Aphmau's POV:
"Logan?"
"Shh! Not so loud loud!" He rolled his eyes. It was dark, but I could make out his blonde hair and purple-blue eyes in the light of the single lamp.
"Hold up, are you..?" My brain registered what he was wearing; dark blue pants, a uniform shirt of the same color, a white tee underneath, he even had an id of some kind strapped to his shirt pocket.
But the thing that made it clear was the mop in his hand.
"Logan.. Are you- pfft," I covered my mouth to keep me from laughing. "Are you the janitor?" Now, there was nothing wrong with Janitors, I'd known some in my life who were really nice.
No, what made this hilarious is that I never thought I'd see the day the 'Big bad Logan' would be mopping floors in some high school.
"Laugh and I will personally murder you, Phoenix." I completely disregarded his warning and bursted out laughing.
"Oh! This is too good.. Where's my phone, I gotta take a picture of this?" I wiped a tear from my eye and saw Logan glaring holes in my head. "Y'know what? Changed my mind." I grinned sheepishly.
"I need to talk to you-"
"No duh," I scoffed, smirking at him. "What was with the whole pulling me in- uh, are we in the janitors closet?" When Logan rolled his eyes I took that as a yes and continued. "Why didn't you just, oh I don't know, talk to me?"
"I'm the Janitor." Logan emphasized and I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from laughing again.
Wait 'till the others hear he's gonna have to clean up our messes.
I bit back an evil smirk as I formed a plan to mess with Logan.
"I don't exactly have the freedom to just walk up to a kid and talk to them." He continued while I almost forgot what we were talking about.
"Why not?" I moved my hands behind me and felt what I assumed to be the bucket for the mop. Weighing it out and feeling it was empty, I turned it over to make a seat and sat down.
They really need more lights in this closet, the measly one dangling from the ceiling by a chain wasn't enough to light the whole thing up.
"In your two weeks of being here did you ever see the old janitor?" He asked. I thought for a moment and nodded.
"Yeah, I did actually. Even just for a second."
"Were they ever there when there wasn't anything to clean up?" I was bout to say 'yes' when I realized he was right.
"Why didn't you talk through the earpiece, then?"
"And make you look crazy by talking to yourself in the hallway? I was doing you a favor, since you can't seem to keep your cover by yourself."
I didn't question him anymore, mainly because of that last thing.
Gulping, I took in a sharp breath.
Did he know about Emmalyn?
"Fair enough," I didn't push. "So, Commander, why am I here?"
"Donna thought it would be good for you and the others to know I'm now stationed here.. With this stupid job." Logan muttered, sitting down on what I think was a stool.
"So, we come to the janitors closet instead of the nurses office? Got it. That'll be a little harder to do inconspicuously, but we can manage."
"That's not it." He said, catching my attention. "About your grappling hook.."
"You have another spare!" I gasped, jumping to my feet. Grappling hooks were hard to get once lost. It was a mandatory for every agent, and there were tons of agents, so the manufacturers made them fast enough to provide what we needed.
Getting a single grappling hook though? That was harder.
Organizations had to get them in batches, and batches were made to barely be enough for new recruits.
It didn't matter whether you were the top agent or a new rookie- you broke you grappling hook,
You might as well get used to not having another one.
"No." Logan stared bluntly, having all my hopes come crashing down. "But, we may have found a substitution." Now I was really curious.
"Substitution?" I asked.
"We need to go back to Headquarters."
"What? But I already skipped yesterday, I can't do it again!" I objected. Most didn't like school, but considering when I wasn't in school I had to constantly worry about she fate of the world, myself and my friends and focus on not dying, it was a break from my job.
Who am I kidding? I still worry about that stuff even in school, but at least being around others with normal lives makes me feel a little more normal.
"Which is exactly why you're going to have a late slip."
"A late slip?" Just as I questioned it he pulled one out of his pants pocket and handed it to me. He had already signed it. "You're not supposed to get a late slip signed by the janitor." I said as he took the slip out of my hands once again, only letting me look at it for a few seconds.
"You're not supposed to bring a gun to school either, we do a lot of things we shouldn't." He muttered, tampering with something behind him. "Now let's go, that slip will get where it needs to be." As he took out a familiar cube and placed it on the ground, I stepped back, watching it unfold into a tele-pad.
This closet is actually bigger than it feels. I realized.
"HQ, my office." Logan commanded, completely disregarding the fact you had to instruct it in a specific way.
"Voice recognized: Commander Logan. Setting course for... DIVINE Headquarters." The computerized voice spoke, understanding despite the way he said it.
"What?" He looked at me and shrugged. "All that format crap was annoying, so I configured it so I can just say where I want to go." I rolled my eyes, Of course he did.
And without another word, stepped onto the teleporter.
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Arriving at the agency, I turned to Logan to see him going the other way.
"Wh- HEY!" I called after him. "What about the substitution thing?!"
"I've got work to do! Find Owen! He'll help you with that!" Logan shouted back before slamming the door to his office.
"And just when we were having a nice conversation.." I grumbled, setting off for the Agency center. There was where people liked to relax. There were couches, tables, the rec room (A/N: Oh Christ, I typed in 'rec room' and it autocorrected to 'red room', thank god I saw that) and and even a bar.
