THE GATHER-UP

O‘Hare International Airport, Chicago

December 14, 2019 :

Vijenshki checked his ticket which was booked under his name just a few days ago. He remained seated in the waiting area of the airport and double checked his pockets for his phone. For some reason he thought he had misplaced it. But mostly he knew why he was being nervous. It was still too early to not be startled about Irina’s absence and to not be somewhat afraid of the thought of flights altogether.

The airport seemed busy. People rushing over to different areas, some planning to get brunches, some helping their families with luggage, few getting ready for riding in their first class flight ticket for the very first time.

"Are airports always this busy?" Vijenshki thought, "maybe not to those who travel very often".

Just as Vijenshki finsihed that thought, he saw a familiar face approaching him. It was Rayman. He greeted him with a smile that seemed very nostalgic.

"How have you been?" Vijenshki spoke.

"Not too bad. So, you agreed for the mission? I never got any word from you" Rayman replied

"Oh yes, sorry, I remain busy for most of the time in school."

"Right-you’re a PE teacher now."

"Well, most of my students call me Mister tall."

"They’re in middle school, what else did you expect?"

Vijenshki chuckled and asked "do you want to grab something to eat?"

Rayman nodded and followed Vijenshki to the cafeteria.

Fifteen minutes later when they both returned, their seats in the waiting area had already been taken, taken by two other familiar faces - Myra and Garion. They greeted each other after what seemed like an era.

"How long have you been here?" Vijenshki asked.

"I found him" Myra pointed to Garion, "grabbing a snack as he got out of the taxi for the airport."

"I was hungry" Garion shrugged his shoulders.

"You’re always hungry" Myra glanced at him

As their chit chat continued, the team had not noticed that yet another familiar face had approached them.

"I hope I was the star of this conversation you were just having, or else I showed up at the wrong time" Ryan had joined the conversation.

CHICAGO ILLINOIS TO LONDON - BRUSSELS AIRLINE 9086 DEPARTURE IN TWENTY MINUTES.

Just a few minutes later an announcement went down. That grabbed everyone’s attention.

"Shouldn’t Vinsh be here already?" Ryan thought.

"Alright", a man in his late 20s who was seated facing his back to the seating area spoke, "let’s go team."

It was Vinsh.

"How long have you been there?" Ryan asked

"Just ok schedule" Vinsh replied

"So, like, thirty minutes before departure?"

"No, three hours"

"Well" Ryan thought "his perception of time is clearly different."

Much like the last time, everyone was excited about the mission, except now the team knew each other a little better. But fear demanded to take a permanent place as they weren’t well informed about the specifics of this task. Moreover, it was the general wonderment that made them stick together, if not the curiosity about the fact that they felt their abilities were made for greater purposes.

The Brussels Airlines that connected Chicago to London was to be boarded in a few minutes. The six of them took their seats which again, were mostly vacant. Vijenshki couldn’t figure out if it was nostalgic or just creepy. Nevertheless, this meant they could have a conversation in private. Vijenshki hated the flights and so did Rayman. But for entirely different reasons because Rayman felt flight engines were way too loud. Myra felt the seats were much comfortable and wondered if she should visit home for Christmas. Ryan was confused if he should have fallen asleep right then and there on the comfortable seats or waited a little longer since Vinsh was going to fill them up with the details for the missions. Garion was here for the free food and drinks.

Vinsh adjusted his wrist watch, which to Ryan looked different. As per Ryan, the wrist watch seemed like a fitness tracker but Vinsh never mentioned anything about it. A few minutes later when the plane took off and the "seatbelt" sign went down on the screens, Vinsh left his seat and walked towards the team. The middle column with three seats in each row and the column on the right side with two seats in each row made perfect space for all the members to listen to someone and have a conversation.

"I’m sure, you must be familiar with the recent Dartford event" Vinsh started

"The SWAT sniper taking out some dangerous people?" Ryan inquired.

"Yes, apparently they were illegally operating a radioactive machine. But what’s more important is the footage the cops got. It had clips of both men that proved how dangerous they were. As of right now, one of them is being held in maximum security prison in Standard Hill."

Ryan felt doubtful of the mission, clearly neither of them were–

"Both of them" Vinsh continued "Brock and Jacob, were my teammates"

Everyone deemed this statement worthy enough of having their attention on, than anything else.

"What do you mean, teammates?" Vijenshki questioned

"For what I have to tell you, it is very important to me, to my teammates who are serving their time in prison and last but not the least, to this mission" Vinsh replied

Everyone kept their ears open for the details.

CALL FOR MISSION

Hamburg Germany, February 2018 :

Vinsh unlocked the door and entered his house, wondering if he should just get rest or work on the current project. His home phone was laying low in an organised case, which was only used for very special purposes. He rarely checked his home phone since he rarely got any calls or texts from it. But that night, it was different. When Vinsh was reaching for orange juice in the refrigerator, he saw his home phone blinking. After two whole months. A jolt of contentment hit Vinsh, and he immediately poured the orange juice to recharge his much needed body energy after a long day at work. Carrying the glass and sipping the juice a few times in small quantities, he picked up the home phone and played the voicemail that was blinking since the morning while he was long gone.

"Greetings from the past, Vishnu. This is from ACROSS, we have received a rescue-request from Hamburg, Germany. There seems to be some disturbance in the abandoned construction side by the docks. Call back for accepting the mission. We will fill you in with the necessary information. Ignore if you want someone else to take the post."

