Welcome to the Big Leagues

By: MJ Whelan

Amycus followed Onyx; he was nervous. The promotion to the main office was quite a shock. When the senior writer showed up at his department and told him to pack up and grab his photographer, he honestly believed he was getting fired. Then Onyx simply told him and Kaldor to follow them, and now they were here. Being led to an unfamiliar part of the Underground Press building.

Onyx stopped in front of a door several floors up and turned to them, “Well children, welcome to the big leagues.” And then they pushed open the door.

It was… more chaotic than he imagined. Several voices hit him at once, as well as the faint scent of cigarette smoke. Someone with a black fedora with their feet on their desk took another drag of their cigarette, reading something off a paper in their left hand, “Get a load of Vanderley’s description on these new wanted adverts. A tall male possessing darker skin is believed to be involved in the illegal publication known as Underground Press. What a joke! Height and skin color are literally so useless without anything else.”

A man, Amycus assumed to be Vanderley, chuckled, “I think we would want to keep it that way, no?”

The original speaker nodded and took another drag from her cigarette, tapping the ashes off when she was done. Onyx had led them to the center of the room and clapped their hands to get everyone’s attention, it calmed down instantly. The eyes of everyone in the room turned to them, Onyx cleared their throat, “Everyone, welcome the new additions to our team Amycus Horne and his photographer, Kaldor Hawke. Everyone be nice, Seraphyx you’re under special orders not to be a nasty piece of trash to them.”

Seraphyx, the one with the fedora, looked offended, “First of all, shut up you-”

The man Amycus assumed to be Vanderley cut them off, “It’s great to have you both, I’m Vanderley Dragun, the head editor here.”

Amycus nodded, “It’s a pleasure to be wherever here is.”

Seraphyx scoffed, “You don’t know where you are. Did Onyx here throw you into the deep end of the pool? Typical.”

Vanderley sighed, “That’s Seraphyx, she handles world events with her photographer, Bowie Burke.”

A red-headed man huddled over a camera waved at the mention of his name. Vanderley nodded, “And Onyx does financial coverage and also serves as the head photographer.”

Onyx nodded and went to what Amycus assumed was their desk. They made a vague gesture at two empty desks across from each other, “Get your stations set up.”

Amycus cautiously sat at a desk with Kaldor sitting across from him. There was a new typewriter lying in front of him and a host of other supplies for writing. Across from him, Kaldor’s desk had supplies for photography. Amycus set his bag down and pulled out his current story, looking it over before putting an empty sheet in the typewriter. 

Kaldor had also started with continuing their work, looking over the photos he had managed to get of a government official accepting a bribe from the mafia. The both of them fell into a trance, their work consuming their attention. It was only when a startlingly loud noise sounded from somewhere in the room that they finally looked up. Onyx was standing up, fuming. The origin of the noise seemed to be that they had slammed their hands on their desk.

“Sera, I swear to all that is good!”

Seraphyx rolled her eyes, “Like you know anything good. You can’t even do your chores at home.”

Onyx was about to fire back when the door opened again. An exceptionally well-dressed man entered the room. Everyone scrambled to stand up, Seraphyx almost fell when she threw her legs off her desk to stand up. Amycus looked at Kaldor, and the two of them copied everyone else.

Vanderley greeted the man, “Hello, sir. I didn’t think you were visiting us today.”

The man smiled and waved his hand, “Why can’t I visit you guys without it being official?”

The whole room relaxed and sat down with the wave of his hand, Vanderley offered the man a spare chair.

“Thank you Vanderley,” the man said as he sat down, “Now what is everyone working on?”

Onyx spoke up first, “I’m working on an article discussing the truth behind the government’s recent statement about spending less money on the military.”

Seraphyx snorted, “They probably just diverted funding into programs that feed into the military but aren’t explicitly military.”

“That’s exactly what happened.”

The man nodded, “Good work Onyx. What about you, Sera?”

Seraphyx tapped her cigarette on her ashtray, “Hidden correspondences with world leaders. Bowie got a great shot of a foreign leader exiting a transport on a governmental base.”

“Good work Bowie,” the man said with a smile, he turned to Amycus and Kaldor, “You two must be the new guys. I’m Bishop Valentine, the founder of Underground Press. May I ask what are you working on?”

Amycus swallowed, “A story about a government official accepting a bribe from the mafia, Mr. Valentine.”

Bishop nodded and smiled at the two of them, ”Good work, and you can just call me Bishop. Or sir if you want, but I would prefer Bishop, even if you put Mr. in front of it.”

“Yes, Mr. Bishop.”

Bishop smiled and stood up, “Well it was great meeting you, and everyone, keep up the good work. What we do here is important for the people.”

There was a chorus of goodbyes as he exited the room. Seraphyx smirked and lit a new cigarette, “You new guys are lucky, meeting Bishop on your first day here.”

Amycus nodded absentmindedly, still processing the fact he had met the founder of Underground Press himself, Kaldor was also having a similar experience.

Onyx smirked, “Well you two want to stay here? We have the biggest bounties on our heads and are some of the most wanted.”

Amycus and Kaldor shared a look before nodding; Amycus grinned, “We do.”