Shirtaloon

Chapter 309: Letting Him Run Rampant

In the Network’s Sydney branch offices, several people were sat around a conference table while an image displayed on a screen. Keith, Annabeth, Gladys, Koen and Nigel were all in attendance, as was Eustace Brown, the grizzled director of the Harvest Division, and Asya, the International Committee representative. The recording made by Kylie Chen was garbled nonsense to anyone without the ability to sense magic, as the true recording was of her magical perceptions. The display was simp...

Chapter 308: Not the Monster

“Here’s the situation,” Koen said through voice chat. “The ADEs are river hydras. Big ones. Lots of regeneration, lots of poison, lots of heads. We’ve got two that are ideally placed. Far enough apart that we can take them on separately but close enough that we can take out one and intercept the other before it gets near the camp. The other one is more of a problem. It lies on the other side of the camp and seems to be moving in that direction.”

“What’s the approach?” on...

Chapter 307: What You Call Observing

Jason saw flashes of what Nigel’s team could bring to the table if they fought more like adventurers. While the general approach was for focus fire tactics, they each had specialties that were pulled out against various creatures.

The scouts rarely used their firearms full of expansive ammunition, instead using their powers to support the team in combat when they weren’t actually ranging ahead in search of threats. Jason was surprised to find that two of them were affliction sp...

Chapter 306: Core Users

As a Network team set up a ritual to open the aperture to the proto-astral space, Nigel talked Jason through the assembled force. The Network’s tactical presence consisted of two platoons of three nine-person sections. Four of the six boasted silver-rank tactical division members, while a specialist medic section also had Gladys.

“Those five make up the entire category three contingent of the Sydney branch,” Nigel explained. “The network does not hold back with category three incurs...

Chapter 305: Section

Sitting at a table in the bar lounge of his houseboat, Jason spent considerable time hammering out details with Keith and Annabeth. For loot distribution, Jason would keep a percentage for his own needs and trade the rest for more ordinary remuneration, such as money or use of the Network’s wide-ranging influence. Legally it would all go through his status as a security crisis contractor to one of the Network’s front companies.

Other stipulations involved agreements on services and te...

Chapter 304: Terms

Jason looked over at Other Gordon.

“Are you sure that this guy should be hearing all this?” he asked.

“Participation in formal negotiations with outside parties is part of our agreement with the government,” Keith said.

“You know that when word about magic goes public, that’s where it’s coming from, right?” Jason asked.

“Oh, we know,” Keith. “But that decision is settled, regardless of our personal viewpoints.”

“I resent the implication that…” Othe...

Chapter 303: Otherwise Best Avoided

“I think we should start,” Keith said, “by getting everyone on the same page in terms of who we are and what we do.”

“I think that’s my cue to go,” Vermillion said. “Now that the meeting has been facilitated without anyone trying to kidnap anyone else, I’ll bow out to allow you to share secrets without concerning yourselves over a third party.”

“Thanks, Craig,” Jason said. “We’ll catch up later, yeah? Hang on; I’ll put your sandwich in some paper.”

Jason wrap...

Chapter 302: Hardline Position

Jason woke early, did his weight training and then went through his combat training. Now that Shade was able to exert an amount of physical force, he could leverage his knowledge of Jason’s martial art style to use multiple bodies and spar as part of advancing Jason’s skill set. As Jason’s skills progressed, Shade was moving into more big-picture aspects of the training.

“You need to develop your skills in a different direction to Miss Wexler,” Shade said. “She uses the ver...

Chapter 301: I'm Mysterious Now

On the way back from picking Emi up at school, Jason suggested they take advantage of the warm day. Casselton had pleasant winters as it were and the afternoon temperature had climbed into the high twenties. The unseasonable heat was begging the beach town’s residents into the cool waters of the Pacific.

On hearing that Jason didn’t have any swimwear, Emi had insisted on stopping to pick some up. CB Surf and Bike sold mostly surf gear in the summer and mountain bike accessories...

Chapter 300: The Moments That Decide Who You Are

It was a strange closing of the circle as Jason watched his recordings with his family. Seeing himself with no way of ever knowing if the moment he was now experiencing would ever happen.

There was over a hundred and fifty hours of the recordings. Most of the early recording were of Jason exploring areas of Greenstone as he gave an in-depth narration of his experiences to date. His family did one of the few things even less plausible than magic by taking a genuine interest in a f...

