"Don't mind her," the left man stepped up, stretched his hand to help Thomas stand erect, "I'm Trevor, the head of the Investigation department in our town."
"This… She…" Thomas was puzzled, moved his eyes back and forth between Trevor and that lady called Elissa.
Thomas was feeling the aftereffects of going through such teleportation. And so he couldn't pick her looks quite well until she passed by his side.
She got deep purple eyes, with a long scar over her left cheek, extending towards her neck. She covered this up with a piece of metal, one that paled in comparison to the ones he saw before at the mad demon and Mark.
As for this dude, he got blue hair and eyes, with a much smaller scar that was limited only to his left cheek.
"Don't mind her," Trevor sighed, "she is the head of the Villain Hunter force in our SA. She… Is quite a b*tch to deal with, sigh!"
Even Trevor felt the same as Thomas. "I hope I won't deal with her from now on," Thomas said out loud his hopes, but they were welcomed with another sigh from Trevor.
"You will, unfortunately, as we are the ones doing the investigation for them. We gather intel, go to any accident place, try to gather up any leads about villains. Then we hand everything over for her department to handle."
"Ah, I see," Thomas got that Ellisa was like a special task force back on Earth. And as she was practically their leader, she acted in such a mean way towards him.
"Come, let me take you to a nice place to rest and talk," Trevor seemed like a nice guy. He took Thomas out and went towards another section on the same floor.
Thomas realised that he was in a big building just from the wide corridors he walked through. During their walk, he learnt that the middle-aged man he saw before was the big boss, the general leader of the SA in this town.
"So, here is our department," Trevor took Thomas around, passing through different places in this level of building. Thomas saw many empty offices, and many superheroes working in different departments.
Trevor just kept talking about the general departments here, speaking about lots of things that gave Thomas a little headache. But at last, they arrived at their department place. And there Thomas saw a wide office with small corridors inside, at least ten rooms opening at these corridors.
"Do we have lots of people here?" Thomas saw enough to accommodate tens of superheroes here without getting the place crowded.
"No, not at all," Trevor sighed, "our department… It doesn't have that kind of reputation to lure in many… We only have five others, making the department have seven including you and me."
"But…" hearing this stirred up Thomas' belonging to this department. After all, he worked before as a detective, "isn't investigating the crimes very important?"
"Indeed," Trevor sighed, "but we don't have the same glory as the Villain Hunter department. And those who don't seek glory and interesting battles are more focused over their safety, selecting other departments to work in."
"Can we change our departments?"
"Sure, provided that the leader of your new department agrees," Trevor felt little fear here, "don't tell me you want to change, go to another department."
"No, not at all," Thomas shook his head at once, "anyway, where is everyone?"
Even if the department got only five more superheroes, it looked quite empty in Thomas' eyes.
"We just got something big a few days ago," Trevor sighed, "a train got attacked by a group of villains. And so all of them went to visit that place and gather intel."
"A train accident? Where?" Thomas instantly recalled what he passed through. And for a moment there, he imagined the scary face of the mad demon.
"It happened not far from here," Trevor got puzzled by Thomas' reaction, "it happened near Retto town, not far from here."
"Oh, Retto town is nearby?" Thomas jumped from the incident of the train over to the message he got in the wallet, and the hidden artefact there.
"Why are you interested in this anyway?" Trevor gave Thomas a weird look. And the latter sighed.
"It's because I was there when everything happened…"
Thomas narrated what happened there, the same version of the story he and mad demon agreed to tell.
"Holy f*ck! I never imagined the new recruit to be related to this!" Trevor was genuinely shocked, but he soon added, "but don't dream about taking part in this. Even if you witnessed it all, you lack any experience or knowledge about what to do."
"This…"
"I know what you are thinking," Trevor sighed, "but you got tons of things to do right now."
"Like what?" Thomas was curious to go there and get the hidden artefact and examine it by himself. Since he got that piece of paper with English words there, and he wanted to see this artefact.
If it was similar to anything on Earth, then he might be able to use it properly, more than the one who invented it himself.
"You need to go and visit the Finance department, get an advanced payment for you to settle in. Then you'll go to rent a place to live in, using the help of the PR department. You'll also have to pay the Resources department a visit, receive your uniform, your badge, and a book explaining everything about your new job here and its responsibilities."
"This…"
"Plus you have two days of vacation as a freshman, then you'll come to have the official welcoming ceremony and start your job with us," Trevor ended his talk with this, "so all of this will need your attention for now. Leave this incident to us, the pros."
"So… I can join them after that?" Thomas didn't drop his attention about going to Retto town.
