“Woah, what the hell was that?” said a red haired man, who sat at the back of nondescript black van. Surrounded by all kinds of electronic equipment, some of it anomalous some of it not. All of it geared towards observation and surveillance.

He looked at the led display in front of him watching the needle dance, he looked to the screen next to that display and frowned as he saw some more accurate figures that confirmed his concerns.

“What was what?” said the brown haired man, who at the driver’s seat of the van.

“The M-Particle readings for Observation Site 2771 just jumped past the norm, Reese.”

“So? You know what subject-2771-B does for a living. Is that so strange?” said man surnamed Reese.

“A Jump that’s 25 times the average?”

Reese frowned, looking thoughtful and concerned.

“Mhm...Should we call it in or should we just try to make contact? What do you think, Chapman?”

Chapman ground his teeth, his expression growing complex, on the hand, this was the kind of thing to call in. On the other hand, his partner was write, Subject-2771-B was trained witch who dabbled in magical experimentation all the time. And there weren’t any rules against it.

Actually it was more dabbling, she did the work professionally and was well known to those who worked in similar fields as something of a mad scientist and a explorer of the myriad anomalous phenomenons.

In fact in some cases when she knew that she might do something to set off their sensor, she’d usually call in to warn them.

Which was why he hesitated to call it in. Instead he called “her”. Perhaps, it was a bit unprofessional perhaps it was getting too close to the target but she and they had always had a cordial working relationship, one that could almost be called friendly.

Friendly to the extent that on days where the whether was too inclement and the state put up parking bans, she would allow them to park inside the site-2771’s driveway and come inside to “observe” in the comfort of a heated house.

*****

Agents Lemuel Chapman and Emilio Reese were agents of the Prospero Foundation. Actual agents, not just freelancers, Foundation Elites who served directly under the orders of the Prospero Chain of Command and the UN Council.

The Prospero Foundation purview wasn’t just that of serving as UN Council’s interest and facilitating safe trade of magical wares and services on an international stage.

They also worked to serve a higher purpose. Securing and containing dangerous anomalous elements that either came from the monochrome were otherwise affected by it. Protecting the world from threats to the public and the possible precipitation of events that could have have apocalyptic consequences.

It was for this reason that slightly more than a decade and a half ago, the Foundation aided the UN Council in bringing down the Cult of Dantalion.

That cult wasn’t just a threat to the stability of the world. They were just some mere terrorist organization. They were worse than that, the group frequently made contact with malevolent otherworldly beings, and had several anomalous items global consequence in their possession.

Magical Weapons of mass destruction that made them dangerous for anyone nation to take on, on their own.

Which was why the cult’s fall was part of what precipitated the rise of the UN Council of Magi’s influence to what it was in the world of the current day.

Subject-2771-B was given over to her father’s custody because of the man’s connections in the UN Council.

Subject-2771-A however should have been black boxed, put in away in one of the Foundation’s most secret, most secure, containment sites to mitigate his possible threat to the world. And kept there for the rest of his natural life.

At least that was the plan. Then a Councilman came protesting on his daughter’s behalf and a memo from a dangerous identity whose influence was even greater than the entire council’s came down. So that plan fell away.

They couldn’t just cut the subjects loose, there was still a persistent threat in their existence, and the memo had made it clear that any attempts of cavelier action and use of clandestine means might well mean the end of the foundation and consequences for the world at large.

Which lead to Agents Chapman and Reese’s assignment to the house now known as Observation Site-2771. Which was really just any domicile in which Subjects-2771-A and 2771-B were currently living.

*****

Chapman waited with his cell phone to his ear, listening to the ring, he called once and got no answer. He called twice and there was still no response.

He called the third time and there was a snarl.

“What!?”

“Woah, girl. It’s me.”

The agitation could still be heard in her voice, but he also heard her forcing herself to calm down.

“Oh...uh...hi, Chapman, what’s up?”

“Nothing really. We just got a huge spike of magical activity from the house, we just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

“....”

There was no real response from the other end of the line which made Chapman a bit nervous.

“....Talk to me, Anne. We’re all friends here, right?” said Chapman dropping his “agent” for something less formal.

She sighed.

“I….I don’t know...It’s Clancy, something...somebody took him...Look I’ll call you back I need to go.”

She hung up and for roughly thirty minutes Chapman and Reese could only just sit and feel uncomfortable.

They called it in, explaining the situation to the foundation and just got a standard sit and wait. Subjects-2771-A and B were “unique” to the extent that standard attempts at intervention and containment wouldn’t have worked even when they were just children.

Speaking frankly, part of the reason why 2771-B had been given over into her father’s custody was because the foundation agency hadn’t been able to think of a safe way to actually hold her.

Harming her in any way would just exacerbate things with 2771-A and so long as she was conscious 2771-B was both uncontainable and largely untraceable. Due to the way her powers interacted with space and time.

Never mind now when they were both older and stronger, their M-particle levels reaching past the middle of the Spiral Stage standard.

Then an hour passed and Chapman got a call on his phone.

“Hey…” said Chapman.

“Hey…” said a gruff, male voice. Silky, but rumbling, like a big cat’s growl.

It was 2771-A,

“So what’s up?”

“I got uh...kidnapped? Summoned? I don’t know...It’s just one of those things.”

Chapman’s brow jumped. Reese swore, listening in at the side.

“Shit...What happened?”

“Nothing much...Just some idiot kid playing with dangerous magic. I got their spell books, I’ll hand them over when we’re done since a few of them seem a bit….unique.”

Chapman nodded.

“Unique” when it came to anomalous items was pretty much a synonym for dangerous. Unique spell books usually had secret knowledge that either was little mentioned by Foundation records or wasn’t safe to leave to the public.

They would have liked to get the books first instead of letting the two play around with them or whatever they were intending to do. However nevermind that two’s status made it unwise to agitate them, they were also full fledged spiral-mages. And taking magical materials from high powered mage was a bit like trying to take meat from a tiger’s mouth.

“Kay, We’ll be waiting then…” said Chapman.

“Right...Anyway...Uh, Anne said I should thank you for calling in….She’d have said it herself but she kind of burned herself out making the portal to fetch me back. She’ll probably talk to you later.”

Chapman shook his head, momentarily forgetting that other person couldn’t see him.

“No, it’s uh, it’s fine. No wonder, she was so freaked. You guys take care.”

“Night…” said 2771-A

“G’Night.” said Chapman. With Reese shouting the same from the side.

The two agents looked at each other, Reese swept a hand through his here and then whistled.

“Well shit, all's well that ends well, I guess.” said Reese

“...I guess.”

Chapman nodded. Then began to call the Foundation to let them know that the situation had been resolved.