ATTENTION, PLEASE. FOR THIS EPISODE, I AM CONSIDERING 10 THE LOWEST GRADE AND 1 THE HIGHEST ONE!
Hawkins' cell phone rang. He looked at the numbers to see who it was.
Pi, infinity, i, minus three point five, x, y, smiley face...
"Hello, Lucas. Hawkins here..."
"How did you know it was me?" - Asked Lucas.
"Many people I know block the caller ID. There are not many I know who would have the will and, presumably, power, as you seem to have it on the Moon, to do it the way you just did. And the other one, Cecilia, is by my side trying to watch Netflix without me noticing."
"Shut up, it's research!"
"...Of course it is. How may I help you. Lucas?" - Said Hawkins.
"Well..." - Said Lucas a bit too cheerfully - "Tell me. Do you want to know some more about a certain... enemy?"
Hawkins had learned one thing about Lucas in his dealings with her, and that was that she had a gleeful tendency to bring utter chaos to things she came in contact with.
So she knows something about what's going on as well? Considering the scope of her abilities, not too shocking. How much does she understand about them though? - Hawkins thought.
"What enemy are you speaking of, Lucas?" - he asked carefully.
"Why, Hawkins, The Enemy. Those nice Lovecraftian things that are attacking us all and that seemingly can only be fought against by 'nobly' having children do it for us..." - Lucas said, with some sarcasm.
So there we are. In less... precise terms than I would say it, but right on the dot.
"Lucas. This is an enormously sensitive matter, related to my investigations and the safety of the country, if not the entire world. You must realize I have to ask you for anything you know about this." - Asked Hawkins.
"And I will give it, of course." - Said Lucas, smirking - "But I need some things done in exchange. Sadly, though, I can't tell you all about my intent or how I learned about the Enemy, so you'll have to work with, shall we say, a third party acting in her own interests..."
"Lucas, this isn't the location of a drug dealer or information on a CEO embezzling funds. This is the possible comprising of the world's survival. I've trusted you so far, but this is serious. Either you have an excellent reason for withholding the information on how you know it and what you require of me is of dire importance, or you're playing around with me, which would end this conversation immediately and result in me going and finding the information you have some other way." - Stated Hawkins.
"Okay, okay. I may have sounded a bit dickish there. Sorry, not my intent. You see, my experience with knowledge brokering comes all from animes and RPGs. I have a lot to learn about how to be an actual one, but I do have good reasons for my requests and for the secrecy. I'll tell you just a bit of how I know about it, the part that won't harm my side anyways, along with what I know. Hear me out..." - Said Lucas.
"I can't believe you did this... How much power have you got in the agency anyways?" - Asked Cecilia.
Hawkins remained stoic.
"Suffice to say I am just telling them what I need done. They trust my intuition enough to help. You haven't met Director Fields in person, but she chose me for this investigation with good reasons, the insights gifted to her by recent events for starters. I believe Lucas's intentions are in the right place, and are of benefit to our side anyways. She's a good person after all, it's simply a slight inconvenience that she is..." - Hawkins paused, trying to find the word.
"Nuts?" - Asked Cecilia, smirking.
"Borrowing the very terminology she uses, Chaotic Neutral. And I have to deal with that." - Hawkins chuckled.
"It's fun to watch, really." - Said Cecilia.
"Of course it is, Cecilia." - Said Hawkins.
"Second move, then?" - Asked Neruite.
"Yep. I'll go to the Room tomorrow to make the next moves and see if it works..." - Said Lucas.
"I see. Lucas, we sorta have to talk about something..." - Said Neruite.
"Oh? Go on..." - Said Lucas.
"Well... You see, when I saved you... I sorta established a bond between us. When a deity intercedes for a mortal like I did, the mortal is... Well... Think of it like an hourglass. Yours had ran out of sand, so I had to pour in some of mine..."
"Wait, this won't harm you, right? I mean, did I steal your... time?" - Asked Lucas, very worried.
"Nothing of the sort. It did me no harm, I promise. However, my power... changes from time to time. The moon phases." - Said Neruite.
"Well, okay... So...?" - Said Lucas.
"When my power is lower, in the New Moon, yours will be as well. You'll have to lose some power and mass during the New Moon. It comes back after the New Moon ends. The good news is I can control how exactly this power and mass loss will happen. So you will change into a weaker, and preferably smaller, form whenever there is a New Moon, but you can have some leeway on how it looks..."
Lucas blushed.
"Something in your mind?" - Neruite asked, smiling knowingly.
"A faerie? Really?" - Asked Cass, giggling - "That's actually rather cute. I don't mind at all, but are you sure you wanna spend from one to three days per month five inches tall?"
Lucas blushed. "Thanks. Neruite told me I'd still get some degree of telekinesis, enough for me to move stuff around like a normal person and so on. Plus flight... Plus... I actually have some ideas so you won't have any trouble with my size..."
Cass smirked.
"I see... What about the sword?"
"It's part of my power, so it'll shrink as well." - Said Lucas.
"Okay... And how will you look?" - Said Cass.
"Pale skin, pixie-cut dark blue hair and dark blue eyes." - Said Lucas - "Silver glow sometimes. And... Busty for my size." - She blushed.
"Suits you..." - Said Cass, giggling - "Now you actually got me all anxious for the New Moon..."
A brief interlude of some 15 days later
"WOW!!! Lucas, where the heck did you come up with THIS idea?"
"The Internet, Cass, is a magnificent thing!"
Back to the present
"Cass took it better than I expected, really." - Said Lucas.
"Good to know. Plus you can always take part in a Link cosplay during the new moon..." - Said Neruite, giggling.
"Hey! Listen!" - Said Lucas, smirking.
"Don't make me add a compulsion to say that to your fae form..." - Neruite giggled.
