Chapter 2: Meet the Colleagues/Family

As I heard the voice, my eyes were forced open by my brain, and I saw myself in a different body, sitting in front of a red statue of a Celestial. I examined my hand and saw that my skin is as pale as it can be. Seriously, I feel like I don’t have any blood in my veins. Well, I don’t… but you get the point.

Then, I looked around, and saw that the others have walked to their position, and a brown woman, who I assumed is Ajak because her face is literally like Salma Hayek, is looking at me rather intently.

I stood up awkwardly as I saw that and walked to my ‘station’ to get my ‘Battle Armor’(?). Is it battle armor? I don’t remember.

As I get in my position, golden energy started to cover me up, and slowly but surely, my once simple clothes are changed into a black and silver ‘armor’, it had a some sort of long coat tails, and the armor had some runes as well, which I don’t know what it means. Still, it is pretty cool.

As the energy was done covering me up, I saw that the other people started to spread out and wander around the place. Seeing no reason to stay, I also wander around, probably introducing myself to the others, as I got from the memories that they don’t know each other except Ajak, who is the prime Eternal, so everybody knows her.

I walked to the nearest Eternal, which is a woman with blonde hair. She has a white armor, so I already guessed who she is, but introduced myself anyway.

“Settling in?” I said, making some small talk.

The woman then turned to look at me, and damn, her stares are intimidating, but I got a feeling my stares are creepy too, as she’s looking at me with a bit of shock and confusion.

“Yes.” She simply answered as she leaned in against a wall, looking towards the Earth.

“You look uncomfortable though.” I stated.

“It’s because you’re making me uncomfortable.” She pointed out, ouch.

I chuckled to get rid of the awkwardness, although I think it’s making it worse. “I get that a lot back in Olympia.” I answered.

The woman finally looked at me again and giggled, although seriously, even her giggles are intimidating. “What’s your name?” she asked me with a smile.

“Pluto.” I answered. “You?”

“You don’t know me?” she questioned; a bit surprised. Wow, I didn’t know that she’s a bit narcissistic.

I shrugged. “I do know you Thena, just formality is all.” I said as I put my hands to my back. Then, I smiled at her, I put my right hand in front of my heart and bowed to her. “It’s a pleasure to fight alongside the greatest warrior of Olympia.”

She just nodded her head and spoke. “It’s a pleasure to fight alongside you too.”

I bowed again. “Then if you’ll excuse me, I’ll have to introduce myself to the others.”

I turned around, and started to explore the Domo more, looking for an Eternal to introduce myself. And I found one, in the form of a young girl who never ages.

“Hello there.” I greeted the girl.

The girl looked at me, and instantly got creeped out by my stares. “Dude, you need to tone down the way you’re looking at people, it’s creeping me out.” She commented.

I sighed, oh yes, she’s going to be annoying. “I’ll try to fix it.” I simply said. “Pluto.”

“My name is Sprite.” She said, “Good to meet you I guess… although I’m not looking forward to your stares.”

My eyebrows twitched at the jab, oh yes, she’s going to be annoying alright. “Well, if you’ll excuse me.”

I turned around again as I don’t want to talk with the kid too much, and I looked for another eternal to introduce myself.

“You seemed eager.” Someone suddenly commented, I turned around and saw that it was Ajak, and I instantly frowned.

“Ajak.” I greeted her.

“Pluto.” She greeted me back. “We will soon be arriving at our first destination. You know Arishem’s mission for you right?”

I nodded to the woman. “I do.”

“Don’t fail him.”

I just hummed, I mean, the mission is tied to my powers, of course I need to do it, but I won’t go back to Arishem, that’s for sure.

I bowed lightly and walked to the edge of the Domo, where I could see a man and a woman staring at the earth. They were silent, and when I came in, it felt like it turned a bit awkward.

“Hello there.” I greeted the two, and they just nodded in recognition.

“I’m Sersi.” The woman introduced herself.

“Ikaris.” The man continued to introduce himself.

“The name’s Pluto.” I spoke. “Let’s get along, shall we?”

The two nodded awkwardly, possibly uncomfortable because of my stares, but oh well, don’t really care. “If you’ll excuse me.” I excused myself and walked off to another Eternal, this time it was a big black man, he is tinkering with the Domo’s tech. I've got to admit, the golden circles look cooler in person.

“Hello there.” I greeted, he turned at me and his face contorted, damn, is it that bad?

“You’re my teammate for the mission?” he questioned.

“You need to deal with it.” I shrugged.

He sighed at my comment. “Phastos.”

“Pluto.” I said, nodding at the man.

“Well, if you ever need anything, you can talk to me.” He said dismissively. “Like your creepy stares, I’m not sure I could fix it, but I can try.”

“No thanks.” I hurriedly said. “I can fix it myself.”

“I hope so.” He chuckled, making me chuckle as well.

“Well, see you around.” I said goodbye to the man, and walked to another big man, this time he looked Asian. And the dude’s really shredded.

“Hello.” I greeted.

He stared at me and chuckled. “I bet your stare made people uncomfortable.”

“Yes, I’ve been told a couple of times.” I answered. “Pluto.”

“Gilgamesh.” He spoke. “What’s your power?”

“You’re the first one to ask me that.” I pointed out. “Well, I can’t show you now… but you’ll see soon enough.”

“Playing mysterious huh?” he commented. “Fine, do whatever you want.”

I chuckled. “I’m serious.” I said. “I can’t show you yet.”

“Well, I’m looking forward to seeing your powers.” He said casually.

I just smiled and patted his shoulder. Then, I walked to a duo of man and woman, the woman used sign language as a form of communication, and the man was conversing with her with it.

