Fireball

1. Belle continues to man (woman?) the ship as long as that is needed.
   
   Once she is not needed to fly the ship, she will report to whomever is in charge at the moment and offer her excellent marksman services as a gun on the ground.
   
   But the ship is out of sight of the Grimnoir on the ground (for if it were not, it would be visible to the enemy) and therefore, you won't KNOW when it's no longer needed!
   
   Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to leave the rings behind ... the Grimnoir communication spell will still work without a ring but it's much more difficult, such that only an expert spell-weaver should even attempt it.
   
   Which is why it's a relief when Van Cortlandt's angular face and oddly European goatee appear out of a swirl of dust motes in front of Belle.
   
   "There's shouting in Japanese. I think we may need you here very soon, but watch out! Don't get shot down, as you're our only way out."
   
   
   
   Kaze slips out the back of the building, faded, and quickly reports to the group:
   
   "The team we met before is there... with a student healer keeping Richter alive. Barely. They are on to us, but before we were noticed, the Tattooed One mentioned that the San Francisco team is all right."
   
   Janet fades out as well, but takes a slightly different way back to the group, to hopefully trys and confuse anyone that might try and follow her and Kaze. When she get's there she adds "And they know we were snooping around, so what every we're going to do we better not doddle about it."
   
   Kaze adds in a listless tone... "And one of the New York crew is a traitor..."
   
   Sky draws both his pistols and runs toward the hangar.
   
   Kaze catches a sudden flare of fear in Lauren's eyes, just before Lauren ignites everything around her.
   
   Kaze was warned by Lauren's reaction, and so has Faded. Janet is just very quick to react tonight, and Fades as well.
   
   Van Cortlandt, Tojiro, Victoria, Angie, Sonny-boy, Michael, Nick Voinovich, and Christine, however, are not so lucky.
   All of them are washed in flames, their hair and clothes burning before they know it.
   
   Nick puts himself out with an effort of Icebox will. The others flail about, out of control.
   
   Lauren, knowing that her teammate Victoria is a Massive, gestures at Victoria and enhances the fire around her to white-hot intensity. Victoria resists, but finally drops, glowing red-hot.
   
   "Fire steals your oxygen, doesn't it, Vicky?" Lauren says softly. "I always knew I could take you down if it came to it."
   
   Van Cortlandt heals his burns. But he's still on fire, so his skin and hair burn up again. He makes strange signs with his hands, focusing his effort to heal himself as quickly as the fire scorches his flesh away ...
   
   ... until he runs out of magic.
   
   Seeing he's going to lose the race, Van Cortlandt uses the last of his magic to heal Christine, Sonny-boy and Michael, who have by now fallen unconscious from the pain. Their burns have also gone out, so once they're healed, they're fine. although still in shock from the sudden agony.
   
   Lauren turns, seeing the two Fades unharmed. Behind her, Christine, Sonny-boy and Michael are recovering their wits, but she can't see everywhere at once.
   
   "Everything needs air," Lauren snorts. She sets the grass at Janet and Kaze's feet ablaze. In a heartbeat, Lauren stands in a sea of rippling yellow sparks and smoke, as she sets all the grass between herself and the Fades on fire. They can walk toward her without harm, but if they solidify to attack, they'll get burned.
   
   "Everything but me," Lauren adds. "With what Hitomi's given me, I can burn all day and never get out of breath. But you gals .. you'll be gasping for more magic in a few minutes, and eating smoke in a few more."
   
   Lauren walks backwards, into fresh fuel. The grass will be all gone in minutes. All unknowing, she is backing towards three conscious Grimnoir ...
   
   Or four, actually. Because Kaze rushes at her. She passes through Lauren, solidifying long enough to ram a steel fork through the base of her spine.
   
   "You should recognize this position," Kaze remarks. "And as for your burning grass, your master himself remarked: we become used to pain."
   
   Lauren falls, astonished and dead.
   
   
   
   Meanwhile, Sky Masterson was so quick off the mark that he wasn't within the range of Lauren's fireball. Lucky break, really.
   
   The wall of the hangar buckles open, collapsing on itself. The Iron Guard Torch and Mover are there, seeking targets. The Torch hesitates, but the Mover cocks his head, sending wrenches, chains, nuts, and bolts showering across the lawn toward Sky. Fortunately for Sky, they're heavy enough that he can see them coming. It's not like dodging bullets, which can be harder than it looks.
   
   
2. 
   
3. 
   

We Have Ways of Making You Think

Janet and Kaze approach the hangar as stealthily as possible. It helps that there aren’t any lights outside, except the red lights of the airship mooring tower behind the hangar. And those are just lights meant to be seen, not to light up the ground.

They easily find a part of the wall to Fade through. Unfortunately, the inside is cluttered with engines, wheels, machinery, and an aeroplane – a three-engine Ford, capable of intercontinental trips with a crew of ten.

Janet and Kaze work their way around the clutter, staying low and in the shadows. That’s not easy, because the lighting is from arc lights mounted high on the arc of the hangar’s roof. But around the edges of the great open space, there are some shadows.

