Snippet #1438883

"Don't be insolent to your CO. Things can happen. Don't do it again. I will return in a while, see to things."Thane whispered in Atema’s ear. His voice held a hint of darkness that would have sent shivers up a weaker person’s spine. To Atema however, the tone was quiet comical.

“Would never dream of it, honey.” She snickered, in a voice that was just as dangerous. Thane disappeared out the door so quickly that she doubted that he heard her. One by one, the rest of her team retreated to other parts of the D.A.N. building. Wow they must be really beat. She thought.

Atema sighed when she found herself alone in the closet of a headquarters. Well that was interesting. She exited the room and again found herself walking the halls. Her brow was furrowed in deep thought. The happenings of the mission were still shrouded in mystery. All Atema knew was that her team was sent out to investigate an explosion of some kind. Obviously, there weren’t successful. However, the fact that they were injured so severely explains that the Reiken force is very skilled. Thane is the equivalent to a bulldozer. It must have taken a bunch of them rebels to take him down like that. There is no way that one Reiken was able to injure him to that extent. That would just be embarrassing. She snorted in disgust. Cheating bastards. A fair fight is one on one, even if the Commander is a mountain with legs. I’ll teach them a lesson about fairness. A slight psychotic grin lighted her face.

Silence enveloped her as she continued to walk down the halls. She was, again, utterly bored. What does it take to get some excitement around here? This has to be the most boring office in the world. They need to at least have some sort of arcade. I don’t even know if they have a cafeteria here! As if to mock her, a large pearly white door opened in front of her. A group of about twenty D.A.N. workers rushed out of what looked like to be a huge room. Atema dodged the incoming stampede of people and looked though the open door. Her jaw dropped to the floor.

A fancy, spacious room expanded before her. The sweet scent of gourmet food wafted over, making her mouth water. The scenery was dazzling and fancy with rows of glass tables filling the room along with silver dining chairs. The ever distinguishable white walls gleamed as if they were recently washed. “Another point for the D.A.N bastards!” She laughed entering the cafeteria. “Sure shows me when to doubt these guys.” With an angry stomach, she headed straight for the food line. One thing that has not changed even after Atema’s “death” was her love of food. Pretzels, steak, pickles, ice-cream, anything! You name it, she’ll eat it. They didn’t call her the Human Vacuum for nothing.

The cafeteria actually had a very large menu, to her surprise. Deciding on three cheeseburgers, a vanilla milkshake, and two orders of steak fries she approached the cook. Atema ordered without hesitation while successfully giving the frightened cook an overly friendly smile. The cook’s eyes widened in surprise, but took the order with a quick nod before disappearing into the kitchen.

Sitting down at one of the glass tables, she swallowed the cheeseburgers like a ravaging wolf. She slowed down a bit when she started to go after the fries, but her actions still gave her a few weary stares. When her meal was reduced to mutilated hamburger buns and ketchup stains, she reached for the milkshake. When she was finally satisfied with her meal she burped loudly. “Now that was good.” She laughed.

“Did you see the footage of our so called ‘Phantem Team’?” A woman’s voice whispered from the table behind Atema’s. Curiously, she strained to hear what the person behind her had to say. “I mean talk about a waste of money! That DeAlcon kid is a total embarrassment. Taken out by a kid half his size.” There was a pause in the woman’s speech. Atema assumed she was shaking her head. “I’m worried about the president’s judgment. If we continue like this, we are never going to catch those rebels.” The faint memory of the D.A.N.’s elaborate security camera’s entered her mind. No wonder the workers already knew about the mission. So Thane was defeated by just one person. It’s a shame. She shook her head. This just proved more that the Reiken were going to be a challenge. But, its noting I can’t handle. She managed to quiet her thoughts before another voice spoke.

