"Alright! I yield!" Igna held his hands up and knelt down on one leg, "just... keep those fists away from me alright?"

He was still on fire, that's not good, "extinguish yourself first, then we'll talk." I rubbed my forearms, my sleeves now burned off and my clothes completely scorched. I'm basically half naked right now, thank gods it's nighttime and there's no one around to see.

"Uhhh..." he had the gall to look sheepish, "I... you gotta wait like twenty minutes for them to go out."

That's worrying, I don't have twenty minutes to sit around and wait for this guy to extinguish so that I can zip tie him, "yikes," I grimace, trying to plan out my next move and making small talk all the while, "so like... does it hurt?"

"Huh?"

"You, burning up like... that," I motion at his immolated body, still crackling.

"It used to," he sighed, the rain's long gone by now, replaced by a clear night sky, it was cold too, but Igna's breath comes out as a jet of flames rather than just mist, "now it just feels... kinda warm? Like getting a suntan."

"You're... acting significantly more subdued now, what's with that?" Igna looked like a classic hothead when he first ambushed us, now he seemed reasonable? What gives?

"Well... I, uh, oh shit."

"What?"

----------------------------------------

Meanwhile, right behind Dan...

CLANG

"Shit!" I winced, watching the armored one sneak up behind the enemy and bashing his head in with their helmet, the metallic clang echoed throughout the night, "did you have to do him like that?"

"Like what?" I'm starting to regret working with these clowns now, when I came back, I thought that joining up with them would be a quick and easy way for me to get revenge on that librarian bitch, not be roped in to some kind of shadow war with two mentally unstable teammates! "that was textbook stealth right there."

"I don't get it," the other one spoke up, duct taping the enemies hands together as he dragged the body to a nearby body, "how did he survive you firing directly down his mouth without getting hurt but got knocked out with a hit to the head?"

I shrugged, the armored one shrugged too, I don't believe the armored one, they might be lying, "I dunno," they placed the helmet back on their, wait no, her head, "concussions always works."

I need to get the fuck away from these two.

But I can't, 'cause then I'd be killed.

Quite brutally too, I might add.

I... don't want to be roped into some kind of conspiracy! I want to keep living! Use my flames for things like... like... candles or some shit!

...

Okay, trying to kill that guy was pretty bad on my part, but maybe I can argue my case in court?

...

Nah... the justice system here's fucked anyways, I'll keep working for these two jokers, but once things get too heated, I'm out.

"So what do we do with that guy?" the three of us surrounded the unconscious half-naked body of the enemy, "we can't just leave him here... can we?"

"We can," the armored one turned around and walked away, "and we will! Let's get moving! We have more astronomers to fuck up!"

Damn.

Alright, fine.

----------------------------------------

Meanwhile, at a school...

"Mr. Eskel, can you tell me the answer to question 5?"

"AHHHHHH!"

"That's correct, A is indeed the correct answer."

I feel like I'm going nuts. There is a skeleton in my classroom, wearing a reversed cap and a disgustingly bright sports jersey. The worst part being that everyone's just... brushing it off as normal?? Hello? There's a sentient skeleton answering questions in class by screaming!

"Denver!" I jolted, the teacher now looking at me with narrowed eyes, "did you hear what I was saying?"

"Uhhh, ummm, uhh, I..." my eyes darted throughout the room, most of my classmates were now looking at me silently, their eyes boring to the back of my head... with the exception of the skeleton who was now doing strange hand signs, as if he's trying to tell me something...

The teacher tapped his foot impatiently, I stared at the skeleton's strange hand signs, trying to decipher it... before giving up and yelling, "no sir!"

The silence was deafening.

"Alright then," the teacher sighed, "meet me after class Denver, this is the fifth time this week that you've done this."

I looked down in embarrassment, hearing some chumps in the background laughing at my misfortune before being shushed by the teacher didn't do me any favors. I sighed and sat back on on my desk. The period came and go quickly after that, as soon as the bell run, I dashed out instantly, finding a secluded spot somewhere to have my lunch.

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I should be more grateful, my parents worked their butts off to get me into this school, the only one that hasn't been exploded by magic-related mishaps yet, which was saying something. I leaned back onto the walls of the school, nobody ever came to the back of the school anyways, so the quiet was quite nice, combined that with the chirping of the birds and the... clacking of skeleton bones.

The skeleton followed me.

I'd normally be afraid of this, as will everyone in my position, but this damn skeleton has been masquerading at the school for the last two months now and I'm the only one who sees it for what it is.

At some point you just get used to it.

Doesn't stop me from complaining about it every chance I get though.

"Hey hey! Flesh man! Real fly seeing you here, hehe!" I want to die right now, "how's it hanging my brother?"

These phrases are decades behind, "hi, Eskel, how's it... hanging." I want to gag.

"Nothing much!" the skeleton sat next to me, leaning back the same way I did, "tell you what, bruv, I've noticed that you've been... sneaking glances at me, so to speak."

