Blankly staring straight, Meditat solemnly looked ahead at the white room as the engine’s deep hum softened. His mask still on as he stared through a barrier of concealment, he heard a gentle thud under him, which preceded the silencing of the engine.

Following the sleeping of the engine was the whoosh of a doorway opening, to which several voices chattered amongst themselves behind him, although the specific words weren’t focused on but rather rendered to jumbled sounds with no clarity.

After hearing the sound of footsteps behind him, Meditat pivoted his head away from the window, facing the interior of the Box. He got up from the dining table seat that he had been using during the ride, and faced the open exit of the pod. He then began approaching the exit as the voices got louder, voices of excited men and equally excited women conversing between themselves. Behind him was nobody but the rest of the narrow interior of the Box, tabletops and seating along the long walls between an open aisle.

Following in slow, steady steps, he departed the Box through the doorway, taking a stride down to the ground without using the holographic ramp. Now outside in the white walled garage, he continued walking forwards, his mask still on and his head tilted slightly low but not overly so to the point of being dramatic. Behind him the Box drew farther and farther away, the simple rigid black vehicle which he had somewhat become used to regardless of its deeply unapologetically deviant design.

Without altering his slow pace, Meditat strided forwards in silent footsteps like a ghost, his hood up and his arms by his side. Speech was thrown back and forth still in front of him, the exact words still tuned out into unintelligible noises.

“Meditat,” called out a crystal clear voice, the deep masculine voice of the man standing in front of Meditat, who raised his head instantly like a dog being called for a walk, suddenly excited by the mere mention of his name as he immediately returned to the environment.

Eager to know what he was called for, he stared at the one speaking to him, not speaking back just yet but showing his clear undivided attention.

Standing several feet ahead of Meditat stood the four, all of their masks and helmets relinquished to reveal their human faces. They all stood side by side forming a wall, and from left to right stood Juno, Razi, Flynn, and Calypso respectively.

The specific one who spoke was one of the men in the center, the leader in the crimson suit, who pursued, “I almost forgot, we don’t need the psychic inhibitors anymore, you can take them out now.”

Waiting for a few more seconds as though desperately expecting for a continuation of the message, Meditat dumbfoundedly stood silent in awkwardness. However, after the realization that there was no more left to say, and that what was said was all that was intended, Meditat’s head was slightly lowered in a subtle sense of disappointment.

Defeated, he assured gently “I already erased them when we got on the ship, they’re not in any of you guys now.”

At first befuddled, Razi placed his finger inside his right ear, feeling it for a few seconds as though in analysis. He nodded his head eventually and took his finger out before admitting, “Guess you’re right, well I guess I let myself get too relaxed and didn’t even feel it lifted, that’s not good. Well then, also you can take the mask off now, the gate is shut.”

In response Meditat nodded his head once and feebly excused, “I’m just monitoring the data uploading process for the mission…actually I was going to the main laboratory to make a report and put it in the system. Even if we weren’t able to get any samples off a corpse, there was still a lot gathered, and this was a unique specimen so I want to make sure the report is thorough.”

A casual smile struck Razi’s face before he nodded back and extolled, “Good man, always focused on the mission. I’ll leave you with the report then, but we might join you in the laboratory later, there’s a handful of cases rising in priority that we need to look into today and it’s still the morning. Well, enjoy yourself!”

In silence, Meditat nodded his head back one more time, but without any following verbality. Instead, he kept walking in his own direction, diverging from the rest of the group as their voices once again fell into jumbled sounds with no clear articulation. Distancing from them both physically and mentally, he kept walking in the white void with his head hung low.

It was just yet another mission that once again concluded victoriously, the threat vanquished and the potential victims saved from disaster. Another mission won for The Shield, a feat worth celebrating, which the other four were clearly doing by the excitement in their voices, even if their exact words were not.

