Chapter 2 - What a B#tch!

“Like this mother?”

“No, you’re doing it wrong. Steadier motions.”

“Um…like this?”

“Steadier!”

“How about--ACK! IT SPILLED ON ME!!”

“Alright, alright, it hasn’t come to a boil yet. You’re okay.”

“Making soup is hard…”

“You’ll get it right one day. I’ll make sure of that.”

“Promise?”

“Yes, a promise it is, Axeleros.”

~ ~ ~ ~

The sound of loud thumping caused the sleeping hedgehog to fall out of his dream, and onto the floor. “Dammit. They never go away, do they!” he thought with eyes glaring towards the door. Getting up was not an easy task; His entire body was wrapped in the sheets of the bed. Whoever was at the door kept on knocking, louder and more vigorously, further agitating the half-asleep male. “HOLD ON. DON’T YOU GUYS HAVE SOMETHING BETTER TO DO THAN BOTHER ME?!” Axel shouted irately, still trying to untangle himself. More than a minute later, he was finally able to make his way to the door. A quick twist of the knob undid the lock, and the hedgehog flung the wooden slab open, almost hitting the person who awakened him. The young male looked up and his eyes locked with those of the auburn-haired woman dressed in silver tank top and black pants. “Do you know how long I’ve been knocking?” She inquired with a cocked eyebrow. “Do you know how long I’ve been sleeping!?” he countered her question with malice. “Fifteen hours straight. It’s one o’clock, time to make the doughnuts!” The woman smiled enthusiastically, while the hedgehog stared at her in mixture of confusion and curiosity. “…Doughnuts?”

“Um, it’s just a proverb. You’ve never heard it before?”

“No….” the hedgehog hesitated. “What’s a ‘proverb’?”

“Riiiiigght…no time to explain. Look, just, uh, get undressed, and meet me by the elevator…” the female replied while she inquisitively glanced at the hedgehog’s pants. She left the entrance of his sleeping quarters and the young male did as she said. He threw his sleepwear onto the unmade bed and buckled his shoes on. The door shut soundly when closed behind him and he proceeded to follow after the human. She continued walking at a fairly quick pace, a speed the hedgehog had to accustom to just to keep up with her. Apparently, the woman acknowledged he was walking beside her as she began scratching him on the head. Unlike last night, Axel moved away and shot an irritated look at her. “What, no freebies today?” she asked nonchalantly. “You woke me up…” he gruffly answered her with his eyes looking down at the floor. “So you have grudge against me for that?” Kita grinned while placing her hands behind her back. “Get used to it. Wake up calls around here are a whole lot earlier than what you’d expect. These next few days, you’ll be getting that extra five minutes, but once your little team is set, you will be expected to follow the rules.”

“What happens if we don’t?” The hedgehog raised his head and looked the woman in the eyes. He couldn’t help wanting to ask; he felt avoiding consequences would be easier if he knew what they were. Though he almost thought the woman wasn’t going to answer his question. Time seemed to stop and she glared down at him with a grave face. The moment was tense, and after a few seconds, made Axel lower his eyes to the floor. The female shook her head and continued her stroll, giving him the answer of “You don’t want to know”. After that, they said nothing else to each other until they reached the gated area of the hall.

A floating platform was clearly visible behind the glass fencing. It silently taunted the male as it bobbed up and down slowly. Kita didn’t hesitate to open the gate door and step onto the gravity-defying elevator, but paused once she became aware that Axel wasn’t with her. She turned towards the open hall and starred at his trembling figure. “Can’t we take the stairs?” his voice uttered in a tone that was as shaky as he was. “No, we can not take the stairs!” the female said matter-of-factly and crossed her arms against her chest. “Get over here NOW!” Her sternness nearly made the hedgehog jump. He obeyed her command, albeit at an unwilling rate. Now that both of them were standing on the platform, the young male began to dread just how fast it would move this time. He waited. And waited. And waited some more. Nothing happened, though he couldn’t tell with his eyes tightly shut. Gradually his eyelids lifted and green irises peered out from behind his bangs. The platform was moving yet the scenery of the building was not distorted from high speeds. In fact, they were going at a reasonable pace that allowed Axel to settle back into his comfort zone. He looked around and admired the craftsmanship put into the walls of the building. Intricate designs were carved through out the walls; he had never seen something so impressive. His admiration ended as his eyes met with Kita’s. She stared him down with a disturbed glare. “Why the hell are you holding my hand?” spat out of her mouth and the hedgehog soared out of his comfort zone once more. “I’m sorry!” he quickly said and his hand shot down to his side. “Wait let me guess…,” the human started up again. “Miki sent you on a wild ride last night?”

