Team Vultures

Every shot, every punch, everything we're doing, they're with us... I hope you understand we're in this together.

Arthur Cervero^[1]

The Team Vultures is an elite team of the Ordo Realitas, formed by the two remaining agents of the D-Force, Arthur and Dante, the agent Rubens from the former duo Johnny and Rubens, an agent who was retired, Balu, and an agent who came from Italy due to the risk state that the situation became, Carina Leone. Later, after the events of the 5th episode of Calamity, Joui Jouki also joins the group. This group gathers in order to find traces of the Relics of Calamity and find them before Kian.^[2]

Characteristics[]

This is the first all-season team made up entirely of seasoned agents, with all members being Markeds. Team Vultures was named after Arthur Cervero, earning the same coat of arms as Scoundrel Vultures, former gang and leader's family.^[3]

History[]

Led by Arthur Cervero, a new team is formed to investigate the appearance of the "Devil" walking with a child during the nights in a video filmed by a resident from Bariguara, inland Mato Grosso. Desperate for any trace of the actions of Kian, who has been missing and apparently inactive for 3 months. Together with Dante the two leave to investigate and reunite with the rest of their team.^[4]

The team meets at the Gominho house, and begins the investigation at the house of Elza Verlaz, a resident with strange behavior for a long time who had died that morning. Investigating the place and interrogating the residents, it was discovered that Elza together with Juan Davo had performed a ritual to conjure the Devil to form a pact, being interrupted by "Eric Typhoon" solving the case years ago and locking the trapdoor with a special lock. But for some reason the creature returned after years, psychologically torturing her until eventually killing her, leaving behind only a dry body with devoured internal organs.

While investigating the trapdoor after unlocking it, the Gominho accompanied by a policeman enter the house looking for the agents, who quickly leave the basement and hear knocking on the front door along with a voice of a child calling for his "Mommy". The agents quickly realize that it was a creature trying to enter the house and instruct the civilians not to open the door, but Cícero opens it anyway, to form a pact with the creature, revealing the shape of a child with a hollow face and severe scoliosis, a figure Dante immediately recognizes as Denis, who quickly becomes a gigantic monstrosity. The team goes through an intense battle against the creature, and as soon as Balu executes the final blow, the policeman who was seriously injured, vomits blood together with a page of the Grimoire of Arnaldo.^[5]

Four days pass and Carina Leone goes to the Order base for the first time. At the entrance, she finds Balu and Rubens playing pool and, later, Arthur appears to call them to the meeting with Mr. Verity. Inside, they find several agents of the Order and other foreign agents who have come to aid in the fight against Kian. The group finds Dante in Agatha's room, and then the full team heads to Verity's room.

Verity asks Arthur to name the team and thus the team is called "Team Vultures". The Vultures discuss with Verity and Clarissa about the case in Bariguara, and eventually, when they fit the sheet found in Arnaldo's grimoire, several new sheets with Arnaldo's notes appear. In them, they discover that he has hidden something important in an "old friends" safe. With the aid of a black light flashlight, the code "04130211" and the Leone coat of arms appear. Carina connects the dots and understands that the safe in which Arnaldo used to store something was the safe located at the base of the Famiglia Leone. Carina calls her father, Marco Leone, and asks him to test the code to see if it works. Marco confirms and asks the group to go there and check what was found.^[6]

The team, along with Clarissa, travel to Rome, Italy, and arrive at the Leone's Mansion. Upon opening the door, they are faced with a massacre, with bodies scattered and blood everywhere. They cautiously enter and head towards the mansion's underground base. On the way, no one alive is found. All documents found had the symbol of the pact with the Devil with the words "the gift was delivered". In the vault, the team hears growling sounds coming from inside it, which was found with the door ajar. They close the door and head to the base's research room. Camera recordings showed a group of people, among them Kian, Gal and Rana, invading the base and killing all members of the Leone family. The trespassers eventually break into the vault Marco was in and the footage only shows the screen filling with blood and subsequently forming a bizarre symbol before the footage ends.^[7]

The group then goes to the vault door and, as soon as they open it, they witness Marco's body transforming into a creature and being pulled by a red and horned creature that comes out of a blood crack, The Devil.^[8] Carina is shaken and unstable when witnessing such a scene, which configures a positioning of Balu in front of her to protect her. However, after being motivated by both him and Dante, she gets up and advances on the Devil along with Clarissa. However, all blows seem useless against the entity which, even after a deep blow from Balu, shows no damage.

