One and Only

Chapter Six: This is What We Do.

The ride was awkward and silent. I sat in between Mask and Flame. Was that their names? I honestly don't know anything anymore. The burned guy was next to the one with white hair. The woman they call "mama", which was freaking weird, sat facing us. Mask and Flame faced forward, sitting straight like statues. They were completely still except for the occasional blink. Finally, the van slows, then stops. 'Mama' gets out first followed by Mask, Me, Flame, and White Hair. We walk through this place that seemed like something out of a movie. Everyone we walk past bows, wearing all black, red, green, blue, or purple outfits. "Black Flame. Take a tour of the place with Miles. Make sure he understands what we do. Then meet me in the Learning Room in thirty minutes." Black Flame's face doesn't change as she bows and grips my upper arm, leading me away.

 She lets go as we walk through a series of hallways. "What we do here is very organized. We all have a place, a purpose, to help this organization work and grow. The boss, aka Mama, is the ruler over us all. She's the goddess who helped us tap into our potential and helped us become who we are today." As she explains, her face and voice soften before hardening again. Finally, we enter a large room with a symbol that kinda looked like Hogwart's badge, plastered on the floor. "These are the main branches. Red is the assassins, the trained killers. They go are the ones who go out and do the dirty work. Green is our hacker. They handle anything technical. Cameras down? Up and working. Cars not working? Fixed. Someone coming? We know way before. Blue is our smugglers. They kidnap who we want and swipe anything we need. Purples our spies. They go undercover all over the world. They are everywhere." The last one was yellow which was the color that lined Flame's outfit. She, Mask, and White Hair were all in that category. "And yellow, right? That's yours? And the other two?" I ask and she gives a simple nod. "Yellow is the top, the highest accomplishment. Unlike the others, you have to work to get into this category. It's very rare. Yellow is the group that works right by Mama. They do personal, important missions. They're leaders of the groups and role models to students who train to become higher power too." She explained, her voice slightly monotone which echoed the empty corridor as we stood in front of the sigil. I glanced at her, nodding slowly to show I was listening to what she was saying. "You'll be able to watch the Yellows at work in the Learning room in 27 minutes." She adds, crossing her arms and turning to look at me. I smiled, a thought popping into my head. "So do you all have supernatural powers or something? Like you and your flames? Or is it something only a selected few have? What's Mask's power?" I asked curiously, leaning towards her with a curious grin. I see a slight wince appear on her face and her shoulders straighten, her arms dropping to her sides. She looked uncomfortable, which was one of the first genuine emotions he's seen since the alleyway. "Not exactly... I didn't get my powers.. from here. Fortunately for you, we do have advanced weaponry that can give the illusion of supernatural powers." She adds quickly, looking away towards the roof of the room. She still looked uncomfortable, so I decided to take the subject change.

The room was very large with a tall ceiling, made of marble. Looks sorta like if you walked into an art museum. A large clock was built into the wall above the large doors we entered from, and smaller clocks sat above the entrances of the hallways the corridor branched off to. This place was built like a maze. Hundreds of hallways and rooms and doors and staircases branching out and leading every which way. It was incredible. I looked back to Flame as she turns towards one of the hallways. "Come." She states simply, stepping through the empty hallway in the far left. The hallways morph into something of a school. The floors become more cheesy dotted marble floors than the fancy swirly floors. The ceiling become drywall panels and the walls become an off-white color with even cheesier posters. It looked like.. a school hallway. Doors with windows tinted in become more frequent, looking more like we just stepped into Middle School. When I paused to look at one of the posters, I realized it wasn't cheesey YOU CAN DO IT! posters. They had unnerving messages in form of kid posters, like STAY IN LINE OR WASTE OUR TIME or TEARS ARE SIGN OF FEARS, WHICH IS UNACCEPTABLE. 

Flame leads the way to a classroom on the right, stripes of red and purple lines the doorway which he observed for a second before being yanked into the classroom. There were rows of people, what looks like all sizes, ages, and colors all dressed in black. They don't even look when we enter, only the teacher at the front glances towards us. She straightens immediately when she sees us. Flame pulls me to a row of desks and chairs that line the wall by the door as we sit in the middle. Her posture was perfect as she sits, making me straighten my spine as well, to match. The teacher speaks so softly, I had to lean forward a bit to listen. She instructs her class to do a few things before  they all jump into action, doing the same movements of pushing and jumping and kicking. I watched for a second before leaning towards Flame. "This is where the.. assassins train?" I asked quietly, watching the people move. She simply shook her head. "This is where all branches are trained to fight. No matter the branch, you are required to meet certain expectations when it comes to defense." She informs, not bothering to lower her voice. I winced as her voice echoed the room, bouncing over the teachers soft speaking. The teacher doesn't stop talking, though, as if not noticing the interruption. "Anyways. Our tour ends here. I am needed in 7 minutes in the Learning room." She speaks on a slightly monotone voice again, standing. I quickly move to follow her out of the classroom, glancing back at the kids once more before hurrying behind Flame back through the absolute maze of a place. 

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We make it back to the boring, fully white hallways, everything white and bright with the artificial lights reflecting off everything. The hallway was empty, the occasional door or two appearing every now and then until we make it to the end of the hallway, a door sitting simply. A yellow star marks the door, the only thing not white in this section of the place. Flame grabs the doorknob and knocks twice before entering. She hugs the far right wall, moving to stand next to the line of other yellow membered people. I hurry to stand next to her, my footsteps far louder than hers. She stands next to Mask, and Mama is in the middle next to an old timey dentist chair  where the burned guy was. We all stood there for a moment in completely silence, the line of people blank-faced and Mama's eyes sweeping across them before she nods and hold up a hand. A girl with bunny ears and shoulder-length black hair hands her a bucket of water I just noticed she was holding. Mama turns and dumps all the water onto the guy, who sputters slightly, but doesn't stir. No one flinches or reacts as the water spills over the guy and splashes towards up, I was the only one that jumped back in surprise. White-haired lady from the van, black bunny girl, and a red headed bear were standing next to Mask, all expressionless and motionless. I stared at them in awe for a second. Black bunny girl grabs another bucket and the process repeats until the guy jerks up, straining with his restraints. "Good morning." Mama cooed gently, taking me by surprise. She seems satisfied. The guy's eyes dart around frantically. "Where am I?! Where.. what..?" He sputters, his eyes landing on us. "What's with the kids?" He points at us through his restraints and Mama turns to us. "Children?" 

"Good morning, Mr. Min." They recited in unison, their expressions not changing from the blank stares. I watched with a raised eyebrow. I had no idea what was going on. But it was starting to really put me on edge. Maybe I would've been better off if I hadn't snuck out....

Thank you, Viewers!

Written by Cora, Viper, and Zach, 2022.