"So then I tell the guy: 'Hey look, we just met. You should be happy I'm letting you put it in there at all!'." Freddy said as he recounted the tale of one of his previous romantic encounters.
Across the table, Mikayla was clutching her sides as the curly-haired brunette laughed at the 'dark magic' user's story. In fact, nearly everyone at the table was doing their best to hold it together. Even Maria failed to hide the smirk that subtly appeared on her lips.
The only two people who weren't outwardly enjoying the story were Valerie and Aaron. The former had a completely red face and was looking away from everyone, while the latter casually sipped on his drink after finishing his meal.
"Man...I'm stuffed." Evan said after setting his fork down on his plate. His words were complemented by an agreeing nod from his sister.
Roughly forty-five minutes had passed since the gaggle of sorcerers first came to the restaurant, and in that time, they had more than their fill of good food and drinks.
"Seriously." Mikayla added while leaning forward in her seat and looking directly at Cyrus. "What about you, freckles? Have you had your fill?"
"I have." Cyrus replied with a smile. "I still feel kinda bad for you paying for my food, though."
"I already told you don't worry about it. But...if it's really eating you up inside, you can cover my tab the next time we hang out."
'Damn, she's good.' Valerie thought to herself. The tall blonde was more than a bit jealous of how the brunette was so good at flirting. Whenever she tried to be that smooth, she would just end up fumbling over her words.
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea." Cyrus said in a cool tone as he leaned back in his chair.
"Anyways..." Hannah interjected. "I don't know about you guys, but I've been having a lot of fun so far. What do you say we head somewhere else?"
That certainly got Valerie interested. "And where did you have in mind?"
"There's a bowling alley a few blocks away from here. And I can't think of a better way to burn off some of these calories we just ate."
The four agents looked at the twins. After all, it was ultimately their decision whether or not they went. Evan pondered over the idea for a bit before Elizabeth spoke up.
"Sounds fun. Let's do it."
"You sure?"
"Yeah." The 'earth magic' user replied. "It's been a while since I've tried my hand at bowling. And the night's still young."
"I guess it's decided then." Freddy shrugged. "Bowling it is!"
"Excellent!" Hannah beamed.
Unbeknownst to the agents, Hannah had already gained a lot of valuable information from the group over the course of their dinner. And she was hoping to gather even more before they all parted ways.
'In terms of pure strength, this Valerie girl is the strongest out of all of them.' The strawberry blonde said to herself as she quickly glanced across the table to further inspect the agents. 'Cyrus mentioned that Freddy is good with barriers, so he's a tricky one to deal with, even if he is pretty weak. Then there's the quiet one, Maria. She hasn't revealed what kind of cryptids she has available to her, but they must be pretty dangerous if the boss at least knows about her. Then there's Cyrus. I want to see his magic in action for myself to see whether or not Aaron was right about him. But so far, I've been able to tell that he's much smarter than what he lets on. He's good at keeping information about himself vague.'
Right beside Hannah, Aaron was also finishing up his own appraisal of the group. 'We'll need to make sure that the two twins are nowhere near us when we make our move. Injuring one of them will cause us too many problems. The DPA might even send assassins after us if that were to happen.'
With everyone in agreement on what to do next, the gaggle of young sorcerers paid their bills before exiting the restaurant. Since the bowling alley was only a couple of blocks away, they decided to walk there instead of driving, which proved to be a smart choice considering the near-perfect weather.
As the group strolled through the city streets, they couldn't help but take in the atmosphere. The roads were starting to fill up with more and more people. The street lights began flickering on. And the sun was beginning to set over the horizon, providing them with a lovely view of it sitting atop the ocean.
"So, are you having fun?" Evan asked Valerie as the group crossed the street.
"U-uh yeah, I am!" The tall blonde replied, a bit surprised that the man decided to strike up a conversation with her.
"Well, that's good."
"Yeah."
"Y'know...something tells me that you'd be really good at bowling."
Valerie was quick to adopt a confident smirk on her face. "I haven't played in a while, but I'd like to think that my skills are pretty solid."
"Oh, really?" Evan then said with a smirk. One that looked way too damn good, in Valerie's opinion. "You think you can beat me?"
"Of course!" The blonde didn't miss a beat with her reply. "Sports are totally my thing. If it involves a ball, a bat, or a scoreboard, I always come out on top!"