The creature congratulates them on completing their first pact by killing one of their children, and offers a second one for them to prove themselves again, raising one of its blood-covered hands, causing Marco's body to start shaking as he opens it. his own chest with his claws and pulls out a locked black box with the Symbol of the Pact marked on top and offers it to his daughter as ordered, stating that the second pact would be completed once they found the key. Finally, the Devil says that the next time they meet, a third pact will be formed and that he and his associate will be waiting for them to start the war. With that, the Devil is gone and Marco's body falls dead to the ground.

As soon as the Devil is gone, a gigantic horde of Blood Zombies forms heading towards the underground, the agents raise barricades using the tables in the room and manage to neutralize the horde with Rubens controlling the turrets while the others deal with the creatures in a way direct. Upon returning to the surface, the agents are ambushed by a Beastly Zombie with severed limbs, quickly being eliminated near the staircase leading to the second floor.

On the second floor they find an infirmary, where Rubens starts treating the wounds of his team members, until they are interrupted by a Blood Titan with several needles stuck inside his body, and after a exhausting combat, Balu finishes the creature but ends up being brutally wounded, having his ear ripped off, leaving a terrible scar in the region. Searching the creature's remains yields the key to the box, a grimoire page with a familiar symbol and five black envelopes with the same Symbol on the cover of the Grimoire are found . The contents of all envelopes being the same, an Invitation to "Kian's Game", the "End of Everything", Arthur contacts Verity and the agents gather in the living room to eat and rest after holding a symbolic funeral for the Leone Family.

After that, Carina has her moment of mourning and buries her mother's remains in the backyard, in addition to setting up an altar with a family photograph of the Leones. Clarissa is also shaken and argues with Arthur, Carina and especially with Rubens, demonstrating the woman's emotional instability. Balu and Dante talk about Balu's retirement from the Order and goals in the organization. Finally, the team gathers to eat and rest while Clarissa decides to stand guard. The five are awakened the next day by Agatha who warns that the Order's agents had arrived and everyone was cleaning and organizing the mansion in order to use it as a base in Italy.

After receiving her family members with regret, Carina goes to Dante and Arthur in order to understand the strange calling she was feeling. They then head to the now clean fridge, drawing a huge ritual symbol on the floor. Carina performs a Ritual of Transcendence for the first time by connecting to her Mark, being visited by an unknown woman in the gnosis of knowledge, who warns her about living a life of revenge and teaches her about how hatred cannot it's nothing compared to love, family and the people around her are far stronger than any hate she might feel. With that, Carina finishes transcending after spending 5 hours in the ritual, While Carina transcended, Dante watched her, noting what happened during this process, he analyzes a quick eye movement of the agent who begins to water and glow gold, so Dante notes that the color is related to the element of Knowledge.

At a certain point, everyone gets together, because Arthur, Balu and Rubens they talk and go to Clarissa, where she informs that she found blood footprints coming out of a corner in the garden, and as they approach, they see the symbol of the Pact Marked in the grass. After some time arguing, the agents go to the room where the Mr. Verity was waiting for them with the grimoire of Arnaldo Fritz, together with Marc Menet, they analyzed the pages, seeing the messages both in black light and reflecting on the writings, until, uniting the page with the symbol of the Sect of the Masks, in the grimoire two other pages appear, one talking about the sect itself and the other about his search for the origin of the other side, also mentioning how Arnaldo found something about the symbol of Calamity, and in black light a mention of The Colosseum of Rome. On the recommendation of Mr. Verity, the group concocts a plan to find information hidden in the Colosseum.

