"What do you mean you didn't know?!" Leon shouted. John shrugged. "I told you, you know more about all of this than I do." Leon stared at him, stunned, and then shook his head. "All right then. This will be a load of fun." Leon turned on his signal to go left. "No, I need to get back to work." Leon looked at him. "You've got to be fucking... Let me get this straight. You just found out that your body is being used as a vessel by an Elder God and the first thing you want to do is go to work?" John just looked at him. "I have a job to do." Leon sighed and turned the other direction.

They pulled into work and John went up to see everyone. They were handling everything fine on their own, but they were still happy to see him. He went to his office and got to work. He went through everything the team did and updated management with how things were going. He was in the middle of sending a memo when he gave up on trying to fight it. He walked out to his lead architect's desk, he always liked to work in his own space, but John couldn't stand being separated from the team like that. It felt like a waste to call Claire when he could be sitting two cubicles away from her. He told the lead architect to move his stuff into the office, it was his now.

He was really happy, John could feel it. He thanked John and went off to move in his things. John had a much better time working with everyone around him. Eventually, it was the end of the day and everyone started to leave. After a while it was just John, Claire, and Leon somewhere around the firm. John was finishing up a file when Claire got up and left to her car. He was halfway through saving everything when he felt it. Fear.

John got up and ran to the door. He opened it and stepped out to find his ex-boss in the parking lot with Claire. "You bitch. I treated you well, payed your bills, and you repay me by throwing me under the bus at that meeting? I'm going to make you pay for that." John could tell he was drunk. His ex-boss took a step towards Claire and started pulling something out of his pocket. Claire reached into her purse, presumably for pepper spray. All in all, Claire didn't seem so afraid. He was drunk and stupid and was probably going to hurt himself, but Claire could handle it. But then he saw why she was really afraid. What he pulled from his pocket was a gun.

She must have seen the bulge in his pocket or seen it peeking out. She had the pepper spray out, but their ex-boss was now holding the gun up. "Drop it." He said to her. John walked up behind him and then stepped in front of the gun. He was going to stay behind him, but if he spooked the drunk fuck he could end up pulling the trigger accidentally. The finger on the guns trigger twitched. "You stole my job. You ruined my life!" He pointed the gun at John's head. He stared into John's eyes. "Put down the gun and walk away." John said calmly.

His ex-boss took a step back and then put the gun down and left.

"How did you do that?" Claire asked him. Before he could answer, she continued. "Why did you do that? Are you stupid?" John chuckled. "He was drunk." Was all the explanation that John could give her. He pulled out his phone. "Go home Claire, I'll handle all of this. The cops will get the gun and arrest him." He dialed the number. "He won't be coming back." He added when he could still feel her fear. She nodded, still a little confused, but too shocked to ask anymore questions. Before she could get to her car he added: "Actually, I will have Leon drive you home. You are in shock, you shouldn't be driving. The cops would do it, but I don't want you to have to wait. He will make sure you get home safe." He could feel the relief that flooded her. She must have been worried that their ex-boss would come back before the cops could catch him.

Leon stepped out from behind a car. "Way to volunteer me, I should have just handled it all myself. I wanted to give you your moment." He shook his head and led Claire to his car. As they drove off, John could feel his hands shaking. It didn't matter how confident he could act, deep down he had just stepped in front of a gun held by a drunk man who hated his guts.

The cops arrived and he explained everything. They put the gun in an evidence bag. The wrapped a blanket around John's shoulders and he felt a little better. He went inside and finished up saving everything and then shut down his computer and started locking up. He was locking the front door when another police cruiser pulled up. He turned to them as they walked up. "Good evening sir, we are here about a 911 call."

Fuck. Leon was with Claire. John looked down at the cop's badge. "Thanks for coming. There was a man with a gun, I think it was my ex-boss." He saw that the paint was chipping and the badge wasn't metal underneath. He couldn't tell if the apprehension he felt was his own, or the cops piecing it together. John looked around for anything he could use. He couldn't think of anything. He only had one option. Please, please let what happened earlier be his power. He looked the policeman in the eye. "Hand me your keys and walk back to where you came from." The cop nodded and handed over the keys. The other cop got out of the cruiser. "What's going on?" John looked him in the eye. "Forget about me and walk back to where you came from." They both started walking down the street and John jumped in the cruiser and peeled down the street.

This was bad. This was very, very bad. If John had to take a wild guess, those guys were walking back to the Council. The Council was probably trying to kill him now that they knew what he was. To be honest, he couldn't really blame them. Even if he was going to trust an Elder God he probably wouldn't trust the one he supposedly belonged to. He pulled into a parking lot behind a gas station and then started walking up the hill to Leon's.

It was a longer walk than it seemed when you are used to taking a car. He walked for what felt like hours, jumping at every snapping twig or falling acorn in the dark woods on either side of the street. Eventually a car drove past him, he had ducked down into the bushes besides the road and it drove by unaware. He walked further and then found himself in front of Leon's house. Outside his door, John knocked and shouted. "Leon!"

The door swung open to a face of panic. "What the hell are you doing?! Where did you disappear to?! Do you want to get killed?! I should never have gone with Claire and left your alone. I figured, well at least he isn't stupid, surely he won't go walking around in the dark alone." John interrupted him "Another set of cops showed up." At first Leon was shocked by the fact that John interrupted him. "Another set of- Oh. Oh no." Leon's face was one of dread. "Get in, now." He pulled John in roughly and shut the door, pressing buttons on a tablet by the door that chirped. That would probably be the security system. Leon pulled him further, they went to the kitchen and Leon lifted the kitchen island, revealing a set of stairs downward. They climbed down and Leon shut the island entrance behind them. They were surrounded by darkness until Leon flicked a switch and the hallway lit up. It was a small tunnel, every surface concrete, leading towards a very heavy looking door. Leon scanned his fingerprint and the door opened. Inside was a large circular room. It was lit by soft, diffused, blue lights. There was a couch, a monitor that overlooked all the security cameras, and a few doors leading to other rooms. Leon shut the door behind them, an enormous latch physically locking the door so that even with Leon's fingerprint no one could get in.

Leon scanned John's fingerprint in for future use and then they sat on the couch. "Tell me everything."

John told him all about the suspicious cop and about what he could do. Leon nodded. "Interesting. Yeah that would all make sense. The Council must know what kind of power you could have and thinks you are dangerous. Still, they shouldn't have been able to make the decision to hunt you without a hearing. They must have decided after we left at the last hearing."

"So what should we do?' John asked him.

Leon looked serious. "Now we sit here and figure out a plan."