O-03-60
I get it. I really do. I am the captain of the Information Team and an experienced employee at dealing abnormalities and following the rules. The Safety Team just received its first expansion, so they wanted some veterans to guide the newbies through their first day at work.
"I'm happy! Yay! Hehehe! This is going to be so much fun! Ouch. It hurts, hahaha!"
"Keep it down, Kickass. You're scaring them. Please, continue with your speech, Lin."
I thanked Ekpmephtil-senior and aligned the documents I held.
"As I was saying, your duties in this team will be leading the efforts to rescue and aid those in need of urgent treatment. You will be the team that makes the difference between a perfect day at work and a horrible one. Know this: accidents will happen. You need to train in order to be able to respond as promptly as you're ordered to. Any questions so far?"
A messy blue-haired employee raised their hand.
"What is that scrap of metal over there? It reeks of Enkephalin."
I tripped with my words from the surprise. Ekpmephtil-senior covered for me without losing a second.
"That is the Safety Team's Sephirah, Netzach."
His robot body was dark grey and rectangular, with a small piece at the top left containing a half-closed digital green eye. He possessed mechanical arms and legs as well. A green fluid –which obviously was Enkephalin– leaked from the seams between his mechanical parts.
"He also happens to be your boss."
"That thing is our boss?"
"No way!"
"Wait a minute, can robots even consume Enkephalin? That's news to me!"
"That's what's important to you? Our boss is a good-for-nothing drug addict!"
Chaos ensued and Netzach did little effort to fix the situation. He just lazed around and refused to grow attached to his new employees. A wise decision… but I couldn't overlook his attitude. Yesod would hear of this. In the meantime, tt fell upon our shoulders to stabilize the situation.
A shot!
A silence was made and crystals fell from the greenish ceiling of the Main Room. Kickass blew away the smoke coming from her skin-covered gun… or, at least, they tried. They removed their mask to be able to do the trick. Their expression drained the newbies' SP.
"Shut up, everybody! I make the rules here, hya hahahahaha! Ouch! I'm happy!"
"Forgive them. You will witness no short amount of degenerates likes these." My senior apologized after bonking their brunette head and grabbing them by their ponytail. "Some of you will end like this if you are not careful, so we want you to listen to our instructions with today's-"
"Shy Look!"
"Teaching program! Don't make me call the captain here…"
"Oooooh! The Inspector is coming! Yay! I love them! I'm happy! Yay!"
"Ugh… What does it take to make you stay still?"
I loudly cleared my voice to cover for Ekpmephtil.
"Okay, everyone. While our senior here takes care of… er… this other coworker of ours, shall we go to O-03-60's containment unit?"
The drugged machine burped some Enkephalin. My forced smile was at its limits. I understood miss Hod wanted to send Kikas away so she could focus on training their new recruits –instead of terrifying them–, but assigning them to this program was a mistake. A mistake my Sephirah would have never made.
Fragment of the Universe was an abnormality whose form was that of a black ball made of a material not on Earth, with five appendages coming off of it in an asymmetrical manner. The main portion of the body had three brightly colored heart shaped spots on it. The four long appendages are referred to as tentacles. The fifth appendage coming off of the top of the body had a shape similar to a poorly drawn heart. It had been described as having a 'metaphysical form that can hardly be explained in human language'.
Does Black damage. Expect hits to both your body and mind.
Works best with Attachment and Repression.
Do not panic inside. It's trippy, but you will get used to it. –Inspector
"These are the Inspector's notes. They are a very experienced and reliable employee."
"That's my team's captain!"
"They're taken! They're mine! I'm happy, hehe! Ow."
"They're not, you stalker. Please, continue, Lin."
"You will recognize the Inspector because they hum a lot. If you need urgent help, your best bet is to find them."
"Now, now." My senior continued. "That doesn't mean you have to depend on us from the Control Team for everything. As employees of this Wing, it is expected from you to learn, grow and master every task that gets assigned to you, may that be working with abnormalities, suppressing them after they breach… or beating some sanity back into your panicking teammates with a White damage EGO weapon like this one."
Heh. I liked how Ekpmephtil always found a chance to show his Penitence off. The same bluehead from before raised their hand again.
"What if we encounter a situation of life or death? Are we allowed to kill?"
Harsh. Where did that person come from? I checked their profile. Gregory, a former member of a dangerous Syndicate called 'Resurrekt'. Makes sense. Oh, the irony!
"Your highest priority as a member from the Safety Team is ensuring everyone survives. However, if you meet such a situation… take into consideration that the recordings are carefully reviewed later by the Information Team. If you kill a coworker for a reason other than self-defense, I will know… and you will wish you never entertained such an idea."
That's right, you sissy! I've seen some [vulgarity] here! Learn to play by our rules… or be devoured by the rules. Your choice. Hm. Yesod would be proud of me if he allowed himself to express such things.
I took a deep breath. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
"You. Get in there and show us what you're made of."
"Gladly! I'm happy!"
"Not you! Dammit!"
The door closed behind Kikas and all of us stacked next to the window to take a look.
Fragment of the Universe reacted to the new employee and waved one of its tentacles to greet them. Kikas mimicked them with exaggerated movements of their arm.
"Helllllllllllouuuu! Are you happy! I am!"
O-03-60 produced a sound that could be described as a song, but the Inspector told me it felt more like 'an echo from beyond', whatever that meant.
"Is that all you've got? I didn't even feel anything, hahaha! But let's not fight, buddy. Let's have some fun! You're so pretty!"
One of the hearts painted on the abno's body blushed. Kikas offered me a good opportunity to teach, so I didn't let it pass.
"See that? That's a positive interaction. By obtaining those, we produce Positive Enkephalin that we can store in boxes. That's how Lobotomy Corporation produces such vast amounts of energy for the City."
"Wait a second. I've drunk carbonated drinks with a small percentage of Enkephalin. You mean to say I've drunk whatever that sicko is producing here?!"
"Yup."
Leaving that sensible employee to their pukes, I focused on what was going on inside the chamber. I thought it was an error to allow an unpredictable person like Kikas near any abno, but they were quite successful in literally any type of work they attempted. They were always happy, no matter what they had to do, so, naturally, the abnormalities felt happy as well.
I made the mental note to put up a word for them in front of Yesod. Maybe obtaining EGOs was beneficial to increasing the productivity rate… if the employee was willing to pay the price for taking in a mind that wasn't theirs.
