"I was scouted by one of Raphael's goons around 11am. Around 25 cycles ago.
Riding in the back of one of Raphael's many cars, Raph told me over a one-way speaker that he'd had a revelation and an awakening of powers.
He asked me rhetorically if I'd achieved a certain awakening, myself.
I had.
It wasn't a burst of power like a Super Saiyan, but I felt like it was perfect for my character. You see, I'm quite fond of spiders. I have a pet widow at home. No cage, we live symbiotically. 26 cycles ago, I heard her speak, not so differently from how we speak to each other. She asked me questions about humanity, and I noticed the more I spoke to her, the more I could feel my spider voice become more powerful. The eight-legged beauties would listen to me, I could order them to do things if I had to. After a day of spider-communication, I'd… No, that's a story for another day. Let's stick to the topic.
Raphael's day.
After a lengthy journey to the compound, Raph came out to greet us one by one as we all arrived in different cars driven by people who looked exactly the same.
Sunglasses, shaved heads, black suits, earpiece, dog tags around the neck, hand-chipped with the least information useful to nearly no-one. A 5-digit number starting in 8.
"I hope it was a comfortable journey, I'd hate for us to have to make the journey again. So let's try to make this day as simple as possible but inciting zero conflict." He says, fully aware that he's possibly the most dangerous presence among us.
"I comply pretty easily," I say, "I do worry about the others. Have you gathered everyone?"
"As many as I could find on short notice." he says, tone much quieter than usual. "Let me take you to the main room."
The journey is much longer than a journey to the 'main room' takes. Usually it's the first room you see, but this one was built so far into the compound that you'd assume it doubled as a bomb shelter. As we arrive, I hear 3 voices I do not recognise, and 2 that I do. Entering the room, I see 4 faces I do not recognise, and God.
The room is a barely decorated room with an oval-shaped table in the middle. Chairs scattered around it as if everyone scrambled to get their desired seat. To a stranger, it probably would've looked like a fight broke out here. Two seats lay on their sides, and one was tipped over. Five seats occupied and five (standing) seats unoccupied.
"Is everyone here?" I ask Raphael. He looks slightly disappointed.
"Not everyone." He begins pointing at the members in a random order as he introduces them. "Here, we have Violet, Marc, Deus, William, and God. I'm sure you've met at least two of us. Me not included."
Violet was wearing a plum tracksuit with white bandages covering both of her hands. Marc wore a black suit and earpiece similar to Raphael's goons. Deus wore a print t-shirt, hoodie and cargo shorts. He also wore sandals. William wore a makeshift sage green school uniform with an embroidered patch of a fox with a scimitar in its tail, which was fading into a flame, ironed and stitched on the breast pocket. God wore a dolly dress and sported an ambiguously flavoured iced cream.
In order, the seating plan was - in a clockwise direction - Raphael, William, Marc, Violet, Myself, Deus, and God.
"I was here first." Alerts Marc. "Do we introduce ourselves or do we accept that as an introduction?"
"The ancient dragon slumbering within me burns with passion! I adopted the name Violet Darkmoon long ago to seal my previous life behind me." Spoke proudly, the woman known as Violet. She struck strange poses between sentences to add impact to the nonsense she spoke.
"Marc. Marc isn't my real name though. The Syndicate gave me that name. I was born and raised with the number 7, because through sheer luck, I always hit my target." Marc spoke with a clean and sophisticated tone. Not a single word was misspoke, nor mispronounced. He sat stoically in his chair with his arms folded and one eye closed, as if he trusted us enough to close one.
"Deus is my name, and yes. It's my real name. My family run a tradition where the children are named after numbers. I happen to be the second child." He spoke with a confident tone, as if he needed no introduction. "However, I can be your first, if you give me a chance." He followed towards Violet. It appears Deus likes the ladies.
"William. My friends call me Bill. My friends who know my dad call me… Never mind. I go to school around town, I'm taking the day off." The young man spoke very nonchalantly, with a carefree attitude.
"Young William, if I recall, your school doesn't have a school uniform. What's with the getup?" Raphael chimed.
"You could call it a sense of style. I made it all myself, patch included. I have time on my hands. Tomorrow, I'll do it again." William snapped. Immediately, we know not to ask stupid questions around him.
God simply sat there licking her iced cream, saying not a single word out loud. We could still hear Her voice in our heads, She just spoke very little.
"Shall we commence this meeting?" Raphael began. "I've called you all here to discuss our certain situation. Last cycle, I had a physical revelation. The core which I seek has been unveiled."
"So you called us here to boast?" I said, confused.
"I called you here for a demonstration." Raphael placed a piece of paper, a memory stick, and a stack of tarot cards on the table. "I haven't read these cards at all. Please Marc, if you could shuffle them for me and lay them faced down in front of you." That was an order, not a request. He then brings the paper and memory stick closer to himself.
