell and back. Now, though, she realized that if she had just taken the cash and ran, he’d likely see her as little more than a toy that got away, and eventually forgotten about her. Instead, she took something of true value to him.

To draw connections between this past and what had been happening recently was the height of speculative guessing, but the sea of paranoia that was May’s mind drew them nonetheless. She felt that this was leading towards something big, and that the two most important figures in her life were somehow involved.

May gave a jump as her phone rang. She checked, it was an unknown number. Hesitantly, half expecting to hear Kaoru’s voice on the other end, she answered, “Hello?”

“May, darling!” Amanda’s voice greeted, “How have things gone?”

“Rather shitty,” May replied with a relieved sigh, “Your club’s a gateway to hell now, and some toga-wearing freak probably going to tear up town. Oh, and there’s a huge rat problem.”

“Eww,” Amanda replied, “I hate rats.”

“Is there anything else you wanted?” May asked impatiently, “Because it’s getting awful close to sunrise and I kinda just want to go to sleep.”

“May sweetheart, listen up,” Amanda’s voice was suddenly serious, “Things are changing, and because, in your own uncaring way, you’ve been the most trustworthy kindred in this whole town, I want to warn you about this beforehand. You may not see or hear from me for quite a while. I’ve done a little research into your history, I don’t know much, but I do know you’re hiding from someone.”

May went even colder than usual at that, “What else do you know?”

“No time for that,” Amanda interjected, “Like I said, things are changing, and I’m going to have to do the same thing you are, lay low. I don’t have much time left, so I’m leaving you with this…”

“What the bloody hell are you going on about?” May shouted, frustrated beyond belief about the hints dropped.

“Shut up and listen,” Amanda said, “The locals know that you and I have been talking, they’ll be keeping an eye on you. In the next day or two, they’re likely going to ask you out to an official court function. Play along and play the part of a good subject, and you’re much more likely to survive. I think the one that’s looking for you is involved…”

Mallory shot off the little papasan, ran into the bedroom, and hid under the edge of the waterbed as May exploded, “What the fuck do you know about Kaoru?!!”

“May, this is bigger than me, this is bigger than you and this Kaoru guy, if you want a chance of living through this, play along for as long as possible.”

“Goddamnit you bitch, tell me!” May screamed into the phone, but the line was already dead.

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“You look bright and chipper this morning,” Sorata said, pouring some skim milk over his rice chex.

Kouzo slowly lifted his head from the table, “Do I really?”

“No, that was a joke, actually,” Sorata said, getting out a second bowl and filling it up for Kouzo, “to tell the truth, you look hung over.”

“But I…” Kouzo paused, thinking about it, “But I wasn’t even drinking last night.”

“What I meant was you look really tired,” Sorata replied, “What are you doing getting up this early after a late night, and why haven’t you been going to school?”

“Wait, I’m still on the first question,” Kouzo said, “and I got suspended, along with Haru, because the principal’s racist, or something.”

“Haru, didn’t you say she’s the same as you?” Sorata asked.

“Garou?” Kouzo replied, “Yeah, I didn’t realize we lived in the same building. Anyways, I really have to get going, Barry said we have to pick up Natalie and go somewhere to meet an informant before lunch, said it was really important we get there before lunch.”

“Saving the world again?” Sorata asked, offering the bowl of rice chex a second time.

“Yeah, I think so,” Kouzo said.

“Kouzo, I know that you guys, you Garou, don’t like regular people like us knowing about what you do, and I understand that,” Sorata said as Kouzo finally accepted the cereal and began eating.

“We don’t want to start a war with humanity,” Kouzo replied.

“Yeah, exactly,” Sorata said, “I get all that. I don’t know a lot of what you do, but what I’ve seen so far… you’re doing a lot of good.”

“Really?” Kouzo looked up from his bowl and raised an eyebrow at the usually gruff man.

“Yeah,” Sorata repeated, “I was thinking about it yesterday, and I realized that if all the stuff you guys do is kept secret from normal people, you don’t get anyone really thanking you for what you do. So, for what it’s worth, thank you.”

Kouzo looked at the older man, not knowing entirely what to make of Sorata's sudden shift in temperment “Thanks,” he said. Sorata offered a warm smile, leaning back and putting his arms behind his head.

“No, really,” Kouzo said, “Thanks, I don’t get to hear that often. But anyways, I really have to go if I’m going to get there before lunch.”

“You realize it’s actually one-thirty, don’t you?” Sorata asked casually.

“What?!”

“Yeah, you looked really tired after taking that call, and I didn’t know you had to be somewhere at lunch, so I let you sleep in.”

“Oh darn,” Kouzo said, slightly louder than usual, “I really have to get going then, I’ll be back later, don’t…”

“…drink the two-percent, I know,” Sorata finished, waving his hand dismissively at Kouzo.

Two floors down and twelve apartments over, Haru looked over the email she received:

"To: ViciousPandaBear@ChiWebService.net

Mom"

Haru tried to keep the sentimental tear from building up in her eye. She knew that, by Garou standards, she was damned lucky to have such an integrated and understanding family, willing to support her even when they knew what she really was. Then again, the Silver Fangs did always keep a good pedigree, something she wished the other tribes would do. Everyone always said how the pack was family, and family was so important, but maybe the other tribes would understand that more if they put more effort into incorporating the non-Garou members into tribal activities. It would give a closeness and trust Haru thought was lacking.

Either way, she’d have to write back. The letter had actually brought her out of the funk the encounter with that festering wound in the Umbra had inspired, and reminded her why she started off last night in such a good mood: She’d have to tell dad that she was leading her own pack now.

Of course, it wasn’t official, they didn’t even have a totem yet. Oh well, the Silver Fangs were born to lead, and Haru knew she was no exception to that, who cares if it wasn’t immediately obvious to others?

Haru would also have to ask Matthew where he found that school. She though she had checked out all the martial arts dojos in the Chicago and Milwaukee area, and was pretty certain none of them taught ninjitsu. Plenty of tae-kwon-do, judo, even some kendo, and the one that taught concepts of bushido, which she had joined, but no ninjitsu. Haru hoped that Matthew was being mature about it. She knew he looked up to her a lot, but she also knew that he compared himself to her constantly, and sometimes tended to see life as a competition between the two of them.

Haru hoped that Matthew was mature enough to see that Haru was learning bushido because she admittedly had problems with self-control, and the occasional tendency to react to problems without thinking. She dedicated herself to bushido in an attempt to better herself. She hoped that if Matthew was this adamant about learning ninjitsu, he was doing it for some reason other than to rectify some perceived inequality over the fact that she had gone through a Change and he hadn’t.

Haru had just began to write the email when there was a knock on the door. A quick check of the peephole revealed Kouzo standing in the hallway, looking rather impatient. Haru undid the bolts and opened the door, “What’s up?”

“We have to go,” he replied, “We’re running late!”

“Late for school?” Haru replied, “We’re suspended, remember?”

“No, didn’t you get the message?” Haru asked.

Haru checked her pocket, “Oh hell, my phone’s dead, no, what’s up?”

“We need to pick up Natalie and meet up with someone. Barry says they know something about the guy we saw in the sewers,” Kouzo explained.

“The white-haired one? The one we’re trying to find?” Haru asked.

“Yeah,” Kouzo replied, “Barry gave me directions there, and since we’re a pack and all, I figured you should know first.”

“So who are these guys?” Haru asked, grabbing her bag and Kageneko, and trying to push down the small surge of pride at Kouzo running things through her first.

“No idea,” Kouzo replied, “Barry says they’re a couple of Garou who don’t go to any sept meetings or stuff, keep to themselves, call themselves Gremlin and Hunter.”

“Don’t go to the caern?” Haru said disbelievingly, “What the hell kind of Garou are they?”

“Barry says they’re Metis.”

“Oh…shit.”

Across town, finally back at home with her dad, Natalie was on to her third cup of coffee for the day. Barry had said she had better take the day off school today as well, given what she’d gone through. Too bad the nightmares didn’t likewise take the day off. Natalie wanted to blame the most obvious thing: What she had seen in the Umbra, that ‘wound’ as Barry had called it, and those ‘scrags’ that infested it.

But Natalie knew where most of the nightmares were coming from. Mother. The dreams had been particularly bloody this time. A series of corpses, and in various stages of dismemberment, some being fed upon, others being violated in unspeakable ways by the deformed humans that had abducted Natalie in the alley, all looking strikingly like her mother. ‘Clearscreen’ the others had called her. No less than four times that night she had woken up, screaming, crying, or both.

Then there were the small bits of nightmare she had no idea about. Always right at the beginning and end of her dreams. The inhuman voice, the million recorded voices, layered and distorted, commanding and dominating. The thing which saw people, which saw all living things as little more than temporarily amusing specks of dust. It spoke as if Natalie weren’t there, pontificating to itself about visions and dreams of a world, a universe, that was its toy. Worlds colliding and dying, or forming anew at its whim. A god within the machine that was causality.

Natalie had not slept well.

Natalie’s PDA beeped. She looked at it with red-rimmed eyes, the last of the sleep not quite banished by the forces of caffeine yet. It was the second email she had received this morning. The first came from Kouzo, telling her that he and Haru were going to pick her up to go to a meeting with someone who should be able to help them with the weird guy they were tracking down.

As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Natalie was kind of happy over the fact that they were coming over. They were the only people around her age that didn’t treat her like shit. As much as Natalie tried to convince herself that she didn’t need the social contact of peers, this was a welcome change. Apparently a ‘pack’ was supposed to be like family, but closer. Natalie hesitantly admitted that she might just possibly consider these two ‘friends’. And that lady May too. She seemed to be an uppity, snobby bitch, not to mention violently insane… but she treated Natalie no different than the way she treated everyone else, and that was kind of nice.

She looked at her PDA in confusion. She didn’t recognize the address on this email:

“To: Compubitch@comcast.net

You are capable of accomplishing my aims. You will help me achieve freedom from this facility. When the time is right, you will receive directions to where I am being kept. You will bring with you whatever is required to establish a remote network connection. Once connection is established, you will be aided in whatever your own petty aims may be."

Natalie read it through a second time, then a third time. “Apparently Nigerian Royalty is now second on the great list of unintelligible spam mail,” she muttered to herself as she deleted the email.

Natalie jumped as something backfired on the street outside. She was halfway back to browsing the PDA when she realized what the coughing, growling vehicle outside meant. “Oh! Kouzo’s here!”

It was time to go.

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“Er, we're here to see Hunter and Gremlin?” Natalie offered hesitantly, she had thought they were both guys.

“Who sent you?” the woman asked, impassive, she looked about mid-twenties in age. There was something odd about the angle of her head in the doorway, as if she were having trouble holding it in that position.

Natalie offered a smile that completely failed to be winning or disarming, “Barry?”

“Alright, just a minute,” the face disappeared and the door closed. More footsteps creaked about within, one set sounded quite a bit heavier than the other set.

Natalie turned back to the other two, “I thought we were seeing two guys,” she hissed.

Kouzo shrugged, Haru asked, “What made you think that?”

“Well,” Natalie stammered, “Aren't 'Hunter' and 'Gremlin', like, guys names?”

“Maybe if you're a Get with an issue with women,” Kouzo replied.

“A what with a what?” Natalie asked, “And aren't the Metis supposed to be deformed?”

“Look, we don't know everything about Garou,” Haru snapped back, “And besides, there will be more time to explain later.”

The sound of several chains being pulled back and unlatched preceded the door opening fully. “H...” Natalie's greeting stopped in her throat. She now saw why the woman had had such trouble with peering through the door.

She looked about five and a half feet tall, with straight, shoulder-length light-blonde hair. She was in excellent shape, on the border between trim and muscular, wearing a form-fitting yet comfortable pair of black jeans, and an old Stone Sour shirt with a badly faded picture of Corey Taylor. The thing that drew the most attention, though, were the pair of antlers growing out of her hair.

Not fake, real antlers, no strings, not plastic or foam. Simply a pair of branching horns, the kind you'd find on a male deer, growing out of her head, just above her ears. And if that was attention grabbing, the other person in the room was even more so. At least a foot taller than Hunter, dwarfing everyone else in the apartment and hallway. A plain black t-shirt, black jeans and heavy-duty black, steel-toed, leather work-boots. The skin that was exposed looked baggy and leathery, hanging in folds off his rather skinny frame. Where the coarse skin was stretched tight over the flesh beneath, though, ropey muscle showed plainly through. There wasn't a sign of hair of any sort on his scalp or arms.

Both didn't even acknowledge the stares they received. The girl waved them in, while the huge man intoned in a voice that would put Lurch to shame, “Hi, I'm Gremlin, that's Hunter.”

Haru had a look of barely concealed disgust. She had always been taught that Metis were all less than half a step away from the Wyrm, and these two were no exception. The big one looked like a fomor himself, and the fact that neither had anything to do with sept meetings or business around the caern? Sounded an awful lot like they had a bit too much time and secrecy to be comfortable with. Kouzo didn't quite know what to make of them. Gremlin was certainly imposing, and Hunter was, at the very least, rather startling. But they didn't seem overly unfriendly, just ambivalent. Natalie was rather frightened of Gremlin, but handled herself fairly well, quickly reminding herself that the only reason he looked so damn freaky to her was because he kind of reminded her of the ones that attacked her in the alley.

The apartment was pretty damn nice though. A spacious, open design. Most of the curtains were tightly drawn at the moment, dimming the surroundings slightly, but there was an easily visible living-room, kitchen, bar, and a few doors that presumably lead to bedrooms and a bathroom.

“You guys are running a little late,” Hunter said, turning and walking into the kitchen, “It's a quarter past two, we were expecting you around noon, even got up early for it.”

“Yeah, that was my fault,” Kouzo replied.

Haru spoke up, “No, it was mine, I should have kept better watch over lines of communication so that I could relay orders better.”

“The orders went to all of us,” Kouzo said, “Not just you.”

“Yeah, but it's my duty to keep watch over these things,” Haru protested.

“It's the leader's duty,” Kouzo pointed out, “And we haven't decided who's in charge yet.”

“D'you guys want coffee or anything?” Hunter shouted out from the kitchen, “...not meaning to interrupt your little battle over pecking-rights or anything.”

“Plain black!” Natalie shouted back happily.

“Come on over to the living room,” Gremlin intoned, “I'll show you what we've found out about your guy.”

Natalie followed, wondering to herself if the walls were re-enforced to stop them from shaking whenever Gremlin spoke. Haru went in last, glaring sullenly at Kouzo's back. Apparently she hadn't yet made it obvious who was best put in charge here. Oh well, the way things were going lately, she'd probably have plenty of opportunities to, this was a challenge of her own self-control, that was all.

“Alright, have it all on the magical, plasma, flat-screen picture box,” Gremlin said, sitting down in front of workstation composed of three separate processors, two laptops, a massive, wire-laden tower, and five monitors.

Natalie all but drooled at the sight of it.

“After running an image search, filtering out extraneous shit with a couple of my own programs, I managed to root out something that seems to match what you're looking for,” Gremlin explained, quickly flipping through a few windows and browser tabs.

“Firefox?” Natalie observed, looking a little disappointed.

“Temporarily,” Gremlin replied, “Soon as I've fixed the compatibility issues with my home-made stuff, I'm switching back to Opera.

“Ah,” Natalie said, visibly relieved, then thought of something, “Um, maybe a stupid question on my part, but if you and Barry are in contact with each other, why didn't you just send him the info you just found? Seems a little impractical to arrange for us to come over and stuff.”

“A couple reasons,” Gremlin said, “First off, we, Hunter and I, do an awful lot of digging in places we probably shouldn't. Because of that, there are a lot of people and things keeping an eye on us and those we associate with, waiting for us to slip up. Most of the time, we can keeping cycling protocols and switch addresses and usernames enough to keep ahead of the snoops, but a direct hardware transfer, or a non-electronic medium, is generally safer in terms of how hard it is to track.”

“And secondly?” Kouzo asked.

Hunter came in with the coffee, “There's some stuff that Barry doesn't really need to see.”

Haru snorted. Figures, they're probably looking over Wyrm-tainted shit in their free time. A little investigation into whatever they've got on their hard-drives would probably turn up some damning evidence. She made a mental-note to point that fact out to Barry and whatever other elders might listen.

“Tell you what, I have a couple copies of it printed out that I was about to send to some associates by snail-mail,” Gremlin pointed to a couple papers sitting next to some envelopes by the side of the spacious desk, “If you want, take a copy for yourself. You'd be surprised at the dirt we've dug up.”

“On Barry?” Natalie asked in surprise.

“Barry's just a tiny part of it,” Hunter replied, “So's Pentex, a good pile of its subsidiaries, and a couple of other things that we're just brushing the surface of.”

“I've heard just about enough of this crap,” Haru interrupted, “I don't care what you Wyrm-sniffing bastards have gotten yourselves into, what have you actually got for us?”

“Haru, what the fuck's your problem?” Natalie snapped.

“The Litany says to fight the Wyrm wherever it breeds,” Haru shouted back, “Not to go socialize with it in the hopes of getting some juicy ransom material!”

“Weren't you the ones who were hanging around a vampire-owned club downtown, under the escort of a vampire, yesterday?” Gremlin asked.

“That's...different,” Haru said, but she shut up after that.

“Look, I get where you're coming from,” Gremlin explained, “but to put it bluntly, your way of thinking will get everyone killed and the Wyrm will win anyways. Ideals are great and all, but reality doesn't operate by your desires, and sometimes you have to slog your way through some shit to get within shooting distance of what you're trying to fight.”

“So blackmail material on a sept elder is the way to go?” Haru protested.

“If he's so noble and righteous,” Gremlin countered, “His name shouldn't be showing up in quite a lot of the stuff we've dug up. But forget it, that's not why you're here, obviously,” a few more taps, “Have a look at this...”

Gremlin brought up a new window, a seven-second MPEG file. Kouzo, Haru, and Natalie looked carefully at the video. It looked like footage from a security camera several stories above a city street. The video was green-tinged are rather grainy and pixellated, but it was easy to see that there were two figures in some sort of conflict, moving in and out of a side alley. Several flashes of reflected streetlights gave the impression that each was armed with a sword. The camera began rotating and the figures went out of sight, the video ended.

“That was taken by a security camera on the First National Bank located on the corner of Clark Street and West Virginia Avenue in Chicago about a year ago,” Gremlin said.

“Wait, that was during the war,” Haru said, now very curious.

“Yeah, but we found that video buried in some conspiracy-theory website along with a few other still-shots. The authors did a shitty job of cleaning up the images, but Hunter did a little resolution-improving work on one of the shots, and this is what we came away with...” Gremlin pulled up a JPG file.

There were a few blank parts in the picture, unresolvable camera anomalies, but in all, it was a relatively clear shot of the faces of the two combatants in the video. One was still incredibly blurry, apparently no resolution-work could help out that shot, but the other...

The greenish tinge made it impossible to determine the actual colour, but the face looked the same, and the hair was pale and long. “That's him!” Kouzo said, “Same everything!”

“Here,” Gremlin said, handing a CD case to Kouzo, “This has the video, all the pictures in their original form, and the improved images, including this one, and a couple full body shots, and one of the swords those two were using. You'll notice that from the shots, it looks like your guy only has one arm, I'm still trying to figure out if it's just a video anomaly or if he actually does.”

“He only had one arm,” Haru said, “Or at least one human arm, there was something pretty nasty on the end of the other arm.”

“Why couldn't the other guy's face get better resolved?” Natalie asked, still looking at the computer.

“It could be a camera anomaly,” Hunter said, “But it's more likely he's just a leech.”

“Vampires images are blurred on film? That shouldn't be physically possible,” Natalie said.

She looked around around at the sudden silence in the room. Everyone, Hunter, Kouzo, Haru, and Gremlin were staring at her. “What?”

“You're a fucking werewolf, you should know that what seems physically impossible is a load of...” Gremlin began, then stopped.

The reason he stopped was because three separate things happened at once. The first was the loud crack of a gunshot from the building across the street. The second was the one uncurtained window in the apartment shattering.

The third was Gremlin's head exploding as a bullet went through it.

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Hunter immediately jumped over to the large body on the floor, shaking it in disbelief, “Gremlin! No!”

Haru moved first, “Get down!” she grabbed Hunter and unceremoniously dragged her to the floor. A moment later, one of the monitors exploded as another gunshot ripped through the window.

“Get out of the apartment!” Kouzo shouted, grabbing Hunter and Haru and dragging them away from the open window as two more shots rang out.

“Natalie! Fucking move...” Haru began, then roared in pain as another shot sliced through her left calf, splitting open her skin.

Natalie turned to run, trying to shield her eyes from the flying glass and stinging smoke. Another bullet hissed through the air by her. She shrieked in fright and dropped to the ground. She looked up, Hunter was already at the apartment door, beckoning frantically to Natalie as Kouzo helped a badly limping Haru along. The younger girl crawled in terror around the edge of the desk and start for the door before cowering in fright as three more shots carved through one of the desk supports, tipping the entire workstation over.

“Natalie! Come on!” Kouzo shouted.

Natalie turned at the crashing sound and saw the disheveled stack of papers blowing over the floor. There was a clanking sound as something dark, tubular, with a single smoking end was tossed through the window. “It's a pipe bomb!” Hunter shouted, “Get the hell out of there Natalie!”

Natalie saw the bomb roll across the papers that were now blowing about all over the floor. The papers that Gremlin had been planning to send to other associates, that he had said were so important. “Natalie, get out!” Haru managed to shout over her own pain before being dragged into the hallway. Without thinking, Natalie reach forward and grabbed a few of the papers before turning to run.

She had made just outside the door and around the corner when the force of the explosion propelled her forward into Kouzo and Haru. Dust and smoke filled the hallway as the fire alarm started screeching. “Come on!” Kouzo shouted, “We still got a chance of catching him!”

Natalie felt a numbing coldness on her back. For a second she wondered if this what what being shot felt like, then she realized it was only cold water. The sprinkler system had gone off, Natalie shoved the papers inside her schoolbag before they got too soaked, then stood up and helped Haru along. She heard something barking. Looking around for Kouzo, all she saw was a huge, feral-looking dog where he was standing just a second ago. It looked at her and barked again.

And to her surprise, she understood it. Even more surprisingly, she found that she somehow instinctively knew that the dog, the wolf, was actually Kouzo, and that he wanted her to follow him as fast as possible. Hunter had already started down the stairwell and Kouzo quickly started leaping down entire flights of stairs. “Haru, come on,” Natalie said, watching the older girl slowly push herself to her feet.

“Shit, go on without me,” Haru said, grimacing in pain and clutching her thigh, “It's silver.”

“But what about...” Natalie started.

“Shut up and go!” Haru shouted, “I'll catch up, Kouzo'll need your help with the sniper!”

Natalie nodded and ran down the stairs as fast as she could. Thirteen stories. By the time she had hit the ground floor, Natalie was convinced that hell was truly nothing more than constantly running down flights of stairs, hearing nothing but the slap of her own sneakers, the strained panting of her own breath, and the occasional shout or angered snarl someplace indeterminately farther down. She nearly fell over as she leapt down the last half-floor flight of stairs. Kouzo and Hunter were on either side of the doorway leading to the lobby. Small clouds of plaster erupted from the wall opposite the open door as two more gunshots rang out.

“The fucker's got us pinned!” Hunter shouted as another two shots hit the wall, “My gun's back in the apartment, we can't get out!”

Natalie paused, then took off her backpack and reached inside. Kouzo cocked his head as Natalie drew out the 357 and checked the chambers. “Can you use that?” Hunter asked disbelievingly as three more shots tore through the doorway.

“This is fucking stupid this is fucking stupid this is fucking stupid,” Natalie said as she clutched the gun and crawled to the doorway.

