Seven
Coughing violently, my eyes snap open and I fall to the side, water spilling from my mouth. I nearly drowned in a hologram. There's something I never expected. Purple gloves briefly pass my eyes as they're lifted from my aching chest, and the relieved face of Talon comes into view. Followed by shock as he's yanked sharply away from me. Another nauseating fire rips into the back of my throat, and I choke again, feeling my face burning as I curl up, hugging myself tightly.
"Go go gadget breathing equipment." A familiar voice meets my ears as an oxygen mask closes over my nose and mouth, and my breathing starts to even again, closing my eyes as air fills my lungs, soothing the burn with each inhalation. "Uncle Gadget? I thought you were in retirement..." I mumble, my eyes now meeting Talon's as he struggles in my Uncle's grip. I should smooth things over, Talon did save my life, after all. "This is Talon, he's-"
My uncle cuts over me without hesitation, and scowls. "A MAD agent, and Dr Claw's nephew. I know." My eyes widen, and I stare at him in disbelief. "I've always known, Penny. But a good agent must let his trainee grow on their own. Since your training began, I've been pretending to be clueless and letting you take over to see how you'd handle things. Ultimately, I still came in to stop Dr Claw and save you, because a good agent must always have their partner's back, but you did very well without me and so did Brain." He laughs, as Talon and I exchange looks of bemusement.
"Now we have Dr Claw's nephew, we can use him to lure Claw out of hiding and finally bring him to justice, stopping his mastermind schemes once and for all." They want to keep Talon as bait? I know he's ultimately still my enemy, and stopping Dr Claw would be the best thing to do, in fact, it's what we've strived towards every single mission... but that would mean I wouldn't get to fight with Talon any more.
Taking a deep breath, I remove the mask and get up. "Uncle Gadget, Dr Claw isn't the mastermind you think he is. He's as clueless as you... pretended to be." I explain, praying he believes me. "Yeah." Talon adds, "His ideas are usually lame, like making snow globes or keeping the moon always lit... It's hardly world domination like it should be. If anything, I'm the one with great plans! Until Penny foils them..." I swear I see him blush as his eyes meet mine and he gives me a shy smile.
"He'd make a valuable addition to the team." I press, taking over again. "He's highly qualified, and doesn't even like living with Dr Claw. Please don't arrest him, Uncle Gadget." As he considers this, my uncle, and Talon, both stare at me in silence. Then my uncle shakes his head. "I'm sorry, Penny. But MAD must be stopped. You stay here and make sure he doesn't escape, I'm going to alert the chief."
It doesn't end like this, surely? Talon and I are enemies, Dr Claw seeks to destroy my uncle and my uncle seeks to catch Dr Claw and stop MAD. That's how it's always been. If we actually succeed, are we even agents any more? Missions just won't be the same without Talon.
Making a decision as I watch my uncle leave, I walk over to Talon, who raises an eyebrow at me. "You spend your life trying to catch me, why the change of heart?" His smile tells me he already knows the answer. "We caught you." I reply softly. I can't betray HQ and let him go. We've worked so hard.
"Hey Pretty Penny, guess what?" His brown eyes meet mine as he lifts his free hands, grinning. "The cuffs were holographic, all I did was break their code." Tapping my nose gently, he activates his rocket boots and heads for the roof of HQ, escaping through the same open panel as he did on the day we met. "See you later!"
For once, I'm happy to see him escape. He always escapes to fight another day, and that's what I count on. Maybe MAD will reprogram Uncle Gadget to actually be stupid, I don't think I can handle knowing that he's lied to me all this time.
Now I can focus on what matters. It's clear that my feelings for Talon have gotten beyond my professional manner. I know what I have to do. I'm going to locate Dr Claw myself...
And become a MAD agent.
