Kyle the Apprentice Warlock

Chapter 18

12:00 PM September 13th 12026
Industrial Park District Near the Port of New York

"I can see a claw from over here." Specialist Jones called out, and Kyle jogged carefully over the disrupted ground to him.

"Oh. Good. Good." Kyle murmured as he held up the notebook to the claw over twenty feet away as if he were taking a photo. "But still need more to narrow it down."

"Just ask about dragons." Gleipnir cried out from where Sam was poking at one of the large cylinders of flesh poking out the side of the truck. "Eastern dragons." He grumbled with clear frustration that Kyle hadn't listened to him the first time. His sister glared at him in solidarity with Gleipnir but said nothing as she literally poked the huge, scaled hide with a stick she'd picked up somewhere.

"WTF Sam.?" Kyle scolded "Get back. It's dangerous." before crossing his arms and doing as he'd been asked. "Archive query." Kyle stated again in exasperation. "Compare scale patterns and claw shape to dragons." The young warlock gave his sister a 'so-there-are-you-happy look. "Will you back away from the dangerous source of magical radiation now?"

"Yep!" Jones stated quietly from much further back than either of the Wattkins siblings. "I'mma gonna die." Alex looked over at him dubiously.

"It's not that bad." Then she looked back at Sam and Gleipnir quietly arguing over whose turn it was to poke it with a stick and whether or not it was cheating for her to be using a stick instead of him. Eventually, they agreed that if Gleipnir could use the stick also, then it was not warlock infidelity of the pact item.

"Yeah, it is." Jones confirmed. "When the Harbinger finds out I let two of her kids get within stick-poking distance of a possible dragon corpse, she's going to kill me." He gestured at the two Wattkins, but mostly Sam, for emphasis. Alex snorted and covered her laugh.

"Oh yeah. You're going to die. But it's not all bad." She offered the soldier a ray of hope before dashing it to smithereens. "It's my job to just follow where Sam and Gleipnir lead, so she won't have any reason to kill me." It was Alex's turn to receive a flat betrayed look from Jones.

"Ha. Ha. I'm so comforted." He replied drily.

"Alright," Kyle shouted to get the attention of his three companions. "The archive confirms it. Gleipnir was fucking right." Then he added in an aggrieved aside "For once."

"What's that whipper snapper?" Gleipnir called out surprising Alex and Jones that he'd been able to hear something that quiet. "You got something to say, say it to my face."

"You don't have a face!" Kyle shot back petulantly.

"You speciest little pric – " The magical item had unwound his whip end from Sam's waist and made as if to come after Kyle. "Hold me back, Sam." He ordered his warlock. "Otherwise, I'm gonna lay the hurt down on your brother." Rolling her eyes and smiling fondly at Gleipnir, she gave Kyle a sardonic shake of her head.

"You just had to?" Her question made Kyle look down at his feet in shame. He and Gleipnir had...issues.

"Let's head back to safety. We've only got a few more minute on our collector shields." The four made the slow arduous way back to the waiting agent in charge and Sam and Kyle gave their reports.

"Frank," Sam began. "I won't be able to determine if there was any magi-tech involved until after we've gotten the vehicle to a secure lab site and properly quarantined." She felt her phone vibrating and looked down at it. That person shouldn't have been calling her right now, so it was probably important. Gesturing to Kyle she explained "Kyle can tell you why that is. I have to take this." Then she peeled away to answer her call in semi-privacy.