"Okay, okay, I really have to go…" Blade was all skittish, yet yawned. She had thought Virion was joking with the medical check-up but he took his job as seriously as ever.
Virions sighed, "Hold still…" He infused some more magic to check the muscles and relaxed her again. 'She's like a lightning falcon, can't sit still…'
'Hurry it up man…' Blade enjoyed the warmth but her mind was racing. 'I hope they didn't make the move already…' She jumped off the examination table. "I'm fine. Believe me. Thanks for the rescue. It's appreciated." She bowed deeply. "I really have to get going." Her bracelet was buzzing none stop as now the messages got through again.
"Behave. I don't want to see you down there in our shift, twice. Be mindful, think before you speak and be POLITE. No mouthing off," Virion warned her yet again and gestured to the door.
"Right," Blade nodded and bowed and rushed off in lightning speed.
Virion put back the runestones he had used for the check-up and left the little infirmary as well on the first floor.
"Excuse me," King Brandon stopped him. "Was by any chance a redhead in the infirmary is she alright?" Brandon was still concerned about that fact. Stella frowned at him.
"My apologies, medical issues are private, King Brandon," Virion answered with a deep bow and a completely different demeanour than from downstairs. They couldn't tell him apart at all.
"I know, I know, you are right, thank you," He nodded and moved on with Stella.
Stella pouted, "Why are you worried about her and not me? Are you getting bored of me?"
"Never my sunshine…"
Blade opened the door to the secretary's office of Zenith, "I'm so sorry!"
Nebula breathed out heavily, "Geeesh, what were you up to?! You are a spokesman and simply go of the grid." She boxed her in the shoulder.
"Got arrested…" Blade scratched her head. "My bad."
"Arrested?" Amal typed into his console. "Queen of Solaria? One of your backers!? How did you manage that? Please, tell me no one saw…" He already could hear his Lord throwing a fit. "Blade…"
Blade shook her head, "I'll tell you later. Are they already in? Please tell me this didn't cost us-"
"Nope, today they are… on a very long lunch break…luckily…" Tasu sighed deeply. She had come over from her kingdom's office. "So, my group is ready. How's the rest?"
"Mails are ready to go," Marble grinned.
Birdy gave a thumbs up, "I have plenty of boxes of files and crystals of our stakeouts. We can watch them till next week without a problem."
"Oh yeah, I got the other boxes in my office, we're a bit cooped up but will take us less than a minute to get to his office. Just give us the signal," Tessa grinned eagerly, "He'll never see it coming."
"Kitty? You have the card with you?" Blade looked at her friend.
"Oh, yes, took us ages and so many stupid packages…" She held the card up. "There's no way we'll sit this one out. This is our war."
"Boys?" Blade looked at Lion and Julius.
"We have our guys stand by, lots of boxes to move but we'll manage," They grinned victoriously.
Amal bit his lip, "Guys! They are back!" He enlarged the feed. Everyone's heart was pounding
Okay, all! This mission is officially a go! Be ready to click on the sent button! Let's crash that system! ~Marble
YEAH! ~Zena
Raise Omega! This is our reckoning! ~Steela
….
The chat was buzzing like crazy.
"Well then, let the war begin," Blade smirked, "Amal, create the appointment, team move out and, on the double, I might add!" Blade joked around. The boys already rushed off. "We can do this."
"Oh yeah!" and with that the group moved out.
Votzaak and Nerrocean just had set down their collection of foods. "I told you that festival is awesome!" Votzaak was laughing wholeheartedly.
"Yeah, it's better than the one from last week. Oh, I heard in three weeks-"
A Bleep.
"Hm," Nerrocean looked at his desk. "I got mail on a Friday… that's a first…"
"Ahh," Votzaak stared at all the food pondering for a second. "Well, what are you waiting for, Councillor, won't open itself." Like a little kid he grinned, he was super curious about what it was.
"Probably another junk mail…" Nerrocean sighed and slithered over to the console. Yet he got interrupted by a knock at the door. Irritated he looked to Votzaak. "What did you do?"
"Nothing, I swear. My, seems you are actually busy today," Votzaak already snorted. 'That was on cue…pre-planned for sure.'
"Yes?" Nerrocean rolled his eyes, "You wanted me in this position. And I don't want to hear that from y-" The merman was quite surprised. It was the dark Fairy yet again.
