"I can't believe you said yes!"
"Correction, we said yes."
"But I objected!"
"Well do you have any better ideas? We're stuck here!"
"They gave us time didn't they? So why are you rushing?! We could've used this time to plan something to escape instead!"
"Yeah like you haven't tried that 5 times."
"It's all in the guess and check."
All of a sudden the door flung open and our heads turned. There she stands with her usual smirk, knives gleaming in her sash belts and her boots clicked on the floor as she approached us.
"Let's begin your training."
---FEW HOURS EARLIER---
Just as I finished pulling the last one out, I got a phone call from Kahi. I answered it and held my phone between my head and shoulder as I checked for anymore blue sapphires on the shelf. "Speak." I could hear some flutters of paper on the other side and slight panting.
"They agreed."
I felt a smirk creeping onto my face. "Perfect."
"Shall I ready the preparations?"
"Please and thank you." I hanged up and completed my collection job.
I turned on my heels with the bag in my hand and made my way downstairs. I got one of the drivers to send me back to HQ, I then immediately made my way to Ed's office and didn't bother knocking. I knew his schedule by heart, why do I know? Well all you gotta do is add Takahiro and a computer together.
I threw his door opened and he looks up, a bit surprised. I put on my signature smirk, "Knock knock." I walked in and threw the bag onto the table which made the sapphires scatter all over his desk and they glimmered under the natural sunlight shining through his windows. I heaved myself onto the edge of his desk and slid a paper across to him.
His eyes scan through the text before giving me a smile. "You are one sneaky shadow." He picks up his pen to sign the report I had Takahiro print for me. "They don't call me Phantom for nothing." I pick up the now completed report and slide it into a clear file. "Always a pleasure." I walk towards the door whilst waving him goodbye. I dial Jennifer to let her in on the news. She picks up, "Yes?" I smile as I thought about the look on her face, "Ready to have some fun?"
---BACK TO PRESENT---
"You!" He stumbles back as his older and younger brothers step forward to shake my hand. "Thank you for this opportunity." They bow their heads. "Thank you for coming aboard." I replied, this might be easier than I thought. They turn back to face their brother, "Aren't you gonna greet our new leader," I walk around to give a wave, "James?"
Jacob gestures to me and James' eyes moved to Jack's as if to plead help but he just nods which meant he agreed with Jacob. He clicks his tongue in annoyance and clearly grudgingly stepped towards me. I hold my hand up and I watch as Jacob takes James' hand and puts it in mine.
"Shake." Jacob commands James and he looks away as he quickly shook my hand and wiped it on Jacob's shirt. "This way Van Triplets." I gesture and they follow me. "It's Vans." James clicks his tongue at me, "But then it wouldn't make much sense would it?" I tease and he grumbles. I bring them down to the fashion department, they design outfits for the entire company.
"Steven?" I knocked on the door that was left ajar as I look into the room that was cluttered with all sorts of fabric and furniture. There was even a fort made with tables including an upside down one and long sheets of material. "Monsieur Steven?" I look around the room to see if I could find which pile of stuff he was under. I watch as Jacob lifts up a pile of fabric and he recoils as a hand appeared.
"Monsieur Steven!" I grab the hand and pulled the man out from under the pile. "I see you're stuck under the fabrics as always." He laughs, "You know me, always in my organised mess." Steven was a french designer from Paris whom came to us for work. As a designer he is well dressed, today he had on a white tee with paint splatters and over that was a black checkered flannel that went to almost his knees. He matched with a pair of black skinny jeans that had chains through the belt hoops and black combat boots.
"What can I do for you today, mademoiselle Phantom?" He claps his hand together. I point behind me at the triplets, "Can you work with that?" He approaches the triplets and observes them from all angles, literally, ladder and all. "All I need is some questions answered and measurements taken. The rest I will handle." He starts measuring out the boys and jots down the numbers on his hand with a marker. Once he was done, he hands the triplets tablets that are programmed with forms. He gives it to all of us when we need something new, and to them this was completely new.
"Favourite colour?" Jacob questions. "Favourite design?" James exclaims. "Favourite side?" Jack looks at Steven, clearly confused. "I will go get the fabric, Phantom will help you out with the forms. Amy!" He snaps his fingers and a girl appears, she was his assistant. "Come! We have work to do! Let's go into the storeroom for supplies." I watch as they disappear into a room. "Anything you need, just ask me." I drag a chair over as I sit and watch them fill the forms. I look around the room, I used to come here all the time.
