Haze & Chaos - The Hunt Part 11
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“Alright, Mayhem, let’s get some practice in before No–Dustin shows back up again,” Will declared as he cracked his knuckles. They were accompanied by Antares, Marcus, Adrien, Satsuki, Jun, Volt, Ryota, and Sam the next day in the training room that was used back in September. It had not changed much, and the signs of Will’s incident with the training dummy were non-existent.
“Yes, let’s see how far you’ve come since the battles with Sebastian,” Mayhem happily agreed as he turned into a cloud of fiery mist that enveloped Will, coalescing into victorian-esque formal wear with a top hat and a monocle.
Sam could not help but whistle. “Looking snazzy, Boyo!” This made Will laugh as he tipped his hat to her.
“Being fashionable is all well and good, Specialist,” said Marcus as he adjusted his uniform. “But let’s make sure you can work effectively with Mayhem this time around. If I recall correctly, you weren’t able to act on your own and needed Mayhem to man the helm.”
Volt nodded and started to electrify. “We heard about the ferris wheel, haha. Trigger, you realize Mayhem did that without a human to accompany him?”
Jun nodded with a proud smile as Volt merged with him. “Incredible to say the least. And of course Will has had time to practice, so I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us…”
Will took a second to think about it, and mischievously chuckled. “Alrighty then…” He then stepped into a fancy doorway that had appeared out of nowhere and vanished into it, leaving everyone confused until multiple versions of himself appeared in the training room. “Where in the world is me, am I right?” the Will clones all said in unison with a laugh.
In a flash of light, Jun began zapping around the room, causing each clone to vanish in a flurry of confetti and sparkles. Having dissipated all of the facsimiles, Jun stood there confused. “Wait a second… Where did he go?”
Everybody looked around, and while they were distracted, Will came up behind Jun and tapped him on the shoulder. “Right here, haha!”
There was some laughter as Jun jumped a little and backed up. “Wow, how did you do that?”
“My chaos magic isn’t just for combat,” Mayhem’s voice said from a pocket watch that Will held up. “I’ve had enough time to think of some creative uses for it–there’s no way I could have used these techniques against Wulfric or in The Tyrant War, but I’m going to find a use for them, dang it!”
“Again, pretty good, but we need to be ready to fight,” Marcus reminded them.
“Give us a fireball, Will,” Antares said, sitting on a stack of training mats with his arm resting on his leg. “Mayhem could do that, if I remember correctly.”
Will snapped his fingers and summoned a blue and gold flame like his hands were a lighter. “Think fast, Jun!” he said as he threw it at him, with Jun zipping out of the way.
“Don’t forget to play to win, amigo,” Adrien put in. “Dustin certainly isn’t playing around…”
“I did,” Will pointed out. “Jun’s pretty fast,” he further elaborated as he tried to hurl some more fireballs, with Jun dodging each and every one of them. Focusing for a second, he managed to throw one mere inches away from where Jun was about to stop, causing the man to fall back.
“Haha, there we go!” Ryota complemented. “So, not to sidetrack us, but how the hell did Itet manage to set up a casino back in Nihon? I thought we had laws against that stuff…”
“The laws have been loosening up ever since 2018, in a sense,” Satsuki answered. “Regulated integrated resorts have been authorized, but I’m not sure if any of them have actually gone into business yet…”
“Outbreak-19 kind of doused some of the steam on that stuff,” said Antares. “And given what I’ve been learning after joining The League–”
“Wait, you joined The League?” Will questioned with a sudden pause. He was surprised, but also happy to hear that.
Antares smiled and nodded. “Blame Aalders–anyways, Itet’s philosophy of maintaining a sustainable casino–you know, actually giving people a chance to win to create loyal and consistent customers–has won some favors with the Japanese government.”