“Hello.” I announced myself, not forgetting to also use sign language so the woman can understand me, although I think she can still hear me with the hearing vibration thing.

“Well, well, well, it seems someone finally has the courtesy of introducing themselves.” The man commented.

“Yes, the rest are a bit anti-social.” I started, making the woman chuckle a bit. “I’m Pluto.”

“I’m Druig.” The man said. “And this is Makkari.”

“Nice to meet you two.” I smiled at the two. “What are your powers?” I already know, but just for formalities.

“I can control minds.” Said Druig. Then, I turned to Makkari, who quickly ran around the Domo for about one millisecond, she’s fast as fuck boi.

“What about you?” The woman asked me using sign language.

“Me?” I chuckled. “It’s complicated, I need to actually fight first to show you.”

“Well, can’t wait to see it.” She further commented with a smile on her face.

“I’ll see you two around, I’ve got one more dude to introduce myself.” I excused myself, I walked back to the windows of the Domo, and finally met the final Eternal in this mission. The man has brown skin, and his jawline game is strong as fuck.

“It’s beautiful right?” I commented as the earth is nearing.

“It is.” The man answered. “It’s our home to protect.”

I shrugged. “Can’t be that hard right?”

“If you don’t count the Deviants that will probably want to eat us and the humans alive, then yeah, it can’t be that hard.” He said sarcastically.

I chuckled. “I’m sure we’ll manage.”

The man nodded. “Kingo by the way.” He stretched his hand for a handshake, and I accepted it.

“Pluto.” I introduced myself.

As soon as I said my name, Ajak suddenly called the rest of the team to the lab, and as she is the Prime Eternal, we rushed to her quickly, and finally, all the Eternals gathered in one place.

It was awkward to say the least, we don’t know each other, or at least some of us don’t know each other, and we were expected to cooperate from the start. Professionalism I guessed.

“Hello to you all.” Ajak started to speak with a smile on her face. “Welcome to earth.” She continued as we saw in the window that we are entering the earth’s atmosphere, and slowly heading towards what looks like Mesopotamia. “This is our first mission on earth, have you guys introduced yourselves to each other?” She asked, but got no reply whatsoever, which is a bit funny.

“Really? No one?” she questioned.

“I know him.” Sprite pointed at me. “His stares are creepy though.”

“Charming sprite.” I commented while rolling my eyes. “You don’t have to comment on it repeatedly you know?”

“I will comment on it as long as you still have it.” She answered decisively, which made me more annoyed.

“Okay, calm down…” Ajak interfered. “Anyone else really doesn’t know each other?”

“I know him.” Sersi pointed at Ikaris, which made me chuckle in my mind.

“There we go, anyone else?”

“I also know him.” She pointed to me this time.

“Okay… who else?”

“Um… you?”

Ajak sighed in surrender. “After this, you need to introduce yourself to each other. We’re going to live together for a long time, at least have the courtesy to know each other’s name.”

“We’ll know each other soon enough.” Thena commented rather dismissively. “Now can we get to the mission already? I didn’t go to earth for warm hugs from people.”

“Very well.” Ajak shook her head in surrender, then she turned to Phastos. “If you will…”

“Right.” He stepped up and started to conjure a hologram for us to see, it was the hologram of earth, and there were multiple red dots at it.

“The red dots are the deviants, now, as you all might know by now, our mission is to defeat the deviants and protect the humans.” He said, and I accidentally let out a rather loud chuckle because of the supposed ‘mission description’, making the others stare at me intently, especially Ajak.

“You’re weird.” Sprite commented, probably to irk me off.

“So are you, little girl.” I refuted, making the girl snort.

Ajak then coughs loudly, signaling Phastos to continue.

“As I was saying…” Phastos said awkwardly. “These red dots are the detected deviants, and our job is to cleanse the earth of the deviants, and we will start right here.”

He then tapped the hologram, zooming into the area of Mesopotamia. “The human population here is plenty, so we will start there first, and from here, we will help them develop.”

“So, we will stay there for a while even after all the deviants are dead in the area?” Kingo asked.

“Well… yes.” Phastos answered.

“How long?” Thena asked in irritation, looks like she’s a bit annoyed by it, she wants to fight after all.

“As long as humans develop.” Ajak interrupted. “We will watch them grow here, after we feel that they are adequate enough to be left alone, we will leave in search of the other deviants.”

“Why not split up?” I suggested. “While the others watch the humans, the rest hunt the deviants.”

“I find myself agreeing with Pluto.” Thena said. “Some of us aren’t here to watch humans, some of us just want the deviants gone.”

“We are a team.” Ajak insisted. “And we will stick together until I say so.”

“But-”

“I am the prime eternal here Pluto, not you.” Ajak sharply said. “Know your place.”

I sighed at this. “I understand Ajak.” I then looked at Then besides me, who is pretty dissatisfied, and I just smiled at her, which she returned, albeit weakly, she seemed grateful of my intervention.

“Alright then.” Ajak nodded, “Ikaris, Kingo, Thena, Gilgamesh, and Makkari, you five will be the one who will fight in this first contact, the rest of us will follow shortly.”

There it is… the split between the nurturers of the group and the fighters of the group. Me? I’m both, why? Because my power is a bit complicated.

I sighed again as the five retreated from the lab. My power is not capable of fighting yet, I am weak right now, the weakest of the bunch, but over time, I will be the strongest. And I will break free of the celestial’s shackle, that is my goal.

But for now, just like the One-Above-All said, I will watch. And I will also put seeds of doubt on everyone, trying to tell them that this mission is a scam, without telling them directly of course, Ajak would retaliate, and probably Ikaris as well.

I looked through the window of the Domo, and watched as Ikaris flew to the earth first, officially starting the mission.

“Good luck to me I guess…”