This is literally the longest chapter I've written. 3,700 words. Yey me! Hope you enjoy!

Also, a little heads-up for you guys. the Alices I used here for Mikan are from the manga so yeah. Also, Higuchi Tachibana said she had the Insertion Alice so there you go.

Disclaimer: I only own Miles, Jess, and Mike. And the plot of course. all rights go to Higuchi Tachibana duh.

RECAP OF PREVIOUS CHAPTER:

"I'm always careful. Talk to you guys later." I replied. I snapped my phone shut and stuffed it inside my backpack. I gave my ticket to the lady for her to scan.

"Have a nice flight." She smiled at me. I smiled back and thanked her.

I entered the tarmac and headed into the plane where I quickly settled into my wide first-class seat as I waited for the plane to take off.

xoxo

What Happened To Us?

Xoxo

The flight to Singapore was uneventful. I didn't have someone sitting beside me so I had the whole row to myself to which I gladly took advantage of. Only 2 hours into the flight the food had been served. The food was delicious; I could tell that it's pretty high-lass even though I don't know much about the culinary world, that's Ana. I had noodles and some meat. Whatever it was, it was pretty damn good. It had some sauce that had just the right amount of spice. Other than the noodles there was, of course, some rice and a side dish that could go with it. Along with that was some cake. And let me tell you, every single one of them was like a small bite of heaven. Especially the cake, I swear it was like kissing an angel, tongue and all. It was as though it was made out of the very essence of an angel. Okay that sounded weird. MOVING ON!

After the food was cleared away by the stewardess, and after informing them that I will not need anything else, I settled down and tried to get a bit of sleep although I was still alert should a passenger be a spy sent after me.

The whole flight lasted for around 6 hours and 50 minutes. As we landed, I stood up and stretched my stiff back, letting out a sigh of contentment as I heard some pops from my back. When the door was opened and the line moved, I smiled at the stewardess and thanked her as I left the plane. She seemed genuinely surprised that I'd do that but smiled back.

Immigration is always a pain, no matter what country you go to. The guy behind the glass panel scrutinized me for quite some time, then asked me in a heavily accented English why a minor like me was traveling alone, where was my guardian and so on. I fished out the l.D. I was given by the Academy. We're all given this whenever we have missions that required for us to go outside of the country. Since the Academy has hundreds of branches world-wide, it's quite well-known. I've even been to the branch in China; needless to say it looked just like our branch, only it had some more Chinese accents to the architecture.

I flashed this little baby straight to the dude's scowling face and he immediately straightened up and stamped my passport and waved me through. I smirked at him and went my merry way.

I walked past the carousel since I didn't have any baggage that I had checked in and all I brought with me was my backpack, I headed straight for the exit. I scanned the area for my guide and found him a little ways from the exit, holding up a blank piece of paper. It's SOP for us to hold a blank piece of paper when meeting up. Weird right?

He nodded at me and to someone behind my back. I saw my partner walking right up to us. He was also carrying a back pack but in addition to that he also had a duffel bag with him. He seemed to be around my age, had dark brown hair with red streaked through it and bright green eyes. I had to admit, he was cute. We eyed each other, and then our chauffer led us to a black BMW and opened the door for us. I entered first then my partner.

"We'll be heading back to the hotel where we'll be staying at for the duration of this mission. Here's the file for. This is much more detailed than the one you were briefed with. You can call me Mike." He then handed us two folders while keeping his eyes on the road. We each got a folder and started flipping through it.

"Wait, I thought I only got to work with one person, why'd we suddenly gain two more members?" The guy, James Miles, voiced out. Honestly, I was seriously wondering about that too. At first, I thought he was our chauffeur or something.

"Because, this is a level-B mission, and seeing as to how complex it is, they decided to have us join and help." 'Mike' said. "So, what are your names?"

"Call me Miles."

"Sakura."

"Gotcha." Mike, swerved hard to the right as the car from the opposite lane suddenly cut in front of us. "Damn these bastards, you'd think they know how to drive properly. They got their licenses damn it." He grumbled.

"Okay, so, Miles, you and my partner are going to be in charge of all the technical parts of this mission. The both of you track down their location and all that. While you and I, Sakura, are tasked with the muscle part of this mission. We'll be in charge of the field work and eliminating the ones in our way. Oh yeah, we also gotta protect the tech people from getting killed since they are very important, got that?"

