Espers

The rookies followed Alina's lead as she stepped outside the briefing room. The journey to the training ground was merely a simple trip towards the elevator. The nine rookies were made to enter the box of steel alloy, and make due with the limited space. Only Archie, Maeve, and a tall man with a relaxed bearing seemed unbothered by either their compressed state or Inspector Alina's presence. 

A soft melody rang throughout as the elevator doors closed. Shortly after the steel alloy box began its smooth elevation. It was halfway through the silent trip that Alina's eyes widened slightly. She turned to face them. 

"Oh one last thing I forgot to mention regarding aberrations and monsters. We categorize them using disaster levels. They are: Criminal, Rampager, Fiend, Plague, Demon, Devil, and Nuclear. The scanner cards will hold the specifics of what each level means so be sure to go over it on your own time, understood?" 

Seeing their nods of affirmation, Alina gave a satisfied smile before turning her focus away. They arrived at their destination not long after. A steel hallway greeted them. It was narrow and short, being as wide as the elevator itself. 

"Follow me." 

Alina said. 

Before long they reached another door that opened to reveal a pure white room. The area was vast, encompassing the entirety of the remaining 25th floor. Its temperature was far lower than the previous floors, and hung upon the ceiling were horizontal lights which shone with white radiance, furthering its desolate appearance. 

While everyone was distracted absorbing the sight, Alina nonchalantly turned to an area not far from the entrance. There a panel was etched to the wall. She placed her hand upon it as she spoke. 

"Request access."

The panel came to life and quickly scanned her hand before a mechanical voice rang out. 

'Access granted. Welcome inspector, you have primary command over the system.'

Only after did she turn to face the rookies. 

"The training room may not look like much at first glance, but once activated it gives you different platform modes to choose from. To awaken its features you just need to use your scanner cards."

After explaining, Alina returned her focus to the panel. 

"Give me a 12 inch steel wall." 

She requested. The floor near the center of the area suddenly came to life, shifting away to raise a steel wall from beneath it. 

Alina then directed the rookies towards it. 

"I didn't need to bring you all here for the next part of the briefing, but I think the abilities of an esper are best grasped when paired with visualization." 

Alina arrived before the steel wall, shifted her stance, then unleashed a fist forward with perfect precision. 

BANG!

The sound of steel yielding beneath the force of her blow reverberated. Alina retracted her hand, showcasing the large dent which she forged. She wore a satisfied expression as she turned to face the rookies present. 

Many of them had a mixture of shock and amazement etched to their faces. Only Maeve and the tall figure with a relaxed temperament stood as the exceptions. Alina raised her hands for them and showcased the lack of any visible harm. 

"The Esper Program can be described as our best weapon against the supernatural. This is most true when it comes to facing the monster races. However, to become an esper does not mean to become superior to a human. An esper is merely a human who can grasp their spirituality and use it to change the natural state of reality as we know it." 

Alina raised her right hand. As she did her nails rapidly grew 3 inches longer, transforming into sharp claws. She then unleashed a slash to the steel wall behind her, leaving clear cuts upon its surface. 

Turning back to the rookies, she began her explanation. 

"To understand espers you must first understand spirituality. From what humanity has researched, spirituality is the expression of the human soul. An illusory energy that resides somewhere in the boundary between the body and soul. Additionally, it is a product closely tied to emotions, be they good or bad. We don't know much beyond that, but what we do know is that it is both boundless and limited, that it exists and doesn't at the same time. It also has the ability to affect reality…"

As she spoke, Alina silently returned her forged claws to clean nails tinged by a soft pink hue. 

"I mentioned the four primal laws earlier, however there is also another 'truth' about our world. That being the fact that every existence has a weight to them. An ability to bend the world's natural laws through their mere existence. Since spirituality is the expression of the soul, it also carries with it the weight of the human soul." 

She raised a finger to her head. 

"Inside my brain right now is an Enhancement-Chip. This chip is the only successful example of mysticism and technology being joined together. As I stated before, spirituality both exists and doesn't, seemingly appearing and disappearing from the physical world. Researchers believe it's like a tide that constantly reaches the shores of our body then returns to the ocean of our souls. In the brief period that it exists however, specialized machines can detect it. What mystic researchers realized was that it does not disappear again when observed, a result of the second law: Law of Reaction…"

She brought down her raised hand, then began a calm pace back and forth as she explained. 

"It is that characteristic that the E-Chips take advantage of. When installed, the E-Chips release nano-tech optical fiber-like threads known as The Spirituality Conducting Fiber Network. The network spreads through the brain, spine, and then throughout the entire body. That is only the first step, once the main fibers have spread and fully mimicked your nervous system, it will spread out what are known as branch fibers. Those will continue to shrink until they are the size of a human chromosome."

