Enter this way, if you please. If you don't please, you're probably evil. You might as well skip the door, in that case, and crash right through some unsuspecting wall.

FYI: If you want to actually be welcomed into this home, it would be best if you knocked first. Press the doorbell and wait.

::Arriving home, Phoebe heads straight to Phoebe's bedroom, ready for a long rest.::

::Petunius pulls up the BMW in front of the big pink house in Prescott Street, all the while watching the satellite navigation system installed in the car. He switches off the engine and simply watches the house for a moment, both impressed and feeling inferior.::

(No wonder she thought my place was a dump...)

::He gets out of the car and walks up the steps to the front door and raises his hand to ring the doorbell but then hesitates.

(What if I'm intruding? It's not like I was actually invited here.)

::He waits for a moment to try and listen for anything interesting and just about manages to hear something about a magical book and someone getting called a strumpet. Thinking that this could go on for quite a while, he walks down the steps and hides behind some bushes, so as to avoid exposure. Not like that. He's going to finally get up off his ass and practice his power. Kind of.::

(If the incident at P3's anything to go by, the least I can do is learn how to call this forcefield on command.)

::He sits in a lotus position, closes his eyes and takes a few deep breaths.::

(Okay, see the bubble of blue. Be the bubble of blue. Embrace the bubble of blue.)

::For a long period of time, nothing happens. Then slowly, the air around him shimmers and squiggles ever so slightly. He opens one eye curiously and uses it to look around but then is disappointed when the shimmering stops. He continues the meditative process with patience.::

::After what feels like almost two days of being stuck in a bush, Petunius lets out a sigh full of irritation and frustration. On the bright side, the moment he loses his cool, the damn forcefield flickers on for a couple of seconds before flaring out again.::

(Stupid ass power. And how long does it take for something to happen innyway? Sitting where I am will not look good so, might as well go in there and see what the hell is going on.)

::He gets up from his position, then winces as the pins and needles creep up and down his legs. He shakes it off for a bit before walking back up the steps. He thinks of ringing the doorbell, but accidentally leans against the front door. It opens and he quickly grabs it before it slams against the wall and alerts the occupants of his presence. He hesitates again for a moment, unsure of whether he should be interfering, but certainty takes over quickly and he walks through towards the living room, somehow feeling as though this isn't the first time the front door was left unlocked.::

::Petunius walks up to the front door with Piper and stands on the porch, waiting for her to open it.::

"Man, I thought we'd never leave. Well, I guess this is the part where we try to salvage whatever the hell's left of the plan."

::Vince arrives::

"Looks like none of those amateurs followed. Hooray."

::Petunius turns to Vince as he shows up and nods in agreement with his comment.::

"And best of all, no fat ass to protect against any rogue vamps that may suddenly show up."

::He then turns back to Piper in order to say something and accidentally leans onto the door, opening it in the process.::

"Huh. I guess you never close that door. Well, we better go inside. You'd think I'd be ashamed about being so forward on someone else's front porch/ house but I have no shame. Sue me."

::He walks in towards the living room.::

:: Piper follows Vince and Petunius inside ::

::Piper pulls out her keys and gets into her... Morris Minor. She raises her eyes and revs the engine, waiting for Petunius to arrive::

::Petunius gets into the car with Piper, all the while looking utterly unimpressed by her choice of vehicle.::

(Obviously being the most powerful good witch ever doesn't come with a good pay package. Ugh. Look at the wheels on this thing.)

"Alright. Let's go."

::Piper flares her nostrils and pulls a pair of driving goggles out of the dashboard. She clips them on and then careens down Prescott Street with a series of loud bangs and cracks, thick black smoke pouring out behind them::

"To the Ritual Stone!"

::Vince suddenly begins to move and then hears voices upstairs. He runs towards The Attic::

::Driving up to the curb, Luke walks out of the car and heads to the front door to, believe it or not, knock. He turns to the car briefly to eye Lorenzo.::

(Now be a good clone and stay in the car.)

::Being the impatient bastard that he is, Luke walks into the living room.::

::Luke leaves the manor and enters the car, seeing that Lorenzo clearly didn't follow his instructions.::

(He probably "thwep" to a bar. Then again, why didn't I feel it or anything? The asshat!)

::Luke picks up the holy water bottle from the car and when he examines it, he finds solid ice within the bottle.::

(What the hell? A new power? Kind of like what Vince can do. Well, I did cast a spell just now to exchange powers, so...oh, fucking hell! Now, I can't self-heal or uneven the odds! Am I going to get my powers back?)

