Mayday Plays - Doomed to Repeat Ep. 5 - "Dance with the Devils"

Episode Date: November 19, 2020

We continue our playthrough of “Reverberations” by Shane Ivey. After being dragged into the conspiracy by fellow friendlies Oliver and Rose; “Echo” decides to gain some leverage by informing the streets that “g-men” are creeping around Detroit. F-Cell learns of a “business exchange” happening involving Reverb and prepares to go to war. Meanwhile, Rose and Ollie speak to the family of one of the missing dealers. What they discover brings them closer to answers but headlong into the unnatural... This episode contains profanity, violence, and references to drug/alcohol use. Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this podcast are © Mayday Roleplay, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property. (Transcript link) CAST OF CHARACTERS • Aaron - Agent Fluke, FBI • Allegra - Rose Alvarado, Professor at Detroit University • Amanda - Agent Frost, U.S. Marshals • Caleb - Oliver Lake, Journalist at the Detroit News • Eli - “Echo” Blackwood, Owner of Hightower Records • Zakiya - Agent Frogg, DEA • Sergio - The Handler MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS • Post Sound Supervision: Sergio Crego, Eli Hauschel • Mixed: Eli Hauschel • Original Music: Aaron A. Pabst • Soundstripe (soundstripe.com) DELTA GREEN LINKS • Delta Green (http://deltagreen.com/) • Reverberations (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/218944/Delta-Green-Reverberations?cPath=1459_8165) MAYDAY ROLEPLAY LINKS • Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/maydayrp/) • Twitter (https://twitter.com/maydayroleplay7) • Mayday website (https://www.maydayroleplay.com/) • Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/maydayrp/)

Doom to Repeat is a Delta Green Actual Play podcast with violent themes and adult language. Listener discretion is advised. Welcome to Episode 5 of Doomed to Repeat. I'm Sergio, your handler. Tonight, we continue our playthrough of the scenario Reverberations by Shane Ivey. What the hell am I doing? Well, apparently, right this second, I'm talking to myself. Like a crazy person.

Yeah, I guess I am crazy. But who could blame me? No, no, no, no. I'm not crazy. I can't be crazy. I've made it this far with my wits and I won't let that be squandered now. I'm fishing on the lake, talking to Daryl. Hi, Daryl.

Thanks for listening. What the hell am I doing? Is that what you asked, Daryl? Now, truth is, it's a question I've been struggling to answer ever since I started all this shit. And I'm no closer now to being able to answer that question than ever. The truth is, I never really know. I get instructions, I follow them, I see some fucking shit that would drive a normal man insane, optionally save the day, then I go home and act like everything in the world

is just fine. I've been saying this for a while now, but this time I'm serious. This is the last one. The last mystery to be solved, the last of whatever twilight zone fucking David Cronenberg existence the last few decades has been. It's time for me to pass on the buck. That new blood flow, God knows mine has run enough, is running enough, and I suspect that by the time the job is done, mine won't be the only to run.

Oliver, Rose, I send them into this shop, high tower records, with one simple job. Extract information about the disappearance of pushers of a drug called reverb off the streets of Detroit. It is still unclear to me whether the pair succeeded at this. God knows F cell's own agent Frost did not help this situation. Fuck. She's a good kid, but she needs help. God, why did I, why did anyone let her anywhere near that goddamn evidence locker?

Regardless, a meeting was set for later in the day with the record shop clerk. More owner, I'm not really sure. Echo at a local music club called Studio Overground. After much fumbling, the assembled agents of F cell and I found ourselves sitting in some greasy spoon diner with one asset having ran away and the other weaseling his way out from our grasp with nothing more than that damn greasy mouth of his. But no matter, we'll take care of them one way or another. Those two, there's something hinky about both of them.

I know that they've got some sort of ancillary motivation here. A journalist and a like Bavarian, two people that have dedicated their lives to the consumption of the ignorant plebeian masses. That makes them huge liabilities for our operation. They already know too much about us, about what we do, and they're only going to learn more by the time all is said and done. It is far too risky to leave them hanging loose. We can't risk them running their greasy little mouths jeopardizing what we do.

I see no other alternative. Once they're no longer useful, I'm going to have to put a bullet in their untrustworthy brains. I'll teach that fucking good for nothing librarian to run away from me by the time I'm done with this, you'll be begging me to put a leg to her miserable fucking existence while I bail at the severed legs that she used to cross me. I need a stiff drink. Maybe the shock or blood loss is finally getting to me.

Yeah, yeah, let's go with that. I am not crazy. Of course you're not. Thanks, Daryl. Meanwhile, while Oliver and Rose were missing in action, agents Frost Frog and I rode over the Chinatown to investigate the plant native to China called Lao, a substance I knew to be a key component of the drug, reverb. The owner of the shop himself, Eddie, did not know much aside from Lao's obscure status.

He didn't sell any. We discovered that the plant grew exclusively in remote regions of the Himalayas and was used extensively by a mysterious people known as the Hua Chi. According to Eddie's grandma, you ingest too much of that shit and some kind of a demon or monster called a preta. May or may not come for you. Yeah, these kids though, Frog, Frost, they're green, stupid, senseless. If they're going to last long in this game, they'll need something to keep them safe.

Well, safe is a strong word, safer, I guess. I best be passing the buck onto them soon. After I made the decision that I would not be entering the music club and allowing the younger ones to sniff around there in my place, damn place wreaked of spoiled rotten kids, I stopped by a nearby 7-Eleven to get a pack of cigarettes, kill some time. On my way out, I spotted what was possibly the most obvious drug deal I've ever seen. I don't want a profile, but there aren't many Asian drug dealers in Detroit. It wasn't much to go on, but after witnessing them executing on multiple deals, I decided

to try my luck and arrest him. It went south, but good things leave me a nice trail of blood to follow. I doubt he's going to make it very far. So, it's Saturday, October 27th, 1984. It's just now 10 p.m. Let's start with the three clubgoers. You guys are inside the club, and regardless of whether you succeeded or failed on those sanity checks from last session, you are all feeling dizzy and extremely confused.

Your thoughts are racing. It's hard for you to maintain a thought like, gee, I should get out of here. It just kind of floats away, and then you snap back to your consciousness. Do you want to stay? What are you guys doing? I'd like to leave. Oh, I'd definitely like to leave. I would like to leave so much.

I think Oliver would like to ask someone who is the most fucked up if they have any more reverb. That's the plan right now. The band is playing God Lost Children. It is loud. It is crude, and there is a kind of a large group of people that have moved to the front of the stage, and you can maneuver around them. I'm going to ask that each of you who wants to do something, you need to make a power

times firewall, please. Succeed with a 34. Succeed with a 31. I failed with a 93. Echo, please roll a D8 for me. Oh, shit. A three. So what happens is, Agent Frost, you are not digging what's going on, and honestly,

who cares what happens to the friendlies? You just start walking to the exit, and as you walk, I mean, you're kind of stumbling around, and it's difficult. You get about halfway, and that's when you realize a lot of the people that you're trying to get across or get past are starting a mosh pit. So you're not yet to the exit door, but you basically walk into the dance floor where people are now starting to mosh. Oliver, you stumble past these two folks that you know, and you find a table where there's

a girl who's just kind of sitting there dancing along, and you start talking to her, but you can sense that your words are slurred, and you're having a hard time kind of getting across what you're trying to say. You get her attention, but she's like, what? She just keeps trying to understand it. Echo, you need to make a Constitution times five roll. I succeed with a 60. You feel like you're about to throw up.

It almost kind of bubbles into your mouth, but you grip the table, and you hold it, and you swallow it, and I need you to roll a D4. That's a two. You're going to lose two willpower. Once again, you all have things you want to do. If you'd like to continue doing them, make a power times five roll. In fact, I'm going to say first, Agent Frost, you find yourself at the top of this initiative in the middle of a mosh pit.

I need you to make a dex times five check. Got it. We got 44. Yes, I passed. Okay. You have to dodge a couple of fists and a couple of kicks in your direction, but you manage to, you're the one that passed the sanity check. You're kind of the most aware that something is affecting your perception and things like

that, but you manage to kind of avoid any punches that might hurt. You may make a power times five roll, and the rest of you may also make power times five rolls. You continue trying to do something that you're trying to do. 52, also 60. I succeed with a 19. So it sounds like everyone succeeded. Oliver, you finally put your lips together enough to say, you got any reverb and stay

it loud enough. Go ahead and make a persuasion check. Okey-doke. I'm going to say that it needs to be at minus 20 percent. That is fair. So 50 percent, I have a 71, I failed. She's just like, she's like, I don't know anybody called Robert. No.

She seems to be fucked up enough on the drug that she's just of no use. Frost, you get to the door and you stumble out the door and the cool air is like so refreshing and just being at this distance, you can already feel the weird buzzing sensation that is causing the dizziness to start to dissipate. Robin, you also managed to steal yourself and start moving into the crowd. However, you are also dodging punches and kicks. Angel Frost, do you want to do anything now that you're outside? I'm going to head towards the vehicle.

Oh wait, wait, is the vehicle that we had, is it still near where it is or is it gone? I think it hasn't moved. Okay. I'm going to go to the car and am I like, is it like a head thing, a nausea thing that I'm feeling right now? It's like, if Angel Frost has never done a lot of drugs, then it's like smoking like three cigarettes in a row. It's just this head buzz that also is a little psychedelic.

The lights were extra sensitive and the noises just made you extra sensitive. But as you walk away from the club, it's just slowly dissipating and you're feeling more yourself. And you also, you also see across the street, Agent Frog carrying Agent Fluke or at least kind of an arm over her shoulder and it seems like he's been wounded. Oh shit. I'm going to rush over to them ASAP, coherently as I can if I'm stumbling, but I'm going to rush over to them.

Okay, Echo, I need you to make the dexterity times five check as you are attempting to get out of the club in the mosh pit. I succeed with 45. Okay, you kind of dodge out of the way and you also realize, oh, let me just kind of circle around the club. I don't have to go straight through this mosh pit to get the hell out of there. And you also kind of stumble into the cold night air. Oliver, what do you want to do this round?

I think it's kind of fucked in here in terms of volume. So I think I'm actually just, you know what, no, I'm going to try one more time with this chick. And I'm going to like mimic snorting off my finger and, you know, funneling pills down my mouth, whatever I can get in the loud club to make it clear, you know, I want to join the party. Okay. Okay.

Again, it'll have to be at a minus 20. It's totally fine. Do I have to do a power check because I'm still fucking in here or am I fine? Yes, please. Yes, please. Power check first. Power times five. Okay.

Flat 30, I'm still okay for whatever reason. All right. Got a problem. Yeah. Yeah. This is going to be terrible karma later and then persuade under 50. That one I'll actually pass. Finally.

27. Okay. You give me drugs. Yeah. You use this for reverb and you're like, you know, gesturing a pill into your mouth and she just says, oh, she reaches into her purse and hands you a little white pill. Yes. Okay.

I'm really procured drugs. I'm going to leave the music club with my ambition accomplished. Give me another power times five check. Okay. That one will fail. 53. All right. Please roll the D8.

Sure. You begin walking and it's so dizzying that the feeling of wanting to puke, the feeling of like getting off of a really bad roller coaster, it's hitting you, but you steal yourself and you roll the D4. A two. You're going to lose two willpower. Okay. Meanwhile, Echo, you have stumbled outside, you are catching your breath.

The music's a little bit quieter and you're slowly kind of regaining your sense of self. You see Agent Frost just kind of walking in the direction of the car. Go ahead and make an alertness check for me. I succeed with a 57. You look to your left and you see coming down the block, Agent Throg, and she seems to be kind of helping Agent Fluke. He seems to be injured in some way and you look to your right and you actually see just stepping out of a cab is your friend Rose.

So right about a block and a half, you see Rose stepping out of a taxi. To your left, you see the agents. And Oliver hasn't gone out yet. He still seems to be in the club. I'm going to run to Rose and hope that Throg and Fluke hasn't seen me yet. At this point, I just need one more roll from Oliver of Power Times 5 and then we'll get to Throg and Fluke. And six.

That's a 6%. Okay. Cool. That's a success. You basically just kind of fall forward out of the club. You also stumble into the cold evening air and it's starting to feel a little bit better. Before we decide what happens to you, let's go to Fluke and Throg. So Agent Throg, you have tied a tourniquet, kind of makeshift tourniquet onto Agent Fluke's

shoulder and you are kind of walking back in the direction of the club. I need you to make an alertness check for me, please. Okay. And Fluke, Fluke, you can do the same thing. Okay. That's a fail with 72. Um, success. Agent Throg, you look ahead towards the club and you can see some of the friendlies spilling

out of the club. It looks like Echo is heading off in the opposite direction. You see Agent Throg walking towards you, but it is Agent Fluke who looks to their left and sees that down the block and around the corner, a pair of policemen are running, stopping on the corner and kind of looking around, engaging where those gun blasts that happened a few moments ago are coming from. Do options. Badges come out or we get out of here fast?

