"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer, take one down, pass it-"

"TOM." Three voices loudly chorused at the same time, while two pairs of eyes turned to glare murderously at Tom, who was now looking behind him as if Kara and Jeremy were accusing someone else.

"What?" Tom shrugged innocently, looking at his team members while I sighed in frustration. He glanced at me. "I wasn't doing anything."

"No, just starting that song over for the fifth time." Kara retorted. "That's enough now."

"But nothing's happening," Tom complained, thumping his head back on the head rest, blond curls swaying with the movement. "This mission is boring. And I don't even know what this mission is!"

"I don't either, but I'm sure-" I sharply cut Kara off.

"What do you mean you don't know what the mission is." At my quiet, and frankly really confused, statement, the car fell silent.

"Well," Jeremy glanced towards Kara. "We didn't get any papers." He glanced back towards me and winced when he saw my face.

"You mean they never told you." It wasn't a question but Kara replied anyway.

"The Director didn't tell us. They said that a packet containing the information would be coming, but it never came, so... we left without knowing."

I stared out of the windshield across the grasslands of the Midwest. It was almost nighttime, so we would have to get to a motel soon. I squinted at the clock on the dashboard. 10:52 PM. I sighed and glanced back at the other agents. This is exactly why I do solo. There's no one who could be blamed for a disastrous mission but myself.

"The mission is to end a drug lord's brutal regime in New York City by whatever means necessary. The intel we have on them is very limited, but we think that there are about twenty members, including the usual bag of treats." I glanced at Tom and Jeremy in the rear view mirror. "It was sign-up only."

"Well that explains a lot," mumbled Tom, his face growing annoyed as he looked out the window.

"Explains what?" I asked, furrowing my brows, then flicking on the high beams. The bright lights cut through the darkness and shone on the narrow, twisty road. 

Kara twisted in her seat. "Our directors had a special interest in this mission, for some reason. When they heard that the U.A.," she nodded towards me, "Your agency, had taken the case, they asked for a collaboration and your directors complied."

Tom angled his head. "It was weird. But, yeah, so that's the mission?" Rolling my eyes, I nodded at his question. "Ohmygoodnessthankyou," He spoke his enthusiasm in one breath, causing Jeremy to sigh. "It's not going to be boring!"

Good grief, I thought, rolling my eyes. It would be a miracle if we would survive this mission in one piece. Three agents who didn't really know what they were getting into? I shook my head, biting my lip. When I got back to base, I would be having a really long conversation with Director Henry about priorities. And about finally giving me some agency issued airpods.  

---

An hour and a half later, we pulled into the parking lot of a -  not going to lie - sketchy motel. We sat for a few minutes in the parking lot in silence, looking at the dimly-lit building with Pepto-Bismol pink paint peeling off the sides, before Tom broke the peace.

"Can we go swimming? I brought my swim trunks." He turned to Kara. "And I packed your swimsuit for you." At that, Kara jerked around.

"You did what?" Daggers were coming out of her eyes, and I thought I could see smoke coming out of her ears. I chuckled silently and she turned her murderous eyes to me. Smirking, I shrugged. I didn't do anything.

"I. Packed. Your. Swimsuit." Tom spoke slowly as if talking to a child. Kara rapidly started shaking her head. "Come on," Tom whined, "it'll be fun. And it would also feel nice after sitting in a car for five hours." Tom looked at her with a hopeful expression.

Kara narrowed her eyes, then after a long moment, of contemplation, sighed in defeat. "Fine. I'm in. How about you guys?" She looked at Jeremy and me.

Jeremy shrugged. "I didn't bring anything and I don't think Tom packed them for me." He scowled when Tom shook his head.

They looked at me. I just bluntly said, "I don't swim," before getting out of the car and going around the back to unlock the trunk. Dropping three duffel bags on the ground, one red, one blue, and one pink (I shuddered to think whose that was) I grabbed my black one and slung it over my shoulder before heading to the door of the motel. The others picked their bags up and followed me, looking around at the desolate area. Inside, the stuffy, dim lit room was crowded with cheap, dusty furniture, and the garish purple colored walls did nothing to ease the nausea now swirling in my stomach. 

