Season 1, Episode 1:
Carter… Nick Carter
Part 3 of 3
Sliding across the floor,
Nick entered another room. Quite too
fast, actually, as his body slipped on a greasy rag found upon the floor,
sending Nick flying into a table towards the center of the large room.
Located on one of the
lower levels, it was one with metal walls, and along those walls, one could
see, as its décor, items made of technology many would be shocked to discover.
He gave a sheepish grin
as he got up casually, brushing off his black slacks as if the incident
had never occurred. A chuckle could be heard across the room, and
his gaze shifted towards the source. Ahh,
next in line to question. It was
someone he would never suspect, but one thing he had learned in his career was
never to rule out any possibility.
Standing by a large
device hidden by a plastic gray cover was a young woman, only a few inches
shorter than his own tall, six-foot frame.
Her golden hair was pinned up casually, with just a few tendrils framing
her doll-like face. Her sapphire eyes
stood out as she gave him a grin. It was
the head of the Science and Technology Department at Himitsu Takana, Professor
Pearl. Not her real name, but, as with the others, an alias intended to keep her
safe.
She smirked. “Smooth, 00Carter, real smooth. I bet that one is a real hit with the
ladies.”
He leaned against the
very same table he had fallen against as she came over to him, heels clicking
upon the steel floor. This room was the
home for many of her creations. She and
Nick had trained together, along with another, but while two of their trio had
gone for the coveted 00-rank, Professor Pearl had opted to continue with her
love of science. Her gadgets were used
commonly among agents; she had even made a special secret weapon for each
member of Himitsu Takana that was for that person alone and fit each unique
personality.
Still, she and Nick had
random talks at times and had remained friends.
Sometimes they even went on missions together if her expertise was
needed. That hadn’t happened since… his
last mission, however.
It then clicked, what she
had just called him. “00Carter?”
“You’re the one who hates
being called 008, even if it is your rank.”
He stood closer to her
now, just taking her in. “I want 007,
but that’s always taken by the British man who never ages.”
“And it always will be.”
He moved closer, but was
stopped by her next words. “Hold
it. K wants you upstairs.” A smirk.
“Probably because of your adventures today.”
“All is necessary for the
mission. Speaking of which, where were
you at 1400 hours today?”
“Where I’m always at,
Blondie, here.”
“Do you have anyone to
substantiate that claim? Have you been
near the red-jeweled object at any time today?”
Professor Pearl crossed
her arms as she just gave him an odd glance. “You’re insane.” She laughed, despite her firm stance. “And no
to both. No more questioning, or K is
going to end up down here, which won’t make any of us happy.”
“I’ll need to speak to
you for further questioning.” His eyes
scanned the room. It was clean, no sign
of the stolen object anywhere. The best
evidence so far was back in Agent Jay’s office.
She laughed and pointed
to the door. “Go, before he makes you a
janitor for Lancy. Come back down here
after you’re done. I have something to
show you.”
He raised a brow in
interest. “New project?”
“Possibly. Now get going.”
Nick headed out and
towards the elevator at the end of the hall.
It would lead to K’s room. He was
the only possible suspect Nick had not questioned yet. Although unfinished, he doubted his favorite
scientist had anything to do with it.
Agent K had been in Jay’s office earlier.
So now this was it. The head honcho of Himitsu Takana. Agent K.
He pressed the button and stepped into the elevator in
anticipation. Finally, the mission would
be resolved.
"Dun… dun dun dun… dun dun dun…” He looked down at his
phone as “Eye of the Tiger” continued to play.
As soon as he saw the name ‘Grandma’ scroll across his phone, he
mentally beat himself in the head. How
fast was he supposed to walk? That was definitely the last person he wanted to
hear from. No milk and cookies for him
today.
As he opened his phone, it screamed, “CARTER… MY
OFFICE… NOW!”
Nick slowly drudged out of the elevator and down
the hall. His shoulders sank, and his
hands started to sweat. Why was it that
Agent K always made him nervous?
Maybe it was the recurring dream he had when he
had first joined the agency. In the
dream, Agent K was really an evil robot that had laser beams hidden behind his
eyebrows. Or it could be that Agent K
was the only father figure he had other than Jay.
Nick shrugged his shoulders; it was probably the
laser-beam eyebrows.
He knocked on Agent K’s door and peeked his head
in.
“Hey, you wanted to see me?” Nick said happily.
“008, sit down,” Agent K replied without his eyes
leaving the papers in front of him. He
paused while Nick sat down.