I mean, we should get out of here fast. We need to get you to a hospital anyway. No, no hospital. One of you guys can dig it out and stitch it up. That's fine. I don't know. Do you have a first aid kit in your car? I think at least between the three agents, someone would definitely have a kit.

Okay. This is ridiculous. Fine. Fine. We'll do it in this club parking lot. So whoever has the higher stealth between Frog or Fluke, someone give me a stealth check and I'll give you a clue. Go ahead.

Would I be affected at all by my injury with that? You can still walk. So, you know, you got shot in the shoulder, you're not necessarily an invalid or anything right now. You certainly don't feel great, but I'm going to say that whoever has the higher search can have a plus 20% as you're both working to just basically quietly go to your getaway car. Okay.

I have 60 with the plus 20. Okay. 39. Awesome. The two of you spot the cops before they spot you, you kind of drop low to the ground, you make it to your car and you help Fluke in shortly after Frost comes walking up and Frog, you can see that the police are kind of walking in the direction of where you guys came from, but they haven't noticed you.

So in a moment, they're going to pass you kind of looking, you know, around the block where you were when those gunshots went off. All right. I'm going to call up to Frost. If we're done, we should go. We're done here. Yeah. Phil's done.

Done. I'm going to just going to, I'm going to take, I'll see her urgency. Do I see that he's injured by the way? Like do I actually? Oh yeah. He's now that you're closer, that he's heavily bleeding. He's just got like a white t-shirt on, you know, you guys kind of just rubbed him a little bit.

He's got this heavy, heavy blood loop. All right. Well, then I'm going to as quickly as I can in my heels, get back in the car and at least get it ready to haul ass. Okay. You jump in and you guys pull out without issue, the cops are already making their way onto the other side of the street so they did not notice your escape. Rose, you step out of the taxi, you turn around and you see Echo somewhat pasty, somewhat

sweaty kind of fast walking in your direction and you move towards her, I assume. Yeah, 30 meters. And a few moments later, once she's nearly to you, you see Oliver come stumbling out of the car. Echo, when you look, you look like you don't feel great. That's, yeah, I would say that's, yeah. What? What time is it?

Where are we? It's just after 10, we're outside the music club, you just came out. Music club. Okay, okay. We need to go and I just start walking down the street. What? Where's Ollie? Where's the rest of them?

You can see him now stumbling out of the front of the club. Come here. Come here. Come on. Yeah. Hey. How's it going? Apparently we need to go.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that'd be best. You look bad as bad as Echo. Yeah. I think we're really high. Really? Yeah.

It's pretty bad. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let's, let's go then. Let's go. I'll, I'll just follow Echo as she hurries on the, and kind of like shepherd Ollie along. Where are you heading Echo?

I am trying to walk off this feeling for a little bit, but I want to find somebody who's kind of like a street kid or somebody, somebody who passes messages around. I'm looking to, to put out the word about the situation. It does take about five minutes of just walking and talking and getting some fresh air that, that weird sensation that, that contact high and just being in the same room as people that we're taking this weird drug finally starts to kind of go away and you're feeling yourselves now. I'm going to get out my little thermos and put the little bit of tea that I have left

in the little cup that comes on top of the thermos and I'm just going to like pass it between her and Ollie. I'll take a, I'll take a sip of it. Yeah. Hey, how things go down at the, the, the, the, the, you were at a place, uh, uh, police department. Yeah. I'll tell you when you get home.

Yeah. Yeah. That'd be good. No, I think right now it's like I ate them. I ate my own lips. You're there, I promise, I promise you they're there. It's like bad coke. It's like, I want to fight everyone and then cry for a very long time.

Oh, Ollie. I'm going to just take his hand and put his hand to his own mouth and say, they're right there, can you feel them? Oh, I have lips, that's great. Oh, okay. Okay. I'm going to lead up and give him a little kiss. It's getting close to 10 30 now.

Uh, are you going to keep, are you all three going to stay together? Or are you guys separating at this point? I don't feel comfortable leaving you alone like this echo. I, uh, I mean, that's up to you, but I need to do some things before this gets out of hand. What's on the docket? What are you thinking? We want to help.

We got to, I got to, I got to shut people up. I got to, I got to tell, I got to tell people about this. Uh, yeah, I got to, I got to find somebody. I'm still looking for anybody that I can realize something to. So if, if, if Rose and Oliver are just going to basically tag along, um, you can give me a, I'll say a bureaucracy role to see if you can find somebody out on the street now that would be of use to you. Now I fail 52.

Some of the best informants in town are the kids and although the kids do tend to stay up late, you can't seem to find anybody. You find the occasional pony down pusher. You find the occasional user, but no one necessarily that has access to, to big people that are, that you know are important. Fuck. It has to be denied. It has to be denied.

I have to talk to somebody. Um, well, since I can't find a street kid, uh, or can't find my usuals, I got to, I got to go down and see, uh, I got to go down to pony down and I got to talk to some people. Um, I don't know where are you guys going? Where are you staying the night? Home, I guess. Home? I, I wouldn't go home.

No? It's your business, but I wouldn't go home. Uh, well, I need, I need to get some stuff from home before anything else happens. I, I just, I, I want to clarify something between the three of us. We're not running from these people now. Are, are we, are we directly antagonizing ourselves or are we still trying to keep face? Well, we got to keep face. I'm, I'm scared of these assholes, but they're also doing something.

It's, this is, there's more to this than just them. Yeah. So, so maybe we can consider that at least one of us stays home. We got to be able to be touched by these folks or they're going to think we've gone completely off the rocker. We should keep like everything's the same. I think we could look into this stuff. Let's keep moving.

We need to go do your stuff. Maybe we can break up and, and meet back at my apartment later, but you know. All I'm looking for right now is leverage and the only way I'm going to get leverage is if I shut everybody up and information only flows one way. So I need to secure that now. Well, I have agent Constance doesn't trust Fluke, which means she's a person with even a modicum of a gut and she wants me to keep an eye on him. So we have a little bit of leverage that way too.

Okay. Okay. Oh, oh, I got the fucking drug too and I pull out the pill and I show that that's one step down. Right. I don't know. We get it to a chemist or something. I don't know.

I just thought it might come in handy and I put that back in the back of this. Pulled echo in. You should, I should take that from you. What? I should take that from you. You shouldn't have that on you. Echo, I worked real hard to get this. I get that.

Look at me. Do I look like a man who buys drugs often? It's a miracle they gave it to me. Okay. I just hate for you to be the one who has it. No, no, I'm kidding here. I hand it over to you, Echo. No, it's not the fucking time, Ollie.

I take it. Okay. So it sounds like you guys are splitting up. Yeah. Okay. Oliver and Rose, where are you heading? Maybe we push the street. I don't know.

Do you have anything I don't? I have a, I have a person I can talk to, well, not a person, but their family I can talk to. A kid I used to tutor, he disappeared a few weeks ago. So I don't think we can, I don't think we can talk to them tonight, but tomorrow. Okay. Okay. We can go with that then.

Yeah. You also know that the agents made you leave your cars on the other side of town so you could probably take a taxi and go pick those up. We can get our cars. But once you do that, where are you going to stay for the night? I would prefer to go to my place. I have a couple things I'd like to get from there. I think that's rude.

I think we should go to my place. I have a couple of stuff there. No, I'm fucking with you. We'll go to yours. God damn. All right. So you say your goodbyes. You jump into a cab.

I'm going to leave Echo my pager number. I don't know, I don't know if she has it already, but I'm going to, I'm going to leave it with her and say, if you need anything, I'm serious, we'll, we'll be there. We'll come find you guys later. Don't take my drugs. I'm not going to, I'm not going to do it. Okay. I'm getting them back after you're done.

You're not taking me there. I'm not, but they're mine. Let's just ownership here. I just want to make some boundaries while we still can. Sure. You can have it, whatever. I don't give a fuck. Perfect.

Oh, make A.O. Ollie. Make sure you put something on that eye. Yeah. I'm trying. Does it look as purple as I think it does? It looks worse. Oh, shit.

Yeah. Piece of meat. Some peas. Something. Echo, where are you heading? I'm heading to where I could find the Pony Down Gang. That's going to be back in the direction of high tower records. It'll take a little while.

In the meantime, let's cut away from our friendlies to our agents. You are driving in the car and your senior agent, Agent Fluke, is bleeding profusely from his shoulder. What are you guys doing? Okay. Somebody get this thing out of me right the fuck now. Right. I know where we could go.

Not a hospital. I'm going to give, I guess, frost your driving. Yep. Okay. I will give you the address to the Hall of Origins, which is on the Cool Map that we have, and we'll go there. Done. Sounds good.

I'm going to ride as fast as I can, but not to the point where I'm going to get noticed by cops right away. Sure. You're following all the rules. And it doesn't actually take that long because it's not that far outside of the downtown area of Detroit. You find a corner building where on the bottom floor, there is a large arcade. The windows, the majority of the windows are actually already boarded up, and just the

door entrance seems to be accessible. But you know that there's also a back entrance, Agent Frog. How do you want to enter the Hall of Origins? We're going to pull in in the back, and I'm going to just enter through the back as quietly as I can. I'm just, cue, cue, it would be cool if you were here. The door is open, and you can hear the sound of the pinball machines, the arcade games, the smell of the stale carpet, and the Pepsi, and the popcorn kind of all hit you.

This is a very familiar place to you. And since you are coming up the back way, you actually hit the manager's office, and the door is open, and you notice that inside there is Luther Q. How would you describe Luther? I think he's sort of an older, like, thin dude, probably, I don't know, I just see old globetrotter body happening, salt and pepper, air, and the thin glasses, loose sort of airy shirt and jeans tucked into, like, old, old dress shoes. So you see Luther digging in through his safe.

He has a small safe, and you can see that he's putting what looks to be change and money that he has been keeping in that safe into, like, a personal briefcase. And he notices you, he closes it, he sets it to the side, and he kind of adjusts his glasses, and he says, oh, Alicia, hey, how you doing? It's pretty late, I was good to close soon. Yeah. You want some porters? No, not right now, actually, we need to borrow your bathroom and your silence, but more your

bathroom right now. I don't understand, am I in some kind of trouble? No, you're totally fine. I just have, I have a friend in the car that, it would just be, is it cool, just, I just need an umbrella, yes, for you, for the next like hour. Alicia, you're my best customer, I can't say no to you, sure, sure. Perfect, okay, I'm going to go get Fluke out of the car, almost lift him and carry him in, if that's okay.

A fucking arcade. I think that you can without issue, you bring Fluke in, and Luther has actually been staying by the manager's door, kind of curiously watching you exit and re-enter with this man, and he sees the wound, he sees the blood, and he's just like, oh my God, Luther is not an agent. He's going to need to make a sanity check, which I will roll for him, he does not succeed that sanity check, he just kind of puts his mouth, he puts his hand to his mouth and he's like, oh my God, just take care of it in the bathroom, and he just kind of cours and falls back into the manager's office, into his big chair, and just kind of watching you drag

Fluke in there, and I assume you close the door. Yep, I'm so sorry, this will be over real quick, don't even trip, just relax, okay, and I close the door. It's a kind of a larger industrial bathroom, so there's some room for you guys. You both, I don't believe, have proficiency with the first aid kit. No. I certainly don't. Yeah, so you just have the base of 10%, so I will say that whoever wants, amongst the

three of you, may roll at a 10%, if you critically fail, you might actually do more damage to Agent Fluke, but if you succeed, you'll heal him, if you fail, all that will happen is that you will successfully cover the wound, but you won't necessarily heal him, but you'll be able to stop the bleeding, you'll just be able to do a general dressing. I'm certainly not digging a bullet out of my own shoulder. I just realized that I'm still in the car. Oh yeah, do you want in on this, this is fun, right? No, so I'm going to go ahead, and I'm going to be the one carrying not only the first

aid bag into the bathroom, but because of how the day has proceeded already, my personal duffel bag hasn't left the trunk of the car, I'm taking that as well, so I'm going to go ahead and take out one of those Kevlar belts that I would have when I had everything clipped, and I'm going to give it to my boy to curl up down on his mouth. Gotcha, gotcha, sure, sure, okay, so who's rolling? It's like Agent Frog, she's the one doing this. I'm just going to hold him down. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.

