---

---

Everything went to shit a lot faster than Oscar had expected it to. He barely had time to slam his hand up, bookmark glowing red in his pocket to part that water that came directly towards him. He cursed under his breath, even as he watched in something close to awe when the two imposters transformed. He wanted so desperately to know how that worked. His mind was only half on the scene unfolding in front of them as he quickly latched onto considering the new magic.

Tuyen was knocked back by the wave of water, slamming against the wall with a hiss. She’d just bought this dress for the occasion! She wasn’t exactly made out of money like this family was! Her mind quickly moved past this, pushing herself up to her feet. This was not good. Water meant that Justin couldn’t use his abstraction. Which put them in a tight spot, seeing as she had no idea how much help any of the Vanburen’s would be. Or her for that matter.

“There’s more of them down the hall! She let them in with a portal in the bathroom. They must be using some sort of cloaking spell so that I couldn’t see them, but I know they’re here.”

More of them? That was great. Typical. Tuyen tried to push down the anxiety crashing into her mind, the shadows flickering in the corners of her vision. Why could it never go well for them? Nevermind that one of the Vanburen’s themselves was brandishing a knife at all of them and seemed to include Tuyen and Justin in the two he wanted out.

“I don’t think he’s going anywhere,” Oscar commented, eyebrow raised as he witnessed the sheer efficiency with which Alexander wrapped the imposter in chains. Even so he manipulated the water that soaked everything around them, drawing it out so it floated over his hand. “It would be better to speak before I treat you to a taste of what you did to us.”

“Or they could just leave!” Trisha spoke up from where she was pressed against the wall, laptop back hugged to her chest like it was a lifeline and a particularly vicious scowl on her lips. If her laptop, the only thing that let her use her stupid abstraction, was broken because of this? There would be hell to pay. “Ezra said to get out, so we should just throw him out.”

As if she was ever one to follow the orders of their eldest brother unless they benefited them.

Oscar opened his mouth to comment that there were other intruders to worry about- when right on queue a demonic scream ripped through the mansion.

Tuyen shuddered at that. The man they’d caught in here seemed subdued enough but whatever they’d just heard? She was quite certain it was coming for them.

“Justin,” she said quietly, taking a step towards her friend. “You can handle him, right?” She nodded towards the chained man. She continued, loud enough for the rest to hear. “I’ll go towards whatever that was.”

She then glared at her side. To the others, it looked like she was staring down with an empty space. Internally Tuyen was battling with the shadow that slunk around her. She needed it to work with her for once. Even if this was a terrible idea, it would be worse if whatever could sound like that got into a room full of people. She would make this work. She was not going to let her abstraction refuse to do what she wanted it do, after all the times it had before.

Tuyen let out a visible sigh of relief when The Shadow physically manifested, a solid but inky black version of herself coming into view beside her. She took quick steps towards the dining room entrance, shadow clinging to her each step of the way and eerily flickering towards more monstrous (but still small) versions of her. She stopped when she reached Ezra, where he stood with a glowing orange knife.

“If you would let me past. Unless you want whatever that was to come in here.” She spoke with a confidence she very much didn’t feel, but was doing a good job of pretending.

As soon as the demonic cry had been heard, Trisha had pulled out her laptop and knelt down with it. Thankfully the water didn’t seem to have damagic it (probably because of the spirit or whatever inside of it), and it booted just as fast as normal. Which wasn’t as fast as she’d liked. She muttered at it as it finally turned on, pulling up her programs and hurriedly typing away. It wasn’t difficult when she already had the base code written, and what she needed was simple: to look and see what it was. She hit run and after a painful few moments hoping it wouldn’t error out, a single tiny blob like creature appeared beside her. It instantly ran out the door, past Tuyen and under Ezra legs, and out towards where the scream had been heard.

---

"Georgie." Sabrina called her out, because of course she did. Georgie didn't bother to reply. There wasn't a need to when to waste her time talking to someone as naive as her sister. If Sabrina wants to be idealistic about these no named strangers being of any use, then she'll let her. In the meantime, she pulled out her phone, wondering what was happening back home while she was stuck here. The few friends she had went on and one about a party they went to yesterday. Georgie only tuned to half of the conversation. One of their guests was on some long winded tangent about magic. She hoped Oscar was taking notes. Maybe he's glean something from the non-sense, send them about their day, and figure out how to help them instead. She was so engrossed in her friends' tale of how some boys from the bungalow next door had a rivalry with the boys in the bungalow the party took place in that they threw shit bombs through the windows and they exploded every. Oh that's disgusting. This is why she doesn't partake in this non-sense. She was just about to send a message, then she heard two of the same voices. She looked up and there were two pairs of no named magic experts. The newest additions better dressed like they actually meant business.

The worst dressed boy sent a tidal wave at them, knocking Georgie from her chair, she was tossed back into the chairs beside her and forced to the fireplace. Her arm and back hurt. She knocked her head on something. She sat up, cursing under her breathe, checking for bleeding in her hair. Her fingers came back clear. She's sure a knot will form back there later. She'll figure it out later. For now, she opened a portal beneath her, that took a few seconds to open, and fell through into the Garden. Anyone within five feet of her were taken too.

She laid in her flower, gazing at the sun, trying to calm down and get herself together, because what the fuck happened? Oscar brought in strangers, wasted thrity minutes of her time, she could've finished her lunch by now, said strangers were fakes and they were attacked. She wants to go back to Scotland and finish her schooling. Another year and a half and she'd be done. This deviation did nothing to stave off her next meltdown. She took her moment, time to go back.

She opened the portal again, this time upside right and walked back into the dining room where they had a different boy chained down and being assaulted with a chair. She assumes it was the fake, since the real one was doing the beating. A loud roar echoed through the mansion followed by several booms. Whatever that was it sounded like a nightmare. One of the magic experts asked Ezra to move out her way, while Patty sent some creature in the direction of the noise.

"Just had to piss on my day."Georgie closed her portal and followed after Patty's creature, going around Ezra and the expert.

"Did any of you think that there might be more of them?" She called when she stepped into the hall. She was too smart to go far from dining room, but she didn't have to. There were three people and three massive dog like beasts in the main hall. Georgie opened a portal almost big enough to take up the entire hall, she'll have to find a way to fix this few seconds delay, she moved out the way once it was up and a blizzard of razor sharp, hard as steel flower petals flew towards the intruders. She ducked behind her portal and looked into the dining room. She told them what she saw.

"We can't leave them to run amok through the house, but we could escape into the Garden, regroup, make a plan, then came back or take our chances and fight blind. I vote for option one." She didn't bother talking to the rest of her siblings and looked right at Ezra. If he gave the okay, surely everyone else would follow. At least those with more than one brain cell.

Outside, Ezra appeared unfazed by the chaos unravelling around him, his “sword” hand unwavering as he continued to burn their unwanted guests with a harsh stare. Inside, as Ezra took in everything around him it felt like there was noxious gas pouring out of a million cranks and valves while a bunch of frantic workers in hazmat suits ran around trying to prevent a total meltdown. Arabelle said others had infiltrated the house via a portal and were walking around invisible. Normally, when the help started saying things like that it was time to put up a wanted ad, but considering the day he was inclined to believe the teacher. Besides, out of everyone else in the room, her contribution to the madness deluge was mild in comparison.

Shane, Justin, and the fake Justin all played a game of volleyball, replacing the ball with a very expensive and soon-to-be very broken chair. Georgie and the fake Tuyen both disappeared into their own respective portals, although Georgie reemerged momentarily. Alexander practiced his magical bondage on the faker while the real Tuyen’s shadow stood up from the ground. Instead of swinging, Ezra hesitated as she approached him—the so-called experts might be partially to blame, but at least they hadn’t been the ones to ruin the upholstery—and tried not to look annoyed as Georgie and Trisha’s mailer-daemon ran by.