::Luke puts the spells into the car and returns to the manor, still thinking of that crossbow that blown up by that shrew Piper. Unknown to him immediately, he summons the moisture in the air, freezing it and compacting the molecules into a crossbow. As the materialization ends, steam erupts from the new weapon.::

(Ooh! Frosty!)

::Luke walks to the basement to continue his search.::

::Patience's form begins to become less of an outline and more of a real person as she inches closer and closer to the manor.::

(1329 Prescot Street...well there it is...wow...no wonder it is called...the manor)

::Patience takes an overwhelmed gulp and quickly presses the doorbell.::

(Please be home.)

::Petunius walks down the stairs and makes his way to the front door, when he sees the outline of a person standing outside.::

(Great. Just great. Well, whoever it is can just fuck off because we don't have time for any of their bullshit.)

::He opens it to find Patience standing there. He stares at her blankly and silently for a few moments, then responds with a deadpanned tone.::

"Yes?"

::Patience hardens as much as she can in response to Petunius and his less than warm welcome....which honestly isn't much.::

"Well hello to you too...look...I know you don't really like me or my friends...I don't particularly care. What I do care about is there are four witches missing from the Cw apartments and two of them are my friends. I figured since yall knew about the whole vampire thing before we did..."

(So he says.)

"that yall may of heard something about this...and..."

(as much as it pains me to say this.)

"You all are more experience witches than us...and..."

::Patience's voice drops alittle and her eyes glaze over.::

"I'm afraid."

::Petunius sighs as Patience stands there looking helpless and in need. He looks at her for a moment before speaking.::

"Look. I have nothing personal against you. It's your magically incompetent, overbearingly clingy and now obese friend that I have gripes with. He needs to stay away from all forms of rhyming. Besides, we're still kinda dealing with Carys now and we've had yet another wacky magical problem on our hands."

::He sighs again as he studies her face, his expression softening.::

"Do you even know for certain that these witches are missing? Maybe they're off on vacation."

"Well that is why I told Theo to wait for me at Lirie's place...I told them both to stay put until I called them."

(Which may take longer than they think...)

"Anyway...Theo noticed some abandoned looking apartments and he showed them to me...two of the apartments belonged to my friends Paz and Justin. Well I hadn't really seen either of them for a long time so I was worried. I decided to go check the apartments only to find them both...unlocked...they are very cautious people and I doubt they would of done that. Anyway...so I searched both apartments and I found them in the exact same state...dirty, dusty, and unlived in for awhile."

(Get the picture?)

"Look...I trust in my intuition...I'm a witch...that is what I do...but I understand that you don't really know me so that means nothing to you...so...how about I try to find out some more about this situation..."

(Who the other two people are, how long have they been missing...)

"dig up some clues if you like that scooby terminology and give yall some time to sort out what yall are dealing with...by the way...what is going on with yall if you don't mind my asking...can I help?"

::Petunius leans against the wall while listening to her, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.::

"Yeah, maybe you should go find out something a bit more concrete than unlocked doors and dusty apartments. Try and retrace their last steps. Where did you see them last, who were they with, yada, yada. That kinda stuff. And what's going on with us? It's kinda complicated and it's gonna take too long to explain. Just worry about getting your clues. I'll see you late--."

::He holds out his hand in order to wave goodbye when he suddenly accidentally freezes Patience.::

::Patience is about to open her mouth to agree with Petunius but before she can utter a single sound she is frozen by his "goodbye" and just stands in front of him like a statue.::

::Petunius stares at the lifelike statue in front of him closely. He considers waving his hand in front of her eyeballs in order to see if she was still listening, but then decides against it for fear of accidentally blowing her up. As realisation hits him, he throws his hand up and sighs with exasperation, in the process blowing up the chandelier with an explosion loud enough for all in the attic to hear.::

"Goddamn this fucking power!"

::Petunius sighs again and takes one last look at the frozen form of Patience before hurrying up the stairs to the attic.::

::Justin appears in a swirl of golden orbs next to the frozen Patience. Confused, he looks around at his surroundings. Spotting the immobile witch, he walks over to her and waves his hand in front of her face.::

"Hellooooo? Patience? Wakey, wakey!"

::He shakes her, hoping that she'll come to.::

::Petunius runs down the stairs in order to see if he can unfreeze Patience and also to close the front door lest the neighbours see any wacky magical shenanigans going on. He stops in his tracks when he sees Justin shaking Patience and frowns.::

"Uh, who the hell are you?"

