2 days earlier...

The sound of clicking filled Angus' senses. All he could hear was typing as he sat in his superior's office. It had been a week since he completed his training to become a special agent to the United Kingdom's government, he graduated top of his class and passed everything with flying colors. That was the reason he was sat in a beige leather chair. White walls surrounded him on three sides. The other wall completely made of class looked out to the rest of the office. Government officials, or their assistants Angus supposed, rushing past to their destination. 

Angus checked his silver watch finding it to be 10:38 a.m., he was early. Angus tapped his foot on the ground and turned his attention to the windows on his right. The windows looked out on London's skyline. He was a street away from Downing Street and that happened to be the only interesting thing he could think of looking out the window. He must've spent two minutes daydreaming because he heard the door open and quickly got to his feet. 

Two men walked in, one was older and pale as if he had never seen the sun, he had blue eyes that seemed slightly two far apart. He was taller than the other man but not taller than Angus who stood at about 6'4. Angus' mind supplied him with the name of the older man.

"Agent Farol," Angus greeted cheerfully. Angus liked him enough, he had visited the academy and he wasn't super mean like the other instructors there.

"Agent Cayde," Farol greeted back and he gestured to the other guy, "this is Agent Hazard."

Hazard was also shorter than Angus, although not by much, he had brown hair and green eyes. He was wearing a black suit. Angus mentally cursed himself for wearing a gray suit instead of a black suit so they could've been the men in black.

"Nice to meet you," Angus stuck out his head to shake.

"Nice to meet you too," Hazard replied and shook his hand. Angus did a double take at Hazard's American accent.

Before Angus could stop himself he blurted, "I'm working with an American?"

Hazard chuckled, "No, man, I'm french."

"Is that supposed to be better?" Angus joked and Hazard laughed again.

"Boys," Farol warned with his deep monotone voice, "focus"

Both of them went quiet and attentively waited for Farol to continue. If his face wasn't serious before, it was now. He turned to his computer monitor started typing before speaking again, "You two have been assigned together for your first mission. As you know, the first mission after the academy is a defining one, the person you are partnered with is not only supposed to work with you and possibly become the partner for the rest of you careers, but they are also supposed to challenge you."

He sighed and turned the monitor so the two could see it, "Your objective for this training mission, if you will, is to locate and retrieve a black flash drive. Since this is your first mission and the first time you are working with each other, NATO has decided to give you  30 days to complete this task. Of course, you are always welcome to complete the mission sooner. We suspect the flash drive is in New York City or about to be and therefore you will fly out at 2100. You'll be giving the rest of the day to prepare until the flight."

The monitor showed the mentioned flash drive, it was a square and black, nothing out of the ordinary. Farol turned the monitor back to him, "As for the countries we know are after this item, the United States, Mexico, Egypt, Spain, Italy, Russia, Argentina, Canada, Peru, Namibia, Georgia, and more. So do not be surprised if you encounter others on this mission but I will remind you that you two are only working with each other... Questions?"

"What exactly is on this flash drive that's so important?" Angus asked, leaning forward slightly.

"That's above your classification," Farol smiled although it did not reach his eyes. Angus wasn't satisfied with that answer, how could they plan ahead accordingly without knowing what's on it? He pursed his lips and thought before learning back. Farol seemed content to let the answer marinate before asking, "Anything else?"

Angus glanced at Hazard who shook his head and they both answered, "No, sir."

"Great," He stood up and the two followed after him, "I'll be hearing from you."

Both Angus and Hazard shook his hand and left the office together. Once they were both out the door Angus looked at his surroundings making note of the two elevators in sight along with several more glass walls. There was an empty conference with all glass walls in the middle of the floor. The rest of the perimeter was made up of offices that were occupied with government officials. Angus noticed Hazard was looking at him expectantly and Angus raised at eyebrow at him.

"Want to go get brunch?" Hazard asked and Angus agreed.

They found a small restaurant and managed to get a window seat. The walls were a light gray color with all the tables being a dark brown. The restaurant wasn't very full so the two sat away from everyone else.

Once the two had ordered their drinks, Hazard started the conversation, "Look, since we're going to be working together for a while," he took a deep sigh, "I'm Marley"

He stuck out his hand to shake and Angus just started at him, Frankly, that had not been what Angus was expecting. He supposed it wasn't uncommon to learn the first name of one's partner but he hadn't figured he was going to learn it this early on. After a minute or so Angus shook his hand, "I'm Angus."

Marley grinned at him and the two made small talk until their food was brought out. Angus had ordered pancakes and one glance over at Marley's plate told him he ordered a yogurt parfait. The two lapsed into silence quietly and quickly eating their meals. 

Angus sat there unable to deal with the silence, "So... why did you decided to, er, join all this?"

Marley studied Angus, his eyes narrowed as if he somehow found the innocent question suspicious, "My parents worked for the government. I had my mom, dad, and a younger sister."

