[D-Class Mission] Verlassene Zauber

Blitz nodded as Leo stepped aside. "Not that precision stuff is beyond me, but high-impact or wide-scale stuff suits my magic fairly well," Blitz admitted with a slight grin as he swung at the door. The door buckled inward and jumped off what remained of its scorched hinges, the bits bolted to the door crumbling into blackened rubble as the door collapsed with a loud 'clang' on the floor, unable to lay completely flat on the floor of the lab due to the large dent now present in the middle of it. "About as loud as I thought it would be, but given the circumstances, doubt we're going to have anyone come running to complain about it." Blitz said, nudging the door aside with his fist before letting it transform back into a normal arm. He gestured further into the lab with a smile. "Welcome to the Boscan Lab, lady and gentleman."

Blitz made a face as he stepped into the lab, though, even if it wasn't quite on the same scale of the faces that Leo and Eris made. "Something in the air here is foul, in a magical sense." Blitz noted as he gazed around the room, then to Leo and Eris, who seemed to be have it worse than him, Eris illustrating the point of the danger of the stuff by summoning a flower, which wilted almost as fast as it bloomed. "I might be slightly better off - hardened skin from years of transforming into magical machines - but I'd wager it's given me 'resistance', and I'd rather not stick around long enough to test if that goes all the way up to 'immunity' or not."

Eris voiced her own theories on the energies present in the lab, which seemed to make some degree of sense. "Makes sense, but if they were locked in a lab that's currently trying to drain life out of anything in range, how is anything that was locked up here still alive? Even if larger creatures are less affected, being locked down in range of this stuff would be quite the drain on a beast of any size."

Leo did bring up a good point, however - how to put a stop to it, and asked Blitz, as the inventor of the group, who looked thoughtful for a moment. "If they made a reactor down here, they would have also made a way to shut it down in emergencies. Rods of specific metals - and probably of specifics magics - designed to siphon away the radiation in the event of an emergency such as this. If we can locate the original safeties and engage them, we might be able to isolate the reactor and keep it's energy from bleeding out into the forest area. Thankfully for us, most standards involving stuff this dangerous requires manually-operated fail-safes - means a bit of danger for the one doing the work, but it also means that the power outage shouldn't prevent us from sealing it off."

"You can say that again," Leo muttered, lips curling upward. "Undoubtedly it's generated by our little centerpiece over there." For a moment as he acknowledged the verdant crystal it seemed to pulse brighter, although he quick wrote it off as his imagination and lucky timing; a few moments later it repeated the best again. Mildly concerning that was, yes, but not extremely unusual.

"Those are some kind words for this nuisance," Eris said, soon moving toward the outskirts of the perimeter to examine the diagrams and materials still housed in the laboratory. They were all written in Boscan script - with the exception of a few documents clearly stolen from Fioran archives - but the language posed no difficulty to either of them. Still, it was the illegitimately acquired blueprints that drew her attention, along with the notes scrawled in the margins. Biting the inside of her check in concentration, Eris rolled up a few sheets before tuning back into the conversation at hand.

"Well, we didn't see any corpses on our way here other than those we made ourselves," she commented in response to Blitz. "I would rather the reactor took some time to truly have an effect on the living - scientists working on the project likely would have destroyed it had they known its capacities, if they hadn't attempted to weaponize it instead. None of these blueprints suggest the latter, however, I believe the reactor was simply intended to generate power. Admittedly though, that conclusion comes just from reading the engineers' notes, if you'd like to take a deeper look." Assuming Blitz replied with an affirmative, Eris would offer him the documents, otherwise she would return them to their original locations.

As Blitz proposed an idea to combat the rogue reactor, Leo couldn't help but groan internally. "Or it could be a set of vials and a syringe with extremely vague instructions on it; that was certainly helpful in another Boscan lab," he grumbled, the sarcasm evident in his voice. "So, metal rods? Let's see...." Leo moved farther away from the metal contraption, examining the far side of the laboratory where a large panel was labelled Nur für den Notfall. He pushed down the lever sealing the compartment, revealing a large container with ELEMENTIUM printed on it in bold font. A grin formed upon his visage as he quickly pulled the crate from the shelf it sat on, tearing open its lid to reveal its contents to the world.

