Ultimatum

It had been around five months or so since Rex and his allies stopped Clinton and his sinister plan. But ever since then, there hadn't been any bigger threats. "Now what?" you ask. Let's see what it's like to be a fly on the wall and take an inside look inside Providence, Tory, and Marcella.

Tory woke up to the sound of his irritating alarm clock. After months of intense discipline, he learned to keep his eyes open when he woke up. He turned over and looked at his white dresser. Today was the day he had to wake up extremely early unlike the other days. He looked over and took his cellular phone that was ringing and vibrating like nuts. Reaching over, he grabbed it and turned it off. He got out of bed and walked towards the light switch like a slug. He flipped it on, illuminating the whole room in seconds. He grabbed his clothing from his drawer and threw it on. Looking in the mirror, he was dressed head to toe in a navy vest, a pale blue button-down shirt, some navy slacks, and black dress shoes. To top it all off, he wore a black bowtie.

Taking his tooth brush, he unloaded a drop of toothpaste onto it, tossed it into his mouth, and approached his bedroom door. Without even touching it, the door automatically slid open. What kind of bedrooms have an automatic sliding door, you ask? That's right; a Providence room. Tory was now a Providence agent and got to do cool things all the time now. Tory accompanied the plenty of other agents getting their day started.

After White Knight offered Tory and Marcella the chance to join Providence, Tory considered it. But when Marcella declined and told Tory to about their mother, that's gave him every more of a reason to want to join. As expected from any mother, she was furious the night of Clinton's capture. So, Tory played it smart and waited it out a couple of weeks before he could speak with his mother about this opportunity. Once he did, she went ballistic, asking him if he wanted to die early—of course he didn't.

Getting through to her was almost impossible, but when Marcella realized how important this could be to him, she lent some backup, explaining how much experience and responsibility it'll give him. Marcella was always best at talking to their mom—and just as expected, she finally gave in. So, Tory went to Providence Basic Training and got the workout he didn't expect. The training was difficult, but it was nothing compared to the beat down he would get from the other cadets just for being an EVO. He made a couple of friends, but others were just cruel. He remembered asking his Sergeant why training was even considered for him since he had powers, and he remembered his Sergeant screaming, "WHAT IF YOU LOST YOUR POWERS, CADET? NOW DROP AND GIVE ME FIFTY." Worst. Punishment. Ever.

So, after four months—which was only couple of weeks ago—of hard training, it finally paid off and Tory graduated without any honors.

Now back to reality. Tory was still brushing his pearls. Once Tory was done brushing his teeth, he poured some water into his mouth, gargled ferociously, and spat it in the sink in one of the public bathrooms. He reached into his pocket and took out his phone: 06:00. Continuing, Tory turned a hallway and noticed Rex, and Tory's mentor—Agent Six.

"Hey!" Tory shouted towards their backs.

Jumping and yelping, Rex turned around and braced himself. Once he spotted Tory, he ran right past Agent Six. Tory, as well, beamed right after him like a track runner,

"Hey, Six!" he called, running right past his favorite agent while making a salute with his hand.

"Hi," Six dryly replied, watching the troublesome teens vanish down the hall.

Behind his shades, he just begged for the answer on where he went wrong. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he casually strolled away past the other agents who turned back to watch him.

Tory continued running after Rex and nearly caught up with him. Tory was a brilliant runner in fact, and became much faster after months of training. If he were in a pair of sneakers, he would've caught Rex in a heartbeat, but there was something tough about running in dress shoes. In the past, whenever Rex would cut a particular corner, Tory always slipped on the hard tiled floors.

"Here's your stop!" Rex remarked, immediately cutting the hall, "Try not to slip!"

Troy cut the corner with no problem, and Rex's jaw hung with a horrified expression. He let out a hoard shriek and continued running.

"I got new slip-resistant shoes!" Tory said as he picked up his pace.

"I thought we were cool after all these months!" Rex started shouting.

"Don't play dumb with me! I know what you did!" Tory shouted back as they avoided bumping into other agents in the hall.

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to kiss your sister!" Rex shouted back.

"What?! Kiss?! I was talking about the five bucks you owe me for kicking your butt in the arcade other day!" Tory shouted back.

