Echo looked down at her phone and smiled at the text she had gotten from Aneisha.
'Mr Flately's suuuper relaxed with the dress code. You could go full princess charm school on your uniform and he'd hand you a lollipop'
Echo took that to heart, she bought the same school skirt as Keri, along with a pair of trousers and a fitted school shirt. She proceeded to tailor the skirt until it resembled a flimsy corset with the yellow of the school tie as the chords. She pulled her hair in an unfairly good looking (or so Keri said) messy bun and stepped into her modest, black heels. She placed her tie loosely around her unbuttoned collar and joined her sister in walking to school.
When the two girls finally found their friends, they were talking about the twins,
"Maybe they're nervous, you know how scary it was when we started here," Aniesha said as Keri launched her arms over Tom and Dan's shoulders.
"Guys! This place is so awesome, and everybody's so cool! Well, apart from that new deputy head. everyone says she is a total nightmare." The adrenaline pumped girl said,
"Mrs King," Aniesha clarified, "She's my auntie."
"Oh, ouch!"
"Nervous? Us? Aniesha I thought you said you could read people. I get why you'd think I'm nervous because- you know I can't even say I'm quiet but Keri? She is the definition of an extrovert." Echo said popping up on Dan's other side.
Tom didn't try to hide his laughter and Aniesha was vocal about it,
"Tom, it's not funny!"
"I looked it up on the internet, it's the funniest thing since time began."
"Wherever you got your information lied, Tom. The irony that three girls who rejected you said that they fancied your spy alias not a day later is the funniest thing since time began." Everyone chuckled at that and Tom choked,
"How- how did you?"
"Ooh! A party? So what's everybody celebrating? Other than me coming here, obviously" Keri interrupted and earned herself a half hearted slap on the arm.
"Ahh, Keri! Echo!" Mrs King, who they had inadvertently walked up to, called, "Would you believe that today we are 100 years old?"
"Really miss? You don't looked a day over 65." Said Roly, who according to Aniesha was the school clown, only second to Mr Flatley.
Tom laughed as Mrs King's voice hardened, "It's the school's centenary than you Donaldson." Frank walked past, "And someone's meant to be helping."
Frank turned around, "Sorry, but Mr Flatley wants his geography class in the playground." Everyone ran outside to see what the head had planned.
The funny teacher had set up a table of equipment and lightning rod and was laughing to himself as the students piled outside.
"Sir, you're not trying to contact Aliens again?" Aniesha said, thoroughly amused and confused. Mr Flatley proceeded to assure her that he was in fact doing something much more dangerous. Measuring how much electricity there is in a lightning bolt.
"A lightning conductor?" Tom exclaimed.
"Ah, yes Tom. I haven't exactly told Mrs King yet" the teacher confirmed. As the saying went 'Speak of the devil and thou shalt appear' Hermione King chose that moment to arrive. Loudly.
"Mr Flatley, what on earth?!"
The addressed fumbled for an excuse, "Ah! Ah, Mrs King, yes, it's simply part of our new. . . weather project."
"The weather where? On the moon?" the deputy quipped.
In the resulting flop, the class ended up planting various wind gauges around the playground. As the minutes dragged on the five spies began to get bored, until they heard something that they shouldn't have in their current personas.
"Kor- Korps? What is this thing? It's massive!" Roly read out loud. Tom, Aniesha and Echo ran over,
"Uh, Roly, why don't you go give Preston a hand?" Tom tried to coerce him away from the dangerous, unidentified thing.
Donaldson did not get the hint, "It could be like a hidden treasure or something,"
"He's got donuts!" Aniesha's words pulled him away calling after Preston.
"Nice! Now I know if I need to get Roly away from anything I just need to tempt him with food." Echo noted.
The three of them brushed the dirt away from some of the metal,
"Korps?"
"It looks like some kind of hatch." Tom said, like the captain obvious he was.
Echo pulled on it as much as she could while being discreet, "It's sealed."
Tom voiced what all three of them were thinking, "This is not good."
The five of them ran to the supply room and activated the elevator. They stepped into the base to Frank prepping the kit to go down the hatch.
"Laser cutters, torches."
Keri of course stayed distracted, "I know it's like really high tech and everything, but, seriously how can a lift do my hair better than I can?"
"1, seriously not the time," Echo chided before noticing something and staring at Tom and Frank, "But 2, I know my hair was in a bun; How the fuck did an elevator braid it? Sorry to be distracted but Keri's right for once."