"Oh? Another dream?" Votzaak asked straight forward.
"Councillor Votzaak, Councillor Nerrocean. I hope all is well," Blade greeted them formally and Tasu, Birdy, and Tessa were right behind her. Tessa kept the door open though."Councillor Votzaak, may I ask you to leave, we have an appointment with Councillor Nerrocean," Blade kindly addressed him and smiled.
"We truly would appreciate it," Tessa added and gave a wonderful court smile to him.
'The smile of a predator. Sweet. Blade even tries hard on her etiquette, wonderful some progress at last,' Votzaak was yet curious and stayed. "I didn't know you had an appointment, Councillor, if I had known, I would have held our lunch break shorter." But then again, his Order Master was super confused.
"Appointment? I had no…" Councillor Nerrocean stared at the mail and opened it.
"Our apologies for the short notice, but as you were free today we thought it wouldn't be an inconvenience to you," Tasu added cheekily but politely as a Crown Princess was supposed to be.
"Right…Even for a short notice this is - short." He gazed at them sternly. "What is this about? I am kind of busy," Nerrocean eyed his yummy food just for a second.
"For crying out loud you take ages…" Kitty stampeded in with a box and set it down at the couch table. "You already had a lunch break. Three hours I might add."
"Kitty!" Birdy admonished her slightly while everyone rubbed their nose bridge.
"What? Those are heavy, get your asses in here, boys," Kitty ordered the Specialists who waited around the corner of the door.
'Witches and etiquette...' Nerrocean looked to Votzaak perplexed this was more than just suspicious, "Don't park your paperweights here. This isn't the shredder room. What is this about?" Nerrocean asked again, 'They know how long we were gone? Did they stake out this office the whole day?'
"If I were you I wouldn't shredder it," Marble grinned as she squeezed in and Dusk light-stepped like a Queen was behind her.
"Indeed," Dusk bowed, "That would be concealment of a crime and can be judged in Court and we wouldn't want that now would we, Councillor Nerrocean of Magix?" She rose again.
"Queen of Eventide," Nerrocean greeted her accordingly to custom with a deep bow. 'This is all over the place. Some do etiquette others don't. One big mess…' He was still considering how to address them all. They were students but had standing and others were just well behaving like snotty Witches always did.
"Gesh, you two, we said we stick to etiquette!" Blade whisper-hissed at Marble and Kitty. That interruption had completely thrown her off her game. "And may you please leave, Councillor Votzaak? This is an official meeting. Please," She addressed the Leprechaun anew as box after box got brought in by the Specialist teams A and E the room quickly filled up. And Nebula sat down on the couch after she brought two boxes in.
"Sure. Good luck! Don't worry Councillor I won't let your food go to waste," Votzaak grinned amused as he watched Nerrocean staring at his console which continued to ping suddenly as mail after mail arrived. The counter was rapidly running into the hundreds. 'They got him good, ha!' Votzaak snapped with his fingers and snickered as the food vanished and he passed the crowd of students by just to find the boys walking towards the office with yet another round of boxes. 'Busy bees… can't wait to see the outcome of this. Ha! Interesting, Specialists, Fairies and Witches…ah, the toddlers in action, what a sight to behold. At least they came prepared, good for them.'
Nerrocean closed the mail window as this was distracting. He sat down and breathed in and back was his in-control demeanour, 'That be the day. I'm not so easily boxed in my dear children don't get cocky.' He interlaced his fingers. "Well then, please close the door and have a seat." He gestured to the couch.
"But that isn't all the evidence…" Dusk stepped forward to line up with the other Crown Princesses.
'Evidence? …' Nerrocean tilted his head. 'Witches…Blade… her hearing went well, hmm - at least she's cleared. But there is no way they got that much evidence when Griffin found next to nothing against the Officers in question.' He breathed in deeply, "Please, tell me those boxes are not mainly filled with empty pages."
Blade stepped forward, "No, these are stake-out reports. The mails are filed reports. We…"
"We came here to address our concerns. The Courts don't take this matter seriously and the hands of the Police Chieftain are tied, not to mention he is biased," Birdy took over.
"Like you are as well. So, this is about your claims, Ms Ashfallow?" Nerrocean eyed them challengingly.
"Not at all," Blade stated promptly.