Indeed, Blitz had been correct - nested within the wood were a dozen or so poles about the length of the lacryma crystal itself. "One of the most valuable metals in the galaxy, I'm surprised they'd leave a whole crate of elementium behind. Nonetheless, as we're dealing with magic it should suit our needs well." He picked up one of the bars and spun it about in his hand; the material was lighter than steel by far. Leo then gripped one end of it, swinging it about for moment like a sword before his expression turned downward. "It's almost too light," he said, completely offtrack from the issue at hand.

"Go make a rapier out of it then," Eris scolded him, raising an eyebrow in which he sighed, returning the object with a clang.

"So, do we just, stick these close to the lacryma, or what?" Leo asked, directing his attention back to Blitz.

With the door open - in a sense - they entered, and it didn't take long to locate the source of the problem. In the center of the room was a crystal glowing a sickly green glow, and even if it's central location wasn't enough of a hint, the negative aura rolling off of it certainly was.

Eris did note that Blitz's 'introduction' of sorts were a bit too kind. "It's not kind, just a vast over-summarization of what likely occurred here. I don't recall personally seeing any Boscan labs that were researching anything purely beneficial or wholesome for the environment. I'm sure that statistically, there must have been at least one, but god knows that I never saw it, if that's actually the case." Blitz browsed along the files, looking at the ones on the shelves as Leo and Eris examined a few unrolled already on a nearby table. Blitz ran a finger along the spine of a book or two on the shelf, sporting a light coat of dust. "I suspect the original owners of some of these don't know that they're missing. Or rather, that theirs is no longer the only copy." Blitz said, noting the mish-mash of Boscan and Fiorian-style writing. He wasn't an expert in penmanship or recognizing handwriting by any means, but last time he'd been up and about, it had been fighting Boscans and occasionally sweeping conquered locations for documents of import, so the typical fonts were vaguely familiar to him. Not enough by itself, but given that they were perched on a shelf in an abandoned Boscan lab was fairly damning evidence.

As he was browsing the selection of journals, Eris said what she'd found. "So the Boscans were making a source of power without any means or plans on how to control it." Blitz said with a slight sigh of exasperation, pinching the bridge of his nose with his finger and thumb. "I'm not sure what else I expected. It certainly suits their method of operation when it comes to technology. It's like the 'fire and forget' kind of approach, but where you start the 'forget' part in development."

From Eris' tone, however, not only was this the first time they'd had to shut down something big and electronic in a Boscan Lab, but they'd seen the instructions as well. Blitz raised an eyebrow. "Didn't know you guys had a habit of crashing parties at Boscan Labs before now. I don't know what that other lab entailed, but we should be alright - for more precision tech, they'd want a complex solution that would shut things down without harming the merchandise. In this case, since the only product is energy, they just should just need a glorified off-switch. In theory." Blitz took the blueprints offered in hand and skimmed them over, and after a moment, let out a small sigh of relief. "Thank gods, they aren't complete idiots. They left control rods to help siphon it off in emergencies. Though knowing the morals of the Boscan government from the last time I crossed paths, I'd wager it was less about health compliance and more about making sure they could recover the resources in the event of an accident. Given that this remote place wasn't raided before now makes me wonder if it was some off-the-records place, and fell by the wayside because something happened to the ones who knew about it." he said, rolling the blueprints back up.

Leo managed to find the rods, which wasn't a surprise, but what they consisted of certainly was. "Wait, wasn't Elementium an ore that was exclusive to Iceberg? I distinctly recall one of their leaders going rogue and backstabbing the Boscans to swipe their war-machine. Either the Boscans were up to some thievery while I was asleep, or the Icebergians extended quite the olive branch, given the history. Assuming it's not coming from elsewhere that is," Blitz added. "As getting more from Iceberg right now would be impossible. Is it valuable because of it's properties, rarity, or both?" Blitz asked.

