Andrea Maria Nash

The next morning I stood outside what had once been called the Cooler, Atlanta's ice skating rink. It was brick and oval in shape and rose at least four stories, stretching into the morning sky for what seemed like forever. Buildings this size were rare in Atlanta. Magic had a way of eating and collapsing anything past two stories.

A hundred yards from the Arena was a wooden tower and perched atop was a set of mounted machine guns and cheiroballistra. Tall enough to cover nearly the whole of the parking lot and close enough to cover the roof of the Arena. I also spied the distinctive red and black uniforms of the Red Guard. In the highly competitive field of mercenary work, there were few corporations and among them, the Red Guard were the best. From every report I've read and every encounter I've had with them, they've earned their pay and reputation. Looks like blood sport paid well though, as the Red Guard charged a premium.

OK, enough rumination. I stepped over a two-foot wide, fluorescent while line (obviously marking where the Red Guard's responsibility began and ended) and headed for the service entrance. I doubted the fighters were expected to enter through the front doors.

I quickly found the check in and gave my name and team to the woman working the checkin desk; Red Guard, again, and someone high in the chain of command, if I didn't miss my guess.

"'The Fools'? Is that a description of your team's intelligence or your need to amuse?" She asked me with a completely blank face.

I smiled, completely friendly-like. "No clue. I wasn't part of that decision."

"Fair enough. Go through those doors and I'll have someone meet you to escort you to your team's rooms," She said, eyeing my three duffles worth of weapons. "And just to be clear, there is no fighting outside of the sand. During a match, you guys can try and kill each other all you want. Outside of one, stay out of each other's way. That clear?"

"Crystal."

[OOC: All dialog and situations taken from Magic Strikes. I've merely switched the POV from Kate to Andrea.]

It was Sunday morning when I walked into Kate's office saying, "Raphael called. Apparently an order just went down the chain of command." I had to pause when Kate gave me a 'Raphael, eh?' look; to which I replied with a, 'Go ahead and ask, I dare you' look.

Her look was understandable, given what I had said at lunch the day before, but after we had deserted her with the Beast Lord (which she totally deserved for waving Raphael over), Raphael had invited me to go book shopping. I felt a little guilty for using his attraction to me to gain information, so I had decided to play along and he had been a perfect gentleman. Didn't try any moves. No getting into my personal space, no casual brushing against me, nothing, just us looking for books. In fact, he played so nice, I gave him my phone numbers—work and home—when he asked. I knew it was never going to go anywhere, I wasn't going to sleep with him and he'd lose interest, but that didn't mean I couldn't have a little fun, right?

"The Pack?" Kate asked, bringing me back to her office.

"Yeah. Any member of the Pack who attacks you is going to have a long, unpleasant meeting with Curran."

Kate grimaced and raised her pen in a mock salute. "Yipee. I had no idea I was a fragile flower in need of His Majesty's protection."

"Have you been attacked?"

"Yep. I was good and didn't kill anybody."

That sounded like a story so I closed the door behind me, stepped forward, and sat in her client chair. "What's going on?"

Kate sat a moment, deciding if she wanted to spill, before standing and activating her office's wards. A wall of orange surged up to seal the door and all the low level office noise disappeared. Then, she leaned over to unlock the top drawer of her desk, removed a thin case folder, and dropped it onto the desk. "Do the hand."

I was tempted to raise my eyebrows but instead raised my hand. "I will not disclose the information I am about to receive, unless authorized by the person who surrenders this information to my discretion. I will not use this information for personal gain, even under duress, coercion, or to save myself or others from imminent physical harm. I do so swear by my honor as a knight of the Order."

It was a hell of an oath. More people flunked out of the Academy on oath breaking than any other test of will. When you've been beaten, drowned, whipped, and then branded with a hot iron, most people will say anything just to make the torture stop. There was a narrow band of pale skin on my back, despite the Lyc-V in my system; a reminder of where a hot iron had kissed me. It proved I'd passed. I knew Kate had a identical scar. We both would remember the secrets we had keep for our test oaths to the end of our days and never reveal them. Not even through a stray thought.

