[Five Minutes After Leaving the Station]
"Okay..." Valerie began as she turned around in the passenger seat of the car to get a better look at everyone else. "We don't have a lot of time to gameplan here, so what all can you guys do? I know that Freddy can use 'dark magic' pretty well and is good with barriers, but I have no clue about you two."
Cyrus and Maria stole a quick glance at one another before the freckle-faced teen decided to be the first to speak up.
"I can use 'tree magic'." The man said calmly. "Basically, I can make constructs out of wood as long as I have some seeds on me. It's good for capturing and restricting movements. But it's pretty slow compared to other types of 'plant magic'."
Cyrus made sure to keep the other aspect of his magic a secret for the time being. He'll deal with it in case it comes up, which it very well could in this scenario. But for now, he didn't see a need to tell them.
"I'm a 'beast magic' user." Maria then said in a stoic tone. "All of my companions are serpent-types. They're all pretty fast and are good for attacking when they need to be."
"I see." Valerie rubbed her chin in thought as she tried to come up with a strategy for how they were all going to make this work. Admittedly, teamwork wasn't exactly her forte. Pretty much all of her time was spent working alone after all. So she really needed to think about what they could do to ensure they had a clean go at taking down this ghoul.
As if he could sense what the young woman was thinking, Freddy decided to put in his two cents while ducking and dodging through traffic as best he could. "The way I see it, the best way to go about this is by having a strategy that best plays into everyone's strengths."
"What do you mean?" Cyrus asked.
"From what I remember, none of us has any real long-range skills. So, no matter what, we're gonna need to get close to this cryptid to keep it in one place. I can set up a barrier around the ghoul as soon as we arrive to at least keep it in one area. It won't be strong, but it will get the job done to stop it from moving all over the place."
"Make sense." Maria agreed.
"After that, Ortega can use a few of her companions to distract the ghoul while McKenna takes pop-shots at it to keep it agitated. While that's going on, we should be able to give Cyrus enough time to capture the ghoul and keep it in place. His trees are pretty damn strong, so the likelihood of it breaking out once it's captured is pretty slim."
"That's a great idea!" Valerie smiled widely at the 'dark magic' user. It was certainly better than what she could cook up. The blonde was just going to go in and start slicing the shit out of the ghoul until her teammates found a way to hold the thing long enough for her to kill it properly.
"The ghoul's in a forest right now, right?" The 'tree magic' user asked his friend, to which Freddy looked down at the scanner in his lap and gave him a nod. "Then we have the terrain advantage. On top of it not being able to move around a lot, if I can gather some more acorns along the way, I should be able to make a pretty big cage to keep it in place."
"I like it!" Valerie agreed. "Let's go with that!"
"Sounds good to me." Maria simply nodded. The 'beast magic' user didn't see a problem with anything the older agent said. And it seemed like a sound strategy to her. Actually, now that she thought about it, Freddy's plan was something out of an RPG handbook.
"Then that's what we'll go with." The 'dark magic' user gave the group a quick smile. "With any luck, we might even be able to kill this thing before the Chief shows up. Now wouldn't that be something?"
"I like the way you think!" The blonde agreed wholeheartedly.
'Maybe this won't be as bad as I thought.' Cyrus told himself. This was his first time working with people outside of Ayako and Freddy. But from what he could gather, this group seemed like it was going to work out pretty well. Hopefully, they could get through this without any issues. The last thing he needed was for something to go wrong.
-(o)-
[Thirty Minutes Later]
Once the group had arrived at their destination, they wasted no time heading straight into the forest.
As soon as she got out of the car, Maria summoned Asmodeus, her green and silver serpent. Although tracking wasn't exactly his specialty, he had the best nose out of all of her companions. Once the creature was out in the open, it took a moment to nuzzle up against its master. Maria responded by giving it a quick pat on the head before giving it its orders.
"Oh wow, is that a red-crested cobra?" Valerie asked the raven-haired teen while spinning one of her machetes on her index finger.
