This is the chapter where some of Universe's staff will be introduced. And in the next chapter too. I'll wait until we've met most of them then put down the mini chapter.

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The silence was starting to become more and more pressing as they all waited for Huotani to return with... whoever she was going to get.

"Actually, Taurus, it seems you have a visitor," Universe ventured. "She seems... angry." 

All heads turned towards Taurus, who had suddenly gone white as a sheet. "Oh no." 

As if on cue the door slammed open and none other than Meika zoomed in, eyes glowing a furious red and dark mists hanging around her. "BIG BROOOOOTHEEEER...." 

Taurus backed away nervously. "Uh... hi, Mei-" 

She snapped. "HOW DARE YOU NOT TELL ME ABOUT THIS! I SHOULD BE GLAD THAT UNIVERSE AT LEAST HAS SOME DECENCY TO TELL ME NOT TO WORRY WHEN HE CALLED ME TO TELL ME ABOUT HE INCIDENT YESTERDAY BUT YOOOOOOU DIDN'T EVEN CALL! DO YOU WANT ME TO KILL YOU?!!!"

At 12 years old Meika had the intimidating, raging furious mama bear act down. 

Taurus held up his hands, sweat dropping nervously as the rest of the zodiacs stepped back. "U-um, Meika, maybe not right now-?!" 

WHOOOOOOOOSH!

Meika stomped one foot on the ground and a massive whirl of wind blew Taurus off his feet and tossed him into the air. "IDIOT!" 

Universe looked at her. "Why, I wasn't aware you could do such big blasts!" He said, looking impressed. Meika huffed and blew a piece of hair out of her face. "Only when I'm really mad. And then I can't use my powers for at least five hours, but that guy over there who claims to be my older brother-" she glared at Taurus, who had been unharmed due to the magical emergency cushioning the room provided. "Really deserves it." she sighed loudly and flipped her hair back. "Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. Had to get it out of my system. See ya later, bro." 

"See you later, Meika," Taurus managed to say. 

From the doorway Huotani cleared her throat. "Um... Mr. Universe, she's requested that you come to her." 

Universe sighed loudly. "Ugh, can't I even catch a break, fine, zodiacs, come to me-" 

"Wait," Scorpio interrupted. "What happened at the school today. When we return tomorrow won't the people be questioning us-" 

"Already taken care of," Universe assured them. "Some quick mind-washing and magical repairs, and the entire incident has been resolved." 

The zodiacs all breathed a sigh of relief. Libra opened her mouth, but Universe cut her off. "No time to talk, my zodiacs! Come, come!" 

He snapped his fingers, the walls warped, and all of a sudden they found themselves... where exactly were they? It looked like they were in a square room, but the walls looked slightly opaque and they shifted constantly in hues that made them think they were underwater. 

In front of them were floating keyboard and screens. Numbers and letters scrolled across it constantly, and there were many other smaller screens revolving around them. Sitting on a glowing blue cube was a girl, typing away on the keyboard. Well, sort of. It looked like the keyboard was invisible but every time she hit a 'letter' a small glowing square lit up underneath her fingers. 

Universe coughed. "Dear?" 

The girl didn't even turn around. "What." 

"The zodiacs are here." 

Her fingers slowed to a stop and she turned around-or rather, the cube turned around and she turned with it. The girl was, no doubt about it, beautiful. She had pale blue hair done into two short, messy pigtails, dark cobalt blue eyes, and pale skin. "Oh, welcome." She smiled and floated towards them, holding out a hand courteously. "My name's Kan." 

Libra was the first to take her hand. "Hi, Kan! I'm Libra." 

One by one the zodiacs introduced themselves. 

"Question," Mini blurted out, "Where exactly are we?" 

Kan looked confused for a moment, then smiled. "You're in one of my Lighthouses, of course. Didn't Universe tell you?" 

All the zodiacs swiveled their heads towards him, like, "AND YET ANOTHER PIECE OF INFORMATION YOU FORGOT TO TELL US SURFACES." 

He chuckled nervously. "Calm down, calm down! Kan is my Light Bearer. Basically, she collects information about battles, people, things like that and relays them to me. Right now, I have her working on the Worst case." 

(A/N: A Light Bearer is a Tower of God reference. You may have noticed by now I do a lot of references from that, and that's because I love it and waiting for the next anime episodes to come out, so that's why. I highly recommend it! If you're confused, tell me in the comments, I honestly didn't know how else to phrase her position. Thank you.) 

"So then, Mr. Universe?" Kan asked. "What did you bring them here for? Huotani mentioned something about a safety precaution. What would you like me to do? In case you're wondering, I can't give each of them a lighthouse to follow them around. I mean I could, but it would be so annoying." 

"Right, what we can here for!" Universe beamed. "I'd like you to ask Byeoul to make them their own Pockets." 

Kan frowned slightly. "You'd be better off asking Question Mark to do that," she pointed out. "You know he's the tech guy." 

Universe scratched his head. "I know that, but you're a bit better connected than he is. And infinitely more persuasive." He actually made puppy dog eyes. "Pleeeeeease?" 

