The Magistracy: School's In

[csyphrett]

1

 

Jeff Ashcroft pulled his car over to the curb when he spotted the crowd of police cars and a mobile command center sprawled out in the distance. Uniforms pointed traffic around whatever event was taking place. He got out of the car and scratched his head.

 

He shook his head. He needed to cash his check, and his bank was under siege. What were the chances of that happening? Maybe he could get this over with so he could get back to business.

 

He stopped in a corner store before walking down to the barricade. He had a couple of honey buns and a cup of coffee in his hands. He needed the sugar running through his system.

 

"You'll have to go around." One of the uniforms tried to wave him off.

 

"Federal agent." Ashcroft stepped over the tape. He held his jacket away from the badge pinned to his belt. "What's going on?"

 

"Some guys decided to rob the bank. One of the clerks tripped the alarm. One of our guys was close by and caught them still inside. Standoff started. One of the lieutenants from headquarters is trying to talk them down." The officer shrugged. "So far, that hasn't worked."

 

"Let me see if I can speed this up." Ashcroft opened the wrapper on one of the buns as he walked up to the bank's main door. Officers called out to him but he waved them off.

 

He kicked the glass with his foot.

 

He bit into the bun and sipped some coffee. He kicked the door again. He felt the cops tensing behind him. He hoped they had enough sense to stay out of his way.

 

A shaky guy in a mask pulled a woman to the door. He used her for a human shield as he looked through the glass. He saw a man in a suit. He looked at the police behind their cars. They pointed weapons at him. He knew they wouldn't fire as long as he held a hostage in front of his body.

 

"What do you want?" The robber screamed through the door rather than open it.

 

"Open the door, numbnuts." Ashcroft took another bite from his bun. "OPEN THE DOOR, NUMBNUTS!"

 

The bandit nudged his hostage to open the door for his visitor. He kept his pistol aimed at her head in case of funny business. She unlocked the entrance with shaky hands and pushed it open. Jeff held the entry open with his body while he ate and sipped coffee.

 

"Where's my car?" The masked man kept the pistol aimed at the lady's head.

 

"Up your butt, stupid." Ashcroft looked at his bun. It was almost gone. "You got three options to get out of this."

 

"What did you say?" Sweat soaked the cloth mask over the robber's head.

 

"I said you got three ways to go from here, dummy." Ashcroft finished the first bun, and licked his fingers. "You can put down your guns and walk out of here, do your time, and become productive citizens again, or when I get done with breakfast, I am just going to kill you."

 

Ashcroft opened the other package.

 

"What's the third option, ass?" The masked man's teeth were gritted behind the hole in the cloth for his mouth.

 

"I just kill you all now." Ashcroft sipped his coffee.

 

The robber swung his pistol away from the woman. He had taken some speed and his reflexes were as fast as his hand shook. He would kill this cop as an example that he meant business.

 

The coffee in his face distracted him long enough for his target to move to the left. The blinding pain in his hand dropped him to the tiled floor. He wondered where his finger had gone.

 

"Move out of the way, lady." Ashcroft pushed her to the door as he moved toward the central room of the bank.

 

The first man had brought four friends. They looked at the man in the suit walking toward them with hands raised in front of him. The air around his hands shimmered and invisible guns barked as he moved into the room.

 

The gunfight was over in three seconds. The crowd of customers and bank employees headed for the door as he kicked away weapons.

 

Ashcroft shook his head as SWAT boiled into the room. They pointed weapons at the downed men, and him. He looked at them with hands in his pockets.

 

"On the floor!" One of the men rushed the agent, reaching to shove him down.

 

Ashcroft locked his arm up and reversed him to face the other uniforms.

 

"You will be a crossing guard tomorrow if you make another move." Ashcroft gave the men trying to arrest him a look. "The rest of you clowns will be on the neighboring streets."

 

"Who do you think you are?" One of the officers kept his weapon pointed in Ashcroft's direction even though he couldn't get a shot off without hitting his own man.

 

"I'm the government." Ashcroft smiled. He pushed his hostage away. "You keep pointing that thing at me, and something bad will happen."

 

The officer lowered his weapon. He didn't look pleased.

 

Ashcroft headed for the door. He couldn't get his check cashed at a crime scene. He would have to go to another branch.

 

The lady that had opened the door for him smiled as he came out of the bank. She looked okay to him. She was older, a bit heavier than what he liked to date, and married. He added alive to the positive column since she could have wound up dead.

 

"Thank you." She took his arm. "Thanks, Jeff."

 

"The cops will take care of things." He smiled briefly. His friends said he wasn't the smiling type, whatever that was. "I'll see you next week."

 

"Thanks again." She went to help her fellow tellers.

 

He walked the other way. He still had the rest of the day to run errands. To get most of that done, he had to have money.

 

He waved to the uniform that had let him in as he walked back out of the closed area. He hoped no one realized what department he was from. He would have to file paperwork on the shooting.

 

Paperwork and Jeff Ashcroft were bitter enemies.

[csyphrett]

Re: The Magistracy: School's In

 

2

 

 

Jeff hit his desk the next day after the shooting. He looked at the reports fielded to his agency from other agencies, and then his desk. He didn't see anything that looked close to being his agency's business.

 

"The boss is looking for you, Pointer." Poster Girl passed the message as she went to her own desk a few spots over.

 

Jeff picked up his coat and headed for the door. He planned to avoid the director of operations for at least a week. Someone might have traced his identity and called around. He had essentially committed a vigilante action and fled the scene.

 

Forgiveness would be in short supply since he didn't file a report, or call it in.

 

"Freeze, Ashcroft." The director stood above the bullpen on the landing in front of his office. "I want to see you right now."

 

Jeff hunched his shoulders. He should have moved a little faster.

 

At least everyone had the grace to pretend to be working instead of looking at him like a condemned man.

 

He reviewed the list of excuses to try and smooth things over. He doubted ‘I needed to cash my check' would be good enough.

 

The director's secretary pointed him to the inner door between typing words on her keyboard. She gave him the eyebrow.

 

He shrugged before pushing his way into the inner office.

 

The director sat behind his desk. There were several reports on wooden top. He had his hands folded together under his chin as he looked at his section chief.

 

"Do you have anything to say?" The director tapped his desk with one hand.

 

"No?" Jeff had already been in enough interrogations and reviews to admit nothing.

 

"Don't answer a question with a question." The director gave him the steely glare that had been used on many an enemy agent. "Why did you not call in the bank robbery?"

 

"It didn't seem that big a deal." Pointer put on his stoic mask. He was in for a shellacking. He might as well take it like a man.

 

"You shot five men." The steely gaze intensified. "Then you took a police officer hostage. Why didn't that seem like a big deal to you?"

 

"They lived." Jeff kept his blank gaze averted. This could get really ugly.

 

"That was really good of you too." The director looked down at his paperwork.

 

Jeff started counting the cracks in the ceiling tiles. Something bad was coming. He could feel it. He knew he was getting a punishment detail. How could he get out of it? He needed a world shaking emergency to get his butt out of the sling.

 

Maybe he could fake a presidential assassination plot to look into.

 

Maybe there was a flukeman loose in the sewers that needed to be shot.

 

Maybe he could sit at his desk for a week and count paperclips.

 

"This is what's going to happen." The director checked a report at the edge of his desk. "I'm giving you a field assignment. Pick one person on your squad to go with you. Here's the report."

 

An assignment? Jeff didn't let the mask slip. Where was the punishment part of the detail?

 

He took the report from the director's hand. He read it. His frown drew his eyebrows down over his nose.

 

"This is a joke, right?" His glare was weaker than his boss's.

 

"This is your job." The older man tapped his desk as he stood. "Do what I say, or quit. Next time you pull some stunt where people could be killed, turn in your badge at the door because you will be fired. Got it?"

 

"Yeah." Jeff placed the papers under his arm. He started toward the door.

 

"Ashcroft?" The director sat down behind his desk.

 

"Yeah?" Jeff paused at the door.

 

"Next time, file the paperwork." The director waved him out with one hand.

 

Jeff let the door close behind him. It would be too petty to slam it in anger.

 

He glanced at the Mickey Mouse job again as he walked down to the bullpen. He looked up. The desks were empty. He frowned. He got one guy as a backup and everyone snuck off during his meeting?

 

So everyone knew he was getting a Mickey Mouse job before he did.

 

Someone was going to pay.

 

He heard clacking from somewhere. He followed the sound. Poster Girl was at the vending machine texting on her phone while deciding what to get from the machine.

 

"How's it going?" Jeff put on his casual face.

