Echo stood in line with her friends at the FUNSTA cupcake booth that had been set up at school. She wasn't planning on accepting any, she much preferred chocolate or berry flavours over the excessively sweet taste that sugar substitutes gave desserts and told her friends as much. Mr Flatley, of course acted like the slightly more intelligent, less restrained version of Roly that he was and grabbed about ten cupcakes before running off. Preston came running up,
"Don't touch the cupcakes if you value your health! They're loaded with cupodium! Say no to artificial ingredients!"
Tom smiled like he thought Preston was being cute in a toddler-like way, "Chill, Preston! Cupodium's much healthier than sugar."
Echo and Keri looked downwards and while Echo restrained herself to dramatically retching, Keri's inner fashion demon was unleashed at the sight of the worst fashion faux pas they had seen in a while,
"I'll sign if you promise to change those shoes." she drew attention to the horrors Preston had voluntarily put on his feet. He was wearing grey socks with a pair of brown, leather fisherman's sandals. Tom laughed as the protest happy boy looked up indignantly,
"No way! Serious people only."
"Shame my name isn't Sirius then," Echo drawled, "Wait, no it isn't, because even if I could bring myself to care enough to join one of your campaigns, you were rude to Keri last week and I'm feeling pettier than usual." Keri refrained from spitefully grabbing the clipboard as Aniesha showed them all their glowing pencils. They ran off, leaving Preston shouting something he clearly thought was witty after them.
Echo extended the crutch to gain some momentum as she ran and was the first to the key pad. She activated it and stuck her tongue out playfully at her friends. They had turned this into a game of sorts recently, the first one to the keypad got the first treat that the others came across, that meant it was usually biscuits as they were alays in the base for Tom. She was abusing having the crutch because it actually helped her speed up recently and was rather disappointed that she was giving it back today. They walked into the elevator and she returned the piece of metal to pocket size and, once all of them were squeezed in, pulled the mop/lever. Down they went, donning their spy gear as they went. As they stepped out, Frank jumped straight into the mission briefing,
"This is President Carlotta of Cartania." Echo handed the small crutch to Frank and as they looked through the shots they had of Carlotta, Keri made a typical comment about her fashion sence and Echo got fed up of it,
"Keri, Let me make you a deal. If you can refrain from distracting yourself or commenting on fashion whilst you're stood up and working just for today, then I will buy you a 30 pound gift card by next week. Deal?" The other redhead in the room nodded, "Great, now mind on the mission." they turned back to Frank and Echo caught sight of Dan's relieved expression; it seemed as though he also was tired of Keri's fashionable exploits.
"She's sneaked into the UK undercover. We've never seen a head of state do that before." Frank said,
Aniesha spoke up next, What's she up to?"
"Holding secret discussions with this man."
"George Monblot," Tom supplied, "He advises the government on healthy eating."
"Not anymore," Frank contradicted him, "He lost his job last week for taking a stand against cupodium. He's threatened revenge."
"See, I don't get it. Cupodium's safe. It's a great substitute for sugar." Tom said, getting annoyed at people seemingly ignoring sound science.
"But it's made in a lab. Monoblot and Carlotta are opposed to all chemically engineered ingredients," Frank pointed out, "The first cupodium based cupcakes are in the shops today. It's too much of a coincidence that these two are meeting up. We need to know what they're discussing."
Dan asked, "Can we get a microphone near them?"
"Not easily. The next meeting is somewhere, here." He pulled up a map of a park on screen, "Find out what they're up to." The four field agents made to leave but,
"Echo, you're on support for this one too."
She groaned, "But I'm off the crutch and my stitches are out. I'm fine to go, so why can't I?"
"I want you to be safe and I feel like this is a more diplomatic mission than it is a physical one. You won't need to fight, so you can stay here where I know you won't accidentally hurt yourself." The father figure explained to her.
Echo looked at the monitor with Frank and Tom as Carlotta sat with Monoblot. They couldn't hear a word.
"We can't hear anything, Dan. Try to get a bit closer." Tom suggested. Dan moved the wheelbarrow ten feet over and began to take a new patch of leaves.
