He had been up all night thinking about how to approach the investigation now that he was working against the interests of overseer. Once they caught on to what he was doing they would most likely attempt to put him in custody and if he resisted arrest they would end up sending their enforcers after him. Evading an entire group of overseer enforcers would certainly be difficult, but he had managed to escape them once in the past.

  As he marched over to the fridge a thought struck him. The bad omens he had collected from past dreams had all been eerily similar and yet he hadn't organized them. After a good twenty minutes of sorting through the various predictions on the sticky notes littering the front of the fridge he was finally satisfied. The predictions hadn't just been similar, they were all fundamentally connected in some ay.

  Every night for the past month his visions had predicted disaster, but there had been little clarity as to what sort of disaster it would be. And now the pattern was laid out before him as clear as day. The disaster wasn't one but rather it was a binary choice. Either the ancient unleashed its fury and poisoned the populace somehow or overseer turned the entire city upside down just to find and kill it. Both options resulted in massive loss of life.

  "Harry, I know you're in there!"

  The voice was intense and it appeared to be coming from the hallway outside his apartment. With a heavy back handed smack the radio started blaring out prophecies at a deafening volume. If it didn't give him something useful there would be no way for him to escape whoever was looking for him.

  "Window...fall...mattress...garbage day..."

  It was a good omen, but he really hadn't expected to start his day with a free fall from the third story. Looking out the window he saw the garbage truck parked outside. The driver was collecting the trash in the bins on the pavement outside the apartment and it would take them a good few minutes to get all of it. That gave him plenty of time to prepare himself.

  The front door swung open violently as a woman slammed her full body weight into it and the weak hinges gave out. Lola strode into his apartment with an expression of indignant rage written all over her features. She had always been bright and there was no doubt in his mind that she had somehow realized what he was up to.

  "Do you mind explaining why all of our leads just vanished into thin air this morning or do I have get inside your head and tear it out?"

  Well that was problematic. He had known she was a diligent worker, but he had hoped it would take her a few days to notice Bernard's work. The vampires got things done quickly when they needed to and they had most likely sent in a deniable asset to destroy the evidence only hours after finishing their meeting.

  "See I'm not all that good with confrontation and stuff so can we maybe take this at a later date?" he said as he looked out the window only to spot three more overseer investigators entering the building.

  Of course his habit of stealing evidence from their office had to catch up with him now of all times. They were dead set on the idea that he had done it, which wasn't entirely off the mark to be fair. As he quickly checked his calendar on the wall he came to a terrible realization. He had lost track of time.

  "Oh crap..."

  It hadn't just been a day since the last time he had slept. More than three days had passed since his discussion with Bernard. The most likely explanation was that he had kept taking his prescribed amphetamine derivatives to keep himself from falling asleep and had gotten so engrossed in his work that he hadn't noticed the passage of time. That would have given the overseers plenty of time to figure out he may have had something to do with the their recent loss of leads.

  "Lola, I'm only going to say this once," he stuttered nervously, "Drop the case because you need to trust me when I say it's not worth pursuing it any further."

  "You're going in for questioning, Harry, and that is final," she said coldly as she slowly pulled out the gun hidden in her jacket.

  Carefully he reached for the folder resting on his desk. It contained all the clues and leads he had gathered so far. With the recent counterintelligence attack by the vampires it was probably the last lead available to overseer if they wanted to solve the case. And if she managed to take it from him then one of the two possible disasters would become inevitable.

  "Lola, drop the gun," he said as he pulled the folder close to his body and slowly inched over towards the window, "You know what I'm capable of and you should know that pursuing me can only end in tragedy."

  "Last chance, Harry!"

  The power inside of him was screaming to be unleashed as he poured it into his spells. There was no way the investigators would stop pursuing him so he would just have to evade them until high command called them off and sent in the enforcers to deal with him. Getting a bloodthirsty hitman killed wasn't a big loss in his mind, but most of the investigators still had good intentions so it would pain him if they lost their lives pursuing him.

  He turned around and slowly opened the window, "I'm not letting you catch me, Lola, but trust me when I say it's for the best."

  "Stop!" she screamed as he threw himself out of the open window.

  The wind rushed past him as he stuffed the folder inside his coat. As he hurtled towards the ground he braced himself for impact. With a loud thud he slammed into the mattress resting on the pavement just as the garbage man was preparing to throw it on the truck.

  "I'm sorry, sir, but I'm sort of in a hurry!" he shouted as he got up and began rushing down the street, "I hope I didn't inconvenience you all too much!"

  "The suspect is attempting to escape!" Lola shouted as she leaned her head out the window, "All squads initiate pursuit!"

