Broken Hourglass (Sanscest Multiship)

Chapter 14 - Pep Talk

Harsh lighting illuminated the hallway leading towards the R&D department. It was strangely quiet, unlike the rest of the departments in the tech division. Classic felt uneasy as he opened the door, but the feeling soon dissipated as he was greeted by a group hanging out around the door.

"I told you he was gonna come in," one of them said, spinning around in a chair. Classic would later find out he was called Alter.

"Hey, you wanna see something cool?" That one was G.

"Uh, yeah," Classic answered. That was the whole reason he went there, to see what was up.

"Alright, Azzy, hit it!"

Asylum, Azzy for short, turned his attention to a cube sitting on a podium, and the rest of the group watched as it rapidly appeared and disappeared. The switching pace slowly increased as a ball of dark magic appeared. It was unlike anything Classic had seen before and seemed to draw in light.

"Don't touch it," Alter warned before he had even really thought about it. "It's Anti-Void magic. Doesn't mix well with our type of magic."

The ball shot off into a wall, leaving a crater as everyone had to duck to avoid being hit. Just like that, it was gone.

G piped up. "We've been trying to study it, but without some kind of a holder, it doesn't like to exist here."

Asylum put a hand to the side of his head in clear pain. "Can that be it for today? I need to find some more pain meds."

G shrugged. "We've got a new recruit anyway. Rest up, and we'll go over the readings later."

Azzy gave a thumbs up and then left.

Alter brought up a video feed of the hallway for Classic to see. "We were watching you debate about coming in here. It's been a while since we've had anyone new. Glad that you did, welcome to the department."
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"I keep telling you, even if I have powers, I don't know how to use them," Lust complained. He had been complaining almost this entire training session, but it was still necessary.

"Well, I kinda need you to learn, but I don't know what to teach you unless I know what you can already do. Focus. Just make a suggestion," Classic encouraged him.

"Fine. I don't know, how about...you... sit down or something." Lust was not at all confident about this.

The rest of this small group looked at each other, presumably to see if this was working on any of them, which it wasn't. Even Cat didn't seem impressed. The small creature got up from their loaf and started playing with a spring.

"It's not working," Lust said. He was getting increasingly frustrated.

That was enough of that. "Ok. Let's get back to you later. Blue, can you walk through a conversation you might have with someone who's been displaced with me?"

The knight nodded.

"Ok, I'll be the person you're trying to rescue. There's no immediate danger; you just need to convince me to come with you."

"Hi," Blue said. Not a bad start.

"Hello"

"How are you today?" It's going downhill, but there's plenty of time to turn this around.

"Umm, where am I?"

"Oh, I umm... I..." Blue broke character. "Can we try that again? I don't know what to say."

"We'll try again later. Deflect the question if you can, tell them you saw a map back somewhere and to come look. In Search & Rescue your job is to make sure whoever you're helping is safe above all else. The returning part can be put off. You should have asked if I was injured immediately after introducing yourself," Classic said.