NOVEL SIMPLE The Plan (1)
"So, here is the plan.", Jack pointed at me and Rita with a ruler.
"You two will be out of sight, hidden, and don't engage in direct confrontation. Your roles are to scout the area.", she slapped the whiteboard, at point A, "Rita will look after from the beginning of the transfer in Novah.", then she pointed over to point B, "Half way there, it will be Charlotte's turn until it reaches the Vault. Any question?"
Rita raised his hand, Jack nodded and gave him the go to ask.
"Is this a secret mission, or is it on the news?", he asked.
"It was supposed to be!", Jack rolled her eyes, "But the Japanese Government went out and said that they are going the destroy the last remnant of the Nazi regime, they were very proud too! Complicated everything, now every terrorist and their mom knows."
I raised my hand next. She also gave a go.
"What about above ground?"
Jack pointed her ruler at me, "Good question, Ataraxia will handle it with MAS (Mu Action Squad)."
"Next! Athen and Enna.", she pointed her ruler over to the two women.
"Enna, you will fly around and be aerial support during in Novah. Don't use Judgement or anything, just fly in and give a sucker punch."
"Athen, you and I will be with MAS during the whole operation. My order is to go all out, to show what Babel is capable of! Or in this case, the Illuminati Corp."
Enna raised her hand, "So do we have any uniform?"
"Yes, we do~ designed by our great leader Silla Arco!", and Jack began to take off her trench coat.
What she wore is a green jacket with a hood, on the back is a stylized eye in a triangle above a tower made of stone.
"Kevlar, cotton, and spider silk, weaved together by Anansi, Comfort Runes added in by Odin, Blessed by Nike~!", Jack sounded happy, too happy.
"But my jacket is better.", I pointed out.
Jack was clearly annoyed at me, getting too close for my comfort, "Listen here, little girl, this operation isn't about you or what shit you give. I know your clothes are better, heck, they are made of material that isn't even here on Earth! But but~ we are an organization, we have to show our unity. So until we get to your level of absurdity, you will just have to lower yourself to our level, Akasha."
"...fine.", I gave her a glare, "But don't you ever call me Akasha, use my name."
"Whatever keeps you nice and comfy, Corday~", she said mockingly.
I will have to deal with her, for now...
"By the way.", Rita said to me, "What is your jacket made of?"
What is my jacket made of, Reverie?
Venumite, found on Venus~
"Venumite, found on Venus.", I repeated.
"You see what I'm getting at?", Jack interjected, "With our current technology, going to Venus is quite literally impossible, unless we can prevent metal from melting on the toxic planet."
Grr...
"You have proven your point, now move on.", I grumbled.
"I have a question.", Athen raised her hand, "Who do we have to watch out for the most?"
Jack did a little spin back to the whiteboard, with the marker, she scribbles some names, "First is the Neo-Nazi bunch, obviously, then the Sanctum of Steel, and finally, no offense Charlotte, the Akashic Insurgency."
"What are they?", I asked. Reverie, what are they?
The Akashic Insurgency is exactly what it is! A group of people who wants to find the artifacts of humanity, most often the weapons of mass destruction, for their C-Tier goal of world domination~ I remembered the Sea People, good times~~
Then Jack came in with her own version, "A bunch of bitches who like to steal things."
"I got a different explanation.", I pointed out.
"You are annoying, you know that?", Jack sighed.
"I know, ask Athen.", I responded with a smirk.
Jack shook her head, "The one we have to watch out for the most is the Akashic Insurgency. Since we have almost no information on a group that is off the grid, they are the most dangerous, who knows how many God Slayers they have in their pocket?"
"Anyhow, do you have anymore question?", she asked.
We all stayed silent.
"Well then!", Jack clapped her hands, shattering the ruler, "We ought to meet our friends now, am I right?"
We all nodded and stood up.
"Now! Who are we?!", Jack shouted out loud.
""We are the Illuminati Corp of Babel Organization!""
"What do we do?!"
""Secure, Destroy, Preserve, Protect!""
"Why?!"
""Because we exists in the dark, for those in the light to go on!""
Still cringy.
"Good! Now get change, we move out at seven!"
""Yes, Ma'am!"", we all saluted.
=0=0=
I went back to my and Rita's room, he let me change first and waited in the bathroom... a little strange but I don't mind his politeness.
...Since I will have to make some preparations.
"I am Charlotte Silvi, Owner of the Akashic Records."
The gem in my chest bleeds out Reverie, crawling over my arms and filling my patterns of the eight pointed star.
"Devils of the Void, They who embodied Infinity."
The tendrils of abyss drips down my forearms. Heha...
"You who gave humanity a Spark, a Light in their Clouded Mind."
They became evening gloves, making my arms into total void. As my eyes turned black, signifying the void that is humanity's Imagination and Creativity.
"Anima Pactum - Akashic Reverie."
Well then... hello hello, no one...
Heha...
I closed my eyes, entering the Akashic Library. Countless bookshelves— hehahaha... I am not here to admire this beautiful void.
"Mask", infinite replaced by infinite.
"Eight pointed star design", far too few books flew away.
"Technological", a surprising amount of shelves went away.
"Silver", a few millions went away.
"Nanite", thousands remained.
"Safe", hundreds stayed.
"Cognitive scrambler", a dozen books floats around me.
I grabbed a book, flipping through it with a smile growing... this would do it.
I closed the book and exist the Library.
"Reverie. Realize. Materialize."
I let the Reverie drip from my hands, they formed a puddle of pure darkness, of imagination.
Grr... hehahahaha...
