Confrontation at Strickland's Safe House

### Result (Outcome)

Dr. Strickland is killedThe Wazir provides Derek the evidence he needs to ascend to the Committee

## Casualties

*“Ned, this is Derek Hawthorne. You know, your cousin. Your buddies here are dead, and you’re surrounded. I don’t know why the hell you did this, but you better damn well come out now.”*— Derek Hawthorne, *Esoterrorism*
The **Confrontation at Strickland's Safe House** was an attempt by Derek Hawthorne's Team to ambush Dr. Edward Strickland and get any information out of him that they could regarding The Wazir's plans for the House. Since he was the creator of the Matheson-22 virus and had revealed himself as the traitor, Derek and Shannon O'Reily intended to capture him to avenge their previous mistakes in the investigation. In the process, they were led into the arms of the Wazir himself, who instead used their planned ambush to further his own goals and get Derek to ascend to the Committee.

## Background

After the deaths of his wife and daughter, Dr. Strickland aligned with the Wazir and Pantheon Corp to create Matheson-22 for the Wazir's own ends. As part of this plan, Strickland masterminded an attack on Division One to fake his own death. However, during the investigation into Cassandra Cassidy's role in the creation of the virus, one of her scientists made it clear to Derek that Strickland survived the assault, giving them a lead if they could track him down.

However, before they could track him down, Cassandra revealed her own betrayal by sending her forces after Derek and Shannon, culminating in a public shootout that stalled them while they tried to cover up the supernatural aspects. At the same time, Division One assets attempted to investigate Pantheon's Chicago offices, only to be ambushed and massacred by the Sons of Mars. Penny Hawthorne, the ambush's only survivor, reunited with Derek and Shannon, cleared up all of the supernatural elements of the hotel ambush, and, armed with Strickland's true name, tracked him down to an abandoned mansion on the outskirts of Chicago.

## Confrontation

### Initial Assault

Derek and Shannon spent time casing the mansion as thoroughly as they could, detecting four powries and two trolls serving as guards for Strickland, who they knew was there even if they couldn't see him; while they scouted out the front, Penny flew above on the Staff of Hiawatha, ready to support when necessary. During this time, Derek and Shannon discussed their blossoming relationship and future, particularly their interests and opinions on monster hunting. However, once it became clear to them that it was the best time to strike, the two moved in and broke down the front door.

With the element of surprise on their side, Derek and Shannon were able to gun down the four powries in the first room before they could react, but two previously unseen powries were able to react quick enough to dodge the initial barrage. In response, they shed their human forms, but this wasn't enough for them to survive the barrage of bullets. While one of them made it close to Derek, Derek was able to pull out a sword and kill him, while Shannon killed the other in the same manner.

At this point, the two trolls attacked the duo, forcing them into defense. Derek was quickly batted aside, but Shannon was able to get to work dismembering the troll attacking her, instructing Derek to do the same to the one attacking him. With this information, Derek was able to dispatch the troll attacking him as well, ending the threat of the guards.

### Confronting Strickland

With the guards dead, Derek commanded Strickland to show himself still attempting to reason with him despite the mass death he'd caused. As he internally debated whether that made him soft, Strickland threw Penny's body at them; luckily, as Derek quickly discovered, she was alive and awake, just winded. At this point, Strickland revealed himself and showed just how mad he had become; in his desperation to survive his cancer diagnosis, Strickland had himself mummified, defying the gods and ensuring he would be damned.

Shannon immediately moved to attack Strickland, only for Strickland to parry the attack and use his magic to shoot lightning at her. Though Derek tried to attack him as well, all of his attacks were shielded with magic, preventing them from stopping him electrocuting her into unconsciousness. Strickland revealed that he had orders from the Wazir to bring Derek in alive, unlike Shannon and Penny, while also revealing that he was the one to teach Penny sorcery in the first place.

Derek cursed him for his betrayal, only for Strickland to reveal why he had betrayed the House - they were responsible for the deaths of his wife and daughter, and he refused to serve those he blamed for their deaths. Another witty remark from Derek prompted Strickland to telekinetically punch and disarm him, telling him he was there to answer the Wazir's questions and could walk away if the answers satisfied him. Derek was allowed to check their pulses and make sure they were alive, but Strickland tried to stop Derek from bringing an unconscious Shannon into the meeting, with Derek noting that he hadn't guaranteed her safe passage; though Strickland almost fought him over it, the Wazir commanded that he let him bring her inside.

