As we opened the door to our office, Naomi opened her grimoire (a thick, brown book, with ornate gold accents and silver pages) to reference the path for a projection spell. She cast it on the only clear wall - showing us an androgynous, white face. They looked to be in their mid 50s; straight blonde hair in a more-on-top style; big, cheesy smile, that made their eyes almost close; a warm red jumper over a collared, navy blue shirt.
"Professor Riley Rudolph. In charge of magical studies at Harvard. Like I told you guys on the way up, we've been hand-picked by the professor to escort them here, to『The Synchronization Project's』 headquarters, for a meeting of the world's greatest magical researchers."
"Bet you're excited then, babe!"
"Hell yeah! Mr Noble (one of our bosses) said we could sit in if the Professor allows it!"
"Hold on. Why're we even needed?" Ryan asked, while slurping up his double sugar drink - Alix looking him in the eyes as he finished, to almost say 「don't even dare to touch mine」, "can't they just be teleported in from New York?"
"One: the Professor's scared of teleporting,"
- (something to do with the ¿teletransportation paradox?, I think Nay said) -
"so we'll have to fly them over here.
Two: they've apparently developed a new path that could revolutionise the world, but because of that they've received death threats, so we'll need to protect them on the journey."
"Well, we'd better not keep 'em waiting, then," Alix remarked determinedly, as he finally relented to Ryan's puppy-dog-eyes and passed him his 3/4 full cup.
After an hour, we arrived at Professor Rudolph's house. It was a cosy little brown-bricked building, with orange trees shadowing the large windows from the moonlight, and a cute little rose garden infront. Me and Ryan sat on the pair of metal chairs on the patio ("investigating" the well-used chess board between us) while Naomi waited by the thick black door, and Alix was debriefed by the security team.
As the door opened, a soft, joyful face greated us with a tray of tea, and their suitcase standing neatly next to a precarious pile of books and papers.
"Ah, right on time," they said, as a cuckoo clock rang 4 times, "care for some drinks before we set off?"
"Thank you very much, Professor Rudolph," Naomi began (with an enormous, starstrucken grin) as she introduced us all.
"Please, call me Riley. And I'm very excited to meet you all too; Brandon (Mr Noble (our boss)) was very proud of your team. I'm especially looking forward to discussing my research with you, Miss Naomi, I've heard that you're quite the magical researcher."
Slyly, me and my girl stared at each other with glee and we almost shrieked to each other telepathically (which was unfortunately imposssible), before composing ourselves and helping Riley and their luggage onto the jet that Alix had formed.
"What's he called this one?" I asked Ryan, with a smirk.
"The Salazar Style: Trans-Atlantic All-terain Asphalt Accelerator"
"Bit too long?," Alix chuckled.
"Oh well, as long as it flys," I smiled, as we all strapped in, took our obligatory mission selfie, and shot up towards the stars.