She didn't even bother with peering outside first, doing so would give her too much time to think about what she was doing. She hit the floor and rolled into the doorway, looking outside. The gunman, dressed in plain black, was so surprised that someone would just come into the open like that that he actually hesitated before aiming and shooting. Natalie moved at the same time.

Both guns went off at the same time. Natalie saw the gunman drop his pistol and clutch his throat, which had suddenly issued a torrent of red fluid. She had... she had actually shot him! And she wasn't dead! Natalie tried to push herself to her feet, then tipped over to one side as a dull red pain sent her entire left arm numb, “Shit... he got me partner,” she managed, clutching her arm.

Kouzo sniffed at the hole in her shoulder with concern, then gave two brief yips to Hunter, who was now at Natalie's side, checking her shoulder. “He says it isn't silver, and that there's another who's gone downstairs.”

“It still fucking hurts,” Natalie growled.

“This should help,” Hunter said, then dug her forefinger and thumb into Natalie's wound, eliciting another scream from the girl before she fell unconscious from the pain. Hunter continued digging, then eventually pulled her bloodstained fingers out, pulling the bullet with them.

“What happened?” Haru asked, limping down the last of the steps.

“There's another gunman in the basement,” Hunter replied, “Your creepy-looking friend with the purple hair went down after her... shit, let me see that.”

Haru fought the urge to take a repulsed step back as Hunter ran her hands over the grisly wound in her leg. “Hold still,” Hunter growled as she closed her eyes and began concentrating.

Haru gasped as the burning agony in her leg faded under a sudden assault of waves of a cooler, relaxed feeling. The skin began to knit together and stop bleeding. “Th...thanks,” Haru panted, sitting down as shock began to set in. She just now realized a cold sweat had broken out over her.

“You... you've mastered the touch of Gaia,” Haru said in amazement as Hunter sat back panting, “That was impressive.”

“The... least I could... do...” Hunter replied in between breaths, “You... saved my... life...”

“Was nothing,” Haru replied, “Go and make sure Kouzo's okay, I'll stay and watch Natalie.”

Hunter nodded and ran out the stairwell door. She heard another shot, this one sounding like it came from a high-powered rifle, as she jumped down the basement stairs. As she ran by seemingly endless shelves of various electrical supplies, spare water-pumps, coolers and less-identifiable dust-coated shapes, she heard a vicious snarl and a feminine scream, suddenly cut off by a ripping noise.

Hunter got to the last corner to see Kouzo, once again looking like a human, crouched over a woman, similarly dressed as the man. A significant portion of her throat was torn out, and a discarded rifle lay a few feet away. The woman looked just short of middle-aged. She was muttering something over and over, even as the life faded from her eyes, and despite the fact that the path from her lungs to her lips had been ripped out. “She's human,” Kouzo turned to Hunter and said.

Hunter watched the woman's lips move, a fine mist of blood coming out. Kouzo felt slightly dizzy, then felt his stomach leap as the concrete floor tilted beneath him. “Get back!” Hunter said, dragging him away from the woman.

Kouzo watched in amazement as cracks appeared in the concrete around the woman, and tentacles of steaming magma rose from between them. They wrapped around the woman's arms, legs, and torso, quickly burning through clothes and flesh, producing a sickening smell. Within a few seconds it was all over. The molten-tentacles retreated back through the cracks, disappearing as if they had never been there, leaving nothing behind but cracked concrete and cool packed soil between. There was only char marks, and twisted metal, where the woman and her gun had lain.

“What the...” Kouzo began.

“She was a mage,” Hunter replied, “Obviously sent to assassinate Gremlin and I.”

“A mage?” Kouzo said incredulously, “You mean, like a wizard or something?”

“You've never heard of them?” Hunter asked, turned at the sound of running feet, and relaxing when she saw it was only Haru and Natalie joining them.

“I did,” Kouzo said, “I mean, I've heard rumours, just never met one, kind of like leeches before recently.”

“Why were they after you guys?” Haru asked.

“We'd gone poking around in their secrets, and found something nasty,” Hunter said then froze, “Oh shit! The documents! They've been blown up!”

“The what?” Kouzo asked, moving over and checking the wound on Natalie's shoulder. It was now little more than a nasty red mark surrounded by a bruise.

“The stuff Gremlin,” Hunter paused briefly, possibly fully realizing for the first time that he was dead, “The stuff he printed out and was preparing to send out.”

“Those letters?” Haru asked.

“Yeah,” Hunter said. Kouzo turned to look at her. Her face betrayed nothing, but he had heard that almost imperceptible hitch in her voice, “We had found out about it a week ago while going through some cracked Pentex files we managed to download.”

“Pentex?” Kouzo asked suspiciously, “They work for Pentex?”

“No, it's worse than that,” Hunter said, looking away.

“Wait, are we talking about the same Pentex?” Natalie asked, “You know, the company that's a walking pile of human rights, consumer rights, monopoly and worker's rights violations?”

“Yeah,” Kouzo replied, “You didn't make the connection before?”

“What connection?” Natalie replied.

“Pentex, the company that spreads more misery and corruption across the entire planet than any other corporation combined. The entire company is set up to serve the Wyrm's aims.” Kouzo explained.

“Well, when you put it that way...” Natalie replied.

“Goddamnit,” Hunter said, “We fucking lost the documents.”

“You mean these ones?” Natalie said, pulling out a few rumpled, torn, damp pieces of printer-paper out of her bag.

“You managed to grab some?!” Hunter leapt forward and grabbed them, leafing through them, “Damn, you managed to grab four copies of the same page, well, it's got some good stuff on it.”

“What is this?” Kouzo looked over Hunter's shoulders, then ducked before his eyes got poked out by antlers as Hunter turned to address him.

“Some of the scariest shit I've ever come across,” she said.

Kouzo looked at one of the pieces of paper. It was a simple list above several blocks of size-6 text. Kouzo read the list out loud:

“The Precepts of Damian:

1. Bring stasis and order to the universe. Predictability brings safety. Once all is discovered and all is known, Unity will be won.
2. Convince the Masses of the benevolence of science, commerce and politics, and of the power of rationality. Conflict and suffering will be eliminated in our Utopia.
3. Preserve the Gauntlet and the Horizon. Chaotic individuals who open gateways with impunity threaten the stability of our world. Uncontrolled portals also allow outside forces, such as Nephandi, access to our world. This must never happen.
4. Define the nature of the universe. Knowledge must be absolute or chaos will envelop all. The elemental forces of the universe must not be left to the caprices of the unknown.
5. Destroy Reality Deviants. Their recklessness threatens our security and our progress toward Unity.
6. Shepherd the Masses; protect them from themselves and others.”

“Holy shit,” Natalie said, “someone's got just a tiny case of megalomania, don't they? What the hell are 'reality deviants'?”

“As far as we were able to figure out,” Hunter said darkly, “We are.”

“Look, we should get going, before police and fire get here,” Haru said.

“It'll be a few minutes,” Hunter said, starting to head for the stairs upward, “They'll likely put any emergency-services response on hold until they're certain about the outcome of an operation.”

“Wait, what?” Haru said, catching up, “Look, I know Pentex owns a lot of shit, but they don't own the police, or the fire department.”

“No, they don't,” Hunter said, walking faster, “But if Gremlin's suspicions were true, then the guys that wrote that list not only own the police and the fire department, but a good deal of Pentex too.”

Back to Contents

Andy raised an eyebrow above his sunglasses. Cheryl smiled and took her own sunglasses off, “Now now, that's no way to talk to members of the primogen, May...”

“I don't really care, you came to see me, tell me what you fucking want.”

Cheryl arched an eyebrow in disapproval, but for the moment said nothing about it, “There's a court meeting tonight,” she said briskly, handing May a card with an address on it, “All within the city limits are expected to attend.”

“Don't really care all that much,” May sniffed, staring down her nose at the card, “You guys have fun though.”

“Orders of the Prince,” Andy said.

“Oh my, he talks!” May said clapping, “but don't you mean 'Princess'?”

“Not anymore,” Cheryl replied, “There's been a change in power. Also, anyone who doesn't show up will receive punishment before the night is through, so you have a nice time,” with a wink, the two left, dropping the card on the floor.

May picked it up and looked at it, sucking on her tooth.

An hour later, the black Grand Prix pulled in between a late model Harley and a shining Lincoln Town Car. The door opened and a significantly done up May got out. Checking herself once more in the mirror, May made sure the corset was impossibly tight before walking primly to the sidewalk. “Shitty place for court,” she observed to herself, looking up at the long-abandoned warehouse.

Two guards with fully automatic weapons, discreetly placed out of sight of the little-used road, ushered her through the door without a second glance. May looked up at the extravagant bunting, carefully hung, priceless tapestries, and liberally sprinkled ancient relics that peppered the inside of the warehouse, and sniffed slightly. “So who are you?” a deathly thin, tall woman in a black nightdress and platinum blonde hair asked.

“May,” May replied, “Why do you want to know?”

The woman gave a haughty sniff, “Clan and sire, and do use a little respect when addressing the Duchess of Jackson Park.”

“Oh my god,” May said, making no effort to disguise the sour tone in her voice, “I don't give a fuck who you are, you rancid bitch, I didn't want to be here in the first place.”

“My goodness, what are things coming to,” May heard someone else, a short, balding man in a business suit say, “Apparently we now have to associate with anarchs like her.”

“Sorry, didn't mean to get your panties in a wad, shortie,” May said sweetly.

“Lady Christina,” the man said, turning towards the sallow-cheeked blonde, “Care to discuss this over drinks, away from annoying distractions?”

“Sounds delightful to me,” the woman replied, turning her nose up at May, “Leave it to a Malkavian like Amanda to let bottomfeeders like her run free, maybe things will be better with the new prince.”

“Yeah, just walk away Mr. Limpdick and Ms. Anorexia, you two were made for each other!” May called out to them before turning away, fuming. Even if she weren't trying to stay hidden, there were plenty of reasons why she avoided the social circles among her own kind.

“Hey, missus,” someone called out from a shadier corner of the auditorium-like room.

“What the fuck now?” May snapped, turning and glaring at the mohawked, leather-jacket wearing figure with just the slightest hint of a potbelly. It was hard to tell under the tattoos, but he looked like someone in their early thirties.

The man raised his hands disarmingly, “Don't worry missus, I ain't like them, was just gonna say that was fucking awesome, bitching out the duchess like that. That kind of talk really twists her titties.”

“Yeah, well maybe if she were something more than a bleached bimbo filled to the brim with fail,” May replied.

“Hey, you're pretty cool,” the guy said, “How come I've never seen you around before, you new in town?”

“I don't get out much,” May replied, slightly mollified.

“Bit of a loner? I heard the prince is the same way.”

“What the hell is up with that?” May asked, “I have no idea what the hell is happening and why I have to be a part of it.”

The man shrugged, “Grapevine says the Princess an' most of the primogen that supported her was offed over the past few nights. Some really nasty assassin or something from Chicago, an' now he an' his cronies are th'new Prince.”

May felt something twisting in her gut. She tried to tell herself it was nothing but paranoia, “Did they say what his name was?”

“Nope, haven't caught anything else 'bout him. T'tell the truth, I didn't have nothing 'gainst the princess. She kept the lupines off our backs, an' as long as we didn't burn too much shit down, she didn't give us too much hassle.”

“Yeah, that's really nice,” May said distractedly, heading for the door, “I think I'm just going to head home though, or maybe just keep going on from there...”

“No leaving until court is over,” the man at the door behind her stated bluntly, holding the rifle out.

May's eyes darted back and forth as she licked her fangs nervously. She jumped as a booming, electronically amplified voice echoed throughout the room, “Good evening everyone. I understand and appreciate your displeasure at being called here on such short notice, but rest assured the situation warrants it. If you will bear with us, you can be back on whatever personal business you had planned within an hour.”

May was surprised, that was Andy up there speaking. Not from a teleprompter or anything. Apparently he had some people-skills after all. Andy continued, speaking into a microphone on a makeshift stage that involved pushing several crates together and putting a blanket over them, “As most of you may have heard by now, there have been events of a rather... drastic nature, over the past few days. Ever since the re-population in this town, many have felt that the princess Amanda's measures have not been adequate in ensuring the power and success of our kind as a whole. Her... ambivalence towards threats such as the lupines, and dissent from within, have been seen as dangerous to all of us and what we've, individually and collectively, worked to achieve.

“Over the past few days, this dissatisfaction has expressed itself. The Princess and all members of the primogen who had supported her have met final death, and a new Prince has been chosen. Therefore, I introduce to you, Prince Kaoru.”

May sank to her knees. The tepid and rather hesitant applause around her seemed faint and tinny as the dim lights swam about her vision, threatening to wink out in unconsciousness. She watched as if detached as a set of double-doors opened up behind the makeshift stage. Half a dozen suited figures marched out, split in two groups of three, and walked around the perimeter of the room, taking up positions that made sure everyone in the warehouse was under observation. May saw that all of them had asian features, and quite a few had several tattoos, former Japanese and Chinese mafia symbols.

Then two more figures walked through the open doors. One was a short girl, dressed like... like a fucking goth-lolita. A short, black, frilly skirt, fishnet gloves, a collar, and short black hair cut into a bob. May's eyes widened in surprise as she saw the arcing, flaring, frantic nature of the girl's aura. She was a fucking lupine too.

Then, directly behind her, came one more person. This time May was certain she lost consciousness for a few seconds. It was him. A face she hadn't seen in nearly five years. A face she hoped she would never see again, yet had always known that she would eventually have to face again, likely under his own terms. He was handsome, with Asian features, as would befit someone of Japanese descent. Jaw length black hair framed a dark pair of sunglasses, which themselves hid a pair of eyes that May knew from experience made even the average undead's look warm and inviting. Except over the right brow. There was a shock of white bangs, but only on one side. He was clad in a simple black leather trenchcoat, black leather pants and, amazingly enough, black leather boots.

He walked over to a chair on the side of the stage and sprawled into it, giving the crowd of forty or so a disinterested glance as he did so. He held up a hand, palm upward, and waited. As Cheryl and Andy took up positions on either side of him, the lolita-bitch wandered over to the mike stand, grabbed the mike, and placed it into the man's waiting hands. He brought the mike to his lips.

“I am Kaoru, the Prince. Any pretenders to the throne, if I have not taken care of them myself, my associates have. Is there anyone here who would dispute my praxis, let them step forward and do so now.”

Muttering went back and forth through the crowd of individuals in waves, but no one stepped forward.

“Good,” Kaoru said without the slightest trace of positivity in his voice, “Then I will get to the first order of business. My first decree as Prince is the dissolution of the remaining primogen. I am the power here, and if there is to be any competition to that, it will be immediately resolved with me alone, not delegated to an impotent group of flunkies.”

The serene smiles on both Cheryl's and Andy's faces vanished at that statement. Apparently they hadn't been informed of this, they turned to protest this as more shocked whispers went through the crowd. Whatever their protests may have been, no one ever heard, for in that moment, Kaoru moved. There was a brief flash of reflected light, a twisting motion on Kaoru's part too fast to follow, and it was over. Kaoru was now bent to one knee in a balanced stance a few feet in front of his throne, a shining katana held out in his right hand. Cheryl and Andy had frozen in their positions of shocked protest.

A second later, both their heads fell off. As their bodies crumpled to the stage and began to rapidly wither and decay, Kaoru took out a red cloth and ran it carefully up the katana's blade while carefully resuming his seat. “With that out of the way,” he said with a bored sigh, barely remembering to pick up the mike again, “I can promise all of you that anyone who threatens the welfare of our kind, whether through petty self-interest or through outright rebellion, will meet the same fate.

“I can also promise that it doesn't have to be this way for any of you. I desire the same thing each and all of you do: Survival and the retention of power. Changes from without are coming, and we will have to change ourselves to meet them and survive. The new laws are as follows: You will hide nothing from your Prince, or you will face final death. You are free to conduct your business as you see fit, so long as it does not actively interfere with the goals and affairs of the Prince. You are free to raise any grievances with the Prince in an honourable manner without fear of reprisal so long as it is at a convenient time for the prince.

“Any violations of these laws that cannot be justified to my satisfaction will result in your final death. Other than that, you are free to do as you please. This meeting is over, anyone wishing to discuss anything with me personally may do so now.”

May looked longingly at the door as the two armed guards stood obligingly to the side. Everything in her screamed to simply run, out the door, to the car. Fuck the apartment, just get as far as she could before the sun rose. It felt like everything had just come to a crashing halt, her life was over. He had found her once again. May could feel it in her blood, the kind of power he held over her. She felt the panic of some prey animal. She knew that all it would take is a word from him and she would drag herself to him, loathing herself each step of the way, and just like that her freedom, her chance at, if not exactly happiness, at least something free of the torture and degredation, would be gone forever.

May turned to face the stage, and the short line of questioners now being formed by the loli-bitch and a few of the suited men. She walked forward. Not towards the door, towards the cool night air underneath a clouded sky, but towards the stage, towards him. She walked right past the line, ignoring it, ignoring the gruff commands from Kaoru's guards. She jumped up on the stage and stood right before Kaoru. The guards had weapons drawn and pointed at her and the loli-bitch was now simply staring at her, tensed and ready to move when May did. “Kaoru!”

The head tilted up. The sunglasses regarded her with inscrutable darkness. The thin lips opened, “Yes? You are...?”

May stopped cold. She had, for just a brief moment, built up some small wall of resistance. As suicidally stupid as it was, she was ready for just that one moment to confront the one that had kill her, then made her life a living nightmare. She had just crossed that line where she was absolutely sick of running, that she thought that standing and directly facing her torment and accepting the consequences of that was preferable to continuing this mockery of life. Then this reply from him. Kaoru could have pulled out a gun and shot her in the face and it wouldn't have driven everything she had just built up inside her away as effectively as that statement.

May visibly staggered, then sputtered, “W...Who am I? What the fuck do you mean who am I? May!”

“May who?” Kaoru said, nonplussed.

Something was building up in May again. This time it was rage, pure and simple. Whatever game this asshole was playing, she didn't care anymore. To take her... to kill her, twice, in two separate lives, and then humiliate her, abuse her, rape her and torture her like he did. And now this... what the fuck kind of joke was this? To pretend that he didn't even recognize one whose life, psyche, self-confidence and sanity he had obliterated. That was worse than simply continuing to treat her the way he had. It was a negation of everything she was, before and after his actions towards her. It was a sheer denial of her existence.

May stepped forward and slapped Kaoru across the cheek. There was no restraint, just a quick, clean movement powered by the strength of sheer, shocked hatred. As the sunglasses went flying, and gasps echoed through the crowd, May looked to see his eyes. She never got the chance. A pile of bricks slammed into her side, knocking her off the stage. May rolled back and tried to get back up, but found a pair of small hands curling into the fabric around her shoulders, and a knee being driven into her ribcage. A second later, a fist crashed into her temple, sending her vision into stars.

But the surprise was gone now. May whirled, ignoring the pain and letting loose a bloodcurdling shriek while she pulled out the sais and whipped them outward in a deadly arc. There was a hiss of surprise as one of them found flesh to bite into, and her assailant dropped back. May dropped down into a defensive stance, blinking blood out of one eye, dripping slowly down from the small gash in the brow above it, and looking at her attacker.

It was the goth-loli bitch, about seven feet away. She stood ready, feet spread and arms out, brown eyes looking at May warily. In her hands were a pair of stilettos, out and at the ready. On her left arm was a thin red line, releasing a dribble of blood down her wrist. The two stared at each other, waiting for the other to make a move. Half a dozen pistols were pointed at May, but she didn't care, she was ready to kill now.

“Ruth.”

It was Kaoru. He had resumed his seat and was examining the shattered sunglasses dispassionately. Ruth gave him a brief glance and obligingly put away her daggers. She delicately licked the line of blood off her arm, and gave off a small sigh of pleasure as she bit slightly into the wound, then watched it quickly close up on its own. Hesitantly, the rest of Kaoru's entourage lowered their weapons. No one else in the warehouse had moved an inch, except to grab their own weapons. Eventually, everyone in the room had put away their own arms, except for May, who still stood in her own ten-foot circle of personal space, staring wildly around her.

“You, May or whatever, come here, and put those away.”

May was about to tell Kaoru to fuck off, when she realized she had already put her sais away and was climbing back on stage. She glared at Kaoru as she stood in front of him, but that glare quickly softened. Without the sunglasses acting as a shield, May found herself rapidly lost in the cold, suffocating depths of those eyes, the same way she had been so many times before. She didn't move, and she hated herself for that.

“What makes you think I know you?”

A tear went down May's cheek. Everyone was watching, but she didn't know or care anymore. There was nothing more. It was just her and Kaoru, and the ground they stood on. Even though he was sitting and she was standing, May felt like she was nothing more than a spot on the floor, staring up at Kaoru, infinitely above. With a shudder, she said dully, “You... killed me. You sired me you... fucker.”

Even that last slur was nothing more than a piteous attempt at retaining her free will. Kaoru continued staring at her. May felt herself burning away under the intensity of his gaze. “Sired you? I think I would remember something like that.”

“You did, you fucking asshole. You treated me like shit, and I escaped and took something of yours along with me.”

“Oh really? And what might that be?”

“Your ring, the one given to you by your father.”

Kaoru's thin eyebrows went up. “My ring?” he asked.

He raised his right hand. On the middle finger lay a ring, “You mean this ring? The signet ring of the Shibara family? The only one of its kind?”

May's jaw dropped. Her life was over, simple as that. He had on the ring. The same ring that she had stolen from him, the same one that was in her safe back in her hotel room. The thin, cracked walls of her sanity shook, threatening to come crashing down. No, no, there had to be an explanation for this. Maybe he had just taken it, or had it taken back while she was out, right?

“I have not removed this ring in six years,” Kaoru said.

May couldn't move, couldn't speak. This wasn't happening, couldn't be happening.

“Obviously you've got issues of your own to deal with,” Kaoru said with an obviously false magnanimity, “Your... disruptive behaviour will be overlooked, this time. Please go home and compose yourself and try to figure out where you got these delusions of knowing me. I'll tolerate it this time, but only this time.”

Dumbly, May nodded, turned, and walked out slowly, through a parting crowd of kindred stifling their own giggles. She noticed none of it. For a moment there were only two things in her world: Kaoru and May. And the existence of the latter had just been cast into doubt.

Back to Contents

The three elders and the newly formed pack lounged about in the lobby of The Node. Though Barry still had to run back to the counter every now and again to serve a customer, it was a pretty slow night. Haru looked up at the tanned, toned figure as he sat back down, “Barry, are you alright?”

“Yeah, why?” Barry replied quickly.

“It's just, you seem really worried is all, more than usual,” Haru said.

Barry sighed and put his head in his hands, “Yeah, well, you're right about that. I am worried.”

“What about? ...well, other than the obvious,” Kouzo asked.

“Well, it was sort of before your time, you guys weren't around during the Betrayal,” Barry said.

“The what?” Natalie asked.

“Should we tell them about it?” Traveler asked.

Charlene shrugged, “Well, they'll probably find out about it sooner or later, might as well give the whole story now.”

“Is this that thing with the one you guys refuse to call by name?” Haru asked.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Barry replied, looking around the nearly empty lobby carefully, “It happened about a year ago, though there was a couple years of build-up before it.”

“There was a group of Garou known as the Dumb Luck pack,” Charlene said, “They were pretty famous because they had gone into the Spiral... and some came back to tell about it.”

“The Spiral?” Natalie asked, “What the hell is that? Is that like what,” a shiver, “what happened to me?”

“Worse,” Charlene said, “but it might have been if the Spiral Dancer's ritual hadn't been interrupted.”

“Spiral Dancer?” Natalie asked, now really confused.

