Allen:

The team I joined was given the DNA scanner the Tracers lent to the banshees to help us follow the trail of Jezreel. In my mind, several times I had my doubts the other children would be with them, after all, they disappeared from my house suddenly but... what else did I have to go on? Besides, everyone else seemed to believe this was connected.

I traveled in a four-person team with werewolf Filetran, wildman Frankie and werewolf Jarred. They picked me up traveling down from the mountains and we drove following the trail of someone who had been traveling with Jezreel apparently... whoever it was seemed to be traveling on foot, but since the group, I joined only saw traces of the children every few miles or so, we assumed they must have been carrying her. Whoever it was, from their strides in the snow that we saw every so often, traveled VERY fast- and they weren't alone.

We followed the traces all the way across the state border. We eventually traveled as far as Seattle. If these were gargoyles, perhaps they hadn't anticipated we had pharaoh technology to assist us... yeah, fair assessment, the Finders' tracer was useful, but a rather unique device, able to zero in on multiple traces of a person within two miles. Not many people would suspect we had something like that just lying around. Really, having tracks be far apart should have been a good way to lose normal tracking techniques.

Through the night we traveled, rotating sleeping in the car.

The sun was high in the sky as I watched Jarred with the tracer as I continued to drive. He tapped his window. "They went to that building," said the younger brown-haired wolf.

I looked over. He was pointing at a large unfinished construction site, with the frame of a building about seven stories tall. Even at a distance, the fifth floor the building looked like a mess, several large beams bent and broken. I slowly parked the car. "I'm gonna go out on a limb here," I said, reaching for my shotgun riding near the clutch. "But I don't think even modern art weirdoes make building frames quite like that."

Filetran, our head wolf, a rather bulky werewolf with black hair and older than me, tapped my seat. "Yeah... let's get out and investigate."

"Ya think whoever they fought is still around? Eager to do more than stretch my legs when we get out," said the blond-haired stalky Frankie.

"From the looks of that building... let's hope not, but everyone be on guard," Filetran answered.

I carried my shotgun, gripping her tightly as we ran through the dark alleyways, the head wolf silently directing us with his hands.

We were currently in the streets of Seattle. Our leader pointed up to a large unfinished building. "You're right, that is not how normal construction works," said Filetran.

I looked up seeing huge scorch marks covering the metal beams of the building. "I'm gonna wager that would be Jessica's work," I said.

Jarred pulled out the tracer and a small pink sock from a duffel bag he was carrying. "Ya know what?" he said after scanning the sock. "I think you're right... Jessica was here too, on that building. He dug into the duffel producing clothing that belonged to each of the children and scanning them in sequence. "If this thing is telling me right, all of the kids were here... and they left that way." He pointed away from the building to the left.

Filetran sighed. "No, let's not follow them right away. I wanna look at the scene of the fight."

We traveled up a ladder to the fifth floor.

I stood on one of the beams, looking at the scorch marks all over the metal, accompanied by several instances of actual melted metal. A few parts looked like they were ready to break. Under my weight, the steel did indeed creek, and a few times I had to make sure it wasn't about to give way.

"There's more than just electrical burns," said Filetran. He pointed up at one of the beams. "That's a bullet embedded in there. Don't really want to jump over there... too lazy..." He took out a small pair of binoculars. "Yep, that's a nine mil round."

"Why would gargoyles carry nines?" asked Frank. "Just a thought, why carry a weapon that would be functionally useless against others of your own kind?"

Filetran sat down on the beam and stroked his whisker-covered chin. "There are also those cut beams," he said, pointing up as several sheared off beams overhead. "No way this was a struggle with a gargoyle. I mean, they had to have an enemy for sure, unless Jessica was unloading her electrical attacks out here just for fun. But all these scorch marks and..." he looked through his own binoculars, following his gaze with a flashlight, "and yeah, no blood- well a little. Jessica fires electricity and nothing can reliably dodge this many electrical bursts, no even a gargoyle. So something had to shield against it. Actually, the bursts being deflected would explain the erratic patterns of these burns. Someone had to be using something like a field of energy that could repel-"

"Force field," Frank said. "So, minus the big words, long explanations, and you trying to sound smart, they were fighting a fellow pharaoh out here."

Jarred hopped over Filetran and walked to a large room, sniffing the air. "There were definitely pharaohs here..."

Frank raised an eyebrow looking at him. "Brilliant... and there's definitely a moon in the sky." Franky slapped his leg laughing at Jarred.

Jarred rolled his eyes. "Yes... I'm not referring to the fact that half the missing kids are pharaohs."

"Well not quite half..." Frank corrected.

Jarred held his head. "I mean I smell a pharaoh that I don't know. But also..." he sniffed the air again, "I definitely still smell gargoyles."

I held up a finger. "Can I point something out?" Everyone looked in my direction. "You guys are saying they were definitely fighting a pharaoh out here. What are the odds of a gargoyle pharaoh alliance?"

Franky stretched, looking to be getting tired. "Bout as good as any of you pups kicking my butt."

