Issue #10

Instead of taking the Quinjet as they would in most other situations, Jack's squad dressed in civilian clothing and took a car to the airport before boarding a private flight. Their mission was to investigate so they didn't want to arrive in a flashy manner.

"Jack. I'm truly curious about something," Callisto said out of nowhere while the group was in the fight. The other 3 women were in different parts of the plane and out of earshot so it was obvious that Callisto had been purposefully waiting to ask what she wanted.

"And what would that be?"

Callisto smiled towards Jack but it did not reach her eyes.

"What's your true relationship with the queen? Although I haven't seen you both together, my guts tell me that you are involved with each other."

'If only she was an enemy.'

Jack nodded in appreciation and, for a moment, wished to kill Callisto and gain her powers for himself. It was truly very useful.

He decided to answer a bit vague but still admit to his relationship with Emma.

"I guess the best way to describe it, is she is not my queen but MY empress. Does that make sense?"

Callisto's smile became sincere after hearing this answer

"Oh. She's your personal empress then? That explains quite a few things. I guess I don't have to kill you in your sleep for now."

Jack was baffled that she would admit an assassination plot so easily

"I'm not sure you would have even been able to kill me but I'm glad that I no longer have to worry about that."

After she got her answer, Callisto went to get herself a drink before she reclined her chair and took a nap. The rest of the flight was peaceful and before they knew it, the plane landed. As soon as they got off the plane, the squad split into their two groups and immediately went their separate ways.

Jack's group consisted of more high-profile members that would be easy to recognize if one paid close enough attention. Although they were planning to try their best to remain disguised, it was better to be safer than not.

Callisto and Kwannon were unknowns which made the chances of their identities leaking much less likely if they split off.

Jack's group went to their safe house where they spent over a week on standby. Every few hours, Kwannon and Callisto would check back in but besides that little communication, there was no other interaction between the groups.

During this time period, Jack began to try and help Wanda practice her magic more efficiently but when he did, he realized that it was out of his league.

Jack was skilled in demon magic, dark magic, necromancy, and Potter magic. He was lacking when it came to Wanda's unique magical talent.

Magic was divided into 3 general categories of where the entry originated from. Personal Energies were the mental and spiritual powers that mystics and sorcerers develop for themselves. This would be things like chi or psionic energy used by telepaths.

Then there was Ambient Magical Energy of the Universe. Magicians can tap this power for many effects, such as teleportation and energy bolts. These generally involved actual casting of spells and may be limited to the main dimension learned and may not work in others.

Lastly was Extradimensional Magical Energy. This was power gained through the tapping of extra-dimensional energy and by invoking entities or objects of power existing in mystical dimensions, with different physical and magical laws, tangential to our own.

Wanda's Chaos Magic was a mix of personal and extradimensional energy which made her a very unique case that was hard to control and made it nearly impossible to use ambient magical energy.

'I guess I need to ask Clea to help her as soon as we get back. Her current level of control is too low and would be more dangerous than it would be helpful.'

In the end, Jack could only teach her a few of the most basic Potter-verse spells and how to channel her magical power into more controlled energy bolts.

After 9 days of following them, Callisto was able to trace her target back to an abandoned factory 10 miles outside the city. He was there for over 11 hours before he finally left.

[Stay on him. I will go and investigate the place to see if it is really our true target or a decoy.]

Jack flew out of the safe house before going full ghost mode as he made himself both invisible and intangible. He then flew to the factory that Callisto had found and performed a basic search. After phasing through 3 floors of basements and another 20 feet of dirt, Jack was able to find a state fo the art facility.

[We got it. Place the trackers on your targets so they can be arrested later and head back to your safe house. We will be performing the raid later tonight after everyone gets some rest.]

With their target found, there was no longer a need to keep the two women following their targets but Jack also wasn't about to let them go. Since they were criminals, Jack wanted to bring them in for more brownie points

The members of the group returned to the room and slept until 30 minutes before the mission time that Jack had given them. They then suited up and then met outside the factory.

This would be the final and hardest part of their first mission. Weapon Plus had been making and controlling super soldiers and mutants for years. They would definitely keep their own personal army of them for protection.