“…S-she told you?” his tense voice was low but audible. He was upset with the other female, though he didn’t want her to get in trouble. “Nah, she didn’t say anything. It’s just an easy guess”, Kita stated as she brought her hands to her hips. “You see, my sister is an idiot. Along with being an idiot, she is also a daredevil. She’ll do anything for a quick thrill.” Her eyes quickly rolled with aggravation. “The bad part is she doesn’t know when to stop. You tell her she can’t do something, and she will prove you wrong. Like this one time, some dumbass here told her she couldn’t kill a guy without touching him or using some sort of weapon.”

“What happened?”

“Well she challenged him to a duel, a pistol duel to be exact. A fair amount of people got together to watch them duke it out the next morning. Both were expected to stand back-to-back, walk ten paces, and shoot away at each other, but that was not the case. Before taking his fifth step, the man dropped dead. It was pretty surprising; he looked fine until that moment. Some days later, and autopsy revealed he was poisoned, from bleach. Then right there, Miki let the cat out of the bag. Apparently, she injected a couple of bagels in the conference room with said cleaning product. The man she challenged just so happened to pick one of those bagels that morning, and the chemicals finally finished him off by the time of the duel.”

“That’s terrible…”

“Yeah, I guess. She did get suspended for a while too, since there were others who ate those tainted bagels and felt that she deserved to be punished for bringing them such pain and suffering. But some close friends decided to throw her a party anyway.” The human began to check out her fingernails, but didn’t show much interest. “Anyway, back to the elevator thing, they only go up at high speeds.” She then made a few solid stamps on the platform with her boots. “They’re also programmed to go down at low speeds. I mean, if you went down at a fast velocity, you’d fly clean off the thing!” With those words, the hedgehog began to imagine such an event. He quickly stopped as horrible images filled his head. This conversation brought out a lot of mixed thoughts, and he felt the subject must be changed before more tales of random deaths came up. “So where are you taking me?” he quietly inquired while scratching his wrist under his glove. “Uh, Base Level. You should become familiar with it A.S.A.P.” The hedgehog looked up to her with a questioning glance. Her eyes met his, and she sighed exhaustedly. “It means ‘as soon as possible’.”

“Oh...then why should I--” Axel almost asked, but Kita interrupted him; she was not fond if answering obvious questions. “Well, for starters, it houses the cafeteria, that is if you want to eat the crap they dare to serve in there. Then there’s the library; a lot of good things in there if you need to research. Then you got the recreation center…” The woman paused and smiled. “That’s where the hot tubs are.” For awhile there was silence as she seemed to go off in a dreamy daze. The hedgehog grew restless and spoke up. “Is there anything else?”

“What?--oh, no, nothing else. This place is boring. You’ll have more fun running amok in the city.” She let a long, somewhat depressed sigh. “I wish I could be you; I’m stuck here doing errands and such for the higher ranked operatives.”

“Don’t you get a break?”

“Nope. That’s what happens when you get demoted.” Another moment of speechlessness came upon them. The word ‘demoted’ was unfamiliar to the young male. He would have asked what it meant, but he kept quiet; Kita looked rather upset now, with her arms crossed against her chest and that indifferent look returning to her eyes. He concluded that being ‘demoted’ was bad and their conversation ended there. It was the perfect timing though. The platform came to shaky halt on the building’s bottom floor. The plaza was particularly empty, a few people stood nearby and a janitor was mopping down a corner of the area. Axel waited until his counterpart noticed the ride was over. It didn’t take her long, a quick shake of her head and she started talking to him again. “That was faster than usual,” she commented while stepping off the elevator. “Maybe it’s because I had someone to talk to.” The woman watched the hedgehog step off after her. She could tell there was something on his mind as he looked up to her with an apologetic expression. “Did I upset you?” he said solemnly, yet with a concerned tone. Kita’s eyebrows quickly rose with shock. “Wha-No! What makes you think that?”

