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May-9-2012 18:06

The office door slammed against the wall with a bang, and papers swirled restlessly across the desks of the darkened room. He looked up from his bottle of gin, bleary eyes just registering the figure outlined in the doorway. It was tall, and from the cast of the hips and tucked in-waist silhouetted in the black trench, it was a woman. She stood on black stilettos, and a black snood concealed her hair from view as surely as the netted veil did her face.

"Who is that?" he asked nervously, squinting his eyes. There was a pause, and then the figure moved forward, legs, hips rolling smoothly in an unmistakable way. He paled; rearing back in the chair so that it almost fell. He righted it with a clatter, fingers shaking.

"A ghost?" he breathed, suddenly terrified. Was the moonshine bad? Giving him the jake- was he hallucinating? The black ensemble of the woman suddenly seemed more foreboding than chic. "You...I thought you were dead!"

She moved forward, just inches away from him in the dim lamplight. Slowly, black satin-clad hands lifted up, grasped the edge of the veil, and pulled it back. Her glossy red lips shone in a vulpine smirk in the light.

"I never die. Nine lives, you know." Molly Maltese breathed in her sotto voice. "I've been to the end of the world, my dear, and I've brought back the case to end all cases for you."

Jul-4-2012 05:05

"You wanna drive? I'll look out for a payphone" Vulkie asked, throwing Marc the keys. He grinned and Vulkie knew why. Marc hated being seated into the passenger's seat, not feeling totally comfortable. Marc was a person who'd like to have control over certain things, one of them was driving.

As Marc drove on, Vulkie began to rethink what had happened back at Carla Kane's apartment. Carla was an associate of the Green Hand, how Marc guessed that, Vulkie didn't know, but he hit the right spot on that one. So what did the Green Hand and the Circle of Light have in common then? They both wanted the fake Ankh, but what about the Eastern Triads? The Cosa Nostra, the Dies Arcanum Brotherhood, the Order of Socrates. Why didn't those factions want to get their hands on something like that?

As Marc hit the brake suddenly, Vulkie lifted forward from her seat and hit the dashboard. "Sorry. But you were so lost in thoughts, you forgot to look for a payphone" Marc said, while looking towards Vulkie. Vulkie rubbed her head and looked outside her window, to find a payphone.

"Better call the safehouse first. What's the number again?" Vulkie asked, while Marc provided the number. As she dialed, the phone went over once, twice, thrice... At the seventh ringing, someone picked the phone up. "Who is this?" a female voice asked.

"It's Victoria" Vulkie said, addressing herself by her first name. "Oh, thank god it's you Vulkie. What did you find out?" Molly asked, while Vulkie began to explain what Carla Kane had said to Marc and her.

"So you see, there's this man with a big scar on his face who contacted Carla and told her about the fake Ankh and the message concealed in it. For the rest, we let her be. And by the way, our mysterious Ms. Kane belongs to the Green Hand" Vulkie added.

"Interesting..."Molly said, while scribbling the info down. "In the meantime, report back to the safehouse. We need to discuss our next steps once Joseph and Riza have returned." Molly added. (cont)

Jul-4-2012 05:16

As Vulkie hung up the phone, she got back into the car and looked at Marc. "We need to go back towards Molly's safehouse, but first, let's have a small talk" Vulkie said, while she closed the door.

Marc stared at Vulkie and had the engine of the car shut off. "Sure, what is it you wanted to talk about?" Marc asked. "It's about Joseph. It seems, and I only presume that, since you've hidden all sorts of things from me, there's something wrong with him..." Vulkie began, but Marc interrupted her. "Why is it you need to know everything?!" Marc almost shouted. "Because you've all been hiding stuff from me and I'm not THAT blind Marc!" Vulkie shouted back.

Marc breezed through his nostrils and was getting agitated. "It's for your OWN good! You know Joseph better then me and if you knew what I knew, you'd be worried all the f*cking time" Marc shouted back.

