“Um, Monika, what are you doing in Arizona?” Eric asked.
“Checking on you. I understand you have been running for your life, but didn't bother to tell me? Also, you are running the other classed employees below you as workers, they are heroes. I don't think you realize the power we have here, the opportunities.” She answered.
Eric paused, “So, you want us to take more power? I don't understand.”
Monika shook her head. “No, I don't want us to take more power, I want us to use the power we have. I want you to be willing to move people around if needed. Do you know you have a Water Mage in Hawaii? Someone who could create storms of water. What could it do for wildfires? What could that do for Lake Meade and the Colorado river? For declining water levels affecting fish stocks. But in Hawaii, they can't do much at all. Meanwhile in California, you have a rock-shaper, imagine what they could do for the volcanoes in Hawaii, making channels for future lava flows while building paths above those channels.”
Eric was a bit ashamed, she was right. “OK, when I get back to my desk I'll get to work on moving people with classes to where they can do the most good.”
Monika's expression softened, “It isn't a big deal, only one of my regional directors has realized what we can do, and you are all pretty busy just processing the new folks you are getting as more and more people stumble into rifts, plus taking reports of what people are actually doing. We seem to have the highest percentage of rift walkers outside BLM, probably because we have a lot of people in more isolated areas, harder for the military to secure.”
She paused, “Sorry, I'm digressing again. The point is, I'm here for you because I'm worried about you. I'm your boss, and in my book that means I'm as responsible for your well being as I am for your job performance. I came to see if you needed a few weeks off.”
Eric considered his brush with death, what had happened to Jenkins. He knew he would have nightmares, and had some things to unpack next time he had a telehealth visit with his therapist. But he worried that if he took time off he would just stew in it. “No, I don't think time off would help, it might make things worse honestly. But while you are here, what do you think of, well, letting me create some more formal links to other departments? Especially people with classes. I think a joint task force of people with classes could do a lot more good than individuals with classes just working on whatever they can think of.”
Monika sighed, “That, that is a big ask, but it makes sense. I'm willing to spend some political capital on that, but just on a test case. Send me a white paper, and I'll share it around. Assuming I can get buy in for trying it, you will be the test case, so be ready.”
Eric nodded, but before he could speak Monika added, “Seriously, are you OK? Is there anything you need?”
“I'm, well, I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not OK, but I have what I need, and I'll be OK eventually. I promise to tell you if I do need help, whether resources or time off or a special trip to investigate the beaches of Hawaii.” Eric smiled at the last bit and Monika laughed at his joke.
“Get your vacations on your own dime.” she chided.
With that, Eric left the military base and called Agent Parks. “Kendra, are you at the Field Office?”
Kendra's voice sounded rough, “Yes, Eric, are you coming here? We, we need a statement, for the death of an Agent, you know?”
“I understand, and you need a friend right now. I'll be right over.”
It took half an hour to reach the FBI office. An agent met him at the door and escorted him to an conference room, with Kendra, Tilly, Gonzalez, two Agents Eric hadn't met, and Captain King. Gonzalez led the meeting. “Eric, thank you for joining us. Any time an Agent is killed in the line of duty, we have an investigation. In this case, we are mostly focused on lessons learned. Eric, I understand why you did what you did, but it appears you were leading this operation, even though you have no law enforcement experience. I am going to ask questions, please do not consider them attacks, just answer them to the best of your ability. Also, I will ask the others who were present at the scene, or who might have knowledge of what happened, to provide their experience and interpretation, again, this is not a place to argue, just to get everyone's information. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
“Good, now Eric, is there a reason you did not bring more agents or other law enforcement personnel on what was essentially an engagement with a known criminal?”
“While the extra eyes would have been nice, I was worried that we would just have more deaths. With his class and levels, Jenkins was about five times as hard to kill as a normal person-I'm not exaggerating, as a normal person, you have probably 6 of what are called hit points, how much damage you can take before you die. I have 41, Jenkins had something like 25. Just getting a class makes someone twice as hard to kill.”
Gonzalez frowned, and one of the agents Eric didn't know said “But there are still people worried about the loyalties of those who take classes.”
Eric said “If I may speak for Jenkins, since he isn't here, there are also good agents who thought-er, think that classes create new threats. He and I talked about this at length, and I can understand that there are good people who have legitimate reasons to fear the spread of people with classes. But speaking as myself, we saw what happens when people without classes fight people with. Cletus killed two police officers and an agent without a sweat, and it was only two agents and a...police equivalent, with classes who were able to take him down.”
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Gonzalez said “Privately I agree, and I have asked my superiors for guidance. But I won't ask any of my agents to get a class, as I don't know how politics will react, and I don't want to give an order that later leads to an agent losing their career. With that said, this investigation will be shared with the three other agents in our office with classes.”
The agent who had objected before looked angry. “We just lost an agent who had this, who had a class, and now you tell me there are three more? The military is supposed to be preventing this!”
Captain King spoke up, “The military is assigned to defend the population against anything coming out of the rift, and to 'control' travel into the rift. Different officers have taken the command to control travel in different ways, personally, as someone who has been inside two rifts, I would have encouraged my troops to do so if not for Major Thompson's orders to the contrary. Now that he has entered a rift and gone AWOL, I plan to allow my troops to get classes if they want.”
