The Road Through Perdition: Notes Along the Way

**MatrixRefugee** · 11/04/2007 01:39:05

[b]The Sentinel: October 11th -- Minor Security Breach at Rennaissence Fair[/b]

CENTER PARK -- "I know not what to believe," says Alphonse "Rothbart the Minstrel" Clarendon, referring to an odd incident which occurred towards the end of a performance by the Merrie Bande of Revyllers. The group of five men and three women, all performers of medieval ballads and madrigals, were paying tribute to their late bandmember Merrill "Guillimar the Bard" Hannaford, one of their founding members and a promising young graphic designer who was senselessly killed in a terrorist attack on the head office of Metro Glass, along with a dozen others including his fiancee. Their final ballad, "Dragon for Sale" -- a favorite encore piece which "Guillimar" was especially fond of -- was interrupted by some shingles falling off the roof of a nearby booth and onto the stage. None of the musicians was injured, but security found the commotion was caused by a dark-haired young woman clad entirely in black, sitting perched on the roof. Security tried to remove her, but the young woman quickly escaped, jumping to a height and length not humanly possible.

A bystander with a digital video camera filmed the incident. Police are analyzing the tape at this time, but have yet to identify the young woman. Mr. Clarendon and his bandmembers are thought to have agreed to help identify the girl, but further information is currently unavailible to the Sentinal staff members.

© 2006 The Sentinel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

**MatrixRefugee**

The Sentinel: October 14th -- Mysterious RenFair Intruder Identified

CENTER PARK -- With the aid of facial recognition software as well as social networking, police have identified a roof-running intruder at last week's King Clovis's Faire as Mercedes "Mercy" Hannaford, a college student who dissappeared after leaving work at a bookstore in the Historic District on November 6th last year.

"It's definately her," says Alphonse Clarendon, a performer at the fair who spotted the younger sister of his late friend and fellow musician Merrill Hannaford. "They showed us the cleaned-up version of the photos and it definately looked like her."

However, authorities have also matched Ms. Hannaford's photo to images on a security tape from a break-in at Creston Heights, which left three security guards and a SWAT captain dead. Ms. Hannaford was seen in the company of a group of known members of a Mob organization who go by the name the Devil's Advocates, firing on the security team with a pair of sub-machineguns. Clarendon and several mutal friends find this allegation hard to believe.

"The girl's really sweet and harmless: she wouldn't hurt so much as a fly, much less kill someone," said Alisia Mergenthal-Clarendon, Alphonse's wife and a close friend to Ms. Hannaford.

Professor Merton Hannaford, Sr., Ms. Hannaford's father has been notified about the discovery, but there have been no replies from him. The noted author and medieval historian has been working on an archaeological site in a remote area in the mountains of southern France and has not returned our calls.

© 2006 The Sentinel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

**MatrixRefugee**

The Sentinel: November 1st -- Arcane Prank at Ascension Monument

ROGERS WAY -- Park maintenance workers discovered the top of the edifice plastered with tarot cards, each one the Death card taken from several different decks, as well as a message scrawled in red: "The Knives Will Be Manifest". An expert on cult activity has been consulted by local auhorities, but the display appears to be nothing more than an especially bizarre Hallowe'en prank intended to look like cult activity.

**MatrixRefugee**

The Sentinel: November 2nd -- Mysterious offering at Westview Church

SOBRA SHORES -- Lemuel Norrell, a caretaker at First Unified Church reports that when he entered the church this morning to prepare the sanctuary for a Catholic Mass to be held in honor of the feast of All Souls, he found every single candle at each of the statues in the ambulatory lit. Several small incense burners had been placed in the sanctuary as well, and a bag containing several thousand dollars was placed under the baptismal font with a note reading, "For the souls of those taken by the reaper's hand". There was no sign of a forced entry, and no tangible evidence of the mysterious benefactor's identity has been discovered. Local authorities suspect the money may have been left by some member of a crime organization, but are so far unable to trace their identity.

© 2006 The Sentinel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

**MatrixRefugee**

The Sentinel: November 11th -- Possible arson prevented near soon-to-reopen nightclub

SHINJUKU -- A maintenance worker at an apartment building across the street from Club Masamune reported to police that they had found a cache of gasoline cans, dynamite, a roll of fuse wire and a computer printout copy of "The Anarchist's Cookbook" stashed on the rooftop. Local residents report having seen a dark-haired young woman in a black or red trenchcoat "rummaging around" on the rooftop, but it is not known if she was in anyway connected to the discovery. Police and a bomb squad arrived on the scene to find the items had been removed and a wooden box full of small golden hourglasses put in its place. A "shock-headed" dark-haired woman in a somewhat unseasonably low-cut black gown was spotted on a nearby rooftop, but police were unable to follow her to question her.

