~amelie~

"How many zips are on this thing?"

I pull yet another zipper up and wince at the scraping sound it makes. All the spy movies I've seen have got nothing on the reality - instead of sleek jumpsuits you can pull on easily, apparently the rebels' outfits are black, bulky and have twenty thousand zips. Ryan laughs from across the room as I grit my teeth and pull again, fastening Lila's leg up.
"Remind me why I have to do this again?" I ask.
Lila snorts and crosses her arms. "Well, Amber's not here, and I need a suit, and it's really difficult to fit your own, and the boys are prepping each other. Guess who that leaves? I'll give you a clue." She leans in close and grins. "It's you."
"Stop freaking her out, Lila!" shouts Hunter as I roll my eyes. He's doing the same job as me, with one difference - he's already done with his stuff. I watch, distracted from my job, as he finishes, springs to his feet and moves over to a long row of lockers. Ryan goes after him, and they start opening, taking and closing in near-perfect synchronisation. They load their pockets with gadgets, and it's so strange I can't help laughing. But it's stopped by a loud click in front of my face, and my head jerks up to see Lila gesturing to her back.
"One more, Amelie."

I sigh and yank the final zip up, and immediately Lila winks and thanks me. She walks confidently over to the same lockers Ryan and Hunter are looting, and she starts copying them. I follow her.

"Why am I not getting one of those?" I say, crossing my arms and watching the trio.
Ryan says, "You're not going to be doing any fighting. Recon only. You get a couple of tools, but we're going to need you to wear the exact same clothing as your sister - so no spy outfit for you. However, you are wearing one of our latest inventions."
"We have a guy whose IQ is through the roof. Literally," explains Hunter. "He thinks of something, and he can build it  - whatever it is. We asked him to think of a way to disguise you while allowing for size change, and he produced it in a few hours. Pretty amazing, right?" he says, a dopey grin plastered across his face.
"Sure," answers Lila drily, smirking at him. "Jackson, I really don't think she cares."
A bang echoes through the room as Ryan slams one final locker, and he tosses a piece of fabric at me. It hits my face and falls down, and I manage to throw my arms up awkwardly and catch it. It's a shimmering, iridescent, silvery material that sparkles and changes in the light. My face must be priceless, because all of my teammates stifle laughs as I stare at it.
"What is this?"
"Camo suit. We can make it mirror any other clothes on someone else. Right now, you can clone our outfits, but when we get to your sister you've got to shift into her and then copy her clothing. It can also stretch and shrink according to your size, but the Professor assures us it won't rip or sag. Apparently."
"The Professor?" I say doubtfully.
"He calls himself that to make him feel clever," drawls Lila. "He's twelve."
"Oh."
Ryan takes back control of the conversation and says, "We don't really have time to answer any other questions. Just trust us, okay? Put that on, and these."

He hands me a box, and I press on the latch and lift the lid up. Inside, there's two small white stickers, one with a tiny wire coming out. I smile at the sight of the gadgets - even though I haven't got a clue about what they're for, they make me feel like a real-life spy. And that's not a bad feeling.

I circle my finger around, glaring at my teammates, and all three get the message. They turn round, Ryan stoic, Hunter grinning, Lila smirking, and I wait to make sure they stay that way before I quickly take off my normal clothes and pull on the suit. This one's a lot more like in the movies - there's no extra fastening required. It hugs my body, head to toe, covering me in beautiful, subtle colour, and reminds me of the time Dad took me diving on holiday. But as soon as I think of him a shard of pain pierces my heart, and I shut down all memories of him and his betrayal. I feel heavier as I turn back to my friends, and they swivel around too. They must notice what I'm feeling, because their faces change just a little. I guess they understand what pain feels like.

I plaster a wide smile across my face as I say, "So, what do these do?" My voice feels small and weak in the silence that's suddenly become pressing. Ryan, always the answerer, tells me that the first is an earpiece, and the second is a microphone.
"You'll be able to hear all of the team, at all times. We can hear you too - and that means us, Amber, Elian and Markus. Each of us has a tracker as well, but you don't, so Markus is going to be your locator. Clear?"
I nod.
"Press the mic onto your neck, and the earpiece just inside your ear. It's the one with the wire."
"What's it for?" I ask.
"The wire? Helps strengthen your comm link."
Lila begins, "And you can strangle-"
"Thank you so much, Lila," Ryan says, cutting her off and looking extremely unimpressed. I catch Hunter's eye and we both start to laugh, but we try our hardest to rein it in as Ryan turns his gaze on us and clears his throat.
"Amelie, put those on now,and we'll do the same."
I take one of the little white stickers and peel it off its backing, sticking it firmly on my neck. It feels strange for the first few moments, but then the feeling vanishes. As I put the second one on, I see my teammates doing the same. But as the white touches their skin, it seems to shimmer and change colour to match - which is actually really amazing. I think about all the other clever gadgets they must have, and I'm quickly lost in thought. It takes another finger snap in my face from Lila before I'm paying attention again.

