"Status report?" Gabriel held the report in his hands.
"Phoenix Project is still separating legend from myth. So far, we've got this metahuman originating from somewhere in Asia. The avatar of the phoenix is mentioned in the Arabian peninsula, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, China, and Italy. It's been listed various as the roc, phoenix, garuda, and other varieties of avians. There is even a probability that St. Germain may have been a student of his or hers. The modus operandi is generally that of managing to move stuff sometimes centuries ahead of when they're supposed to occur. Three examples are detailed in the folder." Gabriel placed the folder on the desk.
******
One is the sword Rain Dragon. For unknown reasons, the sword which was lost for a hundred years came up in a certain Judge's family, who managed to convince Empress Wu to retain a weak, caring heir, and eliminated a capable, but cruel heir two hundred years later, when it disappeared. The motives of such an occurrence are unknown.The second is a marriage. Apparently, there are records of a giant bird, deliberately attempting to create a shipwreck, and the outcome was the royal line of Malaysia. A Roman prince of one kingdom was off to marry a Chinese princess of another kingdom, thereby allying the two kingdoms, when the ship was driven off course by the mythical bird, the Garuda, and the prince and princess wound up ruling Malaysia instead. The motives of such an occurrence are unknown.
The third is apparently a little easier to understand. The entity seems to be able to mentally appear in one's mind and taught certain methods of insight and healing. The monk was Russian and a trained hypnotist. His name was Rasputin, and the entity's aim was to get some of the Russian Imperials out. Current intelligence suggests he died, but then he came back to life. The czarevitch (tsarevich) is also alive, for Rasputin and the child are linked to each other. One needs to kill both for them to stay dead and Alexis is still missing. Anastasia is irrelevant. The Phoenix seems to have predicted the Russian revolution.
Our information gathered about the Phoenix's powers, is that is has immortality, prediction, distance astral projection, transformation, and can control the winds. It also teaches students such as St. Germain, and Rasputin.
******
"There are no obscurations of fact? No attempts to hide the truth?" the man asked curiously, as he tilted his head."Actually, there wasn't. Anytime anyone began a serious investigation publicly, there was always some sort of proof. There are cases in which the place becomes a flaming ball of wreckage with a corpse inside. Interestingly, no one has ever documented whether the corpse was still there a week later. There was another instance in which influential people in court swore that there was no way this particular identity was there, and one couldn't have gotten some of those people to agree on anything," Gabriel responded.
"What about the Asian philosophers, such as Confucius or Lao Tzu?" the man inquired.
"Apparently, our metahuman was a student of Lao Tzu. That's what allowed her or him to live so long, and apparently the metahuman's been picking up tricks for around four millennia."
"The entity under question is nearly as old as the Chinese calendar?" The man arched an eyebrow.
"Close enough. The Chinese calendar is close to five thousand years old, and it's been around for most of it. It's a miracle the metahuman hasn't become insane," Gabriel replied.
"Gabriel, most students of Lao Tzu learn how to combine into an inner harmony. If they make a mistake, they will trust their instincts on how best to smooth it out, whether it is through action or inaction. Their inner harmony usually precludes them from insanity. It's those students who don't first learn to combine an inner harmony that the Protectorate must worry about," the man explained.
"Gramarye Project. The demonic Book of Fire is safely locked away behind E-Division's wards. The Sorceress Supreme even deigned to help out," Gabriel snorted.
"Interesting. Do you know if she's picked a successor yet?" the man asked.
"No, she hasn't. The current bets are between Dr. Wight, and Portent. I'm surprised Omega isn't included. He's full of magic," Gabriel replied.
"Her post must not need power as a requirement. Possibly, they achieve the power from assuming the post. Then again, nobody even knows exactly what kind of power the Sorceress Supreme has," the man said, deep in thought.
"The rest of the literary research includes Ars Ultima et Magna, Saducismus Triumphatus. Some of E-Division has been able to utilize the Ars Ultima et Magna, or so they claim. It's something about finding axioms which need no proof which can form as a basis for any science. Saducismus Triumphatus is merely a 19th century novelization about witches, spirits, and such things. Daemonolatreia on the other hand is scary. It details the ways on how to summon and bind demons, but only for some of them. On the others, it simply reveals the name of the supernatural diabolic entity. The copy of Elements by Comte St. Germain is in Latin. It appears to be a manual on alchemical transformation. It has chapters on chemical immortality, invisibility, and control over matter and energy. There supposed to be two copies in the world. The book also mentions other books that are needed to create the recipe for chemical immortality, which we do not possess. There's a book mentioned Principalities of the Kingdoms which details which organs are needed for a certain animal mentioned in that particular book which might be considered false. It has to be prepared on a certain table mentioned in a book called the Sforza Codex. Then there's another book by Andreas Vesalius, whose illustrations are as clear as ever, to where the distillate must be injected. So to actually use the recipe for immortality, one needs all four of these books, and must be able to read Italian, Latin and Greek. This isn't indestructible immortality, just longevity immortality. There's also an oddity in that the chemical immortality for an eternal life seems to be replicated in Lao Tzu's writings, which mention the same items, but makes no mention of the other books," Gabriel finished.