“Well, it just seems you’re upset about something. I’m sorry if I--“

“Axel, you didn’t do anything! Quit saying ‘sorry’ already!” Her voice was loud and made the hedgehog’s ears perk up in a surprised manner. She didn’t mean to shout even if she wanted to get her point a cross. She did think of his caring attitude to be sweet though. A smile steadily crawled across her face and she let out a happy chuckle. The woman gazed at the hedgehog that was now carrying a baffled expression. “Look, you’re not what my problem is. Really, I should be apologizing to you,” she said with the smile still on her face. He continued to stare at her in bewilderment. The human began to explain, “Okay how ‘bout this: you know when something happens that you don’t want to happen, but it still happens and you have no control over it?” The male carefully thought over her sentence. It was worded awkwardly, but he understood what she was trying to get at. “Yeah…” he answered her. “Well, that’s how I’m feeling today. It’ll pass, so let’s not worry too much over it, alright?”

“Alright..” For some reason, Axel felt a burst of reassurance. He didn’t know why, but it felt good. It also seemed that Kita felt that same burst too. There was a wide smile on her face plus she sighed a content sigh. She glanced at the young male and winked. “Now let’s get you where you need to be. I have other things to do today and I’ll never get to them if I’m wasting time with you!” She turned on a heel and he followed suit.

~ ~ ~ ~

The library was a fairly impressive room. Maybe it was because it had a high ceiling and windows that scaled the walls from top to bottom. Or perhaps it was the many bookshelves that almost touched the ceiling. Whatever it was, it was enough to make Axel fear getting lost in the large area. He was fine for now being that he had Kita by his side. It seemed to be especially busy this afternoon with numerous people running about, their tired arms filled with stacks of books. The pair was careful not to walk into anyone and slowly made their way to the back of the library. Now the back of the library fit the definition of the word much better. It would have been completely silent if it weren’t for the few individuals reading to themselves in a whisper and the sound of paper pages steadily being turned. The hedgehog felt he could easily take a nap here. His human companion ushered him further on until they came across a room that wasn’t entirely a room. Its walls were really bookshelves huddled together to form a small secluded space. In the center of the space was a wooden table, and sitting at the table was a girl.

The young male’s curiosity flew out the window. She wasn’t human; he could only guess she was part of some species of rodent. Her ears were large and oval shaped and her short snout ended at a pink button nose. Her hair took on a shade of creamy cinnamon plus was long and flowing. Her bangs were styled in an odd fashion; to the right were twin curls and on the left was a long, glossy lock. They didn’t hide her face like the hedgehog’s, but actually brought more attention to her features. However, her attention wasn’t set on the two people in front of her, but rather in an open book cradled in her arms. Still, if one was to really go deep into it, the girl wasn’t reading the book at all. Thin white wires trailed from her ears and down under the table. Axel noted that there some sort of sound hovering in the air, but he couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from. It seemed loudest by the girl though, since her head bobbed along with the noise. Unexpectedly, Kita began to knock loudly on the table. The girl jumped in her seat and dropped the book. Her chocolate eyes were large and alert as they fixated on the human. She made a wide smile and laughed. “I thought I was still alone. When’d you come back?” she asked and cocked her head to the side while doing so. “Well, we’ve been here for a quick minute. I do know though that those are not allowed in any library,” the women answered her and pointed to her own ears in an annoyed fashion. The younger female quickly pulled the wire from her right ear out. At the end of the wire was a small circular shell. It was also white and immediately caught Axel’s interest. The sound was definitely coming from it. It amazed him how something so little could make such a loud noise.

“Oh poo…” the girl spoke again, this time with a hint of disappointment. “That was my fave song too.” She then pulled the second cord from her other ear and brought out a box from under the table. Only a small amount of time had passed and the hedgehog’s inquisitiveness was about kill him from everything he had seen so far. The box was connected to the two cords. It was covered in several buttons and a small black screen. The girl gently pressed a button with a quick flex of her index finger. The screen flashed white, then back to black, and she wrapped the wire around the box. She closed her book then stood up and stretched her arms out. Suddenly, another sound echoed through the air. This time the sound came from the human. Kita pulled a sleek device out of her pants pocket and held it up to her ear. “Whaddaya want?” she quickly asked the device. The rest of the conversation riled her up even more: “No, I told you I’m busy today....I don’t care, get some one else to do it! Miki’s not doing anything useful ask--Don’t you fracking use that tone with me asshole!” The silence that came afterwards was awkward. The human waved her hand at her confused audience and whispered, “Hold on guys I have to take of care something, I’ll be right back.” She then walked out of the area still yelling into the device.

