By around three o'clock that morning, the operation to subdue the local Iznana cell had been completed. Robin and the rest of her fellow agents had expertly captured nearly every last criminal, with only a few ending up getting killed while desperately trying to either fight them off or escape. As far as the agents were concerned, there were no serious injuries aside from a few concussions and broken bones. But stuff like that could be easily dealt with thanks to a bit of 'healing magic'.
In addition to all of the good news, it turns out that their sister station's raid had also been a resounding success. Ethan and his team had swept into the office building like lightning and taken out every last Iznana operative without so much as a single shot being fired. Granted, they had to deal with far less opposition than the agents of Station Nine, but the fact that they were able to take care of business so efficiently was nothing to turn your nose up at.
Then again, if nothing else, if there was one thing that Ethan MacNamara was known for, it was always somehow managing to execute delicate operations in the most practical and time-efficient way possible.
As of right now, most of the agents had congregated at their designated rally point to huddle up and work on transferring their new prisoners to a secure location. Valerie, Ayako, Maria, and Sebastian were all present since they had to personally bring in their captives. However, Cyrus and Skylar were still at the site of the garage to handle the clean-up.
"Evan, what are you doing here?!" Valerie asked the 'wind magic' user upon seeing him appear from the mobile command center alongside her aunt.
"Helping." The dread-headed teen smiled at her with a casual wave. "I got called in at the last minute to deal with all of the technical stuff. Thanks to me, none of this chaos is going to find its way onto the internet."
"I guess that makes sense." Ayako nodded in understanding. This was the woman's first time meeting the guy who was technically one of her distant relatives.
"I did get a front row seat to all of your fights, though. Man…you guys are more dangerous than I thought!"
Maria was the next to speak. "You saw everything?"
"Yup!"
"Oh…" The raven-haired teen simply nodded her head.
After a few minutes of catching up and asking everyone how things went, the group then turned its attention to one of the nearby detention trucks. There, Aaron was being stuffed into the back of the vehicle while also being strapped down to a gurney that was specially designed to keep sorcerer criminals in check. The guy was finally awake, judging by the fact that his eyes were now open, but the look on his face showed that he certainly wasn't happy with his current predicament.
Not too far away from him, Mikayla was also being carted into a different detention truck. But unlike her partner, the curly-haired 'bone magic' user was still knocked out cold.
"I'll be right back!" Valerie suddenly announced to her friends before dashing off in the direction of the raven-haired 'fire magic' user. Chief Chandler immediately saw through what her intentions were, but decided against stopping her.
A few seconds later, just as two other APS agents were about to shut the doors of the truck, Valerie stopped them before hopping into he vehicle.
"How you feeling?" The tall blonde asked the man, only finally noticing the extent of the damage she had done to him during their fight.
"Why do you care?" Aaron looked at the woman with an ice-cold expression on his face. His jaw was still busted in several places, but he was still well enough to talk. At least a little bit.
"I just wanted to make sure I didn't do any permanent damage."
"Whatever…" The young man rolled his eyes in disgust. The fact that this McKenna woman was talking to him did nothing besides further fuel the rage that was now building up inside of him. She had already beaten him senseless and captured him. Now, it seemed like she was in the mood to gloat about his defeat and pending imprisonment right to his face.
Valerie was smart enough to see that the guy wasn't in the mood to talk, but this was the perfect opportunity for her to get some answers to a few questions she had on her mind. And she had no clue if she was ever going to see the guy again after tonight. "Do you mind if I ask you a question?"
"What could you possibly want to ask me right now?"
"How exactly are we related?"
The stoic teen paused for a moment as memories of that night once again flashed through his mind. Along with images of his father, back when he was still just a kid. He really had no reason to tell the woman everything that he knew. But seeing as he was about to spend the rest of his life in a prison cell for everything he had done, Aaron also didn't have a reason to lie to her either. But that still didn't mean that he was going to give her the whole truth.
"My father…" He briefly paused before continuing. "My father was your aunt's older brother."
