Feeling his stomach churn from the sight, yet not having any fleshly stomach to begin with, Theo could only mimic a gag the moment he had entered the holding cell of the abomination named 'The Star Spore.'
Although Carmina was sharing the same scenery with Theo, she seemed a lot more used to the sight he would've liked her to be, and was more concerned about whether or not her mop could actually handle this mess.
Behind the heavily secured door that lead to 'The Star Spore' was a horror that had been amplified a thousand times over: luminescent blood splattered across the gray walls of the holding cell, corpses were gored with bright blue fungi growing from their every pore, and fungi of countless specimen were warping themselves to ape the screaming faces of their misfortunate subjects.
But if there was one thing that Theo could crown as the most repulsive thing inside that room was a 'cocoon' that seemingly pulsated in anguish; its veiny exterior circulating a reddish blood throughout its shell.
Upon closer inspection, in which Theo really should not have done, the 'cocoon' seemed to be siphoning from the corpses of their most recent meal and mixing it together with itself, which could to explain why the cocoon's exterior was so off-putting to look at.
Theo felt the urge to gag once more, "Blurgh."
[Haha, how is your first day on the job? Not quite what you two had expected, huh? I would assume so, especially since it's anatomically impossible for you, Theo, to be gagging.] Luna's high-pitched voice came on the intercom.
"Luna, what the hell is this?"
[Not your job to ask, so just mop away and maybe spray some fungi killer you have around your belt to kill the fungi lying around.]
"Can we, urggh, sign up for any other department . . . ? Please . . . ?"
[You'd go mental doing any other job here. Plus, you're, like, perfect for the job! We usually use robots for the job of janitor, but they lack the responsive behavior and will to live to not be crushed by the Distortions whose cells they're trying to clean, costing us quite a budget to replace them. Lucky us that we got you now, though!]
Theo felt no less sickly from the sight, "Compliments, urgh, isn't gonna make me do this any better!"
[Mmm, yea, I should get Vint to get you the balls to add your steel to. Follow your coworker's example, yea? Chow! I mean, shaow! I mean, ciao! You know what, just 'cya' works. Oh, but before I go, don't touch the cocoon or the fungi! Alright, bye!]
A loud beep closed Luna off from the intercom, leaving Theo with nothing but his dry heaves as he tried to mop the floor while avoiding the flesh cocoon like his life depended on it, in which it probably did.
But once he got to mopping, Theo felt the ghastly sight melt away from his head as he saw how satisfying the mop cleaned the floor. If the futuristic, dystopian city didn't do it for him, it was the mop that showed him he was in an entirely different world, one that made it hard to believe he was just living a day-to-day student life.
Quickly, Theo got used to the gory sight of mushrooms and blood, occasionally mustering up the courage to apply his fungi spray to kill anything that stood too strong against his mop.
"So what do we do about the corpses lying up and about?"
"Corpses? What do you---?" Theo reminded himself of the dead bodies that twitched every so often from their fungi, puckering his lips, "Right . . . urgh, well, leave them there. I don't think I can stomach carry a dead body around."
"Mmm, alright."
Theo had a short, awkward pause, unsure of how he would word it, "You seem . . . immune to the idea of death. Are you not bothered by dead people at all? Does your adaptability play a big role in it?"
"In the beginning, I suppose, but I'm no one new to it. If Alex hadn't said it, I will---the world of Manifestors is a terrible place to be in."
" . . . okay."
Finishing up their work in the holding cell, Theo and Carmina exited into the hallway and were blasted with a white cloud of disinfectant before a big, green checkmark allowed them to go.
Pop!
Immediately upon exiting, an array of colors blasted at the two's eyes; Luna was popping party poppers, and was leaving an ungodly amount of colored confetti everywhere.
"Surprise! Congrats on your first cell!"
Carmina swept off the confetti that fell on her uniform, "Are you sure there isn't a more relaxing department than being the janitor? You seem to have a lot of free time for a scientist."
"Nahh, I just got the super smarts to complete my work in a jiffy."
"What do you even do as a scientist here, anyways?"
"Well, to be specific, I'm more like an assistant manager of this whole lab thing than a scientist, but I do analytics in energy acquisition from those monster fellas. The scientists that we do hire usually supervise a specific monster---or more scientifically, a 'Distortion'---in order to observe what stimuli gets us the most energy."