While the older female left, the younger walked around the table with the book in her hands. The young male’s attention focused on her again, this time his eyes traveling towards her attire. The young female wore an azure sleeveless shirt with a thick collar. The shirt ended at a bare midriff which soon started into brown skirt. The skirt had pockets and a white ribbon belt that tied into a bow on the side of her hip. Under the skirt was bit of bare legs and knee-high socks that hung loosely from their starting point to her ankles. Her shoes were an item worth talking about. They were navy blue and striped with white, but the toe, heel, and sole were incased in metal. The footwear remarkably made no sound against hardwood floor. The hedgehog continued staring in a fearful awe. He could barely remember a time where he was with a creature of his kind or his own age. It was one of those uncomfortable situations where he didn’t know how to react. The female in front of him certainly knew how to respond though. Her calmed expression turned into frenzy of feelings as she dropped the book in her arms and her brown eyes darted to Axel’s direction. “My skirt’s on backwards, isn’t it?”

“It’s on what?” The male questioned her back; from what he could tell, the skirt was on her, not anyone named ‘backwards’. “Then it’s the shirt! I knew I shouldn’t have worn this!” Her hands flew up to her head and tugged at her hair in distress. “I totally should have bought that white one! But no, they don’t have a goddamn medium! And the pink was sold out and the green--Christ, who even where’s green anymore!? And then there was that yellow one, I tried to buy it, but it wasn’t on sale--Canyoubelievethat!? So I thought ‘Hey, why not steal it? No one could miss a shirt that much!’. So then I stole it, well I tried, cause then alarms went off and stupid security went and chased me through the mall like it was their sworn duty or something, and then they caught me, but I fought back, punch that asshole right in the nose I did, but then they handcuffed me, so I started kicking em’, but then they went and handcuffed my legs too! And that’s like ‘Ohmyfriggingod, are they even allowed to do that!?’…So I started biting people…But it was totally out of self defense, cause they were trying to tase me with a friggin taser, and dammit, that stupid little of piece of crap really hurts! So the bums arrested me, at least that’s what I think happened, that dumb cell in the back of the security office can’t possible be real a threat to anyone. They kept me there for like an hour, then my mom came and she like verbally abused them and stuff and started yelling about lawsuits until they let me go. But ya know what, they let me keep the yellow one and gave me the blue as a bonus, so that says something right?”

Unlike the girl in front of him, Axel was speechless. He did not understand a word she had said and felt rather lost after her speech. The girl however stared at him looking for his opinion, unaware of the budding confusion between. Her eyes began to show worry as she wrung the edges of her skirt, making the opposite feel just as bad. He didn’t want to her hurt feelings by not answering. It would be unfair being that he hardly knew her, and she surely didn’t know him. The male decided to blindly respond, despite what the outcome would be. “I-I think it looks nice…” his nervous stutter instantly sparked the girl’s enthusiasm once again. She rewarded him with a playful, yet rough punch to the arm. “That’s what I was totally thinking! But now that I think about,” she wondered while scratching her chin. “If my mom had gone through with the suit, I coulda gotten a lot more shirts…”

“How would she do that?”

