“Well, I guess that settles it!” Mariah clapped as Isla made her way over then explained her powers. Already she was kind of sort of thinking up a plan and then Emily spoke--

"Mar...iah...? What exactly can you do? Because far as I can tell all we have to do is have Isla teleport to the flag, haul ass, and we cover her... which will be made difficult by the likes of Madison and... Maya."

"Actually I was thinkin' the opposite," replied Mariah as she waved her fan about and cast her HATER BLOCKER abstraction on her parasol. It illuminated with a soft orange glow and she smirked as she told Emily, "My power? I make stuff glow orange. Anyway-- which one of yall," she turned to look over the group, "Is most likely to draw the most attention versus who the least? I get the feelin' they gonna focus on her--" Mariah pointed to Isla "-- and you--" she pointed to Emily "-- which is good. I notice whenever you open your mouth errbody look atcha. Anyway, that mean whoever ain't gonna get noticed will be the person I'mma use my other spell-thing on."

And she stared at Vashti as she said this, "I bet it's you, huh?" Looking over her shoulder at the other team, Mariah explained to Emily, "If they focus on you n' Pop-Up-Ad, I can make them HELLA focus on y'all. Which'll leave her," she tilted her head at Vashti, "T' be all sneaky 'round the back and take the flag while we act like we bout to do shit. She'll get my other spell-thingy that'll make 'em not notice her much. Boom bam," Mariah snapped twice as punctuation, "We wiiiiniiin, hunny."

Now what Mariah wasn't saying was the fact that she didn't exactly understand how ANY of the other two spells worked. In fact, she was only being cool headed on the surface, but her body language-- the shifting posture and wiggly knees-- could help convey how nervous she was. That was good though, right? According to one of the Abuelas, she needed that bit of fear to make one of the spells work, but it kinda contradicted the power in her other spells... which required pretending you were the baaaaaaddest bitch. Or. Something. Her lips pressed together as she awaited the input from the other members and whoever the hell was going to join as member six. Or five-- wait?

Claudette had fucked up the balance of teams by standing off to the side. As she stared over there, Maria raised a brow behind her shades. Oh no.

From behind Claudette, as she stood in the treeline, a large dude began making his way toward her. Hector, in all his glory, was stomping through the woods to get a better look at things. Loudly sucking his teeth, Hector was all, "Oh man where the sun even go? Why it all dark? Oh hey-- haaaay, girl." He stopped a bit away from Claudette as he... scratched his balls and stared at the sky.

---

---

Vashti swatted at the mosquito as it landed on her neck and grumbled. How was she the one attracting all of the bugs when she hardly showed any skin? It was a sign, an omen of biblical proportions, that something bad was going to happen. Vashti made for certain that something apocalyptical went down...at least for the mosquitoes, as she released a sweet cloud of deet all around her from a spray can she’d found tucked amongst the junk kept in the compartment of Emily’s moped. Never had the bloodsuckers been dealt a more devastating defeat. Generations of pests were lost that day. She put the can back with Emily’s stuff and joined the rest of the girls with her head held high, for she was Vashti, Destroyer of—bzzt.

Fuck! She smacked the back of her neck, feeling more cursed than ever. The growing feeling of impending doom only hit heavier as Claudette drew out a flag. Their training was going to be an overly competitive and extremely risky game of capture the flag? Vashti swallowed the lump in her throat and chided herself for being stupid enough to think they were going to do some team-building, trustfall, corporate picnic-in-the-woods bullshit. Herik almost immediately asked her to join his team. If she wasn’t so terrified of what she might do if one rogue elbow hit her in the nose she would’ve been flattered, because she was clearly not going to be much of an asset.

“Thanks, dude, but I think I’m better fit to cheer from the sidelines. Rather not ruin another outfit,” said Vashti with a smile.

Vashti moved through the field as Mariah and Isla came to join the team she was abandoning. She felt like she was in a high school gym class once more on her way to tell the coach some lie to get out of running the mile. She knew that Herik wouldn’t force her to participate, but she felt like Claudette would be annoyed if she saw Vashti just standing around while everyone else was playing the silly game. Vashti knew she was already on Claudette’s shitlist, but surely their leader was smart enough to see that this was for the best? Vashti coughed to get Claudette’s attention as she took her position as the ref.

“Excuse me, but…”

And then Vashti saw it: Madison, leaning over to Maya, whispering, laughing, looking at Vashti. A chill of ice went down Vashti’s spine as she caught Madison glancing away from her. She didn’t need to hear what the other girl had said to know what was going on. High school again. A ragged breath escaped her mouth as Vashti’s serpentine eyes turned back towards Claudette. Vashti smiled a little tight lipped smile as she roughly shrugged off her black jacket and dumped it on the ground. She ripped off her headscarf and dropped it on top. Shedded of her old skin, Vashti rolled up the sleeves of her blouse and exposed her scales.

“Could you watch my shit?” she hissed, running back to Herik’s group before any affirmation.

She arrived just in time for Mariah to begin coming up with their game strategy. Vashti nodded her head as Mariah suggested she would be least likely to be noticed—hell, the other new girl had outright ignored her back at the beach house. She smiled a crooked grin at the idea of her being the one to take the flag and show up Madison.

“Boom bam,” echoed Vashti, complete with her own snaps that were not nearly as impressive as Mariah’s. “I love it. I fricking love it.” She felt a storm brewing inside of her as she glanced at the other team. Her eyes narrowed. She wanted nothing more than to win. Fuck, she wanted to win! She began to bounce on the balls of her feet to keep herself hyped, throwing a cocky grin towards Emily and Herik.

She slowed as Quinn approached their group, worried that the others had sent a spy to steal their super secret strats and stopped dead as the girl apologized for getting her name wrong. Much to Vashti’s surprise, she offered to join their squad. The girl was a summoner. There was nothing more distracting than a giant flying creature ripped straight from mythology. It’d make their plan impossible to fail. Vashti started bouncing again.

“Yes dude! Yes! You’re totally in!” she said, rolling her shoulders to get herself loose. Were the teams even balanced anymore? Who cares. She wasn't here for a fair fight. She was her to win some goddamn bragging rights.“Let’s fucking ruin these bitches.”

---

Maya’s eyebrows shot up as Madison placed a heavy hand on her shoulder, turning away slightly to avoid the smell of alcohol coming off her. Not that it helped when the other girl leaned in to whisper to her.

“You’re right,” Maya murmured back. “And if she transforms… she’ll probably be detrimental to them rather than helpful.”

She then folded her arms as two of the newcomers (well, Grace was less so) were called over. Maya hadn’t paid much attention to them but they seemed… okay. Even if Grace was far too annoyingly bright. She was just glad she wasn’t on a team with Quinn or Emily.

"... And I'm just gonna make a long story short and say I'm going to throw you at the flag."

“You’re going to throw me at the flag?” Maya pointed to herself, mouth forming an o shape, as she thought it over. At first it seemed ridiculous but the more she considered it the more she thought it was a great idea. After all, what was the point in coming out of something like this without any injuries? And she could probably use her directed soundblasts to make sure she didn’t completely collide with a tree.

Or even better, aim so she smashed right into Emily.

“Alright, let’s do it,” Maya nodded, dark eyes shining with a somewhat ferocious competitiveness. “If I grab the flag I can keep them all away with my blasts and get it back to you so that they can’t get it. I probably won’t be injured too much by your throw… either way, they definitely won’t expect it.”

She waved a hand as Kara asked about how they’d been thrown. “You don’t need to be thrown too if you’re too scared about it.” She then tilted her head towards Grace, who was bouncing around as if this was actually a game that wasn’t going to turn into a complete bloodbath. “Glad someone else isn’t as worried about it.”