  It really was a good thing that he worked on his cardio whenever the opportunity arose. If he got winded every time he had attempted to evade capture then he wouldn't have made it as far in life as he had. Unlike the overseer investigators he had no training in combative magic and he didn't possess the superhuman strength of a nonhuman. The only thing he really had going for him was his endurance and a mind keen enough to navigate countless futures at once.

  The best place to go was the train station. While his pursuer would no doubt try to isolate him there, it at least gave him a chance to shake off all but the most determined of his pursuers. They couldn't stop every train in the city in the middle of the day so if he managed to board one they would have to split up and check every single stop on the line.

  Once he had stepped through the automatic sliding doors at the entrance of the station he immediately rushed towards the nearest platform. The PA system was shouting all sorts of nonsense about a chemical leak or something, but it was clearly just the investigators trying to isolate him.

  "I'm taking you down, Harry!" a young man in a black suit declared as they entered the station and came running towards him.

  Of all people it just had to be Eben. Lola's current protegé and a junior investigator for the branch that she was in charge of. They were one of the many teens hand picked by overseer after their emergence due to their extraordinary qualities. All those kids were practically destined for the high threat enforcement department and Eben would no doubt perform well there once his short training period in the investigation department ended.

  "Can we talk about this?" he chuckled nervously as more investigators came into view.

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  There were four of them in total, but the only one he was particularly worried about was Eben. The kid had a nasty personality and their innate purview would no doubt be a destructive one. While it couldn't be nearly as something wielded by a warlock it would still no doubt be a terrifying thing to behold.

  The fake emergency they called in had only removed the bystanders from the platform, but he doubted that they had managed to reroute the trains in such a short span of time. If his current prediction was to be believed then the train would stop at the platform in the next three minutes so he would just have to stall them until it arrived.

  "Trace lines to four," he whispered as he invoked his spell.

  Four illusory Harry's burst into motion within his mind's eye. They had spotted the weakest link among the four overseers and in his vision they all attacked them from different angles before the others even had a chance to react. All of them succeeded in taking them down, but only one did so without getting surrounded.

  "Line locked, trace actions!"

  The world slowed down to a crawl as his body performed every action on its own. Giving him plenty of time to analyze his surroundings as he rushed towards one of the investigators. With a quick snap kick to their knee he knocked them off balance before closing the distance and delivering two rapid jabs to their solar plexus. He reached into their suit and grabbed the collapsible baton hidden inside before sending them back first into the ground by slamming his elbow into their chin.

  "Fucking spider monkey!" Eben screamed as he sidestepped his attempt to tackle him to the ground.

  Now that Eben was on the ground it just left him with the other two investigators preparing to face off against him until Eben managed to get back on his feet. He unfolded the baton with a quick flick of his wrist and started marching towards them. His nerves were acting up something fierce, but he had to put up a brave and unconcerned exterior to make sure they didn't realize they had the advantage.

  "The battle of wits has begun," he said with the most mocking tone he could muster, "It ends the moment when you make your move, and we find out who is a true mage...and who isn't."

  It was an awesome feeling being able to rework the quotes of his favorite movie to make himself seem more imposing. Sadly he lacked the wittiness and the talent for swordplay that the Man in Black of the movie possessed, but they didn't need to know he was just acting tough.

  Sure a collapsible baton wasn't exactly a sword, but it would do just fine for his purposes. Even if he had a sword he wouldn't want to use it out of fear that he might accidentally kill them. He wasn't nearly skilled enough to beat them without leaving some lasting damage, yet he would still do his all to make sure they did not die because of him.

  "Just give up, Harry, we don't want to hurt you if we can avoid it," one of them said as he picked up the pace and closed the distance in the blink of an eye.

  "Too bad I'm not of the same mind," he said as he swung the collapsible baton at their side.

  A loud crack echoed out as the baton struck their ribs and sent them to their knees with a cry of pain. The other investigator kicked him in the back before he could turn around and face them, sending him face first into the floor. He rolled over to his back and swung the baton at the lower back of the investigator reeling in pain next to him with all his might. They screamed in pain as they rolled around on the floor whilst he slowly crawled away from the only investigator still standing on their feet.

  "Eben, catch!" he screamed as he hurled the baton at Eben's face the very same moment the kid got back up on their feet.

  Eben cried out in pain and fell to his knees. His nose was bleeding profusely and the baton had no doubt smashed it when it hit him. With Eben helplessly clutching his ruined nose there was only one remaining investigator that he had to worry about, but crawling away from them was doing very little other than delaying the inevitable beating waiting for him in the near future.

  "You saw what happened to the others so why are you so darn determined?!" he exclaimed as he rolled out of the way of another kick.

  "Then just surrender already, Harry, you're clearly the one at fault here!" they shouted at him without stopping their constant onslaught of kicks for even an instant.

