Mayday Plays - Doomed to Repeat, Ep. 18 - “I Buried Marlene in Lansing”

Episode Date: February 12, 2022

The agents of PERENNIAL come face to face with the entity that lured them back to Lansing. Their situation becomes increasingly desperate as they fight sleep and each other to survive. A chaotic night leaves Samael unconscious, Tuck wounded, Merit exposed, Boomer paranoid, Warp held hostage, and Hyde in handcuffs. Can the agents figure out how to stop Marlene before their cover is blown? TRIGGER AND CONTENT WARNINGS: Violence, blood and gore, death, body horror, mental illness including references to DID, PTSD, manipulation, infighting, the topic of Covid-19 including conspiracy theorists, drug and alcohol use, dissociation, friendly fire, car accidents. Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this podcast are © Mayday Roleplay, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property. CAST OF CHARACTERS • Aaron - Agent Samael • Allegra - Agent Tuck • Amanda - Agent Boomer • Caleb - Agent Merit • Eli - Agent Hyde • Zakiya - Agent Warp • Sergio - The Handler MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS • Post Sound Supervision: Sergio Crego, Eli Hauschel • Mixed: Eli Hauschel • Original Music: Aaron A. Pabst, Joe Sanders • Soundstripe (soundstripe.com) • Glitch Machines (glitchmachines.com/) • Soundly (getsoundly.com/) DELTA GREEN LINKS • Delta Green (http://deltagreen.com/) MAY DAY ROLEPLAY LINKS • Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/maydayrp/) • Patreon (https://patreon.com/maydayrp) • Twitter (https://twitter.com/maydayroleplay7) • Mayday website (https://www.maydayroleplay.com/) • Twitch (https://twitch.tv/maydayroleplay)

Doom to Repeat is a Delta Green actual play podcast with violent themes in adult language. For a full list of trigger and content warnings, please check our show notes before each episode. Listener discretion is advised. Welcome to episode 18 of Doom to Repeat. I'm Sergio, your handler. I'm Aaron A. Papst and I'm Agent Samuel. I'm Allegra, I'm Agent Tuck. I'm Amanda Dominic and I'm Agent Boomer.

I'm Caleb and I'll be playing Agent Merritt. I'm Eli and I'll be playing Agent Hyde. I'm Zakiya and I'll be playing Agent Warp. Recently, Spotify made it possible to rate and review the podcasts that you listen to. If you listen to us using Spotify, please make sure to rate us. Even if you don't use Spotify, it would mean a lot and really help the channel grow if you rated us there. And if you think a simple rating isn't enough to show your affection for us, there's always

our Patreon, where, for as little as $2 a month, you can get full access to our Discord. We'd love to see you there. Now, let's begin. Please leave your message. I know I'm supposed to set a standard with these notes, but I'm sick of it. What's the point? Picture this. You've been completing the same task for yourself every day for your entire life.

You're told this is because everyone is expected to complete it. You quickly realize into this long tenure that no one else does it. It's possible you're the only one. Career permits you to continue. Duty asks it. And the underlying worry that should you stop, the world comes to an end, demands it. How long does it take before you stop too? Atrophy.

I think it's happening to me. Today is when I stop. I'm losing taste for the ends I used to make meat. Downtime, if you can call it that, is over. We meet in a familiar place. Last time they lost my luggage bag. This time I arrive with half a soul in a meeting in a TSA interrogation room. I can't decide which is a poorer experience.

Mallory informs us what we already know. She's back. Bowman's beloved, the specter that haunts my very decision to join this program. Mallory explains that this time there's footage. Marlene has stolen a cadaver and outgrown who we knew her as. The videotape taken from the hospital is especially damning towards our situation and now we have a cleanup to perform. Boomer reveals that after this briefing, a clandestine meeting she was privy to with

someone named Agent Charlie, who opened our eyes, or hers rather, I'm still unclear on whether we're even supposed to know, to the fact that we are not actually a part of the program, or not the one we thought we were. Such industries. A money-grubbing organization dedicated to using otherworld tech to benefit humanity and dam it in the same breath took over the program in the past and inputted new management. Agent Charlie claimed to be a part of Delta Green, a rebellious splinter cell, enemies of the program that have been leading a secret war ever since.

Turns out, in addition to this, Boomer also found time to, in her words, omit some information. She'd been contacted by the D.O. personally to run errands, Mr. Pleasant. At the time I was furious, that thing, that child, had I known, even for a second had I known, I could have made any other decision. It was, it was never her fault though, she just wanted out. I've been thinking about that concept lately, leaving. I don't think I could, I'm not made for it, but that time with Miranda, with her asleep next to me, the room gets so quiet, I start to think I hear old ghosts, and a part of

me says to run, it's the heart, my mother's side, and unfortunately, it seldom wins. We split up, warp going back to New York to secure the items related to our original case, myself and Tuck to investigate the local cop in the hospital, and hide Boomer and Sam to conduct preliminary research. We meet with Emil Brown, a local cop investigating the new case, and he gave us cursory information on everything he knew. He's a good man, unfortunately. At the hospital, myself and Tuck get a copy of the security footage, and are introduced

to a conspirator group called PhenomenX. Boomer has been working on a hoax angle for the case, so we plan to information with the group presently. Hide Boomer and Sam do their own investigations at the hospital, and learn, through some of Sam Isle's powers, just exactly how far Marlene's magic reaches. We reconvene at the police station, and convince Emil to hand over additional evidence showing the placement of all the cadavers stolen by Marlene, and the extra footage he has. We manage to get him to back down on telling the public.

In the morgue, we're reintroduced to Mrs. Janowitz, the old woman from Bowman's apartment complex. We're about to make the drive out there now. I don't know where she is right now, but somewhere in this city is a killer waiting to take everything we love from us, simply for the small coincidence of our existence. I can only hope that we are stronger killers, Orson. Agents Tuck, Merritt, and Sam Isle, you entered this apartment that belonged to Evelyn Janowitz just a few moments ago, and you found a body. Because of that, Agent Hyde seemed to be overwhelmed, and ran away.

Agent Merritt, you sent Boomer to follow her, and the three of you investigated what was in this apartment. And just as you were planning to leave, the body suddenly came to life, and said, going so soon, and reached out, Agent Tuck, you have the ability, on your turn, to attempt to dodge this attack. I mean, yeah, I'm definitely going to dodge that, yes. OK, so make that dodge roll, and she's going to make her attack against you. Success with a 38.

Nice. She succeeded with a 36, and you know that the the higher roll wins, which means that Agent Tuck, I just barely got away, you see her suddenly animate her eyes open, and her hand reaches out to grab your throat, but you duck out of the way at the last second. Oh, shit. Let's talk about initiative. We all know that the high highest initiative goes. I believe that Marlene has the highest initiative. However, that I will count that as her turn.

He's been real nice today. What's happening, guys? I'm fucking shaking. This is the warm up. Agent Merritt, you have the highest decks of the group with 12. You are next. What do you want to do? You see this body reanimating and beginning to sand.

I think that Merritt is having the worst flashback to the back of the bowman cabin. He's imagining the muscle memory of pulling the trigger on his six hour, and he wants to make sure that he does it right this time with the gun poised. He's going to target directly at her kneecaps, the best that he can. He wants to shatter the knees with two shots. Before you roll, I will remind you you are about to pull a trigger and make a whole lot of noise in a very populated apartment building where at least two individuals have seen your face.

What would you like to do? I'd like to pull the trigger. Can't do anything else later. OK, make that make that attack. Yeah. A thirty nine is a success. You will succeed. Please deal your damage.

She takes eight points of damage out of boy. Sure enough, your aim is true and you fire at her kneecap and it explodes. And she does seem to buckle. It seems to buckle at the shot. Perfect. Next up is either Samayel or Tuck, whichever would like to go next. Well, it's given that my action was a dodge. I don't have anything to do.

So it's Sam. So, Samayel, you are looking on as a very loud shot is rung. All of your ears are now ringing from this extremely loud gunshot in a very small space, but it's your turn, Sam. What are you doing? Yelling fuck as loudly as I possibly can. And then I am I have the the elder sign handing off of my neck. It doesn't appear to be doing anything to me right now.

But what I would like to do is if it's feasible, I would like to try to get it to Tuck or on to Tuck, either like run behind her and drape it over her neck or pass it off to them in some in some way. I think that's easy enough to do if you want to take it off your neck and put it onto hers. Sure. OK, I can do. OK, so I'm the run by behind Tuck transfer it to her neck. And then without stopping, I'm making a beeline for the kitchen. I assume that was probably my action to pass that off the talk,

but I will continue on to the kitchen on Marlene's turn. She stands and, you know, reacts to the shot, but still seems to have a smile on their face and seems largely unfazed by the shot. Her gaze is focused on you, Tuck, and she looks at you and takes a step forward to strike at you, but kind of pauses, looks at the the symbol, looks at you and just says,

ah, so that's who has it. Blinks turns to Samuel and leaps at him and attacks. Shit, shit, shit. She is going to succeed unless you'd like to try to dodge. I would like to try to dodge. OK, go ahead and make a dog roll. And then 38 out of 30. I rolled a 38 out of 75. She succeeds.

She is going to leap onto your back and just start clawing at you. That is for piercing damage or just for damage to you. And I'm going to ask that you make a dexterity roll or you're going to collapse on the ground from her weight. Forty eight out of 50. No, I'm sorry. Eighty four out of 50 is a failure. God, this is a relatively tall woman.

She's close to five, ten. She leaps on you and you just collapse to the ground as she is digging into your back. Agent Merritt, you can see the kneecap wound that you have shot is slowly beginning to heal. Oh, son of a bitch. God damn it. And it is your turn. I need to get her off of Sam immediately, because obviously we need to do something a little more nuclear

if we're going to do anything to her. I'm going to quickly sling my sick back into its holster, take my cane, get a hop, skip, run and swing golf swing as hard as I can at her fucking face. Sounds like you're making a melee weapon attack. You know what? I'm better with my feet. Let's just make it a kick to the face. I'm going to use the cane for support. I'm going to prop myself up and kick her as hard as I can with my good leg.

