Alyssa awoke the next morning to Peter sleeping next to her. Which caught her off guard. It took her a moment to remember she had had a nightmare. She could recall Peter helping her, Max breaking the door to get in to help with the pizza hanging from his mouth. She remembered fixing the door. Asking Peter to stay with her - oh, that was it. But the actual nightmare - that was like some weird haphazardly put together collage that made little sense. She sighed, not again.
Alyssa made her way quietly out of the room, pulled out her laptop. She fired it up. Spoke to Max through his chip. "Hey, Max. You awake?”
Max had taken a nap after downing two large pizzas and watching several hours of the “Outer Limits” series. At this point he was awake and ready to transform if needed. He already ordered room service and munching on a huge family size breakfast consisting of waffles, pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, crepes, omelets, juice, chocolate milk and hashbrowns. He was mostly done with breakfast and nibbling on the last few waffles as he was watching reruns of “Kung fu Theater” on the tv. Then he heard Alyssa ask him if he was awake through his chip. He replied through his chip, "Yeah just chillin for now and eating a snack. Feeling better?”
Alyssa wondered for a moment what a “snack” consisted of for someone like Max. “Yeah, I’m good, thanks. I’m headed to breakfast soon. We’re going to be headed out later to check out a shop run by the Halliwell sisters. Just wanted to let you know so you could decide which side you want to go as.” She didn’t know if Max going as the 18 year old or hulk-man was better but it should be his choice. “Anyway, I’ll talk to you later. Feel free to join me for breakfast. I’m not sure when Peter will wake up.”
Despite the shower last night Alyssa had a feeling that, after last night, she needed another one. So, she quickly got in the shower and got dressed into a pair of jeans and a plain black t-shirt, and her shoes and headed to breakfast with laptop in tow.
Alyssa had been to breakfast areas in hotels before most were either restaurant like where food was ordered or a buffet area where guests got their own. The latter always seemed to be the case when the breakfast was free. This seemed to be a combination of the two. Their was a waitstaff for anything the guests wanted but also a buffet for those that wanted it. She opted to get some scrambled eggs, bacon and a bagel from the buffet. Also, grabbing a cup of coffee. Back at the table, Alyssa put two sugars and two creams into her coffee, stirring it. She turned her food into a breakfast sandwich by placing the scrambled eggs and bacon on the bagel. Then cut it in half, to make it easier to eat.
Alyssa still didn’t see Peter or Max . She had gotten a table on a corner, big enough for four people as that area wasn’t particularly bust at the moment. The computer hacker set up her laptop and started going to work.
Sartre awoke, Alyssa was already up. He thought of the cosmos. He and Wilson seemed to have bonded quickly, for the wrong reasons: her nightmare, its contents. Whatever was causing problems in the city and the world was big. As he showered he knew today was a day to get answers. After drying off he hastily got into his suit. Today was not the day of the factions, it was the day of the three sisters. Well at least two of them… As he headed to the continental breakfast, he spoke to Alyssa Wilson in his chip. It was business for now. "The three living are Piper, Phoebe and Paige, though something tells me the other sister Prue is one of the keys. Also after I left the cult crime scene, I spoke with Charles Duane, a Pastor, he seems to know something as well, we need to stop by his church after the apothecary. Approaching Alyssa at her table he said, "Check the surveillance footage Alyssa, The Templars stole the book of shadows from the manor. who knows what team green has or is up to. I was not going to take things from their home, though we perhaps should have grabbed the book of shadows. After ordering a quick breakfast, in the headset he said, “we’re in the same bed every night until this case is over. I’m not letting anything happen to you.”
Alyssa heard Peter’s voice in the chip and looked up to see the man entering the breakfast area. She had been down there long enough to eat half of her sandwich and get some work done. “I’m ahead of you. I already checked. It doesn’t look like the Greens took anything.” She wondered how he knew the Templars took the Book of Shadows. He seemed adamant about the sleeping arrangements, she had planned on getting her own room today. It was all making her feel a little crowded, but she was also uneasy about what was happening. Alyssa changed the subject and spoke back into the chip. "I got information on the other Templar. I’ll tell you later.”
