Chapter 5

I met up with Olivia after a quick stop at the Bureau of Survey and Mapping. "Hello Detective! I've returned."

"Wish you hadn't," she said back cheerily.

"But I brought you a lead."

"I already have a lead. I talked to a bartender in that building this morning, and after a little persuasion, he confessed that our dead guys were playing an illegal game of cards. They lost big time and now owe someone called The Fixer a lot of money. We're searching for any information on who this Fixer is."

"I already know who he is."

"What? How?"

I just checked to see who owned the building. A Mr. Douglas owns it, and while I've personally never done business with him, I have heard of him. He's got fingers in all sorts of unsavory pies if you know what I mean."

"What kind?"

"Aside from loaning out large amounts of cash for insane interest rates and breaking legs or murder if you can't pay, he's also into trafficking, smuggling, drugs, and running an assassination business. At least, that's the unofficial word on the street. The reason you've never heard of him is because he's not on anyone's radar. He's very good at appearing above board in all his dealings."

"Damn. Well, this sounds like it's going to take a long while. I'll start collecting everything we know about this guy."

The Huntsman spoke next. "I'll do the leg work. I'm very good at staking out places and picking up on things others miss. Catch you guys later." And with that, he walked out.

"I don't think he likes you," Olivia said.

"What's not to like? I'm awesome. Anyway, I'll reach out to a few contacts of mine who might be able to get me more information. I also have a few things to take care of, so I'll call you if I find something. Keep me updated if you find anything?"

"Yeah, yeah, guess I'll see you whenever," she replied while refilling her coffee cup before sitting down to start combing through the police databases.

I did reach out to a few contacts, but they said they'd need time to get back to me. So, I turned my attention to all the other things I needed to get done for Jessica. It ended up taking four days to arrange everything, but that was fine. It took that long for Jessica's new identity to arrive. Later that day, I had her move into a nice small condo that allowed pets. I set up a hidden gate in a closet that would allow her to portal over to the safehouse I set up in another name, thanks to a favor someone owed me. Then I bought myself a house nearby as well. I'll continue to set up other safehouses in the months to follow, but for now, this will get us by.

The next day, Jessica and I went down to register as Metas and be evaluated. To become heroes, we'll have to attend a training course for several months and be certified. The reason is to help reduce collateral damage in the city when fighting villains. And I can't believe I said that word. It seems so cliché. However, with portals being the newest threat, the Meta Association is creating a new certification for Metas to primarily focus on dungeon diving. We'd still have to learn how to fight crime in the event we're needed, but we won't have to sign up as an official hero team.

Jessica, Oden, and I walked into the Meta Association and approached the security desk. After they confirmed we weren't carrying weapons, they processed us through a series of Meta detectors, which lit up to confirm we were Metas, and then we made our way to the registration desk with newly printed guest passes taped to our shirts. They had questions about Oden, but Jessica said her power turned him into a mutated dog that could speak, which, when Oden did, the look of surprise on their faces was priceless. However, they eventually let us through.

"Welcome to the Meta Association," a brunette woman wearing a green business said. She smiled and appeared friendly, but I knew it was merely professionalism and not because she was genuinely happy. But not my place to pry, so I simply responded with a thank you. "Right, so how long have you known about being Metas?"

I guessed that she was subtly inquiring because it is a law that if you develop powers, you are to register within thirty days. "Just a couple of weeks ago, I accidentally shocked someone from a few feet away and thought it was some kind of weird static shock from the carpet, but then it happened a few more times until I figured out how to make it stop. Then, my girlfriend here was shocked when she touched me, and the next thing we knew, she developed her own powers."

"You're saying you can grant other people powers?"

"No, nothing like that. At least, I don't think so. No one else I shocked got powers. But I think she was awakening her powers on her own and maybe just got a jump start when she touched me. Or I could be completely wrong, and it was a coincidence. Either way, here we are."

"Okay, please complete these forms and return them when you're done. Then, we'll have you both tested.

The forms were on a digital pad and were rather quick to fill out. We tapped our wrist phones to it to fill out the basic Identification information. Then, we just had to describe our powers to the best of our knowledge. The forms would be updated after testing and training, which usually brought out the full potential of Meta's abilities.

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In the next room, there was this palm device that would accurately read our Meta signature to place us in a category. I was shooting for a high A rank but went a little overboard, apparently, as gasps could be heard from the other side of the machine.

"Mr. Ryan Kent, your rating is showing as SS-Rank. Do you know what that means?" The tester exclaimed. He was a burly man with a large, thick black beard and would've looked like he was at home with an axe and a log if it wasn't for the white lab coat he was wearing. "Please move over here, and Miss, you can place your palm on the scanner."

The tester and his assistant both gasped again when Jessica's rating came back as S-Rank. They didn't test Oden because he was supposedly a part of her power. And I never tweaked his aura to register as a Meta, anyway. The tester had us waiting in the next room while he reported us to his boss. Then, half an hour later, we were ushered into the training room with no less than nine testers who were all interested in the new recruits.

