Miguel woke in a hospital bed, not sure how he got there. It was all a bit blurry; feeling utterly drained which meant he had used magic, but he was unsure why. Miguel started recollecting what had happened during the bakery incident as time passed. He hoped the teen would be alright. As he felt more lucid, his PA, James, arrived in his room.
"Sir, what happened? The doctor could not find any sign of injury or trauma. According to them, you were bleeding without a found cause," James explained as he tried to prevent Miguel from standing up from his bed.
"I need to go. We do not have time to waste. I have not worked on my animations, and I have a full studio staff just not doing anything for the past week," Miguel drowsily complained after ripping his IV bag off and trying to leave as James stopped him from leaving his hospital bed.
"Sir, with all due respect. You could have internal bleeding or something worse," James explained as he helped him back to his bed.
"James, it's fine. I guess it's time I tell you why a president of an animation company needs to have a P.A./bodyguard with extensive experience in espionage and secrecy," Miguel stated, getting ready to explain to James what he was.
"I am sure you have heard of sparks. Hell, I assume someone with your background was aware of people with supernatural abilities way before they went public after the Austin disaster. I am not a spark. I guess I could be classified as a spark, but on the higher levels, Flame or Burst, but I digress," Miguel tried to explain, but he was nervous.
It had been a while since he had come out to anyone, but James kept a neutral face, neither judgmental nor empathetic. Miguel guesses all that espionage for the British government was kicking it. Miguel could not discern what James was thinking or feeling.
"Anyways, now that it is established that sparks are a thing to the public. Another secret type of people has yet to come out to the public. Not just because they are hiding but because there are just so few of them. I am beating around the bush; Magicians, wizards, sorcerers, whatever you want to call it, magic is real," Miguel finally blurted out.
"Okay, that's fine. It still does not mean you can leave your bed until the doctors clear you out," James retorted, almost as if it was no big deal.
"You heard me. I am a mage; magic is real," Miguel tried to reiterate because he was surprised James had taken it well.
Most people are shocked when they discover magic is real, even after uncovering the Sparks. This phenomenon occurs because spark abilities can be attributed to a specific set of genes all sparks possess. To develop a spark ability, one needs 26 particular genes. Some individuals may develop a spark ability with fewer genes, but the specifics are uncertain. Miguel studied animation, not biology, and needed clarification on this. He learned some random facts about this from his friend Raj, who has a doctorate in bioengineering. A significant difference exists between being a magic user and being a spark. Sparks are regular people with dormant genes that, due to portal radiation combined with extreme traumatic events, are either emotionally or physically activated. Once it awakens, the spark is like an arm you did not know you had. It is weird, but it is within your nature to use it. You know how to use it, like learning how to walk or use a bicycle after a bit of learning. You will have accidents as you start using it. Magic users have it at birth; they must be trained and learn their craft; otherwise, they can live as normal individuals. Sparks do not get their life force wasted when using their abilities, but like any muscle, you need to have a healthy body to function, and the more you use it, the easier it is to use. Also, like muscles if overused, they will damage the body. Magic users or magicians need to spend their life force to use it. One advantage is that magicians can do all sorts of tricks; meanwhile, Sparks are a pony trick and very specialized.
"I am fine. Unlike sparks, I get sick using my powers. Blood restores my energy. That is why I requested you tell the doctor to give me blood instead of an IV. The blood has healed me; let us go. I have lore to research," Miguel explained, then asked James to call the nurse so that he could be discharged.
The blood healed him because it carried the life force of their last donor. It is not the actual content of the blood, such as red blood cells or plasma. But, some other thing Miguel needed clarification; it had something to do with negative energy. He would have to ask Raj to email him a brief and straightforward explanation of how magic works. He needed a refresher on magic theory so as not to accidentally kill himself the next time he used magic. Once he was cleared to leave, he went straight to his penthouse. It annoyed him his living room had tons of ancient books scattered around. He should take care of them as some were older than Earth itself, but due to their magical properties, they did not crumble.
"Well, you left the hospital against the doctor's recommendation. I will stay here to check that you do not collapse or do anything like that. Let us then concentrate on the state of DragonTooth. We have two creative teams with nothing to do for the past week. This week is paying week, and some are worried they will not receive payment due to their lack of work. Some more proactive members have summited to their managers the art design of landscapes and characters hinted to be introduced by Misvart 4: The Royal Bloodbath. The managers are breathing down my neck about work for their teams. The storyboard staff and script department have no outlines to work with because, due to your instruction, they will base their plot structure on the lore you will provide," James stated, recounting the problems Miguel's company was struggling with.
