Date: 29.8.2450 ST (Secondary Timeline)

Location: Dimensional Labs, Neo Seattle outskirts, Neo Washington, Tribesta System, Aradrox Galaxy, Aleph Universe

“This concludes the simulation as we’ve set it up,” Ricardo informed the Dimensional Overseer upon seeing Gato lose consciousness in the simulation. “I hope that the improved values will make this a better way of saving the realms.”

I hope so, too, the Dimensional Overseer thought, folding her arms under her G-cup breasts. Otherwise, this will be a problem we need to resolve even more than before, what with the Enemy of All Souls being on the loose.

“Boss?” Elliot brought her out of her thoughts. “I hate to be Captain Dumbbell over something like this, but I feel the need to ask. Why do you only have on a burgundy and white bikini and your lab coat?”

The D.O. gave Elliot a pointed glare when he finished asking that question. “If you must know, I was swimming in the lab’s pool room earlier,” she said, jabbing a finger at her subordinate like it was going out of style. “Thanks to you and Ricardo arguing yet again, I had to stop swimming while my little sister was in the area, thus making me owe her even more playtime while I’m with her the next time!”

Elliot cringed when he felt the last jab at himself. Of course, the D.O. was especially protective of her time that she had with her family, considering she was stuck with her job at the labs more often than not. It was a once in a blue moon occasion for her to see her little sister, her parents, and the rest of her family at all. Then again, he needed to remember not to be surprised as much.

“I apologize,” he said at last. “We should have stopped arguing before we began.”

The D.O. nodded, removing her finger from her subordinate. “So long as you understand, Elliot.”

Elliot nodded vigorously.

“Okay, then,” the D.O. said, walking over to another computer in the room. “Now, whose bright idea was it to install a Flight Simulator game on the lab computers?”

“What are you talking about, boss?” Ricardo asked. “We don’t have any games installed on the lab computers!”

“Really? You could’ve fooled me,” the D.O. said. “Open a computer, look for Flight Simulator games on the server, then tell me if I’m being mistaken.”

Why didn’t Ricardo see the truth when presented to him? It didn’t make any sense at all. He had to be smarter than that by a long shot.

“Okay, okay, I’ll take a look.” He walked over to the nearest computer to himself that he could reach within three meters of himself. Upon booting it up, he typed in his credentials, looking for what the D.O. was talking about.

“For reference purposes, the game was installed three days ago,” she said. “I don’t know how come we even have a Flight Simulator game on the servers.”

Ricardo motioned his interface to look at what she was talking about, but —

“Er… oops?” Elliot half-asked, half-stated. “That was my fault.”

—Ricardo turned to face his colleague in shock. “You what?!”

“Yeah, really.” Elliot scratched the back of his neck with a nervous chuckle. “I only wanted to install it on my own computer, off the servers, but that was a mistake.”

The D.O. turned to look at Elliot one more time. Of all the possible things he could’ve done, it had to be that? That had to be the most ridiculous thing she’d have heard and seen happen! What sort of nimrod installs a computer game onto company computers?

I need a freakin’ drink, she thought. Why am I stuck with this level of stupidity, again?

Oh, wait, she knew why. It was because the previous Dimensional Overseer was an idiot who didn’t know that he needed to keep it in his pants and do his job properly. She was still cleaning up his messes to this day, after having taken over for him when she hit legal age four years ago. This was utterly inexcusable.

“Boss, what do you want us to do about the game?” Ricardo asked her. “Delete it as punishment for Elliot being an idiot?”

The D.O. shook her head. “No, let Elliot play the game, but only after we move it to his personal computer alone.”

Elliot sighed. “Thank you, boss,” he said.

“You’re welcome,” the Dimensional Overseer said. “Just keep in mind that you’ll need to quit using your administrator privileges in your room, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Elliot said, giving off an aggrieved sigh this time.

“Glad we’ve come to an agreement, then,” the D.O. said. “Now, is there anything else I need to do with you fine gentlemen, exactly?”

Both men looked at each other with a raised eyebrow each, before they looked at the Dimensional Overseer.

She shivered. If they wanted to bang her right then and there, they had another thing coming to them. They wouldn’t find her to be that easy, in spite of the fact that she wanted to have a man in her life to help her with childbirth. She set the rules with her love life, and nobody would say otherwise.

