Where they keep the dead bodies.

This message was deleted by the player at 16:04, Wed 18 Apr 2012.

The building is sterile and white Leo finds himself upon a metal slab. From down the hall he hears a voice. "H-hello?"

Leo slowly opened his eyes and slowly sat up and glanced around his vision blurred and unfocused. He rubbed his head as it felt like he had been hit by a train. He had hot flashes of images rush through his head he grabbed his head and fell off the metal slab. He felt weak and slowly got up and stumbled forward he grabbed the wall and made his way to the door opening it. He moved forward down the hall towards the voice. He finally reached the owner of the voice and collapsed before the person.

A coroner was sitting at a desk and when Leo collapsed in front of him he got up quickly stepping over to him and checking his pulse before pulling out a cellphone. "I need and ambulance to the weston city morgue. No this is not a joke. Just send it please a man just collapsed."

IN no time at all the paramedics arrive place the unconscious man on the gurney and place him in the ambulance.

>>TO Hospital>>

Brother Joshua pulled into the church parking lot. He stepped out of the car and the others heard him say something in Latin. The mages felt the power go out from Joshua the energy surrounding the group as he cast some sort of illusion.

  Matt stepped out of their ride, his influence feeling like a lazy guard dog glancing at the illusions and going back to sleep.  A guy could get spoiled being surrounded by benevolent sorts he didn't need to worry about most of the time.

  "Anything I should keep in mind?  I'm not about to make fun of or poke at the deceased, but the more I know ahead of time the less likely I shoulder block something metaphysical on instinct."

 'Oh my god!  He just put the Ghost of Christmas Future through the announcers table!' is the sort of incident Matt would like to avoid.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:40, Mon 10 Dec 2012.

Ozzy smiled and said, "I guess just follow Brother Joshua's lead. As long as he's cool, we ought to play it cool, too. I've got a pretty bad-woojie sense, too. I'm honestly just hoping that we might be able to get a 'whiff' of the magical aura of our perps. Something that might lead us to them."

  Clarissa shrugged, and said "Can you get used to our magical signatures, and then figure out how to let us do things but not anyone else?"

"Each brother and sister's abilities tend to vary based on one's god given talents. Mine primarily deal with influencing minds very useful most of the time. But I cannot create an anti magic field"
This message was last edited by the player at 01:39, Mon 10 Dec 2012.

  Sister Janice patted her belt, where her warhammer hung, and said "Mostly we're just trying to hide the more obvious strangenesses from the mundanes."

  "It's still kind of nebulous, I don't think it's quite as cut and dry as an anti-magic field.  I know I could pick and choose who I effect, but what I can and cant effect doesn't have a clear line, the line moves.  I don't think I would prevent Meg from using her Magneto powers, so much as set the laws of physics she plays with in 'read only'."

  Matt Shrugs,  "Pretty sure I can't harm somebody with my influence alone, but Bill could be taken out by a drunken hobo with a brick if my influence took a dislike to him.  On the other hand, I could decapitate somebody and they wouldn't die or being in pain unless I let them."  He stops for a moment.  "How the flying *censored noise* do I know this?"

  He sighs ""Mental effects and possession at the very least, I have a wholesale coverage on.  I'm mostly running on instinct, but thankfully my instinct seems to lean towards protecting others."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:00, Mon 10 Dec 2012.

Ozzy smiled and said, "Yeah, hiding from the mundanes is a good idea generally. Granted, they seem to be pretty cool with me in my big form, most of them. At least once they talk to me. But, still, there are the knee-jerk-reactors who see something strange and start screaming 'burn the witch'."

  Sister Janice led them into the hospital, and down to the morgue.  There were several gurneys there, and she indicated the ones in a group off to one side.  She said softly "These souls were stolen, and it killed these people."  Some of them were only teenagers.

The body's had no obvious markings save one or two that had ropemarks on their wrists. They aged from teenagers to early twenties though that seemed to be all they had in common. There were 6 bodies 4 males two female. The mages in the group could detect that the se people had all had their souls violently ripped out, qnd not by the same person. There were three distinct magical signatures each emanating from two bodies.

Ozzy shuddered slightly at first, but said, "Interesting. Well, I wonder... are they a cabal? Or do we have three independent soul-thieves in the city? I think the first one is more likely. Something like this would take a lot of magic, and having three people working together, with one as the primary caster and thus 'recipient' of the power gained from such an act might be likely."

With that, Ozzy tried to look a little deeper, to see if the corpses had any traces of all three magical 'signatures', or if they only had one signature each.

Ozzy found one signature was pn every body. But it was fainter than the other, this one could be the conduit or he could just be the expert on soul-thievery.

  Clarissa said "I think you guys have a cabal on your hands.  That blows."

  'Go to Church, say your prayers, go to Hell or worse anyways.  Matt held some respect for the employees, but the guy in charge not so much.

