From the Frying Pan Into the Fire...Part 1

Ravyn and I followed the same path that the Professor had taken a few minutes earlier. Each of us had a number of bags in hand, but hers were of the lighter variety than mine.

After crossing the lot, we came to a set of heavy metal double doors with the one on the right having been left ajar. Just as I moved to set on the bags down to open the door further, the Frau lumbered up behind us, wuffling in excitement.

“Rusty, hold on! Something doesn’t smell quite right.”

“This place has a ‘right smell’ to it? We might as well go in, Jim’s inside already.”

The Frau’s head swiveled back and forth. “Then he’s not alone.”

Ravyn dropped her bags with a crash. She reached out with her right hand to yank the door open while holding her now flaming left hand up above her shoulder. “Come on you two, we can’t leave him alone for long!”

I followed suit, dropping the rest of her bags and triggered the baton to drop into my right hand. I held the door that Ravyn had opened so that she and the Frau could slip into the dust filled darkness within.

The place had definitely been an institution of some sort. It had the wide corridors and tiled floors of a place that had once been clean and well-maintained.

Ravyn and the Frau padded ahead of me, while my heavy steps echoes throughout the empty halls. Jim’s trail was readily apparent in the grime that covered the tiles.

The small orbs of fire that now danced around Ravyn’s shoulders, provided most of the light that we had, although stray beams of dust-filled sun-light cut through the darkness in intermittent patches.

Ravyn motioned for us all to stop for a moment and called out, her voice cutting through the grim silence of the place. “Jim, where are you?”

In the distance we heard a muffled attempt to shout in response that was interrupted by the sickening sound of a smack to someone’s head and a dull thud.

That sent Ravyn racing forward with the Frau lurching to a run behind her.

I called the Shadow and placed myself solidly ahead of both of them so that I would bear the brunt of any hidden attacks.

Jim’s trail led us around a blind corner and into a large, dark room that was probably once a cafeteria.

Several figures stood waiting for us as we rounded the bend.

El Diablito stood in the center of the group, his grey eyes sparkling with mischief as waited with his arms crossed.

On his right was a thin, waif-like woman with hungry, almond-shaped brown eyes, and lanky, dark hair. I recognized her as Rose from the memory orb I had seen months earlier.

On his left was an even more ominous figure, the shrouded figure of Papa Locks, his gloved fists clenched at his sides. He loomed over the unconscious form of Jim.

As we pulled up to face these three, several more figures emerged from the Shadow around the room. Each of these half dozen figures had the heavy shoulders and the bearings of men who were more than comfortable in dealing out violence. They each held weapons of one sort or another, ranging from sub-machine guns for the farthest three to the oddly glowing and crackling clubs of the three closest to us.

El Diablito chuckled as we took in the scene.

“It was so nice of you to invite me to your little party…”

Sole Asylum...Part 5

I brushed myself off and began picking the shards of branches and bark that we sticking out of my skin as I looked around to try and gauge how close we came to the Asylum.

The truck had crashed into a very stout tree on the edge of a desolate looking parking lot. The pavement of the lot was cracked and marked with potholes, some of which were large enough to sport their own small trees. The other three edges of the lot were bordered by hulking, multi-story, brick buildings that gave off a distinct feeling of brooding, sullen anger. Many of windows had been broken, but almost all of them were covered by iron bars.

I waved a broken branch that I had plucked from the base of my neck towards the buildings behind the truck. “The Asylum, I presume. See? That wasn’t too bad.”

The bear that was wearing the tattered remnants of the Frau’s outfit looked up at the building and gave out a wuffling snort before the Frau’s voice came through inside my head. “Not too bad, Rusty. I don’t know how many more of your little adventures I can handle, however, I’m an old lady! Oh and I will need some help getting my luggage out. I don’t think you want me streaking around here!”

I reached out and scratched the bear behind the ears. “No problem, Frau, I’ll be glad to help you out. I see those two are a little preoccupied.”

Ravyn and Jim were standing near the driver’s front quarter panel. Jim was leaning on the truck with his right hand clenched into a tight fist, as he leaned down to allow Ravyn to dab away the blood from his face.

Jim’s lips were drawn tight as he struggled to contain his obvious rage.

As she gently wiped the blood away with a handkerchief, Ravyn was speaking to him too softly for me to hear what she was saying.

The Frau snorted again and began padding towards the woods. “Ravyn knows which bags are mine and where we need to go inside the Asylum. I’m going to take this opportunity to do some scouting.” She stopped and looked back at me. “Do you mind stripping the last of this clothing off, Dear? I don’t want to leave an unnatural trail.”

I walked up behind her and began pulling the stretched and shredded remnants of her sweatpants and sweatshirt from her fur. Before long, she was bounding off into the thick, overgrown underbrush.

