Disclaimer: I don't own the Uglies Trilogy, or claim to be Scott D. Westerfield, I just loved these books and wrote these story for pleasure to share with other fans. Apologies in advance for bad grammar and spelling. Enjoy!
6 Months Ago...
The party was loud as usual. Pretties were in hot air balloons with safety fireworks, while some were jumping off the top of Garbo Mansion and hover bouncing onto the ground to everyone's delight. Inside, the music was earsplitting and the bass was the like the pulse of one's heart banging into your head. The crowd of pretties swayed, and rubbed up on each other. There were some new awkward pretties, standing in corners pretending to socialize but the general crowd were oblivious to anything that wasn't grinding on them or giving them a headache. A single hand reached up to the ceiling, and a flame appeared. Then small sprinklers dropped from the ceiling and sprayed everyone with a cold shower of crystal like water droplets. They enjoyed this more, and laughed. Their mouths hanging open like cows at slaughter. Outside a shower of water fell onto everyone too.
On top of Garbo Mansion someone put on a bungee jacket and jumped off the building with the grace of a wet snowball and splatted onto another pretty.
"Hey man! Watch it! You could have killed me! Idiot..."
A temper sharply rose form the guy. still in his bungee jacket.
"Well, I'm sorry. Do you want me to go find your mommy to kiss your booboo for you?"
Then a perfect fist smashed into his face like a meteor. The party went still. A tangle of fists slammed into each other with incredible force and brought both of them to the ground. More people gathered around them in a circle of cheers. The one in the bungee jacket was on the ground, unconscious, blood dripping from his perfectly sculpted nose. You could still feel the anger emanating off the jilted one, and a couple of people pulled him away.
"What's going on here?" asked a safety warden, his eyebrows pulled together in concern.
"The guy in the bungee jacket jumped off the mansion and fell onto the guy without the bloody nose," called out a voice in the crowd. People gathered around.
"Requesting medical," spoke the safety warden into his wrist.
-X-
The night sky was quickly being chased away by the glowing morning sky. Hair was whipping into Tally's face as she sped along an iron vein on her hoverboard. While trying to remember the closest river for her to fall into so she could be icy again. She heard a soft ping.
Someone is cutting trees near the city.
She could feel the icy waters engulf her as she fell. Are they really rusty enough to be doing this? Tally thought. She got out of the white water and immediately rode to the city. The trees swayed violent at her speed.
After several minutes, she had started to hear machines shrieking, and could smell the wood in the air become stronger and she got closer.
"TIMBER!", she heard one of the workers say.
This was something for the New Special Circumstances to deal with.
-X-
Present Day
"Good evening, may I speak with Dr. Cable?"
"This is she. And this is...?"
"I hate to be bothering you on a friday night Dr. Cable, but the City Committee needs to speak with you this evening. It's urgent."
"About what exactly?"
"A hover car will arrive for you at 2200 hours."
Then she heard the zap of the call ending on her wall screen.
-X-
"Dr. Cable, we, the City Committee would like to thank you for all your effo-"
"You can cut the crap, councilman. What do you want?"
"There was a jumbled response, but a clear deep voice spoke.
"As you know Dr. Cable, we have given our citizens mental 'freedom', so to speak. And we would like to thank you for once again re-programming the lesions in their heads, after the mind-rain. But there is a problem slowly arising..."
"And what would that be?"
"Someone is contaminating our water supply with a cure, and the pretties are starting to act...different," said a worried voice.
"We have also received several bomb threats by a terrorist group called 'New Special Circumstances," snickered a member.
"I assure you committee, that I have nothing to do with that group. And Tally Youngblood underwent an involuntary surge at Diego to remove everything that made her a Special in the first place," Dr. Cable said sharply.
"We know you don't," said the loud clear voice again, "that's what we want you to prove. We want you to infiltrate the 'New Special Circumstances' and neutralize it."
"How will I be able to do that?" Dr. Cable said distraughtly. "When Tally Youngblood brought on the universal mind-rain and I was exposed to the entire world as 'someone who experimented on minors' my Special Circumstances was scrubbed and I was expatriated!" she spat viciously. She threw down her fist on the metal table and her face finally came into the light. Some of her white hair was hiding behind bloodied bandages and covered one of her eyes; her other eye was sickly and had a yellow tint when normally it would have been white.