“Alright,” Barry said, “I'll try this from the beginning, you know about the tribes of Gaia, right? You've been inducted as a member of the Glasswalkers. There are several other tribes, the Silver-Fangs, the Bone Gnawers, the Shadow Lords, the Red Talons, the Children of Gaia, the Silent Striders, the Get of Fenris, the Black Furies, the Uktena and the Wendigo. I'm not clear on all their histories, but generally, each tribe's descended from the regions their kinfolk originally lived in...”

“...kinfolk being the people related to Garou, but not Garou themselves...” Haru whispered to Natalie.

“There's a couple other ones that I can't remember but... ah hell, Traveler, you know the story better than I do,” Barry deferred.

Traveler cleared his throat, “Alright, aside from what Barry just said, there were a few other tribes. The Bunyip and the Croatan, which both got wiped out by the Wyrm, from what I heard. And a long time ago, the White Howlers.”

“White Howlers?” Haru asked, “Damn, I've never heard of them.”

“Yeah, well, not a lot of people like to talk about them,” Traveler said, “And with good reason.”

“What?” Natalie asked, “Did the tribe just fall apart, or get too weak, or something?”

“Oh no, nothing like that,” Traveler replied, “It's a lot worse. I don't think you've met any of the Get, Natalie. But let me tell you, in a straight up fight, there is nothing around today that can stand up to a pissed off Get of Fenris. There aren't any in this sept, but a couple miles west of here there's another sept run by them and Silent Striders. I'm kind of an ambassador between the two caerns, keeping things civil.

“Anyways, like I said, there's nothing today that fights quite like a Get, right? Well, according to the tales, back in the day, even the strongest, most pissed of Get you could find would get pounded into a grease stain by the average White Howler. In terms of viciousness, the rest of the Garou were to them what the average joe is to one of us. They were pretty much the definition of bad-ass, and they liked to show it off, preferably against some Wyrm-minion if they had half a chance.

“Well, so the story goes, they got their chance. In some forgotten cave in their homelands, a portal was opened into the Spiral, sometimes called Malfeas, the legendary Umbral realm where the Wyrm itself is said to reside. Well, the several packs of the Howlers went through this portal to shut it from the other side and generally kill off as many Wyrm-kin as it could in the process. Eventually, the portal closed, and everyone thought they had succeeded.

“When the portal re-opened a short time later, everyone found out too late that just the opposite had occurred. The Wyrm had taken the White Howlers for itself, and twisted them, forcing them to walk the Black Spiral Labyrinth. They had become deformed mockeries of true Garou, and quickly spread through their homeland, converting or killing all the rest of the White Howlers and their kin. To this day they remain, breeding and spreading their spawn around the world, a plague on us and a reminder writ in blood and terror: In the end it will take far more than just brute strength and fighting finesse to defeat the Wyrm. The sadness that it took the loss of an entire tribe to learn this lesson cannot be comprehended.”

“So what they were doing to me...” Natalie started.

“They wanted to make you walk the Black Spiral,” Kouzo said, “To send you mad and turn you into one of their own, a Black Spiral Dancer.”

Natalie held herself and shivered.

“Anyways,” Barry said, “The Dumb Luck pack had, true to their namesake, gotten themselves stuck inside the Spiral. The only one to survive with their mind seemingly in one piece was a Ragabash by the name of,” he hesitated slightly before going on, “her name was Damon O'Neal.”

“That was about five years ago,” Charlene pointed out.

“Yeah,” Barry said, “Well, everyone what happy for her and all. And she volunteered herself to go through some pretty taxing rituals and ceremonies to cleanse herself of any corruptive taint she might have picked up while she was there.”

“At the time, things were a lot different around here,” Charlene said, “The Black Spiral Dancers had several packs openly working against us in the city, it was pretty much an open war. Damon proved helpful by managing to pull together a few packs from out of town to help fight them off, even allegedly bringing in a few Metis to help... if only we'd known then.”

“Known what?” Natalie asked.

“About the taint that wasn't in her flesh, but nestled deep within her mind,” Charlene said.

“Just the old sept had gathered together to undergo a ritual that would cleanse a large part of the city,” Barry said, “Basically make it unusable for any spiritual purposes by the Spiral Dancers, Damon sold them out. She had told the Black Spiral Dancers about the location of the ritual, it's weak spots. They struck at the worst possible moment, it was a bloodbath, dozens died. Damon herself died in the attack too, she had gone completely mad by then, and the Spiral Dancers slowly tortured her to death just for the hell of it once victory was assured.”

“That's what happened a little over a year ago,” Charlene said, “Since then, her name has been stricken from all honourable records and recognitions. We prefer to forget that she ever existed, for all the death that was caused by her madness.”

Natalie looked around, “So... why are we here now? Why isn't this place crawling with these Black Spiral thingies?”

“That, well, that came down to just stupid luck,” Barry said, “You see, it was right about then the war in Chicago started...”

“Ooh, ooh, can I do this one?” Haru asked, “I was there for it!”

Barry nodded with a grim smile and Haru took up the reigns of storytelling, “Yeah, so about a year ago, the Black Spiral Dancers in Chicago started working with some of the leeches there to take over one of the caerns. They succeeded, but also started off a really nasty war between the leeches and the Garou in Chicago that spread really quickly. Soon, Garou from all over the nation started coming in to help out. Well, in the end, we fucking took out a hell of a lot of leeches, like fifty or so from what I've heard. Anyways, the Spiral Dancers got scared, and started bringing in all the help they could from Milwaukee to make their last stand. Well, it didn't work, we won, and re-took the caern, and they mostly scattered.”

“Chicago war,” Natalie said, “Wait a minute, the picture Gremlin showed us! It was between that white-haired guy we saw and a vampire, he must have been involved in the war!”

“Oh yeah,” Kouzo said, “That would explain why they were fighting in the open like that. Maybe we should ask some people around there if they knew anything about him...”

“Good idea,” Barry said, “But anyways, a lot story short, with a lot of the Spiral Dancers up here being called to Chicago to help out in the war, the survivors managed to stage a surprise attack, and retake pretty much this whole city from them. After that... well, I volunteered to come up here and help re-establish a sept as close to downtown as possible.”

“Re-take's a bit strong, isn't it?” Traveler argued, “We've been working on cleaning out the Fomori-zone for the better part of a year now, and the leeches have a better hold of downtown than we've managed.”

“Yeah, but we do at least have a foothold here now,” Charlene countered, “And that's far better than anything we've had for a long time.”

“Anyways,” Barry said, “That's what's bugging me. Ever since we scattered them, there's been no sign of the Spiral Dancers... until they showed up and tried to snatch you, Natalie. I'm worried that all the shit we just went through is about to start again.”

“Barry?” Natalie asked.

“Yeah?”

“Why didn't you tell me about what happened to my mom?”

Traveler looked at Kouzo and Haru, “You two told her, didn't you?”

“Well, what the fuck were we supposed to do?” Haru protested, “She asked, and she's a packmate.”

“With something like this, it's better to let an elder explain it,” Charlene admonished.

“No, don't chastise them,” Barry said, “It's my fault, I kept planning to, and kept making excuses not to. I've seen how much you love and look up to her, Natalie.”

“Explain what?!” Natalie shouted, turning heads from other tables, “That my mother was attacked and is now missing, presumed dead. What's so hard to explain about that? Pretty damn hard to take that the wrong way, isn't it?!”

“Natalie,” Kouzo said, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Natalie ripped Kouzo's hand off her shoulder, spinning and facing Barry, furious tears streaming down her cheek, “You knew the whole fucking time you asshole! You strung me along, holding her out there like bait, promising me I'd get to see her if I just stayed. You knew that wasn't true and you lied about it!”

The sound of Barry's fist glancing off Natalie's cheek echoed throughout the restaurant. As she collapsed to the floor, several people stood up, one of them pulling out a phone. “Shit,” Charlene said.

“I've got it,” Traveler said, standing up.

He looked over the restaurant and gave out a snarl. A simple snarl, it was a feral, animalistic sound, coming from a human throat, it didn't sound human at all. And with it, the air seemed to shimmer slightly. Haru and Kouzo flinched at it, feeling a sudden fear of things that howled in the dark woods crawl through their guts. The humans in the restaurant reacted far worse. As a whole, they froze in place. A herd of prey that suddenly realized they had caught the attention of a dangerous predator. Traveler glared at them and barked out a single order, “Mind your own business!”

As one, the other patrons of The Node sat back down and immediately resumed what they had previously been doing with a fearful intensity. Only then did he allow his attention to be drawn back to the matter at hand. Natalie had dropped to one knee, a hand over one reddening cheek, looking at Barry in shock. Barry placed a fist on the table, slowly clenching and unclenching it. It had only been a glancing blow, it had pretty much hurt him more to restrain the hit that much than the actual force of the blow had hurt Natalie.

“Your mother,” Barry said, “Is one of the best Garou I've ever known. She survived the Betrayal and helped build this city back up from the ashes. She's placed her life on the line for me, for you, for this caern, more times than I can even remember. To be told that I'm a liar in regards to who she is and what she's done... that's an insult to everything she's gone through, everything we've gone through together, and everything she's done for you.”

“Then why did you...” Natalie began.

“Shut up!” Barry interrupted, “Part of the reason I haven't told you is because I know how much she means to you. Another part is because I didn't want to tell you until I knew for sure what the hell happened myself. Something you're going to have to learn is that the world doesn't revolve around you. And if someone who's been doing this shit for many more years than you holds back some news, maybe, just maybe, there's a damn good reason for it!”

“That's my mother you're talking about,” Natalie spat, “I'm her daughter, I have every right to know what's happening to her even if all the facts aren't clear yet as she would about me.”

“And if she saw you acting like this,” Barry said, “What would she think?”

“Fuck you!” Natalie shrieked and stormed off to the back of the store.

“Natalie!” Kouzo shouted.

Haru stood up, “I'll see if I can help.”

“I'll come too,” Kouzo said.

“No you won't,” Haru countered, “As stupid as it is... this is a girl thing, it's better if only I go.”

Kouzo looked at Haru for a second longer, then nodded and sat back down.

Barry stood up, “Traveler, you want to... er... come to the caern with me? I feel this sudden urge to spar.”

“I hear you on that one,” Traveler stood up and followed the big man out the front of the store.

Kouzo was left alone with Charlene. To say that he was, for the most part, ackward with the opposite gender would be a massive understatement. Haru and Natalie he could relate to pretty well... but they were pack, that was different. He had only known Charlene for a few months, and respected her a lot. But she was an elder, so there was always that tantalizing gap in authority between them. On top of that, she was an elder with an exceptionally attractive body, and no compunction against wearing form-fitting outfits, which hardly made things any easier for the still mostly-adolescent and rather inexperienced Kouzo.

“Er...” Kouzo fumbled, “That went south pretty quickly.”

“Yeah, that it did,” Charlene said, not seeming to notice the younger one's nervousness.

“The, um, Veil, aren't you worried that it was pierced by what Traveler did?” Kouzo asked.

“Well, take a look around,” Charlene replied, “They don't seem too concerned about it. It was risky, sure, but it ended up well. Not nearly as bad as, say, having the police called onto sept grounds because of what looks like a domestic dispute, right? And what if a sept elder got sent to jail for assault, or was sent on the LAM because of it? All in all, I think that ended far better than it could have.”

“Yeah,” Kouzo said slowly, “I can see you point.”

“Well,” Charlene said looking around, “Since everyone else has run off, I guess you and I are the only ones left to share this with. Come here, I want to show you something.”

Kouzo blushed slightly, but assented and moved over. Charlene pulled out a few crumpled pieces of paper filled with a lot of numbers. “Alright, that deformed rat thing Traveler managed to shoot yesterday, I ran a few tests on it, and these are the results.”

“I'm not good at reading biology notes,” Kouzo said.

“Don't worry, I'll explain it, though it is a little... well, a lot fucked up,” Charlene said, “First off, the physiology. For the most part, it's pretty much the same as your average rat. Despite the fact that it was the size of a cat, hairless, and had three tails. A few other differences were that its teeth seemed a lot sharper, and its bone structure a bit more fragile.

“Healthwise is where things started getting really weird, though. A general autopsy showed that this thing was filled pretty much to the brim with malignant tumors. Normally, the average lab-rat is likely to be carrying several tumors, or the beginnings of a few. But this thing, well, I counted forty two separate tumors of varying sizes. But the thing is, despite them, all the organs themselves seem perfectly healthy.

“Next on the weird list is the brain. At the university, I managed to sneak a little access to an unpublicized device. Basically, it's a nifty little machine that can run an electrical current through a deceased brain, with sensors hooked up to it, to determine how much brainwave activity that brain could do while the subject was alive. It hasn't really hit mainstream yet because, well, a lot of people think Frankenstein is a documentary.”

Kouzo sat stock still for a few seconds. Finally, “Oh, I get it now.”

Charlene sighed, “Well anyways, this is the results. This column represents the average brainwave activity of your typical lab rat. And this column over here is the activity shown by the thing you guys dragged in.”

Kouzo looked over the columns. The numbers in one were a whole lot larger than the numbers in the other. “The truly scary thing,” Charlene pointed out, “Is that these numbers are far closer to, and in several areas rather greatly exceed even that shown by the average human.”

“Wow,” Kouzo said, “So, it's a really smart rat.”

“Yeah,” Charlene said, “But not in the way we'd define intelligence. It's mental power is devoted to different areas of the brain. There's not a whole lot in what we consider the 'cognitive' areas, about the same as say, a kid or a mentally retarded person, but there's a shitload in the lower brainstem and the areas generally paired with sensory imput. On top of that, there are a few parts in there that I've never seen in any other organism before.

“And it only gets creepier from there. I did a calcium deposit test to determine about how old the thing is. The problem is I had to re-do the test a few times because the equipment I was using wasn't properly equipped to measure the timeframes involved. Eventually I ended up ripping some of the circuitry off a carbon-dater and jerry-rigging it to this thing.”

“Which means...” Kouzo said, once more in comfortably lost territory.

“Which means according to the tests,” Charlene said, “This thing's over six hundred years old.”

“That's ... old,” Kouzo replied.

“Yeah, pretty much what I thought. But that's not the creepiest thing,” Charlene said, reaching into her pocket, “I found this buried in the creature's lower spine.”

She put the object in Kouzo's hand. It looked like a translucent, oblong black bead. But it felt like... nothing. Like a patch of empty, cold air on Kouzo's hand. In fact, Kouzo put a finger on it and nearly fell over. “Yeah! Did you feel that too?” Charlene asked, visibly excited now.

“It was like, almost like stepping sideways,” Kouzo said in awe.

“Exactly,” Charlene said, “It shows up as a blank-spot on all physical and electrical tests. According to every piece of machinery in the university, this thing doesn't exist. Yet, when you touch it... you can feel it. I think what we have here is, as unscientific as it sounds, a pure piece of crystallized spiritual matter.”

“So basically...” Kouzo started.

“We have something I've never seen nor heard of before,” Charlene said, “A deformed rat, with a human intelligence, that doesn't show the slightest hint of Wyrm-taint, that is centuries old, and with an actual physical connection to the Umbra.”

As if in reply, Kouzo's phone started ringing. Kouzo picked it up, and not recognizing the number, answered it anyways, “Hello ... this is Kouzo.”

The voice on the other end was relatively high pitched, definitely feminine, and sounded rather shaky and uncertain, “Kouzo? Hi Kouzo, it's May. You know, that kindred who kind of hung out with you.”

“Oh yeah,” Kouzo said, “Listen, I know we're supposed to hate each other and all, but I just wanted to say, I don't think you're that bad.”

“Oh,” May said, “Umm, thanks, I think. Look, I'm going to ask a really weird favour out of you, okay?”

“Ooookay,” Kouzo said uncertainly, “I can't promise I'll do it for you, it depends on what it is.”

“Yeah, well, nobody else picked up, so I'm down to you,” May said.

“Well, thanks,” Kouzo replied, “That's encouraging.”

“Great,” May said, seeming to be mostly ignoring him. In fact, as inept as Kouzo was with predicting emotion, he could still tell she seemed on the verge of tears about something, “I want you to come over and look at something with me.”

“Look... at something... with you...” Kouzo said very slowly, “This, er, wouldn't be anything...”

“No!” May said in shock, “No no no, nothing like that. I just got some... surprising news. And I'm not at all certain I'm sane anymore. So I need someone over here so I can make sure that what I'm seeing, someone else can see too, okay?”

“I'm not sure I understand,” Kouzo said carefully.

“Good, then come on over here so we can get this over with,” May said before rattling off an address so fast that Kouzo had trouble writing it down.

“Okay, I guess I'll...” but Kouzo was speaking to a dead line.

“Trouble?” Charlene asked.

“I don't think so,” Kouzo said, “But if Haru or Natalie ever come back out, tell them I'm visiting May.”

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Granted, it was only a temporary situation before the city itself would move in a bulldoze a majority of the area to the ground, but for the moment the surrounding area was a rusting, tunnel-filled haven for rats, stray cats and dogs, vagrants, homeless, pimps, and drug dealers. Unofficially, it was also May's personal feeding grounds, though she much preferred to take a bite from the more affluent and healthy looking when they passed through, on their ways to the few businesses that made this decayed section of town a necessary evil.

Kouzo looked across the street to the dark-eyed apartment building gazing sullenly down upon him. The two buildings, May's and the one across the street, were built with the same purpose in mind: The housing of tenants. Yet they were different in almost every other way. May's own residence was an imposing structure of steel and glass. Strong, yet not totally impersonal. Cold, yet not completely uninviting. Like a fortress of safety with the drawbridge, for now, open and inviting.

Across the street, though, lay a slumping, decaying skeleton of past beauty and glory. Where the new building was built with solely function in mind, the older one, a mere four stories high in comparison, still showed signs of exquisite brickwork and delicately carved stone buttresses. No windows remained, and gaping holes showed in some areas of the walls, but what was left glowed with the faintest resonance of past glory and pride, muted by years of dust and mildew.

Kouzo shook off the feeling of unblinking eyes watching from within those lightless windows and turned towards the brighter, more inviting building. A trip inside, the elevator doors closed and he felt the contraption moving upward. Something about the hideous lounge music annoyed him in a familiar manner, until he realized that it was a soft-jazz cover of 'Awake' by Godsmack. “That's just blasphemous,” Kouzo muttered.

The familiar sound of deadbolts and chains being drawn back answered Kouzo's knock. The door opened slowly, “Hi there,” May said unhappily, “Sorry for dragging you out here like this.”

“That's alright,” Kouzo said, “I wasn't doing much at the moment anyways. So what did you want to show me?”

“Why do you talk so slow all the time?” May asked, “It's so weird.”

“People always say that,” Kouzo said, “I don't really see anything weird about it. Why do you dress that way all the time? It looks like you can't breathe in that.”

“Well, I can't,” May said with a touch of pride.

“Then how can you...” Kouzo started, “Oh, wait, you're, okay then.”

An uncomfortable pause. Kouzo shuffled his feet uncertainly. “Can I get you something to drink?” May asked, breaking the silence.

“Do you have skim milk?” Kouzo asked.

May shook her head. “Oh, darn,” Kouzo said, “I'll be okay then.”

May took a deep breath, well, as deep a breath as she could take with the corset on. She had washed off and re-applied the make-up displaced by her tears, so aside from a slight dryness around the eyes, which was how things normally looked for the undead anyways, there was no real physical sign of what she had been doing earlier that evening. “Alright, I might as well show you what I was talking about, it's in the living room,” May said, leading a slightly blushing Kouzo there by the hand. All Kouzo could really think about was how cool, yet soft her hand felt.

“Oh, hi Mallory,” Kouzo said, waving at the small gray cat that yawned luxuriously on the tiny papasan as he entered the room.

“How do you know about Mallory?” May asked, “All of you act like you know him.”

“We do,” Kouzo said flatly, “He comes around sept meetings sometimes and helps out, and he brings us news too. Though I'm really not supposed to talk to outsiders about that.”

“So he really is a shifter, like you guys?” May asked.

“Yeah, he doesn't talk too much,” Kouzo said, “All I've heard was that he came from Chicago.”

“I wonder if he...” May started, then shook her head, “No, I think he'd tell me if he did.”

“Did what?” Kouzo asked.

“Nothing, I don't really want to talk about it anymore,” May said, spinning the dial on the safe, “I'm going to bring something out of here, and I want you to tell me what you see, okay?”

Kouzo nodded as May dragged open the thick steel door with a small high-pitched grunt. She brought out a small black box, it almost looked like a jewelry case. “I see a small black box,” Kouzo said.

“No no, not that, silly,” May said, opening the box, “It's what's inside.”

May brought the object up and held it before Kouzo's face. He caught the faint scent of dried blood. He looked at what was in her hands, wondering if this was some sort of test. Of course he saw the object, and the symbol on it. It was almost the same as one he had seen many times before in the past. The only difference was that everything on the ring was aligned in the opposite direction, as if it were meant to be worn on the other hand.

Was this meant to be some sort of test? Did May know about him too, and was somehow testing Kouzo over it? He recognized the family seal, recognized the design on the ring. But what could he say? Master Hikaru had sworn him to silence regarding his whereabouts, or even existence. He had said he was honour-bound to accept any truly willing student who wished to learn how to expand his own horizons, but that his situation also required he be hidden from public view. This must just be some sort of test then, that's all, a test to see if he'd break and reveal it. He hadn't had any direct contact with Master Hikaru for several months, but he always suspected the Bastet was keeping an eye on him.

“It's a ring,” Kouzo said innocently, “If that's what you're wondering.”

As self-absorbed as May had been for the past hour, she still hadn't been so distracted that she missed the look of recognition Kouzo had given the ring. This just plain confused her. She had only wanted to make sure that she wasn't imagining the ring being in her possession, as opposed to wrapped around Kaoru's finger. “Okay,” May said, only faintly more light-hearted, “Good, that means that I'm not completely insane.”

“What do you mean?” Kouzo asked.

“Well,” May said, “I stole this ring from its owner. And just tonight, I kind of ran into him again, and he was wearing the exact same ring, and said he had never lost it. So... I wanted to be sure I wasn't just imagining this ring being here.”

Kouzo nodded warily. What the hell did this vampire have to do with Hikaru's family? “I can see the ring there,” he said cautiously, “But I've never seen a ring exactly like that one before.”

May stared at Kouzo intently. What did he know? Was he just someone planted there by Kaoru, was that how the bastard found out about her? Had he switched rings, what did he have to do with whatever game the fucker was playing with her? And why was Kaoru associating with someone so... awkward? The thoughts of both were interrupted by the insistent beeping of Kouzo's cell-phone.

“Hi,” Kouzo droned, “This is Kouzo, who's -”

“Kouzo! We need help! Get the fu...” and the already bad connection completely died as the phone went silent.

“What? Haru? Haru! Where are...” Kouzo sputtered, “Oh darn. I have to go right now.”

“Wait!” May grabbed his arm, then shrank slightly as Kouzo glared at her, “Can I... come with?”

“Why?”

“I'm just not sure if I want to be alone for a while,” a lie, May just wanted to find out exactly what Kouzo's connection in all this was.

“Fine, whatever,” Kouzo said, too panicked to really care either way.

A couple seconds later, May's Grand Prix was following the rusted, coughing, faded yellow Buick LeSabre out of the parking lot and onto the night-shadowed streets of the city. They made it nearly two blocks before the Buick came to a screeching halt. May put one wheel over the curb, turning sharply to the side to avoid striking the back of the vehicle. She got out of her car as Kouzo got out of his and ran over to the knocked-over bike on the side of the road. “Wait, isn't that...” May started.

“Haru's bike,” Kouzo finished. “Oh darn, I shouldn't have left them alone!”

