Chapter 8! Now I'm sorry that it is taking a while to get to the real action, but I needed to introduce Dan, Aneisha, Tom and Zoe. Please bear with me and review!
I don't own MI High.

"...Mars Rover?"

"Busted," came a voice that was probably Tom.

"And Aneisha Jones. Spending all your time pretending to be other people."

"I'm far too busy to be arrested," came a girl's voice. Oscar chuckled as he heard Rose mutter something about how Aneisha would get on very well with Daisy.

"This isn't an arrest. This is a proposition. What do you know about British Intelligence?"

"What, like spies and stuff?" That was Aneisha.

"Yes. With your unique skills and our specialist training, we think that you can help us keep the country safe."

"Is this a windup?" That was Tom, sounding distinctly annoyed.

"No," came Stella's voice again. She was evidently loving this whole procedure. "This is MI9." There were 'wows' and 'cools' from the students, and Oscar could imagine the lights having come on. Then Frank came past them.

"Time for my grand entrance," he smiled at his old team, before heading down to meet his new one. The sound of the lift going down, and then - "Welcome to MI High."

"This is Frank London. He heads up a unit with the name MI High, that trains young students such as yourselves to be MI9 agents." Stella said. "I am Chief Agent Knight, and while you will be seeing me on occasion, it is Agent London who you will have most contact with."

"You're the caretaker!" Aneisha suddenly exclaimed. Frank laughed.

"Just like you won't be walking around St Hearts flashing MI9 badges at everyone you see, Aneisha, I need an excuse to be at St Hearts. This is the second school I have worked at, and you will be my second team. My old team have gone on to become highly valued MI9 agents. One of them is one of the most highly respected cover agents, another is head of physical training for new initiates and most of the technology that you see around you has been developed by the third." Rose and Oscar felt their spypods buzz and they nodded, before entering the lift and pulling the lever. Their civilian clothes changed into top-range spy gear, and when it pulled to a halt they strode out of the lift.

They created exactly the impression they had been aiming for. Tom, Dan and Aneisha looked thoroughly 'wowed'. "This is Rose Gupta and Oscar Cole," Frank introduced. The pair nodded at the three students. "They have helped select you, and are here to tell you about what being an MI High agent is like. You have one hour to make your decision. If you decide against accepting our offer, your memories will be wiped and you will have no recollection of this meeting." He then left, along with Stella and the other agents.

"So, what do you think?" Rose asked, smiling as she sat on the table in the middle of the room. "Pretty cool?"

"It's amazing!" Tom said, looking around in awe.

"How come you're only, like, our age?" Aneisha asked Rose, who smiled.

"I was recruited into MI9 when I was 12. I spent 2 years working with one team, then another 3 with Oscar and Carrie. When they graduated to full agents, I was also offered a job as they felt I was ready for it. Now, what are your questions?"

"Tell us about what it's like, being spies," Dan said curiously. "Is it like all the movies?" Oscar laughed.

"Being a spy is a lot more than the movies tell you it is. There are the times when it is glamorous and exciting, such as the annual gala evening. But it is hard and dangerous work. We work to protect the country, and KORPS and SKUL - that's mainly who we fight - don't attack in ways that are safe to combat. Both Rose and I have come very close to death, far too close for comfort. Rose was actually dead for a few seconds, and I still don't understand how I survived being inside a building when it blew up. But I'm sure you remember the time when it was Arctic weather in the middle of summer?" They nodded. "Or when world-famous monuments were being destroyed with corrosive graffiti?" Another nod. "Or when there was a mass-hypnosis that meant you gave all your money away? Or when The Wasp was forcing everyone to become better-behaved? Well, it was MI High teams that stopped those from becoming worldwide catastrophes."

"I can tell you the stories of stopping all those villains another time, if it interests you. Oscar can tell you most of them. Being a spy is, at the risk of sounding clichéd, the best thing that has ever happened to me. I made the best friends of my life, met Oscar, and I get to save the world."

"It. Sounds. Amazing." Tom enthused. "But...I'm not very good at...physical stuff..."

"That's OK," Oscar broke in quickly. "We recruited you because of your technical abilities, and tech is managed a lot more effectively from HQ. There should rarely be an occasion when you are forced to go into the field. All MI High agents are given the option of withdrawing from a mission, or even the whole project, whenever they want, as well."

"Any more questions, or have you made your decisions?" Rose asked.

The three teenagers grinned.

"There was never a decision to be made," Aneisha said firmly. "I'm in."

"Yeah!"

"Me too."

"Great! I'll call Frank then."

In the weeks and months that followed, Rose, Oscar and Carrie kept tabs on the new team. They were good friends with Frank, and were always interested in what the MI High team were doing. According to Frank, the new team was working well together already, and had gained a new member that everyone at MI9 had heard a lot about - V.9.5, or Zoe, as Frank called her. The existence of such a massive batch of clones was concerning MI9, and there was talk of sending agents out to try and find them all.

But KORPS was keeping all three of them very busy, meaning that they had little time to speak to each other, let alone Frank. Carrie was on call all day every day for taking down KORPS operatives known to be good fighters. Oscar also had a lot of work to do, often going out into the field twice a day on separate missions. And Rose was nearly run off her feet, constantly directing missions, doing research into various problems in the fight against the Crime Minister and the Mastermind, trying to find ways of improving MI9's chances and developing new technology on top of that. Oscar and Carrie kept trying to get her to take a day off, or to relax a bit, but she seemed to think that she was the only person fighting KORPS and that she could never stop. "Even the Crime Minister will be getting some rest, Rosie," Oscar kept reminding her, but she always replied "But the Mastermind won't be," and she wouldn't listen at all when he reminded her that the Mastermind was a machine and didn't need rest in the same way that she did.

Which was why, when Agent Knight came to him and asked whether he would be up for a mission in which he would be working with Rose and Carrie instead of his new squad, Oscar agreed, hoping that it would be a mission that would mean Rose had to slow down. And when Agent Knight described what would be required, he smiled. Working with the new MI High team sounded fun. And they could meet General Flopsy for the first time properly!