[Present: on base – Michelle’s room]

Allison just stared wide-eyed at the rest of the team. “So…that’s how this team started? Honestly, I’m not even sure what to say. It was… just… wow”.

“I can’t say I didn’t expect such a reaction, but honestly, that’s the first time this team has ever actually told the story. You should feel special” Michelle replied.

“Well, Aaron wasn’t mentioned in the story. Did he know”?

“Yeah, I was there. I was monitoring the communications of both sides. I was the one responsible for routing most the communications and setting up inter-team communication. I kept silent the entire time, but what I did was helpful. I just didn’t convey everything as I should’ve, which is why I’m on the team. I was underground through most of it, I saw pretty much everything in the end” Aaron answered.

“So, you remain silent even when we’re under attack huh, real reliable” Allison glared at him.

Aaron motioned for her to come to him, yet Michelle was still clinging to her. Aaron got up and walked over to the bed, placing himself in range of a whisper only Michelle and Allison could hear. “I have some suspicions. We have tomorrow off as well. I need to take a trip into town for some shopping, you’re invited…”

Allison looked confused, Michelle simply nodded. “Got it”.

“Alright fuckers, any other stories to share while we’re here”? Michelle looked around the room.

Nobody seemed to have any questions or issues. It was at that point that everyone was immediately kicked from the room, except Allison and Emilia.

The pair just both looked at Michelle with blank stares. Allison spoke first. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable here anymore. Is there a reason why I’ve been detained”?

“Maaaaybe” Michelle grinned.

“I need an adult…” Allison whimpered

“If that was a small joke, I’ll have to punish you…” Michele said in a teasing voice, complemented by a matching evil grin.

Allison broke out into a cold sweat, Emilia simply burst out laughing. “OK, you’ve got a reason for us to be here right? It’s not like you wanted an all-girls threesome… right”?

“Oh, aren’t you a smart one…”Michelle licked her lips as she turned towards Emilia.

“Wait… but… this is…” Emilia was completely flustered at the unexpected turn of events. Michelle could finally maintain the farce no longer and fell to the ground in laughter.

“Holy shit! You should’ve seen the looks on your faces, fucking priceless. Oh, thank you for brightening my day after that story”! Michelle tackled them both to the floor and hugged them tightly. “I’m crazy, and slightly curious, but c’mon, even I’m not that forward”

“Ok, then why are we here”? Allison groaned.

“You sound disappointed. Did you want to be punished” Michelle winked.

“No! I’m just wondering what you have up your sleeve, or what you want to tell us” Allison shouted.

Emilia nodded in agreement with Allison. “Yeah, as funny, or frightening, as that may have been, why are we here”?

“Emilia, you have your default left arm correct? The one with the terminal”?

“Yeah, why”?

“Hold out your hand” Michelle reached out to accept the as of yet unmoved hand.

Emilia timidly extended her hand. Michelle glanced at it briefly before opening and operating the terminal at Emilia’s wrist. She released Emilia’s hand soon after.

Emilia inspected her wrist and the terminal. “There’s something else running. What the hell is it? What did you do”?

“Hmm, you never read your own manual. Most people don’t come with those you know. Might wanna take advantage of that. I turned on the listening interceptor”.

“What the fuck is that”? Emilia asked with a raised eyebrow.

Michelle explained, “It’s a handy little addition that sends out pulses and noise to scramble listening devices. It nullifies both analog and digital recorders. It can also be used locally to fuck up phone calls. Not many people know that. Keep that under wraps, OK”?

“Will do. So, what’s up, now that you’ve negated listening devices, trolled us, and kept us here”? Emilia questioned.

“Well, it’s a lot harder to prove the things I’m going to do to you if no one hears it. Just kidding. I’m planning a team outing to town tomorrow. We have some shopping to do, and assuming you take Jesse up on his offer, you may have a date”. Michelle calmly explained things while Emilia nodded, freezing up at the word “date”. Michelle promptly noticed, “Oh, what’s this? Emi has a jump-scare at the word ‘date’”?

“No, it’s nothing like that! I just…” Emilia tried to defend herself, but it was utterly useless. Fortunately for her, Michelle and Allison made the situation easier for her.

“So, date aside, what the hell are we supposed to be doing? Also, what was Aaron talking about? I can assume the two are related, right”?

Michelle replied, “Yeah, they are related. I’ll explain a bit more tomorrow. In any case, I just wanted you two to know ahead of time, since there’s a good chance Allison will drive, and Emilia is our protection should something stupid happen in town. Given how. things have been lately, I wouldn’t put it past whoever is responsible for the stupid events that seem to follow us”.

“What do you mean by ‘Emilia’s our protection’? We aren’t armed off base”?

This time it was Emilia who nodded. “For the most part, we aren’t. I’m the only one who currently has stealth weaponry to that degree. Jesse keeps some small explosives on him, and Michelle has her knives, but most of us don’t carry firearms just so we don’t have to deal with security stuff and metal detectors in stores. You know, annoying crap. David and Jessica are fine as long as the threats are melee. Javon, Mark, and Aaron, are pretty much useless”.

“And you guys put that much thought into these things? Do things happen on a regular basis? This is honestly a bit frightening”.

“No, not really. It’s just good to think ahead a bit in this case” Michelle stated as a matter-of-fact.

“I can’t say you’re wrong, but wait, you guys, don’t argue or try to kill each other in town”? Allison asked with a surprised face.

“Not very much? Normally we can control ourselves around civilians. Now running into an agent from another team is a different story” Emilia answered.

