In the scenic German city of Bremen, at it's outskirts, it was the evening, stars glinting slightly, a bit distant from the main epicenter of the city's light pollution.
A brown haired boy walked home, a coat around his formal wear, returning home from an interview for an internship, one of many he had given.
He lightly sneezed in his hand, rubbing his reddened nose, tightening the white scarf around his neck as he reached home.
He entered, not making too much noise.
"Welcome home honey!" His mom chipped in, "Dinners ready, roasted beef and lamb cutlet."
He sniffled, still rubbing his nose.
After getting changed he sat down to eat dinner, his father was still working overtime as usual; they only met during breakfast and weekends usually.
As usual the dinner was quiet with only a single question from his mom.
"So the interview went well? I get worried about how nervous you are, y'know..."
"Y-Yeah..." He replied nervously.
His mother, sensing his tension, brightly replied.
"Hey, I'm just glad you're trying, okay? Nobody's perfect at everything."
He just nodded with a mouth full of food.
…
Later in his room, he checked his phone for any notifications and found an Email he quickly opened.
"Your internship at Neue Weltordnung Motors has been accepted. Further details in the attached text."
His surprise transitioned into a sneeze and he wiped his nose.
...
Next morning he sat to have breakfast with his mom and dad, who for the most part learned about his new internship starting today.
Neue Motors was an extremely well renowned car manufacturing company with its HQ in Berlin, so it was quite a surprise he got accepted for one of the best internship opportunities he had applied for.
His dad asked "So you plan on catching the bus?"
"They actually have a carpool, they said they'll wait near the taxi stand." He replied.
As the conversation went along there was a clear mix of pride and nervousness in the voice of their parents.
"Stay safe, okay Franz?" His mother said, kissing his forehead.
"I will mom..." Franz replied, putting his scarf on and fixing his coat.
...
He waited at the cab stand, a small suitcase containing his laptop at his side.
Soon a large van pulled up, with the stylized initials of the Neue Weltordnung Motors, 'NWO Motors'. It looked almost like a military van if it weren't for the porcelain white and the yellow logo on it. Through the windows he could see other people dressed in suits, clearly employees. The back door opened and a person dressed in a suit came out, asking.
"Franz Baron?"
"Yes, that's me," Franz replied.
The man showed his business card and instructed him to climb on which he promptly did.
The inside of the vehicle was like a bus, but smaller however. He took a seat on an empty double seat.
The location of the manufacturing plant was at the edge of Bremen, away from the city to minimise exposure to the waste disposal as the email stated.
As the Bus left the city two men approached him, both in suits, one ginger haired man in a pristine white suit , and the other thinner man with low cut brown haired in a brown suit. Their age was hard to say, but seemed to be between 20-30, the brown haired man looked on the older side.
The ginger haired man coughed, drawing Franz's attention.
"So, you are Franz Baron, correct? Age 19, city Bremen..."
Franz quickly took up his professional tone, although it was obvious he was internally sweating bullets.
"Y-Yes! That's me sir!" He replied.
"I'm Simon Magus." Said the ginger haired man, before pointing at his brown haired partner. "And this is Aleister Crowley. We're both managers of the NWO uh..."
One of the other employees (wearing sunglasses inside the bus) quickly whispered into his ear.
"Motors...!" He said quickly. "NWO Motors."
He coughed to clear his voice, all the while Franz was too busy being nervous to notice anything fishy.
"Anyways, me and my partner here have some questions we'd like you to answer, think of it like... A second interview."
Franz internally yelped at that word, although he kept a straight face.
"Of course sir."
"Ah, 'sir' that word sounds so cute coming from that soft voice." Crowley said, sitting next to the nervous Franz.
"Crowley. No." Simon said in a vaguely threatening manner, the same passive-aggressive business manner most managers talk in.
"What!? I haven't even done anything!" Crowley replied, annoyed.
Simon looked like he was internally vomiting a look somewhat similar to Franz whose stress based nervousness had transitioned into a confusion based nervousness.
"Business meeting, now." Simon said, pulling Crowley off the seat and into a corner to speak, leaving the confused boy alone for a second.
