CHAPTER 4: THE RESIGNATION
It really was easier said than done.
The first few days turned out alright as there wasn’t much of a big event going on at school and no missions to do since Jerry had announced that the North Dakota case was to be put on hold for a while until they have gathered enough clues to investigate. But soon the challenge began. Mandy was walking around boasting about her stink gas to her henchwomen and the other guys and how the professor gave her an A for it. Whenever she walks by the girls, especially Clover, she pretended to pinch her nose and screw her face at an imaginary smell, reminding her of her victory in being able to make a fool out of her unaware. Clover’s blood began to boil and all whenever she does that and it took Sam and Alex a very huge effort to calm her down—Mandy has always been her pet hate.
But the biggest challenge was when missions occur. There are often times when they were under attack or were ambushed or were caught by surprise and Clover would sort of accidentally get herself so shocked that her heartburn and asthma-like attack came. And when that happens, they have to stop their mission halfway through so that they could get her to a nearby hospital and help her calm down and her breathing. Sometimes, when the mission got so uptight and so exciting that they had to call for WOOHPS to jet in and help her up with WOOHPS latest technology.
It’s not that Jerry never looked for a cure. He had tried a lot of remedies and he himself volunteered to join forces with the medical team to try out in looking for a cure for this Ice Queen disease. At first Jerry thought that Sam and Alex were infected since they were pretty close to her ever since her first seizure at school, but after they did a thorough check-up, they were clear and not affected at all. In fact, they couldn’t find a single trace of the virus in them. Now, the biggest problem Jerry has to face is to find a cure for Clover, how did this virus come about and why is only Clover infected yet no one else was when they did have close interaction with her.
Throughout Jerry’s quest for the cure, Clover had to endure the most torture. Besides the constant but tiring job of temper control, whenever Jerry ‘had a hunch’ on having the cure, she became the lab rat or somewhat. She dreaded the most when it comes to testing out the cure to see if it works. Some tasted nice or a-OK, but the others were like heck (Jerry’s famous quote “We’re working on the taste”). She was glad that she didn’t have to go for chemotherapy or she would die out of horror or sorrow because of her bald shining head after the chemo. Sam and Alex gave her a lot of moral support but they knew that this wasn’t enough as it was Clover enduring the whole thing and not them.
Finally it was the last straw. It was when the girls went into another mission on chasing a baddie who ran off with a full set of governmental secret plans to sell them to the highest bidder, namely every crime-doer known to man. The girls were trying to fight off the baddie’s henchmen and Clover, the strong and feisty one (well, not so feisty now), got past all of them and was running to get the baddie. She was gaining close to him when all of a sudden the baddie flung a great deal of sharp tiny spears at her, slicing her skin everywhere and getting at her blonde hair she was so proud of, making it look like it was seriously in a bad hair day. Clover treasures her looks most and the one thing—the PRIME thing—she hated was anyone ruining her hair. Never mind her scars on the body, but a ruined hair was a nightmare.
Forgetting the naggings about keeping her cool and without thinking twice, she burst into a fit of serious rage and pounced onto the baddie, throttling him like never before. Come to think of it, she was much angrier right now than she was when she was being taunted by Mandy. Whether she was venting her anger out at all the injustice done to her ever since she was infected with the Ice Queen or she was just plain mad, only she knows. She hits him again and again, yelling, “How dare you! HOW DARE YOU!!! You ruined my perfect hair! You’ve totally ruined my look! I’ll teach you to mess with my hair, you son of a…”
Bad move. No sooner she started ranting and raving about her hair that the heartburn caught up with her. But it was much more serious than that. It was like feeling the bullet shot through your chest all of a sudden. The pain was searing and so sudden that she was caught off guard. Blood immediately shot out of her mouth like a fountain and she found herself clutching her throat, trying to breathe. More blood came out of her mouth and she was both choking in her own blood and choking to breathe properly. As she struggled to get air into her could-be punctured lungs, she fell sideways from on top of the baddie. He saw the chance and quickly kicked Clover away and made his escape, but he was too late—the WOOHPS team has come in and took it from there. Sam and Alex stopped whatever they were doing and rushed towards Clover who was regurgitating more blood and was in the brink of severe asphyxiation. Jerry clicked his fingers and immediately, the ever familiar medical squad came over with a stretcher and an oxygen tank and all. They quickly fitted the breathing mask over her face and carried her into the jet.
