[SSU]Things that go Boo.

[Serious Paul]

Jack woke slowly when he did sleep, partly because the drugs had ravaged his body over the last year, but partly because his body was so sleep deprived as it was. He was lying in a dumpster, not an unusual situation for him to be in, and reeked of both booze and garbage-this particular dumpster was better than most, as it was a Chinese food places dumpster, which meant he could probably eat while he was here too. As he fished some of his stay awakes out of his pocket, he managed to find the little stash of Jack Daniels he kept in his duster and as he swigged the fire water he swallowed a handful of pills. His empty stomach rolled and lurched, but Jack had done this often enough before, and he ignored its complaints. Grunting Jack sifted throught he garbage finding a mostly intact container of something and gulped it down. he belched as he tossed the box aside, and started to climb out of the dumpster.

"That is by far the most disgusting thing I have ever seen."

"Piss off blood leach."

"Tell me you don't do this often. Please help me keep some modicum of respect for you."

"Don't you have an orphanage to sack? Or a blood bank to rob?"

Geist chuckled, a raspy sound. He was perched on the edge of the dumpster, his unnatural grace allowed him to do what was impossible for normal humans. his hands rested next to his feet, and as Jack clambered out of the dumpster he didn't bother tooffer one of his gloved fingers to help. Jack was a big boy, he got in, he could get out.

"Are you always this grumpy when you wake up?"

Jack muttered something obscene and nonsensical at the same time. Only Jack could do that. He was of course, insane. Geist leapt backwards, and with olympic quality skill back flipped through the night air, landing just behind Jack. Jack whirled, his hands flashing towards his jacket, but he stopped when he realized Geist was just fucking with him.

"Are all dead guys dicks?"

Geist grinned, flashing his teeth. He knew that upset Jack. "C'mon Jack give it a rest."

"I bet you'd liek that, I bet thats some sort of secret blood sucker code for come on over to our side. Is that it? Are you trying to to suck my blood? Well it won't work! I see through you. I see past your tricks motherfragger!" Jack's voice had risen to just above conversational, but it got the attention of some people who had been walkign by the mouth of the alley, and as jack noticed them he whirled and screamed, "WHAT? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LOOKING AT? GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME! CAN'T YOU SEE THERE ARE DEAD PEOPLE HERE!"

The two men hadn't the slightest clue what was happening but one look at Jack was enough for them to dismiss hima s a lunatic and move quickly away. Geist chuckled. he seemed to have that affect on people. not him though, Geist could se ei n both worlds, and he knew Jack was a Shaman, and not just any Shaman either but a drek hot one. Well when he wasn't acting bonkers fraggin' off his rocker nuts anyways.

Jack turned back to face Geist again. he didn't trust the blood sucker further than he could throw him, but he was begining to wonder what had brought Geist Downtown.What did he know?

"What do you want?" Jack asked calmly, his eyes staring intently at Geist.

"Look Jack when you have your shit together Lynch wanted to see us-Relax you paranoid slag. Lynch told me where you'd be. Not that," Geist sniffed the humid fecid odor that jack reeked of, "It'd be that damn hard. Jesus man don't you ever shower?"

Jack grinned. "Take my clothes off so they can search them, then get under a shower head that has who knows what in it? Yeah right chummer, I bet you'd just love to see that."

"Any one ever tell you that you're crazy?"

"Only to try and descredit me. They're afraid of the truth."

"Right..."

[Serious Paul]

"So where are we going?" Jack asked for the third time in less than five minutes. he'd asked at least fifty times so far. That was the way you tricked them-they thought you weren't paying attnetion, but jack was always awake. He saw everything-what was that? He watched a cab go by. That man had been paying too much attention to them, to him.

"I told you the Egyptian Theater. Lynch said they had a movie you'd be intrested in."

"Oh yeah? And what was that?"

"I told you before I don't know. We're almost there, we'll find out soon enough."

Jack was tired, they'd walked the six blocks so far they'd covered, and who knew how long they'd be? Could he really trust this blood sucking undead creature with his life? his safety? What if they had gotten to him? Jack eyed Geist supsciously. In his Armante suit, and leather shoes he looked mancing, but it was the gloves that tipped Jack off. People who had thinsg to hide wore gloves.

