Chapter 12: Cascading Failures

--- Catherine Freeman, Before The Event ---

“What prettyboy couldn’t make it himself?” An old man with gray hair and a beard asked as he looked them over through the sunglasses he was wearing in doors.

“You know how he is with the sunlight.” She shrugged, because while the sun boiled the blood of everyone with Night’s Blood, it was particularly worse the more connected they were to the blood. (And after fifty years with it, Alex can barely step outside without needing a drink.) “He’ll join us later if this drags past sunset.”

“Here’s hoping it doesn’t then.” Hendrickson smirked, before making a ‘give me’ gesture with his hand. “Now hand over whatever piece of mystical junk you guys wanted me to take a look at.”

She glanced at Eric who reached into his coat and pulled out the black and silver box of their progenitor before setting it on the table between them. “Think you can open this?”

Hendrickson picked the box up and looked it over. “Depends on if you mind me breaking the box?”

She wasn’t sure why but she instinctively hissed at that idea, an action Eric matched.

The old man watched them, his expression never changing as they reeled their own back in. “I’ll take that as a no. In which case I might be able to open it.”

“Sorry…” She apologized, knowing even from her Hunter days that Hendrickson was not someone you pissed off or threatened lightly. “I don’t… I don’t know what happened there.”

“It’s fine, I know you kitten. Even if you drink blood now you’re still a good kid.” Hendrickson assured her, before tapping the box. “Can’t say the same about whoever made this though. From the looks of it your bloodline has a slaver effect telling you to protect this thing.”

“Alex is convinced that box is connected to our progenitor.” Eric explained. “If it does even half of what he thinks it does, it’d make sense we’d want to protect it.”

“Maybe, though it makes me wonder just what this thing is.” Hendrickson admitted. “Someone wouldn’t create an entire bloodline for any old box.”

“No they wouldn’t.” She agreed. “But the fact that my blood is pulling me towards the box rather than warning me off makes me think we’re supposed to open it.”

“Just because you’re supposed to do something doesn’t mean you should.” Hendrickson reminded her. “Wasn’t that something Richy used to preach?”

“It was.” She growled, before taking a deep breath and letting it out. “Just… the box, how hard would it be for you to open it?”

Hendrickson watched her for a moment before shaking his head as he began digging through one of the pockets of his cargo shorts. Finding what he was after he pulled out what looked like a flat skull on a keychain. “Since we’re dealing with Necromancy, might as well try this out. Key possesses any lock it touches and can then open them. Won it in a poker game against this Deadman a decade back.”

“Wait, we sure we want to open that here?” Eric asked, stopping Hendrickson from opening the box. “I mean, I got meeting in a public place, but there’s like a couple dozen people outside of this tent. What if this box is cursed or something?”

“Well it's an arcane convention where half the people here owe me a solid. Meaning if I need their help fighting a rabid vampire lord I’m sure I can talk them into it.” Hendrickson assured them. “Hell I had this whole building slapped with a perception filter for the day just to make sure no one showed up. Only way in or out is if you’ve got a bit of magic in ya.”

The fact that he was admitting to bringing them into a building, surrounding them by an army, and making sure no civvies would be involved was all more or less irrelevant. After dealing with him on and off for twenty years she’d long since learned that Hendrickson’s defensive paranoia went from carrying a magical nuke in his pocket to inviting a serial killer to get shitfaced in his apartment with him.

Eventually Eric nodded. “Alright, do it.”

Hendrickson put his key to the lock and a series of green sparks began to dance all over the surface of the box. After a moment of this the scent of rot began to fill the air as the sparks died down and the old man finally spun the key, causing the box to unlock with a click.

Before the box could actually open however, Hendrickson slapped his hand on top of it before turning it around to face them. “If this unleashes hellfire on whoever opens it, I’m not standing in the blast direction.”

“That’s… fair.” She admitted as she gripped the lid and waited for the old man to take a few steps back from the table.

