Dr. Ilene calmly made her point and didn't say anything else. It was General Norman who had to compromise with his request,
"Fine then. Rescuing Davila comes before anything else."
"Great, glad we could come to an understanding."
Dr. Ilene smiled.
"Whatever. Those two earlier would be great for the mission, pick them."
"This isn't your base General. You've requested our help, and we'll select the people for the job. That is all."
This wasn't Dr. Ilene's first encounter with General Norman and thus knew how to handle him. The General didn't say anything else and stood up.
"I'll be sending you coordinates and a briefing. I'll leave the rest to you."
After speaking, General Norman turned and left. He and his group were escorted to the shores of the island where a boat was waiting for them.
After the General left, Dr. Ilene beeped those seven and they assembled at her office.
"Wade and Connor, you both did well today."
"Thank you, ma'am."
They saluted in unison.
"Thanks to the General, we have more work to do. The real reason he was here was to assign us a mission to rescue one of his men held at an enemy base. The coordinates and briefing of the mission will be communicated later, but I'll be assigning roles…"
She then turned to the petite girl beside Johan,
"Since this is a rescue mission, you'll have to be as discreet as possible. For that, Lucy will be heading this rescue mission. You're to safely retrieve the target and exit the enemy base without them noticing, understood?"
Lucy stiffened as she responded,
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Make your preparations, you'll leave the moment the secret order is given."
At her signal, everyone was dismissed.
With the creation of the New Generation came intense training for the children. At the age of fourteen, the children became versatile in many areas of combat as well as growing their intellectual capability. Before turning twenty, they started embarking on real-life missions, experiencing various situations where they had to kill to survive.
Johan went back to the training annex with Lucy. Johan was just about to take his clothes off when Lucy stopped him,
"What the hell are you doing?"
"I was training when you came in earlier…"
"Can you… can you not train for five minutes… is that too much to ask?"
Johan was about to speak when Lucy continued,
"It's like all you do is train, even when it's not necessary."
"It's how I clear my head."
Lucy then shot him a disgusted look before breaking into a terrible cough. Johan quickly came beside her, holding her trembling body. Lucy held a hankie to her mouth as she coughed into it. Though this lasted briefly, it still wasn't normal for someone to cough for that long, and when Lucy removed the hankie from her mouth, there were blood stains on it.
Johan, who silently observed this, sighed.
"Are you getting any better?"
"I'm alive today… that accounts for something."
"That's not what I asked…"
"I know, but there's nothing more I can say…" replied Lucy, smiling bitterly.
Johan then looked at her and asked,
"Don't you get scared sometimes?"
"Sometimes?" Lucy scoffed.
"I'm scared all the time. I can't remember the last time I slept without trying to tear my heart out…"
"And Dr. Curtis?" Johan asked.
"For all I know, he doesn't know how to help me. He says all the cells in my body are, in his words, 'constantly rupturing and reforming'… that's the cause of the pain. The only reason I'm not dead yet owes to the enhancements my body possesses. But then, even after taking drugs to delay the rupturing and reforming of my cells, it doesn't take the pain away in the slightest… I'm so tired."
Thinking about it got Lucy more depressed. She gently placed her head on Johan's lap, while the latter gently patted her head. After a while of silence, he suddenly spoke up,
"Any news from Echo Unit?"
"They reported in hours ago. They should be back tomorrow evening," replied Lucy, lifting her head till she sat upright.
"I wonder how those two did on their mission this time."
After its formation, the New Generation became an elite corps answerable only to the United World Authority, conducting high-stake missions solely on behalf of the UWA, with those leading countries granted the privilege of deploying them. Regardless of the nature of the mission, they are to answer the call, as long as they are not called upon to fight wars between countries.
~The Next Day~
Echo Unit returned in the evening the next day and immediately reported to the president's office, and after being briefed about the mission Dr. Ilene dismissed them. Lucy, who was standing nearby saw them exit the office and called out,
"Hey guys, how did it go?"
Her question was directed to two plump people who soon walked toward her direction. She spread her hands and hugged one of them,
"Welcome back, Lenny."
Lenny's soft squishy hands embraced her,
"It's nice to finally be back." He replied.
After hugging Lenny, Lucy moved to hug Martin and though met with some resistance from him, she still hugged him, almost absorbed into his soft belly.
"How has it been since we left?"
Lenny asked as they walked back to the dorms.
"You know… the usual. He's boring as hell… it's like talking to a dense wall that does nothing besides training."
"It would be weird if you told me otherwise."
Lenny and Martin laughed. Just as they were about to take a corner in the lobby, they saw someone walking toward them.
"Who is a dense wall?"
Johan asked, visibly irritated.
"Ah, speak of the devil and he appears. Of course, we're talking about you,"
Martin didn't bother to hide it and went on to speak further,
"Sometimes I wonder if you're a machine, but then a machine is more active than you are. Which makes me wonder if you're some furniture…"
As he spoke, Johan's veins were on the verge of popping.
"What? You think I'm afraid of you?"
"Fatso," Johan called out blatantly.
It was now Martin's turn to twitch from anger,
"You wanna go… 'cause I can take you right now, string bean!"
Lucy and Lenny silently snuck away, leaving those two to fight it out.
"I'm glad some things never change around here."
Lenny sighed.