“When you throw me, aim so that I can hit Emily with a blast or myself along with the flag.” As she spoke she pulled a hairband out of her pocket and tied her hair back, so it wouldn’t get in the way. “This is the perfect opportunity to settle some grudges.”

---

---

Isla completely ignored the shit talking of her that she’d half overheard, because she honestly couldn’t care less (on the outside). But it was nice to feel like she was an important part of this team! The training exercise had ended up as one that really played to her strengths.

She nodded as Emily explained her plan, and then when Mariah explained an entirely different one that Isla struggled to keep up with (accent differences worked both ways). She struggled to concentrate on it but was fairly certain she understood a little of it by the end.

“So you’re saying you’re gonna make us draw attention so that she,” Isla pointed to Vashti, “can sneak in past ‘em? That makes a lotta sense cause they’re gonna go right for me since I showed off all my blinking.” She tugged at her hair as she thought a bit more. “But ain’t there a little problem there? They’re gonna go for the flag rather than us first… and how d’you know that they won’t get there faster.”

It was a good idea, but Isla was also the fastest one of them. If they were starting from where they were… well she could blink right over to the flag and then blink away before they’d even get there. Sure, it’d exhaust her, but she’d be able to pass the flag over before the other team could do anything.

She then clapped her hands together with a smile as Vashti expressed an awful lot of interest in the idea. Well if she was onboard for sneaking in then Isla was all down for it. It was nice to see someone else hyped up! “Alright, you know what, it sounds like a great idea. Maybe I can take them on a wild chase by blinking aw aboot the place. Then if needed I can blink in and teleport, uh, Vashti out, ay?” She looked at Vashti with an even wider smile. "I ain't able to teleport people more than once every so often, but if it works out I can grab you when you get the flag."

---

---

---

Claudette from her nice little shady spot looked to the left, and then looked to the right. Everyone was making their little plan she could tell... however, she was getting bored with them meandering. And if she of all people was getting bored then they were probably bored to tears. She yawned as she got up and then shouted,

"Alright, go!" As her way of signaling for the match to start.

"... Oh man where the sun even go? Why it all dark? Oh hey-- haaaay, girl."

Claudette immediately whipped around to see a shorter-than-her, musclebound, Spanish man that looked like he was either high out of his mind or drunk. Either way, Claudette's "Florida Man" senses were screaming... as she reached into her purse and pulled out her taser. "Please, stay back!" She said as she pulled the trigger and the taser-shocker-part-thingy went flying towards him.

She was aiming for his center of mass but who knows where it could end up.

---

---

”How...are you gonna throw us?”

"... Like this!"

Madison said as she grabbed onto Kara by her forearm as she activated the Jaws.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

She screamed at the very top of her lungs as she swung Kara around like she was one big human-sized shot-put and spun around as she just yeeted her at the flag hard as she could. With the intention of her getting there before - or just as - Isla the Rambling Glasgow Weirdo got there. Something was satisfying about throwing a human being like a shot-put. Kara went flying through the air and the very second that Madison let go of Kara, she turned towards Maya.

"... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

She screamed as she grabbed onto Maya (who contributed by screaming herself) by the back of her shirt and her shorts (but not like in a gay way or anything). Madison cocked Maya back and also yeeted her at the flag... except higher up into the air. Madison watched Maya fly through the air and dive bomb the flag like the world's angriest eagle... as she hiccuped loudly.

Then she turned towards Grace and pointed forward. "I don't wanna throw you, sis! Get me to the flag with your power!"

Everyone was moving towards the flag as Madison shouted.

"Hurry up!"

---

---

"Actually I was thinkin' the opposite, my power? I make stuff glow orange. Anyway-- which one of yall- Is most likely to draw the most attention versus who the least? I get the feelin' they gonna focus on her-- and you - which is good. I notice whenever you open your mouth errbody look atcha. Anyway, that mean whoever ain't gonna get noticed will be the person I'mma use my other spell-thing on. I bet it's you, huh? If they focus on you n' Pop-Up-Ad, I can make them HELLA focus on y'all..."

If Emily had to be completely honest; she could barely understand half of what Mariah was talking about. Maybe it was because she was a white girl but she couldn't help but tilt her head sideways as she talked. One eyebrow was raised as Emily was pretty certain that Mariah had a plan for sneaking around to getting the flag. And honestly, she didn't care enough to ask her to - um - speak English. Well, that, and the fact that she didn't want to offend a Latina person's English.

"... Sure thing!" Emily said in her chipper secretary voice.

Vashti was getting serious... she took off the scarf and everything. Showing off her weird scaly arms, and Emily was just reminded to ask about that lizard form. "... Are you sure it's safe for you to play?" Emily nervously asked because the last thing she wanted was for an incident to-

"Alright, go!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Emily couldn't help but jump when she heard Madison screaming like she had just taken twenty doses of heroin and mixed it with some vodka and she turned her head to see... Kara and Maya flying through the air. She raised an eyebrow as she was honestly confused as to what the fuck their plan here was. Okay, she was going to focus on her objective: Maya. Emily stuck her finger out and her green tethered extended and attached themselves to the ground as far as they could go.

Now she tested a bit with her tethers and discovered that they could move her too. Though it was just a little bit of testing and whatnot... now would be the best time to, well, practice with it. She hopped up into the air a bit and let the tethers yank her forward a bit...

... The only problem was the landing. She didn't exactly time putting her foot down and telling her little magic power to stop. When Emily tried to put her foot down she was still pulling herself forward and she landed face-first on the ground with her hand still attached to the tethers. She was still getting pulled forward through the muddy ground until there was, well, no more tether to pull her.

Hector didn't even have the chance to say huh, because that part of his brain was slow to react, just like the rest of him, when those taser claws were fired at him. By the time he looked down, all he could do was scream, "NO, MY BALLS," as the voltage of the stun gun coarsed through him, from the taser darts dug firmly into the crotch of his shorts. Firstly, the fact he wasn't immediately a writhing mass of dude on the ground, was the first indicator something was very Florida Man about him. Indeed when, secondly, a set of foot long bony SPIKES errupted from his nipples, followed by several more spikes bursting from random points across his body, of varying length and size, there was a very hefty indication that something was wrong here.

Hector grabbed the wires and gave them a tug-- A LOT OF TUGS-- dude was either trying to tear the thing apart or take it out of her hand, either way, he was spewing a God Conjuring Amount of Curses in the most rapid Peruvian Spanish ever heard in Florida... before he literally fell to the ground with all his joints locked up. As he lay there he continued cursing inbetween electric shocks.

---

“Alright, you know what, it sounds like a great idea. Maybe I can take them on a wild chase by blinking aw aboot the place. Then if needed I can blink in and teleport, uh, Vashti out, ay? I ain't able to teleport people more than once every so often, but if it works out I can grab you when you get the flag."

Mariah's brows knitted together and she stared at Isla. She took a breath, licked her lips, then squinted at Isla, "Wha--"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Go time-- Mariah watched Emily drag herself across the ground, flapped her flamenco fan about, then picked up a jog toward the field. First abstraction she cast was on Emily, while shouting, "Yea-- good way to draw attention, sis!" This abstraction manifested as a rather STUPID looking orange ARROW pointed to Emily-- one that even Mariah was confused about. As she put her hello kitty parasol between her and the other team, Mariah tossed her second spell toward Vashti, whispering something about, "Keeping it low key," before she turned her attention back to the game. The only thing Vashti would be able to see as a manifestation of the abstraction would be a very slight orange fog around her feet. Mariah charged into the fray like she was a born sprinter-- probably helped by the fact she was tall as shit-- and she locked eyes on whichever FLYING WITCH was going to dive the flag first.