Leaning on a counter in the corner of the room was a teenage girl with dyed blonde hair, texting on her phone. She looked up at us when we came in, and her brown eyes showed an extra spark of interest as they landed on Jeremy.

The girl straightened up and batted her eyes at Jeremy so violently I thought she had an eyelash stuck in them. "Hi," she said in a sickly sweet voice, all the while twirling a finger around a lock of her dried hair. "How can I help you?"

I rolled my eyes and walked forward, resting my bag on the ground. "Two rooms, please, preferably on the first floor." The girl looked down her nose at me, tugging at the bottom of her hot pink V-neck shirt.

"Oh, honey, no one else is here, you can have whatever room you want." I stared at her until she twitched uncomfortably.

"How much?" I asked, already getting my wallet out of my pocket.

"Two-hundred dollars." I put four fifties on the counter before she smirked and said, "For each room." My eyes darkened and the girl had the smarts to look nervous for the first time as I slowly reached into my wallet and pulled out four more fifty dollar bills. I slammed them onto the counter. The girl's eyes widened and the others protested, but I held up a hand.

"I'm paying." I didn't want to be in debt to anyone. And it wasn't really my money anyways - it was the agency's, so I didn't have any qualms about it. The blonde grabbed four sets of keys and motioned for us to follow her down a hallway. Upon reaching two first floor rooms right next to each other, giving each of us a key, she began to walk away, but I caught her sleeve.

The girl twirled around, her white tennis skirt twirling with her. "Are there any fast food spots around here?" She tapped her finger against her chin as if considering before she answered.

"There is a pizzeria down the street. They do deliveries." After giving me the number, I turned and walked into the room I was sharing with Kara, the boys already having opened the joining door between their room and ours.

Resting my duffel on the bed closest to the door, I called out, "How does two extremes sound?" The others nodded and shortly after I ordered the pizzas. After hanging up the phone, Jeremy and I sat in a tired silence while waiting for the delivery person to bring us our food. Tom and Kara had already changed into their swimsuits and could be seen splashing each other in the pool that conveniently happened to be right outside the window. Once the pizza was delivered, Jeremy and I joined them, sitting on the edge of the pool and putting our feet in the water. Once everyone had had their fill and the pizza boxes were thrown away, I turned to Jeremy.

"So, you work for the Intel and Black Ops Agency, huh?" Jeremy nodded, his hooded green eyes reflecting the light of the pool as he studied the motel ground structure for weaknesses and exits. Definitely my kind of partner. 

"And you, with Umbra?" He countered, tilting his head up to gaze at the stars, his dark hair falling across his forehead, before he turned his full attention to me. 

I dipped my head in acknowledgement as he peered up at me from beneath his chocolate curls. "What does that stand for, anyway?"

I smiled slightly to myself before answering, rubbing my hands together and dusting my suit of pizza crumbs. "That is a very common question. I'm surprised your Director didn't mention it. It means 'shadow' in Latin." I swirled my feet around in the water, watching Tom and Kara race each other from one end to the other, Kara's bright orange swimsuit almost glowing in the darkness.

Jeremy tilted his head back again, gazing up at the stars with his green eyes alight. "For some reason, the I.B.O.A. doesn't like your agency very much." He shrugged, his eyes coming back to look into mine. "Bad history, I guess." My eyes narrowed at his words. I hadn't known that there was anything of the sort between the two agencies. I didn't even know that they had a partnership before I received the information on this mission. 

"How old is your agency again?" 

"About three or four years old, I guess. It's relatively new." Jeremy sighed, glancing at the far end of the pool where Tom was now creeping up behind Kara, who was drying herself off with a towel. Sighing, he stood up lithely, muttering, "I'll be back." I observed that he had well-formed back muscles as he raced towards Tom in an attempt to stop World War 3 from happening. 

