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In the stormy and desolate lands of the Siberian Tundra, the ghosts of the Cold War live on, most especially in old Soviet bases that once housed the might of the old empire, be it the the unstoppable armored divisions or the stealthy KGB. The base did not have a name, instead it was simply called ‘Complex 04’.“What can you get out of this?”Two scientists and an agent of the former KGB stood behind blast proof windows, this specific base was once used to test the engines for the old R7 rockets, the same type that boosted the first man in space and would have delivered nuclear hellfire to their enemies.The agent of the former KGB and currently employed by whatever the hell this unit was supposed to be shook his head, “All I know is that it’s some weird summoning chalk embedded with crystals, stole it from the Spellmans.” said Viktor Ramus.Whoever or whatever is in charge of the big bureaucracy of Russia had their eyes on witches and the occult, most especially after the reports of some incidences in Greendale, which are considered to be solid proof as to the existence of magic.Magic! Even though the current manifestation of such a force was diabolical, it can still be considered as a potent weapon of war, it made sense that they would pursue such a capability given that their ‘enemies’, the United States and NATO, were pursuing advanced military technologies, be it hypersonic fighter bombers or railguns on warships.“Our sensors are picking up some weird radiation coming out of it, maybe it’s how it affects our world.” said the scientist.The other one nodded in agreement, “It seems that it may be, but the question is what can we do with it and why is it that drawing specific shapes can gain the attention of monstrous creatures?”Viktor smirked, “How about we just kidnap a witch or something?”“Who, the girl you’ve been talking about?” said the other scientist.Viktor was bewildered, “Let’s be realistic here, has anyone tried telling the Kremlin to look for witches and vampires in Transylvania?”“Well…we did hear that the Navy blew up and captured the remains of a mermaid.” said the scientist.Viktor rubbed his face, “Okay, look, we’ve been capturing hundreds of artifacts and we’ve been doing experiments on them that did not really achieve anything.” he said exasperatedly.They then heard something snap and the next thing they knew was the alarm going off, “What the hell is that?” hissed the other scientist.They then heard gunshots, it sounded exactly like that of the AK-47s of the guards, or so what Viktor could make out, but what’s odd is that he could not make out any other type of gun.A thing, a being suddenly appeared in front of them, even though the only door leading into the room was shut. “Excuse me, but what the-” was the only thing the scientist managed to say before being hit by a dark colored and wispy projectile.The other scientist pulled out his sidearm but was strangled by an invisible force and was then thrown through the blast windows, shattering a material that was supposed to withstand explosions of faulty rocket engines and the highly flammable material inside their tanks.Viktor tried keeping his composure, he tried to implement his KGB training of keeping calm in interrogation chambers, but this one was too much.The thing spoke, “I’ve seen you before….Greendale?” he said as the klaxons suddenly went silent.Viktor’s heart was at his throat but he managed to say “Yes, I’ve been there, why and how do you know me?”“Remember the vial?”Viktor nodded, “Majestic, was it?”“The groupings don’t matter now, there are bigger things to come, I give you two choices, either you come with me or I’ll shoot you where you stand.” said the man.“Who are you?”“Call me the Coroner.”“Wait, wait, wait,” the realization dawned on Viktor, “where’s my friend…the Cunning Man?”The Coroner flinched, “He’s dead, there’s been a clean up…there’s something big and it’s coming, my offer is still up but it can’t go on forever, accept either one.”Viktor raised his hands, “Okay, don’t kill me, I’m in…but we’re in the middle of nowhere, how do you intend to get us out?”He could have swore that he heard loud and thunderous thudding in the distance, he blinked quickly as he realized, “Don’t tell me that you managed to sneak in a helicopter into Russian airspace!”“Wrong, three of them.” said the Coroner, he then raised a hand and it glowed with a dark hue, as far as Viktor was concerned, it was as good as a gun, “Start walking, put your hands over your head!”Viktor did as what he was told, he put his hands over his head and started walking, “Where to boss?”“Just get out of this base.”Viktor walked to the the usual exit which he would take after punching out, so to speak, and right here he saw these black stealth helicopters, two were hovering above their heads and a third one was, he presumed, waiting for them to board.“Get in the helicopter.” ordered the Coroner.As the helicopters got the hell out of the base, Viktor realized what they just managed to do; sneaking into and out of Russia was something unimaginable. But what he did not know was that these helicopters were the improved versions of the one used in getting the special ops operatives into Afghanistan to kill Osama Bin Laden.“Just in case if you have any questions, these helicopters took off a base in Turkey, my objective was to terminate your head scientist, Mikhail Rasly, but I realized that you should be brought back.” said the Coroner.Viktor smiled, it’s not that he hated Russia but he would rather be in the United States rather than the cold tundras, “Thank you, I-”“But it’s not for a vacation.” interrupted the Coroner, “Everything will be made clear once we’re in NATO friendly areas.”“How long until then?” asked Viktor.The Coroner remained silent for a moment, he then answered, “A few hours with you…just be thankful that you’re still alive.”***Luis Quezon, the son of a diplomat based in Greendale, woke up that specific morning with a question in his head; what happened to Sabrina Spellman? She no longer spoke to him, his friends, and not even Harvey - well that was a given since they broke up already - and she would disappear every weekend.It wouldn’t bother him at all if not for the fact that Sabrina was fun to be around with and once in a while he would miss her as much as anyone within his circle of friends did.It was like a haunting music that played in the forest, he would always find himself heading to the Spellman mortuary and sometimes, when Ambrose is on the front porch or when Hilda is tending to the flowers, he would ask if Sabrina is at home and they would always say ‘No’, and his reason as to why he’s there would be that he was just passing by and that he was heading to the Consulate or something.But on that specific day, as he was walking towards the Spellman Mortuary, he came upon a familiar pair walking in the woods holding each others’ hands, it was like seeing a ghost of the past.He smiled and nodded, thinking that it was just some hallucination caused by nostalgia, that is until the guy pointed at him and the girl smiled and called his name, “Luis?”Luis shook his head, he couldn’t believe that it was who he thought it was, he approached them carefully, “Sabrina?”“Hey, Luis.”He then focused his attention to the guy, “And who is he?” he asked.“Oh, this here is my boyfriend, Nick.”“Jeff Who?” said Luis with a smile.“No, it’s Nick.” said the guy.“I’m sorry, it was an Internet thing.” said Luis.He would happily admit that he’d been spewing Internet jokes lately, mostly those about certain aerospace companies. He had just come back from a Falcon 9, Crew Dragon launch, known as the DM-1 mission, at Cape Kennedy/ Cape Canaveral, Florida, it was extended to them by NASA as part of their tradition to invite the public and V.I.Ps to their important launches, these VIPs included special diplomatic officers. And since he was a sucker for space exploration, he was happily ballistic when he received the news that they were invited.“Where have you been?” Luis asked Sabrina.Sabrina couldn’t answer truthfully, or rather she wanted to but she was unsure as to whether or not she could tell this mere mortal, albeit this specific mortal knew everything about her and remained ‘okay’ about it, “Well…you know that I am a witch, right.”“Wait, he knows - this mortal knows?” said Nick.“It’s okay, Nick, he’s not like Harvey…he’s smarter.” she said to Nick, and then to Luis, “I go to this school for witches and warlocks…”“Oh, Hogwarts, say hi to Harry for me, will you?” said Luis in jest.Sabrina laughed, “Well, it’s much better than that, anyhow, every weekend I go to this school…I signed my name in the Book just in case you did not know.”Luis simply nodded, “I see, well would I be allowed to walk with you three?”“Sure, why not?” said Sabrina.
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Being a modern spy was one of the biggest let downs for Simon Benjamin ‘Benjie’ Holt, a British-American, maybe watching spy movies while growing up was the cause of it, or maybe because he was expecting a much more exciting job even though he’s just a technical support staff of the C.I.A.His job, to be precise, was ‘Cyber-security and Cyber-warfare consultant’, in short; a military grade hacker that can break into anything that has a computer and is connected to some sort of network, either through physical wires or through wireless servers.So far, the most exciting thing to happen was when the Director of the CIA summoned him to the executive meeting office, complaining that the projector in the projector room was broken, it turns out that someone left a water bottle in the way of the lens and no one bothered to go and check.But hey at least he gets some cool perks like those in spy films, such as the nearly miraculous 24/7 highly secured communication network that would allow him to speak to his team, either in Langley, the Pentagon, or other locations within the United States.He pressed on the small and nearly hidden earbud, “This is Shadow, I am just reporting in from Massachusetts, come in, Pentagon.”“This is Specula, what’s the problem?”“No problem, just checking in as part of the test of the network, I was just doing a few checks to remove any software issues.” said Benjamin.He was in his car which was parked in some town called Greendale, he had his laptop on a special holder which is attached to the dashboard of his car, “So how’s the status then?”“All is green, though I am also testing the Communication Sensory System.” said Benjamin, it was the state of the art listening device, allowing him to listen in on any communication between devices, be it mobile phones or radio transponders of airplanes or even the guidance computer of missiles within fifty miles, or within the entire eastern seaboard with the assistance of National Reconnaissance Office satellites.His car was, in effect, a rolling arsenal of listening devices and signals warfare intelligence with the C.S.S installed, and was also a moving semi-radar station, given that he can use the C.S.S to track a location of any flying object if it is in active communication with a control base of some sorts.A Command/CMD software was running on his computer screen, white words were spilling on the black screen, announcing detection of connections between cellphones, cellular towers, two-way radios, and the likes.“Hang on, Specula, I am detecting something unusual…alarming even.” said Benjie.The words ‘#0jrinfmkgmk90’ popped up on the screen and was followed by ‘connected through 2903jfnjfnjrwiep9engjn’, an encrypted line. “Specula, can you run #0jrinfmkgmk90’ on the computers.”He shook his head, maybe he was imagining things, because he could’ve swore that it was some form of aerial transponder, he switched the screen from the CMD software to the graphical user interface; that being a map of the Eastern Seaboard of the continental United States as well as that of Canada.Everything around him seem to slow down to a halt, the GUI made it too clear.“This is Specula, according to our intelligence, it’s a match of some form of aerial transponder as far as the data is concerned.”He pinged the transponder several times, the first blip was at two hundred miles, the second one was at one hundred and ninety, and then a hundred and eighty, all the pings have a two minute interval. He was convinced that it was a missile, “This is Shadow to Specula, inform NORAD that we may have a missile at the Eastern Seaboard, a hundred and eighty- scratch that, a hundred and seventy miles away from Greendale and it seems to be heading there, over.”His car was an electric car, modified to be able to charge under solar power, this is in order to have a much more practical car without the need for much maintenance. He switched on his car and started moving to the target of the missile based on what he could calculate from whatever data he had available.“This is Specula, we have informed NORAD of the suspected missile, but they’re reporting negative.”He checked his computer and now the missile was a hundred and fifty miles away, still going the same bearing. “Can you ask the local Air Force radars then?” he told Specula as he turned down a road which led to an abandoned railway station, the missile is expected either to fly over that exact spot…or that spot was its intended target.“This is Specula, we have informed the 95th Strike Wing, they are Green on a target…I repeat, they have a fast moving object headed towards your present coordinates, they’re reporting that it is too low to intercept now.”“What intelligence do you have on the railway station, that’s where I am at right now.” said Benjie as he looked around his surroundings, all he could see was one big abandoned railway station. If this was really to be the intended target, he wondered as to what made it as such, was it a misfired missile of some kind? But that would be too stupid, whoever fired the missile were under orders and had to input targets, it was not as simple as an ‘Oops, I pulled the trigger’, it instead would be ‘Oops, I inputted that exact target as ordered by my higher ups’.“It was established in the 1800s by a defunct mining company, used to haul ore from Greendale to other parts of Massachusetts, abandoned because of some claims that it was haunted.”Benjie shook his head as he swore he saw a human being standing on the front door of the abandoned station, he shut off his communication bead by giving it a light tap and hearing two blip noises. His computer was linked to the N.R.O satellites and he used that to try to crack into the missile’s computer systems.The old and often used image of hacking; that of a hacker at his computer, was an old, outdated, and unrealistic image, Benjie’s strategy was to use cloud computing - that being the server computers of the N.R.O. and of the C.I.A - and his own Artificial Intelligence code to try to decrypt and break into the computers of the missile.He executed his complex A.I. and his code to try to break into the missile’s computer systems, it was using every single algorithm and strategy in cracking and hacking into a computer, this was made possible by cloud computing which allowed for him to run through several cracking and hacking software at the same time, it was not a humanly fast hacker and his computer against a missile, it was a really fast A.I. paired with a lot of computers going against a missile.He got out of his car and headed to the station, checked his smartphone as he did so, which he programmed to become a remote-control of some form to his computer, in that he can check on the status of the hack, or shut off the computer if someone was trying to break into his system.It seems that the hack was a toss up, it could end up disarming the missile and have it slam harmlessly into a tree, or it could fail and hit its target with an active warhead, or it could - hopefully - hit its target with a disarmed warhead.He slipped his phone into his pocket and approached a young boy standing by the door, “Excuse me?” he said, the boy looked at him.“Yes?” said the young boy who was dressed up in some old outfit.“Ugh, hi, I am Benjie and I am working for…look, the point is that what is this place?”The young boy introduced himself, “I am Quentin and I am afraid that I cannot tell you anything about this place.”“Then can you find someone that can?” asked Benjie.“I shall be getting Father Blackwood then.” said Quentin.Benjie did not care about who that person was, he just wanted to talk to an adult, and ideally to get away from the place as fast as possible, it was starting to get into his nerves.The door creaked open and a trio of similarly dressed adolescent girls, all with the same creepy expression; that long and distant stare that pierces into your soul. “The Reverend Father wants to meet you at his office.” said the three girls in unison.“Ah, of course.” said Benjie, he was focused more on the fact that there is a missile, be it a cruise missile or an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, heading towards their way rather than say the other creepy things of this place.Only later would Benjie comprehend just how hair-raising this place was, he would swear that there was a statue of the devil himself, sculpted in a glorifying manner, as well as how the three girls moved in unison, and not to mention the general feeling of evilness of the place that rippled through his spine.He was led to this dark looking office with one large window that was curtained up, and in front of the window was a man, tall, dark, and imposing. “Thank you, girls.” said the man to the trio, “Now, as for you, who in the Dark Lord’s name are you?”“I am Benjie…and I am a very concerned human being as to the fact that there is a missile headed your way.” said Benjie in the most serious tone he could do.The man simply smiled wryly, “I am Father Blackwood, high priest of the Dark Lord, his highest and unholiest authority on this Earth, and you are stepping inside a school for witches and warlocks…and not for mere mortals, you have made a mistake, mortal!”Benjie shook his head, “I don’t care if the devil him-…oh wait.” that was the moment that it struck him, “I don’t care about your religion, there is a missile headed your way!”The man shook his head, “Girls, you have my permission to Harrow him.”“With pleasure.” said one of the girls, “A simple curse would teach this man a lesson.”The three girls then began encircling him like a trio of lions ensnaring their prey, they were saying something that sounded like an innocent kindergarten rhyme, that is until you start listening to the words. Their curse-placing was interrupted by a noise that began with a soft hum and became louder as it got closer.Benjie looked at his smartphone and it seems that his AI has gotten into the missile but it was still in the process of disarming the warhead. “Look, I’m sorry but-.” he managed to push each of the three girls aside and lunged at Father Blackwood, “Get down!” he shouted as he saw a flash of light through the window that was approaching them.He managed to push Blackwood, and himself, to the floor as something crashed through the window above their heads, they could feel splinters of wood and pieces of glass raining above their heads. Benjie looked up and saw a hole where the window was and another hole across the room where the door was, and also where the hallway wall was.He assisted Blackwood up as well as the girls, “By the Dark Lord’s name, you saved us!?” hissed Blackwood, both thankful and disappointed about it; imagine, to be saved by a mere mortal!“You’re welcome, now to check on that thing…” he said as the girls dusted themselves off and tried to get a hang of things, “excuse me.” he added before going out through where the door was.“After him.” said Blackwood to the girls.Blackwood and the girls followed and ended up at the main hall where the missile had destroyed the statue of the Dark Lord and it was surrounded by onlookers, both students and groundskeepers alike. “Make way, make way!” howled Blackwood, the crowd parted like a certain sea which due to the religious differences between them and their religion, they’re unable to say the name of the sea, but it started with an ‘R’ and it was split by a man with the name that started with an ‘M’.Benjie had never seen the likes of the missile before, it was both a mix of sophistication and art, the art of warfare and precision delivered death. It was sleek and resembled that of a miniature stealth fighter. “This thing here is a piece of beauty!” exclaimed Benjie in his most excited and geeky tone anyone could imagine, like a kid on Christmas Day. “Thankfully it did not blow up.” he added when he saw the expression on Blackwood’s face.Blackwood sighed, “Everyone, clear the area, return to where you were going!” he ordered and the crowd scattered.Benjie was holding a canister, “This here is the warhead.” he said, “Computer armed, impact detonated, this thing is a bunker buster!” he showed the warhead to a disgusted Blackwood.“That thing desecrated the image of our Dark Lord!” exclaimed Blackwood.“But at least it did not blow you, me, and everyone else sky high, this thing could have blown up the entire place!” exclaimed Benjie.“Who sent this thing?” asked Blackwood.Benjie shrugged, “I don’t know.”They then heard a soft buzzing noise, like that of a propeller powered aircraft flying outside, Benjie was unsure of what it was but had a really bad hunch as to what it really was. He ran out through the door, looked up at the sky and saw what looked like a spotter drone. Whoever called the strike wanted to make sure that the target was really destroyed, and another chilling thought seeped into his psyche; it might be his own country who targeted these people.***Sometimes the image of cloaked individuals around a table or a fire would always be the most acceptable image of villains plotting for world domination, but sometimes it could be bested by the image of military officers around a war room in some underground bunker, or better yet, somewhere public yet secretive, say the White House.The Secretary of Defense had fire in his eyes as he saw that English-Scottish face on the screen seemingly smiling at their eyes in the sky, he stood up and walked quickly to the screen, “Who the hell is that?” he hissed, pointing at the face.The Director of the C.I.A shook his head as he recalled the face of that specific guy, “Benjamin Holt, he’s one of our ‘Five Eyes’ assets, a joint operative for the M.I.6 and the C.I.A, highly dangerous, this man is a graduate of Oxford, before pursuing studies in the Royal Military Academy, he was then brought into the experimental Cyber Warfare Unit of the British Armed Forces, and then he was recruited by the Five Eyes agreement program through the M.I.6.”The Secretary of Defense spun around and looked at their Naval Attache, “Did the missile arm in the first place?”The Naval officer nodded, “Yes sir, the USS Zumwalt has confirmed a missile launch and successful arming.”“Then why is this satanic school still there!?” snapped the Secretary, pointing at the screen, “Can you please check with the Zumwalt’s tactical officer again?”The Naval Attache wore his headset and spoke with the tactical officer of the Zumwalt, he then shook his head and reported to the Secretary “Mister Secretary, Zumwalt is reporting that their missile either malfunctioned or was hacked into.”The Pentagon Attache raised his hand, “Sir, we have reports that Benjamin Holt had contact with Specula, and he said that he had spotted a missile.”“What, so you’re telling me that he was driving around with an Air Force radar is it!?” said the Secretary.The Pentagon Attache shook his head, “I’m sorry sir, but Specula has not confirmed that.”The Secretary rubbed the temples of his head, Specula was the Pentagon’s anti-occult unit, the idea is that - and he would admit that it was HIS idea - the Pentagram of the devil against the forces of the Pentagon and NATO united. “Is he helping these people now?” he asked, referring to Benjamin.“Well, sir, he surely knows everything about them now.” said the Director of the C.I.A, “I am not sure if that makes him an asset…”“Of ours or of them?”The Director remained silent for a moment, “But sir, he’s a British Citizen working for the United States, we can’t just kill him.”The Secretary frowned, “Not without the consent of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, if she hears of this, I think she’ll be signing a death warrant for him as soon as possible.”“Well this is what we get for having the Five Eyes.” remarked the Director.The Five Eyes agreement was signed between the United States, United Kingdom, and their allies - three other nations, thus the Five Eyes moniker - in that any intelligence gathered by any member state would be forwarded to the other four. Recently however this agreement was overhauled in order to tackle the threats of the occult and the paranormal.“The Five Eyes is to help us clampdown on the Occult, Director.” sneered the Secretary, “I would like to remind you that the man right there on the screen better be on our side or else we’ll be the sorry ones!”The Five Eyes Attache snappily and suddenly reported, “Sir, I have the Foreign Secretary Jim Hacker of the United Kingdom on the line.”The Secretary of Defense nodded, “Put him on my line.” he said as he reached for his phone.
