[Washington, D.C., September 2022]
"His creations can absorb mana?!" Thomas Blair, the current U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, said to his niece with a face full of genuine shock.
"Sure can." Alyssia Blair nodded to her uncle as she sipped on her glass of wine. "I saw it with my own eyes. And he confirmed it himself."
"Well, I'll be damn..."
At the moment, the two, along with Solomon, were all sitting in the living room of Thomas Blair's luxurious condo that overlooked the skyline of the nation's capital. Alyssa and Solomon had arrived in the city the previous night after staying in Charlotte for a couple of days following the fundraiser. And after getting settled in, the two Blair cousins were quick to inform their family's de facto leader of the events that transpired.
News of the fundraiser heist was already making the rounds throughout sorcerer society. And naturally, Thomas wanted to know everything that transpired that night, just in case there was some information that he could use as leverage against the DPA.
"His ability is strong enough to kill a manticore in barely under a minute." Alyssa continued.
"You were there too?" Thomas then looked to his son, who was still burning brain cells with that handheld game of his.
"Yes." Solomon nodded his head in agreement.
Thomas, a thin man with tanned skin, an angular face, brown eyes, and blonde hair, stood up from his seat and began pacing around the room as he tried to rationalize the information that he had just been given. Alyssa and Solomon could already see the gears turning in his head, and the two of them had a pretty good idea as to where this conversation was about to go.
"What are the chances that we might be able to get him to join our family?"
"I can't say." Alyssa shrugged. "I haven't talked to him all that much. But to be honest, I think that the MacNamaras already have us beat. He is friends with the Commissioner's kids."
"It wouldn't surprise me if Eugene already knew about this." Thomas rubbed his chin with a grimace. The current head of the DPA had a suspicious habit of always knowing this kind of lucrative information before him. After all, this was the same man who managed to poach one of his family's best young talents for that little kill squad of his. "Dig up some more info on the Cyrus Moore boy. I want to know everything that I can about him before I try to contact him."
"I'll do what I can, but no promises."
In truth, Alyssa had already come up with a strategy on how she was going to go about this. But it was going to take some time and preparation before she could put it into action.
"Imagine what it would be like to have that kind of power at our disposal. Having the ability to absorb mana is a total game-changer."
Alyssa knew very well where her uncle's mind was starting to go. Then again, it wasn't exactly difficult for her to figure it out.
"You know..." Solomon then spoke up while giving his cousin an evil grin. "Alyssa's not seeing anyone right now. Why not just have her try to seduce this guy and get pregnant?"
Thomas gave the 'carnivorous plant' magic user an unimpressed glare. "You do remember that we have people we hire for this kind of thing, right? Your cousin doesn't need to go and get herself knocked up when there are plenty of others who can do it for us."
Just like pretty much every other major family, the Blairs had a list of men and women on retainer who they could hire to produce more sorcerers for them whenever someone wanted to have children. It was actually a common practice among big sorcerer families across the globe. Granted, it was much more prevalent in places like China, which were still trying to build up their meager sorcerer population, but most of the Nine Families actively participated in it as well.
"Actually...that might not be such a bad idea." The 'rose magic' user then said, much to the confusion of her uncle. "It'd be way cheaper than hiring one of our usual surrogates, and we'd limit the risk of anyone else in the family getting the chance to gain the absorption power. We'd be able to use it as leverage against everyone else."
"We also don't know if this agent's ability can be passed down genetically. It's too high a risk for an unknown result. Besides, you know your mother would be against it." Thomas countered before sitting back down. "You know what, let's just table this discussion for now. Just focus on getting some more information on this boy. We can decide on our course of action after that."
"As you wish." Was the last thing Alyssa Blair said before standing up and walking out of the room while she contemplated on how she was going to bring her new target into their family. It simply wouldn't do to have that kind of power wandering around without it being under their control. So, as the one who discovered such a wonderful future asset, it was her duty to make sure that they brought Cyrus Moore into the Blair family as soon as possible.
-(o)-
"This is all that you and Ethan were able to get?" Chief Chandler asked Maria after reading over the interrogation report.
"Yes, ma'am." The raven-haired teen nodded. "He was only able to give us the location of the hideout before his enchantment kicked in and paralyzed him."
"Fuck...." The Chief sighed while tossing the report onto her desk. "And that place is probably abandoned by now. Hell, they might have even destroyed it already."