Like some kind of Warborn Mary Poppins, Mariah caught said Coven member on the outside of her parasol, tilted it a bit, while shouting, "Lárgate de aquí, pendja!" She'll try to catch them, use their momentum in order to Counter-Yeet them away from their projected landing space. Now, all that was left to do, was keep bashing people about in order to keep the flag blocked and-- Isla.

While she was an afterthought, Mariah did eventually fan flip toward Isla, once again conjuring the weird arrow which pointed at Isla-- serving to draw attention to her as more people focused on her... Which meant that the more they focused on Emily and Isla, the less they would think about Vashti-- who was enchanted to become more and more ignorable, as people focused less on her.

... or that, at least, was the intended effect. Truth be told? All of her abstractions other than the one on her parasol likely did jack shit.

---

In every Burns family there was a sacred book of sigils and spells passed down through the generations. Lyss first laid eyes on her own family’s text when she was a child. Her grandfather brought it out to share with her father. If she remembered correctly, it had been the first day of their obsession with necromancy. They’d pulled it out to compare sigils. To discover which sigil could be altered to produce more power and easier black lux energy flow. Over the next few years she snuck peeks at the spells and scribbles of her family. She vaguely remembered the sigil for beginner necromancers, and it was only because her father had pointed it out to her many times. This will be your legacy, Alyssa. I will teach you the way of the Burns name when you are older. That day never came, and Lyss had sworn off necromancy after her father’s death. Until today…

Lyss was knelt in front of her closet door, back at her apartment that she barely stepped foot into now. Before her was an open safe. Inside were various items. A photo of her family when she was young, a case that held a glock inside, a bag with a certain amount of cash held within in case she needed to dash, and one item that was now open in her hands. The Burns family book. It was open to the page with the very sigil her father intended to teach her. It was child’s play, really, but Lyss was too anxious to try any level of sigil above it.

Lyss took a deep breath as she read over the spell. Her eyes etched each line of the sigil until she knew it by memory. She would bring the book with her, of course, but she wanted to prove something to her deceased father today. If she was going to learn necromancy she’d do it the Michaelis Burns way. With sheer determination and willpower. Her wariness would make it difficult, but she hoped that it would soon dissolve like sugar in warm water.

So with a nod and a sigh, Lyss stuffed the book into her bag and closed the door to the safe. She stood and gave her apartment a glance. Nothing was out of place. No sign of any other presence inside but her own. She was happy to be staying in the beach house. It felt like a safe zone, where her name could not be traced to or logged within paperwork. She only held onto the apartment because she wanted it to draw any unwanted attention first. If her old partners came looking for her, her apartment would be the first place they went to. The only place they’d stakeout as they waited for a sighting of her. She wanted to keep them as far away from the Coven as possible.

Plus, her apartment was also an easy place to meet Max…

Shaking her head of the thought, Lyss grabbed the keys to her speedster and locked the door behind her.

---

Later that day…

Lyss rolled up to the meeting spot in the woods late. She hadn’t meant to miss the beginning of the training, but she had been doing some training of her own. Surely Claudette would excuse her once she knew the reason why. So, Lyss took her time walking from the place she’d parked towards the sound of mayhem. To be perfectly honest she wasn’t looking forward to seeing this messy group attempt to work together. While she thought many of them could work great together in pairs, putting all of them into one group would be difficult. She also wasn’t quite sure where she fit into the mess. Her only abstraction was meant to affect apparitions only, and her first-day attempt at necromancy wasn’t enough compared to the other’s abstractions. Maybe she’d shown up late just to get a little more practice in. She didn’t want her first public necromancy summoning to be a flop.

Her nerves were quelled the moment she heard screams in the clearing before her. Lyss stepped out of the forest in time to see Madison tossing the new girl, Kara, and Maya right at the flag. She also had to suppress a laugh as she watched Emily fling herself directly into the dirt with her new abstraction.

Her own amusement was short lived the moment she heard a man’s voice to her right. ”NO, MY BALLS!” Lyss’s head whipped towards the chaos. At first she saw Claudette had tased the assumes assaulter, but as she saw the spikes? jutting out of his body she knew she had to spring into action. Almost on instinct now, Lyss knelt to the ground and slammed her palms onto the dirt. Black lines of light began to curl out from beneath her hands and form a sigil two feet in diameter. Her hazel eyes dulled to a shade of grey as she channeled the black lux energy through her body and into the ground. She began to whisper the incantation she’d memorized so well this morning.

At first, it seemed like nothing was going to happen. Then the ground before her began to shift and crack. Out from the dirt rose a hand, and then the hand crawled at the ground until an undead man emerged. Lyss didn’t give it a moment to process the fresh air and green trees. The second it was on its feet, she pointed her finger towards the human pincushion and spoke. “Seize him”

The undead immediately moved in Claudette’s direction. It moved almost like a living human would, except with a slumped posture and slow, sluggish drag of its feet. It wasn’t as terrifying as Lyss would have liked it to be, but she blamed it on her ineptitude with the cast. If she continued to practice. If she continued the path of her father and grandfather, she could summon a horde of quick undead soldiers by simply placing her finger on the earth.

As the undead approached the man on the ground Lyss headed in Claudette’s direction. She kept her eyes on the man as her soldier reached his arms out towards him. If he used the spikes against him, the zombie wouldn’t feel a thing. If anything, it would give Lyss time to make sure Claudette was safe and rally the rest of the Coven to subdue the stranger.

“Claudette, are you okay?” She asked as she approached her. “Hit ‘em with the taser again. My guy can take it.”

The plan his team came up with wasn't the best he's ever heard, but it's all for the fun of the game. Regardless of win or lose the point is training and getting better acquainted with their powers. The problem was he didn't know what to do with himself or what Quinn's roll was. So he kept it simple for himself. Stop the heavy hitter from getting the flag. If nothing else he could do that much. As for Quinn he had an idea.

"We need at least two people going for the flag. They'll ignore Vashti on the ground, so can you use your griffin to swipe it?" The griffin will be a bigger target, might get taken down, but it's a distraction at the least and get them the flag at the most.

"Alright, go!" Claudette yelled on the sidelines. Madison didn't waste time, grabbed Maya and the new member and chucked them across the field towards the flag. Herik wasn't expecting an abrupt start, but he didn't wait around to process it either. He got off Asta's back and directed him to go straight at Madison.

Herik didn't think he could use Asta's full power if he's riding him nor does he want to be on anything that's going head to head with Jaws. Asta hit Madison head on, the force of the impact repelled her in the opposite direction of the flag, sending her flying back 100ft. Herik didn't know what Grace could do, but he wasn't taking any chances for her to get a leg up. Asta hit her back with its tail. She didn't have a protection around her like Madison, so he didn't hit her as hard. Just enough to get her further away and come out with a few bruises. Asta came bounding back to his side and helped him to a position that separated Madison and Grace from everyone else. If he can keep them out the game long enough for his team to win, then he'll do it.

---

Maya barely had a chance to think as Claudette called for them to start, and Madison grabbed her (in a totally not gay way) and yeeted her high into the air towards the flag. Her screams were partly shock and partly intimidation as she spun in the air and dive bombed towards the flag.

Only the ground was approaching her much fucking faster than she expected. With one arm she reached out to grab the flag, throwing out the other hand with a sound blast against a nearby tree. Her ears rang as she sent herself flying backwards. Her fingers curled around the flag.

Except, she’d completely missed when she’d grasped at it and only gotten air. Fuck!

