...and the Weirdos Who Watch Them

"I am Platiknight! Now prepare yourselves to face justice!"

Ka-chink! Vrrr! Ka-chink!

"I am Platiknight! Now prepare yourselves to face justice!"

Ka-chink! Vrrr! Ka-chink!

"I am Platiknight! Now prepare yourselves to face justice!"

Ka-chink.

"Unbelievable…"

Nestled deep within a busy cityscape sat a most unremarkable office building. It was single-story, connected to two other businesses, and the only indication that the place existed was a shared sign that marked it as [Guardian Organics].

On the surface, this company was an organic food company that ran over a thousand grocery stores across the planet. In reality, it was the front for an organization that monitored the activities of people known as "Users" and the strange "Systems" that provided them their powers, covered up their existence, and nothing more.

In the past, they had tried to regulate and restrict these Users from abusing their powers multiple times, but to no avail. The cost was simply too great, and the payoff was often too little.

But at this moment, in an unremarkable cubicle occupied by a mousy office woman with unkempt bangs, a miracle was being replayed on her work laptop's monitor.

"This... is unprecedented!" the woman eventually declared, standing up and swiftly grabbing her laptop off the table. "I have to tell the chief, now."

With a purposeful stride, the woman walked right past her fellow office workers, who themselves were busy reviewing footage of Users clashing against one another. Their footage, however, was considered relatively routine. So seeing how this coworker of theirs was walking with such purpose was enough to get them to turn their gaze away from their monitors for a couple of moments to see what the all the fuss was about.

"Hey, Cybil! Why are you walking like you got a hellhound on your ass?"

"Because I think I just witnessed a miracle."

"Like how that magic-wielding User made it rain toads on that poor village?"

"I mean a real one!"

…One Purposeful Stride later...

"Damn it… damn it!"

In an office overlooking an office space, a middle-aged, balding man with a stern face was cursing and slamming his fist against a polished, dark wood desk as he stared at the charts and figures on his computer. Crunching this data down to its barest components, the message conveyed was that the number of Users of both System "A" and System "M" had risen dramatically over the past few months, more so than it had in the past ten years.

The last time such a spike occurred, a globe-spanning conflict almost wiped out half of the entire world. This was back before nuclear weapons were officially acknowledged.

It had been many decades since that dark time in human history, and now they were threatening to come back. Only this time, the end result would definitely be for keeps.

A heavy sigh escaped the man's lips as he pressed his hands against his forehead and began to make a silent prayer.

"Heavens above, please... send me a miracle."

BAM!

"Chief Willard, I have a miracle to show you!"

"Wait, what?"

The bald man known as Chief Willard had prayed like this multiple times before but had usually been met with silence and more tragedies. So the fact one of his subordinates came charging in at the exact moment he needed a miracle was incredibly coincidental.

Then again, working this job had made him realize that coincidences were merely facets of fate intersecting... or something like that. He was told this by a User who fancied themselves a fortune teller.

"Cybil, would you mind telling me why you decided to barge into my office?"

"HERE!"

"WHOA!"

Before Chief Willard could finish his question, Cybil had already placed her laptop onto her superior's incredibly expensive desk and began to play the footage she had been rewatching for the past hour or so.

The initial part of the footage played out in a typical manner, at least by the agency's standards. A User in control of a rock troll was fighting a User that was controlling a robot with a proclivity for fire, and during the scuffle, an innocent bystander got caught up and was almost killed.

So far, Willard wasn't impressed.

"Okay, why are you saying this is a miracle? It looks pretty standard to me."

"Just keep watching!"

This battle went on for a couple more moments until something unusual happened.

"What the hell?"

Off to the side of this ongoing battle, a young man with glasses and a hoodie had snuck into the area and tried to make his way over to the injured bystander. Needless to say, Willard couldn't make out a good reason as to why this young man was risking his neck.

Shortly after the man had made it to the bystander's side, the absolute worst outcome had occurred. One of the attacks launched by the robot had suddenly gone wide and was about to turn this brave young man and injured bystander into burnt piles of—

BAM!

"What the hell?"

"See? Miracle!"

Only that didn't happen.

Instead, right before Willard's very eyes and moments before the fireball made impact, the young man had summoned a familiar that took the form of a shining knight armed with a giant shield.

Now, Willard had seen familiar summonings before, but this one was different from those prior experiences because of one specific little detail.

Every familiar, regardless of their maker of build, carried a symbol somewhere on their body that denoted which System had created them.

Familiars created with System "A" always had this strange circular array imprinted somewhere on their body, while all the familiars created with System "M" had a cog-wheel-shaped emblem printed on them.

The only issue in finding this emblem was that it required the usage of specially made lenses to be seen, hence why they could be used on everything from cameras to glasses.

With this detail in mind, this unusual knight in shining armor carried neither of these identifying marks on his person. Instead, blazing like a bright beacon in the center of his chest was a logo that looked like a shield with a stylized "SK" in its center.

This could only mean one thing.

"A new system has appeared," Chief Willard stated while looking absolutely shellshocked.

"Yes, Chief," Cybil agreed. "And this time, I think we might be able to work with this one."

"Oh? Why?"

Cybil didn't answer her superior at this moment because she decided it would be more impactful for the precious metal paragon to explain it himself.

"Who am I? Who am I?! I am the precious metal paragon! The unbreakable Paladin who protects all against the forces of evil! The shining shield of hope in the darkness of despair!"

After making this bold declaration, the knight in shining armor prepared for battle.

"I am Platiknight! Now prepare to face justice!"

And from there, things went absolutely pear-shaped for the two Users who had started this whole debacle.

"Oh, this next part is my favorite," Cybil commented.

"Next part?"

"PLATINUM COMET CRASH!"

"Oh."

In all honesty, the moment Willard saw Platiknight finish off the two familiars with an empowered shield charge, he felt as if he had just finished watching an old superhero cartoon from his childhood.

And just, like in those halcyon days of his, he felt something he hadn't felt in a long time.

Hope.

"Cybil, do you know who this mysterious young man is?," Willard asked after rewinding the footage back to when Platiknight was first summoned and playing it from there.

"Unfortunately, no," Cybil sighed. "But I get the feeling that he might be able to help us deal with…you know."

"I agree," Willard nodded while watching the footage playback to the point where Platiknight defeated the enemy familiars. "In that case, do you happen to know where exactly this battle took place?"

"That, I can tell you," Cybil nodded. "This footage happened less than an hour ago, in San Francisco."

"San Francisco?," Willard repeated in an amused tone of voice. "The home of the counterculture revolution and the same city that had once been the beacon of hopes and dreams of striking it rich during the Gold Rush...how appropriate."

After making this comment, Willard motioned for Cybil to take back her laptop before he gave his next set of orders.

"Cybil, I want you to take a team to San Francisco and track this young man down. Once you do, report back to me. Go and do it now."

"Of course, sir," Cybil nodded and bowed before leaving the office.

Once Willard was alone, he let out his second sigh for this evening.

But this one was now filled with hope.

"Looks like the tides of change are finally coming..."

...Now back to a certain city that was home to a golden bridge made of red-painted steel...

"Phew... what a crazy ass night," SK sighed as soon as he managed to get back to his apartment and finally unwind for a bit."Now then... do I put in the effort to actually get ready for bed or do I just pass out on the couch like a lazy bum?"

As soon as he asked himself this question, he received an alert window from his new system.

[Daily Quest: Proper Hygiene has been activated.]

"What the fuck?"

Evidently, the system had a better idea of what he should be doing with his time.