MV2: Settling The Basics

"This is our dormitory," Mr. Carillo said. "Each student gets their own room, at least to start with. We're on a purely nocturnal schedule, though not everybody needs that."

"I will," said Andy, absently. He was missing Steve and Veronica, and even Rodney -- even though they'd just left. It wasn't quite one change too many, but it was close; they'd been anchors while he was at sea. 

Mr. Carillo nodded. "I know. We get more wights than you might think; we have another one here now."

"How many students?" he asked. There was something dully generic about this place: patterned carpeting, painted walls, panel ceiling, lights and doors at regular intervals. The outer walls were light-colored brick, and the lower floor -- which they were traversing now -- lacked windows, or much of anything in the way of decorations. 

"Fifteen, at present," Mr. Carillo answered. "One wight, two ghosts, two vampires, a demon, two new-risen nature spirits, a zombie, three werewolves, an animate, a ghoul, and one of the black-eyed children. Sixteen, counting you; you're our second wight."

Andy nodded. He didn't exactly care, but he thought he should know. "I suppose we'll have... what? Classes and a schedule?"

Mr. Carillo nodded. "Exactly. You're still finishing high school, and we'll help you get to a diploma; in addition, we'll work more on feeding, and developing some basic powers to align with the sort of monster you wish to become. Frequently, that includes a plan to avoid being any more of a monster than you absolutely have to: ignoring your powers, dealing effectively with restrictions and compulsions -- including feeding -- and finding a job that will allow you to fit in with the mundane world."

That sounded like a lot, but then they'd probably had a long time to study the problem and try things out. Andy couldn't imagine how he was supposed to have a normal life when he needed to drain a certain amount of youth each night, but maybe he could find something. 

The idea that an ordinary relationship was pretty much impossible was depressing, but not unexpected. I'm so sorry, Amy. If you hadn't come over to my house, you wouldn't be dead now. Yeah, it was a dumb accident and not my fault, but still... 

He shook his head and stopped beside Mr. Carillo at one of the doors. 

"This will be your room, for now," Mr. Carillo told him. "Put your things away and rest. We'll resume your education tomorrow night."

MV2: Welcome to the Classroom

Andy waited until Veronica turned off the van before he unbuckled his seatbelt and stepped out. They'd made some brief stops -- long enough to get him a decent set of very generic clothing and a bag to keep it in. That was fine; fashion was the least of his concerns at this point. 

Veronica stepped out first, approached Mr. Carillo, and offered her hand. He shook it, smiling, then turned to Andy. "So this is our new student?"

Andy nodded. "And hopefully not too much of a problem."

Mr. Carillo huffed a laugh. "I promise you, our entire mission here is to help ease you past your problems."

That sounded encouraging, at least. "...Thank you," Andy said, after an awkward moment. 

"We have a room prepared. If you don't have clothing, we can provide it." 

"We grabbed a few outfits and basic toiletries," Veronica said quietly, "but nothing... personal."

Andy shrugged. "It's fine."

Mr. Carillo took a moment to study him. "You're really new, aren't you? I mean, I knew that -- it's right there in the file -- but we don't usually get new students until they've been changed for several months."

"I imagine most of them aren't being hunted by their makers," Andy observed, keeping his tone neutral.

"No, generally not," Mr. Carillo agreed. "Right, well, let's get you into a comfortable room, a hot bath, and a proper nervous breakdown, shall we?"

Andy considered that. "Yeah, that sounds about right," he admitted. 

MV2: First Impressions

Andy looked around as they turned off the farm road and onto a wide, cobbled driveway. They were well away from the highway now, traveling on farm roads and byways; the terrain had gone irregular and hilly, and he could see mountains in the distance. There were trees, but not many; those mostly followed the course of creeks and streams. 

The stone wall with its wrought-iron gates seemed out of place, out here in the relative middle of nowhere, but Veronica drove the van up to it and stopped. In the back, Steve stirred as she rolled down the window, then leaned out a pressed a button on some kind of speaker arrangement. After a long moment, a voice asked, "Veronica? Is that you?"

"Yeah. Got the new student for you."

The voice was male, and sounded older. "Ah. Right. We weren't expecting you until tomorrow."

Veronica shrugged. "We decided to move quickly. And since ambush failed, Eleni wants to get back to the hunt." 

"Come on up. I'll meet you out front."

The gates swung open, and Veronica guided the van under the stone arch and into the school. 

The central building had the look of an old stone factory, with rough, heavy blocks forming the outer walls and narrow windows scattered around. A more modern building, two-storied but still smaller, sat off to their left, and a handful of other buildings were scattered around as well. What caught Andy's attention were the obstacle course -- what else could it be? -- and the climbing tower, both of which made his palms itch for a try at them. 

It was still an hour or two before dawn -- he'd lost track --  but his vision had adjusted almost on its own and the figure on the porch of one of the smaller buildings was clearly visible: a grey-haired man in a rumpled suit, standing at the top of the wooden steps. Despite the hour, he looked awake and alert, his posture almost military.

