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Charlotte watched her friends as they chased after the monster. She'd never been a fan of this part, not from the beginning at new years, not when she and Diane got more entangled in Nanase and Ellen's investigations, and she especially hated it now that magic changed.
According to Tedd, or rather according to what the people who actually knew Tedd personally said, magic intended for its new rules to restrict who had access to it, when the flow of information alone could no longer hold it at bay, by forcing all would-be mages to first form a 'conduit' with a non-human magical being.
It might have worked. You know, if the immortals hadn't rewritten their laws later that very night.
So, instead of seers having theoretical knowledge on how to share magic rendered useless by a lack of beings to conduit with, tons of immortals contacted family both near and far, intent on making up on centuries of missed gifts. It wasn't a complete disaster, but it was close.
Nanase, Ellen and some of their friends got drafted quickly. Not so much by the government, which was stretched thin and happy to let them be as long as they stayed helpful and didn't cross any major lines, but by Hanma, an immortal that decided her great-grandson Greg's dojo could use a little more Sailor Moon with its Dragon Ball. It was a new spell list, but magical strength still meant magical strength.
Diane was in a different boat. She was too human for anyone else to conduit with her, but she was just inhuman enough that she didn't need one either, being able to use her magic the way immortals did. That's not to say she was proficient at it, but after getting some help from Tedd she'd become quite versatile. She was no front-line fighter, but she got the final blow often enough.
Charlotte was playing 'woman in the chair' most days, coordinating their little group of semi-deputized vigilantes as they tried to curb the chaos brought by newly awakened mages, those seeking the attention of the supernatural, and the general mayhem brought by the flow of magic. But sometimes, things cropped up unexpectedly, and she was left alone with nothing to do but worry.
She needed a distraction.
Something poked her leg, and she looked down. Huh. Was that a demonic duck of some sort?
She looked at it, and it looked at her.
"Oh, good," the duck said. "Most people immediately kick me. It doesn't do much, of course, but it's still annoying, you know?"
"You seem to be some sort of demon."
The duck looked at her, muttering under his breath: "Honest and blunt. There doesn't seem to be a bone of subtlety in her body. I can work with that. The union won't like it, but i can work with that."
"What?"
The duck smiled, causing a quite unnerving effect on his billed face. "I suppose I am a demon. Do you have a problem with that?"
Charlotte looked down upon the diminutive distraction. "I've heard few good things about demons lately. The Sunnydale incident comes to mind."
"Most demons that take the risks required to breach the dimensions are of the worst sort. Criminals, wanted and hunted on our home plane, desperate to escape and feast upon those less prepared to defend themselves. Aberrations, I believe you call the local equivalent."
"And why are you here?"
The duck shrugged. "Human fetish."
Charlotte blanched. "Gross."
"You asked."
"I suppose I did. You're from hell, then?"
The duck turned, and waddled in the direction her friends left. "Follow me," he told her, without looking back.
Charlotte followed. She'd never been one to ignore spooky things.
---
"Dragon's wreath!" Ellen called, letting magical flames envelop her. She had no clue why her new spells had a draconic theme. Hanma enjoyed themes in the teams she empowered (really, it was just the one team so far. She was still a pretty young immortal), but even with the 'fantasy monsters' theme they had, she would have expected like, a mimic.
Or one of those obscure and overly sexualized monsters that made unsuspecting adventurers grow breasts Tedd had showed Elliot when in a particularly eggy mood.
Yeah, dragon was way better.
"Ellen! Watch out!" Justin screamed, snapping her out of her thoughts as she reflexively ducked beneath a fist. Not afraid of fire, huh? We'll see about that.
"Shoryuken!"
---
Charlotte and the duck watched the battle, hidden in a nearby alleyway. Justin, Ellen, and Nanase were fighting a quartet of humanoids. She didn't know the first thing about martial arts, but it was obvious the quartet was outmatched.
Ellen uppercutted an especially big and heavy-looking one, seemingly without even paying proper attention. Back in the fight, she shot a fireball out of her flaming aura, hitting a wiry one locked in hand-to-hand with Nanase.
"Killstealer!" Nanase yelled to her girlfriend, who just shrugged.
"All's fair in love and war, babe."
