"Well shit... Not only are we doing well and made it to the finals, we dont even have to compete in any other events until the finals. Ain't that some shit" Michelle commented to the team after the results to the objective destruction event were announced.

"Wait, i dont have to compete then"? Allison questioned. "We don't get any kind of advantages for having more points than other teams or something"?

"Nope. That would imply some degree of leniency per given effort. This organization isn’t so nice. In any case, given the circumstances around us, it's better this way, less risk. We can come up with some strategies or something tomorrow since we hardly ever all act as a team. Honestly, our teamwork will be the biggest hurdle of this entire competition" Michelle replied.

Mark followed up “It’s hard to believe we took first in so many events. I guess it’s due to the fact that we werent fighting each other or something”.

Jessica commented “also, with Allison’s skill set and temperament, our shortcomings have been covered pretty well. Guess we owe you one newbie”. Jessica stuck out her tongue at Allison who was smiling with a light blush.

“Oh, that reminds me, I owe you a meal too, how about dinner sometime tomorrow?” Jesse questioned.

Most of the team, save Michelle, who reads people easily, and Aaron, who couldn’t care less, gave them curious and questionable looks. Jesse merely shrugged his shoulders “What, I lost a bet on my own terms. No big deal”.

David raised an eyebrow “That may be so, but ever so casually asking someone out like that. Either you are fairly confident in yourself and her answer, or you’re one hell of a dog. So, which is it Mr. Ladies’ Man”?

“You’re just jealous that I can actually do that. If you did, I’m sure you’d have to answer to Jessica. Not that you can’t take her down, but it’d probably be more trouble than it’s worth” Javon made his first comment, a jab at David.

Allison stared wide-eyed “Wait, David and Jessica are a thing?! Why hasn’t anyone told me about this?! This is interesting stuff here. Any other team romances I should know about”?

Jessica blushed. “No, not really, it’s just that David-kun is so kawaii, I couldn’t resist”.

“Babe, that’s embarrassing as fuck, quit it” David replied with a blush of his own.

Allison just stared blankly at the pair. “Right, you’re an anime fan. Took me a second to connect the dots here. So, what’s your story anyway? How’d you guys meet”?

“Aww fuck, I was not prepared for this. Since she’s embarrassed me enough, I’m gonna suggest a change of location.

Allison nodded “I vote Aaron’s room”.

“What?! Why the fuck do you wanna go to my room? If that’s your subtle way of making a pass at me, I’m not interested” Aaron said rather horridly, taken aback by the sudden development. “Anyways, Jessie never answered. That confident, or that much of a ladies’ man”? Skillfully deflecting attention away from him, everyone’s gazes turned back towards Jesse.

Jesse scratched his head “Are those my only choices? I kinda get the feeling I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t. She hasn’t even replied yet ya know”.

“What, the hot potato is strong with this group” Jessica sighed as everyone’s attention now shifted towards Allison.

Allison, now red to her ears with everyone’s stares, finally spoke. “It’s not like it’s a date or something. Geez guys. And quit staring”! She glanced over at Emilia for some help, but she was merely staring at the ground and fiddling with her right arm. “Ems, you ok”? A few seconds passed. Allison slowly approached and heard Emilia grumbling.

“Fucking thing wont switch…”

Allison stopped in her tracks 3 steps in front of Emilia. Emilia paused and raised her arm, pointing it up at the elbow. The rifle configuration was in plain sight, almost as if presented to her. Emilia looked up with hollow eyes and a fiendish grin “Fixed it”!

Allison staggered backwards a few steps “Ok, about the aura of death… I’ll just…” Allison hurriedly ran behind Michelle who reached at her belt for a throwing knife. Michelle paused “Emi, Allison won’t help you with those duckie boots if you don’t put that away…”

Emilia instantly returned her arm to its original state and changed to a happy smile instead of a murderous one. Michelle continued speaking to direct the conversation into what should’ve be a safer direction. “Since we’re done playing hot potato attention, we’ll finish Jessica and David’s story in my room. No one has any complains right”?

This time, everyone stared at Michelle, who simply glared back. “What”?

Javon muttered “As far as I know, no one’s ever been in your room, much less invited there”.

“What he said” Aaron followed up.

“Whatever. Let’s get going already” Michelle commanded as she led the way back towards the living quarters. The party of nine arrived at the door to Michelle’s room a few minutes later. Michelle stopped in front of the door and glared at everyone. “If any of you so much as utter a word of anything you see here to anyone else, the day I find out will be your last day walking this earth, go it”?

Allison gulped “I’m not sure if I’m mentally prepared for this…”

“After some of the shit we’ve experienced, try us” Aaron spoke on everyone else’s behalf.

“Oh, this should be good. I get to find out a bit about Michelle’s private life” Jesse grinned. He received an especially strong glare from Michelle the following instant.

“Anyone wanna find out what happens if I make good on that threat”? Michelle asked as she raised an eyebrow.

Everyone simultaneously shook their heads, to which Michelle nodded in contentment “Good”, after which, she opened the door, and everyone proceeded inside.

