ULTRAMagic Interval - Chapter 3
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The next day was calm, but no one could truly relax. Everyone was looking over their shoulders, unsure if the noise they heard was a rustling branch or an unwelcome ghost. Adrien was making good time getting to the houses, but he could not arrive soon enough. Feeling better, Will slept in his room that night. Faustus was still unsure, so he sat at Will’s desk and kept watch. He dozed off in the early morning, however.
As to be expected, Will’s dream was intruded on by the ghost again. He found himself lost in an abandoned city, seemingly alone. The wind felt lifeless and the buildings were incredibly dilapidated. Laughing soon returned, causing Will to turn his head and see who it was. There was a demonic-looking man standing atop one of the smaller buildings. His attire was somewhere between a court jester and a noble. At his side was the ghost girl. Seeing these two gave Will a pretty good idea as to who they were. He tried to wake up, but could not as he felt he needed to confront the intruders.
Will was repeatedly told to hand over his soul. The pair stated over and over again that he did not need it and was wasting it. This angered Will, with him trying to argue back. In line with dream logic, his voice was incredibly hoarse for some reason. After a good amount of insufferable taunting, Will finally worked up the energy to speak. He opened his mouth and screamed at the top of his lungs…
“YOU’RE NOT GETTING MY DAMN SOUL!!” He did not realize that he had woken up.
“All hands on deck!” Faustus exclaimed as he fell out of Will’s desk chair, disturbed from his rest. “What’s the matter, Sport?”
“Faustus, it’s Bethany and Perkele!”
“Who and who? You’ll need to slow down a little…”
Will grunted as he looked for his communicator. “Come on, pick up… Antares! It’s Bethany and Perkele, I’m sure of it!”
Antares yawned, sounding like he had just got up. “Roger that, Private. Grab some essentials and get ready to head to M.A.I.G.”
“Oh, okay... You don’t want to hear about the dream?”
“Are you still in one piece?”
“Pretty sure I am…”
“Good enough for me. We can discuss the dream later. We’ll iron out the details after I get some coffee in me. Blasted Eternal Order, causing trouble right before breakfast…” Antares mumbled that last part, then realized the call was still live. “Oh, right, sorry. Captain Briggs, over and out.”
Faustus sat back down, taking it all in. “Isn’t ‘Perkele’ Finnish for ‘evil spirit?’ I can’t imagine he’s friendly with a name like that…”
Will took a deep breath. “Not in the slightest. He’s…”
They were interrupted by Sam swinging the door open with Kyu behind her. “Boyo! Is everything alright!?”
“Yes, no… let’s get the others.” Will shuddered a little and led the three down stairs.
Mayhem and Randalph had sensed what had happened. Everybody else was already in the living room or sitting at the dining table. They all looked incredibly concerned.
“I trust you had another nightmare, Will?” Randalph deduced.
He nodded. “Yeah, and I know who they are now.”
“He mentioned something about someone calling themselves ‘Perkele’ before calling Antares about it,” Faustus added. This caused Olivia and Sam to give him and Will slightly incredulous looks.
“Are you sure about that, Will?” Olivia questioned.
“I wish it wasn’t, but the person I saw looked very similar to Perkele’s casefile image.”
“That’s not good, definitely not good at all…” Sam said to herself.
Antonio was a little lost. “So who’s this Perkele guy?”
Will hesitated. “Olivia, can I talk about it?”
She thought about it. “Go ahead, since it’s an emergency.”
“Alright…” Will began pacing to keep his nerves at ease. “Now I don’t know too much, but Perkele is a man named Valentin Karppinen, a criminal that M.A.I.G. and The Liger Brigade have been after for a while. We… Me and Antares stumbled onto one of his schemes during a mission not too long ago.”
“Valentin has ties to The Death Knell coven,” Sam added. “Ellen’s been keeping me updated on the attempts of the Devil’s Brew coven to get rid of those warlocks.”
