It was a warm summer day when tragedy struck. A white delivery truck struck a young asian boy, leaving a mangled corpse in its wake. The paramedics came, and declared him deceased. The young girl that the boy had saved left some flowers at the street corner. And a middle aged man argued with the paramedics before crying at the street corner.
Anders Edelf was a muscular middle aged man with brown hair that had turned gray partway. He moved to Japan to be with his wife, and they had a boy named Emil. Soon after, he lost his wife in a car accident. Anders called his old friends to make sure this wasn’t because of his past. They confirmed that it was just a random accident. Now that his son had died, he would need to make some calls once more. And once more, there was nothing.
Anders had retired at a young age, and these accidents left him with a lot of free time and money, so he got a dog to help recover. It was a Shiba Inu named Fenrir, and he loved it like family. Then 3 years later, another white delivery truck killed his dog, and he had the last straw.
As Anders stroked the picture frames of his loved ones, his wife, his son, and his dog, he muttered,”It’s time to go killing again.” There was a knock on the door, and a young woman let herself in. “Hey old man, it’s dinner time. Anything you’re in the mood for?” The 18 year old girl was his neighbor Taylor, who his wife had saved all those years ago before being struck. Her parents both died of cancer soon after, and Anders had adopted her into the family since she had no relatives.
Anders had recently given the neighbor’s residence back to her now that she was old enough to live on her own, but she still came by to help out around the house. “It’s time for the talk, Taylor.” “I learned about that years ago?” “Not that, I mean my past. Haven’t you been wondering why I’ve been training you in survival techniques and hand to hand combat?” “To help me protect myself? I always assumed that you were ex-military.”
“That’s not too far from the truth. I’m part of a secret organization, known as Jormungandr. We’re a mercenary group that works across the world.” “What kind of work?” “It’s not pretty, but we check our customers thoroughly before undertaking their requests.“ “What request brought you here then?” “I’m in the twilight period of my work. Most of our agents are only active for a couple decades, then we semi-retire and look to train our successors.” “So I’m your successor?” “Sort of. I had initially trained my son as my successor, but with his passing, I had to find someone new. Be assured, you are not a replacement for him.” “Do… Do I have to become your successor?”
“We don’t force our members to join, but know that we stop a lot of the crimes that the authorities struggle to. Human trafficking, violent extremists, malevolent plagues and much more that you would have a hand in if you joined us.“ Anders reaches his hand out to Taylor. “What happens if I don’t join?” “Nothing really, although I would hope that you don’t do anything that causes us to need to do anything.” Taylor deliberates internally- I do owe him my life, and I was trained in hand to hand combat, shooting, and various survival skills. It does seem suspicious now that I think about it, but I always thought that he was worried about losing another person close to him.
Taylor reaches out her hand, and they shake. “Welcome to Jormungandr Valkyrie.” “Valkyrie?” “It’s your new name. You can change it down the road once you’ve proven yourself. I myself go by the name Týr.” “But you’re not missing a hand?” “They’re just codenames, don’t read too deep into it kid.” Anders tousles Taylors hair. “Do we have any enemies? Is that why your wife Annie and your son Emil died?!”
“No, we are very careful with our information. We always contact our customers, and they never learn who we really are. However, the first line of business is to stop the shipping company, known as Planetary Transport.” “I do agree that they’re a terrible company, but why does it need Jormungandr?” “I’ve been looking into them ever since Annie was hit, but some new info came to light recently. They specialize in transporting rare metals and minerals, but when I investigated the source, the numbers didn’t add up. The amounts estimated to come from their quarries is only 1/3rd of the amount that they ship. They must be smuggling materials from another source, one that I was unable to find.”
Taylor tilts her head in confusion. “What about the accidents? Shouldn’t that be a bigger issue?” “Unfortunately, their accident count is actually below average when you account for their time on the road. It is weird that most accidents involve a middle or high school aged kid, but they have a policy to go through neighborhoods and slow down to prevent driver fatigue. They’ve also got a very good legal term and they compensate the victims very well. It almost seems like they smuggle materials so that they can afford their legal team and pay off their victims.” Anders scratches his beard. “But that would be insane, so we’re checking their source instead. Smuggling of such normal materials isn’t normally bad enough to require our intervention, but I pulled some strings due to personal reasons.“
Taylor looked excited. “So we’re getting other members to help us? Wait, how many members are there anyways.” “Just one more. Our organization is pretty small, less than 30 members. Heimdall keeps track of us all, but the one who’s joining us is Vali. They specialize in revenge contracts.” Taylor pouts. “I thought you said that the codenames don’t matter!” “When you get to choose your own codename, most people choose something similar to what they specialize in.”
The next morning, Anders and Taylor were eating breakfast when there was a knock on the door. Anders finished his mouthful of food before saying, “ That should be Vali. Remember to only use codenames when you’re with fellow members.” As Anders opens the door, Taylor spots a fit asian woman in her mid thirties.
She is in a suit and miniskirt, and hands Anders a business card before bowing and speaking. “I am Anne, with Planetary Transport. I am here to settle the matter of your dog. Please, take this check.” She hands Anders a check with a few too many zeroes. “What? Last time they wired it directly to my account. Why is it a check this time?” “Consider it remunerations for the repeated incidents that have happened. If you need any assistance, feel free to call me and I will do anything in my power.” Anne gives Anders a wink, before turning around and going to her black sedan.