So that sounds like an unarmed combat strike. I have a success with an 18. Success with an 18. She's going to attempt. No, she's not going to attempt anything. She's going to take it. Go ahead and deal. I believe it's a D four minus one. A three minus one is two. You kick her what feels like square in her face

and her her entire head kind of tilts backwards. And you even hear like the crack in her neck of the the bones cracking. And she just kind of looks at you and smiles as she's smiling at me. I'm going to do something I should have done last turn. You know, I'm going to try and sling out my sick. That's not an action or anything. I'm just prepping for next turn and immediately go FBI, freeze, FBI, freeze. Just trying to get as loud as I can for the hallway

as her neck is kind of unnaturally crammed back, looking at you from your strike. She says, make all the noise, Orson, all the noise that boy you killed couldn't. Why does she know things about us? It is Tuxtra. OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK. OK, she's she's still on top of. Oh, yeah. OK, I so I saw her recognize that whatever the elder sign is on the on the necklace I have on

that she didn't like it. She did seem to react to it. OK, so my plan is I'm going to try and slip my arm up around her neck and like like grab her in a chokehold and yank her off him. Sounds like either unarmed combat or if you want to try to make like a strength role, I'd rather take on a combat if I can. Come on, choose your room that is going to be against her unarmed combat.

Ninety four fail, which is ridiculous, because I have an 80 in fucking unarmed combat. Oh, you're going you're going in time out for now. You're fine. She she succeeds with an 18 holding on to Samael Samael on your turn. You are being attacked. You are maintaining yourself, but you do currently have Marlene on top of you.

What are you doing? Well, I took the dodge action on my last turn, so that means I can't do anything right now. Is that right? Right. Would oh, with because I had to get like I have to get on her physically like chest to back to do the chokehold. Did the did the elder sign do anything? It's difficult to tell because she succeeded on her athletics check against you. She was able to kind of push you off.

It's hard to tell at the moment what whether anything it's doing. But you did notice that she kind of reacted to the fact that you now had it and she attacked. That's right. I had to check anyway. On her turn, she's going to continue tearing at Samael. I feel like I have no other choice but to try the dodge. Eight and eight is a success for you. Yes. However, she rolled a twenty six. So she succeeds and she's going to deal you three piercing damage or just three damage.

I'm barely alive at two hit points. You have to get off this. His shirt has been torn open. She is just clawing his back and you can see blood pooling on his back. And she screams out, you think you're going to sleep well tonight, Samael? Fuck you. It is the end of her turn and it is now Merit's turn. I'm going to prime that SIG as close to her forehead as I can get it

and pump two shots in her brain. You have a plus 20 to that attack because you are so close. Exceptional. I think I have to roll under a 90 then. In eighty five is under ninety. Jesus, that's too close. Roll your damage. OK. She takes another seven points of damage. You are killing it with this damage today, my dude.

You put the gun to her temple and fire twice. Blow from the weapon pushes her off of Samael. And her body seems to kind of crumple for a moment. And for now, she does not seem to be animated. Can I put myself between Samael and her body and prop myself ready for the next turn? Sure. Tuck, what would you like to do? Something similar, which has put myself between Merit and Marlene

and go over my shoulder and say, get him out of here. Understood. OK, here's my question. If I want to keep her in a hold, is that unarmed combat or is that athletics? You can attempt to pin her. It is an unarmed combat role. If you succeed, the target is pinned and they can attempt once per turn to break free. I think that's what I want to do. I want to take a kitchen towel and shove it in her mouth so she can't talk.

And then I just want to have her pinned to the kitchen floor as hard as I can. And I'm going to tell tell Merit, get hide the fuck in here. Understood. I'm going. OK. Go ahead and just make an unarmed combat role. And if you succeed, they will be pinned. Seventy, that's a success. You grab a towel from the kitchen, run over and just push your entire body against them. I'm going to try and like have her hands stuck.

I'm just going to keep her hands and I'm going to try and dangle the the elder sign is closer as I can. So it's your turn. May I ask what physical state I'm in? Am I if your agent is reduced to two or fewer HP, they fall unconscious. So at the moment, you are unconscious. Got it. Oh, it is now her turn. Her eyes kind of flutter awake and she sees that she is pinned by you.

And she's going to attempt to break free. So my role was a 70, I think a role to escape a pin. They have to roll either a strength times five or an unarmed combat. Her strength is very good, so she's going to use that. They succeed with a 72 and Merritt, you see, Tuck get thrown across the room. She stands and she just smiles and says, I can do this all day. It is your turn, Merritt.

I mean, I'm running out of options here. Everything that's worked before isn't semi-els unconscious at my feet. Tuck's flung across the room. How close am I to the kitchen? I'll say that you are within distance to run and do something if you need to get in there. I'd like to hobble over with my cane as best I can and start running every burner in the place, you know, rigging for the gas to begin licking into the room. I think that is complicated enough that it will probably cost your action.

I will take that. Tuck, it's your turn. It won't cost you anything to really stand up. You kind of were tossed onto your feet into an opposite wall. And Marlene is opposite you, kind of tracking Merritt as he goes into the kitchen. Are Merritt and Samuel in the same direction or is like Merritt on one place and Samuel in the other place? Yes, she is looking in the direction of the kitchen where Merritt is

and and semi-els also in that direction. Yeah, I'm going to attempt to pin her away from them again. OK, go ahead and make your unarmed combat role. Shit. Merritt, I hope you can hobble fast. 36, success. 36 is success. You again, just bum rush her and you slam her into the wall. The the cheap stucco wall cracks from from the impact.

And she's just she's got her cold, lifeless eyes. They are gray. There is no color or pigmentation in her eyes. And she's just staring right at you as you are pinning her to the wall. Yep, that's what I got. Semi-el is unconscious. So it is her turn. You are so close to her tuck.

You can see the the temple wound continuing to heal. And she just smiles and she is going to go to grab at your throat. She will succeed unless you'd like to try to dodge. So I can I can keep pinning her and take damage or I can potentially dodge and not. That's the idea. I'm going to keep my pen. She successfully rolls to attack you.

She grabs your throat with both her hands and she just starts to squeeze. She squeezes so hard. It feels as if your trachea is being crushed. I need you to make a Constitution Times five role. That's a success for the twenty three. You are being suffocated and you are going to lose one health. OK. And she is just going to start laughing maniacally at you inches from your face.

She is attempting to strangle you to death. Oh, Mary, it is your turn. What are you doing? I want to swing in and see if I can break the hold at the arms. Like like get tuck free completely because, you know, to be stuck in this pin is futile for our living situation. I think what you can do is a we can attempt a opposed unarmed combat. I fail with the eighty five.

All right, they succeeded with the sixty seven. You go to try to break the grass that they have on Tuck's throat, but it's iron clad the the the cold dead hands of this corpse feel like iron. OK. Samuel cannot go. It is Marlene's turn again, and she is going to continue to strangle the life out of you. Tuck, I need you to make another con times five role.

Pay all the ninety seven. OK, you're going to roll a D six three. You lose three health and you can feel the nerves and the muscles in your throat being crushed, you're gasping for air. And you know that in a matter of moments, she will probably choke the life out of you. It is your turn, Tuck. I'm going to I'm going to go with the momentum

that she's putting into choking me, yank her forward, plant my foot in her stomach and just drop back and do like a roll and kick her over my head. Cool. I think that can count as an unarmed combat strike. OK. Success with fifty seven. She is going to attempt to strike at you. She has a fight back, which everyone has. It's like a dodge.

You forfeit your turn next round. She succeeds with a thirty five. So she is going to deal you a little bit of damage as you toss her off. She scratches at you. She is going to deal you five damage. Your your entire belly is torn by her desiccated fingers. But she is now on the other side of the room away from you three. So we're free for the most part.

For the most part, you are about 10 feet away from her. OK. Is she like prone? I will say that she's prone. Yes. Can I use my movement to stand up? Yeah. OK. I'm just kind of like clutching at my stomach. I'm going to go over to Sam and try and like heave him over my shoulder or like heave his arm over my shoulder. OK, you won't be able to do that until next turn.

But you can I think get at least close to Samuel. I'm going in his direction for sure. Let's say that it is Merritt's turn now. OK. I'm going to hobble over to where Tuck has Samuel propped up with great care to my unconscious friend. I'm going to search him for a lighter, which I do have. He does have on him. Yes. I'm going to take that lighter, keep it close in my hand

and prep it against the sick and start moving towards the entrance of the door. Now, look at Tuck, keep the sign close to her. We have to leave immediately. We're going to blow this fucking place up. Yep, we got to go. Marlene's turn, she is not able to do anything. She's kind of recovering from being thrown. But you hear her laughter,

although you don't see her, you're kind of in the hallway. Tuck and Merritt, I assume you are spending your next turns kind of just dragging Samuel out. Yeah. Yep. As you are doing that, you basically get to the front of the apartment and as you look up, you see Marlene is kind of standing in the center at the farthest room. And she just says, this isn't over.

And she turns and she begins running towards the sliding glass door. Fuck. Blow the bitch up. It is your turn. Let's say Tuck or let's say Merritt is your turn. What are you doing? Do I think that she's still in range if I blow this gas range? Yeah, probably.

You're also where? Hold on. We're also in range, though. She's getting out. We're at the threshold of the door, right? Yes. OK, so we have three and two hit points. Just so you know, we are both very, very rough. I weigh my options.

The SIG is primed at the gas range. And the last second I can't pull the trigger. I'm going to shoot at her on her way out of the well, that'll trigger it, too. Fuck that. No. Possibly. I'm going to kick the door open. It's already partially open. I'm going to help carry Samuel out.

I'm going to take out my phone, though, and see if I can call high. As you do that, Tuck, what are you doing? The phone is ringing. If I shot at her, would the like small explosion that happens in my gun be enough to ignite the gas? At this point, you don't know how far the gas has traveled. So it would be a luck roll. I don't want to risk it.

I'm just going to I'm just going to keep like my vision is starting to tunnel and there's like black spots. And I'm just like, I've got Sam over one shoulder and I'm just trying to get us the fuck out. On Marlene's terms, they literally leaf through the glass over the balcony and disappear over the side. And you know that you're on the third floor, so they are plummeting to the ground at the moment.

Speaking of, let's cut away for a second from all of this. Hide, you have run out of the building, probably back to the the car, I assume, correct? Heading towards the vehicle, yeah. You failed a sanity check to tell whether your disorder kicks in. So as you are kind of collecting yourself, Agent Boomer is kind of running out the front door. What is the moment?

What is the quick interaction between the two of you? Hide, stop, stop, stop, stop. I'm just going to have like my my like back towards Boomer for a second as I kind of collect myself, going to kind of like gently touch their shoulders like, hey, hey, take a breath, take a breath, take a moment, take a moment. Eventually, I'm just going to kind of turn around, slap that hand away from Boomer because they don't want to be touched. But I'm just going to I'm just going to give Boomer just like a really hard look.