"Hmm." I was too distracted about turning my phone on and trying to contact Natsume if Aoi was alright now to answer him properly.

"Other information that you'll need to know will be in those folders." After that, the whole ride was cloaked in silence. I had given up on contacting Natsume since my phone was apparently dead since I had forgotten to charge it last night and didn't get the chance to do it before I left. I made a mental note to charge it the moment we got to the hotel.

I looked out the window to watch the scenery passing by my eyes. Though it was kind of dark already, Singapore really is a clean and nature-loving country. Every you look there will always be nature thriving in this city. It's pretty amazing. I mean, Japan also has a lot of green mixed in the city but Singapore is really something else. It gives of the whole place a kind of relaxing feel.

A couple of minutes later, we arrived at the hotel. It was a five-star hotel that had a pretty decent location, smack dab in the middle of the city. After we had parked the car in the underground parking lot, we got out and headed for the elevators that will take us to the lobby. From there, we took another elevator to the penthouse where we were apparently staying for the duration of our stay.

"They got us a penthouse suite. It's pretty spacey; it has 4 rooms so we should all be able to have some privacy still. It's at the 35th floor; here are your copies of the keycard." He handed us 2 key cards just as the elevator reached our floor. Talk about fast elevators.

We exited the elevators and headed for the door. Once we got in, I have to say, I'm impressed. The moment you enter the door, you get confronted by the living room and it is HUGE. Three posh sofas and a coffee table in the middle face the LCD TV on the wall on the west side of the room. Beyond that, there was this large window that gave you an epic view of the metropolis. Two love seats and a coffee table between them were placed by the window. To the right was the kitchen which looked awesome, Ana would die to cook there. Then there were hallways that led to what I guessed were the separate rooms.

"Oh, hey, you're here!" A woman in probably her mid-twenties came out from one of the hallways. I made a mental note that that room was taken. She had red, wavy hair that reached her waist that she was towel-drying. She had an hourglass figure that her tight shirt and shorts showed.

She headed towards our way, dropping her towel on one of the love seats she passed. She shook both of our. "Name's Jessica, call me Jess. My Alice is the Alice of Water. I can manipulate water in any of its forms."

"I haven't properly introduced myself yet." Mike stepped forward and stood beside Jess. "Name's Mike. My Alice is the Alice of Lightning."

"James Miles, Miles for short. Alice of Technology." Miles answered. "I'm pretty good with anything that has to do with computers."

"Huh, pretty handy Alice you got there for this mission. No wonder they got you in the team." Mike said. "Although, it doesn't seem to be dangerous enough to be an agent. This your first mission?"

"Yeah. I'm not an agent, they just said I have the most advanced Alice concerning tech stuff and seeing as to how we need to track a hacker, they got me." Assuming that his introduction was finished I started mine.

"Mikan Sakura, call me Sakura." As soon as I said my name, Jess and Mike stared at me.

"No way." Jess breathed out.

"Are you serious?" Mike asked. "I didn't really ask for your full name earlier so I didn't notice."

"The one and only." I nodded.

"It's gonna be great working with you!" Jess cried out. "I've always wanted to be assigned a mission with you. Emily said you're really fun to work with!"

"Emily? You mean the one that has the Alice to transform into anything?" I'm rarely assigned a mission that requires a partner so those mission are quite few. Still, I'm pretty sure my last mission was with someone named Emily or something near to that.

"Yeah that's her! We're good friends. Still I can't believe this! How lucky could I get?"

"She gets like this when she's really happy or excited about something." Mike told me.

"Hold up, why are you guys so excited in meeting her?" Miles, we completely forgot about him. "Who is she? A celebrity?"

"I guess you could say that Mikan here, I could call you that right?" I nodded at Jess. "Well, she's pretty famous in our world. Actually, I guess infamous would be a much better word when explaining to a non-agent." She winked at Miles.

"Mikan's known as one of the best female Alice-users in the world because of her Alice matched with her skill in hand-to-hand combat, martial arts, shooting, you name it. Not to mention her young age, it's no wonder her name is pretty well-known to us."

"I see. And her Alice is…" He trailed off.

"My Alices are Nullification, Insertion, and SEC."

"3 Alices?" He cried out. I mean, it's not like you meet someone everyday with who has more than 1 Alice. "Wait, SEC? What's that. I've never heard of it before."

