They are among us (PRS)

From an informations aspect, it would have been better if they all had been with the army or something like that. But at least accountants were harmless. Even if these Kehrseite wouldn’t have the information others would, they could still provide her with information. In camp, they had no access to the news. If she was lucky, she could steer the conversation to what she wanted.

Regina grinned.
“So, I’ve got myself some University people here, how fancy” she said and took a sip of her beer. Her eyes went to each person as Eli described what they all did. Not that Regina was particularly interested in accounting, but she had to at least look interested.
“And I mean this with love, but I get why you feel the need to drink on a Thursday” she added with a grin and held up her beer.

She turned to Eli as he asked her what she did for a living. Even though she though that she would never hear that question, she still had an answer made up just in case. She had to be ready for everything, after all.
“I’m a martial arts instructor” she said and took a sip of her beer. It wasn’t entirely false, she did teach some of the refugees how to protect themselves. She also did mock fights together with some of the other Wesen, which also could count as teaching.
“So don’t piss me off, it’s for your own good” she joked and smiled. That was actually true in two levels; Regina didn’t like people pissing her off, and neither did Balam. But then again, who liked to be pissed off?

“So you all went to University together or what? Where did you attend?” she asked, and she was actually interested. For a moment there she had gotten lost in the conversation. Of course, one part of her was still aware of her surroundings, but she hated the fact that she was so close to the life she had had and wanted so bad to have. For just a few seconds, it had felt like her old life; just having a conversation without worrying about her or Serena’s lives. Unfortunately, her life consisted of being worried right now. Not only for her sister, but for all Wesen and the community they had. And right now also two teenage mutants that were somewhere in Maidstone. She had to keep looking for them soon, but she also wanted to see what she could get from this conversation. If a couple of accountants had the information she needed, that was. Which was quite unlikely.

They all gave out small chuckles and giggles of approval. “We sure are fancy,” Penelope chimed in, flipping her blonde hair off her shoulder. Colin did the same by flipping invisible strands of hair as his own buzzcut wouldn’t swing anywhere. “I’ll tell you,” he continued, “Try crunching numbers day in and day out and you’ll want a beer or two as well, or five,” Colin exclaimed, taking a demonstrational sip from his bottle.

For her occupation most of them responded with impressive nods or smiles. “Martial arts instructor? Sweet! What kind of combat?” Colin called out. Maya chuckled as she spun her empty glass on the wet table surface. “Not the pacifist kind, then?” she said with a smirk, giving Eli a wink. Eli knew exactly her point – last time they had used their accounting explanation, it was because a girl Colin had an interest that was a very outspoken pacifist. It did not help that she was into economics, and Maya was the one that had the hardest time with keeping up the façade. She was very upfront and did not usually see the reasons to hide what they do as her work was a big part of her own identity. As she seemed to see nothing weird about Regina, Eli knew that she would like to come clean. Not yet.

Eli was just going to ramble on about some University story when O’Brian, one of the men that left earlier, came back up the stair quite flustered to their table. He looked like he had just dashed here, both impressive thinking of how much he had to drink, but also quite alarming. “Please tell me someone has their military badge or state identification with them,” he said, rubbing his eyes for a moment before looking back at them. He really seemed to try to get a grip of himself in his drunken state. “Lucas said he spotted two youngsters with mutant abilities and made a scene, now the police are there, and we need to prove he’s with us.”

Eli almost choked on his sip of beer, but Maya grunted loudly as she stood up, feeling her back pocket and fished up a Supernatural Control Unit badge that she glanced at shortly before placing it back. “That idiot,” she mumbled loudly as she took her jacket from the back of her chair and put it on. Colin shook his head in amusement as he chugged the bottle of beer. This was not the first time Lucas had pulled a stunt like this. “I guess we’re busted,” he whispered sarcastically to Regina slightly out of breath from drinking the beer before wiping the corners of his mouth. “Maybe we should all go and assess,” he said and stood up. The others nodded and got up as well, and Eli coughed briefly from the almost choking before standing up, throwing Regina a glance as he left his half a bottle of beer on the table.