OK, no touching. That was my bad. I shouldn't have done that. You both begin hearing gunshots. I'm going to look over, but I'm not inclined to just start heading that way. I'm going to kind of look back to Boomer. But it sounds like our boys and girls, let's go. What are you doing?

Security. Hide. I'm going to pull up my gun. Whoa, fuck, all right. OK, are you pointing it at me or are you just I'm just pulling it out right now. I'm just hand at my waist, pulling the gun out. I'm going to like are you going to I'm going to start walking backwards towards the entrance because I do hear gunshots and I'm going to want to at

least start heading back. Come on, let's go. And I'm going to kind of back up, but like start to pick it up back towards the. I'm going to point my gun at Boomer and I'm going to ask Boomer for her fob. The fuck are you doing? I want your fob right now. Before we move forward, I need to handle a security issue. Boomer, as you are thinking about what the hell is going on and what hide is asking of you, you hear glass shatter and you both see a body

plummeting and then it smashes onto the ground in the in the back alleyway. I'm going to say you both need to make sanity checks for seeing this. So. Succeed with a 12, 28. You're you're just more startled than anything. I think hide you have highest alertness. You can see that there is a old Lincoln town car parked right where the body fell.

OK, is is the body heading that way? The body is completely motionless. I am not going near it. I'm going to go round to go back towards the door where I want to go back up. OK, so Boomer, you're heading back upstairs. Yeah. What are you doing? Hide. I'm going to get closer to the body, holding the gun and pointing it at it, but approaching at hopefully a relatively safe distance.

But I want to see what's going to happen. You keep your distance and you're kind of walking, doing, you know, getting closer around the perimeter of the body. Its legs are broken. Its torso is smashed and pulverized by the cement. You can see in the Lincoln town car, which is off. There is someone sitting in the front seat, but their back is to you as you are in the back of the vehicle.

I'm going to turn. Can I turn around and point my gun at that person and approach the car? You begin to approach the car. You get closer to the driver's side. And as you get closer to the driver's side, just before you see who's there, there is this sudden and strong gust of wind that just kind of blows through the alley. Seemingly out of nowhere, just kind of chills you as soon as it started, it ends. And by the time you reach the driver's side, you look and there is the corpse

of Erica Young just sitting in the driver's side, seemingly dead. I'm going to take maybe one more step and then I think I'm just going to say hello and see if it does anything. You say hello and its eyes immediately flash open. It reaches for the keys, turns on the car, hits it into drive and begins peeling out. Is she trying to hit hide? No, hide is just to the side of the car. OK, cool. Sorry.

I forget for a second. I'll pop to I'll try to pop the tire of the back tire of it. Go ahead and make some attacks against it. That is a success with a 48. That'll be eight points of damage. Are you doing a cold shot or are you just shooting at the vehicle? I'm shooting at the vehicle. You do eight points of damage to the vehicle.

Unfortunately, does not pop the wheels. Marlene rolled a critical success on her drive role. And although you start firing at the vehicle, it manages to speed off and begins making a turn out of the alleyway. Where's Boomer? Boomer is out of sight, probably up in the building. Yep. Hide, your phone begins to ring. I pick up the phone. Hide, hide. It's quick.

It would shut down the window. You have to follow. Where is she? Did you see it? Yes. She got in the car and she drove away. I wasn't able to stop her. Do you want me to pursue her? Do you license plate? Did you did you track the car?

What she got? I got the life. I got the license plate. It's an old Townsend. I can go and pursue her. Hide if you feel comfortable. Pursue. I got you. Keep in contact. We'll see you soon.

Of course, Merritt. So, hide, you are going to run back to the vehicle. One of the two vehicles you have. I assume you're jumping in. Yes. OK, we'll come back to you. Tuck and Merritt, you have an unconscious semi-L bleeding profusely.

I will also say that the majority of the apartment is now out looking at you, screaming, calling the cops. Everyone in this floor has identified you. What are you doing? I'm just going to carry out my FBI badge and inform everyone as we walk down the stairs that there's an ongoing situation and that I've hurt people here.

Please call the police. Bar yourself indoors and wait until the police tell you that it's safe. I'll tell them it's an active shooter situation as well. I think your authority and your badge are enough to keep people from rioting, although they are quite upset and disturbed at all of the gunshots that have occurred.

What are you doing about semi-L? I look at Tuck and I say, we have to call Mallory. We need her help. We need a doctor as fast as we can. Yep, yeah, we do. OK, I'm putting in the call. Good. We've got to get him downstairs.

Wait, turn off the gas. You want me to go back in? She's not there anymore. Turn off the gas. OK. We're going to kill this whole apartment. Log if we don't. I'll go back into the apartment and I'll kill the gas.

Boomer runs up just as you guys are making these plans. Boomer, you see that the entire floor is out of their apartments looking around. And I'm seeing semi-L bleeding probably on the ground, right? He's kind of over my shoulder. Yes. Everyone, get the fuck back in the apartment! Did you not hear?

Get the fuck back in there! Go ahead and make a persuade roll to see if anybody listens to you. Why not? Pull out the chocolate. You can have 20% because Merritt is flashing his badge. Oh, I thank God for that 20. Yes, pass with a 37.

Nice. Most folks begin entering their apartments. Many of them are on the phone with the police actively. We can hear the distant sounds of sirens coming. What are we doing next? As soon as we get in the sterile, we're like, we got it. We got to work out our story. I'm going to get the car started.

Who has the keys? I didn't know that. I did. I think I had the other one then because I'm usually driving too. All right, give me the other key. Take them and I'm going to start running out. I'm clutching at the tatters of my shirt, trying to put as much pressure as I can

on the wounds. We need to have a story. A story. The cops are going to be here and they're not going to believe a body jumped to life. Emil will go with what Emil gave us. We followed the Jane Doe. We found a name.

We investigated and there was a suspect. We try and stay as close to the truth as possible without actually telling them what happened, right? This is all in the hall, like in the stairwell where there's no one else around. That's if we stay. Are we staying? I mean, we're going slow and I don't

know if we're going to get out of here before the cops get here. If they get here, that's our running number. We investigated a Jane Doe given to us by Emil. I think it's easy enough to get downstairs. I'm going to ask that one person make a luck roll to determine whether the cops arrive before you get to your vehicle or not. Do you merit you're the only one unscathed?

OK. I have a 46, which is awfully close to a 50. You manage to pull Samuel to the other car You can hear the sirens. They are very close by, but they have not yet reached the location. What are you doing driving the fuck off? You pile into the vehicle and where are you heading?

Nearest hospital. Oh, no. We need to go somewhere. How about this? Give me someplace where he doesn't die or I'm taken to the hospital. Mallory, get us the fucking. We can't go to the hotel yet.

If the cops manage to track us back there, then this all drags back to the program. We have to go somewhere we can park and wait until Mallory gives us an order to go. I'm going to smack him a little bit on the head. And I'm going to point to semi-L in the backseat. I'm like, does he have the fucking time? That is a fucking order.

What the fuck? Boomer. I'm calling Mallory. Please. Mallory picks up. And as soon as you pick up, she says, oh, great. Agent Meridos. Case handler.

We have a situation. It's an emergency. We track back to the Bowman's original apartment, the Kaminsky woman from across the hall. She was taken by whatever this is. And we pursued. We're still pursuing. But there's a huge situation at this apartment.

We have two hurt agents, and we need somewhere to go. Her name's Mrs. Janowitz, by the way, not Kaminsky. Where am I getting Kaminsky? Tuck and semi-L are hurt desperately. More shots fired. Yes. They saw our covers as well. There was nothing we could do.

We didn't know that she was there. I'm sorry. I understand. Just find somewhere quiet and give me five minutes. And she hangs up, knowing that where would you like to park, Boomer? I don't know. Is the captain going to allow me to park?

We're not going to a fucking hospital, Boomer. I don't know. This is the second security guy who's threatened my fucking life in the last 10 minutes, so I'm a little raw. Yeah, well, as soon as you come up with a plan that will actually work, maybe I won't have to park the car.

Oh, well, duh, shit. I'd park on the side of the goddamn road. What happened at the beginning to end? We went into the apartment. We saw the body. I said for you to go after Hyde. As soon as you did, the body came to life and attacked Tuck. There was a scuffle, a struggle.

Semi-L has now passed out. Tuck is nearly dead and Hyde is pursuing. Would you like any other refresher, or can I send this address to Mallory? And I'm going to send it off. I have a first aid kit in my bag. It should be in the trunk. Can you get it?

Yeah, I'm going to run around and quickly grab it. And I will go ahead. And I'm going to kind of get into the backseat. And I'm going to just kind of whatever I can do to help Semi-L not die. Yeah, I'm just going to start working on Semi-L because he's in the most danger right now. While you're doing that, let's cut to Hyde.

Hyde, you have leapt into the vehicle, hit it into drive, and pursued this vehicle. Go ahead and make a drive roll. Marlene called me. Yes. Would I still be in possession of that number? That's going to require a luck roll since you did not actively think of it on the day

as to whether you saved that number or not. I failed the drive roll with a 24. And then I'll roll the luck. I succeed on the luck with a 16. You give chase. You make a couple of turns. But after a certain point, they could have gone in any direction. And you're having a little bit of a hard time keeping up.

But you do have that phone number. Can I call it? You dial the number. You're kind of waiting at a red light. It rings and rings. And then it picks up and all you hear is silence. And you can hear it sounds like a car is running. Marlene?

If that's what you'd like to call me. Well, we can call each other on first name basis as if you like. So I can call you Kona. I prefer the name Seeks, not Kona. Kona's not here right now. Interesting. What can I do for you, Seeks?

You seem to be in possession of a lot of knowledge. And I'm looking for knowledge. And maybe we could find something beneficial. If you stop running, of course. I'm only running because I'm looking for something. Something you have of mine. Well, I might be able to tell you where that is, depending on what it is.

Where is warp? Oh, I know where warp is. Don't be fucking serious. We got somewhere we could meet. I think so, yes. Name it. She gives you the address of an old mill on the outskirts of town.

And they say, when you get warp, bring them here. I'll have what I want. And I can give you what you want. Deal. OK. Deal is a deal? Sure. Fucking rat!

Sorry. Son of a bitch. Son of a fucking bitch. I'll be seeing you. I hang up and I'll call warp. At this point, it's close to 7.30. They're probably actually waiting to get on the plane. Hello.

Warp. Hey, it's a hide. I am aware. Hi. Hey, just checking in on you to make sure everything is doing well. Were you able to get everything? I know you sent some information back,

but everything else is good. Well, yes, actually. I have the tapes. I have the device to play it on. I even grabbed some of the parts of the board. I'm just waiting to get on the plane. How are things over there? Everything is going all right right now.

