@AWACS@13org@BigPapaBelial

Amanda feels conflicted.

She is happy that her team managed to survive the onslaught the moment they arrive at Minsk. Everyone performed their tasks very admirably under very stressful and unexpected circumstances, she might have to commend the team on a job well done once she’s finished supervising Faye right now.

But also, there is also the threat of who got the beat on her team when they left Frankfurt for Minsk, there is a potential mole in this town’s office, and she has no idea who they are. The group could be in grave danger even if they are secure for now, potential poisoning of their staff meals, sudden darts out of nowhere laced with poison that might kill a team member of hers, and of course, luring them out into an isolated position where they can call no help, and then finishing them off right then and there.

The potentialities are endless.

But, those are thoughts for a later time, since miss Alexeya here just finished patching up Faye, telling the android that all her vitals are stable and well functioning again. “Just don’t expend your mana too rapidly for the coming days, I know that might be hard since you’re on a mission right now, but please, don’t do more of this, it’s not healthy for you.” Alexeya told Faye. A conversation that Amanda overheard and took note of.

She also didn’t forget about Scarlet thanking her. The android responded with a nod and a head pat to the Homunculus. “Alright, now, both of you, take sometime to rest, in some 30 minutes I have a small question I wanna ask all of you.”

…

The android had gathered all of her team in her bedroom. She was assigned her own bedroom office type of deal for her to work on during her time here, and it is large enough to accommodate Faye, Scarlet and Micheal with minimal problems.

“Alright, so first of all, I have to congratulate you for your quick thinking and tenacity in the face of those bullshit odds. Encore for all of you.” Amanda clapped her hands quickly afterwards.

“And secondly, I am now pretty sure that we have a mole inside this office. I don’t know where I should start investigating this issue, but I know that this is something that will demand our full attention. I should also note that we have that portal location Faye tracked to Minsk that also needs investigating, and with that. I am now in a conundrum here, and so I leave the choice to you.”

“Do you want to investigate the potential mole here? I can contact Alexeya and we can conduct whatever we need to find out who this person is, I can also use my authority as a senior agent to get files that no other agent can. It’s relatively low effort, but this can drive us up into the highest levels of the OMR command here, and a confrontation with the higher ups is something we must prepare for.”

“Or do you want to investigate the site Faye tracked down? Finding the portal location is very important, and it might lead us to clues as to how wide this operation is, I think there might be some people trying to clean up the site after the mess we’ve made to their ops in Frankfurt, and I am interested in confronting whoever’s cleaning up the Minsk site should we encounter them. Expect lots of action, but the mole in the OMR office here might run away to some hiding place after we’re done here.”

“So, which task do you wanna choose? And no, I am not splitting up the team again, splitting our forces even further will only lead to disaster and we need to stick together.”

---

@Martian@King Cosmos

It came rather suddenly, Madeleine didn’t expect the Roggenwolf to be immediately on their tail the moment they entered the site, but here they are, forced to confront this mythical wolf creature head-on.

Okay, so some context is needed. The duo managed to meet up with Xaviron in the garden, and Xaviron explained that the wolf is inside it. Probably holding up with the plants and flowers there since it’s the only major natural setting here in the Frankfurt region. It will be a very tense encounter and Xaviron suggested that they prepare weapons should the confrontation turn sour.

Unfortunately, Madeleine agreed to Xaviron’s proposition, that a natural spirit like a Roggenwolf should probably stay in their realm and not here, and the last couple of incidents where a natural spirit stumbled into the human world without adequate preparation ended in a… tragedy to say the least.

Lots of people dead, the spirit dead, and a massive crater in the middle of it all, not a good look for everyone involved. She still remembered the casefiles from Peru and Australia where that exact thing happened. The description of the scene did not bring a lot of confidence to her, but a job’s a job, and the Roggenwolf needs to be stopped before it wreaked any more havoc.

And so, Madeleine ordered Morgana to prepare a ritual circle and a binding ritual to take to the place the Roggenwolf resides. She’s a witch, and she should have no problems doing such tasks. Madeleine and Xaviron meanwhile, will go into the garden itself and convince the Roggenwolf to enter the portal set outside.

And safe to say, the mission should be a success, until the Roggenwolf suddenly appeared in front of them. Xaviron told the team that the wolf is holed up inside the greenhouse on the Palm Garden and the Demoness and Half-Elf went in to investigate. Little did they know the Roggenwolf has been watching their movements the whole time.

It was fortunate that Madeleine was bringing the best weapons she could summon for this encounter, lest the duo would be dead for all she knows. She carries a magical greatsword she forged herself some couple of centuries ago, the hellish energy in its reddened steel enough to cut anything down its path. She has a growing feeling that the sheer magical energy emanating from her blade is the only thing preventing the Roggenwolf from tearing both of them to pieces.

She has to make sure it stays that way.

“Great Spirit.” She bellowed. “We are not here to fight you, we request your audience for a few seconds.”

The Roggenwolf hesitated but nodded its head to Madeleine’s offer.

“We are here to bring you back to your realm. We mean you no harm, and we understand that this world has brought you great distress. We seek to alleviate that distress by bringing you back into your own world, where the corn grows without harvest and forevermore. A friend of ours is making a doorway into your world, and we request that you vacate this building into the area outside. Our friend is making the doorway as we speak outside.”

The wolf hesitated, unsure of Madeleine’s proposition, certainly, it would be beneficial for it to return back to its world, but it is not sure about whether this Demonic being could be trusted or not.

Before the wolf could retort though, the glass on top of the greenhouse shattered, alerting everyone to whoever shattered the glass on top. There are people rappelling down, full tactical gear in hand, and Madeleine knows those ain’t OMR tactical gear at all.

One of them spots the Roggenwolf and shouted in German. “There it is! The spirit is here, brothers and sisters. Let us capture this wolf and sacrifice it to our great altar! The ritual must be completed!”

And soon enough the tactical-wearing people started shooting magic spells and bullets in their general direction. Forcing the group to dive for cover. The Roggenwolf makes one look at Madeleine and she knows the innate meaning of the stare.

If you want to earn my trust, you must fight these intruders to show that you are not part of them.

With that in mind. Madeleine steadied her blade and looked at Xaviron, who is at her opposite side, crouching down on an elevated platform and hoping the ceramic pottery for the potted plant he’s hiding under is strong enough to block bullets. “The Roggenwolf wants us to fight against these intruders. Ready your weapons! Suppress their fire while I hack them a new one!” She ordered.

And just like the stories of old, the Demoness stood up and charged into the intruders, her magical shield blocking any potential bullets from penetrating into her skin, the greatsword found its target in one unlucky intruder who rappelled a bit too close for Madeleine’s liking, the sword’s enchanted steel slicing his kevlar armored vest like nothing, cleaving the person in two while other enchantments light up a black flame that slowly consumed the man, starting from its wounds.

She hopes that Xaviron is giving her the fire support necessary. She needs a distraction so that her Feuerschwert does its work of slicing, and then igniting the intruders who dared interrupt such delicate negotiations.

---

Faye heard Alexeya's warnings about not overexerting herself for the next few days, silently replying with a nod of her head. While she was definitely more relaxed than she was upon she first met Alexeya, it was still quite clear that Faye still had a very respectful attitude near the woman.

"Thank you, Madam Alexeya." Faye said, nodding her head.

With the small medical checkup done, Amanda told Faye and Scarlet to rest for a moment before reuniting with the rest of the group to ask them a question.

"Thank you, Amanda. I'm already beginning to feel better. I'm sure I'll be fine after a short rest." Faye said with a smile before she turned to Scarlet.