 

"Trying to decide what has less calories, chief." She decided on a power bar. She put in the money and the package dropped to the bin. She stuck her hand in and pulled the bar out. "What's up?"

 

"We're going on a field trip." Jeff handed her the report. "Get your bag and meet me at the airport."

 

"A ghost hunt?" Poster Girl smiled. "It'll be like going back to my granny's farm."

 

"I'm so happy for you." Jeff put on his fake smile. "The plane will be leaving in an hour. We should be on it."

 

"No problem, chief." She peeled the wrapper on her food. "I got Replacement's powerset. I can fly from here to my place in a couple of minutes and meet you at the airport a couple of minutes after that."

 

"Really?" Jeff took the paperwork back. He walked back toward his desk.

 

"Sure." She leaned against his desk as she chewed on her power bar. "He lets me borrow from him all the time."

 

"That's awesome." Jeff picked up his go bag. He put the paperwork in a pocket on the pack. "Why don't you fly home and get your go bag, and meet me at the airport so I don't have to shoot you? That would make my day."

 

"On it." She rushed back to her own desk for a purse and to shut down her computer. Papers and reports went in a drawer.

 

She flew by Jeff as he headed for the front door. He shook his head as he watched her vanish into the sky. He hoped she didn't kill a lot of birds doing that.

 

Jeff walked over to his car. He hated ghost hunts. You went around asking questions and never got answers. Give him something to shoot any day.

 

He drove over to the airport. He parked in the long-term parking lot and went to catch his flight.

 

He stood by the gate. His foot tapped impatiently until he saw his squad member making her way through the crowd. She waved at him.

 

He made a come on gesture.

 

Maybe he should have hunted one of the other squad members down.

 

"How much longer are you going to have Replacement's powers?" He led the way toward the plane's boarding door.

 

"A few more hours." She ran her hand through her hair. "I can't seem to keep anything beyond that."

 

"So by the time we land, you'll be normal." Jeff nodded at the attendant at the door.

 

"Sure." Poster Girl smiled. "Don't worry. If things get hairy, I'll borrow yours and we'll have twice the firepower."

 

"That's makes me feel better already." He settled in his seat after putting his go bag in the luggage compartment.

 

"I'll protect you from the big bad ghost." She grinned then.

 

"Don't make me throw you off the plane." Jeff closed his eyes. "Wake me up when we get to Kansas."

 

"Don't you want to hear about the ghosts down on Granny's land?" She settled next to him.

 

A snore answered her question a second later.

[csyphrett]

Re: The Magistracy: School's In

 

3

 

Jeff and Poster Girl got off the plane, crossed through the terminal, and he looked around the parking lot of the small airport. He wanted to get the job done as soon as he could so he could get back to his real job.

 

"Where do we start?" She smiled as she took in the Kansas air.

 

"Let's start with getting a car." Jeff nodded at the rental place. "Then we'll start with the police and try to get a feel if this is a real problem, or not."

 

"Do you really think there's a problem?" Poster Girl had her bag over her shoulder as they walked toward the lot.

 

"Nope." Jeff paused outside the lot, watching the sky in the distance. There seemed to be a flicker in the air. He frowned at it. It didn't reoccur. "This is a punishment detail for me."

 

"That's too bad." Poster Girl frowned. "I love getting out of the office, even it's just for something petty."

 

She smiled.

 

"Maybe we'll run into something where we can save the world from disaster." Poster Girl did a skip and a hop.

 

"You are way too happy." Jeff gave her a look. "You need to lay off the medication."

 

"It's the air." She laughed. "It's way better than Washington's."

 

Jeff shrugged. Air was air to him.

 

He pushed open the door to the car rental agency and held it for his companion before going to the desk.

 

"How are you doing?" The man behind the desk peered at the two agents from behind round glasses.

 

"We need to rent a car for at least three days." Jeff pulled out his identification. "What's the cost?"

 

"There's a hundred dollar deposit, and the rental is a hundred dollars a day." The agent pulled out paperwork. "Of course you'll get your deposit when you bring the car back, minus any overages for mileage. The usual limit is a dollar a mile over every hundred miles you drive a day."

 

"We'll need a map." Jeff signed the papers, including the proof of insurance, and handed over his credit card.

 

"There's one in the glove box." The rental man ran the card and handed it back. He pulled a key off the row of hooks. It had a laminated tag on it. "Let me fill out the before paper, and you can be on your way."

 

"Thank you." Poster Girl dazzled him with her smile.

 

"You're welcome." The man grabbed a clipboard with a drawing of a car on it. He walked outside and marked down dents in the car for comparison for after they brought the car back. He wrote down the odometer reading for charges if they went over their limit.

 

"Here you go." He handed Jeff the key. "Have a good time."

 

"Doubt it." Jeff's sour look made the agent pause in his spiel. "Is there a police station in town?"

 

"The town is patrolled by the sheriff's department." The man pointed down the road. "There's not really a station, but the town hall should have someone that can get you in touch with the local patrol."

 

He gave directions to the center of town.

 

"Thanks." Jeff got behind the wheel and put the tagged key in the ignition. Poster Girl threw her bag in the back seat and got in. They rolled out of the lot.

 

"Let's see if anyone at the town hall can tell us anything, then we'll head out to the site of the incident next." He drove the Ford out of the airport and onto the main road.

 

"What about a hotel?" Poster Girl tied her hair back with a rubber band.

 

"I plan to be back on a plane to home before we need a hotel." Jeff watched his speedometer as he drove into the town. "Then I can get back to a real case instead of chasing some prankster."

 

"We didn't have any cases." She smiled. "We would have had to take some refreshers."

 

"That's better than chasing a ghost." He turned down the main street and started looking for the center of city government. "I would rather count paperclips."

 

"Don't think of it as chasing a ghost." Poster Girl looked at his sour face. "Think of it as a bad guy that needs to be in jail."

 

"That makes me feel so much better." Jeff pulled into a parking slot outside of a brick building marked Clemson Falls Town Center. "I wish I had a pair of rose-colored glasses like yours."

 

"A bad attitude leads to a bad life." She gave him her biggest grin. He gave her his darkest scowl.

 

"I really do want to shoot you." He led the way into the town hall. He scanned the room as he walked up to the desk. The place would have been at home on Little House except for the phone and computer set on the desk.

 

"Yes?" The receptionist gave them a look. She seemed to be discarding labels as she watched them.

 

"Jeff Ashcroft." He showed her his badge. "Some weird report was filed from here about four days ago. I'm looking for a Deputy R.C. Kriser."

 

"The town contracts with the county for police protection." The lady stood and started going through her rolodex. "The Sheriff's Office is up at Mayfield."

 

"Do you have any way to get in touch with this Deputy Kriser?" Jeff paused at an upheld hand.

 

"All right." She picked up the phone and called the number she had found. "We'll see."

 

She tapped the top of her desk with a manicured nail as she waited. She kept an eye on her visitors as she waited.

 

"May?" She turned her attention back to the phone. "This is Kate Beck down in Clemson Falls. Is Deputy Kriser on duty?"

 

She waited for the answer.

 

"Thanks, May." She hung up the phone. "Deputy Kriser is on patrol and reported her last location at the Hearst Dairy Farm. May said she would give her a call and tell her to come up here."

 

Jeff wanted to ask her how long that would take, but Poster Girl cut him off to ask questions about the farm. He stepped back out of the way.

 

He looked at the pictures on the walls. They showed dead men and women in events that he had never heard of. He frowned at the number of fires and major accidents the town had suffered. It looked prosperous enough to him, but what he did know about a farm town?

 

Maybe some company had bought out all the locals and sent them out of here.

 

The door opening brought him out of his reverie. A short woman in a uniform stepped inside. She kept her Smokey the Bear hat on as she looked around.

 

"These people would like to talk to you, Deputy." The receptionist gestured at the two agents.

 

"Jeff Ashcroft." Jeff showed her his badge. "Is there a place we could talk in private?"

 

"Conference room." Mrs. Beck pointed at a door to her left. "It's empty."

 

"Thanks." Poster Girl pushed open the door for them. The wide wooden table gleamed from a fresh polishing as they stepped inside.

 

"We're here about your report." Jeff closed the door. He gestured for her to sit in a chair. He sat down in one close to the door.

 

"I shouldn't have filed that thing." The deputy put her hat on the table before she sat down. "Everyone has been giving me crap over that."

 

"Why?" Poster Girl settled in another chair.

 

"You see something weird, and suddenly you're weird." She gave Poster Girl a raised eyebrow.

