Deep inside the JB bunker on the planet Pontractus Numarus, on the third basement floor, to be exact, the members of the JB formulate within their war room.
The war room is a large, rectangular room with an extended table going down it’s center. The entire area is painted a vibrant white. The wall's color is so reflective that the room's lights must be kept at a dim to avoid blindness. At the room's end, and away from the double birch wood doors at it's entrance, is a projector screen meant for showing operation information.
Near that end are two pre-teenagers. One of these teenagers has dark brown hair and is wearing a loose black t-shirt. He is sitting in one of the wooden chairs, leaning back slightly on his seat out of habit.
The other teenager is much different from the first. She has an animated look to her, like she has just jumped out of a late night cartoon show. Nonetheless, her hair is sky blue and goes down to about her waist. Her eyes are blood red, which is a complete contrast to her out-going and kind nature. She is sitting in the chair beside the dark brown-haired teenager. She is being patient, but it is obvious by her swaying that she wants to move on. “What's taking them so long?” she asks the other pre-teen. “We were suppose to be meeting at noon, right Raphael?”
Raphael checks the watch on his left wrist and says “Yeah, we're supposed to be meeting up right about now. Given that both you and me are here, we must have gotten the time correct. Maybe something came up...?”
As Raphael speaks, he hears the war room door's open. Him and June turn to look at their visitors and see a red-haired adult woman and a blonde-haired male, both animated, entering the room. “Sorry for the wait,” says Yen “Henry forgot to get his electric cigarettes and employed me in trying to find them....”
Henry laughs as he walks around the table on the opposite side of Yen. “You could've went on without me, you know?”
“I don't know what you're talking about! You told me to help you and never gave me a choice otherwise!” says Yen.
Henry lets out a snicker before laying his back against the left wall and pulling out an electric cigarette. “Whatever you say, Yen. I'll only be digging myself into a deeper hole trying to fight back, so believe what you want.”
Yen thinks for a second and then turns to June. “So June, are you still completely certain that you want to be an active member during this mission? You know that you can just leave this to Raphael.”
“Yen, we've already been over this.” says Raphael to Yen, placing his chair back up straight. “Ever since the Sherah crisis, June has been given free-will to go wherever she wishes as long as she is well-equipped in case she is attacked, and if all else fails, she has the nanobot treatment, so she'll be able to get to cover and fire back, no matter what!”
“That reminds me,” Yen says to Raphael. “are you still sure that we should keep Sherah around? I mean, she did kill you!”
Raphael gives Yen a hard, cold stare of silence, telling her with a look to stay quiet. June, on the other hand, screams out Yen's name and gives her an evil stare. “I told you Yen,” says Henry from the left side of the room. “Raphael runs this entire operation. He calls the shots, along with June. Plus, if what the Guardian lore states is true, anyone who is exorcised by him cannot be possessed again, so Sherah shouldn't be a problem.”
Although her posture says otherwise, Yen's eyes show guilt for not remembering that Sherah is still loyal to June, and that what happened with her was because of a Demu, not her.
“Well anyway. Yen, let's get started already!” says Raphael while clapping his hands in the air.
“As you wish, commander.” Yen moves to the front of the table in between Raphael and June. She presses a button at it's far center. A touch screen panel appears moments later, which Yen uses to turn down the lights in the room before bringing up the projector screen.
The projector screen shows a large, overhead view of a planet similar to earth. Surrounding the view of the planetoid are multiple windows showing data and information about the planet. “This is where Sentient Society will be taking place at.” says Yen. “Although it is similar to the commander's earth, it is different in a few aspects, like how South America is almost none existent, aside from a few pockets of islands dotting around where it is supposed to be in it's considered landmass.”
Yen presses a few more buttons on the panel, bringing the focus on the planet closer until it reaches through the clouds and into a close-up, overhead view of a Japanese city.
Henry moves in front of the projector screen and says “This is the city where Sentient Society is considered to be happening at. It's a coastal city named Ignama. Although the city is mainly away from the coast, a nearby docks and weekly fishing by the local fisherman make it one of the main fishing enterprises on this planet.”
The projector screen beams in on a certain point to the northeastern section of the city. The screen focuses in on an overhead view of a three story, Edo-style Japanese building at the end of a yard that also houses four other buildings, where two of the buildings to the right are exactly next to each other, back to back.
“This, Raphael, is Unimori Private High School. This is where the seven cast members of Sentient Society live at and go to school. The building to the north, near the center, is the main school building. At the back of the school is a lively yard in between the teacher's offices and the education center itself. To the left of the courtyard, near the entrance of the grounds, is the school's library, where in which students go to study and do similar activities. Since the library is right across from the dorms, which are to the right, it will be an obvious choice when it comes to reconnaissance.”
