A New Day

John awoke to the sound of tiny giggles, the smell of fresh pancakes, and wet warmth accompanied by intense pleasure between his legs. He opened his eyes and saw that the pixies had abandoned their patrols sometime in the night, deciding instead to watch him sleep. Or perhaps, more recently, to watch Calista try in vain to wake him with a blowjob. He lowered his eyes, and the sight of his short haired Nereid bobbing her head on his shaft pushed him over the edge of climax. He groaned in satisfied ecstasy as Calista swallowed his load and looked up at him with a smug smile. There was a chorus of high pitched squeals and giggles and John was sure he had heard at least a few exclamations of the word "cute". Their reaction jolted John into a level of wakefulness that brought with it embarrassment for being watched, though their clearly pleased reaction awoke something like a desire for more. The two feelings battled a bit inside him, but embarrassment won out in the end. A deep blush flushed his cheeks as he sat up and pulled Calista into his lap.

"Ladies, may I have this moment alone, please?" John addressed his audience.

The pixies obliged him in a swirl of giggles and fluttered wings, also managing to close the door behind them. Only for it to immediately be opened again by Sera, with a smirk on her face and an apron over her black tank top and blue jeans.

"I think you've had enough for now, lover boy. Breakfast's ready and you've got an hour to get to class." She turned back towards the hallway before adding, "Don't forget your poor City Nymph will need some attention soon too."

John kissed Calista tenderly before heeding Sera's warning and heading for the bathroom. After finishing up his morning routine, he sat and ate the pancakes Sera had apparently made.

"So is there a limit to how many meals you'll give me or can I eat your delicious cooking all day every day? Because these pancakes are the softest and fluffiest I've ever had and I would be lying if I said last night's dinner was anything less than perfect." He sipped on orange juice as he waited for some sort of reply from his Guardian Angel.

None came. He stood and checked the apartment, but she was gone.

"Well, I guess something came up."

John shrugged off her disappearance and decided to head out the door.

"Elora. I'm sending you and your soldiers back to the Temple, understood?"

"You got it, chief." Elora saluted him from the kitchen counter, and the pixie squads gathered around her to offer their salutes as well.

John cast Dismiss Summon on Elora and they all disappeared in a flash of green energy. Calista stood from where she had been sitting in the living room, her faux Firesmith Academy uniform perfectly arranged. John smiled at her and opened the door, closing it behind them before taking her hand in his and heading downstairs.

"Lay! Wake up! Lay! Layla!" Tessa shook her best friend awake, greeting her groggy morning attitude with pure sunshine.

"Tess? What are you… Where a-" Layla began to protest sleepily, but Tessa was not having it.

"Girl, you've got some 'splainin' to do."

"Wha?"

"Get up, get dressed, coffee's ‘ready brewin'. I needja to be 'wake an' answerin'."

Tessa made sure Layla was at least making an attempt at some morning routine before stepping out and continuing her conversation with Amelie.

"Is she… okay?" Amelie would normally already have had a foot out the door, but her concern for her new roommate made her stay and talk to Tessa.

"Oh yeah, she'll be fine. Doncha worry about'er."

"A-are you sure? She was, um, she was, well, she was acting really… strange?"

"I'm sure." Tessa beamed at Amelie with such confidence that she couldn't help but be reassured.

The shower started running as Amelie returned a small smile.

"I'll get going then. Thank you again for bringing her back."

"It was nothin', trust me. You be safe out there, mmkay?"

"Okay."

Tessa sighed deeply as the door clicked shut.

What the hell is going on here?

John and Calista walked onto campus warily, alert to any attempted ambushes. They began to circle the courtyard at a leisurely pace, searching for a place to stand and wait for classes to begin. It was when they had settled for a quiet corner that they were approached by a group of students. John cast Flames and held out his hand palm-upwards in a threatening gesture. The newcomers glanced nervously between the flames and John's face before pushing forward a representative.

"Joh- ahem, John Newman?" a lanky young man's voice croaked as he addressed John.

"That's my name."

"We're, uh, we're here to set the record straight. The air mages have nothing against you. You might have been attacked by the other guys, but we've stayed out of it." He looked like he wanted to continue but thought better of it.

"I recognize that. I don't have anything against you either. Don't fuck me over and it'll stay that way." John extinguished the flames in a clenched fist and turned it over, offering a fist bump.

The air mage obliged him, and with a nod he and his retinue walked away amid the excited chatter and general hubbub of the courtyard. Calista snuggled up to John's arm and they were undisturbed until he was teleported to his first class.

Tessa hummed to herself as she waited for Layla to shower and finish her first cup of coffee. She knew better than to start asking questions before the caffeine kicked in. She tried her best to subtly take in Layla's beauty. The way stray strands of hair flew into her face every now and then. The little satisfied smile that perked up with every sip of coffee. The soft curve of her jawline, her full lips. The way her nose crinkled when she yawned. Her hands half-hidden by the sleeves of her sweater. Her goofy smile as she realized Tessa was staring.

"Okay, Tess, what's up? Did you draw on me again?" Layla picked up her phone and checked her face in the camera.

"N'aw, it's, uh, it's nothing, don't worry about it."

"Mhmm, okay sure. That's why you're here and not in class, right? I don't even remember letting you-" The events of the day before tumbled into Layla's conscious recollection, stopping her train of thought in its tracks.

"That's right, girl. What the hell happened yesterday? What's the last thing you remember?"

"Well, I, uh…" Layla began to blush furiously as the foolishness of her plan became clear.

"No way!"

"What!"

"That was him?"

"What-do-you-mean? Who-was-that? Who-was-him?" Layla began speaking quickly and at a high pitch.

