“24-42 not here again?” M42 checked his roll book. It was a week after his near-death experience at the hands of 24-42, and she was still hiding in her lodgings.
“No Sir.” Henna looked sadly at the seat next to her in the classroom. “I’ve checked on her every day, but she won’t come out.”
The members of Team B42 snickered.
“There’ll be none of that thank you.” M42 glared at them. He sighed inwardly. He’d never admit to it, but he was worried about 24-42. He knew about her temper, but had no idea how to help her quell it.
–
“Go and talk to her.”
“No.”
“NOW Major!”
“Captain, you’re pushing your luck.”
“Major!”
“Captain.”
“Look, you’re supposed to be our fearless leader!” Suzie groaned at M42 in his office after the lesson that day. “Plus I know you like her.”
“Like her Captain?” M42 looked amused.
“Major, I’ve known you for ten years. You rarely let anyone see you smile, and even I’ve never been in your lodgings!” Suzie glared at him.
“That would be because you, nor anyone else, has bothered to come over to my place and get to know me.” M42 pointed
“That’s…actually a good point.” Suzie realised mid-sentence. “Still-,”
Suzie was about to continue the argument when an alert came over the loudspeaker for Team A42.
“You are SO lucky.” Suzie growled as the pair grabbed their emergency kits and headed to the Mission Briefing Room.
“According to intel, those prisoners that B42 failed to rescue are being transported within the next five days. This is the perfect opportunity for a rescue.” C42 gave Team A42 the details.
“Hang on, aren’t we supposed to only be used in case of severe civilian risk?” Tytus asked. “Why are we doing rescue missions?”
“Because two of these prisoners are members of one of the Great Nations royal families, not that the enemy realises that. If they get harmed, then we’ll have a huge war on our hands. Ostraya isn’t in the position where we can participate in another World War, and if war breaks out and we hide, we could find ourselves in a fair bit of strife.” C42 explained.
“Ah.” Tytus shut up.
“So Enemy Nation 14 must be close to the Great Nations, if not one of the Great Nations.” Alexis whispered to Henna, earning herself a dirty look from M42.
“You know what to do. Get those prisoners out with as little mess as possible. You’ll have two contacts who will be responsible for getting the royals home after you rescue them. They’re from a group native to the area who have allied with us, so please try to be sensitive. They might prove to be violent against our enemies, if they attack then you are to withdraw immediately.” C42 told them.
“Yes Marm!” Everyone replied.
“Dismissed. Good luck team!” C42 nodded as they followed the red lights to their cargo plane. 24-42 took a seat far away from everyone else again, looking sad. The four other Experiments looked at each other, worried. M42 stared determinedly at the front of the plane and Suzie looked completely lost.
Team A42 doesn’t do plane trips well.
–
“Welcome to the lands that should be rightfully ours.” Was the welcome that Team A42 got when they arrived.
24-42 didn’t like the two men at all. Something about them made her skin crawl. One was blonde, short and bulky and the other had dark hair and was tall and bulky. Both wore smirks on their faces and were leering at the females.
“Keep them the hell away from me and the girls.” Alexis growled to Daniel.
“No problem.” Daniel didn’t like the look of them either.
“The girls and I.” Tytus corrected with a smirk, earning him a smack.
“We’re here to rescue our prisoners.” M42 said bluntly. He looked past the two men and saw two children. “Who are they?” He asked.
“Spies.” The blonde man said. “They’re the enemy, and we’ll dispose of them after we’re done here.”
The two children could barely be ten years old. 24-42 could feel her cold, sick anger coming back at her again. She tried to swallow it. She’d spent the last week curled up in bed, ashamed and embarrassed. She wanted to make up for her poor behaviour and hopefully conquer her fault once and for all.
“This way. We’ll show you the route where the prisoners will be transported.” The dark-haired man beckoned to them.
The group trooped through the dark of the night to a small country road surrounded by boulders and dead trees. 24-42 hung towards the back of the group, and started talking with the children.
“We’re not spies, honest.” The older boy said quietly. “We were just hungry.”
“Please don’t let them hurt us.” The younger girl begged.