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On the other side of the Atlantic, at Whitehall, number Ten Downing Street, a middle aged servant of the Crown slammed the phone after the short but worrying conversation with their ‘friends’ on the other side of the pond. They wanted to kill their OWN agent, the absurdity of it!He is however aware of what is at stake, the national security issue of witches and warlocks had not gotten to the table of Westminster yet but it has been the daily talk around Number Ten Downing Street, the office and home of the Prime Minister, the halls of M.I.6, maybe even at the HQ of the Tory and Labour Parties, respectively.Technically, as far as the joint Labour-Conservative government was concerned, he was the man authorized in issuing death warrants, or what anyone would call ‘The License to Kill’, to M.I.6 and Five Eyes Operatives respectively, their acceptable targets included anyone except the Queen and the five next heirs to the throne.Secretary James ‘Jim’ Hacker adjusted his black necktie and ran the conversation in his head again just to get a hold of things; “Hello, this is the Foreign Secretary.”“This is the Secretary of Defense from the White House, now, we’re keeping it clear and simple, we have a potentially rogue agent in our midst and he’s from your side, he’s a Benjamin Holt, and we’re requesting clearance to terminate this man, this has something to do with the efforts of Five Eyes.”“Okay, I shall forward this to the Prime Minister.” and that’s where he slammed the phone down.On the one hand, he has the authority at that moment to terminate and disavow the agent on the spot, but something was hammering at his head to withhold any decision on the man until he has all the information available at his fingertips.Well he did know that the Five Eyes - a coalition of countries, mainly the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand - are about to go on an offensive against the Devil himself. So far the M.I.5 and the M.I.6 were ordered, by Hacker, to track down witch covens but not to kill them…yet.There was a knock on the door, making him jolt a little on his chair, “Minister, it’s me, Sir Humphrey.” said the voice.The Minister turned around and said “Come in, Sir Humphrey.”“Minister, it has come to my attention that the United States has started doing what they’re good at…launching missiles.” said the somewhat old, but not too old, head of M.I.6.Hacker got off his chair, “What?” he was surprised.Sir Humphrey rolled his eyes, “It’s called Intelligence Sharing, you see, the Americans had given to us vital information on their action to use a cruise missile onto a supposed school of witches and warlocks.”“So was it a success?” prompted Hacker.Humphrey shook his head, “We had our Five Eyes attache report that the Americans suspect an agent, a British agent, in managing to hack into and disable the missile before making kinetic impact with the target, we’re still waiting for the reports on the actual damage caused, however I’m not expecting a lot.”Hacker blinked theatrically, the Director of M.I.6 had the seemingly ever present problem of talking a lot, “Okay, what are we even supposed to do with this agent?”“You can sign his death warrant.” said Sir Humphrey.Hacker waved the idea away with a hand, “I cannot.”“What do you mean you cannot?”Hacker sighed, “I do not like the way the Americans have been conducting this operation.”Sir Humphrey nodded sympathetically, “I also do not like the way the Colonies have been fighting their wars but alas, we cannot do anything about it now can we? Anyway, they want to kidnap this Sabrina Spellman, and they have been using a hired gun, a warlock, to lead that operation.”Another voice joined the conversation, “Why would they want to kidnap Sabrina Spellman?”The sudden and abrupt appearance of the voice jolted the two men, “Bernard, please stop planting bugs in the Minister’s office!” howled Sir Humphrey.They heard the door creak open and saw a man that was younger than the two and was a whole lot bigger - as in of a bigger build - than the aging men, “Bernard, the head of the S.O. unit of M.I.6, the Special Operatives, a unit made to deal with terrorists…and witches.” said Hacker with a grin.Bernard nodded, he resembled the typical British super agent in every film imaginable, “Anyhow, why would they want to kidnap Sabrina Spellman?”“Hey, being the daughter of an old high priest of the Church of the Devil makes you a very notable asset to the Five Eyes.” said Sir Humphrey, “We must not forget that it was our fault for bringing witchcraft into that side of the Atlantic, and now we’re hard pressed to destroy it.”Hacker wrinkled his eyebrows, oh boy, it was his fault for getting Five Eyes involved, he had always been fascinated by the unusual existence of magic and had established the S.O. unit at M.I.6, it was top secret initially until the disappearance of a young man named Harvey Kinkle, that is before he was found at the grounds of the Philippine Consulate near Greendale.The Republic of the Philippines filed what was basically a ‘What in God’s name is this!?’ resolution at the United Nations with regards to the incident, he was at Manila to oversee the signature of the Bangsamoro Treaty at the Malacanang Palace - a treaty to end a decades long civil war in the Philippines, which the United Kingdom had been keeping an eye on - when the news broke of what happened.As Foreign Secretary, and thus as the point person for M.I.5 and M.I.6 with regards to international issues, he took the opportunity to approach President Quezon of the Philippines and offer his support to investigate and sort this out.Things became complicated as he decided to bring the issue to the table at a Five Eyes meeting in an undisclosed bunker in the Swiss Alps, he had not known of the U.S. effort in hunting down the witches and warlocks, and their geopolitical might and power ended up taking the reins away from his hands.This ends now.He took a deep breath, “Bernard is right, why do they want to kidnap Miss Spellman?”“Oh no, Minister, don’t tell me that the glancing spear of ethics and morality had hit you in the chest right now.” said Sir Humphrey sardonically.Hacker raised a hand, “I know what you’re thinking, and this is what I have to say, the Americans want to kidnap Sabrina Spellman, and maybe any other members of the Spellman family, so that they could use magic as a weapon.”“Well it’s obvious that we need magic to fight magic, Minister.” said Sir Humphrey.“But don’t you think that giving magic to the government is a good idea?” said Hacker, “My idea of bringing this to the Five Eyes was to track good and bad witches and warlocks, terminate those marked as bad and allow the good ones to live. Kidnapping and exploiting was never part of the equation.”Sir Humphrey shrugged, “Minister, what do you plan to do with the agent then?” he asked.Hacker glanced at the two men, “Wouldn’t you think that there is a more sinister force at play here, gentlemen?”Sir Humphrey nodded, “Well, Minister, if the policy is not to kidnap witches and warlocks and to use their power, then someone within the United States has been circumnavigating that rule by using a hired warlock. I don’t think that all of Washington D.C. knows about this, or if they do, then they don’t care about this rule.”“But, Minister, why should we care as to what they’ll be doing?” asked Humphrey.“Our Intelligence on magic is much more than that of the C.I.A, and we have attempted to kidnap a witch and try to have her use her magic on our targets…it always backfired.” said Hacker, and he wasn’t lying, a secret document from the 1400s - if true - had a Catholic Priest and an agent of His Majesty’s Government to kidnap a witch and have her use magic against the enemies of the Crown…it resulted in a public scare which they had to exploit and turn into a witch hunt in order for their plot to remain hidden.Humphrey rubbed his hands together, “So, what is the plan then, Minister?” he asked.The Minister nodded, “Fullerton.”“I’m sorry, what?” asked Humphrey.“Fullerton…the retrieval system.” said Hacker, “The HMS Queen Elizabeth is in the Atlantic, right?”“Sitting right beside the U.S.S. Zumwalt when the operation to destroy the devil school began.” said Humphrey.“Can you two inform the Lord Admiralty of the Royal Navy to send out a Fullerton plane to retrieve our agent?” he then added, “If the agent knows his training, he should know what the code name ‘Fullerton’ should mean.”“Yes, Minister.” said Humphrey.“So we retrieve him, where do we get him?” asked Bernard.“On the HMS Queen Elizabeth.” replied Hacker.“But what if we needed him where he’s at right now?” said Bernard, “Listen, we might be able to communicate with him and get to the bottom as to who’s really been driving this crazy operation to purportedly kidnap a witch.”The images of the graphic description of the top secret document surfaced into the Minister’ conscience, the horror of forcing someone to do magic…the witch may comply or may leave a lethal spell that would kill everyone, or worse, start a mass hysteria that would shake the governments of the Five Eyes to the ground.Hacker nodded, “So who’ll lead a Commando squad to secure him?”Bernard smirked, “I’ll get a plane to the HMS Queen Elizabeth and deploy to Greendale, I’ll be there within 24 hours or less.”“So should I still get a Fullerton retrieval plane on the ready?” asked Humphrey.“Yes, just in case these two would need immediate extraction.” said Hacker, jerking his thumb at Bernard.“Yes, Minister.” said Bernard and Humphrey in unison.***Benjie felt like a hunted and wanted man, in fact he had that feeling that he would be killed right after he realized what he has done, he may or may have not gotten in the way of some top secret military operation of his side, he was just a technical support staff of some spy-exchange program and he had not been briefed of any missile attack or test…or a missile attack disguised as a test.He stood there outside the school for the devil spawns with his mouth slackened, his imagination ran wild at that very instant, he imagined being hunted down by American agents who wanted him dead for foiling their plan and making them look bad.He has no idea what he had gotten himself into, but it’s most likely not to be a pretty one. He shook his head, he doesn’t know if he should run back to a friendly intelligence safe house - he doesn’t know what ‘friendly’ means now - or if he should seek refuge with these weird people. A thought surfaced into his consciousness, he looked at the electric car that had been issued to him by whatever organization he was working for, at first it was clearly M.I.6, and then C.I.A, and then it all became a blur, a concoction of espionage.That electric car had an autopilot and other features that just screamed deathtrap, his own buddies - or now former buddies - at the C.I.A would simply hack into the autopilot and crash the car with him in it while going at Freeway speeds. He approached the car and opened the trunk, it was like those in the movies; a trunk full of armaments and gadgets.A Walter PPK pistol and its underarm sling holster with an option for a silencer, a special briefcase that had a submachine gun built into it, a long coat made out of top secret Kevlar that included a canister of tear gas and a grenade, and then there’s a wad of cash for acquiring things within the vicinity, and those were just the things hidden in the trunk.Before abandoning the car, he had stashed everything that he could underneath his long coat - mainly the pistol, a bunch of magazines for both the pistol and the submachine gun, a grenade, a tear gas canister, the stack of money - and everything else in the briefcase - slash - submachine gun. Lastly, he found a special black umbrella, possibly made out of Kevlar too.Benjie looked at the car for one last time and decided to send it out for one last ride, he programmed the self-driving AI to go back to where it came from, the CIA HQ at Langley.As he was about to high-tail it out of the vicinity, he spotted a young blonde-white haired woman wearing black who was flanked by two young men, and the three were hurrying towards the school, or whatever that place was.“I swear I saw a goddamned missile!” exclaimed Luis.Sabrina’s mouth was wide open when she saw the hole on the side of her school, “It seems that you were right.” she said.Benjie was about to approach them but then suddenly, maybe through magic as guessed by the agent, Blackwood appeared in front of the three and said “Ah, Miss Spellman, Mister Scratch…and-…another mortal?!”“What do you mean by another mortal?” asked Sabrina.Luis smirked and hummed a tune, “The phantom of the Opera is here…” he sang in jest.Blackwood jerked a thumb at Benjie’s direction, “That mortal there just supposedly saved the school from a missile…or whatever those mortals are up to this time.”Luis’ heart sank, it was what they suspected months ago, some sort of possible war between mortals and the witches, how could a missile be stopped by magic? They can’t, or so he suspected.“I am sorry but…why?” said Sabrina.Blackwood turned to Benjie and pointed at him, “We shall ask him that.”Benjie had his thumb on top of the hidden trigger at the handle of the briefcase, he may have been only an I.T. support staff, but he had been trained in being a spy in the old fashioned sense, “I do not know why they fired the missile but I managed to hack into it and disable the warhead…with Artificial Intelligence, but I couldn’t do that anymore.”Who the hell was he kidding!? If his suspicions were true, if there was someone in the C.I.A or the M.I.6 that want him dead, he wouldn’t have access to the support cloud computers, which means that he would be unable to pull off that miraculous hacking again.“Anyhow, if you’d excuse me, I have some more important things to do.” said Benjie.“Wait, stop.” said Sabrina, “I have been receiving…dreams of someone, mortals, hunting me…”Benjie stopped, and turned around, “I couldn’t answer that…but something tells me that me saving that school just made me the enemy of my own side, so we’re both worrying about our safety now aren’t we, lassie!?” he faked a cough, “Sorry.” he hurriedly apologized.“How could you know or even begin to suspect that you’ve been disavowed?” asked Luis.“There was a U.S. naval drone spotter flying overhead that had been observing the target, that’s your red flag right there.” said Benjie, “Look, I have no idea what’s up between you bunch and my bunch but I have nothing to do with it!”“So you’re just planning to go out there on your own?” said Sabrina.“Why do you care about what happens to me?” asked Benjie.Luis smirked, “Well, you see, let’s just say that we’ve been running into the world of espionage and their interaction with witches. I may be a human, as in mortal, friend of Sabrina here but trust me when I say that if they have intensified their war against the occult, then you must be careful.”“Why, aren’t you afraid of them?” asked Benjie.Luis shook his head, “That’s because they may risk a geopolitical crisis of allies if they killed me, I mean my country gives the U.S. two options; treat me well or we’ll boot out your troops.”Benjie had his finger pointing at him, “You’re a kid of some diplomat, aren’t you?”“My father is the Consul of the Philippine Consulate near Greendale, why?” said Luis.Benjie realized that this kid must be the craziest he has ever met, and that the girl beside him was equally more weirder but in the supernatural and paranormal way, “Okay, is there anywhere we could eat?”“There’s a diner in Greendale…but if we’re going to be working together, I would like to hear from you about what you can tell us.” said Sabrina.“Not a lot,” said Benjie, he then shrugged, “but I’ll say as much as I can.”***Viktor felt himself being shaken awake by the Coroner, “Huh…what?” he slurred as awareness set in.“We’re here now, in Turkey.” said the Coroner, “We won’t be here for long though, we’ll be boarding an airplane to fly us to the United States, I’ll explain everything as we go along. Now, move!”The door of the stealth helicopter was opened and Viktor was escorted to an airplane - an unmarked white Boeing 737 - and was seated in one of the modified cabins, they were not going to fly a bunch of passengers like on the normal jet airliners and as such the modified airplane was a flying office of some sorts.Viktor was seated on a big airplane seat with a desk in front of it and another chair in front of him that seated the Coroner.Once the plane had left the Turkish soil and was headed to the United States, Viktor leaned forward and began asking questions, “So, what the hell is going on with you and those guys?”The Coroner nodded, “Do you know Sabrina Spellman?”“Yes.” said Viktor.“The Majestic 12 and Delta were sequestered by the Secretary of Defense and placed in this multi-national spy network known as Five Eyes, and this organization has now made it their objective to hunt down the occult.” explained the Coroner.Viktor nodded, “But why do you need me?”“I’m part of the group of the Secretary of Defense that runs the circus, and we need allies and operatives that has experience in handling the paranormal, you must understand that we’re looking to control the supernatural and paranormal, be it through acquisition of items…or through kidnapping witches.”“I’m sorry, you want to kidnap witches?” said Viktor.The Coroner simply smirked, “Sabrina Spellman is our first target, I have notified the Secretary of Defense - to which he agreed - as well as the Director of M.I.6, though the Brits are yet to decide whether they would go all in or not.”“But why her?” asked Viktor.“Why not? She’s easily accessible and is said to be half-mortal and half-witch, something that the Five Eyes need.”Viktor was confused, he shook his head, “I’m sorry, why would you want control of such magic this badly?”The Coroner wielded his hand in front of him, “Don’t you lie to me now, Viktor, you know that the remnants of the KGB would kill for this magic.”Viktor nodded, “I know they would kill for this magic, but they only want artifacts…you’re planning to kidnap an actual witch!”“Are you really with us or with them?” asked the Coroner.“I’m with you now, do I have any other choice? I only want to know the magical properties of several artifacts and not to control it, we cannot control magic…I tried.” said Viktor.“But we’ll try harder.” replied Coroner.Viktor sighed, these Americans are way more crazier than he thought, “So what’s with the assembly of important personnel, I mean why do you need me?”“Every person counts.” said the Coroner.
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Benjie rode along with Luis and Sabrina while Nick decided to stay at the school for whatever reason he had, Benjie didn’t really care, but what was important is that they’re stuck together with the same problem and that they must find a solution.They went to a diner in Greendale, the name did not matter to the agent, all he wanted was to know what the hell was going on, did these people actually practice dark magic or was it all just make believe?They were seated in a table opposite the door on the far end of the somewhat empty diner, “So hang a minute, you people do magic?” asked Benjie.Sabrina nodded, “Yes, I am a witch and guys are called warlocks, that school are for people like us in order to help us form our skills.”“So curses, summoning, and the likes you see in horror films and stories?” said Benjie, rubbing the side of his head.“Yes, that is what we do.” said Sabrina.“Why did you save the school?” asked Luis.Benjie paused for a moment, “Because I thought that a missile flying over civilian land is that of an enemy’s, who the hell fires a cruise missile into a civilian area?”Luis nodded in agreement, “Good point, but you were never told of any friendly missile drill?”Benjie shook his head, “I’m just a support staff for both the M.I.6 and the C.I.A, you know, alliance stuff…they don’t tell me much.” he then added, “So, wait, you people are being hunted by the government or what?”“They are snooping on them.” answered Luis, he then leaned forward, “A bunch of spooks tried sneaking into their house to steal some things and that was, what, five or six months ago…barely a year.”“These spooks were agents of some government?”“Russians.” answered Luis.“Must be tiring as hell.” said Benjie to Sabrina.“It’s just beginning.” admitted Sabrina, after all her life changed on her sixteenth birthday…which was only six months ago.The door clanged open as a bunch of rowdy high school jocks of the Baxter High Football team entered the diner, they didn’t mind them and neither did they. “Those arrogant bullies.” hissed Luis beneath his breath.They ate in silence, anymore discussions about the weirdness of the place might be overheard by those jocks.The door opened again and this time it revealed a more familiar face, that of Susie and Roz, classmates of Sabrina and of Luis. They were about to wave them hello but unfortunately the jocks took notice of them as well, “Hey it’s that ugly weirdo!” one of them said, referring to Susie.Susie and Roz ignored them and tried to reach Sabrina’s table, but one of the jocks pushed Susie, “Are you a guy or a girl or what, weirdo!”“Maybe she’s one of those who wants to be a guy.” said another.Sabrina stood up, “Leave him alone!”“Oh so it’s a guy, this thing wants to be a guy, what like us?” said another jock which was followed by a chorus of humiliating laughter.Luis noticed that Benjie was being bothered by this incident, in fact the agent stood up and approached the bullies, “I highly suggest that you restate what you’ve said and apologize.”“Hey look, this old man is telling us to screw off!” said the biggest of the bunch, “I think you should leave, we don’t let anyone off easily, I think that you should walk away now.”To everyone’s surprise, mostly Luis and Sabrina, the agent walked to the door, much to the joy of the bullies, but then they heard the doors being bolted and a bang of the chair hitting the floor as Benjie barricaded the one and only front door.Benjie saw it in a movie before, “Manners. Maketh. Man.” he said, with each sound - the bolt of the door, the twisting of the lock, and the dragging of the chair - punctuating each word.The bullies began to surround Benjie, it was a seven against one situation and Benjie wanted to make sure that each and every single one would be sent to the ICU of a hospital…even if they had to call an air ambulance…if he couldn’t help himself.“Do you know what that means?” said Benjie, he left the submachine gun at the table but he had the umbrella with him. “Maybe I’ll teach you a lesson.”Benjie was considered to be very athletic, and his javelin throwing - as well as his knife throwing training - paid off at that moment, he managed to throw the umbrella like a javelin at one of the bullies, the pointed end pierced the abdomen and the man fell backwards.“Are we going to stand around all day or are we going to fight?” challenged Benjie.The biggest of the jocks lunged at him, but Benjie managed to dodge the punch and the momentum smashed the bully against a pillar, Benjie managed to choke hold him and held him at gunpoint with his pistol as his hostage, “Listen to me you hooligans, it’s either you drag your piss of a friend there and leave or I’ll have all of you shot!”Benjie noticed that they seemed to have given up, he decided to add, “I’ll give you a way to get out of here, don’t worry.”He may be relatively smaller but he had training in manhandling different types of dangerous people, he managed to force the big jock to smash through a window and allowed physics to bite him in the ass, mainly when his face met the dirt…and when he coughed up blood.Benjie pointed the gun at the other jocks, “Leave through this window, now!”The others raised their hands and got out through the window along with their fallen friend, Benjie on the other hand walked to the pool of blood where his umbrella is, he picked up his umbrella and laid it against a nearby wall, leaving a trail of blood leading away from the puddle.He went back to the table while the shocked faces of Sabrina, Susie, and Roz met him, while Luis was that of amazement and horror. “Hang on, I thought you were just some IT guy.” said Luis.Benjie tried to hide his pride, “Well, I’ll be honest with you, I had my stint with physical fights, I hold a black belt in Taekwondo, and I am good at fencing, and boxing.”Luis was smiling, “Goddamn!” he raised his glass of Iced Tea, “I’ll drink to that!”Benjie smiled and met the glass of Iced Tea with his own glass of Coca-Cola, “Cheers to you then.”***The Secretary of Defense frowned at the answer of his boss who was seated right in front of him, “I’m sorry, Mister President?” He had planned to execute Operation Ensnare as soon as possible, they already had their group of experts assembled, including the one from Russia, but he needed one more thing, the authorization of the President.“I’m sorry, I cannot let you for now.” said the President.“But Mister President, our target can be captured by tonight at the most.” said the Secretary of Defense.“Your target is an American citizen on U.S. Soil, your group is meant to keep an eye on foreign witches, I have assigned the F.B.I. to keep an eye on local matters of the occult.” said the President.“But what are they going to do?” asked the Secretary of Defense.“Whatever they will be doing, now if you please, Mister Secretary, I have other business to attend to.” said the President.The Secretary of Defense nodded firmly and tried leaving the Oval Office with an air of professionalism and dignity, however his efforts soon died out upon reaching the hall outside the office, he promptly tore the authorization document with the ‘rejection’ stamp on it and chucked it down a nearby vase.How could their own President reject their operation to capture Sabrina Spellman? They had their ambitions to use a witch like her to lead them to their real objectives; the destruction of the Church of Night and the development of what was called as Spice Melange, the attempt to take magic and turn it into something that could be taken by anyone in order to become an instant magic capable human being.They could punish the enemies of the United States, imagine having a soldier-warlock deployed with a SEAL Team in Iraq or Syria, they could maybe even force Saudi Arabia to sell them oil cheaply or else they’ll find their King, and maybe every firstborn in the Kingdom, dead by daylight!His aide met him at the end of the hallway, “How did it go, Mister Secretary?” asked the aide.“Not good, the President has just rejected our plan.” hissed the Secretary.“So, what now then?” asked the aide.The Secretary stopped and looked him on the eyes, “I have no idea but I will not waste everyone’s time doing nothing.”“Mister Secretary, the Director oft he C.I.A had located our target, Benjamin Holt, he’s in Greendale…and yes, he has been spotted with Sabrina Spellman.”The Secretary shook his head as they reached the front doors of the White House, “The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has not approved of terminating the agent, although she says that she is inclined to when she finds out that their agent has been mingling with witches.”“Well he has been causing trouble.” said the aide.“Oh has he?” the Secretary raised an eyebrow.“He was seen beating up a bunch of bullies in a diner, apparently he was having a meal with Sabrina.” said the aide.The Secretary grinned as he stopped beside his car, “Go and authorize the Director of the C.I.A to forward the information to the Prime Minister.” he said before getting into his car.***Minister Hacker tried looking prim and proper during the Parliamentary proceedings of the day, apparently it was his turn to be seated in the frontbench in order to brief the House on the matters of the Occult alongside the Prime Minister.But in reality it was tiring, he was receiving all sorts of questions from all parties, both those who are outside of the Coalition and even some of their own Members of Parliament are scrutinizing their efforts.“Mister Speaker, does the Minister know of this Sabrina Spellman person and why she is so important to the Five Eyes?” asked a Labour MP.The Speaker called his office, “Minister!” bellowed the Speaker, calling for him to stand up and answer.Hacker stood up and approached the dispatch box, “Mister Speaker, that is something I cannot truly answer as our allies have their own position, however for us, as long as it is magic, then we must keep a close eye on it.” Another question, “Mister Speaker, will the Minister confirm or deny the possibility that other allies may be either arresting or even terminating our own agents, our own citizens?”Hacker went pale, he knew that it’s a necessity to have that plan at hand just in case if any agent were to go rogue given the tempting nature of the occult, but then if he were to actually confirm it…“It is my policy to keep the interest of our country first, we would allow only arrest but never killing our own citizens.” said Hacker.The Prime Minister raised her hand and said ‘point of order’, to which the Speaker announced, “Point of Order, Prime Minister.”The Prime Minister stood up, “Mister Speaker, may I answer the Right Honourable Gentleman by stating that yes we do have the contingency plan of having our allies terminate our own citizens should they be possessed or corrupted by the evils of the occult.”“Mister Speaker, does the Prime Minister know that this is a serious aberration of the rights of our citizens?”The Prime Minister’s reply, “Mister Speaker, our coalition’s view is that the taint of the devil is serious and as such some lines must be crossed in order to keep our country safe.”“Such as canceling Brexit?” heckled an MP, arousing laughter across the chamber, “Oh boy, let’s cancel Brexit in order to handle this Sabrina Spellman problem…by that I would then like to apologize to the Right Honourable MP who shares the same last name with the witch.”The Prime Minister decided to laugh along, “Mister Speaker, I recognize the Right Honourable Member’s sense of humor, however in all seriousness, we have postponed Brexit for the sake of fighting the Occult.”The Speaker called the next MP, resuming the questioning, “Mister Speaker, will the Minister agree or disagree that Parliament should have a say as to whether or not the termination should occur?”“Mister Speaker, I say that we could not let Parliament handle things that require immediate decision on, however they are more than welcome to question our decisions.” said Hacker.He felt a tap on his shoulder, it was the Prime Minister, “Oh yes, Prime Minister?”“When questioned in the future as to why you had to terminate anyone, do not answer.” said the Prime Minister as the next MP was asking her question, thankfully for Hacker it was an economic related question, it was a question of spending.The answer was as generic as it was effective, “The House can question that spending at any time, just submit a motion to question and we will be briefing this House on matters of expenditure.”The Speaker checked his paper, “We shall now move on to a petition by the MP for Dervenshire.”The Prime Minister motioned for Hacker to follow her out of the chamber, to which Hacker silently obeyed. As they exited the Commons chamber, they were stopped by Humphrey, “Minister, Prime Minister, I’ve received a call from our counterparts in the United States…”“What is it about, Humphrey?” asked the Prime Minister.“They have found our agent to have possibly gone rogue.” said Humphrey.The news was a shock for the Prime Minister but a suspicious one for Hacker, “What have they said?”They continued walking down the hallways of Westminster, “Well, you see, the Secretary of Defense has requested for permission to terminate the agent on the grounds that he could have been…well…tainted.”“We shall speak of this in the car, Minister.” the Prime Minister said to Hacker.“Yes, Prime Minister.” replied Hacker.“As for you, Mister Humphrey, keep up the good work.” said the Prime Minister.Humphrey bowed his head and replied “Thank you, I shall be going off now.”The motorcade of the Prime Minister waited outside Parliament, the two remained silent until the police-slash-bodyguard closed the door, “So, what is your opinion, Minister?”Hacker nodded, “Prime Minister, we cannot let them terminate our citizen, I have sent our own team to see if whether or not he has fallen to the devil.”“Are you saying that you risked the lives of other Brits in order to check on someone who is most likely evil by now?” said the Prime Minister scornfully.“We can arrest him or have him killed by our own gun, but only after we send someone to confirm anyone’s suspicions, be it the United States or our own hunch.” said Hacker.“That won’t work, it would only lead to this evilness to spread like a disease to servicemen and agents who would be sent to deal with this rogue agent.” said the Prime Minister sternly.“But, Prime Minister, we don’t even know how this evilness spreads, or even if it does spread like a disease.”The Prime Minister held up a hand, “I’m sorry, but I need to order you to sign the termination papers of this agent.”Hacker wanted to reply ‘If you make me sign that thing, I’ll keep a copy with your name on it!’ but instead he sighed and answered, “Yes, Prime Minister.”***Day would always have to make way for the night, Benjie promptly left Luis and his friends in the diner after finishing their meals, he was looking for a place to stay for the night, somewhere safe and where he wouldn’t be shot at by anyone.He was unsure if it was paranoia but he was convinced that he was being hunted down by the government, most likely by his own and surely by those of the allies of his country’s government, and as such he decided not to ask the kid of the diplomat if he could stay at their house, that might get them into trouble.He quickly made his way through Greendale, wary of each step and each person that could see him, to a small and rundown motel, he took extra precautions such as requesting the front desk to tell no one of him being here, and also by having a gun at the ready.The lock clicked and he opened his door, only to find a tall and striking figure seated by the couch, “Ah, you’re that mortal again.”Benjie recognized the man, “You’re that Blackwood person, aren’t you?”The tall man did not stand up, “I had something to speak with you, Mister Holt.” said Faustus.“Well, whatever it is I hope it would be worth your time of finding me and using your magic-kahoons and what not to make me come here.” said Benjie, throwing his briefcase on the bed and kicking the door shut behind him.“Your actions to save me…to save us, why did you do it?” asked Faustus.Benjie sighed, “Because I thought that no military or civilian government should be targeting civilian targets.”“But you do know that we are more than humans, right?” said Faustus.Benjie nodded, “Oh yes, but none the less, what the military did was beyond protocol.”Faustus did not smirk but somehow the sound he made gave the impression that he did, “Not a lot of witches know this, but there are a group of mortals who I believe should be respected by our kind.”After a few moment of silence, Faustus prompted, “Do you know why?” while raising an eyebrow.Benjie sat on the bed, “Because they helped you?”Faustus nodded, “Sit still and listen to what I have to say, it concerns with the witch trials.”Benjie leaned forward, “Did you just say witch trials?”Faustus nodded, “During the witch trials…when those who sought to be free were prosecuted for it, a group of brave mortals stood up for them.”
