Interlude: T.O.A.L Headquarters

Note: this is probably the only interlude of this type, as the story entirely focuses on Artyom after this. If you're interested in Kai's perspective, the independent sequel about him will be coming out in about 2 weeks from this chapter going live on Honeyfeed! And you can read either this or that without it interfering with either story!

  “Are you sure you’ve found it?” asked Gus, talking into his phone. He was pacing around his office at TOAL headquarters, a decently sized room only sparsely decorated. That was one of the only things he shared in common with Artyom he was willing to admit.

   “Yeah, I’ve found the source of Earth culture here,” replied Artyom from the other end. Magic was able to provide an incredibly high audio fidelity, enough so that Gus could well make out Artyom’s frigid tone. He was curious what was causing it but decided not to pry. If it mattered, Artyom would tell him.

   “And that would be?”

   “Your usual hero of prophecy schtick, with a ‘dark lord’ and all. Some villagers were talking about the hero being from California, and having a TV. Can’t get more on the nose than that,” said Artyom with a mirthless laugh.

   “Have you located this hero and confirmed if he’s an Earther yourself?”

   “Not yet, I just learned about ‘em. These people are terrible at gossip, so it took an entire village being burned to the ground by this dark lord before they mentioned it. Not sure if it’s just these people, but they weren’t exactly the brightest bulbs around either,” said Artyom, trying to deflect attention to the tragedy with an insult.

   “Ah, so that’s it,” realized Gus, not knowing the full picture. “Nobody expects to see suffering in a Fairytale World, but that’s part of life. We can’t escape it. At the risk of sounding like an asshole, please don’t let this distract you from the mission.”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t. And to be fair, you did sound like an asshole.”

   “If it got the point across, then it was a worthy sacrifice.”

   “Yeah… a worthy sacrifice.” Artyom was quiet for some time. “See you later, I’ll report back once I’ve found out more.”

   “Alright, talk to you later then.” Gus hung up the phone and pressed a button on his desk to call in his “assistant”.

   After several moments, the door opened and in walked a young lady with bright brown hair, a tie-dye sweater with sweatpants, and a spring in her step. She practically skipped into the room on her sneakers, while humming a tune to herself.

   “Heya Gus!” said Sheila in a New Zealander accent, a huge grin plastered on her face.

   “Hello Sheila,” replied Gus. “I just got off the phone with Artyom, and he’s confirmed the presence of Earth culture.”

   “Ooh, exciting!” exclaimed Sheila. “So what does he have to say?” Her attitude, combined with how closely she worked with Gus, made people think that she was his assistant. In reality, she was his peer as head of the information department, in charge of organizing and utilizing all of the data that came in to TOAL.

   He told her the details of the call.

   “Really? From the faraway land of California? With his TV? He has to be pulling our leg,” she replied, an exaggeratedly quizzical look on her face.

   “That’s what he reported, and I’m not inclined to disbelieve him,” said Gus, not betraying a hint of emotion at the bewildering account.

   “I mean, he also did mention the villagers were pretty dumb. If he’s telling the truth about the hero, then he shouldn’t be lying about all of the other details. Even if he is feeling glum, he wouldn’t exaggerate on a check-in for a mission like this.”

   Gus nodded back. “He really wouldn’t.”

   “Hold on,” said Sheila. “Do you think the ‘dumb villagers’ part might have something to do with the UPS not working well?”

   Gus’ left eyebrow rose inquisitively.

  “If everyone’s stupid and not thinking much, then maybe their psychic presence is muted compared to everyone from other Worlds?” asked Sheila, suddenly deep in thought. “The writeup on the machine that the research department published mentioned that the stuff it scans is made up of an entire World’s active thoughts and feelings, rather than actually reading their memories. It totally fits!”

  “That’s a good theory,” said Gus. “You should pass that back to them.” Her ability to immediately make connections like these with a diaspora of information was why she had her position.

  “Already done,” replied Sheila, tapping away at the miniature keyboard on her own phone. It was more akin to an old sliding phone with a physical keyboard built into it. Perfect for typing out information on the go.

  “So, thanks for the info!” she said. “Always good to keep up to date, especially on super secret missions like these! I’m headed to check up on the new recruit now, I hope we haven’t fully broken his dreams!”

   “Hold on, I was actually going to check up on him myself,” replied Gus.

   “Huh, I didn’t take you as someone who cared about the little people. Are you scared he’s gonna leak some secrets?” teased Sheila teasingly.

   “No, Artyom asked me to do so before he left on his mission. We can go there together.”

  “Alrighty then, let’s go!” exclaimed Sheila, beginning to skip out the door, completely in contrast to Gus’ metronome-like step.