"And Scarlet... Thanks a lot for having our back." Faye said with a smile as she turned to Scarlet, who was also resting in the same room as her.

After about thirty minutes, just as Amanda had told her previously, they were all reunited on her own bedroom. Faye was expecting to be very cramped when she heard where they were going to talk, but due to the ample size, it was able to house her, Michael and Scarlet without any problem.

The first thing Amanda had to tell them were words of praise, given their quick thinking and their performance when facing a situation as dangerous as the one they were in. Just after that though, Amanda told them some very, very concerning news. Faye had already thought about it earlier and she was sure Micheal and Scarlet also had wondered about it, but the moment Amanda mentioned they had traitors among the OMR agents, their fears were confirmed.

"That would explain a lot about how they were able to find and corner us so easily!" Faye said, surprised.

While dealing with a possible informant inside the OMR headquarters was obviously something urgent, as it was definitely a huge security issue, Amanda also mentioned on how whoever was responsible for the warehouse certainly knew that the OMR was after them and if the team wasn't quick to go after them, they would certainly have enough time to erase their tracks.

"Having an informant inside the OMR is a huge risk... We would be walking on the knife's edge if we decided to go investigating the portals while knowing there is a traitor around... But at the same time, we have no doubts that, whoever is behind all the weapons is already aware of us. Whoever ordered those people to attack us might even be part of the same group!" Faye said, thinking as she looked around to Amanda, Scarlet and Micheal.

"I don't know much about how the OMR works nor I have experience as an agent but... this all looks like there's someone inside the OMR who has their hands on this weapons smuggling business. If we're intending to go investigating the portal, we might have to cut all communication and contact with the OMR headquarters for a while... Both to prevent information from leaking and in order for us to be able to act without interference... right?" Faye asked, looking around, almost as if she was gauging if her plan was a good one or not, based on the others' reactions.

Well, things seemed to be going about as smoothly as usual for their investigation team.

This was supposed to just be a little bit of clean up, taking care of a loose end that was only tangentially related to their mission. Xaviron had tracked the Roggenwolf to a garden in the middle of the city and he and Madeleine were going to occupy the spirit while she prepared a way to send it back home; simple, easy, no problem. So of course, when the sound of gunfire reached her ears she wasn’t surprised in the slightest.

Hopefully there weren’t any Abominable artefacts involved this time.

Morgana rolled her eyes and turned to walk away from the entrance to the garden; perhaps she would wait in the hopefully bullet proof car Madeleine had taken from the OMR while the demon and the elf dealt with whoever was trying to kill them. She continued her work on the ritual circle to banish the spirit as she did so, scribbling intricate and arcane runes onto thin air in what must have been a familiar sight to people by now; as she did so she used her free hand to draw a series of smaller circles which flared and buzzed momentarily before disappearing, a slight shimmer washing over her coat and skirt with each one. The basic wards layered over her clothing did provide some protection from impacts but they weren’t strictly designed to stop bullets; a few extra precautions wouldn’t go amiss.

With that done, she returned her full attention to the ritual she was preparing. It wasn’t exactly what Madeleine had asked for, but the demon hadn’t given her any time to explain what approach she would prefer to use; so long as the end result worked in their favour she was sure it wouldn’t be an issue. Under normal circumstances a spirit could not exist on their material plane for long; the world they lived in was one of laws and rules and such was anathema to the spirits’ nature as conceptual beings, so much so that without some kind of anchor or link to keep them here they would soon exhaust themselves and return to where they came from. For something like the Roggenwolf, from what little Xaviron had told them, that anchor was usually a corn field; they were tied to it, they would live so long as the corn remained and come harvest time, as the corn was reaped and threshed they would either be forced to leave this plane of existence or be killed when the last head of grain was cut. Sometimes the farmers would save them instead, either leaving a single head behind or creating a doll out of corn for the Roggenwolf to inhabit until the next field was planted.

Spirits were conceptual beings after all and that cut both ways. Sometimes killing a spirit would have disastrous consequences on the thing they were a concept of.

This spirit had been summoned however, which was a different thing entirely. A summoned spirit was tied not to a place or a thing or a time, but to a person. Not as an anchor, though possession was yet another possible way for spirits to remain on this plane, but via a link; one forged by the summoner through the summoning ritual. Under those circumstances, banishing the spirit was as simple as the summoner deciding to end the link or waiting for the covenant between the summoner and the spirit to reach its end. Forcibly banishing a spirit summoned by someone else involved incapacitating the summoner, severing the link between the two or wresting control of the covenant from them; all tricky prospects, depending on the strength of the summoner and spirit in question.

But therein lay the complication; this spirit’s summoner was already dead and hadn’t even been a practitioner to begin with. It had no link to this world, no covenant had been made, there was nothing to sever. The only thing keeping the Roggenwolf here was the strength of the initial summoning ritual, which shouldn’t have been much, except for the fact that blood had been used and blood, particularly the sacrifice it represented, was a powerful thing. Morgana didn’t know how much blood had been given to summon this thing nor how long it had been running around for, so she couldn’t estimate how much power the thing possessed. The one thing she was grateful for was that they knew for certain he hadn’t died due to blood loss from making the circle; it was one thing to bleed for a ritual to come to life, it was another thing entirely to die for it.

That would have been extremely bad.

As it was, things were more difficult this way but she was not without options. There was no anchor to destroy, no link to sever, but the fact remained that a spirit was not supposed to be on this plane and the laws of this world would make sure it left eventually; every spirit could be banished somehow, it was simply a fact. Her options then were to either exhaust the remaining energy granted to it by the summoning blood ritual, something she could accomplish by binding and then draining the energy from the spirit in what was sure to be a taxing experience for the both of them, or she could attempt to link the spirit to herself instead, taking the place of the original summoner and thereby gaining the ability to banish the spirit without little to no fuss whatsoever.

She was going to attempt the latter option.

Just as soon as all the shooting was over with.

Micheal walked over to the group from where he'd been sitting being seen too by a lovely little elven medic. Who kept talking about taking him home, feeding him good and training him up nice. He'd had to almost beat her back with one of his medicine bags before he could get away. His Rune Burns wrapped up in a poultice and bandages. Safer then trying to heal it with magic or modern medicine. He limps over to group, worn out and tired. Too much casting, protecting people, calling forth and summoning. So much had happened, so much had gone on. He gave a nod all around to those gathered as they were pulled together.

He sniffs and rubs his arm and the bandages, listening to their options. He looks around at the group. He nods, "If it's worth anything my friends. I think we should find out if there's a mole." He looks around the room, "It may be a problem in the end, and having an enemy at my back is not something I like the idea of. I really think we should investigate the OMR before we go out." He gives a nod, "But in the end I will follow and help as best I can. Just give me abit to recover." He holds up his arm, "Please?" He tries to smile, but the pain is clear in his expression.

Scarlet grunted as Amanda continued to patch her up, though if she's gonna be honest with herself, she did like the pat on the head. No one ever gave her headpats, ever. It felt strange, but nice. Scarlet cracked a small smile to Amanda before turning to Faye. "Hey, don't mention it. Contract also has a non-disclosure stipulation." She winked to Faye, indicating her rather terrible joke. "In all seriousness, it's just what I do. I'm just glad we all made it out in one piece." She looked over to her shoulder wound. "Well, erm... most of us, anyway." Logically speaking, the homunculus should easily be able to bounce back from this. With the right applications of spells, bandages and biological cleaning agents, Scarlet would be well on her way to being good as new. It would still take time for everything to fully heal, but like usual, by the next day, she should be back in the action.

