Anarchy [ Watty's 2016 ]

V: Alex

"What's going on? What happened?" I demanded, leaning over Will to try to see the monitor.

"I don't know," he admitted. "Ryder? What's your status? Jade? Are you okay?" His voice shook, although I didn't know whether it was from anger or fear. He quickly typed something into the keyboard, then slammed his fist against the desk. "Damn it!"

"This isn't good," Mordekai said, voicing everyone's thoughts.

I paced nervously; the tracker had abruptly stopped, and we'd lost audio. Come on, Jade. What's going on in there? "Is there anything we can do?"

"I don't—I don't know." Will groaned helplessly. He tried the keyboard again, and ended up smacking it so hard I wouldn't have been surprised if he pissed off some poor repair guy. "I can't—" he paused as the speaker buzzed. We heard Jade faintly, as if she were whispering.

"—don't know how they knew," she was saying. "Power came back on and—" I couldn't help but wince as I heard her cry out. We heard a rustling and someone demanded, "Who are you talking to? Who are you working for?" The audio cut off again with a snap.

"She's in trouble," I muttered, pacing again. "We need to do something. What do we do?"

"First of all, maybe you should calm down," Mordekai offered.

Will nodded. "Worrying isn't going to do you any good."

"Well, standing around here isn't going to help, either!" I shouted, whirling around to face them. I felt bad for yelling, but I couldn't tell them that. Not now, not when my best friend was in trouble with absolutely no help to speak of. I stormed out of the control room and headed to my room. I was intercepted in the hallway by none other than the Director.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

He wasn't impolite or demanding, but I snapped anyways. "What do you think? I'm going to save Jade, who you sent on a nearly impossible mission without any backup!" I ducked by him, into my room, and grabbed my pistol, tracker, and earpiece. I pulled on a hoodie as well, partly to hide my face, partly because of the chilly weather.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Agent Nichols," the Director warned. He stepped in front of me again.

"Just try and stop me," I retorted, shoving past him as I tucked the handgun into my belt. I could hear him grumbling behind me.

I was fidgeting with the earpiece on my way to the stairway when my path was blocked again, this time by Will and Mordekai. "What are you doing?" I demanded, impatient.

"Sorry," Will said, "but we can't let you go on a suicide mission alone." Mordekai nodded in agreement.

"And how do you two plan to stop me?" I spat the question. I tensed, expecting to have to fight my way out.

"We don't," Mordekai answered.

I blinked and took a step back. "What? What do you...?"

Will smirked. "I said we wouldn't let you go alone. Not that you couldn't go." He and Mordekai laughed at my bewildered expression.

I still couldn't quite comprehend it. "But you—but I—you two are...helping me? Why?" What's next? Laser-breathing dinosaurs come and destroy the city?

"Well, it's obvious how much your friend means to you," Will explained. "And here we have to stick together, so any friend of yours is a friend of mine."

"Yeah," Mordekai nodded. I could've sworn I saw his cheeks turn red, which caused me to choke out a laugh. I tried to cover it up with a cough, but he noticed and blushed harder.

He cleared his throat. "We should leave before it's too late."

I couldn't have agreed with him more, but... "Shouldn't someone stay behind to watch our location and give us advice from behind the front lines?"

"You have a point," admitted Will. "I could stay back, since I'm the only one of us three who can actually work the transmitter."

Mordekai looked at me, and I shrugged in reply. "I don't see why not."

With a nod of approval, Will headed back to the control room, leaving Mordekai and me to go out on what was pretty much a suicide mission.

"So, this'll be fun," I said, grinning. "You ready?"

Mordekai nodded, albeit hesitantly. I wondered whether it was at my apparent insanity, or just nervousness, although both would be valid reasons.

"Then let's go.