Haze & Chaos - The Hunt Part 5
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Jun, or ‘Dethblade the Hunter’ as he was currently going by, certainly had a good sense of how to look cool while being a rogue Liger Brigade agent. He wore a loose, black bodysuit with attached armor plates that had been dyed black with yellow lighting bolts. The outfit was accompanied by a yellow scarf and a red mask across his eyes–notably they had special lenses that appeared black at a glance. Over his mouth he wore a dark silver oni mask, and a custom-made one at that. The only issue was his wild red hair, his Liger Brigade utility belt, and the boots and gloves that were clearly Liger Brigade standard issue. If he was going for being intimidating with a sense of style, he had nailed it. Maintaining his secret identity? Well, anyone who knew Jun would have immediately recognized him… It also did not help that his persona was named after a character from his favorite anime.
“Jun, it’s been a while, ha,” Will replied with a clap as he walked up to him, like an old friend would.
Jun was less than thrilled over Will being so casual after all that had transpired for them. “It’s getting dangerous, Will…” he was notably using an American accent and Aoife found it utterly adorable… he was picking up on this and getting a little nervous. “This battle with Nobu is mine–I don’t need you getting in the way…”
Will chuckled with a pride that made him feel like a wise elder about to tell the youngsters that they had everything taken care of. “Sorry, Jun, but I have my orders–and ULTRAMagic now!”
Jun remained silent… HE WANTED TO CONGRATULATE WILL SO BADLY, but he maintained his cool, brooding persona. “Relying on other people to fight this war of ours?”
“OH, I CAN’T TAKE ANY MORE,” Aoife exclaimed. “Sweetie, you look so cool!” she proclaimed as put her hands on his shoulders to get a good look at him, focusing on the oni mask. “Where did you get this? Did you have it custom ordered?”
“Hey hey hey!” Jun interjected as he broke away. Notably his proper accent had come back. “Get serious!”
“Kiddo, you should take notes from your friend,” Aoife said to Will, irritating Jun. It did not help that the others were starting to chuckle.
“I don’t know, I like the blood-esque pattern I got going on with haze–”
“HEY!” Jun interrupted. “Focus on the conflict, damn it!” This outburst startled everyone a little.
X-Pen had managed to free herself from the webbing and quickly stepped over to Jun. “Dethblade? Jack’s here…”
Jun glanced over and saw the familiar Oldsmobile pull up and slapped his thighs. “Perfect…”
Satsuki nodded towards that and stepped in front of Jun. “Noguchi, we need to talk…”
Jun was getting annoyed as he had just wanted to gauge where Will was with his magic given all that he heard. “Not now, Gravesun…”
Satsuki cleared his throat and put a hand on the hilt of his sheathed katana–notably the scabbard had been upgraded into a device that could channel his magic into the blade. “We’re not asking…”
Jun pushed Satsuki aside as Jackson hurried over and went straight to Will. “So you’re going to be taking on The Extinction Order, right?”
“Yeah?” Will leaned back, a little put off by how close he had gotten.
“And this spider power, is it yours?”
“Yes and no–Valentin gave me the hex as a wildcard, and Blood-Wraith gave me some of his power for Azure Spider…”
Jun stepped away to groan. “You can’t rely on other people, Will. You have to use your own power to get things done!”
Jackson came walking up chuckling, with it turning into a wheezing laugh. “Isn’t that a little hypocritical given that you’re working with Voltage Tessla?”
There was a moment’s pause for Jun as he realized he was quickly growing outnumbered… and had just been called out. “That’s necromancy though!”
Barry crossed his arms and shook his head. “Sorry, Kid, but we’re not letting you go on this one. If it’s not okay for Will, it’s not okay for you.”
“He’s got a good point…” X-Pen acknowledged a little sheepishly, only to get a mild glare from Jun–it was a distinct ‘not helping’ look.
“So how’s it going so far, Weatherman?” Jackson said, as if completely disregarding Jun’s presence. “Dethblade give you any trouble yet?”
“Not really,” Will replied as he went to retrieve the knife Jun had thrown. “I tried to catch… X-Pen, and he intervened.”
