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Yeong-ji's head shot up when the doors opened once again to reveal Ivo and Rosamunda, both of which looking rather disgruntled at the sight of some of their equipment on the floor, courtesy of the Frenchwoman who smelled like smoke. Five other people had arrived while Yeong-ji was waiting - three of them looked to be Asian, specifically Japanese, in some sense. Yay for racial diversity. They all looked to be older than herself as well.
"Welcome to Berlin," Ivo began, tone somber. He had spectacular English - Yeong-ji could barely detect any sort of German accent. "We apologize for summoning you here on such short notice. As some of you know, my name is Doctor Ivo Schreiber, and this is my sister, Doctor Rosamunda Schreiber. Before we continue, I would like to confirm that we all have the ability to communicate in English. If not -" the door opened once again, revealing a blonde woman who didn't have the same stern, serious expression on her face as the Schreibers "- well, we have her."
"I'm Caoilfhionn Höfler," the blonde woman interrupted the doctor's spiel. "I speak six languages - Irish Gaelic, German or Deutsche, French or français, Russian, English, and Korean. If this guy's English is too over the top, I'll play interpreter. Well, I can try. My Japanese can't compensate for this many Japanese people."
"Anyway," Ivo rushed to interrupt the blonde, his tone annoyed, "you six are the first descendants of the Sixty-Nine to arrive in Berlin. We are on a time crunch to evacuate people like you so that our enemy can't get to you. To minimize tragedy, we'll be forming small groups, small teams of people so that if we do indeed confront potential death, it won't affect as many descendants. You will be Team Schlüssel."
Schlüssel, Yeong-ji thought to herself. The German term for key.
"Now, about the threat which caused us to summon you here," the doctor gestured at a high tech screen at the front of the room, which pixelated from it's dark, dormant state to display profiles of multiple people. "If you have been properly informed about the Sixty-Nine, then you would've heard about these people." The screen zoomed in on one of the profiles. "This is Doctor Winifred Schmitz, one of the doctors stationed in Berlin during the Bombing of 2026. She operated on the eleven people who were retrieved from the rubble of Berlin, one of them being Ji-kyung Kühn, the original ancestor of the Kühn bloodline." Ji-kyung Kühn's name was one of the few things Yeong-ji could actually recognize from what Ivo Schreiber was saying. "She and her descendants are completely against the Sixty-Nine and their descendants. They ideology is that people like you should not exist, or else the balance of power would be weighed too heavily in favor of a small group of people. They want to annihilate the bloodlines affected by the radiation of the Bombing of 2026. To do so, her descendants and their supporters have released invisible and highly technical machines of sorts, at 10:26 AM UTC earlier today. These machines are attempting to track the descendants down at this moment. Do not worry though, for the moment, you are safe here. The Schmitzes despise Berlin, however, it'd be dangerous to stay for long. Based on the observations we have recorded on these beasts the Schmitzes have released, we have constructed an algorithm that determines areas we can flee to for the moment, as we train you six to properly fight any obstacle that gets in our way and ultimately defeat the Schmitzes."
Yeong-ji furrowed a brow at that statement. "Why us?" she questioned immediately, speaking German by instinct. "Why can't any of your other teams kick the Schmitzes asses, play hero for a li'l bit, and save the world? Is it 'cause we heeded your call the fastest or some shit like that?"
To Yeong-ji's surprise, Ivo perked up in an almost childishly excited state. "I was hoping you'd ask that," he said, responding in German before reverting back to English. "Our organization is focusing on you six as the leading force to defeat the Schmitzes. This is not because you are the first six to arrive in Berlin, but rather due to your abilities; it was merely a coincidence that the first six to arrive in Bundeswehrkrankenhaus have such diverse and powerful abilities." There was a look in the brunette's eyes that showed how interested he was in such a topic. "Let me explain: firstly, Ms. Kaneshiro -" Ivo furrowed a brow, muttering "- I thought the Kaneshiro representative was male -" or something like that in German. Rosamunda responded by shrugging and Yeong-ji looked at the pale-haired skeptically, doubting their gender as well (or maybe Kaneshiro was just androgynous - the past was so much simpler than modern times, in terms of gender and sexual identity).