"I like a girl with some confidence. And not to toot my own horn, but I'm no slouch with athletics either."
"Is that right? I heard you computer guys are usually allergic to sunlight."
Evan couldn't help but laugh at that comment. After all, the 'wind magic' user genuinely did find it to be funny. Since he was in such a good mood, the young man found no fault in engaging in a bit of friendly competition. And since Valerie seemed like the most athletically inclined one out of the group, he had a feeling that she'd have no problem with a challenge.
'Oh god, even his laugh is hot....' The woman couldn't help but think to herself. Seriously, what romance novel did they pull this guy out of?
"Tell you what..." Evan then caught the woman's attention. "If you manage to beat me in a game, I promise to do you one favor."
Now that certainly got Valerie's attention. Of course, she was planning on winning anyway, but the idea of having one of the MacNamaras owe you a favor was something very few would pass up. She was curious as to why Evan was even bringing this up, but she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
"Deal!" The blonde said without the slightest bit of hesitation. "Prepare to get your ass kicked!"
"Yeah, we'll see." Evan said with no small amount of confidence in his tone.
Behind the two, Elizabeth had an annoyed expression on her face. Whatever was bothering her wasn't exactly clear, but it was obvious that something about the exchange between her brother and their bodyguard rubbed her the wrong way.
A few feet ahead of them, Hannah decided to take a slightly bolder approach in her efforts to gather information on her future target. As naturally as she could, the strawberry blonde slowed her pace a bit to put herself right next to Cyrus. Once the young man was close enough, the woman decided to get his attention.
"I hope you don't find me rude for asking this." Hannah began speaking. "But do you really have 'tree magic'?"
"I do." Cyrus replied after looking up from his phone and locking eyes with Hannah. "Why do you ask?"
"General curiosity, I guess." The woman shrugged. "Mikayla told me about it after we met up. I've heard that kind of magic is pretty rare here in the U.S., so I was a bit surprised to learn that I know of someone who had it."
Cyrus appeared to accept that answer. After all, there was nothing overtly suspicious about it. "What about you? I don't think you've mentioned what kind you have."
"I haven't?" Hannah faked a look of surprise before continuing. "Oh, sorry about that. I guess it was kind of rude to ask what kind of abilities you had without me telling you what I can do first, huh? Well, to answer your question, I have 'ice magic'."
"Ice?"
"Yeah, I can use mana to either freeze things or create ice out of the water vapor in the air. The latter is a bit more difficult if I'm being perfectly honest, but it does come in handy during the summers."
Hannah further added to her explanation by holding her hand up and letting a bit of her magic flow out of her palm. A small stream of chilled fog then poured out of her before dissipating into the air.
"That's amazing!" Cyrus failed to hide the look of awe on his face. This was his first time hearing about that kind of ability. He assumed that it must've been a subset of 'water magic', kind of like how Mikayla's 'bone magic' was a type of 'body magic', which itself was a subset of 'healing magic'.
"Thanks." The strawberry blonde gave the man what looked to be a genuine smile.
"I'm still getting used to this whole sorcerer thing, but it's still crazy to see all the crazy abilities that people like us have."
"Getting used to it?" Hannah then tilted her head in confusion.
"Yeah, I only awakened in January, so I'm still trying to adjust to the whole sorcerer society thing. Hell, I'm still shocked that most of the monsters and mythical creatures that I used to read about as a kid actually turned out to be real."
"Hold on, hold on, hold on...you've barely been a sorcerer for half a year and you're already a DPA agent? That's crazy."
"Is it?" Cyrus couldn't help but ask. It didn't seem all that crazy to him. According to Freddy, it was pretty common for the DPA to scoop up fresh talent as soon as it popped up.
"It is." The lone 'dark magic' user of the group interjected, causing the two to turn their heads toward him. "Although it's common for newly awakened sorcerers to get picked up by the agency, most of them are in training for at least six months before being sent out on jobs. But it makes sense that Cyrus wouldn't know about that. He is a bit of a special case after all."
"Oh really?" Evan joined in. "And why is that?"
"Because he has naturally great mana control. So great that he hasn't had any accidental discharges ever since he got his powers."
Now, the 'tree magic' user was confused. "Accidental what?"
"Wait...seriously?" Mikayla looked at Cyrus with genuine surprise. "Like, not even once?"
