"Hmm.... I think that I'm here for two reasons." she said, after a brief pause of thinking. "I guess first and foremost, to see the world. I've lived in my home village all my life so far. I've never really seen what the rest of the world is like. I've read about it when I could, talked to the rare outside who might stumble into town, but never had the chance to go very far from my home. The mountains of the Alps are pretty much all I know." Ava smiled a bit. "But now, I'm getting the feeling that by the end of this, we'll have seen a lot more than the Austrian countryside. Secondly, I want revenge against the Church. They've hunted my family for generations, calling us abominations and an affront to their beliefs.... " Ava motioned to her large wings. "... I, along with my father and my grandfather, are the last of the Kuriers to carry this curse. It's why I've never left the village I come from in the first place. So when Felix just showed up out of nowhere, offering the save the world and screw over the church, well..." Ava giggled a bit. "You could understand my eagerness."

Nemo gave a slight laugh in response to Raiya's reaction before she left to the kitchen. "Peachy as ever."

"Ah yes, the Alps. Beautiful, are they not? I once spent a whole night at the summit of Mont Blanc, truly a breathtaking view. I've always felt home in the cold, so the climate didn't bother me none. In fact, it only enhanced the experience for me." Nemo explained.


"We have some things in common, you and I. The church certainly never held a very good opinion of me either. Abomination is a title I know quite well. However sometimes I feel that I can't blame them for thinking that way. I haven't done much to dispel their accusations. They hunt me, I hunt them, who will be left standing in the end? I'm not sure. But I like to keep it simple."

"However I doubt the persecution you've felt from the church will end with the church. Witchhunters are always a rather judgmental bunch, the Cult will always be a stick up somebody's rear end for some reason. The world we inhabit is filled to the brim with characters just waiting for a conflict. It's why we both are where we are right now." Nemo said, keeping a rather upbeat attitude through his ramblings.

"I'm curious, have you even been in a fight before? Have you taken a life Ava Kurier? Do you carry a weapon?" He asked.

"Uh.... no. I've never really been in a proper fight before... I only know a little bit on how to fight from my father and some of the villagers. I've gone hunting before, but I don't carry a weapon on me." Ava said, almost disappointing in herself that she didn't even bother to grab a kitchen knife, let alone a proper weapon, before leaving her home.

"But my grandfather did warn me about something. Apparently this," Ava held out her hand. A ball of condensed air began to form in her palm, becoming almost visible. "... power, he called it, can be very dangerous. They kept me from practicing or experimenting with it, especially when I accidentally blew the wall of a barn when I was curious a few years back. But I don't really know much about it, or why I can control the air like this..." she said, at least feeling a little less useless.

Zoey raises an eyebrow, but says nothing. Looking about as if trying to memorize the place, she nods and walks to within touching distance of Felix. "Very well, I am ready. Take me to this team, then." She makes sure that her illusion is very much up, thus looking very normal and not disturbing in the slightest. In fact, she looked pretty average for an American all around, if a little bit like a slob with her sweats and tossed t-shirt. Nobody would be particularly swayed either direction at the sight of her as she was.

Felix nodded, and turned around, opening a rift in front of them, the shimmering surface displaying a comfy living room with a fireplace, and many people gathered together.

"Let us away, then." Felix said.

He stepped through, and appeared in front of everyone in the living room.

"Mission complete!" Felix beamed, sticking his hand out in a thumbs up.

Where am I?

Travis' mind had eventually drifted off into the blackness that filled his light-less quarters where radiance of the past dusk of yesterday no longer touched and then deeper upon his eyelids sealing up. His consciousness would flicker and fade as he slept, sometimes unaware or initially unresponsive of the random images that passed by like presentation slides. The images would usually be of little meaning, then sometimes of a previous event. The more familiar items he could instantly recollect and then think little of it afterwards. That is, unless the scrap of memory was much more demanding of his attention, even when the reason was vacant.

After being comfortable held by quite darkness, he unconsciously found himself in a hard metal enclosure. It was a cage; one that would hold a single person within its inconsiderate confines. Out side it was a blurry hue of red and orange. Both colors flickered and swirled with the sound of crackling and voices in the nearby. The atmosphere soothing around in the air felt hot and almost sickening via an unforeseen and natural harmonic resonance of sorts. The vibes he could absorb were already bad; so much so that when his sight became clear, the back drop of several chanting cloaked figures made the perception that much worse. While he could feel himself panicking upon this shocking discovery, there was a sense of calmness to him despite the situation.

