“Arctech corp is the foremost provider of all military, agricultural, medical, bio-engineering and construction technology. Under the Missionary branch and headed by Orion the Architect, we serve as the R&D, merchant and humanitarian wing of the order, ensuring a powerful warchest in times of need.”

~ Archi the Owlroid

Josephine Bijou

I’m hoping for a giant monster or maybe a group of cultists instead... I’m disappointed. The lights come up and reveal two shadow people with blank faces. No not as in no expression but as in no eyes or ears or mouth. One is small with a sort of feminine body and the other has a slim, yet masculine body. They both look like they were made out of some weird black stringy plastic. Their “skin” or whatever it would be called had the texture of muscle. They’re honestly more unsettling than dangerous to me.

The feminine one puts her hands up, taking a familiar stance. She bounces on the balls of her feet, elbows forward, her body squared with her lead legs knee slightly elevated. The masculine one takes a step back, throws out its arms wide and begins to emit a gold glow. It immediately hits me: this simulation is of Aposyn and Xianna. Whoever programmed this… who am I kidding it was Kouki and he knew exactly how dangerous this would be. I did say he should have left a clearer message and this qualifies.

“Aposyn the Sun and Xianna the Star.”

A smirk forms on my face. Have to admit, this is my kind of message, the one that comes with a fight. The small one mimics Xianna's stance perfectly. Mimicry is not mastery though. Let’s see if it can actually use it for real. Slamming my knuckles together, I draw arcana and a cold front freezes the ground as the energy shifts into snow and ice while being absorbed. It’s an advanced draw technique that instantly turns all immediate moisture into ice then shreds my surroundings creating a field suited to my power. Kouki calls it my chessboard.

I slam my knuckles against the ground sending a shockwave of ice spikes toward the mimics. The Xianna mimic doesn’t even bother to dodge leaping over to get in my face instead. She bears down on me with a punch that should scare any reasonable being. But I’m not reasonable, pulling my hand up, my white queen armor forms from the ice spikes under her, catching her off guard with a punch. *POW* A clean uppercut that sends her into the ceiling. *CRASH* From nowhere a golden beam skewers my armor, vaporizing it instantly. The Aposyn mimic and his beam is starting to irritate me.

The Xianna mimic cuts off my path shooting itself from the ceiling to the space directly in front of me. It punches forward projecting a fist of flame. They don’t know me very well. I’m not afraid of a little fire. Stepping forward I release arcana shooting me into the air. Readying to go on the offensive the white queen reforms in mid air as I’m falling. My body twists using the armor as leverage to aim myself towards the Aposyn mimic and the armor to the Xianna mimic. I kick into the armor launching us both towards our respective targets. On the ground where the Xianna Mimic is, the armor disassembles and then equips itself to her holding her in place. The heat is fierce as I close in on the Aposyn mimic. Its hands move forward and that golden beam fires. Guess they don’t realize that the White Queen is just one of my pieces.

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Drawing more arcana to me the Ice generated forms the structure of my defensive armor the Rook around me. Unlike the more compact and slim design of the White Queen the Rooks components are reinforced being bulkier, heavier and generally clunkier. Oh and it comes with a pretty strong shield too. At the speed I’m going though it doesn’t matter, the extra weight just adds to my attack. The beam glances off the shield and I eject from the armor dropping it on the mimic like a meteor splattering it into an oozing black slime. That’s not enough for me. I firmly believe in overkill. Landing softly, my eyes shift to the other mimic which is just starting to break out of the White Queen.

“Too bad you two weren’t the real thing. I might have needed to use some real power. Checkmate.”

My fingers snap and both armors or at least what’s left of them reacts. The condensed arcana they’re made of releases exploding into massive glaciers that reach past the ceiling busting it open. That was a nice appetizer and now a relaxing shower is in order. I make my way to the door and a familiar voice calls out to me.

“Hey Jojo.” I turn around to face the inevitable.

“What do you want, Ko?” I say with moderate irritation.

It’s not really him, it's a hologram and it’s especially…detailed. There’s a couple looks that he has that I really like and this was my favorite one. See he’s all about his suits and they’re amazing but when you get anything all the time it becomes boring. Casual clothes on him are my thing especially the tank top, fitting sweatpants combo his hologram is showing off. If it was the real him we might be doing it in this room. Instead it’s a fantastic fake replication who’s about to tell me something I really don’t want to hear.

“First I need to say this is a limited hologram; it can only answer preprogrammed questions. Second, what I want you to do is to grab the envelope at the front desk and follow the instructions within. Any questions?”

My gaze intensifies as my eyebrows furrow. Somehow it understands me just by my expression.

“Query, received. You’ve already figured out that this method of communication was chosen because it’s the safest. Your sessions here aren’t monitored and so I can actually speak freely. I won’t of course because I know you don’t care about the details. Instead I’ll tell you what you get in return. We never got to have or finish our vacation because of all of this and so in return for handling the Veil I requested we be given leave from both of our positions.” My hand makes its way onto my hips.

“Yes I know I’m retired but here’s the thing. I’ve decided to come out of retirement and become a full Guardian based out of West Gaia Academy. My hope is that you’ll join me in the house I’m building for us.” Folding my arms, my hand cups my chin.

“I know you’ll want to think it through. But, I know we both think that it’s time for us to stop playing around. You have to admit our adventures are way more fun together than apart. For one the conversation is amazing. You communicate through scowls, knowing looks and pure attitude and I respond with something witty that makes you laugh on the inside. The only thing that’s ever been in the way is the nature of our jobs and I’ve removed that obstacle. I had a nice chat with Rice before I left and we both agreed that you should be allowed to transfer. So yea, at the front desk grab the envelope and follow the instructions in it please. The Order itself is kind of hanging in the balance if you needed more motivation.”A slight smirk forms on the corner of my lips.

“ More motivation? You had me at Jojo.”

~End