Kyle the Apprentice Warlock

Did you know that walking in powered armor is slow, and tedious? Well, it is. Whenever Camina found herself in a situation where she had to ‘work’ with civilians on camera she always found herself fantasizing about giving a truly candid interview. One where she could just tell everyone how it really was.

And no, it was not a good idea. She would never, ever, actually do that.

But God damn it. She hated walking through buildings in her armor. It really wouldn’t have been that bad if not for the trail of airport security following her around like baby ducklings. Obediently, in a line, and so very, very fragile. With no understanding of the danger they were in if she accidentally bumped into one even with the highly controlled movements she was using to limit her suit’s strength.

Familiar yet somehow inordinately annoying at this moment, the suit’s hydraulics whirred rhythmically inside her helmet with each step. Whirrrr-clunk… whirrrr-clunk… whirrrr-clunk… whiiirt? A sound. Even her armor seemed to question what it was.

She’d heard it and sensed a disturbance in the ambient magic levels. Arcanes were swirling around her in current she understood. Around the corner ahead, something was disturbing the flow of the currents by soaking up free arcanes.

Watching it with her eyes and her magical senses, Camina could feel the eddies swirling and interfering with the natural flow of this unnatural quantity of magic. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. The unnatural quantity of magic part. New York had a pretty high natural magic level before the first large scale magic collectors had ben built to bring the AMD down. Certainly not Prometheus Purple all the time, but it had been high enough often enough that the Magicorps, a military branch dedicated to fighting monsters and magic, had been necessary for the nascent United States of America.

Pushing back the vaguely remembered history lesson that was squirreling itself to the forefront of her mind at the most inopportune of times, Camina held up her fist in the gesture telling everyone else to stop. From the muted sounds of bodily collisions behind her, followed by murmured ‘Sorrys’ and hissed ‘shushes, not everyone in the party was aware of what a raised fist on a bent arm meant.

Amateurs! The scoff was internal as her helmet’s external speakers were on, in case she needed to shout warnings or commands. Instead, she indulged in rolling her eyes before twisting her waist to indicate to the civilians that they were to wait there. At least they had caught on that pointing at them and then at the ground by their feet meant for them to bleeping stay put. The first monster she’d come across, one of those idiots had tried to come after her to ‘help’ and had ruined her element of surprise.

That had been a mess. Slow learners some may be, but they were catching on. And Camina was moving quickly. Sure, it felt slow to her because her tall, powered armor gave her longer legs than those not in powered armor. It was slow to her even if everyone else was creeping along in a slow jog.

Stepping around the corner, Camina swiftly located the hostile targets in her heads-up display. The hallway had opened onto a long airy corridor with high ceilings lined with baggage check and ticketing counter, with sporadic self-serve kiosks along the way. It was a decently sized area for an engagement. She’d be able to maneuver her bulky armor around without doing excessive damage.

There were six manifestations. Launching herself at them, she fired up her propulsion and spread her wings for stabilization. Pulling her lance from her back it morphed into a sword suitable for use in her gauntlets and backed by augmented strength. One, sliced in half and spilling ichor from its steal and rubber body. It had been small, possibly a former luggage cart.

Crunching her body to flip into a new trajectory, she focused on number two and three. A self-service kiosk and what had to have been the very last coin-operated pay phone in existence were snarling and snapping at each other as they fought to free themselves from the bolts and electrical infrastructure that tethered them to the floor. Two and three went as she landed in a hard skid between the two. Tiles and grout sprayed up before her as her weight shattered it in a moving wave.

As she slid between the two her body twirled in a swift double pirouette, her weapon flashing out and severing both in half then freeing their remains from the floor. The movement ended is a graceful bow, like in the dance practices she’d go to as a child before her pact with Michael. A girl had to have fun somehow, and this had not been a fun mission. No. It had not been. That level four had been… nothing. It had been nothing.

Ever since the battle of Ragnarök – which had been disappointing in and of itself with the way it ended – work had been so boring. There were no challenges. Camina never got to really let loose and go all out. It didn’t help that monster classifications weren’t just based on how powerful they might be magically but on their size. So that airplane manifestation had been a four based on size alone even if it had been dumb and not even remotely close to what its final form.

Pushing down with a foot, Camina went for the next manifestation. Her mind wandered to the old children’s rhyme a bit as she did a quick flash sprint up to the beast and ran it through as it lumbered along.

Prometheus Purple do beware,

Monsters, monsters, everywhere.

Rock or metal…,

Humming the tune to herself, she jumped up onto number five’s back. It was a suitcase. Or it had been before the manifestation had begun growing out of control. Stabbing the rollicking creature that was now the size of a horse big enough to ride in her powered armor, Camina rolled expertly with the bucking monster. She was tempted, really tempted, to raise one hand and pretend like she was in a rodeo, but experience had taught her that this would be the one thing those who disliked her would focus on out of everything else she would do that day if it were caught on camera.

…Those cold stones,

Never in a purple home.

Never alive but never dead,

Can’t be eaten by your bed.

Too bad that wasn’t quite true.

It took far more effort than she’d expected to kill the thing. Stuff that didn’t have a clear solid form when it manifested could be weird to get rid of. With a more flexible framework to build upon the manifestation sort of distributed whatever it was that kept it alive to disparate parts and sometimes, she had to completely disassemble it to get it to die like she wanted.

Six now.

Six was across the skywalk to the parking garage. She didn’t strictly need to deal with it. However, Camina grimaced, it was going to be an issue if she ignored it, and they drew its attention while trying to get people out of the building and onto the line of hotel shuttles and tour busses that seemed abandoned in the bus loading and unloading zone.

Snorting and growling, the monster was moving in a very organic way. It was mottled brown and green, and an odd sort of squarish shape. A pelt of flopping green and brown circles hung from cracked gray-brown-green skin. If Camina didn’t know better, she would almost think that it had evolved from…

… a shrub.

One of the kinds that were trimmed into cubic box shapes. A box bush… or whatever the heck they were called. Gardening wasn’t really her thing.

“Oh, hell.” That wasn’t good. While living organic material rarely mutated in Prometheus Purple levels, it was possible. Really high purple might as well be really low pink. And once you’re in the pink, everything stinks. A lewd rhyme most Magicorps soldiers learned in basic to remind them that Prometheus Pink basically equals death if you weren’t protected. Camina had picked it up from her parents, and their friends, and all the soldiers she was around in military school, and her older brother… Okay, fine, Magicorps was steeped into every moment of her life.

With a sigh, Camina checked the seals on her suit and trudged after the last obstacle in her path to leaving the claustrophobic confines of the airport. Once she was out on the street things would be better. A fully organic manifestation was slightly harder to kill even if it wasn’t made of reinforced materials. They were too alive. Too full of muscles and sinews even if their blood and bone weren’t like normal animals. They felt like real animals. Dispatching them felt like killing and butchering real creatures sometimes.

Like now. But she did it quickly.

Then turning in place, she returned across the skybridge leaving a trail of sappy blood footprints. There was Jim. Filming her like he’d promised to do, he’d left the corridor that the others had been instructed to wait in. Behind his camera the youth was beaming that silly excited grin that had first made her afraid that he was a gore groupie. It reminded her of her kids, and she tried not to let that flash of emotion show on her face.

Never be sad in front of the camera. Someone had told her that once. Never show emotions that can be used to make you seem unstable or unsuited for the job. Determination, satisfaction at a job efficiently done, but never sadness or worse yet, any indication that she might actually enjoy her work. Hell, the only spell she’d even used today was the spell to summon her suit.

“We’re all clear.” She spoke loudly through her external speakers- as her helmet was still closed- to let the people who were driving know it was safe to prep the buses. She intended to keep her helmet closed now that she’d seen how high the AMD really was. The magic levels in parts of the city weren’t just Prometheus Purple. They were high Purple. Closer to Pink really and that… that wasn’t good. Jim hurried forward and was about to pass her to get a closeup of the monster remains. “Don’t.”

“But it’s dead right?” Too damned focused on the shot for his own good. Maybe it had been a bad idea to bring him in to this. Camina would never forgive herself if something happened to him.

“The AMD is too high. It’s almost pink over there. That was living plant mutation.” Jim blanched, his face paling terribly at the realization of the danger he’d almost put himself into. “Stay close to me. Not out of my sight. Unless I tell you to run. If I do, then run and don’t look back or stop until you are off Manhattan Island.” She kept her volume low so that the airport security who were closer now couldn’t hear what she was saying. “We’re higher up on the Prometheus Scale than I thought we were. Let’s not panic anyone though, okay?”

Other security staff went back to notify the various pockets of survivors that they had liberated and unified know that it was safe to start bringing injured people forward for loading. Things moved quickly and she watched dispassionately as he first bus was loaded. She gave the warnings to everyone about the parking structure being too dangerous with higher magic levels than the airport building itself.

Camina knew the warnings didn’t matter. There was bound to be someone who didn’t listen to her and would choose to risk getting to their vehicle to leave. They’d found four buses that were parked, intact, fueled, and in drivable condition while being magically hardened enough to function. There was almost a dozen more which hadn’t been hardened but could be put in neutral and she could push them one at a time.

Good. Five was a lucky number, wasn’t it? Once loaded, she waited for the driver in her dead bus to give her a thumbs up out the window. Positioning herself behind the bus she braced her hands, planted her heels firmly into the asphalt of the street, and leaned into the bus with hard even pressure.

Wheels rolled, and a weak cheer came up from inside the vehicle. Those watching, the remaining injured and the uninjured who had helped them to reach this point, also cheered from the loading and unloading curb before the terminal they were leaving from. This was it. They were on their way. Through a city full of monsters which could now be made from anyone or anything living or dead.

Her heart thudded in her chest in a tremulous and unpleasant way. She hated city combat. The damaged vehicles, the desperate wounded people hoping for survival. How many times was she going to be the one saving people from monsters in high magic zones? And would they still be people by the time she reached the hospital?

Luckily, Camina was distracted from her morose descent into depressive memories by a bright moving light moving across the sky. At first, she tensed in her steady trudge behind the bus, thinking that it might be another monster. But no. It… was a chariot? A magical chariot? The chariot of heaven? Michael? Had that silly Archangel broken the rules to come and help her?

No. That was not Michael. Michael did not cackle maniacally like that.