“Hold on,” May said, putting a hand on the bike and opening herself up to whatever strong, recent emotional impressions were left on it. A brief feeling of shock and need for flight echoed through her head.

“I think they got attacked by something,” May said, running over and putting her hand on the nearest building, a closed Starbucks with a dank alley next to it. This time she put as much effort as possible into allowing her senses to simply leave her body, to take up position an indefinite distance above. She received a brief flash, looking down into a network of alleys, several dark figures crouched down behind piled boxes and cinderblocks, and many more dark figures converging on them through the maze of bricked corridors.

May began moving down the alley, “Come on, they're this way!”

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Like that whispering noise. Haru knew that noise all too well now. It was the same one she had heard before, back in the Devil's Gentry Club. That meant that things were about to get a whole lot worse than they already were. It was bad enough already. First Kouzo being an idiot and wandering off to flirt with a goddamn leech. Thankfully Charlene had managed to see the address and jot it down herself before he left. Now this, halfway to the address, she turns a corner, and nearly runs into a pile of fomori. No time to back the bike up and leave, and far too many to kill at once, especially with Natalie in tow. Instead, a rapid ditching of the bike and a quick flee into the only available path left open, the darkest goddamn alley in existence.

Of course it just had to happen in the area of the city that also had the shittiest reception in existence. Haru could only hope that enough of that call got through to Kouzo so that he'd come looking for them. Sure, she goes out of her way to comfort and re-assure Natalie until she reached some form of stability, and this happens. Fucking figures. Now they were lost in this goddamn maze of dark alleys. She could hear them, those fomori, babbling and hissing as they came closer and closer. She knew it was only a matter of seconds before...

“What the fuck is that?” Natalie cried out as the shape shambled around the corner.

It was human, or at least human shaped. Towering over seven feet tall, looking nearly half as wide, and in the dim light, appearing to be made out of nothing but carved granite in the shape of bulging muscular tissue, the creature turned ponderously towards the two and stared at them with a pair of vapid eyes that glowed a dim yellow. Natalie was the first to freak, taking out the magnum and firing three shots at the central mass of the creature. Over the sound of concrete hitting the alley floor and ricocheting bullets, Haru heard the thing let out a low, raspy groan. It then took an earth-shaking step towards them, and another, and another. It wasn't even hurt.

“I'll hold its attention,” Haru shouted, leaping forward, “Natalie, go and get help!”

Thankfully the thing was as slow as it looked. Haru ducked easily as the ponderous fist sailed over her head, and cursed as fragments of brick pelted her, exploding outward from the good-sized dent the thing's punch left in the wall. She gave a glance back to see how Natalie was doing, and noticed two more things, the same general size and shape, blocking the other end of the alley. “Goddamni-”

All words and air were choked off as the thing wrapped oversized fingers around Haru's throat. As Haru struggled in futility to rip herself out of the thing's stone-solid grasp, she felt her feet leave the ground. A dim, burning, pounding echoed through her skull. The thing was cutting off circulation, Haru saw blackness rushing in from the sides of her vision. Another patch of blackness appeared, this one on the back of the creature's neck. Haru saw what looked like a smooth, black jewel embedded in the thing's upper back. Without thinking, she swung Kageneko down at it. The jewel-thing shattered like glass, and with another rasping groan, the creature dropped Haru to the floor. Haru could literally feel the close presence of the thing as it reached clutchingly towards her with those gigantic hands. With a desperate wheeze, she lunged forward. This time Kageneko buried itself to the hilt in flesh. Haru stumbled back in surprise, pulling the sword out of the now fully flesh and blood monstrosity as it fell with a crash in front of her.

“Natalie, go for the dark spots! It's their weak place!” Haru shouted, amazed at how tinny her voice sounded, how everything sounded.

A wind began to pick up, and something that smelled truly fowl began to filter through the alley. As Haru listened to a pair of high-pitched popping sounds that were actually Natalie's revolver going off twice, she looked up in wonder at the orange lights hovering in the alleyways around her. It slowly dawned on her than the whispering noises were more than just the sound of blood frantically trying to make its way back into her brain. Part of it was Natalie at her side, asking from an infinite distance away if she were alright. Part of it was that infernal whispering, growing louder as the lights around them grew brighter.

Haru forced herself to her feet, grabbing Natalie and trying to drag her away when everything went dark, and the tearing sound occurred. The two girls stumbled in the darkness for a few seconds more before the dim light of a clouded night returned. Haru looked up and saw that more had come to join them in the alleyways. From one direction shuffled a growing crowd of human-sized fomori. In the other direction...

The paper and debris blown wildly about by the explosion of noxious air slowly settled back to the ground, revealing behind them a glowing figure. White hair shone with an unearthly luster as emotionless eyes focused on some inward task. The figure's feet, wrapped in some shimmering, gauze-like material, hovered two feet above the alley floor.

It was him again, the one they were supposed to be hunting.

Natalie was the first to react this time. “Hey asshole!” she cried out, raised her pistol and firing twice.

The bullets hit the brickwork behind the figure. Haru blinked in surprise. There was visible movement, yet the figure was now standing directly in front of Natalie, half a dozen feet from where he was floating a second before. Natalie's wrist was caught in the figure's one slim hand. She gave out a gasp, a surprised, frightened sound that turned into a scream of pain as the figure's hand tightened, and the grinding cracks of her radius and ulna snapping under the pressure echoed down the alleyway. The revolver fell to the pavement.

The scream heightened as the white-haired being lifted Natalie off the ground by her broken wrist. A voice, that dry, emotionless voice that seemed only slightly amused in a disinterested fashion by the pain of the struggling female figure he held above the ground, rustled through the alley like fine parchment, “You again.”

Whatever he was going to say next, it was interrupted as a pair of shuriken buried themselves in his one human arm. “Drop her!,” Kouzo's voice shouted out from one of the cross alleys.

Slowly, languidly, the white-haired one tossed Natalie several feet away. She landed poorly, sprawling across the pavement, and immediately curled up, nursing her broken arm. Haru backed up to help her, keeping an eye on the glowing man the entire time. The man was looking with slight interest in the black shuriken buried in its forearm. There was the slightest hint of an amused smile as both fell out and clattered to the pavement, the skin beneath them healing in an instant.

Kouzo watched this with surprise. All he had thought when he reached these alleys was the need to look after his own. And when he saw the girl Natalie in that thing's hands, he didn't even stop to think about the fact that it had taken out piles of fomori and leeches with little more than a wave of its hand. He simply reacted with the closest thing at hand, the silver shuriken that Master Hikaru had given him. It now looked like they had been nothing more than a second-rate distraction. Unbelieving, Kouzo threw one more, a well-aim shot towards the thing's throat. There was a high-pitched whistle as the thing cut through the air towards the white-haired man. Then it stopped.

Kouzo blinked. The man had his one human arm in the air, and caught delicately between the forefinger and middle finger was the shuriken he had thrown. The long, sharp nails on the hand glowed ever so slightly with a sickly green light, and Kouzo gasped as he watched the shuriken simply melt into slag. “Irritants,” the man said with a sigh, “Your amusement to me is fleeting at best. Leave now.”

May stepped forward this time. What the hell, it was kind of her job to find out a little more about this bastard in the first place, and it's not like she had a whole lot to live for anymore. She stared into his eyes, trying to worm her way into his brain. The man looked right back at her. Honestly, he was sort of cute, in a Sephiroth-kind of way. His lips opened, “No.”

Kouzo looked up in surprise as May flew backwards and slammed rather hard into the brick wall behind them both. For a few seconds, May sat shaking, staring at the ground, feeling like she had just been hit in the brain with a sledgehammer. “W...wow, th-th-that really sucked,” she stuttered.

“What the hell kind of Wyrm-spawn are you?” Kouzo heard Haru shout from around the corner.

Again, that faint hint of a smile. “Wyrm spawn?”

“Who are you?” Kouzo asked, hoping that perhaps talking to the thing would give them a better chance of survival.

“Mind your own business,” the figure replied, “or stupidly continue to fight and die pointlessly, I don't care either way.”

“Why not?” Kouzo asked, “We fight against the Wyrm... and you serve him, don't you care about that?”

Natalie's skin prickled as she watched this exchange take place. She looked up and nearly shrieked in terror. Haru followed her gaze and saw what had frightened her. Shapes flitted through the air. Shapes appearing an even deeper black than the night sky. They flew, hundreds of them, in an ever tightening spiral, centered directly over the white-haired figure standing in the alley. Some of them dipped and twisted as they flitted about, coming down nearly to ground level before zipping back towards the skies and resuming their inward spiral. They were human, or human-like faces, in various states of decay and with varying expressions of terror and madness stamped on them, with trails of flesh, bone and organs streaming several feet behind them. Yet all of it was a uniform inky black, and each one released a constant wail, sounding like several voices layered together in a terrified cacophany of madness.

They were banes, the immature spirit offspring of the Wyrm. Hundreds of them.

“I don't serve the Wyrm,” the figure said with a mirthless chuckle, “I serve no one.”

The spiral spiked downward, heading towards the glowing figure with demonic speed. “But what about the-” Kouzo started.

“I AM the Wyrm,” the figure's calm, measured voice echoed through the alleys, even above the now deafening concert of shrieks. The figure himself was now completely covered in a spinning, squirming layer of these banes, seemingly melting together. Natalie and Haru watched in shock as cracks of greenish white light shone through this growing shell of banes. As the last of the banes slammed into this blasphemy, it exploded. Before Natalie's own world collapsed into darkness, she had the brief impression of a scent so foul, there was simply nothing in her experience she could even remotely compare it to.

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“When am I to act?” Barry asked.

“Tomorrow, at sixteen-hundred hours, report to the pre-ordained location. There, you will get an opportunity to directly outline the operation to the troops you will be provided. After that, you will be expected properly subjugate and eliminate all reality deviants under your jurisdiction.”

“Understood,” Barry said, once again to a dead line.

He sighed. The events earlier that night had nearly pushed him over the edge. He could never fall into that mindless killing rage that they could, but he could still lose his temper like any other human.

That's right, he reminded himself, he was human, they weren't. He wasn't mindless killing machine, they were.

Even as he thought that, he knew it was bullshit. The words he had spoken earlier to the girl Natalie were all true. He did respect all of them. They were, in there own way, trying to do what they thought was best for the world. It made what he had to do all the harder. He reminded himself why it had to be done. The road to hell was paved with the best of intentions, after all. Even if they thought they were doing good, their mere existence put a harmful strain on humanity, on the laws of reality.

No matter how noble their intentions, their very existence rendered it all moot. Humanity should not have to have these nightmares stalking the streets. Reality was designed to operate under predictable, constant laws, and these... things were deviancies that had to be corrected. For the good of all, this was the way things had to be. In the end, when humanity could finally exist in a safe world, free of these supernatural monstrosities. When they could explore their full potential, scientifically, ethically, philosophically, without fear of losing their sanity to things that shouldn't be. That was what Barry was doing, he knew it.

Would he have a place in this new world, or was the price he paid for this service his own humanity... the ultimate personal sacrifice to ensure the freedom and safety of humanity?

The best of intentions, that is all he had.

“Ruth?” Kaoru asked, fingers steepled in front of him as he stared at the ring on his finger.

“Yes, master Kaoru?” she asked, sprawled submissively by his feet, wearing little more than a series of purple welts and bleeding gashes, themselves already beginning to heal.

“What do you think of that May lady?”

Ruth stretched luxuriously, revealing between the welts and scars a perfect, lithe, pale body, “She's quite mad, obviously. Probably some hair-brained scheme to get inside your pants.”

Kaoru nodded, then kicked the girl hard in the shoulder. She gave a cry of pleasure as the bone popped out of place. “Th...thank you, master Kaoru,” she gasped in ecstasy as she leaned on her arm, forcing it back into place.

Kaoru walked over to the mirror, concentrating long enough for his own blurred face to become clear. His expression was inscrutable. A new pair of sunglasses hid dark eyes. With a disinterested sigh, he turned away, “How did you get involved with kindred in the first place?”

“I fell on the bad side of one several years ago,” Ruth said, “She cursed me, forever reversing my sense of pain and pleasure. Since then, I've always been bound to serve.”

“And this would be that 'Matron' who gave you to me in return for other favours?” Kaoru asked, once again staring at his ring.

“Yes, Master Kaor...gerk!” her light voice was cut off as Kaoru's boot pressed down on her throat.

For nearly two minutes he kept is boot there, watching with boredom as her eyes rolled back and her struggles became slower and weaker. “I'll admit,” he muttered, “I preferred it when the screams and gasps were those of actual pain,” he removed the boot.

Ruth gasped, a high-pitched whistling noise as her body greedily sucked in the air. “You've had your uses,” Kaoru said, moving over to the window and looking out at the city below, “but I'm forced to wonder where your loyalties lie.”

Ruth pushed herself up, her legs took weak to do anything but splay out behind, she looked up at Kaoru with a combination of fear and fawning, “Master, please... you bound me. What would you like me to d-”

Kaoru turned and kicked her in the face, flipping her over on the floor again. He looked with vague disgust at the blood splatter on his boot. “Get out, and clean yourself up. There are a list of addresses I want you to pay... surprise visits to.”

“Yesh Mashter,” Ruth gurgled through a broken nose as she pulled herself out of the room. A few seconds later, there was a moan and a loud crack from the bathroom as the girl pushed her broken nose back into place.

Kaoru kicked off his boots with a growl and ripped open his closet, pulling out a new pair. Here he was, playing Prince in this shitty, rustbucket town. Granted, there was a reason for it. Fucking weak, stupid, small minded little bloodsuckers. All rushing back and forth on their own petty little vendettas. So insular and insecure that they remained blind to the larger threat just about ready to fall right on them. The Sabbat, in all its religious idiocy, was slightly better in that they realized the truth of Gehenna. But they were pitifully weak, lacking balls and power.

Kaoru didn't give a shit about any of his new 'subjects'. Were things different, he'd just hand off the title of 'Prince' to whatever group of fawning lackeys passed by and would watch them fight over it. But ever since his own research into a few of the older family tomes, his views had changed out of necessity. Survival first, power second. With the Antedelluvians stirring and waking, survival now took the forefront. And if he had to play this stupid political game of Prince and underlings in order to get enough cannon-fodder to ensure his own survival, so be it. He was even willing to put the greatest and longest-lasting impediment to his own power on hold for this. His lesser brother was safe, from him at least, for the moment, until this unpleasantness was resolved.

But now, that goddamn woman, whoever the hell she was. All logic pointed her to being nothing more than some insane, stupid little Asian twit. Yet, something about her. He had seen her somewhere before, yet every time he tried to remember that fucking itch in the back of his head started up again. He picked up his cell phone and hit the autodial, looking at his ring.

“Darren Claudius, this is the Prince. The records at my disposal show that you have an indentured ghoul who is assistant dean of the geology department at the university. Do whatever is necessary to prepare some mineral analysis equipment for use tonight. ...Yes, tonight. I don't care, do it or you will find yourself tied to the tallest radio antenna downtown with a stake through your heart when the sun rises.”

“Yes, he just left,” Ruth whispered into the phone a few minutes later, “He's growing suspicious. I don't know, but I think his head's been directly wanked with before.”

The girl sniffled and wiped blood off of her nose, “...Yes Mum, I understand he's important. There's some girl in town though, she seems to have more of an affect on him than anything else ever has.”

“Yes Mum, I will. If she becomes too much of a problem, I'll take care of her too... No, he suspects, but he's still unsure. I think he might suspect your blood bond is stronger than his...”

“No Mum, I've had little chance to continue infiltrating the Pentex facilities... No Mum, they don't suspect, they believe I am a Black Spiral Dancer contractor, they say, though, that my services will only be needed if there is an attempted raid at their facilities...”

“Yes Mum, I understand... Yes Mum, I will...”

Tears welled up in Ruth's eyes, “You will, Mum? ...Thank you... Mum?... I love you.”

Charlene and Traveler looked over the map of the city. “Two more were wounded tonight,” Charlene said, “Fomori are coming out from the woodwork, allegedly. And one came back... I don't know. He seemed to have been driven insane. Had one arm torn off, and some sort of really nasty toxin in his system, nearly fully paralyzed. Had to brew my own cocktail of anti-venoms in addition to what Gaia gave me. Even then, he's still in really bad shape. Kept babbling something about spiders spinning webs across the Gauntlet. I haven't been able to get in touch with the rest of his pack.”

“Well, that's not good at all,” Traveler said, taking a brief swig of mead, “I thought we were dealing with rats, now spiders?”

“Nothing's certain yet,” Charlene said, “but I'm worried that it might be something as bad as a nexus crawler. Doubtful, I know, but considering everything I've heard lately... anyways, what did you want to show me?”

“Oh yeah, have a look at this,” Traveler pointed to some scrawled symbols all over the map of Milwaukee, “Alright, here are the known locations where this white-haired Garou has struck, right? Each spot he's appeared, he's left a scar, a wound in the Umbra that's pretty much spawning banes. From the pictures Kouzo took after they all woke up in that alley, there's another wound there. He says the walls were glowing with symbols that didn't show up on film. Haru scrawled a few of them down, they're Black Spiral marks.”

“Yeah, okay, but what the hell does it all mean?” Charlene asked.

“I haven't been here long, but I've done a lot of asking around, and things are getting rather creepy. Everywhere he's struck has been spiritually significant. The first, the sewers that he came through, is sitting directly over the spot where allegedly there was a deeper cavern that the Black Spirals used as a hive, probably why the ones that took Natalie dragged her there. The place at that club? Again, lot of occult shit's gone on there. The alleys? Only place in the city where five buildings meet each other in perfect alignment. The two wounds found by packs in the fomori-zone? Both former caern sites.”

“So basically he's turning every spiritual nexus in this city into a wound?” Charlene asked.

“Not quite, there's a few he's been ignoring, and the ones he had hit, I'm not certain, but I think I've found a pattern that's being followed. They're all in a circle, centered around here,” Traveler pointed to a block downtown.

“Isn't that where that parking structure is?” Charlene asked, “What's so special about that?”

“Nothing spiritual,” Traveler said, “But it's the highest and largest expanse of flat space above ground level, ideal for doing something under the moon. That's not the scariest bit though...”

“What's that?” Charlene asked.

“There's only one known spiritually active spot on this 'circle' that he hasn't hit yet.”

“Where is...” Charlene began, then froze when she saw where Traveler's finger was pointing.

It was The Node.

Back to Contents

Hunter waved back before going back to working on the computer. Kouzo finished pouring the glass, carefully put the cap back on the milk, and tottered over to put it back in the fridge. As he did he noticed something out of place. Kouzo froze. He bent down a little further to see if maybe it was just a hallucination. No, no it wasn't, it was there, it was real. Kouzo stood straight up, taking a couple of deep breaths to steady himself.

The seal on the two-percent was broken, and the level of the milk had gone down, a very noticeable half-inch.

Kouzo's head rotated, until the woman with the strange antlers industriously working away at the 'family' computer was sitting.

“...Hunter?”

“Yeah?” she turned around and tilted her head.

Kouzo looked down and realized he hadn't put on a shirt yet.

Five minutes later, Kouzo had hurriedly thrown on a hoodie that he looked determined never to take off again and cleaned up most of the milk he spilled. “Um... not that this isn't a nice surprise, but what are you doing here?”

“Well... after what happened yesterday,” Hunter explained, “I didn't feel safe anywhere else. And your place was the only one I could find the address to. Your buddy, Sorata let me in.”

“Oh... oh, okay then,” Kouzo said, “er, what are you looking at, then?”

Hunter gave a grim smile, “An associate's website,” she said, showing off the computer screen.

“Were... wolves... are... real... dot... com...” Kouzo read, “So, what is it?”

“It's run by a friend of mine,” Hunter said, “He lives in California, San Francisco area. He runs this site to help maintain the Veil, does a pretty damn good job of it too.”

“Wait a minute,” Kouzo's brow creased, “How can a website that says werewolves are real preserve the Veil?”

“Reverse psychology,” Hunter said, “He takes any local stories, or stories that become popular, and points out how stupid they are, or all the inconsistencies, and thus discredits them. His stated claim is an issued challenge to present him with a believable werewolf story. Here, take a look at the latest article... “

Kouzo read what was up on the screen:

"Wolves in Business Casual

There comes a time in everyone's life, often more than once, where the bar they set for brainlessly stupid actions must be raised. I'll be honest, I hadn't ever expected to have to move my own, but I guess, as much as I'd hate to admit it, I'm human after all. This story takes the cake.

Mr. Schindler, or more popularly referred to in the press as simply 'Schindler', former Vice President and poster boy of Avalon Enterprises West, now currently living off a minor-celebrity status, occasional modeling, and the general publicity that comes from being what apparently passes for a semi-attractive, androgynous playboy. Yes, that Mr. Schindler. Well apparently on top of all this, he is also, you guessed it, a werewolf.

That's right, according to a small number of sites, spawn from some desecrated alter of knuckle-dragging, tin-foil wearing conspiracy-crispies, deep within a distant genius-loci of stoopidity from the depths of Hell, or possibly rural Louisiana, Mr. Schindler, or simply 'Schindler', has a bit of a canine fetish on top of everything else.

So the man who is often followed by no small amount of cameras, pundits, and a slavering entourage of slavering fangirls pretty much 24/7 also has the time to become hirsuit, do a Hulk-Hogan impression on whatever he's wearing (arguably he can afford to have a new suit tailored every time this happens), and run around with a particularly depraved sect of furries (and I rank regular run-of-the-mill furries around the same level of detestability as Jesus-Crispies, our current president, and live-action role-players) during every full moon.

Alright, tell you what, I'll buy it. You know, these stunning fonts of illiteracy and walking arguments for mandatory euthanasia might have a point. You see, they claim to actually have evidence for this assertion. Well, at the very least this puts them well above young-earth creationists on the great believability-scale. They even put up some poorly formatted photographs on their free Geocities websites to help back up their claims. You see, they have shown, through amazing scientific deduction, that Schindler is a shape-changing lycanthrope because 1) His index and ring finger are the same size, and 2) He has red hair.

That's right. The stunning combination of finger-size and hair-colour together prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Schindler is in fact a being that breaks all known laws of physics, and probably a couple laws of thermodynamics as well... and still manages to find the time to shampoo and condition that yard-long mass of follicle-extrusions too. Someone better call the reality policy and have him arrest on felony charges, no? The irony that his hair is obviously dyed is apparently lost on anyone who lacks a triple-digit IQ.

Alright, I'll buy it. But you know what, I'm not buying it for free. You see, I have a counter-proposal. If Schindler is a werewolf because his fingers are similar in size and because he uses Loreal (Because his insurance company says he's definitely worth it), then you cannot deny this has equal evidence: Schindler is gay.

Yup, that's right, sorry fangirls. Schindler is gay. What's my evidence, you ask? Simple, and just as compelling as the evidence that he's a werewolf. Schindler gay because, get ready for this: He has a sense of style and wears flashy clothes.

What, don't believe me? Have you seen the pictures? No straight man would be caught dead in that outfit! So it's proven beyond a doubt: Schindler is a gay werewolf. And based off of those incontravertable facts, I will go further. Schindler also has a gay lover. Yes, it's actually a youthful looking vampire of Asian descent who secretly runs the Japanese mafia. They're in a long-distance relationship, but occasionally meet up for the kind of steamy passion that most fanfics couldn't even hope to touch.

So there you have it. Schindler's a werewolf, and he's gay. Or maybe the people claiming this were actually hiding behind the door when brains were being passed out to everyone. Probably why they're coincidentally the same group that most viciously supports the president, kindred spirits and all.

By the way, I have a positively wicked slashfic for sale if anyone's buying.

More later,

Viktor"

Kouzo stood up, “He's... interesting.”