Jun paused and grumbled a little, causing arcing electricity noises to come from him. “I don’t know how I feel about her facility–gambling is a vice after all…”
There was a moment’s pause, broken by Ryota’s laughter. “Well hey, it got us all together, didn’t it? How she keeps that place afloat is beyond me, but I suppose the entertainment and her personality help… she’s also hot, so there’s that.” That comment warranted some chuckles and Sam shaking her head a little (she agreed, however).
“Never thought there’d be such a thing as ancient Egyptian vampires…” Marcus commented. “Then again, my family has encountered stranger things in Egypt…” He then stopped, as he realized something particular about Itet’s origin. “Wait, is she actually a vampire?”
“I… don’t know,” Antares answered. “It’s a little up in the air at the moment.”
“Really?” Marcus seemed a little skeptical.
“Yup.”
Satsuki noticed Will and Jun were standing around and cleared his throat. “Don’t forget to train, you two,” he said to them, with them agreeing and returning to sparring. “Itet actually offered to sponsor my rally car for some upcoming races, and I agreed.”
“Really now?” Antares replied. “Congrats, Satsuki. You’ve been really going hard with the rallying recently, haven’t you?”
“Well obviously, given that Shigeko has been getting back into rallying as of late.”
Ryota chuckled over his mother being mentioned. “Kind of amazing given what my mom’s been through and she just casually owns a Supra…”
“She’s quite the woman, what else can we say?” Adrien put forth.
After a pause to watch Will and Jun, who were doing quite well despite Jun having the advantage over Will, Haze raised Sam’s hand to speak. “Hey, Satsuki? I’ve gone over it through Will’s memories, but what’s the deal with you being over here in America? I haven’t had a chance to ask him about it.”
Satsuki chuckled to himself as he rested his hand on the hilt of his sheathed katana. “Well it goes all the way back to when I was 10–my father worked at a car factory, received a promotion to a managerial position with a nice pay raise, and was transferred over to America for his stellar work. Things were a little awkward for me, and learning English was troublesome, but I like to think I eventually fit in.”
“It wasn’t too jarring for you, was it?” Sam wondered with concern in her voice.
Thinking back on it, Satsuki chuckled again. “Well, I had fun becoming a mechanic and learning how to rally race, so I’d say it went fine… even if my dad had been a little hasty in moving us… I’m still annoyed how he changed our surname to fit in with America.”
“Well that’s a little strange given how that tradition died out centuries ago,” Marcus commented as he crossed his arms. “Either way, your love of cars definitely puts some context on your igniremancy, if you don’t mind me saying.”
Sam’s hair started to raise with static, and she glanced over to see how close the sparring was getting. “Careful, guys–we’re right here!”
“Ahem, actually I do have something to mention,” said Antares. “Guys, come on over for a second!”
Will and Jun paused and walked over, with Will adjusting his jacket and tophat. Some of his hair was sticking up in the back due to Jun’s electricity. “What’s up, Antares?”
“Okay,” he said with a clap. “We don’t have time to tell you about this now, as it’s a story and a half–but me, Marcus, and Adrien headhunted some Marines recruits, and I want to hold a squad meeting to tell you guys about what happened and introduce our new members soon.”
Adrien laughed as he crossed his arms. “Oh yeah, that little festival of a tour…”
“That it was…” Marcus sighed, then chuckled. “It was certainly something else. Again, it would take too long to tell, and we don’t have that kind of time at the moment. Also, Antares, a squad? At the rate you’re going, it’s going to turn into a platoon.”
“That’s not a bad thing, given who I’ve got in my ranks,” he said with pride. “If you’re wondering who the newbies are, Will, they’re Privates Jablonsky, Card, Haworth, and Kingsley–they were the stand outs who ducked out when things got hairy, so I figured I’d get them out of that mess and bring them into The Liger Brigade.”
Will nodded, getting excited at the prospect of new recruits. “Fine with me… you sure you want to expose them to the stuff we’ve been encountering?”
“You’d rather them get chewed up by the military industrial complex than the eldritch truth?”
“Fair point.”
Antares cleared his throat to make sure he had Jun’s attention. “And Jun, everything’s been approved: you’re officially a part of the squad now, so I expect you to be at this meeting.”
