Raphael opens the door to Jian's room and sees everyone waiting for him. Sin begins his greeting with “So, you really did come....”
“Yup, sure as heaven.” Raphael says, walking into the room with June, Miyra and Quib following behind him. “I wouldn't deny you guys my help. Now, seeing as you obviously are not in any sort of immediate danger, I think it would be wise for me to tell you that I actually need your help. You see, the Sigil heads are planning something that could turn everyone in the city into a Sigil head in a mere instant! Before I get any further, I must tell you that this is too much for just my squad, so I must ask for your help to deal with this. I will tell you more later, since we have some time, but first I must ask you all a question. Are. You. Prepared. To. Fight?”
A stiff silence envelopes the room after Raphael utters his last word. They all suspected that they needed to fight for their lives, but they thought that would only be in self-defense. They never expected that they would need to fight in a more aggressive way. Jian looks at Raphael with a bit of worry in his eyes. “Wait, do you mean all-out fighting? Like assaulting a Sigil head base or something?”
“Something along those lines, yes.” Raphael says, hoping that the group would agree to help him.
“B-But...” Jian says, stuttering a little. “How are we supposed to fight? We're just high school students, most of us have no idea how to fight and some of us have never even been in a fight.... I mean, hell, I've never fought someone and neither have Carie or Lera! The only people that know how to fight in this entire room are your squad, Sin and Boz! What the hell are we supposed to do if half of us can't fight?”
Raphael walks up to Jian and places his hand on his shoulder. “Jian, please understand that I have a plan. You see, Carie has a great soul of fire within her. She has the ability to become a fire mage and use fire magic. That incident a week and a half ago, where Carie erupted in fire, do you remember that? That was Carie's inner fire magic bursting out of her. It could happen again and people could get hurt if I don't train Carie in how to control her abilities. More over, fire mage's are some of the most effective mages out there against infantry, which is perfect for fighting the Sigil heads.”
Carie looks towards Raphael and says with a quizzical gleam in her eyes “Wait, are you telling me that I could learn magic!?”
“Yes, Carie, I am!” Raphael says, turning his head to look at Carie. “I have two mages within my organization, a wind mage and an earth mage. I trust them both greatly and I know that they are both incredible fighters. Training you in fire magic will not be very difficult, given that all we really need to do is unlock your potential. After that, you basically will be able to easily train yourself or you can find a fire magic master who will teach you further, but that is all your own choice.”
“Potential? What the bloody hell are you talking about!?” Carie exclaims, not understanding Raphael's explanation.
“Don't worry, all will be explained in due time.” Raphael says, turning his head to look at Boz and Lera. “Now Boz, please stay calm when I say this, since I know how protective you are of her. I have seen Lera's stance and balance while I have been observing your group. I have also noticed that she has an incredible interest in ninjas. This is completely up to Lera, since I know that she will probably jump at the chance, but I can train her to become one! It won't take long, she already has the balance and form down, so all I really need to do is train her in the use of weapons and some stealth tactics.”
Boz steps in front of Lera, throws his arm in front of her and looks at Raphael with a protective glare in his eyes. “I will not let you bring Lera into this! She was almost killed once already, we don't need to put her in harm's way again!”
Raphael looks toward Boz and speaks “Hold on, I need to show you something... June, shut your eyes.” Raphael pulls out a tactical knife from underneath his uniform, unsheathes it, and slits his wrist in one single motion.
Boz is about to stop him, but halts his movement when he sees something remarkable.
Raphael's wrist has sealed itself shut almost as soon as the knife has gone away from his skin. There is not a single mark or scar where the knife has been, it's like it never even happened.
Raphael smiles when he sees the look on Boz's face, and proceeds to explain “It's called 'The Nanobot Treatment'. Everyone in my squad and organization has it. It basically is a treatment where millions upon millions of cell-sized machines are implanted and float throughout your entire body and heal up any wound that has been inflicted on you. It also leaves not a single scar or mark on the body from where the injury had been dealt. The nanobots are completely full-proof, there is no way that they can be reprogrammed to do something to harm the body. The nanobots have a few other uses, like making you stronger, faster, and smarter and there also is an experimental process that will nullify all the aging in someone's body. That also includes healing the body's organs once they have taken some form of decay or aging, depending on the time the nanobots were injected.”
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“Now that has been explained...” Raphael says, sheathing the knife and putting it back into his uniform “I give you my word that all of you will get the nanobot treatment before the mission starts. Carie and Lera will get their treatments first, and once they have come back, I will bring you all back to my base where you will get your weapons and the nanobot treatment. But before we do that, I must ask Lera if she agrees to learning how to be a ninja?”