Allison stared “Why is your room so big? It’s the size of Mark’s lab”!

Mark asked next “And why so pink”?

“Shut it! I haven’t gotten a chance to pain over it yet. I was gonna paint it purple, and change out all the furniture and stuff, but I’m short, and that shit’s heavy. Besides, I don’t hate pink to the degree that I’d go through that much trouble”. Michelle glanced at Allison as she continued, “team leaders tend to get larger rooms. Members with special circumstances also get larger rooms. Mark’s lab was originally supposed to be Emilia’s room actually. Jesse and Mark’s rooms, or labs, would’ve been right next to each other as well. However, due to the nature of either of their work, it was decided that they should not be close. Also, a firefight between Jesse and Conrad destroyed that room, which is why Jesse has a just slightly larger than normal-sized room”.

Emilia continued “I didn’t like the idea of having a lab as a room. Even if I could customize it til my heart’s content, it is what it is, a lab. I’ll take a bed over a table any day. I don’t mind a walk to Mark’s lab to get my stuff”.

“But what about Mark? Isnt that an invasion of his privacy or something”? Allison questioned.

“Not really. There’s a status light near his room door. Green is safe to enter, red is not safe, yellow is enter at your own risk. It’s usually green since his actual room is above the lab”.

Mark followed with “Yeah, if I don’t feel like being bothered, I go up to my room, I just leave the lab open all the time. If the room status shows don’t go in, it’s probably more like someone is changing or Emilia’s having some maintenance done or something. The only other option is that Rinoa has judged that the lab is not safe to enter. That will happen when she’s deployed the auto turrets or something. In any case, it’s rare. Now, back to Michelle and this room thing, you know you can ask us for help, right”?

“Huh”? Michelle tilted her head in confusion.

“We’re a team ya know. We don’t mind helping out, at least I don’t mind” Mark nodded.

“Same here” Allison replied. All around the room, each member nodded or spoke in agreement, even Aaron..

“You know, for someone who’s supposedly a genius, you sure are dumb sometimes. Just ask for help like any other normal person” Javon teased.

“Shut up! I don’t wanna hear anyone from this team even claim to be remotely normal. The closest one to normal is Allison, and even I have my doubts there” a blushing Michelle protested.

“Are you saying I’m weird”?! Allison shouted.

“Well, you’re here. You haven’t been killed, haven’t killed anyone, and as far as I can tell, you haven’t made a bad impression on anyone. No normal person could accomplish all of that on this team. If you were normal, you’d have probably been killed within the first week, or at least the first time Conrad showed up. You can try and argue all you want, but you know I’m right. I am a genius after all”. Michelle commented while puffing out her terribly flat chest.

Allison and Emilia both giggled, to which Michelle started sulking. Michelle tried to put on a tough face and continued. “Well, I drug everyone here just so we could talk. Since we’re all here and not trying to kill each other, might as well share some stuff. I went first since this is my room and I’m sure none of you expected it. In any case, the topic was Jessica and David. Start talking you lovebirds”.

“What’s this, Michelle is the romantic type? Who would have guessed that”? Allison grinned.

“They, focus on them, not me, I didn’t even say anything about my tastes” Michelle blushed.

“You are far too cute, now, lets hear their story” Allison pat Michelle’s bed, which she’d already taken a seat on. Michelle walked over like an obedient child and took a seat, wrapping her arms around Allison.

Everyone turned their attention to Jessica and David. David looked around uncomfortably “Well, this is embarrassing. I guess it started a few years ago, sometime before team lambda was actually formed”.

[Four years ago, somewhere in the world]

“This agency is retarded, how did I even get in this line of work”? Jessica muttered under her breath.

Her captain, Esmeralda, replied to the rhetorical question “you applied, passed, and were hired, same as most of the other people here. Whether or not it was what was listed in the actual job description is beside the point. Anyways, we have a job to do, just wait for Alpha team to finish recon and then we can go straight in”.

“That’s exactly the point. We’re always waiting on team Alpha, but we’re ALWAYS deployed together, as if we’re one single team. It makes no sense”.

“Well, most of us aren't exactly the most skilled at recording and reporting the data, but we’re silent and can move well, you even moreso. You have acrobatics training, were in gymnastics since you were 5, and are skilled in Tae-Kwan-Do, kickboxing, Aikido, and Capoeira. In addition, you move nearly silently, as if you were a trained ninja or something. You could be on quite a few teams in the agency. I’m surprised you haven’t been on team Gamma a time or 2 by now. Come to think of it, there are a few people who should’ve probably been on that team”.

“Like who”?

“David, from Alpha. He can fight, he’s really sneaky, and actually remembers things well enough to be on that team. He’s also kinda cute, don’t you think”? Esmeralda winked as she completed her explaination.

Jessica glanced in the direction of a warehouse complex, just in time to see the man in question returning. She lightly blushed and mumbled “Yeah, I guess he is, but that’s not what we were talking about”!

David tilted his head in wonder as he approached. “Did I miss something here”?

“No, nothing at all”! jessica blurted out as she turned towards Esmeralda. “It’s our turn now, right”?

