"Love you too Dad." Johnathan grumbled as he entered the manor after being greeted by his father, what good mood he had evaporated immediately now even with the drink still in his system. "Yes yes, I understand. Not like I have a mad researcher to be responsible for or something now too." he reminded him of their red gelatinous friend. Speaking of which, it probably came back by now after getting whatever it needed, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep it out of sight now. But his cousin..... . And of course the realization hit him through the fog of rum. His cousin was coming to live with them. The cousin who picked on him every time either one of them visited the other throughout his childhood. Taking a deep breath and putting a hand over his face, he counted to ten and let his breath out in an effort to relax. "Great, now I'll have TWO eating machines to keep up with. Thanks, thanks a lot." he said aloud to no one in particular. He headed towards his room, intent on just going to catch as much sleep as he could get before she showed up.

Aura felt the sweat on her fair skin, and its trails over her body. The crawling. A tickling sensation, from her scalp over her face. Down her neck, where it dissipated into the drenched fabric of her running shirt to cling to her like a spider monkey. It cooled her heated body while she held on to the front of her foot, stretching her thigh while leaning on the front door of her apartment building.

She'd always been blessed with her complexion and tendency to not accumulate too much fat, so there had been no reason to work out back in school. But her new job - and the thought of being a legit super heroine made her giddy - demanded that Lex kept herself in immaculate physical shape. Well, perhaps not immaculate, but it certainly required a training regimen. To be honest, she hated it less than she'd thought at first, but to claim she'd found this "Runner's High" or other sport-related ecstacies would have been a terrible lie. But on the bright side, she was looking forward to her shower, and this shower after an evening run was the best feeling ever.

Finishing up her post-run stretches, the young sorceress took a breath of the cool air, sensitive of its motions around her even without her spellbook. A proper wizard did not need to be actively casting spells to be aware of the elemental flow, especially those they harnessed on a regular basis. The breeze made her feel at home, safe. Lex smiled as she released her stringy, moist hair from its ponytail and fumbled for her keys in her backpack.

As far as she was aware, her colleagues had been keeping busy even off-duty, which was perfectly fine by her. Meanwhile, she had been working on her training regime to try out different methods ("So you're telling me 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats and a 10 kilometre run a day is not a good plan?"), revising her nutrition plans ("Hah, as if I ever find the time to eat healthy!"), brushing up on her spellwork ("Morfí spourgíti? Wow, that actually sounds amazing! I always wanted to fly!"), and, most importantly, practicing her police officer face in front of her mirror ("Freeze! You have the right to remain bla bla bla Miranda!"). Lex considered this time well spent, and it probably was.

But anyway, the day was coming to its end, and Lex walked through the darkness towards her shower. Her apartment was modestly-sized, maybe a lick too large for a single lady with no obligations, but then again, she never did hide her fathers' money. Discarding her clothing, she finally stumbled into her shower to put a period to today's sentence.

The Prophet looked about his home. He nodded. "We need to move to a better house.... but before that, welcome! I think you'll all enjoy your time here. Unless you die in action, but that's unlikely. Anyways, on to the matter at hand. We're running out of space here, but that's not a major concern. Get as comfortable as you can and I'll figure something out."

The Prophet went over to his desk, sat down, and ran a hand through his hair, sighing with frustration. This whole 'cult' thing was not what he wanted to deal with at the moment, especially with the alcohol in his system. They needed better facilities, but how.....

Maybe the Umbrarum had something on pocket dimensions? No, too far-fetched, focus on down-to-earth solutions, he reminded himself, the Umbrarum talk brought up by the booze.

He opened his laptop and browsed the web for cheap warehouse-like places. Places that thirteen people could live in that didn't cost him too much. He wasn't the poorest of the poor, but at the same time he wasn't exactly bleeding money.

