The following afternoon, at least in Cyrus's opinion, was a rather pleasant one compared to what he had been going through over the last couple of weeks. Not only was he given a much-needed break from his daily ass-whooping at the hands of Elaine and Quintin, but he was also given the chance to actually talk to one of his friends.
"Man, I feel like I haven't seen you in forever!" Ayako said to Cyrus as she pulled him in for a tight hug. "How you been?"
"Pretty good." Cyrus replied with a smile. A genuine one at the fact that he was finally seeing the woman after being away from home for an extended period of time. "What about you?"
"I'm doing alright."
Ayako then turned her head to the right to acknowledge the other person standing next to her partner.
"Ms. MacNamara, let me just say that it's an honor to meet you!" The 'water magic' user said to the resident celebrity with a wide smile. "I am a huge fan of your music. And my brother absolutely has the biggest crush on you, like ever!"
"The pleasure is all mine, Ms. Watanabe." Elaine said as she shook the woman's hand. "I heard a bit about you from your uncle, Yuto. He and my father go way back. But I'm sure you already knew that. It's nice to have one of Station Nine's best and brightest at my doorstep."
"Oh, stop it! You're too kind!"
'Man, she really knows how to turn on the charm.' Cyrus said to himself as he watched the two ladies' interaction with an amused side-eye. It was almost easy to forget that Elaine was a world-famous superstar, especially with what he knew about the woman.
-(o)-
After the introductions were out of the way, Elaine escorted the two DPA agents to the patio on the other side of the house. Once they were nice and comfortable, the 'wind magic' user decided to give the two a bit of privacy. It was their first time seeing each other in quite a while, so she assumed that they had a lot to talk about.
"Man…I'm almost jealous that you get to stay in a place like this." Ayako said while looking around at the layout of the mansion. In her eyes, the place might as well have been a castle. "Like, seriously, how much land does Skye own out here?"
"It is pretty nice, isn't it?" Cyrus said with a slight grin.
"So, how have you been holding up? Is your rehab going well?"
"Definitely." The young man nodded. "I'm pretty much healed up from all of my injuries. With Nick and Reyna here, my body's in ever better shape than it was before I got kidnapped."
"Nice, nice."
"I've also been training with Quintin a bunch. Thanks to him, I've been able to sharpen my skills by quite a large margin, if I do say so myself."
"What about Duncan? Is he here?"
"Nope." Cyrus shook his head. "Apparently, he's in England running some errands for Elaine. She has a show in London in a few weeks, and she sent him out there to get everything ready. Why, you know him?"
"We went to school together." Ayako said with a casual wave of the hand. "But I haven't talked to him in forever. I didn't even know he was a DPA agent until recently."
"Gotcha."
The two agents spent the next twenty minutes or so catching each other up on how their lives were going. Ayako took the time to probe the young man on all the new stuff that he was learning out here, while Cyrus was given updates on the current situation back at the station. Eventually, the topic of the upcoming operation against Iznana came up, and Cyrus was curious about what Chief Chandler was going to do about it.
"Alright, so here's the deal…." The 'water magic' user's tone then shifted to a more serious one. "The boss is planning on hitting those Iznana guys that kidnapped you sometime next month. She has everyone burning the midnight oil, gathering as much information on them as they can. Thanks to the info you gave her before you left, we've been able to locate a few of their bigger hideouts. And we have constant eyes on those three you named."
Admittedly, Cyrus was surprised to hear that. He already suspected that something like this was the case, but he wasn't expecting the timeline of events to be so condensed. He expected the Station's investigation to take much longer than just a couple of weeks. This did put a wrench in his and Elaine's plans, however.
"I see." The 'tree magic' user nervously nodded his head. "And I'm guessing that everyone who's going to be a part of this mission has already been chosen."
"Not yet. But Deputy Chief Mubele has most of the roster filled out already."
"Are you going?"
"Of course I am!" Ayako nodded. "You think I would miss out on the chance to stick it to the assholes who did that to you? Not a chance!"
"Cool."
"The boss also wanted me to let you know that she's not opposed to you participating. Depending on how your rehab goes, she's willing to let you join in. You'll have to talk to the Deputy Chief about it, though."
"Really?" Cyrus raised an eyebrow.
The young man really needed to think about how he was going to play this. The fact that the Station was already planning to move on Hannah and her group was already a bit of an issue for him. But it might not be too much trouble if he were able to take part in the mission.
"Yeah."
"I'll have to think about it." The young man then said.
All Ayako could do was shrug after hearing that. "No worries. You still got some time."
"So, how are the others doing?"
"You mean McKenna and Ortega? I don't really know. I haven't seen either of them for a few days. From what I heard, they've both been training like crazy since they're both going to be a part of the operation."
"Really now?"