After the Frau disappeared from sight, I turned to see Jim moving to the tailgate with Ravyn following close behind him.

“Hey, the Frau said she was going to scout around. Do either of you know which bags are hers?”

Jim grunted something unintelligible as he opened the tailgate and reached in to grab the briefcase that held the computer I had seen earlier and a baseball bat. Without further comment he stalked off across the parking lot towards the largest of the three buildings that were in sight, directly across the lot.

I looked to Ravyn. “What’s up with him?”

Ravyn gave me one of those looks that only women seem to be capable of. “He’s having a tough time dealing with everything that has happened in the past day. It’s also killing him that he has no idea how the rest of the group is doing—who’s been hurt or killed, and who’s still in danger.”

I nodded. “Yeah, it has been pretty eventful.”

Ravyn reached up and pulled a piece of bark from my forehead, shaking her head as she did so. “I think you’ve been dead too long if you call this day ‘pretty eventful’. Help me get some of these things inside and we can start getting settled. Getting things set up and ready for the Convocation will help Jim more than anything else right now.”

Sole Asylum...Part 4

Hurtling sideways through the ether of the Shadowland while holding onto the rear bumper of an F-150 Ford pick-up truck is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the easiest place to try and summon up the concentration needed to open a portal to the ‘normal’ world.

When you add in the complications of needing to open a portal large enough for a truck to go through and the concern for the safety of the occupants—and of any potential bystanders who might be nearby—the task only got harder.

But it was absolutely critical that I find a way to solve this problem in a way that left open the possibility for a safe landing.

My one advantage, other than sheer desperation, was that working with the Shadow was extremely easy in the Shadowland itself.

So, ignoring the precarious position that I found myself in, I began weaving the strands of Shadow together into a web-like bubble. I was careful not to seal it up completely until I had some idea of where we would land.

Before I could seal the bubble and activate the portal, I experimented by throwing out tendrils of Shadow to slow our momentum and orient the whole bubble in what I hoped would be the right direction. The sheer mass of the truck and its contents and the speed with which it was traveling, made the task nearly impossible to accomplish in the short time that we had.

After several fitful attempts at getting us oriented, I sealed the portal, closed my eyes, and prayed.

The jarring, crunching impact of the truck threw me into the air, spinning as I went flying.

The front end of the vehicle crumpled up, just as it was designed to do, as it plowed into the trunk of a thick tree. Before I landed myself, I did note that the airbags deployed before anyone’s head smashed through windshield.

My own first impact took place about twenty five feet away and fifteen feet above theirs. It also happened upside down and backwards as I slammed into the tree trunk ass first. Just as that impact registered with a loud cracking sound, I began the slide down through the spindly branches of the now-destroyed tree to land head first in a bush.

By the time I managed to get on my feet and look back to the truck, I saw the passenger door being pushed open by a grumpy looking black bear. Jim wrenched open the drivers door, pulling off his cap as he wiped away the trickle of blood oozing from his nose. Ravyn quickly followed him, bouncing out unscathed, but none too pleased at having a second near-death experience within 12 hours of her first…

Sole Asylum...Part 3

Shuffling around like silent zombies, we loaded up Jim’s truck with a few overstuffed bags of clothing and personal items and several boxes of groceries from the Frau’s enormous pantry.

Ravyn and I piled into the narrow back seat of the truck while the Frau rode shotgun.

As we set off through the quiet, narrow back country road that would take us north to I-94, the winds began to kick up as the edge of a large, dark, bank of clouds rolled over us from the west.

By the time we reached the highway entrance ramp, enormous drops of water were splattering on the hood and windshield of the truck. Jim pushed up the bill of the second cap. “I didn’t think that rain was in the forecast for the next week.”

A flash of lightning was soon followed by the rolling booms of thunder, signaling for the real downpour to begin. Sheets of water sluiced down across the road.

The Frau chuckled, pushed up her own glass and pointed towards the clouds with her cane. “My bones are telling me that this is no ordinary storm. The hair on the back of my neck is standing up as well. Someone or something doesn’t want us to get where we’re going.”

Jim grunted and punched a button on his radio. He fumbled around with the knobs, adjusting them back and forth several times, only to come up with crackling static. “That’s strange. This radio is normally pretty good.”

Ravyn scanned the highway from her seat next to me. “Hey, I can’t ever remember seeing I-94 this empty. There isn’t another car or truck in sight in either direction.”

I leaned forward from my seat behind the Frau. “Jim, stop the truck. Pull over to the side of the road, but leave it running and in gear.”

Jim pulled over to a stop. As the vehicle stopped, so did the rain.

The tension in the truck was thick. Ravyn clenched and unclenched her fingers, clearly itching to start throwing fire at whatever was causing this weather weirdness. The Frau clutched her cane in white knuckled hands as she scanned the horizons. Jim’s hand gripped the steering wheel, his shoulders hunched and tense.