“Meet a part of the SCU unit,” he said with an apologetic smile while he threw on the backpack that had been hanging on the back of his chair. There was no way to keep up the lie anymore, much to Eli’s disappointment. A Wesen hanging out with them would not be ideal for any of them. “I think it would be better if you didn’t tag along,” he continued, taking a look at the others who were getting ready to go. He couldn’t risk her woging if the situation escalated, and if she did, he did not want to be too close for her to recognize him as a Grimm. The whole situation would probably just mean bailing drunk Lucas out from the police, as he most likely had been accusing a poor couple of looking weird and therefore “mutant”, and then heading home. He couldn’t risk it though if this time was indeed different.

“Well, there is a reason I chose not to go to University” Regina said with a grin. Not that the reason was a boring or hard job, but the fact that she hadn’t been able to enrol in a University due to the current turbulence between Wesen and Kehrseite. She took another sip of her beer and was just about to answer the question what martial art she practiced, when one of the drunken guys stormed in. He started babbling about two mutants, the police and some military identification. Regina arched an eyebrow and looked at Eli. Well, it had appeared that the whole accounting thing was a lie. Now they were much, much more interesting.
“Well, you can’t just drop a bomb like that on me and then just leave me hanging” Regina said and stood up. She saw the police car through the window, which meant that this hadn’t happened very far from the pub.

As they moved downstairs, Regina braced herself on what she was going to see. If they indeed were mutants, she had to do something. As she opened the door to the pub and stepped outside, she looked across the street. There, standing next to a police car, was the man that apparently was named Lucas, talking to a police. Next to them stood two teenagers, one boy and one girl. They looked very much alike. Regina cursed in her mind. Clara and Henry.
“Are you kidding me?” she exclaimed, walking right up to the teenagers.
“Your mum leaves you alone for an evening and you go out and disturb the police?” she said, looking angrily at Clara and Henry, hoping they would play along.
“Do you know these two, Miss?” the police asked, turning around towards her.
“I do. I’m sorry Officer, but this must have been a misunderstanding. Their mum left for a conference, and she hoped that these two would be mature enough to stay at home during that time, but apparently, she was wrong” she said. As she spoke, golden grains of what looked like sand started to float through the air. The sand was only visible for Regina herself; not even a Grimm would see it. The sand made its way to everyone around her, through their eyes, ears, nose and mouth. It disappeared when she stopped speaking.
“Yeah, yeah, it seems like there’s been a misunderstanding” the officer said, turning to Lucas and Eli and his friends.
“They’re just teenagers, we’ll let them go. As long as you take responsibility for them?” the officer continued and turned to Regina.
“I will, sir” she said, nodding.

Elijah followed Regina with his amber gaze. He had a feeling she would not stay put, and he feared he had no practical way to make her stay. Fair enough, he thought with a small shrug as they moved down the stairs, but made a mental note to keep an eye on her.

It was not hard to find them as the whole scene was situated right across the street. Lucas, looking quite agitated, talked spitefully with the police as the two youngsters stood next to the other policeman. They looked quite harmless in Eli’s mind, and no physical signs of being mutants at all. Either it was just Lucas who was imagining things again, or then they had done something with their possible powers that Lucas had happened to see. Either way, Lucas was just the kind of person who liked to draw his own conclusions, and Eli doubted that the teens had done anything at all.

With Maya in the lead they walked up to Lucas and the policeman, but to Eli’s big surprise Regina walked straight up to the teenagers. She knows them? Eli thought for himself and turned his attention towards her while Maya gave the needed identification to the policeman in an attempt to get her squad member free.

As soon as Regina talked, Eli’s inner voice suddenly grew bigger, a somewhat superior voice in his head. There’s been a misunderstanding. Of course it was just a misunderstanding, Eli though with relief. Just a misunderstanding, nothing more than that. Thankfully it was just Lucas again who had mistak- wait, no.
Eli frowned, suddenly stopping for a second. No, that was not his own reasoning at all. He looked at the others that seemed to nod in agreement to the policeman who was next to the teenagers. The other policeman next to Lucas handed back Maya’s badge and identification, giving Lucas a couple of pats on the shoulder and a quick remark of taking it easy with the drinks from now on.

Eli looked back at the teenagers, scrutinizing them well. Did they do some kind of telepathy or intuition thing? No, it didn’t seem like it at least. He threw a quick glance at Regina while he pursed his lips – it had to be her, no? It was her voice of reasoning that had given him the reassured feeling. Shit, he mumbled inaudibly for himself. This Wesen apparently had more powers than he had initially thought.

