[D-Class Mission] Verlassene Zauber

Blitz glanced out one porthole in the ship at the clear-blue sky overhead, briefly admiring the serenity of it - he doubted he would have much time to sit and admire nature once the ship landed, after all. He'd taken his first official mission in this new world of his - he was still getting used to thinking of it as 'the present' instead of 'the future', given the circumstances. The guilds of Earthland were long gone, and while their influence remained to some extent, the guilds themselves - at least as a source of work - had up and disappeared. Thankfully, actually being out of the history books to some extent had smoothed his application process somewhat into the new mage 'Organization', as they were calling themselves. To Blitz, it seemed more like they had just lumped all the guilds into bigger groups based on interests, but it didn't bother him enough to gripe about it. Like a lot of things here, he'd just have to adapt as he went. Truth be told, he wasn't even quite used to the idea of being on 'another planet' just yet. It had been a bit daunting at first, but visiting other planets had helped wear that reaction down, but it wasn't completely leveled out yet.

This first mission had caught his eye because it looked like a decent refresher course of sorts - it was dealing with some sort of malfunctioning Boscan handiwork off in their turf, though from the report he'd read, the stuff was likely to originally be of Fiorian creation. The good news was that the experiments with the stolen property had backfired to almost a comical degree, vaporizing the stolen property and the would-be thieves along with their ill-gotten haul. The bad news was that at least one of their little projects had managed to bear fruit, and was now rampaging unchecked in Boscan territory. Since the initial experiments involved magic, they needed an expert, and Blitz fit the bill rather nicely. Not only was he a machine-creating mage and an inventor of magitech, but he'd seen the kind of atrocities that Boscan scientists ended up spawning when they got the wrong ideas in their heads. If nothing else, this would be a good opportunity to see how far both Bosco and Fiore had come in the years he'd been drifting through the cosmos asleep.

The ship descended, landing neatly near the edge of the landing pad - normally the landing might be closer to the center, but he guessed the pilot wasn't taking chances, what with the forest looking like it was aggressively trying to reclaim the land it had lost to the parking lots. Blitz stood up, straightening his attire slightly as he moved to the door, giving a brief wave to the pilot from the Organization who had dropped him off. "Appreciate the lift," Blitz said. "I'll send word when we're all done, but don't feel the need to hang around and wait for me - given that this problem is still spreading, best not to keep anything we care about too close to it." The pilot merely smiled slightly and gave a thumbs up before Blitz got out, closing the door behind him and taking a few steps away from the ship as it rose from the landing pad and took off into space just as quickly as it had arrived. Blitz watched it go for a moment before turning to view the problem at hand - though given that the problem seemed to be nature growing out of control, Blitz surmised that his magical expertise was going to be tested more than his technological expertise.

He walked down the steps of the landing pad, into the partially-regrown parking lot, to see the wildlife ranger - or at least someone who met the description of the one who'd made the request - and the fellow Blitz had been told he'd been working with, but hadn't been given a description on. However, ironically enough, it was the one person in this new world that he actually knew by name. "Well, they told me there'd be a partner to work with from another organization, but never occurred to me that it might be you, Leo," Blitz said with a smile as he approached. "Haven't seen you since the incident at the Gala - how's everything going?"

"This is too normal," Eris commented under her breath as the ranger started to brief them. However, before Leo could respond a roaring outside the small outpost could be heard, one that hummed to the frequency of a starship. Their guide stopped the mundane introduction to the wildlife reserve, good riddance; it had been long, dry, dull, and unimportant. Soon did one Blitz Ranfen enter through the door, a wild chance of numbers if there were any, even though from their mostly historical conversation Leo had gathered that the man was a mage of some sort.

He laughed. "I suppose we never got the chance for a more formal introduction; Eris and I are members of IMG," Leo replied. "And it's been going fine, other than the shocking revelation that this galaxy isn't the only inhabited one...." Despite his words, however, he played it off as a joke, or at least wasn't all that serious in his words. There was only one constant in the world, after all, the lack of constants, the progression from one change to the next. No, alien would never feel right on his tongue, but the same went for most of modern vernacular, his mind simply brushed over the unfamiliar, pushing it aside in a corner to be processed at a later hour, most commonly when he was trying to sleep, if ever.

