Chapter 48: Revelations And Changing Circumstances

--- Coraline Hawkins ---

“You know when you agreed to hang out this wasn’t quite what I had in mind.” Max confessed as they walked through the park, one of the few places in the city that seemed to be thriving in spite of the chaos consuming everything else.

(Nature will always find a way.) A memory whispered as the thorns on her arm filled her with a giddy sort of warmth.

“Then what do you like to do for fun?” She asked the other teen, since the first step in making a friend was getting to know that person.

Max blinked for a moment before running a hand through her hair. “Oh, uh, I like to… tinker with things and mess around on the internet… Play video games sometimes.”

“What kind of games?” She wondered as she started hopping along a small path of stones.

“Um… mostly shooters and strategy games I guess…” Max answered a little awkwardly making it apparent how rarely the other girl talked with other teenagers. (Which is why it’ll be good for her to have a friend.) “How about you, you uh, you play anything?”

“Mm, I’ll sometimes play RPGs, the ones with epic storylines.” She admitted, not elaborating that it was the ones about magic casters that she fantasized about becoming once her dad started teaching her magic.

(Though I guess that’s not a fantasy any more.) She giggled to herself, fully aware that Max was giving her an odd look but finding that (it’s not something to be worried about.)

“Right…” Max nodded with a confused look before shaking her head and looking around the park. “Hey, is it me or are there more trees than normal?”

“What do you mean?” She frowned even as she spun on her heel and balanced on her rock with one foot.

“Look I’m not one to hang out at the park much, but I have been dragged here a couple times by my dad and I don’t remember there being this much foliage and junk.” Max tried to explain as she gestured at the veritable forest around them. “I mean, wasn’t this the kind of park people would play frisbee and junk in? Not the kind that people would go on nature hikes in.”

“That’s…” She paused, her mind pushing through the joy of her newfound magic and instead taking in the park around her and her memories of coming here with her dad, Miles, and Micki. “Right…” She realized as the trees seemed to almost cage them in.

(Now, now you have nothing to fear from nature.)

A rush of cool-warmth spread out from her thorns allowing her to feel the sheer amount of magic coming from the trees surrounding them. (A magic that’ll do anything we ask it to.)

“Uh, Cory…” Max called, dragging her out from the euphoria of her magic.

“What?” She snapped, more harshly than she’d meant to.

“Do you, uh, do you see those lights?” Max frowned, the other girl’s eyes filled with something nervous.

“Lights?” She blinked before following Max’s gaze towards several lights flickering in between the trees just off trail. “What are those?”

“I don’t know and… are they getting closer?” Max asked, her hands in her pockets as she took a step back.

“Yeah… they are.” She nodded, not feeling worried in the slightest as she just knew her (I) magic (will keep) her (you safe.)

As the lights grew closer she was able to see that they were coming from little people with butterfly wings and insect-like features. “Fairies…”

Max glanced at her. “What?”

“They’re fairies…” She gasped breathlessly as the little nature spirits flew up to them. “I’ve read about them in my dad’s books, these are the Pixie kind.”

“Fairies…” Max repeated her eyes darting between the various lights. “And what about the ones that don’t look like, like little people.”

“Willowisps.” She answered by spotting a few of them following after the fairies. “They tend to live near fairy hollows if they can find them, they’re both nature spirits of a sort so they get along really well…” She paused to remember what she read. “Fairies and willowisps will sometimes develop a mutualistic relationship in which the fairies tend to and feed the wisps in exchange for the wisps working as a sort of protector of their hollows, it’s like how humans are with dogs basically.”

“Huh, that’s all interesting and junk but uh, how did an entire colony of fairies and these wispy things take over the park?” Max asked her, sounding far less relaxed by the nature spirit’s presence.

(Probably because she’s more of metal and electricity than life.) She figured, not exactly impressed by the other girl’s obvious nerves.

“Don’t worry, fairies might be mischievous but as long as you don’t anger them they’re friendly enough.” She assured the other teen.

“That doesn’t answer my question about how a bunch of… nature spirits took over the park, because this-” Max gestured to the trees and spirits around them. “-doesn’t happen without something triggering it. I mean, how do this many spirits get into the middle of a city? I’m pretty sure fairies are supposed to hate iron.”