Eventually Meditat was no longer ambling, but instead was stationary and seated on a white leathery executive-style chair in another white room. His hood was now down as was his mask, exposing his human face although still not exposing any facial expression as instead he wore a stoic face, one reading large holographic screens with dark blue borders and several smaller windows inside. There were three of them in fact, one in front of his eyes and the other two neighboring from each side, each with uniquely categorized material.

The screen on the left predominantly carried information such as images of the horrifying monstrous god with clear lighting that appeared as though it was shot out in the day, exposing the dark green body with all its scales and tentacles in pristine detail. There were also diagrams of the same beast as well as spectrograms.

The screen in the center focused on a document which was open, already filled with a wall of text as well as several images with some being straight from the left screen. The central screen appeared to be concentrated on the actual report being written, with several other windows beside the report file being used as references such as other previous reports albeit in smaller windows to not take as much space.

On the right screen was a large spreadsheet document, and beside it were multiple file directories with the directory on the top right’s slim tab reading: ‘Aberrations.’ The spreadsheet document had tabs across the screen and its focused page was already full of written information as well as shrunken images. It appeared the screen was used more overarchingly to connect the report to the greater database, which apparently was already quite populated.

Alone sat Meditat in the massive white room, seated on the end of a long white table with four other seats farther down. The white room had several other tables also projecting screens with blue borders with schematics and graphs. It was although vastly open, and was only a subsection of a much larger room as there was an entire other area below a balcony, which was filled with even more tables as well as other white equipment vaguely visible from the top floor. There were also several closed doors along the two sides of the room, with a larger arched door behind where Meditat sat.

The room was completely silent as Meditat was dedicated to his work, shifting focus between the three screens as text appeared to be written in the central screen seemingly telepathically as there were no visible computer peripherals aiding him. Such a large room, and yet inhabited by such little life.

Leaping from side to side, Meditat’s keen blue irises reflected the different screens as on the left screen a vertical slider moved from left to right on the spectrogram, on the center screen more text was printed on the document in quick pace, and on the right screen cells of the spreadsheet were filled with more text as work was done concurrently by one man.

It was a necessary job for the team, one he was doing completely alone, taking on the burdensome task himself. The more he thought about it the worse he’d feel so he chose not to think of it at all, and simply just tended to his work.

That evasion could only work for so long until the abrupt whoosh of a door dematerializing suddenly jolted Meditat, immediately followed by the excited voice of Flynn engagingly debating, “Yeah, well technically speaking you just made him a bit wobbly, but it is I who holds the title of the Cthulhu Slayer!”

Equally engaged also in a argumentative yet clearly laxed voice, Calypso snapped back, “Well, that title sounds stupid so I’m more than happy not taking it! Also, you’re just saying it’s Cthulhu because it reminds you of that, but Cthulhu isn’t real, it’s a weird fictional monster.”

“Hmph, oh so now you’re just going to act completely ignorant to what a multiverse implies when it suits you?” pushed back Flynn.

“Mhm!” gleefully admitted Calypso without a single grain of remorse.

Both of their footsteps grew louder as they entered the room, and following them were two other sets of footsteps that came in not too far behind.

Amongst the second pair the voice of Juno cheerfully reassured, “Hey, it’s not like you were doing nothing, if it weren’t for your quick commands that monster would’ve gotten to the surface in less than a minute after awakening. And hey, you didn’t need any atom bending powers to rip that eye out, I saw that.”

Responding apprehensively yet still relatively calm, Razi reluctantly convinced, “You don’t need to frost me up, but I understand that you’re right, thank you. Well, I’m glad you appreciate my efforts, even if you’re all gods compared to me who’s just a lab rat on steroids.”

“A lab rat on steroids who’s somehow able to take on all of us and win, you forgot that part,” reminded Juno as their footsteps passed Meditat while the former pair sat down, presumably on two of the other seats.

“I attribute that to your clumsiness and lack of refinement more than me being strong or anything along those lines,” imputed Razi as his footsteps continued distancing past Meditat.

“Oh, so one second we’re gods and in the next second we’re clumsy, not very consistent with our arguments today are we hun?” remarked Juno in a light, playful tone.