“I’ll see what I can do, but no promises.” 24-42 patted their heads. She could clearly see that they were hungry, the poor things were nothing but skin and bone. “I have some apples in my kit if you guys would like one?”
The children couldn’t speak, but their eyes shone with gratitude as they devoured the apples.
“Making friends?” Henna looked back at the three.
“You know me, friendly as anything, wouldn’t hurt a fly.” 24-42 deadpanned, making the children giggle.
Henna smiled and gave 24-42 a small hip bump. 24-42 bumped her back as they approached the road.
“The convoy will be passing through here within 24 hours. Our scouts have indicated that the prisoners are on foot.” The blonde man said.
“You’d never fit any sort of vehicle through here.” Tytus looked at the road from one of the boulders.
“We’ll need to distract the enemy.” Henna looked around.
“Landslide?” Alexis suggested. “Would be pretty easy to do.”
“But we run the risk of harming the hostages.” Tytus pointed out.
“Can’t you guys just kill the guards and have it done with?!” The dark-haired man looked impatient.
“We’re to spill as little blood as possible. Last thing we need is an International incident.” M42 said. “In fact, the more we can make it look like an accident, the better.”
“Then the landslide is the best bet.” Daniel flew up to one of the boulders and had a look.
“If we can get this between the prisoners and the guards, we should be all clear.” He wobbled the boulder slightly.
“But there’s still a chance we could accidently harm the prisoners.” Henna pointed out.
Tytus was sitting by himself, thinking quietly. He stretched out his fingers in front of him. The goo that formed his Blasts began to work its way out of his fingers.
Slowly, he turned his hands outwards, away from himself. The goo began to spread in the air, hardening until it formed a shield.
“I think I might have the answer to that problem guys.” Tytus grinned at his own ingenuity.
–
Tytus, Daniel and Henna were dressed in rock-coloured clothing, ready to slide down with the rockslide. They were the only ones who had mastered the shield so far so they were going to roll down ahead of the landslide and protect the prisoners from the landslide.
24-42 was playing with the two children, helping them climb a tree.
“They’re the enemy, you’re not to fraternize with them.” The dark-haired man glared at her.
“They’re kids.” 24-42 scowled back.
“Their lives are over anyway.” The blonde man snapped.
Cold anger gripped 24-42 again. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask how quickly the men could get back to their own village and their children, but she forced herself to swallow it back. She couldn’t hurt innocent children, even if it would hurt these men more than anything.
She got up the tree with the children and watched the show. The convoy with the prisoners made its way up the narrow road, the prisoners all connected to each other with thick rope. The front guard stood well in front of them, but the rear guard was antagonising the prisoners at the back of the procession, which would make things difficult. The aim was to have minimal casualties after all.
“Hmmm. Hey, I have an idea!” 24-42 grinned. She turned to the two children. “You two can provide a distraction!”
“NO.” The blonde man growled.
“It could work, provided we kept the children tied together so they couldn’t escape.” M42 pointed out. “That way we could get our mission finished and you can keep your prisoners.”
“They’re CHILDREN!” Alexis snapped.
“That is none of our concern. We’re here for one reason and one reason only.” M42 looked coldly at the Experiment.
“Fine. I’ll bind the kids.” The dark-haired man grabbed a rope from his belt and stood under the tree.
“Bring the children down 24-42. Now.” M42 looked up the tree.
24-42 glared at him.
“I’m sorry guys.” She turned to the children and began to help them down the tree.
“No funny business!” The man called as the trio made it to terra firma. 24-42 scowled at him as he tied the two children together by their hands.
“You two are to run out to the guards at the back and distract them enough to get some distance between them and the prisoners, understood?” He barked at the children. They nodded, fearfully.
“Good luck guys.” Alexis patted their heads as they ran towards the guards.
“HELP! HELP!” The children cried as they approached the guards. “The enemy is after us!”
“What happened?” The guards stopped. “OI! You guys!”
The guards from the front of the convoy grabbed the prisoners and shoved them towards the wall of the valley. They then headed back to check on the kids.
“This is perfect! NOW!” Suzie flagged the landslide team, who pushed the first boulders down.
“SHIT!” One of the guards cried, leaping out of the way of the landslide. Tytus quickly leapt between the prisoners and the carnage, throwing up his shield as large loose rocks barrelled at him.
