Lucas raised his hand, and spoke anyway. Even he looked a bit shaken, though he hid it well enough. "So what do I get out of it? And where do I stay?"

"Anything and everything you've done 'wrong' will be cleared from your files. You'll all start with a clean slate. And you'll either stay here-- or the Watchtower." Sergeant Sanders must've gotten his info scripted the way he replied made it seem as if he were a machine rather than human, which was unlikely.

"Watchtower?" Kai wondered, his brows furrowed. He seemed to be too stunned by the general company and the stuff they were saying to comprehend anything else.

Chris seemed hyped though- and the word made him nearly fall out of his chair again seconds after he had gotten back in a gain. "Wait so the Watchtower story is real? There was a bit of gossip about it but a bunch of people brushed it off as not possible."

"So I can just tell my parents," she winced slightly at the word. "That I have a job? And then we start to... protect the world."

"Sounds good." Lucas' face looked annoyed slightly, though that probably was just his normal expression for some reason. "As long as I have a place to stay."

I'm back

"There is no need for that." Sanders stated in his usual monotonous tone, shooting Deanne a pointed look. "And yes, of course it's real. What do you take the hero of old? Idiots who lived in a tourist trap..?" The grumpy sergeant said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Ben blinked, messing with his hoodie. "Um... maybe? Look m'dude, m'dad's paranoid enough, can we just-- cut out the part where we possibly might I dunno, cease the function of living..?"

Gail glared at Ben, gritting her teeth together in an effort to stop herself from blurting out: "That's not helping."

"Bird lady looks angrrrry." Dee said with a small chuckle that she masked quickly with a cough. "So what do our parents think we're doing then?"

Kai didn't seem impressed. "I-I have the same question as the little boy."

Lucas snorted. "You die if you die. People know we die. People cry if you die- that is, if you're lucky enough to have people that actually care about you." He looked down at his hands and didn't speak after that.

Ben twiddled his thumbs, "I mean, I'm not afraid of it. It's just-- uh-- instinct or whatever to not want to die..? It's inevitable yes, we all die eventually and stuff. There's probably no point in existence but like I said--"

"That's enough Benjamin." Sander interrupted the mid-existential crisis the boy was leading himself into.

Gail huffed, tapping her fingers on the desk. "Still doesn't answer the little... boys... question."

"He seems like a philosopher that's a five year old at the same time," Dee said. "I mean, usually I would love to hear 12 am thoughts but not in this current situation. Can we shut him up before he drives us insane with some deep question that makes us question our sanity?"

Lucas' lips twitched slightly but he stayed motionless otherwise. Chris warily raised his hand and started talking anyway before anyone ever acknowledged him. "Umm so I'm in. That is, if you give people alibis and if you give us a place to stay and if we have tech and if we have personal body guards and if we have-"

"Shut up." Chris did exactly as Lucas said.

Kai decided to speak. "Yeah, doesn't answer the question. And as long as I know I have at least some level of... aegis from whatever agency you're from. I don't want to die- but I... I want to save lives."

"What does aegis even mean?" Dee mouthed to Gail, her eyebrow quirked.

Gail shrugged, mouthing back, "Bodyguards..?" The bird looked bewildered and intrigued by the word at the same time.

"You're off by ten years." Ben yawned, stuffing his bandaged hands into the front pocket of his hoodie. "To be exact."

Sanders registered what the other had said, desperately searching his internal database for an answer. "I'm afraid I cannot answer that question, Summers. However, your hero/heroine aliases depend on which ever one the *plot point* to, and like I said earlier you'll be staying in either the Watchtower or the... former tourist trap. Which is here."

"You're fifteen?" Kai asked, the shakiness leaving his voice at that moment. He coughed when he realized some of the others were watching him because of the small outburst. "S-sorry. Didn't expect that." He ran a hand through his blonde hair, messing it up more.

"So is living with these people optional or required?" Deanne wondered, chuckling as she saw Kai's flustered expression. "I mean, bird-girl, hoodie-boy, and quiet-invisible-turning-green-guy seem like okay roommates so far. Oh, and you too." She pointed to Lucas. "He seems like he's angry all the time but a big softie inside."

Lucas rolled his eyes at that but spoke again. "I want to live alone in the WatchTower. I can leave these people and the owl vigilante in the tourist trap."

"Enough of that!" Chris blurted. "So... who are each of our... predecessors?"