Four men are standing in a loose square around a metal workbench. Massive curved mounts on either side would be able to hold an aero-engine, but right now the only things on the table are an assortment of sharp tools and Ronald Richter.

Hitomi is bent over Richter, deftly wielding a paintbrush and bottle of smoking demon ink. He is inscribing a complicated design on Richter’s forehead, which is held in place with a vise.

Hitomi gestures to a young fellow nearby. The guy is not dressed in karate pants like the Iron Guards, but rather in the blazer, tie and slacks of an expensive private school.

The young fellow touches Richter’s chest and head, curling his fingers in the manner of a Healer. Richter awakens, thrashes, but can’t escape.

“Good,” says Hitomi. “Enough. Mr. Richter, you are dying entirely too often for my purposes. We may have to bind your soul to your flesh more permanently, if you cannot hang onto life without assistance.”

“The Grimnoir will stop you,” Richter pants. “Operating in the USA with Iron Guards … Shadow Guards … Hell, the BI and the Army will rub you out once they tumble to what’s cooking.”

“The Grimnoir are dead,” Hitomi replies flatly. “Or do you mean the Knights of New York and San Francisco? The New York Knights are doomed from the moment I planted a traitor in their midst, and as for San Francisco … well, yes, I admit they would be resourceful adversaries if they learned of my activities. But your Grimnoir rings were not as helpful as you imagined, were they?”

Hitomi holds up his left hand, on which Richter’s ring glitters.

“I will be gone before San Francisco, or your ramshackle government, can interfere,” Hitomi continues. “And you … no, I correct myself. You may well be here to see what ensues. Because if I have to bind you with the Lazarus power, it will be very difficult to destroy your consciousness afterward. You might survive to see what it is to be ruled by a human being rather than a slug from the stars.”

“You may find that not so unpleasant as you now imagine,” Hitomi says, “but it does involve being trapped in living death. I do not share the late Chairman’s repugnance for such methods, but you have been an honorable opponent. I would end your life quickly and cleanly, if I can.”

“And so, let us continue …”

He throws a switch to activate a generator under the table. A wooden handle wrapped with cable terminates in frayed copper wires, which spark.

“Where have the Grimnoir detected the Power over magnetism? How are you sure it is not merely a very advanced Crackler?”

“Get … lost,” Richter gasps, and spits at him.

“There is a level of disrespect I will not tolerate!” Hitomi says. “But you must have your show of defiance, since you can do nothing else. All I have to do is apply this current …”

He does, brushing the wire against Richter’s bare foot. Richter bellows in pain.

“And then your will is sufficiently weakened that my Reader power can extract the answer from your mind. We Japanese are not as soft as you Americans. I can easily ignore your pain, as I have learned in childhood to ignore my own …”

He looks up into the arc lights, suddenly alert.

“Shingai-sha!” he barks. “Ni, josei, in’nei – Gorima-nawaru!”

Janet catches the last word as “Grimnoir” with a Japanese accent.

Kaze, however, understands fully.

“Trespassers! Two, female, Fades – Grimnoir!”

And he points directly at where Janet and Kaze are crouching, under the wing of the plane.

(There are five men standing around Hitomi. The Mover, Rock the Massive, the Torch, and the Heavy from the fight in Arkansas, and the young man who is clearly a Healer. Rock moves in front of Hitomi, the Healer moves behind him, and the other three move toward the plane, spreading out so that Janet and Kaze will not be able to see all three of them. The next few seconds will be critical.)

Plan B

Sky says, "Wait. Which team am I? Atlanta or New York? I mean, I like Chicago."

Voinovich says, "Yes, why doesn't Chicago have a team?"

"What can I tell you?" shrugs van Cortlandt. "We don't have many Knights from there. Your table's getting pretty large ... you might consider sending some Knights to Chicago to start one. It's how you get to be an Elder, after all."

While they are setting up future plans, Kaze carefully packs a sling, a knife, throwing blades, and a coil of rope on her person. She also carefully adjusts a non-reflective hair clip that has a black lotus design on it.

Sky squints at the map. "Wait. I don't like the plan.

"Lookit here. If the rifle range gun are all pointed south on this map, then we should not enter by the south door. Cause then someone will shoot us as we move up an empty room with no cover and no concealment.

"Let's hit the connecting corridor between the main house and the rifle range, going in through the big south window." He points.

"... and put one of us with a gun to cover that south door, and then we can bottle up anyone trying to get out of the rifle range, guards or whoever might be loitering in there.

"Then, as I figures it, it would only take one or two guns to block the door leading into the main house. No one comes up on us from behind. See?

"And splitting into two teams is a suckers' bet. Have the Fades find out where he is. We smash in the directest route, grab it, beat it, all of us together."

Van Cortlandt says, "What about it, Janet, Kaze? Can you locate Hitomi for us, without being seen?"

Kaze says, "It depends. I was... completely Faded before..." She sighs and admits, "...Invisible. And he still noticed me."

