Volume I: The Lost Boys

Slugger gauges Shadowhex's reaction... she can tell she said something wrong. But she can't tell what. Shadow seems even more insecure than before. Slugger feels a pang of guilt, but tries not to show it, and chuckles, patting Shadowhex on the back.

"That's not going to happen, Shadow... but fine. I promise, if you lose control - and only if you lose control - I will knock you out. Agreed?" She offers a handshake. She doesn't believe the scenario will happen. She trusts Shadowhex. But, if it makes Shadow feel better... Slugger is serious. After all, Slugger herself isn't actually taking any risk here...


As the topic in the room turns to the main topic of the evening, Slugger turns back to the others. "I agree with Vermite, I don't think this needs to be violent," Slugger chimes in. "Blacklight is right, the guns turn this into a sticky situation, but I think we can all sense that everyone involved is invested because of their own loss and pain, not because they want to hurt anyone. I wouldn't feel right if we didn't at least give them a chance to stand down."

Slugger lays her bat across her shoulders and drapes her arms over it, craning her neck and stretching against the implement. "Last time, the gang got antsy when we tried to talk down the doctor... can we separate them somehow? Either learn the names of the guards and find them individually, or even stage the breakout of a single zombie to draw out the doc? I feel like if we break up the gang mentality, we'll have a better chance of reaching the individuals, maybe?" she suggests.

Vermite breathes a sigh of relief. It's encouraging to know that there are others in the group who aren't keen on an all-out violent solution. She is certainly tense about Shadowhex's warning. Last time she lost control, Vermite ended up on the business end of her chaotic magic. She recovered from it well enough, but it was terrifying to behold. Although Shadowhex's focus is on Slugger, internally Vermite is already bracing herself for another possible outburst. She remains silent on the matter however, not wanting to stir up ill will.

"Thank you, Slugger. I think I can help keep the Lost Boys busy. I've had a couple of run-ins with a few of their members before, and suffice it to say that they definitely don't like me. I can bring them on a wild goose chase while everyone else goes after the doctor. Could use some help with the distraction though. There is more of them than I anticipated."

"I don't like the idea of staging a zombie breakout. Then we're the ones causing problems. Just because I think it will happen eventually doesn't mean we should help along a tragedy." She shook her head, "I do think we need to talk to them separately, the doctor and his bully boys I mean, because put in a group they're just reinforcing each others bad ideas."

She gets up and starts pacing a bit as she lays out what she thinks they need to do. "First we find them whatever new base they've moved to. If they don't take all their guns with them we can raid the armory so they can't do as much damage. Then maybe we tail a few home or have a private talk with the doctor, when he's away from the others. But we need to decide what we should do if he won't change his mind. Do we try to talk the goon squad out of supporting him or just straight up take him in and get the authorities involved? Because thats the point where we might just be what sets him over the edge. What do we do if he refuses to stop, or loses it and just releases the zombies?"

Shadowhex shakes Slugger's hand.
"I'll count on you to hit hard." she says with a bit an awkward grin of the dark joke.

---

Shadowhex joins the conversation with the others. For a moment she sits and listens. Having been distracted by the Grimoire for a while, she hadn't really paid attention to what the other were talking about.

"We are missing one thing here. The zombies are an accident, waiting to happen. And the doctor and his gang should be stopped... But the true victims here are the souls of Paul and the others. They linger in the afterlife and now their earthly remains are cruelly brought back to some form of reanimation. If done with magic, it'd be the darkest and vilest form of witchcraft. I just can't imagine what sort of immoral science is behind it. Is this the sort of person we believe we can still convince of the wrongs of his ways? I'd say we'd send him behind bars."

"That's what's go me worried 'what do we do if he refuses to stop'?"

"It was different with Centurion. We had to stop him, but this? We can ask him to stop and if he says 'no' we do what? Punch him until he agrees? Or we drag him to the police for what, grave-robbing maybe?"

