September 14, 2005
"That was quite the day," said Erik, grabbing a few beers out of the refrigerator and distributing them to the others after Frank closed the door behind them.
"We knew the fight wasn't over, I was talking about that with the shadows just before Solek called," said Coralis, removing her cloak soaked in blood.
"Are you guys hungry? I'll order you food if you are," said Frank.
"Wait, so I don't need to find the nearest hub to grab food at 3 in the morning?" said Chiwa, washing the blood off her hands over the kitchen sink.
"Nah, food will come to you. Some places are open and deliver all day and all night," said Frank, watching Coralis cleaning her katana.
"Our response time was quick, even with a quick stop to grab weapons and tools. The vampires there are a faction the CMMA needed to make amend with, so today's event will also serve to prove the need for this reform," said Panjik.
"True. I'm sure Charlie will call me when they hear about it. Solek's clan answers to them, Lucas' vampires were involved."
"It feels weird to see you officially work under the colours of the CMMA, versus helping us out from time to time," said Sebastian.
A few hours later, Coralis and Sebastian collected the permits they needed to start the repairs and renovations of their headquarters and met with Erik, Henry and Gus there. Panjik, Sonylla and Chiwa arrived while they were posing some of them in the windows.
"Alpha Gary's members will be here in 20 minutes, let's go get coffee and doughnuts for everyone," said Coralis as Stephanie parked by the curb.
"I asked her if she could pass by with coffee when we walked out of the city hall," said Sebastian.
Stephanie placed a large tank of coffee and six boxes of doughnuts and muffins on her hood before opening a back door to pull a large box out of it.
"When Seb called me, I was out shopping for you guys. There is something important that your elemental asses failed to think about," said Stephanie, dropping the box on the ground by the property and walking back to her car to pull another large box out of her trunk. "My kind may not be hunting you down anymore, but you still don't want to get exposed for the wrong reasons."
"What is it?" said Coralis.
Stephanie dropped the second box on the ground and opened the other one to pull a hard hat out of it.
"Until you're done with the bulk of the construction work, every time you set foot in and around your derelict building, you all need to wear this. If city inspectors catch you without it, they'll slap you with fines and could potentially order you to cease all work. You don't want to give anyone a reason to look deeper into what you are doing here."
"These hats are ugly," said Sonylla.
"They don't fit my skin tone," said Chewa.
"Construction code and organizations for worker protection don't care about how good it looks on you," said Stephanie as she distributed them.
"Valid point you're making," said Panjik, putting on his hard hat. "We don't want to attract the wrong type of attention."
"You'll also need to wear this," said Stephanie, pulling out a pair of steel-toe boots from the other box. "It's meant to protect the worker's feet, but you guys also need to wear them."
"Now I understand why you asked me about everyone's shoe sizes," said Sebastian as Stephanie distributed them.
"Yes. If they don't fit right, let me know, I'll exchange them."
"They do look awesome on my feet," said Chiwa.
"Same. I dislike the hats, but I certainly don't mind these boots, I love them," said Sonylla.
"Thank you for thinking about that detail. You're right, the last thing we need is to get ourselves exposed over something stupid. Frank will never forgive me if I get caught over that, especially now that the hunt is supposed to be over."
A minibus pulled behind Stephanie's car.
"Good morning, Beta Shaw!" said Coralis.
"Good morning, High Mage Blue Thunder!"
"Not out here in the open, no. We already mentioned the hunt too much. Just call me Blue like everyone else," said Coralis as his wolves exited the bus, along with Alpha Gary's pack members.
Stephanie and Sebastian pulled a folding table out of her car's trunk and Erik brought the coffee tank on it after they installed it in front of their property.
"As we discussed over the phone, the material will get here before noon, but the store couldn't give me an exact time," said Beta Shaw while Henry brought the boxes of doughnuts and muffins to the table.
"It's fine. It gives your guys time to have coffee and snacks."
After lunch, they were about to enter their building to spell the floors and walls to solidify them when the city councillor who helped them with the permits arrived.
"Hello, Olivia!" said Sebastian, shaking her hand.
"I'm happy to see you didn't waste time with the work to get this place back in shape."
"Thank you to have rushed our application through. There are indeed a lot of works that need to be done to restore it. The sooner we get started, the better," said Coralis before introducing her crew to Olivia.
"Let me know if there is anything else I can do for you or if you ever consider acquiring another abandoned property."
Olivia stayed to watch the workers for twenty minutes and left.
"Think we fooled the city councillor into thinking we're all humans restoring this property the human way?" said Henry as he pulled his wand out to touch the ground with its tip.
"That's the hope," said Coralis, pulling her hologram out to reach out to the Core Elders.
Gus did the same as Henry did, but touching the walls instead. Erik used his hologram to take pictures as he toured the place with Sonylla and Chiwa, following Henry and Gus.
"We have our headquarters building. There are a lot of works needing to be done on it because it was deemed a condemned building," said Coralis to the Core Elders.
"Properties around here are very expensive. Purchasing an abandoned building allowed us to get one for a lot cheaper, and the city was desperate to get rid of it, so they were pleased to speed up the process of transferring the deed to us," said Sebastian.
"We are currently busy to secure its structure to make it safe for us to work from it despite its poor condition," said Panjik.
"Excellent. Blue Thunder, we will visit you tomorrow morning at 10 to tie you to it and officially establish District VIII on the map. From that point on, you will be expected to attend the subsequent visits establishing districts on our map. When we come tomorrow, we will provide you with the furnace and material you will need to brand your Head Crew," said Finnas.
"We will start tomorrow's rituals by linking the District VIII borders to your headquarters. The rituals to complete the establishment of your district on the map and to attach you to it as its High Mage will be seen in a global announcement to the non-human factions residing in District VIII. Given the historical aspect of this event, they will then witness you performing the branding of your Head Crew," said Yalor.
Sonylla was next to Coralis when she ended the call with the Core Elders.
"Speaking of branding… how will you be able to brand me?" said Sonylla.
"By bracing myself for a high amount of pain, and we hope it won't expose our twinning bong by triggering a false alarm on the other sub-elders lifeline monitoring spell."