"This is some bullshit!" Ayako shouted as she watched Cyrus fly around the training room with a smile on his face. "Like, for real, this is so unfair!"
"You think so?" The young man replied while doing a corkscrew maneuver right above the woman's head. "I for one think that it's pretty sweet!"
The morning after receiving his new skill, Cyrus and his partner were doing their morning workout in one of the station's training rooms. Things had returned to relative normalcy around the station despite everyone still trying to get a handle on the heist situation, and it was time for the field agents to resume normal operations.
"So let me get this straight. Not only did the Commissioner's kids take you to that fancy restaurant downtown, but they also hooked you up with the flying enchantment?"
"Pretty much."
"And on top of that, you got to meet Elaine MacNamara and DJ Shade?"
"Yup!" Cyrus replied with a smile on his face.
"Man...it must be nice having rich friends!"
Cyrus quickly deactivated his new enchantment and casually floated back down to the ground. Once he was done having his fun, the young man walked up to his partner, all while maintaining the childish grin on his face.
"Look at it this way, we'll be able to hunt cryptids more efficiently now. If we run into any flying cryptids, I'll be able to handle them without too much of an issue."
"Sure, whatever...." The 'water magic' user jealously folded her arms. "Just remember that I can kick your ass whenever I feel like it. Don't let this new fancy power of yours give you a big head."
"You'll have no issues from me, promise!"
With their morning training now complete, the sorcerer duo cleaned themselves up before heading back upstairs to see what was going on around the station. As far as they knew, the only thing of note was that some agent from the Raleigh office was coming in to interrogate the Iznana prisoners. Aside from that, there wasn't really much for them to do. The other field agents were currently handling all of the new cryptids that showed up. So, for now, Ayako and Cyrus were simply on standby until something came up.
Now that it was the tail end of summer, the frequency of the magical creatures' appearances would be going down. But on the flip side, the ones that did appear would be significantly more powerful now that the weather was starting to cool down. Cyrus would be lying if he said that he wasn't curious as to the reason why cryptids had such a peculiar spawning cycle, but all of his research into the subject hadn't yielded any conclusive results.
From what the young 'tree magic' user could gather, it might have something to do with how mana was distributed in the atmosphere at any particular time of the year.
Natural mana, although constantly present around the globe, tended to shift depending on the seasons. While cryptids would be less common in the northern hemisphere during the winter, they also increased in the southern hemisphere.
'I guess cryptids just prefer warm weather.' The young man surmized as he made his way down the hallway with his partner.
Stuff like this was the reason why Cyrus was so interested in becoming a magical researcher. There was still so much more about magic and sorcerer society that he wanted to learn. Nothing compared to delving into the wonders and mysteries of the world, not by a long shot. And the young man knew that there was still so much more that was yet to be either explained or discovered.
One key example, at least in Cyrus's opinion, was the theory that sorcerers and cryptids had been around longer than what most people thought. The fact that so many of the magical creatures that popped up around the world perfectly matched the descriptions of mythological creatures from the past was hard to ignore. And now that he thought about it, many famous people from throughout history who were said to have performed fantastic and mystical acts sounded like they could've been sorcerers.
'Hell, Ayako can walk on and breathe in water, both of which were known to be biblical feats. And a lot of what people said about the victims in the Salem Witch Trials sounded like a group of 'dark magic' and 'poison magic' users who were discovered and got arrested. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if sorcerers have been present all throughout human history. There's just a lot more of us now than back then.'
The young man decided to do some more research into the subject later when he had some free time. But, for now, he chose to focus on getting ready for whatever the day threw at him.
-(o)-
[Station Nine Holding Cells, Fifteen Minutes Later]
Maria Ortega would be lying if she said that she felt comfortable staring at one of the thugs who participated in the heist from across the table. And to be honest, she was more than a bit thrown off by the guy she was looking at. After all, who could blame her?
The young man who was currently in a set of mana-cancelling handcuffs couldn't have been any older than fifteen. The guy barely looked like he was old enough to drive, let alone be a member of a notorious terrorist organization like Iznana. The 'beast magic' user was genuinely curious as to how such a person ended up working for the group, but she assumed that she would be getting an answer pretty soon.
Right now, the young woman was waiting for the Raleigh Station's interrogation specialist to walk through the door. And judging by the massive mana signature that was slowly approaching her position, she knew that he would be here any minute now. She had no clue who this guy was, but Maria could already tell that this guy was S-ranked. Which meant that he would be the third one that she had run into in the last few weeks.
S-ranked sorcerers were exceedingly rare among the general sorcerer population. So much so that every country was able to keep a pretty reliable list of the ones that were currently housed within their borders. If memory served her correctly, there were fewer than one hundred and thirty in the U.S., which was pretty good compared to other countries like India and Brazil. Then again, those were the three countries with the largest sorcerer population, so it made perfect sense as to why it was like that.
