“And there goes another one heading inside.” Gunderson's calm voice said from beside me.

“I guess that pretty much confirms Gribkik’s information was right, doesn’t it?” I asked my more experienced mentor.

“Hmm, yes and no. It looks like it probably is correct, based on the traffic going in and out, and from just profiling the types of people frequenting the place.” Gunderson said while still having his attention squarely focused on the large building in the distance.

“And by profiling, you mean noticing the high number of non-humans entering and leaving that building.” I clarified.

“Paranaturals, but yes.” Gunderson agreed. “Do you want another turn with these?”

The ‘these’ Gunderson referred to were the sizable black aviator sunglasses he was currently wearing. Ordinarily, asking if I wanted a turn with them might come across as strange, save for the fact these sunglasses were actually a piece of enchanted equipment that Gunderson had been using.

“I guess. How do these work exactly again?” I asked.

“Well, they work a lot like the Akashic Record’s blue boxes. These sunglasses respond to verbal commands, but they also can react to your mental instructions as well, which is what I usually do with them.” Gunderson explained.

“Okay…” I said cautiously, putting my hand out towards Gunderson to receive the strange sunglasses he was currently using.

Noticing my hand out of the corner of his eyes, he took them off of his head and placed them onto my waiting palm.

“Just relax, and let the magic do its thing.” Gunderson told me reassuringly.

Placing the large black sunglasses onto my face and covering my eyes, the world around me became a few shades darker. It was like someone had suddenly started adjusting the brightness slider from an image editor but for the physical world around us, instead of an image on a screen.

Focusing my thoughts, I willed the sunglasses to look closer at the building that was probably at least a mile or so away from the two of us while we sat over here in Gunderson’s red convertible.

After just a moment, the magical item seemed to respond to my wishes, and my vision moved closer and closer to the structure I was looking towards. It was like having a pair of high-powered binoculars in front of my eyes that responded to my mental commands.

It was actually kinda cool. Well, the magic was, at least. The large black aviator’s kinda clashed with my style, but I decided to ignore that part.

As the details of the building and the things around it grew more prominent in my vision and became more and more detailed, I too was now able to see the couple of people hanging around just inside one of the front windows.

One of them, which I think had arrived just recently, looked to be pretty much human, as far as I could tell. He had just arrived before walking straight up to the door and prompting another person to walk out and greet him after he knocked a few times on the door, or so Gunderson had told me. Now, they were in a deep discussion, standing just on the side of the window I was looking through so that they could still see the other people coming and going.

The other person, the one the human seemed to be talking to, did not look particularly human, even to an inexperienced amateur like myself. First of all, his skin was sort of greenish-yellow in color, like a slightly unripened butternut squash.

Another notable non-human feature this person possessed was the many, many small needle-like serrated teeth in his mouth. This was very visible to me while I was wearing these magic sunglasses, and also the fact that this guy seemed to be making a habit of smiling quite a lot. Whether it was because he was just such a happy and jovial type of guy, or it could also be that he enjoyed showing off the intimidating and slightly scary look his teeth seemed to have for the people he had been talking with.

“Needle teeth still seems deep into his discussion with the guy who just arrived.” I told Gunderson while my vision was focused on things happening well over a mile away from my body.

“Good. Let me know if you see them handing each other anything or even if you just see them holding anything interesting. We still need more than just the fact that a bunch of paranaturals are hanging out together in a large rundown building.” Gunderson explained.

“Got it.” I responded off-handedly as my attention mostly remained on the two individuals who were still talking.

From what we could tell, Needleteeth seemed to be in charge of or running operations for this spikehead hangout. Most of the new arrivals made a point to stop and talk to him first before moving on and doing whatever else they were doing inside of that building. The other people who seemed to be living or working inside of this building also seemed to frequently come up and talk or ask this guy questions during the time we had been sitting here.

As the two started walking away from the clear visibility of the front window and behind the solid brick walls that the building was made of, I lost my view on the pair of talking suspects.

“I lost eyes on them.” I told Gunderson. “They walked away from the window again.”

“That’s fine. Just will the sunglasses to switch over to thermal and see if you can spot them again.” Gunderson explained.

Doing as he instructed, I mentally commanded the sunglasses on my face to switch over to their thermal vision mode. I tried to keep my eyes tracking the spot I had last saw the two walking. After a quick moment, my vision of the world shifted again, and everything seemed to suddenly change colors.

The once dilapidated facade of the large building seemed to morph and fall away into a large dark blue object filled with various brightly colored shapes and what must be people inside it.

Focusing my attention, I spotted the two brightly colored human-shaped objects I had been following as they continued their walk through the large apartment complex we had been staking out. Unfortunately, I was unable to make out whatever it was they were talking about.

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These magically enchanted sunglasses seemed to have many cool features. Still, the ability to pick up distant audio and voices was not one of them. It seemed like an obvious thing to add to a pair of what were basically magical spy binoculars. However, I’m still pretty new to magic, so what do I know?

“These sunglasses are cool and all, but I still don’t get why they can’t be used to hear as well as see at a distance.” I said to Gunderson in an annoyed tone of voice.

“Well, I won’t get into the details of the logistics about the difficulty of adding all the enchantments and modifications necessary to make this pair of sunglasses work like that, but suffice to say it would be cost prohibitive.” Gunderson explained. “That wouldn’t be the main reason we don’t though.”

“Oh?” I prompted. “What is the main reason then?”

“For as much as we at the IDPA plays fast and loose with mundane laws and regulations, we do have to abide by some rules of our own.” Gunderson said as I continued my vigil of the bright heat signatures as they moved through the building. “Fortunately, or unfortunately, we can’t just go around spying on any random mundane or paranatural we feel like. Even just using the thermal vision on those sunglasses is edging the line pretty close for what’s allowed.”

