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Pidge, hotshot O.W.C.A. agent, arrived in her secret base in a teal smart suit, orange tie, brown fedora, and black-rimmed glasses. She sat down in her chair in front of a screen as her boss, Coran Smythe, appeared onscreen.
“Greetings, Agent P,” Coran said. “Our intelligence shows strange frequencies being transmitted from the headquarters of Lance McClain as well as “how to detect increase in bird behaviour” on his web history. Your mission is to go there and put a stop to whatever nefarious scheme he is up to. Best of luck, Agent P.”
Pidge gave a salute, climbed into her jet-powered hover car, and flew off just as her theme song was starting.
Dooby dooby doo-bah
Dooby dooby doo-bah
Dooby dooby doo-bah
Dooby dooby doo-bah
Pidge!
She's a computer savvy, tech loving lady of action!
(Dooby dooby doo-bah)
(Dooby dooby doo-bah)
She's a scrappy young hacker,
Who'll never flinch from a fray-ee-ay-ee-ay!
She's got more than just all that,
Fe(Wah-ah-ah)
She's got a snazzy suit and a hat,
Fe(ah-ah)
And the men all swoon whenever they hear her sa-a-a-ay
“Hold up, who said anything about swooning?”
She’s Pidge, Pidge the Paladin
But you can call her Agent P.
Pidge!
I said you can call her Agent P!
A-gent-P!
A short flight later, she arrived at Lance McClain Evil Incorporated by crashing through a skylight.
Waiting for her was Lance McClain in a lab coat and holding a remote.
“Ah, Pidge the Paladin, what an unexpected surprise,” Lance commented. “And by that I mean entirely expected!”
Lance pushed a button. A massive pole popped behind Pidge. Before she could react, a stream of bola flew in, tying her to the pole.
“It appears you have fallen for my cunning trap.”
“Cunning trap?” Pidge deadpanned. “This is the third time you've tried to use this thing. You even marked out on the floor where you wanted me to stand.”
“And yet, you fell for it,” Lance crowed in rebuttal.
Pidge gave as much of a shrug as her restraints allowed. “I wanted to see if you had fixed the aim on the bola launchers.”
Lance pursed his lips. “Fine, act all high and mighty tied to that pole while I enact my evil scheme.”
“And by “enact”, you mean tell some backstory to justify whatever hairbrained scheme and device you have today.”
Lance ignored this jab as he introduced his latest “tragic backstory”.
“You see, it harkens back to my miserable youth spent in my cold and unforgiving fatherland.”
“You grew up in Cuba.”
“It’s a metaphor,” Lance snapped back before continuing. "My siblings have always despised me."
"Just last week, you said Veronica was wrapped around your little finger and loved you with all her heart."
"That was last week,” Lance dismissed. “As I was saying, I was left to face the endless shame and ridicule from my elder siblings. But no more! Finally, they shall learn true terror with this: the Fowlagitationinator!”
Lance flung his arms flamboyantly towards the glorified satellite dish.
“So what exactly does it do?” Pidge asked.
“I am so very glad you asked.” Lance paused briefly as he failed to discreetly pull back his sleeve notes. “This device will emit a frequency that will increase the aggression in every bird within the city.” He read monotonously, “All urban activities will grind to a halt as everyone is terrorised by millions of feathery foes, leaving the city ripe for the taking.” His voice and arms pitched in confidence, dropping his speaker notes in the process.
“Millions?” Pidge raised an eyebrow. “I think you’re overestimating the city’s bird population.”
“I was going for dramatic effect.” Lance let out a groan. “Look, you’re here to thwart my schemes, not criticise them.”
“Fair enough,” Pidge conceded. “Speaking of thwart...”
At that moment, the restraints fell off her body.
“So, did it actually take you this long to escape, or were you waiting for me to finish talking?”
“Didn’t want to be rude.”
Pidge pounced at Lance with a jump kick. The man dodged with a last minute swivel, just barely missing Pidge’s boot. While the first strike had not connected, it had placed her between Lance and the device. He tried to throw a right hook at her. Pidge ducked and delivered a double palm strike to Lance’s abdomen.