Serpent would have done a bit of negotiating but ultimately agreeing with James ending in a friendly handshake.
When it came closing time, Serpent was busying himself with the register and waved the hired girls goodbyes. Guitarist was paid in cash, as wanted. Serpent shared a friendly beer with the lad and thanked him for his performance and the modest pay he asked of Serpent. The lizard did give him a bonus as thanks for bringing in customers more than usual.
When everybody had left but Serpent, he checked the taps, the lights, cleaned any spills and swabbed the tables clean. At the stage he sung a little Bon Jovi into the mic while putting away the equipment.
All said and done he left for home, taking a final glance that everything was neat and lights were off. After locking the door he put on his jacket and rubbed the part of his chest Jonathan had poked earlier.
He chuckled and began walking, ready for sleep and a new day.

The Crimson creature was meticulousy setting up it's recently "acquired" scientific equipment. As simple as it seemed, the simple motions of setting up lab equipment felt nostalgic to it. It couldn't bring itself to care about what filt currently coated it's form, it's become accustomed to such a condition down in the city sewer. It couldn't even bring itself to care even if it wanted to. It was dwelling on the same thought that lingered in it's mind since the moment it came to be. That bastard Warlock was still alive, and it needed to remedy that.

It started seething to itself as it mindlessly paced about the basement level. "So long...waited so long..." it muttered to itself, agitated about even trying to comprehend how this man can continue to exist, "how long...how long has it...since I..." It's pace picked up momentum, the beast becoming agitated as it continued to delve deeper into its own thoughts. "Why...what happened...when...when was the last...GRAGH!" It yelled out as it gripped it's head, it couldn't remember, no matter how hard it tried to force it. "Who is this...Warlock...why did he...why...why...WHY?!?" It continued to scream at the room itself, raking large grisly claws across the walls of the basement. "Grrragh! gugh! gaaggh! DAMMIT! HOW! How can something?!?...HOW DID I FORGET?!? WHAT DID HE DO?!? WHAT DID HE DO TO ME?! How...how can I...loathe...this being...not remember...why?"

It took out the silver locket, it felt like if it didn't calm itself it may have started wrecking the lab equipment it spent so much time retrieving. And just as it thought, the sight of the locket began to calm it. Yet another detail it couldn't bring itself to remember. "Why...what...what happened...what happened..." it took the time to just stare into the seemingly simple silver trinket, for some reason-a reason it couldn't even remember- it proved to be able to calm it. But continuing to look at the locket brought up painful emotions, anguish, longing, a feeling of loss. It couldn't even remember what it lost, how could it still feel like it lost something important. It was painfully obvious to it that something went wrong, and yet what went wrong escaped it's mind. It starting muttering something to itself, a mantra it repeated over and over again "What...happened...what...happened".

"What happened...to...me..."

walking around had given him plenty of time to philosophize, think and in general finding himself anchored to himself, and seing large parts of the city he haddent seen before, mostly slum slowly turning into more respectable parts of Novus, it was truly a mega city with all its highs and lows, though he had never really been in the truly expensive part of town. Daniel found himself a bit lost for purpose and ideas at the moment, as well as feeling some guilt for his actions now that he had been allowed quiet time, though going drinking at this moment might not be a good idea, and if he even still could get drunk, then he actually had no money.
While walking and thinking around more things of those lines it came to him he might as well try out his bio-scanner again, now that it had been de-chipped, or atleast hopefully had been de-chipped.
Despite not being in the slums, Novus still had plenty dark and half dark alleys to, so for lack of better to do Daniel walked into one to not be easily spotted as he took it out and booted it up again, though hopefully this wouldent get him in the same trouble it had the last two times.

Hallow smiles a bit. She had decided to sleep at the base tonight, since it was the frist night after an apperant succesfull robbery... There could be retaliation and she wasn't planning on taking any risks. She locked herself into her "chamber" in the base, a room containing a TV, a bed, a small fridge, aswell as a camera system keeping track on the base. She yawned as she went to sleep, calmly grinning to herself, loving the power she was gathering... and she was planning to continue to grow it until it either consumed the world or herself.


Mystic nods to the owl. Summoning a glowing golden portal.
"Best to tell Morph. It seems as this is inside his area."
She steps trough the golden swirling ring, appearing in Morphs office, looking around. Arc calmly seated on her shoulder. She turns to Morph, looking over him.
"Good evening Morph. Have you met Arc?"
She motions to the owl sitting on her shoulder, currently a tiny and small owl.
"Arc, this is Morph. The WBSA commander of Novus"

After the crime scene investigation, Phoenix had a day that became a little more interesting than she was expecting after having to deal with a crime scene and accepting the deal from the human-dog. She had preferred to have a relaxing time, but it seems that events conspired to prevent her from going home just yet.

