The demon, the witch, and the gamer [Jesse]

[Blake O'Sullivan]

Hunted. Yes. That is what was happening at this given point in time. A demon, disguised as a child made its way into the local game stop. Her eye was fixated on the prize. But how to approach him? She couldn't just walk up to him and kill him on the spot. She had to be tactful about the hunting approach. Be wise about it and not give herself away. So, Howe to win her prize? Simple! She trotted into the store and picked up a game. Her little legs carried her towards the man as her childish arm held up a Wii cooking mama game.

"Mister... Is this game good?" he looked nerdy enough to know if this stupid piece of human's entertainment would be good. She truly could care less about this stupid game. As we all know, her main focus was the,meal before her. Her mouth watered as she waited patiently for him to look at her. Trying to hold back her demonic aura. Which was not an easy task. All she wanted to do was reveal her true form and tear him apart. Play with him, as though he were a mouse.. The prey of a feline. Though she truly was not of the feline race.

[Special Agent Cox]

Life was boring as all hell with a broken hell Jesse discovered. It had been over a week now since Jesse and his friend had gotten into a fight with an overly aggressive hellhound. Though he and his partner had won the fight in the end he had not gotten out of the match unscathed. Curse that hound for breaking his arm! Because of the man’s injuries he was forced to take a break from his PIDA work for awhile. Jesse wouldn’t have minded the break though if only he could do something with his free time. No PIDA work normally meant more time to work on his other projects. Despite his appearance Jesse was actually quite a busy man. He had a fair bit of work to do in the gaming industry, from voice acting, reviewing, you name it he did it. Whenever he wasn’t working at the PIDA he was doing something. But now with his injuries most of his work had come to a bit of a stand still. It was hard to play any games for his youtube channel without both his hands. And if he couldn’t play anything then he couldn’t record, which meant no new content for his viewers.

It kind of bummed him out a bit, but not nearly as much as it would his fans. There were bound to be quite a few buttclenching whiners in his fanbase that would be upset with him for that. But hey, what could he do? He had to take a break for awhile, but he needed something to do while he was off. That was the biggest problem of course, finding something to do. After a few days relaxing at home and watching tv Jesse started getting bored and decided to leave the house. But once he left home he had no idea what he wanted to do. Most of his friends were too busy to hang out with today or too far away for him to pay them a visit. He had tried just aimlessly strolling around but found it to be too dull to put up with, so giving up on walking the man headed down to the local game store to go browse. Just because he couldn’t play anything didn’t mean that he couldn’t go buy a game or two right? Who knows, maybe he would find something interesting to play for his channel when he could use his arm again?

Jesse slipped inside the store and started going through the aisle, eying the PS3 section for anything interesting. He had promised to start doing console games once he could get his capture card to work right, so it only felt right to take a look for something new there first, but what? The man hummed cheerfully to himself as he scanned the shelves when someone caught his attention. Jesse looked doing at the little girl in surprise. He hadn’t noticed that the girl was there at all, in fact he hadn’t seen anyone else besides the store’s employees. There usually weren’t many customers that came in during this time of day, especially kids. The man didn’t ponder why some kid was by herself in the shop though; his attention was drawn away by her question. “Cooking Mama huh…” he looked at the game the little girl held. At least she didn’t pick up something like grand theft auto. Though a game like that was not his cup of tea he heard that it was decent, especially for a girl her age. “Yup, it’s a pretty good one for you to try sweet heart. You should go show your mommy or daddy it so they can buy it for you.”

[Blake O'Sullivan]

The demoness grinned up,at the man and accepted the game back into her tiny fingers. A strange split second change as a hidden, reptilian-like membrane came up to coat her eye and drop back down. Causing her to blink. She then turned away and began to walk away, but trust and believe - she did not go far at all, wanting to keep an eye on her prey.This videogame nerd was going to make this all too easy. See, the creature would follow him outside of the facility and corner him - away from humanoid eyes. Then he would be - A WITCH?! Why must hunting be so hard?!

