The sun rises and we gear up along with the Madrid swat team to assault the souvenir shop. It has been a long and tiresome night and there is nothing more I could wish for right now then to be back at the warehouse lying next to my mate amongst those cool satin sheets, but I must focus. Our task is not yet complete. We need to assault a fortress full of mind controlled mages and take them all alive while under the eyes of a lot of sleepers. This will not be easy. The Padre shows up out of nowhere to join the fight. He is still without his fae powers but he brings his mace, an archaic weapon, but crafted under the skilled hands of Jericho so it will be useful none the less. I think it also provides a focus for the Padre. Right now all he has is us and his faith and if I have learned one thing since this adventure started it is that faith is a powerful weapon in itself.
I have given the swat team the layout of the shop already and we split into two teams, one from the front, the other from the back. We quickly work our way towards the iron door in the back. The police setup c4 charges on the door to get it out of the way. I could have weakened it for them, but right now we are trying to not use any vulgar magics. We storm down the stairwell and the police throw their tear gas canisters before us. When we get to the first room it is already filled with gas and most of the mages who were present are startled and consumed by the gas. The police start firing their tranq darts and non-lethal weapons. A few mages make a break for it. I target one and scramble his synapses, he loses control of his limbs and falls to the ground unconscious. Ohm goes to tackle another one and he panics and fires off a very vulgar display of force. As the ball of force throws Ohm across the room right in front of the sleepers the room warps a little, unperceivable to the everyone but the mages. Ohm and I both grimace at the same time and this feeling of dread fills the room. That dumb ass mage just ripped a hole in reality with his stunt and some of the Abyss leaked through. Now I have had small encounters with paradoxes, any mage has. But usually you pay the price and let it harm you. But not this guy, he just let it go and created an anomaly. It effected us all making everything a little bit harder to accomplish. What seemed like well aimed shots would veer off target, nothing seemed to go right. Wasn't a whole lot we could do about it though so we sucked it up and kept on moving.
We quickly spread through the upper part of the complex tagging mages as we went. Chasing down the ones who weren't being slowed down by the tear gas. One managed to make his way into the corridor that housed the "gladiators". They came barreling out looking for a fight. They didn't get much of one as I opened up a connection to the universal consciousness and flooded the corridor with information they weren't ready to handle. In a matter of seconds they all dropped to the floor, sensory overload. I guess they didn't pass the test. I moved back out to follow Ohm and the Padre and see what they were up to. They found another locked iron door. Ohm made it transparent and there were some mages waiting on the other side. Then came the very loud hail of bullets from back in the main room. I run back out and see gun fire erupting from the corridor the gladiators were in. Some of the mages had a mini gun in the back and they were firing blindly into the main room, mowing down any gladiators that were still in the way. We had to put a stop to this gun but running into that corridor was not going to go well and there were far too many rounds coming out for Ohm to alter their course. I knew if I could get to to the gun I could disable it but getting to the gun was the hard part. So I did the one thing I could and I entangled my particles with those near the gun and appeared beside it. I caught a couple of the mages by surprise but one still reacted and grappled me with his hand made of force and started lifting me off the ground. It wasn't enough and I was still able to reach out and touch the gun. I whispered to the spirits within and asked them to take a break and the gun came to a sudden halt. Mages couldn't do a damn thing about it as this was Uratha magic (Thanks Kat!) With the gun disabled the police came running in and seeing me encased in this hand of force couldn't believe what they were seeing and that annoying power of disbelief freed me. I guess it isn't so annoying when it's working for you. They round up what mages are left and we find ourselves back at the iron door.
The Padre is futility trying to bash down the iron door with his mace. Ohm asks for the mace and we show the Padre how mages do it. I collide the particles within the iron and then Ohm smashes the hinges. A couple more swings and the door gives. The corridor is now empty and we follow it down a ways eventually rounding a corner and seeing a heavy wooden door at the end. The police our now right on our back and Ohm only turns a very small part of the wooden door transparent so the police don't disbelieve it. On the other side is Red with guns pointing right at the door, a few more mages and Vincent. Vincent appears to actually be moving, this was quite unexpected. We knew from Danno that some vampires in his clan can stay awake during the day but we thought Vincent was not of that clan. This complicates things but we've come this far. Ohm blasts a hole in the door and fires in some tear gas canisters and opens the door. The mages were ready this time and it doesn't seem to effect them. Red fires some warning shots and tell us to leave, he is still controlled by Vincent but he is trying to also not hurt us it appears. We get into a nice firefight, police shooting in and the mages shooting lightning out. I run up to the door and fire one of the incendiary rounds at Vincent. It hits and does some damage but it doesn't effect him quite as much as I expected and he already starts healing it. I know this thing is old but he is breaking all the rules. I don't like this. If I find out I can't watch him burn when I stake him outside during sunrise I'm gonna be pissed. The lightning bolts are starting to take their tole and the Padre goes down and I'm not feeling so great. I grab the Padre and entangle our particles to around the corner to relative safety. Then the shit hits the fan. Vincent has had enough and orders Red to go garou and take us out. I try to counter and convince Red to switch back, but Vincent's mojo is stronger in this case and he stays garou. Things aren't looking so good as Red comes raging out of the room tearing apart the police officers that were left. We aren't in any shape to take on a werewolf we are actually trying to save. We can see that Vincent is standing before what appears to be a portal of some kind, he was going to escape but now the battle is leaning towards his side he stays. Leaving now would solve nothing. This whole plan was to remove the mages from Vincent's aura and take him on alone. There is only one thing to do now, call in the cavalry. There is only one person who can take on a garou wolf without hurting it and scare Vincent through the portal, it was time to call upon the 9ft tall supermodel. I open up my emergency portal and dash into the warehouse just as Red comes around the corner. Ohm turns invisible to skirt around Red and he sees where the portal is. I knew things might not go according to plan with Red so this time I attuned my portal key to a phrase instead of by person. The phrase was in high speech as I knew that only an Atlantean can pronounce high speech properly so Red couldn't follow us through without my or Ohm's help. I radio Ohm the keyword and he makes it through the portal as I'm hauling ass down to the basement and into the portal to the cave. I call out for Lylith. we need her help yet again. She appears and I quickly inform her of the situation and that we have Vincent holed up and her ears perk up at his name. I knew that would get her attention. It's a long story that I only know part of, but I know she hates him more than I do.
