Guns can be used for defense. They can also be used to hurt innocent and sometimes not so innocent people, whether politics is involved or not. Every assassination, successful or not, needs two things above all else at the end of the day: an assassin and a target. Events unfold including but not limited to: A gun being fired multiple times, John's name being yelled desperately, And Hannah wincing in pain thanks, in part, to Eris.

 

“Next-stop Long-Island Hub!”
...Felix is really enjoying playing at being a train driver it seems...

“He says we’re almost there.”
Everyone turned to look at me, mostly with surprise obvious in their eyes, either because I translated for him so easily or because we’re apparently already here.

So far, I have to admit that I’m rather impressed with this new Hub subway system.
...‘Hubway System’, maybe?...
Yeah, Hubway System will do for now!

I’m pretty impressed by the Hubway System as it is, honestly. We’ve only been traveling for a few minutes at most and even then, a lot of that time was taken up with Felix easing us up to top speed. The tunnels outside are pitch black so it’s hard to get a good grasp on distance travelled or anything, but a few of the soldiers have watches on and at least one of them has been keeping count as the minutes pass like it’s some kind of nervous tick for him or something.

Eris settled herself comfortably between me and Sarah in one of the train cars bench seats pretty early on, bowling ball and all, so I’ve been paying more attention to her than what everyone else is doing because she seems to be having a hard time deciding who she wants to cuddle up to more, me or Sarah, for a somewhat worrying but understandable reason.

“Have I mentioned how impressive your weird brain can be at times, Han?”

My eyes cut up instantly to glare at John and Eris took that moment of inattention on my part to drop her bowling ball in Sarah’s lap before practically hopping into mine. I only just managed to catch her thanks to muscle memory more than anything else and Sarah’s surprised grunt showed how off-guard she’d been as she struggled not to drop the surprise ‘gift’ she got in her lap instead.

Throughout the whole movement, I made sure that the only reaction I gave was to let off a grunt as her butt landed heavily on my unprepared legs, but apparently that said enough because John’s face twisted from a teasing grin into a more apologetic-looking wince of understanding seconds later.

Part of me wants to be annoyed at him as he no doubt suspects, naturally, but when my hands came up to play with Eris’s hair and she leaned lazily against my chest, just like old times. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it though, sadly. This is one time where his being annoying allowed something good to happen in my opinion, so I’d better not show any sort of negative feelings over what happened or he might get the wrong idea.
…I swear, sometimes dealing with him is like trying to train some sort of unruly puppy or something!...

We didn’t say anything for the few moments that our eyes connected but enough was said in that brief glance for both of us, hopefully. Either way I ducked my head down to rest on top of Eris’s hair as she snuggled into my chest with her ear hunting out that same spot just above my left breast it always does, paying no mind to anyone else around us until light started to finally pour in from the front of the train and we slowed to a stop in front of a thankfully empty copy of the same wide hallway we just left behind back in Merlin.

“Troop, decamp and get me a perimeter before the Princess gets off.”
Damn it, Pauly! It’s been over three months. Let that stupid code name go already, you spiteful old coot!

“I think that’s our signal to pack up shop, huh?”
John’s stupid little smirk came back as he leaned forward slightly and offered me a hand up. Part of me wanted to resist but standing up with Eris attached to me like this has always been awkward so I reluctantly accepted the hand he offered me, despite my better judgement about the whole thing. Naturally, the moment I was stable and had Eris slid comfortably over onto my left hip, John used our still joined hands to pull himself closer to me so he could tuck his free arm around the small of my back in that same annoyingly possessive way he seems to do sometimes, even if he tried to play it off as nothing with the smirk he let flash across his lips moments later.

To finish off the odd little family-like scene we were making, Felix came back out of the driver’s cabin at the front of the train car. The poor little guy looked more than a little tired and promptly decided that my somewhat free right shoulder, even if it was tucked next to John’s wider one awkwardly, would make a wonderful place for him to take a nap. With a joyful little chirrup he proceeded to flopping down, belly-first, as his wings tucked tightly behind his back and his little face nuzzled lovingly against my collar-bone.

I honestly didn’t have either the temper, or the dignity, left in me to look around us and see just what everyone else thought about this little ‘arrangement’ we’d made for ourselves. Consequently, I remained staring straight ahead with determination as the Imp bodyguards that Felix recruited for us decamped to help Pauly’s men. Even then, it was kind of hard to miss the muted sniggering coming from Fena in my peripheral vision, or the frustrated huff from Sarah as she stood up behind us as well.

