Chapter 22

Jon was uncharacteristically quiet on their drive back to headquarters. Other than giving Henry directions to a much more pleasant passage to the hidden away base, just north of Colorado Springs proper. Jon had him get on the interstate and head north towards the Air Force Academy, and with a flash of an ID, and a short little drive, they were at a random building on the base. From the parking lot, and the uniformed officials walking about, it seemed like a normal, actual building.

However, as they got inside, Jon led him through a couple of hallways, to what appeared to be a locked office. A quick swipe of the old phone though, unlocked that office, and once they were inside of it, revealed a passageway down, under the building, and towards the secret facility. Geographically speaking, Henry was starting to feel the headquarters for the Colorado Springs division was located within the Rocky Mountains, though how far under, he wasn’t sure. Which, was sort of fitting, he supposed. There was an actual military base inside the mountain already, so a secret base hidden under that, wasn’t that far fetched of an idea. Henry figured some conspiracy theorists would likely have a heart attack if they caught word of all of this.

“Now that you’ve experienced a D.E.D. battle,” Jon looked at Henry. The strike team leader had led him all the way back to the original initiation room, and they were standing across from each other, with just a desk between the two. Jon had pulled out a laptop, and begun typing away for a moment, before finally speaking to Henry again. “Or perhaps, more than one,” he lowered his glasses just enough to wink at Henry. The action left him rather disturbed. Was that a good wink, a bad wink? Henry had no idea. “It’s time we complete your initiation, and make you a full-fledged member of the D.E.D. Exorcists.”

“Was that really a choice?” Henry said dully. From the moment he’d started downloading the app, and resonated with the frequency, he’d been on a whirlwind ride. And now he was deep in a secret organization, with magical creatures, and a world under threat from multidimensional creatures. Definitely didn’t seem like he’d had a choice here.

“Not really, no.” Jon said with a smirk. “But people like to at least feel like they’ve had a choice, you know? Easier on them mentally, rather than being forced to do something.” Yeah…that wasn’t a reassuring way of thinking. Then again, Henry didn’t really know what a good way of thinking would be about this whole situation.

“Anyways.” He started typing away at the computer a little more, “while we don’t force our members to reveal their D.E.D. to us, it is always helpful if you let your Team Leader know what your capabilities are. It helps ensure we can best assign you the correct locations, and such. So,” he paused in typing, “any other surprises you want to inform me of? Or just the three D.E.D. so far?”

Henry looked at Jon, irritated that the man had put his sunglasses back up. Of everything going on, so far Henry had met two people whom he felt he could somewhat trust. Jon, was not in that group yet. And the fact Henry couldn’t see the man’s eyes, made it all the more difficult to get a read on him. Whether or not the man was just aloof, and did such things to make it hard to read him in general, that was on him. However, here and now, Henry was just going to stick with the advice he got from Loki. Which…was ironic in and of itself, considering he had no idea who Loki actually was. What if Jon was Loki?

“Just the three.” Henry said simply. He couldn’t really hide his Bladed Drakeling, given the fact Jon had seen him in action. That being said, he wasn’t sure he would actually be forthcoming the future about the D.E.D. he had in his possession. Especially when, at this moment, he had no idea what D.E.D. the man in front of him had. At all. Hard to be open with someone who was definitely keeping secrets.

Jon looked him over for a long moment, before he went back to typing. “An Evil Eye, a Bladed Drakeling, and a Storm Crow.” He hit enter, and closed the laptop. “Not bad for your first day as an official Exorcist.”

“Thanks?” Henry thought back to the other initiates, wondering how their test was going. Remembering their differing types of D.E.D. compared to his Evil Eye, he had to question just what their strengths were. And who had given them D.E.D. that for the most part, seemed a little more…unique, and helpful, than an Evil Eye. Then again, Henry had just taken on a level 5 Storm Crow with two level 2 D.E.D. and won. In video games, that wasn’t a bad win.

“No problem. I don’t give compliments often, so take that as you will.” Jon put the laptop away, and pulled out his phone. “Now, I’ve officially given you your role, which should show up now in your profile.” Jon flipped to his app and pulled it up, showing his own profile to Henry.

Jonathan Stryker

Paladin

Strike Team- Alpha- Leader

Resonation Tier Potential – S

Current Resonation – A+

Max D.E.D. Points - 1150

Current D.E.D. Points in Use - 0

Looking at Jon’s profile, Henry realized a few things. First, no one had explained the ranking system to him. He remembered Loki assigning ranks to those figures in masks during their battle with the Larpen, but those had been generalized. Paladin, seemed like a rather specific rank. Second, Jonathan had an S tier potential, and was nearly maxed out at his potential as an A+. And judging by his max D.E.D. Points of 1150, nearly three times what Henry had currently, Jon was extremely powerful. Though, the final thing he couldn’t help but think of, for just a moment, was the fact that Henry actually had more potential than Jon.

“I saw that smirk.” Jon said as he closed out of his profile. Henry noticed the strike team leader had managed to completely avoid showing Henry any of his D.E.D., even in his app. “And just because your potential is higher, whether or not you actually reach it, is a different story.” Jon’s voice dropped, and for once Henry could tell the man was speaking with no hidden meaning, just a cold hard truth. “Our line of work, is not an easy one. And trust me when I say, if you’re not careful, you will end up dead.”

A chill wen through Henry at that, which he did his best to shake off. He focused on his app as he pulled it up, curious to see the information that had been added to his profile. As he flipped past his D.E.D., to pull up the information, he couldn’t help but smile.