"You're a terrible liar, ya know exactly who I'm talking about."

"No, no, I don't, I really don't, I have no idea, none at all." Layla **** her voice to normalize, shaking her head.

"Layla. C'mon. Ya haven't been able to shut up about 'im since ya met 'im. He's the only one who's ever got ya like this." Tessa couldn't hide the pain in her eyes as she spoke to Layla about the boy she was so suddenly obsessed with.

"Okay," Layla took a deep breath, "okay, okay, you got me."

Tessa raised an eyebrow, waving her hand in a circular motion to urge Layla to continue.

"The man with the elemental aura," Layla began to reverently whisper, "entirely fire but also entirely water, entirely earth but entirely air, and who knows what other subtle traces I've been too distracted to notice."

"Lay, that's impossible and you would know that better than anyone. You've told me this already."

"That's the thing though, it should be impossible! No aura is purely one elemental alignment, no aura is so fully one element, even less possible for it to be purely and entirely more than one element. It makes no sense, but I can feel it. Deep inside, it stirs up my aura sense, it's without a doubt fully and purely all four. He's a true elementalist."

"Okay sure, let's say you're right and he's impossibly unique and amazing," Tessa's voice lost it's warm and jovial tone as she continued her statement, "what was he doing carrying you passed out in his arms?"

"He was carrying me?" Layla whimpered and looked dreamily off into the distance.

"Layla Viorica! Pay attention to me!" Tessa's voice snapped Layla back to reality.

"I don't know why he was…" Layla's voice trailed off.

"Yes, you do. Tell me, I know when you're hiding something from me."

"I may or may not have used the mana gem he trusted me to keep safe for him to animate a cardboard box and lift me up to his window." Layla had switched to speaking quickly again, nearly slurring her words together in her haste.

"Is that so? What did he do to you?" The cutlery in the drawers of the kitchen began to rumble and shake.

"He found me and helped me inside and- and- and…" Layla's face burned an even brighter shade of red and shivers ran up her spine. She bit her lip to stifle embarrassing sounds as she waited for the feeling to pass.

Tessa's jaw slowly dropped as her eyes widened in realization.

"You came? Oh Spiritsmith above, Layla, please don't tell me all it took was for him to touch you."

Layla attempted her best to shrink into herself.

"No WAY!"

Operation Z-00538
Time - 7:30 a.m.
Location - Lower East Side, sector Z-30.
Drones Present - Archimedes Series 12, units 1-20; Achilles Series 4, units 6-15; Odysseus Series 2, unit 1.
Operatives Present - Knights Haytham, Powell, Adams, Berkley; Arcane Knight Gorbachev

Tricia typed away at her laptop, its screen extended to either side with holographic projections. She entered the operation briefing and left it open on the left projection as she reviewed data from similar cases on the right projection. The main screen monitored the statuses of her drones and the operation's vehicle's progress towards their destination.

They were currently driving under a highway overpass, the figurative border between Dietrich Heights and Boothe Heights. It would only take them a few more minutes to cross into the Lower East Side and finally the forest beyond. That it had taken nearly 20 minutes for the operation to leave Brighton Manor irked Tricia, she had informed Moira of everything necessary the night prior. Moira had been obstinately stubborn about not lending Tricia the knights she needed. That Tricia had had to remind Moira that it was her own idea for Tricia to investigate anomalies in the first place irked her as well. Her hands clenched and relaxed over the keys, her suit beeping a warning quietly.

Tricia took deep calming breaths as the armored van rumbled to a stop at the end of a gravel road. They had arrived.

"A-K, we'll be unloading your equipment now," a woman with kind blue eyes and a chiseled physique addressed Tricia.

"Thank you, Knight Berkley," Tricia stated, any minute hints of anger or annoyance that might have bled through just a mere minute ago now buried deep inside her again.

They all dismounted, and the Knights began assembling Units 1-5 of the Archimedes Series drones. Tripods were placed at even intervals surrounding the van, small spheres sitting atop of them. Tricia set off into the brush with a briefcase containing Units 6-15 of the Archimedes Series drones. She placed the case on the ground, scanned her aura signature, and the case popped open with a hiss of compressed air. Ten spheres rose into the air at her command, calibrating their sensors.

Tricia stepped back towards the van slowly, expanding her mind to connect to each of the drones as they booted up and calibrated. She opened a second briefcase and the Units 6-15 of the Achilles Series drones began to hum, buzz, and click as their various weapons systems activated. Mana-fueled energy blasts, battery-charged stun shots, and mithril-capped bullets fed into three rotating barrels on the hovering devices. As they ran their startup checklists, Tricia pulled out the control bracelets and handed them to the Knights, two drones each. Tricia herself equipped two bracelets and Units 6 and 7 attached themselves to her shoulders. Units 8-15 either attached themselves to the Knights' forearms or hovered behind them, whichever they preferred.

The Archimedes series Units 1-5 beeped in unison before shooting high into the sky and projecting a laser grid onto the forest ahead of them. The Archimedes series Units 6-15 began to zoom into the forest, weaving in between trees and scanning the area for traces of magic. As the initial scans and plotting of data began, Tricia quickly activated the Odysseus drone. It was the largest of them all, built into the van itself. A holographic screen projected out of the interior of the van, onto where the back door would be if it were closed. A map of Springfield loaded onto it, then zoomed into the Lower East Side, then zoomed into Sector Z-30. Yellow triangular blips representing the Knights, yellow circular blips representing the drones, and a yellow eye representing Tricia came into focus on the map.

The Knights began patrolling for threats, Knight Haytham staying by Tricia's side defensively. Tricia willed a keyboard into holographic existence and began navigating the various programs she had designed for this specific purpose.