“Now where have I heard that name before…” Faustus thought to himself. “Oh yeah! I think he’s that guy Professor Milan kept mentioning, saying he wanted to apprehend him.”
Antonio inhaled and exhaled. “Oh joy, we have a criminal mage after us… What does Antares want to do about this?”
“I’m not sure,” Will replied, then his communicator went off. “Speak of the devil… Private Ford here, what’s the situation, Antares?”
He chuckled. “Close, but you forgot ‘captain,’ Private. Ahem, Will, Adrien has been updated on what just happened and will be escorting you to M.A.I.G. HQ.” Antares could be heard talking to someone in the background. “Private, do you want to bring anyone with you? We need to know right now.”
Will looked around. “Well definitely Sam…” She nodded. “Kyu?”
“Actually I’ll stay here and hold down the fort.”
“Alright. Olivia, you want to come?” Will asked.
“Of course, given the obvious.”
“Captain, you should also accommodate Buster,” Randalph put in.
“Why’s that, Randalph?” Antares inquired.
Buster nodded. “Going to Red River City would be fun, but why me specifically?”
Randalph cleared his throat. “Events that have transpired in The Unlight have me concerned…”
Buster’s blood ran cold. “Brother?” he quietly wondered to himself.
“...and it wouldn’t hurt for Will to have some more company. As for everyone else, I shall stay here and keep watch. Mayhem and Faustus shall go with Will and company to lend their strength.”
“A task I shall not fail” Mayhem assured.
“Ditto,” Faustus added.
Antares leaned away to relay all of this to someone else. “Alright, we’re locked in. Stay where you are and call the minute anything else happens. Captain Briggs, over and out.”
While it was good that there were plans in mind, it did not alleviate the group’s worries. Their newfound adversaries were still out there. Still, preparations were underway for the trip. The Magic Anomaly Investigation Group was stationed in Red River City, New Hampshire. If anyone could keep Will safe, it was them. Antonio was curious to know why The Liger Brigade did not just take care of this, as Sky Fortress Camelot seemed a lot safer. Olivia pointed out that while that was true, the massive airship was always on the move. Wherever Will went, Bethany and Valentin were sure to follow. Staying at M.A.I.G. would ideally keep collateral damage to a minimum.
The following two days were even more nerve wracking than before, as the group were sure they were catching signs of Bethany here and there. Lieutenant Adrien Irons was getting close on the second day, climbing up the hill on his motorcycle. He was a little confused as to how he was going to escort Will, but Antares assured him that proper transport was on the way. All he had to worry about was keeping Will safe. While easier said than done, Adrien would be glad to see Will again. Pulling up to the two houses, Adrien panicked and got out his handgun.
It was sheer chaos as Antonio and Randalph were fending off a group of Shadow Constructs. Randalph was casting bolts of magical lightning from his staff while Antonio was shooting the constructs with his shotgun, blowing their heads clean off with some of the shots. Shadow Constructs were a nasty creation, appearing as shambling, oozing corpses with glowing, red eyes. They were the result of mashing together low evolved spirits in a repugnant ritual that was generally viewed as quick and dirty magic. While not intelligent, they made excellent, disposable foot soldiers for the nefarious sort.
Adrien leapt into action, giving Antonio and Randalph instructions on how to dispatch the attackers. With his help, they were able to kill all of the constructs. Mocking laughter could be heard from atop Antonio's house and looking up revealed it was Bethany and Valentin. Without a moment’s hesitation, Adrien pulled out his second handgun and began shooting at them. Valentin dodged the shots, dancing around and making ridiculous sounds before taking Bethany and fleeing.
“Podrido pendejo…” Adrien cursed as he popped the clips out of his guns. “Antonio, is everyone alright?”
He noticed one construct was still twitching and smashed its head in with the butt of his shotgun. “Yeah, they’re over in Sam’s house.”
“We should be clear, Mayhem,” Randalph called out.
