Russel rubbed his head from stress, for quite some time now he had been dealing with meeting after meeting, his allotted workforce left much to be desired, incapable of performing minor tasks without his input.

Only Bruce, Aaron, surprisingly Carl, and a few of the others he brought took care of themselves, that list included Eian, which was why it had been unexpected when he asked for help, unexpected but fortuitous in timing as it gave him an excuse to adjust his plans earlier.

He fully expected there to be some level of conflict, Eian was not one to seek and fix his social problems, he preferred to evade them altogether, Edward was different when he had a problem with someone he usually made it known, then forever cut them off, Eian was too close a friend in this case.

Contrary to what Eian thought, his aim here was not to resolve his problem with Ed, Edward was correct when he said this debacle with his sisters needed resolution first.

No, one of the lesser reasons was to see if the two could work together without grabbing each other's throats, better here at this instant than under gun-fire.

The truest of Russel's major concerns stemmed from Ed's people, to put it lightly they were: shady, confrontational, ignorant, as well as angry, and it took all his convincing to prevent a mob, he wondered if Eian noticed how close it had come, luckily they were cowards and a few intimidating displays cowed them, thank Bruce for his brute strength.

The attack from Edwards associates came in unexpectedly, he had not predicted Eian would burst out on his own, his skills none-withstanding, he had assumed he would be too afraid of his mother's potential death or injury in the cross-fire.

Alas, he killed some men in the escape, Russel did not blame his friend overly, at least not in the sense of morality, more in the lack of forethought, but that fell in line with his character, Eian's proactive approach led them to this.

If he had bided his time, they could have easily rescued him, then reallocate themselves, thus their dispute would be all but forgotten and seen as nothing more than an excessive hassle by now.

Another of his goals had been to relocate and scatter their forces, Elisa was being taken somewhere safe by Bruce, the man was a beefy monster, Kristal was with them along with a few other non-combatants, though even being combat efficient meant little if their temporary allies shot at them with guns.

The reallocation had to be subtle, taking a few here, another there, a gradual process to not arouse suspicion, Russel feared it was already too late, some people had mysteriously been found murdered, from both his people and Edwards.

This was driving up the tension, each group blaming the other for their losses, their deaths were not accidental, the wounds were ruthless, one particular man had had his head bludgeoned to much, none had animal-wounds on their corpses.

As such Ed's people had grown far more aggressive, with a few fist fights and shouts erupting daily, and Russel was slowly losing their respect through 'inaction', call him callous, but he preferred if many of them died in his plan.

Unfortunately Ed was now a pariah amongst them, as many blamed him for associating with Eian, the whole thing was a mess waiting to boil over, hopefully, his plan would work.

Russel predicted even if they won, there would be inevitable backlash, as he had 'seen' a few of the prisoners would be irrecoverable, dead, he had carefully kept that information to himself, though thankfully Edward's sisters were still relatively intact, he was disgusted by the man he had seen, 'Richard', Edward had been kind enough to identify him.

For now, at least, they were taking a break, Eian was simply staring off into space as Russel had just explained their objectives, while Ed was doing his little mutterings again, a strange habitual ritual he had taken to.

Susan was sitting by Eian, Russel wondered what her story was, she did not come with his group from the university, which meant she had been with Ed's group instead, however, not many people knew much about her, still, she had no family kidnapped, thus, she could work with Eian without problem, and while Russel had convinced her to become a healer, he certainly didn't fully trust her yet, but she had done nothing to warrant excessive paranoia.

So many problems, irritating that no one else wanted to step in and resolve it, except perhaps Carl but the man was a bit opinionated, sure he could lead people, but to deal with people whom at the moment acted like unruly children was another thing altogether.

At least Eian could handle himself, while widely ignorant of subtler powers and skills, he held a solid grasp of his staple abilities, in addition since he boasted such high defense he was unlikely to die easily.

Body: 10, Mind: 10, Spirit: 3; after glancing at his attributes Russel sighed: attaining loftier heights had become tedious, and still yet he had not uncovered how to pass neither his mental nor physical limits, in addition to the lack of progress on hybridizing his elemental abilities.

Looking at the rising sun he decided it was time. "On schedule. My friends?"

Their little camp was simply a small shaded area under a tree, there was a small pond of water off a small track he cleared, this place had been a reserve prior and he assumed people did not venture here often.

