Chapter 3: Mission Sanctioned Seven people walked into a large room. Pillars rose along its wood paneled walls and a high ceiling rested securely above them. On the nearby walls were picture of angels, on the ceiling mold there were golden cherubim stretching out their arms. "Misty, may I have a word before you speak with the Board?" Richard asked leaning up against a tall pillar. "Of course, dad." She followed him to the other side where no one could see them. "Misty, don't take this personally but I'm going to have to ask you not to speak unless you are requested to." "What? Why?" "When your temper is high you can't control what you say or what you do. The Board members we are about to speak to are the ones that decide if you get your mission to return to Ondlae. If the request is declined, you can't go." "I can't return to Ondlae unless I have some old guys' permission? That's bull! Matrix has Jade and I'm not going to let a group of people tell me I can't go on a mission just because they're not in a good mood." "I'm sorry Misty. But it's the only way we can give you support. And if you go without their consent, if you're killed, you will all be marked as rogue agents. I'm sorry Misty." "Have you spoken to them?" "I have, yes. It was this morning." "All of them?" "Yes." "What was their view on the condition?" "Not good. They're a little, how should I say, pissed off, about the boathouse incident. And you know you can't complete the mission without your cars." "Our cars? What about our cars?" "The Board believes that your cars are, not getting too old for the field and are…corrupt. They want to strip Sonya…and Phoenix." "Richard, I'm sorry but I didn't catch that last phrase you just said. It sounded to me like you said, 'they want to strip Sonya and Phoenix.' Is that right?" "Yes, Misty." "Okay I'm not shutting up!" she quickly raised her sunglasses to her forehead and marched to the two wood doors. "Misty! Don't be you!" But it was too late. The doors had closed behind her. "God, why did you give her that temper?" Misty stormed in and stopped where the others were standing, in front of the Board. "Thank you for coming especially on such tragic times." Said a middle- aged woman. "Tragic times? Yeah, but you know why we came-" "Let us return to Ondlae!" The five looked over at Melody, standing on the far end. "Excuse me, Agent Sketchit, but we cannot permit you to return." The woman replied. "We are sorry-" "Why the hell not? Why are you against us going back to that God- forsaken rock, kick Matrix's ass, grab Jade, and come back? We can all drink Cocktails." "Mel! What are you doing?" Misty whispered across the room. "Taking care of business. You just calm down, I'm taking care of this. "The answer is no. The mission is disapproved." "Excuse me, gramps, how the hell can you say that? Look at you; I'm sure you have a few kids of your own. What would you do if a schizo terrorist took one of them? Oh, right, you would have someone else get your kid back. Well you know what gramps, we're the agents you would call to go get your kid." "Does this story have a point?" he asked wincing at Melody. "Uh…" she could only stutter. "Say yes." Ash whispered. "Yes." "What is the point, then?" "Ash?" "I don't know." He replied stupidly. "Okay, you know what, I'm going to do the talking from now on, okay? You members of the Board! Endiendes?" "What?" asked another woman. "Just say si. Endiendes?" "Si." The woman replied. "Endiendes?" "Si." The man replied. "Endiendes?" "Si." The middle-aged woman replied. "Gracias." "What did you just ask us, Agent Ketchum?" "Spanish for got it. See, I got you involved! But that's only the fist step. You can get involved even more by saying we can go on the mission." "No!" they all replied. "Wha? Why the hell not?" "Because-" "Because you're afraid of his retaliation against the states!" "Excuse us, Agent Ketchum?" the old man asked, he leaned forward over the large pedestal. "You assume that if we launch an attack on Ondlae, Matrix will retaliate on the U.S. by sending either nukes or other weapons of mass destruction." "Weapon's of mass destruction?" "Yeah, or didn't you know about that?" "We didn't hear-" "In 2003 and 2004 when Bush was looking for the lost weapons of mass destruction, Saddam sent them to his old buddy Matrix. Or should I say, back to the dealer." "What?" "Matrix isn't just training terrorists on that island. By now he has a weapons factory that produces guns, missiles, tanks, ships, subs, and jets." "How do you know this when we don't?" "He told me nineteen years ago. He even showed me plans and I know where everything is. All you have to do is sign the freaking papers and sit back on your robed butts for another problem to be unleashed. Got it? Now sign the papers!" Richard sat in the