"We were explicitly assigned this mission because we lost the previous Chosen One, the Hermetic Order have definitely figured out about him as well, plus with the rapid mysterious disappearance of potential mages, who knows what's out there. Normally our agents can get things done, but this mission requires our FULL commitment."
"..."
Crowley asked "Yeah, what's that gotta do with me talking to him though-"
"We both know what's wrong with it Crowley, keep your 'Witch's Sabbath' out of the public."
Crowley sighed "Whatever, you Avonist prude... We should still learn as much as we can about him though, it'll give us leverage over the order."
"Fine, fine..."
Later they make it out of the city and the conversation steers from Simon and Crowley learning about Franz's very sheltered (and very boring) life to Crowley explaining magick to him because he got bored.
"So the Mage dips himself with the endless pervasive Aether in the first stage, aligning themselves with its endless potential, this stage is called Nuit. In the second stage of Hadit, the aether is given a microcosmic mental form as one of its infinite expressions, an individual point of consciousness from endless flow. And finally this mental form is actualised in the world, having a tangible effect, the final stage of Ra-Hoor-Khuit."
"... Why are you explaining magick to someone who's still at the Will Chakra level in his prowess, he literally doesn't know what any of that means, you didn't even explain what Aether was. And besides that, WHY ARE YOU EXPLAINING MAGICK TO SOMEONE WHO'S NOT AN AGENT!?" Simon was clearly mad.
"Oh please you're just mad your studies didn't make it in the A-Theory for general Thaumatology." Crowley said smugly.
"DUDE, My studies in apophasis megale form its basis. Besides... WE'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO TELL CIVILIANS ABOUT MAGICK."
"Calm down, his Reality Threshold is too strong right now for him to truly internalize anything. And even if he does speak, our propaganda wing's our most effective department, they'll take care of it."
Simon tried to retort "You still-! ... Actually yeah, they'll take care of it..."
"..."
Magus quickly began "So Aether is the primordial source used for all magick-"
...
Half an hour later, the bus is going through the outskirts, surrounded on both sides by large fields of grass, the sun bright in the slightly greyish, cloudy sky.
Suddenly the riders hear a burst outside as their bus comes to a stop. The agents, Crowley, Simon and Franz are confused for a second before hearing a rush of boots approaching them.
In a second a large group of men break through the door, armed with assault rifles, pointing at everyone inside.
Most of the agents who reached for their guns slowly put their hands up. The men looked like armed mercenaries, clad in riot tactical armour, although one thing was strange, they were covered in a strange greyish hood with a symbol on it, painted on yellow, appearing as a stylized depiction of a galaxy.
Franz implicitly put his hands up, his heart pounding in his chest. He felt dizzy, twitching and shivering at the sudden series of events.
A few of the men approached him, Crowley and Magus.
"Give us the kid." One of them said bluntly, through a voice changer.
Franz's breath caught in his throat as he stood in fear, only turning then to notice that Magus and Crowley were... Unamused?
They looked bored, didn't even have their hands up at the sudden intrusion of armed men.
Simon sighed "You guys seriously don't tire out do you? Even I'm even getting tired of this..."
Crowley echoed a similar notion "Seriously... You Taskforce Q goons should stick to threatening locals to steal valuable magick Artifacts, butting heads with us, hell even the Hermetic Order is a bit out of your league."
As the men raised their guns at the duo, Magus quickly moved a finger, a pinkish aura surrounding their weapons. In a millisecond, they are yanked from their hands, one of the mercenaries arm gets his arm dislocated from the force.
The weapons gather and float mid-air surrounded by that smoky pink aura.
Magus closes his fist as the guns violently crash into one another, turning into junk within seconds as Magus drops the pile onto the floor.
"Seriously, these guys are useless. Are these the guys kidnapping budding mages?" He remarks.
One of the mercenaries makes a throwing gesture at Magus as a gust of wind hurdles towards him, shaped like the curved blade of a sickle.
In a second it too is stopped mid-air as a pinkish aura surrounds it.
"H-How are you that fast...!?" The caster said, a shake in his voice.
Magus sighs "Damn hedge mages, don't even know passive defensive magick."
He closes his fist again, which causes the man who cast the wind spell to suddenly vomit blood, dripping out of his eyes, ears and other orifices, wetting his armour before dropping to the floor dead.
The other mercenaries take a step back in fear.
