Chapter 7: Elena.
Tseng walked briskly through the parking lot. His footsteps echoed in the large empty space. The only other sound was the sound of tentative footsteps following him. Walking a few paces behind was a young woman. She was about a head and shoulders smaller than Tseng with blonde hair and brown eyes. Her eyes darted around as she struggled to take in every aspect of the surrounding area. She was desperately looking for a landmark, something of use, that would be of help to her if she was to ever come here on her own… to stop her from getting lost. This was the new rookie. Her name was Elena. As nervous as she was to be meeting her new co-workers, she was just as excited. She had been looking forward to this for a long time. It was finally her time to shine, her turn to show everyone she could do this just as well as her sister could. Quickly they walked up the stone steps to the infirmary wing. 'Thank goodness' Elena thought. They had walked a good distance from the training facility, located just a little bit away from the main building itself.
Stepping on to the infirmary corridor, Tseng paused. Elena wasn't really paying attention and almost walked into him.
"What's the matter?" she asked tentatively. Tseng turned around slowly
"Hmm?" he looked at the rookie. Noticing she looked a little worried he smiled warmly at her. She face flushed at the sight of his smile.
"What's wrong?" Tseng asked, turning around so that the young woman could compose herself once again
"Um… I-it's nothing… I j-just wondered why y-you had stopped. T-that's all…" she trailed off.
"… No reason." he replied. His answer was unconvincing but he hadn't wanted to tell her and so she held her tongue.
There was someone there, he could sense them. He shook his head slightly attempting to clear a feeling of unease that had risen in his chest and once again began to walk down the corridor. He raised his hand to the door knob and slowly turned it. Pushing the door open at an even pace he looked around the room. Finally his eyes rested on his two companions. Rude had once again taken out his book, but appeared to be taking very little interest in it. Whereas Reno; though awake; appeared to just be staring in the general direction of the window, his eyes clouded over, not actually taking anything in. Tseng ushered Elena into the room and closed the door with a snap. Both men jumped slightly, the action causing Reno to wince in pain.
"Dammit" he hissed. Their attention turned to the Wutain. Reno stared coldly at his boss, as if he was blaming Tseng for this pain, almost daring him to close the door loudly again.
"Nice to see your back with us, Reno." Tseng said warm-heartedly. His comment was replied to with a slight shrug of the shoulders as the red head's attention drifted elsewhere once again. Tseng was not put out by the red heads actions, on the contrary they were quite normal which in turn made him smile that little bit more.
"Anyway" he begun "This is the new rookie who will be standing in for you, Reno, whilst you are here. Her name is Elena" both men looked up. Rude was surprised, a woman. Though it wasn't unusual that women joined the ranks, it would feel strange being teamed with a woman, seeing as he had been teamed with a man for so long. Nonetheless, he gave Elena a courteous nod before going back to his book.
Elena was blushing, she had never been so embarrassed before this. She couldn't understand completely why she was embarrassed. There was really no reason to be, she was only meeting new team mates. But was that the only reason for this sudden embarrassment? Or was there something more? The more she thought about it, the more confused she became. She began looking around the room in an attempt to lessen the redness in her face. Something outside the window caught her attention. It happened only as her eyes drifted over the area surrounding the window, but for a brief second, she thought she could see someone staring right into the window. Looking for a second time she noticed whoever it was, was no longer there.
"What's up?" the soft voice of her supervisor came from behind her. She turned slowly to face him, not willing to take her eyes off of the window for fear that whoever it was that was outside of the window came back.
"It's nothing, just thought I saw something that's all… I'm just tired I guess…" she trailed off again. Something in Tseng's expression told her a different story.
"Uh… Sir?" Elena was looking worried, the colour raising in her face. Rude was looking up from his book. Reno was gazing over with obvious amusement, this, to him, could become some great blackmail material in the future.
"Hmm, oh its nothing." Tseng said quietly. A nurse walked into the room. Looking up she gasped;
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" all four pairs of eyes were on her. An uncomfortable silence fell over the entire room.
"Um… I-I need to check over him now." her head tilted in the direction of Reno. She opened her mouth as if to say something else
"Say no more." Tseng said calmly a gentle smile on his lips "We're just about to leave anyway." he subtly beckoned for the others to follow.
Rude prised himself up off of the chair. How long exactly had he been sitting there? He wondered to himself. The comfortableness of the chair was making him reluctant to move. Nonetheless he got up and walked out of the door.
Tseng and Elena walked a little ahead of Rude. It was almost completely silent, all that could be heard was their footsteps and; if you listened carefully enough; their breathing.
"The Ancient is safely locked away in the containment units in the science departments." Tseng spoke carefully to the newbie, perhaps he was also speaking to Rude, but he never noticed, his mind was elsewhere.
"Rude?… Hello?!" Tseng said
"Are you even listening?!" Tseng's voice was stern. Rude snapped suddenly out of his stupor.
"Huh?… oh, sorry." Rude mumbled quietly. Tseng shook his head slowly.
"Never mind, just listen. OK?" there was a small amount of annoyance in his superior's voice, but for some reason it seemed as if it was masking something else.
"There is no doubt that the one named 'Cloud' and the remaining members of the faction 'AVALANCHE' will want the Ancient back. We will have to keep a careful eye on her cell."
"Uh, sir. From what you have told me, surely there was no way that they could have gotten off of that tower alive." Rude exclaimed.
"They have been sighted at slum level." This shocked Rude. They were like cockroaches, almost impossible to kill and, what was worse, they always came back!.
The mission was an easy one. They had finished it quickly and was on their way back to HQ. Seated in the pilot's seat of yet another sleek unmarked helicopter, this time however it was in a shade of deep purple. Michiyo liked this copter. Not only because it was her favourite colour, but also because it was the helicopter she was trained in. she sat in silence staring out of the windscreen. Next to her was her partner. She too was looking out of the windscreen. She had shoulder length blond hair with blue and red streaks and blue eyes. She was also humming a little tune to herself.
"Rox, Could you please stop?" Michiyo asked quietly. Roxy just looked at her partner, somewhat confused.
"Stop what Mich?"
"Humming." Roxy had noticed that her partner wasn't quite right today. She had even pressed her for answers before the mission had even started, but Michiyo relinquished no answers which ultimately caused Roxy to give up.
"Will if you tell me what's up" she replied, sticking her tongue out at her stormy faced partner. Michiyo just sighed and continued looking out of the windscreen. She didn't even notice that her PHS was ringing.
"Uh, Mich?"
"What?!"
"Um... Your phone's ringing." Michiyo gave her partner a shaky smile and slid her PHS out of her pocket. She brought the phone up to eye level. It was Tseng's name on the little screen. Her heart was thumping. It no longer felt as though it was in her chest, rather it felt like it had travelled up to he throat. Taking a deep breath she answered it.
"Hello?" her voice quivered a little
"Ah, Michiyo, finally. Was about to call Roxy there to see if you were alive." his voice sounded a little lighter than it was before she had left of her mission.
"Anyway, I thought I would give you a status update, like I said I would"
