1 warehouse, 1 BSD kin, 1 kitsune, 3 BSDs, and me

[nick_garou]

From my cabin, I used the glow-in-the-dark chalk to scrawl a hasty circle surrounded by a mathematical proof for the Pythagorean Theorem on the cabin floor, stepped into it, and called up Thomas. Told him I'd consulted "the bones" (my magic 8-ball) and they'd said to move on this sooner rather than later. Thomas said I didn't need to mindrape the guy, and I very nearly took him up on that offer. But there's too much at stake here. Too many friends at risk. Besides. A mindrape isn't killing, right?

I justified it to myself enough to commit to it. Instructed Thomas to tape the phone to Eddy's ear and cover the other ear so that I could work better. I'd looked up the warehouse's address earlier, and the phone call just strengthened my connection to this place some 24.341 miles away. I ripped Eddy's mind open with vulgar magic and clawed around inside his skull.

Horrific, violent pornography. No, not pornos. He actually watched these scenes. Participated in these scenes. Cut, choked, beat, tortured, and killed in these scenes. An I could feel my own hands acting in concert with his--like I was committing these acts along with him, a shadowy echo of Eddy's self.

I was vaguely aware that Eddy had started screaming and thrashing about as I burrowed beyond this. He knocked his chair over. Struggling did him no good.

Oh my god, this was how he was taking his mind off being captured--on being tormented by Thomas's attempts at making him talk.

That. Sick. Fuck.

I rammed past his defenses, digging deeper. Too deep. Abused as a young child. Later abused his younger sister. Beating and molesting her. And... worse. Then the revelation: he was kin to the Spirals. What Eddy had done was natural. Expected. Encouraged. Condoned. Power. Power was why he did what he did. And knowing he was kin to Spirals? He was weaker than them. That made him worse and worse to those weaker than him. . . . Pull back. There.

His family--the werewolf wearing the mask made of human flesh--ordered him to come to Saint Claire by his family in Seattle. They want the Corax. Alive, if possible. For information. (Dear God, the information they could squeeze out of Val would be substantial. Devastating.) Orders? Shoot ravens. If one heals and flies off, collect blood and feathers and then call in the pack--three Spirals. They would come and get Val, take her back to the hive in Seattle, and....

Weird voices/sounds. Distant. Not in Eddy's head. Something was happening outside of Eddy's mind. I jacked out, looked around, and.... the three Spirals from inside Eddy's head were there. One had a mask made of human flesh--it shifted when she shifted--dedicated to her. She also had a lantern with symbols on her belt that gave off a hellishly purple light. The bruiser of the group was huge and had horns growing out of his head--and had a weighted net. (Biggest threat?) The third was average-sized (for a crinos) and had a modified assault weapon, AK-style, that glowed green and had mist coming out of it.

And then they attacked. Thomas took a green round from the AK to a leg and went down. The big guy threw a net at him. I twisted its flight path with Forces and redirected it at the AK-wielding crinos--took her down. The skin-face crinos with the lamp started chanting. Ritual? No time to look. Too busy saving the Fox's ass.

Thomas did some sort of weird spacial-altering effect that altered the inside landscape of the warehouse, but I was able to see through the illusion courtesy of Correspondence. The mino-were-taur thing charged Thomas, gouged him, knocked him over, and kept on going as a follow-through from the charge. I turned Forces on him and pushed him into headfirst into a metal I-beam. One of his horns broke off and he was definitely seeing stars.

Thomas shot fire from his hands at the gasoline cans. The crazy Fox had spilled gas all over around Eddy--like something out of Reservoir Dogs. Fwoosh! Eddy caught fire. Screamed. Thomas lept towards the flames right as I was thinking about redirecting them to burn the crinos with the skin facemask doing some ritual. Didn't know what he was up to, but didn't want to interfere with it, so I went vulgar again. Forces fueled with prime to electrocute the ritualist. It was not as damaging as I'd hoped, but it definitely disrupted the ritual. The crinos with the AK escaped the netting and shot Thomas's other leg, limiting him to crawling. I could feel paradox building up quickly after that vulgar blast of electricity.

Thomas laid some gift of fear on the AK-wielding werewolf and she freaked her shit out from terror.Eddy was still crawling and screaming on the floor. (I wanted to help him, but I couldn't with three Spirals attacking Thomas.) I crafted the illusion of a double-sized wolf coming through one of the doors--a distraction. (And the only wolf I'd recently had extensive time touching first-hand was Little Silvertip, so I used his--HER (dammmit)--likeness as the decoy model.) It fooled bull-werewolf, who charged it and nearly knocked himself out again. Skin-Face, abandoning the ritual, ran over, grabbed Thomas, beat him, then threw him across the warehouse and into the wall.

By now I had blisters forming on my forearms from exposure to an unknown heat source. My nose--both nostrils--was leaking blood. All this in addition to the static charge. I was very near my limit, and well beyond what paradox I had ever accrued at once in the past.

Skin Face then turned to Eddy, who was pleading to be healed, and ripped his head off while.... defiling Eddy. With all three Spirals distracted, Thomas escaped by.... dissolving into air?

I used Forces and Matter and Entropy to rupture the cell phone's battery and destroy the SIM chip and the rest of the phone's electronics. I debated following them as they left, but I was afraid to tax myself any further. They seemed done. At least for the day.

I dropped the effects, sat down, and tended to my injuries--getting an electrical zap each and every time I touched anything metal.

Thomas called wanting to know if I was all right and if he could come over. I told him I did not want company and that I was dangerous to be around. He wanted to come over and patrol around outside my cabin. Told him no again. I suspect the badly injured fox is seeking magical protection--perhaps--after he got a taste of what I was capable of doing. He needs to be seeking out a theurge, though