Chapter 8 - The Espionage(?)

[At the Observatory]

"But you have to be there! You must, Mr.Hugo! You are heavily needed!" Flo pleaded, clutching her hands to her chest.

"No, Flo, I should not," Mr.Hugo said dramatically, throwing his hands up. "For you young ones, it is still easier to be forgiven. I am not at an age where I can just say it was a silly prank and be let off! I'll be in jail if I get caught! Also, you guys can very well pull it off without me."

"But we won't be caught as it's a foolproof plan! Also, you are very much needed because, one: I need someone with me to observe and compare with my real-time ObserVation scans. Two: we have a DayShiner, a NightGlower and a TwiLighter. So we need an observer in our squad, otherwise how will we look like a legit inspection team? And you know I can't act as the official observer because Caecilius doesn't know about my dual abilities!"

"It's not right, Flo," Mr.Hugo insisted, shaking his head.

"But it's for science... and..." Flo's lip trembled. She dropped her head and looked up through her eyelashes with watery, glistening eyes. "...for me."

Mr.Hugo was completely powerless against those puppy eyes. Somewhere in his mind, he still saw the little ten-year-old Flo he had met years ago, standing in his chaotic laboratory, looking at the world as if it were a grand mystery made just for her to solve.

"Aaaa... okay, fine!" Mr.Hugo groaned, caving in at last.

"Thank you, Mr.Hugo!" Flo brightened instantly, her tears vanishing without a trace. "In exchange, I will oversee two extra screenings today!"

"You better. So what do we have to prepare?" inquired Mr.Hugo.

"Nothing! Just meet me at the corner near Café Zell and I will tell you all there is to know there."

Flo turned to leave, then paused. She slowly turned back, scanning Mr.Hugo from top to bottom with a critical eye. "Oh and make sure to wear your most authentic-looking researcher outfit."

Mr.Hugo blinked, looking down at his standard tunic. "Do you mean to say I don't look like one already?"

"You know what I mean!" Flo laughed, backing away down the hall. "Okay, bye, ahahaha!"

She sprinted off before he could argue and Mr.Hugo stood there completely puzzled, scratching his head. "This doesn't seem right. Why do the roles feel reversed?"

[The Day of the Action]

At the corner near Café Zell, the four co-conspirators met discreetly in their so-not-discreet, flashy outfits.

Flo had layered a trailing, snow-white cloak over her uniform, complete with a leather ledger under her arm and brass-rimmed goggles propped on her head. Amelia was wearing her normal TwiLighter attire that she used to wear in her advanced training with her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. Caecilius wore his neat, formal NightGlow cloak with its three lapel stars gleaming in the morning sun.

And then there was Mr.Hugo.

He had taken Flo's instructions far too literally. He wore a stiff, floor-length academic coat, protective spectacles, an immaculate necktie and carried a giant wooden clipboard he had evidently commandeered from the main Observatory desk.

Amelia looked at the group, then down at her sharp boots. "I didn't know we were having a runway walk. I feel so underdressed."

Mr.Hugo let out a weary sigh,"Trust me, I do not want this either. Also, you are fine."

"Okay, now listen up!" Flo gathered them into a tight circle. "Our plan is that we will act as an official inspection team investigating localised magical disturbances in residential sectors, especially after the recent incidents. Mr.Hugo is our lead supervisor and spokesperson. Caecilius handles the NightGlow credentials and Amelia and I assist with spatial readings."

She then pulled Amelia aside by her sleeve while Caecilius and Mr.Hugo double-checked the address.

"You know what to do, right?" Flo whispered.

Amelia gave her a cool, confident smirk and confirmed,"Don't worry. I will keep Caecilius distracted."

When they arrived, the house looked utterly ordinary but the elderly couple who opened the door immediately eyed the flamboyant quartet with heavy suspicion.

"...An inspection team?" the elderly woman asked, squinting through the doorway.

Mr.Hugo, designated as spokesperson, instantly puffed out his chest. "Yes! We are an official, completely legitimate, definitely authorised inspection unit from the Cirnian Ability Research Department! We have absolutely nothing suspicious going on here today!"

Amelia slowly buried her face in her hands. Caecilius stared in complete silence while Flo just smiled stiffly and nervously.

"Mr.Hugo!" Amelia hissed under her breath. "You are making us look like criminals!"

"I am reassuring them!" Mr.Hugo whispered back frantically.

"You are doing the exact opposite!"

Despite the absurd opening, the elderly couple let them in, guiding them to the sitting room. The couple sat across from them, their faces shadowed with eerie solemnity as they began telling chilling and spooky tales of the occurrences.

"At first... we heard the footsteps upstairs," the old woman whispered, leaning forward. "Slow..... steps."

"And then," the old man added, his voice dropping an octave, "the books began tumbling off the shelves in the study room down here by themselves. And at night... we would hear something dragging itself across the floorboards."

To demonstrate, the old man slowly dragged his heel across the wooden floor.

Screeeeech.

Mr.Hugo flinched violently, his glasses sliding down his nose. Flo gasped, her eyes widening as tears of pure horror welled up.

Meanwhile, Caecilius and Amelia listened completely stone-faced. Caecilius, adhering strictly to his formal training, took mental notes without reacting to the theatrical delivery.

"And the worst part..." the old woman pointed a frail finger towards the hall. "The piano in that hall... plays by itself in the pitch dark. We have seen it with our own eyes."