Anders closes the door, before turning to Taylor. “This doesn’t change anything. Really, they’re just trying to cover their tracks.” There's another knock on the door. Anders opens it again, almost saying something before he sees who it is. This time, it’s a woman of european descent in her mid 20s, dressed in a blouse and long pants. “Greetings Odin, I am Vali.” “Ah, you must have taken over for the previous Vali. How long have you been operating?” “5 years, but every mission has been a success under my watch.” “Hoo, impressive. Please come in.”
After a brief meeting where Anders introduces Taylor as Valkyrie, and updates her on the situation, Vali asks,” Please understand that because this is such a personal request, no one else will come to our aid. I am only assisting because I owe you a favor.” Anders scratches his beard. “A favor? Vali didn’t owe me anything.” “You saved me by breaking up a child trafficking organization. The previous Vali was assisting you at the time, and took me in.” Anders continues to scratch his beard. “He did seem busy afterwards, but it’s nice to see that you’ve managed to grow up so well.” Vali gives a polite smile, before getting back to business.
The next morning, the trio head out to a quarry that was owned by Planetary Transport. There was a 3 meter tall barricade surrounding the perimeter, and several armed guards. The official reason was to deal with wild animals, but there were no records of wild animal attacks. They had set up around a mountain that was famous for being foggy year round.
The three were planning to pose as tourists if they got caught, but first, they would need to get past the barricade. Anders sent a bird shaped drone to the otherside of the mountain. There was a short clearing surrounding the wall where armed guards patrolled in large trucks. The barricade was made of wooden pillars with sharpened tops, and had razor wire along the ground to slow down anyone trying to climb it. Behind the mountain was a large uninhabited forest.
As Anders directed the drone around the compound, he could see that there were far less guards on the side facing the forest. A few of them were looking around due to the noise of the drone, so Anders made it go back behind the trees, well out of ear shot. With the fog though, he couldn’t see a thing beyond the walls. It was eerie how the fog didn’t go past the walls either, but they must have been built with that in mind.
Anders sent the drone towards the wall as a commotion started near the front of the wall. Vali had walked up to the path leading to the compound. She had a phone on a selfie stick, pretending to live stream her hike. She started talking about the guards, promising them exposure if they let her check out the place.
Anders shot the drone past the distracted guards. He managed to get a shot of the back of the walls, which were covered in weird carved out patterns consisting of large overlapping circles. Then the signal was cut off. Anders scowled, and handed the device to Taylor to see if she could get it working again. She managed to move the controller to a better spot, getting one brief image before it cut out again.
As they reviewed the footage on a laptop, they checked the image that was saved from the drone. There was a man with a large immaculate beard who seemed to have picked up the drone when they lost connection, and beyond his shoulder were some more figures. Between the fog and weird angle, it was still unclear what was past that wall, but there were definitely people.
Anders decided that this was going to be more dangerous than they initially thought. Whatever was going on here involved a foreign power. He sent a message to Vali, before backing off with Taylor and heading back to a lodge to collect their findings. They shared what they saw, but Vali had more to add.
“From what I saw, all of the guards were fairly young, and didn’t react even when I prodded them for more info. It seems like they don’t even know what’s going on. They also had expensive watches and high quality clothes under their gear. Something tells me they’re getting paid to stay ignorant of what’s going on. Even if we interrogate them, it’s unlikely we would get any info.“
Taylor was looking at some monitors and waved to get their attention. “I’ve spotted something. You know the driver that hit your dog Tyr?” “Yeah, Hitodama.” “He just showed up to the compound. Looks like there's a shipment coming.“ Anders and Vali give each other a knowing look. Anders tells Taylor,” Valkyrie, you should head back home. I don’t want you to get involved in what's going to happen next.“ “I want to avenge Annie as well!” “Your training isn’t finished yet. I’ve left instructions and videos in a safe underneath the floor of your parent’s home. The code is your birthday.” Taylor sniffs a bit, leaving with one final message. “If you die, I’ll make sure to take down this company.”
Anders smiles sheepishly at Vali. “Please make sure Jormungandr doesn’t get dragged into this, unless you can find proof that requires their attention.” “I’ll make sure.” “I’ll take the lead. If things turn south, you can feel free to escape.” “Affirmative.” Anders takes over the monitors that Taylor was looking at. After a few hours, the gates open, and a white delivery truck rolls out.
Anders leaves the lodge, and Vali switches places, putting on a headset. “Tyr, they’re heading down the one path to the compound at a steady pace. Based on previous history, he should be heading south to the piers.” “Copy. Heading south now. Going to set up debris on the road to force this delivery truck to stop.” Anders heads south in his car, setting up a barricade of large tree branches a bit outside of town. Vali comes in again,” Tyr, target has detoured to a nearby neighborhood. They’ve come to a stop at 1-5-2, seems to be taking a break.”
Fuck. Anders didn’t expect them to detour so soon, so he rushed over in his car. As soon as he turned the street corner, he saw the truck heading for a kid playing on the street. He was behind the truck, in its blind spot. He floored it, ramming into the rear left tire of the truck. They both swerved into a brick wall surrounding someone’s yard.