Max was debating on going to eat breakfast with Alyssa. It was nice to hear her give him a choice on what form to come for breakfast, but his dad would lecture him if he was in his teenage form during work hours. Not to mention he was used to eating and sleeping alone be it a fancy hotel or the middle of a jungle. Then he heard a knock at the door and opened it to get his second room service tray of food. He replied to Alyssa through his chip, “Thanks for the invite but I already ordered room service. Just let me know when we are leaving so I can meet you downstairs.” Then Max began opening his trays to eat his second breakfast. He knew he needed the calories so he splurged on breakfast while watching his Kung Fu Theater
Peter spoke through the chip, "Information, way to go Alyssa!”
“I’ll be right back. There’s one way to see what Team Green are up to.” It had worked yesterday, so he was going to risk it again. Entering into a bathroom stall, he would relax, close his eyes and see through the haze. The book of shadows being removed from the house by the Templars, Eun Ji the dragon in possession of the bible of Saint Ede the Pious. The End Rite in the Halliwell basement. Then images of the Silver City bridge collapse. A man being questioned by the inquisition… Armed men making a tactical entry against a man in his early sixties, something about “Green Dammit” followed by bursts of automatic gunfire. An Angry Theodore and Ammirillis Wicker arguing with a woman in the hell dimension. A dark haired woman in the woods. A portal. That same woman stabbing Alyssa with a scalpel then saying “Dark days are here…” He awoke shaken with a slight headache but it was manageable, returning to the table with the team he said, team green took the bible of Saint Ede. They left the End Rite in the basement. We will pick it up after we convince the sisters to go back to the manor and help us. “
“Hold on, let me get Max in on this.” Alyssa tapped into Max’s chip, so he could hear what Peter was saying.
Alyssa herself messaged Max through the chip. “Meet us in the lobby. 15 minutes good?”
She then spoke to Peter, as she was packing up her laptop. "I’ll need to grab more coffee on the way.”
Max was scooping food into his mouth when he heard Alyssa’s voice in his chip. He replied, “Sounds good. I’ll meet you there.” He continued to shovel his food into his mouth so he could have enough time to transform and race downstairs. Once he was done he transformed back into Agent Powers and raised down the stairs since it was faster than waiting for the elevator. As he stopped before the last door to the lobby he calmed down and took a deep breath before he muttered, "I am at home with me. I am rooted in the me who is on this adventure. Now take a deep breath, and realize that this is me breathing.” Once he was ready he opened the door and made his way to the team.
Alyssa was in the lobby waiting for the team to be ready. She carried her laptop in her backpack slung over her left shoulder as she absent-mindedly squeeze a firmish stress-ball that looked like a small globe. Her mind drifting to the events of last night. Her nightmare. She knew it was a nightmare. The feeling upon being woken from one was unmistakable. Certainly wasn’t the young woman’s first and wouldn’t be her last but …
Her mind played back to the day her father went missing, as it turned out there was also huge gaps in her memory from that day.
Not just that day but every nightmare since then nothing, and she could could vividly remember dreams before then. There was more but not what Alyssa was focused on at the moment. Why was last night’s nightmare different? Why did bits and pieces of it hang her mind. Her parents, black nothingness, a few words spoken, those hideous teeth but nothing else. The images were jumbled as well changing as the day went on. She now saw the blackness engulf her parents, the teeth were green. And for the life of the woman, there was no remembering the images that came before and less, and less of them were invading her brain. Leaving more empty spots in her mind.
Agent Powers did his best to not bump the other staff and hotel guests as he passed by. He was trying to look professional but ended up giving everyone a smoldering grin. Eventually he met up with Alyssa and gave her a smoldering smile as he said, “Ready to roll?”