“Oh, well, I guess that makes sense. So, you had us stay to tell us this? Why didn’t you just tell everyone at once”?

“I didn’t want everyone to know about Emilia’s interceptor. So far, I think only Mark, Jesse, myself, and now you, know if it. I decided to include you since you two share a room and get along well”.

Allison looked at Michelle suspiciously. “And you didn’t want anyone else to know… why”?

“Well duh, the purpose of such a device is completely defeated if it becomes common knowledge. It shouldn’t take a genius to figure that out. By the way, I’ll need you to go and inform everyone of the shopping trip personally, but one at a time. Take Emilia with you”.

“But…” Allison whined.

“If a genius asks you to do something simple yet with a specific level of detail, it’s probably best not to question it, right? It kinda hurts that you don’t trust me” Michelle said, faking tears.

“Fine, lets go Ems. I didn’t expect Michelle to be able to cry on command” Allison muttered as she grabbed Emilia’s wrist and walked off.

[The following day: nearby nameless town]

Michelle walked around in front of everyone “So, we have today off too, you can pretty much do whatever you want, as long as we all make it back to base by 10 tonight”.

“Wait, don’t fucking split everyone up before I say what I intended” Aaron protested.

“So you’re the reason we’re here” Javon groaned.

“Well, some shopping apparently did need to be done, but yeah, there’s some strategies I wanna discuss about the squad games…”

“Aaron, talking about strategy, what the hell”?! Jessica shouted in surprise.

“Well, shouldn’t we find a quiet place or something” Allison asked.

“Nope, this is exactly what I wanted”.

“But… why” Allison asked, tilting her head in incomprehension.

“I’m sure you’ll know by the end of the day, right Michelle”?

Michelle nodded.

Aaron continued “So, basically, be careful today and in the finals of the squad games. I did some research with Mark’s help. Those attacks that occurred during the last round of the games originated from in the base, though we haven’t determined the exact origin, it seems to have been one of the administration buildings”.

“You mean…” Allison gasped, Michelle hastily covered her mouth.

“I know we’re outside, but we’re going to use our quiet inside voices” Michelle said with a serious tone, followed quickly by “EWW”!

Allison grinned fiendishly as Michelle jumped back, wiping her hand on her blouse. “What the hell!? Did you just lick me”?! Allison nodded and stuck out her tongue.

“If you’re gonna lick me, at least do it somewhere else, and preferably not in public”! Michelle pouted and stared at her feet. The entirety of her face was red.

Allison raised an eyebrow “There’s so much wrong with this conversation that I can’t even…”

Aaron steered the conversation back on topic after he was done staring at Michelle and Allison. “Sooo… uhm, yeah, we should be careful. We’re being targeted, possibly by some of the agency administration. I haven’t been able to confirm anything, so we’ll just have to be vigilant. That’s all”.

Michelle, having mostly recovered, finished off. “OK, teams of two or three. Emilia, go with Alison and Javon. David and Jessica, you two are together, that leaves… never mind, Javon, go with Jesse, I’ll go with Allison and Emilia”.

“What the hell?! Am I that bad”? Jesse groaned.

“Well, you do have a bit of a date tonight don’t you? It’d be a bit fucked up for me to spend all day with you and then you just run off on a date… right”?

Jesse stood speechless at Michelle’s commentary to which she imply continued. “David and Jessica work well together, obviously. You can cover yourself and one other person pretty easily, and you have Javon who usually sees things well before they are a problem. That leaves me, who is relatively short range, and Allison, who is new. We’re taking Emi”.

“That’s not what I’m complaining about” Jesse muttered.

“You act like I was listening in the first place”. Michelle sneered.

Jesse was paralyzed with shock. The momentary silence was broken by Mark. “I assume Aaron and I are a team then? We aren’t exactly fighters you know…”

“Fine, Aaron, switch with Jesse, oh, and while you’re at it, Aaron, here’s my shopping list”. Michelle said as she handed Aaron a piece of paper and a few bills.

“What the hell, I’m not your errand boy”!

“Well, normally the new person would do the shopping, but since stupid stuff’s been happening, gotta go over some of the contingency plans with her instead. I’ll let you take care of the small details. Thanks”. And Michelle walked off without allowing for an answer.

Aaron’s shouting could be heard in the background “What the fuck”?!

Michelle turned around, grinning ear to ear, “Yes”?

“I do have shopping to do to ya know. I mean at worst I’d expect ya know, maybe feminine products or something, but this? FUCKING KANGAROO MILK?! Yeah, I’m just gonna run down to the local supermarket and pick some up. It’s in isle nine right, I'll find it beside eye of newt or something”.

“Actually, it’s next to the pickled cobra in isle 14, good guess though. I'm sure it'll be easier to get than Tibetan pit viper venom at the very least”.

“Want me to pick up an extra bionic arm along with some mini-muffins too? I could probably bring back a fucking flux-capacitor if i took one of the cruisers”!

Emilia’s arm could be heard, prepping to fire. She aimed right at Aaron’s feet. “I have enough arms, thanks. I will take some mini-muffins though. Nine boxes of blueberry, ‘Hostess’ of course. This will be at your own expense, and is non-negotiable”.

Aaron remained silent for a full 7 seconds while sincerely reflecting on his choice of words. Mark continued in his place. ”Actually, I don’t have a need for a flux-capacitor at the moment, but if you need one, I think I have an extra one in my lab. It’s sitting behind the micro-particle accelerator”.

“I swear you people are FUCKING RETARDED”! Aaron crumpled the list and stormed off angrily, dragging Jesse behind him.