  Kai Freeman was sitting in the library, poring over a comic book adaptation of the Odyssey, and trying to figure out how he gave up his old life to have this as his homework. Somehow, he’d gone from being an average highschooler in a bad neighborhood with a bad homelife to… essentially enrolling in a semi-magic boarding school. He’d read so many stories with that exact plot, he was scared some sleazy corporate lawyer was going to open a portal across the multiverse just to sue him. But they’d probably back off as soon as they realized how weird, boring, and entirely unmarketable his time had been so far.

   First of all, it wasn’t like some kind of fantastical new world, it really was like a regular boarding school, for all Kai knew about that. No secret plots or evil teachers, no deadly classes or monsters roaming the halls. And definitely no daring adventures. At least, not yet, as he was told. Just plain, old boring school. But unlike at his old school and his old life, Kai Freeman was happy. He flipped a page in his comic book. It was a very abridged version of the original story, so he was already at the part where Odysseus and his crew were in the Cyclops’ home.

   “Heya Kai!” shouted Sheila a foot away from him. Kai almost jumped out of his seat, and everyone else in the library was glaring at her.

  “Oop, sorry about that!” she consoled everyone in a whisper. Finding the apology adequate, they went back to whatever they were reading.

   “Uh, hi Sheila. What’s up?” asked Kai.

  “Not much, we just wanted to check up on you!” replied Sheila. Kai looked behind her and saw Gus standing imposingly over the both of them.

   “Hello Kai,” said Gus. “How have you been?”

   “Good, good,” replied Ka awkwardly. “I really didn’t expect to be going to school here, but it’s a lot better than back home.”

   “Glad to hear!” said Sheila. “I was never a fan of the normal school experience back home, so I made sure there’d be a much better system in place here. No memorizing from a textbook, no really dumb tests, but you still have to work pretty hard. It’s fun, though!”

  Kai nodded in agreement. It was true, it really was more fun than what Kai thought a good school would be like. There were several teachers who lived at TOAL headquarters along with him and its other members, and one of them was assigned to him as a private tutor. Since he was less than two years from graduating, Kai was given a deal; learn enough to theoretically pass the GED or equivalent exam to prove he had the knowledge of a high school graduate, all at his own pace. Once he knew enough, he could join TOAL as an agent or be sent to live out his life in one of the many Worlds out there. Before he was ready to make such a decision, his teacher was determined to help him learn everything he could about what it was really like out there in the wider multiverse, thus the crash course on mythology and other uncommon subjects being added to his curriculum. The others he’d met were more interested in showing him what it was like at TOAL, in hopes he’d decide to join them.

  “If you do have any concerns, please let us know,” said Gus. “Sheila’s educational philosophy is rather… unorthodox. Since you’re essentially her guinea pig, it’d be best if you let us know if you think it could use any changes.”

   “Oh, sure,” replied Kai. “I’ve only been here for a day, and it’s been nice. But I would like to check out one of these Worlds everyone keeps talking about. I feel like I’m the only one here who never had an adventure.”

   “Some of us would consider that a blessing,” said Gus, only his eyes hinting at what he thought of his own “adventure”. “But I understand the frustration of boredom.”

  “You know, maybe we could set up a field trip?” proposed Sheila. “Once you read up on some of the tropes you can expect to find wherever you go, and get some basic combat training first! We have a ton of stories about people getting summoned just like us, apparently it’s a common trope back on Earth. Anyway, don’t expect your field trip to happen immediately. Gus here has to check it over and approve it as an operation.”

   Kai brightened up at Sheila’s words. As interesting his time at TOAL had been so far, the whole two days, he felt like his routine would begin to wear its welcome eventually. A proper outing sounded wonderful. Not to say his routine was any bad. Wake up and eat breakfast with the others at headquarters, therapy, private tutoring, lunch, relaxation, private studying, dinner, and finally quiet relaxation before bed? It worked for him, and he was able to stick in gym time or any other activity anywhere he wanted to in between! As long as it didn’t interfere with anything he had scheduled with somebody else, like his tutor.

  “You look like a happy camper now, Kai!” exclaimed Sheila. “If that’s everything, we’ll get going! Have a nice day!” She happily walked towards the door and exited the library. Gus, right behind her, paused before he himself left.

  “And Kai, I recommend not getting stuck reading only about the mythologies you’ve already heard about. There are more impressive shows of power and morals in more obscure mythologies. I recommend looking into our Hebrew and Hindu mythology sections. Greek I feel TOAL could handle if we were up against some of their heroes, but those? I hope we never piss someone powerful from a World with their deities and powers active.”

  For the first time, Kai had seen real emotion on Gus’s face. Sheila and Artyom would’ve relished the moment, but Kai was at least happy to know that there were still things that shouldn’t be messed with. Maybe he’d traded one kind of danger in his old life for a new one?