"Also, our marketing department is unsure how they advertise a movie that does not exist yet or have information about. The sales department wants you to approve the final design of the plushies being developed for the Eitstok, the main villain of Misvart 1," James continued, but Miguel stopped him.
"Stop! Listen, any non-creative decision can stay for me to work on later. I need to do lore research because, without lore, the movie will never be made; a movie, there is no point in the other problems," Miguel explained, showing James the books that he was trying to translate.
"Sir, why do not just make lore? It is your story, right? Also, have you considered having a Vice-President run any of the bothersome managerial stuff you do not want to deal with?"
Miguel wished he could just make up whatever he wanted. Most people assumed that the bold and original stories that gave him internet celebrity status and two box office busters came from his imagination. But that could not be farther from the truth; his movie plots came from history books of an alien civilization of an alternate reality predating ours where magic is accurate, and their technology is far more advanced than ours. The language was hard to translate, and he had never truly mastered it. He also needed more books, and he would need Raj to make a portal for him to rob books from the abandoned castles of the apocalyptic dystopian planet. He hated asking Raj, but he was the only mage powerful enough to open a portal between alternate universes.
"Yes, that is an innovative idea. Please get in touch with Daniel Herrera; you can find him on my Facebook friends. He would be a perfect fit, and I hear he just finished his MBA." Miguel decided that he would be a perfect fit.
"Sir, I was thinking of hiring an experienced executive, not a recent business graduate," Jason explained as he looked at Daniel's profile on his phone.
"He will do it even if he has little business experience. He successfully ran a magic show in Las Vegas for a few years. I have known him since childhood, and he will not betray me like my earlier business partner. He also has an artistic eye like mine. I will not hear further, so please contact him and offer him the job."
Daniel was another person on the wrong side of the war against the King of Mexico. Unlike him, who surrendered when the civil war became unwinnable, Daniel was among the last to give up. Fortunately, he was also pardoned and not labeled as a traitor. The King liked Daniel's guts to fight to the last moment and was one of the few to almost kill him. The King was weird, but he tried not to overthink that part of his past life. He did not know him well, but they both have a history with Raj and his forbidden book pages.He spent the following two days decoding enough of the lore to feel comfortable to share with his staff. He would work with the writers and storyboard creatives to work on a spinoff miniseries from the hype of the third Misvart movie. This will help him give hope to his starving fans and fandom and give him time to work on the convoluted plot of the actual movie sequel. James tried to focus him on the other less glamorous part of his company. Many of the streaming services were interested in exclusivity deals. DragonTooth was offered amazing exclusive offers from Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Even YouTube tried to throw its hat in the ring, hoping they would get preference due to Miguel's internet stardom on their platform. Miguel did not find it amusing; at the beginning of his career, YouTube tried to bury his animations by not promoting him or his art. The animation videos were not acceptable content to their algorithm. This caused his videos not to be shown to his subscribers, and he did not recommend them. YouTube kept randomly demonetizing him, preventing him from getting revenue, and their copyright system was a nightmare. He nearly lost his channel multiple times due to trolls copyrighting his original work due to jealousy. He also got offers from Disney but did not like the giant mouse. He could profit from exclusivity, but he had already limitless profit. So, he instead asked James to release their old movies on a multiplatform basis. He had enough for the day and told his P.A. to update him when Daniel accepted the position.
