The scent of laundry detergent and dryer sheets lazily drifted through the air as Mikayla Dempsey stood behind the front desk of Spin City Laundry. Her fingers absentmindedly flipping through a stack of money as she watched a middle-aged woman fumble with a roll of quarters near one of the detergent dispensers. And the slow spin of the dryers across the room hummed with a muted rhythm, like clock hands circling toward something inevitable.
'Another easy day.' The 'bone magic' user thought to herself while taking a moment to observe the scene playing out before her.
The curly-haired brunette would be the first to admit that this wasn't where she thought she'd end up, standing behind the counter of a laundromat with her name stenciled on the glass door for all to see. But then again, nothing in Mikayla's life had ever gone according to plan. Not since she was sixteen and decided that the world owed her more than just expired milk and week-old turkey sandwiches.
She could still remember that night. The night she had left a stale home in the dead of night with nothing but an old backpack and a box of stolen jewelry to drop off at the nearest pawn shop that she could find.
Looking back on it, it was definitely a dumb decision to abandon her home and leave her parents behind without so much as a warning or a simple goodbye. But either way, it was one that had to be made sooner or later. It was only a matter of time before she left anyway. And Mikayla had no desire to live out the rest of her childhood in poverty while her mother and father struggled to put food on the table.
The woman took a moment to glance out the window at the quiet street ahead. The late mid-autumn sun hit the sidewalk like golden syrup, and the scent of detergent mingled with the citrus disinfectant she had spritzed in the air earlier.
Mikayla liked this time of day. Not many customers, and not too many issues. Just standing behind the front desk of her own business. Not hiding, not running, and certainly not hungry. No, there was none of that, not any more. Just clean jeans, a soft flannel shirt, a warm drink, and a place where people nodded at her like she mattered.
She wasn't just surviving anymore. She was living.
Around this time three years ago, Mikayla was still pickpocketing her way through Southern California while doing anything that she could to get her hands on some extra cash. Now, she had all that, and more. She had real money, some of which was stashed away in offshore banks. She had a nice car that turned heads every time she drove by. And she lived in a plush condo not too far away from her shop that most people wouldn't be able to afford.
Not bad for a runaway who didn't even bother to finish high school.
Mikayla exhaled slowly, watching the woman from before finally get her machine running. She looked up and gave the 'bone magic' user a warm smile. Mikayla nodded politely in return.
It was still so hard to imagine that all of this would've never happened if she hadn't run into Hannah and Aaron on that fateful night in Fresno a few years ago. The whole situation was actually pretty funny now that she thought about it. Not only had she managed to try to rob two of the only people on the planet who could sense her coming from a block away, but she almost ended up getting burned to a crisp as a result of it. Fortunately, Hannah was more composed than Aaron had been when it happened. If she wasn't, then the 'bone magic' user wouldn't even be standing her right now.
The whole situation was certainly the strangest start to a friendship she had ever experienced. But it was a fun memory to think about every now and then.
Funny how things turn out, she mused. If Mikayla's younger self could see her now, she probably wouldn't believe what she had become. A business owner. A millionaire. An agent of one of the largest crime syndicates on the planet. And above all, happy.
Although Iznana certainly wasn't the woman's end goal for how she wanted to live her life, Mikayla would be the first to admit that being a part of such a group had its benefits. The organization wasn't some petty coven or underground circle. They were everywhere. Europe, America, Africa, Southeast Asia, their reach stretched quietly through the world's cities like shadows hidden behind glass. And Mikayla Dempsey was going to milk that fact for as long as she could before it was finally time for her to cash in her chips and retire on a nice piece of land in the middle of nowhere with all of the money that she could get.
She deserved it, after all. Someone like her had no business scraping the bottom of the barrel for what she wanted.
No, not at all. Mikayla was someone who deserved all the luxury in the world. It was the reason why she never felt bad about taking things that belonged to others. Why should other people have nice things when she clearly was more suited for them? Like that high schooler she pickpocketed last night on her way home from the gym. His phone was way too nice for someone like him; it suited the 'bone magic' user's style much better.
It was simply the natural order of things.
The dryers beeped. Another load finished. Another hour passed.
