Chapter 179 – What About Us?

“Look, Kurt and I have an understanding. He gives me good booze, and I keep the harpy and siren off him. Frankly if it weren’t for the vampire, Sam, and him working well together, I would just block my team from bugging him all together.” - Jeffry as he passed a beer to Landa.

Kurt’s full team strolled into the conference room that had been reserved for them. Penny was already in there along with Jay and his assistant who was setting up a coffee bar. Also present were the handlers for the Washington, Wyoming, Georgia and Arizona teams.

“Ah! Good, we can get started a little early.” Jay said as he noticed them walking in and making straight for the coffee bar. “Get your drinks and find some seats if you please.”

Having already committed to that plan, Kurt and company did just that. They only paused to give some greetings to the other handlers along the way. Once seated, they all pulled out note taking materials and turned to face their boss, who stood before a projector screen.

“I hope you all had a good break because this meeting is to talk about our overall strategy and your next steps.” Jay nodded to Kurt. “The other handlers are here in case they have any questions that might best be answered by you directly as they come up.”

“They can also just ask me things directly…” Kurt said, holding up his cell phone.

Jay raised an eyebrow. “Speaking of asking directly, I heard you may have nibbled on our favorite law enforcement official. Is that true?”

Kurt chewed his lip as he nodded, debating on how much to share before deciding to trust Jay’s managers. “Yeah. That one was in the works for a while and, putting my own history with him aside, he will make a good alpha.”

“Make an alpha?” Landa asked.

“It’s the next… uh, tier, I guess. Normal werewolves are at the bottom of the ladder. Above them is the alphas and above the alphas is me… well I guess Jade, then me.”

Jeffery leaned in. “Right, and what makes the alphas better? Besides what I can only guess at.”

“Bigger, faster, stronger.” Kurt listed the obvious. “They are also smarter, well, retain more human intellect than a normal werewolf. Then there is mental bond they share with not only me, but also the other alphas and their packs. They bring a level of command and control to everything.”

“Sounds like only ups to this.” Landa scribbled in her note pad, pencil looking comically small in her hands. “Why not make every wolf an alpha?” beside her John, the vampire full-elf manager of the Wyoming team, leaned in, clearly interested. Kurt thought it was because they were the new managers and weren’t as familiar with him.

“Because not everyone has what it takes.” Kurt remembered the vision of the Origin making the first of them. “There is a certain quality in their auras and souls that needs to be met. Then there is also the burden on their will.

“If an alpha doesn’t have the will power to handle the extra strain, things will go very bad. Think of a werewolf that went feral but double its mass and add half again to his size.” Kurt saw a few faces show looks of disgust at the idea. “Also, they act as a sort of circuit breaker for the pack magic that we do.”

“Pack magic?” Radis, the manager for Rupert’s team down in Georgia asked.

“Kinda like group rituals but dealing with faith.” Kurt offered and immediately saw all three of them raise their hands to talk.

Jay cleared his throat, clearly annoyed at his meeting being sidetracked. “Ahem. How about I get Jade to have a nice little sit down with you and explain the rules and we get on with the actual purpose of being here. Mind if I set something up with Jade for that?” Jay looked to Kurt for the last part.

“Sounds good.” Kurt flashed a thumbs up and focused on the screen as the projector flickered on.

Jay clicked his remote and a slide popped up. It was a title slide, showing the standard Order Stabilitas watermarks and color pallet. The title was “Jay’s Plans for World Domination”.

The daemon turned an accusing glare to Kevin who was chuckling to himself in the corner where he had sat to be out of the way. “Really fucking funny, Kevin.” That got a round of mild laughs from the gathered crowd.

“Just click next and it will show the real one.” Kevin said.

Still making eye contact with the aide, Jay clicked the button and the slide changed to show another title screen. This one had the title “Phase 2: Beta Contingency Goals Met.”