"Alejandro Carillo," Veronica said quietly. "Mister Carillo, to you. You can trust him. He's an old friend -- my mentor, after I turned." 

Andy nodded. "Werewolf?"

Veronica shook her head. "Ghost. He's making a special effort to be solid for you; normally he's harder to see."

Andy took a moment to think about that, but the thought that came to him first was just... It had never occurred to him that he might have woken up as a ghost instead of a wight. But given his sudden, violent death... he could easily picture himself hanging around to protect his little sister Judith. God, that would have been a mess. "Sorry," he said after a long moment. "I mean, we all know stories, but it never occurred to me that I might actually meet a ghost. Socially, I mean." 

MV2: More Travel

They drove north and west, heading out of Oklahoma and towards... Andy didn't know, and didn't care enough to ask. One of their schools, which were supposed to teach him to use and control powers once he knew enough to feed safely.. That was enough for him. As the van made its way along the highway -- moving at night, since Rodney couldn't keep up otherwise and nobody wanted to try shoving his motorcycle into the van itself -- Andy thought through the questions he did want answered. 

"Any more information on Titus?" he asked, glancing over at Steve. 

Steve shrugged. 

Andy said, "Come on, I know you get information that you aren't sharing with me."

This time Steve sniffed, looking amused. "All right. He's a revolutionary. Calls himself Titus Anthropicus. Origin uncertain, but he's been active in the U.S. for at least a century. Violently opposed to the Settlements -- Reservations, they're usually called. He refers to them as concentration camps, and that's..." Steve sighed. "Not entirely right, but not entirely wrong either. 'Reservations' is better. He's got a long history of sabotage, organizing, and at least two deliberate assassinations. The werewolf calls himself Lycan't, and he's... generally been more of a mercenary than anything else. The nightbringer's new, though -- we don't know much of anything about her."

Andy nodded as he took that in. "All right. That helps. So he was... doing his thing, wound up chased by the police, broke into my house and murdered me while his friend ate my girlfriend, and then managed to escape despite looking like a badly-reanimated corpse. And one way or another, he realized -- or expected -- that I'd wake up like this, so he came looking to... recruit me? I guess?"

Steve shrugged. "Maybe. He definitely wants you for something." Which meant maybe the phoenix feather or maybe something else entirely.

Andy nodded slowly. "What about Lorraine, and... was it John?"

Steve chuckled, then fell silent. "I heard how you handled John," he said quietly. "And.. it wasn't subtle, or discreet. You weren't wrong, exactly -- that guy was going to be a problem, one way or another, any way he could find -- but you made yourself look like a threat to civilians, too."

"Sorry." Andy looked away, out the window. "He just... I don't know. Something about that guy really pissed me off." 

Steve nodded, then paused for a long moment. "Lorraine was... mauled. Not fed on, not infected -- deliberately, it seems -- but murdered with claws. John was taken, and we haven't seen any sign of him since. We assume he's traveling with Titus, and probably being trained by him -- possibly as a replacement for you. After you drained him, it would have been easy to tip him over the edge; you might even be able to sense him if he gets close to you, since you contributed to his turning."

Andy shuddered. "Dear God, I hope not." He didn't want that weight on his conscience. 

Steve shook his head. "Not your fault. He would have lived if Titus hadn't intervened. And whatever the faults in our current system, Lorraine wasn't doing anybody any harm. Titus chose to murder her anyway."

"I'm going to kill him," Andy said. "Permanently."

"You're not--"

"Quiet," Andy told the werewolf. "I'm manifesting over here." 

"Yeah." Steve sighed. "Just remember, if you're manifesting then Titus likely is too." He hesitated, again. "So manifest hard."

MV2: The Long Wait

A night passed, and then another, and then another. Andy finally found a rhythm of sorts, sleeping through most of the day and waiting for enough night to fall that he could safely move around. He'd remembered to bring the book of naval history with him, and finished it. 

When he woke again, it was still light outside. He rolled over, checked the two guns he'd been given, and then sighed. He hadn't sensed his maker Titus, and if the others had come for him surely the strike force would have notified them. Either they'd managed to slip away, or Titus had given up, or... or he's waiting for everyone to drop their guard. Which they will. 

He wouldn't, of course. But it was obvious that the plan to lure the three rogues here and destroy them wasn't working. 

So it was no surprise at all when Veronica knocked on his door and said, "We're holding another planning session."

He nodded, rose, and followed her out to the kitchen. 

Steve and Rodney were sitting there; so was Eleni. Andy took a seat and decided to make it easy for everyone. "Nothing?"

"Nothing," confirmed Eleni, watching him from behind her glasses. "Either they don't know where we are, or they know better than to try us."

Andy sighed, and met Rodney's eyes. The vampire nodded. 

"So what happens now?" he asked.

"Best if we get you into a school," Eleni said softly. 

Andy considered that for a long moment. "The schools are protected?"

Steve nodded. "Very thoroughly, and for several different reasons."

"We have to get you and Rodney fed, too," Veronica added. "After what happened with Lorraine and the kid, we can't risk bringing anyone else out here."