  "Would a cabal be better, or worse than three of them in a competition?"

Ozzy shrugged and replied, "It has its ups and downs. They'll be easier to find that way, usually, but they'll be more likely to watch each other's backs, too."

"We need  to start searching for them, immediately. Will you help us find and stop them? Your magicks will be most useful."

Ozzy shrugged, "I dunno about how much help I'll be finding them, magically speaking, but I can sure as hell help stop them. I'm sure Grandpa would be more help actually FINDING them, but I can get him on the phone."

He then turned to Clarissa and grinned, "Unless you've got a few tricks from Loki up your sexy little sleeves that I don't know about just yet."

  "I'm more about seeing what's really there it seems.  Tracking them would need a trail in my case I think."

  She arched an eyebrow at him, and said "Weeeeellll . . . maaaaaaybe.  Give me a minute to sort through the miscellany."  She closed her eyes, thinking hard.  Then se made a funny little shruggy-shiver, and said "Gotta love the weird crap a God of Mischief leaves in one's head.  I can locate them, but it means that we're going to freak the normies out . . . "

Ozzy chuckled and said, "Hey, so long as freaking the normies gets something done, I've got no problems with it. If the rest of you wanna shadow us as we follow the trail, that's cool. But us? Secret identities aren't really much of a thing for us any more. Spending a while as a twelve foot tall green demon-looking mutant will do that. Still, I think half of Weston's seen me in that form and knows who I am by now, so we shouldn't be freaking the normies too bad."

"I will follow, I can remain unseen." Brother Joshua replied as he took Janice's hand bringing it up to his mouth to kiss it. "Will you get the others in the van dear? I'll contact you when we find them?"

Ozzy grinned and gave the others a thumbs up, saying, "Awesomesauce. Sounds like we've got ourselves a plan, then! Let's rock and roll! The sooner we take down these soulsuckers, the better."

  Clarissa closed her eyes, and shifted her hand, letting her claws be visible.  She poked Ozzy, and said "Need a puddle of paint here, unless you'd rather I used blood.  Runes."

Ozzy smiled and nodded, letting a puddle of paint pool in the palm of his hand before offering it to Clarissa, saying, "Here you go, babe. Cast away!"

  Clarissa dipped her clawtip in the runes, and painted, one by one, on each of the bodies, several Norse runes.  They were definitely ancient Norse though.  And when she finished them, the bodies shuddered, and MOVED.  Rising to their feet, Y incisions and all, and heading, butt naked, for the door.  She winced, and said "Oooops.  I forgot they'd be NAKED.  They'll seek their own souls out."

Ozzy blinked, then quickly created some paint golems to go after the bodies, hopefully catching them before the corpses got out the door. If so, the goles would 'absorb' the bodies and act like armor, letting the bodies move freely, but still preserving their modesty.

Ozzy then chuckled and grinned, "Well well well! I didn't take my lovely little wifey for a necromancer. Heh, Loki sure left a mishmash of weird shit in your head, didn't he?"

  She blushed, and said "More like, he left a royal MESS.  It's not necromancy, as I'm not trapping their souls, I'm using MY mana pool to make their bodies seek what was stolen from them.  Sort of a 'find your missing parts' command to the matter, and it will seek the souls."  She was all blushes though, and shifted her hand back as she asked "We following in the air, or in the van or what?"

Ozzy smiled and replied, "I'm thinking via air. That way we can keep them from wandering into traffic and causing accidents. Freaking the normies is fine, causing problems not so much."

  She smiled, and asked softly "Shall I put my fur on, or no?  I'll keep the cuddled to your chest part any time."

  "I really hope their next of kin doesn't see this, that would be super awkward to say the least."  No, it's cool.  We're only borrowing them to find their stolen soul... why are you crying harder now?

  "I can go with Joshua, unless you think my walking along would be a better idea.

  Sister Janice said "We could really use an effective liason to Ozzy and Clarissa.  Can you do that part, Matt?"

Ozzy nods, "Yeah, he's got our cell number. Or did they figure out a way to get a mindworm in you, man?"

  "Monster secretary, I can handle that."   He shrugs in regards to Ozzy.

  "The second try is working better out that the first one.  I wouldn't be surprised if my influence ate it again, but so far so good.  The tricky party is not missing the mental end call button and hitting the uninstall instead."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:48, Mon 17 Dec 2012.

  Clarissa waved a finger at Matt, and said "We should try and give you a shiftable tattoo too sometime."

"Then let us move quickly before the trail runs cold." Brother Joshua added.

Ozzy chuckled and said, "Give him a way to turn human? If he wants it, sure. Then again, given his... origin story, I'm not so sure how well that would work."

With that, Ozzy headed outside, shifting into his mutant form once he got outside and taking to the skies after the reanimated corpses, hoping to be able to keep them from shuffling into traffic or otherwise causing trouble for the living and further damaging the bodies.

