Lightning Serenade

Chapter 81: Full Throttle VI

"So, what you're saying is that you called your friend at Tartarus, told them that it's probably Chargebolt and not Toga Himiko they have in there, and to kill him anyway?" Nato pressed, hissing through his teeth, eyes narrowed.

The agent smiled, glad to know that Nato was keeping up. They should really clue in their PR guy more often!

"Yes! I was thinking of arranging for an accident or something, but those guys there are professionals and decided to just stick Chargebolt in a room with Full Throttle and let them go at each other. Two birds, one stone. You know?"

The other agents winced. One sucked in a breath through her teeth and looked away, finding the wall more bearable to look at.

"Right, right," Nato said. "And what was the reasoning behind that, exactly?"

The agent frowned. Maybe this guy wasn't as smart as he gave him credit for. He sighed, and started to explain, figuring he could be a team player and dumb it down for him. "If we're getting Chargebolt out of the picture, it's best to get rid of Full Throttle, too. We wipe our hands clean of it all. We'll just have to send the word to whatever holding cell has Phantasm to really secure everything."

"Phantasm has escaped," one agent who opted to stand leaning against the wall instead of sitting in a free chair said, glancing down at his phone where the update glared up at him.

Takaga Mayori was the only agent away from the center table by choice, not being punished by having his nose in a corner. At least he contributed by staying up to date with current events if he was going to have his eyes glued to his phone. There were worse agents to work with, in Nato's opinion. They were currently surrounded by them.

The first agent laughed nervously. "Well, that can easily be fixed. After that, no problem! No evidence, no witnesses, nothing!"

"Except," Nato started, and the agent realized by his tone that he might have messed up somewhere, "the mistake is all over the news, the evidence of Chargebolt's mistreatment is all over the walls," he said through gritted teeth, gesturing toward the projected images behind him, "and this is supposed to be a goddamn hero organization."

Nato rifled through the folders on the table in front of him and pulled out the one that held his contract. "This here. This says nothing about helping criminals get away with murder. Literal murder."

"We aren't criminals," the agent argued, turning to his colleagues for support, but finding none.

"Let's look up the definition of criminal, shall we?" Nato offered, pulling out his own phone. "And then you can join the others in the corner." Huffing as he looked around the room, he asked, "are there any rooms in this building with more than four corners? We're quickly running out. I'm thinking like an octagonal room might be better suited for us."

The agent furrowed his brow as he looked around in confusion, silently counting to himself. "There are only nine of us in here."

Nato's grin wasn't what anyone would describe as friendly. "Exactly."

"Nato," Takaga alerted, still leaning against the wall, glancing up at Nato from his phone where he was still getting alerts about the current situation that was still unfolding even as they were meeting about it. "You might want to turn on the news. Channel six."

The images of Chargebolt's black eye and bruised form staring sulkily at the meeting's inhabitants changed to the news, and Nato reached forward for the controls to turn the volume up.

"As you can see behind us, and as we'll play as soon as we get the footage turned around on-site, we are experiencing a first in the history of Tartarus. The first escape, caught on camera, only here, on channel six news! Stay tuned!"