“Right, well, distractions aside, we have some news.” Jay continued to the group. “Thanks to Kurt here, one of our largest roadblocks has been taken care of. That freed up some operational bandwidth to move forward with part of my larger plans for our group and send his team on their next mission.” He clicked the remote and the next slide popped up.

The second slide had a list of “Contingent Factors” as it called them. “Now, these are the issues that we were specifically tasked with handling by the Order leadership for Earth, and specifically my region of the United States. Number one is, of course, rifts and roaming monsters as that is our primary mission for the US. Our second one was getting rid of a certain cult leader which was causing a lot of issues for us. Their subsidiary cults were the main source of summoning rituals that connected to the negative planes of reality.

“With those no longer receiving direction and funding, we should see a significant decrease in those instances.” Jay nodded to the handlers Landa and Radis. “Your teams will still have that as a primary function, but it should be lessened to the point you can pull more rifts. It also lets us focus more on factor three, security.”

“Sounds good.” Landa flashed a thumbs up while Radis nodded once in acknowledgement.

Jay then looked to the dwarf, Jeffery, handler for the Washington team, and John, the elven vampire who handled the new Wyoming team. “You will also be staying on task with rifts and the current mission of counter smuggling operations.” Jay said, also highlighting the next contingent factor.

When Jay pointed that out, it suddenly made a lot of sense to Kurt why those two teams were placed in those two regions. Washington, and Seattle in general, were major hubs for travel and shipping to many Asian nations which opened a lot of opportunity for smuggling from that continent.

Wyoming had a major realm bridge that connected to a world similar to Earth, except for the fact that magic had always been out in the open. That world was also a hot spot for travelers since it had an inordinate number of bridges to other realms. Thus, that world had the reputation for being a hub of illicit items, people on the run and criminal activity.

With Rupert being in Georgia, he could react quicker to anything coming in on the eastern seaboard and the Gulf. That left the Arizona team which covered the southwest in a similar way that Piper covered the northwest.

Kurt was rather surprised that he hadn’t realized Jay had strategically placed or selected teams based on geography to handle the contract he signed with the federal government. Sure, there were gaps but with the information network and portals of the Order, it was pretty good coverage. Then using Hybrids brought a certain amount of overmatch to the table in terms of fighting ability.

“We are still working on Contingent Factor four, which is going to be societal integration and reaction but that will always be an ongoing mission.” Jay continued. “Factor five is where we have actually made some decent headway but, again, it’s an ongoing mission that likely won’t end.”

Factor 5 was listed as ‘magical security, defense and information’ which Kurt took to mean the general protection rac-‘service’ the Order was pushing on the feds. He was completely fine with that and liked that the bad actors would be hamstrung with the wider knowledge of paras and magic getting in the way of their actions.

“Are we going to onboard another team?” Radis asked with a raised hand. “You mentioned Kurt’s team being reassigned which would leave us a little short.”

“I am always open to the idea if you know any candidates.” Jay responded with a click of the remote. The new page showed some general metrics on graphs. There was data showing operational cost and profits, agent losses, territory saturation, market saturation and incident tracking, to name a few. Most of the numbers were trending very positively, especially the ‘agent losses’ field.

“As you can see from our performance snapshot, we are doing great except for our saturation levels. We are still losing when looking at the big picture of the United States but in relation to our peers, we are about even.” Jay clicked a couple times, skipping slides until he found one he wanted.

He pointed the remote, which also had a laser pointer, and highlighted the pie graph shown on the page. “We are in blue section with 23% of the market holding. This is for secut- oh, sorry Rindi.” He turned off the laser pointer which the tigress had been tracking very intently and leaning forward out of her seat. “This shows the aggregate market share for all products we offer.”

Kurt frowned. “I thought we were the only ones under contract with the federal government.”

Jay noticed that many people were nodding along. “We are for some things, but other groups, to include local magical groups like covens, offer similar services to local and state governments. They also might have some overlap into other areas that we could technically control like certain magical markets.”