Oh, and at some point he had heard what sounded like hell opening up. Suddenly, having the power to overcompensate no longer seemed all that impressive.

“If you would let me past. Unless you want whatever that was to come in here.”

Well, at least she had courtesy. Ezra didn’t have time to respond before Georgie was already back in the room, heralded by what sounded to be his entrance hall being destroyed. He looked through the threshold but could only see the portal to the Garden. Escaping didn’t sound like a horrible call, but he hated the idea of letting whoever the hell was in their house to stay in their house unchecked. Besides, judging by how quick his brothers were with the chair and the chain he doubted they would follow along with any sort of retreat and retaliate strategy.

Regardless, he wasn’t going to order any of his family to do anything about the intruders. They had people to take care of that. Ezra let the Configure spell on the knife end, loosely gripping the handle as he began channeling a Masterpiece spell. He turned back towards Tuyen. He really hoped this girl knew how to handle herself, because he really doubted their family would be able to recover from being involved in the death of a young girl—they had power, but they weren’t the Kennedys.

“Georgie, just make sure no more lunatics get in here,” said Ezra, stepping to the side to let Tuyen pass by. An orange light passed over the knife, whatever microscopic knicks on the blade fixing themselves to form the perfect cutting edge. Ezra sniffed, steadied his breathing, and continued, “Guess this is your shot at proving yourself qualified to help my family. Try to avoid doing any more damage to the house. Please, after you.”

He gestured towards the door, certain his intentions to follow behind her were crystal clear. Again, couldn’t have someone dying in his house. He dropped the Masterpiece spell he had on himself and was washed in a passing orange glow as he cast Prodigy in its place. The knife felt good in his hand. He flipped it and caught it with ease, ignoring the tightness in his chest as he slashed a Z in the air. As Ezra followed after Tuyen he looked over his shoulder, revealing the dark, tired eyes of a man who was at his wit’s end. A pained expression crossed his face as he said to his family, “I doubt we can top the last funeral. Just let them handle this and stay safe.”

---

Guardian Angel activated once more as the chair smashed harmlessly against his blue aura. Well, harmless for Shane, not so much for the chair which shattered pretty much on impact. He frowned as his aura dissipated and the girl leapt through the portal unscathed, though her friend didn't join thanks to Alexander's chains. He glanced at Alexander who mumbled something, no doubt a threat, to the boy. Though he knew next to nothing about his apparent Russian sibling, that he was able to threaten some kid fairly easily was probably not the best of signs. Shane instead knelt down at the wreckage of the once proud Vanburen chair and picked up the leg that was most intact.

He dropped the leg against his open palm a few times as Trisha and Oscar spoke amongst themselves over the captured impostor.

'Heavy enough...'

A blood curdling roar rocked throughout the estate at that moment, making Shane momentarily pause.

'...Probably gonna shatter on impact against whatever the hell that was.' Shane thought to himself, shutting his eyes for a second in frustration. Perhaps if fortune favoured him he could stick them with the jagged end.

He opened his eyes once more as Georgie reappeared from her pocket world or some such fantastical power Shane only really bothered to remember the basics of. She said the intruders were already in the main hall with some dog like beasts and suggested regrouping in her pocket world. An idea that didn't make any sense to Shane, they weren't entirely sure who their attackers were now and considering the impostor boy didn't look particularly worried about his predicament, it was unlikely they'd learn anything about their intruders from him in Georgie's garden. Besides, they knew where the intruders were right now, better to confront them immediately rather than let them run amok unseen in the house.

The girl, Tuyen, the real one. Seemed poised to go out there and fight them head on. Shane did not bear much confidence in either expert, especially after the encounter with their doppelgangers but at least she was willing to take action. Ezra apparently agreed with this sentiment as he let her pass without reservation and prepared to follow alongside her.

"Let's get to it then." Shane stated plainly, inviting himself along and walking alongside Tuyen and Ezra.

He was going out there regardless, most of his family had a tendency to overestimate themselves but he was the only Vanburen with any real combat experience. While he wasn't carrying a firearm anymore and sure as hell never came across any shapeshifters or magic dogs in his time, he damn sure was not going to sit and hide while a bunch of amateurs tore apart his house.

Besides, he hadn't gotten much chances to test it, it was time to see just how much the Guardian Angel could withstand.

Junior was flung far from his seat as a torrent of water sprung from around the stranger. Who's appearance only confused Junior more than he already was. One second there were two kids yapping on about magic and then suddenly there were twins? then they weren't twins? This is why he stuck to fps games they didn't have any dumb RPG plots like this. His clothes were wet now, and colliding into the wall took his breath away. He gasped for air, and breathed in cold water. A few seconds of coughing his lungs out fixed the problem, and looking up towards his siblings it seemed like they'd already gotten everything sorted... somewhat.

The golden boy Ezra was waving a glowing stick around like it was scary, while his family and the 'real' experts threw down and did all the real work. Props to the Russian though, man was like Rambo with those magic chains and hooked one of the invaders down, but the other got away, so he'd only get half points for that.

Junior got a good look in at the boy, skinny, dumb hair, emotionally stunted. Yeah he's probably a Vanburen too by the looks of it- AH HEY WAIT A MINUTE. Junior realised that this was the kid who shot him with water.

"That bitch." he shouted, rougher than how he usually spoke from choking on water. Junior rose to his feet, scooping up his football and unceremoniously chucking it at the boy's head as he strode towards him. He screamed unpleasantries until a deafening roar crackled through the corridors of the house.

Junior stumbled back, forgetting what he was doing. The inhumane sounds made his blood curdle and his mind emptied like a deer in headlights."The hell is that?! he shouted at no one in particular, though his eyes darted between Shane, Ezra and the weird kid chained up on the floor. Searching for any answer they could provide.

Georgie fell through a hole of her own making, back from her garden which she escaped to throughout the whole thing. "Way to go. Sis." Junior thought, the spectacle not impressing him in the slightest. Then that lack of admiration turned to one of shock as his siblings and the strangers alike decided to head on and fight more of the attackers that had been found. Attackers with magic dogs... Fuck, where was LeBeau. Was he okay?

"You're all crazy I hope you know that!" Junior shouted after his family, some of the more heavy-handed siblings had already rushed off to the other room to fight the unknown assailants. Junior just sighed at the stupidity of his family. Although... being alone in a room was just as dangerous, he realised- so not wanting to be the last person left in the main hall, he darted forwards along with his family.

Switching on his ability just to be safe, building up the power to make him less obvious.. more invisible.

It didn't hurt to be careful, and his power couldn't help him fight- so he might as well make use of it.

Justin didn't even wait for a response from the housemaid, with everything that was going on around him he had to spring into action immediately. Tuyen wanted to go face them head-on, so did a few other old-timers. Now, a few years ago Justin would have been all for it, but truly he didn't feel comfortable rushing into a fight where he didn't exactly know where all the fighters were. Eh, fuck it, they handled an eldritch-horror before using nothing but faith as an armor. He shook his head at Tuyen as she asked him the question, his eyes drifted towards chain-boy who seemed a bit too comfortable with threatening a kid (ironic coming from a nineteen-year-old). Then his eyes drifted back towards Tuyen.

"... It seems like that's handled."

Justin was still a scrub and didn't know any interrogation techniques, so he was probably better suited elsewhere. Such as being a hammer in a world of nails, though that would be difficult when his abstraction was off. Maybe this trusty chair leg of his would be more than useful, or he would just get flattened, but hey, at least he tried. He shivered as he tried to shake the water off of him before he just fucking conceded and unbuttoned this suit jacket that he had on and tossed it to the ground. Followed by the button up that he had on underneath it, and he was pretty much left in a tank top that he had on underneath it. Justin wished that he had a better body to show off but at the moment that was pretty low on the priority scale.

