The next several moments were tense. I glanced back and I saw that Etta, Piroska, and Polyxena were still signing autographs for their fans. Their smiles at their fans and their chatter were interrupted by brief periods of glancing in different directions to keep up their guard.
Suddenly, a bolt of magic fired past us! I quickly dodged it while Gerald looked in the direction of the blast, and Juna quickly blocked it with a barrier she summoned. The direction of the blast was to our side, where there were trees and snowdrifts to give the attacker cover.
The blast could be heard with it collided with the barrier, and put the crowd in terror again.
"Is there another attacker?!" Piper asked.
"If there is, let me fight them!" Piroska boasted. She held up her staff, and took a few steps in the attackers' direction.
"We shouldn't get too reckless." Etta said.
"Says the one who nearly caused a leaf storm to hit Damien when you used your rocket skates?" Piroska chuckled.
"This isn't the time for snarking!" Etta argued.
"It's the time for fighting!" Piroska interrupted and she ran towards the attackers.
"Don't get reckless!" Etta said.
"Yeah, what she said!" Piper said in agreement with Etta and followed Piroska.
"I'll be the defense." Piritta said in agreement, and followed Piroska and Piper.
Etta was about to join them when Polyxena asked "Should I stay here to entertain, and defend the crowd?"
"That'd be a good idea." Etta said to her, before she joined Piroska and Piper in the chase.
"If there is, let me fight them!" Piroska boasted. She held up her staff, and took a few steps in the attackers' direction.
"We shouldn't get too reckless." Etta said.
"Says the one who nearly caused a leaf storm to hit Damien when you used your rocket skates?" Piroska chuckled.
"This isn't the time for snarking!" Etta argued.
"It's the time for fighting!" Piroska interrupted and she ran towards the attackers.
"Don't get reckless!" Etta said.
"Yeah, what she said!" Piper said in agreement with Etta and followed Piroska.
"I'll be the defense." Piritta said in agreement, and followed Piroska and Piper.
Etta was about to join them when Polyxena asked "Should I stay here to entertain, and defend the crowd?"
"That'd be a good idea." Etta said to her, before she joined Piroska and Piper in the chase.
There was one malware left that Piper, Etta, Piritta and Piroska were chasing, but this last target was the fastest of them all. They'd tell me about this later, and I noticed that they tended to refer to these enemies as "malware". Juna and Gerald took me to a bench that was further away from the fight so I could lie down and rest while they defended me.
Glowing grids appeared under the criminals, which immobilized them when they tried to run past Juna and Gerald to attack me.
"If they break through this banishing spell, I have a backup option." Gerald sternly but eagerly said to the trapped malware. He pointed his battle staff at them. It was a two-handed staff made of a dark wood that had gold geckoes at the top and handle, encrusted with red gems. The gems on it were glowing.
Juna flew to the ground nearby, and pointed her wand at the malware as she focused the binding spell she used on them. I heard her say an incantation in another language that sounded nothing like any I heard. It sounded terse with many short words, but it seemed that she packed a lot of power into them. While the ones she trapped were trying to fight back against the binding spell, a small familiar effortlessly entered the grid and stole the items that they stole, left the grid and stood by her.
"We're just taking back what you stole." She plainly said to the criminals before she teleported them away. The grid dissipated and Juna's familiar seemed to vanish. She put her wand in the holster on her belt, and picked up the items that her familiar retrieved.
"They're here with more items!" Polyxena announced to the crowd she was supervising when she noticed that Gerald, Juna and I arrived.
Juna approached the crowd with the items that she had and started asking who had which item. She returned each of them to their rightful owners, one by one. People in the crowd started to disperse after they had their stolen items returned, but some wanted to stay and chat. About half of the people thanked her, but there wasn't as much fanfare, and no one was asking for her autograph.
