*Connected to MIRShadowlaw channel Springtime*

This is a private channel

There are two users in this channel.  Channel Springtime has set Avelle ops mode to +

Juni:  Good day, Avelle.  Well, I've updated your journal tapes like you asked me to.

Avelle:  Ah, thank you darling.  I appreciate it.  Oh, and it's good to see that you're safe, although I knew you would be.

Juni:  That was pretty close back there.  Sheesh, some people just get way too serious about some things.

Avelle:  Hey, I told you my plan would work.  You need to listen to me more often.  You told me that you wanted to be more like me, after all.

Juni:  ....yea.  About that.  It's starting to seem like you were right.  But I can't bring myself to believe it.

Avelle:  Oh?  Right about what?  It's always nice to hear about how I'm right.  So go on.

Juni:  I came back to Shadowlaw hoping I could see Sir Bison again.  Juli oddly enough volunteered to go on a recon mission without me, so I got greeted at our room instead by another agent named Desire.  She claims that she's a good friend of Juli's.  Frankly, I don't remember her at all.  But that's not the important thing.  I don't know how to explain what I'm feeling right now...
 

"My Lord Bison, it has come to my attention that some serious issues are starting to appear, but can be avoided if fast action is quickly taken.  These issues relate to my good friend Agent Juli and her soul mate as well as partner, Agent Juni.  Circumstances were so that Juni and Julia could not spend their vacation together as they should have been able to.  This has led to some serious depression in Agent Juli, and Agent Juni has even sought out a new soul mate to fill the void in the form of a certain member of the science department by the name of Doctor Yamoto.  When Julia and Juni are finally reunited, Agent Juli may notice that this new replacement soul mate, Dr. Yamoto, has taken her place in Juni's heart and thus despite finally being reunited with her true love, Julia will continue to remain isolated and depressed.  This would be a true tragedy and can lead only more broken hearts and the breaking of a soul bond, which could seriously emotionally and mentally damage all participants involved and..."

Juni frowned as she continued to read over the Native-American agent's shoulder.  "Erm, Agent Desire?  Don't even get me started on how wrong that is, but is that what you plan on showing Sir Bison?  He usually doesn't ask for a large essay from us."

Agent Desire glanced back at her.  "That isn't how it's done?  I've never been to an evaluation of Sir Bison's before.  I didn't even know they existed."

"You don't know what you were missing."  Juni smiled, completely forgetting about the insane stuff Desire had written about her in that essay.  "I feel sorry for you.  Well, you're here now, but I wonder why everyone else isn't.  Oh wait, here comes Agent Fenrir.  Guess she was just a little late."

Juni saluted as the Asian agent with the circular brown haircut walked over and gave her a rather odd and confused look.

"Ah, good day, Agent Fenrir."  Desire greeted.  "What brings you to Lord Bison's office today?"

"I'm here to request some money so I can get myself a personalized sword." Fenrir bluntly replied as her gaze quickly switched to Desire.  "I'm getting sick and tired of having to use the random crap ones that I happen to come across during missions."

Desire stared at Fenrir with a rather disturbed look.  "A... sword?"

"Yes.  A sword."  Fenrir gave the questioning agent a glare in return.  "Is something wrong?"

"Erm... no, nevermind."  Desire muttered.  She then whispered to herself, "Good old non-phallic tomahawks for me..."

With a rather argumentative tone, the new arrival changed the subject.  "Neither of you has still told me what the hell you're doing here."

"Huh?"  Juni looked at her.  "Isn't it obvious?  We're here for Sir Bison's evaluation."

"Sir Bison's... evaluations?"  Fenrir raised an eyebrow at Juni's remark.  "Sir Bison never gave us any evaluations.  He isn't even here right now.  I'm just here to drop off a note and hope he gets it.  The only agent that he sees regularly is that stupid whore, Cammy."

"Cammy a whore?  That's taking things a bit far, isn't it?"  Juni asked.  "I mean, I don't like Cammy that much either, but I couldn't help but wonder about Juli's and everyone else's intense hatred of her."

"Hmph.  Whatever."  The annoyed agent replied with a shrug.  "We all know that she's the only one Bison cares about, anyway."

"Sir Bison cares about us!"  Juni snapped back.

"Sheesh.  Aren't you the naive one?"  Fenrir commented, before deciding to just change the subject.  "Anyway, Agent Juni, did you check in with the science department recently?  I highly suggest you do."