Alina's eyebrows furrowed slightly as she made a bitter smile. 

"Trust me, the fiber spreading process is long and it hurts like hell. It's also the stage of advancement that kills most people." 

Shaking off her smile, she continued. 

"Anyways, once fully installed all that the esper must do is will for their spirituality to appear while recalling an emotionally intense memory. It may take a few tries the first time, but when the spirituality inevitably manifests, the branch fibers will detect it and solidify its existence as a result. The spirituality will then be absorbed by the branch fibers and sent to the main fibers where it is detected by the esper, solidifying its existence by yet another layer… It is at this point where the esper can finally affect the spirituality with their thought and will…"

She pondered for a moment then added. 

"From my experience its flow feels pleasant, and it gives you this strange sense of connection."

Alina stopped her pacing and reached out a hand. 

"See anything?"

She asked, however none of the rookies present, Maeve included, noticed anything. Alina smiled. 

"I'm leaking my spirituality. Imbuing spirituality to objects with mystical properties can help amplify their effects or simply imbue them with symbols and authorities connected to me. That said, only Fourth Stage Espers and above have any symbols to imbue thanks to their concept accommodations." 

Bringing down her hand she recommenced her pacing. 

"How expansive the fiber network is within the body will determine how much of their spirituality can be solidified into existence. The size of that solidified existence is known as The Spirituality Field. These fields are given a rate."

Alina paused her walking once more and raised her pinky finger. 

"First Stage Espers have a spirituality field that resides only within their bodies, ending just below the skin. Its rate being: -1."

She raised her ring finger. 

"Second Stage Espers have a spirituality field that ends 3 cm above the skin. Its rate being: 0." 

She raised her middle finger.

"Third Stage Espers have a spirituality field that ends 5 cm above the skin, however that is only due to the spirituality being densely concentrated inside the body. Third Stage Espers can will the field to expand, thinning it in the inside while spreading it forth by 5 meters in all directions. If they try to stretch it further than that the spirituality will become too thin and will begin to disappear. This field is rated as: +1."

She brought down her hand, reached into her jacket and retrieved a small pop out knife. She then opened her right palm and sliced at it. Her crimson blood gushed forth, splattering before the white surface of the training ground. 

Her actions surprised some of the rookies, but before they could say anything they saw the laceration slowly begin to heal. 

"Once harnessed, spirituality serves a few purposes: The first is the enhancement of what the body is already capable of, doing so at an almost ridiculous level the higher the stage and the thicker its concentration. The second is alteration of every facet of an esper's anatomy, allowing them to move and restructure their very atoms if they wish to…"

Alina began cleaning her bloody palm with a piece of cloth that Archie offered her. 

"The third usage is the most impressive, its exaggeration and the creation of imaginary matter… For first and second stage espers then this merely allows them to exaggerate things of their anatomy, such as the amount of a specific type of atom they possess in their body, or to exaggerate the electric signals that their nervous system uses, turning it into raging currents that can dance on their fists and be shot forth." 

She finished the cleaning of her palm and neatly folded the bloody cloth before storing it in her pocket. She then raised that very hand once more, yet this time it was accompanied by blue currents of electricity which sizzled above her skin. 

Alina smiled and raised her left hand as well, its surface also covered by dancing electric currents. 

"Of course, the beauty of it is that everything depends on knowledge. I'm using the ions of my nervous system to create powerful electric currents on my right hand, however on my left I'm using electrons in my skin's atoms to do so. But I can only do this because I am exaggerating the number of electrons and ions I'm supposed to naturally have. The spirituality is essentially transforming into that matter but it can only exist while the field is activated, thus the term: Imaginary matter."

With a clap of her hands, the raging sparks ceased. 

"For the first two esper stages exaggeration is a useful bonus, however once an esper becomes a third stage they can alter and exaggerate the environment that their spirituality field encompasses. This leads to applications like telepathy and many more…" 

Alina paused, watched the engrossed expression upon everyone's faces, then smiled brightly.

"Well then, that concludes today's briefings!" 

Her announcement caused some of the rookies to frown slightly, their eagerness to learn more unable to be hidden. One of them even raised a hand and spoke up. 

"Inspector Krutova, that can't be all right? What about espers of the fourth stage and above?" 

Alina shrugged. 

"Most of that is classified, all I can explain is that they acquire anchors known as: Concept Accommodations. If you want more details than that, then rise the ranks."

Saying nothing more, Alina began making her way back towards the training ground's exit. 

"Now then, it's time for all of you to find out where you will be working."