Theo put up a puzzled face, "What's a Distortion? And how do you get energy out of things like---" Theo pointed to the cell door behind him with his thumb, "---that?"
"I can't tell you how we do it, 'cause that stuff is hella confidential, but I can tell you what a Distortion is! Sort of, anyways. It's like this whole thing with the mind and a concept or whatever. We're not too keen on how it's made." Luna spoke with a scratch to her head before getting a notification on her phone, "You two have a job to do at cell 543 since they just finished up with testing. See you later, crocodiles! Oh, and also, clean up that confetti before it becomes a hazard."
Running from her own mess, Luna made an agile dash around a corner and disappeared amidst the facility's winding hallways, shooting a pair of finger guns just before she left.
Theo breathed a noticeable sigh, "Do you think we'll ever get a straight answer out of anyone?"
"Won't get any straighter than that. Everyone is too hell-bent on kissing their own gender to hand us anything straight."
"That . . . doesn't make sense."
"Huh? Oh, uh, gay people aren't straight. So like, they don't give straight answers and stuff, get it?"
"I understood the joke, it's just, relevancy? To the situation? Like, it's---"
With the twitch of an eye, Carmina thought a rude thought.
"Alright, alright! I get it! I just say the jokes I come up with before I forget 'em, alright? What was it, cell 543?"
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Carmina squatted with her head down beside the metal door, "This is way above our pay grade."
"I don't think we're even being paid anything, but I think we are getting free food and a place to sleep."
"This is way above our contract benefits."
"Wait, no, we can't taste food nor do we need sleep."
"Argh, shit! What the fuck are we even doing this for?!"
Carmina flew into a rage as she punched the metallic door, immediately regretting her action as a nick was made into her metal knuckles.
It couldn't be said that her anger was unfounded though, as they had been put into a circumstance with no clear way forward. But above all, the cell they were attending held a Distortion that possessed a personality more-than-insufferable personality to boot, which currently brings them outside of the cell.
Theo took in a big breath and sighed, "Come on, Carmina, a job is a job, and we'll be losing our lead on what to do here if we're fired."
"Lead my ass, doing this kind of work gets us no closer to home than if we were homeless on the streets."
"Any less of our job and we'll never make it back. Here, if we speed through the cleaning, it means less time spent with that zombie thing; otherwise, we only drag out our mood while delaying the inevitable."
"Yea, you know what? You're right---!" Carmina turned to the door she was squatting next to and kicked it open, "---fuck you, you British zombie! I'll beat the shit and stink out of your cell room even if it's the last thing I do!"
The Distortion addressed by Carmina as a 'British zombie' was indeed correct, but quite exclusive to some very important details that might deter people from cursing the Distortion.
First and foremost, it was a 13 foot giant that had no business being British other than its foul teeth and red-tinted tea cup, which to some, was enough to call someone British.
"Oh me, oh my, quite vulgar of you to denounce such wicked words! I must be so gentlemanly in order for me to tolerate such rudeness. Might you be interested in a cup of tea? Oh! There I go again, being so gentlemanly."
The Distortion, named as the 'Brute of Britain,' began to squeeze the tip of its finger above his tea cup, prompting a weird but aroma-inducing liquid to be poured into the cup.
Carmina warped her metallic face into disgust, "Hell no!"
"Well, it never hurt to just say no, did it?" The Brute of Britain scoffed, bringing his tea cup to his enormous mouth and gulping down the contents in one swallow.
A quick sigh from was let out from Theo's mouth as he began mopping the floor, but no more than the swipe of stained blood on the floor, for it indicated the range the Brute of Britain was allowed with his chains.
To come but a single inch pass that danger area would mean certain death for those too weak to handle the sweeping hand of the Brute of Britain.
BOOOM!
A sudden sound boomed throughout the room, reverberating and ringing inside both Theo's and Carmina's skulls.
"What the fuck?!" Carmina quickly met Theo's gaze to confirm his safety, then at the Brute of Britain to indeed see what the fuck just happened.