"But I was not taking any pains to be stealthy, Aside from using my power. I was in the street."

This time, I will use more common tactics to avoid his attention."

So Janet and Kaze sneak away after midnight, with everyone else hidden on the grounds of the school, waiting for their signal.

Neither woman makes a sound as they cross the lawn, avoiding the trapezoids of light cast by frequent windows. They reach the wall of the rifle range.

Janet pokes her head through the bricks, then comes back.

"It's lit up, but there's only one guy there," she reports. "A Japanese man, standing there holding a rifle. But not aiming it. Like he's guarding the place."

"There is no sign of Mr. Richter, or Hitomi, or the other Iron Guards?"

"Look for yourself if you want," Janet says.

Kaze does. She's right.

The Fades recross the ground, quietly, slowly, without being seen, as far as they can tell.

Once they report, Van Cortlandt winces.

"Guess you were wrong, Saburo," he says. "If they're not in there, what's next most likely?"

"The hangar, I believe," Saburo says. "It is far from the main house ... though not as soundproof."

"Kaze, Janet, you ready for round two?"

A Plan To Break Into School

Sky says, "Seeing as how unfortunately I ran out of guns and knives during that last altercational fracas, so I'z was wondering if you know a place where I can get at least two or three some-more of everyt'ing. And a new deck of cards. And some new threads. My narrow tie, green checked suit, spats, and Trilby hat is all sumwhat mussed. Naturally, I can pay, or I roll you for it. Nothing or double."

Van Cortlandt smiles a little.

"Mr. Masterton, anything you can describe, my agents can purchase in St. Louis and have waiting when we arrive. A day is a very long time."

But he does roll Sky for it, and for a wonder! Sky wins.

With Belle conning the light sport-ship, Van Cortlandt devotes his attention to Healing Janet, Sonny-boy, Voinovich and anyone else discommoded by battle. He also pulls tired muscles free of strain, and invigorates weary blood.

Voinovich has his gas-damaged lungs repaired, which necessitates some painful coughing. Kaze helps him with acupressure.

The night passes quickly, with most of the Grimnoir falling asleep after the excitement of battle wears off. By the time the ship arrives in St. Louis, it's late afternoon.

The local paper carries a national wire story; apparently a train crossing the Rockies hit a sabotaged bridge and crashed, with the loss of almost all aboard. Police are investigating but already have noticed the absence of tracks that characterize sabotage by Travelers.

Van Cortlandt suggest that, as the Atlanta knights all know each other, they operate together, while the New Yorkers do their own thing. A visit to the tax office by hired investigators has produced a map of the grounds of the Pringel Academy for the Gifted, as it is known. It's a large mansion with outbuildings on a meadow with a woods in back and a pond not far away.

Saburo is able to draw in the floor plan. The headmaster is Walter Pringel, a Reader, whose office is on the first floor. The left wing is sleeping quarters above classrooms, the right wing is a gymnasium, the center is offices, library, kitchen and dining room, and the garage, rifle range, pool and hangar are separate outbuildings.

If Hitomi is holding Richter, it would make the most sense to have him in the rifle range, which has no windows and is soundproofed.  That long, narrow building is 50 yards from the gym, attached by a covered and walled walkway with windows. So someone in the house would not be able to see people approaching the rifle range from the right side. The only place from which they could observe an approach would be from the hangar, whose doors face the rifle range.  The arrow on the rifle range indicates which way the rifles fire.

"So we need to come in from the right, and make sure no one sounds the alarm from the hangar. Which means we have to have someone secure the hangar, too. But QUIETLY. The students outnumber us by a lot, and they've been given at least some training in cooperative Power combat," says Lauren the Torch, gesturing at the map.

"Gas?" says Saburo. "Travel or Fade into the hangar and gas it?"

"It's too big," says Voinovich. "It would take minutes to fill the place, and they'd smell it."

"Well, then, what about reconnaissance?" Van Cortlandt suggests. "We have two Fades. They check out the hangar on the sly, tell us exactly where everyone is, then the New York team hits them all at once. Then, once the hangar's secure, the Atlanta team hits the rifle range through the right-hand door, here."

Voinovich rubs his chin.

" I like it," he says. "And then New York covers us when Atlanta pulls out with Richter."

"Of course," says Van Cortlandt. "What does everyone else think?"

Heading Out

Van Cortlandt decides Voinovich might be right about Hitomi using the Grimnoir rings as locators; Hitomi certainly seemed to know how to pretend to be John Browning. So he asks everyone to contribute his or her ring to a satchel, which his pilot, Huston, will take with him on a fast train headed West. If Hitomi is sensing the rings, he'll think we're following his San Francisco lead.

Meanwhile, we'll be headed for St. Louis at speed.

Since it's probably a full twenty-four hours until we arrive, so everyone's magic should be restored by then. If anyone wants to take precautions or make preparations, perhaps, Van Cortlandt says they have a teleradio aboard to call ahead.