"Sigh! Why are you this stubborn? First, you'll need to do lots of work, paperwork. It's essential for you to understand everything here first before releasing you out in the field."
"Ok," Thomas didn't like it. Though he knew anything he'd say wouldn't change Trevor's mind.
In Trevor's eyes, he was a freshman, and as any freshman he had to do dirty work first before having a chance to prove himself.
"Ah, I forgot to see your overall test result…" Trevor then opened a scroll, which he held inside the deep pocket of his coat, "hmm… So you can turn your hands into little black stars… Nothing else?"
Trevor looked up at Thomas, and the latter didn't know what to say except for nodding. He knew his superpower involved releasing threads as well, but for a reason it seemed no one saw this back then.
"Don't worry, the first few days after getting your superpower unlocked are hectic," Trevor patted on his shoulder, "besides this testimony came from the ones who observed your test back then. And from experience, the best one to know all the ins and outs about any superpower is the superhero who owns it."
"I get it," Thomas got what Trevor wanted to convey here. But his nod didn't stop Trevor as he added:
"Try to use your superpower a lot but take care of the physical pressure placed on your body. Try different things, try to weaponize it if possible. As the saying goes, there isn't a bad superpower, only dumb superheroes."
"..."
Thomas didn't know what to say against this statement, but he felt it was partially true. After all, even the weakest form of power could be used effectively if the owner worked his brain a little.
Even if he didn't know anything yet about his superpower, he held lots of anticipation towards it.
"Go now, what are you waiting for?" Trevor looked at Thomas in a weird way. It was common for any freshman to run out and visit the entire building, getting to know the future place and colleagues of his in this place.
But Thomas stood there motionless. And that made Trevor doubt that he wanted to speak again about that train incident.
"Can I see your superpower?" But against what he expected, Thomas asked such a weird question.
"No, it's something rude to ask others to do that!" Trevor didn't get mad at Thomas, and yet his tone was slightly elevated.
The latter just wanted to store up Qi inside his magical tree. If he let every single superhero he'd meet use his superpower in front of him, then there was a great chance for him to have more balls.
But Thomas' high expectations shattered when Trevor spoke about the same forbidden rule the mad demon said to him before.
That left Thomas a bit disappointed, before he moved away to do what Trevor asked him before.
"Don't worry baby, soon enough I'll find a way to feed you up," as he walked inside the grand building, which looked to him like any proper maze, he raised a thumb to his tree pot as if it was his most precious friend.
Thomas walked in the middle of the grand SA building, feeling a bit lost. He knew from Trevor's words that the departments he was looking for we're all at different levels than here. But when he just got out of Trevor's place, he found everything looking like a grand mystery to him.
He kept walking until he finally found the stairs. And from there his torture began.
The first thing he did wrong was to lose his way, stumble across a grand sector in the higher floor. There he found two superheroes speaking in hushed tones, but as he was already close to them, he could hear everything.
"Are you sure? The ambush was kept secret even from our boss!"
"That's what I heard, these two were really useless!"
"Tsk! And here I thought I'd finally get my chance to devastate that bastard!"
"Don't worry, traitors have to survive and succeed every single time. But for us, all we need is just one successful arrow to hit, and that traitor is ours!"
Thomas didn't get whom they were speaking about, but he felt their deep enmity towards him running wild. Before he'd hear more, their voice went weaker as they walked away from him.
Out of his curiosity to hear more, he stepped in caution following them, before pumping all of sudden into someone.
"A rat like yours shouldn't run around doing this!"
"Ellisa…" Thomas was already on his butt on the ground, looking at all hostile superhuman lady who stood just a single metre away from him.
She crossed her arms, eying him up and down like she was looking at trash. Thomas didn't like such a look, couldn't help but control his raging emotions right now.
"What? Don't like hearing facts? Hmph! And here I thought I'd find something interesting eavesdropping over my boys, ending up finding a fool like yourself. Hurry up, get up and scream!"
Thomas resisted the urge to shout and yell back, even start a fight. He controlled himself, even if he didn't like it, stood up and slowly walked away from here.
"What a crazy b*tch she is!" he kept mumbling like this while walking around. And soon enough, he ended up in a place that had a small sign next to the door.
"The Finance department… Just terrific! I finally found something I wanted to visit," he sighed, while that incident back with Ellisa was still fresh in his mind. The moment he entered this place, he was met with a wide hall, with nothing else but open space and two desks. Just from one look, he could tell this was just the front, and there were still lots of rooms and spaces back there in the wide corridor at the back.
"Who are you?"
In such a wide place that was lightened up using the same torches Thomas saw before in the villa, there was a single superhero here.
