The woman, finally freed from the machine, was handed her coat by her assistant, who stood nearby and sultrily approached Jackson, their eyes fiercely connected.
Electricity could be felt in the air as the duo stared each other down. Megan grabbed the back of Jackson's arm, her other hand over her chest as she stared at him worryingly.
"Mrs. Snow, we are on a tight schedule; you still have your meeting with Noble Crossfire." The bespeckled aide said.
"One second, I want to see this guy's ranking." She said, smirking at Jackson, "I'm Veronika, you are?" She asked, extending her hand.
"Jackson." The man said coldly, taking her hand.
Despite her deceptively small frame, she immediately exerted her full force, gripping his hand; when there was no reaction, her eyes briefly revealed her shock before she released it and stepped aside along with her assistant.
The trio entered further as one of the scientists approached, explaining the procedure.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Seraphin. You'll need to remove your jacket and shirt so we can connect you to the machine. It's a short evaluation and non-invasive and will give us an idea of your estimated potential.
Please be aware that this is by no means a certification of your abilities. These are estimates based on thousands of factors. I won't bore you with the details, but this rating is not concrete, and I must thoroughly stress this. Your rating could peak before or potentially break through and go higher. That is entirely up to you."
Jackson nodded, removing his jacket, pauldron with his weapons, and shirt to Megan, and took his seat on the large throne with a blank expression on his face.
Despite his calm exterior, his heart was racing as the scientists quickly got to work, placing the electrode pads on his body and connecting the wires from the machine to his person.
Tara, Megan, and Veronika stared at him with varying expressions as the last wire was connected and the throne thrummed to life. A loud mechanical whirring began increasing as the noise grew with it. Blacked-out panels on the chair started glowing a bright, ethereal blue as fluids began flowing from the ceiling down into the chair.
Immediately the noise vanished as the monitor on the wall sprung to life. A sheet of paper began printing slowly with dozens of lines of unrecognizable script. One of the scientists ripped it from the machine and gathered around as the group started chatting amongst themselves again, reviewing the printout.
Jackson took a deep breath and sighed, closing his eyes as he fought to slow his racing heart. The monitor was rapidly flooded with scrolling binary once again as the machine processed billions of bytes of data.
Once the numbers stopped scrolling, the machine flashed as his report was completed and appeared in a pop-up window on the monitor:
[Power: SS+]
[Perception: SS+]
[Stamina: SSS]
[Speed: SSS]
[Instinct: S+]
[Rating: SSS+]
Megan squealed as she jumped excitedly, screaming in happiness as Tara smirked, muttering under her breath, "I knew you were something special, Jackson Seraphin!"
Veronika gritted her teeth, spouting loudly as she quickly stormed off with her aide, "Impossible!"
The scientists quickly jumped to release Jackson from the machine as Megan ran over and handed him his effects, and he got dressed, "Now what?" He asked, turning to the headmistress.
"Well, now we can return to the first floor and get your official liscense and you'll be free to do whatever you want. Normally, I'd suggest looking for a guild that was recruiting, but knowing you, I'd just be wasting my breath!" Tara explained as they returned to the elevator and waited for its return.
"No. I'm not interested in joining a guild right now; it's too tedious to follow their rules and regulations." Jackson replied, shaking his head.
"Fine, I won't press you!" Tara conceded, throwing her hands up in defeat.
"When I become a Climber, will you team up with me..?" Megan sheepishly asked, looking at the ground as her face flushed red when Jackson placed his hand on the top of her head, patting her softly.
"Of course! Why wouldn't I?" The young man replied with a soft smile, causing the girl to blush harder as the elevator doors opened.
Viktoria stood atop a staircase in front of a podium as dozens of reporters' cameras flashed, and she was being bombarded with questions following her assessment results.
The trio quietly walked through the gigantic reception hall, far away from the congregation, while questions were being fielded left and right.
Jackson approached the counter, greeted by the receptionist, "Good afternoon, how may I assist you today?"
"My name's Jackson Seraphin. I just completed my assessment, and I'm here for my Climber's Card." Jackson replied, placing his hand on the counter.
"Absolutely, Mr. Seraphin. Let me get that for you real quick!" She said, swiping her hand in front of her as a monitor appeared, which she began tapping to navigate through the system to locate the profile, printing the document, "Aha! Here we are... One moment while I grab that for you!"
Jackson nodded, turning his head away as she stood up and disappeared to an adjacent room behind her desk, joining Tara and Megan as they gazed at Viktoria's press meeting.
While speaking to the reporters, she noticed him, returning the stare as she smirked devilishly, "Honestly, you guys shouldn't be hounding me for my plans! You're missing out on the main attraction as we speak!"
Jackson's eyes went wide, and he immediately turned around, muttering, "She wouldn't dare..!"
"What do you mean?" Megan asked obliviously, turning to him.
"Come, Megan. It's about to get very crowded over here..." Tara said, wrapping her arm around Megan's shoulder and guiding her out of the building as she fought, struggling to get back to Jackson.
"No! Wait- Headmistress De Loux! I can't leave yet!" She spat out, flustered as they exited the building.
"Don't worry; we're just going to wait outside for him! We want to avoid being caught in the middle of what's about to happen! I, too, have something I wish to give him before he leaves." Tara smiled at the young woman before she started looking along the street for a bench to rest on.