Jenkins slowed the car as they approached the barricade, everyone was tense. The sun was low in the west, casting long shadows in front of the car Eric was in. They were near the bridge over the Hassayampa River, and there were scrub hills in the way. Ironically the small road they were on was going west even though they needed to go east-they just had to get back to the highway.

Parks got on the radio, “I have visual on Agent Gomez, this is not a mistake, I know what happened, I repeat, I have visual on Agent Gomez, and he is currently pointing a gun at the car I'm in. Please advise.”

Jenkins pulled off the road and stopped short of effective pistol range. Of course that was also short of conversation range. He and Parks exited the vehicle and Jenkins pulled out his badge, yelling, “Agent Jenkins and Agent Parks, FBI, what is the situation?”

Agent Gomez seemed to be content to let the standoff continue, not even speaking.

Jenkins tried again, “Officers, what is the purpose of this road block?” He shouted.

One of the officers responded, “We have a report of two fake FBI agents transporting a known criminal.”

“Get on your radio and confirm it then, I'll have the FBI confirm our identity.” Jenkins yelled.

“No, don't, it is a trap, once you are on the radio they will attack!” Gomez said.

One of the officers reached for the radio, and Gomez moved, flowing through the space towards the two police. He stared at them, and they both screamed. Their skin seeming to shrivel and their eyes glowing.

Eric opened the door, “Wind Slash,” he said, aiming at the hat of Agent Gomez. The blast of wind took the hat completely off the head of the Agent, and the setting sun struck his skin. Gomez screeched and turned to stare at Eric while writhing in pain. The officers fell back, one of them crying into the radio.

Parks was getting yelling from her radio as well, “What the hell is going on? Parks, are you there?”

She grabbed the radio and answered, “I'm here, Agent Gomez attacked two uniformed officers, but our civilian made an assist, and I think they will be OK, still, send an ambulance, and backup.” She kept her shield on and pointed towards Gomez.

Gomez leapt over his car, seeming almost weightless, getting cover not from Parks and Jenkins, but from the sun. He stared at Eric with hate filled eyes. Eric asked Parks and Jenkins “Do I target him?”

Parks clicked the radio, “Can we confirm that Gomez is still dead?” After a minute a squawk came back, “I'm looking at his body right now.” Parks growled, “Light him up Eric!”

Eric used Sun Bolt, gathering energy and sending a blast of light that sliced off the agent's left arm. As it fell it dissipated into mist. Gomez pointed his gun at Eric, firing, but the bullet bounced off Parks' magical shield.

Then an arrow flew through Parks.

The feathered bolt entered just below her armpits, and was long enough to get stuck in her torso, the head coming out of the left side of her rib-cage while the fletching was still poking out her right side. Even Eric knew it was a very bad wound. Parks coughed blood, and Jenkins yelled something unintelligible.

Jenkins swore, “Fuck it, Eric, finish that thing, whatever got Parks is going to die.” Eric watched Jenkins run into the scrub-land, over a small hill. Eric ducked as Agent Gomez-or whatever looked like him-unloaded a pistol in his general direction. Several bullets hit the car Eric was hiding behind. Tilly looked at Eric, then Jenkins, and followed the Agent off the road.

Eric peeked over the door and sent another Sun Bolt at Gomez. The bolt hit his stomach, and he wailed in pain but kept firing wildly. Eric was trying to get to Parks to heal her, but didn't want to draw Gomez's attention to the downed woman.

Stolen novel; please report.

As Jenkins charged over the hill, an arrow flew completely through his knee. Screaming in pain, he dropped to the ground. Tilly knelt next to him, sending a spell at whoever was attacking. For a moment the arrows stopped, which let Tilly bind Jenkins' wound, but there was nothing she could do to get him mobile. Jenkins spotted the large figure with a bow and rolled into a lying stance. Then he sent three bullets into the man, who grunted but remained upright.

Tilly complained, “You just ruined my spell.” Then an arrow hit the ground near Jenkins and bounced up, barely hitting his upper arm and drawing a line of bright red blood.

“I'm gonna need a new suit if I survive this,” Jenkins groaned.

