“TEAM A42 REPORT TO MISSION BRIEFING ROOM. REPEAT: TEAM A42 REPORT TO MISSION BRIEFING.” 1A-42 said sternly over the loudspeaker. “Please follow the red lights to the Mission Briefing Room!”
This time, 24-42 had a small bag she’d packed in case of this happening. She quickly grabbed her MP3, earphones and charger and bolted out of her bedroom. She opened the small cupboard near her front door and pulled out her emergency bag.
She ran as quickly as she could. Unfortunately, that led her right into the path of Major M42.
The memory of the night before made 24-42 want to go red again, but she tried to suppress it.
“After you Sir.” She mumbled.
“Hurry up!” He barked at her.
24-42 sighed and kept up with him. There was a VERY awkward conversation coming up in the near future and 24-42 wasn’t looking forward to it.
They caught up with Henna and the group joined the others in the Mission Briefing Room. Suzie grinned at 24-42, she’d heard about the events the night before. 24-42 was beginning to curse the day she’d signed up for this program!
“Your mission is to retrieve Team B42 from a cave-in on an island in Enemy Nation 14. This mission will require you to work under dark, no one was aware that Team B42 even exists and a lot of questions would be raised if you guys were seen at the site.” C42 commanded. “Go!”
The group quickly boarded the cargo plane heading to their overseas destination.
“What were B42 doing? I thought they were still here?” Alexis asked.
“They were sent to rescue some war prisoners from Allied Nation 63 who were being used as miners. They failed their mission when they accidently sealed themselves into the mine. The hostages are long gone by now and the place is now deserted.” Suzie told them.
“This should be interesting.” Tytus smirked at 24-42, who was sitting next to M42. She squirmed uncomfortably.
M42 sighed, putting the pieces together in his head, and guessing that he had been pranked yet again. This was getting out of hand, and this time it was personal.
“How many people in this cargo plane know about what happened between 24-42 and myself?”
Dead silence.
“I thought so.” M42 got up and walked to the front of the plane.
“The only question is, do I berate 24-42 now or do I wait for some privacy only for her to gossip to you lot?”
24-42 fumed.
“This is obviously another one of your pranks.” M42 continued. “And it is exceptionally childish.”
“It isn’t! 24-42 really likes you!” Henna yelped.
“Why would we pull a prank like this? All our other pranks have been virtually harmless!” Daniel tried to reason with the irate Major, who didn’t believe one word out of the Experiments mouth.
“In which case then, 24-42 has still acted immaturely.” M42 walked right up to 24-42, who stood up to face him.
“You behaved like an idiot in my lodgings, then you went and blabbed to your friends. Either you have no concept of privacy or no idea what you’re doing and constantly need advice. Either way, you have no business being in any sort of physical relationship. I certainly don’t want to be having relations with someone as immature as you.” He narrowed his eyes at her. Something was wrong with her eyes. Usually they were on the green side of hazel, but they seemed a murky brown now. Was that a hint of red he saw?
“Understood Sir.” 24-42 said coldly. “It won’t happen again.”
She sat back down and took out her laptop and earphones. The Major looked down on her for a second, but she refused to look at him. If she had, she might have seen the faint trace of sadness on his face.
Suffice to say, the rest of the plane trip was a riot.
–
“Not good.” Suzie looked through her night-vision goggles. “The enemy are still patrolling the area – I don’t think they believe the cave-in was an accident.”
“Which means we can’t just Blast them out, we’ll have to dig. Shoot!” Daniel groaned. “Thankfully this vent is here.”
He motioned to a small hole that lead down to where Team B42 were trapped. They’d tried Blasting their way out, but their Blasts were too weak.
“It’ll need to be quick. If they find evidence of someone digging around here then we’re done for.” Suzie replied. “Let’s head back to the others and see what they think.”
“You hear that guys?” Daniel stuck his head down the vent.
“Whatever.” The annoyed voice of 04-42 came up to them.
The pair scrambled off the ledge and headed back to the trucks. Thankfully Daniel was able to fly most of the way, otherwise it would have been a long trek over dangerous rocks and through nasty forest. Once they got back, Daniel left Suzie with M42 while he went to go and sit with the rest of the Experiments, who were lounging around the campsite feeling a bit sore and cold.
“The enemy are still guarding the area.” Suzie said flatly.
“Hmm.” M42 looked at his plans. “Any idea where B42 is?”
“We found a small vent that looks like it leads straight to them.” Suzie said. “If we can somehow widen it they should be able to walk straight out.”
“Then that’s what we’ll look at doing.” M42 decided.
“Sir?” Suzie touched his arm. “We’ve worked together for a long time, right?”
“If this is about 24-42, then don’t bother Captain.” M42 walked away.
“He is SUCH a pain.” Suzie groaned.
“Experiments, over here!” M42 called them over. He got Daniel to explain the situation to them.
“We’re going to have to find a way to dig them out through this vent without getting spotted or causing another cave-in.” M42 said.
“So Blasts are out.” Tytus frowned. “They’d make too much noise and probably cause another cave-in.”
“Unless…how long can we sustain a Blast?” Henna was thinking aloud.
“What do you mean?” Daniel looked at her quizzically.
“I think I get what Henna’s saying. If we can hold the form of one of our Blasts, we can use it as a silent drill to widen the vent.” Alexis said.
“24-42?” Daniel looked at his fellow Experiment, who was silent.
“I think it should be 17-42.” M42 said bluntly.
“ME?!” Henna squeaked. “But 24-42 has stronger Blasts!”
“That’s true, but remember we don’t want to cause a cave-in. We want control, not power, and you have that in spades compared to 24-42.” M42 said. 24-42 snarled.