"It is." The 'beast magic' user replied.
"You're the first person I've ever met who had one of those. Actually, now that I remember, a red-crested cobra was one of the first cryptids that I got to take down when I became an agent. Those things bite like no one's business."
"...Cool...." Maria quirked an eyebrow at the blonde's words while subconsciously pulling Asmodeus in closer. Just in case she got any funky ideas.
A few feet away from them, Cyrus watched on with genuine interest as the snake-like cryptid behaved just like any other house pet. It was his first time ever seeing something like that. So far, the only interaction he had with the magical creatures was when they were trying to attack him. Seeing one in such a docile and obedient state made him curious about whether or not that was the case for all creatures under a 'beast magic' user's control.
Before they could get any more sidetracked, Freddy got the group back on task. "The ghoul's about 350 yards away, according to the scanner. It's not moving at the moment, but that might change. So be ready for anything."
"Got it!" The other three said in unison.
From there, they started advancing through the trees at a moderate pace. All while maintaining a tight formation that best utilized their skills.
Valerie, being the most combat-experienced of the four, was leading the pack far in front of the others. Maria was pulling up the rear so that she and Asmodeus could get a better view of the area. Freddy was the man in the middle. Since he was the one holding the scanner, he would need more time than the others to react, while Cyrus was a few steps behind him, picking up as many acorns as he could, just in case he needed them.
Once they were within about 100 yards of their target, all four teens were finally able to pick up the ghoul's mana coming from directly in front of them. And Asmodeus let out a loud hissing sound to show that he, too, could feel the ghoul's presence.
'What the hell?' Cyrus mentally questioned as his senses were assaulted by the foul and slimy feeling that the cryptid's mana was giving off. It was one thing to already be able to feel its presence from this far away, but the absolutely dreadful feeling that it was putting off started to make his skin crawl.
Seeing that now would be as good a time as any, Cyrus then pulled one of the acorns out of his pouch and pooled a fraction of his mana into it. And over the course of the next few seconds, a series of small branches began extending and twisting outwards until they formed what could only be described as a wooden trident with three long, pointed edges at the end, complemented by another pointed edge at the end of the handle.
It was a neat little trick that the 'tree magic' user picked up recently after he and Ayako experimented on what he would be able to make with his creations. It was still a work in progress; he still couldn't make actual blades after all, but the result so far would be good enough to keep him relatively safe. And if worse came to worst, he could simply throw the trident at the ghoul and reshape it into a tree to capture it and keep it in place.
'So, that's 'tree magic', huh?' Maria noted after watching the freckle-faced teen in front of her make his creation. Even if it was allegedly slow, like the man said, something like that seemed very practical for what their job was.
'He must have good mana control to be able to do something like that on the fly.' Valerie thought to herself, albeit a bit jealously.
The blonde knew that 'plant magic' took a lot of mana control to use effectively, at least that was according to one of the girls that she went to school with. But a part of her was a bit miffed at the idea that a first-generation sorcerer could do something like that so easily while she, a fourth-generation, could barely manage to make a fireball without it blowing up in her face.
The woman shook that thought out of her head and put her focus back onto the task at hand. Stuff like that wasn't important right now. What mattered was finding this ghoul and making sure that it didn't end up hurting anyone.
Since the scanner was pretty much useless at this point, the group of four relied on their mana sensing abilities to guide them to where they needed to go. Slowly advancing onto the creature's position with each passing step until they were barely twenty-five yards away from it.
A bit further into the trees, Valerie was finally able to get a clear visual on the creature. And just like she had heard, it was quite the sight to see.
The thing was at least seven feet tall with long, lanky limbs. It had blotchy greyish-black skin, the same color as old concrete. Claws no more than six inches long, and two curved horns sticking out of the top of its head. Yup, there was no doubt about it, that was a ghoul alright. Just like how it was usually depicted in drawings.