"Oh...OHH!" Rex turned around and looked at Tory, whose left eye was already sparking with electricity and neon blue rage. Rex faced forward and attempted to pick up his pace. After realizing that he had reached his maximum speed on foot, he gave a soft slap to his forehead, "Duh, Rex!" In seconds, he formed his mechanical hover bike and shot off, racing past every agent in the hall. Tory realized he couldn't keep up with Rex any longer and quit running. He bent down and rested his palms on his knees to catch his breath.

Later that afternoon, Tory sat in the Providence gymnasium, waiting for anything to happen. A few agents came in to break a little sweat by playing basketball, but Tory was never good at basketball. Sooner or later, Tory fell asleep in the Providence gymnasium on one of the bleachers. Providence was a huge place, and it was hard contacting the very few friends you had there. Yeah, walkie-talkies were available, but too many transmissions weren't good and it was against policy to use it for personal use. Out of the blue, Tory heard footsteps coming in his way. They walked out of the hallway, into the gym and it appeared to be Rex, the EVO who owed Tory five bucks.

"Uh-oh!" Rex said getting ready to run the opposite way as soon as he spotted Rex.

"I'm done chasing you, Rex," Tory claimed, with sleep in his voice.

Rex froze just as his leg was lifted and turned around.

"Really?" he asked, actually hoping for another Olympic track workout.

"Yes," Tory claimed while sitting up and yawning, "But I do have another question..." Rex crossed his arms and turned his face. "Did you really kiss my sister?" Rex was sweating underneath his clothes, "Well... did you?" Tory asked again.

"No! No! I was kidding when I said that," Rex said, putting his hands up in defense.

"Okay. Then can I get my five bucks?" Tory asked. At this point, there was no point in running and Rex didn't have the strength to after his heart pumped so fast after being interrogated for kissing Marcella. Reaching in his pocket, he took out a five-dollar bill and slapped it into Tory's palm.

"Thanks," Tory said with a smirk. He looked down at the bill and began frowning. Shortly, he handed it back, "Never mind, I don't need it..." Tory said.

Rex smiled with excitement but couldn't help realize Tory's reaction once he began walking away with his on the ground.

"Is everything alright?" Rex asked.

"Just a little homesick, that's all..." Tory said, exiting the gym.

Even though Providence agents were on duty a lot, they sometimes had their off days. Their break times usually fluctuated according to EVO emergencies. Of course, if you were done for the day and got a call to come back in, you had no choice. Providence made that part very clear when you signed up with them.

Tory was with his sister he hadn't seen in months and was just reunited with her at a outdoor beautiful restaurant nearby. The first time she laid eyes on him, she saw how much of a transformation he had. He was obviously a little leaner, he dressed so professionally, and his pristine haircut made him look so handsome. She jumped on him and gave him the most gracious hug. They sat and began to eat.

"So…" Marcella purposely built up with an inhale, "How's Providence?" She took a sip of her French vanilla coffee and lifted an eyebrow, "…I hope you know I'm still not okay with you doing this," Tory glared at Marcella while scarfing down his ranch drenched salad, "I'm sorry," Marcella apologized, taking a bite out of her food as well. She nervously placed down her fork.

"...It's pretty boring. I haven't been assigned to any missions yet since I just graduated,"

"I've been missing you a ton. Walks from school make me want to talk to myself because I know exactly how you would respond in what situation," Marcella chuckled. She looked into her lap and fiddled with the ring on her finger. She glanced right back up and smiled, hiding her obvious pain, "Mom misses you too..." she said.

"I miss you both a lot, too." Tory chuckled. It eventually became more genuine, "I remember getting five to six letters at once from her. Everyone use to think I had different family members writing to me," Marcella laughed along with him and they both faded into a silence—a long one, "Did you kiss Rex?" Tory randomly teased for old time's sake.

"What? Gosh, Tory! No!" Marcella replied, repulsed.

"Just kidding," Tory lied after seeing her reaction. Marcella looked like she was going to jump over the table like last time he asked an embarrassing question during a family dinner.

Marcella sighed and sat back thinking of what other one of the million questions she could ask,

"How's Harry...?" She finally asked.

"Well...when I at Basic, I actually saw him getting admissioned in Providence Basic Training too. Something like it being part of his parole or something like that...I didn't hear much or say anything to him though."

"Tory...would you be angry if I got back together with him?" Marcella asked straightforwardly.

Tory glared at Marcella,

"I'd be furious," he admitted honestly and calmly.

"Why?"

