System Hunt: Regalia

“Come on, what are you waiting for?”

At Alex’s beckoning, Sam stopped gawking and walked up the flight of fanciful stairs, ducking as he entered the private jet the DSF had chartered for their unscheduled trip to Manila.

He looked around the jet, behind him was the cockpit and ahead a row of ergonomic chairs, a bar stool for the wet bar placed before the curtains that led where Alex had disappeared into.

Sam tossed the single article of luggage, a long gym bag, onto the first chair in sight and moved on to sit in the free one while unwinding and releasing Nyx from her backpack. Alex had been kind enough to drive back to his apartment and let him pick out some briefs, his tourist shirts, phone/Regalia charger and the all-important second backpack for Nyx. He wanted to pack a proper box but she was quick to remind him they weren’t going as tourists and anything he needed would be provided for him in a heartbeat.

She did frown upon him bringing Nyx along though but there was no argument to be had there, not with him. It wasn’t like he was too eager to get on a plane to Manila and even though Alex said it was his choice to come along, he was certain it was her mission to ensure he did. Nyx will always be non-negotiable.

Sam pulled out his headphones and looked to his phone for music, only there was none. He groaned and cursed he kept putting off getting a working phone, and a wave of depression washed over him that he’d gone on so long without even considering it a priority. A phone was primarily for keeping contacts after all and yet…

He swallowed those thoughts, burying them swiftly under picture perfect memories of his glorious new found power and might. Where he was headed now needed some of that might, he let himself be needed and it felt good.

“Hello! Excuse me, could I get some music on here?” Sam hollered out to the single attendant working the flight, she came over with a serviceable smile and lent him a hand working out the little screen at the back of the seat in front of him. Not long and his music was blasting in his ears, his chair reclined and the air conditioning on full blast as he awaited a tray of chips.

After a couple songs played away and his tray arrived, Sam began to wonder what was keeping Alex so long. They had yet to take off too. There was no reason he couldn’t continue to appreciate the slice of luxury, with Nyx laid on his stomach and eating chips out of his hands and his music lambasting every sinister thought, but he was also expecting to get some answers out of the DSF Sergeant.

After being around them, being exposed to the Belua and now being chartered off to another country to fight Belua on their behalf…. well, some things weren’t adding up neatly. More than that, he was simply curious about just how widespread the Doom Tower hunting organization was.

Even if they’re some ancient society of believers in crusader mythics, they just appeared over a year ago and Alex…she doesn’t seem the type. At the bold assumption the music failed to stop a cursed memory from flashing behind his eyes and he bit his lip hard. But what do I know?

Alex finally returned from behind the curtains, announcing her presence by slapping his chest with a fat document as she pulled off his headphones, “You might want to get a lawyer to look at that before you sign it. But where we’re headed you need it signed so…last chance off the ride.”

She turned her chair to face him as she sat, Sam watched her forehead struggle not to furrow and glanced down at the document. It was a contract agreement and a lot of it was lengthy and written in legalese. While his past job as a courier was little to write home about, he was still literate enough to grasp the gist of the contract terms.

“Do you understand it?” He asked even as he flipped over the next page.

Alex shrugged, “Not really.”

He raised a suspicious brow at that and she waved her hands at his unspoken thoughts, “I’m just a normal employee, not a Regalia Wielder. We didn’t get a contract so thick or fancy, I think we just got employed, heh.”

Sam saw the opportunity for a segway into some of the questions that had been plaguing him and took it, “How long have you been working for them? The DSF?”

She smirked at the question and crossed her legs as she reclined in her seat, “Officially? It’s been a year. Unofficially…well, wouldn’t you like to know.”

Sam deadpanned, “Yes, I would like to know the truth of the organization this contract wants me signing my soul and being to.”

Alex held his gaze, piercing it with a look that held so much truth and teased him with the fact as her lips split into a grin, “Is that all?”

Sam blinked and wondered just how see through he was. Transparent, like glass. He turned back to the document and flipped aimlessly, “And you too, I guess.”

Sam could feel her grin grow larger as she let out a giggle that contrasted so much with the operative she was, the Sergeant she was to the DSF and the General Sir.

She kicked her legs eagerly as she nodded, “Okay, I’ll tell you.” Sam met her level gaze, she held up her chin in her palms, her fingers drummed and pulled at her cheeks as she watched him with a mischievous glint in her eyes, “But…somethings are better left unsaid, yes?”

“Everyone has a past.” Sam said. Alex didn’t need to elaborate on what exactly she was going to leave out, all that mattered is that he understood, and he did.

“Well then, I should probably start by saying…I’m sort of a Princess.”