Chapter 19

             Simon had finished his homework a few hours after lunch. As he was putting everything away, Simon noticed the black business card given to him by that man in blue from Anonymous Inc. He remembered that they expected a call that day. He pulled out his cell phone and found where he had written the hidden message. He dialed the number and put the phone to his ear.

            The other side rang once, then twice. The third ring made Simon wonder if he had even read the card right. The call was answered on the fourth ring.

            “Hello”, a young woman (though one older than Simon) greeted.

            “Um… Am I talking to Anonymous Inc.?”

            “Yes you are,” she answered cheerfully. “And you are?”

            Simon looked around to make sure no one was walking by his door.

            “The Spektrum.”

            “Please hold,” the young woman said.

            There was a moment of silence.

            “Ah, okay, the Black Card verifies that you are indeed The Spektrum.”

            “Wait, how can that little card prove--?”

            “Let me connect you to the conference call.”

            “Wait, you didn’t answer--!”

            He heard a button being pressed, and soon a group of voices could be heard.

            “So now The Spektrum joins us?” a male voice asked. “About time.”

            “Sorry,” Simon apologized. “Late lunch.”

            “Is next Saturday okay to meet?” a female voice asked. “I don’t have anything scheduled yet.”

            Simon wondered if that was The Alameda Catgirl talking on the other line.

            “Only if it works with everyone else,” an older voice stated.

It sounded like a man, with a British accent. Presumably, this was the man in charge of this whole “Anonymous Inc.” deal.

            “Sounds good,” a second male voice answered.

            “Makes no difference to me,” the first voice answered.

            “Sure,” a third teen male replied simply; he sounded about Simon’s age.

            “A’ight, that’s cool,” answered a fourth.

            “Okay,” said the girl who asked about next Saturday.

            “Fine by me!” answered a second girl.

Now Simon had no idea who Catgirl was.

            “We’re good with that,” answered two guys together, one older than the other.

            “Yeah, that’s good,” Simon answered. “But where are we meeting?”

            “Don’t worry,” the man with the British accent assured. “We’ll send people to pick you up. Alright, with that settled, you can all return to your daily lives.”

            With that, the mystery man hung up, and one by one, everyone else did the same.

 

            Zorb’s ship landed on the planet of Barutamey after a few days of travel. Upon exiting the ship, he was welcomed by one of the many cronies that tagged themselves to his father’s legacy, and one of the few that stuck by Zorb after his father‘s death.

            “Welcome, Master Zorb,” the short, bearded old creature greeted. “Your message was received, and I contacted many, many different candidates for the auditions.”

            “Thank you, Ojo,” Zorb said as Zita urged him towards the large dome building. “The payment will be transferred to your account once I’ve found the cream of the crop.”

            Several dozen felons and crooks were waiting inside, shuffling their feet and anxiously fingering weapons. Zorb scanned the crowd, and oddly not to his surprise, his original team had wormed its way into this event. After looking at the many, many others, Zorb decided not to worry, they were sure to be dealt with.

            The only other ones that piqued his interest were a group of five that stood together in the back, all of them wearing cloaks. The group’s members were numbered 1 through 5, the characters taken from the Intergalactic Commerce system. The one numbered 1 was the tallest of all the candidates, even Korak, but the cloak shrouded everything else about him.

            “I welcome you all here,” Zorb addressed the crowd of crooks. “I understand you know what I am looking for in team members: loyalty, respect, and dedication to the job I give you. Add teamwork to that list.”

            Zorb locked eyes with Smooth, who stood near the middle of the crowd.

            “I need you to be able to respect your teammates enough to work together, and win. So today, we are going to test whether or not you can do that. You will divide into teams of five, and fight the other teams in a free-for-all. The team that comes out with the least scratches and bruises will be my prime choices.”

            The men all looked at each other, judging who they would be most willing to team with. Though, it was also who they’d least want to fight. It was obvious the five in cloaks chose to stick together, and that Zorb’s original team—Smooth, Korak, Pulverize, Graw, and Gnarl—did the same. The other forty divided into teams that were even more rag-tag than the original. Though the sparring hadn’t even gotten started, he could already tell who his favorites were.

            Ojo escorted Zorb and Zita to a platform then pressed a button. The platform moved up, and connected to another platform that had railings and a few rows of seats. This building was usually used for sporting events, so there were many of these fixed to the sloped wall all around the room, but with the help of those connections left over after his father died, Zorb had rented this one out for the occasion.

            The ten teams had spread out in a circle, giving each other breathing room as they tensed up and waited for the start signal. Zorb decided to number them one through ten, making the cloaked Team 1. His original team turned out to be Team 6, a lucky number in Smooth’s culture. Zorb hoped it would be bad luck.

            He could tell that many of the men were trying to estimate which team was the weakest, and talked it over with their teammates. That was a good sign. And like Zorb, most of the men couldn’t help but glace at the team of cloaked figures. They were the only ones who were simply standing there.