Leo also seemed skeptical of the rods themselves. "They might be light, but in fairness, radiation isn't terribly heavy," Blitz said with a slight grin, grabbing one of the rods for himself and walking over to the reactor, he walked a quarter of the way around the base, then leaned in. "Ah, there!" and slotted the rod into a narrow gap in the foundation, which made a ratcheting sound, and then the crystal's glow dimmed a bit. "We're going to need more than one, it looks like. As for laying them out, we need a way to get them out without exposing ourselves to it further..." He began feeling around the floor. "From what I saw, there should be...there it is!" Blitz said, lifting up a handle built into the floor, turning it with a rasp of iron on iron, then pulled upward, revealing a cylinder with a long, narrow, sealed box inside. Blitz laid the box out, popped the catches open to reveal the rod-shaped gap in the cushioned interior. "Put the rod in to drain it off, then put the used rod into the boxes - they should be designed to keep the stuff in, on the off-chance that the rods let any bleed out."

"I was talking to the dummkopf, but absolutely. Though it is rude to assume one's morality based on their country of origin, Boscans tend to be willing to do whatever it takes to advance their goals, whether they be honorable in nature or not so much," Eris replied to Blitz, glancing over at Leo for a moment with a smug expression on her face.

He shook his head, covering his mouth with his hand for a moment as if stifling a laugh. "Sure, sure. If I'm a dummkopf, you're an erbenszähler," he retorted, his tone almost sounding as if he were hurt by her words, though it was obvious by the almost puppy face Leo made that he wasn't.

"That's fair. Why don't we both just settle on arschloch?" At that, they both cracked, Leo lowering his chin as he ran his fingers through his hair, at first attempting to cut off his laugh instinctively though quickly breaking such an attempt as it was, indeed, actually appropriate to express such. Half the time it was instead self-important people making complete fools out of themselves, at least from Eris's and his perspectives.

"Certainly, my dearest asshole!" He reached over and patted her back, in which she choked, dying inside. Their humor soon faded, however, nearly as quick as it had onset. "Anyway, yes, it does seem that way. It's a shame that these documents only go up to, what...." he glanced over at a stamp on one document for a moment, "Level 3 classification? The diagrams don't entail any particularly important government secrets - definitely not anything that could be used to gain leverage, however they were probably a great boon to this laboratory and its... amateur methods," Leo said, expressing no concern for the fact that they were property of the Federation. Not that any the blueprints really mattered anyway, which was his source of disappointment simply because they could not be used for any sort of a bargaining chip. Though he really didn't need one at the present moment, it was always useful to be prepared.

"I wouldn't call it a habit; it's more like an... obligation," he replied, struggling to find the right words almost as if he were battling his own voice. "That's wonderful news, though. Here's hoping it will actually work, unlike my example." Leo glanced downward for about half a second, and although his facade gave away nothing his mind dwelled on the subject, bound to spiral out of control.

"Not your fault."

His gaze met her own, it almost a scowl yet more empathetic in nature. Still, disapproving. "I know," he lied. She just shook her head.

And, of course, such a lovely time to discuss more history. At least it was a distance excerpt Blitz referenced, not anything Leo had witnessed, though its timing did coincide with the task force. "Yes, but Iceberg and Bosco as you knew them no longer exist today. A small part of the country actually allied with Bosco during the Great War, and they still remain within the Boscan Großereich, but the relationship between the Isborn-Bellumese Commonwealth and the Reich isn't a negative one now, owing mainly to the fact that Fiore and Bosco are no longer at odds. That aside, it's not like this is a laboratory owned by the Boscan government itself, it's the land around it that is," he said.