From what she could see, the ghoul was hunched over while eating away at a rabbit it must've caught not too long ago. One that was very much still alive, judging by the way its hind legs were still kicking while trying to fight the creature off. That was certainly not a good sign. Ghouls get stronger the more they eat. And even something as small as a rabbit would be enough to increase its power level.
It took everything that Valerie had not to just sprint out there and start hacking away at the creature, but the young 'fire magic' user knew better. Mainly because her teammates wouldn't appreciate her just doing her own thing when they had already come up with a plan. It sucked that she had to hold herself back on the account of others, but her aunt would berate her to no end if she found out that Valerie did something like that against her wishes.
"Ugly as hell, isn't it?" Freddy said in a whisper once he too got eyes on their target.
"Sure is." The blonde replied with a grin.
"So...are we sticking to the plan?" Cyrus then asked while clutching his trident.
"It will take a few seconds for me to set up the barrier." Freddy then looked back at Maria before continuing. "When I say so, have that companion of yours distract the ghoul. Once it has the thing's attention, Valerie will go out there and start attacking it."
"Fine with me." The blonde tightened the grip on her blades.
The shaggy-haired man then formed a ball of purple mana in the palm of his hand, focusing all of his attention on it before the sphere re-shaped itself into a perfect cube.
Although he didn't have a lot of mana to work with like the rest of his teammates did, the 'dark magic' user was pretty talented when it came to stuff like this. A good barrier didn't need a lot of power behind it to be effective. Sure, more mana certainly helped, but when applied correctly, they could be strong enough to stop a bullet with ease.
Unfortunately for the quartet of young sorcerers, that one action seemed to be enough to catch the ghoul's attention.
The creature immediately dropped the rabbit that it was feasting on and stood up, slowly turning its head before stopping and looking right at the four of them. Time seemed to stand still for a brief few seconds before the ghoul let out a horrifying roar and began sprinting in their direction.
"Well shit!" Valerie blurted out before getting up and activating her body reinforcement technique. Since they lost the element of surprise, there was no point in holding back now. So, without even the slightest bit of hesitation, the tall blonde poured a bit more of her mana into her machetes and sprinted forward in order to meet the creature halfway.
In response, Maria decided to follow the woman's lead and sent Asmodeus forward to support her new teammate. The snake-cryptid complied with the order and speedily slithered along the ground, barely a few steps behind Valerie.
It didn't even take five seconds before both groups met in the middle of the small clearing. Valerie was the first to go on the offensive by taking the machete in her left hand and attempting a vertical slash to try and cut off the creature's arm. However, she quickly realized that such a simple move wasn't going to work on account of the blade not even puncturing the creature's skin.
'What?!' The blonde thought in shock before barely dodging the ghoul's attempt to swipe her face off with its claws. This was the first time she ever encountered a cryptid that was strong enough to withstand one of her attacks. However, she was not going to be deterred. The first time may have been a fluke, so Valerie quickly added more mana to the blade and tried to cut off its arm a second time. Only for the attack to have the same result.
At that moment, Valerie suddenly found herself on the defensive. Doing her best to avoid the wild and animalistic attacks that the ghoul was using to try and subdue her. However, right before the creature could lay a finger on her, Asmodeus came out from behind the thing and bit its left leg. The attack seemed to be effective considering the pained howl that the ghoul let out. But the short victory came to an end when the lanky creature used its other leg to kick Asmodeus off it and send the snake-cryptid flying backwards a good fifteen feet.
'That thing's skin is tough.' Maria thought to herself. One bite from Asmodeus should've been enough to completely sever the ghoul's leg from its body. The fact that it didn't meant that its flesh was as hard as concrete.
After watching all of that take place, Cyrus pulled an acorn out of his pouch and waited until he could find an opening. "Freddy, how long?"
"Fifteen seconds!" The 'dark magic' user replied.
"Well, hurry up!" Valerie shouted after narrowly dodging yet another attack. Since her machetes were now useless, the blonde had to fall back on what she knew best. Which was getting into a slugfest with a creature while trying to avoid getting her face ripped off.