The duck poked Charlotte's leg. "Pay attention," it said.
"I am paying-- wait, huh?"
The big one Ellen had knocked out was gone.
"A summon?” she mused to herself. “No, it would have poofed immediately. Then what?"
Looking around, she spotted it. The assholes had a healer, hidden behind a car. The big one was already getting back up.
"What are you going to do?" the duck asked.
---
It went to shit way too fast. The plan had been simple: cause some mayhem near a few of the teenagers protecting this town. “Teenagers,” Hank had said when they planned it all. “They’ve got teenagers protecting this town, and people still believe the government had any idea about magic’s existence. Now we just need to beat them, and we can start forming our own government. Can’t be worse than the old one, and now we can be on top.”
So, they found three of their stronger fighters hanging in a public space, staged an attack, and led the naive do-gooders into an ambush.
And now they were getting their asses whooped. They could salvage this fight, but if they pulled their trump card this early the war would be lost. Plan B it was. Fall back, regroup, heal, and strike again before they could. Stamina and tactics would win the day where brute force failed.
Craig was already getting back up, and the others retreating, pulling the teenagers apart. Divide and conquer, that was the name—
Someone tapped his shoulder. Hank turned around on reflex, only to be punched in the face by the insignificant worm their targets were hanging around with.
“Please do not get up. I think I broke my hand there,” Charlotte said.
Hank smiled maliciously. “You made a mistake attacking me, girlie. I was going to let you be, but now—”
“Are you done? Your minions are clearly outmatched.”
Hank got up. He might have been small in stature, but at that moment he felt enormous. He’d always had that effect on people, and now he knew why. He raised his hands, an unnatural glow coming off them. “We’ll see about that. You have seen nothing yet, and—” Hank got knocked out from behind by Nanase.
“We need to teach you how to throw a proper punch,” she said.
Charlotte looked at her hand. “Yeah, I guess we do.”
---
Luckily, her hand wasn’t actually broken, but she couldn’t find her anatine ally. It seemed that the others had met him a few times in the past, so she wasn’t too worried about it.
Right until he was in her apartment that night.
“You did well, for a first try,” he said, instead of greeting her.
Charlotte looked at him. “What do you want from me?”
The duck scoffed. “If you haven’t figured that out yet, this was a waste of time.”
“I have a theory I feel confident in. I just require confirmation.”
“Smart, but not overconfident. I like that. I want to form a conduit with you.”
Charlotte sat down on the couch, and the duck hopped next to her. “Why me?”
He shrugged. “I’ve been following your friends for a while now. Not closely, but we crossed paths a few times, so I’ve been keeping an eye out. When it all changed, I considered offering my services, but honestly I’m not even among the dozen of the most suited beings for them. They’ve been making waves for a long time now. You keep quiet, and observe. That’s half my style, more than anything they do.”
“Tedd does.”
“Oh, yeah, I’ll just conduit a seer. I’m pretty sure I’d actually explode if I tried that. No, it’s you I want to make this offer to. Feel free to decline, but don’t expect a better one anytime soon.” The duck waved his arm, and a holographic screen reading terms and conditions appeared in front of Charlotte.
“You should read that, but the TL;DR is that I’m offering you what will probably be illusion magic and training in how to use it, and you help keep your friends safe while they do the fighting, and you join the union.”
Charlotte read the document carefully, asking to see the union charter and a variety of related documents, verifying them on her computer as best she could.
“Given I’m dealing with illusions here, I don’t feel comfortable signing anything.”
The duck poofed away the screen, and nodded. “Can’t blame you for that. The contract isn’t strictly necessary either, I just made it to set expectations. We’ll work something out later. For now, let’s begin your first lesson.”
Charlotte frowned. “I don’t have magic yet.”
The duck smiled. “Don’t need it. First lesson in being a distraction is how to lose attention until you want it. Get up, I want to see your best sneaky pose.”
Charlotte got up and copied something she’d seen Diane do as best she could.
“Terrible. You’d stand out immediately if you did that. No, what you want is to look boring. The trick is—”
As the duck began a long explanation on the basics of distraction, Charlotte had a feeling her life was about to become even more interesting.
Just the way she wanted it.