We've got a couple of leads, but nothing concrete yet. You're fucking liar. Hey, so we're kind of spread out between security and research for a little bit. So I'm kind of your point of contact. So be sure to give me a call when you land. I'm going to be the one that's going to get you. OK.

What are the others doing? They're spread out doing going to police station and a couple other leads that we've been able to cover since we got here and checked out those bodies. OK. I guess that sounds fine. We can hear over the the intercom warp.

You know, your flight is being boarded. Oh, I have to go. Cannot physically be late. So all right, travel safe. All right, travel safe warp. I'll I'll see you when you get here. I'll see you soon. Let's cut back to Tuck, Merritt Boomer, and Samuel.

Six agonizing minutes have passed. Tuck, go ahead and give me a first aid roll. What's the success with a 59? That's a three, I think. No, it's two. I'm sorry, it's two. Samuel, you regain two hit points. Go ahead and make a Constitution times five roll, Samuel, to determine whether you are able to come to consciousness.

See, con times five. 78, no. OK. Though the bleeding has stopped, it seems like he is still unconscious. The phone rings, Merritt. I'll answer it. Mallory's on the other end, and she says.

Get to the following address. It's a it's a vet. It's the best I could do. They have, I think, what is needed to patch up some wounds. Just head to East Lansing. Here's the address. Understood. In terms of our cover story,

I think we may have an opportunity, but it is going to have to come at great risk. Once this issue has been taken care of with Samuel, get back to the goddamn hotel because we need to talk about your cover story. Understood. I'll give the address to Boomer. I'm already up.

You head to East Lansing, which, you know, is in the direction of the hotel. And you eventually find yourself in a kind of a strip mall. There is an East Lansing veterinarian clinic. And when you arrive, there is a older looking gentleman, salt and pepper hair, salt and pepper mustache waiting outside. And he kind of notices that you guys pull up

and is kind of waiting for something to happen. I think you're here for us. Come here. And I'm just going to like... Yeah, I'll get out and help Boomer get Sam and Tuck out. Yeah, this man introduces himself as Dr. Thomas and he sees Samuel's wounds. He sees your wounds Tuck and he's like,

come on, come on, come inside. And he unlocks the door and you are led into a veterinarian clinic. The familiar smell of chemicals and dog hair and cat hair. And, you know, it smells like a clinic, but you are led into the back. Samuel is put onto a large table that is typically used for surgery, for animals.

Tuck, you kind of are sat down in a chair. And he says, I was told I was going to be paid up front before I do any of this. What's your cost? For this, I need $500. How about you fix him first and then we pay you $500. How's that? Let's go, stop talking.

Let's go. I'm going to try to... Yeah, or he bleeds out on the table. Which one would you like? Take my credit card. Do I have... Do we have any cash? He runs the credit card. Is it your personal or is it the... It's the programs, the budgeted.

Once that is clear, he returns, puts on some gloves. And he says, the best I can do is stitch you up, put some aesthetic, put some antibiotics. He's pretty beat up though. I mean, he's going to need a couple of days of recovery. Nonetheless, he starts working. He is able to stabilize and sew up the wounds. He has to kind of meticulously cut bits of flesh

that have been torn from Samuel's back. He does the same thing to you, Tuck. It is eight o'clock and he is still working on patching up these wounds. Are we doing anything or are we just waiting around until you are better? I'm going to pull Tuck and Merritt to the side. Okay.

Then we're just going to just maybe be out near the car because I want to talk to these two in private really fast. I know we're not in a good space, so this is what you need to go after Hyde because Hyde has lost it. What? What do you mean? They pulled a gun on me.

What? When she ran out and crossed this, I tried to get him to come back, flipped out about the fob, and then pulled a gun on me and was about to shoot me. Over the fob? I know. Here, I'll give you my fob. I don't give a fob.

You're sure this happened? She took out the gun and pointed it at me. We need to go, I don't know, someone has to go after them who's preferably armed and not me because now we have a dangerous person, we have a zombie bitch, and where is warp? I forgot. I don't know what's going on.

She's on a plane. She's coming back. She's on her way back. We should text her too, eventually. We need to let her know what's happening. You're sure that Hyde did this? I don't... Pulled a gun on me.

Chick comes out the window like a horrible action movie, drops, and then I ran to you guys. I'm gonna look at Boomer and say, look, I'm sorry for how I spoke to you in the car. I understand that was unprofessional, but there are things happening right now that tensions are high. If this really happened, then we need to,

there are so many things we need to accomplish in no time. Let me give Mallory another call and inform her that we have a vulnerability, an agent out to get us. Fuck. I think that it's... Is that your professional opinion? No, it's the right call.

I'm sorry, it's just like, it's, I don't wanna be alone with them. Do we send people after or not? I don't know, that's a lot to put on me about someone. Just give me a second, sorry. I think if we pull Mallory into this, that's gonna pull a lot of trust from Hyde. I'm of the opinion that if Hyde has already drawn a gun

on another member of our team, she's not deserving of our trust. I don't, but is it, she's not always like this, right? Like this is... Maybe the news of Majestic pushed her over the edge. It was hard for me too. Maybe she's taking it harder than the rest of us. Either way, there's something wrong

and she needs either the help that she's going to get from Mallory or she needs to be taken care of. If it's someone going to get her, not after her in the sense of take her out, but after her in the sense of go get her, the team has to come back together at some point. The last thing I did was send her after Marlene.

We need to know where she is because if she's up against Marlene, she's in fucking danger. I completely agree. Let me give in a call to her and see if she's amenable to having a discussion. See if what happened on her end, maybe there's something that we're not understanding

that's coming from her and we can get that. But I don't feel comfortable leaving San Miguel. I don't either. I'd much rather keep the three of you safe than sacrifice myself to- Call her, she'll only talk to you, you call her. I can give a call to Hyde and then we need to go report to Mallory in person.

I'm gonna text Warp too. I know she's probably in the air, but I'm just gonna text her. And what does your text say? Situations heightened will explain when you get back. Let us know when you land. Merit, do you call Hyde? Yeah.

I'm gonna request that you put it on speakerphone too. I do so. Hyde, your phone begins to ring, do you answer it? Your burner phone. Yeah, I'll answer it. Hyde, hey, what's the situation? Have you tracked her? I'm following her car now

and I think I might know soon enough where she's gonna stop. Good, as soon as you have a location, you need to inform us, okay? Of course. Of course. I have a question to ask you and I understand this might come as a shock to you

and I just wanna make sure I get both stories straight before we move forward with anything. I had a conversation with Agent Boomer. Is there anything you'd like to tell me? Guards, what? Agent Boomer told me that just before the shootout with Marlene and the chase that you're engaging in right now,

you pulled a gun on a fellow agent, is that true? I pulled the gun when I heard gunshots and a crash of a window. Why would I pull a gun on another agent? I'm gonna motion while they're saying that I'm gonna be that liar. I'm not fucking, like, you're just being very animated. Boomer fabricated a story to me

that you asked about her fob. Was that a situation? I've asked for it in the past. SML and Boomer has lost their fob and their laptops while I was in watching them in New York. So I've probably asked once or twice for it just to make sure it's accountable. Why are you asking this stuff, Marlene?

What, why is that relevant right now? I'm trying to discern whether we can trust the person who told us that Agent Charlie, well, that whole story about Majestic. I'm trying to see whether I can trust the people I'm in the same car with and I'm hoping that you're going to corroborate that story hide.

I'm just trying to keep operational security as tight as possible. So you're saying to me, you did not do this? I don't see how you can trust somebody who has broken operational security, Marlene. Could I get a human intelligence role on whether I believe hide? What exactly are you trying to deduce

whether you believe it or not? Can I tell that she's being deceptive to me? Yeah, sure. I mean, make an opposed human intelligence if you are hiding something hide, you can attempt a persuade or a charisma role. I have a 79, which is one below my human intelligence. That's a 42 for persuasion, that's a fail.

Yeah, I think it's easy enough to tell that hide is skirting the truth. Certainly what she is saying has logic to it, but it doesn't seem to match up with the chaos that has occurred in the last couple of hours. Perfect, hide, thank you for being honest with me. I'm going to deal with this situation as soon as I can.

I'm going to let you know how it goes. Can you meet up with us with Mallory as soon as you find the location? We'll do. Perfect, thank you, hide. Hang up. When Boomer's going to just have her arms extended in the air like how I'm doing, I'm like...

She lied to us. I'm not saying we haven't, at all, at one point lied and all that, but the reason why I was trying to say that when we left that room is from this point on, we're to be truthful because we are in over our heads. We've always been in over our heads. This is just an extra hurdle.

Yeah, but it was us against them. Now it's like, in her. That's just, it's not always her. Other, whatever she is when she's not this, I trust. This? I don't know what the fuck this is, but I don't fucking trust it. Another hour passes.

It's about 9.40 when the vet, Dr. Thomas, kind of comes out of the operating room and wipes his forehead, takes off his bloody gloves and says he's stable. Oh, thank God. He'll be okay. He'll probably come to consciousness in the next couple of hours.

Great. I'm not going to ask what the fuck happened, but he needs to stay in bed and you should stay in bed too. Your abdomen has been torn and you guys are in bad shape. Yeah, gotcha. Rest, sure. We appreciate your services. You worked quickly and you provided with us something

that we couldn't get anywhere else. I'm prepared to give you a $200 tip. Just, just get the fuck out of here. I gotta clean up all this blood. This better not be traced back to me, okay? As long as you practice discernment, I promise you nothing will come to you. All right, good.

And he goes to the janitor's closet to grab some cleaning supplies. Let's get our priests in the car. Before he leaves, I'm gonna try to grab him, but because I really don't like this doctor, I'm gonna be like, hey, question. So how many dogs do you neuter here? And then I'm just gonna keep walking with Sam

as I try to go out the door. He just watches you as you start to leave. I'm mad, I'm not, I'm a brat, I'm annoyed, I'm everything. I don't like this guy. Well-named. I can't yell at the person I want to yell at, so I'm being a bitch to someone else. I think, Samayel, by the time they put you back in the car,

you're starting to come to consciousness. Hey, buddy. Welcome back, bud. Samayel. What the? Goddamn. Easy there. Lay back down, lay back down.

What, where the fuck am I? Not only did you fight an inner-dimensional Hoonanee with that thing, the circle thing, but you just fought a zombie. Yay. I'm just gonna tap him on the shoulders. Oh, not too hard. Sorry.

