[Tuesday, Afternoon, Junkyard]

Arriving in front of the familiar Saturday junkyard, Jonathan opened the gate that seemed to remain constantly open.

Sighing, he looked particularly tired.

And that was because of Tyrone.

He thought that whatever problem Tyrone had today would've already been solved, that his irritation was just another one of his dramatic phases.

But he was wrong.

He woke up receiving a message from Tyrone, talking about how women weren't trustworthy and that every man should always be suspicious when interacting with one.

And seeing that message made him remember the old machinist Tyrone.

When he got to school, it only became clearer that whatever had happened wasn't simple, considering how he looked even more sulky.

Not even during break, when they sat together with Megan and the girls, happened again, where on Monday they still seemed fine.

Tyrone basically dragged him and Chad to a table as far away from Megan as possible, going as far as to kick some poor girls out of it.

And as if that wasn't enough, he spent the entire morning complaining about women every chance he had, even when he and Chad talked about something completely different, he brought the topic up.

Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that he knew that this was one of Tyrone's coping methods, a way to disguise his sadness, Jonathan would've told him to shut up from the start.

Fortunately for his sanity, he already knew it wouldn't last long, but that didn't change the fact that it was annoying.

And that was why he was tired, even after school Tyrone wanted them to go to his house to practically listen to him complain more.

He was saved because he had to come here, the same couldn't be said about Chad, who was having to suffer alone.

'He'll be fine, I'm going there later anyway.' Saying a prayer for his effeminate blonde friend, Jonathan arrived again in front of the van that served as the entrance.

Finding Vanessa and Maya again in front of the place.

"What'up." He raised his hand in greeting to the two, with Maya returning the gesture and Vanessa barely nodding her head.

"Let's go." Saying that, Maya placed her hand against the van with the circle of light appearing on the ground.

Soon, the three of them descended through the floor onto the circular platform.

Right when they stopped in front of the elevator, Jonathan asked. "Have the others arrived?"

"Yes, it's just you two left." Maya answered as they entered the elevator.

With the doors closing, they descended silently until they opened again, finding themselves once more faced with the sight of the secret base straight out of a science-fiction movie.

Leaving the elevator, the three headed toward the same room with glass walls.

As he approached, from the outside Jonathan could already see all of them gathered, sitting in chairs around that large holographic table.

His gaze already finding the Chinese girl, the English guy, and the Indian girl, with the first two only returning the look silently and the last smiling and waving slightly in a friendly manner.

Raising his eyebrow imperceptibly at that last one's attitude, he reached the door with Maya opening it.

With him entering silently along with Vanessa, Maya walked past him, positioning herself in the same corner beside the table, standing between two of them.

"Well, you've already been introduced, but that was through a hologram, I think a personal introduction would be more appropriate now that you've finally met in person." Maya said, crossing her arms and looking between them.

A strange silence filled the room, Jonathan felt as if this was one of those forced team-bonding moments some bosses made their employees do.

While he looked around exchanging silent glances and seeing the others' reactions, with them doing the same, a voice broke the awkward mood.

"Leave it to me! Damn, you guys have no idea how excited I was to meet you!"

Speaking in a strangely enthusiastic manner, a tanned white blonde guy, oddly dressed in brown shorts, flip-flops and a Hawaiian shirt, was the one who spoke.

Jonathan remembered he was the guy with the hamburger last name.

"You already know but my name is Alex McDonald, I'm eighteen, and my hobbies are surfing and barbecuing and…" Stopping for a moment while scratching his head thoughtfully, his expression then changed as if he remembered. "Right! And I like talking to Charlie! He's a kangaroo by the way." He raised a finger while smiling.

Silence was all that was left in the room as they stared at him quietly.

'…Right, he seems to be completely insane, a chill guy, but still insane.' That was Jonathan's first impression of him.

"Hahaha You're funny."

Suddenly, with a loud, deep voice with a strong Russian accent spreading, a big and muscular guy laughed, looking amused.

Jonathan remembered that this was the Russian guy and, now seeing him up close, he could confirm he was big, really big, maybe about two meters tall.

"Alright, my turn, my name is Ivan Petrikov, eighteen years old, my hobbies are climbing and skiing and I like vodka." Ivan said, finishing with a smile, looking satisfied.

"You don't need to say your hobbies, we're not in school." Vanessa beside Jonathan said, rolling her eyes.

Ivan shrugged lightly. "But I like it."

Vanessa sighed. "Alright, whatever, my name is Vanessa Williams, nice to meet you."

Right after she spoke, the Indian girl raised her arm while smiling.

"I'm Nalini Kumar, nice to meet you all." She waved friendly at them.

Receiving weak responses from the others, the next was the English guy, who, as Jonathan had noticed, was sitting strangely properly, leg crossed over the other while wearing a blue polo shirt and beige pants with a belt.

He also had a watch on his wrist, yes, his whole appearance screamed second-generation rich kid or snobbish noble.

"William Nottingham, at your service." He said politely in a concise tone, bowing slightly.

'The way he talks and acts really feels like a noble… should I become friends with this guy? Becoming friends with English nobility definitely isn't bad, definitely not for the money.' While he reflected internally on becoming friends with someone out of pure opportunism, Jonathan returned the introduction with a greeting.

"Emília Matarazzo, nice to meet you."