“Boss, are you okay?” Ricardo asked her. “If you’re feeling ill, then you need to get to bed.”

The Dimensional Overseer slapped her face. Of course she took it completely the wrong way. Stupid hentai doujins that she read back when she was still just a child… “Sorry, just had a bad thought hit me about you two.”

“What sort of bad thought?” Elliot asked.

“Nothing that should ever concern you two, I can assure you.” The Dimensional Overseer flipped her hair back over her shoulder with the hand she used to slap her face. “I’m not going to let you two entertain such thoughts at all.”

Elliot and Ricardo shared a look again, still with raised eyebrows, and lowered their eyebrows. They looked at the D.O. again, this time keeping their eyes level with hers.

The fact that they were willing to do just that was comforting to her. She wanted to make sure that nothing else happened with regards to their possible porn desires. Besides, they were at least five years too old for her taste in men. There was no other way about it.

“Okay, gentlemen, let’s see to it that we can get on with our lives, shall we?” she asked. “Do we have anything else that we need to take care of for the time being?”

Ricardo took a look at the formula board. “Well, I think we need to change the x variable for the formula that we’ve been using all this time.”

“That’s right, we still need to change that variable’s value,” the D.O. said. Walking over to the formula board, she continued, “Remember, the value needs to be 4 from here on out, with the value of 3 being used for the prior simulation run of the experiment.”

“You got it, boss.” Elliot nodded with what the D.O. noted was a goofy grin. “Here’s hoping that you do something good with the value overall.”

She nodded. It was really strange, having these two as her subordinates, but it was so worth it. They might be idiots, but they were her idiots at the least. Nothing would change that.

“Good work, gentlemen,” she said. “I hope that you two get as much fun as possible for this break I’m giving you.” Waving her hand in a shooing manner, she said, “Go on, now. Take a vacation that you deserve, first and foremost.”

“Huh?” both Ricardo and Elliot asked at the same time.

“Don’t make me repeat myself,” the D.O. said, maintaining a sweet smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “I think you two need to let me handle things for the time being, without having any interruptions from the two of you making a mess of things by accident.” She dropped the smile and glared at the two of them. “Am I clear?”

Elliot and Ricardo looked to be shaking in their boots as they heard the question. “Cr-cr-crystal!”

“Good. Now, since this vacation you’ll be on is long overdue, that means you’ll need to get going as swiftly as possible.” She dropped the glare and smiled one more time for her subordinates, the smile reaching her eyes again. “Now, where do you two want to go on vacation, and with who?”

Ricardo shrugged. “I think a trip to the home world would be nice right about now. What do you think, Elliot?”

“I dunno… I think Neo Hawaii would be a good place to go to on vacation.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Good thinking.” The Dimensional Overseer began typing at her computer. “Both of you get to go two different places for your vacation time.”

“Are you kidding, boss?” Ricardo locked his eyes with hers momentarily, before looking away swiftly. “I-I mean, what if Elliot makes a mess that requires one of us to clean up after him?”

“Hey! I’m not as bad as you’re making me out to be, Ricardo!”

The D.O. groaned while hearing the new argument unfold. Men… she thought. I wonder why I’m stuck with this much testosterone in the workplace… oh, wait, I remember now. She looked around in her desk, before pulling out an air horn that she had stashed away in the desk for times like this. Before she could press the button to sound the horn, however…

“OBJECTION!!”

Where did that come from?

She wasn’t the only one to look around for the source of the noise. Ricardo looked around as well.

“Hello, this is Elliot Tucker. May I know who’s calling?”

Oh, for the love of…

Elliot walked out the door as he started talking on his VR Phone.

“So… do you think that Elliot’s going to be alright?” Ricardo asked.

“Knowing him, yeah,” the D.O. said. She turned to face Ricardo. “Now, seriously, take your long overdue vacation. Do you want me to make that an order?”

Ricardo didn’t say anything in reply, instead shaking his head and leaving through the still open doorway.

With an aggrieved sigh, the Dimensional Overseer plopped down at her desk. “I can’t believe I left the swimming pool for this level of annoyance…” She then pulled open a drawer in her desk that was suspiciously empty. “Hey, wait a second… where did I put it?”

