"Hey Amelia, why are you assigned to work with Lina and not in a classroom like most orange agents?" Gourry asked after they left the training class wing.
"What you mean he actually remembered something?! Just how did you manage that?!" Zelgadis spoke in shock.
"Well when Amelia said that she was an orange agent, it kinda got me thinking about oranges and I have been craving them since."
"Food, it always comes back to food..." Zelgadis muttered under his breath.
"To answer your question Mr. Gourry, I did go to those classes for a period of time. My dad just thought that I might benefit more from a great agent like Miss Lina if I tagged along on her missions." Amelia beamed with pride.
"Funny, I remember hearing that you begged your dad to convince them to let you be my 'partner'."
"(nervous laughter) Um, where did you hear a thing like that?"
"Why would your dad be able to influence the STF anyway?"
"Because Martina her dad is the mayor of this city. What are you too self involved to keep track of the real world?" Yet again Zangulus shooting his mouth off.
"Why you little! GRRRR!!!" And thus the Zangulus bashing commenced.
"Do they do this all the time?" Lina whispered to Zelgadis and Gourry.
"As long as I have known them they have."
"Why would they do this anyway?"
"There are many theories floating around at the LPD station. Personally I have no clue." Zelgadis whispered as Martina gave the final blow leaving a thoroughly beaten Zangulus pancake.
"Ouch I'm in pain..."
"Well it's just the same since we are heading over the science labs you can get one off medics to give you a look over."
Thus the group dragged the injured Zangulus down the main flights of stairs and the many halls leading down to the science labs.
"The medical room is just down this hall, the last door." Lina said motioning to the said direction. As they drew nearer to their destined location sounds of things being broken and loud scream like yells could be heard.
"Oh just great the fruitcake is here. Man I was hoping he was helping in one of the other labs today!"
"What problem would there be if this Xellos guy was there?"
"Just you wait and see." Lina said pushing the button on the control panel next to the door. The door automatically opened and Lina was greeted by a rather large object on a crash course for her head. Everything turned black.
Lina opened her eyes slowly. Her head was pounding.
"Oh I am so sorry Lina! Are you okay?" A very concerned Filia said with an apologetic expression.
One thought processed through Lina's head. She feels sorry, so she was the one who hit me.
Now let's take a time out here. What do you think Lina would be doing in a situation like this? Hmm? Got your guess? Okay then let's get back to the story shall we?
"ARE YOU NUTS?!" Lina screamed while hitting Filia on the head.
"It's all that stupid rotten trashes fault! I was trying to hit him!"
"Ah Filia-dear why don't you just fess up. We all know that you couldn't hit me. Why think about how sad you would be considering how you feel about me?" Xellos grinned like a contented cat.
"Why you! Of all the stupid things! ARGGHHH! You are DEAD!" (And now we test the group's skills at dogging) Numerous objects went flying in many directions. Many of them much to heavy for a normal woman like Filia to be throwing. But who says Filia is normal?
"Miss Filia would you please calm down? Mister Xellos is just trying to annoy you. By reacting this way you are giving him exactly what he wants."
"I don't care! If he has a death wish then I'll help things through!"
Several spats latter Lina and the gang had Filia calmed down and Xellos tied and gagged in the corner.
"I'm so sorry about all that. Are you all okay?" Filia spoke with her usual unwavering concern and politeness. (Hey even the author is entitled to sarcasm.)
"Filia why can't you just control your temper around him? How do you guys manage when you are treating many heavily injured patients?"
"When we are in situations like that, that slimy frog there usually has the decency to keep his big mouth shut. I hate working with him!" Filia kicked a nearby examining table and proceeded in hurting her foot. Xellos snickered under his gag and Filia shot him a dirty look.
"What is it that you guys do?"
"Well I'm the head medical agent in the STF yellow department. I specialize in all sorts of fields. I act as both head biological researcher and doctor. Xellos is one of the top assistant medical agents that I'm forced to work with. If it hadn't been for his acute abilities with micro surgery and high level medical scanner use then I would be able to boot his ass out of here. But he's too valuable so I'm stuck with him." Filia almost spat out. (Relm: I know what you are thinking. Xellos, a doctor? And a good one at that? ^_^ Hey I've seen weirder things than that in many other fanfics.)
"How can you say you don't like me when you complement me like that?" Xellos grinned as he hugged Filia from behind. What did Filia do? She screamed and Xellos went flying into a wall.
