Chapter 7: Continuous

Jay perched himself on the desk after throwing a folder on the furniture and glared at the five before him. "You four are lucky it was just Callaway." He directed his attention on the sole female, Barbie. "And you're even luckier that yesterday was just your first day. Or else you would be fired."

Sitting around didn't feel nice to Skipper. He was just as antsy to get Jun Callaway as Jay, but it really wasn't their fault Callaway got away. They were already too late when they finally found his trail. The guy was suddenly gone. Nobody knew where the car or man had gone. And in reality, it was Kowalski's fault. Skipper still didn't get the big deal in keeping the whole 'meeting' between his lieutenant and the Asian a secret, even after Kowalski explained that Selena wasn't supposed to be friends with him and vice versa. But it was clear that they already were and if not, he trusted his gut that they would be eventually. It's not like Jay was going to kill them for having mutual interests in each other. No, Jay wasn't going to kill Kowalski. Skipper was. Starting with morning laps in the pool before winter completely turned it into a mini skating rink.

"Chief," Skipper started as he got to his feet, "we-"

"I know you'll get him, but my problem with you five is how you could miss someone as insignificant as a car thief. A car thief!"

"We are talking about Callaway here…" If the uncertainty was missed in Skipper's tone, it was clear on his face. Jay raised a brow at him, keeping his eyes on the man, who refused to back down either. "He is a little sneaky at times, Sir, seeing as he is one of the Rats…"

"So you let him get away just because he's a Rat?" The harsh statement hit home and Skipper kept the need to wince at bay.

"No, sir. We were preoccupied."

"With what?"

"Classified." This was one answer Skipper knew Jay would let slip by without question so that was what he used. Jay stared at the man a little longer before sighing and dropping his arms to his sides.

"Fine." Don't sigh, Skipper. "I won't ask. And I know you'll get Callaway, sooner or later. It's also hard to get along with usual procedures if you have a newbie, so I won't press on it." Note to self, murder Kowalski. "I'm sorry about the slight temper. It's just…" Jay trailed off and frowned at the group.

"Sir?"

"It's just X, Skipper. He's been riding up on me lately. Bashing you four horribly on your job and missions."

"He's been spying on us."

"I know. It surprises me he hasn't found out about the dual façade yet. Surely he would have seen your alter egos."

"He suspects, I'm sure. Zack can testify to that. Even though Zack works as a delivery boy, he seems to be concentrated on his comings and goings here. It's like he knows Zack is one of us. I won't be surprised if he pinpoints it at me."

"It's just a suspicion. Or else Langston would've revealed you four by now." Skipper remembered Barry Langston, tabloid writer. It didn't seem that long ago when the four had a run in with the ex-convict. Lucky for them, Private managed to convince the man to work with them as a tabloid writer to a newspaper instead of selling drugs and poison to people on the black market, with the slight threat of letting Barry rot in jail forever, that is. Now the man was really poisonous. One wrong move and he could have your life and all your dirty secrets written down and ruined. "You need to be more careful around the man, Skipper. He's pretty vigilant for an animal catcher."

"No, X knows, Jay. There's no faking it. He's just trying to find a weak spot on us. He finds it, he threatens Barry and we're dead. Every single enemy we know would be after our asses. Even with the additional recruit, I don't think there'll be enough pieces to go around."

"Skipper…" Jay shook his head and sighed tiredly. "How's Jacobs then?"

"I'd rather have someone stick a gun up my ass than follow that idiot around again." Private giggled at the statement and Jay rolled his eyes. "He already has bodyguards, mainly the unreliable but trustworthy Bada and Bing. And he's moping about something I don't care about."

"And I'm guessing that you never asked?"

"Should I be concerned about the guy's feelings? I thought we were protecting his hide, not his heart."

"I'll just let that slide, knowing you." Skipper frowned at that. "And Julien is part of the deal. The guy helps keep you undercover. If it wasn't for him, one of your enemies would have your dead hide hanging on his wall for the world to see."

"It'll be so much better to get rid of both X and Jacobs. Nobody would care."

"Except," Kowalski spoke with a bored look, he's already heard this conversation thousand other times, "that Jacobs is a famous rock star, owns a sixteenth of Manhattan's buildings and has a whole island in Europe worshipping him which would explain his title as 'King of Madagascar'."

Skipper sent him a glare that said 'whose side are you on?' and 'you'll pay, Kowalski, you'll pay'.

