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[BerkaZerka]

Washington National Cathedral; Sunday October 22nd 2017

The Conference with the Archdiocese was nearly over, it quickly approaching eight PM, when the cell phone in the Saint's pocket began to vibrate.

An incoming text message.

No big deal, the Saint could wait another ten minutes for the meeting to be over, before checking it. Besides, Mother Rosemary was keeping an eye on the girls (UsdiYona having come over for a movie night with Faith).

For having "moved into" High Oaks Castle recently, UsdiYoni sure seemed to spend a great deal of time with the Saint still – though his food bills had seen a small measure of relief with the new arrangement.

Another incoming text.

Ugh, what now? Better at least to check and see who they were from.

Casually sliding his cell phone from his pocket, the Saint flipped it over to see where the text messages originated.

"Unknown"

Bah, probably scammers or something.

At this point, some of the Priests seated next to the Saint began to give sidelong glances at his distraction. The Saint was just about to put the phone back in his pocket, when yet another text came in from the same 'Unknown'.

His heart skipped a beat, as he noticed the preview banner at the top of the phone scroll across the following for the third text – "It took faith! I don't know where they went! I can't get out!"

[BerkaZerka]

Saint immediately stands up rather rudely and apologizes to the other members of the conference.

"I'm sorry, my daughter has had an emergency."

He exits the room without a thought for the meeting and opens up his phone to read through the messages.

---

Bringing up the three messages, the Saint reads the following -

Text 1 – "Saint, Help! 911! It got us!"

Text 2 – "I tried to stop it, but it got away! Lots of spider things!"

Text 3 – "It took faith! I don't know where they went! I can't get out!"

[Drakilian]

Cold fear creeps its way into Saint's heart even as a hot rage begins to cloud his thoughts.

Closing his eyes he forces the panic back and thinks to himself - It must be Usdi. She might be messing with me. I should go home and make sure of what happened before I do anything else

Nevertheless, he jogs and does not walk as he heads out the cathedral for his own residence, casting a body control spell on himself as he goes to keep his breathing in check and in case he might need it later. As he mutters his words of power he calls out to Miguel, "Faith might be in danger, please go ahead and check the house, I'll join you shortly."

[BerkaZerka]

"Of course," Miguel nodded, and flitted away ahead of the Saint, as he hurried the few blocks down the sidewalk to the home he had been assigned by the Church.

As he drew near, he could see Mother Rosemary on the front step with a tin-foil covered tray in her hands, fumbling for her keys. She did not see the Saint approaching.

Miguel reappeared suddenly and reported news the Saint had dreaded to hear - "The house is empty, no one is inside padre."

[Drakilian]

Usdi sent her out for food, they were both taken while she was away

"Sister, don't tell me you've been getting food for that ravenous rascal again? Here, let get that."

Saint takes 20$ out of his wallet and gives it to the sister while making to scoop up the tray.

"I'll bring it in to them, we finished early. Thank you as always sister."

Even as he says this Saint reaches into her mind and tugs at her base brain, trying to render her meek and willing to simply leave rather than question the sudden dismissal.

[BerkaZerka]

Mother Rosemary refused to take the twenty dollars, but gladly handed the tray over to the Saint.

"Nonsense!" she facetiously scolded, "I was just bringing some home-baked cookies for the girls. UsdiYona is really good with Faith; and I thought they deserved a small treat."

"All right then," she smiled, apparently taking the subliminal hint, "tell the girls good night for me."

She then walked through the yard over to her own house next door.

[Drakilian]

Saint unlocks the door and goes inside, looking through the inside of his house as he pulls out his phone.

He sends out a message to Beats

"I need your help, please get to the cathedral as fast as possible."

He then considers for a second and sends the same message to the other two disciples.

He then closes his eyes and begins to scry for both faith and usdi's location

[BerkaZerka]

In the living room, Saint found the television on, with the Lilo & Stich movie still playing in the DVD. He also noted the smell of ozone and spotted a scorched electrical outlet on the wall perpendicular to the sofa.

That particular outlet had never had anything plugged into it, so the fact that it had an electrical burn on its face stood out.

As the Saint began texting the other disciples, another one came in from the Unknown number - "Umm, hello? Is this thing on? Gosh, I hope this is working... This is the Saint, right? I hope I got the right number. Are you there?"