In the store, a blonde witch had made her way in and began to fumble through some games for the Wii just as the demon had been. Her eye set on two particular games. Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess. Twilight Princess was more of a replacement. For her best friend, Guillotine had tried to play and had gotten annoyed. He also forgot to put the disk away, which allowed it to fall to the floor, allowing her cat to walk all over it. She wasn't mad. She put the now ruined game away and decided to replace it. So here she was, in a game store, enjoying her little shopping trip. That was until a specific aura hit her. A demon, hunting in this public facility?

She looked over her shoulder and glanced around quickly. These were feelings, like a 'Spidey sense.' If only she could actually see it. See who the victim was. Besides her, there were only two other customers in the store, plus the two workers behind the counter whom were in a deep conversation about girls. Couldn't have been them. That means it was either the man or the little girl. In the demon world, she had to learn to expect the unexpected. She casted her shyness aside and approached the man, "Mass Effect, ey? That's a good one." she grinned.

[Special Agent Cox]

Jesse gave the wii game back to the little girl before she bounded off. He watched the child leave, he could’ve sworn that he saw something strange with the kids eyes but he quickly shoved that thought away. He was probably just seeing things. The girl was a little odd but she wasn’t dangerous right? You never know, maybe she isn’t human… the man reminded himself. The man wasn’t your typical human, he knew quite a bit about the supernatural society that dwelled in the heart of New Orlands since he started working for the PIDA. It wasn’t always easy to identify who was human or who wasn’t these days. Even humans had strange powers that couldn’t be explained. Jesse was just one of those people, him not being normal was the whole reason he became a PIDA agent in the first place. Maybe the little kid was not much of a kid at all. Jesse couldn’t be sure but he wasn’t going to dwell on it. Human or not he doubted that she was going to cause trouble.

The man turned his focus back onto the shelves, occasionally pulling out a game from the shelves to look it over and put it back. The man smiled when he spotted Mass Effect and pulled it off the shelf. Mass Effect was one of his favorite game series; he had played and still replayed through them from time to time for his own personal enjoyment. He already had all the games so he didn’t need this one, but he couldn’t help taking one last look at it. He was about to put it back on the shelf when someone else spoke to him. Jesse turned in surprise to look at the woman that spoke to him. The girl who spoke was a rather attractive and small looking blonde who had to be at least around her late teens, a bit too young for his tastes sadly (wouldn’t want to risk flirting with her and get sent to jail for being a pervert), but she seemed friendly. “It’s an awesome series isn’t it?” he grinned at her. Even if she was too young to be interested in him that didn’t stop Jesse from being friendly. Hell, it was always nice to make new friends. “Did you try the last one yet?” he asked, holding the game he was hanging onto.

[Blake O'Sullivan]

The female smirked at the male, "I have. I was one of the cruel people who killed Kaiden after romancing him - just so I could romance Garrus, guilt free." she chuckled and sighed, "The end of the third one made me cry.." she chuckled and felt herself blush for admitting it. But it was true. The end made her sad. Her eyes averted back to that little girl... Who was nowhere to be seen. The witch looked back to Jesse and swallowed hard.

"I know we just met, but how about lunch to become friends? My treat." she was willing to put this all out for him, but she wanted him away from the demon. This demon had obviously found what it wanted, as far as food was concerned. The girl swallowed hopefully and she found herself even nudging him towards the door. Before he could really get offended, Blake replied in a low tone, "You are in danger..." she said in a low tone, "I am trying to help you.. And if you don't agree to follow me... You might die..." her eyes drew up to meet his. A seriousness about them that could not be faked. She swallowed and gently held the shop door open for him.. Her green eyes scanning everywhere.

[Special Agent Cox]

“Damn girl, you are bad~” Jesse teased and laughed. “Don’t worry about that, even I got a little teary eyed at the ending too.” The two had only just started talking but already Jesse was starting to like her. The girl seemed nice and kind of fun. She had gained enough of his attention to make him want to know her better. Jesse had always been a very friendly guy, he liked to talk to people, even complete strangers, and it wasn’t too hard for him to run into situations like this. Of course it did help that he was kind of famous on the internet. About half the people that he had random conversations with on the street recognized him. He didn’t think that this girl was talking to him because she knew who he was though. Most of the people that did at least confessed to that rather quickly. That was fine with him. Even if they parted ways now and never saw each other again he did enjoy talking to someone else for the day.

