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Angel Fire, Season 2
Pinkman to Rosas, or how I got my good back
Journal Entry January 9
Here Comes the Sun
So Beth finishes her phone call and looks at us, "hey, bedtime for me, you guys might want to be aware that Sam is sending some Helicopters for us". And then she leaves for her fancy sealed bed cocoon thing in the basement. She obviously felt safe, cause that is where she went.
So now, Me, Rosa, and Kole gotta figure out what to do.
Here, now, run, stay?
We got in touch with Matt, we debated our options. In the end we decided to stay and trust the security of Beth's compound.
I told the others, I was flat broke and empty when it came to essence. So I went and hid my locus away from the main buildings of Beth's compound and I stepped over in to the Shadow. I reaped and reaped till I was full. Whew. Felt much better then, after filling up.
Getting some Spirit help
Over the past few trips in to the Shadow for my Patrol, I had figured out how to "Call" or "Summon" spirits, I decided to try it now in order to maybe get some help.
So I summoned a slightly lesser ranking spirit than me, I worked my El Hombre Del Traje magic, and he came along to help quite easily and willing.
After all, I AM El Hombre.
Waiting, Watching, nothing
"The only thing more reliable than magik is one's friends!"
The Spirit and I returned to the compound, took up a strategic location, and waited for the helicopter that we would soon be taking out.
We waited for a while. I saw the copter approaching. But before it arrived, it went down in a very nice and spectacular crash.
I did not know how or why it happened, but assumed it was because of my friends. Probably Kole.
I knew as I saw it falling to the ground, what I had to do…
Don't piss me off, Sam. Or Else.
"If you can't dazzle them with dexterity, baffle them with bullshit!"
-Prof. H. Hill
I pulled out my phone, re-dialed Sam Schultz. He eventually answered. I did not give him time to say anything other than hello…..
"Sam, you're gonna want to write down this name. This is El Hombre Del Traje, Do not piss me off again! If you send any of your goons or anyone from your organization after me or the members of my team again, I will come specifically for you and your head! Call your helicopter if you doubt me" Sam was caught off guard. He said something to demonstrate to the others around him that it was a wrong number. But he got the message.
Pay attention to the Expire date on that Ice Cream
After the call, I returned back to the basement. Beth was semi conscious but not completely. I also discovered that it was Kole that brought down that Helicopter. Through a body switch with Tim. Which meant Tim was here in Kole's body. Kole was the one that brought down the helicopter in Tim's body.
We needed someplace else to go. Beth's compound really was not a good place to stay. We called around to try and find some other places. But no luck.
Once again El Hombre will need to fix things.
I called Jose's old sleazy landlord from way back. Cut a deal. Met him, rented a no questions asked location for us. Guess what? It was that old ice cream factory we ended our 20 year past adventure at. It was nice and weird to be back.
We hauled Beth and her cocoon to the factory.
Time to go back to the Shadow and make that phone call…
"Diplomacy is the delicate weapon of the civilized warrior."- Hun, A. T."
"There are things on heaven and earth, Horatio, Man was not meant to know"
Things settled, was still plenty of daylight. I told everyone I was going to the Shadow to go on patrol. That wasn't what I was gonna do.
I walked a short distance away from the Ice Cream Factory while I was in the Shadow. I stood for a moment taking in my surroundings. I paused, concentrated, felt the essence in me, and then I made my Summons. I called the Spirits in Charge of the Angel File Contract.
A large flaming angel appeared.
Yeah, impressive. But I am El Hombre. I put my hands on my hips, looked up at the Flaming Spirit and ordered it….
"I am El Hombre Del Traje, this is MY TERRITORY, I demand that you demonstrate your authority here and in this area, or I order you to leave, release your hold, and never return!"
Damn, I am good.
Journal Entry January 2
Please step in to my office
Basically Sam told us we had to join up, via a short list of ways. But that was our only choice. Or Else. Well, he did not actually say Or Else, but he sure implied that he had no choice. I remembered again how I used to be scared of Sam and what he was capable of doing. Apparently I was correct then and correct now.
We told Sam we needed to think about and talk more. He let us go back to the cell while he attended to some things.
We need to sleep on it
We were escorted towards the cell. As we walked my magic sense pinged. We were being followed. I made a small distraction in order to look around. I failed to find what it was that that was pinging me.
We arrived in the cell and started to talk about what we should do.
I described that we probably could not actually afford to be placed on yet another hunt list. Even if the other two currently weren't active hunt orders. Maybe we should reconsider being chipped, and just traveling down to the Underworld to deactivate them immediately.
We kept talking until I noticed something through the cell door.
Dave's not here, neither is Tim
Slinking toward us was a perfectly coiffed, overly accessorized business woman. She looked kinda funny sneaking towards us in high heels and a skirt.
It was Tim, the body changer from my way back past. Now in the body of this woman. Wow.
Tim told us he was still there associated with Sam, mostly a rogue, but he got away with stuff cause of his association with Sam.
Tim also told us that we could communicate with someone via the terminal in our cell. He then had to leave.
We communicated with the terminal. We figured out we were speaking to the Promethean that Sam did not know was his problem.
Do we stay or do we go?
The Promethean wanted our help to escape. He was sure we could.
That would make us fugitives from a quasi-government entity. I reminded everyone about my fears of being placed on another list.
We decided we should escape. I was of mixed feelings, but I knew the importance of sticking with my friends, in particular since we were all here because of my original idea. So we waited for the coming distraction in order to make our break.
Tanks away!
The distraction we were expecting was not what we were expecting. It was a tank. Through the wall of the cell. Well you gotta hand it to this Promethean, he has style.
We clinged to the outside of the tank and rode just outside of the compound. We then jumped out, made our introductions and met the new Promethean.
He was gorgeous. Young and beautiful. If I did not know he was a Promethean, I would probably wondered if I had met another one of me and maybe my kind.
We decided that we needed to jump in to Twilight to make our final escape. I should not have gone with that plan.
Twilight escape
I wrestled everyone in to Twilight. I really mean wrestled. It drained me. More than I have ever been drained before. I could feel how low on power I was.
We ran to the graveyard where we found Rosa and my El Camino waiting. Neither the other car or my El Camino would start. I had forgotten about the technology damaging field we had encountered on our way towards the campus.
We would need to continue on foot. I only could think about how my Locus and El Camino would be left there unattended or protected. The Locus was rather big and heavy too. I must have looked rather silly wresting my locus out of the bed of the El Camino, insistent that I needed to go hide it until I could return.
The Promethean stopped me, pulled me back. He touched the El Camino and it did a Magical Mechanical Morphing in to a simple Pull Style Wagon. The Locus was in the bed.
All these years, seeing magic being performed, it did not hit me that maybe the El Camino would not be able to come back. It just seemed to me to be a sudden magical solution. We could pull the El Camino "Wagon" and my Locus till we found another vehicle. Ta Dah! We saved both the El Camino and my Locus. Little did I know how wrong I was.
We arrived at a closed gas station. We found some other vehicles that between the Promethean and Beth, we were able to get one started.
That was when the Promethean said "don't look"…
Death of the El Camino and Jessie Pinkman
I turned and looked just as the wagon started it's mechanical morphing back in to the El Camino, I watched the magic as it happened, hoping inside that the vehicle would return back to it's normal condition. It did not, it looked like it's old self for just a moment, then the car fell apart. The same way you would imagine a car falling apart in an old warner brothers cartoon, parts just fell off and it collapsed under it's own weight.
The El Camino was gone. It hit me. The past thirty years flew past my imagination. I hadn't remembered Jessie or the Maestro for a while, it all came back hard. The violence, death, our ruthlessness, my becoming a monster, and then my rebirth here after I escaped.
All of it, all my human life, gone. That's all I knew as I watched the El Camino fall apart. Nothing connected me to my past anymore, not even my name. I realized I wasn't a man anymore, not even human. I still did not even know WHAT I was. As the El Camino hit it's breaking point and fell apart, so did I.
Watching the first thing while in my new existence, grow old, die, and be gone forever broke me.
I then truly realized that people and things would grow old and die all around me, now and maybe forever.
I am sure I was hysterical for a while, I really don't remember much. Other than eventually calming down and realizing as we made plans to leave in one of the other vehicles we found, that we also needed to pack my locus.
As we drove, I felt a couple things I had not felt before, I was Shaken completely. I could just feel, just tell, that the next time I tried to do something that I would fail, I would not be able to help my friends. All because of my weak mental state.
I also felt something else. It felt like the Promethean, like there was a piece of him in my head now. My thoughts would stray towards him, and I would feel drained, weaker. This was weird.
Decryption, deception, and a contract to be king
We arrived back at Beth's compound. We all sat around inserting our sim cards in to our new burner prepaid phones (love the 24hour Walmart in Red River). Then Beth and I saw several emails and texts come through. All from Sam.
I did not listen to them, though. As we asked Dave to read the USB drive and tell us how to become king. He paused, but did tell us what the USB contained. At first, he tried to tell us that the Contract for King of the Angel Fire area, was with the "Spirits in Charge", and involved the delivery of a relic of some sort. But we figured out that he was not telling us the complete truth. Eventually we forced out of him, that HE was the item that needed to be delivered to the "Spirits in Charge" in order to become King.
Hmmm….Spirits in Charge he said. Sounds like this contract might be right up my alley.
I decided then that I would go looking for these Spirits in the Shadow. In fact, I even think I may know how to Summon them TO ME. I wonder what I could learn from them, or what kinds of deals I could cut with them…Hmmm.
Black Helicopters and you
"Out of the frying pan, into der fire"
-The Swedish Chef
Beth got a few more calls. We all checked our Voice Mails and texts. Both Beth and I had text messages and voice mails from Sam. Not really mad at us, but making sure to let us know we needed to come back or else. He was sending the Black Helicopters.
Crap. I am so low on power, I can not be any help to Beth, Rosa, or Kole. I am almost sure I only have enough power to get in to the Shadow and go harvest some essence.
I don't think we should stay, I think we should all run. But where?
Journal Entry December 19
Road Trip
We were off on the highway to Los Alamos. Fortunately, it is not too far away from us, less than two hours.
I still find it interesting how enjoyable my associates seem to find the fact that I still drive my old El Camino. They take endless amounts of joy at making fun of it, and sometimes me for driving it.
(I sometimes wonder if I should tell them how this vehicle was the one that I drove away from that horrible compound that they imprisoned me in, the place where Jessie Pinkman died. How every time I drive this car, I remember the sacrifice that Mr. Blanco made for me in the end. How without him, I would not be what and where I am now.)
Taking the road trip also reminded me that I need to find a more permanent place to stay at, as I heard my Locus bouncing every once in a while back in the bed of the Camino.
Don't play road games with changelings
So we were talking in the car, we had a Skype window open between the two vehicles the entire drive. Soon Rosa was talking about some of her abilities, and how they might be able to help us.
