15) Incursions

It wasn’t always a horror show.

But mainly it was incursions from Fairy, the nature of the place meant it was “Right next door.” to just about anywhere.

I was able to hook up a group of freaked out blueish green colored goblins hiding out in some storm drains below Las Vegas with the Goblin King of Mirkwood. After getting Imogene calmed down enough to not to twist space around them into Klien bottles.

King Ernie had given me his number when we had done his interview and after I got him on the line and explained things to him, I held the phone and he shouted at the other guys in what turned out to be the same language they spoke despite coming from different worlds.

He then told me that he and his people were now living in an old played out mine with an abandoned town nearby. By sending me some pictures and having his Shaman do something Imogene called a mana spike, she was able to take the two of us along with the twenty some odd lost goblins to what the King was using as a training center in the town.

The people he was working with, and who were learning from his tribe, had a military feel to them and weren't happy about us magicking our way past their security.

King Ernie just grinned at them, "I know, it's a shame someone knows what happened to us, and is in regular contact. It makes it mighty hard for us to disappear after you have learned everything we have to teach. Why it's almost like Brenner here is just one of several insurance policies I set up."

Regardless of what was going on here with that, Ernie's tribe looked well fed, were dressed in new looking clothing and he gave me and Imogene a tour of his people's new home where they were even digging out some small left behind copper deposits.

It seemed like they were doing well, and they even had some official looking work visas.

He also seemed pretty happy with their pay.

We agreed to weekly calls for the foreseeable future to remind the people he worked for that the goblins weren't their dirty little secret. They had friends.

Then there was the little Viking biker looking guy who got pretty pissed when I called them Dwarves. Their leader who had some sort of translation magic told all the other ones about it.

At least he didn't tell me he wasn't happy, I don't know if I could hold back from finishing the joke.

Who knee mining implements could look so lethal?

Lethal enough for me to whisper to Imogne "Get ready to go Klien on their butts.”

She frowned at me. “They’re just lost Jim.”

Oh sure, screaming little green men with hooked knives in a damp dimly lit storm drain and she already to bend space and break bones, but little hairy guys and she all, no problem here.

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Hobbit girl.

She was able to read their “Signature” and after warning them that a few weeks had gone by in their world she was able to send them back.

Other incursions, weren't so nice.

I don’t think the greyhound sized dragon, dog not bus, meant any harm. It may have just been lost and scared, but it burned one of the kids who found it badly enough that the kid didn’t survive.

The dragon didn’t either, a load of buckshot to the chest from two feet away would do that, but Imogene still sent its remains home for its family to find.

Other things just needed killing. I needed the Goblin King's shaman to patch me up a few times. But Imogene’s back was guarded. Even her staff seemed to soften up on me a little.

It loomed at me less.

After doing this for a few weeks, Agent Teresa Adams showed up again.

“Hi Mr Brenner, nice to see you again, but I’m not here for you.”

The government had a job offer for my sister.

The same thing the two of us had been doing, but with an entire team backing her up. Imogene would, to an extent Adams told her, be in charge of field operations.

"You're the only one around with experience at doing this on an organized level. At least according to what your brother wrote."

Imogene glanced at me for a moment, then looked down at the ground while the staff lowered itself down until it touched the floor on the other end of the couch as if it didn't want to be involved in the next conversation

I could tell she wanted this, she had a need to belong, to be accepted. More than what an older brother she hadn't grown up with could offer her.

She wanted to step up and help, even if that meant it wouldn't just be me and her anymore.

“What sort of pay are you offering her? Benefits? And before anything else, she's going to need full, solid, no ambiguity, American citizenship, and written law enforcement powers. Our Mom was American if that helps."

Imogene wanted them to hire me too, but… "I don't have the skills Imo, not really, and we both already know I can't learn magic the way some other people can. Besides, I got a job. Telling people what they need to know about what happening. I can't do that if I have to sign some sort of non-disclosure agreement."

I looked at Agent Adams over Imogene’s head, Adams nodded to confirm that for me.

They gave her a whole team to watch her back. Professionals, including people who had been trained by Goblin King’s people and graduates from the Foundation's basic magic classes.

All former military or federal agents, often both.

My sister still comes home most nights, often too exhausted to say much, but seldom hurt. They are either taking good care of her, or she's getting healed up on the nights she doesn't come back to keep me from worrying. She says that the apartment they gave her was pretty nice, but she still wants to come home whenever she can.

The Staff will find me, and bring me to her if she needs me, or if something happens to her.

But as for fighting evil from another dimension, it seems like I’m retired.

Addendum:

Sorry, Special Agent Teresa Adams. Let me say this again, Congratulations Special Agent.

She had corrected me on that when I got home one night and found her, Imogene, and a couple of seriously buff looking gals she and my sister work with having a Lord of the Rings movie marathon on my new TV in the living room.

They don't have a big screen at their secret base?

The two girls in the living room and a pale goth woman who came out of the kitchen with our mixing bowl filled with popcorn all made a point to say "Hi Jim." all together then looked up at Agent Adams, sorry, Special Agent Adams, who blushed while Imogene elbowed her.

I blinked a few times, "Don't know. Ain't asking. Tired. Going to bed.

There was some giggling from behind me as I headed down the hall to my room, but they turned down the sound on the movies and kept things down to a low roar so I could get to sleep.

While clipping the overnight bag to the dog collar around my ankle, I took a look at myself in the mirror on the closet door.

Dieting, exercise, and training had taken off a lot of the flab and put on some muscle. I even had some abs.

It was nice to know my hard work was appreciated.

And I did tease Imogene about watching the movies just for the cute hobbit boys. She just shook her head at me and huffed. “I don’t go for boys. But that Gandalf… that man can really carry off a pointy hat. Nice staff too. All wood. Very old school.”

Good, she's teasing back rather than just getting upset and trying to hit me. My efforts to be a mean older brother are paying off

I wonder if I can the Special Agent's number from her.