Picking Sides

"So what does it look like," Charles tried not to touch anything, he stood near the door, "you know, when you see it?"

"It's hard to explain detective, but your lieutenant said he wanted you to see it too, so I gather you'll have an idea," Dr. Williams didn't look like a Professor to Charles, or maybe he did.

"You know I had professors in college who looked like you, young guys in jeans, for some reason I keep forgetting that you guys aren't all old, with elbow patches on your coats."

Williams laughed under his breath, "You've been watching too many college comedies, next thing you'll be expecting me talk about the potential of some s**t head slacker."

"Chevy Chase was big in my day," said Charles. Williams didn't respond, he just looked around the wreckage of the house, "I saw Animal house, probably in eighty two, senior year of high school..."

"Do you mind if I start detective?" Williams was looking around the burned out living room.

"oh!? sure," Charles shifted to his left foot, "do you need anything from me?"

"Yeah," Williams pulled candles and a notebook from his gym bag, "Can you search by that window and find a piece of glass, something sizable."

Charles hesitated a moment, "Um, ok," all the windows on the ground floor had been shattered. most of the glass had been blown out, but some was still clinging to the sills, "This place gives me creeps," he pulled his coat sleeve over his hand and broke off a chunk of glass.

"Well, most people get anxious when they know the're around a metaphysical disturbances," Williams was lighting the candles, "Thank you," He took the glass from Charles, "I'll be doing this on my own but the glass will let you see the situation for yourself, when the manipulations done, you'll need to take the glass with you as we move through the house."

"Okay," Charles didn't like the thought of messing with these things, "Hey, what if it was giving me the creeps when we did the initial walkthrough, before we called your people?"

Williams sat down cross legged in front of the pane of glass, inside of a ring of candles, "It might mean you're really observant, and you just saw something was up, or it could mean that you are very..."  he stressed the very, "observant."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you might have some talent for this," Williams had his hands on his knees, "Lord knows we'll need the help."

"What do you mean?"

****

 

Department meetings had been much less grim when Kevin first joined the department.

"This is the biggest protest yet, I'm worried for all of your safety, and the safety of our students," Gavin was an administrator, he concerned himself with budgets and, in this case, safety.

"That's not a reason to suspend classes for the semester," Brook's knuckles were white, "We all know how to take care of ourselves."

There was an awkward murmur from the rest of the faculty as they avoided a definate agreement.

"Brook," Kevin was young, new to the department, and not the most popular. While other professors studied manipulation of metaphysical energies, Kevin studied fingerprints; he studied how the physical and metaphysical world reacted to manipulation, Kevin studied investigation, "I don't want to speak for all of us, but few of us have much experience in using the meta to protect ourselves, even if it's from protesters. I don't want to disband the department, but we have to be pragmatic. If any of us used the meta, in any way, against another person, even if one of us was attacked, the s**t storm would be huge."

"You're hired already, Williams," said Brook, "I don't think you need to kiss Gavin's a*s anymore."

Brook, there's no.."

Brook cut him off, "I've worked to hard to have the two of you compromise this department."

If Gavin was hurt, he didn't show it, "We're not talking about disbanding, we're simply kicking around options, one being to suspend classes until the protesters cool down and until the supreme court gives us a ruling, we also have to take into account the well being of the students"

Most of the professors were in Brook's camp. Kevin didn't blame them, most of them had been her students, and still looked up to her, she was an incredible metaphysicist, and because of it, no matter how much they worried about protesters, and safety, and students, they would call in dead before they publically let her down or left her side.

"I think that we may have larger problems than just the protesters," Kevin was glad to hear Wladek interrupt the conversation. No one, besides Brook was as highly respected in the field, "Old friends of mine tell me that the Vatican has been performing research similar to my own and Kevin's," Brook's eyes stabbed him, "their findings support ours."

Wladek picked up a portfolio and passed it around the table, "Phenomena like last weeks disaster are becoming more common, and we're not just getting better at perceiving the Metaphysical energy, it's becoming more abundant."

"So, why is that a problem?" Professor Gruber interupted, "We're all trained to handle the energy, none of us are careless about what we do," 

There was a spattering of agreement.

Wladek tilted his head toward Kevin.

Kevin swallowed the lump in his throat, "Last week's occurrence on the south side, was peculiar. From my investigation," Kevin could practically hear Brook roll her eyes, "The incident, that caused the death of twenty high school students, was an accident. A young man had a meta entity attached to him. When he became angry; it looks like he got into a fight during the party. The entity used him too attack party members," Kevin unwrapped and passed around the broken glass as well as his report, "More importantly, I personally feel that a second individual, who I believe to be Rebecca Kronig, age 16, you'll see a profile on her in the report, may have managed executing a defensive blast which resulted in both her death and that of the possessed boy."

Gavin, being the only one in the department not trained in metaphysics looked confused, "What does that mean, is that bad?"

"Kevin and I believe it means, just as our own abilities have been increasing in potency, and phenomena are becoming increasingly frequent,  That  more and more unatrained individuals will become capable of manipulating the meta."

"Well that's good," Brook interrupted, "University of Chicago's Schools of Metaphysics will be on the cutting edge, we need to be here to help these gifted individuals become accomplished metaphysicists."

Are we sure this isn't just a fluke?" asked Gruber looking at the glass pane.

"Not a fluke," Kevin answered, "I've been collecting news paper articles of possible instances, just subtle abnormalities in eyewitness reports, it's been happening more often in the past couple years."

"That's why our program is needed," Brook interupted, Kevin wished he had her passion, "At the university level we can teach students to handle the Meta with care and respect, if we need to start earlier then the university can set up programs to teach people to protect themselves and prevent these incidents."

"Perhaps," Wladek admitted, "but the public as become more aware of these abnormalities, and the Vatican has supported our findings with reports from their people, if this continues the public may turn violent on us."

"You're talking about modern day witch hunts?" Gavin actually seemed shaken by the idea.

Wladek's head swayed slowly. Unsure, "My friends in the Church tell me that the most of the Bishops and Pope Bernard are hesitant of taking a hard right stance on the situation, but I cannot speak for the Fundamentalist groups, especially those with gifted leaders."

Nobody spoke. They all had seen the protest signs of the Christian Coalition, 'Suffer not the witch to live'. Violence was only a stones throw away.

Gavin broke the silence, "Listen, we don't have to make a decision today, but I think we should consider what's was discussed here today, we'll meet again next week okay?"

The room emptied out with low mumbling. Brook said nothing. She left the room, stone faced.

As the others cleared out slowly behind her, only Kevin, Wladek, and Gavin were left.

"Look, I didn't want to say anything," Gavin looked over his shoulder, "I've been approached by government agents, They want to instate a defense program," he sighed, "I don't know how much their meaning of defense can be trusted... I was told not to say anything just yet."

Wladek nodded, "We have our own idea," he looked at Kevin.

"I thought about the government wanting to get involved, I think, if we disband, that we should," Kevin paused, "I'm not sure but," the thought seemed almost fictional, "I think we should look into a developing a private organization, to police, to train. The Vatican has already started training gifted, for the same thing, they're willing to assist in the funding, and they've told us that there are other small organizations. Wladek and I are ready to resign, and go our own way, to keep the faculty and students here from harm, but we need an someone to admin," word felt strange to Kevin. It felt... military.

There was silence.

Finally, before leaving the room, Gavin spoke.

"I'll figure out what we need."