"Alright," says Ryan. "Basic prep is officially completed, and we're almost ready to move out. We just need to deal with one thing - Amelie's suit." He turns to me. "The suit will respond to whatever it touches, and copy it. If you need it to return to this basic appearance, just squeeze your left wrist. If you want to lock it, so it no longer changes at all, press your right. To unlock it, you can use your right again. Now, copy one of us."
There's a very high chance I'm going to forget all of this before the mission even starts, but I attempt to remember it anyway. "Right wrist, left wrist. Got it... I think." I reach out and touch Lila's arm, and the material on my fingers seems to flash and shine before a stream of black appears, twisting and turning, and races up my arm. I shriek and stumble back, staring in shock at the colour that spreads like wildfire across my body. Within ten seconds, the whole suit is a dark black, and tiny details like zips and pockets have materialised on it too.
Lila says, "I'm taking this, then."
"What?" I frown.
"We have a running bet on the Professor's coolest inventions. At the moment Amber's got the flight pack, Ryan's betting on these sticker things, and I thought I had the best - this awesome katana thing that also doubles as a lockpick, a gun and a torch," says Hunter.
I blink. "Wow. Okay."
Lila's practically singing with glee as she announces, "But now I'm winning, because I waited for the cool one."
"Yes, you're winning, sure," mutters Hunter. He sounds grumpy, but there's a wide grin on his face.
Ryan comes closer and touches the suit, inspecting it. "It looks like a perfect replica. He did a good job on this." He pauses before saying, "Amelie, lock the suit and follow us. Mission commencing in three minutes."
I press down on the inside of my right wrist with my left finger, and the spot I've touched flashes a bright white before vanishing and retuning to black. I start walking out of the room, after Ryan, with Lila and Hunter trailing behind me. As soon as all of us are past the doorway, it slides down with a pneumatic swooshing sound. Then, we're back in the nondescript corridors with doors all around. We walk for what seems like an hour, but in reality I know it's only been a couple of minutes. We keep going until we reach a dead end.

"Ryan, why are we here? I thought we were starting the rescue," I say, confused.
Lila crosses her arms and replies, "This is the way out, Amelie."
"Wait, what?"

A hand comes from nowhere and shoves me, hard, and I cry out as I hit the wall-

-and pass straight through, a cold wind sucking me out. I'm suddenly standing in a shaded wood, tall trees reaching high into the sky around us. I stumble and gasp for a few seconds before Ryan materialises next to me.

"Having fun?" he smirks.
"No, not really. Who... who was that?"
"Who was who?"
I glare at him. "The idiot who pushed me."
"Kindly don't call me that," says Lila airily, stepping around me and leveling her gaze at me. "I got you through, didn't I? You would have just stood there staring otherwise, to be honest."
I just stare at her.
"See my point?" she says.

In the next few seconds Hunter comes through, and as soon as his feet touch the ground Ryan takes my hand. He's a lot taller than me, and we're so close that I have to tilt my head up slightly to see his expression. He's got a sly smile on, and Lila's sharing it. Hunter just looks excited.
"What's happening?" I say suspiciously.
Ryan answers, looking straight up and grinning, "Now we fly."

He bends his knees and pushes up, and suddenly I'm in the air and clinging on to his hand as hard as I can. I scream as we shoot up, further and further until the wind is singing in my ears. The shriek of fear turns into joy, and then all of us are laughing and whooping as we hover miles above the ground. The sky is a perfect azure blue, and we're so high that clouds are passing all around us. I reach out as one passes by, and my hands sinks into fluffy wetness. It's a sensation I've never had before, but it's so exhilarating that I can't help but throw my head back and sing with the wind. I let go of Ryan with one hand, and raise it up like I'm the lead in a musical. I can hear Lila and Hunter chanting along with me. We're pouring out our pure emotion and it sounds amazing. I start gesturing with my hand to match the song, and the wind accompanies us like an orchestra as we reach our highest point. I'm so caught up in the music that I don't notice when my other hand releases Ryan's, and he shouts, and I'm dropping like a stone to the earth.

The wind is cold, and so is my heart. As I plummet to the ground, my own death right before my eyes, all I can feel is the numb ice that's spread across my body. I can't even scream. The moment of falling threatens to stretch out forever, warped and twisted so it lasts an hour when it's really a minute. I'm totally paralysed as my hair whips around my face and tears are ripped from my eyes. The earth comes into more detail as it rushes closer - now the trees are more defined, now the grass is less of a blur. My body is flipped around by some unknown force, and suddenly I'm not facing down but up, and I can see Ryan shooting towards me at light speed. Hunter and Lila are screaming my name, trailing out behind him, and Ryan's face is set in furious determination.

At least, I think it's determination.

He catches up to me quickly, and roars my name through the tumultuous wind. He stretches out his hand, and I reach for it, and we brush fingers. But I can't hold on, and the last thing I feel is a crushing sensation around my arm before everything I can sense is gone.