I can’t believe I misplaced the activation code for Project Izanagi… what gives?

She pulled open the other drawers in her desk, from the bottom to the top. All of them were suspiciously empty. “I hate my life…” she said with a groan. “Will I have a moment of peace to take care of the paperwork my way?!”

As if someone or something was laughing at her right then, Ricardo walked back into the room. “I can’t believe I forgot my wallet…”

Ugh… why me?

“Hey, boss, do you know where I left my wallet?” Ricardo asked, looking her way.

“No, I don’t, Ricardo,” the D.O. said tersely. “If I knew where it was, I’d have told you to go get it and where to get it from by now, I hope you realize.”

Ricardo winced. “Point made... my apologies.”

The Dimensional Overseer breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth. “Apology accepted,” she said. “Now, why don’t you look at your desk for where you could have left your wallet at? It couldn’t be that hard to find your wallet.”

Ricardo nodded. “Going to look now.” He walked over to his desk, which had a plethora of knickknacks on top of it. “Let’s see, here… I have to clean off the top of my desk, don’t I?”

“Yes, you do,” the D.O. said, giving him an annoyed glare. “Now, why are you making a conversation out of this?”

Ricardo paused in mid-motion and tilted his head to the side. “I don’t really know,” he said at last. “I guess it’s to calm my nerves?”

The D.O. gently slapped her forehead. “What nerves are frayed that require you to talk when you need to work?”

“I don’t want to be fired, boss,” Ricardo said in a hurry.

The Dimensional Overseer sighed as she took in what he had said. “You’re not fired, Ricardo. You’re just going to be on a vacation that you’re overdue for.”

Ricardo blinked, before he nodded emphatically. “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome,” the D.O. said with a slight smile. “Now, get ready to find your wallet, because that’s what you need to do now.”

“On it!” Ricardo looked through the collection of knickknacks as soon as those words left his mouth.

The Dimensional Overseer straightened her posture in her chair. Now, where the heck did I put the activation code for Project Izanagi? I can’t seem to find it here…

“No, it’s not with the knickknacks,” Ricardo said. “I’ll check the drawers right now.”

Ugh. I need to remind Ricardo not to talk to himself while in the office…

“I found it, boss!”

Never mind. That actually works for everyone.

The Dimensional Overseer got up from her desk and walked over to Ricardo. “Nicely done. Now, really, take your vacation. You deserve it for what you’ve done so far.”

Ricardo began rummaging through his knickknacks on his desk. “Just give me a bit, please. I’m still looking for—”

The Dimensional Overseer grabbed his arm and pulled him away from his desk. “You already found your wallet, Ricardo. What else are you even looking for? Or is this a stalling tactic to get out of vacation hours?”

Ricardo struggled to get out of her grip. “What sort of muscles do you have packed away from plain sight?!”

Oh, you’re asking for it now, Ricardo!

With a Judo throw, the Dimensional Overseer threw Ricardo out of the lab through the still open doorway. “Just because I’m a busty blonde that likes to swim on her free time doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use my natural athletic ability to do that to you!” She marched on over to the door and put her hand over the switch that opened or closed it. “Now, take your vacation!” With that, she closed the door.

Walking back to her desk, she sat down at her chair and contemplated what to do next. On the one hand, I could look for the activation code for Project Izanagi. However, I could also get back to swimming with my little sister. I know that Annie deserves more than what I’ve been able to give her so far. Urgh… decisions, decisions. What am I supposed to do now?

At that point, the door opened once again, revealing Elliot as he walked through the doorway. “Ricardo asked me to get his time card from his desk,” he said, “so I’ll get it before getting mine.”

Oh, so that’s what Ricardo was looking for… whoops…

“Boss, did you have to throw him that hard out of the room?” Elliot asked. “He’ll likely sue you for damages, I’m sure you understand.”

The Dimensional Overseer pinched the bridge of her nose for a couple of seconds. “I hear you, Elliot,” she said. “However, there are some times when my stress is unbearable.”

“I understand that,” Elliot said, walking over to Ricardo’s desk. “However, it seems like you need a vacation more than the two of us at this rate. When are you going to go on your own well deserved mandatory vacation?”