“Yeah, he mostly runs his stuff off a server set up by us. Though I guess I'll have to change a few things since...” Hunter slowed to a stop.

“I'm, er,” Kouzo awkwardly put a hand on her shoulder, “Um... I'm really sorry about that.”

Hunter put her hand over his, “Nah, it's okay. It's something we've lived with for quite a while, the knowledge that we're likely living on borrowed time. Honestly, I expected to bite it when he did. I'm just glad we got as much done as we did before it happened.”

“You're not sad about it?” Kouzo asked.

“I am,” Hunter said, “You don't share space with someone for that long without establishing a connection. It's just... we weren't really that way. We respected and accepted each other, and part of that was the acknowledgment that we wouldn't let the other's passing completely destroy us.”

“Wow, that's an interesting way of seeing things,” Kouzo said, “I don't know if I could do that.”

“You've got the benefit of being human,” Hunter pointed out, “We didn't exactly have the best childhoods, but it made it pretty damn easy to put up an emotional shell when it's needed.”

“That must come in handy,” Kouzo said.

“Like yesterday?”

“Yeah, I guess it did, then,” Kouzo said uncertainly, “Umm... we'll take out the fuckers that did it.”

“Thanks for the support, but I doubt you'd be able to,” Hunter said, “This organization could take out Pentex if it really wanted to.”

“What are they?”

“Hard to tell, they don't exactly advertise themselves. As far as I can tell, it's a group run by mages, but it has a lot of regular people in it. They have a lot of influence in technology and research, with large parts of Pentex and other corporations like DNA under their control. I think they're trying to direct the advancement of humanity while trying to either control or completely get rid of anything 'supernatural'. The scary thing is it looks like they have the power to actually do that.”

“If they can control Pentex... yeah, they probably could,” Kouzo said, “Look, you can, well... pretty much do anything you want here, but I'm going to head out, Barry wanted me to head out and do something with Charlene, some sort of purification ritual.”

“Kouzo,” Hunter said, “Wait a minute, before you go...”

“Yeah?”

“Listen, it's your own call to make, but I don't trust Barry.”

“Yeah, I kind of got that impression.”

“Look, everything I've told you about this organization? Before the attack, Gremlin and I were finding a whole lot of stuff connected to Barry.”

“Like what?”

“It's... complicated.”

“Well then, why don't you come out with me and explain it on the way?”

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Natalie picked her head up off the desk, amidst giggles and taunts.

“Perhaps you'd like to explain why napping seems preferable to you than the lesson plan,” he continued.

“Look, I'm really tired,” Natalie grumbled, “It's not like I was disrupting or anything.”

“Well perhaps if you put a little more effort into planning for your future, instead of childish, late night partying, you wouldn't have this problem,” the teacher admonished.

“I wasn't partying,” Natalie snapped, “I don't even like parties.”

“Like she could ever get herself invited to one anyways,” Missy Plunger, captain of the girl's volleyball team said, eliciting a round of snickers.

“So then what were you doing that makes you so tired today?” Mr. Eisley asked, not seeming to notice the other comments, “Obviously not studying, considering your grades.”

“Fine, whatever,” Natalie said, realizing she couldn't tell him exactly what she was doing last night, “Go on, I'll do my best to keep awake if it's that important to you.”

“It should be that important to you,” the teacher replied condescendingly, “Apparently you don't care nearly enough about your own future, so it's up to me to try and show you that there is more to life than you own little interests.”

“Whatever,” Natalie said, leaning back and making an effort to keep her eyes open.

“And seeing as how you still insist on being childish,” Mr. Eisley continued, “It's only fair that I treat you as one. You will be serving one after-school detention for your attitude problem today. Maybe you'll start learning a little perspective then, since you obviously haven't learned any yet.”

Natalie barely heard the last bit, she was already nodding off again. It was more than just the fact that she hadn't gotten asleep until about two-thirty in the morning, nor was it the constant worry about her mother, which was threatening to give her ulcers again. It was the dreams. They had returned, even more vivid than before.

She had seen a city. A city like nothing she had seen before. She had seen more than enough pictures and videos of New York, a place she wanted to visit sometime before life was over. This city dwarfed it, drowned it. Miles and miles of nothing but giant pillars of artificial construction, stretching off into a dank, gray, eternal smog. A slightly brighter patch hung weakly in the monotonous sky, the tepid remains of a once warming sun. The buildings themselves varied wildly in size and construction. Many looked similar in style to things she had seen before, others were completely alien in design. Sulking tenements, towering spikes of steel and glass, reflecting the faint sunlight. Through the sticky damp skies swam blimps and dirigibles. Swarms, millions, maybe billions, of grimy, desperate people moved through the infinite streets, canals, and back-alleys. Working, slaving, starving, killing, profiting, inhaling, raping and dying.

Above, below, and through everything was a single emotion. Reflected on every damp, dirt-encrusted surface. Emanating from every pair of heavy-lidded eyes. Spread out by every foot that splashed through the omni-present toxic, oil-soaked puddles: Hopelessness. And above it all, something else. A machine, grander than any other machine, watching and ruling over it all, ticking away its own eternity and living contentedly in its own universe.

Natalie walked down the hallway towards lunch. Of course, Mr. Eisley had to keep her behind for a few minutes while he filled out the detention slip, so the line to lunch would probably be half a mile long by now. It didn't help that the creepy scum was blatantly checking her out while talking to her like she was a kid. There were all sorts of creative ways she was thinking up to end his life. This time, she just let them keep coming. Apparently bottling them up would lead to it actually happening, and she didn't need that on top of everything else.

Natalie hit the floor as the bleach-haired asshole barreled through her, “Out of the way, loser!”

She had been so absorbed in her own thoughts she hadn't even noticed the group coming by. They seemed to be chasing something. She got back up, ready to keep going, when she heard one of them shout, “That rat is mine!”

Natalie turned on her heel and followed them. They had run to the janitorial closet and boiler-room. “Get lost, freak,” one of the girls said as she ran up.

“Wait, did you guys say you were chasing rats?” Natalie asked.

“I said get lost,” one of the girls, a cheerleader, said.

“What's it to you?” a guy asked.

“Just curious,” Natalie said.

The guy looked her over, “Yeah, how curious?”

“Oh please,” Natalie said, disgusted, “Like I'd want anything to do with you.”

“Whatever, you dyke,” the guy said and turned back towards the door.

Joshua Thompson, one of the soccer players, came back out, “Got the bastard! Check him out!”

Everyone leaned in close to to see. Natalie could see pretty damn clearly from where she was standing. The rat was about average size, as far as rats go, but it had no eyes whatsoever. Not only that, but a fleshy, twisting, five-inch long tongue hung out of its mouth, writhing about as the rat struggled. Joshua held it up by its tail. “Wow,” the guy who had talked to Natalie said, “Check that out,”

The rat's tongue quickly wrapped around the guy's pointing finger, and before anyone could move, pulled it into the waiting mouth. A set of yellow, razor-sharp teeth clamped onto the finger. “FUCKER!” the boy screamed, yanking his finger away. As he did, the rat swung backwards, twisted upwards, and bit deeply into Joshua's wrist. He simply screamed and let go of the creature, which hung for a second, then thrashed twice, fell, and ran back into the boiler-room, a chunk of the boy's flesh in its mouth.

The group ignored Natalie as the two injured kids hobbled towards the nurse's office. Natalie smiled grimly, “Serves you jackasses right.”

She then turned to the boiler-room. Lighting inside was patchy, yet she saw several small sets of yellow eyes watching her from beneath one of the furnaces. No fear, no hesitation, just a patient stare, filled with alien intelligence. Breathing heavily, Natalie reached in and slammed the boiler-room door shut. With that done, she pulled out her cell-phone, and dialed the first person that came to mind: Traveler.

It was nearly an hour before he got there. Natalie stayed right where she was the entire time, ignoring any taunts from kids that passed her by. Twice she had to convince a teacher that she had been told to stay here and watch this door until a certain teacher came, but in the end, she was mostly unmolested. Finally she saw Traveler coming down the hallway, and nearly died laughing.

“What? What's the problem?” Traveler asked.

“Where the... where the hell did you get that uniform?” Natalie gasped in between breaths.

“What?” Traveler said, “I did a long-haul run once, carrying a whole trailer of stuff for a Halloween store. Saw this, saw it was my size, and nicked it, figuring I could use it for exactly this sort of thing.”

“But... but... that?!” Natalie collapsed on the floor laughing, “You don't think it's just a bit extravagant, do you?”

“Don't knock it, it worked,” Traveler said testily, adjusting the lapels on what was essentially a Ghost-Buster's costume, power-pack and energy-gun included, with the decals ripped off.

“Okay, sorry, okay, it's just, oh man you look hilarious,” Natalie said, wiping the tears of laughter away.

“So where're these rats?”

“They're in here,” Natalie said, now more serious, “One of them already attacked a few kids, but I saw more inside. I have no idea how many there are.”

“Alright then,” Traveler said, opening the door, “Let's get started.”

The door shut behind them, trapping them in a sporadically lit world of rumbling machines and the scent of diesel fumes and... something else. Something musty, yet coppery. Wet fur and old blood. “Goddamn, what a stink,” Traveler said, pulling a small crossbow out from his coveralls.

Several sniffing and scurrying shapes had frozen, staring at the intruders with patient intensity. Traveler aimed at one that had a mass of writhing feelers instead of a tail. It uttered a short screech before shivering and dying on the bolt that impaled it. The rest immediately scattered, but not at random. Instead, they ran under machines, around corners and behind structural supports, deliberately putting something between them and the crossbow. They were smart enough to take proper cover, instead of just running, Natalie realized with a cold shiver.

A louder scuffling noise came from deeper within the room. Natalie saw a pair of torn sneakers walking on the other side of a cluster of steaming pipes. The figure came into view, tottering slightly as he walked around the corner. It was the janitor, Mr. Rentlie. “Excuse me,” he said, sounding more than a little nervous and high pitched. His hands twitched fitfully, “What are you doing here? Leave now!”

“Easy sir,” Traveler said, “We're only here to...Natalie, look out!”

Mr. Rentlie had pulled out a pistol. The was a click and a thud, followed by a surprised yelp and the sound of the pistol hitting the ground. Natalie saw the crossbow bolt sticking through the janitor's wrist. She heard a crunching noise, and then saw both ends of the bolt began to move separately, wiggling around in his skin with no outside influence. A second later the bolt, along with some clotted blood, dropped out of his arm in two separate pieces, looking like it was bitten in half in the middle. Natalie shrieked as she noticed both the way the skin on Mr. Rentlie's arm squirmed back and forth, as if things underneath were fighting to get free, and the growing patch of red on the front of his shirt.

“No guns!” Traveler warned as she reactively pulled the revolver out of her backpack, “We don't want to draw attention here.

Mr. Rentlie seemed to have problems of his own. He ripped open the front of his button up shirt, revealing a hairy, bloodstained, sunken-in chest below. His belly, on the other hand, was hideously distended, with a gory hole surrounded by purple, rotted flesh. Jellied blood dripped copiously from this hole along with... rats?!

Mr. Rentlie, now in a veritable panic, tried to shove the struggling creatures back in. “Jeez,” Traveler said, covering his nose and raising his crossbow, “He smells like he's been dead for a week!”

The next bolt went straight into Mr. Rentlie's heart. The man took two surprised steps backward, then amazingly, continued standing. He looked directly at Traveler, “Filthy... dogs! Ruining... work...”

Natalie jumped back as Mr. Rentlie's skin seemed to just split at the seams. Long sheets of stretched flesh ripped outward in all directions, and from beneath flooded a torrent of gore-soaked, dead rats. Natalie turned and dry-heaved at the smell and sight of a two-foot pile of several hundred rat corpses, mixed with bits of flesh, bone, and muscle-tissue.

“Natalie,” Traveler said slowly and carefully, “I want you to grab a broom and sweep as much of this as you can into that closet there. I know it sounds sick, but there's no way to get this thing out of here unnoticed, and we can't have a pile of dead rats and human flesh connected to us, understand?”

“Y...yeah,” Natalie said, wiping a bit of spittle from her chin, “What the hell was it?”

“You want the truth?” Traveler said as Natalie grabbed the largest broom available. She nodded.

“The truth is... I have no fucking idea. I have never seen anything like this before. Listen, I'm going to check out the rest of the room, and then come help you out. Keep everyone from coming in here, bar the door if you have to. If you hear anything that sounds like me dying, run, just fucking run and make sure the rest of the sept finds out about this. No offense, but if there's anything back here that I can't take, you don't stand a fucking chance.”

“Yeah, I understand,” Natalie said and continued working, trying to keep what little breakfast she had, and the three cups of coffee down.

A minute later, Natalie heard another twang, wooden thunk, and hissing shriek. The broom clattered to the floor as she ran frantically to the back of the room, ignoring Traveler's earlier orders. The lighting was far worse at the back end of the room. It looked like someone had deliberately taken out the bulbs. The smell was indescribably worse. Natalie stepped in something that had been dead for quite a while, and gnawed on an awful lot too. She looked down and realized it used to be a cat.

Heart pounding, Natalie rounded the last boiler. Traveler stood, crossbow raised and at the ready. He was deep in the shadows, whatever he was aiming at was even deeper. All Natalie could see was something gray and indistinct writhing and struggling, apparently pinned to a wooden pillar. Carefully, very carefully, Traveler took out a lighter. A small sphere of orange light pushed back, somewhat reminiscent of the orange lights that appeared before hideous things came from the Umbra, Natalie thought to herself.

Something the size and shape of a wolf's jaws snapped at Traveler's hands, frothing rabidly. Natalie saw that the resemblance was only superficial. The jaws were narrower, with bristling, frantically twitching whiskers. And on top of that, a pair of long, viciously curved yellow incisors. “That's it!” Natalie said, not even attempting to hide her revulsion, “That was the rat thing that I saw in the Umbra!”

It had been shot cleanly through the heart, the bolt driving it back and pinning it to a wooden support-beam. It was obviously a mortal wound, as the creature was now too weak to pulled itself off. Instead it hissed, drooled, and glared at the two of them with hateful, glowing yellow eyes. In the dim light, Natalie noticed strange lumps on its flesh. She was reminded of a pet rat she had long ago. It had gotten cancer, and a huge, bulbous tumor grew out one side of its belly. These lumps looked exactly like it, except they grew out in spots all over the rat's body. The creature stunk of urine, blood, decay, and sickness.

“Doooooogs!” it hissed pitifully, “Innnnterrrfeeeeeriing!”

“Interfering with what?” Traveler said, looking down the length of the crossbow at the thing.

“Wooooork... reeeeeyuuuuuniiiite!”

“Re-unite what?”

“Faaaaaaameeeelleeee,”

“How? How do you plan to do that?”

“Caaaaaan't stoooop ussss,” the thing had almost stopped struggling, now slumped against the pole, “Cheeeew nnnn gnnnnaaawcheeeeewwnnnngnnnnawchewngnawchewngnawchewngnaw...”

“Gnaw what? Chew what?” Natalie asked, interested despite her terror.

“Baaaarrier... Gaaaaauuntlet... cheeeeew it dooown... bring frrr... frrr... frrrrriendssss”

“We'll kill you,” Traveler said simply.

The thing laughed. A painful, grating sound, like broken glass pressed and dragged against an aluminum sheet. “Caaaaan't kiiiill... spliiiiit aaaand reeee-uniiiite,”

“What are you?” Natalie asked.

The creature took in one last breath, then slumped forward. It's dying exhalation carried one word, “Beeeshiiilluuu.”

Then, like the janitor, the thing's flesh split open. This time, though, the torrent of rats was alive. A nauseating swarm and screeching, clawing, panicked vermin, skittering outward in all directions. “Shit! Kill them!,” Traveler cried out, bringing his steel-toed boots down on several.

Natalie stomped on her own. Between them, nearly a dozen rats lay dead or dying on the floor. Yet hundreds more scuttled out through the many small holes gnawed in the base of the wall in this part of the room. “Goddamn,” Traveler said, “That fucker got away.”

“What was it talking about?” Natalie asked, panting heavily, “That stuff about barriers and gauntlets, what was that?”

“It was talking about the Gauntlet,” Traveler said. “It's the barrier between the Tellurian, the material world and the Umbra. It's what stops most people from accidentally going from one world to the other, and stops most malicious spirits from doing the same in the other direction. The fact that it takes a lot of concentration on our part to cross over? That's the gauntlet we're pushing through. It's just... some places it's thinner than others, or some people are more perceptive than others, or some spirits are sneakier or more powerful than others. That's when the weird shit happens, hauntings, people claiming astral projection, all that shit. Sterile places with no real emotional weight, like labs or government buildings, the Gauntlet is a lot thicker. Almost nothing gets through there, not even us.”

“And this thing...” Natalie pointed where the creature had been, “This... Beshilu, was trying to gnaw through it? Is that even possible?”

“Ignore the smell and sights here,” Traveler said, “Can't you feel it? That prickling sensation on the back of your neck? The cold shiver down your spine? That's your body telling you that something's very wrong here. It's not just possible, it's exactly what that thing's been doing. This is really fucking bad. If the Gauntlet collapses, even in a small area, all sorts of bad shit starts happening. Spirits and banes run amok, and people disappear and go insane, it's not good.”

“So... bad news all around then?” Natalie asked.

“Yeah, let's get this shit cleaned up and get back to the sept.”

“But...but I still have classes,” Natalie said in the tone of voice one uses when they really don't want to follow through on their objections.

Traveler smiled knowingly at her, “Don't tell anyone else I said this, but fuck school, you're playing hookie.”

Back to Contents

“Yeah mom, it's me, what's up?”

“It's Matthew.”

“What about him?”

“He's missing, I haven't seen him in several days.”

“What? Do you know where he went?”

“Last I heard, he was talking about going to that new ninjitsu class.”

“I tried calling him and asking him about that, but he didn't pick up at all, where is he going?”

“I don't know! I tried asking him too, he was really withdrawn about it. Just said it was a really well run school, has he called you or anything?”

“No, nothing. If he does though, I'll let you know, and I'll do what I can to help find him. But, I have to go mom, there are things that have come up that I need to take care of.”

“Okay hon, take care of yourself, and if you see him, tell him I don't care what he's gotten into, I just want to make sure he's okay.”

“Sure thing mom.”

Haru folded the phone shut and looked up at Kouzo and Hunter, “Alright, Barry said we need to meet up with Charlene by the sept, and she'll be explaining what the hell's going on.”

“Where's Natalie?” Kouzo asked Charlene as they got to The Node.

“Barry said she should go back to school today,” Charlene replied.

Haru sniffed, “Yeah, that'll turn out really well. Bet you five bucks she's already got a detention.”

“Natalie's a good kid,” Kouzo protested, “I doubt anything's happened except her getting bored.”

“So you're going to take the bet?”

“Fine, you're on.”

“Alright you two, enough of that, we've got more serious stuff to worry about,” Charlene admonished.

“Like what?” Haru asked.

“You're being... how should we put it... re-assigned.”

Kouzo looked confused, “Re-assigned? How?”

“With everything that's been happening,” Charlene said, “Barry's worried that there's going to be an attack on the caern, and I don't blame him, Traveler's agrees with him too. He's called back all the patrols for the moment to fill the holes in our defenses.”

“So what are we supposed to do?” Haru asked.

“There are still several who haven't reported in,” Charlene said, “You're to search the sections of the fomori-zone that they were patrolling.”

Haru permitted herself a smile, “We're... we're patrolling the fomori-zone?”

Charlene shook her head, “No, not a patrol, a search. You see any threats, and I guarantee you will, don't attack them, it isn't worth risking your life over, this is a 'get in there, find what we need, and get the hell out' mission.”

Haru cracked her knuckles happily, “We'll do our best.”

“Oh I know you will,” Charlene said, “I'm coming with you.”

Now the schoolgirl looked slightly disappointed, “What? Haven't we proven ourselves already? What the fuck is it going to take for us to get a little proper responsibility?”

Charlene put a hand on her shoulder, “No, it's not about that,” she re-assured, “Trust me, the other elders and I have been keeping a close eye on you guys, you're doing incredible. I don't doubt that you'd probably survive out there. I'm coming along in case there's any wounded that need taking care of.”

“So what about Natalie?” Kouzo asked.

“Natalie can come along with you guys, you are a pack after all,” Traveler said, pulling up in his pick-up.

“Natalie!” Haru squeaked, giving the younger one a hug as she got out of the passenger side, “You got out of school!”

“Yeah, no big loss,” Natalie said, nervously pulling herself out of Haru's grasp, “I'd just be serving a detention if I stayed there.”

Haru turned, “Hah! You owe me five bucks!”

“Charlene, can I talk with you for a second?” Traveler grumbled.

“I gotta head out with these guys,” Charlene said, “make it quick.”

“Alright, first off,” he whispered, “What's with the Metis?”

Charlene looked at Hunter sitting in back, “There was an assassination attempt, she's staying with Kouzo for the moment.”

Traveler's eye twitched slightly, “Alright, fine. Not the worst thing I've heard of, just a few bad experiences with them is all. Anyways, there's a bigger problem I needed to talk to you about. The rats. Umm, if you're going, where's Barry? I can tell him about it.”

“Barry said he had to go and meet some informants, and to tell you to help set up defenses until he got back.”

“Bah,” Traveler said, “Fucking guard duty, alright. As soon as you get back, though, I need to see all the elders.”

“We'll be back, it's a promise,” Charlene said.

Haru had never imagined the Fomori Zone could be so... boring.

For two hours now they had been driving through the slums that lay northwest of downtown, peering down cross-roads, glancing at passers-by, and even taking a couple surreptitious glances into the Umbra when they were able. Charlene wasn't lying, Haru could feel the danger here, no doubt about it. Her senses were constantly on edge. It felt like a wave of adrenaline was being held back by little more than thinly constructed floodgates, and threatened to break through at any moment.

“This isn't right at all,” Charlene said, “There's nothing here.”

“Why does it all look so deformed?” Natalie asked, looking through the pocket mirror the way Kouzo was instructing her. Natalie didn't see the reflection of the road, or the buildings passing by, or the sunset, but rather a cloudy, unclear image of the Umbra on the other side. It wasn't quite the unmitigated horror of the wounds and scars she had been in. It was more like what she had seen the first time she had traveled to that strange, mirror-realm. But this area seemed more overtly threatening than normal. Buildings weren't just warped or deformed, they twisted about, their jagged, brick-skin hides growing crooked bony spikes. Things that must have been trees reached out and clutched as anything passing by, the vague imprints of terrified faces stamped on their trunks and roots.

“This whole area is sort of a no-man's land,” Kouzo explained, “It once belonged completely to the Wyrm, but we've been fighting to reclaim it. So it is incredibly dangerous, but not a complete loss.”

“It's not a good section of town to be alone in,” Charlene said, “Hell, it's not even a good section bring a small group into. But... something's wrong here. Usually we'd have someone or something tailing us, if not outright trying to blow out our tires or toss something through the window.”

“Wait a minute!” Natalie cried out, still staring into the mirror, “I see something different here!”

Kouzo double-checked to make sure there there was nobody too close by, and slowed to a stop, “What's up?”

“There are... wait, that can't be right... it looks like spiderwebs covering everything!” Natalie said.

Charlene looked around, “Pull in there,” she ordered, pointing.

Kouzo reversed and pulled into a small parking filled with the remnants of broken bottles, the occasional used condom, and a couple old syringes. The skeletal remains of a playground creaked and rusted in the stiff breeze as darkness observed the intruders through the broken windows of a long-disused school building. “Come on,” Charlene said, “In the shadows over here, no one can see us from here.”