"Ms. Kaneshiro," Ivo continued, "is a descendant of the Kaneshiro bloodline, who are master empaths. Such an ability is an emotional power, not a material one such as ice manipulation or anything of the like; this will prove to be incredibly useful in such a mission."
"I have never seen an Asian woman as tall as you - ever," Yeong-ji cut the brunette man off, directing a dry remark towards Kaneshiro. "Not being racist, but even European models don't usually reach... 183 or so." Yeong-ji's gaze flickered towards Ivo, who was actually surprisingly patient, even at this point. "Sorry, continue on."
"Regardless of Ms. Kaneshiro's gender," Ivo took off exactly where he last left off, "those with abilities in the emotional or mental side of things don't quite match up to those with abilities such as material manipulation. Speaking of material manipulation, the Laurents -" Yeong-ji was suddenly reminded of Frenchwoman with the lighter "- have been known for being skilled at manipulating fire, a rather volatile element, but were notorious for having a somewhat... lack of control, which, being said in a blunter manner, ultimately led to their demise."
There was a pause of silence before the blonde from earlier muttered, "Dang, Ivo, that fuckin' ruined the mood."
"Nonetheless," Ivo continued, ignoring Höfler, "we will be training you to increase your overall skill at your ability, so lack of sufficient control should be overcame at some point. Moving on! Akihiko Ito, descendant of the Cohens. Like empathy, precognition is not a material or physical skill, and is definitely considered rare. However, it's a difficult skill to harness completely; nonetheless, we have devised methods to increase control of the ability. Right now, if Akihiko has any sort of vision, we can maximize its benefits by merely being observant. And I'm sure all of you have heard of Sven Gundersen, in some way, shape or form." The brunette man gave said speedster a tight smile. "I'll admit, we weren't very happy when you exposed your power in public, but you were young. Besides, what's in the past can't be undone. We can't turn back time."
"Wait," Höfler interrupted once again. Ivo looked like he wanted to punch a wall. "I distinctly remember you ranting about how intriguing the bloodline with time manipulation is just a few days ago. So technically, it's possible to turn back time?"
"It's not that simple, but I won't go into the specifics right now," Ivo snapped. "If we could turn back time, we wouldn't want to anyway. Anyway, Satoshi Chiba -" he gestured to the other Japanese person who looked like he could be about thirteen years old "- descendant of the Chiba bloodline with the power of invisibility. With this ability, one could sneak into a government building, for instance, and they wouldn't be able to be tracked."
"Are you training them to become criminals?"
"Caoilfhionn," Ivo muttered through gritted teeth. The blonde shrugged nonchalantly, but allowed Ivo to finish speaking.
"And lastly," Ivo's eyes zeroed in on Yeong-ji, which made her back up in her seat a little bit. "Yeong-ji Kühn. Descendant of Ji-kyung Kühn herself, the original shadow manipulator." Ivo whipped his gaze up to face the others, jabbing a finger in Yeong-ji's direction. "To be in the presence of a shadow manipulator of the Kühn bloodline is even rarer than meeting your true love and both of you dying from the same type of cancer on their birthday after both of you turn one hundred. Take that in."
There was a moment of silence as Ivo steeped in his nerdy excitement. "Sorry," Rosamunda finally spoke up, "he can be a bit of a... fanboy, at times."
"That's oddly specific, you know," Yeong-ji muttered. "But probably true. I don't like... socializing."
"Do you know the full extent of your abilities, Frau Kühn?" Ivo asked intensely.
"I don't even know the partial extent of my abilities, or even what they are, much less the full extent of them."