Dan masked the annoyance in his voice, "You're M.I.9 agents now, girls, so if we could focus on Korps and what they're doing in our playground."
Frank's phone rang, he checked it, "Guess who - again. No offence, but your auntie can be very demanding." He began to walk towards the elevator.
"Frank, what about the hatch?" Echo asked.
"Get started," he said, "but if you do open it, don't go in without me. Wait for me." He emphasized.
The five students made their way to the hatch and let the most tech savvy of them handle the tech. After heating the laser enough and cutting a small test gash on the stone flower bed, Tom cut through the metal that welded the hatch shut.
"Mind it might still be hot," he said as he pulled away.
He and Aniesha grabbed onto he handlebar, "Ready?" Aniesha asked. No one said anything to object. The pulled up the hatch and it lifted easily, revealing a long staircase to who knows where.
"Woah." Dan breathed.
"I can't see the bottom." Aniesha said, shining a torch into the pit of darkness,
"It's miles down." Tom guessed.
Keri, the impatient soul she was, immediately asked, "So who's going in first?"
"Frank told us to wait." Dan reminded her.
She wasn't deterred, "Tom, you'll go in, won't you?"
He was caught off guard, "What, me? Uh, but. . ."
"Nice one," Keri cut him off, she looked at Dan, "And don't tell me you're scared."
"Wh- No, I'm not scared, I'm just. . . Just give me the torch." Dan made to go down.
"Hold up. Like you said, Frank told us to wait which is reason in itself to do so. But also let me give you a few extra reasons too." She stared up at her sister and friend. They were both taller than her, Keri by a little and Dan by a lot, but she was not underestimated by them, "For one, this hatch may have been here since the school was founded, maybe longer. We don't know what or who could be down there; and don't tell me there couldn't be anyone because the hatch was sealed. There is likely another way in and you know it."
Her friends began to look sheepish but she continued, "Also, back to how old this thing is, what if whilst you're going down that presumably long tunnel, you stop to rest, and one of the bars you're resting on breaks. Bye-bye."
"Excellent points Echo, I definitely made the right choice hiring you," Said Frank as he walked up to them, "It disappoints me that you had to be prevented from going down there, but now I'm here, let's do this safely."
20 minutes later, Aniesha was stepping out of her harness and joining her friends walking about the bunker. She found a light switch that somehow still worked and turned it on, what they saw disturbed her. A massive cage like machine,
"Is anyone else totally freaked out by this?" Aniesha asked, instinctively leaning away from the cage.
"I would say I agree," Echo began, "Except that this is Korps. I'm only shocked that they're not still here."
Tom looked at a couple of papers, "January 6th 1941!"
"Dad's gonna love this! He's mega into history and stuff, right Echo?" Keri said as she walked through the cage.
"Keri, what have I said?" Dan and Echo said in sync. They stared at each other and looked away quickly, hiding the slight blushes that sprang onto their cheeks.
Keri giggled, "I know, I can't tell anyone - such a stupid rule by the way."
"Look," Aniesha called quietly, "Sternum."
"The same people who want to turn Echo and Keri into the Mastermind." Dan said.
"That's not good, not good at all." Frank said and everyone jumped. He had been so quiet that they'd forgotten he was there, "Keep looking, I'll call Stella. But don't touch anything, that hatch was sealed for a reason."
The spies looked around while they listened to Frank's end of his conversation with Stella, which ended up rather awkward and painful to listen to when she sternly and heatedly raised her voice, "You're right, it's not the time." Keri, in true Keri nature, did not pick up the tension and only heard the gossip,
"So, you and Stella, huh?"
Frank laughed painfully, "No, apparently not. Anyway, what is this thing?" he gestured to the cage that resembled a giant shower.
Tom mercifully allowed the topic to continue towards work, "No idea - it's World War II technology. The chances of syncing it with my spypod are remote." Echo briefly wondered if that counted as a pun but didn't come to a conclusion as her attention was dragged towards her sister,
"These people really need to get air conditioning." she moaned as she took off her Blazer and went to hang it on the nearest available, hook like surface. Echo stopped her before she could,
"Keri, before you go tossing your shit around an unidentified machine, at least check what you might be using as a coat rack. That is clearly a lever to activate this machine and we have no clue weather it's still active." She lectured, "Come on, either give it here or tie it around your waist." With a pout on her face Keri handed the blazer to her sister who stuffed it in the tool bag they had brought.