Yen hits a few more buttons on the touch screen and the projector returns to an aerial view of the city. The area around the private school isn't well-furnished with expensive housing, as most of the buildings around the school look as if they have been crumbling and decaying for decades. There is a small mansion located to the east of the decrepit area and more closely located near a lively market area to the south.
Henry picks up the briefing again, pointing first at the decrepit area. “During the construction of Unimori High, the mayor of the town didn't know exactly how large the school was going to be, so he evicted the tenants of the homes near the school construction zone up to the market area. Unfortunately, the mayor over-thought how large the school would be and evicted too many people. When the tenants were asked to move back into their homes, most of them had already found residences in Ignama's city or another area of Japan and refused to return. They also avoided the massive tax hike that would have been brought onto them from the mayor for the maintenance of the school.”
Henry then points to the area to the south of the crumbling buildings, where in which multiple free-standing structures and open market stalls can be seen. “The mayor of Ignama chose not to break into the market area, given that it is a large economic zone for the city. This zone of Ignama is lively with multiple outdoor stalls and restaurants that sell many different kinds of foods and other resources. The members of Sentient Society convene at one of the local restaurants after their school day to discuss what has happened to them throughout the day. Using this area as a monitoring area would be highly advisable if you are attempting to stay inconspicuous.”
After Yen presses a few more buttons on the touch screen, Henry points to the far right of the projector, near the city's docks. “The dock area of the city is where the high price, waterfront homes are located. One of the members of Sentient Society, a miss 'Lera Fuin', lives in one of these homes, a mansion to be exact. As was already mentioned, fishing is a main income source for Ignama, so workers will be present at all times.
Henry moves over to the left of the screen and points to another run-down area of Ignama that is to the left of the school and a small residential area. “This area is called 'warehouse alley' by the students of Unimori. It holds host to many destroyed and unattended warehouses that have been abandoned since Ignama's industrial age. The students of Unimori go there on occasion for either after-school gatherings or to use it for a short cut into the city of Ignama.” The screen zooms out, showing that the destroyed and abandoned area is only part of a larger Ignama. The city nearly surrounds the destroyed area and the market district. “As you can see from this overhead view, the city is accessible from nearly all sides, but the short cut through warehouse alley is a lot more convenient and faster for the students of Unimori.”
Henry looks toward Yen and says “Alright, I think we're done with the location summary, so let's move on to the actual VIPs of Sentient Society. Yen, if you would please?”
“Gladly,” says Yen before pressing a few more buttons on the touch screen, which brings up a blue screen holding multiple charts and files on four different people. “As you both already know, there originally are only four individuals in the investigation team. Those four are Jian Orien, Carie Blain, Boz Zhao, and Lera Fuin. Since we still have a few days before the timeline of Sentient Society will begin, you and your squad are going to have to watch over these four until then. After the main mission begins, you're going to be watching over the four cast members and the remaining three that will come aboard later.”
Raphael raises his hand, drawing Yen's attention. She says “Yes, Commander?” before Raphael begins speaking.
“Since the cast members of Sentient Society are going to be killed off without our help, I do believe that having the information on when they would be killed will assist us in the matter of keeping them safe. If you would, can you tell us when the main cast members would have died?”
Yen looks over to Henry and says “Henry, you're the information expert. This one's on you.”
Henry backs up against the left wall and lights an electric cigarette before speaking. “As Yen has said before, there are only going to be four people at the beginning, so I'm only going to explain to you how the first three would have died. The first one to die would have been Lera, shot to death by a pack of muggers on her way to school. The reason for the mugging is still unknown, but it is still the reason for her death. The next one to die would have been Boz, given that he goes rushing in to confront the muggers to get revenge for Lera's death. He just barely would have killed the muggers, but received near fatal wounds because of it. He goes on hospital life support for a long while, but his family won't have enough money to keep him on it, so they will cut him off and take him home. He dies three days later from his wounds. Carie, on the other hand, survives for a long while, but is killed later on in the timeline. As you all know, Jian survives throughout the entire mission and is able to stop the mastermind, so he isn't going to be killed.”
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Raphael thinks to himself for a second before speaking. “Alright, if that's the case, then we're going to have to keep a special eye on Lera, since her demise causes the death of another.”
“Continuing on,” says Yen before bringing up a character biography on the projector screen. The dossier contains shows a picture of a young, animated teen with glasses. His eyes are olive green, while his hair is short cut and the color of dark blue. “because you will be looking over four people and will not be able to monitor them when they split off individually, I've volunteered Miyra and Quib to assist in this mission. Consequently, Raphael, June, Miyra, and Quib will all be monitoring different member's respectively. The target that each of you will be watching depends on your choices. Raphael will decide who Miyra will follow, while June will decide who Quib will follow, to be more clear.”
