Foxfang: Two dead, but what comes next?
Kiba: I say we kill some more of them.
Foxfang: But the English teacher said killing off main characters shows poor writing skills.
Kiba: Shakespeare, BBC, John Green, the writers of Old Yeller, Where the Red Ferns Grow, and almost every dog centered movie or book in existence.
Foxfang: Good point. So what did you have in mind?
Kiba: *Whisper whisper* *Looks around shadily* *Whisper*
Foxfang: Oh, I like that one.
"And that was the end of that. We reported our failure to Alpha, and not a trace of Wolfe or Ray was ever seen again."
"How did you find out about the wrist bow?" Lockup 1 questioned angrily. She was furious because she thought they had eavesdropped on her friends. "Agent 777 let it slip when she was mourning for Ray. She said that if only they hadn't picked that day to move it, then maybe we would have gotten there earlier and he wouldn't have died. When we questioned her about it, she confessed everything." Jackal said.
Lockup 1's temper calmed a bit when she saw the sincerity in their eyes. "What about Wolfe's twin, and the little boy, too? Surely he was too young to be an agent yet?" Lockup 2 asked. Jackal looked at Jaguar. Jaguar nodded. "As for Wolfe 2.0, a couple tests revealed that he was in fact, Wolfe's twin. He just wasn't evil. As for what happened to him, well, uh…" Jackal started mumbling. He averted his gaze to the floor to avoid looking into the Lockups' eyes. "Dead." Lockup 1 finished for him. Like Alpha would even think twice about snuffing out and innocent life. A small spark of hope lit up in her chest. "And the boy?" she asked.
This time Jaguar looked at the ground. "He was Wolfe's son." Jaguar said to the floor. The spark died. "So is he-" "He's not dead, if that's what you're asking." said Cobra. "It was another Agent 873 case." No wonder they didn't want to tell her. What happened to Agent 873 was terrible.
Agent 873 was just a normal kid with a not so normal dad. It was because of his not so normal dad that he was kidnapped. It was supposed to be a simple ransom case. Agent 873's dad would give them an access code, and they would give him his son back. Except they didn't count on the fact that his dad just did not care what happened to his son.
It was at this point that Alpha decided that if he did not care, she would give him a reason to care. She began training Agent 873 in the most vicious way possible. Agent 873's muscles hardened, and so did his heart. While other agents took several months to train, Alpha had sped up the process to where he was deemed ready in two weeks' time. The intense training left him scarred, both physically and mentally. Agent 873 had become a mindless killing machine. His first mission was simple. He was to kill his father. He did so without a second thought, without hesitation. That began his everlasting hunt for blood.
"Agent 873 was fourteen. How old is Wolfe's son?"
"He's seven now." Jackal answered.
"Mental stability? Physical capabilities?"
"He hasn't begun his training yet. Alpha's waiting until he's eight."
Lockup and Lockup mulled over it. "We'll take him with us. Where is he?" Lockup 1 said. "Next to Alpha's quarters, third floor down."
"Alright, one last question. Are there any more agents that you would consider to be on our side of things?" Lockup 2 asked. "Yes and no." Cobra answered. "What do you mean?" the Lockups demanded. Cobra shrugged. "I mean, yes I know agents that are on our side, but no, I don't know any that are alive."
The real meaning of the message slowly crept into the Lockups' minds. "Cobra, how many agents are left?" Lockup 1 asked. "167 since roll call last night." Cobra said almost regrettably. Lockup 2 froze. 167? That wasn't possible. "But when I left-"
"When you left was almost TWO YEARS ago, Agent 347. The organization became withdrawn. There were no new recruits, and whenever someone died, there was no replacement, okay? You can't just leave for two years and expect everything to be just how you left it when you come back! Maybe if you hadn't disappeared off the face of the earth then we could have found you and none of this would have happened!" Jaguar spat. She didn't realize how deep those words cut. Jaguar had never known how powerful her scathing comments were. Or maybe she did, and she just didn't care, but this time, her famous comments had reopened the wrong wounds on the wrong person.
Cobra and Jackal stood with eyes wide and mouths hanging open. Even they knew that was a line that you should never cross under any circumstances with Lockup. Lockup 1 flinched as if she had suddenly been slapped. Lockup 2's eyes betrayed anger. So that's what she thought, was it?
"Oh yes, because when you are INVOLUNTARILY discharged from a place you had begun to call home because your house had never felt like a home, you immediately start awaiting the newsletter that's delivered every few weeks. You're supposed to stay in touch with the organization that kicked you out because of the trap that wasn't your fault and await the day that their misplaced anger is redirected so they'll finally realizes that they in fact, DO need you. You aren't supposed to, however, distant yourself from the place that you think you've disgraced and start making yourself harder to find because the person that you thought was DEAD for HALF A YEAR starts trying to assassinate you EVERY DAY of YOUR MISERABLE LIFE, while wondering if you should just let the dead guy catch up to you and kill you so that it will all just end. Then, when your parents come up with a super serum that inject into their only child because they had no other test subjects and it turns you into a serial killer that makes you murder them, you're supposed to stay there and have a nice cup of tea to await the arrival of either the agency or police. Whichever comes first, of course. You are also not supposed to hide out in the woods until you find a group of serial killers that you can join or die because the logical thing to do is get away and go back to the murder scene that's now your house so that just in case the MINUSCULE POSSIBILITY that the organization wants you back, that they can easily contact you."
