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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Innocent Bystander Episode 9 1/2</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Savannah, April 1994</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Birds, they all know it, they showed it to me</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Forgotten by man, there stands an old hanging tree</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Forgotten by man, there stands an old hanging tree</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Some roots are still growin', they died long ago</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">--"My Bones", The Pretty Reckless</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Red energy pulsed from the altar, siphoning up into the top of the archway in waves which cascaded downward and around
along intricate patterned veins, shifting as it did to purple to indigo to sky to finally settle on bright teal. It was a breathtaking display of beauty, as if the ancient spell sought to compensate for the ugliness that had come before. The flares of magic
eventually died down, though to magic attuned eyes the web glowed with fresh strength. Doctor Theodore Kelley stepped back with a sigh of satisfaction, wiping his hands perfectly clean with an enchanted cloth. </span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Another one done, and another span of power and safety ahead."</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"By which time," Laylah sighed luxuriously as she lowered her arms, "we will be well settled in our new home." She made
a face briefly as she skipped over a stray rivulet winding its way across the stone floor, her naked flesh bouncing enticingly even in the eldritch light. Max held the silk robe out to her, eyes on his master, determined not to give her the satisfaction of
looking.</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">A flash of annoyance briefly marred Theodore's pleased expression. "Despite your concerns to the contrary. This one performed
impeccably, and your efforts to supply an understudy? Entirely unnecessary. I would appreciate it if, in the future, you looked elsewhere for such fodder than those I have put under my protection."</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Laylah lowered her eyes as she pulled the robe around her body, the picture of modesty and contrition. "Yes, doctor.
I only thought it might be wise to bind him closer to us."</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">A bark of laughter. "Certainly! We can't have this powerless man who is dependent upon us for the life of his child become
a deadly Achilles heel in the few months we have left here. Then we would never see him again, but you would have a new soul for your ledgers. Isn't that why you're looking so regretful?" He chucked her under the chin, and she let a sly smile flit across her
lips. "There will be more for you at our destination. Allow me the eccentricity of sparing this one. A pact with you could throw off the results of my little experiment, after all."</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Nauseating. Max turned instead to see how Damon was faring. Not well, from his looks. He stood rigid, staring at the
altar, a bone deep pallor beneath his dark skin. Max stepped in front of him, blocking his view. "Are you going to vomit?" The boy fixed his eyes on Max's, shook his head. The color started to return to his face. </span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"It's necessary, right? That's what Doctor Kelley said." </span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">This was not the time to share their own sleepless witching-hour doubts. "Yes. It's the only way to maintain the spell.
Let it decay, and..." they shrugged. It didn't seem necessary to include Damon in this unpleasantness, but it hadn't seemed necessary to help Stefan, either. Their master's whims must be indulged, for Max could not imagine anyone taking his place...</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Did you watch carefully, boy? There's not much to it on the physical, but the magic requires concentration and finesse.
One day you may have to do this yourself." </span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Max winced. No one could take their master's place, but if someone did, shouldn't it be the one who had observed him
for years, instead of some teenaged neophyte? Desire had nothing to do with it; it was a matter of common sense.</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Damon, however, was recovering his composure fast. "You told me to watch, so I did. It seemed real complicated, the magic
that is. I don't think I could do it in a hundred years."</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Kelley jovially threw his arm over Damon's shoulders. "Certainly you could, and you will have more than a hundred years
to watch me at it. I have foreseen a long life for you."</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Max sullenly watched the two of them walk up the stairs. They jumped a little as Laylah draped her arm around them, a
parody of the two human wizards. "Well, Max," she breathed in their ear, "There you have it. Male chauvinism triumphs once again. Or is it human chauvinism? Either way, here we are, cleaning up the mess once again."</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Who's 'we'? I don't see you grabbing a mop." Max turned away, reaching for a rolled-up swatch of oiled linen. Focused
on their task, they didn't see the calculating expression flash across her face as she watched them. </span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">When they turned back around, she was flicking the mop against the stone floor, leaving it spotless wherever she touched.
