Author's Note:

Hmm… I haven't really been working on this fic in a while, oh well, here's a longer chapter to make it up!

Chapter (vi): Morning Workout

Jenny was walking down one of the vast corridors of the Happily Ever After Agency, her arms full of paperwork that she had to deliver to a variety of agents. The young intern wasn't watching where she was going, nor paying attention to any nearby noises as she went along, until she collided with one of the janitors.

The young intern fell to the ground and the paperwork went flying from her arms, every document and file raining down upon her. Jenny groaned as she looked at the janitor.

She would have apologized for not watching where she was going had she not immediately recognized the janitor and become hostile.

"What don't you watch where you're going?" The female ferret snapped as she pulled herself to her feet and began collecting the scattered papers.

"Hey, you're the one who walked into me!" The janitor retorted as he glared at the other ferret.

He was one of the newer janitors, about Jenny's age, who wore the standard-issued boiler suit like the rest of the Agency's janitors as well as a dark blue baseball cap, which he had turned backwards. A pair of large headphones hung around his neck, as they had been knocked off of his pointed ears when he and Jenny had collided, and loud rock music poured out of the speakers.

Jenny scoffed, "it wasn't like you were paying any attention," she gestured to his headphones, "you couldn't hear a bomb going off with those on!" Jenny narrowed her light green eyes, "And please, like I could've seen you over all of this paperwork…" she began organizing the aforementioned files.

The janitor rolled his grey eyes, "well then maybe you shouldn't do so much work," he pointed out.

Jenny's ears folded back and she growled. "Unlike you, Henry, I have to do work in order to keep my spot here, so I'm not going to argue about the workload each of our jobs has because it's clear that you have a slacker's job." She gathered the files in her arms and hurried down the hallway, out of site.

Henry shrugged, placing his headphones back onto his ears and he continued working his slacker's job.

"Kee-yah!" Red did a roundhouse kick to the head of a plastic dummy, and then punched through a series of wooden boards before resuming her concrete stance.

"Not bad at all, Miss Puckett…" Cameron smiled with her arms folded over her chest.

"Thanks." Red said shortly before beginning a sequence of stretches.

For the majority of the morning, Cameron had been running training sessions with her team of recruits, however they were short a member.

A Mr Wolf W. Wolf casually waltzed into the gym, much later than the other recruits. Unlike the rest of his teammates, he was still wearing his street clothes rather than the standard-issued training gear that the H.E.A.A. had provided.

"So nice of you to join us, Wolf." Red stated flatly.

"Hey, unlike you I actually kept my previous job while going into this line of work," Wolf stated bluntly, "had to chase around a bunch of kids for a scoop on the Pendragon scandal…"

Red rolled her eyes and continued her sit-ups, Twitchy was busy wearing out the treadmill, and Granny was working away at the chin-up bar.

Cameron raised an eyebrow, "Are you willing to start your training, Mister Wolf?" She enquired.

"Yeah, Yeah, sure…" Wolf rolled his shoulders, "what'll it be, chief?"

Cameron suppressed a scoff and looked around the Agency's training arena, there was a lot of stuff to choose from.

The top agent simply smirked. "Drop and give me fifty, Mister Wolf."

The canine trainee smirked back, "sorry I've only got twenty on me…" he stated, but he complied and began doing the exercise. Cameron rolled her eyes and turned to the other trainees to see how they were doing.

After observing generally promising progress from her trainees, she spotted Duke Rutherford casually trying to cover up his presence in the arena. He was doing a sit-up exercise while hanging upside-down on one of the chin-up bars. Cameron walked over to the inverted coyote and glared up at him.

"What are you doing here?" Cameron demanded with narrowed eyes.

Duke stopped in mid-crunch, his hands still at his head, and he faced the irritated wolf. "Nothing, Agent Wolfia…" He stated casually; too casually.

"Look Rutherford, it's obvious that you're here for a reason, so talk." She growled.

"Good, Wolfia, very good," Duke flipped off of the chin-up bar and loomed over Cameron. "That's why you're the top field agent and the recruit instructor."

Cameron's ears folded back. "I may have gotten that promotion before you, but it was because of my field work, not because of my relationships!"

"Oh, so you admit it…" Duke sneered, "you and Black had something going on, after all."

"That's none of your business!" Cameron cut in, becoming more hostile from Duke's agitation.

"Too bad your beloved Agent Black isn't around anymore to vouch for you…." the coyote teased, "you two made such a cute- AH!" Duke's sentence was cut off by a gasp of pain as Cameron twisted his arm around him.

"Lay off, Rutherford." Cameron snapped, holding the bigger agent's arm against his back.

Duke tried to swat at his captor with his other paw, only resulting in a harsher twist. "Okay, okay, okay…" The coyote gave in and Cameron released him. He backed off, heading for the exit of the arena. "But mark my words, Wolfia… I will get this job, mark my words!" He then slammed the door behind him.

Cameron sighed and then looked at her trainees, all who had stopped their exercises to stare. They noticed their instructor's look and quickly resumed their training.

The top field agent rolled her shoulders and returned to her position as observer.

"Agent Wolfia…" Red stood from where she had been doing her sit-ups and began balancing on one foot. "Um… exactly what is that guy's problem with you?"

"He's simply jealous because I got the job that he wanted…" Cameron stated as she suited herself up in climbing gear and then turned to the complex climbing wall that was set up in the arena. "Believe me, if you think this training's hard, just keep in mind that his would be absolute torture." She stretched her arms out in front of her, dusting her paws with chalk, and began climbing up the wall.

The four recruits glanced at each other, shrugging, and then they continued the training.

Author's Note:

Hmm… now let's get into some actual missions!

Manga Girl #6