Maya flew backwards, legs flailing down and catching the ground painfully. This caused her to trip from the high speeds she was travelling in and fall back, head slamming into the ground and hand caught underneath her as she tried to slow her fall.

“FUCK” Maya yelled, rolling over and clutching her left hand. One of the fingers was bent at an awkward angle and she was pretty sure she’d broken it… but at least her wrist was alright! She could still move everything else, the searing pain travelling from the crooked finger through her entire arm was nothing. No pain, no gain, or something.

Not that she’d even gotten the flag.

She shot bolt upright as something sparked next to her, eyes narrowing and noticing the thin lightning bolts that Grace was shooting at her. Her head spun with the impact and confusion and she almost threw up. Why was she shooting at her?

Then she noticed the face planted Emily right next to her. A grin crossed her lips. All according to plan (especially the near concussion and broken finger).

“Hey Emily, you sure do like landing ass up, don’t you,” Maya taunted, because attacking silently wasn’t her thing when it came to the person she very much wanted to be in the dirt. “Here, let me help you get up.”

She twisted around where she sat and sent out a sound blast at Emily, which should flip her right over and away if it hit.

---

---

Isla hesitated as they were told to start, having absolutely no idea what the plan was. Was there even a plan? They certainly hadn’t agreed on everything.

Whatever, time to give it her best shot!

She ran forward right towards the flag, head tilted up towards the two people flung through the air as she blinked forward, then rapidly to the side to avoid one of them who blasted herself backwards. Mariah was right towards the flag and dealing with the other girl who’d been thrown there.

She blinked again, landing right next to the flag and Madison as an orange arrow pointed towards her. Was that supposed to draw attention? Whatever.

Instead of grabbing the flag, as was probably inspected, Isla held out her hand and purple sigils glowed around both the flag and her beanie. She lifted the flag up into the air with her abstraction and craned her head around, pinpointing her gaze on Vashti.

“Vashti, catch!” she yelled, flinging the flag right towards her with telekinesis. Hopefully the other girl should be able to catch it and get away.

Only, her aim was absolutely terrible and she sent it flying in a completely different direction, blood beginning to drip down from her nose as it got outside of her range of control.

---

Before Kara had time to do much as breathe, her marked arm was being gripped as whiplash took her body over. She couldn’t get a word out before the apparently very strong woman hurled her through the air. Straight at the flag. In a split second she could see that one of the women around her that was also launched like a fucking arbalest had already landed but Kara was still going. She made a mental defrost ration in her head that Mariah was there, and she still didn’t quite understand was was about to happen if Mariah got involved since she still didn’t know how Mariah’s abstraction worked. Apparently, one of them had some kind of telekinetic power, since when Kara locked her eyes on the flag, it was levitating in the air...perfect opportunity...”Almost...Got it!” She flailed her entire arm in the general direction of the flag, wooden matter violently forming around her sleeves in an instant to form some kind of connection around it, her arm had essentially been stretched by a foot as the flag made a sharp dink against her wooden hand, she flew forward another second or two - directly into the middle of everybody - when she landed flat on the ground, her arm still stretched and tree like as she had the breath knocked straight out of her... There was dirt in the air when she stood up, realizing that she not only had the flag, but she was in the middle of the field. Off to the side she could see a yellow...orange? Something that was probably aimed right at her.

The worst part was the tallest woman she had ever seen in her entire life was

Oh shit... ”I got it!” She turned around yelling to Madison, raising her bark covered arm that was visibly disproportionate to her body. Unfortunately, she just made this clear to everyone. She took a second to register her surroundings, Mariah, Emily in the ground, Grace over there...she wasn’t going to stand there and let a bunch of unknown powers get the best of her, she locked eyes on her “team” and started to run. Kara ran as fast as she could, the problem was the darkened sky put up by Claudette. It made it just a little hard to see, but she wasn’t tripping over things. She held her wood-covered arm close to her chest as she made a mad dash back to her side of the field, the entire time she had her back turned to literally everybody else, bolting past Emily. If she could get close enough she could stretch her arm further, but she needed time and she didn’t have that.

On the bright side...Kara didn’t get grabbed by her pants in a definitely, but subtle, gay way.

---

---

It seemed that luck was not on Tory's side today. Claudette kind of felt bad for hitting him in the dick with the taser... she felt so bad for his unborn children. Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing to remove him from the gene pool. He was a tough one given that he didn't go down, maybe Claudette needed to give him another shock. Though, that was probably because he wasn't an average Florida Man. She winced as she saw his nipples become long and pointy... along with more sharp-pointy-nipples appearing all over his body. Claudette had to take a few steps back.

The only thing that distracted her was the sharp sound of the dirt cracking in the distance and she whipped her head around to see... A hand rising out of the ground. Oh, and Lyss... oh, is Lyss... Oh, dear. Claudette watched in horror as a body rose out of the ground like a horror movie. Then it shambled its way over to towards the guy and began pounding him.

“Claudette, are you okay?” She asked as she approached her. “Hit ‘em with the taser again. My guy can take it.”

"I, uh..." Claudette trailed off out of the shock of what she just saw. Or perhaps the implications of Alyssa's true ability... she didn't know Adepts that well, especially black Lux. However, she should stay focused on subduing Florida-man here... and she retracted her taser and fired it at him again. However, she couldn't shake the bad feeling that Alyssa's new friend gave off. She awkwardly coughed, she was the new leader of the Coven and she had to handle these types of things. The last thing she wanted to hear was that Lyss did something terrible.

"... Lyss, what did you do?"

---

---

"Whoa, be careful back there."

Madison said to Grace when she thought that she was about to cop a feel (She wouldn't put it past the Coven). Though Grace put a hand on the back of her head and Madison was partially tempted to activate the Jaws... though she realized that would have been a terrible idea. Given that Grace was pretty much the flash. Madison was thankful she had her hand on the back of her head because she was more than certain she was going to get whiplash when she got thrust forward.

This was a bit more fun than Madison thought it'd be, at least that's how Grace felt. Of course, Madison's fun came to an abrupt end just as she was starting to enjoy it. Grace let go of Madison, and she would have appreciated some warning before suddenly being let go. Madison ended up rolling forward but mid-roll she activated the Jaws and dramatically punched the ground. Her fist was dug into the ground and she came to a stop.

Then regretted those drinks earlier.

She felt super nauseous but she managed to hold it in... she watched as Grace yelled and punched the hair and couldn't help but smile. At least she was having fun but she had to focus. Unfortunately, Maya missed the flag completely and was fighting Emily and Isla got the flag and Madison knew all hope was lost...

... Until the new girl proved her worth by grabbing the flag (She had to suppress a white-girl-like "yay") with her abstraction right as Isla chucked it... kind of in Vashti's direction. Kara ended up hauling ass towards their end of the field while Mariah came running up behind her. Madison decided to provide some support by flying at Mariah with her arm up.

"The Jaws."

Madison said as she activated her barrier of glowing purple bones and charged Mariah totally intending to lightly push her.

Just a light tickle.

---

---

Emily wondered if this could be even more humiliating as she was dragged along by her new abstraction.

Fortunately, Emily didn't notice the big glowing arrow over her. Well, she didn't notice it yet, but she heard Maya's obnoxious voice taunting her. And her blood boiled. She looked up just as Maya thought it was very appropriate to hit her with one of her sonic blasts. Emily's ears were ringing as she was sent spiraling across the ground which made her outfit even dirtier. Okay, Emily realized that she should have picked out a different outfit today if she didn't want this one to get fucked up. It felt like a fucking motorcycle hit her as she went rolling around.