"How did he get out of the ropes?"
"I don't know but it doesn't look like he's getting up any time soon. Um Filia I think you hit him a bit too hard. He's not moving."
"So?"
"I think you really hurt him."
Filia just eyed the unmoving form of the ever-so-annoying Xellos. He was lying on the floor on his stomach. Her face lost some of its anger. In fact she looked a bit worried if even. I did hit him a little hard. But he I've hit him harder than that and was fine before... She knelt down beside him and turned him over. His face was expressionless and his eyes closed.
"BOOOOOO!" Xellos yelled at her while opening his eyes.
Filia screamed a fell backwards clutching her chest.
"Damn you! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Filia screamed at him only Xellos wasn't listening. He was laughing way too hard.
"YOU ARE A DEAD MAN!"
"Miss Lina why is Mister Xellos coming with us?" Amelia asked Lina as they left the medical lab.
"Because poor Filia is already fed up with that annoying Xellos so I figured that since we are heading over to the research labs we might as well take him with us."
"But Miss Lina isn't he going to be annoying us now?"
"Yeah but Filia has to deal with it everyday. She only deserves a break."
"Miss Lina why do you talk about Mister Xellos like he's some sort of virus?"
"Look at him doesn't he look like one?"
And the said 'virus' smiled at them. Like usual his smile seemed too smug like he knew something he shouldn't.
"So Lina where are we going next?"
"Um let's see... I guess I should take you guys over to the main research lab."
"My, my now isn't Lina playing the good little tour guide. Are you getting paid more for this or do you have ulterior motives?" Xellos grinned while staring in Zelgadis' generally direction. (Well would be staring, if his eyes were open.)
Lina raised an eyebrow with a twisted smile and latched on to Zelgadis' arm.
"Now what ever gave you that idea? But you know, if you like Filia in that way why don't you just tell her? But I bet you are afraid that if you do she'll just drop you like a rock."
"Wha-what are you talking about?! I don't like that irritating abusive blond golden dragon at all!"
"Then why are you blushing?"
Lina succeeded where many had not. She had successfully managed to shut Xellos up. Well I've known that fruitcake for far too long for me not to be able to push a few of his buttons.
"And who said having Xellos around would be so bad?" Lina whispered to both Amelia and Zelgadis as she let go of Zel's arm. Amelia giggled, but Zelgadis was quiet. He was having enough trouble trying to keep the blush on his face down.
And just when they thought they thought that they couldn't get any lower underground they went another seven floors down. And no they didn't use an elevator; it was stairs all the way down.
"Are we going to have to take the stairs all the way back up later?"
"No, there's an elevator that we can take down there. Why are you guys tired?" Lina looked behind her. What she found was a very tired Amelia, Gourry, Martina, Xellos and Zangulus. Zelgadis on the other hand seemed fine just like Lina.
"Wimps. But don't worry we are almost there."
One flight later they were at the bottom. An electronic interface awaited them. With a few clicks on a keyboard, eye scan and voice scan they were in the lab. And what a busy place it was. There were people everywhere and they were all working on something.
"The stuff that usually down here is weapons design. Fallow me, I'll take you to meet our head yellow agent."
"I thought Filia was the head." Zangulus asked Amelia.
"Well no actually not. She's the head medical agent. Her research is about the body; the head yellow agent does more than just medical stuff. He's the top researcher in everything a yellow agent does."
"Wow sounds like a pretty intelligent guy."
"Yeah he's intelligent alright, even if he's a bit strange."
Lina lead them over to a man with shoulder length purple hair hunched over a table working on some items that appeared to be bio guns.
"Hey Rezo! Whatcha doing?" Lina said with a bright smile. Rezo turned around and looked at her through his cybernetic eye implants.
"Well hello Lina how are you?"
"Grandfather?!" Zelgadis exclaimed when he got a good look at the STF top yellow agent.
"Oh my! Zelgadis! How good it is too see you!"
"WHAT?! Zel he's your grandfather?"
"Well great-grandfather actually. But Grandfather, you work for the STF?"
"Oh yes I've worked here all my life, funny how you never found out before. But then considering how secretive the STF is I'm not surprised it's been a secret till now. But yes I have worked here a long time. How else do you think that I was able to get these eye implants? Being blind only drew me to science. I joined the STF in hopes that I could find a way to cure it. And when I did I found myself hooked and I've been addicted to science and research since then."