  She cuddled close to Ozzy's chest, having hopped up into his arms once he shifted, and said back "Well, I don't know if it would work or not, but it's worth a try  . . . ."

  Matt thinks it was nice of them to want to try, but has more legal technicality preferences when it came to future help picking his old life back up.  Besides, Clarissa's apparent taste in solutions regarding the deceased left something to be desired.

  "I'll hop in the van with you, unless you want to be carried on a roof hopping trip."

  Sister Janice nodded, and said "By all means, do get in, Matt."

  Matt heads on into the Van so as to progress the plot (and less walking involved on his part).  If proper seating is available as opposed to it being a back full of angry soldiers and weapons sort of Van, Matt will buckle up for safety.

  "So long as it's not instantly fatal, nobody you like is going to die around me at the very least."  There had been that time with the suicide jumper that worked out, but Matt didn't trust himself to dole out invulnerability to others on an on demand basis.

  Keeping somebody alive and in less pain in order to patch them up was easier, at least.

Ozzy flew over the walking corpses, following them closely and doing his best to keep them out of the way. While he did want to find the soul thieves, he wasn't sure this was the best way to do it. He'd definitely have to have a talk with Clarissa. Her method was effective, to be sure, but it was more than a bit haphazard. Luckily he could keep the walking dead from causing too much trouble.

  Clarissa clung, and said softly to him {{You asked, love.  I never said it was the best idea, I mean, I learned THAT shit from LOKI.  Come on!  There's a reason I don't usually go delving in that sort of stuff.}}  She was linked deep enough that sometimes she just caught his thoughts, and he could feel the thick strand of apology in the words, as well as embarrassment.

Ozzy chuckled mentally and said, {{That I did. Just... if a spell he left you is going to do something QUITE this drastic? Mention it before you actually cast it, please? No real harm done, though, so long as we get them back to the morgue in one piece.}}

  She leaned her head against his chest, and said {{But I DID mention, love.  I said it would make them seek out what was stolen from them . . . maybe I didn't explain it well enough?}}

Brother Joshua sat in the passenger seat of the van eyes closed in concentration.

Ozzy chuckled and said, {{Not 'til you'd actually cast the spell, love. They were up and shuffling when you said what the spell would actually DO. But it's really no big deal. Thankfully we can keep them from causing any problems, and it's not like they're hungry for brains or anything. Anyway, let's just drop it, okay? The important thing now is to find the bastards who stole their souls and do what we can to make things right.}}

  She nodded, and tilted her head as she thought {{You know I don't much delve in a lot of the stuff Loki left in my head, right?  Mostly because . . . LOKI left it there.  It makes me leery as hell about it.  The only parts I really trust much, are the transformational parts.  THOSE are, well, pretty standard?  If that makes any sense.  They also feel  . . . . well, it's almost like it just puts into words what I already sort of know, in my heart?  Doing transformative spells is almost more like making jewelry for me.  Art and fun.}}

  Matt decides to leave Joshua be for the moment.  Asking the apparent trainees along for the ride 'so, first demon hunting trip?' could also be kind of awkward.  It could be worse though.  Matt could have been stuck on a road trip with these guys instead of tracking down soul thieves.

  Sister Janice asked Matt "Do you have a way to defend yourself if they come and try to steal your soul, young man?"

  "I'm... not even sure of what words to put it to."  The child above gave you Humans scorecards to a game none of you ever asked to play.  Where the rules could be broken by anybody but his playing pieces.  "I'm safe from that, as are those under my Influence.  He can't take your soul if I don't let them. But I have nowhere to put them at the end of your life."  The worst kind of monster, but the only other option Humans had was damnation of one degree or another.

  "It's a difficult situation you are all in.  You seem to be making the best of it you can.  What little temporary respite I can offer is the least I can do."

"We all know the dangers of the life we've chosen." Joshua spoke up as he opened his eyes. "More bad news I'm afraid, I felt a surge of dark power, I think they're starting a ritual. We have little time. Turn left here."

Ozzy grinned and replied, {{Sounds like a plan. Trusting anything Loki gives you is a bad idea. Any... whoah! Do you feel that? That is some seriously bad mojo. What do you want to bet that that's where our stiff friends are headed towards?}}

  She shivered, and said {{Sounds right.  Want me to call Matt and tell him we've found the place?  It's a . . .funeral parlor???}}

Ozzy nodded, then landed at the parlor, hoping that the 'zombies' would guide them inside to where the evil mages were.

>>>To the Funeral Home>>>

  "I'd ask for specifics, but it probably wouldn't change much."  Dark rituals sounded like something one wanted to prevent in general.  "I won't rush off ahead of you when the Van gets there unless you ask... Or if it's hard finding a parking spot."

-->> Soon enough to the Funeral Home