Lionel tapped a stack of papers on the large round table in front of him and monotonously stated, "And that will conclude our round table meeting for today."
Money sat low in his seat with his chin in his hand. He scanned the room slowly, and watched as several members around the large table murmured amongst each other.
He sighed and stood up slowly, "Great. I spent my one day off at another one of these things just so we could argue in circles for half the day and get nothing done as usual. Why would you call it an emergency meeting if we weren't going to be doing anything urgently?"
A woman in a black and gold dress and square black designer sunglasses glared at him, "The Fellows are a co-op, Money. Before we take any action, we have to come to a compromise, we have to agree!"
Money glared back at her, "It doesn't feel much like a co-op, Mrs. Georgia. Not when so many members inside of it are grouping together and conspiring."
A young man with wavy blonde hair and a Hawaiian shirt scoffed, "There are no cliques here, Money. Sometimes great minds just think alike. Don't be jealous you're not on the same page as us."
Money gritted his teeth and furrowed his brow, "Your 'great minds' are preventing us from getting anything done, Monty. It's been months, and we're still having the same conversations. It's been months of back-to-back destructive meta incidents, and we still haven't taken any action!"
Money hit his hand on the round table hard, startling the members sitting around it, "That criminal Dirty Bomb killed over two hundred people! Two hundred! We're supposed to be providing aid and support to those grieving families! That apartment building he blew up? We're supposed to be re-homing the people whose lives he destroyed. But instead—" Money motioned to the room, "We're here. Arguing. Like always."
"Are you done, Money?" Lionel cut in coldly.
Money chuckled, "Yeah Lionel, I'm done. My impassioned pleas to help people won't move you, they never did. And I know you really couldn't care less about all of this. All you care about is playing around with your wives, you just use this place to line your pockets."
"Money! Calm down, this isn't the right way to go about things!" An older dark skin man with grey hair snapped at Money.
Money looked at the older man and slowly sat down, saying, "Sorry, Stone, but they aren't going about it the right way; why should I?"
Sitting across from Money, Julian Mason smiled and finally spoke, "Stone is right, Money. Resorting to insults and cheap shots isn't going to help win you friends in the Fellows."
Money returned his smile, "There is no making friends here, Julian. Half of the people here are too deep in your pocket. Everything I'm saying is going in one ear and out of the other."
Mrs. Georgia stood up, "Do you think your way is the only way to help people?"
"And what's your way, Mrs. Georgia? Turning this place into a glorified country club? One of your 'great minds' leaked your plans to me. You want to let the rich and the elite pay to be apart of the Fellows? You want to abolish the extensive vetting system the Fellows have used for decades, in favor of letting anyone with deep enough pockets benefit from our name and ride the coattails of the good we did."
Julian shrugged his shoulders, "Where in the world are you getting your info from? But let's say that little theory had a smidgen of truth, would it really be such a bad thing to have more contributors to the Fellows? I mean, the 10 of us can't do all the things you're begging us to do alone. We'd exhaust our bank accounts before the end of the year."
Money opened his mouth to say something, but Monty cut him off immediately, "It's my day off too, Money. Do I have to sit and listen to your whining for the rest of the day? You don't get what we're trying to do, maybe you're not smart enough. How about you let us try it so we can show you?"
Money stomped over to Monty, but Stone grabbed his wrist to stop him.
"You need to cool off, Money. Let me talk to you outside."
Money allowed Stone to usher him outside. But not before calling out to Lionel, "The rightful heir to that seat is back. I can't wait for the Prince of Astoria to take that place from you."
Stone pushed him out of the front door and shouted at him, "What the hell are you doing, Money? Are you trying to provoke them?"
Money shook his head and looked around the area. The Fellows headquarters was a beautiful modern home with tinted floor to ceiling windows. He sat down on the front steps of the home and put his chin in his hand.
"You should be mad too, Stone! They're destroying the thing you helped build!"
Stone sat down next to him and sighed, "The era me and the Blessads created is coming to a close. You saw the situation in there. Only 6 of the 10 executives even bothered to show up for an emergency meeting. The four absentees are supposed to be our allies, but they barely show face anymore. Who knows if they're siding with the Good People Movement or if they're just giving up all together. Either way, their power is finally starting to outweigh ours. It's only a matter of time before they force us into submission or convince Lionel to go above us."
Money shook his head and looked at the ground, "I won't let them destroy this place."
Stone rustled Money's hair, "You really want to do good, huh? You remind me of me at your age."
The smug grin of Monty broke the tender moment up as he peeked through the door.
"Hey you two, you might want to get in here. Julian has an important announcement to make."