Dysfunctional -- Chapter 14
Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Alec, Biggs, Renfro, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (X5-121, etc.).
"So far, it's been a snoozer," 121 remarked as she, 849, and 228 sat inside a coffee shop one afternoon sipping coffee and eating sandwiches. "Those guys haven't made an appearance yet at night and the museum is much too well-guarded and out in the open during the day for them to even think about trying anything then. No complaints here. It's nice to have an easy assignment once in awhile."
"Yeah, this had been a pretty nice deal so far," 228 agreed. She finished the last bit of her sandwich and wiped her mouth with her napkin. "That wasn't a bad sandwich."
849 nodded as she took another bite of her own food. She waited until she had chewed and swallowed it before she responded to her unit mate. "Anything's better after goodness-only-knows how long of eating the food back home, but this really is pretty good." She reached for her coffee. "I might actually miss this when we return in a few days."
"You won't be the only one," 121 said. She finished her own food and waved their waitress over and got the check. She skimmed it over and got out some money and gave it and the check to the waitress. 121 looked at her watch. "The day is young. What do you want to do now?"
"I don't know." 228 looked thoughtful for a few moments. "How about we go window shopping?"
"Sounds fine to me," 849 said. "What do you think?"
"Works for me, too," 121 agreed. "Besides, we leave in two days. This is our last good chance to pick up some nice contraband." They laughed and stood up and left the coffee shop. "Where to? Anybody have any requests?"
"I just feel like wandering around," 228 said. "Let's see where the mood takes us."
"I never liked that phrase," 121 commented as they walked down the street.
"I don't care," 849 said. "It's just a phrase." She took a look around. "You think the place will still be standing when we get back?" 849 sighed. "558 is a very good soldier, but his arrogance can be so damned irritating that I want to strangle him sometimes. I can only imagine how the others are handling him, especially when they're all off duty."
"Your unit is still much more collectively stable than mine ever could be," 121 reminded her. "I don't think even the geneticists who put us together or the people who decided which soldiers went into which units could have predicted what would happen when you threw all of us together. I've got to admit, it's interesting to watch sometimes, but most of us are fucking insane. You guys know me and 494, 786 is a filthy bitch whore, 714 is a prissy bitch, 237 has anger management issues, 107 is a paranoid little fuck, if 304 was a rubber band she would snap if you just brushed her, 295 is ridiculously anal retentive, 665 and 013 are a lot like 786 except that they're not man-whores or at least they aren't that I know of, 859 believes that the world revolves around him, I think that 619 might be obsessive-compulsive but I'm not completely sure about that yet, 263, 578, 532, and 967 are just plain screwed up, and finally we have the mistress of them all. Put 263, 578, 532, and 967 together, add the bitchiness and meanness from 786 and 714 together, and take some of my tendency to be a loose cannon sometimes and you've got at the very least something that comes close to 908." She sighed. "I think that 511 is the only sane one in my unit, or at least he's the least messed up."
228 looked at 121 and grinned. "121, as messed up as it sounds and as he is, I personally think that 237 is the cutest in your unit."
121 groaned. "A: You can't be serious and B: mission aliases until we're picked up at the airport in Boston, remember Nina?" She stuck her tongue out at 228 and they all laughed.
"Yes, I remember that one, Charlotte," 228 mimicked. "I can't help it if 237 has a great body."
"All of the males have great bodies," 849 observed. "I dare either of you to think of one that doesn't have a body that you would define at the very least to be above average."
"Hmm, I don't know," 121 said. "The guy who comes the closest to fitting that criteria has to be 992 from Unit 1 and his body isn't all that bad. He's a little bit too wiry, but he does have some nice, lean muscles."
"He certainly does," 228 agreed. They stopped in front of a store and she looked in the window and sighed. "If only skirts were actually practical to wear during training. That denim one is so cute."
"It's also so expensive," 849 teased.
"I happened to notice that, Amber," 228 said. She noticed the annoyed look on 849's face and rolled her eyes. "No offense, but are you still hung up on the alias that you got? It's been six weeks and you'll only have to use it for another few days. Just let it go already."
"It's stupid as hell," 849 complained. "The name Amber itself is okay, I guess, but to add Ruby as a middle name? It makes me want to shoot myself, it's so damn stupid and pretentious. The two of you got lucky and got normal-sounding aliases."
121 shrugged. "Our cover is supposed to be as rich girls on a parental-sponsored mega-vacation here in London. You know as well as Nina and I do that a lot of the time that rich people give their kids the stupidest names, just because they can or worse, to make themselves feel important. Trust me, the thought of that makes me want to throw up as well. But we do only have a few days left, so work with it and then we can kiss Charlotte, Amber, and Nina good-bye. Don't worry."
"I know and I won't worry," 849 assured her. They continued walking along when 849 stopped suddenly in front of another store. "Holy shit, is that the most beautiful thing that you have ever seen in your life? Look at that necklace! That thing is absolutely gorgeous!"
121 turned around and laughed when she saw the diamond-and-ruby necklace in the jewelry store window that 849 was gushing about. "You know, I'm starting to think that they might have gotten one of the telepathic Psy Ops people to go into your brain and poke around in there before they gave you your alias for this mission. Come on, let's keep on going and look for something for the guys. It is really pretty, but there's no way that it's even remotely practical for you to wear it during the day back at home even if it were allowed. Come on."
"I know that, but it's gorgeous!" 849 protested.
228 started to laugh as well. "I think we found another weakness of Amber's."
"Coffee in the morning doesn't count, Nina," 121 said, grinning. "All three of us need caffeine to get ourselves moving when we get up for the day. Okay, we'll go inside but you can't get the necklace. It'll be too hard to get past the morons at home, anyway. A bracelet or a watch shouldn't be too bad and we do have the money from that bank that we robbed when we were bored that one night after our shift was done."
"Thank you," 849 said happily.
"You're welcome," 121 said. "Come on. It's time to play 'rich girls go shopping.'"
"I think I'll love this game," 228 remarked. They all laughed again and went inside the store.
TBC