As Hannah Donovan sat in the living room of her apartment, the young woman couldn't help but relish in the glory of her recent success.
Ever since the completion of their heist on the fundraiser, the strawberry blonde sorcerer had been riding high. Not only was she now officially a member of Iznana, but she was also working directly under a branch head. Everything that she wanted had finally fallen into her lap. And it felt so good to finally have a bit of stability under her feet without having to worry about what would happen next.
It took so much time and effort to get to where she was now. And Hannah honestly felt like she was finally able to breathe for the first time in years. Sure, being a member of a notorious criminal organization that was outlawed across the entire planet wasn't exactly how she envisioned her life going when she was younger. But with the amount of money she and her partners were currently raking in from their operations, the young woman was willing to overlook such an insignificant detail.
For the past three years, Hannah, Aaron, and Mikayla had busted their buts doing everything that their benefactor had ordered them to do. And all that hard work had finally paid off. All those hours they spent stealing, killing, kidnapping, and extorting others for their own benefit were time well spent. And now, their futures looked brighter than they ever had before. It wouldn't be long before they were given more important missions from the Boss. And with those missions came the promise of even more money and glory.
'Speaking of money...' Hannah thought to herself as she looked at her "work phone". 'The Boss told me that she was able to trade that 'explosion magic' user's DNA to one of the other branch heads. Which means that I should be getting my bonus pretty soon.'
Honestly, it never ceased to amaze the woman how quickly the Boss was able to turn a profit on the work that she was doing. It wasn't like the woman needed the money or anything. However, it was good to do favors for powerful people. So, the 'ice magic' user could understand why this side gig was such a lucrative venture.
Personally, Hannah never understood why so many people were willing to go through these lengths just to add strong magical attributes to their gene pools. It wasn't like they would be able to immediately take advantage of having them. At best, they would have to wait at least twelve or thirteen years before those types of magics could be used.
The only real upside was the fact that people like her sold them at a much cheaper price than any of the legal methods. But frankly, she didn't care. As long as they made money off it, how others chose to utilize valuable magical attributes was none of her concern.
The 'ice magic' user could still remember the day when the Boss told her what kind of work she would be doing. Hannah was understandably disgusted at first, and any reasonable human being would've felt the same way in her shoes. But after learning the process and performing the procedure a few times, the woman found that she had a real talent for it. On top of that, she rather enjoyed it.
Okay, technically, Hannah was only supposed to be doing that to criminals and people of extremely high value. But, it was so much easier (and fun) to forcibly extract the DNA from people than to have to pay them for it outright.
Was it absolutely wrong? Yes. Had she become completely desensitized to the whole ordeal? Absolutely. But in the grand scheme of things, it was a necessary evil to further her own ambitions. And the fact that she learned to enjoy it was simply an added bonus.
Human trafficking was a big business after all. One that Iznana greatly benefited from all across the world. And if this is what Hannah had to do to secure her spot in the organization, then so be it.
Just as the 'ice magic' user was about to turn on the television to find something to watch, Aaron suddenly entered the apartment. The man looked pretty tired at first glance, but that wasn't exactly out of the norm for him. The guy did spend most of his day working at his construction site job after all. And even with his enhanced sorcerer physiology, that kind of work was hard on the body.
"Fun day at work?" The woman asked her brother as he dragged his feet toward the kitchen.
"No more than any other day." The shaggy-haired teen replied.
A little while later, after showering and filling his stomach, Aaron joined his sister on the sofa. The duo spent a few minutes indulging in one of their favorite shows before the young 'fire magic' user began to speak.
"You're lucky that you get to work in an office. All this manual labor is starting to get on my nerves."
"I thought you liked your job?"
"I do." Aaron replied while taking a sip of his water. "But our new foreman doesn't know shit. He keeps screwing up the planning phase, and everyone else has to spend extra time on the site making up for his mistakes. He's trying, but everyone knows that the only reason he even got his position is because his uncle owns the company."
"Gotta love good ol' nepotism, right?"
"Anyways...I thought you and Mikayla were going out to the club tonight? What happened with that?"
Hannah took the opportunity to mess with her brother a bit. "Why, wanna join us?"
"No." The young man shook his head. "Just curious. That's not really my scene anyway."
