Merry Christmas Eve everyone! And to those that don't celebrate, Happy Holidays! This is my early gift to all of you, and not only that, but tomorrow or the next night I plan to update A Betrayed Champion! So enjoy! :)
I'm starting to get a clearer picture on how the next bit of this story will play out too, which is good cuz that was the major block for writing it lol.
Also, to be clear on the schedule, I will have an update for one story once every week, max 2 weeks, on Sunday nights, starting next week!
Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN POKEMON!
Chapter 6:
Punishment
"I can't believe you guys ran into them first try," Paul whined. "While I was stuck filing reports. That's not fair."
The trio was sitting in their personal office, Gary and Serena occupying the furniture while Paul sat at the in front of stacks of paperwork. May, Gary and Serena had come back from their mission ten minutes earlier, and with Jade still in the leaders' meeting, May had gone to report to Cynthia while the other two rested. Which they seemed to need, since Gary looked more battered than when he'd left and Serena was nursing a bad bloody nose.
"Hey, at least you didn't get your precious hair all bloody," Serena muttered, pressing the tissues she was holding up to her nose down harder. Blood began to slowly seep out underneath, dripping off of her top lip, and she sighed and reached for the box, ripping out a new wad.
"It wouldn't have happened if I went, cuz I wouldn't have pissed off May," her teammate snorted, glancing back at her. "That bloody nose is your own fault. I'm not even sorry she punched you."
"Yeah yeah, so I've heard," Serena grunted. It was true that May had dealt her a blow to the face on their way back to headquarters, and although she couldn't blame the lieutenant considering how she'd acted, she was still pretty salty about it.
"But that's not the point," Paul continued, his voice taking on a bit of a pitch. "What were the chances you guys would actually run into them tonight?! The encounter couldn't have waited until I could be on the team? Not fair!"
"I've never heard you bitch out like this before Paul," Gary remarked, snickering as Paul huffed and crossed his arms petulantly. "But if it makes you feel better, you didn't miss out on much. It didn't go much different than last time."
"Yeah, we still kicked their asses," Serena said loftily. The image of Drew's axe kick bearing down on her flashed through her mind, but she quickly pushed the memory away and focused on grabbing more tissues.
"I wanted to be apart of the ass kicking though," Paul muttered, turning back and grabbing another paper off the top of the stack.
The office room fell into silence as Paul continued with his work, Serena continued with her bloody nose, and Gary continued with his relaxing.
For a few minutes, it was actually quite peaceful...
"HOLY SHIT!" Serena suddenly shrieked, making Gary and Paul jump up in anticipation.
"What, what is it?" Gary asked, glancing around wildly and fumbling for the handgun on the table. "A break in? Kidnapping?"
"Did Drew escape?" Paul demanded tersely. "A betrayal from within of some kind?"
"My bloody nose finally stopped!" Serena exclaimed happily. "I thought it was gonna last forever!"
Paul and Gary groaned simultaneously, shooting her dirty looks before sitting back down.
"Well, since it seems like you guys don't want me in here anymore, I'll go check on our dear prisoner," Serena announced, standing up and practically skipping to the door. "Don't miss me too much!"
"Will do!" Paul shouted as she slipped through and the door closed behind her.
"She's too much sometimes," Gary muttered, rubbing his temples.
Paul shrugged. "Yeah, but that's why we love her," he replied, before focusing on his paperwork again.
Drew sighed, resting his head in his knees. He had woken a few moments earlier, and so far, he could understand a few things about his situation.
First, he'd been kidnapped. That much was obvious.
Second, he was in the cell farthest from the entrance, which, if he were to guess, meant that he was a high priority prisoner.
Third, he was completely alone in this prison block. Which didn't surprise him, considering this organizations' goal wasn't really to take prisoners so much as it was to end lives, but still, it was a bit eerie.
"BOO!"
"AHHHHHH!" Drew shrieked, snapping his head up so fast he fell onto his back. He scrambled away from the cell bars as fast as he could, but quickly halted the second he saw who it was in front of him. "Serena? What the fuck?!"