Amanda gave the team a half hour break, to which Scarlet immediately used to get everything reorganized. Retrieving her weapons (chiefly the Glock she lent Michael) as well as some of her other things she had laying around. She handed her used ballistic plates over to some of the staff, who were quick to replace them with the similar enchanted ones she used. She did everything that was required of her while she was there. She filled out all of the forms, gave her report to the OMR officers (leaving out the mole bit of course), and filled her Frankfurt contact in on what's going on (as much as she safely could). And just like last time, she shared her honest opinions on the matter, and how all of this is way above her paygrade. Of course, her contact reminded her of the contract's rewards, and Scarlet remained quiet. After exchanging a few more important details, they hung up and Scarlet was able to join the rest of the group.

---

Scarlet was the last to enter the room, like usual. Arriving a minute later than the rest, she gave Michael a tired smile and a gentle pat on the shoulder, quickly taking her place up against the wall. She wore a light gray t-shirt this time around, and had her plate carrier on again. With her tactical bag of holding on her left and her Glock holstered on her right, her demeanor urged an almost paranoid caution. Once Amanda congratulated them on their tenacity and the fact that they were able to make it through that situation by the skin of their teeth, Scarlet released an exhausted sigh. She knew that they weren't out of the woods yet, and with her adrenaline high long gone, she was really in the mood to pass out onto a bed right about now.

Amanda made it pretty clear that they are at a bit of a Morton's Fork with their investigation. The mole presents a clear and present threat to the investigation, and would severely hamper any attempts made to do almost anything. Whoever this was, was clearly working for a group with access to an expensive arsenal of weapons, armor, vehicles, costumes and personnel. Paramilitaries, Scarlet called them. And not the ordinary kind she fought either. They were far better equipped and a bit more skilled than the Serbian death squads she went up against months ago. And those Serbians were tough as nails.

"That would explain a lot about how they were able to find and corner us so easily!" Scarlet turned briefly to Faye and nodded. "Yeah. There was no way anyone could stage a disguised ambush like that and have several kill-squads on standby without having a lot of insider information." Scarlet sighed. "I'd have to agree with Amanda on this one. This mole's a dangerous motherfucker."

However, there was also the lead that Faye tracked, the portal location that brought them here in the first place. Going there could potentially blow the whole operation open, and potentially result in some rather intense firefights. Having already been in some intense firefights, Scarlet could use something a little 'low effort' as Amanda put it. Scarlet thought long and hard about it as the other two responded with their answers.

Scarlet listened to Faye's response, and Faye brought up a rather interesting point. The mole who sent the kill squads after them, as well as the folks behind the weapons smuggling in general, could very well be the same group. And just like that, it all clicked in Scarlet's little head. Spoken Russian languages, as well as teams and intel in Belarus. Soviet-bloc weaponry updated to modern standards, highly skilled paramilitaries that operated with similar tactics to the skilled mercenaries that Scarlet herself has worked with. The funding to gain access to an expensive arsenal of weapons, armor, vehicles, costumes and personnel. They were going up against the conspiracy itself, and they were throwing everything they reasonably could at them. And that could only mean one thing.

They were getting close.

Scarlet took a moment to think all of this out. Faye then brought up a suggestion, and Scarlet took the moment to listen. She also brought up a rather good point. If they were going to go into the portal, in order to have the element of surprise, they would indeed have to go radio silent and maybe even go rogue. Scarlet hummed quietly in thought before nodding to Faye. "That would be a good idea, on paper. I would've suggested the same thing, actually." Scarlet said before taking a deep breath. "But then I remembered what happened literally two hours ago. Not to be rude, but we almost got slaughtered when we acted on our own. Amanda had to bail us out of that situation, and we were lucky enough to make it back here before the enemy brought explosives to the table." Scarlet said. "And that was just us four going up against a small contingent of paramilitaries. If it's just the four of us, just us, without any support, storming the enemy base filled with unknown quantities of personnel and defenses, it's just suicide. Plain and simple."

Scarlet sighed before leaning her head up against the wall. "I've said this before, and I'll say it again. Nowhere in my contract does it say that I have to die. And I don't plan on it." She said softly. "To be honest, I only signed on for this job just to pay off my debts. That's all that this really was. I'm not a sworn agent like you guys. Hell, I'm still technically a civilian." Scarlet groaned, sighing again. "Fuck me, this whole thing's gone out of control..." She bumped her ahead up against the wall a few times. After a few moments of silence, she took a deep breath and sighed again.

"I'm with Mikey on this one. If my vote counts for anything, I say we go after the mole. If we interrogate them, they might point us to a lead that hasn't been cleaned up yet, or at least set us on the right path to where we need to go. They might even unravel their whole information network as well, in the process." Scarlet smirked a little. "Just do me a favor and don't interrogate them without me. Watching that rat bastard squirm would be more entertaining than anything they have on Pay-Per-View." Scarlet stretched. "The bad guys may be able to clean up their locations after this, but if we get more leads and take out the information leak in one fell swoop, we may be able to take on the conspiracy with the full might of the OMR at our backs. Tactical teams, helicopter support, all of that. And with that kind of support, we could accomplish our objectives without having to get slaughtered in the process." She yawned a little. "I'm also with Mikey. Regardless of what we do, contract says I gotta stick with y'all. And... I'd also like some rest too. Today's been a long fuckin' day."

@AWACS@13org@BigPapaBelial

The next morning came and Amanda went to work immediately. The group voted to go for the mole first, and Amanda will oblige.

Her first objective is to go to the surveillance room and ask for some copies of surveillance data from all rooms just before Amanda landed, and she brought all the tapes from the surveillance data into her room. A player device is available and linked into a small television set. On this TV set, cables ran from it into Amanda’s ports on her arm, allowing the android to rewind and forward events seen on the CCTV camera as desired.

Of course, as soon as the rest of the group arrived. Amanda greeted them warmly, the Android woman knowing that a potential fight might go down if they managed to track down the fiend quickly and promptly.

“Morning!” She greeted. “I have CD’s where there’s CCTV data yesterday. I was kinda wondering if we can piece together some information about the mole and what he/she’s doing just as we arrived into the city. It’s not much, but it’s all we’ve got for the moment.”

“If we manage to find the mole, then I think we’d better ask around for whoever that person is, and probably confront the individual about their role in our ambush. We also probably have to raid the person’s personal office in order to get the evidence we need to prosecute should we commit to the person in question, I’m a senior agent, so I do have the power to do these searches due to my seniority, just be discrete about the matter. We don’t need to needlessly inflame tensions in the Minsk office after recent events, agents here are already stressed enough as is, and we don’t need them to be even more stressed about the mole.”

She has been hearing about the recent stuff from the agents here, apparently after yesterday’s attack. The Eastern Europe OMR branch had decided to give this Minsk issue their full attention, and agents are being sent out to scour the city, asking the public and conducting their own investigations as to who possesses the weapons, and the gall, to attack an OMR office so openly. Connections with Mr X and his endeavours are of course being assumed, but ultimately not proven, yet.

And Amanda has every intention to let them conduct their work while she and her group will conduct this little diversionary mission in order to find the potential mole within Minsk’s OMR office.

If anything, she’d be playing an indirect role in helping the Eastern Europe branch, finding the potential mole may make the Minsk office’s operations smoother and more airtight, keeping their element of surprise should violence be necessary to cull whoever powers that be that attacked their office yesterday.

“Alright, it’s up to you to vote on whichever tape you want to go first. I have tapes from the laboratories, the parking lot, Administrative offices, the front entrance, and even the various hallways within the Minsk office, do you have a first preference for a tape we want to see?” Amanda asked.

