Chapter 2 2. Disadvantage

Fiesty Five is beaten. The robbers managed to escape after giving Fiesty Five a hard time. As a leader of the team, Leon feels ashamed that he could not accomplish the mission this time. He is upset but he needs to bring the team back to the headquarter first for medical treatment.

Leon commands Clyde to go back to Ralph and Lottie. He asks Clyde to wake them up and return the headquarter soon for treatment. After Clyde goes away, Leon walks closer to unconscious Lucielle. He is glad that she is still breathing.

"Lucy, I'm sorry I could not protect you." Leon shows his sad face while looking at Lucielle's face.

Leon lifts Lucielle up and carries her carefully. With his energy left, Leon walks Lucielle to the headquarter.

Clyde arrives at the place where Ralph and Lottie were defeated. Clyde shakes Ralph's body hoping that Ralph could wake up soon. After some time, Ralph finally awakes and he growls pretty loud. Clyde is surprised and it makes him scared for a bit.

"Ralph! Calm down! It's alright! Calm down, OK?" Clyde tries to calm him down.

Ralph tries to calm down while figuring out what just happened around him. He starts to look around and sees the messed up area. He also sees the unconscious Lottie.

"Lottie!" Ralph tries to stand up while trying to come closer to Lottie but his body is still numb.

"Don't worry, Ralph! Lottie is alright. She is just unconscious," said Clyde while trying to help Ralph stand up.

"Get off! I can stand on my own!" Ralph is starting to get angry. He pushes Clyde.

Clyde is only trying to help Ralph but it seems like Ralph's temper is still bad after he is beaten by the masked robber. Clyde explains to Ralph that the robbers managed to escape. Then, Leon asked all of them to go back to headquarter soon for medical treatment.

Ralph is shocked. He thought that the team would clear the mission even though he is down. But at least, he feels relieved because none of them are having serious injuries. Slowly, Ralph tries to walk and he wants to carry Lottie then goes back to headquarter. But, his body is still shaking and weak so he asks Clyde instead to carry Lottie with care.

Clyde nodded. He carefully carries Lottie.

Then, Clyde and Ralph are walking together to their headquarter.

Some minutes has passed and now all the members are arrived at the headquarter. Leon asks the medical team to prioritize Lucielle first because she got the worst condition among the others. After that, Lottie got her treatment until she awakes while the boys are having light treatment.

When the condition is getting better, Leon summons his team to have a meeting. The situation is quiet because they think that the mission failure this time will get noticed by HELP. HELP is the organization that employs heroes. They have the authority to decide anything related to all heroes team's action. Fiesty Five might get scolded because of their failure this time. As a famous team that often accomplishes missions perfectly, their failure this time can be a humiliation.

After some times of silence, Leon decides to start the discussion.

"We failed our mission. This is really humiliating. Do you guys know why we failed?" Leon asks.

Silence happened for few seconds until one of them tries to speak up.

"Umm, is it because the enemies have powerful weapons?" Lottie tries to respond.

"We have fought many battles with various of strange weapons before. But we managed to handle it." Leon responded back.

"I don't really know because I was down. Is it because Clyde messed up?" Ralph tells his opinion.

"What? No! I didn't do something bad," said Clyde with uncomfortable voice.

"How many times did I need to protect you when you were surrounded by enemies?" Ralph explained.

"Well, I m a buffer. Indeed I cannot fight as good as you guys. We are a team right? We protect each others" Clyde responded. He feels like the atmosphere around him is getting bad.

"Tch! You have been with us until now and how come you haven't improved," said Lucielle curtly.

Hearing that sentence from Lucielle, Clyde begins to feel bad.

"Clyde! Our mission is failed because you were late! You were not cooperative! You did not do what I commanded and your buff power was not used in good timings!" Leon asserted his opinion.

"What!? It's my fault? I was late because you gave me your duty on me. You didn't even give me explanation about how to do the reporting job. Don't blame me if it took a long time for me to take care of it!" Clyde tries to defend and he starts to get angry.

"Haven't you learned? Even though I didn't teach you how, you should have known how to handle matters relating to heroes duties. We are a Competent-ranked Team!" Leon responded with assertive voice.

The tension of the conversation is going up. Other members are starting to think that Clyde always messed up.

"But still, I don't think it is all my fault. You are the leader. You should have known what is best for us!" Clyde debates. He wants everyone not to think bad about him.

"I did! That is why I asked you to be the bait. Why did you refuse my command?" Leon countered.

Knowing that, other members begin to believe in Leon's statement. Indeed at that time, Clyde refused the idea of being the bait and it led the robbers successful to escape.

"I am not that tough. I am not tanky or nimble. I will get hurt for sure if you ask me to do it. My ability is to support not to be a meat shield!" Clyde explains with desperation.

When they are having a debate, a woman comes in and pauses the debate.

"Good afternoon, FIesty FIve," greeted the woman.

Fiesty Five greets her back with full of respect.

That woman's name is Bethany Heinberg, a co-leader of HELP. She comes to Fiesty Five's headquarter because she got a report that Fiesty Five failed the mission to take care of bank robbery. She wants to scold them because they are not being professional.

"What a shame. Fiesty Five always handles missions with good results. But look, what happened now?" Bethany scolds them.

Her words make Fiesty Five goes silent in disappointment.

"Not only Fiesty FIve failed to capture the robbers, but the robbers got all the money from the bank. You get nothing! No results! This is really hilarious!" Bethany satires with her unpleasant sight.

No one dares to speak up. Fiesty Five is taking the scold without giving any advocacy.