Although, there was nothing to worry about.
The drinks were non-alcoholic.
Well, most of them anyways.
I went there whenever I was hungry, since the bar had food too.
Or when I just wanted to talk to Owen, the bartender. Owen was like a father to me growing up in the Organization. Next to Donna and Logan, he was the only kind of Parental figure I had after my Mom..
And yes, I did say Logan.
"OWEN!" I yelled, running up to the bar. I hadn't seen him in a long time, I wondered why that was.
The person behind the bar turned to face me and I was slightly disappointed, yet still pretty happy, when I saw who it was.
"Oh, hey Diablo!" I grinned. He was the other person who worked at the bar.
He nodded in recognition and carried on cleaning a glass.
"Still not the talker, huh?" I chuckled and slid onto a stool. He always was quiet. "Well, do you know where Owen is?" Diablo looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
"What?" I asked. Sighing, he lowered his glass.
"Don't tell me you've forgotten already.." He said. I was about to ask him what he meant when it came back to me.
How could I forget?
"Right, he got a promotion, I completely forgot!"
I mentally slapped my forehead for being so stupid. Owen had gotten promoted by Donna after she found out how good he was with weapons. He became the person who helped the weapons maker when designing weapons and testing them out. That's why Diablo was there, to cover for him. Although Owen would come down to help when he had time.
The people who worked with the weapons for Agents were usually busy, and their area was strictly off limits. Unless granted access from the Commanders, no one could go see them.
Well, Logan did literally shout at me to go see him. I think that's enough authorization.
"Sorry for bugging you, Diablo. I gotta go, see ya'!" I hopped off the bar stool and ran down the next hall.
I approached the white steel doors that were twice the size of an average person. Getting out my ID, I slipped it into the card slot and it beeped.
"Huh?" I tired again and got the same reaction, the door wouldn't budge.
"Password?" A voice from the other side of the door asked. I rolled my eyes, recognizing who it was immediately. In order to get to the weapons area, you had to go through the labs and research department.
"Cats are the best animal in the world?" I guessed.
"Not even close, but good enough." The door clicked open and I was met by a lab-coat wearing blonde grinning at me.
"Heh, good to see ya', Polly." I smiled.
"Aphmau, what are you doing here? Laila's at The Few's headquarters doing research there." She let me in.
"I'm actually here for Owen." I said.
"Oh, actually, he's not here. Neither is Asher." She shook her head.
"Aw, but I wanted to see him." I huffed. "Plus Logan said he had a substitute for my grapple gun."
"Wait!" Polly stopped me before I could leave. "There is something Owen said to give to you." I perked up.
"There is?" My excitement grew.
"Mhm," Polly hummed and reached into the drawers in the back, pulling out a black case. Opening it up, I saw the inside had black velvet in it.
From it she pulled out two silver metal stick-looking things.
"What is that?" I stared at them. As she moved the box out of my sight, I realized the sicks- or rather rods -had enough grip to be handles in the middle, and the ends were bent at an angle. The tips of the rods were sticking out and seemed sharp.
"Are those-" I blinked. "Double-edged ice picks?"
"Climbing picks, actually." Polly corrected. "They may look like normal metal, but they're stainless steel infused with razor crystal."
"Never heard of it." I jumped up onto one of the lab counters, sitting on it it as she continued.
"I'd be surprised if you had," She explained. "It's a new discovery, material so strong it is even stronger than diamond."
"Can't diamond cut through glass?" I asked.
"Exactly," She nodded. "It doesn't look as pretty as you might think a crystal would, in fact, it's a combination of minerals and metals. It's mostly metal. The razor crystal is what makes the picks able to break even the toughest materials."
"It digs in enough so it gets grip, but not so much it goes trough the other side. Of course, it will just shatter materials like glass, but it would work perfectly on bullet proof glass." Polly finished and smiled at me.
"Here." She held them out for me and I gingerly took them, testing out the weight in my hands. It was fairly light, but not so much it was disorienting.
Oh yeah, I can make do with these.
"They work not only has a substitution, but a weapon, I assume, considering the sharp ends." Polly added.
I only had one question left.
"How do I use it?"
"Dig it into the wall and pull yourself up." She shrugged. I realized she could've gone on about the scientific part of the picks, but was probably just guessing the actual weapon part of it. "Looks like you can scale surfaces with it too."
"Lara Croft style," I noted, grinning. "Nice."
"Just don't go raiding tombs on me, alright?" Polly said causing me to giggle.
"No promises." I jumped off the counter and started heading for the door.
"Oh, and Aphmau?" Polly called and I looked back at her.
"Yeah?"
"Asher said you might want practice using it, better safe then sorry."
"Don't worry," I turned back and said over my shoulder. "I'll test them out tomorrow!"
"He also told me another thing," She mumbled as I walked out the door. I didn't pay much attention at first, but her next sentence made me freeze.
"Said something about it being for 'Amethyst class only', whatever that means."
I snapped my head up and spun around, only to be met with the white steel doors slamming in my face.
Leaving me alone in a state of panic.