[font="Garamond"]"Quick briefing and we'll send you on your way." Haruto said and then turned and walked into the briefing room at the back of the office, Michael following suit. Once they were arranged around the oval table with flat touch screen computers embedded in the surface, Haruto began.
"His name is Darius Jakobssen, defector from Sweden and craft user. We were first made aware of him about 6 years ago when he was questioned in connection with the homicide of a seed. Nothing could ever formally tie him to the victim other than mutual acquaintances, but nonetheless he stuck out to the police and in turn they contacted us to keep our eyes on him. Nothing further came of the case and a few months later he dropped off the radar. Until now." the screens around the table flickered to life and the picture of a gaunt caucasian man with cold blue eyes appeared in front of each of them. Elena touched the screen and swished her fingers to the left, flipping from the photo to his information. The others remained motionless, waiting for Haruto to continue. Michael spoke up instead.
"As you know there's been a rash of seeds winding up dead, and more often than not it is in a bizarre and most certainly unnatural way." the screens changed from a photo of Jakobssen to a series of crime scene photos of the known victims flashing in front of them. We've found evidence of Jakobssen's craft around a few of the victims now."
"What are his abilities?" Elena prodded.
"Illusory stuff. He is excellent at working with salt runes to create the impression of something that isn't really there. Extremely well trained. We think that's why he went into hiding. Someone has been teaching him."
"Zaizen..." Elena breathed. The rest of the room looked uncomfortable. Haruto nodded.
"Zaizen." he repeated back. "And not just him, alone. If it is in fact Zaizen, he has other craft users working with him, training and manipulating a new generation of self-hating users. Destructive and desensitized and feeling as though descendants are inhuman, not worth life."
"He is very powerful. I know that you outnumber him but do not underestimate this Jakobssen fellow. We are not sure the extent of his powers or his training. It's why we need to capture him. You can't let him escape, we need to be able to question him. See if he is salvagable. See what we're dealing with." The group nodded.
"He was last seen here." the screens flashed again, a map of Tokyo opening up in front of them to replace to crime scene photographs, a red dot on Chiyoda ward. "This is very close to the last crime scene. We have reason to believe he is still here, and that he has been assigned another target. We need to get there first. So lets get going. Any questions?"
Sekeiri's hand rose up lazily.
"Yes, Sanderson?"
"Um, where's Locke?"
"Mr. Vallence is working with specific transport-based training today. Working on having him be our go-to for escape teleportation. So you'll have to make due without him, today."
"Guess we better hope we don't need any escape teleportation today, then." Felix commented.
"Yes that would certainly be ideal. We're counting on you." Haruto nodded, and so the brief was adjourned.
Simultaneously they each stood up and headed out back into the main office to grab what they needed before they headed out.
Elena smiled at Sandy and laid the file on her desk. "Field trip!" she laughed, trying to lighten to mood as she whisked her coat off the back of her chair, putting it on. "Keys, please." She nodded at Haruto, who responded by deftly tossing the keys to his subordinate. "Oh Elena, please for the love of God, be safe..." she only grinned at him in response as she tucked them into her pocket. Michael disappeared for a moment as the rest of the team geared up, as it were. He re-appeared moments later. He offered a necklace in the shape of a cross to Elena, the base of which was actually a glass tube containing a blue-green glowing liquid.
"Oh, Michael! You shouldn't have!" Elena clutched her chest in feigned surprise. He only rolled his eyes in response.
"Just put it on, please."
"Yes my liege." she made a mock-bow in his direction as he moved on, passing one to Sandy, then Felix, then Sekeiri.
"What is this stuff, exactly?" Sandy wondered aloud as he turned the cross over in his fingers.
"Synthetic Orbo. Before the last vials were destroyed, a few scientists, now in Hope, broke down the compound and figured out how to recreate it by examining the pieces. It's sort of like... Kryptonite. But for witches. It weakens their power substantially." Elena replied.
"But not our powers?"
"No, oddly the wearer is not affected by their own Orbo. It only lasts a few hours so we have to be quick about this. Everybody ready?" she called out to the group as she pulled a gun from her desk and snapped in an Orbo cartridge into it's chamber.
"Hey Elena, can I have one?" Sandy smiled sheepishly, nodding at her gun.
"Haha! You are so funny. Too cute. But seriously, no. We will train you how to wield one of these soon though, promise." Sandy looked dejected at her reply but shrugged and rubbed his hand over the strap of his water jug reassuringly. "And S!" Elena called out to Sekeiri as she walked by her desk. "We've totally already had this talk, but no smoking inside! We've got kids here for goodness sake." Elena plucked the cigarette from her co-workers lips and stubbed it out in the ashtray nearby, before tossing the whole thing in the garbage can.
"Whatever, captain..." Sekeiri only shrugged as she reached for the carton and her lighter.
It was a futile battle in any case because the second they got out to the vehicle, Sekeiri would light up another cigarette. That's just how it was. Always.
The group headed to the elevator and down to the parking garage where the ugly but practical team vehicle was located. New STNJ was still getting off the ground and as such they were far from sophisticated. They call clamboured in, Sandy at the very back because there was room for his water jug to sit next to him and also because he was the youngest and even the rest, in their 20s and 30s felt their bones creak a little when they tried to get into that seat. Elena climbed into the drivers side and had to pull the seat up so her short legs could reach the pedals. Felix smirked as he watched from the passenger seat, as was the ritual.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." she wrinkled her nose at him before turning her key in the ignition, violently shifting into Reverse, and gunning it out of the garage and into the street.
"Very incognito." remarked Sekeiri.[/font]
I'm on holidays so I wanna take advantage of the time and get this going :3 So, whenever Drizzt is available he can just come on back but for now it's usssss. Let's do it, everyone! Feel free to do some dialogue or whatever on the trip over, one of you can even start the fight scene if you feel certain enough about it. It'll take place in some sort of warehouse in the Chiyoda ward, Jakobssen needs to awaken. Any other questions, PM or profile comment. Haaaaave fun!