The weekend turned up like an unwanted houseguest, banging on the door before anyone was ready to properly host. John Barrington made sure to fill Myles in on the basics of how fae cults tended to operate, since this was what he suspected Sweetbright to be, or at the very least adjacent too. This had been worrying John as Fae cults normally do not go unnoticed this long and Sweetbright had been in existence since the late 1960’s. This he noted was coincidentally where where was a resurgence in the community, but those details could wait. Myles irritated his questions were shut down before they even started was directed towards his special phone and the access he had to community resources. The inner circle of cults was usually some leader or personality figure who could sense or actually see and remember the fae along with a few tag alongs. The rest of the ranks being filled out by whatever dregs needed a place to belong. Existing as a business gave them a lot more flexibility john admitted as it meant they could pay for decent help. John was predicting that if it was indeed a trap it would be mostly humans with maybe a fae or two that would need to be destroyed. Killing humans had not been a possibility Myles had thought about. He was not sure how he felt about it taking the life of another human, he supposed at least if they were feeding people to fae or something else gruesome he could at least live with it, but just regular people who were paid to be there, not really knowing what was going on. His gut churned at the thought.

“I won’t sugar coat it Myles, sometimes it happens. I’m not suggesting you turn off being human and take out everything and everyone you see. But sometimes, there will just be a man or woman who doesn’t know better in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Said John Barrington.

“Does it ever get any easier’? Asked Myles

“If it gets easier then we will be having a very different conversation.” Said John Barrington darkly. “We treat anyone who gets a little too interested in killing as a frenzy and we put them down.”

Myles felt a weight lift, something that was a little surprising. Not that he was ever planning on becoming an unhinged murder machine, but at least he knew there were plans in place that would deal with him should be become something unrecognisable to his current self.

The plan after tonight was if there was indeed a fae cult, John Barrington would kick the matter upstairs. If something as public facing as Sweetbright had been fae this whole time others would need to be brought in and the company dismantled in short order by teams of active Trigger users and community support. Myles made a mental note to add ‘cults’ as another thing he needed to look up.

The dress code was met by project liaison and new temp as they got ready for weekend evening shift. For Myles that was business casual and for John Barrington it meant a reflective vest that he complained did nothing for him. A special bag was packed, a light tool set. Fresh milk. Espresso that had been allowed to cool and bottled. a variety of snacks. pens and lastly a flash drives John said a friend had hooked him up with. It wasn’t as good as the Trigger made toolset he could pull out of thin air he had imagined but this was what he had to work with so he was going with it. Myles sent a text to his Mum asking her to come over and check on Charlie if she didn’t hear from him for a day or two. As text messages go it would probably cause him a disproportionate amount of hassle down the line, but worth it to keep his cat looked after if it all went pear shaped. As ready as they could possibly make themselves the two Trigger users headed off to work.

“Why did Sweetbright build the project site in an old quarry?” Asked John Barrington as they headed out of the door.

“Probably making the most of a small budget” said Myles wisely.

Near silence and more than a little frosty, that was the best description of the atmosphere as they entered. The project site had barely any staff working. John could have probably walked right in even if there had been no temp job as a cover. Myles was passed a packet of instructions by one of the few staff members. Inside was an itinerary of everything that needed doing that evening and at what times they should be getting done. At no point was there a bullet point for ‘inspect secret underground facility’ so Myles assumed something would be happening to bring them down there or he could have just skipped ahead and started poking around now. He also wanted to believe he was making the whole thing up in his head. He saw a squirrel three times on the way home from work, that did not mean squirrels were out to get him.

Deciding to start the night shift with caffene Myles wondered into the canteen intended to make a hot steaming mug of coffee for John and himself only to find the kitchen area stripped of all heating devices with a large notice proclaiming everything had been sent for its portable appliance testing to comply with safety regulations. The only thing on offer was a tap… that did not even run cold… and a half empty bottle of weak lemon squash. Myles could feel the Neon Thunder Knuckle Busters itching to be used.

The elevator door jammed, spluttered and was finally forced open by strength of arm. Cerulean Sweet stepped out into the main office.

“Did no one oil the muff bearings, the lift is stiff?” grumped the man known as The Luminary.

“I apologise Sir, I’ll get the crew one it as soon as they return.” Said Sandra Bright

“No matter, is tonight going all to your plan Sandy?”

