"For the 2nd time, I would… like to officially welcome the newest member of our team, Riley Ross."
A mix of quiet applause and nods whispered in the air as the members of the Hope Guild gathered in their meeting hall. Everyone all carried different expressions on their faces; some complicated, some happy, excited, and some just… worried.
As for Riley, he was busy looking at the almost hundreds of screens that were plastered all over the walls of the meeting hall. Some were turned on to the news, some were live feed from surveillance cameras that Bernard no doubt hacked, some were view from above; no doubt from satellites that Bernard also hacked.
One would think Bernard to just be a minor part of the Hope Guild… but wasn't the whole guild basically operating on him? He was as much a foundation as the very base they were currently standing on.
Their outfits were upgraded by him, their comms, their base– everything was running through Bernard. And yet…
…Why wasn't he here right now?
But why? Riley thought. Because Riley now knows that Bernard knows that he is Darkday? That really shouldn't change much between them, right?
"If you're trying to find Whiteking, then he is currently out on a mission," Tempo leaned closer to whisper, "He operates differently than the rest of us since he also works for the government. Don't tell him I told you."
"...What are you telling to the new kid?" Hera, who was also sitting next to Tempo, quickly pulled him away, "Stop infecting him with your perverseness."
"What did you–"
"Ahem."
And before the two could start arguing with each other, Empress loudly cleared her throat to get everyone's attention, "Let's discuss the reason why I called all of us here today– about the call yesterday."
"Yeah, tragic," Hera let out a small sigh, "But things like that happen every time, what's so special about this one?"
"We were there when they died," Empress then stated; causing Riley to slightly tilt his head to the side.
"I asked Whiteking to cover it up," Empress continued. But even then, no one seemed to give any violent reaction as they all listened to what Empress had to say, "The homunculus… was one of the abnormal ones, it killed all the civilians as soon as they got out of hiding."
"...Shit," Tempo could not help but close his eyes; letting out a long and very deep breath as he shook his head, "Just when are these things going to die out?"
"Before they were killed, the civilians said something that caught my attention," Empress raised her hand to once again gather everyone's attention to her, "The villain that we were called there to neutralize, Whipper… the civilians told us that he was there trying to contain the homunculus and actually save them."
"...What?" Tempo blinked a couple of times as he heard Empress's words, "But the distress call clearly stated that the villain was wreaking havoc?"
Tempo was the one to take the call as he was the only one on the base at that moment. He could have been the one to respond, but their system detected that Empress was near the site. So he was sure…
"...It was a call to neutralize the villain," Tempo muttered.
"I don't get it," V, who was sitting opposite Riley, was resting her head on the table, "A villain is a villain, who knows what he was really up to. If he was really trying to tame it or whatever, then the damage wouldn't have been that great."
"It might just be nothing," Empress let out a sigh as she heard V's words, "But still, practice caution when responding to calls for now. The government's been taking a lot of flak the past few months, they might be cooking up something– especially since Riley is with us."
"Me?" Riley tilted his head to the side, "Does the government want something from me, Miss Empress?"
"They want your head," Butcher, who has been keeping quiet throughout the entire meeting, finally spoke up, "You caused an enormous problem for them during the incident with the HM Prison Leeds. Even though the evidence against you was air-tight, the moment it was dismissed, the masses that supported the government was reduced by 62.8%."
"I think what the 6-footer is trying to say here is that since you're here," Hera stood up as she looked at Empress, "The government wants to make us look bad or something since we got whitey here free, right?"
"Damn, fuck those government fucks," the limiter on V's back started to trickle, "They think they can defame Riley again?"
Empress could only let out a sigh as she heard the displeasure in everyone's voice. If only they knew that who they were trying to defend was someone who almost killed them more than once.
"Alright, that's all," Empress then stood up from her seat, "Just be careful responding to calls for now. If needed, then ask Whiteking for help."
"This doesn't change anything," V also stood up, "They can hate us all they want, we're still gonna save them at the end of the day because that's why we were born in the first place. To use our curse as a blessing to those that could not–"
"What's gotten into you?" Hera let out a loud scoff, "Is our little princess showing off to his new boyfriend?"