“Hm, neither of those statements are exclusive to the other,” slyly retorted Razi before both of them also sat down, presumably taking the other chairs.

Surrounded by a flood of chatter, Meditat’s attention didn't drift, but rather remained intact and on the three screens exclusively as he kept concentration on his work. His eyes jumped between screens as he analyzed the obtained data, filled out the report, and referenced it with the spreadsheet all at once, processing and working more akin to a computer than a mere human.

While views of either of the four members were restricted completely from Meditat due to the diligence to his work, he could still clearly hear their conversations as they were right beside and in front of him, speaking with no concern for volume as they lavishly lounged even in a room strictly allocated for work.

Amidst the continued chatter, the bootup hum of other holographic screens being summoned indicated that they too were accessing the server, as at least Razi had mentioned that he planned to work at the lab, thus pacifying Meditat of his concerns that they had only come to fool around. He expected that beyond the few tossed comments the group would remain intent on work, as he was clearly in a deeply productive mindset as he didn’t partake in any of the conversation but rather worked as if none of it was there.

Outside Meditat’s workspace, Flynn let out an exhausted sigh before pondering, “You know, it’s still weird to me how many aberrations keep popping out of the blue when they all supposedly started existing before the Superverse was even born. You’d think eventually we’d have weeded them all out, but no, somehow we still get these giant world-ending monsters.”

“Well Flynn, I don’t know if you know this because I know it’s crazy to believe, but did you know that Earths existed for a while before the Superverse did? Like, hear me out, but it’s been around for billions of years whereas the Superverse has only been around for two centuries? So mathematically speaking, given that every Earth has billions of years to spawn all these aberrations, and given that there are a hundred here, maybe there would be a bit more than two of them! I don’t know though, that’s just my theory,” sarcastically snarked Calypso.

“Woah that’s so cool, you know, mathematically speaking I’m pretty sure there is a good chance there are 99 other Calypso’s that exist here that are less annoying than you!” fought back Flynn, delving into arguments after simple verbal wonderings.

“Yeah okay, you’re one to have faith in doppelgangers especially after meeting that duz Flynn from Earth 67,” recalled Calypso in the neverending war of words.

“Hey, ‘duz Flynn’ was friz, man was living his best life as a musician, don’t badmouth an aspiring artist,” defended Flynn, seeming to also be referring to some sort of alternate version of himself that he and she knew about, likely referencing a previous mission of theirs.

At that moment, Meditat’s eyes stopped shifting screens, and words stopped being typed into both the report and spreadsheet. He suddenly froze up, still seated but seeming to have detached from his work momentarily. His head lowered slightly as he wore a blank expression, seeming to be either completely thoughtless or deeply flooded with no option besides those extremities.

The overheard conversation was now focusing on a mission, but it was one that he had no recollection of, one that he never experienced. What they were talking about was something he was never there to understand, a story full of jokes that he’d never get.

But of course, that was natural. He wasn’t a founder of this team, and relatively speaking he wasn’t even close to having served for a fraction of the time they had already had together. Of course the vast majority of their stories would be ones that didn’t include him, that was only logical, something he understood very well. Nothing was abnormal about it.

“Okay, you two sirens stop wailing, I’m opening up the case list now, let’s get to work,” interjected Razi loudly, dispelling the bickering between the adult children.

“Everyone, I want your attention now,” he followed, and murmurs were tossed between Flynn and Calypso before going silent.

Still entranced in an obsolete storm of thoughts, Meditat still had his screens up, isolating himself from the rest of the group. His head was tilted down, and his eyes were partly open with a slight frown. He remained silent, his expressions concealed by his work, but with the face of dread.

“That includes you, Meditat. You can finish the report later, save what you have now,” verbally shoulder tapped Razi, directing his command to one man in particular.