After a moment to shake off the concussion, Anders got out of his car and saw the kid running away. He headed to the driver’s seat, and saw a young man passed out in the driver's seat, with a lit cigarette in his lap. Anders restrained and gagged him with practiced ease, and dragged the man into the trunk of his car. He then opened the back of the truck, seeing a large number of small containers tied down to labeled shelves. He recognized most of the labels as being various ores and minerals, but a couple were just marked with a letter. Anders quickly grabbed the ones marked as M and O, before running back to his car and driving off to a warehouse he had rented out near the pier. The truck behind him started smoldering, and would go up in flames by the time emergency services would get here.
Vali's voice was in Ander's ear. ,” That caused quite the commotion. I posted the location of the truck to social media. Locals will swarm the place, they should make a mess of things and buy you some time. What was that Tyr?”
“This sick freak was about to run over another kid.” “This man has only ever had 1 accident on record. Unfortunately it involved your dog, but you can’t let your emotions cloud your decisions. This isn’t how we operate… except for Loki.” “You’re right Vali. Also, Loki knows what he’s doing even if he’s a bit impulsive.”
Tyr switches to generic thug wear, with a black sweater and mask, before securing the warehouse. He ties Hitodama to a chair in the middle of a dimly lit dusty warehouse, half full of large wooden shipping containers. Tyr disappointedly puts away his gun, dropping the idea to knee cap this reckless driver. It would have been satisfying, but people in pain will spout anything to end it. He pulls out a lighter and a cigarette instead. Tyr doesn’t really smoke, but blowing some smoke into this guy's face will still provide a modicum of satisfaction.
As Hitodama stirs, Tyr inhales a good lungful of smoke, before blowing it right into his semi conscious face. Hitodama starts hacking, blowing out some smoke with each cough. And he doesn’t stop. Tyr raises his eyebrow a bit, before backing up in case Hitodama is trying to pull something. Then Hitodama lets out one final loud cough, spewing out more smoke than physically possible, filling the warehouse.
Tyr pulls out his firearm, an old replica blaster from a sci-fi show that was modified to use 9mm rounds. He rushes into the smoke, knocking into the now empty chair. The warehouse's sprinkler systems go off, and there’s a hissing sound behind him. Tyr turns, just in time to see Hitodama running at him with a glowing hand. Tyr gets off one shot into Hitodama’s hand, causing a bright flash to go off, but it doesn’t even phase him. Hitodama goes for a right hook, and Tyr takes advantage of the wide swing to duck and jab Hitodama right in the neck. Hitodama pauses, gasping for air, while Tyr kicks the chair into him, tripping Hitodama.
Hitodama manages to catch himself on the way down, and gets back up just in time to see Tyr drop kicking him right in the face. The sprinklers have at this point cleared out the smoke, and Tyr can see that Hitodama’s hand is faintly glowing. The fist is the source of the hissing sound, as water from the sprinklers land on the first and quickly evaporate.
Hitodama is still breathing, but struggling to move. Tyr can see that Hitodama’s hand is bleeding from an open wound, but there aren’t any holes in his hand that Tyr would expect. Hitodama’s face, now facedown on the floor, has turned the water red. Hitodama weakly calls out,” I give, I give. Fuck, this was supposed to be a simple job.”
Tyr calls out, making sure to modify his voice. He didn’t really expect the voice acting lessons to pay off, but a good agent never stops learning. “Who the hell are you, and how did you do that!” “I’m a foreigner, this was supposed to be my vacation!” “What the Hel kinda foreigner is able to make their hand glow?” “Dude, you never seen the show about the guy who can make their hand glow?” “No, and that doesn’t answer my question.” Tyr fires a warning shot next to Hitodama’s hand. Weirdly, the bullet lands 1mm away from where he intended to shoot it, but Tyr wouldn’t have noticed if he wasn’t looking directly at it.
“Stupid training classes, this shit doesn’t work. Ok fine, I’m a mage. I can do magic.” It’s not like Tyr wants to believe it, but given the evidence, he can’t help but consider it real. Tyr regrets setting up a jammer to stop communications, but Vali would have a field day with this. One of the most common missions the previous Vali took involved inhuman experimentation to try and create super soldiers. He’d make sure to give Vali the recording of this conversation, no matter what happened.
“Why are you working for Planetary Transport?” “They got me into this country. I do a few deliveries for them, and get to spend the rest of the time relaxing and watching shows.” Tyr struggles a bit to ask the next question. If he’s telling the truth about any of this, it raises so many more questions, but he needs to focus on what started all of this. “Why did you try to run over that kid earlier?” “I’m still not familiar with driving. Can’t see if there’s a kid in front of my truck.” Something smells, and it smells of smoke.
Another billow of smoke bursts out from underneath Hitodama. Tyr fires some shots into the smoke, but it quickly envelopes him. This time the sprinklers are out of water, so he takes a low stance, getting ready to react to any attacks. After a moment, he hears a long bang on the other side of the warehouse, and the smoke clears out. There's an open door with a red hot handle that's been melted on the other side of the warehouse. The water beneath his shoes is also remarkably more red than before. The smoke is billowing out the open door, and Tyr is certain that someone is going to call for emergency services.
Tyr grabs a sample of the bloody water before taking his jammer and fleeing the scene. “Vali, things are not what I expected. We may need more agents on this.” “What happened?” “Hitodama managed to escape. He claimed to be a mage. He was even able to produce smoke and make his hand really hot.” “He sounds like a party magician.” “There was enough smoke to fill a warehouse.” Tyr sends a recording of the events to Vali.