Her abilities are rather interesting, and easily activated. So easy, that I believe I entered in to a contract with her, before I actually realized what I had done. Well all of us did. Sure enough, yup. I turned to look at her and saw her true form via one of the abilities she granted us.
Dam, now I owe her. El Hombre will not like that, not at all.
The future's so bright I gotta wear shades
As we approached, my magical senses got some major pings. I looked out across the horizon as we approached. There was some magical field effects obviously coming from Los Alamos. I also saw some weird sparks and electrical effects in and around our personal electronics. I realized that this simple visit to find a Technology Spirit, most probably was not going to go the way I hoped….
Graveyards, gates, and doors oh my
We needed to find a local entrance in to the Underworld, as that would the easiest way for the others to leave Twilight. Did I mention we were all going in to the campus in Twilight? That way we could move about easily without hindrance. We knew that we would find one in a local graveyard, so we picked one not far from the Los Alamos Campus.
Fortunately, Beth has a Scooby Doo super vampire nose and was able to find the gate rather easily, after she wandered about a bit in the dusty old graveyard.
Weirdly enough, the gate manifested within the door of my El Camino. The drivers door of my car now opened in to the Underworld. Cool, I think.
El Hombre arrives
I sent the others in to Twilight, Not such an easy task by the way. Everyone was pretty easy to do, just a small expenditure of Essence. But whoa doggie! Beth was tough. I had to put in double the amount of Essence to push her in to Twilight.
I went over to the El Camino, opened up my garment bag and changed in to my work suit. I picked the blue pinstripe that I picked up in Italy. I placed my pin on my lapel, checked my look in the car mirror, and then turned and El Hombre stepped in to the Twilight with the others.
Twilight travel and you
It would be a mostly short walk to the campus from the graveyard. So we began.
Beth was all over El Hombre rather quickly. Peppering him with questions about why Jose did not tell her what he knew about El Hombre. El Hombre tried to explain to her that she had no contract with him, and that the vampire court had no contract with him, so there was no reason to share any El Hombre information with her.
She did not seem to understand. I was at a loss at how to explain any better. These are El Hombre's rules, not mine.
Who you gonna call?
"The best laid plans often go fowl"
-Wile E. Coyote
We entered the campus. Things were weird. It was obvious that there was some open mixing of the real world directly in to Twilight. We saw a few odd looking spirits attached to the people walking around the campus.
I am still not sure what those were and why they were attached that way.
I was quickly figuring out that this was not going to go the way I had planned. I knew this to be true, when out of the corner of my eye, I realized that a team of mortals were approaching us, and obviously could see us through their electronic visors that they wore. They also carried what could only be described as those electron guns that the Ghost Busters wore in those old movies Badger and I loved to watch on Sy Fy Channel.
Is that you Schultz?
"Should old acquaintance be forgot…"
-Count of Monte Cristo
Beth as usual, saved our asses. She was able to sweet talk the security folks, and she got us in to see the Director of the facility. Guess who?
Blast from the past, Sam Schultz. Big Mean Scary vampire Sam Schultz.
Yet another contract
So, apparently the only way we can get out of the Los Alamos campus is to join them.
I have to admit, as soon as Sam told us this, and how his hands were tied. I was ready to just leave. I was pretty sure that I could just step over in to the Shadow and then leave on my own. But I was here with the others, my friends. I could not just disappear and leave them. So I just quietly listened and took what was offered.
I can't believe, after nearly 20 years of working on my own, my way, now I have three entities that I have expressed loyalty or am bound to: I still wear the colors of the Empress, the buffing from Rosa, and now we are official "Weird Agency" employees with weird ties to Vampires.I still hold hope that when we figure out how to gain "Control" of the region, that I can get out of these unwanted obligations.
Others should be bound to El Hombre, not the other way around.
Journal Entry
December 12
The most boring waiting room in the world
"It's not even a nice place to visit!"
-Fodor's Guide To Lowgate Prison
Once again we were in the most boring waiting room in the world, waiting for Rosa to be brought out from the infirmary in Lowgate Prison.
Beth as usual, worked her magic, and was able to get Rosa's sentence commuted, and they fixed her up for free too.
After what seemed like forever they brought her out and let her go.
We all started to talk about which way and how fast we should proceed home.
There be a ruckus outside
While we were there talking about how to go home, rivers to cross, and all that stuff. We heard what could only be described as a ruckus outside. We debated for a bit, wondering what to do. Rosa and I decided to take a peek and we went outside.
It was those rebels, but they were dealing with someone else. Rosa and I commented to each other that we were lucky, we can probably forget about them and just go ahead on our way home. Beth came outside a moment after we said that. She looked over at the Rebels and she went straight back in to the prison and set off the alert.
"Oh yeah" I think the head Warden guy said he might want to talk to the rebels about the whole explosive thing. Soon the prison alarm went off.
The long way home
The Ruckus was Kole. As usual he kicked some ass. I must admit, these Geist fellows seem to have a nice compliment of abilities. If El Hombre were to have a team, I could see how recruiting some Geist's might be a good idea.
Kole also obtained a meeting with his Boss/Friend Kaidu. Kole learned pretty much the same stuff we did.
Eventually we finally decided to leave Lowgate Prison for home and the Mortal Realm.
The not so safe safe house
"The world did not change. Only your awareness of the reality of our situation has changed." – El Hombre Del Traje
After about a weeks travel we made it to the gate, and back in to the real world. The different air sure smelled nice.
We got into the car and I drove everyone out to Wendy House. I guess our de facto headquarters. Bleah. I miss our old house from 20 years ago.
Apparently I thought to myself too soon.
We arrived at Wendy House. It was strangely empty and quiet. Some security measures against Fae also had been put in place. Needless to say Beth was concerned and immediately called her boy Matt.
Matt went on to describe all the crap that went on while we were gone. And I do mean crap. Just about everyone that thought they were hot shit showed up, argued, fought, and in the end came to some sort of agreement. I had to piece things together from the details that Kole shared and from Beth. But in the end it seems as if there was a new agreement regarding who was who and who was in charge of what. But most importantly, both Kole and Beth were on the outs with each of their respective organizations. And if I understood correctly, both are currently being actively hunted.
The one good thing that I heard. That I do not think the others heard. I am still mostly free and clear, neither Kole or Beth made any descriptions about El Hombre, nor any further questions about him. I hope that this may mean an advantage to us in the future some how. Just now sure how right now.
This is why I work alone
After hearing all the news. I was ready to just go back to my hotel, and eat. Beth decided to stay and spend the night in her crypt. She would probably get mad at me if she heard me call it her Crypt.
Kole, Rosa, and myself drove in to town. For some stupid reason the Sonic was not open. So we had to go to Denny's. Did you ever notice that no one ever decides to go to Denny's? Everyone always just ends up there.
I realized that Rosa is some sort of Fae creature thingy. She apparently also "Feeds" on strong emotions. So due to her hunger, we had a rather unpleasant dining experience. I was so glad to get out of there.
We ended up at my room. Sleep finally.
Patrol, so glad to be back in the Shadow
The next day, Kole, Rosa, and I talked about what we should do about the fact that both Kole and Beth are probably being actively hunted. I offered to go speak with a local knowledge spirit in hopes that it might be able to help us with a solution to hide or protect them.
Before I stepped in to the Shadow, I changed in to my Suit. Aaaah. Work Clothes. I felt the calm and clear head come to me as I put on the suit jacket. I looked in the mirror, and I reached to the inside pocket and pulled out my pin.
Yeah, did I mention my pin?
It is the symbol we used to mark our product with, so very long ago. The mark of The Maestro. It is my symbol now. I placed the pin on my lapel, and I stepped confidently in to the Shadow Realm. I wonder if Kole and Rosa noticed my ritual? Hope not.
I found the knowledge spirit, basically found out not many solutions, outside of asking Marcus for help. No thanks.
I finished my patrol and returned to the room.
That nite, we met and talked in my room, after my patrol during the day. Beth told us more about the showdown at the Wendy House, she also went on to tell us how her Boy Matt was able to pull a smart piece of minion work. He managed to make a copy of the super secret hard drive that Beth had in her possession. He then secreted the copy, and made a big show of disposing of the original hard drive. Big show, lots of supernatural components.
So we have a copy of this data. Hopefully it has the secret to how one gains, keeps, and controls power and territory here in this particular region.
We talked about how to access and figure out. I felt that the best way for us to do this in a quick fashion would be to speak to a professional. So I offered that we should go take a quick drive to Los Alamos.
Los Alamos here we come
Los Alamos NM, is the home of Los Alamos National Laboratories. Been there for over 50 years. I bet I can find a Technology spirit that can read that USB and then tell us everything we need to do. Or I sure hope so!
It made me think about Badger, he would really love to meet a spirit of technology. He would geek out so much over that. Wish I could invite him. It sucks that I can not reach out to him or Brock. At least not right now. Too much scary stuff going on.
I also remembered that I need to still check out that Mine that Brock works at. But how to do I do that without Brock finding out I am in town?
Journal Entry for December 5
Hear no evil, see no evil, time to go
So we watched Rosa go in to Lowgate. The moment she crossed the Threshold, Beth looked scared and nervous. She described that she could no longer observe magically. Uh oh. We decided we should go in after her. Plus it got us away from these weird rebel guys.
Yeah, we're with her. But we did not have a bomb.
We arrived, we were greeted, and asked to wait in a rather bleak waiting room. As the door opened, we saw Rosa. She was glad to see us. So we were able to join her as she was lead to go see Kaidu. As we walked through the General Population of the prison, something odd happened. Rosa, seemed to see something, and she immediately started to reach for the location that we figured she had hidden the explosive. Before we could really do anything to help or stop, it went off.
Big Badda Boom!
Even innocence has a price
After Beth and I barely survived the explosion, we were taken to the Warden again. Fortunately, his magic voo doo, told him, we were innocent. Whew!
He still offered us a side job as a form of penance, not actually punishment. As he offered both Beth and myself a nice bonus if we completed his task of delivering a large container of blood from the river of blood. Apparently his caterer cancelled the contract to supply blood to the vampires in the prison. Supply chain management can really be difficult sometimes to manage. Trust me I know.
He also mentioned something about possibly commuting Rosa and her sentence too, but I must admit, I did not pay much attention to that part. I was excited to have the possible opportunity to learn a new Numina, which is what he offered as incentive for me. But I was concerned I would not be able to complete this task in an adequate fashion. I still am in this crappy t-shirt and jeans. I feel like such a dumb little street thug.
Is there a men's wearhouse nearby?