She handed back a gem-studded and finely stitched leather handbag to its owner, an elegantly-dressed woman when I would be stunned over what I heard. "Hmmph. I wish that Clementine or Berry saved it for me." The woman sneered before she turned away. A few other people in the crowd also booed. I was stunned in silence from her ungrateful attitude, but glanced to see everyone else's reactions.
"We're all a team, and we're here to help." Etta said to her. "We, the Programmable Darling Patrol and our allies, operate as one team!"
"Why does it matter to you who retrieved your wallet?" Piritta stoically asked. The ungrateful woman looked intimidated by her, and responded nervously.
"You're better than her… Both of you are. She's not a good fit for this sector, and she's spreading nonsense values." She said before she began to walk away in a huff. Her statement was within earshot to Juna and Polyxena.
"I feel your frustration, Juna, and I would've said to her 'So what if they're different when we're on the same team?' if she stayed any longer." Piritta said to Juna. "I didn't wish to argue, but I wished to make her think about what she was saying."
"Thank you." Juna said and nodded.
Polyxena was upset and started to walk towards the ungrateful woman, almost wanting a confrontation before she stopped. Piroska was more stubborn and followed, almost eager to start a confrontation!
"You should be glad that she saved your handbag!" She shouted. Many people in the crowd gasped.
The woman looked shocked and upset when she heard this. "But you're better than her too!" She said to Piroska.
"Sorry that I got aggressive." Piroska said more calmly. "We're a team… You don't have to agree with all of us. Her ideas are different from a lot of ours, but we're united by our goals to protect this sector and work with people to improve everyone's lives!"
The woman sighed and relented to this before she walked away.
"Did you think I was going to start a fight?" Piroska nervously said to the rest of the team.
"It looked like you were. I didn't confront her when I wanted to because I didn't think it'd be worth it, and I needed to check on Damien." Polyxena said.
"As Juna's first mentor, you were being insulted too."
"I wanted to say something."
"You snark at me all the time-- and at Gerald or Multiplicia when they visit." Piroska chuckled.
The crowd continued to disperse. I walked up from the bench towards the team.
"I overheard a lot." I nervously said.
"I'm used to this." Juna stoically said, but I could hear a tone of resignation in her voice.
"People being that ungrateful? Were the people that I heard booing, booing at you?" I asked.
"They don't like me, and think that my philosophy is nonsense, or worse." She said, still trying to brush off the ungrateful remarks.
"I gave someone who was ungrateful to Juna a piece of my mind, but I was polite enough to remind her that we're a team." Piroska said.
"We could talk about this more when we return." Juna said.
They graciously invited me to dinner. We were gathered in the dining hall of the headquarters, which as with other rooms I've seen combines the look of an old mill with some wood paneled walls while other walls with geometric wallpaper patterns, some pieces of wooden furniture had colorful panels on them to clash less with the sleek space-age style furniture in reds, oranges, greens and blues.
Aside from the video phone and a few other gadgets in the kitchen, which looked too advanced to be from my world, most of the aesthetics didn't look too far off from what was popular in the 60's until now.
The entree on the middle of the table looked like a casserole, but it was served in a circular dish, and had a crust that was flaked with an ingredient that was square. I looked at it further. Were these crackers that were meticulously arranged to keep their shape? This usually wouldn't have crossed my mind but everything on the table seemed familiar yet different.
Next to everyone's plates were small bowls with spoons. Polyxena walked around the table with a pot and ladle, and ladled a serving of a soup that might be chowder into each bowl before she put the pot and ladle back on the stove. When she returned to the table, Piper started serving the casserole and putting slices of it on each plate.
"The chowder is a specialty of The Ship Deck, but the hotdisk recipe is from The Forge that’s popular here too." Piper cheerfully told me. Piroska chuckled.
"Thank you." I thanked her.
"I remember when you explained this to me back in the day!" Piroska said and chuckled again.
"Yeah yeah, I need to explain it to the newcomers." Piper remarked.