Basically, she had to check on someone who had signed a Pact (overtly, so he knew he had gotten involved with the demonic), yet was trying to avoid upholding their end of the bargain. This was requested by the demon who the Pact was made with before they had to take matters into their own hands.

So Xezrin turned up at the man's house within one of the more.... 'Average' parts of Novus, to explain that he had to uphold his end of the bargain, which involved harvesting souls for the demon in question. Which meant slaying people, naturally. (technically he didn't have to, but murder was normally the fastest way to get a demon a soul, and didn't need magic.)

Suffice to say, she had a lot of talking to do (underneath a glamour created by her demonic magic, so she wasn't busted by Morph or any mortal law enforcer if the guy tried using them to get back at her) to make the poor guy realize that yes, he was going to have blood on his hands as a result of what he got as a result of his Pact.

She hated this side of her bloodline-derived job, but she didn't have a choice in the matter. Not without signing her own death warrant, anyways.

Once she was done with her Pact duty, the Knight of Hell then headed back to her penthouse apartment to finish off her studies for the day, as well as relax with a shower, some food and so on. And well, do what she could to try and ignore the fact she had told someone they had to murder other people in order to uphold their deal.

Trotting alongside the Hell Knight, Mimic now a husky with piercing blue eyes, followed in order to find out more about the deal he had just made. All in all it seemed rather boring to him as he waited outside while she made several stops on her way home. It would seem he would need to wait for his introduction into her lineage.

He could wait, after all it was better than being chipped or placed in a jail cell. He found himself a comfortable spot near by her home. Even if they had a deal arranged he wasn't going to force his way into her home. After all one more angry WBSA agent after him would only make his life that much worse.

And so two weeks would pass as the Agents of both good and evil or the indifferent went about their business. News sources kept reporting on the happenings in the Emirate lands, evidently the initial skirmish between the two tribes had accidentally killed members from other tribes who had showed up to watch from afar. This in turn was making the issue even larger as the families of the dead innocents called for revenge.

The Emirate zone was left open in order to promote peace within the region and let the tribes govern themselves. That decision seemed to have lead to the current situation to be slowly spiraling downwards.

Though one major event that wasn’t covered by the news or even known to the general public was that a UFO was shot down when it came close to the moon. No wreckage has been located but the object was clearly not of human origins, according to initial reports within those tight circles.

In more local news a small earthquake struck the outskirts of Novus, shaking up stores and high rise apartments. No one was injured thankfully but such a thing was thought to be impossible on the artificial continent. The government is said to be dispatching more survey groups to assess why this is happening but that could take months. Not to mention the initial investigations into similar reports in the countryside haven’t come up with anything yet.

@Maleth @Wincent @Wata @kanila @BuriasDempsey @GobMaw_HellSmasha @Grall_Stonefist @Casavay @Azathoth

Now the sun rises once again over Novus as day broke, rays of orange and yellow pierce the eastern skies. An average day beginning like it had the weeks before for most average people, children getting up and getting ready for school. Adults already up and at work or driving in the city traffic.

The busy streets never being empty in a modern mega city like Novus, the capital city of a country on an artificial continent all sharing the same name. Expensive hovercars flew over the packed roads as the elite didn’t bother with such things anymore. People in the slums waking up to begin another day in toil as they struggled to live in condemned buildings and avoid gang violence.

All seemed like the beginning of a typical day in modern society, until a massive explosion ripped through the city’s industrial districts. The explosion was so powerful people in the countryside would be woken up and buildings blocks away would have their window shattered by the force. Car alarms were set off as the entire city was suddenly woken up.

The WBSA agents would have their phones ringing. Upon answering an automated message in Morph’s voice would say “Code Black, suit up and head for storage site alpha.” The message would repeat until they hung up the call.

Others who had no such alarm system would still be woken up by the sound, even those based far away from the city would be rattled awake by it. Though what exactly had caused it or what was happening was a mystery for all.

Chapter 2: Rude Awakening