I patted the seatback in front of me. “Frau, I’ll need to get out of the truck.”

She nearly jumped at my words, but she nodded and started fumbling with the door handle.

The rain had now stopped completely, but a low rumbling sound could be heard coming from the west.

The Frau opened the door and stood on the running board of the truck still holding the door open as she looked back to the west. “Oh my! That looks like a tornado coming our way.”

I clambered out of the back seat and through the rear half-door to stand on the shoulder of the road. Looking back, I saw the huge black funnel cloud that was barreling its way down the highway right towards us.

I slammed the half-door shut and waved the Frau to get back in. Over the growing roar of the oncoming tornado, I called out to Jim. “We’ll never outrun this thing, someone is controlling it. I’m going to open up a portal through the Shadowland. When I wave at you, gun this thing and go through, I’ll follow along as soon as I can!”

Jim’s eyes grew wide for the briefest of moments before he set his jaw, clamped down even harder on his steering wheel, and nodded his agreement. Ravyn seemed to be yelling something, but whatever she said was lost to the howling wind and the shutting door.

I rambled forward to a spot about a hundred feet in front of the truck and turned to face the coming funnel cloud and the hopeful looks of my dear companions.

I had never before created a portal that could fit something as large as a pick-up truck. I was not entirely sure that it was even possible to transport a mechanical machine like and automobile through a magickal, spiritual place like the Shadowland, but we were clearly very short on options.

It was hard to take my eyes off of the looming, ever-closer tornado and the havoc that it was creating less than half a mile behind my friends, but it was necessary if they were going to have a chance at surviving.

Instead, I stared at a spot about twenty feet in front of me. I focused my Will as I called more of the Shadow to that spot than I had ever called upon before.

Darkness formed as the Shadow pooled into the spot I had chosen. It grew rapidly, but nearly as rapidly as the tornado bore down on us.

With my left hand I continued to pour as much Shadow as possible into a puddle on the ground that rippled with dark energies, while I raised my right hand and waved for the truck to come forward.

The winds were whipping, it was getting more and more difficult to stand tall in the face of blowing, churning air.

Jim released the brakes of the truck and punched the accelerator. The truck lurched forward as the engine strained to get up to speed. Jim turned the wheel ever so slightly to align the vehicle with the pool of darkness that now stretched across the entire right lane of the highway.

A tree branch crashed into me as I stood stock still. I maintained my concentration as the truck raced with the screaming tornado to reach the portal.

I began striding forward myself, using both hands now to direct the dark energies of the pool to rise up and form an arch that would be large enough for the truck to go through.

The truck, the tornado, and I all met just feet from the Shadow Gate.

The back of the truck was lifting from ground and sliding to the left as it was caught by the funnel cloud, but its momentum continued to carry it through the gate as it spun in the air. Still using most of my concentration on keeping the portal open, I leapt forward, grabbing onto the rear bumper as it swung into the portal first.

There was an immediate silence as I passed into the calmness of the Shadowland that almost immediately shattered by roaring of the truck engine as Jim continued to hold his foot to the pedal, despite the lack of any ground for the wheels to gain traction on.

As soon as I saw that the front of the truck was through, I closed off that portal and began working on another to get us close to the Asylum…

Sole Asylum...Part 1

After some deliberation it was decided that our side trip to check out the stash left behind by Drake would come after we set up a base of operations at the Asylum.

While Naomi, Alexa, and Cerrydwen packed up for their journey through the Transit Point to Herne’s Lodge, Ravyn grabbed me by the shoulders. “I need some decent clothing, Zombie. This simply will not do.”

I nodded. “OK. What do you want me to do about it?”

She smiled. “You’re taking me shopping.”

I glanced down at my watch. “There’s not much open at this hour. It’s still too early for anything except those 24 hour supermarkets.”

Her grin was positively wicked. “That’s why I need you. Jim’s told me about a group of very high end boutiques in New York that is wholly owned by the Mercury Unlimited Group. This shopping trip is going to be courtesy of Dick Arnold and friends.”

“But why would they open just for us?”

She reached up and slapped her palm on my forehead. “You can be so dense. If I was going to wait for them to open for business, I’d ask Jim to go along so that he could pay. I need you to get me in and out without setting off any fire alarms. You can also carry a lot more than he can!”

The light switch in my head flipped on. “Oh. I get it, now. You know I spent most of my arresting petty criminals. Now I get to play one.”

She stood there watching me impatiently. “Well, what are you waiting for, let’s get going before they open up!”

I sighed and summoned the Shadow to take us to the Big Apple for our illicit shopping trip.

We returned less than an hour later, my arms loaded down with several bags containing most of Ravyn’s new stylish wardrobe.

Ravyn bounced off with a couple of smaller bags in hand in to change from her borrowed sweatpants and t-shirt into her chosen outfit as I took the rest of the bags to Jim’s truck.