---

@Martian@King Cosmos

Madeleine began charging the rest of the group, her eyes fully intent on killing everyone that dared to interrupt her pleasant chat with the Roggenwolf. These bastards are most likely the cult members she talked about earlier, and it seems that they have their own designs for the Roggenwolf for whatever reason.

Xaviron was providing good covering fire, his precise shots and spells providing a distraction to any would-be assailants of her, she has already lost count how many enemies was on her blindspot was distracted by Xaviron’s shooting, sufficiently distracted that Madeleine will be able to finish them off with her Feuerschwert.

She wasn’t without any injury, however, as the personal shield spell she erected during the confrontation couldn’t last long enough for her to dispatch everyone involved, and she quickly became marred with wounds all over her body. The impact of random bullets throughout her torso, and some light slices on her arms from the cult members using their knives were sufficient in making the Demoness’ moves slower and more sluggish.

But thankfully that is where the Roggenwolf and Xaviron came in. The woman, already going through hell and back, got help in dispatching the rest of her assailants in the form of a mystical wolf spirit, whom decided that it is best to maul and tear apart some individuals, and Xaviron, who got up from his secure position and starting running and gunning anyone that stands in his way.

The half-elf even subdued several individuals for interrogation later on, knocking out a cult member unconscious before resuming his job of shooting and killing the assailants.

The battle eventually ended, the rest of the group failing to capture the wolf, and quickly exiting the garden via magical portals that they have created. The trio too exhausted to pursue the enemy after the battle.

“Sorry for that… haaahhhh… I didn’t know we would be attacked…. heeehhhh.” Madeleine said to the spirit, wheezing and panting, moans of pain quickly followed suit as the adrenaline wore off and her wounds quickly showed off it’s deadly masterpiece on the woman. “Perhaps… we should go to Morgana…. and bring you back to where you… come from… Is that… okay?”

The Roggenwolf nodded it’s head and did a gesture Madeleine didn’t expect, the creature lowered it’s back, seemingly allowing Madeleine to ride on the creature’s back. An offer the woman could hardly refuse.

And so, with Xaviron on her side, the woman rode back to Morgana on the back of the Roggenwolf, seemingly gaining his trust after that affair. “Hey, Morgana.” The Demoness greeted the Witch. “I’ve brought the wolf back.” She said as she dismounted from the creature, petting its soft fur. “Do you have the spell ready?”

The next morning Mikey is just a little slow to get up. He practically had to beat that elven nurse off with a broom, she had decided to visit him late in the night, ostensibly to check his bandages. But the surprise tonsil hockey was shocking. Any other time Micheal might have welcomed the advances, but he was worn out, in pain and just a touch creeped out.

He'd visited the cafeteria first, and instead of sitting at one of the tables, he'd beat feet with a platter of breakfast food. The Elven nurse had been there giving the shaman bedroom eyes.

So as he comes into the surveillance room he's munching on some eggs, bacon, cubed up hash browns stuck between two huge waffles. And a thermos full of hot tea with just a touch of splenda mixed in. He looks about the room giving a wave to everyone already here. If anyone. He found himself somewhere to sit and listened to the briefing. He munched away looking around at the group, swallowed then piped up, "Boss Bot, question, do we have a staff list of people who were here? And what their clearance levels are?" He sipped his tea, before continuing, "It might go a short ways to figuring out if there was someone in place they shouldn't have been in. Just saying." He bit into his strange sandwich again, and for all present he can be heard whispering, "Fucking Eh plus, that's some grade a maple syrup."

He continues to much away abit before adding, "I mean camera footage is all good Boss Bot, but if we knew who was here, if they were doing what they were supposed to do we could I dunno cut down on suspects right? I mean if one of the chefs was in the security room for some reason. Or a clerk from accounting was in the Control Room, that might throw up red flags? What's the security like around here?" He shrugs, and continues to munch.

@BigPapaBelial

Amanda quickly pondered on her head and quickly responded to Micheal's question with a thumbs up. "I may... have kinda sorta forgot to ask the staff for a database of clearances and staff active in the Minsk office. Let me ask them for a quick second. I'll have that database downloaded in my head in a jiffy."

The Android quickly returned as fast as she left. Bringing a small notepad on her left arm, her face seemingly happy at Mikey's request. "Alright, got what I need. This office got some 300 agents of varying credentials, but we only have 1 guy with a full access credential, the head of the office itself. People are not given their credentials on level, but more on area. So accounting people are responsible for handling the finance section, and can't go into the armoury unless they ask the Security section, and vice-versa with security. People would usually ask for the staff of different areas' credentials if they need something in a hurry, the staff said that it is a 'common occurrence around this office.' And honestly, that kinda reminds me of my own time in North America."

"So someone that has a credential that can access any part of the office would be very off, unless if he's the head, and the head of the office rarely leaves his front office anyway, so we can strike that down."

---

After everything Faye went through the last day, it was no wonder that she slept like a rock. So much in fact, that it was remarkably hard for her to wake up on time on the next morning. When she arrived... or better... 'blinked' inside the room where the meeting was going on... one entire hour after what they had agreed upon, it was painfully obvious she had just woken up due to her messy (even more than usual) hair and her clothes, which seemed to have been put on a hurry and the cup of hot chocolate, which she was holding with both hands, taking small sips from it every now and then.

"Morning... Sorry guys... I swear I did set up my cellphone to wake me up..." Faye replied to Amanda and the rest of the team rubbing her eyes after a long yawn.

Faye was just barely able to understand Amanda's explanation, thanks to the cup of hot chocolate she was sipping from, which was basically stolen from one of the waitresses when Faye blinked to the cafeteria, grabbed it from the tray one of the waitresses was taking to other tables and then promptly blinked away after mumbling something along the lines of being late, hungry and sleepy.

"Micheal has a point... We should probably look for staff members who are not where they were supposed to be... Maybe the Parking Lot or somewhere where the mole could get in contact with his people without other staff members hearing? Maybe due to their 'smoke break' or something...? Plus, every single staff member should have access to the parking lot or other common locations, right?" Faye said as she gave another sip of her hot chocolate and making a very pleased expression after doing so.

"I don't know what they put on this, but it's definitely more than just hot chocolate... Maybe ginger or something like that? It's just so good..." she said, holding the cup of hot chocolate close to her chest, warming herself with it.

As the gunfire finally ceased and the others returned, Morgana stepped out of the car provided by the OMR and met them halfway. She never did find out if the thing was bulletproof, which was by most measures a good thing, but she was confident that the additions she had made to her personal wards would have dealt with things had it not been. As for the ‘spell’ she had been working on…

“It’s done. Just step back and give me some room unless you want to be exorcised yourself.” Once the others had cleared room for her, the witch flicked a hand towards the ground and the magic circle that had been hovering above her fingers expanded and flew towards the pavement, growing and rotating a few degrees before settling down into a solid shape. “Hmm, the spirit is bigger than I expected. Shouldn’t be an issue though.”

Turning towards Madeleine and the giant wolf. Rather than capturing the creature, it seemed the pair had made friends with it somehow, the demoness in particular; she had been expecting an immobilised but still hostile spirit when she had created the circle and had designed it with containment and restraint in mind, rather than a willing participant. That too, was not an issue, but it might mean that the experience was a little more uncomfortable than it needed to be.