"FINE! If you aren't going to tell me, I'll ask around and find it out myself. You'd like that? To let me ask everyone of our friends "hey, what's wrong with Joseph? He's been acting so weird lately"." Vulkie shouted back and with that, Marc started the car and began to drive.

"It's not that we don't trust you Vulkie, but it's delicate information which only I know of" Marc said. Vulkie stared out of her window, still furious that Marc refused to confide in her about her friend Joseph.

***15 minutes later***

As Marc parked the car, Vulkie already walked in and opened the door to the safehouse. Molly was seated in the living room. "Hey Vulkie, thanks for..." Molly began, but Vulkie ignored her and walked up straight towards her room and slammed the door shut. She could hear muffled voices downstairs, which were in a discussion. "It's not that she doesn't deserve to know, but she's been friend longer with Joseph then me and you together." she heard. "Probably Marc" Vulkie murmered. (cont)

Jul-4-2012 05:18

"But we've already hidden the fact that Riza's pregnant from her. How much more do we need to hide from her? She's been helpful from the start and all we did was..." Molly added, and then, the conversation was shut off. She could hear a door open. "Probably Joseph and Riza, coming back from their trip." Vulkie thought, while she opened her door and went downstairs. On the way down, she wiped her tears away with the back of her right hand and got into the living room.

"So, what is our next step?" Vulkie asked, when she was seated and all the other detectives were seated too.

Jul-6-2012 18:36

Molly turned lamp-like green eyes on Vulkie as she asked this question.

"We have a few next steps." she began, clearing her throat and shuffling a few reams of paper she had scrawled out notes on. "I'm sure Riza and Joseph have some fresh information to provide us, but a faction being involved is grim...two is nearly suicide. It troubles me greatly that Circle of Light is dealing with the Hellfire Club. Both agents are huge wild-cards. To band together on anything...we may have bit off more than we can chew."

It seemed kismet for these words to exit Mollys mouth at that precise moment. In a freeze-frame of time that the detectives would remember for a long time to come, several events happened at once. Molly gestured with her right hand, and the detectives followed the motion with their eyes, which placed their gaze at the safehouse window, where three cloaked figures stood, black gloved fingers resting on the window panes as they stared, unmoving. Their faces were hidden from view, just gaping black maws in the darkening light of London.

"It troubles me greatly..."Molly was saying, even as her audience blinked, trying to process what they were seeing just beyond the bay windows. ...wild-cards..."

One of the hooded figures leaned forward just as Marc collected himself first and started to shout a warning. Breath issued from some invisible space in the hood, and illuminated in fog and watery sunlight was an imprint on the window, much like the ones children made. It was a planet ringed in the shape of an eye.

"We may have bit off..." time dragged as the figures suddenly darted away from the window...

"Circle of Light!" Riza darted to the window...

"Is that gasoline?" Vulkie asked, wrinkling her nose.

"...more than we can chew." Molly was finishing even as she turned to stare in confusion. Joseph had time for one blink, only a split second to dart forward and haul Riza bodily away from the glass before it blew inward in a fiery explosion.

Jul-6-2012 18:47

There were a tangle of shrieks in the air as the men each unceremoniously hauled one of their female counterparts to the far side of the room as shrapnel, red-hot glass and plaster began to rain. Several resounding booms reverberated.

"Dynamite." Marc said tersely. "And gasoline. They didn't want survivors."

"We might not have any." Joseph hissed. "That sounded like it went all the way around the safehouse!" He placed his hand over Riza's mouth as he said this, trying to deflect the worst of the smoke now steadily billowing into the room. The coughing started.

The group was disoriented. The air was thick with smoke and punctuated by falling beams. Corelli was the first to leap to action.

"We gotta get out of here!" he said, and hoisted Molly over his shoulder in an undignified manner, plunging in the direction he hoped the door was in. The group followed suit, and by some stroke of luck they found the splintered remains of the front door and poured out, just as the staircase collapsed.

"Everyone alright?" Marc asked, but suddenly a ping! sounded by his ear and a neat bullet hole bloomed in the wall. "They've got guns!"

