What Would Victor Lazlo Do?

[Grace]

This girl is you, Gotham Witch?

All I can say is holy wowza. She is made of awesome. It's like James Bond meets Harry Potter.

I hope we hear more of this girls exploits.

[Gotham Witch]

Twice as much car theft without nearly half as much guilt. I can't say I'm not a little jealous though, but she seems a bit... unstable?

PS: Nemesis, if it were up to me, we could switch alternate universe twins if you wanted. At least yours seems to have some degree of inner peace.

[Doctor Boggs]

I don't know whether to find this tale offensive or impressive.... this calls for a drink.

[Doctor Boggs]

Double post, that calls for a drink.

[Grace]

Twice as much car theft without nearly half as much guilt. I can't say I'm not a little jealous though, but she seems a bit... unstable?

PS: Nemesis, if it were up to me, we could switch alternate universe twins if you wanted. At least yours seems to have some degree of inner peace.

I think I like my twin the way she is, actually.

But your's is pretty awesome.

Just saying.

[Hannah]

Our GW is pretty awesome too.

Hannah

[Cybermancer]

I suppose we're all pretty awesome in our own individual ways, Hannah.

You know, I've been dreaming and remembering a lot lately.

Last night I was remembering something that happened in that other time. A lot of those memories are quite unpleasant and can be difficult to deal with. This one is a little different though. There was some anxiety and a lot of danger yet the end result was that it solidified a very strong friendship.

I guess I've just been thinking about friendship and openness lately.

Being who I am, I sometimes come across secrets. Sometimes those secrets involve people I know and am close to. Occasionally they are secrets that involve them that they themselves are unaware of. It can be difficult to decide what to do in these cases. Sometimes what people don't know can hurt them. Sometimes they're better off not knowing. There is no simple formula or stratagem that makes these sorts of decisions easier.

The secret I'm specifically referring to involves this specific story. In this time line, Hannah and Ron didn't know each other. They didn't know their relationship to each other either. At least not at first. Of course I knew and that was the source of my quandary. I didn't want to have to tell Hannah that the man who was responsible for the death of her mother and most everyone she had ever known, the person most responsible for her brutal life in the fey world was none other than her father.

How would you tell a troubled young woman all of this? Obviously this is the story of how I eventually addressed that problem.

I remember that Hannah and I both happened to be in the operations center when it all started. I was showing her around as she was still very new to the organization. Perhaps it was fate that she be there when news came in that Mordecai had been spotted. In that very city no less.

“Where?” I demanded.

The answer was provided immediately. He was under observation and seemed to be setting up for some sort of assassination. There wasn't a lot of time to act on this opportunity. I'd been working on a plan for our next encounter with Mordecai which is why I had made locating him a priority. Thus I wasted no time in calling for a meeting for the team.

My hope wasn't to eliminate Mordecai. I wanted to capture him. I wanted to turn him to our side. This seemed like the chance to do so. While everyone filed into the briefing room, I manipulated maps to show vectors of approach. I remember Hannah asking which way was the quickest way to get there and I took the time to show her but said that such a straight line route would risk exposing our current base of operations. Then I went back to making my hastily constructed plans.

Once everyone was there and the lights went out, I began to the mission briefing. I made sure to emphasize that the objective was to be taken alive. About 15 minutes in I said, “we'll be splitting up our arcane assets. Slayer, I want Hannah to go with your team.”

“Sure thing boss.” Slayer agreed. “So where is she, anyway?”

“Lights!” I demanded.

They came on and sure enough, Hannah was not in the room. Maddie was, though. She was sitting quietly in the back, smirking her damn face off.

“Where's Hannah, Maddie?”

“Sorry, Victor dear, I can't tell you that.” She was entirely too pleased with herself.

“Dammit!” I didn't waste time on more questions she wouldn't answer for me. I had a pretty good idea where Hannah was going and what she would be up to. I just hoped that my side trip to the armoury wouldn't put me too far behind her.

Remember that straight route we wouldn't be taking because it was too risky? It was the one I was taking now, praying I would arrive in time to prevent a tragedy.

As I approached, I regretted not grabbing a helmet or goggles. My eyes were tearing up something awful. I assure you it had nothing to do with my emotional state and everything to do with factors resulting from high speed flight.

In any case, Hannah and Mordecai were coming into view. They were on a rooftop of an old record store. He was lying on his back in front of her. Like twin snakes, her arms were weaving in front of her. Painful as it was, I had to focus on slowing down. Crashing into either of them would not be helpful.

Still, I arrived with enough force to push the air out of Hannah's lungs when I slammed into the back of her. Before she could react, I wrapped my arms around her, pinning her wrists against the sides of her waist. Then I pushed my cheek up against the back of her jaw and pushed her head to the side before she could target either Mordecai or myself with another incantation.

