And here's the next chapter - dedicated to the one reviewee Star Twilight Akazura Hedgehog who is much of the awesome, as they say.
Read on, my friends!
Chapter Two:
The Situation and the Fallout
~~**~~
Unfortunately for them…the last mission had not gone well…
Number One was angry. Definitely angry. On a scale of one to ten he was probably hitting the thirty four mark. Number Five fidgeted where she sat with her rather singed hat, fingering the various burn marks, rips and tears in her blue tunic dress. Number Two adjusted what remained of his flight cap, his shirt and blazer in tatters and still smoking in patches. He sat next to Number Five, his hands fidgeting like hers. Brown hair flopping in front of his eyes, Hoagie looked half his age, with an expression of extreme repentance on his face. Five and Two had both been within about seventy metres of the blast radius, getting small fires, large boulders and pieces of masonry thrown at them at thirty to seventy miles per hour. Hence the appalling state of their uniforms.
Number One had been co-ordinating back at the temporary base, running the communication lines. Hence why he was still clean and undamaged.
Number Three shifted in her seat, her dress only minorly damaged. Her insistence on wearing the new body armour had paid off and she had been the furthest from the blast radius, catching essentially hot air, small rocks and splinters. She had tried to entice Number Five into a discussion about some new soap on the TV and then some Rainbow Monkeys but she had been quelled quickly by Number One, who had glared her into submissive silence.
Number Four…Number Four was standing between Kuki's and Number Five's chairs, more forward than them by half a pace. In front of One's desk, he stood with his head down, his blond hair dirty with ash and dust, his hands folded behind his back, knuckles white due to his clenching of his hands. His blue jeans were literally rags hanging off his waist, his black boxers visible, holed and burned from the petroleum seeping through the remains of his jeans. His vivid orange hoodie or what remained of it was placed on the desk, the few shreds he could salvage anyway. His black t-shirt hung from one shoulder, the rest just hanging in strips, fluttering in the breeze from the fan in the corner, the smell of burning flesh still ripe around him. His chest was heavily burnt on one side; the white skin marred by dark reddish brown singed skin around a more serious burn which had been hastily covered with a field bandage before he had been flown home; more bandages littered his body, including over one eye. All field medical measures, administered by Number Three on the plane home. He didn't move.
"So…" Number One's rather menacing tones echoed around his study. He was sat behind his desk, his hands neatly folded, his eyes secured behind his sunglasses. "So..." His expression could have killed them stone cold dead.
"Umm..." Number Two's rather lame attempt to say something was ignored by Number One.
"So. A simple mission. One which we should have been able to accomplish for certain, given our skills and experience. The mission statement was rather specific in that respect I believe. Oh yes... ", Number One picked up the sheet of paper containing their mission detail. He read out the mission statement. "Agents are to gain entry to Pierre De Luc's manor home, located in the South of France, using the minimal amount of force. Agents will gain entry to the property, locate the main computer of the house and using the HACKER AND CRACKER device, they will download the entire hard drive. Agents will investigate any other computer equipment they find, and where possible download the contents using the HACKER AND CRACKER device. Agents will also investigate the possibility of suspected armouries, and the garages for possible weapons and vehicles to aid subsequent investigations/operations. Agents will also find and retrieve the Milson Diamonds and retain them for delivery to TOTR officials..." Now where is it...oh yes, "They will NOT be noticed, they will NOT leave any traces behind and they will NOT cause any damage to the property. They WILL retrieve the information..." I think you get the picture, don't you?"
"Yes, Number One." The four of them chorused. It was rare that the boy in front of them hauled them up like this, but then again, they had failed miserably.
"Is it a simple mission in comparison to say...The Paris Suicide Bombers of '07?"
"Yes, Number One?"
"Is it a harder mission than the Amazonia Jungle Illegal Smuggling Crackdowns?"
"No, Number One."
"Is it...more complicated that the eighteen week O Fastinu Mission in Rome?"
"No, Number One."
"So why pray tell, did you fail so badly on this mission, this apparently easy mission?" Number One's voice was deceptively calm. "Pray explain to me how my operatives ended up almost being killed in the line of duty, due to their own stupidity and why is the house that was to remain almost untouched now reduced to a pile of rubble and a big hole in the ground?"
"It was...my fault, Number One." Number Four's voice was hesitant and low, but determined.
"Your fault, Number Four? Perhaps you'd like to tell me how it was so..."
"I didn't tell everyone about the bomb until it was too late-"
"Why?"
"Because...I thought...I could...handle..."
"You thought you could handle it? Is that right?"
