Caroline and Jason were still two blocks away from the SFPD precinct, and they were already met with the flood of local residents running away. And in the sky, countless black shadows and even possessed humans were flying in the sky, screaming and diving from the sky to attack the civilians.
Also in the air and on the surrounding buildings, were roughly a dozen people wielding different kinds of superpowers or magical spells and combating the shadows and poor possessed civilians.
"Um, Boss, a bunch of people were fighting the obscured spirits. " Caroline spoke into her phone: "Are they the Division?"
"Very likely. Don't do anything stupid around them."
"How about saving some people?"
"Do what you've gotta do. But be careful. If they're there it means the threat is real and serious. I'll be back soon. Again, be careful!" Jianmen emphasized once more and hung up the phone.
On the other side, Jason already clashed with an obscured spirit, his wooden pen sliced the spirit in half just like a sword, and the spirit cashed into the side of the road and turned into ashes.
A possessed overweight man with eyes rolled to the back of his head gave out a muffled cry and dived from the sky in an attempt to attack a group of young men and women who did not get a chance to get properly dressed before they escaped. Just when Caroline was about to jump in and defend them, a tall man in a long dark blue robe on the top of the building beside her tossed out a projectile with electric sparks jumping off of it. The energy projectile hit the possessed man on his trajectory, which made a sound like that of metal objects clashing into each other, the possessed man was blasted into the ground, with a sharp energy blade impaled through his body and nailing him on the ground.
"Civilians, leave the area, immediately!" the man in a long dark blue robe standing on the top of the building said, with his voice amplified like through a magical loudspeaker: "And take shelter when you get the chance!"
Just two blocks down the road was the SFPD precinct Caroline and Jason were heading towards - but as they looked in its direction, it was nowhere near the way they had remembered. Just a few hours before, it was a dusty and slightly old building with the sign "San Francisco Police" hanging over the front door. Now, the building looked as if it was covered with a godly amount of messy and dirty black hair, with traces of blood running down its walls and exterior windows.
And vaguely but somehow easily recognizably, two huge shadows of two women with only half of their bodies stood tall on the top of the precinct and they were turning around in perfect sync as if they were one whole person looking for something.
"Beverly… Winters..." a hoarse and dual-toned whisper came from the shadows, even though it was not particularly loud, it sounded very clear to Caroline and Jason. And somehow, the whisper sent chills down their spines and into their stomach.
"Beverly Winters. Why does that name sound so familiar?" while helping a group of civilians escape, Caroline said to Jason.
"Beverly Winters..." Jason looked back at the shadows and some of the flying obscured spirits, "Yeah that sounded extremely familiar… I just can't remember where I heard it."
"Bang!" a sewer cover was blown open, a chain of faceless and skinless spirits connected together bottom to mouth like a huge human centipede busted out the sewer. And just like a real centipede, it curled its body and aimed its head and its mouthparts, which were made of sharpened human arm bones, at the screaming and crying civilians.
A loud and explosive clash sent Caroline into the inside of a building, a wooden tomahawk got embedded on the obscured spirit centipede's head, the fiery energy scorched half of its head into burning cinders and caused it to back off and scream in pain. Jason raised his wooden pen and stabbed at the obscured spirit centipede from a distance, unleashing a condensed silver energy blade at his target's body.
The silver energy blade struck the spirit centipede at one of its segments, slashing through the black smoke surrounding its body and a layer of protective energy shield under the smoke. Think and dark liquid gushed into the air and onto the buildings around, a few civilians were unlucky and got the liquid splashed all over them.
"Good work!" two men and one woman in tight battle suits came from behind Jason and leapt into the air, "Lead the civilians to safety!"
"Caroline!" Jason cast a crude and simple cleansing spell to help the unlucky clean up the dark liquid on their bodies, and then started calling for Caroline at the top of his lungs: "Caroline! Where are you!?"
"Jason!" Caroline's voice came from the building she was sent flying into: "Here! A little help here!"
Jason rushed into the building, and found that Caroline was half buried under a large chunk of cement block fell from the ceiling.
"Oh my god! Are you okay?!" Jason immediately ran to Caroline's side.
"Just help me with this." Caroline coughed and said.
Jason mustered up his full force to lift the cement block up, while Caroline roared and pushed the cement block up. And inch by inch, the block was lifted off Caroline's lower body, and she was finally able to get out from under it.
"You okay?" Jason asked.
"Yeah, should be just a few scratches and small bruises. But I'll be fine." Caroline patted her jeans and shirt to get rid of the dust, then she tried moving her legs and checked on her knees: "Guess all those body tempering showers and Kung Fu moves really worked quite well."
"Let's go. Civilians on the streets." Jason exhaled in relief: "You want another Xuanli axe?"
"Yeah." Caroline nodded and raised her wooden shield, "Can't just fight with a shield."
"Well, comic books disagree." Jason handed Caroline her flask, which was lying on the ground.