“Have you been watching too much TV lately?”
“What?” Nick asked as he scratched his already
messy head of hair.
“My agency is not ‘Law and Order’ or one of those
cop shows you like watching. You cannot
dance around here, harassing my agents for your ‘precious’.” He used his fingers to quote ‘precious’ and
continued, “This is not dress-up time; this is a job. For most of us, a life. If you don’t want to act serious, then you
can go back home and play with your Barbies.”
“Maybe if you would give me a real assignment, I
wouldn’t have to make up my own. I’m tired
of sitting around, watching everyone else have all the fun. Besides, my precious is precious to me, hence
the name.” Nick started to giggle and
roll his eyes, but quickly stopped when he saw Agent K’s eyes glare down at
him.
“Look, you weren’t allowed to go on missions
after what happened. You should have put
your time to use and worked with Smithers.”
“Are you kidding me? Smithers creeps me out. Come on, what does ‘A true fighter is like a
dog, not only because he can smell fear, but because he can piss on whatever he
wants,’ mean, anyway?”
“I don’t know.
Everyone knows that 004 is kind of nuts, but he’s the best. This has nothing to do with him. I have an assignment that I was thinking
about giving to you, but only if you stop all this ‘precious’ nonsense.” Kevin pulled a tan envelope out of his
drawer. The letters ‘Confidential’
called to Nick a lot like beautiful women did.
He felt his mouth water as he nodded and grabbed the envelope.
“Now, go back down to
Nick stepped out of the room with a smile on his
face. He started to walk down the hall,
then turned back to Agent K’s office to ask him something. He opened the door and found Kevin’s back
facing him. As he turned around, nothing
could prepare Nick was what he saw next.
Cheese.
Gooey, melted cheese, hanging out of his mouth
and onto his chin. Not only was there
cheese on his face, but his mouth was full, and a box was in his hand.
“YOU!”
“Yep, it was me.
I’m surprised it took you so long.
You knew I didn’t have breakfast this morning. It had been sitting on your desk for fifteen
minutes.” Kevin chuckled as he finished
chewing.
Nick grabbed the almost-empty box and held up the
lone piece of crust. The only thing he
had left of his pride and joy.
“I can’t believe you would steal MY
precious! You of all people know how
important it is to me!”
“Oh shut up, it’s a freakin’ pizza! Go get started on your mission, or I’ll give
it to JC.”
“Fine, you might have won this battle, but the
war is not over.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Kevin said, as he propped his
feet up on his desk.
Nick turned to walk out of the office with his
eyes ablaze, when Kevin called to him.
Nick turned his head.
“Oh, and your precious was ammmmmazing…” he
groaned, as he licked his lips.
“Hmmpphh…” Nick stormed out of the office. He pushed the envelope into his pocket and
turned toward the stairs. The nerve
these people had.
When he came back down
from K's office, she was waiting for him, like he knew she would be. He could tell by the smirk she wore that she
had known he was finally getting an assignment before he did. Not surprising.
She talked to everyone,
but Nick knew that, like himself, few saw the other side to her. Something he himself could relate to. Smart
and sassy on the outside,
She grinned as she leaned
against the quite odd-shaped object still hidden by the gray cover. “Like what you heard?” Her voice was calm, almost cold, but Nick
could detect the caring nature in it.
“I finally got a
mission.”
“Thank Jay for that. He and I were talking yesterday. He came by so I could give him his new
personalized weapon… laser gun hidden within his sunglasses.” She chuckled.
“He wears the damn things often enough – may as well make them a weapon.
Anywho, we talked. You came up in the
conversation, and we both knew it was time you saw some action again. He can’t keep your status on hiatus forever
just because of one mission…” A pause.
“… that wasn’t your fault.”
“That’s debatable,” he
replied as he stood next to her, trying to see if he could guess what her new
project was.
“It wasn’t.”
“You’ve been saying that
since the beginning.”
“And I mean it; you know
that.”
The older blonde agent
smiled at her. They’d been friends since
the beginning. “Thanks.”
Her soft cherry lips
curved into an impish grin once more.
“Besides, who else could deal with your ghetto booty as much as me and
not have sex with you?”
He laughed to
himself. “Yet, Kitana.” Rarely did he ever use her real name, unless
he was trying to make a point. This was
one of those times.
A brow raised, as
“Hell yeah, I’m keeping
that!”
“Well, let’s see your new
toy then. I’ve been working on it since
your forced leave started.”