1:15 PM September 13th 2026

Industrial Park District Near the Port of New York

Sam gripped the steering wheel tightly. Palms slippery with sweat, she made sure to keep her grasp secure by occasionally rubbing them dry on the leg of her slacks one at a time. She waited until she had the wheel firmly clasped in her hand before taking the other off. Gleipnir had taken the front passenger seat and was humming In the Hall of the Mountain King to himself softly.

Despite his relative bravado when he spoke to Alex a few moments earlier, once it was just the two of them, his attitude changed somewhat.

“I couldn’t help but notice that you seem to be a little nervous, Gleip?” Though she’d tried to keep her voice neutral, her own apprehension came out as she spoke.

“What?” The pact item exclaimed with the high-pitched screech of someone who is totally lying. “Me? Nervous.” He laughed haughtily. “You must be mistaken?!” His voice ran haltingly through the octaves like the terrible actor he’d always been.

“You are shaking like a chihuahua that’s been approached by a great Dane.” Her dry voice was matched by a wry smile, which quickly faded with worry. “Are you not sure that you can contain this thing?”

“Oh, Sam.” Gleipnir patted her on the knee with the end of his ribbon in a way that she knew he meant to be reassuring but which would have been utterly condescending if anyone else had ever done it. “I’m not worried that I can’t do it.” He sighed, or at least, simulated the sound of a sigh. “I’m worried that you might get hurt in the process. We’ve never fought something this big together. But we got this.”

Her pact item, who was really more friend than anything else, moved his long sword portion as if he were nodding in affirmation. It reassured Sam because she could hear the solemn smile in his voice and she glanced down at him just in time to see him turn toward her. He patted her knee again and she grabbed the tail of his ribbon and gave it a comforting squeeze.

“Yeah.” She scoffed with false bravado. “We gots this.” Then she yanked the steering wheel hard over to the right and skidded to a drifted stop with her door facing the oncoming behemoth. Taking in the towering figure, Sam suddenly found that her mouth was very dry. She pulled out some lip gloss and smacked her lips with a pop to spread it. “Though this is one time I really wouldn’t mind having mom bail me out.”

“Oh, pashaw! Sam. This will take us no time at all.” Gleipnir opened the door and hopped out on the side of the vehicle opposite the monster. Yeah, it really did look like he’d hopped out and his ‘body’ bobbed along around the front of the car as he moved to join her. He opened the door for Samantha bowed with a flourish, “Mi’Lady. Would you care to join me in a dance?”

It made his warlock smile, and that was why Gleipnir had done it.

“Sure, Gleip.” She giggled at his silliness as she clambered out of the vehicle with her wand at the ready and reactivated her most arcane hungry spell to assist her personal magic collector with reducing the dangerous levels of magic around her. “Integumentum infernis. Do we have a plan?” Brilliant flames erupted around Sam.

“Yes.” Gleipnir replied assuredly…. Then he was silent. The monster was not, however, as it realized the prey that had so recently escaped was now returning. It trumpeted angrily, a blast of sound and force that revealed its jagged teeth of twisted broken steel beams.

The crushed and mangled body was still there lodged inside its maw. Even more blood oozed and dripped from the cracked and crumpling concrete walls which were now the beast’s hide.

“Are you going to tell me?” She asked as the lumbering giant broke into it’s version of a run.

“I don’t want to” He admitted with a shout to be heard over the growing thunderous noise.

“What? Why?” Despite being in the middle of facing down a charging monster, Samantha Wattkins took the time to slowly turn her head to her pact item and give him an incredulous wide-eyed stare.

“You aren’t going to like it.” He admitted as the monster’s jaws came for them. “DODGE!” Samantha had been waiting for the order and she grabbed him and rolled out of the way just in time to avoid being bitten in half by the head the size of a school bus. She was up and running with Gleipnir in hand before the monster even realized it had missed them.

“Tell me what the heck the plan is, Gleipnir.” Sam commanded as she pointed her wand at the ground and conjured a blast of wind to propel her up onto the monster’s back. “Bregðandi.” Her feet hit the sloping fractured wall of hide and she ran up the side of what was once a building.

“I need to get to the magic source and cut it off so that you can kill the monster.” It was a good thing that Sam had just about reached the former roof of the building because she sort of choked and stumbled as she understood what Gleipnir meant.

“We have to go inside?”

“We have to go inside” He confirmed gravely.

“This is so far beyond my pay grade.” Muttering between gritted teeth, Sam fought the revulsion she felt against deliberately placing herself inside a living body even if that body used to be a building. 

“Especially because inside that monster is either a lot of dead people or one really big dead dragon.” She pointed to the trail of blood that was leaking from the monster.

“It could be both.” The lumbering creature was turning and twisting as it searched the ground for them trying to figure out where the tasty little mortal morsels had gone.

“Why would you do that?” Shaking her head in exasperation, the warlock blinked at her pact item again. “I was trying to psych myself up to do this. Now I’m even more grossed out.” Gleipnir laughed. Sam laughed. Then they sobered.

“Cut a hole.” Gleipnir instructed. “I’ll go in and secure the probably-a-dragon corpse to suppress the arcanes it is emitting. Then you come in afterward and kill the monster before it finishes manifesting to a fully organic state.”

“Okay.” Gleipnir transformed in Sam’s hand to a sharper blade, making himself look more like a fencing saber than an oversized sewing needle. She slashed downward through what seemed to be a particularly vulnerable portion of the back. This roof had been covered in gravel and tar prior to its transformation and the portion she’d picked had partially caved in. It just needed a bigger opening; one she could climb through on her own.

Together they hacked apart the concrete and steel beneath them. Every few strokes they’d hit a newly formed blood vessel or a pocket of false matter flesh that would spurt and splatter on the pair. This was gross, dirty, and difficult work. And it was made more difficult by the heaving of the monster upon which they stood even if the creature’s back had its own safety wall around the edges. The enraged thing was trying to remove them with short hops and flexes now that it realized where they were and that it couldn’t reach them with any of its limbs.

“I think that’s good, Sam.” When Gleipnir finally spoke, Sam was more than ready to stop. Her arms were tired and sore. Her feet hurt. And she was pretty sure that she’d pulled a muscle in her abdomen in the constant flexing and standing as she brought Gleipnir’s blade down over and over again.

Alex had been watching through a pair of binoculars shed snatched from Frank the second Sam sped back off again. When they’d stopped in front of the manifestation and Sam had just stood there? She’d never been so terrified for someone else in her life. Had Sam fallen prey to the same fear or terror field that Alex herself had?

There was no way to know. Because Alex wasn’t there. Because she should have stayed with her partner. Like her partner had come back for her. All the probationary agent had been able to do was watch as that bloody mouth of horrific metal teeth came closer and closer to eating her partner.

Oh, God. Run. Why won’t she run. Oh, God. Oh, God. OhGod! OHGOD! I can’t watch!” At the end, she hadn’t even been able to watch and had tried to fling the binoculars away.

“Give me those.” Frank, of course, had taken them back so that he could watch. “Ah, hell!” He cursed as he focused the magnifying device to his own eyes. “Did they just get eaten? I can’t see anything through that dust cloud.” Alex hadn’t actually stopped watching. Instead, after a brief eyes-squeezed-shut moment, she raised a hand to block the bright sun from her eyes and tried to survey the fight unaided.

“I can’t see anything either, boss.” Someone commented. Alex didn’t care who. Nothing mattered right now except for whether or not Sam was okay. Sam was what mattered. Not just because she was Alex’s partner, but because that monster was being fueled by something inside it. It wasn’t going to just ‘go down’ without a big damned fight.

“I see her.” Another voice commented.

“Where?”

“Where?”

“Where, where, where?”

Even among the chorus of ‘where’s’ Alex knew hers was a little more intense than the others. She was just concerned for her partner. That was all. Sam had just saved her life. It wouldn’t be fair if something happened to her before Alex could properly thank her.

“She’s climbing up the side of the thing.”

“Holy shit.”

“I see her too.”

Sure, there were a lot of people talking and running commentary. Yeah, there was a lot at stake. Beside her Frank was scribbling frantically on his message scroll requesting backup yet again, conveying every bit of data about the thing they were going to have to fight any minute now if Gleipnir wasn’t as all-that as he thought he was.

“What’s she doing? Is she…?” But Alex could see it too. The distant warlock was wielding Gleipnir like a regular old cutting implement and slicking chunks out of the roof-back she was standing on. Her hips and knees flexing like she was surfing a wild wave on the most effed up board ever.

“She’s cutting her way into the monster.” It came to Alex as she realized what the pair had to do.

“Why wouldn’t she just try to kill it?” Who was that? Not Frank, so Alex didn’t look.

“Because there’s something in that monster fueling it and it will just keep regenerating until it’s removed.” That was Frank. And he sounded sadder than Alex had ever heard him. Okay. To be fair, she’d only just met him. But still, it was a kind of awed sadness that meant he got what was happening.

“But whatever that thing is, it’s Prometheus Pink outside of it. Inside will…does she even had a spell that can protect her from that?” Again, it was another mage, not Frank, not the previous not-Frank. Alex didn’t care.

A disgusting numbness was welling up in her stomach. Nausea was rising with it, and she couldn’t be horrified at what was happening. She just felt a terrible sadness as she felt the stinging prick of tears welling in her eyes.

“It doesn’t matter.” Her voice broke on the soft words, and she sniffed at the snot that was suddenly trying to run out of her nose. Stupid nose.

“Why not?” Alex didn’t bother responding and one glance at her told Frank that he might as well field that question for her.

“It doesn’t matter because it has to be done, and somebody has to do it.” Frank glanced at the other agents then back to Alex before returning his focus to the outline of a warlock on the back of a giant monster manifestation. “Either Sam and Gleipnir do it, or they fail, and we do it, or we fail and the people who come after us do it.”

Sam dropped from sight.

The monster gave up on trying to remove her from its back a few moments later. Alex guessed that was because it couldn’t feel her hacking at it anymore. Alex gripped her wand tightly and took a deep steadying breath. Now that it wasn’t distracted by Sam and Gleipnir’s attack, the monster began its heavy stomping way towards them again. Sam’s words echoed in her mind.

“It doesn’t matter who does it as long as it gets done.”  It was something Sam and Gleipnir always said. Probably quoting Sam’s world-famous hero of a mom. The sentiment had always annoyed Alex who felt that there should be clear lines of responsibility. Not having agreed upon delegation meant that some people slacked off while others were taken advantage of. But Sam had insisted that there was always a time when those words applied.