 

"All we see is weird." The agent shrugged.

 

"Can we get back to the case at hand?" Jeff glared at his colleague. "We read your report. Can you take us out there?"

 

"Sure, but there's nothing to see." Kriser shrugged. "Everything vanished in a second."

 

"We have to file a report too." Jeff stood. "Once we're done with that, I'm back on a plane to D.C. with a case closed."

 

"He's joking." Poster Girl shook her head. "He's really grumpy after flying."

 

"Really?" Kriser pulled her hat on her hair bun.

 

"Well." Poster Girl looked up at the ceiling. "He's grumpy most of the time."

 

Jeff let the comment pass. He supposed he should lighten up. He was stuck in Kansas until he found out what was going on. He might be stuck there for a long time.

 

That was the problem with a ghost hunt, and that was why he hated them.

 

"We'll follow you out there." Jeff pointed to the rental. "You can show us what happened."

 

"You're buying dinner." Poster Girl got in the passenger side.

 

"Not in the budget." Jeff got behind the wheel as Deputy Kriser went to her patrol car.

 

They pulled out on the street and drove away from the town center. The town gave way to country roads full of fences and vegetables. Kriser pulled over next to one such lot after minutes of driving.

 

Jeff saw the field was dead and thought that couldn't be good.

[csyphrett]

Re: The Magistracy: School's In

 

4

 

 

The three people looked at the field as Kriser pulled out her notebook. She turned the pages until she got to the one that she had used to file her report.

 

"I patrol out here to make sure no one is trespassing usually. The kids like to make out in the fields. So I have to break it up and send them on their way." Kriser pointed back the way they came. "I drive down from town, pass this spot, and then head down to Old Gunner's Road. I use that to circle back to town. Gives me about a twenty minute ride around."

 

"You said you saw this thing after midnight?" Jeff hopped the fence and walked into the field. He felt a tingle in his brain. He looked around. He didn't see anyone watching him.

 

He hunkered down to examine the grass. It looked old and used up like it hadn't been watered in years.

 

He looked at the adjacent fields. They looked healthy to him. He saw a cow in the distance. It moved okay as far as he could see.

 

"That's right." Kriser checked her notes. "It was about 12:30. I saw a glow coming out of this field from down the road. I pulled over where we are now. I got out with my light and walked over to the fence to see what was causing the glow."

 

"Don't have many glowing things around here?" Jeff decided to walk further out into the field. His eyes scanned the ground for any type of prints in the ground.

 

"Just Norton's cows when they are painted for Halloween." Kriser smiled a little.

 

"Pumpkin patch?" Poster Girl smiled. "We used to go to those when I was a kid."

 

"Every year." Kriser smiled a little more. "They paint the cows up so they look like they're on fire."

 

Jeff looked around as he went further into the field. The damage looked worse the deeper he went. He looked back at the women. A small haze seemed to blur things at the fence.

 

Maybe the boss had been right to ask him to look into this.

 

He paused when he saw something that looked like a divot in the ground. He doubted anyone had been playing golf in the grass. He looked around for anything else that looked out of order. He doubted pranksters were an explanation.

 

It took a lot of work to kill a piece of land and make it look like nothing had ever grown on it.

 

A prankster could have done that he supposed to see what would happen.

 

He looked around. It would require a dedicated prankster for this much damage.

 

"The report said you walked into the field to look around," Jeff called back to the fence. He didn't see the deputy's prints in the dead ground.

 

"I climbed over the fence and walked down to about where you are." Kriser pointed with a hand. She didn't jump the fence this time. "That's when I saw the blue thing."

 

Jeff looked the ground over again. He looked up in the air. He didn't see anything else that could help him in the field. He needed an expert to look things over.

 

Maybe he could get some satellite pictures of the area.

 

He walked back to the fence with his hands in his pockets. He paused about halfway there at the feeling that he was being watched again. Then he continued walking.

 

"Have you seen this thing again?" Jeff looked at the field before he climbed back over the fence.

 

"No." Kriser closed her notebook. "It makes me look like a nut."

 

"Something's up." Jeff wrote his cell number on a business card and handed it to her. "You see it, you call. No excuses."

 

"What is it?" Kriser put the car in her pocket.

 

"I don't know." Jeff walked over to his car. "We're going to have to get rooms and get some support. Maybe there's another report out there we can tie into this."

 

"We're going to get the others out here?" Poster Girl frowned. "Will the boss allow that?"

 

"I need some kind of sensitive." Jeff opened the door. "We can't shoot the thing if we can't find it."

 

"Okay, I got that part." Poster Girl frowned more. "I thought you wanted to go home as fast as possible."

 

"Get in the car." Jeff pointed at her side. "Make the call. Something's up and we're staying until I find out what."

 

"Everybody?" Poster Girl pulled out her phone as she sat down.

 

"Everybody." Jeff looked at the field again. "Where's the nearest hotel from here, Deputy?"

 

"You have to turn around and go back into town. There's two right next to the airport road." Kriser pointed back to Clemson Falls. "What are you going to do?"

 

"I'm going to have my team come down here and take this field apart until I find something." Jeff smiled. He leaned down to look into the car. "Tell them to get the first supply plane they can find."

 

"Ouch." Poster Girl shook her head. She relayed the order into the phone.

 

"We're probably going to be sitting on this site for a while." Jeff pointed at the dead grass. "You might as well tell your guys we're here."

 

"Isn't that extreme?" Kriser gave him a look of disbelief.

 

"You called in a ghost sighting. Washington sent me down here to check it. I have checked it. Now I have to figure out what it is and how to kill it." Jeff checked his watch. "I need my guys here as soon as possible which is why I told them to load up on the next Army plane flying west. As soon as I can get them to look it over, we can start ruling out poisons and other things before we move to ghostbusting."

 

"I didn't think anyone would take it seriously." Kriser hooked her fingers in her belt. "No one here has."

 

"Jeff doesn't have a sense of humor." Poster Girl leaned out the window to put in that remark. A bang on the roof got her back on the phone.

 

"We're going to find a place we can use for a base." Jeff's sour face matched the gray sky. "When we do, we'll get started."

 

"I have to get back on patrol." Kriser handed over a card. "I'll let the guys know you're here."

 

She walked back to her patrol car and drove off.

 

Jeff got behind the wheel of the rental and turned the silver car around. He headed back to town.

 

"Who do you got on the phone?" Jeff looked for landmarks as he drove. He didn't want to get lost his first day on the scene.

 

"Granite." Poster Girl put her hand over the mouthpiece.

 

"Tell him to get me any satellite pictures he can from the Watcher." Jeff's opposite number had access to a network of intelligence cameras in orbit. It gave him a real time look at things around him when he went into action.

 

Poster Girl passed the request along before she hung up.

 

"I thought you didn't believe in ghosts." She smiled.

 

"Something's here." He kept his eyes on the road. "It's reminding me of that thing with Scriptus."

 

"So we start looking for it?" Poster Girl nodded.

 

"That's better than letting it come after us." Jeff saw the turn he wanted and then a sign for a Sleep Inn.

 

He pulled into the lot and went in. He came back with a set of pass keys. He drove around to the outside door closest to the rooms he had rented. He handed a random key to his squad member.

 

"Set up your lap top and start looking around on the net." Jeff handed over her go bag from the back seat. "I'm going to start with the local library and see if I can find anything there."

 

"What about dinner?" Poster Girl peered through her open window.

 

"I hope the vending machine has those power bars you like." Jeff waved as he drove off.

 

Jeff drove pass the town center and spotted the town library about two streets over. He pulled into a spot and went inside. He decided the first thing he needed was a look at the local papers.

 

That would give him a picture of the town and the people.

 

He hoped his squad liked flying out in a transport instead of a commercial plane. It was a spiteful gesture on his part.

 

It made him smile inside.

 

He looked around until he found a microfiche reader with the old newspapers on it. He settled in and started scanning the reports for a blue glow.

 

He went back as far as he could on the machine. He saw several reports of blue glows. No one had been able to find the source. He judged that all the sightings had in the direction of the dead field. No one had pinned it down more than that.

 

It looked like Deputy Kriser had been the first to have seen the glow up close and personal.

 

She had been in the right place at the right time.

 

He looked down at the notes. The glow had been seen years apart. It might not return for a while.

 

He only had until some new emergency showed up and he was called off the case.

 

It would be hard to justify that he put his team on a glow.

 

He rubbed his eyes and turned everything off. He had to find out if Poster Girl had found anything.

 

Then he could get something to eat.

 

His stomach rumbled at him. Maybe he should get something to eat first.

