"So, the abnorms, how many are there in this place?" I sat at a desk, in front of me was a bunch of screens, each with the department's main area, and hallways to abnormalities. I guess this is what it felt like to be a manager
"Over three digits, that's all I can guess, I only know some from the three departments that I looked after when we rebuilt this place" I guess I couldn't blame Tsuki for not knowing, there were beyond hundreds of screens and cameras, and even then, the computer next to me allowed access to more cameras, or a better view of the other ones.
"And how many agents?" Outnumbering the library was our main concern, while I would try to prevent death, it wouldn't be possible to prevent them all, so the agents all just told me to focus on winning. I felt terrible whenever I thought of the agents, while it was a minor few, they were all ready to die, and I can only imagine what they'd do after be beat the library and they survive, they'll probably end up killing themselves in the end after all.
"2200?" It was like she pulled a random number, but, with the computer, I was able to see the agents, and wouldn't you know it, she was spot on
"You remember all of them?" I didn't mean by name, but it seemed like she understood
"Yeah, for the most part, it's not a hard number to remember anyways" I guess she had a point.
"Hey...about that abnormality we faced yesterday, what's its deal, most abnorms get their power from their backstory, or at the very least, it's inspired that way." I could tell Tsuki was thinking hard "It's fine if you don't get it, after all, we don't even have its ID done yet, so it's clear it's new"
"I guess so...we're working on it though, we already have some people who remember it coming alive" Coming alive? If she didn't make a mistake in her wording then it would be weird, coming alive...like Frankenstein's monster?
I started scrolling through the abnormality part of the computer, there were many I haven't seen or even heard of, that was of course, including the one from yesterday. With my perms as "Manager" I was able to make an ID...huh, I don't think that's how it worked in LC, but, how would I know? I didn't even know how they made IDs, the only slight idea that I can come up with is the letters, if I remember right, F usual means that it's from a fairytale or fantasy, yet...we didn't even know its origin, so as much as I want to, there wasn't a way to make an ID.
"What's this one?" I came over to an abnormality, it looked just like a blob...kinda like It's Slimes but, more discolored, and without the bones it usual has...then again, maybe they melted away. Tsuki came over, leaning on the desk and staring at the image I had pulled up.
"Don't quote me on this, but I think it's from Melting Love, but, if I remember correctly, it somehow appeared without a host or without Melting Love even being around" Hearing that abnormality's name pained me, every time it was said I wanted to just block out all noise.
"Quick question, is it in this place?" She looked away from me, she most likely knew how much pain that thing caused me, and she most likely knew I would hate the answer
"Far away from this room...but yes" I sighed at her response, it was still alive, and still here, the distance didn't matter, it could just infect someone, and if they come here...actually...I thought of something that kind of gave me hope. Being infected by it usually means you have some blob on your head...but that would mean we'd purge the infected...huh, I felt like I heard that line before...
"It's fine" I reassured her, I didn't even blame her, not even in my head, after all, I of all people would know how powerful that thing is, another question popped up though "Hold on, how is it alive? Isn't the whole point of the library to read and gain power or knowledge, or maybe even money? If I remember right, then I recall Its book being there" Tsuki began thinking again, now sitting on the other side of my desk
"It could be another abnormality you know, one that can resurrect other abnorms, it would explain why that blob one is here as well" Her point made sense, I guess that's a new issue as well, reviving abnroms...just great.
"I just wanna deal with abnorms" I was moving left and right in my chair.
"Hey, I know I said you could deal with abnormalities, but could you not on your first day? I mean, it's more than clear that you need rest" I was going to rebuttal but then noticed that she was right
"Alright, that's fine, but I'm not sitting in this office the whole day" As I complained, Tsuki handed me a tablet
"Just a few more minutes then we can begin, the tablet allowed you to see the cameras on the go" The first day of the new corporation was about to begin, and I was impatient, yes I know that, but, with starting up this place, and beginning our jobs, it would cause a spike in power, it would only do it once, but if we're spotted then this whole operation is off.
"Oliver and Tsuki, you there?" I heard Taylor through a radio that I had on my waist.