Will and the others cautiously emerged and were greeted by Adrien. He was a tall, muscular, Latino man with a gentle face. His eyes were sunset orange and his hair was brown on the left and natural white on the right. Being Antares’ best friend, he was naturally good friends with Will. Adrien immediately gave him a big, comforting hug.
“Will, mi amigo, you’re not hurt, are you?”
“I’m fine…” he replied, a little shaky. “Faustus caught them before they caught us.”
“Nothing gets past my watch, Champ!” Faustus affirmed. Everyone could tell he was overcompensating for something, not realizing he felt bad over falling asleep on Will that one night.
After getting the rest of the greetings out of the way, Adrien got out his communicator and dialed a number. “Antares, I’m at Sam and Antonio’s place. It’s currently my professional opinion that we should bump this situation up to a code red…”
“Wait, WHAT!? What happened?! Lieutenant, where’s the Private?”
“Here, Captain,” Will replied. “We were attacked by a group of Shadow Constructs…”
“...and I’ll give you two guesses as to who’s fault it was,” Adrien added.
An audible exhale could be heard from Antares. “Give me one second…” It sounded like there was a bit of back and forth between the captain and someone else. “...take your clearance and shove it where the sun doesn't shine, Corporal. This is officially a code red situation… get a cargo chopper, load it with a Steel Cat van, and get to WitchHaven pronto! I wanted that transport there yesterday! MOVE MOVE MOVE… You guys still there?”
“Affirmative, Captain,” Adrien answered.
“Lieutenant, Private, hold your ground until transport arrives. Annoyingly it takes an arm and a leg to get one of those choppers off the ground. You have some powerful allies with you at the moment, so don't panic. If you need any back up regardless, we’ll have boots on the ground before you can even finish the call. Captain Briggs, over and out.”
“Well I’d dare say there is another shadow orb running around…” Randalph concluded.
“Dunja and Ultimatum aren’t going to be thrilled about this, not one bit,” Mayhem replied.
Randalph was about to speak further, but he was cut off by Sam, who grabbed him by the coat. “What do you mean there’s another shadow orb!?” she demanded to know, catching everyone off guard.
“Sam, are you okay?”
“There can’t be another shadow orb! They’ve all been destroyed!”
Randalph gently removed her hands from his coat. “Easy, Sam. Yes, there’s most likely another running around as I highly doubt those ones were leftovers from Dunja’s destroyed orb. Don’t worry, Mayhem and I know people who have dealt with this stuff before...”
“Sorry, I don’t know what came over me…” She then went back inside.
Adrien was not sure what to make of that and looked at Will. “Private?”
“Sam’s been a little tense ever since this started” he quietly replied. “She’s even been talking in her sleep about things I’ve never heard of before.”
“Bizarre… Anyways, I’m starving after all that commotion. Want me to make you all some dinner?”
Antonio lightly patted his legs. “Fine with me. Just let me go put this away…” he was indicating his gun.
Buster and Olvia went into Sam’s house to see if she was alright. While Randalph talked to Mayhem about the constructs, Faustus went up to Will and Adrien. He was still a little hyper from the previous scuffle, radiating a bit of heat.
“Well, Sport, you got a little dirt in your eye, but you’re no worse for wear.”
Will sighed. “Yup. So we’re really going to M.A.I.G., Adrien?”
“Si, amigo.”
“I’m a little nervous, not going to lie,” Will said with a slight chuckle.
Adrien patted him on the back. “Well given what just happened, I don’t think staying here is exactly the best idea.”
“True, true…”
“Besides, you like Dr. Reynard, right?”
“Of course, he’s really cool.”
“Well there you go,” Adrien assured.
Faustus could feel Will’s unease and sympathized. “It’s a lot to take in, Champ. Don’t worry, we’re here for you. Look at it this way: Go to M.A.I.G. and the house should be safe from those mooks.”
“Faustus, I may be paranoid about traveling, but that is the last thing on my mind right now.” This made them all laugh.