The sound of Max’s voice came as a jolt to Alyssa who had been lost in thought. She jumped slightly, “Max. Hi. Sorry, um…” What did he say? Ready? "We’re just waiting on Peter.”
He arrived in the lobby anxious, "lead the way Alyssa.”
Agent Powers replied, “Oh just saying I’m ready to roll when you are,” Do we need to bring or do anything?” Agent Powers looked dashing as he put his hands on his hips.
"Any ideas Alyssa?”
“Nothing I can think of. I guess we wait until we get there.” The computer hacker replied.
She lead the two men to her van and unlocked it. “Max, I’m sorry I can’t give you more space than the back of the van.” Though it was more spacious than the front but still. She crawled into the back of the vehicle. Put her laptop back into its place and started it up. Typed a few things in and the equipment she had shut down started back up.
She then typed a few more things. The mointors for the cameras went blank, the one still focused on the Halliwell house. She kept typing… "I’ll be ready to go in a minute.”
Agent Powers nodded and grinned as he replied, “It’s cool. I am used to it. i just hope I don’t break anything by accident.” Then he did his best to get secured for the ride. He quietly watched Alyssa and Peter try to figure out their next move. As he watched them work he felt out of place and was reminded of the huge gap in experience they shared. At best he was an average student he felt even dumber next to Alyssa who was a computer genius. All Max could do was play a few games on his phone and use simple apps. Then that Peter guy seem to know a lot of stuff even if he came off as a bit of a jerk by ignoring him during conversations. Most of Max’s experiences involved learning to survive in horrible places and honing his combat skills in life and death situations such as being dropped off in a South American jungle full of cannibals and told to make it to an extraction point if he wanted to get home. Sadly this meant his social skills were very warped and he struggled to make friends thus making dating an impossible option. However he needed to prove to his father that he could still be a good agent so he was given the opportunity to work with others for a change. It was awkward for him and he didn’t know what to say outside of work. As he saw Alyssa he noticed she was tired and had dark circles under eyes. He wondered if she was also having a hard time in her life. Sadly he had no idea how to bring that topic up.
Sartre sat in the front. "What are you typing?” He then added, "We leave here, hopefully with them to see if they can handle The End Rite in the basement at the manor. "Should we tell them that the Templars took the Book of Shadows?”
When Peter asked what she was typing, Alyssa held up her index finger to tell him to give her a minute. Then said, “There.” The screens showing the cameras, except the one for the Halliwell Manor, had changed. She had hacked into other street cameras.
Alyssa got up from her seat and pointed out the different images, “I’m going to keep this one on the Halliwell house.” Pointing to the different screens as she went. “This one is Sung’s house. He has a long and somewhat odd background with the Dragons. I can’t be sure but he might be in charge of the mission. This one is our hotel, with all the weirdness going on, never know if that will be useful. This last one is our destination today. P3.” Alyssa paused. “Hey, Max if you want you can keep an eye on the screens. Especially P3 and let us know of you see anything usual.” Forewarned is forearmed after all.
Agent Powers was puzzled by this shadow book they kept mentioning so he decided to ask about it, “Uhhh sure. What is this shadow book you keep talking about?” He moved in position to see the screens.
Satre would let Alyssa answer.
“Oh, I went over the surveillance footage of the house and saw the Templars leave. They didn’t take the Book of Shadows.” Alyssa moved into position in the driver’s seat. "The Book of Shadows is basically a spellbook. It was in the attic of the Halliwell house.”
"They used it for at least 8 years. If it’s still there, then they won’t be upset.” Peter added.
“True. It probably had protections on it. Maybe, the Templars didn’t want to mess with that?” Alyssa said.
When everyone was seated, and the ones on the front buckled in, Alyssa took off out of the parking garage and down the street.
“First, coffee.” Which is what she had said at breakfast.
The sign read Sycamore Coffee, clearly a local place. She pulled into the drive-through. "Anybody want anything?”
An iced coffee." Sartre thought that hot food and drinks ruined the taste.
