The 6 Greatest Errors of All Time | ✓

XXII. project pleiades

"Excuse you?"

M&M's voice echoed throughout the room before it melted into silence. Her eyes located mine and I stared back with narrowed eyes, not being able to provide a sense of reassurance for her because I also had no idea what to make of our overseer's claim. Arsomis whistled jokingly as his head traveled around the room once more, not believing that everything in the compartment belonged to... us. Anyone else would do fine— would make sense.

But us? We were ordinary people that were scrambled together into a team like fried eggs. Held together by sticky rice. With a side-serving of knuckle sandwiches and a pack of six beers because what sane person would involve themselves in the underground business without being drunk? Side note, my child Pooh was an exception.

The motorcycle's helmet that I was holding tightly in my hands fell limp on my lap as I took slow breaths to process what was going on. From the corner of my eyes, I saw our chairman dragging one of those metal cold chairs that seemed like it would break under all of our weights from the wall and he placed it near us. He spun the chair's metal back 'round and seated himself on the padded seat, legs outstretched too coolly for his age.

He tapped the back of the chair towards us and opened his mouth. "Sit. For us to move forward, I'm going to have to ask you to put your trust in me." When we all didn't move, he let out a rough sigh and added, "Like you all did in the past."

We all found ourselves locating where our Commander stood for the next clue of what to do. I shot Pierce a silent side-glance and he naturally reciprocated, despite not knowing who I was behind my mask. The man then turned his head to survey the rest of the team. When he nodded in reassurance, we relaxed and finally decided to comply.

Pierce pulled over a stained, wooden box crate and sat on it leisurely. M&M hopped on two monster truck tires that were stacked atop each other. L01 found a table against the wall and sat on it after clearing some worn-down appliances out of the way. Arsomis found himself a desk stool that went along with the table L01 was sitting on and he sat himself on it. Pooh sat on the backpack he brought.

I remained by the bikes, unmotivated to exile myself from my unofficially claimed throne, and swung both of my legs to the side of the seat so that I faced the group. K2, at the end of the day, was the only one that sat on those metal chairs that, while meant to be sat on, were discarded by us.

When we were all gathered, the older man noticed our odd, personal habits at the get-go and let out a small sigh. "We have chairs, you know."

"Congratulations, and my niece has cavities," chimed Arsomis' sarcastic tone. "Now tell me what's going on. Why and how did you bring my team here?"

K2 flicked out a physical copy of the invitation we all received from his inside coat pocket between his pointer and middle finger. The card was tossed to Arsomis and the darker man caught it in his large palm, rotating it around to examine.

"Osias Blak— director," He growled all of a sudden. "How can you be so careless? You know who I am and yet you bring me here to them?"

The older man brought up his hand and immediately silenced the rambling. "Hold your ground," His deep voice resonated. "There's a lot happening today and by the end of it all, that would be the least of our problems."

K2 peered at each one of us individually and nodded quietly to himself, as if he had reached a conclusion. He then looked at Pierce.

"Do you guys want to learn about your past?"

Silence befell the group as we wondered how much he knew about us, and how he knew it when we ourselves didn't know. We glanced at our leader for his thoughts. He loosened his tie quietly as he met eyes with our government official. "Yeah. Our memories... we all lost it."