“That’s… a myth.” She frowned, because she found she couldn’t answer the other girl’s actual question. (How did they get here?)

--- Morris Brown ---

“So let me get this straight, on top of the cracked sky, the nightly Creep incursions, the deviant virus infecting our personnel and who knows who else, and before we even get to whatever caused that horror show we found at the docks, we’ve now got… magical creatures roaming the city?” He checked, feeling his migraine grow as he went down the ever growing list of problems the city had been developing over the last month.

“Correct sir…” Meyers sighed looking just as frustrated as he was.

“Fan-fucking-tastic.” He cursed while pinching the bridge of his nose, not something he would normally do in front of his subordinates, but given how he’d just gotten word about other Creep attacks in the surrounding cities… (Things really are looking like the Rift Riot’s second coming…)

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

After a moment of wallowing in his misery he looked around the room. “I don’t suppose anyone has anything to add to this situation?”

“Um, we discovered something involving the warehouse incident.” Diaz confessed, looking like he wasn’t sure if this information would help or hurt things.

Not waiting for his permission Robinson explained that, “After studying some of the organics left at the scene, we’ve discovered that whatever happened there wasn’t actually a new plague hitting the city. Instead it was our current plague having a reaction when introduced to the magical malady responsible for Vampirism.”

“The warehouse belonged to the Vampires then?” He figured putting two and two together, before turning toward Meyers. “Do we have anything of note on their situation?”

“Aside from a temporary ceasefire with the wolves, it doesn’t appear as if the virus spread too far from their base.” The intelligence officer informed him. “That said, given the circumstances it’s fully possible that the one responsible for the fire was one Eric Campbell, the Flame Blood.”

“Given how we’re burning the samples we found, I can’t really blame them for doing the same if they found the place to be lost. Especially if it was bad enough to get past Pierce’s obsession with their ‘family’ bloodline.” Robinson pointed out.

“I’ll take your word for it.” He had enough issues and Robinson was the only one to have met the vampire. “If the virus mutated the vampire pathogen do we have to worry about it influencing the werewolf?”

“Possibly but given the differences between the two, infection will likely only be possible on the new moon and won’t become active until the full.” Robinson answered before shrugging. “And even then if their ‘wolf’ is strong enough they might be able to just fend off the virus themselves, they’re not like vampires who are designed to intake whatever blood or magic they find.”

“That’s something at least…” He sighed, not sure if he should be happy or upset by this revelation. “Have we discovered whether or not this virus can infect other Deviant types? If it can infect vampires then any Deviancy is suspect.”

“Those results have been… mixed to say the least.” Diaz admitted, looking over his own reports. “From what we can tell, Deviancy -both primary and secondary- seems to cause the infection to remain dormant for the most part, rendering them carriers unless something causes a sudden mutation within the virus.”

“Like what we found in the warehouse.” He guessed.

“Yes, though by exposing multiple Deviant energies to a few subjects we have discovered that Psionics seems to ease transmission while Malice and Ectoplasm seem to actively resist it, with Anima being a more neutral agent.” Diaz explained, before gaining a hopeful look. “It’s not much but it is a step towards a cure.”

“A cure using either a radioactive substance or one infamous for killing people, including its users.” Robinson pointed out, before narrowing his eyes. “Actually, where did you even get a workable sample of Malice?”

Diaz grimaced before coughing into his hand. “Um… We have a few sources normally barred by a large amount of red tape that I’m currently side stepping because we have a city wide plague brewing and this falls under the emergency powers of my own position as head of research.”

(Well if that wasn’t rehearsed…)

He inhaled deeply before letting it out slowly. “I’ll only ask one question, how badly is your Malice source going to bite us?”

“Um… Not as badly as everything else going on?” Diaz offered, looking unsure of his answer.

(Meaning I’m really not going to like it when I hear it.)

--- Sarah Sionis ---

“You know I thought the big thing with Sanctuary was that you weren’t performing inhuman experiments on Deviants like the old A?” She told the lab tech that looked too young to be a proper doctor. (Probably, an M.A.D. then. Manipulatable via ego normally, but also too emotional and volatile to bother with normally. Especially since they can sometimes shake off my Malice, better to save it rather than waste it on this one.)