“Your gut feels firmer,” Pidge commented. “Have you been working out?”
“Why yes, I have. Thank you for noti..Argh!” Lance was interrupted by Pidge flooring him with a roundhouse kick.
“Are you ever going to not fall for the compliment sucker punch?” The agent snorted.
She fell to ground with a yelp when Lance yanked one of her legs.
“It’s not a crime to appreciate it when you notice the effort I put into this body,” Lance replied as he stood up and wiped his mouth to check for blood. “Speaking of which, would you stop going for the face?”
“Sure.”
Lance managed to catch Pidge’s foot before it connected with his groin.
“Not what I meant.”
Lance flung Pidge by her leg across the room, causing her to hit the brick wall with a crash. He raced to press the large red button on the device. Pidge fired her grappling gun. The cable shot out, wrapping around Lance’s arm and pulling him back. He managed to get his arm free from his lab coat in time to bring his guard up against a furious onslaught of limbs.
What followed was a series of back-and-forth blows. While Lance had a higher endurance, Pidge was harder to hit. This continued unabated until he picked up a nearby chair. Pidge snatched a stool of her own.
Before either of them could take a swing, a ringtone interrupted the battle. Both Lance and Pidge put down the chairs.
“Is that your phone or mine?” Lance asked.
“Yours,” Pidge replied. “I changed my ringtone last week.”
“Huh.” Lance checked his phone. “It’s my brother. I’d better take this.”
Pidge nodded her consent as Lance answered the phone.
“Hey Luis, how’s it going?...Not too bad. Same old, same old...Yeah, she’s here to thwart my scheme...Nah, it’s fine, what’s up? Sure I can watch them tonight...not a problem at all...You’ll be here at 7? Yeah, that's fine.” Lance looked up and saw Pidge pointing to her watch. “Listen I’d better get back to work but I’ll see you tonight...Love you too.”
Lance hung up and put away the phone.
“Thanks for that, so do you want go back to chairs?”
“Nah, the moment’s gone.”
“Fair enough.”
Pidge proceeded to duck and perform a leg sweep, causing Lance to fall to the ground. As he picked himself up, Pidge raced over to the device. She pushed the self-destruct button and pulled out her grappling gun. She fired out a line, yanking herself through the skylight as the device exploded.
“CURSE YOU, PIDGE THE PALADIN!” Lance yelled.
Once he was certain was alone, he picked up a broom and started cleaning up the debris.
“You know, just once, it would be nice for her to stick around to help with the clean up.”
Lance had just finished sending his report to head office when the doorbell rang. He opened the door and was tackled by two blurs of energy.
“Come on you two, don’t break Uncle Lance within the first two minutes.”
“Hey, I can take it,” Lance laughed. “How about you both pick a game on the gameflux?”
At that sentence, the two raced off to where the gameflux was set up.
“I swear that thing is 90% of the reason they like me babysitting,” Lance commented.
“Well, that and the fact you usually offer pizza,” Luis said. “So you okay? You’re developing a bit of a bruise.”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Lance replied. “The agent O.W.C.A. assigned to me just got a lucky hit in.”
“The compliment sucker punch?” Luis asked.
“Gets me every time.”
“You know, man, you really need to see about getting out of that franchise.”
“Eh…” Lance gave a non-committal shrug. “It’s not that bad. Besides, we both know it takes three million dollars to buy out of the place before the two years are up. I got into this mess. I can take the lumps to wait it out.”
“Just promise me you’ll stay safe.”
“Trust me it’s fine. Sure, that woman kicks my butt on a regular basis, but at least we’re keeping things professional.”
Luis rolled his eyes. “Only you would consider being punched in the face as professional.”
“Well, it kinda is her job to punch me in the face since I am technically trying to take over the city slash country slash world.”
“That sounds like the best job in the world.”
“Love you too, bro.”
With a quick hug, Luis left. 20 minutes after watching his niece and nephew screech at each other in Combat Cousins X, Lance heard the doorbell.