Their catching up would be cut short, however, by the somewhat impatient ranger, who had perhaps considered his previous rambling to actually be of some cosmic importance. "Now that you all are here," he started in a Boscan accent, "I'll take you to the location of the old laboratory, or at least show you to the path its on depending on how dangerous it gets. No one's been near it in some time." He pointed in the direction of a glass door leading to an overgrown trail before exiting the building. Roots protruded from the dirt in a far more present way then what would normally occur within the given time span of the park having been closed to visitors, most progressing away from where they were travelling. And despite the sounds the group made, birds, deer, and other animals of prey seemed content with their placid foraging, their numbers far higher than the average swath of woodland.

Indeed there was the creeping sense of claustrophobia intruding on his mind, the sense of life almost suffocating. Crowds were nothing like it, surrounded by bleak, dead architecture, nor was wilderness usually so overabundant. This was something else, and terribly uncomfortable as well, likely a result of whatever force science and magic had generated. At least everything was alive, however, or at least for now. It certainly ruled out the most horrific possibility, though such was only a ridiculous, paranoid notion in Leo's head, one not rationalized by waking thought. "Say, why was there a laboratory built on the reserve in the first place?" Eris asked, her query thankfully bringing him out of his own ruminations.

The ranger sighed audibly, a disappointed tone overtaking his voice. "There was no other way to fund the park's programs, after the federal government cut most of its spending on preservation efforts. Other parks have had to do the same, although luckily the companies they undertook didn't cause nearly as many difficulties," he said. "It should have never been done."

"We did end up getting snared into the events going on at the time that we barely had time to do more than exchange a handshake before things hit the fan," Blitz said with a slight laugh. "I didn't know you were with one of the bigger guilds. I figured you might have gainful employment somewhere - if anyone in the galaxy has tenure, it'd be someone with your longevity - but admittedly, wasn't up to speed on how things were run back during the gala. Something of a newcomer, technically speaking."

The comment about other populated galaxies cause Blitz to raise an eyebrow, but otherwise he didn't comment on it. That piece of information would have been a bit much to process when he first woke up - in all honestly, he'd still be thinking about it later, likely while literally staring into space - but after learning how much time had passed, and seeing - in addition to fighting - some of the new sentient species discovered in humanity's journey across the stars, it was closer to believable now.

Any further talk was put on hold by the fuming of the park ranger who had been speaking to Leo, and looked none too happy at being interrupted or ignored for a short time. "Apologies for the interruption," Blitz said with a slight nod of acknowledgment, "Didn't mean to put a big pause on things with my arrival. Please, continue."

The guide walked as he spoke, explaining that no one had visited the old lab in some time. Meaning it wasn't just this recent accident that made the forest impossible to properly traverse, the location itself wasn't visited by anyone. To our knowledge, anyway. But I'm willing to bet whatever happened down there didn't set itself off. The forest itself seemed fine, however, despite its rapid growth across the landscape - the animals that would forage in a normal forest were still here, going about their business as if nothing was wrong. If anything, they seemed remarkably bold compared to forest creatures Blitz had seen back on Earthland. While it was possible that it was because these were creatures of different names and rules - after all, some of them looked familiar, but some didn't, alien planet after all, despite the Boscan presence - they seemed unnaturally bold, as if the growth spurt of the forest home had given them courage.

The forest grew more dense the further in they ventured, which didn't bother Blitz much - while it was truly an abundance of both nature and magic, Blitz had experience with both. His takeover form and magic meant his own body was being wrapped or altered by magic on a daily basis, and he'd had a long-standing habit of exploring forests and taking naps in trees, so the atmosphere wasn't bothersome to him. The area brimming with magic was cause for investigation and some caution, but not inherently as unpleasant in vibe to Blitz.

Leo asked the question at hand - why there was even a lab out here in the middle of nowhere to begin with, and the ranger clarified that it was to get funding for the park programs. "So the government needed a remote place to run some tests off the beaten path, and the forest couldn't get funding unless it made some kind of concession. Seems like some decision needed making to keep the forest's tending from going under, but it seems mother nature got the short end of the stick on that one. Though to be honest, from what I've seen, leaders of Boscan nations seem more inclined towards technology than anything else, which puts plant life on the other end of their spectrum of concerns."

