1525 Monday 26th May 2025
Emery and Helena were sitting next to each other in science class, the teacher was handing out their marked assignments.
"A three, a bloody three." Emery said while shaking his head in disbelief.
"How do you get a three, you're straight sevens normally." Helena replied.
"Chucked it together last minute, got some bad spelling and grammar." Emery sighed as he looked at his reflection in the classroom window.
A smartly dressed year eleven, wearing a shirt, tie and blazer, longish, shaggy brown hair, and blue greyish eyes. Helena was wearing the same as Emery except her blazer was on the back of her chair, she had green eyes, and slightly shorter brown hair than Emery.
"Well, well, you know who won't be doing last minute dot com again, don't ya." Helena giggled fiendishly.
"How about we go to Tesco's, before we go back to mine?" Emery asked, ignoring Helena's last comment.
"Any particular reason?" Helena asked back.
"I'm thinking about cooking us some tea, but need some supplies." Emery replied.
"Fair enough." Helena said as the final bell rang.
Everyone stood up and collected their bags and coats before leaving the classroom.
1535 Monday 26th May 2025
As Emery and Helena were walking to Tesco's, which was about a ten minute walk from the school, Emery started to feel like he was being watched.
"Hey, Helena." Emery said.
"Yeah." Helena replied.
"Do you feel like you're being watched at all?" Emery asked concerned.
"No, why." Helena replied.
"I do, and I can't shake the feeling either." Emery said as he looked around.
"You're probably just being paranoid." Helena laughed while patting his back.
"Probably." Emery said warily.
1542 Monday 26th May 2025
Emery was in the world foods isle in Tesco's, looking at some sushi rice, mirin, nori, and some rice wine vinegar. Helena was in the American section looking at some Twinkies. Emery was just putting the items in his basket when he noticed a glimmer of light, this glimmer of light was seemingly coming from nowhere. Emery dropped the basket and instinctively put out his hand.
"Emery, what's up?" Helena said concerned as she rushed over.
"Reveal hidden light." Emery said.
As he said that a bright flash of light illuminated the isle, then it died down and a tall beefy man appeared, wearing all black jeans, shoes, shirt. and leather jacket, short cropped brown hair, and brown eyes with a tint of green in them.
"Hello Emery, Helena." The beefy man said while making a slight bow.
Emery and Helena looked at each other startled and confused, trying to comprehend what had just happened, then Emery spoke out.
"Hi, and you are?" Emery said.
"Cairne, Julius Cairne, my friends and colleagues call me Cairne, but you can call me whatever you like." The beefy man explained.
"So, Julius, why have you been following me and Helena today?" Emery asked, realizing his suspicions about being followed was not paranoia.
"Ahh, now that will take some explaining." Julius said.
"Please continue." Emery said.
"To put things shortly, I, am on a recruitment mission, and you and Helena are my, potential, recruits." Julius explained.
"To recruit us for what, exactly." Emery asked curiously.
"Better question, do you know what you've just done?" Julius asked back.
"I don't know, it seemed like magic." Emery said confused.
"Bingo." Julius smiled.
"Wait, wait, wait, I need to get this straight, so you're saying that my best friend just used magic to, reveal, hidden, light, was it?" Helena asked, looking like she was going to explode.
"Yes he did." Julius replied.
"God today just got exciting." Helena screamed.
"Exciting it got indeed, right, now, please quickly take my arm so that we can teleport to you're potential place of work and study as I think the bouncer is on his way over here and we don't want to be here when he does." Julius said in desperation.
Emery and Helena quickly did as they were told, and all three disappeared in a bright flash of light.
1545 Monday 26th May 2025
In another bright flash of light, the trio was standing in front of a massive glass building with "MASI" in huge frosted letters across the front of it.
"Wow, this place is huge." Emery gawped.
"It does kind of take the breath away doesn't it." Julius commented.
"You could say that again." Helena said.
"Right then, shall we go in?" Julius asked.
The trio walked into the large glass building and was greeted in by a very well presented young lady wearing a grey checked suit, with matching wedges. She had blond hair and sunset yellow eyes.
"Welcome to MASI." The lady smiled.