Now she felt a bit more appreciative of Izzy when she was around. You know what they say. Emily thought to herself as she got up to her feet. You only miss them when they're gone.

Not a word left Emily's mouth as she went to face Maya because she was dead focused on making sure that Maya was the next person in the dirt. Maya was on top of her shitlist... the only problem was that Maya had a huge advantage over Emily since, well, Emily got her abstraction a few days ago, and from what she could tell Maya had hers for a while now. Emily had to admit that Maya was ahead of the curve because she was still coming to understand her abstraction. That said, the tethers extended from her fingertips as they grabbed onto pebbles and other stones that were nearby.

They floated in the air in front of Emily before they launched themselves at Maya.

Tory twitched residually as the electricity stopped coursing through him. He lay on the ground on his front, propped up by his spikes-- sort of. Some of them had dug into the soft forest floor, so he was removing himself like a tent-steak, just as the shamblin' ramblin' man ran up on him.

"NOOO," screeched Tory, "NO EAT ME!"

Zombie grabbed him in the worst hug and, like a trapped animal, Tory began thrashing about so violently, that even the Zombie was having trouble keeping a grasp on him.

And then he squirted blood.
Every single spike on his body simultaneously FIRED OFF VIOLENTLY-- only a half inch out of him before flopping uselessly to the forest floor. Tory went extremely limp in the Zombie's arms, becoming a very heavy dead weight, as he squited another gout of blood, and passed out.

... for about five seconds.

^"Ahhhh," Tory weakly screamed, spikeless, covered in blood, and still being held by a very undead gentleman... and then he was hit with the taser again.

---

Tilting backward, stumbling as she did so, Mariah's parasol wooshed as she completely didn't contact the mass of person she should have. Regaining her balance, Mariah caught sight of Kara with the flag in hand. Things had happened quickly. "Puchata!" Mariah shouted, taking quick stock of the situation, and deciding that giving chase was probably her best bet. Gritting her teeth and getting just a little bit pissed off, Mariah found herself sprinting after Kara in a very 'Bout to mow a bitch down' kind of way, with her umbrella closed and pointed toward Kara, as if she were a knight with a Jousting lance.

But then something caught her eye.

Purple light-- bones floating about-- Madison came speeding toward Mariah. Now, anyone who's seen a rugby match knows what happens next, because Mariah weren't no bitch. Chills ran up and down her arms and warmth rose within her chest-- the orange glow of her Parasol flared brightly, as if it were a fire someone had thrown fuel on-- and there was the war-flame courage kindling her abstraction.

Mariah felt as if she were practically flying over the ground, each step placed perfectly on even ground, and her feet dug into it perfectly as she sped forward, planted one foot, stabbed her parasol forward a she opened it-- so that Madison may meet the soul-less gaze of Hello Kitty-- as she went in to meet Madison's push with a goddamn fully committed shove. Bellowing like a ratchet hood warrior, Mariah declared, "Get outta'ere, skank!" No matter what she was meeting, Mariah was dead set on overpowering her, cause if you ain't a winner you're last.

---

---

The thunderclap of a palm smacking a forehead rumbled throughout the grove as Vashti watched Madison hammer throw two of her teammates like they were ragdolls. She began to lightly jog towards the flag, waiting for Claudette to call the game the moment Maya or Kara broke their necks upon botching their landings. She didn’t see them hit the dirt, because Emily beefed it right next to her. Vashti covered her mouth to stifle a surprised laugh, and then yelped as a lion and a fox nearly trampled her.

She glanced down at the glow around her feet and then back at her team. None of them were looking her way. So, it seemed like Mariah’s abstraction worked. Good. Maybe Emily wouldn’t notice how Vashti just left her in the dirt then. Sorry, but she had a flag to snag. She moved away just in time to accidentally dodge Grace’s lightning and just barely get her ears popped by Maya’s soundblast. She doubled her pace, which wasn’t all that fast. The girl wasn’t much of an athlete, or maybe the SPF one million sunblock Claudette had cast over the field was making her feel lethargic.

“Vashti, catch!”

Vashti snapped to attention and reached her arm out to oh fucking god where was the flag even going? She slapped her forehead so hard this time that she stunned herself, but then she quickly shook her frustration off. The problem with Mariah’s abstraction was that it worked both ways. It was the only justification Vashti could come with for Isla just handing the flag to the other team and fuCK THEY WERE GOING TO LOSE!

“ARGH!”

Vashti booked it towards Kara. A dull pain in her chest became sharp as her rapid motions aggravated her old, largely healed wound from the Outsider. She ignored it and forced herself forward. Her vision tunneled on Kara like she was a baby deer lapping up at the edge of her river just ready to get snatched up. Coming in from the side, Vashti hoped that Mariah’s abstraction would still keep her unnoticeable before it was too late for Kara to react. With a shout she went in for a slide tackle in an attempt to knock Kara to the ground. Once the girl was down, she’d wrench the flag from her weird tree arm and be off before the stupid primate even knew what fucking hit her.

---

Maya smirked as she hit Emily and sent her sprawling further away. She slowly forced herself to stand up as her ears rang and her head spun. But this was going to be easy. All Emily had done so far with her abstraction was fling herself into the dirt whereas Maya actually knew how to use hers. She could just sound blast her a bunch of times until she admitted defeat… fuck.

Claudette had said their abstractions in any way that was harmful. Which was Maya’s entire abstraction. Well, she hadn’t said anything about hurting each other in other ways.

Maya was distracted wallowing in thought over the stupid rule Claudette had put in place, and the first rock hit her square in the forehead and snapped her right out of it. A sharp pain spread around her already aching head but she ignored it as she flung up her arms to block the rest of the stone barrage.

It would be easier to blast it all away, but where was the fun in deafening herself?

One of the pebbles smacked right into her broken finger, her hand dropping with a cry of pain. She gritted her teeth as she narrowed her eyes at Emily, taking a step forward. “Is that really all you can do with that new abstraction of yours? I don’t think I even need mine to beat you…”

She smirked before quickly covering the distance between them, bringing up her knee to try to slam Emily in the stomach with it and grabbing onto her hair and pulling sharply.

---

---

Wow, she’d really fucked things up.

But how was Isla supposed to predict that one of the other newbies would extend out a massive tree arm and grab the flag? She’d totally not seen that coming at all. So could they really fault her? If she hadn’t thrown the flag someone else would’ve got it.

Ok, she definitely should have grabbed it herself. But there was no point in worrying about that.

Vashti was already going after Kara and nobody else was a threat to the flag. Isla stood in place as her beanie once again glowed a bright purple, holding out a hand towards Kara and yelling (unnecessarily), “Stop!”

A faint purple glow appeared around Kara as Isla used her abstraction to try to force her to stop running, even as it slowed her down too, in the hope it would mean Kara couldn’t easily avoid Vashti’s drop kick.

---

---

Now if you told Madison that she would be cockblocked by a giant motherfucker with a Hello-Kitty umbrella she would probably have slapped you.

But, here Madison is, her original intention to stop Mariah was changed to an all-out clash of abstractions. Madison's Jaws against Mariah's... Magic Hello Kitty Umbrella. Honestly, Madison's seen it all. When Mariah replied with glowing orange force, Madison's Jaws responded with equal force. The sheer impact of the two colliding created a shockwave of force that disturbed the wind and probably the rest of the Coven felt it.

The two were locked in a tug of war as the Jaws pushed against Mariah's abstraction. It was a bit tough... and Madison had to hand it to Mariah, she was one tough cookie if she could last this long against the Jaws. Though Madison was trying to keep Mariah off Kara and she was doing a pretty good ass job of that...