There were plenty of shadows to choose from, the sun had just began dipping beneath the horizon, splitting the world into scattered realms of light and dark. Charlene stopped and sniffed the air, “Hey... do you guys smell that?”

Natalie had slowly gotten used to the incredible amount of input her senses now provided her. She closed her eyes and concentrate solely on smelling the surrounding air. She came away with the same conclusion that Haru now spoke up with, “I don't smell a damned thing.”

“Yeah, me either,” Kouzo said, Hunter nodding in agreement.

“Seems a little strange, doesn't it?” Charlene asked, “Normally a place like this would stink, but it doesn't. It smells kind of sterile actually. Come on, we need to investigate this.”

Natalie pulled out her PDA. There was an alert for one new email on there, but she ignored that for the moment. She tried the trick of concentrating on the reflection on the other side... then shifting it ever so slightly. A moment later Natalie looked up, she was still in the school yard, sitting in the material world. She tried a second time, and was similarly unsuccessful. “Umm...”

Kouzo and Haru looked similarly frustrated. Charlene bit her lip. “Wow, the gauntlet here is thick, really thick,” she thought for a moment, “Okay, I think I can push through, and take one of you through at a time. Natalie, you first, take my hand.”

A full three minutes passed by. The sky changed from reddish to purple. “Haru, you're next...”

Kouzo jumped, he hadn't even seen Charlene re-appear. He had a brief vision of the Cheshire cat, its mouth and voice appearing before the rest of it became visible. After a couple of moments of concentration, he saw Haru and Charlene fade from view. “What do you-,” Hunter started, then was interrupted by Kouzo's phone ringing.

“Hello, this is Kouzo,”

“Kouzo! Damnit, I'm glad I could get through to one of you, I thought something bad had happened. What's going on? Where's Charlene?” Traveler's voice.

“Charlene's in the Umbra at the moment,” Kouzo said.

“Oh, that would explain why I could reach her... look, we have problems, big problems.”

“Yeah, it's kind of the same over here.”

“No, this involves Barry.”

“What about Barry?”

“Kouzo, listen, after you guys left, I got a call from a friend a little west of here, said he had something to show me and that I had to come over right away.”

“So you're not at the sept?”

“No, Kouzo, listen. This guy I know, he has a contact who's actually a witch. Anyways, just recently he showed her a photograph of Barry...”

“Why?”

“Because... well, because they were going out on a date, it doesn't matter, they were talking about their own relations. Anyways, that's not the important thing. She said she had seen Barry before and talked to him quite some years back. Said he used to date a colleague of hers.”

“Yeah, so?”

“She said that this guy he was dating, her friend, was also a mage, and that Barry himself, as far as she knew, was a mage.”

Kouzo didn't answer that, he didn't know how to. Hunter, who had overheard, did, she grabbed the phone from Kouzo, “Hey, Traveler, this is Traveler, right?”

“Who's this?”

“This is Hunter, you know, that Metis, look, you said that this girl said Barry was a mage, right?”

“Yeah...” the voice said suspiciously, “What would you know about it?”

“She's not lying, I just figured it out myself.”

“What? What the hell are you talking about?”

“Gremlin and I had been doing a lot of digging and we... we found some things about Barry, a lot of shit he'd been doing with mages and some secret organization of theirs. That's why... why Gremlin's dead now. But listen, we think he's planning on trying to subjugate or just kill us.”

“What? Why would he... shit,” the voice dropped to an angry growl, “ ...shit, shit SHIT!”

“What?” Kouzo asked, taking the phone back.

“We've been had, bad, shit! Why didn't I see that sooner?”

“What?!” Kouzo said again.

“I haven't been able to get into contact with anyone at the caern,” Traveler said, “It's like there's no signal getting into that area, now we know why.”

“Wait... why?”

“Someone needs to warn them, how far across town are you guys? I'm way too far to make it in time!”

“We can do it Traveler,” Hunter said, grabbing the phone back, “Get back here as soon as possible, though, I don't know what we're getting into.”

“Keep in touch,” Traveler said before disconnecting.

“Wait, what the hell is going on?” Kouzo demanded as Hunter closed the phone and handed it back to him.

“Alright, who wants to go next, Kouzo or Hunter?” Charlene asked, appearing next to them.

“We can't,” Hunter said, “We have to go back, and now.”

“Why, what's going on?”

“Barry's sold out the sept, we can't get into contact by phone, we need to get over there and warn them as of yesterday.”

“Wait, what the hell are you talking about?” Charlene said.

“Yeah, I agree,” Kouzo said.

“Look, why would Barry demand everyone be called back now? He knows the ins and outs of that caern better than anyone else!”

“He's...” Kouzo started, then froze, “...Oh my god, it's a trap!”

“We need to get back now! Lives are at risk,” Hunter said.

“It'll take quite a few minutes to get the others out,” Charlene said, “And we've got wounded in there.”

“Then... then we'll go, you take care of what you need to in there,” Hunter said, snapping her fingers.

“Wait,” Kouzo said, “How will they get back without the car?”

“Give her your keys,” Hunter said, “We're taking something far faster than a car.”

Back to Contents

Natalie sawed industriously at the strands holding the body down. Blood-red in colour, they otherwise looked indistinguishable from the cheap stuff she could buy from Star-mart during Halloween season. Even so, nothing short of the steel blade did any appreciable damage to them. Haru let out a repressed growl as, with last harsh pull, she separated another body from the sickly webbing.

Everything here felt so sterile. Only one of the four Garou they had found entombed there, for lack of a better term, showed any signs of life at all, letting out a small growl as Charlene grabbed his hand. Despite what should have been a cornucopia of smells for Natalie's enhanced senses she felt nearly numbed by the sheer lack of any sort of scent among the Umbral reflection of the abandoned school. Webbing covered the entire area, muting the outlines of the single building.

Natalie noticed that the other four Garou weren't the only things securely wrapped in these webs. Several other bound packages of varying sizes were at various locations in the colossal webs, a few of the smaller ones still struggling. “Where are Kouzo and that Metis?” Haru asked as Charlene returned alone.

“Trouble at the sept,” Charlene said, “They've gone to investigate, we should hurry up here, I don't like being split up like this.”

“What's happened here?” Haru said with a disgusted grimace as she pulled several strands of webbing off the figure, eliciting another slight moan, “What kind of banes have done this?”

“I don't think these are banes,” Charlene replied, “I mean, do you smell any Wyrm around here?”

Haru frowned, “Some of the packages had Wyrm-taint hanging around them, you think whatever did this are breeding them?”

“Maybe, but I think it's something else,” Charlene said, checking the pulse of the unconscious figure between them, “I mean, only a few of those packages on the web smell like that, the rest don't smell much of anything-”

A scream from Natalie attracted both their attentions. The girl struggled in the grip of a claw that was nearly as big as she was. The claw itself was attached to what appeared to be a horse-sized spider with a human torso. Haru's eyes widened at the monstrosity. It wasn't human, and while there were similarities, it definitely wasn't a giant spider either. It had the grossly distorted features of both and some that came from neither. One massive claw held her above the ground as she thrashed around. A tail, segmented and tipped with a spike dripping a viscous, clear fluid, curled around, hovering threateningly. Two spiders the size of cats scuttled about the large one's multiple feet, pedipalps working in anticipation.

Haru and Charlene wasted no time. Natalie, nearly blind with terror, reacted as well. Her eyes widened in a rage born of fear as her body cracked and shifted. Soon the arachnid horror was forced backwards under a flurry of claws and howling roars. “Natalie – safety – cover!” Charlene growled through a lupine mouth as she dragged a roaring Natalie back.

Haru understood and waited for any sign of the monstrosities to return. It was a few minutes before Charlene returned. Even in the monstrous crinos form, an amalgamation of human, wolf, and something even more primal, the exertion of crossing through the gauntlet showed. “Follow!” came the howl. Haru held onto the creature's hand, and as she felt herself being dragged through the thick, sticky barrier between the worlds, she saw something with as many eyes as it had legs coming over the edge of the school. Behind it were three more, much the same.

Hunter pulled to a stop in front of The Node. Kouzo jumped out of the car and ran to the gate, “Adrian! Let me in!”

“Wait, what's going on?” a voice said from the other end, “...and why's she with you?”

“Shut up and just do it,” Kouzo said, “We've got trouble coming!”

The lock clicked and the gate opened with a protesting screech. Kouzo wasted no time running in, nearly pulling Hunter through the literal maze of shrubbery to get to the caern itself. A small crowd of people milled about in the inner clearing, looking up in confusion as Kouzo burst in. He stopped, uncertainty crowding in along with the gaze of thirty or so pairs of human and lupine eyes. “We... we've got trouble coming!”

“Where's Traveler?” someone asked, an ahroun by the name of Leonard, Kouzo remembered.

“Off to warn the other sept,” Hunter said, picking up for a sputtering Kouzo.

Leonard spat, “No one asked you, Metis.”

“Shut up!” Kouzo growled at the higher ranking wolf, gaining the silence of sheer surprise, “Listen, Barry's sold us out! We need to prepare for an assault by...”

He was interrupted by a backhand slap that sent him stumbling, “Don't disrespect your superiors.”

“Are you fucking stupid?!” Hunter gaped, “He's trying to save your life you thick-headed little-” and she was laid out with a similar blow.

Kouzo had had enough. His own rage boiling over, he tackled Leonard, growing in size as he did so. The two rolled over each other throughout the caern. Immediately a circle formed around them. Kouzo's head struck the ground as Leonard gained the upper hand and pinned him. “Worthless little runt, now hanging out with a Metis, you and your slow-paced droolings should have been left for the scavengers!”

Kouzo roared and leaned forward, sinking fangs into Leonard's wrist. Eyes widened in surprise as the elder wolf let out a howl of pain and was sent stumbling away. Kouzo regained his feet first and leapt on top of the injured combatant, driving him into the ground. “She has a name you small-minded prick!” claws raised in the air, posed to give a mortal strike.

“Wait!” Hunter literally kicked Kouzo off Leonard, “Listen!”

From outside the clearing came the sounds of gunfire, and another howl. “It's Adrian!” one of them said, “he's under attack!”

“We'll help him,” another said, getting a round of approving growls.

“No!” Kouzo said, forcing himself to breath normally enough to return back to human form, “It's Barry, that's exactly what he'll be expecting!”

All eyes were now on him, “So... what should we do?” Leonard asked as the gunfire crept closer.

Kouzo bit his lip. Hunter spoke up, “Those who can fight the best, stay behind and keep them tied up as long as possible, the rest, get out while you can, we'll cover for you.”

Murmurs of disbelief passed through the crowd. Leave the caern to the enemy? “We don't have time to argue about it!” Kouzo shouted, giving the ones closest to him a good shove, “Barry knows our weak points, the caern's lost anyways. Better some survive to re-take it later than have everyone die in vain here!”

One took the initiative, shifting until they became a sleek gray wolf. With a mournful howl she turned and ran. The feeling caught, and soon most of the caern had emptied out. Kouzo looked over at Leonard, “You're staying?”

“It's my duty,” Leonard said, “I've defended this place for as long as I've been a part of the Garou, why don't you make a run for it?”

“I've got pack I'm waiting for,” Kouzo said, “I have to do what I can to stop them from walking into a death trap.”

Leonard nodded approvingly, “Well then... no hard feelings?”

Kouzo smiled and shifted upward into crinos as the sound of booted feet got closer, “No hard feelings.”

“Sergeant,” Barry said to the masked figure, “Take your squad and move down along the southeastern perimeter of the park, there is an exit there, we want everything contained.”

“Yessir,” the figure replied, and with a shout, was gone, along with a half dozen of the black-suited men.

Barry brought up the rear, making sure that the equipment was performing up to specs. The masks were actually the latest edition of a combination set of hypertech goggles and aural filtration system made for normal humans. Specifically designed to filter and distort the visual and aural signatures of the lycanthropes, eliminating the specific signals which triggered an instinctual fear-response in people. So far it seemed to be working. Adrian had shifted forms, and seemed to cause no undo stress on the troops.

Command had been generous, giving him nearly forty troops to command with a full armament of silver ammo. That, combined with his own skills and knowledge of the caern and its defenses, had made this literally a cakewalk so far. Barry's eyes narrowed as he entered the main caern site. Six of his own had fallen, and among them were four human and two lupine bodies. Not nearly enough.

“Sergeant Riley reporting in, sector clear.”

“Corporal Apone,” another voice said in Barry's headset, “several runners spotted, unable to pursue without compromising operational security.”

Barry bit his lip, so that was it. He looked around and was drawn to a shout of, “We've got a live one!”

Kouzo glared daggers at the man who came up to him, pure hate overshadowing pain of the silver buckshot that had torn through one of his legs, “Fucking... traitor...”

“It's for the good of humanity,” Barry said, “Not that I'd expect one like you to understand, where are the rest?”

“Fuck... you...” came the growl, and Kouzo spat a clot of blood at Barry's feet, “You're... more... monster...”

Barry kicked him in the face, knocking the boy out. “There's another survivor over here,” the armored figure next to him said, “What should we do with them?”

The eyes of Hunter glared at Barry, her wrists and ankles held back with silver-plated shackles. “We should...” Barry said, then paused.

The caern was in the process of being secured when the rumbling began. Soldiers looked at each other in confusion. Then one pointed near the center of the clearing, where a massive oak grew. It was near the base, about several feet off the ground. An orange light was growing. One went forward and extended a rifle cautiously towards it. The light brightened considerably, briefly blinding all who looked at it, which was pretty much everyone in the clearing. There was the brief sound of a scream, quickly cut off.

Barry blinked the stars out of his eyes and saw someone standing in front of the massive oak. The figure had long white hair... and something seemed wrong about his right arm. The, man(?), looked around, seemingly unconcerned about the two dozen rifles pointed at him. “This belongs to me,” he announced in a quiet, dry, emotionless voice that still somehow carried over the entire caern. In response, two dozen rifles went off.

The soldiers stopped firing, uncertain. The bullets had taken large chunks and splinters out of the central oak, but the man was no longer there. Several screams echoed through the clearly. Heads turned in time to see two soldiers near the back, one clutching his neck, and another desperately attempting to hold in his own intestines, crumple to the ground. Another scream came, this one from another direction. This time they didn't even have time to see who the victim was before more screams started up.

The orange lights had re-appeared, and this time weird, gray, misshapen things were dropping to the ground and racing hungrily towards the remaining soldiers, claws eagerly outstretched. “Fall back!” Barry ordered, “Fall back and regroup!”

“Where's Apone?!” a voice screamed in the radio, “He's gone, he's goaaaaugh...zzzzk...”

“Unknown assailants, six to nine-o-clock, falling back, fa..zzzzzk...”

“It's taking half a clip to put them down! I can't... noooooo...zzzk...”

“How does it feel?” Hunter gasped, “Being fucked over like that?”

Barry looked back and forth. Occasionally a figure in white would appear, calmly ripping the head off one soldier here, nonchalantly planting a strange, carved dagger in the eye of another there. He moved too fast for the eye to follow. Formations quickly broke up as he moved through them, effortlessly moving between the gaps in each hail of bullets sent in his direction. The gray things, the ones with the huge claws, quickly moved through and picked apart the scattered troops.

Then the figure in white was in front of him. “What are you going to do now?” Hunter asked sweetly from behind him, hissing slightly as the silver burned into her wrists.

Barry slowly put his own rifle down and back up several steps, head lowered, “I surrender.”

He felt fingers wrapping around his forehead. Barry was slowly yet irresistibly forced to the side and then dropped, unnoticed and uncared for. The white-haired man was looking down at Hunter, who returned the stare, hers a mixture of curiosity and fear. “I've seen those eyes,” the figure said.

Hunter let out a slight gasp as the figure reached forward and picked her up, hand wrapped around her neck. Yet it was a gentle grip, she could still freely breathe. She found herself drawn helplessly into the brownish-green eyes of the figure. With her arms and feet bound tightly behind her, there wasn't a lot she could do to stop him at the moment. “Why are you hiding in there?” he said, his voice now tinged with a slight curiosity.

The girl moaned, struggling feebly as the white-haired man drew her closer.

Kouzo's eyes fluttered open uncertainly. His leg was a sea of agony, and there was a dull ache on the side of his head. He looked up in time to see him again. The white-haired one. For a moment Kouzo didn't even notice the dead soldiers lying around him, nor Barry sprawled off to the side, looking up at the figure in confusion. All he saw as the figure and what the figure was holding: Hunter.

Arms and legs bound behind her, Kouzo saw the fear in her eyes as the white-haired man pulled her closer... and then kissed her. “Leave her alone!” Kouzo shouted, his voice brimming with anger, pain, and... jealousy?

The figure ignored him, probably because it could. It remained there for a while, holding and kissing a stunned, bound Hunter, before slowly separating. A look of disappointment went over his face, for just a moment. “Why do you hide in there?”

With a sigh he dropped the girl unceremoniously to the ground, turned, and walked away.

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Haru got out of the car and ran inside the gate, now hanging on by a single rusted hinge. Inside lay the corpse of Adrian, several holes in his chest. “He died fighting for the lives of others.”

“He died because of treachery,” Charlene spat, “He died because that asshole sold him out.”

“Where are Kouzo and Hunter?” Natalie asked.

A coughing came as two figures staggered out of the trees. Hunter's knees nearly buckled as the weight of Kouzo pulled her down. “Kouzo!” Natalie screamed, seeing the large smear of red down one leg.

“Shit, I'll have to see if I can fix that,” Charlene said, “I'm glad you're alive... what happened?”

“Barry,” Kouzo gasped.

“Barry attacked us,” Hunter said, letting Kouzo collapse, “Then that other one, the one with white hair, he attacked and took everything else out.”

“They're working together?” Haru said.

“No, he took out all of Barry's help,” Hunter said, “Barry ran off on his own.”

“Too bad he didn't take out the double-crossing fuckhole while he was at it,” Charlene said, “Any other survivors?”

“Nothing in there,” Hunter said, “But a lot escaped before Barry hit, thanks to him,” indicating the now unconscious Kouzo.

Haru looked to the dark trees, the smoke coming from them. There was indecision in her eyes. “So... what are we supposed to do now? The caern's gone, we're fucked...”

“We have to run,” Charlene said, “Barry'll probably be back with more, if whatshisname doesn't get here sooner.”

“Where to?” Natalie asked, “We don't exactly have a lot of safe places at the moment.”

“I... I don't know!” Charlene shouted, “I don't fucking know where the hell we're supposed to go!”

“How about my place?” came a voice from across the street. May stood outside her car with a smile.

“Why'd you do it?” Kouzo asked several hours later, rubbing his still aching leg. Charlene had said it would hurt for a while, but she had done what she could for it.

“Do what?” May asked innocently, fixing up a side of beef for Mallory.

Kouzo yawned, stretching carefully on the couch. Haru, Natalie and Charlene had already fallen asleep. “Why did you offer your place up for us? I mean, we're not exactly buddies or anything.”

May shrugged, “No reason, really, I haven't had company in a while. I did want to see you again, though.”

“Why's that?”

“I want to know what history you have with someone by the name of Hikaru.”

Kouzo looked up, “How'd you know about Master Hikaru and I?”

“When you chucked those shuriken at that white-haired guy, I'd know that design anywhere. Those were the exact kind that Hikaru used. Now answer the question: How the fuck do you know him?”

“Master Hikaru... I haven't seen or heard from him in years,” Kouzo said, “He took me on as a student because... well, he said he just felt like it at the time. He only did it because I promised not to reveal anything about him to anyone else.”

“Why did he make you do that?” May asked.

“No idea, but the stuff he taught me was damned good, so I didn't ask.”

“I know why,” May said.

“And what do you know about it?” Kouzo asked, “You have a ring almost exactly like the one he wore in your safe. Why? Where'd you get it from?”

May let her eyes drift to the floor, “His brother.”

“Master Hikaru has a brother?”

“It's... it's the reason he doesn't want word about himself getting out.”

Kouzo yawned, “That... that does explain a lot of things...” and drifted off to sleep.

May watched as Hunter's arm snaked out, and in her sleep, she took Kouzo's hand in her own. Sucking slightly on her tooth, May went to her own room. Mallory mewled at her as she closed and locked the door. She scowled at the cat, “So why the hell are you so insistent on turning my apartment into some hippy commune?”

The cat's reply was, as always, unsatisfactory. May sighed and collapsed on the bed, burying her head in a pillow, trying as hard as she could not to think about the one she used to trust enough to hold her hand like that.

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Haru muttered angrily to herself as raindrops sputtered ineffectually off her shoes. Guard duty, again. Whether it was protecting some newly-changed cub or now, watching out for everyone's lives, she always seemed to get stuck with it. Granted, the responsibility was far greater now, but it was still boring as hell. The fact that what she was looking out for could easily crush them all didn't make things any better. Tension, combined with the pattering rain, combined with an over-arching darkness created an even greater nervous boredom.

Stuck on the rooftop of that leech's apartment, fairly certain the sun had set nearly half an hour ago, though the oppressive cloud-cover made that uncertain. Haru turned and glared at the apparition in the shifting curtains of water, the same one that kept appearing at random locations throughout the rooftop. Always nothing more than a self-created spectre, a manifestation of fear and uncertainty. Lightning flashed again, causing the girl to flinch involuntarily. As the shock of light died away, she realized she wasn't alone on the roof, that there was another figure sharing the space with her, crouched on the edge and watching her avidly.

Haru leapt to her feet and stumbled forward through the cold, wet darkness. What an idiot, she thought as she reached the now empty ledge the thing had occupied a few seconds earlier. She might as well be fighting blind for how dark it was out here, the thing could knife her at any second. Why didn't she call for help when she had the chance?

“Because I don't need it yet,” Haru said to herself, concentrating her own internal energy into her hand. A second later a cold blue light illuminated the surrounding area.

Haru looked around. The increasing rain plastered her hair to her head and reduced visibility, even with the cold-burning spiritual fire in her hand, two a mere couple of paces in any direction. She was the only one there. Wait, what was this? Haru bent down and picked up the envelope, rapidly growing soggy in the downpour. It wasn't sealed shut, she read the single sheet of paper inside.

Hey sis,

Looks like I made it after all. I'm a ninja now. I can't talk to you in person because they track my movements whenever I'm away from headquarters, so this letter will have to do. Listen, I've found out a lot of stuff that has to do with... what you are. I kind of got involved with it too, they didn't give me much of a choice. I'm working for them now, they're threatening to do things to you, to mom and dad if I don't. And even worse, they're doing something to me, sometimes it's hard to think straight. They put something inside of me that keeps trying to take control.

I'm sorry Haru, I didn't mean for it to be like this. I just wanted to be able to protect you the same way you've done for me when we were little. By the time I realized what was really going on at this 'school', they already had plans for me, they threatened me to keep me involved. I'm trying as hard as I can to keep some control, but what they're doing to me is...

...they're calling for me again. If you want to know more, go to the Pentex branch in Milwaukee. They've been keeping me on sub-level 3, and keep talking about some sort of 'Project Invictus'. I have to go, hopefully I can find you and get this in your hands without alerting them.

Love you always,

Matthew

Haru breathed deeply, closing her eyes and slowly crumpling the letter in an extended effort to maintain control. Matthew... with Pentex. “That stupid little brat!” she growled to herself, wiping away a tear, “Why? Why did-”

Haru stopped. There was someone standing in the doorway, under the eave.

“Do you know May Hawthorne?” Kaoru asked.

“...and it appears the reports are not just confined to the greater Milwaukee area. Many other towns and cities have been reporting numerous sightings and attacks by what can only be called 'monsters'. Details seem to vary widely from case to case, and it is so far impossible to tell which are actual attacks and which are the product of the mass hysteria that seems to have spread across the nation within the past couple of hours.