"First impressions are of major importance in business matters"
-J. Pierpoint Finch
After the chief prison dude offered us the opportunity to do a mission for him, Beth and I followed after the guard to go speak with Kaidu. I started to worry, that I would not be of good help to Beth, in particular since I was not in my work clothes. I stopped to tie my shoe and dawdled a bit, then went back to ask the Warden if he might have a change of clothes available, in particular a man's suit. He only had extra Judge Robes to offer. Sigh. I hope we do not get in to any real danger. I worry I will not be able to help Beth. I hurried to catch up with her, and as I turned a corner, I nearly ran in to her. She looked at me in a disappointing fashion, said something about my lying. Hmm, did not really understand what she meant. Oh well. c'est la vie, I learned that in France. It means oh well. Future Jose can worry about that, present Jose has to just worry about staying alive.
We got an opportunity to meet with Kaidu before we left on the side job. We learned a lot. It seems he was hiding there at the prison, more than he was being punished. Something about avoiding horrible scary nightmares. Because of information he learned and shared. I can understand that. It took me years and years to quit seeing that bastard kill Brock's Mother in my nightmares.
Of Sidejobs, Blood Vessels, Battle, and you
"One of the joys of travel is visiting new towns and meeting new people"
-G. Khan
So we traveled to the river of blood. On the way we bumped in to some others, we ended up traveling with them to the domain of the Empress. Some really old undead lady. She had these grand dreams of a new undead form of society. We talked, we ended up having to fight as a gesture to her. I was right about my work clothes, all my blasts were pitiful. Barely any damage. But in the end, it wasn't too bad, especially when I figured out that I could harvest Essence as part of my attack. It sucked I had to actually throw punches and brawl. We got the blood. We got back to the prison.
Learned a cool new ability
We got back to the prison, we brought the blood. We got our rewards. I learned how to drag creatures in to Twilite. Pretty cool. Not exactly sure how to use that yet, but I think I might have some ideas.
Journal Entry
November 14
Memory can be a fleeting thing
For some reason, I seem to have forgotten that we met up with the Sunshine Shooting lady after we got back to Beth's after our exciting night on the road. Her name is Rosa. Cool name. She was waiting there in the lobby of Wendy House shelter. Almost asleep. She was there, looking for Marcus. That guy that Kole is looking for.
Of WMD's and Samsonite
Rosa told us about how she had spoken to her associates and learned that the item that the Nosferatu I had chased north from ABQ, was actually in possession of something very dangerous. Possibly WMD level. But you know, it was really weird, we all had difficulty remembering exact details related to the suitcase and it's contents. Hmmm, odd.
Boxes times three
Well we decided that we should go look for Marcus in his quarters there on the Wendy House property. He was not there. Rosa felt we should search his quarters, as we might find clues related to this WMD.
So we did, did not find much, except for three boxes. One held LOTS of Feelz, The other had this Long Stick, probably magical, and the last one had something called Goblin Fruit within.
We took the three boxes for safekeeping. Besides it might also bring him to us.
Hook Hands are not so cool
So we decided we needed to go check out the Underworld to find Kole's friend, boss, still not sure what kind of relationship they have. It makes me glad that so far I am one of a kind. It must be hard having to always deal with others and politics.
But we got to the door to where we were going, but it had a body part impaled on a hook. Apparently in order to pass through that way, you have to leave a body part. Yeah, easy guess. We did not go down that way.
We eventually found a different way to go down and through, but we bumped in to some monstrous distractions. But fortunately Kole seemed to know what to do and sent us on ahead. I am worried a bit about him. But only a bit. He is pretty tough.
Prison Break
"When things are at their blackest, I say to myself, 'Cheer up, things could be worse.' And sure enough, they get worse." – Jose Miguel Rosas
We eventually traveled down and far on our way to the Prison Break. I really felt like a tourist. Especially since I was not dressed for work. I did not stop to change in to my Suit before we came down here. I really do not enjoy being out of my work clothes. I worry that I will not be able to assist my old friends in an adequate fashion, without my work clothes. After all, who would be afraid of me dressed like this?
We found the prison that we think that K, Kole's friend is in. But as we approached we met some "rebels", they wanted our assistance in breaking some people out. I did not volunteer to help, as there is no way I could be of help, especially without my work clothes on.
Eventually Sunshine Lady, Rosa, decided to go in. She took the device in with her that the Rebels asked her to take. Some kind of explosive they described. I got the impression that Rosa took it just in order to get away from these Rebels and proceed in to the Prison.
Beth and I stayed behind. Maybe not the best idea. Cause the Rebels attacked….(Argh, and me with no Suit!)
November 7
Journal Entry
ABQ up to old neighborhood
"Old heroes never die; they reappear in sequels"
-M. Moorcock
I tracked the vampire to my old neighborhood. Things have changed, bigger, busier. I still do not like these cars that drive themselves.
I shook down some folks here and there. I find it interesting that even after twenty years, the same old places, have the same old bad people hanging around. I finally found out where to find him. That cheap hotel outside of town.
Nosferatu…..El Hombre comes for you.
Strange things are afoot at the Super Eight
I arrived at the Super Eight, I should have known better that all the cars in the lot meant something other than a busy night at the hotel. I did not know which room he was in, so I stepped sideways. I started at the top second floor, walked to each door, stuck my head in and looked for him. I found him pretty quick. He was just dawdling around in his room. I looked, I watched. I decided I wanted to burn him. So I went looking for an Accelerant.
I barely turned the corner to start looking when there suddenly was a commotion.
So much happened, so fast, hard to remember it all.
I turned around, there was my vamp, clutching a suitcase. Two people that looked familiar were pounding on him. Well at least people here still care about the wellbeing of children. So I started blasting him myself.
A third person, who I did not get a good look at also started pounding on the vamp. But she was different. She brought down Sunlight during the night to hurt the vamp. Well the sunlight, along with the fire she was slinging, pretty much made him frenzy and run. Dam.
The Vamp got away, as part of getting away, he lost his suitcase. The suitcase fell broke open, and there I saw what I did not want to see. The child, hurt, unconscious. Rage filled me up as I ran after the Vamp. But he had a head start.
Met some of the old gang, got invited to court.
I stepped back. Said hello to Kole and Beth. It was nice to see them after so long. It was sad to see Kole looking older. Beth still looked the same. But oddly enough, she carried some experience that was visible in her face. How come I don't get that?
We took the child to Beth's police contacts. We ended up at Beth's place.
Beth nearly as soon as we arrived, received a phone call. I only heard one side, but it was not hard to figure out. It was her Vampire handlers. Calling and asking her what she knew. I heard them ask her if they knew who El Hombre was. I smiled inside. Nice to know my reputation proceeds me.
Beth finished the call and described how the local prince wanted us to come to court the next day for introductions. She also asked if either Kole or myself knew anything about this El Hombre guy. I said I did not. I am pretty sure they believed me.
Began patrol, met Spirit of the Mine
I woke up, treated myself to a nice breakfast. I went out and picked up some street clothes for my court date later. I realized I needed to act and look as much NOT LIKE El Hombre as possible.
After I was done shopping, I decided I needed to go on Patrol. It was nice uneventful patrol. It was nice to have a new place to patrol also. I also got to meet the Spirit of the Mine. Big, a bit scary, kinda simple. But I am pretty sure I can use him, if necessary.
Court Date
"I don't know why anyone would be nervous about going to see royalty"
-P. in Boots
Before Court, I made sure to change in to some street clothes. Ill fitting, oversized. A look as far opposite from El Hombre as possible. I also made sure that I did my very best to act disinterested, bored, and why am I here anyway kind of attitude. I have learned from prior experience, the best weapon anyone can have, is to be underestimated.
We met everyone. They offered food and drink. I took both. I am smart enough to know that both were poisoned in some way. So I did my best Sit Com Eating. Held the glass, almost took a drink, MANY times. Almost had some cheese MANY times. But never did. When I began my first pretend sip, Beth made sure to catch my attention and warn me that both were poisoned.
I have to admit, it pissed me off a bit. So blatantly trying to take me out. I also did find it interesting to realize that Beth seemed to have no problem with the fact that these associates of hers had no problem attempting to poison me.
They continued to poke at me. Asking me "What" I was. I gave no real answer. Or at least, I pretended that I did not know.
But I could also tell, they genuinely did not know "What" I was. That made me happy inside.
I made sure to ask about the child trafficking. I got some bullcrap answer.
In the end, they did not like me. I did not like them. But hey, what can you do? I learned a long time ago, that the Vamps fell in to my "Who cares what happens in the real world" Category. The Shadow is what is most important in this world. My Practice in the Shadow is more important than the wants, needs, or whims of some undead thing or things.
Dam, I am starting to hate this road
We drove back to Beth's. On the drive, I felt a ping of magic. But could not immediately detect what it was. I felt several more pings. I decided I should pull over and investigate further. But before I could, a large truck hit the invisible car that had been tailing us. The invisible car crashed, and became visible, after Beth and I approached. Beth mentioned that it was a vampire driving. We tried to track him, but failed.
Again, I noticed, that Beth seems to have no problem with these Vamps openly attempting to kill one of her friends again. Also, she could have been harmed. Still no issue from her about this. Oh well.
I gave her the benefit of the doubt, that she knows that if I were to die. It would be only a matter of time, before I returned.
Of Crones and cauldrons
After we got to Beth's she told us about a dream she had. Along with a task he had received from her Supernatural Mentor.
Look for the Cauldron of the Crone, find it. Maybe in the underworld.
After hearing this I was a bit excited, I have been wanting to check out the Underworld. In particular to see if anyone know my reputation there. I know, I know, I worry too much about that.
The chance to see or touch another Relic, I also found interesting.
I like Relics….
Missing geists, the Underworld, and You.
So Kole was anxious to go to the Underworld. He received a communication from his Mentor. Apparently he needs some help. Apparently he is in the Underworld also. Perhaps imprisoned in some way. I have to admit, I was not paying a lot of attention. As the thoughts about Beth and her lack of care for the well being of her friends, overwhelmed me.
He had a hook hand?
So we decided to take a first attempt to look for this missing Geist fellow. We entered the Underworld through the same entry we had found all those years ago.
But we got blocked rather quickly. A door. Blocked and guarded by a formidable looking ghost.
But we were at the right place. Kole knew, cause he saw his Mentors Hand, ripped off and placed on a hook. The hook was on the door guarded by the Ghost.
Pretty cool.
Journal Entry: 20 years goes by pretty fast.
After we created V'Ger. Things kind of settled down. Well as much as Scooby stuff can actually settle down. We all hung around for a while. But after a couple of years, it was just Me and Brock in the House of Doo.
I really did not do much except Scooby Stuff, learned as much as I could about Spirits, and what it is that I had become. Before you knew it, six years passed and Brock was 18.
(Six years pass)
That was when Brock and I had a talk. I let him know that we had no actual legal ties to each other, outside of being family now. If he wanted, he could go, I would be ok with it. He said he needed a few days to think things over. He surprised me when he told me that he decided to stay there in Angel Fire, and that he would be soon applying to Taos University. He was not sure what he would Major in yet, but he grinned at me and said "he was thinking maybe Organic Chemistry. Seems like the family business." I smiled at him.