That wasn't too surprising to hear. At least in Cyrus's opinion. It made sense that the two of them would be taking part in the mission since they also knew who Hannah, Aaron, and Mikayla were. Honestly, he would've been shocked if they weren't going to be a part of it. The 'tree magic' user was well aware of the fact that Valerie wanted to get back at Aaron for their last fight. And Maria's companions were perfect for something like this.
Just then, a certain short redhead appeared in the door and called out to the two agents. "Hey, we're ordering Mediterranean for lunch. If you guys want anything, you'd better tell me now."
Ayako, who was admittedly starstruck to see such a famous social media star like Quintin in the flesh, smiled at the 'fire magic' user before replying. "Is it okay if I eat with you guys? I don't want to impose or anything like that."
"Don't worry about it." Quintin shot back. "The boss is paying this time. So feel free to order as much as you want. Fair warning, though, don't bother getting any shrimp. Elaine's going to take it from you before you get a chance to eat it."
"Well then, how can I turn down such an awesome opportunity?!"
The rest of the afternoon went just about as you'd expect. Once the food was finally delivered, Cyrus, Ayako, Elaine, Quintin, Nick, Reyna, and Michiko all sat down and enjoyed a rather lovely meal together. And the 'water magic' user stayed for a bit longer to talk to everyone and snag a few photos for her social media accounts.
But as the sun began to set over the horizon, Ayako finally decided to take her leave and head back home. Leaving Cyrus with a lot to think about regarding his future plans and how they were going to change with the new information he just received.
-(o)-
[Later That Night]
"So…that's how it is, huh?" Elaine rubbed her chin in thought after listening to what Cyrus had to tell her.
"Pretty much." The young 'tree magic' user nodded his head. The man had just informed Elaine of the upcoming operation that the Station was planning to enact, and he wanted to see where her head was at regarding what to do about it.
"Well, this does throw a pretty big wrench into our plans. I can't say that I didn't consider this possibility, but I wasn't expecting the response to be so fast. Usually, it takes the DPA forever to actually act on a target that's not an active threat to them."
Originally, the plan was for Cyrus to confront Hannah one-on-one in an isolated area after Elaine set her up to get her somewhere alone. And while Cyrus was dealing with the 'ice magic' user by himself, Quintin, Nick, and one of the woman's other Iznana operatives would take care of dealing with the other two. Unfortunately for them, this news about the DPA's secret operation had a good chance of derailing that idea. So, something had to be done about it.
"So, what's the plan?" Cyrus then asked the woman.
Although Cyrus was well aware of the fact that he shouldn't be divulging DPA secrets to his new benefactor, he really needed some guidance right now. His hopes of getting revenge on Hannah and her crew for what they did to him and Freddy were now in jeopardy. He needed to see what could be done about it if he wanted a solid chance at taking down the woman who spent the better part of a month abusing him for her own amusement.
"The way I see it, we have two options." Elaine then said, after thinking about it for a moment. "Option one, we have you take down Hannah before the DPA gets the chance to. But that comes with a ton of unnecessary risks."
"Okay…"
"Option two is for you to take part in this operation and see if you can confront her directly."
Cyrus was quick to interject. "But we can't guarantee that I'll be able to do that with all the chaos of a mission going on."
"Yes, you're right." The woman agreed. "For now, we'll just have you put your name in for the operation and see what we can do from there. On top of hoping that Theo will give you the green light. If everything goes well, you might get the chance to do away with her before that. If not, we'll just have to take our chances with Chief Zoe's operation."
"Sounds good to me."
This was pretty much all that they could do for now, at least until another option became available to them. If all else fails, Cyrus might still get the chance to take Hannah down himself during the operation. If not, then he'll just have to settle for someone else doing the job for him.
He didn't really like that option, though. He wanted to be the one to deal with the 'ice magic' user personally. It was the only way that he would be able to get closure for everything that happened to him. And if someone else were to take that opportunity away from him, he didn't think he would be able to do right by his recently departed friend. It was his fault that Freddy was dead. So, it was only right that he be the one to deal with the woman who basically signed off on the 'dark magic' user's death warrant.
"In any case, it's time for us to get back to your enchanting lessons. You've been making good progress so far. You should be able to break that silencer on your tongue by the end of the month."
"Thank God." Cyrus practically threw his arms up with relief. "I'm tired of having this thing stamped onto my tongue. The sooner I get rid of it, the better."
Ealine simply smiled at the young man. "Agreed."
With that, the two sorcerers made their way up to the woman's enchanting studio to get started on their lesson for the night.
Cyrus was already well aware that Elaine knew he was planning on ratting her out to Chief Chandler the moment this whole debacle was over and done with. But for now, he might as well get as much out of this horrific arrangement as he could. After all, the chance to get trained on the art of enchanting by one of the best enchanters on the planet was too good to pass up. Even if she were a total psychopath and a key leader for a worldwide criminal organization. So, the young man needed to make the most of whatever time he had left with her before he turned her in.
'It won't be long now. Don't worry, Freddy…I'll make sure to make that bitch pay for what she and her two flunkies did to you. I promise.'