MISSION MOONLARK, kotlc

2

"You know, for such a high tech place, you would think that The Black Swan would have better food than cheese pizza every day," Sophie reasoned, sliding down onto the bench beside her friends.

She'd joined the Black Swan nearly two years ago, and the food hadn't gotten any better. 

"Right?" Biana agreed, making them all jump. She had a rather disturbing habit of remaining so quiet and stealthy, it was almost as if she'd disappeared, and then surprising all of them when they weren't paying attention.

"It's not that bad- especially when you soak it in ketchup," Fitz said, winking.

Sophie rolled her eyes.

Fitz was her Cognate- a person who was often paired with in assignments and training. They'd been assigned Cognates for nearly half a year now, and Biana hadn't stopped teasing them mercilessly because of it.

"Aw, I thought you'd go for the mustard! That's why I rigged it!" Dex whined. "I wonder who got it instead."

Dex was basically a mechanical genius, and was forever scheming new machines and contraptions to help with missions- and also to create some rather creative pranking masterpieces.

"What's today's?" Sophie asked, deciding she'd rather run on an empty stomach than one full of slimy pizza.

The Black Swan usually sent the four of them on missions frequently- but they were usually just small things, or even simply training.

"Agent Alexine said my lying sucked worse than your fighting skills," Biana told her, elbowing Sophie in the side playfully  "So apparently it's just training- and she's trying to teach me how to lie more convincingly or whatever."

"And we," Fitz cut in, flashing her a movie-star worthy grin, "Have Cognate training with Agent Granite."

Sophie groaned. "Please don't tell me he's had Dex make another battle simulator that has our ankles tied together or something-"

Dex snorted.

"You got off easy this time," Dex promised. He ran a hand through his strawberry-blonde hair before standing up.

"You know, next time we try to retrieve the Rimeshire blueprints and stumble across enemy agents, we should just leave him to the Neverseen," Fitz teased.

"Don't let Agent Alexine hear you say that," Sophie warned, indicating a patrolling agent.

The Neverseen was the Black Swan's rival- and even though they both rebelled underneath the government's noses, they'd been feuding ever since the first agents had founded the organizations. The two agencies were constantly sending their spies on missions with the same purpose, so it wasn't uncommon for older agents to come across Neverseen members on assignments.

And the Collective- the Black Swan's top tier of senior agents -had very strict rules about not joking of the Neverseen's existence.

Of course, it was beyond rare to meet the Collective- Sophie had only spoken with them once in her entire two years in the Black Swan.

"Come on, Soph- I mean Agent SF," Fitz corrected himself. "Granite's going to get impatient."

Sophie dumped her tray into the nearest trash can and followed her Cognate out the door.

"Wait a sec- somebody's hailing me." She stopped to grab her Imparter- the agency's main communication device that was specially built to avoid all government transmissions.

She suspected it was probably just Agent Granite calling to reprimand them for their tardiness- but instead, no face showed up on the screen.

Just pixelated words- and they weren't even in coded message.

Collective wants to speak with you.

Bring Agent FV, Agent D, and Agent B.

Meet us in the Eternelia wing ASAP.

We have a mission for you.