The Mysterious Nine

Chapter 7: The History

  "Señores, señoritas, welcome. I am Master Strategy and Wisdom," declared a guy dressed in a formal suit with a tie and linen pants covering him neck to toe. He turned around to a white board behind him and wrote Welcome in large, black and bold letters.

 "As you all know, we are in a very, very critical situation. The Great Master Speaker had betrayed our Masters and taken the throne. Most probably, his next move would be trying to find and kill us." 

The Great hall is lighted with a white glow, filling every corner with brightness and radiance. There sat seven of them, attempting to hear the words of a weird guy standing in a stage.Sorrow and despair clouded the minds of everyone. Sid sat with them, his mind fuming with anger. We are in danger of losing our lives and this guy is giving a damn speech, he thought with frustration. Yet, the professor had chosen him as our leader.

"To survive, we have to be united." He continued. "We have to familiarise ourselves. Even though we are strong individually, the real strength lies in unity, working as a team." 

I can't be calm and sit idle anymore, Sid clenched his fist infuriated, forming a fireball.

"Stop your bloody lecture, witless fool, we should not be talking idly like cowards, we have to fight." Sid yelled and threw the fireball at Master Strategy. But it is deflected in mid-air by a sudden force. He turned back to see Gravity standing with her hands lifted apart.

"What are you doing?" She demanded fiercely. "The professor made him the leader and he must have had a reason for it."

"Hey girl, shut your mouth. He is right, we should not sit and talk trash. If we want revenge, we should attack." A black, muscular guy yelled in the top of his voice. 

" Whoa, hold on a minute, Mr. Hulk, just because you have got biceps and six pack abs won't mean you are the strongest person in the world." a flat playful voice in British accent retorted. A slender girl was sneering at him. She was attractive in a fierce, seductive way.

"Oh, yeah, I can kill you in a hundred ways with just my hands, show off."

"Shut up. Shut the hell up." Master Strategy banged his fist on the table in front of him, "I don't want another civil war within ourselves. We shall fight him, we will, But with a plan, a precise plan. We will hit the Master Speaker where it hurts." 

"Okay, then tell us about the plan." Sid said impatiently.

"I shall, in good time. But now, we need to clarify a few things. First, all your parents have been convinced that you guys are in a school trip, so you don't have to worry about it. Second, we are safe from the minions of Grand Master Speaker for another twenty four hours. He will be tracking every zone in the Earth which has a great amount of Aura. But, hopefully Master Communicator and Tracker," he paused and gestured towards a fat guy with glasses who smiled sheepishly.  

 "He can camouflage us from Speaker using his anti-tracking skills. Third, let me brief you about you about the history of The Mysterious Nine." He crossed his fingers, nodding in a professional way.

"The Mysterious Nine was formed by Ashoka The Great, a Mauryan emperor from India, around 2200 years ago. You see, at that time, India, previously called Bharat was one of the most ancient, prosperous and richest civilisation in the world, similar to the Egypt and the Greeks. King  Ashoka's dream was to conquer and reign the whole of India. So, war was a frequent thing." He took out a remote from his pocket and clicked it, projecting a map of India on the screen. 

"With his mighty and enormous army, he succeeded in defeating the emperors of the North and proceeded towards the South. In the battle of Kalinga, which is, here," he pointed it with the laser beam and continued. (the map of Kalinga is attached above.)

"The battle, by all means, was bloody and devastating. The Utkalas, the people of Kalinga tried to resist their attack, but failed miserably. This leads to a loss of millions of lives from both sides, it was one of the most bloodiest wars that had taken place in the history of India. Ashoka had seen the bloodshed and blamed himself as the cause of destruction. The war turned his malevolent cruelty into remorse and guilt. He turned into a Buddhist and proclaimed non-violence and peace. So, he established a society of Nine unknown men, each specialized in nine prominent arts of life to establish and ensure peace. They called themselves 'The Mysterious Nine'. Their number would be renewed by co-option so as to preserve the secrecy of the techniques handed down from ancient times. There are nine Masters," 

"Master Strategy and Wisdom," he said pointing at himself.

 "Master Sorcerer," signalling towards Sid, " Master Fighter," gesturing at the muscular guy, "Master Thief, Master Healer and Probability, Master Gravity, Master Light, Master Communicator and Tracker." he smiled and nodded at all of them. "And Master Speaker and his apprentice had sadly turned into our enemies now." 

"Um, excuse me, you guys should call me Mistress Light, not Master." a girl with a sun tanned skin whined, speaking for the first time. 

"I am sorry, Light, it is ancient tradition and it must be followed." Strategy waved his hands, grinning helplessly. 

" So Strategy, what is your plan?" Sid asked. 

"Aye, coming to my plan, Master Tracker, tell them what you have found." 

Tracker lifted his chunky belly awkwardly with the support of the table in front of him and flashed his toothy, sheepish smile.  

"Uh, right, I tracked a building with a great amount of Material Aura, that means it could have many weapons, shields and other powerful things." he grinned proudly.

" Exactly, we badly need weapons and it is a golden opportunity for us, we are going to raid the building in twenty two hours, twelve minutes, fifty seconds." Strategy mused excitedly, clapping his hands. 

"What if it's a trap?" Gravity asked doubtfully.

" It could be a trap, but I don't care. If it is going to be war, we shall start it. We shall strike first. LET THE BATTLE
BEGIN!" 
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Authors note:
               Hey friends, thank you for reading. If you enjoyed it, vote and share my book to your friends. Do you guys like the new characters that  appeared in this chapter? I will be publishing the character sketch of them in between the forthcoming chapters. Also, I am planning to use the POVs of other characters as well, what do you think? Say in the comments. By the way, the Master Strategist character is inspired from The Professor from Netflix series Money Heist. Any Money heist fans?