Kate nodded and handed me the file. I read it, the abridged version of the Midnight Games. I knew there was a bigger file locked away but Kate didn't have enough clearance for that. Of course, I could accidentally mention any stray information she might need.

Once I was through reading what was there, I looked up at Kate and arched an eyebrow. Then she told me about the rest. How Jim, her old mercenary partner and the Pack chief of security had planted a team in the Midnight Games, suspecting outside shapeshifters of using the Games as a way to check the Pack's strength. Which was really bad. That meant the Pack's chief of security was breaking the Beast Lord's first law; no one touches the games.

But that wasn't it. Their plants in the Game kept getting killed and they hadn't told Curran. And the latest was Derek, Curran's protégé. Well, Derek wasn't dead yet, but he was severely injured. Kate told me of this team competing in the Games called the Reapers and her best guess is that they cornered Derek, beat him, broke him, and then poured molten silver on his face. Derek currently lay in a coma and Doolittle, the Pack's senior med-mage, couldn't figure out why Lyc-V wasn't healing the damage.

Then she told me about how Curran had been sneaking into her home to "make sure she was alright" and how he walked in, bold as you please, last night to scare a few years off her life. After wrestling and fighting, Curran had kissed her and by the look on her face I could tell it was bad.

"Shit. Fuck shit," was all I could manage.

"'Shit fuck' would also have been accepted." Kate replied with a sigh.

"The head of Pack's security has gone rogue, Derek is near death, and you're mated to the Beast Lord."

"Jim hasn't gone rogue; he's just not following orders at the moment."

I gave Kate a look. "That's what going rogue is!"

"And for the record, I'm not mated to Curran."

I just shook my head. "What planet are you from? He's slipping into your apartment to tuck your blanket in at night. That's the protective urge at work. He thinks you're mated."

"He can think whatever he wants. That doesn't make it true."

"I just realized: he's treating you like a shapeshifter alpha. You're playing by the rules of not-quite-human courtship here. Has he asked you to make him a dinner yet? Dinner is a big deal."

"No, he hasn't. Look, I'm not a shapeshifter and he's dated humans before."

"That's just it," I said, tapping my fingers on the desk to get her attention. "A direct come-on like that is a challenge. That's how an alpha male would approach an alpha female. They are all about power struggles and the hunt, and they don't do subtle well. I realize this sounds twisted, but it's a backhanded compliment on his part."

"He can take his compliment and shove it where the sun don't shine."

"Can I quote you on that?" I asked with a smirk.

"Be my guest. I've worked too hard to be his passing fancy."

A sudden thought made me frown and I had to ask. "So where does all this leave you? Are you going to disappear for a while?"

Kate nodded. "I have to see this through, and I can't do it with Curran breathing down my neck."

"Need any help?"

"Yes. I'm putting in a request to analyze some silver samples to the computer database. It might take a day or two to process. If you could pick it up…."

I waved my hand dismissively and scowled. "Of course I'll do it. I meant shoot-somebody type of help."

"Oh. Not at the moment. But I'll call you if I need a bullet through somebody's head."

"You do that. Try not to get killed."

"Will do."

We looked at each other and I felt like this would have been where we hugged had we been hugging sorts of people. There was once last thing I had to know though. "So how was it? Kissing Curran?"

"I can't let I'm kiss me again, because if he does, I'll sleep with him."

I blinked a few times. "Well, at least you know where you stand."

"It's a big responsibility," I told the little girl as we watched the little balls of fur and feathers tear at the jerky I had passed over. "If you don't train them right, I'll have to come back and take care of it. I wouldn't want to, but it's my job. People deserve to be safe."

"I promise!" Evie replied with eyes nearly brimming with tears.

