(no subject)

[korafox]

Well, no sooner did I hang up after getting the latest mission call than my phone was ringing again. It was Seth, asking me to come over and spot him for another meditation session. He's been messing around with trance states lately, especially since he got back to the land of the living. Usually I don't do much more than wait around for a few hours, then administer some painkillers when he starts screaming and seizing and snaps out of it. I know his ability must be making the side effects worse, but if he's experiencing pain and headaches as bad as this, I can't help but think he's getting into this way over his head.

And I understand that seeing the future is probably a tough burden to bear. Plus the kid just went through a traumatizing and life-altering event, so I'll cut him some slack. But by no means--even though I asked--should he have told me that he saw my death. Some things are just off limits, and I seriously misjudged Seth if he thought he had the right to tell me that.

The mission this time started off far less dire than most of the ones we've had lately--didn't start off with any mysterious murders, in any case. A theft from the Field Museum; we had to track down the perpetrators and retrieve the stolen item. What sort of horrible things could possibly come out of the Field Museum?

We made the rounds of the museum, going over the clues and picking up leads. Learned a few important things--it was an ancient stone tablet that had been stolen; it was supposed to be some sort of North American Rosetta Stone. Correlating security footage with Seth's visions, we learned that the thieves were some black-robed cultists, and that one of them had dropped an amulet in an exhibit during the course of the theft. Sam wanted to check the rest of the footage, and the janitors on duty were dead ends in regards to the amulet, so Carter, Seth, and I took a little trip to see the (former) head of security.

That man was severely disturbed. We only actually saw him for a short time, before he slammed the door in our faces. But he continued to relate to us, shakily, what had happened the night of the theft. Seemed like his nerves had been rattled by previous incidents--guess the Field Museum isn't completely free of paranormal activity like I thought--which is why the events of Wednesday night had left him so paranoid. We didn't find out much beyond what we already knew from the tapes, except that he had been assaulted (via a spell? mentally?) as the thieves broke in. He was debilitated by the sudden belief that flies were crawling out of his skin, and this kept him from any lucid thought until it was too late. I feel sorry for the man--normal people shouldn't have to deal with this sort of craziness. Better to leave it to those of us who've already been tossed in at the deep end.

Since we didn't get any clues from the security chief, it was almost a relief when Sam called up to let us know one of the janitors had lied to us. Apparently the security tapes showed him pulling the amulet out of the exhibit and pocketing it...now why does that remind me of a certain teammate?

We arrived at his apartment, but the man was not being very compliant. Kept going on about "search warrants" and "unlawful search and seizure". Thank goodness we're not real FBI; no one here has the patience to fill out all the paperwork necessary for conducting an investigation like this. Still, I can't help but feel like Carter and Seth were being a little too violent in their interrogation approach. Just because we're not legit doesn't mean we have to act like thugs-for-hire.

I stayed and watched the guy and his girlfriend while the other two tracked down the amulet from the local pawn shop. During, Sam called to warn that Seth was in danger--with full hindsight, I assume this was because of the amulet. When they returned, he seemed alright. Or at least, as fine as someone who'd been blown up about a month ago could look. We knocked out our two friends--couldn't risk the police on our backs in the middle of an investigation--and headed back downtown.

We rendezvoused outside an art gallery owned by a man named Latvis. He had shown up on the tapes prior to the theft, so he bore looking into.

I didn't much care for the man's art, and even less for his attitude. I can't stand pretentious people. He wasn't very cooperative--just said he didn't know anything about the theft, then left with the excuse that he was extremely busy.

From here it was a fallback to our last resort--Seth's visions. He'd seen Doc being accosted by some of the black-robed figures, so we took a trip down to South Side to sort things out. Turns out the thieves were a gang called the Clerics...Doc said they were some punk kids who'd gotten tangled up in some occult business. He'd barred them from the premises after they came looking to procure a body.

