Aloha, peoples.
I'm really happy that you have decided to keep reading the story. That's pretty awesome of you. I'm not as hyper today as usual, which should be a nice change. I can be sort of irritating. Oh, well. Please note that although the chapter title may sound sort of strange and slightly... uh... childish, it actually turned out pretty good. Pretty, pretty, pretttty, pretty good (That was from "Curb Your Enthusiasm". It's actually a really funny scene :D)
I'm talking to much. Please just read and review. That would be cool. Thanks :)
Disclaimer:
Did you know you don't actually own Totally Spies?
Wooooooooottttttt? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Yup, all rights go to Marathon Inc.
D:
^This was me this morning. Talking to myself. Yupsies. Livin' the life, huh?
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Clover stood there, frozen.
"Uh, roomie? Lost your voice much?" the blonde on the other bed asked, watching Clover expectantly while twirling a strand of golden hair around her finger. Clover didn't move. This was just too much. Her mom, the agent, Kyle Katz and now...
"Felicity F-fensins?" Clover sputtered.
"That's right," Felicity answered, looking at Clover with big, blue, deceptively innocent eyes. "Surprised to see me?"
Surprised, Clover thought, is definitely an understatement. She had, of course, known that she would have to share her room with a convicted criminal, but a criminal that she had convicted HERSELF? Surely Jerry couldn't hate her THAT much!
"Well, this doesn't seem to be working very well. Clearly, spying does not require actual intelligence. I suppose I'll have to spell it out to you: You. Did. A. Bad Thing. So. Now. You. Are. A. Criminal. Like. Me. And. Also. I. Hate. You. And. Will. Probably. Try. To. Kill. You. In. Your. Sleep," Felicity said slowly.
That was too much. She couldn't take this. To keep from screaming, Clover tried to focus on the least crazy thing she could think of.
"Your hair," she said, trying to keep her voice neutral.
"My... hair?" Felicity asked, raising one perfectly plucked blond eyebrow.
"It looks... perfect."
Felicity looked at her smugly.
"Yes, well, I do my best. Speaking of hair, yours looks terrible. I mean, I always thought that, of you little spy-girlies, YOU had the most beauty potential, but that is one big fat mess on your head," she replied.
Grinding her teeth together, Clover forced herself to do her yoga breathing exercises. In through the nose... out through the mouth.
"How can it look like that?" she asked finally, keeping her voice calm and even. "I mean, we're in a criminal holding facility. I don't expect to see a lot of uber-expensive hair products lying around."
"Oh, right," Felicity huffed, "I had forgotten that you're new and you don't know anything. Ugh, that means I have to, like, show you around and stuff, doesn't it?" She rose from the bed slowly, straightened out her uniform and looked at Clover expectantly. "Well, aren't you coming?" she asked impatiently. "Just try not to be too whiney, or I'm cutting the tour short. Do NOT assume that I don't have better things to do."
What, like baking cookies in the WHOOP criminal crafts centre? Clover thought, but she kept her mouth shut and followed Felicity to the door. She was not so careless as to think that anything else would be less than suicide.
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They were standing in the large, grey cafeteria of the holding facility, and Clover was getting more and more confused.
"Uh, Felicity, what exactly does this," she gestured widely to emcompass the empty chairs, the door to the kitchen, the security cameras, all of it, "have to do with... your hair?"
Felicity shushed her, crossed her arms in front of her chest, and sighed, tapping her foot on the floor in a slow, irregular rhythm. She seemed to be waiting for something, or... someone? Clover ground her teeth together and held her ground, although after the day she'd had, she would much rather have been in her bed, sleeping, than standing in a bleak prison cantine with a criminal she had only recently arrested. And a criminal with better hair than her, too - at the moment, anyway.
They waited for two minutes or so, with Felicity mumbling to herself quietly and Clover sighing loudly, repeatedly. Then a WHOOP agent in a black suit - of course; what else would he be wearing? - entered the cantine through a back door that Clover hadn't noticed before. He walked up to them quickly, then gestured at Clover.
"Who's this? She wasn't part of the deal."
"New cellmate. She wants to know. If we're lucky, she might start SUing too."
"Huh. Fine." The agent shrugged. "But I'm not filling her in. And you have 10 minutes, max. Security's up nowadays."