'I wonder who this guy is.' The young 'beast magic' user thought to herself as she felt the unknown agent's presence get closer and closer. 'I hope he's not some sort of psycho.'
Maria was quickly able to get her question answered when the door near the back side of the room opened to reveal the person she was waiting for.
Standing there was a dark-skinned man with a long beard and a cleanly shaven head. One with deep brown eyes and near-flawless skin that was completely free of any blemishes. The guy was admittedly good-looking with a handsome face that seemed almost perfectly symmetrical. And his tall stature, coupled with his muscular physique, cut quite a figure in the raven-haired teen's opinion. However, there were two key things of interest that had Maria wondering as the new arrival made his way over to her.
The first was that the man looked remarkably similar to Elizabeth in terms of facial features. In fact, Maria would go so far as to say that he looked like a gender-swapped version of the 'earth magic' user, except taller.
The second was that the man looked absolutely exhausted, almost as if he hadn't gotten a good night's sleep in days. Maria herself was no stranger to the feeling, but this guy looked as if he was about to pass out at any given moment.
For a second, the man paused mid-step as he appeared to size up Maria before continuing his walk, causing the raven-haired woman to give him a confused look.
"Hey." The man said after a yawn. "I'm guessing you're the one who's going to be helping me out with this nonsense?"
"Yes, sir." Maria nodded.
"And judging by the fact that you have the flying enchantment, I'm going to assume that you're friends with either Evan or Elizabeth?"
"What?"
The tired-looking agent quickly got himself in order before clarifying what he meant. "Sorry, I guess I should properly introduce myself first. My name's Ethan MacNamara, Deputy Chief of the Raleigh office. I'm the guy who's supposed to probe our little friend over there for information about the heist."
"Nice to meet you, sir. I'm Maria Ortega." The woman replied with a respectful handshake. At least now it made sense as to why the man looked so much like Elizabeth; he must've been the cousin that the woman mentioned a while ago. That being said, the 'beast magic' user did wonder how he knew that she had their family's enchantment. His mana sensing must be ridiculous to immediately pick up on something like that.
Now that the introductions were out of the way, Ethan walked over to the table and started eyeing the prisoner.
The boy, because that's really what he was, was silent as he shrank under the dark-skinned man's gaze. His pale blue eyes and rounded face did nothing to hide the fear that he was no doubt feeling at the moment. And the way his body immediately started shaking let Maria know that he was not ready for whatever was about to happen.
"Okay..." Ethan then said before gingerly sitting down on top of the table, barely a couple of feet away from the prisoner. The man then pulled out his phone and began reading off the information that was now on the screen. "Gregory Boyle, age fifteen, hometown of Burlington, Vermont. According to the file that was sent to me, you went missing two years ago, right after your cousin was found dead in a river. Your mother is a teacher, and your father is a truck driver. Is that about right?"
The boy, now identified as Gregory, chose not to say anything.
"He's been silent ever since we brought him here. He won't say a word no matter what we do." Maria looked up at the Deputy Chief. "Vice Captain Stillwater thinks that it has something to do with the weird enchantment that's on his tongue."
Without so much as a word, Ethan used his left hand to reach into the boy's mouth and began his inspection. Despite the prisoner's physical protest, he could do nothing as the Deputy Chief pulled the boy's tongue out and began examining the problem.
From where Maria was sitting, she could see the enchantment in full view. There was a rune in the middle of the boy's tongue that looked similar to the ones that were now etched onto her back. It was some type of voodoo symbol that she didn't know the meaning of. To her, it looked like some weird mix between a horseshoe and a pineapple.
"Well damn." Ethan said shortly after releasing the boy from his grip. "Whoever you work for is pretty skilled."
"What do you mean?" Maria questioned the man.
"The enchantment that our friend here currently has on him is called a silencer. It's used to keep people from divulging sensitive information at the risk of their own lives, kind of like the one that you currently have on your shoulder."
Maria briefly rubbed her left shoulder, where the security enchantment that was placed on her was positioned. Unlike this Gregory guy's enchantment, her's was a simple three-layered diamond pattern.
"Can you do something about it?"
"Yes and no." Ethan replied with a yawn. "An enchantment like this is easy to break. Unfortunately, doing so would cause our friend here to die. The moment I undo the enchantment, his entire body will seize up and shut down. It's a pretty nasty bit of work. You typically only see these on captured slaves in South America."
'Well, shit.' Maria thought as she looked at the now very scared criminal. This basically meant that they wouldn't be able to get any useful information out of him. She had to assume that the other prisoner, who was being held in the other room, had a similar enchantment somewhere on his body. 'This is a dead end, isn't it?'
