New Life : A Second Chance

He watched the house through the binoculars, sipping on a soda, as he studied the door, the windows and the sides. He sighed, placing down the binoculars.

"Nothing?"

"Not a thing," grumbled Stan to his teammate, "Aren\'t they teens? Why are they holed up in the house? Isn\'t it the holidays? Why aren\'t they out there, partying or something?"

"Oh, I don\'t know ..." said the other person, "Maybe it\'s because the boy almost died. Twice?"

"Three, if what Boss said is true," mumbled Stan. He couldn\'t quite believe that the young boy he was tasked to observe, and now, capture, would have defeated Drako. He must have been saved by someone else.

Whatever it was, they had to be careful.

"There\'s movement!!" one said in a loud whisper.

Stan quickly put up the binoculars again and saw that Kyle and Kay had walked out the front door, talking and laughing with each other. Kyle was busy looking at his phone and then at the street.

"Quick," Stan ordered, "Intercept that signal. Joe, get ready to immobilise the driver that will arrive."

From Kyle\'s actions, Stan correctly deduced that he must have contacted an e-hailing cab services.

"Got it. Joe, licence plate SDF1234, biege sedan," reported one.

"On it," Joe replied and quickly slipped away.

\'This is going to be easier than I thought,\' Stan thought to himself.

"Joe\'s intercepted the vehicle. He\'s bringing it over right now."

Stan nodded and went out to greet Joe.

.:*?°☆...:*?.:*?°☆...:*?

[I seriously don\'t like this] Kyle grumbled as he looked at his phone.

[Relax, brother] Kay said soothingly [If you start looking nervous, I may start looking nervous and that will tip them]

[Nitocris said that he\'s ordered them to take us out with the knock-out gas. I can\'t protect you when that happens. I don\'t like it]

[I know. But this is our best bet. I am willing to take this step for a safer future. It\'s worth the risk, brother. I can do this.]

Kyle sighed.

[I know you can] Kyle said, not wanting to make her feel bad for doubting her [You\'re stronger than I give you credit for.]

One of the hardest thing to do is to let the one you love, free. A part of you wants to protect that person from all harm, all the time, and always. You can\'t stand seeing them suffer. You\'d rather bear all the burden so long as he/she can be happy. But you can\'t do that forever, can you? They need to be able to learn, stumble and fall, then get up again by themselves.

Only through adversity does one truly shine.

Kyle knew that but it doesn\'t mean he is willing.

It\'s bad enough when you see your loved one suffering. It\'s worse when you feel that the suffering was one that you could have avoided. It\'s the worst when you have a hand in that suffering yet either did not do anything to stop it, or could not stop it.

Even if that \'suffering\' is for their own good and their own growth.

Kyle felt like his heart was being twisted in two. The fear he was experiencing right now was unlike anything he had ever felt before. His heart was beating so rapidly that he felt like it went up to his throat.

Kyle took several deep breaths to calm himself down. He wouldn\'t go into Zen mode just for this. He needed to save that for emergencies only. It drained him too much. He shouldn\'t rely on it so much either.

He had tried to find various plausible reasons to get Kay to stay behind, but it was useless. He even tried to get Nitocris to support him but instead, Nitocris validated Kay\'s point. If he was the only one captured, Kazuya wouldn\'t even see him until the whole brainwash episode was over. If they were both captured at the same time, then Kazuya wouldn\'t be able to wait and would get them to his office immediately.

Kyle had the confidence of escaping if he was captured alone, but that would entail higher risk and too many things could go wrong.

Kyle even wanted to use a decoy. Have an MIB agent take her place instead. Kay scoffed at that idea, pointing out that their disguises were good but not to the point that they could pass off as someone else when it\'s close-up. They could replace Rheia because the MIB agent hardly went out and most of the time, the face was only partially seen.

Kyle was ready to go insane at that point.

It was at that point that Master Shifu simply stated, "Your greatest weakness is your sister. If you cannot overcome this, she will forever be your Achilles Heel."

His mind went BOOM.

Kay was being stubborn, that\'s without question. Yet, he was also being stubborn, for not allowing her to grow. If this was the best route, then it was the route he should take. He should not let his personal feelings for her cloud his judgment. If he was willing to use a decoy, it also meant that he was acknowledging it was the best method.

The only thing he had against the plan was using Kay.

Master Shifu was right. He had to overcome that. Kay needs the experience to grow stronger. Kyle needs this experience to be stronger as well. To let Kay face it.

But it was hard, damnit!!

So here they were, offering themselves as bait. He knew that the e-hailing cab signal had been intercepted. His phone, like Kay\'s, had a special programme in it which would alert them whenever there was a hacking attempt. Then, it would be up to them to allow it or not. The signal would also be traced and the information sent to MIB.

He then looked up upon hearing a vehicle approaching.

[Showtime]

.:*?°☆...:*?.:*?°☆...:*?

Joe slowed down the car and stopped right next to the twins. He waited patiently as they got in.

"Hi!" he greeted them warmly, tapping a device on the car to start the mapping journey. It was required by every e-hailing cab to ensure that the driver followed the designated route. In truth, they had already canceled the ride and tampered with the device so that it did not send any signals to base.

Thus, in the company\'s system, Kyle and Kay had canceled the ride and no one came to pick them up. This would cover their tracks. Furthermore, it gave out false reports to base that the current driver and car had picked up another client further way from here.

"Mall T, right?" he asked cheerfully.

"Yes, please. Thank you," Kyle replied politely then proceeded to talk to Kay, silently indicating that they weren\'t interested in any \'small talk\' with the driver. Joe could catch on this and felt it was for the best. Trying to be cheerful and friendly was really taxing for him.

Joe made the volume of the radio a bit louder and hummed to it, seemingly not paying any attention to anything other than driving. He was confident that his passengers would not realise that he was not taking the route to Mall T, as they were too deeply engrossed in talking with each other. Hardly looking outside.

Joe scoffed to himself.

These were just kids. No matter how you looked at it, they were kids. Stan was being overly cautious. Joe\'s face scrunched up in annoyance when he remembered Stan\'s constant reminder and warning about the mission. He was even supposed to use the knock-out gas. On a couple of harmless kids?

Whatever.

Despite his misgivings, he still proceeded with it. If he didn\'t, he\'d have to answer to Stan - worse, Nitocris. Everyone knew that the true boss was him, and not Kazuya. The latter merely barked orders, fucked around while Nitocris was the one that planned everything, cleared up the messes Kazuya made and most of the time, turned things around.

Joe took out the knock-out gas which was in a small ball. He flipped open the cap, watching the small smoke being released before throwing it underneath his seat. He didn\'t want the kids to take the ball before it had done its job, so it had to be placed in an area that would still get to them yet out of reach.

He then placed a small, portable gas mask over his own face, which covered his nose and mouth.

The gas was something Dr. Dre had developed, so it was fast acting. Joe observed them through the rearview mirror. He saw that the twins were frantic at the sudden smoke that spiraled out but before they could do anything, they were knocked out.

Joe then opened all the windows and called Stan, saying simply, "Snatch successful."

As Joe drove leisurely to HQ, anyone who saw the car would only see two kids sleeping peacefully at the back. Joe showed his pass at the entrance and drove to the underground car park.

There, the rest of the team were already there, waiting with two wheelchairs.