Two hours after dropping Lorna off, Olivia returned to the loft.
"Liv," Jill said. She floated to her friend." Where have you been?"
"Out for a drive."
"Listen Liv. I should have told you the truth but ...,
"It's cool, Jill. I get it," Olivia replied. " I was too ashamed to tell you about Lilith so I understand why you couldn't talk about your sister."
"If I had a body right now, I would hug you." Jill smiled.
The two girls looked at Scott as he drank a pint of blood.
"Gross B – "Scott grumbled." He tossed the pint away before he noticed his partners staring at him.
A brief period of silence lingered before he put two and two together.
"Fine, make it quick."
"Thanks," Jill said before entering his body.
"You in there, Jill?" Olivia asked.
"Yeah, it's me," Jill said. She hugged Olivia using Scott's body."
"You said you went out for a ride? With whom?"
"Let's say a certain waitress," Olivia answered. She leaned away from Jill.
"Lorna?! No way! Tell all."
"Sure, but don't tell Nollax yet. He might be disappointed."
"Scout's honor. Now give me the deets."
Maxine, Meredith, and Sam made their way to the Temple of Newts.
The temple contained damaged statues of fallen mystics and practitioners of magic.
Each one displayed a third eye on its forehead, like Meredith.
" Whoa. These statues all look like you, M," Sam commented.
" I know," Meredith responded. "Let's focus on the mission so we can get out of this horrid place."
"Horrid?"
" This is where we found her when she was an infant," Maxine said.
Meredith glared at Maxine and scowled.
"What? You mean to tell me you never told your teammates your origin?"
"Shut up, "
" Same old Meredith," Maxine said. "Always keeping her head in the books and her heart in the freezer,"
" Not everyone is an open book."
" Uh, guys?" Sam said while standing in front of them.
" Not everyone is a perfect desk junkie either," said Maxine.
" Guys," Sam yelled.
" Say what you want about me, but at least I didn't get myself fired for battling my selfish crusades."
Sam shook Maxine's shoulder to get her attention.
"WHAT?" Maxine and Meredith asked.
Sam pointed to four red, and black clouds rushing toward them before they transformed into four savage creatures. Each creature possessed eagle-like wings on it, but each had a lion's body, a goat's head, and a snake's tail. and snake's tail.
"Chimeras?" Meredith said.
"Aren't these things extinct?" Sam queried.
" I know," Maxine said." I assisted with their extinction when I was with the other Valkyries. The strange creatures roared at the intruders, ready to rip their flesh apart.
" Looks like they want payback," Sam said.
Maxine extended her sword, her wings, and called for her brimstone fire, channeling it through her sword.
" Well kids, let's have some fun."
Maxine and the agents assumed their stances, ready to attack the resurrected creatures. But Meredith noticed something odd about the animals.
" Those symbols on their heads?" Meredith said.
" What about them?" Sam asked.
" They look like the symbols on the daggers we confiscated earlier."
" The Blessing is behind this, Maxine announced.
"They don't want us to get the cure back to HQ. They went to great lengths to prevent it," Sam added.
" First they sent their foot soldiers to the Broth. Then, the three-headed giant monster attacked the forest. Now these bastards at the temple," said Maxine." This is starting to make me angry."
" But how did The Blessing know we would be here?" Meredith asked.
At that moment, two chimeras leaped toward the agents before Maxine swung the flaming sword across them.
" Figure that out after we've killed these things."
Sam and Meredith charged at two of the chimeras while Maxine took on the other two.
The chimera's charged at Maxine ready to maul the one-eyed Valkyrie into pieces. But Maxine sprouted her wings and coated her body in golden flames as she charged at them with her sword tightly in her grip.
Maxine took several slashes against the chimeras, killing them in the blink of an eye.
Sam pulled out a deck of playing cards as he went head-to-head with one of the remaining chimeras.
"Pick a card, "
Sam threw the entire deck at the chimera, manipulating each card covered the beast throughout its body.
"Roho za vodun, kugeuza kiumbe hiki kuwa vumbi,"
The cards sparked with purple electricity and went back into Sam's bag, leaving the chimera's body composed of stone before turning into dust.
Meredith dealt with the final chimera and took out two blaster guns before firing multiple rounds at the monster.
The chimera was stopped in its tracks as Meredith ran toward the monster and summoned her talons to rip the beast into pieces.
Maxine caught up to Sam and Meredith and said: "What took you so long? "
Back on earth, Olivia and her friends followed a trail to the Blessing's next target, an elementary school in downtown Buffalo.
" I'm sensing a corrupted amount of mystical energy from this school, "Olivia commented as she conjured a small, green spell circle between her hands.
" It's funny when you talk about magic like that," Scott teased.
" Shut it, Scott," Jill said." She needs to focus."
The trio approached the school when they encountered a wired fence. Olivia hid her spell circle because they saw children playing in the jungle gym in the playground. Olivia knew one of them.
That is my brother, Olivia thought. She hesitated. What should I do?
"Liv, focus," Scott said. "You know the rules. We cannot interact with any relatives on Earth. Remember, we're on a mission."
"I get it Nollax. Olivia pouted.
"Then again," Jill added. "Perhaps there's a way you can bend the rules."
"What do you mean?"
"The rules say we can't have direct involvement with a human or relative on Earth, but we can overlook that if it's regarding a case, we're working on."
" Ghost girls got the point," Scott said.
"If you can justify talking to your brother as part of the mission, no one could doubt you. Even after this mess is over, the higher-ups shouldn't hold it against you."
"True," Olivia said. "But how am I going to talk to Tosh? I do not know if even he remembers me. He was a baby when I left.
"Hey, it's you," Lorna said when she came outside. "Olivia, right?"
"Yeah, that's me. And this is my friend Scott.
"Gee, thanks for clearing that up, Red," Scott sighed.
"It's good to see you guys again.
"Yeah, small world," Olivia responded.
"So, what brings you here? No offense but you guys seem a little too old for recess," said Lorna.
"We are..." Olivia stalled, trying to think of a good reason for her being there. "We are...actually reporters."
"Reporters?" Scott asked.
Olivia elbowed him in the stomach.
"Reporters? For the news?" Lorna asked.
"Yes, we're doing a documentary on how kids in Buffalo are becoming more open-minded through recess. We needed to interview someone who works with kids.
"Gee, way to sell it, Liv," Jill whispered.
"I'd love to help you out with that. But before Lorna could finish her sentence, the school bell rang, and recess ended.
"Oh, darn it. Sorry, I must go to another class. But if you like, we can meet up after school. I'd love to answer any questions you might have,"
"Yeah, that'd be great," Olivia said. She shook Lorna's hand.
"Nice meeting you too, Steve, was it?"
"Scott."
"Yeah. I must go. Bye,"
Lorna left while Olivia endured chuckles from her friends.
" Looks like someone cast a love spell," Scott snickered.
" Knock it off, wolf boy," Olivia said." Let us look for any clues of where that dark magic came from.
" It's best if we split up," Jill suggested." You two search the school, and I'll do some research in the libraries around town."
" What's wrong, Ghost girl?" asked Scott." Getting sick of us already?"
" That's not true. I can tolerate Olivia," Jill joked. Olivia showed Scott her tongue.
" There's no point of all three of us crowding the school," Said Olivia." Besides, Jill can search for any history of The Blessing is in this town."
" The few perks of being invisible to humans," Jill added.
" Have at it, Willows," Said Scott.
Jill flew off the investigate the libraries in Buffalo while Olivia and Scott entered the school.