Night had fallen and the meeting had shifted to a patrol. Multiple powerful Hydes would definitely need multiple witches to fight them. Of course, for several to become that powerful...Clarissa tried not to think that it meant anyone was lax in her duties. More likely, these were smart to begin with, and carefully avoided notice.

Like several of the others, Clarissa went out transformed. She wasted no time in activating her own sensory magic, and to her, night became as easy to see in as if it were day. She left her hearing alone for the moment, being in a group. The sounds of footsteps or conversation would likely drown out anything she'd really want to catch. When Lucilla suggested they use their skills, she was ready with a reply. "I'm already on it."

As it turned out, her abilities were hardly needed. There were plenty of Hydes about in the district of London the coven had chosen for the evening. It didn't really look like the sort of place for a group of young ladies to be wandering unattended. Yet another casualty of the changing times.

The hydes were behaving oddly, very oddly. Clarissa had never seen one simply leave its victim alone before. Something was...she dared not think unnatural...unusual about that behavior. "This isn't normal. Something else must be going on." She kept her eyes and ears open for any sign of what that something might be.

At Sophia's suggestion, she turned to Marilyn. "Let's go, before they get too much of a head start." She didn't really give Marylin much choice in the matte, already running off to give chase.

---

The part of town they found themselves reminded Mary Anne of her childhood, and not in a good way. Drinking, poverty, plenty of easy marks wandering around. And hydes in profusion. Plenty of them silently fed on the petty misery of the locals. She'd never seen them just leave someone alone before, though.

Mary Anne hadn't yet transformed, remaining in her normal identity while she might be seen by certain people who might recognize her. She would when she needed to, of course.

"Not right is an understatement. What could even cause them to act that way?" She had a good guess. If there were some fully-developed ones around, they were probably how they hydes got organized. "I don't like it, though, so I'm glad I won't be going alone."

Jacqueline felt much more at ease as they left the Noble mansion and entered the mist covered streets of London that she was used to. She even saw some of the men who mommy gave some of the left over food at the brothel to and who she occasionally helped with some minor medical issues when they weren't feeling well.

She even slipped away from the group for a moment to give Mr Lock in his alley some of the food which she had saved from the mansion, the smile on his face that he gave after taking the first bite was enough to fill Jacqueline with that familiar feeling of cottony joy that she lived for.

So when the group split she smiled as you looked to her assigned partner, she didn't even feel nervous anymore, "So if we are searching the Park I know some places we can look, there is a small copse of tree where the Opium addicts like to hang out and they are usually pretty nice to me but they also have all those emotions that Hydes tend to be attracted to. What do you think?"

@Suneli

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@Vega7285

In the flame's light, Lucilla watched the Hydes retreat. Although the sight confused her as much as it did everyone else, her frown became a smirk. "Uh-uh, think you're getting away that easily, do you?" At the commands of Veronica and Sophia, she hurried along the path towards the housing area.

"Got to say," she commented, glancing at Mary Anne, "glad I'm not alone either." She'd only known the other girl for a few hours, but something about her seemed confident, sure of herself - and like she wasn't one to be messed with. Rather, in fact, like some other people Lucilla had known.

A voice piped up in her head. "Oi! You wouldn't be anyway! You haven't forgotten about me, have you? That's it, just so you won't, I'll sing at you until we get there!" Lucilla gave a mix of a chuckle and a groan as the pixie made good on her word. She had no idea how a mental voice could sound so off-key.

"As if I would," she sent back. "But you know what I mean. And hey, you now have the extra company you wanted."

Before long, the slums came into view, run-down clusters of apartments only barely visible in the meager lights. Lucilla's candle flared brighter as if she could hope to cast off the air of bleakness permeating the area. Her parents had always said slum-dwellers brought their misery on themselves, but now Lucilla knew better. People flocked to the city's lights in search of a better life, only to find themselves cast into shadows and squalour, treated as if they didn't exist - except by Hydes.

At the end of an alleyway, something moved. Something dark and formless. "Alright," Lucilla whispered to Mary Anne, "let's put a stop to whatever they're playing at."

---

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@Mistress Dizzy

With a nod, Veronica turned to Amarantha as teams of two began to break off from the group. "Well, this was quite a change of plan," she remarked, "but I trust that, with those red threads you mentioned, you'll be able to help us regroup afterwards." Wasting no time, she set off towards the towering industrial buildings.

If not for the presence of a tracker, it would take some time to hunt down all the Hydes in an area such as this, as Veronica knew too well. Peering through the miasma of factory fumes, she ignored the acrid smell, focusing instead on any sign of activity around the warehouses. It seemed only workers milled around the network of paths, some laughing and joking, although their slumped postures showed exhaustion and despondency.

"You also say your threads can track Hydes?" Veronica asked Amarantha, recalling the few details the quiet girl had let on about her magic.

The atmosphere had changed radically compared to Sophia's house, you could practically cut the negativity in the air with a knife in this area. And of course, this was the perfect place for hydes to be around, though Marilyn tilted her head around the way they were feeding off, usually, they tended to stick around their initial prey, which was a pretty obvious strategy, suck someone dry and go for your next target. This time they were half-assing the job, were they smelling an even bigger prey perhaps? or was a stronger hyde calling to them?. They would find out sooner or later anyway, as they were divided to be able to stop their gathering.

She was paired up with the detective girl huh? That might help her see how capable she was in battle, there was probably going to be a developed hyde around the docks which alongside a bunch of other weaker ones would make for a troublesome encounter. In the middle of her thinking, Clarissa had already left her to run off towards the docks first. Marilyn mumbled a bit before finally transforming into her witch form and running to catch up with her. Veronica had said they shouldn't waste any time but there wasn't any real need to rush blindly towards their areas.