The video caught close to nothing during the fight, but it did catch Hitodama spewing smoke and his hand glowing hot. “Worst case scenario, he has some implants and a prosthetic hand. We shouldn’t jump to magic just yet.” “I know this sounds crazy, but he was even able to make my shots go off course.” “When was the last time you fired that gun?” There’s a long pause. “ I know, I’ll drop it. Still, we should be careful in case there’s more to this.”
Vali sighs. “I’ll send the message. What are you going to do about Hitodama?” “I’ll have to disguise my car. There’s a chance that he saw it, although it was intentionally made to be generic and blend in. I’ll also have to investigate some more into Planetary Transport’s hiring-”
Vali cuts off Tyr. “Odin responded right away. That magic freak got really interested when he heard about a mage.” “That’s not too surprising. When’s he going to get here?” “He is already here.” “What! How? Last I heard he was busy with a personal project. “ “Just get back here and see for yourself. I need to eat dinner.” Vali abruptly cuts off the comms.
Tyr thinks to himself as he heads back to his car. “Odin was always a proprietor of the saying, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I wonder what he’s created this time. It seems a lot more promising than his self-cooking pizza.” Tyr takes a circuitous route to check if anyone’s following him, before heading to the lodge.
He opened the door, and saw a metal face on the other side. There was a mask floating in the hair, giving off a quiet hum. Tyr almost ducked to pull out his gun, before realizing that this must be what Odin had made. The mask flashed, and a voice came from it. “Hey Tyr, check out this new device I made. Still haven’t given it a name yet, but I was thinking of Soul Dominator.” “I don’t think that really fits the image of Jormungandr. What can you do with this thing anyways?” “I can disguise the face of anyone who wears the mask, modify their vision and it has a HUD that will display anything of note.” “How did you get it here so fast?” “Made a teleporter too, but that’s still in the works. Not safe to transport anything that moves or prone to exploding, but a soul reaper, patent pending, is much easier.“
Tyr puts on the mask. The first thing he notices is that there is a map of his surrounding area with various blue blips on it. “Just let me know what you want to see, and I’ll bring it up. Right now it’s on the default map. It uses a mix of radar, heat sensors, and satellite imaging to display all the people nearby.“ “I’d like it to keep track of anyone who’s hotter than normal.” A couple of the blips change color red. “There you go, you should be able to tell if anyone has a fever and avoid them. Unless you’re looking for a date.” Some of the blips turn green. “Using facial recognition and scanning through social media that matches them, it can also locate people who are considered attractive by the general populace.” Tyr grumbles,” You know what I meant.” Tyr notices one of the green blips has arrived at the lodge, probably Vali.
“Stay alert, the mask can’t identify them. Don’t worry, it’s already shifted to match your normal face.” There’s a knock on the door. Tyr opens the door, and see’s Anne. Anne bows first, before Tyr can get a word in, and hands him another business card. “Greetings, I’ve heard that you had a dispute with one of our drivers at Planetary Transport. I’m sure we can-” Anne looks up and sees Ander’s face. She stops talking, stunned for what seems like an eternity. “I uh, I seem to have gotten the wrong person. Sorry for interrupting your day Anders.”
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Anne’s face turns bright red, and she quickly turns 180 degrees and briskly walks away. Tyr, unable to cope with what just happened, silently watches as Anne leaves and passes by Vali coming back. Vali just raises an eyebrow at him. “Who was that? An admirer?” “Um. That was an employee of Interplanetary Transport, part of their HR department. It seems like she was looking for someone who had issues with another driver?”
Odin’s voice pops up, loud enough for both of them to hear. “I bet that was some kinda tracking magic. Lead her right to you Tyr. We need to catch her before she leaves!” Right as Odin says that, the green blip matching Anne does another sharp 180. Then, it disappears. Odin speaks again through the mask,” Weird. She’s gone now?” Anders also looks at the map, seeing if another blip appears. And it does, right next to them. Ander’s quickly backs away from the blip, and turns, seeing nothing there.
Vali doesn’t know what's going on, but she pulls out a kitchen knife. Odin switches to private comms, telling them both that radar and heat sensors are picking up someone there, roughly the same size as Anne is. Tyr growls,” We know you’re there Anne. Are we going to talk this out, or are we going to have to take extreme measures.”
There's a snap, and Anne reveals herself. It almost looks like an invisible blanket was dropped, as her head is revealed first, and then the rest of her. She looks defeated, in a way that someone who's covering 2 extra shifts does. “Stupid Hitodama. Also Anders, you told me that you were done with working with Jormungandr.” At the mention of Jormungandr, Vali rushes at Anne, and even the mask on Odin’s face goes quiet for a brief moment. Anders feels like he’s been hit with a bolt of lightning.
He just manages to recover and shoots out a swift kick, knocking the knife out of Vali’s hands. Anders also rips the mask off, tossing it to Vali. “Is that really you Annie? What’s going on!” “I don’t claim to know everything, and there are consequences if too much info gets out. But yes, I am Annie.” Annie glares at Vali, not aware of Odin eavesdropping. Ander’s goes to hug Annie, and she hugs him back. He also whispers in her ear,” Another member is listening in from the mask.”
The mask flashes and Odin’s voice rings,” I forgot to mention, this mask also has some top notch microphones. I can hear you, Tyr. I’m not some fool who would tell others. We know the importance of secrets after all. What kind of consequences are we talking about Annie?“ “The powers above me do not want to influence this world. If it happens, they have no choice but to end it.” The mask flashes again. “Gotcha. Some kinda world destroying beam is gonna come for us if we blabber. My mouth is sealed shut.” Vali has pretty much zoned out at this point, but she also nods along.