Jun quickly took his knife back and sheathed it in one of the holsters strapped to his legs. “I challenge you, Will–with your power, not Blood-Wraith’s or Valentin’s.”
The group looked at Jun and nodded, but Aoife went up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Dear, please consider just coming with us to talk–we’re not going to arrest you, we just need answers.”
Feeling his bravado melt away, Jun looked Aoife in the eyes and immediately saw the kindest mother imaginable, and he knew right then and there that he finally had the support he needed… but he was not going to back down quite yet. “Noted, but I still need to see if Will is strong enough to fight Nobu and his evil ilk…” X-Pen gave him a light applause for that declaration, causing him to smile underneath the mask.
Will could not help but also smile and turned to Inkblot briefly. “I mean hey, fine with me–we can do it here or at The ULTRAMagic Guild. Satsuki, you okay with this?”
Satsuki sighed as she adjusted his scabbard. “If he agrees to come talk with us…”
That proposal was something Jun knew he could not worm his way out of and let out a nervous chuckle… he would have to defeat Will… or did Satsuki mean he would have to go with them either way? “Well, um… you see…”
Cutting him off was the sound of electric arcing racing over to them, and in a flash of light a bolt of electricity it morphed into a yellow devil with spiky hair. “Dethblade, Trigger, I was looking for Nobu when Ryota showed up…”
“Kuso…”
“Well it’s about time!” Jackson exclaimed as they all heard what sounded like a jet of fire rocket towards them from the sky.
“YEAHOOO!” a man’s voice said as the fireball in question dissipated its flames and tumbled across the grass to the gathering. “Not my best landing… Hey, there’s Mr. Tomato!” Ryota said as he picked himself up.
Jun started backing up with X-Pen and Volt, stuttering gibberish. “Tsukumo!? Argh, tomorrow, Will! And bring your own power!” he called out as he merged with Voltage and zipped off.
“Aw, come on, Tomato-kun–I was having fun!” Ryota called out… And then gave up once he was sure they were not coming back. His flaming body doused itself, turning into a form with charcoal-like skin and white hair, the glow of the fire peeking through cracks in his body. “Hey, Will! Long time no see!” he said as he put his arm around his shoulder and swung him around.
“Haha, hey, Ryota,” he replied, feeling the warmth of his friend’s body through his clothes.
“Hey, Ryota, what’s up?” Morrigan happily asked as she reverted back to Sam.
“Good to see you too, Sam… Ha, Haze, what are you doing on her?”
Haze stuck her hand up to talk, his mouth showing an expression of mild anxiety. “Inkblot’s getting all settled in, so me and Sam are going to work together for a little bit.”
Ryota glanced over to Inkblot, who smiled and waved. “Alright then…”
“Will’s also a little moody at the moment.” Will then groaned at Haze.
“Yeah, Fianna’s been mentioning that–Will, you okay, buddy?”
Will broke away from Ryota and shrugged. “For the most part…” he looked around at the park, realizing how much of a nice day it was as the sun shone overhead and the birds chirped away. “Jack, does Marcus want anything else out of us today?”
He thought for a second as he stroked his chin. “Depends–Satsuki, find out anything interesting?”
“Hai,” he answered. “Nobu is definitely looking to cause trouble, looking for Perkele in particular, but he has nowhere near enough power or resources to pull a September.”
“I see… Ryota?”
Ryota grinned with a devilish smile. “I didn’t find Nobu, but I ran into Dustin–singed the bastard pretty good. Guess how I found him…”
“Jun?” Will inquired.
“Bingo! I guess the gruesome twosome are a bit aimless and came over to the states without a plan–to my knowledge, at least. Valentin having screwed over the Death Knells really threw all of our enemies into a panic.”
Jackson processed that information and nodded as he glanced around. “Alright, Will, take five–I’m going to talk to Satsuki and then radio back to base to see what Marcus wants us to do about this. Ryota, is that the extent of your knowledge at the moment?”
“Yeah,” he answered nonchalantly as he reverted back to his human form, which had black hair and blue eyes. “Anything else is stuff I’ve already told you guys.”