            Zorb looked over at the old man and nodded. Ojo stood at the front of the raised platform, and cleared his throat.

            “Let the audition begin!!”

            A blur of movement from Team 1 caught Zorb’s eye. The one with the number two cloak had vanished! A member of Team 2 was blindsided by something, but before Zorb could catch it, there was more movement over by Team 1. The cloaked figure had returned! The other teams leapt into action, with Team 6 attacking Team 5, and with Teams 2 and 10 going after Team 1 simultaneously. Team 5 was overwhelmed by Pulverize and Korak, and about half were tossed inside the ring of teams just by them. As Team 9 pounced on the scraps, Team 7 moved with caution as they tried to flank Team 6. Teams 3, 4, and 8 watched and waited; a shrewd strategy that could pay off later. Zorb gave them bonus points for that.

             Cloak 2 had pulled another vanishing act, and more unseen attacks struck members of Team 10. In their moment of confusion, the one labeled 4 rammed his head into the head of their biggest man. Zorb thought he heard a clank sound from the collision. The Team 10 member fell to the ground, completely knocked out.

            On the other side, the giant, Cloak 1, had grabbed two members of Team 2, and tossed them clear across the ring at Team 4, which took advantage of the situation and pounced on the cast offs.

            “Wow,” Zita marveled. “That Cloak number 1 is VERY strong! A prime candidate indeed!”

            “I want to know how Cloak 2 is so fast,” Zorb commented. “I’m not familiar with a species that is.”

            Team 6 took notice of Team 7, and turned their attention on them. Team 7 was able to surround Graw and Gnarl on two sides. The Animisians held their own, but ultimately needed Korak to save them.

            Teams 4 and 9 continued to beat down the already beaten members of Teams 5 and 2, members of both teams keeping eyes on Teams 3 and 8, which had yet to make a move. Team 1 had finished with Team 10, using only the combination of Cloaks 2 and 4. Cloaks 1, 3, and 5 had taken care of the remaining members of Team 2. Team 3 and 8 finally decided to make a move, and went after Team 1.

            Cloak 2 zipped around at his high speed, practically bouncing off the members of Team 8 as he hit one, then quickly moved on to another. Cloak 5 signaled to Cloak 3, and the two of them joined Cloak 2 in fighting Team 8. Cloak 4 then moved over to help Cloak 1 fight Team 3. As before, the cloaked men systematically picked the two teams apart. Team 1 moved the fighting towards the center, and soon, they were knocking the battered members of Teams 3 and 8 into Team 9, which hadn’t finished up with Team 5.

            A few Team 9 members protested with their fists, and hit the Team 8 members aside with their blunt weapons. However, that left them all open for Team 1’s Cloak 2 to bounce around and blindside them. Cloak 1 grabbed members of both Teams 3 and 9 and tossed them at their teammates. Team 4 backed up from the center a bit, but had nowhere to go because Pulverize had been charging forward around the outside of the original circle. A few members got clipped, arms being bent back and even broken by the fast moving mass that Pulverize was. The ones that escaped the bulldozing were soon taken by Cloaks 3 and 5, who knocked them out with chokeholds.

            Cloaks 1, 2, and 4 worked together to thin out Team 9 and the scraps of the other teams. Cloak 1 let Cloak 2 use his body as launching point, sending him rocketing into the members of Teams 3, 8, and 9 that were still standing. Then, Cloak 1 swung Cloak 4 around like a club, more clanking sounds echoing up to Zorb’s seat. Armed with his own teammate, Cloak 1 went toe-to-toe with Team 9’s heaviest hitters. As Zorb expected, Cloak 1 and Cloak 4 won out, and they left the members of Team 9 bruised and aching.

            Meanwhile, Team 6—Zorb’s original henchmen—were still struggling with Team 7, who were still showing great skill in cohesiveness. Their leader knew how to direct the team, and keep an eye on the big picture.

            He himself was admittedly unique. He was lean, and looked just a bit shorter than Zorb, but was exceptionally confident and calm despite all the commotion. His team had Graw, Gnarl, and Smooth on the defensive, and were wearing down Korak. Pulverize didn’t care about his team, he continued to plow on into Teams 3 and 8, along with Cloaks 2, 3, and 5. Cloak 2 was fast enough to avoid getting hit, and Cloaks 3 and 5 were just able to avoid it, but everyone else was ran over by the unstoppable and destructive Pulverize. Cloak 5 signaled to 2 and 3, and the two moved close together.

            Cloak 2 dashed forward at his amazing speed, and collided with Pulverize. He rapidly fired blow after blow, all of them connecting, but they did nothing to stop the big leather tank. Cloak 2 moved back as Pulverize readied to stampede again, lining him up with Cloak 3, who had been busy rubbing his hands all over the ground in front of him. Pulverize charged forward, blindly falling for what must’ve been a trap. Cloak 2 ran around the rubbed-down area and grabbed Cloak 3. The two members of Team 1 escaped as Pulverize slipped and hit the ground rolling. Cloak 5 jumped on the leather lummox and nearly entangled their limbs together in a complex submission maneuver. Zorb could swear some of Cloak 5’s joints had bent backwards to do it.

