It might still be the 5th or the 6th, hell I don't know anymore. Always working at night and moving across timezones really messes with you. We decide we are probably going to need some allies in this fight and Danno goes back to the Prince of Madrid to inform him that mages are being controlled and supplied with the weapons by a vampire in Porto and that most likely he is using the mages to take the Prince down. Danno asks that the Prince not making any moves toward the mages and only defend themselves until we can find out more. The Prince sends a team out to investigate the souvenir shop and we head back to Porto to take down this vampire and get some questions answered. Before we leave the Padre calls and asks if we can talk about what happened with Janice. My first reaction is fuck off, but I decide if the Padre is reaching out like this then I need to calm down and hear him out. He deserves at least that. So Danno and I go back to the warehouse to have our coming to jesus meeting with the Padre.
The Padre and I finally have it out. I get through and he begins to understand my issues with him and Janice and all the other deception and secrets. He finally opens up some and I begin to understand why he does the things he does. He does inform us of one very important fact about his life that seems to bring a little peace to this whole thing. I will not detail what this fact is at the Padre's request, perhaps later down the road he will let it be known. Suffice to say his opening up and finally agreeing to see both sides of this I believe has put an end to our little soap opera. He still has a way to go to rebuild my trust in him, but I feel confident this will come to pass. Above all he was chosen for this path for a reason and who am I to keep him from it. He has stumbled but he has friends to pick him up. I will push him, I will trip him when he isn't looking and try to make him fall, but I will also be there to try to pick him up. This isn't malice, this isn't me singling him out. I will do no less for the rest of the 4. I am the guide for their souls as they travel through the kingdom of nightmares. I am Mastigos, it is our way.
Now that the Padre is sorted out we continue with our current mission. We decide yet again to just brute force our way into the Porto vampire's office and get the information we need. I attune my wavelength to that of the vampire and see he is in his office with two bodyguards, I can only read limited amounts of information through this link but it is enough to see the bodyguards are not sleepers. There won't be any disbelief for this portal. And hour later I finish my ritual and warp space to the vampire. Danno rushes in to tackle the vampire while Red and the Padre follow to take on the bodyguards. Ohm and I head in next to assist. The bodyguards start throwing balls of force and it quickly becomes apparent they are mages. The vampire convinces Ohm that I'm a threat and he should stop me from casting, Ohm loses the battle for his mind and comes after me. I convince Ohm he should go through the portal and stay there and he obeys as expected. The vampire is good, but I'm better. The battle is well in hand, I eventually knock the mages out and the vampire takes control of Red this time and has him attack Danno. Danno sorta forgets Red is on our side and rakes him with claws pretty good. The vampire gets desperate and tries to shoot Danno with one of t he flamethrower rounds from a shotgun but Ohm returns and deflects the bullet. Still enough to scare both vampires, Danno manages to hold on with a little help from me and "accidentally" goes off on the vampire and turns him to dust. The mages were at least still alive and we question one. He doesn't remember who he is or where he is from, he only remembers he was suppose to come here and protect the vampire. It becomes apparent this is not the vampire in charge, his hold over the mages would have gone away with his death. Searching the office turns up nothing of interest. We take the mages and I convince the workers I am their boss and tell them all to go home and we gather up what is left of the incendiary rounds and Red leads us to the vampire's haven. The haven is pretty boring and unguarded. We make it down stairs and this long hallway with alcoves that just doesn't seem right. I project my mind into the twilight and travel down the corridor. In two of the alcoves are large stone gargoyles. We've seen these before and I'm guessing they will animate when we walk by. I continue on down the hall and through the door. The vampire's lair is also pretty boring, some old looking coffin in the corner and sparsely decorated. I return to the group, having seen the inside of the room I inform them if they wait a bit I will portal us to it bypassing the gargoyles. We really aren't in the proper shape to take on two of these things so they agree and some time later we portal on into the room. The room looks far to old for this younger vampire and we find nothing of use in it. Danno calls the Prince of Madrid to tell him what happened and he tells Danno that the team he sent to the shop hasn't returned yet. This doesn't bode well and if we don't find out what happened first, the Prince will blame the mages. We still have these two mages and we need to get rid of them, I believe I can trust the old guy at the lorehouse and I head over there to tell him exactly what was going on. He and the others have suspected something was wrong with the council. He knows the captured mages and takes them in so he have some people try to undo the vampire control while we head out to the shop to see what happened.
