Chapter 29

All Strike Team Alpha members are to assemble within the meeting hall NLT 1100 for duty assignment.

Henry looked blearily at the message scrolling across his phone. He’d been fast asleep, having worked hard the day before in order to level up his D.E.D. as much as possible. However, following the almost problematic encounter with the Hell Hound, Henry had been much more cautious. In doing so, his experience gain for the day had greatly slowed, and while he’d managed to get his Evil Eye and Bladed Drakeling to level 4, level 5 had eluded him.

Then again…that could also have been a result of the three-hour drinking binge he and JJ had enjoyed, both knowing it was likely one of the last times they would be able to spend quality time together. JJ had been reluctant to share much about the Demon Hunters, but did promise to swap information with Henry once Henry got a little stronger. Just like Jon, JJ had displayed the ability to use D.E.D. powers without having one summoned, and Henry figured JJ had a few more tricks up his sleeve as well. Ideally, once Henry got stronger, he figured he could learn from both the Exorcists, and JJ, in order to improve himself even further. Additionally, he’d made it a secret goal to find out who it was that had killed JJ’s dad. What happened from there was still up in the air, but at the very least, he needed to know who had murdered his best friend’s father.

Looks like we will be busy today. His Evil Eye said calmly within his mind, the eyeball floating above his bed, looking down at the message on his phone. The time on the phone showed it was 6am…meaning Henry had only managed to get roughly 4 hours of sleep. It would have been more if the message hadn’t come in. It seemed that important messages from the Exorcists bypassed his sound settings on his phone and annoyingly blared an alarm until he read them. A feature he was going to ask Jon about. He could only imagine the problems such a thing would cause. And he was not about to be the guy in the movie theater with his phone randomly going off. Screw that.

“Seems that way.” Henry blinked at his phone a few more times, and glanced about his room. He wasn’t up this early normally, unless absolutely necessary. The sun was just barely starting to rise, and as he opened the curtains to his bedroom, the soft light filtered in. The Bladed Drakeling stirred at this, having tucked itself into a corner, while the Storm Crow, which had claimed his closet, blinked at him. As always, the bird remained silent, and simply seemed to judge him. Sure, letting it stay out over night to gain experience wasn’t terribly wise, considering it refused to share its secrets with him till his other D.E.D. equaled its level, but he didn’t want to waste time to get it experience. He had no idea when they would be needed, and the Hell Hound encounter had him spooked. Henry needed to get stronger.

He groaned as he walked out of the room, heading to grab another energy drink from the fridge. It was going to be a long day, that was for sure. Part of him wanted to go back to sleep, but he wasn’t sure this would be the last message he got. Plus, if he did go back to sleep, there was a chance he would just wake up even groggier. And he would be lying if he didn’t have excitement flowing through his veins. Sure, there was a lot of unknowns going on, and plenty to keep him wary, but he was interested to see how the Exorcists worked. On top of that, he was keen to meet the members of Strike Team Alpha in person.

Just as Henry sat himself onto his couch, deciding an early morning smoke session with some anime would be a great way to start the day, his phone started to go off again. Glaring at it, he saw another message had come in.

Make sure you show up early. Also, bring snacks and drinks and whatnot. You’ll be out in the field for 12 hours. Also also, I’m going to assign you to one of the other members for the day, so you can get the gist of everything. Try to be on your best behavior, yeah?

Jon

P.S.

I would recommend you show up with something other than your Evil Eye out. We’re Strike Team Alpha. We’re known for our overwhelming power…not for having a lame support D.E.D.

“Well that’s just rude.” Henry said as he tossed his phone onto the cushion next to him. He took a few drags on the hookah as he started up episode. If he’d been putting on a random show, he may have kept his phone in hand and scrolled through the information on the D.E.D. However, he watched anime subbed, meaning he needed to actually pay attention. Well that, or someday learn Japanese.

What’s rude? The Drakeling asked as it came out of his room to join him. His Evil Eye was still floating near him, and had no doubt read the message. However, it remained, as always politely and obediently silent.

“Nothing.” Henry responded to the Drakeling. Of his three D.E.D., there was no doubt in his mind that the Drakeling would agree with Jon’s statement. Hell, the Drakeling seemed to imply that all Henry needed to do, in order to grow strong, was keep leveling it up. From his research yesterday, Henry had found that Drakelings evolved into Drakes at level 25. In doing so, their power did jump by an impressive degree, from what the app showed. Even better, they had another evolution at level 42, and a final evolution at level 89. Or at least, that was all the app showed.

Now that he thought of it, the app only seemed to have data up to level 100 for D.E.D. Was that the stopping point? Or merely the highest a D.E.D. had ever gotten? Additionally, he’d noted that Fenrir was not in the D.E.D. app, nor were any other noticeably unique or legendary styled D.E.D. Something Henry felt was strange. The app was supposed to be a compendium of the Exorcists knowledge, but it was lacking in a few areas. Which of course, did little to help Henry’s trust of the organization. And to be fair, he didn’t have much trust for it to begin with, thanks to Loki.

Hmph. I suppose I don’t really care anyways. All that matters, after all, is I get stronger. The Drakeling chuckled in Henry’s mind as it glanced at the Evil Eye. In the end, you’ll regret not letting me be your main D.E.D.

Henry didn’t respond to the Drakeling, as he lost himself to his thoughts. There was something to be said about its attitude, and that of the Storm Crow. They all had very different personalities, and he wondered how those would develop over time. From what he could guess, his Drakeling’s arrogance would likely grow as it got stronger, and that was something that could be extremely dangerous not just for Henry, but for others. Meanwhile, the Storm Crow’s unwillingness to share vital information with him, was a problem. Ironically, his most helpful, agreeable D.E.D., was the Evil Eye. And he had to wonder, was that just the result of its weaker physical traits? Or was it something more? He blew out a few smoke rings as his mind ran through the options. The more he thought about it, the more he realized, he didn’t want to think about it. Because in the end, each thought just became darker than the previous one.