Suddenly called out, Meditat’s head sprung back up, reimmersed in the world and recalling all that was said prior to his blackout. He gulped and shook his head up several times as he waved his hand, and the two outer screens suddenly shifted into the central screen, vanishing as though being collapsed. He then opened his hand in front of the single screen before closing his hand in front of it, to which the last screen shrunk before disappearing completely, being called off to sleep.

No longer enclosed by the report, Meditat was able to see that at the table now sat the four members, two across from him and two beside. Across from him sat the girl with long silky hair and purple eyes, who wore a casual black hoodie with subtle purple curvy streaks on the sleeves similar to the patterns of her suit, although far more relaxed. Beside her was the man with long unkempt black hair and shadow eyes, dressed in a black leather biker jacket with silver accents and lines accompanied by a soft black hood which was vaguely familiar.

Next to Meditat seated the man with short blond hair and bright blue eyes, who sported a sleek white tracksuit jacket with black lining, unzipped to reveal a black shirt underneath. Beside that man was the woman with emerald green eyes and long brown hair, who was adorned in a casual forest green summer dress.

At the table were the four members, all dressed in their casual clothing, comfortable in their own home, and amongst them sat Meditat, suited in his blue mission uniform with its long awkward cape and illuminated blue streaks that lit up, drawing attention to itself.

On the far side of the white table was now a far larger holographic screen wider than the short end of the table like a television.

On the left side of the screen a list was displayed with tabs that had titles on the right side as well as a number of exclamation marks on the left side, with the top ones having upwards to three, with one towards the top being highlighted with a particular brighter filling in the tab. On the right side of the screen was a window with a ray connecting to the brighter tab, further detailing the entry with the same title at the top, but a worded description as well as images of an Earth, diagram of a solar system, and other images of seemingly miscellaneous content such as unrecognizable people.

Meditat centered his perception on the informative screen, subtly avoiding eye contact with the group as he tried to simply focus on the work they had. The rest of the group did also eye the screen, but they glanced at one another occasionally too.

Now that the whole group was attentive, Razi began outlining, “Thank you, now we can get started. Luckily, as of right now, there are no reports of immediate priority aberrations taking place, and the few ones that are climbing are being dealt with as we speak. Flynn, you’ve been researching the controversy of the hollow world in Earth 7, right?”

Pointing focus onto Flynn, Razi as well as the rest of the group turned to him, watching as he glanced around the table with a contemplative expression before bringing his eyes up to the leader. His expression still somewhat confused, he figured, “The one about the random holes, right? Yeah I’ve been working on that, they’ve only been appearing in uninhabited islands for now, but I think last time I checked there were some conspiracy theories about other civilizations living at the bottom of the holes and something about global domination, but as of now there isn’t anything conclusive about it. I plan to do an expedition if the situation becomes a danger to anyone, but for now it’s mostly just random sinkholes. Would be kinda cool though if there was an entire ancient civilization living down there, but there’s been no sign of life nor any planetary readings to suggest a threatening natural disaster.”

Razi nodded his head after receiving the update, and then turned to the screen, watching as the previously highlighted tab reduced its brightness to the same as the other tabs, and the tab below it became highlighted. At the same time, the screen on the right side changed with a completely new title and page which had images of what appeared to be crabs although oddly humanoid with claws for hands, standing at the shore of a beach.

Continuing the meeting, Razi reported, “On Earth 23 there have been a few sightings of these mutant crabs on the coastlines in North America as well as Asia, however they have not shown any signs of violence and have for the most part resided peacefully. Those beaches are still shut down as of the time being, but the district officials made public statements explaining that they were looking into the matter, so it may be handled.”

Juno shrugged her shoulders and assessed casually, “Then that sounds fine, I see no harm in that. They look cute by the way!”

Calypso quickly cast a glance at Juno before speedily muttering, “What about them is cute?”

Moving forward to the next case as indicated by the change of highlight and the loading of a new page, this time displaying images of a group of people in ominous robes standing around a circle at the middle of night, all surrounding an inactive pod with their arms up high. It was an odd photograph to say the least, and none of the people’s faces were visible due to the hoods they wore and the angle of the shot.