The casserole, or hotdisk as they seem to be called here looked strange to me. "I know of these as casseroles, but where I'm from, they don't have green crusts." I hesitantly said. "I don't want to be rude. I want to be sure this is safe."
"It's safe. I promise or I'll get booted from cooking duties." Piper said.
"She's a good cook too!" Polyxena said in agreement. After her, the others at the table nodded and chattered in agreement.
"I used to wonder if green food was a taboo in the human world" Piper said before she took the first bite of her slice of the casserole.
"It’s not that all of it is, but in the human world, bread and the tops of casseroles being green is generally a health hazard, but if this is safe, I'll try it." I said. I reached again for my fork and cut off a piece of my casserole slice and ate it. "Hmm..." It also tasted familiar but different from what I've tried, though these aren't a dish I had often. "It's good!" I said and I eagerly started eating the rest.
"...When we were down to one more to banish, he was the toughest one yet, but we worked together and got into a Star Attack formation to hone on him!" Etta cheerfully said while she recounted the details of the chase that I didn't see during dinner. A radio show was also playing in the background and it covered the event, adding onto the details Etta gave.
I chuckled at Etta's excitement, which was contagious and lifted the spirits of most of us! Although the pain from that attack still lingered, it was still bearable and I was able to distract myself from it.
Valencia was a few seats away for me, and looked restless. "I'm finished for now." She said, and put her plate and silverware in a large basin to wash them before she put them away, and promptly headed out of the hall.
"Please don't take it personally. It's not you." Polyxena said to me.
"Valencia! Do you want to have another fencing match?" Piroska excitedly said, standing up from her chair.
"Sure." She nodded, and smiled.
"It'll be just a minute!" Piroska chugged the rest of her bowl of soup, and the drink from her mug. As quickly as she chugged them, she rushed to the sink to quickly wash her dishes, and followed Valencia to the training room for a match.
"I'll fill her in on the rest if she asks." Etta said. "Her debut is what's been on her mind the most." She added.
The rest of the banter over dinner was light-hearted, and Juna looked to be happy. I wanted to ask if she wanted to talk about that incident and the others before it, of people who didn't welcome her. However, I didn't want to push it, and if she wanted to continue the banter that Etta and Polyxena started, I was happy for her.
We continued the banter and the feast into the night. Piper brought music to the table and was playing her guitar, but I had to leave early after I slumped over in pain.
"Is the injury getting worse?" She asked.
"I think so... Ugh..." I said. "What is it with that attack? It hurt, then the pain subsided and it's back again!" I said, groaning more severely.
"We'll get you to a guest room. Our best medic isn't here yet, but we'll tell her to come over to see you." Etta said. She helped me up from my seat. Piritta also stepped up from her chair to help me, and they escorted me through a long hallway to a guest room.
Etta opened the door, and turned on the lamp on the nightstand next to the bed. A warm yellowish light shone from the lamp, and revealed the room was small, but cozy-looking with its orange and yellow color scheme with splashes of green that came from the lamp, shag rugs and the curtains, and blue on the lamp shade. An orange and white diamond-patterned wallpaper lined the walls, and a simple bed with a white frame stood near a far corner of the room. A large orange blanket with red, yellow, blue and white flower patterns covered the mattress. The nightstand, drawers and closet were all white with orange doors.
"Thank you. I need this." I thanked Etta and Piritta, and promptly fell onto the bed. I lied on my back, and the mattress felt just right. A couple of pillows were in front of the headboard, and I rested my head on one of them. I felt the pain in my back and legs subside and melt out of me as I lied down.
Today's events were the strangest in my life. I don't know what could top being teleported to a magical world arranged like a circuit board, meeting a hero team and getting caught in the middle of a fight, but I'm fortunate that I arrived in the Programmable Darling Patrol headquarters. I could stay a while, and I feel somewhat better already after eating, but I'll still need some time to fully recover from these injuries...