He wasn't that much older than him, except for a couple of years at most. He sat on one of the two desks, burying his head in the middle of many scrolls, doing some sort of reading and revising there.
He raised his head, showing a silver red eye, with no scars at all. Thomas could tell he wasn't a C grade superhero from just this. And that made him feel a little better.
"Hi, I'm new here… I just came…"
"Oh, a new guy! That's fantastic!" Before Thomas would even continue his words, that youth stood up and shouted like he found something lost from him or something, "come sit, sit down and let's talk. What's your name by the way? I'm Jax."
"Thomas," Thomas felt a bit weird from such warm welcome, didn't know if this youth was someone good or he was just faking it.
But soon enough he learnt that this youth didn't mean anything bad at all.
"I came three years ago, and in my batch, I was the only sucker! Can you believe it? All of my peers were C grade, and they were snatched away by that tigress."
"Ellisa you mean?" mentioning this fierce lady made Thomas recall the last encounter with her, "is… Is she bad at all?" and hearing how Jax described her made him ask.
"Sure! She is a b*tch!" The look of disdain and hatred that appeared on Jax's face told Thomas she wasn't just acting like this against him, "she doesn't like anyone below her grade, only acting nicely with folks from her department. Just watch them walking around, and I bet you'll imagine peacocks fanning out their feathers all over the place!"
Thomas couldn't control himself and laughed over Jax's words. "That's… Quite relieving. Since coming here, she hasn't given me anything but trouble."
"That's the norm," Jax sighed, and the two kept looking at each other for a few seconds before Jax suddenly said: "Tell me, where are you going to stay? Have you reserved a place yet?"
"No, your place is the first for me to visit. Actually, this place is a big maze!"
"That's expected," Jax smiled for no proper reason, "just finish up everything and let's meet after working hours. Let me take you around the town, introduce you to some awesome places that you can rent."
"Thanks bro," Thomas was now sure Jax was a good superhero, "by the way, can I get my stuff? I was told…"
"Oh, how bad of me!" Jax instantly stood up, went towards that corridor, vanished there for a long time before finally showing up, "here, these are your advance payment, and the orbs," Jax stood like he just did something big.
Thomas found a black pouch, and when he opened and checked it, he found lots of papers inside, and orbs. The pouch was big enough to be enough for him to place his entire head inside, and still had more space there.
"These are…" Thomas took out two different types of papers and showed them to Jax. These were the currencies of this world, and he had to get to understand them to avoid any later trouble.
"Oh, this one is the Dem, and this is the Nik. One Nick is worthy of a hundred Dems. don't tell me you don't get the official currency back from where you came."
Luckily this youth already prepared the reason for Thomas to not seem suspicious.
"I came from a distant place near a settlement, a rural village of some sort. We don't use currencies there."
"Oh, you trade using actual goods! That'd be nice from time to time, just like how things are done in the black market, hahaha!"
"Black market?" Thomas didn't get what Jax meant.
"The one that runs on the black side of our world… Don't bother, you seem to not know anything about superheroes and villains."
Jax took everything lightly, never questioned or doubted anything. And that made him quite a valuable asset in Thomas' eyes. Using this youth here, he could get what he didn't know, ask all the questions he had, and get all the answers without the need to justify anything at all.
But before he'd start showering Jax with his questions, the latter looked at the scrolls around and his face suddenly changed.
"Go, go now… I got three hours before working hours will be over. Let's meet outside by then, ok?"
Like any kid, this youth flipped the switch and acted all impatient to kick Thomas away.
"At least help me a little here… See… I need to go to other places…"
And before Thomas would say anything more, Jax instantly returned to his good self. He started explaining directions to each department Thomas had to visit. He even told him about the lunch break that will happen in half an hour, telling him how to go there.
"... But I won't be there. I got overloaded with due work and there is a grand inspection going on soon. So I have to stay behind and work over these…"
He sighed, tiredly saying this. "Can I help with anything?" As Jax acted this nice towards him, Thomas offered his services. He didn't do this out of good heart, he just wanted to stick to this youth and learn more from him.
"I wish but… These have to be done with someone who understands what he is doing like me. Just go, and I'll see you in three hours."
Thomas dropped any plans for getting anything from Jax for now. Thomas placed that big pouch around his waist, adding this to all the Qi balls pouches he acquired so far.
So, he started to move away and started to follow the directions of Jax. however, he'd discover how useless that youth was in the hard way.
The first direction he selected was situated at the higher floor. Thomas wanted to visit the resources department. Least to his knowledge that such a department didn't lie in the upper floor, but the lower one.
The upper floor was the one with the main offices of all the department leaders in this building. In addition to a place that Thomas wouldn't ever forget.