Too late to change things now however, not without starting from scratch, so the Roggenwolf would just have to put up with it. Turning her attention away from the circle and towards the spirit itself, Morgana found herself staring into eyes that were not exactly intelligent but were certainly aware; she wasn’t sure how to classify the sentience of such a creature or if it was even capable of understanding what she needed to explain to it, but all she could do was speak and hope it was listening. “Just to explain what it is I intend to do, our goal is to return you back to where you came from but because your being summoned to this world was rather… unconventional that is not an easy thing to do. We can attempt to do it by force, but this would be rather painful for all involved, so instead I would like you to make a covenant with me.”

She gestured towards the circle on the ground, faintly glowing and surely able to be sensed by anything with an innate magical ability. “If you step into that circle, you will be bound. It will not be gentle as I didn’t expect you to be cooperative when I designed it. Once bound, I will ask of you a service and you will agree; it will be minor, I have no need of anything from you but a bargain must be made for this to work. That will be the basis on our covenant and I will become your link to this world. Once the service has been rendered, I will dismiss you back to where you came from, as would be my right as your anchor.”

Morgana waited until she saw understanding in the beasts eyes, some sign that it grasped what she was saying. She wasn’t sure if it came, but she saw something in its gaze and took that as sign enough. “Does this sound agreeable to you?”

@Kumbaris

It wasn't often that Scarlet slept in. She usually had the discipline and internal clock necessary to wake up at a decent hour, that being two hours before her first assignment. But recent events created a field of gravity around her bed so strong that even awake she couldn't move. Recent events that served as a reminder of how mortal she really was. That one moment, trapped behind a rock, surrounded by bloodthirsty paramilitaries, with nothing but a plate carrier and a near-empty suppressed AUG to her name. And everything that surrounded it. The ambush, the car chase, the crash, the woods, the second car chase and then the office firefight. Action that she's seen within a week at the very least. But not a whole day, until yesterday. At least the flight here wasn't too long.

The beep of Scarlet's watch brought her mind crashing back to reality. She blinked several times, taking in the room around her. Basic accomodations for travelling agents, located within a seperate wing of the building. Normally the OMR would book a hotel for agents and contractors like herself, but given recent events, it wasn't exactly safe for Amanda's team to go outside yet. There's no telling how many snipers the enemy had on hand. Once Scarlet caught a glance of the time, she blinked.

"Ah, shit."

She groaned and threw herself out of bed. Despite the headrush she got, she immediately got to work on getting dressed and ready. It took a few minutes, but eventually she was already in her standard outfit, consisting of jeans, an olive-drab t-shirt, her tactical bag of holding, her holstered Glock 21 and her black plate carrier. She gave her hair a quick brush, and after ponytailing it up, she pushes it through the gap in her olive-drab ballcap and cleans herself up. Another few minutes, she was already rushing out the door.



Scarlet almost barged into the office, carton of milk in one hand and a stack of four Pop Tarts in another. She waved to Amanda and Michael with her Pop Tart hand. "Hnney bawsss. Mikney." Scarlet said with her mouth full. "Sorry I'm late." Scarlet coughed, almost breathing in a crumb of strawberry Pop Tart. She leans her head slightly to meet the Pop Tart stack in hand, taking a big bite out of all four of them and chewing. She looked around for a seat, and once she found it, she sat down and continued eating. Once Faye blinked in, Scarlet smirked with her mouth full and waved to her too. Once she sat the carton of milk down on the table, she used her recently liberated hand to invite Faye to the seat next to her.

Scarlet listened and paid attention as the team got down to business. Amanda quickly briefed them on the situation. They were here to find out who the mole was and what they were doing during the time of the ambush. They may have to search some offices and rooms in order to find evidence about the mole's wrongdoings, but they'd have to be discreet on the matter since the whole office is on edge after yesterday's violent firefight. Now it was up to them to figure out what tapes they want to view first, and see if they can narrow the field of suspects down from there. Scarlet nodded at the end of the briefing, and got to thinking.

It wasn't long before Mike brought a brilliant idea to the table. Having a list of staff would the quite helpful, especially with their clearance levels. It would make things rather easier to narrow down. Scarlet nodded to Mike after finishing her Pop Tarts. "Good thinkin'." She nodded along with Faye and pointed at her. "Mhm. What she said." She downed the rest of the milk carton and cleaned herself up.

All of that considered, Scarlet pondered. Anyone who could organize an ambush so quickly and so adeptly would have to have access to information right away. Their trip to Minsk wasn't exactly planned ahead of time, it was kind of done on the spot. To organize an ambush with appropriate vehicles, costumes and quick response forces in such a short amount of time would require information that got to them much quicker. The place to start was obvious.

"Personally, I'd say that we check out whoever's responsible for communications. Where would most of these things be passed through? Is there a dispatch center, radio room or anything of that kind of nature here?" Scarlet sat up. "Whoever has clearance for communications would almost know where we are and what we're doing at all times. Our trip here was kind of last minute, and yesterday's attack would've required a considerable amount of time and resources to set up. The enemy would've had to know first thing where we're headed and how far along we were in the investigation, and that kind of shit normally takes time to get its way up the chain. So, in order to stay a few steps ahead of us, they'd have to get that information from the first place where it can be found, which would be communications."

The half-elf agent made it to the greenhouse before his team mates. Glad for the expediency of his travel, Avi gave a large tip to his cab driver, the big Orc flashing him a pointy smile before driving off. It was only a few minutes after that Avi’s allies arrived.

As Madeleine and Morgana got out of their car, Avi quickly stated what he had learned about the Roggenwolf, but then decided to err on the side of caution about revealing his trip to the spirit realm. While that spell wasn’t outright banned by the OMR, its use was frowned upon in anything less than a crisis situation. Avi didn’t want to have to deal with the paperwork or potential reprimands of disclosing the use of the spell. This wouldn’t be the first time that not all of Avi’s actions made it into his final report. It kind of came with the territory of being a deep cover agent.

But Avi pushed that from his mind as Morgana began preparing a ritual to send the corn spirit back where it belonged. He left her to it as he and Madeleine entered the greenhouse, eyes shifting back and forth, trying to find the wayward spirit. But the searching was rendered moot as the Roggenwolf appeared in front of the half-elf and demoness.

Madeleine immediately took lead, trying to convince the Roggenwolf to come with them and return its home. Avi couldn’t help but feel that if he tried to coax the spirit, it would be far less eloquent and could result in the pair being attacked by the magical wolf. But another bad happenstance manifested itself as a squad of armed soldiers burst through the glass ceiling of the greenhouse.

Moving almost unconsciously, Avi dove backwards away from the shattering glass, only to slip on a small puddle. As Avi tumbled to the ground of the greenhouse he wished that the caretakers of the greenhouse hadn’t watered the plant behind him just so recently.

As Avi recovered, he looked up and saw that while these assailants were heavily armed, they didn’t wear any kind of symbol or flag he recognized. The one who seemed in command shouted something about grabbing the Roggenwolf for a ritual. As he did so, Avi went to grab his wand, only to find that it had fell out of his jacket and had rolled several feet away. Avi made a motion to try and grab it, only for the assailants to begin firing bullets and spells at Madeleine and him.

Avi quickly moved, taking a position behind a piece of pottery that hopefully would be thick enough to block the oncoming projectiles. As he did so, he also pulled out his handgun. The demoness then order Avi to provide cover as she pulled out a giant sword. Avi was in awe as she ran straight at the assailants, bullets bouncing off her shield, as she cleaved a man in two.

Avi then began to fire his gun at the assailants who were flinging spells, only for the shots to be blocked by enchanted wards. Frustrated, Avi decided to make use of the focus on Madeleine to back up a few feet and grab his wand. As soon as his fingers made contact with the ancient wood, Avi felt a surge of magic envelop his body. Less than a second later, Avi was firing off magical bolts at the assailants.

