First off, I must apologize profusely for my absence. But to make up for, I shall now unleash the super-long monst chapter! MWAH HAH HAH HAH!
I do not own C.P. (yet)
Agents were going missing almost daily now. Every morning briefing seemed overflowing with tales of common missions going awry, and yet Jetpack never seemed to bat an eyelash, sitting next to his still partner who tried her best to avoid him when they were in training.
Rumors flew around so fast they made Jezzie's head spin. All were about her and Justin, with varying degrees of ew factor. Just because G couldn't keep his big mouth shut about her choosing him over Memory, who, for his part, was playing the role of sore loser very nicely, even running into Jezzie in the halls, his iPod ear buds halfway in.
He pouted and sniffed, opening his arms wide. "I think I deserve a… how do you say…?" he finally decided on a fitting term. "Pity hug?"
She rolled her eyes and elbowed past him. He waited until she was a few feet away before yelling "What? No kiss?"
It took all of her thinly wearing self control not to deck him right then and there, with all of the curious onlookers.
Instead she went to a private section of the gym where punching-bags were set up, and hastily doodled a halfway in iPod on one of them with sharpie. A few swift kicks and she felt much better, shifting into her regular Cardjistu moves. She decided to work on her Fire Offensive, and kicked high, driving her toes into the "throat" of her Memory punching bag. The cloth tore, and a few coffee beans spilled out. Cursing her herself, she unhooked it from the ceiling and laid it out flat, mentally debating against sewing it shut or duct-taping it.
Considering that half of her wardrobe and belongings were held together with a mix of the two, she had plenty of experience.
"You'll have to pay for that, you know." Jetpack was being Jetpack, leaning against the wall with a face devoid of expression.
She turned her back on him and went to town on another waiting punching bag. Shrugging it off, he moved around to hold the bag steady for her as she practiced. If anything, she hit harder, imagining him behind the faded blue cloth.
He grunted when a Water Neutral swung the bag heavily into his chest. "Angry about something?" he guessed.
"Nothing gets by you." She snapped, and whirled in an Ice Offensive. Jetpack had to take a step back.
Instead of asking her about why she was angry, he asked "Black belt?"
"What do you think?" she sighed, and hugged the bag like she was a little kid, letting it spin her around on her toes. He watched her for a minute before putting out a hand and stopping the revolutions.
"Would a mission make you feel better?" the way he said it made Jezzie feel terrible for taking her cabin fever out on him; he was indulging her, probably giving up his day off to let her drag him into a useless mission that G hung up on the corkboard for anyone to take. The board was filling up, too, mostly because of rookies being too afraid of capture.
"What is there?" she asked cautiously, and Justin turned to hide his smirk.
"There was an avalanche while you were destroying PSA property." He informed her. "We are supposed to go and rescue some trapped penguins of the ski slopes."
Jezzie straightened her shoulders and let him lead her to G, who was busy shoving papers into a backpack, wrestling an impossibly long scarf around his neck. He tripped on one end and fell over into Justin, who caught him under his armpits while Jezzie helped gather up his things.
"What's wrong, G?" she asked while his foster son gently set him back on his feet.
"It's the mountaintop science research station." He huffed. "I need to go check on some sensory probes…" Jetpack stopped the onslaught of scientific terms with a hand.
"Just give me the key to the gadget room and you can go." He diplomatically said, holding out his palm, which was soon full of metal jangling keys as the Gadget Guy rushed out.
When Jetpack let her into the spacious warehouse packed with useful items, she froze in fear. He didn't look back, leaving her to grapple with the headlights on a very familiar sled.
"I swear. It's watching me." She hissed into his ear, making him jump. It appeared, with a quick glance, that she had scaled a couple of shelves and a glass box to avoid crossing paths with her favorite destructing mode of transportation.
He shrugged her off and claimed an inner tube launcher, and rummaged around for a few minutes, cursing G's lack of useful tools under his breath.
"We need to get moving." Jay said, and tugged on his arm. "We can find stuff on the way."
In order to get to the ski hill lifts, they went through the main road that went through the town, and ran into a harried Rookie, looking incredibly abused.
"They fell off the mountain!" he was crying when Jezzie ran up to him.