Using space to home in on UsdiYona proved completely baffling, as the results suggested that she was virtually everywhere on earth at the same time. Trying to open a window to see her, met with an interdimensional barrier of some kind (like when the Saint tried to scry across the Curtain between Worlds).

Doing the same for Faith encountered an actual ward of some kind. Try as he might, the Saint couldn't penetrate it to determine where Faith was either.

[Drakilian]

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Saint forces himself to answer calmly. "Yes. Usdi, this is you right? Where are you?"

[LadyZerka]

"Help us Mr. Saint! We are scared!" UsdiYona replied back - "We were sitting there, watching our movie, when all the sudden this electrical lightning-looking hand came out of the wall and grabbed us both! It said BZZZZZT!!!"

"I'm sitting on a spider web. It's dark and scary. I'm all alone. It took Faith into the webs. I'm so sorry I couldn't stop it! Please don't be upset with me; it got me too!"

"And I don't think there's any food around here either."

[Drakilian]

"I tried to find you but I was unable, it felt like you were everywhere and nowhere at once. You are not currently in the same space as I am.

From the sound of it whoever took you is a master of Space, it seems as if he's keeping you in a pocket dimension, or perhaps in a prison in the spirit world.

I've already called the others, it seems like I'll have to call Sarapheen too. You called me through a phone?"

[LadyZerka]

"I don't have a phone," UsdiYona explained, "but the spider webs have numbers running though them."

"I remembered your number and that you said I could always call you if I ever needed help."

"A little black window thing popped up with your number in it and it copies what I say and sends it to you whenever I say 'send'."

[Drakilian]

"Then... Well, it does sound like a pocket dimension. A touch of Forces too, he seems to be connected to the power..."

Saint moves to the socket and probes at it with his spatial senses. Maybe there's a portal he can follow through here?

For good measure he also asks Miguel to see if he finds anything off about the socket.

If this doesn't work i'll need Emend to take a look at it.

"Usdi? Stay on the line, i'll keep you on as long as I can with my generous generous phone plan. I'll be with the others soon."

[Forge]

'Wierd, Saint aint one to mess about with jokes'

"Sorry boys, gotta go. Friend needs me." He says to the youths at the basketball court before running home and portalling to the basement of the cathedral.

"On da way, wats up?" he messages back as he goes

[LadyZerka]

"OK," UsdiYona said to the Saint. "Hurry, I don't have anywhere to go."

[BerkaZerka]

Examining the socket with mage sight, the Saint found that it resonated an ugly mix of depravity, lust, and greed. There did not appear to be any portal there however...

"I can make nothing of your modern technology," Miguel answered the Saint; "I would not know what was normal and what was aberrant, though I see nothing unusual about the wall in comparison to all the others."

[killa_robot]

Emend looks down at his phone after he finished restocking the snacks in his cupboard for the third time this week.

"I hope they didn't break anything..."

He remarked, as he picked up his jacket and headed out to his car.

[Not Aman]

Robor looks down at the text, and immediately gets out of bed, driving over in his pajamas.

[Drakilian]

Saint shivers at the resonance.

I will make hell weep for you

Saint gets up, "Let's hurry, we need to get to the others."

Saint hurries to the washington cathedral basement, where he will pray for Sarapheen's assistance. On the way, he answers Beats - "Usdi Yona and my daughter have been attacked, I'll explain in the cathedral basement".

[BerkaZerka]

Washington National Cathedral; Sunday October 22nd 2017

Beats was the first to arrive, followed by the Saint, and then Sarapheen (after the Saint's prayers had summoned her). A short time later, Emend and Robor showed up - with Sarapheen suggesting that the Saint fill them in with everything he knew about the situation, before they collectively began figuring out how to best deal with it.

[Drakilian]

Saint places his phone down on the table, still open so that Usdi-Yona could listen and contribute however she could.

Saint steels himself and does his best to maintain a neutral impression.

"My daughter Faith and Usdi-Yona have both been taken. A little under an hour ago I was in a meeting with the arch-diocese when I received a number of urgent messages from Usdi-Yona saying things had gone wrong and that Faith had been taken. I ran straight home to find them both gone and that an unused wall outlet had been scorched. I then asked all of you to come to the cathedral while I attempted to scry their locations."

"As I was scrying Usdi-Yona called me, and informed me that an electric hand had reached out from the wall socket and grabbed both her and my daughter. From her description she seems to be in a pocket dimension that the mage who took them has created, from which he can connect himself to power sources - it's how she's able to call me despite not having a phone, she simply called out by number and is communicating to us via the webs that link the room to the outside world. I am certain of this because when I tried to scry her I encountered a transdimensional barrier. She is certainly, at least, not in this world."