"Lucky." Hannah then said. "I still remember my first one. It was like a week after I awakened. I was having a bad dream and ended up freezing my entire bed."
"I basically caused a tornado in my room after a sneeze." Evan added with a smile as his mind went back to when he had just gotten his powers. "I even broke one of my windows."
Mikayla couldn't help but put in her two cents. "I basically turned my parents' sofa into Swiss cheese. It was actually how they ended up finding out that I had powers. I was keeping it a secret from them until that point."
The 'ice magic' user then threw her arm around her brother's shoulder. "Don't get me started on what happened a month after Aaron got his powers. He almost burned our entire house down after falling asleep on the couch."
"Well, at least Dad was smart enough to have fire-resistant furniture." The stoic teen spoke for what seemed like the first time all night.
Now, Cyrus was more than a bit confused. He hadn't experienced anything like that ever since he awakened. The entire time he's had access to his powers, he's never once felt like he wasn't completely in control of it. He was aware that he had above-average mana control compared to others, but the fact that he's never had any unfortunate mishaps was a bit weird to him.
The freckle-faced teen couldn't help but wonder what that might even look like for him. Since he needed a medium to actually use his 'tree magic', the chances of him accidentally sprouting an oak tree in his apartment were basically zero. Maybe something else could happen, but what that something else could be was completely unknown to him.
"Yeah...I can't say that I've ever had something like that happen to me." Cyrus then chuckled as he scratched his cheek.
'Lucky bastard. Must be nice....' Valerie tried her best to hide her jealousy.
The tall blonde had more than her fair share of unfortunate incidents within months of her gaining access to her abilities. If it wasn't for the fact that her mother had the foresight to fireproof their entire house, Valerie could've very well had burned the entire place to the ground three times over by the time she was fourteen. Hell, she had already melted two of her beds within a month of her awakening. Which was an early sign of her still ongoing issue when it came to her mana control.
Thankfully, stuff like that didn't happen now that she was older and had marginally better control of her abilities compared to back then. But even now, Valerie made sure to take precautions. Which is why her room in Chief Chandler's house was furnished specifically to avoid any unforeseen housefires in the event of a disaster.
The group continued on like this for another few minutes before their destination came into sight. Once they arrived, the gaggle of young sorcerers wasted no time in entering the establishment. More than ready to have a bit more fun for the night.
-(o)-
"Man, this place looks great!" Mikayla said with glee as the group of nine stepped into the building.
The bowling alley seemed to be pretty lively and filled with all manner of groups and people filling up the lanes. The smell of cheap pizza was permeating the air, and the sound of pins being knocked over practically assaulted their ears.
"I wasn't expecting this palace to be so packed on a Wednesday." Cyrus said nonchalantly. "Maybe we should've called ahead or something."
Valerie began shaking with excitement. "Oh man...I'm so looking forward to this!"
"Same." Evan nodded while giving the woman a thumbs-up.
"I guess we need to hurry up and get some shoes." Hannah began walking towards the counter.
"Yeah." Aaron stoically agreed.
When the group approached the counter, they were greeted by a pale young woman with long, neon-green hair sporting a set of comically long eyelashes. The woman wasn't paying attention to them at first, and Hannah had to call out to her to get her attention. Curiously, the moment she looked their way, the woman paused briefly when her eyes landed on Evan. But she seemed to shake it off before putting on her best smile.
"Hello, everyone! How may we help you?!" The woman, whose name was Naomi, judging by her name tag, spoke to them in a cheery tone.
"Hello, is it possible to get two lanes for us?" Said the 'ice magic' user.
"You guys came at the right time, I can put you on nine and ten since they just opened up."
"Awesome!"
"Wonderful, what size shoes do you all need?" She then asked. The sorcerers were quick to tell the woman their sizes and didn't have to wait long before receiving the necessary attire. With everything now in order, they were all ready to begin their game.
"Um, excuse me? Have we met before?" The woman asked Evan, catching the young man's attention.
"I don't believe we have." The 'wind magic' user replied.
"Sorry, you just look really familiar." The woman then inspected Evan a bit further before snapping her fingers. "Actually...yeah...has anyone ever told you that you look a lot like that like that famous singer, Skye?"
"Yeah, I get that a lot." The man waved off the comment.
"Seriously, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you could pass off as her twin or something."
Elizabeth had to fight off the urge to roll her eyes at this woman's shitty attempt at trying to flirt with her brother. You would think she'd be more focused on doing her shitty job.