Jun was a little surprised, but nodded in acceptance. To be fair, a part of him had seen this coming. “Yes sir, Lt. Colonel, sir!” he said with a salute. “Do they, the new recruits, have any magic potential?”
“We don’t know yet, as they haven’t been properly exposed to magic–you know, given the obvious.”
“I think we’ll be able to figure that out with ease,” Marcus pointed out. “Despite my reservations towards it, I’d imagine Will’s void magic could figure it out.”
Will chuckled and tipped his hat again. “Thank you, Colonel, sir.”
“I say we take them out roughing it in the wilderness,” Adrien said with a stretch. “It’d give us an excuse to go hiking in the Appalachians.”
“Ooh, that’d be fun, aye, Satsuki?” Ryota said as he bounced around a little, with his superior officer nodding.
“So is this training or a vacation?” Marcus asked with a laugh.
“Can’t it be both?” Antares asked with a shrug, warranting laughter from the others. “I think a good bonding experience will make the squad more coherent as a whole. Besides, the four newbies seem like they’d enjoy it after all the horseshit they’ve gone through.”
“Hey, kids,” Aoife called out as she entered the room with Barry. “How’s the training going?”
“Pretty good, but we’re talking about squad stuff at the moment,” Will answered.
“Interesting stuff going on, I take it?” Barry inquired.
“Just plans for our new recruits,” Antares answered. “Things okay in the city?”
The look on Aoife’s face as she started to stroke her chin did not bode well for the group, and it was easy to tell she was concerned. “Things are calm at the moment, but it feels like there’s something brewing…”
“Yeah, I’ve been getting that feeling too…” Will noted. “How’s Inkblot doing?”
“He’s taking it easy at the moment,” Barry answered. “Hanging out with Bran and Jessica–”
“HA, Bran’s actually tolerating her for once?”
He smiled and shrugged. “I guess so–Rey told him to knock it off, and given that he rekindled things with Brandie, I imagine he’s in a way better mood at the moment.”
“Well if Jessica is actually going to work with us, it would behoove him to do so,” Marcus added. “What are you sensing in particular, Aoife?”
“Ambient infernal energy… I guess you could call it,” she answered. “His… Dustin’s magic is all over the place, and it feels like it’s starting to rile up again.”
“So at any moment we should expect the alarms to go off?” Ryota asked as he stood up, his body changing to its charred form.
Aoife nodded with a groan of uncertainty. “Yeah… Jun, sweetie, congratulations on joining Will’s squad!”
“Thank you, Mrs. Crawford,” he replied with a polite bow. “Have you been getting ready for the inevitable battle?”
“Of course, dear,” Aoife said with a flex of her right arm, showing off her muscles. “Did a good warm up this morning. You boys warm up?”
Will was going to answer, but chuckled instead. “For the most part…’
“Don’t worry, Aoife, I’ll have his back,” Adrien said as he summoned his kanabō to show it off. “Had this bad boy fixed up recently, so Dustin and whatever sorry bandido he drags in are for a thrashing. This time ain’t going to be like that sneak attack back in September…”
“Not in the slightest,” Satsuki said as he flicked what looked like a strike pad built into his scabbard, causing it to whirr like it was charging up his sword. “Everyone ready to go?”
“Goodness, are we heading out already?” Mayhem’s voice said from the pocket watch.
“Why not?” Haze asked. “No sense waiting for him if it’s that important. Remember, Barna and Dunja were incredibly proactive with dealing with Milosh Proch ten years ago.”
Sam shuddered a little as she changed into Morrigan. “Good lord, I’m glad that creep is gone…” she muttered. “Alright, I’m game–let’s roll, Boyo.”
Will adjusted his coat and started to head for the exit. “Fine with me. Ant–” and just as he was about to speak, the alarms went off with the sirens blaring across the base. “Speak of the devil…”
“We’re on, folks!” Antares said as he hurried to the doors. “Move move move!”