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The young girl only known as the witch had a name, she was Thomasin and her hands were tied as the village was up in arms against her, she was being shoved towards the town center by a pair of the most burly men they could find. She was found guilty of witchcraft by a tribunal.The Company Captain lowered his spyglass and turned to their Regiment Commander, “Commander, it seems that they’re putting another girl to the stake.”The Regiment Commander lowered his spyglass as well, “This is an outrage!” he shook his fist at the distant villagers, he knew damn well that the young woman was innocent.“How is it so, sir?” asked the Captain.“I testified for her a few days ago.” said the Commander, “she was accused of being a witch by some farm children.”“What did you tell them?”The Commander raised his right hand, “I, as a loyal soldier of His Majesty, the King, do solemnly testify that the accused is innocent of the charges put against her.” he then lowered his hand, “That’s exactly what I did and what I said.”He then shook his head, “Captain, I am ordering you to take your Company of Cavalry with the Regimental Standard and tell them ‘IN the name of the King of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and of these Colonies,I order for this crowd to disperse or else!’, and also call the entire Regiment to attention, we would be marching towards the village.”The Captain was shaken but he was taught to follow the orders of his superiors, “Yes, sir.” he said before dashing back to his mount and getting the bugle, he sounded the tune to order the entire Regiment to attention.Men of the redcoats stopped whatever they were doing and packed up their tents, their meal tins, and loaded their muskets once they heard the bugle sing. While they did so, the cavalry company of the Regiment sped off towards the village.The Commander mounted his white war horse and unsheathed his sword, he roared “Men of Harlech, do you want to live forever!?” it was their rallying cry.The men of the Regiment all cheered in unison with some raising their muskets, they were then waved to silence by the Commander raising a hand, “Regiment, by the left, quick march!”The drums beat to a tune of a quick march, they were in a hurry, the village was not far off from their encampment.The Company Captain and the Cavalry arrived before the footmen did, they were seen as a group of horsemen charging at the village with the colors of the King and of the Regiment proudly flying in the wind.The ruckus caused by the villagers stopped, they were just about to set alight the wood and hay they piled beneath the feet of the witch, the head of the village was said to have turned to the judge that condemned the witch and said “Even His Majesty the King agrees to have her killed.”But then they heard the order of the Company Captain, “I order the crowd to disperse in the name of the King!” he shouted, stabbing the ground with the union jack.“What do you mean by disperse?” shouted a puritan preacher.“I say disperse, this atrocity of justice will not continue!” replied the Captain.“Stand your ground!” shouted the ‘mayor’ of the town to the villagers, his official title was custodian of the village, “Now, I tell you that this witch right here was found guilty of witchcraft and that she is to be put to death!”The Captain heard the faint and distant beat of the Regimental drums, it was at a quick paced beat, the entire might of a Regiment of the most powerful and well equipped army in the world would be brought upon these villagers in a few minutes.“Fine then, if you continue to defy the words of the King, then I wish you good luck when the might of the sword drops on ye!” said the Captain, he plucked the flag from the ground and sped off to the distance, his fellow cavalrymen following not far behind.The Regiment Commander saw the cavalry riding back towards them at a trot, a sharp but distinct disruption of the drum beat signaled for the Regiment to stop.“What happened?” asked the Commander.“Commander, the villagers refused to follow your orders, sir.” said the Captain, “Even after I told them that this was being done in the name of the King.”The Commander raised his sword, “The Regiment will resume to march, by the left, quick march!”The cavalry rode ahead of the Regiment while the footmen quickly made their way to the town. By the time they reached the village, they saw that the fire was set alight and were quickly enveloping the young woman. The Regiment Commander did something he would never ever dare do again, he clicked his spurs and sent his horse a trotting towards the fire, it seemed that the villagers had simply forced her to stand on a pile of hay with her hands and feet tied and lit the hay on fire.The Commander managed to grab a hold of the young woman’s dress and dragged her away from the fire, he stopped his horse and dismounted as soon as the young woman was far from her supposed execution ground.Seeing that the edges of the young woman’s dress was on fire, he used his officer’s overcoat and beat the fires off of her, he knelt down to the young woman, “Are you alright?”She was shaken, she looked up, her eyes meeting his, “I-…why?”The Commander stood up and quickly whipped out his flintlock pistol on one hand and a sword on the other, as the villagers were approaching them slowly. “That witch has been sentenced to die, what do you think you’re doing!?” yelled a puritan preacher.“I am declaring this to be a mistrial and further resistance to it would lead to Martial Law in the name of the King! Disperse! Disperse or else!” the Commander pointed his sword at them.“You surrender that witch to us or we’ll-…” the villager paused.“You’ll what? Go against four hundred men at arms?” The Commander gestured towards his men who were now in a line of three ranks; the typical battle formation, and had their muskets ready.“God is on our side!” exclaimed another villager.“Present arms!” ordered the Commander.The Regiment ‘aimed’ their muskets; they were not really aiming as much as pointing the business end of their weapons at the general direction of the enemy, or in this case, the villagers.“Stand down, villagers!” the Commander shouted.The villagers did not seem to move, the Commander immediately hustled with the young woman and his horse to behind the line of guns that was the Regiment, “We will leave in peace if you disperse!” said the Commander, the girl clasping onto him.Deep inside every man in the Regiment, they were praying for an end of this standoff, but their prayers seemed unanswered when the leader of the town himself took a stone and threw it at the Regiment, nearly hitting a front rank soldier.“FIRE!” shouted the Commander.***“No one survived.” Faustus wrapped up his story, “No villager survived, and the soldiers and the officers, and the witch, were captured and executed.”Benjie had been listening intently to the story, in fact it amazed him somewhat, “I’m sorry, why did you tell me this?” he asked.“Don’t you get it? We’re on a collision course with your race, and you chose to be the soldiers of the Welch regiment, why?”Benjie held a poker face, neither shrugging nor showing signs of a ‘I do not know’, instead he answered “A missile was about to hit a civilian building…”“Don’t mind the school, how about the whole war that may happen in the near future?”Benjie looked down to the floor and took a deep breath, “To be fair,” he looked up at Blackwood, “all I wanted is to get whatever job given to me done, I do not care much about your side or the other. But I have no choice.”“No choice?”Benjie snapped, “My own race wants me and I am thereby stuck with you!”Faustus stood up, “Thank you, Mister Holt, we shall meet each other again, if you need any refuge, my school is open.” he walked past the bed, through the door and out the room.***Viktor had played the eager informant, in fact he was so eager to keep his mouth shut during the past two meetings between what the Secretary of Defense has called as ‘The Puritans’, which was formed by a bunch of officers and spies from the Five Eyes countries and agencies.Everything seemed to have happened so quickly; he was flown to a military airbase near Washington D.C. before being shoved into the back of a heavily tinted car, and then he was brought to the Pentagon, particularly underneath the Pentagon in a war room.He was seated in the war room, a bunch of large screens on one side, a meeting table in the middle, a line of staff manning computers behind the circular table. They heard a loud thud as the doors were thrown open by a visibly crossed Secretary of Defense.“The President rejected our plan!” hissed the Secretary.“How about that British spy?” asked the Coroner.“We have two assassins in Greendale, they were the one to have reported on the agent’s outburst.” said the Director of the CIA.The Secretary faced the liaison to the MI6, “You Brits train your spies well, even the support personnel, I mean you tell me how a man was able to beat up a bunch of bullies who were bigger and heavier than him.”The Brit took the Secretary’s statements as a compliment, “We do train hard and train well.”“I’ve already sent a request for termination to the Prime Minister.” said the Secretary, “And as for us, well we have been rejected by the President.”Everybody at the table gave a collective sigh and some of those sighs have turned into groans, “We do have one more ace in the sleeve.” said the Secretary, “We can remove the President and install the Vice President.”“Can we trust the Vice President to agree with our plan?” asked an agent from the Naval Intelligence.“The Vice President…there’s a reason why I have not bothered him much, he is more ruthless in this war as I am.” he then smirked, “Poor spare tire to the president.”An aide to the Secretary raised a hand, “Wait, so you’re saying that we’re going to be getting rid of the President?”“Not through killing him of course.” said the Secretary, “But through what the Brits here call it; a Cabinet rebellion.”The Coroner raised a hand, “So, our goal is to capture Sabrina Spellman, what then will we do with her?”“You leave that to the biological division of us.” said the Director of the CIA.Viktor laughed, “You mean you’re going to ship her to Area 51 and cage her there right beside the aliens, eh?”The Secretary laughed, “I guess the Russian has learned a thing or two about humor.”The Director interjected, “Actually, Mister Secretary, that is what we’re going to do. The plan is to find out how the hell is she human and a witch at the same time, is it in the blood? And if so, can we breed witches and warlocks for usage by the United States? I mean I thank the Coroner here for his service, however there is only one of them and we need more.”The Coroner would have gone pale, if he weren’t as pale as he was already, “Wait, you plan to use Sabrina as a stud?”The Director nodded, “Why yes, that’s how you breed people, right?”“So this is what you called ‘Spice Melange’ in your memos.” said the Coroner.“A goal to make a Kwisatch Heiderarch.” said the Secretary in jest, “But in all seriousness, we need to make warlocks and witches, be it through breeding, or injecting a blood of a witch into a normal human.”The Coroner nodded, “I see, may I lead the charge in kidnapping Sabrina?”The Secretary laughed, “You guessed it, I was just about to assign you into that group, but only after we’re in charge.”The Director raised a point, “How are you going to get rid of the President of the United States?”“Just leave that to me and the Vice President.” said the Secretary.One of the radar operators stood up from his chair, “Mister Secretary, we have an aircraft flying towards Greendale.”The Secretary glanced up the big screen, a red blip floated in the midst of a sea of civilian and friendly military aircraft blips, “It has switched off its transponders.” added the radar operator.The liaison to the MI6 had a satellite phone with her, it rang, she answered it and had a quick and one-sided conversation with whoever was on the other side, she then faced the Secretary and said “Mister Secretary, the Prime Minister has contacted me and has said that she has signed the death warrant, and has authorized for all agents to go after him, and sir, the MI6 has sent a plane after him.”The Secretary shrugged, “Huh, the plane must be British then.”“It is, it has been launched from the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier.” said the MI6 liaison, “I was told of this by the Prime Minister.”The Secretary felt like gloating but he had other things to handle and get rid of.***Benjie was awakened in the wee hours of the morning by a thud that came from somewhere on the roof, he looked at the clock, it was half past five in the morning and the sun was just about to get up. He had a gut feeling that something was wrong, he had been sleeping in his slacks and long sleeved polo on and his gun right next to him on the side table.He carefully got out of the bed, making sure not to make any sudden moves or noises, and reached for his gun. A voice then scared him, “Benjie, do you hear me?”He realized then and there that he had forgotten to remove and destroy his earpiece, anyone with the right sensors and frequencies can listen in on what he had been saying.He decided to reply, “Who’s this? How did you get this frequency?” he hoped that it was not an agent of the government sent out against him.In the periphery of his vision, he saw a darkly clad figure swinging towards his window, by the time he faced the window, that figure had crashed through the window, though the person was armed, he was raising his hands, “I was sent by the Minister of Defense to check on you.”Benjie had the gun pointed at the man, “Is it true that I am being hunted, is it?”The man nodded, “I’m sorry to say this but the Americans want you dead.”“Then how about you?” he was close to pulling the trigger, it was either his life or theirs.The man removed his helmet, “Don’t you recognize me?”“C-…Captain Bernard Baxter.” Benjie lowered his gun, “I should have known, the Special Operatives, right?” Bernard had trained Benjie in the art of shooting, close quarters, and general ass kicking, “We know that there is more than one side to the story, and I believed the Minister, you’re not those types to be bribed.”Benjie breathed a sigh of relief, “It all began when a missile flew into civilian territory…”“So you disarmed it before it detonated?”“Yes.” said Benjie, “Though there was impact with the target but no explosion.”“Right, and you knew that the United States had planned this?”Benjie shook his head, “I was not briefed on anything, as far as I was concerned, I thought it was an attack by the enemies of the Five Eyes, but then I saw the Navy spotter drone…I knew that I messed up.”Bernard shook his head, “You did not, I think you did the right thing, we have no clue how magic works, might as well study it first before poking it with a stick.”“So, what now?” asked Benjie.“The Minister wants you to stay in Greendale…however you’re no longer to accept orders from anyone but the Minister.”Benjie shook his head, “Wait, wait, wait, you’re telling me that you want me to stay here?”“Sabrina is in trouble, right?”Benjie kicked the wall beside him, and while trying to stifle a scream of pain managed to turn it into energy for a different outburst, “It’s always that goddamned Sabrina Spellman!”“You do know that she is the daughter of one of the most wanted warlocks in the history of MI6, right?”“Who?” asked Benjie.“Edward Spellman, he was the best warlock that there was, you do know that the predecessors of MI6 had been keeping an eye on magic ever since time immemorial, right?”“SO?” Benjie raised his voice.“You do get the system of-”“No.” Benjie interrupted, “Whatever you’re going to say, I most likely do not know!”“Magic is passed from one person to another via genetics, Miss Spellman…Sabrina is-… a half-witch and a half-mortal…the MI6 has no idea how this happened but it means that a person can be human but also have magic.”It felt as if everything clicked into place so suddenly in Benjie’s head, “Wait, so you’re saying that they want her…because they want to basically use her as a guinea pig?”“We do not know but we’re pegging that as the most likeliest outcome and objective of whoever wants to kidnap her.” said Bernard, “We suspect either the entirety of the Five Eyes, or just some of the cells within it.”“Hold on, to be clear, you want me to be a double agent of the devil and Her Majesty’s government?” said Benjie.“You could not have said it any better.” replied Bernard.Benjie nodded, “Right, so tell my why using her as a guinea pig would be a bad idea?”“Would you really want those guys, they who marched into Iraq under the false pretense of a WMD, to have devilish magical powers?” said Bernard.Benjie did not nod nor shook his head, instead he said, “Alright, so, we save Sabrina, I work undercover for the Church of the Night, somehow find who’s planning to kidnap Sabrina and foil them, and Bob’s your uncle.”Bernard nodded, “That’s the spirit!” he patted Benjie on the back.“But that means the Americans are no longer our friends?” clarified Benjie.“They are our friends officially, but as for you…well…”Benjie rubbed his face, “Okay, okay, do I get any tools, gadgets…or something from MI6?”Bernard reached into a front pocket of his vest and pulled out an ear piece, “Use this one instead, it’s connected to GCHQ and SIS, you’ll be in communication with the Foreign Secretary, and the Director of MI6.”Benjie removed the American earpiece, dropped it on the floor, and crushed it with his foot, he then wore the new earpiece. “Okay, how about weapons, backups, and other things?”Bernard shook his head, “There is no backup, only me and whatever the Minister can think of.”Benjie nodded, “Okay, I’ll be hanging out with those weirdos for a while, best to keep an eye on Sabrina myself.”They then heard a ruckus coming from somewhere downstairs, which was soon drowned out by what sounded like someone increasing the volume on the TV downstairs.Benjie got out of his room and quickly went downstairs, he heard the newscaster’s voice; “We have breaking news, in fact two of them, both of them unusually similar. President Davis is facing a cabinet upheaval over his refusal to launch an operation against the growing threat of the occult, the Speaker of the House has just received a note from Vice President Martel that he, as the President of the Senate and along with 15 other Cabinet members have signed a petition declaring the President as incapable of doing his job. This is in accordance with Section 4 of the 25th Amendment of the Constitution.”There were mixed reactions from the crowd of twenty, or so what Benjie estimated. But then the newscaster continued, “On the other side of the Atlantic, the Prime Minister Miller has had a motion of no-confidence filed by her own Foreign Secretary.”