 

He got back in the rental and went through the drive-thru at the local Mickey D's before heading back to the hotel. He ate as he drove.

 

He used the pass key to get into the hotel and took his go bag to his own room. He tossed the bag on the bed. Then he knocked on Poster Girl's door before he entered.

 

He had walked in on some of the women changing and had beat a hasty retreat. The teams had said some things until he had put a stop to it with his own obstacle course.

[csyphrett]

Re: The Magistracy: School's In

 

5

 

Poster Girl had ordered a pizza and some soda. The empty box sat on her bed. The half empty bottle stood beside some plastic cups on a table that each room had. She had set up her lap top on the same table and written a pad's worth of notes on them.

 

"Find anything useful?" Jeff didn't comment on the food. Poster Girl had a high metabolism. The geeks said it was because of her ability to copy other abilities.

 

"Not really." She gave him the note pad. "It's just the usual chaff about a phantom light that people see floating in the air."

 

"Same here." Jeff went over the notes with machine speed. "Phantom light appears, but no one has ever gotten a look at the source. The papers say years between sightings which is not good news for us."

 

"What's the plan?" Poster Girl made sure she had her research saved before she cut off her lap top.

 

"We keep the place under a watch and see if the thing comes back." Jeff shrugged. He handed the pad back. "We'll head out there about ten and see if we can catch someone in the act."

 

"The rest of the guys are going to squawk if they scrambled out here and they don't have anything to do." Poster Girl looked at the empty pizza box. "I should have gotten you something."

 

"I ate on the way back to the hotel." Jeff took the box. "I'll be back to pick you up in a couple of hours."

 

"I'll be ready." Poster Girl smiled. She walked him to the door and let him out.

 

Jeff took the box out to the dumpster behind the hotel and threw it in. He looked at the sky. He thought he saw a blue streak in the air. He put it down as exasperation.

 

He liked to close cases fast. Ghost hunts were rarely fast, and they rarely closed. That's why he didn't want to be there in Kansas in the first place.

 

Seeing the field told him something was up. That meant he had to investigate. He also knew this was a backburner job. As soon as the chief thought something more important was coming down the line, he would yank them off this for that.

 

Then it might be too late by the time they had a chance to come back and find out what was going on.

 

He went back to his room and laid down on the bed. He closed his eyes and thought. He didn't know enough to determine what was going on, who was responsible, and how to stop it.

 

Kriser's description could fit anything he had run across as a team leader for the School. He needed to narrow the list down to something specific, and figure out how to kill it.

 

His first problem was would it come back. The newspapers had marked times years apart. He couldn't watch a field for years in the hopes that it would come back. He needed to know what was involved. The only way he could find that out is to catch the blue ghost. So if it didn't come back, all he had was what people had reported.

 

The next thing he needed to know was how to catch, or kill it. Poster Girl might be able to help him with that if she could touch it. She mimicked abilities, and she might be able to fight it on its own terms if it was immune to Jeff's imaginary guns.

 

The rest of the squad should be here in the morning. They could rest in the day time while he tried to figure out what to about this mystery thing.

 

If he got desperate, he would sic the Priest on this thing and exorcize it.

 

He opened his eyes and checked his watch. It was time to go. He checked the room before locking up. He knocked on Poster Girl's door. She opened it with a smile and fresh clothes.

 

"I'm ready, boss." She locked the door as soon as she stepped out in the hall. "Can we get something to take with us?"

 

"There's a donut place on the way out there." Jeff headed to the outside door with her at his elbow. "I need some coffee if we're going to be out there all night."

 

"It'll be fun." Poster Girl laughed. "We'll be like Starsky and Hutch, Friday and Gannon, Riggs and Murtaugh..."

 

"Abbot and Costello," Jeff cut her off with a sour look. "How long have you been on the job?"

 

"A year." She looked at the ceiling. "I got hired and went through basic training right before the dustup at Magistracy Tower."

 

The dustup was a full fledged battle between members of the Magistracy and The School versus clone super soldiers. Poster Girl had helped take down the flying brick of the opposition with her abilities.

 

Jeff had put her in for a commendation because she hadn't turned into a chicken in the face of overwhelming force.

 

The groups had finally hunted down the mastermind behind that after he had tried to change the world to one more to his liking.

 

"So you're too new to know that stakeouts are the worse thing about this job." He led the way to the car.

 

"I have been on stakeouts before." She got in the passenger side of the car. "There's nothing to it."

 

"How many blue ghosts have you bagged?" Jeff got behind the wheel. He drove out of the lot.

 

"None." Poster Girl smiled. "I was only a beat cop. We didn't deal with this much weirdness."

 

"Exactly." Jeff drove into the strip of restaurants where the McDonald's had been and rolled into the drive-thru for the Dunkin' Donuts. He ordered a twelve pack and four cups of coffee. He paid and headed back to the dead field.

 

"What's the game plan?" She sniffed the donuts as they stared up at her in the open box.

 

"There's nothing we can do if it's bulletproof." Jeff shrugged. "Maybe we can figure out what it's doing and pull the plug if it shows up."

 

"This seems like a perfect job for Priest." Poster Girl picked out the donut that looked like it had the most chocolate and put the box in the back seat. She took her cup of coffee and sipped it while she ate.

 

"If he had been in the bullpen, I would have grabbed him." Jeff sipped his first cup as he drove.

 

Priest had a deadly touch against things men weren't meant to know. He was capable of making zombies explode with a fingertip. He was perfect for a ghost hunt.

 

He had also been absent when Jeff's orders had come down.

 

Jeff finished the first cup by the time they reached the field. He parked on the other side of the road so they could watch things while the car almost blended in with the darkness. He shut off the lights and waited.

 

If a human being was behind things, maybe they would see him arrive to set up his light show. Then they could catch him in the act. The case would be closed.

 

If it was a monster, maybe they could get a clue to its lair and track it down in the daytime. The case would be closed.

 

Jeff saw so many problems with either option, they formed a rotating flow chart in his mind before he shut it off.

 

The only thing he could do was wait. The monster had to show up before he could do anything to it.

 

He checked his watch. He still had an hour to midnight. He slid his seat back and closed his eyes.

 

"How long are we going to wait?" Poster Girl reached behind her for the box of donuts. She grabbed another one and munched on it.

 

"If the thing isn't here by three, we'll call it a night." Jeff opened one eye. "Most of the sightings seem to be between midnight and two."

 

"Do you think it will show up?" Poster Girl's face caught the night light from the stars and invisible moon so it was a line in the dark.

 

"Not if you keep talking." Jeff closed his eye. Maybe he should have left the rookie at home.

 

At least he would be able to think without her asking him questions he didn't know the answers.

 

Silence reigned for a while. Then he heard tapping. He looked over. Poster Girl had her phone out.

 

"What are you doing?" He wanted to grab the phone and throw it out the window.

 

"Got a text from Replacement." She showed him the message. "He flew out ahead of everybody. He should be in town in a few minutes."

 

"Did you tell him where we are?" Jeff liked Replacement. He was a flying blockbuster that never talked. The never talking is what Jeff liked the most.

 

"He's on his way." Poster Girl smiled. "He's bringing more donuts and coffee."

 

"That's great." Jeff closed his eyes again. "Tell him to be quiet."

[csyphrett]

Re: The Magistracy: School's In

 

6

 

 

The Replacement joined the watchers a little behind schedule. His covering of black allowed him to vanish in the night. His silence made him almost a ghost instead of one of the more powerful members of the School.

 

"Thanks for the donuts." Poster Girl caught the disgruntled look from her boss. "I'll save them for later."

 

He gave her the okay sign in exchange.

 

"Shall we return to being quiet so the ghost won't take off on us?" Jeff shifted in his seat. "We might need some air cover, R."

 

The man in black gave the okay sign again before taking flight. He vanished in the night sky as suddenly as he had appeared.

 

Jeff settled in for more watching. How long would they have to sit out on the road before something happened? He wasn't willing to give it more than three days. After that he would consult someone outside his service.

 

Both the Magistracy and the Corps had an expert in ghosts he could ask to take a look at things.

 

Priest didn't summon spirits. He put them to sleep.

 

That had worked so far on cases that had crossed over into the strange and unusual. It ran opposite of what they needed at the moment. They needed a ghost to be exorcized before Jeff could turn his subordinate loose.

 

Having the whole team in the field on a ghost hunt wouldn't earn him any praise back home. He could live with that.

 

The field convinced him that something would happen soon. The feeling it inspired ate at him. That fueled his urge for a fight. He didn't want his nerve to give out before he found out what was going on.