Brock went to University, got his degree in Organic Chemistry, went back for his Doctorate. I like to call him Dr. Brock. He teaches now at the local community college. I am so very proud of him. I just wish he could make more money. He has to also work part time at a local company.
While Brock went to college, Badger also started his climb up the straight and narrow. He ended up staying here in Angel Fire also (I think my story about the Promethean in or near ABQ scared him). He originally got the job as a stocker at our local Walmart in order to meet a particular girl. But he ended up excelling, and now by time Brock graduated, Badger was Manager of the Angel Fire Walmart. He also ended up with that same girl. They have a kid now. Badger told me that he would have to stop "working" for me, as he had a kid to look out for now. I understood. After all, he and I did raise Brock.
(14 years pass)
Once Brock had his own life, Badger was a nice married family, I had more freedom. I began traveling.
I figured out that I could walk on to a Cruise Ship in Twilight, and wait till the ship was on it's way. Then step back. Find an empty cabin to sleep in, and you have an excellent trip to wherever you wish to go. I met spirits in countries all over the world. Sometimes we just talked, sometimes we fought, sometimes I helped them, and sometimes they helped me. I liked this new life. I could feel my abilities growing as I gained in experiences and adventures with the Spirits I encountered.
It was when I was in San Diego, visiting The Pickerman, when he gave me a secret as a gift. First he told me the story about how there was one miraculous perfect undamaged box of silverware that had survived the explosion of the Hindenburg. How they had been picking through the piles of rubble, only to move a piece of burned metal aside to find the perfectly untouched box. He then told me about this man. He told me how this man gained great wealth and power through the use of his luck. Which, The Pickerman told me, was actually because of a Relic that the man possessed, one he created. A silver Ring. Forged from that same silverware that survived the explosion and destruction of the Hindenburg. The man had obtained the silverware purely out of serendipity, purchased at a second hand store.
The Pickerman told me, that he knew the man would die in a fashion that his luck would not be able to save him. So I searched, and searched, till I found the man. Then I just waited and watched. Followed him. Until, just as The Pickerman said, the man died in a car accident, his arm hanging out of the window when I found him. The ring on his hand. The ring is mine now. It does make me very lucky and successful in my endeavors.
So much so that I have begun more and more direct involvement with the Sprit World, and sometimes the mortal world. You know me when it comes to the welfare of children. I regularly stick my finger and attention where it does not always belong. My reputation varies between hero and tyrant, depending on who you speak with. Many Spirits and ghosts would describe me as their savior, the only one that came to help them, when they needed help the most. Others speak of me in only whispers, whispers of El Hombre del Traje, he who came in the night and devoured and destroyed evil.
El Hombre del Traje, that is what the Spirits know me as. I wasn't looking for an Alias in the Spirit World, I had actually just recently in the past five years or so, started the habit of always wearing a suit. I figured out rather quickly that the enjoyment of looking 22 years old forever, is not always such a great thing. In the mortal world, there are so many people that immediately discounted me, or did not pay attention to me, just because I looked 22.
So the suits. All I wear now. I look pretty good anyway. I have found nearly everyone always pays more careful attention and shows me better levels of respect in my suit.
So that brings me back to now, 2036. Hard to believe. Brock is 32, he has a family. Him and his wife adopted a kid. That really made me happy, Brock understood that family is what you make it, not just blood. Technically I am a Grandpa. Uncle to Badger's kid too. I love Christmas and the holidays now, all the kids around.
So I was visiting my old friend The Pickerman, in San Diego. He knew of my passion to protect children and innocents, he told me of a rogue vampire in ABQ. He said that this vampire was feeding on exclusively children. He said, that he knew, I would want to know. He was right.
I thanked The Pickerman, told him I would be back to visit again soon. I started the long drive to ABQ, to find the vampire that The Pickerman told me about. I realized that after this job, I could probably drop by my old stomping grounds in Angel Fire, go see Dr. Brock and Badger.
Hmmm, Green Chili Cheeseburger at the Wildcat's Den. Kids to spoil. Woo Hoo!
Journal Entry October 10
Kole had a good idea and we decided to go to the graveyard and open that doorway he knew about, and hide for a while from our collective enemies in the Underworld.
I only heard Underworld, someplace that really sounded interesting, now with my new persona and abilities.
You know the Underworld really isn't what you would think. Lots of corridors. Easy place to get lost.
We did get lost. But we found our way. Of course we did. We are The Scoobies.
Sam killed that mean ghost Doctor, well Sam hurt him severely, while Sam was invisible. Did I mention that Sam can become invisible? I took some Essence from the Doctor before Kole chowed down on him.
The Ghost Detective guy, helped us find Shelliac. Shelliac was anxious to go back to the Mortal World, he had plans for the upper and for Lilly. We went along for the ride up to the real world. We ended up in the Ice Cream truck warehouse. We watched Shelliac work on his grand project In the end he failed.
We watched from a minimum safe distance, I love that phrase, minimum safe distance. It always reminds me of Wrath of Khan when they are trying to outrun the Genesis Device in the nebula. Badger loves that movie.
It was a great show, in the mortal world, grand explosion and destruction, apparently Lilly had a lot of power connected to her Spirit Controlling Memory Controlling Wall doo dad. When it failed, it really failed.
In the sprit realm and twilight the light show was even more spectacular. I wish everyone else could have seen it. At least Kole could.
Out of the ashes of the data center, arose a new spirit. A self aware one. I think it was some kind of new Spirit Form, but was not sure. It was pretty upset. I was able to talk it down. Score one for Jose The Scooby.
It reminded me of another movie that Badger loves. The first Star Trek Movie, when they meet V'Ger. This new Spirit reminded me of that, a new being coming in to life. "A new kind of being, coming in to life" that was how Badger always described it, with awe in his voice. I love that Badger can find meaning about real life, in his movies. I wish he had been here to see this.
I realized it was late, I need to get back to the House of Doo and check on Brock.
Journal Entry October 3
Well, we got to Bernalillo and stopped for a Green Chili Cheesburger at Blakes, Badger kept going on and on about how this PARTICULAR Blakes makes the best ones. I admit they were pretty good.
While we were eating we figured out something. Tim did not need another body. In the heat of the moment we had made a bad decision. Tim was happy with the body he had now, and did not want to go through looking for another one.
So after we ate, we went back out to the car and were about to drive back. When we realized and saw something we had forgotten about. The other dude in the trunk. Well the gang banger mind was in Tim's old body, which was in the trunk. Tim's old body also finally turned in to a Promethean, and part of that final transformation allowed him to bust out of the trunk and escape.
So good news, bad news. Good news. Tim is ok for now. Bad news….we released a Promethean in to the outskirts of ABQ. Oh well.
NOCTURNAL PLANS, DATES, WALLS, and SECRETS
Attention to detail is the watchword for gleaning information from an unsuspecting witness"
-Insp. Clouseau
We got back to the house just around sunset. We Mouthbreathers were hanging out in the living room of the House of Doo when the Nocturnals arrived. They were surprised that Tim picked the tattooed body after all. They were concerned about the Promethean we released.
But all the Nocturnals seemed more interested in their dates that evening. Even Beth, went to visit her friend, and help her get ready. Beth's friend was going out with Sam that nite.
After the Nocturnals left, Kole cornered me as I grabbed a fresh beer from the frig. He told me that he thought we should start more vigorous work on how to contact The Pickerman, bring down the Wall, and get Lilly. I was pretty much on board with all three. So we first began by driving around town and investigating the boundaries of the wall.
I was concerned that we may need to enter the Shadow in order to find The Pickerman, so we called Beth to join us, in case we needed to leave our bodies behind, in order to project in to the Shadow. Our sleeping bodies might need a bodyguard.
We were out by the wall boundary, and Kole called out for the Pickerman. I remembered the way that The Pickerman had pronounced his name and spoke to me. It was in the language of spirits. So I called out to The Pickerman in that language. The Pickerman arrived shortly after our calling. It was difficult obtaining information from him, as he was bound and controlled by Lilly. But we eventually were able to get out more information from him. In particular, we established a hoped for agreement, that if we were able to bring down the wall he would remain long enough for us to speak with him and obtain some information.
We were able to soon figure out that the actual scenic bypass highway was the physical device that was helping create and sustain the boundary wall. Through the use of small Catseye reflectors that lined the yellow dotted lines down the middle. After some examination and a phone call to the lady that helped install them, we learned that the reflectors were proprietary designed and hammered straight through the pavement and down in to the earth.
Down in to the earth….that was the idea and property of them, that allowed me to realize how we could destroy them.
Since the metal posts were pounded directly in to the earth. They created natural electrical ground points. If we simply attached the electrode of an arc welder to each post, the act of the high amp current feeding through the post and straight into the earth, should melt each of them in to a pile of slag. Damn, I'm good.
"Anyone who uses the phrase 'easy as taking candy from a baby' has never tried taking candy from a baby"
-R. Hood
Of course after buying our supplies easily at Walmart, we pretty much figured that this would be an easy task. We called the other Nocturnals to come and help. They met us at the highway location as far away from the Data Center that we could be. I noticed that their dates did not seem to end well.
We began to melt the reflectors. They actually melted very easily. I was sooon able to see the weakness in the wall spreading.
Then it became spirit central. Lilly must have sent them to slow us down or kill us.
I believe I was able to identify one of the spirits as the Spirit of the Road, I saw another Spirit near Tim, but could not keep track of it as I was driving to the safety on the other side of the barrier as they attacked. I think there was a third one, but I lost track.
As usual, with some back and forth, and Kole flexing his new abilities. We kicked ass. Did I mention we are awesome? Team Scooby, Go!
I took some damage, but was pleasantly surprised when I was able to watch the wounds heal. That potion was awesome. Whatever I am, I like it.
Now what will Lilly do…..?
Journal Entry September 26
So Beth went in with Kole, a short time later Sam followed. I have to admit, Sam looked pretty cool as he slinked his way towards the front door and in to the building lobby. Tim, me, and Matt that little guy that has the hots for Beth was in the car with us, along with Toni. We waited. Fortunately I brought a snack sack, and pulled out some Pringles several flavors. I made sure to take the Salt and Vinegar before Tim saw them.
I hope Tim gets his "switch" done soon. I find it weird that whenever I look at him, I keep wondering whether he wears boxers or briefs, and how much I want to find out.
Fortunately, a distraction occurred. The first one was just kinda weird. I could feel, almost see, that there was Supernatural shenanigans going on upstairs and in the lobby of the police station. I told Tim that I sensed something, but did not know what for sure it was.
We didn't have to wait long. Cause the gunshot fired in the Police Station lobby.
"Life is full of little surprises"
So yeah, gun shots, lobby. Tim and I looked at each other, we knew we needed to go in. But neither of us were armed. We debated what we could do. Toni jumped out right away and was off towards the door. That little guy Matt jumped out also and went running. Tim and I looked at each other, and realized we needed to go help too.