Kan sighed. "Fine. I'll call up Byeol and see what I can do." 

As Kan turned away and dialed a number on her phone, Aries burst out, "Wait, will you please tell us what's goin' on? Who's Byeol? What's a pocket? Tell us something!" 

"Pockets are multi-functioning," Universe explained. "They function as a translator for all languages, communication, light source, and a timer, among other uses. Oh, and you can also use them to ask Everything to help you out, though the chances of her saying yes or picking up is practically zero. She's a busy woman." 

Their attention was distracted by the sound of the receiver picking up. "... What do you want this time, Kan?" 

"Universe wants me to ask you to make some new Pockets," Kan said, sticking out her tongue at Universe. 

"How many?" 

"Twelve." 

"WHAT?!" the voice roared. Kan calmly put it on speakerphone. "Universe! I know you're there! Listen, I don't know what you're doing but to just request twelve new Pockets out of the blue is unacceptable!" 

Universe gave Kan a dirty look as he took the phone. "Ah, well... they're for my zodiacs-" 

"Oh, so you think you can order me around now, do you?!" Byeol demanded. "Well, for your information, I-!" 

Kan took the phone back. "Listen, Byeol, why don't you just adjust the settings for the extra models that I know you have? Besides, you know you owe me one. And one of the zodiac's familiar is a princess." 

There was a pause, then a huff. "Like that matters to me." Another pause. "Fine. I'll adjust the settings like you asked, but..." Universe looked delighted. "They're going to have to grow the rank themselves. The models I have have a very low rank, seeing that they're models. Not to worry though," and they got the impression that the receiver was smiling, "They should level up pretty fast." 

Kan paused for a second, then sighed. "Fine." 

"I'll be done in thirty minutes." 

"Oh come on Byeol, I know you're faster than that-" 

Click. 

Kan put away her phone. "You also now owe me one." 

(A/N: Once again, this is a ToG reference with Pockets. If you're confused look up 'Tower of God Pockets' and something should pop up. Or you can just ask me.) 

Universe wilted. "Yes, yes, I knoooooow-" 

"Kaaaaaan!" 

Kan almost immediately got a sour look on her face. "What do you want now?" 

The zodiacs all turned around to find a red-haired guy ambling up. He held a pair of red scissors in his hand. "My, there's an awful amount of people in this room. I'm Random, more commonly known as Ran, and I'm Kan's assistant." 

"Wait." Mini swiveled her head back and forth between them. "There's a Ran and Kan?" She started giggling.

"Random," Kan said calmly with the tiniest hint of frustration in her voice, "Get. Out. Before I slit your throat." 

"You wouldn't do that," Ran said, winking. 

"I can you and I would," Kan replied, turning back to her screens. "Now get out, for real." 

"Well, actually," Random amended with a slightly sheepish look on his face, "Laurel's fallen asleep in the pond again..." 

That was when Kan lost the cool facade and outright groaned. "Again? Does that boy ever stay awake?" 

Universe, Kan, and Random all looked at each other and in unison replied, "Nope." 

Mini jumped up and down between them, waving her arms wildly. "Hello! Hello! We're here too! Care explaining to us what's going on?" 

"Laurel's another one of my staff members," Universe explained. "Though if I'm being honest he sleeps way too much. Half of the time he's literally just sleeping and listening to calming music and floating in his favorite pond." 

"He's been like that ever since we gave him waterproof clothes," Kan grumbled. "And so he reguarly falls asleep." 

"And scares the hell out of everyone. They almost always think he's dead, y'know, water and all," Random added helpfully. 

"Stay right here," Universe told them. "We'll be right back, and maybe we can introduce Laurel to you." 

"And please don't ruin my Lighthouse," Kan added.

The zodiacs blinked and the trio were gone. 

. . . 

"So does anybody else think that that girl is seriously creepy?" Leo voiced. "I mean, this is only me, but she gives me serious cold vibes." 

"Maybe because you're an arrogant prat," Scorpio rolled his eyes. 

"I like her," Pisces argued. 

"Yeah," Libra agreed. 

"So do I," Aquarius said, which actually surprised some people. 

"I thought you weren't into girls," Aries said. 

Aquarius shrugged. "I'm not into her; I just like how she presents such a calm exterior." 

"Not many people can do that," Taurus mused. 

Sagittarius for one was silent because he was worried. He was an expert at fooling people into thinking he was girl, but he knew that Kan had taken one glance at him and knew he was a girl. Just how inquisitive is she? 

"I for one think that Universe's entire staff is a bit..." Capricorn looped a finger around her head. "Wonky." 

"With you on that one," Cancer agreed, looking a bit sheepish as she admitted this. "Random's the one that creeps me out, though nobody can deny that he's a looker." 

"Yep..." 

"Well, except for Huotani," Virgo piped up. "She's okay." 

"Yeah..." 

A door opened up in the Lighthouse and a moment later somebody threw a body into the room. "LAUREL FOR GOODNESS'S SAKE WAKE UP" 

the zodiacs all stumbled back as the bundle of cloth moved and a head emerged. "I'm up, I'm up..." the boy, who was about 16 or so, yawned and stood up. "So you're the zodiacs, huh..." 