 

That would make him a laughingstock to his team. They would think he was a coward and untrustworthy.

 

He couldn't order them into a dangerous situation if they expected him to run at the slightest shadow.

 

He would be fired, or stepped down to a desk.

 

He wouldn't even be able to get a transfer to another agency if word that he had broken got around. He would be useless and taking up space until he put in for his retirement.

 

That wasn't the life for him.

 

"The thing might not come back tonight, boss." Poster Girl was on full alert thanks to the box of donuts she had gone through and the one cup of coffee she had sipped.

 

"Then we'll come back tomorrow, or try to think of a better plan when the others get here." Jeff's team were good at watching people before making an arrest. They were better at wrecking things.

 

"We could set up cameras in the daylight." She started on the second box. "Then we could take turns keeping watch from the hotel."

 

"Good idea." Jeff smiled. "I'll put you in charge of on-site maintenance of the cameras and keeping a presence in the field while I get some sleep in the quiet of my room."

 

"I hadn't thought of that." Poster Girl looked down for a second. She smiled at sudden thought. "I could ask Watcher to give me access to his links so I can watch from the hotel too. Then we wouldn't need the cameras at all."

 

"But then I could fire you because we wouldn't need you." Jeff's smile soured her expression.

 

"I thought it was a good idea." She looked down at her phone. "Replacement says he's got some kind of bogie out in the field."

 

Jeff looked at the dead area. He didn't see anything moving. He had sharp eyes, even at night. What could be out there?

 

"Let's see if we can get a view of whatever R is seeing." He slid out of the car with the brief flash of the interior light.

 

He walked across the road as the air around his hands flickered. He planned to shoot first and ask questions later.

 

He hoped he didn't put holes in some farmer out for a walk in the middle of the night.

 

"I didn't get a chance to borrow from the Replacement." Poster Girl held a flashlight by her leg as she walked by his side.

 

"You can use my power." Jeff touched her hand. He felt a small snap as her ability went to work copying his power.

 

"Thanks." Poster Girl flexed her hands. "I have my service pistol, but I felt helpless without a power."

 

"Just don't shoot me in the back." Jeff jumped the wooden fence and headed into the dead grass.

 

He pointed his finger ahead of him. He didn't see anything unusual. What was the Replacement seeing?

 

Poster Girl walked off to his right and slightly behind him. She imitated his pointing as they silently walked on the black foliage under their feet.

 

What were they hunting in the night?

 

Jeff hoped it was something he could shoot with his special ability.

 

Poster Girl pointed at a cloud of blue fireflies to the right. They seemed to be swarming around a central point.

 

Jeff gestured for her to stay where she was. He continued toward the blue cloud. It didn't look good.

 

He could see why Kriser got spooked at the swarm of lights. They could be anything. And until he talked to them, they were a threat.

 

He just didn't know how big a threat.

 

"How's it going?" Jeff held his hands at his sides. "What you doing?"

 

The swarm flew in their spirals at a faster pace. Some of the fireflies formed small wings in their orbiting.

 

The impression Jeff got was they didn't like him in the same area they were in.

 

"You guys seem excited." He pointed one hand at the dots. "Maybe you should calm down before something bad happens."

 

The bugs flew at him with some kind of whispering sound on the air.

 

Jeff fired with both hands. The sparks evaded his ability as he swept the field with imaginary bullets. They encircled him with their muttering flying.

 

A beam of light washed over the scene. The sparks dispersed under the spotlight. Poster Girl waved the lance back and forth to clear the air.

 

Jeff looked around. The cloud headed in separate directions as the survivors of the ray fled for cover. He knew the spotlight had been a temporary solution.

 

"Let's get out of here before they come back." Poster Girl looked around for more blue spots to bleach away.

 

"Hold on." Jeff walked to where the cloud had been orbiting. He knelt. A rock stuck out of the ground. He played his own light over the stone. It looked like a pentagon stuck in the ground.

 

He noticed that the dead grass looked worse around the stone.

 

"You got your phone?" He knew that was a stupid question as soon as he said it. Poster Girl went nowhere without her phone. "Take a picture of this."

 

She pointed the camera in her phone at the stone and took the picture as requested. She took another to make sure she had both angles.

 

The Replacement landed. He shook his head as Jeff looked at him. The bugs had gone to ground faster than he could follow them.

 

It looked like they had scared the ghost off for the moment.

 

"We'll leave the rock as bait." Jeff rubbed his face. "We need to get the others working on this."

 

Replacement indicated he would stay on the site until someone came up with something.

 

"Let's head back to the hotel and see if we can get someone from headquarters who knows whatever what we saw was." Jeff headed back to the fence, and the rental beyond.

 

"Did you hear what they were saying?" Poster Girl played her light over the car to run the blue spots off the rental.

 

"Not really." Jeff had been too interested in not having them touch him. He hadn't paid any attention to the noise they made.

 

"It was awful things about murder and torture." Poster Girl pressed her lips together. "Everything I heard was horrible."

[csyphrett]

Re: The Magistracy: School's In

 

7

 

 

Jeff drove back into town. They had driven the blue things off for a bit. He didn't know if they were gone for good.

 

He definitely didn't want them moving beyond that field.

 

Their presence might kill anything they touched.

 

Poster Girl stared out the window silently as they passed the closed restaurants and businesses. The whispering seemed to have curbed her usual enthusiasm.

 

Jeff didn't feel all that jolly himself.

 

At least with the Replacement on watch, they would have some warning in case of trouble.

 

"How did you know about the light?" Jeff figured that should snap her out of her funk.

 

Poster Girl liked to talk.

 

"It just seemed reasonable." She smiled slightly. "They're out there in the dark. Obviously they didn't want strong light touching them. Your talent gave me the biggest flashlight it could."

 

"Any ideas on what they are?" Jeff looked at his empty coffee cup. He wanted another, but everything was dark.

 

"Not ghosts." She looked out the window. "They acted more like bees of some kind than ghosts."

 

"If they are bees, what's the hive?" Jeff pulled into the hotel lot.

 

"Maybe that rock they were flying around." Poster Girl shrugged. "They seemed protective of it when you got close."

 

"If we move the rock, maybe it will move the bees." Jeff got out of the car. "That sounds reasonable. We just have to make sure they can't get out to hurt the civilians."

 

"We don't know how to do that, except with strong light." Poster Girl got out of her side of the car. "If they can pass through walls, we would have to come up with something impervious to that."

 

"Maybe being in strong light would make it where they couldn't come out of the rock." Jeff started for the door, hands in his pockets.

 

"So when the others get here, we move the rock?" Poster Girl yawned. "What happens if we're wrong?"

 

"Got me." Jeff let them into the hotel with his pass card. "Maybe you killed them all tonight so we won't have to worry about it."

 

"Good." Poster Girl went to her room and let herself in. She closed the door as he frowned at her.

 

That didn't sound like Poster Girl to him. He hoped she pulled out of it.

 

Jeff let himself into his own room. He didn't bother texting the Replacement. If there was a problem, the man in black would have already called to tell him. Texting him was better since the agent couldn't talk.

 

Jeff checked his watch. He still had hours to daylight. His team would arrive at the nearest Army base shortly after that.

 

He would have to get a truck to pick them up he supposed. He had left it in the hands of whomever arranged transportation.

 

Sometimes that wasn't a good thing.

 

He would check in the morning. Maybe they could get a truck from the Army to get to town.

 

He pulled out his lap top and plugged it into a wall socket. He opened a report file and started doing the paperwork. He felt too wired to sleep and it was a good way to pass the time until he had to deal with the rest of his team.

 

And he had to justify a mobilization on a ghost hunt to the boss.

 

He sent the report in after he was done.

 

That should keep headquarters off his back for the next day or so. They always wanted quick solutions with no expenditure of effort. He couldn't shoot all the problems they told him to solve.

 

He liked trying.

 

Maybe Poster Girl was right about the rock. If they could figure out what made it important, that might settle things down.

 

He hoped someone on his team had an idea on how to fix things before they got out of hand.

 

The last thing he needed was another merging of dimensions where the laws of reality were changed into something else.

 

Jeff put away his lap top. He turned on Sportscenter and listened to opinions that had been on the air earlier. He closed his eyes and napped a little as he waited for the sun to shine against the curtains on his window.

 

Light on his closed eyes told him to check his watch. He checked his phone. The message box was empty.

 

He sent out a text to Replacement to make sure he was still on the job. An ‘EVERYTHING GREEN.' came back in two seconds.