The whole landslide lasted about thirty seconds. Afterwards, the enemy guards took one look at the situation and fled, leaving the children unguarded.
24-42 saw an opportunity. She quickly flew down to the children and cut their bonds.
“Run! Now! While you have a chance!” She told them.
“Not so fast!” The two men ran towards them.
24-42 felt the rage overtake her. Suddenly instead of just emitting a red glow, she was bathed in red light, and her eyes shone bright red too. The two men suddenly backed away, and the two children stared at her, terrified.
“Wanna try me now?” 24-42 growled.
“STAND DOWN 24-42!” She heard M42 command.
24-42 was about to ignore him when she saw her team mates looking at her sympathetically. M42 looked at her coldly. Suddenly it dawned on her that her anger had taken over again. The red light disappeared, and 24-42 slumped to the ground.
“Nice try.” The blonde man spat at her as they walked back with the children in tow again. To illustrate his point, he made to hit her, but one growl from M42 made him change his mind.
“What on earth is going on here?!” One of the prisoners asked, rubbing his wrists where the shackles had been.
“You’re safe now.” Henna smiled at him.
24-42 watched as the two men led the poor children away. She’d never forget them.
“It’s hard. It sucks. But we have to do it.” M42 put his hand on her shoulder. “You should be proud of yourself, you managed to keep your temper this time.”
24-42 shrugged him off and stormed back to the plane. If she’d looked back, she would have seen one of the rescued prisoners yelling at the contacts telling them to treat the children better.
–
“You know why you’re here.” S42 looked at 24-42 sympathetically.
It was a week after the incident, and M42 had ordered 24-42 into counselling.
“Because of my anger issues.” 24-42 said quietly.
“Yes. Because not only do we not want you hurting anyone, we want you to stop hurting yourself.” S42 said.
24-42 looked at the doctor, and began to cry.
“I know you’ve had these issues since you were little and your parents abandoned you.” S42 said softly. “And you were moved from foster family to foster family.”
“Because of my stupid temper.” 24-42 sobbed.
“You were a child. A child who needed help that they never got. You can’t blame yourself.” S42 handed 24-42 a tissue box. “In fact, when you were in high school-,”
“We don’t talk about that. EVER.” 24-42 suddenly snapped.
S42 sighed.
–
Five weeks later, and S42 was beginning to have a bit more luck with 24-42. They had even finally talked about what had happened to 24-42 in high school, something that she still wasn’t comfortable with her team mates knowing.
“Not with what I did. Not yet.” 24-42 told S42.
“Well, you know I’m sworn to secrecy, so they won’t hear it from me.” S42 told her. “But you know M42 and H42 know.”
“I know. I just don’t know how to tell everyone.” 24-42 sighed.
“You’ll figure it out. You’re making a lot of progress.” S42 smiled, which made 24-42 feel better.
“It helps that everyone here is so nice to me.” 24-42 said to Henna as they walked back from the training grounds one day. She was glad that her fellow Experiments didn’t seem to hold it against her – in fact, it seemed that Tytus and Henna were determined to look out for her.
“We’re all here for our own reasons. I don’t think anyone is really in a position to judge.” Henna replied.
“Except that you support Crate Hill.”
“Bug off Experiment.”
The pair laughed.
“You wanna come over to play board games tonight?” Henna asked as they approached 24-42s lodgings.
“Nah, I have a date.” 24-42 grinned. Henna giggled.
Sure enough, that night, 24-42 fronted up to the Majors lodgings again. This time she had a side of roasted lamb with some vegetables. Hopefully he liked lamb.
Her breath caught slightly as she heard the door start to open.
“Hi…I made you a roast this time.” She offered the Major the steaming pot wrapped in a tea towel. “I’m sorry I attacked you, and I’m sorry I blabbed to everyone. I still want to get to know you because I think you’re a really interesting person.”
The Major raised an eyebrow.
“I also wanted to say thank you. For believing in me and ordering me into counselling.” 24-42 continued. She faltered. “I know I’ve been childish and quite frankly horrible but I do want to at least be friends…”
“Come on in.” M42 stood to the side while 24-42, grinning, walked inside.