"How could you see in the dark?" Amelia asked. The elderly couple looked a bit offended.

Mr.Hugo grabbed Flo's sleeve, who already had tears spilling over her cheeks. "Flo... I don't like this. I think the house is actually haunted!"

"Mr.Hugo, please do not say that!" Flo squeaked. "I am trying very hard to remain calm!"

Seeing her moment, Amelia stood up gracefully. "I think we know enough. Let's focus on the physical inspection now. Let's split up!"

She then turned to the team and said quietly, "Caecilius and I can do the upstairs and you guys can stay here and look around since you're the science guys and most of the physical stuff happens down here anyway. We'll keep the couple busy above!"

Amelia instantly flipped a mental switch. She dropped her cool, untouchable 'baddie' aura and transformed on the spot into an outrageously bubbly, outspoken, chatty girl because she knew Caecilius's quiet nature meant he would never naturally keep a conversation going to distract the homeowners, so someone had to take up this job thus, took on double the workload herself.

"Oh, I just adore antique houses!" Amelia gasped loudly, taking the elderly couple by their arms and steering them towards the stairs. "You simply must show me your house! Caecilius, isn't the layout and craftsmanship of this house fascinating? Come, come!"

Caecilius blinked and just nodded, actually starting to judge the house.

As they headed up the staircase, Amelia's eyes briefly met Flo's. Flo looked up at her with big, watery eyes, silently conveying a mountain of dramatic gratitude: 'Thank you for your sacrifice, mon Ami! Your name shall be written in the hall of fame of true friends! Thank you for your hard work.'

Amelia looked back proudly: 'Remember me for my services.'

Flo nodded: 'We shall honour your sacrifice till the end of our lifetime.'

Upstairs, Amelia's rapid-fire chatter echoed through the floorboards. "And what kind of wood is this? Mahogany? Oh, my uncle once built a chair out of mahogany! Or was it oak? Caecilius, do you prefer oak or mahogany? Let's discuss architecture!"

Caecilius offered occasional responses. "I have no preference." or "That is informative."

Amelia carried the entire social weight of distracting three people, her soul practically visibly departing her body from the sheer effort. Downstairs, Mr.Hugo and Flo were having their own quiet conundrum.

"What are you even doing, Mr.Hugo?!" Flo hissed, rubbing her tear-stained cheeks. "You are overacting!"

"I told you this was dangerous!" Mr.Hugo snapped back defensively.

"Well, yeah, because of you! You are the danger itself!"

"I am an elderly researcher thrust into espionage!"

"Anyhow, get back to work!"

Mr.Hugo straightened his necktie and activated his ObserVation ability. A faint, subtle ripple of detection magic spread across the room but nothing, no abnormal magic signatures and no anomalies either.

Flo stepped up next, casting her own ObserVation scan wave. The familiar wave swept through the walls and furniture but there was nothing out of the ordinary.

Flo cast it again from the corner and she cast it facing the hallway and yet the results remained the same: There seemed to be no such anomaly.

Mr.Hugo hugged himself, trembling slightly as a picture frame on the wall suddenly shifted an inch on its own. He shuddered, "Flo... this might actually be a haunted house and we're just looking in the wrong place."

"No!" Flo insisted, stomping her foot slightly. "My gut says it has to be here!"

She yanked open her notebook, rapidly flipping back to her logs from the day of the mountain tornado. Her eyes darted across her scribbled notes. 'Shield barrier active... forced ObserVation... golden-white core…'

Then, she recalled the moment.

On the mountain, her DayShine shield had been continuously active to block the flying debris and while maintaining that raw output, she had forced her ObserVation scan to trigger at the same time. So, she hadn't cast them separately; rather, they had collided!

Flo's eyes burned with the intensity of this new possibility. Her breath hitched.

'What if?'

She closed her notebook and let it drop onto the table. She planted her feet firmly on the floorboards, taking a deep, steadying breath.

"Mr.Hugo," Flo murmured, her voice losing all its prior panic, settling into a tone of pure, unshakable focus. "Watch closely with your ObserVation. I have a feeling this will be it."

"Flo?"

Flo raised her left hand and instead of activating her abilities one after the other, she drew from both magic pools simultaneously.

"[-DayShine-]!"

Brilliant, blinding white light erupted from her core, enveloping her arms in radiant heat. But before the light could form a simple shield, she forced her mind to channel her second ability directly into the flare.

Simultaneously, she placed her right hand beside her right eye and activated:

"[-ObserVation!-]"

She could feel the two forces fusing together inside her magic pathways at her core. Her hair lifted into the air, caught in an invisible, rising pressure draft. Her eyes flashed with a piercing, ethereal glow, with a symbolic spinning star enclosed in a rotating engraved crest never seen before by her.

A magnificent, sweeping wave of pure golden-white energy flowed outward from Flo's position. It wasn't a soft wave. It was a magnificent, cresting tsunami of golden-white light that washed through the walls, the floorboards, the furniture and up through the ceiling into the floor above.

The wave illuminated the hidden fabric of the room and right there, floating in the corner of the hall near the picture frame, trapped within the radiant golden-white field, a tiny, fluctuating golden-white core revealed itself.

Flo stood at the centre of the radiant light, her long white researcher coat billowing around her, her glowing eyes locked dead onto the target.

She had done it. The strange wave was back and this time, she had commanded it.

"Got you."