On her face, an expression of serene domestication.</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">*****</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Watch out behind you there's a</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Watch out behind you there's a</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Watch out behind you there's a</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Watch out behind you there's a</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Monster in the closet</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Do you open or do you lock it?</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">There's a tiger with a temptress</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Will your weakness outrun your fear?</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">--"The Ugly", Sumo Cyco</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Savannah, Present</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Drew watched avidly as the player maneuvered their waspish avatar through the ruins of Telly Chaddeus, deftly zipping
past the slow husks. He'd never played a hymenopteran, he liked the sturdier bovid class, but he had to admit they were unbeatable for speedruns.</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Now, the biggest threat in the agriculture zone are the threshborgs, but if you avoid their aggro..." the voice in his
headphones continued to speak as one of the ear pads was lifted and a new voice spoke directly into his ear.</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"In MY day, young man, we played video games instead of watching them!"</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Mina!" He tore the headphones off entirely, jumping up to give his sister a hug. "If you'd done that while I was playing
for real, I'da had to kill you!"</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Better than you have tried! Interesting fashion choices," she looked at the knee-length green skirt, which he swirled
around, showing off. It fit quite well with his soccer jersey, she thought. "I hope the kids at school don't pick on you."</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"They wouldn't dare!"</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Because they know I'll come out of retirement and kick their asses, of course. Is that the new Glowing Pneuma game?"</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Drew shook his head "New? You really are out of touch, grandma." </span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Maybe you can show me how to play. It looks like I'll have some time on my hands for a bit..." she sighed, and suddenly
he noticed how tired she looked, and messy. She looked like she had been rolled down a hillside in her sleep.</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"You look like shit! Did they throw you out on the lawn and beat you when they gave you the sack?" </span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"They didn't sack me, punk. It was a supervillain battle, and since you made that comment I won't even show you the footage
I took. What do you think of that?"</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Drew didn't think long. "You better show me or I'll tell Mom you're dating a furry." </span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"You little--we're not dating! Not officially! And I never said we were! We might not... ever... if I can't get back..."</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">The topic seemed to be getting her genuinely flustered, so Drew took pity. "Calm down Mimi, you know I'm no snitch. Why
don't you sit down and tell me about it? Actually," he took a theatrical sniff, "take a shower and then tell me about it over dinner. I feel like having some fried gator bites!"</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">That brought her spirit back. "Brat!" She glared a moment, then stomped out.</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">*****</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Elemental tapped her way gently down the hallway, trying to mold her copper shod feet as closely as possible to match
the softness of a barefoot human against hard marble floor. A game, this, to see how stealthy she could be in this lovely but rigid metal form. There was no tactical reason for it, since she could make herself quieter than any living thing by discarding her
metal body for air, but she had never tired of playing with the limits of her powers since the day she had gotten them. She checked her reflection in an ornamental mirror--patina-green eyes in a penny-bright face--and smiled.</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">{If you think that you've seen a pair of eyes more green</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Then you sure haven't seen 'em around here...}</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Someone must have heard her singing, for a voice called her from the doorway to the study as she passed. Abandoning her
experiment, she pirouetted on the tip of one toe and skipped with a clatter to see what her mentor might want of her. Some extradimensional excursion, she hoped. She had done well in their most recent battle, though the smelly pest Florida Man had eluded her
once again.</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Her expectations would be disappointed this time, she could see that right off. Laylah, known in business by her moniker
Familiar, wore a frown, and in front of her desk stood Daemon, laptop in hand and a sullen expression on his face. This sort of setup usually meant a dull and sordid murder in the offing, and with the ghost of a sigh Elemental shifted mental gears from fun
to business.</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">And business it was, although the action in question turned out to be past rather than future. </span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Elly, dear," began Familiar, ignoring Daemon's deepening scowl, "that trouble at the Bellicose plantation the other