"It's one of the rarest Alices in the world." Mike told him.

"It's the acronym for Steal, Copy and Erase. It literally means that I could Steal someone's Alice from then, Copy their Alice and make it one of my own, and Erase their Alice."

"So if you could Copy someone's Alice, how many Alice's do you have now?"

I made a mental check of the list of Alices that I have. "Give or take a hundred or something. Whenever I meet someone with a new Alice, I copy it. You'll never know when you'll need something like that. Although most of the Alices that I've copied are mostly for offense and defense purposes only."

"That's pretty cool." He was obviously still thinking it over. He moved over to the living room and started bringing out his laptop, murmuring stuff like 'research' and 'never heard before' under his breath.

Jess just laughed and slung her arm across his shoulders. "Don't worry kid I feel ya. I had the exact same reaction."

"So, have you guys eaten yet? It's kinda late already." I checked my watch and was surprised to see that it was a quarter to 10 already.

"If you consider the food served on the plane a meal then yeah." Miles said still distracted.

"Same here."

"Hmm…" Jess mulled it over in her head then came back. "Well, we don't really have much ingredients here right now so, how's about Chinese?"

"I'm fine with that." I called over my shoulder as I headed off to check the rooms. I was determined to make the best one mine.

I quickly surveyed each room and chose the one with the best view. I dumped my backpack on the floor then jumped into the queen-sized bed. It was so soft that I could feel myself drowning amongst the pillows and the comforter. I suddenly remembered about my phone so I dug out the charger, universal adaptor, and the phone from my backpack I scanned the room for a socket. I found one near the desk so I crawled over there. I plugged in my phone and waited for it to turn on. When it finally did, I checked if the roaming had turned on. After I was sure that it was, I dialed Natsume's phone and waited for him to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Natsume! How's Aoi? Is she okay? How high did her fever get?" I was frantic to know. Aoi's sick and I can't help her.

"Her temperature was 37.8 so calm down already your voice is hurting my ears." I laughed, relieved that Aoi was safe.

"I see, that's great."

"So, what's the difficulty?"

"It's a B."

"Hn."

Another thing that had happened when we had entered the Academy, the moment they found out about my Alices, they had me go through brutal training, really brutal training. Natsume's training was nothing compared to mine's. Also, the moment I had finished my training, they threw me to a level-C mission at once. Crazy I know.

You see, missions are ranked in 6 levels, letters A-F. The F level, are the lowest of the low meant for beginner agents, simple infiltration, getting information, tracking people, those kinds.

When you are qualified for E, you're forced to use any means necessary to get what you need; you learn how to torture people, block out their pain-filled screams, your hands are slowly getting coated with blood.

In a C-level mission, you start killing people. You're life may be threatened but just a bit. That's all.

In B, these are the slightly important ones. The one's that could take quite a while to finish like this one. You get partnered up with either one or a couple of people. In this level, the chances of you dying are pretty high. The gap between C and D is quite big.

Now, A, that's the big ones. They are missions that are a matter of utmost importance. Missions can only be classified as As if an Academy has been harmed or seriously threatened. Lots of Alices could die here. See?

Natsume found out about my first mission, Aoi too. Aoi was really worried and cried a lot that night. I tried to reassure her that it was gonna be okay and that I'll be fine but her tears just won't stop. Natsume said nothing that night; he just stared at me with an emotion in his eyes that I can't describe.

"Well, I gotta go I just called to-"

"Natsume! Who are you talking to on that phone? Stop playing around there and come to me!" I'd know that pathetically whiny voice anywhere.

"Natsume, what is SHE doing there?" Apparently, she had managed to grab Natsume's phone and put it on loud-speaker.

"I don't see a problem Mikan. I mean, I AM his girlfriend after all." I nerve throbbed on my temple. How dare she use my first name?

"You are so lucky I am out of town Koizumi."

"Oooh! I'm so scared! As if you'd actually hurt me. Natsume won't let you." She actually thinks Natsume can stop me? I resisted the urge to retort back at her, it would never end if I do that.

"Natsume, what are you doing with her? Aoi's got a slight fever and you're out with your girlfriend? Who the hell's taking care of Aoi?" I really can't believe this. By this point I was standing up, pacing the length of my room, and shouting into my phone. I never thought the time would come that Natsume would put Aoi in need second place in his life.