 

Jeff cleaned up and took care of nature's calling before he knocked on Poster Girl's door. She opened it before he knocked again.

 

"The rest will be here in an hour according to the ETA." Jeff frowned at her. She looked like she had been up all night instead of sleeping. "I'm driving out to arrange transport. Can you get everything together before we get back?"

 

"I already have my report written and sent in." She rubbed her eyes. "I could ask Replacement for a lift and do sketches to go with the pictures we took. I was going to get breakfast first."

 

"Get breakfast for all of us." Jeff handed her a credit card. "We'll meet down in that conference room I saw downstairs."

 

"No problem." Poster Girl smiled with a little more of the ease he expected. The world was not right if she couldn't smile at the worse problem. "I'll call out for something."

 

"I'll call if I run into any problems." Jeff walked down the corridor to the outside door. He waved as he went.

 

He walked over to the rental and got in. He took out the local map and found the army base at the edge of the picture. He cranked the engine and pulled out of the lot.

 

He hoped the other three members of his squad had some kind of idea on how to fight the bee ghosts. He wasn't ready to concede the field to them yet.

 

Maybe the Watcher had something he could use. That was the next thing to do on his list.

 

The other team leader had built his own equipment, and knew a lot about the crazy stuff they had to deal with for work. He might know something about the bee ghosts. He might be able to do research. He might be able to get a real expert on the phone so Jeff had a shot at clearing up the mess he had been handed.

 

All those options were best explored away from the action.

 

Jeff checked his direction of travel against the map and headed toward the army base as Clemson Falls came to life around him.

 

He tried to ignore the people going in to work, going home from work, or just running errands. He didn't want to think that he might have killed them by stirring up the bees.

 

He drove out of town and felt better when he saw his first cow. He smiled as he approached the gate to Fort Neil.

 

He hoped his backup had something he could use.

[csyphrett]

Re: The Magistracy: School's In

 

8

 

Jeff used his badge to get through the gate and drove around until he saw the signs for the base airfield. He drove out to the hangar section, eyes scanning for the plane his team must have used to get from D. C. to Kansas.

 

He rolled to a stop beside a cargo plane. The back end had been opened so a van could be driven out. Someone had asked for a mobile base for the trip. That wasn't a bad idea.

 

He got out of the rental and looked around for the rest of his squad. He saw Priest talking to a soldier across the field. His associate nodded when he saw Jeff walking across the tarmac.

 

"Hello, Jeff." Priest smiled. "This is Corporal Matt Johnson. Matt, this is my team leader, Pointer."

 

"Pleased to meet you, sir." Corporal Johnson didn't smile because Jeff was giving him a glare.

 

"Where are the others?" Jeff continued glaring at the soldier until he backed off.

 

"They are waiting on the plane." Priest pointed at the transport. "You could be nicer to our ground crew."

 

Jeff walked over to the plane. He looked up in the bay. A faint glow showed him where Holo stood away from the door. Where was Currenta?

 

He started up the ramp. Maybe she was deeper in the plane. An impression of a face pressed against a window of the van. A ripple suggested a small wave.

 

All right. Everyone was accounted for.

 

"Let's get this thing on the road." Jeff headed down the ramp. "We have to get back to town and figure out what we're going to do before midnight."

 

"How bad is it?" Priest headed up the ramp. He would have to drive the base for the team. Holo and Currenta didn't quite have a grasp of traffic laws.

 

"I don't know yet." Jeff walked toward his rental. "We'll have a briefing when we get into town."

 

Priest opened the side door of the van and boarded it. He got behind the wheel, thin hair ruffled for the moment. He started the large command center and slowly drove out of the plane.

 

Jeff led the way off the facility. He hoped Priest would make a difference. At the moment, he didn't know if they could fight the things.

 

At least Holo produced enough light to get rid of them. That was a big plus in his opinion.

 

The tiny convoy drove back into Clemson Falls, through town, and then into the parking lot. Jeff parked near the door, while the van had to park in open space at the back of the lot.

 

Jeff walked over to the van as soon as he had shut off the car. He texted Poster Girl that the team was getting together.

 

The side door opened for him to board. He climbed up the three steps and stood for a moment as he gathered his thoughts.

 

"We don't know what we're dealing with at the moment." Jeff kept an eye on the side window toward the hotel. "They're little blue spots that fly around and make noises that sounds like voices. Poster Girl drove them off last night with a flashlight."

 

"Doesn't seem like a typical spirit, Jeff." Priest rubbed his chin as he thought.

 

"How do we disperse them for good?" Jeff gave the black suit and white collar a glance.

 

"I can bless the ground." Priest smiled. "It might produce something."

 

"What kind of something?" Currenta stood by the other window, body transparent at the moment.

 

"It depends on what it is." Priest shrugged. "I have to look at it first."

 

"Anything, Holo?" Jeff looked at the energy being floating near the ceiling.

 

"It could be something like me." The light man looked toward the skylight. "I have to look at it first."

 

"So we have nothing until they show up again." Jeff gave his team a look.

 

"If they show up." Poster Girl appeared in the door in her suit with skirt. "They might have taken a break after what we did last night."

 

"How long do we wait before we call this a wash?" Jeff wasn't prepared to give up despite what he said. He would sit on that field forever.

 

"We can give it a week before we are asked to produce anything." Priest spread his hands in a what can you do gesture. "If anything else shows that's more important in that time, we'll be called away sooner."

 

"So we sit on that field and see what happens." Jeff wanted to be there shooting things at the moment instead of waiting. "We took pictures of a rock they were guarding."

 

Poster Girl plugged her phone into a console. She flipped through the pictures until they saw the strange shaped rock on a wall screen.

 

"The whole swarm flew around this thing." Jeff glared at it. "As soon as we got too close, they attacked."

 

"I don't think I have seen anything like it." Priest squinted at it, trying to coax out more detail than the screen offered. "Did you leave it out there?"

 

"Replacement is guarding it for us." Jeff checked his phone. No messages. "Has he called in, Poster Girl?"

 

She checked her own phone. She shook her head at the lack of messages.

 

"We'll take the bus out there." Jeff went to the wheel. "We can grab the rock and see if we can figure out if it's special."

 

"What happens if it isn't?" Priest got in the passenger seat.

 

"Then we look around until we find something else that's causing this." Jeff started the engine and pulled out of the lot.

 

"Replacement said everything was still quiet." Poster Girl called from the back. "Nothing has happened since we left."

 

"Let's hope things stay that way while we try to figure out what's going on." Jeff drove along the country roads with lights flashing. It cleared traffic out of the way so he could drive faster.

 

He parked the van in the same place as he had parked the rental for their surveillance. He wanted it out of the way, but close enough they could turn the lights on the little buggers.

 

Poster Girl changed into her purple costume and mask in the back while they were in transit. She strapped her service weapon to her thigh in case she needed it.

 

She had Replacement's powers at the moment, but if they wore off at the wrong time, she might need a pistol.

 

"Priest and I will get the rock." Jeff headed for the door, sunglasses in place. "You guys keep an eye out for trouble."

 

"I think we can handle blue spots." Holo flew through the skylight. His form blended in with the sky as he hovered over the scene.

 

Currenta and Poster Girl spread out to either side, but stayed out of the field.

 

Jeff led the way over the fence. He scanned the area for threats as he walked toward where the rock lay in the dead grass. The air shimmered around his hand.

 

"This is bad, Jeff." Priest looked around, hand raised to focus his gaze. "I have never seen anything this bad."

 

"It's dead." Jeff paused as he stood over the rock. "I saw that yesterday."

 

"All the life has been drained out of the ground." He knelt and placed his hand on the ground. Light flared around his fingers. "It's almost like the work of a vampire."

 

"Look at the rock and tell me what you think." Jeff pointed at the pale pentagon.

 

Priest placed his hand on the stone. The pale light wrapped around his hand. He stood. He rubbed his hand like he had put it in ice water.

 

"This thing is some kind of focus." He shook his hand for a second. "Those spots could have been some kind of byproduct."

 

"What kind of focus?" Jeff looked around at the dead vegetation. "What is it focusing?"

 

"I don't know." Priest looked at the stone. "I don't think it would be a good idea to take this anywhere near town."

 

"Can we smash it?" The agent leveled his hand at the rock.

 

"What happens if we do?" The clergyman shook his head. "We might release the very thing we're trying to stop."

 

"So we wait and see if we can figure out what this thing does." Jeff raised his hand so it didn't point at the stone.

 

"It probably won't be long."

