Metamorphosis

Chapter 12: More Monestones?!

The room was silent for a few moments before Mira grinned like a madwoman. "A mission!?"

"A mission?" Nyle echoed. "Like, a real mission? With, enemies and running and hiding and stuff?"

Phoenix nodded excitedly and gestured for them to follow her. "Come on, the rest of the team is already in the exposition room." She was about to leave when Mira called after her.

"Wait!" She threw her gear into the bin and hopped on one foot as she tried to put her socks and shoes on while standing. "Do we have any time to get changed?"

"It doesn't matter if you're changed or not. It will only take, like, ten minutes or so. We just need to be introduced to our mission, and then be fitted for whatever uniform we'll need."

Nyle frowned. "Why can't we just wear the uniforms we already have? I mean, they seem just fine to me."

She shrugged. "Depending on the mission, the terrain may be different from here, and our current uniforms may not be good enough. Like, if we were going up to Mount Everest for whatever reason, we would get layered and insulated uniforms, not the thin and flexible ones we have now, you know?"

They nodded and followed Phoenix out the door, where they turned and walked down a few hallways, taking a few turns every once in awhile, until they came to a door labeled Exposition 3.

"In here." Phoenix opened the door and stepped inside, holding it open for Nyle and Mira.

The rest of the team was already sitting in chairs arranged in rows. Saige saw them and patted the seats next to her and Parker.

They quickly sat down.

A woman stood up from a chair at the front of the room. She was a very small woman, with thin rimmed blue glasses and black hair pulled back in a French braid. Her dark tan skin stood out among her navy blue uniform. "Good afternoon, Alpha Squad," she greeted. "I am Agent Milcroy and I'll be doing your exposition today. We're going to get started in just a few minutes, just give me a minute to set up the presentation."

"Why do they need presentations for every mission?" Parker asked Freya, who sat directly in front of him.

"It's just so that it's easier to explain," she said. "It also makes it easier for the team to absorb all of the information so that they can go on a successful mission."

Agent Milcroy turned around and tapped on a computer for a little, and a large projection showed up on the wall in front of the team.

"Alright. Time to get started," she said. She tapped on the computer once, and the screen changed to an image of a stone that looked strangely familiar to the Alpha Squad. It was blue, black, and clear, with white accents decorating it. It looked weathered and old, the surface beginning to crack. Even though it looked ancient, it was still smooth and glossy.

"This is a stone known as the Usipi Stone. It was found not to long ago in the Sahara desert, and was taken immediately to a scientific laboratory in Nairobi, Kenya. Three weeks later, it was stolen by a group that calls themselves Venom. We think that Venom could be the remainder of Viper, a group that, as you all know very well, was stopped a little under a year ago." Milcroy tapped the computer again.

"Around the same time as the discovery of the Usipi Stone, another stone formation that looks incredibly similar was found in Australia." The rock on the screen was green, black, clear and white, and looked almost identical to the Usipi stone. "They're calling it the Vasili Gem."

Nova frowned. "You know, these are all looking incredibly similar to--"

"The Monestone," Adam finished. "Yeah." He turned to the agent. "Are there any connections to the mission a year ago, when Viper was destroyed?"

Milcroy pursed her lips and nodded. "Yes. It appears that... Well, it appears that the Monestone was not the only stone of its kind. There appears to be five more." She blushed slightly as she turned a few slides over, to a photo showing five stones. Two of them were the Usipi stone and the Vasili Gem. "We're calling them by colour... The Monestone was red, the Usipi Stone is blue, the Vasili Gem is green, the Samkha Jewel is yellow, the Tiger's Eye is orange, and the last one, the Kira Stone is purple."

Leroy tried to hold in a laugh. "You are literally keeping them in line by calling them by their colours?"

"It wasn't my idea," Milcroy protested. She took a deep breath and composed herself. "Anyway, your mission is to find these stones. If these get into the wrong hands, who knows what could happen. After all, we all know the after-effects of the Monestone..."

Her eyes drifted to Phoenix, who sank a little lower in her seat.

"How do we find them?" Nova asked. "We only know where the first two are."

"If you guys let me do my job and go through the presentation properly, then that wouldn't be a problem," Milcroy said, rolling her eyes. "I'll give you guys a folder of all the information."

Nyle looked over at Saige, Mira, and Parker, who were all turning a little bit pale. He smiled comfortingly at them. It was going to be their first mission, and none of them were all that confident. They had just been in training for the past month, and they weren't sure how they'd do out in the real world, with real enemies that really wanted to kill them.

Phoenix took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Emotions were building up in her chest like a balloon. They were bubbling underneath the surface, ready to explode. She wasn't sure if it was excitement or nervousness or a mix of the two.

Her very first mission as a true part of the Alpha Squad.

This would be her chance to prove to everyone that she was not Kat, but that she was her own person. That she was someone who had her own personality and her own way of doing things. This was her chance to show everyone that the Monestone did not change her, but it simply improved her. That she was now a better person than she was before. That she could--would--be the kind of person Kat never was.

The best.

The bravest.

The strongest.

The smartest.

She would show them all that she was no longer the "new Kat", but that Kat was the old Phoenix.

Phoenix grinned. "When do we leave?"  

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Dear readers,

Question of the Chapter: This is more of just a prediction question. What do you think is going to happen on the mission?

-flygirl1