Note: any Greek letters used for MTFs will be represented by their capital letter; E.G: Alpha=Α, Heta=Η, Lambda=Λ, Sigma=Σ E.G.2: Alpha-9: Last Hope=A9 (shorthand) or A9, Last Hope (official)
"Apologies, Elder Brother, it appears our macabre sister pranked both of us."
"Wait, what? LUCY is pranking us now? I thought that was Luan's schtick?"
"So, did I, but I assure you, my osteoskeletal model will be taken down. Anyway, I'm much too busy with my research to bother with your emotional trivialities. Begone."
I shut the door to mine and Lily's room. I'm waiting for something…you see, earlier this year, I thought I'd help out our parental units by getting an occupation in science. I had quit my job as a college professor after I realized with our current equilibrium in the political spectrum, they are nothing more than overseers of indoctrination. I believe that all knowledge should be free, therefore, I cannot, in good conscience, stay. I mean, I've got a Sc. D at 4 years old! So, I sent out several requests and one of them caught my eye. It had no job description, but it said they would be interested in hiring me. Ordinarily, I would think this a ruse, but I am willing to humor this company. After receiving that email, I've been contacted by someone.
The laptop is receiving a Skype call from a restricted channel.
I've already tried back tracing it. My pen pal told me to knock it off unless I wanted the military involved. Naturally I didn't believe her and a person in SWAT gear showed up at our house.
A strange man shows up at the door decked out in SWAT gear…they knock on the door. My parents answer.
"Officer, what appears to be the trouble?"
"Is Lisa Loud in this building?"
"She's our daughter, why?"
"I am [DATA EXPUNGED], and she tried to back trace a restricted channel that my boss used to interview her. I'm going to need to talk with her."
Everyone, clearly shaken up, lets them in. He kicks open the door.
"Agh! Who are you?!"
"You're in a lot of trouble, lady. I'm a member of Α1, Red Right Hand, and you tried to hack into a restricted military bases' secure channel; Not to mention, one of my bosses' private communications channel. She sent me here to give a stern warning to you. You're lucky Sophia likes you, kid, because if it was any of the others…"
Y-O-U W-O-U-L-D B-E D-E-A-D W-H-E-R-E Y-O-U S-T-A-N-D…
"She also told me not to amnesticize you. Anyways, if you do it again, one of us will have to kill you for potentially leaking classified military projects. Good day."
As they leave, they drop a gas grenade that my family inhaled the fumes from. They don't remember anything. Yes, they came back for it and removed the evidence.
Yeah, she wasn't joking…
I'm interrupted from my thought process when the skype call comes through. From what I can see, it appears to be some sort of research laboratory. A woman with slightly curled brown hair that appears to be in her 30s is on the other end.
"Well, little prodigy, I heard you tried to hack us."
…
"Yeah, the council wanted to execute you for that, but I managed to convince our ethics committee to just tell you off. But seriously, don't do that again, you'd normally be executed for leaking any type of classified government projects. And it made me look bad. Not that I really care about that sort of thing."
"So, am I qualified?"
"Well, I personally think so, but there are 13 of us overseers, and you'd need at least 7 of them to approve you, plus a full board review in front of the ethics committee. Just between you and me, everyone here thinks the ethics committee is a group of useless idiots, but they actually run the show, alongside our administrator. I know because I was a former ethics committee member before being demoted to O5-2. At this rate, they might demote me to D-Class."
She laughs at this.
"But hey, as the head of the Department of Morality, they've tasked me with new hires. If you get hired, you'll know. This is a "you won't call us, we'll call you sort of thing". It's just due to the nature of this job. The Foundation is a global military project designed to protect the human race from the anomalous.
I nod in silence.
"We've been operating since 2008 and are officially supported by 12 different countries, as well as unofficially supported by almost all of the others, except North Korea, but they got destroyed in an alternate timeline and Iran, who has a military program researching the anomalous. Russia used to have one, but it's now defunct."
"Alternate timeline?"
"I may have spoken too much, but yes, the many worlds theory does exist in our multiverse. It was in a timeline called the Broken Masquerade, where our organization was exposed to the world. But the broken masquerade has already happened in your universe."
I question what she is talking about.
"There are tears in your dimension, causing something to happen to the populace, we call them Anomalous Bursts. They appear as cracks in the sky and can send things from other dimensions into yours or even transfer anomalous energy to people. Though not everyone exposed to the energy becomes anomalous."
Cracks in the sky? Sounds like something out of a cartoon!
"Now, let me tell you the difference between an anomaly and a peculiarity. It appears one of your sisters is a lesbian. One day, a dashing man from the UK showed up at your house and she was attracted to him. I believe is name was Huge Mungus?"
"It was Hugh."
"Right, sorry. Someone thought it would be funny to send a meme to me. Memes are anomalous to us, too. Anyway, this Hugh has the peculiarity of being so devastatingly handsome that any girl within around a fifteen-year age range, up or down, will be attracted to him, regardless of sexual orientation."
I thought Luna was bisexual.
"In another dimension, perhaps; But not this one."
"Now an anomaly would be if an entity could adapt to everything. We have one of those and we still can't kill him. Or how about a humanoid that can respawn, like in one of those video games."
I am so confused right now.
"All you have to do right now, is record any anomalous behavior. In our line of work, we use the "Locked Box Test". Safe can be contained in a box and nothing will happen. Euclid might have something happen, probably because the anomaly is sentient. Keter can easily break out of the box. Thaumiel is almost always the box and Apollyon…well, there is no box."
"There are also threat levels from white to black, white being an anomaly that helps us, blue which could be beneficial or a threat but we just don't know yet, green which is a threat if not taken care of properly, yellow which is in the middle, orange is kind of dangerous if not recaptured, red is super dangerous and can cause heavy casualties if not recaptured and black which will destroy the world if not immediately taken care of. The committee wants us to update all anomalies with a threat level in case there's ever a chance that the documents get declassified. Which even the administrator admits is probably never going to happen."
"Anyways, I should go…I'll try to help you if I can, but the other O5s kind of have me on lockdown."
"Wait, why are there holes in your hands?"
"Oh, these? I participated in a Philippines crucifixion ritual. It was…interesting. The volunteers even got thrown in a cave for three days just like in the actual story. Some of the devout fundamentalists even wanted to die on the cross, just like their lord and savior, which I personally disapprove of, but if their faith is that strong, who am I to judge? Even though it was all a spectacle, the cave is a futuristic room, I still fasted for those days, just for the authenticity of it. Don't worry, I'm fine now."
"Hey it's Doctor Bright! Do something crazy for us!"
"Oh, how about this, he'll fire you morons for messing around with an overseer!"
"As if, you don't have clearance."
"Really, cause Doctor Bright is level 4, what are you?"
"Uh, dude. I don't think Doctor Bright reincarnated as a woman."
"Oh please, Doctor Bright reincarnating as a woman is totally a Doctor Bright thing to do. I'm level 5. Checkmate. Now entertain us, mad scientist."
She faces them and shows them what looks like a card with a blue stripe. The two idiots immediately stop.
"Doctor Sophia Light…Overseer Council 2…"
She turns back to the Skype call.
"Just another day at the Foundation…" She says sarcastically as she ends the call
Anomalous Bursts? Alternate dimensions? What kind of craziness is this?!