He decided he needed to visit the Eiffel Tower as he had spent more than a month living in Paris, yet he had not visited it. He arrived and could not do the most annoying quality he considers his generation invented, so he started doing selfies. He looked over his images and decided he needed a better picture in portrait style instead. He showed too much chin. He hates his papada. He saw a hot group of college students walking around the plaza. He knew they were university students as they had big textbooks perusing the area. Two beautiful girls and a ripped-fit guy. One of the annoying parts of living in Paris is that everyone looks like a supermodel. This affected Miguel's self-esteem as he was not super fat. He is not obese or anything like that. He was a bit overweight. It was noticeable due to his height; he was 5'6, a bit short, so his weight gain is noticeable. He wished he was as fit as that guy. Miguel wished he had a six-pack, but he had a noticeable beer belly. He did not drink; he never drank. He has a vendetta against alcohol due to his suffering from his father's drunken, abusive behavior toward him as a child. His belly came from his love of pan dulce. He loved the baked goods of Paris but missed conchas from St. Luis, which he used to buy in a specialty minimarket called Lindo Mexico. He also had a bit of a big face due to it. Luckily, thanks to his young appearance, people still wanted to date him because he had a baby face or looked innocent. Some guys he hung back in college explained he had a cub vibe. Girls would say he just seems so naïve and innocent; the inexperienced look attracted them to him. He did not want to be perceived as young and inexperienced now that he was running a company. He tried to look more professional. He started growing a beard, but it was just stubble. He decided to get over his body insecurities and talk to these guys. He needs to work on his social skills and be more confident. He should feel confident; he was not as hot as the people he is trying to talk to, but he is somewhat famous and a successful artist. He psyched himself up to start a chat with the college students as he chanted under his breath his universal language spell. Miguel concentrated that he had made two blockbusters and sold his first company before he reached thirty. He approached them with a confident wave as they saw him, but they were confused about who he was. Miguel was trying to act all suave but was internally screaming out of awkwardness.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Bonjour, belle journée. Excusez-moi de vous déranger. Je voulais juste vous demander de me prendre en photo.” Miguel asked them if they could take his picture as he passed his phone. He was confident talking with James or any other of his employees because they were his subordinates, but any other person was not. It is weird about power status; he felt more confident with his employee as he is their boss. They took a few pictures, and Miguel was about to receive his phone when one of the girls saw his smartphone with more detail. It was not an iPhone or another simple smartphone. It was an H.E. branded, an exclusive phone type that only a few people can obtain. It has the latest tech in both hardware and software.
“Est-ce un téléphone HE, comment avez-vous mis la main sur l'un d'entre eux? Ils sont super exclusifs, êtes-vous l'un de ces héritiers turistes d'un milliardaire?” the girl who took the phone away from the other girl who was about to give him his phone back.
“Non, je ne suis ni touriste ni héritier milliardaire. Ce n'est pas un téléphone HE. Ça y ressemble. Vous savez, aidez le fomo. En outre, un excellent brise-glace." Miguel lied about the phone being a fake. HE phones are a status symbol; they come installed with a learning A.I. that gains personality and functions based on their user. He did not want these guys to know he was rich. He learned the hard way that if people learn you have money, they are overly friendly.
“Ouais, je suppose que tu n'es pas un touriste. Votre français est parfait, vous êtes clairement français, aucun interlocuteur ne pouvait parler aussi couramment. C'est juste que nous ne voyons que des touristes prendre des photos de la tour Effil. Ravi de vous rencontrer. Je suis Paul, voici ma sœur Ella et mon amie Candace," Paul said as he took his phone out of his sister's hand (the girl who had rudely intercepted it from Candence giving it back).
Paul said as he took his phone out of his sister's hand (the girl who had rudely intercepted it from Candence giving it back to Miguel). As Paul handed the phone back to Miguel, Miguel took it. When their hands touched, Paul let them linger more than necessary as they transferred the item, causing their hands to intertwine. Paul smiled at him as their hands remained together more than necessary. Miguel was not sure if this was the guy coming onto him or if he was just being European. He noticed that Europeans are more contact-friendly than Americans. Maybe he was just being friendly, more jovial. Miguel tried to keep his cool, confident aura he was acting up. He was not going to be intimidated by this guy or the girls.
“Je ne suis pas un touriste. Je viens de déménager des États-Unis. Je suis un artiste. De plus, mon français est génial parce que je suis polyglotte” Miguel explained that he just moved to France that he was not a local.
He also lied because he claimed he was a polyglot. A person who speaks multiple languages, and it was technically not a lie if using a spell counted. He also informed them he was an artist.
“Oh, un autre artiste. Je suis désolé pour toi. Vous êtes nombreux à venir à Paris, j'espère que vous durerez plus d'un mois. C'est cher ici” Candance laugh at him apparently he was a stereotype of a dillusion artist who wanted to make it big by moving to Paris.
“Je ne suis pas ce genre d'artistes. Je suis animateur. Tout à fait réussi, je lance un studio de taille moyenne ici à Paris” Miguel clarified that he was an animator not a fine art artist.
He also emphasized he was a bit successful and was setting up a studio. It was not a complete lie; he just simplified his real story. He did not want to say he was setting up a gigantic company, but he told them he was setting up a small studio. He started to notice what type of person Candance was; she was a smart a-hole. A cynical person. He saw that both the girls carried gigantic differential equations books. The guy had a smaller but robust book of classical works of Germanic origin. The girls were either studying engineering or a math-related science. The guy, Paul, was some sort of literature major.
"I am sorry; I did not mean to be rude to you. I just assumed that you were French. I have never met a polyglot. I am a bit of a linguist myself." Paul apologized in English and lifted his book to show he was a language enthusiast. Still, Miguel realized the book was in German.