"Oh, I'm rambling though. Elementium is found on various planets other than Earthland, but Isberg has kept its refinery techniques a secret for longer than I can remember. It's one of the best conductors of magic, and can store it as well. Small amounts of it are used in a lot of advanced technologies, though many high quality weapons are made with alloys of it as well."

Soon, Blitz determined how to insert the rods into the reactor, and upon doing so the lacryma dimmed a little, seeming to prove his hypothesis correct. "We may not want to touch those when removing them," Eris commented, though she followed his instructions in placing a bar, Leo doing the same. Waiting some time, she then attempted to retrieve the rod she had placed by gripping it with a vine, but as soon as she attempted to summon on it shriveled away. "What a pain in the ass," she groaned, in her hands soon appearing both of her swords while her spear vanished from sight. She then copied what Leo had been doing, using his weapons as tongs of sorts to secure the rods in their casing. They continued to repeat the process, the crystal starting to dull, its presence fading much to their relief.

Blitz paused, then said, "You're not wrong, and I DO know that the country from which you hail is no guarantee of the direction of your moral compass, as Fiore was home to a few sour apples of its own. Just look at Stefan's legacy. But until....what in my memory, is about 2 weeks back, at least from my perspective," Blitz added, "The Boscans were waging war across the country and killing both my own countrymen and their own, with no discrimination, using abominations they cooked up in their labs. I realize that might not be the standard now, but....it's going to take some getting used to." Blitz admitted.

"No doubt those scientific journals and research reports saved them some serious trial and error," Blitz said, "Instead of the usual brute-forcing they have a history with. Though given the circumstances, we might be looking at a specter of their former mindsets here," Blitz pointed out.

Blitz was busy using the rods to drain off the reactor, so he missed the look and 'not my fault' comment that passed between the duo, but did catch the explanation of Bosco and Iceburg, and that things were more or less no longer negative. "That sounds closer to a ceasefire than a peace treaty, to be honest," Blitz said, snapping the case shut with the radiation-imbued rod inside and pushing it a short distance aside, "Though given what happened with Bosco the last time we tried to make an official peace treaty, perhaps that was the wiser option, even if it does leave some loopholes. As for the lab itself, I'm not convinced." Blitz flatly added. "The land itself might be the Boscan government's, but they have a secret, potentially dangerous lab out here that's got nothing to do with them? If, by chance, it actually doesn't belong to them, then someone is doing a fantastic job of framing them."

As Eris and Leo seemed to be struggling a bit, but from an understandable point of view - for some reason, they reacted worse to the crystal's radiation than Blitz, and didn't want to directly touch the rods if needed. "Don't be afraid to actually grab hold of the rod," Blitz said, "Think of it like a sword of sorts - most of it is dangerous, but they made sure the part you actually have to grab onto is safe." Blitz held up one unused rod, pointing to a thin grey line in the otherwise unbroken blue coloration. "See that? Lead, so the radiation doesn't spread down to the part you need to use to actually get the rods someplace safe. Just don't use your magic to try and remove it - while the rods are MEANT for radiation, if they can absorb magic as well, then they might drain off - or at least, weaken - whatever spell you're using to try and move them about." Blitz said as he took another rod out and drained off some more of the crystal's mutative mojo.

You'll get it, eventually. Or, at least, you'll come to accept the present until you have a brief, sudden, and painful relapse in your memory which leaves you with an abrupt existential crisis, oh those are fun," Eris replied, only half-joking through her grin. Leo nodded along, though he quickly also flashed a smile, offering nothing else on the subject matter.

He did chuckle, however, at the man's view of galatic politics. "Time does not heal all wounds, but it does help fix many. That aside, Fiore is far too concerned about Pergrande these days to worry about Bosco, and it's a bit of the enemy of my enemy is my friend situation, they don't like the Union too much either. The last time the three were in true conflict was around... four hundred years ago, I believe. Although certainly, the Federation and the Union have been at odds since before then," Leo explained, sparing the lion's share of details simply because they were irrelevant to the conversation at hand. Yes, for happening four hundred years the uprising of Seven was still a contested subject, but not because of the alliances of the countries involved.

