[Elaine MacNamara's Estate, Boone, North Carolina (May 2023)]
"Goodness..." Elaine smiled as she looked out at the group assembled before her. "I do believe that this is the first time all of us have ever been in the same room together."
Everyone who was a part of the green-eyed woman's inner circle was currently sitting in the salon situated in the eastern wing of her lavish estate. Thanks to everything that had been going on over the last few months, most of them had been away taking care of important matters that required her immediate attention. But now that things had died down a bit on account of her upcoming concert, they finally had the chance to come together to discuss their plans for the not-too-distant future.
"Yeah, no kidding." Michiko added while taking a sip from her cup of freshly made sweet tea.
"It makes sense." Nick then said. "Duncan and Reyna are usually away taking care of business in other parts of the country. Honestly, I can't even remember the last time I've seen the two of them at the same time."
The 'beast magic' user in question, who was sitting in a chair on the far side of the room near the fireplace, took a moment to scan the room before locking his gaze onto the newest addition to the group.
As expected, Duncan Conley had heard quite a bit about Cyrus from the others while he was away running errands for Elaine and the others.
In his humble opinion, the young man with the funky 'plant magic' didn't look all that impressive based on initial appearances. And he was certainly curious about the fact that Elaine had used that weird brainwashing curse of hers on him to get him here, along with the potential ramifications of what that might mean for them in the future. But the dark-haired 'beast magic' user decided to just play it cool for now and get a feel for what Cyrus was all about before passing any further judgment on him.
"So...you're the Tree Boy that I've been hearing so much about? The one that's supposed to be a critical part of the Boss' plan?"
"I guess I am." Cyrus replied to the question.
"Well, it's nice to meet you. The others have already told me about you, but it's nice to finally put a face to all the gossip."
Cyrus would be lying if he said that he wasn't curious about the only member of the group he hadn't met up until now. Out of everyone here, Duncan was the one that he knew the least about. He didn't look like all that much, but he knew for a fact that he was one of Elaine's best assets based on what Michiko and Quintin had already told him.
"Likewise." The 'tree magic' user smiled politely. "I've heard a bit a bout you too. Ayako said that the two of you were classmates."
The lone 'beast magic' user of the group raised an eyebrow before quickly putting the pieces together. "The Watanabe girl? Oh...that's right! She does work in the Charlotte Station now, doesn't she? How's she doing these days?"
"Pretty good."
"Man...it really is a small world, huh?" Reyna joked. "It feels like every sorcerer in the country always knows somebody that knows somebody else."
Quintin couldn't help but laugh at that comment from the tattooed woman. "Preaching to the choir."
Elaine decided that it was probably best for her to say something now to avoid everyone getting sidetracked. There was much to discuss, and they didn't exactly have a lot of time to just stand around and talk about whatever until the sun went down.
"Anywhos...I've gathered you all here today because it's finally time to bring everyone up to speed on what our goals are. Now that Cyrus is officially on board, we can start moving forward in earnest."
"About time!" Reyna said. "After Tree Boy, I'm the second newest member of the team. I'm still in the dark about most of what the actual plan is."
"Really? Nick hasn't told you?" Michiko asked.
"No." The 'healing magic' user added. "Elaine told me to keep my mouth shut until the time is right. So I haven't told her about it."
"And believe me, I've been trying to get him to spill the beans ever since I joined up with you guys! Hell, I've even tried to-"
Quintin quickly cut in before the 'blood magic' user could finish. "I'm gonna stop you right there. I do not need to hear about whatever freaky shit you two do behind closed doors."
"Agreed." Duncan nodded his head.
Reyna rolled her eyes at the redheaded man. "Stop being a bunch of haters! So what if me and Nick like to do a little experimenting every now and then? We're two healthy young adults! It's only natural that we have some fun whenever we finally get some time to ourselves."
Michiko rolled her eyes at the woman. "Yeah, yeah...whatever you say, Mrs. Arranged Marriage...."
"Here we go with that jealous shit again."
"Can all of you please shut the fuck up and pay attention?" Elaine said to the group with an annoyed look on her face. "I'd like to wrap this up before dinner."