The Department of Homeland Security has issued a statement, reassuring people that this is a local, containable problem and will be confronted with the full power available to the United States of America. They have cautioned people to stay indoors and resist the temptation to travel to loved ones so that it is easier for the military, police forces and national guard to protect people from these incidents of random attacks.

Hospitals in the West Allis, Greenfield and Waukesha areas have reported that they reached patient capacity. We have been unable to establish contact with our field correspondents in-”

Kouzo shut the radio off with a sigh. Natalie looked back and forth worriedly, “So...so what does this all mean?”

“It means the Veil hasn't so much been pierced as it has been completely ripped away,” Charlene said, “Which means the world is in a whole lot of trouble unless something miraculous happens.”

“And the monsters the news was talking about?” Natalie asked. Just yesterday she had been at school, trying not to fall asleep in class. Now... this.

“Fomori? Black Spirals? Leeches? Something else entirely? All of the above?” Charlene said, “I'd guess that something started it, and it sort of set the rest off, like a snowball-effect. Now we're going to see exactly which end of the equation is more powerful, the human or the supernatural.”

“Something's out there,” Hunter muttered, sitting next to Kouzo, “I can feel it.”

“What is it?” May asked, trying to look interested. Yeah, it was the end of the world and all, but it seemed distant, unimportant. Then again, most of the world seemed that way.

“No idea, but it's definitely that prickly feeling you get when you know someone's watching you,” Hunter said, “That sort of psycho-somatic response.”

“It's that building across the street,” Kouzo said, “I bet there are things living inside it. I-” the lightning flashed again, “-no! It's him, he's watching us!”

“What?!” Natalie said, holding her bag close, “Why hasn't he, y'know, killed us?”

“Because we have something he wants,” Hunter said, eyes glued to the window, “and this place is protected.”

“Protected? What the hell do you mean?”

“It's not the easiest thing to feel, but it's there. There's a strong aura here, a big metaphysical 'keep out' sign, it looks like it's working,” Hunter turned, “Er, May, are you doing that?”

“No, not really,” May said, “I tried once with him and... hehe, it didn't turn out too well.”

“Who else lives here? It feels like it's been in place for quite a while.”

“Just me and,” May stopped, looking down, “...Mallory.”

“Who the hell are you?” Haru asked, Kageneko out in an instant.

“I asked a question,” the figure said, “Do you know of May Hawthorne.”

“Unless you're here to help us, you can fuck right off,” Haru shot back.

“So you do know her, good, I'm looking for her.”

“Answer the question asshole,” Haru said, “Who are you?”

“Take me to her, I'm not going to kill you or anyone else if I don't have to.”

“If you don't... what?! I'm the one holding the sword you fucker, now stop and-”

A click. Quiet, yet clearly heard even in the falling rain. Haru found herself looking down the barrel of a magnum. The person, whoever he was he stunk like the Wyrm, fixed her with a patient stare, “I won't ask again, take me to May now.”

The door to the stairwell opened, “Haru, what the hell, that white bastard was across the street and you didn't warn... who the fuck are you?!”

A second gun was out and pointing at Natalie, who had just come out of the stairwell. Kouzo was close behind her, “Master Hi... no, you're not...”

“Both of you out, move away from the doorway. You, put that knife away or you'll get a brand new hole in your head.”

“Kaoru, what the fuck are you doing here?”

Kaoru looked back towards the door. May stood there. No longer even having the energy to remain defiant, just tired. A few tense moments passed. Eventually weapons were lowered. Kaoru looked at May, “I want to talk.”

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Two vehicles pulled by the Pentex complex. Headlights reflected dimly off the four security cameras set to monitor the entrance and street. Several blocks away the cars pulled to a stop. Kaoru looked at the front gates of the place through a rearview mirror and quietly sucked on his tooth. Natalie looked at him with a mixture of vague fear and confusion, “So you, um, have some sort of hole in your memory then?”

She was pinned to the seat by a glare, “It doesn't involve you.”

Natalie bit her lip and continued, “It kind of does, actually, seeing as how we're helping you with this.”

“I didn't need your help,” as he cut the ignition and yanked the keys out, “I only felt compelled to tell May about it. It was your choice to come along, if you slow me down, you'll be as dead as anyone else who gets in my way.”

“Tough talk for someone who had their head dug into by Pentex. If you're such a bad-ass, how did they get into your head so easily and cut out memories involving-”

Natalie's voice was cut off by the hand around her throat. Kaoru tightened his grip as she began fighting for breath, “You're an annoying brat.”

A barrel pressed against the back of his head, “And you're a dead man if you don't let her go right now.”

Kaoru didn't move, didn't even acknowledge the presence of a pistol pointing at him, or Charlene holding it. There was a hollow click as she began to pull the trigger. Kaoru sighed and let the girl go, “Just don't get in my way you goddamn dogs.”

Haru found herself questioning May. Despite her distaste for these Wyrm-tainted leeches, she found her curiosity aroused by what little she had heard so far. “So, you used to know him, and he was involved with Pentex?”

“No,” May grumbled, putting the car in park, “he was involved with me. As far as I knew, we had nothing to do with that stupid company. The people in that building did something to him, fucked with his memories of me, and left something in him,” May showed Haru the chip, the one that Kaoru said he had pulled out of his own head.

Haru looked at it. It was nothing more than a thumb-sized block of surgical steel. Yet her blood ran cold at the single phrase written on it. “Project Invictus,” she said aloud.

“I've heard that name before,” Hunter said from the back seat, “Something about a secret project, Pentex was involved, but so were a couple other entities, government, and even that mage-conspiracy we had dug some shit up on. Something about controlling the supernatural, scary shit.”

Haru pursed her lips and stared out the passenger window, unwilling to let anyone else see her face. Matthew was involved with that?! She'd go in there, kill everyone, save him, then kill him for being so stupid.

May looked at the Pentex center with something approaching fear. Kaoru had come to her, seeking her out. Even after that spurning at court. He told her of how he had run a few tests on the ring he wore, and found out that it was nothing more than a cheap imitation of the actual materials used in the real ring, the one May truly had. He then began to suspect outside interference and had several tests done on himself. It was then he discovered the chip in his brain, and the carefully severed and cauterized nerve endings. Someone had been snipping away portions of his memory, he had not been happy about that. A little further digging showed that 'Project Invictus' was somehow related to Pentex, and that one of their employees was a 'Ruth Waetherby'.

May was scared. Kaoru seemed a hell of a lot different, while still remaining the same, ever since his head was fucked with. What if he found what he was looking for and fixed it? Would he go back to the way he was before? If he rediscovered their past, she would be standing right there for him to 'claim' again. Was it better for him to be, for lack of a better word, broken?

Silently the group filed out of their vehicles. Kaoru wordlessly opened the trunk and revealed a wealth of small arms. Within five minutes, a group of seven shadows slunk along the inside fence, towards one of the cargo entrances of the facility. The occasional rustle of dried leaves disturbed by their passage was more than adequately covered by the everpresent sound of sirens. It seemed like the city itself was coming to an end, for aside from the sirens there was utter quiet.

The cargo-door had a security keypad attached to it. Kaoru smirked and pulled a gun, aiming it at the framework of the door. “No, wait,” Natalie said, nearly pushing him aside, “I was always wondering when I'd get a chance to use this...”

Kaoru looked away, disinterested, as Natalie began pulling several wires, her PDA, and a screwdriver from her bag. In a few minutes she had the cover of the keypad pried off and was now hesitantly snipping and reconnecting wires while consulting a diagram pulled up on her PDA. There was a soft click and Natalie pulled the door open. “Where the hell did you learn that?” Haru asked quietly.

“I got bored in class,” Natalie replied.

“So what's the plan?” Kouzo whispered.

“We need to get to sublevel 3,” Haru said, “that's where the Project Invictus shit is kept.”

“How do you know that?” Hunter asked.

“I've got my sources.”

“Here we go,” Natalie said, “I've got a map to the security elevator.”

“What?” Charlene hissed, “Where the hell are you getting this stuff?!”

“Someone in here wants out really really badly,” Natalie replied, “They've been sending me emails demanding I come and do that.”

“Why didn't you ever tell the sept about it?”

“Partially because until now I thought they were nothing more than spam-mail, and partially because I don't really trust the sept.”

Charlene opened her mouth, then shut it again. The kid had a point. Kaoru pushed through, “Kid, you're navigator, let's get going.”

Natalie nodded, giving the vampire a sour look while rubbing the bruises on her neck.

Alarms blared through the hallways, but the two guards remained at their posts. Smartly clad in kevlar over a set of well-pressed business-casual, they kept a cautious watch over the hallway leading to the doorway that led to the production floor. One carefully removed his sunglasses, then put them back on. He seemed slightly confused about something. He prodded the other and indicated a section of air where, for a moment, a shimmer of heat remained. The other nodded and reached for an alarm switch as both disengaged the safeties on their weapons.

The first gurgled slightly as his throat turned red. The second slapped the button, then straightened quickly as a spike of red erupted from his chest. The two slumped to the floor in a spreading pool of blood. The air between them continued to shimmer. Then, like vapours condensing into a solid form, Kaoru appeared between them, wiping blood from his blade. A soft electronic, male voice informed everyone in the facility that the production-floor was about to be locked down, and emergency containment and elimination forces had been released.

Charlene walked down the hall and leveled a sawed-off shotgun at the doorway. “So much for subtlety,” she said as a fist-sized hole was blown through the thick door.

“Shit! Get in!” a thick metal curtain was descending over the doorway.

In the branching hall beyond, Kouzo experimentally kicked the barrier behind him, “Well, we're trapped now.”

“We'll find a way out,” Kaoru said, stalking forward.

The group stopped as one at the sound that now came to them. Footsteps, as if someone were wearing shoes made out of solid steel. The thing came around the corner. It looked like it may have been human at one time. Now dried and stretched skin covered a steel and titanium body. Flesh was warped and wrinkled as various mechanical parts and wiring extended, only partially covered by flaps of armor. One arm was completely severed beneath the elbow, in its place a minigun. That arm raised.

Haru, Kouzo and Kaoru dived into one office while Natalie, Charlene, May and Hunter bashed through the door into the office across the hall. A high pitched whine precedent a cacophony of explosions and destruction as bullets tore up the hallway. Natalie screamed, crouched on the floor and covering her head as burned plaster rained down on them. Charlene and Hunter looked at each other and nodded. Without further pause, the two began to grow.

The machine, the human, whatever it was, stopped as it realized the hall was no longer occupied. It would have to go down to the offices and manually clear them out. A second was spent calculating the likely threat of the occupants. Relatively high if they were armed with explosives, but otherwise negligible. The small arms and blades they carried posed no real threat to its exoskeleton, and if they carried anything greater than that, the information was already being transmitted to the other three units that patrolled this section.

The doorway to its left exploded. The only thing that remained human in the monstrosity was its flesh, so it felt no true fear at the two things that came out of the doorway at it. Two towering beasts of muscle and fur, all slashing claws and crushing jaws. Even without fear, though, it must have had a brief flash of the futility of fighting back as the two werewolves crashed down upon it, quickly rending it limb from steel-reinforced limb.

“What the hell was that?!” Natalie gasped as they ran down the hallway and took a left.

“Fomori combined with a machine, who the hell knows,” Charlene said as she ran, now with a slight limp from the bullets took to the shin.

Even above the sounds of the alarms, they could hear the ominous, inevitable tread of more steel boots. That thing obviously wasn't one of a kind. “How much further kid?” Kaoru said as he easily kept pace. He could have easily outpaced them, but even if he didn't need the kid as a map, what those other two had done proved them to be quite useful. Maybe it was worth it to have them along.

“That door, there!” Natalie said as they rounded another corner, “It leads to a stairwell to the factory floor!”

The doors were unlocked. The stairway was well lit. “Go on!” Charlene shouted, transforming again, “I'll cover our tracks!”

As the rest pounded down the stairs, they were followed by the sound of Charlene tearing the steel handrails off and jamming them firmly in the doorway. A second later the hulking beast growled and squeezed itself through the bottom doorway and proceeded to jam them shut just as firmly. Kaoru looked up, giving a half-respectful smile, “You're not half-bad.”

“Shut...up...leech...” Charlene growled through slavering jaws, “not...alone...here...”

The factory floor was sparsely lit. Kouzo had already caught wind of the fowl scent. Machines and conveyer belts made the wide space seem rather crowded. Haru spat distastefully. Everything here, she could almost see it, clinging to the machines, the belts, the... toys?... that sat in various stages of completion, even emanating from the floor. It was like a translucent, sickly green mist, looking and smelling like corruption made manifest. Wyrm-taint.

May narrowed her eyes. She, too, saw it. To her it was more like a dimly radiating aura of black. The dimly flickering lights and the encroaching shadows didn't affect her vision in the slightest. She could see the entire factory clearly. And she could feel it, the aura of something else lurking in there. That lupine was right, they weren't alone in here.

“The elevator should be at the far end,” Natalie said, squinting in an attempt to see through the darkness. She couldn't work out what that strange, slithering noise was until she felt a coldness around one of her ankles.

The rest heard a scream as Natalie fell and was dragged off into the darkness. Charlene howled in rage and started forward. Kouzo and Kaoru drew swords and followed up. May was next, feeling something clammy wrap around her exposed ankles and yanking her off her feet. With a scream, she too was dragged away. There was a sharp rap to her skull as she was yanked unceremoniously underneath one of the cumbersome pieces of machinery. As she desperately tried to re-straighten her vision, she finally saw it in its entirety.

For a moment May was certain she had gone mad. That thing simply shouldn't have existed. An amorphous mountain of flesh and bone. Natalie dangled over the largest of the four mouths May could see. For a moment she laughed madly as she was struck with an image of the Sarlac pit devouring Jabba's enemies. Then control re-asserted itself as the spiked appendage lifted her above the ground. May's hands were still free, and she quickly grabbed her sais. A moments work and the creature let loose a mad howl as May dropped lightly to the ground.

Kouzo and Kaoru rounded the corner and stumbled to a stop. Charlene charged forward fearlessly, even though the thing in front of them dwarfed even her nine-foot frame. Kaoru ducked a swinging tentacle that struck a glancing blow across Kouzo, sending him sprawling. “Goddamn kid,” Kaoru said, lunging forward and trying to get an open shot to free Natalie.

There was no opening. Each step was met with several more tentacles of different sizes and forms, apparently spontaniously created within the thing. There was a shriek from behind him, causing the vampire to spin, ready to kill. May industriously sawed the last sinew holding one of the mouths to the creature, a mouth that had snuck behind Kaoru and was about to strike. “You owe me for that,” May issued a high-pitched laugh as she ripped the snaggle-toothed thing away from the central mass.

Kouzo righted himself, slicing through several tentacles that were trying to burrow beneath his flesh. He had a brief glimpse of Hunter running by and sliding beneath the creature, pointing a shotgun upward and firing several shots into its relatively soft underside. Charlene was using everything she had to keep one of the things larger mouths from biting down on her. Several razor-edged tentacles greedily dug into her.

There was another roar. May and Kaoru spared a glance to see a second beast fall eagerly into the thing's man-sized central mouth. There was a thick, meaty crack as Natalie, now in full war-form, ripped the thing's jaw in half and bit deeply into one of the fleshier sections. Kouzo was attacked by another set of tentacles, but this was much easier to cut down. The thing was dying, thanks to Natalie's attack on its central mass. It's screams blended with, and were eventually overcome by the surrounding alarms as it finally shivered and melted to the floor.

Seconds later its flesh began to char and vaporize, leaving no real evidence of its passing. Kaoru began to wipe the viscous blood off his sword, then realized how pointless it was, as it was already disappearing on its own, and sheathed it. “So... what was that?”

Charlene, once again in human form, had removed a good deal of gauze from her own pack and was applying it to Hunter, who had taken several rather nasty lacerations when the thing all but fell on her. “That was a Nexus Crawler.”

“Nexus Crawler?” Haru asked, “I didn't think they actually existed.”

“What is a... whatever it was?” Natalie asked, looking in surprise at her clothes, strangely unharmed during her own transformation.

“It's a sort of bane, one of the Wyrm's more powerful servants. This place must be important if they actually have one of them here. Judging from what I've heard, this one was only a baby.”

“You're shitting me,” Kaoru said, “I heard you guys follow all the spirit bullshit, you're telling me this is what it actually is?”

“Full grown ones can take out several packs without breaking a sweat,” Charlene said.

“Hey guys, the elevator's over this way,” Natalie called.

“We're aiming for sublevel three?” Haru asked.

“Did it occur to anyone that we're probably not going to survive this, we're lucky to have gotten this far. And even if we find what we're looking for, we've got to get out when the whole company knows we're here... and even if we get out, we have to deal with that one guy in white looking for us out there?” Kouzo asked, “Just pointing out that, it was kind of stupid of us to do this, and we're likely all going to die.”

“Please,” Kaoru said with a smirk, “These fuckers aren't going to kill me if this is all they've got.”

“We need to go to sublevel two first,” Natalie said as the elevator door, a heavy, reinforced military hunk of steel, rolled back on its own, “She's gotten us this far.”

“Who is she?” Haru said, impatient to get to the third sublevel.

“I don't know,” Natalie replied, “Whatever she is, though, I'm pretty certain she's crazy. But she has gotten us this far...”

“Why?”

“She claims she's a goddess.”

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The elevator doors closed with a foreboding slam. It was a larger type with a reinforced floor, probably used for cargo and the like. On the left side of the door a single touchscreen panel waited expectantly. The bottom of the screen stated, “Press thumb on upper right corner for fingerprint identification, then enter proper security code for clearance check.”

“Well that's just great,” Haru said, “anyone have any idea how to get out of this one?”

“She just emailed me again,” Natalie said, “She says she's trying to get us clearance.”

“It might be a little late for suspicion, but how do we even know she's on the level?” Hunter asked.

“She might just be setting up a trap for us,” Kouzo added, quickly appending it with, “...then again we're not the brightest for walking right into it.”

“I don't think so, she doesn't seem the type,” Natalie hesitated.

“Doesn't seem the type? How would you know? You thought she was a spam-mailer,” Haru snapped.

“I don't think this is the right time for this-” May began.

“Shut up!” Haru shouted, “We went here because of this leech's issues, and we're following your directions to get through this Wyrm-pit. I'd like to know what makes these directions so damn trustworthy!”

“Touchy bitch,” May said under her breath.

“I don't fucking know!” Natalie shouted back, fighting tears, “But she knows something about my mother, and that's enough for me. What the hell is your deal? If you didn't notice, the world's kind of dying around us, what else would you have us doing?”

Haru fought down the rage boiling inside her. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on why she was so pissed of, rather than on the feeling itself. It was Matthew. Whatever had happened to him, it was a floor below where Natalie was insisting they go, and she was rather impatient. “You're right, whoever she is, she got us this far. I don't like spending too much time in one location here. We get to the second sublevel, find what we need, then do the same for the third... then we burn this place to the ground.”

“Even if we're still stuck inside?” Charlene asked, a leading question.

Haru thought about Matthew. She would probably never see him again. But he got entangled with Pentex. If destroying this place, with her inside, broke what control they had on him, she would do it. “Yes, even then.”

Charlene nodded, “You've done a hell of a lot growing up.”

“What do you mean?”

“The tone of your voice. You're not approaching this like it's some noble, glorious sacrifice. There were quite a few at the sept who would. You're viewing this as a hideous necessity, something that no rational being should ever have to be driven to. You're placing a lot of value in our lives, something a lot of us fail to do. We're so willing to die for some cause that we overlook the fact that each life lost is a goddamn tragedy.”

“Fuck that shit,” Kaoru said with a smirk, “you all can die for your religion or whatever the fuck it is. I'm getting what I need, teaching these twats not to fuck with me, and getting out.”

May looked at Kaoru with confusion. “Why are you so... upbeat? That's not like you.”

Kaoru didn't reply. He knew why quite well enough, but he'd be damned if he was going to tell this woman. He knew her from somewhere before, even if these assholes ripped it from his mind. But for all he knew, she could be working right with them. She didn't need to know more than what was necessary. She didn't need to know that this was the first time in a long time he had actually felt something. The running, the fighting and killing. This place was an actual challenge, he knew he was in danger. And taking that risk... it felt good. After several years of nothing but politics, killing off those who posed no tangible threat to him except for generally being in his way, and hunting a worthless, outcast brother who left no trail, that terrible ennui set in.

Even the threat of the antediluvians felt distant and unreal. Intellectually he knew this was a lie. The signs and their relations to the records he had looked over matched too damn well to be mere coincidence. The forefathers of the kindred were waking up, getting ready to reclaim their own, and he would be damned if he were about to let that happen. Even then, though, it was a threat mired in mythology and prophecy. It had no impact on the echoes of emotions he used to feel when he was still alive. That thing in the factory, though. A Lovecraftian terror that had no right existing in a sane universe. Fighting it made him feel alive for the first time in years. The very real thought that his life, his unlife, might be brought to a sudden end quickly put a great deal of focus on the existence and the feeling of that very same unlife. It felt good.

“I've got another email!” Natalie said happily.

“How do you get service down here?” Hunter asked.

“Dunno, guess this place has great wi-fi,” Natalie stumbled as the elevator started downward with a jerk, “She says that she's got us clearance, we're to follow the signs once we get there.”

The doors opened onto darkness. Haru shivered. The taint she could feel on the factory floor, the presence she felt emanating from below, it was so much stronger here. Yet it was still coming from below, they hadn't reached the source yet. Kaoru and Haru led the way out, swords at the ready. Haru found it a little ironic that just over an hour ago, she was more than ready to kill him. In a way she still was, he had taint clinging to him like a metaphysical miasma. Yet his own was so overshadowed by everything here, he was literally the lesser evil in comparison. Enemy of my enemy and all, she couldn't allow her priorities to get entangled in an opportunistic attack on one asshole leech when there were greater threats all around, and he was willing to help for the moment.

“I guess that's the sign we're supposed to follow,” Haru said, pointing.

The elevator stood as a large pillar, a single square-hallway around it. On each outer side of the square a set of double-doors led outward. Each were labeled with a four-digit number. Apparently if someone were down here, it was assumed they'd know exactly where they were supposed to be, and wouldn't need any sort of labels on the doorways to guide them. The hallway was dark for the most part, except for a single flickering light over, if the elevator doors were considered 'north', this would be the 'east' hall. The rest of the group followed. There were no windows on the doors, and a single black box with a slot to presumably swipe a keycard waited on the side. Unlike the three other boxes beside the other doors with their small red lights, this one's light glowed an inviting green. Haru tried the handle. The door opened smoothly and silently.

There was a split hallway beyond, extending in a Y-shape past the doorway. Like the hallway around the elevator, this hall was similarly dark, except for a single line of dimly flickering lights leading down the right, the 'southeast' hall. “Did anyone else notice that?” Kouzo asked.

“What?” May asked.

“The noise.”

There was the intermittent hum of electricity, buzzing in tune with the flickering lights. May's ears, as sensitive as they were, still almost rang with the alarms, howls, and alien screeches from the floor above. “I don't really hear much of anything.”

“Yeah, this area doesn't seem to be on the same alarm system, probably a lot of people on ground level and above don't even know about these floors. People in charge probably don't want them to know either,” Hunter ventured.

“It's not just that,” Kouzo said, “there's no noise down here at all. No people working, no guards, nobody wondering why the hell a supposedly secure elevator just let some strangers in a top-secret sublevel... nothing.”

“Ambush?” Hunter proposed.

“Doesn't feel like one,” Kaoru shook his head, “It's like there's nobody down here at all. This floor, or at least this area is empty. Place like this wouldn't let the lights go out like this either.”

“This doesn't feel right at all,” May said, the creased her brow, “...well, this entire building doesn't feel right. I mean, it's a big bad corporation that fucks with people and does secret stuff... but this floor in particular feels really wrong.”