"I NEED a bath, spare clothes at least. " Susan shot him an annoyed glance, busy untangling the blonde bird's nest she had for hair.

He watched her carefully, he would understand her, with time, he was good at that sort of thing.

Russel stood and soon the others also got up, Susan, in particular, looked miserable, her hair was now slightly less of a mess, but she also looked dejected, she also kept complaining, luckily very very quietly.

Russel had to admit, the heat was...excessive, in all the little water they brought had dwindled to near nothing, it had been refilled at the pond, unhealthy though it may be, Russel figured it was the lesser of two evils as they boasted a healer amongst their ranks.

He smelled, Russel knew, and while it disturbed him, he ignored it along with the discomfort of mostly harmless bee-sized mosquitoes, along with the added baking effect his armor imparted him throughout the day.

Eian had his typical introspective look, he had never been one to volunteer information, and half the time he seemed trapped in his own world, while their friendship was deep after many years, although loyal Eian was no expert at socializing, too passive, a hurdle Russel had crossed, Eian was a welcome friend in an age where everyone cared more about their image rather than the person in question.

For now, the priority was getting stronger, and so he found Eian's 'Empower' image particularly intriguing, testing it would be his first priority, once he found himself in an adequate environment to weave a viable alternative.

Russel took note of Edward stretching and yawning particularly loud, speaking out what was on his mind, "Cool. Fuckers ain't gonna kill themselves."

Russel noted that was his way of reminding them he wanted a share of the metaphysical pie, Edward was... a complicated friend, he trusted him, but...his 'career' choice negatively impacted him once.

He smiled at Ed's games, subtle Edward was not, nor was Eian for that matter, Susan, well Russel had not yet had enough time to learn much on her, she was a minor risk factor.

One of his high school teachers had outright told him he would not give him a recommendation due to his poor choice in friends, it was with some guilt he had distanced himself.

He could clearly recall Ed spiking his soda with some random coconut rum he found in his dad's cabinet, they had been seventeen, the guy was a bit of a troublemaker.

Not for the first time Rus contemplated on whether he himself was a bad person, Eian, despite the difficulties, remained Ed's friend, and Russel had not the heart to tell him any scholarship was unattainable due to Ed's influence.

"E, some assistance, would you?" Russel waited, Eian nodded and seemed to doze off.

"There." His friend pointed north-west.

He nodded, taking a short breath, he closed his physical eyes and moved outside himself, he rose ghost-like into the air, catching the world in grey detail, for now, this was all he could do, in the future, he should be able to throw his mind vast distances quickly.

The first catches were easy, a pond teeming with an infestation of mutated disturbing amphibians, their base design clearly being frogs or perhaps toads? Either way undergoing heavy mutations made them too diverse to differentiate; limbs, heads, tails, the basic attack between the pond-scum was a murk-vomit-attack, which thankfully Eian took the brunt of.

Each varied in color and size, strangely not all seemed fully formed, some were enlarged tadpoles, others froglets, some were stubbier, more toad than frog, while others were hybridized with long or short tails accompanied by weird legs.

Their heads averaged slightly larger than basketballs, with the rest of the body dripping clear fluids that he would never otherwise touch.

Rus was not at all worried, sure they had scary teeth, but compared to other more ferocious enemies from the dream these were lacking.

A murk-red spotted-frog, in particular, seemed mostly normal until its jaw split open in three segments, spewing two sperate tongues with teeth growing out of them, Russel severed both in one quick-fluid motion, the monster fell croaking in pain.

Then he threw himself sideways, easily evading the hurling of disgusting fluids, his armor made his movements slightly clumsy, but he corrected his path easily enough.

It helped that he was so fast, he could catch the movements of all his enemies easily, evading felt like underwater dodgeball, he danced circles evading the sprays.

Strangely some of their enemies fled, clearly the smaller ones, that was something Rus was keeping track off, why did some animals attack recklessly while others fled?

Russel was in no hurry, he watched Edward close the gap between himself and his enemy, bringing down an overhead chop from his ax on another grotesque monster, he mostly dodged the murk although a bit of splattering from Eian caught his arm on his left.

Russel smiled as he noted his friend was getting slippier, his mental augmentations were paying dividends, his perception and reflexes we also improving to constant battle, you did not need strength if your opponents could not hit you.

Ed quickly sank his fireman's ax unto its neck of a frog leaper, Russel lazily killed one from afar, his slash dissecting his opponent's skull, Eian stomped his opponents underfoot invulnerable, and Susan watched them with a frown.