"Get outta'ere, skank!"

"Okay for real, yo?" Madison chuckled when she heard that. "We're better than that, we say hoe."

---

---

"That's what you get, ugly slut."

Emily couldn't help but regress a bit as Maya winced in pain and she got some sick satisfaction out of it. And then Emily wondered if she was a sociopath. Then she realized that she didn't care.

“Is that all you can do with that new abstraction of yours? I don’t think I even need mine to beat you…”

"Well, it's the only thing you got-" Emily tried to taunt before Maya brought her knee up and tried to kick her in the cooch. Only thing was that Maya's eyes were as good as her tiny brain (I.E not at all) and she missed and hit her in the stomach. Unfortunately, she was still recovering from the Outsider so that shit hurt, but then the bitch was yanking her hair. "Let go of my hair, slut!" She hissed as she started swinging her fists around towards Maya in what was admittedly stupid looking as she didn't know how to fight.

---

Lyss’s concern for her sister’s safety shadowed Claudette’s reaction to her new skill. As soon as she knew Claudette was okay, she turned her focus onto the writhing, human pufferfish. She didn’t know what the hell he was, honestly. As his spikes released blood like he was a squid, Lyss watched with a disgusted grimace. By the time Claudette hit him with the second tase Lyss felt bad for the guy.

At this point, he very obviously wasn’t a threat. So why was he here in the first place? Had someone invited him? Was he a potential new member that she wasn’t told about. Oh, fuck. Lyss was starting to understand what was really happening. She glanced behind her at the chaos of the group’s training and was grateful. At least they were too busy beating each other up to notice her mistake.

To make matters worse, Lyss turned her eyes onto Claudette just in time to see the concern on her face. If she wasn’t embarrassed enough to attack an innocent with necromancy, she was instantly filled with shame when she remembered how the general public reacted to the Black Lux’s true power.

“Lyss, what did you do?”

Lyss sighed, and turned to lift her hand and aim her palm at the undead. “Rest now.” She murmured. At the sound of her voice, the undead man released Tory and straightened. Well, straightened as best as he could. He turned to walk towards the hole that it came from, but with every step his body crumpled into itself. By the time he’d reached the hole his body collapsed, turning to ash upon impact with the ground.

Now that the elephant in the forest was gone, Lyss turned back to Claudette and the defeated man on the ground. “I, well… I picked up a new trick. I can explain later, but…” She turned back to Tory and put her hands on her hips. “Are you a friend of someone here? You really shouldn’t walk up behind a woman like that.”

_{Take two supernatural boogaloo}

Kara never really bothered to look behind her when the big shockwave hit, mainly because there were two big ass abstractions banging knuckles behind her, kicking up all manners of dirt and debris as Kara continued to book it while being only partially mesmerized by the orange light from Mariah’s abstraction. Sure, it was weird to look at, but that didn’t matter because Kara had the flag and Madison sure as hell didn’t throw her for nothing, right? Kara swore she heard someone yelling at her, but with all the commotion going on, this bitch wasn’t about to slow down and get crushed by Jurassic Ghost. In the corner of her eye, Kara saw a girl moving towards her, she didn’t register it since she was on the other team, so she tried to outrun the girl.

That very clearly didn’t work.

In the middle of storming across the field like there was no tomorrow, Kara felt a pair of legs come and absolutely dust her side. She got tackled to the ground. It was kind of painful considering the fact that she got slammed into the dirt. ”Ow! What w-“ Of course, in the sudden daze that felt like an eternity, someone got her flag. Honestly it felt some that woman broke her ribs, but Kara was fine. ”Great...” Not great. Suddenly Kara couldn’t move either!

A purple glow wrapped itself around Kara’s body like a a cage, and Kara couldn’t move. There were no two ways about it. Kara tried struggling all she could, the most she could do was shake her head back and forth and try to squirm, but somebody on the other team had her on lock down. Kara’s tree arm began to slowly slide back into its normal state as the bark dissipated. ”What is this? What’s happening?” The pain from getting finessed like a child was still lingering in her side as Kara’s eyes darted across the field trying to think of something. Meanwhile, the girl who called checkmate was already running off with the flag. It was funny, really, Kara’s abstraction was meant to protect people and she couldn’t protect herself from the least supernatural attack she had seen all day.

Smashing.

_{@The Ghost Note@FernStone@Atrophy}

---

---

The clash was epic... one abstraction going up against another one. Madison was pushing up against Mariah as she was, again, saying some crazy shit in Spanish. Madison didn't fuckin' know, however right when she was putting more pressure on Mariah's barrier, she activated some crazy shit. Madison was launched away from Mariah with a blast of orange and yellow light and she ended up yelling as she flew backward. Heh... if Madison wasn't impressed before, she was impressed now...

”What is this? What’s happening?”

Mads whipped her head around and saw that Vashti got the fuckin' flag from Kara and was running back towards their end. Jesus Christ, Madison shook her head as she realized that Kara got finessed by somebody who doesn't even got an abstraction. That was kind of humiliating... but also pretty funny now that Madison thought about it. Fortunately, Madison was better than that. She quickly flew towards Vashti with the Jaws activated and charged her... and once she got close she performed a flying tackle assisted by the Jaws. While Vashti got over on Kara, she would definitely not be able to perform the same bullshit on Madison.

---

---

Out in the middle of the woods... there was a massive mansion that acted as the base of operations for The Forgiven religious movement. Usually, it was a nice little place with other children that been "Forgiven" playing out in the massive yard. However, to Kimberly Walton and Penny Lawson, there was something wrong here. Very, very, wrong here.

She swallowed her throat as she walked up to the building with the perfect plan in mind... one that took some convincing to get Penny on board, but still a great one nonetheless.

"... Hey, it'll wash off just fine, Penny," Kimberly tried to reassure Penny as she walked up to the gates of the place. The sounds of the creeky shopping cart that Rowan was pushing almost announced their arrival. "Cheer up."

"Consider this method acting," grumbled Penny as she shot Kimberly a glare from underneath her sun hat. Kimberly had suggested that they disguise themselves as homeless people to trick the Forgiven into opening their doors for them. At the time, Penny didn't realize that Kimberly thought homeless people looked like ol' timey prospectors coming straight outta the coal mine. She had also made the error of believing that Kimberly was going to use makeup to make them look the part. Not dirt. Not on her sundress. Not on her face.

"I'm a down-on-her-luck transient woman who, after listening to a friend's stupid idea has found herself in a world of misfortune and in need of some spiritual guidance," said Penny bitterly. "And her friend better be right about this shit washing off just fine. I just bought this outfit."

Penny quieted her complaining as they got closer to the gate. The clothes were already ruined, but there was no point in wasting the disguise.

"I'll get you a new one," I got that famous YouTuber money. Kimberly rolled her eyes as she was about to say the second half but she didn't know who was around nor who was listening-

"Hi there."

Kimberly jumped when she heard a child's voice suddenly at the gate. She whipped her head around and saw a little blonde-haired Caucasian girl wearing a white dress and sandals. She looked at Kimberly and the gate through the gaps in the gate... and Kimberly realized that this wasn't the welcoming party that she was expecting.

"Oh, um, hi."

"Why are you here?" The little girl answered. "Are you... looking for help?" She tilted her head a bit.

Penny looked at Kimberly and Rowan before stepping forward to take the lead. She wasn't much of an actor, her largest role in life being a tree in a school play back in second grade, but seeking out the Forgiven had been her idea. She lowered her head and hunched her shoulders in an attempt to appear downtrodden. Penny approached the girl and met her gaze.