His pointer finger found the part of his lips, pressing against them and jerking his head in the direction of the ranger as Blitz callously spoke about longevity. Leo knew he had told the no man no secret of his, nor had Eris, so the only remaining factor would be that the mage had put two and two together. Oh well, it wasn't the end of the universe, but still a bother nonetheless as he was apparently a bit of a chatterbox. "I suppose I look a little young to have already been a history professor, though I wasn't lying about that," Leo muttered in response, register low and mouth subtle enough so that their guide didn't even catch he was speaking. His gaze held a shred of irritation, though it was only so, he knew naivety when he saw it; it was almost guaranteed Blitz had intended his words to be only a kind jest. Unfortunately, the truth could not be revealed to the world at large, the consequences would be far too dire. The prejudice was one thing, a something he could deal with given the horrible deeds of his past, but the abuse, the pain, the torture, not even for his own self but for the sake of others around him it could not be repeated. And, he glanced over at Eris, if one of them were discovered so too would the other, it was only the natural progression of thought.

That possibility was even worse.

But alas, thankfully, Blitz's mild confusion was enough to again catch the attention of the park manager, his words drawing Leo away from the mere potential of disaster. "No no, I can assure you the Boscan government wasn't involved with the laboratory in any way. They have no need for property in the middle of nowhere; they could simply seize a complex in Westen, or something," the ranger explained with distaste. "The corporation the laboratory belonged to was called Langweilige Industrien, I believe, or Boring Industries in Fioran. I'm not sure where they got that name from, but it doesn't really matter." His eyes then narrowed, looking off to his left for a moment in recollection before again addressing Blitz. "Wait, nations, you don't mean to imply you're one of the travelled, do you?" The ranger stopped in his tracks for a moment, however soon after he continued forward.

The forest retained its abundance for some time, however suddenly the quality dropped off, almost a line from the plentiful to the destitute. Beyond them only grim skeletons of the foilage remained, a dead quiet contrasting the deafening beforehand. The stillness was much more soothing to him, nay the apparent death didn't bother him the slightest, neither did it change Eris's expression. "This is as far as I go," the ranger announced. "Continue down this trail and hang a left at the fork in the road. The laboratory used to be masked in some trees, but I doubt it will be hard to spot now."

They both nodded. "Thank you for taking us this far," Eris said, stepping forward into the more desolate area. Leo did the same, and they walked forward without much comment, clearly accustomed to such settings. Soon a low howling was found from deep within, a multitude, actually. He attempted to tune into where the sound emanated from, but it was too far off to be of any use than beyond. Still, a line of dark decay followed the path, unfound even within a few paces of it.

"There's probably no need to state the obvious, but the further degradation of the forest seems to be originating from the path. Perhaps it was used for some sort of transport to and from the laboratory?" he pondered, jaw offsetting in thought.

Eris pointed at a patch of mud nearby. "That looks like a wolf's paw, but it's far too large unless it's of a monstrous variety," she started. "Based on the vegetation I had assumed this part of reserve was abandoned and those noises were coming from beyond, but apparently that may not be the case; the tracks are pointed toward where we're headed."

Leo's response was a slightly curious one - aside from it being said rather quietly compared to his volume a simple moment ago, and the slight look that passed over his expression for an instant when Blitz himself spoke, there was another part of what he said that Blitz caught onto. You do realize that implies you lied to me about something else, right? Blitz thought, and Leo alone would hear it. He wasn't whispering quietly like Leo had, however - he was using Morgan's magic to open a telepathic channel between the two of them. Sorry if I said something you'd rather keep a secret, but given your reaction just now, you're likely as old as I am, if not moreso, if I had to guess. If you want to keep your identity hidden, you might want to either find a way to look a bit older or act a bit younger - your attitude is far too mature for someone of your age, and when you were speaking of history back at the Gala, your eyes held a look that implied more wisdom that someone of your 'perceived' age should be aware of. Tip for the future if you'd prefer to keep that under your hat.

Oblivious to all of this, the guide kept going, answering Blitz's inquires, to which Blitz responded with a slight sigh. "I figured it would be rude to assume, so I thought perhaps the government made a deal that still assisted the landscape in some fashion, but it appears even that might have been a stretch in my estimations." Blitz paused when the fellow brought up 'nations' and 'travelers'. "Huh. So we've got a group name, now. Interesting." Starting to see why Leo didn't want to post about his travels on Spacebook, Blitz thought. "Fair enough - I did get here on a ship related to the Exodus, I just....took a more scenic route." he said after a moment, not wanting to lie about it, but having the feeling that the truth would seem way more far-fetched in comparison.

Soon enough, they reached what was surely the problem - a dead zone in the middle of the forest where nothing alive was left growing. Even the forest floor was an unhealthy color. "Find the middle of the mess, we find the lab, got it." Blitz said with a slight nod. "Appreciate you bringing us this far - we'll meet back up with you after we've resolved the problem."