"Hi Veronica, we need a clean up in Tesco's, Whitfield, Kent. Could you also get Zak for us please, we'll be in the canteen getting a cup of coffee?" Julius asked.
"Certainly Cairne, I'll get right on it." Veronica said as she hurried off down the north west corridor.
"Right, follow me you two." Julius smiled.
The trio walked down the north east corridor, to the canteen and sat down at an empty table.
"Tea or coffee?" Julius asked.
"Tea please." Emery and Helena replied in unison.
Julius came back with a cup of coffee for himself and two teas for Emery and Helena. Shortly after Julius sat down a tall middle-aged man wearing a black and read robe, black trousers and black brogues', with silver hair and purple eyes sat down with them.
"Hello you two, Cairne, Welcome to MASI." The man said. "My name is Zak Milligan, I am the Viceroy for the British branch of MASI."
"Hi Zak." Emery and Helena said after taking sips from their cups of tea.
"So here at MASI, that's the magic association and science institution or the Magi academy of science and information technology, depending on whom you're addressing, we enforce magical law, which unofficially in terms of the law, is an extension on general law set by the government. We deal with magical infractions and work with the police, of which we have operatives in every police department in the UK, and world wide in fact, to help identify magical infractions, and deal with them. You with me so far?" Zak explained.
"Uh ha." Emery and Helena said.
"Good, now to enforce the law we have agents that we send out to apprehend targets and process them here at MASI, and if the infraction isn't serious, the incident is just logged and the, target as I am referring to them, are virtually slapped on the wrists and we send them on their merry way. However, if an infraction is serious then we might look at isolation at Hernandez, which is our version of Alcatraz, we only have one prison in magical society and that is Hernandez, fortunately we have very few inmates there, which is why we only have one in the whole world which is in Australia where we have the friendliest of relationships with the government, and they agreed with MASI to have a prison built for the worlds magic offenders back in the eighteen hundreds, and the system has been the same since. Well enough of prisons and let's move on to you, you have not, knowingly broken any laws as you were in the process of being recruited and didn't even know about us until now, so Emery's infraction will have a case report but no action or advisory are given so Emery still has a clean record as far as a criminal record goes, so rest assured we're not worried about it and you shouldn't be either Emery. As for recruitment, we would like to enroll you both into our academic side of our organisation as well as our agent side, if you both accept, now I have explained to you what we do here." Zak continued.
"Just one question, and it's probably dumb, but here it goes, why do you want to recruit us in the first place?" Helena asked.
"Not at all, the answer is simple, you and Emery both have high sacchion surges or spiritual pressures as they are sometimes called, and due to Emery's episode in Tesco's today we decided to accelerate the recruitment process by dragging you out of school now and having the extra paperwork fill out rather than just send you back home with nothing. It's more of a goodwill gesture than anything else and it's your choice to come here and start tomorrow rather than go home and wait till August when you have your GCSE results. You see we can do your last GCSE here, which is, Science I believe, and you'd have another year and a bit to do it along with your A-Levels and University Degree if you'd like." Zak replied.
"Sound's cool, I'd do it, how about you Helena?" Emery said.
"Yeah, don't have to ask me twice." Helena beamed.
"Glad we have you on board." Zak smiled. "Right, Cairne, you need to take them to inform the school then bring them back here for awakening. In the meanwhile I'll sort out a brochure for the parent's and fill out the paper work for the Tesco's incident okay?"
"Okay Zak, we'll get right to it." Julius replied.
"See you in a bit." Zak said as he walked out of the canteen.
1605 Monday 26th May 2025
Emery, Helena, and Julius teleported just outside the school gate, but luckily no one was around see them. They walked through the main building to the Head Mistress' office. Julius knocked on the door.
"Come in." A voice said on the other side of the door.
The trio walked in and took seats. The Head Mistress looked up.
"Who the hell are you?" The Head Mistress asked Julius acerbically.
"My name is Julius Cairne." Julius said while handing over his MASI identification card. "I am here to inform you of a transfer request made by Emery and Helena to transfer to the Magi academy of science and information technology in Cumbria, which is a boarding school that does from GCSE through to University degrees for student's talented in science and IT."