"God-Damnit!" Ed cleaned the murk off his arm scrapping it with his shirt, revealing flesh which visibly became inflamed, his left arm was hit, looking burned acidicly.

Russel patted his only female companion, spooking her slightly. " Miss, check Ed. Venom could be an issue." At his words Ed looked up concerned.

A brief check-up revealed it was in fact not, at least not yet, Susan poured a bit of healing and Ed was flexing the arm, good as new, unfortunately, he lost his shirt revealing his frame.

"What? Stop starin'." Ed held his weapon two-handed as though to ward off their eyes.

Honestly, Rus did not understand his fascination with the axe, it was too heavy to easily swing with his frame, the small bladed head required some precision, and he was clearly unaccustomed to handing it, swinging it with neither thought, practice nor finesse.

"Move your skinny ass." Susan laughed, then smirked at him, eliciting a growl.

"'Ey! 'Ey! They didn't work for it either! Few days ago they~" Ed pointed at him and Eian.

"WHATEV"S." Susan interrupted in a giggling fit as Ed's face coloured.

"Agreed. Onwards." Rus nodded along with her to get them moving.

They were in a small clearing now, ample space for ten times their number, tall trees blocked the sun and no grass grew of the shaded soil, here Eian was scanning movement for potential enemies.

Thus began their search anew, Russel's projection racing forward through the air, at Eian's behest, he soon found himself navigating the woods, he could feel the animals this close.

He caught sight of the monsters soon enough, always strange they were, Russel knew that but he found the crew of anthropods particularly disturbing, each unique in its own way, and their size instantly caught his attention, the largest was the size of a medium van.

Two were the most notable, the biggest had thick carapace with a headless-ant-torso attached to its beetle body, but the slimmest was a flying hybrid of wasp and mantis, with scythe-like limbs, wings, and a bottom stinger, the other two were on land but lesser degrees of strange.

As he got closer, the wasp-mantis who was in the air looked in his direction, catching him slightly by surprise, but he ignored it's gaze and descended slowly.

'Surely...' His eyes widened as the wasp sliced him.

'Gurh' His senses blacked out momentarily as the was scythe cut straight through him, flaring pain, instantaneously Russel was returned to his body.

The disorientation faded quickly, "ugh...Fight!" Russel groaned at the sudden onset of a migraine.

Eian watched him funny, "What's~"

He interrupted his friend. "Hurry!" Russel pulled out his blade, an attack readying along the edge of the weapon.

He was forever thankful to his memory plane, without it, his concentration would be too unbalanced to form his attacks.

Enemy movement was break-neck, Russel caught their twisted visages with difficulty, but to the others, the enemies would be onerous opponents to track.

The pack of scuttling insects attacked, bursting from the trees as one disorganized mob of screeching noise, their maniac screams could unnerve the spirits of the deceased.

Eian armored himself and interposed himself in front of the team, but Russel had already thrown the first strike, placing a clear-cut on the flyer's wing, it righted itself immediately.

The Beetle was the first, colliding heavily into Eian heavily, Eian rolled a few feet, then they began an intense melee, trading blow for tackle, the beetle's muscles containing substantial force on par with his friend.

He wasn't wasting time, as the wasp, unsurprisingly, glided straight at him, Russel sent strike after strike, forcing the creature to take crippling damage, then he was in the flyers melee-range.

The earth exploded, the last two enemies at the far back hit small trench, thankfully leaving only the flyer in front of him.

A blast caught him, the wasp-mantis screamed and Russel felt it as a psionic wave, a tide crashing upon his mental fortress, he endured it stoically, the others fared far worse.

Simply looking told him Eian was off-balance, and his match took a downward spiral, the beetle pushing him back with his friend unable to think straight.

Not wasting time, Russel did something he knew he would later regret: guided by instinct, his Qi accelerated his mind, the world came into focus, added detail emerged, and he caught sight of tiny particles floating in the air.

Even his once-nimble opponents slowed to be manageable, but Russel's brain was baking under pressure, though for now, he could fight.

His following empowered physical slash further crippled the wasp, one-handed, he severed the stinger aimed at him, while his other fist had another target, the entrenched, striking the air with an open-palm, the air distorted and the strike caught a spiked-soldier bull-ant in the face, whom promptly fell back into the pit.

