Nobody around the table moved for a couple seconds. A few of the more conscientious people on the tent’s periphery moved shuffled towards the exit. Lieutenant Long and Jen glared at each other while the Commissioner and the Colonel’s eyes met furtively. Case and the police officer with glowing eyes frowned. The military ursine mage cringed. Debbie and John were of the same mind and made moves to get ahead of any violence.

  John and Debbie’s preparations were invisible to the rest of the people in the meeting and each other. The asphalt they stood on crept up Debbie’s pant legs, building up a semi-liquid armor that flowed underneath her clothes. She reached out to several pens and other plastic objects on the table and prepared to throw them at vulnerable points on team “conscript kids.”

  John, meanwhile, started slowly moving his mana towards his leg muscles. If it came to blows, he’d dive over the table and tackle Lieutenant Long. He figured if the non-mages in the room started shooting him, he could just eat bullets and heal it later. John could not identify what type of magic she had, which made him jumpy. He started to poke around at her circulatory system with his senses. Her circulatory system snapped into clarity with such ease that John startled himself. He could sense her veins and arteries as easily as he could see a pencil on a desk in front of him. John reduced his focus on his magical sense and paid attention to his eyes and ears. Rebuilding my heart must have done something to improve my senses… something to consider later.

  The Groupmind sailor broke the tension. The light in his eyes flared and a gentle breeze blew through the tent. Fluttering hair and drifting papers drew attention away from potential belligerents and back to Corporal Gunn.

  Corporal Gunn coughed, “Excuse me. You haven’t internalized this information yet, but the Groupmind facilitates communication between all nodes seamlessly. This is not the first time this argument has arisen within our sphere of influence. When they first came up, we relayed them to President Olderant and his cabinet. They made the decision to ban pressing mages younger than sixteen into any sort of combat role. Additionally, they cautioned against pressing any minors into combat except in the direst circumstances. The Groupmind has decided to keep track of conscription incidents.”

  The room exhaled, tension and held breath flowing out from around the table like a punctured tire. John was still incensed. The government response here clearly had a hidden facet, a group who did not care for mages that weren’t already beholden to the government by obligations from before magic appeared. John doubted Colonel McGuire or Commissioner Defranco outright belonged to this group but clearly listened to them. John assumed Lieutenant Long was the mouthpiece for this group.

  Colonel McGuire nodded, “Thank you. Can someone wrangle any mages younger than sixteen? We’ll need to address them separately. Does anyone have thoughts about letting those youths fight anyways if they want to? One at a time, please.”

  John’s hand shot up.

  “Mr. Brisal?”

  “John’s fine, ma’am. I don’t think you should send anyone less than sixteen out to be problem-solvers. Let them help defend whatever safe gathering points you set up, but we shouldn’t let them run around looking for trouble. I want to fight too, so I can get better and protect my family and friends.”

  John’s friends nodded, Debbie smiled. The bear-mage had left the table to help aides arrange the next section of the presentation. Evidently, he wanted no part in the moral quandary. John was almost envious of his position.

  The police officer stepped forward before Commissioner DeFranco acknowledged him, “Officer Moorehead, what do you think?”

  Officer Moorehead smiled at his boss, “I think we should let the youngins help however they can. Maybe we could send some out on patrol with the rest of the cops? Regular folk can’t feel mages, so any mundane cops could get jumped unless they had a mage riding along with them.”

  Lt. Long scoffed, “This is ridiculous. We shouldn’t be sending ANY of these civvy kids out. What if they go crazy and kill someone? They should be kept here, under lock and key. Forget their combat experience, they can’t be trusted. Those three twerps across the table are maybe fit to serve as the jailers for the rest.”

  John scowled. The vein on his temple throbbed in time with his mana. Colonel McGuire looked at the young Air Force officer aghast. Commissioner Defranco had the good sense to move away from her, which John appreciated. Jen’s vines squirmed and Case’s hand drifted towards his knife, but neither made any definitive moves. Corporal Gunn was scowling across the table at Lt. Long. Debbie and the police officer were speechless. John was seeing red. Spurred by fury, John made his move as Colonel McGuire turned to reprimand her subordinate. Screw this bitch.

  John barked a question, “Colonel, permission to make a statement?”

  Colonel McGuire shot a glance his way, “Go ahead, kid. ”

  “Thank you, ma’am.”

  John’s heart pounded as mana in his abdomen roiled with indignation. A surge of mana cemented John’s hold on Lt. Long’s circulatory system. A see-through sketch of her veins and arteries replaced John’s other senses. He figured it would blow too much goodwill to kill her with a stroke, but she needed to be taught a lesson. John could see where two arteries split from her carotid and ran behind her eyeballs. An idea sprang to mind immediately. It was the work of an instant to shove Lt. Long’s weak resistance aside and cram blood meant for the brain and other cephalic fixtures into those delicate passages. I can’t believe it, has she even used her magic yet?

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  The spiritual battle took about three seconds. Everyone else in the room heard John finish thanking the Colonel. Immediately after, crimson light filled his eyes. Lt. Long cried out, doubled over, and covered her face to stem blood pouring down her face. John vaulted the table with a surge of strength, grabbed the screaming Lieutenant by her collar and waistband, and dragged her out of the tent. He slammed her into the asphalt outside hard enough to split it. It’s okay, Debbie can fix it.

  John pinned her with a knee before she could try and roll away. His hand immobilized her free arm. The other occupants of the tent boiled out. Case and Corporal Gunn shoved in front to stop anyone from riddling John with bullets. John placed his off hand above the ragged craters where Lt. Long’s eyes should have been. A gentle cascade of mana fell into the bleeding wounds. Long stopped screaming and her flailing calmed down. John took a little weight off her chest.