@LuckyBlackCat

Amarantha was used to this area. She couldn't even smell the fumes anymore. Like the rest, she was transformed and sweeping the area for Hydes. "Yes, it can." She concentrated, then murmured the words. "Hyde Hunter Strand!" The sound of unraveling came from behind her, as several threads shot out in multiple directions. Some were so thin that they could barely be seen, but a few were nice and thick.

"The thick ones are closest. Shall we hunt?"

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@Mistress Dizzy

Veronica nodded, following one of the more substantial threads. She was sure she could see patterns in the network already, hints as to where the Hydes would converge, but right now their job was to stop them reaching that point. Her pace sped up, the thread thickening as she and Amarantha neared their target.

Despite her focus, she caught snippets of nearby conversation, two workers exchanging ghost stories as they hauled crates. No wonder, Veronica thought - it wasn't just sleep deprivation or boredom making their imaginations run wild. "In a way, they're right about hauntings," she murmured, craning her neck. "And there's proof."

A patch of the mist seemed to grow darker and denser, something moving though it. Where equally thick threads stretched, other forms drifted into view, masses of limbs flailing from the fog.

---

@Suneli @Sinsystems

A short distance away in the park, a sharp, agonised yell sounded, along with the snapping of jaws that only Lilith and Jacqueline would hear. From out of the trees, a man lurched, blood seeping through the old ragged clothes that swamped him as he clasped slashes on his side. His other arm hung slack from a bite wound at the shoulder. While some Hydes contented themselves with draining their victims, witches would know some to strike in more direct ways and feed on the ensuing primal responses.

Not that said Hydes showed interest in finishing the job. Two spectral forms, each one a twisted mix of human and feline, ran past. "Phantom cats", as people dubbed such out-of-place big cat glimpses, but this man didn't seem to have caught sight of his attackers. He stared around, wild-eyed, as his stumbling slowed, before crumpling to the ground.

Only the laboured rise and fall of his chest showed that it wasn't too late for him.

---

@Suneli @Sinsystems

A short distance away in the park, a sharp, agonised yell sounded, along with the snapping of jaws that only Lilith and Jacqueline would hear. From out of the trees, a man lurched, blood seeping through the old ragged clothes that swamped him as he clasped slashes on his side. His other arm hung slack from a bite wound at the shoulder. While some Hydes contented themselves with draining their victims, witches would know some to strike in more direct ways and feed on the ensuing primal responses.

Not that said Hydes showed interest in finishing the job. Two spectral forms, each one a twisted mix of human and feline, ran past. "Phantom cats", as people dubbed such out-of-place big cat glimpses, but this man didn't seem to have caught sight of his attackers. He stared around, wild-eyed, as his stumbling slowed, before crumpling to the ground.

Only the laboured rise and fall of his chest showed that it wasn't too late for him.

Jacqueline was snapped into action at the scream, a sound all too familiar to her as one of agonizing pain and fear. She took off in the direction of the scream before her mind even fully registered what it was she had heard. Of course it didn't take her long to realize what it probably was, a thought that was confirmed when she saw the injured man and the Hydes that assaulted him.

With one hand she drew Mercy, the knife's blade glistening in the lamplight, and with the other she snatched a potion from her medicine pouch. In one fluid motion she downed the entire bottle and the world seemed to slow around her, the physical boost from the potion giving the girl the speed she needed to reach the man before it was too late....although the uncontrollable laughter she'd suffer in a few moments once the side effects kicked in would be rather annoying.

Keeping low to the ground she rushed the Phantom Cats, swinging Mercy to cut into the tendons in their legs even as she drew kindness to sever the major artery that should run along their groins. She needed to be quick with this, as every moment that she wastes fighting would be another moment the man could go beyond saving.

"Hahahaha" she began to laugh, feeling the potion's side effects and worrying how that was probably making her look like a psycho.

@Sinsystems

Even though, as energy beings, the Hydes had no blood as such, black fog spewed from the wounds as they toppled to the ground. Retaining some of their feline flexibility, they swiveled their torsos, narrowing their red eyes and lashing with sharp claws at their cackling assailant. Their weakened state, however, made their strikes clumsy.

It wouldn't take much more to defeat them, but they were far from the biggest threat around. In the distance, out of Jacqueline's sight, something crept through the woodland on spindly limbs, tendrils streaming from its back. If the witch spotted her natural enemy closing in, she'd notice its form to be larger and more substantial than the wraith-like other two.

@Killy

Clarissa slowed her pace once they neared the docks, to take a look around. Plenty of places for dark things to hide, down in the piers or among the boats, and plenty of people about for easy prey. She wandered along at an easy pace and kept her eyes and ears open for any signs of activity.

Down by the waterfront, she spotted something that looked like a gathering of Hydes, and pointed it out to Marilyn. "Looks like them over there, down by the boats." She didn't exactly relish the idea of a fight so close to the river, but the danger of an unexpected swim would only make it more interesting. "How do you want to approach this one? Go in together, or try to flank them?"

It took a little more effort than she would have liked but Marylin soon caught up with Ms. Detective. She wanted to chew her out a little for leaving her in the dust earlier, but the girl was already on the lookout for any potential hydes lurking around. Marylin never visited the docks much, insects and water didn't tend to go well together and Marylin herself didn't know how to swim, much less wanting to give it a try in the filthy river. Hopefully, the hydes would remain on land and not gather in some boat.

Little after her hopes would be dashed "Ahg" she grumbled. Looking at Ms. Sherman it seemed that her companion also wasn't looking forward to it. Well, whether she wanted or not she had already signed for the job, and at least she could have a little fun with it. "I don't know what flank means" she shrugged as she replied to the girl "So.." before finishing the sentence she used her magic to close the gap between her and the group of hydes "Catch up with me and we'll figure it out the strategy along the way!"