Firmly slammed onto the ground was the Brute of Britain's hand, clawing down at whatever he had struck in order to clutch it inside his hands. Visibly, it looked like the distortion's hand was only gathering the concrete-like material of the cell, but whatever he had seen wasn't something he would easily let go of.
"WHERE IS IT! WHERE IS IT!" The voracious brute attempted to lunge forward at the spot he scraped at, revealing a chain around his neck that yanked him back near the far wall.
" . . . we still need to mop the area near him."
Carmina messaged her mechanical nerves, "Yea, so, how do we ensure that we don't get squeezed into tea?"
"Uhh, reading the little side tab on the info tablet tells us to first, wait until he's back to his normal state. Second, kindly ask him to put on both his leg and wrist chains. Third, mop the hell out of his room and run the hell out. Oh, and release his chains before he goes ape on us."
"Yea, that's what I'd expect from a laboratory insane enough to keep biological weapons in their basement to light up a lightbulb. Yup, no doubt about it."
[Hey! We also have weird books and hell-raising ghosts too!] Luna spoke through the loud intercom, quickly leaving as she did entering.
" . . . oh my, did I fall asleep again? Quite a doozy, I'd say, sleeping so soundly when guests are right in front of me! But no matter, as a kind gentleman too excellent to fit for any woman's hands, I must treat you to some tea!"
"Ah, wait, hey, can we change that favor?" Carmina quickly intercepted, "If you could put on those wall chains for us, that'd be enough of an apology."
"Hm? Well, I'd love to treat---"
"The chains, please."
"Golly, what a rudeness you have grown to emanate! But, I must hypothesize that descending into the lands of the unconscious during such a crucial time of visitation was quite rude, so as a gentleman, I will abide your words."
"Holy shit, it worked." Carmina spoke as she thanked the gods above, the Brute of Britain attaching his chains in the meanwhile of her prayer.
"Oh, but if you could help with my other hand too, that would be exquisite; otherwise, and I say it without an utterance of offense---" The Brute of Britain jazzed his other hand, "---but I do not think that it's possible for me to lock my own two hands if I only have two hands to use."
"Damn it! I knew it wouldn't be that easy!"
"What? Of course not. How was this not a concern beforehand?"
"Shut up! I don't like it when people call me out on my narrow thinking in order to shriek away from confronting big scary things! Anyways, I think you should do it."
"What? You're the one with all that adaptability stuff! You have more of a chance of living a British guy's slap."
"How the hell would that work on metal? You do it, no balls."
"You're right, since I'm a robot and everything, but you got two balls of your own to cuff up that remaining hand."
"Bro, they're, like, all metal. How can you even call them balls?"
"Ah! Balls of steel! Even better! Now as I also display my non-masculinity by fretting away from the backhand of death, which I usually call COMMON SENSE---!" Theo raised his voice to a near-yell, "---please cuff that guy's other hand."
Carmina felt herself at a loss, "Alright, shit, let's compromise here and both not do it at all. We mop every spit and grunk we need to clean and get the hell out of here, deal?"
"Yea, sure, but which side are you taking?"
" . . . the right side."
"What? Bet it on a rock-paper-scissors, make it fair."
"Alright! But don't go crying when---"
Carmina loss one to two.
"NOOOOOOO!!!"
"YYEEEEAAAAA!!!" Theo rocked both of his hands in the air, signing the cross on his body as a way to thank God.
After she was done banging her head on the concrete-like floor, Carmina quickly stood up and spat on the floor, cracking her knuckles before taking a very audible breath.
"Alright, starting the damn countdown! Three---!" Carmina slapped her mop onto the floor, "---two---!" Theo followed her example, "---one---!" Carmina braced for the worst that could happen, "GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
[Bang!]
The intercom shot off the sound of a gun as Carmina began sprinting like she had gone mad with the universe, bull dozing through every particle of dust or dry splatter of blood that was left on the floor.
Thrusting his mop back and forth to clean up the musty sides of the room, Theo took his time pacing out the spots he should clean.
Back to Carmina, she let out a barbaric war cry that could get her own Distortion cell. A swing of her mop, and a billion bacteria were slain. A twist of her wrist, and both floor and wall became stainless.
It really wasn't until 70% of the room, mainly done by Carmina, was cleaned that she realized there had never been a threat to her well being throughout her time on the left side of the cell.