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Hacker was standing inside the Commons chamber along with the hundreds of other MPs that were adamant in kicking out the Prime Minister, he was standing right beside the station of the Sergeant-at-Arms which was located opposite of the Speaker’s Chair, down along the aisle where the dispatch boxes were.By parliamentary procedures, the motion of no confidence should have been put to a proper vote, complete with all the usual Commons theatre of standing up, going to the lobbies, and waiting for the Tellers to announce the results of the vote.But to the Minister’s surprise, no one shouted a ‘Nay’ when the Speaker placed the question ‘Should this House issue a no confidence to the Prime Minister?’, in short; the Prime Minister was nodded away.Hacker shook his head, he was in disbelief. The Speaker stood up, “Order! Order! By the provisions of this House in procedures, the voice vote is enough to pass the motion.”“HEAAAARRRRRRRR! HEAAAAARRRRR!” a chorus of parliamentarians cheered, it was the parliamentary version of screaming ‘YES! YES!’Hacker felt nearby MPs patting his back, he turned around and shook hands with the MP for Birdenshire, he was now as good as a hero the eyes of his colleagues. Not to mention the fact that he distributed the signed documents seeking for the termination of the agent to all MPs through Email, along with a memo stating his intentions to file a No Confidence.The Prime Minister was called to the dispatch box by the Speaker, “Mister Speaker, I shall respect the will of this House and therefore step down from my role as Prime Minister and as the leader of the Coalition.”Minister Hacker nodded and left the chamber. Humphrey was waiting for him outside at the hallway, “Well, Minister, it seems that you’ve achieved parliamentary history, you’ve unseated a Prime Minister by a nod through!”A nod through is basically everyone shouting ‘Yea’ during the voice vote preceding the Division, should there be a strong conflicting numbers between the Yea and Nay.Hacker did not boast nor showed any pride, “I was just doing my job to protect key assets of the United Kingdom from the enemies within.”“Well, Minister, I think it should be known to you that the President of the United States has had the same problem.” said Humphrey.Hacker had not been able to watch the TV or tune in to any news on any medium as he was too busy arguing with the PM in the Chamber before the No Confidence ‘vote’, “I’m sorry, what?”“In one fell swoop, the Vice President has unseated the President of the United States by having him, and at least eight other Secretaries of the Cabinet, submit a letter to Congress stating that the President is unfit for his role.” said Humphrey, “This all started because the President rejected the plan to kidnap Sabrina Spellman.”Hacker let out a soft chuckle, “Well, we’ve gotta give Ms. Spellman a statue here in Westminster, right beside Churchill maybe.”“For what, Minister?”“Stopping Brexit.” said Hacker with a smirk.Humphrey raised and eyebrow and let out a dry and exasperated sigh, “Very funny, Minister, however I must remind you that our agent is now being hunted down.”“Oh, yeah, has Bernard made contact with him?”Humphrey nodded and pulled out a satellite phone from his pocket, “Apologies for the usage of the old model, but the ear pieces are in limited numbers and we’ve agreed to give them only to active agents.”“But this…thing is connected to the GCHQ-MI6 communication lines?”“Yes, Minister.”Hacker pocketed the phone, “Thank you, I shall be contacting our agent later on, however this time we need to start planning.”“For what? To get rid of the Vice President of the United States?” said Humphrey with much cynicism.“Well, we need information as to why they want to kidnap Sabrina…”“Minister, we already have the information…however we need confirmation.” said Humphrey, “I have uncovered some files from the archives at the SIS building, it seems that our predecessors have been tracking Edward Spellman, the father of Sabrina Spellman…and, Minister, we received an information packet from someone called Cunning Man.”“American?”“Indeed, Minister, and the packet contains the fact that Sabrina is a half-mortal and a half-witch. You see, Minister, a witch or a warlock are born and not sworn in, Edward Spellman was the first warlock ever to marry a human in the modern era, or so what this Cunning Man said.”“Then it makes sense now, they’re not going to force Sabrina to work with them…they’re going to rape her, study her, and use her like some lab specimen.” said Hacker darkly, “They want the blood…but whose bloodline?”“Lilith I suppose.”Hacker wondered who that person was, until, “Lilith the demon?”“Well, no wonder, I always thought Ministers were warlocks and witches.” said Humphrey sarcastically.“What?”Humphrey smirked, “I was just joking, Minister, we’ve had several theories as to whose bloodline…we just came up with the conclusion that the Devil had been procreating with too many women.”“Huh, just like my cat.” said Hacker.“And all of this is being directed by the Dark Lord’s highest representative, the current one lives at the target of the missile strike that our agent has foiled.” said Humphrey, “His predecessor was Edward Spellman.”“Ah, how did he die then?”Humphrey sighed, “Depends…do you want our explanation or that of our explanation?”“I’m sorry?”Humphrey shook his head, they then heard the footsteps of the MPs who were leaving the Chamber, he grabbed the Minister by the arm and dragged him to a quick walking pace towards the exit “He died on a flight.”“Accidental or Boeing’s fault…again?”Humphrey wanted to laugh, but instead he shook his head, “Officially, the plane was blown up.”“By who?”Humphrey let out a sardonic laugh, “It depends, who’s the enemy of the West?”“Humphrey.” Hacker said sharply, like a parent scolding a child.“The story changes, you see, initially the blame was placed upon Hamas by the Israelis…thus justifying the attacks on the Gaza strip, but then the Americans placed the blame on Iraqi backed terror organizations - a reason beneath the claims of Weapons of Mass Destruction - and now quite frankly, it’s mostly just blamed on Islamic terrorists regardless of sides.”They reached the black sedan, a Jaguar, and got inside quickly. “Now then, what is the REAL reason?”Without a hint of regret, Humphrey said “It was MI6, Minister, who blew up the plane.”Hacker was aghast, “You mean we…”“My predecessor was briefed again about the existence of the Church of Night…he thought that a decapitation strike on the Church would remove them.” Humphrey remained stoic, “I executed the operation, I planted the bomb without getting aboard.”“But why?”Humphrey nearly snapped but manage to disguise it as a cough, “British children were disappearing, being captured and killed during his stay here in Great Britain by this Church, and then this all blew up when a British teen was captured and eaten, his remains were found in the forest in Greendale. My predecessor was furious, he swore vengeance against the Church…by assassinating their head.”“When did this happen?” asked Hacker.“2003, Sabrina was barely a year old.” said Humphrey, “However, her mother is still alive.”“Really?” said Hacker.“She’s in a mental hospital…however she was brought here to Britain and is now at Broadmoor.” said Humphrey, “According to our informant, Edward used her to have a child before turning her insane with whatever magic he has because she wanted to baptize Sabrina under the Catholic rite.”Hacker sighed, “Oh great, so now this whole Spellman affair didn’t just stop Brexit, but also costed our NHS.”As if answering a question that was asked, Humphrey continued, “She was brought to our attention by the occult team within the FBI, who already knew that there is a Church of Night and that Edward was its head, however none of the FBI wanted to do anything against the Church, citing constitutional rights and things.”“Oh how the tables have turned.”Humphrey continued, “The CIA was too busy hunting down Osama Bin Laden, however the occult team of the FBI, composed of just a pair of agents, told of the situation of Diana Spellman…we-…we made a deal with the US Government, give us Diana Spellman and we’ll hand over crucial information on several enemies of the United States.”“But why do you want her?” asked Hacker.“We want to know what she knows…however we underestimated her insanity, she can’t speak, she suffers nightmares every time she closes her eyes, and is much more harder to talk to than the Leader of the Opposition.”“And she hasn’t given us anything yet?”Humphrey shook his head, “No, Minister.”“And the Americans never ever questions our actions?”“Oh they did, however we had them by the neck, most especially in the prelude to the invasion of Iraq.”Hacker shook his head, it was then and there that it all sunk into him, this was not just a simple war on the occult in the same way that the war on drugs was carried, it was a shadow war and it is happening beyond what any normal person could see.“But how about the purported warlock-for-hire or agent that the Americans have?” asked Hacker.Humphrey shrugged, “The supposed Coroner is, as far as we are aware, a disgruntled full blooded warlock, however if they want to find a way to give normal humans powers, then they would have to look for Sabrina, the half-blood.”“But what could they do with the blood of a full blooded warlock?” wondered Hacker.“They’ve been doing these capture and experimental operations during the 1970s and 1980s but they have never caught a half-human, half-witch…I don’t think they were able to do much.” said Humphrey.“The Americans have never told us of the true intentions of capturing Sabrina have they?” asked Hacker.“We have been aware of the plan to capture a witch for magic weaponry purposes…however never like this.” said Humphrey, he then decided to change the topic, “So, who’s the new Prime Minister?”Hacker smirked, “You know that the reason why I booted out the Prime Minister is so that I would have a bit more space in handling this situation.”“You mean you threw the spanner into the engine of bureaucracy just so you do your job properly? Why haven’t I thought of that!” said Humphrey.“We need to get to work, I don’t want for magic to fall on anybody’s hands.”“Yeah, how ironic isn’t it, on the one hand a group of highly untrustworthy people who should not be given access to something that could break reality, and then on the other, a bunch of devil worshipers.” said Humphrey.“Those devil worshipers did not bomb civilians in Afghanistan, they did not invade and torture prisoners in Iraq.” said Hacker.“Yes, and they don’t sit in the UN, arguing with other bickering nations.” said Humphrey.***Benjie used the chance of the distracted crowd to make it out of the motel, but not before leaving money on the empty front desk. As for Bernard, he had to remove his camouflage and tactical vest, and he had to retrieve his parachute from the roof, and then head had to come up with a way to use the parachute and disguise it as a bag.In less than ten minutes, both Benjie and Bernard were outside, “Are you sure we do not have a safe house here?” asked Benjie.Bernard shook his head, “For me, yes, but not for you.”“Good, come with me, I know one.” said Benjie.Bernard followed the agent wherever he went, even if they ended up far away from Greendale, following a rail track to an abandoned railyard, however the place seemed familiar to him, “Wait, this is a-…the place you saved.”“Yes.” said Benjie, though this time the hole on the side where the missile struck was gone.Benjie knocked on the door and it creaked open, “Ah, it’s you.” said one of the Weird Sisters trio that he ran into before, “The Reverend Father has been waiting for you.”Faustus appeared behind them, “The mortal comes again.” he said, “Come in, and bring your friend as well, I trust of course that you would keep him under control.”Benjie nodded and Bernard gave a courteous nod as they were allowed inside, both men noticed that the missile was still there, sitting beside the repaired statue of the Dark Lord.“Nice place.” said Bernard.“Look, make yourselves comfortable, there would be a Fete for the Dark Lord tonight, and I hope you two behave.” said Faustus.Benjie heard a chirp in his ear, and so did Bernard through his own earpiece, “The Minister.” said Bernard.Benjie and Bernard activated their earpieces, “This is Minister Hacker, can you hear me, Benjie?”“I hear you..” said Benjie.Faustus signaled to the girls to keep an eye on them as the two agents of state had a discussion.“Um…we are in a not so comely Waterloo.” said Bernard cryptically, it was the agreed upon signal to simply say ‘We can’t talk openly but we are safe, so we can only answer in ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘huh’, and ‘alright, bye.’“The Prime Minister has been removed…and I’m sending you two a data packet, your objective, both of you, is to keep Sabrina Spellman secured, understand? I am convinced that someone within the side of the Americans are plotting to use her as a guinea pig to breed warlock soldiers, we must not let any human unlock the mysteries of magic…or else.”“Yes, the weather is fine, me and my friend here are going out for a stroll.” said Bernard, code word for ‘yes, and my friend here hears you as well.’Benjie nodded and remained silent.“Good, brief you two later.”Benjie tapped his ear piece off, “Data packet?” he whispered.Bernard, thinking that he must have been cleared and authorized, reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box for contact lenses, “You’ll need these.”Benjie did not ask any questions, he wore the contact lenses and blinked, he was amazed, it was the stuff of spy fiction. “Computer lenses?” he said softly in excitement.Bernard then reached into his other pocket and pulled out a small digital watch, “You control it with this.”Benjie wore the watch and set his lenses to ‘Passive scan’, overlays of green boxes floated on every face of every person that he could see. He then noticed that the floating Heads up Display on the User Interface had a notification, he used the face of the watch as a mousepad and clicked on the notification, it was the data files.Everything was revealed to him, or whatever the British Government knew; Edward’s death, the real goal of the Americans, why Sabrina was important to the Americans, and a bunch of other things that could go wrong, including a war against the United States.Benjie gulped, his heartbeat was on the run, “Alright, so…we’re-…”“Dead?”Benjie smirked and shook his head, “No, we have never been this alive.”
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The Secretary of Defense smiled all the way to the bank, so to speak, when he had heard of the House agreeing to acknowledge the removal of the President by the Vice President and the Cabinet, and while the Vice President would not be President per se, he would at least be ‘acting president’ and that the actual President would be a lame duck.Now, thought the Secretary, we can finally pursue the plans that they’ve wanted to do in tackling this demonic threat. He reached his office in the Pentagon and saw the Coroner sitting on a chair in front of his desk.“Coroner.” the Secretary acknowledge the man’s presence.“Mister Secretary, I thought that you wanted to take Sabrina Spellman in order to have her do magic for us.” said the Coroner, neither showing support or protest to the idea.The Secretary sat behind his desk, “Well, things have changed when we started digging into how you witches and warlocks work.”The Coroner sighed, “But how about that other one?”“What other one precisely?”The Coroner prompted, “You took blood samples from the 25 witches and warlocks you trapped with that Aquino guy?” not to mention, him as well.“That, I’m afraid, is still a work in progress.” said the Secretary, “However, it’s going to be a big one.”The Coroner was never told of the details, however as far as he was concerned he knew that these guys have been toying around with the genes and blood of witches and warlocks, trying to find a way get magic and hand it down to normal mortals.He did however try looking for any scrap on information on the program, even with his high security clearance, he cannot find anything. “What is it then?”“I don’t think I could tell you for now, however within a few days’ time I can maybe give you a brief of it.”The Coroner did not budge, “Are you saying that I cannot know? You promised that I can know anything with regards to our operation against the Church of Night!”The Secretary shrugged, “Weelll….there are some things that may be too sensitive, anyway we’re doing that project in some external friendly country where no one would suspect.”The Coroner ran through a list of allied countries of the United States in his head, before removing the countries he knew as being too poor to conduct any complex scientific-military research, and then taking into consideration their distance from the United States as well as their region. “United Kingdom?”“Too obvious, no NATO country here.” said the Secretary.The Coroner struck out all the countries in NATO, leaving not much of capable allies, “I don’t get it, don’t tell me you’re conducting complex genetic and microbiological research in some hut in a backwater country.”The Secretary maintained a smug look on his face, “You’ll know it in good time, now just focus on our plans.”“Yes, Viktor and I, backed up by your pair of agents in Greendale, will be gatecrashing the Fete of the Devil, kidnap Sabrina Spellman, and get out of there.” said the Coroner.“Good, and then we’ll hand over the magic to mortals shortly after that.” the Secretary said with pride.The phone rang suddenly, he had not been expecting a phone call unless it was of the utmost of importance. The Secretary answered the phone and the voice on the other side told him, without any prelude or introduction, “Sir, we have a crisis here, Claw is…under attack.”The Secretary slammed the phone, “Okay, you know what, can you make a quick detour? I mean when does the Fete begin?”“The Fete last for days, what is the problem?”The Secretary tried to remain calm, but his quickening breathing pace betrayed him, “Um…the other operation, Operation Revelation, is -…um…under threat.”“What is it then?”“The blood samples…we…we’ve been working on an infectious virus that is harmful specifically to full blooded witches and warlocks.” said the Secretary.The Coroner maintained a poker face, “Okay, now what has gone wrong?”“I need for you to use your magic and go to the…um…University of the Philippines, their main flagship campus in the country’s capital region…”“Wait, you’ve been operating a military grade biowarfare research-” the Coroner was saying.“The virus is only harmful to witches and warlocks.” interrupted the Secretary, “Anyway, we funded their Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Institute, so in exchange for the so called ‘super-renovations’, we-… have gotten some Filipino scientists in conjuncture with their uh…Archdiocese of Manila’s Office of Exorcism…and with some of our own scientists to make this super disease.”The Coroner shook his head in disbelief, “So how did those people take it?”“They took it well actually, I mean they are aware of the Church of Night crisis, thanks to us and with the help of the Office of Exorcism, and since they’re all pious Catholics, they are passionate and eager in eliminating the Church of Night through any means…including through an advanced form of Bio-warfare.”The Coroner glared at the Secretary, “Fine, I’ll fly there now and see what’s going on.”***There was a knock on the door of the Spellman Mortuary, and their residence, during breakfast, “I’ll get it.” volunteered Sabrina.Both Hilda and Zelda both turned their heads towards the door to see who it was, in fact it surprised them that the twit of a mortal even showed up. “Luis? Hi, what brings you here?” said Sabrina.“Good morning, Sabrina, do you have a TV that you can switch on? I mean, I’m sorry, let me explain…” he reached into his bag and produced a leather notebook, “My dad gave this to me before he left, says that he was going to get to the bottom of something dire and possibly related to you guys…in his alma mater university.”Sabrina sounded concerned, “You look terrible…”“I wasn’t able to sleep well, I had been going through this notebook here.” said Luis.“Do come in, I’ll switch on the old TV.” said Sabrina.Zelda rolled her eyes at the mention of the word TV, there was a reason why they barely switched it on, most of the things on TV were mortal affairs that were not meant for witches like them.The old TV set was sitting in a corner of the house collecting dust, by magic or by science…or both, the old TV set switched on when it was plugged in, and somehow it could show present day High Definition broadcasts normally on its relatively small and bowl-like screen.The headlines read ‘Philippine University Terror Attack’ and the news anchor saying, “A bomb was detonated in the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman in an apparent terror attack, there is currently a gun battle occurring within the campus grounds…”By then, Zelda and Hilda were behind them, “So, why do we need to care?”“Zelda, you know a bit more in being sensitive.” said Hilda.Zelda remained adamantly apathetic, “Yes, I also know how not to.”“My old man has had suspicions for at least two years, though he did not show it, that is until he gave me this notebook before he left for some event in his alma mater.” explained Luis, he then opened the notebook, “It says here that he wonders why there are sometimes US personnel and clergymen present in some parts of the University, and that he would not be receiving any answers when he inquired, not even the Chancellor of the University nor the President of the University knows.”Zelda sighed, “Just get on to the part where we might care.”“My dad is convinced that it has something to do with eliminating witches and warlocks.” Luis said seriously.Hilda gasped, “Oh my.”“But how? Our Church has lasted for as long as you…C-..C-”“Christians?” prompted Luis.“Yes, as you…bunch has lasted.” said Hilda.“Well, my dad is convinced because no one, and I mean no one, invites the Office of Exorcism into a laboratory.” said Luis, “It’s not just any laboratory, but the Molecular Biology and Biotechnology laboratory, which the United States has recently invested heavily into its renovation.”“I’m sorry, can you at least explain-…” Hilda was saying.“It means we research diseases and other nasty bits of biology in a molecular level to be precise…viruses, bacteria, you know.” said Luis, he then shook his head, it all made sense as to why they chose the University of the Philippines; it was located in a country where no one - at least on the side against NATO or the United States - cared to infiltrate much nor to attack, sort of, and it was in a country that was an ally of the United States, and the University itself is directly under the control of the government, unless of course its students and faculty would be angered into barricading the University campus and declaring independence, ala Le Miserables.“This is absurd, no one would want to actually attack the Dark Lord, not even your false tyrant!” said Hilda.“Look at the bigger picture, your-…I mean the President of the United States has been removed from office by a Vice President that has been throwing the spotlight at Greendale when it comes to witches. I won’t be surprised if the Vatican had contacted him and mentioned about carrying out spiritual warfare and those things in a global scale.” said Luis.“Okay, let’s all calm down here…” said Sabrina, “We can fend for ourselves, Luis, but thanks for being concerned.”“We can fend for ourselves, but there is nothing we can do for now…yet.” said Zelda.“All I can say is that you bunch are in for a bumpy ride.” said Luis.***Enrico Quezon was shaken by the loud blast that was heard across the massive 493 hectare, or 1220 acres, campus of the University of the Philippines at Diliman, his alma mater and an institution he proudly credits for forming him. He had been invited to give a keynote speech at an unusual forum titled; Which witch is which? - a forum on the hysteria of the satanic witchcraft cult scare and its impact on Philippine society.He had been the focus of the spotlight when it comes to the unusual events that sparked the worldwide scare of witchcraft, after all the incident with Harvey Kinkle and the Weird Sisters - which were caught on camera and the footage is now under the care of the Philippine Government - happened in his consulate.The forum was attended mostly by social scientists, Catholic priests - including the Archbishop, Cardinal Santos - and by Muslim clerics. But then in the middle of his speech, they all heard a blast and gunshots ringing outside. He heard Cardinal Santos exclaim “The devil is attacking the University!”He got off the stage and was met by his security personnel, “Mister Quezon, we were told by the UP Police to hunker down here, we’re safe here.”Enrico wanted to shake his head and protest but he was right, as of that moment, it felt to him that his beloved school was as dangerous as his days in Iraq during the US invasion.He sighed, “Fine, we’ll stay here.”He then heard some form of commotion going on behind him, he turned around and saw a Catholic priest, dressed in the usual black garb, having a headache. Enrico approached the crowd of clergymen, “What’s going on?” he asked. The Cardinal faced him, “This here is Angelito Del Rosario, he is our-…erm…special weapon against the evil spirits in our Office of Exorcism.”“Okay, what makes him special?” asked Enrico.“He can read minds, see through our bodies and into our souls…in turn he can see the evil spirits, but also he can converse with the not so evil spirits.” said the Cardinal.Enrico did not care what they believed in and decided not to raise a point about it. By then, a nun who was as young as Angelito approached him and assisted him to a seat.“That nun is Sister Samantha Santos, she has the same capabilities as Angelito...but the young man is more sensitive.” said the Cardinal.“What can you feel?” Samantha asked Angelito, who by then managed to regain composure.“I can sense that…there are ten-..no, twenty possessed people who are attacking the laboratory.” said Angelito, “They are being shot at by security personnel but their bodies are more stronger and resilient than normal humans…they want something in the laboratory, some sort of dangerous and holy weapon that can destroy them.”The Cardinal looked amazed, “You mean the demons are actually afraid?”“Like a cornered animal.” interjected Samantha, “I can sense the evil spirits somewhat terrified.”The Cardinal did a sign of the cross and began to pray. Enrico on the other hand decided to rally his security team and told them to bring him closer to the scene of action rather than away from it.His security head protested but he could not change the mind of his boss, and as such they decided to get into the bulletproof diplomatic car and head towards the plume of smoke rising from the horizon.***The Coroner used a simple teleportation spell that allowed him to be dropped right outside of the laboratory room itself, inside the hallways of the institute, where the action was taking place.To his left he saw security personnel with their rifles stuck out the window, some dressed in white and blue, some in army greens, and some in police blue, engaging what he knew were possessed and crazed mortals forced into doing the Dark Lord’s bidding in a last stand to protect the laboratory.The Coroner shook his head and wondered why these bastards won’t look behind them, while even though he is working for these guys, or at least is on their side, they should at least check behind them from time to time.He entered the laboratory, which was deserted, and was stunned into remaining still for a few moments, he saw diagrams of cells, of viruses, and of other things which his mind - which was mostly stuck on things from the past, and not one of those things concerned mortal science - did not understand but could feel that it was bad news for them.He did not know how long these mortals knew how bloodlines played a role in making more witches and warlocks but it seems that they knew and that they are prepared to release the nuclear bomb of bio-warfare onto the Church of Night, the church he dearly hated.The laboratory was a tight and secure environment, there were vats on one side, computers and work places on the other side, and lockers on the side of the door. He used his gut instincts and approached a vat, he opened and saw dozens upon dozens of racks of petridishes, flasks, and most notably, a rack of vials marked ‘Ready for use’.He pocketed a pair of vials and shut the vat. He turned around and heard the door click open, his heart stopped. A young woman stood there, “Who are you and what-…wait a minute, you’re the Coroner of Greendale.”The Coroner was freaking out deep inside him, however he managed to maintain his posture, “Um…who are you?”“I am Annabelle Curney, I was born and raised in Greendale, what are you doing here?”“I am part of your research into the unusual things going around Greendale.” said the Coroner.Annabelle sighed, “Whew, next time, do tell us in advance that you’re making a visit, you never know if you’re facing an agent of the devil…I mean this fight has gone worldwide!”“Can you please explain to me what is going on with your research exactly? I mean a witch problem in a science laboratory?” said the Coroner, he had been feeling like as if he was a caveman or a mere monkey trying to read Einstein’s theories when trying to understand what the hell exactly was going on.“Well, you see, we now know the very basic structure of the blood of full blooded witches and warlocks, and we know precisely their aspects and how to kill them off using modified and strengthened bacteria to deliver modified viruses to destroy every single cell that has what we call the ‘strand of the devil’, the special genome that separate humans and those bunch , imagine these devious things beginning to literally melt as their cells are broken up en masse?”The Coroner wanted to recoil away from the place and run, “Okay, so these viruses and bacteria…how can they find their targets?”“They’re modified so that they can be spread through the air, water, or contact, and even through sexual intercourse, and that they can survive in the most arid, wet, or coldest of places. They will be distributed through mosquitoes that we modified to be able to sense the pheromones that witches and warlocks emit and only target them, which then they would inject the bacteria and virus and in a few moments the target would be dying, not only that but it is highly contagious.”The Coroner glared at the young woman.“But don’t worry, it won’t harm humans since these viruses and bacteria were tweaked with CRISPR in order not to harm normal human cells without the Devil’s Strand.” said the young woman.The Coroner simply nodded, “Okay, so you plan to spread this when?”“As soon as the higher ups give us the go.” said Annabelle, “I must admit, I will miss my mostly local colleagues as soon as this project is folded up, they were passionate in eliminating witches.”The Coroner gulped and decided to excuse himself, but then he realized something, where the hell would he be going outside of this laboratory? He can just teleport out of there but it would raise too much suspicions now that he was seen by someone.He sighed and decided to give her an amnesia spell, he mumbled the spell quickly and snapped his finger, the young woman felt dizzy, sat down on a chair, and rested her head on the table. This whole thing should just be a figment of a dream for her when she wakes up.The Coroner wasted no time in casting the teleportation spell to get him back to the United States.When Annabelle woke up, it was because of a SWAT officer, “Ma’am, are you alright?”Annabelle scratched her head and then rubbed her forehead, “I’m sorry, what time is it?”“It’s all okay now, the attackers were all killed, all twenty of them.” said the SWAT officer.Standing beside the officer was a man wearing the locals’ formal wear, “I am Enrico Quezon, Consul of the Philippine Consulate near Greendale…”Annabelle looked towards another man who was flanking Enrico, she recognized him as being the Secretary of Defense’s personal attache to this endeavor, “I explained some thing about our research against the witches.”“You were doing it in my country.” Enrico said to the attache.“It is part of our defense agreements.” said the attache, “You’re not supposed to know, however since you are a diplomat serving our country, then we have to abide by some of the agreements , mostly that senior diplomats of your country in the United States has the right to know of some of our activities.”“How are you going to explain those possessed bunch?” asked Enrico.“Just leave that to us and our Philippine counterparts.” said the attache.***The Coroner found himself in the same room which he was in before when he last met the Secretary of Defense, and he knows that he was not as young as the man who now stood behind the desk. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there.”He recognized the man, “You’re the Assistant Secretary…”“Nah, the Secretary was appointed Vice President by the acting President, I am now the Secretary of Defense temporarily.” said the Assistant Secretary, now the Secretary of Defense.“Your name is?” asked the Coroner.“Jonah Dylan.” said the new Secretary of Defense.“You are aware of what happened right there in our allied country, right?” said the Coroner.Jonah nodded, “I am told that we have a bio-weapon against the witches and warlocks that has been in development for quite some time, however this research has not been as serious as it is now after the unusual public episodes in Greendale.”“And you raise no objections to it?”Jonah looked doubtful, “I have my doubts…what if the weapon works so well that it could be modified to target humans?”The Coroner was not supposed to care much about humans but the man was right, “You do know that this weapon will be used within the week.”“Aren’t you afraid as a warlock?” asked Jonah.The Coroner did not know how to respond.“Don’t you think that we have gone a little bit too far?” said Jonah, “Removing the President without having Congress be able to question the move? Kidnapping and…possibly raping a sixteen year old teenager who may not even know entirely her witch side? Now genocide through an advanced biotechnological and microbiological weapon?”The Coroner’s left hand began to fidget, he then marched out of the room without saying a word. Jonah sat down and felt a chill running down his spine, he has been following the higher ups religiously, but then now things are different.