[csyphrett]

Re: The Magistracy: School's In

 

9

 

The squad had dinner while they waited. They sent Poster Girl for it. She came back with two bags of Chinese. One was for her, the other for the rest.

 

Replacement didn't eat anything. He stood watch like a statue in the field as the sun went down.

 

"What do you think will happen if those ghost bugs come back?" Poster Girl looked at the picture of the rock.

 

"We hope Priest can banish them so we don't have to worry about this anymore." Jeff handed his fortune cookie packages to Holo. The light man put them in his mouth and crisped them to nothing while they were still inside the wrappers.

 

"That focus stone worries me." The clergyman sipped tea as he tapped the table. "We have no way of knowing what will happen if anything happens to it. It might make the problem bigger."

 

"What happens if we do nothing?" Jeff put his trash in the plastic carryout bag.

 

"I don't know." Priest shrugged. "It seems to be gathering what it's programmed from what I felt. When it sends that energy is when our problem will become apparent."

 

"If it follows that pattern, the transmission won't take place until after midnight." Jeff looked at his squad. They had worked together for a while and everyone knew the ropes, even the newest, Poster Girl. "Rest up, play video games, whatever, until we need to get ready."

 

He sent a message to Replacement that he had given the rest three hours of downtime. Did the man in black need a break?

 

‘NO' was the reply from the super soldier.

 

Jeff expected that. Replacement was some kind of machine under the black body suit he wore. He never stopped doing whatever he was told to do on his own. Occasionally, he had been delayed and stopped by outside forces.

 

That took a lot of effort.

 

Jeff felt restless. He walked outside the van. He looked up and down the empty road. He frowned at the realization that he hadn't seen a car on the road since he had parked the command center on the shoulder.

 

He checked his watch and decided to walk down as far as he could in thirty minutes. That would help him work off some of the nervousness he felt. Everything depended on what happened that night. He didn't like that.

 

He wanted more options than a showdown with an enemy with unknown capabilities. He wanted a look at his target before he tried to take it down.

 

It was one thing to shoot up a bunch of normals in the middle of a bank robbery. It was another kettle of fish to go after something in the dark when you didn't know if you could hurt it, or not.

 

He didn't want to lose a member of his team by being too gung ho.

 

He walked along the gray and green landscape. Cows, goats, and horses gave him the eye, but didn't shy away from him like he expected. He supposed that someone walking on the road was not enough of a reason to quit eating.

 

He stayed away from the fences. Some of them were marked with Electric and Keep Out. He saw the tag wires and knew that was to make sure the animals knew to stay inside the enclosure instead of bulling through to the road.

 

It would take a ton of juice to stop a bull who wanted to go bad enough.

 

Jeff checked his watch. He looked around at the end of his time. He saw life everywhere he looked. People moved in the distance beyond the animals.

 

How much had that stone taken from that one piece of ground that animals ran from it? He hadn't noticed squirrels or birds close to the dead zone.

 

He turned and started back. He noted the gray air and landscape. The area would die off eventually if they didn't do anything. He could already see a warping of things as he walked along.

 

He had dealt with a lot of things for the department. Everyone he had put down had deserved it. Whatever was behind this deserved what the squad did to him.

 

He saw the van in the distance. He walked in the gathering gloom, almost a ghost himself in his black suit and tie. It was the typical wear of a fed on the move.

 

He walked to the van. He saw Holo in the sky, enjoying the last of the sun. He looked around. He closed his eyes, seeing the scene as clearly as he had when he had looked at it with his eyes.

 

He opened his eyes. There was nothing near he couldn't shoot blind if he had to.

 

Jeff walked into the van. He went to the front and sat in the driver's seat. He leaned back so no one could see him from outside. He closed his eyes and thought about the case and what they planned to do.

 

He didn't see any way to win since they still didn't know what they were dealing with in the field. They didn't know what the stone focused. They didn't know what would happen if they broke it. The only thing they did know was it was killing the area around it.

 

That meant they had to fight it, even if they didn't know what they were doing.

 

Anything that did that couldn't be good. What happened if it spread to the town? What did it do to people if they got too close for too long? Did they start getting cancer, or some other disease?

 

Was there a cure for life sucking?

 

How much time did they have before that plague spread to the rest of the county, then the state? How long did they have before the country went under?

 

"Hey, Pointer." Poster Girl touched his shoulder. He restrained himself from shooting her. "It's almost time."

 

"Good." Jeff stood, adjusting his suit. "Everyone ready?"

 

The present members of the squad nodded.

 

"Priest needs to get to the rock so he can do whatever he can to it. Lights are the only thing that can affect these things. Holo and I will protect Priest. Currenta and Poster Girl are our backups in case we get taken out." He adjusted his tie. "Replacement will look out for us the best he can."

 

"What happens if we can't crack it?" Currenta stretched her liquid body to get ready for the coming fight.

 

"We break off and ask the Chemist to come down here and solve our problem for us." Jeff worked his hands to ready his power. "Anything else?"

 

"What happens if the light doesn't work this time?" Poster Girl held up her hands. The air shimmered around them from borrowing Jeff's power.

 

"We're screwed." Pointer smiled. "We have time before things happen if anyone but Priest wants to leave."

 

"I don't get a choice, Jeff?" Priest smiled as he rolled up the sleeves of his black shirt.

 

"No." Jeff went to the door. "Poster Girl, let R know what's going on so he doesn't have a panic attack."

 

"No problem." She pulled her phone and quickly sent an outline of the faint planning they had done. Replacement told her ‘Ok'.

 

"Let's see if we can catch some phantom bugs." Jeff pushed the door open and stepped outside.

[csyphrett]

Re: The Magistracy: School's In

 

10

 

Jeff and Priest crossed the fence again and walked out in the field. Jeff pointed ahead of him as he walked. He wanted to be ready to shoot with the light beam as soon as things went south.

 

Holo hovered over them. Light escaped his body as he floated above.

 

Replacement was invisible in the darkness as he waited patiently by the fence line.

 

"Stand back." Priest raised a hand. It glowed with inner fire. "Maybe I can stop this without it becoming a brawl."

 

"Take your shot." Jeff moved to the right so he could fire a light gun as soon as things started.

 

He doubted things would be resolved peacefully. Poster Girl's statements of what she had heard nudged him to that conclusion.

 

Something talking to itself about bloody murder and hate probably didn't want to come along quietly.

 

Priest approached the stone. His hand grew brighter as he closed on it. He seemed to be having problems walking. Something seemed to be pushing him back from the rock.

 

The blue spots appeared in the air. Whispers sounded as they rotated around the stone. The voices spoke of things no one should have to hear.

 

Priest raised his other hand. Lines of force pushed on him. The blue ghosts didn't want him any closer than where he already stood.

 

Jeff fired a beam of light into the horde. Some of the ghosts puffed out of existence under the ray.

 

The swarm gathered together into a shape much like a man made of mist. They swung arms with balled hands on the ends of them. They glided at Priest with the low muttering timing their advance.

 

Jeff and Holo opened fire with their concentrated light. The beams poked holes in the thing, but they closed almost immediately. It swung a mace of blue at Priest's head.

 

A figure in black caught the fist. A contest of strength started with neither force giving way. Then the silent agent threw the sentient cloud to the ground with a shift of his weight and tremendous strength.

 

"Keep it busy, please." Priest pushed into the force trying to stop him. His body caught fire as he moved forward.

 

The blue phantom swung at Replacement, trying to bull through him. The man in black caught the arm and trapped it with his own. He held on to it as it tried to shake him off.

 

Jeff and Holo circled the struggle and started blasting beams of light into the ghost. It looked like someone had set up a strobe light in the middle of nowhere. Holes closed as soon as the rays passed through to the other side.

 

Currenta came across the field in a wave of water. She poured into the blue ghost and slammed it with her gathered mass of water. She hit the ground, almost human.

 

"What happened?" Jeff put himself between the blue cloud and Currenta. "Get her out of here, Holo."

 

The light man grabbed his colleague in his arms and flew from the battle. He put her in the van and cut on all the lights to point in the field. That should help some.

 

Poster Girl stood off from the fight and blasted at the creature with her borrowed power. She winced as the thing punched Replacement in the face, trying to break free.

 

Replacement threw the creature down again and dropped a knee on the back of its neck. He held it down since his strength only seemed to hold it at bay, and not really do any damage.

 

"How do we stop it?" Jeff blasted away. His sunglasses blocked the glare from the van so he could see some.

 

"I don't think we can." Poster Girl fired at parts of the cloud that seemed to be trying to brace against Replacement to throw him off.