"Aaron, you really need to learn how to relax and have some fun. I know you've been this way ever since Mom and Dad were killed, but it's starting to get annoying. All you do is work and stay home. Hell, you work so much that it makes me work harder just to feel like I'm not slacking."
All the 'fire magic' user could do was shrug. "I don't have anything else better to do. You and Mikayla actually have social lives that you need to keep up. I don't. Besides, it's better for all of us that I make sure everything is running smoothly while you two are busy."
Hannah honestly felt a bit bad after hearing that. It was the truth, though. She and the third member of their group actually had lives that they maintained outside of their work for Iznana. Primarily as a way for them to cover their tracks, just in case they needed an alibi. It was the main reason why the 'ice magic' user worked in such a public setting. Aaron, however, couldn't really do that since he was always at risk of being hunted down by the McKenna family.
The strawberry blonde hated that it had to be this way. Even after they went through the trouble of getting the Boss to change their identities before moving out here to North Carolina, it was still too risky for him to move recklessly. After all, Aaron couldn't even use his magic around others out of fear of drawing in too much attention. A fact that he continuously lamented over after his little slip-up during the heist.
'We still need to do something about that.' Hannah thought to herself. 'The local Chief is a member of the McKenna family. She's probably working on finding out who Aaron is as we speak.'
This issue was a big part of the reason why Hannah agreed to join Iznana in the first place. Not only was it a good opportunity for them to make some money and stop living in poverty. But there was a good chance that they would be able to find a solution that would allow Aaron to live a normal life. On top of the fact that her brother would be protected from the people who would no doubt try to get their hands on him to secure his magic.
'At least we're not rummaging through trash cans for food anymore.' The woman then thought to herself as she reminisced on all the times that their trio had struggled to find their next meal and keep a roof over their heads. A life that she didn't want to return to ever again.
Hoping to get rid of this sour mood that she now had, the strawberry blonde sat up on the sofa before looking her brother right in the eyes with a smile.
"Hey, when was the last time the two of us actually spent some time together? For something that wasn't work-related?"
Aaron racked his brain for an answer, but couldn't come up with one. "A while, I guess."
"I thought so. Come with me!" Hannah then stood up before grabbing the man by his arm and leading him to the door.
"Where are we going?"
"There's this new pastry shop that just opened up down the road. I've been meaning to go check it out, and now seems as good a time as any to do that. It's just the two of us today since Mikayla is about to reopen her shop. So why don't we have a little sibling bonding day?!"
"Fine with me." The man didn't bother protesting. It wouldn't have done him much good anyway.
And just like that, the duo left their apartment. Hoping to enjoy the rest of their day without any worries.
-(o)-
"This shit doesn't make any sense." Chief Zoe Chandler said aloud with no small amount of frustration in her voice. "Who the hell is this guy?"
Lucas looked at his wife for a second before responding. "Are you certain that this mystery man is even related to you?"
"He has my family's fire technique, babe. I know that colored flames aren't exactly unique, but ours is the only one that can produce purple flames."
"Well, what else can it be?" The genius 'light magic' user shrugged. "The only possible explanation is that he could be Quincy Vuur's kid. But we all know that's not possible. Quinton's father only has two children, and he's never sold off his sperm despite all the money people have offered him."
"Just what the hell is going on here?"
Chief Chandler truly had no clue how to figure out what the answer to her current dilemma was. Some unknown Iznana boss was out there in the world with her family's special 'fire magic' technique, and she wasn't any closer to figuring out who the guy could be. She already knew that the guy was a relative of hers, but making a solid connection was basically impossible.
Her grandmother only had one child, and all of her mother's biological children were accounted for. Honestly, the only possible explanation that made any type of sense was that he somehow belonged to her older brother, Quincy Vuur. However, the Chief had already contacted the man about this, and he made it very clear that he didn't have any other children. All he had was his son, Quinton, and his daughter, Qamari. And it wasn't like the guy could've been Quinton's; their ages just didn't match up.
There was a chance that the guy was just some random 'fire magic' user who just so happened to develop the exact same magical technique that the McKenna family was famous for. But the likelihood of that being the case was damn near zero.
The Chief knew that finding out this guy's identity was going to be a crucial piece in tracking down the criminals who participated in the heist. Once they had that, finding the rest of his associates would be easy. Unfortunately, their investigation had hit a dead end. So for now, Station Nine was stalled.