Felicity nodded curtly, then grabbed Clover's wrist and pulled her towards the door the agent had come through, while he took a seat in one of the cafeteria chairs, looking very out of place.
"Who's Sue?" Clover whispered, growing more confused by the second. Felicity seemed to have some kind of deal with the agent, which was crazy, because at WHOOP, that would never, ever be tolerated, right? And where were they even going?
Felicity gave a short laugh, like Clover had said something funny. Which, considering her understanding of the situation, she probably had. It didn't seem like Felicity was going to answer her question, but even though Clover didn't like being in the dark about this at all, it appeared that the only way she was going to find out about anything was by keeping her mouth shut and her eyes open right now. As difficult as that might be.
Suddenly, Felicity halted abruptly, nearly making Clover fall flat on her face. Wordlessly, she pressed a few buttons on the impressive-looking security thingy that was on the wall next to a metal door. The lock on the door clicked open, and Felicity pushed it open easily, looking slightly comical, this girl with her tiny - enviably tiny - frame, pushing open a heavy metal door virtually effortlessly.
Clover squinted into the darkness of the room, and as her eyes grew adjusted to the dim light that came from a naked light bulb hanging from the ceiling, she had to swallow a gasp.
"What's this?" she asked, her voice hollow.
Felicity smiled proudly.
"This," she said, "is operation Silver Unicorn."
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Clover raised one eyebrow and smirked.
"Operation Silver Unicorn? What is this? Like, a club or something?" She looked around the room and took in the familiar faces. Diminutive Smalls was there, along with Candy Sweet - the evil cheerleading coach -, Tuesday Tate - the hot-turned-criminal supermodel -, Vince King from 'Gladiators', Felicia Man - the wacky hair lady -, Captain Hayes - the crazy CWS guy -, Ariel - the warrior woman -, and a handful of other criminals that Clover didn't know. She thought she could make out Kyle Katz somewhere at the back, but she couldn't be sure; it really was pretty dark in there. The only thing she knew without doubt was that this could not possibly be something that Jerry had allowed. Which would explain the agent's "security"-comment earlier.
Clover turned to face Felicity and crossed her arms over her chest. She had a feeling that Felicity would explain everything when the time came - she had brought her here after all, hadn't she? She must have wanted Clover to see this. But Clover wasn't really a very patient person - Felicity had to give her SOME kind of information, NOW.
The blonde girl opposite her sighed, as if this was all just so very tedious and exhausting to her, and started to explain.
"Well," she began, "I'm not saying that I did this all by myself. Everyone pitched in. But, see, I'm rich. And money means everything here. You think WHOOP is so great? So honorable? Well, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but even the most honorable" - she spat the word like it tasted disgusting on her tongue - "people have a price. Oh, sure, I couldn't actually bribe them into letting me out of this place, but they can be bought. I have a little deal with some of your smarter agents. They know the true value of money - Jerry really does pay the bare minimum; of course, you wouldn't know. You're still a student. You actually do this shit for free." A few chuckles came from around the room. Clover felt the colour rise to her cheeks, and wanted to slap herself for it. She wasn't ashamed of her job!... Right? "Or should I say, you did? I mean, you're one of us now, whether you want to be or not. Anyways, what was I saying? Oh, right. The SU. Silver Unicorn. Don't ask about the name, it wasn't my idea. Someone else is in charge of that stuff - I take care of... the finances, shall we say? So, my deal with the agents. It's pretty simple. I pay, they turn a blind eye to our meetings. I pay, they turn security cameras off in the cantine for a few minutes. I pay, these guys" - she gestured at the gathered criminals - "are all let out of their cells without an agent accompanying them. I can pay for a lot of things, basically. Including the secret import of anything I need desperately. Such as" - she smiled, twirling a strand of hair around her finger - "beauty products. But that's different for each of us. For example, Tuesday here cannot live without her fashion magazines." Clover threw a sympathetic glance at Tuesday, who was gazing at her fidgety hands, obviously embarassed. Felicity drew in a breath and continued. "Yes, well, we all have our guilty, or not-so-guilty, pleasures. And there is another thing we all have in common. We all want out. And that's where The SU comes in. So far, none of our escape plans have actually worked, but we're getting better and better. And the best thing? Jerry has no idea about any of this."