Now his brow was raised
at her in surprise. That long? “Really??”
“I needed to focus my
attention on something.” A simple reply
with a shrug was all that was seen to most.
Nick knew better, but let it go, not wanting to discuss it himself just
yet.
“So let’s see it. You haven’t given me my special toy yet.”
She just giggled a
bit. “Well, you’re not going to complain
about that anymore after this.”
“Will too.”
“Only if you’re a
brat. Now pull the cover off.”
“This big thing?”
“Just do it, Blondie.”
He turned away from the
other door on the other end of the large room.
Her room, due to her creations, connected to the agency’s garage with a
large hidden door in the wall that would open with the right press of a secret
button. He smirked back at her as he
grabbed the plastic sheet. “You’ll be
saying those words with a different meaning to me someday.” He yanked it off, tossing it aside, forcing
Before him was the
sophisticated item, something he never thought Professor Pearl could dream
up. A sleek 1953 Hudson Hornet, the onyx
paint upon the car shimmering under the florescent lighting. Obviously modified, of course. Instead of the insignia of the car brand on
the hood, there was a silver, gothic-styled skull, more his style.
“This is mine?!” he
exclaimed, close to shouting.
“Better not crash it,
unless you have a death wish. I’ll have
Red save you just so I can kill you.”
Another press of a button, and the doors opened. “Take a look inside.”
He got in on the driver’s
side, while she sat in the passenger’s seat.
She pointed out each modification as she spoke. “Mapping system, homing system for any
tracers you put on anyone. Tracers
connected to the car are in the glove compartment. Auto drive mode, in case you need to load
ammo, but set a location on your computer screen here... before taking
your hands off the wheel. The headlights
turn into automatics, fully loaded, with the button hidden on the left side of
the stick shift. The remote I have in my
hand can auto-drive as well, if you need to lead a person astray. Med kit is in the trunk, equipped with the
standard toxins and cures supplied by Red.”
“I can see why you’ve
been busy. Holy shit.”
“Thanks, I’ll take that
as a compliment. There’s a handheld that’s
the guide to working the car tucked under the mats on the floor.”
He reached down and
pulled out a matching handheld with a little skull on the top matching the
car. “Any-”
“No games. By the way, the remote and car only answers
to you or me. It needs a thumbprint
before starting up once you lock it.
Precaution reasons. Don‘t need
anyone stealing my baby.”
“Our baby.”
“Whatever.” She laughed to herself softly as she pushed a
golden lock of hair away from her face.
“Oh, PLEASE… go through that before trying any tricks.”
“Got it.”
“Promise.”
She grinned as she
pressed a button on the roof of the car, and shelves appeared above their
heads, each with several varieties of weapons to choose from. Except one, which looked to be a watch. She grabbed it and handed it to him before
pressing the button so the shelves would go up again.
“This is our way of
communication. That watch links back to
my handheld or headset, depending on what I have on, so we can keep in touch if
need be. It also has this neat little
trick of being able to decode anything, and is a laser in case you need
it. Oh, and it’s a homing beacon for us,
in case the one K placed on you is found.”
Nick looked it over with
a grin as he put it on his wrist. A
frown appeared. “The time is wrong.”
He couldn’t help but
laugh. “A watch that doesn’t tell time?”
“Shut it. I had it do so many things, I had no memory
left for it to tell time.”
Nick kept
snickering. “Watch that doesn’t tell
time, how handy.”
“Don’t make me take your
toys away.”
He placed his hands
together below his chin and gave an angelic pose, his ocean blue eyes shifted
upwards. “I’ll be good.”
“Heh. Okay, and this thing drives like a normal car
as long as it’s not on auto.” She
stepped out of the car, handing him his remote and shutting her door. “Have fun on your mission.”
Immediately, he turned on
the radio, which, much to his liking, came with its own personally-programmed
iPod, and Nirvana began to play. He
rolled down the window and leaned his head out as
Giggling, she just rolled
her eyes. “In your dreams, 00Carter!”
Nick sped away from the
agency, through the underground garage, coming aboveground near the highway
inconspicuously. He drove down the
highway, pulling to a stop in the middle of the desert as he looked over his
handheld. Well, he’d look over it
later. Not now. But he would.
He did promise. But not now.
His sun-kissed locks were
tousled as the wind began to blow wildly about him. Finally.
A mission.
He pulled the envelope
out, opening it eagerly, and began to read what he was about to face next…
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