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___Part IV___
We climbed up to the fifth floor and had to act fast to avoid a bullet that was aimed for our heads. Catching our guard, Chestin reacted fast by pulling out his own gun and shooting one Tracker in the chest, knocking him down for good. It wasn't the time to be proud of my partner, although I could never say I ever wasn't, but I made my way around, shooting two other Trackers, before seeing the center. Kora, who had been missing all night, was reunited with us with the sight of a gun being held against her temple, the trigger already pulled back. Helene was knocked out on the ground. She had ash all over her face and body, and I assumed the high temperature had gotten to her. Otherwise, the woman did extremely well taking out 12 Trackers on her own, their dead bodies lying around her unconscious one. "GET KORA," Chestin yelled across the room. "I can't-" I tried to tell him, covering my mouth and eyes from the extreme level of smoke in the room, "She's being held at gunpoint." My eyes met with a guy's that looked relatively decent, although his demeanor was suspicious and wicked. He smirked at me and emphasized the gun at Kora's temple. I glared at the man and held my own weapon up. "Release her," I stated firmly, " Now." Although I couldn't hear a single thing besides the flames whipping around, I could mentally hear the man scoffing. He had a green logo on his suit like Chestin had described earlier. "You're.." I said under my breath. Thinking about more important things at the moment, I snarled afterwards, "What do you want with the girl? She's only 7." "You underestimate what a 7 year old can do," I faintly heard the man opposite of me speak for the first time. Now it was my turn to scoff. "You don't know a thing about me. If you had done some proper research, you'd know that I started my role in the agency at her age." "Oh I know everything," the man responded calmly, smiling creepily at me. "Agent W." Well shit. My code name. How did he know? Only R.U. members knew the code names. Or, people who knew the R.U. members, maybe past enemies, through missions knew the code names as well. That got my brain thinking alright. Chestin had pulled out his dagger and threw it precisely at the man in the chest. He dodged it, but his attention away from me gave me the chance to advance with one shot and a violent whack against the head with both of my fists balled up together That took care of all of the Trackers for today. I ran towards Kora and ripped the cloth they stuffed in her mouth. She gasped hugely in large breaths as she tried to regain her breath, at the same time avoiding the smoke. "Chestin," I coughed up debris that suspended in the air, "Chestin... get us out." My arm ached after the power-swing to the Elite Tracker's face, and the heat was starting to get to my conciousness. "I got Helene," his voice reached me after a few seconds delay, "Follow my outline and Kora-" He too let out a quick, deep cough before continuing his sentence. "-stick close." The little girl nodded and I held onto her hand as the three of us- plus one unconscious being- somehow managed to make it out of the building, thanks to Chestin. _ Axel drove us all home on an empty stomach in his midnight blue car. The air once again turned chilly and I had to make sure most of the blanket in the back went towards covering little Kora, who was fast asleep, and Helene, who had woken up with a strong headache and was advised by us to just nap out the pain. Chestin sat up front with Axel and was preoccupied with refreshing himself with Gatorade and a flash drive that Kora managed to steal from the man holding her at gunpoint. Of course, we praised her for it and she was able to sleep soundly. "Jamie, give me your phone," Chestin announced all of a sudden, reaching his hand back and calmly waiting for me to hand over my phone. I was sweating despite not having a blanket to conserve my heat because of my loss of blood, but it was nothing major. I just needed medical attention asap and some rest. Still, I managed to eye my partner's hand with a weird look. "My... phone?" "It has data in there that Axel transferred over as backup copies from today. He's using his phone as a GPS right now, mine's dead, Helene's is unlockable considering she changes the password every five days, and Kora doesn't have a phone." He always had to be right, didn't he. "Alright," I gave up, handing over my pre-unlocked phone. I was starting to get tired. It wouldn't hurt to take a quick nap would it? The boys could wake me up when they reached the cooperation. I needed to rest my eyes a bit. Oddly, the last thing I heard from the boys, more specifically Chestin with my phone, was... "You... still have his contact?"