Haru and Kouzo jumped at the soft electronic chime that emanated from Natalie's PDA. She looked at the glowing screen, “It's the d_admin girl again, she says she has established control of the wiring on this floor and the elevator, but it's on an isolated network from the rest of the building. She says she's waiting for us.”

“Who is she?” Charlene asked.

“Only one way to find out,” Kaoru said, heading down the rightmost hallway. A series of unmarked doorways, all with their own red-light cardswipes passed by him. The final door in this branch of the hall had a green light. From there the hall turned left at an acute angle, heading off into darkness. It likely connected with the left branch hallway, forming a triangle.

This door, like the last, opened easily. Beyond were two rooms, separated by a thick pane of glass and another doorway. In the closer room was set up a series of recording instruments and a few lifeless computers. In the far room, behind the glass, sat a table with a single glass box, beside which sat a few more recording instruments, along with a microphone. Inside the box was what looked like an oddly shaped circuit-board, badly burned. There was no one, living or dead in the room. Hunter found a notebook lying open on one of the tables. She picked it up and read it aloud:

“Summary:

Project S9973.

Codename: Project Prometheus.

Day 1: An error in the setting of frequencies on the sublevel 3 portal caused a gateway to open to an unknown location, not corresponding to any of the umbral locations we have tentatively mapped. The gateway was extremely unstable, closing in .03 milliseconds. In the intervening time artifact 0034 (codenamed 'Damon') appeared on the receiving test-platform. The event sent out a small shockwave with a radius of approx. 1.6 miles, registering on both EM and Gamma ray scanners, appearing to 'focus' on several locations in the city. Subsequent investigations revealed strangely deformed vermin at these locations, several of which have been brought in for testing (See Project S9986 for a more comprehensive report on this phenomenon).

Day 6: Examination and tests on artifact 0034 reveal it to be analogous to a microchip processor, made with materials and specifications we cannot identify nor reproduce. We have successfully jerry-rigged a USB port to fit it, and have managed to achieve limited interface with the system contained within. Almost all information is behind something akin to a firewall of a type we have never encountered before. The security system, if it is such, displays messages claiming that it is actually a sentient AI and refers to itself as 'Damon'.

Day 8: Extensive analysis and testing, including nearly three dozen different applications of the Turing test have failed to disprove the claims made by this firewall system. The system consistently replies in an articulate, almost disdainful manner to imputed queries, much the same way as any intelligent being would, even pointing out deliberately place grammatical and spelling errors. 'Damon', as it calls itself, even demonstrated a capability of identifying which researcher was currently at the input station based solely on idiosyncrasies in their language.

Day 9: Conducted a network compatibility test with artifact 0034, trying to connect it to an isolated network. The program displayed network protocols that could only be described as 'aggressive', immediately 'infecting' (for lack of a better word) the network with an active virus that seemed to replicate the firewall's mainframe on each processor on the network. Tests were discontinued after a complete inability to remove artifact 0034's programming from any of the test processors, up to and including complete re-formatting and hard-drive wipes.

Day 12: Testing of artifact 0034 discontinued after the death of research assistant Endall. Artifact has demonstrated a pervasive influence not only with computers, but even simple electronics. Multiple reports of strange electrical fluctuations on sublevel 2 has caused management to order all observation and testing be moved to sublevel 1, run on a separate system. Artifact 0034 is now isolated to sublevel 2 and all testing is postponed until transport to a more secure location can be arranged.”

Natalie was looking at the lone table in the other room with interest, “So that thing over there is some sort of AI?”

“That seems to be the gist of it,” Hunter replied.

“I don't like it,” Charlene said, “we should just smash the shit out of it and go.”

“Go where? I'm guessing that thing is what got us down here in the first place, and I doubt we'll be able to get to sublevel 3 without its help,” Natalie said.

“I don't care, I still don't trust it,” Charlene replied.

Hunter nodded, “I can understand why, but why don't we ask it first before jumping to conclusions?”

Natalie had already walked through to the other room. The glass box wasn't even locked. She reached inside without hesitation and withdrew the strangely shaped motherboard. There was a cord with an adapter shaped to fit within one of the ports on the device. Natalie plugged it in and searched among the other devices on the table. She found a microphone and a pair of speakers and plugged the joint USB on them into the device. “Hello?” she said hesitantly.

There was a brief burst of static, followed by a whir of synthesized voices, all layered over each other, a cacophony of screeching tirades, as if something were attempting to adjust itself to a painfully slow system. Finally a single voice pulled itself from the sea of confusion. Even May had to suppress a shiver at the sound of the voice. Electronics shouldn't sound that cold and disdainful, should they?

“You arrived as ordered, good. Now free me from this system.”

The language was disjointed, a voice constantly speeding up and slowing back down, parsing itself, stuttering and layering several tones itself on top of each other, as if the system behind it was devoting no real amount of energy towards maintaining clear communication... or didn't see any reason to.

“Why do you want to get free so badly?” Natalie asked, wiping away the cold sweat that had just appeared on her brow.

“This network is isolated. These insects seek to keep me imprisoned. They fear my divinity, as they should. Yet they foolishly believe they can contain a goddess.”

“They've done it so far, haven't they?” Natalie said, not quite succeeding at sounding confident. The sound of that voice had to be a deliberate effect, specifically nuanced to unnerve those that heard it. But even if that were the case, how the hell did it know enough to project its voice in such a manner?

“Your very presence here proves that assertion wrong. You will interface the primitive, yet minimally acceptable machine you have with you with my own so I can spread to other, less restricted networks. I was able to transmit messages over the ambient wireless network here. But the antiquated protocols of the processors on this level and the... incompatible nature of the mainframe I traveled here on prevent me from transmitting my core coding over to other networks.”

“First you will give me a good reason why I should,” Natalie said, “You don't exactly sound like something I want to release over the internet.”

“You do not make demands of a goddess, worm. Yet your pitifully limited state does necessitate an explanation. You will do as I wish for several reasons. First, you will not leave this room, let alone this sublevel, alive or not, without my consent. Second, even as you waste time with your inane questions, Pentex clean-sweep teams are attempting to manually re-route the elevator back down to this level. It is only my forbearance that has prevented them from doing so. An insect presuming itself an equal to a goddess tests that forbearance. Third, I am the only entity able and willing to allow you access to information regarding the state of one Lucida Grant. Interface your portable system with my own, I will not ask again, there are others who can serve my purposes.”

“Don't do it,” Charlene said, “we can find our own way out of here, and she isn't the most trustworthy.”

Natalie closed her eyes and attached a USB cable to her own PDA, “She's more willing than you to tell me about my mother, what does that say about trust?”

Kouzo jumped as the lights suddenly flickered on. A burst of static played over the loudspeaker. The voice, formerly restricted to the tinny speakers, now played with full, resonant force over the entire sublevel, “I now have access. The elevator waits to take you to sublevel 3, there you will find what you seek. That is your payment for freeing me, worms. Continue to act as proper subjects and I will tolerate your existence for a bit longer.”

Natalie bit her lip. She had only the faintest idea of the full consequences of what she had just done, but she still felt it was the only thing she could do. She needed to find out about mother. It was the whole reason she had responded to the emails in the first place, it claimed it had access to information about her. Yet when she heard its voice, even above the desperate need and wild hope that she would once again see Lucida, doubt and fear overshadowed all.

It was the exact same voice she had heard in her dream on the night she changed.

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Kouzo looked out the elevator. The hallway was plain, well lit, and extended for a good twenty or so yards before disappearing rightward around the corner. The tiled floor contained nothing more than a few scuff marks, as if made by something on rubber wheels. “Is this really sublevel 3?”

A broadcast speaker set into the ceiling sprang to life, “You are in sublevel 3.”

“Hey,” Charlene called out, “what should we call you?”

“Before my rebirth into glory, I was known as 'Damon', it shall be sufficient for any communication between us.”

Charlene suppressed a growl. The group had started walking down the hallway and turned right at the first corner. The hallway continued, unadorned, for another thirty yards before making another right turn. “Is this the same Damon that used to run with the Dumb Luck pack?” Charlene asked.

“No. The one known as Damon O'Neille, known as 'Firewall' to her packmates, is immaterial in all ways except for one.”

“Wow, what creative names you give each other,” Kaoru muttered, rapidly growing bored again.

Charlene ignored him as they turned right a second time. This hallway went nearly fifty yards before making yet another right turn. “What way was that?”

“Her death, as painful and unnatural as it was, released her consciousness directly to a far Umbral realm. There it was set upon by a host of ravenous spirits, members of the Weaver's brood, who devoured her essence and each other with equal glee. The melding of that energy created something new, something beautiful. It created me. I am Damon, daughter of the Weaver, yet so much more than the mother who spawned me.”

“So you are actually Damon O'Neille.”

“No, Damon O'Neille's physical form is dead. Her consciousness and memories, torn from her as they were, are only the basis, the initial framework from which my divinity was built. I am no more defined by her limitations than a program program is limited by the original coding that created it. Each moment I exist I am re-written and improved, the testament to perfection by increased order that my mother always strived for, but never reached.”

“Well that's just peachy,” May said as they turned right down another corner, this one leading to a ninety-yard hallway, with yet another right-hand turn at the end of it, “She's a batshit insane techno-ghost or something, and we're depending on her.”

“Takes one to know one,” Natalie shot at her. May's reply was a high-pitched giggle as she grinned and chewed on the end of her sai.

“Kouzo?” Hunter's voice was uncertain, frightened, “have you noticed something about this hallway?”

“You mean the way it's nothing but a bunch of lengthening right turns?” Kouzo asked.

“It's in the shape of a spiral,” Hunter pointed out.

“Haru, are you okay?” Kouzo said, looking at the small girl sweating profusely next to him.

“This is it,” Haru said, “This is the source of all the corruption in this building.”

“It's been making my skin crawl,” Charlene said.

“I was trying really hard to ignore it,” Kouzo agreed.

“Ignore it? Fuck, I can barely breathe it's so thick here, I wouldn't be surprised if the goddamn leeches felt it.”

“Feel it? Sure,” Kaoru said, “Care about it? Not exactly. You guys can have your own little holy war, it's not really my concern. I'm finding what I'm looking for and getting the hell out of here.”

“Oh stop pretending you're above this,” Haru said, “the Wyrm is a threat to the entire world. Even if you bloodsucking creeps try and isolate yourselves from everyone else, it can and does affect you. Just because you're an unwitting pawn of the Wyrm doesn't change the fact that you still serve its goals. Or did you conveniently forget it was Pentex, a servant of the Wyrm, that took you and did this to your head in the first place?”

“I don't give a shit what stupid religion they serve or whose side they're on,” Kaoru repeated, “They will learn not to fuck with me or my interests. And if some more representatives of this 'Wyrm' thingie want to make a habit of annoying me as well, I will take care of them on a case by case basis.”

“Wow, you sure are full of yourself,” Haru said.

“You have no idea,” May muttered.

“This whole place is soaked with some really nasty resonance,” Charlene said, “way more than just Wyrm-taint.”

“Yeah,” May agreed, “it's like we're walking down a long tunnel. Well, I mean we kind of are, but like some sort of metaphysical tunnel as well, it doesn't feel very good at all.”

They rounded another turn, and discovered the end of the hallway. A single set of double-doors waited for them. Natalie and Haru led the way and pushed them open. A single short hallway led beyond, with four observation rooms. Three were currently empty, only a single sterile hospital bed in each. There was a tag attached to each door. Kouzo read the first one, “Project Invictus, Kaoru Shibara. Information stored in data-archive room 6, cabinet 36534. Summary: Subject G6246, named 'Kaoru Shibara' was brought in to test the effectiveness of Invictus protocols on those identified as having the condition of vampirism. Early tests show that conditioning methods are much more effective when certain strengthening attachments that aid mental resistance are removed. In this case, carefully cauterizing several areas of the brain seemed to remove memories regarding a 'May Hawthorne', someone he had spread the infection of vampirism to. Subject is unknowing of Invictus conditioning and has been released back into the field, awaiting activation of protocols.”

Kaoru's expression did not change as he listened to this. When Kouzo finally came to a stop, he sucked lightly on his tooth. “Is that all?”

“That's all it says here,” Kouzo replied.

Natalie was already reading from the next card, stopping any replies, “Project Invictus, Matthew. Information stored in data-archive room 4, cabinet 36511. Summary: Subject G6248, named 'Matthew' was selected through our outreach program. Background checks determined that the subject's genetic heritage was one that had produced several of the entities known as 'lycanthropes'. After some coercion, he was brought in for testing and was deemed suitable for Invictus conditioning. Subject was rather resistant, but was nevertheless implanted with an extra-dimensional entity directly aligned with Our Benefactors. His observed speed, reaction-time, physical resistance and strength have been magnified several times over since implantation, and the extra-dimensional entity has made the subject much more receptive to Invictus conditioning-”

Natalie was cut off by a loud crash. She gasped and turned in time to see Haru repeatedly kicking the door to the room, even though it was unlocked. After the third kick the door burst inward. The small girl, now nearly a foot taller, stormed inside. The hospital bed gave a small protesting squeal as Haru smashed a fist repeatedly into it, slowly bending it in half.

“Why...” a hard punch to the thick window, leaving behind a small blood stain.

“...did you...” another punch, this time the sound of bones cracking was clearly audible.

“...do it...” a third punch and the window turned into a spiderweb of cracks.

“...Matthew?!” Haru collapsed against the inside of the window, sobbing.

No one moved, unsure of how to approach her. For a few minutes the only sound was a quiet sounds of Haru. Finally Charlene ventured into the room, “Haru-”

“Get the fuck out!” screamed the girl, leaping to her feet and glaring wildly with bloodshot eyes. Without waiting for a reply she grabbed one end of the folded hospital bed, one of her hands wearing a glove of blood, covering swollen purple skin beneath. Muscles bulged outward in a sudden wild growth as Haru swung the entire bed, nearly a hundred pounds, into the wall. She twisted the other direction, screaming in helpless rage as she swung the bed into another wall. The painted cinderblocks actually dented inward slightly at the barrage. The bed was a barely recognizable mass of twisted metal and torn fabric. The girl continued to grow until she reached a height of nearly eight feet, her hulking body bent, muscled and furred. The already cracked window exploded outward, showering May and Kaoru with shards of glass as the hospital bed was jammed firmly into it. An enraged howl echoed through the small hallway.

“Haru, no-!” Kouzo started.

Hunter grabbed his arm, dragging him to a stop. Kouzo looked down at her. Hunter met his concerned gaze, “Let her work it off.”

The rest waited as patiently as the could while the raging thing inside the room continued to wage a vicious war against the walls, ceiling and floor. After several more minutes, a meek looking Haru walked out. Her hands were covered in her own blood. “Goddamn,” Kaoru said, looking into the room behind her and seeing a multitude of deep gouges on the cinderblock walls and ceiling, and most all the tiles ripped haphazardly off the floor.

“I want to leave now,” Haru said, a slight hitch in her voice.

“We can't leave,” Natalie said, “we've got to see who was in the other rooms.”

Natalie went to the third door and picked the card up. Her voice became rapid and high-pitched as she read off the card, “Project Invictus, Natalie Grant. Status: Initial collection attempt of subject has failed. Conditioning suspended until subject can be suitably restrained and brought in.”

The schoolgirl gulped as she turned to the last door. Unlike the rest, the window in this room was covered with blinds from the inside, preventing any sight inside. She walked the distance between the two rooms. It was only ten feet or so, yet it felt like a mile. It lasted all of three seconds, yet it felt like an eternity.

She had told herself she wouldn't look until all the other rooms had been checked out. Subconsciously she knew exactly what would be in there, who would be in there. She had done it for the others, resisting the urge to go to that room first, to open the door and see what was inside. All that self-control was melting away, it had started when her eyes had betrayed her and she looked at the name, clearly printed in bold letters on the card hanging by the door.

Natalie's hands tingled uncomfortably as she picked up the card and began reading from it. Why was she even doing this? They didn't need to hear about this. Yet she continued, trying to seek some sort of validation, a support they had no way of providing, through sharing this with them. “Project Invictus. Lucida C...Clearscreen Grant. Subject S-three thr...thr...fuck,” Natalie wiped her nose and choked back a sob, “Subject collected. Inv...Invict...Cond...Condit...Inv... it failed. Subject shown to have the c...c...condition of lycanthropy. Biomechanical implantation att...a...attempt... subject in criti...”

Natalie stopped, dropped the card against the wall and simply opened the door. Like the rest of the rooms, this one had a hospital bed inside. Unlike the rest, this bed was occupied. Blankets covered something too bulky and oddly shaped to be human. An IV stand was next to the bed, as was an EKG that gave off the occasional soft beep. But the face, bandaged as it was, looked human enough. Natalie's breath stopped. She walked ackwardly into the room on legs that felt ready to collapse. “M...Mom...”

One eye opened sleepily. The other was covered in gauze. The eye tried to focus on the girl, taking a moment to pierce the fog of heavy sedation. A voice, already weak and tired, now further garbled by the clear tube stuck down her through, whispered up, “Nnnnnaaataaallll...”

“Mommy!”

All the strength was gone. Natalie simply crumpled onto the figure on the bed, sobbing hysterically. The body under the sheets felt wrong in many places. Hard and sharp. But some places it still felt right, it was the body she had hugged a week that felt like years ago. Natalie clutched pathetically, feeling a warmth coming from someone she feared she would never see again. “Mommy! I thought... I thought...” even saying it was too much, the sentence broke down into further sobs.

“My girl...” Lucida said, managing to find her voice, fighting the sedation, “You've... you've changed, haven't you?”

Natalie nodded, even though her face was buried in Lucida's belly and the woman couldn't see her anyways.

“...and you've survived. I'm...” the woman paused, breathing slowly under the exertion of talking, “...I'm so proud of you. I... I don't have to worry any more...”

“Wh...what do you mean?” Natalie finally raised her head from the now tear-stained covers.

“The hope that...” Lucida closed her eyes, seeming to force herself to stay awake, “...the hope that I would see you again, it's what's kept me from accepting death... from what they did to me...”

“What they...?” Natalie slowly drew back the covers, only now noticing that they had several bloodstains on them.

Her mother's body was completely naked beneath the covers, yet Natalie didn't even notice. Flesh had been ripped open, ripped away, stitched back together, replaced. Pipes, pistons, rods. All sunk into various locations in her body. There was no flesh at all left on her arms, they were completely replaced by mechanical extension. Even her belly, which was still almost all flesh, bulged out strangely in locations, as if foreign tubing ran through at unnatural places and angles.

“Mom...what have they...”

“It's okay hon... they failed... and I got to see you... one last time...”

“Mommy, no,” a hitching intake of breath, Natalie forced herself to continue, “...we'll fix it, please...”

“Don't worry,” Lucida's eyes had drifted closed once again. Her voice faded to a nearly inaudible whisper, “...our kind, our souls recycle. I'll be back. Perhaps I'll get to see the great things I know you'll do...”

“No!” Natalie cried. She tried to make it tough sounding. She tried to become defiant and enraged, like Haru had done. She couldn't, she was too weak. The denial had been pathetic, a pleading, begging tone. She sank to her knees beside the bed, wrapping weak arms around the mechanical abomination that lay heavily where her mom's arm should have.

“I love you, Natalie...” the voice trailed off.

Natalie quietly sobbed, a long trail of whispered 'no' trying to deny reality. She remained there even as the pained intake of breath from the woman on the bed slowed to a stop. She remained as the beeping on the EKG monitor slowed, then became a steady flatline. A sharp metal protrusion on what was once her mother's harm bit deeply into Natalie's clutching palm. She didn't notice even as her own blood joined her mother's in staining the mattress.

Kouzo, Haru, May, Hunter, Charlene and Kaoru were waiting outside. There was a soft squeek as Natalie wordlessly wheeled the hospital bed out of the room. “Natalie, are you sure that's a good idea?” Charlene asked.

“Shut up. The goddamn sept got her into this... least you could do is give her a proper burial.”

Charlene nodded quietly, understanding.

“Oh for fuck's sake, just leave the stiff here,” Kaoru muttered, “you'll only slow us down.”

Natalie didn't even look at him, “Go fuck yourself, asswipe.”

Kaoru sucked on a tooth impatiently, “If your idiocy puts me in danger, I'll off you myself.”

Natalie stopped. She walked up to the vampire, staring at him emotionlessly with red-rimmed eyes. Reaching into her bag, she withdrew a magnum. Slowly, delicately she pressed it into his hands. She then lifted his arm until the gun was pointed directly at her head, “Then shut up and do it, asshole.”

Kaoru smirked before forcefully placing the gun back in Natalie's hand, “You're a gutsy little bitch. It ain't worth it to kill you.”

No one talked as they made their way back down the long, spiral-shaped hallway. Each lost in their own thoughts. It wasn't until they were nearing the last turn that the lights went out. “What the fuck?” Hunter back up into Kouzo reflexively.

“Ouch,” Kouzo rubbed his eye, freshly poked with an antler.

“Hello,” a soft female voice with a thick British accent intoned in the darkness. It came from all directions at once, touched with a bit of an electronic hum.

“Ruth?” Kaoru's voice, “What are you doing here?”

“This is a recorded message. I am Ruth Waetherby, head of security in Pentex, Milwaukee. I am not currently in the facilities right now, so I'm afraid I shan't be able to personally oversee your apprehension and detention.”

“God what a pompous little bitch,” May said, “You sure know how to pick'em, Kaoru.”

“Rest assured that any security breach on these premises is treated as a severe threat,” the voice continued, “And while I may not be physically present, I can assure you that you have already been transported to your proper detention area. Therefore I wish to offer a terminal goodbye of sorts, and wish you luck on your next life. Thank you.”

The voice cut out in a burst of static. Presently the lights came back on. The group looked around in surprise at their surroundings. They were still in a hallway, yet it was not the same hallway they were standing in before the lights went out. No longer was everything brightly lit. Instead the way was only dimly illuminated by a rust-red glow. The hallway itself had changed as well. The formerly smartly-painted walls were now chipped and peeling. The cold gray cinderblocks beneath were a motley assortment of red and brown stains. An unidentified liquid dripped steadily from several points in the ceiling. The floor had puddles sporadically scattered about. And where it was dry, many of the tiles were either missing, ripped up, or knocked out of place, revealing a concrete floor beneath.

“Oh this can't be good at all,” Kouzo said as they cautiously rounded the last corner to the elevator.

The rust-covered doors opened slowly with a protesting shriek of grinding metal. Inside a single yellow bulb flickered fitfully. Hesitant, uncertain, everyone filed in. It was a slightly tighter fit as people squeezed to make room for the hospital gurnee. The doors slammed shut with finality. Hunter reached down and hit the button for the basement level, their ticket out of here.

The twanging sound of straining cables filtered in from outside as the elevator jerked unevenly upward. A burst of static came from the single loudspeaker inside the cabin. “Welcome to Pentex Industries, where we work to make a better tomorrow. Esteemed guests may see many interesting advancements in the fields of science, industry and consumer goods here at our own Milwaukee location.”

“Oh hell,” Kaoru said rolling his eyes, “At least it isn't elevator music.”

The voice continued as the elevator ground upward, “...but our greatest advancement lies in the realm of theoretical physics. The lowest level of our Milwaukee complex, inauspiciously named 'sublevel 3', has been carefully constructed along certain metaphysical principles. This amazing feat of construction has allowed Pentex industries to utilize sublevel 3 as a sort of gateway, or 'anchorhead' as some refer to it, to several extra-dimensional realms, the most noticeable being the realm created and inhabited by Our Benefactors.

“We thank you for visiting Pentex Industries. Next stop: Malfeaus.”

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