A/N: Hey, Readers! Long time no see...my fault, of course. Hopefully, this chapter makes up for my long absence! I hope you guys enjoy it!

Thanks so much for your support! I go to cloud 9 every time I'm alerted that someone has commented or added this to his or her favourite/alert list! Really, it's an ego boost (I don't feel like such a terrible writer when it happens! lol).

So onward with the story!

Katie yawned openly as she walked into the meeting room. Filling out those forms kept her at work for longer than she expected last night. Hours of complete boredom almost drove her to insanity.

Luckily, she kept herself moderately entertained by snooping around her co-workers' desks. Katie couldn't help it, she was naturally inquisitive. She didn't go as far as looking into their drawers, she just went through the things on their desks, just to get a feel of who she was working with. She was pleasantly surprised that her brother had a picture of their family on his desk; while considerably dated, it was still touching. When she reached her partner's desk, purposely leaving it for last, Katie was highly disappointed. The man kept absolutely no personal belongings on his desk. Apart from the desktop and pencil holder, not even a dust particle could be found. Katie figured as much. James was as dry as sandpaper, a person with absolutely no personality, except his propensity to rile her up at every given opportunity.

She sighed, flopping down into a vacant seat. "Morning."

Everyone else returned her sentiments albeit in much better spirits. They had managed to enjoy the night off.

Katie pouted, but quickly perked up when she spotted something of interest. "Oh my god, Lucy! I love what you've done with your hair. It's so cool."

Lucy instinctually grabbed at her hair. She modestly smiled at Katie. "You think? I don't know, I just felt like doing something crazy. I went in for a haircut, and came out with this."

"Are you kidding? The black and red really suits you," Jo piped in, slightly envious that her partner could pull off such a chic look by her tone. "It's so badass. You have to give me your stylist's number, in case I ever want to do something like this." She reached over and played with some of Lucy's newly coloured strands of hair.

During the whole conversation, Carlos had paused mid-way of taking a sip of his cola despite the early hour. "So, that's what it's like to be a girl. My god, every stupid little thing is fascinating to you guys." He shook his head before taking a gulp. He put down his drink and pretended to to twirl imaginary hair and in a falsetto said, "Oh, look at me. I'm so pretty with my new hair. La da di. La di da."

Kendall and Logan choked on their coffee, laughing at their friend's impression.

Katie smirked. She focussed her energy on the guys' drinks. She watched as they picked up their cups and cans and grinned when they were confused at their now solid beverages.

Cluing into what happened, they all turned to her. "Katie!"

Not yet satisfied with her revenge, she created a small spark at the top of each drink, causing the guys to yelp and toss their drinks from their bodies.

Lucy and Jo laughed, high-fiving each other.

"That's enough. Your abilities aren't for you to abuse your unit with. That's your first warning," James' mechanical voice pierced the air. He had walked into the room without any of the occupants noticing. Cam trailed in after him. She gave a small wave at Logan before joining Katie on her side of the large desk.

Katie bit her lip to keep quiet. She was getting tired of James berating her in front of the group, but unlike him, she had the decency to wait until they were alone to confront him.

Kendall grumbled as he went to scoop up the remains of his mug, "Told you she'd get back at us. Now look, we have to get new mugs." He looked down at his shirt and realized that somehow the frozen coffee still managed to stain it. "Seriously? That's it, I'm making all my dry-cleaning bills company expenses." He sat down in frustration, poking at the light brown stain.

James stood at the end of the table peering down at everyone. "I expect all of you to be well-rested, we've got a lot of shit to cover today. In just a few moments, Gustavo is going to bring in the SF unit. While they are here, we are to work in harmony with them, no matter how immature or irritating they can get."

Katie swore his eyes flashed to her for a second.

"If they need access to information, give it to them, however, like I said yesterday, we are taking lead in this operation. If they say otherwise, come straight to me. Cam, they should also have access to our weapons, however use your own discretion as to what is needed and what is completely unnecessary."

The group smirked at each other. They knew that the San Francisco division would be very impressed with Cam's gadgets, and will most likely want to use her inventions, but seeing as they were all highly competitive, they wanted to see how the other team would fare using standardize weapons.

"Any questions?" James asked. "Good," he replied to the silence. He moved to take his seat at the opposite end of the table, waiting for Gustavo to bring in the other division.

They didn't have to wait long as Gustavo promptly walked in with tow of people, including Jett Stetson. However, the guys were looking at the blonde woman standing beside Gustavo in towering heels. Her nose tilted up as she scanned the room with her squinted eyes. She looked at each person surrounding the desk with contempt, only giving a hint of a smile when she landed on Logan.

Cam pierced her lips, spotting the instant rival.

"Alright team, I have here with me the unit of the San Francisco division, or part of it. This, uh, young woman beside me is the SF manager, Mercedes Griffin. She −"

Mercedes interrupted. "That's right. Griffin, as in your boss' daughter. What I say, goes, understood? This is my team, Jett, GD, and the twins: Mandy and Sandy. I expect full co-operation from your unit. Since Gabriel and Damien have been our targets for a while now, we will have full participation in this hunt, and because of our expertise, we will be leading this operation."