Things had been quiet for nearly two months after the flare of magic and the near destruction of Atlanta by the Irish sea demons. Magic had faded, leaving technology dominate around the clock. Cars worked, radios played, and TV stations were actually able to broadcast for more than a few hours. Heck, two nights ago they even played Terminator 2, proving that things really could be worse than the world we lived in. Then a magic wave hit and things were back to normal…well, what amounts to normal in this post-shift world. The first 18 hours after the return of magic waves, things were chaotic and so the Order was in high gear; cleaning up after all the magic left behind. I was kept in the armory, handing out weapons and ammo to the knights who were out making a real difference in the world.

Now it was the day after the first magic wave and the Knight-Protector, my boss, decided I could finally go home. Have I mentioned how much I love my job? Okay, I do love my job—if I would be allowed to do it—it's just my boss I could do without.

Anyway, on my way home, I came across the residents of an apartment complex searching for a little girl who had disappeared a few hours ago. Funny how when the world goes to shit, we're back to the village raising, caring, and protecting the child. Yes, there were still assholes in the world but there were also a lot of good people and good communities.

I, being a decent person and a knight of the Order, immediately joined in the hunt and even managed to find the girl. She had found a gryphon nest with two nestlings and their mother shot. At least the nestlings were old enough to tear off and chew their own meat. The knight in me knew this was a bad idea. Gryphons are classified as dangerous but then again so were pitt bull terriers, once, and everyone knows it's how you raise them that defines if they become a danger or not. So I decided to give the girl and the gryphons a chance.

"OK, and I'll help you when I can. I live just down the street anyway, so I'll be checking on you. Got it?"

"I got it," she replied in a tone that sent the nestlings squealing as she leap up and hugged my legs. I froze, both in surprise and uncertainty, before I rubbed her head. That's what you do when kids hug you right?

 Andrea wakes to a sound she hasn't heard in years; her mother singing. Her mother sung rarely, even after they escaped the pack, but she always sang with such a beautiful voice that Andrea would be still and quiet, to catch every note she could. She lay there, pretending to sleep and hoping the song would go on forever but her mother stopped, knowing in that way that mothers always do that her daughter was awake.

"Come on, Angel, I know you're awake," her soft voice cooed. "We haven't much time."

"What do you mean," Andrea asked, sitting up and yawning.

"I mean I'm just visiting and have to leave soon. How are things? Are you happy?"

She feels a vague sense of alarm and confusion at her mother's words but ignores it for now. "Things are good. I'm a knight-defender in the Order and I'm living in Atlanta. I've made a friend, her name is Kate."

"A knight-defender?" her mother says confused. "You should be master-at-arms shouldn't you? You've put in the time, what's holding you back?"

"My Knight-Protector doesn't trust me," she answers, though the truth would be her boss is a paranoid bigot who thinks anyone with Lyc-V is less than human, "but you're right. I'm true to my duty though."

"Duty is well and good but are you happy?"

"Happy enough." Andrea admits, though it's nearly a lie. She is dissatisfied with her life and happy is just a thin veneer hiding the hollow emptiness.

"Oh Angel," her mother says, taking her into her arms. "You should be happy. Don't settle for anything less! I didn't risk our lives for 'enough'. Never forget that."

"But..."

"No but. Promise me you won't forget."

"I won't Mama."

A few days later and the knights returned. I had kept the Order's HQ in good order and, as expected, things had been quiet post Flare. Kate and I had hammered out a report that left her knowing nothing about Roland nor showing any hint of unusual magical power and me without a scent of being a shape shifter let alone a beast kin. Every knight had returned, looking tired and bruised but alive. All of them, alive. I felt guilty for the hint of anger at this considering more than thirty of the Pack hadn't survived the battle with the Fomorians.

