Sept 28: Stakeout! (And Maybe Spiders)

[Melissa Castro]

"Already on it." Melissa started fidgeting with her phone.

[Will Stanton]

"What seems to be the trouble?" Will repeated. "Is he under arrest?"

[Narrator]

"Yes, for possession of an offensive weapon."

[Will Stanton]

"He has a permit for that.

He DOES have a permit for that, right?" he asked, looking at John.

[John Hino]

"Of a sort."

[Narrator]

"We'll see about that, yeah?" he says, steering John into the police car.

The policeman takes them to the station and after about an hour Allison shows up with a stack of papers and an angry expression on her face. She disappears into the police chief's office for a civil debate that certainly doesn't involve strong words of one sort or another. In the end John is free to go though the officer who arrested him is determined to just have done his job and no apology is issued. On their way out they can see some of his colleagues clapping him on the back. By the time they actually leave several hours have passed and the sun has gone down.

[Kay Haddock]

As they drive into Maldon they can spot flickering blue lights and when they get closer they can see that one of Maldon's cafes is partially destroyed. The entire entrance is completely gone, scattered across the street where the fire department is working on cleaning up the debris while the rest of them are propping up the remains of the building to keep it from collapsing. A handful of people are standing nearby, watching, among them Kay. When she sees the X-Team van she steps up to the curb and frantically waves at them with her hand clutching her phone.

[John Hino]

"...the hell?"

John had a bad feeling as he stopped the van and got out. He prayed this was coincidence.

"Kay! What is it? What happened?" he asked worriedly.

[Kay Haddock]

"Mister Hino! Thank god, I called the school but they said you had gotten arrested or something?" she starts before John's expression reminds her of the reason she called the school in the first place. "I was just hanging out with Zuki and we were on our way back but we missed the bus, so we decided to get something to drink and came here to wait for the next bus. But we'd only just ordered when suddenly these two women came in. We didn't really notice them until one of them grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the chair. I got startled and kinda stuck her with my spines but it didn't even seem to do anything and she just got angry and kinda threw me against the wall." she rattles off seemingly without taking a break to breathe.

"Zuki said something but I didn't really hear it and the next thing I know is she punched the woman and send her flying right through the front door and, like, half the wall went with her. And then I'm not sure what happened because all the lights went out and people were screaming and after a while the police and the fire department showed up and... and... the other woman and Mizuki are gone and I don't know what happened and I'm sorry I didn't do anything to help but everything happened so fast!"

[John Hino]

Eyes wide, his knees went weak and he stumbled against the side of the van.

"No..."

[Narrator]

"Hey, there's somebody under the rubble he--" is how far the fireman gets before a support-beam gets flung at him from the prone shape that had been lieing underneath it. The figure staggers to it's feet and takes a couple seconds swaying back and forth, trying to find it's balance. The figure is wearing a tattered robe and pulls the hood of her face, revealing a Japanese-looking woman. She looks drowsy but after assessing the situation for a moment she lets out a singular laughs. "Hah! Too late, little dragon."

[Melissa Castro]

Melissa's skin started to shimmer as she put herself between the robed figure and Kay. She stripped off the hoody she was wearing and tossed it to the ground. "First shot is yours, John."

[John Hino]

"Where is she?" he growled as he rose up.

[Narrator]

"Gone!" the woman cackles. "Her bones will bring Her fully into this world soon enough."

[John Hino]

He armored up as he strode towards the woman, fury in his eyes.

"I made Her a promise last we met. A promise that she will suffer if anyone I care about were harmed in any way. I will save my sister, and then as promised I will kill your 'goddess'... but not before I tear her apart one limb at a time."

[Narrator]

"You'll never find them in time." the woman laughs. "Go ahead, kill me. She's waiting to embrace me in the beyond."

[John Hino]

John attempted to grab her and lift her by the collar.

[Narrator]

The woman makes a token effort to get away but John easily catches her and lifts her up.

[John Hino]

"If She is as divine as you say, then why not tell me where?! Huh?!" he shouted angrily, "Or is your faith just a lie?"

His nostrils flared as part of him tried to smell if she was even human.

[Will Stanton]

"Easy, John..." Will cautioned.

[Narrator]

"I'm not telling you a thing." she says and spits in John's face.

[Melissa Castro]

Melissa put a hand on John's shoulder, "Let's take her into custody. I'll have a talk with her." She smiled at the cultist.

[John Hino]

"You're lucky I'm not by nature a violent person," he growled, lowering the cultist.

[Will Stanton]

"We'll have to work fast...."

[Melissa Castro]

"Then we'd better get moving," Melissa says. "And can we call ahead to someone and make sure the mission is cleared this time?"

[John Hino]

"As long as we do it fast," he said.

[Will Stanton]

"'Clearance' and 'speed' aren't going to work. I'll get Ms. Rogers to give us post-hoc authorization, but we need to go now."

[Kay Haddock]

"I'm sorry I didn't do anything to stop them." Kay awkwardly apologizes to the angry lizard-man. "Everything happened so quickly..."

[John Hino]

"We'll find her."

"We have to."