As we were running towards the police station front door, I looked above the building and realized there was a big scary looking Spirit, mostly ghostly looking, but definite chains showing and moving. I also realized as I slowed down to look, that I KNEW how to talk to him….
"Please please, Jail Spirit, help my friends inside, they are innocent, and here only following procedure" I felt the Spirit think my request over, and then it dived in to the building.
I watched it dive in and I saw Toni and Tim both go in to the lobby.
I wasn't sure if I should wait for the Spirit to return, go in, or what. That was when I saw Sam come running out of the lobby. I followed him.
Sam chased something invisible. Not really sure what it was. It sure gave off supernatural pings to my new sense though.
The gunshots stopped inside, I saw Toni and Tim coming towards us. When I turned around, I realized the invisible thing was a vampire, and Sam was talking to it. I tried to move closer to hear what they talked about, but before I got close enough. The vampire left very quickly.
So we all climbed back in to the car and decided we should go back to the safehouse.
Brock came home from school. He seemed upset. I asked why, he told me that apparently everyone is all over him all the time to talk about his feelings and how happy he is or is not. At first, I thought it sounded like he was just being a typical pre teen, not really liking anything around him. But the more I listened, I think I figured out that he had something else going on. Brock is smart, older than his age, more mature. He is stuck with and surrounded by kids younger. And they were treating him like that, younger. I felt bad for him.
So I told him, we need to both work on fitting in here. I told him, how we BOTH have a chance at a new start, with new friends, and an opportunity to create a family. I asked if he would please please try to do this with me. I went on to explain how these new friends are good people, and even though they/we might be doing some things that others might consider just as bad as the life Brock and I left. They were doing everything for the right reasons, helping people and each other. Not just for profit, drugs, and power.
I also explained that I cared for him, and the last thing I wanted to see was him ending up in the foster system.
I hope he understood that I care for him, and want only the best for him and I. I hope some day we both consider each other family.
"'Weird' is a relative, not an absolute
-Baron Frank N. Furter
So, the first idea for a new body for Tim, was to grab a gang member from the El Diablo's. So we drove to a known location, and that Loco Tim, pretty much just jumped out, in to the first super custom low rider he saw, and hotwired it and stole it. Pretty good idea, as it counted as a deeply personal item for the owner, thus Tim could body switch.
The owner was a really scary looking gang member, way too many tattoos. So after some run around in the new body, Tim decided he did not want that one. We needed to look for another.
Unfortunately by this time, all of our Nocturnal Associates needed to be home and in bed. So we were on a time crunch, so it meant Tim (in the gang banger body), Kole, and me. I realized that this was a good time to invite Badger to come with us, one: he needed, and wanted to go back to ABQ, and two: I wanted him to see what kind of Scooby stuff we dealt with here. So I grabbed Badger and we were off to ABQ.
My idea was that we should pretend to be shopping for places to institutionalize our cousin, we would visit several appropriate homes that would have persons that were placed there due to mental illness. But hopefully no physical deformities. We would let Tim pick out his new body, grab some personal material from the new host, while Badger and I kept the staff busy. Then Tim could jump in to this body, and complete the appropriate actions to finally STAY in this body.
I sure hope this works…..
Everything got dark, not sure how long the darkness lasted or felt, and then I slammed in to the ground. I sat up and looked around. I was in the desert just outside of town. I recognized the mountains in the distance.
So apparently I was wrong about everything. We are involved in the supernatural. I was dead. I was someplace else. But…..
In the distance I saw a shining bright light, and I felt a desperate call that told me it was home.
So I started towards the light. It took days. I am pretty sure. It sure seemed like forever until I finally made some progress and actually began to get closer. As I got closer I saw scary things in the distance. Coyotes, big mean, scary looking ones. And they were on their way towards me. At first I thought I would be able to out run them and get home, but I soon figured out that would not work. So I looked around for someplace to go and hide.
I saw in the distance, slightly opposite from the Coyotes, a campsite near a river. I decided dealing with that unknown would be better than the Hell Hound Coyotes coming towards me.
I approached and there was an old prospector, just like "Yukon Cornelius" in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. He asked why I was there I asked if I could hide there till the Coyotes passed. He said yes, but he needed payment. It was at that moment, I kinda knew what he meant. I held my hands out to him, open and palms up. He reached out and he "took" something from me. It hurt. Not fun.
He let me stay. The Coyotes still approached, the Prospector went out to greet them, he told them to go away, claimed me as his. The Coyotes disagreed. They began fighting. Good time to leave. I ran.
"Good information is hard to get. Doing anything with it is even harder!"
-L. Skywalker
I ran away from the Prospector and the Coyotes. As I ran, I felt information fill my head, as I understood that they were actually both "Spirits". As I got closer to home I also realized that I was in the "Shadow".
As I got closer to home, I saw a large wall of dust hanging in the air surrounding the area that was the same in the real world as the boundaries of our Angel Fire Syndrome. I also noticed a Homeless Man with his grocery cart pushing his cart just on the outside of the dust wall. He stopped pushing his cart and just watched me approach. Once I was close enough for him to hear me, I called out to him, "Hello, my name is Jose." He looked at me, tilted his head and replied
"Hello Mr. Pinkman" Whoa, he knows who I was. Am.
"Well that's a name I haven't heard in a very long time" I replied smiling back at him.
We began speaking. The Pickerman (as he introduced himself) was a wealth of information for me, I learned many things from him….
-I do not know what kind of Spirit he was, but The Pickerman described that he collects secrets.
-He knew about Jessie Pinkman, as that was a secret.
-The Pickerman is Bound to the exterior of the wall that surrounds the Angel Fire Syndrome Area
-Lilly has bound him to the wall of dust boundary
-If the boundary were to be removed, The Pickerman could return
-I am pretty sure I figured out that The Pickerman and Lilly are not friends
-The object that is creating the Boundary is similar in shape to the Boundary Lines itself
-The Pickerman also hinted that Jose's secret may no longer or is no longer protected, now that he has changed.
It was the last part he described, about my past and secret of it, that really made me a bit nervous. I knew then that when I got back that I need to start paying more close attention to everything that Sam is doing and planning. Maybe even reach out to the Hackers to ask them to research what they can find regarding Jessie Pinkman.
All those things ran through my head as The Pickerman walked away after sharing his information with me, then a wild hair and thought went through my head, and I called out to him again….
"Pickerman, Were the Manada del Diablos operating and doing business here, when this was MY TERRITORY?"
"Yes, they were" He smiled back at me.
Hmmmm…..Perhaps Chano Morena and I have some "Business" to discuss….
Really not much to describe other than that. Sharon something?
I called Badger as soon as the others reminded me that he and Brock came a calling. I made an appointment to meet with them in the morning. Which would give me enough time to figure out a story as to why I was gone.
I told Brock and Badger that I had Cancer, and that because I had no insurance I had to volunteer for an experimental therapy at the university. It cured me, but forced me in to the Coma that kept me away. But Yay! I was cured now, and got a free face lift!
I knew that Brock would not do well without anyone his own age, I remembered that Lucinda at work had a son, Oliver about the same age. So I took Brock to meet her and Oliver, I think they hit it off. Or at least they did not fight the concept of our scheduling some play dates.
I think Lucinda was jealous over how young and awesome I look now! Grin.
"When old friends get together, everything else fades to insignificance."
- War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death"
I finally got together with all of the Scoobies again. Yeah, except for me. They are all Monsters now. By my count, we have three vampires. One Body Thief, A Ghost/Human Hybrid, and little old regular plain me.
I think I kinda upset Sam when I drank and smoked in front of him. I could tell he was not used to not being able to do either anymore.
"The only thing worse that a sorcerer is a sorcerer's apprentice"
-M. Mouse
So, Tim is a Body Thief, apparently we need to find him a new Temporary Body, or he will be trapped in his current body, which is now a Promethean. Which did not change him in the way that I thought. Apparently becoming a Promethean, means that when ever I am around Tim now, all I can think about is how he would look with his shirt off?
Due to the little "Outing" that the Vampires went on, in order to impress other Vampires in to changing them from human to vampire, Kole now has a warrant out for his arrest. His neighbor called to let him know that the police raided his apartment. Kole called later to the police department and found out they did indeed want him.
Kole decided it would be best for him to go turn himself in. So we all made plans to accompany him and wait outside for him. His lawyer seemed to believe it would be just a matter of paperwork. So we waited outside of the police department, and I watched Kole and Beth go in to the police station together.
I was nervous about being so close to the police station. But things are different now. Even though my friends are all Monsters, they are my friends. I can't expect them to have my back, if I do not have theirs.
I hope they will be ok inside.
Journal Entry September 12, 2016
After we arrived at the hospital and they patched me up. Put some saline in me, bandaged the wounds. I felt much better. It could have also been the OxyCodone they gave me too. I was ready to lay back and wait for something to eat and maybe take a nap. But no go. Kole comes in and tells me that Dr. Shelliac is going to meet us at the house and maybe he might be able to fix us up better than the ER folks. I kinda wanted to stay, but was worried about being there in the hospital. I am pretty sure the police usually do interviews and reports for all bullet wounds. So I needed to get out of there anyway. So both Kole and I checked ourselves out (against their recommendations).
Dr. Shelliac was able to fix me a bit. But not as much as I expected.
I was out on the back porch having a cigarette, when my phone rang. It is still weird to get so many phone calls. But very cool that the people that call are my friends. It was Badger, letting me know that he was on his way. With Brock. Oh crap, I said to myself, as I looked down at my severely bandaged bullet wounds.
I reached out to Toni, (Ha see, I did not call her She-Ra), and told her how I had been able to get some help and were able to discover the Tracking device on her vehicle. I mentioned how I thought perhaps we might now use the same vehicle as Bait and try to catch us some MIBs. She liked this idea.
She called in her friend Rico for some muscle. I drove.
We took the car to a location near those weird Lama people and their farm. Hoping that might be a location that would draw the MIB interest. It did.
But, we were not very good in regards to being all sneaky and hidey. I have to admit I probably left a rather big trail, I slipped a couple times. Though I was acting like I was ok, I was all bandaged up from my bullet wounds.
The SUV drove down the road towards the bait car, but they stopped and just looked out the window directly to where we were. They got out. We all ran. Toni and Rico of course went on the attack, I ran to the car, either to help us get away, or to try to run over some MIBs.
Between the three of us, we were able to take out three of them, and keep one for interrogation.
Toni and Rico took the surviving MIB to someplace Rico felt safe to do the interrogation. So I went home, changed my bandages and waited to hear from Toni.
She told us later at the House of Doo, that the MIB's seemed to be constructs of some variety, as they had a very short shelf life, maybe a couple of days, and they had limited reasoning and conversational abilities. Though when asked about specific subjects, this limited reasoning did not seem to occur.
Dumb clones is what ran through my head. This Lilly lady can build clones. Hmm.