Mikayla couldn't help but smile to herself as she watched her customers, who she was totally not ripping off, move through the room like the little rats that they were. Cool, quiet, and completely in control.
Suddenly, the door to the laundromat chimed open. And for a brief moment, Mikayla paused at the sight of who had just walked in. Of all the people she expected to walk into her establishment, she certainly wasn't planning on a DPA agent coming through her door. Especially at this hour.
"Hey, it's you!" The curly-haired brunette said with a smile as she watched Maria approach the front desk with a laundry bag slung over her shoulder.
-(o)-
"Oh, hey." Maria replied to Mikayla's sudden declaration after walking into the laundromat. "Long time, no see."
The 'beast magic' user then adjusted her oversized denim jacket, the one she thought made her look less like a federal agent and more like a broke college student. She clutched a mesh laundry bag filled with thrift-store clothes she hardly ever wore. Props, really. Disguises for a role she wasn't sure she was ready to play.
Why she was the one assigned to this mission was still a mystery to her. Sure, she was the only one of the APS agents to have actually interacted with Mikayla Dempsey before, but was that really a good enough reason to send her out on a reconnaissance mission like this one? It seemed a bit reckless, at least in Maria's opinion. But hey, orders were orders.
"A few months, if memory serves me right." Mikayla then said while wiping her hands on a towel and standing up from her seat.
The 'bone magic' user's curly brown hair was pulled back in a practical bun, and she wore nothing but a simple, worn flannel shirt and jeans. Nothing about her screamed "Iznana operative". And yet, according to the information Maria got from her superiors, Mikayla was more than just a laundromat owner. She was suspected to be a low-level operative for Iznana of all things. An international syndicate of rogue sorcerer users involved in practically every type of crime known to man.
As well as the group of people who had kidnapped Cyrus and killed Freddy.
Maria didn't let her wariness show. She had trained for this, even if it wasn't something she was used to. Going undercover was supposed to be low-risk in cases like these. It was supposed to be a simple matter of just observation, small talk, and presence. But still, her fingers twitched at her sides. After all, she didn't know what to expect here.
"So, you live around here? This is the first time I've seen you drop by."
"No." Maria shook her head after shaking off her nerves. "I get let out of work early, so I decided to get some laundry done before heading back home. The washer room where I live is closed for maintenance right now."
"Gotcha." Mikayla nodded with a smile. "Well, I hope you enjoy what we have to offer here. You're in luck, I just finished cleaning the place yesterday. Be careful of the last dryer on the back, though. It has a habit of eating people's socks like a damn gremlin."
"Thanks for the heads up." The raven-haired teen replied before walking off with her bag full of dirty clothes.
With their conversation now over, Maria went about her business as if she were a regular customer. She made a show of loading her laundry into a machine, inserted the coins, and sat down to wait. And as the minutes ticked by, she watched Mikayla return to her phone and watched as the customers came and went.
In the middle of all that, the 'beast magic' user did her best to keep her eyes and ears open for whispers, for clues, for anything. Anything that she could use as evidence of Mikayla's supposed involvement in Iznana. Of course, she wasn't expecting to find anything substantial in a place like this. But surely there had to be something here that she could've used. Something that Captain Mubele and Vice-Captain Stillwater could latch on to to make their lives easier.
But there was nothing. Nothing at all.
As far as she and her companions could tell, there wasn't anything unusual about the laundromat. No stray mana signatures. No secret rooms. No shady individuals lurking about. For all intents and purposes, it was just a regular building. Hell, there weren't even any other sorcerers in here besides the two of them.
About thirty minutes later, Maria stood up to switch her clothes from the washing machine to one of the available dryers. And once she was done putting her dirty clothes inside the machine, the raven-haired teen sat back down on one of the sofas near the front of the building, right next to the large television next to the vending machine.
From here, Maria had a good view of the counter, the back hallway, and the small locked office Mikayla had briefly stepped into not too long ago. Whatever was inside that office, she couldn't know. But even now, Maria doubted that it would be anything significant. Mikyala would have to be a total idiot to keep any of her Iznana secrets in such an obvious place.