The Head Mistress quickly looked up Julius' ID on the MASI website and everything checked out.
"Well what about you two, is this true." The Head Mistress asked turning to Emery and Helena.
"It is." Emery and Helena replied.
"Well, I must say that it is highly irregular to transfer schools when you have almost finished your GCSE's, you know that if you both transfer now your science will become null and void as it is not completed yet." The Head Mistress explained.
"We know, if we transfer now we get an extra year to do our science GCSE, and to be honest Miss it is worth it for what we will be doing for the next five years." Emery replied.
"Well, I see that I have no choice, I expect a formal transfer request no later than o-nine-hundred tomorrow Julius." The Head Mistress said while handing back his ID card.
"Thank you for your understanding, good day to you." Julius said courteously.
"You too." The Head Mistress said.
The trio got up and left the office.
"Right coast is clear, let's teleport." Julius said as Emery and Helena grabbed an arm each.
The trio disappeared in a bright flash of light.
1620 Monday 26th May 2025
The trio were in gymnasium one, a short walk down the same corridor as the canteen.
"Right then, let's awaken you both." Julius said. "Emery can you copy this ki blast?"
Julius demonstrated a ki blast, a ball of energy and light, and Emery copied the technique with ease.
"Great, Helena, how about you, can you catch the ki blast?" Julius asked.
"I'll try, Emery?" Helena replied.
Emery threw the ki blast at Helena but she just absorbed it.
"Helena, what did you feel when you absorbed that ki blast?" Julius asked.
"It felt like I got a boost from it, I think." Helena replied.
"Good, try catching this one." Julius said as he threw it.
This time Helena caught it this time.
"Done it, I think I can recreate it too." Helena said.
"Please do." Julius said.
Helena dispersed the ki blast Julius threw and created her own.
"Hmm, that worked." Helena said.
"Great." Julius smiled. "Now I'm going to teach you both self acceleration."
As Julius was demonstrating self acceleration, Zak had made his way upstairs to the observation deck to watch Emery and Helena learn the basics of magic techniques.
"Your turn Helena." Julius said.
Helena got a running start and began to run normally, and then the self acceleration kicked in and she zoomed across the gymnasium, stopping just shy of the wall.
"Right, Emery next." Julius smiled.
Emery also started running normally and then he vanished from sight. The next thing Helena, Julius and Zak heard was a very loud thud as Emery hit the gymnasium wall. Emery was on the floor bleeding out, Helena and Julius rushed over with self acceleration, while Zak smiled and watch from on high noticing that Emery had just started a very complicated and high level magic sequence.
"Self repair auto start." Emery croaked.
All Emery could see was white, then, strings of characters appeared before him, it was his own subatomic changelog.
"Identifying corrupted sequence and making a full backup before it, rewriting corrupted sequence with the backup. Self repair, complete." Emery said
Emery got up, and the blood that was once there before, was gone. Zak had started to make his way downstairs, meanwhile Helena was punching Emery on the shoulder.
"We thought you just killed yourself dum dum." Helena scream, almost on the verge of tears.
"I thought so too." Emery said wearily.
"I say chap, that was quite something." Julius said while scratching his head.
"Emery, do you know what you just done?" Zak queried.
"I rewrote my own subatomic changelog, the injury never happened I guess." Emery said, scratching his head.
"Yes you did, and are you also aware that it is the most advanced form of magic currently in use by some very gifted MASI personnel?" Zak asked.
"No, I didn't" Emery said, looking blankly at Zak.
Zak got out his pad and swiped a card on it, and handed it over to Emery, including the card.
Emery Yates, Employee number 00002C87D
Granting Elevated Privileges for Medical Role.
Privileges Entail: Unrestricted Sparring for any party under YOUR supervision when YOU are present in that gymnasium; Access to all areas of any MASI building; Access to Medical Laboratories 1, 2, and 5; Access to Library restricted sections 1, 2, 3, 5, & 7.
Please swipe YOUR ID card to accept.
Emery swiped his ID card and handed the pad back to Zak.
"Thank you Zak." Emery beamed.