Too late he caught sight as the last opponent sped past him, he was unable to see distinguishable features, Russel hoped Edward could deal with it, or Eian, where was Eian?

"GAh," Ed screamed, "Fuck this!" Ed was likely in danger, but Russel had no time striking out continuously, holding two enemies at bay with lightning reflexes.

The resounding roar of bullets surprised Russel, but then he was cutting off a limb from the wasp, while simultaneously tripping the other opponent with alternating palm-strikes.

The wasp's scythes came at him, Russel took a step back, dodging, before placing his footing proper and shooting forward, with an enhanced kick.

Catching an opening he struck doubly, a distortive strike and the actual blade, two attacks in one, the wasp/mantis fell bisected almost in two pieces, by the midsection, it was alive but he quickly cut off another limb, Russel parried its retaliation and jumped back, retreating.

Crashing weight suddenly surprised him, he had taken too long, the final opponent, previously entrenched, was a top him, a thick soldier-ant whose chitin was interlayered with spikes, like a bulldozer.

His air expelled, with pain catching up to him on the ground, clearly, he was bleeding from somewhere, and while he would have some bruising tomorrow his fortunes still paid off, his armor took the brunt of it, then Miss Susan screamed.

'Sh-eet.' Russel swore, rolled sideways, got up, then charged.

Eian's fight had progressed evenly at a short distance, with parts of carapace and shards of rock littering the ground, while Ed was holding his hand on the floor, likely injured, but the final monster was dead at his feet.

Staring at the charging enemy he did what he could, "Here! Over, HERE!" Russel blasted the enemy with a battle cry.

Russel saw Ed lever his gun at it, baring his teeth in a snarl and releasing a roaring shot one-handed, then the earth under the enemy exploded a second later.

Susan was on the ground backing away from the entire fight, but the spiked-ant, her aggressor, staggered at their combined assault, it hissed a roar and charged at him.

This time he was ready, Russel charged in, mental energy carried along his Qi, then if one paid attention, they would notice an after-image distorting in the air, shooting forward shoulder-first.

The spiked-ant staggered at the impact, Russel's charge swiftly turned into a fully powered double-swing, two strikes simultaneously caught the ants face, he cut like it like cardboard.

The head went flying in the distance and the body collapsed, unable to operate without input, Russel turn to help the others.

"'S'not fuckn' dead!" Ed was gritting his teeth, staring at something while holding his hand.

Russel turned to look, "Conserve ammunition." his breathing relaxing.

He had expended a substantial amount of his Qi in flashy attacks, all the while his mental strain worsened his migraine, which made his movements inefficient.

Ed meant the wasp, even now as it was nearly bisected, with limbs shorn off, it dragged itself along the ground towards them, and Russel claimed his kill stabbing it through the cranium, between the eyes.

As for Eian's fight, he had torn the upper ant-torso clean off his opponent, apparently, it wasn't enough as he had then pummeled the beetle until its shell cracked then caved inwards.

Taking in the scene Russel's racing mind relaxed, his migraine lessening to simply discomfort rather than aching pain.

Ed was still on the floor, in clear pain, Russel went to him.

"Hah~Hmmm..." His friend was panting, gritting his teeth in agony, clutching his bloody left hand with his right.

"How bad?" Russel demanded.

His eyes widened, Ed's hand was missing the two lowest digits, and half of his middle finger, while part of his palm was hanging limply by a shred of bone and skin, it was all disproportionate like the rough work of a saw.

And last but not least the blood, "Susan! Here! Eian, find his fingers!" Russel knelt next to his friend, whose face was red and breathing ragged.

A second later Susan was there."Show me." She grabbed his mangled hand.

Russel gripped her hand before she started. "Hold off, this needs surgical precision."

"Fuck! Rus, FUCKN' FIX IT!" Ed stammered sweating excessively and losing colour.

"Remember back with the pencil? The stab in your knuckle?" Russel attempted to give him a smile of encouragement, though it probably fell flat.

"Fuck. Ain't, SHIT!" Ed wheezed and his eyes were looking frantic.

There was much more he could try to say, but he doubted Ed was in the mood to listen further, instead he grabbed the two halves of Ed's palm and held them together for Susan.

"Gaaaah,*pant* GAWWWD, FUCK SHIT!" Ed was rocking himself forward and back.

"Stay still." Rus chided him, to which his friend laughed sickly.