"Oliver here, how's it going?" Taylor and the others were dealing with starting the main power, after all, we were running on small backups, I was here to see if more cameras would turn on, showing that the entire facility was powered up.
"Alright, we're gonna try and start the power slowly, it'll give us more of a chance when it comes to being spotted" Taylor's idea was good, but it had a flaw
"To start the main power means turning off the back up, you'll be releasing some abnormalities" Most of the facility was built recently, and most of the doors stayed closed when the power was off, but there were still some old ones that would open without power.
"Well, that's what you and the agents are for...well, if you feel like assisting them that is" I didn't need Taylor to add that last part, I would already help them if they needed it.
"Yeah, if that's the case, go for it, we'll prepare on this end" I grabbed the musket and headed out the door. "Let's go Tsuki" I heard her footsteps start to follow me
"Roger roger" We both went into the main room of the control department, ironically, the part that's old is the control room...so much for control.
When we entered the main room, I saw tons of agents around the place, all with different E.G.O gear, some of the gear I haven't seen at all...must've been from the new abnormalities. I noticed a pedestal, well, something that resembled it that is, I stepped up the pedestal and put my hands on it.
"Alright, listen everyone" I had no idea what I was doing, it just took me by instinct "In just a few minutes we'll be starting up the main power, of course, as you've heard, that'll power down these doors and allow the abnormalities to escape, that's where you come in though, you all, and me, will take down the abnormalities until the power turns back on. Why are we doing this you may ask? Of course, no one but us know of this place, and yet, by starting up the power we'll be a giant marker on the power grid, so, we'll be starting it up slowly"
"Hold on, why are we even starting up the main power?" One of the agents questioned, I didn't blame him for not knowing, to be fair, I didn't understand at first either
"The backup power is just a generator by itself, and therefore isn't rechargeable unless we keep getting gas, the main power however, is run using the cities power, and our own rechargeable power, that's why we're doing this" I responded with the best answer I could.
"Two Minutes until power down!" My radio blasted, everyone was able to hear it.
"Alright everyone! Let's do this!" If they had this much E.G.O gear then they had to have worked in the corp before, well, I guess not L corp, but still.
"Yeah!" Everyone raised their fist in the air, they all began to prepare, adjusting their uniforms or by preparing their weapons
"Less than one minute, let's get ready" Once more, Taylor's voice could be heard through my radio. After he stopped speaking, the agents split into two groups and either went through the left hallway, or the right one. I doubt it would be the case, but I hope that there aren't any alephs in this department, otherwise I'd need to question Tsuki and Taylor's legibility to build or work in this place.
"I'll go with the left guys" Speaking of Tsuki, she ran over to the left hallway, I decided to go to the right.
"Ahh, Sephirah Oliver" I stood beside Burns "Should you really be helping us?" I could tell he sounded worried, heh, I guess he's one of the few not maxed out in all sections.
"It's fine, after all, I have way more experience than you all do" I took the musket off my shoulder and pressed my finger on the side of the gun, near the trigger.
"I-I guess that is true..." Burns seemed to have the same musket as me, hmm...This guy worked on Der Freischütz? Not even that but...what happened to the one only thing?...I guess since we're from different corps it cancels out...but then...no but how would it, ahh! thinking about this more would be confusing so I should just forget it.
"5" Taylor came over the intercom, probably should've done that first huh?
"It's go time everyone!" I went past the others and stood in front, I wouldn't be shooting any one of my agents this time, not again.
"4!" The lights began to flicker, I took a deep breath.
"Moment of truth everyone! Let's show them that L corp didn't die!" One of the agents cheered, I guess I wasn't the only person here that was from Lobotomy Corporation, maybe they used to be clerks, either way, glad that they have better memories there than I do.
"2!" I couldn't hear 3 due to the agent talking earlier. I could hear rustling behind me "1!" The main lights turned off as the light was replaced with a humming red hue, it looked weird, and the lighting only impaired it more. "It's go time everyo-" The power in the area was fully turned off now, even to the point that Taylor was cut off. In the distance the doors opened, a mixture of noises filled the air, it was only then I realized, if a majority of us are here, then who's taking care of the other abnormalities? It was already too late to be thinking about that now, the power was off, going into the elevators would only put us at a dead-end. Even with the power off, the alarms still rang.
