Devon VS the Cyber-Witch: Chapter 3

The Adventures of Devon Kevin Jones, Mage

“Sally! Sally! Are you okay! Can you hear me! Sally! Oh my god. What do I do? Should I call an ambulance?” Diane had activated Sally’s phone and she could hear her voice screaming inside the cybernetic ear. Which, at the moment, felt a lot less like an enhancement.

Sally looked around through squinted eyes. She was laying on the floor inside the open refrigerator door. There was vomit all over the food, and herself. Her neck felt like a pretzel chef had been practicing on her musculature. “Do not call an ambulance.” She responded to the disembodied voice of her assistant.

“Sally!” She hollered into the phone, causing Sally’s head to reverberate, “Oh thank god. You’re vital signs spiked, and then you didn’t answer when I called. So I remotely activated your phone, and you still didn’t respond. I was sure something terrible had happened.”

“Honestly, I’m not sure what happened.” She pushed herself up on her lower arms, gazed at the disgusting fridge and all of her ruined groceries for a second, shook her head and closed the door. She set her upper left hand to vibrate and placed it against her neck. “My hibernation was disrupted by the security system on my laptop, but there was nobody here, then I passed out.”

Diane murmured in agreement, “Mm-hm, that’s right. There was an intrusion at 5:37pm. Just before your vitals went haywire.”

“Whoever did it was gone before I exited the bedroom. Then I got sick due to coming out of hibernation early, I guess.” She looked down at her previously cute outfit, now covered in yellow and greens from her own insides, “And then passed out. Was it for the remaining duration of the cycle?”

“Most of it. You probably would have remained dormant for another half hour under normal circumstances. But all your systems appear to be stable now.”

Sally walked over to the sliding glass door, still open, and looked around even though she knew there was zero chance the intruder would be standing there. Then she slid it shut and double checked the lock. “Odd, if anything I would describe myself as quite wobbly at present.”

“Was someone in the house?” Diane seemed to have more urgency about it then Sally, who was still half asleep.

“Um, well, signs point to yes.” She stood in the middle of the room like a Da Vinci drawing; arms akimbo, draped in white, bedecked in her own vomit. Her right hand scratched the back of her head, while her left rubbed her belly. Meanwhile, her mechanized lower right arm rubbed her calf, while her lower left adjusted the ankle’s fittings. “The door was open and my computer was sounding the alarm.” She gripped her upper hands together above her head and her lower arms behind her back and stretched all the new connections as she leaned backwards until her all 20 finger tips as well hair touched the ground, and her long blonde hair puddled beneath her cream skinned face. She yawned and farted simultaneously. Some red-orange vomit dripped off her shoulder onto the wood floor.

“The door was open!” Diane screeched in her ear. “What do you mean the door was open? Someone broke in? You need to get out of there! Right away!”

Sally relaxed her position and again examined the vomit on her clothing, as she walked over to the table where her computer was set, “Calm down. If they wanted to harm me, they could have easily done so while I was comatose. Instead they ran away when I woke up. Before actually. I’m fine for now.”

“What did they get?”

She ran her hand across the burn mark on the table, “It looks like the protection spell worked and their memory device was destroyed. As to what they actually saw with their eyes while attempting download… Who can say?”

“They can, unfortunately.” Diane replied, tartly.

“Who would want to copy my computer?”

“Either they are competitors stealing from you, or the government investigating you. Nobody else would have motive that wouldn’t also want to harm you.”

“Agreed. Either way, I have to move my plans up. I’m going to go now and get cleaned up and then set up. Send a message out across our network, in my name, to prepare for a live event tonight at midnight. We will gather at half past eleven.”

“I will get it organized. Be careful.”

Sally clucked her tongue, “Diane, I’m a witch with robot parts. You really worry too much.”

Meanwhile

Mage Devon Kevin Jones sat in his car, video chatting with the Assistant Director of the Department of Magic, Larry Moynihan on his phone. Larry’s round, balding head was too close to the camera as always and filled the monitor with his disjointed nose. He remained excited as ever, “Did you secure the intel? We need intel on this person! Tell me you got intel!”

Devon took a swig of his water, and set it in the arm rest cup holder between the pleather seats. Then he wiped his mouth and took a deep breath. He enjoyed torturing Larry with these long pauses, “Yes.” He bounced his head from side to side, “and no.”

“What the fuck does that mean? Don’t play with me, Mage, I will transfer you to Alaska Region.”

Devon chuckled, he’s so easy, “I put eyes on the target. I am currently observing her location. I was able to gain entry to the target’s residence and computer.”

“Her computer? Were you able to clone it?”

“Unfortunately, I was interrupted and had to withdraw prior to making a duplicate. The target was aware of an intrusion, but did not directly encounter me.”

“Damnit Devon, she’ll act like it’s us whether she knows for sure or not.”

“Probably, sir. That’s on me. Things were going well, and I got cocky.”

“That could turn out to be a costly mistake Mage Jones.”

“I did manage to observe some of the data on the computer before being interrupted, though.” Always save some positive for after the negative.

Larry perked up immediately, “You did? Anything useful?”

“A few items, chief among them a summary description.”

“That could redeem you, potentially. Let’s hear it.” Larry leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling, as he prepared to listen.