James held up a hand, halting the blonde woman mid-speech, surprising her. "Hold on a moment. As I told your unpleasant companion yesterday, we will be taking lead in this hunt. You are in our district, therefore you have to comply to our rules. I don't give a fuck if you are Griffin's daughter or not. It's our territorial domain. You can take it or leave it. Also, Stetson here was quick to remind us that you have been tracking Damien and Gabriel for over a decade, needless to say, I think your definition of 'expertise' needs to be reworded."

Katie ducked her head, grinning into her chest. As much as she disliked her partner's attitude towards her, she found it quite amusing when his blunt form of speech knocked someone else off their feet.

Jett leaned in towards Mercedes who was now white with anger. "I told you he was an asshole."

"Just exactly who do you think you are, talking to me that way. My father −"

"Your father will be glad for it. He's well aware that we are the best damn unit in his corporation. I don't even think that playing the 'daddy card' will let you get your way. It's our operation, however, because we are of the same mindset, you can expect full co-operation from our side," James added, ignoring Mercedes exaggerated gasps.

Carlos decided to chime in. "Um, Miss. Griffin," he paused, "well, that was a weird thing to say, anyway, I think it's safe to say that both units want our hands on Damien and Gabriel, but just to warn you, I've known James here for quite a while, and he's just one of those people who always gets his way."

Katie snorted, "I can totally vouch for that."

James threw her a dirty look from across the expansive table, hearing her comment.

"Miss. Griffin," Logan decided to add.

"Mercedes," the blonde woman flashed a dimpled smile at the man.

"Mercedes," Logan started again, more hesitantly, "You've got to understand, logically speaking, it just wouldn't be effective or efficient for your team to start running orders around here. We have a system in place, and it would make more sense for your unit to integrate into our established arrangements."

Mercedes stared at him for minute. "You're lucky you're cute." She turned to James and the rest of the L.A. unit, "Okay, we'll do it your way. For now. But the second that you guys screw up, I'm taking over this operation. With or without daddy's consent. It's not about who gets credit for getting Damien and Gabriel, but that we finally get them. My guys will listen to your instructions so long as it's reasonable."

Just as she finished speaking, Katie's phone began to vibrate loudly on the table. She quickly lifted it up to check the caller. "Hey, it's Tyler. I have to take this." She quickly darted out of the room, nearly toppling Mercedes over in her hurry.

Mercedes rolled her eyes. "Rude, much?"

Katie tossed her the finger as she lifted the phone to her ear. She really didn't care about impressing the tart woman. As far as she was concerned, she already had to put up with James, she didn't need anyone else to chastise her for every little thing.

"Hey, Tyler. You got something for me?" Katie listened as her friend spewed information at her. "That's so great, Ty. I owe you one. I'll meet you outside my building in fifteen. No, Tyler, my brother won't be joining us, so you can unwad those twisted panties of yours," she smirked, hanging up. Sometimes, it simply amused her at how easily intimidated her friend could be.

She walked back into the room only to find everyone staring at her. "What?"

Mercedes gave her a pointed look over crossed arms. "Well, what did your lackey say? Are you getting an informant?"

Katie assumed that someone on her team had caught up the SF unit.

"First, he's not my lackey, he's a friend. Secondly, I don't have to report to you. Third, Your roots are showing, like real bad, you might want to hit up a salon or something, and fourth, yes, Tyler has found someone that we could potentially get information from."

Mercedes scowled, ready to backlash at Katie's insubordination.

James spoke before she could utter a word. "Where and when do we meet them?"

"Tyler's on his way. We need him to introduce us, so basically, right now." Katie turned to look at Logan. "Are you coming with us?" She figured that he would want to go out in the field with her and James to immediately start mapping if they got that far.

Logan nodded, "Yeah, totally."

Mercedes perked up. "Great, I'll come with you."

James vehemently denied her. "No. You need to stay at base so that Kendall and Carlos can update you with what we have and vice versa."

"But, Jett and GD can do that."

Kendall snorted. "Yeah, I really don't think that he's going to want to do that. Aren't I right, Jetty-boy?"

"I told you never to call me that!" Jett hissed. "He's right, though. I never want to work with him."

Katie raised an eyebrow at her brother. Clearly, he had been leaving out some information concerning the other unit. Kendall returned her look with one of his own. She shrugged, knowing that she would get it out of him later when he will most likely try to get her to spill about Dak.

Mercedes stared at her partner. "Fine. I'll stay here. You can tell me what happens later, Logie." She smiled flirtatiously at Logan.

"Uh, he can't!" Cam piped in, startling everyone with her sheer volume. "It's just...I need to go over some new tech stuff with him when he gets back. Yeah, I need to tell him how to operate the new Sosta-P4500 program so that it syncs with all current team gear." Cam babbled.

