Loser
When he learned of the results of Heath's mission, Ice knew that the rest of his day was going to suck. He knew he would have to make his way to the oldest meeting room, the one with shitty air conditioning, and sit around and listen to his boss praise Heath for about an hour. It wouldn't matter that without Lavana taking that ranger as hostage, Heath wouldn't have been able to use Ice's idea of a hostage situation. No, it only matted that he and Lavana had failed their missions and Heath had completed his.
Sinking his hands deeper into his pockets, Ice continued brooding to himself. Maybe if Kincaid had explained properly about the newest top ranger, he wouldn't have let his guard down. He would have sent out a stronger pokemon, something that made the loss of miniremo battery worth it. Then, he wouldn't have to keep relaying that girls stupid smug-
"Still pissed at losing that mission? I knew you were petty, Ice, but not that petty."
Ice rolled his eyes at his pink haired co-worker, "Still trying to tease me over a failure? I knew you were petty, Lavana, but not that petty." He retorted.
Lavana smiled, "No, no, I'll let Kincaid drag you today during the meeting, it's so fun seeing you two argue."
"Then maybe we should hurry up? The meeting's going to start in-" Ice glanced at his watch, "-twenty minutes, so…"
"Oh, so you'll fail a mission, but you'll make it to a boring meeting on time? Nice priorities" Lavana teased, but she sped her pace up with Ice nonetheless.
Thirty minutes later, Ice was sitting next to Lavana and across from Kincaid, waiting for his boss to come in. Blake Hall was always late to the meetings he planned, something about "making his subordinates respect the time in his presence" or something like that. The room was too warm for Ice's tastes, and it was enough for him to shrug off his coat and watch Lavana play some game on her phone. When he got bored of that he decided to bug Kincaid on his current favorite topic.
"Kincaid, when are you getting a smart phone?" he asked innocently.
Kincaid, used to hearing this jab simply responded with, "I am not wasting my money on a silly new phone when I do not need one." He grumped.
"I be thinking you need a newer phone, Kincaid," Heath suggested, "Then we can send you emojis."
Lavana laughed out loud, "Yeah! Then you can play games with me too!" she snickered.
Kincaid rolled his eyes, "For the millionth time, I don't care about emojis, and I am not spending even more money on some freemium game I'll get tired of in a few weeks!"
Ice was about to say something else, but the large doors opened, and the atmosphere instantly became serious.
Blake Hall strutted in, with the Wheeler following closely behind. "Apologies for being late, I had a public appearance I had to attend to." He stated simply, "Today I feel it is very necessary to discuss the Unions newest top ranger, Kate."
Wheeler took his bosses pause as a time to begin talking, "I agree very much boss! If we are able to combine our respective information on this ranger, we may be able to find a weakness! Kincaid I suggest you start us off as you have know her the longest!"
Blake smirked, "Took the words out of my mouth Wheeler," he turned to Kincaid "You heard him Kincaid; get this meeting started would you?"
"Certainly." Kincaid smiled smugly and made his way to the front of the room. "Miss Kate Harris is currently 17 years old and has a twin brother, Kellyn, and a younger sister, Kayla. She enrolled into the Ranger Academy at the age of 13, with one of the highest entrance exam scores ever seen." He paused and surveyed the room, "Ten minutes later, I had her suspended for blowing up her styler."
"How did she blow her styler up? The pokemon there aren't that tough are they?" Ice questioned.
"You are correct Ice. Kate had managed to blow up her styler because she wanted to take it apart to 'see how it works'."
"So this would mean that she, at this point in time, would be ale it put her styler back together if it was broken?" questioned Ice.
Blake interjected "I would think so. Even if Top Stylers are more complex, she has had time to figure it out. That just makes her more dangerous." He mused, "Continue Kincaid."
"I have nothing else to say beside the fact she had detention constantly, due to the fact that she ignored the rules constantly."
