Walking amidst the chaotic remains of what was once a really nice lobby, I couldn't help but sigh, something I’ve noticed myself doing more than I’d like these past few days. Rubble and broken glass littered the floor, and the remnants of one of the twin staircases gave those who stared into it a nice view of the collapsed floor that led into the basement.

I really hope whoever's at the door doesn’t ask to come in, not that I doubt that if they were of the less savory folk, they’d bust through anyway using my face as a battering ram if I refused.

“Can you two please not follow me, I don’t exactly have an excuse for your existence if they ask for your ID’s.” On my tail, the duo of Lucia and Reol walked casually behind me as though the coming ‘interrogation’ couldn’t possibly lead to us getting exposed.

“Stop being such a worry wart, the fact that they knocked means they're with the guild. The Garden and the Autarky aren't exactly known for being law-abiding citizens. Knowing the Guild, it's probably just a Black team unit. I guarantee you its just a dispatch of the main unit to. They’ll ask you questions, but they aren't allowed to ask anyone else with the target.” Treating it as little more than a minor inconvenience Lucia just closed the distance between us grabbing my arm with a vise grip that told me that pushing her off was not an option.

This girl's actions were definitely a hassle at times, but I just didn’t have it in me to refuse her antics since they weren't bothering anyone. Well, besides me, that is. Annoying people was a pretty fun pass time, and unfortunately, at the moment, I was the only good target. Still, I’d get her back soon enough when I got the chance.

While trying to give poor righty a bit of breathing room the name black team unit rattled around my head before I remembered a few things about them that I definitely shouldn't know as a ‘regular’ guy.

As the hidden operatives of the Guild, they specialize in espionage, retrieval, and even assassination. Those are the only things I'm certain they do, but with skill sets like that, I’m sure they do plenty more that I’m not privy to. Still, Lucia’s quick analysis told me she knew even more about them than she let on. As for how, I could only make guesses, as she was just one big rubber band ball of mysteries even I couldn’t unravel.

“Do your own thing, I’m just going for a peek. I can feel some interesting energy readings coming from the people at the door, and I ain’t about to let my curiosity drive me mad. I’ll just look through the window, so they won't spot me.” A small screen on her still functioning glove Reol was once again fiddling with something in her hand. I had a better view of it, but it was still just a small ball with circuitry extending outwards, I wasn’t anywhere near tech-savvy enough to just make an assumption as to what it was.

“Fine, but keep your yappers shut nice and tight. Especially you, LUCIA.” Glaring at the beauty entangled in my arm, I saw her smirk before looking away as though she’d just found something of interest amongst the trashed remains of entrance furniture.

Opening the large doors enough to walk out without giving the those outside a view of the disaster inside, I felt the heat of late morning rays of sunlight fall on my face.

Once my eyes adjusted to the harsh sun, the forms of three people came to view.

As well as the completely wrecked lawn and driveway.

Fuck.

Two men, and what I assume is a woman (due to those massive knockers on her chest) greet me. All of them wore these pitch-black cloaks that looked so cool I wanted to buy my own right at the moment. Sure they must be miserable underneath it with the sun beating down on them but dam if they don't get full marks for looking stylish as hell. Although for a group of people who are supposed to be inconspicuous, they stand out quite a bit. Especially the lady, and her,.....um assets.

“Stop staring so hard, your eyes might pop out.” With a little whispered giggle I regained focus as I turned to face the man who had called me.

“How can I help you today, Officer,.... agent?” Politely as I could, I asked my question within a question. Lucia was probably right as to who they were, but I still was curious as to how they would respond.

“Sorry to be an inconvenience Mr. Rivan, but there have been some strange disturbances happening nearby, so we've been dispatched to investigate the surroundings. While we can’t give any details as to who we are, these badges mark us under Guild jurisdiction.” Pulling out a badge similar to one I’ve seen hundreds of times in my childhood, I believed his words.

Seeing I accepted without an issue, he put away his badge and brought out a little tablet with a stylus pen from within his cloak to start the questioning.

“We won't take more than a few minutes of your time with our questions.” With a slight nod, the cloaked man gave himself time to look over me properly, but when he caught sight of Lucia who had my arm stuck in a stranglehold, he visible stopped for a second.

Without even seeing his face, I knew what was going on. I’d seen it plenty of times on guys who met Eva for the first time and just lost their ability to form coherent thoughts. That sudden shock of seeing someone so beautiful you start to wonder if your really awake or just in an amazing dream. Some guys have even had their mouths actually fall open, which was always hilarious to watch and tease Eva about. Still, he was a professional and quickly got over it.

“I’m here to help Sir.”