“Get ready, people.” Frank hollered as he readied his wand and sidearm. “I don’t think backup is going to get here in time.” The monster started moving faster and faster, though it was still slow due to its size, it was doing its equivalent of a full-on sprint.

All of a sudden, it tripped and faltered.

Falling hard, the manifestation began crumbling as it skidded to a halt mere meters away. Many of the other agents had already begun fleeing out of the way to attack it from the side and behind. Now they were sheepishly avoiding eye contact with the agents who had stayed to face the monster head on.

Alex hadn’t fled.

And she didn’t quite believe the danger was over, so she stood there, wand at the ready, as she watched the carcass warily. The remnants of the building were still holding together but also, they were coming apart from structural damage. When the sound of moving rubble drew her attention to the sinking roof, she pointed her wand to the location she estimated whatever it was would enter her line of sight.

The gathered agents waited tensely as the noise became louder and louder. Then a mop of frazzled light-brown hair surrounded by a halo of fire poked over the edge of the building. Alex’s heart clenched tightly, as if it was squeezed in a vice. While her shirt was torn and soaked with blood and false matter flesh, Sam was alright. She was more than alright. She was blazing, brilliantly beautiful beneath the dirt and bruises.

This was…

This was amazing. This was something that was going to live in the memories of the world centuries. When one warlock and their pact item saved a city from a monster invasion by going inside a manifestation. Someone pulled out a magically hardened camera they’d been using to document the crime scene earlier and snapped off a few quick shots of Sam as she clambered down with pained awkward movements.

Sam had never been arrogant. But that was how Alex had interpreted it. Because Alex had never bothered trying to understand what her partner was capable of. In her overabundance of self-confidence, the younger agent had always assumed that Sam had an inflated ego because of who she was related to. Alex had thought that all of Sam’s achievements had been easy due to favoritism and her mother’s fame paving the way. And she had been wrong.

Alex was just realizing that Sam really was amazing.

For her part, Sam was shielding her eyes, squinting out over the heads of the assembled agents. She had a quizzical look on her face, as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. She pointed out a spot in the sky and called out to her fellow agents down below.

“Hey… Is that a chariot, or did I hit my head at some point?”

2:00 PM September 13th, 2026

Outside the New York Preparatory Academy Ice Bubble

It was done. Or at least as close to done as it could possibly be until the corpse contaminating the city was removed. He’d killed all the monsters which had been besieging the survivors of the school attack. The ones inside Anna’s ice bubble were gone. Most of the ones outside had either been killed or driven away.

So, why was Kyle more on edge now than he had been at any other point through this entire ordeal?

The warlock took a minute and surveyed the interior of the ice bubble to ensure the monsters really were all dead. They were. That was good. Then he steeled himself for the uncomfortable part, squaring his shoulders as he did so.

People had noticed him. Not just noticed him but noticed that he wasn’t really known for being an overpowered warlock. There would be questions. So many questions. Ugh! His shoulders which he’d just straightened, slumped dejectedly.

Kyle hated those questions. Whenever he did something exceptional like this everyone was like: ‘OMG how did you do that?’ ‘You claimed you were just an average warlock, why would you lie about your abilities?’ ‘You do know that deliberately hiding your magic level from the Department of Magical Licensing is a felony that comes with fines up to one million dollars and up to twenty years in prison?’

Yeah.

It was a pain. But the problem was, Kyle really was just an average warlock. It was his talent for wizardry that let him do incredible things. And wizards didn’t have a reliable internal source of magic, they took their magic from the surrounding environment. That was why most wizards lived in high magic zones. Kyle liked living in low magic zones. He liked civilization. And he honestly loved studying magical artifacts and history.

All those reasons were why he had chosen to become a warlock. As a warlock of the archivist, his almost non-existent internal magic stores were seriously augmented by the archivist. He got a cadre of spells from the archivist, and access to the greatest collection of magical knowledge the world over. Being a warlock meant he didn’t have to risk his life every single day in the back of beyond just to quench that tiny thirst for power that gnawed at him.

Because he was man enough to admit he thirsted for power. Magical power, not you know, power over others. But it was a thing with him. A tiny thing, yet still a thing. So warlocking it had to be.

His mom hadn’t been pleased at his choice of patron. She hadn’t been happy with yet another one of her children choosing to go another route with their magic. Not a one of the three older siblings had followed her family’s tradition of making a pact with a powerful military minded patron. Yes, they’d continued the tradition of service to others, but in their own way.

Davelor, the eldest had become a healer. Samantha was an engineer working with the Magic Crimes Division of the FBI. Kyle worked at the most prestigious educational facility for the investigation and containment of magical artifacts. None of them fought like she did. Davelor had the build for battle. He was huge and ripped with muscles everywhere. Sam had the pact item for close combat with magical creatures. Gleipnir was flexible and had that nifty magic containment ability. And Kyle, if the ambient magic was high enough, Kyle could copy pretty much any spell that had ever existed.

So, Camina was most disappointed with Kyle’s choice to become the studious academic that he’d become. Even with the magical boost from his patron, Kyle’s abilities under normal circumstances were extremely limited. The warlock of the Archivist’s magic was so limited that under normal, magic collector protected location circumstances Kyle was just barely able to meet the Magicorops requirements for recruitment. One might argue that didn’t matter, since fighting would be done in high magic zones where he’d have free reign with all the magic his wizarding ways could ask for. One would be wrong.

Train how you fight.

Kyle couldn’t put up a good fight in low magic. This meant he could not protect a populated area from a monster incursion. He could only go to high magic areas and fight there. What was the point in killing monsters in their home territory and releasing their magic into the environment to raise the AMD? What was the point in killing monsters in an area that would just spawn more monsters? As a warlock, Kyle Wattkins was worthless to the Magicorps.

Sighing again, Kyle launched himself off the ice ramp that everyone else had slid down. He didn’t use his suit’s thrusters but had spread his wings to slow his descent. Even doing that made him morose as it reminded him that the very suit he wore, was a spell he could only use due to the high AMD flooding the city at the moment. The group of waiting teens cheered as Kyle landed with a thud. 

Wings spread, he let the joint mechanisms in the suit absorb the force of his fall and he landed down on one knee like a superhero.

Okay. That had been fun. They began a rush toward him until Jones called out.

“Keep the kids back. That suit is mighty powerful and one of you all could get hurt if he bumps into you.” That had the teachers and staff urgently joining in the get the group back and ordered.

“Where are we evacuating to?” Kyle asked as he opened up the faceplate in his helmet. A tall serious and rather severe looking woman stepped forward and spoke up.

“The rest of the students were evacuated to the Plaza de Saint Germain hotel about eight blocks away.” She informed Kyle while looking him up and down in a way that both confused him and made him uncomfortable. It was that way educators had of assessing a student to see if they could maybe, possibly, under the best most optimum circumstances pass muster. And this woman’s look said she seriously doubted Kyle could handle the task.

Well, excuse her.

“Alright, Ma’am.” The young warlock decided that not showing how much she intimidated him was the right course. “Let’s get everyone there.” The woman’s eyes narrowed.

“Do you know where it is?” She genuinely seemed to think Kyle didn’t know she was talking about the oldest most famous Vampire run luxury hotel in the United States.

“Yes, Ma’am.” Clenching his jaw so that he didn’t say something flippant that made the staff mistrust him, Kyle kept his tone neutral and steady. “I know how to get there on foot.” The principal – this could only be the principal that his mom hated for letting that brat Sara bully people for years – harumphed and placed her fists on her hips.

“You don’t think it would be better for us to seek shelter in one of these buildings?” She gestured to the relatively intact buildings around them. Most of them had shattered windows on the first floor where monsters had penetrated the buildings. Her eyebrows and chin lifted, and her head tilted ever so slightly to one side. It almost was as if she was hoping he’d say what she wanted him to say and he frowned at the woman.

“No, Ma’am.” Now Kyle thought he understood what she was doing though his brow still furrowed with confusion. Anyone could see that those buildings were not particularly safe from external monster attack. “Those residential buildings might be magically hardened to protect against monsters forming inside. But even if they are up to the mandatory basic code for New York City, you can clearly see they’ve already been breached by monsters.” Then Kyle’s frown deepened as he recalled the desperate chaotic drive to get there. “Or possibly looters. We ran into some earlier.”

That caused the woman to draw back in alarm. Her eyes widened and her sharp exhale was echoed by several of the other survivors.

Alright.” It was quite possibly the weirdest, most passive aggressive standoff Kyle had ever participated in. “Lead the way Mister Wattkins. I’ll have my head of security coordinate with you to keep everyone safe.” She waved her head of security forward as she retreated to relay the news to the rest of the staff and students.

“Holy shit.” Kyle exclaimed as he took in the appearance of the man before him. “I didn’t know the school hired mercenaries for their security.” He chuckled a little and kind of internally gloated that he got to meet a mercenary while Sam was stuck babysitting dead dragons.

“Private security contractor. Mister Wattkins.” The man who was dressed all in black corrected him. He was in black pants with lots of pockets. And wearing a black long-sleeved shirt with lots of pockets.

His name was on a patch on one pocket like it was a military uniform and his company’s logo was on the arms like military service patches. A protective vest full of huge pockets with ammo and gear covered his chest, a magic message scroll was on one arm, a wand holder on the other. The look was finished up with a loaded handgun in a holster strapped down on one thigh.

Kyle laughed thinking it was a joke.

“I am not a mercenary Mister Wattkins. I’m a private security contractor. And for legal purposes I will require you to say that to anyone who may inquire in the future.” The definitely-not-a-mercenary made a big obvious wink at Kyle.

“Oh. Oooh.” Kyle’s lips pursed in an ‘o’ shape for a bit as the words sunk in. “Gotcha.” With a shrug, Kyle accepted the statement. There wasn’t time to ponder over the implications now.

“Call me Kyle.” The warlock offered. And that was that.

After a brief consultation with the head of school security who was definitely not a mercenary – which Kyle now knew because he had stated it several times – they headed off. The ‘security contractors’ formed a perimeter around the herd of students and teachers while Kyle took the lead and Jones pulled up the rear.

Things were going really well.  And that was scaring the heck out of Kyle because he could see and feel the currents of magic twisting; in preparation for another manifestation. The longer it took, the bigger the monsters were going to be.

However, there weren’t any new monsters coming out to attack them. The people who had cheered Kyle and Jones on their gauntlet to the school were relatively quiet. By relatively, they were cheering like mad. Some screaming for the group to take shelter inside their building. Other asked to join them.