"Faith's location was in this dimension, however she was blocked by wards that I do not have the time or skill to try and penetrate."

At this he pulls out his wallet and a photo of Faith - "If any of you could try... Perhaps you could succeed where I failed".

"I examined the socket the hand came from and could find no portal to follow through, Miguel was unable to notice anything wrong either".

Saint's voice goes very hard then. "When I examined the resonance left behind I was overwhelmed by a sense of lust, depravity and greed."

Saint bows his head to the others and clasps his hands together in a pleading motion.

"Please, I need your help."

[Forge]

At the sound of the word lust Beats face goes from concern to a cold anger, bringing up thoughts of his own previous 'case'. His vocabulary regressing almost in perfect line with his anger growing

"Whoever did dis. Im gonna make dem think of Hell as relief from what I do to dem." He says quietly but firmly as he leans kn to take the picture.

He immediatly sits back and clasps his Space dog-tag, concentrating on a scrying spell, spending manna to try snd force a success.

[Not Aman]

Robor nods.

"If we head back, I could ask the spirits to follow the currents. They should be able to find your daughter Saint."

[BerkaZerka]

"Yes, good idea," Sarapheen agreed, adopting her  mortal 'secretary' guise; "We can walk over and inspect the point of incident first hand."

[LadyZerka]

"Hey!" UsdiYona texts in the background, "this thing says I 'may have won free pizza for life'! All I need to do is enter my social security number to claim my prize!"

"... What's a social security number?"

[BerkaZerka]

As Beats attempts to scry for Faith, he finds (like the Saint) that something blocks his ability to latch onto her. He can tell that she is still alive, and somewhere in the physical world, but has no luck establishing a connection of any kind.

[Forge]

swearing quietly "Faith is somwere in da normal world but shes warded or some shite. Lets get Usi first den track em down."

[Drakilian]

"A shame", Saint fails to keep the dejection out of his voice.

Saint leads the group to his house. On the way, he asks Usdi - "Hey Usdi, how much are you able to find in there? Do you think you could look up other information? Perhaps find out where or who your captor is by asking the "web", so to speak?"

[killa_robot]

Emend silently listens to the suggestions of the group and follows Saint to his home, considering their options as they move.

[LadyZerka]

"Oh yeah, good idea!" UsdiYona replies to Saint. "Web, where is my captor?" She then asks.

[BerkaZerka]

When UsdiYona queries the webs, a torrent of little black windows begin popping up all around her! Like a countless number of leaves, they swirl about as if in an unseen dust devil.

Each one displays a single very large number (in the billions - if UsdiYona remembers her counting)... but otherwise do nothing more than seriously reduce her ability to see anything past the cloud of infinite windows.


 

[LadyZerka]

"Help Help Police!" UsdiYona cries in alarm, "There are too many of them! What do I do?"

[Drakilian]

"Is... is it just me or is Usdi in the internet?"

[Forge]

"ya what now?" Beats replies with incredulity clear in his voice "Hows dat even work?"

[BerkaZerka]

The Saint's Residence; Sunday October 22nd 2017

At the house, Sarapheen and the team examined the clues, which basically amounted to nothing more than a scorched electrical outlet on one wall. The evil resonance that the Saint had felt earlier was gone by the time everyone got there.

This gave Robor a chance to try out his new toy - the Postcognition sword the Armorer had given him, in exchange for recovering the lessor sword he had lost earlier.

Concentrating on the blade, Robor's mind went back in time, to see UsdiYona and Faith on the living room sofa, watching their movie. It was like watching a VCR tape, where he could rewind, pause, or forward as needed - giving him an all access pass to the history of the event unfolding before him.

In that moment, Robor witnesses an abrupt crackle of electricity arc from the wall socket and take the shape of a giant clawed hand. Almost raptor-like in appearance - the reaching appendage of pure energy grabbed up UsdiYona and Faith, who surprised and terrified, could do nothing to escape.

In its grasp, the two girls were then digitized - their physical forms breaking down into a tangle of infinite numbers - as everything was then drawn back into the wall socket.

From what Robor could tell, UsdiYona had begun transforming back into a bear, moments before they all disappeared - probably to better fight off their abductor. That would explain why it decided to dump her off in limbo, rather than take her along the rest of the way with Faith.

