Chapter 77: 71.1 Politics, Powers, Progress (1 of 2)

Jay stood under the awning of the school’s front lobby, looking up at a heavy deluge of nightly rain. It had been half an hour since the meeting concluded, leaving every Champion in different states of bewilderment or horror. Jay had felt a mix of both when he left the meeting and came out here, sharing a smoke with Emily and others before they departed.

Everyone else had already gone home via their own rides or through a CWG escort. Agent Cabana had to leave, too. She was still working with top-level figures to split the actual secret squirrel agency from the broader militarized organization.

Jay remained behind, keeping to himself for a moment as he stared at the rainy sky. The meeting had put him in a mood he couldn’t shake.

The Assassins, Agency, Admins meeting boiled down to three large points:

Point One–YoAnna couldn’t find the assassins’ central seat of power. She’d tried before. Each attempt had disrupted a splinter cell briefly and led to increased assassination attempts on the chosen ones during the years before YoAnna’s seventeenth birthday. Agent Cabana held the belief that the assassins were using magic somehow–or they truly had the Admins’ assistance. It could be the former since Pre-System magic on earth existed for a long time according to YoAnna, even if it was small and dismissable. Some myths and urban legends actually lived. Bigfoot was in a secret cryptid facility in Wyoming (it took half an hour to calm the Champions down after hearing this super bomb).

Point Two–Pantheon members bearing [YoAnna’s Agent of Change] Title had existed for a few years now. YoAnna had carefully cultivated them as she worked in the background to set everything up for the Champions’ first dungeon crawl. She had rarely been at school. The personal guardians working at YoAnna’s outer mansion had the ability to shapeshift and take on different forms. The times that YoAnna had seemed more distant and cold were her guardians pretending to be her. This bomb had forced all of Team Divine–and Jay–into a quick smoke break outside. Puffing and passing cigarettes around with the four meanest hotties Jay had ever met was a new experience. But it was of little comfort for Jay.

After the smoke break, the Champions had gotten the gist of the MPC’s situation–the Agents of Change were subtly changing policies to benefit the Multiverse Protectorate Pantheon further. They were also staging key personnel in seats of power, gathering resources to hidden cache points only known to YoAnna’s agents, and preparing for any number of scenarios their Pantheon Leader may require of them–ranging from assassinating global leaders and blaming it on the World Knife to pure sabotage of most first world country pivotal government centers if they fully turned against YoAnna and the Champions. For now, the Agents of Change were mostly on clean-up, uprooting double agents and accomplices, gathering blackmail on government and military officials too high up to be hunted directly, and prepping to be of better service to the Champions.

A lot of this had been done in the background already and was getting implemented now that the wider organization–the big, bulky, overt military portion was getting hacked away to streamline the agency. And on a positive note–the agency’s support for Head Researcher Kowalski was bearing fruit due to the round-the-clock study of the inert dungeon core. Something might come of the analysis within a week and some days as the Head Researcher combined esoteric and shamanistic rituals with quantum physics. Until Miss Kowalski had her breakthrough, and until the MPC was up and running completely, Agent Cabana had assured other Agents of Change along with the more trustworthy Systemless agents would do their best to keep the cowboyish CWG agents leashed. It hadn’t been easy, apparently, but things were getting better. And there might be some CWG agents that get absorbed into the MPC in time.

Point Three–the Admins could be doing anything, and Senior Agent Cabana had no idea what. This had not been explicitly told to her by their Pantheon Leader. YoAnna had cards held to her chest even from her agents. But Senior Agent Cabana could infer based on small mentions she’d heard from YoAnna the past couple of years. It seemed like the System Admins would prefer for YoAnna to lose. Maybe there was pressure on the Admins from a third party. Possibly, the great powers that had nearly driven the Multiverse Protectorate Pantheon to extinction. Or the System Admins wanted this universe to be cut up and put through the grinder without a Guide since it was easier that way.

Again, the senior agent could only infer, but her words had provided some food for thought. It had been a struggle for Jay not to open up about the Godling Dungeon circumstances completely–but it was at this point he shared more about the System Admins having a bone against him and Kleo and that YoAnna defended them (in her own special and dark way). It had been hard for Jay to fend against further questions that prodded at the personal stuff between him and YoAnna, so he fell silent until Frank and Casey stopped badgering him. In the end, YoAnna had the most knowledge on Admins and Multiverse politics, and all they could focus on was Earthly things.

The meeting ended after those revelations came to light.

“Damn,” Jay said, resurfacing from his deeper and more intense thoughts. He returned to a world of darkness, yellow streetlights, and heavy rain. “I am not qualified whatsoever.”