"Um, okay..."  Juni replied as Fenrir left a note in the drop box which would most likely be emptied into the trash by the local evil custodian without Lord Bison ever reading it.  Because he's evil.

"I'm dissappointed."  Desire sighed as Fenrir left.

"Yea..."  Juni glanced at the in-box then at the door to the High Command sector.  "Me too..."

I suppose I should have realized it right there.  But to simply cancel the evaluations without telling us then pretending like they never existed?  I couldn't believe it.  Fenrir was probably just playing a mean joke on me for always cannon drilling her by accident during practice.  I mean, I couldn't even believe it when Juli told me about how much she hated Cammy when Bison chose Cammy over her or when you told me that Cammy was the only one that Bison truly cared for.  Brushing it off, I went to the science sector like she recommended, but things only became worse from there.

"Dr. Yamoto?  Fenrir told me that I should come over here because..."  Juni paused, then quietted down because she noticed Yamoto was currently busy.

WHAM!

Currently busy pounding the computer, that is.

"Cheap piece of junk!"  Yamoto screamed at it.  "My damn house in Ultima Online is going to decay if I can't get online to refresh the dumb thing!  All I ask is for a decent internet connection.  You'd think a big resourceful evil underground organization would at least be able to maintain a decent internet connection but nooooo..."

Juni snickered a little.  Dr. Yamoto was normally a very calm person... except when dealing with his computer games.  He became further aggravated when a telephone ring began sounding.  And even more aggravated when his elbow accidentally slammed against the computer hard frame as he rushed to press the answer-the-phone button.

The vid screen came up with another scientist just as Yamoto started breaking out the swear words.

"What happened this time, Bremare?"  The scientist on the other end of the massive vid screen smiled.  "Get fragged again in a game of Quake?"

"I wish..."  Bremare Yamoto muttered.  "Quit laughing, Eric.  My house in Ultima Online is going to decay.  That thing was worth two hundred dollars on e-bay, for crying out loud."

"Well, they had to bring down the network to update the encryption codes."  Dr. Eric Masterson replied.  "We need to keep security in top shape.  Oh, by the way, this is a nonencrypted un-connected network channel.  So I'm only calling to ask how you're doing.  Can't go discussing top secret projects when we could be monitored, after all.  So, how's life?  I heard through the grapevine that one of the agents that you were supposed to monitor back home went rogue.  She's lucky M. Bison didn't find out yet."

"It wasn't very serious."  Bremare shrugged.  "It was easy enough to get Juni to come back.  I just reminded her about Bison's scheduled agent evaluation."

Eric glared at Bremare wide-eyed in surprise.  "You WHAT?  Dammit, Bremare, M. Bison canned those silly evaluations a long time ago!"

"He... did?"  The other young doctor stared at the screen in shock.  "Oh crap!  I screwed up again, didn't I?"

"You're always doing things like this!"  Eric snapped.  "Fortunately, scientists that don't have to be blackmailed thus having a decent amount of loyalty are hard for evil underground organizations like Shadowlaw to come by, or Bison would have put your head on the chopping block a long time ago."

"M. Bison's still way too strict for my tastes, regardless."  Bremare muttered.  "We're only human."

"Well, you know how evil dictators are and all."  With a shrug in reply, the scientist Eric continued.  "Anyway, what are you going to do with her?  You're really lucky.  I wish I got assigned to your projects and stay back at base with all those female Shadowlaw agents.  All of the beautiful women I have to deal with here I can't even lay a finger on, but there you have a bunch of young ladies who obviously aren't getting any because the only one of them that M. Bison will see now is Cammy.  I'm surprised you haven't taken advantage of it yet.  I know that we're professionals and all but those poor girls..."

"ERIC!"  Bremare snapped back.  "Don't say things like that!  Besides, they all love Bison.  It's what they're supposed to do."

"Oh please, Bremare."  The person in the vid screen rolled his eyes.  "It's the truth.  The only one that M. Bison cares about is Cammy.  The rest are just disposeable garbage.  Once one of them realizes it, you just have to be there to catch her on the rebound.  Especially that Juni girl.  It's pretty obvious that you really like her.  Or her partner.  Not sure.  I get the two mixed up often."

"Oh cut it out."  Bremare frowned.  "So Bison somewhere along the line decided that the rest of the agents weren't worth his time to deal with except for Cammy and cut out the evaluations.  It should be easy enough for me to fix this blunder.  It was time for a memory update anyway.  I guess Juni missed it while she was running off with Avelle's group."