"It's none of your business." Did I just hear him right?

A knock on the door came and my door opened. Mike and Jess peeked inside my room. "Hey, Sakura, we were just wondering wha-"

"Are you kidding me Natsume?" I was so angry right now that I didn't even bother to answer Jess back. I just waved my free hand at her and tried to smile at her but I bet it was more of a grimace.

"Look Aoi's fine, Ruka's with her." I heard him sigh on the other side.

"Natsume Hyuuga. You're sister is sick with a fever."

"Slight fever." That bitch had the nerve to cut me?

"Shut up Koizumi. Anyways, Aoi's sick and you're out with her? What the hell?" I glanced at the door to check if they were still there. They were and when they saw me looking at them, they told me that food was ready and that I should come and eat. I nodded at them then they left.

"You know what," I sighed and rubbed my forehead. "I'll call Ruka and ask him instead on how Aoi's doing." And with that, I ended the call and dialed up Ruka's number. He answered after the 4th ring.

"Mikan?" Over the years, he got over this minor crush he had with me and moved on to Hotaru. Even though he won't admit it, we could tell he was smitten with her. I also managed to convince him to call me by my name too.

"Hey Ruka, can't really talk for long so I'll try to keep it short. I just wanted to know how Aoi's doing?"

"She's doing better now, her temperature's gone down. Did you want to talk to her? She's asleep though."

"No it's fine, I just called to check up on her since her good-for-nothing brother's out with her." I practically spat 'her'.

Ruka sighed. "So you found out huh."

"What the heck is wrong with him Ruka? He used to put his sister first above everything else. And now, Aoi's sick but he's out?"

"I know what you mean."

I sighed heavily. "Well, I gotta go now. Take care of Aoi for me!"

"I will, bye Mikan." And with that, I hung up.

-line break-

"So, who were you talking to?" We were in the living room eating dinner. Cartons were strewn all over the coffee table after we had thrown them there. In the amount of time that I was shouting into my phone, they had set up all the equipment here. Computers and all sorts of gadgets were hooked up and running.

"My idiot friend." I grumbled.

"Sounds like he was one heck of an idiot judging on how mad you were." Mike commented.

"He's not usually so stupid but I don't know why his stupidity started working now." I shrugged. "Anyways, can we stop talking about him? It's annoying me."

"Sure." Jess said. "Now for the important question." She ran to the kitchen and we could hear her open the fridge.

"Who's up for dessert?" She was grinning widely with two plastic bags in her hands.

"What is it?" Miles asked as he put down his carton of Chinese takeout.

"Cake and some pudding. We also got ice cream."

Miles nodded his head. "I'll have some."

"Me too!" Dessert is exactly what I need right now.

When everything was set, I didn't even know what to eat first. I hate that feeling. In the end, I gave in and got one of everything. And you know what? They were all good; really, good.

We finished eating a few minutes after the dessert was laid out. We cleaned up for a while then we started getting serious. Turns out, Miles already had a program -which he had written himself- running to track down those hackers. Since those guys did really well in hiding their traces, it would probably take a while before we had their location.

Seeing as to how we won't be able to do much of anything for now, Mike and I decided to go out and survey the area, get familiar with the place and all. I'd handle the aerial view and he'd do it on foot. Since Singapore is a relatively small country it shouldn't take us that long.

Mike and I headed to our rooms to get ready. I wore my black tank top, leather jacket, black cargo pants and my converse. I put my hair up in a ponytail then slipped on my black mask that I wear during my missions. After that, I went back to the living room where I saw Mike was waiting. He was clothed as though he was a tourist out to taste the nightlife of Singapore; he even had a camera hanging by his neck. When he saw me, he nodded his head then we bid our goodbyes.

I opened the window and looked down. We were probably up a hundred feet (we were up in the 30th floor) but it was nothing I couldn't handle. I leapt out of the window and activated the Levitation Alice that I had copied from Mochu while activating the Invisibility Alice as well. Behind me, Miles closed the window, waved goodbye, and then drew the curtains. I went ahead of Mike and started exploring the city on my own, making mental notes of possible places as I went.

So? I'm not really proud of this chapter. Kind of boring right? I'll start working on the next one now.

BTW, guys I need a Beta. Anyone want to volunteer?

RXR!