Next:
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Master Post - Patreon
“Alright, Mayhem, let’s get some practice in before No–Dustin shows back up again,” Will declared as he cracked his knuckles. They were accompanied by Antares, Marcus, Adrien, Satsuki, Jun, Volt, Ryota, and Sam the next day in the training room that was used back in September. It had not changed much, and the signs of Will’s incident with the training dummy were non-existent.
“Yes, let’s see how far you’ve come since the battles with Sebastian,” Mayhem happily agreed as he turned into a cloud of fiery mist that enveloped Will, coalescing into victorian-esque formal wear with a top hat and a monocle.
Sam could not help but whistle. “Looking snazzy, Boyo!” This made Will laugh as he tipped his hat to her.
“Being fashionable is all well and good, Specialist,” said Marcus as he adjusted his uniform. “But let’s make sure you can work effectively with Mayhem this time around. If I recall correctly, you weren’t able to act on your own and needed Mayhem to man the helm.”
Volt nodded and started to electrify. “We heard about the ferris wheel, haha. Trigger, you realize Mayhem did that without a human to accompany him?”
Jun nodded with a proud smile as Volt merged with him. “Incredible to say the least. And of course Will has had time to practice, so I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us…”
Will took a second to think about it, and mischievously chuckled. “Alrighty then…” He then stepped into a fancy doorway that had appeared out of nowhere and vanished into it, leaving everyone confused until multiple versions of himself appeared in the training room. “Where in the world is me, am I right?” the Will clones all said in unison with a laugh.
In a flash of light, Jun began zapping around the room, causing each clone to vanish in a flurry of confetti and sparkles. Having dissipated all of the facsimiles, Jun stood there confused. “Wait a second… Where did he go?”
Everybody looked around, and while they were distracted, Will came up behind Jun and tapped him on the shoulder. “Right here, haha!”
There was some laughter as Jun jumped a little and backed up. “Wow, how did you do that?”
“My chaos magic isn’t just for combat,” Mayhem’s voice said from a pocket watch that Will held up. “I’ve had enough time to think of some creative uses for it–there’s no way I could have used these techniques against Wulfric or in The Tyrant War, but I’m going to find a use for them, dang it!”
“Again, pretty good, but we need to be ready to fight,” Marcus reminded them.
“Give us a fireball, Will,” Antares said, sitting on a stack of training mats with his arm resting on his leg. “Mayhem could do that, if I remember correctly.”
Will snapped his fingers and summoned a blue and gold flame like his hands were a lighter. “Think fast, Jun!” he said as he threw it at him, with Jun zipping out of the way.
“Don’t forget to play to win, amigo,” Adrien put in. “Dustin certainly isn’t playing around…”
“I did,” Will pointed out. “Jun’s pretty fast,” he further elaborated as he tried to hurl some more fireballs, with Jun dodging each and every one of them. Focusing for a second, he managed to throw one mere inches away from where Jun was about to stop, causing the man to fall back.
“Haha, there we go!” Ryota complemented. “So, not to sidetrack us, but how the hell did Itet manage to set up a casino back in Nihon? I thought we had laws against that stuff…”
“The laws have been loosening up ever since 2018, in a sense,” Satsuki answered. “Regulated integrated resorts have been authorized, but I’m not sure if any of them have actually gone into business yet…”
“Outbreak-19 kind of doused some of the steam on that stuff,” said Antares. “And given what I’ve been learning after joining The League–”
“Wait, you joined The League?” Will questioned with a sudden pause. He was surprised, but also happy to hear that.
Antares smiled and nodded. “Blame Aalders–anyways, Itet’s philosophy of maintaining a sustainable casino–you know, actually giving people a chance to win to create loyal and consistent customers–has won some favors with the Japanese government.”
Jun paused and grumbled a little, causing arcing electricity noises to come from him. “I don’t know how I feel about her facility–gambling is a vice after all…”
There was a moment’s pause, broken by Ryota’s laughter. “Well hey, it got us all together, didn’t it? How she keeps that place afloat is beyond me, but I suppose the entertainment and her personality help… she’s also hot, so there’s that.” That comment warranted some chuckles and Sam shaking her head a little (she agreed, however).