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Minister Hacker, MP, Foreign Secretary, shook his head at the thought, he chuckled. “What is it, Minister?” asked Humphrey.The two men of government were standing in Heathrow Airport, waiting for an R.A.F. jet disguised as a normal civilian plane to land and taxi to the runway where they would then board.“Oh, it’s nothing, it-…well…it’s just that it’s quite unusual that we would have to go and actually fly there.” said Hacker, “But nonetheless, I think that we cannot trust anybody and as such we had to charter this flight…to hell.”“Do you mean a Committee hearing?” said Humphrey with a grin.“No-…well, I get what you’re saying, but to meddle in the affairs of the devil!” Hacker chuckled, it was either he had gone mad or the world has gone mad.Humphrey glanced up at a TV screen located to his far left, it always felt that the news channels are well timed so that anything they would need to know, as long as it is a public event, would show up as soon as they glanced at a TV screen, any public TV screen. “Minister!” he tapped the shoulder of Hacker.Hacker looked and saw the words on the screen, ‘Philippine Terror Attack: confirmed to be related to war on occult.’, he shuddered ,”Great, so this Sabrina Spellman and her religion is in the same as the Mujahadeen or, maybe - for Sabrina - the same notoriety as a Daesh wife.”“You mean like the one you booted and kept out of Britain?”“Yes, the one you killed, Humphrey.”Humphrey kept a poker face, “Well, it is crucially important to remove certain…dangers to the state.”“Yes, like Edward Spellman.” Hacker said sardonically, “But I do believe we can right most, if not all, wrongs we’ve done for the past decade.”“Minister, I know of your family’s history, however I would like to ask why do we middle aged men would do something reserved for younger cannon fodd-…I mean youthful servants of the government?” said Humphrey.Hacker felt a rush of pride whenever his family history is mentioned, in one way or another, “You see, Humphrey, I come from a long line of Hackers who put their lives in the name of God, King or Queen, and country, from Richard III up until today!”“What about before Richard the Third?” asked Humphrey.Hacker shrugged, “My family’s history gets too muddled for my taste before Richard III, however what I could remember would be the Spanish Armada, where one of my ancestors was a captain in the force to fight the Spaniards and defend England, as well as the wars in America, Africa, India, China…a great uncle of mine even managed to set foot on Manila during the short four years we were there. Of course my grandfather fought in the Battle of Britain, my father fought in the Falklands, and I fought in Afghanistan.”“Why aren’t you a Lord?” chuckled Humphrey.Hacker laughed but his laughter turned into a nervous one, “Well…uhm…I think my family has a curse.”“A curse?” said Humphrey, intrigued.“It seems that whenever a Hacker does something heroic, he or she screws up so badly that they were lucky to not have been executed! I mean my ancestor who captained a ship during a battle against the Spanish Armada accidentally fired a cannonball shot at a house along the Channel. And then my ancestor who was the main point person between the governors of the colonies and His Majesty The King between 1770 to 1777…well, you know who won that lot now do you?”“Alright, how about the fights in Africa and India?” asked Humphrey.“Well, two of my ancestors lived boring and non heroic lives during their times of service in Africa and India…and then my grandfather crashed his Spitfire, barely missing a house, and my father kind of…well, screwed up as the radar officer of the HMS Sheffield.” Hacker then made a long and exasperated sigh.“Then what have you done?”“This! This whole thing with Miss Spellman, the devil, and Brexit!”Humphrey leaned towards his ear, “Hey, you might be Prime Minister.”Hacker shook his head, “No one would want to be Prime Minister, not with all this War against the Occult that has been escalating for months…and, to think of it, it’s all my fault.” he rubbed his forehead.“Bringing it up to the level between countries is an unusual way to end a horror story, don’t you think?” remarked Humphrey.“As far as I’m concerned, this could have gone nuclear!”Humphrey spotted an unmarked Airbus A330, “Is that our plane, Minister?”“Yes, that is our plane.” nodded Hacker.***Both Bernard and Benjie had been inside the Academy of Unseen Arts for nearly three days during the week long Fete, and so far they were not entirely hated but not welcomed by the students of the school, they would spend most of their time in their own room and would only go out once everyone has fallen asleep or when things die down a little.Bernard had been deployed to the worst parts of the world, this school however had become the worst part of the world, he was staring wide-eyed outside the window, “Was that all…real?”Benjie had been doing the same, staring out through the window, “You mean the cannibalism, orgies, and-…Satan showing up in human form? Yes.”Bernard rubbed his face, “Good God, and we saw all that because the Minister-…the Foreign Secretary wants us to be here.” he sighed.“Well, you and I both know that it’s better to have seen all that…rather than, say, seeing the U.S. - or any other country - deploying warlocks and witches to lay waste to entire cities.” said Benjie.Bernard snapped into an attentive stance, “Have you ever wondered why is it only Western countries that suffer this witch problems?”Benjie shrugged, “What’s your guess?”“Well, look at it this way…China, Russia, Japan, all of Southeast Asia, Australia, all of the Middle East, and Africa has not suffered a witching problem this bad.” said Bernard.Benjie merely shrugged and made a wild guess, “Well, we know that the cultures of these countries was mostly spent under tyrannical regimes, go ask a coven to survive during the Cultural Revolution in China, or the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. They won’t make it.”Both Benjie and Bernard then felt a chirp in their ear which was then followed by a professional sounding but urgent tone of voice, “This is GCHQ…where do we begin?”“Let’s be formal here, what’s happening?” asked Bernard.“Okay, look, a military airlift of the 432nd Strike Wing has arrived in an air force base near Greendale, plus the airplane of the Secretary of Defense -a flying Pentagon basically - is zeroing in on the same air force base…and the entire East Coast Command of the U.S. Armed Forces has gone to DEFCON 2.”“Wait, is this for real?” said Benjie.“You should be receiving several pictures on your contact lenses.” said the voice at GCHQ, “Wait, we’re patching in a broadcast…”A hologram television screen appeared in front of their sights, it was a national broadcast from the Oval Office but the Acting President was standing behind a podium, flanked by Governor Baxter of the State of Massachusetts, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the General of the Army, and the Fleet Admiral of the U.S. Navy. “My fellow Americans, I speak to the nation from the home of the likes of Lincoln, Kennedy, and other defenders and leaders of the free world that called this place as their home and their office in order to announce that the town of Greendale and the adjacent town of Riverdale is hereby placed under martial law effective immediately. This necessary action was done in order to counter the occult, which these two towns have become the epicenter of the crisis. I am calling for everyone in the affected areas to stay indoors.”Benjie was checking the satellite photos while the broadcast was playing in the background of his vision, apparently there was a Carrier Group sailing across Massachusetts bay, a bunch of soldiers are stationed along the interstate highways and major roads within the martial law area, and there is a convoy of troop carriers heading towards Greendale, among others.A wave of horror flowed down his spine, the voice of GCHQ interrupted his fear, “The USS George Washington and her group has gone to General Quarters-”“They’re going to be launching planes at any minute.” Bernard interrupted GCHQ, “How do you know of this?”“MI6 has intelligence liaisons in the USS George Washington. The point is that you’re quite on your own, we’re trying to contact the-…well, the Prime Minister is gone, removed from office, so we’re now trying to get in touch with Minister Hacker.”“Keep us in touch, we’re doing all we can to keep Sabrina secure.” Benjie wanted to add, ‘I know, what we’re doing is not much but it is still something.’ Who was he kidding? They’re about to face down the might of a global superpower, and all this for protecting Sabrina Spellman.Both men heard the disengagement chirp tone through their ear pieces, signaling that the line between them and GCHQ is cut, they could only hope to hear another chirp and hear the Minister.“Now what?” asked Bernard.Benjie considered their options, on the one hand, the devil himself is partying downstairs with his witches and warlocks, and while they could use magic or what not to fight them off, it would only exacerbate the situation and would probably end up in a nuclear strike, a power that had once been exclusive to the wrath of God is now in the hands of men.He shook his head to clear his chaotic and cluttered mind, “How accurate can we shoot with Sub-machine guns?”Bernard reached for his MP5, “Depends, close quarters?”“Out that window.” Benjie pointed to a circular window that they could open and shoot at anyone outside.Bernard shook his head, “No, it would be wasting bullets, we need to get them inside if we want to wreak havoc on them, or at least try to create a kill-zone, you know, to funnel them into a smaller area to make it easier to hit them.”Benjie nodded, “Okay, so we go down there, stand at the entrance with our guns ready, and pull of a last stand?”Bernard nodded grimly, “Yes, I mean Greendale is as tight as a place under martial rule could be, the only way we can survive is to hide out here, fight off the first wave, and then run into the forest.”Benjie removed the sub-machine gun from his briefcase, an MP7, and cocked it, “Lock and load then.”Both men armed themselves, carried every magazine they can, and got out of their room. They went downstairs and stood in front of the repaired statue of the devil, with the missile sitting idly not far from it, and braced for the worst.Besides the softened noise of the revelry from a hall not far from the entrance hall, there was nothing else they could hear other than silence and a clock ticking nearby.The silence was interrupted barely an hour later, it was the sound of a fast vehicle braking abruptly, Bernard raised his MP5, “That could be them, maybe their first strike team.”Benjie raised his MP7, “This is it.”Their trigger fingers were itching, their awareness raised, adrenaline rushed into them, as they waited for the door to open. They were expecting the sounds of more than a dozen pairs of boots moving towards the door, instead they heard fewer pairs of feet by the looks of it.They heard what sounded like two men talking on the other side of the door, and then the doorknob turned. To the surprise of the two men, the door was opened slowly and two men in suits appeared.One of the men in suits raised his hand, “Wait, I am the Secretary of Defense, the new one, I am Jonah Dylan.”Benjie nodded, “And, why are you here?”“Because I have something important to say and it has nothing to do with demanding for you to surrender.” said the Secretary, he then signaled for the other man to give him the suitcase.The other man gave him the suitcase before being waved away by the Secretary of Defense. “Okay,” began Bernard, “you know you’re in control-”“I am not!” hissed Jonah, “The President is directly commanding the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I have nothing to do with them now.”“Shut the door behind you and come with us.” said BenjieJonah kicked the wooden door behind him shut, “Look, I am giving you a dire warning, but also I am giving you a chance to beat this madman.”“You mean the acting president?” asked Bernard.“The man has gone insane, I am telling you, what is about to happen will end badly for humanity for sure, and I am here to stop it, or at least to try to stop it.” said Jonah.Benjie glanced at Bernard, “Search him.”Bernard nodded and frisk searched the Secretary, he nodded at Benjie, “He’s unarmed.”“Of course I’m unarmed, I don’t want to kill anyone in here.” said Jonah.“Bring him to the hall.” said Bernard.“You mean where all of them are?” clarified Benjie.“Well, if they want Sabrina, then they’ll have to see their Secretary being shot in the head.” said Bernard.Benjie nodded, he then grabbed the Secretary by his shoulder, “Let’s go.” he said, Jonah did not resist, he allowed them to lead him to an ornate wooden door, which would lead to a massive hall where the witches and warlocks were celebrating whatever they were celebrating.Jonah shook his head, this meeting of the most devious people on Earth - or so what the acting president has been saying - felt a lot like a quiet prom night, mainly where the night was either just escalating or already winding down.No one paid attention to them as they were busy speaking with each other, Benjie found an empty table and chairs, “Sit there.” he commanded, the Secretary followed.As the two men were sitting down, Benjie did a double take on the young woman sitting at the front of the hall alongside a strikingly handsome young man, “Sabrina?” he shook his head, it looked odd, it was as if the young man is the prom king and Sabrina would be the prom queen.“Alright, to business, why are you here?” asked Bernard.“The acting President, and his current Vice President, the old Secretary of Defense, and whoever is part of this dirty war, has developed advanced microbiological weapons that can target specific groups, as of this moment, their weapon is designed to kill any witch or warlock nearly instantaneously.”Benjie processed the information in his head, “But it means it can be tweaked to target…humans?”Jonah nodded, “Most probably, that was the last straw for me, I am no longer supporting this tyrant. He wants to capture Sabrina in order to use her as either a stud or as research material for their plans to turn anyone into a witch or warlock without having to pledge allegiance with the devil.”“So they really believe that they could steal magic and supernatural capabilities from the angels and demons and use it like some nuclear warhead?” said Benjie.“Yes.” said Jonah, “Speaking of which, I managed to secure this from that son of a bitch.” he then slid the briefcase across the wooden table to Benjie.Benjie opened it and promptly became excited and elated like a kid receiving the gift he had been begging for on Christmas morning, “This can’t be!” he exclaimed with a huge smile on his face.“It is.” said Jonah.“The Nuclear Football!” Benjie rubbed his hands, he had the entire US nuclear arsenal in his fingertips, the Nuclear Football was a treasure trove of apocalyptic armaments; it has several transmitters to communicate with NORAD and the US Navy, it also has a dossier of targets and target coordinates - capital cities, cities with more than a hundred thousand civilians, military targets, and the likes - and it also has a computer where the President could punch in the nuclear codes and authorize a nuclear strike on any target listed on the dossier.“How did you get this?” asked Bernard.“Do you think that President Davis would support Vice President Martel? Not in a long shot, he gave this to me and told me to hide it, he will not give this to the violent jackass at all.” said Jonah, “I need for you to hide this and, under no circumstances at all, allow for it to be handed over to anyone supporting Martel.”“Got it.” said Benjie, closing the lid of the Nuclear Football.“And another thing, if Martel and his degenerates do not stand down, your mission should you choose to accept it…” he reached into an inner pocket of his suit and handed him a small SD card that had a 500gb capacity, “is to assassinate the President of the United States, the acting President mind you, and the old Secretary of Defense.”They then heard shots erupting from somewhere before promptly seeing Jonah lying dead with his head on the table on a pool of blood in what was a clean head shot. Benjie quickly swiped the SD card from the man’s dead hand and ducked underneath the table with Bernard.All hell broke loose, the students were not running out but they were ready to fight whoever dared infiltrate their school, but nonetheless they hid under the table until they could see where their infiltrator was.Bernard popped his head out of the table and saw a bunch of armed men standing on the balcony level above their heads, and then they heard one of them announcing something, “I am the Coroner, and as you may or may not know, I am here to take Sabrina Spellman.”The man who announced himself as the Coroner, who was wearing a long black leather trench coat and shades , disappeared and reappeared beside the chair where Sabrina sat. He grabbed Sabrina’s arm and managed to pull her out of the chair and hold her hostage with his other hand that emanated a dark form of light, the young witch tried to resist but stopped doing so when she saw the glowing hand.The devil in human form stood up, “Ah, the Coroner, the traitor.”The Coroner threw Sabrina to the floor and cracked his neck, “Satan, I can’t believe we would meet again.”The devil shook his head and smirked, “Do you really think that you can fight me and my Church, my followers?”The Coroner laughed, “Why not? I can.” he said confidently.“I gave you powers, remember that, you’re pushing me to my limits.” said the Devil.“Freedom of thought, freedom to do anything we want to live our lives, to live deliciously as what one of your witches before had said…” he then spotted Faustus Blackwood, “I remember what you said, Faustus, you promised me freedom, you son of a bitch! I got no freedom, as far as I am concerned, you want us to kiss your fucking ass for giving us powers.” he said to the devil, “Freedom my ass!”“So you decided to side with the humans then? You hypocritical priest.” said the Devil.The Coroner shook his head, “I wanted to know both sides of the coin, to have fought as the man of the cloth for God - your enemy - and then to serve you, the Dark Lord, I know now that humanity has become nothing more than pawns in a bigger fight, and that is what I do not want to keep happening.”The Devil laughed, “Coroner, Coroner, Coroner, God may be my enemy, however I will never use you humans as pawns, only those I have given powers, those I have infused my gift in their very blood.”The Coroner laughed back at the Devil, he reached into a side pocket on his jacket and presented a vial, “I love to talk about blood, in fact, how about we test your stupidity right here, right now?”The Devil flinched, “Wait, what is that?”“I don’t know, the humans - your pawns - made it especially for anyone infused with magic and supernatural powers in their blood, I think it is to free humanity from being the active pawns of God and the unwitting pawns of you in your unending spiritual war.” said the Coroner as he waved the vial around, “You anger me here and I will unleash hell into this room, everyone in here will die including me.”Benjie’s mouth hung open when he saw the Devil adapt a conciliatory stance by sitting down, “Come, sit down Coroner and enjoy the feast for a while, I think we can talk this through.”“I am not talking, I want you to shut up.” said the Coroner.Sabrina stood up from the floor, “What is it that you want, do you want me? Then come and take me!”The Coroner shook his head, “No, I don’t want you actually.”Benjie blinked and the next thing he knew was that he heard a bunch of loud shots, and what he did see next was the Coroner standing at the front with a Desert Eagle seemingly suddenly appearing in his hand, and the armed men who had once been the Coroner’s allies were dead on the balcony.The Coroner had managed to use magic to move much faster than any human - or witch or warlock - could sense. He then saw a group of three armed men on the other side of the parapet above them, those armed men opened fire.With his magic, the Coroner simply held up his hand and the bullets that were meant for him or anything at his general direction stopped in front of him in mid-air.Three suppressed gunshot noises were heard, each was marked by a body falling dead to the floor.Both Benjie and Bernard recognized two voices speaking loudly on the balcony above their heads, “Minister!?” exclaimed both of them at the same time, popping their heads out of the table and looking up.They saw a pair of faces looking down over the railings, “Benjie, Bernard!” said Hacker.The Coroner raised an eyebrow at the sudden appearance of the two, just as the bullets that had been stopped mid-air in front of him began to fall to the floor. “Who are you two?”“We’re here to protect Sabrina Spellman and to stop the madmen from getting their hands on magic.” said Hacker with pride.The Coroner looked at them and then at Sabrina, he then said, “Interesting, I thought I was the only one here wanting to save her.”“Not really, we know what would happen if we hand magic over to superpowers.” said Humphrey.The Coroner slipped the Desert Eagle into his jacket and dusted his hands, “Right, at least we’re just birds of the same feather.”“Hopefully.” said Hacker, he then said, “Benjie, Bernard, come out of hiding now, we’ll meet you at the front with the Coroner.”“Yes, Minister.” said Benjie and Bernard in unison.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Minister Hacker fixed the sleeves of his suit after slipping his Beretta into the holster underneath his suit, the hall was cleared of students and only the essential personalities remained, well some of them at least, he told Bernard and Benjie to have a change of equipment from the trunk of the rolling armored arsenal they brought with them, a heavily modified Rolls Royce.“So, let me get the straight, you’re Sabrina Spellman?” said Hacker, addressing the assembled members of the Church of Night who sat around a table.The young witch nodded, “Yes, sir.”“And you do know that these thugs are after you?”Sabrina smirked, “Among other things.”Faustus began, “Minister, why is it that you’re helping us?”“Would you want magic in the hands of the United States? Ha! Give me a break.” said Hacker, shaking his head, “They want Miss Spellman here and we will not let that happen.”