I may not like improvising, that doesn't mean I can't manage when I want to.

“Hannah!” I shouted into her ear, “Don't do it!”

“What? Victor? Is that you?” She was pushing back, fighting me as hard as she could. She was surprisingly strong but I couldn't risk losing this physical contest.

“You can't kill him, Hannah. Calm down. You can't kill him.”

“The hell I can't!” Her rage hadn't subsided in the least. It was rather like trying to hold onto the tail of the proverbial tiger. “He killed everyone I ever loved! I'll see him burn for it!”

Indeed, her temperature was beginning to rise, making her harder to hold. It would only be a matter of moments before she was sheathed in flames. “I don't want to hurt you, Victor but I will if I have to!”

“If you have to burn me, then fine.” I pressed my lips against her ear to ensure she heard me over her own shouts, “I'm not going to let you kill your father.”

“What?!” Both Mordecai and Hannah had the same surprised look on their faces.

“That's right.” I was speaking to both of them now. “You are father and daughter.”

“Impossible!” They were still speaking at the same time and with mirrored expressions. If I wasn't wrestling with a fey trained enchantress while standing in front of one of the most dangerous hunters in the world, I may have found it comical.

“Why the hell didn't you tell me?” Hannah demanded of me.

“How could I have possibly told you in a way that wouldn't have broken your heart?” I asked quietly in her ear.

“You're a bastard.”

I'm not sure to which of us she was referring but I suspect it was me. Well deserved, at that.

“What is this, some sort of ploy?” Mordecai was pulling himself away from us. A little further and he would be at the edge of the roof.

“No Mordecai. That night in the barn? With Sarah? Hannah here is the result. Of course putting Sarah in the family way was all but a blank cheque for James.” This was not how I had hoped this would go at all. Improvisation was bad enough, but emotional improvisation? Not exactly the forte to a stoic thinker such as myself.

“She's too old!” Mordecai brought himself up to his full standing height. Even battered as he was, he was an impressive physical specimen. And just as dangerous as any other time, I knew.

“It's due to time dilation from time spent in the fey realm. Time she spent there because of a deal that James made. A deal you weren't there to save her from.” What could I say to convince him? “Look at her! Doesn't she remind you of anyone?”

He squinted for a moment. Then he shook his head as though he didn't want to believe what his eyes were telling him. Then he was reaching into his pocket.

I barely had time to spin around so I could shield Hannah. It wasn't an attack though. Just a flash bang to cover his escape.

Hannah was sobbing in my arms. We were both emotionally exhausted and slowly sunk down to our knees.

[Cybermancer]

Hannah had quite a bit to say after that. One would have to have been very well travelled indeed to have fully appreciated the extent and magnitude of some of the curses she was throwing at me. I am just such a well travelled person. I have reason to suspect that she knew it, too.

Eventually she calmed down enough to stop hurling insults and slurs to my ancestry. She was still angry but was willing to start asking questions. “How could you possibly know who my father is? Why do you think it's him?”

“In another time and place, I knew you both as very different people.” Speaking cryptically can become a reflex even when one is making an effort to be forthright and honest.

“Cut the crap!” Sometimes yelling is a reflex as well. “Just stop with the enigma crap. You want me to stay? Then you better start spilling the beans buster. If you can't be honest with me, then I can't trust you. If I can't trust you, then you're too much of a risk for me to be around.”

[color=#0080FF]She was right of course. The strategic side of my mind was also keenly aware that her departure would also mean losing Maddie and Hannah's son. I silenced that part of my mind. This wasn't about tactics or resources. This was about building the foundation of our future relationship. For some reason I couldn't quite pin down at that time, making sure our relationship was a good one was very important to me.

“You deserve the truth, of course. The full truth. You may have trouble believing it but I'm going to reveal it all anyway. You may want to leave my company when I'm done anyway. If you do, I won't stop you. The choice is always yours.” Then I extended my hand, “my name is Matthew Knight. I'm a traveller from another dimension and I'm impersonating Victor Lazlo in order to restore this worlds time line to what it should be.”

She examined my hand for some time, as though it might conceal some hidden danger. Then she took it in a firm grasp. “Okay, assuming I believe that, how did you come to be here and what makes you think this isn't what the time line should be?”

“Because like I said, we've met before. In that other time and place, you and your father knew each other although you were separated for some time there as well.” She squinted at me for a moment and seemed about to say something, correct me perhaps but instead held her tongue so I could continue. “You were both involved in the supernatural but differently then you both are now. That interest brought you both to an online community called the Lazlo Society. It is through that community that we met.”