Annie pulls out a few prepared contracts. “This contract is a Non-disclosure agreement about what’s going on here. I’ll need the three of you to sign it.” Vali speaks,” What happens if I do? Or if I don’t?” “There’s nothing magical about the contract, but it does give my superiors legal cause to come after this world if you fail to keep up your end. If you don’t sign it, then you’ll be drafted into the hero initiative, or worse, erased.” Vali signs it after reading through everything. Weirdly, even though she can’t tell what language it is, she is still able to understand it.
“I’m going to sit this one out, Tyr. I have no interest in this nonsense, and better things to do.” Vali leaves the lodge. Annie gives a small smile. “That’s one taken care of, onto the next one.” Annie grabs the mask, and does a small dance, her face turning a bit red from Anders watching her. Then, she disappears from Anders’ sight. Anders puts on the mask, and see’s no nearby blips.
After about a minute, Annie pops back into the room. “I didn’t realize your coworker was so young.” Anders turns from the teapot he was about to start heating. “He’s not. He’s replaced most of his body with his inventions.” “Oh my bad. Anyways, I’ve some things to tell you.” “What happened to my coworker first?” “I used the mask to track him down, and teleported to where he was. He agreed to sign the contract, and asked about magic. It’s simply a fact that there is no magic in this world, so there’s no way to teach others.” “This world? What are you talking about?”
Annie turns on the stove, before turning to Anders again. “This is going to be a lot of exposition, but there are the things I can’t talk about. I can’t identify anything with names, or how to do magic.“ Anders takes some time to collect himself, and let the water warm up.
“Where were you all this time, and did the accident really happen?” “I knew the consequences of saving that girl, but having just had Emil, I couldn’t bear to see another child be struck.“ Annie pours a cup of tea for herself and Anders. “And I was sent to another world. It happens pretty often in works of fiction, so I wasn’t too surprised. There had been rumors that floated around school about kids getting struck and turning into different people, or disappearing.“ “What kind of world was it?” “I’m not allowed to say.”
Anders takes a sip, burning his tongue due to his haste. “What about Emil?” Annie takes a sip herself, but her hand is shaking as she lowers the cup. “I wish it didn’t happen, but I only returned a year ago. When I asked about it, they assured me that they carefully chose their targets to ensure a 100% success rate.” Anders is only further baffled. “Then why did they target my dog!”
Annie looks embarrassed. “That was truly an accident. The driver was a recent hire and got confused because your dog Fenrir was also acceptable for transport. We put him on probation, but he went and tried to finish the job. That’s where you come in, if I understand his story right. He said he was attacked by a vigilante dressed in black.”
Anders takes another sip to digest the information that Hitodama was really addicted to watching shows, before asking,” So, is he like you? Someone who’s returned?” “No, he’s a low level noble who happened to have relations with someone who works for us. He managed to get a short term vacation in our world as long as he does some work. The deliveries that Interplanetary Transport is responsible for.” Annie leans into Ander, causing his heart to beat once more. “Interplanetary Tourists are perfect for these jobs, since it’s easy to make them disappear.“
Anders backs up in disgust, almost dropping his tea cup. “This company kills kids and drivers!” “NO NO!” Annie shakes her head. “That was phrased poorly. They just go back from where they came, unless they really break the rules. And while I don’t wholly agree with their methods, they are saving worlds. It doesn’t hit you until you’ve been struck, but there are people just like you and me on those worlds. I mean, not exactly. Some of them have different ears, or are half our height, but they’re living, thinking and loving people. “
The room is silent for a moment. Annie and Anders go to pour another cup, stumbling over each other to let the other fill their cup first. Once they’re done, Anders asks again,” Why did they target you and Emil? Do they have a grudge against me!” “They choose people through a special device created with magic.” Annie takes out a pencil. “This is a compact version. You point it at someone and it will light up if they contain the potential to save a world.”
She presses the eraser while the pencil is pointed at Anders. It doesn’t seem to do anything. Then she points it at herself and does it again. The yellow part of the pencil glows briefly. “I’ve been trying to understand why everyone around you has the potential, but why you don’t yourself.” Anders takes a slow sip. “I think I know why. It’s because I teach others to be better than myself.”
Annie smiles at Anders like the first time they went on a date. “You’re a better person than anyone I know.” She sighs a bit, letting her tea go cold. “I didn’t want to drag you into this, but now that the cait sith is out of the bag, I have a proposal for you.” “What?” “Just a local expression. You see, this world has rather thin borders, especially this region. It’s why Interplanetary Transport exists here and not anywhere else. We need people on this side to help prevent the opposite, invaders.”
“Is there a way to see Emil or Fenrir again?” “If any of the chosen are struggling, the company will send agents to help. I can pull some strings to make sure that we’re the ones sent.” “Then I’m in.” Annie was about to say something, but she drops her tea cup, letting it smash to pieces on the ground.
“That bastard Hitodama stole another truck. He said something about proving himself, but he’s been fired and should have been under surveillance. I bet that damn aunt of his had a hand in this.“ Anders stands up, causing the chair to tumble to the floor in a loud clatter. “Where is he going!” “There’s only a couple chosen we know of right now. One was the kid he tried to deliver. However, he might be going for Taylor.”