After a brief argument between Strickland and the Wazir, Strickland relented and let the two inside to see Karl Bjornson in the flesh.

### Meeting the Wazir

The Wazir, polite as ever, welcomed Derek inside, offering him a glass of chocolate milk. Though Derek tried to confirm if he was dealing with the real Karl or a homunculus, Karl refused to answer. Strickland tried to force Derek to show him respect, but this became his final mistake; Karl asked if there was anything he could do to make Derek more comfortable, and when Derek sarcastically said that he could kill Strickland, the Wazir did so without hesitation, saying he could never trust a traitor.

With that out of the way, the Wazir tried to get down to business, only for Derek to make another attempt to kill him with Shannon's gun and fail due to Karl's magical shields. At this point, the Wazir took control of Derek's body and sat him down, revealing that back in Ohio, the Wazir had placed a compulsion spell on the vial of the Matheson virus Derek had collected, forcing Derek to believe in Cassandra's innocence despite the evidence, ignore Shannon's inhumanity, and comply with his demands during this face-to-face meeting (though he blithely notes that the first two ended up being unnecessary).

The Wazir genuinely complimented how Derek and Penny conducted themselves during their first meeting in Thompson City, and when Derek tried to counter with the destruction of Wheatfield, Karl revealed that Division One knew about the attack ahead of time and they chose to let it happen to look like they were still needed to their government allies. At this point, Karl finally revealed what he actually wanted with all of his attacks: the reveal of the supernatural to the human world and eventual peace on Earth. He also wanted Cassandra dead, acknowledging that her goal of money and power for herself was incompatible with the world he wanted to create, and he revealed that he was responsible for Shannon being sent to become Derek's partner to test his reaction to an inhuman partner.

After this, Karl revealed the next stage of his plan willingly: he wanted to place Derek on the Committee. For this, Karl handed over a flash drive of information he and Cassandra had consolidated on all of the Committee's wrongdoings and revealed that he had once been a member of the House himself, back when it was still called the Court. He believed in their message of protecting the supernatural, only to see it be corrupted over time. When he found Odin's eye, he decided to break away from them. Now, he wanted an in on the Committee; he once thought it would be Cassandra, but he knew they would never accept her, so he shifted focus to Derek instead.

Though Derek tried to argue that he would never go along with the plan, Karl argued in favor of it, both for Derek's own interests and Karl's. Karl did admit that it would benefit him because Derek would split the Committee apart and he and Cassandra's forces would go to war until one of them lost and Karl could wipe out the survivor; on the other hand, Derek needed the power he would get from being on the Committee to stop either him or Cassandra, and he'll have all of the Committee's dirty laundry to work with. However, before he could elaborate further, Shannon, who had been slowly waking up for the entire conversation, shot Karl in the head, killing another of his homunculi.

With Karl's revelations about Derek's helplessness for the entire situation, Shannon briefly turned on her partner, threatening him to make him turn over the hard drive. Derek countered by revealing his agreement with several of Karl's points; the Committee was known to have people who could see the future, meaning that Karl was right that Division One knew about the Wheatfield attack and chose not to act. Seeing Derek's logic, Shannon reluctantly put her weapon down and agreed to let him look over the flash drive, leaving the scene with Penny in tow.

## Aftermath

The confrontation was a complete success for the Wazir. Using the flash drive provided by Karl, Derek made the discovery of all the immoral acts the Committee had done and, with support from his team, ascended to the Committee and united the Divisions of the House against Cassandra and the Wazir. However, this was also the beginning of the end for Karl's campaign, as Derek was able to use his new power to force a three-way battle at Cassandra's Lair that would end up killing both Karl and Cassandra.

It was also later revealed that Derek ascending to the Committee was a crucial factor in Nathan Hawthorne's plan to destroy the House in 2008, indirectly achieving Karl's main goal of exposing the supernatural to humanity.