"Yeah, we're still working on those assholes…" Kitty hissed. "If I get my hands-"
"Kitty!" Tasu shook her head.
In return, the Sorceress rolled her eyes, "Fine, do it your way…"
Blade scratched her head, 'Maybe we should have gone with just Dusk…ahhh, I hate etiquette.'
Marble chuckled as she let herself fall on the couch as well, "Our way would be more efficient though. Dusk don't forget to get the stick out of your-" Promptly she earned a slap to the back of her head from Mercury. "HEY!"
"NO FIGHTING! Or I cut this meeting VERY short," Nerrocean commanded. He was used to keep squirmy troops in order and his tone surely did the trick. "So you are working on the Officers in question of Blade's claims? I'm not fully updated on your school missions as it is their derestriction and duty, but if I recall correctly Headmistress Griffin told you all to stay away from them."
"Well, let's refocus on the important part here," Tessa took the word. "These are video proof and written reports of over two hundred Officers which we can prove are more than just biased towards Sorceresses and abuse their power. And yes, all this will hold up in Court; we made sure of that."
Blade nodded, "Not to mention the five-thousand-nine-hundred-twenty-three filed reports of past transgressions that can't be proven any longer or are time-barred. That you'll receive per mail."
Nerrocean let his gaze wander, 'All kinds of paths they could have chosen, and they chose Court hearings…all on their own. Astounding.'
"And that was just two weeks of work. We'll get more, we assure you of that. So, since you are the Councillor of Magix, we thought it a courtesy to inform you before we officially approach the Courts. After all, as Councillor this is practically speaking your Police force even if Chieftain Conner is spearheading that force in your place. Since you have other important duties to perform," Tasu with the sweetest smile elaborated, "And it wouldn't look good if an oversight of this magnitude came to light without the Councillor in question knowing, not to mention your position in the Black Magic Hunter Division. We wouldn't want your image and integrity to suffer."
"Chose your words wisely, Crown Princess Tasu of Streama," Councillor Nerrocean addressed her sternly. "Those two things are barely connected unless this is a threat to damage my image purposefully." He countered sternly.
"Never would cross my mind, you are an esteemed member of the Order after all second only to Grandmaster Votzaak," Tasu gave a slight bow, "I'm merely concerned for your reputation."
'Cheeky…they are way better at this than Blade,' Nerrocean had to watch as his office space filled up to the roof behind the couch with boxes since the Specialist still were leaving and coming quietly. "Still, I don't understand why you would choose to bring this to me and not Chieftain Conner. Not to mention that stakeouts need to be approved."The merman reminded them in a strong tone.
"And who were we to approach without prior proof? The Court couldn't even punish the Officers in question in my case. Would you even consider obliging us without any proof to show, Councillor Nerrocean?" Blade butted in. "Most of these Officers are not people of magic professions even if some do use magic, so the Council guard has no jurisdiction until there is proof. And the schools don't have that kind of power. The Courts have shown to be useless in the past and we can't tell the police to stake out their own. The chances of false reports would be too high. Not to mention so far there are only three stations the Sorceresses of Cloud Tower deem secure for collaboration and they have other duties to fulfil."
Birdy took over as Blade got a bit more emotional, "The main problem here is that we don't know where exactly Chieftain Conner stands in all this, given that we wouldn't stake out a person of his calibre without prior approval. We have more than enough proof of simple things like unjust arrest or randomly sampled backpack searches which are highly questionable since they are always targeted at Sorceresses and no one else of Officers in the lower ranks."
Dusk nodded, "All the way up to offences like harassment, verbal abuse, threats on wellbeing, police violence and prolonged prison time because the paperwork is intentionally held back and not processed in the timeframe that it should be."
Blade felt herself tremble in anger she had read so many of those reports by now. She wanted to read all but there were simply too many. "So, tell me, us, do you stand for justice or are we on our own?" Blade paused as her voice faded in her gulping for just a second. "Will you turn your back on fellow Dark magic users? Can you honestly close your eyes and pretend nothing is going on? If not to enforce justice why take this position?" She trembled more and more this was personal, "This can't just be another payday for you." She bit her lip, she dreaded the answer, his answer already. Blade looked him straight in the eyes. "If it is, please vacant the seat to someone who is willing to put in the effort that position demands."