"Oh, lord," Ivo muttered, sounding exasperated. Suddenly, an excited look appeared in his eyes that made Yeong-ji feel like she was going to be a lab rat.
"This means," Ivo said slowly, "that as a blank slate, we can mold you into practically anything, in terms of your powers!" Ivo clasped his hands together. "This is brilliant." He then turned back to Yeong-ji, who was still not fully comprehending the situation. "You can manipulate things through shadows. For instance, if someone was holding a pen, you wouldn't be able to directly manipulate them through their physical matter; however, you would be able to use your own shadow to in turn, manipulate the person's shadow, which would actually make the physical matter creating said shadow be affected by the manipulation in the same way its shadow is. Using this method, you could potentially use your own shadow to make that person commit suicide with the pen that they're holding."
That's actually very dark, Yeong-ji mused over the part of the explanation she could actually understand. "Deutsche," she said succinctly. Ivo was temporarily shaken out of his excitement, thinking for a few moments before being able to translate what he just said into German. "Ah," Yeong-ji said, reverting back to English, her tone neutral. "Sounds fun."
"I'm sure it probably is," Ivo said, a sentence which would concern some people about his mental state. "However, I can infer that you probably have no semblance of control over this ability. Never fear, though. Once we train all of you, you six will be extremely powerful, with the surefire ability of defeating the Schmitzes. Now, going back to what I said earlier about leaving Berlin, Caoilfhionn here has the results for the current ideal place to go to."
The room of people stared at the blonde expectantly, who seemed to not be paying attention. A few moments passed by, until she looked up, noticing everybody staring at her. "Ah, yes," she said, opening a notebook. "As of right now, Saint Petersburg is most ideal. I think we can stay there for up to ten days, but any longer would jeopardize us." The blonde shut her notebook. "The population's pretty high, and I have connections who can help us. However, the city's easy to navigate, so it's going to be harder to lose the Schmitzes' machines if they come after us."
The Schreibers nodded along with Höfler's words. Rosamunda spoke up once again. "We'll take questions right now, but it's ideal for us to pack up and leave as soon as possible. There's a flight going to Saint Petersburg is about four hours. We can book tickets after questions."
"Welcome to Berlin," Ivo began, tone somber. He had spectacular English - Yeong-ji could barely detect any sort of German accent. "We apologize for summoning you here on such short notice. As some of you know, my name is Doctor Ivo Schreiber, and this is my sister, Doctor Rosamunda Schreiber. Before we continue, I would like to confirm that we all have the ability to communicate in English. If not -" the door opened once again, revealing a blonde woman who didn't have the same stern, serious expression on her face as the Schreibers "- well, we have her."
"I'm Caoilfhionn Höfler," the blonde woman interrupted the doctor's spiel. "I speak six languages - Irish Gaelic, German or Deutsche, French or français, Russian, English, and Korean. If this guy's English is too over the top, I'll play interpreter. Well, I can try. My Japanese can't compensate for this many Japanese people."
"Anyway," Ivo rushed to interrupt the blonde, his tone annoyed, "you six are the first descendants of the Sixty-Nine to arrive in Berlin. We are on a time crunch to evacuate people like you so that our enemy can't get to you. To minimize tragedy, we'll be forming small groups, small teams of people so that if we do indeed confront potential death, it won't affect as many descendants. You will be Team Schlüssel."
Schlüssel, Yeong-ji thought to herself. The German term for key.