Where's my bag? Wait, what, I don't need my bag. I reach into my pocket, or my back pocket, the flask is probably there. I imagine the first thing, I open it up and I down the whole thing. I'm sure I have everything. Your pain medications,

you're not supposed to take it with alcohol. Too late. Oh, I'd love this guy. Samayel, your move with the necklace is part of the reason why Tuck is still standing, why any of us got out of that room. We owe you our lives. Thank you.

Oh, I'm sure that's an exaggeration. It's really not. The fact that we are alive should be proof enough that none of that was exaggeration. Am I alive? I really don't feel like I'm alive. You're in pain, right? And when I tap his shoulder,

it'd be like, that's how you know you're alive. Fair enough. Listen, Samayel, I need your opinion. Have you noticed any change in Hyde in the last few weeks? I, well, I mean, she was, you know, she was very, she got very upset at the church the other day. I don't know exactly what happened,

but she stormed out in a hurry. Boomer was there. You probably know what happened, but me. Yes, part one of the temper tantrum. She seemed like back to normal when we came back from break, though. Maybe it's stress-induced. It wasn't until she saw that body

that she ran out of the room. Merit, your telephone rings, your burner phone. Okay, I'll open it. You pick up the phone, Merit, and you hear a man on the other line go, so is this for real or what? Are we meeting? What?

Oh, yeah. Are we? I looked to the other's fucking flabbergasted for a second, but this still somehow exists in the same night, and I come back to the phone. I'll never forget. And I say, it's good that you came. We're watching from the opposite side of the street.

This was a test, and you've passed. We'll have another meeting one day from now, the same time. Can I use this number? Is it safe? Yeah, but how do I know you're not fucking with me? I guess you'll have to take a chance on the unknown. There's this kind of awkward silence from the other end,

and finally, you better not be jerking me around, man. We're well organized, and we're gonna expose you, okay? With my help, we're going to expose it all. Oh, shit. I'll give you a call tomorrow. Make sure this line stays secure. Oh, shit. You should check all of your light sources

inside of your home. They may have already bugged you. You hear him kind of like talking to somebody near him. He says we should check, or he says we might be bugged. This phone call's nearly reached a minute. They may be able to trace. I have to go, and I cut the line. Yeah, so good, so good, thank you.

He's passed out, and he's all looking at you, like, what the fuck? I shut the phone, and I looked to the rest, and he said, we have an appointment sometime tomorrow. All right, what the fuck? You call. That's a tomorrow problem, not a right now problem. That's exactly, that is a future problem for today, us.

Let's move on. It is nearly 10 o'clock, what are you doing next? We gotta go see Mallory, right? Where did Mallory say to, she just told us about the phone. Oh, yeah. I think, to meet her back at the hotel, the... Maybe call her first, in case she has more information. She's gonna fucking hate picking up this phone

from what, this is what, third call in an hour? You want me to do it? If someone wants to call mom, sure. Rock, paper, scissors, boom. Sure. On shoot? Okay, one, one, two, three, shoot. I got scissors.

Fuck. One, two, three, shoot. All right, scissors. It's you. Mallory picks up, boomer, what's happening? Okay, good news, we didn't die yet. So, I have Mr. Sam in the back, he just needs to rest and relax.

Is it safe for us to come to the hotel? Yes, but coming through the back, my room number is this, come meet me as soon as you can. Excellent, on the way. Make sure you're not seen. Sure, I could be quiet. Quiet as a mouse, oh, question. Anyone else, do we have to something else?

To them, like, is that it? You wanna tell her about the rogue agent? Not until we meet her in person. That's all, Mall, thank you. You hang up, and I assume you head in the direction of the hotel. Yes, and I am gonna be very cautious, take my time. So, can I just make sure that I understand something

really quick? Of course. We got one agent running around, pointing guns at people, and one more agent out on her own. Yes. It's a McCall warp. Does somebody wanna go maybe meet her at the airport? We should probably pick her up.

She's, what, when's her flight get in? 3 a.m. 3 a.m., okay, well. What reason would she have for going after warp? Boomer, I understand, she wanted the fob, she had a reason there, but what's... Man, all I know is that we don't have any fucking idea what's going on,

and I don't think anybody should be alone right now. Absolutely, completely agree. I'm just trying to see what she's thinking on the other side. If we want any hope of helping her, we need to know what she's thinking. Have any of us decided who's gonna go get warp anyway? I can get her. Tuck, I was gonna say, did you wanna go,

or did you wanna stay with Sam? Because you're also... I should probably go, I should probably go, so it's not just you alone. No, I think you should rest. I think of anything, I can take Boomer. I wouldn't bring me, but he's right, we can't be separating, no offense,

you two look like shit. Yeah, and you need to protect him in case. And Mallory will keep an eye on you two. How comforting. It's the only option we have right now. We can discuss after this case, but until a couple of days from now, she's our point of contact, and it needs to stay that way.

She's the reason you're breathing right now. That's true. Unfortunately. Yeah, I'm the reason she's breathing, so it's fair, right? Well, right on then. I'm gonna keep an eye out as we drive to the hotel to make sure we're not being followed.

You have a high enough alertness, you don't really notice any vehicles following you, nothing stands out. It's a short drive to the hotel, the lights are on, you know where to go, how do you enter the hotel? Through the side entrance, we'll avoid a problem, we're gonna probably go right up if it's on the second or third level,

go the side exit with the stairwell, not go to the elevator, so we can not be seen. Sam, I'll take your collar out. It's already off. Boomer, take your hair down. I'm gonna take my hair down, too, and try and brush it in front of my face, so if we are on camera, it's hard to tell who it is.

You're the only one that's gonna look out of place, Merritt. They already know my name, I told it at the scene of the crime if anyone's going to be in the public eye it'll be me, unfortunately. Maybe you go in first, then? Absolutely. So, Merritt, you go in first, and a few minutes later, the rest of you follow,

you go to the hotel room, you knock once, Mallory opens it and lets you in. She actually has takeout on the table, she kind of just gestures at it. Yes. Once you're all inside, she says, I need to know how fucked we are. Barry!

Tell me everything. We arrived on scene after a lead we were given by our lead man at the police station, Amil. He had a very good lead on a Jane Doe that we connected to someone we knew directly. It was the woman living across from Clyde Bowman during our first interaction with Lansing, Michigan. We entered from the back, we climbed up the stairs,

investigated the apartment, trying to see if maybe whatever this being was was leaving a message for us. Then we broke into Mrs. Janowitz's apartment. We had a smell at the door, which could be probable cause, if needed. It was filled with air fresheners and cleaning chemicals, and inside, there was the body of a hiker who had gone missing recently

and was among the leads Amil gave us personally. We interacted with the courts, thinking that we had seen it before on Marlene, the corpse coming to life. After our initial investigations, Hyde was mentally struck and left the building as fast as she could. So I called Boomer to stay with her

to avoid keeping any of us separate from the team. It was then that Marlene revealed herself as being alive. She was in the body. She was in the body. Did it say anything to you? Don't leave you so soon, something like that? But I fired my service pistol. We took grievous wounds

and she fled out the glass window onto the street below three floors. I called Hyde, she answered. Hyde gave chase to what we believed the corpse to be leaving in a car the opposite way. And Hyde is currently investigating that lead as we speak. So we can corroborate that this thing does jump bodies. It didn't say anything else to you.

I'm confused as to why it's targeting you like this. She knew my name. She knew all our names the first time too. She knew, she knew more. She knew something that happened a week ago when I was away. What happened a week ago? It's not important,

but she knew the details up to a fact. It sounds like it has some kind of connection. What's more, it seems as if that the being has grown in strength or gained some capabilities. It was not previously in possession of. When we first combated her, I was able to take her out for what we thought was good with two shots to the head.

The same incapacitated her for seconds before she healed and stood directly back up. So it doesn't matter. It's not like a classic zombie in the sense that you could destroy the brain. It's something more than that. Agent Merritt, with the human intelligence of 80, the moment that it is revealed to Mallory

that this thing has extrasensory perceptions, you clock her recognition of it. You clock her kind of filing it away in the back of her head. Case handler Mallory, if there's something you're not telling us, there's no way we're going to stop this thing. Well, to be honest with you,

you all held this information from me the first time. I didn't know this thing had extrasensory perception. And the truth is that when the DO finds out it has extrasensory perception, I'm worried our mission parameters are gonna change. What do you mean? It's gonna change from destruction to capture. Fuck.

Oh, that's a bad idea. Why? That's easier. No, that's easier. But why would we want to keep it? You want this thing? It's not, I don't want anything. It comes down to what the DO wants.

It, Cicada, you remember Cicada? Of course. I do. I remember it fondly. That asset wasn't there for no reason. The asset has the ability to read minds that it consumes. We've been using it for intelligence for years. They may want the same thing with this thing.

You've been feeding the thing inside of Cicada people? We've been feeding it brains. It's simpler. We don't have to torture anybody. We just give it to it and it knows what they know. It's been very useful. Yeah, except for that whatever other asset you have is dead now because you gave it their brains.

Look, let's not worry about that. The bigger picture is that we have an entity here and more importantly, your cover has been completely blown. You don't think that Brown can corroborate what we're dealing with if we could prove that we found the Jane Doe that's at the scene of the crime and then make up some excuse for us

following the suspect and failing. A meal backs our story and we come to the police with what we think is the closest. There was a suspect, he fled the scene, we gave chase, it failed, but a meal is on our side and we have a killer connected to these cases that we can corroborate for a cover. I suppose you have more experience

with Detective Brown than I have. I'm not really aware of how he's been taking all of this. I think he would be, and I regret saying this, amenable to joining the cause. I'm not ready to jump down that rabbit hole yet. Look, I'll continue if that's what you think is the best thing, but you have to understand you're putting yourself at risk.

Any of you who have interacted with him are putting yourself at risk. I understand. Listen, there's more, Hyde has become a compromised agent. In what way? Hyde pulled a gun on Agent Boomer. Adlo. Why Boomer?