Clover gaped at Felicity, then turned to stare at the criminals. Most of them looked very pleased with themselves. Felicity's soft voice had Clover turning around again.
"You're probably wondering why we would let you in on all of this. Why would we risk your telling Jerry? Well, honey, firstly, he'd probably think you were lying. Old Jerry's way too in love with himself to believe that anyone could pull this off behind his back. And, second, even if he did believe you, you'd still be a criminal. You'd still be in here with us - the only difference, really, would be that we would all want to kill you even more than we already do. Does that really seem like a good idea to you? Plus," she added, shrugging, "a former WHOOP spy on our side? That would be pretty damn brilliant. All your secret intel, your skills... it all belongs to us now."
Clover shuddered at her patronizing tone, but chose to stay silent. This probably wasn't the best place to pick a fight with Felicity Fensins. Especially since she seems to have become surprisingly strong since I last saw her, Clover thought, remembering how easily Felicity had opened the metal door.
From the corner of her eye, Clover registered the criminals' expectant faces. She knew that her reaction right now would determine everything: how much they would involve her in the operation, how much they would tell her... how long they would keep her alive. Most of her wanted to scream, or at least figure out the best way to use this information, but there was a tiny part of her mind that was ringing the warning bells - if she showed even a bit of what she was feeling right now or even thought about what she had just heard too much, all the emotion would be clear on her face, and that might mean the end for her. So, constructing a mental barrier between herself and Felicity's statement, Clover forced her face to remain unimpressed, practically bored.
"So," she said, feeling her heart beating all the way up to her head and struggling to stay calm. "What do you want me to do?"
The hesitant smile that spread across Felicity's face told Clover that she had made the right choice as to her reaction. She allowed herself to let out a relieved sigh as the the applause began. Clover looked at the clapping prisoners, sizing them up, seeing things she never had before. Like the sparkle in Sunny Day's eyes, Vince King's strong arms and Diminutive Small's calculating grin. They might just be good enough to make it out of here, Clover thought, surprising herself. Then she chuckled. But not if I can help it.
Then Kyle Katz stood up. He raised one hand and dropped it again. Immediately, the room went silent. Huh, Clover thought, I thought Felicity was the leader here. Apparently... not. She turned to face him, keeping an unmoved expression.
He watched her for a long time, and Clover felt her pulse rising as she cast down her eyes.
"So we have your word? You're in?" he asked, and Clover knew that she had not, after all, made it yet. It was him that she needed to convince. Breathing evenly, she looked into his rich brown eyes, brimming with something that Clover couldn't quite put her finger on. She remembered how irresistable she had found those eyes when she had seen him for the first time, how she hadn't been able to look away. Now she had to clench her teeth and dig her fingernails into her crossed arms just to not look away; she wished she could just escape that penetrating stare. It made her extremely uncomfortable, made her squirm. Narrowing her eyes just a bit, Clover concentrated on putting every bit of the acting skills that she had into her next words. She was slightly surprised at how believable her voice sounded. Maybe she was a better actress than she thought? Or maybe I mean this more than I thought. The idea was disconcerting, and Clover pushed it to the back of her head, because it was strangely consuming.
"I'm in."
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All right, that's it then, guys. Liked it? I hope. Please review. Negative reviews are welcome too, btw, as long as you tell me how to improve whatever is concerning you :)
Oooooohhhhh, and also, I'M SO SORRY! I didn't find out until today that Felicity is, apparently, like, 11 years old. THAT'S NOT HOW OLD SHE'S SUPPOSED TO BE IN MY STORY, GUYS! Please remember that, in this story, Felicity is as old as Clover, maybe a year or two older or so. SHE IS NOT 11! This is really important, because, otherwise, future parts of the story would be realllllly strange... :P So please remember that.
Hate Felicity? Love her? Please review :)
And also, I am liking Clover. Weird, right? She seems... cooler now. I think. Buuuuuuut is she going to turn bad? Kyle or no Kyle? Much will be revealed in next week's episode. Okay, I'm making no sense.
Adios for now, amigos. I apologize for taking so long. Next should be faster :)