"Oh Yes! Kate ignored what that Keith was saying to get the yellow gem back!" Heath shouted.
"Maybe this means that she will do what she has to do to get something done?" Wheeler guessed, looking up at his boss for an answer.
Lavana smirked, "I can relate to that. About the only thing I can relate to with that ranger."
Blake blinked, "What do you mean Lavana?"
"Simple. A lady who can't appreciate another lady's make up will always have something…sloppy about her, so to speak." Lavana stated simply, "Never had liked that brat, and I never will." She muttered, picking at her nail polish.
"Interesting point Lavana, if Miss Kate doesn't pay attention, then she won't be able to figure out our plan in time" Kincaid smirked. "And who knows, maybe she can actually learn something for once in her miserable life."
"I disagree Kincaid."
Every head in the meetin room turned to face Ice, who had remained silent for a majority of the meeting. "Elaborate, Ice" Blake said.
"In the castle, Kate had seen the two riolu statue, and to her that must have meant that to break the barrier, she needed to capture two of them. She was able to capture them before my men could. I believe that this means that she is able to observe her surroundings carefully, before taking any action." Ice paused for a moment and continued. "This is also shown when she picked apart her styler. At this point she can probably understand all of the major points and importance of any and all stylers, meaning she would be able to pick up on many of the important aspects of our plan quicker than we may have originally believed."
The room was silent when Ice was done with his assessment. Blake's watch broke the silence with a soft beeping, and Blake snapped his workers out of their stupor. "Those are some excellent points Ice, Wheeler get out your notebook, but since our time is running short, I need everyone to give me a summary of what they know of Kate Harris."
Kincaid was the first to speak up "She is close to her family, and has a knack for mechanics. She's stronger than originally believed to be."
Lavana with a bite in her tone said, "She's messy and annoying and I will beat her to the ground next time I see her smug ass face"
Heath, almost shyly said, "She seems to be smart. I thinks that we should worry about her."
Ice coolly replied to his boss with, "She was a good fight."
Kincaid seemed to laugh at him for a second. "That's it? You talk about her for ten solid minutes and that's all you can say about her? Come on Ice, let us know how you really feel."
Ice felt his face go warm for a moment, for reasons he didn't know why. Turning away from Kincaid, he stood up and simply left the meeting room.
Behind him he heard, "Ice dude, he was just playing" "Did I strike a nerve? Oops!" "Yikes, I didn't know Ice was such a sore loser."
Loser. Loser. Loser. It was all her fault that he hated that word now and he couldn't help but think about the time she beat him
"Damn, noob." He couldn't help but mutter, looking up to glare at the woman who had just defeated him. The brunette has a grin, not unlike one you would normally see on him and simply said, "Well, if I'm a noob, I guess that makes you a loser, huh?"
Ice scowled, "Can it, Kate-noob, just because you defeated me, doesn't mean you beat the guardian behind me."
Kate laughed, "Actually, Ice-loser, I think that's exactly what it means! Now if you'll excuse me, I have a mission to do."
"What about me?" Ice asked, confusedly at the rookie.
She blinked at him slowly, "Oh arresting you? I'm wiping my hands off that. After all your minremo is broken yeah? What more trouble can you cause?"
Ice was surprised he got an actual answer out of the ranger so he just shrugged. "Exactly," Kate nodded, "Now, if you're still here when I'm done with the guardian, I'm arresting your sorry ass, got it?" Ice nodded and watched the ranger break the barrier turned around for a moment, looked him dead in the eyes, and smirked at him.
Ice knew why he wanted to face that ranger again. It was because he needed to prove to her that he was strong too. And he could only do that if he defeated her the next time they battled. It irked him that he wanted to impress the ranger so much, he was a Dim Sun admin; he shouldn't be worrying about what some ranger thought of him. But when he slunk into bed for a midday nap he couldn't help but replay that girl's smug, cute, smirk until he fell asleep.