Project Trouble X Three

A/N: I just wanted to thank you for reading. Please comment as my friends oddball, PenumbraMINE, and N.Y.O.B. do. I love reading the comments you leave.

Thank you

Recap

I walked over and set up a dummy, placing a heat band on the dummy. “Madrid, do you want to shoot the dummy? It will show up on your screen as the enemy.”

“Yes!” He exclaimed, fist pumping in the air we shook our head at his actions. He was always excited about new toys. He wanted to be the first one to try anything new - even if they hadn’t been tested by me first. I had to hide my new inventions whenever I saw him coming. I didn’t want him to get hurt when he had so many men and women to command.

I watched as Madrid went around the corner and pulled up his screen, exclaiming loudly about how cool everything was. I backed everyone up and took a step out. I heard the weapon fire and stood my ground. The arrow went around the corner and hit the dummy in the heart, never touching me. Madrid ran back around the corner and looked at them dummy and then me.

“Cat, I could have shot you,” Madrid said, his voice shaking.

Cats POV

I shook my head. “Not even possible. We could stand beside the dummy and it would never hit us. I made sure to fix the bows so they recognized us. I wanted something quiet in case one of us was pulled in front of the enemy.”

“Holy crap, Cat, you did it. I know we talked about being able to take out anyone who takes one of us, but you actually did it. I’m so proud of you,” my dad told me as he pulled me into a hug.

“I didn’t do anything but test my ideas.” I shrugged my shoulders and stepped back. “You knew I loved to tinker with things. It was the reason I asked so many questions.”

“Well, I’m happy you did. This can change the military’s lives. And to think you were asking questions and working on a solution is astonishing. I’m proud of the woman you have become.” Madrid paused and looked at me with a sly smile. “You do know that you are now in the military, right?”

“Uh, no,” was all I could think to say. I was excited but I kept myself from taking flight. I wanted to jump up and down, flap my arms around as if I were a chicken. Oh God, my mind has a mind of it's own and I needed to listen to my Uncle Madrid, not act like a freaking fool.

“Yep, just like your mother.” I looked over at my mom to see her smirking at me.

I shrugged my shoulders, already feeling as if I was a Shadow Cat. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Madrid asked, his eyebrows almost to his hairline. What else did he want me to say? Did he want me to argue with him? I was excited but I was trying to come off cool.

“Yeah, okay.” I paused and looked around at all the Shadow Cats. “How about we call to our other weapons.”

“Call?” Madrid asked as I nodded my head yes.

“Digger, why don’t you pull up the gun one on your screen? It’s going to show you all your weapons.” He nodded and pulled up the screen. “Now, tap on the weapon you want to try and it will set up for you.”

Digger pulled up the screen for his gun and looked at me, a scared expression on his face. “Uh, what happens when I accidentally hit the bomb button?” Everyone’s eyes went wide, some of the Shadow Cat’s paling. I smirked and walked to the wall, pulling out another dummy. I hit a symbol on the floor, a box lifting up. I placed the dummy in the box and backed up a little. Hey, I wanted to make sure we didn’t bring the whole cave system down on us.

I pushed everyone back, counting down in my head. I threw my hands up over my ears and stood still, everyone else ducking and looking at me as if I was crazy. Maybe I was.

Three

Two

One

The sound wasn’t as loud as I thought it would be, but the parts hitting the walls and practice targets were. I looked up and the dummy was completely demolished, some of the body parts on fire. I walked over and grabbed the fire extinguisher and put the fires out, making sure the blast didn’t hurt our weapons.

I turned around, a smile on my face. “Now, who wants to be my test dummy for our new suits. I’m almost positive it can withstand a bomb hitting it.” Everyone started backing up, hands in the air as I rolled my eyes. “Really? Did you not see me stand up in the middle of the blast?”

“She’s right,” Dragon commented, looking around at the guys. ’But, I’m not too keen on seeing if I can be a human blow torch.”

“Alright, no human target.” They nodded. “But, no bombs for Digger.” Digger scowled at me as the rest of us laughed.

I went over the weapons with the guys and let them try them out. They knew I wanted them in the suits as soon as possible. They were worried it would be much trouble to take it off if they had to pee, well, until I showed them the secret panels. Now, everyone of them had their suits on.

Sophia was the last person to put hers on because she didn’t want to wear something so unflattering, her words not mine, so she threw a tantrum. It made me so mad that I snapped at her for being a baby and not trying to protect herself, letting her know if one of the men took her it would be hard to take the suit off. I told her the suits automatically molded to her body and her body only. After another hour of her throwing a bitch fit she finally put on her suit but was still pouting.

I didn’t understand why it was Sophia thought I was a princess when she was so close to getting her way by our dad. Ha! Princess my ass. She was the one who took the title. It was always her. Was she jealous because of the way it seemed everything came to me so easily? It wasn’t easy. I worked my ass off to get where I was today. I didn’t have fashion shows. I didn’t even know how to put makeup on except for lip gloss and mascara. I still messed up on my mascara. I was more of a 'hurt them before they hurt you'. 'Make the bleed before you bleed'. And, 'shoot and ask quetions later'.

I walked off, shaking my head at her idiotic pouting face. I was very glad she wasn't the one 'taken'. She would have never made it. She would have done everything they told her to do. And, she would have been raped by the twins. I wasn't even sure why she was on this mission. They should have left her on the base with one of Madrid's trusted men. What was she supposed to help us with? Nothing, that's what. She needed to be out with us practicing, getting used to her weapons, learning about them, but no, she was pouting.

I shook my head to get rid of the thoughts and watched the guys use their weapons. I could tell Madrid loved his new suit and weapons. He looked like a kid who opened his favorite toys and wanted to play with them all, not knowing which one to try first. The Shadow Cats were all smiles as they played with their weapons. I was happy to see them using the dummies.

They would place each other against the dummies bodies and then someone shoot, not even aiming at the target. There were shouts, hoots and hollars as they tried each weapon. I was happy to have helped in anyway I could. I still had more inventions to finish, inventions that would knock Madrid out of his socks. Inventions my dad didn't even know about.

I finally got bored and started walking around the cavern. I realized I had walked back over to the monitors without my mind knowing where I was going and I was glad I did. “Guys, we have a situation, come quickly," I said through our mics.

I stood in front of the monitors gobsmacked. How? When? My mind had shut down and I couldn’t think I could only see. And, what I was seeing was so foreign to me I was considering that my eyes had shut down, too. My heart was racing, my hands were sweating. My whole body was shaking, something I never did. I was afraid and I was never afraid. But, I wasn't afraid for myself.

I reached up to the monitor, my hands shaking, but before I could touch the screen I pulled my hands back to me, sensing my mate coming up behind me. I was hoping he would see something different than I was, but my hopes were dashed with his first words.

“Oh, shit!” I heard my mate exclaim, my mother right behind him.

“What? No, no, no!” My dad exclaimed as he moved closer to the monitor.

A//N: A little shorter chapter, but it seemed to be a place to stop for the day. Hope you like it and sorry for the Cliffy. Not.