“Why Taylor! Weren’t you already sent in her place?” “Her status was in limbo until I came back, but she’s still a chosen. I’ve fought for her to be protected, but that may have drawn his attention. In their culture, subverting rules to get the best results is considered honorable.” Anders has a look of confusion across his grizzled face. “What do you even mean?” “People in high positions will often trap powerful creatures into caves. While they say that no one is allowed, if one of their descendents enters and succeeds in slaying or taming the creature, they will be praised to the sky.”
Anders struggles on whether to get Jormungandr involved, since Valkyrie is a part of them, but they also don’t have experience dealing with magic. Annie seems to be meditating, but her eyes are moving constantly underneath her eyelids. Anders is still scratching his beard, when Annie’s eyes snap open, startling him. “I’ve found him. But he’s heading into the forest?”
Anders puts down his tea, which he forgot he was holding. “This smells like a trap.” A smile spreads across his face,“I love it when they try to set up a trap.” Annie holds her head, seemingly having a headache. Anders isn’t sure if it’s from her magic or what he just said.
Annie pulls out a lozenge and pops it into her mouth. “I can not let you get involved, if only because you’re not a part of the organization.” “Then make me one.” “Are you sure? I don’t have time to go through the contracts with you, although I can assure you that it won’t contain too many restrictions to your normal life. At least most people’s normal lives.” “If it means I get to take care of Hitodama, I’m in.” Annie just shakes her head before pulling out a contract from nowhere. “Sign here and here.” Anders quickly scribbles a mess on them, noting the motif of a large tower on the sides.
Tyr gets back to work. “What should I know about him? Does he have a shield that makes gun fire go astray? And most importantly, will he be missed?” Annie put the contract back to nowhere. “You know how I mentioned that there’s no magic in this world? What I mean by that is mana, which powers magic, doesn’t naturally exist here. We can only use our personally stored mana, and have to use supplements to restore it.”
Annie points at herself, sucking on the lozenge. “We also lose mana at a steady rate, which can cause a shield- like effect that blocks off low mass projectiles. The greatest danger to a mage is a distraction, and the low mass shield is handy against sand or rocks being flung at you. Coincidentally, it also works against bullets. While they can’t completely stop gunfire, they can cause the bullets to skim across the shield, like a stone skipping over water. It greatly reduces the force and can divert the shots to less vital areas. It is recommended not to shoot at a mage's head, because the bullets will skip around them and miss. You should aim at-” “Center of mass. I think I get it. What about heavier objects, like a dagger or ax?”
Annie makes a frown. “They would have to focus to block a dagger, and axs would go right through them.” She shakes her head. “Anders, you can’t get that close to them in the first place. Mages have overwhelming range and fire power against melee fighters. Just bring enough firepower and they’ll eventually die of blood loss or run out of mana.”
Tyr replies,” It’s always good to have backups. And just so you know, I am not getting them dragged into this. Not anymore than they have been.” Annie smirks. “Jormungandr would be overkill. Hitodama is a 2nd stage mage at best. For reference, 1st stage mages are barely better than party magicians here. Blowing smoke, throwing cards, making things glow, that kind of thing. Although I do know of a 1st stage mage who managed to scare a rabbit to death with bubbles.“ “We’re getting side tracked. I need to know if making him disappear will cause issues for you.”
Annie pulls out the contract again, and no matter how hard Tyr stares, it seems to still be appearing from nowhere. “With this, you’re safe to act according to the rules of Planetary Transport. Troublemakers from other worlds have a very strict policy, and erasing them is standard affair unless they’ve got high backing.” Tyr scratches his beard as Annie again makes the contract disappear. “Didn’t you say that his relative works there?” “She does, but she’s nothing in the grand scheme of things. She'll likely be fired, if not erased herself, after this fiasco.” Tyr stops scratching his beard. “Rather cut throat, but we should get to cutting throats.”
Annie nods and heads for the door. Tyr pauses. “Why don’t we teleport there?” Annie’s face turns red once more from embarrassment. “You know how I said that there is no mana here? People without mana are practically immune to magical influence. Which means I can’t teleport you, and it’s only a little easier with magical people. It was quite the feat in the other world. And I am running low myself. I’ve got enough to take care of Hitodama, but not enough to teleport there and do the same.” Tyr just nods. All these magic rules sound like bullshit to him anyways.
The pair drive to the woods, although Tyr picks up 6 axes on the way. Annie sighs but doesn’t say anything. As they get close to the woods, Annie lets Tyr know exactly where Hitodama is. “There is a cave in the forest made for emergency escapes. He won’t have the credentials to open it immediately, but it’s designed to let anyone with the power to wield mana to open it given enough time. Unfortunately, the cave also blocks all types of magic that would give us information on what's happening inside. We’ll be going in blind.“ Tyr nods. Not the first time he’s done something like this, although he had assumed that he wouldn’t be doing this anymore after meeting Annie.
As they head towards the forest, they pass by a white delivery truck that has stopped at the side of the road. There’s no one inside, so they continue up the road into the woods. They drive the car to a scenic stop, and start traipsing into the woods. Tyr looks around while Annie keeps walking towards the cave. She’s almost jogging, but just slow enough that she can avoid making a disturbance if they happen to be looking for activity.