"Yeah your great-grandfather is the greatest inventor that the STF has ever known."
"Well maybe that's going a bit much but I'd like to think I'm pretty good. In fact right now I'm working on some new enhanced bio guns, only there seems to be a few problems with them."
"Like what?"
"Well Lina look at this gun." Rezo handed Lina one of his inventions. Right upon holding Lina loved the gun. It was a perfect size and weight and you could just tell that it could pack quite a punch.
"Ooooh! This is such a good bio gun. What is wrong with it anyway?" Lina fiddled around with it aiming at the practice wall for new weapons.
"Well you see it has a habit of - "
The gun exploded in Lina's hands once she fired it.
"Exploding when you fire it."
"(cough) Why didn't you (cough) tell me (cough) in the first place?!"
"I was getting around to it. Ah and this gun also has a flaw too." Rezo picked up another one.
"This one doesn't blow up when you shoot it does it?" Lina said taking it from Rezo's hands.
"Oh no it only has a problem with it's cooling system - "
Lina fired it and it shoot out a nice shot right on target.
"And it over heats when you fire it."
"YYEEEELLLLPPPP!" Lina threw down the gun clutching her now burned hands.
"Oh my are you alright?"
Lina just glared at the yellow agent.
"Do you have one that wont burn or explode on me when I fire it?"
"Yes this one."
Lina picked it up favoring her hurting hands and stared at it with narrowed eyes.
"It also has a problem with it's cooling system - "
Lina fired this gun. Like the one that burned her it was a good shot.
"It over cools the gun when it's fired."
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Lina threw this gun down too. Not because it was too hot, but too cold. It froze her hands. She grabbed Rezo by the shirt and brought him to eye level. Rezo even with cybernetic eye implants could see the anger and trying patience in her eyes.
"Do you have a gun that will not burn me, freeze me, explode on me, or cause any other type of pain towards me?"
"Why yes this last one."
Lina picked it up wearily and aimed it to fire.
"Its problem is that - "
Lina clicked the trigger.
"It doesn't work."
(collective facefaults)
"So you can see why I'm having a bit of trouble."
Lina was very close to viciously mauling Rezo but with her eye twitching she managed to refrain from doing so.
"So Rezo why don't you give the LPD agents here a little idea of what it is that you do?"
"They've got you doing tour duty? My how drole. Um let's see now what do I do on a normal day? Hmm... I guess I could just give you a rundown on what I did yesterday. It all started with that incident with agent Fielding..."
25 minutes later...
"...and then I went home. Was that informative enough for you all?"
All of them dumbly nodded. Rezo had talked more in detail than what they were expecting. Who knew a guy could blab on for so long?
"Would you guys like to hear about what I did two days ago? It was an even more interesting day than yesterday."
Lina cringed. She was sorry she had even asked in the first place. Even Xellos seemed a bit fearful that Rezo might start up another days recounting. This would be a great time to look at my watch and see that we have to go or we will be late. But off course I wont be that lucky. Still Lina took a peek at her watch. Well she didn't see that she needed to leave or she would be late, she was already late. It was already 3:05!
"HOLY SHIT! We have to leave now!"
"Why Miss Lina it's only oh my god we have to go! I can't believe it's already past three!"
"Why Lina where were you all supposed to be at three?"
"Room 34A in the green section. I'm dead! It will take over fifteen minutes to get there from here and - " Lina didn't finish her sentence because they suddenly appeared in front of room 34A.
"How did we? Damn monster! You should have told me you we going to do that! But I guess I should thank you. But anyway Xellos we have to go."
"Alright Lina. I shall see you all another day."
"What do you mean, 'another day'? The LPD officers are only here for today!" Lina yelled at Xellos as he walked away. But it was pointless he just phased out teleporting elsewhere.
"Oh well I guess we should go in."
"Um, but don't they get angry at you for being late?"
"Yeah but it's not as severe as Whynn said. That's just tactic they use on trainees. Red agents pass level 3 are given a bit more lenience."
"So the person wont be angry then?"
"Oh it depends on who it is really."
"But it's a green agent right? How are they for tardiness?"
"Generally very brutal. Enough chat; let's go in already! I've been dying to know who set this thing up!" Lina opened the door abruptly and it slammed against the wall. A large man with cold gray eyes sat inside the room glaring at them.