The lab tech winced. “We’re not like Asylum, but… we’re kind of desperate right now.”

“Oh?” She grinned. (Maybe this is the opportunity I’ve been waiting for?)

“There’s a Deviant plague on the streets and I need samples of the different Deviant energies to try and counteract it.” The lab tech told her, looking her dead in the eye as if he could read her thoughts. “A few of the people infected were turned into what I can only describe as a Wall of Meat.”

“Ugh.” She grimaced, and not because of the needle entering her arm. “Not a good time to escape then.”

She wasn’t really bothered by corpses, (no good Slasher is) but a ‘Wall of Meat’ was the kind of thing the Slashers who liked corpses more than polite company would accept were the only ones who’d accept that.

“It really isn’t.” The lab tech agreed with a grimace of his own as he drew blood. “Especially since a few of our own personnel are quarantined in this wing to keep them from infecting everyone else.”

“Lovely…” She drawled, before letting her head fall back. (Just as well I suppose. Between this and whatever keeps poking at my mind, being in prison is definitely preferable to being on the streets at the moment.)

--- Kelly Smith ---

“So we’re getting kicked to the streets just like that?” She scowled at the case worker that had been assigned to her and the other kids.

“With everything that’s been going on the last month the shelters are all overrun right now, and with the number of Creeps still out and about we can’t simply keep either of you here.” The case worker tried to explain.

“So instead of kicking out the grown ass adults you’re kicking out two kids?” She scoffed, beginning to feel an icy rage creep through her veins, one that was only warmed by watching a scared Zoey clinging to her stuffed animal.

Knowing that she had to be responsible for the last of her foster siblings to be taken to a new foster home, she put a hand to her face and forced herself to calm down. “Look, I get throwing me out… I’m only a few months from aging out but… but Zoey is still in grade school, you can’t throw her out.”

“We’re not throwing either of you out.” The case worker assured her, looking just as tired and stressed as she was. “We’ve been working overtime to try and find homes for all of you, even going so far as to pull up files on some of our inactive families. The ones who had kids that aged out or were returned to their families and never re-registered for more kids when they left. Some people can't handle bonding with a child and then losing them like that. We've managed to convince a few of them to sign up again.”

“And that’s why you want us to get ready to go, you found us a new foster home?” She double checked, realizing that her earlier frustration was due to a misunderstanding more than anything.

The case worker grimaced. “Actually, we’ve… been playing dirty on that front…”

“What do you mean?” She frowned, immediately back on edge.

Their case worker coughed into her hand. “We’ve been… guilt tripping them by bringing the children to their homes and then getting them to re-register with us.”

“So, we might not be getting a new home.” She noted flatly.

Their case worker ran a hand down her face. “Look Kelly, earlier I was trying to explain how bad the situation is, I need you to be on your best behavior so that we can get you and Zoey into this home. This is as much about her as it is about you.”

She bit her lip, holding back her snapping response as she instead looked at the young girl who only really had her to depend on. “What… what can you tell me about the home you’re sending us to?”

The case worker gave her a relieved smile before showing her a file with three pictures, two teenage girls and one a grown man. “Well, in their exit interviews from the program his last two foster daughters had nothing but good things to say about him. Both even claimed he was more a father to them than their actual fathers, enough so that I’m fully convinced the only reason he didn’t take in more foster children is because he’d essentially adopted these two.”

“A single man got approved to be a foster parent?” She asked, because (little girls shouldn’t be left with strange men…)

“He was the godfather of the first girl, and given both the mother’s will and a lack of relatives she was allowed to stay with check-ins.” Their case worker explained tapping a photo of a red headed girl with freckles before tapping one of a blonde girl with a gap in her teeth. “This one was her best friend and since he was already on record, he was allowed to take custody when her father was declared unfit by CPS.”

“Right…” She frowned, more in thought than anything bad as she stared at the picture of a tanned man with gray hair and a set of scars over one of his eyes. (Reymundo Ochoa… Hopefully, you’re as good of a foster parent as everyone is hyping you.)