"Don't get the wrong idea Emery, this is very serious business and comes with some conditions imposed. One, you must report for medical duty with Doctor Valery at nineteen-hundred hours till twenty-one-hundred every day starting from tomorrow. Two, due to the consequences of subatomic changelog rewriting, you must be willing to endure those consequences if you are to allow potentially lethal sparring matches on your watch, otherwise you must inform the party or parties concerned that you won't allow it on that occasion and you don't have to give a reason, it's your body and mind at the end of the day and no one should force you, but otherwise no problems. Are we clear?" Zak said sternly.
"Yes Zak, and to be honest I don't think it is that bad, I mean I only felt the pain for a few moments, it's tolerable for me so I have no problem using it selflessly for others, not at all." Emery explained.
"Fair enough." Zak smiled. "Please continue on with your training. Oh and Helena, this is yours" Zak said as he handed over her ID card.
Zak went back upstairs to watch while Julius continued on with the lesson.
"Okay, so, let's finish off with some basic combat skills and then put it all together." Julius explained.
Julius demonstrated a few punches and kicks including a standing roundhouse kick. Emery and Helena practiced in their own spaces first then decided to practice on each other and had a spar. Emery took the lead by self accelerating at Helena performing five lightning fast punches and three kicks on Helena. Helena retaliated by performing a roundhouse kick, self accelerated, to Emery's abdomen causing him to double over, then wrapped her hand in a ki blast and self accelerated, karate chopped full force, Emery on the back, breaking his spine.
"Ow, Helena, why?" Emery bawled.
"Because I felt like it okay." Helena giggled fiendishly.
"Okay, you won, I yield, I resign." Emery screamed as he performed a subatomic changlog rewrite.
Emery got up and decked Helena one, sending her flying across the gymnasium.
"That's for breaking my back." Emery laughed.
"Alright, I guess I deserved that one." Helena smiled as she got up.
Julius was in stitches.
"Oh my God, you two are funny." Julius laughed.
"Indeed." Zak said as he entered the sparring area. "Well, here is the brochure Cairne."
Zak handed over the brochure to Julius.
"Cheers Zak." Julius said while still laughing, but quickly gained his composure for what he was about to say next. "Right, we need to tell your parents about your transfer to MASI.
"Hey mum, just got accepted for magic high and got myself a job as a medic, I don't think that would was some how." Emery said sarcastically.
"That is what the brochure is for, you see if anyone in either of your families has a magical lineage, they should be able to see the Magic Association copy of the brochure, otherwise we will just explain that it is the Magi Academy, and just won't tell them of our true nature, but I doubt that, very much." Julius explained.
"So the brochure has magical properties then?" Helene asked curiously, looking at the brochure in Julius' hand.
"Yes, if a parent comments on it, it will break the perception filter for all, but if they can't come to that on their own then we can't tell them, ever, but it is very unlikely that at least one both your parent doesn't have magical lineage especially as both your sacchion surges are strong." Zak explained.
"Well, let's get going." Julius said.
1645 Monday 26th May 2025
Emery, Helena, and Julius were outside Emery's house. Julius knocked on the door. A woman with blond hair, blue greyish eyes like Emery's, wearing a sports top and tracksuit bottoms opened the door., it was Emery's mum.
"Yes." Emery's mum said.
"Hi my name is Julius Cairne." Julius said showing his MASI ID card. "I'm here to inform you that Emery and his friend have been accepted to work and study at the Magi academy of science and information technology."
"You better come in then as we are all here, my name is Eliza, Emery's mum." Emery's mum smiled.
"Nice to finally meet you." Julius said as he walked in with Emery and Helena in tow.
Julius sat next to Helena's parents, Susan and John and handed the brochure to Eliza.
"As I have just explained to Eliza, My name is Julius Cairne and I am very pleased to inform you that both your children have been accepted to work and study at the Magi academy of science and information technology." Julius explained.
"This can't be right, the text is changing between the Magi academy and magic association." Eliza said confused.
Emery and Helena looked at each other and grinned.