The two exchanged blows for what felt like an eternity, with Asmodeus taking pop shots at the ghoul whenever it found an opening. For a moment, it looked like this was going to work, that is, until the creature opened its mouth and a ball of red mana suddenly formed in front of its face.
"Shit!" Valerie yelled before throwing her body to the left and narrowly avoiding a beam of burning red light. One powerful enough to leave a small crater in the ground right where she was previously standing.
"A mana burst?" Cyrus surmised. He had no clue that cryptids could do stuff like that. But considering that it was a ghoul that they were up against, he thought that he shouldn't have been surprised. Especially since they were known to get more powerful over time.
Deciding that a bit more firepower was going to be needed in this situation, Maria called out another one of her companions to help Valerie out. "Ajax, go help her!"
Cyrus and Freddy watched as a massive, twenty-five-foot-long brown and black snake with piercing purple eyes and a series of horns at both ends of its head shot out of the 'beast magic' user's hand and made a beeline towards the fighters. Arriving just in time to distract the ghoul long enough for Valerie to land a devastating mana-charged right hook onto its shoulder strong enough to completely separate its arm from the rest of its body.
With the creature apparently dazed from the punch, Ajax wrapped itself around the ghoul and began tightening down on it with a devastating amount of force.
"Cyrus, handle that!" Freddy shouted, to which the 'tree magic' user responded by running forward and cocking his arm back as he attempted to throw the acorn that he was holding in his right hand. However, just before he could make the throw, Ajax let out a pained scream and released the ghoul after the horned creature bit it.
"Ajax!" Maria shouted.
With the ghoul now free, the group was able to notice two things. The first was that Ajax now had a head-sized chunk of flesh missing from the top half of its body. The second was the ghoul hunched over with the same chunk of flesh hanging out of its mouth. The creature quickly consumed the mana-enriched flesh and let out an ear-piercing howl as its body suddenly grew. In just a few seconds, its muscles were noticeably bigger, and the horns on its head were longer.
"Well...that's not good." Valerie said while getting into a fighting stance. She could instantly tell that the ghoul had more mana than it did a second ago. And if its body was anything to go off of, its physical capabilities had probably increased as well. How she was able to injure the creature before was a complete mystery to her, not that she was complaining.
"Hey, heads up!" Freddy shouted once he was finally done with his creation.
With no time to waste, the 'dark magic' user threw the cube into the air. All it took was a couple of seconds before an area roughly twenty yards in diameter was covered by a thin veil of purple magic. One that was strong enough to keep everything and everyone inside of it.
"Perfect Cube!"
'Finally...' Maria thought to herself after allowing Ajax to retreat back into her body. It would take a while for her companion to heal from his injury. But at least they now had the ghoul contained. The only downside to that, however, was that they were also trapped within this area alongside the creature.
The ghoul's haunting red eyes looked around for a few moments before letting out another howl. Apparently, the thing was smart enough to realize that it was trapped, and it didn't look too happy about it.
Valerie braced herself for another round with the creature, but the ghoul's impending charge was stopped short when Cyrus' acorn landed right at its feet. Branches immediately began to emerge from the mana-enriched seedling and quickly wrapped around the ghoul's right leg.
"Got you!" Cyrus said with a smirk. He was waiting for an opening that wouldn't put Valerie or Maria's companion in the line of fire, and the ghoul's curiosity gave him exactly that.
The group paused for a moment as they all watched the branches creep up the ghoul's leg all the way up to its abdomen. And it was clear that the thing wasn't going to get out of that anytime soon, based on the way that it was struggling to break free.
However, unbeknownst to the others, Cyrus's creation was also slowly draining the creature's mana away, which only further accelerated its growth. This, of course, caused the ghoul to begin panicking and it immediately tried to use its claws to hack away at the strengthened wood. Although it did manage to chip away a few pieces, it was clear that it wasn't strong enough to completely do away with the 'tree magic' user's creation.