"How interesting. No one's come after us for the recipe of eternal life yet?" the man inquired.
"Actually, some have come sniffing, but our field team seems to be holding them at bay," Gabriel admitted.
"So they haven't whipped out the transformations to orange slime spells yet?" the man asked.
"Well, our field team E-operative appears to be able to disrupt any alteration enchantments," Gabriel replied. He laid another report on the table and the man started reading again.
******
The Advent Project is coming along well. The noach bands gleaned from the observations of Mu Project were most unexpected. It uses atoms itself to communicate with electrons in the orbit. One needs to be able to see where the electron is to decode the message, and as delicate as they are, the electrons will shift position once someone reads the message. So it's obvious if anyone reads it, and yet undecodeable, since one can only determine position or velocity, and once position is determined, it will change. Unfortunately, the materials to transmit it are quite rare, so we only have two of them, assigned to the field team and base.Theta Project, Part 1 is complete. S-Division has come up with a workable theory of how people get powers. Apparently, every human today has a metahuman power. It's only unapparent, because no one actually believes it's a metahuman power, other than occurring by chance. Every human has a psi potential, and that psi potential gets expressed in various ways, such as the ability to fix machines. Hardware and Salvage seem to boost this potential to a higher level. Indeed, every human can calculate and think, but some are better than others at three-dimensional calculus, which is a psi power as well. Often, those with Sight powers realize certain things that are coincidental in nature and are in tune with a certain wavelength. Nuances determine whether someone considers it a method granted by Irish ancestors who communicated with the Sidhe, or an outgrowth of mathematical ability which can predict accurate trendlines with only a few data points. The inclusion of gods and magic in the picture is the collective subconscious attempt to increase the power flow of the psionic potential. The typical example is a person who lifts up a car with a burst of adrenaline. What determines this burst is their emotion, what activates the adrenaline to give someone enhanced strength. This is also why magicians have a hard time functioning in technological environments and vice versa. Their mindsets follow a certain pattern and the pattern is incompatible with a different environment. There is a theory that a mage can function in a technological environment by becoming attuned with their surroundings.
******
"How is the work on the DN Protocols?" the man inquired."We've finished contingencies for any psionics. Anyone who attempts a psionic probe in UNSAID is in for one heck of a surprise. It's not even a shield. The stronger the psi, the stronger the surprise. They'll fuel their own demise," Gabriel grinned.
"We cannot afford to be taken out of the picture like the blackout net the Royal Elite erected. T-Division does threat analysis as well." The man steepled his fingers together.
"S-Division has compiled a dossier on which people may be targeted for Event 3, and our contingencies for such. It's on your desk," Gabriel replied. "We have completed DN Protocol for Avatar, Brainchild. The rest of the DN Protocols are incomplete. The other Protectorate members are low priority because of gaps in power. Our only true threat is Powers, Chessmaster, and Musselman."
"Mu Project reports an anomaly. Apparently, our sources in the Russian Space Agency believe that one of their satellites caught an object with an erratic orbit. NASA caught it also, as well as the French space agency outpost in Brazil. It's a potential sir. Do we call in the field team to eradicate?" Gabriel asked.
"No. Gabriel, you seem to have misunderstood the purpose of UNSAID. We are not a military agency, we do not right wrongs, or engage in justice, or any other idiotic slogan dreamed up by newspaper tabloids. We investigate the hidden, fantastic, secret and find out the truth behind them. If UNSAID notices a crime is being committed, we call the authorities. If UNSAID finds out that a business has false advertising in the course of our investigation, we call the Better Business Bureau. Our vocation is find out why the confiscated villain's firearms work. We are the ones who figure out just why this particular thief wants to steal a dishwasher. We analyze patterns to predict what's the most likely place the next major property damage metahuman battle will take place. We find out how to counter an Event 3 occurrence. It's the occupation of the conventional military forces on carrying it out. Do you understand?" the head of UNSAID asked.
"Yes sir. Although, sir. I don't understand why aliens want to invade Earth so regularly. In the greater universe, it's simply the third planet from a sun that's on a coreward arm," Gabriel's question implied.
"Ah, yes. Curiosity is always the hallmark of those here." The man leaned back in his chair.
"Do you know the myths and legends of Gilgamesh, Odysseus, Achilles, Lu Bu, Miyamoto Musashi?" Gabriel nodded.
"What if they aren't myths or legends or impossible to emulate? Every human today has the potential to be that good. Our minds make it possible to do anything. If we believe we can do something, and we practice, eventually we can. Now imagine alien races looking at a race of beings that can deflect a bullet with a sandwich, lift cars up barehanded, and outrun an automobile. These are things people with no superpowers have done, with nothing more than their own hands. Of course, humans believe such things are rare. The problem is it's not to aliens. Any alien race looking at us sees either a powerful army once they've taken over the planet, or a dangerous indigenous species. Now imagine what our superpeople look like to aliens."
"Why don't they just blow us up?" Gabriel inquired.
"Why do something that's out on the third planet one a coreward arm of the sun? We're an out-of-the-way planet. Only aliens who usually come here want to obtain potential recruits for conquering the galaxy. "
"Status report ended sir." Gabriel left.
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