Without another word I took my first step forward and John moved perfectly in sync with me as we made our way back onto the hopefully new platform below us, at the center of a rather worrying hive of activity.

There were only a few Fae hovering around this version of Grand Central station at least and even though they froze at the sight of us I can’t honestly tell if that was because they noticed me or just because of the strange sight we were obviously making, gun-toting soldiers, red-flying bodyguards, and all.

Finally, after a painfully long-feeling walk up the exit stairwell which had been helpfully highlighted for us by a neon green EXIT sign hanging above it, we finally came back out into psudo-sunlight again and faced yet another expanse of greenery that happened to be full of curious Hub workers. At a glance I’d seen all I needed to of this new Hub and apparently so had everyone else because the focus quickly shifted to the standard, glowing Hub entrance door right next to us instead.

Annoyingly I had to wait right at the top of the stairs as Pauly’s team essentially snuck past everyone, in groups of two, disappearing through the Hub entrance without being noticed by anyone else milling around as time ticked by. The Imp bodyguards at least knew that their important task was at an end by now and didn’t try to follow them, but they also seemed reluctant to leave without Felix giving out the marching orders, sadly.
After the third time I caught Fena trying to take a playful swipe at a few nearby Imps, I’d had enough waiting and turned around to face them all with a pained smile on my face that, nonetheless, seemed to perk all of the little red guys up in joy just from its presence and my attention being upon them in general.

“Thanks for your help today everyone. I’m sure if Felix was awake to do it, he’d thank you all too. We need to go out into the normal streets now, and I’m sorry to say you’d all create quite a scene if you followed us. I’m not really sure how to do this, but—uh—troop dismissed?”

Much to my relief the group of flying little red cuties didn’t take offence at my words and actually all came together instead, offering me wide smiles and salutes that I have no doubt either the soldiers or Rosemary must have taught them at some point.

Either way, they all seemed to understand that their job was over for now and while the older looking Imps left with proud little nods of their heads, I found myself receiving more than a few excited little face-hugs from the obviously younger Imps of the troop, before they all disappeared as well. The whole thing honestly left me in a surprisingly good mood, just due to how infectiously happy they all seemed to be from having helped us today. Imps really are adorable at times, after all.

“Wild, Oats, area clear… Vehicles dispatched… ETA: one minute at west entrance… The Princess is good to
go.”

The unmistakable tone of Pauly’s voice was barely audible through whatever radio system they are using but within seconds two soldiers moved up on either side of me and John protectively in response to it. Meanwhile, the few remaining rear guard took up positions around everyone else.

I couldn’t help but glance, first at the vaguely familiar-looking male soldier on our right and then to the closer female one on my left, who was hard to forget considering how long we spent in a car together earlier.

“Wild and Oats, no wonder you guys wouldn’t introduce yourselves when we asked for your names!”

The female soldier, who had my attention most, winced ever so slightly at the mild amusement present in my voice but otherwise tried to do the same thing I did earlier and stare straight ahead as if she couldn’t tell I was watching her in the slightest.
...Can’t have that now, can we?...

“So, which one of you two is Wild and which one is Oats? You both seem to get paired up a lot. You ever consider sowing some ‘Wild Oats’ of your own together?”
She tried really hard to hide it, but there’s no stopping a bright red blush of that intensity when it’s marching unstoppably up your neck and towards your ears. Trust me; I’ve been through it before.

Ha! Payback for all the times you’ve laughed at me since we met, Oats!
...Assuming that’s who she is, at least...
Oh, please! With how normal and boring the male driver of this pair looks, he’s just got to be the ‘Wild’ one on general principle alone, or else there’s something fundamentally wrong with the universe!
...A fair point, poorly made...

“Ride is here. Moving to west entrance…”

At Oats’s words, the soldiers around us snapped to attention with all signs of the amusement they’d allowed from my teasing disappearing in an instant, and even I let the whole thing drop for now in favor of straightening my hold on Eris a bit better as we got ready to move.

“Troop, move out!”

