Jenny and Val were in the car on there way back to Jack’s house, Jenny with a wide grin on her face. Val sat in silence, sinking into her seat with a face as red as a tomato.

“About your proposal...”

Val broke the awkward silence.

“I-“

She was interrupted by an explosive noise, and a shockwave that shattered the windshield. Jenny slammed on her brakes, the car sliding to a stop with a loud screeching noise.

“What the hell!?”

Jenny kicked her door open, glass falling to the side as she jumped out of the car. Val followed suit, looking for what caused the explosion, but her vision was blocked by the excessive amounts of dust in the air. Apparently, something had happened, likely a car bomb, and the road was blocked, the asphalt was probably destroyed as well. Jenny pulled out her phone, but there was no response when she pressed on the home button.

“Shoot, I could have sworn I charged it...”

She shoved it back in her pocket, and returned her attention to the dust in front of her as the wind began to blow. Jenny saw a figure standing in the dust, just a shadow, but definitely a person. Whoever it was started walking towards them. Val got out of the car, standing next to Jenny, while also looking at the figure.

“Valkyrie one.”

Val stiffened when she recognized the mechanical voice coming from the figure, who was still hidden by the dust. A loud, rapid noise suddenly sounded, and the dust was blown away, revealing a person with a muscular build standing beneath a helicopter that had just approached from the other side of the dust. The wind coming off the propellers was intense, and small pebbles and rubble on the ground were flying in every direction. The figure standing in front of them was wearing a solid black suit, with a tinted three-hundred and sixty degree view helmet, and Val took a step toward Jenny, ready to react if anything happened.

“Why did you take off your suit?”

The figure didn’t speak with curiosity, but malice, and stepped forward threateningly, the destroyed asphalt beneath him crumbling under his foot.

“I needed to do detailed work that was impossible with the suit’s gloves.”

Val replied warily, but retained her emotionless composure, not giving away any of her cards.

“What detailed work?”

Jenny was staring in shock at the figure, and started backing up slowly, grabbing onto Val’s hand, subtly trying to urge her to move. Val ignored her, and continued.

“The observation target was mortally injured while helping me, and I felt responsible, and decided to tend to his wounds.”

“And the arm?”

The figure was walking slowly towards them, but Val did not move, or back down, knowing if she ran, Jenny would be used as leverage against her. Or worse, against Jack, and then he would have no choice but to betray her. She owed him her life, and did not want to put him in a situation where he would likely lose something precious to him.

“Losing his arm was a wound he received while protecting me, and therefore I was responsible for treating it to the best of my abilities.”

The man was standing right in front of the two girls, Val staring him down while Jenny furiously tried to bring her phone back to life, while keeping an eye on the man in the suit. The man turned to look at Jenny.

“It’s no use. All devices that can collect evidence in this area have been disabled by an EMP. I am protected by a dampener that blocks the waves from my circuits, which is why I’m unaffected. This material is light, and flexible, and should only belong to us.”

He turned his gaze towards Val, who flinched at his words.

“Boss needs you, Val. He doesn’t like that you’ve ignored his calls, and this was your last chance.”

Jenny didn’t notice, but the man’s shifted to a position where he could kill Jenny easily before Val could stop him. Val’s gaze were lightly glazed, revealing a small trace of sadness at her helpless situation.

“I’ll come.”

“Wait a sec-“

Val quickly reached over and knocked out Jenny with a quick hit, catching her as she fell, and laying her on the ground. Jenny would have probably said something stupid and got herself killed, since she didn’t know what she was up against. Val turned to the man, and nodded. She knew Jack would have wanted her to make the smart decision, and this situation had the least amount of sacrifices.

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The man approached Val, wrapping his arm around her shoulders before leaping dozens of feet in the air, and landing with a heavy thud on the helicopter. The helicopter shifted when the large amount of weight suddenly boarded, but quickly recovered, and turned, going a different direction than where it came, towards the mountains.

Jack was lying in the clearing, repeatedly creating different electric threads from different parts of his left arm in an attempt to cut the small device next to him. The only problem was he couldn’t see it, his head had fallen to the right side of his body, and he couldn’t move it back.

(Jack...)

Ellis was nervous, the furies were getting braver, some venturing to the edge of the forest, but still wary of Jack.

‘I know, help me figure out a way to stop that device.’

Jack created thread after thread, pushing it out without success over and over again, releasing more magic, and attracting more furies.

‘I won’t run out of magic, right?’

(No, try as much as you like, while you may only be able to manipulate it a little, you still have full access to my old magic reserves.)

Jack was growing frustrated, he would likely die before he found that thing. He needed a new plan.

‘Damn it! Why aren’t they affected by this thing?’