“I see.” Kurt said, no longer worried about the ‘market share’ that Jay was talking about.

“Right, back to you.” Jay pointed to Radis. “If you know anyone that would make a good team lead or fit with a current team, let me know.”

Radis nodded and Jay looked around. “Now, on to the future.” He pointed to Kevin who changed the presentation.

The new slide was once again in the Order standard template but was titled ‘Counter Hybrid Suppression’. Jay looked right at Kurt. “This one is for you, big guy.”

“What?”

Smiling in a very strange way, Jay clicked the remote and the screen changed to show a picture. That picture seemed to be showing a faded, though still recognizable, section of scroll. It was written in a language that Kurt didn’t recognize but assumed that it was translated in the caption box beside the picture.

Jay narrated. “This was one discovery I made while doing ‘things’ in the fey realm. It is a record of a certain event that took place a few thousand years ago.”

“That’s pretty old…” Jeffry muttered to Radis.

“Yes, almost as old as me.” Jay snorted. “This is essentially the transcript from a meeting between several dozen gods. The reason this exists is because the transcriber had written it before the results of this meeting took effect. I did my best to translate it into modern concepts and words where possible.

“In this meeting, a gathering of gods came to acknowledge that there were more and more of them popping up across the universe. Many had overlapping aspects and they suspected that this was going to lead them to being weaker because of it. Of course, that is not what happened and a few at the meeting cautioned against jumping to conclusions.”

Clicking the remote, a red line popped up under some of the text and Jay read from it. “…’Thus it was decided to undertake another great working. In which the paths of mortals would be set to preserve the sovereignty of the divine…’”

Jay turned back to the group. “Here we have the start of this issue. The gods got greedy and said, ‘hey, let’s keep it all for ourselves’ and any mortal wouldn’t be able to ascend because the ‘template’ was already made and if they diverted even slightly, no dice. After the working was complete, a sort of memory wipe was done for all mortals that knew of it. The reason we have this document is because they forgot the record was in there and just stored it with the other ones.”

Landa raised her hand. “What does this have to do with hybrids?”

“Excellent question!” Jay smiled. “Well, it turns out their little cabal was doing what people in power like to do and thought only of themselves as they are, not where they came from.”

“Wait, gods are hybrids?” Kurt blurted, seeing where Jay was headed.

“Not all of them but a surprising number are.” The daemon answered. “So, weren’t they surprised when a lowly little hybrid suddenly reached divinity…”

“Oh shit…” Val swore. “That’s what she meant.”

“Care to share, Val?” Jay asked.

Val looked around before shrugging. “Sure. In one of my meetings with Inari, she mentioned that something like this happened. That the gods of the time tried to limit the hybrids because we were a threat to their divinity.”

“I’m sorry, one of your meetings with Inari? The goddess?” John looked very confused. “That… isn’t possible.”

Jay decided to interrupt. “Let’s have that talk later. It might come up and be relevant for your teams soon, but we will see.” When the other handlers nodded in agreement he continued.

“When they discovered that the hybrids were ‘different enough’ they sought to control them once again. But, because none of them had the same template, they couldn’t amend or recast the same spell.” Jay clicked to the next slide which showed a similar picture of a scroll.

“This says ‘… limited, they sought to control the ability of the half breed to gain power. A populace shall show no favor toward those of unpure heritage…’ Which is all the context we have from here, but I figured out how to counteract it.” Jay held up a pamphlet. “Once knowledge of the event and how the spell works is gained, the effect of the spell is broken.”

Kristi knocked her knuckles on the table. “And when enough people know about it, then the effect completely dissipates.” She filled in the gaps.

Clicking to the next screen, Jay nodded. “Partially. There remains the issue of ‘the populace’ part. If my guess is right, there has to be a certain saturation, likely 50%, before the compulsion is broken. That only extends to a local populace, however.”

Jeffry slicked his tongue. “So, you could clue in an entire city, but the surrounding country would still need convincing?”