They enter the Colosseum lying about being journalists. The hoax works for a while, until Vinicio Ludos, director of the Colosseum, says he knows the Order more than he'd like, and reveals cables taped to his body, and the ancient symbol of the Coliseum in its costume transforms into the Host Symbol, and the security guards behind it draw their weapons and prepare for a battle. The Vultures emerge victorious and begin scouring the Production, discovering information about an ancient order, the Ordo Calamitas, whose ruins served as the basis for the construction of the Coliseum, and that their entry never took place. but had been opened, that's why it is called "Semper Clausa". The team also realizes that they need to find some masks to access the ruins. While the search for the masks was going on, the agents hear a person screaming upstairs, then going upstairs, when aiming with his gun, Arthur sees a Production member falling after a sword slash of a hooded and masked figure, which is instantly recognizable as Joui Jouki.

Joui, upon noticing their arrival, teleports towards them, initially pointing his katana at Arthur. However, he lowers his mask and reveals his teary face, as well as Arthur's, who starts crying next to his friend. Joui reveals that he has no memories of the time he was with the Sect of the Masks, and that, for him, he had placed the mask in the cemetery the day before. Soon after, he would have woken up with the symbol of the pact drawn in the vicinity of the Leone's Mansion, with a paper similar to those found in that mansion — which contained that symbol of the pact drawn. Jouki introduces himself to the other Team Vultures members, and after theorizing about the masks and Devil's involvement in recent events, they return to the painting room to solve the mystery of the governors' masks. Following the analysis of the paintings in the exhibition, the Vultures go to the room destined for the emperors in the bleachers, where they find the remains of the masks.

They enter the passage, arriving at an old room, with a very heavy fog. On the floor, they see a symbol marked, the same marked on the cover of Arnaldo Fritz's grimoire. The protagonists begin to hear whispers and, as everyone goes down the stairs, the shadows transform until they form the Sect of the Masks. They start talking, and the masks explain that the agreement was broken and that only the Markeds could open the Semper Clausa, since the paranormal has changed. They hear footsteps, and Order agents appear at the top. Verity welcomes the Joui back to the Ordo Realitas, who joins the Vultures team preparing squadrons to follow the paths that passage reveals. The Vultures head down the middle path, and the doors close behind them, making it impossible to communicate with the rest of the Order.

As they followed the stairs, they came across a silent hall, which contained six statues with descriptions of each one of them. After Rubens reveals his past related to The Host, Joui touches one of the statues and is rendered unconscious as its eyes begin to glow green. The other team members follow Jouki and each touch one of the statues. Just like Joui, everyone is knocked unconscious and their respective statues' eyes glow.

They awaken as members of the Ordo Calamitas, in 67 AC, in a place where memories are unpredictable; where they control the past. Celestine wakes up first and does her routine morning workout, then goes to the meeting room to wait for the leader of the Order, Veritus — and, most importantly, the Emperor Nero, too order member. Remus wakes up, as do Gaius and Marius, and eventually everyone joins the meeting, celebrating the Order's new achievement of having found one of the Relics of Calamity, thus missing only Relic of Death.

However, at some point, they notice something that was obvious: they are, within those bodies of agents of the Ordo Calamitas, Arthur, Balu, Carina, Dante, Joui and Rubens. In the middle of the meeting, they feel a chill; as if something horrible was going to happen. Suddenly, a black slime starts running down the wall and makes them get ready to fight. Among the slime that forms, a huge black silhouette is glimpsed about to chase them; and the agents start running.

When approaching the Relic of Energy, the slime seems to avoid it, which is why they aren't dead yet. As they pass through the door, the team sees a shiny object, something that death cannot touch — after all, not even death would mess with something so chaotic. They get close to the cube and feel called by it. When the six arrive at the object, which glows voraciously, they notice it is practically intangible. It's like it's not even an object. The cube glows with countless and infinite possibilities, and through a sort of drawing from the relic that seems to have a life of its own, Gaius is chosen. The light hugs his face, vibrating, distorting and searing his mind. Gaius embraces the chaos and joins with it.