Slugger shrugs and glances at Blacklight. "If we're worried he'll release them, and we don't want to use them as bait to lure him, then can we damage the locks on their cages? Lock them in, and make it that even they can't release the zombies?"

When Shadowhex brings up souls, Slugger shakes her head. "I don't think anyone here can do anything about that. If you're worried their souls are lingering, you need to be the one who figures out how to best deal with that problem. Will destroying the zombies return the souls? Is there a... a softer way? I get their dead, but still... it's not like I want to mess up the bodies any more than necessary."

To Ogre's point, Slugger says, "Grave-robbing definitely. He's got the bodies in his lab, and I don't think the law accounts for whether they've been reanimated or not. If the cops show up, they might not know what's happening, but they'll definitely know he shouldn't be doing it."

Vermite is torn. On the one hand, they can’t rightly let a zombie apocalypse just happen. On the other hand, what’ll happen to Chayton? Heck, what’ll happen to her mother? She’s a cop. Turning over the Lost Boys to the authorities means she’d likely have to arrest her own son. Things are already beyond deteriorated in her household, and something like that will probably end it all.

"Also, if we call the cops outright, they might turn out like Deion did, only this time the doctor won’t really have the same incentive to treat them, I imagine. So a police raid doesn’t sound like a good idea. However, when you were all speaking with the doctor, I was able to get to his laptop. It has all of his notes on it, including the places he ordered the Lost Boys to burgle. If we can get our hands on that laptop and create a copy of those files, that should be more than enough evidence for the police to charge him. Then, we be the ones to bring him in. Not exactly a by-the-book arrest on our part, but we’d be able to avoid an all-out confrontation. That’d also mean that Shadowhex will have a chance to return their souls to the afterlife. We trap the zombies in like Slugger suggested, then we can perform whatever ritual we need to."

"So we sort of combine all of our ideas together. Step 1: find out their location. Step 2: divide and conquer. A couple of us pull the Lost Boys’ attention while the others focus on getting the doctor and the evidence. Step 3: get the zombies under control. Keep them locked in their holding cells while Shadowhex has a chance to peacefully subdue them. Last step: turn the doctor in. If the Lost Boys surrender, then we won’t have to worry about them at all. They’re not the ones orchestrating this whole mess."

Vermite takes a moment to catch her breath. Talking with a stuffy gas mask on is harder than it looks.

Phew. "So, what do we think? Good plan?"

"I like it. I agree the cops really shouldn't be the ones going in. We might want to contact them ahead of time with what we're going to be doing though, just so they know what they might be walking into after we have the situation in hand. I think I can probably handle that, if I, we, tell them it's dangerous they should listen. Then we move in, get the laptop, talk the doctor into stopping and turning himself in or capturing him. Separate the zombies from the Lost boys or vise versa and then the cops come in to take over the scene." She basically repeats the plan to make sure it's straight in her own head by saying it out loud.

"That's the basic plan right? So we just need to figure out who does which parts?"

"I am not even sure how it works. The point is, the more I think of it, the more I realize how evil the doctor must be, willing to take on such experiments and risks with the eternal rest of those poor people."


She frowns and thinks a bit.

"But these zombies are not animated by magic.. Vermite, you have seen the doctor's data, right? And he did mention a formulae. Am I right to think that he injected the bodies with a chemical substance?... What if... what if"
She gets so excited that a faint glow of black and purple magic emits from her "What if we could drive those chemicals out of their bodies. Maybe they'd go to rest again?"

Shadowhex ponders on how she can strech her magic like that, but it might be worth to try.

"I'm not exactly good with the science of it, plus I didn't get a good enough look since I needed to get back to you guys before the doc noticed. It definitely seemed like some type of chemical though, not magic or some mutation. I think it could work to push the chemicals out in that case, though we will need to dispose of it just in case it contaminates something else."

"All that said, I take it that Shadowhex will be on the 'zombie team'. That magic will definitely come in handy. I can run interference on the Lost Boys, draw them away from the lab so everyone else can get to work. Any volunteers wanna join me?"