Felix perked his little head up slightly at her call and almost seemed to pat my shoulder reassuringly for a moment or two with one clawed little hand before disappearing in a rather lackluster Fae warp that was mostly smoke with barely a trace of fire to it, leaving me with the distinct impression that he hadn’t really been sleeping at all, despite obviously being tired all the same.

...Well, here goes nothing, I guess...

======

“...This is almost as bad as Medford...”

John grunted in agreement as we tried to ease our way around an incoming crowd of tourists that I think may have been from Austria, judging by what few words I could get and the vaguely recognisable accents they sported in their native tongue as they wandered past us with wide eyes and guide-books in hand.

Whose stupid idea was it to set up the nearest Hub to the Pine Ridge Congressional building in JFK Airport of all places?

I can kind of understand not having a direct link to the USMPA capitol building, considering I wouldn’t trust Maven as far as I could throw her and leaving an easy entry point to your main stronghold open for a potential enemy would be beyond stupid—but still, surely they could have found a better place than a bloody airport!

“Chill out, Han. Paul’s got cars out front. The minute we’re clear of the terminal it’s just an hour’s drive and we can get to work sorting all this crap out. We’ll be home in time for dinner, most likely.”
Despite his reassuring smile, I couldn’t bring myself to believe John’s far too generous estimation of things. Even if the arm he tossed over my shoulder a few seconds later and the accompanying magical contact that came with it may have calmed my nerves a little, unintentionally so, I’m sure.

“I’m not used to crowds and it’s making me twitchy. Seeing as any one of the people milling around us could be an assassin hunting your pretty-boy ass I think I’m allowed to be a bit off at the moment, don’t you?”

It may have been a little mean of me to say it like that, but the ‘pretty-boy’ comment made his magic go haywire for a second with different emotions until he settled on an odd mix between indignation and amusement in a reaction that was just interesting enough for me to focus on it above the crushing mob of people seemingly closing in around us by the second.

I was actually so busy paying attention to the tiny fluctuations in his magic that I barely even noticed when a large man, one that I’m tempted to say may be British in some way just from the terrible state of his teeth, brushed past me and Eris as he went by—right up until he spun around and tried to snatch her out of my arms at least! Dragging me along for the ride as she screamed in fear and John fell from the sudden force pulling him backward with the way I collapsed sideways while clinging to Eris for dear life.

The next few seconds were a tangled mess of limbs, yelling and me clawing at anything that I could to release his hold on Eris. Eventually I managed to jam a relatively blunt but no less painful fingernail into the pressure point between the guy’s thumb and forefinger harshly enough that his grip went momentarily slack, giving me just enough of a window to toss her bodily out of grasping range before he inevitably recovered and proceeded to snag me up by the neck a few moments later.

An instinctive gasp ripped its way past my lips as his beefy hand clamped tightly around my throat and he pulled me up against his body as his free hand dipped down to grab a gun tucked into his waistband in a pretty textbook example of someone trying to secure a hostage as a meat shield, unfortunately.

Chaos reigned around us for a few seconds more before the guy rose his free arm up and let off a round or two of gunfire from the pistol, making all the civilians around us panic even as what remained of Pauly’s team and the rest of my entourage tightened ranks, while moving into covering positions around us where possible.

John made eye contact with me for just a moment but it was all I needed to get my point across apparently because he didn’t hesitate to get a solid hold on Eris’s arm before propelling her even further out of the line of fire at last.

As he turned back around to face us again the gunman pushed his pistol, what feels like a Colt of some kind by my best guess, against my temple warningly. John visibly tensed, a pretty obvious sign of just how scared for me he really is at the moment, considering the usually strong poker face he manages to keep up most of the time.

“Max.”

The smooth, cultured British voice that left the gunman really didn’t suit his look in the slightest. Some small part of me felt just a tiny bit smug at the confirmation on my earlier guess towards his origins, although it really was just a small part, considering the rest of me was busy running numbers at mission-worthy speeds in order to not accidentally get myself killed by an over-the-counter Normal gun, of all bloody things!