"Blade…" Tasu looked at her baffled, "You can't just…"
"Aye to that!" Kitty and Marble blurted out as they were hanging around on the couch with the Specialists finally done with the boxes. Nebula laid a hand on Blade'S shoulder to comfort her and help her calm down.
Nerrocean shook his head slightly, "The audacity…" He mumbled yet held back his reprimand for Blade even uttering such words, he understood where she was coming from after all. Instead, he refocused the discussion, "So, you are telling me that you have enough proof to get two hundred Officers kicked out or at least demoted within the Police force if I were to hand this into the Courts right now, as is?" He squinted his eyes, 'For two weeks that is a lot of work and extra hours on top of their studies. Not to mention half-term exams are on the horizon. They should focus on their education.'
"YES," All nodded in agreement.
"Well, then, I'll take a look into it. As this indeed is my job, which I DO take seriously. The Council will handle it," Councillor Nerrocean gave his answer.
"NO!" Kitty jumped up from the couch, "This is our masterpiece and OUR hunt," she ran up to his desk despite the fact that people tried to hold her back. "WE put in the work. WE know how bad it is. This is about OUR SAFETY. WE WILL NOT BE BENCHED. Not again. It will take hours if not weeks for any task force to get up to speed and we already have a running system THAT WORKS. This is OUR battlefield and all this," She pointed behind them at the boxes, "proves more than enough that WE can handle THIS." She smashed her hands on the table.
"Kindly leave the table in one piece," Nerrocean raised an eyebrow, but even if the others held back, they shared the sentiment.
'They won't drop this…Even if I exclude them…what to do…?' The Councillor propped his chin on his fists, "Let me ask you this then. What is your end goal? Are you out for blood? Revenge? Justice? What do you hope to achieve? What is the vision behind this? How many are backing you? This is no small undertaking after all. If I take this on PERSONALLY, I'll be thoroughly to the last trainee in the Police academies. There are more Cities on this planet than just Magix City. You and I either truly put the effort in and help clean up house planet-wide or you won't be part of this at all, you can't just pick the cherry on top." He awaited their answer.
Everyone looked at each other and quickly they made a huddle around the couch table and whispered real quietly.
'Kids…' Nerrocean was slightly amused even if he presented as grim to the outside, 'Huddle in front of a Councillor… do they have no answer to those questions? Don't tell me they pulled all-nighters and just went with it and by chance it worked out. I haven't heard any chatter of unsanctioned stakeouts or problems that would relate to that.'
Blade cleared her throat and turned around as everyone took their position, "Our end goal is to deepen relations with the Police force and like with William's station build a cooperation of all three schools with the Police force. We are NOT out for blood, we want this to be settled in Court. We'll do this the RIGHT way. Yes, this is revenge, but not for me, but for all who walk the streets in fear and we are sure it also will unearth other corruption in the process. We'll achieve safe streets for all Sorceresses and Police Officers an example for all kingdoms; how they can work and utilise their Sorceress forces for the protection of their kingdoms. Songwind, Eventide and Storma have already agreed on applying whatever system we will be built here, if successful. The vision is simple to establish early collaboration between all magic professions. Our schools are at the top of their crop. If we do so, others might follow over time. We are backed by two-thirds of Cloud Tower, a good twenty per cent of Red Fountain and…Our class at Alfea. Plus, around a hundred freelancers and Order members outside the schools, but they have less time as they do have day jobs. And yes, we want to get them all, the whole lot of dirty Officers, no shortcuts."
Nerrocean closed his eyes to ponder, 'So Alfea is basically out besides that statement. Twenty per cent is around half the commoners in Red Fountain. And Cloud Tower is split into at least two factions about this. By the Dragon… interesting though that outside the schools this found backers. I heard from a handful of team leaders that their Witches were slacking off for no apparent reason, might be connected…hmmmmm...' He opened his eyes slowly to see nervous students staring at him. "Well then, for one take your concerns and efforts noted. I will let people look into this, all of this. He glanced behind the students at the boxes. "Secondly, you'll turn over your 'working system' to the Council, me specifically, for evaluation. I don't work with inefficient systems. I-"
"Ha, my cue!" Marble jumped off the couch and waltzed over, "Here, Mister important Councillor." She placed a card on the table and pushed it over to him.