“Please stay inside your buildings.” Kyle shouted to those who wanted to come with them. “We are relocating because the school’s magic shielding has been compromised. If you are safe, don’t leave safety.” It became monotonous as he repeated it whenever someone requested to join.

Only one small group of a few bank tellers joined them. Two were bloodied and bedraggled and they were supporting a third between them.

“We don’t have access to the apartments upstairs and the manager,” the breathless blonde speaking gestured to a gray-haired elderly man draped between her and a dark-skinned man in his twenties wearing the slickest purple suit with all the accoutrements, “is unconscious and can’t get us into the vault.” It took only a quick survey of the ruined row of ground to ceiling windows for Kyle to realize that there was no safety there. “The only reason we aren’t all dead is because the monsters trying to eat us went after you two on your way through here earlier.”

“Fall in with everyone else.” The definitely not a mercenary cocked an eyebrow when Kyle said it loud enough for the whole group to hear. They shared a look which said neither of them liked the idea. But Kyle wasn’t about to abandon someone he’d already accidentally saved.

They continued on without incident. When they reached the barricade with the S.W.A.T team they’d passed earlier, the officers helped pull the civilians over the barricade. Despite congratulating Kyle and Jones on a job well done, they weren’t effusive in their praise. They were quiet and speculative. The captain nudged Jones as he passed and murmured low so that his voice wouldn’t carry.

“Can everyone at he museum do that?” The captain gestured towards Kyle with a nod in the warlock’s direction and Jones smirked, shaking his head negatively.

“You should help us get the kids out of here.” The officer in charge jumped at the unexpected closeness of the voice as Kyle came up behind him.

“We were supposed to…” He tried to argue that they had orders, but Kyle stopped him.

“Another big one is coming. The other barricades were overrun before we got through there. There’s no one to back you up if you stay. But if you help us your vehicles will get this group to safety at the Plaza de Saint Germain hotel.” Something about the look on Kyle’s face must have made his point and the officers started loading up the refugees into their vehicles.

Not everyone could fit inside but a few of the older boys volunteered to ride on the running boards holding on to the vehicles’ exteriors. An excited hope that was quickly squashed by every adult present. The children were safely ensconced within the vehicles. When necessary for someone to ride outside, it was an adult, usually one of the S.W.A.T. officers.

Jones, Anna, and the principal were all bundled into the museum vehicle that Kyle and Jones had driven there with a couple more kids. Kyle was standing on the running boards next to Anna’s window. She was behind Jones in the driver’s seat so Kyle could talk to her and Jones through Anna’s window without blocking the driver’s line of sight. There were two security personnel standing on the running boards on the side opposite Kyle. Jones had one of the communication scrolls from the school’s security personnel, which the principal was holding for him in the front passenger’s seat.

There was a girl on the far side of the back seat that kept giving him the oddest wide-eyed look which was making Kyle wonder if she was suffering from magic sickness. And between that girl and Anna was a boy sitting next to his sister. Kyle narrowed his eyes at the young man suspiciously through a murder-red haze of hate. The boy looked slightly older than Anna which automatically made him an ‘older boy’ and therefore not allowed to be that close to Anna.

Now was not the time for that. He’d get ‘Uncle Michael’ to deal with it later. Or maybe he’d just let slip to one of the pantheons that a boy might like Anna, then stand back and watch. It would be like the Little League debacle all over again. Word would spread. Boys wouldn’t risk sitting next to Anna Wattkins ever again. A tight determined smile ghosted across his overly-protective big brother face.

Back in the direction of the school the previous monster had dissipated its false matter back into the ambient magic. The arcanes had begun twisting darkly. Whatever it was, it was coming fast. There was no time to waste on nonsense.

“Let’s go people.” Kyle called, slapping the roof of the vehicle for emphasis before throwing his arm forward so that the other drivers could see his command. He pointed repeatedly in the forward direction and the principal repeated the command on the scroll in her lap, relaying it to dozen or so vehicles around them. “Go now!”

Every person with even a little bit of magic sensitivity had to have felt that. The vehicles moved out, lurching forward in a line. But it wasn’t fast enough. Kyle twisted his body so that he was facing backward. He watched as a part of the street began heaving behind them.

A creature erupted out of the ground, asphalt rupturing around it. It snarled, snapping its teeth as the rat grew and mutated faster and faster. Organic mutations were fast. Kyle knew their impromptu convoy wasn’t going to make it. There was only one thing to do. Around him, the S.W.A.T. members and security personnel riding outside the vehicles were firing their wands and munitions at the monster scrabbling after them. Its huge beady eyes jerking from target to target as if it was dazed. Or it just couldn’t make up its mind. Bending down he took a moment to speak to Anna.

“Hey, Snow Cone.” Anna, the boy beside her, and the girl on the other side of the vehicle were all turned around facing the direction they were fleeing. Fear was plain on the children’s faces. The principal hadn’t turned but her gaze was riveted on her view in the sideview mirror and her hands were unconsciously clawing at the magical scroll in them. Anna turned to Kyle, and he could see in her eyes that she knew what he was going to say.

“I’ll come help you.” Before he could even say anything, she was reaching for the door to open it when the child safety lock clicked on all the doors as Jones activated it from the front seat. His sister hadn’t had any time to recover from her standoff with her last monster and she swayed in her seat as the vehicle went over a bump. “Let me out.” Her head turned to glare at Jones, but Kyle drew her attention back to him.

“Hey. It’s going to be okay, Snow Cone.” His lips drew back over his teeth in a snarled grin as he tried to pretend that everything was going to be okay. Because it would be. It was just going to be, well, there wasn’t going to be an easy way. “I’ve got awesome armor and I’m going to use that spell I’ve always wanted to try but there was never enough magic around for it. So, I need you to make sure everyone gets away.”

“Kyle...” Anna nodded, tears filling her eyes because she hated that he was going into danger without her.

“Good enough. Get my sister to safety, Jones.” He shouted then leaped off the back of the vehicle where he’d been standing guard.

“What? Kyle, no!” Anna shouted as she turned to look behind them. She saw her brother facing off against a monster far faster and meaner than the thing he’d previously fought. She immediately tried to get out of the vehicle and Jones enabled the child safety locks. “Let me out. I have to go and help him.” She started crying harder.

“No. Anna.” Jones told her as stoically as he could. “You really don’t.” She turned in her seat as Liam tried to comfort her and keep her calm. The sky was still blue and clear. The bright sun illuminated everything clearly. Kyle looked so small compared to the thing rising up behind them.

“Anna. Anna.” The principal had turned around when she’d heard Kyle and wanted clarification. “Anna, I need you to focus for a minute. What spell is Kyle talking about?” Anna’s face drained of what little color it had regained since her epic display of magic use. “What tier is it? How much distance do we need?”

“Oh, shit.” The teen breathed as her mind registered what her brother had meant. “More. We need more distance. As far as we can get. Then turn so there’s a few city blocks cutting off a direct line of sight.” Tense silence filled the vehicle as it sped away from the following monster. Anna watched her brother grow smaller and smaller until her view of him was cut off as Jones took a sharp right. She angled her head to look up at the sky knowing what to expect.

Clouds began rolling in. Dark. Heavy. Ominous. Within moments the bright sunny day had transitioned to an unnatural twilight. Her fellow passengers became concerned. From the driver’s seat, Jones looked up at the sky and murmured “Oh shit…” before refocusing his eyes on the road to keep driving. A few seconds later a booming voice rang out.

It sounded like Kyle, but also not. Tinged with an unnatural power of the divine. The sky flashed brilliantly, painting the thick cloud cover with stark shadows of skyscrapers.

“WRATH OF ZEUS!”

The heavy clouds overhead tensed up, then seemed to flinch away slightly as the shockwave hit.  Anyone indoors or safely enclosed within a vehicle was momentarily deafened, while those unlucky enough to be outside suffered slightly worse and were buffeted with wind for a few long seconds. Their ears popped as if equalizing to a change in pressure, and the heavy scent of ozone was only barely dampened by the rain that had just begun to fall.

If anyone had bothered to check, they would have noticed that the sides of buildings exposed to the blinding flash were now noticeably warm to the touch. If someone had been watching the spell unfold without eye protection, they likely wouldn’t be seeing for a few hours, though there would be no permanent damage from the light.

From her position in a fleeing vehicle with several city blocks worth of buildings between her and the spell, Anna was spared temporary blindness. She also wasn’t sure if she was okay. Sure, if everything worked the way it was supposed to, then Kyle had just obliterated the very dangerous monster. 

Which was good. But Anna didn’t know how Kyle had fared channeling that kind of magic through him.

‘Wrath of Zeus’ was the kind of spell that could kill the caster.

Most magic users relied on external sources of magic whether it was ambient magic, divine magic, or warlock patrons. Those were wizards, clerics or paladins, and warlocks. Most of the magic Kyle normally used was from his warlock patron, but he also had a wizard’s ability to control, manipulate, and use external sources of magic. Clerics and paladins got all of their magic from the divine beings they served and their faith. Warlocks got magic from their patrons and their pact items.

But the fourth type of magic user was sorcerers. Sorcerers had an internal source of magic. It was a part of their very being. They lived and breathed magic in their sinew and bones. Now, anyone with natural magical abilities like wizards or sorcerers could augment their powers by becoming a warlock or serving a divine being as a cleric or paladin. But the spells available from a patron or a faith were limited. To use the full range of magic out there, a sorcerer or a wizard was needed.

However, wizards were limited to only the ambient magic around them. Whereas sorcerers were limited to their internal stores for spells. Or their affinity. Like Anna’s practical limitation to ice magic. Ice was just easy for her. Other spells took so much more effort and used so much more of her power than ice. The point was that neither she nor Kyle could perform Wrath of Zeus under normal conditions.

Anna couldn’t because though her magic was enough, using it for a spell that wasn’t ice magic would multiply the magic requirement significantly. It would take her magic and then her life. Kyle couldn’t normally use the spell because there wasn’t enough ambient magic in any of the livable areas of the world and he had pretty much no internal stores to use whatsoever. So he couldn’t even cast the spell. Today though, today he could cast it. And if he managed the magical flow correctly, he might have survived.

He probably survived.

Still, Anna couldn’t help worrying as she watched the rippling clouds above. They hadn’t cleared away yet. How long were they supposed to stay after the spell had been executed? Minutes? Hours? She searched her mind for the answer and couldn’t find it.

