Perfect School

Jonah:


“Welcome back.” I said in a neutral tone. Unlike I had when the others arrived, I remained on the couch for Kira. Marie had done a good job of neutralizing our relationship by making it nearly impossible for us to bond for fear of her taking a dislike to it. I had to hand it to her, when I looked at Kira walking through the door I had no emotional response. Yet another reason I was inwardly disdainful of the older woman.

I focused on him, taking in his appearance for a moment before nodding in greeting. "The others have also arrived?" I rolled my shoulders while making my way through the living room towards the rooms.

Jonah:

“About an hour ago. They are all asleep I assume at the moment,” I explained, sitting up on the couch where I had been lounging. My eyes followed her as she moved. “Kyra left a present for you.” I nodded to the gift bag on the coffee table, my scarf lay close by.

"A gift. Why?" I paused and glanced at the gift, looking over the scarf beside it then to the bag itself. "Doesn't matter. I'll deal with it later." Without another word I went off to my room to set down my stuff. After I returned I went to the kitchen, filling a glass with water to sip at.

Jonah:

“Zero said you had plans for this evening,” I said once Kira came back from the kitchen. I would have preferred to have learned what she was before Zero, but since we had been separated during the past two weeks, that didn't happen.

"I do. Phone call. One of my old teachers has need to talk to me. I was working with him again and he is going to give me my grade on progress as well as pointers to continue." I raised up my glass to peer through the crystal clear water.

Jonah:

Life went on as normal, except the other three seemed somewhat closer to each other. We prepared for our upcoming mission in which we would get our first hit as a team. I didn't quite feel like myself, maybe it was Marie getting inside my head. I didn't like that. I was discontented. Zero had begun to test my patients and on the one occasion where I had voiced my thoughts to Kira in private, she had shut me down.

My relationship with my team was stagnant. Kira was as cold and unfeeling as ever, Kyra continued to favor her over me, Paublo was more focused on Kyra, and I had never formed much of a connection with Andrew. I did, however, learn of the more personal details of Andrew and Zero's relation, something I had suspected already but Kyra had brought to my full attention.

The last straw was when Zero interrupted a training I was running to make changes. I saw them as changes that ultimately accomplished the same goal, but were unnecessary. After practice I dismissed everyone back to the house and took a walk in the frigged outdoor weather. I took out my phone and called Zero something I had never done before.

"What can I do for you Jonah?" I asked into the microphone. I slowly leaned back in my chair to gaze up at the ceiling. My hands balled into fists to scrub away the tiredness from my eyes.

Jonah:

“Zero, I would like to say that I respect you and I am grateful for all that you bring to this team,” I started formally, despite my annoyance. I chose to call her out side so that she could not watch and analyze my actions during the call.

“However, I do not appreciate you interrupting my practice to make your own changes. I have my reasons for doing what I do, and I assure you they are well thought out. I was assigned a team so that I may lead it, not you. And While I would not mind discussing you ideas on training, I would like for you to leave my practices alone unless you see a vital error.” I made sure my tone was firm but not antagonizing nor demeaning.

"That's rather formal of you...not in character...have I offend-" She cut herself off as he continued in a firm tone. When he finished I was silent for several seconds before drawing in a breath. "I am your Oracle. Your team is my team as well. I have my own reasons for everything I do and say." Unlike him I wasn't able to keep the emotion from my voice. But even I was surprised at the hurt tone that came over the line and before I knew it I was babbling after.

"This is my first ever team, and I am still learning. Sometimes a mission comes that you are not properly trained on and I'm not good at knowing what is trained and what is not trained in regards to the mission. Maybe I should let you run the training and plan accordingly with suggestions to improve in areas necessary for the missions...." Slowly I began rocking in my seat, fidgeting as my eyes darted about the many screens before me. "That would be for the best yes. It's decided. The team would go into chaos if we chose to disagree. I would make the prediction with only a slim degree of inaccuracy that most of the team would side with me. But I want this to work, it has to work. I-"

Her words cut off and she hugged herself tightly for several long moments of silence. "I am sorry...I lost control...yes. I agree Jonah. The team is yours to lead and train so I can better provide support from above and beyond your reach."

Jonah:

I was surprised by the emotion coming through in her voice. In that moment I learned more about her than I had since first meeting her. When she spoke to us over the speakers, she was in control of herself. My words had clearly rattled her.

“Yes, thank you,” I said after her rambling. “If you have ideas on where the team can do better, feel free to discuss them with me in private. It is possible you have ideas that I don't. And,” I started as another thought occurred to me. “Would you do me the favor of granting me access to your archive of training videos?” I asked her. She had a better view to judge who needed what, I could only watch one at a time.

"Be prepared for a mission debrief tonight. I need to get it working again. Put it all together." I paused and drew in a shaky breath. "I can give you access to the videos. Will compile them together with a program so you can search by date, person, and various other things. Will dump it onto a network and send the access codes and program to your laptop."

Jonah:

“That would be excellent, Zero, thank you. I'm glad we had this talk.” After the call I walked to the creek I had taken Kira to the first day, it was a favorite spot of mine. I had resolved something with Zero and it gave me an ego boost. With the right amount of effort and charm I should be able to bring the others under my control. Kira was my main issue because there were restrictions with her. Nevertheless, I would manage.

The next couple of months we trained to be ready for the Mission Zero had for us. Everyone had their specific jobs to do. We worked well as a team. Kyra may not fully trust me in everyday life, but she trusted me as her leader. I had spent more time with Paublo and thus formed a stronger friendship. It was hard to form a connection of any kind with Andrew, I found him rather dull for the most part, so I left that relationship to Kira who he was comfortable with.