The shop is very quiet as we scope it out from across the street. I project my mind into the twilight and venture on inside. In the back I find and iron door, concrete wall and something preventing me from entering in this state, feels like a ward. I return to my body and inform the others of this room, this is where we want to go. Chances are good we are going to be fighting some mages so Ohm puts up magic shields on myself and Danno, making sure to give Danno a decent pool of charges since he will be taking the brunt of their assault. Ohm scans the front of the shop for cameras and finds a wireless one, rather than disable it and tip somebody off I have him send me the frequency and I tap into it's data stream and record some footage then send it back in and loop it. The front door is locked and alarmed. I decide to try a new trick and I quickly scan all possible outcomes of myself picking this lock, the amount of information that flows in the span of a few seconds is quite overwhelming but it does guide my hand and I open the door with ease. I'm starting to think time is also an illusion, I'll have to put more thought into it, when I have the time. A few more cameras inside and Ohm and I do the same trick to keep them busy. We make it to the warded area in the back without issue. I analyze the ward and it is lit up light a christmas tree. Which reminds me that christmas is only a few weeks away, what does one get for the werewolf that has already stolen everything she needs? I wonder if Lady Abigail celebrates christmas? I should have Lylith turn Danno into Santa Claus. I wonder if .... Ok have to stop. Must concentrate. Ok the ward, it has every possible arcanum woven into it and it has been fortified. No way Ohm or I will be piercing through it anytime soon. So if we can't sneak through it that leaves us with only one choice. Retarded Rhino. I cause the particles of the door casing to collide with themselves and weaken it. We fire up the rocket skates and Danno goes crashing into the door nearly taking it out on the first try. Couple more hits and it gives. Beyond is a spiraling staircase. Danno decides this is still a perfectly good iron door and goes charging down the stairs using it as a shield. We follow and soon the staircase opens up into a chamber. Inside are several guns waiting for us. Danno deflects most of the bullets with the door and uses his momentum to slam into a couple of them with it. Before we have a chance to react we hear someone shout "Now!" and the floor opens up below us. Ohm manages to avoid it and decides to run back up the stairs while the rest of us fall. I try to move those falling back to the top but my spell is countered. Fucking mages.
So there we are trapped like rats in a hole. Whole bunch of what I can only assume are mages staring down at me, just waiting to counter any spells I cast to get us out of here. Not sure what Danno is thinking but he seems to feel better just firing off shots at the mages above, he manages to kill one and then uses his damn death power to raise them. Why I'm not sure. Next we hear a familiar voice above, it takes a few seconds for me to put it all together and then I realize it's fucking Vincent, the former head douchebag of Chicago. We should have put this together from the start, old ass mind controlling vampire. Oh well, we aren't exactly a brain trust. He start spouting out some shit about wanting to exchange information and that he is curious about how death works. He says that conquest is in the area and he is trying to draw it to him. Apparently taking over mages and having gladiator type fights in the thunderdome is going to work. I'm really not paying attention, I learned to just not listen to his ramblings. I'm more focused on trying to find a way out. I finally come up with something I believe will work, everyday I prepare my emergency portal spell, since the imago has already been prepared the mages above should not be able to counter it. I quickly inform the others and I let it go. It catches the mages by surprise as they feel the energy of it appear. They do try to stop us but Danno and I use our magic shields to counter their spells and we escape. Red is not so lucky and gets caught by a mage's spell, Vincent then convinces him to stay. We know that we can't do anything for Red right now, we will come back for him and Vincent knows that so he will keep Red alive. I call Ohm and find he is ok, I tell him to haul ass to the Free Council lorehouse and invoke the right of sanctuary and they will let him in and keep him safe for the day at least. Our orders may not get along but all us Atlanteans share a common bond. Danno and I begin to devise a plan and I return us to Madrid. Danno head to the Prince to tell him what happened and who Vincent is. I head to the police headquarters.
At the police station I use my "credentials" to convince the officer in charge that we need to raid the souvenir shop. We need to do it today after sunrise and with non-lethal weapons. At the same time Danno is convincing the Prince to help us and he uses his police contacts to support my story. The plan is a go. Our hope is that once the sun rises and Vincent takes a nap, we can tear gas and tranq the mages within, this should remove all his support and then we can take out Vincent. I'm a bit apprehensive now, this plan actually sounds good, it's non-lethal and doesn't require us forcing our way in. This sounds like a good plan, and that scares the hell out of me.
Cygin.
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The meeting with the Padre was good. He is learning to use his fear instead of hiding behind it. I only hope he can stem this need for deception. I am glad he is embracing his inner.. plant? I'm not sure what the hell they are. He still needs to realize that we are the chosen, we need to be above these petty racial wars. First and foremost I am a Horseman, not a mage. He needs to realize the same. Well I guess he will, on his own accord or with help.
I have to wonder why we keep just running blindly into shit, why do we always use force to solve everything? Could we have avoided this trap if we just used our heads? I want to blame Danno for not controlling himself and leaving the first vampire alive, maybe we could have found out about all of this before hand. I feel bad leaving Red there. I should have asked Ohm to give him a magic shield too, even one charge would have let him get away. I will get him out of there though. After I all the shit I gave him about being part pf a pack and relying on them to help you, I can not leave him there. All though I feel maybe this was meant to be. Maybe he needs to fight like this so he can embrace his true self. He is still afraid of his rage and while it is something to be wary of, it is also something to embrace. He is wolf, and there is not a damn thing he can do about it. He needs to use his power. You can't tame the beast without knowing the beast. You can't know the beast without being the beast.
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