It seemed as if it would work out in Regina’s favour. The police officer turned to Clara and Henry.
“Good thing that there is an adult here that knows you, otherwise you’ve had to spend the evening at the station. You’re free to go with a warning, but if we find you doing suspicious stuff again, I won’t be as nice” he said and both Clara and Henry looked both scared and embarrassed. Regina turned to them, too.
“Go back home. If the house isn’t lit up like a freaking Christmas tree when I walk past it in fifteen minutes, I won’t care if the police pick you up” she said, and Clara nodded. The both of them gave the police officer a scared look before both of them quickly walked away. The police officer turned to Lucas.
“Please make sure to be sure of what you see before you call it in. And have your identification close” he said and nodded towards them all before getting in the car and drove away.

Regina exhaled and turned to the group of Kehrseite.
“So much for being accountants” she said with a grin, looking at them. Her braid had fallen forward as she had talked with the police, and she put it back on her back.
“But I guess I get why you need to keep it hidden, I won’t say anything, I promise” she continued, putting her right hand up next to her. She gave them all a flashing smile.
“This was definitely an interesting ending of the evening” she added, and put down her hand again. She looked in the direction Clara and Henry had walked, they had chosen to take the long way to the invisible border. There were different ways to get to the border, mostly to keep the curious eyes away and to keep people from noticing that others walked frequently the same way through the park. She shook her head and turned to the Kehrseite. She had to leave without feeling like she was running from them. But to be honest she wanted to be as far away from them as possible. Now she had been with Eli twice, without knowing that he was actually getting paid to hunt people like her. She didn’t really feel like staying with him longer than she needed, especially not now.
“I have to get going, I need to make sure the two of them did as I told them” Regina said, and pointing with her thumb in the direction of where Clara and Henry had been standing. At least it had been a happy ending of this story, it could have been so much worse if the teenagers had messed up even more.

Elijah followed the two teenagers with his gaze as they scurried away. Regina didn’t apparently just know them, but they seemed to live fairly close to each other as well based on her comment of their house and that it better be lit. As she was most definitely a Wesen, Eli couldn’t shake off the feeling that they were indeed two mutant or Wesen teenagers. All of their intel spoke about Wesens and mutants teaming up in these outskirt camps for best chances of going undetected, and he doubted that Regina and the teens lived somewhere in the middle of the city in some apartment building. The tension had grown really bad the last year or so, and the risks for any kind of supernatural were higher the more urban you lived. Why would she otherwise have used some sort of persuasive power to get them off the hook? It did not make sense.

“No company would be compliant with us in their accounting department, that’s for sure,” Eli said with a quick smile as to not be too quiet. He didn’t want to wake any suspicion in her – she could be an excellent source of intel if needed.
“I can barely do my taxes,” Colin chuckled and crossed his arms in front of him. As she mentioned having to get going, he grew a slight frown. “I wanted to know more about your martial arts,” he said, shaking his head with a smile.

“Yeah, you seem alright,” Maya continued as she looked at Regina before walking up to Eli, giving him a slight pat on the shoulder. “You chose a good one to save, I can tell you that,” she laughed, flashing a smile towards Regina. “Feel free to join us some other night, maybe you can teach us a thing or two of your ninja skills,” she continued before giving Eli a slight push. “C’mon Eli, be a gentleman and escort the young maiden home, or at least get her number so we can all do Kung-Fu some day!”

Regina smiled.
“Do I really need to teach army people martial arts? I thought you knew most of it - or maybe weapons are more your thing” she said and grinned. She looked at Eli as his friend pushed him forward to ask for her number. First of all, Regina had no intention of giving him her number. Secondly, she did have a phone, but it didn’t work. That was the prize they had to pay to keep the camp hidden; the reception was messed up and didn’t work in camp and a few feet from the invisible border. But it was quite a low prize to pay to have security.
“The time I get a full drink without being interrupted, I’ll give you my number” she said and grinned.