Suddenly, I saw something glint out of the corner of my eye. Looking around inconspicuously, I saw the shadow of long metal, which was glinting, along with the dark outline of a figure, lying on top of the opposite roof. I sucked in a breath. Glancing at the others, I saw that they were too preoccupied to notice the danger. I would have to take care of this myself. Typical.

Slowly rising from the edge of the pool so as to not attract the attention of the others, I turned and walked into the shadowed cover of the entryway, halting to quickly slide my boots and socks back on. Opening the door, I shut it quietly  behind me before sprinting off in the direction of the stairwell, my chestnut hair flying behind me like my shadow. Ripping open the door, I climbed the stairs quickly up to the third-story roof, where I opened the door to reveal that I was only five feet away from the figure who, I now noticed, had a black ski mask on, concealing his identity. I scoffed in disbelief and rolled my eyes, running a hand through my hair. Classic. 

The man finally noticed me admiring my nails languidly in the darkness, and reacted quickly, leaving his rifle on the ground and drawing a knife from a belt at his side. I took the time to crack my neck as I crept forward, staying light on my feet. Lunging forward, the would-be assassin attempted to plunge the dagger into my side, but I turned to the side at the last moment, grabbing his arm in the process and twisting it behind his back. 

The man, who was also wearing dark-colored clothing, narrowed his light brown eyes at me in aggravation before hooking  his other arm and sucker punching the side of my face I always left unprotected. I staggered back, disoriented for a moment and wondering how he had managed to hit me  before diving at him and landing blow after blow. The man fell to the ground, clutching his probably broken ribs and hissing in pain. Still clutching the knife, he drew it close. I prepared myself for another offensive attack, but then the man opened his mouth.

Smiling sadistically, he remarked "Hello, Bentley,"  before rolling off the edge of the roof.

My heart stopped for a moment and a chill rolled down my back. But then without hesitating, I jumped off after him. The wind screamed into my ears as the blurry ground approached. Making a split second decision between getting ill-fatedly injured and probably dying, or living but exposing my secret, I decided on the latter. 

Release, I whispered in my mind, and suddenly sharp clicks were heard as slits appeared in my back, parallel to the ones sewn into my suit. With a sudden and definite snap my metal wings rearranged and snapped through the slits and into place, while beating furiously as I angled down and plunged after the man who somehow knew my name. I had to get answers out of him. Catching up, I prepared to grab him, but he twisted to look at me, now only en feet from the ground, and thrusted the knife, that he had somehow managed to hold onto, fatally into his own stomach. 

Screeching loudly in frustration, I banked suddenly to avoid smashing into the ground like the man had. His mask had flew off with the impact, and my eyes widened as I recognized him as the pizza delivery person. That must have been how he knew my name. Breathing heavily, I ran my hands through my hair, my nervous tic. Now I just had more questions but no definite answers.

"What the..." I jerked around to see Kara, Jeremy, and Tom standing by the pool door, staring at me. Kara's and Tom's faces held looks of shock but something I couldn't quite make out flashed in Jeremy's eyes as they took in the scene. Kara took a step towards me, before stopping in her tracks. "Agent 5?"

Suddenly, I remembered that my wings were out.  Dammit. Retract, I whispered in my mind, and my metal wings disappeared as suddenly as they had come, the slits closing with a sharp shutter. This would take a while to explain. Remember when I said I was peculiar? Yeah. Well this is why. 

Movement in one of the upper windows caught my eye. Squinting, I saw the girl at the front desk speaking on her phone and glanced down at the still body behind me.

"We need to leave. Now." Pushing past the trio, I ran to our shared rooms and grabbed my bag off of the first bed. Coming back outside, I saw that they hadn't moved. I noticed Jeremy's jaw working furiously and I could almost see the gears in his mind turning. "Come on!" I yelled, spurring them into action. 

Throwing my duffel into the back of the SUV, I kept the trunk open for the others and hurriedly got into the driver's seat again. Brushing my sleeve across the broken glass that still remained from when I shot out the window, I sighed and gazed off into the distance. Hearing the car doors slam, I started the engine and took off, not waiting to see if they had their seat belts on. Speeding off into the night, I sighed once more.

This just got way more complicated.