  John panted, “Ok Long. I can tell that you’re in a lot less pain. Time for your first lesson. Your mana is automatically resisting my influence. I have no idea what will happen if you resist your eyes growing back, so I recommend you retract your mana.”

  Everyone stood about, totally aghast. John winked at Jen and Case. Jen snickered, Case kept looking at the gunmen surrounding them. Colonel McGuire looked strangely calm next to an apoplectic Commissioner Defranco. Debbie was looking for a way out. Officer Moorehead looked like he was struggling not to clap. John felt Long’s mana slide out of the way and his attention swiveled back to her.

  John smiled, “There you go! Good job. In the future, you’ll beg me to teach you. Odds are, I probably will! I think you might be one of the dumbest people I’ve ever met. Fortunately for you, I believe people will die if we don’t all help each other. Fuck you and your high horse. You’ll do well to respect us, even if you have six years and a commission on us. Do you even know what your magic does?”

  Once Long’s eyes had regrown and John saw the irises dilate in the afternoon sun, he feinted like he would punch her in the nose. She saw it and flinched, so John figured his mana had done a good job. He stood up. A final splash of restorative mana hit Long in the face and cleared the worst of the bruising. John pivoted to face the music.

  John apologized, hoping to preempt the blowback, “Sorry about that y’all, she was driving me nuts.”

  Colonel McGuire and Commissioner DeFranco talked over each other several times before the Commissioner waved a hand to concede the floor. Colonel McGuire’s voice was frighteningly level, “Kid, do you have any idea what the rules say I should do right now?”

  John grit his teeth, “Probably charge me with some sort of battery, declare me a traitor, and have me executed? Forgive the editorial, but you’d be wasting one of your best assets because you couldn’t keep the lieutenant under control.”

  Internally, John could hardly believe what he was saying. His blood ran hot, and it was like his mana was egging him on. Some rational part of him regretted attacking the lieutenant, but it had felt amazing.

  DeFranco gnashed his teeth, “You think you’re our best asset?! You’re out of control!”

  John scowled, “Really? I remember being shot in the chest because you had a kill-on-sight order for anyone using magic, then I saved the two officers that shot me from getting charbroiled, disabled three actual criminal mages on the way here, and then listened to the lieutenant here deride me and my friends until Mrs. McGuire here gave me permission to kick the shit out of her. I think I’m actually quite controlled, thank you.”

  The spectators’ eyes crept a few millimeters wider as John related the last twelve hours of his life. He internally reflected that he probably should avoid being blasé about surviving that gunshot before the Colonel spoke again. In the meantime, this verbal lashing felt great and served to alleviate some of the indignant fury he felt.

  “Firstly, it’s Colonel McGuire. Don’t mess that up again. Secondly, I’m willing to admit my opinion was swayed by professional proximity to Lt. Long. That said, I was hoping you’d make a verbal argument, not ‘kick the shit out of her.’ In light of that… demonstration, I think we need to listen when people we’d usually call civilians speak,” she punctuated her speech with a pointed glare at the assorted military personnel stealing glances at the confrontation.

  DeFranco grumbled, “Well, I still don’t want him around.”

  McGuire shook her head, “Too bad, I want his insight. I hate to pull rank here, but…” her sentence trailed off as Lieutenant Long stirred on the ground.

  McGuire gestured at two men in fatigues standing nearby, “Take her somewhere safe to recover. Have one of the medics check her out.”

  John could’ve given her a decent checkup with nothing but his new magical senses but chose discretion. Better part of valor and all that.

  Most of the spectators took the medical intervention as an excuse to slink away. John felt bad that he’d contributed to the meeting falling apart, but he wanted to hear about his brother’s situation. He stuck around and his friends drifted over to stand with him.

  After the bustle cleared out, Colonel McGuire looked a little surprised that the trio was still around. She swiveled away from the Groupmind mage, intent on getting the John and his friends out of her hair before getting around to serious business.

  “What am I going to do with you three?” her question conveyed her exhaustion. The last half-day had been just as hard on her as it’d been for John and his friends, sans superpowers to keep herself safe.

  Jen volunteered perkily, “Well, ma’am, you can send us out with a patrol. But I think John had something he wanted to ask you about.”

  McGuire pivoted to John and sighed, “What is it, kid?”

  John rubbed the back of his hand. Before he’d assaulted her staff officer, this would have been a reasonable, easy request for information. Now it was an uncertain venture.

  “Well ma’am, when Case woke me up for this meeting, he told me there’d been news of an attack at Camp Lejeune. My brother is stationed there; I’m worried about him,” John confessed.

  McGuire nodded, “Okay. I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to tell you. Informational security protocol is really messed up right now. I’ll tell you this: we don’t have great communication with that part of the state right now. Something’s screwing with internet lines and military communications don’t have much lateral bandwidth. We’ll have to wait for word from on high.”

  John grimaced, “Then there’s not much we can do?”

  McGuire burst out into laughter and John glowered at her, “Sorry. Not used to the precocious youngins speaking like they have agency and it turning out to be true. It’s a new world. To answer your question, there’s nothing we can do yet. Gotta get Raleigh in order before we send anybody out to outlying cities.”

  John nodded, “Alright ma’am, thank you. Where should we go while we wait for y’all to make patrol assignments?”

  “You three go wait in the medical area for a while. If anyone comes in who needs your help to stay alive, you’re to do it. Someone will come by to collect you.”

  Jen was already dragging John away and called over her shoulder, “Thank you, ma’am!”

  Case waved goodbye to the Colonel.

  Colonel McGuire shook her head. She knew these kids were going to be trouble.