She glanced at Eric as something occurred to her. “Think we should wait for Alex?”

Eric shook his head. “Nah, he trusts us with this, and if it is something bad I’d rather it get its hooks in us than him.”

“Fair enough.” She nodded, before turning back to the box.

“Wait!” Hendrickson interrupted, causing them both to look at him as he held up what looked like a paper wrapped cigar. “If you guys do catch fire, do you mind if I use you to light this thing? I can’t find my lighter.”

They both gave him an unamused look before Eric tossed over his lighter.

“Ah, thanks.”

With that taken care of she cautiously opened the box, feeling her blood practically singing as she did so, only to suddenly stop as the lid fully opened.

“This… this can’t be right.” She frowned.

Eric instead let out a bitter laugh as he disagreed. “No this tracks. All this effort and the box is empty. For fucks sake…”

“Maybe there’s a hidden compartment or something?” She suggested as she began to prod inside of the box.

“Nah, this whole thing was just a waste of time.” Eric told her. “Let’s just take this back to the boss man and call it a day.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

She let out a sigh as she still found nothing inside the box. “Yeah… I guess.”

She looked at Hendrickson. “Sorry about wasting your time with this.”

“Eh, don’t worry about it lass, I paid a debt without having to face some tentacled horror from beyond the stars. I’m counting this as a win in my book.” Hendrickson assured them as he started to light up his joint.

“Yeah, well I doubt Alex is going to-”

The box snapped down on her hand, and she could feel teeth digging into her flesh as something pulsed through her blood forcing it to boil hotter than it had ever before.

“What the fuck?!” Eric gasped, stumbling forward as he held a hand to his heart.

--- Miles Kennedy, Before The Event ---

No matter how hard he tried, his mind kept drifting back to his Aunt Catherine. He honestly wasn’t that surprised that she was here given how his dad and her used to have a hobby of going to all the city’s magic and psychic shows while trying to figure out who was faking it and who was legit.

A hobby that he used to join them on, back before…

He shook his head and instead focused on the exhibit the girls had dragged him to now, the last few a blur of distractions after he’d told them he wasn’t going to bug his Aunt and her… friend.

“So, how do you know what you get?” Micki asked curiously as they walked around the circuit on the ground.

“Well that would depend on what kind of circle you draw, the location you draw it, or what materials you use.” The person in charge of this exhibit -a dark haired woman with a number of tattoos on her arms- explained. “A lot of that’s pretty controlled if you know what you’re doing, but there’s this other thing we can do where we summon something that synchronizes with the summoner on a certain level.”

“Synchronizes?” He repeated, stepping up and getting a look halfway between concern and relief from the girls.

“Yeah, this is a bit technical, but it’s caused by a three point scan of a person’s mind, body, and spirit by using the different Deviant energies out there.” The woman elaborated. “It then connects to the Arcane Nexus -a magical supercomputer for simplicity's sake- that then runs the generated profile through all of the Nexus’s registered entities for the most supplementary or complementary depending on ritual factors before summoning it.”

“Like one of those dating app things?” Micki guessed.

“Yeah, something like that.” The woman chuckled. “Though uh, most creatures you can summon aren’t looking for romance.”

“Even succubi?” Micki asked with a smirk.

The woman opened her mouth before closing it as she narrowed her eyes at them. “I think you guys might be a little young for me to have this conversation with.”

Micki threw an arm over his shoulder. “We’re legal.”

“Don’t go- You don’t need to say that!” He hissed.

“Uh-huh, and I’m pretty sure Jim’s daughter isn’t. Speaking of…” The woman pointed out, before grabbing something off a nearby table and tossing it at Cory. “Consider that a thank you for everything your parents did back in the day.”

“Oh, uh, thank you.” Cory blushed as she examined what looked to be a small mirror. “Um, what is it?”

“It’s one of those Confidant Catalysts I was just talking about.” The woman answered. “Your first contract should always be either a confidant or a beginners summon, and your father was asking about some stuff to teach you so I figured that would do.”