"What is this?" Jacob approaches me with the tablet in his hand and he points at the question he doesn't understand. "Oh that. That confuses a lot of people because Steven's written English isn't very good. He meant to ask what kind of straps you'd like, not stripes."
He nods in understanding and continues filling the form. "How should we answer weapons? We don't have any." My ears perked at that. "Monsieur Steven!" He pokes his head out the door, "We're gonna take a detour, we'll be back for fitting."
I lead the triplets out of HQ and got a driver to send us to where most of us gets our weapons. The Bullseye Shooting Range, sounds normal? Well it's meant to blend into the surroundings as a place people can practice targeting, whether guns, blades or arrows. "Geremy." I do a handshake with the owner as I greet him. "Phantom! Nice to see you again! What do you need? Sharpening? New sword? Or are you picking up your order?" Oh that's right I did order something. "I actually do need some sharpening and I'll take my order today. But my main objective for coming was for these three." I gesture to the triplets.
"Geremy, meet Jacob, James and Jack." Geremy was buff, compared to the lean triplets. "First timers eh? Maybe we should start with something small." I raise a brow in amusement, "How small?" He grabs their hands and observes their palms. "I think we should first see which weapon they're comfortable with. Follow me." He leads the triplets down into the secret underground training room. "Don't mind me, I'll stay up here to practice." I wave at them as they disappeared down the stairs.
JAMES POV
"I can't believe she's ordering us around. We can take care of these things ourselves with some directions." I grumble. Jacob chuckles, "I don't think we have the same connections as she does. We're getting new clothing and weapons thanks to her." Jack nods, he never really was much of a talker.
"Well," Geremy starts and it gets our attention since he had an accent and a deep voice. "when Phantom was a wee girl, she came here all the time. Broke every sword I gave her, she's got a lot of power in that wee body of hers." He laughs at the good memory. "She broke quite some records here too, along with her friends." I look at him, "You mean her teammates?" He glances at me, "Oh they're more than that lad. They've been together since their starting days. We're here." He pushes open a door.
The room had white brick walls, two walls lined with all sorts of weapons, one was a shooting range. "Take a look around and see what you're comfortable with. I'll be sharpening her blades by the corner." I then noticed the machine that was indeed in the corner. "Check it out." Jack gasps. I browse through everything that was laid out. I pick up a blade that had a red ribbon wrapped around the handle and casing.
"That one is a beauty. Made from a mixture of steel and iron with a diamond edge. Almost like one of the swords Phantom has." Those words from Geremy alone made me immediately drop the sword. No way was I gonna get a weapon that can't compete against her, let alone one of her's. Jack picks up a silver pistol that had green jewels embedded in the handle. "That one is made from chromium. Hardest metal in existence. The casing is sleek as well which gives easy transport and hold. It comes as a pair." Jack rummages around and found the other matching gun. Green casing with white jewels embedded. His smile told all of us he was taking it.
I turn to see what Jacob would get. He found some mini discs that could fit between his fingers. "Those are like ninja stars, throw em and they'll slice through most obstacles. Made from titanium. Light and fast. Just like boomerangs they come back, that is if they don't get stuck somewhere." It seemed the both of them had decided but, I wasn't sure. "What about you lad?" Geremy places his hand on my shoulder. "You know, there's no harm in trying them." He suggests.
IRIS/PHANTOM POV
I threw and caught the dagger in my hand several times, feeling the weight to accurately throw it at the target range. I then caught it by the blade, took a stance and threw it immediately. Perfect 100. I pick up another dagger and again threw and catch it a few times to make sure it was the same weight as the first one. I threw it and another hundred. It stuck into the handle of the first one.
I could feel eyes staring at me so I guess I went aboard with the throwing. "My bad." The public isn't allowed to know such things or even try. Well, they'll eventually forget about it. I don't think they even know how to throw and catch a penknife consistently. I flip my hair and walked the other way such that I don't have to meet their stares. I go behind the counter and went down the staircase.