Surprisingly, the boy decided to speak up for the first time since arriving at the station.
"S-so, what happens to me now?"
"Hmmm...." Ethan rubbed his chin in thought before responding. "If it were me, I would just ship you off to Area 53 and be done with it."
"What's that?" The boy said. "I've never heard of that before."
"The ultra-maximum security prison where our country keeps its sorcerer criminals. The place is basically hell on Earth. I've never been there myself, obviously, but I do hear that at least one person there a day dies from what goes on inside of it. Either due to the other prisoners abusing them or starvation."
Even Maria was surprised to hear about something like that. Of course, she had heard of Area 53 before, but she only had a surface-level knowledge of the place. From what she knew, it was allegedly located somewhere in Wyoming.
"Oh, and it doesn't matter that you're a minor either. Laws regarding sorcerer criminals are way more lax than they are for normal humans. I'm pretty sure that the youngest person currently in there is like thirteen. Oh, and since you probably also killed your cousin, you're looking at a lengthy stay there. Easily ten to fifteen years, if my assumptions are correct."
The look on the boy's face immediately shifted from one of nervousness to absolute fear.
"Ortega, come with me for a second." Ethen then motioned over to the door before walking in its direction, causing Maria to get up and follow him.
Once the two agents were outside, Ethan lazily leaned up against the wall and let out yet another yawn.
"Alright, we're just gonna let him stew on that for a bit."
"Can you really not break that enchantment without killing him?" Maria asked the man.
If they weren't able to get any information out of this guy, then that would significantly hinder their investigation. The rest of the Iznana group were still out there doing God knows what. Right now, the two guys that DPA currently had in their custody were their best chance at tracking the group down.
Ethan briefly raised his eyebrows in Maria's direction before responding. "Oh, no, that part was kind of a lie. I only said that in front of him to freak him out a bit."
"What?" A very confused Maria then said.
"Although I can't completely undo the silencer, I am able to adjust its effects. Actually, I already made it so that he wouldn't immediately die if it was activated. Now, it'll just cause his vocal cords to lock up whenever he speaks about his group. It's not perfect, but it should keep him from doing something stupid."
"When did you do that?"
"When I grabbed his tongue a minute ago."
'That's insane!' Maria thought while looking at the Deputy Chief.
Even someone with very little knowledge of enchanting knew that being able to change the effects of another person's enchantments was difficult to do. But this guy was somehow able to do something like that in the span of a couple of seconds upon first look. Ethan must truly be a master-level enchanter to be able to manage something like that so swiftly; otherwise, it would've been impossible. Then again, this was a son of the MacNamara family. Maria knew that the people from this family were all rich and crazy talented, and apparently, that talent extended to practically everything that they did.
"So...what happens now?"
"We're just going to wait here for a bit and let that boy go crazy with his own thoughts. Hopefully, he doesn't try to off himself before we talk to him again. After about thirty minutes, we're going to go back in. By then, he should be ready to start begging for his life. I know that we have a few hours to do this, but I hate dragging things out; it cuts into my sleep time."
Maria couldn't help but be taken aback by how casually the man said those words. This was still a kid that they were talking about, a criminal, but still a kid nonetheless. Letting him mull over the potentially tragic outcome of his life while he was all alone seemed kind of sadistic.
Before the raven-haired woman could voice her opinion, she then watched in total confusion as Ethan literally curled up into a ball against the wall and got himself comfortable. He even went so far as to take his shoes off and use them as a makeshift pillow.
"Wake me in thirty minutes. He'll be ready to do whatever we say by then. You can do whatever you want. I'll be here when you get back."
'Is this guy serious?' Maria thought in total bewilderment. Wasn't this guy supposed to be a Deputy Chief? Why the hell was he so nonchalant about sleeping on the cold floor up against a concrete wall? Maria certainly appreciated a nice nap every now and then, but this was just plain ridiculous.
Unfortunately for her, Ethan had fallen asleep almost instantly, leaving Maria to basically twiddle her thumbs until it was time to wake him up. Naturally, the woman had no clue what to do about this situation, so she just decided to roll with it. At least she could use the time to take a break and grab a snack or something.
'What a weird guy.' Was the last thing she told herself before walking up the stairs towards the nearby lounging area.
-(o)-
'This fucking sucks!' Valerie internally shouted while trying to keep herself upright in the air.
Flying, as it turned out, was a lot more difficult than she had originally thought it would be. Not only was the tall blonde completely incapable of keeping herself stable, but she was also having a hard time trying to maintain any kind of decent altitude. For the last few hours or so, Valerie had been testing out her new ability in one of the station's training rooms. Unfortunately for her, it wasn't going the way that she wanted it to.