He answered the door. Standing there was Katie Holt, holding a couple of pizza boxes.
“Battle supplies as requested,” she said with a wink.
“Thanks, Katie. You're a lifesaver.”
“Oh please, considering the stuff I’ve seen you survive, you’re practically immortal,” Katie replied flippantly.
Lance scowled at her suspiciously. “What exactly have you seen me survive?”
“For starters, Charlene LeManche.”
“Objection withdrawn.”
Katie’s watch started vibrating.
“Excuse me.”
She stepped out onto the balcony. Satisfied that Lance had given her privacy, she activated her watch to see an image of Coran.
“Hope I’m not bothering, Agent P,” Coran said. “I just wanted to congratulate you another job well done.”
“Thanks, Coran. Though if you don’t mind, I’d better head back inside. Secret identity to maintain and all that.”
“Of course. Have a good night, Agent P.”
Katie hung up on Coran and went back inside. Tomorrow, she would probably be kicking Lance’s butt again, but she was perfectly satisfied with beating him at Pancake Dojo 2 whilst enjoying a slice of pepperoni pizza tonight.
It was Tuesday morning. Lance had finished his breakfast and was savouring the first sip of coffee. The blissful start was interrupted by the doorbell. He answered the door to find several men with crates.
“Morning, guys,” Lance said as he stepped aside to let the movers in.
After everything was moved into the open space “Evil Lair” area, Lance got to work opening first crate.
“Alright, let’s see what L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. cooked up for me today.”
Lance pulled out a letter from his superior. The latest device was something called the Vapourmatroninator. Apparently, there was a little extra assembly required.
After all the other crates were opened, Lance realised that that by “a little extra assembly”, they meant that this assemble would be bigger than a minivan, yet not a single piece was bigger than the palm of his hand.
“No worries. So long as the instructions are clear, I’ll just work through it piece by piece.”
Not only were the instructions incomprehensible, Lance wasn’t even sure that it was in English. After an hour of failing to make any headway, he picked up his phone.
“Hey Hunk, I need some help with building the latest world conquest machine… I know what I’m doing. It’s these instructions that make no sense...Look, can you come help me without making fun of me?...Alright, but can you still come or not?...Thanks, Hunk. You’re the best.”
Pidge kicked open the door to Lance McClain Evil Inc. at 4 p.m. on the dot.
She was ready to get her thwart on when she saw Hunk working on the device. He looked up to see Pidge standing there.
“Katie? What are you doing here?” Hunk asked. “And what are you wearing?”
Before Pidge could answer, Lance walked in.
“Hi Pidge, sorry I’m running a little behind so I had to call in some help.”
“Wait, this is Pidge?” Hunk asked in disbelief.
“Oh right, where are my manners?” Lance said. “Hunk, this is my nemesis Pidge. Pidge, this is my friend Hunk.”
“This is Pidge?” Hunk asked again. “As in the person that thwarts your plans daily.”
“Well, it's more of a Monday to Friday basis, gotta keep that work life balance, but yes. That’s her.” Lance answered “What’s your point?”
“Lance, that’s...argh!”
Hunk was interrupted by Pidge grabbing his arm and twisting it behind his back.
“Shut up,” Pidge hissed to Hunk. “Play along and I’ll explain everything later.”
“Whoa whoa whoa, Pidge! Let him go this instant!” Lance scolded.
Pidge complied.
“Hunk doesn’t work for L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. He's just helping me out as a favour. Do whatever you want with me, but I will not have you attacking my friends!”
Pidge looked genuinely remorseful as Lance took out some money and handed it to her.
“Now you are going to say sorry to Hunk, and then you’re going to go the donut shop and pick up a dozen lemon cream-filled donuts with passionfruit sprinkles. When you get back, he should be done with the Inator and then you can thwart me.”
Pidge complied, sending Hunk one last pleading looking before heading out the door.
“Sorry about that,” Lance said to Hunk. “She honestly isn’t that bad, she’s just a little wound up at times.”
Hunk eyed Lance with utter astonishment.