"You remembered my name!" the honey-blond gasped, clasping both hands over her heart and shooting him a sugary smile. "I'm touched!"
"Cut the shit," Drew growled, making her frown. "Why're you here? Interrogation? Torture? Something for a ransom? Well I'll never talk, I won't bitch or whine, and my team will never hand over our secrets just for me!"
"Um... no," Serena said blankly, looking slightly taken aback at the list of potential motives. "I just wanted to... uh..."
"You wanted to what?" Drew snapped, growing aggravated the longer he went without an answer.
"Uhm... see you, I guess?" she finished lamely.
Drew blinked, momentarily surprised, before annoyance took over his face again. "What, to gloat or something?" he scoffed, unimpressed.
"No," Serena said sharply. "I just wanted to see how you were. It's not unusual for us to check up on prisoners."
"Really?" Drew snorted. "And I'm assuming that protocol was made at max thirty minutes ago, since you guys have most likely never had a prisoner before me. Y'know, with your killing obsessions and whatnot."
Serena rolled her eyes. "For your information, you're not the first person to end up down here," she informed him. She smirked, and added, "And by the looks of your team, you most likely won't be the last."
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you thought you were better than us," Drew growled, narrowing his eyes.
"Good thing you don't know any better," Serena said playfully. "Because you hit the nail on the head."
"I didn't mean it like that, dumbass."
"Yeah, I know exactly what you meant. Take a joke, shithead."
"Hey Serena," Jade's voice suddenly echoed from the other end of the hallway. "I know you're down here. Stop making small talk with the prisoner, Cynthia wants us in her office."
"Oh well," Serena sighed, standing up and dusting herself off. "Guess our little date was cut short. Don't worry, I'll visit you later though!"
"Oh joy," Drew said sarcastically. "Waiting for you is gonna keep me up at night."
"Glad to hear it!" she exclaimed, giving him one last cocky smirk as he glowered at her before turning and walking down the long hallway.
Drew sighed and leaned against the back wall of his cell, staring at the ceiling light above him.
"God I hate her."
"I have decided on a punishment," Cynthia announced as she paced back and forth behind her desk. "Since you've carried out the task with little struggle, I've decided to be lenient and ease it a little."
The team stood before her desk, arms crossed behind their backs and postures as straight as they could muster. Even Jade and May had their eyes trained dead ahead, barely daring to breath in Cynthia's presence.
"Y'know, maybe she really will go easy on us," Gary whispered. "Maybe she'll throw us into a vat of acid and tell us to die."
"What would the alternative be?" May asked quietly.
"She'd throw us in and tell us to survive," he replied without a hint of sarcasm.
"Your punishment," Cynthia began, shooting a look at Gary that told him to shut up. "Will be to go to school."
For a moment, the team just stared at her blankly, as if they expected her to start cracking up and telling them it was a joke.
But when she didn't, the whole room erupted into protests.
"School?" Serena whined, staring at Cynthia like she'd just punted her Fennekin. "What kind of stupid idea is that?"
"She's not calling you stupid," Paul quickly added.
"Sure I am!" Serena yelped, ignoring the glare Paul shot her way. "It's the dumbest idea I've heard in a while!"
"And isn't that a clear way to blow our cover and get this whole operation found out?" Gary asked.
"Really counter-intuitive," May admitted.
"You have to admit ma'am, that doesn't sound very wise given our occupation," Jade said, embellishing the last word and staring at their higher up with doubt in her eyes.
"Relax," Cynthia snapped. "I wouldn't just throw you into a high school and hope for the best. I've planned everything out. You'll attend until you graduate, which will be two years since you are all of junior age. You'll still work after school, but you'll make sure to get good grades and actually make the most of this school life."