It took approximately five minutes before realizing that her screaming really wasn't necessary.
"Hm? You've stopped your visceral screeching. What's the matter?"
" . . . I was hyping myself up to prepare for a giant, sweeping hand ready to make me into a pancake."
"Oh, but of course not! It insults me that you think of me to be of such a barbaric nature! No gentleman could ever do such a heinous crime against a woman, even if they possess such animalistic traits."
Carmina's eye twitched, "Huh, alright then . . . "
The rest of the time spent cleaning up the Brute of Britain's cell room could only be described as 'static.' Nothing life threatening, or even eventful, happened---the brute seemed as calm as day, chatting up Theo and Carmina once in a while to converse about stocks or the weather.
All in which was not without a compliment to his own gentlemanly nature, of course.
"Hey, you done with that side? Corners and everything?"
"Uh, yea, should be. I guess all that's left is the tea tabl---" Carmina spoke before the British Brute's large forearm landed a blow on her, sending her across the room and into the wall.
"Carmina!"
"GET THE FUCK OUT MY CELL ROOM YOU DIRTY STAINS OF SCRAP! YOU BOLLOCKING BASTARDS HAVE NO ETIQUETTE, NO MANNERS, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, NO FUCKING TASTE IN TEA! GET OUT! GET OOOUUTTT!!!"
As easily as it was to understand the malicious bellowing the Distortion was making, Theo ran from the British Brute as it tugged on its chains to try and reach him; it wouldn't be until a few minutes later than Carmina would be peeled off from the wall.
___________________________________________________________________________________
"Oi, Carmina, get up---!" A loud clanging sound reverberated throughout the hallway, "Get up! I am not pulling through my first mission by myself!"
"Agh, shit! Stop slapping me! You're making a dent in my cheeks! Stop, stop!"
Pushing Theo off her chest, Carmina stood up from the ground and began checking the damage done on her. Other than some twisted joints, torn wires, or scratched paint, there was nothing notable that might prove to be life threatening despite the sheer force put into hitting Carmina into the wall.
If anything, her damaged parts were squirming to put itself together, with exposed wires and mechanical tendrils twisting into each other to fix itself as one.
Luna dropped from the roof, "Wow, that's pretty gnarly weird, you know."
"Wah! Where did you come from?" Both Theo and Carmina, more or less, shared the same statement.
"The benefit of being small is that I will never be able to meet the focal point of someone's eyes, but that in it of itself is quite tragic. But no matter! I have learned to accept my smallness as just a matter of being cute. Anyways, good job out there, but you forgot to unchain the Brute of Britain. Minus four points. He could go haywire if he doesn't have access to his tea."
Theo furrowed his eyebrows, "I've been meaning to ask, but how exactly are Distortions named? Please don't tell me Britain is multiversal . . . one is one too many, already."
"Mmm, I'm not sure. As diverse as our business partners and donors are, me n' Vint haven't dug too deep into the history of who we work with. There could and could not be multiple Britains sprinkling here or there in the multiverse."
"Oh, dear lord."
"Right? I heard that they don't season their food; very scary stuff." Luna agreed before a blue hologram showed up before her, just beyond the two's range of sight. "Would you guys like me to treat you to some late lunch? I can't imagine celebrating your first day on the job with nutrition cubes."
"But we're robots . . . ?"
"Conscious robots, to boot! Shouldn't be too hard to engineer some senses to your tongues. Vint could fix one right up on our way!"
Carmina pumped her fist into the air, "Fuck yea! Food!"
"Hey! This is a professional setting where we like to treat each other with respect, so watch your fucking mouth!" Luna spoke with the intent to scold before giving a big grin, "But I guess that's what makes life lively, y'know? Everyone's so professional, it's boring me! But enough of that, what would you like to eat?"
"Beef stroganoff, please!" Carmina quickly spoke, leaving Theo with nothing but his compliance as he closed his mouth.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Vint patiently sat in the executive staff lounge as he read up on the latest data reports, the sound of cooking in the background making a pleasant sound to listen to while working. The person making the beef stroganoff was Luna, working with such robotic efficiency that it was hard to tell she had just learned the dish a few moments ago.
