All That Glitters

Into The Thick Of It

JJ's gleeful shrieks were drowned out by the screams of Ward's hired team. He could hear them inside the Crain house.

"I thought we took care of that fucking statue." He scowled at Rafe. "Just..." he took a breath, "it's fine. Just leave them. We just gotta find the gold."

"Right yeah." Rafe shifted on his feet. His eyes wide as a predator trying to listen for its prey. "What if it's not though?"

"If they came back already, I've got failsafes in order to keep them away long enough. It's fine." Because Ward knew that if something was gonna go wrong, it was probably the Pogues fault. It had been before.

Rafe stared vigilantly out the window into the courtyard into the thickest layer of fog he'd ever seen. Almost unnaturally thick. His brow furrowed before he stepped away. "It wasn't foggy when we pulled in, dad."

"That's because it was light out. Look... if you're just gonna sit there and be paranoid why don't you do something useful and go out there and calm your nerves. Yeah? I don't need you yabbering about stuff that isn't gonna happen."

Rafe bit his tongue, clenching his jaw as he bore into his father's eyes. "Fine." He bit back, trudging out the door into the rest of the Crain house.

Mrs. Crain had several magical traps around her property when she was still residing in it. The statue out front which Ward had found notes on how it was mounted as a means to ward off those that wished to harm the Crain family. Ward had carefully examined the documents to figure out what else was planted on the property to keep people out so that he could bypass them entirely and continue the search. He had left a few still active just in case the Pogues did show up. Warned his hired team about them so that they wouldn't get any ideas or fall victim to the various hexes.

What he hadn't accounted for however, was JJ using his curse to protect himself from each and every failsafe Ward had left up.

JJ crashed through the window in a blaze of glory, startling the absolute shit out of Ward. JJ caught a glimpse of Ward's arm which was wrapped to all hell in an effort to stop the bleeding from his bite wound. With a smirk etched onto his face, he snarled at Ward not allowing him the time to gather his thoughts and figure out what just happened.

And then Ward was on his ass gasping for air. JJ towered over him. "Sup, Ward. You gotta little uh... bite there huh." He couldn't help himself really. Needed to rub it in Ward's stupid face that he'd lost and they'd won despite all his efforts.

"Rafe!" Ward roared over the sound of JJ's laughter.
JJ stood tall, backing off of him, turning toward the door where he could hear running footsteps. Ward didn't make a move to get up at all. JJ noted how apprehensive he was to fight back. 
"Rafe!" He screamed again, just as the footsteps came barreling down the hall outside the room they were in. JJ jumped out of the way of the door, plastering himself to the wall.

JJ took a second to look at Ward, memorizing the lines of fear in his wrinkles and his astounded expression, before taking a gold pebble from his pack and essentially smoke bombing the fuck out of the room. The door burst open but by then JJ had already disappeared back outside the window. Retreating in an effort to regather his wits despite wanting to take them both out while he still could.

Pope wouldn't have wanted that.

Gotta find Kie. For her pieces. JJ took a moment to use his enhanced senses to pinpoint where she'd run off to.
Using his momentum from the jump out to vault over the chimney at the end of the roof he'd found himself on, he landed on the ground in a crouch right next to her. Earning a surprised squeak and a half gasp due to the shock.

"Sup Kie? I found Ward and Rafe. I was wondering if I could borrow a few of your pieces." He said with a smirk.

She placed a hand over her heart, trying to recover. "Where?" She said breathlessly.