Gina stepped between us. "Before the situation devolves any further, I should remind you that we're on a clock here. Less than ten minutes before the girl loses control."
"Right," Nathan said nervously. "If we're taking a vote, I think the leader should be Gina."
"What!" Shelim and George sputtered at the same time.
"You know she doesn't have her hand up your asshole anymore," George was quick to point out. "You can choose for yourself."
"Choose for myself, huh?" Nathan folded his arms. "She didn't break my spine with a single hit and drag me kicking and screaming into her rebellion."
George scoffed. "The options were to kill you or recruit you. If Sis hadn't pushed for you—"
"Exactly!" he half-shouted, folding his arms. "That's why I think she should be in charge."
George grumbled something about ungrateful assholes, and Shelim did something I didn't expect—he sided with Nathan.
"You know, he does have a point. George doesn't have the bedside manner or the head to lead our group, and as for me—well, nobody trusts me, which leaves Gina and Julius."
The mention of my name earned me quick looks from everyone present. Nathan looked unsure, while George seemed even more incensed at the mere suggestion.
"I'll take my sister over some overpowered nepo baby who doesn't know the first thing about strategy."
"Hey, I could say the same thing about you and your technique and eye," Shelim said to George. "You certainly didn't deserve it."
George's face flushed red, and I spoke before the situation escalated further.
"Gina's right," I said. "We don't have time for this. We need to scout out the hospital, reach out to Alex, and sync up comms."
Five earpiece sets appeared in my open palm.
Gina stared at it and added, "You and George should scout."
I raised a brow at that.
"Your eyes are almost as good as George's, and after all the training, you're probably just as fast as Shelim."
Right. And she trusted me to behave around George, at the very least, which was probably one of the reasons Shelim started a fight with him in the first place. He didn't want to stick his neck out against an unknown threat.
That sneaky bastard. I looked George straight in the eyes. "Any objections?"
"Plenty," he breathed, snapping his finger and tugging an earpiece from my palm. It fit snugly into his ear. "But none of it matters now. We've got a mission to complete."
Everybody picked an earpiece and fitted it in snugly, and then a bony bracer appeared in now-empty hands
"Are those—" Nathan's eyes widened.
"Bones, yes," I said. "They're harder than steel and soak up curse energy like a sponge. Most important of all, they also let me teleport to you in a pinch in case you need backup."
"Reposition how?" Gina asked.
I demonstrated by tossing the bracer into the air and clapping. Suddenly, I was airborne, and it was on the ground. I landed with the lightest touch, having slowed my descent with Body Manipulation, and grabbed it off the grass.
"Any more questions?" I asked.
There were none, thankfully.
Everybody took a set of two. After reaching out to Alex to gather more information about the town, George and I took off. Leveraging blue, he floated into the air, while I stuck to the ground and listened.
I noticed something was wrong immediately.
The town had been emptied out, except for a handful of policemen on patrol, general store owners, and restaurateurs who looked more preoccupied with keeping an eye on the street than tending to their businesses.
I considered entering the stores and pressing somebody for information, but then I questioned if we had the time.
I reported back instead and pushed further into the town center under the cover of my stealth, approaching the massive park that bordered the mental institute.
"I think the townspeople might be in on it," I said into my earpiece.
"No shit," George's sarcastic voice rang through my ears as he floated above. "I can see through the buildings, and let me tell you, the things they have in their basements… it's some freaky shit."
"Like sex freaky?" Shelim asked.
"What? No! Like cult freaky. They have cups of blood and animal organs. There are strange red robes in their closets, and all sorts of bloodletting weapons. The altars I found also had a strange sort of mystical energy I haven't seen before. Black and red."
"Unknown magic. That's concerning," I muttered. "Remind me again why Constantine couldn't be here with us?"
"Justice Legue emergency," Shelim said.
"Right," I said, shaking my head. "Without our resident magician here, we'll have to go in blind, or get somebody from the inside to give up their cult in well under five minutes."
What I would give to have a Telepathy skill right about now.
"You're awfully quick to suggest torture," George pressed. "Where did all that virtue go?"
I ignored him. "Shelim, Nathan, Gina? What do you think?"
Gina hummed loudly over the comms, which irritated me slightly, before giving her two cents.
"Nathan, Shelim, and I can handle interrogation while you continue searching," she said. "Nathan will just slip into town and slip out."
"And the interrogation?" I asked.
"Let me worry about that," Shelim said darkly.
I didn't like the sound of that. I didn't like it at all. But we were strapped for time and deligating. I just had to trust that Shelim wouldn't hurt whoever we chose too badly.
We ended up picking out a young adult riding home on his bike from the local market. He lived alone, according to George, and was one of the few people in the city without an altar. We figured it would make him easier to break. Nathan whisked him off his bike, sending it crashing into the empty street, while George and I slipped into the forest.
That was where things started to go wrong.
George flew just below tree level, flying past dozens of trees in a blur. I followed him on foot, using no cursed energy. We came to a stop at a bloody tree marked with strange symbols. It oozed with blackish and reddish energy, and I sniffed the air.
"Do you smell that?" I asked.
"Rotting human bodies?" George replied.
"No. Demon flesh."
I swiftly ducked beneath an axe swing, which split the tree I had been standing beside in half. I lashed out with a casual Dismantle as I spun around. It split the demon trying to ambush me in half. I stepped away from the blood splatter.
Shit.
The markings must have been some sort of early warning system. They likely knew we were coming.
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