“Since that's been cleared up,” says Henry before walking in front of the projector screen again. “let's get on with deciding who watching who. The first person is a boy named 'Jian Orien'. He's the leader of the investigation group and is the first of them to discover what's happening in Ignama. He is an extremely adaptive and intelligent individual, and also the sole heir to a massive computer manufacturer on his home world. So, who wants to watch over him?”
Raphael doesn't say anything, given that he has a strange feeling inside of him to leave this decision up to his second-in-command. June, on the other hand, tilts her head and begins thinking deeply. “Although he's the leader of the group, monitoring him probably won't be that much fun. From how he looks, he probably doesn't like to do much other than just sit in his dorm room and work on his computer.” she thinks. Seeing as Raphael hasn't said anything yet, she's guessed exactly what he was thinking. As such, she speaks up “Meh, I don't want to follow this one, so I'm just going to leave it to Quib.”
“Fair enough.” says Henry before Yen flicks a few buttons on the touch screen, making Jian's picture minimize and bringing up the next picture on the list. This picture is of a female, who is also animated. She has bright blonde hair and her eyes are the color of fluorescent pink. “The next person to be looked after is a miss 'Carie Blain'. She is a foreign exchange student from England. Her family owns a small province in the northeast region of that country, which funds her stay at Unimori. Since she has come to this planet's Japan, she has discarded her English slang, but has still kept her accent. Besides being a friend of the original three cast members, she is on good terms with the principal of Unimori's daughter, and has previously been in a relationship with the president of Unimori's student council. She is an active member of the school's track team and likes to explore the area when not in class. So, who wants to track her?”
Seeing as this person is an active track member and is relatively active, June makes her decision. “Heh, seems like fun. I'll look over her.”
Yen presses another button on the touch screen, which brings up the visage of a seventeen-year-old with ear-length brown hair and navy blue eyes on the projector. “This boy, commanders, is Boz Zhao. You both probably remember him from the show as the class clown of sorts. He is the type that will always crack a joke for no reason. Also, since you watched the show, then you will probably remember that he is the son of a Dojo Sensei for the training of the samurai's weapon of choice, the katana. One other major note to factor in is that him and Lera have had a relationship since they were children, and that Boz is going to begin asking out Lera around the beginning of the show. Anyway, who's going to be watching him Raphael, you or Miyra?”
“Raphael thinks over the choice for but a split second, immediately remembering that he needs to keep a close eye on Lera if she is to be kept safe. “I'll leave Boz in Miyra's care. Lera's death is going to be the domino effect that causes Boz to die, so having me watching over her and preventing her death will save both of their lives.”
“Alright, I suppose that covers who will keep Lera safe, but I'll still provide a briefing for her.” Yen flicks the touch screen, bringing up the final photo on the projector. The picture is of a female Japanese teen with black hair that goes down to her shoulders. Her eyes are honey golden, giving off a bright reaction in her irises. “This person-of-interest is Lera Fuin. She's the heir to a fashion empire brought up by her father, but he unfortunately died soon after she began attending Unimori High. She lives alone with her mother in a mansion near the docks, and as such, she goes to school using the alleyways between her house and Unimori. Unfortunately, that is also where she will be attacked and killed. There will also be nobody around during the shooting, leaving her defenseless. Aside from that, she also has a crush on Boz, as he does for her, and she is an attendant of the school's drama club. One final note before you may leave is that she also has a fascination with ninjas and has loved them since her childhood.”
“Alright, seems like we've been well-briefed. So Yen, what's our next course of action?” asks Raphael while tilting his chair back once more.
“The only thing that you two have left to do is brief Quib and Miyra about their mission. After that, you two may do as you please. Also remember that there are multiple outposts already bought and paid for by the UMA on this planet, so use them as much as needed, and do not forget to use cloaking devices when you are on their planet. You two may already know about how everyone else looks off-world, but they don't.”
“Welp, if that's the case, then I guess we'll be heading out. Thanks for the briefing, Yen. We'll use the information wisely.” Raphael gets up from his seat and then June stands up from her's moments later. They then exit out of the war room's doorway.
Raphael and June now stand in the bunker's cafeteria. They are both in the food line awaiting their orders. After getting their meals, consisting of a cheeseburger and fries, they leave the line and walk over to the far table near the room's entrance.
Sitting at that table are two people. One of them is a woman with blonde hair that has red streaks going down it on random strands. Her eyes are light green, but her pupil's are a foggy, white color. The other individual is a girl in her late teens. Her hair is colored light purple and is tied behind her head in a spiky ponytail. Her eyes are bright blue and shine brilliantly in the room's lighting.
After Raphael and June take their seats on the cushioned chairs opposite of the other two, Raphael speaks to them “Good morning Miyra and Quib, it's a pleasure to see that you both have shown up. Now, let's get down to business.”