“This photograph was taken on Earth 33, recent online threads say there’s been a rise of a cult that has been using some sort of ‘transfiguration magic’ or so they claim. This is the only photograph we have as of the time being, any thoughts?” guided Razi with an apprehensive voice, seeming that even he was perplexed by the odd nature of the evidence.

Calypso’s expression became excited as her eyes widened and jaw dropped. Her purple irises sparkling, she professed, “Woah, that’s so cool!”

Juno quickly cast a glance at Calypso before speedily muttering, “What about them is cool?”

A judgemental sigh was casted by Razi after noticing their lack of seriousness, causing both to straighten their casual postures and for Juno to ahem. He then allowed the next tab to be highlighted, which loaded in a new page. The page had images of a massive crowd in a city which covered the streets, chemical diagrams, and a portrait of an old man with reclining white hair and a wrinkly face.

Razi glimpsed at the page, reading it for a second and raising his eyebrow in intrigue. He then faced the team, leveling his expression before delineating, “This case is from Earth 25, over the past several weeks there has been an outbreak of a virus that, according to our sources, causes patients to lose communication abilities and become excessively violent towards anybody else. This virus is said to be highly infective by contact, and has already taken several cities across the world which are currently quarantined from the rest of the world. The entire Earth is also being quarantined from other Earths, this seems to be a pretty big deal.”

Having been silent the former duration of the meeting, Meditat finally perked his head up and anxiously broached, “Wait, isn’t Earth 25 part of the EGA, and even considered a Core World? I mean I can tell if they’re instating that level of a quarantine, but shouldn’t they be able to handle this?”

Razi gazed at Meditat after receiving the question, to which he shook his head and elaborated, “Well, under the assumption of it being a natural virus, perhaps they would more swiftly resolve this case. However, there has been word that this virus is not natural, but rather man made, which means it can be produced nearly infinitely and targeted more intelligently. That brings us this man,” he pointed at the portrait of the senile man on the page, “named Doctor Frank Stein.”

Suddenly fascinated with the case, Flynn leaned forward before avidly inquiring, “Wait, THE Doctor Frank Stein, pioneering psychiatrist who made the breakthrough on subconscious control? He was the doctor that developed the current strongest cure for ADHD, he’s basically a god in the scientific community! I mean he’s on another level, if you watch his lectures he just has this aura of just pure intellect.”

All four of the group casted glances at Flynn after noticing his excitement, which he noticed before leaning back, realizing he was a bit too jumpy, especially for what was now a suspect of what looked like a pretty hefty crime.

With silence once again befalling the room, Razi was able to continue, “Yes, that man. You are correct about his accomplishments however, I will give you that, he was excellent at his field. However, it should be noted that about a year ago he quit his job and went off grid after a disagreement with the executives regarding a pitched project that never saw the light of day. And records indicate that the outbreak regions happen to correlate with offices of his previous job, and now this issue is already becoming a pandemic. I know that correlation may seem flimsy at first, but this virus seems to impact the victim’s brain more than anything else, there are no regular bodily symptoms that follow most natural cases.”

A reluctant sigh exuded from Flynn as he leaned further back against his seat, seemingly uneasy about the prospect of the mission now that he knew the target. He lowered his head, staring at the ground silently in contemplation.

Taking notice of the negative reaction, Razi proposed optimistically, “If we are to take on this case, it would only be to apprehend Doctor Stein and take him to the authorities for questioning. No termination or anything of that sort, but there have already been rampant casualties. The authorities have yet to piece these connections because they’re under the assumption that it is a natural virus and are working on quarantine and developing vaccines, but we believe that if this doctor truly is the creator of the virus, he may know how to cure it too. We’ll do our best to refrain from violence, I understand he is senile. But of course, we don’t need to take this mission on to begin with, as Meditat mentioned this is from a Core World, they are better equipped and might be able to handle it ourselves.”

