The common hall was filled with people when Ale, [Golem] and [Fan Girl] arrived, but unlike what she had expected, the place had this undercurrent of somber mood, no one was talking aloud, nor were people moving around from place to place.

 

Unlike how she had seen other times the people stood on their seats, most had their mask on even, unlike what Ale was used to, sometimes when she passed by there was always at least one Minion unmasked going around and being rowdy.

 

But now?

 

Now, everyone was sitting on chairs with their dining utensils in front of them, waiting patiently.

 

A few of those even had their full body armor and uniforms on, now that she was paying attention she noticed that both [Fan Girl] and [Golem] had been wearing their bodysuits under their outwear.

 

Golem merely took a box from within one of his pouches and absorbed it, within seconds he was now once again a towering giant, "Expendable jacket, I'll absorb the scraps and use them as material later," [Golem] said when Ale turned to stare at him.

 

On the other hand [Fan Girl] merely unzipped her jacket and let the people get a look at her body armor. That was one way to show she was dressed for the occasion.

 

So Ale pushed a few buttons on her belt and her bodysuit crawled over her body to encase her fully, she felt the skinsuit cling to her and like [Fan Girl] she unzipped her oversized hoodie letting her body armor show.

 

Unlike [Fan Girl], she was able to absorb her blouse and shorts, so it looked as if she had been wearing this under her hoodie.

 

Ale actually debated about absorbing the hoodie whole, but she had noticed that most of the Minions around were wearing some degree of street clothes, with a few exceptions of course.

 

At a raised table stood a few [Minions] who were wearing what was obviously combat-designed armor.

 

Going from left to right first was a girl wearing a red dress that clung to her body as if to emphasize her lines, and there were plenty of flat lines to go. She seemed to be some type of [Reptilian Core] user as Ale could see some green scales on her body, and behind her seemed to be a green tail with some fur at the end of it.

 

On her upper body it was mostly humanoid, with a few exceptions. She had a couple whiskers atop her lips, her eyes were reptilian-like like and atop her head stood a couple horns. Ale wondered if she was also a bad trigger or was some pseudo [Shifter] like the woman that owned the vegan bistro restaurant she had gone to before.

 

At the side of this weird lizard-girl was another girl with purple flowing gas-like hair, she was wearing a thick jacket with a hoodie that was up and covered most of her face, her mask had a weird design where on the mouth part had what looked to be a pair of cylinders, Ale had a vague memory of these being similar to the [Filter]-like masks offered for specialized jobs.

 

Either way, she didn't seem capable of eating with the mask like that, not yet, anyway. But then again, even her own mask was capable of opening a compartment to allow her to eat, so maybe that one was like that?

 

At the side of this one and in the middle of the table stood a tall woman with a mask that had three snout-like faces with blue sapphire eyes, "Cerberus," Ale said as her eyes fell into the black-haired woman.

 

"We could probably leave…?" [Fan girl] said as she took Ale's hand and attempted to pull her back. "Right? Golem?"

 

"...afraid that is not possible," [Golem] said placing his big hands on Ale and [Fan Girl] 's back, "This is a mandatory meeting, let's just sit on the outskirts."

 

And so that they did, Ale kept her eyes on the raised table and continued eyeing the people there.

 

Besides Eleanore, at her right, Ale saw another face that she already knew; it was an old man wearing only a pair of goggles and a scarf to cover her mouth and nose. His clothing unlike the rest was full of grease stains and she could see a couple of weary tools on his body.

 

[Hermes], the tinkerer-former Hero turned Villain…turned Minion, and now that he stood on the raised platform, Ale wondered if he had more responsibilities than he ever let on before.

 

The one at the end was someone she was familiar with in another sense; it was one of the first dangerous entities that she had met and that used the title of [Lieutenant], the same as Alexanders.

 

Even if this was dangerous in another meaning.

 

[Gabriel, The Fallen Angel].

 

He closed in the table as the fifth there, unlike his usual demeanor he stood there in silence with no obvious show of his power, he even was wearing a face cover! Even if it barely covered his eyes and nothing else.

 

"Greeting Minions," And while Ale was thinking about that, the mechanical voice of her current boss sounded, making the already quiet place even more quieter.

 

"Rise!" The voice of [Billy] resounded strong and firm, as if it was an ingrained reflex every Minion stood as one (Or most of them anyway) at the command of the old Minion, "Salute!"