"She sounds like an overbearing mom now," Serena grumbled. "I thought she only raised Jade and May-"
"SILENCE!" Cynthia snarled. Serena immediately straightened up and slammed her mouth shut, eyes wide with slight fear. "Despite how I sound now, I care for all of you, and in all honesty, this opportunity is something that I wish all my agents could experience, to give them a taste of a normal life rather than subjecting them to this brutal job every day. While I am making you do this because it sounds like a punishment to you and that's what it's supposed to be, I would hope you'll also take it as an opportunity to learn more."
"Are you calling us stupid?" Paul asked, daring to narrow his eyes.
"Frankly, a little bit," Cynthia replied without a hint of remorse. "But not as much as I am calling you privileged. Now get out and go get ready. You start next week, which leaves you till Sunday to prepare. I'll send you a list of schools to pick from, and you guys can get the registration started until I'm needed."
The team let out a unanimous high-pitched groan, but did as they were told and filed out of her office, taking care to close the door gently before making their way to the elevator.
"Y'know Gary, suddenly your acid idea doesn't sound so bad," Paul grumbled.
"I suppose we need backpacks and notebooks and stuff..." Serena muttered, her signature cheery attitude currently nonexistent.
"We should try to look on the bright side," Gary suggested, although his tone was just as unenthusiastic as Serena's.
May let out a long sigh, like she was trying to decide whether or not to contribute to the complaining, but before she could get a word in Jade interjected.
"Look, like it or not, this is our punishment," she told the team. "So we'll just have to go with it. We'll start getting ready tomorrow. Serena, you can go out and get us backpacks. Paul, you can start with textbooks. Gary, I want you to get us materials, like pencils and erasers and all that. May, you'll figure out our transportation system. And as for me, I'll look through the list of schools Cynthia sent us and start getting us all registered."
"Man, I can't believe we're really doing this," Paul sighed.
"At least you're not thinking about how you missed the mission today," Gary told him comfortingly.
"You mean I wasn't thinking about it until you just reminded me?" Paul asked bitterly. "Yeah, I'm so comforted."
"At least we can get some rest before getting ready," May remarked. "Although I can't believe that in the span of one day, we got ourselves into such a huge mess."
The team suddenly froze, glancing at each other with wide eyes.
"Um, actually, what time is it?" Serena squeaked.
Jade slowly lifted her wrist, glancing at her watch, and judging by her expression, the team could tell what she was going to say wasn't going to leave them jumping for joy.
"It's 6 AM..." she muttered, not even bothering to meet any of their gazes.
"How did that literally only take like seven hours?" Paul asked, shocked. "I feel like it's been days!"
"That's what you're worried about?" Gary yelped. "It's Friday, like, right now, when we're supposed to be waking up!"
"Does that mean we have to get started now?" May asked.
Jade hesitated, glancing at her watch again before making up her mind.
"We have until 8," she told them. "Get as much rest as you possibly can."
The team immediately all took off for their office, all of them shoving one another to try and get in first and snag the comfiest piece of furniture.
Cynthia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she stared up at her ceiling. She stayed like that for a few moments, before dropping her arm and sitting back up.
They are so much trouble sometimes, she thought with a sigh. But still...
She glanced at the corner of her desk, where behind some papers and important notes, a small framed picture sat. She reached over and gently picked it up, smiling as she stared at the picture.
"I don't think I regret how everything played out," she said softly, brushing her fingers against the glass before placing it back where it had been.
As she turned her attention to her paperwork, the picture sat at the corner, clean and shining like it had been framed that same day. And if anyone could see it, it would be clear as day why it was so well kept.
Framed behind the glass was a much younger Cynthia holding two little girls on both knees, one a smiling brunette with big blue eyes, the other a more stoic child with long black hair and stark green eyes. But the picture conveyed something more than the obvious family relationship. All three of them looked happy, and although it was definitely much more apparent in the younger May, Cynthia also had a soft smile on her face, while Jade's eyes reflected obvious content.
The picture, although seeming a bit out of place in the office of such a woman, looked so calm, so pure and full of joy. But if anyone knew of the real history behind it, they would see the darkness that was hidden in such a serene moment...