"If you insist." Marc takes the cards with what I could only call an experts grip and shuffles them as if he'd been shuffling cards professionally for years. He then places them in front of him, revealing a blindfold in which one goon appears behind him and ties it thoroughly around his eyes.
"Look at the top card, please." He remembers his manners. Marc takes a card, glances at it, and places it immediately faced down in front of him. "You don't have to be shy. You picked the Hermit. William, if you may."
As William picks up the card on top, an electricity fills the air. We don't know where exactly
it came from, but after a moment of ambient static electricity, William places the card faced down in front of him also.
"The Magician. Fitting." He refused to elaborate further. No explanation necessary, it seems. "Violet. Please." He pushes, urging us to get through this as fast as possible.
Violet picks up a card, to which Raphael automatically shakes his head. "The next card, please, Violet." She places the card on the bottom of the deck and picks up the next one. "Strength. That's what I expect of you, Violet. The previous card would not have fitted you at all. Deus, if you would."
As Deus picks a card, he slowly gazes around the table, making direct eye contact with both myself, and Raphael respectively.
"The Lovers simply makes sense for you. Any other and I might have been subtly surprised." His voice had a certain whimsy to it, which seemed almost playful. To me, who's known him since before this encounter, it appeared more sociopathic. A clear act. "God, your card is on the bottom of the deck. I know you're already aware of it. The High Priestess. My card is…" drawing a card with such an accuracy that you wouldn't believe his blindfold was tied twice around his face. "The Hierophant." Undoing his blindfold, he slowly removes it from his head. Eyes adjusting, he resists rubbing them comically. "Ladies and gentlemen, if you could keep your eyes on me please."
Raphael brings the sheet of paper under his fingertips, pushes down slightly, and nudges the paper to his left. William turns the paper over to reveal a photo which appeared to be taken on a security camera. Grainy, black and white, and from a distance.
The photo was of a man, at least 20-years old, sporting a navy coat with a fur hood and pom balls hanging from the hood-adjustment strings, long straight hair covering most of his exposed face. Hands in pockets, walkman that's clearly too big to fit in a trouser pocket, and black Timberland boots. He was looking straight into whichever camera that took this, one single eye glaring white while the other remained its natural colour. It would be assumed that the glare was a trick of the light.
"The man in the photo appears to be normal, but he moves like us. Outside the cycle." Raphael starts. "I've summoned him a few times in the past, but he doesn't answer to anything except an escort, so I've been forced to take further measures. I've dissected him - "
'dissected'?! My face makes a clear reaction.
" - and found there is nothing worth of note about him. He is simply like us, and nothing more. I've decided to take the communal route and show him that he's not alone. Of course he knows he has me, but I fear he needs a more… Friend-first approach. I dissected him on day one, maybe one of you try to do it on day two."
Marc raises his hand.
"I accidentally slit his throat twice and watched him bleed out on the street. The next day, he was gone and there wasn't a single trace of his body being there." As nonchalant as a man could be. "So I'm out of the friendly approach. We did go on a trip to the train station though."
A trip sounds friendly, though. I shook off that entire statement.
"I took the day off school to make this uniform,
so the only time I can see him again is if we both skip school and I decide not to make the uniform. I'm also out." William starts and ends like the day.
God says nothing, and looks straight at myself, and then at Violet. We nod at each other like we know what to do.
It's going to be completely improvised.
Raphael stands up, his plan now in motion. "Now that that's figured out, I'd like to ask the table; what have you achieved since the last cycle. What have your bodies achieved?"
"If you're asking about our power," Violet stands across from him, "then you should've asked that question before we entered a fragile room like this."
Ooh boy, here we go.
"My blood runs hot with the power of the darkest dragon in all of existence! He grants me strength and gives me the power to destroy my foes with the might of Zeus! When I walk into a room, peons feel the tremors from my aura! My eyes of Gluttony absorb all sin it encounters! I am the dark queen, the shadow that eclipses the light - "
Violet goes on for a while, but finishes on somewhat of an actual explanation.
"It's because of these blessings that I can create a pocket dimension that is impenetrable by all powers, and I can never die until my mission is fulfilled! I am Violet Darkmoon, Dragon Princess, and I will be the saviour of this cursed world!" Says the normal regular woman.
"I can hit things, doesn't matter how I do it." Marc mutters low, yet legible by all terms. His voice commands attention regardless of the volume.
William raises his hand, "I can move things with my mind." Then promptly puts it down, refusing to elaborate. He looks at me.
"Spiders. I tell the spiders what to do. I can… Persuade them. They just listen to me." I follow. I sense a certain air of discomfort accompanying this information.
Deus flicks his hair behind his ear with one hand and holds out his other, freer hand. "I can do this," whilst manifesting a pair of nunchucks from thin air. "but I can't do anything with them."
Then why try to act cool about it?
The room glances over at God, and collectively sigh. We're somewhat aware that God's powers are beyond our comprehension. Raphael stands up to diffuse the newfound awkwardness.
"Now that we're all truly acquainted, I'd like to discuss our path forward."