After years with the PIB, Felissa had gotten used to the usual incongruent stares. For one, she was a high ranking member of an organization that did not exist as far as the general public was concerned. As far as the citizens of Angelas knew, their precinct was just another government office. Even the APD didn’t know the full details on what they did at night or how they watched the streets by day.

No, Felissa was only a secretary as far as the rest of the world was concerned. But right now, she wasn’t dealing with the rest of the world.

Under the eyes of her elders, she could only put on a smile as usual, attempting to bypass any questions of worth by falling into respectful protocols. Keeping her head down. Saluting often. Not questions the decisions of her superiors. Even if it came as a surprise to hear Alice’s name brought up, she managed to recover quickly enough that only a few gave her sideways looks. Senator Morino waved her over.

“Major Green,” he said. “Come. Your insight would be valuable here.”

She did as commanded, taking a spot between a marine and an airman. Both of which outranked her in spades. Even if she had more power than most mages, she was still the only major in a sea of generals. But she’d expected as much when she’d made that call to the senator.

“I appreciate the vow of confidence, Senator,” she said, “though I’m not sure I can offer much.”

“No need to be modest, Major. I wouldn’t have brought you here if I doubted your abilities. Feel free to speak candidly.”

She glanced at the others, knowing all too well that offer was just for show. The minute she spoke her mind they’d be jumping down her throat. But she’d long-since learned the art of speaking semi-candidly.

“Sir, with all due respect, Alice is too brash to be a sufficient weapon,” she said. “She doesn’t respond well to authority figures in general and lacks the compassion to ensure minimum casualties. Should we send her to take out this new demon threat, I fear she would cause far greater property damage than can be feasibly masked.”

The senator nodded at that. In truth, there was much more she wanted to say. About how neither her nor the other mages would trust a girl like that leading them to battle. About how she’d be too prideful to back down to whatever challenge the demons ushered. About how there was already someone better suited to cleaning things up and keeping property damage to its absolute minimum. The very person who’d fought the demons on multiple occasions and now held a spot on the taskforce.

“Perhaps there’s a compromise,” one of the generals said. “If the issue is property damage, then we send the wizard with those most suited for mitigating that.”

The senator thought a moment.

“An escort of sorts?” he asked.

“Think of it as a containment team. If we’re really set on unleashing a possible nuke on the junkyard, we’ll need a ground team for evacuation. That way Gary still gets to sleep at night and no one will be around to blow the whistle.”

“Assuming the ground team does their job,” another general added. “Don’t see how we’ll get a whole city clear in time.”

The senator looked to her. Along with a few other generals. Considering containment was the PIB’s specialty, she could think of a few ways to get the job done without risking public outcry. For one, weather reports were a thing of beauty. It would only take a few calls to issue an earthquake or tornado warning. One severe enough to clear not the whole city, but a few blocks at minimum.

From there, it was as simple as erecting a barrier around their battlefield. Sure, it wouldn’t prevent property damage completely. And it was quite possible it would ensure everything within the barrier got laid to waste. But the wider city would be spared. Sacrifice the arm to save the body.

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She didn’t like the idea, but she knew she wasn’t being asked for judgement calls. All she could do was try to warn the taskforce of the dangers.

“So property damage can’t be avoided, then,” the senator said. “In that case, we’ll need to prepare a media response.”

“So long as people aren’t freaking out over ghosts, that should be simple,” one general said.

“It’ll be painful for a lot of citizens,” another said, “but so long as their lives are spared, they can rebuild.”

The rest of the table seemed to agree with this sentiment, the conversation shifting to ideas of how to mitigate the upcoming national disaster. They’d long since accepted the idea of Alice destroying parts of the city to stop the demons. Felissa tried not show how disgusted the whole idea made her feel.

By the time they were done, she was eager to get away from it all. Both the talks of punching a hole in her city and of demons in general.

***

Fortunately, a trip to the hospital got her spirits up again.

“What? Cheap shot!”

“All’s fair in love and war,” Felissa taunted, still clicking the kick button.

Tommy’s character was at her total mercy, unable to break from the endless assault. A dirty tactic, maybe, but one sickeningly efficient. With one final grunt, Tommy’s character fell in defeat, Felissa’s cheering on-screen.

“Bullcrap! You just spammed the whole time!”

“It’s called being strategic, Tommy.” She knew that’d get a rise even before he turned to shout louder.

“Rematch! I wanna rematch!”

And then there were once again selecting their characters.

After the fun they had with shooting games, Tommy introduced her to the rest of his collection. Namely, the many fighting and racing games his brother bought him. None of which Ben ever had the time to play him in these days, though she’d done her best to make up for that. He was her future brother-in-law, after all.

“Since you wanna be spammy, I’m picking Leah Flash,” Tommy declared, choosing a three-foot alien for a character. Felissa hummed, already keen on who to pit against her. She picked the giant elephant monster.

“Gonna squash you like a bug!” she said, the two going at it almost immediately.

It was nice. Just sitting back, annoying Tommy, and trying to win at some silly video game. Almost like she was just another civilian relaxing on her off-day. Was this what being normal felt like? Not dealing with potential world-shaking threats in the shadows. Just relaxing with the people she cared about.

She tried to keep her focus on the game, but the more she played, the more she found that old longing in her chest. If only she didn’t have a duty to the mages. If only there weren’t demons to kill. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to take an early-

“Felissa?”

She came out of her thoughts, realizing that Tommy had paused the game.

Her phone was buzzing loudly, the screen reflecting a call from Chief Brown. One which made her a little disappointed, but she knew better not to answer. The Chief only ever called her in when it was some kind of PIB emergency. She put the phone to her ear, the man’s voice a bit more frantic than she expected.

“Felissa, you’re seeing this too right?”

She raised a brow. “Seeing what?”

“What, seriously? For the love of- Are you near a TV?”

She looked up at the monitor across from Tommy’s bed. They’d always had it turned off while they played. Too distracting. And it helped them get “in the zone” as Tommy claimed. She quickly flicked on the remote.

“Okay,” she said. “What am I-“

“Good evening, humans of Angelas City!”

She froze, the words dying in her throat only moments after clicking to a different channel.

Across her screen, there was a news anchor in a fancy gray suit encased within a block of solid ice. As was his co-anchor, the only person speaking to them being someone she’d recognized almost instantly. The same red face she’d seen at the junkyard. His curled horns and yellow eyes both reflected clearly through the screen.

“That,” Chief Brown said on the other line.

She could offer no response, only staring dumbfounded at the news program. And the demon in a tailored suit speaking directly to the Angelas residents.

"My name is Luizitine," he said with a bow. "It is a pleasure to meet all of you."