"I got an interesting one for you today." Chief Chandler told Valerie as soon as the tall blonde entered the office.
The 'fire magic' user quirked an eyebrow. "Oh? Now I like the sound of that!"
The Chief then handed Valerie a tablet with a picture of her latest target on it. The image was an illustration of a large, humanoid creature with shaggy grey fur covering its entire body. Its torso was thick, but its arms and legs were thin and lanky. Its most distinctive feature was that the bottom of its head was remarkably long compared to the rest of it. According to the illustration, the creature's height was estimated to be around ten feet tall.
"A boojum?" Valerie looked back at her aunt. "I've never actually seen one before. I hear that they're a type of sasquatch that mostly appears in swamps."
"Correct. One just popped up on the radar in the swamps near the Outer Banks. It's a few miles outside of New Bern."
"How strong is it?"
"On the low-end of B-rank. That being said, you should be careful. Boomjums are known to be able to use 'water magic'. You're going to be at a disadvantage when you get to it."
"You usually never let me go out this far. New Bern's almost four and a half hours away."
"You're right. Luckily for you, you're not going alone."
"What?" Valerie looked at the woman with a confused expression.
Just then, a new mana signature could be felt approaching the office. Before Valerie had the chance to ask her aunt any further questions, a familiar face appeared in the doorway.
"You wanted to see me, ma'am?" Cyrus asked in a polite tone upon entering the room.
"I did." Chief Chandler replied. "I'm sending you out on a hunt with Valerie to the Outer Banks."
"Alright." The young 'tree magic' user nodded his head. He was expecting something like this when Freddy told him to report to the Chief's office a few minutes ago.
'Seriously? She's teaming me up with him?' Valerie thought while her eyes dashed back and forth between the other two people in the room.
To say that the tall blonde was confused would be putting it mildly. For starters, the woman had been strictly doing solo hunts for the better part of a year and a half. So, the fact that she was going out with a partner this time was certainly a curveball that she wasn't prepared for.
On top of that, Cyrus had 'plant magic', a magical attribute that was extremely incompatible with her own. Granted, Valerie rarely ever used her 'fire magic' on the job to avoid a potential mishap. But even then, pairing them like this was perplexing, to say the least.
"Ayako told me about these a while back." Cyrus then said while looking over the cryptid's profile on the tablet. "They're like a subspecies of a sasquatch that can use 'water magic' right?"
"Indeed." The Chief nodded before getting right down to business. "Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't pair the two of you up together since your powers conflict with each other. However, there are a couple of reasons why I'm doing this."
"I'm guessing the first reason is because Ayako is off today." Cyrus asked.
"Well...yeah, there's that as well...." The Chief held back the urge to laugh before continuing. "For starters, Moore, you need some experience partnering up with other agents besides Price and Watanabe. Although you two make a great team, it's always good to expand your horizons every now and then."
"Makes sense."
"The second reason is because you two will be working together more in the future. So I need you to get comfortable working with and around each other."
Valerie tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean?"
Chief Chandler internally debated on whether or not she should even tell these two what she was thinking. Although she was certain about the pattern that was being established right up under her nose, she wasn't one hundred percent sure. That being said, it would be better for everyone in the long run if she got them ready for it now.
"This will make the second time that the two of you, along with Ortega and Price, will be assigned to watch over Commissioner MacNamara's kids. And I can assure you that this isn't an accident. I've known Eugene for years and I know how he operates. If that man is anything, it is consistent. Although this might be a bit premature to say, I'm almost certain that the four of you are going to end up being their permanent bodyguards whenever you're needed. So, it's best to get you all acclimated to each other as soon as possible."
"You think so?" Cyrus asked the woman. The 'tree magic' user was genuinely surprised to hear this information.
"I can almost guarantee it."
'This is great! Fuck Yeah!' Valerie internally cheered with stars in her eyes.
This basically meant that the Commissioner was so impressed with how they handled themselves on the last job that he was thinking of making this arrangement permanent. This means that Evan and Elizabeth must've put in a good word for them to their father. Something like this is exactly what Valerie needed to boost her career prospects. She was already on Eugene MacNamara's radar, so all she needed to do now was to keep impressing the man and improving her hunting record whenever the opportunity came up. If she plays her cards right, she might even be asked to go to DPA headquarters within the next year.
There was also the added benefit of getting the chance to spend some more time with Evan in the near future. Valerie may have been a professional, but she was never going to turn down a chance to hang out with a hot guy. The two of them got along well during the beach trip, so the tall blonde thought her chances with the guy were pretty good at the moment. And the more time they spent together, the better her chances of landing a date with him.