I went out to Red River, I needed to learn more about this Feelz Drug. In order to do that, I would need a sample. Fortunately, I am the king of doing the feel around for stuff. It did not take me long to find the appropriate looking shady guy. I managed to obtain a portion of Feelz. Not very expensive. I laughed. My product was PREMIUM, the price I paid for the Feelz, would not have even bought me in to any Blue Sky.
On the way out of town, we heard those voices. Oddly enough, they seemed to make comments on the surroundings. More like musings of some sort…
We had basically a "Final" meeting with Dr. Shelliac. We pretty much learned we had only maybe four days till we ended up transforming in to some kind of weird non human thing. We also all gained more transformations just before he arrived. Weird stuff, like spiky growths, and Beth and Toni shrunk.
Super weird. Super nervous. What will happen to Brock if I change in to some kind of Monster?
Shelliac sighed when he realized he probably might not help himself, but he did have a last file of desperate solutions. Desperate was right, especially when you consider his best desperate idea was to get changed in to a Vampire or a Werewolf, or get possessed by some kind of vengeful spirit. It was very hard not to laugh out loud. ( As if the monster you choose was a better option then the one you would become.) Once he and the others started talking about such things as Vampires and Werewolfs, and ghosts, I kinda zoned out and just lit a new cigarette.
I was about to light another, when Shelliac pulled out a handful of documents and I heard him say, something like, "…..I also found this formula for an elixir that should cure", Once I heard that, I saw my chance. I walked over and took the sheaf of documents from him.
I started to pour over these documents. They were a mess. Buuuuut, I did see some stuff that looked like it could work.
I left for my room, grabbed a six pack out of the frig., and sat down in my chair to begin going over this cook.
The formula really wasn't that difficult. The main thing that was difficult, was determining the main active ingredient for the items that I could not easily obtain. The formula looked to me to be a combination of some of the more powerful poisons, along with some pretty powerful anesthesia compounds. One of them actually was very similar to that Serpent and the Rainbow stuff they found in Haiti. The best I could tell was that the potion caused near death, while placing the body into a comatose state, interesting enough there was also some things that I would call stimulants, to keep the brain and mind active while in the comatose state. The formula also seemed to lock on to just one host DNA, the creator of the potion, via inclusion of blood hemoglobin.
In the end, I guessed that the comatose state, along with the poisons, killed the active DNA or RNA of the particular engineered bacteria or virus that was effecting us, thus allowing the body to recover back to normal health.
This was at least a solution that made sense. Much more sense then getting turned in to some kind of monster like a Vampire or Werewolf. Or even the consideration that such things do exist.
I decided I needed to do it. I finished the formula. I probably should have told the others before I took it, but did not. They would find me here in the room, and if I was lucky, I would be back before they noticed.
It tasted horrible, burned. Then more burning. Every single nerve ending wracked out in pain. It felt weird, and just as I was closing my eyes, thankful for the coming rest, I remembered.
Oh Shit, Brock and Badger are on their way!
Journal Entry 9/6/16
We returned from our latest teleport. That part about staying even longer and longer, till we got locked in forever sure was scary. I have to figure out a way to locate that room and destroy the door. I am pretty sure that is what we have to do. We could also destroy that scalpel thing. I found myself thinking these things as I got in to the car and drove to Sonic for a cheeseburger. I had just finished calling my order in to the voice over the speaker, when I realized. I was actually starting to believe that we had a supernatural mystery on our hands. But that couldn't be true. There is no such thing as magic or monsters. I have to figure this stuff out.
I also stopped for a beer, Ok maybe 2, Ok Ok, Maybe 3. But I drove home, not too late. But late enough, to discover that my apartment had been ransacked. Great. Crap. Thank goodness I had already moved my money to the House of Doo. But who would have tore through my stuff? Oooh, wait a minute. I wonder if someone knows I contacted the hackers, maybe someone is watching me cause of that contact? The most important part though, still none of this is related to my past. If this had been Meth/drug/gang related, in other words, my past, they would have done something more horrific, to specifically leave me a message or warning of some kind.
I am guessing this happened due to my association with the others. After all Sam and the gang did poke that local Drug Kingpin, and Kole has that guy come after him that he is trying to get a restraining order on. Wow, who'd of ever thought, that I would be in possible danger because of my association with these new people, and not because of my past. Who'd a thunk?
So, I guess that this is a sign that I should move permanently to the House of Doo. Probably a good idea anyway, with Brock coming.
The next morning, I woke up in my new place, the House of Doo. Not too bad. I have to admit the quiet sure was nice. I was having a smoke with some coffee when I realized I needed to call She-Ra. I mean Toni. (Gotta quit calling her She-Ra, I will make a mistake and she will bite my head off.) I called Toni and told her that my Hacker guys should be able to do that scan for added devices to her car (by those MIB guys). I borrowed her car and met the hacker dudes. In no time flat they found the item.
We talked about it for a short time, then they asked me what I wanted to do. I paused, then decided to ask them to put it back on. He asked me why. I replied: Well maybe a good way to manipulate these MIB guys, is to try to use this vehicle or device as Bait….
The hacker guy smiled, he liked that idea. I thanked him for his help, and told him I would be back in touch. I have to admit, I am starting to like these guys….
I have to tell the truth, at first I was very interested in what Shelliac had to say. But once he started talking about monsters, and Prometheans, with Souls stapled to them. I kinda zoned out. I am still sure we have to be dealing with something, anything, but not monsters and magic.
In the end, Shelliac described that Lilly (A Promethean monster of some kind.) created him, but now she wants to kill him. Because it may or may not fix her? Shelliac, tried to help us, before his memory loss and ours, because if he cures us, he thinks he can cure himself.
C'mon, I call Bullshit.
After we finished talking to Shelliac. I was about to go find a beer and have a cigarette outside, when we all learned from Kole that he had gotten a ping on his Ad looking for the door. We all jumped, we knew that we had to get on this fast, before the door disappeared. Both Kole and Sam turned and asked me for recommendations on how to break or destroy the door. My first thoughts were of using some Thermite to cut through, but I realized that we would not be able to pull together the raw ingredients for me to cook some thermite up. I lit another cigarette and thought some more, then it hit me.
Liquid Nitrogen, if we super cooled the iron door, we should be able to shatter or break it through normal force. Plus getting our hands on to some Liquid Nitrogen would be much easier, and quicker then me trying to cook up and test some thermite. We found a welding supply nearby, and we broke up in to two teams. Sam and I went to get the nitrogen and some sledgehammers, and planned on meeting the others over at the residence of the person that had alerted Kole to the presence of The Door at their home.
Sam I picked up the nitrogen and the sledgehammers. We were driving down the last couple of blocks towards the house where the others were. I thought that I saw someone on a roof of house a few doors down from our target, but took no real notice. I realized the person had a rifle, when Sam yelled to me "look out, guy with gun on the roof", and then the first bullet hit my windshield. The windshield cracked in to lots of pieces in that typical shatter that windshields tend to do.
I rolled down my window so I could stick my head out be able to see, and continue driving, once I could see out the window, I floored it.
As I kept driving towards the house, I saw Sam reach out of his side window and begin aiming towards our shooter. I hoped he would be able to hit him, I did my best to keep the vehicle on the straight and narrow. But then it happened.
I say IT HAPPENED, because it had never happened to me before. I was shot. In the chest. Dam it hurt. Lots. I was able to keep control of the vehicle till I was able to pull up to the driveway. I have to tell the truth, I really did not pay much attention to what was happening in and outside of the house. I was shot! Bleeding. I layed back in the drivers seat, and reached over for a cigarette.
After a few moments of action, gun shots, wrestling, Beth came by the car to check on me. As she applied direct pressure to my wound, she was able to stop the bleeding. I had a couple of old shirts in the car, and we were able to cover up most of the wound, and encourage clotting. Beth told me that the others had successfully been able to stop Roddy (that crazy janitor guy), and capture and destroy his Scalpel. That was a relief, it meant, hopefully, no more teleporting, no more scary doctor guy.
I was able to help the others carry the nitrogen tank and the sledghammers down to basement, we were successful in scaring the shit out of the lady in her safe room. But we were also successful in supercooling and shattering that iron door. Woo Hoo!
I sat there in the car, waiting for the ambulance to arrive. It was then that I realized.
I was shot! This Sucks! It Hurts. I immediately wondered about my hooking up with these people. I realized, as I went through a list in my head….
-We took on and killed Tuco Scalamandre, Didn't get shot.
-I helped in the direct destruction and murder of the entire Eladio Vasquez drug cartel, Didn't get shot.
-Survived a shootout with the DEA, Killed all of the DEA Agents, Didn't get shot.
-Killed and took over Gustavo Fring's entire operation, Didn't get shot.
-Survived the entire explosion and murder of all of our enemies, Didn't get shot.
I drive to a home in a residential neighborhood, with a tank of liquid nitrogen, to basically perform a science experiment. I get shot.
Maybe my past as a drug lord, Wasn't that bad….?
Jose Journal Entry 5 for 8-29-16 game
Finally things settled a bit, and I was back at my apartment. I heard about this new Japanese rpg game that I wanted to try. But I was having a real problem figuring out the right name and version to look for, apparently this particular title had like 20 different versions. The phone rang, it was Badger.
It was bad news, but good news. Brock, Andrea's son, was starting to get in to some trouble. Nothing LEO involved yet, but he was starting to do some simple gang and drug stuff, like lookout, and distraction work. These are not good things. I knew. That's how I got started. Dam. I thought for a moment. I owed Brock. His mother was dead because of me. But would he be safer with me?
I decided he would. So far we just have Scooby stuff to deal with here. No gunfights, no murder, no drugs, no violence…yet, I hope. I told Badger to go ahead and bring him here, personally.
After Badger called, I looked around my apartment. I realized, not much room. In particular for two guys, once Brock arrived. I thought maybe this safehouse they gave us, would just be a meeting location, but I realized that I needed to check it out thoroughly and move in. I got up, put on a hoodie and my cap and drove out to the farm house.
It was three stories, just off the highway, mostly private. Not bad. I did a complete review, it was in pretty good condition. I reviewed all the bedrooms, in particular the closets. Looking for the closet that would best accommodate a new false wall, I needed a place to hide my cash. I put a post-it on the door that said, "Mine, Jose". I went back in to town and picked up some drywall, paint and supplies, and started on my false wall.
I was in my new room at the "House of Doo", or the safehouse as I like to now call it. After all our mystery is securely in the Scooby Doo arena. My phone rang again, wow, I do not think I have received so many calls in like forever. Usually the only person I have spoken to on the phone for the last six months or so, has been Badger. It was She-Ra, I mean Toni. She described to me how she was pretty sure that those MIB guys had messed with her car somehow, and she asked me if I might mind coming over to help her check it out and perhaps find out what they did. Well, like duh. I would not tell She-Ra no, she could easily kick my ass. Plus I might need her help in the future. So I said sure, on my way!
