"Really? His wife? Not a single detail yet?"
Stanley: "Is that what this is about?" He spoke curiously and directly to Terry, who was looking at him.
Terry: "Yeah? When are you supposed to get briefed, Mr.?" He said vaguely to Stanley, showing more curiosity than he did to Lori and Johnny.
"Hey kid, you see those guys?" He pointed behind him, turning around to point Terry to the right location of Magnus and others, sitting, focused, and serious, apparently, Mr Leeash, who was Blonde, friendly, sweet, skinny, with a firm body and posture being worn while he mumbled his words out.
"Yeah, is that your boss?" He said questioningly.
"Yeah. That's all you need to know at the moment about us." He said, trying to end the conversation, in a lower-toned voice. Stanley looked away from the kids' eyes and tried to look elsewhere nonchalantly.
"Y'all not professional enough. I'll say that." He grunted before turning to his dirt bike and walking away, uptight, without looking at anyone.
Oblivion: "Ok, Kid." He commented to him as he hopped on the bike, while everyone else was silent, minding their own business or watching this conversation.
Terry: "You said what?" He replied, confused, looking at the Nullari with his arms crossed.
Terry looked like he wasn't supposed to get an answer like that, and seemed a bit annoyed at that.
"Exactly what I said, Kid. It's all right. Go. I know you want to." He irritated the little man, in comparison to himself, who looked at Terry with a calm, normal face. Words didn't bother him, or feel too bothersome for him not to mention whatever he thinks. Terry was still developing his adult emotions and felt a bit excluded from the good rep he had earlier.
"I guess, dude. Do you even want to hear what I know? I got info; I know service people like you tend to remember stuff." He mentioned it casually on the dirt bike, with not much reaction coming from the group, except Stanley. Maybe he missed something.
"Only if you are willing to, Terry. It's not much, but it'll go a long way." Oblivion spoke to him after a few seconds of thinking. It definitely wasn't the response Terry was expecting, and he didn't know how to react sensibly, so he responded in a disgusted way.
"W-what?" He seemed like he held back saying something and hopped off the bike to look back at Oblivion, who had his hands by his sides, standing proud and upright.
"Exactly what I said. I'm not trying to assert an opinion or be weird; it's just—" The tall, horned man was interrupted by Terry, who seemed visibly more annoyed, but his words held it back.
"Man, it's all good. Just, what you're doing is weird. I'll be a bit personal here; I don't like it." He said truthfully, and with a few hints of worry. He was getting a bit more internally angry and didn't know how to manage that properly.
Oblivion soon took a few steps toward Terry, trying his best to remain a normal guy, not asserting himself in any manner except walking to the kid, who seemed visibly confused. He wanted to try to do something about the situation while getting valuable information from a different perspective. Terry wasn't a goal in Oblivion's eyes; he thought of him as a boy who had complex things tangled in his mind and couldn't react to sorting his brain out. He didn't feel overly empathetic, but felt this was a bit of a development he needed instead of relying on himself to learn it.
"Hey man, why are you approaching me?" He said, fast-paced, maintaining a front from the confinement his own perspective was putting on him.
Oblivion: "Eh. Well, I can tell what's happening here; I won't mention it in front of my crew. Can I show you something that might help you regulate it?"
Suddenly, they were interrupted.
Tono: "Hey Terry, you alright with him just asking you some personal things up close?" He commented to Terry, waving to him, who got distracted by his comment while Oblivion tried to convince him to join him in his idea. He seemed concerned; his posture was tight as he was around the sides closer to the bike, and he seemed a bit worried about the idea of Oblivion "helping" a random kid like this. Not a professional mindset, only an emotional one. The group noticed this, except for those focused on Oblivion doing his magic.
"Uh, mm-hmm." He looked over at Tono, not knowing who he was, and nodded at him. A surprising reply, a change of heart, quickly.
Tono:"Aight." He mumbled and nodded back and diverted his focus from being a part of the conversation, leaving seamlessly to watch it.
"Now, right. You're alright moving to a quieter place around here in this, um… weird field?" Oblivion moved closer to him, slowly, and patted him firmly on his right shoulder twice. He pulled a reassuring, calm-looking face to make Terry feel more comfortable out of nowhere.
{Hmm, so, they just gonna walk away for a bit or something?}
Terry: "Yeah." He said. Seems like he's waiting on Oblivion to lead him away to any place without using revealing telltale signs. He looked up at him for a faint glimpse, then moved his head slightly to the right and left. Up and down.
