Heavy silence lingered in the room, broken only by the sound of four people breathing, and one pair of feet slowly pacing. 
A middle-aged woman and a young man sat at the table in the centre of the room, their faces twisted in concentration. Next to the single window out of the room, looking out into a lightly snow-coated forest, stood Cedric. Finally, the pacing came from Will, walking back and forth along the eastern wall. His face was in a scowl, and he continually wringed his hands, drawing looks of concern from the man at the table.

The man stood up from his seat, palms down on the table, and started speaking. "So, um. Planning? That gonna happen, or are we just gonna spend our time looking at the forest- as pretty as it is- and watching Will pace into the core of the earth?"

"At this rate? Guess." replied the woman, before sighing. "We get it Will. You had to kill some meatpuppets, you've found an enemy who can in some cases negate your shielding, we were all blindsided by a space station nearly killing everyone and a super-powered..." She scrunched her hands up, before continuing, "Super-powered murderer killed a bank's worth of people and put the footage up for everyone to see. But with all of that, -"

"Also that 'alien' attacked the Midas press release and escaped Icon, that also happened." Added Cedric.

"Yes, also that. But, hang on I haven't heard about that."

"Oh. I just checked the news, those thunderclaps a few minutes ago, that's what that was. Find out later."

"Oooh. In any case. Will, even with all of that, you can't just give up. We can still try and combat these problems, you're honestly being kinda childish, just pacing around."

"Ahh, will all due respect Jennifer, I don't think I look like I'm about to throw my hands up and give up."

"With 'all due respect' Will, you look like you're gonna have a breakdown or bolt out the door."

"She's got a point, man. Sit back down, we need to do some prioritizing." Added Paul, the man at the table.

A few seconds later, all four occupants of the room were seated. 

"So," began Cedric. "First off, we have the bulletproof hostile. For ease of conversation, I'll call him... Vincible." Cedric paused, as if expecting at least some laughter, but received none. Continuing, he said "As far as we know, he's only bulletproof, but he could have other powers. However, the way that he only used conventional weapons to fight rather than anything magical, indicates that he had nothing to fear from guns at all. So he's probably significantly more than bulletproof."

"Though, as he did publicise the attack, it is likely that he isn't showing his full hand, he might have other powers or maybe backup, he's not necessarily alone," interjected Paul.

Will nodded, and added "In this case, his power is unknown and he might need a lot of resources to contain even if he could be defeated, plus he may have support. I think we should try and leave him alone for now, till we know what we're facing, with the caveat that we will try and perform some reconnaissance on him and pass that along to the police. Compared to the demons and contacting Icon, I'd say that's the lowest priority, simply because we're so unable to act against him."

"Too many unknowns, I agree," said Jennifer, before looking towards Paul, who raised a hand, indicating that he agreed.

"Now, Icon. Contacting him as soon as possible is important, in my eyes. He's seemingly more powerful than Will and Aegis, and thus obviously far more powerful than any of us aside from him."

Paul interrupted, taking a joking tone and muttered 'cheater'.

Will laughed, before responding "Binding with a spirit is not cheating, especially when you can't learn spells." 

"...Anyway. As I was saying, Icon even looks to be benevolent. No sense not trying to cooperate with him."

"I have something constructive to say this time." Spoke Paul. "I was watching some coverage of the Midas conference when the alien attacked it. Icon's astral signature was standing out when he was the only signature with such a massive and vertical velocity. He was far away and moving quickly, but because of this I was able to see which one was his. So I should be able to send him a message from us."

"Good. Ask that he send some sort of proof that he's Icon, or at least something that would be unreasonably hard to do without being Icon. Like footage of him flying somewhere." Suggested Cedric.

"Ehh. If he's anything like us, he's not gonna have the time to rush out to the wilderness and film himself doing loops in the air. We're probably just going to have to trust him, give him a number to call or a location to be at. If he doesn't reply or turns out to be a bad guy, tough luck for us. I don't think we've made too many enemies that we haven't neutralised or are already picking fights with anyway."

There was a brief silence, as the idea of simply trusting this stranger was mulled over by three minds. 

"...Paul, that idea is, sadly, the best one. We'll want to ask him to meet me, I'll be the least likely to be killed if it turns out to be a trap or if he is hostile. We should put the place as somewhere public, he's got no reason to believe we aren't in the employ of someone who wants to capture him and screw around with his brain till he becomes their personal hitman. Actually, better idea, we offer him something to contact us with and let him choose the time and place, so long as he doesn't say 'midnight, a shady alleyway'."

"Alright, I'll do that."

When Will and Paul finished speaking, Jennifer wrapped a knuckle on the table, drawing the attention of the other three in the room.

"The demons are still our biggest problem. We sealed three in there originally, the weakest of which could control multiple normal humans, or manifest in a very formidable physical form. They got out and tried to lure Will in with the false 'seal is breaking' signature, and had either created meatpuppets that were enchanted against his shields or had enchanted that area to let them do so. This also indicates that they can cover signatures very easily, as we noticed absolutely nothing when they actually broke out of the painting we sealed them in. And all of the puppets Will saw had ritual runes on their heads, none of them were the original bodies they took over when they broke out- assuming none of them are walking around manifested as a physical form; we'd have heard the screaming. And these guys are probably power hungry, so I doubt they'll have less puppets 'recruited' than they can."

"Well, they definitely don't have their maximum number reached. Combined they could control more than a thousand bodies, so they must be at least attempting to lie low- that's probably part of the reason they had the bomb, to erase evidence, as well as to try and kill me. There was something in the news about 'a rash of disappearances', but I doubt they'll have more than fifty together, or else they'd draw too much attention."

"Probably true." Said Cedric, before he continued "Considering that they wouldn't have been able to break out of the painting when it was very close to one of us- that is to say before it was stolen- I think there is another group or individual who is responsible for this, having done that to release the demons. Maybe they had good intentions, but, well, no, I'm gonna say that they didn't."

"So, now we're looking for a connection between these disappearances, and for a cult or something? I don't like that I'm desensitised to things that are honestly insane, like fiction or a fantasy, just happening."

Will shrugged. "We can act well enough on our own with this- Paul, you'll send your message, and we'll all look for any signs of the demons plodding around, and perform some research into the bulletproof guy. Obviously via astrally looking around, looking for the after-images of spells, violence or rituals, as well as for magical signatures." 

"So we're done then?" asked Paul.

"Yeah, if nobody has anything else?"

Will glanced around, receiving nods of affirmation that there was, in fact, nothing else. With that, and a round of goodbyes, the room's occupants rose to their feet and walked over to the western wall of the room, and in turn traced a symbol on the wall, each summoning up the gate to their respective houses, placed by Will.

Later that night, a message would be sent out to the person Paul was pretty sure was Icon. The message would lie dormant till the man next started sleeping, and would appear during REM sleep. The message would show the outline of a humanoid form, which would read the words-

'Are you the person they're calling Icon? This is a dream, yes, but we're using it to contact you. Me and my friends are in the same business as you, so to speak, and we are interested in cooperation (read: you are powerful and seemingly benevolent, we want your help, and we might be able to help you). If you look at the paper in my hand, you'll see a phone number to message. If you're interested in some kind of collaboration, then just send through a location and a time. Don't use a location that you wouldn't meet people who potentially are enemies (for all you know) or we won't send anyone (as we also know nearly nothing), and anything after 11pm and before 6pm is kinda horribly inconvenient.

Oh, and thanks for stopping the Gold Dawn. You can replay the contents of this message at will, to do so, attempt to access this memory.'