Evil's Return (redux) Chapter 2:

[Toastburner B]

“About as good for an ambush as anywhere else in the house.” Duncan answered. “They can’t know about the safe room though, right? I mean, what’s the point of having a secret safe room if it sticks out like a sore thumb?”

His eyes still darting everywhere, Duncan grunted in frustration. “Then again, if they knew how to get into the mansion and which room was Pamelia’s in the first place, then they probably know about the safe room already. This sucks.” He briefly considered his options, then shook his head. “It’s still our best bet, though. Running through the house blindly will just keep Pam in the line of fire longer, and there’s no saying that there isn’t a bunch of demons out there waiting for us to flee the grounds…for all we know, these guys could be culties or something.”

“I don’t think they are, considering that they said they wanted to kill her instead of take her,” Jared said.

“Whatever…the safe room is still the best bet. And if they do know about it, our best bet is to get there before they can properly prepare for an ambush. So let’s get moving.”

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“Idiot, you’re going the wrong way. The rally point is in the other direction.”

The assassin waited a moment, realizing that he didn’t recognize the man who was heading in the wrong direction.

“Wings of wax,” he said, expecting to hear the counter-phrase.

Instead, the other “assassin” just nodded.

Behind his headgear, the real assassin fought back a feral smile. Whoever this idiot was apparently didn’t have a clue who he was dealing with. Well, his mistake…likely his last. Right up there with ‘don’t kid a kidder’ and ‘don’t con a con-man’ was ‘don’t try to infiltrate a secret organization of assassins.’

As he walked and the fool imitating him followed, he radioed ahead, and told the team leader of the situation. Another assassin was sent to one of the room they would be passing. As long as the idiot continued to follow him, thinking he was safe behind his disguise, he would end up with a knife in his back in less than a minute.

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Lead by Duncan, and seemingly ignored by the assassins, Duncan quickly brought the group to a halt at the turn before he hallway leading to the safe room. If anything, the lack of attempts on Pam’s life seemed to give strength to Richard’s idea that the assassins would be waiting for them at or near the safe room.

He looked back at the group. “Any ideas, or do we just make a run for it?”

((OOC: Again, sorry it took so long to post this.))

[lazy man]

Rob, following Don, quickly grabbed three clips, loading one into his M9 as he ran. After slipping the other two clips into his pocket, Rob's knife immediately came out of its sheath. And old habit, carrying a gun and knife. He just wished, once again, that he had his sawed off with him. It was the second time today that he had been forced to go without it. But while he was thinking that, Don was already shouting out a warning to the mansion's intruders.

"Watch yourself, these fuckers can phase through walls! Watch behind, above and below you!" he heard Don call out. Before Rob could even say anything in response, one of the ghosting assassins was on top of Don, struggling to kill him. Rob started moving to assist his fellow Protector, but jumped back as a gunshot went off from above and someone just like the man attacking Don almost put a foot in the young Warden's face. Don wasn't kidding when he said look above you.

Rob quickly fired off two shots that went right through his target, but only so he could get closer without getting shot himself. He didn't know how well this person could fight, but he seemed to be trained to kill people with the utmost efficiency and ease. That was no thing to slouch at, but Rob was trained to kill demons with the utmost efficiency. The only thing saving the assassin from a beating was his SWAT armor and the fact that he could phase through solid objects.

Sprinting towards his opponent, Rob jumped in with a kick that went through the ghostly assassin and put Rob's back to his opponent. Instinctively spinning behind him, knives clashed as the assassin tried to stab the Warden in that one opportunity. Knocking the blade away with ease and trying to slash into on of the weaker parts of the body armor, the knife only met air.

Watching his opponent, Rob entered a stance that kept his gun pointed at his enemy and his knife waiting for any attacks or openings. It was a Mexican standoff, if anything could put it right. Whoever reacted faster once the ghost became corporeal was the winner. Rob glared at the man before him, not moving an inch even after the roar of Don's P90 filled the hallway and caused his opponent to move forward.

"Just be patient," Rob thought, remembering all of those times he was told to wait for the perfect opportunity to strike by so many different trainers. Even when the assassin was only a couple feet away, Rob didn't move. One foot... Less than a foot...