“Huh. What’s going on? Where are they taking my students?” The principal’s sharp question broke Anna out of her examination of the sky. Her gaze focused on the street in front of them. There was a large group of military vehicles in front of the Plaza de Saint Germain hotel. Yeah, there were a ton of vehicles, all terrain vehicles, jeeps with turrets attached, hummers, and even several tanks. But there was also a convoy of vehicles loading up students. The ones she recognized loading up all looked like international students.

“About time the Magicorps showed up.” Liam huffed from beside Anna and Jones made a non-committal grunt of displeasure at the implied criticism before he spoke up as well.

“They should have been here hours ago. But it’s not just the Magicorps. Look.” The soldier was right. Sure there were squads of soldiers in yellow berets with wands and magical munition coming and going from the command tent as they left for assignments and returned for new orders. The ones standing around as guards and driving the vehicles looked like regular army though. As she watched, a group of soldiers with gods damned useless standard issue weapons approached their line of fleeing vehicles.

“Fucking army?” Jones muttered angrily. “Might as well be feeding the monsters. They’re practically civilians. Everyone keep quiet, they’ll be twitchy.” Jones gritted his teeth in frustration and tightened his grip on the steering wheel while they waited for the soldiers to reach them. The vehicles ahead of them were already being directed out of the way to park.

But the principal couldn’t wait any longer as she saw more of her precious students being loaded into vehicles. The last straw was when the student that had come with her started getting out of the vehicles and the school security personnel resisted the kids under their charge being led away by a military officer.

“No more. That’s it. I need to see what’s happening.” She was unbuckled and out the door before Jones could stop her. Her headlong sprint towards the students and the school security who now had weapons pointed at them was halted when the approaching soldiers raised weapons to point at her as well.

“Well, that’s happening.” Jones growled in frustration. “If I’d known we’d been dealing with these idiots I’d have brought some crayons as bribes.” But he quieted, kept his hands non-threateningly on the wheel, and forced himself to have a neutral semi-smile on his face. After a few tense, shouted exchanges where the soldiers verified who the principal was, they lowered their weapons and one peeled off from the group to escort her somewhere while the rest continued on towards the vehicle that Anna was in.

“I’m so happy to see you guys.” Jones’ big smile and the tone of absolute welcoming in his voice as if it was the best thing in the world for the army to show up, shocked the children inside the vehicle. Anna found herself blinking in surprise at who well the Magicorps soldier was lying through his teeth. “We’ve had a rough time of it. So glad the calvary has arrived.”

A couple of sniggers came from the two guys who were still standing on the running boards outside the vehicle. Jones had been selling it so well until the last sentence took it a little too far. Still, the soldiers were almost immediately more friendly toward Jones despite them glaring at the other two individuals who weren’t nearly as impressed by them.

For her part, Anna wasn’t particularly impressed either. They were of low rank. None of them were magic users, otherwise, they would have had the insignia for it, which was universal across military branches in the United States. These weren’t rescuers. They’d be almost useless in a fight, and they knew it was the reason they were directing traffic.

Jones knew it too. He hadn’t rubbed it in and had lumped this small group in with the overall efforts thereby not offending them. Which was smart. It kept people who weren’t super significant from using the little power they did have to be jackasses. It was one of the things that her mom gripped about all the time. Small-minded people being petty because they could was a common complaint in the Wattkins house.

After a brief friendly exchange, they were directed to park out of the way of ongoing efforts. Then the kids were escorted into the building to be sorted and sent home if their homes were safe. Boarding students were being sent back to whatever city or country they were from. It seemed a bit wrong for a military operation to be involved with a private school. Like, that was definitely unfair favoritism towards the wealthy and influential. It made sense of a sort though because so many of the students were the children of diplomats, politicians, and various other foreign dignitaries. For example, cough, a couple of members of royalty that everyone pretended were normal students, cough.

There were students of way more important people than Camina Wattkins there, so both Anna and Jones were surprised when Jones was stopped and told he had to report to the command on the scene.

“You need to be debriefed and assigned to a temporary team.” Jones was informed coldly.

“I’m under assignment from the Museum.” He pointed at the patch that showed he was assigned to the National Museum of Unnatural Science and History. “I’m under orders to escort Miss Wattkins until she’s transferred over to Museum personnel, or she is returned to her parents' custody.” One of the soldiers drew back as if Anna was a venomous spider and she was about to bite him.

“Wa – Wattkins?” He stuttered. “As in…the Wattkins?” Anna snorted and rolled her eyes.

“Was that you?” One of the soldiers turned to Anna with admiration. “Doing the ‘Wrath of Zeus’ spell and that giant ice shield?” Before any of the teens around him could speak, Jones answered for Anna.

“She did the ice shield. We did not witness who cast that Magekiller spell.” He turned to the three students with him and gave them meaningful looks disguised as seeking confirmation. “Did we kids? We were several blocks away at least and our view was cut off from wherever the epicenter of the spell was by buildings.” They had given quizzical looks at first and then they realized that no, they hadn’t really seen who cast the spell even if they had assumed that it was Kyle.

“Oh.” Clearly disappointed, the soldier’s excited look turned downcast. Anna and Liam were both put out that he didn’t seem impressed at all with her ice shield. To everyone’s surprise, it was Sara who spoke up.

“But her ice shield was amazing.” She placed her hands defiantly on her hips, tossed her long blonde hair in the epitome of spoiled rick mean-girl fashion and stomped a foot for emphasis. “She held off a gigantic monster for hours with it until the museum guys showed up.”

And that’s what did it. If Sara had stopped at ‘but her ice shield was amazing’, they could have been overlooked a little bit. But it was the big monster being stopped by the ‘museum guys’ that got them singled out and truly noticed.

“Yeah.” The squad leader looked lazily back to a nervously grinning Jones and then at Anna with a raised eyebrow. “You definitely need to come with us and talk to command.”

“Damnit Sara.” Anna glared at her bully. “Even when you’re nice…” She wanted to kick the girl. But didn’t get the chance to as Sara and Liam were led off to join the rest of the students and Anna somehow got lumped in with the S.W.A.T team, the school security personnel, and Jones for debriefing.

It wasn’t bad. In fact, it seemed like things were going to go very well. They asked her about the ice shield. She admitted to it. They were like ‘cool, we already knew you could do that you’re a registered sorcerer with an elemental affinity for ice’. Then they asked about the Magekiller spell and she told the truth, she hadn’t seen who had used it. And they believed her.

Everything was hunky dory. Her and Jones were loaded up into a jeep in the convoy and driven out of town. Over the bridges, into New Jersey, and then to some kind of military base or office building. Honestly, she’d fallen asleep at one point, so she didn’t know exactly where they were. Just that when they stopped, the sun was out again. When she got out of the vehicle she looked around and could see the dark clouds gathered over Manhattan and it was not as far away as she feared.

“I thought I was being taken home?” Her question was ignored and Jones shook his head while drawing close to her. “Jones…” she hesitated speaking his name because it was the first time she’d ever said it and was worried that she’d misremembered it. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know Snow Cone.” He’d used her brother's nickname for her without thinking. Kyle had referred to her as Snow Cone so many times that he’d just started thinking of the kid as Snow Cone instead of as Anna.

The soldiers escorting them, who were not the same as the ones who had originally approached them in the city, exchanged glances. They entered the building and after passing a few security checkpoints were led to rooms. They opened one door and gestured for Jones to enter.

“No.” He insisted adamantly. “I’m under orders from museum personnel to protect Miss Wattkins. Until she is reunited with her parents or museum personnel, she is not to leave my sight.” Again, the soldiers exchanged glances with each other as if Jones’ words had confirmed some kind of suspicion they had.

“She won’t be leaving your sight.” One assured him. Then the other walked a few feet down the hall and opened the door there. When he flipped the light switch, the far wall of the first room lit up. It was glass. From an observation room. Jones rolled his head back and looked up at the sky with a sigh.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Because now he knew or at least suspected what was going on. When she saw the interrogation room Anna’s heart leapt into a gallop.

“Am I in trouble?” Her soft voice was incredulous as she stared at the room.

“No. We just got on the radar of someone who thinks they have clearance, but doesn’t, so they don’t realize how much trouble they are going to be in. Go on in, kid. It’s fine. They’re just going to waste a bunch of time and piss off your mom.” Anna hesitantly entered the clean eggshell-toned room and immediately knocked on the mirror there.

The door was still open, but a soldier was standing at it between her and freedom. She heard a knock in return, but it didn’t reassure her.

“How do I know that’s Jones?” Ana called out just as she heard Jones shout coming from the open door.

“It’s me, kid. Sit down and rest. I’ll see if they can rustle you up a mana potion. I know you’re exhausted.” It was true. Anna was exhausted. She’d been running and fighting for hours, without breakfast or lunch.

“And some food? I haven’t eaten today. And since Mom’s been out of town Dad cooked last night. It wasn’t good.” After she’d said it, she wondered if maybe she’d crossed a line. But Jones just laughed.

“I feel ya. My dad’s a shitty cook too. I’ll see what I can do.” Then Anna heard some quieter muttering as Jones conferred with the others. She sat down to wait and found herself resting her head on her forearms on the table.

In all honesty, Camina Wattkins was a terrible cook. Really, really, awful. But she was smart enough to acknowledge that she sucked at cooking and made sure that the house had food. Those pre-prepped meal boxes were lifesavers. And sometimes one of her grandparents would come over and cook. It was best when Kyle came over though. He was a great cook.

Her dad did food like a bachelor who thought cooking was women’s work. Take-out and microwave dinners were his staple. Unless he forgot to go grocery shopping and was too cheap and lazy to buy delivery. They’d had fried jelly and pickle wraps for dinner. Which honestly wouldn’t have been that bad if they’d had peanut butter or strawberry jelly. Nooo… all they had was grape jelly and pickles.

And the wraps hadn’t been deep fried. They were pan-fried. So, they were burnt in spots, undercooked in others, and filled with scalding melted jelly and hot pickles. Sweet, grape, salty, dill in a whole wheat flour tortilla. Who does that? Why? Grape jelly in fried pickle wraps? Whole wheat tortillas?

