The corners of her lips pulled into a stiff, plastic smile as she was engaged in another round of empty pleasantries. As soon as it was polite to pull away, she quickly snatched a wineglass from a passing platter and pretended to busy herself with it, feeling slightly exposed in her red cocktail dress that she decided was far too short for her liking.
Lifting the drink to her lips and using the glass to cover her movements, she gave an impatient toss of her long black hair and hissed, "Aren't you done yet?!"
The tiny microphone in her left earring blared to life and her partner replied, apologetic, "Sorry, Masumi. You just need to hold your position for a little longer. Carly's still hasn't spotted anyone who might be the infiltrator. And as the daughter of a famous jeweler, you're the only one of us who can pass as a legitimate invitee if they run an ID check on the guests."
Masumi fumed inwardly and plastered on another smile that admittedly erred more on the side of creepy. She was trained to be a combat specialist, damn it! Sneaking around and playing pretend really wasn't for her. Basically, they could pull any girl off the street and they'd probably be more qualified than her.
"Twenty minutes," she threatened in a low undertone. "If nothing happens in twenty minutes, I'm going to take these deathtrap shoes off and shove them up these assholes' faces!"
The voice in her ear turned from sorry to gently teasing. "But I think they suit you, Masumi. You do look very nice in that dress. It brings out your eyes."
"Yuzu," Masumi hissed even as her face was reddening to match her dress and her eyes, "I swear...!"
"Everyone, quiet!" An authoritative voice blared across the intercom and Masumi snapped to attention. "Gemknight, Agent Hummingbird said she's just finished running facial recognition and got a hit. She's routing the image to your lenses."
Visible only to Masumi, an image of a girl with deep red hair, cold eyes and an even frostier scowl appeared on her retina. "Senator Izayoi's daughter? But why would she be affiliated with jewel thieves?" She questioned.
"Aki Izayoi," Carly, who served as their technician, sounded like she was reading off a profile. "The senator's daughter. But it is a well-kept secret that she is also known as 'The Black Rose Witch of Arcadia'! This is bad, Squad Leader Roseknight; She's got a flee on sight order; the file says she's got these weird powers."
Agent Roseknight sounded pensive. "Stealing jewels isn't exactly their M.O. But the Arcadia Movement has been trying to make a power grab from the Rare Hunters recently. They're probably still trying to fill the power vacuum that Industrial Illusions has left."
"Haven't they been hiring out some of their members as mercenaries?" Her partner wondered.
"The Agency isn't going to like this," Masumi muttered, turning to see if she could position herself closer to the target and froze.
Aki Izayoi was glaring directly at her.
Then everything went black and the world tilted on its axis and as the room descended into chaos, the only thing that kept her grounded the guests shrieked and shoved around her was the sound of her partner's voice shouting her name.
"What happened, Hummingbird?" Roseknight demanded in the background. "Report!"
"It's a jammer," Hummingbird complained loudly. "I can't reroute the power since someone attached a manual override."
Roseknight swore colorfully. "They must have removed the Millennium Item already, so track them down. Gemknight, abandon your cover and secure the target. Melodious will cover you."
"Roger," Masumi said. She viciously kicked off her heels, not too bothered by the possibility that she might have hit someone in the face.
Blinking rapidly to activate night vision, Masumi darted through the panicking crowd with ease and was soon running at full speed with her bare feet slapping against the marble floor.
"Make a left and continue along the corridor on the fourth floor," Hummingbird's voice came back on the line. "There's a door leading to the roof. I've disengaged the lock on the door but there isn't time to deactivate the security grid."
Upon seeing the cage of deadly lasers, Masumi's face lit up for the first time since this damn mission started. "Piece of cake!"
Masumi arrived on the roof just as a girl dressed in a frenchmaid's uniform climbed out from the service hatch. Her strange silver hair was fashioned to resemble cat ears of all things. Masumi didn't waste a second and went in for the jugular.
But the other girl seemed to possess some kind of uncanny instinct and twisted out of the way at the last second.
"Nyaa," she purred, "That was close." So much for the element of surprise.
Another set of images were helpfully uploaded to her contact lens. "Cat Burglar Cathy," she stated, reading off of the profile. "Return what you took at once."
"No can't do," she trilled, giving her a quick once over and then deflated. "I had hoped..."
"Hoped what?" Masumi demanded.
"W-Well," said Cathy, suddenly adopting a shy demeanor and pressed her index fingers together. "I... I hoped they would send... Yu...Y-Yuma..." The burglar's face was quickly turning an unhealthy shade of red.
"Y-you..." Masumi said, sounding a little horrified. "Are you... A stalker?!"
Clearly offended, the girl hissed and her pupils did a thing that made her a thousand times freakier and was that freaking cat claws coming out from her freaking fingers?! Was she even human?! Masumi didn't have much longer to ponder this and ducked low to avoid a vicious swipe to her head and retaliated by kicking out her legs, hoping to pin her on the ground. Then, Cathy did something where her entire spine twisted impossibly and managed to land on her feet, achieving a level of flexibility that made her feel like a 90-year old grandma.
"Hold still and let me beat you up, you thief!" she demanded as she tried once again to subdue the infiltrator.
"Nyaa, nyaa!" The cat burglar taunted. "Only my darling Yuma can cat-ch me! A-and then... Maybe... Maybe we can go out on a date?"
"All this for a date?!" Masumi shrieked and took advantage of the weird girl's distraction to land a kick on the cat-girl's midriff and launched her into a wall. Once again, Cathy landed feet first and used the wall as a springboard to launch back at her.
The two grappled, but Masumi found out the hard way that cat-girl's claws turned out to be as sharp as steel and her red silk dress now sported several new tears. She gave as good as she got, fighting barehanded and barefooted and with a sharpened letter opener that had been the only thing that she could sneak in past security. One lucky feint later and Masumi realized that she had overextended and that a set of orichalcum claws were heading for her unprotected soft bits.
Bracing herself for an explosion of pain in her gut, she was justifiably confused when her opponent let out a yelp and hit the ground, a familiar a pink haired agent sitting triumphant with her knees digging into the burglar's back.
"Hey, partner," the agent greeted, daintily getting of the groaning lump like she didn't just drop 30 feet from a helicopter without a parachute.
"Hey yourself," Masumi said stonily. "You're late."
"Sorry about that," Yuzu said sheepishly. "I must be hanging around Yuya too much. I had to get a lift in from Asuka since the original chopper malfunctioned."
When Masumi remained unmoved, the girl unloaded her pack and and tossed it at her and the black haired agent immediately decided to forgive her upon discovering that it contained a pair of sensible combat boots which she wasted no time in shoving her cold feet into.
"Figured you'd appreciate that," Yuzu, her super-thoughtful and lovely partner commented before tapping her earring. "Target acquired."