  His feeble attempt at escaping them came to an end as one of the many billboards littering the platform stopped him in his tracks. Cornered there was little he could do but stand his ground. He forced himself to his feet just as another kick struck him square in the stomach. It knocked the air out of him and the pain was excruciating, but if he went down now then there was no way he would manage to board the train when it finally reached the station.

  "Trace lines to seven!" he screamed as he invoked the spell, "Line locked, trace actions!"

  His body stepped out of the way of the next kick on its own as it traced the actions of the illusory Harry from the future he had chosen. The switchblade in his pocket appeared in his hand and his eyes went wide as he saw his future self plunge it into their side. He hadn't had time to sort out all the details and had picked a future that would end with him doing something regrettable.

  Their eyes went wide as his body charged towards them and he brandished the knife. They tried to raise their arms to protect their throat only for him to go low and plunge the blade inbetween one of their ribs. A quick knee to their stomach sent them to the ground, but it left a bitter taste in his mouth.

  Knife wounds were notoriously fatal and even if they would most likely be rescued long before succumbing to their wounds he had still done something unforgivable. Such a wound would have killed an ordinaire in minutes and the fact a version of him had even considered delivering a fatal blow to his adversary sickened him.

  "Keep pressure on the wound so that they have time to heal you!" he shouted over to them as he strode towards Eben.

  Power flared within Eben only for it to fade the very next moment as he kneed the kid in the temples. One second too late and he would have tanked one of Eben's spells and he sincerely doubted he could walk that off. There really wasn't anything better at stopping a spell mid cast as loss of consciousness.

  "That was exhausting," he said as he boarded the train the moment it rolled into the station.

  He panted heavily as he seated himself, but he doubted that he would have time to fully recover. The moment he got off the train he would be back to running from the investigators pursuing him after all, and even the process of choosing which stop to get off at would exhaust him. The stop at the end of the line would be crawling with investigators, but most of the other stops on the line would have some amount of overseer presence.

  "Crap," he muttered to himself as the train stopped at the next station.

  They wouldn't expect him to hop off at the very first stop, but it was still incredibly risky. It was the stop closest to where he had gotten on and they would have had plenty of time to get there. While he didn't like it there was no denying that it was the best option available to him.

  He exited the train just as the doors started closing and took off. As he stepped out of the station he heard the sound of tires squealing as a car pulled up on the street next to him. It was bad. Lola had managed to predict him and had elected to check the first stop most likely thinking that was the one he would have chosen based on his knowledge of overseer procedure.

  "Get back here, Harry!" she shouted as she stepped out of the car and he started running.

  "Just try and catch me then!"

  Countless streets zoomed past him as he ran, but nothing that he saw spoke to him. Only when he heard the sound of rushing water did a plan finally start forming in his mind. The river running through the city had quite rapid currents and he doubted Lola would be able to catch up to him if she took a plunge.

  As the bridge came into view he increased his pace. It didn't matter if he ran out of steam as he reached it because by then she would have already fallen into his trap. He gasped for breath as he stopped halfway across the bridge and stepped up to the railing.

  "It's over, Harry, there's nowhere for you to run now," she said as he heard a click behind him.

  It must have been the safety on her pistol. Was she actually intending to kill him? No it had to be an idle threat. Lola had far too soft of a heart to actually shoot him dead, but she would definitely use it to enforce compliance. Slowly he raised his hands above his head before turning to face her.

  "Seems you caught me," he said in between his strained gasps for air, "But you still need the folder that I have on my person unless you want to start the entire investigation over from scratch."

  "You can't seriously be thinking of throwing yourself in the river, Harry, that's stupid even for you."

  "Better that than letting you have my notes."

  "What the hell is up with you!?" she exclaimed in frustration, "You've been acting weird for the last three days and now you're actively trying to prevent us from doing our job!"

  Right it had been three days. Time had become sort of blurry as of late, but he had only himself and overdosing on his medication to blame for that. Surely he had discovered something useful during those days and whatever it was could most likely be found inside his folder. Perhaps he had even discovered which ordinaire it was that the ancient was attached to, but he sincerely doubted that he had gotten that far in just three days.

  "Fine!" he said as he pulled the folder out of his coat, "You happy now?"

  She walked towards him cautiously with the gun still trained on him. By the time she was standing no more than one pace away from him did she finally lower it as she reached for the folder. A split second before she could grab it he threw it on the ground behind him and wrapped his arms around her midsection.

  "I'm real sorry for this!" he shouted as he hoisted the small woman up above his shoulders and threw her over the railing.

  She screamed in terror all the way up to the point that her body struck the surface of the water. He watched her struggling to swim towards the shore as the rapid currents dragged her downstream. There was a good chance the current would have time to drag her more than five city blocks away before she managed to find a way to even escape the river.

  "Now to find somewhere safe to lay low," he sighed as he stuffed the folder back in his coat.

  "I have a feeling this is going to be a very long day..."