"Man, they really didn't want us to get out!" Molly grumbled, whipping out her gun as the group scattered for color. The fire and smoke gave everything an eerie apocalyptic quality as she stumbled along, listening for the report of gunshots and the occasional triumphant cry.

"F*cking Circle of Light pigs." She grumbled, narrowing her eyes as she cast them this way and that. Her chest throbbed.

"Now now, Mrs. Billings. Thats no way for a lady to talk." a voice seemed to come from nowhere.

What the?! Molly had time to think before the lights went out and a black bag descended over her head, a cord jerked cruelly closed around her windpipe. Hands reached out and grasped her by the shoulders and ankles, roughly hauling her into a nearby vehicle. Someone tied her hands behind her back as she heard a car door slam and wheels rolling forward.

Jul-8-2012 15:32

Corelli blinked a couple of times, dazzled by the whiteness of the clean, illuminated place, a pair of muffled voices were talking and only interrupted once they realized Corelli was listening.

"--ooks like he's now awake, how do you feel, Mister Corelli?" a male confident voice asked while a pair of hands, delicated hands, were checking his left arm.

Corelli nodded.

"You'll be fine in a couple of days, your arm..., well, it may take a while, but you'll be fine."

A man in a white lab coat made a gesture to a nurse, who got out of the room and reappeared with a man, all dressed in black, in tow.

"Hey, Andrew, how do you feel?"

Corelli looked intensely at the man in black "Lacrimosa? Mister Lacrimosa? What's going on here?"

Marc looked at the doctor.

"He must be confused" and talking directly at Corelli "Do you know where are you?"

Corelli shook his head.

"We had a little setback" Marc looked cautiously at the doctor "We need to talk, you can walk, right?"

Corelli got out of the bed, Marc helped him.

"Just remember, Mister Corelli, your arm may have a cast but it's not made of iron, take care" said the nurse, opening the door.

Once in the car, Marc started the engine.

"Do you remember what happened?"

Corelli thought for a while "Barely, Molly was talking and then..." Corelli shook his head and suddenly he felt more agitated "What happened with the others?"

Marc shrugged "They're busy, we couldn't find Molly, Joseph thinks she was kidnapped."

Corelli's jaw was tight when he asked in a cold voice "What's the plan?"

"We're going to knock some doors... and heads."

Jul-8-2012 17:05

"Do you know why you're here, Mrs. Billings?" a cool voice asked as the hood was rudely yanked from her head. Blinding light stunned her eyes, but this didnt stop her from blinking irately at her captor. a woman sat before her, dressed in a meticulous black suit, a heavy veil over her face held by a pillbox cap. Absolutely no features were visible.

"I haven't been Mrs. Billings for years, lady. You're barking up the wrong tree." Molly snarled, twisting her hands against the rope around her wrists. Her chest throbbed.

The woman waved this comment away.

"Unimportant. We do not concern ourselves with the earthly ties of you and your mate. I ask again. Do you know why you're here?"

"If I knew that," Molly retorted evenly, "I probably wouldn't have had to be scooped up out of burning rubble with a bag over my ears, would I?"

The woman didn't respond, but sat motionless. The silence dragged on.

"You originally discovered the Sacred Artifact." she said flatly. Molly wrinkled a brow.

"The ankh?" she asked skeptically. "Yes, before Jack stole it. I dabbled in treasure hunting, you know. It was a bit of fun to dig up trinkets here and there--"

"This is blasphemy. The Sacred Artifact is no trinket." The woman hissed. "It is a beacon of the Gods, of the Outworlders, a guide to calling us home."

"Oh..." Molly cleared her throat. "Well thats ah, thats um, nice."

"It has powers- imbued by the Outworlders. Your mate has stolen the artifact, has breached our contract of trust! Only we must be able to use the powers of the Artifact!"

"Hold on a minute, lady. What are you talking about, powers?" Molly asked, fidgeting with the ropes again. "Its just a pretty piece of decoration. It has no powers."