As I neared the door I could hear grunts. I opened it to see disaster. "Oh dear. This, is not good." Jacob was getting hit by his own weapon which I noticed was flying discs and Geremy had followed rule 3 of The Bullseye Shooting Range, always put rubber protection on sharp weapons that you're new at. The discs looked like a float with the rubber protector around it.
Every time he throws it, it doesn't fly straight and when it returns, he catches it with his face. I watch as he rubs his sore jaw, anymore and he'll be getting a bruise. My attention was then shifted to Jack whom had just fell from the impact of his gun and almost lost grip of it, Geremy had given him rubber bullets to start. I noticed Jack already had a bruise on his right forearm. I walk over to Geremy to check on what he thinks of them.
"So, what do you think?" He asks as he shows me my now sharpened collection of blades and the gun I had him do for me a few weeks back. He's like a blacksmith with a magic touch. "Beautiful, but" I turn my gaze at the boys and he follows, "not so much for that." He stands up and dusts the shavings off his pants. "The lads have chosen great weapons but they are not bringing out their or the weapon's full potential. They are clearly first timers."
He quickly glanced around the room before talking much softer, "I want to talk to you about James. He has much potential that he can bring out and more but," He points towards a pile I didn't notice earlier, they were broken weapons. "No weapon can match that potential, he is just like you when you were younger." I walk over to the pile but then I noticed, not one of them was a gun, all blades.
I turn to find James and he's leaning against the wall, his face showing he is deep in thought. "James." He immediately looks up but scowls when he noticed its me. "What." How polite, note the sarcasm. "Get yourself and Jacob hydrated before coming back up. You have 10 minutes." I then turn to the youngest of the trio, "Jack," he turns at his name, "Follow me." I turn on my heels and walked out the door, giving Geremy payment on my way. "For the damage." They glimmered in his hands.
I walked back up the stairs with Jack at my heels, he was almost like a lost animal. When we reached ground level I led him to the empty cafeteria. "Stay." I pushed him into a chair and gave him a bottle of water to drink. I returned with the first aid kit to find a Jack with 2 empty water bottles. So he's a fast one. I approached him with the kit and he, I believe, unconsciously moved his right arm behind his back. He then avoided eye contact with me as I stood in front of him.
"Jack, I know you're injured." He looks away even more. "Speak to me Jack. Why are you hiding it?" I grip his right shoulder tight and he winces, nerves transfer pain very quickly. "I didn't know you noticed. I-I didn't want to trouble anyone." I sigh, "You're troubling me by not telling. Aren't twins and triplets suppose to have the psychopath thing with each other?"
He nods, "We do but I didn't use it." Wow these triplets are gonna be a handful. "Well they should have noticed anyway. You may be the youngest with them but you are the older one when you're with me, show some responsibility. Though age don't always matter but I can tell it does to you. Now, hand." He was hesitant at first but eventually puts his bruised arm in front of me.
I speak under my breath but he noticed, "What?" I look up to meet his eyes, "I was just thinking your bruise is something I went through before." I start rubbing medication on his arm and he was wincing in pain. I look up to see he was biting his lip to persevere through the pain, he might bleed if he bites any harder. "Don't." I pulled the bandage tight around his arm and he stopped biting and instead gripped the wooden table tightly. "Just a bit more."
He lets out a breath I didn't know he was holding and starts breathing heavily. "Slow breaths Jack. Steady your heart." This may be harsh but it was a good way to teach tolerance to pain, I could've wrapped faster but I keep a steady pace. I didn't speed up during the entire process, I watched Jack as he tolerated his "teaching".
When I was finally done, 15 minutes had passed. His breathing still slightly heavy but his face flushed with relief. I pack up the kit and picked up the empty bottles to throw, this is seriously bringing back memories for me. I turn on my heels to come face to face with Jacob and James, their eyes bored into mine and I eventually just walked away. "Take better care of your brother."
As I walk past them I noticed the bottle of waters they were holding was crushed, so they were watching. I put away the kit and threw the empty bottles away. Maybe this wasn't going to be so easy.
"Having some trouble?" I press the comm in my ear, "Let's just say its gonna be triple the trouble."
AUTHOR'S NOTE
I may have updated faster this time but its shorter than the others. I ran out of ideas for now so the next chapter will have Jennifer and the others' POV, I feel like I wrote too much on Iris' side. Again, I didn't properly check everything so if there are mistakes please forgive and forget :) Will get back to it soon to double check.