What a long chapter ~

The hard part was pulling him up as well. One of my arm was barely functional, so I was afraid to let my partner down. "Jamie," Chestin called, reaching up and getting ready to leap up. "Why is being an agent so hard," I whined to myself, "I just want to go eat." "And find Kora." "That too." Chestin gave the count-down and I had to exert the remaining strength I had left in my system to pull the man up to the top of the elevator. I wouldn't be lying if I had said from the corner of my eyes, the cloth that wrapped around my left arm turned six shades of red darker in the span of 10 seconds. "We need to talk to Jay about firing you temporarily," Chestin stated, his gaze lingering on my arm. He meant asking Jay for a few days off, but for some reason the man couldn't speak his mind freely with me. "That's great," I groaned, getting help from Chestin to stand up. "God, we gotta climb up to the fifth floor from here." "And... define 'here?'" "Fourth floor." "Just one floor," I concluded, looking up, "We can manage." Chestin turned to look me in the eyes. "Can you manage?" He was worried. I understood the feeling of having to look after your partner. But I couldn't drag him down, I have to toughen up and hold in my complaints. "I," I started hesitantly, "have to manage. Let's go. That faster we get up the faster we end this." "That's the Jamie Lennon I know." "You sound like Axel," I let out our last comment before the conversation died down and the next 10 minutes consisted of hard work and sweat in the dark. _

___Part III___
Everything became quiet for a while after I punched in the number five for the fifth floor. Assuming the fire reached the second or third floor already, the fourth floor, if anyone was still there, they would've tried evacuating, so the fifth floor would be an accurate guess of where lifeforms would be. "Your arm," Chestin's voice breaks through my train of thought, "Let me see it." I looked sideways at the man and shook my head firmly. "There's nothing you can do. I'm afraid trying to take it out will leave me with no energy. Just leave it." "Jamie." "..." I couldn't fight him. If there was one other person I could not argue with when it came to orders besides our team leader Jay, it was my partner Chestin. I hated listening to him, because that would've meant I lost- something about my pride made me annoyed- but overall I knew Chestin was assigned my partner these past three years for a reason. "I'm pulling it out," the man declared all of a sudden. My eyes widened in terror, "No." "Three... two..." "Jesus fucking Christ why does no one ever listen to me-" "-one." The inside of my mouth was probably bleeding as well due to the about of force I had to apply to it to keep my mouth shut. The pain was overwhelming and I resorted to clenching my teeth tightly against each other. Only a groan escaped my lips, but for the most part it was a struggle with myself to keep the noise down. "You okay," my partner asked, tossing the metal piece to the corner firmly. "Great," I sneered forcibly, "Just wonderful." "Deal with it a little longer," Chestin reassured, "You're strong, Jamie. A little blood lost won't knock you out." He ripped a section of his shirt and used it to wrap my arm to slow down the bleeding. "I don't know if I should be thankful for the praises," I started, keeping my breath steady, "or knock you out for not listening to me, partner.". "Geez," he commented lightly, running a hand through his dirty blonde hair. I watched my partner in silence, a frown forming on my face out of view. That... reminded me of something- the gesture- but, what? Before I could think more of it, the elevator stopped. The both of us stood still and waited, both of our heads tilted at the sliding doors. "Um Chestin..." "Yeah." "It's not opening." "I can see that, Jamie." Chestin walked forward and tried to figure out how to pry the doors open, jabbing buttons and using his own strength at the elevator doors. Meanwhile, I took a sight-gazing trip all by myself inside the compact area we were both forced into. I called out the man's name after I found a possible way for us to escape. Chestin looked back at me just as I pointed silently to the roof, and his eyes followed my guide. "The hatch," he stated when he saw the escape plan. I nodded, "Help me up first. I can't support you, but I can try to pull you up once I'm up." Chestin gave me arched brows and commented slyly, "I'm going to have back problems after this." "Then retire," I teased, "I'll come visit you in your apartment occasionally." I carefully made sure Chestin's grip was secure around my foot before I launched up and used my gun to shoot off the hatch attached to the roof of the elevator. With my perfectly fine arm, I used it to jab the grip of the gun into the metal top to completely remove the hatch, giving way for an opening to escape. The elevator hung suspended on a few, thick wires and ropes that haven't been checked in years. I looked down at Chestin and gave him the signal to give me that extra push from the bottom, and I used my strength to push my body up.