“But it is only through me that they can get magic.” said Satan.Hacker glanced at the devil, “Well, your unholiness, the human race has already begun to become the Godhead that Teilhard had proposed, your enemy has given us creation and we managed to use creation itself - atoms - as a weapon!” he felt adrenaline coursing through him, he - a Government Minister - had just insulted the devil!Satan smiled devilishly, naturally, and said, “My daughter, Sabrina Spellman, will not let that happen.”Everyone around the table stared slack jawed at the devil, trying to process what he had just said, with the exception of Sabrina who had not only knew the fact but was given powers beyond the norm for any witch or warlock by the Dark Lord himself.But their silence was interrupted by the doors opening which was then followed by Humphrey’s voice, “Minister, they’ve been suited up and given new weapons. What did I miss?”Hacker removed his eyeglasses and told it to Humphrey straight, “Satan here had just called Sabrina Spellman as his daughter.”Humphrey kept a cool face, knowing that he can validate this by spilling state secrets, “That’s odd, I thought that the incident caused by…unknown state actors…has brought down the plane that carried Edward Spellman?”“That’s not her real father, I gave Diana Spellman her child directly, a virgin birth as our enemy would say.”Humphrey’s eyes widened, ‘Shit’ was one curse word that cannot justify the situation they had gotten themselves into, “Well, what do you plan to do with Sabrina then?” His brain, his MI6 mind, had already connected the dots, if Jesus Christ was born through a virgin birth and became civilization’s most renowned being for the past two thousand years, well then, the year 2020 A.D. might become Year One in either Sabrina Domini or Satana Domini (S.D.).Satan grinned, knowing that his masquerade can’t be kept under the covers for long, and even then if it were to be known…who in heaven or Earth could stop him? “She will bring about the apocalypse, I’m telling you.”Hacker kicked into his Ministerial tone, “Well, of course we could keep that for later, I mean we would have to get rid of the mad Vice President…or else your plans may not happen.”“How so can my plans be interrupted?” asked the devil.Humphrey, annoyed, intervened, “Do I have to repeat the fact that we have an arsenal of nuclear weapons? I mean sure we can try to get the briefcase that controls all this, but all it takes is for one base commander to notice that the apocalypse is coming in order to get a nuclear strike, and even if you do stop the missile with magic…nothing can stop you from nukes being blown up in their silos in order to execute a scorched earth policy. Do I make myself clear? Earth to devil, this is the 21st century and no longer biblical times! The stoning is replaced by the firing squad, the burning at the stake has evolved to napalm bombs, the murder of human beings had been industrialized like a butcher’s slaughterhouse, and the sword and holy water has been replaced with space bound weapons and nuclear fire! ” Humphrey pounded the table in front of the arrogant young looking man.Only then Benjie began to understand what Humphrey was doing, he was trying to coerce the devil himself, but to what ends?For a moment or two, the devil and the devilish man had their eyes locked on each other, but one must fold and give way. “Fine,” sighed Satan, “it seems that my initial strategy of corrupting human beings has gone too well.”“Go tell that to Hitler, Stalin, Chairman Mao, Pontius Pilate, Caesar, and even Margaret Thatcher.” Bernard said sarcastically.No one paid attention to Bernard’s comments, “Anyhow,” began Humphrey, “we’ll deal with this superpower threat to your power and then you can begin to take over the world with your apocalyspe.” he smiled, “Of course no curse on this deal or else.”The devil nodded, “A deal has been done then.”Humphrey’s satellite phone began to ring, “Pardon me for a moment.” he hurriedly said before turning around and speaking to whoever was on the other side of the phone.The call was short and it ended with Humphrey grinning widely at Hacker, “Prime Minister.” he bowed.Hacker’s eyes widened and he was in a state of shock and surprise for a dozen heartbeats or so, “M-..me?” he pointed a finger at himself.“Yes, Prime Minister.” said Humphrey, “That was the Coalition Headquarters, apparently neither the leaders of the Labour, Conservative, and the other minor parties we have in our coalition has placed their names on the ballot, and so your name was forwarded by the Deputy Prime Minister and everyone agreed.”Hacker straightened his suit, he was now the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland! He took deep breathes, “Well, excuse me, I’ll need to be at the humble government vehicle for a while.” he said, silently motioning for Benjie, Bernard, and Humphrey to follow him with his hand.The Coroner noticed the others leaving; Satan, Madame Satan, Faustus, and Sabrina Spellman, though he managed to follow the young witch to a hallway outside, “Sabrina?”Sabrina turned around, “Yes?”“You knew you were the child of the devil all along?” he asked.Sabrina nodded, “A lot of things happened, I even survived a direct attack by heaven through angels.”The Coroner nodded grimly, he knows that the Devil wants to bring about the apocalypse of God’s creation, “Well, can I stay in your house? I do believe your witch aunts are your guardians?”“Yes, and sure, you can stay in our house.” she said with a hint of reservation.“Okay, tell me the truth Sabrina, you know that the devil there is going to be using you as a weapon for the apocalypse, right?” said the Coroner.Sabrina sighed, “We need to stop him, I know, but I’m still thinking as to how.”The Coroner, at this point, just wanted to shake Sabrina by the shoulders and air his grievances as to how maybe she could have either ran and never let herself be used, but then again who would not fall to the temptation of the Devil after being given powers that may be beyond the norm, or so according to what intelligence he has been receiving for the past few months from the pair of spies/assassins that he had just gunned down moments ago.He had been expecting for Sabrina to run somewhere else, but then the incident with Benjie happened and the rest was history. “Okay, let’s just go home.” said the Coroner.When they stepped out of the academy, they heard a loud thundering sound beating through the forest like a tempest of chainsaws, in fact the Coroner was convinced it was a squadron of government vehicles - military and police - headed their way.“What is that?” asked Sabrina.Before the Coroner managed to say his suspicions, a small Mini Cooper came shooting around the corner and came to a halt in front of them, the driver’s window was rolled down and both witch and warlock recognized the man, “Luis!?” exclaimed Sabrina.“Get in!” said Luis, “The whole town is festering with soldiers and FBI.”“How about my house, aunt Hilda, aunt Zee, Ambrose?” asked Sabrina.“Oh don’t worry, you can thank us later about that, just get in!” urged Luis.Sabrina sat beside Luis while the Coroner sat by the door on the bench chair, the back seat and the trunk was occupied by the second engine; a B18 racing engine, similar to the one at the front.“The only thing you could bring was this?” asked the Coroner as Luis gunned the engine, it sounded like an orchestra of machine guns.“Well, this thing can go off road just in case if we would encounter a military checkpoint.” said Luis, “Wait, you’re that guy we ran into with the old mayor, right?”The Coroner nodded, “He hired me to steal a deadly potion, I thought it was to get it out of the hands of the Church of Night…that is until he wanted to use it for something else.”“That’s odd, I thought it was because of a disagreement in payment?” asked Luis.The Coroner shook his head, “Partly payment but the last straw was what the mayor wanted to use it for, he sounded like a warlord when he explained it.”Luis shrugged, “Well, I didn’t trust that mayor, not one bit.”They turned a corner and reached a long and curving road that ran mostly parallel to the railroad tracks. “So…um…what is this thing that you built?” asked Sabrina, referring to the unusual car they were in.Luis shot a glance at her, “The best rally car you can think of, that’s what! My dad was a race car driver - track, autocross, and rally - during his teenage years, hell, we ran during the Massachusetts Rally last March, a segment included the Greendale Route. I was behind the wheel during that route.”He wanted to boast about another thing or two but then he noticed a beam of light coming closer from their rear, “I think we have a tail.” announced Luis.The Coroner looked back and saw a blue car, two door, heavily tinted, and it looked old, “Do you know what that car is?” asked the Coroner.Luis glanced at the rear view mirror, “An AE86 Trueno.”He ran down through the list of car owners he knew in and around Greendale and what type, if it were to be friendly - hypothetically - then it should be an R32 GTR, which belonged to his best friend, Miguel, or maybe his 1965 Ford Mustang that his dad swapped for the 1969 Camaro of that FBI Agent Mulder.Unless if the Trueno was delivering tofu, it wasn’t friendly in his books. “Hunker down, we may have a hostile.”The Trueno tried to close the gap during corners by, unsurprisingly for Luis, drifting, but Luis would manage to increase the distance by not slowing down around the gentle corners, instead nudging the steering wheel ever so slightly just to keep the Mini Cooper away from scraping or slamming into the walls or the railings.Luis recalled that the road that they were in would eventually lead to the Consulate, the Spellman Mortuary, their house, and then into Greendale proper. “Alright hang on, we’re going off road.” said Luis as they were about to reach a portion of the rally route.Luis turned the Mini right and into the forest, the haunted forest where no one dared to tread, where witches and warlocks celebrated feasts in the name of Satan for centuries past, a forest where it was usually quiet because of this fact, of course now a pint sized and noisy powerhouse was changing the status quo.It was not a comfortable ride, multiple times did Sabrina - who had no idea to hold onto her chair - hit her head on the roof. Luis looked at the rear view mirror, the Trueno was gone, no one with any amount of sanity would want to follow him through a haunted forest.After a moment of gruelling and punishing roads, they reached a road they can recognize, the one that would lead to the Spellman Mortuary.“Wait, are you sure we’re not in that Consulate of yours?” asked the Coroner as they approached the Spellman Mortuary.It was a bizarre looking setting; Philippine Marines stationed in and around the Mortuary, including a flag of the Philippine Marines planted beside the Spellman Mortuary sign.They approached the Spellman Mortuary with a dozen guns pointed at them, that is until they could hear someone shouting ‘Down, guns down! Don’t shoot or we’ll be kicked out of the job!’“What’s happening?” asked Sabrina.“You see, Sabrina, my dad sweet talked your butts out of martial law with the Governor over the phone, he argued that the road leading into Greendale was - by extension - part of the Philippine Consulate by the fact that our house sits on one end, and the Consulate sits on the other, and there is nothing but a forest and a - to their eyes - a useless cemetery.”Sabrina chuckled, “Oh my-…really?”“Yeah, but in exchange for that, my dad had to deploy the Marines detachment to make sure nobody storms the place.” said Luis, “Of course nobody would want a severe diplomatic incident.”Luis got out of the vehicle and was saluted by an officer who approached him, “Sir, I am Staff Sergeant Emilio Miguel Bonifacio, I’m in charge of the present watch.”Luis returned the salute and shook the man’s hand, “Thank you, Sergeant, keep up the watch and shoot to kill, got it?” he ordered in Tagalog, they have a rule, speak in Tagalog or a mixture of other minor dialects over the radio to make sure no one on the other side would understand them should their communication security be compromised, somehow this included face-to-face orders.“Yes, sir.” replied the Staff Sergeant sharply.Luis then followed Sabrina and the Coroner into the Spellman home, where Hilda, Zelda, Ambrose, and a pair of Philippine Marine officers were in the living room.“Sabrina!” exclaimed Hilda upon seeing the three of them enter.The two officers snapped into attention and saluted Luis and Sabrina, as far as they were told, their job was to protect these two. “At ease.” said Luis.The higher ranking officer introduced himself to Luis, “Sir, I am Colonel Aguinaldo Mendoza, the overall head of the Marine detachment.”Luis glanced at Sabrina, who was being embraced by Hilda and surrounded by Zelda and Ambrose, he then turned his attention back to the Colonel, “Colonel, is this going to be Tirad pass all over again?” he joked.The Colonel and his adjutant laughed, “We appreciate your humor, sir, but we have the entire segment of road, from the Consulate all the way to your house under lockdown.”“Oh, good.” said Luis.They then heard a commotion happening outside, which included gunshots. “This is Colonel, come in all units, what the hell is going on?” hissed the Colonel in Tagalog.The reply, “Colonel, there are two vehicles we intercepted, one is an old Toyota and the other is…the occupants are claiming…to be carrying the Prime Minister of Britain, they’re outside here now.”Luis was the first one out the door, and as what they were told, the AE86 that was chasing them was stopped in front of the Mortuary with a Rolls Royce behind it, and both cars were surrounded by more than a dozen marines.He approached the two cars and saw that the occupants of the AE86 were being pinned against the car with guns pointed to their heads, he held up his hand to the Marines as he recognized the two occupants, “Miguel, Rhon, why the hell are you here?”Miguel managed to lift his head towards Luis, “Heh, we thought it was a good idea to try to help you like the good old days…you know, before Harvey went despairing and all after breaking up with Sabrina…that dramatic breakup event made some hell of a shadow over our class, eh?”Luis shook his head, “Release them.” he told the guards, he then walked towards the Rolls Royce once the guards began releasing the two. The rear door of the vehicle opened and a familiar face was revealed, “Benjie?”Benjie looked around, “Don’t tell me that this was your doing!”“My father’s doing, however I am as good as ground commander.” said Luis, trying to mask his pride.A trio of men got out of the car from the other door, “By God, this is such a good position, an entirely different country’s security - diplomatic attached security at that - guarding this place.” said Humphrey.“Ah, Luis, this here is Sir Humphrey, Director of MI6, and that is Bernard, he is the best operative one could think of, and that is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Jim Hacker.”Luis shook hands with each man as they were introduced, “I am Luis Quezon, son of the Consul of the Consulate nearby, or rather the Consulate located on that other end of the road to be precise.” he pointed towards one end of the road.“How did you manage to do this?” asked Bernard.“Long story short, my house is on that end before Greendale, the Consulate on the other, and this place in the middle. So my dad managed to convince the Governor to have us ‘extend’ our diplomatic security cordon for the duration of the emergency.” explained Luis.Humphrey began clapping, “That is a smart thing, bravo.” he said without a hint of sarcasm.“So, what are you doing here?” asked Luis.“This is the cavalry, pretty much.” said Hacker, “We were trying to head towards Greendale however it seems that your well placed sentries have directed us towards a better spot, where we can keep an eye on Sabrina.”Luis nodded, “Well, it seems that everyone wants Sabrina, it’s now a matter of either the coup-installed Vice President or us.”“Well, we’re just about to establish a command link with the SAS troopers aboard the HMS Queen Elizabeth, and also I’m trying to contact the Cabinet.” said Hacker, he then turned to Benjie, “Are you getting anything here?”Benjie checked his devices, besides that Church of Night school, Greendale proper, and the Mortuary, other places produce mostly static. “Yes, we’re getting strong signals here.”“Good, bring in the mobile communication devices into the Mortuary, that is if they will let us in.” said Hacker.“Oh they will.” said Luis, “I think their lives, our lives too, depend on it.”***The Acting President Martel never did set foot on the White House after the takeover, in fact he was secretly in the 34th SAC which was in an underground base somewhere near Greendale, it was once symbolized - along with the other SAC bases - as the sword and shield against Soviet nukes, now it was the sword against the devil.He was inside the main command center of the base, seated on a table in front of a console screen with the face of the old Secretary of Defense, the now Vice President of the United States, “You’re not getting out of Washington, are you?” asked Martel.The Vice President shook his head, “By leaving Washington D.C, we might be booted out of the job, I mean we did not even have Congress on our side!”Martel shook his head, he did not see that coming, in fact his failure had become the newspaper headlines of the day; Congress to vote on removal of the President, Martel’s Letter on the ropes as both parties air grievances…yada, yada, yada!“We just need enough time until we can get that Sabrina Spellman, or at the very least, kill her…I don’t know, the intelligence on the ground is getting fuzzy.” admitted Martel.The Vice President shrugged, “Well, we haven’t heard from the Coroner nor his colleagues, therefore we must consider him as lost and proceed with Plan B, you must understand that if we don’t push through with B…then time might run out for us and FBI agents would be on our asses.”Plan B; the space option. Martel went through the plans in his head, it just came up when they were speaking in the Pentagon shortly after the takeover, apparently the Department of Defense and the Pentagon can make weapons out of two possible spacecrafts; the Crew Dragon that is scheduled to re-enter within the next 48 hours, or a Falcon Heavy rocket carrying Plan B-3; Rods from God.The old Secretary of Defense explained that they could use the operational unit Specula and its computers - the same on used by that British prick to hack into and stop their missile strike - to hack into the Crew Dragon and force it to re-enter and crash like a meteorite over the Church of Night school and/or the Spellman Mortuary.Alternatively they could use the same strategy on the Falcon Heavy central booster, which would be lofting their experimental Rods from God weapon over a polar orbit, therefore the core booster would be performing a return to launch site towards Florida, but that’s when they would interrupt its return to launch site and instead have it come crashing down onto their target.If somehow either or both would fail, then the deployment of their Rods from God should seal the deal; a killer satellite armed with tungsten telephone poles that would be dropped from orbit and strike the target at near orbital velocities, producing enough kinetic impact to match a nuclear weapon.Should everything fail, Martel was ready to take control of the nuclear silos near Greendale and either launch an ICBM at Greendale or detonate the stockpile of the base and destroy everything within a five hundred mile radius, including Greendale.“Which one should we do, sir?” asked the Vice President.Martel considered the options, “The Falcon Heavy option, when does our top secret satellite launch?”“The agreement was ‘L.O.D’, launch on demand, the satellite has been mated with the rocket, and the rocket has gone through the tests and is ready to launch at a moment’s notice.” said the Vice President, “I think it to be wiser than the Dragon option, for now at least.”Martel nodded, “Go and inform the 65th Air Force Space Wing to inform our partners at SpaceX to prepare the rocket…and go tell your Specula bunch to hack into the flight computers.”“Yes sir.” said the Vice President, “Anything else, sir?”“No, thank you, that will be all.” said Martel before cutting the line, he then swung his chair around and glanced at the base commander, “Commandant,” he called, “prepare to have the base under lockdown, and also may I please address the troops?”The Commandant nodded, “Certainly sir, may I ask about the situation, sir?”Martel raised a hand, “You’ll hear it in a while, just give me the horn.”The Commandant walked over to the communication station and switched it to an ‘all call’, meaning all personnel - through the public announcement system and the walkie talkies - will hear the message loud and clear. “This is the Commandant, the Acting President of the United States is here with us today and has asked to address the base.”Martel approached the station and nodded courteously towards the Commandant as the phone was given to him, “Ladies and gentlemen of the 34th SAC, we are now at the forefront of the fight against hell, as you may know, the town of Greendale has become ground zero of the occult and devilish happenings, and we as the good men and women of this great nation who volunteered to put their lives on the line have the duty to fight these bastards.Now I know what you may be thinking, these things are meant for priests and the church and those exorcist bullshit that you see on screen, but in reality it is up to the great weapons of peace of this nation, the people of the biblical times could barely use steel and gunpowder, now however we have nuclear armaments, we can fly, we can destroy the entire planet if we wanted to.We will be the ones on the front lines to fight the devil and his demons, we shall do so with aerial superiority and shock awe level of firepower, we will send those who have been causing problems to humanity back where they came from. Satan had tried to play his hand, however it seems that he has overplayed it, that slumbering dumbass woke up at the wrong time.There could be no better time to fight the scourge against heaven, we are a nation under God and as such we will fight the devil at all cost. Thank you and God bless America!”Martel gave the phone back to the Commandant in the midst of applause in the command room. “This is the Commandant, the whole base is under lockdown, no one in, no one out, even if it were to be people of our own uniform. Remember people, these demons tempt people into fighting their own, so if anyone tries to get in, they will be shot. Furthermore, surrender all service phones, no one will have access to the internet or to anyone for the duration of this lockdown. That is all.”Martel managed to have a glimpse at the screens showing CCTV camera feeds, he could see some airmen high fiving and being pumped up after his speech. He smiled and thought ‘And so it begins’.