“If that is true, then how come you remember the way things were and no one else does?” She still retained a healthy dose of scepticism. One could hardly blame her. Still, I was hoping that a girl that had spent her formative years in the world of the fey would be more open minded.

“I was...”

Just because she was making me spill my guts like a disgraced Samurai doesn't mean I'm going to reveal all my secrets here just yet.

Eventually her tone became less sceptical. She stopped prefacing her questions with, “if that were true...” She started engaging in the conversation as though she was willing to accept that I was being honest with her. Not just honest in a 'he believes what he's saying' sort of a way, either.

She now knew more about me than anyone in that time.

Or this one, for that matter.

“Alright.” She nodded, “thanks for finally being honest with me.” She turned on her heel as though getting ready to fly away home.

“There is just one thing I would like to know.” I said, not making any move to leave.

Hannah stopped and turned to face me again.

“Remember when we were in the Fey court? And then you had Maddie take us back to the mortal plane? Do you remember what you called me?”

“There was a lot going on right then...” Hannah started.

“You called me Matthew. Until tonight, I've never told you that name.”

She looked at me for a very long time. I could still see tear stains on her face in the moonlight. “In the library, I had a friend who used to come visit me. He was a lot like you but much younger. We would talk back then. Sometimes it seemed like for days. When I saw you there, I thought of him, and a promise he made.”

“I... don't remember anything like that.” I confessed truthfully.

But I remember now.

I miss that old library.

I miss her even more.

[Hannah]

Thank you for sharing that with us Matt. I think that it was very important that it came from you.

The other Hannah’s journal talks about that night on the roof and of many other occasions in which Matt confided in Hannah. She had realized then just how alone Matt was in that world and made it a point of always being available to talk to without the pretence of being Victor Lazlo or the rest of the lies that he had to live there. She figured that if a man has to constantly live a lie, he might just forget the truth without someone to tell it to. Matt, for his part, seemed relieved to be able to talk openly once in a while.

Reading the other Hannah’s journal, perhaps I project a bit too much. That’s why I reacted so strongly when Matt deceived me. Hopefully that’s all cleared up now.

I do agree with her that it’s important not to have too many hidden truths rattling around and to tell too many lies to keep them hidden. While it may be necessary in the short term, too much of it can do some bad things to a person. So Matt, if you do ever feel like you need have some truths that need to get out, I’ll be happy to listen.

Hannah

PS: The other Hannah also made sure not to mention any of the secrets that were shared in her journal, so if you are looking for juicy details about Matt, ask him yourself.

PPS: Apparently after the incident on the roof in Boston, there was an unspoken truce between father and daughter. This did not stop them in the slightest when both were on the same field, but neither seemed willing to target each other with anything that might cause harm. The other Hannah also prevented Fanus or Maddie from attacking Mordecai either. More than a few times this would cause friction between Hannah and the others, especially as she didn’t share why she had changed her targeting priorities.

PPPS: Mordecai would be killed before Cybermancer had another chance to speak with him.

[Cybermancer]

Reading the other Hannah’s journal, perhaps I project a bit too much. That’s why I reacted so strongly when Matt deceived me. Hopefully that’s all cleared up now.

It is as far as I'm concerned

I do agree with her that it’s important not to have too many hidden truths rattling around and to tell too many lies to keep them hidden. While it may be necessary in the short term, too much of it can do some bad things to a person. So Matt, if you do ever feel like you need have some truths that need to get out, I’ll be happy to listen.

I don't know if I have a truth as such to get out. All I have is evidence, not proof... but I think there is something I should bring to your attention. It is also something that should be relayed in person, I think.

I'm pretty busy over the next couple of weeks but I should be able to drop by New York the weekend of 18th-19th next month. It's kept for this long, I'm sure it will keep for another couple of weeks. It'll give me a chance to visit my old stomping grounds as I didn't have the leisure time to do so last time I was in the area.

[Rowan]

Some secrets are good to keep. Some secrets aren’t. Some secrets will the keeper. Some secrets will kill the ignorant.

I’m not one to judge. We must all choose—and live with the consequences.

[Cybermancer]

All very true, Rowan.

I think the lesson I've learned from all this is sometimes you just have to have someone you can trust.

Earlier in this thread I was saved from becoming everything I was trying to oppose by Darcy. She made me realize that you can go too far in compromising for the greater good. And then Hannah made me realize that I was isolating myself behind a shroud of secrets and lies. Most of them were required of course but it's no kind of life to live, to be cut off from any and everyone.

Sometimes we have to be saved from ourselves and that is why we need people who are close to us.

[Hannah]

Hi Matt,

other than some plans I made for the 14th, I'm free that week, so please stop by anytime. You can show me some of your old campus hang outs, well at least the ones that will let an 18 year old in anyway.