Agent Powers was feeling like he was getting along with Alyssa so he decided to request a coffee. Granted he did like it but he was not sure if he would get odd looks for his preference of coffee so he took a chance to request it. He asked, “Hit me with a double venti organic, chocolate brownie, caramel Frappuccino, extra hot with one inch of foam… Non-fat please.” As he tried to look serious he gave her a smoldering smile.
Alyssa was behind a small red sports car, as they pulled around the brick building when she heard the two men’s orders. Not even batting an eye at Max’s. “Got it.” It took another few minutes but they made it to the order window. It only had one window.
"Iced coffee, " Alyssa gave Peter’s order first, then without missing a beat. “Double extra large organic, chocolate brownie, caramel, Frappuccino, extra hot with one inch if foam, not-fat.” The woman, who looked to be maybe 18, wrote down the order and then looked at the two people in the front seat and shrugged. Alyssa knew only Starbucks used Venti as a size. “Large cappuccino, vanilla syrup, 2 extra shots of espresso.” The young barasta gave the amount, and Alyssa paid. While they were waiting she filled in the two men through the chip.
“The other Templar is a woman named Jennifer Hawkins. 26. She’s a bit of an enigma. Not much is in her record before three years ago and 1/2 years ago. That’s when she started traveling a great of the time to Europe. She was working with a known Templar agent, a warlock, Cheryl Somerset. She worked with Somerset for about a year. Then there isn’t much except Hawkins traveled quite a bit.” Not unusual for any agent. “That was until a little over a month ago, when Hawkins went to Hyderabad, India. She stayed there for longer than one would expect given her record. There isn’t much on what happened there but matching the timing of Hawkin’s arrival and her departure, the photos taken in customs on the way there versus the photos of her afterwards show she was very battered upon departure.” Alyssa paused long enough to get the coffees, hand their orders to each of the men, take her own coffee and put it in the cup holder. She then drove out of the drive through before continuing. “There was an unusual diplomatic incident that occurred in between the time Jennifer arrived in India and the time she left in which an “Interpol” team violently eliminated a “terrorist cell” in the Hyderabad area.” Alyssa made a turn. " The rest is really that Jennifer appears to have been out of commission until her trip to San Francisco.”
Agent Powers smirked at the information and sipped his coffee. He replied, “Wow…(sip and swallow)…sounds like my vacations with my dad. So, are these Templars the violent type or the social type?” Agent Powers sipped his strong coffee again.
“They hate other factions, especially us. And the feelings are mutual. The Templars are annoyingly rigid. They have all kinds of rules and such.” Alyssa paused. "Personally, if we have to work with another faction, it’s better it be the Dragons. Sometimes though working with the Templars is unfortunately unavoidable.”
Agent Powers nodded as he swallowed his coffee. He understood what she meant by the lack of cooperation. Sadly he experienced it at a very young age as he met a lot of people with bad intentions like cannibals, terrorists, crime lords, drug lords, slavers, war lords, tyrants, dictators, North African Royalty, Dark Clubs, Mafia, Triads, Yakuza and the occasional mad scientist. Over the last ten years he was trained to get used to violence by his adopted father. Sadly he was in the dark as to why he had to go on all those “family vacations” and his adopted father kept him in the dark on a lot of stuff. It was hard to please his adopted father, but now and then he would get some level of approval to reinforce his loyalty. If Agent Powers did come across any other faction in the past he had no clue so he had to depend on Alyssa for that part.
"How did you get involved in the Illuminati Agent Powers?” Peter asked Max
Alyssa was interested in Max’s response as well. He had a definitly unique ability that the Illuminati would want to their advantage but he didn’t seem much like a typical agent even without that.
Alyssa reached up between the driver’s and passenger’s area and light hit a small area that jutted out just a little, it revealed a little compartment. She pulled down a pair of dark purple sunglasses and put them on. The sun had been getting progressively more annoying as the morning went on.
