74 6.2

Location: My apartment, fretting.

Time: Start of July, early morning. 1989.

So… maybe I should escape the country? I mused as I waited for the dreaded news.

Louise is already placing as many wards as she can around the school against necromancy and demonic forces. I'd like to add chaos wards as well and try to completely shut Constantine down entirely but chaos magic is sadly part of the curriculum. So at best, we'll neuter his go to methods… however that could easily backfire on us. All it takes is an elemental or something and all our effort is for nothing.

So the reason he is on the list is some form of magical causality manipulation. Basically fate manipulation. To add to the problem, ordinary people see the name and see it as completely normal. Despite the fact he is FIRST on our list of banned individuals.

Just the kind of dirty trick he'd pull, petty mind control to grease the wheels.

I don't know why he's here, perhaps to investigate us, perhaps to actually learn… it might be possible. But regardless, this can only end in disaster. Which is why I have decided to move our current class to an entirely different locale, to spare my new school from his destructive influence.

It is pitiful, the very first magic class of the Academy of the Extraordinary and it won't be held in the building prepared for it. Not only is Constantine a nosy little bastard, he's a buzz kill too. Sometimes literally, in the case of the Archangel Michael.

May at least is sympathetic, even if all she understands is that John Constantine = bad things happen. I'll take her to a nice patisserie later. She deserves it.

To cut off any of these disasters that I can't expect I have repeatedly investigated the agents in the next class and the buildings themselves. Even going so far as to casually scan the neighbourhood of my school, even if it is a gross invasion of privacy it'll still be better than cannibal monsters or something more bizarre pouring out during a ritual.

To be extra sure I had Fleur run an emergency test for infiltration in the government. They are calling it a drill, but with Constantine involved, who knows? But what are the chances that could happen really?

Ah, Murphy. I just taunted you didn't I?

May jumps to get the phone as it rings.

"Its Fleur. She says they found a robot pretending to be a security guard?" May says, somewhat dubiously.

"What? Robot?! Okay, give me the location. I'll be there soon." I shrug, floating to my feet. "Do you want to come too, May? Get your bag of seeds."

She squeals in joy and rushes to grab her equipment. I should look into getting her some extremophile plants, maybe for her birthday. For all weather and environments on Earth, it would be better than the bog standard weeds and fruit trees she currently uses.

It rapidly becomes obvious from the air, this is more serious than I expected. The robot is part of the security guards at the base designated as the primary research site on alien tech in France. It must be here to steal components or tech designs.

Fleur waves us over, as I float down. She has an observation post setup on a rooftop, with a sniper team in position.

"Well… robot infiltrators… that could be the work of almost anyone, really." I mused as I came into earshot.

May leapt out, off my platform of steel plates into the open air. A few seeds thrown down ahead of her sprouting into vines that coil around her and gently place her on the rooftop like a doting parent. Where she promptly glomps onto Fleur.

"I missed you..." May announced.

"Me too, my little sweet girl. I have been so busy." Fleur replied gently, returning the hug.

"I know. I'll be good. So do what you need to and come back." May replied, seriously.

"When did you grow up so much?" Fleur asked astonished and proudly.

"I've always been this mature!" She pouted, before poking out her tongue.

Which only made Fleur laugh.

"Good to see you too, when you aren't being shot at with lasers." I added.

"And where is the lady Valkyrie?" Fleur asked.

"Here I am, as always. Guarding my Lord as is expected of a shield maiden." Gunnr remarked, not even appearing just voicing her presence from the empty air.

"That will be hard to get used to." Fleur remarked, somewhat rattled. Someone she can't detect was perhaps her greatest fear, I expect.

"So… business. A robot? Or a cyborg?" I asked.

"Unknown. It is smart and knows the mannerisms of the man it replaced, but it weighs more than three times what a human should which gave it away. It also does not eat, drink, breathe or sleep. Which we observed, from a distance. It can't have been here long, since the facility is barely a month old. We only noticed because you were so adamant about anomalies, since the Cursed Man is involved somehow." Fleur explained.

"That's his assigned code name? Fitting. His nickname is The Laughing Magician. I've been searching in other angles but had no luck, so hopefully this will help us find the problem and nip it in the bud." I replied.

"His shift is about to begin in thirty three minutes. We'd like you to capture him intact, if possible for further investigation." She smirked. "More technology can only help us in the long run and this seems a very sophisticated machine even compared to the war robot you faced in your report. We don't know if it's alien but if it is, it might be trying to salvage something specific that is impossible to create with current human technology. Which means the target would be invaluable to us."

I nodded.

"It has arrived. In Fifteen minutes it will begin to patrol." Fleur pointed out.

"Should I try to provoke it to look for the target and escape?" I asked.

"No capture it. We'll interrogate and dismantle it for answers if need be. While the laws for human equivalent intelligences being recognised as people are still being developed, we are still dealing with a machine that has for all intents and purposes replaced and possibly murdered an innocent person. There were no obvious signs of a hostage at his residence. It may not even be fully sapient, so much as a remote controlled toy." She responded, with an aggressive edge.

"I don't sense any anomalous signals, but it may be only receiving orders periodically." I remarked.

"If it looks to be escaping the sniper squad will take the shot, but with you here this shouldn't be necessary." Fleur pointed out.

I nodded. If it is built like a terminator, then it is in trouble. I'll give it the Wolverine treatment if it comes down to a struggle.

Welp. Time to catch me a tin man.

"Can I try first?" May asked.

Sure why not? Let's make it a training exercise.