Chapter 299: What Your Uncle Has Been Telling You

Erika approached the houseboat flanked by her family and the towering figure of Taika, all carrying crates of alcohol. Jason and Emi came out to meet them, standing on the lower deck that was level with the jetty. Jason waved them aboard.

“Thanks for helping with the drinks,” he said. “We may as well do this whole thing in the bar lounge. We’ll probably need those drinks by the time we’re done.”

“There’s a bar lounge?” Ian asked.

“Look at this place,” Ken s...

Chapter 298: Looking Down the Point of a Sword

“So, how are you doing after yesterday?” Jason asked his niece as Shade drove them toward the marina.

“It’s weird,” Emi said. “I kind of like having this big secret.”

“Well, it’s time to let your Mum and Dad in on the secret,” Jason said. “Do you think you can help stop your Mum from throwing me in the ocean?”

“No promises,” Emi said with a laugh.

“I need to introduce you to some of my friends,” Jason said. “They’re a bit strange, but I think y...

Chapter 297: The Cold Eyes of a Stranger

Erika, Ian and Kaito were gathered in a waiting room with Jason’s mother, Cheryl, and her brother, Robert. Emi had been left with Amy and her children. This was something Erika had come to regret, given her increasing suspicions surrounding Jason and the visit Emi had paid to her Grand Nanna the previous evening.

Jason arrived in the waiting room at a stride, Hiro trailing behind. The shocked expressions of his mother and maternal uncle made them look like they’d just been slap...

Chapter 296: Discretion is a Good Idea

Erika had put together a simple dinner of salad, tartiflette and buttermilk pie. Tartiflette was a potato, bacon, onion and cheese casserole that made a great winter warmer. They sat somewhat awkwardly at the table, talking around the topic of Jason’s mysterious return to life.

Jason and Erika had grown up with their mother’s strict rules about not bringing conflict to the dinner table. While Jason never saw a rule he wouldn’t obnoxiously flout just because, it helped him out ...

Chapter 295: Always Tell the Truth if You Can Get Away With It

Jason led the uncharacteristically docile child outside and they got into his car. She goggled at the gull wing doors and sleek interior. She was even more startled when the car took off without Jason touching the steering wheel. For a long while they drove in silence, Emi watching Jason contemplatively. She kept one of his hands in a tight grip.

“Why did you go away without telling us?” she asked finally.

“I didn’t get to choose that,” he said.

“We’re you kidn...

Chapter 294: Moppet

Jason stood on the patio, looking out at the yard. He sensed her approach but didn’t turn around.

“I wasn’t sure it was really you,” Amy said, talking to his back. “The others don’t realise how different you are, yet. There’s the physical stuff. The chin, obviously, but the beard hides that a little. The scars. You’re a little taller. But that’s not all. You move differently. Sit differently. You don’t watch your surroundings the same way. It used to be with curiosity b...

PDF Bundle (267-290)

What it says on the tin.

Chapter 293: A Big Dose of Normal

Jason returned to Erika’s house in the crisp air of the winter Saturday morning. After giving his sister a night to process his sudden return, he was expecting a thorough grilling. He wanted to bring her into the fold as quickly as he could but knew that dumping everything at once was a recipe for disaster. He didn’t want her making any mistakes because of something Jason communicated poorly.

Erika had arranged for their parents to come over to let them know about Jason’s retu...

Chapter 292: It's Complicated

The naked woman’s feet trailed on the floor as she was dragged through concrete halls, not cooperating even enough to stumble along. The closest thing she had to clothing was the collar around her neck. They only used category two guards for her, which tied up some of their most valuable personnel. After what she did to the category ones in her first escape attempt, though, it was a necessary allocation of resources. They dumped her in a room that was a plain concrete cube. They moved...

Chapter 291: Uncommon Mistake

“You should come to your sister’s party tomorrow night instead of just showing up after,” Hiro said.

“Not a good plan,” Jason said. “Ooh, smell that. I missed garlic.”

They were in the kitchen of Jason’s cloud houseboat as Jason prepared an evening meal.

“How much garlic are you putting in there?” Taika asked.

“Sopa de ajo literally means ‘soup of garlic,’ so a lot.”

“It’s a costume party,” Hiro said. “You could come in disguise.”

...

Chapter 290: Guilty Conscience

“How long since you’ve been back?” Jason asked Hiro as the motorhome drew closer to their hometown of Casselton Beach.

