Chapter 16: Prologue 1-1

“You done down here John?” Emily asked as she slid her pistol back into its pocket dimension and transformed back into civilian clothes.

 

Grunting and gesturing around to the piles of demon corpses around him, her partner light heartedly replied, “We’re still on the job, so you should call me Paladin… Ms. Watt.”

 

Suppressing a defeated sigh, Emily muttered,“Once I get that MG name change approved, I swear…” before stopping and continuing like nothing happened. “There was no indication of a double-Breach, so the successive ULE vacuums we detected means we have a new recruit somewhere. Seen anything?”

 

“Like always, there’s some blood stains but no bodies or other signs of natural life. They’re either dead or got away. You know, with how convoluted the design of this building is, you’d think some people would’ve been able to hide somewhere, but no. Just demons in the vents. And the attics. And the toilets.” John shuttered a little at that last one and promised himself he wouldn’t go relieve himself before an area was fully cleared again.

 

“Well, that just means we have to ask around a little. From what I’ve seen of the survivors, they’re all too old to be an MG- even if they were one of the firsts- so we should have an easy time finding out who it was. Hopefully they are doing alright for forming a contract in the middle of a Breach.”

 

“I’m sure they’re alright. Breach-kiddies tend to be tough- if a little more crazy than the rest of us.”

 

“Breach-what-it-nows?” Emily asked with a mixture of disbelief and disgust. “I don’t even want to know which of your idiot friends decided that nickname was a good one. Also, never say that again, please.”

 

“No good? Damn. How about-”

 

“No.”

 

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When they arrived at the evacuation zone, Emily transformed back into her costume; it was important to look the part when dealing with people who don’t respect any authority other than their own. This particular group of survivors had been one of the worst they had had to deal with in the four years she had been closing Breaches: constantly complaining about treatment, procedure, what they had left when they ran, and whatever else they could. Everyone who wasn’t whining was trying to make power-plays or exert non-existent influence which resulted in a headache for her team.

 

She and John had ordered the support personnel to just treat the entitled geezers like unruly children and tell them to take their complaints to the World Breach Relief Association. Now that she was getting a look around, that order appeared to have helped. Tents were set up, people were lined up for processing or treatment, and there was only an annoying amount of complaints. 

 

Not bothering to deal with that mess, they found their handler and reported in. “Everything’s clear. No sign of a double, so we have a newbie running around somewhere or gone with the rest.”

 

Taking a minute to write that down, their handler flipped through a few pages before reading one a bit more closely. Nodding, they told the MGs, “After interviewing a few of the survivors on what happened, they reported that there was at least one more who had been alive and with the group. When they were asked what happened to them, they all either looked sick or indignantly asked for a lawyer. Of important note, they should be in the appropriate age-range to have formed a contact. No further details were given.”

 

“Sooo, they what? Left them as bait? That's a pretty traitorous thing to do.”

 

“Most likely.” Their handler responded. “We’ve done all we could. Feel free to ‘interview’ a couple. Coercion is allowed, but nothing physical. Not that that needs to be said with you two.”

 

“We’ll see what we can do.”

 

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After thirty minutes of trying everything they could to get people to talk, Emily just decided to throw out the niceties. “We have been trying to get voluntary help from any of you,” She addressed the assembled crowd who started to get worried looks on their faces at the sudden shift of her tone to be much more serious. Being backed by John in his full costume of platemail and standing at a little over six foot might have helped with that. 

“Headquarters has given us the go-ahead to arrest all of you for conspiracy to assassinate a magically-enhanced person. With the severity of this crime, we will be taking you all into custody under the assumption you are traitors to mankind. Until proven otherwise, you have limited rights that exclude access to legal counsel. Any information you can currently offer to prove this is false should be submitted on these forms and given to our aid for processing. Should the information be sufficient, you will be allowed to go. If you try to run, it will be assumed you are guilty on the spot.”

 

Of course, all of that was bullshit. They had gotten some forms printed and given some of the aids weapons to look the part- but Emily didn’t have the ability to dismiss someone’s rights. The nice thing was that she couldn’t be charged with anything should the idiots here decide to file anything after the fact. Ahh, the wonders of qualified immunity.

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Even better, everyone was filling out their forms and handing them in as fast as they could manage. By the time the last one was handed in, they already knew who to further interview: the head security guard for the facility. 

 

He would have been imposing if not for John being more so in every aspect except personality, but that was why they agreed to have him refrain from talking when he needed to be intimidating. The poor guard had to be dragged into the tent in handcuffs because he was being so uncooperative, but he cowered a little when he was locked to the table and his situation finally set in.

 

“I didn’t do nothing wrong! How was I supposed to know that bitch was a magical girl? In fact, she volunteered to go!” The guard started, but was cut short by Emily glaring at him. One of the perks she had taken fairly early on was a form of lie detection, and he was setting it off rapid-fire.

 

In a calm voice, she simply told him, “That's a lie.”

 

“Fine! We needed someone to go flip a switch to let our emergency batteries release their power. No one else was fit for it, and she was a criminal anyway- so she was the best choice.”

 

“And where are these batteries? Paladin, would you kindly get us a map of the facility?”

 

After a map had been located and placed in front of the guard, he quickly pointed to a room they had ignored due to lack of any life- demon or natural- being present. “Right here. It connects to a small basement shelter with the backups. That's all I know, I swear!”

 

“Thank you, please wait here while we go investigate.” 

 

While it felt right to say that as they left, it’s not like he could have gone anywhere anyway- and with what he might have unintentionally done, none of the aids would feel inclined to help.

 

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The trip back up to the facility was somber as both MGs tried their best to not think about the possibility that their possible recruit was sent to their death. They both kept coming back to the fact neither of them had detected any life in the area they supposedly had gone off to and that after they left, no one had seen them again. If they had died, there wouldn’t even be a body to recover. The demons always made sure of that.

 

They made quick time in finding the room in question, along the way trying to cheer up by complaining about the dumb design of the building. When they actually got there, they were briefly stunned by the sight.

 

Apparently deciding to let Emily do the detective work, John asked, “How many hunters do you think that is?”

 

“A few dozen? Hard to tell with how beat up they are… What the hell did the newbie even do? Did they start with a perk in acid magic or something?”

 

“Hell of an experience payday for your first day.”

 

Taking a few steps closer, Emily picked up an object from where it laid next to a divot in the tiles. Upon taking a moment to look at its partially melted form, she realized it was a taser. Following the leads with her eyes, she was led to a mass of melted yellow plastic. “What do you think that used to be?”

 

“No clue, and that's your job. I’m just here to kill things and look pretty.”

 

With a sigh, Emily moved deeper into the room. The area around the yellow glob looked the worst hit. There was a deep indent in the ground and not much left of the demon corpses. Whatever had gone off here had certainly been effective- she just hoped that whoever set it off hadn’t been hit too bad as well.

 

As they drew closer to the doorway to the stairs, Emily noticed some small splotches of blood. The door itself had a few smears of it, particularly around the lock and handle. Without another thought, she activated a perk and got confirmation of her theory. Some of the blood splotches leading here were up to twenty minutes older than ones near them. “Our recruit didn’t die here, that's for sure. Let's head back, I have some data that needs to be found and run.”

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