“I’ve done everything but lay out flashing neon arrows to get them to the harvest site… in fact I think we may have some emergency lighting that could do that if we need to drop a bigger hint.”

“Would you mind if I oversaw? We have got very far on scraps these last few years, using actual Fairy Triggers is a rare opportunity for us. If you are not extremely careful the community takes notice if disseverances are too obvious. But this one, practically a baby and a known trouble maker… well they won’t be missed.” said Cerulean Sweet, stroking his beard as he thought.

Sandra glanced at him nervously. One on hand, she would hate to fail right in front of him, but on the other should anything go wrong there was no one better in the entire company to step in than the Luminary himself.

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“Please do, it would be our pleasure to have you oversee us sir.”

Cerulean Sweet chuckled to himself.

“Always so formal, I know you will do us all proud Sandy.” he said with a hand on her shoulder.

Everything was primed and ready to go, all they needed now was the Fairy Triggers in the right location. it was nearly time.

The fussy looking Sweetbright staff member had arrived a lot sooner than Myles had expected. He had been working his way through the list one by one, wondering if the next one would result in very familiar red sparks leaping off him. But the man who introduced himself as Dave said there was a problem on hole twelve. This had stumped Myles he wondered what in this place could possible have twelve holes.

“Do you think they are keeping four prostitutes down there?” asked John Barrington who had clearly been spending to much time with the other John

It seemed not only was ‘off work’ John Marquis an HR nightmare, he was also a terrible influence. Fussy little Dave led them down into the basement of the facility being built in the disused quarry. The sight that greeted Myles and John defied expectation. It was a mini golf course The trio pottered over to hole twelve. Myles was opening his mouth to ask what the problem was when bright industrial lighting flicked on, and thick metal walls rose up covering all means of ingress and egress to the large circular mini golf course.

“David, your sacrifice will be remembered. Thank you for your service.” Said the frost voice of Sandra Bright over the tangy system. “As for you Mr. Endeavour, let this be a lesson in what happens when you dare to snap at your betters.”

Dave looked rather confused, muttering ‘what sacrifice’ to himself. The metal pillars around the outside of the concrete walls that Myles had taken for simple supports started to glow, the spaces between them flickering into life. Those spaces formed into windows to somewhere else, somewhere alien…No, not windows. Doors. Red and black sparks danced as the Trigger users armours materialised around them.

“HARMLESS LITTLE BUNNY LEAPS FOR THE STARS, THAT'S NO ORDINARY RABBIT!”

“I’M LOOKING BETTER THAN NICE. I’M LOOKING… DANGEROUS.”

“If you look around you may notice the mini golf attractions buzzing and glowing in places, thats because whatever it is inside you that drives fairies into a murderous rage, we are amplifying it and broadcasting through those portals into the other side.” Said Sandra Bright again her words marking the arrival of all manner of creatures stepping, ambling, wriggling and slithering through the portals.

“Were you the one messing with Breakfast” Shouted Myles

“… Thats what you are worried about now?” Said a confused Sandra Bright. “But yes, consider it a series of escalating fuck you’s before tonight main course of go fuck yourself.”

“I WILL TAKE ALL OF YOUR FANCY JAM” roared Myles who had regarded Sandra Bright as a colossal bad of dicks since he met her.

“Does the Jam around here have crack in it?” said john Barrington mostly to himself.

Dave was just sobbing to himself in the middle of hole twelve. Possibly from the lack of prostitutes but more likely from the horde of eldritch abominations currently bearing down on the humans at the centre of the mini golf course. They were packed pretty tight as they continued to pour in from the outer realms.

“Dave, stay down, you should be okay, they will be strongly drawn to John and myself and afterwards you will take me to where they store the breakfast goods” said Myles “John, looks like we are going to get a little action in.”

John and Myles summoned their weapons. John materialised his default future pistol and khopesh combo. Myles’ fists blazed red, The chunky Knuckle Busters now had short glowing red spikes. The weapons seemed to thirst for violence. But best of all they crackled with red lightning.

“Kid, I think I might have been wrong about this being a simple cult.” admitted John Barrington.