I got to her place. I crawled all over that car. Looked and looked. But I did not find anything that I thought looked like it did not already belong. Dam! She-Ra is not someone that I want to fail. I apologized profusely to her that I could not find anything. She seemed to be distressed still. I mentioned that maybe she could take the car to the dealer, and ask them for a thorough inspection. They would/should be able to find whatever it is they did. Toni thanked me and I went to Sonic for a Chili Cheese Cony, and then went back to the House of Doo.
I was leaving She-Ra, and was picking up some more stuff from my apartment and moving it to the House of Doo, when Kole called. Dam, Yet another call. Wow. Kole mentioned that the last time he and Sam and Beth were at the Police Department that they had managed to spin a story that allowed the police to believe that they were associates of our Doctor S. They had seen a particular book of the Doctor's within the personal effects and evidence they had in regards to his case. Kole asked me if I would not mind coming with him down to the police department and maybe look over the book with him and try to come to some understanding of the contents.
Police station. Crap. I knew I could not go down there. Not that they would actually be looking for me. But you never know. There could still be an old wanted poster down there or something. I gave Kole a story saying I could not go down personally, but since they were just book pages, that I could certainly help him, just take pictures of all the pages. I made sure to remind him to set the Resolution on his phone as high as it would go, so I could blow up or manipulate any images if necessary.
I asked him to bring those pics to me at the House of Doo, and I would get started right away!
Kole came by and brought me his phone. I pulled the picture files off of his phone, copied them to a USB stick, then popped the USB stick in to my Playstation, and opened the pictures on flatscreen TV.
Lots of notes about procedures, observations of those procedures, blah, blah. I think though the most important thing that I discovered was the Doctor's work regarding three things: Azoth, Flux, and Fire.
All the notes seemed to come down to these three subjects, and how they related to each other and the patient, along with bringing these items to the correct levels. Hmmm, I bumped in to just a little bit of Alchemy when I used to page through the Maestro's Textbooks. But I do not remember those phrases or descriptions. I need to figure out how to learn more….
By now, my phone ringing was not so unique anymore. So when it rang again, I just picked up and said hello. It was those hackers and the message board I reached out to. They asked for a meeting.
I met them in a secluded park, four of them. They called themselves "Network Zero", pretty cool name. I love how Scooby this adventure is becoming!
We talked about stuff, I told them about the alchemy, looking for the symbol of our Tattoo. I told them about the MIB guys and She-Ra. My wondering about the Data Center. They also really wanted to take a crack at She-Ra's car to maybe find that device. I told them Toni had already sent it to the dealer. I think though maybe I will ask her to get it back and reach out to these guys again.
The most interesting thing I learned from them though, was about this new Feelz drug. It is apparently rather well saturated in this area. It is also weird. The hacker guy told me that they analyzed it and it did not appear to have any overt effects chemically. I have to admit. I really wanna learn more about this Feelz. Analyze it myself.
Most of me was just darn curious about this drug, but I must admit….I tiny bit of me was wondering, who these people operating in MY OLD TERRITORY are….
Oh yeah, did I mention that they described something else weird? Voices….heard by lots of people. In Red River.
Once I heard from Badger that Brock was on his way, I realized, my funds might not be enough for two people. I spent a while thinking about what I could do. I have to admit, the idea of cooking a quick ten pounds of some Crystal Blue and selling it to a local dealer did cross my mind. But I killed that idea quickly. Crystal Blue showing up again would only put people on my trail.
But then I remembered what brought me here. The dead drop. I remembered that Mike (My ex main muscle guy, now dead) had multiple dead drops that he would collect from. There was a good chance that some of them still had some cash.
So I called Badger, he dug up our old list of dead drops and sent it to me. I reviewed the list. SCORE!, there were three others that were actually within the Angel Fire Syndrome area that I could travel within.
So I decided to check out the one closest to me. I grabbed a shovel and drove out to about a half mile from the dead drop, and then proceeded to walk to the GeoCache location. So glad that phones have GPS now. Unfortunately, I was a bit too preoccupied with my phone. So much so, I did not notice the Monster that jumped out at me. Yeah I said monster, cause it was! It was the biggest friggin rattlesnake I have ever seen in my life or on TV. I swear that bastard was at least 7 feet long and 24 inches wide. He jumped at me, I dodge, I flung a flashbang hoping it would distract or scare it. Nothing. So I just ran.
I was able to out run the snake and get back to the car, and home. Dam. I gotta figure out a way to get past that dam snake!
So 4pm rolled around again. Like the phone calls, teleporting at 4pm is becoming normal. Who'd a thunk?
We learned a bit more this time…..
Everytime we teleport we will stay twice as long as last time. This time increase will continue the same until we are stuck in the room forever and die. Bummer.
We can only break the room door from the outside.
We learned some blah blah crap about the ghosts and remembering them, but I still do not necessarily believe that they are ghosts. So I did not pay too much attention.
About the only other thing we really learned, was that we now appear to have new abilities….
Beth gained new pointy stuff on her armor, Kole went completely X-Men mutant, and gained these scary looking flailing muscle fibers, I still had my teeth, but my chest bulked up in a weird way, and I felt a bit stronger after.
The main thing I left the teleport session with this time, was that we now have a deadline. Or else we will be stuck in the room forever also….
Journal Entry Four
I was walking out of the Kitchen with a tuna sandwich in my hand when I realized the clock on the stove said 3:59…"Oh dam, forgot to be sitting down at 4, just in case…" and bamf. We were all in yet another enclosed room together.
I am still not sure if we are actually teleporting somewhere, remaining there, and then teleporting back, with no time loss. Or if we are experiencing some sort of group instantaneous communications with each other. In order to figure this out, I told everyone that I was wondering which of the two that it was. I thought of a test to find out. So we all exchanged small personal items, if we return with the items to our own homes and other places, then we actually are teleporting. If not, then we are just experiencing some sort of instant communication.
I have to admit that a few things I saw, make me wonder if this might actually be something supernatural. We all, well most of us, had something weird happen to us. Sam had his arm appear to change in to a tentacle. It was very unnerving. Kole had some weird skin affliction, Beth had this super cool insectoid armor. Kinda like that bad sci fi movie Badger and I watched once…I think it was called the Guyver. I had super big Bugs Bunny or Roger Rabbit teeth. Fortunately we all figured out that through careful concentration, one could cause the affliction to go away. But then again, this room still could be artificial, and we are still just experiencing some sort of Image Manipulation. Like a Holodeck or VR Suite, Maybe it is a combo of both? Maybe someone is teleporting us into a VR Suite?
I still wonder about the VR Suite idea, cause the other thing in the room was that we communicated with the "Ghost". The "Ghost" could not speak, but could hear and answer questions silently. We finally figured out to give him letters to point to, so we could actually understand his answers. We got his name and phone number with instructions to call and learn more.
But lastly, the most scary thing about this teleport trip was Sam and Malporido. It is very obvious that Sam does not care for Malporido. In fact I am almost certain that Sam was ready to Kill Malporido. I mean it, I am almost sure I watched his finger just barely twitch and then not pull the trigger. It could only be because it is obvious that Malporido is a criminal, and Sam is former Law Enforcement.
I liked Sam, but what will he do to me if he finds out who I am? Crap.
We teleported back. I checked my pocket. Yup I had the item that Sam gave me out of his wallet. So that means we teleported.
So I am still leaning towards this being something scary corporate or government. Teleportation can not be something simple to do. Or inexpensive. I felt much better. I should have known better. I knew, personally, that there is no supernatural, no powers that be. After all, if there were, someone or something would have answered me THAT NIGHT. I was ready to offer my Soul, anything, for vengeance against Todd. No one, and nothing showed up. Why? Cause the supernatural does not exist. The only vengeance I got against Todd was with my own two hands.
Now that I was pretty sure we are dealing with a Secret Technology mystery, I realized that there must be a facility of some kind and local. I remember that one of my past dead drops had been discovered by a BLM Agent who had been doing a Range Review. If there was anyone local that might have seen the symbol that was our Tattoo, somewhere. One of the local BLM guys would probably have seen it. I was thinking that there must be a dirt road somewhere with this symbol. Maybe if we found out if anyone had seen this symbol somewhere, it might lead us to the facility.
I reached out to Kole and asked if he might want to go with me to the BLM office and ask about the symbols. He said sure, and we went. They seemed a bit nervous at the BLM office, but we learned, by being there at the right time. That they had indeed seen such symbol, and others recently. In fact the archeologists that they called arrived nearly at the same time Kole and I did. Between Kole and I we were able to convince the nice Archeologists to let us accompany them to the site they were going to, as described by the BLM.
We arrived. Sure enough there were our Tattoo Symbol and others. When I saw them together, something clicked. I looked at all of them again, forward and back. They surrounded an odd looking structure shape which had a lighting rod attached. When I saw the lighting rod, it all clicked. These symbols were classic Alchemy, old time, from when people thought that you could combine things in the right fashion and end up with Gold.
Kole while he looked around, also found some interesting pottery shards buried in the ground, we were able to procure these without the Archeologists noticing.
As these clues accumulate, I feel as if we might learn more or figure out more, if we had all the clues kept in one central area, so we could look at them, get more ideas by seeing them together. Like those boards they use in all the Police Procedural s….
We also had a call and a visit with an Attorney. He gave us all letters and a key. The letters described that we may wish to consider utilizing a "Safehouse" that had been set up for us….
Journal Entry Three
Normal life was a very nice luxury to have. Work, gaming, beer, cig, bed. I finished my new video game.
I went to the bar at the time Kole had told me about. Everyone was there, I have to admit it was a confusing feeling. So many people, to chat with, keep up my back story with. But still nice. I didn't have to worry about any of them or what they might do. Back when I was in business, when you interacted with anyone outside of your trusted circle, you were always nervous and on edge. You never knew what was going to happen, if a simple discussion over price and delivery dates was going to lead to a gunfight. Having to make sure you were not followed after you leave. I never realized how stressful all that was. This was like having friends. Pretty cool.
We all talked about what we knew and how we learned it. I knew immediately that this must be Government or Military Industrial mystery when Toni described the MIB guys in their suits and four door dark sedan encounter that they had.
Several of them still seem to think that we are dealing with ghosts and the supernatural. It wasn't hard to figure out that we were guinea pigs of some type being used, manipulated, and observed afterward. I figured that out when the guys described that they found our phones in a box in the burned out building. That burned out building was some Cancer Research facility. The same building burned down a short time prior to our first meeting in the now burned down house that I had felt was one of my old safe houses.
We all talked more. I played a few games of pool with Sam. He is pretty cool. I enjoyed getting to know him. I also realized he is more than just a PI. He is a retired police officer. I have to tread carefully around him. So far he is the only one that could have an easier path to connect me to my past. After talking to him, it did not sound like he was in drug enforcement in ABQ, so that was a good thing.