"You see what I did to those guns?" Magus said, pointing at the scrap of junk that used to be weapons. "I did the same to his organs." He said pointing at the dead body beside him.
"Now if any of you guys don't wanna follow suit, I'd suggest handing yourselves over to our fine agents-"
Before he could finish, the mercenaries bolted out the door. As the agents drew their guns, ready to pursue, Simon held up a hand.
"Crowley can take care of this one."
With that Crowley stepped forward and chanted softly, holding his palm out.
"B'yad Logosa d'Kosmosa ana molid lakh, me'ara d'khalomin u'makhashava, ethō b'gushma!"
Glowing red pentagrams within circles flickered out of the ground, covered in other symbols and Sigils it glowed and spun on the ground as solid crimson lights, vaguely in the shape of something Bipedal materialized within them.
In a second they spawned, skin like molten rocks, eyes like lava and teeth like jagged stalagmites. Vaguely like a hound crossed with a wingless short and pudgy dragon with their tails tipped with an endlessly burning spike and long muzzles.
They sprinted out the door leaving behind embers from their tails.
"Hellhounds eh?" Simon remarked.
"Work efficiently y'know?" Crowley replied smugly
"Anyways you ordered them to capture those guys alive right?" Simon asked
"... Say what." Crowley asked bluntly as screams, growling and tearing sounds were heard from outside.
"Nevermind..."
Suddenly the hellhounds returned, clearly having 'taken care' of the problem.
However they seem much more... Timid. Something clearly scared these hellish beasts.
Crowley was taken aback. "Something scared my familiars, what is Aiwass..."
Suddenly the distant, echoey strumming of a guitar was heard.
After a few seconds of shock the strumming turned to a hard rock beat drop.
Both Crowley and Magus' expression shifted to absolute horror at the beat drop.
"He's here..." Simon whispered in fear.
"START DRIVING!" Crowley yelled at the driver.
"The tires burst from shrapnel place in the road sir!" The driver replied anxiously.
"I'm not dying before the Liber Agapé in tomorrow's Witch's Sabbath! My Succubi and Incubi Familiars yearn for my cake of light." Crowley shouted, clearly manic.
"That almost makes me want to die..." Simon said, with thinly veiled disgust.
"Put on the cloaks, we'll need the sigil boost for this." Simon said before quickly pulling out multiple cloaks from the luggage area of the bus. Tossing one to Crowley and another to Franz.
He himself put on the same black cloak as Crowley, emblazoned with a prominent, strangely shaped hexagram with an eye in the middle as Crowley did the same. The dark cloak contrasted against Simon's white business suit.
Franz looked at his cloak which appeared to have an equilateral triangle instead of the Hexagram with an eye in the middle like Crowley and Magus.
Magus quickly moved to the front of the bus while speaking to Franz.
"Those Sigils will increase your magick potency, since I don't know what specific associations you have, I don't know what to give in specific. The equilateral triangle offers a slight boost on all types generally speaking, although it is weak, It'll be enough."
He turned to speak. "Watch our back Crowley, this'll get bumpy…" The rock song was getting closer as he spoke.
He then concentrated, a psychic aura surrounding the bus and specifically its tires as they began to spin because of the telekinesis, the bus began bolting as its weight too was supported by the psychic energy.
The inside shook violently as if there was an earthquake as the Bus floated across the road at high speeds. Franz quickly grabbed the handle near his seat to stabilize himself through the rumbling Vehicle.
Suddenly multiple bullets broke through the back of the glass of the bus's back, whizzing and swirling as they swerved and circled to blow through the head of every agent, creating a tail of blood and brain matter behind them.
Franz instinctively held up the cloak as a defense, the bullet suddenly dropping when coming in contact with it, as it did so with Crowley's cloak, as if losing all momentum in a second.
"Huh?" Franz was confused but relieved. "What was that…!?"
"Psy Magick Kid." Crowley replied
"The same type of Magick Simon over here has."
"H-Huh? Um… sorry if this sounds rude but, can't mister Simon take control of the bullets so that they don't hit anything…" Franz asked introspectively.
"No I can't kid!" Simon replied, still focusing on driving. "My psy telekinesis is powerful but not specific. It can raise a single heavy object, or many medium sized things, but multiple small specific things are impossible to do, my concentration doesn't allow me to focus on so many small things."