Sensing that it was now truly in danger, the ghoul proceeded to let off a series of mana bursts in all directions to keep its would-be prey at bay, causing everyone to duck and dodge to avoid getting hit by a stray shot.
This, however, did not deter Valerie one bit. After dashing about fifteen yards away from her original position, the woman saw that this was her chance to put the thing down for good. So the blonde used this opportunity to circle around the creature while further reinforcing her body.
Once she was completely out of the creature's line of sight, Valerie then dashed forward while accumulating a significant portion of her mana into her right fist. Following up by connecting a devastating punch to the ghoul's head. However, even with the amount of strength that she put into it, the punch wasn't strong enough to do any real physical damage to the thing. It was definitely way stronger than it was before it took a bite out of Maria's companion.
Of course, this caused the creature to try and attack her with another large mana burst, but the woman was saved just in time thanks to Asmodeus using its tail to pull her away before the attack could land.
"Thanks!" Valerie said to the snake-cryptid, who only replied with what sounded like a satisfied hiss.
Over the next few seconds, the group watched as the now-injured ghoul became further encased by the tree before its entire body was wrapped in a coffin of magical wood. One that only allowed the top portion of its head to be visible, thanks to Cyrus making sure that it couldn't fire off another attack. Once it was clear that the creature was completely immobilized, the four teens let out a collective sigh of relief.
"Is it over?" Maria asked while keeping her distance, just in case this trap wasn't as effective as she hoped.
"It looks that way." Freddy said with a smile in Cyrus's direction. "Those trees are stronger than steel. It shouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon."
"You got that right!" The freckled-faced teen gave his friend a thumbs-up.
"Man...that magic of yours sure is useful." Valerie said while walking up to the ghoul to get a better look at it. The woman was about to place her hand on the tree to see just how strong it was before Cyrus shouted at her.
"Don't touch that!" The man said with urgency.
"What? Why not?"
Hoping to avoid having to reveal the truth about his abilities, Cyrus quickly came up with an answer on the fly that would hopefully satisfy the woman's curiosity. "My magic is extremely reactive to mana. If you touch it, it will try to wrap you in it along with the cryptid."
"Oh shit..." Valerie quickly backed away from the ghoul, not wanting to embarrass herself by getting caught up in her teammate's magic.
"Well, I do say that this mission was a success!" Freddy then added with another smile. "We were able to capture this thing before it got too powerful. If it managed to sink its teeth into anymore of our group, who knows how much more powerful it would've gotten?"
"Please! Did you see what I did to it a second ago?" Valerie then pointed to the ghoul's disintegrating severed arm, which was only a few feet away from her. "I'm sure that I would've been able to blow a couple of chunks off its body before it ever got to that point."
"That was a pretty impressive punch." Cyrus conceded. The young man was telling the truth, too. That one punch the tall blonde was able to land was powerful enough to produce a bright flash of orange light the moment it made contact with the creature's body.
"Maybe, but better safe than sorry." Freddy added.
While the trio was going on about how they managed to subdue the creature, Maria took note of something that she found a bit strange. Maybe it was just her eyes playing tricks on her, but she could swear that the ghoul's skin was much paler than it was a minute ago. On top of that, it felt like it didn't have as much mana as it did right after it took a bite out of Ajax's flesh.
'What's going on with that thing?' The raven-haired woman wondered, only just now noticing that the tree Cyrus created was still growing. 'What is up with this magic?'
Before the 'beast magic' user could ponder on it any further, she felt another mana signature rushing towards them. For a brief moment, she put her guard up, but stopped herself when she spotted the source of it above them.
"Well...will you look at that!" The sound of Robin Stillwater's voice caught the attention of the group.
"What the hell?" Cyrus said aloud once he spotted the newcomer, or should she say newcomers.
In the sky above them, about twenty yards outside of the barrier, was none other than the Vice Captain of the Anti-Personnel Squad, along with Chief Chandler, riding on top of a massive bird with luscious brown and green feathers and three sets of wings flapping in the wind. The creature was roughly the size of a car and looked like something out of a fairy tale.