“Huh…” I responded flippantly. “I was sort of getting the impression that you guys could do pretty much whatever you wanted.”

“Yeah, I’m not surprised.” Gunderson said, his voice strained, as if admitting that fact was uncomfortable for him. “Most people, most paranaturals, generally hold that opinion about us.”

“But you’re saying it’s not true then?” I asked.

“Like I said, when it comes to mundane laws, we are not super diligent about following them. However, when it comes to rules, both formal and informal, for the IDPA and for the paranatural community at large, we do our best to at least seem like we keep our word about what we will do and won’t do.”

“And I guess listening in on the conversations of a group of people you suspect are doing bad things, but don’t have proof yet, is one of the things you won’t do.” I guessed.

“Basically.” Gunderson confirmed.

The two figures I had been tracking had come to a stop and had started up another conversation, this time with another figure. Unfortunately, with the thermal vision on, I couldn’t really make out much detail about this new figure. They looked to be male, based on their size and dimensions, but that was about it.

“They’ve stopped and are talking with someone else now.” I informed Gunderson.

“Hmm, switch back with me and let me see.” He instructed.

Doing as he said, I handed the sunglasses back to him. I felt a bit of mental whiplash as the world suddenly switched back to its typical colors, and my perspective suddenly shifted to a spot a mile away from where it had just been.

“Ugh, taking those off suddenly doesn’t feel all that great.” I said to Gunderson, who was now back to focusing on the distant figure inside the distant apartment complex.

“Yeah, audio or no, these bad boys are still pretty powerful vision enhancers. Rapidly switching between modes and distances can be a bit nausea-inducing if you're not used to them.” Gunderson said with an amused smirk on his face.

I didn’t respond back at first to Gunderson’s explanation. I was wrestling with my thoughts on something else I wanted to bring up with him. Mira.

I’d already decided I needed to talk with him about it. However, I was still debating how exactly to go about it. Despite what Gunderson had said about the IDPA needing to follow specific rules, Mira at least seemed to be very wary, if not fearful, of the IDPA, based on our few conversations and her behavior at seeing Gunderson arrive to pick me up.

I was slightly worried about how Gunderson would react when hearing that a vision I had in a dream about Mira might implicate her in this investigation. Despite not knowing her for very long at all, I didn’t want to endanger Mira without confirming how or even if she was really involved in all this.

That said, I still needed to talk to him about it…

“So, did you still want to talk about Father Alvarado?” Gunderson asked suddenly.

“Huh, oh uh, yeah, sure, if you want to.” I responded, relieved that I still had more time to contemplate the Mira situation for a little while longer.

“Well, like I said before we talked with Gribkik, Alvarado is the oldest and strongest supernatural in California, and he supplies us with large quantities of blessed equipment.” Gunderson explained. “Blessed, in this case, means items and weapons enhanced by his abilities as a supernatural.”

“I was going to ask about that. So Father Alvarado’s ‘blessings’ come from the uh, Akashic Record, and not God then, I guess.”

“Yes, but his class and skills, as far I know, are all based upon Christian theology, and he still very much considers himself a devout man of God.” Gunderson explained. “Father Alvarado comes from a time and belief that the Akashic Record is just another instrument of God’s will on Earth and that he has been chosen to use it in his name. This was something that was much more prevalent among your kind, even just a century or so ago.”

“Ah, it must cause some strain and difficulties for him to exist in a more… secular time.” I ventured.

It must be hard living for that long and seeing so much of the world change around you. If what Gunderson said was right, this Father Alvarado lived back in a time when people traveled around on horses and sailing ships. The culture of today must be so different and alien to him.

“You said he’s the strongest in California, but where is he? I’m guessing he’s not nearby, or you’d have mentioned him when you were talking about that girl Bobbie.”

“You’re right, he’s not super close, but he’s not that far either, especially for a high-level supernatural like him. He’s headquartered out of San Francisco and considers the area around it to be his territory.” Gunderson explained.

“Territory?” I asked.

“Yep, well, technically, you could consider all of California or even the western seaboard to be his territory, but he mostly considers only the area around San Francisco and Sacramento to be his domain.”

“Okay, but what do you mean by territory and domain?” I asked with a bit more heat in my voice this time.

“Oh, I haven’t really explained that bit, I guess. Supernaturals tend to be competitive and territorial with one another. When one of you enters the area that another resides in, it's the custom that you greet them and respect the authority they have over the area. It’s an ancient tradition created to avoid unnecessary conflicts among your peers.”

“Wait, so the area around Redding and Shasta Lake wouldn’t be considered my territory, right?” I reasoned. “Since this girl Bobbie is older and more experienced than me, it must be hers then.”

“You got it.” Gunderson said with a smile. “And before you go start getting worried about intruding or anything, Bobbie’s not really one to care about the old formal traditions like territories and domains. Besides, even in cities like San Francisco and Sacramento, there are many lower leveled supernaturals living and operating there. They just have to acknowledge Father Alvarado as the highest authority of the region while living there.”

“Frick and you want me to meet him?” I asked, a bit put off by the antiquated and draconian structure other supernaturals seemed to operate in.

“Definitely, he’s really not so…” Gunderson paused mid-sentence, seeming to focus intently on the building in the distance. “They're trading something between each other…hold on, I need to…”

Gunderson placed a single finger on the side of his sunglasses as he continued to stare at whatever was going on over there.

“One of them is handing off what looks like a small bundle of spikes to the other…” Gunderson described. “Yep, he just unwrapped them to show them off, and now the other is taking them from him and wrapping them back up.”

“Is that it? Do we have what we need?” I asked in an excited and anxious voice.

“Yep, we’ve got them.” Gunderson declared a wide predatory grin on his face.