"How do we know the gargoyles are the bad guys here?" I asked. Truth was, I hadn't bought into the anti gargoyle prejudice myself for a long time, always suspecting they weren't... genetically evil. Also, the first adventure Kyle and Jessica told me about kinda put it to shame.

"Put it to you this way, sympathizer," Filetran responded. "The gargoyles were with the kids this entire time. Then this pharaoh just appears. I would think he was a good guy trying to save them, but, well the kids definitely had to fight him, so that's unlikely. Still, if the gargoyles did rescue the kids from that pharaoh, they didn't return them home, now did they? In fact, it doesn't at all look like they were planning on it. And all of the kids know their own phone numbers, so they could have just called home. Whoever won the fight and has the kids now, is no friend to our side of the societies, that much is clear. Maybe a bad pharaoh homed in on the gargoyle prey... Come to think of it, why do you think the other kids are just suddenly here? They weren't with the other two this whole time. Jarred, tell me, how old are the traces of Jessica?"

Jarred checked the DNA scanner, having to juggle several items. "Jessica would have arrived here about the same time she disappeared from Allen's home... that doesn't make any sense."

"Allen, you told us all about trickster gods." Filetran began. I nodded. "You think Xao would have done this? Maybe the other Finders made a deal with him to get them to the kids."

"With Jaden and Judith?" I asked. "That really makes no sense. I mean, it sounds like something I would guess a trickster can do but... why would Xao do it? Hell, if he knew where Sarah and Jezreel were, just teleport them home, why teleport the Finders?"

"Maybe he was afraid they wouldn't find out what was going on and nothing would be over if they just did that?" Jarred noted.

"So many flaws in that idea," I said. "I mean, to start, we could gather info directly from the kids, it puts the kids in unnecessary danger, it overestimates the powers of the Finders themselves as opposed to our societies at large... you get the idea."

"Well, the Finders are young, aren't they? They naive?" Jarred asked.

"A little. I still wager Xao is going on his third century of life, but in relative terms yeah, they're young," I admitted.

"So what about that other trickster?" Filetran queried further.

"Darius?" I asked. "He should be dead."

"You said Xao never confirmed he was dead..." Filetran kept scanning the battle scene. "I mean, it's a long shot, but he's all we've got."

Jarred pointed at a large room a few feet from us. "That's where the gargoyles appeared again.

Inside the room, there were more burn marks on the floor.

Filetran looked down at the ground. "Something else is also clear. Regardless of their ages and sizes, someone overpowered a group consisting of a werewolf, three pharaohs, and two banshees... and possibly whatever they were fighting as well. We're going to need reinforcements." He looked over at me. "Allen," he flicked a coin in the air and over to me. "call for the other teams. This is the way we need to go, no point in folks continuing to search in other places. The rest of the team and I will continue following the trail and possibly scout what we're about to encounter." Filetran paused. "I don't think he's still involved, but this other pharaoh, whoever he is, let's say he's a person of interest."

I looked at the assembled posse, a sarcastic wildman who wouldn't mind starting a brawl, a werewolf who wouldn't give gargoyles half a chance... Jarred was the only one who didn't seem to be looking for a fight, but he was hardly objecting. "Just... can you guys try not to be too trigger happy?" Franky chuckled. I mumbled to myself, "Wonderful." I waved my RJ-3 transceiver just so everyone knew I had one, Filetran showing me his. Finally, I headed for the ground and a payphone.

(***)

Not saying that communicating over a transceiver is EVER fun, but I was able to quickly meet back up with the team. We traveled down several alleyways, following the scent of the children and the gargoyles traveling with them.

As we went, something in the pit of my stomach started tying itself in knots. Something was wrong. Maybe more strange than wrong but... something. There was no sign of a struggle after the building, but the scanner said that fight happened several hours ago. But the kids were still missing- so what was going on? What were we headed towards? If they surrendered, how hopelessly outgunned were they? Sheesh, I had heard Jessica called the "Queen of Lightning"... what outgunned her?

As much as we could, our team kept to the shadows, our dark clothing helping us blend in. In a short time, we came to an alleyway that led to a large closed warehouse. The scent of the children and those with them was very strong now.

Jarred continued sniffing the air, Filetran signaling for us to get out of the alleyway. We lined up alongside a building outside the alley. "They're definitely in there," Jarred said. He sniffed again. "Heck, you know I can't give you numbers but... there are a LOT of people in there."

"Gargoyles?" asked Filetran.

"A number of them."

"Someone is gonna have to go in there," Filetran said. I raised my hand. "A good runner pudgy," He poked my stomach with the stock of his rifle. Franky looked about to volunteer when Filetran waved a hand at him. "And not someone who would start a fight for the fun of it." He nodded at Jarred. "Go, then report back here. Goes without saying, but radio silence."

(***)

While Jarred was gone, the group of us went into the abandoned building and changed into tarnished clothes we had brought with us. Along with fake facial hair, I say we came out looking like a rather indecent example of a small group of homeless men.

An hour after he left, Jarred returned to us, actually coming up from behind our group rather than returning through the same alleyway. "Yeah um... there are um... there's a lot of people in there," he said as he got up against the wall the rest of us were sitting by.

