Zeed and His Friends

You've caught up. Great!

Now listen!
Here is the situation. I was in my apartment with some of my friends. I was currently investigating a report of the death of a hero named Electrica. She was one of the heroes who used electricity. The cause of her death was skin cancer. Well, I called that bullshit. I knew they were something behind her death, but I couldn't pinpoint what it was.

"You still on the board, Zeed? You haven't eaten yet! You want to die of hunger before we even do our mission?" That was Wiwin Wendinggor. She was one of my friends whom I trusted with the mission. I saw her in an apron and carrying a tray with a plate of food.

"Not hungry!" I answered aggressively.

She put down the tray beside her on a table. She came near me and yelled, "You idiot! Haven't you looked down on yourself?!" She squished my stomach, and I felt humiliated, "Your belly kept shrinking every single day!"

"I don't care!" I shouldn't have said that, and I got a slap in the face, "Hey! What's that for?"

She grabbed the plate and offered me the food, "If you don't eat, I will force you to eat!"

Wiwin was such a pain in the ass. I swear. She got the look, and she does look pretty, but her attitude towards me was something else. I hate her guts.

"I won't open my mouth. I said it enough that AAAAAA...." My mouth was forced open by someone behind me. I knew this hand!

"Good! Now chew!" Humiliation. I'm thirty-seven, damn it! I can take care of myself.

As I swallowed the food, I grabbed the plate and said, "Fine! I eat. You two get out of my room."

Wiwin went out with a smile, but the other was still here to talk to me. "You're lucky, it was Wiwin who took care of you, dude. Imagine one of those heroes who took care of you."

He mocked me, but I was used to it.

"Yeah, sure, Yond. What else? You wanted to talk me down again about my work."

I shouldn't have said that. He came back with the hardest roast ever, "In fact, yes. You realize your work didn't benefit us in terms of the economy, right? It was Wiwin and I who worked our ass off to get money. Without it, you couldn't continue on your... "job". Be grateful we support your financial and health."

I couldn't come up with an excuse for that, so I chose silence. He continued to mock me, "I see you chose silence. Well, I leave you to your lunch. I don't want to disturb someone eating."

He finally walked away... but he wasn't finished with me.

"I want that plate clean, Zeed. Don't make us come back here and force you to eat again."

"You two aren't my parents!"

That's Jordan Yondelfield, quite a guy. He had the same thoughts as me when "heroes" started appearing in our world. He and I shared the same ambitions, but over time, he's softened, at least to my knowledge. He's not as ambitious as I am now. It was quite sad, really. Yond was like my best friend, but now, I feel like he's just a close friend.

As I ate my lunch, another person came in. She yelled, "ZEEED! We got news! NEWS!"

I blank-stared at her, "What?"

"There has been another case! Another hero died! You have to see this!" She was loud, but did her job right. Tasyah Darlings. Another person I admire. Even though she realized it late, I still trusted her. I could hear her ambition to take down this hero's business. I mean, just hear her excitement when a hero died. You could not tell me that she wasn't ambitious.

"I finished up my lunch first, Tash. I'll be with you in just a sec."
"Quick! I couldn't wait for you to see his news segment on TV."

She dashed out of my room and probably back to her room. Her small figure really did wonder. Among all the people in this apartment, she was the quickest with her feet. Even I couldn't keep her pace.

"Yo!" Then another one came.

"Yo! Finished with the machine?" I asked while still chewing my lunch.

"I need to go out and buy more material. Could you give me some cash?" That was Seiza Fransca, another quirky one. She was particularly not interested in heroes or their business. She just wanted to live normally. But that's the thing... Normal life. She couldn't have that because of the chaos the heroes cause. What better way for her to have that life? Yup, joining us to stop them.

"You're asking me? Harold has the cash and everything money-related."

She remained silent. After a few seconds, she said, "Ah, right... You're not him. Sorry."

With my blank stare, I said, "Yeah, I'm Zeed. Seiz, I know you don't care about anybody, but please remember who is who here. We are here together, if you forgot who we are, you'll be in big trouble."

"Don't need. Don't care. Shut up, old man."
"HEY! I'm just thirty-seven! You're the one in forty, here!"

And the last in the list was Harold Hangar, as I mentioned. He was our money manager. Well, more like a landlord in our apartment. He charged for our stay, but concurrently, he also took care of our money. He was all about that. In a world where corruption is everywhere, we all trust him because of his trustworthy attitude. I have never seen him stab anyone back. I guess he knew who he was dealing with, that's why. But that's just me being paranoid. He got the look of a gangster, okay. I needed to be cautious a little bit.

"Done with lunch. Back to the drawing board."

So, that's our team.
Me, Wiwin, Jordan, Tasyah, Seiza, and Harold. It was a small team, but I know we could make it. As they say, drop by drop fills the tub. As long as we are building toward our goal, I'm sure not only will we reach our goal, but others will follow suit. I'm sure of it.