"Now, about the threat which caused us to summon you here," the doctor gestured at a high tech screen at the front of the room, which pixelated from it's dark, dormant state to display profiles of multiple people. "If you have been properly informed about the Sixty-Nine, then you would've heard about these people." The screen zoomed in on one of the profiles. "This is Doctor Winifred Schmitz, one of the doctors stationed in Berlin during the Bombing of 2026. She operated on the eleven people who were retrieved from the rubble of Berlin, one of them being Ji-kyung Kühn, the original ancestor of the Kühn bloodline." Ji-kyung Kühn's name was one of the few things Yeong-ji could actually recognize from what Ivo Schreiber was saying. "She and her descendants are completely against the Sixty-Nine and their descendants. They ideology is that people like you should not exist, or else the balance of power would be weighed too heavily in favor of a small group of people. They want to annihilate the bloodlines affected by the radiation of the Bombing of 2026. To do so, her descendants and their supporters have released invisible and highly technical machines of sorts, at 10:26 AM UTC earlier today. These machines are attempting to track the descendants down at this moment. Do not worry though, for the moment, you are safe here. The Schmitzes despise Berlin, however, it'd be dangerous to stay for long. Based on the observations we have recorded on these beasts the Schmitzes have released, we have constructed an algorithm that determines areas we can flee to for the moment, as we train you six to properly fight any obstacle that gets in our way and ultimately defeat the Schmitzes."
Yeong-ji furrowed a brow at that statement. "Why us?" she questioned immediately, speaking German by instinct. "Why can't any of your other teams kick the Schmitzes asses, play hero for a li'l bit, and save the world? Is it 'cause we heeded your call the fastest or some shit like that?"
To Yeong-ji's surprise, Ivo perked up in an almost childishly excited state. "I was hoping you'd ask that," he said, responding in German before reverting back to English. "Our organization is focusing on you six as the leading force to defeat the Schmitzes. This is not because you are the first six to arrive in Berlin, but rather due to your abilities; it was merely a coincidence that the first six to arrive in Bundeswehrkrankenhaus have such diverse and powerful abilities." There was a look in the brunette's eyes that showed how interested he was in such a topic. "Let me explain: firstly, Ms. Kaneshiro -" Ivo furrowed a brow, muttering "- I thought the Kaneshiro representative was male -" or something like that in German. Rosamunda responded by shrugging and Yeong-ji looked at the pale-haired skeptically, doubting their gender as well (or maybe Kaneshiro was just androgynous - the past was so much simpler than modern times, in terms of gender and sexual identity).
"Ms. Kaneshiro," Ivo continued, "is a descendant of the Kaneshiro bloodline, who are master empaths. Such an ability is an emotional power, not a material one such as ice manipulation or anything of the like; this will prove to be incredibly useful in such a mission."
"I have never seen an Asian woman as tall as you - ever," Yeong-ji cut the brunette man off, directing a dry remark towards Kaneshiro. "Not being racist, but even European models don't usually reach... 183 or so." Yeong-ji's gaze flickered towards Ivo, who was actually surprisingly patient, even at this point. "Sorry, continue on."
"Regardless of Ms. Kaneshiro's gender," Ivo took off exactly where he last left off, "those with abilities in the emotional or mental side of things don't quite match up to those with abilities such as material manipulation. Speaking of material manipulation, the Laurents -" Yeong-ji was suddenly reminded of Frenchwoman with the lighter "- have been known for being skilled at manipulating fire, a rather volatile element, but were notorious for having a somewhat... lack of control, which, being said in a blunter manner, ultimately led to their demise."
There was a pause of silence before the blonde from earlier muttered, "Dang, Ivo, that fuckin' ruined the mood."
"Nonetheless," Ivo continued, ignoring Höfler, "we will be training you to increase your overall skill at your ability, so lack of sufficient control should be overcame at some point. Moving on! Akihiko Ito, descendant of the Cohens. Like empathy, precognition is not a material or physical skill, and is definitely considered rare. However, it's a difficult skill to harness completely; nonetheless, we have devised methods to increase control of the ability. Right now, if Akihiko has any sort of vision, we can maximize its benefits by merely being observant. And I'm sure all of you have heard of Sven Gundersen, in some way, shape or form." The brunette man gave said speedster a tight smile. "I'll admit, we weren't very happy when you exposed your power in public, but you were young. Besides, what's in the past can't be undone. We can't turn back time."
