The Avatars of the Old Ones

"The Avatars of the Old Ones" is a short Cthulhu Mythos story by American author Jeffrey Thomas, the second in a short series set in his futuristic Punktown setting. It was first published in the chapbook Avatars of the Old Ones by Imelod Publications in 1999.
==Synopsis==
Having been exiled from Oasis for his murderous activities against cults devoted to the Old Ones, former law enforcement officer John Bell travels to Earth and takes a job as security at a soup kitchen where he can keep an eye on some of the 24 million near-mindless infected humans from the previous incursion, now dubbed "Afflicted".
While on shift one day, he observes the Afflicted initiate a new effort to bring about the return of their masters, beginning with the slaughter of any human which comes within reach. As he and one of the kitchen workers, a woman named H'anna, travel across the city, they become aware of a pattern in the Afflicted's activities, one which centres on the Museum of Fine Arts.
At the museum, Bell and H'anna are able to locate the nexus of the incursion, a now-living statue of the Outer God Nyarlathotep. Luckily for the human species, Bell's auxiliary sidearm, a plasma-launching handgun, is sufficient to destroy the abomination, as outside armed citizens and law enforcement launch a counter attack against the now-disorientated Afflicted.
In the aftermath of the attack, Bell and H'anna embark upon a relationship, but this is painfully cut short when Bell is recruited as part of an extra-planetary task force to combat future events initiated by the Old Ones.
==Publication History==
*Avatars of the Old Ones (1999)
*Unholy Dimensions (2005)
*Geschichten aus dem Cthulhu-Mythos (2012 , German-language translation)
*Cthulhu Detective: A C. J. Henderson Tribute (2015)
==Trivia==
*The name of the structure which houses the soup kitchen, the Ambuehl Building, is likely a nod to author James Ambuehl, a Cthulhu Mythos author contemporary with the publishing date of "The Avatars of the Old Ones.
Category:Jeffrey Thomas works
Category:Expanded Mythos Works