That suit was trashed, and his mother was gonna kill him - but he was definitely not going to say that around all these rich people. He had nothing but a chair leg and hope as he marched up to Tuyen's side - he kind of missed what half of the discussion actually was. He looked back at the family, a little kid said that they were all crazy for wanting to defend their property. Some part of this home invasion hit home to Justin, he didn't know why. Maybe it was his inner-patriarch tugging at him like hooks, urging him to go fight to protect his home from intruders. As he looked back, the rest of the Vanburens seemed to content with staying behind.

"If you all cared about this place," Justin started, "You'd protect it too."

However, it seemed that it was up to these four. He wasn't sure how much fighting experience a bunch of cushy rich kids has but hey, don't judge a book by its cover. They probably had more life experience than Justin, but he had the experience of fighting an eldritch horror and not getting his mind broken! Unfortunately, the fight was brought directly to them when the beast crashed through the wall in a huge explosion of debris. Fuck, fuck, fuck!

Not good.

Justin kicked over a nightstand and ducked behind it, not wanting to take his chances with his abstraction shut off. He still had this table leg in hand but he wanted to make sure that the rest of the Vanburens were safe before he rushed in. He could probably take at least one of them out but they seemed to be after the guy that they captured. Perfect. Justin snuck around with the table leg as he waited for his moment.

---

A disgusting blob of water and snot came out of Sabrina's nose in a very unladylike fashion as she coughed up the rest of the water that was in her mouth. LeBeau loudly meowed as the proud creature scrambled to get traction on the wet hardwood floor before he finally darted off. Sabrina coughed a few times as she managed to force herself to her feet and shivered. Thankfully the heat was on but she was not happy righ-

A sheet of cloth covered her from head to toe, floating above her as a shield that protected her from sight from the right of the Vanburens. She was confused for a second before that little passenger she had with spoke to her,

"Hold still, love," She heard the voice of Mary Roberts, in that honestly over-the-top accent, "Unless you want them to get a show."

A part of Sabrina was still coming to terms with a ghost inhabiting her clothes, being able to dress and undress her at will. However, she was willing to trust the ghost, only because she adored the ability that she offered... and what was the worst that could happen? The clothes that she was wearing that was soaked dropped off of her body, seemingly split down the middle, and fell onto the ground. It made an unsatisfying splat as Sabrina felt really uncomfortable until Mary Roberts weaved a brand new outfit for the gal - Merely a black dress.

The sheet went down and Sabrina caught sight of Georgie unleashing holy hell down a hallway with her Garden... an abstraction that she was only barely familiar with herself. Again, she was still coming to terms with the fact that all of her siblings had these strange and fantastic powers, maybe that was why she was at least kind of comfortable with Mary Roberts. That was before she said some things and ducked into the Garden... which Sabrina didn't think was that great of an idea. Though Georgie was likely not going to pay her elder sister any mind, and speaking to her would be a waste of her time. Trisha sent her minions forward as Shane, Ezra, and their two experts seemed ready to go rush into a fight - though she could see the look of worry on the boy's face hidden behind confidence. All of this was crazy.

The girl's heart was racing already, what did these people even want? Surely it wasn't to kill them? A part of Sabrina wanted to negotiate with them but maybe caving into everyone's demands was not a good idea. Trisha sent her minions forward and Junior shouted, and hearing the boy's voice irritated her to no end. She grits her teeth before she turned towards him, but suddenly her interest in him faded and she paid no thought to it.... unfortunately, the fight came to the Vanburens when the beast suddenly burst through the wall and suddenly there was a monster in the room.

Sabrina shrieked as she ducked under the remains of the table with her hands covering her head. She was about to take off out the door as she was hoping that one of them would swoop in and save the day. However, Sabrina knew that she had to reach inside of herself and try to pull some type of courage. Because the fight was here, right in front of them, she had to protect somebody, make this ability of hers useful. Her mind went back to that little shit as she quickly ran towards the door, she couldn't find him anywhere.

"J-Junior!" Sabrina shouted over the chaos. "Where are you?!"

---

"Do what you want, I'm not saying anything!" Daniel shouted in response at Alexander, defiantly despite the odds... maybe he thought it was an empty threat because surely the child of such a magnanimous man would not hurt him. Daniel chuckled as he (seemingly) taunted Alexander with a completely straight face. Saying, "If you're gonna put something inside of me, at least take me to dinner." Completely flatly, as if it was nothing.

Meanwhile, down the hall, the trio was still rushing headfirst towards the danger and then this weird looking thing ran up towards them. The three cultists looked at the weird thing with a tilted head, even the hell-hounds were confused. Morgana didn't like the look of the thing, so she ran up and kicked the thing with her steel-toe boot as hard as she could. The stupid fucking thing was sent flying down the hallway and Morgana chuckled for a second... of course, when she saw where it landed, it brought the huge fucking portal to their attention.

Morgana's eyes opened widely when she looked at the gaping maw of the portal that was before her. Before it unleashed hell on them all - a petal came by and slashed her shoulder, cutting through her robe entirely. She shrieked as she grabbed her shoulder and loudly whistled, "Here boy!" She shouted as her other hand materialized some chains which she wrapped around another dog. "Lay down, boy!" Morgana shouted as she used the dogs as a barrier not just from the petals, but from sight.

She knelt as she released the chains from the two dogs and wrapped one hand's worth of chains around the singular hell-hound. She eyed a door and narrowed her eyes as she pointed forward and shouted, "Go, boy!" The Hell-Hound rushed through the door and brought a chunk of the wall down as Morgana and her two cultists ran in after him.

"The fuck is your plan here?!" Penelope asked as she looked at Morgana.

"Just follow my lead!" Morgana shouted.

"I'm tryna' figure out what the fuck your lead even is-" Penelope tried to question before Morgana gave her a rough idea.

"Go, boy!" Morgana shouted again as she pointed towards another wall and then the hell-hound charged forward through the wall. It created an explosion of debris, a dust cloud that Morgana, unfortunately, couldn't see through... however, she held her hand up as she was hoping she didn't kill Daniel counting on the Vanburens directing most of their firepower towards the Hellhound that just charged in.

In the (very, very, stupid) distraction that Morgana created, Daniel utilized his other abstraction. Alexander most likely didn't see the sigil glowing on Daniel's back. His arm began glowing with an orange heat as the intense heat traveled down the chain, probably forcing Alexander to let go of him.

---

“Gerogie, just make sure no more lunatics get in here.”

Georgie wasn't quite alright with Ezra telling her to keep the intruders out, but if everyone wanted a death wish instead of the safest option, then so be it. She only had a minute or so for her portal to stay up anyway. Her plan was to let everyone who wanted to fight leave the room, then barricade the door and escape through the servant's entrance, but that plan went tits up when the beast rammed into the dining room wall. She lowered her portal, her time was up, and ducked behind a marble statue on the opposite wall in the hallway. Bits of the wall flew near her, but the worse of it was scattered in the dining room. The debris and dust it hard for her to see which of her siblings were okay, made worse by the beast breathing fire.

"Is everyone okay?!"

Not only were they attacked in their own home, but it's possible it'll be taken down by flames. Georgie couldn't do anything against fire. The Garden told her that was it's weakness. She could do something from a distance, maybe a smaller concentrated portal, but that's about it.

"J-Junior! Where are you?!" She heard Sabrina over the flames yelling for Alexander.