“And she doesn’t remind you of anyone?” He pressed.
Lance paused thoughtfully.
“Now that you mention it, with that fedora, she kinda looks like Indiana Jones.”
“You think she looks like Indiana Jones?” Hunk asked, clearly not sure how to react.
“Kinda.”
“So when are you next due for an eye exam?”
“Next year, I think. Why?”
“Might want to move that forward.”
Pidge arrived with the donuts just as Hunk finished assembling the Inator. She handed them over Hunk he packed up his tools.
“Well, I better be out of your way,” he declared as he headed for the door with tools and donuts in tow.
“Leaving so soon?” Lance asked.
“Yeah, as much fun as it would be to watch you getting thwarted, I’d rather not watch the device I worked so hard on get destroyed.”
“Fair enough, catch ya later.”
Hunk shot Pidge a meaningful glance before leaving.
He hopped in the elevator and waited for the ding signalling the ground floor. Just as he exited the building, the Vapourmatroninator crashed onto the sidewalk, inches from his ears.
He could faintly hear Lance yell, “CURSE YOU, PIDGE THE PALADIN!”
A while later, Hunk and Pidge, in her civilian attire, were at Hunk’s favourite sandwich place. Only after he was halfway through his sandwich was he ready to address the elephant in the room.
“Alright, Katie, tell me what the heck is going on.”
“Okay.” Pidge took in a deep breath. “You remember that internship I took with a think tank? Well, that think tank is a secret government agency, and that internship is more of a field agent position.”
“So, who do you work for? The CIA?”
“No, I work for O.W.C.A., the Organisation Without a Cool Acronym.” Pidge watched Hunk raise an eyebrow. “Look, the name isn’t great, but they do good work.”
“And why exactly are you kicking Lance’s butt on a daily basis?”
“When Lance signed on to a employment contract with L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. that marked him as an ‘evil genius’, O.W.C.A. protocol is to assign an agent to be a nemesis to every evil genius. This was my first nemesis assignment, so the higher ups wanted to assign me to something lighter to chew on.”
“And the fact that you and Lance being friends isn’t against policy?”
“It would be if Lance recognised me,” Pidge explained. “I would get reassigned and he would get a new nemesis. I’ve been busting his scheme for nearly a year, and I thank whatever miracle that he still hasn’t worked out that I’m his nemesis.”
“How can he not know? All you do is put on a hat and glasses. You don’t even change your voice!”
“Look, are we really going to debate Lance’s intelligence? He has some strong suits, but he signed on to an evil organisation because their name was L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. And it took three weeks of being friends with him before he realised I was a girl.”
“To be fair, we were 12 at the time, but I see your point,” Hunk conceded. “But why stay as Lance’s nemesis? Franchise or not, you know Lance isn’t evil. Wouldn’t you rather spend your time taking down real bad guys?”
“Three reasons,” Pidge explained. “First, if I don’t do it, O.W.C.A. will send someone else, someone who will actually think he's evil. Second, Lance has been a surprisingly useful asset in undermining L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N.
Any tech that fails with Lance tends to get scrapped, so stopping Lance also prevents some of the actually dangerous tech from being used by actual evil geniuses.”
“And the third?”
“Being Lance’s nemesis means that my work day is usually done by 5 and I get weekends off. Nothing wrong with appreciating a good work/life balance.”
Hunk rolled his eyes at this. “Alright, so what happens now?”
“Well it’s up to you,” Pidge explained. “Standard procedure would be to take you in to have your memory erased.”
Hunk choked on a piece of sandwich. A long sip of his drink helped him to speak again.
“Erase my memory?”
“Just the events of today,” Pidge assured him. “But if you promised to keep this secret under wraps I could conveniently forget the part where you recognised me when I file my report.”
Hunk deliberated for a moment. “Alright, I don’t like keeping this from Lance, but I’m not risking forgetting my great aunt’s banoffee pie recipe over this.”
“Thanks Hunk,” Pidge said gratefully.
“Though if you ask me, the real reason you like this gig is because you get to spend all your time with Lance.” Hunk emphasised his statement with a suggestive eyebrow wiggle.