The sheer thought that there was a contingency to assassinate the United States President was already a level of mindblowing that was stratospheric. Pile on everything else he’d learned and all the rest that was up in the air, and Jay was thankful his Conviction was high enough to hold back the panic attack that wanted to set in. Because he–among other Champions–could see how easily they could become villains instead of heroes.

All it would take was to think they were in the right to do whatever felt necessary. That it was for the good of the universe to destabilize any resistant government, murder opposing officials, and force people to adopt their rules until the Champions reforged a world that supported the Multiverse Protectorate Pantheon in totality. His 30 Intellect and knowledge of tropes had a field day running real-life scenarios and villainous storylines through his head, visualizing the Champions rising as the biggest evil surpassing Magneto, Red Skull, and Doomsday.

“I can’t let that happen,” Jay said shakily.

Or else Commander Steele would be in the right for attacking the Champions. And Jay would hate for that bastard’s ghost lurking somewhere out in the void to stop, point, and laugh. No, no, no. Jay couldn’t allow that stinking old man such satisfaction.

“Fuck that,” Jay muttered, his eyes shining brightly, piercing through the dark.

“Oh, sorry, I’ll come back later!” squealed a skittish and girlish voice.

“Amanda,” Jay called gravenly–the space rippling and distorting around him. “Stay.”

The Systemless human straightened on the spot like a pole. She was filled with so much fear it took her half a minute to realize she had stopped being CWG Buddy One. She was no longer a background character to Jay.

“You know my name?” she asked incredulously.

“I’ve overheard your phone conversations,” Jay said. “Amanda Berkley. FBI. A linguist in French, Chinese, Spanish–all the languages my friends and I speak outside of English, and the little Arabic Mike and Lilith know.”

“I know Arabic, too,” Amanda admitted before wincing. “Why did I say that? You’re making me act weird.”

“Has a specialty for teens and preteens, too,” Jay added. “You’re just a bigger kid. Makes you relatable. You’re the CWG’s best hope of getting in with the Champions. And guess what?”

Jay leered at her.

Amanda gulped. “What?”

“It’s. Working.”

The rain filled the moment of silence between them. Jay’s shining eyes illuminated Amanda’s pale face with silver, gold, and purple colors that cast aside the shadows of the night. The lions at the front gate stuck out the most behind Amanda.

“Frick. Just fricking frick.” Amanda huffed, her fear breaking into annoyance, then a flare of anger. “I have too many qualifications. You told them you liked me. I can’t get transferred if I’m permanent for you. You… you fricked me!”

Jay smiled, happy to get a bit more attitude out of Amanda. It would add more weight to her character and help her in whatever role she had to play. With all the background factors involved, Jay was becoming more mindful of his influence and who he wanted to attract.

“You’re not acting like any teen or person I’ve ever met,” Amanda admitted. “I’m in over my head here. So, please convince my bosses to transfer me.”

“No,” Jay said.

Amanda slouched in defeat. Then she found her personal willpower and straightened her posture like a professional. She readjusted her tie clasp–she had a thing for two-piece suits that fitted her nicely–and started to unfold her umbrella.

“Don’t bother,” Jay said.

Amanda gave him a questioning gaze.

“Walk with me.” He gestured for her to move side-to-side with him. She did as instructed.

Soon as they walked out into the rain, Jay’s field for [Sling Assist] alighted a spacious purple globe around him and Amanda. Every raindrop touching that globe spiraled around them on a level with Jay’s chest. No matter if they fell from the top, Jay’s magic slung the droplets where he wanted. As he caught them, he whirled them away in all directions, coating the flung droplets in gravity magic temporarily.

A neon purple ring showered glowy water for dozens of feet everywhere while they remained dry in the middle. Jay saw it from the top down using his spatial-gravity sense. Anyone recording would have quite the show.

“I think the applications to my powers,” Jay said, “are numerous and fun. It’s so ridiculous, I might be more OP than my own imagination.”

“Uh, uh, uh,” Amanda said, eyes wide open at the glowy magic displayed around her. She reached out as they neared her sedan. She hesitated.

“Go ahead,” Jay said. "This won't hurt you."

She touched the line of water encircling them and got her hand splashed. She shrieked in fear. After she calmed down, she let out a little giggle and reached out again. She received the same result. She broke into more childish laughter. Like a little girl out in a water park, darting back and forth from the water gouts that came up from the ground.

“And that is why you can hang,” Jay said, opening the door for Amanda. He had altered the [Sling Assist] angle to raise one side of the loop above the car roof and dip the other side behind them.

