The Forest and Night: On The Edge of Truth

02

"I can't believe that man!" Aster stated. Trio was hanging at Marla's apartment in the center of the NYC. "He really wants to fire us!" Aster stood up, holding his beer in his hand, and walked over to the window, "If it wasn't for us, his dear FBI agency would fall down, and this is how he wants to repay us!".

Blaze shook his head, taking long drag of his cigarette before glancing at Marla "You don't seem bothered by this at all. What's the secret?" he raised brow, looking at her nonchalant expression.

"There isn't a secret." Marla said, as she stood up and walked to kitchen "He can't fire us, because if we leave, everyone else will follow us out- And he knows that very well." she poured herself glass of water. "Everyone except Gloria." Blaze scoffed, taking another long drag of cigarette.

By the mention of Gloria's name, Aster turned his head "Have you seen how she looked at us today?" his expression was unbelievable, "I swear if she wasn't women, I would punch that annoying face of hers!- And you, stop smirking at me!" Aster yelled at Blaze, who had amused expression on. Blaze held his hands in mock-surrender, his smirk growing. Aster groaned in frustration as he walked back and dropped himself on couch. Everyone hated Gloria for other reasons, but Aster's was more personal. Blaze couldn't help but make fun of him every time he could- after all, it's not everyday to see Aster running away from girl he dated few years ago. Besides Aster's frustration, atmosphere was pretty cozy and comfortable, a big difference than usual tense and dangerous one they always were. Silence was comfortable, as they sat there just thinking. Blaze casually smoking his cigarette, Aster laying on couch, Marla leaning on the counter.

Through Aster's mind was going all the events from day, from dangerous mission, explosions, Gloria's death stares, newspaper's report, director's yelling... He took a deep breath, and closed his eyes, "Marla, have I ever told you how much I respect you.", he said, Marla raised brow and exchanged glances with Blaze who just shrugged,"Like seriously, I respect you a-lot as a woman. You are different from the rest, essentially Gloria.".

Marla shook her head amused, as Blaze smirked, "You sure about that?" Marla said as she walked back to living room, "What makes you say that?", she leaned on the back of the couch, looking at Aster.

He opened eyes and started at the ceiling, "You are smart, fearless... Gloria doesn't have any of that traits, the only trait she has is jealousy!" he stated, and then Blaze almost choked on his cigarette and burst out laughing, "Man... You seriously are obsessed with Gloria.", Aster shot him glare "I am not!- Seriously I hate her!".

Blaze started laughing like crazy, and Marla gave him amused smirk. It was obvious that Aster was still madly in love with one and only Gloria, but he didn't want to admit that to himself. He started complaining about their laughter, and then he just stood up and walked out of apartment. Blaze calmed down and glanced at Marla, "Seriously, we need to find him someone to forget about that little witch." Blaze said slightly breathless from laughing, Marla nodded and chuckled.

-

Practice in the early morning was already tense. Marla was sparring with Blaze, her punches hard and well-located. Every punch was going right to Blaze's head and upper body, he effortlessly avoided every punch. Aster was sitting on the bench and watched them, his eyes tracking every Marla's move and attack. He was always fascinated with how gracefully and in the same time professionally fight, that was something he admired about her the most. Blaze had same opinion as Aster, he was much more fascinated by her than Aster. Marla with one leg kicked Blaze's ankle, making him lose his focus, and then she knocked him down, pinning him to the ground. "You need to focus more, Blaze." she said as she kept her arm on his chest, pinning him harder down.

Blaze's eyes locked to her face, he let out sigh, "Yeah, I know." he said, looking at her for few seconds and then looking at Aster, "We should probably take a break." he lifted himself up back to feet, taking boxing gloves and tossed them to side.

Aster threw him bottle of water and looked back at Marla, "Have you gather any informations about that terrorist organization in Texas?" he raised brow curiously.

Marla walked to them and sat down, "Found members and base, but couldn't find anything about leader- I sent informations to director, but he just told me 'No'.", she rolled her eyes as she took a sip of water.

"What do you mean he said 'no'?" Blaze asked, turning to her, Marla just shrugged. Blaze sighed and rubbed his face, "I swear, Lux needs to take chill pill.- First he yell at us for doing 'nothing', and now he won't even let us take down terrorist organization? What's wrong with his brain?".

"Apparently A-LOT." Aster replied, shaking his head, "Seriously, when is this job going to be exciting like before? All we do is practice, practice, practice...- Oh and listen to Lux yelling at us.", he got up from bench and stretched little before putting his gloves on, "Come on, B. One on one, you and me." he smirked at Blaze.
Marla sat still on the bench and pulled out her phone, her brows furrowed when she saw mail from Director Lux. -'The mission on taking down terrorist threats are approved by me. The three of you are leaving for Texas tomorrow, but of course, you are not leaving alone. I contacted General of the Army, his guys are going with three of you. Meeting will be tomorrow before you leave, in my office. 8 AM, don't be late.'
Marla sighed and rubbed her face, "Just not Special Forces..." she thought to herself. FBI and Special Forces always had a problem when it came to this kind of missions, or any in particular. No member of FBI liked them, especially not the three of them. SF team was made out of guys who only wanted to lead the missions, that always led to disaster. Of course, they were skilled soldiers, with good physics and skills, but none had leading skills without someone getting hurt. Both Blaze and Aster groaned in frustration when they heard about the mission with 'enemies'. Blaze especially had bad reputation with them, he always started fight with at-least one of them, and would get suspended from work because of that. Marla placed her phone away and stood up, taking deep breath and putting on gloves again.