"This is a special circumstance, and this program will officially work under the code name 'Sleepers'."
-X-
The Next Day
Everything before the surge was a complete blur to Echo.
"Miss Mortbinger. This is Dr. Cable from the Sleepers program and we are doing a study on people with insomnia. It can be done with your upcoming surgery for your 16th birthday," Echo agreed. Arrangements were made. Now she woke up, and couldn't tell how much time had passed. But something still felt weird.
"The surgery is pretty standard. We're just going to see what's going in that brain of yours. And don't worry, we aren't putting any lesions in there. It's against the law."
Sure, she could remember the first time riding on a hover bike and scraping her knee when she was just a littlie; but the day of the surgery was unusual.
"This hovercar smells weird," said Echo. The sour scent hung in the air, and violated her nostrils.
"Just improved the air filtration module. The smell should pass within a few days," said the driver.
Echo remembered feeling really thick warm goo around her body; thicker than corn syrup. Her version was blurred, her head ached, and the world felt like it was spinning. She was naked and in a weird glass box. She felt a tube down her throat and tried to pull it out, but with little strength. People gathered around wearing all white and robotic arms reached for her in the goo.
Someone shouted something.
Then someone put a needle into a tube that was connected to her arm, and she fell into unconscious again.
Her eyes were now open. Her unblemished skin itched like ants were crawling all over her, and she scratched at it like a cat. A hand reached out for her.
"The itchiness passes with a few days," and a middle pretty sat on the bed beside her.
High cheekbones, full lips, large eyes. She was a standard middle pretty.
"Dr. Cable? I never got to ask you, but are you related to that other Dr. Cable?"
"Not at all my dear," her accent was strange, Echo thought. "There are a lot of Dr. Cable's in the world. You've been in surgery for a 9 days. I'll see you in the morning. In the mean time, get some rest," she said while emptying a syringe into Echo's vein. She fell into the dark again.
-X-
Echo's eyes opened to a hospital room flooded with bright, warm light. She huffed, and pulled the hospital sheet over her face; desperately wishing for sleep to return to her.
"Miss Mortbinger, Dr. Cable will see you now," the wall said to her.
Echo sat up in her bed, and Dr. Cable walked in.
"Good morning. I trust you slept well last night."
"I did. I wish it'd come back."
Dr. Cable let out a bubbly laugh.
"Now Miss Mortbinger, there are a few upgrades that you requested for the surgery. Now you can ping people in your head; and we replaced your bones with ceramic ones. In 15 minutes, a hover car will arrive to take you to New Prettyville. I will checking up on you occasionally, by pings, and might have to bring you in for check-ups. If you have any questions, you know how to reach me."
Echo mumbled her thanks.
"I know this is random, but do all the hover cars smell weird now?"
"What do you mean by weird?"
"Ehh, never mind."
"If that's all, I'll leave you now. Good day," she did a little curtsy and left the room. Echo got out of bed and stood in front of the wall.
"I need clothes."
"What kind of clothes do you wish, Miss Mortbinger?"
"Call me Echo, and I want some nice clothes and comfortable shoes."
The wall opened up to a hole, and spit clothes at her, that she awkwardly caught with her face.
"Anything else, Echo?"
"I'm hungry. Could I have some breakfast please? Toast, orange juice, and hashbrowns."
She put on her clothes, and a couple of minutes later her breakfast laid itself neatly on her bedside table. She finished putting on her shoes, ate breakfast and anxiously awaited a ping for the car.
-X-
Dr. Cable walked haughtily through the hospital corridors. Her plan was perfect. No one would ever find out that Special Circumstances was rebooted under the Sleepers program. The surgery was seamless, the cause was real. She was justified in making that girl a Special. But not like ones from before, she would be different. She remember creating her over 16 years ago in a test tube as a fail-safe in case something like this had ever happened. This girl would be the first Sleeper agent since the Rusties.