“It’s such a disappointment. That team was looking promising, but it seems that we still have to do the dirty work.” A deep male voice whispered back. “Speaking of dirty work, the D.A.N. has been running out of victims for souls lately. Sooner or later some of us will have to be sent out again. Man I hate that job, especially when nothing goes according to plan. It’s like working with a wild animal, you never know when it’s going to pounce or in this case, decide to make a break for it.” The woman sighed.

“I’m getting too old for those cat and mouse chases. I’d rather work all day in the labs than chase around people who are dead.” There was an odd chill in the word ‘dead’. “Frankly, I wish they were dead. It would be a whole lot easier to bring them back for experimentation.”

“Sounds like you guys are in a bit of a predicament.” Atema appeared at the end of the worker’s table. The psychotic grin enhanced the insanity that shown in her dark eyes. “What if I said that my team would be able to take up this ‘Soul Hunting’ job for ya and bring in a whole lot more a collection of experiments?”

“Who are you?” The woman half growled annoyed from being interrupted. Her brittle hair was striped with gray. You could almost call her a fish look-a-like with her large eyes that appeared that they would pop out of their sockets. The comparison almost made Atema laugh in the fish woman’s face.

“The names Atema Schattens. I happen to be Phantem’s Lieutenant.” She watched in arrogant bliss as the color drained from the workers faces. Their eyes glistened with panic at the thought that a member of the team had heard their recent conversation. The woman seemed stunned, but her partner was able to respond. The man was slightly plump with dark colored skin. He looked more like a hippo than a fish, to Atema’s amusement.

“How do you suppose you can do that?” He asked hesitantly. “I mean if you are able to it would be a treat to us to not have to look for more experiments. The task takes too much of our scientific time.” Atema’s face contorted into a threatening expression.

“Do you doubt my teams abilites? Sure the mission earlier today was sort of a mishap, but did you see me during the footage?” She watched as the two took a second to recall what they had seen.

“No. I don’t believe I saw you. I would have remembered you…” She mumbled the last part, which make Atema’s grin widen.

“I can work wonders, my friends. Just give me and my team a few days and before you know it you’ll be lounging in front of the T.V. at home with all the free time you’ll have. However, there is one catch.” Her voice lowered secretly. The two had to lean closer to hear her next words. “If I give you the souls you need, you two will help me get my team a new headquarters. That cramped closet is starting to get a bit annoying.” She smiled. The hippo man looked slightly confused at her ‘catch’.

“How do you expect us to get you a new room? Do we look like a renting service to you?” The man raised his fist in the air accusingly.

“No I do not, but I see a pair of loud mouths that can get my team noticed by some higher ranking officials. For you two I don’t think it will be that much of a challenge.” They squirmed in their seats cowardly. “So do we have a deal?” Looking at each other nervously, they shrugged then sighed in defeat. Atema’s presence was haunting to a point that they couldn’t take it any more. They agreed simultaneously and shook hands with the terrifying black haired woman.

~~~

Atema rushed down the hall in impatience while searching for her lost commander. “Where is he…” She mumbled annoyed. She needed to give Thane the information about their next mission (even if it was planed without his permission). Somehow she knew he wouldn’t mind, believing that he would want to prove himself after the day’s failure. This new mission would give the team its opportunity to redeem its self. Glancing outside a window, she noticed Thanes figure sitting in the snow. One of her eyebrows raised in surprise. What is he doing out there? Shaking her head, she continued to the elevator to join him.

The lighting outside was growing darker as the sun set over the city. Snow danced lightly in the air. The cold gripped Atema’s lunges and turned her warm breath to mist. She moved to her Commander, who seemed to be meditating, though the piled up snow. The solid white powder crunched under her boots. She wasn’t wearing a jacket, but at the moment she didn’t seem to care. A fire burned in her eyes in anticipation of what was to come next.

“Hola, Mr. Boss!” She yelled waving at him. She closed the finally few feet between them in a matter of seconds. “I just got us a job. You think you’re up for it?” Her red lips turned into a smile. “Looks like we going soul hunting.”