 

As if repeating the event, the minions at the very front raised their right hand and hit their chest, roughly around the area of the heart, with their fists balled.

 

The lines behind each of these minions did the same as if in a wave and surely enough when they got to the seats that Ale and her teammates stood they repeated it the same, of course the sound differed greatly for them. For one, Ale didn't have a big lung capacity to create a resonance as big as the older minions…And for the second part.. *BANG!* [Golem] had a rocky body that made the sound vastly stronger and different from their fleshy counterparts.

 

"You may sit now Minions, we will listen to some words from Vulcanus himself and some announcements, you may already know what these announcements are…" [Billy] on his [Hermes] persona spoke, he was still standing and while he wasn't the tallest, nor looked taller than the other [Lieutenants] that were sitting around him, his presence still seemed to command [Authority], "Or you may think so, smart-asses."

 

Some of the minions around laughed in a small voice, but the other Minion's mood seemed to strangle their laughter, and since no [Lieutenant] addressed that, soon enough, the laughter died on its own.

 

"Clean your ears and focus your minds Minions, burn this tragedy into your memory." [Billy] spoke gravely as he sat down, "Because that is our duty as those that survived."

 

His words resounded around the room, and before Ale could even think about anything a series of names showed on on her HUD, she wasn't sure what these meant, but these names didn't had a last name, and some even sounded fake.

 

"Good Morning my [Minions]," [Vulcanus] said as he walked forward and stood in front of the [Lieutenants], his visage still was that of a mechanical body, but somehow to Ale it looked… different.

 

The body seemed to be more rugged and damaged, Ale could see a few cuts and cracks on the body, she hadn't seen those before when she met him. Was this another body? Why would he change the bodies?

 

And more importantly…how could he do such a thing? As far as she had understood by how people spoke about [Vulcanus], Ale had thought he was a [Mechanical] or [Machine Core].

 

"Today is a sad day," [Vulcanus] said as his voice trembled and he placed his fist against his mechanical chest, "Yesterday we lost many [Souls]. While on a normal routine mission to one of our clients we found a Ex-List danger zone."

 

Hadn't they found themselves against the scrambler guy?

 

The minions spoke in hushed voices all around, [Vulcanus] let it a few minutes before raising his hand. Somehow every single Minion caught on that and stopped speaking at once.

 

"As per our regulations. Any member of [Haephestus' Forge] that wished to remain with us after waking up was accepted, and all operations to fix anybody suffering from dysmorphia were treated." Most of the minions nodded at this as if it was the most natural reaction ever.

 

Ale was mostly confused about what this was about. Hadn't they already solved and dealt with the situation of yesterday?

 

"Now I stand before you in this form to ask," [Vulcanus] said as a big screen descended from the ceiling behind the [Lieutenants] and in turn, behind him. "Anyone that wishes to adopt or become a guardian to any of the orphaned may do so within the next 48 hours. After that, all the kids will be sent to an orphanage and their identity will be secured."

 

A couple of Minions reacted at that and once again spoke among themselves, mostly in the way of people giving pats on the back at others, and a few ones poked other people on the ribs with their hands.

 

Ale didn't see any reason to do such a thing, as far as she had seen they probably would have a better training in special facilities designated to take care of them.

 

"The files will be sent to anyone who wants them; you only need to fill out the forms and send them back to the server." [Vulcanus] said as a prompt showed on her field of view, Ale, of course, dismissed it, she was not equipped to deal with this kind of problem.

 

"Rhapsody...just making sure, but you dismissed the message right? Just because it means you can get a friend to play does not mean you can fill that form," [Fan Girl] said from the side turning to look at Ale directly.

 

"Of course I dismissed it. Can you imagine how many things I would need to take care of if there was someone to play with Alexa? I had to wash three people's worth of dishes this morning just because of that." Ale said, shuddering at merely thinking how many people Alexa would want to live with them if she could get away with it, "Nope, no, sir. Not letting that happen."

 

"But think of all the fun we could have!" "I'm with Ale on that one, we aren't equipped to deal with more [Child Stage] Humans."

 

"Focus people, Vulcanus seems to be about to make another announcement," [Golem] said, bringing their focus back to their employer, or the important one anyway.