For some reason, this team of hers always loved having sidebar conversations whenever they all got together. And even though she would be lying if she said that she didn't sometimes find the jabs they exchanged to be a bit funny, she would really like to keep things on track as much as possible. After all, she had a podcast interview in the morning. And she wanted to get as much sleep as possible before that.
"Sorry, Boss." Quintin, Duncan, and Reyna all said in unison before getting themselves in order.
"Are all these meetings like this?" Cyrus then looked to Nick.
"Pretty much." The man shrugged with a calm smile on his face.
"Thank you." The 'wind magic' user gave everyone a nod before continuing. "Now then, as I was saying...it's time for us to move forward with our plans. And to do that, I need to make sure that everyone is aware of exactly what we're doing."
"So, what's the big secret?"
"The plan that we've been working on for the past few years has been in the works ever since I was a Deputy Branch Head working under Kwame Ayew. In truth, what I plan to do was originally thought up by him. But with the amount of resources and connections that I have available to me thanks to my being a celebrity, we'll be able to enact it on a much larger scale."
That certainly got the attention of the two newest additions to the group. Neither Cyrus nor Reyna knew anything about Kwame Ayew aside from whatever small pieces of information they've been able to glean about him over time. All they really knew about the man was the fact that he was the former Branch Head in charge of operations in North America before getting killed by Theo Mubele. Elaine rarely ever talked about the man in detail, and everything that he was involved in was kept secret from anyone who didn't need to know about it.
"And that plan is?" Cyrus asked, ready to hear the exact reason why the 'wind magic' user went through so much trouble to recruit him into her group.
Elaine took a moment to look at everyone before letting out a deep breath and continuing. "In short, our eventual end goal is xxx xxxxxxxxx xx xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxx xxx xxxxxxxxx xx xxxxxx x xxxxxxxx, xxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xx xxx xxx-xxxxxxxxx xx xxx xxxxxx, xxx xx xxxxxxx xxxxx x xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxx xx xxxx xxxxxxx xxxx xx xxxxx xxxxxx xx xxxxxxxxxx xx xxxxxx."
The room became silent the moment those words left the woman's mouth. So much so that one could hear the wind rustle through the trees all the way from outside the window on the far side of the room.
"Y-you're...you're serious?" Reyna asked Elaine with no small amount of shock on her face.
"Very serious." The 'wind magic' user replied.
The response came so quickly and with such conviction that everyone knew that the woman was not playing around with what she had just said. Of course, Michiko, Nick, Quintin, and Duncan already knew about Elaine's goals long before this meeting. But hearing her say it out loud like that sent a slight chill down their spines.
"And how exactly do you plan on doing that?" Cyrus was the next to speak, curious as to how exactly she planned on accomplishing the lofty goal that she was apparently working toward for the past decade.
For the next five minutes or so, Elaine described every bit of her plan in excruciating detail to everyone present. Everything from what she had already done so far, who was involved, what still needed to be done, and all the resources that were currently at their disposal. And as they all listened, everyone couldn't help but be in awe at what they were hearing.
"Ambitious" was a word that wouldn't even begin to describe a plan like this. In truth, there might not even be a word to adequately put into perspective the magnitude of what was about to happen in the coming months. Something like this was far beyond anything that anyone else in the history of the world had tried to pull off. But the way that Elaine spoke about it made it seem not only entirely possible, but perfectly feasible.
Cyrus paused for a moment as he tried to rationalize what he had just heard. Now that he knew what their group's ultimate goal was, a lot of things started to make sense. Especially when it came to all those weird dreams he had been experiencing since he awakened his powers. And the fact that he was going to be such a critical part of all of it caused a feeling to well up in his chest that he couldn't accurately describe.
"Well...I'll be damn..." Hannah's ghost let out a low whistle. "If only I knew about something like this before I died."
The young 'tree magic' user ignored the ghost's words before a thought suddenly popped into his mind. There was one part of this plan that did spark a wave of concern inside of him. And he needed to know for sure what the possible outcome was going to be before he did anything else.
"Wait...what about my parents?" The freckle-faced man said while looking at his boss.
"Don't worry." Elaine was quick to reassure him. "I've already put safeguards in place to make sure that anyone we deem worthy won't be negatively affected by what we plan to do. Thanks to Constanza, anyone you wish to spare will be perfectly fine. That's assuming they haven't already adapted to the new paradigm we plan to put in place."
