"You're a system user," Luna said, as if trying to get a grip on the situation.
"What a coincidence huh?" Moonlight pitched in.
The room was awfully chilly for an afternoon.
Luna Rose from her seat, which was placed right in front of the couch Sunny sat on. Beside it was the seat Moonlight was on.
After a glass of water, Luna returned.
"Where did you come from again?"
Sunny hesitated.
This was an interrogation, as if he had committed some wrong. As tough if he gave an answer that they deemed unsatisfactory, they would murder him.
They could. This he knew well. Maybe obeying was his best course of action, he considered.
He didn't answer.
The room felt still for a moment, awaiting Sunny's answer. Awaiting an answer that never came.
They could kill him for refusing to answer, true, but what would they do if he told them where he came from? Why did they even want to know?
Maybe they'd go there and cause some sort of trouble. Much as Sunny had hated the place, he still had people he cared about there.
"You don't have to answer that," Luna broke the silence, as if reading his mind.
"You do, however, have to come with us to register you to the S.A.G.P. before you get killed by an anomaly."
Sunny's heart skipped a beat. Luna's mention of getting killed by an anomaly pulled him back to the night he almost died.
"What are those anomaly things?" He asked. "Are all the others..." He trailed from the statement, as though mentioning it would makebit more real than it already was.
"Dead, yes," Moonlight pitched in. "Anomalies are like...this of the world like a computer, they're viruses, system users are kinda like the anti virus."
"Right," Sunny sighed a gulp following. What had he gotten himself into? Or better yet, what is this that had brought itself to him?
"Can I just not?"
"Not what?" Luna asked.
"Not have to deal with the anomaly things, like turn down the job offer, call it quits, you know."
"There is a way for a system leaving a user, which would technically remove you from being a system user," Moonlight began, giving Sunny a bit of hope.
"It's dying, Sunny, you have that system until you die, which is much harder and at the same time easier than you'd think," Luna said.
Sigh.
Moonlight Rose from her chair and landed on the couch Sunny was on. She was bigger than him, then again, most people were. And now these two were telling him about fighting things that lifted men twice his size and tore them apart like snacks.
"Unless dying is on your to do list this week, you really ought to take the offer. S.A.G.S offers pretty good protection and training facilities for new users."
SAGS, she it like an actual word instead of separating the letters like a normal person would.
"You also technically can't get the benefits, like the weapons required to deal with anomalies. It's basically a sign up or die situation," Luna wasn't really making things any better. But she had a point.
"Ever asked yourself why houses are built with an untouched wall?" Luna asked, holding a multi coloured crystal in hand.
"Untouched what?"
She answered him by signalling to a blank wall, one that had noting on it, no window, no switch, no nothing. Just plain wall –an untouched wall.
"Get ready to get your mind blown!" Moonlight said with a gleeful voice, like a child about to show her favourite toy to her friends.
She poked the crystal forward, into the wall and twisted like a key. Immediately, the wall started to crack, light seeping through the cracks.
Instinctively, Sunny stepped back.
The cracks met wach other, forming a sigil on the wall with the writings S.A.G.S. at the bottom.
Immediately the cracks competed forming, the wall caved in and imploded, turning into a switling mass of light and rocks.
"Welcome to Moonlight portals, please keep your safety belt on and march through the glowing portal!" Moonlight said before stepping aside and signalling to it.
Sunny stood in place.
Just what the hell was he looking at? What just happened? Thoughts flooded his brain so much that he couldn't even hear himself think from all the commotion.
**Grade C portal detected**
Risk: Null
Destination: Systems Alliance of Global Security headquarters
Portal creator: *****
The hell does asterisks even mean? It was obviously Moonlight.
"Hey, princess, anytime this century would be appreciated!" Moonlight's voice snapped him back from staring at the hovering blue screen before him.
"Right," He stepped forward, almost into the portal but stopped.
It had an eerie pull to it, a questionable one at that. He hesitantly reached out, feeling the cool breeze of the swirls, watching the rocks phase through him in a ghostly manner.
Before he could process it all, a foot met him from behind, kicking him into a pearly floor on to other side.
The marble floors stretched out as far as Sunny could see, and continued to stretch further.
Everyone seemed busy, there were portals opening and closing everywhere. Some walked with odd attires on, like the one Luna had on when she slaughtered the lady anomalies.
Calling the place an office would have been an understatement. It was a whole different world in its own.
"Excuse me, sorry, madam Luna," a lady about Sunny's size said as she got past them, trying to regain control of a six headed human faced eight legged spider creature.
Sunny immediately wanted to leave upon seeing that thing but the portal behind them was long gone.