"Deputy Chief MacNamara had the same thought...and then he went to sleep on the table...."
"That new cryptid of yours can't tell us anything either, can he?"
"No, ma'am." Maria shook her head.
Maria had already asked her new companion, Abzu, everything that he knew about the Iznana group. Unfortunately, the rainbow serpent couldn't give her anything useful. The creature had been transported here all the way from Tennessee shortly after it was born, and most of that time was spent inside either a cage or the back of a truck. On top of that, it had never gotten the chance to see the outside of the cave where it was being held. All it could tell her was that it took around three hours for them to travel down to Gastonia, which didn't help her in the slightest.
The only useful piece of information that Abzu was able to give the young woman was that the cave had a lot of lead in it. However, there were tons of old lead mines around the western part of the state. So, there was really no way of narrowing down their options until the prisoner told them where it was located.
The Chief let out another dramatic sigh before speaking. "In any case, thank you for this, Ortega. I know that it must suck being the only one stuck here when most of your team is out hunting down clues, but you've been a big help."
"It's part of the job."
"Anyways...have you found any new leads on your cold case yet? I know that Stillwater promised to help you out with it."
"No, ma'am." Maria shook her head once again.
The 'beast magic' user had hit a dead end on her cold case a while back. With how little information there was on Inquisitors and their bizarre tech, there really wasn't much that she could do. For now, her only option was to wait until something else popped up. And to be honest, the thought infuriated her to no end.
"One of my buddies told me that an Inquisitor was spotted in Texas not too long ago, but I don't know what happened there. If anything comes up, I'll forward the info to your Vice Captain."
"Thank you. I appreciate it."
"Oh, and one more thing." Chief Chandler's face suddenly got serious as she leaned forward in her seat. "Valerie told me that you guys found out Moore's little secret, am I right?"
"Yes."
"I trust that you know not to let anyone know about that? You do know what might happen to him if that information got into the wrong hands, right?"
"I do."
Although Maria never delved too deeply into the topic, she knew exactly how serious the situation around her teammate was. Human trafficking was a huge issue in sorcerer society, so much so that there was an entire DPA task force dedicated to it. And as morbid as it sounded, Maria was glad that she was a woman; it meant that she would never have to deal with it personally.
Since the sorcerer gene was almost always passed down through the father, there was basically no reason to kidnap female sorcerers to try and gain their abilities, especially for people with her magical attribute. After all, why try to get a female sorcerer to make strong sorcerer children when a normal human would serve the exact same purpose and yield the same result? The whole thing was basically pointless.
As far as she was aware, hundreds of male sorcerers with unique magic types were kidnapped every single year, whether they were children or fully grown adults. And most of them were never seen again. Maria remembered one story her father told her about a middle schooler with 'particle magic' disappearing in Mexico one day, only for a horde of new 'particle magic' users to start popping up about twelve years later, all around the country. The whole thing sent a chill down the woman's spine when he told her. And she certainly understood why it was important to keep this a secret.
That being said, it was easy to see why Cyrus would be such a huge target for any unscrupulous individuals looking to profit off of his abilities. The ability to absorb mana through your creations had numerous possibilities. If a powerful 'plant magic' user, like an S-rank, for example, had that ability, they would easily become one of the most dangerous people alive. And that went double for anyone who could make more offensive-oriented plant creations.
"Good." The brunette nodded. "Anyways, you're free to go. And don't worry about those prisoners, they'll be gone by the end of the day. We've already gotten everything that we could out of them."
With that, Maria gave her boss a short nod before leaving the office to head back to her squad's area. The woman was a bit curious about what would become of their two captives, but considering the fact that they were valuable criminals connected to a major terrorist group, she knew it probably wasn't anything good. In any case, it wasn't really her problem anymore. So, the raven-haired teen decided to push those thoughts to the side and focus on her work. Anything else would simply be a waste of energy, in her opinion.
-(o)-
[A Few Days Later]
"I swear, this has to be a dream!" Mikayla cackled while looking at her bank account. "I've never seen this many zeros in my life!"
"I could buy a mansion with all this money." Hannah joked while also looking at the updated information on her phone.
It had only been a couple of days since the Boss and her people came by to pick up the stolen merchandise, and apparently, the Iznana trio's leader had already sold everything off for a hefty sum.
