"Sometimes you get lucky, even after everything goes to shit, and it all turns out ok. Other times you only think you caught a lucky break before everything goes to hell in a hand basket when a giant fucking werewolf suddenly shows up." - Support team members recounting the raid.

"Go, go, go." Kurt hissed under his breath a moment after he saw Sam materialized behind the men in the guard house. He was up on his feet and moving as fast as he could without completely abandoning his support.

He noted that Val and Kristi were both right behind him and naturally, the other two from the Tacoma team were there too. Within a scant few seconds, they had crossed the remaining couple hundred yards to the gate and forced it open. Thankfully there wasn't a lock to override, and they just had to lift a latch.

He turned to the left and saw that Sam was holding down covering the driveway and tapped her shoulder as he went past. Kurt noted that both men were frozen in rather strange positions that was indicative of the wand being used.

They paused for a moment to let the two support squads catch up. "Gastha take your squad and split it. One set up a support by fire to cover the drive and garage. The other team can go link up with Rupert and take out that wall sentries." The elf nodded once and began to direct his squad.

Kurt took his team to move along the back side of the garage while Piper took hers along the driveway to the front side. They planned to meet at the corner of the garage and house before they went in through the staff entrance they had picked out in the photos of the house.

Val spotted a switch box on the outside of the garage, along a pathway that ran around the side and pulled the lever down. The lights that were illuminating the front lawn and driveway suddenly went out. "Shit, sorry." She said as it suddenly occurred to her that she just showed someone was poking around.

Calling into his radio, Kurt filled everyone in on what just happened while they ran as fast as they could to the servant's entrance. That running speed was surprisingly fast and in only a couple seconds they had stopped at the corner of the building.

Luckily for them, Kurt had his rifle muzzle trained on the door while Kristi covered the alley and Val signaled for Piper to hurry up. A slight rattle of the door handle was the only thing that warned him as the door opened. Without hesitation, he fired the wand attached to his rifle.

The door stopped opening and the face peering out from inside kept the curious look it had as the person fell backward, nearly taking the door with them. Kurt stepped in, gun up as he crossed the threshold and scanned the… closet.

This was a closet? It was supposed to be a… wait, there. In the corner behind the paralyzed man. That's the door. It wasn't disguised in any way but the strange lighting and unusual shape to the space made it not immediately visible while it blended in with the painted wall paneling.

Kurt felt a tap on his back and pushed into the room to allow the others to follow. "Val, you're up." He whispered and stepped aside as she cast an illusion to cover them. After a moment, she gave a thumbs up signal and they all began to push forward.

Val suddenly stopped in her tracks, causing a slight pileup from the rapid stop. Kurt couldn't quite see around the corner but did see her reach out and flip a switch.

Crump. "OH BALLS!" A man shouted. "Adam! All call. Wake them up, we are be-" Kurt saw and heard Val fire her wand at someone that he still couldn't see while she peaked around the corner.

Then she was moving forward, and they were flowing into a kitchen of an odd design. Val seemed to hesitate for a moment, looking around like she was taking a tour. Kurt thought he saw her eyes crinkle in annoyance but was forced to ignore it as Kristi and Sif stopped to deal with the man lying face down.

Kurt posted up on the door with Val and listened as the soldier was secured and they discovered the rank patch. "Hold tight Val. I want to try something." He whispered then turned and called to Kristi. "Three and Bravo, cover the door with Two." He switched places with them, hoping that his gamble would work out.

*****

Returning from dropping off the mercenary leader, Kurt stacked up with his team, Piper's team and the last support squad he had. Once more with the ready signal, Val popped the door and pushed forward under cover of her illusion.

If it weren't for the others right behind them, Kurt and his team likely would have froze in their tracks. The wide-open space they found themselves in was identical to the vampire rift. Well, not identical but the styling was as close as one could possibly get.

"Keep going." He hissed while trying to push through the sudden sensation of DeJa'Vu.

They began checking doors along the hall but found that most were small offices or lounge rooms. None seemed to be occupied except for one that had a maid in it. She was hit with a wand before she even knew that someone had opened the door.

The squads began making their way down the wide hallway but quickly came to a stop when Val signaled a halt, her ears swiveling. They all pressed into the cover of the columns along the walls and heard the sound of people moving and doing things.

Kurt saw movement along the balcony in the wide-open atrium that was just before them. He couldn't see much other than the movement of feet in the upper level, but he saw some people moving on the lower level in the wing opposite them.

"Val." Kurt whispered as softly as possible to get her attention. "Can you keep us covered while we spread out in the atrium?" he paused as a few mages worked their way down the stairs. Just before he was about to speak a voice cut across the radio.

"One, this is Decimal." Rupert said, using his call sign that he was surprisingly willing to adopt. "We have rounded up everyone on the outside and are standing by. There seems to be several groups gathering on the ground floor. One in the large open area on the north side and I see lights in a few of the rooms on the east wing."

"Roger, Decimal. Stand by." Kurt replied and looked back to his cohort. He waved forward the team leaders, getting Piper and another werewolf by the name of Jade. "How many of those stasis talismans do you guys have?"