He was about to say something else when the young woman suddenly offered to buy him lunch. The girl’s offer caught the man by surprise. Well that was new…it wasn’t every day that a guy was asked out like that. He had to wonder what was up with her.“Uhh…” he didn’t even get much of a chance to accept or reject the idea because she started to half drag him out the shop. The second that they were out the store the girl made it clear what she was really up to.“What?” he looked at her in surprise. He was in danger? Was she really serious? It had to be some kind of joke, but his gut was telling him that she might be right. The woman looked too serious to be joking. But why would he be endanger? Jesse had no enemies as far as he could tell. Well, maybe that hellhound Guillotine, but Gil was all the way at PIDA headquarters in a nice comfy cell far away from here. Gil couldn’t touch him in a place like this.

But maybe whatever was threatening his life wasn’t after him for any real reason. Jesse had been in the PIDA business long enough to know that some supernatural creatures were not above killing humans for no reason at all. Whether she was joking or not Jesse had to take it seriously. “Alright I will play along.” He whispered, and fell into step next to her. “What is after me? And how do you know about it?” he asked her. If he had any chance of survival at all he needed to know just what he was going to be going up against. Jesse wasn’t going to back down, even if he only had the use of one arm. He couldn’t just run away now without allowing whatever was after him go after someone else, maybe even after the girl who was trying to protect him.

[Blake O'Sullivan]

A sigh of relief escaped her lips as the man was willing to abide by her request in possibly saving his life. As they walked, he had gotten curious as to who or what might be the danger and how she knew. She ran her fingers through her blonde hair and closed her eyes gently, "Jess, how open-minded are you?" he had to be, given the fact that he was willing to follow a complete stranger. She looked around and gently took his wrist and pulled him down an alley. She swallowed a bit before responding to him the utmost truth.

"It's a demon... It doesn't need a reason to kill you other than the fact that it's hungry..." she was certain he would ask her the next question 'where' or 'what was it?' She decided to answer the inevitable, "It was that little girl in GameStop..." she said with a hard swallow following after. Her green eyes glanced about as she managed to meet his eyes, yet again.

"She disguised herself, to make herself more approachable to you, because you may be at ease around something as harmless as a.child." she then inhaled sharply and closed her eyes as her rose pink lips parted to answer his final question.

'How do you know?'

The rose scented girl then began to speak, " I'm a witch... Who was at some point... A souless shell at the expense of a former mate... Who was a demon... After getting my soul back... Some of his power didn't ware off..." she said gently and pressed her back up against the brick wall, trying to rally the thoughts of her racing mind. She usually lived in the dark with other humans... Unless they too casted spells. Or had their own powers. Her eyes opened, once more, but her expression that restrd on him, was soulfully out of the fact that she was scared of his next possible reaction to her.

[Special Agent Cox]

It was interesting how quickly things changed. At first what seemed like a potential budding friendship, turned into a life or death situation. Was this how the rest of Jesse’s life would be like now that he knew that he wasn’t completely human? Things had seemed so much simpler when he was just some really nerdy but kind of popular guy. He had his different but fulfilling jobs, decent living conditions, and plenty of friends that he loved to share his life with. It was a good quiet life. But all of that changed when he found out he had these crazy powers that allowed him to power the strength of others. It had seemed cool at the time, scary but cool, and having the PIDA asking him to join their ranks seemed even cooler. Jesse knew that his life would take an interesting turn once he accepted the life of a secret agent. The man was not so foolish that he believed that everything would be alright, and that he would be some kind of superhero saving the day and getting the chicks. Jesse didn’t know just what he expected to happen but he didn’t think that his life would change so drastically that he would have to be on his guard every second of the day. Or that when the time came when his life was at risk that he would be so…calm.