The other three appeared behind him, expressions ranging from bored, playfully sadistic, and so out of it today. (try and guess which expression goes to which person) 

"Everyone, this is Laurel. He's very powerful, but unfortunately for him, he prefers to sleep instead of using it," Universe said. 

Laurel yawned again. "It was Everything's choice, not yours." 

"A long time ago Everything gave him a bit of her powers," Universe explained. "Which is part of the reason why I recruited him, but..." 

His phone rang sharply and Universe started. "Oh! The Pockets must be ready. See you later, Random, Laurel!" He snapped his fingers and those two abruptly disappeared-just as the door to the Lighthouse opened again and short, dark-haired girl stomped in. She had a bag slung over her shoulders

"And this is Byeol," Universe said, patting her shoulders. She looked very young, or maybe that was only because she was short. "She's our genius inventor." 

Byeol shook off his hand and faced Kan. "The Pockets are ready. Twelve of them, just as you asked." then she turned and bowed briskly to the zodiacs. "It's a pleasure to meet you." 

"She's the one who makes all the weapons and stuff," Universe continued. "And she'll help you with your Pockets." Once again the zodiacs found themselves in a straight line. (magic is handy that way)

From her bag, Byeol produced twelve round spheres, each black. One by one she let them go and they floated in front of each of the zodiacs. "They've already been fine-tuned to work. You can use these Pockets for a lot of things, but I think the main reason why Universe wanted to me to give you these was because not only can they serve as a form of communication, they can also be used as trackers," Byeol said. "I think his purpose is that he wants you to be more in touch. Should another accident like this ever happen." 

"I for one don't think it's an accident," Kan called. She was back to typing at her keyboard. 

"Well, yes," Universe admitted. "But we can't afford for anything like this to happen again. Once Kan tracks down Worst's position we have to launch a find-and-detain mission." He turned towards the zodiacs. "You twelve, of course, will be the ones we send. Finding her will not be a simple task, and while we're working on that your familiars will train you in combat and your abilities. Remember, they're made to do this. And so were you. I mean, there's sure to be bigger challenges ahead, but for now, we've got to clear the hurdle of an assassin. We might even be able to squeeze out who hired her once we've detained her." 

There was a heavy silence as the weight of what they were going to weighed down on them.

"Your pockets will stay with you at all times," Byeol interrupted the silence. "Face it and say, 'Invisible Mode.'" 

They did and the pockets vanished from sight. "When you want to use it again just say 'Visible Mode.' All means of use and etc. have already been transmitted to your brains and will resurface when needed." 

"Hey, tell me," Scorpio blurted out, "How old are you?" 

Byeol stared stonily back at him. "I'm not in the best of moods right now, so I won't answer that to spare your life." 

"Great!" Universe clapped his hands together. "Now that we've got our Pockets, we can-" 

"Can you first get out of my Lighthouse first?" interrupted Kan. "I can't focus when all you people are inside." 

"And I really need to smash some metal to vent out some frustration," Byeol said. "See ya later. Oh, and Taurus, tell your princess hi from me, would you?" she touched the gem around her neck, then faded from sight. 

Universe snapped his fingers and they found themselves back in the 'library'. "What do you think?" 

"They both creep me out," Leo responded immediately. 

"Yes, well, it's not really their fault," Universe said dismissively. "And be grateful! Tomorrow you get to spend the entire day in my house, training, because I orchestrated a little break-day especially for you. I figured you'd be a bit taken back from the events of today, so tomorrow I'll give you the entire morning to rest and call you over at twelve. How does that sound?" 

The zodiacs were shocked. "Wow, Universe, thanks!" 

"Now, now-" Universe held up a finger before they could hug him. "Just because you don't have school does not mean you can slack off in your studies! I expect you all to turn in this packet to me tomorrow." 

So saying he magically produced a three-page-long packet and handed one to each of the zodiacs. They stared down at it incredulously. 

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME" 

"I was just kidding, please don't murder me!" 

As it turned out, Libra never got to ask whether or not he knew Kouzaku Mitori.

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YES! Another chapter done! I'm proud, two chapters published in a day! This may have not been the longest chapter, but I think it's kinda like a way to introduce Universe's staff. 

And Chapter Seven is in the making already, so GO MEEE!!! 

Comment below which weapon you think the zodiacs should have! Because from the next chapter forwards things are about to get hardcore. 

UGH. 

I for one am not going to enjoy writing that kind of stuff. 

Oh! My birthday's coming up soon (in about a week, eight days to be precise) and I'm going to do a special chapter on that day, so what do you think I should do? 

See you in the next chapter, 

Your loving author, 

-awakened-angel-chan

P.S. Don't get solid pictures of the staff member quite yet. The mini chapter in which they'll be introduced will be published after Chapter Seven, because in Chapter Seven two more staff members will be introduced. 

And the Pockets look like this: 

Usually they're just black. Plain black, no letters or anything. Yeah.