The kid's a bother, but she knew this wasn't the place for a child He was either still in the room or he sneaked out. Hopefully it was the latter and he wasn't anywhere near the blast and debris. New plan, find the boy and get him to safety. She doesn't have faith that her siblings would be able to handle this on their own, most of them were hopeless, but they're not her problem and she'll see them on the other side of this conflict when it was over.

"Alexander! Answer us! We need to go!" Georgie hadn't thought about the older brother she didn't know existed.

Junior knew she was talking to him, because she never called him Junior; thought it's the dumbest name she's ever heard. This kid better respond.

---

---

Before Tuyen even got a chance to step out a door, or respond to Ezra’s comments about proving themselves (which didn’t have her anxiety shoot up at all), a massive beast crashed through the wall.

One minute she was preparing to go deal with whatever it was, the next she was choking on a cloud of debris and narrowly avoiding getting hit by it. The dust that had come off it clung to her wet clothes and hair, which she was seriously regretting not tying back when wet strands hit her face. Fuck.

This situation just kept getting worse.

She didn’t give herself time to think, because thinking alway led her mind down dark paths that had her confidence wavering. The dust cloud obscured her vision, but not enough that she couldn’t make out the massive figure of the hellhound. She doubted there wouldn’t be more- but that was their immediate problem.

She glanced at Justin, who was positioning himself with a chair leg. She didn’t know what the Vanburen’s could do so… she was probably the only one with an abstraction that could at least reach the size of this thing.

We just have to show that thing that we’re scarier than it, yeah?

She directed her thoughts towards the Shadow as if it would listen to her, or entirely understand. But she was beginning to get better at… manipulating it as it did her, even if she didn’t have complete control over it.

Can’t have something else scaring me more.

Tuyen stepped forward towards the hellhound that had crashed through the wall as her shadow grew in size until it was the same height, if not a bit taller, as the creature. It took on a monstrous form, crouched over with shadowed spikes running down its back and long claws. Once in reach it swiped at the hellhound, aiming to rake its claws across its face.

"Ugh." Alexander recoiled at the disgusting remarks that their captive threw at him, who seemed to be view being entangled in chains to be an erogenous affair. However, that did not change the fact that Alex really, really, really hated this kid, and tightened the chains in response to the madman's vomit inducing statements. "Don't think I won't punch that smug little face of yours, or bash your head in.", he growled at Daniel, phasing through him just to get behind the wiccan. "It would be my pleasure to do so." With that, he tightened the chains even more. He had just a bad mood today and all of this was making it worse.

Surely enough, though, a massive beast crashed through the wall, creating a plume of smoke. He heard his name being called, but knowing that he barely knew his half siblings, he ignored it, instead focusing his attention on Daniel, who was still in shackles.

"You're not going anywhere.", Alexander grumbled to the young wiccan as he began to forcibly drag him towards the front door. What happened next was completely unexpected, as his chains began to heat up in an instant. It quickly became too hot to bear, and Alexander dematerialized his chains, looking up at the Spectre, who was still floating around him like some guardian angel. The entity shrugged as it pointed towards Daniel, whose arm was glowing orange. Of course he was.

Alexander groaned in the pain of the heat, looking at Daniel with total annoyance. "One of these days, I'm going to attach a scythe on these chains." He would then momentarily turn to a ghost before reappearing with a brand new pair of chains, intending to wrap them anywhere on Daniel's body. If that failed, then Alexander will use his unarmed combat training to punch and kick Daniel to oblivion. There will be no escape!



This was the worst day ever.

One thing happened after another. Everyone in the family is turning to statues, they hired some experts, there were imposters, there was a tidal wave, and... there was a weird ass cult prowling inside the mansion of their late father. And they had dogs. Very big dogs. From hell. Oh right. Hellhounds. Screw those things.

"This is the weirdest family reunion I have ever seen.", Ray sighed as he looked on at the Hellhound with a seemingly unfazed expression. He was not one to be given over to rage, or to despair, at least for most of the time. It would even seem for a moment that he was trying to stare down the creature to submission, as he did not move an inch. Even when his clothes were dripping wet from the tidal wave from earlier, he was stalwart and true, immovable as the earth itself.

Earth...

As soon as Tuyen's Shadow had grown to match the Hellhound, Ray sprung into action. He had noticed that Alexander had been unsuccessful in trying to keep the wiccan boy in their custody, and he in response stomped his right foot on the ground, at which a crawling wave of stone began to creep towards Daniel's feet, intending to strike him with a pillar of rock that would emerge from the earthen floor, or at the very least throw him off balance. He then looked towards the Hellhound, and the Shadow that was matching it size for size. Concentrating, Ray would cause several rocks to be bored out of the floor, which he then sent flying towards the Hellhound at a high speed. These were no ordinary rocks either; they were rather sharp.

And then... he winced. This power hurts to use...

---

Shane had to brace as his body collided against the wall from the Hellhound's sudden arrival. Its proximity to Shane and the surprise of it crashing through the wall didn't give Shane enough time to activate his abstraction, throwing him back violently with the dust and debris. As he sat, coughing, he felt mild surprise at not having broken his neck.

"Getting real fucking tired of these guys." He muttered as he struggled back to his feet. The dust obscured most of the room but he did finally get a good look at the Hellhound, being all that its name would imply. He also got a good look at the... Thing, Tuyen was using to battle the Hound as well as Raymond ruining the dining room further by manipulating the earth itself to send at the kid and the dog.

'Whoever was left the Estate in the will is gonna be pissed. Shane dryly noted to himself, picking up his somehow even less impressive chair leg. Whilst none of Shane's bones were broken, hopefully, the chair leg certainly was. Split at the middle which was mitigated only by the semi-usable splinter filled point on one half.

Shane limped slightly forward, he couldn't make out some of his siblings but he could hear their voices. Georgie asking if everyone was alright, as though she gave a shit. Sabrina yelling desperately for Junior. Fuck, Junior. Kid may have had an abstraction and Shane may about as pleasant as a root canal but he still didn't want something to happen to the boy. He barely made out Georgie joining in the search for the youngest Vanburen, which set Shane's mind slightly more at ease.

Regardless he was not in the best shape to go looking for any of his siblings. Besides, the punks that did this had been only so kind as to play their hand first. Picking up some speed, Shane moved through the dust, making out the hulking figure of yet another Hellhound stood next to two more human shaped figures, standing in the hole created by the first beast. While the Hellhound that bored the hole in the wall was preoccupied with Tuyen and Raymond, Shane instead turned his attention to the shadows slowly walking into the room in the commotion.

Throwing caution to the wind and in not too great a state to charge over there, Shane gripped the broken chair leg and tossed it point first at the head, or his best guess, at the shadowed figure of the second Hellhound. Immediately he got acknowledgement that his target had been met as the beast roared in annoyance rather than pain, and charged towards Shane with its teeth bared. Shane, only by mere seconds, activated his abstraction right as the beast's head slammed into him and it attempted to clamp its jaws down on his body, only to realise that Shane stood defiantly on the floor and that its teeth could not pierce the blue sheen around him and pierce into his flesh.

The Hellhound looked up to see Shane's free hand raise above his head and come crashing down in a fist onto the Hellhound. The initial blow was barely felt at all by the beast, but the immediately following kinetic blast of its own force crashing down instantaneously onto the Hellhound's skull was felt very vividly. The Hellhound, barely off the ground as it was, slammed down onto the previously proud and polished hardwood flooring with a reverberating thud and a yelp. The Hellhound lay dazed, its jaw still hanging open from both the force and its attempted feasting on the Vanburen.

Shane shook his hand in slight pain, Guardian Angel or no he still slammed it against the skull of a big lumbering beast, and looked up at the shadows that could only be the Cultists.

