I didn't have much time to act, but thankfully my sudden transformation and subsequent bullet deflection had caught the henchmen by surprise. One even took a step back. “A Sorceress? Here?!” You would think they wouldn't have to bother asking stupid questions. Maybe the goblins made them dumber than they were. Or maybe I'm just too god-damned smug…Nah, definatly that other thing.

Goblins or goons was the question of the day, and I dashed toward the latter. Goblins were stronger by far, but the real threat were the henchmen and their augmented weaponry. I could deflect the bullets when I focused on defense with my discord, but I was less confident about it when I can't and with enough hits I too would become a willing puppet. If that happened, no one was safe. Not for the first time, I hated how everything seemed to affect your mind in the end. Rarely do Sorceress’s die… they just switch sides. They can be brought back to your side if you manage to free them… but you’re on a clock.

I dodged their sweeping fire. With my Sorceress Speed and harmonized movements, dodging the bullets was simple. I wasn't faster than them or anything , but I was certainly hard for my enemies to track. I zagged my way over to one, which only took about three to five seconds. They weren't in a special formation, so I chose the one on the outside flank, putting more distance in between me and them. I was now in close combat range.

I loved close combat range. Moving to the right, I caught his gun with one hand, put my other to his chest and pushed a wave of discord through his body, the force of which sent him flying into the bank wall. I had made sure to keep a hold of his gun the whole time, and it was mine now. The henchman I blasted would wake up in about an hour or so with an injured back, free of daemon corruption, and feeling like he should help make the world a better place.

As for the gun, I ran my power through it and ducked behind a bench. Once the gun was cleared of daemon magic, I began to harmonize it, attuning it to my magical signature. Instant Sorceress weapon, just add bullets!

Ducking out of cover, I ripped forward. Using the wall as leverage, I leapt into the air, pointing my new weapon at one of the goblins and unloading it into its ugly green head. From this range my accuracy was on point, and with an entire magazine it vanished into black particles before I hit the ground again. Once I landed, I started moving again. Another henchman, this one I jumped and kicked him in the gut. Stepping back, I would twirl and land another kick to his head, and he was out. Two henchmen and three goblins to go.

The next closest thing to me was a goblin, so I took a breath and readied myself. Goblins hit hard and loved to fight. I didn't have enough time to augment the fallen guys gun, and if I retreated to do so everyone would be wise to my tactics. I could already see the remaining gunmen begin to spread out into flanking positions. They were now solely focused on me. That was good, because now the civilians weren't targets.

The goblin moved to punch me, I stepped to the side, deflecting it with my arm and moved in . Its arm was too thick for me to grab so a throw wasn't an option. I delivered a quick flurry of palms to his stomach, each one laced with discord. As it stepped back and got on its guard I slid underneath him. I'd be back for him in a second, but right now I wanted to reposition. I'd like to take on the other two first, as their large bodies almost meant cover from gunfire.

I rush in. One of my teammates would probably berate me for charging in and closing my flanks but seeing I was alone I didn't have too much of a choice. I run and leap onto an arm as it comes at me. I focus my discord through my hands again, this time refining it further until it was completely covered with blue lightning. Pushing off the arm, I take a step off it and swipe my hand across its neck. It acts like a blade and the disruption wracks it's body, paralyzing it even as it begins to fade into black dust.

I feel a burst of wind come at me and I backflip, narrowly missing a punch that would have ruined my day. I could almost feel the hospital bed with my name on it. I drop down, tripping the goblin and as it's falling, press my palms to it. A shockwave erupts and the newly green wrecking ball flies in the direction of one of the henchmen in cover. I can hear a large groan and I wince a little. I hope he had good insurance, he was going to need it.

That left a goon and the goblin I had been fighting earlier. I dealt with the gunman first, running towards him while keeping my discord field focused in front of me. He realized what was coming and tried to run but, well, when you can catch up with cars… a simple trip and boot to the face did the trick. I grabbed the gun he was holding, worked my literal magic on it, and turned on the goblin and pelted him full of holes, then the one that had fallen on the would be hospital patient there and shot him down too.

Confirming no more targets, I dropped the gun and grinned. I still had it.

I took a breath. It had been.a long time since I fought, and even longer still since I did it without backup. It was a scary prospect- if everything hadn't gone absolutely perfect I might have been on the ground as a drooling mess. I'm glad I remember my training, to isolate opponents to the best of my ability. Snow always called me the party's assassin for that purpose.