Amanda scooted inside, looking up at Jay in wonder.

“What happened in your meeting?” She blurted out. “My bosses say Agent Cabana is, uh, not being exactly forthcoming. It sounds serious.”

“The assassins,” Jay said, “could still be lurking. We have to take precautions for the sake of our family. I might need you to look after my mom more closely, too.”

Amanda searched Jay’s face. “There’s more. Your entire persona has changed. You’re acting a lot more mature than usual. I, uh, know you won’t exactly trust me. But I just want to know if things are going to be okay. With you and the other Champions.”

Her concern was real even if Jay couldn’t feel the emotional gravity of it. She worried, but she wasn’t worrying heavily enough. He wanted to believe she wasn’t another Caroline capable of tricking him. It shouldn’t be possible since she passed the vibe-check with his [Slayer of Assassins] Title, but she could be a different type of plant (she was already a plant–but she could be a deeper plant).

But Jay wanted to hope that Amanda was good. He wanted more good people for when things got bad.

“We’re gonna be totally fine,” Jay lied obnoxiously, pulling up his more jokey side.

Amanda closed the driver's door harder than necessary and got the car started. She was not happy with his response, and she wasn’t afraid to show it.

Jay liked that.

Jay walked over to the passenger side, stopping to think while [Sling Assist] was still active. How could he enter the car, not splatter water inside Amanda’s interior, and remain dry? He checked two of his Skills quickly.

His current active Skill:

[Sling Assist, Level 9]: Any object or person flying into your personal space and isn’t resistant to your magic can be rapidly redirected around you and shot off at an accelerated pace. Your Perception and the target’s weight and magical defense are accountable factors. Variable mana costs range from small to high. Leveling up improves acceleration speed and effectiveness.

And a Skill he could use more often:

[Gravity Grasp (Familiar), Level 7]: You and/or Kleo coat a target in magic aligned with your affinity. If the target can’t resist fully, they’ll fall in your direction and under your limited telekinetic influence. The power of the local gravity combined with your magical capacity and the target’s dimensions are accountable factors. Variable mana costs range from small to high. The mana costs are higher for the Faerie Master. Leveling up improves your telekinetic prowess and increases Kleo’s effectiveness and range.

Hm.

Jay reread his Skills multiple times and reconsidered them with a more divergent mind. One of creativity, just like being in the Toyreveler Dungeon again.

Before Amanda lost her patience with him, Jay [Gravity Grasped] the door handle specifically. He used magic to tilt the handle the same way a hand would–an extension of the Skill’s limited but usable gravity telekinesis. He swung the door open a little harder than he liked, but he was getting somewhere with this.

Next, he [Moonwalked] softly into his seat, his hand sticking outside while his body passed inside. [Sling Assist] and the circling raindrops used his hand as their center of gravity. His hand counted as you/him under the Skill’s description. He could contract the field gradually from around him while his hand remained in the center. The moment he [Gravity Grasped] the door handle to shut it, he shot away whatever water remained fixed on his hand and ended [Sling Assist].

Door shut. Still dry except for his shoes. And the mana cost remained at a minimum. Quite good results.

He lacked Brit’s affinity flexibility, but he had lots of Skills that he could play with and creatively adjust for his uses.

 Gravity Grasp was still a little painful cost-wise, but that would smooth over with more Skill levels.

Sling Assist leveled up to 10!

Gravity Grasp leveled up to 8!

Jay cracked a grin. A little creativity while challenging himself and changing his thought process could boost the leveling process. This was going to be important for tomorrow’s meeting.

“Okay, that was absolutely unnecessary and extra,” Amanda said. “But so, so, so awesome. Is that your, uh, magic from the goddess?”

She shrank into her seat as if she was going to get scolded for asking. Like a silly child speaking nonsense around adults.

“Yeah, it’s my magic,” Jay answered. “Can you guess what?”

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“Purple telekinesis like Psylocke!” She answered as she started driving them back to the motel.

“Kinda close, kinda not,” Jay said. “Keep guessing, and I’ll tell you if you’re right.”

She kept getting it wrong, which eventually transitioned to how much it sucked that X-men comic books got stifled hard the past decade. Then the conversation erupted into a big debate on which Mutant was the strongest in all of Marvel. She was a huge Scarlet Witch fan. Jay laughed from the knowledge of Franklin Richards making new realities whenever he wanted.

***

Wednesday arrived with a rainy morning, all gray and dreary. The lack of sunshine could bring down a person's spirit. But not Jay's. Not today. He had a big smile on his face as he crossed between the big lion statues at the front gate.

