"You're a developer?" Piper asked in excitement.
"Yeah! I'm a hobbyist and developer for an OS that got my interest a few years ago. It's one that "Big Blue" and most of the mainframe industry doesn't take seriously but I see the potential in it!" I confidently said, but some of the others' reactions looked more surprised or worried about something.
"We thought they only existed here!" Piper said.
"They also exist in the human world."
"That’s fascinating!"
"That's so relatable." Juna said with a nervous chuckle.
"Wait... Big Blue?" Piper asked, sounding very curious.
"What about it?" I asked just as curiously.
"That sounds kind of like Grand Blue and their stodgy team that set the standards for nearly everything for many cycles!" Piper said laughing. Is what she said another coincidence?
"Do you not presume you are attempting to establish another standard with the success and influence of your team?" Gerald retorted.
Piper thought about it for a few moments before she answered. "Yeah, maybe. Hmm... That's not what I really want to happen..." She seriously contemplated. "Both of our teams are against there being one standard and think Grand Blue's team All-Around Numerators risks getting all-around stagnant which could affect all of the world, but I'm not stodgy!" She said with a laugh. Her tone shifted from serious to silly near the end of her musings.
"I am aware you presume I am, but could not care less." Gerald scoffed.
Piper suddenly left the room and came back with an electric guitar in her hands. It was recognizable as an iconic model from the 1960's. "Piriita isn't either... You'd see it too, if she'd let herself shine through!" She started to sing, strumming chords on the guitar in the start of a ballad. "She is a rebel too in her way, but why must she treat their formality like normality?!" She added, loudly strumming a row of power chords on the guitar.
I was surprised by the improv performance. Piper sung some more and strummed a guitar solo! Gerald looked annoyed but he didn't interrupt. Juna smiled. Polyxena chuckled and was the first to applaud after Piper put down the guitar and set it along the nearest wall.
"Thank you! Hehehehe, I improvised that one!" Piper cheerfully said.
"Did the mentioning of sectors get confusing?" Polyxena asked me.
"Yeah. What are those, and where am I?" I responded. "I looked at the flag on the wall. It looks familiar but it's not any flag of a country I recognize. I still don't know where I am."
Polyxena, Juna and Piper briefly got together and were talking with each other before they answered. They then took a few steps away from each other.
"We're in the world of Techlandia, and This is the Ship Deck sector, or the Deck for short!" Polyxena announced dramatically while she struck a dramatic pose. Piper quickly struck a dramatic pose that complemented Polyxena's, then Juna tagged along with her own pose.
"And we're part of the Programmable Darling Patrol!" Piper added. "You're visiting our headquarters and should stay to meet the rest of the team!"
I chuckled at their presentation. It was amusing but I was also worrying and trying to hide it.
"This is... what they do." Gerald snarked to me. "If you want to stay but this isn't for you, you could move to my sector." He said, and might've sounded more serious.
"Uhh... I'm not sure what to do. I have things to do back at my world- the human world-, but Juna summoned me here and must've had a reason for it." I nervously said to the group.
"There's a lot to explain to humans who arrive here." Polyxena said.
"I'll bring out the map." Juna said. She briefly left the room while Polyxena and Piper led me to a couch in the room. The couch was red and to one of its sides was a smaller couch in the same style, and to the other were a few orange chairs that had curved frames. Each of them faced a wooden table that was in the middle. I took a seat on the larger couch.
Juna returned to the room, sat next to me and spread the map across the table. The map was rectangular and the rest of the geography immediately stood out; it was unlike any country on a world map.
"So this is why you called them sectors." I said. Everything fit in square patterns that resembled a circuit board! There were no jagged coastlines to be seen!
The sectors were of different widths and heights; some sectors stretched further towards the center or further away from it. Areas of water broke through the land in some sectors, and larger areas of water separated other sectors from each other, but everything fit an orderly pattern.
"It's orderly how everything fits." Juna said.
"It is. In the world I'm from, the land is arranged into huge continents of drastically different shapes and surrounded by oceans." I began to explain. "It isn't often humans arrive here is it?"
"We get occasional visitors, but they usually only stay for a day before they return." Polyxena explained.
"Is there order to the continents and oceans in your world?" Juna asked.
"Their shapes come from the chaotic forces of landmasses colliding or being rifting apart." I continued.
"Who does that? The last humans that visited didn't explain that." Piper said. I was in silence for a few moments.
"The landmasses formed that way because of plate tectonics and… and continental drift because the land and ocean floor are split into plates that move and they're a lot of different shapes and sizes--" I tried to explain.
"We could talk more about that later. This map is so much to take in." Polyxena said.
"Thanks. My knowledge of geology was rusty so I probably wasn't going to explain it well." I said. I looked at the map, trying to find where The Ship Deck was when I saw it. It was a northern sector with significant coastlines but also a proximity to several other sectors mostly to the south of it. "I found The Ship Deck!" I exclaimed.
I looked more at the map when I saw the single largest sector on it; Grand Blue. "So that's what Piper was referring to." I said and pointed to Grand Blue.
"Yep. That's them." Piper said.
Juna pointed to a small sector across a sea from The Ship Deck. "This is where I'm from." She said. She pointed to The Bell Tower. "I have friends, family and colleagues there. I work here part-time and send them my research notes." She added.
"What are you researching, and is it something I could help with? Was that why I was summoned?" I asked.
"Studying the world. I'm the founder of my own team and I have students at The Bell Tower, but they have to stay there. I'm the only one who lives away, but I'm helping them with research. We have future plans to have members from around the world. Even if these later members lived in different sectors and worked with different teams, there's a philosophy that'll promote cooperation between us and the teams." Juna explained with a smile. She sounded optimistic about this idea.