"Those bullets, that's specific telekinesis, he was controlling the trajectory of the bullets using his magick, of course unlike Simon he can't control large things like this bus but… as you can see it's still a pain in the ass…"
Crowley continued as the Bus sped up, hurtling forward, doging flying blades and bullets that flew by its side, some hitting it, scraping across its metal.
"Since it's specific, its low od quantity allows the defensive part of our Sigils to completely dispel its active magick. Of course it wouldn't have saved us if it hadn't changed its trajectory multiple times to kill our agents… So keep that cloak on." Crowley said to Franz who nodded, definitely listening even if he couldn't understand the whole ordeal.
Suddenly clunking sounds were heard as blades began to fly through the bus from multiple angles, from its top, its back window and its sides; completely destroying both it's exterior and interior, the sudden onslaught caused all the dead bodies to drop to the right side, tilting the bus to the side
"Shit…!" Simon cursed.
The Bus scraped against the road, sparks flying as it continued to scrape forward via its psychic energy.
It wasn't for long as the tip to the side causes Simon to lose his concentration and fall over himself, the scraping Bus crashing into a field by the side of the road, definitely beyond repair
The rock music was closing in again.
"..."
"Looks like we'll need to handle this ourselves." said Simon as Crowley nodded.
"Keep the kid safe, I doubt he'll harm him but… I still don't know how to predict whatever the hell he's gonna do, he's a damn wild card."
"Yes sir!" The driver replied, quickly pulling out a gun.
"Stay safe kid." Simon said to Franz before he and Crowley left the bus to confront their assailant.
They went out on the road as smoke poured out from parts of the Bus that broke and fell apart.
"You taught him the basics to defend himself, didn't you? You knew something bad might happen?" Simon asked Crowley.
"Hey, la petite mort gives you great wisdom. Especially 'impressions' of possible future activities as we tap into our Astral Body, even for a second…" Crowley replied, smirking.
"God dammit, of course you'd say that…" Simon replies, exhausted.
"What? Do you know what the sacred Hriliu Shamhat performed on Enkidu did to him, dude gained a ton of knowledge from his Astral Body. Went from a savage man ape to a well functioning tax paying bisexual citizen. The dream lemme tell ya."
"... Whatever, we have bigger things to worry about right now." Simon said, getting more serious at the rock music that was much closer to them now.
"Still announcing your entrance with rock songs eh? Damned piece of shit…" Crowley said as a figure approached through the smoke.
Clad in a red hood with the same yellow symbol, carrying a large handgun and blade in each hand, both with a psychic aura surrounding them. He wore a long brown trench coat over a black tunic and sunglasses that hid his eyes as his wild red hair blew in the wind.
Beside him was a scared looking mercenary with the same outfit as the ones that assaulted them holding up a large speaker blasting the rock song.
The man in the red hood signalled him to turn it off which he did with much enthusiasm.
"Ah the devil worshiping hedonist and the guy whose name is the word for bribing for holy positions, how's being part of the shadow government? What, they give you guys super rare elite skin versions of hookers, cocaine and secret island parties instead of the regular vanilla government positions to make you guys feel special? Hahahah!"
He pushed the mercenary to his side "Laugh."
Causing him to laugh alongside him before devolving to coughs.
"Pathos Tervagant… Leader of Taskforce Q. Didn't think they'd send you, you guys must have a good informant…" Simon replied.
"Eh, most informants that get caught kinda spontaneously commit suicide, which is common for both our parties I suppose so they'd have to be good to survive." Pathos said, still smirking.
"I'm afraid we can't let you have the kid." Simon said as he and Crowley took defensive stances.
"Have the kid? Hah! I don't visit those secret island parties you guys and my bosses do I'm afraid, not into that rich people stuff. 'sides."
His smirk turned more sinister.
"I'm more interested in killing you two, the second Chosen One is just a bonus." He took an offensive stance with his gun and blade.
"Well, we already lost one chosen one to the Hermetic Order and it seems that Rasputin has the right idea putting us in charge of delivering him, we can't fail him now." Crowley said.
Pathos smiled sinisterly "Then let's begin this special party."