Chapter 146: Interlude Twenty-Eight: Maria - Solomon’s Move

The woman’s mouth became a line at her tone. Roy pointed at the gate, where Coast Guard men and women were taking notice of the trespasser.

"This is a restricted area. The press needs to register at the front—"

"Oh, but I’m sure you’ll want to see these videos I have! Hah. I’m pretty sure you almost stabbed some young boys with an ice shard, Fiona White."

"I what?" Fiona’s ears drooped. "When did I do that?"

Maria could smell foul play as Jeanna held up her phone. "Give me a chance to show you! Dozens upon dozens of people were recording around Miami Beach when the military raided that terrorist stronghold. There are some really concerning things that were captured."

"You make it sound like a movie," Roy grumbled. "Are you trying to blackmail Ms. White? You do realize it is still Martial Law right now, and you are in a restricted zone."

"Eh-hehe. No need to be so draconian!" Jeanna said with a strained smile, her French accent thickening. "I actually want to write a glowing piece about the daring venture, where these changed individuals helped save hundreds, if not thousands, of lives! There are just a few...details I’d like to verify."

"What kind of details?" Roy guardedly asked, now far more serious about the topic, since there were probably a lot of ways this could be spun.

"This girl, specifically...I haven’t been able to get a name anywhere! It’s hard to gather certain details when people’s appearance changes so dramatically."

Maria’s mouth became a line as she showed a few still images from a video in which Rachel sat at a table, seemingly having tea with Relica. It was dark, but the bright street lights illuminated the area well enough to make out enough to see a ’bunny girl’ and the terrorist.

"My sources in the Coast Guard told me this young, black-haired woman is actually Relica Orakzai, real name unknown, and currently the 7th listed on the FBI’s most wanted. Haha. It’s no wonder the US military went in guns blazing, but the mystery about this bunny girl is just...so out there! Why is she having tea with her?"

She swiftly swiped left to show more pictures from different angles, all taken from within buildings by people cowering inside during the operation.

"As a timeline: she’s escorted here by you Green Berets, causes a scene with some social media influencer, meets with you, Maria Camila Espinar, and then Relica shows up out of the blue to challenge this bunny girl as a...shadow?"

She chortled at the story. "Next thing, a military helicopter drops her off a few blocks away; she walks up to one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world—who now has powers, it seems—and, goodness, then shoves her back, seemingly taunting her. Then, she walks into a golden gateway with some...eh-hah, I don’t know, practically naked, bronze-skinned Greek god?"

Jeanna held up the photo of Conner, making Maria’s gut tighten; she’d been forced to heal the legend after his orgy death party. After that, Maria had nothing to say to this woman. It was a lot of groundwork and photos, for sure, but it didn’t concern her, nor did she want any part in it.

Maria’s focus went to her brother as she found her vehicle in the parking lot. He was having trouble working the hydraulics in her car to bring it over and was not very successful in operating them; she should have taught him. It might be a while at this pace.

Roy and Fiona, however, had their own issues with all of this evidence coming out, engaging the woman.

"What about the ice thing?" Fiona nervously asked, hands pressed against her chest. "I didn’t hurt anyone, did I?"

Jeanna waved her hand with a reassuring grin. "Oh, no, no, but that’s small stuff, honey! See...some Jamaican family recorded the club you were all fighting in from the next building over. They caught a few pictures of you—a glowing ball of fire or ice—passing by the windows, and then..."

"Yikes!" Fiona hissed as a lance of ice shot through the wall and into the adjacent hotel room, freaking out the men and women as they screamed curses in their native tongue. "I wasn’t even thinking about all the damage I was causing... They were just so evil that..."

"Aye," Maria interrupted, getting fed up with the distraction. "Don’t give her shit to hit you with, chica. She’s after the bag, and she’ll bury you to get it."

Roy promptly took Jeanna’s phone to look through more of the pictures, making the young woman laugh.

"All of them are backed up, and I’m not the only one these people are selling these videos and photos to... Oh, yes, that one is soo interesting. The bunny goes into the golden gateway with the muscular man, and then she comes out with a little bunny girl. What is the story there?! I’m soo fascinated by this weird event. You have to give me the scoop! Wait, that one..."

The military man paused on a video showing a black meteor laced with crimson lightning. It exploded from the upper floors, blasting through multiple buildings before landing in a park; the parts had been spliced together from multiple angles and locations to create an almost cinematic experience. Inside the crater, the scarred visage of a near-naked man lay, barely visible from the angle it was recorded on, what appeared to be a second-story window.