“Never thought there’d be such a thing as ancient Egyptian vampires…” Marcus commented. “Then again, my family has encountered stranger things in Egypt…” He then stopped, as he realized something particular about Itet’s origin. “Wait, is she actually a vampire?”
“I… don’t know,” Antares answered. “It’s a little up in the air at the moment.”
“Really?” Marcus seemed a little skeptical.
“Yup.”
Satsuki noticed Will and Jun were standing around and cleared his throat. “Don’t forget to train, you two,” he said to them, with them agreeing and returning to sparring. “Itet actually offered to sponsor my rally car for some upcoming races, and I agreed.”
“Really now?” Antares replied. “Congrats, Satsuki. You’ve been really going hard with the rallying recently, haven’t you?”
“Well obviously, given that Shigeko has been getting back into rallying as of late.”
Ryota chuckled over his mother being mentioned. “Kind of amazing given what my mom’s been through and she just casually owns a Supra…”
“She’s quite the woman, what else can we say?” Adrien put forth.
After a pause to watch Will and Jun, who were doing quite well despite Jun having the advantage over Will, Haze raised Sam’s hand to speak. “Hey, Satsuki? I’ve gone over it through Will’s memories, but what’s the deal with you being over here in America? I haven’t had a chance to ask him about it.”
Satsuki chuckled to himself as he rested his hand on the hilt of his sheathed katana. “Well it goes all the way back to when I was 10–my father worked at a car factory, received a promotion to a managerial position with a nice pay raise, and was transferred over to America for his stellar work. Things were a little awkward for me, and learning English was troublesome, but I like to think I eventually fit in.”
“It wasn’t too jarring for you, was it?” Sam wondered with concern in her voice.
Thinking back on it, Satsuki chuckled again. “Well, I had fun becoming a mechanic and learning how to rally race, so I’d say it went fine… even if my dad had been a little hasty in moving us… I’m still annoyed how he changed our surname to fit in with America.”
“Well that’s a little strange given how that tradition died out centuries ago,” Marcus commented as he crossed his arms. “Either way, your love of cars definitely puts some context on your igniremancy, if you don’t mind me saying.”
Sam’s hair started to raise with static, and she glanced over to see how close the sparring was getting. “Careful, guys–we’re right here!”
“Ahem, actually I do have something to mention,” said Antares. “Guys, come on over for a second!”
Will and Jun paused and walked over, with Will adjusting his jacket and tophat. Some of his hair was sticking up in the back due to Jun’s electricity. “What’s up, Antares?”
“Okay,” he said with a clap. “We don’t have time to tell you about this now, as it’s a story and a half–but me, Marcus, and Adrien headhunted some Marines recruits, and I want to hold a squad meeting to tell you guys about what happened and introduce our new members soon.”
Adrien laughed as he crossed his arms. “Oh yeah, that little festival of a tour…”
“That it was…” Marcus sighed, then chuckled. “It was certainly something else. Again, it would take too long to tell, and we don’t have that kind of time at the moment. Also, Antares, a squad? At the rate you’re going, it’s going to turn into a platoon.”
“That’s not a bad thing, given who I’ve got in my ranks,” he said with pride. “If you’re wondering who the newbies are, Will, they’re Privates Jablonsky, Card, Haworth, and Kingsley–they were the stand outs who ducked out when things got hairy, so I figured I’d get them out of that mess and bring them into The Liger Brigade.”
Will nodded, getting excited at the prospect of new recruits. “Fine with me… you sure you want to expose them to the stuff we’ve been encountering?”
“You’d rather them get chewed up by the military industrial complex than the eldritch truth?”
“Fair point.”
Antares cleared his throat to make sure he had Jun’s attention. “And Jun, everything’s been approved: you’re officially a part of the squad now, so I expect you to be at this meeting.”