June takes a sip of her fountain drink and then begins to speak “Yes Raph, lets. To give you two a quick briefing, us four are going to be doing a vision quest in the world of Sentient Society, where in which almost all of the main characters will die if we don't jump in and help. Our mission, at first, is simple. Each of us are going to monitor one of the four starting members of the investigation team and ensure that they will survive throughout the experience. Me and Raphael have already chosen the people you will be looking over.” June draws out a photo from her jean pocket and slides it across the table to the light purple-haired teenager. “Quib, you're going to be looking over the person in this photo. His name is Jian Orien and he's the leader of the group, so make sure that he stays safe.”
Miyra crosses her arms and leans back in her chair. “So, I suppose that I also have someone to look over as well.” She begins eyeing Raphael through her foggy pupils. “I have one question. How long are we going to be working on this mission? Is it from the start to the end or are we just going to be there for a small bit of time?”
Raphael thinks over her question for a few seconds, since he hadn't really thought about how whether Quib and Miyra are going to be just helping with the initial watch or until mission completion. A few moments later, he answers. “Your question is thoughtful, and I haven't really given it much thought before now, but I've decided that having you two along with me and June will make this mission a lot easier. So to answer your question, Miyra, you will be staying along for the remainder of the vision quest.”
“Fair enough. I just wasn't completely sure at first, given that Yen didn't give either of us a full briefing” Miyra pushes her chair back up straight and then leans on the table with her arms crossed on top of it. “So, Raphael, who am I watching?”
Raphael flips a photo out of his shirt pocket and hands it to Miyra. “The person you're going to be following is a teenager by the name of Boz Zhao. He's a skilled swordsman and a funny man of sorts, so he should be a little fun looking after.”
Raphael takes a bite out of his cheeseburger and swallows the remains before speaking again. “Alright, now that everyone has been introduced to their defense targets, I believe that I will explain a few more things about the place you will be going to. How much of a briefing did the two of you get?”
Miyra and Quib share a glance at one another and then both turn back to Raphael and June. Quib shakes her head, stating afterward “It was brief, like, extremely brief. We've barely a clue about the vision quest, and we get close to nothing else other than 'You have a mission to do, so do it.'”
Raphael mutters a complaint to himself, and then speaks. “Alright then, guess I have to explain. The area that the vision quest is primarily taking place in is called Unimori Private High School and is surrounded by a shanty-like district. Optimal lookout points have been established for you all to use at nighttime, along with personal equipment and necessary survival items, like food and water. All of these positions have been paid for by the UMA using undercover accounts, so everything's good on that end.”
“Furthermore, most of the members of Sentient Society live within the school's dorms, but one member, who I personally am going to be looking after, lives off campus in a mansion near the city docks. Within a few days, she is going to be attacked by muggers on her way to school, but fortunately for her, we are going to save her before things get truly bad. Aside from that, there really isn't much else to explain. You are to jump in and save your target if it is needed. Also, I will be helping them along after they begin their quest. You two will also be jumping in at some point, but stay in hiding until then. Is that all clear?”
Miyra and Quib nod their heads toward Raphael as he finishes his cheeseburger. After wiping the grease off of his lips with his shirt sleeve, he says. “Alright, I believe that we're just about done here. Gather up your weapons and gear and grab a cloak on your way to the portal room, me and June will meet you there.”
“Okay, we'll see ya at the portal room, Raph.” Miyra says before both her and Quib stand up and leave the room. June stands up as Raphael does the same and she looks at him with a fiery expression on her face.
“We've been waiting a whole month for this, we can't screw this up!” June says with a blaze in her eyes. She wants to save Sentient Society, and she's going to do whatever it takes to keep them safe.
“Don't worry June. I've already come back from the dead, I don't think some mind-controlled madmen can stop me.” Raphael discards his empty tray into a nearby disposal bin and motions for June to follow. They walk out of the cafeteria moments later.
Raphael, June, Quib, and Miyra meet back up less than an hour later at the bunker's portal room. The portal room is a two-story room with a massive circular portal generator situated in the center of it.
The squad, all of them dressed in brown cloaks with their weapons and armaments stored underneath of them, line up in a square line in front of the portal generator.
Raphael raises his cloak hood over his head, and with a flick of the two fingers on his right hand, orders the operator to start the portal-generating sequence.
The portal generator slowly spins to life, escalating in it's speed every second of the way. Eventually, a small beam of light appears from within the center of the machine. The beam extends into a gateway to Ignama, the pathway leading straight onto the top of a ruined house looking over Unimori.
With a slight sigh, Raphael marches through the portal, his arms never leaving his cloak. His friend's follow suite, walking close behind him through the portal and into the world of Sentient Society.
From that day forth, the lives of those that would save Ignama would never be the same....