"Something wrong Jack?"

"Huh?" Had he been reading my mind? Can you read this? Can you? Die Fiend!

"You were staring. And not the nice kind of staring either."

"Really? I hadn't noticed." Jack forced his eyes to stare straight ahead. Obviously they hadn't completed their control over Geist, and their mind reading was iffy at best. he had faced worse. Jack began to whistle, but then stopped. He had to make sure he kept them off guard.

"Ah there it is." He took a long look at the Egyptian theater that Geist pointed out. The Marquee advertised it bright red letters:

Invasion of the Body Snatchers!

It was destiny then that he was here.

"You okay Jack?"

"Oh yeah, I'm..fine. Just...fine."

[Serious Paul]

They found Lynch in the upper deck. The Theater catered to die hard 2D fans, and wasn't particularly crowded. The upper deck was empty except for them. Jack had purchased a popcorn from the concessions stand, but not to eat it. He of course didn't eat popcorn-they used nuclear radiation to pop it. He knew that. Geist had snorted, and politlely declined to test whether the popcorn machine could create a detonation large enough to blow most of Downtown to Kingdom Come.

As they took seats near Lynch they could see he was drinking from a large styrofoam cup that was emblazoned with "Drink Coke!™" and munching from a small bag of peanuts. Lynch nodded a greeting to the two runners and quietly said, "I love this movie. A real classic."

Geist stared at Lynch unsure what to think of this man. His heart rate never changed no matter what, he never appeared nervous or even flusstered y anything the runners had ever done. Try as he might Geist had never been able to find any back up. Lynch traveled alone, or was damn good. Geist assumed it was the latter, almost certainly not the former. As the movie credits started rolling Lynch spit some peanut shells on the floor.

"Glad you could make it. I'll be quick, since I don't want to ruin the movie." Lynch grinned and continued, "Under your seats are two items. One is a scrap of blanket. The other is an envelope filled with credsticks."

"I want you to find the blankets owner and retrieve her. Alive."

[Insomniac Jack]

Jack took a glance at the piece of blanket, then at Lynch. "And how the hell are we going to do that?" Jack did a take to the screen, "Oh, and I don't trust this movie" He whispered while pointing with his thumb, "I heard that its actually a secret government Documantary."

*Jacks inner dialogue*

"Man, I do stink"

"No, you don't"

"Yes he does"

"You stay out of this"

"Hey what are you three talking about?"

"Nothing go back to sleep"

[Serious Paul]

"My understanding of magic is kind of limited, but from what I understand this particular little girl was very attached tot he blanket that scrap came from." For a second Lynch seemed chagrined. "I guess I was hoping that the two of you would be capable of tracking her using ritual magic."

"I guess I was wrong?"

[Monster 01]

ignore this

[Insomniac Jack]

Jack frown and has a look of general disgust on his face. "ya, ritual magic. i didn't think about that..." he murmured in a voice almost to low for lynch to hear.

[Epsilon]

Geist sighed audibly, much to the displeasure of those actually interested in the movie. He was already upset with Lynch for making him work with Jack; Jack using ritual sorcery was going to be a bigger headache than he was usually willing to deal with. He picked up the envelope containing the credsticks and slid it into his jacket, hoping that it would be worth whatever hassle the next few days would bring.

[Serious Paul]

As Geist slid the envelope out from under the seat and set it on his lap Lynch spoke quietely.

"The blanket has a small amount of blood on it-Type A positive for those so inclined. I believe the blood and the blanket belong to the same person, but I can't confirm that. One of the credsticks contains a fiber analysis, but I don't expect that to be of much use."

Jack muttered grouchily, "Let us be the judge of that. Sometimes the smallest clues can lead to the biggest conspiracies pal. Trust me I've been there..."

Geist quickly cut him off. "And the other two?" he assumed nothing in this game.

"Credentials. They will list you as Federal Bureau of Investigation Paranormal Investigators. No one is more paranormal than the two of you, so it shouldn't be too hard to pass off any descrepancies. It also includes your front money-both your down payment, and some operating funds. I want this one done right boys."