If Bremare Yamoto went and specified more on what he was talking about, it wouldn't have mattered.  Because the young short-haired blonde listening around the corner was too busy trying to refrain from crying to listen anymore.

Juni:  I... feel... terrible.

Avelle:  Hmm... it hurts, doesn't it?  What are you going to do now?  Direct your hate towards the one who took Sir Bison away from us like everyone else did, or do the smart thing and just break off and try to forget it all like I did?  I highly recomend the latter.

Juni:  ... I can't.  Not after everything Lord Bison did for me.

Avelle:  Why not?  You're never going to get anywhere if you act so indecisively.  Obviously, if you want to be more like me, you'll have to do it.  Lord Bison doesn't care about us anymore.  If only he did...

Juni:  But I have other friends in Shadowlaw too.  Like my partner Juli and now, even Doctor Yamoto.

Avelle:  You're friends with a member of the Shadowlaw science department?  You know, that could have it's benefits and OH CRAP!

Juni:  What?

Avelle:  I just realized.  The science department wanted to do a check-up on you?  They have scanners that can scan a person's memory, you know.  If they find out about the information you inputted for those journal tapes, you could get in deep trouble.

Juni:  What?  But they wouldn't

A knock came on Juni's door which was soon followed by Agent Fenrir's voice.  "Agent Juni!  Professor Irvine reported that you have not been checked yet.  Can we come in?"

Juni:  Oh no!  Avelle, what do I do!?

Avelle:  Calm down.  First of all, you need to pick up the phone.  I can't help you very much from a chat room.

Juni quickly looked around trying to remember where she put her cellular phone, then opened up one of the drawers in the desk her computer was on and quickly rummaged through it.  She threw aside some pencils, staples, and a lamenated piece of paper that had a rather interesting symbol resembling a shurikan on it before reaching the cellular phone and grabbing it.  At that moment, Fenrir and an African agent with her had kicked down the door.  Standing behind them was a rather eccentric scientist with a trench coat, Professor Irvine.

"I asked you nicely to let us in."  Fenrir glared at the surprised agent in the room.  "Now you've forced us to ruin a perfectly good door."

Juni recognized the other agent with her.  "O... Olvere?  You're a Shadowlaw agent, too?"

"Please don't tell me that you're going to resist here, too."  Olvere sighed.  "Don't make me have to smack you on the head with my spear handle again."

The monkey on her shoulder screeched in agreement.

"Well, I..."

"The monkey!"

Juni glared at the phone she was holding.  "Huh?

"Hit the monkey NOW!"

With a quick high upwards kick, Juni sent Olvere's pet flying and slamming right into Fenrir's face, then did a mach slide teleport past all three of the intruders and ran down the hall.

"Take a left!  Now right!"

"But Avelle, that's a dead end!"

"What are you talking about?  I know what I'm doing!  Are you going to listen to me or not?"

"Okay..."

With that, Juni slammed into the wall.

"Ow... told you it was a dead end."

"What the...?"

"They probably did some renovating of the base while you were gone, Avelle..."

"Damn!"

"What do I do now?"

"I don't know!"

"But..."

"I only had a ninety-percent efficiency rating, darling.  There's still that ten-percent part that wasn't very efficient."

Juni stared at the telephone with a rather annoyed look on her face as Olvere and Fenrir rounded the corner.  Fenrir, though, recieved a rather nasty concussion as a cellular phone slammed into her head and Juni did another mach slide dash right past them.

"Oh great, Juni, you just threw away the only thing that let you talk to the person that could help you.  Now what do I do?"

The main Shadalaw hangar bay of Mrigranka was extra busy today as many workers and machines lifted cargo to and from some newly arrived cargo planes.  Half supervising, half simply hanging around, and half mingling (however that math works out) near one of the planes were two very important people within the organization of Shadowlaw.  One of them was M. Bison's personal bodyguard, Agent Cammy, a blonde young female with two long pigtails in her hair and a customized variation of the Shadowlaw agent outfit that was light blue and kept her camoflauge-painted legs revealed.  The other was one of the four lords of Shadowlaw himself, Vega, a Spanish ninja of sorts, whom was wearing his mask at the time in case any cargo accidents which could possibly threaten his beautiful face should occur.