"You finally made it!" Valerie waved at the two women with a smile on her face. "Sorry, but you guys missed all the fun!"
"I can see that!" Chief Chandler shouted back.
"Lozen, take us down." Stillwater commanded her companion, to which the large bird did as it was told and descended back down to Earth. Once the two were on the ground, the group noticed that Chief Chandler was carrying a medium-sized duffle bag on her back while also holding a shotgun in her left hand.
"Stillwater flew us here as fast as she could, but I guess I was worried for nothing."
With the arrival of their boss and one of their best fighters, Freddy felt no point in keeping the barrier up and decided to take the thing down. Once the creation was gone, the Chief walked up to the group and inspected them up and down to see if anything was wrong.
"No one's hurt?" The brunette then asked.
"One of Ortega's cryptids got a chunk out of it. But aside from that, everyone's fine." Freddy explained.
"Is your companion alright?" Robin looked to Maria with concern.
"He's still in pain, but I'm feeding him a lot of mana right now. So Ajax should be fine in about a day." Maria said in a calm tone.
"Good."
"I'll admit that I'm impressed you guys actually managed to capture this thing without any major incident. I guess sending the four of you out here was a good call."
In response, Valerie gave the woman a confident smirk. "It almost sounds like you thought we couldn't handle it."
"This ghoul was pretty tough." Cyrus then added. "Most of our attacks weren't working since its skin is so strong. But we managed to catch it off guard, I guess."
'C'mon man...you're killing my victory celebration here!' Valerie shot a quick side-eye at the 'tree magic' user.
Now, it was Freddy's turn to speak up. "Either way, the job's done. This thing won't be a problem for anyone."
"Almost." The Chief said before pointing her shotgun at the ghoul's head. The woman then told everyone to cover their ears only a couple of seconds before she fired her weapon.
With a single shot, the exposed part of the ghoul's head exploded in a slurry of grey flesh and entrails. Followed by what was left of the cryptid's body fading away into dust. "Now the job's done!"
"Wait...that's all it took?" Cyrus questioned what he had just seen. "Is that a special weapon or something?"
"No." Chief Chandler replied. "I enhanced the slug with some of my mana to make it powerful enough to penetrate its skin. It's the same technique that Valerie uses with her machetes. I just apply it to bullets instead of a blade."
"Cool." The 'tree magic' user nodded in understanding.
'I remember Sebastian mentioning that the Chief was really good at that. Still, being able to enhance bullets like that isn't easy.' Maria thought to herself. From what she knew, you had to enhance both the rounds and the weapon simultaneously to be able to handle the additional firepower. And doing so incorrectly would cause the thing to explode in your hand.
"Still, what you guys did here was pretty impressive." Robin then said. "It may have only just been born, but ghouls are something that most sorcerers would have trouble dealing with. Even as a team. You should be proud of yourselves for being able to capture one so quickly."
"Yeah, well...not all of us can be Captain Mubele. I bet he would've been able to take this thing down in only a fraction of the time." Freddy laughed.
"Of course!" Robin replied. "Granted, Theo probably would've just blown its head off as soon as he saw it. But either way, this was no small feat."
"In any case, Stillwater is right. You guys did a good job. Once you're done filing your reports, you guys can all head home for the day. I think you all more than earned a day off for something like this."
"Hell yeah!" Valerie pumped her fist in the air. This meant that she would be able to go to the gym early before having to pick up Lionel from his friend's house.
"Now that sounds like music to my ears." Freddy folded his arms in satisfaction.
"At least now I have an excuse to squeeze in a mid-day nap." Cyrus smiled. He was certainly looking forward to catching some extra sleep since Ayako woke him up early.
Maria was probably the happiest out of the entire group to hear that she would be able to go home early. Not only was she still tired as all hell from her late-night gaming session, but this meant that she could focus more on letting Ajax heal since she wouldn't be doing anything else.