Next: Chapter 4
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Master Post - Patreon
The next day was calm, but no one could truly relax. Everyone was looking over their shoulders, unsure if the noise they heard was a rustling branch or an unwelcome ghost. Adrien was making good time getting to the houses, but he could not arrive soon enough. Feeling better, Will slept in his room that night. Faustus was still unsure, so he sat at Will’s desk and kept watch. He dozed off in the early morning, however.
As to be expected, Will’s dream was intruded on by the ghost again. He found himself lost in an abandoned city, seemingly alone. The wind felt lifeless and the buildings were incredibly dilapidated. Laughing soon returned, causing Will to turn his head and see who it was. There was a demonic-looking man standing atop one of the smaller buildings. His attire was somewhere between a court jester and a noble. At his side was the ghost girl. Seeing these two gave Will a pretty good idea as to who they were. He tried to wake up, but could not as he felt he needed to confront the intruders.
Will was repeatedly told to hand over his soul. The pair stated over and over again that he did not need it and was wasting it. This angered Will, with him trying to argue back. In line with dream logic, his voice was incredibly hoarse for some reason. After a good amount of insufferable taunting, Will finally worked up the energy to speak. He opened his mouth and screamed at the top of his lungs…
“YOU’RE NOT GETTING MY DAMN SOUL!!” He did not realize that he had woken up.
“All hands on deck!” Faustus exclaimed as he fell out of Will’s desk chair, disturbed from his rest. “What’s the matter, Sport?”
“Faustus, it’s Bethany and Perkele!”
“Who and who? You’ll need to slow down a little…”
Will grunted as he looked for his communicator. “Come on, pick up… Antares! It’s Bethany and Perkele, I’m sure of it!”
Antares yawned, sounding like he had just got up. “Roger that, Private. Grab some essentials and get ready to head to M.A.I.G.”
“Oh, okay... You don’t want to hear about the dream?”
“Are you still in one piece?”
“Pretty sure I am…”
“Good enough for me. We can discuss the dream later. We’ll iron out the details after I get some coffee in me. Blasted Eternal Order, causing trouble right before breakfast…” Antares mumbled that last part, then realized the call was still live. “Oh, right, sorry. Captain Briggs, over and out.”
Faustus sat back down, taking it all in. “Isn’t ‘Perkele’ Finnish for ‘evil spirit?’ I can’t imagine he’s friendly with a name like that…”
Will took a deep breath. “Not in the slightest. He’s…”
They were interrupted by Sam swinging the door open with Kyu behind her. “Boyo! Is everything alright!?”
“Yes, no… let’s get the others.” Will shuddered a little and led the three down stairs.
Mayhem and Randalph had sensed what had happened. Everybody else was already in the living room or sitting at the dining table. They all looked incredibly concerned.
“I trust you had another nightmare, Will?” Randalph deduced.
He nodded. “Yeah, and I know who they are now.”
“He mentioned something about someone calling themselves ‘Perkele’ before calling Antares about it,” Faustus added. This caused Olivia and Sam to give him and Will slightly incredulous looks.
“Are you sure about that, Will?” Olivia questioned.
“I wish it wasn’t, but the person I saw looked very similar to Perkele’s casefile image.”
“That’s not good, definitely not good at all…” Sam said to herself.
Antonio was a little lost. “So who’s this Perkele guy?”
Will hesitated. “Olivia, can I talk about it?”
She thought about it. “Go ahead, since it’s an emergency.”
“Alright…” Will began pacing to keep his nerves at ease. “Now I don’t know too much, but Perkele is a man named Valentin Karppinen, a criminal that M.A.I.G. and The Liger Brigade have been after for a while. We… Me and Antares stumbled onto one of his schemes during a mission not too long ago.”
“Valentin has ties to The Death Knell coven,” Sam added. “Ellen’s been keeping me updated on the attempts of the Devil’s Brew coven to get rid of those warlocks.”