I now stood at a parade rest before my Knight Protector, Ted Moynohan, as he reviewed the report. He acted like he didn't believe a word of it and if it hadn't been for the physical evidence, he likely would have said the whole thing was hyperbole. Still he grilled me, looking for something though I knew not what. Maybe he thought Kate and I were secret Fomorians or shape shifters. Okay, one of use was a shape shifter but that was beside the point. He also seemed damned upset that I had not only left my post but had the gall to act as a representative of the Order. Or maybe he was just pissed cause he missed the fight.

Either way, he was dressing me down, threatening disciplinary action when his phone rang. Picking it up with a scowl, he yelled into it, "I told you no calls! What? Fine put him through."

I stood there and fought to keep my face neutral as I heard the Beast Lord on the line thanking the Order for their aid and requesting in the future, for the times Kate was unavailable, that I be sent as liaison. Finally, the Beast Lord hung up without so much as a good bye and Ted slammed the receiver back down. He rubbed at his temples and covered his eyes. For a minute, I worried he had forgotten about me but then he spoke. "Nash, get your ass to the Armory where it belongs. We're done here."

I turned to leave but before I got to the door, he had one more thing to say. "But this isn't over. I've got my eye on you and I will find out what you are hiding from me."

 It took another three hours after Kate left for me to begin to get feeling back in my legs. It started with my toes, which itched furiously. For the next hour and a half, I slowly and very carefully tested the healing; flexing my toes, turning my ankles, bending a knee. Finally I felt ready to try and stand but was interrupted by the medmage, Dr. Doolittle (I swear to whatever gods are listening that is his name), as he entered to check up on me. The look of fury he gave me was enough to freeze me in my tracks. I had read the Order's file on him. I knew better than to push it and it wasn't just because he was my doctor. See, he was a were-honey badger and even if my secret self didn't immediately want to back away from that look, I knew enough about the critters to want to stay far away. They were nasty and fearless, having been known to even steal food from lions.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" He asked.

"I think my legs and back are healed now. I was going to see if I was right," I said weakly, knowing how stupid it sounded. Still, there was a big fight coming in a few hours, I wasn't going to miss it.

"I see. How many medical degrees do you have?"

"I have a certificate in advanced trama and first aid."

"Oh. I see," he dead panned. Entering the room, he placed the pitcher of iced tea on the nightstand by my bed beside an empty glass. "I'm so glad they're teaching physical therapy, neurology and orthopedics to EMTs these days. Do you mind humoring an old man and letting me take a look before you trip or collapse and undo all my hard work?"

At my weak nod, he gestured for me to lay back down. "Well, it seems you were right. I still want you to take it easy. The PT room is across they way. I will allow you access if you promise to stop whatever you are doing if you feel the slightest hint of numbness or sharp pain. You understand me girl?"

"I promise," I said relieved. Laying about was seriously getting to me.

"Very well," Dr. Doolittle said and reached for the pitcher to pour me a glass of tea. "Drink up and you can go."

I took a drink and my jaw nearly seized up on the sweetness. "There any tea in this or is it all honey?"

"There world needs more sweetness and you child, need more calories. Your body has just done a lot of work in a very short time. Magic helps but it can't do everything by itself."

Two hours later and the doc let me out into the Keep to try walking but only after I repeated my promise to stop if I felt any numbness or sharp pains.

 A Kind Of Magic - Queen
Straight To Hell - Lily Allen feat. Mick JOnes
Who's Laughing Now - Jessie J
God Is A Bullet - Concrete Blonde
Tomorrow Wendy - Concrete Blonde
The One Thing - INXS
The Only Exception - Paramore
The Gang Bang Theory (Madonna vs Nancy Sinatra) - Robin Skouteris mashup
My Happy Ending - Avril Lavigne
21 Guns - Green Day
Some Nights - Fun.
Payphone - Maroon 5
Curtain Call - The Damned
Wide Awake - Katy Perry
Knights of Cydonia - Muse
The Story of Crush Crush (Taylor Swift vs Paramore: "Crush Crush Crush/The Story of Us") - DJ MashUP
It's Time - Imagine Dragons
Blow Me (One Last Kiss) - P!nk
Bad Girls - M.I.A.
Search and Destroy - Skunk Anansie
Titanium - David Guetta feat. SIa
Catch My Breath - Kelly Clarkson
Skyfall - Adele
Like A Prayer - Madonna
Bring Me To Life - Evanescence
Raise Your Glass - P!nk
Never Tear Us Apart - Paloma Faith