"This argument always goes nowhere, Skipper. Would you just drop it? It's clear that Jay doesn't want to let X go or assign the babysitting job to someone else."

Jay sighed and leaned back, eyeing Skipper.

"I guess I can let the ba," Jay shook his head off the word and frowned, "bodyguard mission go." This seemed to lessen a worry line on Skipper's forehead and the others. "Just be careful, Skipper. X seems to be on a short fuse lately."

"Since when is he never? Um, sir." Skipper added quickly when Jay raised a brow. "That's how the demented ex-animal control officer works. And I really don't feel safe keeping him among the residents. He's dangerous not just to me and my team but the whole of New York. How far can you trust someone like him? I know he was pretty good at his old job, but seriously, I just think he pledged to protect New York with the sole purpose of catching Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private in a mission. Just to get his revenge on us for taking away his job for," Skipper snapped his fingers at Kowalski.

"Five times." Skipper snapped his fingers at the man again and gave Jay a look.

"I know, Skipper, and I should be sorry, but I'm not. It's not like you get your missions here anyway. We don't have the pagers for display. Besides, giving him something to do and rules to abide will keep him busy, out of trouble and away from public eye. And I have Franklin and Myatt watching over him this time. He couldn't possibly try to get you in jail. Again."

"Oh yeah. Like we haven't seen that a couple of times."

"But you managed to escape without me having to arrest your butts permanently." Jay pointed out.

"You're very reassuring, Sir. Guess we didn't need to sign up for our life insurances."

"Just doing my job. The Penguins are still considered nuisances, even if they save and protect more than the public knows."

"Most missions are done at night, J-Sir. I don't think your precious public cares because they're all asleep in their little beds."

"It's not my fault people think that you people started this. I mean, you go sneak off at ungodly hours, you're not NYPD and you barge in uninvited, just like normal criminals." Jay sighed deeply and went around the desk to his chair, making himself comfortable on it before speaking again. "I should apologize for putting my anger on you five earlier on. Selena just wasn't acting…okay, yesterday. It didn't seem to set right with me."

Barbie's eyebrows creased in concern and worry and the lady carefully watched Jay. "What do you mean?"

"What the girl usually does when she's thinking about something. The not normal ones."

"The day's coming up. Maybe it's because of that."

"Maybe…" Jay rubbed the back of his head and sighed again, the signs of fatigue clear on his face. "If Guetta calls later today, or tomorrow, direct him to this phone." He pointed to the telephone on his desk and picked up a notepad, looking at the letters on the top paper. "Don't answer it."

"I know they're treating her, dad." Jay didn't flinch or correct her, since she was, under the law, his daughter. After marrying Clarice Valentine, he adopted both Selena and Barbie. He had been their guardian every since the woman's death but was glad that Selena had met Marlene soon after graduation, because there was just some things a dad couldn't do with his daughters. Like leaving two girls out into the world without knowing what to do. It was completely safe in the office though, since there were no bugs and the whole room was soundproof.

"Um, yeah. Treating her."

"Dad?"

He looked up at her with a raised brow and lowered the notepad. "Yes?"

"Why the unsure tone? What are they doing to her?"

"She's not getting treatment."

"Wait, what? Why? And when?"

"She stopped a long time ago. The chemicals were damaging her brain cells. Anymore and she'll be stuck with a toddler's brain. I can't even handle her now, how am I supposed to handle her if she goes back in time? You are already a handful."

"But she NEEDS to be normal. What are you planning on doing with her?"

"Therapy. Remember, Guetta's calls go through this phone, not my cell."

"That's it? Therapy? That's all you can come up with?"

"What do you expect me to do, Callie? Wait, don't tell me. Because I don't care." Jay slapped hand on the table, got to his feet and pointed a finger at her. "What I expected you to do is your job. Because if you did that in the first place, you would've helped your sister by finding the institution and shutting it down. Have you done that yet?"

Barbie took a step back and bowed her head.

"No."

"Do you think she'll go back to normal when she knows that kids everywhere are still being kidnapped and treated like animals? That they'll go through what she has gone through for twice in her life?"

"No, sir. Sorry, sir."

Jay searched Barbie's face as the blonde stared back at him solemnly, the regret and sorrow written all over her face. "You know what?" He threw his arms up and dropped back down on the chair. "Forget the rules. Forget the pledge. I'll take full responsibility if you get found out again. I want you to hack the Pentagon mainframe. CSI, FBI, every single agency listed in the SPA. Check them all out. Find out what they've got on Blowhole's whereabouts."

