Echoes Of The Past

Joyce nods "Yup! I wanna join." she says "The last Cell I was apart of was a good one that got popular pretty quickly, but fell apart when two members couldn't really hack it as Hunters." she explains "So a word of advice, don't sign up anyone you don't think can handle this life." she tells them "Because ultimately they might let you down."

"Don't worry. We don't plan on having just anyone but glad to have you aboard." And given how much Hunters respected the Belmonts that would probably help in attracting more attention. Still, he knew he and Charlotte planned on doing it long term. Not forever, assuming they made it that long they eventually retire when they started to get on the older side.

Charlotte was of course over the moon, but she did her best to hide it and play it casually. Best to play it cool, besides Joyce likely just wanted to be treated like everyone else. It probably got annoying put on a pedestal all the time. "After we're done with our business here, I want to wind down a bit. Maybe visit the Kozato's later on."

At this, Jonathan shook his head. "Bad idea. We don't know how far these new guys are willing to go. It's best to keep our distance from civilian friends until things mess is dealt with. That way they aren't potentially used as ammo against us. They might not go that far but best not to chance it either."

As much as Charlotte hated to admit it, they had a point. "I guess you're right. For now let's just focus on the hospital." It still bothered her how much in the dark they were about these new people, but Shadow and Abraxus may of had some idea based on reactions.

What she really wanted to know as analytical person why they thought Jonathan and her were a threat. It made no sense! Even with worse case scenario of turning on people even together they weren't a threat to humanity as a whole. Sure they could do damage, most trained Hunters could so why signal them out?

Joyce smacks Jonathan on the back "Hey, don't worry. With the brain trust of the Hunters on the case, it won't take them long to find out who those two are working for and when they do, I'll see if I can get a name from one of my friends who's apart of that brain trust." she says with a thumbs up.

Joyce pauses and looks around for a bit, then pulls out a strange compass. The needle on it wasn't pointing north, but was moving all around, as if focused on something else "There's a presents close by... but it's moving around a lot, making it hard to pin down..." she mumbles.

Before Jonathan could really comment, Joyce was looking at a strange compass and around. "Is it following us or just around the area?"

Charlotte made a mental note to ask about the strange compass later, but if she guessed it could pinpoint certain things. It had to if the young Belmont was saying it. She didn't sense anything just yet, but to also be fair it had to be relatively close if it was something she could sense.

If it was possible, she needed to hone her sense and improve it. It would  come in very handy.

"It might be our ghost. that's haunting us." Charlotte said after a moment. "Back when we went to Castlevania, one of the maids that was killed by us so they been following us around to a keep eye on us or anyone who apparently ever stormed the castle before but us in particular."

Joyce frowns "Well, whoever it is surely doesn't want me to get a bead on their location." she says as she puts her compass away "If you want, I can ask someone from the church to come in and cleanse the area and maybe cast them out?" she offers.

Charlotte and Jonathan looked at each other before the former shook her head a bit. "Hold off that for now. If it gets out of hand we'll take you up on that but for now, its fine."

Joyce shrugs "Well, when we find our new base, I'm gonna ask for a cleansing anyway." she mumbles "Hospitals are notorious for being haunted by tue ghosts of people who died there." she says.

Charlotte had no issues with that. "That's fine. We really don't need a bunch of ghost at our base. Be a bit pointless to fix it up and have to deal with that. Ghost typically react aggressively to people messing with their 'home' anyway so we'd kinda have to do it regardless."

While they were walking along, Jonathan figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. "Those special cards of yours. Are those something specific to you and yours or could I potentially learn something like that?"

Joyce looks at the pouch at her side "My family got these from a man named Nathan Graves. He fought Lady Camilla along with Morris Baldwin and his son Hugh to prevent Dracula's resurrection, of which they succeeded." she explains "We've tried to learn where he got them from, but it's never said in any of his journals and we've tried to replicate the magics used to make them as well, because like you were probably thinking, field Hunters could only benefit from their own deck. But it was not happening on both fronts." she says with a sigh "So, when they gave them to my dad, he gave them to me as a way of making up for my 'lack of skill and polish'." she says with an empty chuckle.

"Well, I'll say you're plenty skilled in your own right." Charlotte added her two cents in with a smile. "We all got our own things, and I think together watching each others backs we'll go plenty far. Much as I hate to admit it for example me and Jonathan stand no chance against the guy in armor even together but with help? Then it changes."

Jonathan was a bit more quite, thinking. "I can kinda relate Joyce even if my family line isn't as renowned. Long and short of it, if you ever need to vent I'll be around. It's what being a cell member slash friend is for after all."

Joyce nods her thanks to Jonathan. She didn't want to tell him that he was lucky that his family name wasn't as well known as the Belmont's. Fame wasn't all it was cracked up to be. With the fame of the name, came the expectations of the family line and while it was expected that she would go on to become a 'Great Hunter', she really didn't Want to become a Hunter. She only did so because it was Expected of her to become a Hunter and as the last of her line, after her famous dad, she needed to uphold family tradition.

She sighs and looks to her new friends "So, how are we gonna buy said rundown hospital and fix it up, once we find it that is." she asks. Unlike some people, she wasn't Exactly rolling in the big bucks.