Agent Powers swallowed his hot coffee as he thought of his answer. Then he gave a smolder as he replied, “Well my father adopted me when I was around eight and had me home schooled along with his special training. In between my lessons we would go on vacations around the world. At first he would go with me and teach me to camp in the forests, but as I got older he would push me out of the chopper and I had to find my way back to him. It was hard having to deal with the bugs, cannibals, wild animals, terrorists, criminals and bad weather along the way. To be honest I don’t get why anyone would want to lived in a mansion in the middle of nowhere. I lost track of all the places I had to destroy for my dad. Anyway this is my first mission with a team so I am still learning the ropes.” Agent Powers seemed calm as he sipped his coffee.
That answer, while certainly interesting and it made Alyssa feel for the man, didn’t really answer the question about how Max ended up working for the Illuminati. “So, did your father get you involved with the Illuminati then?” She asked.
Agent Powers nodded as he sipped and swallowed his coffee. He replied, "Yeah my dad is some big wig in the Illuminati, but doesn’t say much about it. He said I need to not rely on his position and make my own achievements. So the only thing he provides me with is some money and missions.”
“Nice sunglasses Alyssa.” said Sartre.
“Thanks,” Alyssa replied. “I personally don’t know how people stand the sun without them.” She took a sip of her coffee which was now a reasonable temperature to drink. The sip turned into a longer drink before putting the coffee back in the cup holder.
Her eyes glanced into the rear view mirror, then she looked back to the street, back to the rearview mirror and shook her head slightly. Must have been nothing, just a trick of the light.
"Are we being followed?” Sartre inquired.
"Uh…no. I just thought I saw something but it probably was just the reflection of the light. " Alyssa shrugged, trying to portray seeming unconcerned.
Agent Powers noticed the topic switched from him to sunglasses to Alyssa checking her mirrors if they were being followed. He was doing his best to keep up with the thinking of the other two. He knew they were smarter than he was since he was a good student. At best he was a “C” student according to his strict father. However when it came to mass destruction and high end combat he was way above average. Sadly as he was working on an investigation with two people who were smarter than he was and he felt a bit out of place. Since he was clueless on what to talk about he pulled out his phone and looked at his game apps. He scrolled through them till he found one he was into. He smiled as he selected the “Spirit Hero Quest” game app. There he got to be a cool hero type that saved the world and gained a lot of popularity. In the game you need to do quests to gain popularity and experience points till you can summon a spirit to combine with to get stronger. Many players liked getting the dragon, Fenrir, Fire Fox and so on but they were hard to get and took a long time to level up in the end. By mere chance he managed to get a rare spirit offshoot which appeared to be a flaming chicken, but had the power of a fire phoenix. In that form he was handsome and super powerful so he was no longer teased by the competition. So since he was on his own again he began playing his game and took a quest to defeat some undead frogmen. He was once again in a good mood as he was in his fantasy world.
"What did you think you saw? Peter asked.
“I’m not sure. It was …” Alyssa wasn’t certain how to explain it. “Something black. Like a spot but different.” Then she quickly added. “It was probably nothing.”
Part that was because she was forgetting what she had seen, Alyssa knew, or felt there was more to it but it just wasn’t there. Odd things had been happening to her for five years with little memory of them but leaving strong feelings. This was not, perhaps, not the time to bring that up.
Max was oblivious to what Peter and Alyssa were talking about as he was getting into his game. He was in his Phoenix/flaming chicken form which was a fit good looking guy who could easily be the hero of an anime or K-Pop group. He was blasting the bad guys with fire balls and racking up the experience points. He even managed to level up in a short time as he rescued the cute princess that was kidnapped going to be used as a sacrifice to bring back a Demon Lord. Agent Powers continued to smile as he tapped his phone and entered the part where he uses his charm to win the heart of the princess and return her to her home before having to leave for a new adventure. He looked up from his phone to see Alyssa and Peter were still talking on their own. He looked around to make sure nothing was falling in the back of the van before going back to his game.
Posted by : Cindy