Nerrocean stared at the piece of paper, "And what is that?" He looked into her neon green eyes. 'Password and user name…what is this a chatroom invitation?'
"You wanted to evaluate our system, this is our server. So, just log in," Marble pointed out the server address down below.
"I can't log in to some random server. If I trigger some virus or whatever you caught on the magicWeb the techno department will be on my heels. Ms?"
"Ms Marble and I very much doubt that your Council servers are infected," The girl grinned widely.
The Councillor blinked a few times, 'Did I hear that right?!' His face darkened. "You lot hacked into our servers and weren't caught?"
"Of course not," Nebula chuckled on the couch, "We got a sever approved, by Councillor Votzaak. We would never get through the Council's firewall."
"Votzaak…" Nerrocean hid his displeasure, "You are telling me Councillor Votzaak knew this all along? He is backing you as well?" Reluctant gazes from the students.
Blade stepped forward and pulled Marble back, "Well, he did sign the paper. I wouldn't go so far as to say that he backs us… though, surely it is in his interest as a Dark magic user as well… He is the Councillor of Zenith and also the one to, well, sign and approve sever distributions for the Council departments." She wasn't sure how to explain their con.
"Ah, Blade etiquette does not suit you," Kitty laughed her ass off, "One more application in his stack didn't draw too much attention. Plus, Amal is right, if he can't bother to read through, not our problem. We needed a safe server. He got played by us, there are no two ways about this. For someone so smartassed all the time he was sloppy as f-" she earned a few scorning glances, "Well…" She cleared her throat, "Amal did a great job I might add, all is up to Council standards, he knows them inside out and to the letter. As we said, we have a RUNNING SYSTEM." She pouted a bit as she was urged to sit down and shut up.
"Amal… that intern in the secretary's office…. HA! AHAHAHAHA! Wonderful," Nerrocean couldn't stop laughing at this. "That stuttering boy scared of everyone dared to… ahahahaha… well, he always tells him to get a backbone. Seems like he found one." Nerrocean kept snorting as he entered the account data.
BossOmega entered the chat.
Wait is this Amal or the real guy? ~Emyln
He's a merman not a guy… ~Gilliana
I think 'guy' works as well no matter the species ~Emyln
AAdmin Amal? Is it you or?... ~Zena
Maybe a last test run while the others have a talk? ~Breeze
Shhh, guys… if it's him! You promised to behave in the chat… Remember, be presentable ~GoldyLocks
What? Think he will throw us all into prison? ~Volcano
Wait, are we talking about the Councillor the one with the abbs? ~Breeze
Councillor of Magix, yes. ~Misery
People, seriously, keep the chat clean! What are you doing!? ~#AAdmin
Ahh, Amal you got to learn to chill. ~Alyssa
Yeah! We can handle him. ~Steela
Oh, truly? ~BossOmega
Shit, it's him. ~ ChaosLord
You are so screwed! ~Serina
Oh, shut up…my eh, apolagise ~Steela
Apolo… my bad ~Steela
I'm so doomed… ~#AADmin
Chat was renamed 'DOOMED'
Denied! ~Mary
Yeah, denied! ~Avanger
Chat was renamed 'Denied'
We can't have no name! ~Lara
Hey, we haven't even agreed on the emblem yet, contest runs till end of the week… ~Polarissa
Chat was renamed 'EMBLEM!'
Denied! ~Lillith
Chat was renamed 'denied'
Girls, please… You have my deepest apologies Councillor Nerrocean ~#AAdmin
Told ya, you should have muted the chat… ~ChaosLord
SILENCE! ~BossOmega
The chat went dead in an instant. Nerrocean smirked to himself and shook his head. He scrolled through the threads and hushed a quick glance at the rules they had worked by. "This is just for Magix City. If I understand this correctly, right?"
"Well, yes, we do have some other Officers from other Cities but mostly we students work within Magix City. Our freelancers are more on the front of other cities, but it is hard to deploy our resources there without gaining attention," Birdy explained.
"Well, if you are able to coax a sever out of Councillor Votzaak, we at least can try to integrate you into some missions. Once I have a task force together, I'll contact your schools with missions and-" Nerrocean got promptly interrupted.
"NOOO!" All the students shouted in sync.