We went back up to the portal room and I spoke the word to unlock the portal and Lylith went in before me. I quickly followed and dragged the Padre back through and informed Annie she had a customer. I went back in and by that time Lylith had already cleared the corridor. Tossing mages around like sacks. We entered the room and I had one of those moments I will treasure forever. The look upon Vincent's face when Lylith walked in was priceless. The fear is in his eyes, the sudden loss of any aura of authority. He bolted to the portal and disappeared. Red just kinda stood there. He was mind controlled but not stupid, he knows you don't get in between a wolf and it's prey, and you sure as hell don't do it when that wolf is Lylith. As soon as Vincent fled the control over Red started to wain and we knew he would stand down. Lylith just looked at me and then over towards the focus that the portal was using. She didn't have to say anything more. I mentally picked up on the residue of the portal and found a thread. I focused my will into this thread and it began to expand and become tangible in my mind. I grabbed a hold of Lylith and Ohm and we followed the thread of the portal to it's destination. Amateur mages. Portals don't stay closed to an Adept of Space.
We appeared in a field of some kind, what looked like Los Angeles out on the horizon. In front of us was a stretch limo. Ohm quickly fried the electrical system. The mage who was driving got out as to stop us, took one look at Lylith and froze in his tracks. He made another move towards us and Ohm told him to just run. He took another step and then a pause as he looked upon Lylith again and I yelled at him to run, that was enough to break Vincent's hold and that mage ran faster that Danno on fire. As soon as the mage was clear we felt this build up of tremendous power and knew that is was coming from Lylith, she was gonna fuck this limo up. She swung her sword down towards the ground and it erupted in bluish green fire that ran along the ground throwing up rocks and dirt and leaving behind a smoking trench. The energy hit the limo with deafening force and split it clear in half. Vincent came running out of his half of the limo with his hair on fire trying to make a run for it. Ohm increased the intensity of the flames turning him into a moving inferno. He dropped to the ground, trying vainly to put out the fires and heal himself but he was already low on blood. I ask Ohm to enhance my muscles and put out the fire. As he does I pull out a wooden stake. I've been saving this stake for some time, it was decorated in Atlantean runes and I focused all my will into and stabbed down into nothing and it disappeared from my hands and reappeared over Vincent's flailing form. It struck him in the chest with all the force I could muster and pierced his sternum with a sickening thump. As it pierced his heart he tried to scream but the stake had already taken it's hold and Vincent stopped flailing. I walked over to his body and you could still see the fear in his eyes. He was "alive" but he was paralyzed until that stake was removed. I turned to Lylith and with a big ass smile said "Merry Christmas".
I return us back through the closed portal with our prize. Lylith takes her present back to the warehouse, smiling the whole way. We make our way back through the complex binding an treating the wounds of the mages. They still have a slight taint of Vincent but he no longer has any hold over them. We let the police take the mages to the mental hospital, the best place for them right now. Ohm and I then leave this place as soon as we can, the stench of the abyss is still present. I return to the Free Council and inform the old man of what transpired. He has some people at the mental hospital and they will take care of the mages. As soon as night falls Danno heads over to the Prince to tell him what went down and to start trying to smooth things over with the mages. I accompany an envoy of the council to meet the Prince and they begin to talk things over. There is much distrust and it will take them some time to get over it but we are confident they are on the right path. We excuse ourselves. Our work is done here. I start my ritual to return us home and an hour later it is time. I tell the group we have an appointment to keep and have them enter the portal. We pop out behind the bar. I really need a drink.
Cygin
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I am glad that our plan actually did work. We were able to free most of the mages. We rescued Red. And the icing on the cake we captured Vincent.
Part of me thinks we should have just destroyed Vincent. Is letting Lylith torture him for eternity the proper course of action? Doesn't that make me as bad as him? It does make me pause to think, but it's a short pause. I know deep down inside he deserves this. My hatred for him easily shadows my pity. The only thing my soul needs to worry about is wanting to join in on Lylith's fun.
</----AEMP----->