© 2006 The Sentinel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

**MatrixRefugee** · 12/17/2006 14:58:40

The Sentinel: Wedding announcements -- December 17th

Justin Reynolds--Mercedes Templar-Bonness

The couple were married in the park close to the lake in Tabor Park, Richland district. The groom is a computer systems technician in the employ of an expatriate French billionaire; the bride part owns an Italian restaurant in Creston Heights. A gathering of the couple's extended family and friends was presentn to witness the exchange of vows. The groom wore an elegant white tuxedo while the bride wore a white V-neck satin gown, designed for the occassion by her mother. The couple were blessed by the bride's father, Simon Templar, a nightclub owner most noted for rennovating Club Masamune in Shinjuku. At the moment the couple was pronounced man and wife, snow began to fall softly on the gathering.

**MatrixRefugee**

The Sentinel: December 29th -- Unknown woman searching for missing girl

GRACY HEIGHTS -- Several residents and business owners report that a woman in her early twenties approached them, asking if they had seen "a small girl in her late teens" in the area and showing them a photograph. No one had seen anyone matching the description or the photograph, but the same woman was later seen entering a largely abandoned apartment building in Guinness Lake, but no one has seen her leave the building. Residents on the lower floors of the building report hearing some "scuffling around" on an upper floor, but the superintendant claims this to be merely a sign of a "rodent problem".

© 2006 The Sentinel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

**MatrixRefugee**

The Sentinal: January 23rd -- Extension on Winter Clothing Drive Finds Continued Assistance

Various businesses in the International district of Capitol City helping distribute the donations of winter coats provided by an anonymous donor have reported no difficulties in finding help distributing their packages to the district's needy. Several young people have approached to help, including a number who are suspected of belonging to the Redpill subculture.

"I was amazed," says Chase Pantaleoni, manager of a novelty distributor in Shinjuku. "You hear about how violent and bizarre these kids are, but the three or four who've showed up to help deliver the donations were very polite. One of them, a little bit of girl in her twenties, seemed really enthusiastic, kept gushing about how she'd had a lot of help along the way and how she just wanted to 'pay that forward', like in that movie. People never fail to surprise me."

Several other business owners in the same neighborhood, who had also helped take part in the clothing drive, also report seeing a girl who answered to the same description, often accompanied by either a silver pony-tailed man dressed in a red trenchcoat or a young man in black with spiky blond hair.

© 2007 The Sentinel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

**MatrixRefugee**

The Sentinal: February 10th -- Commotion on club roof in Baldwin Heights

The owner of a club near the center of the neighborhood reports hearing what sounded like gunfire on the roof, late last night. Neighbors report seeing a group of two women and a man, all in their mid-to-late twenties, firing on a group of bald-headed men clad in long black silk jackets that "looked like something they'd wear in a kung-fu movie". Police arrived on the scene to find no signs of a struggle whatsoever, "Not even a bloodstain or a bullet hole."

There is an unconfirmed claim that this may have been a publicity stunt to advertise "The Burlyman Rebounds", the latest in the "Burlyman" franchise of movies, comics, and video games, but a spokesman for the franchise has not yet returned our calls regarding this incident. The owner of the club, who wishes his establishment to remain anonymous, says if it is, he did not authorise permission for the roof to be used for this sort of display.

**MatrixRefugee**

The Sentinal: February 11th -- "Burlyman Chronicles" Franchise Creators Claim Complicity in Rooftop Advertising Stunt

Following the bizarre gun and martial arts battle on the rooftop of a nameless club in Baldwin Heights and witnessed by several startled residents, Joe and Bill Aronsky, the creators of the "Burlyman Chronicles" franchise have come out of their usual "creative seclusion" to announce that this was "merely a publicity stunt" to raise interest in the next cinematic installment, "The Burlyman Rebounds", due in theatres in March. City officials are calling for an apology and reparation from the creative duo, to the tune of a fine for creating a disturbance and payment for police overtime in investigating the nuisance.

It is believed at this time that members of the Redpill subculture were employed in the stunt.