Whether she choked too much of her own blood or the air came in too late, it was evident that while the WOOHPS jet was on its way to the HQ, she was slowly slipping away. Her breathing became slower and slower and soon she wasn’t breathing at all. The heartbeat machine let out a long beep that didn’t seem to end. Everyone was startled, especially Jerry, Sam and Alex. Alex was practically bursting into pool of tears more than when Clover cries over a lost date or a chipped nail. Sam was also panicked and she was grabbing Clover by the shoulder and shaking her to wake her up. Jerry, although panicked, had no time to act emotionally. He quickly grabbed the heart-starter pump and ordered one of the medic members to turn on the machine. After yelling “Clear!!” he removed—stripped, actually—Clover’s spy outfit and pumped her chest with the heart-starter pump. He did again and again, all the while muttering, “Come on, Clover. Come on, come back to us! You’re too young to die, you said that when you first came into the WOOHPS agency! Come on, Clover, come on!”
After what seemed like a very, very long time, the heartbeat machine finally showed signs of heartbeats in Clover. Everyone sighed in relief as Clover has finally come back from the dead. The medic team quickly added more air for Clover to breath and did everything they could do to keep Clover alive until they finally reached the WOOHPS HQ.
Unknown to everyone, a single tear came out of Clover’s closed eyes.
“Ah, Clover! I’m so glad you’re finally up and about!”
The girls were standing right in front of Jerry’s table and Jerry was looking at Clover with a face of leveled enthusiasm. After that near-death experience, Clover had to stay in the WOOHPS medical ward for almost a week. Visits were prohibited, and that includes Sam and Alex. They had to tell Clover’s mother a white lie that the hospital has found out about what Clover was having and will be keeping her in another hospital somewhere out of town and visitors aren’t allowed. Of course, Clover was allowed to give her mother a call to tell her that she was alright, provided that she didn’t give away where she was. After the week was over and that Clover was quite fit to walk about, Jerry had called the other girls to come and visit her and take her home, but not before he announced that he might have another cure for Clover that just might work.
“How are you feeling right now, Clover?” Sam asked, holding her girlfriend’s hand tight, as if she hadn’t seen her for about a century long.
“Peachy,” Clover replied briefly, her face not showing any concern, just bored. Jerry saw that as a good sign; at least she has learnt not to be so emotional as before.
“I have very important news to tell you girls,” Jerry said enthusiastically. “The medical team and I have been working day and night after Clover was admitted in our organization’s ward. And I truly believe that I have found the perfect cure for Clover’s…”
“If I may be allowed to speak,” Clover suddenly voiced out of the blue in the midst of Sam and Alex’s excited faces. “Thanks, Jerry. I appreciate what you’re trying to do. I really do.”
“But…?” Jerry asked, expecting something from her sudden proclamation.
“No thanks, Jer.”
“What??” Sam and Alex were surprised. Clover’s face went cold all over before announcing this bizarre statement.
“I’m quitting the team.”
“WHAT??!!” Now it was all of them, including Jerry who stood up abruptly with eyes wide open, to be shocked.
“You heard me,” Clover replied coldly. “I quit the team. I’m not going to be a spy anymore.”
“But…But, Clover!” Alex was the first to protest, as she was the one who treasures teamwork and friendship the most. “You can’t quit! We’re a team! We can’t be a team without you with us! You’re like the strength, the power and the juice-pumper in our team! You can’t just leave!”
“Yeah,” Sam agreed. “What would we do without you? What would become of our team? It’s just not us without you around!”
“There’s always a first time for everything,” Clover replied, the cold look on her face seemed permanently stuck. “You’ll just have to do things around here without me.”
“This time I must agree with Sam and Alex,” Jerry said sternly. “I will not allow you to leave the team. Your condition is too vulnerable to be out there when anything can stimulate your emotions. If you leave the team, I won’t be able to have a close look at you and won’t be there to help you out whenever you get the heartburns and seizures. You might even die! I cannot…”
Jerry’s words trailed away when Clover walked stealthily towards Jerry’s table and suddenly banged her fist on it. The weird was that her face was still that unemotional, cold state when she was doing it. There was no trace of anger, pain, hate, frustration or anything on her face. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just the plain, cold and unemotional piece of facial expression right before his eyes. Even when she answered, her voice was as cold as ever.
“If I stay, I will die. You saw what happened the past week. And don’t try to say that I can be exempted from missions after this, because I want to be completely out of the team and completely out of WOOHPS. No strings attached, you got me?”
Without waiting for Jerry’s answer, she pressed a button on Jerry’s table which opened a trapdoor to let her fall out of WOOHPS HQ. She didn’t even scream as she fell, like she used to. There wasn’t a single peep out of her. As the trapdoor closed, Sam and Alex were able to find their voices again.
“Jer…Jerry…she really meant what she said,” Alex said, her voice quivering and her eyes close to tears. “She’s leaving…she’s out of the team…for good!”
“Her face…she looked so different…” Sam said softly. “How long did she train herself to keep that sort of emotional state…? I mean, she banged the table but she doesn’t sound angry…I don’t understand…”
“I guess it’s for the best, girls,” Jerry finally sighed in defeat. “If we want her to be in good hands, keep her alive and not let last week’s incident happen, I guess…we have to let this happen.”
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