"What do you little pricks even want?!" He yelled, surrounded by the flames and the ruins of the dining hall, they were nothing if not persistent Shane had to concede to them.

Daniel created a fire in one hand and water in the other as he ducked under the chain sent to him. He got ready to retaliate with a mixture of water and fire bending, however, he was knocked off balance by the stone pillar sent his way and fell over and hit the ground with a thud. Today was not a great day for Daniel, and the jagged chains that he felt dig into his skin made that even worse...

Morgana's plan was going amazingly, all of the attention was being brought upon her dogs instead of the three. The shadow's smack went across the dog's face and it sent burning spit across the room. The Hell-Hound was about to retaliate before it let out a hellish howl when the stone spikes penetrated his body. Nobody fucks with the dogs. She thought to herself as she saw the one dog that wasn't in the engagement... she stuck two fingers in her mouth, whistled to get its attention, and gave it a quick command, "Here boy!" The dog came running over.

She summoned her chains, made sure that it was extra long as she wrapped it around the beast's neck before she turned towards Penelope. "... Where's Daniel?" Then she pointed in his general direction and she got a good idea of where he was because of the dust fading. Morgana quickly shot a chain towards his legs and it wrapped itself around his leg, unintentionally binding him.... also stabbing him because the chains were thorny and all that, but she was certain that Thea would fix that.

"What do you little pricks even want?!"

"Hmph," Morgana turned her head towards Shane as she flipped him off, "We're just here to recover some stolen property! So do us a favor and fuck off!" Morgana whistled to get the Dog's attention as she pointed in a direction and shouted,

"Go!" On cue, the Hell-Hound jetted off back towards the deeper parts of the Vanburen Manor... dragging Daniel by a chain along with them. This wasn't the most comfortable thing for Daniel, in fact, it was really painful as he hit his torso against an exposed pipe. When Daniel jetted past them, the two stared at the spectacle with wide eyes before Penelope screamed at her leader.

"... MORGANA WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!"

"Shut up," Morgana shouted, "And make a cover!"

"Jesus Christ..." Penelope hissed underneath her breath as she nodded her head at Maxine. She could tell the smile from underneath her mask as her hands - specifically the rings around her fingers - began to glow with a red light and sigils appeared. Penelope sighed as the two girls raised their hands into the air at the same time and created a great and powerful wall of fire. One that obscured their movements as Morgana loudly whistled and shouted.

"Here boys!" The two dogs perked up at the request and the one that was taking the brunt of the damage dived in, still with the stone spikes impaling its body. However, the one injured by Shane couldn't recover that fast and shook its head as forced itself to its feet and awkwardly limped over to the fire.

However, the dogs weren't the only thing to jump through the fire as Justin decided to enact his very, very, crazy idea at the firestorm. The Vanburens probably thought he was crazy... and he was counting on this crazy, cult thinking the same thing. This was a new test of his abstraction because Justin never did anything like this before, and was hoping that his immunity to fire still worked while he was wet. It seems like it was now or never as Justin just dove through the fire and there was that fear that he would give himself fourth-degree burns. Then he touched the fire, it was warm and kind of comforting, but not once did he feel as if he was in danger of being burned.

It ended as quickly as it began and Justin made it to the other side with a roll... steaming from the water that evaporated off his body. He had a cocky grin on his face as he did a little check and balled his fist, which exploded into a torch-like flame. Ooooooh boy.

Justin was back.

---

---

"One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret,
Never to be told..." a girl whispered, counting as she looked out the window from the back of a taxi. Her voice was low, faltering as she went.

Eight for a wish,
Nine for a kiss,
Ten a surprise you should be careful not to miss,
Eleven for health,
Twelve for wealth..." she paused, gulping as a lump formed in her chest.
Thirteen beware it’s the devil himself...." Aileen finished, choking up. She watched a flock of black and white birds cawing as they flew toward the Vanburen Mansion. Black clouds were billowing over the horizon and raindrops began to fall. This was a very ominous day indeed.

---

The driver drove through the gate and then pulled around the cul de sac, dropping Aileen off by the front entrance. She paid her thanks, fare, and tip, before getting out. She waved, then walked up to the door, taking a deep breath and expecting the worst. With a creak, she opened the door and walked inside, the door slamming behind her.

"Brothers and sisters, Aileen's home! Sorry a'm late..." she called out, trailing off as she looked cautiously around. The bad feeling in the pit of her stomach was getting worse. In the distance, she could swear there were sounds of breaking and crashing. She sniffed, smelling a fine wisp of smoke. Something must have happened at the meeting with the investigators--and she was going to find out what.

---

Aileen arrived at the scene, choking and coughing as she crawled over the rubble. Familiar and unfamiliar voices were shouting, and unnatural barks and howls were resounding throughout the building. Some places were drowned in water, and others engulfed in flame. "What is going in 'ere? she coughed, heading for the hellish barking, where there was bound to be trouble.

Alexander grinned in glee as the stone pillar that emerged out of the floor threw Daniel out of balance, readying his chains to tie down the wiccan once again, for real this time. He was about to wrap the green, glowing chains of dark magic around the young man when the unexpected happened; a woman, the leader of the cultists by the looks of it, had thrown her own chains into the fray, hitting Daniel with them… except that they had spikes on them and pricked the kid at the back. Alexander winced at the sight as he hesitated; true, he wanted to keep him prisoner for questioning, but even he wouldn't go as far as stick him with a spike chain, and certainly would not want to drag him along the ground while riding a massive hellhound. And… ouch… did he just hit an exposed pipe? If that boy had been unable to escape from his shackles, Alexander would have simply given him a knockout punch, but that seemed to be out of the equation as the two cultist girls erected a fire wall to cover their escape.

Sighing, Alexander simply turned to the Apparition that was always with him, the Spectre. He did not even acknowledge Justin jumping into the flames; he just had enough of this whole day, and simply wanted to get this entire shabang done.

That wouldn't be the end of it, as it seemed that they had a late sibling to the show. Her name was Aileen, apparently, and she would see Alexander just leaning on the wall of the destroyed dining room, seemingly oblivious to the wall of fire. He was just done with everything. "Oh, hi, another sister, I guess." He waved at Aileen, and then looked at the fire with a completely tired expression. "Worst. Reunion. Ever."



Ray stared into the wall of fire, gazing at the exact spot where Justin had crashed into the flames. He felt a little dazed from using his Abstraction, but he still had a lot of fight left in him, especially as these crazy wiccans had destroyed their house and showed blatant disregard for the safety of one of their own, letting him hit an exposed pipe on the floor whilst unceremoniously dragging his body across the floor with spiked chains. "Crazy bastard.", he simply said as he looked at Justin, whose hand was now a fiery mess.

The man scoffed, brushing off the dust off his jacket as he began to concentrate on his Abstraction once again. These crazy wiccans had done more than their fair amount of damage to this mansion, and he couldn't care less if they were here for what they called stolen property. After all, James had probably stolen a lot more than just the unwitting hearts of unsuspecting women from all over. Trinkets, artifacts, maybe. But they had threatened everyone's safety, and for that, they must be punished.

Too bad, though. Ray was not fireproof, not like Justin, and his Terrakinesis is yet to be advanced enough to be able to douse out the fire wall by causing the floor to eat itself… if that makes any sense. He would have to do this the hard way.

Putting a foot forward, a pair of rock slabs were bored out of the floor, which he would then set upon the blaze in attempt to extinguish them. Raymond was not pleased. He is ready to throw hands; literally.

---

---

Aileen made it over the pile of debris and out of the smoke into a clearing, where she got back to her feet. After taking a moment to rub the tears and grit out of her eyes, she saw who must have been one of her brother's returning for the reunion and the meeting with the investigators. He seemed surprisingly calm despite the chaos going around him.

