Arrival to take-off.
"You are the new member? What are you called? Do you think you can be helpful to the team?" reporters from all over the nation.
Take-off of pea-
"Ma'am, we need you to carefully look through the general guidelines of a hero organisation. And next about how the TTT works. We know that you'd know, hence why you were accepted as a full-time member of Pack, BUT-" managers of Pack.
Please. Knew these since the day I was born.
Finally when the night arrives, some-
"Hey-hey, Ein," Secret-eye whisper-calls me.
"Don't call me that," I say, not even lifting up my eye mask.
"We uh... I was hitting on you the other day, then you fainted and... just curious, was it because of that?" Secret-eye asks.
"Was partially."
"Well... have you changed your mind or...? Or perhaps, how do you even feel about it?"
"Nauseous."
"Message received."
Some piece of shit he was. Trying to ruin peace.
The private plane was pretty noisy at midnight. Did Pack even have funds?
Perhaps it was something else? But I clearly didn't want to know or see what was up.
In the morning, a good morning wake up...
"Can you fight? Let us spar," Super-pack says.
"...we are on a plane," Point-zero says.
"Thank you," I sigh.
"Do you fear him?" Mind, besides me, asks, laughing sarcastically.
"Yeah!" I say.
Well, he was still a speedster, so no.
After getting out of the plane, and in the car...
"Miss... uh... have you... read the instructions?" the same manager asks me, again.
"She has. That is why she is on the team," Point-zero vouches for me.
Wow. What even happened to him after... this unknown saving of me, that he had gotten so nice towards me?
"Yes sir, BUT-"
And this way, we reach the stadium by afternoon.
"Welcome! The TTT presents the tournament testing teamwork, '28," the announcer says. "A total of 87 teams have registered this time. Yet... lot more of the teams of the world are here."
Shit. This could only mean that one team would come to picture here. And if Pack faces them anytime before the top 8 matches... they could never have a chance.
"And we'd like to announce, for the first time, A chance presented to one of the oldest hero organisations on Earth, to join the TTT-"
"We accept," an echo, not too loud, yet stomping over the voice of the announcer, passes across the stadium.
Fuck.
"Haha, then that says it folks-"
"-please. They are a villain team," yet another echo, in forms of a mere whisper, yet another stomping voice, heard over the announcer's.
That. That was the immortal, Ashwatthama, without a doubt. And the enemy of Asuraas.
"Yes, Mr. Ashwatthama-"
"-Ashwatthama is fine. I'm not a king anymore," Ashwatthama says.
"Yes, sir, yet you are greater to me."
"We both are human, no?"
No. You are an immortal human, mate. But not the announcer.
"Yet, you are... a hero. And I'm someone you have saved. And as an announcer, I ought to respect you," the announcer replies, ever so politely.
"Let it be so then. I disagree to the Asuraas being in the TTT," Ashwatthama says.
"We would definitely have given you the chance. If you even had a single partner, and a company backing you up," the announcer sees.
Ashwatthama scoffs. "Alright then. I shall give a special entrance."
Now going to the top four would be the worst thing too.
The crowd gets silent, at a whole part of the stadium. But cheers resound out, from a smaller part.
Ashwatthama, an immortal talked of in the Hindu mythology. He was a cursed being, cursed to never die.
Once a great king, Ashwatthama was cursed to have a wound for 3000 years, and roam the forests, bleeding continuously, yet never dying. A curse he got from the great god Krishna, for having tried to murder a child, before its birth.
After these 3000 years of rehabilitation, he finally saw things straight, evidently. And he became one of the solo heroes, hunting demons, or Asuraas, who were still alive on Earth.
"We shall be there for that," the first echo voice resounds.
That probably was one of the Asuraas, but surely not their leader. Their leader... even I hadn't seen him, even with omniscience and all of it. He wears a mask, unlike the other Asuraas, and vanishes like wind.
The Asuraas are twelve in number. The reason is pretty interesting, there are some other called as the 'Adityas' in Hindu mythology, who basically are the GOOD Asuraas. And Adityas being twelve in number, the Asuraas decided to be so too.
The only other person, with close omniscience, is one of the Asuraas. Even thinking of his name, could alert him of me, but his name meant 'cowardly demon'. I think I could at least say that.
All the Asuraas have the same story, they all got a boon, by praying and praising a god, and asking them for a boon. All they ever seeked was power, hence always asked for weird ways for immortality, and went on to cause mayhem, only to be killed in the end.
The cowardly demon has a boon too, granted by one of the gods. The boon of knowing danger, to its root. If someone with bad intentions, even thinks of his name, he'd feel their presence. If an arrow is shot towards him, he'd instantly know of it. So there was no way to jump-scare the guy.
That guy alone, made Asuraas a threat, to any team at all.
Ashwatthama never liked the bunch. As this bunch even went on and saved people, to get on his good side, yet Ashwatthama watched them closely.
Ashwatthama even made sure that Asuraas never could take a breath in peace, pretty much how my flight to this place was.
Hence the antagonists turned protagonists, were just a mere -tagonists now.
See? It all makes sense now. Just wait for it to make sense! Gosh!
And what Ashwatthama meant by special entrance was... the final challenge for the top four. Every year, there always waited a secret challenge, decided by the TTT, to show up in the finals. According to the team's performance, the winner and the runner ups were decided.
The last time, Pack took a sigh of relief, as they didn't reach the finals.
Hero organisations ALWAYS won the last round, since forever. But last year.
Last year, the special entrance was only the world's strongest hero, unnamed, but widely known. He kicked the top four, and BECAME the strongest hero organisation, without being a hero organisation. And probably Ashwatthama was counting on that.
But, that also meant that he, the unnamed hero, could also be one of the contenders, on in the 87. Hence it'd be a hell of a fight.
Upon that, if Asuraas made it to the final... the other two teams, and the actual challenge of the final, would definitely be in real danger.
Yet, the real danger, or the final boss of the TTT, was always unique and upcoming. Even when last time, it easily was blown to smithereens by the unnamed hero-
You know what, let us give him a name, the author is bothered by not giving him a noun. So let us call him as, Peak. Yet, that is only a makeshift name folks.
So, Peak killed the final boss of last time. Yes, KILLED. Killing of the final boss was the goal. Even if the final boss merely fell, the top team got to kill it always. But he killed it mercilessly, making me pity it.
With the oldest, most dangerous team, the immortal, Peak - the strongest hero. It truly was going to be a hell of a TTT.
The finalists is already decided since the start, with two of the three, being in the contenders.
Peak silently smiles, seeing how things were going in the tournament. And I gulp, looking at this being, with my omniscience. As he was game.