Blitz followed the path with the duo, noting as Leo did that the path seemed a central column for the decay. "I'd wager it means whatever they were hauling had a naturally corrosive effect on the nearby landscape. While it might sound odd, I hope they hauled a ton of this stuff back and forth....because if they didn't, it means the forest was reduced to this," Blitz said with a gesture at the dying surroundings, "Just by passing by a few times."

Blitz glanced at the paw-print Eris found. "They could have been using it to haul the stuff, but given that it's in mud that isn't completely dry yet, this was recent. It would make sense that whatever killed off the plant life did the same to the wildlife, but given the size of this print, we can't really assume anymore. Let's keep moving towards the base with our eyes peeled - if they were using this stuff on living things on purpose and not just by accident, whatever their actual test subject was might be lumbering around someplace."

Leo chuckled as the man decided to take their conversation to telepathy out of all things, clearly not satisfied enough by his lackluster response. "Of course, I lie about many things. It's a force of habit you might pick up on, soon enough," he replied unabashedly, a smirk catching his visage despite the fact that it was a strictly mental communication. Blitz's attempt at advice turned it away, though, for he clearly had no sense of boundaries which was starting to get on Leo's nerves. "The difference between us is that you have not truly experienced a millennium, perhaps your flesh may register as such an age after being warped through space-time, cryogenically frozen, or whatever may have you, but all your biological processes halted and therefore so did your mind. Your life and memories still only accumulate to what - two, three decades? Great, you saw the end of Earthland, but so too did many other people who were thrown off course by warp storms, which are simply a natural phenomenon of space. Even if annoying to do so, it's still a perfectly reasonable explanation that even national governments accept."

He shook his head for a moment, rubbing the back of his neck. "My apologies, that went off on a bit of a tangent. The fact of the matter is, though, you've had a relatively normal life. Maybe you're a mage, maybe you've faced some obstacles in this new setting of yours, but I doubt you've ever been actively hunted like an animal because of those traits, regardless of your actions. I wouldn't mind others knowing the truth, if it didn't come with those occasionally dire consequences. And believe me, Eris and I both try our damnest to not show it, but having grown up in a time when pretty much every modern invention other than the wheel was nonexistent it's just a little bit hard. But I digress."

Yes, it was time to stop speaking of the past, even though no actual words had been drawn from his mouth. At least Blitz's hypotheses were a bit more tolerable, in which soon after he spoke did Eris make contact with one of nearest grayed trees, though it had little to do with his predictions. From the decaying bark did she draw out a living branch, pointing toward the supposed facility. Soon, however, its path veered in its accelerated growth, twisting back to where its healthy companions lay. "I didn't make it do that," she muttered, soon leaving it to shrivel out again. "It's almost as if it were fleeing something, but this particular species isn't even magicaly attuned, in normal conditions."

The wolf tracks also continued onward, intermittently spaced between the trail and the foilage just outside it. Soon, another identical set joined them, Leo pointing the duplicate out. "Maybe there were multiple test subjects? Or perhaps the wolves in the area are simply more tolerant to whatever it is everything else has fled from." Then, more howling, it being much closer in distance than before.

Blitz's expression remained somewhat neutral as Leo mentioned his 'force of habit' about fibbing. I get that you conceal some things out of necessity, but there are two types of lies - ones told because you have to, and ones told for no real reason. Tell too many of the latter, and you'll find it difficult to actually tell the truth when it matters. Cheesy as that might sound, it's got merit as a concept.

While he wasn't looking at Leo's face - as actually looking at each other for a response during a telepathic communication might hint a bit too strongly that there was a private conversation going on - Blitz could sense, though his mentally-implied tone, that Leo's feathers were on the verge of being ruffled somewhat by what he had said. Keeping that in mind, Blitz withheld the usual chuckle that might have given him as he replied, Okay, fair enough - you took the scenic route while I skipped ahead a few chapters, so you're already up to speed, while I have to skim the cliffnotes. I promise to look properly sheepish should I ever ask for a senior discount. But there's a slight point you're missing - time being thrown off was accepted as normal, but I'm guessing not for some time - ironically enough - and that period was only 300 years. Just think of the guide's reaction - he assumed I had traveled some 300 years or so, and that alone made him physically stop and ask questions. If I had told him I'd actually been floating adrift in space for a thousand, I'd still be answering his questions right now.