It was then that the Roggenwolf itself joined the battle, tearing into his would be captors. Against the combined force of the spirit, demoness, and half-elf, the assailants were pushed back. The one who seemed to be in charge decided to call a retreat, the few remaining assailants disappearing into magical portals that were there one second, and gone the next.

Avi had decided not to try and pursue as he had no clue what would be waiting him on the other side of the portal. Instead he stood up, wand in one hand, gun in the other. He quickly surveyed the scene of the battle. Madeleine had skewered quite a few of the attackers, but seemed unharmed herself. Avi then quickly checked his body to make sure no stray bullet or spell had struck him. But he was fine, very much unlike this part of the Palm Garden, with several exotic plants either torn up or on fire.

But as Avi looked back at Madeleine and the Roggenwolf, he was surprised that the spirit was allowing her to ride him. While he found it an odd sight, Avi didn’t say anything as they three of them walked, or in Madeleine’s case rode, back to where Morgana was setting up the ritual. Agent Faith then instructed them to step back as she prepared the magic circle.

Morgana then began explaining to the Roggenwolf how the spell would work. Avi was surprised to hear that it would be a covenant agreement. While Avi was by no means an expert on the binding and exorcising of spirits, only ever taking one class on it in college, he knew that a covenant was a big deal as it was predicated on trust between the mage and the spirit. The spirit would have to trust the mage that the task they are assigned is possible, and thus they can eventually be released.

Avi took a step towards Madeleine, speaking softly, “Are we sure this is the only way to send the spirit back where it belongs? I thought we were trying to get the Roggenwolf out of the city, not following around like, well, a dog.”

Morgana then finished her offer, seemingly finding that the Roggenwolf could understand her. So she moved out of the way so that the spirit could reach the magic circle. While the immediate question was if the corn spirit would accept the deal, Avi was more interested in what task it would be given by Morgana if it did make covenant.

While Avi didn’t know Morgana very well, he did believe that she would be respectful and realistic with the assigned task. She did mention that it would be a minor task, the thought of which brought several ideas to mind for Avi. But one in particular stuck in his mind, that being all Morgana wants to do is ride the Roggenwolf around like Madeleine did. The thought brought a slight smile to Avi’s face, beating out his attempt to maintain a neutral expression.

@Kumbaris @King Cosmos

@13org@BigPapaBelial@AWACS

Amanda pondered at the various suggestions made by Micheal, Faye, and Scarlet. While they all made compelling opinions, Amanda decided Scarlet’s suggestion made the most sense. She knows that there should be a dispatch center around this office, and a brief search later, she found the tape.

“Hmm… let’s see what we got.” Amanda said. Playing the tape, and then analyzing it’s contents as the video played on the TV. Amanda fast-forwarded, and slowed down some events as everyone was busy piecing together the information. Typical OMR work really, nothing too exciting on this front.

It was around 2:00PM yesterday that Amanda caught something interesting. Was that? “Yo, do you guys see that?” Amanda mentioned at the one person who suddenly entered the dispatch office and started asking around. He started flashing his ID, and although it is too blurry to decipher anything, the physical appearances of the person is quite indistinguishable.

“Is that agent Mosley?” Amanda asked. The Elven ears, the black trenchcoat, that face. "Was… was he here before we went? But that’s impossible! And who gave him the card?”

She turned to the rest of the team. Dumbfounded. “Okay. I’ve read some books about spells before, but I don’t know about spells that can change your appearance to that level. This assailant could also presumably left with a car. Shall we check the garage footage next?”

It’s impossible that the actual Xaviron is betraying the OMR, she looked at his file and no, Xaviron’s loyalty to the OMR is solid, so whoever’s portraying as Xaviron here most likely knew who he is, or perhaps got a look at his file when he first arrived in Frankfurt. Quite a perplexing mystery to be honest.

---

@Martian@King Cosmos

Madeleine sighed in relief as the Roggenwolf seemingly walked into the magic circle Morgana created. The demoness walks off from the Roggenwolf and stood right next to the English witch.

“Just make sure it’s as harmless as possible Morgana. I don’t want angering a Roggenwolf as part of my resume now do I?”

She then waited patiently as Morgana was busy preparing the spell she would use to banish the Roggenwolf back to its realm. She is not someone who is very familiar with mystical world and the ‘mystical world’ per se (She’s more into Hell and Heaven herself, and she’s been to Hell many times), so she is keenly interested in seeing Morgana do her magic.

“So. I’ve been wondering, but how does this ‘other side’ differs from Heaven and Hell?” Madeleine asked. “I know witches have their own schools of thought and philosophy, so I’m curious myself.”

Mike moves up the last of his breakfast with the remains of one of the waffles. No bit of egg, bacon or hashbrown left on the platter. No way no how! As he did he looked at the information before them, the sign in list, the camera feeds. As moments were slowed he'd check the sign ins to make sure the pei0le there matched up. Everything seemed above board. He noted a few times when strange occurrences like a department lead talking with a merc or a team meeting in an odd area. But nothing seemed to be too off from what he knew of the OMR.

He gave his tea a sip then blinked, he was reaching for the pause button when Amanda beat him to it, "That isn't right...no I saw that too...that does look like Mosley...but wouldnt Avi had been...somewhere else entirely?" He reached over and dialed the footage of the Mosley look alike moved back and forth abit, "Speaking from experience, there are some creatures who can mimic sound and shape...the whetigo and the wendigo can do so to a limited extent, but that's a natural ability and doesn't stand up to much scrutiny." Raven cleared his throat, then spoke "We tricksters can mimic sound form and function, but the illusion falls apart if we can't match knowledge." Manabozho snickering a little, earning a dope slap from Raven.

Mike sighed at his diefic friends antics. He nodded, "I guess the only way to go from here is to the garage, see if this Mosley left that way." He couldn't believe it not even abit. He looked over at Red and Faye hoping they got more here then he could add. "We can't be that compromised right guys? I dont like the idea that a mole could be on our team. It doesnt feel right."

Well, that was the first step over and done with at least.

Morgana had never made a contract with a spirit before, even though she knew the principles behind it, and this was already a very unconventional situation given that the spirit had already manifested in their world and had no contract or master to speak of; even so, binding and sealing were among her specialities so she was confident that her makeshift solution would work. If anything, she had expected actually getting the Roggenwolf into the circle to be the hard part; she couldn’t possibly anticipate Madeleine managing to befriend a conceptual being of the harvest.

Still, in the circle it was, which meant the next part was all on her.

“I can’t promise it will be a complete pleasant experience. As I said to the spirit, I was expecting an unwilling participant and structured the circle as such; it won’t hurt them, so long as they don’t try and fight this, but they may feel… restricted for the time being.”

Half of the work she’d put into the thing had been making sure it could contain a spirit that was trying to forcibly extricate itself, after all. Ever since the Roggenwolf entered the circle, it had bound itself within it; not permanently, not irreversibly, but it would find it difficult to move from where it currently stood, should it try.

"I’m not much of a witch these days; I’m more of a heretic.” She’d never learned anything from being a witch other than the wrong way to things anyway. “The ‘other side’ is not a true plane of existence like Heaven or Hell, or even the Fae realm. It’s less definite than that. The spirits reside in a place that is more a mirrored reflection of the plane where we are right now, a place slightly off centre from us rather than a separate place entirely.” Or so they believed. Everything Morgana had read on the subject, and she had read quite a bit about a lot of subjects, said as much; proving it was another matter, but it hadn’t been disproven either. In other words, it was the leading theory, but there was always room for improvement in their understanding. “Spirits are conceptual beings; they aren’t… real in the way that we are. Our existences are our own and are not dependent on anything but ourselves, but spirits only exist because other things exist. In the case of the Roggenwolf, it is a corn spirit; most of them are tied to a specific cornfield and can only exist as long as it does. That’s why the solution to a Roggenwolf if often to simply cut down the corn until only a single stalk remains, in order to contain it.”

