New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

During this time, Alex had finished debriefing Jack as to what had happened, skipping no detail, neither on how he killed the first man, nor how he marked the car, and Jack sat behind his desk in contemplation.

"Your use of mana is so versatile compared to how my men have been using it until now. It's like comparing children with a drill to an adult equipped with a welder. Couldn't you teach them how to do all this?" Jack asked, his gaze narrowing.

Alex scoffed.

"I could, if they were predisposed to learning. Your men already have a hard time going from using their previous training to use their newfound powers. Do you think I can ask them to scrap what they barely just learned to learn something else?" Alex replied.

Jack looked at him for a moment before sighing and shaking his head.

"No. It wouldn't work. Soldiers might be adaptable on a battlefield, but that flexibility doesn't extend much farther, I'm afraid."

Alex chuckled.

"Don't beat yourself up, Jack. Even if they could learn this, they wouldn't be able to replicate it. Most of them can barely sense the mana inside their own bodies. I can sense the mana around me, like it's visible. That's how I can control it better than they can."

Jack waved his hand dismissively.

"I get it. You're a monster. Let's move on to the next matter at hand. This new organization, whose trying to grab awakened people from their homes, by hook or by crook. They could ruin all my careful planning. What do you intend to do?"

Alex shrugged.

"For now, probably nothing. I wanted to wait and see what their next move was. I don't get the feeling their original intention was to kill Randall.

"With what he told me, they were trying to recruit him. He must have pushed their levers until they felt it was better to get rid of him. And yet, I feel like their primary objective today wasn't to kill him, either. Maybe his family. But not him."

Jack leaned forward, crossing his hands together as his gaze hardened.

"What use would killing his family have? I know I wouldn't want to work for someone who killed my loved ones, and I'm sure you wouldn't either. Who would be dumb enough to think that works?" Jack asked.

Alex shrugged.

"Beats me. But I don't think they planned on killing all of them. Maybe the kids, to force him to rethink his stance. I don't know, Jack. I'm not in their heads. All I know is that they had an obvious intention. And we busted their plan."

Jack raised an eyebrow.

"We? You mean you busted their plan, right?"

Alex looked at him with a deadpan expression.

"Potato, potahto. Aren't we business partners? What I do is what you do, no?" Alex mocked.

Jack clicked his tongue, leaning back into his chair.

"You are still the arrogant little shit you always were, I see. It calms me to know your stint as a demon for a month hasn't changed you too much, Alex," Jack said, looking at him with a smile.

Alex shrugged again.

"It'll take more than that for me to change. What's the saying again? Old habits die hard? As if the demon inside me could change how I am at the core. Maybe made me a bit more prone to violence, but I figure I was already quite easily anger-able. So, meh."

Jack burst into laughter.

After a while of laughing and discussing a few other minor things, Jack let Alex go, and the latter decided he could still stop by another person's place before going back home.

He would have to let Kary know what he was up to at some point, but he figured if the wheels were already in motion, she would be less reluctant to let him do his thing. After all, it was harder to stop a moving car than one only in neutral, right?

And with this in mind, Alex walked his way out of the hospital's front door, the guard at the entrance confused as to when he had gotten there at all, and kept walking until he was on the private lane that led to the hospital.

From there, he could take to the skies without too many prying eyes looking at him.

Once he had taken flight, and reached an altitude where people could mistake him for a bird from the ground, Alex once again closed his eyes, extending his mana senses as far as he could.

He was far from Montreal, being on the northern shore of the metropolitan area, and he could see all the way to the southern one, but he figured he would still find some awakened people close by.

And from the constant feeling pulling his sights toward the south, Alex knew that was where the marked car had gone.

"I'll get to you soon enough. For now, let me grab a hold of a few more pieces on this chessboard," he muttered, before locking on a presence near him.

From the amount of mana he could detect from that person, he could tell they weren't mages, so that already saved him trouble. But he wondered what he would be stepping into.

"Let's hope they aren't as defensive as Randall. I'm sure this could have turned out better if he hadn't insisted on pinning me down…"

Flying off to the east, Alex flew over the burgh of Boisbriand and into the burgh of Rosemere before landing behind a small outlet mall.

He looked at the small outlet and frowned.

"I feel mana still lingering in this place… I thought all the mana leaks had closed…" Alex mumbled.

There was only one way to find out why that was, and Alex decided there was no better time than now.

Walking to the front of the outlets, Alex kept his senses trailed on the person he was tracking, which led him to a small kendo dojo. These places were rare here in the Western part of the world, but not inexistent.

Looking through the glass shop front, he could see a class was in session, and he stayed there for a moment, watching them spar. A smile crept up his lips as he remembered when he and Kloud had trained in a similar fashion.

This was only a few months ago, and yet, it felt like a lifetime ago already.

His musing was interrupted by a shiver down his spine when the sensei in front of the class locked her eyes on him.

And from the intensity of her gaze, and the mana in her body, Alex could tell he had found his quarry.

She lifted a hand toward him, making a five with it, and Alex nodded.

He had looked at the hours on the door, and he could understand she was about to close for lunch.

Alex decided to sit on the terrace next door, since it was already close to noon, and he ordered two entrees. This was a Mexican place, so he went for two entrees of nachos, hoping she wouldn't spit on his nicety.

After five minutes, the kids started walking out the door of the dojo. Soon after, the woman came out, still wearing her sparring outfit, and she came to sit in front of him.

She stared at him in silence, making the atmosphere awkward, at least until the food arrived.

When she saw the two entrees, her traits softened a little.

Alex decided now was as good a time as any to strike up a conversation.

"I know what you are. And I assume you know what I am, too. But I want to say that I am not here to cause trouble. I just want to talk."

The woman looked at him, took a bite of the fresh plate of nachos in front of her, and turned to a server.

"Two coronas with this, please, Anthony."

The teenage boy looked at her with a smile and nodded.

"Coming right up, Elise. Limes?" he asked.

The woman turned to Alex, gauging him with her eyes, and turned back to reply, "Yes. On both."

Alex snickered.

"I take it you'll accept talking with me?" he asked.

She stared at him for a second before her body relaxed.

"You have until the end of this lunch. I have classes to teach. And if you are here to ask for a fight, like that last idiot, rethink it. I don't have the means to pay for another hospital trip. I should have known he was untrained, and that I would hurt him…"

Alex's eyebrow cocked up, wondering what she was talking about. But he didn't want to go off a secondary subject.

"No, not at all. I want to ask you if you are willing to join up with others like us, and help protect this city, actually. I won't be the one you'll fight. Wouldn't be much of a contest, I'm afraid," Alex said, smirking.

She looked at him and huffed.

"Damn right, it wouldn't! I would turn you upside down faster than you could say, 'What the fuck!'" she exclaimed as the beers arrived at the table.