"I am fluent in Spanish and German. I am working on learning Japanese, but that is for fun, not school. I also…" Paul was nerding out unconsciously, lifting his fashionable prescription glasses, which made his green eyes and dimples stand out.
"Are you a polyglot? What languages do you know?" asked Ella, suddenly interested in Miguel. This was a bit of a ball curve.
"I can speak a lot of languages. Test me, come on," Miguel challenged them because he knew he could ace any language.
"Paul, do the one. You are the one I am thinking of; you studied last summer. The rare one that you study for that weird poem," Ella insisted; his sister wanted to see if Miguel was talking crap or not.
“Inkun impressjonat jekk tista 'tifhimni. Jien nafha dgħajjef jien stess. Jekk tagħmel hekk, li niddubita. Irrid ngħid biss li int tassew ħelu" said Pail very shakily; he did not have a lot of practice with the language.
He made a lot of phonetic mistakes in the language. Miguel was not aware of what language it was. Still, he knew Paul learned the language from reading it but never actually practiced it at all. It was too shaky, and a native speaker would not understand that language. But thankfully, his universal language can translate it, too.
Miguel felt his face flush; this guy had the balls to call him cute. Then, again, Paul was confident he would not understand it. Whatever language was used, it was very obscure. It did not sound like any of the common European languages.
“Jien aktar ċatt, int tidher sabiħa wkoll. Kien sabiħ li ppruvajt tolqotni, bit-tama li ma nsibhiex" Miguel responded to Paul.
Paul had a mortified face; he was not sure if this guy was out. Miguel was surprised as he assumed France was more progressive. He was not interested in Paul, but he did enjoy that he could shake the feelings of a person who was objectively more attractive than him. He should probably stop enticing the guy; he did not want to start playing gay chicken with a total stranger.
"Wow, you are a polyglot! Are you one of those genius people who appear on the T.V.?" asked Ella, fascinated by how he responded to his brother.
He knew exactly who she was talking about. The Mexican royal family had an infinity of genii and were highly extravagant. They appeared a lot on television, boosting their intellect and skills. The eighth prince is a classical multi-instrumentalist who was ridiculously talented. The ninth princess was a probabilistic genius. She loved to showboat her skills on different topics, such as weather prediction and stock predictions; she was a master-level chess and G.O. player, among other impressive feats. The 2nd prince was renowned for his work on wireless electric and aerospace engineering revolutionary designs. The first princess co-invented the water tree, a bio-nano-engineered tree that created clean water out of the atmosphere for underprivileged communities in Africa. There were also other geniuses making the news, such as Raj's inventions and Ezekiel's wormhole portal research. Geniuses were all the rage, and Miguel guessed he should be appreciated. The internet considered him an animation genius for his work, but this was a lie. The stories are lore of an alien planet, and his famously fluent animation was also cheating with his magic specialty.
"Let me take a picture with you. Also, what did you tell my brother?" Ella asked as she took some pictures for Instagram.
She was close to him; he felt a bit awkward and tense. He felt flatter and nervous as it is not every day a hot girl who looks like a Scottish model wants to take a picture with you. He liked her being close to him. He tried to sweat or looked like a startled deer with her touch as she held him by the waist and took selfies. Paul looked panicked; he did not want Miguel to tell his sister that he had called him cute.
"Oh, he just talked about the poems he read. I told him I had not read them." Miguel lied as it was not his job to get Paul out.
"Guys, we have to go. Class is starting in half an hour," Candance said as she pulled Ella out of Miguel's embrace.
Miguel was both thankful and sad at the same time. He liked having the attention of such a beautiful girl. He needed to relax. If he was honest with himself, he was just a bit of an attention hoarder. He guesses it's his fault for not socializing much and never having dated anyone in all his life.