Oblivion: "There?" He turned his head around forty-five degrees to the right and pointed his arm out fully, extending his long wingspan on his right side perfectly straight.
Terry looked over there, turning his head. Stanley and the others, paying attention, looked over there to see nothing but dandy green grass and the outline of curved shapes of many smooth hills.
He looked back down at Terry, and a thought gathered quickly, and he bent down on his knees, with a straight, focused posture.
"Now, the weird part: please hop on my back." He turned towards the direction and took a few penguin steps to move away from the bike area, and patted the ground three times with his left hand while looking gently and faintly at the kid.
Terry: "Uh?" He seemed visibly confused, not moving at all, unsure whether this was the decision to go for, or if it was a joke.
Sheng-Ri: "Pfff." She snorted a bit. Didn't bother to turn around, yet made a noise. Maybe because of the situation.
"I'm only going to take you and me to a quieter, less loud spot. Then back to your bike. That's simply it, Terry. Also, your last name is Leeash?" Oblivion changed his tone slightly, making faint rises and falls to provide higher emotions for the kid to read and get more comfortable with.
"…" "No…" Terry, who was still confused, slowly walked up to the crouched man in expensive clothes.
Then..
"Hup!" He jumped up, landing on his upper back, with his legs underneath his arms, around his triceps.
{That quickly? Must've had a bit of internal argument coming to that decision, right, Lil guy?}
Oblivion: "Ready?" He said, in a happier tone, still keeping his usual voice in a few bits here and there. He wrapped his arms around the kid's legs, securing it safely and appropriately.
Then he slowly ascended to stand, with the kid making a few unexplainable noises as he went up.
"Uh… Yeah. Go." He said faintly.
Oblivion: "Back soon." He said to the rest. A hmm faintly came out of Oblivion's mouth, making a noise.
A vibration.
WHOOSH.
TI TI TI TI TI TI.
RMMMMMMM.
These were the noises that could be interpreted from Oblivion's vibrating movement.
Stanley: "What. The fuck." He stood up casually and sped-walked to where the two were standing, with Oswald behind him and Aurora to his left. They followed him and went to investigate the abnormally gentle speed and remarkable trail he left.
There were footprints. Normal footprints. If it wasn't for the fact that the grass that got stepped on was all pointed outwards, away from the centre of each step.
It made marks.
Clear marks.
The grass didn't point straight anymore; it pointed diagonally, straight, backwards, sideways.
The grass seemed like something pressed down on it to make it form that.
But it couldn't be right. What type of object could make the grass point away from the centre?
The noises themselves were easier to understand, for Oblivion's race is the reason for it.
Vibrations. Noises. The Nullari didn't possess an ability. They only adapted to the violent shaking of their home planets. The bodies themselves of the Nullari came via some form of evolution. Adapting to something extremely hostile, to move like a faint predator at high acceleration.
Could that explain the long trail of unique foot-shaped markings?
Probably, with some theory.
The shaking. Vibrating. Quick and heavy movements.
{Every single step. Yeah, Yeah. It matches out. It's all the steps. They do the same thing. The weird thing. The grass got flattened by his weird powers. Shit, look at that. Not much damage, yet seen clearly from far away. Is that them? Over there? Is he finally talking? When did he even put the kid down? Is the kid fine with that level of acceleration, or is it the vibrating like some bullshit wormhole?}
Stanley kept walking. Following the trail of footsteps in the middle of it.
Oblivion seemed to take rather large, wide steps.
Stanley could casually walk between them as he walked slowly, looking at each step of unique shape.
Footsteps travelled behind him. Casual walking.
"Stanley, the Nullari are cool, aren't they?" Oswald, travelling behind him to his far left, was walking casually and started a conversation with Stanley, whose physical appearance didn't match one of interest.
Stanley looked up.
He was looking at the steps near him as well.
"…"
{He's waiting for me to answer, I'm guessing.}"Yeah, man." He replied while taking a few repeated glances at Oswald and back at the step that they had stopped on.
"…" He didn't say a word to reply to Stanley. Just looking at the step across from him.
"How did they even get their vibrating genes?" Stanley commented out loud.
Oswald: "I don't have a clue. But I got a weird question for you." He exclaimed.
{Me? Me. He said me.}
"Hit me."
"Well, most people in this group here have some form of qualification or trait… I read a piece of paper about most of the members, which didn't include Ren or Magnus for some reason. But anyway, you're just a Suran. You travelled through a spatial class anomaly that was a fucking stage III category, and that's it. No offence, but what is your uniqueness?" He finished doing a calm rant that seemed to be on his mind for a while.