"Wait," Höfler interrupted once again. Ivo looked like he wanted to punch a wall. "I distinctly remember you ranting about how intriguing the bloodline with time manipulation is just a few days ago. So technically, it's possible to turn back time?"
"It's not that simple, but I won't go into the specifics right now," Ivo snapped. "If we could turn back time, we wouldn't want to anyway. Anyway, Satoshi Chiba -" he gestured to the other Japanese person who looked like he could be about thirteen years old "- descendant of the Chiba bloodline with the power of invisibility. With this ability, one could sneak into a government building, for instance, and they wouldn't be able to be tracked."
"Are you training them to become criminals?"
"Caoilfhionn," Ivo muttered through gritted teeth. The blonde shrugged nonchalantly, but allowed Ivo to finish speaking.
"And lastly," Ivo's eyes zeroed in on Yeong-ji, which made her back up in her seat a little bit. "Yeong-ji Kühn. Descendant of Ji-kyung Kühn herself, the original shadow manipulator." Ivo whipped his gaze up to face the others, jabbing a finger in Yeong-ji's direction. "To be in the presence of a shadow manipulator of the Kühn bloodline is even rarer than meeting your true love and both of you dying from the same type of cancer on their birthday after both of you turn one hundred. Take that in."
There was a moment of silence as Ivo steeped in his nerdy excitement. "Sorry," Rosamunda finally spoke up, "he can be a bit of a... fanboy, at times."
"That's oddly specific, you know," Yeong-ji muttered. "But probably true. I don't like... socializing."
"Do you know the full extent of your abilities, Frau Kühn?" Ivo asked intensely.
"I don't even know the partial extent of my abilities, or even what they are, much less the full extent of them."
"Oh, lord," Ivo muttered, sounding exasperated. Suddenly, an excited look appeared in his eyes that made Yeong-ji feel like she was going to be a lab rat.
"This means," Ivo said slowly, "that as a blank slate, we can mold you into practically anything, in terms of your powers!" Ivo clasped his hands together. "This is brilliant." He then turned back to Yeong-ji, who was still not fully comprehending the situation. "You can manipulate things through shadows. For instance, if someone was holding a pen, you wouldn't be able to directly manipulate them through their physical matter; however, you would be able to use your own shadow to in turn, manipulate the person's shadow, which would actually make the physical matter creating said shadow be affected by the manipulation in the same way its shadow is. Using this method, you could potentially use your own shadow to make that person commit suicide with the pen that they're holding."
That's actually very dark, Yeong-ji mused over the part of the explanation she could actually understand. "Deutsche," she said succinctly. Ivo was temporarily shaken out of his excitement, thinking for a few moments before being able to translate what he just said into German. "Ah," Yeong-ji said, reverting back to English, her tone neutral. "Sounds fun."
"I'm sure it probably is," Ivo said, a sentence which would concern some people about his mental state. "However, I can infer that you probably have no semblance of control over this ability. Never fear, though. Once we train all of you, you six will be extremely powerful, with the surefire ability of defeating the Schmitzes. Now, going back to what I said earlier about leaving Berlin, Caoilfhionn here has the results for the current ideal place to go to."
The room of people stared at the blonde expectantly, who seemed to not be paying attention. A few moments passed by, until she looked up, noticing everybody staring at her. "Ah, yes," she said, opening a notebook. "As of right now, Saint Petersburg is most ideal. I think we can stay there for up to ten days, but any longer would jeopardize us." The blonde shut her notebook. "The population's pretty high, and I have connections who can help us. However, the city's easy to navigate, so it's going to be harder to lose the Schmitzes' machines if they come after us."
The Schreibers nodded along with Höfler's words. Rosamunda spoke up once again. "We'll take questions right now, but it's ideal for us to pack up and leave as soon as possible. There's a flight going to Saint Petersburg is about four hours. We can book tickets after questions."