 

"Currenta is in some kind of shock." Holo appeared like a miniature sun. He rained down on the gathered swarm with all of his might. The core of it came apart under the onslaught.

 

"She touched it." Jeff backed away as the bees flew toward the rock. "Don't let them touch you."

 

"Priest!" Poster Girl moved forward behind a spray of light pulses. "They're coming right at you."

 

The clergyman broke through the protective influence the stone possessed. He knelt to put both hands on the stone. Light ran from his fingers into the block.

 

The bees tried to grab him and force him away from their hive. He began pulling on the block as they tried to coalesce another body to stop whatever he was trying to do.

 

Jeff, Poster Girl, and Holo fired more light into the scene. They didn't know what their fellow agent was trying to do. They did know he had to be protected.

 

Replacement leaped over the firing squad. He slammed against the protective shell with a bang. He punched the invisible wall with all of his might. Thunder rolled in the night.

 

Priest strained against the rock. His skin burned with the effort. The bees that the others couldn't shoot stung him but he ignored it. He lifted the hive away from the earth less than an inch.

 

Replacement stood at his side. One black gloved hand took the rock from him. Both hands crushed the stone with one twitch of his muscles.

 

Blue lightning leaped in the air. It threw Replacement and Priest to the ground. The surviving bees hovered for a moment. Then they broke for the open since they had failed in their duty.

 

Jeff shot as many as he could as they ran away. He watched them pop with some satisfaction as they tried to escape the beams of light he cast in the night sky.

 

He looked around as the last one vanished in the distance. He didn't see any other enemies that needed to be vanquished at the moment.

 

"Priest, we need you to check on Currenta." Jeff frowned. "She touched those things and they did something to her."

 

"No problem, Jeff." Priest straightened his thin hair with a hand as he started for the van.

 

Replacement picked him up and carried him the rest of the way in a gentle hop. He put the clergyman down at the door of the van.

 

"Thank you, Ross." Priest walked inside the van on steadier legs than what he had possessed trying to walk across the field.

 

Priest gathered himself in the center aisle of the command center. He frowned at the sleeping form of Currenta. He had never seen her human form before. He frowned at the blanket over her before he realized she was nude.

 

He raised his hands. The glow returned. He touched her head with them. The light ran into her brain, pulling out the darkness that had infested her mind. He saw the tendrils running from her ears, nose and mouth under his command. He stepped back when he was sure she would live.

 

He tucked her in so she could sleep without worry before he repudiated the dark touches in his own system. His natural fire had already burned most of it away. He finished the job, relaxing when he no longer heard whispers urging him to kill his friends.

 

He went to the front of the van and looked out the windows. His friends stood out in the field. He didn't see any more blue spots in the air. He doubted they had stopped them all.

 

How do you stop hate?

 

He went to the door. Replacement stood guard against any intruders. His solid black form was a wall against any enemy.

 

"She should be all right, Ross." Priest smiled. "Keep an eye on her, will you?"

 

Replacement nodded his hooded head. Blank white eyes looked at his friend.

 

"I'll be all right too." Priest smiled even wider, almost a grin. "Let's see if there's anything else I can do."

 

He walked back across the road, and slowly climbed the wooden fence. He dropped down on the other side. He would need to burn his clothes when this was all over from the feel of it. He walked to where the other three looked around with light ready to be used.

 

"I think it's over for the moment." He smiled at them. He blessed the field to see if he could get it living again after so long being dead.

[csyphrett]

Re: The Magistracy: School's In

 

epilogue

 

 

He sat on his throne in a space outside reality. He frowned as the flow from one of his anchors disappeared from view. He focused his senses on the scene. Bright light made him turn away.

 

One of the other players had sent an agent to the site and destroyed the anchor.

 

He supposed it was inevitable that he should lose one of them. They had given him strength to pillage this limbo he was trapped in. That kind of thing always attracted the wrong type of attention.

 

He turned his attention on the other anchors he had established so long ago. They stood like beacons in the night as they fed him from the anger and hate of the humans as they went about their days.

 

Soon he would be able to walk the Earth again. His gathering of energy allowed him to reach across the gap sporadically at the moment. Soon he would be able to rip open a door so he didn't have to work through the addled minds he could touch with his own.

 

His new kingdom would rise no matter what the humans did to try and stop him.

 

He supposed he would have to deal with the humans that had pulled up his anchor stone. He foresaw at least one of them would try to stop his ascension. It was better to get rid of them so they wouldn't be a problem later.

 

He needed to put his own agents on the field.

 

He looked at the Earth. Most of his own agents were in a city called New York. He had several anchor stones there, and it fed him the most out of all the places he had secured his body so he could end his exile.

 

He needed to find out more about the anchor breakers. He needed his agents until he was across the gap. It pained him to admit that, but he felt his planning used pragmatism more than feelings.

 

He reached out with a hand as big as a planet and touched the Earth where New York hovered in his thoughts. He felt others taking note of what he was doing. He had to hurry this transaction and cut the connection before human mages tried to extend his exile.

 

He had been imprisoned long enough by his estimation.

 

He searched through the agents under his control. He needed someone with some initiative, and firmly planted in that reality. Some of his agents went mad the more he used them. He smiled when he found the right man for the job.

 

"Attend me, Laurence Elbe." He muted his mental voice so his agent wouldn't break before he could use him. "I have need of you."

 

"I'm listening, Father." Elbe's voice was quiet as he turned his full attention to his master's orders.

 

"One of my anchors has been broken." He filled his agent's mind with a picture of the place where his stone should still be gathering energy for him. "I would like you to find out who did it and how."

 

"I will find out for you, Father." Elbe's mind turned to sorting out excuses for the various people in his life. He would declare a family emergency and leave as soon as he could pack his car. "It will take a little time."

 

"I will be waiting for your report, Laurence." He pulled back. He could feel the spells looking for his source. "Be careful."

 

"Yes, Father." Elbe replied as he cut the line before his agent could be discovered.

 

He watched the city from his window. The human forces searched for him, but he had withdrawn his touch before they could narrow things down to where his agent lived.

 

They could put up new barriers against him if they realized what he was doing. They could render his agents unable to help him in his quest which would hurt more than any barrier.

 

His agents were his hands and eyes. Losing even one would set him back for more years than he wanted to wait.

 

It had already taken years for him to build his network into something he could use. Most of that had been in fine tuning his voice so he didn't drive his prospects mad when he gave them their orders.

 

That had taken more work than he was used to after laying his enemies in his prison low.

 

It had called for a finesse he wasn't used to having to use after so many years of simply ripping souls and hearts from his enemies.

 

He admitted he enjoyed the challenge after the ease he had treated his foes. He regarded it almost like juggling.

 

The mages went back to sleep when they didn't find the threat his voice had promised. He smiled. Humans were so blind.

 

He turned his gaze back to his broken anchor. The light had faded from the site, but he couldn't quite see who was there.

 

By the time it was completely gone, the agents would have blended in with the local humans.

 

He sat back on his throne. There was nothing he could do about it until Laurence Elbe signaled he was ready to make a report. He would have to keep himself busy with other things.

 

He turned his attention back to New York. That was the centerpiece of his rise. It was the home of his biggest feeding ground.

 

He had inspired a building to be built in Manhattan. The floors had been rented out to financial corporations of every stripe.

 

He had thought he had lost his chance when the Earth had vanished for a time. It looked like he would be able to break through his wall that much easier, then the old barriers had snapped back in place. He didn't know what had happened but felt human mages throwing spells around as if they were gods.

 

He had made sure to put the skull of one of his enemies in the gathering forces to keep a hole in the wall so he could communicate better with his own subordinates.

 

All of them had been aware of the forces at work, but none of them had been able to find the source of the world shaping.

 

He had told them to wait for a time before they continued with the tasks he had set them. He didn't know what had happened. They couldn't find out from where they were on the edges of human society. It was best to let sleeping dogs lie.

 

He looked at his centerpiece. All the energy radiated by New York was going into that building. He smiled as he felt it reach out for him in invisible tendrils. Soon he would be able to touch that place.

 

No human mage could stop him if they challenged him one at a time. He had to be wary of groups of mages acting in concert. The superhumans that had arisen in his absence could be mages, or simply humans to be swatted. He wouldn't know until he faced them in combat.

 

He smiled at the future. It would be full of challenges to his authority. He relished the idea.

 

He wondered if anyone even remembered him. He supposed not. It had been a long time since he had set foot on his home ground.

 

He closed his eyes against the cracked wall that had been set up to stop him and waited as his anchors fed him more power.