"Is that unusual?"
"Yes. Most teams are based in just one area, and OSes used to rarely travel outside of theirs." Juna said.
"I was one of the first to travel to different areas. I heard I was the first OSes to ever do that!" Piper added. "Well well, I think this traveling thing is catching on!"
"My rival and I still follow their rules, fashions and etiquette." Gerald said, noticing that Piper directed her last comment at him.
"That's something you can agree on!" I blurted out. What was I thinking? I was embarrassed blurting that out when I just met these people, but most of them were amused.
"It is!" Piper and Polyxena laughed. Piper nearly fell out of her chair laughing! Juna chuckled. Gerald didn't look pleased but he acknowledged what I said was true.
"You'll fit in this group nicely if you stay!" Polyxena said.
"Geography doesn't have to constrain us." Juna said, which cleared the laughter from the room to give her room to speak. She looked at me. "I'll soon be graduating from my apprenticeship with Gerald, and I'm looking to mentor my first student who isn't from the area." The rest of the group looked at me.
"Do I have what it takes?" I nervously asked.
"I see that potential and you work as a developer." Juna said. "I'm not ordering you to stay here. I can send you back now if you want. The choice is yours."
I was silent for a few minutes as I thought it over. "I'll stay… at least for this afternoon." I told the group. "I hope I can live up to what you see in me, but first I have some questions." I said to Juna.
"Go ahead." Juna said.
"What would you expect of me?" I asked.
"That you'd be diligent in your studies." Juna said.
"That you'd be a good team member." Piper added.
These are simple and general answers but they sound reasonable. I only need to worry about them if I'm going to stay here though.
"Okay. That's fair." I said. "I don't have any questions about that now, but who's Piritta? Piper mentioned her but I haven't met her."
"She's another member of our team!" Piper cheerfully said. "You'll immediately recognize her." She mischievously added.
Piper offered to lead us to the music room where she and Polyxena would demonstrate more of their skills to entertain guests. I took up their offer, followed the group while Piper led the way out of the room and through the hallway.
Piper whistled while she led us through the hallway, and Polyxena hummed along. It was pretty catchy.
The hallways had wooden wall panels that covered the lower few feet of the walls, while a red and white circular-patterned 1960's style wallpaper covered the rest. Ahead at the end of the staircase, the wall had an orange circular-patterned wallpaper. We were walking when someone walked down from the stairs, and was walking towards us. Even from a distance I could tell this is someone who could tower over me, and I was right as we walked up to each other!
If that was Piritta, she had long blue hair and wore a Victorian-style dress that was gray and white with dark blue sleeves, blue bows on the bodice, a blue skirt layer with a white skirt layer under it. Similarly to Piper and Polyxena, she wore a two-toned shawl that had a bow in the middle and a round brooch pinned to it; her shawl was blue with a white collar and trim, and the bow was orange with silver stripes. She was taller than Gerald by a few inches.
Her gray eyes glared at me.
"Hmm... Identify yourself." She said, glaring at me. "Gerald announced that he would be visiting, but you didn't."
"This is the visitor I summoned." Juna said as she quickly stepped in front of me, and stared her down. "I'll be teaching him if he decides to stay here. If he's ever a threat, I'd banish him. This is my responsibility." Juna said. She sounded very serious.
"My name is Damien, and I'm a human-- I was summoned from the human world today!" I nervously introduced myself.
"From the human world?" Piritta said. She looked curious and dropped her glare. "My apologies for scaring a visitor. My name is Piritta." She said more cheerfully and smiled, and confirmed she was who I thought.
"Nice to meet you." I said to her. Piper wasn't kidding when she said Piritta would be immediately recognizable! She dresses in a similar way to Piper and Polyxena though more fancy and in an older style than them, but it's not as old or impractical as baroque styles.
"Polyxena and I will be entertaining our new guest in the music room. Would you want to join us?" Piper asked.
"Sure. I have the time now." Piritta said.
We entered the music room. It had a cozy look to it that was similar to the first room I arrived in, but there was a stage with a set of speakers along the wall to my left, and a few rows of chairs near it. Along the wall to my right were chairs along the corner closer to the door. There were several instruments such as guitars on the walls, which were put there from a series of hooks and pegs. There was a drum set and a few amplifiers along the far corner.
"Please take a seat!" Polyxena offered. I sat down in one of the chairs. Juna sat in the chair to my left. Gerald sat in the chair to my right. Piritta sat down in the chair to Juna's left, and Polyxena sat down to Piritta left.
Piper was on the stage, and waved to us. She held a flute in her other hand and smiled at us before she put the flute in both hands and began to play a song. We applauded after the first song. It was a a cheerful and upbeat song. The second song began and was more melancholy that it got me by surprise. It reminded me of my disappearance. Not knowing where I was, and my coworkers not knowing where I went, or if I will ever be back...
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! Loud knocking interrupted the song. We all glanced towards the door. Piper stopped playing the song. "Come in!" She shouted.
The door opened. Someone who was slightly taller than Piper with shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair in a ponytail, orange eyes, a yellow and white shawl and a short-sleeved orange minidress rushed into the room and sounded worried. "We have an emergency! There's a bank robbery downtown!... Uhh-- I wasn't told there would be any guests!" The person exclaimed.
"Hey, my name is Damien. I was summoned from the human world." I quickly explained.
"I summoned him." Juna tersely explained.
"Alright. The name's Henrietta, or Etta, but there will be time for proper introductions later."
I wasn't expecting to meet a real hero team either!
