Henry Lemaire Background

#### Dynamism

Maurilene Clavel beamed as she opened the door to the cellar beneath the school. "I formally welcome you to Alençon sanctum" she exclaimed.

Stepping inside, Pierre Sanchez looked neutral as always. "It's a basement with a table and a bookcase, Mauri."

"It's a fixer-upper, sure, but we have to start somewhere."

"You mean \*you\* have to start somewhere. This has the feeling of a hermetic chantry."

"Well I did build it on my own. But that's something we can fix together, now that the basis is here. The door is secure, there's plenty of rooms, and it's arcaned up - that's why you didn't notice it until I pointed it out."

"Okay, that does seem useful."

"And look", she said, opening one of the side rooms, "I did think of you, a gym!". The room she opened had only the bare necessities - but then again, that's just like the Akashic liked it.

"Okay, okay", he said, cracking the faintest of smile, "you convinced me. I'm in."

"Excellent!" she exclaimed.

Pierre centered himself, sensing the mystical energies of the place. “It’s well suited… how will the defenses hold up against a detailed inspection? I saw a suspicious guy around campus a few days back…”

“It’ll be fine. I noticed him too, but he just had a meeting with the director - and he walked right past this door, so it’s certainly safe.

“Okay then.”

"Let's see", Pierre continued while looking through the bookcase, "Hermetic theory, history, spells, more theory... Why do you have so many mathematic books? You’re not into hypermaths, are you?”

“They’re school books, Pierre. I’m a math teacher, remember?”, Maurilene replied, rolling her eyes.

“Oh right. Well, it’s just your job.”

“Just my job? We’re here shaping the hearts and minds of the next generation, to shield them from the horrors of this world and to steel them to… I’m rambling again, aren’t I?”

Snickering, Pierre replied, “Just a bit. But you know what I mean - like you said, we’re here to help the students; you’re smart enough to do that with any subject.”

“Well, math is cool too” she finished defiantly.

#### Stasis

“There’s a Tradition sanctum in Alençon”, the man in grey said to the similarly looking man in black.

“That’s new”, the man in black responded, flipping the folder he was just given. “Manar didn’t spot anything in that region lately.”

“Agent 5-29 picked it up on a routine patrol. Got lucky too, it’s pretty well shielded. Didn’t get a closer look at the actual sanctum, we didn’t want to tip them off just yet.”

“So what are we talking? How many superstitionists, what node level…?”

“Just a few” the man in grey continued while taking a seat. “Three at most we think. No node either.”

“So why are you giving it to me? Looks like a tag and track job for Laurent.”

“It’s at a school. New policy from up top, any deviant activity at educational facilities need direct intervention.”

“It just seems like overkill” the man in black replied, pointing out the folder. “Two low level deviants at a strategically questionable location.”

“I’m not talking full on contingency one. Just send someone to make sure they know their place, maybe scare them off a bit.”

“Well that has to wait then,” the man in black said while looking at his screen. “Only available asset is that progenitor, Henry Lemaitre.”

“So? Send him in. He’s the one who does well solo, isn’t he?”

“That’s just because no-one will work with him. He’s an asshole-”
“Language”, the man in grey said sternly. “That’s unmutual, he’s a fellow technocrat.”

“He’s still not suited for a mission like this. He’s... “ The man in black considered his word carefully. “He’s not well trained in subtle mission approaches.”

“He’ll have to do. It might be a small sanctum, but it’s cloaked well - if we don’t take care of it now we’re likely to lose it.”

“For fu… Yes, sir,” he quickly corrected himself after a piercing look, “I’ll get on it”.

#### Primordial

Henry went over the dossier again. The man in black was clear on the mission - get the deviants to move away from the school. Now that the mission was handed off, however, Henry got to decide the specific plan of action - and he wasn’t going to let some deviant assholes walk away from him.

Still, two deviants without backup - he declined the weak men in black he was offered - would require a plan. Even their filthy deviant “magic” can hurt like hell if they team up on you. Weaknesses… Well, he knew where they worked, and where their base of operations was. And they were teachers… Time for a scouting mission.

Smirking, Henry checked on the surveillance. The Hermetic was safely sequestered away - such a shame his train broke down today - and the Akashic was barreling right back to the sanctum. The video of their favorite pupils cowering in a corner of the basement probably helped there.

Henry checked the “sanctum” one last time - it was a pathetic display, and it hadn’t taken him long to undo the wards and prepare his trap. The gall of these deviants, with their pathetic attempts at defiling the school… the rage steroids were doing their job. Still, time to beef up a bit more, he thought while grabbing his syringe.

Suddenly, one of the kids in the corner spoke up. “You better let us go now. We know Mr Sanchez is coming.”

“Do you now?” Henry smirked. “How do you know that?”

“He… told us. You’ll see! Mr Sanchez is an awesome fighter, he can do all sort of Matrix kung fu!”

“Oh he showed you that, did he?” Henry replied, his menacing grim shutting down the young boy. “Good then, no uninitiated witnesses for me.” He picked up the boy without effort, left the side room and set up at the main door.

It didn’t take long for the Akashic to barge in. Henry’s drugs had taken full effect - not only beefing him up, but giving him wicked claws. “Glad you could join us, teach.”

“You let him go,” Pierre replied. “He’s not who you’re after.”

“Make me, witch”, Henry replied with a grin, drawing blood from the student with his claws.