Last night was amazing. Jay and Kleo had invited Mom, Derek, and Amanda to help the gravity duo figure out small ways to train their magic. Amanda finally got to learn it was gravity magic, which made her rage for not figuring it out earlier.

Obviously, everything Jay had revealed would be recorded and passed around the CWG. But that was okay. He wasn’t going to pull out the REALLY BIG Skills.

And Senior Agent Cabana had ensured this would lead to two results if Champions practiced their powers under surveillance: Dirty agents would expose themselves trying to leak information. Any ingenious developments the CWG achieved would be seized and flipped for the Pantheon’s own use. It didn’t matter if they were FBI, CIA, or NSA. The MPC had close ties to a freaking real-life deity. That trumped the red tape and bureaucratic processes most of the time.

Jay had to give it to Agent Cabana, the woman was a monster in all of this secret squirrel three-letter agency politics. He couldn’t imagine himself doing that. It was way too much.

Jay paused outside of creative writing class as an errant thought came to him. “Huh, so that’s why adults exist. They help do all the boring background stuff, so the rest of us do the fun stuff.” Note to self. Keep good adults around. Very needed for paperwork, interpreting stupid rules, and adulting.

“Are you going to go inside or keep talking to yourself?” Frank muttered from behind Jay.

Brit waved from behind Frank.

The two looked a little dimmer today. Everything they learned last night must’ve weighed on them a lot. Frank had been trained to defend American interests by the very Commander and Senior Agent who had plans to betray it for different sides. Brit was a harder case to pin. How would Holy Affinity take to conquering a world if necessary?

Jay smiled kindly and opened the door for them. They could all use some peace and simplicity and creative writing work. The class rolled by without a hitch.

Then the three sat in thoughtful silence in Photoshop Class.

They linked up with the other Champions and ate in a subdued mood during lunch. Jay read his gravity books unperturbed. Nobody spoke up much other than making awkward requests to pass the salt. Lilith was the perkiest out of everyone. Nobody else had thoughts of world domination like her. 

Macy didn’t flirt with Jay at French II. She hunted down fewer donations today despite her mermaid outfit being her greatest hit.

Gym class came around, and all of the [Fighters] tossed the ball up more casually than before. Macy busied herself with a puzzle contraption she made from office supplies that shot staples at her eyes if she arranged the pieces incorrectly.

Her awfully long rainbow-colored eyelashes had a bunch of staples hanging on them.

“Brit?” Emily called from behind Jay.

“Hm?”

“I still have my doubts,” Emily admitted.

“We’ll talk about it more later,” Brit said encouragingly.

“But what if Lilith’s right?”

Jay’s spatial-g sensed Brit tensing without her emotional gravity flaring. Out of all the Champions, she was probably the best at addressing her own emotions.

“Lilith is right,” Brit said. “But she is not right about everything.”

“Isn’t her being right more than enough?” Emily asked.

Brit shook her head. “Theories require an exactness that has to be tested constantly until it’s not wrong. Our beliefs only need to be right to us and no more.”

The [Mediums] fell into a comfortable silence, leaving Jay a little grateful that they were okay with him listening in. Emily must be comfortable with him listening in on that conversation. And Brit responded to that kindly without giving away too much.

Tonight was going to be interesting. Maybe even wild. The fun stuff was getting laid out on the table. Notable System quirks. Affinities. Skills. Talents. Titles. And other weird stuff! This was a culmination of the big selling point that interested many of the Champions in the first place–MAGIC and POWER.

Jay smiled eagerly.

***

Jay walked the halls of Central High alone.  He had time to kill before the Wednesday meeting.

Monday, he spent his free time watching the football team, cheerleading squad, and other Central athletic programs practice outside. It had been obvious Dennis was struggling to play normie and not hurt his teammates. Casey had stopped performing altogether and was directing the cheerleaders like a drill instructor. When the band marched by, his Perception had noticed Brit’s disinterest as she led at the front.

Tuesday had Jay hang out with the Junker Twins and other Junkside students who regarded Jay’s uptown nature shiftily like he’d NARC on them. But the twins had done a good job warming up their rough and tumble buddies until Jay could joke with them a little easier. For some reason, Systemless humans from Junkside didn’t give a rat-ass about the rumors, statuses, and nickname stuff.

Today, Jay found himself wandering for no reason. He could use the time to read further into his gravity study–he was just getting into gravity’s relationship with space-time in general relativity. Even with 30 Intellect, Jay’s newness to the subject was huge. He might need to look up videos and 3D examples. But Jay didn’t feel inclined to do that now even though he was curious.