"You're asking me why? You were hospitalized because of him for god's sake, Marcella!" Tory said banging the table.

Marcella teared up, but didn't know what to shed a tear over-whether how much her brother cared for her or how much of the truth it was. She even had to admit that she was impressed with how well she held that in.

"Have you spoken to Hunter?" Tory asked randomly changing the topic after noticing how emotional she became. He saw her eyes glistened and was surprised by how well she held it back.

"I hung out with her and Kenwyn last weekend after work," She said.

"I'm actually getting a little crush on Hunter...she's really cute. Kenwyn too," Tory confessed, "We had a few horror film nights at Providence theater and I never complain when they cling to me," Tory said once again.

Marcella smirked and couldn't believe her and her brother reached the point where they could about each other's crushes without making faces. That's something that's never happened before. Doing the math, they must've really missed each other.

"We went to the mall, caught up. Kenwyn and Hunter even make me tagalong on certain missions behind White Knight's back,"

"He's so bitter..." Tory said in a regretful tone and placing his hand under his chin, "...and you got a job? Sweet." Tory complimented.

"Yep, jujitsu instructor to the kids in the neighborhood. Just like when I started at nine years old,"

"Remember you did gymnastics around that time?"

"I remember the pain,"

They both laughed. Another pause occurred and the Tory looked at Marcella,

"And how's Ms. Margret?" Tory asked.

"Oh, she moved. She thought that she needed a fresh start. You know, I actually miss her seasonal cupcakes."

"That's why I asked. I was hoping you could bring them over when we got together like this," Tory chuckled.

"Aha! Loser," Marcella said playfully.

Marcella couldn't help but ask the one question everyone probably had been wondering about. Tory didn't like being asked questions about this person, nor did he even like saying or hearing the name, but Marcella needed to know. It was for her safety and protection.

"Speaking of Ms. Margret...how's...you know...the psycho...?" she asked quite confusingly.

"Excuse me?" Tory asked.

"Clinton," Marcella blurted out.

Tory reacted better than she thought and he continued, thinking it would be a good cause for her to know.

"Honestly, I don't know why their doing it, but they're trying to get him back in his right state of mind. He's showing signs of talking now and Rex goes in repeatedly to do cures on him every now and then. Holiday has theories that being incurable might have to do with his brain activity."

"How do you know all of this?" Marcella asked.

"Holiday," he sighed, "He doesn't even remember me."

"That's a relief. Just knowing you're in the same place as him makes me all paranoid sometimes," She took a longer sip of her coffee and placed it back down on the coaster, "Speaking of Holiday, you know she told me that my "invisibility" ability is actually a camouflaging technique?" she said, preforming air quotes.

As Tory almost spoke, he was interrupted by his communicator beeping in his right ear. Tory placed up a finger at Marcella and she nodded.

"Agent Hanges," he immediately answered.

Marcella smiled at her brother's professional way of answering his call and continued to watch him do his job. He sighed and groan with palm to the forehead,

"Sure..." he replied, "Yeah, I heard you the first time. I'm on my way," failing at hiding his obvious annoyance. He pressed his communicator one last time and spoke to Marcella,

"I gotta go..." Tory said frowning.

"Already?" Marcella took her palms off the table and they fell into her lap, "B-but you just got here," when she realized that Tory had no other choice or hardly had anything to say, Marcella cleared her throat, "Okay then. I hope you see soon. I'll take care of the bill this time," Tory stood up, walked over to her seat, and bent down to give her a hug. He backed away for her to scoot out of her seat, and once she stood on both feet, she gave another hug. It was a long hug too, "I swear, these visits get shorter every time," she said rubbing his back. Marcella released him and sat back down into her chair to finish the rest of her brunch.

"Okay, give mom a kiss for me alright?" Tory smiled.

"Alright..." she said softly, "Be careful."

Although the traffic lights said to stop, Tory stepped past the barricade of the restaurant and hastily crossed the street to enter a metallic grey sport's car with another agent already waiting in the driver's seat. The butterfly door lifted and Troy crawled into the passenger's seat, closing the door with him on his way down into the seat. Tory stared at Marcella from where he sat, letting out a silent exhale—He secretly rolled his eyes as Six enlightened him on the mission. Maybe joining Providence wasn't everything he hoped it to be? He thought he knew what was best for him and his family, but it was only a lesson of learning something about him. His interest in Providence was sinking.

Next stop: South Africa.