The Agent just stared at King and seethed. Gonzalez asked his next question, clearly wanting to get the investigation back on track. “Agent Parks, why did you agree to this plan?”
“Sir, Mr. Brown was the subject of multiple murder attempts, which had resulted in the deaths of one agent and two law enforcement officers. I was subject to another attempt which nearly cost me my life, and could have cost the lives of two state troopers. The individual hunting Mr. Brown was a threat to both civilians and law enforcement, and any plan likely to allow us to take him into custody, or otherwise eliminate the threat, was worth considering. I felt the plan was reasonable, despite the risks. I-I deeply regret the loss of Agent Peter Jenkins,” Her voice broke.
Gonzales interrupted her, saving her from embarrassment. “I understand Agent Jenkins was your partner for three years, that can be a painful experience.” Gonzalez continued to ask questions, pulling detailed answers from everyone involved regarding both the history of Cletus's enmity and the actual events of each attack.
Once the meeting was over, Captain King asked Eric, Tilly, and Kendra to chat. “I need to go after Major Thompson, bring him back. He can't have gotten back out of the rift, but he took a lot of hardware in with him, including grenades. I'd rather have you three with me, along with Guidry, I know you all have levels, and are tougher than anyone under my command. I don't know what the Major has been doing, but if he has been just gaining levels, he could be too much for me and my men.”
Eric looked at Kendra and Tilly, and all three nodded. Kendra spoke for the group, “He is a fugitive from justice, while this is a military matter, the FBI is happy to assist.”
Entering the Wyvern gate again wasn't as impactful as Eric expected. The five of them spread out, and then Guidry grinned, “Dis will be easy, no ting has come dis way since de Major. He went dis way.”
The group followed Guidry into the wilds, then Guidry swore “Merde!” The Cajun pointed, and the others looked, a Wyvern was flying low, it dove to grab something, and they saw it carry a struggling lizard into the air, before dropping it to the ground where it splattered.
Quest given: Keep them away from the rift, kill the Wyvern that is close to the rift so that it won't enter Earth.
Seeing the quest reminded Eric that he hadn't technically gotten out the Cultroraptor eggs on Earth or cooked the bird corpse he saved. He was always too busy for system issues.
King turned to the rest, “Do you think we can take it? I don't want that thing to go through, I think my troops can take it, but we would lose men.”
Tilly looked at each of the others, “Yes, we are enough, it will be a hard fight through.”
As the Wyvern landed, there was a massive boom, and the sound of a man laughing. “I gotcha now you big bird, I'll show them we don't need some savages to take down something like this!”
Guidry was the one to say it, “Dat one is an idiot, he is gonna die.” The Wyvern's skin was torn in a few places, but it turned angrily towards where Major Thompson stood, machine gun out.
The Major fired on full automatic, and bullets struck the Wyvern, most of the bullets pinged off the lizard's tough hide, but some went through. That didn't stop the creature from darting forward. When the gun stopped firing, the Major quickly grabbed another magazine, seating it. But before he could fire, it was on top of him. He was still able to pull the trigger as the beast snapped it's jaws on his neck.
The Wyvern ripped it's mouth backwards as the next set of bullets hit it, but held onto the Major's neck, which was torn away, leaving his head attached to his body by only bone and some skin.
“It's hurt,” Eric said, Wind Slash cut into the beast, drawing it's anger their way. He had aimed for the wing, and along with the earlier damage from the grenade, it was enough to keep it from flying at least. It started to hop forward, moving far too quickly for Eric's liking.
Captain King took his shot, then said “Coordination,” and suddenly Eric had a sort of instinct about what the others were going to do.
He remembered the Acid spit the other Wyvern had, and said “Kendra, shield!” It went up just in time, as a line of green spit struck the shield. Some splattered over, and a drop hit Eric in the shoulder, but he ignored it. King and Guidry fired, doing little more than the Major had.
Tilly hesitated, “I need it to be closer,” then she ran out in front, losing the protection of Kendra's shield. The beast was moving closer, and reached where Tilly was standing. She used Multiply on her spear at the same time that the beast tried to bite her. Only two of her spear thrusts hit, but she was able to dodge the sharp teeth of the beast.
That wasn't the only trick the Wyvern had though, it swung a claw tipped wing at her, slashing open her right arm to the bone. Tilly screamed in pain as blood began to spurt regularly. “That's an arterial wound, it will kill her in minutes if we don't staunch it.” King yelled, running forward.
Eric focused on the chest of the beast, somehow knowing Guidry would wait for him. Two blasts of Sun Bolt struck the Wyvern in the chest, knocking away scales. Then Guidry fired, somehow keeping control of his weapon while using fully automatic mode, bullet after bullet hitting a small circle where the scales didn't protect the huge lizard. It screeched in pain and fear. King added a quick burst, hitting the same area, but it still refused to go down. As it lunged for Tilly, everyone heard Multiply, as four spear points entered the hole the others had made, piercing the beast's heart and both lungs.
Sheer anger led the beast to clamp down on her already injured arm, savaging her forearm, and Tilly passed out as it finally fell.
Eric ran forward, using Minor Heal until he was out of mana, and King bandaged the badly mangled arm.
Eric and Tilly carried the unconscious Tilly to the rift while King and Guidry carried the corpse of the Major back. “He did us a favor, no? No court martial, no defense, he is just done now.” Guidry said, and King just grunted.