Becoming a Government Drone

[You have rested for 8 hours. You have healed.]

[You have rested for 8 hours. You have healed.]

[You have rested for 8 hours. You have healed.]

[You have rested for 8 hours. You have healed.]

[You have rested for 8 hours. You have healed.]

Blinking my eyes open slowly I spot the series of notifications, my wounds completely gone from my body. Tons of medical equipment is hooked up to me and I feel Gaia softly caress my skin, her feelings trying to help me stay calm.

I decided to relax because I’m hopefully in good company. Instead I look at my rewards as my eyes gently peel over the text they widen in excitement.

[For clearing Mercurial Hunter 1/1. Gain two Skill Points. Gain associated equipment.]

[Performance Reward: None]

[Choose to upgrade your preexisting skills.]

[Choose Bow of First Mercury, Cowl of the Mercurial Watchers, or Hermes Ichor.]

God’s blood. Honest to- well honest to gods, god’s blood! I selected it without a second thought.

[Hermes Ichor]

A special type of Mercury only forming under very unique circumstances. Its toxic properties are insanely dangerous to anyone afflicted. Usually causing death within a few minutes in even the greatest of warriors. Dealing with this poison is difficult, and requires an extremely deep purge of the victim’s system in order for them to survive.

Hermes Ichor can also be used as a powerful reagent for Alchemical items, and because of its mana corroding properties can be used for powerful anti-magic tools or magic items with extreme unique spell formation. Hermes Ichor can make even a newbie Enchanter seem like a Master. It gets rid of any wasted formations in enchantments, while also amplifying the item's effects to a massive degree.

It is said to be blessed by the God of Mercury despite any proper connection actually existing between the two.

That’s not God's blood. I let out a sigh as I pull myself up, my tired eyes glance around the hospital room. At least it sounds useful.

“So you’re awake.” My eyes peel over to the man in a suit. His facial scar and piercing eyes are the most blatant features on his face. He is neat and his expression is serious. His simple statement of fact made me realize that I was being monitored.

https://i.postimg.cc/RhxdMX0X/Cecil-Stedman.webp

“So I am. Thanks for the save.” He nods and looks me straight in the eyes.

“Care to explain what the fuck was that?” I hesitate for a moment and Gaia’s comforting presence makes itself known. I let out a small breath and I started to speak.

“Go teleported to another dimension. Fought stupidly powerful metal monsters, they almost killed me.” 

“Any idea who did this?” I frown. I guess I didn’t really explain, did I? How much should I tell him? Gaia seems to trust this guy so I guess I can give him a bit of information to work with. I also am definitely going to want access to his healing stuff in the future anyways.

“I did.” There’s a brief pause and his eyes narrow.

“Explain.” I wince and try to explain the best I can.

“I have the ability to temporarily travel to other dimensions. If I complete whatever task is given to me I get stronger.” His eyes widen, and for a moment I see hope behind the orbs.

“Kid, how would you like a job at the GDA?” I blink in confusion.

“The what now?” He lets out a sigh of exasperation at my words.

“The Global Defense Agency.” Ah, no fucking wonder Gaia likes him. He’s part of the people who keep her safe. I feel her hug me as though to tell me I’m still her favorite. I smile at his words.

“We’re already coworkers then.” I give a smirk and then I realize my quip might have given away too much as he throws me a glare.

“You protect Chicago. Not the world, not yet at least. Any upper limit on what you can get from these ‘tasks’.” Ok he misunderstood me, that's good. I stutter but continue.

“N-not to my knowledge.” He nods at my words as though bouncing the idea around in his head.

“Well then consider the interview passed, if you can give me a reason to trust you.” My eyebrows furrow as I glare at him. I fought off aliens from another dimension, is that not enough.

“Emile Shemmer. Orphan. Showed a sudden extreme personality change and powers. Sounds like the class case of a body snatcher.” I flinch at the words, the guilt towards the shell gnawing away at me.

“I-I didn’t take this body.” He doesn’t press me and the awkward silence sits for a moment. The internalized guilt spirals and has been spiraling. I start speaking without a filter as I clutch the sheets in front of me.

“The original me, something was wrong with his soul. I don’t know what happened- and it wasn’t my fault. Then my powers came and I was ‘fixed’ by overwriting the original with a fresh version of our soul.” I take a breath as Gaia comforts me, I am not one of her children, but she still cares for me.

“In a fucked up way, I’m a clone.” I let out a defeated laugh as tears left my eyes. I’d tried to hide these feelings but I can’t help but feel like a thief in my own body. I stared at me for a moment as the sorrow barreled through me like a hurricane.