Jaguar's comment had been the final straw. Lockup had not gone through all she had and come to save them for this. None of what happened to her was her fault. She was not going to let Lockup take the blame for something she couldn't control. "Anything else you want to try and pin on us so that you can sleep better at night?" Lockup 2 asked scathingly.
Jaguar recoiled in shock at the taste of her own medicine. She didn't say anything else.
Lockup 2 looked satisfied. Jackal cleared his throat. "So if there's one hundred, sixty-seven agents left, and if we subtract the thirteen that are on our side, we're left with one hundred, fifty-four. Divide that by-how many people are on our side again?" "Twenty-two." Lockup 1 answered. "Thanks. Divide that by twenty-two, and we're left with…two… five…seven agents each."
Lockup 2 nodded. She looked towards a clock that hung over the left hallway. Nothing was there. Cobra coughed. "It's, err, 5:17 now." he said. "We're late! Follow me, we have to hurry!" Lockup 1 said. Five pars of soft soled shoes started running.
Cobra paused at the door in front of them. "A broom closet. We're meeting up, in an old, forgotten, broom closet." Cobra said skeptically. "Correction. It USED to be an old, forgotten broom closet. Until about five years ago." the Lockup in front said. She opened the door and ushered them in swiftly. The door closed, sweeping the light from the room; blackness enveloped them.
"Gah, how's somebody supposed to see in here?" Jackal complained. "Okay, there should be a switch somewhere along the wall. If you can find it, flip it on." one of the Lockups said. They began to run their hands over the walls, fingers skimming the surface for the protruding switch.
"Alright, who pinched me?!" a Lockup demanded in the darkness. She swung out at the direction it had come from. "Ow!" Jaguar yelled. Jaguar retaliated by kicking back in the direction of the punch. "Ah! That hurt!" Cobra gasped. Jaguar had struck his kneecap. He jumped into the darkness and tackled Jaguar to the ground, taking a Lockup with him.
A brawl began to ensue in the broom closet between the three. Muffled yelps and death threats could be heard, and then...giggling. It starter out as just a small giggle, but then turned into chortling, finally escalating into full blown laughing.
It was then that light flooded the room. The Lockup that had not been part of the brawl had one hand on the light switch. Jaguar, Cobra, and the other Lockup were in a tangled mess on the ground. They looked towards the source of the laughing. Jackal was doubled over howling with laughter now. The fighting trio stopped tearing each other to pieces and untangled limbs. They shot death glares at Jackal.
"If we didn't need you for the plan," the Lockup next to the light switch drew out a large dart with a painfully large needle, "this would be lodged in your neck right now." Jackal's laughter quickly deflated. "Heh. Eheh." he finished awkwardly. He looked eager to change the current subject. "So, uh, we found the light switch. Good. That's good. Now what?" Jackal asked hesitantly.
"Now you press the little red button behind you." the Lockup by the light switch said with an eerie calmness. Jackal turned around uneasily. "What little re-Oh! This little red button?" Jackal asked. He pressed it. A dark hole opened beneath him. "AHHH!" Jackal yelled as he plunged back into darkness.
"You knew that was going to happen, didn't you?" Jaguar asked. The Lockups just smiled. The Lockup that was closer to the hole jumped in after Jackal. The Lockup that was left asked, "Are you guys coming or not?", and jumped in after her double. Jaguar looked at Cobra. He shrugged and with a small yell of excitement, he too, disappeared into the inky blackness. Now Jaguar was the only one left.
She cautiously peered over the edge. A hand flew out of the darkness and grabbed her left ankle. She screamed as she was dragged into the hole. Jaguar twisted and tumbled down the tunnel. She attempted to place her hands on either side of the walls to slow her descent but the hand stayed firmly clamped to her ankle. After what seemed like an eternity, a light appeared ahead and she rolled onto the soft mats at the end of the tunnel.
Jaguar blinked to readjust her eyes to the light. The grip around her ankle vanished. She looked at her half-kidnapper. A mischievous Cobra smiled at her. She whacked the back of his head. "I deserved that." he admitted. "Geez, what took you two so long getting down the slide?" Jackal asked. "Jaguar was being a scaredy-cat." Cobra teased. Cobra received another clout to the back of his head. They began to bicker back and forth.
"This room was one of the many things I missed at Triple U." Lockup 1 breathed. Jaguar and Cobra stopped arguing long enough to look around. The room was small and cramped. All five of them could just barely stretch out. The room's only furnishing was the padded mats that covered half the floor. The walls were made of dirt, and the only entrance and exit was the slide.
"You missed…this?" Jaguar questioned. "Uh-huh. Especially the extension part of it." Lockup 2 said. She walked over the northeast corner of the room and began brushing loose dirt away. A small trap door revealed itself. "Come on, the others should be below." With that, she opened the trapdoor and began to scale a ladder to down below. Four figures vanished after her.
Foxfang: Basically a filler chapter, but my head is empty on how I was supposed to get them from Point A to Point B.