"Come on!  Is that it?  Lord Bison despises it when he's kept waiting!"  Cammy yelled.  She sighed as she signaled to a cargo lift to put the crate down in the designated spot, then glared at the Spanish ninja.  Despite the mask, she could tell he was laughing underneath it.  "What is it now?"

"Close, close, but still can't match it."  Vega snickered again.  "You're really beautiful when you're angry.  Did you know that?  Though no where near as much as me, of course."

Vega quickly back-flipped out of the way to avoid Cammy's punch that followed his statement.  She followed with a glare.  "Next time I won't miss."

"Whatever you say, then."  Vega slowly shook his head, though he was probably still smiling underneath the mask.

A screaming short-haired blonde agent dashing towards them quickly diverted the attention of both from their argument.  "Yaaaaaaaah!!!"

Juni stopped in front of Cammy, then did a mach slide through her and crashed right into the airplane behind her, resulting in her falling back to the ground.

Vega took off his mask to look at her.  "Hmm... well now, that was most certainly odd."

An equally confused Cammy was also looking at the agent on the ground when Fenrir, Olvere, and Irvine had arrived behind her.  Juni quickly flipped to her feet but decided to stay behind her new chosen guardian and held onto Cammy in fear.

"Cammy, get out of the way."  Fenrir bluntly commanded.  "Juni is required by the science department of Shadowlaw at the moment and we have orders to make sure she comes along."

"The science department, is it?"  Cammy put her hand on her hip and met Fenrir's glare.  "I don't recall the science department having any authorization over agents."

"Juni has an appointment.  She needs to follow it."  Fenrir explained, getting a bit more annoyed.

"I'm not sure about the authorization issue."  Olvere commented.  "But I need to return Agent Juni to the science department as per my current ongoing mission orders."

"I don't see any reason to."  Cammy counter-argued.  "Sir Bison's judgement would fit in a case like this much more than the judgement of Shadowlaw's science department."

"I need to return Agent Juni to the science department as per my current ongoing mission orders."  Olvere angrily repeated.

"Then I'll talk to Sir Bison to get your orders changed."  Cammy replied.  "He'll listen to me.  He won't listen to you."

"..... you... should talk... you took him away from us... you got him to stop the evaluations..."  Olvere clenched her fist and closed her eyes, then screamed and came charging at Cammy with her spear.  "GO TO HELL, YOU BITCH!!!"

A quick reflexive upwards cannonspike kick from Cammy knocked Olvere back and slamming into a couple crates as Cammy rebounded from the impact.

Professor Irvine cheered.  "She tried to stab her with zee spear!!!!  This is because zee agent known as Cammy has deprived her of zee male auzority figure and she can not compensate with it so she triez to take out her frustrations on zee one that took zee mate away!  Freud is proven right yet again!!!"

Ignoring the strange professor, Vega and Fenrir stared at the nearly unconscious Olvere in surprise then at each other.  The look on Vega's face indicated that something was very wrong.  And the large sweat drop above Fenrir's head seemed to indicate that she agreed.

"Memory bug?"  Vega asked.

"Ahem..."  Fenrir replied with a somewhat nervous smile.  "Did Olvere say evaluations?  It... would appear that I was mistaken.  Erm... well now, I must be off then.  I apologize."

Fenrir helped Olvere up, who was still crying and muttering how everything was Cammy's fault.

As the two left with Professor Irvine happily following them, Fenrir turned around to give Cammy one last comment.  "Oh, by the way, I hope you die a horrible horrible death someday."

"Whatever you say..."  Cammy commented as she rolled her eyes.

"Hmm hmm..."  Vega, who had been watching the entire time, snickered.  "How sad that such a beautiful flower should make all the other ones in the garden wilt and melt with envy."

Cammy turned around, rather annoyed.  "Are you still here?"

"She is the one most adorred by her captain, but it has costed her the respect of her peers."  Vega replied, ignoring her remark.

He once again had to do a quick backflip as Cammy threw a punch at him.

"Well now, I suppose that would be it then."  Vega, unfazed by Cammy's attack, took a bow towards her.  "Farewell, beautiful soldier.  Until the next time we cross paths, farewell."

With that, he took a leap away.

"That... disgusting... hmph!"  Cammy pushed Juni, who was still holding onto her, off of her, then turned to walk away and start directing the next load from the cargo planes.

A rather surprised Juni glanced at Vega, then back at Cammy and ran to catch up with her.

