Techno-magic book?

1

The man woke in his bed, soaked in sweat. Then he realized that was't sweat, and this wasn't his bed. He was drowning. The man saw a silvery light above him. In need of air, he swam towards it. Breaking the surface, the man realized two things. The first was that he really needed that air. He felt as though he hadn't taken a breath in years. The second thing, which he realized as he was pulled from the water by a pair of very firm hands, was that he was in a lot of trouble.

"Ten minutes Damian! Not two goddamn weeks!" Another man, who looked to be roughly in his forties stood over him, gazing down at him with a furious look in his eyes.

For a moment, the man wondered who was being yelled at so angrily. He didn't like loud noises, and wanted it to stop. The next moment he began to think that it was him who was being yelled at. Was his name Damian? Only one way to find out.

"Sir, are you attempting communication with me? If so, please refrain from speaking in such a tone." These are the words that the man, whose name was quite likely Damian, attempted to speak. He formulated them in his head, that part went fine. Somewhere along the way from his brain to his mouth that sentence became "You talking to me, man? Quieter please, I reallau-ghh..."

That last part was not Damian's fault. He had been kicked in the head, quite hard, actually. He probably been sitting on the ground in such a kick-friendly position, but in his defence, he was pretty groggy, having just woken up. His mind was working fine, it simply had a very weak connection to his body. The kick to the head, it seemed, strengthened that connection somewhat.

Damian struggled to his feet. He was happy to be in better control of his body, but he understood that if he were hit again the results would be less favourable. He backed up a bit. The angry man came a bit closer.

"I tell you to go in for ten minutes! Was it that hard? Either the water fills you with magic, or it kills you! I can't go back to the boss and tell him that we couldn't figure out what was in the pool because our rat didn't come back up!"

Some of those words sounded familiar to Damian. Magic. Pool. Boss. He had joined an organization to experiment with magic. There had been something important that he wanted to do, hadn't there?

He recalled the day he had been accepted. His first mission, a trip to paris and a fight against... a woman with a goat's head? He recalled three days later, when he was told he was to become... a mole? No, a rat. the worst investigators are always picked for this. Jump straight into the newest discoveries, find out what they do. It was almost certain death. Almost.

But Damian hadn't been killed, had he? They had decided he wasn't good enough to be one of them, and he certainly wasn't to be walking around with knowledge of magic. So give him the death job? He didn't want to die, that much was certain.

Dead, or filled with magic. That had been it, hadn't it? Well, he certainly wasn't dead. So obviously...

The angry man's head was on the ground. A moment later, so was his body. They weren't attached. Two other men came out of a car a fair distance away and began running towards Damian. He could tell one more was still inside. Calling for backup, no doubt. One man stopped a few feet from Damian, the other went to fight him head-on.

It seemed to Damian as though this all happened in an instant, though really it wasn't much longer than that. The closer man threw a punch at him, but his entire arm seemed to become paper. It was burning. Damian thought the man might have screamed as plunged into the water, though perhaps that was simply his ears ringing. Dead, or filled with magic. That man was undoubtedly dead.

Damian noticed the second man seemed to be fumbling with a gun. Thus far he had used magic without even thinking about it. It was reflexive. Why should he fear a bit of lead? Not lead. He had been an investigator, if only for a short time. Those anti-spell bullets were what they all used, right? While he was considering the nature of those shots, one pierced his abdomen.

There was no need to worry. Damian was powerful now. He could heal it. Energy flowed into the wound, closing the outside. But the bullet was still in there, repelling the magic. He was powerful, more powerful than some piece of metal. Damian forced it out. He thought this might be painful, but at that moment he noticed he was moving back and forth across the grass quite rapidly. The man near him was still firing. Only one bullet hit. He dodged them? Without even noticing? That was power. But even he couldn't keep this movement up forever.

He moved forward this time, right through the man. Damian was pretty sure he hadn't turned around, but somehow he could see the man crumple to the ground. Pitiful, and quite dead.

Other men were beginning to appear. He couldn't tell if they were here already or if they were still on their way. Could he see the future? That wouldn't be surprising, actually. Could he kill them all? He was powerful, but not that powerful. He knew there were more powerful men in the organization. Those he had killed were only unimportant men. Almost as expendable as the man they had been tasked with killing. No, it was time to leave. But where to go? He had a home, did he not? A small apartment. Was it still there? Had someone else occupied it since his disappearance ? Only one way to find out. He concentrated. Teleportation was no easy task. He was not sure he could do it.

The men were here, he was certain now. They were firing at him, many more men and many more anti-magic bullets. He couldn't deal with them and teleport at the same time. The lake. It had empowered him once, surely it could do so a second time. he moved himself towards it. Dead, or filled with magic. He reminded himself. Into the water he went.

Damian's newfound power had given him a greater connection to the magical elements of the world. He could understand this water, now. Dead, or filled with magic. Chance of success was minimal.

Dead, or filled with magic. He had gotten lucky once. Once.

Dead, or filled with magic.