Everyone knew it was supposed to be fresh strawberries, dill, salt, and cucumbers with sour cream in a corn tortilla that was deep-fried. The outside was supposed to be crispy. like a taco shell, and have malt vinegar sprinkled on it. The flavors were supposed to be sweet-salty, and umami. The inside was supposed to still be cool while the outside crunched.

It was only a few minutes before someone showed up with a juice box, a bottle of cold water, a bag of nuts and a vending machine sized bag of corn chips.

“We weren’t sure if you have any allergies? The sailor who brought them in stated in a questioning tone. Do you want the nuts?” Navy now? Interesting. Anna felt her eyebrow raise at the new development.

“No allergies.” She responded and took both bags and the juice box. “Thank you.” Tucking into her food, Anna settled in to wait while she glared intermittently at the mirror on the far wall. This was not how she had expected to spend the rest of her day.

It was not until she had clearly finished snacking and tossed her trash in the little bathroom-sized bin in the corner, that someone finally showed up to talk to her. She knew they were coming when she heard footsteps, a lot of them, coming down the hall. Which was easy to hear because the door was still open to both rooms. Anna heard the familiar sound of soldiers standing to attention and saluting as the newcomers shuffled in.

In the other room, Jones felt his heartbeat quicken as he watched a familiar face enter the room. It was the Vice President of Daedalus Engineering, the foremost military contractor in the country. Jones had never met the billionaire, but he’d seen him on TV enough times to recognize him. He was accompanied by a group of rather serious men in black suits, and some higher-ranking military officials. Not super high, not people who would have met Anna through interactions with her mother. 

None of them were Magicorps, however, and that was concerning.

Jones had stood and saluted like a good soldier should. And he’d gone along with things so as to not get Anna or Kyle in too much trouble while there was a crisis going on. But these chuckleheads taking advantage of that crisis to corner Anna for some reason was going too far.

“At ease, soldier.” The highest ranked officer told Jones and his escorts. So, Jones relaxed and took the proper stance before addressing them. And no, he wasn’t particularly polite about it.

“Sirs,” He addressed them through gritted teeth and an unfriendly smile. “Why is Anna Wattkins being detained and questioned? She has had a very draining day holding off a class four manifestation for several hours alone before a combined task force of Magicorps and museum personnel were able to relieve her. I respectfully request that my charge be released and allowed to go home to her mother.”

“Ha!” the Army Brigadier General who happened to be the highest-ranked individual in the room, gave a bark of laughter. “Respectfully my left butt cheek. Nice try, but no.” He turned to the others. 

“Take a seat gentlemen. You too, Specialist. I can’t question you because you aren’t in my chain of command and are assigned to the museum. But Miss Wattkins has answers we want.”

“Your funeral, Sir.” He muttered darkly to himself. Jones returned to his seat in the corner and sat down while the others took seats of their own. The lights went off, which made the view through the mirror much easier to see. A few moments later, a man in a black suit and an Army Colonel entered the room with Anna and sat down facing her but away from the observers.

“Hello, Miss Wattkins.” The man in the suit greeted her. “Are you feeling better?” He was friendly in the way people who weren’t used to dealing with kids were friendly. Warily. Awkwardly.

“Hello…Sir…ers?” She glanced between the suit and the Colonel. “I’m still tired, but okay.”

“That’s good.” He shuffled some papers in front of him, aligning their edges on the table with a few taps. “We have a few questions for you.”

“Uh…huh…” Anna might have been a kid still, but she knew that this wasn’t a smart thing to do. This was all kinds of bad-idea on this guy’s part. “Do my parents know where I am?” This jackass had the affrontery to look surprised that she would ask. That didn’t seem to stop him though and he continued on.

“Are you aware that it is illegal to lie about magical ability to the government?” His question seemed nonsensical to her, and the teen frowned at it.

“Does General Wickers know what’s going on here?” General Wickers was the man that her mother reported to. He was the Magicorps person who would normally interact with the Wattkins children for things like PR opportunities or bribery for Anna’s cooperation in making Camina look more human to quiet the people who were afraid of one woman having the kind of power she did.

“Eyewitnesses at the New York Preparatory Academy incident state that an individual in a cutting edge magitech suit came specifically to rescue you. Who is he?” What the artificers fuck was this? They were worried about Kyle?  There was a real genuine threat to American soil and these jackasses had kidnapped her because someone was doing their job for them?

“Does the Secretary of the Magicorps know this is happening?” Because this was bullshit. It was getting clearer by the second that there was no one of an appropriately high rank who was aware that she was being held and questioned.

“Where did the man who rescued you get his magitech suit?” Anna stared at her interrogator and snorted in amusement.

“Do any of the Joint Chiefs know what you are doing here?” Because you are going to lose your job when they find out.  She thought maliciously at the jerk.

“Do you know which Daedalus Engineering employee leaked the plans for the Valkyrie flight suits?” That’s what they thought was going on? Were these people fucking morons? Her head turned sideways as she looked closely at the man before her. Then she turned her incredulous look towards the blank mirror behind them.

“Wouldn’t a magitech suit like that be the purview of the Magicorps or the museum? I don’t see any Magicorps or museum personnel here. Except Jones.” She was done being nice. No. This was some kind of idiocy and she checked out of the experience and stopped taking anyone seriously. “But you aren’t questioning Jones, are you? Probably because you know you aren’t allowed to know whatever he would have to say.”

“Eyewitnesses claim that your brother, Kyle, was the individual flying the magitech suit. But Kyle’s abilities are well documented. And he does not possess the magical capacity nor compatible warlock powers to use that type of tech. Especially not in his profession as a… cook.” That made Anna laugh. Kyle? Weak magically? And cook? Was this guy who might have been from one of the three-letter agencies, actually using a magazine article as a reference for what her brother did for work?

The Colonel had been silent until now. He’d been just watching impassively until Anna’s tinkling laughter had been the straw that broke the camel’s back of his patience. His eyes narrowed angrily.

“The narrative survivors provided does not mesh with the known facts. How were you able to contact the mage in the magitech suit if you were trapped in a school without power or a means of communication?” In the observation room Jones rubbed a finger nervously against his forehead as he recognized the look that had come over Anna’s face. Yeah, he’d seen that look on her two older siblings’ faces that very same day.

“Well, I called his cell phone, but he didn’t pick up. So, maybe a fairy took a message to him for me?” Anna’s flippant remark was meant to be humorous and break the tension a bit. More for her to relax than anything else. But it had the opposite effect on the man questioning her, his eyes widened, and he jerked his eyes to laser focus on the young woman attentively.

Watching through the one-way mirror, Jones covered his eyes with a hand as he felt the beginnings of a headache starting.

“Oh, kid. No. Now is not the time for jokes.” He groaned as he realized that Anna had just made things go from inconvenient to probably bad. Beside him, his own guards and the higher-ranking officers had perked up at the idea that another species of sentient lifeform might exist on their world then relaxed and chuckled as they realized what was happening.

“Are you saying that the fae are real?”

“Are you saying that the fae are real?” The suit and the Colonel were deadly serious, and Anna rolled her eyes in frustration. But it was on now. She was done with these fools.

“Clearly you weren’t issued a sense of humor. Maybe you should see the quartermaster about that. Jerry, are you back there? We need a sense of humor up here.” From behind the one-way glass, Jones suppressed his laughter with a snort. Jerry was the God of bureaucracy and just about every person in the military had prayed to that fuck head at least once.

“That’s what you’ve been stuck babysitting?” One of Jones’ guards asked quietly as they watched the exchange unseen.

“Not that she’s wrong, that guy is a dick.” The General added under his breath.

“Ha!” Jones gave a soft bark of amusement. “You should see her older siblings. This one’s a veritable kitten.” Then they quieted for a few seconds. Jones had gathered from the facial expressions on the other’s faces and the way they grimaced at the interrogator they were watching that they did not like that man one little bit. He added thoughtfully before settling in to enjoy the show, “I should have told you guys to prepare popcorn for watching this. Snow Cone’s gonna teach him what’s up.” In the room, the questioning continued.

“This is a serious matter, Miss Wattkins. It is a crime to lie to the government about or hide magical capabilities. The individual in the suit has gotten a hold of classified technology. You need to cooperate with us.” No. She didn’t need to cooperate with them. They were doing something illegal themselves and she wasn’t going to give an inch now that she knew what was up. Not only were these guys dumb, but they were not the people who should have been doing this if it had been justified.

“Tells us about project Snow Cone!”

The young Elementalist leaned back in her chair, holding it suspended and rocking on the two rear legs with her feet braced against the table. Then she very deliberately and slowly, while looking the interrogator dead in the eyes, brought both her hands together. Her fingers laced together, and her palms rested against one another. Lastly, she bowed her head and closed her eyes gently.

Anna’s face smoothed with serenity.

“What are you doing?” It was the suit asking. Anna could tell the two interrogators’ voices apart and she opened one eye with a slight smirk. The Colonel looked slightly concerned, as he should have.

“Praying to my godfather.” Her innocent reply was sweetly saccharine and confident. Despite her apparent confidence, the suit chuckled cockily.

“The AMD is too high for the Angels to see into the city.” He looked around and gestured to the empty air. The lack of an immediate response from her prayers and the suit’s words emboldened the Colonel.

“No one’s coming. Please cooperate and answer the questions.” No sooner had he spoken than the ceiling dissolved into light and an angelic voice echoed down from above.

“Anna, I’m kind of busy. Is this important? I thought you were safe already.” There was a cacophony in the background. A multitude of voices arguing querulously. A sharp shrill female voice pierced the sound.

“Don’t you run off. The boy is going to be our hero. The Greeks haven’t had a hero in centuries.” The protest was followed by a gusty sigh from Michael.

“You got one of the kids already. You can’t just keep poaching heroes off of my warlock. She’s not a crutch for you to limp your heroes through trials with.” Well shit. There was stuff going on with her mom among the divine pantheons. As interesting as it sounded, Anna had to interrupt and get Michael’s intervention.

“I’m in an interrogation room without a legal guardian, and I don’t think the people who took me have told anyone important that they did it.” Michael suddenly descended out of the glowing light in his heavenly armor. It was a white and gold version of the armor that Kyle had been wearing earlier, though Michael’s was less technological-looking and more ancient. He positioned himself next to his goddaughter and glared menacingly at the men interrogating Anna.

“Normally when I appear before mortals, I tell them to be not afraid. Your answer to my first question is going to determine whether I say that to you also, or if something else happens instead.” The suit had jumped back from the table, his chair clattering on the floor. The Colonel was stunned into the stillness of a statue.