The roughness of the case he was in, the strangely informal aroma filling his nostrils, and the verses chanted not in English he could quickly identify and conclude their meanings. This scene was not new to him. He had experienced this in reality once and re-imagined it many times afterwards.

Oh. This Again.

The scene was a memory; one specifically that Travis was growing tiresome of remembering in such detail. This would have been about a month ago Felix had recruited him. Cultists of the Enlightened had scoped him out somehow and eventually got the drop on him and tossed him into this fine cell or "mold" as it appeared to be which hung over a magical circle of archaic runes and candles. The words these cultists intoned translated into sacrifice and rebirth. Trans-mutate and transcend. He knew the words well but the disorienting fumes at the time blurred some of the words and meanings. Whatever this cult had in mind gave no mind to his opinion in what they believed to be the betterment of his well-being.

I know how this goes down.

Lucky for him. whatever ritual they had in-mind had gone up in flames, literally. The old abandoned house this dark ceremony was being orchestrating in was then interrupted by Salem Disciples. The hunters came crashing through the boarded window arches and exits and begun their indiscriminate purge upon the unfortunate worshipers. The sudden attack had caught the cultists completely of guard and gave them little time to respond against the attack. Suffice to say, it was an utter massacre with blades and fire lashing out against decayed wood and flesh alike. One particularly enormous hunter got into the mix and swung a large broadsword decorated in runes and symbols into vertical decent upon a cultist's head. The amount of force easily divided the man clean into with enough gore to spray a good portion of the room.

I really wish I didn't have to remember that.

With much of the cult slain, all that remained was the leader, or at least someone whom appeared to be the leader, as in the only person with a crown of horns upon their head and obviously looked the most experienced. Now cornered, the head cultist recited a similar incantation this cult nearly performed on him. As the words came out and strangely echoed, so did the the flames of the candles fused out as the horned ring-leader was swallowed into shadow. What then emerged in an unnerving glow of green light was a mass of slithering tentacles of oozing ebony that lashed out against the Salem hunters. Two of the hunters he recalled were impaled by the hideous mass and as they cried in agony, their bodies were then consumed in the same blackness as the creature itself and soon did they crumble into the tendrils themselves with their cries turning to moans and then slurred and dying gasps.

Or that. Specifically that.

The other hunters evaded the attack and quickly coordinated with one another to challenge the abomination, jumping and flanking around their large prey. As the chaotic battles commenced, Travis took the opportunity to release himself from his steel mold by using his fire magic passively enough so he could burn and cut his way out of the cage. While at first, he was hesitant in jumping down into the fight as hectic as it was. But with fear and survival driving him, the jumped and then ran as fast as he could from the gore and agony around him.

And here we go.

While getting out of that God-forsaken room was incredibly revealing, he was far from out of danger. There was that nether-creature-whatever-it-was that was killing everything in that part of the building and it if did succeed in killing the Salem hunter, who was to say it wouldn't try to find him? And if the hunters were victorious, they would likely off him in hopes of keeping this purge under wraps. The idea of either side emerging victorious did not favor him at all. All he needed to do was run and escape the building all together.

Thats right, run down that way and-

Travis remembered escaping the house and into a dark gloomy forest not far from civilization. He made it back without any word from the place again and continued his work a few days later after the incident. And that was that. But after his dream=self opened the backdoor, he came to another familiar scene but alien to this one. The dark night sky was instead replaced with a rocky ceiling of natural earth and mana crystals. The surrounding foliage was absent and only gravel and dirt remained, save for a large pile of ruble several feet before him with a intricate crystal standing at its apex.

I...Don't remember that being there.

It was then the earth below soothed to stone and everything around him faded to a unusual deep red. The last thing he then saw was a stone slab rushing him afterwards, as far as he could of identified before his simulated demise.

Or that.

---

Travis's eyes opened to see the familiar redwood ceiling above him as he stared upwards. He blinked only a few shot times before raising himself upright and looking around his room. There was no sense to it but felt necessary to confirm he was in reality. The unusual happenings during his slumber were vague at best and yet strangely unusual, regardless of the annoying familiarity to it. He silently shook his head groaning before stepping out from the cozy berth and on to the floor. Despite being able to getting plenty more sleep than before, he felt as if he could pass out again into yet another slumber. However personal expectations had to be kept, especially if he was the last member unaccounted for downstairs. With his daily routines now underway, he made his way to his shower to wash up.

