Chapter 36

The three of them watched Wayne as he made the call. "Yello?" the voice on the other side said. Yello? Was that supposed to be hello?

"Hey boss, could you sound a bit more professional."

"Whacha mean? I think I sound groovy."

"Are you drunk again?"

"No, no, not in the slightest. Hadn't had a sip in months after that incident."

"That's good, but can you talk like you normally do?"

"I am talking normally."

"Now you are."

"Aww... I messed up."

"So you were just messing around."

"Yes, but back to the topic. You only call me when something important happens, so what is it?" the person on the other side of the phone asked Wayne.

"We have a new member," he said while looking at Jean.

"We do? Who invited them?"

"Jackson."

"Jackson!? He did!?"

"Yes."

"Wow! What kind of person did he find!?"

Jean couldn't help but notice that their "leader" was rather a strange person. Shouldn't his first reaction be more skeptical? This wasn't what Jean expected at all.

*Sigh* Wayne didn't look like he was please with his leader acting this way.

"What? Is there something wrong?" The person on the other side didn't get why Wayne was sighing. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Yes. You know, it's really times like these that I wonder if you're really our leader."

"Aw, that's cruel. You're breaking my heart."

"..." Wayne put his phone for a second down and rubbed his forehead.

"Hey, are you still there?" the voice asked Wayne. "Hello? Hellooo?"

Wayne turned to Jean and for a moment, she thought that he was reconsidering recruiting her and might just kill her instead, but that wasn't it. She nearly had a heart attack when he opened his mouth but instead of what she expected, he politely told her, "Please leave for now. I need to have a 'talk' with this idiot."

"Hey! I heard that! Who are you calling an idiot!?" the voice shouted from the phone.

Wayne just ignored it and looked at Jean. She got up and Wayne got as well. He then walked her to the door all the while his leader was complaining through the phone about not being respected by his subordinates. He then opened the door for her and let her out. "I'll contact you when I get things sorted out."

"Hey! Hey! Are you even listening to me anymore!?" the voice shouted on the phone. It was so loud that Wayne didn't even need to put it on speakers for her to hear. She had to agree with Wayne. The person on the other side of the phone didn't really sound like a leader.

"Alright, bye." Wayne started to close the door when Jackson suddenly appeared behind him and stopped him.

"Wait, I need to say something to her first." Wayne looked at Jackson for a second before turning around and bringing the phone back to his ear. "Okay, here's the situation..." Wayne began to explain everything that happened to their boss while he walked away.

"Sorry about everything," Jackson apologized. But he didn't really have an apologetic expression. He still had his goofy smile on his face like a toddler who knew he did wrong but acted like nothing happened at all. Before Jean could say anything, Jackson's face changed to a serious one and he put his hand against his chest. "I will get you out of this mess. I promise you. I'll convince them some way."

"Okay?" It was the first time she has seen such a determined look on his face.

"Well, goodbye for now I guess. Hopefully, the next time we meet, you won't have to meet with us anymore," he then closed the door without giving Jean the chance to say goodbye back.

***

"I'm telling you. That guy doesn't respect me at all!"

"Yeah, yeah. Neither do I. Neither do most of us actually."

"Oh come on! Are you serious!?"

"Do you think I'm joking? You don't act like a leader!"

"Heh, what do you mean? I'm cool, composed, and handsome. Doesn't that make me a natural leader? Tell me Kevin, does it, or does it not?"

"Did you hit your head somewhere?"

"No, I'm being serious here."

"..."

Currently, Josh was in an abandoned building with another person. After getting away from those I.C.E. agents, they had no choice but to stay in here for the time being because there were a bunch of them patrolling the area and searching for where he went off to. They knew that he was still here somewhere and was hiding. Because of that, Josh couldn't leave the building and had been staying in here for the past few days.

"Anyway, jokes aside, have you heard of the story of the three spinners?"

"Sorry, but did you say spinners?"

"Yes. Though it's only really one of them who spins. If I remember right, their names are Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos."

"And this is important because?"

"Let me finish will you?" Kevin didn't look like he cared even the slightest about the story but let him finish it anyway.

"It's a Greek myth. So how it goes is that when a person is born, the three of them would decide the person's fate right there and then. So in other words, everything in their life is already laid out for them. Everything that happens is because it was destined to happen. Isn't that interesting?"

"Yeah sure," Kevin nonchalantly says. "So you're learning this sh*t instead of actual useless things in school?"

"Hey, stories are useful too you know. We learn lessons from them."

"And what lesson am I learning from one?" If there was a lesson, Kevin wasn't getting it.

"No particular one," Josh admitted that this one didn't really teach a lesson at all. "But to think that Jackson convinced her to join... What a twist of events. Looks like fate, or shall I say, the three of them, are having a ton of fun right now pulling strings."

"What? Do you know her or something? You talk like you do."

"I do. She's from the same school as me after all. We talked a couple of times. She even saved me once. That's one more time than most of you."

"She did? And don't say that I didn't save you before. I literally just saved your a*s when you were getting chased by those agents."

"Hey, I didn't specify you. I said most of you, as in the entire group."

"Our purpose isn't to bail your a*s every single time you get in trouble you know. Our purpose to is get on I.C.E.'s a*s and bring them down. I couldn't care less if you get caught by them and turned into an experiment."

*Sniff* "You're breaking my heart," Josh jokingly said while faking crying.

"I want to break your skull."

"Alright, alright, let's stop. Back to business, what ever shall I do with her."

"You might want to change your wording. That sounds very wrong."

"That's only because you're thinking inappropriately. I have no such intentions of doing any of the things you're thinking about in that dirty head of yours."

"Uh-huh. F*ck off. I know exactly how much of a playboy you are. All of us do."

"You know that I've actually never dated a girl before, right?"

"Yeah? And I'm the president of I.C.E."

"No, I'm being completely honest about this."

"Yeah, so am I."

"..." Josh sighed and just leaned back against his chair. "Aaaah... Weird for you to think so when I've lived more than half my life up in that tower."

"Sc*m like you don't need experience. Just with your face alone, you'd attract entire flocks just by breathing."

"Sometimes I really wonder if you guys actually think of me as your leader. You guys don't even treat me like a human being sometimes." Josh said it in a voice that sounded like he was really hurt but Kevin didn't care. It was just more of his bullsh*t acting to get people to feel pity for him.

"Go on."

"You guys really do treat me like sc*m sometimes."

"That's cause you are sc*m"

"Ugh, nevermind. Even I get tired of shenanigans like this. Anyway, once we get out of here, we're starting the plan right off the bat."

"We are?"

"Yes. And we're going to have our newest member help us out a little."

"I hope that you know that you're a villain."

"What are you talking about? When have you ever seen a villain this handsome? I'm a hero."

"Here we go again."

"Oh, yeah. I keep forgetting." Josh jumps out of his seat and takes out his phone. "Help me contact everyone. We're going to pull this off. It's now or never."

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