I had made little progress with Kira. Maybe our connection had only been possible while we were young, and now that we were growing up there was no place for it. Should I continue to gain power I knew I would need to gain control over her, but I wondered if emotional access was the way to do it as I had originally thought. That door may have been closed for good.

Our mission was the next morning. After three months training as a team, we were going to use our skills in a real situation. I had no doubts that we would succeed in every aspect.

Kira:

I pulled my sunglasses up my face to rest in my hair while I drew out a small compact. I used the mirror inside to look down the way from the small cafe I sat outside of with Andrew. "I just love this city. Such a nice place isn't it." With a quick snap I shut it and slipped it into my purse to smile at Andrew with a coy look. "Target is here. Grey suit. Going into the hotel." I murmured softly into the microphone hidden within the collar of my jacket while my hands picked up one of Andrew's to play with like we were any other loving couple on the street. It was all an act of course, I felt nothing for him but it was easier to do recon like this especially since neither of us drew too much attention to ourselves in appearance. Jonah would have been a good choice in that regard as well but it was better to place him in a different area along with Kyra, while Paublo kept look out with our get away vehicle.

Jonah:

I had chosen to let Kyra do the first hit so she could gain experience. Kira and I each already had more than a dozen kills to our names, and Paublo and Andrew weren't right for this kind of assassination.

“We are in position,” I spoke back in my microphone. I was waiting in the adjoining hotel room next our our guy should anything go wrong. After Kyra completed her work, she would bring me in to help clean up the scene.

Kyra:

I had cleaned most of the rooms on the floor before getting to the target's and hiding away in the bathroom closet. My pulse was racing but I was ready. The garrote was stretched out in my hands, it was razor wire so all I had to do was get it over his head and slice.

The door opened and closed. After fifteen minutes, I was nearly ready to come away from my hiding place to seek him out, but while I was contemplating it the guy finally shuffled in and switched on the light.

In an instant I was out of the closed and had the wire looped around his neck. Blood spattered the mirror, but before it did, I caught a good look at my self. It was a surreal experience to not only see the life dim in some ones eyes, but see murder in your own. After he fell I stared at my red shaded self.

“It's done,” I spoke to the others. Jonah was in the room seconds later and told me I had done well. While I changed, he cleaned up the room. Once we were done we left through the adjoining room one then the other.

Andrew and I played our parts well. And what he struggled at I was able to fill in. We split a pastry and both had our own coffee's before finally standing together. Leaving the money behind to pay for our order I hugged onto his arm and slowly we began to make our way to the get away vehicle where Paublo was. My expression never shifted until we were safely in the SUV and all pretense of emotion vanished from my body. With only a brief nod to both of them I stretched out in the very back seats and closed my eyes until I heard Kyra's voice saying she was done.

Jonah:

Once we were all safely back at our rented condo I asked Zero to find us somewhere remote where we could go to celebrate. I wanted it to be somewhere people wouldn't notice us or catch us on security cameras. We all got cleaned up and changed our appearances before we headed back out again to have fun.

Zero:

"The whole place is rented out for you guys. The owner has ordered food, has already filled a bucket with coins, and has turned off the cameras. Good job today. Have fun at the arcade." My voice spoke to them through the cars speakers while I myself was laying my head across my arms on my desk. The entire mission had gone off without a hitch and payment had already come in for the hit. I'd taken the money and after taking some of it off to pay for the missions expenses had deposited the rest into the teams accounts already. But I had been nervous through the entire ordeal. Our first mission. It was over and we had performed flawlessly.

Jonah:

I thanked her and followed her directions to get there in my ear. I had warmed to the girl and often found her quite useful. In someways she became a substitute for Kira for me to bounce ideas off of.

The arcade was perfect. It gave us a chance to enjoy ourselves without the stress of training or a mission hanging over our heads. The games were too easy for me, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Kira:

The Arcade was interesting, and my first time ever being inside one. After wandering around for a bit and watching how the others played some of the games I settled in front of a shooting game picking up the plastic pistol in my hands carefully. With a small frown I put in coins and the game booted up. I died within the first few bad guys and got a game over before I even got half way through the first level. After inspecting the weapon again and aiming it at the screen for several seconds I put in coins again and started my way through once more. I did much better the second time, making minimal mistakes as I progressed.

Jonah:

I leaned against one of the machines close to where Kira was playing. One could almost mistake these people for the kids they were supposed to be. It amused me that Kira lost in a shooter game but then, it was a game not real life.

“Kira, have you ever just played a game that wasn't in some way connected to training?” I asked as I approached her. “You're supposed to enjoy yourself tonight.”

"No." The words were spoken softly and while I was staring at a game over screen after losing in the last level. I was in the picture of a perfect stance with the toy gun still aimed at the screen and slowly I lowered the weapon and finally replaced it back into the holster. "I have never played any games before. It was made very clear to me that while some of my training might be fun I was to learn and perform perfectly. I don't know when I stopped seeing the training as fun and just a part of life."

Jonah:

“You've done your work for today. Come,” I told her, putting my hand on her back and steering her away from the shooter games. I found one where you had to complete meaningless tasks on a timer before moving to the next harder level.

“Play this.” I said as I put the coins in for her.

I stared at the next screen he had put me before. After figuring out the controls after it told me them I set to work. Much like the shooter game I didn't perform very well and my expression never shifted. But after putting in my own coins and going the second round I was doing better.

Jonah:

"Now, come try this one." I whisked her away from the game before she got too good at it. I took her around to try several of the games, none of which had anything to do with our line of work. "Are you having fun?" I asked, standing over her shoulder and leaning down slightly to speak to her. She was still so difficult for me to read.