“But, but, but you aren’t allowed to interfere in the affairs of mortals.” The jerk in the suit protested ineffectually.

“I’m allowed to answer prayers,” Michael replied with a toothy grin. “Now,” Michael pulled out a chair to sit down. “Please get me whoever’s in charge. Who’s the big boss? I want to talk to…” he nudgef Anna to prompt him for the right name.

“General Wickers.” The teen whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

“Ah, yes, General Wickers.” The angel was just settling in for a proper session of intimidating the mortals when another angel looked down through the glowing hole in the ceiling.

“Michael, you can’t just leave in the middle of Arbitration, especially not one that you called for.” The Colonel squeaked as Lucifer peered down at them with one of his demons next to him. The demon’s nightmarish features contorted in a perpetual snarl beneath dark horns contrasted with Lucifer’s angelic beauty.

“Oh, hey Anna, how’s my favorite god-niece? Are…” The beautiful angelic features frowned like his brother’s as he took in the scene below. “Are you in jail?” He turned to speak to someone beyond the sight of the people in the room below. The shrill voice was still speaking, and Anna was catching bits and pieces of the conversation.

“See, we should be able to turn Jim Thafesh into a Greek Hero because Michael doesn’t even care enough to stay through the arbitration he – ”

“Hey!” Lucifer interrupted the argument. “Did you three bitches do this to Anna to distract Michael during the arbitration?” Lucifer’s accusation finally prompted the Colonel to speak.

“Mister Morningstar?” The Colonel squeaked in confused terror. Finally, another entity poked its head over the edge of the portal to the divine plane. It looked like a woman, but her age shifted from young to old and all the ages in between. She held a golden thread in her hand and was staring at it quizzically.

“What are you talking about? We did nothing. Anna’s fine. She’s supposed to be waiting for her brother to retrieve her from the…Anna dear. What are you doing here?” The Greek Fate looked between the thread in her hand and the girl below in surprise. “Mortal.” Addressing the Colonel her voice took on more authority than the shrill whine she’d used when arguing with Michael. “What are you doing? You are interfering with the natural affairs of Fate.” Turning to speak with someone behind her, the Fate called for backup. “Sisters, some mortal took advantage of the Fates’ absence during arbitration to bully Anna.”

“Who’s bullying Anna?”

“Who’s bullying Anna?”

"Who’s bullying Anna?”

A chorus of divine voices rang out. They echoed and shook the room as the shimmering faces of divine beings filled the hole above and looked down upon the mortal menacingly. Both interrogators shrank back against the one-way mirror in terror. Then a louder voice called out deep and powerful above all the others. It reverberated throughout the building and the suit sank to his knees.

“Who’s bullying my god-granddaughter?” A booming thud sounded, shaking the building. Then another. And another. Heavy footsteps coming towards the portal.

“It’s okay, Dad,” Lucifer shouted over his shoulder to the giant deity that was still some distance out of sight. “I’ve already got him on the list.” The footsteps paused, then boomed a retreat.

“Not unless he makes it to my realm first.” Another voice called out and the darkly handsome Hades poked his head over the portal and peered down as well. His long lashes framed eyes simmering with anger to see who needed torturing.

“Oh, yeah. Totes. I’m putting him into the pool with the standard shared custody agreement that all us punishment afterlife deities worked out for people who bully Anna.” Lucifer grinned and held up a hand.

“Sweet.” Hades high-fived Lucifer’s waiting hand and gave the suit and Colonel a nasty smile from behind his sunglasses. The acrid stench of urine filled the room as Anna realized that one of the dumbasses had pissed himself. Lucifer and Hades' malicious grins widened.

“Okay.” A new voice came from above and out of sight beyond the edges of the portal. The sound of someone struggling through a press of bodies was punctuated by a couple of grunts of effort.

“Why has arbitration been interrupted? Michael, you can’t just leave in the middle of a court proceeding. What are you all looking at?” A red-headed man in a suit poked his head over the portal, blinking his eyes as they adjusted to the difference in light. When his eyes finally focused on Anna, they opened wide in surprise. “Is that a minor being interrogated without a legal guardian or representative present? Do you need legal representation, Miss?”

Michael’s smile broadened as he looked from Nicholas to the interrogators.

“This is Nicholas Everstone, Heaven’s attorney and legal representative of the divine pantheons.” In the observation room chaos reigned. The Brigadier General had immediately sent his subordinates running for ways to cover his ass and justify his actions when Michael first arrived. From their position in the observation room, the observers hadn’t been able to see the portal to the divine realm. 

However, they’d heard everything.

Now, he stared transfixed at the Archangel Michael, because after the angel had introduced Heaven’s attorney, he had changed his focus to the general. He could see through the mirror and knew exactly who was there and who was responsible.

4:22 AM September 14th, 2026

Outside the New York Preparatory Academy Ice Bubble

Twelve hours. That’s how long he’d spent looking for Anna and Jones. After nearly frying his brain performing a mage killer spell that he never should have attempted, Kyle had collapsed on the destroyed and crumpled asphalt of a New York City street. There he’d lain until someone had worked up the courage to run out from shelter and see if he was still alive.

Surprise, surprise, yes, he was still alive and kind of wishing he wasn’t. Sure, everyone told you that performing mage killer spells was a bad idea because if you didn’t have enough stored magic it was going to kill you. But nobody told you that performing them even when there was enough ambient magic to use them without fearing death was still going to hurt like you’d just mainlined a sack of bricks.

The kid who had run out to help him had been none other than crazy selfie guy. And he had saved Kyle hours of agony with a pretty decent quality healing potion. Not museum or Magicorps field kit quality, but better than he’d been expecting someone to have on hand for general first aid. It had done the trick and gotten him up and moving again with a groan of regret.

“Oh, God.” He’d wondered while working the cotton sensation out of his mouth and waiting for his head to clear. “Is this what a hangover feels like? Because gross!” After thanking the kid and declining a second photo op because he was too burnt out to conjure the armor again, Kyle started hobbling back in the direction of the Plaza de Saint Germaine hotel.

It was time to get his sister and head home. When Kyle arrived at the hotel he was stopped by the regular soldiers and then was hustled over to the remaining students and faculty who had been evacuated from the New York Preparatory Academy. He could recognize a few of the students there and knew that they were all individuals who resided within the city. The kids he knew didn’t live in the city were all gone.

His sister was gone too and when he inquired as to her location, he’d been told that she had been evacuated to her home…in the suburbs.

Which was a lie.

“Anna Wattkins doesn’t live in the suburbs.” He’d snarled at the lieutenant who was referring to the list in front of him. “My sister and parents live in New York. It’s close enough to this hotel that Anna could have walked there in under twenty minutes on a normal day. Why – ” his hands slammed down on the folding desk and it sank three inches on the front side as the metal legs bent beneath the weight of Kyle’s anger “ – was she taken out of the city?”

“It’s possible that she wasn’t sir.” The Lieutenant offered helpfully. “If her home is as close as you say it is, she may have been taken home if it was deemed safe enough.” This mollified Kyle a bit even though he was still pissed off.

“Okay. Then I’ll go see if she’s there. Could you point me in the direction of the museum vehicle that Anna’s security was driving? It’s got all my gear in it.” A pained expression passed over the lieutenant’s face as he wet his lips uncomfortably.

“Ah. Your… ah… vehicle and the gear it contains has been… commandeered for rescue and evacuation efforts.”

“Sonofanecromancer!” Kyle’s tossed his hands up in frustration. “Do you have any idea how much one of thos – never mind.” He’d cut himself off midsentence and thought furiously. How safe would it be to hoof it alone to his parent’s apartment? Maybe.

His own place was in the opposite direction in the museum employee housing complex, and it was possible that Anna had herself taken there. Of anywhere in the city, the museum complex and the museum itself inside Central Park were the safest places to be. So, she could have gone home or there. Snow Cone had a spare key.

However, there was a third option. As unlikely as it was, Anna could have had herself evacuated to their grandparents’ house. Which set, he was unsure of. But his mom’s parents, who were actual fighters, were the logical choice. Though… the Wattkins did live further from the city and would therefore be safer.

Frustrated and pissed off that Jones had allowed himself to be separated from the museum’s vehicle, Kyle waved goodbye to the officer who’d been helping him and then headed out toward his parent's townhouse. In less than half an hour he’d know if Anna had made it home. When the jeep full of soldiers decked out in alchemy munitions, wands, and the yellow berets of the Magicorps pulled up next to him to warn him that it was dangerous and that he should get indoors, Kyle almost lost his shit.

It was a good thing that he was too tired to channel more magic because the young warlock was one stupid question away from committing murder. Today had been rough and it wasn’t ending anytime soon. So, he gritted his teeth, put on a wary but reassuring smile, and let the concerned soldiers know that he was fine, he was with the museum but that his vehicle had been commandeered.

A few exchanges later, Kyle was crawling into the back of the jeep. He was crawling because every overworked muscle screamed with agony. The smiling soldiers reached down, and he was pulled into the vehicle by multiple hands.

“Wizards.” One scoffed as he took his seat and gave a friendly nudge to let Kyle know that he wasn’t making fun of the class of mage. “All the wizards in our unit have been casting every major spell they use for high magic zone engagements, and they look like they’re on death's door until they have a chance to recover.

“I just need a better-quality healing potion.” Kyle waved dismissively. “There was a bunch in my gear but the entire vehicle and all the weapons and gear inside it had been commandeered before I was able to reunite with the evacuation group, I was buying… time… for.”

The soldiers glanced at one another as Kyle’s sentence devolved into a dry hacking coughing fit. His voice had been thin, hoarse, and reedy as he spoke and the blisters on his lips betrayed the nature of the spells he’d been casting.

“Buying time, eh?” Tears had filled Kyle’s eyes as he coughed, and he blinked them tightly to clear his vision as he nodded. When his eyes cleared, Kyle realized it was the team medic who was speaking to him. He had that speculative analytic look in his eyes that all medical professionals give you when they realized you were downplaying what was wrong, but they weren’t quite sure why. “Don’t worry. We’ve got the good stuff.”

The medic made a gesture and one of the others opened up a locked and insulated impact-resistant chest. Kyle could see from the glow that reflected off the soldier’s face that it must have contained very high-quality potions. He rustled around and pulled out a mana potion, a stamina potion, and a healing potion.