Hannah

PS: Rowan there are a lot of secret keepers around here. Most of them really need to sort out which secrets are which.

[Cybermancer]

Hi Hannah,

I think I can arrange to be in the area the following Friday (17th) so we can meet then.

Interesting that you were able to divine 'old campus hang outs' from 'my old stomping grounds'.

In any case, given the age I was back when the campus was my old stomping grounds, my old hang outs are all age appropriate for you. Especially if you like eating pastry while reading in light that is dim enough that you will probably squint a bit.

[Hannah]

Hi Matt,

It was an educated guess. I've also seen your name on an awards plaque or two.

Hannah

[Ron Caliburn]

Trust my daughter to find a school with a fellow Lazlo Society member as a distinguished alumnus.

[Hannah]

Well they do have a great parapsychology department there. Dr. Lazlo did a few lectures back in the day and of course that is where Doctors Spengler, Stantz and Venkman started their careers.

Hannah

[Cybermancer]

I remember those Hacks. It was years before paranormal research would be taken seriously again.

Anyway, it's time to get back to posting these stories. Here's another report from Mel and her favorite partner in, ahem, crime.

“They should have been here fifteen minutes ago.”

“You know how traffic is in downtown Montreal.”

“I’m going to be all jitters by the time they –do- show up.”

“The amount of coffee you drink isn’t healthy.”

“Neither are the bullets that regularly whiz by us.”

I took another sip of coffee as I waited for some useful piece of news to come about on my earpiece. One of the things that hadn’t changed since Nemesis Day was coffee shops in Quebec staying open to an ungodly hour. This is good – otherwise this stakeout would have been long and boring.

“Are you sure you’re up for this?” Asked that little voice in my ear – I’ve taken to calling her my conscience, if only because it annoys the hell out of her.

“I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked as I glanced up briefly from my newspaper across the street. Aside from a few passing vehicles, most of the traffic were hip young Quebecois out for a night rather than cars. At least spotting our target wouldn’t be too hard.

“Well, that concussion you took a couple weeks ago…”

“I’m fine.” I repeated with a sigh. Had it been anyone else, I’d have told her to buzz off. Instead, I muttered, “…but thanks, Conscience.”

“Why do you call me that?.” she asked as I glanced back down to my newspaper, reading a headline about another shooting near the provincial border - One that, surprisingly, we were not involved in.

“Why not? You’re the little nagging voice in my ear that tells me when I’m being a bad person.” I said in an almost cheerful tone.

“Even though you never listen to me.” She huffed.

“Clearly I’m not that awful. Otherwise you wouldn’t be willing to be partnered with me.”

“As needs must. The Lord knows lives depend on us too much for spats to get in the way of our work.”

“See? You always remind me what a great crusade we’re on. That’s why you’re my conscience.” I murmured into the mic with a grin before I saw a vehicle pull up. Blue Camaro, Ontario plates - That was our boy – And I use “was” on multiple levels here. That double crossing bastard.

“Contact.” I whispered, “He’s grabbing the handicap spot in front of Galipeau’s.

“Finally” I heard my conscience say. There was a brief pause before I heard a sigh, “Black sedan is coming up with federal plates two blocks off from you. It looks like they tailed him in.”

“Fucking Fantastic.” I muttered. There was originally supposed to be about a ten minute window between ‘our’ man showing up and the Feds he was snitching to. It seemed we were instead down to mere seconds before trying to play whack a hole might be too risky.

As I watched, our man – short, blonde, and nervous looking – was getting out of the vehicle. At any point I was expecting the report of gunfire as what little grey matter that snitch bastard called brains splattered the storefront of what appeared to be a decent French restaurant. There was a good 10ft of space for my conscience to put an end to this problem once and for all.

Much to my surprise, the shot didn’t happen. He was halfway to the restaurant before I whispered, “What are you waiting for, a written invitation?”

I nearly jumped as there was an electronic crackle before a dead hiss of white noise. I tapped my headpiece a couple times before watching the little weasel make his way into the restaurant.

Half a second later, I heard gunshots – clearly fired in another direction.

“Darcy?” I asked pensively. No response.

Shit.

My first instinct was to check on her. But I remembered we had a job – a rather important one at that.

My conscience was a bit of a modest badass anyway. I’d catch up to her soon enough – or so I hoped.

Putting my newspaper down and standing up, I glanced both ways before crossing the street. The Fedmobile hadn’t turned the corner yet, so it stood to reason that they couldn’t see me heading towards the restaurant. I got a few looks for apparently being too lazy to use the crosswalks; If I were not in a hurry, I’d have flipped them the bird or something polite like that.
I stepped into Galipeau’s just as Charles was getting led to a table. Some snooty Hab asked me for my reservation.

