10182090 EOD B-Golf

[KF]: I understand that I have my doubts of my home's safety since I've left, but my only reassuring thought is that so long as those two aren't taken then the state of my home is of no matter.

[VD]: Hey! Thank goodness you're back.

[KF]: I can only imagine, something else happened?

[VD]: After what happened last week we wanted to get away for the day. Turns out that was the perfect day to leave.

[KF]: Why is that?

[S]: The whole house has been, what's the word, ransacked?

[KF]: I suppose if you two are alright then I'm not that worried.

[VD]: Really?

*The three of them step inside to find [KF]'s house upturned: furniture broken and thrown asunder, papers, mud, and damage to the walls and windows are scattered all about every room. Every room except [KF] and [NH]'s which had not only been locked but the door in concave. It seems as if the culprits didn't come prepared enough to breach more than one wooden door as only the front door has been forced open of every door in the house*
[KF]: No manner of insurance policy can work faster than I can.

*[SDR] begins to slowly fix up every room one at a time, as far as cleaning the rooms in the fixing process too. After a half hour the whole house is back to normal*
[KF]: This whole ordeal puzzles me.

[S]: What about it?

[KF]: It's easy to assume the cult was here, but what did they want if not us? They were attempting to get into my room, which I'll admit if they did they could have taken a lot of firepower. What stopped them? They breached one door but not any others. They could not breach any others. If one were to understand why, they'd have to know what they used to get in.

[NH]: Hey! Ach, shit.

[KF]: Nate!

*[SDR] catches [NH] as he walks through the front door and nearly falls over, [KF] runs to pick him back up to his feet*
[KF]: Did Ren and Ashton get out too?

[NH]: How did you know, whatever. I think so?

[KF]: How did you get out?

[NH]: This giant warehouse door leading outside this bricked off area we were in got opened and I ran. I was the first out and everything just faded to black.

[KF]: I suppose we can only hope. I talked to an associate of Aki's who said she too had experienced that, and shortly thereafter Aaron comes around the corner being held up by Alex.

[NH]: You know I won't lie, that is relieving to hear he escaped. I don't wish that kind of fate to anyone, what we went through.

[KF]: Not only is there a connection between that and this cult, but they tore our house asunder looking for us yesterday.

[NH]: It doesn't look like anyone did?

[SDR]: HiiiiI!

[NH]: Oh, right. You probably just fixed it somehow.

[KF]: I'm unsure why so I'm assuming for now that it was to get us. We already know from their own pictures that they knew where we lived. Perhaps their goal was to take those back before the police or someone else got a hold on them? Good thing it had been this one day as I brought them with me.

[VD]: I don't mean to sound paranoid, but perhaps they have a back up plan for when we all did return?

[NH]: He might just be right.

[KF]: I thought about that too but splitting up in any way it the worst option in a time like that.

[VD]: Then maybe we should exit the house?

[NH]: If they know where we live then what's the harm? Stay inside and get boxed in or sit outside and have an open area to defend.

[KF]: We need a better plan than that. We can't just sit here with the walls closing in either way, it's a risk either way. The alternative to being boxed in is the presented certainty that we're all present by going outside.

[NH]: Wait, so you said you just got back earlier today?

[VD]: All of us, yeah.

[NH]: Kari, how long were you gone for?

[KF] I left on the 11th and returned today. A week.

[NH]: Just to meet with "Boss"?

[KF]: Is something wrong? It took a while to track her down.

[NH]: A week seems like a really long time, you're planning something else.

[KF]: I gave myself apt time to prepare for that meeting and for returning.

[NH]: And you knew to give yourself seven days. If I know you, you are meticulous, yet something seems strange.

[VD]: She can view the near future.

[NH]: Huh?

[KF]: He's right, I knew I couldn't keep a secret from the most perceptive young man in all my travels. I've discovered I could do it ever since I cut my hair, I don't know why. I shook my head to get my bangs out of my eyes and caught a glimpse of an image in my hair that showed me I'd be running out of the door. That's how I knew to check on Voce and Sol, as it were I found them in a struggle against the cult in the forest.

[NH]: I suppose I understand, but how does that let you know that seven days is enough planning for anything if it's the imminent future?

[VD]: That I cannot tell. Speaking of, she doesn't have any tells when we bring that one week's planning up. Mom, when Nate mentioned the time involved in the planning you checked your hair habitually, that's how I could tell something was up. This time, though, I have to ask with him. How did you know seven days would work out?

[KF]: When I first met with "Boss" she told me about the situation Nate, his old friend Aaron, and our friends Ashton and Ren were in. I was stressing the urgency I should return home when she added on something very interesting at the end, and keep in mind this was four days ago. She said, "Nate, Ashton, and Ren are still in there. It almost seems like although Aaron's leave was premature they're allowed to escape in some kind of sequence. Time and space, like I've heard you mention a lot, play a good part in this. Give it some time, maybe you can plan around their reappearance. Bend time and space to your will once more".

[S]: I don't get it, what's happening?

[VD]: Yeah, me too. What?

[KF]: Nate, Aaron, Ashton, and Ren were all taken on separate occasions to a spiritual realm where an eldritch entity with higher powers imprisoned them in an innocuous arena filled with meat hooks and murderers where their goal was to find escape. All while these killers attempted to sacrifice the four for some kind of ritual.