“Well duh! If you sue a friggin mall you’re bound to get some kind bling! That’s like common sense, man!” Her vigorous grin wasn’t enough to help him understand what she was saying. “…’Bling’?” was what he questioned, and it utterly disgusted her. How could he not know what one of the greatest joys of living was? “Wha--IT’S MONEY DAMMIT!! WHAT, YA LIVE UNDER FRIGGIN ROCK OR SOMETHING!?!” The hedgehog took a small step back at her outburst. After trying to be nice to her, she immediately turned the tables on him. He was at fault in his eyes though; asking too many questions usually led to trouble. The girl on the other hand would have blamed herself. They were in a library for heaven’s sake, what gave her the right to yell at anyone? She could hear the scolding voice of her mother in her ears as if the maternal figure was in the secluded space with them. The voice annoyed her enough to force her into making amends. “Aah, I don’t think I told you my name yet.” The girl quickly raised her hand out to the hedgehog. “Name’s Hana. What’s yours?” The male reluctantly accepted her friendly gesture by putting his hand in hers. “Um, it’s Ax--”

“Why good afternoon Axeleros!” pierced the calm setting. The hedgehog shivered with embarrassment while the girl looked in the direction of the new voice. In the opening of the area stood Kita, and standing by her side was a brown-haired female. She was clad in yellow tennis outfit and smiled down at Hana. “Oh, you must be the new girl! I see you’ve met Axeleros...” then she bent down to Hana’s eyelevel and smiled. “He’s a bit on the shy side though.” The human pointed towards Axel, who now looked sick to his stomach. It was an interesting observation to the girl in the blue shirt; he showed no sign of visible sickness just a moment ago. “Okay you guys,” Kita began as the other human stood back up. “Hana, this is my sister Miki.” The second woman quickly flashed a wide grin. “And the kid over there I left you with is Axel. Miki is going to show the both of you around for a bit, since my employer has something stuck up his arse. If you need me, don’t bother looking for me, because I will not come to your aid.” With that, Kita left grumbling something under breath. Without hesitation, Miki broke the silence with a question: “So, like, are you a squirrel or something?” Her inquiry was obviously directed to Hana. However she did not seem too happy to answer. She mumbled in a grave tone while glaring at the floor. “Sorry, I didn’t quite catch--”

“I’M A CHINCHILLA.” The girl loudly exclaimed. Both the human and hedgehog stared at her with wide eyes. The brown-haired woman twisted a lock of her hair, and then proceeded to speak again. “Oh...I thought chinchillas were used to make coats and stuff...”

“...They are...” Hana bitterly retorted. The topic was becoming somewhat uncomfortable, but the human kept on talking. “Ha, I guess you were one of the lucky ones, huh?” Miki began to laugh while Axel continued to stare at the other female. Her cinnamon fur hid the fuming red of her anger. It was one thing to insult a stranger, but to insult their ancestors’ troubles was completely unacceptable to her. “Are we gonna stand here all goddamn day or what?!” the chinchilla quickly inquired. It hadn’t even been five minutes yet, and she already had a strong dislike for the human. She bent down once more and picked up the book Hana had dropped before then placed it on the table. She answered the chinchilla with: “Nah, I hate libraries; their all stuffy and filled with nerds. We can go to the café to get food that is, if you want.”

“Café?” the hedgehog looked to the woman with curiosity. She gave him a shrug, “Cafeteria, mess hall, lunch room. Look, it’s got food, doesn’t matter what the hell you want to call it. So are we going?”

“Whatever, I don’t care...” Hana answered and walked out before the other two. Before she was out of their sight, she came running back, for she had left her white-wired box on the table. “Almost forgot my music!” She exclaimed while nearly pushing Axel and Miki out of her path. The chinchilla commenced with cuddling the box as the three continued their way out the library.

~ ~ ~ ~

“Oh my God, you’re friggin kidding me, right?!”

“No, I’m not...”

“But that menu over there said ‘Hamburgers’! THESE ARE NOT HAMBURGERS.”

“You’re point?”

“MY POINT!?! THIS LOOKS MORE LIKE...I don’t know, DEATH-ON-BUN!”

Even after the short walk to the cafeteria, Hana had still not come to a calm state of mind. In other words, she would not stop talking. This was mostly due to what was being served. From far away, the entrees looked edible, but up-close it was different story. The blob of meat sitting between oddly shaped and unusually colored bread was not appetizing to the female. In fact, she found the blobs immoral for not looking like the usual food found in fast food chains. “Is there anything else besides this, because I seriously think this crap is moving...”, the chinchilla tapped the glass that separated her from the food. She was thankful for this window, just in case the blobs did move and decided to attack her. “Er, I think they have crackers by the utensils and stuff.” Miki answered, while watching the younger girl continue with tapping the glass. “I swear, this must be the remains of some murder victim...” Hana mumbled to herself, carefully examining the food items before turning to the human. “Well I guess I’ll be eating crackers then. I’ll meet you back at a table.” The girl walked away, leaving Miki alone with a quiet hedgehog. She had forgotten he was at her side; he hadn’t said a word since they left the library. “Axeleros, would you like something to eat?”

