[center][h1]Mission 1 - A Unique Opportunity[/h1][/center]
[center][i]Its wings are an deathly omen; the sky is its dominion, the earth its macabre canvas.
With claws dipped in bloody slaughter, it paints the future of man most hopeless.
Learned leaders strong and proud beat their breast and are given over to madness.
Widowed women wail as children are snatched away, and warriors left headless.
—Chronicles of Degrasse, Volume VIII: The Three Kings[/i][/center]
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Frederica Simonova: Juggernaut, First Class. Star pupil of Brionac Academy, and darling of the people of Agartha. Serves hero sandwiches in the cafeteria, and knuckle sandwiches in the field. The weight of these expectations did not slow the young woman down as she ran down the cobblestone streets of the middle-class district she lived in, a long blue ponytail and droplets of sweat trailing behind her. As she rounded a corner and passed a group of children waiting to take the cable car to school, she held out her right hand—and without fail, the supervising adults and taller children held out their hands and high-fived her all in a line. A row of smiles, and a few "good mornings," the same as every day—but something was just a little off. The mood was just that small bit dampened by something. Must be the news, she figured.

"Please be advised: if you see any unusual shapes in the sky, report to your local authorities. If at any time you feel unsafe, please remain indoors," was the only message playing publicly. Privately, on the medium-exclusive communication network, there was a message about a unique training opportunity at Brionac Academy, and that any interested parties (and Frederica Simonova, who was mentioned by name) should (and in Frederica's case, [i]will[/i]) please report to Executive Elpidio's office at 6 AM. She couldn't help but feel that these two announcements would be related somehow.

As Rika entered the upper-class part of Agartha where only mediums and their families lived, uneven cobblestone gave way to level ground and smooth bricks, rows of tightly-packed apartments became modest mansions, and lines of cheerful schoolchildren offering high-fives were replaced with solemn uniformed guards giving salutes. These were the things that made the city's expectations on Frederica feel weighty. It all just screamed "work," and she would be eternally grateful to her mother for insisting her daughter not be made to grow up surrounded by it all. She tried not to look at any of it, instead locking her eyes on the biggest building in the district, visible even from the gates, and making a beeline down the straight-shot road to it. You couldn't miss it. It was an awfully pompous-looking building, at least on the outside, with the look of a temple straight out of ancient Athens.

She would be finished with her morning run the moment she walked onto the property. Such inelegant behavior from a graduate of the Academy would not be tolerated outside of the designated areas. Now, her body language had to match the uniform. Quickly checking her pockets to ensure she had everything in order, Frederica walked up the too-big marble steps to the sliding glass doors and entered the sterile white halls, trying her best to look the part of a dignified warrior as she entered the nearest elevator and waited for it to take her four levels below the ground floor to a very small hallway leading to the large room with all of the armchair soldiers doing Daemon simulations instead of killing real demons in the field—such was the way Frederica thought.

Rika walked past all of the motionless, laid-back bodies with faces covered in VR visors, leaving them blissfully unaware of her presence as she again checked all of her pockets before entering the large office space dominated by a single feature: Elpidio's desk, and upon it, small-scale models of the city of Agartha, and the mountain range Agartha was built into, hand-made using data collected by Pioneers who had thoroughly explored the surrounding area. The mountains in particular were a valuable teaching tool, never failing to inspire awe in impressionable young students. Large cabinets also lined the room, filled with 3D-printed models of all kinds of monsters—some small, some quite large.

"Ah, Rika," Elpidio greeted pleasantly, peeking his blonde, bespectacled head from behind the mountain on his desk. "Twenty minutes early, as usual I see."

[color=cyan]"You know I had plans today,"[/color] Rika responded, trying not to sound too annoyed. Whatever this was, it wasn't his fault. [color=cyan]"What's this about?"[/color]

"Oh, you're gonna love this story, trust me. Best if we wait for others to come first, though," he said as he again busied himself with his toys.

[color=cyan][i]No one's coming,[/i][/color] Rika thought to herself, slumping back in a chair with her boots on a nearby table, all of her manners flying out the window along with her patience. [color=cyan][i]Why risk life and limb when you can play Elpidio's video games?[/i][/color] she thought—and indeed, she was right. Anyone following her through that door would be a uniquely dedicated and talented character. Well... they would certainly at least be [i]unique[/i].