___PART II___
My attention was caught when a flashing green light began to beep somewhere from below. I stared at its faint glow and wondered if it was just my eye fatigue that was causing the illusion, or- "Jamie," Axel called from the earpiece. "Yeah?" "They're planning to release a bomb." I frowned, "A bomb? Who would-" Silence fell over me as my attention snapped back to the green light. It wasn't green no more. It was bright, sickening red, rapidly pulsing like a heartbeat. "Shit, I think I found him," I murmured as my eyes glared daggers into the dead man. "What?" Axel asked. "The guy Helene fought earlier, he's a suicide bomber," I informed everyone, "It's been flashing for a while now I suggest y'all climb that building fast and find Kora." There wasn't any talking from Chestin or Helene. I was getting a little worried, although I keep assuming they were busy. "The shock's going to only affect the areas around the main building," I continued trying to inform my team even if they weren't listening, "As long as you get up high enough, you'll manage somehow if the building does happen to collapse. Keep your suits close-"
BOOM!
The heat reached even my location and I had to cover my face with my suit sleeve. Thousands of broken metal, dust, steel, paper, anything at all, it all expanded and exploded. The impact was violent to the point where I saw every dead body spring up like dandelions from below, and the building seemed to have swayed a bit. It was damaged alright. Our connection became weaker and all I could hear was a loud static that irritated my ears. My eyes widened when the smell of... smoke... rose up to greet me. The heat. It didn't create a fire did it? I leaned forward from the edge of the building I was on and my expression turned dark. "Shit." No one knew there was a fire, but it was spreading fast and ruthlessly, entering the building whose structure had been holed and punched. My team didn't know there was a fire, and no matter how much I tried for the connections to spark up, it simply just didn't. "AXEL," I yelled, "AXEL!" "I'm getting the security footage," he came in shortly, "What's going on? Why are you so panicked?" "There's a fire and all three of them are inside that damned building," I shouted in frustration, "I'm leaving SS Beta formation. New plans." "Wait Jamie," Axel exclaimed, "Jamie, come in!" I pushed myself up and used the time that I was adjusting to stand up to pull out a rather long zip-line and threw it with all my might across to the main building. With the help of technology, it did manage to clasp onto the roof top of the burning building and I took a moment to load my hand guns. Taking a look at my sniping gun and backpack, I concluded that I was going to have to destroy them. Evidence was evidence. I didn't need them doing some freaky shit with my fingerprints or DNA. I kicked my equipments into the far corner of the top of the building, stood far opposite of it, and loaded my primary gun. Moments later I shot and destroyed my sniping gun, along with my bag and the debris fell off the building. It was time to join the action below. _

She spun around at the speed of light and jumped to the side, pulling the trigger at the woman behind. The woman was cut off guard and shot her own weapon without aim, getting hit in the waist from Helene's bullet. I heard groans and swift movement as my team member reloaded and guessed the precise location of one man on the side and swung her fists to the side to knock him out. The other one came for her fast from behind and held a large dagger behind her neck, hissing in her ear. "Hey pretty lady," the voice cooed and breathed out steadily, "What's a woman like you doing here at a place like this? How about we put down that gun, and do something better, huh?" "Don't move," I warned in a murmur. A split second later my snipping skills went into action and I aimed the bullet at the blade of the dagger, violently knocking it out of the man's hand. His split moment of confusion was just enough for Helene to jab him in the stomach and place a lethal punch against his strong jaw. The woman from before managed to push herself up into a standing position. I raised my eyebrows when she tried to aim her gun at me, although there was no way she could see me even with perfect vision. My location was known, that was one downside to sniping. It gave away the location of the sniper if the target was not taken care of that instant, and the enemy knew, as so we, that I couldn't just pack up my stuff and reposition in a matter of seconds. "Got it," Axel came back in, just in time for our missing team member to inform us for the 186th time, " They've got Kora." My breath hitched and I hesitated a bit before finishing my business, pulling that damn trigger on the damn woman before she even attempted to shoot me, which she couldn't. Her gun was no match for a sniping gun when it came to distance. By the time her bullet reached me, if it could reach me, I would've gone on a picnic and came back by Spring. I had held back from asking Helene any questions earlier when she was being cornered by three Trackers, but now I was free to question, "Helene, why wasn't Kora with you?" "She said she'd seen Chestin and ran off," Helene breathed out unsteadily and I heard her start jogging to a new location," I ordered her back but our guests came." "Axel," Chestin's voice came in clearer for the first time today, "Who on their team was wearing a green logo on their black suit? There was five in all, and one of them took Kora while I was preoccupied." "Elite group?" Axel came in, "Does it matter? They're heading to the third floor, as expected. Helene." "On it," she informed him. I watched her tiny figure silently move into the building as I kept watch on the area below. Anyone that came to the West Alley was taken care of, Chestin and Helene held their grounds below and were dealing with the intruders inside the cursed building. If they hurt Kora, I was going to take up the assault division position and throw some punches. Let's hope it doesn't get to that. _