“Now where have I heard that name before…” Faustus thought to himself. “Oh yeah! I think he’s that guy Professor Milan kept mentioning, saying he wanted to apprehend him.”
Antonio inhaled and exhaled. “Oh joy, we have a criminal mage after us… What does Antares want to do about this?”
“I’m not sure,” Will replied, then his communicator went off. “Speak of the devil… Private Ford here, what’s the situation, Antares?”
He chuckled. “Close, but you forgot ‘captain,’ Private. Ahem, Will, Adrien has been updated on what just happened and will be escorting you to M.A.I.G. HQ.” Antares could be heard talking to someone in the background. “Private, do you want to bring anyone with you? We need to know right now.”
Will looked around. “Well definitely Sam…” She nodded. “Kyu?”
“Actually I’ll stay here and hold down the fort.”
“Alright. Olivia, you want to come?” Will asked.
“Of course, given the obvious.”
“Captain, you should also accommodate Buster,” Randalph put in.
“Why’s that, Randalph?” Antares inquired.
Buster nodded. “Going to Red River City would be fun, but why me specifically?”
Randalph cleared his throat. “Events that have transpired in The Unlight have me concerned…”
Buster’s blood ran cold. “Brother?” he quietly wondered to himself.
“...and it wouldn’t hurt for Will to have some more company. As for everyone else, I shall stay here and keep watch. Mayhem and Faustus shall go with Will and company to lend their strength.”
“A task I shall not fail” Mayhem assured.
“Ditto,” Faustus added.
Antares leaned away to relay all of this to someone else. “Alright, we’re locked in. Stay where you are and call the minute anything else happens. Captain Briggs, over and out.”
While it was good that there were plans in mind, it did not alleviate the group’s worries. Their newfound adversaries were still out there. Still, preparations were underway for the trip. The Magic Anomaly Investigation Group was stationed in Red River City, New Hampshire. If anyone could keep Will safe, it was them. Antonio was curious to know why The Liger Brigade did not just take care of this, as Sky Fortress Camelot seemed a lot safer. Olivia pointed out that while that was true, the massive airship was always on the move. Wherever Will went, Bethany and Valentin were sure to follow. Staying at M.A.I.G. would ideally keep collateral damage to a minimum.
The following two days were even more nerve wracking than before, as the group were sure they were catching signs of Bethany here and there. Lieutenant Adrien Irons was getting close on the second day, climbing up the hill on his motorcycle. He was a little confused as to how he was going to escort Will, but Antares assured him that proper transport was on the way. All he had to worry about was keeping Will safe. While easier said than done, Adrien would be glad to see Will again. Pulling up to the two houses, Adrien panicked and got out his handgun.
It was sheer chaos as Antonio and Randalph were fending off a group of Shadow Constructs. Randalph was casting bolts of magical lightning from his staff while Antonio was shooting the constructs with his shotgun, blowing their heads clean off with some of the shots. Shadow Constructs were a nasty creation, appearing as shambling, oozing corpses with glowing, red eyes. They were the result of mashing together low evolved spirits in a repugnant ritual that was generally viewed as quick and dirty magic. While not intelligent, they made excellent, disposable foot soldiers for the nefarious sort.
Adrien leapt into action, giving Antonio and Randalph instructions on how to dispatch the attackers. With his help, they were able to kill all of the constructs. Mocking laughter could be heard from atop Antonio's house and looking up revealed it was Bethany and Valentin. Without a moment’s hesitation, Adrien pulled out his second handgun and began shooting at them. Valentin dodged the shots, dancing around and making ridiculous sounds before taking Bethany and fleeing.
“Podrido pendejo…” Adrien cursed as he popped the clips out of his guns. “Antonio, is everyone alright?”
He noticed one construct was still twitching and smashed its head in with the butt of his shotgun. “Yeah, they’re over in Sam’s house.”
“We should be clear, Mayhem,” Randalph called out.