"Yeah. I've done bombs before-"
"And did it never occur to you, that the man whose house you were going into, makes bombs for a living. That he has more than forty years in the making of bombs and you have exactly four?!"
"I thought-"
"You did not think. You just did." Number One's hands slammed down on the desk as he stood up. "You thought you would collect a few more respect points and make yourself a hero, because you wouldn't call it a day when you discovered it! You didn't radio it back to anyone, you just carried blithely on! You had no comprehension of the possible triggers and traps that that man could have put into that bomb! Forty three bars of plastic explosive in that one area alone, and another eight hundred scattered around the house, and you didn't think to radio it back in! You could have killed someone!"
Number Four said nothing, his head bowed. He knew full well what he had done.
"However...The blame does not solely rest on your shoulders." He glanced at Number Three. "The bomb was triggered from not your meddling directly, but when the hole in the fence was detected by the fifteen minute sweep, which triggered the checks of the bombs which you alerted by your fiddling. Coincidently, it was the hole we made to gain entry to the property. You, Number Three, should have been running the program, constantly checking for blips and irregularities which would precede the routine sweep of the electric fences to warn the operatives. Can you tell me why you weren't doing that?"
"I was..."
"You were?" His tone personified the idea of NO MERCY.
"I was...collecting daisy chains outside the shuttle, Number One." Her cheeks were red with shame.
"I see. Not running the program?"
"No."
"Not monitoring the security systems?"
"No, Number One."
"So you did not do one of your assigned duties, Number Three?"
"I did for a few minutes but then it got boring-"
"It. Got. Boring?" Nigel's face was livid. Absolutely, Honest To God Livid. "You abandoned your assigned post because it got boring?! Do you have any idea how much danger you put our operatives in, Kuki Sanban? You were monitoring the driveway, which no-one else could see or, at least you were meant to be! He could have driven back at any time, and you wouldn't have noticed because you were too damn busy picking flowers for stupid adornments! This is a man who creates and detonates bombs that kill hundreds upon thousands at a time! He could and would have massacred Two, Four and Five if he had caught them inside his house, which he could have because they would have had no prior warning to get the hell out of the house because you weren't smart enough to watch the monitors!"
"I'm-"
"What? You're sorry?" Number One sneered, "Sorry wouldn't have cut it if you were being hauled up for negligence of duties whilst in Operation or even on a charge of "Negligence of duties, resulting in the murder of three operatives!" He slammed his hands down again, "This is not the KND anymore, Kuki! Spanking is not the worse that villains can now dish out! He could have quite happily slit the throats of your fellow operatives! A spanking will heal in time, and we have a medi-bay that can cope with the influx of over teeth cleaning. We cannot resurrect the dead! We cannot repair that damage and you could have been the cause of three cases of it! It would have been on your shoulders if it had happened!" He sat down again, his hands returning to their previous position of being folded in front of his face. "...Once again however, the fault does not lay entirely on you. Number Two?"
"I failed to perform a complete analysis of the safety features through my own negligence and compounded this by not bring the right tools with me on the actual assignment. Therefore I wasted valuable time and may have tripped part of the security system which resulted in injury of my fellow operative Number Five." Not quite short and sweet but the honesty earned him a lesser glare from Number One and a slightly less abrasive tone of voice.
"I see you've already inventoried your faults, Number Two. Thank you for your honesty as well. And, you should have. But again, the blame does not lie entirely on your shoulders." Nigel turned to glare at the last person in the room. "Number Five?"
"I...I failed to perform as en-mission leader. I did not incite or enforce the practises I should have and as such it resulted in a large amount of damage to property and operatives." Never let it be said that Abby Lincoln was a slow learner; she had seen the lesser hauling over the coals Number Two had gotten for his honesty and had jumped right on that band wagon.
"So you do acknowledge it. And here was I thinking I'd have to drag it out of you. Congratulations Number Five." Number One's voice was like with Hoagie's strip down, one degree above freezing unlike the absolute Zero it had been with Three and Four. "So, I take we have now acknowledged our failings and shortcomings for this mission, am I correct?"
"Yes, Number One."
"There are several things I have to say....I am disappointed. This behaviour for this mission was like first timers. It was that bad. I am ashamed to have admitted it but it's true. We are the highest ranking operatives in the TOTR Command, I should not be dealing with you like this. However..." He stretched out the word, "Since the mission was technically successful, I will not be submitting the requisite forms to Command. I will however be dishing out punishments that you well deserve for what you did!"