"You are a fool then, Mate-Of-Billings. The artifact is imbued with power- you might call it a curse. We had a contract- a deal! We would teach Billings of the powers of the Artifact, to harness it, and he would provide us backing and support to accomplish our goal!"

Jul-9-2012 12:40

"What goal was that?" Molly asked, although she was fairly certain at this point she didn't want to know the answer.

"The Adastrus Trials. It is writ in our guide and passed down through the ages that before those proven superior amongst us will be welcomed back and taken home by the great Outworlders, we must prove our mettle. To do this, we must unify the world under the Great Eye."

"Jack promised to help you take over the world." Molly said flatly.

"Yes. All believers as one great nation, so that we may return to our rightful home."

"And nonbelievers?" Molly asked.

"Will perish." The woman said this offhandedly, as if discussing flavors of tea.

"I knew you Circle of Light weirdos were a little off your rocker, but this is a whole new level of I-wish-I-didn't-know."Molly said grimly, but the woman paid no mind.

"Your mate has double-crossed us! He has passed our holy secrets and plans- named names! An assassination has occurred tonight of a higher ranking official already."

"The message in the fake ankh had something to do with that, I imagine." Molly said grimly. "He must have found another way after we snagged it...hang on a second. Then Carla Kane wasn't one of yours."

"No, that misbegotten whore of Socrates! And mark my words, she will be dead by nightfall. And we will use you to lure Billings into the open, and kill you miserable dogs both!" The woman roared. Mollys mind was whirring. Carla Kane worked for Order of Socrates...Circle of Light...a tenuous connection to Green Hand had been established.

"A faction war...." Molly mused aloud, shaking her head. "Oh Jack, thats ambitious, even for you." Suddenly she fixed her gaze on the shrouded woman. "Your plan isn't going to work. Jack won't come looking for me. He was the one who shot me, for heavens sake."

The woman laughed.

"We do not concern ourselves with the earthly matters of you and your mate, Mrs. Billings, but it does not mean we are blind to them."

Jul-10-2012 08:54

Molly cocked a brow imperiously at this. "Meaning what?" she asked.

"Your souls are tethered, it would appear. The ancient and poignant tale of ages past. Your love is as strong as your hate. A yin-yang, the perfect balance. Like magnetic poles, opposite yet equal. He can not exist without you, and likewise." The woman leaned forward. "It is a tie very strong in itself, and imagine the strength of it when it is destroyed. A fitting end for both of you!"

"It won't work." Molly said, but something in her voice, even to her own ears rang hollow. She had only one saving grace, and that seemed to be that this Circle of Light operative and all others besides hadn't counted on the damned tenacity of her friends when it came to surviving battery, armed assault and explosions.

"Any day now, guys." she murmured to herself.

Jul-10-2012 19:44

Everyone met up in the hospital parking lot. The lot was crowded with cars. Each person there needed to see the doctor for either something ridiculous or something serious.

"So where do we start?" Zeo asked.

"With the Circle of Light," Marc replied.

"Anyone know how they operate?" someone asked.

"Yes," Marc said. "Somewhat, anyways. Huge cities like London are a little more complicated. Places like this are divided into districts. North, South, East, and West. Each area has its own leader. The district leaders cannot do what they did without the Earthly Sponsor's orders."

Andrew opened his mouth to speak, but he was cut off by Marc. "Splitting up will do no good. If we do that, Molly will be dead by the time we find her. Circle of Light cannot operate without orders from their Earthly Sponsor. The district leaders all report back to him."

"So we go after the Earthly Sponsor first." Riza said, nodding.

"Yes," Marc said. "We find him, we find the district leader. From there, we get Molly back and go after Jack."

"Finding them is easier than it seems," Marc continued. "Look for the biggest abandoned church you can find. If it's here in the heart of the city, that's where the Earthly sponsor will be."

"I think I know a place," Zeo said.

"Good," Marc said, tossing him the car keys. "You can drive."

Making them talk was not going to be easy and Marc knew it. But he was prepared. He would do anything to make them talk. Even if that meant ripping out their fingernails one by one