Yo, it's a two. It's a two, yeah. Getting that thing out of there. It's a two. You take his shirt off, you cut off the sleeve, and you're dressing the wound, you're getting rid of the excessive amount of blood. You realize two things, one is that the bullet is not in the shoulder, it's shot out cleanly. Secondly, you notice that it's mostly an upper dermis wound.

It was bleeding heavily, and it could probably lead to infection and whatnot, but the job is relatively simple. You disinfect the hell out of it, you put a bunch of gauze and band-aids, and you basically build a tourniquet. To make this work, you have to build a makeshift sling for Agent Fluke, and Agent Fluke I will say that you can heal, but until you are at full strength, you're going to have very limited mobility with that arm. Go ahead, Agent Frog, and roll a D4.

Two. Okay. You heal two points. I think you still have a bruised testicle, so you probably aren't at full health, but you are feeling better, and I will say that when you are full health, you will be able to use that left arm more than you can right now. But this is going to take about an hour or so of doing this, patching this up. It's a little bit after midnight by the time you're all patched up.

So while she's yanking the bullet out of me, I'm assuming I'm not in a speaking position. No, I'll say that you're relatively lucid. I mean, it sucks, but you can still talk. Okay. Well, while these two, you know, while it's just us agents in the room, I'm just going to look at the two young whippersnappers present in this bathroom with me and think about how bad that would probably look to anybody else. But then I'm going to say to the both of them, listen, we're probably in for some kind of

a, listen, I don't know how much of that old lady we should believe, but I think there's a possibility that we're going to be biding off a little bit more than we can chew. And listen, I know something that I need to show you guys like right now. What? Okay. It's a, well, I don't really know how to describe it, but it's something that's going to keep you safe now and hopefully in the future as well. And I'll just kind of like out like now that my shirt is kind of like off, which again doesn't

look great, the current situation, but there's kind of like this dog tag looking thing hanging from my neck and on it, I mean, there's no like name or anything engraved on it. It's just almost like with a, with like within like a metal rod or something, there's like a symbol that's carved into this flat dog tag looking thing that looks like that. And I'll tell them, I don't pretend to understand how it works, but if you keep this on you or if you remember it, something comes up, you know, something not natural. If you draw this either in the air or with something that you keep on you, it'll keep, you know, whatever, whatever it is away from you to a point.

So frog and frost, you know, fluke pulls out this dog tag that he has and he shows it to you and you look closely and it's a, it's like a star-like symbol. There is this oval shape in the center of it and there's this kind of depiction of a flame in the center of that oval. And it's been kind of meticulously etched into this piece of metal. And as Agent Fluke goes on to describe it, he makes it clear that to, to understand, to use this symbol, you have to memorize how to use it. He says it won't take long, maybe a few hours, but he seems insistent on you taking the time to learn this. And now listen, it's not free.

It'll cost you something, but in my experience, it's been worth it. So many questions. OK, how about you tell us the cost first? Like, I trust out of everyone here, this group is better than dipshits over there. But what's the cost, bro? Quite frankly, the cost is up here in your mind. But. OK. Small price to pay, first day in a line.

So if we take this magic necklace you have, I have a better chance of protecting ourselves. Well, you're not taking this necklace. You're going to memorize this symbol. Right. And then you can either carve it into something of your own or you can just draw it in the air, sort of, if you understand what I mean. Gotcha. OK, but we're not like selling our souls or anything. Like, I just need to be aware. I don't think so.

OK. Oh, OK. Well, I think, OK, I, I'm still tripped up on we have more protection, but we lose the sense that we would use to protect ourselves. It just, it kind of seems like there's a gap here. Well, nothing's free. So best just be getting used to that. OK, I'm not along and I will agree.

At the end of the day, you got to stay alive. Damn. As you guys are discussing, there's a knock on the bathroom door and you hear that it's Luther, Luther Q. On the other side. Alicia, can I talk to you for a second? Yeah, I'll be right back. If you want to accept the magic necklace dance, do that. I'll be back and she's going to go step out.

You you put your head outside the door and Luther is standing there. He's got his his bag with him and he says, I'm actually going to go. If you want to lock up after me, I really appreciate it. Yeah, no, that's fine. I'll I mean, I'll see you on Sunday, so it's it's fine. OK, yeah, all right. And I shouldn't remember what happened tonight, right? Oh, it would be best if you didn't already forgotten.

And he just kind of starts walking backwards out the back door. Fantastic. So you are now in this arcade by yourself. You know, you've you've left, you know, you've closed out this place a number of times. You know how to close it up. Agent Frost, are you going to take the time to learn from Agent Fluke, the elder sign? Yes, I did also bring in my duffel bag and I know we're in a bathroom. Can I just quickly change and then learn?

Or am I stuck in this dress? No, no, you can change. No, I want to do that. What happens is you take out a piece of paper or you take out something to kind of start sketching this symbol and you draw it once just kind of by eye and you finish. And you're like, OK, I think I've got it. I mean, it basically looks like it and you show it to Fluke and Fluke begins pointing out the many, many reasons why yours is not exactly like his points out.

You know, the stress of the stroke starts here and ends here. Like, you know, these lines connect while the other lines don't connect. And it takes a few hours. I will say that it takes till about three in the morning, but you over and over and over draw it. You notice that Agent Fluke is very meticulous about if he's drawing it. He doesn't complete it. He kind of does it in sections. He doesn't ever complete it in one drawing.

And you do it so often over these next couple of hours that you basically memorize it. And you do feel that if you wanted to draw it in the air, you probably could. Like you can see it in your mind side. If you were to put it on something, is there something you currently have that you would attempt to engrave it on? Ironically, very similar. I have my own pair of dog tags that I picked off. So you have a little tool kit or something that you can create these grooves?

I have like a combat knife. I have that and I can actually take that and just start. Just go ahead and do it over one of the tags. You start doing it and you follow what you have learned meticulously. You've repeated this symbol kind of several times in a row. And it's just a matter of kind of etching it down. As you do it and as you bring it to completion, there's this overwhelming sense that completed something of importance.

There's almost like a, the pressure in the room almost seems to change as you put the finishing touches on this symbol. It's hard to put into words, but a part of you feels like something is different. And you are going to lose too permanent power, which means not willpower, but power, meaning the staff. Too permanent power and I need you to roll a D6. I don't, okay, this is shit. It's either going to be good or bad.

What's a one? A one is that, how much sanity you lose. So you lose one sanity from doing this because you know this just, something just happened. You've never drawn something and it feels like the world is different. This, this is weird, but you're also exhausted from doing it. You've never done a doodle and suddenly just want to go to sleep, but you now have your own pair of dog tags. I'm going to ask both agent fluke and agent frog also to make sanity checks,

as it wouldn't really be magic if you guys also didn't tell that there was something different. Yeah, I'll say that you lose one sanity. Agents of F cell, it's now three in the morning. Just when you thought the day couldn't get any weirder, it ended getting even weirder. How are you going to rest for the evening? We never really sell up accommodations within the city. We, I think we can we crash here in this arcade? That's a really good question.

I don't think, okay, sure. I think we're pushing it, but sure, we can take like a, like a few hours. I think that's fine. Like four hours and then we have to leave. We have to leave. Cool. Four hours. I've operated on less plenty of times.

You have a, you have a home, agent frog. I do, but I, hey. Oh God, that's true. I do have a home and I am okay. Okay, you know what? Fine, fine. Yeah, I have a place where you guys can stay. You sure?

No, but I feel like Luther's done enough for us. So we will go to my home. Let's go. It's great if you're quiet. Let's go. Agent frog, you head home with the agents. Pull up, you go inside. Before bed, you get a page from the undercover agent Hector Nunez.

He is asking to speak to you as soon as possible. Great, then I will, I will call him. I will go outside and call him. He speaks to you in hushed tones as if he's kind of walking away from a party or something. But Hector informs you that tomorrow night around 10 p.m. the pony down crew are planning a a business transaction of some kind at high tower records. He's going to be there, but he suggests that something that your team put something together because he thinks there might be the person that is selling reverb might chill up.

Okay, that's thank you. All right, good. That's perfect. Are you okay though? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm all good girl. I'll see you later. Okay, I gotta go.

Okay. And he kind of just hangs up as if he's been called or something. Okay, cool. Okay, yeah, go inside. Go to sleep. Did I not make it to pony down? Oh, yes, you do make it to pony down. So you make it to the neighborhood, you find a house party that is happening.

And sure enough, you find the three brothers, the buttress brothers who are hanging around drinking, smoking, they're pretty fucked up. Before I go in, I kind of like put myself back together, kind of put on that normal smile, like everything's okay. Then I walk in and approach them. Music's pumping. Everybody's pretty faded at this point. But sure enough, yeah, they recognize you.

They say, what's up? What's up? You can make it. Yeah, yeah. I was just passing through. Didn't want to take your time, but I just, I wanted to talk to you guys for just a brief second if I could get your time. Yeah, what's up girl?

What you need? It's not nothing that I necessarily need. It's just something that I just wanted to pass along, something that's come up on the radar. Okay, what's that? I found out that there's a couple of unknown people kind of lurking about the city. What do you mean unknown people? Like fence? They look like suits.

They look like, I don't know, but they're poking around causing trouble. What do they look like? One's been dressing like a fucking hooker. It's just got like brown hair, like high hair. One's an older guy. One's one of the D agents that would lurk around the city. Do you give Pony down enough information to successfully recognize these folks if they were to see them on the street?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And yeah, the three brothers are kind of looking at each other. So what do you think girl? You think we shouldn't have this meeting? This is pretty important.

We need to have this meeting tomorrow. Have your meeting, but I don't know what they're looking for per se, but they're lurking about. And I don't know if it's good or not, but you know, especially around this time of night, this time of year, you know, better to be safe. So you know about these guys, but you don't know what they're doing? No. I've just been hearing around the streets, people seeing someone from out of town, someone they don't know.

And I briefly saw them at the studio underground. I was partying there tonight. That's where I was at just from prior. You know a few things that you're not being honest about, and I'm going to ask that you make a persuade check. No, I fail. They listen to you and say, okay, okay. I don't know.

I think you're downplaying this a little bit. This is not good news. You know, we got an important thing tomorrow, but we appreciate you coming by. We'll come pack an extra. We'll make sure we're ready for anything. All right, all right. Thanks for letting us know what they look like, too.

Maybe I'll send some boys out tomorrow to take a look for them. All right. What have you got to do? Just passing along the word. You know me? You, do you stay much later into the party? No, I'll excuse myself. Oliver and Rose, is there anything you'd like to do before the other thing?

Yeah, I have a couple things I need to do at home. If Ollie's coming with me. Yep. I'll drive us home and like go upstairs, get some ice to put on his face. I think you can help me take my hair down. My rubs are too pretty shitty. Yeah, I got you.

So there's a lot we haven't talked about, huh? Yeah. Are we going to do that? Are you in a headspace or you want to do that? I'm not in any sort of fucking headspace. I'm going to die tomorrow. So it doesn't really make a lot of sense to... You're not going to die tomorrow.

Yeah, but this is what happened a couple years back, right? I mean, you're a pretty unflappable person. I don't know that I could ever see you squint too much, but that night I woke up and I saw you and you said it was your sister and you seemed so broken up. It was probably this, right? Yeah, I've stared down cops at like rallies and riots and protests 12 hours at these assholes and I'm a scared stupid mess.

Yeah, I've already seen this guy kill somebody. It was a while ago in 81, but seeing him again is... Peaceful. Yeah, it's wild. I'm realizing I told you to shut up a lot today. That's fine. That's fine. We're all...

It's not fine, I'm sorry. I'm shitty. I'm really sorry. Listen, let's just do good tomorrow. Let's find out what's going on. Let's find out what's happening to the city and let's try and stop it. Yeah, it's really all we can hope for if they're the only ones that can facilitate it.

I guess we dance with devils until they go back to hell. It sounds like some southern bullshit to me, but I'll take it right now. Look, it's all I got right now. Hey, tomorrow's Sunday, so we gotta read the paper in the morning. I would not like to do anything else. I'm sorry I left you in the stupid diner with him. That was fine. It was pretty badass.

I'm just glad they didn't kill me. God, me too. I didn't think Oliver, and I always think and... You don't owe me anything. You don't have to explain yourself. You never have, so... Ollie. I want it to start now.