Eric heard Gomez stop firing and looked out from behind the door, the Agent was reloading, and Eric had only a second to send out another Sun Bolt. This one dropped the Agent, and Eric ran up to Parks. He knew his healing wouldn't work with the arrow inside her, “Kendra, I'm really sorry about this.” Eric snapped the fletching off the end of the arrow, hearing Parks grunt in pain, then pulled the arrow the rest of the way through her. He used Minor Heal one her until he ran out of mana, but she was still coughing blood.

Tilly threw her spear at the large figure, and used Multiply, it turned into four spears, and three hit him before vanishing, ironically the real spear was the only one that missed. Jenkins fired another grouping of bullets into Cletus, and the large man cursed and ran. “Fuck, get him Tilly!” Jenkins yelled, and the Orc reluctantly left him, chasing the criminal and snatching up her spear.

As Tilly went over the next hill, she saw four lizards of some sort, long, low to the ground, with a flat, rectangular snout filled with a long row of teeth, eyes projecting just above. Their skin was wet, but there was no water there. The creatures moved forward with a burst of speed, which she didn't expect from their short legs, but she was able to stab one with her spear, then turn and sprint away. Once she could see Jenkins she looked behind her-and they were gone.

Tilly returned to Jenkins, “I'm guessing you didn't get him.” He said bitterly.

“I was ambushed, some sort of animal I've never seen.” After all, Tilly was from a dry planet and had never seen an alligator before. “I need to get you back to the road so your healers can repair your wound.”

“No don't,” Jenkins said before the orc effortlessly picked him up in a princess carry and jogged to the road. “Fine, I guess we are doing this.”

Eric was helping the two police officers patch up Parks with a first aid kit, when the officers saw Jenkins' wounds and cursed. A minute later an ambulance pulled up, followed by a state police unit and a minute after that an FBI vehicle. Special Agent in Charge (SPIC) Gonzalez himself climbed out of the back seat.

“Report,” Gonzalez said, and the agents did their best to explain what happened. “So you are saying a very dangerous criminal ambushed two of my people and is still out there? He has killed an Agent and at least two police, and seems to be able to send ghosts after anyone he wants?” Then he looked at Parks and Jenkins, “Be honest with me, if I pull more Agents and send them after this guy, will it help, or just be a bloodbath?”

Parks spat, a glob of red landing on the pavement. “Sir, if they don't have levels, they don't stand a chance. I think, if he hadn't gotten the jump on me, maybe we could have taken him. He did run away, but I don't know if that was because he was afraid of us or wanted a better shot at us. Frankly I don't know who else at the Agency could have survived the hit I took. Even I still would have died if Eric wasn't there with magical healing.”

Jenkins was sitting on a gurney, Eric at his knee. “Yeah, I'm really glad we have magic, or I'd be off the force.” He looked at the bloody mess where his knee used to be. “The paramedics took one look at my knee and said it would have to be rebuilt from titanium.” Eric used another Lesser Heal, building up another few centimeters of ruined bone.

“Fuck, I do not like feeling helpless. Look, you two are now my task force for dealing with hero level threats, any resources you need, let me know and I'll get them for you. How long do you think you will be out of action?” Gonzalez looked at the large pool of blood where Parks had gone down.

Eric said “Give me...I donno, an hour? Maybe two, this is a lot and it is draining me pretty badly.” Eric was waiting for his mana to tick back up enough to use another heal on Jenkins. The paramedics had been gobsmacked at the condition they found Parks in, and had told him that she could heal on her own, so Eric had been focused on getting Jenkins mobile again. He still planned to finish fixing Parks once Jenkins was good though.

“I didn't ask you.” the SPIC said, “But thanks, and thanks for taking care of my Agents.” He looked at Tilly, “That goes for you too. If you want me to write a commendation to send your boss on the other side of the rift, let me know, I'd be happy to.”

Eric didn't know Tilly could blush, she was already such a dark shade of green, but he saw it anyway. “Thank you, but I'm just doing what any law-keeper would do.”

“Well you are a credit to your force, and your race.” The Special Agent in Charge paused, “I hope that isn't going to get me in trouble with HR.”

“Sir, we found something.” One of the Agents came jogging up to Gonzalez with a military radio.

“Cletus, did you get them?” It was Major Thompson.