The first thing MAL did to "Help" us was attempt to split Group Sigma up, having been convinced that being forced to sleep in the same room together would be a detriment to our independence as people and seeing as they were trying to rehabilitate us, anything that went on in the Agency was a big no-no.
It did not work.
I was afraid of the dark, Edge was afraid of the dark, Wolf was afraid of being alone, Love wanted to be where everyone else was, AND was afraid of the dark.
Imagine MAL's face when she came in to respond to several guards reporting us missing, then finding us all heaped up in the game room in front of the TV, asleep next to each other on bed sheets that had been torn from their mattresses.
MAL moved all our beds into a single bunk room after that.
She also tried to isolate each of us from one another in an attempt to curb our underage intimacy.
An admirable attempt, but once again it was unsuccessful.
I warned MAL of what would happen, but as adults in charge tend to do, she discounted my warning for teenage hormones playing hell with my common sense. My natural urges notwithstanding, teenage hormones are what escalated the situation, the prolonged separation from the group, combined with her being sequestered quietly in a separate wing of the facility, alone and scared shitless to be caught away from us with the sun down.
All these factors caused Love to go a bit stir-crazy. In her panicked rage, she destroyed an entire wing of the facility looking for us, screaming our names and sobbing while the facility guards did their utmost to take her down without really hurting her. It was only after she found us that they managed to subdue her, the next morning I came to visit the medical wing.
"Love!" Green shouted as the whole group rushed into the Infirmary, I was terrified that she'd permanently injured herself, but then I saw her.
She was fine, bruised and scratched, with a nasty gash across her forehead that had been stapled shut, her hands were mangled, all splinted and held in place with braces, but other than that, she was fine.
"Hey Green...Edge, Wolf..." she huffed, "Took you guys long enough to come see me."
Edge grumbled, "If it wasn't for this MAL lady, we wouldn't need to be here."
Wolf was silent, her face impassive beneath her goggles.
I sat next to her bed, "you...were using your fingers this whole time? Like..." I made a flicking motion with my thumb and forefinger and she nodded.
"Caught you off guard, huh?" She giggled, returning to her usually cheery ditzy self, "Turns out I can be smart too."
I put a hand on her cheek and she nuzzles me, "Nobody said you weren't smart."
She leaned forward and kissed me, falling back against the pillow with another giggle, "yea right."
Wolf walked up and sat on the bed, gently smacking Love's thigh, "You're smart too, dumbass."
"Damn right." Was all Edge had to say, he was having difficulty looking at her hands, "And don't you forget it."
Love looked at Edge, "What's wrong, Edge?"
He continued to look away, seeming slightly green, "I hate seeing you guys hurt at all...it messes with my stomach."
She cackled, the idea of one of us being grossed out at anything was laughable, but something as simple as broken hands made her laugh harder, Edge just looked upset that she was laughing.
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In response she swung her arms wide, giggling again, "Then pretend I'm not and come give me a hug."
With no hesitation at all, Edge did lay down with his head on her chest, she gently closed her arms around him.
"It's ok."
After weeks of repeated tries, Eventually, MAL accepted that she couldn't change us and moved on the the next phase, which she had been told.was only an option if rehabilitation was impossible.
Employment.
One day, MAL called our squad into her office, standing there with MAL were two older men, one was clean-shaven with a full head of gray hair, and steely blue eyes, and one who was brown eyed and bald with a full gray beard. I would later know these men as Grand master Benz (full head of hair) and Commander Pillum (bald/beard), both of them in dark blue Military uniform but with commendation badges I didn't recognize.
MAL addressed and introduced us, "Welcome Team Sigma." said Grand master Benz, "I trust your stay hasn't been too stressful, what with MAL here bumbling about trying to fix what cant be fixed."
"HEY!" MAL interjected with a hurt look on her face.
Edge laughed, "I like how you didn't say "what isn't broken." He ended the sentence with a sad look which Grand master Benz returned, "I'm sorry for everything you all have been through, but since there's no real way to rehabilitate you, we could..."
"Of course we'll work for you, it's what we were designed for." Wolf spoke up eagerly, shocking both of the officers as she adjusted her black goggles, "Enthusiasm's all well and good, but I'm still dubious about hiring a group of mentally ill children, regardless of any powers or skills they may have." said Commander Pillum, addressing the Grand master like we weren't even there.
Wolf twitched in his direction, I grabbed her shoulder just as fast as she could attempt to move towards him, we could not afford to be thrown out of here, this was our LAST chance to do what we were made for, to belong somewhere, "he didn't mean it." I whisper, "he doesn't know."
He did in fact know, but was choosing to either be coy or be intentionally insulting, I never really learned which.
Grand master Benz stepped in front of the Commander towards us, a deliberate move that implied he knew what we could do and was similarly determined as I was not to let that happen, "Forgive Pillum, my friends, he's not as tactful as we'd all like to be. We're glad you want to work for us, exhilarated in fact! Because we have an assignment that could use some fresh eyes, if only to test your aptitude on something immediate."
Green followed him with our eyes as he walked over to MAL's desk and took a file from the top of it, handing it to Edge who scanned through it, "Hrm...you have us on guard duty, babysitting...am I reading this right? A Homo Picis? An aquatic humanoid?"
The two old men smiled at one another, "No such word for the species exists in our books, but I assume that the Agency taught you all about them."
Edge put the document down and Love picked it up, looking at it as he addressed Benz, "we're hunters, we kill things like this creature."
Love was still fidgeting with the file next to me, Green grabbed it from her and set it down on the table as Pilum responded, "and now, my boy, your job is to keep this one safe, she may be the very last one in her part of the world."
Green flipped the file open and quickly scanned for the point of origin, using my eyes while I was busy thinking, "The Gulf of Mexico?" Came out of my mouth.
Pilum nods in response, "We found her beached near Kemah, screeching, over and over, the same pattern, screeching out at the water, she seemed to be losing hope as she continued, that's when we took her, if she is the last then she must be studied, and while the studying is taking place, you four will keep the facility safe."
I blinked myself back into control, "An entire facility to contain this mermaid?"
Pilum huffs, hands placed on hips in indignation, "We are not running a zoo, young man, we, too, are hunters, but unlike the Trigram Agency our goal is not to simply destroy, it is to protect. A rampant invasive predator must be put down, and a victim of Man's Hubris must be shown mercy. This species has been hunted to near extinction by mankind, and untrue to the overly dogmatic Agency's doctrine, it shows no outwardly malicious intent."
Pilum surprised me with this, I genuinely believed this place was a pallet swap of sorts, I was suddenly hit with a wave of...was it relief? Had I unclenched? This question paired with another, how long had I been clenched for? 3 whole years?
Pilum continued, his tone softening, apparently having seen comprehension in my face, and was glad for it, "Think of it, Agent Green, as a conservation effort, we keep her alive and safe from predators, while searching for other members of her species."
I smiled despite Green's obvious disdain for the idea, disdain Wolf voiced, "There is a large body of evidence that heavily implies that regardless of initial intent, creatures like her are dangerous to Humans."
Pilum raises an eyebrow and turns to face Wolf, "then why are they extinct? Why is it that something so dangerous hasn't done more damage to the human population? Hearsay will not be the motivator for genocide today."
I rub my temples, "Scruples aside, we have orders...do we get requisitions?"
Grandmaster Benz nods, handing each of us a folder, "And a salary, You will each be making a trip to the armory to build your loadouts and fill out bank paperwork, MAL will escort you."
MAL got up wordlessly from her desk and beckoned us to follow her.