What does he mean by that? What does that even mean? It means that you and I are about to walk headlong into something that we never have before, and we're going to do our best to try and come out the other side, and I don't want you to feel like you have to do anything that might go against that idea. You have to pull the trigger, you pull the trigger. I don't know what on what, and... You are...

You're not saying you're... We're in this thing. I'm not saying anything, Rose. I'm not saying anything. I'm just saying that there's more decisions coming in front of us, and a lot of them are going to make jumping out of a window look like fucking child's play. But do what you got to do, and I will too, and we'll come out of this stronger. Can I go run a shower?

While he's in the shower, I'm going to make sure that he's, like, wait for a couple minutes and make sure he's, like, actually in the shower, and I'm going to go to the cabinet under the record player, and I'm going to pull out the false back and take my whole lunch just a second, and I'm going to take my Derringer out, and I'm going to load it. I'm going to put the rest of the ammo in the opposite pocket from my tea. I'm going to stick it all in there, and I'm going to zip it up, put my backpack by the door, and then I'm going to rip a page, just like a blank page

out of my journal, and think about a couple things, but I assume he's getting out of the shower pretty soon, and I don't want to, I'll wait to do anything else with that for a minute. Wait, I'm sorry, I forgot one more thing I wanted to do, I'm sorry. Once Ollie goes to sleep, I'm also going to wait for a while until he's asleep, and I'm going to get out of bed really slowly so I don't wake him up, and I'm going to go back to my paper, and I'm going to look at it for a really long time, and start writing something across it out, and start writing something else across it out. And then I'll really painstakingly write down five sentences, fold it, hide it in the book

Ollie gave me for my birthday a couple weeks ago, and then go back to bed. The evening comes to a close for everyone. I will say that the friendlies, except for maybe Echo, but the friendlies basically get up a little bit earlier than the agents, but basically everyone gets up between 7 and 8 a.m. In the morning, let's start with the agents. Fluke, Frog, and Frost, you wake up, and what do you want to do with your day? Okay, so I'm assuming that Frog fills us in on this call that she had. From Hector? Yes, yeah, she's going to talk about this. There's a meeting tomorrow night we should

probably be a part of, at least in some way, at the, at Hightower Records tomorrow night. Now, when you say a meeting, do you mean a exchange or a deal? Yeah. Is there going to be, is there going to be a reverb there? Are there going to be people selling reverb there? There will more than likely be the person, at least one of the people that distribute reverb in attendance. Then we need to set up a stain.

We can't, we cannot involve these friendlies, because let's be for real. They, they, does anyone else see how suspect this is? In the place that, what is it, that other chick's building? We're not a part of it? How do we now know that they're not, like, causing all this shit to begin with? Well, we don't necessarily have to loop them in on what our plans are. I'll loop them in with a fucking call. I mean, at the same time, well, okay, you do look like a cop. I'm known as a cop, and you have your own personal sort of persona in the town.

All of us have identities now. We kind of need them. First of all, they've seen the hair in the dress, but no one really pays attention. They just see some dumb bimbo. Put a fucking hat on in glasses, no one knows. We could have two vans full of agents ready to storm in there as soon as anything hinky starts happening. If you want, I could do, look, I can do what I do best. I'll do perimeter check. I'll definitely scope out other buildings, and if need be,

I'll be eyes in the sky across the street. Let's go. You know how to shoot a higher caliber? Damn fucking right I do. All right. I just feel like we should focus on collecting evidence and just sort of de-escalating at this point. How would we de-escalate the situation? There's something sweeping the streets and we need to get enough of this. No, I understand, but if we,

it's crazy to suggest that the one person that has access to all of the reverb will be there. If we get them, who's to say that they don't have other people that are going to make way faster moves than we could even keep track of once we're done cleaning up whatever happens tomorrow night? I'm just talking surveillance. I didn't say starting the castle right away. So we bug the place and have the cavalry and reserve in case we need to sweep people up. That's one way to say it. I don't think we'll need to sweep anything, but yes, yeah.

How can we, is there any way we can tap the place? Oh, well. I don't think Echo would let us do that. How about your boy? No, she won't. How about your boy? That's what I'm... Your boy, your undercover guy that gave you the tip.

How about he wear something for us? Oh, well, I mean... Agent Frog, you do know that Hector would be up for that. He's almost... He would almost have to be expecting that. Yeah. Because he will, in fact, be at that meeting tonight. Yeah.

Well, there you go. The wire on him. Great. Then we don't have to... Yeah, I think that's a lot cleaner. That said, I think we should be ready to raid the place if it becomes necessary. I will compromise. I'm not saying it's option A, but if shit hits the fan, yeah, yeah.

No, just in case. We'll call it option F for when things get fucked, then we will go and execute that plan. How was that? That's incredibly cute. I agree with that. The question is... We have a few options here.

Are we going to have FBI or some of your guys? We can go either way. I think the DEA... Yes, in the van. That's what I was thinking. The DEA would probably really... The frog is thinking of her own career at this moment. I think it would be better if the DEA were there.

I'm old. I don't give a shit about my career. Likewise, don't care. Bring the DEA in. Great. Cool. Then, I don't know how that would even happen, but... Are you asking how would you go about getting a team of extra people to come and help you with a staying operation of some kind? Yeah, just a small amount of people.

Well, you know that the first step is to speak to somebody at headquarters, the police headquarters. You could try to requisition something like that. You do know that you are less than three days away from Devil's 9th. And typically, both the police force and the firefighters are at a maximum capacity in terms of the things they're able to do, as every single officer and even some reserves that are brought from out of Detroit are brought in to deal with the arson and kind of the random acts of violence.

You do know upfront that this is a tall order, a drug bust in the middle of a situation where they need eyes on the streets. I can't imagine the DEA is going to be in that high demand. I mean, we don't want local cops here. We want agents. We want feds. Yeah, okay. Okay, now I'm starting out of second thoughts, but okay.

Two vans, that's it. Here's the thing, and I understand I'm getting really soft here, but if we sting Hightower Records, I just think Echo doesn't really have another job, right? And she's a snitch. And if we sting this place, isn't that kind of just going to fuck her shit up? Didn't she already fuck her shit up and not getting us involved? I don't understand why.

I don't understand why I would care about that. That's what I rely on. Well, not me personally. Sometimes I occasionally rely on her ability to be a fantastic snitch. And if we sting where most of the snitchery occurs, that'll cut off a lot of what I need once you guys leave. If we cut off the whole operation, what the fuck do you need the stench for? Other things!

There are more than one drug! Okay, I understand that, but this drug outweighs the others. Right, but once we take down Reaver, Crack will not disappear. Crack isn't supernatural. Well, okay. Crack doesn't summon demons from some otherworldly abyss that come and pull people off of the streets. Oh, not literally, but...

We're not sure of that. Okay, we were called in to handle Reaver. Is that correct? Or did I get the mission objective incorrectly? Did I get that wrong? I don't give a shit about cocaine. You can deal with that once we're gone. Frankly, there's higher priorities right now.

Dude, I gotta pull from my fucking home to be here, not to deal with some other... I understand this is your town, that's why I'm trying to be respectful, but this shit, especially with whatever weird crap I went in that club last night, that's why we're here. Crack is for the most part a victimless crime, not so in here. You're saying crazy sentences right now, I thought. All right, this is crazy.

I'm already missing church. How about this? We... Yes, we are at the meeting tonight. Nunez is bugged. We're there as best as we can possibly be, and we have people on standby aware of the meeting, but not physically there to sort of fuck shit up in case things go wrong.

No, they need to be in striking distance. I mean, can you imagine the three of us trying to take out an entire gang at once? What if things do go wrong? We can't take on all of that on our own. Sergio, quick question. I would be aware of any green boxes in the area, correct? You would know of a green box, yes. Is there one nearby?

Yes, you know that there is one in a place called Classic Storage. I'm going to make a suggestion, especially since I see the skies healed up a little bit. Personally, I would like to go to a green box, because I know I need a little bit more supplies, and hopefully they have stuff for me. Oh, I want a way bigger gun. I don't know about you, but if we're going to take on a whole gang, I don't want to be going in there with just this fucking...

I'm sure we're trying you something. I have to make a stop. So if you two want to go on and do that... Would you like anything at the green box, or would you like me to drop off at the green box? Frog. I'm really, there's nothing particularly that I could think of. I think you guys got it.

Where do we meet and when? That's a good question. Let's meet. We can meet at the precinct. So you guys split up for the morning. Let's go to our friendlies. Oliver and Rose, you wake up, and how are you starting your day? Well, probably the usual Sunday coffee and tea and crossword puzzle.

Yeah, and reading the morning paper. Trying really, really hard to stay normal, but not feeling like it at all. In the newspaper, there is a recap of Mayor Coleman Young's press briefing, where he goes into detail about the things that the city is doing to combat Devil's Night. Preparation, there will be patrols both with the police force and with citizens, and they dub this group Angel's Night, kind of a coalition of citizens in Detroit who are going to try to keep an eye out and call the police if they see any funny business.

Well, I have the information of the family of the kid I used to tutor. And he went missing, what, two weeks ago? Yeah, about two weeks ago. So we can go talk to them, and then I would like to check in with Frog, since she's the least terrifying of the bunch. Yeah. The one I guess, if I have to trust one of them, I'll trust her. You guys begin your day.

Echo, you wake up, you remember that tonight there is something important, but you've got the full day ahead of you. How are you going to start your day? I think I do want to go check in on Luca's girlfriend's EC, and just kind of get a read on that. And then I also wanted to see if I could find High Sally and a street kid. The only person I don't know what they're up to, Agent Frog, what was your plan for the first part of the morning?

Yeah, I was actually going to page Bros, if possible, and ask to meet up sometime today. Sure. We'll say they get through, you talk to each other, and you guys decide a time. Would you like to meet before or after you meet with your other agents? Oh, before, at my place. Let's start with Rose and Oliver. You guys head to the east side of town where you know Ishmael. He seems to have lived in an apartment, you pull up to an apartment complex,

and you recognize from being friends with him and his family. You recognize his mother, and you recognize his brother. And they seem to be in the middle of moving a couch. They're kind of putting it into a truck, but they haven't noticed you yet. Uh, I'll just kind of try and catch their attention and not surprise them too much. Yeah, you know, you walk up and you say your hello politely, and they recognize you. They just finish kind of putting the couch up, and the mother notices you and says,

oh, Mrs. Bernice, right? Yes, Ms. Alvarado. Oh, it's very nice to meet you. Hey, excuse me, it's nice to see you again. You can call me Rose. Oh, Rose, yes, yeah. How are you? How can I help you?

Well, I, um, I heard that Ishmael's been missing for a few weeks. Yeah, yeah, he's been missing. Um, we're actually in the process of clearing out his apartment. I mean, we're hoping he shows up, but we can't afford to pay his rent. So we got to just clear it out. Have you, what was the last time you heard from him? It's been a few weeks. He talks to his brother pretty regularly, but he didn't call.

And we asked around to his friends, and just nobody knew where he was. We've talked to the police, and, you know, they've told us we're looking into it, but I don't know, I haven't gotten any calls for a little while. He, uh, he told me a few times that there were opportunities for other forms of income for him. And he never really went past that. But do you know, do you anything about that? I know he said he was, he's fallen on hard times, and he was trying to stay the straight and narrow, but did you know about anyone he was in contact with?

Ishmael, he tried his best, but he was running with the wrong people. I don't know, I don't know, maybe he felt like he needed to, maybe he felt like he needed to make more money. You know, if you want to walk with me, there's still some stuff in the home. Sure, yeah. Oh, and she, you know, she's kind of walking with you. This is Mr. Lake, by the way, Oliver. This is, uh...

Yeah, it's, uh, it's great to meet both of you. I figured I could be some muscle wealth, maybe you two talk. I can help with some furniture. I'm too dumb to talk so I can do the rest, right? Ishmael's brother just says, oh, yeah, well, that'd be great. I mean, she could barely lift the couch, so I'd appreciate it, sure. I know how it goes. My mother used to sit there and act like she was taking the whole load with her,

but she'd stand there and hold the corner. It's bullshit, right? Let's go get the job done, huh? The four of you make your way back into the apartment, and you're talking with his mother. And, yeah, you know, you get the impression that Ishmael was trying to go to school, he was trying to do his best, but he just, he seemed to feel pressure to make income in other ways. She actually says, you know, we haven't actually cleared his bedroom if you wanted to take a look.

I don't know. Would that be all right? I know he had a couple library books I could take back, just, I know it's not much, but I can clear a little bit out. Sure, sure. Please, you know, have a look. Yeah, I'm just going to help the guys, you know, keep moving stuff out. Yes, ma'am. Well, I'm, I'm sorry. I'll do, I'll do what I can to help.