"Who? The sledders?" she demanded, and he was too sad to do anything but nod. She turned to Jetpack. "We need some rope, like when we were on the iceberg case."
Quickly catching on, Jetpack rushed down the icy sidewalk to get some rope from the lighthouse, leaving Jezzie to comfort her young friend. "It's gonna be okay, kiddo. We're gonna get them and everything's going to be fine."
Saying out loud didn't necessarily make it true, but Jezzie could always hope.
Jetpack, Jezzie, and Rookie got to the ski village to see a small girl decked out in a brown sweater sobbing. The chains for the ski lift were hanging limp and the machinery chugged away angrily, smoke pouring out.
But Jezzie wasn't pay attention to that, Jetpack noticed with annoyance. She was honing in on the girl, Rookie sticking to her like a lost puppy. "Are you okay?" she asked the girl. Rookie nodded along with her.
Jetpack didn't hear anything after that, as busy as he was looking over the broken ski lift. He was able to get the wire back on the track, but after that he was lost. And then suddenly Jezzie was by his side, lifting up his sweatshirt.
"What the-?" was all he managed to get out before his belt was gone. After that, it took all of his agent skills to keep his jeans from hitting the snow. Jezzie wound the belt around the machine and the crank, hitting the box with her fist until it started up, turning slowly.
Jetpack blinked in surprise, and dimly could hear the girl and Rookie cheering in the background while Jezzie stood triumphant. She smiled at him. "You know, this is usually when you say 'Good job, partner.'"
He grunted something in her general direction that could have been "Yeahsurewhatever." But she couldn't be sure. He hopped onto the first ski lift to come his way, with Rookie and Jezzie managing to snag the one behind him.
At the top, the destruction was clear. Signposts were missing, along with large chunks of snow and rock. Caution tape and footprints were everywhere.
And in the middle of it all was Memory.
Jezzie growled silently, stiffening up like her pet puffle when she saw him. Jetpack noticed silently, and regarded his old Academy friend with a cool stare. Memory waved back happily. "Hello, my sweet agent Jay. And how are you today?"
"Can't really say." She said, hooking her thumb at Rookie. "There are minors about." Rookie blinked behind his strange sunglasses.
"Can we…" Jetpack looked ready to strangle as he stood between the two, "Just… rescue the people already? Hm?"
"Fine." Jezzie said tersely.
"Yes you are." Memory said dreamily.
Jezzie had every intention of pushing that son of a troll down the slope to meet his death by pine tree collision, but Jetpack beat her to it.
"Unneeded comments don't have a place on my mountaintop, Memory." He hissed. "So shut your asterisked mouth or leave."
Memory clammed up and fell silent.
"So…" Rookie said slowly, clearly uncomfortable with the situation, "What do we do now?" he strolled to the edge of the precipice and looked over. "Oh wow! I can see them! Hello-!" he lost his footing and tumble over. Before he could even squeak, Jetpack was hauling him back up by the very edge of his bright green shirt.
"We move on my mark." He ground out through gritted teeth, dropping Rookie on his backside in the snow. "First, we give the survivors the inner tube…"
He chatted through the instructions to Rookie the entire time, while Memory and Jezzie exchanged frosty glares until finally the retrieval system was in process. They all helped lifting the sodden and frightened people up.
When the last was gone, after hugging his best friend Rookie for five minutes straight, they all breathed a sigh of relief. Jetpack took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "See, was that so…" before he could say hard laced with brutal sarcasm that was sure to get him slapped, the ice beneath him cracked with a brittle snap and he disappeared from view.
"Justin!" Jezzie shrieked, and almost dove over to get him… only to be beaten by Memory. She grabbed his ankles, and she could feel Rookie's arms going around her waist. Her feet stopped sliding about a foot from the edge.
From below, she could hear Jetpack's voice. It would have been a huge relief if he hadn't chosen that moment to say "Well, now what?"
What now indeed she thought.
HAH HAH HAH! Not only do I unleash a monster, it be a monster with a cliffhanger... literally :)
What do you like? What do you dislike? What would you like to see in future chapters? What word rhymes with orange? I don't kow! So please review!