It wouldn't be too longer before he was all dressed and clean and ready to participate in any required activities that he was in store for; hopefully research oriented of a specific and recently recovered mana-crystal. As he made his way downstairs, he could hear Nemo and Rayia and speaking. While at first, the antiquated voices were nothing to raise concern over, it was then the addition of several other recognized voices that tipped him off to curious development downstairs. Is the television on? thought Travis has he came down the stairs, still feeling groggy and unkempt with his awareness. Just has he reached the first floor and turned the corner did he then froze in place with tired eyes now forcefully widened.

Across the room closer to Raiya was Alya; his hopefully former opponent from yesterday in the catacombs. Why was she here? Didn't Felix reject her request to join their team? Those same questions were then silenced by several more when his eyes found two other female newcomers, this time they were individuals he had not seen before. And does that one have, wings?

"What." Travis bluntly stated upon seeing Alya before looking to the other two individual with a confused look, "Who?"

Just then, Felix arrived into the same rooms via one of his portals with yet another person with him, "Oh."

This is certainly becoming a rather interesting morning.

Nemo cocked his head to the side as he looked at the air Ava was manipulating on her palm. "Well, there's nothing stopping you from experimenting anymore. If you were capable of blowing out the side of a barn, it should be good enough. There is the concern of reliability especially with young magick, which is why I often prefer blades or firearms. Sometimes the simplest choice is the most satisfying. It makes the others all the more fun when they are needed." Nemo replied.

"Though fear not, Frau Kurier. Conflict and combat is my specialty. The duel is my dance. Between my partner and I, I'm sure we can handle the threats we'll be facing, in fact I'll be looking forward to it." He explained.

"Ah! Travis, good morning. You're just on time to meet our new pals. Seems the gangs all here." He greeted as he noticed Travis appear.

Alya nodded at Nemo and turned to Zuri and using her manalysis she did her best to diagnose Zuri's problem. From what Alya could tell Zuri was suffering from a very long term deficiency in mana. 'Probably due to her being sealed away for so long.' She concluded.

Alya did have a specific concern however. Zuri's mana and aura were quite unique; being pitch black. Alya was unsure how a transfusion would react to such an uncommon mana type. "Let us begin, but everyone please keep your distance." Alya warned the others.

After a brief moment of concentration Alya projected a near transparent light blue barrier large enough to surround both herself and Zuri; this barrier had its energy focused inwards to prevent any wayward spell from escaping. "You never know what could happen when you send mana over to someone who has been lacking mana for a while, my apologies for the barrier." Alya clarified to Zuri, not wanting to make her feel that she didn't trust her.

After a brief moment of concentrating Alya raised her two hands together to chest height. Light blue magical energy matching the color of Alya's aura slowly swirled out of her hand. The stream magical essence floated lazily in the air for a while till some of it neared Zuri. Like metal to a magnet the mana began to flow towards her, turning from light blue to pitch black as it did. Alya controlled the stream of mana's flow to a safe level, this took great concentration and Alya would be unaware to anyone as she channeled the transference spell.

Ava nodded. Despite her potential, she too wanted at least some sort of fall back weapon. Perhaps she might get a chance to get a weapon, but for now, her abilities and Nemo's apparent aptitude for fighting would have to do. Another member just then appeared at the bottom of the stairs, staring. Ava smiled awkwardly and gave a small wave to the man who apparently was Travis. Not a moment later, Felix came through his rift. Apparently, his mission was a success from the looks of the new member.

"That rift power must be awfully convenient. It would have made my mail runs certainly easier. Does it take much effort to do create them?" Ava said, curious.

Zoey looked around the scene she had just entered in on; a handful of people standing over a body, one person putting energy into it. One person looked like he had just come down the staircase, and that was (so far) the only person who had noticed their entry. Which was shocking, because it wasn't exactly a stealthy entry. That said, Zoey knew nobody really well, and the name of only one person. She decided to silently explore her surroundings while she had the chance.

She started with the basement, since the entrance to that seemed close by, and padded down there, taking a moment to drop the illusion now that she was out of immediate sight. Conserving mana was a bit of a habit. When she got to the basement level, she noticed a big pool. One she had been smelling for a while, sure. Not really interested in diving face-first into a chemical bath, she went through a door on the same level and was greeted to a much more welcoming sight. Junk food, arcade games, television... things she hadn't been around since her transformation. While she never regretted changing, she missed these things alot. When she was a kid, she had bummed around arcades plenty often to remember the joy.

Her quest for exploration lost, she began popping popcorn, and obtaining a soda from the corner confectionery, she began playing House of the Dead 3.

"It's fine, I understand." She replied Alya with a smile after she put up a barrier. Zuri watched as Alya channels her magic, a stream of light slowly finding its way to her as it started flowing deep inside of her. "A-Aaah.." She lets out a soft moan of discomfort, but it slowly started to feel better after a little while.