“Um, s-sure...” he quietly answered, though Miki felt he wasn’t all that sure. She took him by the hand, being that he was already holding hers, and led hm to the lunch line. It wasn’t too long that they’d be standing there forever, but they were on the line for some amount of time. The entire time, the hedgehog eyed his surroundings with caution. The cafeteria was equally as large as the library; however it was a great deal louder than the previous space. There were no windows in this dank area and a strange odor floated around his head, though he couldn’t tell if the smell was coming from the sweaty man behind him and his companion. The lighting didn’t do much here; a good number of lamps were broken, and few were literally dangling on there last threads, threatening to squash anyone who dared to walk underneath. The people serving the food also looked rather frightening, as if they have never smiled once in their entire lives. Axel wished to leave, and find where ever Hana had traveled to, but it was too late, he and the brown-haired woman had reached the front of the line. In front of them was a grimy counter covered in numerous spots of unknown substances. A large metal machine sat on top of the counter, and was just as dirty. Despite this, the young male’s eyes were glued to the mass behind the counter. Standing before the two was a man of gargantuan proportions. He was a tall as he was wide, his clothes blotched with many unsightly stains, and his oily, stringy hair hid his grungy face. Axel’s fear of this man was akin to Hana’s fear of the food being served. Meanwhile, Miki’s upbeat smile shined through like usual, and began to strike up a conversation with the hulking individual. “Good afternoon Frank!” her voice rang with warmth. The hedgehog’s eyes immediately darted up to the woman’s face. How could she speak to this man with no hint of terror? He didn’t know whether to admire her bravery or shun it. For now, he watched the humans interact and made mental notes of their behavior.

Miki talked to Frank for quite the while, though he said nothing to her, except for the occasional, annoyed grunt. In fact, he seemed to ignore her the whole time as he grabbed a paper plate and splattered food on it with his plastic-gloved hands. He was about to hand her the flimsy dish when the female quickly interrupted him. “Oh wait; I need a second one Frank. It’s for my friend.” She then patted Axel on the head. “His name’s Axeleros. He’s part of the new squad the heads are assembling. But I guess that doesn’t matter to you, just means more mouths to feed, huh?” She finished speaking and punctuated her statement with a smile. With this new information, Frank looked down and glared at the horrified creature clinging to the woman’s arm. He was nearly sweating, and tried to hide himself from the intimidating stare by taking a few more steps behind Miki. The man behind the counter made a displeased grumble and grabbed another plate plus a tray. He slammed the tray on the counter yet lightly placed both dishes of food on it. The plastic tray sat lopsidedly on the counter’s surface; it seemed to be melted on one side. The hedgehog brought it upon himself to play with the tray, tapping it on the side and watching it bob up and down, while the human female reached in her pocket and pulled out multi-colored paper. Axel stopped his activities and watched once more. Frank took the paper from her, and then slammed a fist on the metal machine. Another box, hollowed out and filled with more slips of paper and coins, burst from side facing Frank. The large hand dropped the paper into the box and grabbed a handful of coins which were presented back to Miki. She happily accepted the coins and tossed them on the tray with the food. She picked up the tray with her free hand and began to depart with Axel, but not before glancing back at Frank. “Thank you Frank! See you later!” With that, the two finally left the lunch line and began to search for Hana and a table.