“Jack, it’s been a while. No hair this incarnation, huh?”
John’s voice was calm, almost conversational as he took us both in and squared his shoulders challengingly with just a hint of a smirk tugging at his lips for the verbal jab he obviously couldn’t resist letting off to relieve some of his own tension. The gunman tensed angrily behind me and I winced slightly as he pushed the gun against my temple just a little bit harder in response to John’s words.
“Never had you down as a contract killer, Jack. A sociopath with mother issues maybe, but never a gun for hire…”

I couldn’t help but grimace heavily when Jack gave his ‘response’ to John’s words in a rather unfortunate way, his body leaning even closer to mine as he brought his chin down to rest next to my shoulder and he slowly dragged his pistol across my face until it stopped at my jaw, where he tapped it almost lovingly against my cheek, much to my disgust.

“She’s just your type, Max—I see you so much as twitch a finger and this little jailbait bitch dies in a rather unfortunate way, I’m sorry to say.”
Oh, you did not just call me ‘jailbait’! You hulking, great overgrown, tea-drinking asshole!
“Tell your men to back off. I’ll trade her for you and nothing else, Max. It’s nothing personal old man; the Club in London just want their land back, is all.”

John tensed all over again at what I can only assume was an unwanted confirmation for him of who is behind this little mess and employing Jack to do it. From the context I’d have to guess this ‘Club’ includes some of the mages who would have owned quite a lot of America back when the United States was more commonly referred to as the ‘Colonies’. Knowing that information didn’t help matters much at the moment though and all I could do was stand there watching as John gathered himself back together with slightly gritted teeth.

Slowly John’s eyes eased up to meet mine yet again and ever so carefully I winked at him with the eye furthest away from this ‘Jack’ guy’s view range.
John didn’t let off any outward signs that he’d understood me in the slightest, of course. This isn’t his first rodeo, after all. That doesn’t mean, however, he wasn’t just a little bit suspect in the way he went from obviously worried about my safety to offering the psycho at my shoulder a lightly amused grin instead, sadly.

“As you said, Jack, she’s just the flavor of the month. What makes you think I give a shit about her welfare when the freedom of every mage in America, most of them my children I’ll remind you, is at stake, if I don’t make it to this meeting at the Congress building?”

The gun at my jawline twitched almost imperceptibly, but I am way too used to this kind of shit to miss such an obvious reaction at this point, luckily. Looks like that one was a direct hit, with a biting tone of voice that’s just pure Max, and the fact that he was originally aiming to snag Eris instead all coming together perfectly to undermine this meathead’s confidence, apparently.

“How are your family, Jack?”
The question would almost have seemed completely benign, if it hadn’t been for the cold glare of loathing that slowly spread across John’s face after saying it, and the angry silence that followed as the seconds ticked by.
“All reincarnated fine this time, I hope? I’d hate to miss one due to poor timing when I slaughter them all and mount their still screaming heads above my mantelpiece, after all.”

Ah hah, ha—uh, okay, maybe that’s a little much now, John-Boy?
...Time to dial back the ‘Psycho Max’ act just a wee bit, I think!...

“The girl is mine, Jack. You remember what happens to people who mess with what is mine, don’t you? I will find everything you love, everything you care for, and I will burn it all before your eyes. Then pluck those same eyes out and feed them to your still sobbing corpse!”

...Whoa!...
Holy fuck, John-Boy! Cool your jets before his trigger finger gets twitchy a—

Despite my surprise and just a trace of fear that I really don’t want to admit to feeling, as small trails of fire seemed to start forming around John’s fingertips in agitation, I was apparently sensing nothing when compared to Jack, judging by the full body shudder that ran through his torso as his gun dipped ever so slightly downwards, away from me, and his eyes widened in fear.

“You know who I am, Jack. You know what I can do and you have seen me lay waste to entire civilisations for less than you’ve done today, already. So tell me, please, I’m ever so curious to know, what the fuck did you think was going to happen in this situation, you great big stupid ape?”

Jack’s gun arm shook in fear even more violently and as it dipped once more, just low enough that it wouldn’t hit anything vital if my math is right, I reacted at long last. My hand flying down sharply to grab ahold of the idiot’s crotch before letting loose a rather large pulse of lightning magic directly into his body from our rather sensitive point of contact.

His gun arm slipped and his trigger finger jerked, naturally, pulling the trigger as it went and sending a bullet grazing across my chest to sink into my free arm where it hit bone in seconds with a muted thump and the sound of tearing fabric.

I hissed in pain and dropped to the floor but forced myself to roll forwards as I fell in order to create some space between me and the now twitching gunman behind me.

