The light poured into Emmett's vision as his consciousness slowly melded back into reality. He was laying on the cold floor still in his hospital room, squinting up at the light panels on the ceiling. A cacophony of noises quickly penetrated his senses: he could hear a man and woman arguing across the room, along with a strange, loud, pittering and pattering whose source seemed to be quite close to him. He could feel some vibrations coursing through the floor underneath him, the sound almost covering the irritated voices battling over by the entrance.
"...you have something to do with this, don't you? Is this another compartmentalized operation of yours?" the woman asked in annoyance.
"Listen, Freya, we could argue about this all day. I'm just saying that anyone could've put together those runes," the man responded, exasperated.
"Oh, you are just the master of bullshit."
The two continued to bicker as strength returned to Emmett's body and he could just tilt his head to the side to witness something that really woke him up. A trooper was writhing on the ground next to him, shaking and convulsing. His helmet was taken off, revealing a young man whose eyes were bulged open and spit was dribbling down his face, gurgling as his jaw hung open. Another trooper was kneeling over him, and though their face was covered, it was obvious they were in a panic as they clenched onto his hand. One trooper rushed over, pushing the kneeling one aside. They turned the spasming trooper over on his side as other troopers watched on in apparent shock. Emmett quickly sat up, bewildered at what the hell was happening. As he rose, a stone fell from his forward, clacking onto the floor.
"Oh shit, he's awake." The man suddenly stated. Emmett looked over at the two, who looked back at him, poised with shock. He recognized the woman as the colder leader of the raid from earlier, but the man was new to him. He had scruffy hair and a five o'clock shadow that, along with his tired, sullen eyes, completed the look of a man that simply did not care. He wore a beige trench coat that reminded Emmett of the kind that a private eye would have on. The man approached Emmett and looked over him.
"Hey... buddy, you're, uh, awake," he said with a gulp.
"What... the hell is happening? What's-"
"Hey now, hey. Alright," the man held his hands out as if that would calm Emmett down. "I just need you to settle down."
Emmett's head ached. He pressed his hand up to his temple and massaged it with his finger as the seemingly booming voice from the man rang through his ears. He sighed. "Listen, I know this all has something to do with... demons or something. Just... what's happening here?" The woman in the back suddenly turned to Emmett with a surprised look on her face.
However, the man's tense expression eased up a bit. "Okay, so you're a little onboard. That's good."
"But.. I remember a... raid? What the hell is happening?"
"Well, uh-" The man stuttered.
"Vincent! There's no time for this, we need to knock him out and take him back to HQ!" Freya piped up with a commanding tone.
Vincent turned to Freya. "Can you just calm down? It's not bad enough that you ordered a whole memory-wiping raid on this place?"
"You have no idea what we've prevented here. This was a Class 5 anomaly; months of memory stores were rewritten or hexed. This is going to take us weeks to fix!"
"I've heard your whole rant already, okay? This is a whole other thing- Oof!" Vincent cried out in pain as Emmett swiftly kicked him in between the legs. He then sprang up, presenting out his hand, which was armed with one of the shaking trooper's gloves, having swiped it from him while the two were arguing. He clicked at a small switch at the backhand of the glove and suddenly a spark of light fired out from the palm, striking Vincent in the face. However, much to Emmett's surprise, nothing happened, leaving him squinting in confusion.
"Take him out!" Freya ordered.
The other troopers raised their gloves in a battle stance, ready to fire, but Vincent suddenly put his hand up, signaling them to stop. "Settle down, settle down," he said calmly with a chuckle.
"Are you kidding-" Freya snapped.
"That was a good move, kid," he panted out, still reeled over from getting his balls kicked in. "But, unfortunately, magic doesn't work on Justicars."
"Justicars?" Emmett remembered that Lilith had mentioned them, but never extrapolated on what they were. He wasn't sure of how much information he should divulge to them. "Then you guys are like... good... guys?"
Vincent laughed, slowly regaining his composure. "If that's how you want to see it."
"Pretty hard, considering you just raided a hospital."
"Oh, this? This is standard procedure- oh, and you can put your arm down now."
Emmett still had his arm aimed at him. He was scanning the glove for any other button or switch that might fire out something useful, but he had no such luck. Emmett slowly lowered his arm.
"See, we're all friends here, okay? We're not going to hurt you."
"Vincent," Freya called out sternly.
"I'm not going to hurt you."
Emmett furrowed his brow. "That doesn't... really inspire confidence, I gotta be honest. How can I trust-" He was interrupted as the writhing trooper on the floor began to gurgle louder. "...and if you don't get me the answers I want, you're gonna end up like this guy," Emmett bluffed. He figured that this trooper met that same fate that Valdrina had when she had attempted to probe his mind.
Vincent raised his eyebrows and stifled a smile.
Freya stepped forward "Vincent, I'm about to call HQ and get Lagar on your ass if you don't bag this guy now."
"Oh no, what am I gonna do," Vincent joked with a sarcastic monotone. "Ok, kid, if you could send any of us into a seizure, you would've done it already. Instead, you swiped a Flash-Palm and tried to escape."
Emmett gulped as Vincent called his bluff nearly perfectly; he had to switch gears. He responded by putting on his best, villainous smirk that he had practiced with Jenna for years while they made fun of those horrible straight-to-DVD action movies.
"Looks like you got me,' he admitted.
Vincent squinted at him, curiously. "Alright then... maybe we can-"
"But, I can only attack you while I'm knocked out!" he cried dramatically. Emmett suddenly turned the gauntlet on himself, pointing his palm at his own face. He moved his other hand to press the switch. But, in the next instant, he felt a tremendous pressure on his forearm, and as he finally pressed the switch, nothing happened. Emmett's eyes widened in shock as Freya was already next to him, grabbing at his arm, somehow depowering the glove. Her fearless, cold eyes pressed into Emmett, his thoughts still processing how fast she had to be to move to his side that quickly. Even Vincent seemed slightly impressed.
"I understand now. We've seen this before, haven't we, Vincent?"
Vincent still wore a curious expression. He pondered for a moment. "...Right..." he trailed off. "That... psychic demon guy; a case I was on, years ago."
"It lines up perfectly. A medium shares a psychic connection with a demon. Once he falls unconscious, the demon wrecks havoc. The perfect alibi. I'll take him in-"
"Actually, Freya." Vincent objected. "Let me question him."
Freya stopped and glared at Vincent. "This better not be-"
"No, no, not one of my 'compartmentalized operations.'" Vincent rolled his eyes. "But, it was my case, wasn't it? Who better to deal with something like that than someone with some experience? Right? Plus, he was able to break the Anti-hex, we have to know how he did that."