“Your memorial service. There wasn’t a body, obviously, so no burial or cremation.”

“The body is just a vessel,” Jason said. “It probably sounds weird, me talking about a soul, but I know more intimately than most.”

“It still…”

Hiro shook his head.

“It still doesn’t seem possible. I mean, you’ve shown me the impossible and ...

Chapter 289: Hegemons

The magical motorhome made its way north long the coast. On the bottom floor, the windows had turned opaque as Taika, Hiro and Vermillion watched some of Jason’s earliest recording on a hologram-like recording crystal projector. Jason’s clean-shaven, iron-rank appearance was somewhat different to his currant visage.

“What’s going on with your Nephew’s chin, boss?”

Vermillion sensed an unusual surge of magic from above. He got up and rode the elevating platform up thro...

Chapter 288: Agendas

“Finally,” Jason said. He was standing in front of Hiro’s apartment building with the cloud flask in his hand.

-------

• Vortex accumulator (silver rank) complete.
• Available forms (iron rank): Cloud house (grand), cloud house (adaptive).
• Available forms (bronze rank): Carriage house (grand), carriage house (adaptive).

-------

“Alright,” Jason said happi...

Chapter 287: Uncontrolled Factor

Annabeth’s eyes snapped open. As a category one, her senses were only slightly heightened, but something had triggered an instinctive reaction and awakened her. Straining her aura senses, she couldn’t detect anything that might have set them off.

Next to her, Susan remained in blissful slumber. Anna silently slipped out of bed, taking a pistol and a flask from her nightstand. She took a swig of the flask, the stamina potion kicking her senses fully awake. She would have preferr...

Chapter 286: More Valuable Than a Life

The building looked like any of the other industrial warehouses around it. The inside, however, was an operations centre for the Cabal. Three reinforced security doors lay between the exterior and a set of concrete stairs leading down to a square, concrete room, behind a fourth, even more secure door. The room was empty apart from a cot fixed to the wall and the vampire sitting on it. His hands were held in alchemically-treated handcuffs while his legs were chained in similarly treated...

Chapter 285: The Complete Set

“Look at the way he moves,” said Nigel, the combat instructor of the Network’s Sydney branch. “That fighting style isn’t an extension of ordinary martial arts.”

A cluster of Network analysts and investigators were watching the footage Aram had captured of Asano’s rooftop fight. They had already seen it three times.

“It looks like stage combat,” Ketevan said. “Like the whole thing was choreographed.”

“His fighting style is designed from the ground up to inc...

Chapter 284: Brown Trousers Time

Jason was perched on a rooftop, looking at his uncle’s town house from across the street. Shade appeared next to him.

“Find anyone else?” Jason asked.

“No,” Shade said. “Just the one iron-ranker inside.”

“Meaning that that he’s either alone, or whoever else they sent is powerful and capable enough to escape our senses.”

Jason had no intention of staying in the town house under current circumstances, but wanted to retrieve his mana lamps if possible. 2020-08-20 23:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 283: Time For Context

Shade pulled into an underground parking structure where they wouldn’t be seen and parked. Jason and Vermillion got out of the car, the others following suit. Hiro and Taika both looked stressed.

“I know things are coming thick and fast,” Jason said. “It’s overwhelming, but I’m afraid that there are miles to go before you sleep.”

He looked at Vermillion.

“Have you ever done this before?” Jason asked.

“Inducted someone? I have, and it’s rarely a smooth...

Chapter 282: Flavour Text

The art gallery displayed no more signage than a plaque beside a nondescript door. It was the kind of place that if you didn’t know it was there, then you weren’t meant to. For many years, the it had served as a money laundering operation for some of the Network’s shadier revenue streams. Now that the government was secretly but wholeheartedly involved in the Network’s activities, such clandestine operations were rarely necessary. The gallery was free to operate without dabbling in...

Chapter 281: A Good Friend and a Very Bad Enemy

A sleep-deprived Annabeth Tilden was shotgunning coffee.

“More,” she demanded hoarsely as she finished, sending her assistant to replenish her supply. One of the side effects of being an essence user was an ability to resist the effects of caffeine, leading many coffee drinkers to ramp up their intake. This was bad enough at category one, but if she ascended to category two, coffee would no longer have any power to perk her up. As it was, she was adding stamina potion like a sh...