Kowalski frowned at Barbie as the lady hurried out to grab her beloved laptop. He turned to Jay and asked. "Why Blowhole? Why now actually?"

"Because Blowhole's the one who has the formula. The one that made Selena forget certain snippets of her past. I'm not sure if he created it, but he has it. And he probably has the antidote too." Barbie returned with the device and placed it on the table, her fingers immediately flying over the keyboard while her eyes surveyed the screen. "Therapy's not cutting it and I want my daughter back. Callie? Anything?" Barbie leaned on her arms, bowed her head and shook it.

"Nothing." She sighed and used a hand to type. "Absolutely nothing. The guy's good. So good that he doesn't even exist on the cyber map."

"Well, he's definitely not dead. I'm sure of it. He must be hiding."

Skipper shook his head and walked over to the table. "That's what Jackford said. But he can't be hiding. I just don't get it. Why would the man hide? He's as big as the agency itself. Why would he hide? And from what?"

"Maybe," Kowalski started and looked over to them as he pushed himself off the wall, "he's not hiding himself, but something? We just recently found out about this Underground thing and how Blowhole's related to it. Maybe he's got something the other mobsters want."

"O' sumwon. (Or someone.)" Rico added as he joined Barbie, who was still typing away at the laptop.

Private pointed at the man. "Rico's got a point too. The doc could be hiding someone important to the Underground, or elsewhere. Or maybe someone he loves."

"The man's got a loved one on the line?" Skipper scoffed at the thought. "Ridiculous. Only person he's got is Doris, and she's been in hiding for a long time. Nobody knows where she is. Not even Kowalski." After Blowhole's last battle against humanity with his newfound crime partner Parker, Kowalski and Doris had hit it off again, but they broke it off soon after and went their separate ways. With Kowalski going back as the scientist-slash-options guy of the team and Doris to wherever her brother Francis, who is Blowhole, was.

"You don't know, Skipper." Jay turned from the leader to Barbie and tapped the laptop. "Why don't you look up on Doris?"

"I am, but there's also nothing. She's off the dot, like her brother. Wait, wasn't Sel Doris' best friend? Maybe she-"

"No." The blonde and the rest of the team looked up at the man in surprise. Jay shook his head with a stern look. "Don't look her up."

"But-"

"That's an order, Callie. Don't ever look her up. There are pictures of her from when she was in the institution and I don't want anyone seeing them as they are programmed to be downloaded into whatever device is viewing them. It's a virus made by the institution the intention of which was to send a spider into the mainframe of whatever the device is connected to. And the only information about Selena in there is about her in, before and after the institution. Her private and personal files have also been erased, so there's no need to search her up."

Barbie licked her lips and nodded, turning her attention back to the screen. "Yes sir."

Private shrugged like the bored looking teenager he was and held back a yawn before anyone could see it. They had been in this office since before sunrise and they hadn't even taken breakfast yet. And as much as he knew the team would love to go grab a bite, he had to know what their next move was. He didn't like to be kept in the dark like Skipper and preferred to at least have a know in their missions, dangerous as the fact might be.

"Oh well. Dead end. What next?"

Jay raised a brow at the boy and looked over at the rest before any of them could speak.

"You don't have to do this. This mission isn't even considered a priority or certified by SPA. It's more like a want than a need."

Skipper placed a hand on the man's shoulder as Barbie closed the laptop and hugged it to her chest. "And we've done missions on our own too, sir. This one won't be a problem. Besides, Selena's connected to the Underground problem we're having. It's best to work from all angles."

"If that's your decision, Skipper."

"It is. We'll gladly take on this."

"Then you're dismissed, agents." The entire team saluted the man, who saluted back, before trooping out of the room. When Private closed the door behind him, Skipper whirled about and glared at Kowalski, who was right behind him.

"You," Skipper narrowed his eyes at Kowalski while his hand curled on the taller man's neatly pressed shirt, "are doing a hundred laps in the pool when we get back. Do you hear me?" He hissed and stormed back to his table.

"What for?" Skipper threw a file he had taken from a pile at Kowalski, who caught the file as papers flew into the air. "I mean, yes sir." He went to pat the creases on his shirt and picked up the fallen papers. Skipper turned his scowl to Barbie, Private and Rico.

"Get back to work. We'll finish up this week's paperwork then go get something to eat." The three scrambled back to their tables and proceeded on the papers on their desks.