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First Warning huh? It was recognizable even without hearing it for what felt like years. Me and the agents in the front knelt down, allowing the others behind us to see. After a few seconds, a bird flew out...punishing bird, with our equipment we could kill him if needed, but he doesn't really hurt us at all, then again, me and Burns have that musket that fires through everything, we may hit the bird by mistake...Now or later, that's really what it boiled down to. By the time I was done thinking, the bird was pecking at my head
"Damn it! Get off!" I tried to shoo it away so I could focus on the main task.
"I'll handle it sir!" An agent that wore Punishing Bird's E.G.O gear came over and got its attention, causing the bird to go at him instead of me. The bird seemed off, like a robot's programming faltering, it wasn't a robot though, I could see that even from here. When I turned back to face the hallway, an ashy figure was there.
"Back up everyone! Scorched girl incoming!" A barrage of gunfire started going off above my head firing at the girl, it looked really harsh, shooting a child with the force of an entire military. The gunfire didn't last long, if I remembered correctly, she didn't really put up a fight when it came to how much damage she can take.
"More coming in!" Another agent called, I could see something moving towards us while something behind it spun. It took me a second to realize.
"Everyone to the sides!" With some disorganization, we were up against the walls while firing at the moving figures, one of which started zooming towards us, eventually going past us.
"Heads up everyone! Orchestra coming in!" There's an Aleph here! Then again, we have many different types of gear that deal different types of damage, t-
"Ahh! My ears!" I heard an agent shout before I covered my ears. I turned around and saw it, waving its stupid wand, it was immune to all damage except one if I recall.
"Everyone who dishes pale damage handle Orchestra! Everyone else, assist the front!" Following my orders, the agents who held weapons that dealt pale damage charged Orchestra. One part of me wondered how weapons decide what damage they deal, but...I don't think that really mattered right now.
Through the halls, gunfire and metal bashing against each other could be heard, as well as sparks, coming from the other side of the department, Tsuki's side was clearly dealing with issues as well. After we continued firing down the hallway, I heard something grinding against the floor, but it sounded like it came from the side behind us. The noise was awfully familiar to blades making contact with something, soon I realized.
"Everyone! To the walls!" I heard someone call from behind us, and we followed, quickly going against the walls. I stayed focused on our side, making sure something wasn't going to assault us while we were beside the wall. It didn't take long for a blur to pass us, but it started going slower, then I noticed something wrapped around it, I looked towards the opposite side of the department where the line was coming from, it was then that I saw Tsuki gripping the line. "Anyone have a baseball bat?" It sounded stupid, and I could get badly cut if it failed. Before I realized it, Orchestra had gone into the next movement, people moved around, most likely knowing what damage could be dealt to it.
"Whatever you're doing probably isn't a good idea!" Even though one of the agents said that, they still handed me a weird bat, most likely from an abnormality I didn't know about. I ran to the line as the agents started getting off the wall, I grabbed onto it and pulled out a knife.
"Hey HEY! What're you thinking!?" Tsuki called out, ignoring her, I kept grabbing onto the line and put my knife on it, I raised it and slashed down, cutting the line. As it unwrapped around the little helper (Who in all honesty, isn't that small) I saw a type of material I hadn't seen before, I guess that material kept helper from breaking the line. Orchestra once again changed movements, from the speed I could tell something was off, but hopefully, my plan will work, it's just a small chance that he changes when I need him to.
"Everyone get to the walls again!" Everyone followed my order, I was the only one who didn't get near the wall, I could see more than just helper coming, but it was coming faster than the others, so it was the only one worth paying attention to. I grabbed more onto my bat, putting away the knife, all I could see was blades rushing towards me.
"Oliver!"
