The hidden warrior

Chapter 12

EMMA'S POV
As i woke up, i smelt the sweetest thing. It was like a reminder of my childhood, when my mom used to make the nicest pancakes ever! As i lifted myself up from my bed, i realised that it was 9:43 am. Now usually i would be panicking that my mum would find out that I hadn't receive my attendance mark in school, but after what happened yesterday i am in no mood to go outside and face anyone, who could be preparing to take me. And so as one does i decided to investigate what that sweet smell was. I lifted my self out of bed and immediately regretted it after losing the comfort, but i had bigger problems. I need to find a way to protect my mom from whatever those freaks were, because as much as she is absent from my life, she is my whole world, and I don't know what i would do if something happened to her. So today I will probably miss school and call her work saying that there's been a problem with me and that she needs to come home. As much as i do regret not telling her before she left for work, I don't think after last night that i was physically or mentally capable of doing so. And so that will be the first thing on my list of things to do after figuring out where this smell is coming from!

As i got closer to the kitchen, i heard cabinets and dishes being used. We're these people trying to get me by coming into my house and cooking me breakfast! Absolutely not! No way would i fall for that! And so as i got closer i for my water bottle (which is metal) out of my bag, and armed myself with it, ready to attack the person who was in my kitchen.

As i pushed the kitchen door open, with my weapon ready, i ran to the sound screaming obviously trying to intimidate them. But the sight i saw was not what i expected! What i saw was my mum holding a frying pan ion her hand laughing at me! LAUGHING! I thought i was about to get MURDERED! But that shock vanished as quickly as it came. My mom was here with me cooking breakfast when i should be in school, why? Was this another enemy pretending to be my mom? There's only one way to find out and so i blurted out a personal question. "When i was 11 years old, what happened on our skiing trip?". And, she obviously found this funny, as she continued laughing harder than ever and stated between wheezing chuckles "you managed to ski right into a tree and managed to end upside down in the snow!" In that moment i knew that it was my mother, and so i eloped her in a bind crushing hug. It obviously startled her as she asked what it was for and of course I couldn't say the obvious reason so i simply said "i just missed you recently that's all". "Well i wasn't feeling great today and so i decided to have today off, and when you didn't wake up to go to school as you usually do, I thought that you obviously felt the same and so i made our favourite breakfast for us. We can also spend the rest of the day watching our favourite cringe romance movies. If that's ok with you? I understand that I've been working a lot and so today will be nice". In that moment, i was shell-shocked. It had been around 2 years since we had a day together and so of course i said YESS! I mean this has worked indefinitely in my favour. Not only could i protect my mom from whoever was after me, but i could also spend time with her like how we used to! This had officially became the best day ever! And so me and my mom sat down and started eating our delicious breakfast whilst talking about the current things going on in our life. I of course lied about most things, and although i was ecstatic, i still had this itch about something to do with those people yesterday that was bugging me. I also thought about finishing the hacking on the school teachers and see if that leads to anything.

NAT'S POV
After what happened yesterday, we couldn't track Emma, and so there was no way that we could help her. It obviously affected the whole team because even thought she might be a threat, she is child and has been attacked. As we went back to the tower Tony decided to try and track her and i went searching to where she last was. Unfortunately every couldn't find where she lived because everything on her file had been wiped clean. My guess is that it was her, because we've all heard about how smart she is. Unfortunately as i went looking, i still had that horrible feeling in my gut and no matter what it wouldn't go. I mean she is still a possible threat so i don't know why i feel so bad! As i didn't have any leads I decided to head back tot he tower and get some sleep. As i entered it seemed everyone except Tony had the same idea, but there's no way on earth am I disrupting Tony, because i will kick his head and annoyingly I'm in no mood tonight. As i get ready for bed, my last thought before drifting off was hoping that Emma was ok.

When i woke up it was around 6 am, and that feeling was still there, so i decided to burn it off by training. And so i got changed into gear and headed down to the training rooms. This helped to a certain amount, by picturing that guy that attacked Emma yesterday on the dummy's and some of the team (mostly Tony). When i finished it was around 7;30, so I showered, changed and decided to grab breakfast. The rest of the team were sitting around the table in silence. I saw how subtly some of their faces changed when they saw me walk in. I know some of them are still a little angry about what i said yesterday, but I'm sure Emma's fine and they'll forgive me when they see her in school today. And so i grabbed my food and sat down, and for an awkward 5 minutes no one spoke, that is until Wanda raised her concerns. "How do we know if Emma is ok? I mean her phone literally BROKE from the impact! What do you think might have happened to her?" Nobody replied, because no one knew. We have never seen Emma in combat, but if you manage to succeed in getting onto a threat list that has to be dealt with, you must be able to at least defend yourself. "I'm sure she's ok, plus we probably would have heard on the news" is what i replied, but of course Tony had to but in! "Mhhmm, maybe. Or maybe the guy that attacked her covered his tracks pretty well. And in all fairness I don't think it was a fair fight. She was in no condition to fight". I knew that his words were directed to me, and it didn't help how i was feeling, but just as i was trained i pushed my emotions aside and left my face blank. It then got me thinking, that Emma kind of had a similarity to her to somebody i swear i knew. But I'm probably overthinking it, hoping she's ok. And so when i finished my breakfast i was glad to leave and head to school to hopefully see her there.

I decided to drive myself and not share a lift with anyone today, because i didn't want to face them and so i played my favourite classical music to calm myself down, and it did to some extent. When i arrived, i headed straight to the entrance doors, so i could see each person coming from the buses and their cars. Around 20 minutes passed and it was coming to an end to the cut off time for the start of school and I haven't seen Emma yet. I was getting worried, and it didn't help when the bell rang and I had to head in to teach my first class which Emma should be in. But of course she wasn't, and so in my free time i tried hacking her files to see if i could find anything on her, but I couldn't. But something else did come up.

I found a picture of her parents, but there was an alarming similarity with them. I felt as if i had seen them before, and not in a good way. I was racking my mind to think  and try and remember on where i saw them, but i just couldn't. And I don't know why but that feeling in my stomach grew even bigger, and i knew something wasn't right, i just need to find out what. Frustratingly i need to wait until break to research my mind and the internet and tell the rest of the team that Emma isn't here so they can help and see if reception has any information to contact her parents to see if they know where she is, and if she's safe.