"Thanks. I appreciate the compliment."
"No problem. If you guys need anything, don't be afraid to ask. I'm here for the rest of the night." The woman then gave Evan a wink.
"Come on, we need to hurry up! We're burning precious time here, loverboy." Elizabeth suddenly grabbed her brother's arm and walked towards their designated lane. She was not in the mood to deal with some floozy who worked the counter at a bowling alley trying to put the moves on her brother.
"What did Mom tell you about being too nice to people like that?" Elizabeth then said in a hushed tone.
Evan let out an audible sigh. "I know, I know, my bad. I just don't see a point in being a dick for no reason. I'm not you, after all."
"Yeah, sure...whatever."
What the group failed to notice, however, was the person standing only a few yards behind Naomi, right at the edge of the doorway into the employee's office.
'Fuck...it's that bastard from the other day! And he's got more friends with him this time. I wasn't expecting him to show up here of all places. Actually...this is great. This is my chance to get back at that fucker what he did to me and my boys! Luckily, I actually came prepared today. This time, that pretty motherfucker won't even get the chance to make a fool out of me again!'
-(o)-
After about ten minutes, the group of young sorcerers were well into their first game. And unsurprisingly, Valerie was already proving that she was indeed the best of the bunch when it came to bowling. The tall blonde was blazing through each frame as if she had something to prove. That, and the promise of a favor from Evan, was certainly the extra bit of motivation she needed to try her best.
'Damn, she's actually better than I thought.' The resident 'wind magic' user thought to himself as he walked over to the rack to retrieve his ball. His opponent for the night had just landed another strike, and it looked as if he was about to lose their wager.
Evan would be lying if he said that he wasn't considering using his magic to give him a slight advantage over Valerie, but he quickly shot down that idea. It wouldn't be fair if he used his abilities to cheat in a glorified arcade game. Doing something as petty as that would be bad for his image. So for now, the green-eyed man was going to rely on his own skill to pull out a victory.
A few yards away from the lanes, Maria was quietly observing the group from her seat near the walkway. The young 'beast magic' user had mostly kept to herself so far during their little outing, and it looked as though she was going to continue that trend until it was time to head back. Not because she wasn't having fun, but mainly because that was just how she operated. The woman wasn't used to going out in large crowds like this, so this level of interaction just wasn't easy for her.
"Having fun?" The voice of Cyrus forced Maria to look up from her phone and direct her attention towards the 'tree magic' user. The freckle-faced teen had just gotten done with his set, so he decided to relax for a bit before it was his turn.
"Yes." Maria answered in her typically stoic manner.
"Good." Cyrus then nodded. "You've been quiet the whole night. Well, not as quiet as Aaron over there. And something was telling me that you'd rather be anywhere else but here."
Maira mulled over her teammate's words for a bit before deciding how to answer. "I'm just not used to this sort of thing."
"You mean hanging out with friends, right?"
Those words seemed to catch Maria off guard a bit. She wasn't expecting the guy to say something like that, especially since he was right on the money with what she was thinking. Fortunately, Cyrus was quickly able to pick up on the slight tension in his teammate's face.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but I've noticed that you're kind of a loner. Y'know, the kind of person who hangs back and does their own thing. Which isn't a bad thing."
"I guess you could call me that." Maria replied before deciding to change subjects. "You seem to be pretty sociable, though."
Cyrus leaned back in his chair as he watched Freddy send his ball straight into the gutter. "You think so?"
"From what I've seen, you have an easy time talking to people."
"Hmm...I could see how you would think that. I guess I've had a lot of practice now that you mention it."
"What do you mean?"
"I've spent most of my summer vacations working in my mom's shop. She always used to badger me about making customers feel comfortable and making myself more approachable and all that jazz."
'That's right, he did say that his mom owned a flower shop or something like that the other day.' Maria tried her best to remember the details of their time with the Blair cousins. And unless she was mistaken, Cyrus also mentioned that his father was a lawyer, or a judge, or something like that.
"I can see how something like that would give you a lot of practice."
Just before the 'tree magic' user could respond, Mikayla dropped into the seat directly next to Cyrus's. The 'bone magic' user was holding onto a cup of soda and set her gaze towards Maria.
"You're up!"
The lone 'beast magic' user of the group looked at the overhead screen and nodded before standing up and approaching the lane. This left Cyrus and Mikayla a bit of space between them and everyone else.