"Well I think once we've found them I can give the police a call, but think I should probably be Vermite's backup as well. That way none of us is alone, and I can get the pair of us back to the rest in a hurry if the rest of you have trouble with the Doctor or zombies or if things turn south with all the gang members. So two groups?" Blacklight offers up an opinion on how they could split things up.

Shadowhex looks a bit at the awkward silence that has fallen.

"Right then. No time for didlydaddling... Vermite, Blacklight - you are team mad docor. I'm team zombie control. Retribution, Slugger, Ogre ; I'd say one of you on team doc, the others on team zombie. Who'd like what?."

Slugger thinks over the options. Ogre was probably needed to fight the zombies... Retribution probably shouldn't be pointed at the doctor... "I'll go for the doc," she says, raising a hand.

"I'm coming up!" Marlene gave them a heads up before climbing up the stairs. She respected Jodelle and her friends' privacy, and didn't want to overhear something she shouldn't be by showing up there unannounced.

"How are you doing, dears?" the old woman smiled, but didn't wait for them to answer: "Someone help me with the tray?" like she promised, Marlene brought them something to eat; homemade scones, plus the teapot with scorching water - for their tea, or coffee. "Be careful, it's scolding hot"

"Hey Ms. Croft." Blacklight greeted the old woman as she came up, a smile hidden by her mask for the old woman as she stepped up to take the tray and help bring it over to the table before starting to serve out cups and plates. "Thanks for this, you really don't have to though."

Still she wasn't about to say no to free food. Using her powers could be tiring and she couldn't imagine a day that The Ogre wouldn't want more to eat. Eventually she sat herself down, a cup of tea steeping and looked to the others. "So anybody got an idea of where they might have slipped off to or is it going to be a long night and days of searching before we can get anything done?"

Enola bites her lip for a moment but relents. She does have a way to find out: follow Chayton. The thought makes her wince beneath her mask. She was hoping it wouldn’t need to come to that, but alas it does.

"I…I might have a way to find them.Oh. Thank you, Ms. Croft. It looks delicious." Vermite grabs one of the scones, anticipating on eating it later. It wouldn’t be very savvy of her to pull her mask off here to eat and drink. "I might know where I can tail one of them. I can also have my little army check out the city. I imagine zombified flesh has a rather unique scent, so hopefully it doesn’t take too long."

'Vermite's' phone started ringing at that exact moment. The number on the screen belonged to someone deeply concerned about his current whereabouts - and his brother's.

"You're the best, Ms. Croft!" Slugger is able to eat a scone through the gaps in her helmet. She gives Vermite a thumbs up. "Excellent! While you do that, I'll refill the fuel tank..." She pauses as Vermite's phone goes off and waits to gauge Vermite's reaction to determine if it is a call she needs to worry about or not.

Vermite does retrieve her phone, glances at the caller ID, and then springs to her feet. The gas mask hides her look of concern and mild panic, but her spry reaction might give it away.

"Uh, sorry everyone! I’ve got to get going. Y’know duty calls and all that. Looks like we’ve got our plan, and we’ll…uh…make our move tomorrow, yeah? We can share the details over text. Okay! See ya!"

Vermite hurriedly leaves the building and out into the street. She begins marching home, looking for an alley or other hideaway she can use to change back into her civvies. As she continues, she answers the call.

"Hey mom! Sorry about not picking up sooner. Remember that fat, lazy cat that lives down the street from us? Mr. Sleepy. Yeah, he up and got lost and I’ve been helping look for him with some other classmates. I’m okay, don’t worry. Heading home now. Everything okay?"

"You welcome, dears. Always a pleasure to have you around" Ms. Croft didn't want to overstay her welcome. Once she set down the tray of cookies she smiled warmly at them and headed back downstairs, to give them a little privacy. She only stopped near the staircase to remind something to her protégé: "Shadowhex; come see me when you're done. I'll tell you a little about our new book"