Stanley didn't make a noise or a sound at all while thinking.
He seemed still.
"Hmm." Oswald made a noise, waiting for his response, in the awkward silence of warm, comforting temperatures and a gentle breeze.
"Well, I can make music." He said that in a lower tone, finally replying to his comment.
Oswald raised his head and looked at him.
"Okay?" His tone rose a bit, and he spoke a bit louder, with an annoyed look on his face being brought out.
"You got every reason to be annoyed, man. I really don't know why I'd be here. Ask Magnus or boss, whatever you call him; he picked me up for the future, he said… I'll do amazing things… heh." He spoke quietly, calm and faster-paced than normal. Stanley felt a bit embarrassed to say something like this that's been on his mind, let alone to a random guy.
Oswald: "I've asked everyone except Ren, never met the guy, and you. Just you. Never even bothered to introduce yourself to me; I had to start ALL the conversations, which were minimal. I don't want to go to Magnus; I've only been with him for two weeks now, and I don't know enough about him. I want to hear YOUR words, telling me YOUR worth. You are EMBARRASSED to say it, aren't you?"
He stuck out his index finger and poked him right in the middle of his chest. Stanley wiggled a bit. Oswald seemed more annoyed that he couldn't get the answer he hoped for.
Oswald: "All I can really get from you is that you like music, yourself… and a good-looking face. Pretty bitch. You're wasting it right now by not using your amazing self to improve everything, dude, th—"
Oswald got interrupted.
"I'm not even worth that much, man. I only made music. I hate being called that. I love myself, but it's right. And don't call me FUCKING beautiful. I'm not." His tone rose as he looked up with a ticked-off expression.
Stanley's brunette hair blew faintly to the left, with a tense face more revealed.
"Man, just don't go t—"
A voice shouted from the back at the group.
Oswald and Stanley reacted quickly, Stanley reacting faster.
It was faint and reduced, but easily interpreted.
Aurora: "HEY! Get back here! Magnus is coming back down now!"
The figure, from around half a kilometre away, was Aurora, with her faint pink slicked ponytail, shouting while still trying to keep a little bit of normalcy in her far-away shouting.
Oswald spoke first, while walking back proudly, shoulders moving back and forth, and hands in pockets, leaving Stanley to see if he didn't start moving as well.
"Good thing you followed." He muttered in a lower voice. Stanley could very clearly hear it, but chose not to answer.
The two walked back silently. Looking straight ahead, Stanley had to walk a bit faster, as Oswald was taller and had longer legs to keep up.
Aurora, who was the only one looking back at the two, occasionally turned to see Magnus, Daryl, and Tallurre all talking with each other, while the other blonder man, in casual clothes, walked triumphantly down with them, different from the Broken Halo's top members.
Daryl was focused on their little conversation, stuck in the middle of the two, moving his head back and forth, nodding to whatever they were talking about, and giving his own detailed answers while looking smart, different from his rough handyman look.
Tallurre was once again back to his monologues with a confident, simple-looking, rested face, talking only when necessary while walking down next to Daryl and the man. His hands were being used again as body language tools, and he expressed them professionally.
Magnus was the one doing all the talking, seeming like he was asking questions and trying to debunk them with his teammates, while the other man walked livelily. His attention was centred on the conversation, sometimes bumping into Daryl while walking down the long, smoother hill, down to the grass area that the group lay on, around two hundred metres from the shuttle.
{Hell of a fucking conversation; it was pretty short, and it seems like there were more answers than questions. Are they fine, or concerned?}
As they got closer, Stanley and Oswald walked right up to Aurora, who didn't say anything, except that she turned around and walked with them the short distance to the rest of the group waiting patiently.
Walking side by side.
The three walked up to the back of the group and squeezed in seamlessly, fitting right in as if they were just there, with Oswald moving up a bit further, and Aurora and Stanley being in the back, with Sheng-Ri still looking up at the sun, turning her body slowly to the noise that was chatter from the leaders of the group, and Jordan on his phone, texting someone aggressively.
A bit of chatter and discussion still continued, as they were now in comfortable talking distance, and some of the words could be properly interpreted as things to think about.
Tallurre: "Mr Carter, that's a reckless way to consider searching for Ms Leeash; didn't you just hear Magnus earlier? Stupid idiot." This was the first sentence Stanley could properly interpret.
