Welcome to the Program

[airlockedmods]

Good Morning, Champions. In the interest of maintaining healthy sleep patterns, a day/night cycle is in effect. Your presence is expected in the cafeteria in exactly one hour.

[The voice comes through not a large speaker, but through the device that's attached to each Champion's arm. Further investigation of the features of the device will reveal a list of profiles, a mini-map, and a list of rules. The hallways are shiny white and silver, with running lights along the floor and lights on the ceiling, and at the junction of the hallways is a sign with a knife and fork icon and an arrow pointing down the hall.

Welcome to the Excellence Program, Champions. Time to get to know your teammates.]

Comments

cafeteria

[ratherdoweddings]

How many people are stuck here? Nobody knows where we are?

[fatherofsin]

Twenty. There's twenty people here. And it's relatively easy to kidnap someone across time and space with the right technology.

[ He doesn't miss a beat, not even looking up from the data he's been given. ]

[ratherdoweddings]

What technology? Is this some thing the Jovians have?

[fatherofsin]

Do you know of Magical Kingdom Levianta? Lightwatch? Do you know of Levia and Behemo? No? Precisely. I'm not of your world. I'd wager we're all from different world. A bit of teleportation technology spliced with something that can reach through time and space into other worlds... That's all they'd need.

[ ...He's rather excited and nearly bouncing in his seat. To see this all in motion... ]

[ratherdoweddings]

You're the third person talking about different dimensions. And I barely understand that space-time travel thing the Jovians have been using, even if we just jumped eight months and fifty-five million kilometres with it.

[fatherofsin]

That's because it's true. I was already researching parallel worlds. I knew they existed. But to meet people from other worlds face-to-face... Now that's quite the thing. I don't know of these Jovians you speak of, though.

[ratherdoweddings]

The Jovian Lizards are the enemy. They've taken over Mars and the Moon and are attacking Earth with the drones they send out of portals. My ship had just come back from trying to rescue the colonists on Mars when... I guess I just woke up here!

[fatherofsin]

...The moon of my planet is utterly barren [ A lie. ] and I've never heard of "Mars."

[ Trying to make a point here. ]

[ratherdoweddings]

[deflates] You did ask. This is making my head hurt.

[fatherofsin]

Oh, I did, but I'm making a point. I don't think we're in your universe. It's troubling, because I don't believe we're in any of our universes. They seem to have removed as much familiarity from us as they can. I'm surprised I had glasses on hand.

[ratherdoweddings]

If this isn't home, then where is it?

[fatherofsin]

Who knows? But not your home. Probably not mine, either.

[ratherdoweddings]

So we're stuck until we figure out the technology they're using for this. That's not fair at all!

[fatherofsin]

Wouldn't it be entirely fair? We're the lab rats wandering a maze for the cheese, so to speak. Those are the rules. We can either be content with the maze, or find ways to get what we want.

[ratherdoweddings]

You could at least say we're something cuter than rats.

[fatherofsin]

...Rats are perfectly cute, though, to a lot of people. They can be a popular pet.

[ ...This is confusing. ]

[ratherdoweddings]

But most people think they're pests!

[fatherofsin]

They also have a lot of analogous reactions to humans, so depending on what you're researching, they're ideal.

[ratherdoweddings]

You know, I always kind of wondered why scientists used rats to study things. I thought it was just on TV.

[fatherofsin]

Not at all, it's something we do. They give us fast results on things we need fast results with.

[ratherdoweddings]

Just because they act like humans... And everyone always says humans are special and different, when really, we're more like animals than we think. That's actually kind of interesting!

[fatherofsin]

Indeed. Humans are a kind of animal, just a very advanced one.