“Wait a second Annie.” Annie slows down just enough to say,” If he escapes, he’s home free.” Tyr grabs Annie’s hand. “No seriously. There’s way too many signs of multiple people here. I’m seeing signs of a minimum of 3 people going this way. Could even be up to 6, depending on how skilled they are.“ Annie comes to a full stop. “I’ll search around, but I can’t tell you how many people are in the cave. If Hitodama is working with invaders, Kotodama is getting erased. Shit, this isn’t something I have enough mana to handle.”
Tyr shrugs. “I’ve got this handled. Unless they are stronger than Hitodama himself?” Annie shakes her head. “There is no way for people at 3nd stage to slip by us, and more importantly, Hitodama would have no connections for such a thing. At best, they’re some more 2nd stage mages Kotodama snuck in to help Hitodama. If they’re in the cave, they still need a light source at least. Even with magically enhanced vision, it's a really bad idea to try and mess with a gateway in the dark.”
Annie closes her eyes, but Tyr can see her eyes moving underneath her eyelids again. It takes a lot less time before Annie opens her eyes. “I’ve spotted 3 people outside the cave. They’re all guarding the front in the open. None of them are Hitodama, but they do have traces of coming from the same world.” Tyr laughs. “This is just too easy.”
Tyr rushes ahead, and breaks into a decent sized clearing, about 20 meters across from the cave entrance. He sees 3 young men in burlap clothes, and they stand up upon seeing him. He casually approaches them, waving as he does. “Hey there, what are you kids doing out here?” The three of them whisper to each other, before one, slightly overweight Tyr notes, comes forward and speaks. “We’re just doing some drugs here. Buzz off old man, unless you want to get in trouble.”
Tyr is about halfway across the clearing, but continues walking towards them. “Drugs huh. What kind, Cocaine, Meth, Weed, or Fentanyl? I gotta say, you should really stay away from the last kind. It can kill people really easily.” The overweight one looks back at his companions, clearly unprepared to answer. As he turns his head, Tyr rushes him with an ax in hand.
His companions manage to shout in time for the overweight man to notice something is wrong, but as he turns his body to face Tyr, the ax slices right through his neck. The large body falls, still moving as the man clutches his neck, running out of air. At this point, Annie reaches the clearing, and shouts for Tyr to run.” Stop it, you can’t handle them!”
The two men look confused, not sure who she's shouting at, but they get their hands up and point at Tyr. As Tyr runs towards them, he ducks and rolls in anticipation of a projectile. One of the men fires a thin red beam that goes over Tyr’s head. The other, having been slower on the draw, manages to correct his aim before launching an identical red beam.
The beam hits Tyr in the arm, causing a small hole that goes all the way through. Tyr jumps back up to his feet, now 4 meters away from the two men. “That stings a bit.” The two men are shouting much louder now, facing both open palms at Him. Tyr can’t understand a thing that they’re shouting, but the hands start glowing red. Tyr gets a couple more steps in before fire erupts from the center of their palms.
Tyr manages to throw one ax before he is overcome by a wave of fire. Annie shouts ,” NO!”, before she touches the ground, causing a large 2 meter chunk to disappear. Above both the men, the same large chunk of dirt and rocks falls from above, knocking them both off their feet and ending the fire.
Annie sees the body of Tyr still standing once the first is out and runs up to it. She can tell that he is horribly burned and holding onto life by a thread. Bits of his shirt are fused with his skin, which has been burnt by the fire. His eyes are sunken in, or atleast Annie hopes that is all that happened to them. His ears and mouth have melted away, revealing his still perfect teeth.
“Stay with me Anders!” The body gives her a thumbs up, before coughing a bit. Tyr starts speaking, but Annie can barely hear him. “Sorry dear, I’ve got some secrets of my own.” Annie watches as Ander’s body starts healing. First the skin smoothes over, covered in tattoos that Annie has never seen before. Then the hair grows back, double the length it was before. Finally, the more delicate features like lips, ears, and eyes also grow back in at a pace she would consider supernatural, even by magic standards. Tyr coughs again, before muttering,” I had been hoping the tattoos would’ve been gone by now.”
Annie is about to say something, but she hears the struggles of someone crawling out of the mound she dropped. A hand pokes out, and Tyr rushes the mound, cutting it off. He goes to pull the handless arm out of the dirt mound, and the rest of the man attached to it. Annie whispers,” We’ve got to talk about this Anders, but not now.”
Tyr shouts at the man he pulled out. “How many are in the cave!” The now pale man looks around for his missing hand, before answering. “Three! Please, let me have my hand!” Tyr nods and lets go, to instead grab two axes. The man sees his hand, grabs it, and tries to preserve it with a healing spell. It’s enough to slow the bleeding, but the hand will rot if he’s not careful. The man then sees the sky, then the cave behind him, then the ground. As his vision spins around to his body, he realizes what has happened.
Tyr turns to Annie. “I nicked the other guy pretty good in the neck with my ax, I doubt he’s coming out of the dirt?” Tyr raises an eyebrow. Annie shakes her head. “He’d have to be a 5th stage mage to cast a healing spell under such a distraction. Or extremely experienced and skilled 4th stage mage at the least.”
Tyr runs into the cave, where he spots two more men running out. They must have heard the commotion outside. One of them points a finger at Tyr, and the other crouches down and touches the ground. Tyr throws both axes. They arc apart from each other, causing a pillar of rock that was rising from the ground to fail at blocking either one. The man pointing at Tyr reacts by firing at the ax heading for him, and causes the air to shimmer in front of him. The ax diverts its course, cutting into the man's ear. He manages to grin, before the other ax slices him from behind, causing his grin to fall to the ground.