"Is it safe?" Carlotta asked,
"The bird is in the nest," Monoblot answered conspiratorially,
"Got it." Tom confirmed. Monoblot and Carlotta got up and began walking, "Switching feeds," The camera they had put on Keri's hat began to play a live feed. Keri stopped and began twisting and stretching,
"Careful Keri, too much movement. Pull your had down a bit" Tom warned her and she began to do less distruptive, leg stretches.
"Keri, I'm warning you, if your eyes stray to look at her outfit and the movement disrupts the audio, I will take your favourite jacket and blend it." Echo warned, knowing just how liable her fashion sense could be. She heard Dan snicker through the chat,
"We don't make mistakes, Mr Monoblot. Our agent in the cupodium plant has done well. They have successfully switched out the original substitute for XXX and confirmed that you are still the only one who posses an antidote. So, don't worry." Keri began to jog away but was interrupted.
"Hey!" Monoblot called after her, she turned around shocked and mildy afraid but hiding it well, "You dropped something." He walked over to her pencil and picked it up for her. She accepted it with a thanks and carefully went back to jogging around the park.
"Close call Keri." Tom said,
"That's why they call it undercover," Frank bit and Echo rolled her eyes,
"Nice job Keri, normally we would have lost part of that to you oogling her shoes. I'm proud of you."
They switched over to Aniesha's feed, who was pretending to be a mother and was using a fake baby as a camera,
"This stupid country has chosen the wrong man to humiliate." George growled.
"Let's see how they feel after a few cupcakes. . ." Carlotta smirked, "And the full effects of cupodium triple X."
The 3 current field agents returned to base and all relaxed minutely. Frank decided to be rather harsher than usual,
"We almost blew our cover when Keri got a little bit clumsier than normal." Said girl looked indignant and her sister did too on her behalf,
"Frank, lay off her. She did well." Echo said, already tired of this out of the ordinary attitude of Frank's.
The man exhaled, "So, what is cupodium triple X?"
"Here," Tom called, "I think I found something. Frank, you've got it." He sent it up to the main board. They watched as the test subjects all began to become recklessly happy and grew confused. How was this revenge? Then the video stopped and showed that the rest was classified,
"Hold on, the next bit must be bad!" Tom said as he began hacking his way into getting access to the rest of the video, Okay, here's the next bit."
The video continued to play,
"Some hours after eating cupodium triple X, the subjects moved into stage two, a severe kind of rage. We have concluded that cupodium triple X is unstable and all future trials have been cancelled." The footage cut out and they sat in a horrified silence for a few moments.
"If Monoblot's put cupodium triple X in the cupcakes. . ." Dan began,
"And he has the only antidote. . ." Echo reminded,
"We're in big trouble." Dan finished grimly.
Keri asked the question no one wanted the answer to, "How many cupcakes have been eaten so far?"
"At a guess, 2 million?" Tom said anxious for his bodily health by being the bearer of bad knews,
"Everyone might be happy now, but we're heading for nationwide rage and riots." Frank said as they pulled up the Prime Minister's live feed,
"That's the Prime Minister arriving at the new college now. We're hoping he might comment on the many reports of odd behaviour occuring across the country."
"Prime Minister, are you going to say anything?"
"What about the disturbing events across the country?"
"Just a few words," The PM agreed, "To all those who have stopped working in order to do happy things, please consider your actions. It's great to see so many people out there doing fun stuff, but playing football on a busy motorway is just irresponsible. Now, about these malicious rumours," He showed off a FUNSTA cake.
All of their eyes widened, "Get me the PM now!" Frank called urgently to Tom and Echo. Tom tried to call him as Echo pulled up a messaging board on her monitor,
'Someone tampered with the cupcakes' she typed as Tom complained,
"His phone's on silen-" Tom blanked, Echo leaned back as she watched the screen. The others turned towards her,
"He always mutes his calls when meeting with the press. I went straight to text." They watched the screen anxiously,
"I give you my personal assurance they are perfectly healthy and safe to eat. Look-" His phone went off just as he bit into the frosting and Echo began to type again,
'The cupodium had been modified to make people temporarily euphoric before becoming irrationally angry'
The PM read her messages out instead of finishing his bite, "Someone has tampered with the cupcakes? I guess I'm mistaken, hold on. According to reseach done by an M.I.9 team, the cupodium in the cupcakes is an altered version that enduces the happiness we are seeing across the nation and soon those who have consumed the cakes will begin to experience intense anger. As I may have just accidentally injested some of this I will be temporarily stepping down until this issue is resolved. In the meantime my deputy will be acting Prime Minister."