This got a bit of a pause from Charlotte as she tapped her chin. "Me and Jonathan have a fair amount of money stashed away for our missions because we were preparing for something like this for a while. So what we'll do after finding it is price out how much it cost to fix up. If its our budget, we temporarily be somewhere cheaper in the mean time."

Joyce shakes her head "That may be, but buying a hospital, even a run down one, will cost Millions of dollars. Because you're not Just buying the building, but the land it's on." she points out "If you like, I can ask my dad if I can delve into the family fortune to chip into buying the place." she offers "I don't see him saying no, because it's for the cause... we could Also try to requisition the funds from the Hunters. Since it's for a base for your Cell they might approve it if it's not Too expensive.' she suggests.

Jonathan could of said he thought that part through, but he honestly really hadn't. "If your old man is fine with it, then we could try that and see what they say. If not that then the funds thing for a back up."

"Either should work but the small off chance neither fall through we'll have to rethink our options. Best not to put all our eggs in one basket..." Charlotte was thinking a bit.

Joyce gives a mischievous grin "And if none of those ideas work, me and Charlotte can hold a wet t-shirt carwash to drum up the money." she says as she playfully sticks her tongue out at Jonathan.

Jonathan wouldn't mind, still being a guy and Joyce was kind of cute but he knew better to say anything with Charlotte around.

The later blushed, flustered but cleared her throat. "Maybe as a last resort." She mumbled "A-anyway, we should continue our search. I think there was a hospital just down the way."

Joyce nods, dropping the subject "Yes. There Is one not too incredibly far." she says "Nothing's wrong with it, it just ran outta money and was closed due to that." she explains "It's in bad shape now, but when last surveyed it was still structurally sound. So I don't see it being a problem making a bid to buy it from it's current owner." she tells the two.

At this, Charlotte perked up. Out of the two she was more into these kinds of things which Jonathan was fine with. "So after looking at it we could give the owner a call to say we're interested, then see about getting some funds from your father or the Hunters themselves."

Joyce heads to the abandoned hospital and with the two of her new friends, they all head in to check it out. It was abandoned, that much was obvious, and it wasn't in tye best of shape. Many of the ground floor windows were smashed out and there was graffiti on both the exterior and interior. But aside from at the entrance and the broken windows, the water damage was nonexistent.

Joyce stops at the entrance "Oh man. Something's made it's home here." she says as she moves her shirt out of the way of her whip "It doesn't feel evil... but it doesn't feel good either... maybe we can get it to leave without a fight." she mumbles.

"Hopefully its nothing too bad." Jonathan prepared himself for a fight just in case and Charlotte was watching for what she could see or potentially sense.

"Not surprised. Abandoned buildings are prime homes for Cryptid's ghost or anything else unknown." Charlotte said, peaking around and ready to use magic if need be.

Joyce pulls out her compass again and looks at it "It seems like, whatever is here, is in the basement..." she looks around "Or in this case, the morgue." she says as she puts the compass away and moves towards the stairs.

Jonathan would admit despite all the things he had seen and done through, morgue's would still always on some level be bizzare to him. Just for the simple reminder of where the end was and how such places happened to be often host of strange acvitiy.

He followed, along with Charlotte. Honestly if it was a ghost or a similar being then Joyce's whip would be the most effective anyway considering it was about the same as the Vampire Killer.

Joyce's whip might have some of the same properties as her father's famous Vampire Killer whip, or as it's more commonly know nowadays, the Combat Cross, but it was nowhere Close to being as powerful. The Hunter's Whip was just a cheap knockoff to the real deal as far as she was concerned.

When push came to shove, their strongest weapon right now, aside from Joyce's DSS cards, was Charlotte's magic,because Joyce and Jonathan were primarily physical fighters who knew, maybe, a Little magic. While Charlotte was Maybe a little on the physical fighting side, but her magical skills Far out matched anything the two fighters could muster even together.

As the three of them started to descend, Joyce stops when they get to the bottom of the stairs "listen..." she whispers "can you hear that..?" she asks. The faint sound of something Big breathing can be heard from beyond the doors.

Joyce in straps her whip and pulls out two DSS cards "I'm going in first..." she holds up the two cards so they could see. It was Jupiter and the Unicorn cards "if we need to, stay close and I'll protect us so we can retreat, otherwise fan out but stay within eye sight... let's go." she says as she slowly opens the morgue doors and moves carefully inside.

"Got it." To an extent Charlotte knew this already, Joyce wasn't as strong as her old man even in his weakened state, and the whip wasn't as strong either unfortunately. Joyce was still the strongest one here currently physically but it would of been nice to have a offical physical tank as part of their group.

It was a lot of unknowns and that was dangerous. That's why it paid to be cautious.

Most of the morgue was clear, but when Joyce moves to the loading and unloading dock, the breathing was more intense there. She motions for the others to gather around and when she looks through the small window in the door, her blood almost freezes and the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

She moves away from the door and points while mouthing something. On the other side of the door, was the source of the breathing. Straight from the depths of Castlevania it's self was the hellish beast Gergoth! The undead beast was just laying there, seemingly asleep.