"Hell," said Rodney, "Titus may even be trying to starve you out, push you into an uncontrolled feeding."

Steve nodded. "Veronica and I can get by on regular food, but we can only provide for you two so much. We've been holding back on that, hoping your maker would show." 

"All right, then." Andy nodded. He wasn't looking forward to making another adjustment to his life, however well-intended, but he didn't see any other path forward. Exposing himself as bait was risky -- which at this point he was prepared to accept -- but the others would never go for it, and he wasn't honestly sure he was willing to risk his life... or unlife... like that. He couldn't bring himself to care if he lived or died, but he wasn't actively suicidal either. "Let's do it."

Eleni nodded to him. "We'll be beside you the whole way," she said.  

DoT: Not Them

Verity paused on the bridge, and handed the spyglass over to Vallatha. The younger woman was coming along well, minding her control as she slowly expanded her abilities, and it was a matter of pure shitty luck that she'd fallen afoul of a charm spell. Otherwise, she might have taken the mage captive when they'd first met. 

"I can't tell," Vallatha said at last. "The group's about the right size, but none of them look like the vendor's description -- or the elf I spoke with."

Verity sighed. "We're going to have to take a closer look.  If they're using disguises, a voice might give it away. Could you manage to talk to them?"

Vallatha nodded. "I haven't put on a disguise myself in well over two years, but I can do it."

"Do it, then. You're the only one who's had contact with them; you'll be the only one who can tell. And Mad Mattie wants answers."

"I want answers," Vallatha said, suddenly fierce. "I don't want anybody messing with my mind like that. I hate the idea of losing control like that."

Verity nodded. "I understand. Learn what you can, then, and report back."

* * *

Verity looked up as Vallatha knocked, entered her sanctum, and then dumped herself into one of the chairs. "It's not them," she said. "It could almost be -- they even had a halfling there -- but the halfling was still a child, and I don't think she's throwing spells at anybody. The rest of them... They could be a crew, and possibly Mist Eyes, but they don't match any crew I've ever heard of, and apparently they spend a lot of their time helping out people on their spoke. One of the kids is apprenticed in the bakery, and the woodcarver told me how they heal his hand every morning to help with the pain." She sighed. "And the only elf there was a woman, who kept trying to flirt with me. None of their voices were familiar, either."

"None of that proves that they didn't kill Varna," Verity observed, but she sounded dubious even to herself. 

"It doesn't," Vallatha agreed, "but I would have preferred to find something that does. We could pull them in, find a way to make sure they were telling the truth, but..." she shrugged. "I think we're looking in the wrong place."

"Very well," Verity said after a long moment. "Keep looking. Hard to believe that there might be two such groups, but Mistress Taritha's description wasn't very precise."

"Sudden violence will do that to the untrained," Vallatha observed, and Verity nodded. 

"So we keep looking." She sighed. "This mage will show up, sooner or later. I'd prefer sooner, but if they have any sense they'll have gone to ground after this."

"Is there another way to look?" asked Vallatha. 

"I'll set someone to watch them," Verity said, "and see if they make contact with anyone else. If they're just an up-and-coming crew within the Mist Eyes, though.... It's still possible that's how they went to make their name, but if so only they and Cedric will know it. We can't trust to rumor for this."

Vallatha nodded. "I have a friend who might be good for this. With your permission...?"

Verity nodded. "Tap him. He doesn't have to be brilliant, just observant and unobtrusive." 

Vallatha nodded. "I trust him. You recruited us together, if you remember."

"Ah," said Verity. "Salador." She nodded. "Do it." 

MV: Lying in Wait

It took a bit of practice with bits of trash for targets, and a recitation of the basic rules of gun safety: all guns are always loaded, trigger discipline is foremost, and you only aim a gun if you intend to shoot something. Veronica nodded along, and once Steve was satisfied they handed off a pair of weapons: a .38 revolver, and a pump shotgun with an under-barrel attachment that seemed to be a diving light or something similar.  

"Listen, kid-- Andy--" said Rodney, as he handed over the weapons. "Don't waste your time plotting against us. If you want us to cut you loose, we will. Of course, if you misbehave we might end up hunting you and I think we'd all regret that, but you're not a prisoner."

Andy gave him the most withering look he could manage. "I have three targets," he said quietly. "As disappointed as you might be to hear it, none of you qualify." He hesitated for a brief moment, then reached out and squeezed Rodney's shoulder. "And I keep my word."

Rodney managed a grin. "We won't have to make a hunter out of you," he predicted. "You've got the drive already."

Andy considered that. "You're just saying that because I know what I want and I have ideas about how to get there."

"Hunting can be done reluctantly, or joyously, but it should always have respect for the prey," Veronica said firmly. "Even Rodney acknowledges that."

Andy nodded. He had guns now. His maker did too, or his allies did. A wight, a werewolf, and a nightbringer. In theory, the strike team should be able to take care of them -- but they'd dodged the team once before, and rescued the werewolf from Andy and his rescuers. He didn't intend to underestimate them. He'd never expected to find himself in a gang war between monsters and monster-cops, but apparently that was where he was.