Remembering my best friend, I turned to look at Selene. She had ducked behind a bench but she was staring at me, wide eyes. Confusion and Awe were plastered on her face and I didn't blame her in the slightest. The cogs must have been whirring in her head, trying to figure out how, and when I could have gained such a power. I walked over to her, and looked at her. “Uh, hi there…”

I heard sirens getting louder as they approached this area. I was on the good guys side, but I had no desire to stick around, not with my best friend here. I picked her up, she was light as paper despite her taller figure. With a quick jump, I ducked behind a building and out of sight, trying to ignore the screaming in my ear as I did.

I jumped a few buildings away, but doubled back to behind the building of Cherry's. I set her down gently, and as I did my uniform returned to its previous state, and the blue faded from my hair. Selene looked at me with wonder. “...When?”

“Selene…” I say, looking down. Often I had considered telling her, but this wasn't the right time. Not like this.

“WHEN?” She says in a more demanding tone. I can tell she's hurt and I hate that. Making friends sad hits me right in my gut. “All those times you canceled on me… and you were missing during the last of the invasions, and you were out there?!”. I could see her eyes starting to water.

I moved closer to her, closing my eyes and resting my forehead on hers. “I'm sorry Selene. I'm sorry for that….and for this.”. I say with a sad smile. I put my hand to her head, lightly pushing a bit of my power through it. “I need you to relax for me Selene. My sweet, sweet Selene.”

As my power inched through her, I could see her try to put up a fight, but it was useless. Civilians had no chance of resisting magical influence. “Just rest Selene. Rest into my shoulder. All is right in the world when you’re like this. Relax your body, let my power flow into you. Every muscle, and into your head, shocking your mind.”

Her body went limp into my arms, and I held her tightly. I hated myself for this. “Let yourself sink down and down and listen to my words. I want you to forget about the last thirty minutes. Everything about them. You were never in danger, you never saw me turn into a Sorceress. I'm still Alexa your normal, everyday girl and your best friend. Sink further down into me even as your memories grow fainter and fainter, dizzier and dizzier.” I ran my hand over her head, slowly unraveling the electrical current that was her memory. The verbal guiding wasn't necessary, I could just knock her out and do it, but doing it slowly would make sure I removed the memories without risk of backlash of later trauma.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Once I was fine ensuring she wouldn't remember a thing, I was going to continue, but a voice called out to me. A familiar, annoying multi pitched tone.. “You were great out there, Lexi I handled the memory wipes in my end, you really shouldn't just leave lik- gah put me down put me down!” It said as I quickly grabbed it by the throat, holding it up in the air.

“We will talk later but you will not bother me for the rest of the day.’ I seethe at her. I angle her up into the air and force my power into its body in a far less gentle manner than I had with Selene, and let her go. She shot out of my hand with the force of a grenade launcher, and soon disappeared out of sight. I wasn't about to deal with that little shit, even though I knew deep down inside it wasn't responsible.

I return my attention to the now somewhat drooling Selene, and resume my work. “Now, you're going to follow me into the diner and wake up when the waitress asks your order. Everything will be normal, and it will be just like you dozed off for a second. Now, come on, let's get you that shake, ya?” I smile. Making sure she is able to move, albeit with dimmed out eyes, I took her inside and walked her into the diner. I made sure to get the booth furthest from the windows, and we sat down.

It takes about five minutes before the waitress comes over. When she asks for our order, I can see the light return to Selene's eyes as she gains awareness. “Huh? What, what was i-”. She asks in confusion. She looks to me, then to the waitress, and gives an embarrassed blush as she places her order

Once I give mine and the waitress scampers off, I smile. “You say I'm the one who dozes off, look at you!” I hate this part the most. Pretending nothing happened, lying to my best friend, altering her memory and controlling her mind .. it wasn't something I liked to do. Though Lumina would have auto wiped everyone's memories, I felt like I should do it myself. She deserved a soft touch.

She looks at me, then laughs. “No kidding! I must have really been out of it! What were we talking about again?”

“Nothing important, so I'm not too surprised you nodded off “I say, shrugging. “I was going to come over to your place on Friday and I was thinking 'bout staying the night at your place. That okay? I doubt I'm going to want to go home after a night of concert fun.”

“I’m shocked you even have to ask that “ She said, pretending like she had taken a blow to the chest. “Though I doubt we're going to do anything of this sleeping thing you're talking about.”

A laugh and a giggle of glee when our food arrived. This was Selene as I wanted her to be. Carefree, not having to worry every day if I'm going to be the same person the next time she sees me. I didn't want to have to worry about becoming a different person either, that's why I quit in the first place. No one should fear that.