day. We understood that you were going to take care of that, yes?"</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Without the unconscious action of flesh and synapse and muscle, Elemental's face would not assume a guilty expression
unless she willed it there, and she could conceive of no reason ever to do so. "I did!"</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Did you? It's just that I've come to expect a great deal more finality from your brand of problem solving. I hear three
women in old fashioned clothes were checked into a hospital by a number of boys in uniforms. Not to mention a fourth woman, perfectly healthy..." </span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"They're all gonna live," Daemon rumbled, "Maybe they won't be happy about it, though." The big man seemed a little too
pleased with this non-lethal outcome. Daemon still thought she was just some kid who couldn't handle a little dirty work.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Daemon has stated the problem in a nutshell, Elly. They will live, and they will not be happy. With you. With us. You
maimed three of them and didn't kill a single one. They still have their powers, some henchmen and, one presumes, whatever resources they have squirreled away. What do you think their next move is going to be?"</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"I can still finish them off!" She would have done so, too, as soon as Daemon had found the location for her. She just
hadn't expected Laylah to interrogate him first and discover her lapse.</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Too late. They've already checked out and will take some trouble to find. Your performance has been rather erratic these
past few weeks, but this incident in particular may cause us some annoyance in the future. Why did you do it? And, Elly, the answer had better not be 'because they all look so pretty in their old fashioned dresses' because I know I taught you which values
were higher than beauty." </span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"They did look very pretty, so it was easy for them to use their powers to confound me." The half-lie slipped out almost
before she knew it was coming, which was probably the only reason why Familiar didn't clock it instantly. Elly was about to continue with the news of the fourth girl, the one who could feel her coming, and how they had all teamed up against her at once, overwhelming
her protective spells, and how the catgirls had come and made her even more confused and she had worried that they would become too powerful if they took everything in the house and also they were sure to ruin the furniture and how in her mixed up mind she
had just wanted to maintain the balance and keep everyone in line. This babble of nonsense would have ruined everything, so it was just as well that Homunculus chose that moment to enter, their robe splattered in some foul smelling precipitate and complaining
loudly. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Daemon, the scale you set up for me is off, as I told you it would be. I don't trust these electronic things. Where's
the ritual, the solidity of the weights? Elemental, give me your hand, I need copper. Laylah--what's the problem now?"</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Your magnum opus here has failed to eliminate a threat that she was trusted with."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Not true," Daemon put in, "she ran them out of town." </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"She'll realize when they run back in that she should have run them into the ground instead of admiring the cut of their
gowns."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Kill them," said Homunculus, as they reached for the hand now dangling by a single shiny red thread from the end of
Elemental's left arm. "Don't kill them. So long as they're not causing problems. Just give it here, Elly!" as she lifted the limb playfully beyond their reach, then, "Oh, all right. Please!"</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Elly allowed them to pull the now rather deformed hand off her body, her arm thinning as she grew a new, skeletal one.
"It's alloyed, anyway."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Homunculus glared at her for a moment, then gave her a solid ringing tap with it. "It sounds pure enough. Laylah, it
sounds like she's dealt with this to her own satisfaction. If you want these people dead that badly, kill them yourself."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Certainly. I'll just drop the whole business of maintaining our business and alliances and flow of petitioners to handle
every little murder that has to be done."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"If you like. A great deal of what you do seems unnecessary to our mission. Doctor Kelley went centuries without the
need to expand into some kind of franchise. I'd appreciate more time to dedicate to my research..." </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Do you pay attention to the world outside this house? It will come for us in one way or another. It has done so before,
or have you forgotten?"</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"It was getting involved in the outside world in the first place that left us crippled! If only he'd followed the plan..."</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">This could go on very well without her. She abandoned her current body in its frozen position and swished out into the
hallway as a gust of air. Things were getting boring here, anyway. Elly knew of an elsewhere that might be far more stimulating at the moment.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">As she slipped through the glass of a window, leaving no trace visible but to the most sophisticated of magic or technological
instruments, she wondered why she had bothered to lie at all. It wasn't as if she had broken that promise, made so long ago. Not *</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000;font-style:italic">technically*</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">.