[S]: Go on.

[KF]: Aaron left too early by blacking out from an injury, but apparently his escape was credited by his unusual nature in that he is by all means immortal.

[VD]: Immortality? How is that possible?

[NH]: Voce, we're immortal too.

[VD]: What, seriously?

[KF]: Nate volunteered for Aaron's projects a long time ago and regrets it, and Katya holds my soul. Aaron's fluke in immortality is that if he commits suicide he'll stay dead. If Nate is murdered then he'll stay dead too. I can die, but Katya holding my soul chooses to revitalize me every time in some kind of sick game. And we're not the only three.

[S]: So what, so are this "Ashton" and "Ren"?

[KF]: Ashton is because he's living in servitude to God himself as punishment. But the major point is that three of the four are immortals, while Ashton and Ren's powers derive from the religions they put their faith in. This isn't why they were taken to this innocuous realm, I've come to discover.

[NH]: Then, why? I don't understand it myself.

[KF]: If my hypotheses are correct, then the reason you four were the ones taken were because all of you are the most superstitious people of all of us.

[NH]: Kari, seriously? That's not funny.

[KF]: Think about this, Nate. You, Aaron, Ashton, and Ren have open minds to the ethereal. Maybe this was a way to rid all of the most spiritually suspicious threats in World Zero. Somewhat like silencing a whistleblower.

[NH]: Then why not Aki? She more than believes in ghosts, she has a whole private military company based on where the Foundation fell!

[KF]: Could you use Way Beyond in that realm?

[NH]: Yeah, actually. Ren and Ashton were using their religious powers evading the killers once they realized they couldn't kill them.

[KF]: Aki's Anima is incredible strong. A grappling hook, some strong air blasts, and heavy punching wouldn't do so much damage to a killer unphased by pain as opposed to bathing them in radiation.

[VD]: Earlier you mentioned, "Give it some time, maybe you can plan around their reappearance. Bend time and space to your will once more". What did that mean?

[KF]: That's the real reason I waited for a week. I figured out how to have the rest of those captured reappear back in reality in a timely manner. Just to prove it, Nate walked in the door at almost a perfect time. I was off by, maybe, a couple of minutes.

[NH]: How? How did you know I'd show up back here at home exactly when you expected.

[KF]: Somehow still counting Aaron, since by this theory he would still be first leading me to believe his escape was not circumstantial, it's all by age. He's the oldest, then you, then Ashton, then Ren. How I'd know you'd be right on time down to a matter of single digit minutes is all thanks to the ability of seeing the near future.

[VD]: I get what you're planning now.

[KF]: What I came up with in the time I was away was that this cult uses its lust for my death to avenge Jacob as an emotional motivator for something much deeper. What were to happen if the four of you were successfully sacrificed? As four people of extreme power, in comparison to four lucky survivalists who work together as a team, you might have appeased this dark entity enough to bring about their arrival back in realm of reality. These cultists we're facing believe that this can be done in reality itself. Maybe they're foolish, or maybe they've been forsaken. Perhaps maybe they're just opportunistic. Whatever the case, they believe that if our blood is to be shed on those hook that this dark entity would turn its head to their accomplishments and be appeased by this instead, thus bringing eldritch apocalypse on Earth.

[VD]: That was a very displeasing phrase.

[KF]: Using the message of avenging Jacob was a way to gain a following, bringing the conclusion that this is not a legion as we once thought. There are people in control in this cult, perhaps being discreet enough to make their fellow followers believe they are a legion unruled by one, and these people in control realize the true nature of their goal.

[NH]: If we were to locate, target, and eliminate these eldritch lieutenants then the true goal of the cult would dissipate and their simple message of avenging Jacob would be all that remains. But how do we know who's who when all that's to differentiate them is in their thoughts? We can't just capture and interrogate them one by one, there's possibly hundreds of these cultists by now.

[KF]: No, we can't. But our preceptive young man here might give us an edge.

[VD]: Is that so? Explain.

[KF]: You and I have seen the cultists since their inception, you may be perceptive enough to tell which of these cultists seem familiar and which you've seen the longest. If this overall goal of appeasing an otherworldly horror has been the initial goal, by our hypothesis, then the oldest cultists should be the ones we target. If memory alone won't help, then we'll have to scout them out and see who's giving more orders than taking them.

[S]: This just might work.

[VD]: An excellent session of brainstorming.

[NH]: I don't know how you do it, Kari. It's like every time something happens you one-up yourself, never cease to amaze.

[KF]: We'll strike on this cult. Find them, scout them out, and infiltrate under the cover of night. We won't waste time, but we will have to give it some time.

[S]: More? Why?

[KF]: I know Ashton will want to rain hell on the rest of the cultists we don't need to capture once I explain the situation. That, and they'll be expecting us to revolt after trashing our house. We'll give them some time to let their guard down.

[NH]: Kari, what if we're wrong?

[KF]: This fits all too well in place to be wrong. Either way wiping them all out will end it for now, but knowing for sure we're taking out those "in charge" will end it indefinitely. If we don't take them out for good, then they might just keep coming at us until they die themselves. This is a way to see to that immediately.

[VD]: So with that all said, when should we be prepared by?

[KF]: Like I said, give it time.

*end*