Although Carmina was suppose to be mentoring Luna the ins and outs of making beef stroganoff, she was cast aside by Luna's faultless cooking and could only sit next to Theo as they waited for their meals.
Thus, for the time being, all that Carmina could really do was play around with the box as she incessantly dropped it onto the table.
" . . . so, what's that box thing?" Vint spoke up, more so out of annoyance rather than curiosity.
Carmina immediately stopped, coerced by the urge to complain, "Ughh, wouldn't we like to know? Alex usually tells us next to nothing when going into missions, and I don't think we'll be seeing the end of it anytime soon."
In a knee-jerk reaction, Luna looked over her shoulder with incredible concern, but quickly returned to cooking before anyone could notice.
"Is that so?" Vint spoke before taking a moment to remember who Alex was, "And Alex, as in the person who had sent your resumes?"
"Same guy, yea."
"If you don't mind me asking, what kind of missions does he send you on? 'Work minimum wage in another world and afford me this McLaren!' of the sorts? Because I can't imagine what working as a janitor would do for anyone in the long term."
Carmina took a thoughtful moment to define their 'missions' before glancing over to Theo, "Anything he can get his hands on, really. But no matter how uninformed we are, I don't think we've ever had a success rate lower than---"
"And dinner! Is! served!" Luna spoke over Carmina with a twitch in her eyes, placing down two plates of beef stroganoff with their respective cutlery and sitting down with the rest of the group.
Although Vint was going to comment on Luna's abrupt interruption, a quick exchange of glances discouraged him from doing so.
For Theo and Carmina, however, only USB drives were served on their platter.
Carmina vocalized both her and Theo's confusion, " . . . what?"
"Hm? What do you mean what? You stick it in your port and you get to taste the beef stroganoff! Genius, isn't it? Fashioned those bad boys just a few minutes ago!"
"You said something about engineering senses onto our tongues. What happened to that?"
"Well~, I kinda forgot you guys didn't have a digestive track, and eating food is definitely gonna cause some problems in your mechanical bits." Luna spoke as she shoved a fork-full of beef stroganoff down her throat, an air of gloom lingering from both Theo and Carmina. "W-Well, how about this? It might not match the real thing, but I'll be sure to make plenty of flavor USBs for you to taste! As a part of your wage!"
"Forget it, I'd rather you help us with the box thing than give us USB ports for a lifetime. Uploading flavors to my mind feels dystopian and I don't like it." Carmina dismissed the deal with a wave, instead sliding over the miniature box over to Luna as though it were no longer her problem. "Who knows? Maybe it was meant to be in your hands since the beginning."
With a swipe of her hand, Luna grabbed the box and brought it in front of her eyes, carefully reading the attached sticky note as though deciphering a code. After a few seconds or so, Luna set down the box and breathed a sigh of relief.
" . . . I'll be sure to take great care of it."
"You better."
Vint stuffed his face with a fork-full of pasta before pointing his fork at both Theo and Carmina, "So? Are you going to try our masterfully cooked USB drives? That's the pinnacle of our technological advancements, right there in your hands."
"Uh, how are you meant to . . . " Theo took the USB drive and twirled it around his fingers, " . . . 'eat' this? Do we have a USB port somewhere on our bodies?"
"If I guessed your model correct, then it should be somewhere near your temple, opposite to that hole in your head."
Probing his head for a USB port to no avail, Theo gave up on his sense of touch and looked over to Carmina for help. She pulled back his hair and guided Theo's hand to the port, but after many attempts that felt synonymous with trying to find the outlet with your charger in the dark, Carmina just stuck the USB drive in his head herself.
"Woah . . . !"
Carmina took an interest in Theo's surprise, "What? Is it actually working? How's it taste?"
"A holographic image of pasta!" Theo remarked for all the wrong reasons, twisting Carmina's mood into huge disappointment.
"You have to download the taste on the 107th slide," Luna pointed out. "Everything else before that is that the ingredients, recipe, preparation, nutritional value, origin, history, fun facts, influences, variations, and cultural significances."
With a furrow to his brows that simply screamed 'why!', Theo swiped at the air from right to left like he was scrolling through Tinder profiles with accelerating speeds until he finally got to a file format that looked unfamiliar to him.
