Aletheia pushed open the heavy duty doors only to be greeted by a gust of cool air. Her legs ached and felt dry. 

     Yay me for deciding to wear heeled boots…

     Stepping into the office, Aletheia noticed everyone heading for the conference room.

     "Hey there, kiddo!" said a loud, rumbling voice from behind, followed by a soft pat on the head.

     Aletheia smiled. "Mornin' Uncle Chris." 

     A man twice her height with well built muscles stood behind her. Unlike most of the people at the Office, Chris had his hair cut short as usual, not even bothering to dye it some fancy colour like most of the Hunters had. "Only makes you an easy target if you ask me," would always be his answer as to why he wasn't more adventurous with the current fashion scene.

     "C'mon, your dad's already in the conference room." Nudging Aletheia along, both made their way to the large conference room which was rarely ever this packed. Something big must definitely be going on.

     As Chris went to take a seat at the large round table in the middle of the room, Aletheia noticed the faded "BSAA" wordings on Chris' vest. A vest he only wore on serious occasions.

     Taking a seat behind Ash, Aletheia surveyed the room. Almost all of the local Hunters were gathered here today. Which was odd considering most of them would be, well, busy hunting. Hannah, a human Helper and a complete computer whiz, was setting up connections to servers from other countries. Within a matter of minutes the connection was up and the conference room grew quite. Office Leaders from each country appeared on the big screen before them.

     Ash cleared his throat. "As most of you may already be aware of, the occurrence of supernatural happenings on a worldwide basis have been on an acute rise recently." Ash paused, allowing soft mumbles and whispers to be exchanged. 

     "So, any idea as to the cause of it?" said a thickly accented voice. Jafar, the Saudi Arabian Office head was always a man who was quick to question.

     "Yes." Ash answered with a crisp tone.

     "I sense a "But," coming…" said a now frowning Jafar.

     "Samara, if you will."

     Appearing beside Ash as though she had materialized out of thin air, the frail, South African witch greeted her audience with a slight bow.

     "It seems that a certain someone is trying to merge our world with the Other Realms surrounding ours. To do so, one must unlock the nine Gates to allow passage to the inhabitants of the Other  Realms and once all nine Gates are opened…" Samara needn't finish her sentence to make known their current situation.

     "One Gate has already been opened, and its King is slowly making its was from its Realm into ours. Once the nine Kings of the surrounding Realms have gathered, The Key must be sacrificed to merge the surrounding Realms to ours, and that shall bre the end of mankind."

     "What is this Key you speak of Samara?" British Office Head, Isaac Irving questioned.

     "According to the lore, a sacrifice known as The Key is the only way to merge the Realms. If The Key is to be sacrificed at the hands of the Kings of the Realms, then… But shall it be sacrficed at the hands of its savior, the process is reversed and the Gates shall be locked once more and the Kings and his kind shall be banished back into the depths of their own rotten Realm."

     Whispers and murmurs filled the room.

     "And who, or what, is this Key?" said an unmistakable voice. Yamamoto, Japan's Office Head waited for the answer. It was time the Asian branch of the Office joined the conversation.

     "That I do not know. The lore only fortells that the Key will only show its true form once the Gate to the sacrificing ground is unlocked. And that shall also be when the Savior will be called upon by the Key to make his move in a race against time to find and sacrifice it before the Kings do." 

     "Isn't that a lil' to late?" voiced a blond from across the room.

     Instead of Samara, this time, Ash answered. "It is, but we have no choice but to trust the Savior and in the mean time, keep the monsters at bay."

     Somehow, Aletheia had an unsettling feel to all of this.

     "Aunt Sa, is there anyway we can locate this so-called Savior?" All eyes turned to look at quite Aletheia who had voiced out all of a sudden.

     "Dear child,  there once was, but it was said that the Savior was cursed during a certain time period and can only be called upon when the moon is orange, bright, and full by his Key."

     Sighs and groans filled the conference room.

     "The hell with these lore's and . We ain't know nothin' bout the dammed Key and yet we're supposed to wait for it to call 'pon the Savior? That just ain't right Granny" said one of the Hunters Aletheia had never really gotten to know that well.

     "You're right, but the next full moon is said to be sometime during this week. I have a feeling that something might happen then. " Samara cast a quick glance at Aletheia.

     Seeing that there were no more questions, Ash stood amd addressed everyone. "The most we can do now is wait and see what happens. Samara will work on tracking the location of the Gates. In the mean time, all of you are on patrol duty."

      Everyone nodded in a silent agreement.

     "Ash, you'll keep us updated I presume?" asked Jafar.

     "Yes, this could very well turn out to be an International affair. You guys keep your eyes peeled in your own country and report back to me if anything weird happens." Ash added.

     "What can be more weird than what has already been happening so far? But good luck and stay safe my brother's. " said the South African branch Head, Greg, before cutting off the connection. 

     One by one the International Office Heads wished each other well and signed off. The Hunters too, started to leave the conference room, back to their posts. Most of them teleported themselves but some decided to travel 21 century style.

     "Guess I'll be taking up my post at New Orleans." Aletheia said, stretching herself.

     As she was about to leave for her post, Ash stopped her.

     "Alex, I need you to sit this one out. This is different from what you've been doing."

      Aletheia scoffed."Dad, I'll be fine! Just think of it as an early Halloween party."

     Ash frowned. He knew he couldn't stop her. 

     "Fine, but I'm going with you."

     "Dad~" Aletheia whined.

     "No buts Alex, I promised never to let anything happen to you." Ash picked up his duster. "Tyler will be in charge while I'm gone, let's go."

     Aletheia trudged  along, following Ash to the garage. Although he could just teleport them to New Orleans, he knew how tiring it was for a human like Aletheia. And he knew how she'd hated the feeling of falling into nothingness when they teleported. 

     Aletheia was about to get onto her own bike when Ask scooped her up and put her onto his bike instead.

     "Nuh-uh missy. You're riding with me today."

     "I'm no kid no more dad..." Aletheia grumbled.

     "Too bad kiddo, in his eyes, you're always the baby." 

     Ash scowled. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Chris?"

     "What does it look like I'm doing, I'm following you guys. Besides, Dante says he's got my post covered" Chris strapped on his helmet. "Let's go."