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Hacker fell asleep on a couch in the living room of the Spellman Mortuary, in fact all he remembered last night was him mostly on the phone speaking with the Cabinet, when he wanted to have a serious ‘war room conference’ with the Spellmans and every other actors with regards to the problem, government can be full of paperwork and meetings.He ran through the things he talked about with his temporary Cabinet before falling asleep and it somehow went from the Occult problem, to the U.N. vote on Israel’s resolution or something, and then somehow to a budget dispute for some project somewhere in Britain.He was stirred awake by a sweet sounding voice that reminded him of his mother, “Ah, I brought some tea.” said Aunt Hilda.Hacker sprang up, “Oh, dear me, I didn’t mean to fall asleep-”“No need to be ashamed about it, I understand what you’re doing for us.” said Hilda as she laid a teacup and teapot on the table in front of him, “Here’s some tea and biscuits.”Hacker looked at the clock, it was eight in the morning, he looked around and saw Humphrey looking at the old TV set with a smirk, “Ah, good morning, Prime Minister,” said Humphrey without shifting his gaze to Hacker, “go and have your tea first, Congress is voting on the letter that Martel person sent to them as to whether or not they would accept the decision.”“Really?!” exclaimed Hacker before sipping on his tea.“Yes.” nodded Humphrey.“Say, where is Bernard, Benjie, and…that diplomat kid who thinks he runs the place?” Humphrey let out a soft chuckle, “The kid does run the place well, the young boy went home, as for Bernard and Benjie, they’re upstairs with Sabrina and Ambrose since an hour ago, I do believe they’re trying to learn about the Church of Night.”“But didn’t we already have all the Intel on them?” asked Hacker.“I did say trying to learn, as in they’re just talking to her to see if we have gotten the facts right.” said Humphrey.They then heard footsteps heading down the stairs, “So, the way you’re saying, Sabrina, is that somehow you were supposed to be baptized, and then rejected it, and then decided to be baptized into the Church of Night anyway, and then somehow you started gaining so much powers and then eventually Satan appeared in beast form and then human form to tell you that you are his daughter?” that was Bernard’s voice.“Yes.” said Sabrina, seriously, but softly.Bernard lowered his voice as well, “Your aunts do not know?”Ambrose butted in, “Only me actually.”“Ah, Prime Minister!” said Bernard as he saw Hacker awake.“Ah, Bernard, so how was the talk with her?” asked Hacker.“I think we need to talk with everyone in this household.” said Bernard, “I mean we were talking about Sabrina and I think that the fact should be brought out again into our faces.”Humphrey groaned, “My god, Bernard, you’re starting to sound like you’re running to be the Prime Minister’s personal private secretary.”“I’m sorry, it’s just that no one here has been taking it seriously as it seems.” said Bernard, “The devil is planning to use Sabrina as the apocalypse and you know that.” Hacker looked lost for a moment before remembering, “Oh yes, of course, I know that, Bernard.”“But they don’t.” said Ambrose.“Ambrose!” hissed Sabrina.“Your aunts do not know?” said Hacker.Sabrina shook her head, “I think-…that…they’ll disown me.” Hacker could have swore that he saw tears swelling up around her eyes, on top of that she barely mouthed/say “Please don’t…” to him when they both heard Hilda’s voice saying, “Ah, darling, you’re awake, there’s breakfast at the table.”“And at the table we shall break our fast.” said Humphrey, Hacker could overhear the newscaster saying ‘Congress has rejected the letter, it is now up to the Senate…’“Come now, Sabrina, Prime Minister.” said Humphrey, Hacker knew that his Director of the MI6 has something up his sleeves.Hacker brought his tea and biscuits over to the dining table where Hilda had cooked up eggs, sandwiches, and bacon. “Eat up, everyone.” said Hilda, welcoming.Hacker sat on one side, Humphrey beside the Prime Minister, Bernard on one end, Hilda on the other, and Sabrina opposite of Humphrey, and Ambrose beside the young witch. “Now, onto business.” said Humphrey after a few minutes into breakfast.“Oh what is that?” asked Hilda.“Now, Sabrina, go and tell your aunts the situation.” said Humphrey simply.“What, the aggression by those evil government bunch?” said Hilda.“Y-..yes.” nodded Sabrina. Humphrey smirked, “I haven’t made myself so clear. Sabrina, do you love your mother?”Sabrina pounded the table, “Don’t you dare talk about my mother, or my parents, like that, Humphrey!”“Sabrina.” chastised Hilda, and then to Humphrey, “I’m sorry-”“No, no, it’s alright.” said Humphrey calmly, “Now, what did happen to your mother?”“She’s dead.” said Sabrina, “My parents are dead due to an accident, both of them died on the same plane actually.” she was referring to what Humphrey mentioned last night at the Academy of Unseen Arts.Humphrey shook his head, he then presented a dossier, “This will be your answer, Sabrina.”“Hu-…Humphrey.” the Prime Minister said.“No, don’t worry Prime Minister, these have been declassified by me on day one of assuming the office of the head of MI6, but it is only declassified to me.” said Humphrey, he then gave the dossier to Sabrina.Sabrina opened the folder and saw the words ‘Operation Instantaneous Resolve’ on the top along with other words like ‘Top Secret’ and ‘MI6’ and ‘M.O.D.’ and other things. But the things that struck deep in her would be the photos of the father and mother she never saw.“I killed your father, Sabrina.” said Humphrey with a hint of regret but mixed in with professionalism.Sabrina looked sharply at him, technically he killed the man she thought was her father, but the emotions was still there, “Why?”“Orders from the top, I’m sorry.” said Humphrey, feigning regret before swinging to a tone that sounded like stating a fact and a threat, “Now, the same thing will happen to your own mother if you don’t let your aunts help you!”Sabrina was still perplexed by what he was saying, “Yeah, where is my mother in all this…things?” she slapped the paper.“Turn to the pages under ‘Operation Kickback’.” said Humphrey.Sabrina dropped the dossier on the table when she saw a picture of her mother attached to a paper by a paperclip. “What did you do to her?”“She is still alive.” said Humphrey.“What do you mean by that?” said Hilda.“I mean that she is still alive.” said Humphrey, “She is within our care at Broadmoor hospital.”Sabrina felt her heart racing, she doesn’t know if she should trust this man at all, or trust them to handle her problem…well, everyone’s problem once the apocalyptic plans kick into gear. She went through the papers under ‘Operation Kickback’ and saw the hospital records, both from a mental facility in Rhode Island and that in Broadmoor, as well as some records from the FBI.“Can I see her?”Humphrey shook his head, “I tell you that you can see her if you were to just set yourself free and tell the truth, or else we can do what we did to your father.” he said, “And before you can say your spells to curse me or kill me, do that and the head staff of Broadmoor will be forced to open a set of sealed instructions written by me to have her killed.”Sabrina welled up in tears, “Oh what’s wrong, love?” asked Hilda, she stood up and laid a gentle hand on Sabrina.“I’m sorry, aunt Hilda, for lying. Edward Spellman was not my father, the Dark Lord is.” said Sabrina.“But you are still Diana’s daughter, aren’t you?” said Hilda sweetly.“Yes.” said Sabrina.“Then that does not make you less of a Spellman for me.” said Hilda.“Or for me.” interjected Ambrose.“But I am the prophecy of the Dark Lord to bring about the apocalypse.” said Sabrina.“Oh does he?” said Hilda in a tone that sounded as if she was about to deal with the bully herself.Humphrey pulled out a satellite phone and called up the head of Broadmoor, “Yes, this is Humphrey…no, not that…in fact, Dam busters. Yes, that is all.” he then switched off the phone and told Sabrina, “Thank you for telling the truth, I have ordered for my sealed orders to be burned, she will not be harmed.”“Wait, where’s Aunt Zee?” asked Sabrina.Suddenly from the door, “I can hear everything outside.” said Zelda, standing by the front door, “Sabrina, why didn’t you tell us?”“Because I was afraid, Aunt Zee, of…you…”“Disowning you? Nonsense! You’ve been under our care as a Spellman, a daughter of your mortal mother and-…the Dark Lord…but to us you’re still Edward’s daughter and that is it.” said Zelda, “As for the Dark Lord’s plan…we need to put a stop to it.”“Hang on, where is Benjie and the Coroner?” asked Hacker.“Prime Minister, Benjie is still upstairs trying to set some sort of uplink, the Coroner has been standing outside along with the troops of the Philippine Marines.” said Bernard.They then heard quick footsteps outside, Zelda turned around and sighed, “It’s that diplomat kid again.” Luis rushed through the door, gave a quick and curt nod to Zelda, and quickly walked to the table, “Prime Minister, everyone in this table, there is a rocket headed towards us right now and I do not know how to explain it.”Hacker blinked twice theatrically, “I’m sorry, a rocket?”“Do you mean a missile?” asked Bernard.“No, a rocket, half filled with highly explosive RP-1 and Liquid Oxygen is heading this way and I don’t know how…or why.” said Luis, he then pulled out his phone and showed the live stream of the Falcon Heavy launch, where the payload is some top secret military satellite.Hacker looked lost, “I’m sorry, what am I looking at?” he asked.“The two boosters have landed in Florida, the middle core booster is supposed to have done a reverse ballistic burn - or a boostback burn as what they call it - in order to land back on an autonomous landing ship on the Atlantic.” explained Luis.“Supposed to, what happened to it?” asked Bernard.“It did not complete it’s burn correctly and it somehow nudged away from the north Atlantic and completely towards our place…or so what the fan-run websites tracking telemetry are saying. The Air Force has already declared an emergency meanwhile the company has said that there is an urgent situation but they have things through…or something.”“I thought these things are well planned?” asked Humphrey.“Well, unless someone has gotten into the flight computers, I would say.” said Luis, “I mean with such a light payload, the center core booster would still have plenty of fuel to do all those complex maneuvering.”Hacker, and everyone who had an earpiece, heard something buzz in their ear, “This is GCHQ, Prime Minister, and others, we have word that someone has hacked into the Falcon Heavy center core booster and is using it as a kinetic weapon.”They heard feet thudding down the stairs, it was Benjie, “I’m trying to get my computer to be connected to the MI6 cloud computer.”“Ah yes, that, we’re still trying to patch you in securely.” said GCHQ.“You’re going to try to hack into the rocket’s computers?” said Bernard.“Yes, like what I did with the Specula program of the Pentagon before with their missile, I think it’s too obvious as to why we shouldn’t trust my once-colleagues in the Pentagon in giving us access to their cloud computing.” said Benjie, “That’s why I need MI6 and GCHQ’s computers to help me hack into the flight computers.”“You do know that it is a redundancy of computers, right?” said Luis.“You mean there is no central computer?” clarified Benjie.“Yes, I heard that they do not use singular hardened computers as it is too expensive, so they use a bunch of several computers, so should one fail, nothing would go wrong.” explained Luis, “I am not a rocket engineer but they usually post these facts online…for their fanbase.”“Well it seems that they have a rabid follower then, the hackers…maybe the same people who want Sabrina.” said Humphrey.Benjie wiped the sweat off his forehead as he stared at his smartphone, he then heard a confirmatory notification sound, “GCHQ, I’m in.” he said, he then directed the battery of computers and its AI to override whoever was giving it orders and to return to its normal programming.“Well, I do know that our cloud computing is a whole lot slower.” said Humphrey.“Oh just shut up.” hissed Benjie as he watched through dozens upon dozens of lines of code appearing on his screen, he was making progress, maybe…hopefully.Luis saw some sort of activity on the live stream footage from a camera on top of the booster, “Wait, the brakes are being deployed.”“Yeah, I think it’s because the uplink control from the attacker has just been thwarted.” said Benjie, “At least maybe the normal program has resumed.”“I hope it’s on time.” said Luis, he then smiled, “Ah, the engines have begun to do a slow down burn…but telemetry says that it’s bound to land around here.”They heard the windows rattle and then a sonic boom as the rocket slowed down, “So…is that the landing part or did it just hit its target?” asked Hacker.Rapid footsteps of boots thudded the front porch as soldiers ran to the walls of the house in order to get as far away as possible from something, Bernard looked out through the window to see what the fuss was all about, “Uhm…Prime Minister, I think our package has come by the mail.”“What are you talking about?” asked Hacker.“I mean that Marvin the Martian just landed outside.” said Bernard.Luis and Benjie ran outside and along with the soldiers staring wide-eyed at it, there sat a first stage of a rocket, it’s ends coated with soot by the re-entry heat, like an image from some old science fiction novel. “Well, you did it again.” said Luis to Benjie.Benjie shook his head, “No, I merely overthrown the overriding commands and let the computer land the rocket, just as what it was supposed to do.”They heard Hacker boom behind them, “That is it, enough is enough! This American Acting President has crossed the line too many.”Luis and Benjie went back inside and heard Humphrey say, “So, what do we do now then, Prime Minister?”“Well, once the Senate boots the Acting President out, we’ll need to force wherever this coward is from his hide out.” said Hacker.“That’s the problem, we do not know where he is.” said Humphrey.“Can’t we force him out or something?” asked Bernard.The Coroner walked inside, “That man will happily tie himself to a nuclear warhead and launch it at the Academy. He will die trying, he will never surrender.”“So, do you have any guesses as to where your master could be?” asked Humphrey.The Coroner shook his head, “He has never been my master, just a useful pawn.”“A pawn charging head on towards the other side.” said Humphrey, “He’ll end up destroying this part of the United States in his attempt for sure.”Bernard had a smirk on his face, “Prime Minister, how about we send in a bunch of highly trained SAS paratroopers as part of a…uhm…goodwill visit?”Humphrey slapped the table, “EXCELLENT idea, Bernard!”“Wait, I was just kidding, I saw it on some old comedy sitcom online…”Hacker raised an eyebrow, “Really, Bernard?”“Yes, Prime Minister.” said Bernard, “Uhm, Series 01, Episode 06 actually.”Humphrey faced Hacker, “But Prime Minister, we can have a bunch of SAS paratroopers to zero in on our location now that you are the Prime Minister!”“Send them here and do what? We don’t know where the target is yet and I don’t think that calling in the SAS and have them do social chores for while they wait for their target would be a good idea.” said Hacker, “How about we send them an ultimatum over the airwaves and the Internet?”“How?” asked Humphrey.“Oh, you know, we tell him to stand down and stop this dangerous harassment or I’ll send in the might of the Royal Navy!” said Hacker with pride, “That will teach him a lesson.”“Ah, well, the thing is Prime Minister, is that our Navy is outnumbered by more than a factor of five…on this side of the coast alone.” said Humphrey.“Well, we’ve always beaten the odds, the Armada, the Battle of Britain, and the such.” said Hacker with a smirk.“But never the American War for Independence.” replied Humphrey.Hacker lost the smirk, “Okay, so we wait, but how about the devil?”“I’ll deal with him.” said Sabrina.Bernard pointed a finger at her and raised an eyebrow aimed at Humphrey’s direction, to which Humphrey simply nodded with a hint of ‘Yeah, I know, she sounds crazy but she’s the best hope we have.’“Oh really?” asked Benjie.“She can do it.” said Luis.“But of course, I would want to speak to my aunties…alone.” said Sabrina.“Can’t you do it in some other room? I kind of need this area of the house.” said Hacker.“Wait a minute, this is our house.” said Zelda.“Yes, I know and I understand, but I’m about to go through an ordeal that may be bigger than this. I need this spot in order to talk to my Brexit Secretary over the phone.” said Hacker.“I thought it was your doings that got Brexit postponed.” said Bernard.“Yes, that’s why I want the prophecy to be fulfil-…I mean I want this situation resolved, you see, and as such I must come prepared in-” he just gave up, sighed, and turned to Sabrina, “Sabrina, just fulfill your prophecy and end the world already.”“No, I will not!” said Sabrina.“But the…the-…the-…Parliament!” sighed Hacker, he then shook his head, “Okay, never mind, we’ll be going off to another room.”Bernard was then heard laughing, “Very funny, Prime Minister, I thought I just heard you telling Sabrina to destroy the world.”“Yes, apparently he’s running to be the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Pope Brexit of the Church of Sabrina and Satan.” said Humphrey with a smirk, the two men then laughed.“I will surely not be the Pope of-” but Hacker’s protests fell to deaf ears.“Hey, how about we place the Saint Sabrina Basilica in Brussels, so the papers will always read ‘Brussels orders’ this and that.” said Bernard.“Yes, and have the United Kingdom Brexit from it.” added Benjie, “So he’ll be at war with himself.”“Yes, and Sabrina would have the same old problems; Daesh, China, Russia, North Korea, India, Pakistan - you know, the places that will obliterate her and Satan’s church with human rights abuses.” said Luis.“Okay, now that’s not funny.” pointed out Hacker.“Yeah, it’s not, boy.” said Humphrey, “If Sabrina and the devil wins, I do seriously think that the UN will be dominated by the old Eastern Pact, and by that I mean her church and her covens will be obliterated by those countries that, as you say, don’t care about human life.”“Hey, I am still here!” said Sabrina.“Of course you are, now go and say abracadabra and disappear.” said Humphrey, “Oh wait, we were the ones supposed to leave.”Hacker sighed, “Sabrina, I’m so sorry you had to hear that.”Sabrina shook her head, “It’s okay…I know you people are…a bit stressed.”“A lot stressed.” said Bernard.They then heard a ringing noise and Hilda saying, “Uhm…Prime Minister, your bag is ringing.”Hacker went over to the living room sofa and found his communication bag to be ringing, he pulled out the phone connected from it and extended the antenna, “Hello, who is this?”“This is President Davis from the White House.”***Barely was the ink dry on the official Senate resolution when the FBI stormed the White House, and not far from the body of heavily armed FBI agents was the now re-instated President Davis.The Secret Service did not shoot, instead they laid down their arms and were promptly handcuffed, in fact President Davis was surprised to see the Secret Service simply surrender, even though they know that one of the conspirators are inside the White House.Davis heard chants of ‘clear’ as each room were checked by the FBI, as far as the Justice Department was concerned, the conspirators were charged with treason against the United States and were to be arrested.He shook his head, he was in the central hall where he had once welcomed heads of states and had state functions and things, as he waited eagerly for the arrest of his Secretary of Defense.They all heard a dramatic ‘Drop down your weapon!’ and a shot rang through the White House, “Oval Office! Oval Office!” an FBI agent’s voice could be heard shouting.Davis went straight for the Oval Office along with a handful of FBI agents, in which they found blood and piece of brain splattered all over the curtain behind the presidential desk as well as a nearly headless body lying on the table with a fifty calibre Desert Eagle lying on the floor not far from the dead man’s left hand which was hanging over the table.An FBI agent approached him, “Sir, we found this with his signature in a table underneath a vase.” he said, holding a paper.Davis read the paper, he nodded, it was as good as a confession letter, the old Secretary of Defense had written a suicide note that outlined everything, from the top secret and diabolical experiments down to the botched operations to capture Sabrina Spellman, however there was one part that struck the President, the dead man had signed off his note as ‘Jordan Spellman - whose brother sold the world to the devil!’The President turned the paper over and found a post script saying, ‘I was the cousin of Edward Spellman, the High Priest of the Church of Night that used his virgin wife as a personal concubine to Satan to borne the child of doomsday. I was a coward for not shooting my brother for this, instead, I resorted to relying on British slickness and deviousness to get rid of my own evil cousin. As a veteran of the war in Kuwait and as the ground commander of the U.S. forces in the invasion of Iraq, I felt ashamed, very ashamed, more so in the fact that I did not even tell the British anything and had nothing to do with his death, and yet somehow I felt relieved.I wanted to wage war against the forces of hell with the might of the most liberated country on Earth as its Secretary of Defense, the whole of humanity can kill the devil with its might, imagine what the united forces of every country could do to any enemy?Should history judge me as evil, spare me a thought and accept my plea deal, deny me heroism and call me unethical but do not call me devious and evil for I did everything I did to fight the Great Enemy. This is what our country stands for; God and Country.If World War I was fought to fight the Germans, World War II to fight the Axis, the Cold War and all associated wars to fight Communism, and our wars in the Middle East to fight aggression and terrorism, then let us now fight a new war, a War on the Occult.’Davis wiped the sweat off his forehead, he doesn’t know who or what to believe, or what to do now. He then saw his Chief of Staff enter the office, “Mister President, what happened?”“Can you get me on the line to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom…I do believe he is in Greendale right now.” said Davis.“Yes, Mister President, I’ll try to get him on the line, anything else, sir?” asked the Chief of Staff.“Yes, get Marine One, I’m flying over to Greendale immediately.” said Davis.“Yes, Mister President.”