“My date is right there.” I explained with a cheerful smile pointing to the nervous little shitface. The host was about to object before I budged right by him, my hand slipping into my coat pocket.

Nobody got in my way as I marched the 15 paces over to the corner table. I spared a brief glance around, both as precaution as well as curiosity – the place was nice and clean, the food smelled good, and the crowd was a good mix of old and young. In another lifetime, I’d have loved to have tried this place.

Instead, of course, I was walking in step with a party of four Quebec City to blend in, apparently avoiding the notice of a Fed who had sat down and decided to have himself some ratatouille. He glanced around behind his square black shades before going back to his meal – guess he hadn’t spotted me.

I of course didn’t take chances. As there was just enough din in the room that everyone in conversation with one another wouldn’t hear much away from their tables, I murmured a brief spell, before giving a subtle gesture towards the Fed. The man gasped weakly, before freezing in place, mid swallow of his food.

If he was lucky, it’d wear off before he choked – I rather hoped he wasn’t so lucky.

“Darling, you’re here already?” I asked with faux surprise as I finally stepped away from the party of four, sporting my best français québécois – my parents had thought that it was a good idea to speak the local lingo. Hate to say it but they were right for once.

“Huh?” came the brilliant response from Charles as he turned about, speaking in his best French Canadian, “I’m sorry madam, but I think you have the…”

There was a look of shock on his face as he realized who I was – about half a second after six inches of polycarbonate were buried in his guts. Ignoring the collective gasps of everyone around me, I grabbed his shoulder and levered the blade upwards, twisting it about a little bit to make sure I hit everything I could, before ripping the edge out in a sideways action with a flick of blood and bites. Finally, I reversed my grip on the weapon before flicking it nice and straight across his throat, a small spray of blood striking some very shocked Montrealers.

You might think I was being vengeful on poor Charlie for turning peel and trying to get us killed. I like to think I’m just very through.

I fished something out of Charlie’s jacket pocket, before letting the poor dying sod hit the ground like a sack of potatoes, I felt getting out of there was a good idea as everyone started screaming. Murmuring a brief spell, I flung a hand at the ground as a cloud of smoke rapidly filled the restaurant. Barreling my way towards the kitchen, I only had to fling one or two waiters out of the way – the rest got the clue that a chick with a bloody knife wasn’t someone you wanted to tangle with.

[Gotham Witch]

Sometimes I feel a need to live vicariously through my evil twin - mostly because the notion of stabbing someone to death makes me kind of want to throw up. How she does it, I will never know.

[Ron Caliburn]

Most important part is to keep the blade horizontal so you can get it between the ribs.

[Gotham Witch]

Call me crazy Ron... but I think she was deliberately trying to spill his bowels rather than go for a quick and merciful death.

...ngh.

[Grace]

If you don't mind getting your hands dirty, you can start just above the groin and cut upwards until you get the rib cage. That should be a large enough opening so that you can now reach in and scoop out whatever you wish. With or without your knife.

[Gotham Witch]

Sometimes I don't know what I'd do without you, Nemmy.

Maybe be less queasy for a start.

[Ron Caliburn]

I tend to go quick and efficient. No point wasting effort on fancy stuff. It has a side effect of usually being merciful.

[Cybermancer]

Mel tended towards quick and merciful as well. Thus it demonstrates the level of her anger that she choose to use a knife instead of say, a pistol to the temple.

In the resistance, traitors were considered worse scum than those who choose to side with the enemy from the start. They were always priority targets when they were revealed.

I don't know how much my own attitudes effected this level of hostility towards traitors. Certainly I found them to be a frustrating bane. Unless you somehow learned of their actions ahead of time, they were impossible to plan for. Valuable assets and lives were all too often lost due to the actions of those who were supposedly our allies.

These people were our friends and family and they sold our lives to the enemy for transient material rewards.

Thinking about it even now engenders a great deal of anger within me. To me, there can be nothing worse than being stabbed in the back by someone you trusted, cared for and even loved.

But enough of my ranting. Time for the second half of the story.

I got outside from the side door and looked around. The Fed sedan had parked itself outside of the restaurant, and I heard shouts as Feds made their way inside. Remembering that my conscience might be in trouble, I hopped up to grab a ladder on an old fire escape, pulling myself up before making my way up towards the roof.

I was already hearing the ring of police sirens as I made it roofside, pulling out my binos to look about. It was late evening, so it was a bit hard to see much. My conscience wasn’t at her post, though I could see her rifle laying there untouched. Considering how fond she was of that thing, that wasn’t a good sign.