I chased after them when they were not feeling good, tried to calm them down. They got really pissed, pulled the gun on me and asked for my fob. There's more to the story than that. This has just happened today. This has been going on for a number of, this isn't the first time we've noticed

this kind of behavior out of her. This is the first time she's been threatening of another agent though, outwardly. No, it hasn't. It's, this is definitely an escalation, but this isn't the first time that we've seen similar behavior. This was something apparently observed

after reading into the Eldritch case, but at the time it was in a reasonable fashion. There was a missing, I don't want to tell you all this, but I suppose I have to. There was a missing laptop and then a missing key fob. They're both found. Both were found, recovered. We had no situation, but at the time,

Hyde suspected Boomer and things escalated from there. And so for me, it felt like healthy suspicion. Now I believe what Boomer's offering. I believe that something has changed in her personality. She disassociates, she splits. All right, all right, enough. Mallory is visibly shaken. I mean, this is a bad situation

that has gotten just progressively worse. Her hands are kind of shaking and she puts her hands to her head and she says, Hyde is a security risk. Yes, we have to watch out for her, but we have other fish to fry. We need warp back in one piece. Warp, yes, she has assets that we were hoping to study,

right, assets from the cabin? Yeah. Yes, okay, so priority has to be to get warp back. There's also the situation of Hyde giving us a location. Apparently Hyde has a lead on where she's stopping. So if we can get warp back, we'll know where this thing is going to be as long as we can trust the information

coming from Hyde's side. Which I would not make that assumption. It's something to go on, at least. Something to put on the table until we discuss. There's also, in an effort to keep our cover, a fringe group that we've been contacting in the city, which we have an appointment with tomorrow. You explain this group, PhenomenX,

their kind of extreme conspiratorial point of view and Mallory's listening and she says, yeah, I think we can make this work. But these folks need to take the fall fast. The longer we're in town, the quicker that the local investigation can pin this on us. Remember to get to your hoaxing. Yes, as soon as possible, that needs to happen.

Preferably with hard evidence. If we can get a cadaver or something and put it on them, I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud at this moment, but... Wait, the cadaver in the street. Can you have somebody to cop with it? I'm sorry, he scooped it. I'll do you one better.

Emile has copies of all of those bodies used and where they're being housed with his leads, right? We could contact him and if he's amenable to being a part of the program, he can show us to where they are and whether we tell them or not, we can get the body that way. That seems like our only option at this point

is to bring him in. Yeah, set him up, let him take the fall. Emile's a good man, he doesn't deserve that. Well, do you wanna do that with the crazy people? Yes, I do. Yes, absolutely. I appreciate your kind words about Detective Brown, Merritt, but at this point, it's kill or be killed.

We are in a dire situation and remember that. I understand. I don't think I've ever failed in that department before. There are four hours left before warp lands. Are you doing anything in that time? You should be getting sleep at some point. If any of you forfeit getting sleep, you are going to lose willpower.

How soon do we have to go to sleep if we're going to sleep? I don't think going to bed now and getting up at 3 a.m. is an option, in the sense of regaining willpower. Right, you have about four hours before warp lands. Okay, I'm not gonna eat that, then I'm just out. Okay, well, you definitely don't want me

without any willpower, so I'm out. But before Sam goes to sleep, can I actually speak with him real quick? Sure. Agent Samuel, before you head off to bed, I know you need your rest. I had a favor to ask you. Also, I'd just like to extend to you

how happy I am you made it out of there. Don't sweat it. Your necklace, it did a world of good. Let this be an opportunity for me to extend an apology to an aversion to your methods in the past. I don't want you to think that I don't think that you're in addition to this team because you are. You've saved us left and right

and I need to own up to that and this is a part of that. Is there any way I could take your necklace for the next few hours? I was gonna suggest the same thing. Perfect, I'm glad we're in sync. Just don't, don't finish it. What do you mean? Trace it, practice it, don't finish it.

Go all, because you gotta learn the shape. Draw it with your finger, never finish it unless you're prepared to use it because it's not free. Understood. But you do hand over your necklace. Yes, okay. So I would like to spend my time before three in the morning

when I go to Sea Warp, taking a magazine for my six hour out of my duffel bag, setting out a location for myself in my hotel room, dismantling the parts of my gun, but taking those bullets and practicing tracing the elder sign without finishing it on each of the bullets on that magazine, trying to learn the sign, trying to have it ready,

trying to have it prepared in case I need to finish the sign. You can do that. I don't think it will, it's going to basically count to half the time required because you need guidance. Right. This is not something that you can just trace and get it.

There are nuances to the design, especially as you spend the time drawing it out, trying to etch it out, you're getting it, but you're not getting it exactly the way it is on the cross. So you feel like you have the design down, but it's the little things that you're going to need Samuel's guidance, another couple of hours.

Okay, so I'll plan on meeting up with him tomorrow then to finish that off, but at least we got that work done before the airport. What is everyone else doing? I'm probably going to pull Boomer to the side for like two seconds. I need you to promise me something really fast. And she's like swaying

and like real close to just passing the fuck out. I'm going to kind of like steady them. There's a letter in a book at the bottom of my bag. You got to give it to my wife if I die, okay? And you have to go in my bag and deliver whatever's in there to Liz, okay? All right, thank you. And then she just like passes out, don't die.

As she's saying, don't die. And Tuck's like, okay. So it sounds like the only person that is forgoing sleep is Merritt, correct? I will be forgoing sleep. I think I'm also, well, I have to because I'm going with Merritt to the airport. Unless you want to sleep, bud, but you're invited.

There's room in the Uber. Do you have any like bulletproof vests or a really thick sweater that I can just borrow? Oh, absolutely I do. I believe I have a Kevlar vest in my duffel bag, right, Serge? I believe that is part of your, yeah, that is part of your equipment you have actually. So I'm going to take out the Kevlar vest

from inside of my duffel bag. It probably has its own bag, to be honest with you. Super pressed, almost never used. He gives it over to you. Do you want this? Because I feel like you probably... No, I'd much rather you have it. Oh, me too, thank God, okay.

And I'm going to instantly put it on. I would like to try to leave a call to my wife's phone and just if I don't get her, it just leave a nice message. It's pretty late at night, so I would assume you probably won't. Yeah, she's either working or she's already knocked out. So I would just leave a very, just average message, lover XOXO and all that stuff.

All right, so Boomer and Merritt and Hyde, I need you all to roll D6s and this will be removed from your willpower. Uh, four. I rolled a two. I got a two as well. You are going to subtract that from your willpower. Let's just get this out of the way.

Tuck and Samuel, you're going to be out until about 7.38 a.m. Go ahead and I believe it's a Constitution times five roll to see if you heal after some sleep. Ooh, this is five, I do. My best stat. 81, I do not. Tuck, you will recover one hit point,

but Samuel, you will not. Up to a solid four, third of my hit points. Is close to two to 30 and Merritt, you know it's time to go out and get warp, Hyde, you know that it's time to go pick up warp. You both in your separate vehicles, go. What's Hyde been doing this entire time?

Yeah, that is a good question. What have you been doing this whole time, Hyde? I actually want to call Thornbill. Make a luck roll to see if they answer. 48. Thornbill picks up and says hello. I got some bones for you. Are you saying you have something of interest

that I would want? Something of much interest. That's good. Have you informed your handler about this? Not yet. This is a situation where it's probably best they don't know. If you want the leg up you've been looking for.

Where are you? Lansing, Michigan. I'm gonna need some details. So when they first sent us out on perennial, they brought us to Lansing, Michigan to do a simple cleanup job. And where we found that crystal that we gave over to you and those drugs,

we found a body. And that body can do things I can't quite explain, but it knows things before. Anything you've ever done, it knows it. It can know you by name. Never met it in your single life. Hyde, I'm gonna have to make some calls, but if you can capture it.

That's what I hope to do. I think I have an idea. It wants something and I think I can procure it, but I can't do it by myself. Is there any way you can help with resources? Let me call around and see it. Might take me a day or two, though, to organize this. I mean, it's the middle of the night.

I know, I understand. Well, see what you can do and get back to me. Isolate it, keep it alive, and I'll get back to you as soon as I know. Okay, you've got a duck. Anything else you're doing in that time? Nah, probably just waiting at the airport, just at the gate, just waiting for Warp to get off a plane.

Oh, no. Agent Warp, you have a nice flight, land without issue. And when you finally have cell service, you have a text from Agent Tuck that says things have gotten bad. Contact us as soon as you've landed. Okay, then I'm just gonna put in a group chat. I assume that we have that I've landed and called.

Ooh, yeah, I would call Tuck. Tuck is asleep and does not pick up. Would I not have my phone on? Yeah, you probably would. I don't know, how deep of a sleeper is Tuck? Just give me a luck roll, Tuck. It's a 67, I don't wake up. No.

So Tuck does not answer. You get your bags, you walk out, and you can see Agent Hyde's vehicle. Oh, then I start moving towards it. Merit, I think that it would make sense that you would have arrived around that time. You see Agent Warp walking towards Hyde's vehicle. I try and give her a call immediately.

Okay. Can't pick up. Gaze, listen to me, do not get in that car. Why? Hyde has been compromised, I need you to come see me. Hyde sees you. I'm trying to keep my face together, but I'm already like, not subtle.

I'm walking. Oh, so you get out of the car, Hyde? Oh yeah, I was out of the car, I was waiting. Has she made you? Yes. Fuck. Stay with her. Keep in contact, tell me everything.

She's not. Merit, I shoot, don't worry, can't we walk with that? No, no, no, no, no. I'm coming to you now, I'm coming to you now. I'm going to Warp. Is it Marlene? Hyde has reached you at this point. Hi.

Warp, come on, we gotta go, we don't got much time. Get in the car. Tell her you're on the phone with us. I'm actually talking to Merit right now. Can I grab her phone and throw it? Make some opposed athletics checks. Nope. This is gonna be wild.

That's a success with a 13. Come on Warp-y. Mm-hmm. That's a fail with a 75. So just like lightning, Hyde snatches the phone and tosses it. Get in the car, Warp. I'm gonna start busting it over there,

but I'm at half speed, so it's not very fast. I'm running, I guess, I'm running. I'm gonna push, yeah, I'm gonna push Warp in the car and I'm gonna get out of there. Okay. Warp and Hyde, just give me, unless you don't resist Warp. I don't, I don't.

Okay, so very quickly you get into the car. Merit and Boomer, Merit, you're gonna be at a minus 20 for this because of your speed, but let me have you both make dexterity rolls to see if you can get to the car in time. Okay. Come on, guys, come on. I fail with an 85.

80. No! You're just not fast enough, Hyde leaps in and peels out and drives off. What are you doing, Merit and Boomer? I'm running back into the car, obviously, and we're gonna go after them. I'm gonna call Mallory and tell her immediately.

All right, as you are calling Mallory, you jump back into the vehicle and give chase. Hyde, and who's driving on your end? Boom. That's definitely me. All right, I need you both to make drive rolls, please. Fair. That's a fail with a 92.