Pidge glared at Hunk. “Don’t make me change my mind.”
“That wasn’t a no,” Hunk singsonged.
Pidge was about to respond only to let out a cough.
“You alright?”
“It’s nothing,” Pidge replied.
Wednesday morning was somewhat easier for Lance. The day’s Inator came in mostly assembled. So now all he had to do was wait for Pidge to arrive.
An hour later still had no Pidge. He was starting to worry. Just then, his phone rang. He answered for only to have his ear fill with the noise of hacking.
“Hey Lance,” Katie said in between coughs. “Sorry I can't make game night.”
“Jeez Katie, you don’t sound good.”
“It’s fine, just gotta rest up and I’ll recover soon.” She let out more coughs.
After hanging up with his friend, Lance felt conflicting emotions swirling in his chest. He really wanted to check on Katie, but he was also meant to be trying to take over the city in time to get thwarted.
It certainly was a dilemma.
Allura the Altruist was on her way home from stopping her nemesis when she got a call from Coran.
“Great work, Agent A. Though would you stopping by Lance McClain Evil Inc? Agent P is not feeling well.”
“Right away, Coran.”
Flying her car over to Lance’s evil lair, she parked her car on the roof and dropped elegantly through the sky light, ready to battle. To her surprise, the lair was completely abandoned. She then noticed a large device in plain sight with a note attached.
Dear Pidge,
Sorry I can’t be there. Had to go check on a sick friend. I’ve marked out the self destruct button. See you tomorrow.
Lance McClain
P.S. Curse you, Pidge the Paladin!
Against her better judgement, Allura pressed the marked out button. As she left the ruins of the lair, she couldn’t help but wonder if O.W.C.A should reassess Lance’s threat level.
“Here you are, Katie,” Lance said as he carried in a steaming bowl of soup.
“Thank you,” the sick girl wheezed as she took the soup. “You didn’t have to come over to take care of me. Don’t you have work?”
“It's all good,” Lance said dismissively. “I’ve got it covered. Besides, I wouldn’t leave you hanging.”
Katie blushed. If asked, she would claim it was fever.
On Thursday, a recovered Pidge arrived at Lance McClain Evil Incorporated, refreshed and ready for a day of thwarting. She flew in through an open window. As she arrived in the lair, she realised Lance wasn’t there.
“Er...hello?”
“Pidge! I’ll be right there,” Lance called out before coughing.
A dishevelled and ill-looking Lance stepped into the lair. He was still in his pyjamas and his lab coat was crooked.
“What a...an unexpected sur…” Lance started coughing again. “Sorry, think I might’ve caught something from my friend.”
Pidge looked at Lance in dismay. “You should be in bed,” she scolded.
“No, no, it’s fine,” Lance insisted. “So, behold my… achoo!.... Latest invention the...Something...inator!”
Lance gestured towards a crate that was barely even opened.
“With this I...shall take over the...world.” Lance’s half-hearted speech was shot through with more coughing.
“Lance, seriously, go to bed. I can come back and stop you tomorrow.”
“No, I flaked on you yesterday. I’m not going to do it twice.” Lance raised his fists, staggering slightly as he fought to keep balance. “Thwart me if you dare.”
Rather than fight, Pidge took hold of his hand and dragged him to the kitchen. She pushed him into a chair and silently heated up a can of chicken soup. She plopped the bowl in front of him and said, “Eat.” After making him eat all of it, she hauled him to his bedroom. She took off his lab coat and pushed him into his bed.
“There,” she quipped as she draped a blanket over him. “I’ve thwarted you. Now get some rest.”
“Curse you Pidge the...zzzzz,” Lance was asleep before he was even able to finish his sentence.
Not too long after, Katie arrived to check up on Lance.
Friday came as Pidge arrived at the hideout.
“Ah Pidge the Paladin, so nice to see you,” Lance greeted. “Sorry about dropping the ball the last couple of days. Still, I promise to make up for it as I unleash my TRINITY OF TERROR!”