"Oh, em... 'ello!" Aileen waved back with a friendly but curious smile. She then followed the man's gaze to a veil of fire. And through the veil, she three monstrous hellhounds--the source of the hellish howling. And behind them, there were three silhouettes. Because, of course, trouble always comes in threes. She readied herself in a fighting stance, and her eyes narrowed and brow furrowed, as now was the time to get down to business. As she activated her abstraction, her eyes and the Sigil on her shoulder began to glow. "Looks like I missed a lot while I was out, eh."

For now, she would hold back. There appeared to be somebody on the other side of the fire opposing the intruders, and she didn't want to risk them getting caught in the crossfire, as fighting at a distance is much more difficult when you are colorblind. Unfortunately, she had no way to put out the fire, but one of her brothers was working at that. Gradually the fire was being choked by well-placed stone slabs. Even if he could not put out the whole fire, they would have a path across, and Aileen would be ready...

Not many things ruffled Ezra. Not visibly, anyway. When his wife told him she was leaving he had only nodded his head as if he had anticipated it. When his father was found dead on Christmas morning he hardly reacted at all outside of perhaps the merest twitch on his lip. He rarely jumped at loud noises or cheap movie scares. The few times someone took a swing at him in anger he even managed to no-sell the hit. So when a giant hellhound burst through the dining room wall, destroyed the fireplace, and sent ash scattering across the room all Ezra did was raise his eyebrows, tighten his grip on the knife, blink, and thanked God that he didn’t shit himself.

A whirlwind of action unfolded around him, which gave him ample time to subtly step back and away from the fighting. If he was cowering he didn’t show it. Ezra stood with his back against the wall and arms folded, tapping the blade of the knife against his shoulder. If anything it appeared as if he was observing and analyzing his family, their supernatural experts, and the psychopaths that had raided his house. It was hard not to only focus on Tuyen’s shadow or Shane as they boxed with a couple of demon dogs, but Ezra forced himself to look beyond them to the three hooded figures who had stepped in behind the big distraction.

It became apparent that the one in the middle was calling the shots. Ezra took a couple of slow steps off of his security wall and felt the weight of the knife in his hand. Normally chef’s knives weren’t meant to be thrown, but a Masterpiece operated out of the realm of normalcy. It was perfectly balanced and wonderfully sharp. He tossed the knife and caught it by the dull side of the blade. It wouldn’t even be a challenge to sling it across the room and bury it into the ringleader’s heart. With the slightest hint of a smirk he lifted his hand, lined up the shot, and nearly got knocked down as a chained up Daniel was dragged past him.

By the time Ezra corrected himself, a wall of flames had emerged between him and the dog whisperer one of the others had called Morgana. He made a note of trying to commit the other person’s voice to memory. Justin leapt through the flames after the intruders, but to Ezra the most immediate threat was the house fire. Raymond was beginning to smother the flames with stones—stones that he got by tearing up Ezra’s goddamn floor. There was more than one reason why Ezra had wanted his family to leave it up to the experts.

Ezra heaved a sigh, shook his head, walked over to the overturned table, picked up one of the unbroken chairs, and sat down. He flicked his eyes over at Aileen, who had arrived late and almost looked eager to throw herself at all of the pishy caca the moment the fire was tamed. Ezra ran his hands through his hair, rolled his neck, and then chucked the knife across the room. It soared straight through the air before burying itself harmlessly into the wall near Raymond, far away enough to not seem threatening but close enough to get his attention. Ezra cleared his throat.

“Raymond, I appreciate you taking initiative, but maybe we can assign this to someone better suited for fighting fires. Wouldn’t you agree, Oscar?” said Ezra, turning and glaring with sunken eyes at his brother who could literally create water. His spell faded on the knife as he shifted in his chair, bracelet glowing a slight orange as he began to channel the spell back on himself. “The rest of you, please realize that this house is very old. Obviously defend yourself, but don’t bring the roof down while we’re all on the inside. It kind of...defeats the purpose.”

Arabelle remained in her position by the wall, but she kept her eyes on the situation in the dining room while minding the hallway too. If the imposter’s friends were still out there, they could be anywhere. The real Justin asked her how many there were, and if they had any weapons. Arabelle shook her head. She had no idea, but she could find out.

She pressed her back against the wall again and pulled out her pocket mirror. Her eyes focused on the mirror. Each time she blinked, she was looking out of a different mirror in the manor. The bathroom was empty. The rooms upstairs were empty. She was just about to check the main hall when the terrifyingly loud roars broke her focus. She came back to reality just in time to see the deer skull from the bathroom standing in the main foyer, and the figure was leading three large beasts their way.

Arabelle’s eyes widened and she turned to duck back into the dining room. She moved her way further into it, past Ezra and Tuyen’s stand off, past Alexander and fake Justin’s tussle, and towards the mirror that hung over the mantle. She certainly wouldn’t be able to fight off these intruders. Not unless she could sneak up behind them with a crowbar or bat. That would mean making her way to the storage room in the kitchen.

Ezra, Tuyen, and Shane both left the room. Arabelle stepped forwards to grab Junior before he could run into the danger, but he quickly hid himself before she could. “Junior, wait!” Arabelle huffed in frustration. She looked at those left in the room, and then at Justin as he spoke. Arabelle frowned. Of course she cared about this house. Why else would she still work here?

She decided to go after Junior. He didn’t need to risk his life for this house. He was too young to experience this. She’d just grab him and take him somewhere safe through the closest mirror. Probably all of the way back to her apartment. She just needed to find him before the beasts did.

Then the beast came through the wall.

Arabelle reacted fast. She flung her arms up in front of her to save her face from any scratches or cuts. She was pelted with bits of wood and insulation, but there were only a few scratches on her forearms where the pieces cut through her cardigan. The moment the debris settled, she turned her back to the beast. Before it could make a move on them, Arabelle pulled the mirror down from the mantle and climbed through it. She felt awful to leave the others behind, but she knew there wasn’t time to get them out. She needed to find Junior.

Arabelle emerged from a mirror on the opposite side of the manor. She climbed out carefully, her feet landing on the top of a dresser before she lowered herself to the ground. As she moved towards the door she listened for any voices or movements outside of the room. It was strangely quiet, despite the chaos on the other end of the manor. When she cracked the door open, she saw no sign of an intruder. She slipped out into the hallway and walked into the closest room with a fireplace, James’s study. She walked over to the set of fire irons and pulled the shovel piece from its stand. It wasn’t the best weapon, but it would do.

Just as she was heading towards the door she heard voices outside. She ducked behind the door so that it would hide her if they came in. Her hands gripped the iron shovel tightly. Hopefully they would just move on.

"Ah yes, you missed quite a lot.", Alexander coughed with irritation as he moved away from the wall that he had been leaning on. "I just start getting to know my half siblings, and suddenly some crazy chain fetishists and witches come around and, and, and, what, start ruining everything because of... what was it, stolen property?" If these people had a slight against James Vanburen, and were breaking into the place to retrieve some kind of magical trinket, Alex was just... hmmm... out of it. He had no care about James at all, or at least that was what he told himself, and couldn't care less if one of his amulets were taken by some wiccan.

Except that these were wiccans, and were up to no good, if they were looking for a magical artifact. He had watched enough movies and series on magic to see that when someone was looking for an old object, they were probably going to use it for evil purposes.

"Hey, Ezra.", Alexander said to Ezra, turning only his head to face the man. "Any idea on what these people could regard as stolen property amongst our father's collection? Sounds like he pissed off a lot of people in life, huh.."




