A/N: I hope that everyone likes this chapter! Not much else to say really…OH! I do have a blog, and I'm thinking about posting an entry going through the songs that I'm using as titles and whatnot for my titles. Any interest in that?
Bang. Bang. Bang Bang. Bang. Bang Bang Bang.
Imogen was down in the shooting range, practicing her aim. She knew that she could hit someone; but she needed to improve so that she would never ever miss. Shaking out her hair, she prepared for the next round of shots.
Bang. Bang Bang. Bang. Bang Bang.
"Aim a little more to the left," a voice said.
Imogen whirled around, startled by the voice.
"Seems like I found your weakness," Birkhoff said calmly, leaning against the wall.
"Yeah, yeah whatever. I could have SHOT you, asshole," she snapped, taking off her safety glasses.
"Nah, you wouldn't have shot me…Immy," he replied, smirking.
"Don't CALL me that!" she said, getting a little angry.
Birkhoff just smiled at her, proud that he had found a way to push her buttons. Imogen just got even more frustrated and left the shooting range, leaving Birkhoff there alone.
"…What we like to call grace under fire," said Michael as Imogen slipped into the class.
He looked at her and shook his head just a little bit, barely noticeable, but kept on talking. Imogen watched him and made it look like she was listening, but she really wasn't paying too much attention.
"There's a bomb under this car. You have thirty seconds," he said. "Who wants to go first?"
Imogen saw a girl, Jaden, stand at the front of the group and stick her hand in the air.
"…Alex you're up," Michael said, looking straight past Jaden.
Alex looked like she was cursing in her head, she obviously didn't want to go, and though Imogen could not see Jaden's face, she seemed extremely annoyed.
Seems like they're rivals. I wonder… Imogen thought to herself.
She wasn't sure when it started, but suddenly Alex started screaming underneath the car. Thom, who was standing right next to Imogen, rushed forwards and grabbed Alex's legs, pulling her out from under the car.
And they're going to get together…soon. Imogen couldn't help but laugh a little in her head, but stopped when she saw Michael and Amanda talking. She didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention to herself. Though Alex was distracting their attention enough; what with her panic attack and all.
Imogen left the room ahead of all the recruits. Thom and Alex were being watched by Amanda, and she wanted to get out of there as soon as she possibly could.
Looking back, she noticed Thom helping Alex get off the floor. That's not going to end well, she thought to herself.
Imogen was running on one of the treadmills while she watched Thom and Alex practice Kobudo. She could tell that Alex was distracted, she was attacking too hard. Plus she looked around when Michael walked through. Imogen looked out the corner of her eye; she was careful and made sure that no one would notice her watching.
"If all you do is thrash at your opponent, you're going to get nailed," Thom said, holding the two staffs, and looking right at Alex. "You still haven't let go of what happened this morning, huh? Hey, where are you going?"
Imogen tuned them out at this point; she decided to get off the treadmill for now, it was about time that she took a break. As she grabbed her water bottle, Alex was confronted by a guard.
"Amanda would like to see you," the guard said.
"Yeah I got to go," Alex started, moving around the guard.
"Now," the guard pointed in the opposite direction, pushing Alex along.
Next time don't freak out in front of her Alex, it won't end well. Good luck in there, thought Imogen.
"How's it going?" a voice said.
Imogen looked around and saw Thom standing in front of her, staffs still in hand.
"Good, you?" she asked.
"Well, I just got abandoned by Alex, but otherwise fine," he replied.
Imogen laughed a little then responded, "Tough luck. I would help you out, but I have something that I need to do. Maybe some other time?"
"Sure," he said, turning away.
"Bye Thom," Imogen waved as she walked away.
When Imogen reached her room, she went straight to the Twizzlers that she had won off of Birkhoff. She didn't know why, but she had suddenly craved them. Hmmm, she thought to herself. Maybe it's time to mess with him a little bit. She smirked, grabbed a second Twizzler and walked out of her room. This is going to be fun.
A little while later, after searching the computer lab and other places in Division for Birkhoff, Imogen decided to walk past Operations, on the opposite side to the training room. As she walked up, she noticed that the door were open and she heard a voice; Birkhoff's.
"No, but I like this channel," he said.
Imogen smiled to herself, and walked to the door. She stood outside it for a moment, and when Birkhoff looked up she smirked a little, and bit a piece of the Twizzler off.
"Keep your eyes on the models; you know how she likes to dress up," he said slowly, speaking into his headpiece and staring at Imogen.
Imogen just smiled at him, waved a little, and kept on walking. Mission accomplished, she thought to herself.
