Merry late Christmas!

I was going to update on Christmas but I was super busy, what with seeing family and all.

Cody's POV

"Thirteen seriously has every game in the world, and of all those games you could pick to play...you pick Mario Kart?"

"What the hell is wrong with Mario Kart?" Devin fires back at Jason, never taking his eyes off the screen.

He's leaning back and forth on the couch as if he's actually the one making the character turn rather than the controller in his hands.

"Nothing...except for the fact that she has every other video game and you came up with Mario Kart," Jason mutters. "It shows your maturity level."

"Excuse me? You are never too old to play Mario Kart."

"You're playing Mario Kart?" I turn my head to see Ryder standing in the doorway, a box in his hands.

"Jason's already established how childish he is," I speak up and to my surprise Ryder drops the box on the table next to me and runs over to Devin, hopping over the back of the couch and taking a seat.

"Switch it to two players!" He shouts, grabbing one of the extra controllers and powering it on.

Devin complies. "Race, or Battle?" He asks Ryder, who's now grinning like the idiot he is.

"Race!"

I glance over at the box next to me. "Hey, what is this?"

Ryder looks over his shoulder at me and then the box, his expression changes for a split second before he quickly covers it up.

"Oh yeah..." He trails off as if recalling something. "Thirteen wanted us to go through that. Try to dig up something on Garrett."

"And the video game was obviously more important." I retort with as much sarcasm as possible.

He scoffs. "Obviously." He mutters something else under his breath that I don't catch.

"What was that?"

He lets out a sigh and loud protests from Devin sound off as he pauses the game.

"I said you fu-"

"Please control your tongue Mr. Stevenson." Henri cuts him off as he enters the room. "There is no cursing allowed in this house."

"I was going to say fudge cake."

I glare at him and he smiles darkly back at me, crossing his arms over his chest. Devin tries to steal his controller to resume the game.

"Um Hi." I turn towards Elaine who's also now entered the room. "I was wondering where the bathroom was?" She questions quietly.

"You've been here for how many days now and you don't know where the bathroom is?" Jason scowls. She flinches as if he struck her.

"Jason come on, lay off her," I say and he snaps his gaze over to me.

"What is your problem?" He growls at me.

"My problem?" I glare back at him.

"Yeah. So Thirteen up and ditched us, get over it! Making friends with that thing," He waves his hands in Elaine's direction. "Isn't going to do anything but piss off Thirteen and you know it!" He shouts at me, putting his hands on my shoulders and shoving me back a few steps. "I'm the only one who has a right to pissed off at her, but either way she did for our own good!"

"Oh so you can be pissed off at her but no one else can?! You're being ridiculous!"

"Am I really?" He hisses between his teeth, his fists and muscles clenched in anger. "I'm an orphan Cody, my parents abandoned me when I was just a baby, all I've got is this team and I was actually getting used to the idea of having her around. Hell, I was actually liking the idea of having her around, but she up and left, just like my parents, and everyone else in my life besides this team."

His voice has grown softer and he runs his hands through his hair, a resigned look on his face. He shakes his head.

"If you're only being nice to it because you're trying to piss off Thirteen after everything she's done for us...then you don't actually care about her. If you're just being nice to it because you can be a nice person then go ahead, but you might want to extend the same curtsey to Thirteen, cause if you really care for her...you're only succeeding in pushing her away...in which case, you'll lose her forever, and I'm sure Ryder will kick your ass-"

"Nah, I shoot to kill," Ryder interjects, shooting me a deadly look.

Jason just shakes his head once more before grabbing hold of Elaine's arm with more force than necessary and dragging her out of the room. "I'll show you where the bathroom is you can stop bothering us and start minding your own damn business." He mutters.

The Mario Kart music fills the room the second Jason leaves.

"DEVIN!" Ryder shouts at Devin who's resumed the game...without Ryder.

Ryder rushes over to grab hold of his controller but before he can grab it, the sound of an alarm suddenly echoes through the room. The door swings shut on its own immediately after, and there's an audible click as it locks itself.

"The hell?" Devin mutters and suddenly the power goes out, shutting off the lights and the TV. "Nooooooo!" Devin yells as he falls the floor on his knees in front of the TV, shaking it and yelling at it to turn back on.

"What's going on?" I ask and Ryder stands up from his seat, a worried look on his face.

"She's initiated the lockdown." He mutters as the lights flicker back on, but a low red glow comes from them instead of a bright white light.

"Great we're officially in a horror movie." Devin mumbles. "Where's the ax murderer?"

"She's downstairs," Ryder mutters in response.

"Why would she initiate a lockdown?" I question.

"The lockdown is only meant for if there's someone in the house who shouldn't be," Henri answers as Ryder continues to look around as if trying to piece something together.

"But I thought no one could get in unless she let them in," Devin says, now beginning to look slightly worried.

"They can't," Henri replies.

"So the question is, who did she let in that she shouldn't have?" I ask, looking at Henri who simply shrugs.