It was labeled 'beef-stroganoff.dce', and upon clicking on it, a quick download was made and he felt a myriad of flavors enter his mouth.
"Woahrmm!"
"Is that a 'woah!' to holographic images or is it actually working?" Carmina spoke with a rub to her chin, careful to not get her expectations up.
Theo spoke with a mouthful as he felt the authentic chew of meat, "Whoar'ing!"
Seemingly convinced by his genuine reaction, Carmina picked up her USB drive and stuck it in her port without a single error, tapping on the slide number and typing in the slide she wanted to be on.
Then, with an exaggerated swing of her hand, Carmina tapped on the file and felt the same burst of flavors as Theo, bring her hands up to her cheeks as she happily tasted the beef stroganoff.
____________________________________________________________________________________
"Hurk! Ughhh . . . " Carmina impossibly gagged on the floor, and while Theo also shared the same sentiment, he was just thankful that it was over.
As easy as it was to download it, disabling the taste simulator took an hour's worth of trial and error before they could finally get Luna to remove the file. It was just mouthful after mouthful of painful beef stroganoff during the time that they waited.
Luna scratched the back of her head in shame as she typed on a laptop connected to Carmina's brain, "Hahaha . . . sorry, I forgot to code in the feature that would disable the taste test. As an apology, how about a promotion to a fully-fledged employee?"
"Luna?!" Vint erupted as he spit out a mouthful of tea he had made himself, "You can't hand out job offers like that! Are you insane?!? At least we were bribed to hire them as janitors!"
"Looky here, Vinty boy. I'm the boss around here for employee management. You lead the research department, and have no authority on the matter."
"But what about the other employees? They fought tooth and nail to get their positions, and I don't think they'll take it too kindly when they see two greenhorns walking around in the same shoes they wear."
"These kiddos are Manifestors! That was, like, the fourth reason why we hired them! Who'd complain against an asset like that? But if they do, I'll just threaten them with a salary deduction!"
Vint gave a look of utter bewilderment before he reminded himself what kind of character Luna was and just sighed, "Haa . . . you do whatever you want to do. I'm too far behind schedule to be arguing over this."
" . . . cause of how good my cooking was?"
"Because of how good your cooking was."
Luna shot a smile that beamed the sun into the room.
Neatly organizing the stack of papers he brought to the table, Vint swiftly exited the executive staff lounge with an air of professionalism and made his way to wherever he needed to be. But just beyond the doorframe, an audible sigh could be heard before Vint disappeared for good.
At the same time, Luna had finished the last bit of code necessary to stop the downloaded file from simulating beef stroganoff in Carmina's mouth and unplugged her laptop.
"Geez, what a hassle, eh? Good thing we got that over with! To celebrate, I've brought it upon myself to make an angel cake taste simulator in this USB---!"
"God, no!/No!" Theo and Carmina cried in unison, having used their tastebuds long enough today to last them through the entire week.
"Oh, well . . . take it, just in case! You never know what might happen in life," Luna spoke as she stuffed their hands with the USB drives, regardless of what they wanted. "Oh, and I've taken the liberty to call someone up to teach you the ropes of how employees work around here. It's amazing what bonuses can do to a person, don't you think?"
______________________________________________________________________________________
"What a wonderfully paced mission. To think we went from the streets to janitors to employees at some high-end company in just a day. So much so that it's within reason that something is absolutely going to fuck everything up."
"Hey, don't jinx it."
"Oh, to hell with it. What can a little superstition do to us? I'm just saying that it's more than suspicious to see how much progress we've made in a day's time." Carmina spoke with particular intent, "Usually, I'd have to spend days trying to gather information because of how much Alex deprives me of it."
"Maybe . . . it's just your adaptability kicking in?"
"I sure hope so, or else I'm going to just work minimum wage for this job all of my life."
"Are you doing this for money?"
" . . . almost, but not exactly." Carmina spoke with no intent on a followup before an awkward silence fell between the two, "Urgh, keep a conversation going, or else the beef stroganoff is gonna haunt my tongue again."
The two were sitting on a leather couch in the corner of the lounge, waiting for whomever Luna had called to 'show them the ropes' of being an employee.