"I have like twenty plus." Piper said, looking at the satchel she carried with extra zip cuffs and apparently the stasis talismans.

Jade hiked her thumb over her shoulder. "I split mine, but I have thirty of them. Fifteen for each fire team."

Kurt nodded, glad that they had plenty of magical talismans to go around. "Great, here is the plan then. We are going to split. Piper and I will take the ground floors, pushing them toward the east wing and flush them out to Rupert. Jade, take your teams up to the second floor. Val will cover your ascent under an illusion until you make the landing."

The team leaders nodded along and soon split to tell their teams while Kurt radioed to Rupert and filled him in on the plan. The halfling said that he could split and have half his people find a window on the second floor to get in. Kurt thought that would be a great distraction so he told him to coordinate with Jade.

A few moments later, the teams were ready. Kurt had been stressing the whole time because of the growing number of mages on the ground floor who might be able to see through the illusions covering them. Val had taken it upon herself to alter her illusion to block the entire wing rather than the individual teams, but it was still possible to see through if someone skilled enough tried it. There was also the chance that someone would walk over and break it that way.

They slowly began maneuvering into position, creeping closer to the main atrium and the central staircase. As they reached the end of their wing, Kurt could make out the voices drifting from the far wing and the couple open doors around the main entrance hall.

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From what Kurt could tell, most of the voices were wondering what was going on and a few were grumbling about how Olivan was just paranoid. He saw one trio standing around one of the statues in the main entryway shooting looks toward a set of doors that were closed off as they spoke.

None of the few dozen mages scattered around noticed them so Kurt waved for Jade to get her people up the stairs while Piper went around behind them. Thankfully, nobody spotted the squad climbing the stairs and they somehow made it to the landing without anyone glancing their way. Once the support squad made the landing, Kurt radioed to both teams and as one, they began firing their wands into the masses.

The first volley went off without a hitch, some of their targets not even falling right away due to how they had been standing when hit. But the second round didn't quite have the same success.

"Mike, what's with the face?"

"Kathy? Are you ok?"

"So I thi-"

After they had each discharged at least three of the paralyze spells, their good luck was up. "Attack! We are be-" Thump. Kurt shot the mage in the chest as he raised a wand of his own to point at the no longer hidden agents.

"Hands in the air or die!" Kurt shouted.

"Surrender now!" Piper and her team screamed from their end of the hallway while Kurt heard several doors being kicked in above him. He thought he heard Sif shout a few more creative commands with the threat of putting outside things into their insides, but it wasn't clear in the sudden chaos.

Kristi cut loose with a burst of machinegun fire, taking out a group of the mages that rounded a corner with wands and guns in hand. One of them even had what looked like a saber in his off hand and a glowing green stone in the other. All four of them fell to the gunfire that took them in the lower abdomen and pelvis when she fired from the shoulder.

Val pushed hard into the center, using a planter as cover while pushing the paralyzed mages to the ground if they hadn't fallen already. Kurt followed suit and kicked in the door on his right, seeing nothing but empty office. Then he went for the one across the hall, the one the mages had been shooting glances at.

Boom-crunch. Kurt's booted foot, mixed with his enhanced speed and strength turned the center of the double doors into splinters as the knob and lock plate became a projectile weapon. The massive oak doors flew inward just in time for him to see one of the mages around the table take a doorknob to the face. Another one that had been about to open the door was crushed as it swung inward, knocked flat on his back.

"Show me your fucking hands!" Kurt shouted and began triggering his wand as fast as he could, starting with the closest people and even getting a two-fer as they were sitting one behind the other. He kept moving, pressing into the room and moving to one side of the door so he wasn't a static target. Unfortunately, many of the people at the far end of the long table acted before he could swing his aim over them.

Bang-bang-bang-bang, thump. One of the people at the head of the table, a young man acting very quickly, returned fire with his own gun, a pistol of some sort. Kurt reacted off of reflex, putting the dot of his optic on the center of his chest and pulling the trigger. Where the youth had fired four rounds, Kurt answered with one that hit him at the base of the throat, dropping him in his tracks as his spine was severed.

Apparently, Kurt firing a real bullet instead of spells was the impetus for all hell to break loose and the remaining two dozen people in the room acted. Some acted by covering their heads and ducking, some stared at him, not moving a muscle. A token few tried spell casting and one lady near the far end of the room shrieked while she began to weave a spell. The man next to her ducked and ran out the side door at the far end of the room.

Flicking back and forth, Kurt began dropping the people attempting to cast spells and the one that had the sense to reach for a pistol. The resistance dropped sharply as he killed five more of the people in the room. He didn't quite make it to the lady casting a spell before she managed to finish and fired a bolt of lightning at him.

Krazak-BOOM! The bolt hit Kurt in the chest and launched him backward through the door he came through after he rebounded off the half open door. He crashed into the ground. Everything hurt, like the one time he did taser training and experienced all his muscles locking up at once. He suspected that the lightning bolt would have been lethal if he hadn't been a lycan and was able to shake it off, albeit with a little numbness in his arms.

