Title: Downtime
Summary: In which there are actually consequences for leveling buildings in the line of duty.
Glancing around the hangar and at the stares with varying degrees of mutiny and wakefulness, she sighed and tapped her pen against her clipboard impatiently.
"Like it or not," she said, stern, but not unkindly, as she tucked a strand of her long blonde hair behind her ear. "This is a standard debriefing, especially after a mission like the one you just had."
"Our mission went fine," Yuma mumbled almost intelligibly into Astral's shoulder as he fought to stay awake. "Can we go home now?"
His pale-haired partner bore the burden of being used as a living pillow with stoic dignity and added, "As Yuma said, we accomplished all of our objectives. I do not understand the purpose of this meeting."
"Can we at least do this at not 3:00 AM in the morning?" Yugi asked plaintively, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes, taking care not to disturb the Atem lightly dozing against his shoulder. Sitting next to him on the bench and similarly draped over an equally tired attentive-looking Yusei, Judai snored his agreement.
The girl's eyebrow twitched subtly but that was the only indication she was anything but impeccably composed and professional. "Somehow your team managed to follow the mission parameters to the letter... while ignoring every word of it. In terms of absolute dollar values, accounts of collateral damage to property has tripled since this team was assembled. In the span of the last three nights alone, the real estate you destroyed was easily the equivalent of triple your combined annual salaries."
The boys' eyes, which had been bleary and half-lidded from exhaustion instantly sharpened as the implications sunk in. The team, sans Yuma, straightened up and gave the female agent their undivided attention.
"They're not thinking of disbanding the team, are they, Asuka?" Judai demanded, voicing the others' uneasy thoughts.
Asuka sighed somewhat sardonically. "As much as it would save the public relations department a lot of trouble and quite a bit hush money, your team still has one of the highest success rates across the Agency." The unspoken 'despite your best efforts to completely level the city', was clearly audible.
"So what has the Agency decided to do about it?" Atem asked, frowning. He absently giving Yugi's shoulder a reassuring pat when he felt him tense up beside him.
"Are they going to make us pay back the damages?" Yugi asked in a small voice. "We don't have the budget for that."
"... Now I kind of regret not going easy on the TNT last night," said Judai glumly, sinking into his seat.
"Please tell me if they're going to ground us, it'll be for at least a week," Yuma mumbled. In contrast to his teammates' alertness, he merely slid forward a couple of inches until his he was resting his head in Astral's lap and his toes were digging into Yusei's side.
"Standard protocol would put us on lock-down along with a cessation of other privileges," said Yusei, eyes narrowing in thought. "But if that were the case, they would have done it a long time ago. This is hardly the first time this has happened."
Asuka pursed her lips. "Normally Yusei would be correct," she said. "But in this case, the higher ups have decided that your unconventional methods and unwillingness to follow orders within the specified parameters is most likely due to fundamental personality defects, possibly arising from being exposed to trauma at too young an age. Therefore, you will be attending a series of interviews with some of the Agency's top mental health professionals, effective immediately."
A strained pause met her declaration. "So in plain language," Atem said slowly, mostly for the sake of Yuma and Judai's slightly glazed eyes, "The higher ups think we're a bunch of messed up teenagers and the only solution is group therapy?" At that, the boys bristled with indignation as they started to protest.
A hint of exasperation slipped through Asuka's blank mask hinted that she too shared their opinions. She held up a hand for quiet and continued on. "I ask you all for your full cooperation to make this exercise as painless as possible." Then she happened to glance over to the end of the bench where a suspiciously quiet Yuya sat with his tinted-goggles pulled over his eyes. "That includes you too, Agent Pendulum!"
Yuya jolted awake with a yelp, accidentally knocking into Astral and Yuma which in turn sent the bench and its occupants tumbling to the ground.
Asuka stood over the groaning pile of the Agency's finest and resisted the urge to hit something with her clipboard. Or shoot something full of holes.