A creature resembling a bright orange sea urchin with eyes broke from the gathering horde and zipped right towards Myles. It leaped while making some inhuman squealing noise. The things face, Myles at least supposed it was a face met Knuckle Buster. The sea urchin thing was blasted backwards landing around the horde. Red lightning sparked off the sea urchins now charred remains. The fae went wild, all rushing forward at once.

The HUD in myles display locked onto each target highlighting probable weak points. He struck and struck, taking down monster after monster. John was a marvel of movement, dodging and evading both claw and fangs. Head shot after head shot hit home while vital fae organs were pierced and limbs were sliced. It was a dance set alight with centuries practiced violence. Myles had not the skill or elegance of his mentor, what he had was brute force in spades and used muscle to get what he needed. Fae that came at him were blasted back like a furry, scaled or sometimes slimy cannon ball. Others were turned into charred corpses. One rather unique looking monster was shattered into hundreds of thousands of pieces.

The fight wore on, wave after wave of things attacked the pair and to a lesser extent a sobbing Dave. Although the few attacks on him were duly intercepted by the Trigger users. If he survived this Dave swore he would get oiled up like a diesel train and never remember a thing about the evening.

“Myles, I think I can collapse the portals, but I need to do it from the other side” said John Barrington as he pulled his blade back out of a furry ear.

“What, all of them? You might have noticed they all go to different places John.” said the doubting apprentice who proceeded to punch another of the sea urchin things.

“The portals will all be relatively close to each other, I can disrupt over a wider area I… just won’t be back for a couple of weeks.”

“What do you mean a few weeks? I barely know what I’m doing, you can’t just bugger off.”

“Don’t worry about your old mentor Myles, I’m something of a legend.”

“I’m not worried you git, stay here and do your bloody job.” said Myles booting furry yellow turtle in the face.

“I’ve survived the other side many times before, I’ll be back to a hero’s welcome before you know it.” said the self declared legend. “Before I got take this.” John pulled something from his wrist and threw it at Myles.

Myles caught whatever it was only to find it automatically wrapping itself around his own wrist.

“Fine, take this with you.” said Myles, who threw the rucksack he packed earlier to John who caught it and equipped it in a smooth motion. “Show off.”

John Barrington took out a familiar neon mouse clipped it to this trigger and pulled out his Neonblader form. Equipped in hideous bright yellow but now with his big magic sword that could slice through anything he started tearing through the fae in a straight the portal nearest to him. Myles did his best to cover for his mentor but having no long range skills made this difficult. John stepped over dead fae, cutting down anything that got in his way. John stepped through to the other side and Myles lost sight of him.

There were still plenty of fae coming through the other portals and Myles began to struggle. Less so for himself, but he did have a human to keep alive. There was a flash of bright pink light and the portals popped and fizzled out. The fae were left dazed and Myles took the opportunity to turn several heads into a fine mist.

A quick headcount one bogglebear, a blue sea urchin thing, some pig like thing which irritated Myles as he did not have any spare jetpacks yet. Other famillierfaces were several fernseherfett and one lone Billunben.

“Dave, get on my back, I need to be mobile for this.” said Myles in as firm and commanding tone as he could manage.

The Sweetbright employee did as he was told, grabbing Myles tightly. The Trigger users Knuckle Busters sparked red and he left forward at the Billunben putting his fist dead centre on its pottery like shell. Before it hit the ground Myles was moving. Dave hung on for dear life as Myles smashed his fists through skull after skull. The bogglebear was fortunately sans living victim so Myles did not need kid gloves in dealing with it. The first time Myles fought fernseherfett the suit had done all of the work. He was not yet that skilled, but he had been training daily and if John Barrington's estimates were anything to go by, he had racked up many months worth of monster encounters already. So despite still lacking compared to his predecessor Myles made short work of the fernseherfett.

“Eh Oh” said the last one just before red lightning burned it from the inside out making its skull glow comically.

Myles was tired. This had been maybe not his longest battle, that bloody genius loci could throw a lot of stuff out. But this battle had been the toughest, with more opponents than he had faced at anyone time since he first got the Trigger. The mini golf course was littered with fae remains, battered, bloody and broken, but all would make useful material for his suit. Without John Barrington he would need all the resources he could get his hands on. He bent over to start the process of storing them when he heard a cough. Myles turned around and saw a large man, grey hair and beard dressed in a very expensive looking suit.

“My name.” The man spoke” is Cerulean Sweet, and that is company property.”