As I came out of my roll, I ended up staring at a picture of pure chaos as people moved both away and towards us, all at once, depending on their involvement in this mess.

That scene was all nothing compared to the worrying sight that was right before me though, sadly. All I could do was watch as John stepped forward at a measured pace, one that mixed well with his almost shadowed-looking, downcast face to betray the barely controlled rage that was burning away in every hint of magic I could feel radiating off of him with each step he took.

Slowly, he dipped down to Jack’s side and snatched the man’s pistol up in his hand, straightening up to his full height again while not even hesitating to aim the barrel of the gun directly at its owners now whimpering head.

“You never learn, do you?... You don’t fuck with a god, Jack!”
His arm tensed ever so slightly and my mouth dropped open in surprise as the world seemed to slow around us.

“John! No!”
His arm kept going and I watched on as his finger pulled tight on the trigger with horrible inevitability.
“John!”

Before I could even move a muscle there was a loud bang and I watched on in numb disbelief as a single empty cartridge ejected out of the side of the gun while the people around us screamed in renewed fright and horror.

For my part, all I could do was stare over at John’s tense form in my own state of frozen horror as well. Horror and fear that he’d actually done it, that he’d actually killed someone—and worse—that he’d done it for me!

Then, a near silent sob made itself known to my enhanced senses and I let out a painfully harsh breath of relief instead.

Even as the world around us flew into a swirl of moving soldiers and shouting seemingly coming from all sides, John turned and offered me a rather tense smile that, nonetheless, held more than just a hint of mockery to it which was just pure ‘John’, much to my relief.

He bent his knees slightly and tossed the gun away so he could reach out with both hands to cup Jack’s face in his palms, I imagined so he could be sure he had his full attention, until he twisted the man’s head sharply to the side in order to fix his gaze on me instead, of course.

“See her, Jack? See that little ‘jailbait’ you just threatened to kill? She’s the reason you’re alive now, you ungrateful asshole.”
John’s fingers tensed harshly around Jack’s face in a way that made even me wince on general principle alone, even as he continued speaking in the same dangerous sounding pseudo-whisper he’d used before.
“Be thankful to her, pray to her during your long, dark hours in Swing-Swing and hope that you never cross my path again... I can’t promise she will be here to stop me next time, Jack.”

He let the man’s head drop back to the floor harshly in disgust, the movement allowing me to see the cracked tile flooring next to where he lay that could only have been caused by the bullet John intentionally missed Jack with a few moments ago.

After a few seconds of stunned staring, I had to look away because the terrified returning stare of Jack’s wouldn’t end, even after John let him go and waved in Pauly’s men to secure the gun waving idiot mage for transport. His eyes seemed to be locked on me now and no matter how intensely I wished for him to look away he wouldn’t which was more than just a little off-putting, honestly.

Slowly, John straightened up and he turned away from Jack entirely, his attention suddenly focused on me as well as he made his way over to my side, kneeling down gently so as not to spook me with any sudden movements like I was a scared, wounded animal or something.
…Partly correct, we are wounded at least, somehow…

“Someone get a medic!”
A tiny smile played across his lips and tentatively I could feel one growing on my own lips in response, without me really understanding why it would do so at all, aside from the fact that he’s John. He’s John Jones and he didn’t kill someone specifically because I told him not to, which is a nice surprise at this point in my life considering how well I know him, unfortunately.
“I dunno, Han. How do you get into these situations so much, huh?”

“...Stupid John...”
The words had barely left my mouth before reality finally set in at long last.

I leaned away from my own arm with a hiss in dulled surprise as things seemed to shift in my head as the pain I’d been feeling from my fresh grazes and gunshot wound made itself known with a vengeance, as if the traitorous injuries decided I’d had enough of a break for now.

“I can’t believe you have such crap enemies, John-Boy. How come I get Arista and her lot, but you get an idiot demon summoner and a mage who prefers handguns?”

His eyes lit up with warm, care-filled joy and he tossed his head back in a loud laugh of relief that I joined him in, at an admittedly rather more subdued volume, a few moments later. Things finally seemed to be coming into some kind of order around us at last and aside from a slight hiss of pain when Eris came crashing down on my technically uninjured but still lightly aching arm, we settled in to wait all the craziness to come out as best we could.