I fail with a 73. You both fail. Hyde, you are not able to shake them completely. You can see that they are a couple of cars back. They aren't necessarily on your tail yet. Let's have another round of drive rolls unless you would like to do something to get rid of them. No, I'm gonna try to keep driving,

but I will look at Warp and say, could you please put on your seatbelt? That's a fail with a 96. So pass with a 20. Nice. You are driving fast, Hyde. You are driving the direction of the outskirts of town to the north, and Boomer is able to keep up.

Warp, you have something that apparently is very precious to Marlene, and I need you to hand over whatever you have to me. And if you do, I will let you out of the car and you can go away. Whatever you went to go to New York to get, whatever you still have on you, give it all to me and nothing else will have to happen.

Why are you doing this? I have to keep things safe. I'm just trying to keep a safe, please, Warp. Just give me everything you have. I will let you out of the car right now. Warp, you have the reel-to-reel tape. You have all of the almond cork board, and you have the knife.

I'm going to reach into my bag because it's in the bag. The knife is in the bag of wool, so it's just gonna look like I'm pulling wool out, and I'm going to decide that I just want her to stop driving. Hyde, you see Warp's hand suddenly tear through the bag, and emerging out of it is the knife that she kept on her.

Warp, you're going to make an attack at plus 20 against Hyde. Oh, fuck. What's the... Yeah! Come on! It's a melee weapon, plus 20. So you have a 50% chance of succeeding.

She's in so much danger. It's a luck roll. Come on. You can do it. I believe in you. Dude, I got 15! Oh, no! Yes!

Woo! Please roll 2p8. 2p8? She could kill her. Oh, it's too late to say shit like non-leaf. Look at her. It's a heart knife, dude. I don't think it comes in that flavor.

It's a seven. OK, OK. OK, she's alive. Here's what happens. The blade tears through the bag. And your intention was, I want her to stop driving. The blade goes up and drives into her wrist and tears through her wrist.

Oh! You have lost seven health. I need you to make a Constitution times five roll or be stunned. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I succeed with a 31. You are not stunned, but you are an incredible amount

of pain, and I need you to make a drive roll. Oh. That disadvantage. Shush, Eric! It's a big crash. It's a big crash. I fail with a 48. Oh!

Yeah, you are. You see Hyde's vehicle suddenly swerve uncontrollably all along the road. I think you fail high enough that you go off-road hide. I mean, if I can try to stop the vehicle, I would like to stop the vehicle. Just give me another drive roll. See if you can come to a stop without crashing.

Oh, it's an eight. OK, OK, OK. OK, yeah, it's an eight. It's an eight. All right, so you successfully get back in control of the vehicle and then just kind of come skidding to a stop off to the side. You guys are on like an interstate or something

like that, so several vehicles around you are swerving around your vehicle. Boomer, I'm going to ask that you make a drive roll as well. So Agent Warp and Agent Hyde, could I ask that you both make sand tests to see how you fare in this moment? I succeed with an 11. You also got an 11.

That's a nine. Nice. You nearly smash into the back of some random person, but you swerve out of the way and you're able to pull off to the side. Now there are both your vehicles on the side of the road. What is your dexterity? It's 14, yeah, 70.

She has pulled off to the side of the road. What are you doing? Unbuckling my fucking seat belt and trying to get out of the car. Hyde, you're close enough if you want to try to pin her or something. You can attempt to do that. Yeah, because I still or can I just like grab her belongings?

I rather keep the things that she has than her herself. Make an athletics check or an unarmed combat. And this is going to be against Warp. So Warp, whether you want unarmed combat or athletics, whichever is higher. I will go with unarmed combat. That is a success with a 47. That's a, oh, shit.

That's a failure with a 99. Oh, no. It's a critical failure. Hyde is able to pull your personal belongings. You still have the knife, but you kind of tumble out of the car with the knife. And I need you to make a dexterity roll if you fail this, you potentially

cut yourself with a knife. It's fair. That's a fail with a 72. Roll a D8. Everyone's getting hit tonight. Four. You tumble out of the vehicle, and when the dust settles, the knife has been planted into your thigh.

Not terribly deep, but it has definitely broke the skin. Let's go with Merit and Boomer. Either one of you can go first. What are you doing? You see Warp tumbling out. Do I ram the car? I'm asking Merit really quick. Do I ram the fucking car?

Yes, yes. Don't hit Warp. Go to the back, the bumper. Just give me a drive roll to see how effective this is. Come on, dude. You got this. Come on, it's a stationary target. You got it.

Kill, hide, 60. Fuck. Met failed. All that happens is you rev the engines, but it's just not far enough between the two vehicles to gain enough speed. You smash into the back. The vehicle does kind of lurch forward a little bit.

It does not clear Warp. You both in the vehicle are going to take four damage, reduced to two. OK. Hide. I assume you were wearing a seatbelt? I was wearing a seatbelt. Yes, I was wearing a seatbelt.

OK, you're only going to take one point of damage. OK. As your neck snaps back from the sudden hit. And Warp, you're anxious from this crash. I'm booking it towards them, but staying back in case they decide to pull some shit again. But I'm heading towards them. OK, before we get to there, Merritt, technically,

you have a turn if you'd like to do something. OK, I'm going to bail out of the car. And I'm not even bothering with the cane. I want to see if I can push it and get to the front door where I know hide, seated, and pull the sig on her. I think what you can do is you can get up to the passenger side and see hide. Good enough.

Good enough. And passenger side's open, right? Yeah. OK, yeah. So then I'll point the sig in through the passenger side at hide. We were back at the top of the initiative. Hide, what are you doing?

You have a gun pulled on you. I'm not going to go. I'm not going to. I know that if I do move, he's going to shoot me. And that defeats the purpose. So with one hand, when one good hand's going to raise it off the wheel of the car. You understand if you try anything, that I'll do it,

right? Yeah, Married, I know what you're capable of. Then I want you to unbuckle your seatbelt. I want you to open your front door as slowly as possible. And then I want you to stand out of this car. If you're wielding a gun, I want you to remove it and throw it on the floor. If you try anything else at any time,

I promise you there will be no hesitation. I'm going to slowly reach for the seatbelt buckle and unbuckle it. I'm going to turn the car off. I'm going to put down my knife as well as my gun. And I will slowly exit the vehicle. In the meantime, Boomer, you can see there's like three cars that almost crashed into Hyde's car

that are pulled off to the side of the highway. There are several cars slowing down. You guys are in the middle of a highway. We'll say we're out of initiative, but what are we doing? I'm going to pop the trunk really quick. Go to the back because they usually have those road kits with the little flares and the cones and shit. Try to put up facade like a stupid person right there.

Like, anyone's asking questions. I'm going to be like, keep moving along. Like, I got it. Thank you. We got police are coming and I'm going to put like cones. Okay. Make a persuade role. Please work. I'm not even that persuasive. Oh, 27. It's a 20 only. I failed. Yeah. Eventually, folks who are probably a little more pissed

that they almost got into an accident, some of the folks that are ahead of you, notice that there is some kind of tension. Hyde is bleeding profusely from her arm. Warp and Merritt seem to be riled up. Warp has, Merritt has his weapon out. Folks are calling the cops. Oh, fuck. All right.

I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to do it. Merritt. I know. I need you to get into the car. I can. I just need you to help her or we're going to die. Help who? I need you to help hide. What do you mean? It's a really complicated story, man.

Do we really have to? I'm bleeding from the arm. And if you don't stop the bleeding, you're never going to see Hyde again. So I just need you to help hide. You can help her by getting in that car. I'm going to take care of you. OK.

I'm going to get in the car. Yeah, slowly, slowly, with both, with one hand up. I'm just going to walk in the car, get in the car. Sergio, are the real to real tapes all that shit still in Hyde's car? Yes. OK. I'm going to scoop all of that up as fast as I can and get it back over to Boomer and everything. I was going to say, Warp.

Yeah, Warp is limping back into the car. Oh, I'm so sorry. That would be my first priority, probably, is removing the knife and making sure Warp's OK. Don't pull it. Yeah, don't touch it. Just leave it. Just let this leave.

I understand. I just want to know that you're going to stay awake. Are you? Are you conscious? Yeah. She's going to get in the car with you. Are you all right with that? No.

Quickly. Yeah, no, it's fine. Yes. Yes. Sit in the passenger side next to Boomer. And then I'm going to go to Boomer's side and tell if you could get in the car, I'm going to pass you the handgun.

I have to go collect the evidence from inside of that car. Then as soon as I get back, we're driving away as fast as we can. Do we want to take the two cars really quick? You getting that car? Or I getting that car? Is it in the shape to drive, Sergio? Boomer's car is fine.

Hyde's car is fine, yeah. Then I'll look at Warp realizing that, as Boomer's saying it. Actually, change of plans. Warp, do you feel up to driving? Yeah, of course. Ooh, stabbed leg, stabbed leg, stabbed leg. I don't know if that's good.

It's fine. I can do it. It doesn't matter. What do you need me to do? Well, Boomer, then you can drive hides if you don't want Warp driving it. Yeah, I'll drive that because then I want to be in the car with Hyde.

So I'm going to get in the, I'll get in that. I'll just, if you need, I'll start taking off. So then Warp, you can sit in the passenger side with me and Hyde can ride in the back. Fine. So Boomer's driving by themselves while Merritt drives the other vehicle with Warp and Hyde. Exactly.

And where are you heading? The hotel? Not if they're going to follow us. I want to go as remote as possible. I'm proficient in police tailing situations and that sort of thing. So I want to make sure that I can go through the motions of how I can keep them off our trails.

The two vehicles leave the scene of the accident, much to the chagrin of all of the vehicles that are currently on the highway. You see somebody kind of throwing their hands up in the air watching you guys pull off and you leave. It's about 4 a.m. So I probably would have given the handgun to Warp just to keep trained on Hyde.

While I'm driving, I'm going to give a call to Mallory. Our fourth call of the night. She answers that for the first ring. Case handler, there's a situation, emergency. You can stop saying there's a situation. I know there's a situation. It's even worse. I need you to understand.

I have Hyde in the car. She's near death. I have Warp. She's back with us. There's a situation. The fucking highway. We were on the highway. We came off off-road and crashed two rental cars

and now everyone in Lansing, Michigan, knows where the fuck we are, who we are, and what's happening. I've got one person who's about to die, another who stabbed herself in the leg, and the other one, she's OK. But still, I need help as soon as possible. I don't know if I can call in a favor right now, but we have two options, either we lay low

or we get the fuck out of town right now. Things are getting increasingly too hot. If we leave, that thing's still out there, Mallory. Yes, I understand that. All right, look, in the meantime, I'm just I'm going to wake up the other agents and maybe we can just rendezvous somewhere else. Where are we meeting you?