© 2007 The Sentinel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

**MatrixRefugee**

The Sentinal: February 12th -- Shootout in Congregational Church

CAMON HEIGHTS -- A possibly gang-related scuffle sent church workers and the last of the congregation which had attended evening services scurrying for cover. A red-haired woman in a red trench-coat with distinctive red and white facial tattoos, and a shorter woman in a long black gown entered and accosted a man in black with dishwater-blond hair. They seemed to be questioning him, but when he refused to speak to him, the woman in red attacked him; "It looked like something in one of those darn Bruce Lee movies my husband likes," said a 68 year old woman who wishes to remain nameless. The sacristan, Jean Whitecliff, tried to approach the group, but admits, "There was something about the woman in black that made me pause. At one point, she handed the man a cellphone, and she happened to glance in my direction. I couldn't see her eyes, since they were behind sunglasses, but I felt her gaze pierce through me like a knife, like she was trying to read my soul."

Mr. Whitecliff called in the authorities, but by the time they arrived, the two women had disappeared, leaving behind the body of the man, shot and stabbed to death, through the lower chest. Preliminary reports from the city coroner's office indicate the body was completely drained of its blood and the internal organs were somehow extracted without cutting into the torso.

Disoriented girl found near Sushi bar

MURASAKI -- Two young women and a man in a white suit were seen trying to coax a girl in her late teens out of the door way of a popular restaurant in the center of the canton. Members of a local gang were seen trying to attack the girl, who seemed "dazed and acted like she'd wandered from hospital", according to Daisuke Matamura, the head of the waitstaff at the restaurant, but the trio who approached the girl were seen chasing off the gang members. "She seemed lost, and they seemed like family members looking for her. I hope she recovers soon and they can take care for her," adds Matamura.

© 2007 The Sentinel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

**MatrixRefugee**

The Sentinal: February 17th -- Injured man spotted near Congregational Church

CAMON HEIGHTS -- A second-shift worker at the nearby Cormorant Casino returning home caught sight of two young people -- a man dressed entirely in white and a woman in black -- apparantly trying to remove a bullet from the shoulder of a third man, known to be a member of a terrorist organization identified only as EPN. The worker, who wishes to remain nameless, called for the police, but by the time they arrived, no trace could be found of any of the three.

© 2007 The Sentinel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

**MatrixRefugee**

The Sentinal: February 26th -- Bizarre Fight in Camon Heights Church

Late last night, a group of local residents on their way home from a late evening penance service report seeing a pair of young people dressed in "Halloween-like" costumes -- one dressed like a vampire, the other like a werewolf -- attacking a young couple in the hallway leading to the vestry of the church. Reportedly, one of the pair of victims matched the description of Zack Freeman, who disappeared some time ago after a strange attack on him and his girlfriend. "I thought I'd walked into a rehearsal for a scene from 'Underworld'," says one young resident, who wishes to remain nameless. But others were not so amused by the strange incident. "These young folks need to learn that churches are places for people to find comfort and strength in the Lord," says longtime resident Marion Shaker. "Ever since those Redpill kids started hanging around near the phone booth not far from the church. fighting all the time, we haven't been able to get any peace and quiet here."

Church officials and the local interfaith council are considering tightening security in the historic church.

© 2007 The Sentinel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

**MatrixRefugee**

The Sentinal: April 12th -- Bizarre break-in, gunfight at clothing store

MARA -- The owner of a small consignment shop was closing up for the night when she reports that the previously locked front doors blew upon and two men in dark suits rushed in, pursued by a young woman in a "gangsterish" trenchcoat and fedora and a young man with spiky scarlet hair, who opened fire on the intruders, driving them out. No injuries are reported, but the facade of the shop was damaged by the attack. "Redpill" subculture members as well as rogue Federal agents are considered to blame for the incident.

© 2007 The Sentinel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

**MatrixRefugee**

The Sentinel: May 1st -- Shootout, Intruder in Clothing Store

SHINJUKU -- Mr. Ling Wei, owner of a used clothing and leather goods store close by a teahouse in the northern section of the neighborhood, reports that last night's police action has damaged his place of business. The Hong Kong emigre tells us that gunshots shattered the frong windows of his establishment, but this was not the extent of the damage. Two members of the SWAT team attempting to intercept the wife of a known criminal boss chased a young woman armed with a pair of submachineguns into the entryway of the building, where she tried to take cover behind a display case of costume jewelry. Gunfire was exchanged and the SWAT members apparantly killed the targetted woman. "Then something strange happened," Mr. Wei reports. "A man in red came rushing in by the back door and he knelt over the woman. Next thing I see her get up and run out the front door with him. Not a scratch on her. No blood. Nothing."

The identity of the woman and the man are unknown at this time, but they doubtlessly belonged to the crime syndicate involved in the incident.

© 2007 The Sentinel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.