Since they had gotten on line, the cafeteria had become awfully crowed. It didn’t take long to find the chinchilla though, for she was sitting at metal table talking loudly, even though no one was at the table with her. The pair walked up to the lonesome table and found Hana was not talking to herself, but to a little device similar to the one Kita possessed earlier. Compared to Kita’s device, the younger female’s was smaller and a shade of blue that shimmer with gaudy rocks. Accompanying her were several empty packets of crackers and the crumbs of their no longer existent contents. Miki and Axel sat down at the table with her, but she paid no attention to their arrival and continued talking. “God Lynnsie, I miss you guys so much! Since I left it just feels like I’m missing something, which is like really weird, ‘cause I know I brought everything: My cell phone, my MP3 layer, all of my best clothes, all my necessary hair care products, some couple of hundred dollars. I mean I just don’t know what it is, ya know? ...Really? No I think I have that--WHA?! YOU dog!!”, the girl screamed, causing many heads to turn to the direction of the table. Still, she went on. “HOW THE HELL COULD YOU LET ME LEAVE RIVERTON WITHOUT GIVING BACK MY frackING LAPTOP!? NO, I DON’T WANNA HEAR THAT shoot LYNNSIE! YOU ARE SOOO NOT MY B.F.F. ANYMORE!!!” The device was slammed down onto the table’s surface, along with Hana’s head. The audience she had garnered promptly returned to whatever they were previously doing since her episode was now over. “...Is everything alright?” the hedgehog sitting across from her asked. He hesitated though; he wasn’t entirely confident if it was the right thing to do. “YES.” Her head sprang up from the table. “Everything is just fracking great! I’m stuck here with no laptop, so of course I feel fine!”

“Well, there are computers in the library Hana.” Miki tried to console her. The girl rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but I can’t check my private emails in a public area! That’s soooo taboo!”

“Is it now? I do it all the time.”

“Dammit, I don’t care what you do; I care what I do, and right now I am not checking my emails, so I am NOT happy!” The girl angrily folded her arms across her chest. Then she eyed Axel. He was eating the food that she had rejected not too long ago. This, once again, disgusted her. “You are seriously not eating that, are you?” She inquired with deadly gaze. The male avoided her face and stared at his meal. “It tastes fine to me...”

“But it looks horrible! Like someone decided to scoop up some road kill and serve it to unsuspecting people!”

“..I-I’m just glad to have any food at all.” The hedgehog was surprised by himself with what he said. The chinchilla seemed to be a tad surprised too, but the emotion faded. She mumbled a quick “whatever” and brushed her bangs out of her eyes. Hana then glanced at Miki, who was more or less playing with her food than eating it. “Why is this cafeteria is so crappy, but everything else is here is so glamorous?” she questioned, but didn’t drop her attitude.

“Oh, well, the building was just recently renovated. Actually, it still is being cleaned up and such. This place is pretty big, it’ll be awhile before everything’s done.”

“Okay, another question: What exactly will we be doing here?”

“Sorry, that’s classified until further notice.” The statement caused an awkward silence among the three. It seemed Miki’s words were somewhat rehearsed; she spoke the phrase monotonously, like a computer with no purpose but to repeat simple instructions. Of course this did not show on her face. The same bright smile made its home under her nose. Hana blinked a few times, and restarted her questionnaire. “......Ooookay, are we getting paid for whatever we’re doing here?”

“That too is classified!”

“Alright, whatever, do you at least know who the next member of this group is?!”

“C-L-A-S-S-F-I-E-D spells classified! I am sorry Hana but I really can’t tell you anything. You’ll find out later.”

“But I can’t wait that long!”

“Too bad! If everyone else has to follow these rules, than you do too.”

“FINE! What do you have to say about this Axel!?” Upon hearing his name, the hedgehog jumped and nearly choked on his food. The chinchilla was once again asking his opinion on a matter that he vaguely knew. Though this time around, he had support. “Unlike you Hana,” the human sitting next to him began. “Axeleros is tolerant, perceptive, and courteous. He respects the rules, and abides them like he knew them all his life. I recommend you regard him as the perfect example of an established member of this organization.” Another silence fell upon the table. This time it was more cold and unnerving, the essence of intimidation. Axel’s fur stood on end all over his body. He could feel the rage radiating from the girl sitting across from him. Amazingly, there was no outburst. She simple stood up and grabbed all of her cracker packets. Before leaving, she glared bitterly at Miki. “If you’re gonna sit here and lecture me like some freakin’ little kid, then I am out of here!” The chinchilla left their presence, threw her trash away in huff, and stomped off into the distance. Peace reigned over the table as the human placed her hand on Axel’s head. “I think she likes you!” she exclaimed cheerily. The hedgehog was not as happy though; he knew, for fact, that he’d never want to be with Hana in dark alley way.

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