She's in the worst place when it happens.

Ally is washing her hands in the school's bathroom sink when the PA system crackles to life.

"Code red." The voice of the principal is shaky with such fear that there is no doubt that this is not a drill. "I repeat, code red."

Anyone in her situation would be frozen with fear. She was in the one place everyone hoped they wouldn't be in during a lockdown. Out of the safety of the classroom and in the open, exposed.

Only, she was trained for this.

She gets out of the bathroom and into the hallway quietly, senses alert. There's no intel on the enemy right now, so she has to figure things out on her own. She scans each area methodically before advancing, her back always to the wall.

It's the shouting that gives them away. There's demanding voices coming from one of the classrooms-her math class. She peers through the open door to assess the situation.

To her surprise, the intruders are...organized. They are heavily armed and stand with an air only highly experienced militants would have. This was worse than she thought.

"I know she is here." The apparent leader of the pack snarls, clearly frustrated. He waves his gun around with less care than Ally thinks he should have. "Somebody tell me where she is now."

His tone is nothing but serious. Quickly, Ally thinks of a strategy to get through all of them without any of her own classmates and teacher getting hurt.

"Where." The leader is done with words and aims the barrel to her math teacher.

Three electrocuting disks thrown to the exposed faces of the goons.

Five tranq darts she kept for a rainy day, into the necks of the rest.

She finally makes her entrance, ignoring the gasps from her classmates as she deals blows and kicks to the group. Most of them are writhing or unconscious on the ground already, so it takes her only seconds to get to her main concern.

The leader has forgotten her math teacher, thankfully, and has set his aim at her instead.

She doesn't waste time on a snappy one liner. Ally topples over the man with a swing of her leg, disarms him, and holds his own weapon back at him in one fluid motion.

"Heard you were looking for someone." Ally says at last.

She feels more alive than ever, with adrenaline pumping through her. Right now, she isn't Ally Dawson. She's someone else.

He spits out some choice words for her.

"Is anyone hurt?" She glances back to the stunned class. They shake their heads, gazes blank. She can only imagine what they must see.

A high school student pulling stunts seen only in spy thrillers or action movies? How does that happen? And bookish Ally Dawson, of all people.

Her phone rings.

"One second," she smiles sweetly at the glaring leader below her, "hello?"

"Got your message," the other end says, "backup should be there in a minute. Status, agent?"

"I have the leader subdued. Didn't have my full gear with me, but I had some gadgets hidden on me. I'm not sure what their motives were, but they were looking for someone."

"Good." A pause. "I guess that other agent on the ground is useless now."

"Who?" Her brows knit together in confusion.

Someone is at the doorway, breathing fast from exertion.

Ally turns to see the one person she never expected. Blond hair, hazel eyes-

"I see you've got it handled already." Austin Moon observes, seemingly both impressed and disappointed.

She manages to pick up her dropped jaw. "If I knew you were coming, I would have left some for you."

"Agent Moon." He flashes his card at her so that only she can see the official logo of their secret organization. The other spy grins at her.

"Agent Dawson." She smiles back, still high on adrenaline.


She raises her concerns after her debrief to her supervising agent.

"My cover's been blown, ma'am."

Her handler, Agent 9, pins her with an unreadable look, and then sighs. "You want to stay here, in a public high school."

"Yes." Ally says firmly.

"We both know that you don't need to be here. You could be studying part time in university, if you wanted to. Much more flexible to our organization's needs."

"I understand, but I insist." She presses. Despite the other more dangerous, exciting part of her life, Ally is adamant on maintaining some sort of normalcy. While she loves her work, she wants the full experience other people her age will have, even if it's dull in comparison. "Please, Talia?"

Agent 9 disappears as Talia rolls her eyes. Superior agent or not, Agent 9 was still human. "The whole math class has signed non-disclosure agreements. They can't tell the whole school that you're an agent, but they will still know. Are you ready to face that?"

Ally nods.

"Good. Well, actually, you don't need to face it just yet. You've got a mission, so you'll be away while things cool down over here." Talia slides over a crisp white folder with the organization's symbol emblazoned on it. "I'll leave you to it, Agent Dawson."

Ally's started flipping through the file when Talia stops in the doorway of the empty classroom they've taken over. "Oh, your mission partner's here."

"Already?" They must have come with the backup. She shifts so she faces the door, but doesn't take her eyes off of the mission itinerary.

"Agent Moon, meet Agent Dawson."

Oh.


Might continue, might not. Testing the waters here. Thoughts?

12.29.15.