Kyle began shaking his head. There were so many reasons wrong with that not the least of which was that it was too much potion for a person to take at once on an empty stomach. Not at that high a magic concentration in this level of AMD. But he chose to focus on the most important aspect.

“No mana potion.” He insisted and the medic nodded in approval. “I’ve channeled too much magic today.”

“He’s right.” The medic must have been using some kind of passive appraisal or examination spell on Kyle. “Grab him another healing potion, put the mana potion back.” The medic smiled kindly as he took the bottles. When he handed them to Kyle, he took the warlock’s hands and cast a diagnostic spell on him.

“It’s rude to cast spells on people without their permission.” Cocking his head to the side, Kyle sighed in resignation even as the medic’s eyes widened into big round orbs. “Are you more surprised by what you read or by the fact that I could tell you were doing it?”

“Ahem. Sorry.” He blushed in a way that probably got him a lot of attention from girls and pulled back with a wince. “Just wanted to make sure I was giving you the right things and could recommended a dose.”

“What’s my prescription doc?” Kyle croaked while uncorking the healing potion without waiting.

“A bottle and a half of healing potion now, the rest in six hours or after your next major injury. Two cc’s of stamina potion every hour as long as you need to stay up and functioning.” He paused, seemed to consider adding something else to it, then changed his mind.

Within minutes Kyle was feeling more like himself. He was still tired, but the blisters on his lips were healing quickly while the raw flesh of his seared throat smoothed. He hadn’t even been aware that his breathing was being interfered with from all the damage he’d done casting powerful spells.

“That’s my stop,” Kyle called out as he realized they’d almost passed the intersection he needed to head for his parents’ place. The jeep stopped and Kyle hopped out easily. The aches and pains in his body were almost entirely gone. Almost being the keyword there. He was still in pain, but it was far more manageable.

“You sure you’re okay?” One asked.

“I’m fine.” He replied at the same time as the medic answered for him.

“He’ll be fine.” Kyle waved and started off towards his parents then thought of something.

“Hey,” He shouted to the jeep before it took off again. “When you see Camina tell her that Anna was ‘evacuated to her home out of the city’ by some Army officials. But I’m looking for her.” He’d made air quotes so that the soldiers understood he was quoting someone. “Say it just like that with the air quotes. That had been all he’d intended to say but one of the soldiers shouted back at him.

“Camina? You mean, The Morning Star?” Kyle nodded.

“Yeah. You’ll run into her if you keep going straight and then make a right turn when you hit the monsters.”

“Right. Yeah.” There was some muttering among the Magicorps soldiers as they took off again. They were discussing publicly known information about Camina Wattkins' family and they knew that Camina’s family lived in New York City. From the sound of it, they’d figured out the message he was trying to send his mother and it was good enough.

He trudged on until he hit his parents' building, one home in a row of many. It was an expensive home. Not because it was particularly nice, just because Manhattan was a pricy place to live. Luckily, Camina and Lance Wattkins had decent salaries. More importantly, they were both from long warlock lineages and generational wealth had accumulated through centuries of service.

Kyle had nothing with him but his wand and his book. His keys were with the rest of his belongings wandering around the city in the museum vehicle he and Jones had lost the first time they went out on a call unsupervised. That was fine. He whispered a spell to unlock the door and the tumblers turned with soft snicking sounds.

Within three minutes of entering the house, Kyle had ascertained that not only was Anna not there, no one had been in the home since she and their dad had left for work and school that morning. Fine. Back the way he came to check his place.

He worked his way around the city hitching rides with various squads of soldiers working monster suppression. First to his home, then to the museum proper where he was unable to enter while the building was in lockdown because his museum ID was in the vehicle with everything else, he’d put in there for safe keeping while he was playing with too much magic.

Then he headed to his dad’s office, hoping to at least find Lance Wattkins there. But no. Not only was Kyle’s father no where to be found, the spell he whispered from the glowing pages before him told him that no one had been there since hours before the shit hit the fan. His dad hadn’t been at work when the school called him that morning about Anna.

Dejected and trying not to assume the worst about his dad, Kyle returned to the street with a sigh. All the magical creatures in the city were starting to come out of hiding to take advantage of the high ambient magic density now that they realized that the humans were staying inside. A herd of prisms were basking in moonlight. Something that was rarely seen in New York City.

It was late and dark already. He’d been participating in search and rescue efforts as well as suppression efforts for hours. So many hours. It was only by virtue of the stamina potion he’d been given that he was still able to function. Yet he still hadn’t been able to find Anna nor anyone who could give him a hint of where she was. Taking a deep calming breath while he watched the prisms, Kyle made the rational decision to go home and start the search again after a few hours of rest.

Trudging along his way back home, Kyle came across a site that was uncommon in the busier parts of the city. A herd of tiny crystalline creatures, no bigger than a toddler’s hand, leaping and playing on the sidewalk. Usually, they stayed out of sight, hiding rom the dangers of a modern city like cars, people, dogs, cats and all the other things that could harm something so small.

One might not realize what the small creatures were doing if one could not see the currents of magic flowing through the city. But if one could, as Kyle could, then they would understand that the cute little crystal creatures with no head or tail that were basically four legs with a torso, were splashing in a riverine flow of arcanes. They drank it in and sucked up as much as they could.

A rustling caught his attention, and he noticed a racoon stalking the group just in time to see it snatch up one of the little magic creatures.

“Oh, no you don’t. Static zap.” It was a small spell. One meant to hurt instead of maiming. The racoon dropped the prism with a screech and a hiss before bounding away. Kyle stared after it, resisting the urge to take out his frustration on the creature. It was just an animal. It wasn’t its fault someone had abducted his sister or lost her.

Piteous meeping drew his attention back to the herd of prisms. They had gathered around the one which Kyle had saved as it twitched piteously on the sidewalk. It also buzzed a bit with residual charge from betting hit by some of the static spell. The amount of charge was not enough to really harm it, but just in case, Kyle picked it up to examine it.

The prism’s crystal body was somewhere on the scale between opaque and translucent and looked like a collection of quartz crystals joined together into a quadruped body. It also had a tiny current of electricity running through it which meant it had absorbed enough of Kyle’s magic to change its magic type to electricity. That was one of the coolest things about prisms, they ate magic. Pure magic, elemental magic, it was all the same to them as long as they got those sweet, sweet, oh so tasty arcanes. But whatever kind of magic they absorbed, that was the kind of magic they became able to use.

This little guy or girl, was now an electric type. Kyle smiled as it rubbed one of its ends against him like a cat. Anna would like this as a pet. Kyle gently fed it a tiny bit more magic and set it down. The prism promptly ran to his feet and tried to climb one leg. Laughing, Kyle picked it up, gave it a bit more static electricity magic to eat and then tried setting it down again.

The little sucker clung to his hand as Kyle carefully tried to shake it off onto the ground. It would not let go. Now all the little prisms could see what was happening and were watching avidly.

“Fine, you can come home with me.” The warlock grumped and placed the tiny creature small enough to it in his palm, into his shirt pocket and headed off. It meeped happily and hungrily and with another sigh Kyle brought a hand up to his chest to pet the prism. Immediately it grabbed his hand and began rubbing what may or may not have been its face on the finger Kyle had used to feed it previously. Piteously buzzing and mewling for more sustenance, Kyle relented and fed it lightning magic as he walked until it was vibrating contently in his pocket.

Maybe his bone deep weariness was the reason Kyle did not notice the other prisms take notice of him generously feeding their fellow. Nor did the warlock notice that the herd had started gathering around him hopefully. Because yes, there was plenty of magic around, but a nice mage that would feed them even once this windfall of magic had gone away was even better. Though the city was abnormally quiet with few vehicles on the street and the regular nightlife absent because of the emergency, it was still loud.

Monsters roared, sirens wailed from one hotspot to another, and screams and shouts punctuated the night. The noise and not the fact that Kyle was practically asleep on his feet meant that it was almost a mile before Kyle noticed the clicking. It was faint, just barely there under the sound of the wind which had picked up after night had fallen.

Yet, as he slowed and tilted his head to one side, Kyle focused on the sound which almost seemed to be getting closer. Click, click, clickclickclick. Clickity-click-click-click. Click. He stopped walking and the clicking stopped. Listening for a moment, Kyle shrugged and began walking again. Click, click, click, clickclickclick. He stopped again and to listen but again the sound had paused.

He took one slow step.

Clickity-click-click.

He took another step.

Clickity-click.

Then another step.

Click.

He began walking slowly down the street and the clicking surged and slowed with each of his steps as if something was trying to keep up with him. With a sigh, Kyle lowered his shoulders and turned around with his wand at the ready. If it was a monster, he was going to be so annoyed. It… was… not… Instead of the monster Kyle had been dreading in his depleted state, Kyle saw the herd of prisms.

With his mind churning out worry over his sisters – and the rest of his family – but mostly his sisters, Kyle had almost forgotten about the little prism in his breast pocket let alone the herd it had come from. They were following him. Did they want their friend back? Okay. Fine.

He carefully reached a hand into his breast pocket and fished the little prism out. It snuggled against his palm while vibrating its contentment. The little prism was warm despite being made of hard crystal and buzzed from the static electricity he had imbued it with. In its crystalline body Kyle could see a tiny little current flickering giving the prism an internal light.

“Looks like your friends want you back little buddy.” Kyle tried to set him down on the sidewalk gently, but the prism clung to him again as it had done previously. For something that had such a smooth surface and no fingers, it had a remarkably tenacious grip. The other prisms reached their little stubby crystal arms up towards their fellow who just waved at them with one arm before latching tightly to Kyle’s fingers again.

“Okay. If you want to stay with me, you can, but you have to tell your friends that they can’t come inside with you.” Gazing expectantly at the prism in the palm of his hand, Kyle waited to see what it would do.

It waved a limb at the herd. Then they exchanged a buzzing humming conversation in vibrations. Finally his prism seemed to point in the direction Kyle had been walking, nodded one end, and then scurried up Kyle’s arm, over his shoulder, and down his chest to disappear into his shirt pocket. After a few moments of rustling the prism poked what must have been its head, though Kyle couldn’t really tell, up over the edge of the pocket to watch where they were going and waved in the direction Kyle had been walking.

“Oh.” He laughed. “I see. You’re ready to go?” The others were still watching, waiting expectantly. “I hope you told them that they can’t come home with me.” He shook his head as he continued on his way home with a herd of prisms following behind him. Those poor things were going to be so disappointed.