Agent X

Tough tasks and bittersweet endings

X rolled his eyes at her reasoning and focused on their plan. He hoped Hacker and Sheaf had accomplished what he'd specifically told them to. He tried to catch their eye and ask them his burning question, but Hacker looked like she was still on it, so he let her be and tried to engage the guards.

'So...' he began awkwardly. 'Big night coming up, huh? I bet you guys have been preparing for this for a very long time. Excited about it?'

All of them just looked at him peculiarly. X sighed inwardly to himself and continued his extremely one-sided conversation. 'I bet I would be jumping with joy when this much of my hard work is close to fruition. You must've been really frustrated when I and my team tried to ruin everything, right?'

Still no response.

'All right, so...' he began, but was interrupted by a loud screech as a chair was drawn back. Hacker stood up in a blur of red and threw something at Sheaf. Then she faced the oncoming guards in the classic fighting stance.

'Come on, girly, this isn't a fair fight for you. Why don't you just peacefully sit back down? We'll forget about your little escape attempt in return.' The guard facing her said with a mocking smile. She grunted and returned it with a smile of her own, and deepened her stance.

'Looks like you need to learn a little discipline then. Don't worry, I'll be more than happy to teach you,' he said with a scoff and walked towards her languidly. Everyone watched them keenly as he neared Hacker and threw a punch at her face.

Hacker dodged the punch and grabbed his arm, turning around and flipping him over her back. He somersaulted in the air and fell on his back with a thump. The other guards instantly became alert as they realised that they had severely misjudged her.

She turned to all of them with a proud smirk and beckoned to them tauntingly. With a yell, three of the guards ran to attack her while two stayed behind to watch over Sheaf and X.

Hacker took on all three of them comfortably, dodging punches and sweeping the men off their feet. She was even laughing all this while, throwing her fists in all directions and knocking them over one by one.

The guards watching over X and Sheaf seemed to be considering joining their fellow guards, but they were hesitating and wincing with every grunt their peers gave.

Just then Sheaf threw his chair back and jumped up as well. He tried to throw the device both of them had used to disable the locks, but the guards had caught on by now and grabbed it before it could reach X.

'Oh, come on!' he cried out, fisting his outstretched hand in the air. Sheaf shrugged at him apologetically and went to work with the remaining guards. He bent sideways to avoid an incoming left hook and retaliated with a sharp jab to his face. The guard crumpled to the ground, and Sheaf finished the job by plunging his elbow into the guy's back.

By this time, the other guard caught Sheaf unawares and shot a gun at him. Luckily, since Sheaf was moving around so much, it narrowly missed him and hit the wall instead. Sheaf spun around furiously and smacked the gun out of the guy's hand using a roundhouse kick.

Like the others, this guard didn't seem to be equipped for hand-to-hand combat and quickly succumbed to Sheaf's powerful blows. Sheaf immediately turned to Hacker to see if she needed assistance, but she was already tying up the unconscious guards in a pile with a flourish.

'Good work, Sheaf!' she called. 'I've just finished binding up these guys. I checked them and made sure they wouldn't be able to break their bonds anytime soon, so you can take care of your guards.'