Jim just shook his head as he surveyed the bags that I packed into the cargo area of the truck. “I don’t even want to know how much all of this would have cost.”

I shook my head. “Let’s just say that we can now add Grand Larceny and Breaking and Entering onto our RAP sheets.”

“Well, at least she’ll be well dressed for her mug shot.”

“I’ll say. Just wait until you see some of the things she got.”

I noted that a brief, wistful look flashed across his face before his serious demeanor returned as he coughed out his response. “Well, I’m sure it was all quite necessary.”

Playing Hardball...Part 3

Jim tossed his mangled, misshapen cap on the couch and stalked off towards the front door mumbling something unintelligible.

Everyone else began to mill around, gathering items that they might need and packing them into bags.

The slamming front door told us that Jim was back, a small black briefcase in hand. He moved to the bar counter between the kitchen and common room and opened the case to reveal a computer of some sort.

I moved to get a better look. “What’s this all about?”

He glanced sideways at me before pressing a button that began firing up the thing. “I need to make the alert goes out to all ORC facilities and independent operators out there. This computer represents the merging of magick and technology that we have been able to come up with. It has the capability to uplink to the net in a way that can’t be tracked or traced by anything the government has. I don’t want anyone else caught by surprise.”

The inside of the case was completely taken up by this computer. He had opened it like a laptop computer, and while the keyboard looked a little clumsier than those of modern computers, the screen looked completely normal. It didn’t look particularly ‘magickal’. I said as much.

He grunted. “We designed it to look as normal as possible to outsiders. It’s not the equipment on the outside that makes it special. It’s the power source and connections to the net that make this thing special. Well, the software is unique. We couldn’t exactly ask Bill Gates to come up with an operating system for this thing.”

I watched as the screen booted up in a flash of colors and 3-D graphics. “Who did all of this?”

“It was a group effort. The software was designed by one of our closest friends from the San Diego Circle, Alana Danae, she’s both a Shaman and computer whiz. I’m really hoping that she was able to make it out alive from that attack out there, we’re going to need her talents.”

Once the computer finished booting up, I watched as Jim’s hand flew over the keyboard and mouse as he toggled open a number of different applications, sent dozens of messages. After the messages had gone out, he surfed among several different bank accounts. He cursed violently as some of the sites appeared to be blocked, but for those that he could get in, he logged into each one, made several lightning quick moves and logged out of each them quicker than I could even note which banks or brokerages they belonged to. He was closing the machine down within minutes.

As he closed the shell of the briefcase, clicking it into place, he looked up again at me. “It looks like some government agency has already identified some of our accounts and has placed blocks on them.” He shook his head. “We are under a coordinated, full fledged attack. These guys are playing hardball with us.”

Ravyn moved in between us, grabbed each of us in one arm looked up at Jim. “Well, as I understand it, it takes two teams to play any game with a ball. We need to gather ourselves, figure out exactly who is attacking and why, and hit back with everything that we can. I know there’s one particular Bane out there that I want a rematch with!”

Jim nodded. “I’ve sent out a request for an emergency Convocation of the Clans to take place at the Asylum once everyone has safely seen their people to safety. We need to know who’s already been attacked, what resources we’ll have available to us, and to come up with a battle plan before this situation gets any worse.”

Cerrydwen came up. “Did you say that the Convocation is taking place at the Asylum?”

“Yes.”

She shook her head and raised her left hand for emphasis. “You can count me out. I’m not setting foot in that cursed place.”

Ravyn cocked her head. “Why? What’s wrong with the place?”

The Frau chuckled as she waded into the conversation. “The Asylum is in the basement of an old mental institution just outside of Detroit. It sits on a large, abandoned campus that affords us a lot more privacy because it is rumored to be haunted.”

Cerrydwen shuddered. “It’s not a rumor. That place is awash in tortured Spirits and echoes with their pained cries. I could feel the terror of that place just be driving by it. I won’t be going there with you.”

The Frau patted her on the shoulder. “That’s OK, Dear. I’m sure Herne could use some help getting everyone off to the safe houses. Besides, I don’t think Naomi and Alexa should go to the Asylum. It is not a pleasant place.”

Jim nodded. “That’s probably for the best then. Frau, Ravyn, Rusty and I will be heading to the Asylum-we can get there by driving in less than hour-and set up for the Convocation. Cerrydwen, Naomi and Alexa will use the Transit Point and head out to the Lodge and then off to whichever safe house Herne feels is the safest.”

I remembered something that had almost gotten lost in all of the excitement. “Hey, we might want to make a side trip, if we can. Drake gave me the location to his store of weapons and items.” I looked over at Jim. “And, with that computer, I think you’ll be able to access the accounts he gave me the passwords to. I seriously doubt that anyone has been able to put any blocks on those funds.”