“Consider yourself hired, but take some paid time off. I’m Cecil Stedman, director of the GDA, here's a phone with everything you’ll need in it.” I blink as my eyes move up towards him and the device in his hand. My heart is stirring in my chest. Can I really afford to take some time off when evil superman is on the loose?

Gaia rubs a hand down my face and sends feelings of trust to me. As though I should tell this guy about Omniman. 

“Director. There’s something you should know.”

“You aren’t about to reveal your secretly evil, right?” I let out a dark laugh and for a moment I could've sworn I saw the air shimmer slightly as though there was an invisible figure present.

“Do you know about . . . Omniman?” His eyes widen and he yells out immediately.

“Monitoring team, eyes off. NOW.” A moment passes and I hear a faint buzz then silence.

“How do you know that?” He stared down at me as two soldiers seemed to manifest next to him.

https://i.postimg.cc/MHhnkFKp/images-14.jpg

Guns pointed at me as my heart slammed in my chest. I sputtered a bit before calming myself despite Gaia’s sudden tensing up as well. 

“My contracted spirit told me.” There was a beat, and I nearly used my Mana Boost before a hand was raised and the two soldiers disappeared.

“A fucking what now?” 

“M-my contracted spirit. They help make my powers stronger and they know stuff.” 

“They knew this how?”

I tried to be as non-descript as possible but oddly enough Gaia seemed to push me to be more open. I suppose these were her people in a way.

“My contracted spirit- My contracted spirit is the spirit of the Earth itself.” There’s a tense pause for a moment as I continue to speak. The man is obviously starting to think I’m insane as his eyes narrow.

“I’m the first mage in a long long time that can connect to the planet from what I understand and they- she saw a need for Earth to have a protector against the growing threats. Especially after what happened to the guardians . . . “

“You know, I’m not the biggest fan of guns being pointed at me.” He ran a hand down his face in both anger and some relief at my words. How can they even trust me? Do they have a lie detector around here? Gaia gives a small snort and nods. Huh.

“Sorry, we just haven’t gotten any good news in a long time.”

“And I don’t really appreciate the lie detector but I understand the caution.” 

“Heads up from your friend then?” I give a nod, ever thankful for Gaia’s aid. I don’t know if Omniman will come after me, but I want to help this world. Him killing the guardians is unjustifiable, they’d saved the world and stopped villains over and over again.

“Anything else we should know about?” I give a shrug, nothing immediately comes to mind. I’m not omnipotent and neither is Gaia. Presumably she was just keeping a close eye on the guardians because of their importance. She sends warmth my way, pleased at my conclusion.

There’s a pause for a moment as he levels with me. “Can you take down Omniman at your current strength ?” I scoff and shake my head at the man's blunt words.

“There’s no way. I’d get killed before I could cast a spell. If I can improve my flight magic then maybe, but not before that.” I still need to master the different types of flight magic from Walking With Birds and then merge them together. He lets out a small breath at my answer.

"Even if he was heavily weakened? We are keeping him in a medically induced coma right now but he's healing way to fast and rocking the boat might wake him up early and enraged." My eyes narrow as I mull it over, I send a pulse to Gaia who gives me no answer.

She doesn't know if he'll wake up when I try to attack him. Fuck.

"We'll need more time to prepare, focus on getting stronger. If you could do that after just getting your powers hopefully you'll be able to do a lot more real soon." How does he- ah the personality change. Guess all he'd need to do is check a few cameras for my body movements and he'd find out fast.

"I will be, I'll probably take a break from school for a while." Excuse to not go to school anymore! Though I should probably check back with my friends before I disappear for my training arc . . .

“Don’t tell anyone what’s happened here.” I give a curt nod. Can't risk any leaks of something this big.

“Alright then, take the kid home. We’ll call you if we need anything, always keep your phone on you.” I give a nod at his words but pause.

“Occasionally I’ll be indisposed while I improve my powers, tell me in advance if you need anything done or something is brewing up without me here.”

“We’ll keep that in mind.” 

The two guards reappear and escort me out of the building, it's a surprisingly short walk. Honestly I’d expected more secret military stuff but this place is just a super advanced hospital. I palm the phone in my hand and when I put my finger on the little button it lights up immediately.

‘Biosignature Recognized’ is written in little green letters. The thing has access to the internet, some kind of map, and slotted into it is a little earpiece for me to put in whenever I’m out doing stuff.

So this thing is totally bugged and tracked at all times, right? Gaia gives me a sigh and an affirmative shake of her head. They totally don’t trust me, but we have the same goal. 

We’ll keep this planet safe. No matter what.