Climbing back to his feet, Kurt saw Kristi suppressing a group of mages who had ducked behind one of the marble columns and were firing pot shots with wands. Val was standing in the doorway that he had just flown backward through and was alternating between double taps and the use of her paralyze wand.

"Status." He groaned while rushing to support Val and looking around. He saw Sam pop out from behind the stairs and trigger her wand, locking up the trio of mages that Kristi was shooting at.

"Letters are clear on north." Piper said amidst the pop-pop of her rifle. "Pushing east wing."

"Support, third floor is clear, coming back down." Jade added after Piper finished. Kurt looked to see her team coming down the stairs. But he returned his attention to the meeting he had disrupted.

"Jade come to me, I need you to secure these people." Kurt said and pushed into the room with Val. He grabbed one of the people on the ground and cast the spell to unlock them. "Where is Olivan?" when the woman didn't answer, he shoved his gun in her face and asked again.

The second time was the charm because she began to sing like a canary. "He ran out the back after you shot Alexander." With that, Kurt paralyzed her again and moved off to the far end of the room with Val in tow.

"Fuck, got a runner." Sif said over the radio. "I think it's Oliver-an-whatever. He bolted down the hall and I missed him with my wand."

Kurt and Val shared a look and took off through the side door. It led directly to the main hall after a short service passage. They trotted along while Kurt told Rupert to keep an eye out. When they came to the east wing, they were forced to duck back into the service passage as a fireball came streaking across toward them.

Kurt fired back with his paralyze spell and while he didn't hit him, he didn't have to duck the fireball since it was deflected by one of Kristi's barriers. He poked his head around the column to see her trotting down the hall, her machinegun up and a shimmering square in front of her.

"Piper said he went across." She said. "I think that was him that thre-" She was cut off as a maid ran out of the door that had been the source of a fireball a moment before. Kurt hit her with the paralyze wand and began to move toward the door.

"Alpha, Decimal. Be advised that my team is pursuing HVT. North side, east wing. How copy?" Kurt called into his radio as his team gave chase. He got affirmatives in return as he peeked around the corner of the door frame.

He was glad it was only a quick look since a five-foot-long icicle rocketed through the door a moment later. The sound of ice shattering on the wall behind them almost drowned out the sound of breaking glass. Kurt committed to entering just in time to see the man they were after jump through an already broken window.

"HVT just exited building via window. First floor, north side. We are pursuing." Kurt said and charged across what appeared to be an alchemy lab. "Val, conceal us." He said and felt her cast something just as he and Kristi jumped out of the shattered window.

Kurt's glasses were able to cut through the thick fog to see a figure running at an angle to the northeast. He called it in and took off after the man with the girls spreading out to either side. They followed after him, easily keeping track with the thermal overlay being projected on their glasses. Their pace was on the slow side because they were warry of traps or a potential ambush and the man couldn't get far with the outer cordon. Olivan himself seemed to be taking a route through a large garden and yard space toward a few small buildings in the distance.

Not wanting to get too close at a run, Kurt made the decision to go for a wounding shot to slow the man down. He stopped and took aim, getting a good angle through the manicured trees in the back garden. He fired two rounds at Olivan's waistline, but fate had other plans as the man tripped at that exact moment, falling flat as both of the sub sonic projectiles splashed into the dirt right next to him.

Then they were back to chasing, hoping to close the distance to use the paralyze wands while the man was still picking himself up. In a move that surprised everyone, Olivan rolled over and made a gesture at Kurt that stopped him in his tracks.

The world around Kurt was suddenly muted, all sensations other than sight and sound fading as he stopped dead in his tracks. He felt like he was under water and his limbs wouldn't respond as their quarry scrambled to his feet. One thing that did respond was that primal side, the one that was enjoying the hunt and wasn't ready for it to end. Accepting the feeling, he let go, relaxing his elven mind a fraction as his inner wolf took over.

Once Kurt committed to the shift, he began to regain control over his body. Unfortunately for his clothes, he did not regain complete control immediately and was forced to drop his rifle as he hunched forward. His shirt, pants and boots all tore and split, falling away as his body changed in the course of a second. He also glimpsed the horrified look on Olivan's face as he scrambled backward and eventually ran.

Shift completed, Kurt couldn't resist as he threw his head back and howled to the sky, a long deep howl that reverberated off the hills, despite the heavy fog. It wasn't a celebratory one, or even the normal sounding howl, instead it was a call to arms, his intent to start a hunt. As his howl ended, Kurt thought that he could hear a couple more in response but wasn't in the right mind to consider that. His target had made it through the garden and disappeared around a partition wall, headed for some small buildings along the back of the property.

Val and Kristi had immediately converged on him when they saw he stopped. Kristi secured his fallen equipment while Val gave him a once over. They shared a look before the kitsune nodded once and stepped away. "We will flank and keep him from circling back." She said and pulled Kristi by the sleeve as they hustled along the path leading east.

As much as Kurt wanted to say thanks, he had other things to worry about and put his nose to work as he began stalking the coven leader through the fog and darkness. His inner wolf sang in joy, and his elven mind was forced to agree. Perhaps a little mental trauma would do Olivan some good before they handed him over to the Order.

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