Surprisingly enough, Leo apologized after his brief tangent. No worries - you're not exactly wrong, after all. And while I can't relate going from the wheel to spaceflight, there's also the fact that I was a machine mage and inventor in a time where my magic and inventions were more advanced than most technology, and now I've been flung into a future where, at best, I'm barely holding onto that lead. A bit jarring, to say the least.

Eris strutted a bit of her stuff to investigate the nearby dying trees, managing to coax a healthy branch from it to point towards the lab, then veer towards greener parts of the forest, with Eris claiming that wasn't her doing. "Plants might not have instincts like humans and animals do, but they've got their own survival mechanisms. Some plants emit things from their roots that keep away invasive weeds from themselves and nearby plants, some can create poisonous growths that look tasty to the insects that eat them, and some can even change their time of blooming from day to night to attract new predators to clear away the over-abundant previous predators. And that knowledge is from back on Earthland, so we've got both new plants and plants with 1000+ years of evolving. Most likely the plant used that burst of magical energy as it could before it gave out, making use of a new, brief resource as best as it could manage."

"Since when you do you know so much about plants, machine mage?" said Shoop, his talking hat, from atop his head.

Blitz shrugged. "Studied up briefly after a few encounters on Earthland. Wanted to see if there was potential for inventions or applications that could be applied to machine magic. Still a work in progress."

As they walked further, they found more tracks - meaning more than one wolf. "Either the wolves were the test subjects, or the wolves were the only nearby fauna fortunate enough to withstand whatever killed off the greenery. I'm hoping the former, because I'd rather not encounter an entire pack of super-sized wolves." Blitz pointed out.

(Fun fact: Everything I just said about plants (barring the bit with Eris's branch) are examples of actual plants we have on Earth today ^^)

Well then, Blitz seemed too focused on his own problems to even question how they had managed to make it to the modern day, which although seemingly an undesirable characteristic it was better than the incessant questions that usually followed such a discovery, or the swift construction of biases and the occasional taste of hatred. And so did Leo remain silent over the connection, pushing the man's incorrect view on the warping of time aside. There was no pre-determined date of arrival in nature, after all, some ships that had been lost during the Exodus had yet to be accounted for, and perhaps never would be. Maybe Blitz did not yet know about the phenomenon that had brought him to the future, or perhaps there was something a bit more esoteric about his journey, but the fact still remained that those who were known to have travelled from the past were more often looked up at in wonderment as to tell the tale of humanity's homeworld, rather than fear and paranoia. Shock at first, certainly, but the ranger had already demonstrated that it was of the more superficial variety.

Regardless, Leo snickered as Blitz attempted to start an explanation about the defense mechanisms of plants, soon covering his mouth with his palm to mute the sound although glancing at Eris all the same, the closest to an apology for the man's ignorance he could muster being conveyed through his eyes. Her head shook back and forth a few times, removing her hand from the tree.

"I have a PhD in biochemistry," she spoke deadpan, staring at Blitz tepidly. "It's a white elm, a perfectly and utterly normal tree from Earthland. Even with accelerated growth, given nothing else it would normally grow that way," Eris paused, pointing at the sun which was in the direction they were headed, "because of photosynthesis. I'm hoping you came across that in your studious undertakings. For it to not exhibit such patterns means it was altered in some way by whatever lies ahead of us." The sarcasm was evident in her voice at a point, however it was soon replaced by the matter at hand. There was not much just else that could be surmised from the scant evidence they had, though, other than the severity of the laboratory's effect on the environment. Whatever lay ahead of them was most likely not pretty.

It also would probably involve some canine friends, as just as Blitz finished speaking did another howl emanate from the woods, much closer now. "You should have knocked on some wood," Leo muttered jokingly, though the stance he assumed was far from casual. Pausing for a moment as sparks of life flickered from beyond the decaying growths, his wrists flicked downward as Dua and List were summoned into his grip, soon guarded with the right across his torso and the left loosely pointed toward the ground.

Likewise, Eris took up a similar pose, her spear appearing in one hand - its shaft extending behind her - as the other hung slack at her side. A few moments later did a furry gray head poke out from the deteriorating surroundings, lunging at her with its mouth first. She immediately skewered its throat, but stumbled backward as the weight of the wolf followed, far larger than any natural species. Other beasts also emerged, one going for Leo's legs in which he dug his blade into its neck before dropping down and plunging his other sword into its heart while it recoiled.