“Alright, you’re good to go too then–go have fun, guys. We’ll call you if anything happens or comes up.”
As Jackson stepped away a few steps to talk to Satsuki, Aoife went over and gave Ryota a shoulder shake in greeting. “Hey, Kid, how you’ve been doing recently?”
“Hey, Aoife–things have been great. Rosecloud is a little rainy as always, but me and Fianna have been taking it easy regardless… up until Nobu started causing trouble…” he ended with a sigh and a chuckle.
“So, you guys want to go visit a hobby shop or something?” Barry asked. “Is R-Jay’s Electronics open?”
Will got out his communicator and checked the time. “Should be–”
“Will, do you get into trouble like this all the time?” Inkblot cut in as they started to walk towards leaving the park.
“It’s a habit,” Sam cheekily added, with Haze laughing.
Inkblot sighed. “Alright then… I can deal with that.”
“You’ve got this, Inky,” Aoife reassured him.
“Aoife, please,” he interjected, making the others chuckle.
The walk over to the electronics store was a pleasant one given that it was just a regular-old day in Red River City. People were going to where they needed to be, cars drove by on the tired-yet enduring roads, and a gentle breeze was blowing past–the days before Will’s arrival had seen some rain, leading to the smell of changing weather in the Spring winds. The owner of R-Jay’s Electronics, Randall Jay, was happy to see Will and company again–Will was becoming a regular customer thanks to his void magic. Will naturally introduced Aoife, and stumbled into his ‘aura mentor’ excuse, only for Randall to point out he had been to The Unlight in recent times. Evidently some of his family members were mages who were aware of the strange and fantastic realm. Following the successful trip where Will had found some rare games from his childhood for a good price, the group split up, with Aoife, Inkblot, and Barry heading back to M.A.I.G. headquarters.
Will, Sam and Ryota were not sure what to do next, so they figured they would go for a little bit of a walk–they all had GPS devices built into their communicators, so getting lost was not a problem. Some of the passerbys the trio encountered recognized Will and Sam and said hello, making the couple feel warm inside–they knew it was because of their heroism back in September, and it was good to see that they had left a meaningful mark on the city. Obviously they were not going to be recognized by everyone as Red River was a reasonably-sized city, but it felt special when they were recognized. Heading into late afternoon, the trio had paused to take a break, with Ryota taking a moment to give Sam some pointers about working with Haze. Will meandered around a bit lost in his thoughts when someone had called out to him to get his attention. He was a bit surprised given that it was a police officer.
“Specialist Ford? Officer Corey Forscythe with the Red River City police department–can I speak to you for a moment?”
Will was a little petrified as he saw the badge and the man’s fit physique–his brown hair had been cut short, and it was easy to tell he was a father. “Um, sure, officer–what’s up?”
Corey was trying so hard to hide a smile. “Can I have you take a look at this real quickly?” He handed him a clipboard, and on it was a… composition notebook? It was a little beat up, like it belonged to a school-goer.
“Sure, sure…” he said he looked at the blank page. He could tell there was writing on the pages before from the indents in the previous page.
“Sign right here…” Corey said as he tapped the page and handed Will a pen.
Will was confused as greenish-yellow smoke vented from his neck… and then out of the corner of his eye he saw a boy peaking out from the corner of the nearby building. Will then smiled and his neck smoke shifted to a cool green. “So who am I making this out to?”
Corey smiled back. “Andy Forscythe,” he said with pride.
“Yes yes yes!” the boy with medium-length brown hair said as he came hurrying over as Will wrote down the autograph. “Thanks, Mr. Ford!”
“No problem, Andy,” he said as he handed the notebook to him and the clipboard to Corey. “Pleasure to meet you both,” he said as he shook the officer’s hand, then the boy’s.
“Likewise, Specialist,” Corey replied. “We’ve been wanting to cross paths with you for sometime–did you know Andy was at the school when you stepped in to save everyone?”
Will felt his blood run cold, but it was not out of fear as he looked at Andy, who nodded. “Oh… Um, you weren’t hurt or scared, were you?”
