A few minutes passed by with me following Raphael and Niko in a random direction. They both stopped in front of a small shed near the river. It looked like a storage shed made purely out of wood.
I already informed my parents that I would spend the night out, so I just followed the both of them inside the shed.
The shed had a lot of equipment and stuff seemingly just stuffed in with no real effort of organising it. In the very corner was a ladder leading underground. I followed them down the massive ladder. Along the way, Niko and Raphael were talking about something, though, I couldn't hear then properly.
Raphael and Niko descended to the bottom first, and I arrived a few seconds later. The place looked like a massive underground base, even bigger than a mansion. The place had a lot of people, around thirty to be precise, of different ages. There was also one old man who seemed over 80 years old, and he was sitting on the couch, watching the massive TV.
As soon as the crowd saw us, they all turned, approaching closer.
"Raphael, you're back!!"
"Raph, ya brought back that regressor moron?!"
"Bring me that damn Niko. How dare he not save me first in the last life?!"
The place was surely.... very lively. They were like one massive family. The atmosphere was happy, lively, and warm. It even made my heart, that had grown numb to the warmth of happiness, get a little warm.
The group finally noticed me. They looked at me with eyes of both curiosity and caution.
"Who's the new kid?"
"I don't recall someone like him from our past life."
"Is he with those bastard authorities who keep on killing us?!"
"Should I kill him?"
All those voices kept coming up, leaving me and Niko no time to talk.
Niko spoke up in a panicked voice as he tried to mediation the situation. "Wha-?! No! Guys, don't! He's... a new recruit. I guess..?" Even his voice seemed unconvinced.
"Excuse me?! I never said I'm joining!" I interjected.
"What? Why not?" Niko asked in a tone of mixed panic and disappointment.
"I don't plan on making close bonds. Not in this life, not in ant other lives." I said with a hint of stubbornness in my voice.
"Lives? Like... plural?" One of the Freaks asked.
"Ah, yes. Sorry for the late introduction. Freaks, this is Vynn Luo. His divine curse is reincarnation." Raphael introduced me to the Freaks.
"Age." A voice demanded from near the couches. It was the old man.
"Physically, I'm 15 years old. Technically speaking, I'm a little over 3.4 million years old. And by a little, I mean a few decades." I responded.
"Yer older than me, sonny boy! Should I treat ya with respect?" He asked in a half-joking, half-teasing voice.
"That wouldn't be necessary, sir."
"Yer older than me!! Don't call me 'sir'. It's impolite o' me to make ya say stuff like that. Call me Laves.
"Oh... if that's okay with you, Laves." I replied with a half-exhausted, half-confused smile which also seemed quite genuine.
I adapted to the place soon, and I got to know how they died in the previous lives of Niko.
Around midnight, all the Freaks, now including me, waited for the authorities to arrive. The authorities we would fight.
Exactly at 12, a loud boom came from the top, and within seconds, military personnel arrived at the place with guns in their hands.
"Special Forces, kill all threats!!!!" A voice boomed.