The D.O. dropped her head for a couple of seconds. “Do you even know when I’m supposed to go on my vacation?” she asked when she raised her head again.

“Your mandatory vacation starts tomorrow, actually.” Elliot pointed at the calendar on the wall. “You might want to do something about that ASAP.”

“How do you know when my vacation time is supposed to take place, when you can’t even remember when you need to take a vacation for yourself?”

“I guess that’s what makes me a person.” Elliot shrugged. “Trust me, boss, you need to take a vacation soon.”

Ugh… what do I do?

Finally, the Dimensional Overseer nodded. “I’ll take a vacation that I’ve been meaning to do for quite a while,” she said. “However, I still need to do some stuff around here, namely look for an activation code for a project that I’m responsible for.”

Elliot nodded. “That makes sense,” he said. “Take care of what you need to do, then.” He then picked up the time card that Ricardo was looking for, before he walked over to his desk. “Here’s to a decent vacation, boss.”

“I hope you have a decent vacation, too, Elliot,” the D.O. said. “Now, though, you might want to hurry up.”

“I’ll hurry it up,” Elliot said, picking up his time card from his desk. “Have a good vacation, will ya?”

“I plan to, Elliot,” the D.O. said. “Now, get going.”

Elliot gave off a two finger salute as he walked out of the lab with the time cards in hand. With that, he closed the door behind him.

Well, that works out to be a good thing, the D.O. thought. Now… A smell wafted into her nostrils. Wait, what’s that awful stench?

She followed her nose to find out what the stench was, and where it came from. It had to have come from the lab itself, there was no other option available for where to find it. It definitely smelled of rotting dog turds, something she had had the displeasure of smelling back as a child, along with bloodied feminine hygiene products… eww…

It’s in the back right corner of this room… I’d better call the cleaning staff in here immediately.

With that, she walked over to the comm panel next to the door and activated the intercom. “Dimensional Overseer to cleaning staff. Send in the heavy duty cleaners to my lab, please.” Without waiting for a reply, she turned off the intercom.

At that point, the door opened, admitting a brown haired, black eyed, tanned janitor with a large amount of cleaning supplies.

That was really fast…

“Is something the trouble, Madam Dimensional Overseer?” the janitor asked, before he caught wind of the stench. “PU… it reeks in here!”

“Now you know how I feel, mister…” she looked at the janitor’s name tag. “L. R. Jenkins?”

“It’s short for Liam Robert Jenkins,” the janitor said. “Okay, I’ll clean up in here, though I need to know where it smells the worst in here to cordon it off.”

“It’s especially bad at the back right corner of the lab,” the Dimensional Overseer said. “I’m not going to bug you to clean it as fast as you can, but a pay raise will be issued if you do clean it as best and as fast as possible.”

“Consider it done, boss,” Liam said. “I’ll get it done while you take care of everything else, ma’am.”

“Thank you,” the Dimensional Overseer said. “Also, if you find anything related to a Project Izanagi, make sure it gets filed in the top drawer of my desk.”

“Sure, I’ll keep that in mind,” Liam said. “I’ll do that right away as well.”

“Very well,” the Dimensional Overseer said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to head back to the swimming pool.”

“Trying to burn some calories?”

“No. I promised my little sister I’d be back with her at the swimming pool after taking care of a mess here.”

“Ah, okay, I see. I hope you get to play with her,” Liam said. “Take care of yourself out there.”

“Thank you, Jenkins,” the Dimensional Overseer said with a curt nod.

“Please, call me Liam.”

“Of course, Liam. I’ll see you after I get done with the pool for today.”

“I hope I’ll be done by then,” Liam said, before the Dimensional Overseer turned to walk out of the room.

With a sigh of relief, she walked on over to the swimming pool where she left her baby sister. Honestly, what is it going to take for me to be a better big sister for her? As she made it back to the Olympic pool she was swimming in before, she briefly glanced over to her right side, before she did a double-take. There was a strange man in the changing room of the facility, acting as if he owned the place, holding onto a camcorder of some sort.

“Sis! You’re back!”

The Dimensional Overseer turned to see Annie once more, before turning back to the empty changing room… wait, what?

Where did he go? Alicia thought, looking around for any sign of the man.