“Ooh, what do you think it’ll summon?” Micki asked excitedly.

“I don’t know, but it’ll probably be a few months before I find out.” Cory reminded them.

The woman got a frustrated look. “Oh, your dad is one of those ‘magic is for responsible adults’ types isn’t he?”

“Isn’t that how most magic teachers are?” He frowned.

“Hell no!” The woman scoffed. “I know plenty of people who were teaching middle schoolers, and that’s before we get into all of the self taught high schoolers, but since the Arcane Association has an age limit for their college some people think that should be the limit like with a driver's license or something.”

(Well, I guess Mr. Hawkins always has been the responsible type?)

The woman shook her head. “He might be a hero but your mom was the cool one of the two. I mean by the time she was eighteen she had as many contracts as me.” She gestured to the tattoos on her arms.

“She did?” Cory asked, something fragile to her voice.

“Yeah, she was probably the best contractor in the city.” The woman nodded, not realizing the effect her words were having on his friend as she stared at the catalyst.

He bit his lip for a moment before telling her, “Why don’t you use it now?”

“W-what?” Cory blinked. “But I, I can’t I- My dad…”

“None of us are going to snitch.” He promised.

“Yeah, and since your birthday is just a few months away you wouldn’t even have to hide it for that long.” Micki encouraged.

“But I- I don’t have a focus.” Cory tried to argue, less that it was a bad idea and more that she actually couldn’t do it yet.

“Oh, that’s an easy fix.” The tattooed woman told them before pulling a necklace that looked almost like a dream catcher and handing it over. “I mean, it’ll tweak your results a little but only by like if you went through a goth or punk phase in the next year.”

“That’d be a sight.” Micki chuckled, and he had to agree, a goth Cory (would be a sight worth remembering.)

Cory stared down at the catalyst and the focus in her hands as she bit her lip, before putting the necklace on. “Alright, let’s do this.”

“Fantastic!” The tattooed woman smiled. “Okay, you know how to pull on your magic, right?”

“Um, look for the cool warmth and will it to move.” Cory nodded.

“Good, then you’ll also want to put just a dollop of blood onto the catalyst before setting it in the center of this circle here.” The woman told her offering a knife hilt first.

He blinked. “Uh, is that nece-”

Before he could finish voicing his concern, Cory had already taken the knife and pricked her thumb.

“Okay, that was kind of hardcore.” Micki noted just as surprised as him.

“I’ve seen my dad do it enough, I know it’s not a big deal.” Cory explained as she pressed her thumb to the catalyst before setting it in the circle. “Now I just push my magic into the circuit, right?”

“Right.” The woman nodded as Cory set her hands on the circle and sparks started to dance along its surface.

As he and Micki watched on from the sidelines the other teen told him, “This is going to make her month let alone her day.”

“Yeah…” He smiled, knowing that if he could have anything bring him closer to his dad like this he’d jump at it too.

A chill tore through the air and he felt a shiver down his spine.

“You feel that?” He asked, looking around.

Micki nodded. “Yeah, that heat came out of nowhere.”

“Heat?” He repeated with a frown. “No, the chi-”

A wave of darkness crashed over them before leaving a fading trail of smoke in its wake.

“What the fuck was that?!” Micki panicked.

“Uh, guys something’s wrong?!” Cory yelled, stumbling back from the circuit that had begun to spark every color from red and black to blue and green.

“Shit, Malice?! Ecto?! How the fuck?!” The woman turned to Cory. “Kid, I need my necklace now!”

“H-here!” Cory cried, fumbling to get the necklace off.

The moment Cory managed to get the necklace off something rushed out from the circle on the ground throwing them off of their feet as it sent everything flying away from it.

He hit the ground in a painful tumble, his skull cracking against the tile floor, and as his consciousness began to slip from him, he could swear he heard a voice echoing all around him.

(Huh, wasn’t expecting you to meet the family for a few more years… Then again apples and trees I suppose.)