Jun was a little surprised, but nodded in acceptance. To be fair, a part of him had seen this coming. “Yes sir, Lt. Colonel, sir!” he said with a salute. “Do they, the new recruits, have any magic potential?”
“We don’t know yet, as they haven’t been properly exposed to magic–you know, given the obvious.”
“I think we’ll be able to figure that out with ease,” Marcus pointed out. “Despite my reservations towards it, I’d imagine Will’s void magic could figure it out.”
Will chuckled and tipped his hat again. “Thank you, Colonel, sir.”
“I say we take them out roughing it in the wilderness,” Adrien said with a stretch. “It’d give us an excuse to go hiking in the Appalachians.”
“Ooh, that’d be fun, aye, Satsuki?” Ryota said as he bounced around a little, with his superior officer nodding.
“So is this training or a vacation?” Marcus asked with a laugh.
“Can’t it be both?” Antares asked with a shrug, warranting laughter from the others. “I think a good bonding experience will make the squad more coherent as a whole. Besides, the four newbies seem like they’d enjoy it after all the horseshit they’ve gone through.”
“Hey, kids,” Aoife called out as she entered the room with Barry. “How’s the training going?”
“Pretty good, but we’re talking about squad stuff at the moment,” Will answered.
“Interesting stuff going on, I take it?” Barry inquired.
“Just plans for our new recruits,” Antares answered. “Things okay in the city?”
The look on Aoife’s face as she started to stroke her chin did not bode well for the group, and it was easy to tell she was concerned. “Things are calm at the moment, but it feels like there’s something brewing…”
“Yeah, I’ve been getting that feeling too…” Will noted. “How’s Inkblot doing?”
“He’s taking it easy at the moment,” Barry answered. “Hanging out with Bran and Jessica–”
“HA, Bran’s actually tolerating her for once?”
He smiled and shrugged. “I guess so–Rey told him to knock it off, and given that he rekindled things with Brandie, I imagine he’s in a way better mood at the moment.”
“Well if Jessica is actually going to work with us, it would behoove him to do so,” Marcus added. “What are you sensing in particular, Aoife?”
“Ambient infernal energy… I guess you could call it,” she answered. “His… Dustin’s magic is all over the place, and it feels like it’s starting to rile up again.”
“So at any moment we should expect the alarms to go off?” Ryota asked as he stood up, his body changing to its charred form.
Aoife nodded with a groan of uncertainty. “Yeah… Jun, sweetie, congratulations on joining Will’s squad!”
“Thank you, Mrs. Crawford,” he replied with a polite bow. “Have you been getting ready for the inevitable battle?”
“Of course, dear,” Aoife said with a flex of her right arm, showing off her muscles. “Did a good warm up this morning. You boys warm up?”
Will was going to answer, but chuckled instead. “For the most part…’
“Don’t worry, Aoife, I’ll have his back,” Adrien said as he summoned his kanabō to show it off. “Had this bad boy fixed up recently, so Dustin and whatever sorry bandido he drags in are for a thrashing. This time ain’t going to be like that sneak attack back in September…”
“Not in the slightest,” Satsuki said as he flicked what looked like a strike pad built into his scabbard, causing it to whirr like it was charging up his sword. “Everyone ready to go?”
“Goodness, are we heading out already?” Mayhem’s voice said from the pocket watch.
“Why not?” Haze asked. “No sense waiting for him if it’s that important. Remember, Barna and Dunja were incredibly proactive with dealing with Milosh Proch ten years ago.”
Sam shuddered a little as she changed into Morrigan. “Good lord, I’m glad that creep is gone…” she muttered. “Alright, I’m game–let’s roll, Boyo.”
Will adjusted his coat and started to head for the exit. “Fine with me. Ant–” and just as he was about to speak, the alarms went off with the sirens blaring across the base. “Speak of the devil…”
“We’re on, folks!” Antares said as he hurried to the doors. “Move move move!”
Next:
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
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