"What're you doing!" I could hear people calling me. Right as helper was near me I sidestepped it, swinging my bat at the machine, hoping to keep it going. From the looks of it, helper got a boost, and also was going in a slightly different direction. Almost right on time, the movement changed once more, and just like I hoped, little helper hit Orchestra, its blades clawing into it, everyone was giving it their all, shooting at both Orchestra and helper. The tone that Orchestra was shrieking was ear piercing, I grabbed my ears and closed my eyes as I looked down. It felt like my head was going to burst, yet, at the same time, the sound stopped, I thought I went deaf but when I opened my eyes and looked up, both Orchestra and helper were gone and I could still hear the other abnormalities approaching
"You alright?" An agent lifted me up, the guy sounded fine, seemingly unfazed by Orchestra.
"I...don't think so" I stood up straight, my vision was a bit hazzy and my head still burned, yet, my condition was still fine enough to fight.
"Here" The agent handed me something "You remember these?" It was shaped like a bullet, but was clearly a needle
"This again?" I grabbed it and jabbed it into my stomach, not like it matters where I inject it, my vision cleared up,, the bat I used beforehand was gone, whoever owned it probably got it back.
"Here, can't have you unarmed can we?" My musket was held in front of me. I grabbed the strap I had on it, putting it around my shoulder.
I looked around to get a better understanding
Orchestra and helper gone
Scorched girl was recontained awhile ago
Punishing bird was still roaming around
Power was back on and the alarm stopped, meaning there wouldn't be anymore outbreaks, was that really it though? How many ZAYINS do we have here? Or maybe they're TETH and got taken out before I could've noticed.
"Good job everyone, surprisingly there wasn't any casualties" I heard Shina's voice. No casualties huh? That seemed like a dream, or a lie.
"Yeah, we almost had a few though" By the time I found the others talking, Tsuki was already giving me a death glare. Not only that, but her voice sounded very condescending.
"Still, none is none, it'll take a bit of repairing, but this place should be looking new and fancy by tomorrow.
"Tomorrow?" I challenged Shina's optimism, the place was pretty banged up, I could even see wires on the walls.
"Maybe not tomorrow but..." As I looked around I started to realize how big this place was, it wasn't like the old lobotomy corp where it's just the main room for departments, hallway, elevator, and that's it, no, this place had many other rooms, and from the seems, many other security measures as well
"Tsuki" I was curious about her weapon
"What is it?" Her death glare was gone, but she still sounded slightly ticked, I mean, my idea worked but I could understand why she would be mad, one false move and I would've died, luckily, everything turned out fine.
"That thing you wrapped around little helper, what was it?"
"Little helper...?" She seemed confused
"oh, uhh, All-around-helper" I corrected myself when I noticed the fact that she didn't know what it was originally named, to me though, Little helper is faster, and just overall better to say.
"ah, that" Tsuki took it off her belt and pressed a button, causing it to become longer, seemingly splitting into different segments before becoming normal wiring, the stuff I saw when I grabbed onto it. Both Shina and I were interested in it, although, it made me question him, he's been here longer than me and hasn't seen it either? Or maybe he's still curious about it. "I would've had more, but someone cut it" She soon went back to her condescending tone and posture, before going back to her normal one.
"It obviously isn't from an abnormality, yet it seems to slow them down, kinda like you're slowing down time around them"
"Out of all the things to call it, slowing down time?" Shina became more relaxed, and seemed to go into a joking mood
"Well, even if you had it on helper, I doubt it would slow it down that fast, so, slowing down time" I looked more at Tsuki's tool, it wasn't a whip...or is that what you call it?
"Also" Tsuki waved the whip around causing it to snap back to it's original state, which seemed like a little sword "Is time manipulation really that weird? Oliver, in Lobotomy Corp wasn't there a box that could rewind time or something? At least, that's what I remember"
"You're more or less right" After more looking around I noticed that a lot of the agents don't have E.G.O gear, but instead some sort of electronic suits, the type that you'd barley even realize it was electronic, from what I could guess, the weapon and suit use the same tech.
"Really? Then why couldn't the sephiroths just rewind and prevent their deaths?" Huh, I don't remember telling Shina that the Sephirahs were robots...that's odd, maybe someone else told him?