            Team 7 had soundly pummeled Smooth and the Animisians, and now focused all their attention on Korak. He managed to break away with his sheer strength, but found himself nearing the massive Cloak 1. The two locked eyes and everyone gave them room. Cloak 1 set Cloak 4 down, and the living weapon joined the others.

            In an instant, the two giants jumped at each other, and they slammed their fists into each other’s skulls. Cloak 1 didn’t seem to flinch one bit under his cloak’s hood, and he continued to deliver an onslaught of blows to the yellow colossus. Korak fell to his knees, and Cloak 1 finished it with a boot to Korak’s yellow block of a head. Now, the only ones able to continue fight were all of Teams 1 and 7. Both teams regrouped, leaving the others alone as they crawled away. Before those ten started again, Zorb stood up.

            “Enough! Enough!” he said excitedly. “You have proven yourselves worthy!”

            Zorb led Zita by the hand, and the two hurried over to the moving platform. A grin was on Zorb’s face the entire way down, and he even started to laugh and applaud as the platform reached the floor.

            “I have found my new team! You all, with the cloaks. You are amazing, honestly. Please, remove your cloaks so that I may see your faces!”

            The five winners complied, and took off their numbered cloaks. Each member was dressed in a single color: red, blue, green, yellow, and black, in that order from 1 to 5. Each member also wore a mask with wild designs to hide their faces.

            “Well, not what I expected,” Zorb admitted. “Why do you wear masks AND cloaks to disguise yourselves?”

            “It’s because that is our style, and our names!” the five answered together, taking stances that boasted their bravado. “We are The Masqueraders!”

            “I see… A rather eccentric group, but I’ve always admired eccentricity. Gather your things and prepare to board my ship within the hour.”

            “Yes, sir!” the five said before heading off to the far side of the dome.

            Zorb then turned to Team 7’s leader.

            “What is your name?”

            The young man swallowed, trying to stifle his nerves.

            “Taktikk,” he answered.

            “Taktikk, you have a gift. Despite all the mayhem going on during this battle royal, you kept a level head. I know The Masqueraders know how to work together, but against an enemy that is unpredictable, I need someone who can think on the fly like you can.”

            “But Zorb,” Zita spoke up, “The Masqueraders seems more than capable of--”

            “He is not my only concern,” Zorb interrupted. “I will explain to you later, but I feel that Taktikk has potential, and we’d be fools to pass him up.”

            Zita nodded her head, trusting Zorb’s wisdom and foresight.

            “Taktikk,” Zorb said as he turned back to the young man, “welcome to my team. Go gather your things.”

            Taktikk nodded and smiled, then hurried to where The Masqueraders were gathering their things.

 

            On the long trip back to the planet Earth, Zorb had made shorter names for The Masqueraders to go by.

            “Masquerade starts with M,” Zorb said to them all. “Therefore, I will call you all M and then your number.”

            The five men stood in numerical order, minus their cloaks. Zorb paced up and down the line as he spoke.

            “You are numbered ‘1’,” Zorb addressed the massive male in red. “I will therefore name you M1. And in that same order, we have M2, M3, M4, and M5.”

            Each man acknowledged their new codenames, and responded together with, “Yes, sir, Sir Zorb!”

            “I believe Taktikk has devised a strategy by now,” Zorb surmised. “Zita, call him.”

            Zita nodded and pressed a button on a wall panel.

            “Taktikk, we’re ready for you,” she spoke into a tiny microphone.

            Minutes later, Taktikk had appeared, and stood in front of the Masqueraders.

            “From what Zorb and Zita know of the ‘school’,” he began, “and what they know of the enemy’s abilities, I think I have plenty of formations that you can use against him.”

            “Why?” M5 asked grimly. “We did well enough against nine other teams during the auditions. Our ability to spontaneously adjust should be enough.”

            “Enough for a little bit,” Zorb countered. “Spontaneity, adaptability, and battle sense are all things your enemy has, too. If you underestimate him, The Spektrum will win out.”

            Taktikk began his presentation again.

            “His one strength is also his weakness. He needs to switch colors to change powers. With all five of you going at once, it won’t matter which one he turns in to, there’s someone to counter him. If we compare his track record against the old team to what you five are capable of, we see that each color is on par with each one of you in ability. His strongest is as strong as M1, his speed is as fast as M2, and his durability is as high as M4. I am going to keep in contact with you so that you won‘t get caught off guard.”

            For the next several Earth hours, Taktikk explains the proper match-ups between the Masqueraders and the Spektrum colors, and what the individual Masqueraders need to work on in terms of their own ability.