006 on 007

You take a man with a flair for drama. A vibrant man from London still young enough to be useful in a fight but yet old enough to get misty-eyed about the Old Days, who probably doesn't actually realise how lucky he has been in life. Someone more than comfortable in the spotlight who has never been encouraged to censor his opinions or his actions, and then you give him an actual superpower. You give him the power to be anyone he chooses and to look however he wants and you set him loose on the world. At one point Dr Gilmore tried to explain what exactly it was that made 007's transformations work and, if I'm completely honest, it made less than no sense. Something about nano-machines, maybe? Don't quote me on that. It doesn't really matter anyway; what I'm getting at is that the last thing 007 needed was another reason to show off. And show off he does, at great length.

He fancies himself to be a writer. At least five or six times, he had declared out loud that he's writing our tale into an epic drama and has cloistered himself in a corner with his laptop, supposedly writing it all down, although when I pass by and look over his should he always just seems to be playing freecell or surfing the web. He always has a speech ready. He favours wild, comical gestures and never bothers to reign in his emotions outside of a performance. He will attempt to shoe-horn a Shakespeare quote into any situation. He will tell anyone who will listen (and a fair few who won't) about his acting days in London and "the time I played King Lear at the Old Vic in '82. Standing ovations, 006, can you imagine? Oh, those were the days..." Yes, I know. I have heard a great deal about the Old Days, especially since 007 and I seem to end up working together more often than not. Then again, compared to most of the rest of the team, we do get on rather well. Maybe it's just because we're two middle-aged men with similar dramatic personalities who have neatly avoided the pitfalls of a midlife crisis by being unceremoniously hurled into a world of war, subterfuge and death. Sometimes I do honestly believe that our recognition of the unquestionable strangeness of our new situation is what keeps us as friends.

That being said, I can not and will not pretend that it isn't difficult at times. Thankfully, when danger threatens all nine of us manage to put our differences aside, but, sometimes as little as a minute after the threat has gone we all break apart again. Old arguments are picked back up, conflicting personalities clash and people bicker. I suppose that's why some of the group choose to live a continent away in peacetime. And yes, 007 and I bicker, a lot. More than one of the others has compared us to an old married couple, which I'm not all to pleased with. And no, it's not because 007 has told me he identifies as bisexual, before you go accusing me of bigotry. (He made a point of telling me that he was done with relationships in life, had only mentioned it because it came up on conversation and that at no point would he be flirting with teammates.) I just haven't really met any old married couples that actually bicker like this. More to the point, if I actually got paired with other teammates I'm sure I'd bicker with them just as much. (What can I say? It's just who I am.)

As a fighter, 007 is a bit lacking. I think his own particular abilities are better suited to sneaking and reconnaissance. Personally, I'm somewhere in the middle, given my strange mix of fire and digging. Maybe that's why we keep being put on the same tasks; we're both best suited to getting past enemy defences unseen. (And yes, 002 would be excellent for recon jobs if he could ever suppress the urge to play the hero and rush head first into danger at the slightest provocation. I would put that down to the energy of youth, but, technically speaking 002 is older than I am...!) Needless to say, the potential in 007's powers is almost limitless. As far as I can tell, the only thing limiting his transformations is his own powers of imagination and visualisation. On the small handful of times I've been in the mood for having my ears talked off I've talked with 007 about our abilities. Some of it made sense, at least...

"You'd think that turning into a different animal would be the difficult part, right? Funnily enough, it's not. When I turn into an animal, I dunno, I guess instinct just takes over. But, if I was to turn into 005 right this second it would be a much more trying experience."

"How so?"

"As obvious as it sounds, the man is much taller than me. More muscly too. Trying to get all that extra mass to move smoothly is really fiddly. Plus, getting the hang of moving and acting the same way he does would take some effort too."

"Yeah, but, that's not really an ability kind of thing, is it? That's not the same thing."

"It might not come from the same place, but it's certainly just as important. Think about it for a minute: if you saw 003 walking over to you acting and talking like 002 you'd think something was badly wrong. Sometimes, just that single extra second of cover can make a real difference...!"

"If you say so. Although, can you actually imagine 003 acting like 002?"

"Ha! Definitely not. I think she'd probably have a heart-attack at the thought of putting her feet up on the table...!"

"Shhhhhh! She can probably hear us right now...!"

OK, fine, at the very least we can share a joke. Not surprisingly, 007 has quit a sharp wit. That, combined with the kind of sarcasm only the British can really manage and the comic timing that only an actor can master has led to more than a few surprisingly funny moments. And I can at least count on him to eat when I put food on the table. Most of the others tend to ignore their dinners when they're unhappy, which is a lot. I'm not in this for the praise or anything, but, food is meant to be eaten, meant to be enjoyed. Like theatre, I guess.