back, cradling his head in his palms. They were shaking back and forth showing his disapproval of Misty's persuasive techniques. "We have decided to still disapprove." "Come on!" "Agent Ketchum, please!" "Ash, calm down, I got this." Misty cleared her throat and lowered her sunglasses to her eyes as she approached the bench. "Female Board member, hey, how's it going? Listen, I have a little problem here. You want to know what it is?" "No!" "You see, my problem is that my daughter, little Jade, she's only thirteen years old and the cutest thing you could ever see," she pulls a picture of Jade out of her purse and hands it to the Board member, "here's a picture of her. Isn't she cute?" Richard threw his hands up into the air and then slapped them back down on his face. "God! We are screwed!" "Isn't she just the cutest?" "Yes, she is Mrs. Ketchum-" "Mrs. Ketchum, please. Mrs. Ketchum, is my mother-in-law's name. My name's Misty, hi how you doing? What's your name?" "Lauren." She replied coldly. "Lauren, how you doing, listen, back to my little predicament. My daughter is on that island with a crazy terrorist named Matrix, you may have heard of him, he's the most dangerous terrorist in the world! And just incase you don't know what he looks like, here, I have a picture of the little CLB in here somewhere." Once again she began digging through her purse. "CLB?" "Yeah." At last she found the picture and laid it face down on the bench top. "He's a creepy little bastard, you see I just condensed it into a three letter title, isn't that clever? Anyway, here's a picture of that little rascal. Yeah, you can keep that, I kind of got bored one day and drew on it." The woman lifted the picture up and viewed it. The image could barely be made out. The paper was covered in pen marks around the eyes, under the nose to make a mustache, horns on the top of the image's head, and a cigarette coming out of its mouth. "Mrs. Ketchum-Misty? What are these holes from?" "What?" Misty looked down to where the woman was pointing, at the image's eyes and mouth. "Oh! That! Yeah I kind of shot it with a pistol." "A pistol?" "Yeah, a pistol. Those little hand held things that go bang bang and make bad people go away if you squeeze them. You know what, I'll just show you mine, I'll jus show you mine." "Oh my God!" Ash held back several laughs that were begging to be released. "Don't let it out Ash." Melody nudged him in the ribs. "It's too hard." "I know. I'm holding them back too." She began to chuckle. "Here that little thing is." She dropped it hard on the bench in front of Lauren. "Oh my God!" she jumped back at the sight. "Oh right, forgot to remove the clip and lock the slide. I always have it loaded, even when I sleep with it under my pillow." "You sleep with that thing under your pillow?" "Yeah, he does too." Misty pointed back to Ash whose face had now turned beat red. He quickly waved and covered his mouth again. Richard was also chuckling but his could be heard by the five. Ash looked back at Richard, his face looked as if he was dunking his head in paint. Richard simply waved and signaled for Ash to turn around before he cracked up. "Misty, would you please get that thing off of my bench?" "Of course, but if you're afraid just tell me. I won't laugh at you." "I'm not afraid. Guns just make me uncomfortable." "You know what you need? You need a Gamecube. I'll buy you one and I'll give a copy of GoldenEye Rogue Agent. Trust me, that game will lift all of your worries. It completely desensitizes you. But anyway, listen to me mumble on like an drugged up school girl. Any who! The reason I'm up here, is because you're the chick who's not letting me go onto that garbage dump Matrix calls a base, and open a can of whoop-ass on those SOBs." "SOB?" "Girl, have you ever heard of the song, 'You're out of Touch'? Now I don't know who sings it, but I can guarantee you that is describes you. But just for the record, SOB means Son…Of…a…Bitch, lest there be any confusion in the future. Moving on, you're the chick who isn't letting me go on that island. So I suggest you take that dried up prune you call a hand and sign your little signature on that piece of paper over there. I'll even hand it too you!" "No! No! No! No! You aren't going back to Ondlae! Not ever!" "Someone has some real anger issues." "Get out!" "Wha?" "Out! Get out of here!" "God, what fearless thing made permanent residents in your butt?" Misty asked backing up. "Out!" "Okay, God!" "Out!" "Okay! I can here you!" Misty and the others began walking to the door when Richard joined them. "I can not believe you just did that." "I tried to get on that island." "You're just lucky she didn't take your cars." "And by the way, Agent Ketchum. Your cars…have just been impounded. Have a nice day." The woman gave Misty a