::Hearing someone behind him, Justin turns around and sees Petunius, who he vaguely remembers from the P3 incident standing in the doorway.::

(I've seen him somewhere before... isn't he a witch? God, I hope so...)

"You. I remember you. You're a witch right? I need your help. My... friends have been captured by demons and are being forced to fight and all kinds of craziness. I was released because Paz killed himself. Long story. Anyway, I need help. Can you give it?"

"Woah, slow down there a second. Yeah, I'm a witch and yes I can help you, but I need to know exactly what's going on. Paz...killed himself? Does that mean you're...Justin? Who're the other two witches that Patience said were trapped with you?"

"Yeah... I'm Justin. The other two witches are Chloe and Andrea. And as far as Paz is concerned, he's not really dead. Yes, he killed himself, but he's going to be healed. We have to save them. How do you plan to help? Do you have backup?"

(Please, please say you do. I have to save him... them. I have to save them.)

::Petunius' eyes widen in concern when it is revealed that the other two who are trapped are Chloe and Andrea.::

(Oh, crap. This just gets worse and worse.)

::However, he does not reveal this to Justin and instead takes a moment to begin to absorb the gravity of the situation before calmly responding.::

"You better follow me. The back-up needs to hear this at the same time."

::He waits for Justin to follow before leading the way back up to the attic.::

::Sighing with both relief and exhaustion, Justin follows Petunius up to the attic.::

::Patience unfreezes and looks around dumbfounded.::

"Hello? Anybody there?"

::Patience notices the door open and she takes a step in.::

(I'd really like to know how they did that.)

::Theo parks the scooter at the last set of steps. He pulls out the note and reads that address.::

"This is it...Holy....this place is huge..."

(Hope these people arent snoody or anything. This place looks sort of fancy.)

::He walks up all the steps and stares at the door.::

"She better be here."

::He knocks on the door three times loudly waiting for someone to answer the door.::

::Feeling very suspicious and paranoid about the situation, Luke places his hand on the trigger of his crossbow.::

(Bet it's that vampire and that bitchy clone...)

::Luke swings the door open quickly, firing a bolt from his weapon at the figure. Luke watches the arrow unexpectedly soar a short distance towards Theo's chest.::

(Crap. It's just that irritating kid from the club...)

::Theo watches as the door flies open. Throwing himself down onto the ground he barely misses the arrow. Looking up from the ground he looks at Luke.::

"What did I do?"

::He stands up and brushes off. Feeling something warm on his arm he feels around. Theo's hand comes to a stop at his wound soaking up some blood.::

"You got me...Ouch...anyway I need Patience, she is supposed to be here."

::He steps inside the door way and looks around.::

(Nice.)

"Can we do something about this- er wound? Please? Do you live here?"

"Ugh. Wasted magical energy for this kid?"

::Luke groans in disappointment, looking down to the younger witch, as he had hoped that he nailed a vampire or two. He crosses his arms, leaning against the threshold.::

"As for living here, hardly. I couldn't live with these bitches if I had to. Also, who the hell is this Patience chick?"

::Theo smiles holding his wound.::

"Did you say magickal energy? Are you a...witch by anychance."

(He doesnt seem like a demon or warlock and Patience is here so he probablly.)

"Sorry-anyway Patience, she came here worried about some missing witches. She didnt come as soon as I planned and then this guy, Justin appeared and he cast a spell and dissappeared. He is one of the missing witches and now he is missing again. I scryed for Patience and it lead me here."

::He sighed and picked up a few tissues near the door on a small in-table, and holds them against the cut.::

"The wet cat, eh? Up in the attic."

::Luke pulls out a cigarette, lighting it up, as he's done pretty much everything possibly to piss off Piper unintentionally.::

"Also, tell them to hurry up. If you do that, I'll get you that Happy Meal I promised you..."

(Stupid child.)

::Theo smiles fakely::

"Only if I can get chicken nuggets, and I'm not that young. I'm 21 years old..."

::His voice trails off as he walks to the attic.::

"Right. And I'm unattractive..."

::Luke says that under his breath. He rolls his eyes and takes another drag from the cigarette.::

::Lirie hurries up the stairs, her eyes trailing up, seeing Luke at the door::

"You gotta be kidding..."

::She checks the map again, then the pink building::

(Nope... this is the right place...)

::She snarls in disgust and approaches the door::

"So... you're what... a welcoming committee? Do those that put you here know you have no social skills whatsoever?"