"Apologies, Councillor, after what happened to Blade… the Headmasters would never let us work such missions. But this is our future, we aren't just kids, we are ready to fight this. We need this experience this is a one-time chance for some of us," Tasu explained calmly.
Nerrocean leaned back in his chair, "You know I already am lenient with this…project. I could incarcerate all of you if I pressed it hard enough… And now you ask me, to work with you behind the backs of your own Professors and Headmasters? And let you simply tag along?"
Mercury leaning against the boxes made a step towards the front, it had gotten quite tight in this office, "Well, for one its good publicity for all schools and you and good grades for us in the long run and we want to see their faces when this goes public, at least I do. But 'tagging along' doesn't just work in our favour. The Councillor of Magix position always was nothing but a name holder for quite some time. If you, Councillor Nerrocean, make this work in the shadows to reveal it at the upcoming yearly meeting with the schools and executive departments and guests, this would raise your standing a lot. Plus, there are more things you as Councillor of Magix might want to work on. Take back some power from the Council that belongs to this position and frankly you. Your title is not just a name tag after all, at least it shouldn't be. Though if that's not enough of an incentive, of course, we would make it worth your while. Blade it's time for our trump card." He smirked at her.
"Eh, right…" This meeting was like a rollercoaster truly, "Kitty?" Blade looked over her shoulders.
"Well, well, here it is, our trump card," Kitty pulled out a tiny box and opened it. "The super rare limited edition Yaorochi golden card, with not one, not two, but three special attacks a must for any professional deck," The shimmering gold card glimmered inside the velvet box they had put it in. "A must, if one wants to obliterate his Grandmaster with style." She had the biggest grin yet on her face as well as the others.
"You…" Nerrocean stared at the card and blinked in disbelief. 'Seriously, they are trying to bribe me of all things?! ME an official. Who do they think I am?!… I should- ahhh. Idiots. …at least they were creative…they easily could have tried money or discounts from Lunasteel. A kid's game card…' he snorted inwardly. 'Cute. Still, I should arrest them… If I- no, hmmm, what to do with them? They are right the Headmasters probably won't let them take the mission even if officially handed out. And if I decline and they don't see the progress – they just might mock up nonetheless and try something on their own. They have no clue how much work this truly will be or how many might slip through the cracks. This isn't a one hundred per cent success rate mission. If they are not part of this, they won't be satisfied with the results. It could boil up afterwards, and escalate things. They already are dead-serious about this.' He gazed back at the students as he had made up his mind. "But that is…how…"
Kitty closed the box, "It could be all yours. If you indulge our request. Surely for someone as experienced as you, this would be an easy task to find a cover under which we covertly can work on this …project."
'That girl…I swear,' Nerrocean leaned back, "It's authentic?" He played along.
"Better be, we bought so many packages we could open a store…" Blade mumbled to herself.
"Oh? So, you went with luck? And didn't buy it off, someone?" Nerrocean seemed a bit surprised. 'Jup, definitely need to integrate them into the task force. They are willing to use all kinds of resources. Better have the kids close by than running amok on their own.'
"Well, of course, the statistics to find one by chance were higher than what buying it off someone would cost us," Marble commented dryly. "It's not luck. It's probability."
Nerrocean opened his hand to receive the box and check the card, "Well, well, you indeed came prepared. I will expect nothing less of an effort in MY task force. I'll work you to your bones. All of you and your comrades. Especially you lot. We have not much more than two months before this year's annual executive departments meeting, which you set your sights upon. Stock up on your forces, I'll use some contacts, and get a Council task force for this as well." He snapped and let all the boxes of evidence vanish. 'The more we get into the force the less run about…Will be a lot of babysitting, great…'
"Wow, he can do that too?!" Julius was a bit amazed to see that the stuff had vanished.
"That's a yes, right? Right?" Kitty looked at the Princesses. 'Knew it, bribes work! Just have to get the right one.'
Dusk nodded slightly in disbelief, "Yeah… it is…"
"What are you kids waiting for, get us some more personal! Go, shoo," He stood up and with the sleight of hand he let the Yaorochi card box vanish from his desk. He opened the door to his office and looked outside all was clear, "Now leave, I have some important meetings to attend to." Quickly and chipper the students stormed out of his office and split up to vanish in the hallways of the Council Headquarters. 'Bribe me with a game card, the nerve.' He had to snort this still was somewhat hilarious.