Murmuring another spell, I made a run for her position, boosting my jumps between buildings a bit with a little help from the wind. Fortunately, most of the rooftops in this section of Montreal were pretty close together. So it wouldn’t take long to get to where she last was.

As I made my way over onto the roof she had been on, I nearly tripped over the mostly headless corpse of a fed. There was a big entry wound where his face was, with the contents of his brain pen missing. It looked like The Angel had gotten a shot off. That was a good sign.

I moved over to where her rifle was sitting. Her headset was on the ground, the wire severed. More disconcerting was the large gouge in the brick and mortar next to her, as if something big and sharp had taken a chunk out of it. At least there was no blood – I’d never forgive her if she got herself whacked.

I heard a few more gunshots nearby. Pulling out my binos I glanced around. Two roofs down, I could see my conscience run-and-gunning as something with two large things with wings were pursuing her, one of which swooping at her and taking a large stretch of tarred roof with its claws as it narrowly missed her.

I really should have known this wasn’t going to be easy.

I hefted Darcy’s rifle as I knelt down and tried to be real steady, making an attempt to play the heroine. Sniping is not really my forte – but they were awfully big targets, and I had a telekinetic hand in stabilizing the rifle. As one of the gargoyles tried to swoop in from behind my conscience, I lined up a shot and fired.

At first I thought I missed. I’m used to things getting hit by .338 going splat. The bullet hit with more of a thud. Better news was it was near the wing, which caused the bastard to hit the roof behind Darcy with a loud crash. It likely wasn’t a killing shot but it was enough to give my conscience an opening to bolt.

Shouldering the rifle (she had been down to one bullet) and telekinetically picking up the case (actually for a Cello – my idea), I ran in her direction, patting myself down for something that could hurt a stone demon. A couple anti-personnel grenades, while tempting, seemed like a bad rescue choice while Darcy was in kissing range – besides, I couldn’t throw as well as she could. My conscience probably had some heavier loads on her, but without her rifle on hand, that didn’t mean a whole lot, currently dealing with a large volume of shots off of her Glock – fat load of good they seemed to be doing, but I can respect her trying.

The gargoyle made another swoop at her, trying to take her head off with granite talons. Deftly, she leaped over the damned moving statue, putting a couple bullets in its face to blind/annoy it, before running back towards me. Taking that as a signal, I tossed her an unpulled grenade, watching her pluck the pin and hock the explosive in a gentle arc to land right at the gargoyle’s feet.

“Got your rifle.” I said cheerfully, ignoring the loud explosion bits of stone demon went flying.

“Thank you, but we need to leave, now.” She said hurriedly as she grabbed her weapon, pulling a box magazine from a pouch as she reloaded it on the run, me following close behind. In the sky from the direction she had come from, I could see several more flying silhouettes; it seemed that Montreal was a less hospital place for us anglophiles than normal.

“What about Charles?” She asked as she worked the bolt action.

“He’s looked better. He lost weight.” I noted as I drew my revolver, checking the load.

“Rest his soul.” I heard Darcy murmur before she spun about, lining up her shots before pulling the trigger.

Unlike when I tried to be the heroine, my conscience could, you know, aim. Also, unlike that dull thud I was getting as the bullet barely penetrated, the head of one of the gargoyles literally exploded mid flight, the corpse striking the ground with the crash of shattered granite.

Less positive was the echo of a chopper nearby. Looking up, I could see a black chopper coming from the horizon, a sniper likely ready to try and put us down. I wasn’t sure if Darcy noticed or not – I heard her fire another shot, accompanied by the sound of stone cracking in half. Whatever she was firing now kiiiind of made me cringe.

“Chopper, Red.” I noted, taking a couple shots of my own at a gargoyle, just to feel like I was being meaningful.

“And cops on the street; this isn’t good, Mel.” She said as she chambered another shot. Darcy always had a way of keeping cool under fire – I could barely read that she was worried at all. I think we both knew, however, that this situation was going to end badly the longer we stayed out here.

“I have an idea, if you’re crazy enough to jump off of a building with me.” I said as I watched the approaching aerial units. My conscience looked at me as if about to ask me why that was required, but an errant bullet striking the roof about four feet away from us probably answered that for her.
Thank god the Canadian Feds are terrible shots, huh.

My conscience shouldered her rifle, before wrapping an arm around me. Winking at her, we both leaped off of the building.

You’d think that something as insane as jumping off of a six story building would be crazy. Without hocus pocus, you’d probably be right. Shouting the words during a fall wasn’t so bad – it was the gesturing that was a little tricky.

About a split second before we struck the ceiling of a taxi, we halted in mid air, only about four feet away from pavement. That was apparently close enough to scare the taxi, which screeched to a halt as we deftly landed with a light plop.