I froze, am I going to die for real? Shit! I take everything I said earlier back, I want to live! "W- w- what are you talking about?"

"Are you..." please don't use any kind of black magic on me, please don't use any kind of black magic on me... "in love with me? How romantic!"

...

"Huh?"

"How poetic is it, that even a man of the bone myself could find love!" the skeleton placed its hand on its head dramatically, "unfortunately, I don't like you that way so it'll have to stay unrequited."

What was this thing on about?

"Anyways mate, what're you moping here for? There's lots of things out there for a kid like yo- I mean, kids like us to do! Sitting around here seems kinda boring, is it not?"

"I guess it is..." but I like being alone, I never liked talking to other kids that much, all they'd do is just point and laugh at the weird kid who no one likes.

Staying alone's better anyways... it's better for me and everyone else.

At least then they don't have to put up with me.

I-

"Director."

----------------------------------------

"Eskel."

The world froze. All that matters now are these two conversing with one another.

"How's your plan going? Good?"

"We're enacting phase two."

The skeleton turned the cap back, now letting the skull logo on the cap be displayed prominently in the front. The logo seemed to move as the skeleton spoke.

"So I guess that Librarian and the Counter's been dealt with, permanently, correct?"

"Not quite."

"And why is that, hmm?" the skull logo changed to a question mark, "we both know that this plan of yours have no need for those two, so why keep them alive? They'd only be a nuisance."

"I have my reasons."

"Another plan, then," the skeleton stood up, "another plan that only you know about. Not even me."

"Indeed."

"Nor do your lackeys? I presume?"

"You are... correct in that presumption."

The skeleton then shook with laughter, it spoke, "tell you what, Diane, when this... secondary plan of yours do go well... you know where to find me."

"We'll see."

"Now shoo, I have a budding friendship to flourish."

Eskel never made much sense to those who interacted with it, people who can see it are few and far between, with most being killed during the Battle of the 21st by the man on the sun. The Director walked away from the school, and time resumed as she watched the skeletal being converses with the child next to it in a friendly, almost human manner. But this is a ruse, a face that the skeleton made for itself to conceal its real intentions.

An envoy of the gods, it called itself, the Director believed it wholeheartedly.

Her... "lackeys" as it had called them, have never met this being.

The Director would like to keep it that way.

For the first time in a long time, the Director sighed, and extinguished her cigarette.

She moved through the streets, pass the school, and back to her office.

The landline rung loudly as she stepped through the threshold of the doorway.

Picking up the receiver, the Armored's voice can be heard, "Director, we have news."

"Speak."

"Understood," the Armored breathed in heavily, "Daniel, lead astronomer of the observatory has been decommissioned, he won't be up for a few weeks at most."

"How."

"Blunt force trauma, no redistribution of force when applied, he's concussed and in a coma currently," the Armored coughed, "he's... holed up in a hospital west of the city, at most... we have two weeks before he wakes up."

"Enact phase three, send me the address of the hospital."

"Understood."

The line went cold, and the fax machine began printing again. The Director glanced at the words typed on the paper, and made her way out of the office.

She moved down the street.

One step, she's half way there.

Two steps, she's at the front gate.

The hospital was reinforced, courtesy of the astronomers trying to secure their most precious asset. The Armored and the Luckless leaving him there was all part of the plan. The receptionist noticed the Director and stood up with her eyes widened, she reached down to press a button while grabbing the sword under the desk as well.

The receptionist's head rolled to the Director's feet, no alarm activated. She never moved a muscle.

She moved through the hospital, any opposing resistance met their swift end, bodies bisected, dissected, and decapitated littered the ground. The blood of the astronomers in disguise coating the walls like a fresh coat of paint.

The door to the room where they held the asset is pushed open, the Director stepped in as she anticipated the surprised reactions of the people who tried to resuscitate the asset.

They channeled their magic, in vain hopes to prevent their incoming doom. Arms were sliced off, they screamed before their heads rolled just like the rest.

The asset laid sleeping, unconscious on the bed. Multiple IVs hooked up to the man as he breathed slowly.

The Director stood watching, before prying a phone off of a dead man's hands.

She dialed a number.

"Director," the Luckless' voice played through the small speakers, "what do you need of us?"

"The asset's recovery time has increased," the Director spoke, "estimated recovery time of two months."

"Understood, phase two is a go?"

"Phase two is a go."

"Understood."

The phone went silent, the Director snapped it in half before crushing it beneath her boots.

Sounds of sirens echoed throughout the hospital, the Director looked outside, seemed the magic detector that the cops had have alerted them to her position. She blinked before escaping the hospital and back to her office.

Despite the asset now being seized by the police, most of the astronomer's lead healers and medics were now all dead, the two months recovery time was a generous approximation, if the police hadn't acquired any new healers or healing magic-users in the past two days.

All's according to plan.

The Director lit up another cigarette and exhaled.