"I don't see our ranger having much of a reason to lie about the laboratory; he seems fed up enough with the lack of funding that he likely would have spilled some secrets. But then again, I'm not exactly too keen on governments in the first place, so maybe that's just my opinion talking," He shrugged, after all it didn't really matter anyway. Eris clearly held the same line of thought, as she soon continued.

"If it were a Boscan project, it seems harmless enough, or at least it was intended to be a mere energy experiment. Whatever the case, it's abandoned now, and any true secrets stored would have undoubtedly been taken with, if not destroyed."

In any case, they continued to cycle through the rods, Blitz soon informing them that there was a much more efficient way of going about the neutralization. "All of a sword is dangerous, or none of it, if you know the proper technique. But thanks for the analogy," he replied, securing his blades upon his back once again before proceeding as the man had instructed. Eris likewise did similar, sheathing Serenitas and Sahizal on her left side, pausing for a moment to give the latter weapon a once over.

Soon enough, the bars of elementium were depleted, and it seems the scientist had at least gotten one calculation correct, the exact amount found was what was required. No longer was the lacryma verdant, only a white milk that gave off no light whatsoever. And so too did the magical presence disperse, into the rods as it seemed as did the life. A semblance of normality did that mimick, much better to their senses. "I think it's safe to destroy it now," Leo stated, logically intoned although a spark of exuberance was held underneath.

"Of course you'd say that."

"What? You never really know something until you blow it to smithereens." She merely rolled her eyes, then deferring to Blitz for his opinion on the matter.

Eris, at least, seemed confident that Blitz would (given time) adapt to the temporal shift from his thousand-year slumber and the change in times that came along with it. "Perhaps so. I would be lying if I said that it hasn't begun already, to some extent. God knows the first week or so took some major getting used to," Blitz said, securing another rod in a containment box as he snapped the clasps shut. "You're talking about a guy who had never even considered space-travel in the 30-plus years I was on Earthland, now I've been to a number of different planets in 4 days. It's....quite the shift, to put it lightly."

Leo more or less brought him up to speed on national relations while they dealt with the rods. "Like I said, it'll take getting used to," Blitz said again with a slight smile. "Dealing with Bosco had become such a standard that it's actually kind of weird to consider the fact that I don't really need to grant it such....focus, at least anymore." Blitz added, looking thoughtful. "Though I didn't mean to implicate our guide through the forest from earlier," Blitz quickly continued, "I'm just saying that if someone wanted to make a mess and try to pin it on Bosco, something technology-based gone wrong seems like a rather simple method to turn gazes on them, given their history."

Eris raised a fair point, however. "It IS a bit odd that anyone, especially Bosco, would just leave this sitting out, and not have anyone come over to collect it." Blitz mused. "My bigger concern, the hazardous nature of this crystal aside, is that if THIS is what they didn't feel the need to bring along when they left," Blitz said, gesturing to the crystal and elementium rods, "Then what on Earthland did they bother to box up and take with them? There aren't any bodies that we've seen, so no one had a mysterious death unless they were disintegrated, and given the outage and lack of mobile hardware, I doubt this place was automated."

After they'd finished using the elementium rods to drain off all the excess radiation and box them up accordingly, the only remaining matter was the source of the radiation itself - the crystal in the reactor. Leo voted to blow it up, with a considerable eye-roll from Eris. He wasn't looking their direction when he heard that, but from her tone, it wasn't hard to imagine. "If, by chance, damage to the crystal caused the leak into the nearby forest in the first place, then rupturing it completely would not be the way to go. But I think I've got a decent idea on how to get it back safely," Blitz added, moving around the side to reach carefully in with his robotic arm (as touching it directly was still not something he considered a good idea, resistance or no), slide the panel aside, and snag the crystal, before walking over to the box that had initially held the rods. He checked to make sure a fair number were left before setting it down carefully on top of the rods, then transformed both hands into the same metal fist he'd opened the door with, picking up the box, and condensing it with crunches of wood and screeches of metal, his hands moving like he was molding clay, before dusting some splinters off and turning to face the duo with a grin. "I think this should suffice until we get someplace safe." The remaining rods had been wrenched into a tightly-knit ball around the crystal, and the negative aura that had been lingering in the place had dropped considerably once Blitz's work had finished.