Not wasting any time, we ran ourselves into a nearby alley, ignoring the sound of sirens in the distance as Darcy packed her ‘instrument’ away in the cello case. Montreal wasn’t exactly an unfamiliar stomping ground, and we knew we were close enough to the La Ville Souterraine to lose our ‘friends’ in one of its seven Metro stations.

My conscience and I didn’t stop to catch our breath until we had grabbed the train at Bonaventure, and made our way to Laval. As the doors closed and the train started to pull away, we looked at each other briefly, before managing a weak chuckle.

It was a few moments before my conscience went back to being somber, before asking, “Did you find what Charles took?”

“Sort of.” I answered as I opened my coat just enough to reveal a DVD that I had pilfered out of Charlie’s bloody rags.

Darcy nodded before leaning back in her chair, her hand wrapped around her cello case. There was a pause before she asked, “Why do you think he betrayed us?”

“Because he was an asshole?” I suggested with a snort before giving a shrug, “Maybe he didn’t like the odds of us winning. Sometimes I wonder if he had ever been on our side at all.”

“I wish I knew.” She said, before saying confiding, “I hope we never have to do that again.”

I hmphed softly in response, but I have a feeling my conscience knew that I agreed. It was one thing taking on the Feds and minions of darkness. It took me a lot of mentally preparing myself for the task to gut someone I had known for years – the fact he nearly got some of us killed near Ottawa a few weeks ago had made the task of disemboweling him a little easier, though.

Still, I wondered. If you can’t even trust your side to stay loyal, what hope was there for us?

[Hannah]

Matt,

At least those professors raised awareness of the discipline. Some people didn't get it at the time but I talk with some of the paras on campus once in a while (oh the stories I could tell them if I wanted to become the topic of a research paper) and many of them say there were inspired by Venkman's work on ESP or Spengler and Stantz's work on entity detection technologies.

I have to ask you, did you intentionally collect together the same group of faces that you knew here or did we somehow end up finding you?

Hannah.

[Cybermancer]

I agree they did some good work, Hannah. I just wish they had taken things a little more seriously,

As to your other question, I would have to say it went both ways.

I stumbled onto Dr. Boggs right from the start. He in turn would introduce me to Mel, someone I hadn't even known about at the time. Fate?

Darcy's father came looking for me and brought along Darcy, Brutal and Slayer. Fate?

I went looking for your father but was always frustrated in my attempts to find him. By the time I had positively identified him, he was already solidly on the opposing side.

As part of my search for your father, I came across James Grant which led me in turn to your double. It had been my intention to recruit her away from the compound when she was old enough but things did not work out the way I had intended.

There were many I deliberately went looking for whose fate is unknown to me or their fate should not be repeated here. Many met with bad ends.

Many of those I came to trust the most have had some sort of presence on these boards. Perhaps it was fate or perhaps it was simply that I was more comfortable with those I already knew from this time and place. There are a few oddities where those I learned to trust were not known to me before hand. Mel was one such case.

Personally I am not a fan of the idea of fate or destiny. I prefer to believe that I make my own way through life and that what happens to me is the consequence of the decisions made by me or other free willed sentients. How can I beleive this having seen a tapestry of fate? Does the tapestry determine our fate or merely represent it? Those who would speak authoritively on that subject may have their own agendas and can not be fully trusted.

Yet I am mindful that she who weaves was not pleased to see me.

[Hannah]

Coincidence, Fate, Self-Determinism . . . it's sometimes really hard to tell which is which.

Personally I see a lot of common elements between both worlds. The my connection to the fey and your grouping of Lazlo Society members are fairly obvious ones, but there are others. The death of Darcy's father, revelations on a rooftop in Boston, the final showdown between Darken and Mordecai . . .

So maybe there were things that needed to be common between both worlds just due to their very existence?

Hannah

[Tms3]

Vary astute Hanna. It has always seemed to me that the fey realm of Under hill is a reflection in many ways of our world.

[Cybermancer]

Tms3, funny you should bring up the subject of reflections.

You may be right, Hannah. But some things were very... uncommon.

At least I hope so.

I've spoken in this thread about traitors to the resistance and obviously I have discussed what various members of this board were up to in that other time. There were other allies and even friends who are not members of this board that I should discuss at some length.

I'm reminded of one in particular because I was thinking about my earlier rant about traitors and I remembered that one sides traitor is another's hero. That is the case with a young woman called Jinx. It's a nickname she picked up in her early childhood, so both versions of her use it. The name was coined because strange (supernatural) things always seemed to happen around her. And with good reason. She is a psychic.