Just as I was getting ready to call over Sarah, Fena, and the others to join us for safety’s sake, a pair of green jumpsuit wearing people burst their way past everyone and practically skidded to a halt near me in their rush to stop unexpectedly.

“Oh crap! Who called the Normal paramedics?”
I’d like to say that John found some clever way to assure me that it would all be okay as that horrified mutter left my lips, but somewhat predictably all he did was laugh harder while shooting me a far-too amused for all our sakes look and scoop Eris up in his arms to clear the way for the ‘professionals’ to do their jobs.

“Oww! Watch the bullet wound, lady!”

======

“It’s fine. Seriously, we’ll be perfectly fine. Thank you for everything, Doctor. Sorry again about your beepy-scanny thing… I really have no idea why it would explode like that, I’m afraid. Bye now!”

Finally, I spun away from the far too interested clutches of the Normal doctors who’d ever so helpfully pulled the bullet from my arm over an hour ago, while commenting about how odd it was that I hadn’t fully broken a bone in the process of getting shot, walking away with just a few mild hairline-fractures thanks to my equally helpful mage biology and safety suit, for all the help that bloody thing turned out to be!

We had a rather frantic few minutes when we first got here, not to mention one pretty awkward ambulance ride. Where John and Pauly’s team were forced to help cover for me as Sarah and Rosemary took me into a bathroom in order to get me out of my now battle-damaged safety suit before a doctor could become free enough to check on me at all.

It turns out that a little factor I seemed to have forgotten at some point, and that I’m afraid I can only blame on the drugs I was taking so regularly at the time, is that these safety suits I designed to be bullet, knife, and pretty much everything else-resistant or -proof, are only that way if you put the bloody protection runes on them in the first damn place!

I made that stupid suit as a battle-ready test platform for me to try out every stupid little idea that might pop into my head, but I also forgot to put the most basic of protection runes on the stupid thing at the same time!
...Thank the Powers’ we remembered to put the Icarus wings runes on it, at least!...

Oh Powers! Can you imagine if I’d forgotten to add that set of runes on the stupid suit as well?—and then proceeded to jump out of a bloody plane, of all things!

I’m not even sure if I want to put the suit back on at this point. I do have the final spare normal suit left in my bag still and who knows what other things I’ve either added or removed from my now damaged prototype suit over time without remembering it somehow?
...Something is better than nothing at least...
Something is better than nothing, although how the hell I’m going to get either of them on anyway without them disintegrating my cast in the process I have no idea and—

“You okay there, Han?”
Do I look okay to you, John-Boy? I got fucking shot, for Powers’ sake!

I can’t believe I got shot due to my own drunken ineptitude, and worse than that, I’m stuck with this stupid cast on despite there being nothing physically wrong with me that a few hours’ sleep won’t heal—I’m on the books now! It’s going to take a medi-mage signing me off before every hospital I go near stops flagging me up as a person of interest from now on!

“I fucking hate guns...”
John couldn’t help but snigger at the almost growled mutter I let off as we made our way back outside to the patiently waiting Jeeps, loaned to us by the JFK Hub who couldn’t bend over backwards fast enough to accommodate us, once they heard the story of my injury and why we were even in the bloody airport to begin with apparently.
“I’m starting to really hate Jeeps too, come to that.”

Our resident female soldier, Oats, waved me into the middle seat of our stretched Jeep of choice, being unusually gentle in her handling of me, as if I’d shatter at the lightest of touches. John noticed the grimace on my face and started laughing outright at my expense because of it, naturally.
...This is going to be a long journey, I can tell...

How far even is it from here to Congress, anyway?

======

“Confirmation’s just come through. The gunman has been retrieved by British Magisters and he’s already been sentenced to Swing-Swing for the next six years, with a provision for further sentencing when he goes to trial.”
Oh, well—that’s good, right?

...What even is ‘Swing-Swing’ anyway?...
Yeah, actually, that’s a good point.

“John-Boy, what’s this Swing-Swing place you all keep mentioning?”
...Some kind of prison I’d imagine, from the context...

“It’s a mental asylum, at least that’s the story told to the Normals that know of the place, it’s how the British magicals deal with their criminals.”
John shifted in his seat a little and offered me what I think was supposed to be a reassuring smile before continuing on.
“The actual name of the place has changed a lot over the years, but the title ‘Swing-Swing’ came about in the Eighteen-hundreds after some bright spark mage found a way to create magical suppressors, much like the handcuffs I put on you a few months ago, to stop your magic going haywire.”

