83 punches

PUNCH 7

I'm sure Darius will be happy to see her," he said and proceeded to press a button on his intercom that was near his stack of papers, " yes?" replied a gruff voice. that I now remembered I had heard before that night when I went with the guys on my first mission. " send Darius to my office," he said with a sudden look of seriousness and I frowned at that but I looked up when I heard him chuckle. a giant grin was plastered on his face " relax Tess, there is no need to look so upset," he said warmly.  He then gestured for us to sit in the seats that were placed in front of his desk. When we were seated, the door flew open and I felt like I was having a case of Deja Vu. There he was standing in the doorway again except this time, he wore a lab court and he had his black hair standing up like he had run his hand through it several times making him look like a mad scientist really all he was missing was a pair of goggles and a monster.

"Come in Darius," he said with an even bigger smile on his face: I was starting to wonder if this guy ever got angry. He was so jolly I just couldn't imagine seeing him angry. Darius walked into the room and quietly closed the door "I am here and I hope you kept your end of the bargain," he said looking straight at the guy in the chair. " Yes and you will know if you look behind you," he said while stroking his imaginary mustache. Darius turned around and; his bright blue eyes found my brown ones. he looked at me with the exact same intensity with which he looked at me earlier that day. but then he gave me a half-smile. when my brother saw him he became stiff. "You," he growled with his fists clenching and his teeth bared "Ray, calm down," Mike said " no, what is he doing here? and stay out of this Mike," Ray said while growling. It was times like these that made me fear him. He abruptly got up from his chair and with two quick strides, he reached Darius and grabbed him by the collar lifting him off the ground and glaring at him, however, Darius was unfazed by this and glared back at him.  the two glared at each other for what seemed to be a long time. The air was so tense that you could probably cut it with a knife. "Okay, hold on! Who are you? Both of you" I asked harshly. if they were going to be violent then so was I. Two can play at that game as well as four. "Alright Tess, calm down," Mike said, his voice still sounding warm and his smile didn't waver even a little. I don't know what is wrong with this guy. I mean who smiles when someone yells at them? " Come on guys, this was supposed to be a happy reunion, especially with Darius and Tess. "Mike said, his smile getting bigger. The other two were still having an intense staring contest. Mike sighed heavily and run his hand through his hair. He got up from his chair and walked to the guys who were still staring at each other. He was able to pull them apart with ease. He smiled at both of them and sternly told them to quit it. They immediately stopped. My brother walked back to his seat and sulkily sat down while Darius looked at the floor and mumbled something along the lines of yes brother. I was shocked for a while but then I realized why Mike looked so familiar. 

" Now, listen closely a new threat has popped up, we need a new team with the ability to take down a very dangerous criminal," Mike said looking very serious the look kind of looked funny on him. " okay, but what does this have to do with us?" Darius asked with a poker face. " don't think a trainer and two teenagers?" I asked heatedly. " oh wow, you haven't changed one bit," Darius said while shaking his head. " always the pessimist," Mike said looking disappointed. the faith you have in me," Ray said sadly " no offense brother, but you actually have to stay with guys," I said matter of factly making my brother frown. " well no, I was not thinking of that rather, I want to add members to that team," Mike said thoughtfully " though a small team would not be a bad idea," he added as an afterthought . " hey, we can have two teams in one," Darius suggested to which Mike replied by nodding his head while smiling. " so, it's settled then, team 42 will be enlargened," mike said with finality in his voice. " just one little problem........ Liam doesn't want any more additions to his team. he says that if we add any more members,  the team will become bulky and he doesn't want that," my brother said glumly. " well then, we only have one option, we will have to put an entirely new team together," Mike said returning to his cheerful self. the rest of us simply rolled our eyes at him. he stood up and asked us to follow him we all followed him to a room that was located deep within the building. the room looked like a training room with exercise mats on the floor and a few boxing gloves in the corner of the room. there was also a boxing ring to the left of the room where two people were sparring and kept getting the upper hand on each other from time to time. 

" Ace, how are you?" Mike greeted happily. was he always like this? I'm usually really good at reading people but I just could not wrap my head around him his mood kept changing like a teenage girl. 

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