"Well, the good news is that people know about the danger and are already taking precautions, the bad news is we just lost the Prime Minister and we have over 2 million mobsters incoming." Echo summed up.
They enlarged an excert from a news feed that had been sent to them, on it was the embassy building and Carlotta and Monoblot.
"Mr Monoblot, are you a traitor?"
Said man addressed the crowd, "I am an advisor. I warned this government not to infect our food chain with cupodium, so now it's time to teach you a lesson about the dangers of messing with chemicals."
"Mr Monoblot, what do you know about the cupcakes?"
"I changed the formula. The cakes on sale today contain cupodium. . . triple X, which has some interesting side effects. When stage one moves to stage two, this country will really be in chaos." the reporters began to get more exuberant, "This is the only antidote. If you want it before this country goes up in flames, I have two demands - one, an immediate ban on all cupodium in food and, two, a safe passage to Cartania." The president took over from there,
"Mr Monoblot is on Cartanian territory. He has our full protection. Any attempt to remove him will be treated as an act of war."
Frank turned to his team, "The cupcakes are being recalled now, but lots of people have already eaten them."
"The euphoria stage only lasts up to three hours." Tom told his friends,
"Coming soon, rage and anger. I don't need to tell you how tricky this is." Frank said, looking around. Keri however, was confused,
"Hello? It's easy. If we give Monoblot everything he asks for and then he chooses to leave the country, then we get the antidote."
"If only it were that simple." Frank said with a sigh,
"This is widescale blackmail, Keri. If we give in then every major criminal in the world gets sent a message that we do not want sent out." Echo explained.
"Why is Carlotta so keen to help Monoblot?" Aniesha asked, this peaked everybody's interest and Tom had the answer prepared,
"Just what I've been thinking. The Cartanians supply the world's purest sugar and if we stop buying that and switch to cupodium. . ."
"Their economy collapses." Dan finished for him. The doors to the base closed as Stella walked in.
"Precisely," She said, "That's the real reason the president's helping Monoblot."
Frank looked to his co-worker/superior, "We need to go in after the antidote, Stella."
She shot him down, "Negative, Frank. He has diplomatic immunity. You heard Carlotta. Do you want a war? Emergency cabinet has been called."
"Upwards of a million people have eaten those cakes. They're going to be getting very angry, very soon."
"I still can't give that order." Everyone looked away in annoyance only to hear a very unfamiliar noise coming from Stella. Laughter, "Order. That's a funny word," She snickered. "Order!" She kept laughing as the teenage spies stared at her. Frank strode forward to check her pockets as she purred, "Order! Oh! Oh, dear, naughty. I forgot about that." Frank showed them a cupcake case, "You know, you should do something with your hair, Frank. You look like a big girl. That's another order!" She cracked up.
Frank called a couple of agents to remove Stella and have her temporarily relieved of her command, as she got carried out the others began to express their bewilderment,
"Bit weird." Tom said,
"Who knew she was a secret eater?" Aniesha asked,
"Who knew she could laugh?" Keri laughed herself as she spoke.
"So, mission on." Dan summarised,
Frank turned into the table along with the others, "You have to be very careful, guys. A single slip could mean disaster. The embassy is heavily armed." Frank pulled up a picture of the skeleton of the embassy, "They're obviously expecting trouble. We think that's a rocket launcher on the roof."
That's why you're coming up through the basement." Tom joined in on the briefing, "I found a network of old sewers."
"Monoblot needs to keep the antidote at a precise temperature," Echo told them.
"Hence the special briefcase." Tom said,
"It needs charging every four hours. That gives us our only chance." Frank told the team, "At 12 o'clock, he'll plug it in. That's when you two make your move."
Keri looked shocked but Echo powered on, "There are two big problems - one, Monoblot's threat. If he destroys the antidote, we're finished. And two. . . Oh, I can't say it I refuse!" She turned to her most available father figure, "There has to be another way!"
"Echo. We discussed this not ten minutes ago, there is no other option." Frank said to her sternly. She went and roundhouse kicked the punching bag before pummelling it for a good five minutes as the others talked.
"Two," Frank picked up where Echo had gotten off track, "If you get caught, you're on your own. We can't risk all-out war. All communication will be cut."