"Someone from Vendetta," Ryder growls. I look over at him confused. Someone from where?

I glance over at Devin, expecting him to mirror my confusion but instead his gaze is focused on Ryder.

"Why would she let someone from Vendetta into her house?" He questions Ryder while I stare at the two of them dumbfounded. What the hell are they talking about?

"What the hell are two even talking about?" I interrupt before Ryder can answer him. I point at Devin, "And why do you know about it?"

"I spend way too much time at the agency...alone. You should try it sometime, you pick things up." Devin answers with a shrug.

"Vendetta is a rival agency," Ryder speaks up, answering my question. "Your chief Zero has been trying to keep it quiet."

"Why do you know so much about all of this?"

"Thirteen tells me everything." He shoves his hands in his pockets. "We don't keep secrets from each other...that often."

"Vendetta operates the same way as our agency," Devin says. "but they're smaller and operate in teams of two. Boy, girl pairs. They basically do the same things we do, except they don't care who gets hurt in the process."

"If innocent people get hurt or killed it doesn't matter, so long as the mission gets completed. They operate on their own terms and sometimes their targets, are personal. Hence why Zero began referring to them as Vendetta." Ryder adds after Devin finishes.

Devin gives him a funny look before speaking again. "That still doesn't explain why Thirteen would let a member of Vendetta in. I mean it doesn't surprise me that she knows about it but she's not stupid enough to let them in."

Ryder lets out a nervous laugh and begins to scratch the back of his neck, shuffling from foot to foot. "She's going to kill me." He mutters quietly, probably hoping we didn't hear him.

"She might...kind of...sort of be...a part of Vendetta."

"What?!"

"Please tell me I heard you wrong."

He lets a resigned sigh and runs his hand through his hair. "She joined up with them a while ago. Zero doesn't know about it and it has to stay that way or she'll be in a lot of trouble."

"More trouble than she's in for stabbing him?" I ask and Ryder's eyes widen.

"She did what?" Then he shakes his head and holds up his hands. "I don't want to know, save me the details. Anyways, Vendetta is mostly made up from former agents from your agency, basically, anyone who's got a personal grudge against Zero...but they're a lot more ruthless."

"Wait," I interrupt him. "Former agents from our agency? Aren't they working with Garrett?"

"Some of them are." He shrugs. "Others went off and joined Vendetta. There's basically your agency, Vendetta, and Garrett's terrorists. Most of your "dead" agents went and joined Ven-Why are we still talking about this? She can explain everything later, we have to get out of here."

"Right." Devin pulls out his gun and aims it at the door, Ryder grips the barrel and snatches it from him before he can fire it.

"A gun is not always the answer Devin." I say at exactly the same time Ryder's says, "The doors are bulletproof."

"And locked." I retort sarcastically. "We're stuck in here, how do you plan on getting out?"

"You guys might be stuck but I can leave whenever I want," Ryder says dismissively with the wave of his hand.

"How?" Devin asks and Ryder walks over to the door, punching in a code on the keypad on the side.

"Every door has a keypad on the inside of the rooms, you can't get into any of the rooms but you can get out if you know the code. There are only four rooms you can get into when the house is in lockdown, provided you know the code to get into the rooms. Her room, her office, the weapons room, and the control room. We need to get to the control room, that's where the monitors for the cameras are. She has cameras in every room in this house...except the bedrooms."

"There's no weapons room or control room," Devin says. "I searched the house and didn't find any."

"Oh, you're so adorably clueless." Ryder chuckles. "Do you really think that Thirteen would leave a room like that in plain sight?"

The door makes another clicking noise and Ryder pulls it open, rushing quickly out. Devin runs out after him and I quickly follow, Henri exits last, closing the door behind him.

"Oh." Devin suddenly says, stopping in his tracks and forcing me to ram into his back. "I just thought of something?"

"What?" I snap at him as I rub my nose which collided with the back of his head.

"Jason's stuck with Elaine somewhere...how long do you think before he gets fed up with her and kills her?"

"Worry about that later." Ryder hisses. He comes to a stop in front of a large oval mirror with a golden border around the edges, a large circular jewel resting on the bottom middle of the frame.

Ryder places his hand on the jewel and begins to spin it in either direction like a combination lock. Suddenly there's an audible click and the section of the wall with the mirror on it swings open.

"Holy-"

"That's so cool." Devin gushes before pushing past Ryder and running into the room.

Henri and I walk in shortly after. The room's full of computers, cameras, and a bunch of other high tech gadgets. Ryder takes a seat at the large desk full of computers set up in the middle of the room.

He begins powering up all the computers as well as the large TVs mounted on the wall in front of him. He presses a button on the keyboard and the door swings shut.

"Can you lift the lockdown?" Devin asks, leaning over Ryder's shoulder and staring at the computer screens.

"No. The only one who can lift it is Thirteen." He says as he begins typing on the computer.

"But..." He trails off as he spins in the chair around to look at us. "This is where the controls for all the traps are."

He grins like the Cheshire cat. "Let's have some fun."

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