Part 2
Date: Friday, May 5, 2009 (Present Day)
Time: 12:23 PM
Location: Oval Office, The West Wing of the White House,
Washington, D.C., United States of America
"Given what this can lead to, are you sure that this option is the best course of action?" A voice broke out in a large room.
War
A declaration of war
A war
A possible war
The voice came from what many people would consider the most powerful man in the world based on his title.
The President of the United States
Jacob Perry Fredrick
The 43rd President.
He is the second African American to hold the title of President of the United States.
A middle-aged man of 52, he was now in the process of starting his second term after being re-elected last November. Once a vibrant man, he now seemed to age a decade or two from the stress of being the leader of the free world. A bald man, with his mustache and goatee turning gray.
He was dressed in his gray button-down dress shirt with the top few buttons undone, and his black tie rested upon his black dress pants.
In the Oval Office were two tan couches and two chairs that sat opposite each other with a small table with flowers between them. There were gold curtains on the windows behind the desk and the chair behind him. On the walls were portraits of past presidents.
Right now, he was sitting at his desk in the Oval Office, with his fingers crossed in front of his mouth and his elbows on the table.
He was trying to process the information that was told to him.
NEO New York City.
A landlocked sovereign city state within its borders was preparing to declare an offensive attack on a group of rouge magicians within the country of Russia.
President Fredrick exhaled deeply.
This action, whether it succeeded or failed, would spark an international conflict between
"Given our intelligence, we believe these waves of attacks within our borders by this individual will only lead to something worse" A voice on the speaker phone spoke out.
Despite the soft tone in his voice, the person was now advocating for an offensive measure against a group within Russia.
Raziel, the founder of NEO New York City
Not just its leader, but its founder.
It has been over eighty-five years since magic, which was always hidden or had its recorded feats attributed to nothing more than myth, was revealed to the world in its entirety. Since then, the world has been playing catch-up, trying to understand both magic and the people who could use it.
Such a new paradigm shift in the world caused several countries to expand or collapse. As magicians and magic became the biggest commodities in the world, many magician families rose to the level and rank of noblemen, even kings.
But with the rapid introduction of magic and with little oversight over it, there was abuse of it. Many countries, after mass-creating rare minerals such as gold, were backed by their currencies, which in turn resulted in multiple recessions and inflation throughout the world. Slavery and human experimentation by magicians began to rise in the world, along with the genocide of suspected magicians in the Middle East and Africa. Other small countries began to use magicians and spellcasters on the frontlines of civil conflicts, with the end result of massive death and destruction.
Such actions resulted in the creation of the Magic Association.
A governing body of seventy-five and counting countries was tasked with creating and enforcing laws—a separate set of laws that those who can perform magic are supposed to follow or suffer harsh penalties.
"If there was a time to strike, now would have to be it" the founder said.
The founder.
That was what he was called when he was introduced to him during a trade agreement meeting within the city during his first term.
He met various heads of organizations, including those in aviation, transportation, and education.
But when he met him.
New York City was founded in 1624. Through the Second Industrial Revolution, the small city became a mass producer of steel and iron, laying the groundwork for rapid automation and dedicating fifty-four percent of the landmass within Queens and thirty-seven percent within Staten Island. By the time the third revolution was starting, the city had become a powerhouse in which they sought their independence from the United States.
That request spurred a huge reaction across the United States, mainly Washington, D.C., not since the Civil War had any one thought about succeeding from the United States, but for whatever reason, on January 8, 1975, the then president and the founder met to discuss said request, and on the 10th of that month, New York City was allowed to become its own city-state through heavy caveats on both sides.
From what he heard, immortality through magic was impossible.
The first time he saw the founder,
The room was filled with men in suits until he glanced at him.
It was hard to miss him in his white appearance.
Pale white skin and white hair.
A baggy white shirt and white pants that were cut off just above his ankles, with his bare feet touching the ground.
The more the man looked at the founder, the more a single reared itself in the back of his mind—more like a feeling he could not shake.
This was not a human who lived for a long time, but rather-
This was something pretending to be human.
"This magic group within Russia borders that you are planning to attack…." The president started trying to focus on the matter at hand. "Does the Russian government know or is allowing this offensive effort?"
"Not quite" A female voice spoke out on the speaker phone. "Usually, crimes committed by magicians or spellcasters would fall under the jurisdiction of The Magic Association, but Russia, among other countries, decided not to join and thus is outside of where we can operate"
Gwyn Fleur Chevalier.
The voice came from the Queen of the United Kingdom and the head members of the European Charter for the Magic Association. Along with being the leader for the United Kingdom, she was also the interim queen for the Scandinavian countries after their last queen had disappeared.
The president sat back in his chair.
"If an attack happens on their soil, for whatever reason justified or not, and collateral damage arises from your military operation, retaliation from them will follow"
"It is a probability I have calculated, and I am well prepared to handle it should it arise"
"The problem is that it is not just you that will have to deal with the repercussions of their retaliation, given the treaty between us. War is most likely the outcome, just to destroy a group of magicians"
"While I can understand your concern with regards to a possible war, I believe that with precision and with our two strongest weapons, we can remove the thought of retaliation from them"
President Fredrick sat forward in his chair, trying to process the information he just heard.
(A weapon—two of the strongest)
"What weapons are you talking about?"
"Wait, two weapons... you are not talking about the Crystal Guardians, are you?" Queen Chevalier asked.
"That is correct. No country on the planet can come close to matching the raw power they possess" Raziel replied.
"Even if you somehow bring them into the fray, you really think they will fight for your cause"
"I'm not too sure, to be honest; right now, I believe the Crystal Guardians should be preoccupied with something right now, so it is hard to tell"
Staring at the phone on the table, President Fredrick spoke.
"What is a Crystal Guardian?"
"Individuals, six in total, with otherworldly, almost godly powers over the element. Their destructive powers are unparalleled"
"And with power like that, they are just waltzing around the world uncheck"
'Not all of them; as far as we know, there are four active Crystal Guardians out of the six; two can be accounted for within NEO New York City, and the other two are up in the air" Queen Chevalier stated.
There were a few seconds of silence from the president as he placed his hand under his chin.
"These unaccounted guardians, whatever you call them, do Russia have access to any of the two?"
"Not that we're sure of"
"But I am not fully certain" The president sighed. "Retaliation will probably arise from your actions; if that happens, nuclear war will not be far behind, and if you send those two under the assumption that Russia does not have a guardian or two, based on what she had said earlier, the result of godly powers or that battle from them would be catastrophic. The risk greatly offsets the reward. I am just trying to keep all our options open"
"If we are considering all options open, there is another one that has come up, though it has a low probability success rate"
"What is the other option?" The queen asked
"That war could be avoided"
The president shot up.
"How"
"While the individual in the city is of concern, the weapon in his possession is something I can't overlook given its nature, so the options that came up were that either the individual or the weapon be eliminated, perhaps even both. Right now, there is trying to see that option through"
"With that going forward, is there any hope that they will succeed?"
There was silence coming from Raziel.
"Hope" he started. "What a strange and frivolous concept that is. An expectation for a desired result I guess, in a sense, I myself am not immune to that feeling; this city would be a testament to that, but no one can rely on hope alone to succeed in life; it is impossible. Every result, from ideals to actions, requires the strength to make said result a reality. While it is nice to have hope, we cannot rely on that to save us in the long run"