We discovered that the slightly odd custodian at the hospital was eavesdropping. A couple of the others were really good in the way that they spoke to him. I think what I originally thought was odd, might be one of those mental developmental things. It sounds though, like we might get a connection to one of the doctors we think is associated with our little mystery, though this custodian.
We left and went with plans to keep in touch and meet again.
Since I had finished my new game, I was kinda bored one afternoon after our first Scooby Meeting. So I decided to open up a browser window and start doing some searching. It went much faster after I learned how to do more robust searches using modifiers. There were multiple current government and corporate conspiracy things for this part of new mexico. After digging through these though….I did find one particular site that I really found interesting. My searches showed that the key words in the header search matched, but I could not get through to the actual site in order to read the actual content. Not without registering with the site, which asked for a lot of information. I called Badger, asked him to sign up and then send me his information. He called back and said he did try, but he kept getting an error stating only local IP addresses were allowed membership. That was weird.
I was pretty sure Sam told me he was a fairly competent computer guy. So I called him, described the site, and what it was asking for.
Sam said he would poke around, and get back to me. I went out and grabbed a quick bite, and Sam called me back a short while later. He said his poking and hacking seemed to show that this was a private site, not necessarily a government site of anykind.
So I took a chance. But I made sure to cover my tracks a little bit. I went over to Walmart, picked up a cheapo android tablet, pretty cool, only 82 dollars. In the clearance aisle. I charged it up in the car as I drove to McDonalds. I signed on to the net using the android tablet and the anonymous internet. I was hoping I would then immediately get in to the site. But, no. Now I gotta wait for a reply email.
Well guess I will just look on the Playstation store for a new download. Wait for that email….
Journal Entry Two
I did pretty good on my new game, I am pretty sure I am about half way through. I need to check some videos on Youtube to make sure.
Fortunately not much else weird happened, I went to work, had a couple beers after, then came home again. I had just entered in to a chat room with Badger, but before I could type my first Yo, the world kinda twisted around me.
I was in the weird basement room in the house where I met all those people at. Everyone was there again. The room was locked and was much more empty. The big amazon lady tried to open the door but failed. I searched the room hoping to find something that could help. Found nothing that would help. We saw some kind of weird staged video with pretty good special effects on a small screen, there were some pretty good hologram projection in one corner also.
Then in an instant, I was back. No time past.
Wow. An actual flashback. I always heard of them. I admit I have done some drugs that might involve such things. But always just thought they were myths.
Glad though. Cause everyone in the room in the flashback was sure that the projections were actually ghosts. LOL, Ghosts. How funny. But I have to admit, at the same time it is funny. I am deathly scared. If the images we saw were actually ghosts. Then that means…well, I do not know what that means. The thought of the room and the images never left my mind.
So I decided I needed to check out the house again. Make sure, some how, that what happened was just a flashback. So I went out to look at the house again from the same hill, that I first saw it. I drove up. The house was gone. Burned down. Fairly recently, I guessed, from the smell.
I went home. This is weird. But, these other people. Something about them calls to me, they are going through the same thing. I have to admit, retirement was nice. Work, beer, cigs, games, Badger. Easy life. But the only people I ever speak to are my coworkers and Badger. It would be nice to have some friends. To eat WITH someone, not by myself. To drink a beer with someone other than a stranger at the bar.
Like Newt said: I am mostly sure they are not associated with my past. Mostly.
There was a knock at my door, it was Cole. One of my new….associates? He had my phone. We chatted a bit, but he seemed to be in a hurry to return the other phones he had. He described that the others were getting together, I wrote down the information. As he left, He said that the phones were in a box, in a burned out building. Hmmmm, two burned out buildings.
I am pretty sure this stuff is not my past. Something tells me that these people could become friends. Maybe allies.
I should try to get to know them better, and hopefully learn more about what is happening. I am pretty sure this not ghostly or supernatural. Just looks that way. After all in the end, every Scooby Doo mystery was always just someone in a mask trying to scare someone else.
Journal Entry One
Well as usual, I think Badger has had another good idea. So I am going to write things down. He said that Dr. Oz was talking all about how journal keeping can help keep stress and other things under control and can be helpful. Just, that, until now, I really haven't had anything to write about.
Sure, I was still here. Not anywhere near Alaska. But the rent was paid, I loved my job, I have enough money for beer and cigarettes. This is what retirement is supposed to be.
But I guess I should get to the stuff I am writing about. So I went to the door, and opened it, expecting to see the Delivery guy with my new game disk that I ordered on Amazon, with a 50% off coupon, Score!
But yeah, no delivery guy, just four guys, one throws a hood over my head, another punches me in the gut. They grab me and throw me in the trunk of their car. I think I passed out for a moment, but not really sure.
So of course the first thing I guessed, was, someone figured out who I was, I guess I should probably say, who I used to be. I guess I knew I could not hide out forever. I zoned out for a few minutes. Then I realized I need to get back in to my old gears. What would the Maestro tell me? He would say to start thinking, use my brain, so I did.
Ok, so right now there are basically three groups out there that might want me. I knew that these guys were not law enforcement. LEO thought I was dead, and they would not bring me in this way. That was easy to figure out.
I then thought, ok, these are the new Mexican Cartel guys. They were bad news, and this is exactly how they would work and operate. But then I thought about that more. Why would the new cartel guys even care about me? After all they would not be in power now, without me. Me, Mike, and Gus took out the old leaders. So I was pretty sure these guys were not cartel.
Which means these guys want my recipe or they want me to cook for them. I could understand that, my product was….is the best. (Hmmm, why would I say is the best?) But if they were smart enough to figure out who I was, where I was, and what I held in my head. Shouldn't they be smarter than to start that relationship by kidnapping me? In all our dealings with the Czech Mob, they seemed pretty smart and very competent and business like in all of their dealings with us. That is why we switched. No more dirty or wet work needed in order to sell our product to them.
So that meant that this was something else. But what?
So I felt the car slow down, and I heard some muffled things said. Then I saw the light, a sliver of light that showed me the trunk had just become unlatched. I thought for a moment, I could wait then jump out when they came to let me out. Or I could jump out now. The car did not feel like it was moving too fast. So I jumped out.
I rolled a time or two. But landed ok. Then I ran in the opposite direction of the vehicle.
I think I ran for maybe a minute, but then I had to stop. (Boy do I need to do some cardio!) I stopped leaned forward and put my hands on my knees to catch my breath and fight off the side cramp.
I looked up and there sitting on a big motorcycle was an even scarier looking biker. Hell's Angel was my first thought, but then I saw he was wearing The Vagos Bike Club markings. I tried to remember if we used to sell to Vagos. (But could not remember for sure. Mike and Badger always handled all that stuff for us.) I think I remember seeing some Vagos guys at a meeting we had once. But as I said I really never paid much attention to that stuff. The Maestro and I usually just sat side by side and tried to look mean, while Mike and Badger ran the boring business stuff.
We talked, introduced ourselves. He asked why the "Bandidos" would have me locked up in the car. I didn't know what to say. I stumbled though some story about not really knowing, and then I figured it out. My landlord is a skeevy guy, after all he rented to me easily when I flashed my cash. I bet the bandidos as he described were after the guy that lived in my apartment before me.
The Biker's name was Malporido. A gang name. I understood that. He asked a question or two that made me wonder if he might know who I was. But I am pretty sure my story worked out ok.
So I asked him for a ride. He seemed ok and was going to give me a ride, but then something weird happened. The biggest and most painful horsefly ever, bit me in the back of my head. Damn, it hurt! I immediately slapped it away and felt around to make sure it was gone. I looked up after that and noticed that Malporido seemed bothered by something too. But when he saw me notice him, he immediately acted otherwise.
We both kind of looked at each other. I think we both figured out that we were not what we were telling each other. We were both hiding something. But in that silent look at each other, we both figured that out. It was not hard to figure out that Malporido was in my former line of business. He probably figured out that I was associated with such business also.
So I asked him for a ride, I began to tell him about where I lived. And then yet another weird thing happened. I suddenly, and I mean suddenly, remembered a safe house I had nearby. I could remember how it was set up, the details in the basement of the secure area and all of that. What I did not realize, was at the same time I was remembering all of that, I was apparently saying it all out loud.
I also realized, that was where I needed to go now. I needed to see that basement.
So Malporido gave me a ride. When we approached, I could see a few cars parked outside. Recently parked, no dust on them. That did not seem like the situation one of my safe houses would have been in. They were supposed to be known only to me and my guys. I think Malporido asked me if I wanted to still be dropped off. I paused, I really wanted to look in that house, so I said yes. Besides I was also desperate for a smoke. So he dropped me off, and proceeded down the road. I watched him drive away.
I lit a new smoke, and took a long drag, and I walked up to the house. I put on my best I am in charge and this is my place attitude.
There were multiple people in the house. Two brothers, Tim and Sam, I got the impression they were investigators of some time, as they tried to tell me that they were there to collect some money that was owed to them. But weirder, was this AMAZON lady, I mean she was scary. She reminded me of that tall Actress lady Rebecca Romijn, if she had gone through special forces training, gained more weight, and dyed her hair dark. She was there with a guy named Cole and they had a companion, passed out on the dusty sofa. Someone passed out in the corner is not that unusual for the places I used to sometimes hang out at, so I really took no notice.
So after bumping in to all of them, I still wanted to go down and check the basement. So I proceeded. They all followed me down. I go the impression only half of them believed me when I said that this place was mine.
I looked around the basement, full of medical equipment. Which that Tim guy really seemed to find pleasant to touch. His brother said Tim gets "feelings" when he touches things. I am not sure, but I think Badger and I once saw something like that on that TLC channel show "Strange Addictions", I think they called it something like Phallic Obsessed Syndrome.
We did find some medical files, seven of them. Six of them were all of our medical records from recent stays at the local medical facilities. Mine was related to when I passed out trying to leave the area. The last one was Malporido's.
Eventually after not much else happened. We decided to all go our respective ways, but not until we exchanged contact information, which was hard because none of us had our Cell Phones. Did I mention that? Kinda weird, now, 2016, and NONE of us had our phones….They also seemed a bit put off when I only told them where I worked, and did not share my residence information.
It was on the drive back that I figured out that this was something completely different from my past, and my hiding from it. That made me happy.
But who wanted us together, and why?
And what about tattooing us? I can't believe I forgot that part! We all had the same tattoo. When I walked down the stairs to the basement of the safehouse. They all asked me where I had gotten the tattoo I had. On the back of my head. Right where that damn horsefly bit me.
So whoever kidnapped me, tattooed me. Tattooed us. Hmm that is weird, why would guys looking for the old tenant of my apartment, want to kidnap and tattoo me?
I reminded myself, all of this, even though it was very Scooby Doo, was still better than having to run again…
So I walked over to the frig, grabbed a beer, lit a cig., and went online to play my new game.