Lera pushes in front of Boz and has a slight sparkle in her eyes as she speaks “A chance to become an actual ninja!? Hell yeah! I'll do it!”
Raphael chuckles lightly to himself and then looks back at Lera. “I figured you would say something like that. Now, I'm not completely sure about this, but I'm judging that Carie and Lera's training will probably take at the most a week. Carie, Lera, follow me. June, Miyra, Quib, stay with Jian and his friends for the rest of the day.”
“Oh, and before I forget, Sin, I need you to pull some strings and get Lera and Carie a few days off of school for the training. Don't worry, my trainers are extremely good, so Carie and Lera will be prepared for the mission by the time a week has passed.” Raphael says as he lets Carie and Lera go ahead of him and shuts the door behind him.
Raphael has planned ahead for this, using Warehouse Alley as a safe place for him to open up a portal. At this point in time, Raphael, Lera and Carie are at the domestic area to the side of the school and are nearing the entrance to Warehouse Alley. As Raphael walks, he lowers his head and begins speaking. “During your training, you are going to learn quite a few things that will come as a shock to both of you. Including exactly who my organization is and maybe what our mission is other then the Sigil heads. Don't worry about the people you see at my base, they won't hurt you, and neither will I. All I'm asking... is to keep an open mind.”
Unbeknownst to Raphael, Lera had gotten shock therapy into what Raphael's organization is earlier in the day, but at this point, she really doesn't care, she's more concerned about becoming what she has idolized for so long.
Before they enter Warehouse Alley, Raphael receives a call on his glasses. He looks back at the Carie and Lera and says “Hold on, I need to take this....”
He stops, along with Carie and Lera, and he activates his communication glasses. “Yo.” he says into the communicator.
Quib begins speaking a second later, saying frantically. “Raphael, we have a problem....”
Raphael grunts at Quib's statement and responds a second later. “Problem? What sort of problem?”
“It's Sin, he's bringing up questions that I'm not authorized to answer. He's asking me about the nanobot treatment and who our organization actually is. I don't know how I should respond!” Quib says through her communicator.
Raphael thinks for a second and then comes onto the communication device again. “Fuck it. Tell him everything. Show him what we really look like, the nanobot treatment, who our organization is and where we are stationed. Everything. They've gotten far enough into this, and so have we, that we can start telling them the truth. Besides, Carie and Lera are about to get shock therapy into the universe in a second so we mine-as-well.”
“Are you... hell with it, of course you're sure.... Alright, I'll tell them everything, but I'll make them swear not to tell anyone outside of the investigation group. Good luck with the training.” Quib says before ending the call.
Raphael releases his fingers from the communication device in his glasses and motions for Carie and Lera to follow him deeper into Warehouse Alley.
When Raphael is in the center of Warehouse Alley and he has made sure that nobody is watching, he pulls out a small remote-looking device from his pocket and presses the single green button in it's center, pointing it in front of him. He looks back at Carie and Lera and says “Just give it a few seconds. New tech and all, not even sure if it will work honestly.”
Suddenly, the air in front of the group begins to shift, and a portal opens up into a room filled with technological equipment. “Ah, it worked, awesome!” Raphael turns to the two girls and says “Alright, first off. Before we go through the portal, I need to tell you something so that you won't have a seizure from new information as soon as you step through. The JB, which stands for June's Battalion, doesn't operate in your country. Actually, we don't operate on your planet altogether! As such, I should let you know that my organization consists of aliens, including myself.”
“...What...?” Carie barely stutters, the disbelief of the statement fresh in her mind.
“Yeah, I know, it was hard for me to accept at first too.” Raphael says, putting the remote-looking device away in his pocket. “The way that you can tell that someone isn't from your planet, or your solar system for that matter, is that they will look reminiscent of being hand-drawn to your eyes. Just so, you two look animated to me.”
Although Lera already knows otherwise, she still speaks just to cover for Miyra. “You said that everyone from off of your world looks animated. If that's the case, then why do you look normal to me and Carie?”
“Simple, fair Lera.” Raphael pulls up his school uniform sleeve on his right arm. Underneath of the sleeve is a technological gauntlet with multiple buttons. He presents his arm to his allies and says “This, my friends, is a decoy device! They are made to cloak a person's body to make them look like someone else. But that is just one of it's functions! Another function of the decoy device is to make someone that is from another world than the world they are traveling to look like they are from that destination, including making them look like a regular person in the resident's eyes!”
“Now, if there isn't any more questions, let us move on. We have a lot of training to do before this week ends.” Raphael says before walking through the portal.
Carie and Lera look at each other briefly and then walk through the portal, with it shutting behind them.