“Nope. No. Not happening. I am going to the woods to play with magical creatures.” Jar-lock said, shaking his head vigorously.

Kaleb saw his own smirk mirrored on several of his friends’ faces. Jar-lock fear of ants started off as interesting, but was leaning ever closer to hilarious. Kaleb had a sneaking suspicion that Jar-lock was playing it up a bit, but he wasn’t sure. Abby shook her head as she turned back to Varlin.

“AN ant queen? Meaning there’s more than one?” Abby asked.

Varlin nodded as he eyed Jar-lock. “Yeah. Jar-lock’s old handler, Curtis, was right. The ants have multiple queens. One of which is close to where my house has its primary training facility.”

“Where are the others?” Two Gun asked.

“The others?”

“The other ant queens, where are they, and how many?”

Varlin sighed before he answered. “So far, the HLO knows about three. Two of which are being handled by sanctioned teams. But the House of Ainsley wanted to take care of the one in our backyard by ourselves.”

Kaleb chuckled. “How’s that working out for you?”

“We did okay, but the HLO is pushing us for faster results,” Varlin shrugged. “And then suddenly I get called into a meeting where I am asked about you guys.”

Kaleb shared looks with the other players. “How do they know about us?”

Varlin shook his head. “No idea. But they asked me to ask you if you could come and help. Apparently, a few of the other players in the Ainsley House were also asked about unaffiliated Supers.”

Kaleb was wondering about the other ‘unaffiliated Supers’ when Vivienne asked about them for him.

“There are other unaffiliated Supes?”

“Yeah. Some are just shy of vigilantes, though. Few players want to get a permit. Too much paperwork.” Varlin said, shrugging.

“What are they offering?” Jar-lock asked, having stopped his anti-ant rant.

Varlin just shrugged. “I don’t know. But I figured you guys could do with the experience and I am sure they are paying something.”

Kaleb shook his head as he stared at the Sorcerer. They weren’t exactly hurting for work right now. But looking around at his group of friends, he saw a few were interested in the idea. While he could understand, there was still far too much to do right now to worry about ants. They would need to all sit down and talk about it.

A soft blue glow coming from the office caught his eye, followed closely by D34d-I and Mass walking into the hangar. The pair had obviously just logged in. Kaleb briefly wondered why the pair hadn’t logged into their rooms downstairs, but he quickly dismissed the thought.

“Oh good, you two are right on time.” Kaleb said, grinning.

D34d-I squinted at Kaleb quacking. “Why?”

“We need to hold a meeting real quick and since we are all here, we can decide how we divide up the task.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Two Gun and Jar-lock nodded as Claire moved one of the nearby tables closer. Abby helped move a few chairs and soon they were all seated. Varlin choose to stay and give his two cents as Farrah continued working on her new drones. Roy and Daivor were nearby eating sandwiches and poring over the Kersait data on Kaleb’s laptop. The pair seemed oddly engrossed in whatever they were reading.

Kaleb’s focus was brought back to the table by a loud quack.

“Okay, so I call this meeting for... whatever the hell this is for, to order. I am just gonna assume we have nothing on the old business and we can…”

“Well, hold on now. I think the boy and the Gnome have actually got our command center stocked with two new drones. That’s part of the old business, isn’t it?” Two Gun interrupted.

Kaleb had to keep the smile off his face as he heard the small duck alien sigh.

*Quack*

“Yes, that is old business. However, giving the pressing nature of the new business, I would like to make a motion that we hold off on old business till the end.”

“Seconded.” Abby said.

D34d-I nodded. “In favor?”

Everyone raised their hands, including Two Gun who smiled at D34d-I’s glare.

“The motion is passed. Now, what is the new business?”

Kaleb raised his hand. “We have two new jobs. Along with the always present ‘taking care of our jurisdiction’ one, that is.”

Everyone at the table nodded before he continued. “The first one is ingratiating ourselves with the local hunters by undergoing some rite of passage. A team will have to go into an enchanted forest and grab a magical fruit from some tree.”

“Well, we don’t expect it to be as easy as that.” Claire added.

Two Gun nodded along with his wife’s statement. “It was suggested to us that the forest is full of magical creature. Some of which will defend the tree. Viciously.”

“The second one,” Kaleb said, bringing the conversation back round. “Is about helping our dear sweet friend Varlin’s Sorcerer family with their bug problem.”

Varlin shot Kaleb the finger as he spoke up. “Once again, you have undersold the problem. But you are technically correct. The colony is near the backyard of the Ainsley family’s training house. It’s where the younger and more accident prone family members live and train.”

“How big is the colony?” Jar-lock asked, seeming calmer than he was before.

Varlin just shrugged. “We don’t know. The family had hoped to send in a few heavy-hitters and call it a day. But the tunnels aren’t really conducive to large spell attacks.”

Vivienne raised her hand. “Why isn’t your family working with the HLO?”

Again, Varlin shrugged. “I do not know. I am barely middle management with the family. But the Ainsley family has been pretty cagey with the HLO recently. They will still work with them, but I don’t know. It seems like they are being cautious of the entire office.”

The Sorcerer’s words caused a mild stir around the table. But they all quickly decided that, while interesting, it could be set aside for later. Kaleb stood and looked at the Vivienne and Jar-lock, the two Magic users of their Super-Group.

“Those are the two big ‘quests’ we have before us. But there is also something else the hunters in Blue Bluff want from us. If we can do it, then they will do everything they can to help us. But I don’t know how workable it is.”

Jar-lock and Vivienne looked at each other before returning their gazes back to Kaleb. The question was obvious.

“We need to open the magic channels of any hunter that has the talent.” Kaleb explained.

Jar-lock looked a little worried, but Vivienne snorted. “That’s all?”

The rest of the table stared at the tall blonde as she explained. “That’s a piece of cake. It’s part of Magic anatomy 101 for wizards. All you do is flush your magic power through the veins of another magic user. But if they don’t have the talent, it can burn up their insides.”

Kaleb sighed. He had been worried the process was more complex. “That’s good then. Once we get the magic fruit, we can start on helping the hunters.”

“Can we teach them to do it so we aren’t constantly shoving our Mana into people?” Jar-lock asked.

Vivienne nodded but scrunched up her nose at the Warlock’s phrasing.

D34d-I gave a mechanical cough. “Well, those are the two items that have brought to the group. We can discuss how we want to handle them, as well as any other old business.”

The group fell into conversation about their newest jobs. The discussion ran deep into the evening, but by the end of it, Kaleb thought they had reached a good consensus. For now, he needed to buckle down and get some things built. He smiled as he thought of all the crafting in his future and what excitement lay ahead.