'Aw man, I still can't get the image of him in that swimsuit out of my head. How can one man be so damn fine....'
The Chief's words quickly brought Valerie out of her musings before she started drooling on the floor. "To be honest, I'm kind of annoyed. This will be the third time that the MacNamaras have poached some of my agents right out from under me. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that Eugene had a vendetta against me or something."
Now that certainly piqued Valerie's interest. "What were the other two times?"
"The first, as you can imagine, was with Deputy Chief Mubele. Eugene tried to take him with him to headquarters when he became the Commissioner. However, Mubele declined and chose to stay here as my Deputy Chief. That didn't really help, though, since Mubele is frequently called up to deal with national threats whenever Eugene or the President needs him to. Which is why he was gone for so long."
"And the second?" Cyrus asked the brunette woman.
Chief Chandler scratched the scar under her eye before continuing. "That would be with Quinton Vuur. I was able to convince him to come join our station right after I became Chief. However, a couple of days after we made the agreement, Elaine came out of nowhere and convinced her father to let Quinton be her full-time bodyguard. Naturally, I was pretty upset about that. But Eugene did give me Skylar Murphy as a consolation prize, so it all worked out in the end."
"Did it, though...?" Valerie didn't even attempt to hide the annoyed look on her face. To think that they were so close to getting Quinton Vuur at their station, only to get saddled with the ever-irritating 'earth magic' user. Valerie would've much rather had the former as opposed to the asshole that constantly wants to add a new chapter to their ongoing family feud.
"Anyways...that's enough of my rambling. The two of you have your marching orders. The boojum isn't anywhere close to a populated area as of right now, but that can obviously change in the time it takes you to get there. The area we tracked it in just experienced a flood, so there shouldn't be any stray civilians lurking about. If anything comes up, give me a call. Any questions?"
"No ma'am." Cyrus replied in a calm tone.
"Nope!" Valerie said with a grin.
With a wave of the hand, Chief Chandler dismissed her two subordinates. Although she wasn't entirely sure about letting them team up like this, the woman had a hunch that the two junior agents would be able to handle this job well. Typically, sending a 'fire magic' user and a 'plant magic' user out together was a recipe for disaster. But their incompatible magic shouldn't be an issue since Valerie rarely used her fire.
In any case, what's done is done. They'll know how well this works out sooner or later. So for now, all Chief Chandler could do was wait for an update and get back to reading through her emails.
'God, I should've never approved Theo's time off.' The woman groaned before clicking open her browser.
-(o)-
"Wait, your dad's a judge?!" Valerie looked at Cyrus with wide eyes.
"Yeah." Cyrus said casually while keeping his eyes glued to the road.
"Doesn't that mean he's like really important?"
"I guess...."
"And your mom owns a flower shop?"
"Yeah."
"So...your family's like...rich?"
"I wouldn't say all that."
The tall blonde leaned back in her seat while letting the air conditioning hit her in the face. The young duo had been on the road for the better part of three hours. As expected, they spent the time getting to know each other a bit more while also bouncing ideas off of each other on how they were going to handle this cryptid. Unfortunately, there was only so much planning that you could do before actually starting a hunt, so the last hour or so was just the two of them chatting about their personal lives.
"And your parents know that you're a sorcerer?"
"That's right." Cyrus nodded as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
"What did they say when you first showed them your magic?"
Cyrus couldn't help but let out a short chuckle before recounting the night he let his parents in on the secret. "My mom damn near had a heart attack. My dad just looked at the tree growing out of my hand and just shrugged before going back to his book."
"That's it?"
"Y'know, Ayako had the exact same question."
"Wow...I can't imagine what that must've been like. Were you nervous?"
"Of course I was." The man replied. "I had no clue how they were going to react."
"That makes sense."
"I guess it was different for you, huh? Since you come from one of the big sorcerer families and all that."
Valerie had a brief flashback to the day she awakened her powers. A series of images flashed through her mind before she shook those thoughts away. "Oh yeah, totally different!"
"How?"
"Well for starters, when you come from a big sorcerer family, your awakening almost never happens by accident."
"What do you mean?"
"For people from big families, we usually have our mana cores forcibly activated when our bodies get done with puberty. That's how we do it in my family. And some of the girls that I went to school with from the Conley and Alvarez families said it was the same with them."
"How does that work?"
"Basically, you just get another sorcerer to pump mana into your body to kick-start your mana core. Some people make a whole event out of it, while others don't. It does hurt like hell, though. My mom had one of my cousins do it while I was taking a nap, just so that I could circumvent a bit of the pain. It didn't work, though."
"So it's just like jumping a car?"
