Meg shrugged, and said "Because it's my job.  I was born with that responsibility, to defend people, like you and the kids, from the people like Shade, and the others who would use their parahuman abilities to cause pain, suffering, terror, to use their abilities to push, bully, and dominate those who can not.  I could theoretically do anything a normal person can do, but being able to do more, means it's my responsibility to do it.  I took the bullet for Don earlier.  It didn't feel good, but you can see, I'm fine.  I'd far, far rather take the pain than anyone else.  I'll heal.  I've cut fingers off before, doing this and that."  She held both hands up, wiggling her fingers to display they were all real and worked a-OK.

"Bullet? I don't even want to think about that," Rodger muttered as he finally got the glass door open. "Inside, inside," he hurried the boys in.



(OOC: I have to lope to work. Don't let me delay you from joining the others at the htel, Meg.)

  Meg nodded, and once they were inside, she peeked in her own balcony door and told her Mom "Mom, can we borrow you?  Ethan, you can stay if you want, just don't leave the doors unlocked, if you decide to take off, okay?"

The Eskins hurried inside, closing and locking their back door behind them.

Parking John in the living room and telling Harold to play with him or watch something together, Brenda grasped Rodger firmly, by the ear, and marched him into their bedroom.

"Rodger, what the Hell was going on at that restaurant?"

"What do you mean? Someone tried to kidnap a government official, it looked like to me."

"Before that, Rodger. You were as tense as a bowstring when that skinhead came in, and he raised a toast to you before he left. Plus, it seemed like everyone at our table except us had powers! Explain that."

"Err..."

"And you still haven't given me a clear answer as to why Dr. Marceau called me 'Mrs. Mumm-ra' after you saw him."

Rodger cringed, wilting before his wife's steely gaze.

  Lin had picked up the large plastic platter of cookies, and took it over to the Eskins, and knocked briskly on the door.

*knock knock knock* on the bedroom door. "Mom? Somebody's at the door." Harold's voice intruded before his mother really launched into anything serious.

Brenda paused. "Do you know who it is, Harold?"

"No. They only knocked."

Brenda sighed. She opened the bedroom door and strode out, "Front or back?" she asked.

"The front door, Mom."


Approaching the front door, Brenda called out, "Who is it?" as if nothing was wrong.

  Lin said "It's me, Lin.  Megaira mentioned this platter is for you four?"

"Mrs. Kattakara?!? But how... never mind, I probably don't want to know." Brenda blurted, surprised.

She opened the door, seeing the same richly dressed Chinese lady... err, princess, who they'd briefly met at the restaurant. That dress was unmistakable. "Would... would you care to come in?" she asked hestitantly.

  Lin chuckled, and said "Because neither Ethan or I are done with our business here in Weston.  How I got here is simple.  I teleported Ethan and I to Megaira's apartment.  She peeked in on the way to help her fellow New Age Defender."

"That call was another superhero? Oh good grief... and my husband's receiving it on his tie??!" Brenda's mind was reeling, and not just from glimpses of someone's thoughts.

  Lin laughed, and said "Is that why he keeps picking up his tie?  In any case, yes, that was, it is, and that's where Megaira had to run off to.  She prevented someone from being shot earlier by stepping in front of the bullet earlier, and between, I fixed her wardrobe problems.  Simple little splls, really.  Takes no effort and does nothing more really than giving her a costume that is self cleaning, self repairing, and lets her avoid ruining more clothes every time she gets hurt."

"She stepped in front of a bullet?" Brenda asked, "That's very brave, even with her  gifts. You're a sorceress?" she asked, after a moment when what else Lin had said sunk in. "Has Meg discussed my husband's... problem, with you at all?"

  Lin said "A bit.  Yes, I'm a sorceress.  Probably the oldest one on earth, now.  What would you like to know?"  She folded her feet up to sit cross-legged in the middle of the air, and her dragon reared up, then chittered at them all.

"How to live with a neurotic evil wizard, I think," Brenda said in a whisper, not wanting to upset the boys. "And why the psychologist I took Rodger to called me 'Mrs. Mumm-ra'. He still won't give me an answer to that one, not even a made-up story."

  Lin chuckled, and said "I've never had to live with another sorceror, but I would say be patient, understanding, and loving.  Now, I'll need a few details.  Think he can give them, or can you?"

"Well, I can try," Brenda said. "But I may not know the right details."

In the meantime, Harold approached the cookies, snagging two for himself and one for his little brother.

  Lin tilted her head, and said "How much do you want to know, Brenda?  There are ways I can find out just about anything I want."

"I nearly lost him, only weeks ago, Lin. I thought I had, until the police brought him back, wan and ashen and confused. His health's recovered, but whatever is going on is driving him out of his mind. And I'm so scared I'll lose him again, and this time he won't come home. Instead of the sensible, silly teacher I married, I'm sleeping next to a wizard with no confidence in his magic, whose self-respect is falling apart like sand, who wakes up screaming in the middle of the night when the demons talk to him. I have to know enough about what's wrong with him to keep Rodger from completely losing it. Or worse."

  Lin considered, then said "Put him in charge of your boys, and come over to Megaira's.  I will show you what happened.  Bear in mind, this will be what happened, but it does not tell you how he feels or thinks.  This may be ugly and painful to watch.  But knowledge has it's own price sometimes."