“Nah–that was the coolest freaking thing ever, Mr. Ford!” he answered with admiration. “Suddenly there was the big–alien thing that went–” and then he mimicked the noise of a jet of fire with his mouth. “And whoosh! All of those nasty constructs-things were gone! It was awesome!”
“Disregarding how much danger there was?” Corey reminded his son with relaxed crossed arms and a chuckle.
Andy laughed. “Sorry, dad–I’m going to grow up to be like my dad some day, Mr. Ford. And maybe I’ll get to work alongside you!”
Will laughed with endearment. “Well just be careful; the villainous man who sent those shadow constructs was not playing games. He won’t hesitate to get you if it boils down to it.”
Andy nodded. “Mm-hm, I get you–I had to save my father one time by throwing a brick at a robber’s head!”
Will glanced over at Corey who nodded. “What happened?”
“Oh, just had to deal with something at the school, and was going to take my boy home, but had to respond to a robbery in progress. We had someone try to rob the 99 cent store and thought they were going to pull a fast one on us by having one of their buddies ambush us…” Corey had to take a quick breath. “I was this close to getting shot, but thankfully Andy saw it and chucked the brick, allowing us to tackle the guy to the ground.”
Glancing down at Andy, Will could definitely see the tenacity in his eyes. “Andy, you’re a brave kid,” Will said as he knelt down to meet him eye to eye. “Life may seem scary at times, but don’t be afraid to take that risk–a lot of my friends and guildmates often talk about a spark, and trust me, you’ve got that spark.”
Andy beamed and held his fist for a bump. “Loud and clear, Specialist Ford.” The two then fist bumped and high-fived.
Will cleared his throat as he got back up. “So, Officer, have there been any issues given the… you know, volcano beam and whatnot?”
“Aside from a few troublemakers here and there, not really,” Corey answered and he hooked one of thumbs on his belt. “There’s the elephant in the room, but sympathy for criminals only goes so far, even from family members.”
Glancing over to the shop they were standing by, Will saw his reflection in the glass walls and felt a moment of surreal displacement from the world. He then sighed with exasperation towards an issue he was sure Corey and Andy were aware of. “So I guess footage of my magic leaked on the internet, because guess where I saw it…” he paused with a frustrated smile. “An analog horror video…”
Corey looked concerned for Will, and Andy had a memory pop into his head. “Yeah, I saw that video too–The Daemonum Incursion?” the boy inquired, with a Will nodding. “It was only one scene, and it didn’t show the construct-thingies getting destroyed…”
“I know, and this stuff is going to get declassified eventually, but…”
Corey nodded and cracked his neck. “I know how you feel, Will–bodycam footage videos are taking off on the web, and I legitimately do not know how I feel about that. Curiously, was M.A.I.G. working on keeping the September footage off the internet?”
“Yeah, but some things fell through the cracks…”
There was a pause, and Corey chuckled when he remembered something Will would find utterly ridiculous. “Did you know some of the more… erm, new age people are selling the dirt you stood on as magical charms?”
Will looked at him with the most incredulous look, then burst out laughing. “REALLY? Are you serious? Oh my goodness, HOW? I thought we sweeped the city for looters…”
“Well it’s like you said; some slipped through the cracks.
“Aw jeez…” That revelation took the cake and made Will’s day, despite how absurd it was.
“Hey, Boyo–Jack wants to talk to us real quickly!” Sam called out.
He turned to her to see what was going on and sighed. “Aw shoot, got to get back to work,” Will concluded.
“See you later, Specialist,” Corey replied as he shook his hand once more. “If you ever need help, don’t be afraid to come to us–it’s the least we can do.”
Will was about to have an awkward moment given that his social graces were never the best, but he powered through it with a realization he had. “You too–seriously, if you see anything weird, don’t hesitate to give Lt. Colonel Briggs a call. We’re always on the lookout over at the Brigade.”
Corey laughed at that out of endearment, as Will’s modesty was to be admired. “Absolutely–have a good night, Specialist.”
“See you, Mr. Ford,” Andy said as the two began to walk off.
“Bye!” Will called out as he went to go see what Jackson wanted.
