Johannes Volkner bid farewell to the idea that his Spirit was just some girl. The way she immediately reached for her knife was clear evidence against such things. He instinctively went to throw his hand in front of her, before his better judgment caught hold. Another mental pang from Flash of Inspiration. It was telling him to go against his own common sense entirely, and to get in the way despite knowing fully well that Jill was strong enough to rip him to shreds. Really, all Spirits were, that was the main reason they were summoned to fight. He stepped entirely between Jill and the tall woman, hearing the gritting of teeth and mumbling about some 'vile wench' from behind him.
The woman in question simply scoffed, flicking her hair to one side with a bemused expression on her face. The figure - likely a man from their stature - that had summoned her was hard to read, being in such thick armor that even body language couldn't be easily gauged, but they didn't speak. Rather, the Spirit in the knight's armor with the tail spoke up, in a vaguely feminine, incredibly confident voice. "Enough of that. Bringing violence to the mission table... Is an embarrassment. Take it outside. If you have issues."
Johannes could feel his face flush, even though the sudden lecture was not directed at him, and even though the bizarre manner the knight spoke in made him question just who they might be. Thankfully, contrary to his initial expectations, Jill didn't barrel through him or stab him in the back when he got in her way. No, rather, she calmed down, speaking gently. "Um, Johannes, why are you in front of me? Weren't we just about to join the briefing?"
He sighed again, swearing internally that this girl was going to stress him to death before he even saw combat. Now, he had the awkward job of finding a way to stop her from entirely snapping back to that bizarre trance the moment she saw the woman again. He couldn't rightly tell her to sit the meeting out, nor to somehow cover her eyes the entire time. He could use the command array to force her to follow an order, but to burn through its limited stock of magical energy this quickly, and in front of everyone, would surely show him as utterly incompetent. For the first of what would no doubt be many, many times, he found himself completely stuck between a rock and a hard place. This was a no-win situation in which he would normally hope that Flash of Inspiration could bail him out, but that familiar pang didn't come.
"Yes. We were, but since there's more coming by, there might not be enough seats at the table for everyone. Jill, why don't we do the nicer thing and offer to stand off to the side, even if it's a bit uncomfortable?"
Thankfully, the next two participants in the meeting really did walk in as he spoke. If they'd been late, he might've been in even deeper troubled waters when Jill questioned him. In front, a medium height woman with red hair, and more eye-catchingly, a brass prosthetic arm on her left. Behind her, a tall, slightly lanky man in knight's armor, carrying a long spear as if it were nothing. He had shoulder-length, bright blonde hair and an apologetic look on his face. Both of them felt like Spirits, and yet not like Spirits. The man who had seemed to want nothing to do with the meeting pushed up his glasses and muttered "You're late." as the two walked in, to which neither replied. Johannes couldn't help but wonder where their attached Callers were, or if the man had somehow called two Spirits simultaneously.
Still, their appearances had helped cover him, as he moved with Jill out of the way, and picked a side that would give less of a view of the Spirit that made everything about her become aggressive. At some point or another, the Asian woman had covered her head with a scarf, seemingly trying to block something out. Lastly, another young man, perhaps too young to even be here, with red hair strutted in with a samurai similar to the one Wilhelm had called, yet clearly with a much newer and less archaic armor, alongside a massive spear that he had to awkwardly turn to get in through the door properly.
Once everyone had finally taken their seats, the Director cleared her throat, clearly already annoyed and thoroughly done with the amount of chicanery that had taken place. "I can't help but notice that we are still, in fact, missing a Caller and her Spirit. Regardless, this briefing is unable to wait any longer, and thus we will begin now. All of you are at least in some vague form aware of your purpose aboard Heliopolis. As stated in your contracts, there is a particularly grand scale ritual that has been identified on the moon. The perpetrator is hiding in a pocket space within the moon's inner layers, using the moon itself as boundary lines for their protection. As such, this exterior base is as close to the ritual site as we can operate. As some of you may already be aware of, every Caller in this room is ranked from eleven downwards. This is because the first ten candidates, the 'A Team' as we will refer to them, have already been deployed."
She stopped there, giving it time to sink in as everyone murmured among themselves. The apologetic man with the lance audibly gasped. With a motion, she continued. "In other words, they are already fighting the creator of this ritual, and preventing them from completing it. Your goal, in the meantime, is to unravel the very metaphysics behind the ritual itself. The ritual seems to have been placed far away from Earth intentionally, as it replicates the very timeline of human history, and creates a second, parallel line, to allow for time travel."
...Time travel. Once more, she gave everyone time for the phrase to sink in. It was something said to be absurdly difficult due to the incredible metaphysical weight of things that had already been set in stone, and thus the ludicrous amount of magical energy needed to move those things. Peering into the past was infinitely easier, but actually traveling into it and changing it? Nigh-impossible, no matter how skilled a mage was.