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Hacker resorted to his ear piece while having the supposed President of the United States on hold, “Hello, GCHQ, can you confirm the call that I’m receiving?” asked Hacker.“Yes, Prime Minister, the call is coming from a fast moving vehicle and-…it’s from Marine One.”Hacker went back to the President, “Hello, yes, I’m sorry to keep you waiting, I had to confirm your location…”“Yes, we’re heading there, I am aboard Marine One, and I found out that the late Secretary Spellman of Defense is related to Edward Spellman, they’re cousins.” said Davis.Hacker’s eyes widened, “Sabrina, your father’s cousin is-…oh my god, the Secretary of Defense.” he said loudly.Sabrina, Ambrose, Hilda, and Zelda all piled up to the Living Room, the other mortals were at the front porch. “Who are you talking to?” asked Zelda.“The President of the United States.” said Hacker, he then went back to the phone, “Um, Mister President, I am currently in the Spellman household…so…I’ll just tell them that you’re on your way then?”“Where is the household located?” asked Davis.“In between Greendale and the Philippine Consulate.” said Hacker.“Understood, I’ll meet you there in the household.” said Davis.Hacker slammed the phone down and hollered, “Humphrey, Bernard!”“Yes, Prime Minister?” asked Humphrey as the two summoned entered the living room.“How the hell did the President of the United States manage to get a hold of the communications briefcase?” asked Hacker.“It was worse back then, from time to time we would have received phone calls from the Kremlin.” said Bernard.“This is not a laughing matter, Bernard, how did they get access to a top secret line?” asked Hacker.“The Five Eyes agreement, or rather the war on the occult agreement you signed.” said Humphrey, “It says something around the lines of needing to provide access to at least one communication channel to the country’s head of government.”Hacker shook the thought away, “Anyhow, I just found out…Sabrina, Hilda, Zelda, and Ambrose, that Edward’s cousin was the Secretary of Defense!”“Which cousin?” wondered Hilda.Hacker shrugged, “I don’t know, he only said Secretary Spellman.”Bernard checked his smartphone, “Prime Minister, after a quick search on the Internet, it seems that this was a Jordan Spellman.”“Ah, him!?” exclaimed Hilda.“Don’t you watch CSPAN or something?” said Hacker with a smirk.“What?” asked Zelda, not amused.“You know, television, all Presidential appointees would have to go through a confirmation procedure which would be broadcast on TV, I could not believe that someone in your own family was the Secretary of Defense!” said Hacker.“Other than the military games, what is so important about that?” asked Zelda.“He is the second in command of the most powerful armed forces on Earth, currently.” said Bernard.“Every other family would start acting like they owned the United States just because their…oh…uncle’s uncle’s cousin is the Secretary of Defense.” said Humphrey.Hacker nodded, “That’s right, that’s right…the point is that the President is on his way now and I think we’re now in the endgame of our problems, sort of.”Humphrey shook his head, “Why is it always that the British has to wait for its allies to get things done?”“We relied on the Americans in two world wars.” said Bernard.“So much for the proud son of the British Empire.” said Humphrey.***There was no Ruffles and Flourishes and Hail to the Chief, the distinctive hymn of the President of the United States as President Davis emerged from Marine One, which landed at a clear patch not far from the Spellman Mortuary, a fact that Luis found odd, though he understood as to why, this was not a pompous official visit, this was a down-and-dirty situation that required action.The Prime Minister and his aides stood by the driveway along with the Philippine Marines, while Luis was flanked by an agent, witches and warlocks at the front porch, as President Davis and a handful of FBI agents approached them.Hacker shook hands with Davis, “Mister President, this is a surprise.” he said.Davis nodded, “I am sorry for the circumstances which you find your visit to be in, it seems that my Vice President and a handful of others committed an uprising in order to go after this…occult business.” he said, exasperated, “However the situation is nearly over.”“Nearly?” asked Humphrey.“Vice President Martel is hiding in the 34th SAC air base.” said Davis.“Ah, the hammer of the United States, the Strategic Air Command.” interjected Humphrey, “The nuclear arm of America, its sword.”“Then what would be its shield then?” asked Bernard.“The soldiers,” answered Davis, “and pretty much the civilians as soon as Martel reaches for the nuclear button.”“But we have the Nuclear Football inside that house with our agent.” said Humphrey.Davis shook his head, “That’s the remote switch to all nuclear forces, Martel may only have one base under his control but that base has fifty five nuclear warheads, each approximately twenty times more powerful than the ones dropped in Hiroshima.”“And this madman may use these weapons?” asked Hacker.“He will.” said Davis, seriously, he then sighed, “What is it about this occult and witch business? I thought everyone was protected under the First Amendment when it comes to religious freedom.”“So, you do not believe in all the reports of witches and magic?” asked Hacker.Davis shook his head, “I do not believe in magic, but whatever they believe in then they are guaranteed rights under the Constitution.”Humphrey wanted to roll his eyes and say ‘Great, an optimist for a head of Government’, instead he nodded and said, “Exactly what our countries stand for.”“But what’s the plan now that you know where Martel is hiding in?” asked Bernard.“We’re going to be surrounding the base and order for Martel to surrender or be shot.” said Davis.“It’s going to be a blood bath!” said Humphrey.Davis shook his head, “We have no other choice, he has a base with nuclear weapons under his command, whatever it is it would be a do-or-die mission.”Humphrey could read the president’s face, “Let me guess, we have a problem?”Davis nodded, “The base has the best personnel guarding it, a frontal attack would be bloody and suicidal.”They heard another voice pitching in, “But what if an attack by a force of troops that cannot be hit?” said Sabrina.Hacker, Humphrey, Bernard, and Davis glanced at Sabrina, “Excuse me?” said Davis.“Benjie told me a story which I think would be helpful, I can summon the ghosts of the 666th Welch Regiment.” said Sabrina.“But I want Martel back alive,” said Davis, “he must pay for what he did.”“Oh, we too want him to pay for what he did.” said Zelda.“All I can say is that you mortals should leave, let us handle them and let us handle the apocalypse.” declared Sabrina.Hacker bowed his head, “We shall.”***Martel paced across the main nerve center of the base, they had lost contact with Acting Vice President Spellman and it became apparent that their plan to hijack a Falcon Heavy booster had failed, and so did their Rods from God satellite.He adjusted his collar, “Commandant, do we have any communication with the White House?”The Commandant shook his head, “No sir, it seems that we lost the Acting Vice President.”Martel noticed one of the officers in the room looking rather concerned at his screen, “Sir,” the officer swung his chair to face the Acting President, “our perimeter guards at Section B has reported that they’re under attack and that they are suffering heavy casualties.”Martel reached for a pair of binoculars sitting on a table and decided to go up to the air control tower. He peered towards the direction of Section B and saw what he thought was an illusion, one that had a cavalry charge, a line of cannons, and a line of musketeers.“We’re being beaten by a historical reenactment!” exclaimed Martel as he saw the perimeter guards, armed with modern weaponry and clothed in modern protection, were being gunned down by…those ghosts of the past.An officer exclaimed, “Sir, we have a breach in Section B, C, D-”“Oh I know that!” exclaimed Martel, “Sound the alarm!”The base suddenly went dark as all the lights seemingly failed, however their computers were still up and running, a thing they had wished would not be the case.“S-..sir, I think we’re being hacked into.” announced an officer.Another confirmed their worst fears, “Sir, the computer security department is reporting a systems breach.”“Yeah, well someone fire the IT guy then.” remarked Martel.The screens of the computers became dark, knocked out, but then an image appeared, it was that of a nearly middle aged man talking to the front camera of his phone, “I hope you like your present, though it’s quite odd how-”But then a much larger man tapped him on the side, “Oh yes, I’m sorry, Mister President.”The camera was then pointed at the President, “This is President Davis, we know that Vice President Martel, who is now a fugitive from the law, has commandeered your base under the false pretenses of some occult invasion, that is simply not the truth.”Martel hissed “Bullshit.” underneath his breath.“I urge the base officers to retake control and arrest Martel with your Military Police and hand him over to Federal authorities.” said Davis, “Your time is up, Martel.”Martel went downstairs, fearing that he could be arrested at any moment by any officer in the base, that announcement was base-wide. He managed to slip into the executive room and slammed the door behind him, the corridors were empty as every man and woman of the SAC were arming themselves and going out to fight whatever was attacking them.He checked his options, on the one hand he could just end it there and then, but then he could also surrender and grab the attention of the world on the Occult and the need to destroy it. That is all he wanted to do, he agreed with Secretary Spellman’s idea and he wanted to pursue it as a government policy.He heard a knock on the door, it was the Base Commandant, “Mister Martel, you will come out of there and surrender to the MP officers I have here with me.”There was a loaded gun in the drawer, he knew of it because he hid it there. Martel reached for the drawer, pulled out the gun, and hesitated for a moment. He looked to his left and saw the window, he was at the first floor and he could just climb out and wing it in the middle of a battle.Gun. Window. Gun. Window. Gun. His eyes darted as he contemplated his fate, he would be locked up for sure and he would just be painted as a nutcase, but what if…just what if someone would listen during the circus that will be his eventual trial?The door slammed open.“Mister Martel, you are under arrest for treason and usurpation of authority.” declared the base commandant.A loud and heavy sounding thud was heard as Martel dropped the gun, he raised his hands.***Benjie looked back at the quickly disappearing Spellman Mortuary, not to mention the unusual red wispy atmosphere that had engulfed the forest when the witches left to, in their own words, ‘face the devil.’He had hacked into the central mainframe computer of the base and played a video ultimatum by Davis which was filmed on his own phone before they left the Mortuary.Davis and his bunch went back to the White House aboard Marine One, meanwhile Luis led the Philippine Marines back to the confines of the Consulate, and they were speeding away in their Rolls Royce which was currently in its autonomous self-driving mode.Bernard shook his head, “All that mess because of some madman.”“And family issues I guess, I mean the Secretary of Defense this whole time was related to the Spellmans, the witch and warlocks Spellman.” remarked Hacker.“But what now that you’re the Prime Minister?” asked Humphrey, “I mean once this blows over, once the media circus plays its part, what would be your next action on the matter?”Hacker bit his lip in thought, “Well…Benjie, who was glued to his phone while seated at the front slid the plastic privacy cover and said, “Mister Prime Minister, you might want to check the news.”Hacker accessed the controls for the small TV screen and switched it on, the international news channels had their cameras at the Pentagon where the Undersecretary of Defense was speaking.“Ladies and Gentlemen, the Department of Defense, and the armed forces of the United States, do hereby deny the existence of any witch cults within the territories of the United States, and that the Vice President Martel has been charged for treason by a Federal Court, we do however regret to announce that our Secretary of Defense and Assistant Secretary of Defense, Secretary Spellman and Assistant Secretary Jonah Dylan were found dead, their cause of death is still under investigation. We would also like to state for the record that the Five Eyes agreement was an expansion on the present and current agreements, treaties, and operations in the War on Terror, this time however we have considered violent cults to be included in the list of terror organizations.”“Splendid rejection, I must say so myself.” interrupted Humphrey.Hacker waved him to silence as the questions from the press came flying in, one notable question stood out among the others, “Can you confirm the reports that Vice President Martel has been arrested?”The Undersecretary nodded, “Yes, there is an operation to arrest Martel and answer for his crimes, Operation Entanglement.” he then turned around to a senior officer of the military. The officer said, “I am the head of that operation and that I am happy to say that we’ve got him and that he is under the custody of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”“Well, that should keep the United States Congress busy for-…” Hacker tried to find a number.“Two to three years?” suggested Bernard.There was another notable question, “Is the state of martial law still in effect?”The Undersecretary shook his head, “I have received a memorandum from President Davis that the declaration of martial law has been lifted and that all Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel are to stand down immediately.”Hacker decided to lower the volume, “You know, Humphrey, what do you think of this…I intend to bring this to the United Nations.”Humphrey glared at him, “Prime Minister, are you telling me that you intend to dig a deeper grave for the three of us?”“Make that four!” remarked Benjie.“Yes, four.” corrected Humphrey.Hacker shook his head, “Well, my intention was for an honest investigation into what happened at the Philippine Consulate, what with the possibility that a country’s government has video proof of magic. I made the mistake of bringing in the Americans…and nearly dragging in NATO, I think that after the bombing of a Philippine university, this needs to be placed under the United Nations, no more military and veils!”Humphrey wanted to shake his head, however the thing about governments and politics is that if you give them a distraction, the real effective force can do whatever they want as long as the useless bunch are distracted. “Well, you see, I think it would be a good idea to submit a resolution to the Security Council on the matter.”“Do you really think so?” asked the Prime Minister.“Yes, Prime-” Humphrey was about to say but he was interrupted by Bernard, who said, “Wait, what happened to the warlock agent?”Benjie looked to the back and said, “He told me that he’ll be visiting us soon before he disappeared into the forest.”“Well, I wonder when that would be?” said Hacker.
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The bells of the Westminster chime of Big Ben resounded through the offices at Whitehall as Hacker looked out through the window and into the rainy streets of London.Hacker heard the door creak open, he turned around and saw Bernard, who he appointed to be his Principal Private Secretary, “Mister Prime Minister, the Director or MI6, Mister Holt, and…the Coroner are here to see you.”Humphrey, Benjie, and the Coroner entered the office of the Prime Minister, “I can’t believe that you’d show up.” said Hacker to the Coroner.“It was coincidental actually, we saw him standing outside the doors of Ten Downing Street.” said Humphrey, “We permitted him entry under a special security pass as given by me.”“I just came by to give you an update, Prime Minister, I am no longer working for the Americans and that I’d rather work for your…future department.” said the Coroner.“Same here, sir.” said Benjie.Hacker smirked, “Well, gentlemen, I am not entirely sure if the resolution would be passed.” said Hacker, he then reached for the TV remote and switched on the TV screen.“Hmph, the United Nations Global Occult Watch, what a bold move if I may say so myself, Prime Minister.” said Humphrey.Hacker shook his head, “Oh it’s nothing, it’s just plain old common sense, allow the international community tackle something that is international.”“Speaking of international, can my ally, Viktor, be part of the team?” asked the Coroner.“Oh yes, we’ll go through the departments and staff later, however I’m not even sure if it’s going to make it out alive of the UN Security Council.” said Hacker.“Oh it will.” said Humphrey reassuringly.“What makes you think so?” asked Hacker.“It says so on the telly.”Hacker snapped his head towards the TV set and saw the headlines in bold; ‘BREAKING NEWS: Security Council Resolution ‘U.N. G.O.W.’ passes 15-0.’“A unanimous decision.” said Hacker in disbelief, all it needed was for one of the major powers at the council who wields the veto vote - the United States, China, France, Russia, and Great Britain - to vote ‘no’ in order to defeat the resolution.“But it would need the United Nations General Assembly to approve it.” pointed out Bernard.“But the major powers had already said ‘yes.” said Hacker, “Who would vote no against it at the General Assembly?”“So is that a yes that we’re in?” asked Benjie.“Yes.” said Hacker, “You will be part of a UN backed organization that will bring the intelligence gathering of the world in tracking the occult, and maybe giving it a force to suppress violent cults.”“The U.N. G.O.W, what an interesting title.” remarked Bernard.“Well, it is the United Nations, it is also a Global effort to keep a watch on the Occult.” said Hacker.“But what of the whole force to suppress violent cults?” asked Benjie.“It will be having its own contingent of Blue Helmets.” said Hacker, “Think what if the Peacekeepers had their own branch of the SAS.”“I thought you wanted to remove the military from the equation.” said Humphrey.“I wanted to remove the bullying power of the superpowers, I still want a military option available however we need to make sure that no country abuses this Occult crisis in order to forward their own agendas.” said Hacker.“But what about Sabrina Spellman?” asked Bernard.“She still has some powers…however they were kept in a leash, so to speak.” said the Coroner.“By the devil?” asked Hacker.“No, by his pissed off Queen who helped the Spellmans and the other witches and warlocks to depose him.” said the Coroner, “Yes, apocalypse averted, but then it seems that this whole Occult thing has gone global.”“But without exposing the covers of the real covens.” said Humphrey.“But what about the Philippine Consulate?” asked Bernard.“That is going to be an outpost of the U.N. GOW, it would be flying the red and white bars.” said Hacker.“The American flag?” asked a puzzled Benjie.“No, the old United Nations flag, I suggested in my resolution to adopt the old Honors Flag of the United Nations as its flag.” said Hacker, “This colors will be that of an organization that will ensure that no madman or single country could capture magic and use it for their own exploits, imagine, the United States was close to getting the DNA of the devil’s daughter!”Humphrey nodded, “I agree, Prime Minister.”“You mortals were close, real close.” admitted the Coroner.Humphrey reached into his bag and pulled out a dossier, “Prime Minister, I need for you to sign something.” he said as he handed the folder.Hacker opened the folder and read the first page of the paper, “A release order for Diana Spellman?”“Yes, Prime Minister.”
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When the smoke clears, everything it had hidden would always feel silly in the aftermath, be it through deception or outright lying to everyone who had lived through the smoke and, oh boy, the string of unusual incidents ranging from the 31st of October last year up until that of the coup, bombings, and black ops of April and May were easily written off as mass hysteria and that there was no witch cult, but not everyone was buying into the story.It is now June, the twelfth of June to be precise, and I’ve never talked to Sabrina much, and the annoying part is that the thoughts of her situation, her being the supposed Antichrist and all, and how she’s the daughter of the freaking devil, surfaced in my head while I was standing at the front during the Philippine Independence Day ceremony at the Consulate.The Secretary of Foreign Affairs of my country alongside my father stood beside the Governor of Massachusetts, and the Mayor of Greendale, during the flag raising ceremony, which was attended by the contingent of Philippine Marines dressed in their dress uniforms, as well as by Baxter High’s ROTC unit.Interestingly enough, someone thought it was a good idea to extend the flag pole higher than usual and the flag was bigger than usual, not to mention how the band had small microphones attached to the ends of their instruments and how loud speakers were blaring the anthem louder than usual. It was as if they really wanted to annoy the crap out of whatever weird things live in the forest with nationalism.I was dressed in the national garb, the humble Barong Tagalog and black slacks, and had a pin of the flag of my country on my collar, and somehow I was so deep in thought with Sabrina, my classmate and my friend, that I still had my right hand over my chest after the anthem was over.I shook my head and lowered my hand. I must admit, it has not been a nice stay here in this weird part of the United States, and what’s even worse is that somehow my dad and I both love staying in Greendale, it was sure as hell more exciting than the other deployments.The thing is that my dad had plenty of times nearly lost his job but never did because no one else would want the job, first there was the incident with Harvey Kinkle and the Weird Sisters, and then there was the near ‘failure of absentee voting/ failure of elections/ ‘no-election’ due to whatever the magickry caused the vote counting machines to fail at the time, and then there was the issue with the use of the Philippine Marines to protect the Spellman Mortuary.On top of all those things that happened here, there were also a bunch of other things that are happening domestically in my country, first off there’s the issue with the aftermath of the bombing of U.P. Diliman, even though there were no casualties, and then there was also the whole occult scare that is still ongoing.My suspicions were confirmed when it comes to the shit show that was to come to everyone in my country when, after all the pompous speeches of goodwill between the ‘old time allies, the United States and the Philippines’ and the whole ‘This Consulate will stand and stay’ and ‘The occult scare is just that, a scare.’, the Foreign Secretary met me and my father in the Consul’s office.“What is it, Mister Secretary?” asked my father.The Secretary sighed, “Full disclosure, the President is considering declaring martial law…there has been an increase in…reported possessions and sightings of unnatural things.”My father and I shared glances, I spoke next, “Well, what does that mean for us?”“This Consulate is as good as being the outpost at the edge of the normal, those were not my words, that was the President’s.” said the Secretary, “However I am considering suggesting to the President to close down this Consulate, I’ll give you an Ambassadorship, I promise, to a much better place, and as for your son, the President has been speaking with the Chancellor of U.P. Diliman to accept him based on his old UPCAT results….”My father held up a hand, “Wait, I want to stay here.”The Secretary looked bewildered, “Wait, you want to stay here after all that happened? Did you not check the CCTV cameras of your own Consulate? The trio of witches did do magic and it was caught on camera!”My father nodded, “I survived and no coward gets anything done.”“Even after all the Senate hearings that you were subpoenaed to?”My father was adamant, “I like making a fool of the Senators.”Yes, the Senate hearings on the; A. Harvey Kinkle and the Weird Sisters incident (Yes, it was filed as ‘Senate Resolution to investigate into the Harvey incident’.) B. The nature of the occult, C. The Spellman Resolution, and D. The abnormal delay in the transmission of results.“You don’t get it, do you? The name Sabrina Spellman has become the Antichrist back in Manila.”I snapped to attention much like how a cat would when hearing footsteps, “How did they know?”The Secretary removed his glasses and looked shocked, “You’ve been with her for far longer…it’s true then?”I was screwed, period. I must admit, we Filipinos are a pious and often superstitious bunch, and if I were to confirm it then this Secretary might report it to Malacanang and everything will go to hell in a handbasket real quick. But if I did not tell him, I would be lying to my own country.“I cannot confirm nor deny that.” I said.“Why?” asked the Secretary.“Come on, tell him.” said my father.Oh to hell with it, “Yes, she is the goddamned Antichrist…but it’s all been resolved..”“But how did we get to know of it?” asked my father.“Cardinal Rosario has had contacts with the Diocese of Massachusetts, he has been ordering the Catholic Church in the Philippines to effectively have all sermons directed against this Sabrina Spellman, and also to read a pastoral letter which, and I quote, ‘To exhort the faithful to a Crusade against the devil.’.”“So the next step is martial law then?” said my father, sounding hopeless.The Secretary shrugged, “I have no idea, as far as we’re concerned, if you really want to stay…then please be careful.”My father and I nodded in unison, “We’ll be careful.” said my father.I left the Consulate first as my father had other things to do during the diplomatic reception whereas I was not needed anymore, on my way back to my home I went past the Spellman Mortuary and saw someone who resembled an older Sabrina.I did a double take before deciding to brake the Camaro in front of their driveway, that’s when I saw the actual Sabrina come out of the house with a huge smile on her face, I heard Sabrina exclaim ‘Mother!?’ before the two women locked in a tight and warm embrace.That’s when I realized that those Brits decided to remove a thorn from the life of that young Antichrist by giving back her mother. I got out of the car and locked it, and I approached them.The older Spellman glanced at me, “Oh, who are you?”“That is my friend, Luis.” said Sabrina.“Do come in.” the older Spellman invited me.I shook my head, “No thank you, I think it would be best to allow you two some quality time.”“No, I insist, Humphrey told me everything about you and Sabrina.” said Diana.I glanced at Sabrina, she nodded, “Come on, Luis.”I sighed and nodded, “If you insist, I shall comply.” I said with a smile.As I went up the stairs of the front porch, I noticed that - at some angle - you could see the Philippine flag waving at the distance, that’s when I noticed that it was being flown upside down, it may be a symbol for distress for some but for us stubborn bunch our flag being flown upside down was a symbol of a state of war.I shuddered, there was no way this was some honest mistake, everyone in that Consulate wanted to fly the flag upside down, maybe as a symbol of war with the occult, more so that now it had the white and red bars of the UN GOW flying underneath it.Yet, here I am entering the home of the Spellmans with the blue side up on my flag collar pin.
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U N I T E D
N A T I O N S
Resolution No. U.N GOW 01
WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS OF THE WORLD DETERMINED
To safeguard the existence of civilization and humanity, of world peace and commerce in face of the unnatural. To reaffirm its original cause to save succeeding generations of the scourge of war, whereas now the concept of war also includes occult groups, which has been a scourge to peace and freedom of individuals and of societies. To defend the basic inalienable human rights from the violations of highly influential and dangerous occult groups and societies.
AND TO THESE ENDS
To support all efforts against the scourge of the Occult by all nations and all humans across the world. To enforce the law against the Occult within the jurisdiction and confines of International law. To ensure that no nation could use any purported Occult objects, materials, and groups to conduct its war and foreign policy.
HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS
Be it enacted by the United Nations assembled in the General Assembly:WHEREAS the recent incidents relating to the Occult has proved to be dangerous to world peace and to civil societies of the world.WHEREAS the Occult has taken on a form of charismatic terrorist groups that have the potential to become widespread by disguising as an innocent religious group, fooling its members into conducting acts of terror.WHEREAS there are acknowledged incidents that not only are related to the Occult but also could not be understood by our current science, and as such is considered a danger to the very existence of human societies.WHEREAS Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter authorizes the United Nations Security Council to determine the existence of any threat to the peace and to take military and non-military actions to restore international peace and security.THEREFORE the nations of the world sitting in forum as the General Assembly, with respects to the United Nations Security Council Resolution Occult that declares the Occult as a threat to international peace and security, hereby authorizes the formation of the United Nations Global Occult Watch.The duties and responsibilities of the Untied Nations Global Occult Watch are: To secure, contain, protect, and possibly destroy any Occult object or group. To gain intelligence on any secret society, terror or Occult, and to share it with the pertinent authorities. To provide assistance in suppressing these dangerous groups; military, intelligence, economic, and social assistance.It is agreed by the signatories of this resolution that: The United Nations Global Occult Watch will have its own military force composed of volunteers from the armed forces of the world who will wear the Blue Helmet and bear the colors of the United Nations. The United Nations Global Occult Watch will be its own intelligence organization composed of the intelligence organizations of the nations of the world, these include Domestic Intelligence, Foreign Intelligence, Signals Intelligence, and Cyber Intelligence organizations. The United Nations Global Occult Watch shall not be used by any nation as an instrument of war, and in turn, the United Nations will not use the group against any nation. The United Nations Global Occult Watch is to be led by an Under Secretary General of the United Nations and will only answer to the Secretary General and the Security Council on matters of security, and the General Assembly on economic, diplomatic, and enforcement matters. The United Nations Global Occult Watch is to have its proper hierarchy established at a later date, one that balances fair representation of the nations of the world against a streamlined hierarchy to allow quick responses in times of danger. NO SINGLE NATION or GROUP OF NATIONS would hold power or sway over the United Nations Global Occult Watch. Enacted by the General Assembly in New York on the 9th of May 2019(Signatures of all nations represented by the respected heads of governments.)