As time went on, Maria found herself growing more and more nervous by the second.
This was all a lot more stressful than what Maria had originally expected. She could handle stuff like tracking down rogue criminals and investigating some magic-related incident. Situations like those were always straightforward and simple. But undercover work? Talking, pretending, improvising? That was still new, raw, and uncomfortable. Sebastian was much better suited to this kind of stuff. But unfortunately for her, her partner was busy investigating what was left of the Iznana operatives' now-destroyed hideout in the mountains.
As the dryer continued its cycle, Maria forced herself to drift back to the counter. Mikayla was now leaning against it, scrolling through something on her phone without a care in the world.
"So…" Maria said casually. "How's business?"
Mikayla looked up, tilting her head slightly. "Can't complain. People always need clean clothes, right?"
"Guess it beats a nine-to-five."
"Yeah, but I still end up working weird hours. Still better than how I grew up, though." Mikayla's tone grew more thoughtful. "No hot water, no dryer. Clothesline out the window and hoping that no one steals your socks."
Maria let out a quiet chuckle at the thought. "I know exactly what you mean. My mom used to iron my church clothes with a pan over the stove after our iron broke."
"Sounds about right." That made Mikayla chuckle. "You're not from money, are you?"
Maria blinked, caught off guard by the sudden question. "Was it that obvious?"
"Call it a gut feeling. You've got that look…like someone who knows how to make five bucks stretch for an entire week."
"Well…you're not wrong."
It was a strange moment. Easy, human. For a second, Maria forgot why she was even here. Mikayla didn't talk like a member of Iznana, a ruthless network of rogue sorcerers who trafficked in innocent people and made enemies disappear. She talked like someone who'd scraped their way out of the dirt and built something from scratch.
But that was the point, wasn't it?
People in Iznana weren't dumb. They couldn't be, especially in their line of work. Most knew how to keep their tracks covered when it mattered.
Maria then forced herself to send a casual glance around the room. She noted the cracked tile near the back office, the lingering scent of burnt sage in the air. Along with the photo of Mikayla and her two partners sitting in what she assumed to be some nice restaurant.
Maria needed more. A tip, a clue, anything to tie Mikayla to Iznana.
But Mikayla was careful. Too careful.
And the laundromat was clearly free of anything to tie her to the organization in any way.
'Looks like this mission was a dud.' The raven-haired teen thought to herself.
Not too long after that, the dryer dinged behind her. And Maria wasted no time packing her now clean clothes into her laundry bag and making sure that she secured her detergent. It may have been the cheap stuff, but it still cost her seven bucks at the supermarket. There was no way she was going to leave that behind and buy a new one.
"Guess I'll see you around." Maria then said to the 'bone magic' user as she made her way to the door.
Mikayla nodded. "Don't be a stranger! Come by whenever. Good to see a familiar face around here."
"You too."
With that, Maria took her leave. But the weight of a fruitless mission hung heavily on her shoulders. No evidence. No leads. Just a pleasant conversation with a woman who may or may not be part of a magical crime syndicate.
As she stepped back into the crisp November air, the bell above the door gave its final chime, like punctuation on a sentence that hadn't ended properly.
Maria walked all the way to her car before pulling out her phone and calling her boss.
"The mission was a dud, sir." She said into the device. "Mikayla Dempsey's clean. At least for now…."
There was a pause on the other end before Theo Mubele spoke. "Yeah…I expected as much. I would've honestly been surprised you actually found anything useful. But hey, at least now we can cross this one off our list. Good work, Ortega. Hurry and make your way back to the station."
Maria gave the man a quick reply before hanging up and hopping into her car. Something told the young 'beast magic' user that the story here wasn't finished. Mikayla was like a closed dryer. Quiet, still, but full of tumbling secrets.
And Maria had a feeling that this wasn't going to be the last she had seen of her anytime soon.
Before pulling out of the parking lot, Maria took a moment to glance back at the laundromat. Through the fogged-up windows, she could still see Mikayla wiping down the machines, her movements methodical, almost meditative.
Maybe she was innocent.
Maybe she wasn't.
But if she wasn't, Maria was going to make sure that she faced the consequences of her actions.