"You realize that after this year we're free?" Shelby said. She was in her room with Laura, Wing and Otto, finishing their Villainous Studies essays. "Oh God, the Wraith will make the most epic comeback of all time."

"Of course, six years of training will without a doubt bring the Wraith up a few ranks in the world of villainy," Wing agreed - as usual, nobody could tell if he was being sarcastic.

"Not all of us are going to graduate with a degree in Ninja," Laura reminded the two. "I'm going to become the world's most infamous hacker."

"Laura Brand, who no firewall can resist," Otto said grandly.

"And apparently no albino either," Shelby quipped. "I wonder if H.I.V.E does anything for sixth-years. Ooooh, maybe we'll have a prom."

"I think that's only an American thing," Laura commented. "Or a schools-where-the-students-have-a-place-to-buy-prom-dresses thing, anyway."

"This is H.I.V.E., honey. If they want dresses, then dresses they will have. Hey, that could be an assignment - steal yourself an outfit, and you're invited to the dance," Shelby said excitedly. "That would be good."

"Hey, if you can get it to happen, I won't complain," Laura said. "As long as you steal me my dress."

"Can I steal your shoes, too? I feel like you wouldn't know how to match the two."

"Sure, whatever."

"I think I can steal my own suit, before you ask," Otto chipped in.

"So can I," Wing said. "Although if you want to help me choose one, I trust your judgement."

"Okay, now I'm getting excited. This needs to happen. Damn, I wish this school had a student council. So, how does everyone suggest we go about this?"

"You know, I don't really care about having a prom, but if it involves a field trip, then what the hell, it'll be fun enough. Shelby, I reckon you need to be the one to ask."

"Sure thing." She turned on her blackBox. "Hey, HIVEmind. Connect me to Nero."

If had had eyebrows, Shelby felt sure he would have raised them. "Any reason? I thought you'do finished your homework. Is it about exams?"

"Close enough." She sat back and winked at the others. "See? Piece of cake."

Nero's face came up on the screen. He looked somewhat surprised at the call.

"Hello, Miss Trinity. Since you don't appear to be in danger at the moment, might I ask why you are calling?"

"Hi, Doctor Nero. I was wondering if there was any way the sixth-years could have an end-of-year dance."
He blinked. "Miss Trinity, I really don't think this is the kind of school that can host dances."
"Why not?" Shelby persisted. There was no way she would take no for an answer today.
"Well, for starters, would you want everyone to turn up in uniform to a dance?"
She'd been expecting that question. "We steal our outfits. Only people who complete the mission successfully get to go."
"Where would we host it?"
"Just take your biggest hall and put up disco lights."
Nero suddenly realised that there wasn't much argument against the idea. It wasn't really something he thought made a lot of sense, but he was out of real reasons not to go along with it and they both knew it.
"Well, I shall speak to the rest of the teachers and get their opinions on the matter. But if you want a whole night spent partying, then I will expect perfect grades in all your subjects, Miss Trinity. That goes for your friends, too."
"When do we ever not have perfect grades?" Otto objected, annoyed.
Shelby ignored him. "I think that can be achieved. In fact, we were just finishing our homework now."
"In that case, go and finish. will notify you when I have more news." He disappeared from the screen.
"There's no argument against it, and he knows it," Shelby squealed. "We're gonna get a prom!"
"There doesn't have to be an argument, if Nero doesn't like it," Laura pointed out. "He overrides all the pros and cons."
"That's too close to Nerdspeak for my liking," Shelby said. "Quick, get your essays done. You heard Nero - perfect grades."
"But our grades are always perfect," Wing and Otto said together.
"Well then, you won't have much trouble with this one, will you? Laura, since you're finished already, be a dear and look over mine."
"It better be an expensive prom dress," Laura grumbled, taking the paper Shelby was holding out.
"Be as specific as you like. Although I think blue would look great with your eyes."

Nero turned around to see Raven walking in.
"Miss Trinity just called me to ask if we could host a dance at the end of the year for the sixth-years," he said. "What do you think?"
"They want to dance in their uniform?" Raven queried, raising an eyebrow.
"She says that everyone has to go out and steal their outfit, if they don't, they can't come."
"I suppose we are somewhat taking away the typical high school experience for our students. If we have enough teachers to take the whole year out to steal outfits, I don't see why not. Just don't put me down for decorating."
Nero smiled. "Or for anything to do with it, I presume."
"Well...no," she agreed.
"I'll ask the others what they think, but I'm afraid we may have to go through with it."
"Hmm. Is that all?"
"Well, there's something extremely important that has come up. It concerns the sixth-year Alphas."

"Shelby, you have a message on your blackBox," Laura called. Shelby was in the shower, but when she heard Laura, threw on a bath robe and ran over to her blackBox.
"Hi, Big Blue. What is the message? Are we having a prom?"
"The message is from Doctor Nero," told her (Shelby held her breath). "He wants you to know that none of the staff find fault in your suggestion and that as long as you keep your grades up and help arrange most of it, he's happy to go through with it."
Shelby cheered. "Thanks, HIVEmind. Has my homework been marked yet?"
"You received one hundred percent on your Villainous Studies assignment."
"Yay! Okay, I need to finish washing my hair." She dashed back to the shower with a spring in her step.
Laura tried to keep the smile off her face - she'd never admit it to Shelby, but she was really looking forward to the dance. She wanted to wear a nice dress and do up her hair and slow dance with her boyfriend. She finished braiding her hair and turned on her blackBox.
" HIVEmind," she said, quietly so as to not be overheard. "Search online for prom dresses."