"So, freckles, aren't you glad you and your friends decided to join us?"
"I am, actually." Cyrus replied honestly. "It's been a while since I've done anything like this."
"Well, I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying yourself."
"What about you guys?"
"I, for one, am having a blast! And I know that Hannah feels the same way too. Aaron may look like a brooding emo most of the time, but trust me, he's definitely having fun too."
"That's good to hear."
"It's rare that people like us ever get the chance to hang out with our own kind in such large groups. It's nice being able to talk and joke about stuff that we can't say around normal humans. Chances to unwind like this don't come that often. Well, maybe not for you DPA guys."
"I get where you're coming from. I bet having to tiptoe around people to avoid having them find out you're a sorcerer can get tiring after a while."
"Like you wouldn't believe..." The 'bone magic' user let out a sigh before casually throwing her arm over the back of Cyrus' chair. An action that didn't go unnoticed by the freckle-faced teen.
Cyrus simply chose to pretend that he hadn't noticed what the curly-haired brunette was trying to do. Instead, he tried to continue on with the conversation, only to be interrupted by the sound of a ball colliding with the pins on the other lane.
*POW*
"Hell yeah!" Valerie shouted triumphantly while waving her fist in the air. The blonde then turned around and looked at Evan. "That makes eight in a row, pretty boy! Tell you what, if you conceded now, I'll let you off easy."
"Not a chance, blondie. Haven't you heard the old saying? It ain't over until the fat lady sings." The 'wind magic' user shot back with just as much confidence.
"It sounds to me like she's already getting warmed up."
"You're right, but her song isn't meant for me."
"Yeah, we'll see about that."
On the opposite side of the lane, Aaron quietly scowled at the exchange between Valerie and Evan. It was obvious that the young man with the shaggy black hair wasn't delighted with what he was seeing. But instead of voicing his concerns, he decided to keep his opinions to himself. It wouldn't be in his best interest to make a scene here for any reason, especially in such a public setting.
'I still can't believe a failure like her is a part of that family. I guess even losers can get far so long as they have the right connections.'
Aaron quickly shook away those thoughts before focusing back on his game, hoping that he would be able to get his mind off his issues as quickly as possible. After all, his sister went out of her way to take him to the one place he wanted to go during this entire trip. The least he could do was make sure that he didn't ruin her reconnaissance mission because of his own personal grudges.
-(o)-
The next hour practically flew by before the group had to wrap up their game. In a shocking twist of events, Evan somehow managed a come-from-behind victory over Valerie that made him the winner of their wager. The 'wind magic' user managed to do so after landing four strikes in a row after the tall blonde briefly lost her rhythm. Of course, Valerie protested this quite a bit, claiming that the man used his magic to cheat somehow. But that was mainly because she was a bit of a sore loser.
At the moment, the gaggle of young sorcerers were walking down the city streets en route to their cars. It was almost ten o'clock, and they were all ready to crawl back into bed and pack it in for the night. This was especially true for Evan since he had to be at work in the morning.
All in all, everyone had a great night out on the town. The four agents were grateful for the chance to enjoy some of the local attractions this mission had to offer. The twins were glad that they could relax without some of their father's minions breathing down their necks. And despite their nefarious intentions, the Iznana trio genuinely enjoyed the chance to hang out with other sorcerers around their age without having to worry about executing orders from their boss.
Unfortunately for the group, just when it looked like they were going to end their night on a high note, an unforeseen complication made its presence known.
"Hey, motherfucker!" An angry voice shouted from a few yards behind the group, causing everyone to turn around.
Once they did so, they were all met with the sight of a pale-skinned young man with a shaved head pointing a gun at them. One wearing the uniform of the bowling alley they just departed that had a wild look on his face.
"What the hell?" Hannah said with wide eyes.
"Who are-"
"Shut up and put your hands up!" The thug cut Mikayla off with a wild expression on his face.
The group hesitated for a moment before the man repeated his demands, causing all of them to simply do as he said.
Unfortunately for the thug, since he was a regular human who was unable to perceive or sense mana, he wasn't able to see everyone in the group put up a series of mana barriers both around and in front of their bodies. Even basic mana barriers had the strength to take a few high-caliber rifle rounds without so much as a scratch. So, unless this guy had somehow gotten his hands on some magically-charged bullets, they were safe.