The Akashic tried to suppress his rage, but ended up storming Henry. Exploiting the Akashic’s rash strikes - getting them pissed off was always fun - Henry got some nice strikes in.

Pierre soon realised his predicament, and stilled his mind - but by then, Henry already had the initiative, and was going to take the win. With all his remaining force, he struck Henry with a charged blow - just as his student got a sneak attack in, Henry focusing all his rage at Pierre.

“Fuck!” Henry replied. The blow was bad, but manageable - but it’d thrown him off balance, and he quickly realized that with the student’s help, the Akashic might actually defeat him. Him! He really wanted to finish him with his own claws - but mission first. Time for plan B.

Shifting the lines of battle, Henry found himself with his back to the basement’s door - and quickly slipped through. Bashing the door shut with all his might, he quickly applied the sealant - good thing the Akashic was in too much of a hurry to spot that. And the other alterations he’d made.

Inside, Pierre tried to bash open the door, but quickly turned around as he noticed the futility. “Where’s the rest? We need to get to the back door,” he told his student. Hurrying to the side room, he quickly shuffled his 4 students to the escape tunnel - only to find it’s door shut as well. With panic for his students washing over him, he finally spotted the strange devices hidden in the room - blinking with a red light.

“Burn, witches”, Henry said from a safe distance, activating the incendiaries.

Safely back in his safehouse, Henry was enjoying a fine wine, going over the events. Mission done - the sanctum was gone. Getting the hermetic would be a bonus now - a bonus he’d really like to get.

The NWO grey suit apparently really wanted to talk to him - probably to congratulate him - but he could wait. The Hermetic would likely want revenge, so he’d just have to set up a trap for him. The train service should be up by now, so…

That’s when Henry noticed three things; the firewall of his PC giving an alert that it had been breeched a while back, the Manar spiking in activity, and the wall of his safehouse blowing up.

#### Questing

Maurilene was out for blood indeed. Her Virtual Adept friend had warned her to wait for backup, but her enemy was here, alone, and he wouldn’t let him slip to safety. She was Maurilene Bani Quesitor, Adept of Forces, and this steelhead would PAY for what he did, Paradox be damned.

Blasting away the wall was easy enough - noone was paying attention yet. The technocrat - progenitor, probably - shot up quick, but not quick enough to be caught in the debris. Still, some debris wouldn’t take him down, and she was ready for the counterattack, nullifying the force behind his blows.

The progenitor was strong, though, and it took a lot of effort to keep him away, and her blasts weren’t as effective as they should be - magickal armor, no doubt. And it didn’t take long for sleepers to come along. She didn’t mind the witnesses per se, but Paradox was taking it’s toll. That’s fine, she thought - she didn’t care about winning any more. As long as the progenitor lost.

Summoning her reserve might, she channeled a blast of lightning from her hands, right into the progenitor - into his flesh. And more importantly, into his implants. He howled as he burned from within.

Down but not out, the progenitor ducked behind cover before collapsing. While preparing to go on, she heared the shout in her ear - “Steelheads incoming, ETA 2 minutes. Get out of there!”. Looking at her hands, she started to feel the sting of what she did as well - they were burned almost as bad as the progenitor was. “Damned Paradox”, she cursed.

Quickly looking at the witnesses around, gaping at what had just happened, she ducked into a dark alley. No-one followed her - who would - and her friend had an escape route planned already.

Still, the pain in her hands wasn’t even the worse pain she was feeling. Pierre - and 4 of their students - gone. Her rage had sustained her, but it didn’t make her feel better now that the adrenaline was gone. Her sanctum got him killed, and he couldn’t even get his killer.

#### Backlash

Henry cursed as he got up from his clinic bed. His wounds had healed - he had taken care of that quickly himself - but the implants were gone, and his nerves were still in pain from the blast. He’d requested replacements, but they were still in the pipeline. “Damned witch”, he said at the two figures in his room. “What do you want?”

He didn’t know the two figures, but he know what they were - a White Suit and Damage Control. It’s not who he expected to see here…

The Damage Control agent spoke up first. “Student Lemaitre, report”.

“Mission successful. Enemy sanctum destroyed. And it’s Associate…”

“Not anymore”, the White Suit interjected. “Do you realize what you’ve done?”

“I got the mission done. The sanctum had to go, the sanctum is gone. What else do you want?”

“You killed 4 innocents, Lemaitre,” Damage Control continued. Wow, he was more pissed off than normal. “You blew up a school! Do you know how hard it was to get a cover story up for that one?”

“Hey, that was plan B. Sometimes shit happens.”

“The damage to the school is one thing,” the white suit continued. “Sloppy, wasteful work. But forgiveable. But your sin is far graver - you broke the Consensus.”

“That was the wit-”

“SHUT UP” the White Suit continued. Henry wanted to reply, but he suddenly found himself unable to act. “You decided to escalate, and you’re responsible for the consequences.”

The man in white lighted a cigarette, glaring at Lemaitre. “If it were up to me, you’d be crucified for this. I even took him along to take care of it” - noting at the Damage Control agent - “but I’m getting the next best thing - you being out of my hair. Seems you’ve got some guardian angel - you’re being transferred. Some new setup in Antwerp - and looks like they’re looking for failures just like you.”

Henry raged inside, but couldn’t do anything but calmly wait. “This is your final chance, Lemaitre. Fail like you did again, and noone can help you with the fallout.”