Marcus returned to his charges after a quick survey of the house. Security system and what few wards were intact to the best of his ability to check. No bugs either, which he found suprising. The windows were all appropriately closed. One of the upper guestrooms had another lost lamb which had been deposited there. The house was much as he remembered it: bland, generic, and easily replaced. He called in an order to two local delivery places, one for groceries and one for several pizzas.
He had taken the clippings he had recieved and made a copies from the back office scanner. He had put the one about Poe in a small envelope and folded it to a small pocket size. The other he had made three copies of, once source listings were deleted.
"I am sorry, I am being an ungracious host. Please feel free to refresh yourself. There is some food and drink in the Kitchen. More is on its way. If the doorbell rings, if you could make yourself scarce until the initial troubles are over, so I can answer it. You can make phone calls out, but I need to dial in an access code... so I can get charged for it. (Not true, but they don't know that..) Phone calls in are somewhat problamatic, but I can make arrangements. Oh, I am sorry. The first aid kit is in the downstairs bathroom. Now we have one more lost lamb upstairs. If we could keep this down to a dull roar, I think he would appreciate it. "
"When you are all ready, I can begin to field some questions you might have."
After some initial bits of prep.
"Lets get the initial ones out of the way. My name is Marcus. I work for an organization that is currently invested in the status quo, but is normally interested in the Advancement of Humanity and Society.
Each of you has been "tapped" in some way by one specific organization, though I am investigating the possibly that other organizations are tapped you. Being tapped by them, you have been modified by a variety of means to possess paranormal abilities. You may not remember being altered, they are good at memory modification. As for the "powers", if you don't have them now, you will manifest them soon enough. Yes the craziness you have been living does have a cause and you are not, specifically, insane.
One of the other organizations seeing that you were "in the open" arranged for you to be tested. Given their criteria, you all failed - no active combat power manifested. So you are no use to them at the moment. And rather than let you become a tool for another group, they will ensure that you are deleted.
Yes, that means what you think it means.
The group that tapped you, now realizing that you have been compromised, will either try to forcibly retreave you or remove you from the game, possibly deleting you.
You might notice the words secret and organization being bandied about. A lot. Yes there are a lot of "air quotes" secret "air quotes" organizations involved in all this. You can call them secret societies, cabals, or espionage cells. The differences are immaterial. These organizations function best if the general public is underaware of their existance. They are all about furthering their various agendas, some of which have spanned centuries, and utilizing any appropriate means to do so. They also have access to knowledge, techniques, and technology that are not normally available, and in some cases supposed not to exist. Yes, like magic for instance. However, Clarkes laws apply.
Now some of the specifics for each of you might be different. I am still researching, but this is what I have.
For the moment, we have to see what assets are in play in the search for you. That will determine next moves.
Now I have put myself on the line here for all of you. I have gone far, far beyond what I should of done. I just... I just did not want to see you all get killed for pointless reasons.
"Oh here", hands a folded envelope to Poe, "Put this in your back pocket. If something happens to me, you will need this."