“Name and date of Birth?”

“Lucas Rivan, September 27, 2075.”

“Legal Guardians?”

“Susan Turner and Eric Turner, but only when it's needed. I’ve lived on my own for years.”

Stopping for a brief moment, the man looked at me from beneath the darkness of his cloak, likely surprised that his boss was also my legal Guardian. Eva’s mom being in charge of the Intelligence Division is something I’ve been aware of for years now, even if she never spoke to me about it. She probably thinks I see her as some sort of glorified secretary in the Heroes Guild.

“Is this your home?”

“Yes.”

“Are you aware it resembles a warzone out here?” There’s the question I’m sure he’s been dying to ask since he got here.

“Yes, I was just about to call the insurance company to make a claim. I woke up this morning, and my entrance window was broken, and the yard looked like it got struck by a meteor shower.” Thankfully the lavish curtains despite looking like they were on their last strings held on and blocked the agents from being able to look inside the house.

“How did you manage to sleep through all of it if I might add?” Fuck that’s right, even if I choose to say it happened while I was sleeping no normal person would be able to sleep through so much destruction happening right outside their door, even if they lived in a mansion.

“Um, its because-” Unable to finish the excuse I was trying to think off Lucia who had been silent the entire time finally made her move.

“He was so rough to me last night, its no wonder he didn’t hear anything! I was so loud, I was surprised he didn't go deaf from my shrieks! I already can’t wait for tonight, though we likely need a new bed!”

WHAT THE FUCK!

Swooning as she held on to me, the crazy vixen gazed up at me with stunningly perfect puppy dog eyes filled with ‘love’ while tightening the grip on the arm and bringing us even closer to each other. Stuck between her chest, my arm went from feeling like it was being suffocated too, being on cloud nine.

Now, as for the three agents, even without seeing their faces, the shock was very apparent. The lady in the cloak turned away, likely embarrassed for Lucia’s sake, but sadly she wouldn’t ever realize how wasted her efforts were on Lucia. While the guy standing near her got his composure back even quicker, his reaction was completely different! Instead of feeling embarrassed like the woman, he sagely nodded at me while giving me a discrete thumbs up! SHIT DUDE, I DONT DESERVE IT! This was all just one of Lucia’s crazy games!

As for the guy who had been questioning me, the stylus he was holding was now on the floor, the shock having hit him the hardest due to his original attraction to Lucia, like a dream forever destroyed. I kinda felt bad for the guy to be honest, and if it weren’t for Lucia still clinging on to me, I just might have patted him on the back out of sympathy.

“Sir, are you ok?” Despite wanting to disclaim Lucia’s words, they did give a better response than I ever would think off as to why I never noticed the destruction outside.

My voice broke the spell that had fallen over the man as he swiftly, picked up the stylus, and went back to being even more stoic than before. His voice had become somewhat robotic.

“May I ask who the lady is?” Asking Lucia instead of me the man flicked out a small cube from his hand faster than my eyes should have been able to catch, yet I’d somehow still managed to get a glimpse, and it was not good news for us.

“I thought the questions were for me, Sir. There’s no need to bring her into this.” Things had escalated to a dangerous point. That cube he had hidden in his hand was a standard issue lie detector that would tremble whenever it detected a lie within 5 feet, but by law, Agents and Officers weren't allowed to use them unless they had a warrant. Too many issue’s with people abusing their power had come from them being used recklessly.

My sympathy for the man quickly left me as I got a front row seat to his spiteful nature. Even if what Lucia had said was true, that's not a good enough reason abuse your power. Still, he had been careful enough to avoid the other agents from seeing him take out the cube, so unless I wanted to make a scene and lead to more Agents coming to breathe down my back, all I could hope was that Lucia didn’t do something dumb.

“Its fine Lucas.” With a light chuckle, she turned her focus back on the douchebag, asking the questions.

“I’m Lucia, his girlfriend!” NOOOO THIS ISNT HELPING.

As she turned to give me a smooch on the cheeks, my nerves went on edge while I internally wished I could punt this crazy girl into the back yard to get her out of sight and mind!

Waiting as I’m sure he was to detect the very obvious lie with his detector, the man surprisingly didn’t do anything, and instead continued to ask questions!

“How long have to know Mr. Rivan.”

“A week.” LIE, two and a half days at the most!

“How did you meet?”

“He surprised me with with a sudden declaration of love! It was so romantic.” Bullshit! But with the perfect act of snuggling up to me, no one would think her words to be false.

“Are you a powered individual?”

“Oh heavens no, violence isn’t in my blood, so I’m so happy I was born normal!” Your fight against Alsha clearly makes that a fucking lie, not to mention our first time meeting you had me at blade point with a random shard of glass!

