A sort of Prologue
Koon Aguero Agnis liked to think he's an intelligent, friendly and patient man with a healthy surplus of ambition. Those who would claim otherwise were now either dead, or wishing they'd never crossed him. Usually both. But that was beside the point right now. A month ago, before striking a deal with Cyclops Redhair, he was confident to be able to overcome anything life throws at him, especially after being caught in the explosion of an old colossal piece of art. This confidence was now, however, greatly shaken and the water tank of his patience, which started leaking a week ago, was dangerously close to bursting. About to kick their asses up to the 135th Floor while giving them the middle finger of Arlen, Koon performed yet another miracle.
After managing to bring the twitch in his left eye under control and retaining his composure, he spoke, "I'm glad you're enjoying yourselves, but why exactly are you watching TV in my room?"
The first one to answer, with a wide oblivious grin on his face, was his pain in his hair numero uno – Ja Wangnan. And yet, he was still just the second most annoying guy he had the displeasure to team up with.
"What do you mean, why? TV is only fun to watch together."
The last thing he wanted after a long, long day, was to stay up all night listening to Androssi's rambling, while sitting beside Dumb and Dumber – Wangnan and Dan. Which one was which, he couldn't quite decide.
"That doesn't apply to me, will you please leave now?"
Indeed, and even if he had to choose two people he'd watch TV with, one of them was now a Zahard's princess, roaming Zahard knows where, for whom he sacrificed his status and future within the Koon family. And for the other person, he was willing to go even further. Now, after all those years he was presumed to be dead for, his friend, forced to become a Slayer candidate, was almost within his reach. Rather than a friend, Baam was more like a younger brother to him. A brother he never had – actually he had many brothers, but since he was obliged to resent them and vice versa…
"WHAT?!" Blurted out the annoying orange. "And till now you were happily eating the nachos I bought!"
"With my money."
A sad, but nonetheless true, fact was that without Baam's resources, this completely broke, dysfunctional, sad excuse for a team was now mooching off him.
"Hey, wanna see a movie?"
The two were taken aback when they've heard a voice coming from the seat right next to them. After the initial shock they remembered that Dan was in the room all along - Dan, who, after an hour of drooling over Androssi as if she was a large chunk of suspendium with breasts, finally decided to come back to reality, thus doubling the ruckus in the room. Although Koon was glad that he was finally back to his old self, it was moments like these that made him wish he was still the silent and serious Dan.
"Oh, good idea," said Wangan, who seemed to have completely forgotten about their struggle for nachos. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Koon easily seized the pack from Wangnan's grasp.
"Let's watch one of these. They are pay per view."
"Once again, with my money," said Koon in his thoughts, now munching on his loot, as the two seemed to have completely forgotten about him. Well, at least he could return to his thoughts, even if just for a short while. Something was amiss. "Why would they invite us two days before the ship's departure? Just to make a little profit out of tourism? Seems a bit petty, although…" Watching his teammates' bickering, that assumption was entirely plausible.
The jury must've reached a verdict while he was immersed in his thoughts, for Wangnan's just inserted the winner inside the player. To Koon's surprise, the face of his old test instructor was smirking at him from the screen.
"You have got to be kidding me. A Quant movie? Somebody must be really running out of ideas."