A Devil of a Job

[IamLEAM1983]

Three stepped forward, briefly flashing Aislinn a look of annoyance. "I didn't know Michael was suspected of trawling Asia," he noted at Mary's sight.

"He isn't," replied Krampus, "but my boss does go through the occasional Asian trek. We keep tabs on a few people, just in case. Marianna Jameson's one of 'em."

Three exchanged a look between the self-styled razorgirl and the creature. "So is she on your shit list - or Oberon's?
- Neither's," replied Krampus with a grin. "Like most of you," he said, briefly stepping back and parting his arms. "Most of everyone here, in fact. Thing is, Obie goes Kringle for his kids, first and foremost. I fill in, on occasion. We don't drop presents - we never did. Doing some B&E to keep the myth going, though, you see things. Things like, uh, still-wrapped Christmas presents waiting for some greedy little mitts. In some cases, the shape's pretty self-explanatory.
- And you really just fuck shit up for anyone who's designated as a target by the King.
- Right again!" called the Christmas Demon. "Worst thing I've ever done to a kid is give him a look. The runts think they're off to Hell if they mess up their year, and seeing me crystallizes all the guilt, in those parts of the world that still toss my name around. Promotes good behavior."

He looked back to Mary. "Jameson, though? I keep tabs because she's a scab, is what she is. Short temper, body fulla exosuit plugs, the skllls to back 'em up? She's denied me hits, and the Capital N Need to Cave Faces In doesn't leave me until Oberon says so!" he explained, his tone rising, after which he whipped towards Jameson.

"Heeeey Supercop Laaaaadyyyy - even you, with your rehab, your flashes of hot lust, your self-satisfaction at pulling stuff off that most folks would need freaking mechanical assistance for - YOU. DON'T. KNOW. HOW IT FEELS. TO NEED. WHAT OBERON NEEDS!" he suddenly shouted, fingers turning into grasping claws that expressed as much pent-up energy as pure helplessness. All the same, he went from a sudden display of extreme tension to a slow, almost sensuous smile.

"It's hot and slow and it courses through your brain like boiling ice water. Need the Mark, need the Mark, crave the Mark, bring the Mark home - but I have to play with it first. I'm a cat, and my ball of yarn's whatever will make the Mark scream. When I'm all set and it's happening, Mary girl? Do you know how that feels?!"

Gripping her shoulders, he shuddered in a way that could almost be construed as being erotic. "It's paradise."

Again, just as quickly, he switched to a dry and clipped tone. "You've kept me from paradise, Mary. Seven times. Seven heads, wanted by Oberon, all bagged by Hong Kong's good Transhumanist little Girl Scout. Before your - little issues, of course."

And now, to a glacial tone. "Don't try and stop me. Help me - but don't you dare lift a hand in front of me."

Again, his eyes darted sideways and he sniffed. "Does that count as a Moment, friendos? I think that was a Moment. We're, um, establishing the terms of our professional relationship."

Three scoffed. "If that was a Moment, it was pretty one-sided. Do we warrant a personalized warning too, or are we good to start sharing info?
- Nah, all o' y'all are cool," dismissively replied Krampus with a grin. "'Course, you two Army bozos kinda smell Naughty to me, but military orders and basic inclinations are sorta like Fae Oaths. Can't fight 'em. Wouldn't expect you to. Good kids with tough scrapes don't deserve me. As for the rest of you vigilantes - well, you did break the law, way back when - but fuck the law, right?"

[Karl the Mad]

"I'm flattered," Mary said dryly, fighting off the almost nauseous revulsion that such close proximity to the demon inspired within her. "I bagged them alive, and don't you forget it. I never killed anyone unless there was no other choice, not even bloodsuckers or half-breeds like you!" By that point she had her boots on, which were really just metallic add-ons to the arched black pair she already wore, and the Paradise katana found its spot at her back. With a sigh, she turned to the others and bowed. "Marianna Joleen Jameson, Captain retired of the Hong Kong Police Force, Special Duties Unit, Supernatural Criminal Response Team." She straightened, and rolled her eyes again. "...at your service."