"You!" The man then pointed the barrel of his pistol at Evan. "You're gonna pay for what you did to me!"
"I'm sorry, who are you again?" Evan said as he pretended not to recognize the guy.
"Don't act like you don't remember me, asshole! You know who I am. And what you did to me!"
"Can someone explain to us what's going on?" Mikayla looked to the 'wind magic' user for some sort of clarification. Cyrus couldn't help but notice how weirdly calm the woman was about having a gun aimed in their direction.
Without so much as a word, Maria activated her powers and allowed one of her companions, Asmodeus, to leave her body and begin slithering towards their would-be assailant. Hoping that she would be able to make her move before this crazy idiot managed to fire off a single shot.
Evan let out a rather dramatic sigh before enlightening the rest as to who this man was. "You remember we told you guys about that group of lowlifes who tried to rob us the other day?"
"We do." Cryus nodded his head.
"Well, this guy is one of them."
"Okay, I get what's going on now." Hannah spoke while directing her gaze at the thug. "Let me guess, you embarrassed him and now he wants his revenge."
"That would seem to be the case." Elizabeth said in a relaxed tone. One that the thug didn't seem to appreciate.
"Oh, you think this is a joke? You think I won't shoot you all of you fuckers right now?"
Aaron rolled his eyes. The shaggy-haired 'fire magic' user had half a mind to just incinerate the thug where he stood, but doing so would cause too much of a commotion. On top of that, he didn't want to use his powers in front of others, especially not in front of Valerie.
Thankfully, someone else decided to speak on behalf of the group.
"If you wanted to shoot us, you would've done it." Freddy stated while looking the guy directly in his eyes.
Those words seemed to completely piss off the thug. It was obvious that these bastards weren't taking him seriously, so much so that they weren't showing even the slightest hint of fear. It was bad enough that these clowns had already embarrassed him once, but this time felt even more infuriating. Especially since he was quite literally holding them at gunpoint.
Just when the thug was about to open his mouth again, something strange happened.
For a brief moment, he felt something grab his legs before he was flung to the ground, hitting the concrete with enough force to make him drop the cheap nine-millimeter pistol that he was holding.
With her window of opportunity now open, Valerie instantly dropped her barrier and dashed toward the thug at speeds that no regular human could achieve.
In less than a second, the tall blonde was right on top of the man. And without even the slightest bit of hesitation, Valerie reared her leg back before delivering an absolutely devastating kick to the side of the man's head. One that was strong enough to knock him out, but not strong enough to kill him. Well, at least she hoped that she didn't kill him. Regular humans were so fragile that it was hard to make sure that she didn't go overboard.
"Good job!" Mikayla complimented Valerie. The brunette was more than a bit impressed by the woman's physical prowess.
"Thank you." Cyrus then looked at Maria. "Those companions of yours really come in handy."
"Let's just be glad that he wasn't able to see Asmodeus." The 'beast magic' user replied in a calm tone.
Now that the thug was out cold, the group gathered around his unconscious body. For a brief couple of minutes, they debated on what to do with him. Hannah proposed the idea of calling the cops on the guy, something that Cyrus was also in favor of, but pretty much everyone else was against it. They preferred to just leave the guy in the alley and get as far away from him as possible.
After all, having a run-in with an armed mugger when they were supposed to be on a nice and relaxing vacation wouldn't exactly look good for either the twins or the other agents. As for Mikayla and Aaron, they just wanted to put the whole thing behind them and get to bed.
Once everyone was finally on the same page, Valerie and Freddy quickly dragged the thug's body over to a nearby alley and dumped him next to a pile of crushed boxes. While they did that, Elizabeth used her 'earth magic' to bury the man's gun in a deep hole before closing it up.
Now, with that whole debacle finally over and done with, the group wasted no time jumping into their cars and heading back to the hotel. There, they all said their respective goodbyes before parting ways and heading back to their rooms. The lot of them more than satisfied with how the night turned out.
-(o)-
[Two Hours Later]
"Urgh...what the hell?" The thug said as he finally regained consciousness, only to immediately clutch the side of his head. "Ah! What the fuck?!"
"Well, well, well...it looks like you're finally awake."