“Exactly right.” Jay clicked over to another screen. “I think we need to find more information on how this was done to be more effective at counteracting it. I want to know what makes up a populace, in terms of the spell. Is it a community, a demographic, a geographical region and so on.”

“Which is where we come in.” Kurt sighed. “Alright, where we goin?”

“To one of the greatest collectors in all the realms.” Jay turned to Kristi. “Your old patron.”

Kristi looked confused. “Libertzal? The mother?” When Jay nodded to confirm, she frowned. “Can’t you go? Why send us all the way when you can probably portal there in a day?”

“Mostly because I can’t. I haven’t been there, so I don’t have a reference anchor.” Jay explained a little of how his power to open portals worked. “Secondly because my abilities are extremely limited on certain worlds, Talth being one of them.”

“What, got a warrant?” Jeffry chuckled and elbowed Radis who also snorted.

Jay then explained that some worlds, especially those with more divine oversight, have a way of stabilizing space more than places like Earth which is rather hands off when it comes to gods. Apparently, he also had some issues with the local leadership in some of the cities there which would only complicate matters. In short, yes, he did have a warrant.

The next topic was what the team would be doing besides returning to Kristi’s home. What Jay wanted was for them to travel back to Libermont and talk to the dragon that owned it. Their goal was to negotiate for anything referencing the workings that they had just talked about. What they had to offer in return was a promise.

“So, you want us to just hand over this stone?” Kurt asked as he stared at a palm sized disk of some sparkly rock.

“Yes.” Jay confirmed. “That has a list and description of everything I have in my personal library. If she has need or wants for any of it, offer it in return.”

Kurt scrunched his face. “Follow up. How does she get it? The documents and books I mean.”

“Simply, my dear agent. Either she can reach out to me for delivery or, and the more likely, she will send a contingent here to retrieve it.”

Val giggled a little. “Sounds like a problem for ‘Future Jay’.”

“Fine by me then.” Kurt stowed the disk in his ring. “Doesn’t matter the trouble then, that dude has it coming.”

Seeing the collected group of people all nodding, Jay huffed. “Right, back to the topic at hand. Kurt, you need to be ready to go in two months.”

“Why wait till then?” He asked immediately, he might as well go now in his opinion.

Rolling his eyes, Jay began to answer but Penny beat him to it. “You still have several projects to complete before that. The enchanted arms from Cavans, the enchanters who defected, the other items you were working on and finishing setting up the guidelines for your territory.

All that is also being done first because the path to Talth won’t be back for another seven weeks since we have to use an intermediate planet as a layover. The first week being a mad rush that you don’t need to be caught in.” Their manager was running her finger down the tablet she held, clearly reading off a list. It was when she finished reading that the other handlers started getting rowdy.

“But where will we be getting new gear?”

“Can we circle back to the meeting gods thing?”

“I assume these enchanted arms will also be given to us?”

Everyone beside Jeffry clamored for Jays attention. The dwarf was the one to look over to Kurt and the girls. “Let me know if you need any help with things. Not sure how much good I will be but maybe I can put my team on it.”

Kurt flashed the man a thumbs up then pushed his chair back to roll over to him while everyone else tried to talk over each other. He pulled a few cases of beer from his ring and handed it over. “Its that stout you liked. We picked some up this week and I have been holding it for you.”

Jeffry immediately put it in his ring and wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. “You’re a good one, Kurt. Gonna miss you when you go.”

Chuckling, Kurt rolled back to his spot as Jay was restoring order to the meeting. “Listen, we will get you sorted out through other channels. Kurt isn’t the only enchanter around, you know.”

“But he is the best.” Radis insisted.

“Not by a long shot.” Kurt muttered, thinking about some of the items he had seen in his father’s family estate.

Jay all but ignored his comments and turned to the elf who managed Rupert’s team in Georgia. “You already have the best gear available, and we have spares for any new agents that come along. Also, what else could you possibly need? That little alchemist makes enough crazy shit for you guys. You can’t keep using Kurt as a free gear dispenser, shaking him like a pinata until new stuff falls out.”