And before the assassin's knife could get past Rob's defenses, the ghost was on the ground with a gun to the back of his head. Rob wasn't even thinking about trying to take a hostage, and wouldn't be hesitating in his execution. Before he could even pull the trigger, though, the man was gone through the floor, evading his death.

"Shit..." Rob muttered, knowing that even one was a legitimate threat. Keeping his eyes and ears peeled for anything out of the ordinary, Rob walked over to Don. "Don, we should get out of here and meet up with the others. Any idea where they'd be going right now?"

[Bard The 5th LW]

Shortly aqfter he started following the assassin Abdul concluded that his plan would never work. The assasins were bound to notice that they had one unknown member. Due to this, Abdul had a different plan: kill this guy and go somewhere else. To meet this end Abdul had began chanting almost inaudibly shortly after the journey started using the sigil he had used for the disguise.

When Abdul was learning illusions with the Guardians back in the Middle East, the most common way to practice was keep record of something in your dream and make a copy of it. Abdul had alot more nightmares than dreams at the time, particularly nightmares about the demon that had killed his little brother and nearly killed him. So that was what he worked with.

Once the chant was over Abdul's disguise began to dissolve, and a large flash of red light spread across the hallway, and out of the floor rose the monster that once haunted his dreams. It was a large demon with two tusk, a large jaw, blade-like fingers and a gator-esque tail, but that's where most of the comparisions stop. Abdul had successfully imitated a demonic summoning.

The monstrous behemoth roared at the shocked assassin, but Abdul knew that an illusion would not kill him, that was the distraction, for as soon as the imitation-monster rose Abdul had already speed chanted and explosive dart and hurled it at the mercenary.

He didn't stop to see what happened to the assassin, he just turned-tail and ran, leaving the sigil down hoping that the stationed illusion would buy him more time.

[Overcast]

Richard was running plans through his head trying to get something together that might work out better than just rushing into a hail of gunfire trying to get her in the room. Dress one of the members up like a girl? Nah too late for that and everyone here looked far too manly for that to work. Moving out for a transfer was asking for demonic capture. Creeping around the labyrinth of the Mcragge compound couldn't work forever, and they were at a disadvantage.

Advantage was all caused by their ability. The skill to pass through things. Though they obviously couldn't dephaze in matter, or else they would be sliced, attached, and all around screwed...

"They can't dephaze in matter..."

Richard took off his sunglasses a moment rubbing his eyes trying to make sure he wasn't just losing his mind,

"I..I think I got something. If we can make enough light debris like dust and smoke in the area surrounding the panic room where they plan to ambush us then they either will skip out on the ambush and have to materialize in the hall here or they will try to materialize in the stuff and have some serious trouble. Now I can shoot these guns pretty god damned fast but I don't know if that will cause enough damage to do anything worthwhile. If we have access to any grenades, or magic along the lines of fire and lightening then we might be able to make enough in the moment we arrive to actually have an advantage."

It was still a long shot...but it was better than nothing.

[Arcanum]

Marcus nodded in agreement with Richard's suggestion. It seemed like it would work, although he had an idea that could provide a decent backup plan just in case.

"I can handle the fire," he said, "so long as Duncan doesn't mind losing whatever is in the hallway down there. However before we move out I'd like to coat the entire inside of the hallway in ice. It will provide a decent barrier against ballistics from adjoining rooms, plus my ice is crystal clear, meaning we'll have an extra bit of warning since they'll have to phase through the wall and the ice."

Marcus holstered his pistol and began running the proper incantations through his mind. Confident that he could recite them perfectly and quickly, he looked up and said, "I'll need about six to eight seconds to say the barrier incantation, and another three to four for it to fully encompass the hallway, if memory serves me right. I'm ready to go unless someone has a better plan."

[PyrosNine]

Interestingly, the Janitor's office was untouched by all involved, save the Janitor himself. If you could call it an office, other than an overly large closet with hanging lights, shelves, a desk, two large storage bins with drawers filled with every necessary doodad for fixing junk about a school. It was somewhat neat, he guessed, and obviously any guilt on the part of the janitor couldn't be found in how insidiously he labeled each drawer with scribbled on white tape.