"So bossy, all the time." The careless girl muttered,
"Keri," she sighed, "I'm not trying to be bossy. I just care about you to much to let you get hurt." Keri looked at her and her eyes softened, they hugged and Tom immediately ruined the moment in the absense of Keri doing her job as moment ruiner,
"I'm not sure they had climate control in 1941 anyway Keri."
The two sisters separated and stuck their tongues out at the geeky boy as they began to explore again,
"What's with the photos?" Aniesha interrupted,
Keri looked at them as she walked through the cage again. Echo rolled her eyes, her sister would never learn, "Looks like it's all just bombs and war - you know, boy stuff." She looked over to Dan as if trying to make a point. Echo began to unpin the photos and put them into a plastic wallet.
"Frank, check this out, it's stuff about the cage." The older of the group walked over to Dan but was distracted by Neesh reminding them that they had class,
"Yeah, let's take this for now. We'll come back ASAP." As they made their way up to the surface Dan spoke up,
"They were up to something in 1941. The question is what?"
"Frank, we're done for the day we can go back down the hatch." Aniesha said as they followed the faux caretaker out of the school. He turned around to face them and smiled,
"Brilliant, let's just wait for Dan to get here and then we'll head straight down." He answered swiftly and as soon as they looked at the door, Dan walked out,
"You guys need to hear this. I got the tape recorder working, it's well freaky, come on." He made as if to go back into the school but Echo put her hand on his arm,
"We're heading back down the hatch. I've all the other evidence on hand because I'm rather paranoid today, we could listen there or, then again, we could head back to base to make sure no one can listen in." she looked around at the others, "Korps had all kinds of tech even years ago, that likely includes listening devices." The others looked a little sceptical but nodded,
5 minuts later they were all sat around the table at HQ and listenign to the tape recorder,
"It is Monday January 6th 1941, and I'm about to test the machine.''
"Who is that?" Keri asked and Dan shrugged to show he was as baffled as she was.
"Agent Walker, are you still willing?
Honoured to serve Korps when ready, sir.
Good. Then we shall begin."
The tape went static for a little bit, "The tape must be damaged, wait a sec." said Dan, who skipped a small section of the tape and pressed play.
"It is now two hours since activation and something. . . I- I don't know, Something has gone horribly, horribly wrong.
*Growling*
Agent Walker, no! Agent Walker. . ."
There was a crash on the tape and it cut out. The team sat in silence for a minute before Keri said the base of what everyone was thinking,
"Woah." Frank stood up,
"I'll call Stella and update her on this, we'll get down the hatch later but Stella should be there. In the meantime, get ready for the party, i suspect you wont get to enjoy part of it but you will need to turn up." The five students nodded and made their way up to the school through the elavator.
Echo and Keri somehow arrived to the school party and walked in before they realised that their costumes matched. Keri was in a farm dress and red cloak, just like little red riding hood. And Echo, in her Halloween fever (even though it was just a horror thememed party and not a halloween party) had put Black leggings and thigh high, high heeled boots with a grey shearling leather jacket which was lined with red fur. She had put a headband with fake grey wolf ears on and only treated her curly hair so that is rested in defined, princess curls. They had inadvertently come as Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, only the irony was not at all lost that the 'big' wolf was actually smaller than 'little' red.
"I'm not a normal wolf like the tale! I dressed as a werewolf. I even put on extra long false nails when I hate the things! And I'm wearing gold contacts. My eyes are grey!" She insisted for the sixth time.
"You know, I think it's better that you didn't try to match with Keri. You're independent and aren't exact copies of each other despite being clones," Dan said in her ear, "I was going to say you're her twin sister not her clone, but then I realized that I was wrong."
Echo smiled up at him at the bad joke, she was a good head shorted than him without heels, and in her school shoes was only six inches shorter. But right now she was only three inches off matching his height and still felt small. She had hoped she would equal his height in these shoes but since that didn't work, she got herself on equal footing another way. She leant close to his ear like had the other day and whispered,
"As much as I like high heels any day, these ones are for when I want to dress up and feel sexy." She pulled away and said in a more innocent and excitable yet still coy tone, "Do you like it Mr Holmes?" and gave her outfit a twirl. She never got her answer as, just when he had stopped blushing and stammering, the music cut and Mr Flatley made his announcement on the lack of a storm to collect data from.