Said the Italian girl with model looks, her face was neutral, hard for Jonathan to tell what she was thinking, but his first impression was that she seemed kind of snobby, the type who would look at you with disdain if you simply sneezed in front of her.

Hopefully, that was just his impression.

"Nina Müller, nice to meet you guys."

Suddenly, a particularly pretty and velvety feminine voice sounded.

Looking toward the source, Jonathan saw the blonde Swiss girl smiling calmly at them.

'Damn, she's hot, although I almost forgot she existed.' Jonathan returned her greeting along with the others, his eyes meeting hers just like the others.

However, she seemed to wink at him, which made him blink for a moment in confusion.

'For now, I'll believe I saw it wrong.' It was quick, so he really wasn't sure.

"Yusuke Murata, nice to meet you."

As the only Asian among them (not counting Maya obviously), the guy with the manga artist's name introduced himself.

He dressed casually, a big white shirt and black pants, Jonathan thought he actually looked like some boy-band singer.

And strangely, Jonathan also noticed a certain looseness in his posture, the way he was practically lying in the chair, as if he was tired of something.

"Yusuke Murata? Isn't that the name of One Punch Man's artist?" Vanessa asked curiously, raising an eyebrow.

In response, Yusuke shrugged slightly. "It's a common name in Japan."

Vanessa nodded, accepting that as an answer.

Everyone then turned their gaze to the Chinese girl.

But she didn't say anything for a moment, just remained seated, resting her cheek on her fingers.

Meeting each of their gazes, she finally spoke.

"Xiao Xun'er, nice to meet you."

With a soft voice that contradicted her distant expression, the girl carried herself as if she were some kind of important figure.

And Jonathan thought she really was, she gave the clear impression of someone used to power, of being in command, ordering many people from above.

'Almost like some kind of cultivator, no matter how cliché that idea is.' Jonathan returned her greeting, meeting the black eyes that stared at him calmly.

'That's an intense stare.' She didn't look away even for a moment as if they were evaluating each other's strength. 'And she's totally my type.' At least in her case, for Jonathan he was just appreciating her Asian beauty.

In his head, an imaginary target swung back and forth over her as he wondered internally whether he should make her a target or not.

Putting that aside, he looked away from her, noticing the others were looking at him silently, waiting.

He stopped for a moment before raising his hand and smiling politely. "Nice to meet you guys, my name is Jonathan Albuquerque as you already know, I hope we get along."

Just as he evaluated their reaction and received greetings in return, Alex raised his hand.

"Hey, by the way, I want to ask you something."

"Yes?" Jonathan looked at him curiously.

Alex then asked with his typical cheerful smile. "Why were you making that weird face in your hologram? It looked like you were trying to seduce someone."

Jonathan's face twitched when he heard that, he wasn't expecting that question.

The sound of a faint laugh made him look to the side, finding Vanessa's smiling face.

She smiled mockingly at him, clearly teasing him.

He narrowed his eyes and just when he was about to speak, another voice interrupted.

"Hahaha, he's right, your face was really funny." Ivan laughed heartily for a moment, until his face changed, becoming disappointed. "Although, I can't say much, mine was strange too."

Alex laughed, pointing at him. "Yeah, hahaha, it's true, honestly it looked like you had some syndrome or were special in some way." He finished smiling amused.

But Ivan didn't smile or laugh, his face became completely motionless as he stared at him.

A tense atmosphere began to form among the others thanks to his silence until he broke it.

Laughing loudly.

"Hahahaha! You're right, I thought the same thing! Hahahaha!" Speaking with his strong accent, Ivan laughed hard, slapping the table.

"Pff hahahaha." Following him, Alex laughed just as hard, bending over, holding his stomach.

While the two laughed, the others just stared at them silently with weird expressions, none of them knowing what to say.

The only one who didn't seem affected was Maya, who just smiled calmly as if that was routine.

'These two share the same brain cell.' Jonathan looked between them silently, he really didn't understand what was so funny. 'Is my sense of humor bad or are these guys the ones with questionable humor?'

"I'm glad to see you're bonding, but now I'd like to talk to you, I imagine you want to know what you're going to do." Interrupting the two, Maya spoke in that impossible-to-tell-if-it-was-ironic-or-not tone.

With them stopping their laughter, everyone focused on her, waiting for what she was going to say.

"Listen, you'll be sent on missions responsible for retrieving the missing pieces of the Correction Disk, but since this will be dangerous, you'll need to go through some training and enhancements first, but before that, you should pick something to protect yourselves."

Maya then seemed to press a button beside the table, making it sink into the floor.

In its place, another table appeared, but this one was full of objects on top of it.

Approaching along with the others, Jonathan saw that they were several types of things, from weapons to vests and clothing pieces, grenades, batons, and many other things that weren't necessarily weapons.

Like an umbrella, a pen, and even a makeup case.

"Wow this is amazing." Alex said practically with sparkling eyes.

"You took the words right out of my mouth." Nalini said as she picked up a nearby pen, looking equally impressed. "These things are what I think they are?" She asked, returning her gaze to Maya.

"If you're thinking of highly advanced technology with some of them disguised to look harmless then yes, you're right." Maya replied with a smile. "You can choose whatever you want."

Blinking in surprise at Maya's words, Jonathan looked at the table, thinking it was too good to be true. "I feel like I'm one of the girls from Totally Spies."

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