Young Writers Society

Brian let out a sigh of relief. So those two were good for something.

He dropped back to the ground, and stretched a hand out to the guy with the bat. "Name's Brian Flanagan. Thanks for the save." he said.

He was still pissed at the guy for getting him into that mess in the first place, but he didn't want to be that guy.
Brian wanted an apology, but he wasn't going to fish for one.

God shook the hand extended to him. "I'm Dante Summers," he said, giving that grin he always gave when using one of his aliases. Lucifer hid a little smile of his own; God spend a decent amount of time coming up with ones, and while it would be very inconvenient if someone realized they weren't really his names, he still loved when someone caught on.

He gestured back at Lucifer with a nod of his head. Lucifer immediately stiffened, barely managing to give a shy wave of his own. "That's Lucas I. Feren. We do hunting stuff together sometimes, in between both of our jobs." It was more like God's job than his, but he didn't argue.

"Sorry for cutting you off," God sheepishly apologized. "Spell stuff really isn't my thing, and it was a bit fishy with how you keep erasing people's memories after working at their shops, but I should have listened to what Luci was saying and realized you were just doing an exorcism."

When you could mess with people's memories, it was easy to get used to the assurance that came with it.

A responsible magic user remembered to take all precaution, consider things from the outside, and avoid falling into abusing it as a crutch.
Brian often failed to be one of those people.

Brian blinked, and tilted his head thoughtfully. A few old encounters suddenly made more sense.
"Huh... Yeah, it does sound a bit fishy when you put it like that."

"But uh, no problem! It's all good. How long have you two been on this case? We might have some notes to exchange."

"Technically, we've only been doing it since today," God admitted, "but I've had my eye on this for quite some time. My job's just been horrendous when it comes to giving me hours. As it is, I had to get someone to cover for me, and I'll still probably have to cut my vacation short."

Lucifer thought back to the last time the person in question had subbed for God; there had been a mini-disaster when Apophis's snakes had gotten loose in Heaven's office, and things only get worse when some of his bigger ones - though completely tame, thanks to his careful training - had managed to sneak out into Heaven. Everyone was sure the Devil had unleashed them, and Lucifer wisely didn't show his face there for a good couple of weeks until the terror died down.

Brian nodded sympathetically.

"Boy, do I getcha. It's a horrible profession for vacations. But the forces of evil don't take any, so." he shrugged.

"But I got into this for the adventure, exotic locales, bragging rights...was I missing something? Helping people! Doing good. Yep. That was it. I sure do like good.

Oh! Right. Our investigation! You fellas wanna hear about my discoveries so far over coffee? I've got some preeeetty fine leads, if I do say so myself. Nothing case-closing yet, but we've got a good start."

Brian had taken 'forgive and forget' a step further, extending it to 'forget to ask their permission before referring to us as a team.'

But they'd already fought a dumpsterful of posessed garbage together, so obviously that made them a team already, and no formal acknowledgement was necessary.

God hid a smile. If only he knew - this job wasn't his usual one. This was his vacation. He needed to relieve his stress after running a religion for day after day, and this was always bound to make him feel like he was actually accomplishing something.

"That sounds like a plan," he said, letting his smile now show. It had been awhile since he had gotten a chance to work with someone who seemed so...nice despite being a hunter. Brian honestly was a breath of fresh air compared to most of the other people in his profession. A quick glance at Lucifer showed that his brother was just as down with the idea as he was.

Next step: getting the coffee.

"Do you know if there's any places near here?" he asked. "We just got to this town today, so we haven't had a chance to do any exploring. If we need a ride, we do have a car we could take..."

He wasn't going to lie to himself; he was just looking for an excuse to show off his Impala.

"Oh yeah, I know a place."

With Brian's directions, and Dante's snazzy Impala, the trio made their way to the Iron Liver Coffee House. Brian ordered a particularly strong house special called the 'Buffalo Tranquilizer,' and prepared to get his new partners up to speed.

"Aight, so, there's a buncha idiots out there who keep donating possessed crap to thrift stores, and thus distributing them among the unknowing public.

Most of it is people who don't know that their crap is possessed. Some of it is witches, or close descendants of witches, who think that there is such a thing as 'only slightly' possessed.

But some of it could still be a case of someone acting deliberately, using these dipsticks as camouflage, to help them fly under the radar. Let's go through the suspects."

When Brian was sure enough that nobody was looking their way, he pulled a notebook out of his pocket that should have been too large to fit in there. He opened it out on the table to reveal photographs, and notes, and went through the possibly guilty parties, briefly describing each one.

"Now, pictured here is The Congregation of the Sidhe. This lil' secret-but-not-really witch church I found that gathers in the old skatepark on full moons. Sounds stupid, probably is, but I've noticed their flyers featuring ghostly subjects more often lately. They could be doing this to build up more hype...

..this psychic, Harriet Truffle, claims she can do exorcisms, it's possible she's been spreading these around to get more work...

...a local UFO fanclub, I looked into it, they seem harmless, but I don't like the look of the treasurer's pug. I think that pug is up to something."

Brian passed the notebook over to Dante and Lucas.

"Every one of these parties has been frequenting the thrift shops concerned, during the concerning timeframe. Every single one could be innocent, guilty, or some mixture of the two. We just gotta do what an exorcist does best- go through every single bloody one 'til he gets lucky."

The two both peered down at the notes that Brian had taken. Some of the theories sounded more absurd than others - especially the pug one - but it did seem like he had done his research well. "I put my bet on the psychic," God said, jabbing the name with his finger. "Psychics can go to incredible lengths to make a good buck or two, and I've never been a fan of people pretending that they can bypass the laws of death."

"...Not all psychics are bad," Lucifer reminded.

He dismissed the suggestion with a wave of his hand. "Most are," he confirmed. "But I'll admit that not all of them are."

He slid the notebook over to Lucifer. After his brother studied it for a few more seconds, he looked up at Brian and pointed at the notes about the group of witches. "I think it might be them," he suggested. "...Religion can make people do horrible things..."

God slipped his hand into Lucifer's underneath the table, giving it a tight squeeze as a feeble attempt to comfort him.

Brian nodded, and took a dainty sip of the Buffalo Tranquiliser, followed by a heavy swig.

"We're in luck! There's a full moon on tonight. You know how to get to the abandoned skate park?- oh, I can give you directions.

Either of you skate?"

"We've done some skating here and there," God said. He did have to wonder just who the congregation was worshiping; he probably knew the person, or had least interacted with them once or twice. It was hard not to with his position.

He glanced over at Lucifer. His brother gave him a small smile in agreement.

It looked like they were going to do some skating.

"I hope you know how to skate," God said, "because it looks like that's where we're going first."