Next:
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
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Jun, or ‘Dethblade the Hunter’ as he was currently going by, certainly had a good sense of how to look cool while being a rogue Liger Brigade agent. He wore a loose, black bodysuit with attached armor plates that had been dyed black with yellow lighting bolts. The outfit was accompanied by a yellow scarf and a red mask across his eyes–notably they had special lenses that appeared black at a glance. Over his mouth he wore a dark silver oni mask, and a custom-made one at that. The only issue was his wild red hair, his Liger Brigade utility belt, and the boots and gloves that were clearly Liger Brigade standard issue. If he was going for being intimidating with a sense of style, he had nailed it. Maintaining his secret identity? Well, anyone who knew Jun would have immediately recognized him… It also did not help that his persona was named after a character from his favorite anime.
“Jun, it’s been a while, ha,” Will replied with a clap as he walked up to him, like an old friend would.
Jun was less than thrilled over Will being so casual after all that had transpired for them. “It’s getting dangerous, Will…” he was notably using an American accent and Aoife found it utterly adorable… he was picking up on this and getting a little nervous. “This battle with Nobu is mine–I don’t need you getting in the way…”
Will chuckled with a pride that made him feel like a wise elder about to tell the youngsters that they had everything taken care of. “Sorry, Jun, but I have my orders–and ULTRAMagic now!”
Jun remained silent… HE WANTED TO CONGRATULATE WILL SO BADLY, but he maintained his cool, brooding persona. “Relying on other people to fight this war of ours?”
“OH, I CAN’T TAKE ANY MORE,” Aoife exclaimed. “Sweetie, you look so cool!” she proclaimed as put her hands on his shoulders to get a good look at him, focusing on the oni mask. “Where did you get this? Did you have it custom ordered?”
“Hey hey hey!” Jun interjected as he broke away. Notably his proper accent had come back. “Get serious!”
“Kiddo, you should take notes from your friend,” Aoife said to Will, irritating Jun. It did not help that the others were starting to chuckle.
“I don’t know, I like the blood-esque pattern I got going on with haze–”
“HEY!” Jun interrupted. “Focus on the conflict, damn it!” This outburst startled everyone a little.
X-Pen had managed to free herself from the webbing and quickly stepped over to Jun. “Dethblade? Jack’s here…”
Jun glanced over and saw the familiar Oldsmobile pull up and slapped his thighs. “Perfect…”
Satsuki nodded towards that and stepped in front of Jun. “Noguchi, we need to talk…”
Jun was getting annoyed as he had just wanted to gauge where Will was with his magic given all that he heard. “Not now, Gravesun…”
Satsuki cleared his throat and put a hand on the hilt of his sheathed katana–notably the scabbard had been upgraded into a device that could channel his magic into the blade. “We’re not asking…”
Jun pushed Satsuki aside as Jackson hurried over and went straight to Will. “So you’re going to be taking on The Extinction Order, right?”
“Yeah?” Will leaned back, a little put off by how close he had gotten.
“And this spider power, is it yours?”
“Yes and no–Valentin gave me the hex as a wildcard, and Blood-Wraith gave me some of his power for Azure Spider…”
Jun stepped away to groan. “You can’t rely on other people, Will. You have to use your own power to get things done!”
Jackson came walking up chuckling, with it turning into a wheezing laugh. “Isn’t that a little hypocritical given that you’re working with Voltage Tessla?”
There was a moment’s pause for Jun as he realized he was quickly growing outnumbered… and had just been called out. “That’s necromancy though!”
Barry crossed his arms and shook his head. “Sorry, Kid, but we’re not letting you go on this one. If it’s not okay for Will, it’s not okay for you.”
“He’s got a good point…” X-Pen acknowledged a little sheepishly, only to get a mild glare from Jun–it was a distinct ‘not helping’ look.
“So how’s it going so far, Weatherman?” Jackson said, as if completely disregarding Jun’s presence. “Dethblade give you any trouble yet?”
“Not really,” Will replied as he went to retrieve the knife Jun had thrown. “I tried to catch… X-Pen, and he intervened.”