Soon after, everyone wakes up in their original bodies, even though the statue that Carina had touched is the only one that doesn't have the green glow in its eyes. Upon returning to their bodies, Carina talks about how Gaius could be related to the Despair Mask. They go to another room and, when Balu touches a kind of barrier, his mark appears in the place. After a short discussion, Rubens plays along with him. Faustus and Amalia reappear and the same creature emerges from a purple flame, calling them to the first game.

They played 4 games with the theme of relics, with this learning about them, when he lost the game in the present he was unconscious until the end of the games, in the last game Rubens and Joui enter and they are in the middle of space, as chaotic choices come back to light, several random events happen one after the other, something that could be described as chaos, however, at the end of the game, when, Joui controls the body of Celestine he asks Rubens to leave a quest with him, thus allowing Celestine to kill Amalia, and this one allows him.

Upon reaching the door, they see a custom Transcend Symbol on the floor; symbol that calls for Dante, for having reached a barrier of 55% paranormal exposure. They also see a door ahead, with the symbol of the Despair Mask. Dante walks towards the symbol, and after hesitating for a few minutes, he decides to start transcending. Upon starting the process, the door opens, revealing a spiral staircase. The agents discuss for a few minutes whether to wait for Dante or whether they intend to proceed, with a decision of Arthur being all to proceed. The five go down until they reach a corridor, with several pink or illuminating flames, and a door with the same symbol as before.

However, Dante discovers much more. He understands the Other Side again, and remembers the connection to his mark. He recalls connecting with another man, but the ruins of the Ordo Calamitas are unpredictable. His mark connects Dante to another man. A man who for his entire life has sought to understand the origin of the paranormal. The year is 2009, and Arnaldo Fritz finds himself facing the door with the symbol of the Despair Mask, and when it opens, he finds himself with The Magistrate, the leader of the Sect of the Masks. She explains that she already talks a lot about him, and that Arnaldo needs to know something. The room seems to glow completely gold, as Arnaldo begins to see a vision of the same room.

[...]

Members[]

Leader[]

Arthur Cervero: The last remnant of the former Team H. Even after heavy losses, Arthur remains as steadfast as possible in the battle against Kian, the one responsible for destroying everything he once loved. Now stronger and more experienced, he seeks the Hallows to avenge the memory of his companions and put an end to this history.

Members[]

Antônio Pontevedra: An agent who had been retired for five years from Ordo Realitas. Better known as Balu, he found himself in need of a comeback after Verity's appeal. He joins the team to look for traces of Kian and the Relics of Calamity.

Carina Leone: A highly skilled and stealthy agent hailing from a family of Italian mafia paranormal hunters. Carina was indicated by her father as one of the best agents and, thus, was sent to Brazil to assist in the hunt for the Relics and defeat Kian on the side of the Order.

Dante: One of the last remnants of the D-Force. Dante had his love of his life, son, sister and best friend ripped off by Kian's hands and now his only strength to fight comes from his goal of avenging all those who stayed along the way. Dante has become a master of the occult and is on a quest for the Hallows to match Kian and finally put an end to his story.

Joui Jouki: An experienced agent of the Ordo Realitas and one of the last remnants of the ancient Team H, who sacrificed his conscience to protect his team and keep them safe by forming an agreement with the Sect of the Masks, but due to a pact made with the Devil involving the defeat of one of his children, Joui regained the control of himself after 1 year. Driven by Hatred, he has sworn to hunt down all who made himself and his friends suffer.

Rubens Naluti: An agent used to fighting for a long time alongside his duo, however, due to his weakened state, his partnership was broken and he was added to this team. A small and fearful man, however, with high levels of intelligence and strategy, Rubens assists the team in his own way and seeks to help in the hunt for the Relics of Calamity.