Niko nodded and started walking again, still letting Kali dictate their route and speed. Looked like he wasn't going to get his proof today.

Luckily, the rest of the way home was uneventful, and Kali quickly scurried up the porch stairs to the house.

"Thanks," she said, turning to Niko, "for walking me home."

Niko nodded. "Be careful," he said before moving away so he could go find and consult Cal.

Or more like tell Cal what he'd seen and then call Goodfellow because if Nik didn't know what was going on, there was no way Cal would.

Kali nodded and headed inside. As soon as the door was closed, she sighed in relief and sank back so Tamara could take control.

Cal was waiting for Niko to get back.

"So what happened?" he asked when he saw his brother.

Christine looked over at her, blinking. "You're home early," she said quietly, refocusing her attention out the window.

"Shop closed early. There aren't enough people out to justify it." Niko looked at Cal. "Did you manage to stay out of trouble today?"

"Kali got to close up early," Tamara said as she sat down next to Christine. "Manager called and said it wasn't worth staying open."

"I think I did good," Cal replied. Hey, he didn't shoot anything, he didn't otherwise kill anything, he did great as far as he was concerned.

"Makes sense." Christine frowned a little. "Seems like more and more people are getting sick now."

Niko snorted quietly and shook his head, moving over to a chair and pulling out his phone. "Do you have any questions for Goodfellow before I call him?"

Tamara nodded.

"There was almost an incident on the way home," she said. "Kali was almost cornered by this... thing. It looked like it used to be a person, but half-way turned into some sort of animal. Furry, big. Maybe a bear or something."

Cal shrugged. Nothing was really pressing at his mind, and Nik would know better what to ask, anyways.

Christine frowned. "Really? That's... beyond weird. I mean seriously. A bear-person-thing?" She shook her head a little. "Things are getting stranger and stranger around here..."

Niko nodded and called Goodfellow, waiting for him to answer before speaking again. "I need your opinion on something. I've never come across something like this before."

"Give me your details and I'll give you my best guess, which is better than some people's facts." Robin grinned.

"One woman who shifts between three appearances and personalities."

"Ah, a Tryad!" Robin brightened considerably. "Oh they're so fun. Three women n one? Mmm. How is that ever a bad idea?"

Niko snorted. "Robin..." he said, trailing off vaguely threateningly.

"No kidding," Tamara said. "I don't know what's going on, but it's getting worse. There has to be a way to fix it."

Cal gave his brother a strange look when Niko described the three-women thing. Where the hell had he run across anything like that in the last hour?

Christine nodded her agreement. "There had to be something we can do," she agreed. Because she hated sitting around waiting for these things to happen.

"The one living with Christine," Nik said to Cal. "Or three, rather."

"Is her roommate pretty too?" Robin asked with a grin.

"Robin."

"Right, right. Most of them don't have anything extra, besides the three-in-one deal. One of the personalities tends to be stronger than the others, for protection, but otherwise it's just like having three human women in one body." Robin shrugged.

"Alright. We'll call you if anything else comes up." Niko hung up.

Tamara nodded. She just didn't know what they would be able to do.

Cal blinked. Suddenly, the scents he'd caught earlier made a lot more sense.

"Three of them in one body?" he asked his brother. "Explains the three scents I caught before you left. If it's one body, it explains why they were all so damn similar."

Christine sighed. "Maybe we should do some research?" she asked quietly. "So we'll be doing something, rather than just waiting."

Niko nodded. It did make sense. "What about the other one?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at Cal.

"Where?" Tamara said. She gestured to the window. "Out there? It's dangerous out there now, with those things wandering around."

"Pain in the ass," Cal muttered. "Touchy as hell. Still not sure what she is, though."

"Internet," Christine replied. "It'll be a place to start, at least."

Niko snorted. "She spotted you, didn't she." It wasn't really a question. He could tell by the way Cal talked about her.

"See what you can find, then," Tamara said, ushering Christine up from the window. "I can keep an eye on things out there for a while. You look like you could use a distraction."

"It was weird," Cal said. "Like she knew I was there already." And of course they butted heads, that was just inevitable, so Cal didn't feel the need to mention it.

Christine nodded after a few moments, heading off to go start up her computer and start doing some research.

And if she ended up pulling in some research on angels while she was at it, well, she was still confused about the whole mess in her head.

Niko nodded, turning to look out the window at the house for a few moments. "Any idea what she is?" he asked, glancing at his brother again. Because the chances of her being strictly human and spotting Cal, let alone facing him down, were slim.

"Not a clue," Cal replied. "I'd put money on her being at least part human, but I have no idea what else."

"Another thing we've never come across." This was starting to annoy Niko like crazy. They were supposed to be experts (or at least he was) and they hadn't come across anything new in a while. And now three new things in one town? He was Not Pleased.

In spite of the situation, Cal couldn't help but smirk a bit.

"It's eating at you," he said. "I think you found the one little black hole on earth that you don't know anything about."

Niko shot Cal a Look. "And the fact that you're not worried is something to be rectified," he said, his voice as dry as possible.

"Hell yes I'm worried," Cal replied. "Some evil virus thing is attacking all the humans? I'm damn worried about that." Especially about what would happen if it hit Nik. He grinned. "I'm just enjoying this particular moment right here while I can."

Niko sighed and shook his head. He just had to have Cal as a little brother.

Not that he'd ever do anything to change it, but still.

"We need more information on this... virus," he said after a few moments.

"What do you think we should do, then?" Cal asked. It wasn't as if they could randomly go out and test people for the virus.

"Still working on making a decent plan." Because so far everything he'd come up with, he'd scrapped. He knew that he was susceptible, and that was just not going to happen.