I don't know how much that is, but. Are you working with the police? Does this, does this mean they're looking for it? They're, I just work consultation researcher, you know, so they, they need some history research done sometimes. And I heard, I heard about him just kind of in passing and I wanted to see what I could do. Oh, God bless you. It's nice to know somebody's trying to do something.

She signals in the direction of his bedroom. Thank you. I'll, I'll go in there and I'll just start looking for anything. You walk inside and there's a bed, there's a side table, there's a little desk. And the first thing that strikes you is on his desk, there is a journal. It's closed, but it's like a black leather bound journal. And it doesn't look like they have come in here and moved it or touched it or noticed it yet. I am going to take it and put it in my backpack. Okay.

Oh, it feels really bad, but I'm going to do it anyway. Are you doing anything else while you're in this room? Um, I'm just going to like look through his drawers and for his backpack and stuff like that. Just try and find anything school related that I can take with me to make it look like I was doing like school stuff, but also looking for anything that might lead us in a direction. Look on the desk, there's not really anything. And you notice that over by his bed in kind of a corner, you see his Jansport backpack and you see a textbook and you walk over and you notice something odd.

It kind of starts by the bed and it moves in towards the corner, but there's these markings. There's markings on the wall and there's you realize there's markings in the in the bedding like you go to inspect it and you realize that the bedding has been sliced like hundreds of times in this weird kind of spiral pattern that leads to the corner. And when you get close to the corner of the room, you see that the wall has literal inch deep and maybe two inch long incisions, like real clean incisions. And it's it's almost like if you were to stand back on the opposite end of the room and look into that corner, there is this kind of spiral pattern of tiny cuts. And when you walk up to

the textbook, the textbook itself is covered in these dozens and dozens of incisions. And the book is almost like a like an accordion like it like it could fall apart if you like bent it hard enough because there's all of these cuts all over and it's very peculiar. Is the are the cuts all over the sheets or are they just like kind of in a corner? Kind of in the in the side of the bed that is facing that corner of the room. I'm going to take up my journal and I'm going to do like a really rudimentary sketch of all of the the markings. It's not going to be like not exact obviously, but just enough to get the idea and the same for like for the bed. And then I'm going to pull out my switch blade

and cut the bit of the sheet that has all the incisions on it and take that with me. Very good. You do that. And sure enough, as you are drawing it, you can tell that there's some kind of like spiraling pattern in this corner and it leads to the very corner of the room. Can I like push on the wall or like look under the bed or just anything to see if there's like if it's absolutely you. Yeah, you toss the room otherwise. And what's weird is that up until a certain point like midway to the bed into that corner, there's all these like shredding marks. But outside of that, there's not a single scratch. There's not a single drop of blood. Nothing. It's just as if some weird machine created this weird pattern in the corner

of this room with machine like precision. But but they're so small that you have to like actively be in that corner looking to really notice. So like like thin kind of like like not wide blade. They're like scalpel thin, but they're like two or three inches long. And they go about an inch deep like if you stick your finger into the bedding. Cool. I'll take the I'll take the back. I'll take the the journal, the textbook and the little bit of bedding that I cut out the corner of. You eventually all meet up outside playing to start getting back to taking stuff out. The mother of Ishmael comes to you, Rose, and says, Do you think there's anything that's going to be done? Do you think that we can find him? I still haven't given up hope. He's got to be around here.

No, I'm sure I'm sure he's somewhere he might just be indisposed or caught up in some kind of illicit dealings. I'm not I think that he can be found maybe. I'll I'll do what I can. I'll talk to who I can. I've got a couple contacts within the within the police department all. Um, and Rose, Rose is not good with people and she is floundering and kind of trying trying to comfort without lying. She takes her hands in her hands. She's just it's just nice to know that somebody's doing something in the city. I thank you for for anything you can do to help me find my son. He's a good kid. He's a smart kid. Sometimes things happen and we do what we think is right

in the moment. And then it turns out horrible. So that may just be what happened. And he's trying to figure out how to deal with it. He's I hope you're right. I hope you're right. Can I ask, um, the brother, um, you know, we're kind of leaning in as we're picking up that arm worn about to put it back into the truck. And I I'll turn to him and go, uh, you know, when I was younger, I had this foster brother and he knew every shitty friend I ever had could not remember a single good one. But anytime I was hanging out with somebody shitty, he could tell you exactly the name, the build, the look, all of it. Um, your brother ever had friends like that? Yeah, honestly, he he runs with people I tell him not to.

Yeah, look, look, I'm writing a paper right now for the paper really. I'm hoping to include people like your brother, people who got swept up by whatever crazy monster Detroit has decided to be this year. Um, and I want to help your brother. Is there any names you could give me? Is there anybody that maybe you're a little afraid to say in front of your mother, somebody you don't want her to know that he knew? He ran with a lot of weird guys, man. Just like, um, there's, uh, there's folks like bad Luke. He's the he's a guy that I know pushes around here. I've seen him hanging out with my brother, bad Luke. Do you know where bad Luke hangs out? You got a diner or a corner he sits on? Yeah, yeah, there's a corner. There's a corner. There's

actually a coffee shop. He kind of likes to hang out and he gives you the name of this coffee shop. It's not too far from here. Um, yeah, he he has a lot of friends in the Earl Flynn's and, um, he, uh, you know, he ran with other groups too, but I don't know. I kind of avoided those guys. So, I don't really have names. I just bad Luke's kind of infamous and he was definitely a dude that when I saw him hanging out with him, I told him he shouldn't. Yeah, typically anybody with bad in the name is pretty fucking terrible, right? They're crazy, man. They're drug users and they're violent. Listen, I'm going to look into this and even more so, I'm going to make sure that everybody in Detroit knows that your brother was was a good person and didn't deserve the the stuff that's

happened to him in the last two weeks. I'm going to try and find him. Hey, man, just don't talk about him like he's not here. You know, I mean, there's still a chance, right? Yeah, no, no. I'm really just, you know, unknown entities. I don't want to name you. I'm sorry if I sound callous or anything like that. It's just, you know, other city can do you. Do you think you could give me, if I give you my beep or number, do you think you could give me a call if you see anything coming down the pike or you remember anything? Yeah, sure, sure, man. You exchange information. I'm going to go see Bad Luke. Do you know, is there anything I should say when I get there? Is there anything he likes? Make him like me? I know I look like, you know, white dad showing up

to buy drugs. His eyes go wide and he says, man, Bad Luke, I don't think he's going to want to say anything to you. Yeah. I mean, maybe if you want to buy something from him, if you come off like you're trying to buy something, but even then, man, you got to name Bad Luke for a reason. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I didn't know you. I don't know if he's going to want you anywhere near him. Hey, maybe the name's enough, then. That works. Thank you, man. Yeah, sure. Take care of yourself. You too. The two of you leave. It's about 10am. Echo, you said you had a couple of things you want to do. What's the first thing? I want to go see Luca's girlfriend. You go visit CC Luca's girlfriend. They are living together and CC opens the door and she looks like she's a wreck. She looks like

she has not been sleeping much and she's kind of nursing a tissue. She sees you and she says, oh my God, Robin. Oh my God. Oh, I'm so glad you're here. Hey, hey, hey. Are you okay? She lets you in. What's up? No, I'm not okay. I'm not okay. I just, you know, nothing's been happening. You know what I mean? Luca's been missing and I've been trying to tell everybody like, I think something bad happened to him. Well, I'm looking into it. I'm trying to figure out trying to put some pieces together. You know, I don't know exactly. I mean, where he would just up and go. I tried to tell the cops, but they didn't care. They just wanted, they just wanted his info. Look, look, I found this in a drawer of his and she hands you a note. I'm going to share the note with you now if you

wouldn't mind reading what the note says. The note says it's four dash points. It says Michigan Central train depot. Third track from Newark Street. Look for the eye. Bring a screwdriver. She goes on and says, what does this mean? I don't know why he would write this. I don't know what this means. It's not. I guess something at the train depot. I don't know. Was he acting weird before he just up and gone? Like, I don't, I don't get it. He wouldn't leave you, you know? I know. I know. I don't know. He wasn't talking to me. He was like, I don't know. He was hanging out with new people and he wouldn't tell me who they were. And I was getting worried because he was staying out later and later. I don't know. The last day that I saw him, he was just, it was like

he was in a trance or something. He was really acting weird. And he said nothing about these new people. Not even like a small description where he was going. Nothing. He just, he said it was business, you know? Like you, you know that if I pry, he gets angry at me. So I, you know, I don't pry too much, but he was just, he was saying that this was a new crew that he was rolling with that were like helping him out. They said they were going to start throwing him more money and stuff that they were doing more for him than, I don't know, than the other gangs were. All right. Well, just, just stay here. You know, just he'll, I'll, I'll look for him. I'll try to figure it out. I'll try to ask around about this new gang, try to, try to see you something, but safer that you

just stay put. Thank you for checking in. Of course. Your family, you know, we look out for each other, right? She seems to be feeling a little bit better now after, after talking to you and having somebody listen to her. All right. Oh, maybe I'll come by tomorrow. Yeah, that'd be nice. Yeah. All right. Well, you take care of yourself. Yeah. Yeah. I'll see you later. Okay. I don't know. Head up. Where are you heading to? I do want to find, see if I can find a street kid. And then I might want to go to this train depot. I think that's easy enough to do since it is day. You find, are you looking for somebody connected in a certain way? I'm just looking for like a kid like, you know, you know how like they relay messages around

town. I'm just looking for somebody who's going to pass the word about. Absolutely. You come across a young kid and his name is Greg Mathis, just a young guy, you know, he actually happens to be running with the Earl Flynn's, but he's somebody that gets around. And what do you want to ask him? I'll dab him up first. And I'll first ask him how he's doing. And then I'll pull out a bill. And I said, I need something, I need something passed around the block. Are you my bird? Oh, I'm all ears. What's up? What you need? I got some unknown faces lurking about suits, just kind of moaning about causing some trouble. Let everybody know that they're kind of unfriendly. They're asking too many questions, the wrong kind of questions.

Shit. Okay. Yeah, I'll let some people know. I mean, everybody knows the cops are out in mass right now. But they're not, they're not cops. So they're running their own kind of situation. So it's even more out of place. You know what I'm saying? And I assume you give Greg the details of what these people are like. And then I'll pull out another bill and I'll say, you didn't get, you didn't get this from me. Your grandma, your aunt, you saw something in a window. I don't give a fuck how you spin it, but it didn't come from my mouth. I'm flying away. One last thing. Any new people pushing the block? People not the usual regulars? A new crew? Maybe? To be honest with you, yeah, I think I've seen a couple of guys that look out of place. Yeah.

What do they look like? I don't know. I mean, I saw this, I don't know if he was Chinese or Japanese. And one of the other boys said that the other side of town, they saw some like, they saw some like Finnish guys, some like Scandinavian dude work in the block where, you know, you know, the street that downtown Philly had, he ran that neighborhood. Now there's like this weird looking white guy running around there. You know what he's pushing? From what I hear, it's reverb. That was reverb. Aren't the flings pushing, Verb? Yeah, that's what I hear, yeah. How's that situation? Is it good? I hear people going missing at the same time. Yeah, I mean, you'd expect a little bit of fighting, but from what I hear, our two boys, the heads of the

air flings, D.L. Moneystone and Dancing Dan Earl Smith, the leaders of the air flings, they skipped town yesterday, man. They're out of town for a couple of days. I guess they want no part of what the hell's, whatever the hell's going on. He just left the rest of the boys behind, skipped? I mean, enough people to disappear and I would too. Sure. When your boys are disappearing, what else are you going to do? It's good to know. I'll pull out another bill. If you see another, one of those strange strangers lurking about, the Chinese guy, the Scandinavian boy, if you see him, can you give me a holler? Give me a page? A little whisper? Yeah, anything you want. Echo, damn. This is my lucky day. Yeah, ain't it. All right. All right, yeah, sure. I'll be around.

Good to see you. Take care of yourself. Devils be out, you know? Oh, I know. I'm one of them. I'll wave them off and then I'll go find a screwdriver and then head to that train depot. So, Agent Frog, you've paged Rose. You have gotten into contact and after they have visited the Muhammad residence, they head to your apartment. You knock on the apartment door that you were given Rose. You're with Oliver and Agent Frog answers. It's now about 11 AM. Great. Hi. Morning. Good morning. I mean, come in first, I guess. I have some things to talk about, but we might as well do it inside. I have like a tea, not a tea set, but I have tea and cookies like out on the coffee table. Yeah, no, have a seat. Oh, thank you. Your home is lovely.