 Atlanta is a strange city. Anything taller than three floors is ground down by magic wave after magic wave. Electric street signs are busted, missing or replaced by their more primitive kin. The tarmac of the streets is cracked as are the cement of the sidewalks and plant life has gone wild. Yet despite all this, the humans of the city rebuild...except here in Unicorn Lane. Here magic and the wild are the apex predator and not just during the Magic Waves. Things hide and quiver in the shadows. What people live here do so because there is simple no where else in the city that will accept them. It is dangerous. It is unpredictable and it is where Andrea is hoping to buy some guns on the sly.

Point in fact, she's already bought the guns and is currently sitting in what is left of a small city park, or what was once a small city park. Now it's more a mid-sized city jungle complete with unidentifiable and eerie animal sounds. The animal sounds are leaving her alone for now and so she is making sure her purchases (two Glocks and a submachine gun) were worth the effort and cost. She's also got a perfect view of all the windows and doorways to the empty shells of three apartment buildings that surround the park's entrance.

[OOC: All dialog taken from Magic Burns, pages 104 and 105.]

Kate slid a beat-up book over from the top of the stack she had brought with her and flipped it open to the index. Some volume of myths and legends which, oddly, smelled of chicken.

"Your books smell like chicken," Raphael said from behind me where he had been rubbing my shoulders; which felt incredible. Had to give the guy credit, he really knew how to work a muscle. Okay, that sounded bad.

I reigned my thoughts in and shrugged off his hands. It was time to work. "If you're going to look for Julie, I'll help. She's my responsibility."

"No, she's mine," Kate shook her head. She was wrong of course since Julie had been in my keeping when she was kidnapped but now wasn't the time. "There is nothing I can do for her right now. But I can find Morrigan's bowman," she began and explained about The Sisters of the Crow, a coven Julie's mother had belonged to which was lead by a woman named--I swear this is the truth--Esmeralda and how they had done some ritual that started this whole mess. She then went into more detail about the reeves, their latest attack and needing Bran's blood, Bran being Morrigan's bowman. "When the reeves attacked us, the Shepherd mentioned the Great Crow. Let's see…"

We watched Kate flip pages back and forth for a few minutes, her forehead wrinkling in thought a few times. She stopped once to read and Raphael asked, "Any luck?" but she shook her head and said, "Not yet."

Then she had the expression that read like a face palm.

"What?" I asked as it was obvious she had found something.

She turned the book to show us an illustration of what seemed to be a boy being chased by an older woman as they both changed shape, ultimately ending with the boy (as a grain of wheat) being eaten by the woman (in the shape of a chicken).

"Birth of Taliesin. The goddess Ceridwen had a son of incredible ugliness. She felt sorry for him and brewed a potion of wisdom in a huge cauldron to make him wise. A servant boy stired the potion and accidentally tasted it, stealing the gift of wisdom. Ceridwen chased him. He turned into a grain of wheat to hide but Ceridwen turned into a chicken, swallowed him, and gave birth to Taliesin, the greatest poet, bard, and druid of his time."

I frowned, not quite getting the connection. "Yes, I see that the boy was reborn through the cauldron, but so what?"

"The name of the Goddess's ugly son. Morfran: from the Welsh mawr, "big", and bran, 'crow'. The Great Crow."

"This is the guy?" Raphael asked. "The guy in charge of the Fomorians?"

"Looks that way," Kate answered. "And more, he is a crow just like Morrigan. Very similar names plus very uneducated witches equals…"

"Disaster," Raphael finished for her.

