The Devil's 5'5

Chapter 7 - Runner

January 27th, 7:32 AM - HYENA Playground - Chicago, IL Azura's POV

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The word " P L A Y G R O U N D" came into view and a familiar sense of nostalgia washed over her. This was her favourite place out of all of the agency's facilities. The name stemmed from two things. The fact that they were once kid spies, and the directors' odd sense of humour, to refer to their training grounds as a civilian's leisure location for child's play. What happened in their playground however was anything but that.

Tag in a playground park is so different from the tag inside of here.

To add to her happy mood she was relieved to have someone else babysit her target who was holed up in his room studying on a Sunday. Scanning the various groups that were practicing hand to hand combat, she found the tall looming figure. As she neared her friend, the second figure standing beside him made her eyes widen.

That bitch!

She stalked behind the oblivious person slowly before launching herself on to them.

The person cursed as they tried to not topple over from the sudden force that was her.

"Azura!? Jesus, you've gotten heavy. Are you pregnant?"

She easily slipped off, but not before grabbing a hold of his ear. Yanking it hard whilst squeezing it in her death grip, the boy yelled in pain as he was brought to his knees.

"Nice to see you too, Noble. And no I am not pregnant."

"Yet," he managed to mumble, only to restart his howling when she added a twist to her grip.

With Noble here, the trio was finally reunited. It has been a while since they all were in the same room given that each of them were deployed on various missions at different times and in different places.

It's just like old times.

She finally let go, before giving him a cool stare.

"I just got back and this is how I'm greeted," he grumbled as he cupped his now red ear.

"Yeah, well you should have returned my texts. Or told me when you were headed back."

Noble gapped at her, throwing Amir a look of disbelief in hopes to recruit him on to his side. When their stoic friend offered nothing, he tried to defend himself.

"I was on a mission! I didn't have my phone for leisure reasons and I didn't even know when I would be back." His explanation only made Azura tsk lightly as she reprimanded him for making sorry excuses.

"Anyway, I need you to look into something for me."

Before he could question her the buzzer went off indicating round one of the combat duels. Azura promptly stepped on to the blue mat as Amir stepped off.

The look of betrayal flashed in Noble's eyes as he looked after Amir. "Go easy on me okay...I haven't even slept in the last 48 hours."

A wide grin only graced her face as she got into her low ready stance. Her eyes challenged him and eventually Noble sighed before matching her movements. They slowly circled each other, waiting for the other to make the first move.

"So I heard you've been assigned as protection to a college student," Noble offered. She knew he was trying to distract her and it was not going to work.