The thug quickly looked up and was immediately met with a peculiar sight. One of a man, presumably in his mid-thirties, with platinum blonde hair, striking blue eyes, and almost impossibly white teeth, dressed in a black suit with a red shirt and black tie. The man had sharp cheekbones and subtle bags under his eyes. But not so subtle that they couldn't be hidden behind the pair of expensive-looking glasses that he was wearing.
"Who the fuck are you?" The thug questioned the man while trying to stop the world from spinning.
The well-dressed man crouched down to make himself eye-level with the thug. "Just a good samaritan who was concerned about a young man like yourself."
The thug scoffed. "Yeah...sure."
"I also just so happened to witness that little incident between you and those other youngsters."
'Shit!' The thug said to himself, completely unsure as to how the rest of this interaction was about to go. For all he knew, this guy could've been a cop. "Y-you did?"
"Don't worry, young man, I have no intention of turning you over to the authorities. In fact, I was quite impressed by your zeal. Not many people are brave enough to face demons like those armed with only a simple pistol."
"What?"
"It's the truth." The man then stood up on his feet. "I overheard how you wanted to get revenge on those godless creatures for what they did to you. And I admire how you were willing to enact that revenge with your own two hands."
"Okay..." The thug said, albeit in a more cautious tone. The young man then tried to stand up, but the moment he did so, he became lightheaded. "So, do you want something from me?"
The man simply smiled at the thug for a couple of seconds before replying. "What if I told you that I could help you get revenge on the demons that wronged you? The kind of revenge that will ensure that no one ever makes a fool out of you again."
"I'm listening."
"You see, young man, I represent a special organization. One that is responsible for tracking down individuals like the ones you just encountered. As well as ensuring that they face justice for the many crimes that they have committed."
'Crimes? What the hell is this weirdo talking about?'
The blonde man then pulled a small red business card out of his coat pocket and flicked it over to the thug. The thug was still coherent enough to read, so he briefly allowed his eyes to scan over the plastic object. One that had a large black cross on one side and the image of an angel on the other.
'What the hell's an Inquisitor? Is this the organization that he was talking about? Is this some kind of church scam or something?'
"If you want to get revenge for what those demons did to you, give the number on the back of that card a call. I'll explain to you exactly what our organization does and how we take down people like that. If not, feel free to toss it in the trash."
"Who exactly are you, guy?" The thug finally asked the most obvious question.
"A man who was once on the same path as you, but managed to leave behind my shortcomings and become someone that no one disrespects. But for the sake of brevity, you can call me Arnold, Arnold Cassidy."
The thug was a bit weirded out by this guy, but something told him that this Arnold Cassidy guy was being sincere with his words. He doesn't know how he knew, but he just felt like he could trust the guy for some reason.
"Am I going to be able to get back at those guys if I call this number?"
Arnold Cassidy smiled at the man, showing him his pearly whites. "You'll be able to get them back ten times over. I guarantee it."
The thug looked back down at the red business card. Taking a moment to further inspect its contents. "I'll think about it."
"Excellent! I look forward to hearing from you again, Mr. Peters."
Almost in the blink of an eye, the man suddenly disappeared. Doing so in a manner that didn't even give the thug time to ask him how he knew his name.
Once the thug was finally able to stand up on his own, he hobbled his way out of the alley and in the direction of his crappy apartment. All while his mind replayed the events of his impromptu mugging gone wrong. As the young man tried to rationalize the events in his mind, there was one thing that still had him completely confused.
'What the hell took my feet out of from under me?' This was the second time that the thug was on the wrong end of some weird occurrence after encountering that popstar's brother and his goons. And something was telling him that there was more to those guys than meets the eye.
'Maybe that Arnold Cassidy guy has some answers.' Was the last thing he thought to himself before vanishing into the night. The red business card was clutched firmly in his right hand. And the image of an armored angel with a sword in hand, in full view for all to see.
-(o)-
Character Profile: Hannah
Name: Hannah Judith Donovan
Alias: N/A
Gender: Female
Age: 20
Birthday: January 3rd
Birthplace: Redding, CA, USA
Height: 66in
Weight: 150lbs
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Race: White
Magic: Ice
Occupation: Bank Teller, Iznana Operative
Stat Chart: B
-Physical Strength - 2
-Intelligence - 3.5
-Magic Amount - 3
-Magical Control - 4
-Magic Sensing - 4
-Special - N/A
Fun Fact:
-Hates Inquisitors with a passion.
-Thinks that One Piece is a sub-par anime.