Katie spotted Carlos looking over at Lucy and mouthing, 'What?' in absolute confusion. Lucy shrugged, having no idea herself.

Logan stared at Cam. "O-okay. Yeah, I'll do that." Katie could tell by the tone of his voice that he too had no idea what Cam was talking about.

Cam smiled sweetly at Mercedes. "Sorry, looks like you'll have to be updated by James or Katie."

Mercedes looked at the aforementioned and said unenthusiastically, "Great."

"Okay," Gustavo boomed. "Looks like we have introductions over with, so let's get on with the day, shall we?" He looked at the team, then left without saying another word.

Kendall stood up and walked over to the man dubbed GD and the twins. "Hey, I'm Kendall. If you guys want, there's a spare meeting room that you guys can set up your stuff. It's used for storage, so mind the boxes."

"Awesome. Thanks, man." GD stuck out his hand. "The name's GD. Stands for Guitar Dude. Yeah, before I encountered my first demon, I was part of a band. But man, when I killed, it was like 'whoa,' you know? You just know that's what you're meant for, you know?"

Kendall shook his head with his face scrunched up. "No. No, not really."

"Okay, well, as much as I'd like to stay and watch you puzzle that one over," Katie clapped her hands, "we have a redhead to pick up. Let's go." Katie pointed to the door with her thumbs, looking directly at James and Logan before leaving the room herself.

The guys looked at each other and followed the teenager out of the room.

"So you have someone for us?" Katie asked over her shoulder as she, Logan, James, and Tyler sat in the car.

Tyler nodded. "Yeah. She's a little out there, but perfectly friendly. People don't usually talk to her."

Logan looked over at Tyler who was sitting next to him. "Why not? It just doesn't really make sense that she's a friendly person living underground."

Tyler shrugged. "She kinda has this thing...it's just that she has this tendency to destroy things once she touches it. It's really weird. I know this is going to sound stupid, but it's like she has this...supernatural ability."

Katie glanced over at James who continued to drive in silence. Logan coughed into a fist. The girl's destructive nature sounded very similar to stories about people who didn't know that they were Dormants or Craft Users. As having a craft was genetic, the likelihood that parents were Dormants and transferred the trait to their children unbeknownst that they even had a craft. However, most Dormants and family are kept under surveillance by GC, in case anything like this happened so that they could prepare them, for training or otherwise. It was rarely that someone would slip pass the radar of GC.

"I know," Tyler chuckled. "Like I said, it's stupid. But, anyway, there was this incident that caused her to retreat to the underground. She's afraid that if she returns to our society, other bad things would happen. This would probably make more sense if you guys knew the whole story, but's it's not mine to tell. I'll let you guys talk to her, maybe she'll be willing to tell you. Oh, that reminds me. We're actually going to the underground dwelling. There will be a lot of people who won't accept you in their domain, so don't take too much offence with the cold-shoulder treatment. It took me awhile before they let me in." He looked out the window, "We should be there soon."

Katie turned slightly to speak over her shoulder. "So, your person is okay with leading us around down there?"

Tyler shrugged. "Should be. I think she wants to see what kind of people you guys are, first."

Katie turned around and stared straight ahead. "As long as this one," she tilted her head towards James, "doesn't speak, we should be good. Heaven knows what kind of offensive remark he will make about her. And don't even say otherwise," she held up a hand to stop James from replying. "You were born without the courtesy gene."

"Just like you were born without an intellectual gene?" James slipped in, turning a corner.

Katie dropped her jaw. "Well...you're a big asshole!"

James smirked. "Clever. Your lack of sophisticated comebacks reiterates my point. If you're going to choose to insult me, at least let the material mask your stupidity."

Before Katie could retort she heard Tyler whisper to Logan. "Are they always like this?"

To which Logan replied, "You have no idea."

Katie scowled, crossing her arms. She glanced over at James and spotted something. "Well, I may be stupid, but at least my fly isn't down. Careful now, keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road. Wouldn't want to get into a car crash now, would we?" She knew that she had him cornered. James clearly wanted to check if what she said was true, but didn't want to let her get a word in about easily she could manipulate him. Instead, he opted to grip the steering wheel tighter so that his knuckles turned white.

Katie smirked, score one for her.

A/N: I have to admit, writing all the Jatie interactions in this story amuses me to no end. They are just so fun to play around with. Actually, all the characters are pretty fun to write.

So, hopefully this chapter was satisfying. I'll try to get the next one up soon so you guys don't have to wait so long between updates (I swear I'm not a sadist, and I don't take pleasure in torturing anyone with waiting periods).

Please leave a review! I LOVE hearing your thoughts on this story (or any of my stories, really). Once again, all of your reactions are priceless to me.

Love,

Dawnindanite

P.S. Happy Canada Day, fellow Canadians, and Happy Early Independence Day to my American readers!