Zuri unconsciously converts Alya's bright light blue mana into dark black before it enters her. 'I wonder why it's black..' She thought to herself. Alya's mana transfusion was coming to an end, and it surprisingly turned out quite smoothly. It felt very refreshing since she was deprived of mana for such a long time. The dark color also reminded her that her powers revolved around darkness. Zuri ran over to Alya and hugged her tightly and said "Thank you Alya!"

Felix was about to give Zoey the same rundown he gave everyone else, but then she bounded off like a hound after a new scent.

Felix scratched his head, "Well, I got the last member. Her name is Zoey Ash. Though, I suppose she's not much for socializing... Well, anyway, I am sure you guys are all hungry. I was hoping you'd all still be asleep by the time I got back. It's too bad there are no reliable spells for making food while you are away. Or I'd have breakfast ready for all of you." Felix checked his manadial and saw it was 06:52.

Raiya walked in with a tall glass of a brown liquid. No doubt alcohol of some kind.
"If you need help cooking breakfast, I can cook." Raiya said with pride, her scowl changing into a snide smile. "I happen to be a master chef!"

"Well, I do have a lot of work I need to get into with Travis. If you want to cook the banquet today, I don't have a problem with it. Perhaps even Nemo would like to join you." Felix suggested.

Raiya's expression faded. Her smile and optimism: gone. "Suuuuuure. I'd positively LOVE it if Nemo came to help!" She said with heavy sarcasm.

Felix turned to Travis. "It's never to early to do some research! Let's do some general diagnostic examinations on the Paragon while we wait for food." Felix suggested, before heading towards the boiler/generator room where the secret entrance to the lab was.

"What a splendid idea." Nemo replied to Felix as he got to his feet.

Nemo noticed Zoey leave to the arcade without speaking to anybody. Not very sociable, eh? He thought.

Raiya's sarcasm seemed to have no physical effect on Nemo. "Good to hear." He replied as he walked past her and into the kitchen. "Well, let's get started, wouldn't want to keep our companions waiting. You'll have to show me what you're capable of, master chef." Nemo commented back to her as he looked around the room.

Raiya quickly assessed the different cooking implements they had at their disposal. The island in the middle of the kitchen had two stoves with a total of eight burners on the top. And hanging above the island was a variety of pots and pans. Behind her in the cabinets under the counter next to the refrigerator was a rice cooker. Which was what she was looking for. She got out eggs from the fridge, and a variety of vegetables. And she found a bag of rice in the cabinet above the counters.

"So, I was thinking definitely rice, and japanese style omelets. Some toast as well. And possible something with fruit in it. What do you think?" Raiya asked Nemo in a rushed but cooperative tone.

Nemo rolled the sleeves of his pajama shirt up to his elbows and leaned up against the counter. "Sounds good to me." Nemo commented as he went over to the fridge and peered inside, particularly looking for what kind of fruit was available. "Taking into consideration what is already being prepared, and our time constraints, we could make anmitsu, strawberry daifuku, or kakigori, depending on if there is a ice shaver here." Nemo suggested.

Alya returned Zuri's hug and she dropped her barrier. "No problem at all Zuri! Always happy to help." She replied.
After Zuri released her from the hug Alya turned to the group. "If anyone needs me I'll find a room upstairs and get myself fixed up and possibly get a bit of rest. Feel free to call me if there is something that requires my attention." She said gesturing at her current magi robes which were a bit dirty and worn from her little incursion and skirmish earlier.

Alya went up the stairs and took the vacant room furthest down the corridor. She quickly picked out a simple grey blouse and some blue jeans. She held them in her hands and cast a spell. The two pieces of clothing slowly disappeared in a faint light blue light. Alya once again cast another spell and in a quick flash of blue light her robes were replaced. 'Perfect. My robes should be restored back to their original state next time I call them, and now I have something to wear that won't draw attention. She thought to herself. 'But first I should get some rest, a quick nap should be fine.'

Alya got in bed and quickly drifted off to sleep.

"Seems like it...hadn't expected the extra company though." replied Travis in response to Nemo's morning greeting while rubbing one of his eyes.

It was then one of the newcomers noticed him and gave a friendly wave and a shy smile. Travis responded in kind with a formal hand wave and a similar and positive expression. It was not soon afterwards that one of the new members accompanying Felix had broken off to seemingly explore the place a bit. Her choice of attire was unusual at best, though Travis knew couldn't discredit her if someone like Felix had showed up out of the blue. Then there was Alya whom was interfacing with another unknown face in what appeared to be a mana transfusion of sorts. The act begged for Travis' curiosity in the matter but Felix's timely entry dissuaded that notion as he sought the Untalent's assistance in analyzing the Paragon.