"You ain't no chink," Charles said doubtfully, getting an eyeful of the scantily-clad razorgirl. "An' weren't you th-?"

"-centerfold model for the March 2024 edition of Razorboy? Yes, yes I was," she replied proudly. "And no, I'm not a 'chink' as you so delicately put it. Gweilos live in Hong Kong too."

Preston was silently eying Krampus from behind Drake, hoping against hope that the demon wouldn't pull that 'divine your history out of nothing' crap on him. Not that he was a secret, but no one liked their dirty laundry bandied about out in public, right?

[TennyoCeres84]

Aislinn offered Aidan a brief, telepathic apology for her earlier mental outburst and glanced at Mary. Yes, she was very pretty, and she obviously knew it. Her ego aside, the selkie figured the former cop could give useful insight to the fledgling group of superheroes, hopefully without rubbing in all the high points of her life. "Nice to meet you, Miss Jameson," she said, using her surname so that it wouldn't seem like she was being overly familiar.

"Other than what you texted me earlier, did we ever find anything out from Starr?" she asked the former gardener. "I figure she's found something out since she's been there a while."

[IamLEAM1983]

Three held up his phone. "Still waiting on an update. Shouldn't be long, now."

Indeed, across the Atlantic and several hundred meters above London-town's ground level, Katherine's phone buzzed again. It was a phone call, this time around. Picking it up, the lawyer would hear Travis, as expected.

"Kat - sorry about the wait. Couldn't package or push anything to your cell phone, I had to poke holes through six private insurance companies to find Davies, their ice is too thick for me to just snatch copies. He checked out with a government-funded medical plan and an old insurance policy that's been defaulting for the past year. Guy has a house, mortgaged - but it's been unoccupied for months. Looks like a classic breakdown to me - guy pays rent in some shitty motel in the West End. Repo's going nuts over his credit, but he's not returning anyone's calls. Smells like cell phone abandonment to me. He doesn't even have a sewn-in bus or subway pass. I'm still trying to track the phone's SIM card, but I'm sure he's smashed it. Guy seems paranoid enough to know CCTV drones work off of cell phone chips to track movements, when they don't default to GPL implants or bus tags. Davis obviously has none of these on his person. He's thrown my scent off.

He doesn't have shared accounts, but there's a lot of old expenses over the past twenty years that I can parse through. A lot of it feels like newlyweds stuff - flowers, perfume, sex toys, one huge-ass down payment on a ring he's still stuck paying today. There's not a lot of traceable stuff, but there is one engraved smartphone... 'To Lily, with all my love, Irving'.

I'm still looking for some sort of symbolic link, though. A kid he might've had with this Lily, someone or something she could've taken away. Not all Fae are gracious enough to explain the whole Changeling biz to their partners, so the kid and partner just - vanish, on occasion."

The rat scoffed. "Try poking through London-Upon-Faerie looking for a broad by the name of Lily with an unregistered or undeclared kid. Try looking for a dead kid who fits the bill, even. Needle in a haystack. I know I can't do shit from my end, the Sidhe just aren't big on Wi-Fi, much less modern tech."

[Karl the Mad]

Katherine frowned as it was all explained to her. "You'd be better off explaining it to them directly, Travis," she said with a sigh. "Shall I arrange a conference call between you and me and Aidan?"

[IamLEAM1983]

"Yeah, lemme just sort that out," replied Travis. "I'll call you back once I'll have a three-way going."

Back in America, Three's phone rang. A few seconds later, the former gardener eyed Krampus and the others. "Could we continue this somewhere that isn't a crowded spaceport terminal? We're a few minutes short of a conference call we might not want to miss, and putting you all through my speakerphone in a public space is going to be absolute murder.
- Lemme fix that," replied Krampus in a dulcet tone. Three lifted a hand to object or interject, but the demon moved out of his reach before he could actually speak. A heartbeat or so later, the sound of a gunshot was heard, immediately followed by an outpouring of panicked German. Aidan didn't understand much, but he understood enough to figure out the Christmas Devil had forced the crowd into hurrying in a panicked stampede in a direction that went opposite their current group...