Finished aligning the palm, he provided instruction, "Attend please Miss Susan, DO NOT seal this area." Russel pointed at where the fingers went.

"I'll try." Susan nodded, looking a bit green, but wearing a somber look.

"Caution please, do this properly." Russel watched her intently, she needed to understand the severity of the situation.

If she screwed up and sealed it completely, thus wrongly, Ed hand would still be missing his fingers, to fix it they would have to reopen the flesh and bone to then reattach his fingers.

"Fuckfuckheuckckck.*ha*ha*ha*" Ed was completely out of breath by the time the palm had sealed.

There had been a few chunks of flesh missing, but they regenerated as the bone sealed properly, those patched of new skin stood in complete contrast to the rest of the otherwise healthy flesh.

So far the injury had no scarring, but the new flesh was pale white, never having seen the light of day kind of skin, he commended Susan for her control.

There was still more to do, the hand was still incomplete, and he knew the healing element had limits, regrowing fingers was certainly possible, but Susan was no true mage, nor doctor.

He wouldn't put it up to chance that she could reconstruct the fingers properly with a simple image, there was a keen difference between a True Healer and a simple life Elementalist.

"There, hold, please. We require the missing digits." Russel addressed both Ed and Susan.

Turning, he saw Eian nearby, holding something in his hands, concern written clearly on his expression.

"You have them?" To his question, Eian nodded and showed him, holding them forward in his hands.

Russel took a deep breath and closed his eyes, the fingers were in pieces, he was not a doctor, but he strongly suspected attaching each piece apart at a time would be excruciating.

He quickly deduced the best way to repair the damage and induce the least amount of pain to his friend, who was looking a bit pale and anemic, Susan looked uncomfortable.

Taking the fingers from Eian he matched which pieces went where, in a morbid puzzle to solve, truthfully playing with the digits was an unsavory task.

They had to work quickly before the flesh died, he wasn't sure if that would be an issue as he was neither a doctor nor healed, but better safe than sorry as the missing digits were already looking unhealthy, yes he was paranoid.

"Miss Susan, I will require you to reconstruct Edward's injured digits." Russel sighed, rubbed his temples with one hand.

Prior to the dream, Russel doubted Edward would have ever been able to have a fully functioning hand, it was a truth Russel took with a barrel of salt, creation, and destruction, these 'natural', or perhaps unnatural forces could bring either.

The procedure began, he hoped this went smoothly.

*****

Russel stared at his inner workings, inside a tiny room he lay on a single person mattress of a whited tiled floor, a single door gilded with his favorite color 'gold' ironically a few words were engraved 'knowledge is worth its weight in gold'.

He made it a habit to take small timeouts here, observing himself for any signs of mental damage, a concern brought up by his endless paranoia.

The walls appeared as solid cement, although they held up admirably a few cracks emerged here and there, overall he could visibly see the damage receed, that was good, that meant he had not taken permanent damage.

More concerning was potential damage to the other rooms, quietly he stood and 'walked' over, opening the golden-etched door.

'Excellent.' Russel always felt reassured when he saw this room.

A familiar library made up the inside, complete with the front desk where the librarian would normally reside, along with a few desks joint together in one single file for students, which was unnecessary here.

This was where he found his love of reading and it stuck, everything from the rows of shelves, six total, brown wood he normally associated with oak, immaculately neat as though recently dusted then varnished to shine.

He recalled the ceiling being painted plain white, which while reflected here made him question some: the material, he was never quite sure, perhaps sheet-rock, in life he never bothered himself to ask.

The lighting was superb, which was in keen contrast with his memory, here he could open a book and read, whilst in life he had to move to the desk area.

If he ever found a place as strange as it was here in life he would feel disturbed, instead here he found comfort.

Books upon books which always made him smile, each one read a title, the titles were either eye-catching gold, plain silver, or a darkened lead, the titles were insightful, he easily knew what each contained.

The library itself was strange, despite the division into sections reality bent a few rules here, or perhaps flexible would be a better approximation.

He looked at the section he was looking for, it read: 'dream knowledge', and it was where he drifted naturally, the organization was comfortable, categorized natural as to almost flow.

Here this row of books further split into columns labeled appropriately: Inner-Qi, Insight, Elements, Hybridization split into three large branches, another branch read 'essence', whilst the final section was labeled as 'unclassified'.