"Yes!" Valerie laughed at the comparison. "It's exactly like that!"
Stuff like this always fascinated Cyrus. Learning about how different things were for people who grew up in big sorcerer families was always a treat. And the fact that their station had so many of them was also something that he took note of. There was Ayako, Valerie, the Chief, Maria's partner Sebastian, Skylar Murphy, and Robin Stillwater. All of whom come from some of the most notorious bloodlines in the country's sorcerer elite. Then again, those numbers were small compared to other places.
The nine big sorcerer families all effectively controlled different regions of the country. And that fact was on full display in certain DPA stations.
Based on what Valerie told Cyrus earlier during their drive, the McKenna family pretty much owned California by themselves. Ayako said this was also the case with how the Watanabe family ran the entire Pacific Northwest. Then there was also the MacNamara family, who had the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee under their thumb. Or how the Owens family were the power players in most of the Deep South. And you can't forget about the Blair family, who were in control of the entire "bread basket" region thanks to how expansive their farming and agricultural network was.
If Cyrus had to make a comparison, he would liken it to how noble families in Europe had their own provinces to look after during the Middle Ages. It was certainly a fascinating thing to think about, but it did make sense. It's best to have a group of trusted families keeping sorcerer society in line as opposed to some other alternative.
"Hey, I got a question for you." Valerie's voice brought Cyrus out of his musings.
"What's up?"
"What's up with you and Freddy?"
Cyrus tilted his head in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Are you two like...you know...?" The young woman suggestively wiggled her eyebrows.
It took a moment for Cyrus to figure out what she was getting at before the light bulb went off over his head. Although most people probably would've gotten flustered at such a brazen question, Cyrus managed to keep his cool. The young man had been asked way more awkward questions than this in the past, so something like this wasn't likely to throw him off.
"No." He answered coolly. "We're just friends. Besides, I'm straight."
Valerie was kind of annoyed that she didn't get the reaction that she wanted out of the guy, but she was fine with letting it slide for now.
"Now it's my turn to ask you a question."
"Oh? And what would you like to ask?"
"You totally have the hots for Evan, don't you?"
Most young women would've probably found a way to avoid giving a direct answer to that question; however, Valerie was not like most young women. She was a confident and proud DPA agent. So there was no shame in her admitting to the truth.
"Was it that obvious?" The tall blonde immediately sank into her seat while looking out the window to avoid making eye contact with the guy.
"Oh yeah...." Cyrus said with a chuckle. "Elizabeth even made a joke about it when we were escorting her to her appointment."
'Fuck...' Valerie slumped down even further into her seat. Failing to hide the embarrassment on her face as she watched the trees zoom passed the window. 'My life is over....'
-(o)-
It was still early in the afternoon by the time the two junior agents arrived at their destination.
The area they currently found themselves in was the land surrounding a dense swamp about thirty minutes away from the nearby river. Just like Chief Chandler had said, the place experienced a bit of flooding a couple of days ago thanks to the recent hurricane and following storm. So, not only were Cyrus and Valerie surrounded by layers of thick vegetation on all sides, but they were also doing their best to navigate through the knee-deep water that seemed to go on forever.
'Thank God we came in our wet weather gear.' Cyrus thought to himself while looking down at his waterproof jacket and pants. The gear was just as lightweight and durable as their regular suits, but also came with the added bonus of keeping them dry. It still amazed the man how the DPA was able to make clothes that were both fireproof and bulletproof, all while still feeling like regular clothes for all their agents.
"How far away are we?" Valerie asked from a few feet behind Cyrus.
The 'tree magic' user looked down at the scanner for a moment before looking up and pointing directly east of their position.
"A hundred yards in that direction." He replied. "The boojum is stationary right now, but that'll change once it senses our presence."
"Good." Valerie smiled grimly while she twirled one of her machetes on her index finger. "I haven't had the chance to slice anything up in over a week."
"Right..." Cyrus nervously laughed. 'Man, this chick is kinda scary when she's on the job.'
As the two got closer to their target, Cyrus decided that now was as good a time as ever to prepare himself. The freckle-faced teen stopped for a moment before placing his hand on a nearby tree branch. He then let out a slight breath as he flowed a fraction of his mana into it and visualized what he wanted to do in his mind.
From behind him, Valerie watched in shock as the tree branch reformed itself around Cyrus's right arm and shoulder. In the span of a few seconds, what could only be described as a sleeve of wooden armor with spikes coming out of the shoulder, elbow, and forearm was created right before her very eyes. It was a devious-looking magical construct that looked like it could cause some real damage.