My mind wanders back to the series of notifications I’d gotten. It’s been two days and I definitely missed school. Currently it’s night time so I guess I’ll just have to be ready for tomorrow.

“Thanks for the escort, I can get home from here.” They don’t say a word, just giving a brief pause before vanishing.

I had to fly the rest of the way home, it was the middle of the night and I had to go from out of the underground base and at least forty miles to get back.

I fell asleep as soon as I hit the pillow, today- well my last experienced twenty four hours were way too stressful.

[You have rested for 8 hours. You have healed.]

My eyes blinked open and I paused after a moment. What day is it again? I looked over my phone for a moment and spotted the little thing informing me it was a Thursday. Boring Thursday, couldn’t it at least be Friday?

Taking a shower before school I was surprised to find a letter pushed through the slot. Picking it up I cracked it open and inside was a credit card or something. Looking it over a letter was inside as well.

‘There’s all the money you’ll need for a while. Consider it an extended version of your government stipend. Burn this when you’re done reading it.”

Thanks GDA, taxpayer dollars are buying me dinner tonight! As an orphan I was already getting a stipend but that got cut off recently. Thank fuck I got a job! NEver thought I’d be a government worker . . . I sense Gaia’s heated gaze bore into the back of my head. 

Alright, alright, I work for you! She smiles and relaxes, sending the sensation of a small kiss into my brain. She can be very scary if she wants to be. I take a peek at my status as I walk to school. Flooding the letter with wood mana it turns to a thin piece of wood and I toss it is someone's lawn.

You know I thought it would explode, but that works too! I take a peek at my status while I move.

Class: Wizard 3 -> 4

STR: 12

DEX: 11

CON: 10

INT: 20

WIS: 14

CHR: 17

Skills:

• Mana Flux II

• Planetary Heartbeat III

• Mana Boost II

• Formulization II

Perks:

• Thought Castle

Equipment:

• Pure Jewel of Lead

• Walking With Birds

• Magic and How Not to Accidentally Kill Yourself

• Mop of Cleaning

• Hermes Ichor

“Are you doing alright?” I spin around to Eve who questions me with a concerned look as I try to get to my class. Oh yeah, I disappeared right after looking super depressed over what happened with the aliens.

“I took some time off school, just a little bit of a break.” I toss her a casual smile and I can see the concern residing in her gaze. She’s used to my previous shell, maybe she thought I’d become like that again.

“Seriously, I’m fine.” She nods slowly but presses me a bit before we part ways.

“Why don’t you come and meet the team after school, I think it’ll be good for you. I already showed the new guy around as well.” Damn. Being knocked out for two days really does suck.

I’d gotten through my classes easily and read Wandering With Birds at lunch time when suddenly I got a call.

“We need you downtown. The aliens are going to come back any second now.” Gaia rings with alarm and I shoot up from my chair, the food abandoned as I rush outside. The call hung up right afterwards as my eyes narrowed in confusion.

They had to have somehow known in advance, or else Gaia would have told me without need for a phone call. That means we have some time. Starting to fly upwards I spotted Mark standing next to Eve already suited up. I’ll group with them.

Flying down next to them I gave a casual wave.

“Guess I’m back just in time to help with another alien invasion.”

“Emile- Wait shit.” He turns to Eve in a panic before making waving hand gestures. “You didn’t hear that.” She laughs lightly and turns to me before snapping her fingers and putting me in my old uniform through whatever power she’s using.

“I already knew, now let's go.” Taking off with the pair I plugged the earpiece from my phone into my ear and softly tapped it as though to check it was working.

“Robot and his people are already there setting up, stick with Invincible and Atom Eve for now. ”

A notification popped into view as we flew through the air as fast as we could.

[Flaxan Fiasco II]

[Defeat the Flaxan invaders]

[Prevent Civilian Deaths up to 100]

[Prevent Collateral Damage up to 100,000,000 USD]

My eyes narrow as we land on top of a building with a superhero I don’t recognize. Gaia’s mana pounding through me as I flood myself with Mana Boost.

My thoughts only go in one direction.

I won’t fail this time.

AN: Another chapter that involves the local bum finally getting a job! His job if you think about it is just protecting his possessive waifu, so honestly it's not a bad one to have! Cecil has hope that this kid might be able to beat Omni Man with enough prep, and having someone who knows about the whole situation while also working directly with the Earth itself is good to have on your side.

Does Cecil trust him? Fuck no. His phone is mega tracked and he’s basically going to be constantly watched outside of his home in order to make sure he doesn’t die and to make sure he’s not secretly evil.

As always I love your comments and questions so feel free to drop some below! 

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time!