This particular section and all its branches took little space inside the room, but it was not always rigid, of that he was certain.

Sometimes he would walk past one section take a curve to see another section and upon returning to his previous 'location' the books would be different.

What Russel found particularly strange was that he always found what he wanted, although sometimes the information was lacking, perhaps incomplete or...forgotten.

The worst parts he disliked were the books that were spotty, with just enough information to imply a puzzle, but missing the vital piece which completed the context.

'Spells Applications and their Matrix Creation' The book was titled, and it was the only book with a golden-etched spine, the one beside was a highlighted silver, briefly catching his interest were the words 'Elements and Inefficiency in Applied Images'.

Briefly, he debated on taking it, but he had no need for that yet.

Instead, he grabbed the first book and ambled over to another room, this one was made of beaten steel, titled 'Experiments'.

Inside was something similar to a boxing arena, only much larger with several wood logs surrounding the center, without looking he knew there was a camera overlooking the scene.

Instead of stopping he kept going and entered the room that was his goal, this one was labeled 'Battle-Ready.', there was only one thing of interest here.

Here he stopped, biting his lip as he watched a monitor, a montage played through it, and on the screen center, it read 'Striking Arts'.

Below the words, he stared at himself in the previous room performing a repeating montage, he moved through a series of projected attacks: blade-strike, palm-strike, and shoulder-tackle.

He pondered on his movements and he wondered not for the first time if they were ideal, his performance today had been less than ideal, he needed powerful spells, and this one was versatile but weak.

If he perfectly focused on sharpness and power on 'only' his projected slash, perhaps his first strike would have landed the killing blow to the wasp in a single well-placed hit.

"Russ." A voice whispered in his ear, he ignored it.

He opened the book, looking inside and begun to read. 'Energy needs form to function, without form energy simply spills outwards uncontrollably. The creation of such forms are...'

"Rus." A hand shook his shoulder and he opened his eyes.

"Huh?" Russel came awake to staring at Edward's visage, his friend looked at him with some concern.

"S'gooooo ma nig. Here." Ed let him go, gave him a quick pat with his fully restored hand, and exited the vehicle.

Staring, Russel noted that indeed they were at their destination, some well-to-do citizen's house, it was grand and everyone would fit inside decently, despite the broken door and a few shattered windows it looked decent.

As Russel wondered what happened to the owner he noted that Bruce was standing guard, then he noted as Eian rushed out and flew past him to enter, eager to see Missus Elisa himself.

Opening the car door from his side, Russel walked forward scanning the darkening sky, he easily noticed they were inside a parking yard, trees scattered and growing out of bounds.

For now, this would be the solution, too many of their 'friends' were becoming rowdy, and it was best they separate their vulnerable members, for now, the rest of them would simply have to keep their eyes open.

There had been some debate to allow Ed and his father to come, mostly from Carl, but he had swayed them, although Ed's dad was under constant watch, the man was an ignorant sort.

Goodwill was running low however, they had to act soon, otherwise, Russel notice his college friends were beginning to have second doubts, Rus had these doubts himself, but he believed this a just cause.

The idea of attacking a well-armed encampment with ruthless criminals seemed to unnerve his friends, that and concern for their own families, the thoughts of him putting people's lives at risk for well his cause was...burdensome.

Russel didn't really care much for his parents, as they were a bit distant despite him being an only child, they were not bad parents per say, once more his suspicion grew to convince him he had been a mistake, his parents often made careless comments and dropped enough clues of their lives prior, his mind simply pieced together the picture.

"Welcome home, Rusty." Bruce gave him a smile that Russel knew he thought was sarcastic.

"Thanks Bee." Russel gave him a genuine smile, to which his friend sniffed disdainfully.

"Killjoy." Bruce entered and waved him inside with his beefy hands.

The stranger's house looked comfortable enough, though he would have to reinforce it, for now, the previous owner had obviously fled in a hurry.

Yes, this would definitely work, for now, just a few more improvements here and there, blocking the entrances and searching for wraiths or their possessed victims.

Lots of things to do and little time to do it, starting with the agreement he had reached with the police officers, Russel knew they would be an invaluable asset if only he could convince them.

The delegation he had sent had made some significant headway, but he needed to personally go to seal the deal, otherwise, he risked looking insincere, he also planned on presenting more substantial evidence on the doings of their enemies, at least Ed had the sense to record his phone calls with them, but they still needed a bit more.