The man visibly deflated before asking one more question. Something weird was definitely going on.

“Do you know anyone that has awakened recently?”

“I can’t recall as I’ve been with Lucas here for the entire week. This place has been our little love nest.” Standing straight, she put on a contemplating look on her face before hugging me shyly again after calling my home a ‘love nest,’ whatever the fuck that was. Took everything I had not to peel her off my arm and smack her on the head for the shit she was pulling with our current problems. Luckily I was patient enough to bid time for my revenge.

“Agent Wire that's enough!” Having noticed something was off the Lady Agent spoke up.

“Its ok Agent Grass, we don’t have to ask any more questions, just use the Mini as the Captain asked as so we can go back to work.” The douche who now apparently goes by Agent Wire, turned away from us now ignoring our existence which I couldn't comprehend after having had Lucia lie her ass off in front of him while he had a Lie Detector in hand.

Grabbing Agent Wire’s arm, Agent Grass started whispering angrily at Wire while pulling something out of his sleeve.

Oooo your busted asshole.

A minute pass by before they calmed down and Agent Wire went to wait at the gateway of my home. Likely having been scolded for his misuse of authority.

“Agent Krumbs, please use the Mini, we still need the readings for the Captain to report even if they're clean.”

Nodding Agent Krumbs pulled a small gunlike object with a screen on the top of the sights, as he walked within 3 feet of Lucia and me.

“First of all, bro, nice. Real nice. If it weren’t for the whole secrecy thing, I’d add ask for your number so you could give this lowly pleb some advice!” Face still obscured I could just picture a bright smile on the guy in front of me as he complimented me on something I definitely didn’t deserve.

“Hehehe, don’t worry, I'm sure you’ll find yourself a bombshell of gal soon enough, though I can’t promise she’ll be as amazing as me. This guy here really did hit the jackpot!” With some encouraging words that still contained a self-compliment, Lucia smiled radiantly to Agent Krumbs.

Stunned as Agent Wire had been, Krumbs still managed to scan us while I shivered internally. I didn’t understand why none of their tools were working because not only had the Lie detector not gone off, but even the gun like device used to discover traces of awakenings and powered individuals failed to give the agents a correct reading.

“They're clean. Also sorry for our partner, he’s usually not this much of a grump. Stay outta trouble, and you won’t see us again.” Saying his farewell Krumbs and the rest of the Agents all left leaving Lucia and me alone.

The moment I couldn’t see any of them, I twisted my neck and found myself staring into the same sky blue eyes as my own.

So smacked the owner on the head.

“Why the fuck are you so crazy, we were this close to getting a game over! Even with Eva’s mom helping me out the rest of you would end up little more than test subjects for those scientists at the guild!” I yelled at the girl now holding her head in mock pain.

“You're crazy too! You’ve been too strung up to enjoy yourself!” Fake tears in her eyes Lucia pouted at me as though I’d just committed a terrible sin.

“Trust me, everything I did, I did with a purpose, but I just did it in a way that I found funny. Something I’m sure you would have done yourself if the sudden responsibility you’d gotten wasn’t crushing you inside.”

“Well, all of your well beings directly correspond to my own if this Pact is as accurate as it makes itself to be!” The five of them getting captured and imprisoned for who knows what sort of experiments definitely would lead to a negative response from the Pact. Even resummoning them wouldn't help as they would imprison me as well even with Eva’s mom protecting me.

“That's fine! We’ll work together just as the pact says we should! Stressing out isn’t healthy, especially for people like us! The joking Lucia was gone, and her gaze was intense. She now stood eye to eye with me as though waiting for me to deny her words.

But I couldn’t. I was stressed, I just hadn’t noticed as I’d been swamped with the issues Alsha, Alice, and even my own future had brought me. Without realizing it I’d been cracking as I tried to behave as serious as I could, which in itself wasn’t a bad thing, but I wasn't doing it my way. I needed to find a healthy balance of old me, and the new me I was going to become.

Otherwise, I’d break and just say fuck it to everything, and that definitely wouldn’t get me a good response from the Pact.

Sighing while looking at my feet, I felt Lucia smile without even laying eyes on it.

“Good, we’ve come to an understanding, now chipper up, we’ve got some shopping to do!”

Pulling me by the arm once again, I was dragged indoors by the beaming Lucia only to come face to face with frenzied red face Reol who was typing like mad on my laptop. Seeing us walk back in she focused in on me with a gaze strong enough to pierce solid steel walls.

“I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOUR WORLD DIDN'T HAVE POWER CRYSTALS!” With an outcry, a new can of chaos was opened.