'I forgot he was supposed to be talented when it came to controlling his magic.' Valerie thought, albeit with a slight bit of jealousy in her tone. 'Must be nice.'
The fact that the guy could manipulate foreign matter to this extent was nothing short of impressive for a first-generation sorcerer with barely a year of experience under his belt. Now it was clear to the woman why her aunt was so happy to add him to their ranks. This was the kind of talent that you grab onto as soon as you find it.
'This should do.' Cyrus said to himself as he appraised the creation on his arm. It took some time for the 'tree magic' user to learn how to properly manipulate trees that he himself didn't create. However, once he got it down, he was surprised at how easy it actually was. On top of that, this method came with an added benefit that he planned to take advantage of.
Not only did this make any wooded area that he was in his own personal playground to an extent, but trees that he himself didn't create from seeds couldn't absorb mana. Which meant that he could now hide his special ability a lot easier than he could before.
About fifty yards deeper into the woods, both Cyrus and Valerie suddenly sensed the presence of the cryptid. And based on the fact that the creature instantly began moving toward them, it was clear that it sensed them too.
"Ready?" Valerie gave Cyrus one last look as she poured mana into her machetes.
Cyrus nodded at his partner. "Yeah, just remember the plan."
It took all of ten seconds for the boojum to close the distance between itself and the two agents, and the moment the young duo were within eyesight, the creature let out a disgusting-sounding roar. The large humanoid cryptid was running at them at full speed with a large ball of dirty swamp water floating right above its head. The thing even had what looked like the remains of an alligator's tail in its claws.
"Come on, ugly! Show me what you got!" Valerie shouted with a feral grin as she charged forward to meet the creature head-on.
The moment the woman was within striking distance, the boojum swung its clawed hand at Valerie's head. However, thanks to her superior reflexes, the tall blonde was able to easily dodge the attack with ease. The creature tried to swipe at her a second time, only for the woman to block it with the flat side of the machete in her left hand. Valerie immediately took advantage of their positioning and swung the blade in her right hand upwards with as much force as she could muster. The result was the right hand of the boojum being removed from its wrist.
The creature then let out a pained roar as it tried to use its left hand to attack Valerie again. This time, however, Valerie didn't try to counter with an attack of her own. Instead, the woman used her right leg to kick the creature right in its stomach, sending it flying backward a good five yards in the opposite direction.
'Now that it's been injured, it's going to try to use its water magic.' Cyrus concluded as he charged forward and poured more mana into the wooden armor on his right arm.
Sure enough, the boojum once again roared before the orb of water above its head began to grow with the addition of some of the surrounding water on the ground.
Based on what he was able to read about this kind of cryptid, Cyrus knew that boojums try to capture their prey inside those orbs of water and drown them before eating them. Now that it was heavily injured, this cryptid was going to resort to using its 'water magic' as its main source of defense. And that was something that Cyrus needed to quickly put an end to.
The 'tree magic' user zoomed past Valerie and made a beeline directly for the boojum. And just before he was right on top of it, Cyrus shot off three mana bursts in rapid succession to force the creature back onto its back. With that small window of opportunity, Cyrus then jumped into the air and cocked back his right hand. Then, with as much force as he could muster, the 'tree magic' user used the spikes on his wooden arm to slash through the ball of water, completely destroying it in the process.
With the boojum's main form of defense now gone, Cyrus aimed his right hand down at the creature and used the wood on his arm to send a spike through its remaining arm. The boojum let out another pained roar before trying to attack Cyrus, but its attempt failed due to it now being momentarily stuck on the ground.
"Valerie, it's all you!"
"Got it!"
With the grace of a tiger closing in on its prey, Valerie dashed toward the boojum while charging both of her machetes with even more of her mana. In fact, the woman poured so much mana into the blades that they began to glow orange, which was the color of her mana.
In the time it took Cyrus to get himself out of the way, Valerie was able to deliver a devastating double-slash attack that cleanly decapitated the boojum. It happened so quickly that the creature didn't even have time to try and defend itself one last time.
"Mission complete!" Valerie said with a confident smirk as she watched the boojum's body begin to disintegrate.
"That was easier than I thought it would be." Cyrus chuckled. "I was sure that it was going to take way longer to beat that thing."
"Well, I guess it's a good thing that we make such an awesome team! I may prefer to do all of my hunts solo, but this was actually pretty fun. We should do it again sometime!"
"Yeah, sure."
Now that the job was done, the two agents wasted no time in calling the Chief and informing the woman that they had successfully terminated the boojum. Once that was done, they began making the long journey through the swamp back to their car. Thankfully, they had the foresight to bring a change of clothes with them. So, the ride back wasn't going to be an unpleasant one.