The next day, Imogen was feeling pretty good so she didn't mind just sitting by and watching Alex go under the car again. This time Alex didn't start panicking while she was underneath it, which obviously meant that Amanda had gotten inside her head. Imogen shivered a little, dreading the thought of what would happen if Amanda got inside her head. She couldn't let that happen; everything would be ruined if she did.
"What do you think happened when she was with Amanda?" another recruit asked her.
"I don't know Robbie. I doubt she'll tell us too. My guess is that it was something extremely personal and she only told Amanda because she had to," Imogen replied, now watching Jaden get under the vehicle.
"True enough I suppose. I wouldn't want to tell anyone something huge either. Not unless I trusted them whole heartedly," Robbie said, looking at the car.
"I'm the same way," Imogen answered, looking at Robbie.
"Is that why you never say anything much about your past?" he asked.
"Exactly. People seem to divulge a lot about their past in here. I'm under the impression that it will just come back to bite them in the end," she said. "Which is why the only people know about me is my first name and how I got in here. They only know how I got in here because rumours were going around and it annoyed me."
Robbie laughed a little, "Yeah, I remember. You called everyone idiots."
"Well, they should get their facts straight!" she said. "I have to go now though, there's something that I need to do."
"Alright, see you later," he said, nodding goodbye.
Later that day, Imogen found herself heading down to the computer lab. It was nearing the end of the day, so most of the recruits were now either in the training area or in their rooms. No one really went into the computer lab unless it was for class. Probably because Birkhoff bites their head off all the time if they don't get it... Not literally though, that'd just be weird, she thought to herself.
When Imogen reached the lab, she looked in and saw that she wasn't the only one there. Alex was sitting at one of the computers, typing away. She looked around at Imogen and nodded. Imogen sat a few computers away from her. Sometimes someone sitting right next to you could be a distraction; and Imogen knew that Alex needed practice on her hacking skills. Of course, she thought that everyone did, even Birkhoff. But they didn't matter at the moment, Imogen just wanted to clear her head a little bit. Sure, she seemed perfectly put together on the outside; but it wasn't really like that all the time. She had just been taught to be like that; to betray nothing on her face…
A younger Imogen sat on a chair, tears silently running down her face. Her father crouched on his knees in front of her, put a finger under her chin, and forced her to look at him.
"Gracie, honey, I know you're sad, but you cannot keep crying. You don't want people to know when you're sad; they can use that against you ," he said.
Imogen nodded, but was still crying.
"It may not seem like it now, but when you get older; your emotions will not only be a very powerful tool for you… but they can also be a weakness. You need to learn how to control them, at least when it's critical," he said. "There's been many a time when my ability to conceal emotion has saved my life. I want the same for you."
Imogen blinked and asked, "But won't I become heartless or cold?"
"That is a danger, yes. But if you watch me closely and learn; that will never ever be the case," he replied. "I don't want you to lose your humanity. Someday…someday I want you to have a normal life; you'll need to be able to go back to that at some point. You can't just lose yourself entirely."
"So…I hide it? But somewhere that I can find it again?" she asked, tilting her head to one side.
"Yes," her father answered.
"Like a treasure chest?" she asked.
"Exactly," he started. "Exactly like a treasure chest."
Her father reached into his pocket and pulled out another charm for her necklace. It was a tiny silver treasure chest, accented with black jewels.
"This is for you," he said, attaching it to her necklace.
Imogen had been in the computer lab for quite some time; Alex had already left for the night. When she heard footsteps, she turned and saw Birkhoff.
"What're you doing here so late?" he asked.
"I could ask you the same thing, B" she replied.
Birkhoff frowned a little; Imogen could tell that the little nickname bugged him. Good, she thought. That's what he gets for calling me Immy. I can fight back too.
"I came to pick up something," he said. "Now, what are you doing?"
"Practicing," she answered.
He smirked at her, and then said "Good, you need it."
"Oh really? And who won the bet the other day?" she said, an even bigger smirk on her face.
"You got lucky," he replied. "You aren't nearly as good as I am."
"Oh I wouldn't want to underestimate me," she said.
"I'll take my chances, Immy" he said, walking forward.
Imogen leaned close to his face, and then whispered, "You'll lose; I hope you know that, B."
She flicked his nose, smirked, and then walked out of the room. Once she was out of his sight she started to break out in peals of laughter. The look on his face, she laughed to herself. Priceless.
Once she returned to her room, she thought about ways that she could stir things up in Division. It was just so boring; Imogen decided that things needed to change just a bit. She needed to have a little bit of fun, and what better way to do that than to cause some chaos. Division has no idea what they took on when they trapped me in here, she thought, yet another smirk on her face.
A/N: So I gave them nicknames this chapter…I was struggling to find one for Birkhoff, so I just left it as B for no, but I wanted to ask if anyone has any ideas for one. Don't forget to leave a review :)