Considering that it was naturally up to Carmina to supervise Theo as his superior, it was going to be difficult to cover both her and Theo in battle, especially if their opponent was going to be a competent one.
"Uh, I guess . . . what do you think employees do?"
"Something a lot more direct with Distortions, that's for sure. Maybe you can pick up a thing or two while you're at it."
Thhrrrrrrrnnnn!
Luna turned from her laptop and faced the person who had just entered, "Ahh, Duncan, welcome! We were waiting for you."
Stepping through the sliding door was a man known as Duncan, imposing an air of strength as he towered over everyone inside the room, measuring nearly seven feet in height. From the myriad of scars that adorned his face, anyone could tell he was plenty experienced with his field of work.
Duncan bowed to an excessive degree, "I pay my respects, Assistant Manager Luna. You said that I had to train two newcomers? I hadn't seen anyone pass the Suppression Department's practical exam this time around."
"Ahh, well, I've decided to give these two an automatic pass." Luna spoke as she gestured over to Theo and Carmina, "Take a gander, will you? I'm sure they'll exceed your expectations."
With a snap to his neck, Duncan turned his head to look at the two janitors slouching on a leather couch and raised his eyebrow. With a stride or two of his legs, he approached the duo with an observant eye and stared intensely at their finer details.
Duncan turned to look back at Luna with much confusion, " . . . androids, ma'am?"
"They're not just any android, but conscious, sentient androids!"
"Ahh! I congratulate you on this profound discovery, Assistant Manager Luna! If this were to be reproduced at an industrial level, you are to surely revolutionize the labor market!"
"Ohh, stop it, you~!" Luna spoke with a playful tone as she waved her hand as though it were really her pride and joy, but quickly switched to a more professional voice. "But it's not my work. They're Manifestors reincarnated here for . . . internship? I really have no clue, but I don't suppose that'll stop us from using them, correct? A source of Distortion suppression without the usage of company assets is beyond valuable."
"You are very correct, Assistant Manager Luna, I see your point. I assure you, I will have them trained to the best of my experience. You two, come with me!"
Theo jerked up like a spring,
"Sir, yes sir?" Theo spoke with uncertainty, while Carmina slumped in silence.
Too excited by the possibility of a lighter workload, Duncan didn't bat an eye to Carmina's behavior and had instead just opted out for carrying the two of them by their collar.
It wouldn't be long until that menacing pressure of his had lost all its influence on Theo.
"Now, as an employee working their parts around this laboratory, you will find all sorts of employees under different branches. The one you have been assigned to in the control department, where we either regulate Distortion behavior for optimal energy acquisition or we beat them back into their cells if they escape.
Normally, humans wouldn't stand a chance against these warped beasts. But with the latest technology developed by Manager Vint, or Dr. Vint in this context, we are capable of extracting the bodily materials of Distortions to make armor and weapons.
Although they are to be regarded as of incredible quality for the purpose they've been made for, there's a downside---the need to use an 'energy battery,' which utilizes the Distortion equipment as a conductor for its wave resonance. Through this conduction of waves, we are allowed to bring out the full capabilities of the equipment as though we were the Distortions themselves.
The problem with that is that it costs a humungous amount of energy to operate it at that level, and we aren't a corporation with limitless resources at our disposal. Because this laboratory is the 2nd largest powerhouse for the entire State, we are required to be very efficient with our energy use on our Distortion equipment lest we run out of electricity or light inside our city.
With that in mind, finding a Manifestor who has their own generative source of this wave energy is a gift sent from God! With an increase of Distortions cells, and thus an increase in employees, we've rather strained in terms of using our Distortion equipment, and this---" Duncan arrived at his destination, "---is where our main office is. It's where all our equipment is, and it's also the place where we'll be kicking you out of those musty janitor uniforms. You got all that?"
Theo gave a glance over towards Carmina to see if she knew, and although she was nodding, her eyes showed a mind that thought otherwise.
With Carmina's confirmation, Duncan had promptly stared daggers into Theo to see if he too had understood.
Theo gave a compliant nod.
"Wonderful! Now, once you two get dressed, we'll see how you deal against a grade one Distortion!"
Carmina broke from her silence, "I fucking knew it! I fucking knew---!"