Of course, Sam knew where they hung out. We found an altar of sorts tucked behind a disused warehouse. Investigating, Seth touched the thing and started seizing up. When he came out of it I was expecting him to just have had some crazy vision (probably some new and exciting way we were all going to die), but something had changed within him. Previously, we had stored the amulet in my medical case for safekeeping--Seth had been acting somewhat odd about it, and the consensus was to not take chances in the middle of a mission. Well, as soon as he regained consciousness he lunged for the case. One brief altercation later, we had him bound hand and foot as he raved about needing the amulet. I thought it was a bad idea, but Admin suggested we may as well let him have it and see what happens.

Seth led us down into the sewers beneath the neighborhood (should probably have untied him before he took a 40-foot header through the open grating--oh well; you live and learn). There we found a chamber that contained a similar altar--I think it may have been directly underneath the first--and where the water ran thick with blood. We were discovered by some of the gang members, who didn't seem altogether happy to see us. They had some sort of magic at their disposal; one blinded me temporarily and the others were armed with a kind of electrified staff, but other than that they were little more than kids. We took out most of them and interrogated one left alive. (Carter was extremely brutal...he seemed much more violent than usual, and I doubt he was picking up on anyone's emotions.)

Found out what some of the others had speculated about--Latvis had received the tablet after it was taken, though it seemed he was a middleman for someone else. Still, the tablet was likely in his gallery, so we headed back downtown for a little good, old-fashioned breaking and entering. I grudgingly concede that Darren's skills came in handy here; we went in through an upper-story window and slunk through the gallery. I thought the art might be better for the lack of lighting, but it was, quite frankly, just as bad.

At the back of the gallery was a door guarded by a keypad. I found us the digits of the passcode, but before we could figure out the order we were interrupted.

Latvis was standing there, somehow managing to look like a pompous git even in his pajamas. He knew we were Knights; he obviously was not what he seemed. But we were completely unprepared for the foe we were about to face. Fire sprang up within the room, rushing toward us--for a brief moment I felt a shock of panic, thinking my ability had flared up on its own, then realized Latvis was controlling the flames. Seth yelled to me to do something; I desperately reached out--
--and the fire halted in its path.

Didn't know I could do something with this ability that doesn't involve destroying stuff. Unfortunately for all of us, now was not the time to explore this newfound capability. I knew I didn't have the strength to hold him off indefinitely, so I went for the paintings. I don't care if that thing was 300 years old; it was ugly as sin and the world is better off without it.

It seems he was somewhat fond of that one...evidenced by his sudden angry transformation into a being of fire and wings and fury.

Fire was everywhere...we retreated into the vault, which someone had thankfully gotten open, and slammed the door. It immediately grew red-hot, and the room started to get uncomfortably warm.

But we had found the tablet! Now it was just a matter of carrying all several hundred pounds of it downstairs and to safety--we just had to get through the demon who was currently melting the door into a pile of slag. Sam had the wise idea to hold hostage the collection in the vault. This got us out the door. Unfortunately, it didn't stop the authorities from surrounding us once we got there. And that wasn't even the end of it...you'd think if they put guns in the hands of these people, they could at least teach them to shoot the right people.

Fire. Again. I let go of all the other concerns--the tablet, how we were going to get out of here--and focused all my energy on keeping us all from being incinerated. Time seemed to stretch on and on, while I could feel it getting harder and harder to keep the flames back. Finally they subsided, and I felt my mind melt into first warmth and then darkness.

I woke, later. Seems as if there wasn't much to tell after that; we had been successful. But there was one thing that I found out during the course of the mission that bears some looking into.

Seth told me of a vision he had had of himself. He was dressed in black robes and had glowing, red eyes--also, he seemed to be presiding over the destruction of Chicago. Now obviously he doesn't want this to happen--the kid seems scared witless that the others will find out and "remove" him, actually. But as he hasn't been in full control of his mind lately, not to mention the lack of judgement he's shown, I'd say we have a high priority to look into this before it blows up in our faces.