The Andre Miller Saga

Andre Miller 25 The MPD

It had been 3 weeks since Andre, and Caleb returned from the war zone that was Myanmar from a convention of elemental summoners that had gone horribly wrong. Birmingham was better, for the most part.

The battle between the two Infernal Houses, Retaletan and Tchecha, was continuing to escalate. Tchecha controlled the majority of the Birmingham area, but Retaletan was the more powerful of the two and had begun moving more of its forces into the area.

The conflict had been triggered by Andre asking both sides who was in charge. As demons generally don't play well with others it quickly spiraled out of control and into total warfare.

Ms. Lydia Fontaine was the human leader of the Retaletan forces in the Birmingham area. A ruthless lawyer who was used to getting the way of her company and clients. House Tchecha was headed by the 1st circle demon Brigon thru its host and avatar Chris Brenville who also went by the nickname Slasher.

The conflict had slowly poured over into the streets of Birmingham with Tchecha preferring fire bombings of facilities and Retaltan retaliating with concentrated strikes against enemy-held locations, whether they be civilian or otherwise.

"Business is on the rise," said Tilly, "With the gang war, between the demons everyone is wanting protections. I want to offer a 20% off deal for residential installations to try and help offset some of the collateral damage that's falling on the civilians."

"What does that do to our bottom line," asked Kyle, "Not worrying about making money, but keeping the business and family afloat."

"It honestly doesn't affect the bottom that much as the majority of our business comes from local businesses and corporate interests. We actually got approached by a Retaletan agent wanting to help fireproof their latest headquarters. We declined politely." She laughed.

"Go for it." Said Andre, "Anything we can do to help protect the people in the affected areas is a good thing."

"I still say we should get involved. Take the opportunity two kill two Houses with one celestial stone as it were." Said, Frankie.

"Oh sure, throwing trigger-happy celestials into the mix would make it better. There would be open unmasked demon on celestial battles in the streets and the populous of the city would be scared shitless, talk about triggering an apocalypse." Replied Conroy.

"Pops, would it really be that bad though? I mean at this point the demons are so preoccupied with each other, I don't think they would notice cavalry raids against outlying groups." Answered Frankie.

"Me against my brother, my brother and I against my cousin, my family against the world. Throw the celestials into the mix and watch how fast the demons get their poop in a group. Then the truce would be gone and Pinson and the other small towns would become the warzone." Said, Conroy.

"As much as I hate to admit it, dad's right. We can't start joining in on the battles for fear of endangering the safe zone. We've had more people moving out to the suburbs in the truce area over the past year because it is greatly reduced in crime and troubles."

"I know, I just, it feels like the cataclysm is here some days and we're doing nothing to stop it," Frankie said as his eyes stare to glow a topaz yellow.

"Glow stick." Said Kyle and Tilly in unison. It was the family's way of saying Frankie was getting too worked up and starting to glow with barely contained power. Since he had the stain on his soul removed he continued to get stronger, and it was becoming more common for strong emotions to set him off.

Frankie took a deep breath and the glow subsided. "I just feel so helpless."

"We haven't had a visit from the harbinger, you haven't done one of your prophecy lock falling off float and glows, and the celestials are content to sit by, for now, and let the demons do their work for them. Other the Birmingham turning into downtown Myanmar it's going as best as can be expected." Said, Caleb.