But this one had been summoned; it had no field, only a master feeding it over their connection to allow it to exist on this plane. Or at least, that was how it was supposed to go. Without a master it would eventually return to its own plane by itself, with this plan just being a way to speed up the process.

“Truthfully, I only know the basics of spiritlore. It’s not my area of expertise, though sealing and binding is and those are fields often closely related to the handling of spirits.” She waved a hand to gesture at the circle. “I know how to do this, but not much about their nature. Anyway, that’s enough distraction. I’ll make the contract now.”

Morgana walked forward, stepping closer to the circling binding the Roggenwolf and locking eyes with the spirit. As before, it stared back with a strange sort of understanding in its eyes. Clearing her throat, the witch began to pour mana into a connection between herself and the boundary of the circle she had drawn.

“Hmm, how should I word this? A binding resolution requires the right syntax after all. No need to include anything related to your summoning since you are already here; the focus should be on the agreement and the bargain. Let’s go with… Spirit of the bounty and the harvest. By my words an offer is made, and by my deeds see it repaid. My oath is thus; submit yourself to this beckoning, submit to this will and render unto me a service. If you abide by this call, let a covenant be struck.”

Despite the fact that Morgana spoke no differently than normal and despite the fact that she weaved no visible magic, the words rang with a strange quality. The air felt heavy with the weight of their meaning. “A little ostentatious, but that should suffice. A single service; that is all I ask, that is all this contract should require of you. Then I can end it and you can go home. But you need to agree to it.”

@Kumbaris@Martian

---

Even though Faye was a bit too absorbed in enjoying her hot chocolate, she was still paying enough attention to the conversation to agree with Scarlet. While it was really worrying that someone had managed to infiltrate such an important position that could so easily gather information, it was still exactly the place where someone would go if they wanted to gather information.

"Having a mole in such an important position is really worrying... But what Scarlet says makes a lot of sense. Only someone with privileged information would be able to organize that ambush..." Faye said.

"I hope we're wrong though... If the mole managed to infiltrate all the way to the communications, then the security at the headquarters might need a complete change..." Faye said with a disappointed sigh.

At first, they didn't see anything out of the ordinary when Amanda put on the tape and they started investigating the tape, but after a few minutes, Amanda spotted a rather suspicious agent who entered and started asking a lot of questions. Upon close examination though, the suspicious person was no one other than Xaviron himself.

"Wait.. what?!" Faye asked, surprised as she looked around, trying to understand what she had just seen.

It wasn't until Amanda mentioned the chance of some kind of unknown spell allowing oneself to disguise as another that Faye relaxed a bit.

"I mean... The possibility of an unknown spell sounds way better than Xaviron having betrayed us..." Faye said.

"Still... How should we even guard ourselves against such a spell... If it exists, that is? If they can just make themselves look exactly like us, they could just freely walk around and get any information they wanted... right?" she asked, a bit worried as she looked at Amanda.

When Michael looked over to Faye and Scarlet, asking if they were really that compromised, Faye couldn't help but give him a worried look.

"Even if we don't have a mole on our team... It might be just a matter of time, if they can really just infiltrate themselves so easily..." she said with a heavy sigh.

"We might need to have a serious talk with the higher-ups after we figure everything out, Amanda..." Faye said, looking to Amanda with a serious expression.

Scarlet would be lying to herself if she said that she didn't feel the least bit validated when Amanda and the rest of the crew figured that the option she presented was their best bet. However, Faye voiced some rather valid concerns about the security of their agency if a mole was able to sneak in and get the intel needed to plan an ambush as quickly as they did. "I suppose that's the monkey's paw there." Scarlet said in response to Faye's concerns. Amanda swiftly left the room and returned with some VHS tapes. Scarlet stood up to help Amanda set up some of the tech, but it seems as if Amanda was familiar with all of it. That and she was an android that had no trouble lifting up a big ass 2-in-1 television set. Scarlet cleaned up her space in the meantime, removing all evidence that she ate her pop tarts like a heathen.

She sat back down with the crew and watched the tape with them. Due to the fact that it's just a consumer TV and not an editor's setup, there was always a 1-second lag anytime they pause and rewound, forcing Amanda to have to adjust her timing a bit anytime she used the remote. They didn't find anything unusual. Comparing the staff in the surveillance footage to those in the list revealed nothing out of the ordinary. They all served here for years, and only had minor incidents in the office at worst. Going through the footage ate up a bit of time, so in her natural state of boredom, Scarlet stood up and looked around for a radio.

"A-ha!" She found a small boombox sitting on one of the nearby tables, and after plugging it in, she jumped from the sudden burst of volume that came from one of the local radio stations. "Sorry!" Scarlet called out sheepishly as she adjusted the volume and turned it down. From her bag of holding, she produces a blank cassette tape, puts it into the boombox and presses play. The worn tape opens up with Suzanne Vega's hit, the homunculus bouncing and shaking parts of herself to the beat as she saunters back to her chair. She quietly hums to herself as the crew continues to scrub the footage, hoping to lighten up the rather tedious task that they're undergoing. I am sitting in the morning at the diner on the corner, I am waiting at the counter for the man to pour the coffee... And he fills it only halfway And before I even argue, he is looking out the window at somebody coming in... Scarlet continues humming the song to herself as they scrub through the footage, bouncing to the beat.

Eventually they got to yesterday's tape, and scrubbed through that as well. One of the agents who worked in the room that day looked really cute. Scarlet kept her eyes on the rather attractive but otherwise unassuming agent until someone strange walked into the room at around 2 o' clock in the afternoon. Scarlet squinted her eyes once the figure walked in. She could've sworn she's seen him before, and just a second after the thought crossed her mind, Amanda brought up his name.

"No shit..." Scarlet looked closer, trying to make out whatever details she can from the footage. She quickly looked to the others just to make sure she and Amanda weren't the only ones who were seeing this, and it was clear as day that all of them were seeing the same thing. The group quickly ruled out the idea that it was actually Agent Mosley. She didn't know the guy all that well, but the others seemed to believe that him being the mole didn't fit his profile. Mike then brought up the fact that he couldn't possibly be here before them, and Scarlet thought the same thing. "Shouldn't he be with the B-Team back in Frankfurt?" Scarlet asked casually. "A quick phone call to the Frankfurt office should easily clear his name."

Amanda then brought up magic that would alter someone's appearance. Scarlet gave it some thought, she was aware of magic that did create illusions, but nothing as real or as convincing as that one was. Scarlet herself never needed illusions like that to get the job done, disruptive black face paint and a dark gaiter usually did the trick for her. But if there was a spell like that that could alter her appearance, she could use it for future deployments. "Still... How should we even guard ourselves against such a spell... If it exists, that is? If they can just make themselves look exactly like us, they could just freely walk around and get any information they wanted... right?" Faye said, to which Scarlet pondered. She turned to Faye and replied. "I suppose it depends on the kind of magic being used here. If they're simply using illusion magic, it should be pretty easy to beat with basic frisking and fingerprinting. If they're a shapeshifter, well... wait." She paused for a moment. "Can shapeshifters change their fingerprints, or does theirs remain unique to them like everyone else's?" She pondered that for a bit more before Mike chimed in with his experience.