Jun quickly took his knife back and sheathed it in one of the holsters strapped to his legs. “I challenge you, Will–with your power, not Blood-Wraith’s or Valentin’s.”
The group looked at Jun and nodded, but Aoife went up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Dear, please consider just coming with us to talk–we’re not going to arrest you, we just need answers.”
Feeling his bravado melt away, Jun looked Aoife in the eyes and immediately saw the kindest mother imaginable, and he knew right then and there that he finally had the support he needed… but he was not going to back down quite yet. “Noted, but I still need to see if Will is strong enough to fight Nobu and his evil ilk…” X-Pen gave him a light applause for that declaration, causing him to smile underneath the mask.
Will could not help but also smile and turned to Inkblot briefly. “I mean hey, fine with me–we can do it here or at The ULTRAMagic Guild. Satsuki, you okay with this?”
Satsuki sighed as she adjusted his scabbard. “If he agrees to come talk with us…”
That proposal was something Jun knew he could not worm his way out of and let out a nervous chuckle… he would have to defeat Will… or did Satsuki mean he would have to go with them either way? “Well, um… you see…”
Cutting him off was the sound of electric arcing racing over to them, and in a flash of light a bolt of electricity it morphed into a yellow devil with spiky hair. “Dethblade, Trigger, I was looking for Nobu when Ryota showed up…”
“Kuso…”
“Well it’s about time!” Jackson exclaimed as they all heard what sounded like a jet of fire rocket towards them from the sky.
“YEAHOOO!” a man’s voice said as the fireball in question dissipated its flames and tumbled across the grass to the gathering. “Not my best landing… Hey, there’s Mr. Tomato!” Ryota said as he picked himself up.
Jun started backing up with X-Pen and Volt, stuttering gibberish. “Tsukumo!? Argh, tomorrow, Will! And bring your own power!” he called out as he merged with Voltage and zipped off.
“Aw, come on, Tomato-kun–I was having fun!” Ryota called out… And then gave up once he was sure they were not coming back. His flaming body doused itself, turning into a form with charcoal-like skin and white hair, the glow of the fire peeking through cracks in his body. “Hey, Will! Long time no see!” he said as he put his arm around his shoulder and swung him around.
“Haha, hey, Ryota,” he replied, feeling the warmth of his friend’s body through his clothes.
“Hey, Ryota, what’s up?” Morrigan happily asked as she reverted back to Sam.
“Good to see you too, Sam… Ha, Haze, what are you doing on her?”
Haze stuck her hand up to talk, his mouth showing an expression of mild anxiety. “Inkblot’s getting all settled in, so me and Sam are going to work together for a little bit.”
Ryota glanced over to Inkblot, who smiled and waved. “Alright then…”
“Will’s also a little moody at the moment.” Will then groaned at Haze.
“Yeah, Fianna’s been mentioning that–Will, you okay, buddy?”
Will broke away from Ryota and shrugged. “For the most part…” he looked around at the park, realizing how much of a nice day it was as the sun shone overhead and the birds chirped away. “Jack, does Marcus want anything else out of us today?”
He thought for a second as he stroked his chin. “Depends–Satsuki, find out anything interesting?”
“Hai,” he answered. “Nobu is definitely looking to cause trouble, looking for Perkele in particular, but he has nowhere near enough power or resources to pull a September.”
“I see… Ryota?”
Ryota grinned with a devilish smile. “I didn’t find Nobu, but I ran into Dustin–singed the bastard pretty good. Guess how I found him…”
“Jun?” Will inquired.
“Bingo! I guess the gruesome twosome are a bit aimless and came over to the states without a plan–to my knowledge, at least. Valentin having screwed over the Death Knells really threw all of our enemies into a panic.”
Jackson processed that information and nodded as he glanced around. “Alright, Will, take five–I’m going to talk to Satsuki and then radio back to base to see what Marcus wants us to do about this. Ryota, is that the extent of your knowledge at the moment?”
“Yeah,” he answered nonchalantly as he reverted back to his human form, which had black hair and blue eyes. “Anything else is stuff I’ve already told you guys.”