[Not Aman]

"Woah. Saint, you might be more right then you thought. Literally just saw them get digitized." Robor says, and explains what he saw.

"This bastard has magical powers, and decides to be a damned internet sneak? Pathetic." He then mutters.

[BerkaZerka]

"I don't think we are dealing with just a sorcerer or witch," Sarapheen thought aloud with a look of concern on her face.

"From what you saw, and what the Saint described about the lingering resonance, I suspect a powerful demon could also be behind this. After all, it is through either demons or angels that the awakened get their power."

"Robor, cast Exorcist’s Eye on yourself and use your sword again. See if you can confirm a demonic presence."

[Not Aman]

"An internet demon? Do they even exist?"

Robor proceeds to gramt himself his spiritual eyesight, and proceeds to look back in time.

[Forge]

Beats moves over to Emend's side and quietly speaks up "You know forces better dan me man, Dis somthin you know bout how its done?"

[BerkaZerka]

"An internet demon? Do they even exist?"

"I wouldn't know," Sarapheen replied thoughtfully, "It's not like angels use the internet. I suppose it would be a great place for a demon to hide, just for that reason though."

As Robor looked back at the events a second time with his mage sight active, he was absolutely shocked at the level of raw malevolence emanating from the arcing lightning hand. It was nothing like he had ever experienced, including his encounter with the broken tree stump thing in the flesh grove!

It was a litany of all the deadly sins put together - though depravity, lust, and greed reigned supreme. Bile involuntarily rose in Robor's throat - and for a moment, he felt like he would throw up.

Definitely a demon. And an exceedingly powerful one at that.

[Drakilian]

"What's wrong Robor? What do you see?"

Saint is getting antsy.

"We don't have time. The longer we wait the longer Faith is in that thing's hands."

[killa_robot]

Beats moves over to Emend's side and quietly speaks up "You know forces better dan me man, Dis somthin you know bout how its done?"

"If it's in another realm that would be a matter of Space, of which I'm only just starting," Emend replied. "Or perhaps a combination of the two."

"I could attempt to dispel the magic, but... I'm not sure I am capable of that just yet."

[Not Aman]

"It's a demon. Big one." Robor says. "Haven't felt something that monstrous yet."

[Forge]

"So like a pocket realm or portal" Beats replies, slightly calmed down in order to think.

Activing his spacial senses he searches for tracesnof poetals or wards

[Drakilian]

Saint's already morose demeanour deflates even further.

"A master of space or forces, one of the higher order angels. Please, we can ask them for help. I will give anything. Everything."

[Not Aman]

"Saint, I..." Robor begins, resolute. "We will save your daughter. I know it is difficult to have, well, faith. But we will prevail."

"This demon seems pretty foolish anyways. It has left Usi in it's 'Web,' letting us know the situation. And it did not have any time to erase the memories of the objects in your house....." Robor mutters, as he looks at the burnt out electrical socket, and presses his iron ring to it.

"AWAKEN electrical socket!!! And inform me of the recent electric currents!"

[BerkaZerka]

Activing his spacial senses he searches for tracesnof poetals or wards

There was no lingering trace of any portal in the area - or sign that space arcana had been used recently.

[BerkaZerka]

Saint's already morose demeanour deflates even further.

"A master of space or forces, one of the higher order angels. Please, we can ask them for help. I will give anything. Everything."

"Hmm..." Sarapheen considered; "We may need help on this one..."

Morrow Wind knows his Spirit and Mind - and Jarome does that Forces thing - I'm not even sure how to go after this one...

"I'll be right back."

With that, the angel Sarapheen opened her heavenly portal and ascended up - disappearing into the white radiance. The portal then closed, leaving the disciples to wait.

[BerkaZerka]

"AWAKEN electrical socket!!! And inform me of the recent electric currents!"

At Robor's command, a minor spirit of electricity jumped out of the socket and onto the floor. It was a ball of snapping sparks with little arcs for arms and legs and two motes of plasma for eyes.

"BZZzzzzrrrRT?!?" it crackled.

[Drakilian]

Saint does not sit still, and begins weaving spells around himself. He begins with Hone the Form, spending a willpower on increasing the possible dice. He aims to add four strength for at least two hours. If there are extra successes he grants it to Beats and Robor in that order.

As well as this, he adds a Life shield over himself and the other disciples.