"Sounds like a plan to me, boss." Travis nearly yawned as he went and followed Felix towards their lab, "What did you have in mind for the morning?"

Felix opened the door to the lab and left it open. The goal of the secret lab wasn't to keep other members from knowing about the lab, but to be a secret to invaders who were not apart of Paragon's End. The walls of the lab were lined specifically with materials and mana formulaic spells to be undetectable by manalysis and also to keep all manawaves inside the room only.

As they walked down the steps Felix began to answer Travis, "Well, as you know from what I have told you. Academia used to use the Paragon of Espial to find those with Talent mana wells," they continued down the steps and into the laboratory, "and from what diagnostics we ran yesterday, we descovered that it can be used to spy on those the user knows of personally. However, that cannot be the only application of it, if what I studied is true, it has to be able to detect at watch all manawells in order to locate those with the Talent trait." Felix finished as they approached the Paragon.

"So, I'll let you decide what we do next based on what I just talked about." Felix replied, "What diagnostics shall we run?"

---

Raiya was chopping up various vegatables and throwing them in a saute pan.
"We don't have any agar jelly so anmitzu is off the table. And we don't have azuki beans to make red bean past so all mochi is off the table. Also, we shouldn't serve anything cold for breakfast... So none of your suggestions will work." Raiya replied as she worked

"Such a lack of exotic ingredients would've never occurred at my house. Shame, you can't say I didn't try to stick to the theme." Nemo commented as he stepped away from the fridge and walked over-strangely enough-to the alcohol cabinet. "No matter, I shan't crumble from a minor setback. It's at times like this where I get to flex the creativity muscles located within my brainium." Nemo rambled as he peered inside.

After a few moments of looking Nemo seemed to have settled on something. He grabbed two bottles and then closed the cabinet. Nemo began to amass more various ingredients now. He poured cream into a bowl and spiced it with a small amount from one of the bottles he grabbed. "I spent quite a bit of time in Italy, despite the presence of the church. Whenever I stopped by I always ate as much as I could. And of my favorite treats, the gelato made there definitely makes the list, one of my favorite flavors was cherry amaretto." Nemo explained as he whisked the cream by hand with a small amount of sugar added, clearly making homemade whipped cream.

Once finished Nemo set the bowl aside for later. He went on to delicately slice strawberries and place them in a bowl with fresh raspberries for later as well.

Nemo initialized the final step of his recipe when he began to make a batter with flour, eggs, milk, sugar, melted butter, and a pinch of salt. Once done, he added his finishing touch by pouring in a small amount of liquid from the other bottle he had taken earlier. After setting it down the bottle could be identified as amaretto liqueur, which would add a hint of sweet almond flavor to the batter.

Nemo heated up the stove and grabbed a frying pan and poured a small amount of the batter into the pan. He rolled the pan around to coat it even and thinly with the mixture. To somebody accustomed with desserts, he was clearly making a crepe. After putting a slight brown to the bottom side, Nemo flipped it with the pan to the other side and repeated the process.

Once done cooking Nemo slid the crepe onto a plate. He placed the cut strawberries and raspberries inside neatly. He put the whipped cream into a pastry bag he scavenged to find and slowly squeezed it out through the metal tip and onto the crepe, giving the cream a pretty pattern which Nemo seemed quite adept at making.

Nemo folded the crepe up into a neat cone with the filling inside and garnished it with powdered sugar on top. Finally done, Nemo picked up the plate and set it by Raiya. He put on a goofy sounding french accent before speaking. "Voila, it is a amaretto infused crepe with strawberries, raspberries, and cherry maraschino flavored whipped cream." Nemo explained, revealing what the first bottle of alcohol he used was.

Zuri could feel the darkness within her slowly flowing through her once again after receiving mana from Alya. She wanted to try out her powers, but was abruptly disturbed by a huge growl from her stomach. It was at that moment when she experienced how it feels when you haven't eaten anything for thousands of years. 'I could eat anything right about now..' she thought to herself.

Wandering around and exploring the environment that she'll stay for the time being, she heads towards the kitchen as she followed the scent of food that started to take over. "That smells good." Zuri comments before turning a corner and stands at the doorway of the kitchen and asks "I'm starving! Is there something I can eat.. Please?" with her hands on her empty stomach as if she was in pain.