I took a sip of shake, melting into it's sweet, succulent taste as we finalized our plans for Friday. I was honestly looking forward to it after it was all said and done! I paid for the meal and we headed out.

This was when Selene noticed the police line in front of the bank. “Holy crap, did something happen here?”. She asked, moving to join the already formed crowd.

One of the onlookers turned. “Some suited guys were going to try and rob the bank with a group of daemons! Apparently a Sorceress showed up and beat them all to a pulp!

Selene's eyes went wide. “No way, I missed an actual Sorceress out here kicking ass?!”. She said with a pout. I could see the disappointment. “Did anyone get a video?!”

“One guy did. He said he was going to upload it to the net once he got home, though he's over there with the police.” They said, pointing at a guy with a pair of cops over him. He seemed to be getting drilled pretty hard.

We turned and left, and Selene wouldn't shut up about the incident. I guess it was normal for a girl that dreamt of magic and destiny to be excited about having a star nearby, but it made me feel like shit! As for the video taken? No I didn't really mind. My form was way too different as a Sorceress. My hair was longer and a dark blue, my eyes were such a bright blue you could almost see them in the dark, and I appeared to be taller, besides a few other small changes. I'd be undetectable by face recognition software and only a select few government agents knew my true identity. Engels could find me, but they were sworn to secrecy. Bottom line? A video of me kicking butt only gave the fans what they wanted.

Once we hit the campus, we head our separate ways, and I hit the showers to get ready for track and field. I undressed and turned on the shower to its almost hottest, leaning in for that sweet sweet flaming water. Ya, I was one of those kinds of shower takers.

As I was cleaning, I felt something hit my shoulder. A multi pitched tone rang out next to my ears “That hurt you know. I landed on a billboard for one of those stupid fast food places.”

Continuing my shower, I shrugged. “Well, Lumi, maybe next time don't interrupt me while I'm trying to erase my best friend's memory.” I say. I take a look around. Ah, my good shampoo is in here, perfect! “What do you want anyway?”

Lumina sighs. “You really are a ditzy Discord, you know that? For someone who was always so perceptive, I thought you would have noticed… hey, lather me up while we're here?”

I throw a handful of shampoo at the furballs face. “If you got something to say, say it.” I say, with an annoyed grunt. I hated when anyone called me that. It made me feel stupid, like I wasn't capable of anything without help. It annoyed me to no end.

“Think about it Lexi, They had guns that could shoot will draining shots. Why stage a loud robbery like that? If they wanted to steal the wealth they could have easily shot the bank staff in their sleep or something. We both know that corruption isn't too hard to spread, and why goblins?”

I shrug... “Maybe they were just stupid. I purified one of them so he's probably blabbing everything to the cops now. So why are you harassing me in my shower time?. If you're about to say another recruitment spiel, forget it.”

“Daemons aren't stupid Lexi. They had a reason for wanting to be seen. They wanted to strike fear, gain a large amount of slaves. It was a power play. One you stopped sure, but a play nonetheless. They're getting bolder.“

I thought about that for a moment. It's true that they did seem to rush through the front door when stealth would have been a lot easier. Even then though, I wanted nothing to do with it. “I'm retired for fucks sake, Lumina. Go tell the cops your theory and leave me out of it.“

The Engel sighed and ran off. Honestly, you would think from my early stern denial that it would have learned… but it wasn't over. Lumina was stubborn and creative. I was sure she'd be back with new manipulation tactics. Oh well, at least I was able to finish my steamy shower in peace.

Once I was out, came track and field. Ironically, when I wasn’t using my powers to augment my running I wasn’t the fastest person on the team, but rather the third. I wasn't really too competitive though, I mostly did it to stay healthy. I still brushed up on my many martial arts too, for that matter. I enjoyed cross country and the high jump the most out of the events. It let me relax and not have to worry about any crap that was plaguing me.

Once I was finished, I packed up my things and headed home, enjoying the nice, uneventful walk to recollect myself. Tonight I was totally free! What should I do? Stay in and catch up on my comedies? Maybe go drinking? There was a thought.

I walked the familiar path home and opened the door.

“Welcome home, Alexa.”

I froze. There was a woman sitting in my bed, kicking her legs like a child. She had a black shirt and skirt piece on, and white hair that was bright, way too bright. Red eyes glared back at me with a mischievous light.

She hummed with magic. This woman was a Sorceress.