(They’re monsters, there bodies can’t survive without magic, however their reliance on magic makes them immune to many things that would harm beings reliant on science, such as disease, chemical attacks, and high frequency attacks, apparently.)

One of the mid-class furies that seemed to have more courage, or stupidity depending on how you look at it, and ventured out towards Jack, the other’s trailing behind, following it’s example. This was it. If Jack couldn’t find some way to free himself, he would die a very gruesome death at the hands of a monster he could normally kill with a flick of his wrist. Anger began to boil in him, anger at the man who did this to him, anger at what that man might do to Val, anger at himself for letting this happen, for being too weak to stop it. thinking about Jenny, who was with Val, and who the man might kill just because she was there.

Jack quit focusing his magic on a single point, and just started pushing it out. His left arm lit up, and the fury, who was standing over him now jumped back, surprised at the light emanating from the mechanical arm. Pink electricity sparked up and down the surface of the arm, and Jack didn’t worry about the possible repercussions of forcing magic out of his body, and just focused on getting free, already beginning to form his plan.

At the sudden release of magic, the furies all became greedy, sensing the power, and craving it for themselves, and charged at him from every direction, swarming over to his body. Jack smiled inwardly, as he felt the magical power break through an invisible barrier, directing the power out towards the small device, and down into the ground.

Val was riding in the helicopter, sitting in silence with the large man in the black combat suit to her right, and Timothy Grant across from her. A smile covered Timothy’s face as he watched Jack from a satellite view.

“Oh... how disappointing. Already dead?”

Val jerked up at this, looking worriedly at the small screen Timothy was holding, but unable to see what it was displaying from her point of view.

“Want to see? Here, I’ll rewind it a little for you, so you don’t miss the good part.”

The man tapped on the screen a few times, then flipped it around so Val could see it clearly. She saw Jack laying paralyzed on the ground, furies surrounding him, and his arm sparking slightly. She watched as the furies charged at him from every direction, and a pink light emit from Jack’s arm for an instant before he was overwhelmed by the the horde of furies, blood splattering across the grass, which was quickly covered up by the numerous bodies that were clamoring over one another in a desperate attempt to have a taste of the prey.

Nausea hit her, and she was dizzy, watching the life of a friend disappear in an instant. She leaned back in her seat, and pulled her knees up to her chest in the fetal position.

“You see what happens when you disobey? Your friend would have been able to live if you had just responded to your messages, and updated yourself willingly like a good girl.”

Val was shivering, and hugging her knees, tears rolling down her face, and dripping onto the clothes Jenny gave to her.

“Now now, don’t be like that. You have already learned this lesson, haven’t you? The same thing happened with your parents, didn’t it?”

Val rested her face on her knees, and cried. This surprised Timothy, he hadn’t seen her cry since her parents died, and wondered how she could care so much about someone she only met a couple of days ago.

‘I cant believe it. Her spirit is completely broken now.’

He sat back, putting his hands behind his head, and resting the screen in his lap. A slight smile made it’s way onto his face.

‘That was so much easier than I thought! Damn, business is good.’

Jack’s mind was going a mile a minute, he had already accessed his magic, and was prepared to let out a burst of energy, but was waiting, taking advantage of his superior speed. The furies charged at him in slow motion as his plan formed, as soon as the first ones covered his body, he released the energy, directing it in the vicinity of the device, and downward into the ground. He felt his ability to move return immediately, and rushed downward at the hole he had created with the controlled blast. In normal situations, dirt would have flown everywhere, but in this case, the magic took the form of electricity and disintegrated the dirt beneath him.

Jack fell into the hole, that quickly filled with furies, and continued to dig. Further and further away he got from his original position, only stopping to kill furies and create a barricade with their bodies. Jack made sure to dig deep, to reduce his chances of a cave-in, using his left arm to punch the dirt and rocks, instantly vaporizing them. Obviously, Jack had done this to hide from Timothy Grant, the man who claimed to see everything. He had considered ditching his phone, but when he went to check it, he realized he had it in his left pocket, and it was destroyed due to the immense amount of electricity it was exposed to.

Jack continued without slowing until he thought he had found a suitable place to resurface. In all likelihood, Timothy Grant wouldn’t notice Jack as long as he kept a low profile, it’s not like Timothy was constantly looking through every device at once, not to mention, if his trick worked, Jack was off his radar.

Jack slowly dug his way out, not wanting to blast his way out and attract attention. After several minutes, jack reached a wooden box.

(Jack, did you just stumble on buried treasure!?)

Jack broke open the box, revealing a pale, lifeless corpse.

‘Just six more feet.’

(That’s your reaction!?)

Jack resurfaced in a graveyard.