Thank you. It's real nice. It's homey. Is this standard to bring other agents to your home? I guess we're not technically agents, but still. I don't know. I kind of like agents. Let's keep pages. Well, you're not agents, but I don't think any of this is standard. I think we just need to have a meeting. I'm actually glad you brought Oliver too. Yeah, I needed his help with another lead I was following and I figured two years are better than one. Mostly, I wanted to talk to you and make it very clear that the point of this mission is not to sort of just kill us. Yeah, I know it looks that way because it has been that way for a while, but that's not the idea. I don't want you to relax because I can't promise that it won't feel like

that again, but just know that we're not all... I will try my best to keep both of you safe. That's actually a very comforting thing. Yes, it's nice. I don't know if I can believe it fully. It's understandable. You can only do so much good when, you know, the only tools I give you are guns. Yeah, that's true. I wanted to talk to you about... We followed a lead the other day in Chinatown and I know at least you guys are sort of different brands of geek, but both are more suited to this. And I go over the stuff the guy told us about in the shop specifically. I wrote it down, so it wouldn't be hard. I have some of it written down, too. Okay, cool. The Preda thing, the anything about the Black Lotus, and the visualizing a

circular room, importance of no angles. No. There was also a name of a god named Shukara. Yes, Shukara. Shukara. You said something about no corners, a circular room, right? Yeah. He said to protect yourself against this Preda, you would visualize a room with no corners and that would sort of help whatever it was going to do to you. So like one of those hippie sound bath places? Yeah, a weird bubble room, I guess. We don't have to be in one? We just got to think of it? Well, I don't know how much this helps, but we went to talk to the family of a student, and he wasn't really a student of mine. He was a kid I tutored from the school.

It doesn't matter. It's semantics. I found this in his room. I'll pull out the part of that sheet and the textbook and my kind of crude drawing of his room, and I'll show her the spiral kind of... You also have his journal. Oh right, I haven't even fucking looked at that shit. I'll just pull those out for now, and I'll mention the journals. I haven't looked at it yet, but there may be something in here, and obviously I'll take some of this information and go to the library. Agent Frog, do you have any like forensic skills already? I do. Go ahead and roll me a forensic... That's a failure with an 89. Okay, maybe you don't have enough material. You weren't there. It does, though, look as

they explained that this section that she cut out has kind of in random patterns or kind of in a random order. There are these very thin slices, two, three inch slices, that have been made. It looks like somebody just took a razor blade and kind of hacked at this bed sheet. It's in a bit of a spiral, so I wonder if that has something to do with it. I mean, it's not really anything to go forward with, but... Right. I mean, I would... It's a connection, if not now. I'd like to think they were connected, but yeah. I mean, I guess we could look in on it later. You know that you also have his journal. Do you want to read that, or do you want to... Yeah, I'll pull it out, and I'll say I have this too, and I haven't really looked into it much yet, but...

Yeah, I mean, we could take crack at it now if you're good with it. If you don't have anywhere else to be. Also, I got a contact, and Frog, I will tell you this name if you promise me that this is just a conversation between the three of us. Okay. Okay, cool. It's a guy named Bad Luke. You probably know him. Maybe you don't. This guy out with the Arrol Flynn's, and apparently he was talking with our boy that went missing. He's hanging out at a coffee shop corner, not far from where we were. That's something we can look into after the journal, if we so please.

I'm bringing it to you because I personally would probably get my ass if I went alone. Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. I don't know how much help I could give you if I went other than, again, just being sort of strapped, but... Hey, when you got Agent Fluke's secret on your hip, you might as well use it, right? I guess, I guess so. And Agent Frog, you would know that now that you have like a nickname, you could probably go into the headquarters and just kind of start looking up in the database, and you might be able to get a name from this nickname. Something more official

that will give you some information about this individual. They're talking about coming through the journal from the back. I'm going to start at the last entry and then go. Because you do that, I'm going to share with you something. September 23rd. I'm struggling, not in school. That's the only place left doesn't suck. I need cash. Mom's hospital bills are stacking up and Pops can barely afford mortgage. Till I graduate, I've been slinging this new thing called Reverb for tea. Gets you fucked up, but it's the best visual that I've ever experienced.

I can't be gangbanging forever, but there's too much money to say no. Something feels weird though. Tea is acting weird. But there's, but it's so much money. October 1st, I asked tea to tell me more. Says there's this group called The Network. Tea has been with them for a minute and says that they're supplying Reverb. Or tea swears they make her mad money. Says they're real gangsters. They run drugs, guns, hoes, all of it.

Says even the mafia bouts to them. They've been running in New York for years and now they're trying to spread their influence. Detroit is their testing ground. Tea says the young boy's pony down, black moth, and the rest ain't shit compared. There's an initiation tea invited me to. Says if I commit my worries, we'll be over. PSI haven't touched Reverb in days and I keep having these nightmares that remind me of it. I keep seeing something in the dark that comes after me.

It shimmers like glass or metal. I've seen it before and I don't think it sees me. October 8th, it wasn't an initiation. We're like a fucking seance. They wore masks and danced around a fire. I told tea to fuck off, but everything got real quiet. And that's when he appeared. The man in black.

He just walked out of the shadows, held out a book, and some crazy bitch signed it. Gave her a tattoo. Just appeared on her damn arm. When he looked at me, I just turned and ran. Ran for what felt like hours. I'm not safe. I can't keep staying here. Can't put mom in pops at risk for my stupid mistake.

I just wanted to help. How come every time I tried, fuck it, I'm so sorry. What the hell? Oh, dear God. Okay. Yeah. Look at it. You're sick.

I know. Do you think, I mean, if he was staying with his parents and he was worried this thing was coming for him, you think whatever the spiral thing is, that's probably what got him, right? Maybe he's not missing. Maybe he was gone, whatever this is. I was just trying to protect himself with the circle. They give a circular room. Spiral, maybe.

What the fuck is he saying on this bullshit? They're meeting together in groups. Is this cult they were talking about? Is this the cult that Fluke was talking to us about? Let's give the three of you some time to think about what you want to do next. And let's cut to our agents Frost and Flu. You guys make it across town to a part of town called the Mexican town. And there is a very large square building called Classic Storage.

You go inside, you guys find the box. There is a roll-down door, orange roll-down door that has a lock on it. You take the combination and you open it up. Can I ask that you both make luck rolls? Actually, you know what? One person would make a luck roll. Thirty-two. All right, that's a success.

You guys open up the green box and there is a lot of boxes of foodstuffs, water, crates of water, and rations. There are two Kevlar vests or armor vests. You also find a shotgun and you find, I will say, one heavy pistol, which does a D-12, and a couple of medium pistols, as well as the appropriate ammo. I'm going to go ahead and put one of the armor vests on and I will extend it out. To see if my fellow agent will take it. Yep, I will take one.

But you want to, Agent Frost, you want to keep an eye from above, right? Yeah, whatever that is. Well, we're going to have to see about an act or something. And also, all these weapons that you found, they were in a really old rolling coffin, yeah. Wait, are they, at least, can we obviously see that they're working? There's not, like, obvious, like, rust or anything. There's not, if they're correct. It's been a little while since they've been touched, but they look to be working out.

I'll definitely take one of those heavy pistols and a shotgun along for the party. Okay, I will let him take that and the shotgun. I'll be like, I'm just going to go ahead and I'll take a, like, I think there were a couple. I'll just take a couple of the medium pistols. But I'm going to keep them not in, like, my primary holster. I'm going to put them, like, in the secondary and, like, one in my boot for backup. So you have, like, extra, basically, just kind of, yeah, that heavy pistols, like, a 357 magnum. That's huge.

Okay, so you pull out some weapons from the green box. So anything else that stands out in the green box to us? You do see that there are some flares. I'll take those. I'll definitely. Yeah, I think we're going to want those. There's three flares. All right, now are we talking, like, road flares or, like?

Yeah, like road flares. There seems to be changes of clothing. Okay, if there's changes of clothing, I am actually probably in need of that, considering that I have a bullet hole in my shit. So, okay, and then if there's nothing else, I think our next order of business. Now that we got this stuff kind of off the books, I think our next order of business would be to go acquire Agent Frost, some kind of a long-range weapon. Okay, so you're going to head to the police headquarters.

Or the FBI office or wherever we would do that. If we have to head to the police station, don't say normally have armory at that point where we could probably either. Yeah, but that's local cops. I'm not sure that we can take anything from them. Wouldn't SWAT have something? Yeah, but again, that's all local. Okay.

We're federal agents. I'm going to follow the lead of my fellow agent, it was Fluke, and I'm just going to go ahead and I'll just follow his lead really quick. Sounds good. Echo, what do you want to? I'm heading to the Michigan Central train depot. Oh, I got a screwdriver before I went to the train station. I need one.

You head to the southwestern part of downtown where the train depot is. This is a central train station where trains from all over the country come in, usually with goods, imports, and exports. And when you get there, you see that there is the main train station, and then there is the massive train yard where there are several tracks. There are some trains kind of coming in and out. There's some that are parked. And you know that from kind of where you're standing,

on the opposite end, on the far end, there is a street called Newark Street. Okay. I'll head towards Newark Street and then look for the third track that's near that. Are you going to remain on the main road? Are you going to get into the train station? Or what are you going to do? You can kind of like walk the perimeter of the train station, or you can like hop the fence and get into the train station.

I'll walk the fence until I get to Newark Street. Sure enough, you go around the block and you are now on Newark Street. You can see that you count one, two, three. There's the third track and you kind of look across it. And you do see that every like dozen feet or so, there are things like lights. There are things like, would look to be relay boxes of some kind, switches of some kind. There are things littered down the track that leads to and from the station. But nothing stands out.

Is there any way I can get into the train station now from this point? Yeah, you think that you could probably, you might have to walk a little ways, but you can find a part of the fence that you could probably hop. Just give me an athletics check to see if you can get over the fence without an issue. Oh, I pass. I pass with a 20. Okay. You manage to hop the fence, still looking fashionable as you always do.

But you get over and you know, it's kind of the middle of the working day. So you can either choose to just start inspecting the track, or you can try to be quiet and sneaky about it. Oh, I'll try to be just, I guess, casual about it. Just walk around like I kind of belong there. Just, you know, not to draw attention to myself. Okay, give me a second. All right, you start basically walking up the track.

You're kind of walking up to the different units and things that are along the track. Give me a alertness check. I pass with a 70. Great. You are walking and you come to what looks to be like a, like a breaker box or something. It's big and square and you notice immediately that there is in white paint, what looks to be graffiti, anyone would just take it as graffiti. It's the image of an eye and it has like a little flourish that comes out of the eye,

like a little twirl or something. It almost reminds you of like something that's Egyptian. Okay. You kind of remember from your history books, there was like, you know, like Egyptian eyes were kind of drawn in a certain style and it reminds you of that. But I assume there's screws that need to be unscrewed on this thing? Yes, you do notice at the bottom there is a screw. All right, I assume you're going to go and start unscrewing it.

Okay, give me another alertness check. I pass with a 23. Do you open up the box after unscrewing it? And when you lift it up, sure enough, there is like a switcher or a breaker box of some kind. And there's enough space, there's only a couple of switches. There's enough space underneath it that there's just all of this space that you could easily put something, but there's nothing there. It's just, just kind of an empty space that you suspect to do was like a drop box

or a dead drop or something. It would be a pretty decent place to shove something in. But there's not really anything there right now. I'll, uh, I'll re-screw it back to the exactly in the way it's supposed to be. And then I will dip. Okay, as you're dipping, because you succeeded on your alertness check, you look to your right and where there was once nothing, there is now a train on coming. You need to make a, uh, dodge roll.

And because you, because you succeeded on your alertness, I will give you plus 20% to the dodge roll. Do you, do you have, do you have any skill rating in your dodge roll? I don't, but, but the plus 20 gives me better odds. It's five. It's a five. What did you succeed by? It's a 45.

You leap out of the lane. You actually have to, you fall to the ground because it's just, it's just so surprising. And you realize you nearly got run over by a train. I need a sanity check. No, I didn't, I didn't get the sanity check. That's four. Okay. That you, you are shaking and trembling as you start making your way back to the fence.

The problem is, is that because you did not do any stealth, I rolled an alertness for the local guards. And as you're making it close to the fence, you hear, Hey girl, get the hell out of here. What are you doing? I'm calling the cops. I'll run. Give me another, give me an athletics check if you're going to try to jump the fence.

