"Now Jase," I addressed the lad as I made the final adjustments on the telepresence helmet that he strained to keep steady in his arms, "since you're new to the staff I'll explain to you what's going on."
The boy looked up at me and nodded silently.
"Through this machine I can see and hear through the senses of my android daughter Qlippothic." I paused to sip a cup of tea and finish off a scone. "She and her construct brother Ash, along with my neko son Koen are currently in Siberia preparing for a final assault on the Dazdi, a cabal of witches descended from Baba Yaga herself!"
Jase looked a bit pale as he nodded again. Perhaps he inhaled a bit too much of lab fumes on his first day.
"The Dazdi captured some alien technology centuries ago, which makes their brand of necromancy even more dangerous..."
I donned the rather bulky apparatus and flipped on the projector. The images on the wall were blurry at first, but the outline of red wings soaring over the tundra was unmistakable.
"And that is Bloodwing. The angelic fellow accompanying him is Xavael. I'll explain more about them later."
"Now Jase," I addressed the lad as I made the final adjustments on the badly damaged telepresence helmet that he strained to keep steady in his arms...
"Wait a minute..."
I watched Jase's brow as a drop of sweat rolled upwards from his cheek to absorb into the blond mop of his scalp. His blue eyes stared up at me in concern and fear.
"WHAT ON EARTH IS..."
Standing behind him were the Baron and Frau Lowey. Weren't they supposed to be at the Steelhead town hall?
And there was the Founder standing behind them all. But I just saw him in Siberia! He raised his finger to his lips in a stern and silent command.
The Baron passed me a hastily written sheet of paper-
"Herr Doktor - Your daughter's Galvanic Tesseractor exploded during the battle. She and Koen are not yet accounted for. You are experiencing temporal feedback from your connection to her during the explosion. In relation us you are moving BACKWARDS."
I looked down at the helmet again. Thin rivulets of smoke were drawing into the helmet. I was tempted to swallow down another cup of tea, then realized how it would appear.
Frau Lowey passed me another paper. Or perhaps I was actually passing it back to her.
"Darien - This is the third time you have repeated these actions. We allowed you to don the helmet each time hoping it would negate, but now it is too dangerous. You also mentioned His name three times. Backwards apparently counts. He is quite cross."
My attention darted from the page back to the snarling demon, who was taking large backwards strides away from me with a cattle prod in his hand. While I searched in vain for a palindromatic curse I felt a nimbus of electricity gather and arc around my body.
What am I doing on the floor? I'm supposed to be explaining to Jase about..
Bloodwing is standing over me with a cattle prod driving into my chest!
"!!!LOOF UOY TI FO TUO PANSssssssSNAP OUT OF IT YOU FOOL!!!"