So that’s where he got them from? I knew John and his chicken scratch runes couldn’t achieve something that effective by his own skill alone!

“A week after the cuffs were brought in, staff deaths and prisoner escapees dropped to almost zero, but in exchange the suicide rate of prisoners went through the roof. The prisoners apparently preferred reincarnation to a padded cell with no magic. It wasn’t long until they fixed that particular loophole for them to escape with, obviously, but having a warden do his rounds and find an entire block’s worth of men who’d hung themselves, effectively in protest of having their magic sealed away, leaves a mark on a place.”

A shudder went down my spine just at the image he portrayed of the place. Even if you take into account that those people were effectively back on the street and fully recovered within a maximum of twenty years, thanks to their reincarnation and awakening cycles, that’s still a pretty morbid thing to have define a modern justice system that’s still running to this day!

“Don’t worry about it, Han. These days, Swing-Swing is more of a rehabilitation program mixed with a time-out on the naughty step compared to the old days. The Brits take the chance given to them to re-educate their captive audiences on the modern world so they can teach them about ‘rules’ and that pesky ‘law’ thing we all have to deal with nowadays. A lot of the people in there were last consciously alive when killing someone for ‘looking at your horse funny’ was entirely legal still, after all.”

The little smirk that came to his lips at that statement which obviously told me that he thought the whole thing wasn’t as bad as he’d first made it out to be. The aborted motion he made to put his arm around my shoulders reassuringly might have actually been welcome, if it wasn’t for the still healing burn across my chest and my still cast-covered arm sitting between us, of course.

In the long run, I guess I don’t have room to judge in this case, sadly? At least the Brits are trying to help fix their criminals. Over here, we’d much rather just kill any evil mages who pop up and be done with it, honestly. I should know, being enforcer-in-chief when it came to demon and dark mage assassinations for quite a while.

I was Al ‘Emotionlessly Drunk Killer’ Cooper, after all.

The Jeep fell into silence as I pouted slightly to myself at the abrupt reminder of my past incarnations more recent exploits, and everyone else seemed to follow me into my lull for reasons I can’t begin to understand at the moment too.

It probably didn’t help that my arm is stinging a little and Eris is currently sitting behind me, next to Sarah, so I can’t even cuddle her to make myself feel better. I shudder to think how Fena’s doing at the back as well considering my blood has been noted by Vlad and even that psycho Lich Dante as being particularly delicious-smelling to their un-dead senses.

Even if she’s got her helmet on, I’m not sure I want to risk a glance back there at the moment, just on general principle alone, really.

Is it bad that I kinda miss having John throw his arms protectively around me at this exact moment? In my defence, my arm hurts and I think I need a hug from someone, at least!
…Although the fact that he’s the first one who comes to mind is rather telling, unfortunately…

“…Don’t remind me…”
Everyone jumped slightly as I broke our impromptu moment of silence we’d been holding.

We’re going to be driving for who knows how long, I’m hurt, Eris is behind me, and John’s being unusually cautious around me all of a sudden, even if he is trying to play it off like he usually would. Add to that, the fact that I still couldn’t quite work out how to get my suit back on in the time between us leaving the doctors and my getting into the Jeep, so I’m currently feeling more than a little vulnerable in my conjured denim shorts and my damaged, blood-stained boat-necked red sweater.

This really isn’t looking like it’s going to be a fun ride at all.
...What I’d give to be able to just skip over this awkward drive and pick up when we get there!...
Exactly!

...Maybe a book will help calm our nerves a little?...

Where did Sarah put that pile of books from earlier? I might as well get some of my ‘homework’ done while I wait this journey out, if nothing else an—Oww!

My still tender and hairline-fractured arm bumped against a hard corner of moulded plastic as I tried to reach down to grab a little book sitting innocently in the storage slot at the back of the middle console by my leg. I couldn’t help but flinch and hug the offending limb to my chest with a pitiful sounding sniff of suppressed pain for more than obvious reasons.

Slowly, my self-pitying funk over being a mage who could actually manage to get shot by a bloody gun of all things, bled off, giving way to an almost unreasonable level of indignant rage which bubbled over into an angry yell, making everyone around me jump in surprise once more.

“Powers, do I hate guns!”