"Don't worry about the floor, Ezziekels.", Ray answered with the rather... affectionate nickname that he had always used to refer to his older half brother. As some of the flames had been doused out by the stone slabs that he bored out of the floor, he returned the rocks to their original positions in the floor, making it seem that they were never removed from in there in the first place. Instead, the stone floor was completely whole again, though much of the fire wall was still raging in an infernal display of magic.

He then turned to Oscar as he gathered some of the stray rocks that the hellhound had scattered unto the floor, coating his hands and shoes in earthen materials. "You can deal with this fire, Oscie." He then entered into a fighting stance, causing his earth covered feet to slide on the floor by using his terrakinesis, moving at a rather quick pace to go towards the other side of the wall of flames to chase the hellhounds and their owners. They need answers, and he would like to bash it right out of someone's face.

---

---

Tuyen automatically recoiled from the massive wall of fire, even as her shadow reached out its claws towards the dog limping away. Before it could get far the intense heat started burning Tuyen’s hand. She bit out a curse, backing away from the fire. With her came the shadow, forced away from the fire and further injuring Tuyen. She could already feel the exhaustion that came with it being active like this but didn’t ask for it to go away - she just needed to get past that fire, and then maybe… she could chase after them.

“Justin, you-” Her eyes widened when Justin leapt into the fire, lips opening to call him an idiot because for all his fire powers he really shouldn’t just leapt into a fucking magical fire wall. She cut herself off before she could get any further because that would be really unprofessional and they were already on thin ice as “experts.”

Thankfully he ended up unharmed, and she let out a sigh of relief when she saw his hand explode into flame on the other side. If he had his abstraction back that meant she could rest a little bit. His was much more reliable than her own. He could handle going after the intruders. She’d do damage control here. She shook her head and shouted over the fire towards him (hoping it would get across), “Justin, I'll stay here and make sure nothing happens, you should go after them.”

She was fairly certain that was his plan anyway but... It was best to make sure.

Wouldn’t you agree, Oscar?”

Oscar was shocked out of the static state he’d been in, staring after the hellhounds with a gaze sparked with curiosity. Oh how we wanted to know just how they worked. Where did they come from? But he turned his attention to Ezra and then the raging fire that another brother was ripping up the house to put it out. He gave a somewhat lazy smile.
“I’ve got it.”

Thankfully even with the fire there was still a lot of residual water around, in his siblings clothing and beginning to evaporate in the air. He narrowed his eyes as he drew all the water towards himself, before beginning to splash it on the fire. It was much faster going than the earth slabs being put over it and much less damaging.

While the fire was being put out, Tuyen took a moment to collect herself. The shadow disappeared from everyone else’s view, returning to something closer to normal to her. She wanted to go after the group with Justin now that there was a path, but she was already drained enough.

“Mr Vanburen,” she said as she approached Ezra, who was clearly the one in charge. She smiled politely at him, and then nodded to Alexander. “My, uh, partner should try to go after them. I take it you haven’t seen these,” she paused, trying to come up with the right words, “invaders before? Do you have any idea what they might be after?”

She assumed the answer would be no. She turned her head to where the fire was being put out. They would be able to get through soon enough. Though she was defenceless now that her shadow had gone dormant and wasn’t confident she could convince it to help her again. Thankfully she was good at not letting any of these worries show, her smile that didn’t reach her eyes well practiced.

“Anywhere they might go within this manor?”

"Hey, Ezra. Any idea on what these people could regard as stolen property amongst our father's collection? Sounds like he pissed off a lot of people in life, huh," said Alexander.

Ezra, annoyed but maintaining his composure due to Raymond calling him by that embarrassing nickname, turned and placed an arm over the back of the shoulder so he could get a better look at Alexander. As he turned, his Masterpiece spell on himself finished and the signs of stress evaporated from his skin. Had James pissed off a lot of people in his life? Undoubtedly. Ezra imagined that a fair number of them would be their mothers, especially considering how close some of his half-siblings were in age. Seriously, had dad been picking up women at the diaper parties? Ezra gripped the bridge of his nose: his dad’s game was the last thing he ever wanted to think about.

“I would take the things people who dress up in robes and animal masks say with a grain of salt, Alexander,” said Ezra, still rubbing the bridge of his nose. Was some of the things James owned stolen? Maybe, but Ezra didn’t know about them if that was the case. He couldn’t see his dad dressing up in a black jumpsuit and dipping beneath security lasers to nab a hot commodity like some kind of cat burglar, but it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine a scenario where James had inadvertently purchased a stolen art piece from a less-than-legal dealer. More likely, Morgana was either a “rah-rah the rich all stole from the poor” type to justify being a criminal or she had just been lying.

Thankfully, as Ezra spoke Raymond had stopped tearing up the house and Oscar used his magic to douse the flames in water—only for Raymond to take the opportunity to glide across the floor after the creeps. Ezra sat up in his chair, let out an exasperated sigh, and sunk back down. What was going to be a bigger headache: dealing with a repairman in the house all week, or coming up with a convincing enough lie as to how all of this damage had happened in the first place? He began making a mental list of who he’d have to call as Tuyen approached him.

“ I take it you haven’t seen these invaders before?” she asked. Oh, had it been obvious that his family was prepared to be attacked by a bunch of creepy cultists and their oversized hell dogs? Ezra scoffed and folded his arms, not even dignifying the question with a response. “Do you have any idea what they might be after? Anywhere they might go within this manor?”

“Maybe there’s some spare cash or jewelry laying around, but everything really of any value is either in the bank or in a stock portfolio,” said Ezra. He rubbed his chin and squinted as he thought of what else they might possibly be after. “Actually, there is James’ artifact collection. Most of it looks like junk, really, but a few of the items might be valuable. There’s a gallery past the ballroom, near the study. If you think it is safe, Arabelle can show...”

He really wouldn’t have sent their maid out into the mansion while there were maniacs running amok, but delegating a relatively small task to her was basically a habit at this point. Ezra glanced around to find the woman, standing so he could get a view through the hole in the wall. As far as he could tell, both Arabelle and Junior were missing. He let out a hmph and looked down at Tuyen, “I can show you where it is.”

"What the fuck?!"

Penelope shouted out of surprise because she wasn't expecting this crazy motherfucker to burst through the wall of fire- Magic. She internally seethed as she stuck her hand out to hit him with her abstraction... only to notice the earth slabs hitting their fire. Morgana saw Justin and realized that he probably had a fire abstraction, but... she slid her fingers in between her lips as she loudly whistled. Getting the attention of one of the Hellhounds. "Sic him, boy!"

The Hellhound charged Justin head-on and he barely even flinched as the thing opened its maw and tried to bite him. With his telekinesis back, he flipped over the Hellhound and pulled out one of his steel bearing balls as he launched it directly into the Hellhound's eye, mid-air. The beast howled as Justin's feet hit the ground on the other side of the creature and realized that this was what this stupid cult wanted. Was for him to waste his time with small-fry... they were obviously after something that the Vanburens had. He was not sure what, though, but perhaps if he knew, perhaps they could use that against them. Something, something, stolen property - which was vague because that could imply they could be after something as innocuous as a locket.

Then that was when he remembered that there were more of them... probably. There was that chick with the black hair and the cellphone and that maid mentioned more of them. A rule of thumb that his Grandmother taught him was assume that there were always more assholes than previously counted. Ah, he always thought his grandmother was a rambling weirdo when she said that stuff, but now its coming in handy. These three were probably after their boy toy while the rest of them ransacked the place for... whatever they were looking for. Perhaps they already had it, and given how they almost killed the person they were rescuing, maybe they would be stupid enough to lead them to the rest of them.