There's a guy like running towards you. Straight. I passed with a 23. Okay. You managed to jump over the fence before he's able to get too close. He's like, damn it. I flip them off. I flip them off as I like back up and I run.

What does our, our new alliance of frog, Oliver and Rose want to do? It's now about 1pm. Hey, so frog, what are, what are you and your people doing today? Like, what's the next step for y'all? Are we in on that? What's the situation here? Or have they just decided we're fucking gone? We die.

Oh, well, we do have something going on this evening, which we are meeting up to talk about pretty soon. But as far as I know, we have not all decided to be done with both of you. Here's the thing. This program does not give a fuck about community or individuals at all. It just sees messes and it's, and nothing else. So I got a question for you, frog. Why are you doing this?

Maybe you're not in that program. Maybe you're with us. Detroit's a whole lot bigger. This place has a lot of messes that I can't necessarily clean up by myself. And they, they help with that most of the time. It gets. Well, I just, I want you to think about the things that you give up every time you take their call. Yeah.

No, I'll keep that in mind kind of hard. Because we'll keep you safe just the same. I mean, I'm not very big, but I can throw a punch. I don't care what Echo says. We're a lot nicer too. I've never pointed a gun at anyone. The bar is so low. I appreciate that.

I appreciate that. You do not have to do that. As a matter of fact, it would make me feel better if you didn't. But I understand where you're coming from. Well, Mr. Mr. Like, would you like to join me in research? Yeah, yeah, let's find this tea person if we can. Let's look this up. You know, it's funny the way that those spirals came out.

There was this old, brutal torture device in Imperial China. They used to kill people by death of a thousand cuts. You know, poke people a thousand times until they fucking shred their skin and die on a pole. Maybe we could look into that. Well, I'm sure the library has lots of information on something like that, maybe. Yeah, you know, it's something. So Agent Frost and Fluke. It sounds like you wanted to requisition some weapons.

Okay, there is a FBI branch in Detroit that you can visit. You're going to need to make a requisition role. You can see that Detroit is strapped for manpower. And in the FBI headquarters, in fact, they are also kind of everyone at their stations. Your requisition is going to be an intelligence times five role, or a luck role, whichever you think is higher. But you are going to be at minus 20% because Detroit is footing all of its efforts into making sure the city doesn't burn the next couple of nights.

27. Yeah, I mean, most of the rifles, most of the handguns, shot guns are being, you know, handed out to the Detroit cops. But there is a heavy rifle in the back. The heavy rifle has a range of 150 meters, which is very far. Oh, that's a man killer. Its damage is a D12 plus two, and it has a lethality of 10%. What that means is, is that if you successfully hit,

you get to roll your D100 dice again. And if you roll under 10%, the weapon automatically kills whatever it is you're shooting. Oh, my god. Finally, you have an armor piercing of five. And you know, let's, let's remember the shotgun is super obvious. This rifle is super obvious. Like you're not walking through the streets or through any kind of public building without turning heads with these weapons, but you're able to get it.

And then I think our next priority would be to go check back in with Brog at her office. You guys check in back at the police headquarters. It is it's Sunday, so it's completely dead. There's not a ton of people here. The office is quiet. You manage to find yourself in Frog's office. And actually you arrive first. Frog arrives about 20 minutes after you.

Don't touch my shit. We won't touch your shit. I mean, we touch your shit. We didn't even go inside. Like, come on. We're professionals. Thank you for that distinction. Okay, cool.

But I'm, I'm, I'm there, right? Yep, all three of you are in your office. So long story short, we have a lot of firepower. However, we would still like some additional manpower in case things turn sour. Can you or can you not make that happen? Yes or no? I can make. Okay.

Yes, I can make that happen. Good. Then let's, let's do that. Remind me, what time was the meeting supposed to occur? 10. 10. PM. So if, if you would like to arrange for some reserve units to be on standby.

No, we hit one of these for surveil. What? I feel like you're really forgetting. I had a weapon the first time I went and did surveillance and I got kicked out. I didn't go crazy. I'm just there as eyes in the sky. Yeah. But to see the key distinction is this time you're going to be surveilling from afar.

I still have to make sure no one else comes in, comes in any other way. Make sure there's no other surprises. So. Okay. So it sounds like there's a plan. The, what needs to happen first is major frog, you are going to reach out to the DEA. You are going to make a bureaucracy role, but you are going to make it at 40% because they're absolutely strapped more than the, more than the FBI even.

And you're, you're asking specifically for manpower, which is what they are lowest on. Frog is fine, however this happens. Oh God. It's a 23. Yes. No. I don't believe 23 is a success because you're at a 50 and minus 20% makes it a 10. So you fail.

So here's what happens. You have to, you spend basically most of the afternoon. I'm going to say that it gets close to 7pm by the time you have exhausted every option. And you just cannot find anyone to, to help you on this thing. So it sounds like unless the friendlies come in some way, it's the three of you. And that's it tonight. Okay. So I've honestly done as much as I can to make that try to happen, but it looks like it's just

going to be us. Well, at least we got some big ass guns. I'll say that in this time, if you wanted to, you could contact Hector. I think you had had a plan to do something with Hector. Yeah. He comes to the office. He's dressed kind of like a street guy. Agent Frog introduces him.

His cover is Tony Vesos. His name is Hector Nunez. Shakespeare Han, handsome Spanish guy. And you sure enough, you strap a, a mic to him. Now Hector, while you are inside of the store, Agent Frog and I are going to be just around the corner listening and waiting to respond. My friend, Agent Frost here is going to be keeping an eye from above. Now I, this is very important.

If at any point you feel unsafe or you feel like you need somebody to come in and bail you out, the safe word is Twinkie. You'll be fat in the casual conversation and we'll be coming right through the door. Hector looks at you, Agent Bluth, and he's like, Bluth, please tell me you're going to be there, right? I will be there. I will be there. All right.

I got to get going because these guys have already started partying. I got to catch up with them. Yeah, no, of course. Be safe. All right. All right, cool. I'll see you guys later. He runs out.

I'll, I'll say that the friendlies, Oliver and Rose, you said you had some plans of doing some research. Yeah. Where are you going? I know I want to at some point go to the library because that's where I'm useful and comfortable. Yeah, you're able to go. You've got a few hours before it closes. What do you want to look up?

I want, where are my notes? So there, I know I want to hit Chinese mythology. I want to look for the province in northern China where they got Liao from. Yeah. Mostly, mostly just like Chinese mythology for the, for Preta and for Shukaran. Shukaran? Shukaran? You asked the librarian and you are taken to the mythology section.

You emphasize that you want to read something old, something, you know, whatever the oldest thing is in the library on Chinese mythology. And you do in fact find a very old textbook that talks a lot about the paganism of ancient Chinese religion. And you are looking specifically for this god known as Shukaran. And you eventually come upon what the book understands to be Shukaran, which is that it is described as a black-skinned elephant god whose face is literally just a trunk. And it has this god created Liao.

It mentions this, this lotus called Liao. And it explains that Shukaran also created a special race of people known as the Yuqi that were created to tend to the Liao for Shukaran. The book gives some description of Liao and how it should be taking, it should be taken as an herbal tea. It lists a specific amount, which is very little, like literally a single leaf. And there is mention that one needs to meditate on the concept of a perfect sphere to appease the Preta, which again is insinuated to be some kind of spirit that is

awakened by the use of Liao. And once you appease the spirit, you are able to see your visions and have your visions safely. But eventually as you're kind of pulling through this book, you eventually do come to a full-size image of what looks to be a depiction of Shukaran. Hey! Again, it is an elephant god with black skin, and it is holding in his hand a purple lotus. A, uh, a, uh, fuck this, uh, fuck this whole thing.

The final things that you learn are that this, this Liao, you kind of cross-reference some other books once you have an image of it. And it seems to resemble the Brahma Kamal Lotus. It's, uh, that lotus is typically white, but it looks similar, but a deep purple. And that's what you learn about Shukaran. Shukaran is a strange kind of dark god. And in the image that you see, he is depicted with hundreds of what look to be elephant heads, and their trunks go out like almost like tentacles in front of him.

It's kind of a striking image. Um, do I find anything about, do I find anything about why, like what's the fucking point? Like, why is he making this Liao to give people vision? Is there anything that like, why, why, why Sergio? You know, funny enough, the book you're reading ponders this exact question. What is the purpose and the first purpose that the book supposes is that Liao is a, if the legend are true, is a, a drug of premonition, a drug of foresight, a drug where you can see both into the past and into the future.

And surely that would be useful in some way. But the book also mentions the chaotic nature of the drug and how people are afraid to take it because the Preta could come from them. And the book theorizes why would a God do this? But Shukaran is also a trickster God, a God of mischief, a God of chaos. And you suppose that in a way it's, it's Shukaran's nature to be both enlightening and maddening. Is Shukaran like specific to China or is this just like there are multiple countries throughout Asia that are involved in warshow?

It seems to be a God that is influenced by Indian mythology, but is specific to the region of the Himalayas. Yeah. So it could easily be like Tibetan as well, right? This is sort of at the center of a lot of those. Exactly. Okay. And does it say anything else about the Preta, about like what, like where it came from if, if Shukaran's created this thing for the entire purpose of creating chaos and enlightening,

but also maddening? Why, why the Preta is part of it? Or is it just? I'm going to ask, I'm going to ask that you make a cult role. Sergio, since I think Oliver is probably directly helping with this one. Is there any way I could give Rosie some assistance? What is your occult role, my friend Oliver? Oh, it's a sweet, hot 10.

Okay. I'll say that you were 10%. Be kind, Dyskots, to me as well. Yeah. Next time I'm playing a real spooky big. I failed. You look where you can in the other esoteric books available at the library. You look where there is, you know, Taoist, Buddhist teaching books and books on the, on the history of these things. But, you know, again, a Preta is brought up again as a malevolent spirit.

Often it's emphasized that it is not a human spirit, but you, you can't seem to find the heart and soul of what a Preta is, why it is, what it's guarding, what it's, what is it doing? Why does it, why is this attention drawn by this drug or the taking on it? Okay. Last, last question, I swear. Is there a physical description of the Preta? Is it like a guy in black? Is that kind of a direction that it goes in or is it just?

There is no, there is no description other than it is a malevolent spirit. So he's not like a Scandinavian guy or anything like that? He is not, they do not mention that he's from Finland or Sweden or anything like that. Fuck, there goes my whole theory. Yeah. Totally like man in black with a book in a seance, maybe. It was his name, T. No T, try to bring those together. Can I try looking into, I don't know, maybe finding the mythology behind the spirals

and anything that might, I don't know, does that have any significance? Maybe it's the spiral in the shape of the lotus. Notice a similarity. There's a, lotuses tend to open out and they don't necessarily spiral, spiral the way like a carnation or some other kinds of flowers do, but you have to admit there is something flower-like about the pattern that Rose found in Ishmael's apartment. I'm definitely going to bring that up to her then. I know that I'm not contributing a whole lot to this conversation.

The book's real interesting, it seems like you found a lot, but I do think I got something. So, this lotus that this big spooky fucking elephant is carrying there, doesn't it kind of look like Ishmael's room there? That's a good point, I hadn't thought of that, that's a good observation, Ali. Yeah, I used to love those books when you were younger and you had to find the missing object, so this is my expertise right here, Rosie. Can I, does it look like there's anything with his textbook that's been stabbed through? Does it look like just entirely for the point of making the circle

rather than for a purpose of like making a message like stabbing through letters or whatever? I don't know what you mean, are you saying has the book been tampered with? No, sorry, the textbook of Ishmael's that I took that has all the stabs through it, does it look like it's just been stabbed through for the sake of creating another spiral? No, I mean, you know, now that you have seen it in the context of the corner of the room, there does seem to be, you know, there are angles, there's a directionality with the cuts. But it doesn't seem like he's trying to leave a message with it or anything, it's just like a spiral.

No, you don't notice a message of any kind, you know. Okay, cool. I'm gonna say that this research takes most of the afternoon and you're basically caught up in terms of time-wise with the agents, you have the rest of the evening ahead of you, do you have any plans that you want to do tonight? Yeah, I wanted to go get a sniper rifle. I mean, it's America, so. Fuck yeah!

You could always look for a piece, you could always try to get a piece on the screen. No, no, I... Echo, you've got a few hours before the evening, is there anything you wanted to get done? The only other thing I could say would be to either go find High Sally or reach out to Rose and Oliver. Make a criminology or a bureaucracy role. They're equal, so. I failed. You're asking around for High Sally.