That had to be the most surprising part of this whole thing. That when someone he didn’t even know told him that his life was in danger that he didn’t panic or seemed the least bit concerned by that knowledge. Jesse was anything but brave, even though he wanted to become an agent to use his powers to protect the weak he was just as scared (if not more scared) of dying, or the unknown as the next guy. Had this girl had told him something like this months ago he would’ve freaked out. Strange how fast things changed huh? “Please, call me Jesse. Jess sounds too girly for a guy like me.” The man replied coolly, keeping an eye out for this potential threat while trying to act as casual as possible. “You’d be surprised on how open-minded I can be.” The fact that she had to ask him this only heightened his suspicions that what he was going to be dealing with was a supernatural. If this girl knew about these otherworldly creatures what did that make her? He wondered. Whatever it was he hoped that she was something useful. There was a chance that he would need help if things came to that. He didn’t like the idea of asking this girl to stick her neck out for him, but it was hard for him to ignore his handicap. Without the use of both arms in a fight he was already at a huge disadvantage, and if he couldn’t mimic the right power when he finally got into the battle he would be less than useless.

Jesse went right down to business and asked the young woman just what they were dealing with. “Great…a demon.” He grumbled. First a hellhound and now a demon? Why did all the things that he had to face were always some kind of hell spawn and out to eat him? Did he really look that delicious to everything else? Before he could even ask what the demon looked like the woman told him that it happened to be the little girl from earlier. “It’s always the little girls, isn’t it? I should have known. This is like something straight out of a damn horror movie.” He looked down at his companion and asked her how she knew all of this. It was obvious at this point that this girl was just as normal as he was, though she was clearly on his side he still felt like he needed to ask how she figured this all out on her own. The woman came out honestly, she told him without hesitation that she was a witch, and even had some…’personal’ experience with them.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” He answered honestly. “You can tell me more about that if you want later, but I think it’s best to deal with the current problem now.” Jesse looked around the alley to make sure that the little girl hadn’t followed them this way before turning his focus back on her. “Since you were so honest with me, I’ll be honest with you. I’m not really human. I’m what you call a mimic, and I am trained to deal with situations like this.” He pulled out his badge and held it up for her to see. It was a good thing that he gotten himself into the habit of carrying his badge wherever he went. “Right now I am…not in the best condition to fight a demon…not like you can’t see that for yourself. So I may need help dealing with this thing. You don’t have to do anything that you do not want to though; I am not going to force you to back me up if you are uncomfortable with it. If you want to leave just point me in this demon girl thing’s direction and I will take care of her myself.”

[Blake O'Sullivan]

Blake smiled at the man, feeling more at ease as he explained himself to her. A mimic, huh? There would be more time to have him explain what he was later. For now, there was a demonic entity who wanted nothing more than to feed from the target it picked out. The demon must have been a beginning hunter, as it chose the person it found to be most weak. Not that that was ok. For an innocent man could lose his life. Playing with the pure white angel feather on her neck - a gift, really from her angelic boyfriend. Her mind trying to devise a plan. Then it hit her. Her green eyes looked up at Jesse as a smile reached her lips.

"How are you at being a decoy? And can you move quick enough?" she asked as she crouched down and began to rifle through her shoulder bag. If he could not be quick enough, she had a small potion on her that could safely boost his speed, if need be. Finally, she found the vial. She pulled it from her bag and smiled at him. It was a diluted brown, red color. She smiled at him and held it out, "Ok... So, this'll safely boost your speed. If you don't feel that confident." she said softly as she handed it to him.

She rolled her neck and sighed, closing her eyes, "Basically, I would need you to get out in the open. Once it sees you, bring it down here. If you can, get behind me. I will handle the rest." she said and nodded. Looking up at the man with a smile, a reassuring one. She wouldn't let anything happen to him, and if he felt nervous, she would be there to make sure he was safe.

[Special Agent Cox]

Without any real hesitation Jesse had laid all his cards out on the table. He had told this girl everything about him, what he was who he worked for, and even admitted that he would need help. Well, he told her as much as he could in the short time frame that they had. There was a great deal about himself that would take a lot more time than they had to fully explain. That he could deal with later. He could handle her questions and ask her some of his own once all of this was done. First things first, they had to deal with the demon. That little hell spawn rugrat was not going to keep waiting in the shadows forever. Since Jesse wasn’t alone and he was in the company of a witch they only had so much time till the little fiend lost interest in him as a target and wander off to find a better suited target. Jesse couldn’t let that happen, he couldn’t live with himself if that thing killed someone else. He had a hard enough time dealing with the time Guillotine had maimed several people right in front of him. Sure he had been caught off guard and no matter how many times he relived the scenario and came to terms with the fact that there was nothing he could’ve done to save those people, that didn’t make it any easier to live with. Never again would he allow innocent people to be harmed in his presence or knowledge. Help or not he was going to kick some little hell girl ass.

