Chapter 26: Chapter 1-9

I was only chased for a minute or so. As soon as I entered a somewhat busy area and started walking at a normal pace, it was like I had become invisible. It was fun to watch the guard intensely study everyone that passed by until they got another call on their radio and stomped off. I was tempted to get ahead of him and cross paths for a little more fun- but that would have been cruel. And I was a little tired from running. But it was definitely that I was concerned for the guards mental health.

 

Despite the two naps I had taken today, I was still weary, so I put off checking out other buildings and shopping until tomorrow. To my surprise, Kay was in the building’s lobby when I came in. At first I thought they were just hanging out and reading until I had almost made it to the stairs- when they called out my name.

 

“I must say, your perk to be ignored is quite annoying. If I hadn't been aware of it before I would have missed you again.”

 

A little confused, I said, “Again? I’m sorry, I didn’t see you here when I left for dinner. What do you need?”

 

With a little bit of pride creeping into her voice, she responded, “do not worry about it. I am simply here to inform you that I have been assigned as your mentor until you are either deemed to be self-sufficient or decide to leave. Additionally, as per tradition, tomorrow there will be a welcoming party in your honor. Or at least we’ll be using your arrival as an excuse to break up the monotony and boost morale while we deal with the ongoing cluster of Breaches.”

 

Cringing a little, I groaned, “I dislike parties beyond the free food. Especially when they’re for me.”

 

“I understand, however, this will be a good opportunity for you to get to know many of the people- both MG and not- that live and work here. For some context, we only catch MGs forming contracts around a dozen times a month world-wide. Of those, only maybe one joins SEYA- the highest recruitment rate for any single institution, but still abysmal for the amount of Breaches that need to be dealt with in the same period. We do occasionally partner with or absorb other, smaller groups when they want access to the resources we can provide, but those are less exciting for everyone. It would be great if you would give a small introduction speech during which it is encouraged for you to announce your cover name- however, deciding that does not need to happen for a little while yet.”

 

I was starting to feel a little sick from the stress of thinking about giving a speech in front of whoever showed up. It wasn’t the talking in front of a crowd that worried me, but the talking about myself. Everything I did was either intentionally uninteresting, questionable, or illegal. I could sidestep that with ‘I’m excited to be here’-s and ‘I can’t wait to work with you’-s, but then I’d have a lot of questions leveled at me afterwards. Finally picking one of my many questions, I asked, “is it common for people to pick a cover name for this?”

 

“It is fairly common, but many decide not to. The other tradition in regards to cover names is to hold off until one finds you. This might be a nickname, in recognition of an achievement, or simply that it took you a while to find one you liked.”

 

“Thank goodness. To be honest, I really hate most of the names I come up with, at least until they’ve been iterated on quite a few times and no longer really resemble the original idea. Anyway, what time will I be expected to show up?”

 

“Around six.” Then after checking a notification from their phone, Kay added, “Carlos is telling me to tell you not to bother the guards too much. He says they’re just doing their job. May I ask what that is about?”

 

Both confused as to how Carlos knew what I had been doing and a little embarrassed, I explained, “I kinda found myself in a restricted area when I was walking around. When I tried to leave, one of the guards in the area grabbed me and I had to book it.”

 

“Are you aware that most people on the island will simply let you off from most mistakes if you inform them you are an MG? Oh, he also told me to ask if you caused the ULE spikes when you were over there.”

 

“I see. You can tell him it was most likely me trying to cover up my mistake. How does he even know that?”

 

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A little surprised by my question before they realized something, Kay replied, “Ahh, yes, you wouldn’t know. Carlos works as part of the town’s security when not in the field. He has quite a few drones laying around the island which he can use to check areas. It’s pretty common for him to be called up if anything needs to be looked into quickly.”

 

Nodding, I asked, “anything else you need before I go catch up on some sleep? My schedule has been a mess the past few days.”

 

Chuckling cutely, she dismissed me with a quick, “I can imagine.”

 

When I got back to my room, I flopped on the bed and laid there as I stressed about what to give a speech on. Deciding anything I wrote this late would be trash anyway, I rolled over to look where Cleo was curled up in the foot of the bed. “I feel like I only use you for finding perks or being an asset in whatever scheme I am planning at the moment. Anyway, and in keeping with that sentiment- got anything for not being picked up by cameras?”

 

Laughing quietly, they said, {I would be surprised if you had changed how you saw me so quickly. In a comedic twist of fate, many new MGs under utilize their familiars since they got to know them as either a friend or stalker. I have also found your antics amusing and your choice of perks refreshing. In regards to your question, I have one of my own- just to clarify something. What is your plan for killing demons?}

 

I had put a little thought into that question when I wasn’t doing something, and came to a very general conclusion. “Stay at the maximum effective range of whatever weapon I have at the time. Preferably something explosive or incendiary.”

 

{Many groups would… disapprove of that course of action. What if there are civilians still in the Breach?}

 

“Huh, good point. I guess evacuate them quickly, then indiscriminately remove the demons? Be a distraction while other people handle that? Are there even civilians left when MGs arrive?”

 

{If you arrive quick enough. At least you put some thought into it. No need to choose now- you will likely get quite a bit of experience working with an existing group. By the end of that period, you will find something you like.

{Back to your question, as always, there are many choices. Depending on the specifics of how you want to not be seen by cameras. You could simply get better at noticing and avoiding them, you could use your existing perks to hack into the systems running them, or you could expand off what you already have to encompass new requirements. 34 experience isn’t enough for many of the comprehensive stealth or jamming setups, but it is plenty for some initial parts.}

 

“I can already spot most things I want to avoid pretty easily, but there’s always something that you can’t avoid without a bit of trickery. Similarly, my existing perks would probably let me run rampant in any system- if I already have a way in. Which is the hard part. I might not get anything, but just knowing some options for later would be nice. [Act Like You Belong] is doing so much more work than I expected it would. The only times it hasn’t were when people already knew it was a thing and tried to counter it. Wait, now that I say it, that makes it sound less impressive…”

 

{I understand what you mean; when that perk is doing its job there’s nothing to notice.} After freezing for a little, they continued, {lets see here… alright, I think you’ll find something you like from what I got. 

{Option one: [Unfortunate Corruption] off of [Magical Hacking]. When you make physical contact with a device, you can temporarily screw with the signals it’s sending both wired and wireless. Cameras might display static, IR sensors might log that they ran into an error, phones might crash and need to restart- you get the idea.

{Option two: [Just a Smudge] of [Unremarkable]. While active, when you are recorded on anything, the information on you gets obscured just enough to not be recognizable. It would have similar effects to [Unfortunate Corruption], but would affect only your presence and would hit everything, not just specific targets.

{Option three: [Identity Separation] from [MG Suite]. When you learn how to transform, this would stop people from associating your transformed and untransformed forms under most circumstances. Although you’d still get picked up, people who didn’t know both your identities would not reasonably be able to connect it back to you.

{Option four: [Folktale Augment] and [Vampire Alteration 1] from [Bio-Aug Initializer]. This would permanently alter how ULE interacts with your body as well as slightly change your physiology in ways inspired by various tales of vampires. Pertaining to not being caught on cameras, the ‘being unable to have an image of you recorded’ part of it would do the trick. There’d be other effects of course, and I must reiterate: once you take this- or really anything branching off from the ‘Aug perk- you are stuck with it until you choose something else that counteracts it. And that will have its own side effects to worry about. In addition, they require tokens and more time to be applied.}

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