 

"Now, this one is less important and relevant to the crisis we are experiencing," [Vulcanus] said as he started walking back to the far end of the raised platform, there a chair had started raising above the rest, "If any of you feel that was wronged in some aspect by any member of this organization, taken advantage in a vulnerable time. Or worked into what you think an unfair contract-"

 

[Vulcanus] hadn't finished speaking when several minions stood, most of those were people who had been seated on the far end of the hall.

 

"- so that we may re-evaluate your situation and check up using the internal logs your activity to make sure it was deserved the treatment you got," [Vulcanus] words made those that stood sit down once again while grumbling about missed chances, "As for the next announcement...we will leave the stage for our previous customer."

 

The lights on the hall turned off at once, leaving the place surrounded in darkness, Ale could barely see the people around her; her mask didn't seem to want to change to night vision, so she modified her eyes (Main Core did it) to allow her to see in the darkness.

 

They already had the [Blueprint] of the [Cat Girl's Eyes] after all. Sure enough once that was done she was able to see in the darkness and there at the back a door had opened, from it a man wearing a Tuxedo walked in.

 

Each step resounded on the hall as he marched straight to the raised platform with a woman dressed in a white dress of the same style as the reptilian girl on the table.

 

[Aqua] and [The Theater Master].

 

Ale followed them with her eyes making sure to not turn her head in their direction, the theater guy still had some cracks around himself, and she wasn't sure what to think about that.

 

It wasn't as bad as with the scrambler guy, but this one still gave her a weird feeling about him, as if he shouldn't be here. The worst of this was the fact that the theater guy turned to stare straight at her and nod to Ale, as if he knew she was seeing him.

 

Even though she never turned her face in that direction, even though the site was dark. And even though the masks night vision wasn't turning on.

 

How was he even doing that?

 

*Snap*

 

"Hello minions, it is I!" The theater guy said as he snapped his fingers and a ray of light shone from the ceiling straight on the theater guy, Ale turned her head up and...saw nothing that could shine light upon him, the light just...manifested at some point, "[The Theater Master]!"

 

[Aqua] started clapping her hands from the side, was this theater guy using his [Core Powers] in some way?

 

"I have come to give my thanks for a good job well done, you went ahead and further beyond what I could ever hope, and while some of you made the ultimate sacrifice, The Theater Troupe will make sure anyone that fell is taken care of so you, the ones that were left behind have nothing to worry about." The theater guy said as Aqua opened a briefcase and folders flew from it, way more folders than it should be able to contain, each of these fell in front of a minion in the hall, "Within the folders you will find the information about your evaluation and how much money will be deposited into your personal accounts, also some information about any extra loot that you earned, be it by achieving extraordinary feats or by fulfilling your mission targets."

 

Ale turned to look at the folder in question; it did indeed detail her achievements and what she did during the mission; she wondered how the theater guy got this...

 

"Can't read with the lights off and when the stupid mask doesn't want to activate the night vision mode tho." [Fan Girl] said opening her folder and closing it a second after.

 

"Worry not, minions, you may read these at your own convenience when this meeting ends," The theater guy said, smirking and snapping his fingers yet again; the sound of hundreds of folders closing followed suit, except for the one that Ale was reading that is. "As for bonus for performance…well, those that got one already know it since it is on their folders, but that isn't fun. So here, have some fun!"

 

And in that tone the sound of hundreds of plates teleporting into their tables sounded, and with it, a faint glowing light started illuminating the site, Ale took this chance to close her folder and place it within one of her bigger pouches, she folded most of the paper into half and hide those in a separated pouch too, just in case.

 

In front of her however was…[Heaven]

 

"I want one of those! And one of those! And don't forget one of those!" "Alexa, all of those you picked up are the same, they aren't dishes but complementary mango fruit…also I think they are meant to be decoration." "Don't care! Mean one, grab one!"

 

Ale did grab a few of those, but not because Alexa had asked for one, but because she noticed that each of the mango fruits that Alexa pointed had small differences between them, each of those was in a central fruit plate with other different fruits.

 

“[Identifying…Tomato, Orange, Banana, Pinneaple, Watermelon, Melon….]”

 

Main Core went ahead and identified most of those, but Ale would probably stand out if she continued picking up more fruits, Alexa had all but cemented the idea that they liked Mango after all, it would be weird if she suddenly started picking up another fruit right now…

 

Dang it…

 

"And with that, here are the clips!" The theater guy said as the big screen behind him, it was time to see how much had they seen.