"A... Agent Cammy?"  Juni's pace slowed down to match Cammy's walk.  "Thanks for helping me back there.  I seem to be needing a lot of rescuing lately."

Cammy turned to look at her.  "Huh?  I was only acting in Sir Bison's best interests."

She paused to give some more cargo carriers the signal as Juni stopped in surprise.  "Sir Bison's best interests?"

"I'm starting to get suspicious of the Shadaloo Science Department."  Cammy remarked without turning to face her.  "They've seem to be delving more and more to where they don't belong than usual.  I won't have Sir Bison getting harmed thanks to their zealotness."

"Oh..."  Juni watched as the cargo mover moved some crates over to the side.  "Well, I'm not sure about that, but I really appreciate it anyway."

Cammy looked at her again, this time more seriously.  "Agent... Juni, was it?  You're not going to call me a whore like your partner Juli or all of the other agents do?"

"Well, you did sorta save me back there."  The other agent replied.  "But... yea, I wish that Sir Bison..."

"Hmph.  So that's how it is for you too, isn't it?"  The top agent frowned.  "Well, there's nothing I can do about that.  Am I supposed to stop serving Lord Bison to the best of my capability just so everyone else can have turns at being the best agent in Shadowlaw?"

"I... I don't know."  Juni looked away, unable to think of a reply.  "It... it hurts."

Cammy raised an eyebrow at Juni's odd remark.  "Huh?"

"It hurts all of us, Cammy..."  The sad girl closed her eyes.  "That's why... that's why we're so hateful of you.  Because... you took him away from us."

"That's what Olvere just said..."  Cammy sighed, but decided to address Juni properly, unlike what she did to the other agent.  "Juni, I'm sorry... or I would be, but there's nothing I could do about that.  I can't and obviously won't knowingly not dedicate a hundred-percent effort to Lord Bison or he could possibly be harmed.  You understand that, don't you?  The one thing that I was sure we all agreed on was how great Bison is."

"Yea, but... what are we supposed to do?"  Juni asked.  "Knowing that Sir Bison is... is forever out of our reach.  That... that he's already chosen and his choice is final.  That... there's nothing we can do?"

Cammy stared at her and frowned.  "I can't answer your question.  I couldn't answer it for anyone else, either.  You'll have to figure out the answer for yourself.  If your answer is that it's all my fault and I must die, as is the answer of all the other agents, then there is nothing I can do about that, either."

"I'm sorry."  Juni sighed.  "You... you make Sir Bison happy, don't you?  You're really the best for him.  The greatest agent... the most suited to protect him and be his personal bodyguard and companionship.  I finally see it now.  There... really could only be one, huh?  I guess I just couldn't bring myself to admit it..."

Cammy glanced at Juni, but seeing that everything was in order regarding the cargo transfers, she started to leave.  "Well, Sir Bison should be waiting.  I have to go meet him now.  I'd apologize but like I said, really nothing is my fault."

"Yea..."  Juni remarked as Cammy left.  She looked up again then called out to her.  "Agent Cammy!"

Cammy turned around again to address her.  "Yes?"

"Do you... sometimes hurt when you think about what the others think about you?"

Cammy sighed.  "I'm not sure... but it's the way things have to be.  That idiot Vega was right about one thing.  Being hated by everyone else is the price I have to pay in order to serve Sir Bison.  Perhaps I do regret it, but there's no other alternative."

She turned to leave finally but stopped as Juni called to her again.  "Cammy!"

Cammy rolled her eyes.  "What is it now?"

"I... I don't hate you."  Juni replied.  "Not anymore..."

Her remark brought a smile to Cammy's face.  "Thanks!"

Juni returned the smile.  "Protect Sir Bison for all of us, okay?"

"I will!"  Cammy called back as she ran off.

The blonde agent returned to her room again, this time in a cheerful mood, a far cry from the depressing one that she had the last time she was at her computer.  She sat back down at the keyboard again, and, smiling, began typing again.

I suppose that maybe I'm too optimistic, Avelle.  I'm naive like that.  Maybe I'm too unwilling to look out for my own personal wants and goals.  But I'm thankful that Lord Bison would find a person so great that she was good enough to for him to choose as his personal bodyguard.  That's what really matters.  Everyone else, even my very own partner Juli, despises her so much, but I've realized that Cammy is the best for Sir Bison, and I won't try to take that away from both of them.  And... I guess that's as good a start as any.