For some reason, Psyche felt animosity between some of the invitees when she watched them all walk to the technological table. This whole experience was already very confusing, especially with at least one hundred people here. And some of them were suspicious too.
At least she met, or saw Narcissus, who was strangely already by the tabletop, who seemed shocked to see her there. And Psyche herself felt more sane as this went on, so this time she responded like a normal person, and simply shrugged.
She wanted to suddenly gain telepathy and have a conversation right there and then, but her mind was supposed to be focused on the serious looking girl that had commanded them all to go inside, dark brown hair in a braid resting on her shoulder. She kept her composure as she walked towards the table with her boots clacking against the concrete after shutting the rusty warehouse doors, closing with a creaky slam.
She walked next to a girl with dark, chocolatey skin, and bright blue hair in a pixie cut, with a burn scar covering the left half of her face. Psyche didn't feel anything thought, even when looking at the gruesome melted skin. Instead she found this person looking really cool, and even pretty, with her gorgeous chocolate eyes.
Psyche wondered what was wrong with her, and whether there was something wrong with her. She was certain that a normal person would at least feel bad or flinch at this, or feel any type of anxiety in this situation. So she was worried, worried that she might be broken. Terrified that she was unrepairable. Maybe I'm just an optimist. She hopefully thought, feeling herself cracking more and more as she had this mental conversation.
Shut the fuck up, Psyche. Don't be all philosophical right now, dumb bitch, focus. Psyche mentally slapped herself, and physically shook her head and focused on the people upfront.
"Welcome to Operation Pandora, or Pandora for short." The woman with the burn and an authoritative aura stood straight and tall, voice echoing in the large room. She continued. "You all may refer to me as Commander or General Commander Blanche. The person next to me is Colonel Atlas Meringue, whom you have all probably heard of when you received relative information to Pandora. We are authoritative figures in this project, as well as a few classified personnel that will help us on our mission." Colonel Atlas nodded with a smile when she heard her name as Commander Blanche explained.
"The purpose of national governments around the world is for the purpose of the next stage of 2020." Her voice was solemn and serious, the exact combination that sent chills down everyone's spine, except those who were preoccupied, like Psyche noticed the death glares between two of the invitees. "According to resources, in three days time, the 'system' will start up."
"I'm sure you are all wondering what this so-called system is, so I'll explain it from here." Colonel Atlas took over, stepping next to Commander Blanche. "This system is like a gaming notification, like an RPG game, and it is recorded to be prepared for October first, 2020, or Halloween, where the astrological event called a blue moon will occur." She cleared her throat and clicked a button on the multi-touch table, in which the pictures of blueprints and other stuff shrunk down, and a 3D map of our solar system was displayed largely.
"As you can see, a blue moon occurs when Earth's atmosphere contains dust or smoke particles of a certain size, slightly wider than nine-hundred nanometers, and these particles are very good at scattering red light." She continued the lengthy explanation, some kids shifting more in place. "It also occurs when there is a fourth full moon in a season instead of the regular three. This night will be like a Pandora's box for humanity, and the system is our weapon to overcome it. As far as the world knows, this Pandora's box will be open for a very long time."
"That is correct. All of you will have a purpose, and paid you fifty thousand U.S. dollars in advance for your work. We will start preparing you all to be the sole protectors of this region, and how to maximize the effectiveness of the system. We will be sending in some experts to help you with your training." Commander Blanch took over again, walking to the other side of the multi-touch. She then scanned the crowd, hands crossed comfortably in front of her. "Any questions?"
"I have a question," A random adult from the crowd raised his hairy hand as Colonel Atlas nodded her head as a sign to ask, no words needed.
"Do we all have to fight? Like are there more technical jobs, or something?" He asked, lowering his hand slowly. Psyche knew nervousness, and this guy was nervous. She guessed not everyone was a fighter.
Commander Blanche and Colonel Atlas glances a smile at each other before turning warmly to the middle-aged man. The commander continued.
"There will not solely be practical jobs. We are going to need people to give intel, and monitor the situation from afar. However, there must be a majority in those who participate in the full training course, and those who are aiming for technical positions still need to undergo a certain level of offense and defense." She explained calmly, putting more people at ease than they would've thought.
She then called on another who had her hand up.
"Why were some people invited? Do you need them for something?" The people up front shuffled a little, some rather curious as to why too.
"Ah, the invitees. These people will smooth out the minor and major problems of Pandora, and help perfect the system while training with you all. Don't worry, everyone here has a purpose." Colonel Atlas responded, glancing at the people upfront.
"Now if that is all, let's distribute you into ten groups. When I call your name with your group, come up, and then go off to the side with your group. Call them whatever you want, but the code and the group you will be in will be the team you all are set to work with for at least half a year. So don't get your hopes up." Commander Blanche pressed her pointer finger on some button on the table, which then displayed a small list. To everyone's surprise, Blanche just took it with her hand, like it was an actual piece of paper. Damn, technology. Psyche thought to herself as she waited silently.
"Group one, Sofia Adams, Kyle Brunnigham, Aleene Christoff, Bob d'Alem, Aiden Ponwick, Xin Fou, Muhammad Gray, Elizabeth Divou, Cassandra Malbrine, and Stefan McGoon." Commander Blanche started, going down the lists and lists of names, causing Psyche to yawn. She yawned silently, but it went on for a while, until she flinched mid-yawn and felt her name about to be called. Anxiety welled up inside her.
"Group seven will conclude with Eden Raphael, Kaos Break, Psyche Rosehill, Narcissus Devoin, Moss Raj, Wes Tuma, Kayden Williams, Laurel La Cruz, Silas Cassian, Aris Reed, and Ezekiel Embers."
She couldn't believe this. Daisy Rosehill, her own goddamn mother, had signed Psyche up for this sketchy government event and not herself. For fifty thousand dollars. Psyche could feel the anger about to explode, and her forehead turning red. She glared at everything as she stormed over to the group she was assigned to. THAT MOTHERFUCKING PIECE OF BULLSHIT—
In order to distract herself from the disgusting betrayal of her mother, and probably her father too since that told each other everything, she decided to take a breather, and focus on the people in front of her. These were going to have to be people Psyche would have to work with.
The people Psyche noticed was that annoyed girl named Kaos and the equally annoyed guy Eden, whom both very clearly had a burning passion of hate towards each other.
She was watching their display of animosity from opposite sides of the group, when she felt someone's presence next to her.
She turned to Narcissus, who was smiling down at her from his tall height. He had a sweet face, and even though they literally met like a week ago, once, yet she already knew what was going to go down.
"Hey, Psyche, was it?" His dangerous voice was honeyed, a very clear warning sign. For what, even Psyche didn't know. But she didn't give a damn. "May I ask what you are doing here, Psyche?"
"Well, you know how she died, right? Yeah, well for a fucking large sum of fifty thousand, she signed me up for this, completely independently." Psyche could not contain the rage when she felt her voice rising, and blood boiling—no, now evaporating. "Can you believe that? Ha, cause for some odd reason I can't wrap my mind around it."
Narcissus was originally going to reprimand her and demand her to go home, but after hearing her angry and sad words, he realized once again that she didn't have a home. All he could do is sigh and pat her in the back.
"Yeah, that's messed up. Sigh." He patted Psyche's back in an awkward reassuring way, and in return, Psyche gave him a thankful smile as well as a raised eyebrow, saying really?
This won't be completely terrible. So screw you, Daisy Rosehill, because I might have fun.