The janitor himself was out, and where to was in Task's mind. Janitor's usually stayed late, especially to clean up messy, trashed schools, and usually with a bunch of other janitors. Perhaps the various groups had them call it a night, while he went off to his home. Or maybe they were all unconscious somewhere, and would wake up with implanted memories of a hard clean up job that wasn't suspicious in any degree. Task worried his encounters with the occult and conspiracies would turn him into the sort that wore styrofoam hats. Or whatever it was. He did wear a headband that did, in fact, keep the demons out of his head.

He decided to check the janitor's desk, listening for any others sharing his suspicions or were suspicious that he found it suspicious. Or the janitor himself, as the clean up crews seemed to have been wrapping up. His sensei would be annoyed that he had deviated from the path, but he couldn't go home empty handed...

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

His ears were ringing, the sounds of his P90 were still reverberating in his eardrums, as Don continued to stare into the wall, as though he was hoping to develop x-ray vision so that he could see the enemy beyond the barrier. He didn't know whether the other man was dead, injured, fled, or simply waiting for his chance to burst back through and catch Don unnawares. Don just stood, watching, waiting.

He was eventually roused from his trance by Robs voice. "Don, we should get out of here and meet up with the others. Any idea where they'd be going right now?"

He turned to face the Warden, recomposing himself quickly. "The basement. We have a safe room there, it's the only truly secure place..." He paused a moment, as if coming to some horrible conclusion, "... and the perfect place for an ambush! Come on, this way!!"

Don set off in a hurry down the corridor, watching all around for more assassins, but none were present. Maybe they've had the same idea?? He arrived at a corner and slowed as voices echoed toward him. Cautiously he edged around the corner, but realising with relief who the voices belonged to.

"Guys!" Don called out making his way towards the group, "Sitrep? What've we got? How many hostiles? And how're we gona get through to the safe room? Those bastards will be crawling all over it by now."

[Arcanum]

Marcus almost jumped as Don yelled out to them. He probably would have if he'd seen any of these assassins say anything before attacking. Luckily that wasn't the case, and as such Don managed to stay in his not-on-fire state of being.

"Dunno how many guys they have but the plan is to create a big mess, smoke and dust and that, to try and mess with their phasing ability. I think it's about time we get started."

Marcus closed his eyes and began the incantation. The words flashed by in his minds eye and he wasn't sure if he was reading them or reciting them from memory. As the incantation neared completion he stepped around the corner and placed his hands on the floor. Ice began to form and spread sideways along the floor. It climbed up the walls and stretched across the ceiling, growing to about three inches in thickness. As soon as the two ends of ice touched each other and merged on the ceiling, the ice shot out down the hallway. It raced along the walls and blocked off doorways. It was taking a lot more concentration than he originally thought to ensure the ice didn't cover up anything they planned to burn or break or shoot to create debris.

Marcus just hoped the spell would finish before the assassins got wind of what they were doing.

[Astral Harmony]

"Ghost SWAT," Pamelia observed. "Think we can find some of those special pellets like in Pacman and eat 'em?"

She just had to crack a stupid joke. "Oh, how about a proton pack like in the Ghostbusters? Or maybe that Camera Obscura from Fatal Frame? Man, if I had that camera, I'd Kodak moment the fuck out of those losers."

Then she realized she wasn't helping. "Sorry. I'm just really tired of all this Mother of Hell nonsense."

[lazy man]

"Hey, you're alive! And that's what counts!" Rob said absentmindedly with a smile in response to Pamelia. He didn't know her situation or anything, what with this being the first actual time he'd met her, and only threw in his life's philosophy out of habit after hearing it so much himself. "And the longer you live, the more ass you get to kick!"

"Well, I think it's like that at least..." Rob thought, observing Marcus's spell with simple awe. He didn't know exactly what he would do once the ghosts started coming out, if this plan worked, but he knew he'd at least get his job done. He'd have to stick close to Pamelia if the ghosts planned on getting close to her. He already knew he was better in close range than the assassins, so as long as they came to him...

"Alright, bring it on..." Rob muttered, clenching the grips of his knife and M9 in anticipation of what would be a very long couple of minutes.