derogatory salute and then laughed at her. "Bitch, here's a salute for you! I call it the Stone Cold Salute!" Misty leaned forward and stuck up her tow middle fingers at the woman. "Well I'd never!" "You're just lucky you're an old lady or I'd run you down in my Dodge RAM SRT." The seven stood up against their sports cars, cherishing the time they had left. "Look who it is. It's the people who are going to take our cars away." Tracey replied stepping away from Phoenix. A tall man, also fat, stepped out of a black Chevrolet Silverado and approached Misty's car. "The keys." "Sorry but I have a strict rule on no people with Chevy on their body to touch my Viper. Sorry." The man leaned forward and rubbed his hands down the top of the hood to the headlights. "How do you like that? The keys!" "Boy, you are so lucky you work for this government." "What would you do if I didn't, baby?" "I'd pull you over to your truck, start it up, and stick your tongue on the drive train belt." "The keys!" She handed him the keys, reluctantly. "I'll give you a warning, you be a bitch to her, she'll be a bitch to you." "She's just a car." "The jokes on t you. Sonya, machine guns!" Immediately the cars black vents at the top of the hood slid in and two machine guns rose up and curved forward. "Oh my God!" the man jumped back against Phoenix. It's engine revved and its machine guns were contracted. "You shouldn't have touched her." Tracey said. "Turn it off! Turn it off!" "Okay, Sonya, disarm machine guns. You too Phoenix." The four machine guns all lowered back into their hiding, the cars remained calm. "Paul, let's go." Another man ordered from his seat in Jesse's yellow Ferrari 360 Spider. All of the cars started up and drove off slowly. "You're going to slow! Sonya hates that! If you keep up the constant speed of ten she'll kick your ass!" Suddenly the sound of a V10 engine accelerating roared through the garage. "That got his attention." "So what's the plan?" James asked leaning up against Richard's Mercedes-Benz SLK McLarren. "The plan was to get their approval by getting on their good side! We have Misty to thank for that." "God job Misty, I'm proud of you girl." "Thanks Mel. I try." "Come on Rich, you have to admit that she was funny." "You're absolutely right Ash. I believe it was you who saw me in the back near tears." "You were laughing dad? I always thought you English were so serious. "Ever hear of Monty Python?" "Yeah." "They're English." "So now what are we going to do?" "I have no idea. Right now you can't go, it would be illegal." "Illegal? That's what's stopping us? Illegality?" "Yes." "You told me that if we went we just wouldn't get the government's support." "And you would be titles as rogue agents." "Do we need the government's support?" Ash asked. "We took out Matrix last time." "And Misty just told Lauren that Matrix has a weapon's production center on the island. We have all the weapons right there." Melody suggested. "We still have our other vehicles. Jesse and I have our Escalade XLT, Ash and Misty have the Dodge RAM SRT, and Melody and Tracey have the Ford SVT Lightning." "I'm not going without Sonya. It wouldn't be the same. And we couldn't do it. We may last long enough to take out Matrix, but not long enough to get Jade off of the island. It's possible if we have Phoenix, but…we don't." "Hey twerp." Jesse called. "What grandma?" "I think it's been long enough since we've been the bad guys, don't you think?" "What are you getting at?" "Have you ever seen Gone in Sixty Seconds?" "Fifty cars in one night?" "We need to make a boost." "A boost?" "A big boost. Six exotics in one night." "Sounds fun." Misty replied. "Are you two serious? We can't boost our cars!" Ash said. "What's wrong Ash? Scared?" "No, we don't know where they took the cars." "I know how we can find out." "How?" "We're not getting her involved unless we get on Ondlae." Melody replied. "This is where I come in." "Don't go Misty, please?" "Richard…dad. She's your granddaughter." "I can't. I did all I could." "Not everything. Now, what I'm going to ask you will make you feel guilty…but…dad…I want you to let us go on the island. Give us our mission." "I can't-" "-But! It's not sanctioned!" "You'll have no reinforcements and you will be titled as rogue agents!" "First of all, I don't want reinforcements, it's too many people to sneak around. Second, who gives a shit? Tell me you'll let us go." "Misty, you got the mission." "Thanks dad!" "But it's not sanctioned. The mission never happened! You never returned to Ondlae! Jade escaped, and returned home! Just hide her for a year to make it look legitimate!" "All right. Thanks daddy. Now what was your idea Mel?" "Yeah, who do you know who can find our cars?" James inquired. "You all know her." "Who? James asked again. "Tory."