Unit Seventeen

Unit Seventeen 3 Buildings

It had been nineteen days since Captain Roebuck had given Unit Seventeen their new orders. They had only been called out to so-called special scenes three times. Questioning the spirits was a delicate job. The others in the unit secured the perimeter with the local PD and then she, Shinagawa, and Pillar went in to see if any spirits had stayed after whatever had happened. So far there had only been two spirits with infernal ties who were at the scenes, and four normal spirits who had just been living their lives and had the unfortunate luck of getting caught up in a bad situation.

The questioning of the thrall spirits was difficult, as they realized they had nothing to lose, they were bound for the hells whether they helped or not. Blake had to play to their sense of revenge and pettiness to get them to say anything worthwhile, but they did manage to get some leads and a few connections, albeit tangentially.

After dealing with the thralls, she moved to the spirits of the dead who had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Convincing them to move on was often just a matter of knowing that their killers were either dead or would be brought to justice, or she had to deliver the news to loved ones so that they weren't left wondering what had happened. Blake had made up a batch of cards to give to the grieving families so that should they need anything, they could call.

They rolled into the MSRT building after a day of assisting BPD with raids on suspected thrall hideouts. None had thralls that were killed, only wounded in the fighting. Pillar had taken a piece of shrapnel from a shattered window to the side of the face, so he was bandaged up on his right side.

"How am I going to explain this to my date tonight?" he asked as they made their way into the locker room, "I look like I took a blender to the face, business end first."

"Hey, chicks dig scars, makes you look more macho!" said Shinagawa as he struck a muscleman pose.

They all laughed, "Keep calling us chicks, Shiny, and you'll stay single." Millhouse said.

"Hey, I don't mind being single, plenty of private time, I can date who I want, and even if the ladies do turn their eyes away, that leaves a whole other half of the population to date." He laughed.

"You keep that thought going and you'll scare men away too!" Millhouse fired back.

"I didn't know you were Bi Shiny." Said Blake as she hung up her vest.

"I prefer Pan. I don't care what is or isn't in a person's pants. It's the person who I'm attracted to, not their bits." He replied.

"Well, that's an enlightened way to look at it." Said Pillar, "It brings me no closer to not looking like the Phantom of the Opera over here though."

"Go see if Tucker in Eleven can help you out, she specialized in defense but took a minor in healing magic. Might take the worst of it down a notch." Said Hanson and he headed for the showers.

"Good thought. I'll have to see if she has time for a quick healing spell or two." He said as he stepped out of the locker room to go and find Tucker.

An hour later everyone was showered and heading out. Pillar had found Tucker and she had been able to pull a few small pieces glass out and seal up the wounds. They were still an angry red and would leave a rough set of scars from just below the eye to the jawline.

That night Blake was resting in the MSRT lounge watching the latest news on the recovery and rebuilding efforts. It had been almost a month since the Birmingham Event, that's what the press had settled on, had occurred. Many of the damaged buildings were complete losses, including her own building. She was able to reenter to get what belongings were intact and take pictures of the rest for insurance. Most importantly she was able to find the necklace with a pinch of ashes from her grandmother's cremains.