At the younger sister bit, Marley seemed to choke up, his eyes closed momentarily and all Angus could think about was how even mentioning his younger sister may be used against him. However, Angus did not voice that thought and instead opened his mouth to inform Marley that he really didn't need to continue but Marley held up a hand and continued on, "One night I was over at a friend's house, it turned out some anti-government agency needed something and my parents apparently stood in the way." He made eye-contact with Angus has he delivered the last sentence, "And so they killed everyone in my house while I wasn't home."

Marley cleared his throat and looked down at the yogurt parfait that was now untouched, "So I joined the academy so hopefully get rid of that agency and any others like it."

He added on quietly as if only telling himself the following, "And to prevent anyone else having their family ripped away."

Angus now felt awkward and unsure how to respond. He opened and closed his mouth several times before finally saying, "That's rough, buddy."

Marley just gave him a strained smile and shrugged, "It's in the past, what about you?"

Angus was now faced with a very difficult decision, he could either make up a sob story about why he joined the academy to work for the government — he briefly wondered if he could really sell it with fake tears and everything — or he could tell the very basic and quite frankly boring truth.

"Oh, I joined for fun." Angus shrugged, "It seemed like a really cool opportunity and I get to travel a lot."

He tried to lighten the mood by joking, "Also I get to be like James Bond, especially with, you know, the whole walking away while a building explodes behind you seems really awesome."

Marley just nodded along as if he completely understood, "Don't forget the classic train chase sequence."

Angus smiled and thought to himself, You know, this partnership could really work out.

"Nah man, you're missing the best part... a rooftop chase sequence," Angus grinned as he tried to one-up Marley. They both tried to one-up each other with what was cooler for the remaining time they spent together in the restaurant.

By the time they finished, London transitioned to clouds and rain. Thunder sounded as they walked out the door of the small restaurant. They made their way back to the office building they had been at earlier that day. The two men entered the building and immediately has their I.Ds checked before making their way to the elevator. They stood next to each other chatting idly as Angus pressed the elevator button for negative two. 

Level negative two was a special one, only those with special unit qualifications could enter. The entire floor looked like a training arena. Mats lined the floor in one corner while weapons were set up on the opposite wall. Black and blue tones decorated the room with a concrete floor, — save for the mats. Angus and Marley's dress shoes echoed as they walked to the middle of the room. Lockers lined another one of the walls and a hallway right across from the elevator only indicated there was more to be seen. 

Angus watched as Marley immediately went over to the wall of weapons. He smirked as he picked up a katana. Marley rotated his wrist and the katana followed.

Angus quirked a brow, "A sword?"

Marley beckoned him over, "Why don't we do a quick spar?"

Angus shook his head a shot Marley a grin, "I'll save you from the embarrassment of losing."

Marley laughed at that, "Sounds like you're scared to fight me."

Angus snorted, not reining in his ego, "Please man, I was top of my class."

Marley faltered for a moment and Angus immediately recognized that as a sore spot. He made a mental note to look up Marley in the database and figure out his class rankings.

Marley rotated the sword once again and offered, "How about no weapons, hand to hand?" 

Angus ran a hand through his hair, "If we have time later, I'll take you up on that. But for now, I have to get packing."

Present...

Alex pushed herself off the redhead, annoyed with herself that she allowed the flash drive out of her reach. She ran for the door that led to the stairs; she grabbed her knife of the way. She assumed the brunet would try and stop her. He didn't, although it seemed he wanted to, instead he went to his partner. Alex always had a bit of a temper, hence why she made the decision to temporarily cut off the guy's air flow purely out of desperation but also irritation. She supposed it was payback for the dirty kick to the gut. 

Alex continued to thunder down the stairs, the flash drive fell west of the building and she was going to get that flash drive back p, even if it was the last thing she did. She just hoped more people wouldn't get in her way, purely for their sake though.

She reached the bottom floor, and flew out the door and made her way west only to find the street empty save for a brunette walking down the street. Where the flash drive should've fallen, it was gone. She wondered for a moment where it could've gone before her gaze fell back to the girl walking down the street. Alex weighed her options and ultimately decided that she rather take the chance of searching this girl than loosing the flash drive before pulling out a tracker.

Alex sped walk up to the girl so she was only a few paces behind her. She picked up her pace and rushed past the brunette, her hand strategically placing the tracker on the bottom of her backpack as she ran into the girl.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Alex quickly apologized, forcing her eyes to widen as she feigned shock.

The girl gave her a polite smile and was quick to forgive, "Oh, no, you're okay!"

"Sorry again but I'm in a rush, I'm late to my lecture," Alex apologized again, she sounded as sincere as she could get.

The girl smiled again, "Trust me, I completely understand."

Alex apologized for a third time and then turned around and ran at an appropriate speed for someone in a rush before turning right and slowing down. Alex was now out of breath, the adrenaline from the fight finally starting to slow down as she walked back to her temporary apartment while she tracked down this flash drive. As she walked home she started to formulate her plan for getting back the flash drive. A million scenarios ran through her mind that she knew she needed to start writing down.

As she was walking someone bumped into her arm and she started to feel where the brunet on the rooftop cut her and with the stinging pain she muttered, "Shit."