Turning his attention to John, who had asked about the enchanted weapons, he dealt with that question next. “No, you won’t be getting them. They are for off-world operations. Magical guns for the places that modern gun powder doesn’t work. While that is nice, they are inferior to the equipment you guys got from Renee.”

The vampiric elf ducked his head. “Ah, sorry I thought it was something new…”

“The spatial ammo boxes, magic silences and anti-heat barrels aren’t enough in terms of magic guns?” Val raised an eyebrow at him and her ears flicked in annoyance.

John mumbled a sorry as he ducked lower in his seat. Jay then turned to Landa. “Don’t worry about the gods thing, we have it under control, but I will have Kevin schedule time for all of us to go over it.”

The demi-goliath gave a thumbs up and Jay returned to the meeting. “Alright, Kurt and team, stay. Everyone else can get back to what they were doing.”

After the others had filed out, Jay pulled up his own chair while Kevin turned off the projector. It seemed that he was done doing the presenting and was easing back into his normal casual persona.

“What’s up, boss?” Val asked, looking eager to see what was ‘for their ears only’ that the others could be dismissed for.

Jay looked at each of them in turn. “Two things. Firstly, go visit medical for re-eval after your recent changes. Secondly, I am going to need all of you to put in a little effort over the next few weeks. You won’t have many rifts so you should be able to focus on gaining some power for yourselves.”

“How do you expect us to do that?” Kristi was clearly curious about the topic and was leaning forward in anticipation.

From his ring, Jay produced 4 identical books. They were simple notebooks, from the looks of them, and only around a hundred pages in thickness. Each had a different name on the front belonging to each of them. When Kurt opened his, he saw it was blank and raised a questioning gaze to his boss.

“They are coded to you. If you want to read them, you will need to imprint them with your mana.” Jay explained but motioned for them to wait. “Do that later. Each of the books has notes and information on building your authority and aspects that pertain to you.”

He then looked at Rindi and Kristi. “The two of you will be more general since, as far as I can tell, you are new species. Kristi, I know you have something with angels and absorbing power, but I am not sure about the dragon half. Rindi, yours has to do with dimensions and reality from what I can tell but there might be more.”

“You just want us to become stronger?” Kurt asked, still puzzled. He thought that was what they had been doing all along.

“I have a feeling you will need it sooner than later.” Jay confirmed. “But I also need you to finish your current projects. If you can make any spares for the other teams, then all the better. But those guns and that internal enchantment item need to be priority. I have already onboarded Cavans as a full-time employee and his only job at the moment is to work for my group and this project.”

When Jay stood, the team followed. “We can do that.” Kurt assured him. “I have been really close for that internal thing, and I have a couple other items too.”

Jay clapped a hand on his shoulder. “That’s great, Kurt. But I also want you to make sure you enjoy some time off. I am going to try and be hands free until you leave but will be checking in.”

“Just like that??” Val was amused at the implications.

“Well, I trust you guys.” Jay shrugged. “Also, knowing Kurt, you will have to drag him away from his work bench more often than not, I think.”

Kristi smirked. “We will make sure he gets breaks.”

“And rest, I hope.” Jay eyed her suspiciously.

“We’ll see.” Val sang as she lead the way to the door. “Come on, let’s get off to the docs than head home.”

Jay watched them go, the excitable kitsune leading the way. Penny stopped by the door before she too left. “I’ll keep an eye on them.” She promised.

“Eh, I’m sure it will be fine. Just remind them next week and see if you can get them to commit to a schedule.” Jay waved his hand for her to leave, and she followed her team out into the hall.

Turning to the last person in the room, Jay noticed Kevin had his notepad out and waiting. “Kevin, round up any people we know that do construction and anyone that fits the criteria for relocation to Kurt’s territory. I want to get this project rolling before he leaves.”