Log:Gabrielle Grimm meets the Little Wolves

2016/01/22 Grimm Little Wolves 1

It is cool day today, not quite hitting 50 F, and it is threatening rain to boot so the humidity high. Coupled with a dead boring lecture about murder in one of Criminal Justice classes, well, you are glad your classes are over.

As you make your out of the gates of the school, you pass by a rag-a-tag group of school kids boarding a bus from the the Harrisburg ISD. You cannot help but notice the Harrisburg Watch tag on one side of the bus but that is not unusual. Something, and you cannot determine what, makes the skin on the back of your neck itch seeing the kids.

You vaguely recall that kids form all over the city are coming to CBSU to view a new show at the planetarium. Something about 'The Dawn of Time to the End of Time'

Grimm strolls along with her messenger bag in tow, wearing a leather jacket, infinity scarf, jeans, and Doc Marten boots. Her hands are stuffed in her pockets and she's chewing on the inside of her cheek when she feels that prickling itch on her neck. She can't quite put her finger on it as she eyes the kids through darkly shaded eyes which flit from kid to kid, trying to make sense of the strange sensation.

Eventually, you narrow it down to a group of kids but you cannot pin your uneasiness down any more than that. There are about six kids in that group ranging from an adorably cute 8 or 9 year old mixed race boy to a really tall and strongly built 13 year old black tween. They all board the bus under the eyes of a careworn looking teacher in her mid 40's.

The bus starts up with a rough rumble then there is a loud backfire and the bus's engine starts to chug heavily. Then, it smooths out with another backfire at the same moment you feel an odd sensation which almost feels like Qlipothic energy.

Grimm's eyes narrow further as she eyes the group of kids. Never trust adorably cute kids. Especially of laughing in dark hallways or singing strange nursery rhymes. Her eyes widen once she senses the kindred Qliphothic energy. She starts to quicken her pace towards the bus and the energy sensation.

The bus begins to roll away, its engine purring along now like something new. You can see that the sign on back shows it going to the Harrisburg Elementary School.

Grimm blinks as the bus starts rolling away. She starts to step faster after it, but it's already driving away. Frowning vaguely, she vanishes in a swirl of darkness and reappears up in the air above the bus. As she rematerializes from the shadows and the In Between, some of the darkness surrounding her begins to form into black wings that imply by their silohuette that they should be feathery. Gabrielle follows the bus from above and out of sight from the riders. . o O (What is something with that sort of power doing around a bunch of kids...?)

The bus heads directly back to Harrisburg making no stops along the way. Once it gets to Harrisburg, it turns down Harrisburg Lane and rolls right on into the school parking lot. There are few cars in the lot as it is now after school hours. A few kids get in cars but the majority of them just head off with their backpacks, bags, or books once the car arrives in groups of two or more of the most part. Even in this better part of Harrisburg, it's better to travel in numbers it seems.

Grimm pulls up a little and hovers in place as the bus stops. With a moment of concentration, she hides her presence from the minds of everyone around, becoming invisible, effectively. She looks left and right as the bus disgorges children, trying to pick up on that energy again.

The group of six kids you noticed before stay together as they begin to walk away from the school. They seem to be composed of the 8-9 year old boy, a white boy who looks about 11 or so, a white girl who seems to be about 12, and the tall back tween. The other two kids (A Hispanic girl in about 12 and a Hispanic boy about 9) split off from them once they pass by the Harrisburg clinic and head down another side street.

But the sense of oddness seems to be with the group of four kids.

Grimm teleports back down to the ground not far behind the four kids, still cloaked as she follows behind on foot. What is it about these kids that feels so...wrong? The hairs on the back of her neck prickle as she thinks of all the horror movies she's seen involving evil kids.

The kids seem to talking animatedly about something, you imagine it is the planetarium show. CBSU pulls out all the stops on those. One of the kids, the young white boy, points at something across the street. If you look, it appears that there is a tagger at work on a building. Then, the child looks around, and after apparently spotting no one looking, disappears from sight!

Grimm studies the boy as he runs away from the group. A meta! Is he the one she sensed? She looks between the group and Leonid, trying to see if that narrowed down the source of the energy any.

The sense of wrongness is still with the larger group. None feels attached the kid who just went invisible. He seems to be messing with the taggers paints while the others continue down the street.

Grimm ignores Leonid for now. Let the little kid tag up the whole neighborhood. It's not like it'll make it any worse. She starts to move faster to catch up with the group, thinking she'll get a better fix if she gets closer. If that boy is an open meta around them, chances are one of them is something more as well.

You hear some really creative cursing behind you as the not-Banksy tagger finds out his spray cans are missing their nozzles. And you also spot the kid running back to meet up with his friends. He passes near you but doesn't run into you. Once he get back up to them, you feel him looking around then he pops back into sight. The tween and the girl seem surprised but the youngest kid just gives him a dap.

Grimm rubs the back of her head as she follows the kids, her impatience getting the better of her. College kids, always wanting the fast track to things.

She shadow steps forward to close the gap, ending up just three meters behind them, and then stops clouding their minds to her presence.

None of the kids notice you at first, then the while boy looks back as he's making a wooshing sound like a comet or something. "Bozhe moi!" he shouts then disappears from sight. This causes the other kids to look around at you. The stop and move back with the tween stepping between you and the other kids, including the one who just disappeared. "Wha do you wan?" he says in pure 'Burger accent.

