It was rather chilly tonight, so I was expecting some silence as everyone would be occupied battling the 10-degree cold. I should have known better. Certain words would never be associated with Mecha or Ming. They included quiet, silence, tranquility, composure, and many other words that were related to sanity. Everybody else present either sat or stood in silence, but I could hear them bickering from where I stood.
"I told you not to put your big melon head inside that helmet! How the hell will we take it out?!" Mecha snapped, frustration and fury visible in his voice.
"You think that head of yours is tiny?!" Ming fired back in defense, his voice muffled due to the helmet hindering his breathing and speech.
"Ugh, Paris!" Mecha turned towards Paris for intervention. The person in question neither looked back nor responded to any of Mecha's concerns. Bereck, a guy from team A shook his head in amusement, enjoying the spectacle.
"You pull it from that side," Ming told Mecha, unbothered by the other's fuming face. He still did what he was told, and for half an hour, they tussled and struggled to get that helmet out of Ming's big head. Mecha complained occasionally.
You could hear him say, "Are you dumb?! Don't just stand there, you idiot! Pull it to the left! No, the left imbecile!" Luckily for them and for us all, it came off just before the headlights of a car everyone was waiting for shone at a distance.
"They're here," Bereck said as he jumped off the bonnet of the car he was sitting on. Everybody turned their attention to the approaching vehicle. The speeding car halted in a dramatic jolt before the seven people who had gathered in that deserted area that night, raising clouds of dust and particles in the process.
Most of us moved out of the way, but Bereck and Paris stood still, not moving even an inch. I would never say this aloud, but Paris was absolutely gorgeous. His skin had a brown caramel tone, clearer than the sky on a cloudless day or maybe than a stream of clear flowing water.
When he unconsciously did 'cool' things, it accelerated his aura a thousand times more. This was one of those moments. The wisp of air caused by the car made the hood covering his head come off, revealing a magnificent sight of white-curled shoulder length hair. It fluttered behind him graciously. His lashes were longer than Ming's lifespan, and Ming's lifespan was annoyingly too long. When added to those eyes? And that face? Stunning.
I caught myself staring and immediately snapped out of it. What a weird habit. A familiar yet uncommon voice sounded as three individuals alighted. It was cheery and loud, so out of place with the environment and the mood. That was none other than Trigger.
"There's so much going on in one night! Hey lovelies!" He jumped excitedly as he rushed towards Paris and Bereck with stretched arms. Bereck and Paris both moved on either side as he swished past them and into Ming's wide-open arms.
"Hey, baby. I missed you too!" Trigger fought relentlessly to get out of his death grip as Ming hugged even tighter, literally choking him. He tapped his arm desperately, and after a while, Ming let go with a cheesy smile. Trigger bent down to catch his breath, his fingers rubbing the spot Ming had applied pressure on as he said in between gulps of air
"Are you trying to kill me?! Why would I miss you?!"
Ming smiled even more widely as he refuted the claim. "Eii, just admit it. You couldn't wait to see me."
"Are you here to meet up?! Come here and get to work!" Manon, one of Team A's twins, snapped in a stern voice. Her and her sister's temperament was like day and night. One was easy going, social, and a little bit nice. The other was always grumpy, cold, and extremely mean. The leaders of both teams stood on the sidelines watching. Bereck trusted the capabilities of his team. Who wouldn't? They were exceptional at their work. Paris also never intervened unless he had to. If Team A was dependable, Team B was twice as good. I was not saying that simply because I was a member. We were assigned to the main operational zone for a reason.
Trigger and Ming, who had been at the receiving end of Manon's scolding, slumped forward as they moved to their positions, Ming muttering inaudibly. Mecha chuckled but kept a safe distance from his best friend, not wanting to be dragged into his issues.
"Okay, I've encrypted the data into the helmet. Who will be our guest?" Gorja, who had been connected to an earpiece all this while, spoke for the first time.
"Mecha will go, will that work?" Paris, one of the people who had hardly spoken tonight, answered.
"He knows what to do?" Rather than asking the person himself, he referred the question to Paris.
"Yeah, he's fine,"Paris said as he signaled for me to help Mecha with the helmet. I jumped into action.
Mecha was plump and chubby, his build making him the perfect stand-in for the Second Commissioner. Naturally, he had to be our model.
The helmet had been custom-made to fit his head, so getting it on and probably off was a breeze.
The helmet was forged from black Polly-alloy mesh infused with nano-mimetic circuits, sleek and matte like obsidian. Once on, it silently activated, syncing with Mecha's skin and neural patterns. Everybody stared in awe as the outer surface shimmered, then vanished, replacing Mecha's face with a perfect holographic overlay of the second commissioner. The detail was truly out of this world. Every contour and aspect of the face was mirrored with surgical precision. Another one of Gorja's perfect artworks was yet again brought to life. Not even a single person in this world deserves its magnificence.
We were all still in a trance from what we had just witnessed when Gorja's voice took us back to reality. We all focused.
"We need to enter thirty minutes. Not more, not less." Gorja cautioned,
One could see checkpoint 23 from a distance; its lights appeared like tiny specs from where we stood. The envoy of the second commissioner would consist of half, of half a dozen fleets from the information retrieved by Gorja from their database, with their identification data and all other necessary information. We were all dressed in black suits, as his bodyguards would dress normally, and when Paris signaled, we all got into our respective cars, all the same model as the ones the commissioner's security fleet used.
Unfortunately, I couldn't escape Ming's endless babbling and annoying chatter; we'd been assigned to the same car. Mecha rode with Paris and Bereck. Bereck was behind the wheel, while our esteemed Commissioner, Mecha, sat in the back with all the self-importance he could muster. Lucky bastard.
Trigger and Manon rode together. While Trigger occasionally lived up to his name, causing some odd explosions here and there, Manon was more than capable of keeping him in check. Cheeky stayed behind to be our eyes on the outside, while Gorja silently watched from the sky.
When the auspicious hour struck, we set off, nervous because this could be our last day alive, but determined, because this wasn't our first time dancing with danger.