ACROSS - Alternate community regarding overall space search, an organisation which is spread over the world, but has sworn to secrecy about its existence. It sends different divisions of special people to eradicate certain threats. Of course extraterrestrial invasion is one of them. ACROSS is funded by more than forty countries, and the number keeps on increasing by the end of each year when a request is sent for immediate eradication of threat. Not only this helped the countries get rid of uninvited troubles but strengthened their relationship and trust.

Vinsh has been a member of ACROSS since 2014. This was where his life stood, so thought Vinsh. He called back on the same private number.

"Greetings from the past, Aiden," Vinsh said once the call connected.

"Vishnu, I‘m certain you’re calling back after listening to the voicemail. You are to gather a team and head to the given spot within tomorrow morning. You have till sundown until the local cops launch a full scale investigation and discover secrets that cannot be unseen."

"Understood."

"I am sending you a list of members, pick your team and head down there as soon as possible"

The call disconnected.

Within seconds, Vinsh received an encrypted email which had all the details of the members according to their rank numbers. The ACROSS guidelines clearly stated that one could pick his or her own team if his or her rank is reserved well within the top twenty members. If not, they must assemble members randomly and put in-charge the highest ranking one among them.

Vinsh looked at the list of names and their respective abilities. There was Kevin Carson, ranked twenty one, which meant if Kevin was just a rank higher, today he would be picking his own team. But what Vinsh saw in Kevin was, since he was so close, Kevin might try to pick his battles passive aggressively to prove himself. Vinsh looked at the next rank holders and marked the available ones - Brock Gibbs and Jacob Hutton. Vinsh called them one by one, inquired about the mission and thought if four people were enough for the next day. He agreed to himself that it was.

The next day Vinsh woke up, he spaced out for a second. His home phone had three missed calls which reminded him that day was important, but not more important than calling in sick for his corporate job first or as Vinsh liked to call it - the cover up job. He made himself some tea and called for a cab. He strapped his wrist watch on which was an important accessory for the task. The ride to the destined location took about twenty minutes which Vinsh spent inside the cab to go through the request reports. From the cab window he could see the scenario of the passing traffic and the busy life of the city, the people hurrying for their ten o’clock jobs and project reports, high school students talking in the parking lot, vehicles rushing in the same traffic spot, thinking if car pooling was a good idea

And then the view started changing to the abandoned yet humongous construction site a few miles away from the docks where the cab stopped. Vinsh looked out the window and felt something unusual, a feeling of uneasiness that made his decision of not letting his guard down more assertive. The cab owner kept thinking what job did his passenger have there, but he returned without asking anything.

"The site had about fifty unconstructed buildings. Some of them were in ruins, most probably they were old buildings that were supposed to be demolished. But the project stopped midway due to some crisis", Vinsh thought. Walking in closer in the deeper but narrow ways, Vinsh found an individual standing with his arms crossed around his chest. He had a quilt and a bow around his back and was staring into the horizon. He seemed to be waiting for someone. Hearing Vinsh’s footsteps closing by, the individual turned around, Vinsh noticed he had medium long hair, much like Garion Webber whom Vinsh would meet only a year after.

A few seconds of exchanging glances later, Vinsh figured out he was looking at Kevin, the archer, one of his gathered team members.

"Hello, how do you do?" Kevin greeted

"Just fine. Did Jacob and Brock show up?" Vinsh asked

"Oh, they never show up on time"

"You’ve worked with them before?"

"A couple of times, yes"

"So this report" Vinsh continued "says that there has been an extraterrestrial invasion here and–"

"and they’ve taken hostages" Kevin interrupted

"This happened today morning, two hours ago. Some teenagers were BMXing their bikes, riding it around the spot, when they were captured. But the reports also mentioned some movement, so they are indeed here."

Just as Vinsh completed the statement, two individuals entered the spot, the tall one with an elongated face and deep black eyes - Jacob and the tall one with barely any smile on his face - Brock. They both walked in unison, like buddies, more like best buddies here on a mission who were inseparable by the fate of any consequence.

"Good morning to you!" Jacob greeted waving his hand.

Kevin had worked with Jacob before, he didn’t like him on missions, as per Kevin he wasn’t very ‘practical’.

"And what happens to be good on this particular morning?" Kevin asked "the teenagers who are trapped?"

"Maybe, their morning turned out to be quite a surprise, don’t you think?" Jacob replied.

"Clearly" Vinsh stated, "you know a lot about each other, but we have something more important to do"

"Alright! Let’s roll team!" Jacob said with such enthusiasm, it had almost slipped from Vinsh’s mind who was leading the team.

The four of them moved ahead towards the ruined and half constructed buildings. It felt like a maze, nowhere to reach, but then suddenly Kevin pointed out a far off place claiming he definitely saw someone. Reaching upon the spot, everyone had their guards up.

Jacob stood in front of the building and shouted "Anyone there!"

"Anyone there?" Kevin laughed "you might as well ring the doorbell that was ruined decades ago on this building"

Jacob didn’t have anything to reply and Vinsh was already feeling that this team didn’t get along very well - and that wasn’t a very good sign. But all their thoughts were interrupted when they heard footsteps approaching from the stairs - not just one but three separate silhouettes could be seen from the entrance.