Filetran rolled his eyes. "Numbers Jarred. A lot could mean anything from ten to a hundred."

"Oh um... a lot closer to a hundred." He shook his head. "Look, there were so many people in there I kinda just walked around. I didn't even bother sticking to the shadows because SOMEONE would have seen me. With a group that large, people just assume you belong there if you don't act weird. No one knows everyone."

"You're telling me an army of gargoyles is in there?" asked Frank.

"Something like... I couldn't get an exact headcount... including women and children, maybe three hundred."

"So your best estimate is around... I don't know two hundred able-bodied fighters?" asked Filetran. "That's hardly an army."

"No it sounds more like a community," I put in. "So..." I thought. "How many women and children?"

"Oh a good number of them. In fact, I'd say way more than half. What's in there isn't an army, more like a nest."

"Or a refugee camp," I put in.

"Right you wanna humanize them go for it," Filetran said. "Ideas anyone?"

"Honestly? There's no way a scouting party is gonna be able to fight through that. We need to sneak in, get the kids and run. We try to fight without an army there's no way this ends in our favor. Just get the pharaoh nation on the horn and tell em' to bomb em' from orbit or something... I don't know, maybe something that won't be noticed as easily by the public but the point remains."

"Guys this doesn't sound like we're attacking an army, just a bunch of families, we can just-" I began, but Filetran cut me off.

"You wanna save your son or talk semantics?" Filetran asked. "They're monsters and however you feel about them, we are still at war. Now we're talking gargoyles, the women are gonna be strong enough and old enough to put up a fight generally, even if they're like most and tend to despise violence."

I rolled my eyes and commented, "Oh I thought you believed all gargoyles were insane, is that only gargoyles and not girlgoyles?"

Frank actually chuckled at that one.

Filetran rolled his eyes and replied. "Well, one would expect them to stay sane longer. Anyway, human instinct is to protect women, so if they have reverted to animal instincts, the women will still fall back." He sighed. "Even so, that's possibly well over a hundred POWERFUL creatures in the best-case scenario. Did you see the kids, I mean the ones we're here for?"

"They're not all in one place, but from what I was able to observe they aren't especially watched for some reason," Jarred said.

"Guess you can't expect kids to know what to do in a situation like this. They should have been taught to stay together. They just gather together now out of nowhere and start moving as a group the gargoyles will notice for sure," I said, lamenting that I hadn't even tried to prepare Jaden for what to do if he was taken someday. As an officer, I stood out to the world as a target, I had to know, something like this could always happen.

Filetran shook his head. "If they're not together, sneaking in and just grabbing them is straight out, I'm sorry. " He leaned against the wall, playing with a hole in his coat. "If we wanna get those kids out of there, there's no choice, we're gonna have to fight."

"How many folks we gonna have if we get all the teams here?" asked Frank.

"Oh I don't know, seventy," Filetran said.

"Good number of mystics?" Frank continued.

"Maybe ten."

Frank shook his head. "I know I'm the only guy here who's messy enough to suggest this, but you all know we can't win with those numbers if we fight fair- so what if we didn't?"

"What are you suggesting?" I asked, feeling uneasy.

"They got kids right? Like a good fifty or so probably. Kids make a royal mess of things. If we don't discriminate and we're willing to attack them too-"

"That is out of the question," I said standing up.

Filetran waved us both off. "Direct assault is right out." He looked at Frank. "And your plan will make things even worse. Remember, it's not we who outclass them on powers, they outclass us, we need a REAL plan." He touched his finger to his head a few times. "There a lot of flammable stuff in there?" he asked.

"Place is made mostly of stone and metal," Jarred replied.

"So just smoking them out won't work."

"You guys are so conventional," Frank said. "Look, the idea of smoking someone out is to get them to panic and run out of a building with their guard dropped- or at least to create a good distraction. So then we could engage in a more advantageous battle and grab the kids right?" Filetran nodded. "More than one way to cause a ruckus. Just get some fireworks and set them off inside the building."

Filetran chuckled. "Simple, but I'd say probably effective. Can't do it right away though, we need everyone together in case there's a struggle." He thought for a moment. "Alright, here's the plan. We contact one of the kids and tell them to head for the back door of that facility- well Jarred you tell them what exit to head for, just so long as they're together. Tonight, while everyone is settling down, we set off the fireworks and the kids make their break for the exit. With all the bright lights and sounds, only someone who knows where they're going ahead of time will be able to keep up. We have teams waiting just outside to grab 'em' and run. They'll get em' to some waiting cars and get the hell out of here."

"Well keep in mind guys, that kind of a distraction won't work forever," I said. "Best to have the kids already together and near the door before we do it." Filetran bit his lip. "I know that doesn't sound subtle, but remember, we're not just working with children in there, Kyle, Jessica, and Xao are in there and I'm sure they'll be able to figure a way to get everyone to the exit in a non-suspicious manner."

"Right," Filetran said. "Maybe we should send you in to explain all this to one of the kids."

I shook my head. "Not me, they're too familiar. You ever seen a kid being approached by someone they love, they're not exactly subtle. Don't think any of them know Jarred, send him in again."