"Okay...good...." The young man let out a sigh of relief. "That's good."
"So..." Duncan then said. "How long until we make our move on Desmond Reed?"
Elaine looked at the dark-haired 'beast magic' user before speaking. "A few months from now, if everything goes to plan. We still have some time since September is going to be our optimum window to open the gate. So as long as we capture him before that, we'll be fine. If not, we'll have to wait until March of next year."
"And you're certain that we'll be able to take him down?" Reyna asked.
Nick chose to be the one to answer his wife's question. "DeSean Myers has already sent us a ton of info on how the boy's powers work, his fighting style, and what we can use against him. With all that in mind, we're positive that we'll be able to handle him without too much trouble."
"In any case, our biggest obstacle is going to be Theo Mubele." Quintin added. "We'll need to handle him before we even think about anything else. We're still working out a strategy on how best to deal with him. But to be honest, everyone should get comfortable with the idea that our lives are going to be on the line whenever that day comes."
"You mentioned before that dealing with him is the reason why you guys got me out of Area 53." Reyna then said. "Is that still the case?"
"It is." Elaine nodded.
"Gotcha."
"It's a shame that we won't be able to convince him to join us, though." Michiko said with a melancholic sigh. "He's our friend. And having him with us would've been great. But considering his history with Iznana, he'll try to kill all of us the moment he finds out."
That certainly made sense, at least in Cyrus's mind. Even though he hasn't interacted with his Deputy Chief as much as Maria has, he knew all about the 'lightning magic' user's never-ending grudge with Iznana and everything they stood for. It was easy to believe that he wouldn't hesitate to kill any of them the moment he learned of their true allegiances.
"Does Chief Chandler's husband know about this?"
"No." Elaine shook her head in response to Cyrus's question. "As much as I care about Lucas, he's way too much of a Boy Scout to know what the rest of us have going on. He'd rat us out the moment he found out about our plan."
"It does suck, though." Quintin almost laughed. "He actually would've been a great help with what we've done so far."
"I see."
Now that everyone was fully aware of her intentions moving forward, Elaine decided that it was now time to end the meeting. It was pretty late in the day, and everyone was more than ready to start winding down for the night. Plus, Cyrus needed to get back to Charlotte since he had to be at work in the morning. So, without any further ado, the Iznana Branch Head dismissed everyone and let them go about doing whatever the hell they did at this time of night.
"Have a safe trip." The woman said to her newest protégé just as he was about to walk out the door.
"Thanks." Cyrus smiled at the woman. "I'll see you guys in a few days."
"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot you guys are coming to the concert. Well, I hope that you enjoy the show! I have a new song that I'm going to debut, so it's sure to be a fun time for everyone there."
"I'm looking forward to it."
"Good, good." The woman smiled. "Now, run along. I don't need your boss complaining to me about you being tired tomorrow."
"See you later."
With their goodbyes finally out of the way, Elaine stretched her arms out over her head before deciding to make her way over to her room. She was more than ready to lie down after the long day she had just had. And with everything going on in her life, she more than deserved a bit of rest for her efforts.
'It won't be long now.' The 'wind magic' user said to herself with a slight smile on her face. 'Just a few more months, and I'll finally have everything that I've ever wanted.'
Little did Elaine know that in only a few short days, things would change far more dramatically than she ever would've expected.
-(o)-
Character Profile: Duncan
Name: Duncan Wendyll Conley (née [redacted])
Alias:[redacted]
Gender: Male
Age: 26
Birthday: April 22nd
Birthplace:[redacted]
Height: 69in.
Weight: 153lbs.
Hair: Black
Eyes: Blue
Race: White
Magic: Beast (Insecta)
Occupation: Iznana Operative, Assassin, Bodyguard
Stat Chart: C(+)
-Physical Strength - 3
-Intelligence - 3
-Magic Amount - 3
-Magical Control - 4
-Magic Sensing - 5
-Special - [redacted]
Fun Fact:
-Favorite food is snickerdoodles.
-Favorite animal is the rhinoceros beetle.
-Was adopted into the Conley family at the age of 14.
-Favorite hobbies are bowling and collecting insects.
-Is claustrophobic.