"It has its limitations, trust me, I think most, if not all, the agents would want to rewind if it could go anywhere, not to mention, even if you're skilled and are as strong and smart as can be, you'd die no matter what if you use it" I noticed the person with the bat walking past me, the bat glowed...
"Really, what's the point of it then?" I heard Shina talking, so I decided to ignore the bat
"If you're as strong and smart as can be, it'll recontain all abnormalities, and prevent qliphoth meltdowns or overloads...but like I said you would die, and don't even get me started about if you're weak or dumb, it'll have a good chance of killing or panicking everyone in the facility, and if you dare try and use it again, you could potentially die or panic as well." I was idling around, but eventually we started walking to the elevators to get back with Taylor and the others
"I just though something, how would Tsuki know about the time travel thing?" Huh, Shina had a point, we both looked at her, waiting for an answer.
"Clearly I saw it before, I mean, if i remember, it does just vanish after you use it correctly, so it would make sense we both saw it"
"Oh, I guess that made sense, I completely forgot it teleported." I made it to the elevator, keeping it open for the other two.
"Thanks...by the way" I could already realize that Tsuki was going to scold me "How'd you come up with such a stupid idea?"
"This again? Hey it worked didn't it?" I leaned on the railing of the elevator, Shina for the most part ignored us, just pressing the button to get to the Manage-...I guess it would be my office huh?
"Shouldn't have worked! You hit a metal ball with blades going at...maybe 50 miles an hour, and you hit it with a bat!? Speaking of which" She looked at me, searching for something "Where is it?"
"It wasn't mine, why would I keep it?" After I said that she looked at me, clearly disappointed, was it because I used someone's tech without knowing how it works?
"Forget it, there's no point" After that, there wasn't really much conversation, we mostly just either stayed quiet, or, talk about random things.
Soon the three of us made it to our destination and were greeted by Ao and Taylor, and from the looks of it Burns was here as well, it seemed like he was working on one of those panels that help with the power
"Welcome back, we've got Burns there working on bringing more power here, since a small part of the power in this room was from the backup generators" Huh, I guessed correctly, Taylor moved from the elevator, allowing us to enter into the room "We can get started tomorrow"
"Yeah, I was told" I walked to my chair and sat down, I looked at the cameras that were around the place, everything seemed fine
"Well, if that's that's the guess, why don't we all take a break?" Ao suggested while looking around the room
"I don't see why not, but I have some things to do on my end, so I'll do that first" Tsuki had a tablet out and from the looks of it, was doing some work.
"Well, I feel bad for you, how about you Oliver? You wanna take a break?"
"Yeah, honestly Ao, I don't understand it, but I've been really tired recently" I was getting more relaxed in my chair, it was pretty comfortable.
"Here" Ao put something on my desk "It's a music player, it'll help ya sleep more soundly, maybe even get rid of those dreams you don't want"
I was tempted to go back to sleep, but a part of me knew what might happen, could a music player really prevent those dreams? I picked it up and I almost put the earbuds in before I thought of something
"Is this some sort of abnormality?" After all, how would this help me with dreams?
"I can't say it isn't, but I can't exactly say it is" Half of an abnormality? That, seems off in a way, but it seemed possible "It won't kill ya so don't worry about it" Great, I didn't have the thought in my head then, but it certainly was now
"Tsuki" She lowered her tablet and looked at me "If this thing kills me I give you full permission to kill Ao"
"Alright" She went back to work on her tablet
"Oh come on man! Why would I ever purposely kill you?" Ao was at the elevator
"Just incase, you know how it is" I put the earbuds in, before I could even press anything on the music player it started playing something, it sounded familiar to me, but, I don't remember listening to music at all besides for those alarms...did I listen to music before? It felt like I knew this song by heart and yet...it still made me feel at peace, like I could drift off to sleep without any repercussions...though...why does it feel like I won't wake up if I sleep? The music changed, it felt unnerving, this song, why does this feel similar as well? Why can't I remember what this song is!? Even with this song making me feel uneasy, I couldn't do anything about it as I felt exhausted, in the end I just continued to drift off to sleep.