With all the excitement now out of the way, the group wasted no time in making their way back to the station to finish up the necessary paperwork before everyone cleared out for the day. Naturally, all of their coworkers were going to be more than impressed to hear how the four of them managed to defeat an extremely dangerous cryptid so efficiently. Something which only added to their already good spirits.
-(o)-
In the sky, high above the forest, two figures could be seen floating in the air just above the tree line.
"Man, talk about wild! I can't believe those guys were able to take down a ghoul." A well-dressed young man with caramel skin, long black dreadlocks, and orange sorcerer eyes said as he put away his binoculars. He was sporting an expensive-looking light-blue shirt, black slacks, and custom-made loafers, accompanied by a gold watch.
"I'm just glad that we didn't get caught up in any of that mess..." To the man's right was a young woman with dark skin and similar orange eyes. She, too, had a head full of well-kept dreadlocks, except hers were styled in a series of complex braids. The woman was dressed in a colorful pink and yellow blouse with a pair of white pants topped off by a pair of heels that matched her top.
"I didn't know that Lucas' wife had guys like that in her unit. They're a pretty interesting bunch, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
"A guy that's good with barriers, another with some pretty funky 'plant magic', a 'beast magic' user that can handle serpents, and that blonde chick who looks like she knows her way around a boxing ring. Man, the DPA always finds a way to get the interesting ones. Then again, this is Dad's old unit that we're talking about."
"Can we go now?" The woman sent the man an annoyed glare. "You got to see the cryptid like you wanted. And don't forget, you promised to help me do my hair as soon as we get back."
"I did?" The man looked at her as if he had no clue what she was talking about. "When?"
"Just now. I don't feel like going to the salon, and you're not doing anything else for the day."
"Whatever..."
Just as the two flying sorcerers were about to leave, a light bulb went off over the young man's head.
"Hey, I just got a crazy idea!"
The dark-skinned woman rolled her eyes, almost dreading whatever it was her brother was about to say. "You remember the last time you got one of your crazy ideas?"
"Hey, it's not my fault that the FBI's firewall was dogshit! If anything, I help them out! And the money I made from that was pretty damn good if I do say so myself!"
"Funny how that was the exact same thing you said to Mom before she grounded you." She replied. "Just tell me what it is already."
"You remember how Dad wanted to get us some bodyguards for our trip next week?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Why don't we get them? Those agents that were just down there."
The dark-skinned woman paused and mulled over that idea for a second as she twirled a strand of her dreadlocks in one hand. Honestly, it wasn't exactly the worst idea in the world. Their father was more than likely going to assign a group of agents to watch over them anyway. And picking who they brought along with them did seem like a better alternative than some randoms they knew nothing about.
"You think he'll really go for that?"
"Why not?" The man shrugged. "It's worth a shot, isn't it?"
"I guess..."
"I mean, if Elaine can do it, why can't we?"
"Did you forget that Mom and Dad let her do that because she's actually more responsible than you?"
"And what about you?" The man shot back.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." The woman feigned ignorance.
In response, the man blew a gust of wind in her face. To which the woman, who was now visibly upset, pointed her finger at him in a threatening manner while letting a small ball of light-brown mana build up at the tip. "You're so lucky we're too far away from the ground right now."
"Oh, c'mon, you wouldn't shoot me! You love me too much!"
"Not that much."
"Anyway...let's just hurry and head back. I want to ask Dad about this before he assigns us some crusty old sticks in the mud again. I'm not about to let my trip to the beach be ruined if I can help it."
"I thought you said this was work-related?"
"It is. But that doesn't mean I can't have a little fun, right?"
"Just remember not to have too much fun. You're still on thin ice after what happened last year. And I'm not about to have Mom mad at me because you decided to have a relapse."
It was now the man's turn to give the woman an annoyed look. "You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"
"Should I?"
"You know I'm not that kind of guy anymore."
"Sure, sure...."
With that, the two sorcerers flew off in the direction of their car. Allowing the cool summer air to wash over their faces as they soared through the sky.