by Roaming Tigress
Chapter Two:
Taken Under Wing
The cries of the baby being carried into the top criminal headquarters raised a few eyebrows by passing yellow-clad Eggmen and agents. The falcon grumbled under their breath, giving the passing onlookers a dirty look. "What, you haven't seen a baby before?" He hissed, covering a hand over the Javert's bill to muffle his whimpers. FOWL Headquarters had always been an ominous place, but it was especially frightening for an infant.
"If High Command doesn't want you, then you'll have a one-way trip to the morgue!" He growled, trying to resist the temptation to snap Javert's delicate neck.
While making a bee line to the High Command chamber, the falcon was tripped by a dashingly handsome rooster sporting a metalic beak. In his twenties, he was only at the start of his career, quickly making his way up to be Chief Agent.
As Thorton came crashing to the ground, the child was accidentally thrown in a garbage bin. Damn you, chicken!
Steelbeak placed a foot on the dog's back and laughed raucously, snapping his fingers and pointing to the noise coming from the garbage bin.
"Milly, Milly . . . Since when did FOWL open up a daycare center?"
"Long story, Steelbeak . . . " Millfried grunted, tapping his fingers on the floor. "Now would you mind getting up off me? You aren't a lightweight and I'd rather not have this suit have footprints on it!"
"Just get off of him!" Ordered Thorton, dragging in the corpse of Javert's mother through the backdoor. When Steelbeak ignored him, he dropped the body in the busy hallway and had a brief scuffle with the rooster.
"Were did you put the child?" He asked after giving Steelbeak a swift kick to the rear when he eventually started to leave.
Millfried, mumbling a few non-Disney words under his breath, stumbled over the garbage bin and yanked the wailing child out by the scruff of his neck. "Got it . . . "
"The name's Javert, eh? Interesting name . . . " Thorton mumbled, shoving an Eggman aside. "I think it's French for, erm . . . Something!"
Millfried let out an exasperated sigh, slapping a passing secretary on the rear. He ducked aside just as she went to give him a slap on the cheek. "Who cares? As long as he becomes Chief Agent instead of that paltry poultry." With the help of his assistant, he dragged the cadaver into the Body Storage freezer.
"Mill, you're comparing apples and oranges here," Thorton muttered, tossing a cigarette into the incinerator as his companion practically tossed the corpse into the freezer. "You heard High Command, Steelbeak is and always will be their number one weapon."
"Ah, but that can change!" Millfried replied in a sing-songy tone. "If that scrawny squalling thing shuts up, I'm sure I can work something out with High Command. Lately they've been sort of open-minded about new ideas. I'm sure if they're open to new ideas regarding weapons of mass destruction, they'll do something in regards to this child. This is FOWL, the number one criminal organization in the world. They'll do anything for world domination."
"Emphasis on sort of open-minded . . . " Thorton grumbled, walking out the room and propping up a foot on a chair to tie up his shoelaces.
"Look, don't you think you're aiming a little far? I mean, this is High Command we are dealing with!" He motioned toward the chamber. "Now, working out new and exciting things with the Eggmen is a whole different matter!"
"Well of course it would be, you bloody idiot!" Milfried snapped, trying to keep his voice low. "They can't walk a straight line, let alone think of a half-decent idea."
Thorton waved it away and gave a shrug of his shoulders as they walked through the ominous steel doors of High Command Chamber. "Eh, true . . . "
"What is it that you have brought us, Thorton?" Spoke the female High Command figure in the center. This was Siege.
"A child," Millfried replied quickly, holding Javert out for them to take a better look of him. "We found it in a box in the back of the headquarters. Thorton and I mistook the mother for someone dropping off a bomb and shot her on sight."
The shadowed figure on the right spent a moment of his time thinking this over, running a finger along his chin. "Very good move, you two, but . . . What would we do with a child?"
"Simple," Juno mused, shrugging her shoulders once and leaning back into her chair. "We would raise him to become a villain. It has never been done here at FOWL, but I think it will be worth a try. We will take him under wing. With no coddling, no other children to play with, no pointless morals to lean, he will be a hardened criminal before he reaches ten!"
Excellent, just excellent! Well, Millfried, they've always said, great minds think alike! "That's . . . Just what I was going to suggest, Your Greatness. This way, I suppose we'll finally have our agent of our dreams."
The figure to the left chuckled. "Surely you jest! No agent can be better than Agent Steelbeak!"
"Ohhhh but I'm not, Tyson!" She sneered, her eyes narrowing into slits as the screen dimmed out.