'I guess I should count myself lucky that I'm not the only one dealing with this.' The brunette woman thought as she sat on the bed next to her husband.
As it turned out, Station Nine weren't the only ones hit with a surprise attack by a group of Iznana operatives. In the past week, three other related incidents have taken place all over the country. One in New York, one in Sacramento, and one in Philadelphia. The first two were heist jobs on a museum and a billionaire's mansion, respectively. The other was a kidnapping that resulted in the niece of some big-shot in the Catholic Chruch going mission. It was clear that all of these incidents were somehow connected, but the woman was having trouble seeing what the larger picture was.
"You should take a break." Lucas then said to the woman as he gently rubbed her back. "Stressing out over this won't do you any good."
"I know...." The Chief replied with a sigh. "I just feel like something big is happening. And I want to get in front of it before we're caught on our heels."
"I understand, I really do. But worrying about it now is pointless. Your investigation will bear fruit soon enough. Stop trying to rush things when you still don't have all the pieces yet. Let Valerie, Robin, and the others do their job. That's what they're there for."
The Chief had no real argument against that; her husband was right, ike always. "Yeah, yeah, I know."
"Speaking of Valerie...." Lucas then attempted to change topics. "She's going to be out late again?"
The Chief nodded. "Yup. She's over at the twins' house getting Evan to help her with her flying problem. I don't know what they're doing over there, but they're trying to make it so that she doesn't fling herself into a wall every time she tries to lift herself off the ground."
"Are you sure that's all they're doing?"
The Chief turned her head to look at the man's face. For a brief second, she had no idea what he was trying to imply. But after thinking about it for a moment, she picked up what he was getting at. "What, you think they're over there fucking or something?"
"Could be." The man shrugged. "You know how teenagers are these days."
"Oh, please!" The Chief chuckled. "Valerie can barely talk to a boy she finds attractive without turning into a blubbering buffoon. Even if she wanted to, she'd get cold feet the moment either of them tried to make a move."
"Good point."
Things quickly took a turn when the brunette woman turned around and grabbed the man's hands before abruptly shifting their weight and forcing Lucas onto his back. Chief Chandler now had the man in a perfect mounting position, and judging by the look on her face, it was pretty clear as to what her intentions were.
"But...this just means that Valerie won't be home for a while. And since Lionel's already asleep, that leaves the two of us plenty of time to have a bit of fun."
Lucas smiled at the woman before letting out a chuckle of his own. "Trying to make the most of our time together before I have to head back to work?"
"Sweetie, your boss should be happy that I'm even letting you go back at all."
-(o)-
[Friday Evening]
"Y'know...watching movies that involve magic and fantasy nowadays seems kinda...dull, don't you think?" Cyrus asked Freddy with a weird expression on his face.
"You think so?" The 'dark magic' user replied.
"Like, watching the characters perform magic looks good on screen. But when you've seen your coworkers throw fireballs around for fun, it makes the whole thing look kinda cheap in comparison."
"Hmm...I get what you're saying."
The two young sorcerers were currently leaving the theater after watching the movie that Freddy wanted to check out. Overall, they really did enjoy the film; it was everything that they expected it to be, and more. But all of the major fight scenes fell kind of flat for those who were used to doing similar things in real life. Despite all of that, it was still a pleasant experience.
"So, you want me to drop you off at home?" Freddy then asked Cyrus as they continued their way through the parking lot while avoiding the rest of the crowd.
"If you could be so kind!" The 'tree magic' user replied. "It's already late enough as it is. And I'd like to hop into bed as soon as possible."
"No problem, bro."
Unbeknownst to the two teens, they were being watched by a group of masked individuals in a van on the other side of the parking lot. The people on the inside of the vehicle had been waiting for their chance for the better part of two hours, and it looked like their patience was finally about to pay off.
"We're moving." Aaron said to his minion in a cold tone. "We may have his phone hacked, but keep your distance. I don't want them to sense us before we're somewhere safe."
"Yes, sir." The nameless thug nervously replied.
It was now time for Aaron Donovan to make his move. He had been planning this little operation of theirs for the better part of two weeks, and all his preparations were finally about to pay off. By the end of the night, Cyrus Moore would be in his grasp. And the fate that awaited the young 'tree magic' user at the hands of his sister would finally be realized.