Frauds

Prologue

Rain washed her face as she ran through the stormy night, the heavy footsteps of her assailants hot on her tail.

"Jaguar, turn onto the next right down the alleyway, Spoon will be waiting for them. Make sure the Eagle is safe through this all." she heard through the earpiece that was firmly tucked in her ear. After having used the codename 'Jaguar' for so long, her real name seemed completely detached from her character, like it didn't belong to her at all.

The Eagle's blonde hair stayed flying in front of her face as she continued to shield him from the men behind her, making sure that even if the men shot, the Eagle would make it out from this unscathed. She knew they wouldn't shoot though, she was a 15 year old girl who looked even younger.

Their first mistake was letting their moral judgement cloud their mission. Their second mistake was their sexism and their third? Falling for the charm of a pretty face.

She turned the right, seeing Spoon's signature windbreaker from behind one of the notches in the wall.

Jaguar chuckled at the name Ismail was forced to give himself before catching up to Eagle so he was hardly even a meter in front of her.

"I need you to do what we discussed earlier, Eagle." she whispered in a voice to quiet to be heard by anyone outside their little bubble.

He gave a curt nod before jumping right to where Spoon was standing a few seconds ago. The gunshots from behind me ripped the air from the night sky, tearing into the sides of Jaguars padded clothes. They didn't relieve the pain from the grazes but then again, she wasn't the target of their gun fire.

The Eagle had safely made it to the Spoon's hideout.

Finally, I can actually attack back she thought as she reached for her semi-automatic in her coat's inside pocket but not before the Captain tuned in to her ear-piece again.

"Don't even think about it, Jaguar." he warned as she was just about to pull out the weapon. "Just meet the Spoon and the Eagle in the hideout. Make sure to fully lock the men out behind you."

The fire that had grown inside Jaguar's chest fled as quick as it had rose when she realised that her bloodlust wasn't going to be satisfied, not tonight anyways.

She took one final look at her attackers, thinking about how if she did kill them now, there would be 3 less dangerous men in the city.

"Move it now, Jaguar."

A final groan left her mouth as she disappeared into the wall by placing her hand on the scanner, letting her in instantly. The door closed in silence before the men could even realise what was happening.

"Finally joining us, Jag?" Spoon said from one of the run down couches that lay in tatters in the middle of the room.

"Not in the mood, Spoon." she said as she plopped down into one of the couches next to Spoon's, sitting opposite the Eagle. "What's so special about this one anyways." She said as she pointed over at the Eagle, her brow furrowing as she tried to figure out what the plain looking blonde sitting opposite her had that was so special.

"He's going to get us all free." He said, looking at the Eagle with what looked a lot like admiration, his eyes glossed over with what Jaguar could only imagine were images of what the future would have been like if they hadn't gotten involved in all of this. "You can finally go to secondary school, I can finally go to university and get my psychology degree. The others will finally be able to be with their families and children."

"The Captain promised us this before, when we had to save the Messaiah, remember that? Turned out that the men had already found out a way to get him back. I don't understand, why won't he just let me kill them? There would be that many less bad people in the world."

Spoon carried on looking at the Eagle with his glazed eyes, staying steadfast in the idea that he was finally going to be free. "I trust the Captain, I've known him for a lot longer than you. He's going to let us be free and I couldn't imagine of something better. Lighten up, I feel like for once, things might go the way we want them to."

Jaguar unconsciously ran her hand down the scar from her neck from the year before. From the hundreds of missions that she had managed to complete over the last few years, the mission from which this scar was born was the only one where Jaguar thought she could have actually died. The people she was up against were like nothing she had ever seen before. They had no remorse for women or children, they had no mercy on anyone that got in their way.

This was the mission where Rider, her boyfriend at the time, had gotten in an accident, leaving him without his memories. The Captain decided that it was better for him if he left the group altogether. They enrolled him into Ripley's High School, a school almost an hour from where the group was based. At 14, she didn't know what love was but as far as her understanding of the emotion went, she was in love with Rider but after the accident, he couldn't even remember her face.

She knew that if she was going to be recused from the group, she was going to be sent to Ripleys too. She'd have to face her first love who didn't even know who she was.

"When's Captain getting here?" Jaguar asked as she also looked over the Eagle. She wondered what they were going to do to him. From her initial inspection, he didn't seem that special. He had average reaction time and agility but the one thing he had that Jaguar didn't have was speed. This guy had speed that was unparalleled to anything Jaguar had ever seen before.

"Soon, he said he'd be here in 5 minutes or so, something about having to drop off the Rose to dance or something."

A smile spread across both Spoon's and Jaguar's face as they thought about Captain being an actual father. The man didn't seem to have any emotions when it came to doing missions for the group but when it came to his daughter, he had a heart of gold. Her name wasn't actually Rose but then again, no one but him knew the name of the daughter from the group. He tried his hardest to keep her away from anything to do with the group and for the last 5 years, he'd done an excellent job of doing so.

Hardly announcing his entrance, the Captain came and sat himself down on the last of the four tattered couches, studying the Eagle with the same eye of precision he used when it came to doing anything for the group.

His deep voice raised the veil of silence off the room. "When the Eagle here has woken up, you and Spoon are recused of all duties. Sadly however, the other men have decided to stay even though it won't be necessary."

A bittersweet feeling filled Jaguar as she ran over the words the Captain had just said.

She'd finally be leaving for good. After 2 years of tirelessly working for the group, she wold finally be able to live the life of a teen that was stolen from her at the age of 13.

"Abstract and Hunter will be taking you to your new home. Your parents have decided they will also stay and work for us. You will be living with Anna-Mai and Joseph."

His monotonous voice vibrated through the room as he uttered those two names. Jaguar had only met them twice in her life when they de-briefed her from her bigger missions. Her actual parents didn't have a very prelevant hold over her life either; they'd either always been on a mission or planning their next one. The only person who held any kind of parental standing with her would have been Nancy, a family friend who looked after her all the years up to her age of 13, back when she had no knowledge of the group even existing.

"Why can't I go back to having Nancy looking after me?"

"Nancy had her own life to look after as well as looking after you. She's still unaware of our business and I wish to keep it that way." The Captain kept a stone-hard face as Jaguar tried to stare him down but his face stayed unwavering, telling Jaguar that the decision he had made was final. "They'll be here soon too. Spoon, you're free to do whatever you wish now as long as you keep the groups business in secrecy."

"I guess you'll see me in the news soon for being one of the greatest psychologist to live. See you soon, Jaguar." Spoon sent Jaguar one last smile filled with too many emotions to decipher before he stepped out of the room, the back of his black-haired head the final thing that Jaguar ever saw of him.

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