Devon pulled the phone closer and spoke in a hushed voice, “The short version is that she is going to organize her social media followers, her worldwide coven, to participate in a simultaneous spell cast via a social media broadcast of some sort.”

“A coven of that size and geographical spread would be quite powerful. Especially if they were organized into one of the mystic geometrics. Do you know what the spell’s purpose is?”

“Well that’s interesting. The note I saw read, to ostensibly remove CO2 from the atmosphere by depositing it in outer space. Is the exact quote.”

“That sounds nice, but I thought Witch’s magic couldn’t impact atoms and molecules at that micro level of nature?”

“That has always been my understanding. That only sorcery could do that, and in only very localized way. Which I believe explains the use of then word ostensibly. Perhaps she has something else in mind? If she follows the trend of most cult leaders and late night tv sales people, something far more selfish.”

Larry’s energy level seemed to visibly deplete,, “Somehow that seems like the least bad option.” He sighed, and his whole tiny body rose and fell with it, “We need to stop her. I’ll send a support team immediately. You keep eyes on the target. When support arrives you will lead the assault. Arrest if you can, kill if you must. Prioritize preventing this broadcasts from occurring.”

A notification displayed on Devon’s phone, “Understood. Sir, You should probably know, I am seeing a new message on the cyber-witch’s social media. She is promising to broadcast a live message tonight at midnight, asking supporters to gather on the interactive cyber-coven starting at 11:30.”

“Can you access that?”

“Well, yes, I could, but we don’t want that to ever occur. Right?””

“Agreed, but even at best speed, I can’t promise the support team will be there in time. We may have to hack the feed. In the mean time, do you want me to contact state police? Get them to provide back up?”

Devon’s nose wrinkled like someone had held an unwashed sock under it, “Do I want stoned and drunk, inbred, rednecks sneaking around with guns while this black man,” He gestured to himself with his thumb, “is sneaking around? Pass.” It was his turn to sigh, “I will wait as long as I can though, in hopes that your team of more enlightened assassins can hustle their asses here.”

“I make no promises. On any of that.” Larry held up his hands.

“Great.”

“Remember, Devon, when times are tough, be like the kitty. Hang in there!” He was full of energy again. Like a switch had been flipped.

I hate you so much. “Appreciate the encouragement, sir.”

“Of course you do! Because its encouraging! That’s why its called that!” He chuckled at his own jest, then switched back to serious, “This was just supposed to be a recon mission. Now its turned into a full containment scenario. And now you’re there all by yourself in them middle of who knows what? Seriously, you don’t need a million witches to rob a bank.”

“That is true. What if she really believes she can alter molecules given enough power?”

“She would fail. Its not a battery issue. Its a connectivity issue. Complex organisms develop energy fields as a result of the synergy of their bonds. That’s what The Craft manipulates in spell work. Which necessitates the pre-existence of complex organisms. Complex can mean a mushroom or even a protein chain, which seems fairly simple until you set it next to paramecia, or a molecule of CO2.”

Devon held up his hands, signaling this was above his grade level “What does that mean? She would fail?”

“Well, when any spell fails the potential energy dissipates into the surrounding environment. If it was a powerful spell attempt, that can be hazardous to those in the immediate vicinity of the casting.”

“How hazardous?” That;’s me. I’m going top be in the vicinity.

“I guess that depends. A Sorcerer named Kyle, no Kev, no Hector! That was it. Hector the Grand Sorcerer of Dominica.”

“Grand Sorcerer?”

“You know how dramatic sorcerers are. To be fair, he was pretty grand. He once held a hurricane in place for three days until it spun itself out.”

“That Hector? Yeah, his hit list was crazy. Didn’t he die in some horror movie way?”

“Yeah he attempted a transubstantiation spell. A perfect example of this.”

“Oh, so he got cocky.”

“Yeah. And of course the forbidden, arcane, black magics all require a great deal of power.”

“Almost like its sabotage.”

“Almost! So when that spelled failed, which required more power than any other spell I can think of that has ever failed, it took out a whole a neighborhood. What she is telling people they are doing, red herring or not, the power involved would require…I don’t know, I’m guessing 1000 times more than Hector’s transubstantiation spell..”

“A thousand?”

“To remove all the CO2 from the atmosphere?”

“Hopefully not all of it. Right? Don’t we need a certain amount to live? As do the trees? And other stuff? Isn’t that why they’re always going on about 2% or whatever?””

“I think you’re right about that. So if she’s pitching just the excess. That 1.5% increase, I think is the number. The blast will definitely destroy the Florida Keys. A resulting seismic impact from a blast that size will send tsunamis towards Cuba, Mexico, Texas and Louisiana. A larger blast could reach Miami and Orlando and send shock waves that impact South America, Africa, and Europe. Sending humanity back to the stone tool ages.”

“Fuck.” Devon sat blinking for a few seconds, just processing what he had been told. Then a worse thought occurred to him, “What if that is her goal?”

“Then she is on a suicide mission and is even more dangerous than we thought.”

“Alright, well, I guess You go get to work on plan B. I’ll do another surveil of the property, this time with a focus on incursion. I’ll wait as long as I can for the support team. But around 11:15 pm, before the broadcast, I will have to act.”

“Agreed. Assistant Director Moynihan, DoM, signing off.”

“Mage Devon Kevin Jones, DoM, Signing off.” The screen went dark. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the light dark of late evening.