No one could have gotten mad at her. It was never a formal oath, anyway... besides, Laylah was so perceptive, it was a real triumph to get something over on her. And a girl should be able to keep some secrets, after all.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">*****</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">The Generic Thug (unaffiliated) watched his quarry optimistically as they approached. A skinny white girl in a hoodie,
early twenties, walking beside a black kid, thirteen or so, wearing the same plus a skirt. Unimpressive little freaks, they looked like easy targets. Plus, they were probably selling each other drugs or something, and wouldn't report a robbery. Even if they
turned out to not have any drugs or cash, their expensively comfortable athletic shoes would be worth something, GT(U) thought.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">The boy was listening intently to the girl talking about some kind of Civil War reenactment that sounded like it had
gone horribly wrong as they passed his shadowed nook. Sliding the butcher knife from under his jacket, GT(U) stepped out behind them. "Freeze, punks." He said. They obeyed before he had even finished speaking. Good. "Now turn around, real slow." </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Of the two, the boy began to obey. The girl spun quickly around, tugging a small pistol from her sweatpants. GT(U) froze
for an instant, both at the gun and the look in her eyes, which brought to the front of his mind, with unusual and uncomfortable vividness, memories of some of the more hardened criminals he had known. But he shook those memories aside quickly. He was about
to step forward to wrestle it from her--most people would hesitate to pull the trigger on a person even if they had fired a gun before. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">This one didn't. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">A blinding light pierced his skull, and for an instant GT(U) was certain he was dead.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">---</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Mina screamed with months worth of suppressed rage as she kicked the mugger between the legs with all her strength. As
he went down to his knees, she expressed her displeasure further by taking her weapon in both hands and bringing the butt down on the criminal's head with a thump! Fortunately, the noodle-esque consistency of her upper body muscles ensured that nothing she
might have regretted later was broken. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Sick!" Exclaimed Drew, who was a teenaged boy and easily impressed by violence. "That was totally badass, Mimi!" </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">But her fury was mostly spent. "I think I might actually *</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000;font-style:italic">be*</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000"> sick..."
She swayed back and forth, clutching Lucy's handle for dear life. If she puked, she told herself, she would do it in the mugger's face.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Damn, bitch... you got some PTSD or somethin'... go to therapy..." the thug wheezed. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Mina kicked him again, in the ribs this time, but without the same conviction. "How are people supposed to afford therapy
when they keep getting robbed by oil companies and landlords and ASSHOLES who jump at them from out of nowhere?" </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Drew, who finally seemed to realize that violence didn't always mean action hero nonchalance and cool catchphrases, took
her gently by the arm. "It's okay. You did great but you didn't tell me about that thing, it looks just like a gun! You better put it away before a cop comes along." </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">"Cops!" Mina thought about the usefulness of cops, and stifled a giggle. "Right." She pulled away from him, trying to
shove the barrel back into her waistband, and he took the opportunity to give the mugger a kick himself, in the solar plexus this time. As Drew played center midfield on his varsity soccer team, this put an end to any plans of immediate retaliation.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">GT(U) watched the pair of them hurrying away through streaming eyes. He reached out for his knife, vague thoughts of
payback coalescing in his shocked brain. </span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">As he grasped this hilt, an astonishing thing happened. The metal of the blade warped and twisted like a silvery hand,
which curved back until his fist was tightly imprisoned by thin--but not sharp--metal fingers. GT(U) stared, mouth agape. He was wondering how those damned brats had managed this when the wind whispered with unmistakable clarity into his ear.</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">{Put on the rope</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">You knew the day was coming</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Say your prayers once more</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">You're part of the hangman's body count}</span></p>
<br>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">After Sammy "The Snip", last person in Savannah to see GT(U), reported that the man had been shaking constantly and speechless
with terror while Sammy cut a strange contraption off his arm, it was generally accepted in the city's criminal underground that their colleague had fallen afoul of one of the local mages, and succumbed to a terrible curse. In reality, he had that night hopped
on a bus to Atlanta, where he eventually got his therapist's license and led a productive and pointedly unexciting life. Which just goes to show that terrifying supernatural encounters are far better rehabilitators than American prisons.</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000"><br>
</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Courier New';color:#000000">Continued in part 2...<br>
</span></p>
<br>
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