"I heard we could find shelter around here for the night," said Penny, affecting an embarrassingly bad Southern accent. She sucked in her lips and tried to keep a straight face, hoping that the girl would just assume her poor attempt to maintain character was the nervous tick of an addict. Penny scratched at her neck. She should've let Kimberly take the lead. "We don't need much and will be outta the way by morning. Just don't wanna be caught out after dark with that psycho on the loose."

The little girl was quiet for a few seconds.

"... We're having a prayer session tonight where we place offerings to Mother... do you agree to attend? To see something beautiful?"

"Um," Penny glanced with uncertainty at Kimberly and then looked back at the girl. She had seen enough horror movies to know that Mother was rarely a good thing. Ideally, they'd be out of this place by tonight once they found out more about Annabelle—although, Saul might be the one leading the prayer session. It could be there best chance to meet. She tucked her hands behind her back and smiled.

"I don't reckon you'd want someone like me there, but sure."

Again the child was standing quietly and Kimberly was trying her best to hold in the sweat. However, the child opened the gate and looked at the three as she said, "... We'll help you get cleaned up,"

"Thank you so much!" Kimberly said in her normal, non-fake, accent with a wide appreciative smile as she walked past the child.. but the little girl leads them up the stairs as she opened the front doors to the mansion. Kimberly looked around as she saw people all over the place... cleaning, moving clothes, and other stuff around. The place looked... spotless, perfect even. Kimberly looked around as she made a note.

"... Oh, hello there," A man said as he walked up, "I'm Dean Farrow, the person in charge of this branch, and you three are?"

"... Wendy Lucker." Kimberly just said a name out of nowhere (except it felt oddly familiar to her)... and she looked to her side and that little girl was gone without a trace.

"... Frank," Rowan answered.

"And I'm Stacey," said Penny, going for the whole one name thing like she was Cher. The Southern twang she had forced beforehand had all but just vanished.

"Oh, Wendy, Frank, Stacey, it is a pleasure to meet you, I take you're here to get cleaned up? Maybe a place to stay?"

"Yes, we can't stay out there with that maniac out on the loose," Kimberly said a lot more convincingly than she thought Penny would say (That was the last time she lets Penny do the talking).

Dean nodded his head as he softly answered, "I understand."

He looked at two women that were carrying clothes as he said, "Girls... we have three guests. Please prepare a room, some clothes, and some toiletries for them."

"Yes, Mr. Farrow," One of the women, an older caucasian woman probably in her fifties nodded her head as she walked over. She grabbed Penny by the hand, who tensed but managed to restrain herself from pulling free, as she said. "Yes, all of you, please come with us."

They were about to leave when Dean spoke again.

"However, we have separate quarters for the men... in which I will prepare a room for you." Dean gestured for Rowan to come along with him as he grimaced for a moment as he looked at Kimberly. But, she nodded her head as the two went their separate ways... for the time being.

As they were walking down the hall, Kimberly realized how well this was going. She had to try hard to suppress her smile, but eventually, they made it to one of the rooms. It was a smallish room... with two beds. It had everything you'd expect in a bedroom, a dresser, a bathroom, and a nightstand.

"What size clothes do you two wear if you don't mind us asking?"

"Like a four or six," said Penny, slipping away from the older woman's grasp so she could go scrub her face in the sink. She wasn't aware if cult dresses came in standardized dress sizes. It seemed odd to her how quickly they had been taken in, but certainly, a proper orientation was to follow after they cleaned up. The basin filled with hot water as Penny glanced up at the ceiling for any signs of cameras or mics.

"Four," Kimberly just spat out an answer as she just wanted to get rid of them as fast as possible.

Smiling, the member of the Forgiven said, "We'll be right back, just sit tight. Everything will be better." As the two women left Kimberly couldn't help but let out a small sigh.

Thank God it seemed to work so far. Kimberly looked over at Penny and gave her a nod as she pulled her camera out of her satchel... along with her cellphone. Kimberly had an idea in mind, but it wasn't one that she was fully confident in. She quickly shot out a text message to Rowan:

Rowan, take a picture of your room and head towards the foyer.

Kimberly hit send, and before she could take a picture of the room she got a reply from Rowan...

Will do. Stay safe.

Rowan replied with a picture of his room. Nodding her head Kimberly took a picture of her room. Then she turned to Penny as she put the camera away. "Alright, we're going to go meet Rowan in the Foyer... then we're going to go find Saul or something useful here."

Kimberly spoke as she dug through her bag and pulled out her pistol. She checked how many rounds were in it and saw that it was fully loaded.

"Let's just hope they don't get too suspicious."

Kimberly put the weapon in her waistband for easier access. She was hoping that she didn't have to use it but the Forgiven were capable of anything at this point. However, Kimberly faced the bed and quickly yanked the sheets and blankets off of it. She handed the blanket to Penny as she folded her blanket into a square. Kimberly said, "Here, take this so they don't get suspicious."

"Yeah, they definitely won't be able to tell the difference between this and spooky cult garbs," said Penny dryly before realizing that Kimberly had intended for it to look like they had stolen the bedding. She folded the blanket up and tucked it between her bag's strap and her body.

Penny eyed Kimberly's pistol, hoping that the girl wouldn't have to use it. Cultist or not, Penny didn't want anybody to start blasting. Surely, Kimberly had trigger discipline. Still, they were lucky that their items weren't confiscated, although Penny's sack of miscellaneous crap wouldn't be as alarming as a damn handgun...even if it were just as dangerous. Penny shifted the bag on her shoulder.

Opening the door, Kimberly made sure to get the hell out of there as fast as possible. Maybe if they left fast enough maybe those two women would think that they got the rooms mixed up. However, Kimberly moved through the halls as fast as possible and thankfully she was eagle-eyed enough to tell their way back to the foyer...

... And they were met by Rowan.

"Did you give him the slip?"

"Yeah, not for long," Rowan said, "But we gotta be fast because they're gonna catch on."

"Yeah," Kimberly said, "I know."

"I asked some people where's Saul's office is, though," Rowan said as he looked up at the ceiling. "... It's right above us."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" asked Penny. color=goldenrod]"Let's go."[/color]

---

Luther Saul was enjoying some alone time in his office and as per usual... he was filling a whiskey glass with some expensive whiskey. He sighed as he took a seat and leaned back in his chair and downed it in less than a few seconds. However, the door opened, and Saul raised an eyebrow since he usually made it explicitly clear that nobody's allowed to disturb him.

Two homeless miscreants walked in and Saul tilted his head as he asked,

"... Can I help you?"

"Unlikely," said Penny, recognizing Saul from his television interview. She rolled a quarter between her right hand as she stepped towards the center of the room, admiring the framed pictures of the narcissist sitting behind the desk. She noticed the phone on his desk and then glanced at the glass double doors behind the man that led out to a private balcony that looked empty. It seemed the only way in for the rest of the Forgiven was the door Rowan was guarding, which meant that Kimberly and she had Saul all to themselves.

Fortunately for him, they had come intending to play nice for now. Kimberly was fixated on Annabelle, and it would behoove them to make Luther think that they were on his side. Penny cocked her head up, looked down at Saul, and said, "The better question is could we help you?"

"I am not going to try and lie to someone as smart and as clever as you, Mr. Saul. You'd just see through it anyway," said, Penny. She paced as she spoke, running her fingers over the various knick-knacks and books lining the shelves of the room. "Your security detail here is a joke. All it took was a little dirt on our faces and a half-baked lie and we were whisked inside. Which, normally, openness should be expected of a church...except when that church is being haunted by a monster."