Brenda nodded, and got up. Approaching the bedroom, she poked her head inside. No sign of him... except for that lump on the bed. Rodger was curled up under the blankets, in a fetal position hugging one of his teddy bears for dear life, when Brenda peeked underneath.

"Come on out, Rodger. I need you to watch the boys." she said gently.

He cracked an eye open to look at her. "Why?"

"Because I'm going next door. Come on, it's okay."

"Bear..." he said in a childish tone of voice, letting go of the teddy long enough to pantomime bear ears again. Then grasped the teddy and started to sit up.

"Yes, you can take bear out to the living room, Rodger."

It took a few more tries, but she coaxed him out into the hallway... and he saw their guest. Rodger was partially undressed, still in his trousers, shirt, and socks, but he'd taken his coat, tie, and shoes off.

Bear quickly got sleight-of-handed to behind his back as his ears reddened.

  Lin gave no indication she'd seen the bear, and she gave Rodger a smile as she said "I'm borrowing Brenda, don't worry, we won't go far."

"Have a good time, dear," Rodger said, with a slightly forced smile, and he sidled sidled sideways towards the boys, keeping his body between the teddy bear and their guest.

Brenda left the apartment with Lin while Rodger got down to storytime with their sons, weaving a tale that may or may not have been something he'd read in the past.

  Lin led Brenda over to Meg's, and in the middle of the living room floor, she placed a heap of pillows for Brenda to occupy.  Then she spread her hands.  A 'screen' of energy as tall as she was, and approximately six feet wide appeared, then hovered, glowing.  She told Brenda quietly "You will know what has happened to your husband.  What is known, can not be un-known.  It may be horrifying, or scary, until I see, I do not know either, but you will not be able to forget, Brenda Eskin."  She touched the energy, and said "When you are ready, speak his name."

Brenda took a deep breath. "Rodger Eskin," she told the screen.

The screen throbbed a vivid green for a moment, then a picture formed and cleared. Hawkins Park, with a birthday party happily underway. Rodger, as Clumsy Charlie, was in the middle of a routine as a hapless clown being gotten the best of by a bunch of bananas. The children, most of them in party hats, were laughing and happy.

The scene zoomed out, then in again to an encounter not far from the park. Several Men in Black types, a startled someone who may or may not have Ethan Sharpe from the brief glimpse as the vision went past, and ski masked woman holding a fist-sized object that the screen outlined with blood red. The woman did something, throwing the object towards maybe-Ethan, but one of his MIBs deflected it with his briefcase, sending it arcing high into the air. Towards the park and the kids. The screen shifted away, following the now-sizzling object as it came down on the grass, bouncing a few times leaving a furiously boiling yellow stain each time with vivid green and blood red lines crackling around it. Someone called out a warning of danger, and the adults at the party looked around, alarmed, trying to spot the 'bomb'.

It was sighted, having come to a stop about 40 feet away from the nearest kid. Rodger dropped his bananas and bolted... straight towards the object, the clown telling any kids in his way to stay back. His hand reached down, grabbing the thing, the sizzling yellow ooze getting on his fingers. Frantically, he threw the object away from anyone, towards an empty part of the park, even as the lines of magic lanced into his hand like voraciously feeding worms or the Thread of Anne McCaffery's Pern novels. A thundering chain of unseen (displayed in blood red on the screen) magic erupted from the object as it flew this time, pouring down into the stuff on Rodger's hand, and into Rodger. The clown clutched at his wrist, his face contorted with pain behind the greasepaint. Incredibly complex runes were emerging from the ooze, and Rodger's flesh was smoking as they dug into him, spreading smaller runes like roots. He collapsed to the ground, screaming in agony as whatever the weapon was continued its' ghastly work. Thick lines of evolving magic writhed under his skin as clouds of sulfur-ladden smoke billowed, fading away to leave a smouldering silouette scorched in the grass where he had been.

The screen followed Rodger, falling into darkness, screaming his lungs out as whatever it was ate him alive from within. Tendrils made of runes unfolded and burst out of his flesh, through his costume, radiating outwards and starting to build a wall of solid runes, onyx black against the greater darkness he falling through. A golden halo burst into existence around Rodger's head, and red-feathered angel wings flapped helplessly from his shoulders as he momentarily healed and seemed whole again. Then the runes still instead of him invaded those as well, veins of black, festering gangrene tearing his wings apart and crazing his halo with tainted cracks. The onyx wall became a completely enclosed barrier,  with the eruptions between him and it solidifying into rods of gleaming, golden metal protruding from his now-still, broken form. His wings and halo faded from sight.

The screen started to zoom out again, showing a giant onyx jewel hanging suspended in the void, with glowing runes moving and interacting everywhere on it. One side of the onyx flushed white, and it divided like a cell, spawning an equally vast pearl hanging over it. But without an occupant. Both jewels continued to evolve, magic arcing between them and differentiating into three clouds of runes, one each in red, green, and blue. These were starting to crystallize into further jewels when the screen sputtered, the image distorting.
The vision ended abruptly with a computer-like display of the DPA logo, the word SCRYGUARD, and a warning that the viewer was intruding on a government system.


Brenda stared in shock, feeling like she was going to vomit from what she'd seen her beloved suffer.

  Lin spoke quietly, her voice gentle.  "Your husband was murdered.  Only through a very complicated sorcerously involved item was his essence preserved.  He didn't know what happened to him when it happened, but I'm going to make an educated guess, and say that someone has since told him.  Your husband has been murdered and resurrected."