There was something else drawing him to go on a journey. To where? He didn’t know. He could barely feel the pull of Chance. It wasn't a narrative. It was something else. It was so tiny, Jay was better off ignoring it. It was that insignificant. It felt like Chance delivering a side quest: pick ten apples from the orchard and get this iron sword you could find by killing the monsters in the next field over.

Yeah, he didn’t need to follow this thread.

He still followed it. Real-life side quests sounded interesting.

Eventually, Jay found himself in a darkened corner of the athletics building. One of the lights had gone out and hadn’t been replaced yet. It was a rare sight of imperfection in such a prideful and fantastical school.

The darkened light hung above a room being used by one of the many after-school clubs YoAnna’s money funds–one of Central High’s greatest draws. No school in Florida had as many extracurriculars. It was like a school anime, almost.

That didn’t mean all clubs were equal. Some got more funding than others. Some had to scrape by with pitiful offerings due to their low attendance.

This club had a very small room. And the attendees numbered three in total. Everything from a first glance seemed dismissable.

Then Jay read aloud the poorly written sign hanging beside the door.

“‘Capoeira Club,’” Jay said. “‘Combine dance and martial arts. Control your mind, body, and spirit from the ground up. Kick it with us for exercise and defense.’”

The door opened.

A student with no nickname, no special renown, and no recognition looked Jay up and down. The guy’s eyes widened with realization, his body stiffening.

“Uh, hey, Rooftop,” he greeted cautiously.

He looked around quickly as if to pay his respects to First Nerd, Superjock, or any of the Divine Four. He barely relaxed when he saw it was only Rooftop.

Jay studied the guy. Long dreadlocks bound into a ponytail by strings of beads. Powerful upper body built from Capoeira practice. A simple and friendly face with welcoming brown eyes even if he was feeling wary. Seemed like a decent guy.

Jay smiled. “Your name?”

“Oh, it’s Rob! And Jay’s your actual name, right? Sometimes all the nicknames flying around get confusing, you get me?”

Jay nodded. “Want to invite me?”

“What are you? A vampire?” Rob laughed, getting more comfortable. “Come on in, come on in.”

Jay’s smile widened as he felt ripples of gravity pass through him from Rob’s welcome. The tiny, insignificant pull of Chance leading him here had emboldened itself into something worthwhile.

When he passed through the threshold between regular Central High and the Capoeira Club’s sports shed size room, the area felt weightier around him. Rob stumbled midstep, the sudden flux of metaphorical and physical gravity disturbing his footing. He looked around in confusion.

The two other club attendees were also nobodies. Jay was pretty sure they weren’t even seniors, which made their background nature deeper.

Jay’s embedded instinct to overlook them had nearly taken over until he stopped himself. He was falling into an obsolete way of thinking Lilith had detailed for everyone–the trap Emily had succinctly explained.

“Hi,” Jay said, his heterochromia eyes twinkling in defiance of the norm. “Jay Luckrun. I’ll probably join, but is it okay if I watch you guys first? And what are your names?”

The girl was Sarah. The guy was Ivan. They were both Freshmen, scared of Jay’s connection with the biggest nicknamed seniors, and were doing everything not to upset him. It hurt Rob’s club session today, but the capoeira leader didn’t let that bother him.

He took things slow and went over the basic steps and moves. Then he rebuilt Sarah and Ivan’s confidence even if they were total novices. The kids looked eager to learn and must’ve started last week.

Jay watched while seated against the wall. The kids reminded him of when he started street dancing and how terrible he’d been. It had been hard at first. But Jay kept trying, and he eventually progressed to feeling confident to perform in front of people.

Remembering that piece of progression was nice. Remembering the voice of a dead miniboss was not so nice.

“You’re not bad,” Murderous Mary had said. “But you don’t have the training to back up your talent.”

It had been his Title [Omen Bearer of the Apocalypse] helping him mostly. But her statement still stood. He hadn’t had the training–just a madlad mindset and Luckrun upbringing sprinkled in with some athletic pursuits. There was no doubt Mary had held back when she realized how outmatched he was.

Hell, she had spared him.

Jay felt like he owed her a lot for that strange act of mercy when they had been out to kill each other. Defeating the Toyreveler and purifying Mary’s knife had been the start. He owed her to get better than his current fighting level. Might as well incorporate something that made the most sense to the [Freak] and his powers. That way he could improve upon [Omen Bearer of the Apocalypse] rather than be ignorantly reliant on it.

“This side quest,” Jay mumbled, “is most excellent.”

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