There was a dramatic orchestra and flashes of lightning.
“Head office finally approved your effects budget?” PIdge asked.
“Why yes, thank you for noticing. Anyhoo, behold! The Degravitinator!” Lance held out a handheld, ray-gun-looking device. “Capable of disrupting the personal gravity of its victims. Behold the Plantinator!” He gestured towards a device with a large antenna. “Capable of sending out a pulse that will cause all the plants in the city area to grow at an uncontrollable rate. And finally the DX7J.” He pointed to a large cubic machine. “Capable of...something equally evil, I guess.” He noticed Pidge’s raising eyebrow. “Cut me some slack, not only did I have to finish building yesterday’s device, head office sent me two inators instead of one today. It's a miracle I know what the first two do.”
“And you had time to set up the special effects?”
“Look, are we going to fight or waste time criticizing my workplace priorities?”
Lance jumped back just in time to dodge a right hook from Pidge. He aimed the ray gun at Pidge and fired. Pidge jumped out of the way, narrowing missing the purple ray that shot out. The ray instead hit a nearby couch. It glowed purple as it started to float. Lance continued firing at Pidge. The agent kept ducking until a desk, several crates and a metal barrel were floating.
“Darn it!” Lance muttered. “Why didn’t they put a decent sight on this thing?”
Pidge leapt onto a floating crate, hoping to get high ground. She leapt to another crate to avoid the ray. She finally lunged at Lance with a flying kick. The kick hit Lance squarely in the chest before he could let out another shot. He fell back to the ground and accidentally pulled the trigger.
A purple beam shot out and hit the Plantinator. The Inator started to float in the air. Seeing her opportunity, Pidge kicked with all her might. It flew out the open balcony door. It then came to a rest between the two buildings.
Both Lance and Pidge stared at the floating Inator.
“Honestly, I wasn’t sure I was expecting,” Pidge admitted.
“Well, we can’t leave that out there,” Lance said. “Eventually, the ray will wear off, and it'll fall onto incoming traffic. I already got a citation for what happened with the Vapourmatroninator. I don’t need another.”
“Fair enough, any ideas?”
“Do you have your grappling gun?”
“In shop getting a tune up. You?”
“The winch on mine broke and I’m still waiting for the replacement to arrive. How about your hover car?”
“Came here on the moped today.”
“Fair enough.”
Lance turned a dial on the ray gun and aimed it at the floating Inator. He fired a red ray that vapourised the floating inator.
“That thing has a disintegrator setting?” Pidge asked in shock.
“Yeah, you really think that would be the main feature of this thing.”
“If it could do that, then why were you bothering with the gravity setting?”
“I’m not firing a disintegrator ray in my own lair,” Lance said indignantly.
“That’s surprisingly responsible of you.”
“Thank you.”
“Still got to destroy it.”
“Fair enough,” Lance replied as he turned the ray gun back to gravity mode.
Lance spun round, firing the ray gun at Pidge. Pidge dropped and sweeped out Lance’s legs, causing him fall flat on his back.
“Nice move,” Lance said, winded but clearly impressed.
“Thanks.”
Pidge picked up the nearby raygun and smashed it against the handrail. She then started to head back inside to deal with the DX7J only for Lance to snatch her foot, tripping her up.
Lance scurried to place himself between Pidge and the DX7J.
What followed was another fist fight. Lance was holding his own until Pidge hit him with kick to the gut, knocking him backwards.
Lance bumped into the DX7J, turning it on. Sounds of moving parts and sloshing liquid echoed in the machine. Shortly afterwards, there was a loud ding and a small hatch on the device opened to reveal a cup of steaming liquid.
Curious, Lance picked up the cup and sniffed it. He then proceeded to take a sip, much to the panic of Pidge.
“False alarm,” Lance said. “This isn’t an Inator. It’s the coffee machine I ordered.”
“You ordered a coffee machine?”
“Yeah, and not just any coffee machine. This is top of the line, does everything from expressos to cappuccinos.”
“That sounds pricey.”