Suddenly a sound made it to her ears; two long, extended howls. Regina felt how her insides turned to ice. Two extended howls meant only one thing; a canid Wesen had died. Canid Wesen such as Balam, Blutbaden, Cyotls and Fuchsbau used their howling to communicate things such as danger and death. It couldn’t be Serena, could it? Her heart started pounding, but she kept her face calm. Now she had to get to camp quickly. By the sound of the howl, it was outside of camp. She looked at the group.
“As I said, I have to go. Maybe I’ll see you in the pub again, hopefully without two mischievous teenagers” she said with a grin, and turned towards the park. She hoped the Kehrseite wouldn’t react to the howl, but it wouldn’t surprise her if they did. But then again, for them, it could have been a wolf as well. She decided not to comment on it, but to keep talking instead.
“And next time you can tell me about your real jobs, it does sound much more interesting than accounting to be honest” she said with a little laugh. Out of all covers they could think of, accounting had been the one they’d gone with? It was quite amusing, really. However, now that Regina knew what they were doing, they suddenly became more interesting. More dangerous, sure, but definitely more interesting.

Elijah threw Maya a quick annoyed glare from her push. He knew she only meant well, but she didn’t always have to be so straightforward about everything. She could also use a filter sometimes, just like Colin.
The sudden two lengthy howls in the distance made him freeze for a second. The others in the team chuckled at Regina, but he noticed O’Brian meeting his gaze with a stern face. They were both in the same Wesen squad, and as they both seemed to hear it there was no way the patrol scouts would not report it in to base.
“Take care!” Colin said with a wave to Regina as she turned towards the park, and just as she started walking away Eli took some hasty steps to his squad member.

“We will be called in,” O’Brian said with his gaze where the sound came from before giving Eli a tired look. He knew himself he was in no way fit to be on duty, and Eli couldn’t agree more. “Decline, takes yourself and Lucas home and I’ll brief you tomorrow,” he mumbled and gave his teammate a quick pat on the shoulder. With one hand on the strap of his backpack he started jogging with a slow pace past the group.
“Duty calls!” he smiled out to them and waved with one hand. He was met with a few laughs and some grunts of sympathy before turning towards the street, speeding up his pace a bit.

Just as he had thought it did not take many seconds before the pager in his jean pocket let out two rapid beeps, a call to report at base. He took it out of his pocket as he ran and sent an approving response. Thankfully he had only had one and a half beer unlike O’Brian, and as the team’s Grimm he knew they would not be pleased for him not to show up. Being at the pub also had the benefit of being relatively close to their base, and as a result it did not take long before he made it to the security doors. He managed to quickly gather his badge and key to get through security as he caught his breath for a moment.

Making his way to their locker room he saw already two other people from his team getting geared up. Not to be far behind he quickly changed into their combat gear and gathered his accessories just as their squad leader marched in.
“We have a high indicator of Wesen activity or commotion in the perimeter. This is a grade B2 mission,” he exclaimed while looking at some papers. Eli fastened the strap to his light helmet before making sure all his equipment was there. B2 meant that they were there to assess, meaning that no violence whatsoever was to be used unless in extreme situations. Their squad leader opened a locker with his own ID card in the meantime, and as they were ready he handed them their assault rifles one by one to hang on their back.

“Perimeter scouts will meet us there, coordinates sent to your devices,” their leader exclaimed as Eli and the two other members followed him in a rapid pace through the corridors to the garage, jumping into a prepared SUV. “We assess, document and report back. In case of hostility, we fall back and protect Private Adler.”
“Yes sergeant,” they exclaimed as the car started rolling out of the protected doors and left towards the park. It would be a short drive followed by a brief walk to the coordinated sent by the patrol scouts intel department. Eli looked at his reflection in the car window as they made haste through the streets. There were no chance Regina had not heard the howling too. Thankfully it was B2 mission, otherwise there would be high chances of it getting ugly.

Regina waved to them and focused on the park. She swallowed, and her eyes turned amber. The smells from the forest hit her nose, and she tried to sift out the unimportant smell. She could definitely smell Blutbaden, and blood. Her intestines were still frozen, but she felt a bit relieved that it wasn’t Balam she smelled. She kept herself partially woged and moved into the forest, following the trail of smell. She looked up in the sky, which was painted with stars and the moonlight made its way through the trees. It was a beautiful night, if you didn’t count that one of their own was dead.