"What?" Valerie tilted her head in confusion. "That can't be right. The only uncle that I have is Quincy Vuur. And he was adopted by a different family right after he was born."
"Yeah, well…there's a reason why you would think that. You should ask your grandmother about the details. But I doubt that she'll be inclined to give you all the answers."
Valerie didn't like the way that the young man said those words. "What do you mean by that?"
"Figure it out yourself."
With that, Aaron turned his head away from the woman to show that he was no longer interested in talking. And although Valerie desperately wanted more answers, she knew that it wasn't a good idea to start probing him for more. Besides, he was due to get interrogated in the near future anyway. So whatever he didn't want to say here might come to light later on.
Valerie could do nothing but accept this and chose to exit the truck, allowing the two agents at the door to lock the doors behind her.
'What did he mean by that?' The tall blonde wondered to herself as she made her way back to where the rest of her group was. She had a feeling that she would need to talk to her aunt about what she had just learned. And she really wanted answers about who this apparent uncle of hers was.
-(o)-
[Elaine's Mansion, One Hour Later]
"Welp…it looks like the job is done, Boss!" Duncan said to Elaine over the phone.
"How did it go?" The 'wind magic' user asked in between bites of her meal.
"Hannah's dead. And Aaron and Mikayla are currently in custody, along with the rest of their minions. They should be on their way to Raleigh right about now."
"I see."
"I got to see Tree Boy's fight with the little Ice Bitch through some of my companions. You were right, that kid is something else. And his overdrive is the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life."
"I told you, didn't I?" Elaine grinned. "That's why I'm dedicating so much of my time to him."
"So…what do you want me to do now?"
The Iznana Executive was silent for a moment as she thought about her next move. In truth, she was hoping that the DPA would've managed to do away with Mikayla alongside that friend of hers. But it seems like that might've just been wishful thinking on her part. Aaron was still alive, though, so there was at least one good outcome to all of this. That boy was simply way too valuable to let die.
"Kill the little Bone Bitch." The woman then told her subordinate. "She'll be the first to crack. The enchantment I placed on her tongue is rock solid. But knowing the DPA, they'll try to get Ethan to break it by tomorrow. And I already know that she'll be the first one to start squealing when he manages to adjust it. Besides, I've already siphoned all of the money out of her accounts. She's of no further use to us."
"No problem." The insect-type 'beast magic' user said casually before ending the call, leaving Elaine alone to gather her thoughts.
Everything had gone more or less the way that she expected it to. Sure, she was going to have to deal with the aftermath of losing out on all Iznana-related business in the state of North Carolina for a while, at least until Duncan got things back up and running. But now, Elaine was finally free of the annoying headache that Hannah had caused her ever since she decided to go behind her back to try and earn some extra cash. And such people were easy to replace in the grand scheme of things.
On top of that, the woman had gained some valuable intel on how Cyrus's overdrive skill worked in a real-world scenario. And Elaine was certainly looking forward to exploiting its benefits as much as possible in the near future.
Speaking of which, there was still the matter of Cyrus himself to deal with. She knew that it was only a matter of time before the young man foolishly tried to rat her out to his boss. And she certainly couldn't let that happen. But, for now at least, she still had one piece of leverage over him that she could use to delay something like that from happening.
The superstar/international crime boss then stood up from her chair and made her way over to the storage area of her lavish mansion. Once she was there, she retrieved the giant metal briefcase that contained all of the product that Hannah had so meticulously harvested from her soon-to-be new apprentice. There was no way in Hell that Elaine was about to give this stuff up anytime soon. It was much too valuable to her overall goal to allow Cyrus to destroy it.
Besides, she would need its contents just in case the young 'tree magic' user ended up getting himself killed before she finally completes her grand plan.
"What a wonderful day this has been." Elaine said to herself with a cold smile as she delicately placed the briefcase back onto the shelf. "Now then, I guess I need to get ready for my next meeting with Cyrus. It's sure to be an eventful one, and I want to make sure that everything goes perfectly."