"Alert! Demonic presence detected! Alert! Demonic presence detected!"
Felissa raised her head off the table, her vision swimming for a few moments as dreams of gold blankets melted away. She instead blinked in the dim light of the ceiling fan above, having returned to her cramped office in the PIB. Her eyes felt so heavy. When had she fallen asleep? The stacks of papers on her desk betrayed the long night she still had to go. Just her luck. From the sounds of it, nobody else was still at HQ.
I appreciate this, Felissa. With Betty gone, a lot of these things seem to slip through the cracks.
That's what the commander had said. And she'd been happy to oblige. Even if she still had to go help out the mayor the next morning. She sighed, peeling off a paper stuck to her cheek.
Why do you always do these things to yourself, Felissa?
How she missed when she wasn't the only one pulling late hours.
Betty had always been there filing papers in the office a few rooms off. It was how she really got promoted to Major. Sure the woman had skill, but it was hard to deny she'd become the department's honorary secretary. Always pushing papers. Picking up the slack when the Commander felt lazy. Though they weren't particularly close, she'd gotten so used to hearing her door squeak every time she went to go get water. Or her cursing up a storm when the printer jammed. Or the echo of music that came whenever she had a really intensive paperwork session.
These days, the office had been so quiet. The only sounds she ever heard came from outside.
"Alert! Demonic presence detected! Alert! Demonic presence detected!"
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The siren above didn't come from outside. She yawned, cracking her stiff neck and grabbing the pistol from under the desk. Even if she missed the noise, she wasn't about to let whatever was attacking the base get off scot-free. Not without catching a few skull shots for being annoying. She pushed open her office door, scanning about to make sure whatever it was hadn't penetrated their protections. From the looks of it, she was still in the clear. It must have been from the outer perimeter.
With a breath for strength, she kicked open the entrance door, waving her gun at the ready as her eyes flickered green to see through illusions. But there was nothing in sight.
"Mraaaw."
She waved her gun downward only to see pavement.
"Mraaaaw."
She waved it in the other direction. It sounded like meowing. Almost like...Her eyes flickered back to normal, realization dawning as she looked around to a cascade of several feline cries. Their base had become overrun with cats.
They were all over the roof. Climbing on the cars. Several stood by the entrancing, pawing the air and meowing in her direction, though when she tried to approach any they moved away. Something that she attributed to the fact that none of them were real. Her eyes relighting revealed that much, every cat vanishing from the road.
Huh. An illusion-based monster. That can be a problem.
She yawned, wiping her glowing eyes. She didn't have time to deal with cowardly demons. A quick scan of the surrounding area revealed where the many invisible felines originated. The same spot she could see a glowing face looking back at her. Several faces, in fact. One large and covered in red eyes. One reptilian. And one she couldn't quite make out in the darkness, but looked oddly familiar. As did the glowing one, which she quickly recognized.
Oh. You again.
It was the same ghost from the junkyard. She and the others were all staring at her, completely unfazed by the fact that she was staring back.
"Alert! Demonic proximity detected!" the alarm blared from behind her. She lowered her gun, turning and reentering the building, the door slowly closing behind her. She was calling up the commander almost immediately.
She'd need permission to go hunting.