“Alright, you’re good to go too then–go have fun, guys. We’ll call you if anything happens or comes up.”
As Jackson stepped away a few steps to talk to Satsuki, Aoife went over and gave Ryota a shoulder shake in greeting. “Hey, Kid, how you’ve been doing recently?”
“Hey, Aoife–things have been great. Rosecloud is a little rainy as always, but me and Fianna have been taking it easy regardless… up until Nobu started causing trouble…” he ended with a sigh and a chuckle.
“So, you guys want to go visit a hobby shop or something?” Barry asked. “Is R-Jay’s Electronics open?”
Will got out his communicator and checked the time. “Should be–”
“Will, do you get into trouble like this all the time?” Inkblot cut in as they started to walk towards leaving the park.
“It’s a habit,” Sam cheekily added, with Haze laughing.
Inkblot sighed. “Alright then… I can deal with that.”
“You’ve got this, Inky,” Aoife reassured him.
“Aoife, please,” he interjected, making the others chuckle.
The walk over to the electronics store was a pleasant one given that it was just a regular-old day in Red River City. People were going to where they needed to be, cars drove by on the tired-yet enduring roads, and a gentle breeze was blowing past–the days before Will’s arrival had seen some rain, leading to the smell of changing weather in the Spring winds. The owner of R-Jay’s Electronics, Randall Jay, was happy to see Will and company again–Will was becoming a regular customer thanks to his void magic. Will naturally introduced Aoife, and stumbled into his ‘aura mentor’ excuse, only for Randall to point out he had been to The Unlight in recent times. Evidently some of his family members were mages who were aware of the strange and fantastic realm. Following the successful trip where Will had found some rare games from his childhood for a good price, the group split up, with Aoife, Inkblot, and Barry heading back to M.A.I.G. headquarters.
Will, Sam and Ryota were not sure what to do next, so they figured they would go for a little bit of a walk–they all had GPS devices built into their communicators, so getting lost was not a problem. Some of the passerbys the trio encountered recognized Will and Sam and said hello, making the couple feel warm inside–they knew it was because of their heroism back in September, and it was good to see that they had left a meaningful mark on the city. Obviously they were not going to be recognized by everyone as Red River was a reasonably-sized city, but it felt special when they were recognized. Heading into late afternoon, the trio had paused to take a break, with Ryota taking a moment to give Sam some pointers about working with Haze. Will meandered around a bit lost in his thoughts when someone had called out to him to get his attention. He was a bit surprised given that it was a police officer.
“Specialist Ford? Officer Corey Forscythe with the Red River City police department–can I speak to you for a moment?”
Will was a little petrified as he saw the badge and the man’s fit physique–his brown hair had been cut short, and it was easy to tell he was a father. “Um, sure, officer–what’s up?”
Corey was trying so hard to hide a smile. “Can I have you take a look at this real quickly?” He handed him a clipboard, and on it was a… composition notebook? It was a little beat up, like it belonged to a school-goer.
“Sure, sure…” he said he looked at the blank page. He could tell there was writing on the pages before from the indents in the previous page.
“Sign right here…” Corey said as he tapped the page and handed Will a pen.
Will was confused as greenish-yellow smoke vented from his neck… and then out of the corner of his eye he saw a boy peaking out from the corner of the nearby building. Will then smiled and his neck smoke shifted to a cool green. “So who am I making this out to?”
Corey smiled back. “Andy Forscythe,” he said with pride.
“Yes yes yes!” the boy with medium-length brown hair said as he came hurrying over as Will wrote down the autograph. “Thanks, Mr. Ford!”
“No problem, Andy,” he said as he handed the notebook to him and the clipboard to Corey. “Pleasure to meet you both,” he said as he shook the officer’s hand, then the boy’s.
“Likewise, Specialist,” Corey replied. “We’ve been wanting to cross paths with you for sometime–did you know Andy was at the school when you stepped in to save everyone?”
Will felt his blood run cold, but it was not out of fear as he looked at Andy, who nodded. “Oh… Um, you weren’t hurt or scared, were you?”