“No,” suddenly argued Flynn boldly, “if people are getting hurt, then we need to help them. Even if he isn’t guilty, we need to know, it could save people.”

He raised his head with a confident expression, and nodded before declaring, “I vote to take on this case, and stop it before it can get any worse.”

A smirk drew on Calypso’s face, although rather than it being of sarcastic malice, she nodded her head confidently before supporting, “Then I do too.” Flynn glimpsed at her to see her smile, which in turn gave him the ease to smile as well, as they both understood that he initially felt uncomfortable with the mission but now understood what was necessary.

Juno smiled after noticing the two other’s confidence, and she voted, “I see no problem with that, the worst case is nothing changes and the best case is we save a world.”

The four became silent after the vote, and Razi first looked to Meditat. A few seconds later, so did the other three, and they stared at him for an awkwardly long period of time. Complete silence filled the white lab room as they all just peered at him, who was admiring the tabletop rather than focusing on them, detached from the briefing.

Finally feeling the silent pressure breaking his bones, Meditat glanced beside him to identify that the entire team was watching him silently and stalkishly, to which his eyes widened in discomfort and a flood of anxiety.

He then immediately returned his gaze to the table to break the painful eye contact, and quietly murmured, “Yeah, sure, sounds good.”

Slowly melting the awkwardness, the four staring at him gradually break their gazes, first being Flynn, and soon after being Juno. Calypso stared at him for a few more seconds with a raised eyebrow, but inevitably turned away to focus back on the case.

Razi held a subtly concerned gaze for several extra seconds, but decided to also return back to the matter, turning away to look back at the rest of the group to begin the brief now that he knew what they were setting their eyes on.

With an ahem and a return to the pressing episode transpiring, Razi informed sternly, “I’ve tracked Doctor Stein’s location to a suburban neighborhood in the North East of North America, which checks out seeing as it would likely be more suspicious if he were to be in hiding. However, that neighborhood is currently in a lockdown as there has been an outbreak sighted in it, meaning that there are strict rules in place that restrict residents from leaving their home until the conflict is resolved. This also means that there are likely going to be infected people in our destination, who may target us.”

Stepping in, Juno indicated, “But in this situation, even if these people are aggressive and attempt to harm us, they are not an enemy, but instead victims of this virus. They’re just civilians who very likely can still be damaged the same way anyone can, which means we should try to refrain from hurting them as much as possible. I hope that is not too much to ask.”

As the team kept their attention to each other as they conversed over the specifics of the plan, Meditat’s gaze was locked on the open exit behind him, his neck turned and his eyes glancing up at the doorway. He remained silent and stayed seated, but his mind wasn’t with the group in the same way they were with each other, as beyond the minimum requirements he avoided true interaction.

Instead, he stared at the doorway in solemn contemplation, tuning out the formulation of the plan as instead he could only focus on the thoughts that dwelled within himself. He recalled that it was only a few steps from his seat to the door, a few seconds with little energy to utilize to make the minor movements. It was effortless, walking out the door like he has been used to countless times like anyone else.

It would be such a simple motion, yet he was fully aware of why he was still unable to execute it. Not because of laborious difficulties, but rather something else, something holding him down to his seat and preventing him from escaping. In an odd way, he almost felt envious of the exit, although in a way he was unsure if he truly understood. It just stood there in place, a ticket out, a ticket away to somewhere else.

His blue dim eyes peered at the open exit as he wore a slight frown, feeling a strange sense of despair, pondering his own past and the steps he took to get here. So many steps, and yet it would only take a few more to go back. But something was holding him back, and it wasn’t the chair, nor was it the eyes behind him. He wasn’t even sure what it was, but all he knew was it was there, he could feel its presence crushing him from behind, its glare piercing a hole into the back of his head. An ominous force restricting him, but for what good?

Considering Juno’s take, Razi nodded his head, and reinforced “She’s right, they’re victims who are not acting out of their own will. We want them to wake up free, and hopefully not hospitalized. If we need to engage in combat, make sure to use non lethal means, as I for example will only use stun-based weaponry and will make sure to only minorly concuss them if it comes down to it. I have no concerns that the rest of you can make that work, and we should be able to avoid needing to put up arms in the first place.”