Unlike Cyrus, Maria, and Freddy, Valerie was unable to properly fly. Every one of her attempts so far had ended in her either propelling herself into a nearby wall or just flat out falling out of the air. To say that this was frustrating as all hell would be putting it mildly. And unfortunately, the young woman knew exactly what the problem was.
Once again, thanks to her inability to regulate her own mana, Valerie was simply unable to use the enchantment the way that it was intended to.
At first, the woman thought that the issue might have been with the enchantment itself. However, she knew that wasn't the case. Evan had applied the enchantment perfectly when he gave it to her, and even Elaine double-checked it to make sure that it was done properly. The problem was simply with her and her alone.
'I just can't catch a break, can I?'
At this point, it seemed like anytime Valerie had something good going for her, the universe would just pull her right back down to reality and remind the young blonde that she wasn't as great as she wished she was. And this time was no exception. She had literally been gifted one of the most valuable assets a sorcerer could ever have, and here she was unable to even use it without flinging herself into a wall.
"Oof!" Valerie groaned after, yet again, falling out of the air and back onto the floor. That made ten times in the last hour. This was beginning to become such a frequent occurrence that she was starting to develop bruises on her shoulder from where she broke her falls.
"Man...you suck at this!" A familiar voice then said from the training room door.
Valerie pushed herself up off the ground and turned around to see none other than Skylar Murphy standing there with a smug grin on his face. The 'earth magic' user was in his gym clothes and looked like he had just finished a good workout. On top of that, he had his phone in his hands and was no doubt recording the woman at the moment.
"What the hell do you want?" The tall blonde asked with no small amount of displeasure in her voice.
"I was just passing through and saw you trying your best to give yourself a concussion." Skylar shot back. "Ortega told me that you got your new power from the Commissioner's kids, but compared to her, you're pretty terrible at this."
"Fuck off!"
"Aww...is the Chief's favorite little minion feeling upset? Are you mad that you can't even hover three feet above the ground without doing a cartwheel?"
Valerie wanted nothing more than to run across the room and punch this douchebag in the face right now. It would be the perfect way for her to let out a bit of her frustration. But, doing something like that would easily get her in trouble. Agents going out of their way to assault one another was a big no-no in their line of work. It was the exact reason why she had to leave the San Francisco office before coming here.
"Don't you have anything better to do than record me like a fucking creep? Isn't the rest of your squad out trying to find those Iznana guys?"
"I'm stuck on office duty for the day." Skylar replied. "But thanks to you, I've been able to keep myself entertained while everyone else is out. Too bad I can't post any of these on social media, though. I bet people would love seeing you fall flat on your face over and over again!"
Valerie was about to say something to the 'earth magic' user, but Skylar turned around and gave the young woman a quick wave before making her way out of the room.
"Have fun, loser. Don't hurt yourself!"
With that, Skylar disappeared into the hallway, leaving Valerie to violently start punching the air in frustration.
This seriously sucked. Even though she should be happily enjoying her new enchantment and zipping across the room right now, Valerie was stuck embarrassing herself over and over again. It was times like these that made the young woman hate everything about herself. How could she rise through the ranks of the DPA and become an amazing agent if she couldn't even control her own mana?
The tall blonde quickly decided that her best bet right now was to try and ask someone for help. And she knew exactly who to turn to for some advice. So, after making up her mind, the young woman walked over to the other corner of the room to retrieve her phone before sending a text to whom she believed would help her with her issues.
-(o)-
Dumbbell: Are you busy?
Computer Chip: No, what's up?
Dumbbell: I need your help.
Computer Chip: Let me guess, you're having trouble flying?
Dumbbell: How did you know?
Computer Chip: I had a theory that this would happen.
Computer Chip: I'm kind of busy right now. Call me in like an hour, and I'll see what I can do to help you.
Dumbbell: Thanks. I appreciate it.
Computer Chip: No worries.
Computer Chip: Ttyl.
-(o)-
Character Profile: Ethan
Name: Ethan Barton MacNamara
Alias: N/A
Gender: Male
Age: 29
Birthday: July 8th
Birthplace: Tampa, FL, USA
Height: 73in
Weight: 224lbs
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Magic: Wind
Occupation: DPA Agent, [Redacted]
Stat Chart: S(+)
-Physical Strength - 4.5
-Intelligence - 4.5
-Magic Amount - 5++
-Magical Control - 5++
-Magic Sensing - 5++
-Special - 5++
Fun Fact:
-National Rank: 10
-World Rank: 75
-Alma Mater: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
-Current Bounty: $15 million
-Favorite food is fried catfish.
-Ethan's father, Edward MacNamara, is a Hall of Fame NFL linebacker who currently works as a sports analyst on ESPN.