"That's where our help comes in, Mr. Saul," said Penny, grabbing a snow globe off of the shelf. The sigil at her between her collarbones glowed as the globe floated out of her hand, whipped around her body, and set itself gently back on the shelf. [color=golden]"My acquaintance and I have been hunting after this little thorn in your side for a few weeks now. Now, we're willing to offer our services to take care of Annabelle Heart for you. Quickly and quietly, before the media starts putting together the one common thread between all of the deaths."

"Would you like to hear more, or should I show myself out?"[/color] asked Penny, folding her arms as she took her spot back in front of Saul's desk.

During her little speech, Saul seemed very... unimpressed. He merely poured himself another glass of whiskey because he was gonna need it. Saul merely stared at her as he pulled open the desk and answered with a simple.

"... I don't have a clue of who you are, or what you are talking about. Please remove yourselves from the premises at once."

The confident smile on Penny's face tightened as the corner of her eyes wrinkled in annoyance. It wasn't the response she was looking for, but probably the one she should've been anticipating. She glanced at the drawer. She didn't know what was in it, but she knew he'd be making a damn big fuck up if he reached inside. Her sigil glowed as she took a step forward, her vision focusing on Saul's hands.

"You're making a horrible mistake, Saul," growled Penny. [color=goldenrod]"I'm not treating you like you're an idiot so you can at least show me the same respect. A good dozen of your people were violently murdered a little over a week ago. Several dozen, maybe hundreds even, have been getting shredded from here to South Carolina. At this rate, you'll all be dead in a mon—"

Saul quickly pulled out the contents of the drawer: a revolver, and damn near slammed it onto the desk. He looked at Penny as he said, "Allow me to repeat myself since you don't seem to understand: I don't know you, I don't who you are, and I don't know what you're talking about. And at this point, I can hardly care... Remove yourselves from my premises."

He narrowed his eyes at Penny.

"... At once."

"What are you gonna do?" scoffed Penny, her vision pulsing as she glared at the barrel of the gun. "Shoot me?"

"If you keep tempting me," Saul hissed, "I will. Each second you spend not leaving is making the decision easier."

Kimberly, from watching this encounter knew one thing.

This was the last time she lets Penny do the talking.

Her eyes widened when the gun entered the fray and Kimberly just knew that this could go nowhere good. Either Saul shoots one of them or Saul gets hurt and it's on them. If they had Rowan here this would have been a little different. This could have gone better, yeah, but Kimberly knew when it was time to just... cut and run because there was no way she could see them coming out on top. She grabbed onto Penny's arm to pull her away as she said,

"Penny, no, let's go!"

Penny didn't budge. Her eyes burned holes into Saul as he continued to train the gun at her. She could see every muscle tighten on his face, every twitch of his trigger finger, even the path of the bead of sweat that had begun to form on his brow before it even started to let gravity take it. This motherfucker started a cult, sacrificed some girl's friends and broke her mind to the point that she'd willingly become a monster, and then dared to deny his responsibility. Not just that, he also denied that anything was even happening while all the while the people who are desperate enough to follow an asshole like him are being torn to ribbons.

Was it even a question if this asshole was responsible for the world ending? Even if he wasn't, was it even a question whether he deserved what was coming his way? She should let him shoot her. She'd put that bullet right back through his fucking head. It wouldn't be the first time she'd taken a life. If someone had to do it, best to be here anyway. She felt Kimberly's fingers bite into her arm. She gritted her teeth, her face turned ugly as it reflected the disgusting creature pointing a gun at her. Penny would be doing the world a favor. Fuck that, she'd be saving the world.

Unless...

[color=goldenrod]"Fine," said Penny, seething, as she put her hands up.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" Saul shouted as he waved the pistol around and Kimberly winced. She didn't waste a second in pulling Penny out of the room before this got ugly. Saul sighed as the door closed and the two were gone... he made sure to press the button on his phone as he said.

"I want a full sweep of the building, there were two trespassers. Two girls of similar heights, one blonde-haired, one brown with glasses and a satchel. If found please remove or..."

Saul looked up to see that little girl that approached Kimberly and Penny at the gates. She looked at Saul with a dead look in her eyes as she said.

"... You did well."

The words were hardly out of the girl's mouth as the snowglobe launched itself from the shelf and shattered in the corner nearest the exit. A few moments later and it was followed by a barrage of books, pictures, and any other of the oddities Penny had touched. All of it dented against the wall with a loud thud like they had been fired out of a machine gun and then crashed to the ground. By the time the dust had settled, Saul's office was trashed with tiny smatterings of shattered glass all over the floor and who knows how many irreplaceable artifacts destroyed. Saul had the final word, but Penny had the last fuck you.

---

The trio regrouped far away from the Forgiven Compound as Kimberly shook her head. Part of her was a bit pissed off at Penny but Saul... Saul was a bastard to his very core, Kimberly could feel it. So she understood why Penny was so forceful, but they still needed some discretion there.

"What a goddamn asshole! What a fucking prick!" barked Penny, gritting a cigarette between her teeth and struggling with the lighter.

"Next time, let me do the talking," said Kimberly.

Penny shot her a look but took half of the cigarette down in one drag instead of turning her anger on Kimberly. While trashing Saul's office gave her a brief bit of petty pleasure, Penny was deeply upset by how poorly everything had gone. She was pissed at Saul for being such a stubborn jackass, but she was angrier at herself for making the situation worse. Penny should've played it differently. She should've been smarter. Maybe they should've acted like they wanted to join and slow roll it. She screwed up her face, killed her cigarette, and went for another.

"Not that it mattered," Rowan said to the two, "Saul knew exactly what she was talking about... He probably figured that you two pieced together the whole picture and stayed hush-hush about it."

Rowan shrugged as he looked between the two girls.

"I don't know about you two, but I wouldn't want to admit my cult does human sacrifices."

"True, true, and true..." Kimberly trailed off, "I know one thing; there goes our only easy shot to getting at him, but I doubt he was going to give us anything useful willingly."

"So now what?" asked Penny, trying to keep herself from shouting. "We just wait for Annabelle to attack again and kill more fucking people because that dipshit can't accept responsibility? God!" Penny kicked the ground, sending a spray of dirt against a tree. She pointed a finger at Kimberly. "You should've taken a picture of his room. That way the next time we fight Annabelle you could've just teleported her in there and let that asshole Saul lie in the bed he made!"

Kimberly sighed as she reached into her satchel and pulled out a photograph of Saul's room. "While you were keeping him distracted..." Kimberly trailed off. "... I did, but...."

She didn't want to sound like a snob when she said that's not how her abstraction works but Penny was emotional. This was a backdoor into the Forgiven Compound in case they needed it.

"... Saul's up to something like he has something up his sleeve that we don't know about," Rowan said as he crossed his arms. "I kind of get the feeling this is apart of his game."

"And I get the feeling we'll lose regardless of who wins," Kimberly shook her head. "Either way, I doubted we were going to get anything useful from Saul regardless... however, we have to keep looking for a way to stop Annabelle. I know there's something we can do, or if we can find somebody."

That doesn't involve accepting power from the Hound.

"Fuck that! Neither of them are winning. I'm certain of that," said Penny quickly, lifting her shoe to smear out her cigarette on the heel. She'd see to it that Saul got what was coming for him...once she was certain that wouldn't ruin everything for which she fought. "So, any guess on what to do next? My idea was a freaking bust. Shouldn't have even suggested it."

Kimberly rubbed her chin as she thought about it. "I'm going to... do some digging online. Some research... there's a Coven of witches that formed by talking online. We could maybe find someone who can cure Annabelle."

"Sure. It couldn't go worse than this," said Penny.