“Yeah, though we’ve been through this a few times now. I’d hoped you’d know this already. Guess you lag a bit…” David teased.

“Hey, what the hell, this isn’t Sword Art. People don’t lag”! Jessica growled.

“Ha, so you did get the reference” David grinned as he walked off. Jessica paused, frozen in shock for a moment.

“How did you…”?

“Your necklace, that teardrop. Hard for a fan to not notice which you’re wearing 1 as a necklace and 2 as bracelets”.

“Oh... well... uhm…” Jessica stood in a stupor.

“Loading reply, please wait… We don’t have time for this. You can give some witty comeback later, we have a job to do, and by ‘we’, I mean ‘you’ since I’m already done. I expect some witty comment, so be sure to make it back in one piece”. David waved and continued walking back to his team’s pick up point.

“That little…”

“Cutie”? Esmeralda interrupted, adding her own ending to Jessica’s sentence.

“Yes? Wait… NO, NOT WHAT WE WERE TALKING ABOUT”!

“You know, outbursts like that are part of why you were moved from team alpha to this team…”

“Shut it or you’ll meet my wolf fang fist”.

“C’mon, everyone knows Yamcha was the most useless character in that entire series. You could’ve at least come up with a scarier threat. Even an angry pixie would be more frightening”.

Jessica sighed and turned toward the complex. “I’m not even…”

“In love with him yet”?

“GOD-FUCKING DAMNIT! SHUT THE FUCK UP ESMERALDA”!

David appeared a moment later. “You know, outbursts like that are gonna get us all killed. Now you’ve turned it into a 2 person job since you probably called attention to us. I’ll go in and help keep an eye on things. My team will be backing me up. You and Esmeralda are the only ones who came from Beta right”?

“Yeah. Too bad I’m assigned in another wing of the compound. I’m the squad captain, I’ll be fine going solo, but based in your field record Jess, looks like you’ll need a buddy. I nominate David here, since we have to move quickly. Also, David, as field commander of my unit, I have a higher rank than you. I suggest you get going” Esmeralda ordered.

“We aren't in the same division” David muttered as he raised an eyebrow.

“It’s a joint unit job, didn’t you know that I was assigned as the field commander. Your director is my subordinate too. Enough talk, move that ass. Do you dislike Jessica that much”?

“There’s apparently no winning with you” David grumbled as he headed towards the complex.

After infiltration and retrieving the requested data, Jessica unnecessarily knocked out 4 guards on the way out.

[Back to the present]

“And that’s about how our first real non-mission essential interaction went” David finished.

Michelle followed up “and after that, since you two were made so aware of each other, you couldn’t help but seek each other out, even if you didn’t realize it. Makes sense, a guy and girl constantly in dangerous situations. Suspension bridge effect much”?

“Are you analyzing our relationship and chalking it up to a psychological phenomenon”? David asked with raised eyebrows.

“Well, look at that, he knows big words” Aaron laughed.

Michelle answered the rhetorical question “Yeah, I did, and Aaron, that shit is why no one fucking likes you”.

“Ouch, coming from you, that hurt” Aaron glared at Michelle while speaking

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean”?! Michelle roared.

“Hey now, I think those two make a decent couple. Now that I know the story I can totally see it. It’s legit, none of the psych mumbo-jumbo included” Allison grinned in Jessica and David’s direction. “So, before Aaron and Michelle start a death-match, I have a question. What’s the story behind this team?- Like, I get why you guys are here, I think. I wanna know why the hell anyone would make a team like this”.

Everyone returned complicated expressions upon hearing Allison’s question.

“Uhm, about that…” Mark paused as he spoke, glancing at Michelle, Jesse, and Emilia. “I know I’m just as much a part of this team as any of us, and that includes you Allison, but I don’t think it’s up to me to tell that one. I’m up for the story being shared though.

Javon, Aaron, Jessica, and David nodded in agreement with Mark’s words.

“Well, I’m the team lead, I have no issue with it, but I’ll leave it to Jesse and Emilia to tell”. Michelle passed the attention to the two who were sitting across the room from each other.

Jesse narrowed his eyes at Allison and quickly drew one of his pistols, aiming it directly at her forehead. The responses were instantaneous. Michelle quickly drew two throwing knives, aimed and ready to be thrown. Emilia raised her arm-rifle, loaded and ready. David and Jessica got up and were knocked Jessica down, bumping heads in the process. Javon had a pistol ready at his side, and even Aaron and Mark were in combat stances.

“Alright, alright, I get it. The story just hits closer to home that I’d like to admit is all. I’ll allow it if its OK with Emilia” Jesse said as he lowered his gun, returning it to its holster.

“If I wasn’t OK with it, I’d have already shot you. I suppose we’ll take turns telling parts. I’ll let Michelle…”

“Oh fuck no. You fuckers have drawn weapons and shit. We aren’t having this again. I’ll start, but once Jesse gets introduced, I’m tagging out. If any more weapons get drawn, I don’t think this will just remain as a standoff”. Michelle glared at Jesse as she continued. “So, it was 2 and a half years ago or so…”