8-7 The tier list

Date: September 10

Place: Second Headquarters

[Cedrick]

Just watching every truth and lie mix together is not a funny thing to watch. It will hurt all of us, especially in the long run, when he finally finds out.

"I'm sorry, but that's all I know," she grits her lips.

"Thank you," a bittersweet smile curled onto Noel's lips as he fiddled with his fingers. "To be honest, I was told that there was a girl that I should find if I want to know the truth," he confessed leaving her with wide-opened eyes.

"A girl?" she muttered.

[Noel]

"Vincent was the one who told me about it," I'm not sure why, but I just got a feeling that I should tell them. No, it wasn't a feeling, the girl from my hallucination told me to bring it up, a shadow standing behind Rei is looking intently.

It was a lingering dark mist, it almost looked like the thing that emitted out of Rei when she went berserk. But what's different from that time, is that I don't feel any hostility from it at all.

I only read the movements of its mouth which looked like a void of light. "Tell. Girl. Try. Finding." was everything that I could comprehend.

"He told me that if I find her, I'll get to know about 'It'," Rei's slightly surprised expression was unexpected. "I'm not completely sure," I continued.

"Sorry, It's my first time hearing about this," she turned away, shielding her mouth with a hand.

"And another thing," I blurted out that both of them flinched. "I was awake when the three sneaked out of the room. I think that was when you held a secret meeting about this case," I confessed. Surely enough, both of them looked disappointed when they found out that I already suspected something.

"And minutes after they sneaked out of the room, a man just came out of nowhere," I tried to reminisce and narrate it accurately. "He was talking to someone saying that he had no choice but to hide because 'they' came right after him," I looked up at them to see their shocked reaction as I assumed that it was them who the man was talking about. "I don't think the man saw me because he was so distracted," I continued.

Although, I emitted the part where a hallucination or the same entity that was behind Rei, warned me to hide.

[Rei]

"'Did you see his face? Or any of his features at all?" Cedrick frantically asked.

"No, and when he heard Rei trying to search for him, he disappeared like a bubble," Noel looked apologetic. "Can I know what happened?" he hesitates to ask.

"Indeed," Cedrick nods.

"That man was trying to find something in our lounge when we came here to meet with the three, that man already made a mess and was throwing things around. He immediately teleported away before we could get to him," I say with a disappointed tone while Noel listens closely.

"Who would've thought he teleported into your quarters," Cedrick looked worried, who shouldn't be? Because why would he have teleportation to their room? Did he think that nobody was there?

And..only a leader was able to get a hold of such a thing. Or was it not a teleportation crystal?

"Thank you for telling us that," I reply, still trying to come up with any idea why and how.

"Do you know what they were trying to find?" Noel asked. While Cedrick took a peek at my reaction and waited patiently for my response.

"It's this USB," I sighed, trying not to regret ever telling him this information. "It's about a lot of stuff; my condition, your condition, some private info about a few operations of this headquarters, and a lot more," I confessed nothing but the truth this time.

"Your condition?" Noel repeated, expecting an explanation.

"You remember the black mist and the monster I've become the other day, right?" he nodded to my question. "That one," as I thought of a more easy way to explain things.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," he sounded dejected as he evades my gaze.

"No, I already promised I'll tell you everything you want to know," I smiled to put him at ease. "You see, I was a lab rat," he was shocked. "I am quite similar to the things we're fighting," trying to come up with stories that'll look like a white lie as Cedrick turned the other way.

"They're trying to find a cure for me because I was once unOrdinary," his eyes widen with disbelief as Cedrick accepts the lie. "I'm a special case and I'm trying to use my monster to listen to me and fight for the sake of humanity," I explained. "That's why the higher-ups call me a dog because if I don't listen to them, they'll throw me out and will find another test subject," not all of it is a lie.

"That's why she needs to do some check-ups from time to time," Cedrick looked pissed as he says that. "And why our squadron is receiving private info and missions, it's entrusted to us," he helped me explain some of the truth. "All because they see her as a war machine that can win any fight," he continued.

"I see," Noel tries to process everything. "That's why they gave us to you," he mumbled as I slightly nodded. "Then is Cedrick something special too?" he turned his gaze to a surprised Cedrick.

"Oh him? He's a friend that keeps me in check," I admittedly answered as Cedrick just sighed and turned away. "Do you have any other questions?" I asked.

[Noel]

"I have a lot, but I'll leave it for next time," I say as an unexpected sigh comes out of me. I saw a glimpse of her response, her brows were almost together and she had apologetic eyes that didn't reject my stare.

"Rei," Cedrick cleared his throat as he handed her some things.

"Since we've already established that you're finally learning the truth about everything, I know that you should also have a look at their belongings along with us," she smiled and dropped everything that those three had brought back from their mission in the table that separates all of us. "You can take a look at anything you want since it's also the first for everyone, I say we conclude everything they found tonight," she says as if she was asking a question for the both of us.

"Yeah," I could only mutter as I had no voice to let out an enthusiastic response and so did Cedrick.

We started to work on everything, the notes on the papers or data left, their items such as weapons, stocked food, and other necessities, and the records of their departure state and arrival state.

[Rei]

The only information that stood out the most is that they managed to obtain or make a tier list.

- - - - -

unOrdinary levels;

1- insects

2- two-legged animals

3- four-legged animals

4- normal unOrdinary

5- buffed unOrdinary

Special grades;

No.10's

Jack

Queen

King

Ace

Joker

- - - - -

"It says here that those levels one to three can cause various venomous bites or marks that can destroy things such as technologies, or even make someone unOrdinary too but with a low percentage," Cedrick stated when he read a long article about an experiment data.

"The levels four to five's only goal is to kill and destroy things," Noel said as if he was questioning himself from the same article.

"While the special ones are the successful projects and only a few of them were made and survived," I say holding the printed copy of an unknown research data that was in the data file. "There are only four number 10s whereas two of them are currently on a mission while another two are missing and are residing in an unknown region," I flip over the page after I highlight the important texts. "There are also the Jack, Queen, and King," I shared while raising an eyebrow and trying to process everything that I read.

"Yeah, and unlike the 10s there is only one each of those," Cedrick followed. "And there seems to be an Ace too but out of three subjects, only one successfully survived," the horrifying face he made was just the same as everyone in the room right now.

"Unknown entity?" Noel blurted which made Cedrick and I asked for what he meant. "It's stated here that there were two entities that were of unknown origin and even unknown deaths. They seemed to just only vanish in thin air one night and were named 'Jokers' in the data. And nothing more was added after that," he continued to read through his pages but to no avail of finding any more of those.

The night was long and neither any of us desired sleep as we just read through everything and wondered how they got all this new and impossible information.

And we ended up only discussing ideas and silly theories.