"Come on," Moonlight grabbed Sunny's wrist, pulling him across the marble floors, dodging people and creatures alike.
Luna disappeared through a wall.
Sunny bit the inside of his mouth, trying to wake up from this dream.
He didn't.
"Hold onto your tits!" Moonlight called out before leaping through the portal and pulling Sunny in with her.
The place was dreamlike, they were falling through a nebula of colourful fog before landing on a ground that was obscured by the fog.
"This way!" Moonlight pulled him through an open door into a room.
After all he had seen, last thing that looked normal was a normal room. Sunny's eyes darted around. No creatures roaming about, portals opening and closing or colourful fog that would make one think they were drunk and high at the same time.
It was just a room, a fancy room, the kind of room that makes one want to correct their posture and clear their throat before talking and deeply consider what they want to say before even saying it.
Sunny did none of those.
He defied it all.
"Don't stare too hard," Moonlight nudged him.
"I hope i haven't kept you waiting for long, mademoiselle Luna," A dark man emerged from a door Sunny hadn't noticed and gave Luna a handshake before sitting behind the desk at the end of the room.
"Just exactly who is she?" Sunny whispered to Moonlight but she merely shushed him and led him to one of the seats.
"What have we here, a new recruit?"
"Sunny, Areste, Areste, Sunny," Luna casually introduced the two to each other, as though introducing casual friends, meanwhile Moonlight was frozen quet in place.
"Oui, nice to meet you, mademoiselle, I'm the recruit head of SAGS, we are glad to have you join us," He had a strong accent on his tongue, one that made Sunny completely miss the mademoiselle in the statement. That, and of course the fact that the window behind him opened to a vast expanse of nothing but foggy multicoloured clouds.
"Moonlight, it is good to see you too, món cur," Areste acknowledged Moonlight, drawing a slight awckward chuckle from her.
"Have you been told of what we do?" Areste raised a brow at Sunny.
Sunny stared right back at him for a moment. Too much had happened in such a long time, he had forgotten.
"The Systems Alliance of Global Security, is an international alliance formed with the goal of maintaining security against anomalies," Luna said it before Areste could say it, most definitely because he'd mix languages in the explanation and the explanation would need an explanation.
"True," Areste nodded, looking a bit distraught.
"She'll be with me, if you're trying to figure out who to assign," Luna announced.
"No, no, I could not ask that,you already do too much, mademoiselle."
"Are you saying I can't manage?" The two locked eyes.
The air stilled, as if awaiting a deadly clash.
They laughed.
"System should be able to scan it and inform you what you're signing up for before you do," Areste said, handing a set of papers to Sunny.
"Sign up documents, System Alliance of Global Security detected."
Instantly, the details regarding the contract formed in his head. He turned to Luna, she gave him a head shake, Moonlight likewise.
If he had to sign up to get some protection and training against the anomalies or they'd just end up killing him, he didn't have much of a choice.
"I have a few questions," Sunny began before signing, "what does it mean by allocation regarding System type, and what's this about an exorcist and pu lic service society?"
"Right, err, there are different System types, each have different characteristics. There is the combat, messenger, builder, spectator, along many others. Being new, I do not expect you to know your system type," Areste took a glass of water, signalling to Luna.
"You'll figure that out dealing with the lowest levels of anomalies in the public aid department, which covers as an exorcist society."
Lowest levels of anomalies. Sunny dated back to the abyss, where the system showed him the tentacle creature and told him it was among the weakest ones. Was that really the kind of thing he was going to be dealing with pretending to be an exorcist? He sighed.
"Wait, are all exorcist part of the society?" Sunny asked, remembering the few exorcist that used to work at the cathedral. Some were pretty old. To be still in the welcoming committee of newbies that he was about to join at eighteen sounded ridiculous.
"Oui, it is a err, how we say it, internationale operation."
"It will be my job to oversee your and Moonlight's missions to make sure you guys are safe and aren't assigned things that are out of you capabilities," Luna assured.
He had seen her battle. If he was being assured her protection alongside all the benefits, maybe it wasn't too bad.
After a bit of consideration, Sunny signed. A cold shower went through him immediately after signing,as if acknowledging the contract.
"Right on time too, there is an anomaly sighting that will be a good measure for your capabilities," Areste announced.
"I don't have any capabilities, what are you talking about?" Sunny retorted.
"You will be fine, it's just a runner."
"Moonlight, coordinates have been sent to you."
Her mention was the only thing that made Sunny remember she was actually still in the room. She had been way quieter than normal.
She opened another portal on the wall using the crystal and walked right through.
The room tilted, focing the stationary Sunny to go falling through the portal.