{Ms Leeash. Um—like, she's somewhere or something like ransom?}
Daryl: "Shut the fuck up, pretty bitch. Dude, covering distance in that way of, like, divide and conquer will do wonders if you give me a week to make shit. I know, buddy contractor right next to me says otherwise on time-wasting, but quality over quantity." He replied quickly, speaking in a faster tone, words flowing unconsciously out loud.
Mr Leeash: "Exactly right, young inventor, except, let's not dilly-dally on such little things when your entire tools needed are right here." He spoke gently and regally, pointing minutely to the rest fifty metres away.
Then, they reached a distance worthy of stopping. Each of them did not stop in synchronised fashion, but with a millisecond gap.
Then, Magnus Turner spoke.
"Before we start, are we missing anyone?" He asked loudly.
A few comments shot out, all relating to the Nullari and Terry."Oblivion went that way.""Yeah, that dude, he's there.""We are definitely missing someone; wait a sec for him to come back."
"Yeah?""What's his name? Just on that big hill!""Oblivion Veryon travelled that way with a little resident to discuss matters."
All those comments, not loudly but in a somewhat lower-than-comfortable tone, came from the mouths of those speaking.
Magnus: "Ok, ok. I'll call him." He said in a reassuring tone, even if there was nothing to be "assured". He dug his left hand into his side jacket pocket in his jet-black suit, wriggling around with his arm visibly until he grabbed it and dialled a few numbers after using FACE ID to sign in, and then actually called him.
Tallurre and Daryl slowly moved out of the line that was the four of them and merged in with the rest of Broken Halo, Daryl moving next to Aurora and Stanley in the back after walking around, and Tallurre standing with arms crossed next to Lori.
The sound of the dial tone was right in Magnus's face, and barely audible from its loudspeaker in the back by Stanley.
Then it stopped, and Magnus put it up to his ear, turning off the loudspeaker. Irony, when he put it on the loudspeaker just a second earlier.
"Yeah, Oblivion, I did finish up talking with Tobias."
"Mm-hmm."
"Yep."
"Get over here right now, finish it up quick."He sighed just then.
"Well, tell me once I actually reveal the plan of our mission.""Yeah?"
"So what…"A pause of a few seconds.
He tapped his left temple a few times gently.
"Duh."
"Yeah, funny.""Now, bye."
He then pressed end and put the phone back in his pocket.
Magnus: "Welp. BE PATIENT. Our friendly neighbourhood tank is dropping off the boy back at his house."
He turned to look at Mr Leeash, who was still a few steps away in the distance, as he didn't move from the spot he stood in, while Daryl and Tallurre were around.
Tobias: "Mm. Was it Tyler this time? Or Terry, I wonder, Magnus?" He said, intrigued and in a wise-worded voice.
Magnus: "I don't even know who Tyler is, but Terry had a few things to say. And that's all that needs to be said." He replied.
A few seconds passed. Then a minute. Mostly silence. Some chatter amongst the people, and Tobias and Magnus remained chatting little by little.
All waiting for Oblivion to come back.
Stanley, at a random point in that little break, felt something vibrate. Shake very minimally, and at a fast tempo.
RMMMMMMM.
{About time. How far away was the fucking brat?}
WHOOSH.
TI TI TI TI TI TI.
The bike got snatched.
The noise was faint, as wind travelling was the most recognisable sound.
Oblivion took the bike and headed in exactly the direction he was still going.
"Aw, come on," Sheng-Ri complained quietly and sarcastically.
After a minute or two, the faint shake and deep noise were detected again.
RMMMMMMM.
Oblivion seemed to be heading back. Probably the leading theory.
WHOOSH.
TI TI TI TI TI TI.
He came back.
A gust of small winds travelled, and so did the footstep trail. He stopped all of his movements, positioning himself in a horse-riding stance, while bringing his arms to his chest, pointing them up from the forearms upwards.
Oblivion: "Now, continue with your speech, Magnus."
He extended both arms upwards, doing a stretch still in wide-spread legs.
{Ok, is this like some unique stretch, or something to do with Nullari, like a specific cultural pose to stop moving with their speedy movements?}
Magnus: "Thank you. Now, this contract was hired by this man next to me, Tobias Matt Leeash. Stockbroker and real estate agent, who had many, many successful sales, leading to this place being made." He spoke loudly and proudly, turning his head right and pointing his entire right arm at Tobias."
Tobias: "Thank you, Turner." He gracefully spoke.