Unlike many psychics who specialize, she's something of a jack of all trades. While lacking in mastery of any one discipline, her generalization granted her a versatility that would serve her well in her role as a mole for the resistance. She was also one of the first people I would actively seek out to recruit.

She was 16 when Nemesis Day happened. Just a high school student who was considering which university to apply to. She had aspirations to become a photo-journalist. She had already learned to keep her special abilities a secret from others. This helped her avoid detection when everything went crazy on Nemesis Day.

It was a good thing too. The invaders were actively hunting for psychics. Her discretion allowed her to go unnoticed by the first wave of psychic hunting monsters. It was long enough for me to find her.

Doctor Boggs didn't understand why I wanted to recruit someone so young and Maddie just didn't care. The reason was simple. I knew her from this time line and had worked with her many times. I knew what she could grow into given time and what she would be able to do.

As for Jinx, after we made contact and I explained to her everything that was going on in the world, she accepted it with surprisingly calm. Apparently she had been dreaming about it for months before it had happened and everything I told her synched with what she already suspected. She had even foreseen me coming to look for her.

Jinx agreed to join the resistance, though not as an active combatant. She would keep herself hidden, continue school and work towards joining the subverted government in some capacity. I knew at the time what I was asking of her. She would have to always spout the party line and be false to everyone around her. If she got into trouble, she would likely be on her own at least for a little while until we could come and get her out. She would have to trust that such help would come in time.

Jinx was willing to do this because I was willing to make a promise I couldn't be sure I could keep.

A bright girl, Jinx graduated high school early and then get a compressed Bachelors in computer sciences. That in turn allowed her to join the FBI's cyber-crimes division. That's right, we placed an 'ethical' hacker right where she would be needed most by us. It is not lightly that I put young women in jeopardy.

The enemy didn't value technology as much as we did and often underestimated it as a resource. So it didn't take much for us to subvert their networks to nearly complete levels with the insertion of a few specially designed viruses.

That freed her up to work her way up the food chain within the FBI. Usually, that's just an expression. The problem is that she ran into a 'glass ceiling' and not because of her gender. It was the same problem we had with any sort of infiltration into the enemy ranks. After a certain point, they employed only creatures of non-human origin. You couldn't get these monsters to turn on the overall hierarchy. What Jinx did learn is that you could occasionally play one against the other in limited ways.

It was a dangerous game she was playing and it was inevitable that she become compromised. There was a combination of factors that led to her discovery. The enemy knew they had a mole somewhere in their organization so began to scrutinize all their human agents. They also put out a bounty on useful information leading the capture of the mole.

In our organization, only Dr. Boggs, Maddie, Hannah and I knew who Jinx was and what exactly she was doing for our organization. Still, there were trace bits of evidence in our intelligence files which, if scrutinized would greatly narrow down who was providing us with data.

Intelligence that 'Charles' managed to get his hands on as one of our analysts. Intelligence that he passed along to the feds before we could stop him, though we did try.

When Mel and Darcy reported that Charles had already passed along the intelligence to the enemy, I knew we had very little, if any, time left to extract Jinx from her position.

It was something I felt I had to do personally. To me, that meant going alone.

I was suiting up in the 'locker' when Hannah walked in. “So where are we off to, Matthew?” She started to pick several items off the shelves that she would find useful.

“We're not going anywhere.” I said with an air of finality. “I am going to DC.”

“By yourself?” Hannah looked at me as though I were insane. “Not going to happen.”

“It's happening alright.” I countered as I started to pull various toys off the shelf and test them. “I'm getting her out of there.”

“Of course we need to get her out of there.” She laid a hand on my arm, “you're acting irrationally. Why?”

“I knew her in the other time.” I confessed to Hannah.

“And that's a reason to go off half cocked?” She asked patiently.

“You don't understand,” I turned my head so I could look her directly in the eyes. “I knew her in the other time.”

She blinked at me a couple of times, coming to terms with what I had just said, “so... she was your wife?”

I couldn't help but chuckle a bit, “no. We were lovers, for a while anyway. We were both busy with our respective careers so it didn't really work out. Still, even after we were done being lovers, we remained very close friends.”

“Okay.” She nodded slowly, “but that was there and this is here. She's not the same woman, you know. Here, she barely knows you.”

“That's true but she's where she is now because she believed in me. She's in danger because I knew her there and went looking for her, specifically.” I leaned heavily against the cinder block wall, “that's why I have to get her out.”

“Of course you do.” She surprised me by agreeing. “But just as assuredly, I have to come with you. You're liable to get yourself killed and I'm not inclined to allow that.” Her body language assured me that she was serious and that she was coming along if she had to knock me out and carry me on the mission. Which really wouldn't be right considering how her limp might act up.