"Hehahahahaha...", oh no... I let my laugh out... heha... no... no... this won't do...
I release the Anima Pactum... still weird.
Reverie, time?
3 minutes sharp!
"Hope.", the golden liquid of Hope healed my bleed arms almost instantly.
While letting the mask being created, I put on the combat uniform of the Illuminati Corp over my sleeveless blue sweater... hm, these are not half bad.
Though... I don't like the design at all.
"Reverie. Delusion."
I first made the Reverie goo latched onto the bottom, then I used Delusion to transfer the sludge over into cloth. Combining these two... I turned the jacket into a trench coat with tattered end, looking like someone you would see in an apocalypse.
I put on my leggings, which are of course, silver. Then I wore a black utility belt, fasten it on my waist.
Heha... and good timing, the mask is finished. Like the image, it is a mask made of a very big number of nanomachines, connecting to each other into a solid material through... temporary atomic welding, whatever that means.
I picked up the mask, the silver is so shiny it reflected my face on it to the last detail. The eight pointed star design is spiky and look painful if I turn the wrong way, but it is just long enough for me not to hurt myself, this look as if it was crafted by the finest of craftsman. Not to mention the sapphire in the center. I dig it.
So I put it on my face, seeing through the two eye holes fitting the shape of my eyes perfectly.
This is nice... I like it.
Controlling the nanomachines, I have them tucked away on my back. I can't show this yet...
I grabbed my gun, putting it in the holster in my uniform. Three extra clips around my belt.
"Delusion.", and I created four more, for a round total of eight.
This should do it.
"Rita, I'm done.", I called him out.
"Okay.", he opened the door.
"I'll be going to meet up with Jack.", I waved goodbye to him.
And he showed me an innocent smile, "See you later, Charlotte."
I like Rita, he's fun to tease. And I don't need to monitor him all the time, since his powers deactivate when he sleeps. Also, delivering a superweapon is going to stress him out a lot.
Do I consider him a friend? No, he's a co-worker. But I would reconsider if we spend more time together.
Hm, this hotel is pretty empty, I guessed because the Prime Minister had already booked this entire place out.
Uneventfully, I got to the trio's room. Their room might be a room with two beds, but Enna chose to stay with Jack and Athen, and she sleeps on the floor since that reminded her of the hard and burning ground of Hell, essentially, Enna is homesick.
I opened the door, what greeted me was... the trio wearing very creepy green mask with an singular eye. They all looked at me.
"Oh! Corday, I forgot to give you this!", she presented to me the same mask.
"I got my own.", and I put on my mask, "And it's better."
Jack lost all of her joy, she rubbed her eyes then look at me again, "Damn, fuck... this is actually genius... a Cognitive Scrambler. Okay, I am impressed, you can keep your mask—", then she brighten up, "Actually! Yes! At the meeting, you say nothing and just stand around looking all cryptic and mysterious!"
"High-five!", and she gave herself a high-five.
"So, what do you see?", I tilted my head to the side.
"It's crazy! Like, damn, every time I blink your hair changes color, sometimes I see different faces instead of the mask! This is interesting! How does this piece of technology work? How does it effects my psyche? Even Florence is affected!"
I forgot Jack is a doctor... her curiosity is... something to behold of. I can't sense anything malicious at all, just a child-like demeanor, wanting to dissect... me...
"Athen, Enna, what do you think?", I asked them.
"Yeah... same as Jack, shit... this is confusing. Zagreus, make a mental note about looking for a mess.", Athen gave her opinion.
"I just see a silver mask.", Enna replied.
"Good, good, fucking good...", Jack's smile... I can feel it growing, "More informations, better..."
Then Rita arrived, "What did I miss—", he took one look at me and turned away. His stress level rising even higher.
"Alright! To the conference hall we go!", Jack tossed over to Rita a mask, "This is for you, Rita!"
We quickly moved, with Jack leading and me being at the back.
Jack turned back to me, "Also, Corday, your order is that you can only speak when I give you permission to. Is that okay?"
I nodded, staying silent.
"This is just the original Charlotte.", Athen complained.
"Huh, I kinda like it.", Jack said with a bright mood.
Ah, now that I pay attention to the people in front of me, I noticed they all modified the uniform in some way. Jack hung a lot of black scalpels on the inside while letting the uniform unzip. Athen just entirely cut off the sleeves, she zipped the uniform unlike the Ripper. Enna has two wide gaps on the back to let her wings through, she's also zipped. And only Rita keeps it normal, but unzip.
Two zip, three unzip.
We reached the elevator, I went in first, followed by Rita and Enna, next is Athen, and finally, Jack. Damn, this elevator is pretty wide, but too much gold for my liking.
3... 4... 5... Ding!
We existed the elevator. Hm, not as tall as Seria's place but good enough.
The entire fifth floor is the conference hall, but instead of going to the main stage that is decorated with fake gold, we went to a room on the side.
Jack and Athen went in first, then Enna— she froze on the spot.
?
What? What is this... this feeling... I turned to the two people in the room before us. One is the samurai woman I saw yesterday, now wearing a business suit instead of a hoodie, icy blue hair and frosty eyes, but her cheerful and bright smile betrays everything about her appearance.
Then the middle aged man, long brown hair and a full beard, brown eyes that expresses the very definition of kindness. I think I know who this is, not to mention his seamless white robe, scars made by ropes on his wrists since he clasped his hands together on the table, showing people those scars.
And the biggest hint is his hands, their are scars of puncture, being stabbed through by... nails.
Enna certainly know who is it...