THE MOMENT
“You're the last line of defense,” Steven stopped at the hallway mirror on his way out the door for a final affirmation to get into the right mindset; then he headed out the door and to work.
The narrow foyer revealed nothing about his spacious home beyond it. It was a simple white tile floor with a single, small square table supporting his wood and leather organizer. He unloaded his pockets there every evening and collected his keys and wallet the next morning.
Steven lived alone and was happy with the mundane life he'd cultivated. It was nice to have a bastion of normalcy to end his days after the long and often strange work hours.
Several years ago, strange happenings began, and life moved on. It so happened that people were being summoned to other universes. Going on grand adventures to save entire realms, and then returning with a variety of magical abilities and unexpected items or friends. And, they weren't outliers. It happened with enough frequency to build an industry around.
Governments coordinated and established rules and departments. And now, people like Steven were hired into essential positions, and made a very comfortable living.
It was dangerous, of course. The drive to work was always spent reflecting on that danger; the commute gave him too much time to wonder if it was all worth it. Not a day went by that there wasn't at least one major incident.
He wasn't the only one on site and he'd been lucky so far that he was never involved in those incidents. But it was something often on his mind. His lucky streak was bound to run out at some point. And they were dealing with people fresh on their return, still overflowing with power.
The drive was quiet and uneventful, like most mornings spent in his head. It also filled him with a fair bit of pride to have such an effortless morning. A mundane world outside meant he was doing an important job inside. The weather was cool and breezy and the sun was working its way up the sky as he passed the security gate, parked, and walked on in.
There were no planes, but the building was organized like a travel hub, with long walks through spacious halls. He was waved past the employee security desk by a familiar, friendly guard, and made a beeline for the office.
He was experienced and meticulous and was ready to take his post five minutes early, like clockwork. Management had noticed.
“Hey, Steve,” his boss, Dave, approached with an unfamiliar employee in the same red vest that identified him as an employee. Dave was a stocky, ruddy man, and the new employee was a blonde woman.
“Celina's starting out, I'm gonna have her shadow you for the first half of the morning,” Dave said before turning to Celina. “This is Steve, he's a good dude to learn from.” He left it at that and walked away with a wave.
“Hello, Steve,” She smiled and offered her hand.
“Please, it's Steven.” he chuckled. “I've given up correcting Dave, but I'm sure you can get it right,” he said.
“Sure thing, Steven.” She smiled.” So what do we do?”
“Well, when anyone asks me what I do, I like to tell them I'm part of the organization responsible for dealing with what happens with returning isekaied heroes,” he grinned.” We’re the last line of defense keeping our world normal and mundane.”
“Hah!” she genuinely laughed with sparkling green eyes. “You're such a dork, this'll be fun.” she said.
Then she looked over at their first guests approaching. A pair of warriors, a man and a woman, adorned in sparkling gold armor. The man was mostly bare-chested and unnaturally muscular, wearing gold bands around his wrists and neck. The woman wore a bikini woven from golden thread.
“Alright, what am I looking for?” she asked. She made a curt nodding motion, and a translucent red glass visor appeared over her eyes. Steven did the same to summon his own viewer. He sighed immediately as Celina realized what she was looking at.
“Wait, he's an NPC?” she ignored the magical armor for the more important question. “We're just customs... Do we deal with NPCs?”
“No, at don't…,” Steven replied with a shake of his head. “And I'm betting it's not going to be easy to explain to this nice lady that her new NPC husband isn't allowed on our Earth. It's always the worst when they want to come back with a family. “