As soon as the scabby-looking fellow came back into view, Three stared daggers at him. "Are you out of your goddamn mind?! Now we'll be stuck with HPD handling a terrorist action report!
- Your problem, Army boy, not mine!
- Look, you Berserk half-breed asswipe, our job is to keep people safe! We don't have the luxury of living in an eternally deniable operation and we don't have Oberon's I.O.Us covering our backs! You pull any shit while you're with us; we can't help you and we can't do our job! Plus - as soon as you close your case, what do you think is going to happen? You ride off into the sunset with your catch and we just stand there like idiots?! Fuck no! Cause trouble and we'll hit you as hard as we can as soon as your assignment's over!
- Hah, fat chance! I'm under Oberon's Oath, kid, I'm property!
- Self-entitled hybrid snot-wads don't endanger innocents on my turf, got it? If Oberon doesn't like it, he can speak to our freaking Legal team - because mundane law holds, here."

It was Three who walked in on Krampus, this time around. "Cause another scene like this and I swear to God, I'll get Jenkins to help me flay your fucking mind word by word, line by line. Oberon can bite me if it kills you."

He gave Aislinn and the others a vaguely disgusted look. "Let's get the fuck out of here, before this turns into any more of a farce. We can try the car park if we want to talk."

[TennyoCeres84]

Aislinn groaned out of irritation and went with the others. After that stupid little stunt, she was about ready to reveal the useful part of her deal with Melmoth. Perhaps once they got to a more private area, she would divulge the information. She imagined it would piss Kramp off to no end, but there was not a damn thing he could do about that.

[Karl the Mad]

"Sounds like fun," Charles remarked with a nasty toothy grin, cracking his knuckles as he followed along after the others. Preston had no opinion one way or another; diversions were diversions, and if a law was broken, so what? Kramp hadn't used an actual gun, right?

"You could have arrested him, right then," Mary told Drake with a scowl. "Even if you'd have to wait to bring him in for later. If he wants to hide behind Fae law, he should have stayed on their side of the Veil."

[IamLEAM1983]

"I arrest him, and he marches over half of my people while freeing himself," countered Drake in obvious frustration. "I'm stuck waiting until this shit boils over in any case, Jameson. Don't assume I don't know how shitty this is."

They headed for the car park, where Three pulled out his cell phone once more. A quick call to Travis, and they were patched in to Katherine.

"Right," started the soldier, his annoyance perceptible to Starr. "How goes London? Speak a little louder than you normally would, you're on speakerphone."

[Karl the Mad]

"Guten Tag, meine Freunde," Katherine began with a small, private smirk. "London goes well. As for the investigation, I've come up with two cases of corporate dissatisfaction and lax on-site security, as well as a mailman who fits the killer's profile pretty much to a T." She paused. "You have the Krampus with you, I take it."

"Aye," Charles affirmed. "Larger 'n life, twice as annoyin'. Found some Hong Kong supercop sniffin' around too."

"...okay...?" Obviously the lawyer was nonplussed at the idea of more cops. "Hm. Well, I'm sure Travis will send a more complete profile once he's penetrated the remaining rings of security. When we're done speaking I shall compose what we have into a text message so you can peruse and reference it with ease. But the man's name is Irving Davies, currently drowning under financial troubles no doubt related to the breakup of his marriage and the ensuing mental breakdown. We strongly suspect his wife was of the Fae, and either her or any children they had were Changelings. Obviously they would have ditched him because of this, and you'd thus find anti-Fae motive."

"Any record of mil'try service?" Jenkins asked curiously, remembering their little sniper jaunt in the bell tower.

"...none that we've uncovered, although considering the profile we've assembled I wouldn't be surprised," Starr explained. "His coworkers report him as a man of strong faith and conviction, although if he was strong enough in the faith to manifest the traces of divine energy we detected before, I can't quite say. Then again it's likely he has help, if what we heard about Jimmy Winters' divinations being confounded is at all true. We all know what it would take to pull the wool over the sight of a man like him, no?"

"That's what I been wonderin' 'bout," Jenkins said thoughtfully, tugging at his patchy goatee. "I guess it's all fittin' th' profile we put t'gether, though."