"Leon of Fiesty Five! I want you to see me later after you have done discussing with your team." Bethany commanded.

"Alright, ma'am!" Leon responded.

"Good! Now take you time! I hope Fiesty Five will not repeat this shameful mistake again." Bethany closes her words. She turns around and slowly goes outside the meeting room.

After being scolded by Bethany, Fiesty Five continues the discussion. The team's reputation will be bad if the news about their failure is published in public. Leon starts to think of a way to clear their team's name so that the team will not be considered as a failure team. More than that, he wants his name to stay clean and good.

"We should have chase the car with the money." Clyde grumbles.

"No, it is just that we did not do it fast before they get in the cars. Because you were late and you didn't want to be the bait. You let them escape!" Leon debated.

"I agree with you, Leon. If only Clyde came earlier and did what Leon commanded, our mission would be a success." Lucielle agrees with Leon's statement.

Lucielle is actually Leon's girlfriend. They started dating some months ago. They support and cover each other very well if problems happen. However, their intimacy make them lack in solidarity with other members.

"Clyde, come on! Never mess up again! Just do what Leon says when we are in a mission." Ralph agrees with Leon statement too.

"Well, I don't know what's going on because I'm the first who got beaten. So, Clyde please do better next time, OK?" Lottie seems to agree with Leon's opinion.

Clyde begins to think that he is being cornered. He could not understand why their teammates can be this mean to him. Clyde is a buffer. Of course his ability will be very useful if he uses it to buff his allies.

"All right ... I m really sorry if you guys think I messed up a lot. I will try to improve and train my ability more." Clyde does not want to debate more. He decides to apologize to his teammates.

However, Leon does not think that accepting Clyde's apology will change the team reputation. He needs something to be blamed. He needs someone. He needs a scapegoat. After thinking so hard, Leon finally have an idea. An extreme idea that he thinks will save him from being notorious.

"I have a proposal. After we are done discussing, I want to talk with Mrs.Bethany about the future of our team." Leon starts his idea.

"What kind of proposal you want to do, Leon?" Lucielle is curious.

"It is related to Clyde," answered Leon briefly.

"Me?" Clyde surprised.

"Tell us what's on your mind, Leon!" Lucielle's curiosity is getting stronger.

"First, OK. I accept your apology, Clyde. But, I think your ability is not really helpful when it comes to teamwork." Leon tries to explain.

Listening to Leon's words Clyde begins to worry about himself.

"But, I did my best in using my buff skills. I used my speed buff on us to chase the cars. I used my accuracy buff on myself to shot the enemies guns. I saved Lucielle from the bazooka attack with my full defense buff. Don't you guys feel satisfied with my ability?" Clyde tries to convince.

"It might be true. But we are actually fine without your buff skills." Leon responded.

"Yes. We managed to handle some enemies easily even without your buff skills, Clyde," said Lucielle with confident.

Clyde begins to get confused. How come his teammates talk about his buff ability at this very moment. If they are not really satisfied with his skills, why they did not talk about it before. What is on Leon's mind?

"I don't understand. Why are you talking about it now? If you think that my ability is useless, why don't you say so before!" Clyde's emotion is getting bad.

"Ralph! What do you think? Do you think Clyde's ability is useful?" Leon suddenly asks Ralph. Leon glares at Ralph with his sharp eyes.

Ralph tries to stay calm. But, every time Leon gives him that glare, Ralph feels scared.

"I-I don't think Clyde's ability is useful. W-what do you mean? I am already strong. I don't need buffs." Ralph responded with his uneasy voice.

"You hear that, Clyde?" Leon turns his eyes to Clyde.

"I hear it. But why now!?" Clyde is still confused. He hopes that nothing bad happened to him.

"Let's listen from Lottie too, then," said Lucielle with her wicked tone.

"Yes! Me?" Lottie is surprised. She doesn't really good with giving her opinion. She is a shy girl.

"Lottie. Do you think Clyde's ability is useful?" Lucielle stares at Lottie with her sharp eyes.

"Well, in some cases ... I think Clyde's buff is useful ... " Lottie answered with her doubtful voice.

"Are you sure?" Lucielle tries to confirm while keep giving her scary stare.

"Uhh, I think ... sometimes I don't need Clyde's buff. I can still fight with my own ability. Sorry, Clyde." Lottie is afraid. She does not want to get in trouble with Lucielle.

"Clyde. Your teammates finally speak up. They think that your buff skill is rather useless. And you are a burden of the team." Leon spills it out clearly.

"No! I'm not!" Clyde is screaming in disbelief. He has been doing his best all this time for the sake of the team.

"Here is my proposal. Due to your incompatible skills with our teamwork and being a burden of the team. I want to kick you out from Fiesty Five." Leon finally said it.

A silence happened.

Everyone in the meeting room tries to digest what Leon is saying. They are very surprised.

"You are joking, right?" Clyde trembles.

"I'm not joking, Clyde!" Leon responded with his serious tone.

Clyde's mind suddenly feels like something big is exploding in his head. He could not say anything. He could not understand why this is so sudden. He thinks that everything will be fine because they have been a solid team until now. At least that is what in his mind. But sadly, that is not the same as what others are thinking. This is so ironic.

"I have prepared the petition to kick Clyde from Fiesty Five. I want you guys to give your sign soon. I want to give my proposal to Mrs.Bethany." Leon said it without thinking more about Clyde's feeling.

Clyde still keeps quiet. He doesn't speak any words. His breathing is starting to get irregular. He thinks that his efforts all of this time are useless. He did his best to always support his teammates in need. But what do he get now in return? He is completely lost in his mind.