Lucky for him Blake was willing to help him out. When she heard the determination in his voice to defeat this foe, the young woman smiled and asked him if he could become a decoy. “Playing a decoy shouldn’t be too hard. She is trying to hunt me down anyways right?” he replied. “Who can blame her, I do look rather tasty don’t I?” he chuckled. Yeah…maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to joke about how edible he looked to a demon but damn it, it made the whole mess easier making a few jokes. “Uhhh…moving quickly though, I don’t know. I’m not some star athlete though you can tell that alone by looking at me. And from my knowledge even a track and field pro would have a hard time out running a demon.” Blake seemed to be one step ahead of him though. Not long after those words left his lips the young witch pulled out some small vial of strange looking liquid and handed it to him, claiming that it was some kind of speed potion.“Thanks, that will come in handy.” He smiled as he took the potion out of her hands. “So tell me, what’s this plan of yours?”

The plan she had was simple. All Jesse had to do was lure the creature to this spot and Blake would handle the rest. It was pretty straight forward but Jesse wasn’t all for it. The main reason being he would be putting this little lady in a lot of danger. Her helping him out was one thing since she seemed capable enough, but he couldn’t let her fight this battle for her. “Sure I can lure our little friend down here for you, but I am not going to let you do all the fighting for me.” He said. “I might not have the use of one of my arms but I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.” Jesse pondered for a moment how they could deal with this little problem together. “I don’t have complete control over my powers yet, but what I can do is copy either your powers or that thing’s powers. It may not work but it’s worth a shot. What are you able to do?” he asked, it would help to know who had more of an advantage here. If Blake had more power then he was bound to get something good for her to fight alongside her. If not her then he could mimic the demon instead. That had worked out well for him the first time…not so much the second time, but it was worth the try now. And if that didn’t work…

While he waited for Blake to give him a reply Jesse pulled out his cellphone and hastily typed out text to the only person he knew would be available at this time. When Jesse made friends with his fellow group of misfits in the PIDA they had all agreed on a few things, one that everyone tried to work in pairs, and in the event that one of them was left without a partner, or in a pinch, they would call for help from one another. TB in particular was keen to remind Jesse about this rule since he got injured. The cynical brit had become a little over protective since that incident but he could use him in a time like this. “Just in case things go sour I sent a little SOS to a friend of mine. He should come so long as he gets the message in time. If not…” Jesse went through the phone directory one last time before handing his cell to Blake. “I put my agency’s number on speed dial there, one click and you can summon extra backup. We will have to call them anyway but just in case something happens…if I get taken down call them and either run or protect yourself alright?” with that Jesse turned to leave, getting ready to bring the little demon girl out of hiding.

[Blake O'Sullivan]

Blake smiled at the man and thought a moment about her abilities. How far did her magic actually go? Pretty far, actually. Not to mention, a part of Khaine was inside of her still. And it seemed like it was not going away any time soon. To, to conclude her thought process, she looked at her new friend - impressed with the change in plans. He was going to help. And she was fine with this, cause she could bail him out of trouble. Her lips parted to speak, " Lets just say, you won't be sorry." she grinned.

Jesse then handed her his phone and explained why. It seemed reasonable. Even she could do only so much. Plus, Jesse would have to keep up with mimicing her abilities and or the demons. She was confident they would both be fine. But having a back up plan was always smart. She nodded to him and swallowed, "Sounds legit..." with thst, she stood at the ready. Her green eyes looked at the man as she licked her lips.

"You ready?" Blake seemed a bit anxious. It was all because of the whole thing with demons. They were sneaky.. Even frightening. Guillotine successfully struck fear into her heart, but he was still her friend. She was willing to look passed all the horrible and see the good in him. Maybe she shouldn't? He was an evil creature and most of the scars on her body, now... They came from him. Or Hounds in general. And to think... The reason that all happened in the night club... Was because Mira wouldn't leave them alone. In that time Blake single handedly killed an Alpha Hound by touching his face... And ran for her life from Guillotine. She had almost died that evening as well. If it wasn't for the cops showing up... She would be dead... And Jesse would maybe die in this situation, or he would win and barely make it out, someone may be willing to help? Numbers of things could happen if she had died that night. But she needed to get it together. She began to close her eyes and breathe. Leveling herself to make her ready for this task she had set for herself. She would never send him into the blue if she wasn't ready.