Eris let out a 'hmph' as Blitz responded to her half-reassurance unfazed, shaking her head for a brief moment although it wasn't in disapproval. "You can say that again. We had three hundred years, and, well, it didn't really help once we got there." She glanced over at Leo for a second, in which he nodded along, drawing a brief, lazy line across his throat with his hand.

That being said, it did seem like the man would have some catching up to do on his political beliefs, which was quite reasonable. The Boscan War, of course, was what was on Blitz's mind. Leo had seen the worst of it, from the stance of morality, at least, and although he personally hadn't been perturbed, at least not until the bitter end, plenty of others in the task force had been. If Blitz possessed a relatively normal conscience, which he seemed to based on observations thus far, it would take time to truly settle into peace. Unfortunately, though, he had not exactly awakened in a stable period of time, or at least if the Independence Gala told them anything. It would only be so long before another attack struck humanity, that much was certain.

"I don't think a laboratory like this would gain any sort of galactic foothold, though it could certainly set a wheel in motion. Theoretically, of course - I believe our galaxy may be on the verge of a more dire threat as things currently stand. But you know about that already," Leo said. "If you do have any other questions about the state of the galaxy in the future though, remember, I was a history professor. Inquisitive minds tend to make it the furthest." He winked, offering a grin.

Eris narrowed her eyes for a second, making a mental calculation in her head. "They would at least take the elementium. It costs a pretty penny, and, well, I don't say that often. I'm guessing whoever either opened or closed the laboratory one day noticed something terribly off, took a blowtorch, and sealed it off without a second thought. People do the irrational in times of crisis, that much is a proven fact."

Yeah, okay, Eris dismissing him was fair. Blitz though, well, it was time to use the big words. "Well, if the lacryma no longer has any energy inside, as the rods were supposed to siphon it away, breaking down the crystalline structure of the material would prevent it from having any more adverse effects on the environment for it would no longer be able to pull in and store magical energy. It shouldn't cause a reaction, now that it's a blank slate," he explained even as Blitz came up with a more temporary solution. Yes, despite posing it as a bit of a joke at first, his proposition did have academic merit to it, objects could only hold a capacity for a magic at a certain level, after that they just became meaningless atoms and molecules that even if they did possess an insignificant fraction of power it was just that, inconsequential in any meaningful calculations.

They both watched the man bend the remaining metal to his will, although it was less of being impressed and more of just surprised he would do so, compared to other methods. "Then again, I'm not sure if anyone here possesses the means to disintegrate a lacryma crystal," Leo added just as Blitz finished his handiwork. "I'm guessing you're a part of the Magic Collective, right? They should be able to perform such a task, and under controlled conditions at that."

Eris glanced around the laboratory for a last time, then turned to them. "Well, I don't see much point in sticking around here any longer. Shall we?" She gestured with her head toward the exit, moving to it. Leo soon followed, and without any further delay they were back out in the wilderness. Eris touched a nearby tree, and leaves started to sprout back from it. Despite the success, she frowned. "I can't do all of them," she muttered begrudgingly, in which he laughed.

"I doubt the ranger was betting on getting the forest to grow back this soon," Leo said, in which she shrugged.

"I'll just do a few. I feel bad not doing it." He nodded, and they proceeded back to where they had all first met up, Eris stopping every so often for just a brief moment. With a few words to the ranger explaining what they had done and what to expect in the future, they then turned to Blitz, waving at him.

"See you again soon," Leo offered with a smile. They then turned back to their ship and were on their way, off to a new adventure.