"We're having a prom!" Shelby announced, almost dancing into the hall.
"You took a long time, so I saved you some breakfast because I saw Franz," Wing said, holding out a bacon roll.
"Aw, thanks honey. Anyway, I need to find a dress to steal. Brand, if you can hack the security cam I'll get yours on the way."
"Piece of cake," Laura said confidently. "Hang on. You say that like you've picked out my dress already."
"Yeah, I hacked your blackBox and found a store supplying the one you wanted - nice choice, by the way. I see you followed my advice about the blue."
Laura flushed red. "You hacked my blackBox?"
"I needed practice! Anyway, don't look so embarrassed - you have great taste in fashion. Can I still pick the shoes?"
She snorted. "I trust you."
They group finished their breakfast, Laura and Shelby planning their theft, Wing and Otto planning theirs.
"Okay, we have Tactical Education next," Shelby said happily. "And then Stealth and Evasion. Hurry up, all of you!"
Francisco seemed to be in an equally good mood - Otto had guessed correctly that he was really looking forward to drilling everyone for their end-of-year exams.
"Five years ago, the majority of you were talentless brats," he began cheerfully. "Most of you perform at an acceptable level now, but you will need to be much better than acceptable if you want to pass your final exams. Today we won't be using equipment, but will instead be praticing parkour at an extremely advanced level. No, Miss Trinity, I'll demonstrate." (Shelby's hand was stretched as high as it could go, as per usual - parkour was her absolute favourite.) "By the end of the class, you should all be able to cross this obstacle course in under two minutes." He ran towards the first obstacle - a wall nearly as tall as he was - at an alarming speed, then vaulted over it with a single hand and landed on top with both feet. Without missing a beat, he grabbed the rope in front of him and hauled himself up with no apparent effort. The rope was tied to a horizontal metal bar, which he lached (swung) from on to the next platform, then vaulted over to the next wall (which was about give metres high), which he dropped down from and rolled to another wall, which he ran up, and did a no-hands cartwheel to the finishing line.

"Those of you who are less - ah - aerodynamic - will certainly struggle with this challenge," the Colonel said, grinning evilly ("Three guesses who that was aimed at," Shelby muttered), "as will those who are lacking the upper body strength parkour requires. Pair up, and let's see how you do."

"Oh, it's on, big guy," Shelby said with a grin. Her relationship with Wing was largely built on this sort of competition before they started dating, and even afterwards they were always trying to outdo each other in this area.

Shelby went first, and gracefully vaulted over the first wall, shimmied up the rope, swung onto the wall, dropped down, and ran up the next wall in one minute and forty-five-point-zero-three-one seconds. Wing had been point-zero-zero-two seconds slower, and was fully aware that to Shelby, it might as well have been 0.002 of a century slower.

"Better shape up, big guy, you never know when two-thousandths of a second could come in handy," she said, grinning from ear to ear at her victory.

"It would make me happy if you'd stop talking for two-thousandths of a second," Wing replied plaintively. "Also, look at Franz."
Franz had managed to get up to the rope, but through some incident, had ended up knotting the rope around his feet while trying to 'make something to step on'.

"I am thinking this would be a good time for the ladder, Ja?" He asked unhappily as Shelby approached with her shoulders shaking ever so slightly as she tried to stop herself from laughing.

"Locks, knots - fear not, for the Wraith can get through them all," Shelby announced as she untied the knots quickly and easily. "Now grab the rope and haul yourself up."

"I think that will be all for today," Francisco said, still reasonably cheerful - Franz's dilemma had more than made up for how easily Shelby an Wing had covered the course. "Most if you were pretty hopeless, so every Friday at seven come here for a crash course in parkour. Argentblum, I would suggest that you attend. The rest of you, HIVEmindwill send in your homework."

"So boys," Shelby said, absent-mindedly doing her homework, "What's your plan to get your tuxes? Me and Laura have ours figured out, and unless you want me picking the outfits, you'll have to steal them yourselves."
"Don't worry about us," Otto told her. "We've got it all figured out. We're doing it Wednesday night."
"Friday for us," Shelby replied. "Wednesdays are senior boys' water polo practice. We aren't missing that."
"Forgive us if we would rather steal clothes than join you," Wing said. "Do you think question 23 is grapplers?"
"Umm, '23. Hijacking a plane from the outside.'. Definitely. What are you doing for question 25?"
"'25. Describe how you would break into a bank using the information below and a budget of £10,000.' Well, I'd just buy a simple tracking device so I could take out and impersonate the manager, then use the remaining 9,990 on, perhaps, a trip to France."
"That would work, or you could just hack the system and take all the money from there."
"I'm impressed," Laura said. "I thought for sure you'd use an ISIS suit, or the ventilation shaft."
"Well, France does sound nice..."