El then came to her thoughts. Just his smiling face. A warm, calming feeling washed over her and a smile graced her lips. She played with the feather on her choker and inhaled sharply and released her breath calmly. She nodded to him and smiled, " I'm ready to fight."

[Special Agent Cox]

“That’s good enough for me.” Jesse replied when Blake gave him her answer to the question of her powers. Sure it wasn’t as detailed as he would’ve hoped but she didn’t need to him a long winded conversation about what she could do if only a few words would suffice. Jesse had done a little bit of reading during his first month as a PIDA agent on human subraces, it was mainly so he could learn more about his own race but he had picked up a few things about wizards and witches. Much like in stories like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter witches and wizards were capable of doing powerful and complicated spells. Those powers varied depending on the knowledge its users had, what they messed around with, or just genetically what kind of power they leaned towards. But there were certain powers that almost all witches and wizards knew elemental magic. If Blake was capable of just about anything like she claimed to be then she had to know at least some form of elemental magic, like water, air, or fire. Any of those could be useful. Maybe a lot more useful than whatever that demon could do. Blake would be more versatile to copy. Though he couldn’t match her in skill having some of her powers could be useful.

It was decided then, he knew who he was going to mimic in this case. He could only hope that this worked though. There was of course a good chance that he would fail and he knew it. He didn’t even need to look at his cast to remind himself just how ugly things could turn out when he failed. The thought of failure didn’t feel nearly as bad as it should have now that he knew that he wouldn’t be going at this alone, but Blake was no TB, she didn’t have his old buddy’s little trick to trap this demon with. Even then he felt bad about having to rely so heavily on someone else, even if that meant saving his fat ass. Despite his feelings, and the fact that he still had someone to help him out Jesse sent a quick cry for help to his british friend. It was just better to be safe than sorry and the thought of having a witch and a sanguine on his side made him feel that much safer. That was assuming that TB even showed up, but even that he had covered. After messing around with his phone for a few seconds he handed it over to Bri, giving her a few instructions to call the agency if all else failed. Blake was more than pleased to take the phone. Just like him she knew just how big of a risk they were taking in this fight and was more than willing to call for help when they needed it.

Jesse took a deep breath and smiled at the little woman when she asked him if he was ready. “To kick some demon butt? I am always ready…okay maybe not, I am pretty scared of getting my ass handed to me but what can you do?” yeah, fighting another demon after the first one he fought nearly killed him did make him feel so confident in this match. But he knew what he had to do and resolved to do it, even if that meant becoming this things dinner for trying to play the hero. “Well…here goes nothing.” He took another deep breath, pocketed the speed potion and headed back onto the streets. Play it cool, just play it cool buddy he thought as he walked down the street. With each step he took the man began to relax. This wasn’t so bad really; he knew that even if she was stalking him without him noticing she wouldn’t dare attack him while he was in such an open area like this. Jesse played his role of innocent shopper well, striding around the street, smiling at the occasional passerby, and stopping to eye some window display every once in awhile. Soon enough he caught sight of the demon girl. It was only a brief sighting; she instantly disappeared from the corner of her vision but it was all that he needed.

Now that he knew for a fact that she had found him and was following him once more Jesse started to walk back towards the alley that Blake was waiting for them in. He took his time getting there, making sure to continue to play his role so he wouldn’t arose suspicion when he entered the alley. Even when he walked through the empty alleyway he couldn’t hear the demon child stalking him. Man, talk about freaky. If it hadn’t been for Blake giving him the heads up first he would never had known how much danger he was in. This demon was going to be in for a little surprise now, for little did she know that it was she who was being hunted. Jesse counted to 10 in his mind before taking the vial out, draining its contents in his mouth and turning around to see the little girl behind him. Jesse did a little double take at the sight of the little demon. He didn’t realize just how damn close she was, she was only a few steps behind him. “Hey there kiddo, what are you doing out here?”