Calypso raised her finger, to which Razi noticed her attempt to call for attention. She then curiously inquired, “Why couldn’t I just grab him and put him in the cell?”

Flynn was first to react, shaking his head and arguing with the sudden proposition: “We can’t just act that impulsively, for all we know we could be kidnapping an innocent old man. We need to carefully explain our intentions to him and we should at least try to convince him to come with us before we need to…resort to forceful means. Basically, we should be careful about this, I don’t want us to get caught in another PR nightmare like when we fought the Dreamwalker and had to deal with people calling us delusional and reckless.”

Meditat lowered his head more after hearing another reference he didn’t understand, and sighed nearly silently. He hadn’t corroborated much at all to the meeting, but there was no point for him to jump in, as they seemed to have a closed loop of communication without much of an entry point. Instead, he just faced the table once again and listened without initiative of his own, mentally preparing himself for the mission without tinkering with their plan.

Razi faced Flynn and nodded at him before then facing Calypso and agreeing, “He’s right, your method is more efficient sure, and it might end up proving to be the best in the end, but the fact is this entire mission is riding on an assumption, and we need to tread carefully to make sure we don’t make any mistakes. I already tracked his address when working on this page, so we will just approach him and explain ourselves. Even if we need to handle a few infected victims, it will be worth it.”

Calypso sighed in defeat, hanging her head low and admitting, “Fine, I guess. Oh well, I can just walk through them anyways so it’s not a problem for me, I was just worried about time.”

“Which is why we’re going to act quick, so then we can afford a few minutes of wrestling to get to him,” assured Razi, understanding her pure intentions of wanting to bring an end to the pandemic as fast as possible.

Making the first move, Flynn stood up from his chair, grabbing the edge of the table to support himself as he stood on his feet. He then faced Razi, and boldly queried, “Then we should head out now, there’s no reason to wait.”

Razi turned to Flynn with a surprised expression, and asked, “Are you sure you’re ready now? We just got back from the last mission, I mean I myself am prepared but I’m not sure about everybody else.”

Following suit, both Calypso and Juno stood up simultaneously, and they both faced Razi before bobbing their heads, indicating that they were also ready.

Watching the group signal their readiness, Razi stood up too, and declared, “Well then, it seems we have our mission cut out for us. Lunch will need to wait. Let’s head to the Box.”

The screen behind him then vanished, being shut off as their meeting had come to a close.

Calypso and Flynn were the first to begin leaving, as they joined up with each other and chatted as they walked to the exit of the lab room.

As the team began to mobilize, Meditat took notice at last, and dragged himself off his chair to follow while Juno began to walk. She stopped however upon noticing a lack of company, and swerved around to see that Razi was still standing in place, just staring at Meditat with a keen expression. His dark gray eyes lingered on him below his bangs as he contemplated to himself, although breaking that focus as he felt something warm grab his hand.

He turned beside him to see Juno grab him, tugging for him to follow. He nodded his head and held her hand tightly in reciprocation, and the two walked side by side out of the room too, following the former pair as they left the lab.

Once again the one man in the large white room, Meditat stood by the emptied table, his eyes dwelling low as he still wore an unexcited frown. He surveyed the lab once as a final checkup, as though trying to excuse himself to stay in as long as possible.

However, he was well aware of a paramount mission they were heading to, and that he couldn’t hold them up. After basking in the emptiness for a few more seconds, he pivoted to face the exit, and began walking, his black cape drifting behind him as did his hair, following the team on their mission.

He soon left the room, walking through the doorway and taking enough steps that he was no longer visible from the lab. A few steps later, a white door materialized over the opening, enclosing the vacant lab.

Off the team was to their next mission, most of them riled up and excited to tackle a new threat, but amongst them lingered one who only dragged himself to complete the chore.