“I charged it to the head office,” Lance replied. “They’re an evil organisation trying to take over the world - the least they can do is fuel my caffeine addiction.” He proceeded to take another sip from his coffee.
Pidge nodded; she couldn’t really fault the logic.
“Wait, does that mean I already thwarted you?” She questioned.
Lance paused his drinking.
“Huh...I guess so...Oh well. CURSE YOU, PIDGE THE PALADIN!” He hollered before returning to his normal tone. “Do you want a coffee for the road? I’ve got a travel mug I can lend you.”
“Can that machine do a Chai Latte?”
Lance scoffed. “Do you honestly think I would charge my boss top dollar for a coffee machine that couldn’t do Chai Lattes?”
“So glad we managed to switch game night,” Lance said as he brought in a bowl of chips.
“I’m just glad neither of us are mucus factories anymore,” Pidge commented.
“I’m just glad I didn’t catch it,” Hunk commented. “So care to explain how all that stuff is floating?”
“Today’s evil invention was an antigravity ray.”
“Antigravity ray?” Hunk repeated in surprise. “How does that work?”
“I aimed the ray gun, pulled the trigger and then whatever got zapped with it would start floating.”
“No, I mean…” Hunk paused as the realisation of who he was talking to struck. “Nevermind.”
“I don’t get what the end game was,” Pidge commented “As cool as it is, I just don’t get how your bosses expected you to take over the world with an antigravity ray.”
“They don’t really look at how so much as they just throw whatever random idea that comes to them at me and wait to see what happens.” Lance explained. “I’m still not sure how I was supposed to take over the world with an iguana cannon.”
“Buddy, you really need to get out of this gig,” Hunk affirmed.
“Would love to, but we all know that’s not going to happen until my contract expires. Besides it's not so bad. I set my own hours, I don’t pay rent on this place and I now have a coffee machine. Speaking of coffee, you guys want one? It's pretty good.”
“I’m good,” Hunk said.
“Chai Latte, please,” Pidge requested absentmindedly.
Lance paused and stared at Pidge suspiciously.
“How do you know it can do Chai Lattes?”
“Would you honestly invest in a coffee machine that couldn’t do Chai Lattes?”
Lance let out a laugh.
“You got me there. One Chai Latte coming up."
As Lance went over to the coffee machine, Hunk turned to Pidge.
“You know, eventually, he is going to figure it out.”
“Agree to disagree,” Pidge replied as she watched Lance come back with her latte.
Lance handed to the latte to her. As she took a sip, Lance spoke.
“So guys, I’ve been wondering. Should I invite Pidge to join us for games night?”
PIdge did a spit take.
“Sorry,” she sputtered. “It’s a little hot.”
Hunk kept his composure.
“You want to invite the person whose job is to kick your butt on a daily basis to games night?”
“Alright firstly, I can hold my own just fine.”
“Have you ever stopped her from destroying your stuff?”
“Well, no, but that’s not the point,” Lance argued. “Neither of us take the whole thwarting thing personally, and she’s the closest thing I have to a work colleague that I actually like.”
“You like her?” Pidge asked, not really sure how to process this.
“Well sure, she’s skilled, self assured, witty and honestly kind of a badass,” Lance replied.
“She also wails on you almost every time you face off,” Hunk added.
“No one’s perfect,” Lance replied. “Come on, what could it hurt to ask her? If she says yes, it will be a chance to get to know her better.”
“If you feel so strongly, I think you should do it,” Pidge replied.
“What?” Hunk said in dismay.
“Great, next time I see her I’ll ask,” He looked down and realised his hands were empty. “Whoops, forgot my coffee.”
As he went to get it, Hunk turned back to Pidge.
“I know this week has been full of shocking revelations, but how do you plan to be two places at once?”
“I won’t have to,” Pidge replied. “I’ll simply say that O.W.C.A. forbids me from fraternising with supervillains outside of work.”
“You know that’s only going to be a temporary fix.”
“It will do for now,” Pidge replied. “I’ll cross that bridge when I reach it.”
“Yup,” Hunk replied. “Keep telling yourself that.”