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"Ordinarily, time travel is of course impossible. However, when one creates an entire, second timeline where events have not been 'fixed', a virtual timeline of simulated events, it becomes relatively easy. It still consumes far more magical energy than any one mage can hope to produce, but with storage and reactor facilities, travel to the past of this virtual timeline becomes possible. There are no less than ten points in which this virtual time has been drastically altered, and we have no way of knowing the end goal from our preliminary scans, leaving us in the dark." Standing up, she pointed to a diagram that was projected in an outline of lights that seemed to come from nowhere. Small, spherical balls of yellow light that helped outline a map of the world, with a large amount of areas filled in. "As for the distortions, we can see a general outline of how much magical energy is invested in each of these points. Therefore, the first target is Mexico, circa 1493. Given the time and place, we suspect that this is a diverted version of the events from Christopher Columbus's second voyage, where an extra stop was made, either with or without the captain in question."
A hand shot up, and the Director sighed. "Yes, Candidate 012? Hurry on with it." Looking after, Johannes could see that it was Wilhelm's hand. Of course, the son of Juno Seth was only naturally going to be high end. He'd almost let it slip the first time they met, but Juno Seth was an absolute legend, a real heavyweight with his internal alchemy breakthroughs. Strong as an ox, massive, and able to fight like a Spirit or a magical beast in human guise. Johannes couldn't help but wonder how much his son was the same, and for that matter how incredible the top ten must be for him to not fall in their grouping. He listened as Wilhelm spoke up, cutting through those errant thoughts. "If we're going to travel into the past of this simulated timeline, how was it changed? Do we know anything about what sort of danger to look for, or what our objective is to remove the distortion?"
Director Solar nodded, and the map of solid lights changed shape entirely, going from a map of the world to a three dimensional model of what seemed like a long cord, with exposed wiring. "There are two different forms of distortion present in every one of these changed periods of time. The first, is an object that looks roughly like this -- A plug made of steel and cabling that seems to be able to pour magical energy both into and out of the past. We still aren't quite sure how it works, but it seems to be the main power source behind the second threat. These plugs have been given to important figures in each time and place, changing the course of history by allowing them to summon Spirits, despite the fact that most of these figures were not mages at all. Worse yet, in each case they seem to have allowed for the summoning of more than one Spirit. Were it not for this, we would have used a more 'economical' approach and simply sent in a few mages proficient in stealth and the usage of firearms to wipe out each of these distortions."
With a sigh, she continued. "Unfortunately, conventional firearms are near useless against most Spirits, and on top of this, Spirits exemplify the strongest of humanity and the forces of nature, made all the stronger by their lack of continued human bodies, and the metaphysical weight lent to their deeds. As such, it is imperative that you utilize the Spirits, who's summonings cost quite a bit of both physical and spiritual resources on behalf of Heliopolis, and the magical energy storage within your Command Arrays, properly. Do not try to engage an enemy Spirit without the help of your own Spirit, or another allied Spirit. It will almost certainly end in your death, and we can't spare the expense to shuttle up several more personnel if we have to start using up all of our reserves already."
Finally, the lights flickered away on that dark note, and she took her seat once more. "To recap, for those of you who weren't paying attention, Candidate 013-" Her eyes landed on the man in the bomb squad suit. "-Or who were trying to tune out the world because of their heightened senses, Candidate 034." And then to the young woman covering herself with her scarf. "You will be going to the distortion, finding the plug I showed, which should be giving off an absolutely monstrous amount of magical energy, and dispatching any enemy Spirits or personnel relating to them as necessary in the process. Ultimately, your goal is not to kill, or to save anyone, but to remove the distortion, which should ruin whatever this grand ritual's purpose is by removing a critical component. Now then, are there any further questions?"
A quiet stillness covered the room, and Johannes could not tell if it was because this was so far outside the expertise of the gathered Callers and Spirits, or if it was because the Director herself was so stern and confident that nobody dared to raise a question or objection to the plans so far. Notably, among the various gloomy expressions gathered, the young, red haired man seemed to be positively giddy, practically having issues containing his joy at the idea of their official mission. To a degree... Johannes had to agree, albeit no doubt for different reasons. Rather than excitement, he had come here hoping to grow, and hoping to gain the experience and power necessary to go back and help Jessica. He had been a coward, someone who ran away, and only by coming back with the skill needed to help her, could he ever hope to look his little sister in the eye again. Even now, they must be... He didn't let himself finish the thought, blocking it out and instead turning.
"No further questions, Director." She simply nodded as he spoke, though he could feel his voice came off harsher than he meant. "Very well, then consider this briefing adjourned. You all will have five hours to rest and recover before we officially strike, as real time is still of the essence. Even if your mission is asynchronous with current time, there is a very present battle being fought below us, and a very present ritual to stop. Dismissed."
With a murmuring, slowly rising clamor, everyone present began to leave the room. Johannes made sure to gently pull Jill along to be the first ones out, if only to prevent her from having another 'issue' as she had prior. She didn't even seem to remember what happened, and he couldn't help but wonder if it was tied to an ability of hers, or some form of mental illness.