"Thank you for noticing Eliza, you see the Magi academy is our public face and that brochure your holding has a perception filter so that only people who possess, even the slightest bit of magic, can read both copies at will. You see due to the nature of this being true magic, which is a gift that not many people have, we have to be sure that even the parent do not know about us unless at least one parent, who can see both copies of the brochure. In this case you Eliza." Julius explained.
"I see, well I wouldn't have believed you anyway if I didn't see it for myself." Eliza said passing the brochure around.
"Again, another reason we don't like to just say straight of the bat. I hope you all understand." Julius said.
"So, magic, what defines it in your society?" Emery's dad, Eral asked.
"You see magic or true magic refers to a subatomic particle called a sacchion, which by public science, hasn't even been discovered yet and probably won't for another hundred years as it is so small, neither has gravitons, but that isn't as far off as sacchions. You see we as a science institution have made several advancements in technology far beyond what the general public has found out, but due to the nature of it being discovered the whole world would probably laugh in our face to be honest, so we don't disclose, even to the government. However, the government do know of our existence, and have left the governing of magical society to us providing that we don't make much noise. Although this is on the verge of change as the governments are recognizing that the world would benefit from our advancements and are looking to reintegrate us with society, but that takes time. The world is simply not ready yet." Julius explained.
"It makes sense anyhow." John said.
"Thank you for your understanding." Julius smiled. "Now the compound is in Cumbria, so your kids are going to be a long way from home and will spend at least five years up there training, leaning and working before they will be allowed to move back down, are you okay with that?"
"What do you two think of all this?" Susan asked.
"We have already agreed it's down to you mum." Helena said.
"Well if the kids want to do it who are we to stop them honey." Eral said.
"I guess." Eliza said, still not sure.
"What about their education, they haven't even finished school yet?" John asked.
"Their education would be catered for, we do GCSE's through to University, and the get a year's extension on their science GCSE as they are transferring from school." Julius explained.
"Well, I guess their covered then babe." Susan said.
"It would seem, so." John said.
"Would you like to come and see their place of work and study?" Julius asked.
"But Cumbria's on the other side of the country." Eliza said.
"We've already been there twice today you know mum." Emery smiled.
"Shut up." Susan said.
"Seriously, place your hands on mine in the middle of the coffee table." Julius said.
Emery and Helena placed their hands on Julius' and the parents followed suit out of shear curiosity to see if anything would happen. In a bright flash of light they were all standing outside the MASI building.
"I eat my words, you actually meant it." Susan gawped.
"Welcome to MASI." Julius beamed.
"It's bloody huge." Eliza said gobsmacked. "The brochure doesn't do it justice."
The group walked in and were greeted by Zak who introduced himself and whisked the parents off for their briefing and tour, meanwhile Julius took Emery and Helena to the canteen for tea and coffee and briefed them on their care package.
"So, you will get a three bedroom house between you, a car since Emery already has a driving license, and a shared bank account where your living allowance will get paid into which is already set up, here are your bank cards and pins. As you can probably tell we have been preparing for your arrival for quite some time." Julius explained.
"It's amazing what you can do for us, really." Helena said inspecting her new Natwest bank card.
"Well, we are registered as a government body in terms of banking so we can just set up bank cards for anyone without signatures so that we can prepare for new arrivals such as yourselves." Julius explained. "It's not a privilege just anyone has, we had to get the prime minister to sign off on that, years ago now. Anyway, you'll get a phone, tablet computer and the house is fully furnished so you can move in straight away, but to be honest, better spend your last night at home aye."
"Yeah, that means we can pack too aye Helena." Emery said
"Yeah. Oh man this is like a dream." Helena laughed.
Zak and the parent's turned up in the canteen.
"So I hear your're moving in with Helena tomorrow." Eliza said.
"Yeah, it seems so mum." Emery beamed.
"Right, you have now all been briefed and make sure that you refer to us as the Magi academy from now on, or just MASI. It is of the upmost importance." Zak said sternly.
"Yes Zak." Emery and Helena said sharpish.
Julius took the group back to Emery's parents and said goodbye. Helena ended up staying round Emery's and brought a butt load of stuff, Emery packed a bit lighter and then Eliza told Emery and Helena to go to bed as they had an early start in the morning.