"B… boyfriend!?" The sparks on V's back grew even more violent, "I… I mean, we could be… but we haven't really labeled ourselves or anything like that but… maybe we can talk about it later alone, Riley?"
"Nope."
V was about to approach Riley, but before she could do so, Hera blocked her path,
"Lover boy here and I have other plans today. Since Empress already oriented her yesterday, then it's my time to show the boy the ropes."
Hera said as she tied up her long hair into ponytail, before wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses to hide her brown, almost yellow eyes.
"Plans? What plans?" V furrowed her eyebrows. As for the others, they seemed to not want anything to do with the conversation as they left one by one, leaving only Riley and the two girls in the meeting hall.
"I do not remember making plans with you, Miss Hera." Even Riley seemed a bit confused as he stood up to face her.
"I told you I was going to introduce you to the other voice actors of the animated series, right?" Hera smiled, "We happen to be meeting in the studio today to record for a new OVA."
"A… new OVA?" Riley almost took a few steps back as he heard Hera's words,
"Let's go now, Miss Hera. Let me just change to my superhero outfit."
And with those words, V was left alone in the meeting hall.
"Did… I just lose to an anime?"
***
"...By the way, which language did you watch the series?"
"All that was available, Miss Empress."
"R… really?"
Riley and Empress were now riding on an elevator inside the building of Hera's agency– Superhero LimeLight Entertainment or SLL Entertainment for short.
And as their name suggests, most of their stars were supers. And as a member of the Hope Guild, Hera was one of their biggest names. And due to that, they had to take the 'secret' elevator behind the building to avoid the fans that were waiting for celebrities at the entrance.
"...That's good, then," Hera then let out a small sigh that echoed through the small elevator, "I was worried since we'll only be meeting the English voice actors. I did the Japanese, English, and Chinese for my character since she only has a few lines."
"Hm," Riley only nodded several times in response, "That is very good, Miss Hera. I will let you live when the time comes."
"...Thanks?"
And after that, was silence. It was a good thing that there were only a few more floors, or else the atmosphere might have caused Hera to ask what Riley meant by that… and she didn't really want to know.
And finally, after a few more seconds, they arrived at the floor where the voice actors were meeting.
"Ah, Hera is here, everyone!"
And immediately, as they entered the hall they were assigned, the people all started to greet Hera one by one with smiles on their faces.
As for Riley, he was still nodding his head. As expected of someone who was involved in the creation of Italian Mafia Reborn, everyone could not wait to shake hands with her.
"They're all fake."
And as Riley was looking around at the crowd of people, Hera leaned closer to him and whispered, "Everyone here is jealous of each other, the faster you get that, the better."
"Hm… As expected, even the voice actors of the characters are quite cunning, Miss Hera."
"...That's not what I meant," Hera could only roll her eyes as she removed her sunglasses, "Anyway, follow me. I'll introduce you to my manager– Oh, speak of the devil."
And before Hera could finish her words, a woman that had huge bags under her eyes approached the two of them,
"Hera… you're late again," the woman then said; her breath, stinking of the smell of coffee and cigarette. But as soon as her eyes strayed towards Riley, she quickly stood up straight and fixed anything she needed to fix on her,
"Riley Ross!" The woman then screamed, once again gathering the attention towards Hera, "You're finally here! Quick, quick…
…get him ready for the audition!"
***
"Have we made contact with the ship yet?"
Somewhere in NASA, all the people that were sitting and staring in front of their monitors had red and almost swelling eyes already. They have been monitoring the unidentified foreign object that was… sitting idly hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from Earth– always opposite of where the moon was.
"Not yet, sir. The people in the nearest manned satellite are refusing to approach the subject, sir."
"What? What do you mean refusing!? Are they disobeying orders from the government?"
"...They are allowed to do that, sir. Since we don't know–"
"Tell them to do it or their families will get in an accident."
And suddenly, several men wearing sunglasses entered the control room; their ties, all the same color– gold.
"W… what the!? Who told you people you can just enter here!? Who…
…do you think you are!?"
"The Government."