Certainly people know of High Sally. You do not find her, but you do hear word that she's usually at the lever knocked, the club that is in the Leland Hotel. You get a description of her, but that's about it. Nobody really, you know, she goes by High Sally, so nobody really knows what her real name is. She's a party girl, she's always around. But no one's seen her recently. Not anyone that you speak to.

Then yeah, I'll phone Rose and Oliver from, or like, beep, Rose's pager from a pay phone. Yeah, let's say that you guys have a phone conversation. Hi. Hey, Rose. Hey, you okay? You all right? I'll be fine. What if you...

What happened? What happened? He's all freaked out. Well, I've been freaked out since, you know, you guys brought me all into this. Anyways, I've been asking around. I got some stuff on, at least it's going down in my circles about the Flynn's, and I think I might have found a place where I might have found like a like a a stashbox of some kind.

So I got... You think it's still active? I don't know if it's still active, but I mean, it comes and goes. It's there when it's needed. It might be something worth looking into. Keep an eye on it, maybe. Maybe. What are you guys doing?

We spent the afternoon in the library doing some research about some stuff that the G-Man found. And speaking of them, did you have they talk to you guys today? Or what's up with... Frog did. Frog. Who's frog? Frog. I think someone called her blue at that point.

Oh, okay, yeah. Clear. Clear. Clear. Okay, cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Yeah. She, um, she seems pretty all right, huh?

All right for a cop, but that's besides the point. She seems all right. Black, Paris, and the Fluke. But you haven't heard from those guys? No, and I can't say I'm unhappy about it. Cool. Uh. Is there anything going on here?

Cool. I mean, I was just going to tell you that, uh, I'm not going to be around past 10. Don't, uh, don't beat me. Don't page me. Don't call the shop. Don't come by the shop. All right. There's something we need to know about.

Nothing you need to concern yourself with, as long as you do as I tell you. I mean, could, between us, could you not, could you not tell Ollie about it? Because you know he's going to want to snoop, and I'd rather you not show up. Um. Can you do that for me, Rose? You care about him, right? Yeah. Yes, of course I do.

Then don't come by the shop. Yeah. All right. Okay. I won't tell him. Um. Try to find me tomorrow. Okay.

Stay safe tonight. Don't do anything stupid. I don't know, Matt. Who knows? All right. Be safe. Uh. Hey, too.

I'll hang up. The sun goes down. The city of Detroit kind of comes to life in a, in a new way. You saw a little bit of a preview of it the evening before with fire trucks rolling by police sirens interspersed throughout the city. You can hear the sound of fire alarms going off. It's still two days before devil's night or two nights before devil's night. Already fires are being started.

You can see sections of the city where a building is illuminated by something. Occasionally something will seem kind of heavy like, like a top of a building is on fire. And the noise is just kind of, you know, around all the time. These sirens and these whistles and these bells and people calling out. It's not complete chaos, but it kind of just puts you on the edge of your seat. 10pm rolls around and we can assume that the agents of F cell have positioned themselves. Agent Frost, you have found a building that gives you a nice clear view of the front sidewalk and street that high tower record is on.

Agent Fluke and Frog, where are you guys staying? Well, we have the car that we can use to hide out in, but Agent Frog, I will defer to you as you know these streets better than me. I will defer to you on where you think we should lie in waiting. I think one of us should definitely be in the car because of the wire. I think if we're going to be anywhere else, it's got to be farther away than what Frost is doing, or no, because they're going to be in the back. Yeah, no, we should just stay in the car.

Okay, now Sergio, do we have like walkie-talkies or something that we can use? I will say that between the three of you, yes, absolutely. You have some walkie-talkies. Okay, then we will wait. Eiko, how do you enter high tower records? When do you go and how do you go? I assume that I have a little bit of time before 10 o'clock, so I'll just come through the front, but I'll keep that gate that I have to lock, the lock gate around it.

I'll just close that so it looks like the shops fully close for the entire time up until it's time for people to show up. I think that it's easy enough for F cell to recognize when Eiko arrives at her shop and enters a few hours early, because you probably wouldn't have been staying out there as well. 10 o'clock rolls around and you are waiting. It's quiet. I mean, as quiet as Detroit can be two nights before a devil's night, you do hear the sirens going off and the distance and things like that.

Eventually, the three agents, you notice a group of men. You count seven of them. They are all dressed in street clothing, but they all have matching pony shoes. For all you would have experience to know that this is likely pony down posse and they are making their way to the record store. They come up to the front, bang on the metal gate in the front, you can speed them. Open up for them, just enough for them to slide in so they can close the gate. I won't lock that gate thing, but I'll just have it fully closed.

They come in. You can tell immediately that most of them are nervous. The buttress brothers kind of slap hands with you, say their hello's. They're just kind of chit chatting with you and they're kind of hanging out in the central area of the store, bullshitting, telling you, oh yeah, we'll be out of here quick. They'll show up any minute now. Whatever you need. Agent Frost, you have a visual.

All around. Yeah, Agent Frost, you can see the store, the storefront. You see a couple of legs, but they're deep enough into the store that you don't immediately see much action. Nothing too crazy and I just kind of just keep looking around, keep my eyes focused on them. There's just more waiting. I need to ask Echo and the agents of Excel to make power times five checks. I succeed half.

I failed badly. Oh no. I'm the only one that failed. That track is crazy. I mean, fair. Agents of Excel, you are sitting there. Agent Fluke, you're just kind of, you know, looking the direction of the store. Frog and Frost, you both see skipping down the sidewalk.

A boy, a man, it looks like a boy that stands about five, five real skinny. Their hair is kind of a mess and not combed, but you can't make out their face because their face is covered by a gremlin's mask. And they're just kind of skipping, enjoying themselves down the sidewalk and they are making their way to high tower records. Hey, does anyone else see the skipping gremlin? Yeah, no, I see it. Agent Fluke, you look up and you don't see anybody.

Um, no, I don't see anything. Do you see something? Yeah, it's a boy, at least a young man. He's got a mask on. It looks like he's about to go in the store. Fluke and Frog, you're kind of talking to each other. Frog, when you look back in the direction of a boy, he's not there. Frost, for a moment, you kind of moved your focus to see what was going on in the room

and when you are in the building and when you look back, the boy's gone. Inside of high tower records, the gang members are all kind of standing around awkwardly talking, bullshitting amongst each other. Echo, you're the first to notice there's somebody else in here with you guys. In the front of the store stands a boy, man, not more than five, five, skinny as hell. His hair is all combed back or combed in a weird way. He's got an iron, like a ratty iron maiden t-shirt and jeans. And he's got a gremlins mask and he's just kind of standing there.

And you know that you close that gate, but here he is nonetheless. And then the store's close. The other gang members in the room kind of spin around and see him. They pull out their gums. You know, they just all start kind of yelling and he just stands there silently. You can see through his gremlins mask, these piercing brown eyes that are just kind of wide. You really don't see any expressions on his face, but he puts his hands up and he says, don't shoot the messenger, man, who the longer he's there,

the more you get the feeling that there's something maybe Hispanic. He's got olive skin, you know, kind of darker skin. But he says, I'm here to meet the illustrious pony down to make a deal. And Leroy Buttress, one of the brothers at this point, kind of takes over and he says, yeah, man, you the guy with the reverb? You the guy with the stuff? This boy says, yeah, that's me. And he just kind of stands there watching.

They're like, well, let's see it. Let's see the shit. Oh, okay. He reaches into his jeans, like in the front of his jeans where his groin is essentially. And he pulls out this baggy. It's like a fist sized baggy of what looks to be white pills, but he slaps it down on the counter. And when they go to touch it, they immediately retract.

They're like, oh, man, what the fuck? And you look closer and you can see, Echo, the bag is covered in this thin layer of, like, mugus or something. The, you know, the gangsters are looking back at this guy and like, what the fuck, man? They take their shirts and they start kind of wiping the bag. They untie it and one of them pulls out a little white pill. And Leroy says, let's see if it's legit. And the guy takes it.

He done. As they wait to see if the effect takes hold, you're just sitting there quietly. And this guy with this gremlin mask and he's hunched, he's hunched over his terrible posture. And he's just kind of slowly looking at it at all of you. And they say, and Leroy says, all right, man, so, so what do we owe you? What you want? And he kind of ignores the question for a second. And he just kind of, the boy with the gremlin mask looks at you, Echo.

And he says, is this your music store? Yeah, yeah, it's, yeah, it's my music store. He's kind of looking around and he says, you got any Charnell dreams? Yeah, of course. Yeah, of course I would have something like that. He kind of starts like spit laughing. And he says, they're not even out yet. Dummy.

Isn't that the shit from the fucking billboard from the fucking court board? Yes, it is. I'm tapping, I'm tapping on Agent Frog's shoulder next to me. And I'm just holding up the shotgun. And I'm just like tapping on it and trying to indicate for her to get ready to go. And I'll radio up to Frost and I'll say, Frost, get ready to go. Don't worry, little lady. One day you'll have one day.

Leroy buttress is sick of, you know, this, this weird guy. And he says, man, how's $10,000 sound? And he puts down a stack of money that you suppose is $10,000. And the little boy, the boy with the gremlin mask just kind of looks at the money, looks at the group and he says, what do I want? I want that one. And he points to one of the members of the gang that Echo, you know, is Tony Vesos. And Tony's going to have to make a role.

That's our man, right? Tony, no, yes, that's our dude. You see this Tony Vesos kind of comes forward and Leroy says, man, what the fuck are you talking about, man? Take the money and get out of here, you fucking weirdo. And Tony says, no, no, no, Leroy, hold on, I think I get it. He wants me to follow him to like the next drop, right? Like the next place you're going to drop this, the next round of pills, right?

And the boy with the masses, yeah, that's the ticket. Leroy is confused, but he trusts Tony and he says, okay, yeah, I guess that makes sense. Oh, he looks back to the guy that took the pill and sure enough, he's starting to kind of stumble around a little bit and giggle to himself. Echo, are you staying away from this gentleman? Or are you not walking away from this guy who's getting high? No, I stepped away from the guy who took the pill. Okay, okay, yeah, you know, shortly after he took it,

you started feeling those familiar feelings. And so you kind of instinctively walk away. They checked the guy and they're like, oh, yeah, no, it's the guy's laughing. He's like, yeah, this is this is the real deal. He's like, all right, man. Leroy says, all right, man, I think we're done with this shit, man. We'll see you next time, huh? Tony, you come find us once he's shown you where to go.

And Tony's like, yeah, you got it, man. I'll see you later. Lead the way. He turns to this boy. All right, yeah, come on. He opens the front, moves the gated entrance out of the way, and they both start walking down the street. Agent Frost, get the fuck down here right now.

Big ass rifle, do you want me to take someone out? No. Get down here now. We got to move. Agent Fluke and Frog, you see the boy walking with Hector down the street, and they make a turn randomly into an alleyway. We no longer see them. Get out.

Let's go. Yeah, follow on foot. This is quietly as I can't. Okay, go ahead and give me a stealth check, please. Now for 87 is a failure. You start making your way across the street. What you don't realize is the gang inside Hightower Records sees Agent Frog. Echo, you see the boys inside your club coming down.

And one of them says, oh shit, I think, who is that? That looks like a cop, man. And they all come to the window and they notice this. The two agents, Frog and Fluke, you make your way to the alley. Give me alertness checks. Success. Fail. Bad little time.

Fluke, you are the only one that hears the sound of heavy wings flapping in the alley. And when you make the corner, you're kind of hit with a little bit of a gust of wind that comes out of nowhere. But when you look in this alleyway, there is nobody there. And there goes our lead. It's right around that time that you hear the cocking of guns. And you look behind you and you see four individuals wearing pony shoes, aiming their guns at you.

And it's around this time that Agent Frog, you come walking out of the building and you see four of these thugs aiming their guns at Agent Frog and Fluke. And that's where we're going to leave it for tonight. Sweet thing. Oh, they're all dead. I'm going up. Pass away. Four year old twins, Zach and Kelly, sit on a couch and draw using crayons on oversized

sheets of paper. A blonde woman in casual clothing sits beside them and starts a conversation with Kelly. Hi, Kelly. My name's Cheryl. I work here at the Advocacy Center for Children. My job is to talk to boys and girls just like you. Could you tell me about what happened to mommy and daddy? There's a pause before the girl says the bad people did it.

Okay. Who are the bad people, Kelly? Do you remember what they look like? A man and a lady. Did they have blonde hair like me or dark hair? Dark hair. Cheryl looks down at the doodle Kelly is drawing two stick figures, one with a bushy beard, lie in puddles of their own blood, while two ominous black monsters stand over them firing

their guns.