"Don't worry about him! Just get on!" Morgana shouted as the two girls prepared to fight Justin, they nodded as they quickly hopped on the mount, and Justin... let them. He pulled out his steel balls and launched them off harmlessly as they either hit the Hellhound in the ass or missed. Justin grinned as he watched them run off, the dog that he injured behind them (he wondered just how much can they take)... before he was covered in an aura of fire as he floated off the ground. He followed after them as fast as he could but he hoped that-

"Ey! We have company!" Maxine shouted.

Well, there goes that plan, maybe they'd be dumb enough to lead him to the rest of their little group.

"Hey, Papi! Catch!" Maxine shouted with a cocky smile on her face as she reached into something underneath her robe, Justin swore that it was on her hip. Then she quickly whipped her hand out and threw... seeds? Seeds that covered the ground as Justin raised an eyebrow-

Sigils illuminated at Maxine's hands as the seeds erupted into vines that quickly formed a thick wall. It was thick enough to make Justin stop, but he floated up into the air as he stuck his hands forward. The vines ignited to flames as he cleaved them apart, but he could hear the pattering of the Hellhounds get more and more distance as he pushed himself further and further to breakthrough the barrier.

Just how many fucking powers did these people have?

---

With Morgana creating a distraction for them, Thea leads the rest of the Wiccans throughout the manor. Unfortunately, they had no clue about the layout of the place... So they just ended up floundering around the place as they heard the fight get more and more intense in the distance. Thea hoped that the Vanburens were magnanimous enough not to kill any of them.

"... Does anyone actually know what we're looking for?" Haley inquired as she raised an eyebrow as they ran through the place.

"The Horned God," Thea answered.

"No, like do we know what we're looking for?" Haley shot back as the question made them all come to a stop.

"... Good question," Thea realized that this plan was dumber and dumber by the second, but they're here now! She looked around, as she answered her friend, "The Triple Goddess stated that he'd hear his voice once we touch him, but... let's hurry up here."

She looked among her girls as she realized that it'd be best if they split up... as bad of an idea that was. With all of their heavy-hitters probably off fighting the Vanburens, they'd be dead meat if they get caught. However, what Thea's group lacked in raw power, they made up for with the versatility of their abstractions. Plus, it was likely that not all the Vanburens were heavy hitters too. So, Thea made the decision.

"Alright, Tegan, you take Haley and search that way," Thea pointed down the hall as Thea turned towards her friend. "I'll take Samantha and we'll go look in there." She gestured towards the room that said "Study". The group all nodded their heads at each other as Haley raised the barbie doll in the air and Tegan and herself vanished into thin air.

Thea quickly moved into the study as she opened the door and saw the huge ass fancy room. She stepped inside as Samantha walked in after her.

"Fucking rich people" Samanta started, she spoke underneath her breath.

"Keep it down," Thea said, "Let's look through here."

Arabelle could hear them in the hallway, and the moment she heard one of them move towards the study she felt her heart race. The Horned God? James had written a short description in his journal about the item. He must have been one of the sealed apparitions, but what was he sealed inside? And what did these women want with him?

She gripped the iron shovel and stepped backwards from the door. The moment the last one to enter came into view Arabelle stepped out and swung. Her face scrunched up in a grimace as she prepared to feel the shovel connect with the woman's head... and that woman ended up being Samantha. There was a loud - bonk! - sound as she was hit in the back of the head. Followed by her hitting the ground... a little hard given her weight.

Thea immediately whipped around and saw a girl with a shovel that wacked her friend with it! Looking like she was about to hit her in the face with it... and unfortunately, unlike literally every other Wiccan, she had no way to defend herself. Now she wished that they had stuck together!

"Hey now..." Thea awkwardly smiled underneath her rabbit mask as she put her hands up. "We can talk about this, right?" She glanced down at Samantha, and hoped that she didn't kill her. Thea didn't think she could bring back the dead.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Thea said as she took a few steps back. Were Tegan and Haley close enough to hear her if she screamed for them?

Arabelle held the shovel up again as she looked at the other intruder. Her face was steel, even though she felt terribly for the girl on the ground. She braced for a retaliation, but the girl looked worried. She didn't have an abstraction? Was this just good luck, or was she waiting for her friends to come looking? Arabelle swallowed.

"I'd believe you if your friends weren't trying to kill mine." She hissed in a low voice. She glanced towards the door, then at the girl on the ground, and then back to the still conscious one. At least there wasn't any blood yet. "You're here for the Horned God, right? You didn't just show up to hurt the Vanburens?" She asked, suddenly getting an idea.

"Well you're too late. The artifact was stolen weeks ago with many other sealed objects. You and your friends can leave now and never return." She nodded to the girl on the ground. "And this one can be patched up."

"Look," Thea said with a sigh... as she reached behind her head and undid the rabbit mask that she had on her face. Revealing herself to the girl that probably wanted to knock her teeth in. She gave her head a little shake as she reveald her hair. "I know what it looks like, but they're good people... they're just... what's the word for it?"

She shook her head, "They're being used... mislead, by a being known as the Triple Goddess. She turned them all into her little minions and she wants her brother back - the Horned God."

She shook her head.

"That bluff won't work because she can sense the Horned God, and she knows he's here."

Arabelle raised an eyebrow. As much as she wanted to fall for the sympathy card, her bluff had been called. She held no cards, except for the shovel in her hands. The rest of the cult could be on their way at any second. "Why are you allowing the Triple Goddess, or whoever this bitch is, to manipulate your friends? Do you realize the destruction that this spirit could cause if he were to be released?" She didn't know much about this Horned God, but she knew enough to try her best to keep him sealed. "What reason should keep me from hitting you upside the head too?"

"It's not me that's doing it, it's Morgana," Thea shrugged as she shook her head. "The Triple Goddess' abstraction makes people feel really good if they please her... and they're all addicted to it, I'm afraid. She has them around her finger and I'm trying my best to stop her... But, I can't do much when all I can do is heal people."

Arabelle pressed her lips together. The girl had a point, but she still wasn't sure if she was telling the truth. "Then find the Horned God and give the object to me. I can take it somewhere this Goddess will never find it. I can teleport out of here and then she will allow you to leave. If you stay longer, the Vanburens won't let you get away easily."

"Of course they won't," Thea walked over to Samantha, hoping that the girl would allow her to heal her friend. "Let me heal her, and we'll get it done... just be aware that there's two other girls, one that can turn invisible and make barriers, and another one that can make portals, disguise herself, and use telekinesis, running around."

Arabelle stepped backwards, the shovel still held high. If this girl tried anything, she'd knock her out next, but she had to give them a chance to do the right thing. Her foot moved towards the door to the study and she shoved it with her toes. It swung until there was barely a crack keeping it open. "Okay. If we're assuming that your friends are still busy elsewhere, you can help me find this object so I can get it out of here." She definitely didn't want to run into the girl that could make portals. "Are we agreed?"

"Deal," Thea said as she wrapped her hands around Samantha's head. She was illuminated with a blue light as the damage from getting hit in the back of the head with a fucking shovel. "Now let's hope nobody gets hurt... well, really hurt." With Morgana, that was bound to happen.

"Let me just tell you that I have a friend who wants the Triple Goddess out the picture but... she's with them." She gestured towards the front of the house that was still making some crazy sounds. Wouldn't it suck if the Horned God was that way?

Eventually, the blue light faded and Samantha jolted awake as she asked, "...What the hell was that?!"

"You just tripped and hit your head," Thea answered. "You're good."

She climbed to her feet as Thea put her mask back on.

"Did we look in here yet?" Samantha asked.

"No, but we can do it really quick!" Thea said in a singsong as she quickly went through the room... realizing that it was time to uphold her end of the bargain.

Arabelle lowered the shovel as the girl she hit woke up and offered her an apologetic smile. As the other began to search the room, Arabelle backed towards the door to listen for others and also to keep these two from escaping.