Number Five saw Four cringe out of the corner of her eye. But she quickly refocused her attention back on One as he stood up. "Number Three? You will be restricted to the Tree House, only leaving to go to school. You will attend your bi-weekly cheerleading practise but you will return straight home at the Tree House. You will draw up a cleaning roster for you, Two and Five to do; which will involve the cleaning of all the main stairways, hallways, landings, and common rooms. You will show it to me at nine o'clock tomorrow morning and it will be enacted for three weeks."
"Yes, Number One."
"Number Two, you will perform system maintenance every day-"
"But Nigel! That takes hours!"
"Then maybe you can take those hours and reflect on what you did not do! You will also be restricted to base outside of school, and your science tutoring sessions. You will perform inventory of the equipment and vehicles and every damn file and document we have until I say to stop. You will take your part in the cleaning roster for all three weeks, or until I am satisfied with you. Am I clear?"
"Yes Number One."
"Number Five, you will be restricted to the Tree House. You will be filing the forms for this assignment, delivering the jewels back to the Lunar Station, and you will then be on Cam Duty-"
"Nothing ever happens on Cam Duty, Nigel!"
"Then maybe you can take the time to reflect on your poor actions during this mission, and then contemplate how you would correct them. You will attend your....'sessions' with the junior members but you will be otherwise restricted back to the school and the Tree House. You will help with the cleaning roster, and you will not EVER disobey me like that again. Am I clear?" Number One's expression didn't brook a "No."
"Yes, Number One." Number Five breathed a sigh of relief as Number One's attention left her, and she leaned back in her seat, her adrenaline pumping. She was glad, because she knew damn well she could have gotten worse. Number Five could have been stripped of a rank, sent out of patrol duty and since it was boiling hot and muggy, it would have been hellishly boring and sweaty work. But now?
Now it was Number Four's turn to face the music and receive punishment; and he knew it.
"Number Four...In light of your extreme negligence in informing others of the bomb, and your...actions in helping cause the explosion, I feel that you should receive a different punishment, since it was your actions that started the sequence of events." Number One placed his hands flat on the desk. "You will go to your room, and you will find every item of electronic entertainment you own in your rooms. Television, X-Box, Playstations, GameBoys, right down mp3s and iPods, along with the games and cartridges. You will disconnect them from their cables and you will not leave the cables in the vault. You will load the devices onto a hovercart and place them downstairs in the Vaults. Your laptop and mobiles will be brought to my office, and you will leave them, along with the cables and your vaults keys, in my office. Only under my supervision will you be allowed access to your laptop. You will not be allowed to use the television in the main room unless under my supervision, and you will not attempt to gain access to anyone else's electronics. Am I clear?"
"Yeah."
"In addition to that, you will spend the next three weeks, after school, being confined to the Tree House. No meeting with your trainees for three weeks. Send them on...I don't know...a three week mission to the Andes. Just not near you. You will clean your room since it is an absolute pigsty and you will then be set on cooking duty-"
"Number One! I hate cooking!"
"And yet you are good at it. It is a shame to waste that gift. I think for tonight however, Kuki and Number Two can cook, because you will be using the cookbooks from the kitchen and constructing menus for the next three weeks. I want them on my desk by tomorrow morning, at seven, and you will start with breakfast tomorrow. You will not be going on missions anyway, with your...injuries," Number One's eyes drifted up and down Number Four's body. Indeed, Number Four would not be going anywhere with those injuries. "You will however, start on the Science Project you are behind on, continue with your Languages Assignment which I know is already late, and you will do some more work on your history essay. I have already seen it. It needs improving and as you are confined to the Tree House as off three thirty every school day and all day on weekends for the next three weeks, I think you should have plenty of time to do so."
"Number One!" Number Four looked set to demand a rematch, until One narrowed his eyes at Four and then he went, "–Oh fine..."
"Number Five, dismissed."
"Yes, Number One." Number Five stood up, her dress shedding little bits of burnt fabric as she moved.
"Number Two, you will start on that system maintenance tomorrow morning. Dismissed."
"Yes, Number One." Number Two left the room, and closed the door behind him.
"Number Three, I do not ever expect you to desert your post like that again. Should you do so, you will be facing a disciplinary hearing. I will not tell you again, am I clear Three?"
"Yes, Number One."
"Good. Dismissed, Three."
And finally, it was just Number Four left.
And that's it for this chapter~
Quick review reply -
Star Twilight Akazura Hedgehog - Thanks for reviewing and I love Nigel/Wally too~ It's an adorable pairing but it can also be awesomely hot and smexy! All you could want from a pairing, in my opinion.
Please review and I'll catch you later!