Alexis and Henna looked worriedly at each other. Something had to give!
“We’d better get started. The rest of you are to keep an eye out in case we’re in danger of being spotted.” M42 turned to Henna. “You have plenty of time. Don’t feel like you’re under any pressure. We’ll work together as a team and we’ll get this done.”
“Yes Sir.” Henna mumbled, looking terrified.
–
“Are you ready 21-42?” M42 asked as he, Henna and Suzie stood around the vent.
“I guess so.” Henna gulped.
“Team B42! This is Major M42. We’re about to try and widen this vent so you can get out. Please stand well clear.” The Major stuck his head down the hole.
He could hear shuffling as everyone moved back.
“Okay 17-42, take your time. You can do this.” He patted Alexis on the back.
Henna breathed in deeply. She held out her hands in front of her. The substance that formed the Blasts slowly oozed out of her hands, forming a drill-like structure. Concentrating, Henna made the structure longer and started it spinning as it headed towards the ground.
“Excellent. Reckon you could try on the vent?” Suzie asked kindly.
Henna began trying to drill the rock, but it was hard. Sometimes the drill would shatter, meaning Henna had to start all over again.
“Get 16-42 and 21-42 over here.” M42 told Suzie. “We might need a little help.”
Suzie nodded.
“What about-,”
“24-42 can stay on guard duty.” Was the cold response.
“I was going to ask about Tytus.” Suzie scowled.
“Oh…yeah, call him over.” The Major went slightly pink.
“So you ARE letting your emotions get in the way.” Suzie accused.
M42 glared at her.
“You’re such a prick.” Suzie shook her head as the other Experiments came over.
Working slowly, the group made progress on opening the vent. Three times they got a call from 24-42 saying that enemy patrols were close by which slowed things down even further.
“This is exhausting. Can’t I go on guard duty while 24-42 comes over here?” Tytus complained, earning a filthy look from M42.
“Would probably be a good idea.” Henna glared at the Major.
“Fine.” M42 grumped.
Tytus went to go and get 24-42 while the others had a break and got a drink.
“Hey, 24, they want you back at the vent. They need help.” Tytus found 24-42 sitting in a tree on a small cliff watching the enemy camp.
“I thought they needed control, not power.” 24-42 snapped.
“Come on, you’re not gonna let…” Tytus started when 24-42 turned to glare at him. Her eyes were almost completely red.
Tytus wasn’t a fool. He knew that 24-42 could mop the floor with him. So he went back to the vent and reported back to M42 and Suzie.
“I’ll have a word with her when we get back to base.” M42 looked livid.
“If YOU hadn’t publicly berated her and then purposefully left her out then there wouldn’t be a problem!” Alexis snapped.
“I think we need a refresher on who’s actually in charge around here.” M42 warned. Alexis continued to glare at him as they resumed work on the vent.
After a few hours, the vent was opened up enough and team B42 ungraciously got out.
“You’re welcome.” Tytus scowled at the dirty looks that Team A42 were getting.
“Huzzah for the A42 team huh?” MB42 sneered at M42. “Where’s your prized student?”
“Making sure we don’t get caught. Unlike you guys who blew the whole operation. Those prisoners are now impossible to rescue.” M42 scowled back.
“Hmm.” Was the sullen reply.
Team B42 headed out in their own cargo plane, leaving Team A42 to try and find 24-42, a task that soon started to look impossible. M42 seethed. It seemed that if 24-42 didn’t want to be found, then she wouldn’t be!
“I see things went fine without me.” 24-42 soon reappeared.
“Why didn’t you come and help when you were summoned?” M42 asked calmly.
“Didn’t think I was wanted.” 24-42 replied. “You definitely made that clear.”
“From now on, if you get an order from me, I expect it to be carried out without any of the backchat I’ve been getting. That goes for all of you.” M42 commanded. “Like I said earlier, I am in charge here and-,”
His sentence was cut off as 24-42 grabbed him by the throat. Her eyes had turned completely red and she was starting to emit a red light from her body. Suzie gasped as the others rushed to surround her.
Tytus went to try and stop 24-42, but Daniel stopped him. “You can’t do anything mate.”
Henna looked terrified. “24-42, stop!” She begged, but it seemed like 24-42 couldn’t hear her. She’d spent the whole time she was out guarding getting angrier and angrier, feeling familiar feelings of coldness and abandonment. The cold, sick anger had overtaken, and now all 24-42 wanted was revenge and for the pain to stop.
“You’re in charge here huh? Given that if any of us wanted you dead, you’d be gone in a heartbeat.” 24-42 growled, forcing the Major back against the rocks around the vent.
“Go on then, snap my neck.” M42 said. “I know all about what you did. How you’re here to find redemption.”
24-42 growled.
“Tell me, where are you going to look for redemption once you’ve killed me? There’s no where else for you to go.”
24-42 glared at him. Her lip wobbled. She threw the Major to the ground and glowered, the red glow subsiding for now.
“All of you back on the plane!” Suzie commanded. The other Experiments looked horrified at 24-42. She couldn’t look at them as her anger turned into shame and hopelessness. Her cold, evil temper had gotten the better of her again.
She picked a seat at the back of the plane, well away from everyone else. She felt cold and ashamed at what she’d nearly done to M42, and certain that she was alone again. Why would anyone have anything to do with her after this? All the friendships she had been making…thrown away in a heartbeat.
A hour into the flight she sensed someone sitting next to her. She looked up to see Tytus holding out his hand to her. She took it gratefully and spent the rest of the flight holding his hand as if it were the only thing keeping her alive.