"As I was saying, everyone, Mr Leeash requires our services since the previous 'People For Hire' groups couldn't do what he asked for, which was to search for his missing wife, Sierra Graham Leeash. This would be around the third group, correct?" He promptly asked Tobias.
Tobias: "Oh yeah. Third, most definitely." He vocally exaggerated his frustration.
Magnus: "Yeah, we are the third. Chances are, we will succeed in this objective where others failed. In this folder, I have the summary of group one, "Dermiya", and group two, "Rebell".
Magnus quickly pulled a pair of chunky binders with black covers from his jacket pocket; Stanley couldn't see what was written on the spines.
"And we will share these binders amongst us, letting each of us read them until we get every detail in our heads."He stated.
"Dermiya, their journey to find leads, led them to search continuously around the planet of 'Fierfam-D ', around five kilometres from here. On this planet, March 30th, Sierra took a toilet break in a shopping centre, with Tobias sitting down and resting on an indoor lounge, where they would spend most of the day waiting. He then, on the exact same day, got Dermiya, who had around fifty-three members all doing something, looking for clues, and closing down the shopping centre. Alas, the only clues that could be found were that the security cameras were not detecting her, as if she were invisible. "
Took another breath before speaking, Magnus did.
"Over the course of the week in April, Fierfam-D was searched, behind the scenes, secretly, and loudly. The problem that failed this team was that Fierfam-D was too big and too densely populated with metropolitan features that made nearly every square kilometre look urban. Too much to be handled, with not enough rest from their efforts and Tobias motivating them. They ended up handing the job to Rebell on April 8th at 12:44 PM. They gave away the information to Rebell in the form of this binder, as they had worked before on separate objectives and were trusted." Magnus took a deep breath and paused after letting out an extremely short summary, compared to what was supposedly in that binder, just from a guess.
"Though sadly they've been trying to chase us up the ranks since we debuted. Tsk." Magnus faintly grinned.
{Oh right, I should've asked what the fuck Broken Halo is in the ranks of things. I sure as hell they ain't first in Andromeda, or else they would've flexed it by now. Like, around three thousand? This group seems capable and easily manageable with tasks. Though Magnus is handling this like he's done it before. A really punchable face. And he's grinning. I might ask later anyway. I would now; it seems more important to listen right now, at least.}
A few heads nodded.
A grunt was heard.
"Well, Rebell is similar to us, except they have around a hundred members, and they don't have my "guiding whisper". He looked around and searched for people with confidence.
"Aurora's anomaly." He searched for her, found her head popping around Tono's and Stanley's, and nodded back in a friendly way. She nodded upwards, back at him.
"Sheng-Ri's." He tried looking for her in the crowd, but sadly couldn't spot her, as she was comfortable enough to just respond with "yep." instead of standing up and coming into view from the back.
"Or Jordan's anomaly." Same thing. Looked back at the dread head as he was texting while seemingly "focusing", and he also responded, but with a grunt.
Magnus started using his hands as body language once again.
"They took after Dermiya, and instead of searching around the one place, tried using word of mouth to see where she could've gotten taken to. They apparently suspected that she was taken and taken to a place somewhere far. Ransom, genetic lab experiments, testing- those were all possible options." He exhaled after pausing his words. He mildly looked down at his black polished shoes.
"It didn't go anywhere. They couldn't find any piece of a trail that would lead them out of Fierfam-D. That's when we come in. Today. Three days ago, they gave Tobias back his money and tried moving jobs. That's the timeline of events for idiots." He clapped once.
Magnus: "We are the difference. I've promised Tobias we will get his wife back. He knows how consistent we are based on our stats." He turned to him again.
Tobias: "Oh yes. Good stuff and effort. I really hope you do succeed in finding Sierra. Plenty of stuff has negatively impacted me because of this. I really need an answer that you can give compared to those fools. Heh." He put on a genuine voice and spoke regally again.
"We have a reputation to uphold. Let's go above that bar. Further. How else do we keep a high status in this world if we don't give back that high performance?"
Daryl: "YEAH!" He commented loudly.
"Now, once we go inside our shuttle, we can go and discuss the OTHER important details."
{Yeesh. That doesn't sound nice in a way.}
"This case will be closed soon, Don't W—" Magnus spoke before getting interrupted.
Oblivion: "I really have to have a word with you after this, Magnus." He spoke clearly and firmly. Something didn't seem to sit right with Oblivion. What did he hear from Terry?