Once the music was put back on Tom gathered all of the spies around and hid the blueprints and them under his costume Cape.
"Gather round, my children, ah-ah-ah! Oh I'm so getting a Cape. Anyway, from what I can tell, the machine affects motor neurons in the brain."
Keri looked at him like he had just stated the obvious, "Duh, We did hear that total psycho on the tape."
Aniesha rocked up, "That was Stella, she wants us to meet her and Frank at the hatch in five."
"I'm worried about KORPS," Tom said, "If they figure out that we've discovered the lab or they discover it. . ."
"Oh Yeah. . ." Keri said, just realizing that KORPS may not know about the lab either.
"Come on we'll have to sneak out." Aniesha cajoled.
"Ooh, it's exciting." Keri said as she placed the yellowing paper in her basket so that to anyone else it would seem like a prop map when in reality she was holding very concerning evidence.
Five minutes later the spies, their boss and their boss's ex had finished listening to the disturbing tape once again. Stella looked up,
"It was rumored that during World War II, KORPS were trying to develop some kind of super soldier."
"Super soldiers?" Echo parroted.
"Like a zombie," Frank provided, "They stop at nothing until they've completely destroyed the enemy."
"But surely it was just a rumor." Stella tried to convince herself.
"All we know is that the cage uses electricity to stimulate parts of the brain." Tom reported.
"Those that deal with emotions," said Aniesha.
Echo dug through Keri's basket and pulled out the plastic wallet, "That must be what the photos are for."
"When you get zapped your head gets filled with all these pictures of war and destruction and stuff," Keri said, entranced.
"This is bad," Stella said, "We need to seal this place off, spend a minute looking for anything more on super soldiers and then head up. We're going to look into this covertly just in case KORPS still has records of this, we'll need anything we can find but it's too dangerous to come back here for now."
"But Stella-" Frank tried to argue,
"No Frank. This lab will be sealed by M.I.9 and you will stay away. Is that clear?"
"Yes Stella," said Frank as though thoroughly scolded.
"Well, after that I feel highly inappropriately dressed." Frank chuckled as they walked back into the party. The teenagers looked at him. None of them had noticed, but he was dressed up as Frankenstein.
"Frank!'' The voice of Mrs King rang out.
"Time to go!" Keri and Tom said in sing-song tones as they pulled all their friends onto the dance floor, laughing.
As Dan and Echo slowly drifted away from the group they danced together, content and relaxed. Eventually they sat on a small bench that had been set up on the edge of the gym by a window. They rested against each other, peaceful, despite knowing that their friends were watching them and joking about them. Echo crossed her legs and leant back on her palms,
"Sometimes I've looked at the sky, stormy or clear, day or night and question whether I deserve to see it."
Dan started, "Why? It's a simple thing, how could you not deserve it."
Echo tried to not let tears fall, "We were never taught to love ourselves at KORPS. All we learned was how to fight. How to kill. I've been restrained around you guys when you've seen me fight. When you first saw me take down that brute who tried to kidnap me, I knew you were there. If you weren't his dick wouldn't have been crushed, it would have been torn off. The one trying to take Keri would have had worse if I hadn't seen you." She really did begin to cry then as Dan looked at her, not with disgust like she'd thought, but with recognition and understanding.
"We didn't practice on dummies, we killed real people in training. Countless people. Soldiers of KORPS. And the only reason I went through with it was so I could kill every one of the ones who forced me through it when the time was right."
She sat there, tears falling slowly as she remembered. Echo began to pull away when Dan hugged her,
"You aren't the only one. This happened to Keri, this happened to Zoe and Kloe and countless others. There are people you can go to and there are people who will love you regardless." They looked back at Frank, Aniesha, Tom and Keri, who were all grinning at them. Echo calmed down and whipped her eyes. She sat with her back resting against his side and tilted her head back on his shoulders as the sky flashed bright.
"You know Sherlock," She said playfully calling him by his character's name now that she had relaxed, "You never did answer my question earlier. Do you like my outfit?" Dan looked at her and turned to look at the lightning flashing outside,
"Yes, I do Leto." was all he said.
"Leto?" She said, beginning to drift off to sleep.
"The original wolf goddess. You dress like a wolf and are like a goddess, Echo. Either that or Lycaon and no matter what you ever think of yourself, you will never be as monstrous as he was, my goddess."
Her breath evened out and her body relaxed as she slept on his shoulder, and later, in his arms.