It was times like these that made all of their efforts seem worth it. Not only were Hannah and her friends now officially a part of Iznana's inner circle, but they were also stupidly rich to boot. So rich, in fact, that it wouldn't be wrong for them to consider moving out of their current apartments and finding somewhere else to live.
Right now, the 'ice magic' and 'bone magic' users were sitting at the table of their warehouse hideout, going over a few documents and reports. With the business concerning the heist completed, they were able to disperse their few remaining minions all over the state to start working on other projects that required their attention. Although the two were a bit sad over the fact that they had to destroy their cave hideout to cover their tracks, the money that they now had more than made up for the loss of working space.
While the two were busy reading over some more documents, Aaron walked into the room. The young 'fire magic' user looked notably tired compared to how he usually appeared, no doubt due to a hard day's work at the construction site he was currently employed at.
"Alright, I'm here." Aaron declared in his usual stoic tone of voice. "What's up?"
"We're going to be making our move on Cyrus." Hannah said with a smile. "The Boss gave us the green light when she was here the other day. She also confirmed that he can indeed absorb mana through his trees."
"Got it." The raven-haired man nodded. "How soon do you want this done?"
"There's no rush, take your time. But sometime within the next few weeks would be great."
"That should give me enough time to cook something up."
"You seem rather excited." Mikayla gave Hannah a knowing grin.
"I am!" The 'ice magic' user nodded. "It's been a while since I've had a new toy to play with."
"Y'know...if you weren't my friend, I'd have a real problem with what you do to the guys we capture in that little sex dungeon of yours."
"For the last time, it's not a sex dungeon!"
The 'bone magic' user mockingly held her hands up in a defensive manner. "Sure, sure..."
Hannah quickly felt the need to defend herself. "I don't want to hear anything from either of you two about how I do my business! If anything, I'm the least weird out of the three of us!"
"That's not even close to true."
"Agreed." Aaron nodded his head to Mikayla's statement.
"Right, right, because the consummate thief and cold-hearted murderer are so much better than me!"
"You have to admit, it is pretty weird, though." Aaron then added. Maybe this could finally be his chance to get some stuff off his chest. "I get that you're into the whole dominatrix power-fantasy stuff, but you could just pay a guy to do all of that for you. Locking those guys up and abusing them for weeks on end isn't a good look."
"As long as they don't die, then what's the problem?" Hannah was now in full defensive mode. "That's the only rule that the boss gave me. Besides, they're always fine at the end of the day."
"Aside from the injuries and life-long PTSD they all no doubt have thanks to you putting them through weeks of drug-induced torture and abuse?"
That comment was enough to force Hannah to stand up and begin walking toward the door. The last thing she wanted was to deal with these two trying to posture about how she enjoyed her free time. "Fuck the both of you! I'm going to get something to eat!"
"Bring me back something!" Mikayla shouted, only to receive a firm middle finger from her long-time friend as the 'ice magic' user slammed the door on her way out.
With the fun now over, the two remaining Iznana operatives chose to spend the rest of their time relaxing. While Mikayla continued to gush over her newfound riches, Aaron decided to start laying the groundwork for his plan to capture Cyrus. This was going to take quite a bit of effort on his part, but it wasn't like he hadn't done this kind of thing before. And with any luck, the money that they were going to gain from this new operation would set them up nicely in the future.
'I almost feel bad for the guy.' The 'fire magic' user thought to himself as he pulled his laptop out of a nearby shelf. 'But hey, this won't be my problem once I get my hands on him. Besides, it's not like he's going to die once my sister is done with him. So, he should be fine.'
-(o)-
Character Profile: Alyssa
Name: Alyssa Magnolia Blair
Alias: N/A
Gender: Female
Age: 24
Birthday: February 23rd
Birthplace: Jefferson City, MO, USA
Height: 65in
Weight: 129lbs
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Brown
Race: White
Magic: Plant (Rose)
Occupation: Personal Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Florist
Stat Chart: C
-Physical Strength - 2
-Intelligence - 4
-Magic Amount - 3
-Magical Control - 3
-Magic Sensing - 3
-Special - N/A
Fun Fact:
-Alma Mater: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
-Favorite food is pasta salad.
-Has a secret collection of over two hundred Funko Pops (Started her collection after her cousin, Solomon, gave her one for her birthday).