As she moved closer to the border, she heard sniffling to her right. She turned right, and in between the trees she saw a woman, kneeling beside a body, her head buried in the body’s chest. Her body was shaking softly as she cried. Regina was appalled to see that the dead body was Sean, the Blutbad man who had tried to keep Serena from going out of camp. He was one of the guys that Regina had spoken the most to.
“Vega?” she asked, and the woman looked up. She was in full woge, and she didn’t seem to care that she was outside the invisible border. What were the odds that a Grimm would happen to walk past, anyway? When she saw Regina, she retracted her woge. Her eyes were puffy, and tears were streaming down her face.

Regina quickly walked up to her, kneeling down in the cold, damp grass. She looked at the face of Sean, which was blank and empty.
“What happened?” she asked, and Vega shook her head.
“I don’t know” she said hoarsely, “Sean went out here because he heard something, he claimed he didn’t need backup. After a while, I went to have a look and I found – I found….”. Vega finished her sentence with more tears, and Regina took her hand.
“We have a military group close by, and I’m sure they heard the howl. They’ll probably be here soon” she said, and Vega shook her head.
“I don’t care, let them come. I’d gladly kill the bastards that did this to him” she said angrily, and for a second her eyes glowed red. A pissed off Blutbad was as dangerous to meet as walking through fire.

Regina frowned as she looked at Seans neck.
“I don’t think…” she begun, reaching out to touch his neck. She turned his head slightly. On the side of the neck were three small punctures. They formed a triangle, and that was the only mark the body had.
“I don’t think these are from the Kehrseite” she said, looking at Vega. She bit her lip, and Vega shook her head.
“I don’t care, someone will pay for this” she said, and woged. She looked up in the sky, and howled one, extended howl. A howl of grief. Regina felt the need to answer the howl, and woged. She also let out a howl, before retracting her woge, and Vega did the same.
“We have to get out of here, we’ve already attracted too much attention” she said, and Vega shook her head.
“I have to bury him, our way. I refuse to let him have his final rest in a bloody camp” she said, and Regina bit her lip. She looked back, as if she was expecting to see a full army squad, there to arrest them. Hopefully, neither of the Kehrseite had reacted to the howling. But she had a feeling that they had.

Their SUV made its way through the dark streets. They sat in silence like most times on their way to missions, and Elijah glanced slightly at the people next to him. There was Lyra, a woman he had not talked to much before but seemed extremely competent during training, and next to her Samuel, a nice guy but not the biggest talker.

Their squad leader in the front seat next to the driver was looking at his device, pointing the driver to the edge of where the woodland began. “Dispatch vehicle,” he ordered, and one by one they jumped out the car, straightening out their combat vests and making sure the weapon was secured on their back.
“The perimeter scouts witnessed another howl just recently in that direction,” the sergeant said, pointing northwest from their direction. Eli gazed into the woods – he could see some lights in the distance, probably from flashlight used by the scouts. “They’ll inform us when they find the destination,” he said, placing his device back into a pocket of his vest.

“Secure your weapons, handheld weaponry not allowed, and show no signs of aggression against possible creatures unless mission grade changes or you’re under a critical rated hostile situation,” he continued with a strong voice, nodding towards the other three after receiving their affirmation. “Flashlights out, in formation,” he ordered, pulling out his own flashlight and taking the steps past the first trees. Lyra followed him quickly with Eli right besides him and Samuel taking the rear.

They did not know much about the way some Wesen communicated through howling. Eli knew that these were valuable situations for them for future intel on the ways of the Wesens’, and the point was never to capture anyone for state record-keeping. Those captured in raids or other hostile situations were brought in for registration, but much more what happened after that was not told to him at any point.

The perimeter scouts carefully slowed their pace after hearing something in the woods. As their leader turned off his flashlight so did the rest, and carefully they made their way through some thicker vegetation blocking most of the view. There, in front of them, they could spot three people – one on the ground and two next to him. With a press of a button he sent their signal to the active team behind them.
“Do not be alarmed. I repeat, do not be alarmed,” the perimeter scout leader said with a firm voice, stepping one step closer before stopping completely, showing his empty hands towards the strangers. The other scouts, three all together, stopped behind him, also them showing their unarmed hands. They carried smaller weapons in holsters by their thighs in case of self-defence, but had otherwise the same grade briefing as the other unit.