"Those idiot Sisters couldn't actually be that ignorant," I added doubtfully. "Fumbling spells--yes, but screwing up enough to accidentally pray to the wrong deity? Morfran and Morrigan aren't even of the same gender."

"Maybe the started out praying to Morrigan, and then fumbled just enough to give Morfran an opening. Maybe Morfran managed to make a deal with Esmeralda. She wanted knowledge and he offered it to her. Taliesin, Morfran's half brother, served as a druid for King Arthur after Merlin. It follows that Morfran was probably also a druid. Who else would've taught Esmeralda druidic rites?"

I leaned forward, playing Devil's Advocate to make sure we looked at this through all angles; a child's life was at stake here. "Okay, but to what purpose? Why go through all that trouble?"

"I don't know," Kate answered rubbing at her chin. "If you were a god, what would you want?" She picked up the tea pot and filled Aunt B's cup before doing the same for her own.

"Life," Raphael said.

"I'm sorry?" Kate asked. I looked up at him, pretty sure I knew what his point was but curious to see if I was right.

"I would want life. All they do is look down on us from wherever that exist but they never get to take part. Never get to play."

A good guess but impossible. "It doesn't work like that," I said looking back to Kate. "Post-shift theory says a true deity can't manifest in our world."

"You see reports of deities all the time," Raphael said reaching for my shoulders to massage them again. I leaned into his hands a bit but not so much as to give him ideas.

"Those aren't actual true deities. They're conjurer's constructs, wicker men for their imagination. Basically magic molded into a certain shape. They have no sense of self." I took a sip of tea before continuing.

"First, most people imagine their deity within some magical realm. I mean, what worshiper pictures Zeus strolling down the street with a thunderbolt under his arm? To manifest on Earth would require independent will on the part of the deity. That's a pretty big hurdle right there. Second, deities run on the faith of their congregations like cars run on gasoline. The moment the magic ebbs, the flow of faith cuts off. No juice, no powers. Who knows what would happen to a god? They could hibernate, they could die, they could be jerked out of existence. The magic is simply not that strong and the shifts are too frequent for a deity to appear…"

"Unless she does it during a flare," Kate said in a quiet voice that echoed off the kitchen walls.

I opened my mouth to argue but closed it with a click. Damn.

Wow, I so did not expect the level of interest and so this has gotten more complex that anticipated! To head the beast off at the pass, I'm opening this up for dialog and organization. I am also including players and their journals for behind the scenes arrangements and plotting.

Confirmed Players:
Andrea (masterofgunfu )
Poins (poins )
Michael (luvs_yogurt )
Tyler (basic_powers )
Lohengrin (knightoftheswan )
Urquhart (scots_wolf )
Teja (ostro_goth )
Konoata (konatatheotaku )
Jack (againsttherules )
Alfred (battle_butler )
Voodoo (boston_bruiser )

Possible Players:
A pup of sdelmonte 's ( I will update when I have confirmation)
Jack Bauer (trigger_man )
Sariel (visible_sariel )

Possible guest appearances:
Teresa of the Faint Smile
Clare

So this leaves us with a confirmed number of 8 players and a possible of 14 later this evening. This means we have enough to set up teams. Also, Andrea is unfamiliar enough with this game that she didn't have an objective in mind, just a timed, shoot as many people as you can type of thing. Do we want to switch to a capture the flag arrangement or something more organized?

ETA: So we have 11 confirmed and likely 12. I vote we split into three teams of four and play last man standing, i.e. elimination and the team with the last man standing wins the round. Michael has already volunteered to lead one team, do we have any other volunteers? Once we have team leaders, do you want to pick your teams or should I  just assign them? I f we go with picking, I say Michael gets first pick and then whomever volunteers next gets second pick and so on.

On second thought  and with how folks are tagging, I think we'll stick with the free-for-all this time. I think it's fair to say there is enough interest that we can run future games with more organized planning.