MISSION MOONLARK, kotlc

22

"Wow," Biana said instantly as Sophie stalked into the bathroom. "You look... spirited."

Sophie wanted to smack her forehead, but settled for glancing once again uneasily in the mirror. The shiny reflective glass pretty much put a spotlight on how ridiculous her new disguise was: a huge, frumpy, hot pink dress with so many bows and frills and strands of ribbon and lace that Sophie resembled more of a gift-wrapped present than a humiliated, blushing teenage girl.

"Why do you get to look like Cinderella?" Sophie whined, adjusting the fat pink bow sitting spoiledly on the top of her head.

Biana had somehow miraculously convinced Vertina to dress her in some sort of airy, silk gown the color of the midnight sky. It was dotted with beautiful silver flowers, and everything to her chocolate brown hairdo was perfectly intricate.

Meanwhile, Sophie looked like a pig doing ballet.

"You ought to look better than Marella," Biana mumbled darkly, fastening the final silver pin neatly beneath her gelled curls. She imitated a cruel but accurate impression of Marella's British accent; "Oh, don't dress me in anything posh, Della dear, really I don't need to be fancied-"

She broke off, looking too disgusted to continue. Sophie thought she heard the word "frappuccino" in her angry mutterings.

Sophie did, in fact, look better than Marella, who was forced into what Biana described it as, "A tacky fashion disaster! You look like a puffed up blue balloon!" Which effectively reduced their already faltering interaction into a long, bitter argument that lasted all the way down to the boys' corridor.

Sophie was beyond grateful for the peace when Dex and Fitz tip toed out of their room, dressed in equally disastrous outfits; Sophie couldn't help but notice how quickly Marella and Biana stopped arguing when Dex walked out- and how frequently they flicked nervous, blushing glances in his direction.

" 'Gent Squall mad?" Dex asked quickly, obviously looking uncomfortable with the sudden attention.

"We're twelve minutes late," Sophie reasoned. "So probably."

"And you're sure you have no idea what we're doing?" Fitz clarified, for the fiftieth time. In the process of changing and doing make-up and memorizing cover-ups and all the other messy, standard mission protocols, he'd probably tried to hail her twenty times asking the same question; Sophie was surprised her Imparter hadn't broken.

"I've told you, Leto said nothing. Just asked if I'd be willing to do it, made me give him my word, and told me to meet Squall and Della downstairs." Sophie tilted her head sideways. "Wait- we're going to look like complete idiots walking into the lobby and looking like wannabe Disney princesses."

"Genius, SF," Marella laughed, nudging her teasingly.

A few passing agents-in-training- Stina Heks, included -didn't even bother to shoot them weird looks; they were too busy gaping. Sophie couldn't blame them.

"Eternal humiliation, here we come!" Biana mumbled, pushing open the door with her shoulder.

Instead, Sophie walked right into Agent Della, who was looking at her phone intently- and from Marella's equally surprised yelp, she'd probably bumped into Squall at the same time.

"Oops- sorry girls," Della said, her crisp accent as warm and welcoming as ever. But Sophie couldn't help noticing the dark circles underneath her eyes...

"Late by thirteen," Squall noted, winking. "Better than last time though, SF. What was it?"

"Late by twenty four," Sophie supplied, sighing through a smile.

"To save you the embarrassment," Della went on, pushing her phone back into her coat pocket. She pointed to the back door and added to Biana, "How do you always manage to convince Vertina? We love the dear, but her stubbornness will forever drive us crazy."

"Trade secret," Biana informed her jokingly, sticking out her tongue.

They hurried through the evening sunset to a row of relatively normal-looking cars parked crookedly in the back parking lot. Sophie expected Della to pick the usual ordinary-looking BMW- but instead she unlocked the fanciest-looking car Sophie had ever dared to even look at.

"We're going in there?" Sophie asked incredulously.

"I call shotgun!" Marella shouted, ignoring her. Biana was about to open her mouth to argue- which probably would've resulted in the next Great Redek-Vacker Argue Fest -but Squall took the passenger seat instead.

"To answer your question SF," Della said, ignoring all three of them, as soon as the doors had closed. "Thanks to a little help from some inside guys, we know that the Neverseen's top tier is attending a gathering with some of the most ingenious criminal masterminds in the world, in an effort to find new recruits. It's located underground, beneath a warehouse."

"And," Squall interjected, as the boys clambered in the backseat. "We have two alternative goals: One is to find, capture, and contain some of the Neverseen members and other criminals. Two is the hope that Alvar will be there as well."

"The gathering is a gold mine," Della added, tucking her pendant inside her coat as she maneuvered the car out of the parking lot. "And we'll be there, along with as many agents as we could muster, to help capture all of them- but only when the time is right."

"That's when you come in," Squall continued. "We have the profiles of several criminals attending the party. First: Vespera. She goes by that name, and that name only. Her entry said that she was bringing along three juniors, in which she is 'training.' We managed to track them down, and they are currently in our custody. However..."

"There's three open slots for three people our age," Sophie finished, barely mumbling.

"Now there's two problems with that, at first glance," Della went on. "Of course, Vespera will know what her little partners in crime will look like- which is why we had you dressed in disguise. So you three-"

She pointed to Marella, Biana, and Sophie.

"Need to act the part."

"Which means no accents," Squall cut in. "Not saying each other's names. We tried our best with disguises, but acting the part really must be the most important part. I have these files for you three- one for each -which you'll need to study before you enter the party. Vespera thinks you'll be joining her separately, which will give you just enough time to nail those fake personas."

"And us?" Dex asked, pointing to him and Fitz.

Squall and Della shared a look. Sounding as if she'd been waiting eagerly to break it to them, Della explained, "Two dancers as part of the entertainment have 'mysteriously' gone off sick today. Male dancers, about your height."

"No way," Fitz protested, paling on cue.

"Mission or no?" Squall asked.

There was a beat of silence, but Dex and Fitz both mumbled, "Mission."

"Great," Della said, beaming. "Make sure you study those files! You have two hours before the gathering starts, and there's a nice, big forest behind the warehouse for you all to practice."

The car screeched to a stop, and the doors popped open instantly.

Squall winked. "Make sure to have fun- and don't forget, boys, to nail that routine!"