Will and the others cautiously emerged and were greeted by Adrien. He was a tall, muscular, Latino man with a gentle face. His eyes were sunset orange and his hair was brown on the left and natural white on the right. Being Antares’ best friend, he was naturally good friends with Will. Adrien immediately gave him a big, comforting hug.
“Will, mi amigo, you’re not hurt, are you?”
“I’m fine…” he replied, a little shaky. “Faustus caught them before they caught us.”
“Nothing gets past my watch, Champ!” Faustus affirmed. Everyone could tell he was overcompensating for something, not realizing he felt bad over falling asleep on Will that one night.
After getting the rest of the greetings out of the way, Adrien got out his communicator and dialed a number. “Antares, I’m at Sam and Antonio’s place. It’s currently my professional opinion that we should bump this situation up to a code red…”
“Wait, WHAT!? What happened?! Lieutenant, where’s the Private?”
“Here, Captain,” Will replied. “We were attacked by a group of Shadow Constructs…”
“...and I’ll give you two guesses as to who’s fault it was,” Adrien added.
An audible exhale could be heard from Antares. “Give me one second…” It sounded like there was a bit of back and forth between the captain and someone else. “...take your clearance and shove it where the sun doesn't shine, Corporal. This is officially a code red situation… get a cargo chopper, load it with a Steel Cat van, and get to WitchHaven pronto! I wanted that transport there yesterday! MOVE MOVE MOVE… You guys still there?”
“Affirmative, Captain,” Adrien answered.
“Lieutenant, Private, hold your ground until transport arrives. Annoyingly it takes an arm and a leg to get one of those choppers off the ground. You have some powerful allies with you at the moment, so don't panic. If you need any back up regardless, we’ll have boots on the ground before you can even finish the call. Captain Briggs, over and out.”
“Well I’d dare say there is another shadow orb running around…” Randalph concluded.
“Dunja and Ultimatum aren’t going to be thrilled about this, not one bit,” Mayhem replied.
Randalph was about to speak further, but he was cut off by Sam, who grabbed him by the coat. “What do you mean there’s another shadow orb!?” she demanded to know, catching everyone off guard.
“Sam, are you okay?”
“There can’t be another shadow orb! They’ve all been destroyed!”
Randalph gently removed her hands from his coat. “Easy, Sam. Yes, there’s most likely another running around as I highly doubt those ones were leftovers from Dunja’s destroyed orb. Don’t worry, Mayhem and I know people who have dealt with this stuff before...”
“Sorry, I don’t know what came over me…” She then went back inside.
Adrien was not sure what to make of that and looked at Will. “Private?”
“Sam’s been a little tense ever since this started” he quietly replied. “She’s even been talking in her sleep about things I’ve never heard of before.”
“Bizarre… Anyways, I’m starving after all that commotion. Want me to make you all some dinner?”
Antonio lightly patted his legs. “Fine with me. Just let me go put this away…” he was indicating his gun.
Buster and Olvia went into Sam’s house to see if she was alright. While Randalph talked to Mayhem about the constructs, Faustus went up to Will and Adrien. He was still a little hyper from the previous scuffle, radiating a bit of heat.
“Well, Sport, you got a little dirt in your eye, but you’re no worse for wear.”
Will sighed. “Yup. So we’re really going to M.A.I.G., Adrien?”
“Si, amigo.”
“I’m a little nervous, not going to lie,” Will said with a slight chuckle.
Adrien patted him on the back. “Well given what just happened, I don’t think staying here is exactly the best idea.”
“True, true…”
“Besides, you like Dr. Reynard, right?”
“Of course, he’s really cool.”
“Well there you go,” Adrien assured.
Faustus could feel Will’s unease and sympathized. “It’s a lot to take in, Champ. Don’t worry, we’re here for you. Look at it this way: Go to M.A.I.G. and the house should be safe from those mooks.”
“Faustus, I may be paranoid about traveling, but that is the last thing on my mind right now.” This made them all laugh.
Next: Chapter 4
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
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