“Nah–that was the coolest freaking thing ever, Mr. Ford!” he answered with admiration. “Suddenly there was the big–alien thing that went–” and then he mimicked the noise of a jet of fire with his mouth. “And whoosh! All of those nasty constructs-things were gone! It was awesome!”
“Disregarding how much danger there was?” Corey reminded his son with relaxed crossed arms and a chuckle.
Andy laughed. “Sorry, dad–I’m going to grow up to be like my dad some day, Mr. Ford. And maybe I’ll get to work alongside you!”
Will laughed with endearment. “Well just be careful; the villainous man who sent those shadow constructs was not playing games. He won’t hesitate to get you if it boils down to it.”
Andy nodded. “Mm-hm, I get you–I had to save my father one time by throwing a brick at a robber’s head!”
Will glanced over at Corey who nodded. “What happened?”
“Oh, just had to deal with something at the school, and was going to take my boy home, but had to respond to a robbery in progress. We had someone try to rob the 99 cent store and thought they were going to pull a fast one on us by having one of their buddies ambush us…” Corey had to take a quick breath. “I was this close to getting shot, but thankfully Andy saw it and chucked the brick, allowing us to tackle the guy to the ground.”
Glancing down at Andy, Will could definitely see the tenacity in his eyes. “Andy, you’re a brave kid,” Will said as he knelt down to meet him eye to eye. “Life may seem scary at times, but don’t be afraid to take that risk–a lot of my friends and guildmates often talk about a spark, and trust me, you’ve got that spark.”
Andy beamed and held his fist for a bump. “Loud and clear, Specialist Ford.” The two then fist bumped and high-fived.
Will cleared his throat as he got back up. “So, Officer, have there been any issues given the… you know, volcano beam and whatnot?”
“Aside from a few troublemakers here and there, not really,” Corey answered and he hooked one of thumbs on his belt. “There’s the elephant in the room, but sympathy for criminals only goes so far, even from family members.”
Glancing over to the shop they were standing by, Will saw his reflection in the glass walls and felt a moment of surreal displacement from the world. He then sighed with exasperation towards an issue he was sure Corey and Andy were aware of. “So I guess footage of my magic leaked on the internet, because guess where I saw it…” he paused with a frustrated smile. “An analog horror video…”
Corey looked concerned for Will, and Andy had a memory pop into his head. “Yeah, I saw that video too–The Daemonum Incursion?” the boy inquired, with a Will nodding. “It was only one scene, and it didn’t show the construct-thingies getting destroyed…”
“I know, and this stuff is going to get declassified eventually, but…”
Corey nodded and cracked his neck. “I know how you feel, Will–bodycam footage videos are taking off on the web, and I legitimately do not know how I feel about that. Curiously, was M.A.I.G. working on keeping the September footage off the internet?”
“Yeah, but some things fell through the cracks…”
There was a pause, and Corey chuckled when he remembered something Will would find utterly ridiculous. “Did you know some of the more… erm, new age people are selling the dirt you stood on as magical charms?”
Will looked at him with the most incredulous look, then burst out laughing. “REALLY? Are you serious? Oh my goodness, HOW? I thought we sweeped the city for looters…”
“Well it’s like you said; some slipped through the cracks.
“Aw jeez…” That revelation took the cake and made Will’s day, despite how absurd it was.
“Hey, Boyo–Jack wants to talk to us real quickly!” Sam called out.
He turned to her to see what was going on and sighed. “Aw shoot, got to get back to work,” Will concluded.
“See you later, Specialist,” Corey replied as he shook his hand once more. “If you ever need help, don’t be afraid to come to us–it’s the least we can do.”
Will was about to have an awkward moment given that his social graces were never the best, but he powered through it with a realization he had. “You too–seriously, if you see anything weird, don’t hesitate to give Lt. Colonel Briggs a call. We’re always on the lookout over at the Brigade.”
Corey laughed at that out of endearment, as Will’s modesty was to be admired. “Absolutely–have a good night, Specialist.”
“See you, Mr. Ford,” Andy said as the two began to walk off.
“Bye!” Will called out as he went to go see what Jackson wanted.
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ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
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