They left for their classes, and he had to admit that life was unfair. He saw the silhouettes of their backs; they were just the models of the physical human peak. The guy's bottom seemed very firm, and the girls were perfectly curved, not a waste of unnecessary fat, pure muscles. He pondered how he should probably exercise regularly to get in shape. There was a commotion happening behind him. He looked, and it appeared that a man in his thirties was roughly manhandling a young woman in her twenties. He heard the man telling the woman he would never leave him again. The woman was screaming her lungs out, asking for help. Miguel considered helping even though his hero days were in the past. He could not just let the woman suffer. The man started to choke the girl to stop her from calling for help. Miguel was about to intervene when people who were closer started trying to get the guy away from her. He noticed most of them were men. There were five men of different ages, two college-age guys, one teen, and two middle-aged men. They ended up tackling him to the ground. He saw that the park police were also arriving at the commotion. The women started running toward the two police officers, scared, imploring for help. Miguel supposed that he was not needed when all five guys flew out of nowhere. When the men landed, Miguel stepped closer and noticed the man's face was deformed with scars. He had some experience with what type of scars they were, as in his animation career, he had researched anatomical scarring. The man probably had been in a horrible car crash. He knew what the scared man had done; he used his spark, whatever that was, to overpower five strong and healthy men. The police warned him to stop and surrender. One of the two officers was about to pull their gun. When suddenly, the guy made a quick movement so fast that he traveled fifteen meters within seconds and tackled one officer who was about to pull out their weapon. Miguel could not discern if he ran or did a quick horizontal jump. He did not know his specific spark, so he analyzed the situation before interfering. The other officer put the woman behind him and tried to pull his gun. The scarred man threw a punch so fast that the police officer and the woman who behind him were projected horizontally. They fell on the floor a few meters away. The woman was stuck under the police officer, who was not moving. Miguel just knew that punch had killed the officer. The scarred man was slowly approaching the poor woman. The other officer was struggling to stand, and when he saw the scarred man had killed his partner, he called on his radio that he needed reinforcement and pulled his gun. The police officer unloaded his gun on the back of the scarred man. The man fell, so Miguel assumed the man was killed, except that he was not. He stood up, looked enraged, did his horizontal jump, and tackled the other officer, who was now unconscious as he fell from the attack. Miguel chanted his spell for body vision. That police officer had sustained severe blunt trauma he needed to go to a hospital. The woman was now unstuck, ready to run away. The man was about to do his jump, but Miguel needed to stop that man from reaching the woman.
"Had ed Oducs Ono Oid Uro," Miguel chanted a quick but potent windshield spell to prevent the women from being tackled.
He felt a sudden energy drop, as defensive magic is expensive. He could not keep the shield up or summon it again. The scarred man was confused that he did not reach the woman; instead, he had hit an invisible wall before reaching her. Police arrived in three police cars with two officers per car. The woman started to run away, but he was about to do another jump. He noticed he needed to do three small running steps to jump. He did a small spell to untie his shoelaces and tied them together. It was a one-word spell, a bit dangerous, but it cost almost no energy. The man tripped as he did his jump and tackled a tree, and the woman got away behind the police cars. The police officer tried to order him to surrender, but the scarred man was furious and unreasonable. They had no choice but to shoot him, but this only made him angrier and stronger. He started tackling the police cars, leaving big dents. The police kept on shooting as he tackled and super-punched them. He could tell with his body vision that as the police officers were falling out, they were seriously injured as if they had been hit by a speeding vehicle. Miguel had figured it out: his spark is kinetic absorption and release. The bullets' kinetic energy was absorbed when they touched him, which is why they did not hurt him and just fell to the ground as they contacted him. The scarred man had a minimal projectile direction to release the energy, which is why once he jumped, he was unable to stop once he started or did a punch at a time. Miguel was quite disappointed that the French police were not equipped to deal with Sparks. Most Sparks can be dealt with as any other regular criminal by either physically subduing them or using their guns. Some Sparks were too dangerous to be handled by regular police as this guy that guns just aggravated the problem. Cities with exploding Spark populations have started special teams to deal with Sparks and portal problems. The ASA, USA and Mexico were well equipped; he guesses France had yet to develop a special department or team to deal with Sparks. The problem with setting up Spark handling departments in most places is that Sparks are relatively new worldwide. Sparks are extremely rare worldwide but were overconcentrated in certain cities as portal radiation is a critical component of awakening spark abilities. No one is sure why some towns are portal-prone, but Laredo, Annapolis, New York, Cardiff, he guesses Paris and other places. There were also not many people who were considered experts on Spark matters. The Allied States, United States, and Mexican governments mostly poached the few experts to work for them. He wanted to intervene secretly, but he needed to be more proactive. There were only two police officers left. He had to use his specialty magic. He had not used it since he left St. Luis after the horrible near destruction of the city.
"Odmamm Esedeb tneiviv Odaer eten Odo," as he chanted, he felt his tattoos coming alive in his arms.
The magic cost was almost negligible; snake tattoos from his time as Inkplot were hidden within his skin. He called his snakes to leave his body to immobilize the scarred man.The snakes slid out of his arms. They moved too quickly; they were magical snakes who reached the scared man immediately, crossing the long distance from where he was standing. The snakes wrapped around the scarred man once they immobilized him. They bit into each other, interlocking, and then they fussed and solidified into metal-like material, trapping the scarred man. That scarred man was captured, and he left before someone noticed him. He chanted the ignore spell on himself and walked away.