Somewhere new, somewhere that no one has seen us at yet. Give me a couple of minutes and maybe I can find a motel on the outskirts of town. Mallory, Hyde's going to die and I don't know first aid. I think Tuck has some experience with that. I'll wake her up. OK. Agent Tuck and Semi-L. Tuck, specifically, I'm going to have to ask you

to retract that one point of healing. Yeah, that's fair. And I'm going to ask that you both roll D6s as you are woken up by Mallory, unable to get sleep. And your willpower is going to be affected by it. One. One. All right, you both lose one willpower. I have no willpower.

Oh, no. No. So Semi-L is in a unconscious, semi-conscious state. So Tuck and Mallory have to work together. Awesome. To get him up, get him ready. You grab whatever bags you have. Merit and Boomer pull up with the vehicles. Tuck and Mallory bring Semi-L out, put him into one of the vehicles.

We put him in the back of Boomer's car because no one's going to be sitting back there. I sit in the back with Hyde and Mallory gets in with Boomer. You all pile in and Mallory says to you, Merit, there's a there's a motel about an hour north. Let's let's just get going. OK. I'll start working on Hyde's wrist. I think at this point, Mallory probably would have suggested

that Hyde be cuffed. I have a pair of cuffs, even over the injury. Once I have her bandage and everything, I think once the injury has taken a look at. So, Tuck, go ahead and roll a first aid kit or first aid roll. What are my most hidey dice? Probably this one. Priorities.

That's a success with the 23. Hyde, you may roll a D4 and you are healed by that much. Oh, four. Thank you. There's no justice in this world. No justice in this universe. You have more hit points than I do right now. Slowly, the sun begins to rise. The sky begins to light up when you eventually,

after about an hour of driving, pull up to a rinky dink motel six. She signs the paperwork, does everything that needs to be done. And you were all brought into the same hotel room. Hyde is cuffed and sits on the bed. And Mallory begins grilling you, Hyde. What the fuck is going on with you? Why did you risk everything? She's sick.

She referred to herself in the third person when I apprehended her. Who am I speaking to? Mm, I mean, I like to call myself Sikhs, so I guess you can call me that. And what do you want Sikhs? I just want to keep Hyde safe. And risking this entire mission was part of that plan? Well, no.

But I definitely got a lot further than what we were doing in the five minutes that I've been around. How? How did you get farther? I got an invitation, an address. What do you mean? I know where to find Marlene or where she expects me to find her under a condition. And what was the condition? Warp. She wanted warp.

I think it was something that warp has warp. What do you have on you? The tapes. Can I also be trying to fix up Warp's leg now, too? Yes. You think it was the tapes? Not just the tapes. What else did you get?

She looks at Mallory, the board and the knife. A knife? What knife? She just gestures. About this time, Tuck pulled. I succeeded on my first day of the role. So about this time, Tuck pulls it out and immediately starts putting pressure on it. That knife.

Yeah, go ahead, Warp, if you want to roll a D4. Agent Semi-L, could you please give me a con times five role to determine if you now have a permanent injury? Yeah, I'm fucked. Twenty seven out of fifty. That's a success. When you feel better, you will not have a limp or a hunchback or something. A four.

It was just basically it was basically just the, you know, flesh wound. It didn't go too deep into the muscle or anything. Just hurts like hell. You found this knife at the cabin. Yeah. But these tapes, no one's listened to these tapes. I can listen to him now. I don't think we leave this room until we finish listening to these tapes

and know for sure what the hell we're dealing with. But question before we do that. What the hell are you, Zeke's? Like, what are we dealing with? I'm a person. What the fuck do you think I am? I think I think maybe it's a personality disorder. Oh, sorry, Zeke's.

And I'll be there. It's a response to stress would be my guess. Wanted to keep hide safe certainly tracks with that. She remotely recognized me as friendly in apprehension. Didn't harm warp directly when she could have. And so far has been living up to that word, trying to keep hide safe. I am actually sorry I stabbed you. I did want to stab you, though.

This knife, it was the one used in the ritual by Clyde, right? Yes. Whereas as far as we guessed. It it is. And it comes with some buffs, one particular buff. I, like I said, I'm not a fighter, but it you kind of just have to believe it and it happens. Like it does it does it itself.

Like it wants to do what you want to do. Exactly. That call that I made over the break took. Oh, yeah. Right. Oh, what was that? What's that exchange? What is that? I learned what the knife was for on someone who broke into my home.

Non consequential. It doesn't matter. You've used this thing before tonight? Just the ones. Hides phone begins to ring. Oh, that's probably her. She's probably wondering where I'm at. We have an option here.

Either hide answers as though we have nothing to do with this or we answer collectively for now. Let it be hide. Just answer it. They already know we're here. They already read our minds. They'll read. You don't have.

We don't know how close they have to be here, though. I think you should answer it. I'll walk up to the phone as long as Mallory's OK with this. I walk up to the phone, answer it, and then put it on speaker right by Hyde's face. You do that and there's silence. Hello. Where are you? Just a minor setback.

Do you know how hard it is to convince a person to get inside of a car? Sometimes it requires just a little bit of extra effort. But I am on the way. I will get everybody. When can I expect you? Whatever, whenever I get there, as soon as possible, I'm moving with much haste. I wish you were close so I could read your mind and know whether you're lying to me or not.

Oh, distance makes the heart fonder, though. Yes, I've been spending all month thinking about all of you. Well, we'll see each other soon enough. Not if I see you first and she hangs up. She's very dramatic. She has a range. How many of those tapes do we have and how long are they? You look at the FBI tapes that you have.

It is a single kind of long reel that is on a tape player. And it says there's about 20 hours of audio. Holy nutbags. If we divvy this up between our researchers, how long do we think that will take? There's only one tape. Should one person stay behind watch the tape and the rest go? I think the tape is what she wants. You think she wants the tape?

It's got the information about her on it, I bet. That's my guess. She doesn't want the tape. My concern is that if she wanted the tapes, we were already split up. She knew that some of us were in New York. Couldn't she have come for it? Wouldn't it have been something that was on our person? No, we know what she wants.

She wants the knife, but could there be something on the tape that could give us a clue? That's the only reason I would suggest watching the tape. What did she ask for specifically? She just said that you have what she wants. So and if you had it all this time, then I assume it's the knife. Tuck, you recall that as she was choking you out, she said, ah, she looked at you as if she kind of peered through you. I said, ah, so that's who has it.

Oh, I thought she was talking about the necklace. The necklace. Oh, oh, oh, oh, I retract my previous statement. I definitely agree that the knife is it. When she was trying to kill me, she said, ah, that's who has it. And I'm guessing that was talking about the knife. So we use it to kill her. I'm just going to point out that there are all three security agents are physically compromised.

Oh, God, I'm the only one. I mean, you don't have to be. I'm not saying y'all, I'm not advocating for sending a researcher in to do a security agent's job, but I feel fit for duty. I'm slower, but that hasn't stopped me. And I'm expected to show. Where is the location? We have to go back to Lansing for a warehouse.

Is it far from the town? It's on the outskirts of the town. If we go, she'll know that we're trying something. At least when we get close enough, she'll be able to read our mind. She'll know that that height is against her. Mallory speaks up and says, which is why all of this planning before we actually know what we're up against is foolish. Someone needs to just sit here and listen to these tapes.

I'm willing to do it if I'm the only one Mallory, Sam, do you both want to stay behind and watch the tapes? Sam is unconscious. I am unconscious. He's unconscious, so you can. I think it's good if we all wait, if we can tell Marlene, we don't have it installed for time, then we can get the day to research, we can get the day to build our cover up again and stay far away from Lansing where we've caused yet another disturbance with the police

and go in there with an understanding of what this is. That was our first mistake at the cabin. We thought we knew better. We need to know that we don't. Start the tapes now, y'all start planning what you're going to tell her. Like what can you tell her besides? Warp got away. I mean it doesn't really matter, she's going to, she doesn't know where I am.

She can't read us from this distance. And we're far out of Lansing, so we, I assume. She doesn't know where we went. That's true. And the police will cause some chaos for her anyway. She'll probably have to lay low herself or have trouble finding us. Or she's going to cause more chaos and kill more people. That is a given no matter what we do.

That's true. I feel we have a little bit of wiggle room before Marlene can get in touch with us. We have what she wants, so she's not going to go away far. Okay. She needs us. Mm-hmm. Let's start listening then. Play.

You all sit down after having a wild night. You put the tape deck on the dresser drawer, and you all find a place to hit play. And we'll find out what's on that tape next session. Oh, you mother fucker. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. Come on.

It was every night. It's Wednesday, June 3rd at 9 a.m., and the members of the Michigan Phenomenon X message boards have gathered in the home of Margaret Gaylord Breen. Margaret posted early in the morning that the group needed to meet at her place as soon as possible. Now, she can't seem to wipe the grin from her face as everyone settles in. Fellow patriots, I have incredible news. Dave Moretti chews on a McMuffin and speaks up.

What did you mean by your post, Margaret? The phoenix has risen? Margaret continues. I was witness to a miracle this morning. Rich Stevens lifts his guy Foxmask and asks, well, what is it, Margaret? Phoenix visited me this morning. She's here now, and she wants to meet you all. Jay adjusts his glasses before responding.

Phoenix is here? Mike, still dressed in his military fatigues, butts in. Well, where is she? She's very weak, so I'll have to help her out of bed, but I'll be right back. Margaret steps out of the room, leaving the others puzzled. Psst. Hey, check her lamps. Make sure she ain't bugged, like he said.

Margaret returns, assisting a dark-haired woman wearing a bathrobe. Everyone, this is Phoenix. What's wrong with her? Dave leans forward. Well, hey, she seems familiar, but where have we seen her before? Margaret interrupts. It's Erica Young. At least it was.

Before Phoenix chose to inhabit her body, that's impossible. The corpse of Erica speaks. Gaze upon my wounds, and know the power of your God. The corpse opens her robe and reveals the sutures that cover her chest in a Y pattern. The group is stunned into silence. David, I know you cheat on your spouse when you are away. Rich, you steal from the company you work for. Jay, you harass the women who reject you.

And Mike, you pose as a soldier, though you were unfit to join the military. I know all your sins, but absolve you of them now, for I am an angel of the Lord, who has been sent to command his armies against the agents of the devil. Each man is humbled by the secrets this entity somehow knows. Margaret whispers, Praise be to God. She bows and kisses the cold blue fingers of the walking corpse. One by one, each member of Phenomenonix bows to their new master. You have been in communication with one of these agents.

In Orson Bradham, he is a killer who has murdered children for his dark gods. And today, we will make an example of him.