The man who was crouching sees what has happened. He throws remnants of an earth shield from his head at Tyr, before running further into the cave. Tyr is briefly stopped by the dirt as he ducks under it, and runs after the last man, drawing two more axes. He runs through the cave, which twists and turns in ways Tyr doesn’t feel is possible. After a 360 degree turn that somehow doesn’t connect to itself, he stops at a split in the path. There are 10 different paths, all of which he can’t see down despite his training to fight in the dark.
He would go down the path where the tracks lead, but they don’t continue into the cave, they disappear right before it. Annie catches up in a few seconds, although out of breath. She points at another path far from the tracks that Tyr sees, explaining between breaths,” Magic entrance-huff-switches locations-huff-whenever someone enters.” Tyr goes down the path that she picked, but as he turns around to see what she does, he just sees a wall of stone.
If he had more time, he might try to break through it, but he turns back down the path and continues running. After a couple of turns, he can see light ahead. When Tyr exits the tunnel, he comes to a large cavern lit by a couple of battery powered lamps. He also sees the man he was chasing urging Hitodama to go faster, despite the fact that Hitodama is buried in colorful swirls of energy that seem to have him rooted.
Tyr smiles. “Nowhere left to run now.” Hitodama shouts at the man,” You fool, he’s manaless. You should’ve aimed for the head.” The man points his finger at Tyr, but Tyr can see that the man has another hand hidden behind his clothes also pointing at him. The man shoots a red beam from his hidden hand, burning a hole in his clothes. The beam misses as Tyr shifts his head a small amount, causing the beam to singe his hair. “I need a haircut, but you’re not much of a barber. Hah!” He laughs at his own joke, while the man prepares another finger. Hitodama also seems to be in great pain, probably caused by a mistake he made while listening to that awful one liner.
The man shouts in desperation, more to convince himself than anyone else,” That was just a fluke!” The other finger glows briefly, all the more noticeable in the dim cave, before another red beam is launched. Tyr shifts his head again, causing the hair on the other side of his head to be singed. “Maybe you’ve got some talent in this after all, but I need to cut costs.” Tyr throws the ax at the man, who tries to duck under it, despite Hitodama being behind him. The ax spins through the air and bounces off the energy surrounding Hitodama.
The man is joyful at one more second of life, before he sees his vision split in half. Tyr grumbles, “I hate doing that to axes. Skulls really dull the blade.” He tosses the blunt and dirty ax to the ground, before drawing his last ax. As Tyr approaches the energy around Hitodama, the mage shouts.
“Wait. If you interrupt the ritual, we’re all dead!” Tyr hears a voice from behind him as well. “He’s lying. It’s designed to shut down if someone already in the process of opening it dies. Anyways, I need some explanations now Anders!” Tyr gestures at Hitodama,”What about him?” Annie scrutinizes the colorful energies around Hitodama.
“I knew he would be stuck in it, but it's more malicious than I realized. He has to use more mana than he has to open the portal, but without more mana supplements, he’s going to die trying.” “What happens then” Tyr asks? There's also some desperate shouting from Hitodama, but they’re both tuning him out. “Hard to say. It’ll probably open for a short time, but it could lead anywhere. A lot of the mana goes into guiding the portal. Hey, you’re changing the subject! What was that Anders?” “Oh that. Well, members of Jormungandr are sometimes blessed by the previous members. I can’t go into the details , any more than you can with how to do magic.” He gives a knowing smile, and she glares back. “Is it some kind of tattoo magic?” “Nah, I had these before I joined Jormungandr. It’s just that when I heal, sometimes the tattoos I had removed will also come back.”
Some more shouting can be heard from the man in the background. Annie half turns away from him, peaking at Tyr from over her shoulder. “Now that you’re a member of our company, I can teach you how to do magic, but only if you tell me how your thing works. I won’t tell anyone else about it, I promise.” Tyr nods. “Sure. Say, how much longer is Hitodama going to keep screaming?” Annie checks her phone. “About another 15 seconds.”
Hitodama keeps screaming, as his body is drained of mana and starts to quickly dry up. With his last hoarse cry, his body crumbles to dust, and a portal appears in front of them, twice his height. Through the portal, Tyr can see a dirt path leading to a cliff side that overlooks a small village.
He tries to wrap his head around what he is seeing from the portal itself. It’s like someone forged a picture by adding a smaller picture with no attempt to blur or match the edges. Even from another angle, it looks like a flat rectangle that faces him directly.
Annie speaks up. “This portal is shutting down in 2 minutes.” Anders brightens up. “Now I get to see Anders and Fenrir again.” He jumps through the portal as Annie shouts at him,” That’s not how that works!” Annie pulls out her phone, and sends a quick message to her boss.
The message reads as follows: I’ve got an accidental shipment that managed to get through. I’ll be working overtime for the foreseeable future until this delivery is corrected. And if you try to touch Taylor, I will be terminating my overtime to come back and stop you! Also Hitodama was working with invaders and opened emergency exit #42. You can find proof in the cave. Signed, Annie.
She sends another text to Taylor, letting her know that Anders is doing well, before following Anders through the portal with a smile. After 2 minutes, it blinks out of existence. All that’s left is a pile of dust, a body best left undescribed, 2 electric lamps, and some swirls of colorful energy.