"Mr. Kent and Miss Raven, I apologize for not introducing myself earlier," the bearded man said. "I am Knox, an A-ranker and second to Branch Master Nathan Guidwell. While I am an A-ranker, my strength and durability are on par with the strongest SS-rankers. I just have low output energy due to not having a primary ability. But you'll find no better tank on these dungeon runs. Which I understand is what you're registering for, correct?"

"Yes," I answered for the both of us.

"Very well. We'll put you through a series of tests to measure your strength, speed, agility, and durability. Then, we'll move on to the power testing. I see here that your power is lightning. And Miss Raven's is Healing Magic, and also has been able to enhance her dog."

"I'm Oden," Oden said. Knox's eyes grew wide.

"Okay, well, that is confirmed, at least. Can you do this to more animals?"

"Maybe? When I did it with Oden, I felt this Bond form between us, but I haven't been able to do it since to other animals," she replied with her rehearsed lie.

"Interesting. Well, let's move to the strength test first."

We walked to a station with four different machines. One was similar to a benching machine but looked like an MRI machine with a bar in the center. Knox demonstrated it by lying underneath the bar and pushing upward and the amount of weight registered on the display screen showed numbers rising as he held it up until he started to struggle and finally let it drop. The final numbers showed 12.7 tons.

I took my place and held it up. I needed to place it around what Knox placed, but since I couldn't see the screen, I had no idea how long to hold it. Since Knox held it for around three minutes, I tried to do the same. However, I forgot to count in Mississippis and had to start over, but then I forgot how long I was already doing it. By the time I counted out a fresh three minutes and let it go, my final result was 23.8 tons. Oops. To be honest, I wasn't really struggling yet either, but I was definitely feeling the weight.

Knox whistled and shook his head. At least Jessica's results were more honest at 6 tons. She'd had some very powerful blood, which increased her abilities and strength, but she was still only half-vampire.

Next was the impact machine, which was kind of like a punching machine but more sophisticated. It measured technique vs. impact and gave a score based on those variables. Both Jessica and I had great technique because we were trained; however, we downplayed our abilities because we were supposedly new Metas and didn't have a false history of martial arts.

The next two machines measured leg strength and muscle stress. Remember Captain America holding down a helicopter? It was kind of like that. They wanted to see how strong our joints, muscles, ligaments, organs, and etcetera were. After the strength test, we moved on to the rest. It was a long day.

~~~

Nathan Guidwell tapped on the report of the two new recruits while Knox sat in a chair on the other side of his desk. "So, is this accurate?" He asked, even though he knew his equipment was infallible.

"Actually, I don't think it is, at least for Ryan. I'm sure it is for the girl."

"Oh, what makes you say that?"

"Well, when I go through the testing, the strain is so intense that I struggle at the end, which, as you know, causes certain facial features. I've seen it in all those I've tested. You can visibly see the strained look and even their sweat. Ryan didn't have any of those tells that he was truly pushing himself. It almost seemed like he was calculating when to stop so as to not seem so absurd, but he underestimated his calculations and performed better than he was shooting for. I saw the look of disappointment on his face. Usually, when I see that look, it is because they performed less than they thought they could after giving it their all."

"But since he didn't give it his all and still had that look, you think he performed higher than he wanted to?"

"Precisely."

"Interesting. Let's see, his strength is SS-Rank. Durability is SSS-Rank, and Agility is SSS-Rank, but while his initial acceleration speed is S-Rank, his top speed is B-Rank. However, his stamina and endurance are also SSS-Rank. And on top of all of this, he also has a main ability of Lightning powers. Are we sure he is only SS-Rank for his Signature?"

"It is what the readings stated. Although there have been cases where the applicant started with a weaker Meta Signature but, after developing their powers, their Signature grew a rank. There was even one Meta that went up by two ranks," Knox replied.

"That is rare, but undeniable that it can occur. We've never had one come through our Branch, though. This might be a good opportunity to study him and see if we can break the mystery of how that works. Now, what of the girl?"

"She's also an interesting case. Her acceleration and top speed both place her at A-Rank, which is just below Speedsters, but she is very close. Her reaction speed is also high, which means her Agility is A-Rank too. Her Strength, Endurance, and Stamina are also A-Rank, but her Durability is C-Rank. However, we noticed that she has S-Rank regeneration. We're not sure the Ryan since we could never penetrate his skin, so his rating is Unknown."

"So, her overall stats are decently high but not on par with most S-Rankers, yet she emits an S-Rank signature. His her healing magic that much more powerful?"

"We're doing the power testing tomorrow, however, from what she explained. She has pure healing abilities. She doesn't have a typical magic system that other Mages do. She's also not limited to just healing but all supportive magic. She said she could cure diseases and more. Regenerate lost limbs and even create shields. But then she said she wished for a strengthing buff on Ryan once, and it worked."

"And that is all on top of her pet. Seems we have a very interesting couple here."

"It gets even more interesting than that. The dog, Oden, doesn't just have enhanced strength, durability, and the ability to talk. But he can extend his fur to form metal needle-like strands that can pierce armor. This trio can be their own team if they want to be."

"I see. Very well, I look forward to their initial power testing tomorrow and the growth they display over the coming months. Train them well. We might just have a new power team in our city."