"Yes, that one! From the black fire that the bunnies gave off when they came out of the portal, I have to assume it was them. And who is this man that could survive that kind of punishment?! Is he a terrorist? He isn’t in any of the other videos I’ve—what?! Hey!"

She snatched the phone back as a mischievous angel-boy avatar flickered across the screen, and soft laughter came from the speakers as the filtered voice, image, and tone turned feminine.

"Spying would be my job, honey. It’s Astra, hacker extraordinaire! If you’d like these files back, I’d suggest getting the owner’s permission. Toodles!"

"My phone!" It started to smoke, the smell of burnt plastic coming from the device. "What was that?! You can’t do that!"

Roy’s gaze went to her brother as he finally pulled up in her car. "It wasn’t us."

"It certainly looks like it benefits you," she accused.

"Yes, well, there’s a hacker going by the name of Astra that’s been making waves. Maybe they want to extort you. You should start there. Excuse me, but we need to go." He held up his walkie-talkie. "This is Black Paw, I need an escort out back for a reporter who slipped the barrier."

"You’re only delaying the inevitable!" Jeanna shouted, face red. Yet it almost seemed a little fake, and Maria caught a few blonde strands in her hair.

Her thoughts went inward as Fiona flew around the car, asking her brother all sorts of questions he couldn’t answer. Roy appraised it with an impressed eye, as well, talking to the pair about his own classic car he was fixing up.

On the other hand, Maria was far more concerned about her mental state. Checking the time on the dashboard clock, she saw that over two hours had passed, which was practically a blank.

Was it Rachel...or her mom? Damn, this new world is messing with me! Everything’s good now... So, I should be able to drive... Yeah, nothin’ like a chill drive to clear the head.

[The Legend of Saint Jeanne’s PoV]

Jeanne meekly followed the Coast Guard out of the restricted area and got on a motorcycle that had been prepared in advance. The engine’s thrum vibrated through her thighs as she put on sunglasses and sped off.

Three blocks down, she pulled into a parking lot in a production neighborhood, where a limousine waited. Parking in the stall beside it, she opened the door and entered.

A sharp-dressed young man with an intense, solemn face sat across from her; his mane of lustrous black locks fell to his shoulders, neatly groomed. Beside her waited a young French boy on a phone, playing some kind of game and chewing bubble gum.

Pulling off her brown wig and trying not to blink from the agitation she felt from the contact lenses she wore, Jeanne glared at her senior before speaking in French. "Is that really the only reason you upended everything I was doing in Paris to join you, Saint Charlemagne? I am not a spy. I’m a soldier."

The boy snickered. "I thought you played the part well, Jeanne d’Arc, and somehow she didn’t even recognize your Divine Energy. That was...not what I anticipated, but it does make things easier... Maria was fairly loopy, though, which is...weird. I’m going to have to look into that."

Jeanne had almost had it up to here with this hacker-for-hire’s ever-shifting personality. "How can you work against them when you were supporting them not three days ago, Astra? I don’t like people who can turn on their allies," she snarled, fixing her absurdly thick blonde hair into a braid; it was so hard to hide with the wig.

Charlemagne leaned against the long vehicle’s side, staring at his phone. "Israel gave us this intelligence for a reason, and we were able to confirm it... The UK was doing business with Relica to expose some secret organization. It seems tensions will rise between them and the US from this, which means someone important will need to make a trip. There is something...off about this lunar hare girl, though. What are your thoughts, Astra?"

The boy blew a bubble before sucking it back in, narrowed eyes lifting to the man as he paused his game. "You hired me to lock down the French network, get all the information on this mission, and make them think they’re in the clear. You have all the evidence I gathered from the night of the operation. Everything else I learned after is not a part of the contract."

The dark-haired man gave the hacker a calculating stare. "You’re scared of her."

"Humph." Astra put his phone in his pocket. "You have the details on the Crystals and that something unusual happened to Rachel in the Legend Quest. MI6 is working with Relica, who is backstabbing the Scarlet Hand, who wants Scarlet, who is attached to Rachel by the hip, like sisters. If you want to get to her, you need to go through Rachel, and, as you said, I’m cautious about making Rachel my enemy."

He popped open the door. "In my opinion, we’re all unusually lucky Rachel is knocked out right now because she’s...too perceptive. My advice? I wouldn’t recommend poking the hare after everything I’ve gathered. Good day, My Lovely Saints, and may God shine on you."

Jeanne sat back with a frown as he left, closing the door and changing his avatar. "He worked with the Scarlet Hand, yet we’re still using him?"

"Astra is a wild card; it’s good to keep them close enough to observe... And look at that, Israel," he whispered with an uncharacteristic smile. "It’s Solomon’s move."