"So no backup?" Aniesha asked for confirmation,
Frank looked guilty, "Sorry. I have to be clear about the risks-"
"M.I.9 will deny your existence!" Echo cried as angry tears began to fall, "You will be left to the wolves." She puched the brand new bag so hard that the leather split. She nealt down and cried where she was, "You can't do this. Denial will not stop Carlotta, she will hound you until you admit it if she suspects you."
Dan walked over and hugged her from behind, whispering assurances in her ear. Keri crouched next to her and placed a hand on Echo's arm before turning to Frank,
"What about me?"
"Cover the exits" Franks said and the dissapointed girl pouted as she squeezed her sister's arm.
"Sorry about the drains, guys. It was the only way in." Tom said over the coms,
"At least you wore the cover suits," Echo said monotonusly, "If 'Purity is Liberty', then Carlotta would have noticed stains. And stenches, too, but we're hoping that the president has gone temporarily nose blind." She was using sarcasm as a massive coping mechanism but was really just making everyone more nervous, about the mission and her.
"Let's make this quick." Tom cut in, "We're getting reports of stage two kicking in." They watched as Dan and Aniesha joined the line of soldiers and Tom found something disturbing begin to trickle into his news feed, "Reports are coming in of riots kicking off in some towns and cities. Police are losing control."
Dan and Aniesha we're just reaching the top of the stairs when Carlotta came into view,
"Halt!" She shouted half of the way to Echo's friends, "You two, here." They came over, "You smell like a toilet, you filthy creatures! You have betrayed your oath of purity! I shall impose a fitting punishment. Guards!"
Echo was banging her head against the puching bag as she panicked and thought, 'I was right, they are in so much shit right now' over and over again.
"Tom cut communications. Tom!" Frank said before noting Tom's state of shock and doing it himself,
"No! Why did you do that?" Echo shouted,
"Echo, you knew that could have happened," Frank chided,
"I may have been pessimistic but I didn't they'd actually get caught!"
"They weren't caught. They have been intercepted and for now are not under suspicion but we can't risk it." Echo looked as if she was about to cry at the man's words and Frank finally noticed just how tense and distracted she seemed, "Echo, what's going on? Why are you acting like this?"
She slumped down against one of the pilars, "It's nothing. Don't worry about it, we- we need to focus on the mission."
"This clearly isn't nothing," Frank rested a gentle hand on her knee, "Whatever is going on, you can tell me. The mission isn't going anywhere for now. We can spend 5 minutes on you."
Echo sighed and looked up at him, her tear stained cheeks and red eyes becoming more noticable, "Your right, it's not nothing. When Keri and I were first freed, I had a lot of trouble adjusting, I was used to fighting adults for so long that I actually judo flipped one of the workers at the care home when they touched me. That wasn't fully fixed when we were adopted and I was never as close with our parents as Keri was. It's been getting worse recently and last night, I- I heard them discussing wether or not they should kick me out. Not Keri and I, just me." She broke down and Frank hugged her tightly, "Please don't tell Keri yet. I at least want to wait until the end of the mission."
Frank pulled away and nodded, "Just make sure you do tell her. Echo, do you want to head back up to the school until this is over, you can."
She shook her head, "They'll all have eaten the cakes. And besides, I wouldn't be able to stop worrying about everyone." she seemed to be fighting off sleep and Frank had an idea. He helped her up and walked over to the cot, which they had decided to keep in case of emergencies, "Just sit down over here and swallow this, you can relax and maybe even sleep while we do this mission." She was growing too tired to even argue, she simply swallowed the sleeping pill, "And Echo, if you ever need a place to stay, you will always have a home with me."
Four hours later, Echo stirred and groaned, "I need to stop falling unconscious in the middle of missions," everyone around her laughed, "So what happened while I was out?"
It was awesome, Keri had saved the day all on her own (by breaking the terms of their bet but oh well) Carlotta had been deposed (there had been something off about her, apparently it was smugness because she was getting away with polluting the world's purest sugar),her sister had gotten to fire a rocket launcher (and she was jealous) Mr Flatley had proposed to Mrs King under the influence of the cupcakes and Preston had been scared shitless by his angry classmates converging against him like a cult.
"I knew you could do it sis." Echo said as they all stepped out of the lift. For now, all was peaceful.