The tween then says, "Ya'll scoot! Go!"

Grimm stops the same distance from the kids, her eyes traveling from face to face as she tries to gage which one's the likely candidate. The volunteering tween seems a possibility. "Funny. I was going to ask you that. One of you is up to no good," she comments as she shifts her weight to her right foot, hands back in her pockets.

The three younger kids take off running as the tween, who stands a good six feet tall flexes his large hands. "Ya'll ain't from 'rouind here. And ya ain't a cop and ya ain't someone we know." He takes a step back. "So, ya'll just stay way from us, y'hear!" And with that he takes off as well.

The wrongness you feel comes not from this one but from one of the other two: the young boy or the girl. You can feel that when they separate.

"Been here plenty enough times. Just stuck to the shadows," Gabrielle grins slightly as they run. "And I don't think some of your friends are who they say they are. That, or they're tainted, too," she murmurs. She doesn't have to run to stop them. She just takes a single step forward while in mid shadow step. Her step comes down on the concrete as she teleports ahead of the other two children.

With practiced moves, the two children split away, one to each side and continue running. It is almost as if they have experience with running form people who just pop up. YOu feel the invisible boy take a slingshot out of his bag as he runs and bend down to pick up a rock form the street. The large boy sees you pop ahead of the others and reaches into his pocket to pull out...a PDA.

The sense of wrongness that you feel seems to be tied to the youngest child, the mixed race boy.

Grimm's head turns to track the kids as they split up, trying to see if she can narrow it down further. "I'm not here to hurt you. But there's something very wrong with one of you," she says. Although her head is turned currently towards the boy of the pair she's narrowed things down to, her hand raises, palm outwards towards Leonid. "You're going to put someone's eye out with that," she comments, trying to numb Leonids senses.

Without visually seeing Leonid, darkness descends over his eyes. It's as if something just turned out the lights and drowned out all the sound until there was just deafening silence.

Leonid stops for a moment then screams in terror. He drops the slingshot as he raises his hands to his eyes, ears, and then mouth.

A black outline emits from Gabrielle's hand as she temporarily disables Leonid's senses. And then that's when the screaming starts, which leaves her a little surprised. "Wasn't expecting him to be -that- scared of the dark." She turns her gaze to Jordan. "It might be a bit distracting with all that racket, but he isn't hurt. As for you...there's something -wrong- with you. Something potentially bad. I may know someone who can help, though," Gabrielle says calmly, thinking of Ghostfist.

You hear the tween behind shout into the phone, "Get Sasha! Some meta just hurt Leonid." You then hear him thundering up behind you.

The girl keeps running and turns a corner up ahead.

And the small boy turns and looks at you. His eyes are a soft golden brown then you see into the depths of his eyes. The fathomless, endless depths of a gaze older than this child, older than the city he stands in, older than the planet you stand on, a sense of presence old as time from your point of view. That presence bears down on you as he says, "Leave Leonid alone!"

In one of a few rare cases, the Mistress of Tenebration is scared. And of a little boy, no less. It's way worse than she thought. Whatever it is, this isn't some mere boy. It may not even be a boy at all. Grimm takes a step back, looking like a deer in headlights as she gets a taste of her own medicine.

And then the black tween barrels past her, stumbles slightly with a 'F***' then truns to block you from the boys with his arms. He says, "Ya'll stay behind me. Sasha'll be her soon. He'll sort her out!"

The other boy, not the scary one, reaches out. And the youngest boy effortlessly grabs his hand without looking. He pulls the older white boy to him and holds him. "Shh, it'll be OK, Leonid," he murmurs as he glares at you.

Grimm get some of her wits about her and narrows her eyes. "-Sasha-? He knows about you? He's -protecting- you?" she accuses, as though Sasha were doing something criminal.

The black tween glares at you, but not nearly as well as the child behind him, then says, "Yeah. Sasha. Wha's it to you?"

The other two do not speak and the youngest one lowers his eyes to focus on the slightly older child in his arms. He begins to gently rub his back and speak to him in Russian(?).

Grimm's nose wrinkles in further accusation. "Wait. He doesn't know what you are. Not really," she says in realization to Jordan. Her eyes shift to the black tween. "I know him. What's he to -you-?"

The black tween looks confused and angry. "O' course he knows who I am, lady! And why should I tell you squat!" He gestures over his back. "You attacked Leonid for no reason. I don owe ya'll no explanations!" He moves back further from you and makea a shooing motion to the others.

Leonid continues to sob as Jordan rubs his back. The beautiful mixed race child looks up at you and says softly, "He's our protector. We're his wolf cubs." The ancient eyes are the eyes of a child now.

The tween sighs. "Now why yall go tellin' her tha, Jordan?"

"-What- you are, not who you are. And your friend was going to hit me with a rock from a sling shot. I just made it so he wouldn't be able to see where he was shooting, so don't act all wounded when -he- was the one about to attack," Gabrielle explains. When Jordan calls themselves wolf cubs, she just stares at him for a few moments.

The black tween says, "You are nuts, lady. Yeah, he calls us his little wolves." He turns and picks up Leonid. "Now, ya'll leave us alone." He holds out a hand to Jordan who takes it as the tween backs away from you with them in hand.

After the kids run off, Gabrielle decides not to follow them. She'd probably already be on Sasha's s*** list if these kids mean something to him. But why would he hide a kid that may not even be a kid?