"Speaking from experience, there are some creatures who can mimic sound and shape...the whetigo and the wendigo can do so to a limited extent, but that's a natural ability and doesn't stand up to much scrutiny." Mike brought up, to which Scarlet nodded. "We tricksters can mimic sound form and function, but the illusion falls apart if we can't match knowledge." Raven added. Scarlet stifled a chuckle from his interaction with Manabozho, and nodded emphatically. "Yeah, that's what I was going for. Usually illusions like that come with their limitations, and since so many people used those illusion spells to commit fraud back in the day, most places have tech that screens for that kind of thing." Scarlet looked at the door. "Hell, I could've sworn I walked through a few pieces of that tech on my way in yesterday."

Amanda then brought up that the potential suspect could've left in a vehicle of some kind, and suggested that they should check the garage footage next. Mike was onboard, and so was Scarlet. "Mhm, what he said." Mike turned to the rest of the group and spoke to them. "We can't be that compromised right guys? I don't like the idea that a mole could be on our team. It doesn't feel right." Faye responded. "Even if we don't have a mole on our team... It might be just a matter of time, if they can really just infiltrate themselves so easily..."

Scarlet looked to the both of them and thought for a moment. She racked her brain for ideas and smirked just a little. "Well, if any of you suspect me of being replaced by a shapeshifter, just... reminisce about something with me that never happened. The imposter will go along with it to keep their cover." Scarlet joked. "Works all of the time in the movies." She thought for a moment. "Or you can ask me what car I rented in Frankfurt. If I answer with anything else other than a red 1989 Honda Prelude, you have my full permission to shoot me in the head."

@13org@BigPapaBelial@AWACS

Amanda quickly changed the tapes and decided to look over at the parking lot for once. Seems like a logical extension to see where the fake agent Mosley’s going. It didn’t take too long however to find out that something was much amiss, the Android could barely believe it when the tape rolled and she saw agent Mosley.

Or lack of an agent Mosley to be exact.

It’s more likely that this ‘agent’ went and gone off into the Ether. Something that is pretty much impossible unless you have such large mana reserves you can teleport out of the building, and that kind of stuff is reserved to deities really, AND the mana residue out of such an exhaustive teleportation spell would be easily detected by anyone in the building.

But Amanda did see something interesting. There is a white Lada in the parking lot, and a pretty buff individual seems to be exiting the elevator, and went into the Lada before going off on his own. She did seem to identify the car’s plate, and the seemingly convenient timing between the (potentially) fake agent Mosley and the guy exiting the car seems to good to be true.

“Guys. I’m going to run over to get some identification on that car. I just need to see if the place of the car’s residence and registration can lead us somewhere. So just hang tight and I’ll see what I can do.”

There was no words, no verbal indication that the Roggenwolf had accepted the contract she put before it, but the moment it did was unmistakeable. The connection of mana that the witch had been maintaining between them suddenly pulled tight; no, that wasn’t quite right, it tightened. Like a loosely woven thread had instantly been twisted into a strong cord and the bond between them came into being all at once.

It was a strange feeling. A kind of awareness of your own body that was not of your own body but someone else’s; a sense that was both distant and not at the same time. How strange.

The experience was a novelty, but whatever the case Morgana could now feel the Roggenwolf’s presence through the connection. A connection that she could tell would not be easily broken without them both experiencing some backlash; there was a weight to, a severity, that spoke to the importance of the contract they had both entered into, despite how insignificant it was intended to be.

Why? Who or what was the arbiter of these contracts? The gods? Morgana had no sworn faith, which should have made such things weaker for her, but all studies has shown that binding contracts were equally effective regardless of the spiritual beliefs or even divine nature of the participants involved. The spirits themselves? To an extent. It was well known that entering into an agreement with a spirit, full-bloodied Fae or other supernatural was more dangerous than entering one with a more mundane partner, but those rules seemed separate to the contact itself and spirits needed to be equally careful not to fall foul of them. Then, was it simply the nature of swearing oaths itself? A collective belief among all beings that words mattered, promises mattered, and to break them was to be deserving of punishment?

Belief could shape magic. Belief could make a cheaply made staff of modern materials perform almost as well as an old, weathered staff of lightning-struck oak if the user believed the former to be the latter. The shattering of the moon had broken many older traditions of lunar magic not because the moon was a source of power, as nothing had ever proven that to be true, but because the practitioners believed their magic should no longer work. These were known phenomena, but for collective belief to create an effect from scratch? To make binding a contract sworn between two individuals just because Morgana had spoken with intent and add a little mana to the mix?

It was old magic, ancient magic, and frustratingly, something neither she nor any other researcher had managed to be able to explain.

“Alright, let’s get this over with.” Letting out a sigh, Morgana raised a finger to her chin and tried to think of something suitably inconsequential she could ask the spirit to perform in order to fulfil their contract. “…sit.”

The oversized, canine-shaped spirit seemed to hesitate for a moment and Morgana could have sworn she saw bewilderment flash across its decidedly inhuman face before it bent its hind legs and sat on the ground.

“Stand.”

The Roggenwolf stood.

“Turn around.”

The circle restricted their movement somewhat, but there was enough space for the spirit to walk in a small circle within the enclosure.

“That should be enough. The terms of the contract have been fulfilled; I release you.” As suddenly as it has appeared, the cord connecting Morgana to the spirit was gone, leaving no more of a trace behind than the Roggenwolf itself, which had also vanished.

Raising a hand, Morgana formed a ring with her index finger and her thumb and peered through the completed circle to examine the magical energies within her seal. A cursory examination showed no signs of the spirits presence, only that of the seal itself. She let he hand fall to her side, then raised her other hand and snapped her fingers; the subtle glow of the seal dimmed and disappeared, leaving behind only lines on the concrete like chalk. Even that was already starting to fade.

Turning around, Morgana regarded the Madeleine and Xaviron with impatience. “Well, I think all of our business here is done. What was it we were doing before this distraction?”

@Martian@Kumbaris

---

Faye was still perplexed by how seamless the transformation magic seemed to be, at least when watching it by video. To be able to fool multiple people, looking them straight in the eyes and even talking to them only made her sure that whatever magic they were using, was a very complex one.

"Fairies often trick others in a similar manner. On the enchanted forests, it looks almost real, but it's mostly due to the magical fog, the illusions used by the fairies and other small tricks. This is different... Whoever that was, he simply entered the lobby and began asking around while disguised as Xavi!" Faye said, thinking.

"I don't know much about shapeshifters... But can they really look exactly the same as someone else? Surely there must be a way to differentiate them from the real one, right?" she asked as both Michael and Scarlet mentioned that possibility.

With Amanda going to run some tests to identify the car the 'fake' Xaviron arrived, Faye turned her attention to the tape again, going back and forth as she tried to catch anything she missed previously.

Fortunately, her insistence seemed to have fruits with her catching, only for a brief moment, not much more than a few frames, a few suspicious wisps of light just before the fake Xaviron transformed.

"Hey! What is this?" Faye said, suddenly stopping the tape before going back slowly, until the very frame with the strange wisps became visible.

"I can see some strange traces of magic coming from the fake Xaviron! Just on a few frames.. They look like reflections if one doesn't pay enough attention... They look like... wisps of light?" Faye said, getting closer to the screen as she tried to analyze the scene a bit better.

"But... That doesn't make much sense... If they were using just illusions or some light magic, speaking or touching something would be almost a dead giveaway, wouldn't it?" Faye said, thinking to herself.

"Oh! Unless they're doing like the fairies! You know... Using many different spells to make something look as real as possible! But that would require either specific conditions to work or a proper set-up." Faye said as she looked around, almost as if asking if anyone had any idea about how such spell was made.