Work Text:
The distraction: Seolhee. The eyes and ears: Ami. The brains: Lei Ling. The brawn: her, Pearl. It's pretty cut and dry when they divide it like this, but their missions are rarely cut and dry.
Ami's in the coatroom right now rummaging through in search of... whatever they're looking for. Pearl realizes it's bad form to not pay attention to the mission brief, but she just skimmed her part to play and left it at that. Hopefully Ami doesn't throttle her for that. She won't, Pearl thinks, she's actually too much of a softie for that.
Either way, in Pearl's defense, they're always chasing after something capable of mass destruction. Why are they always chasing after something capable of mass destruction?
That's something else to ponder about.
She didn't even know that a coatroom was a thing until this mission. Seriously. What kind of coats do these British people wear to have a whole room dedicated to coats? And, apparently, a thing capable of mass destruction. So far all she likes about Britain is the constant rain.
Pearl watches Seolhee navigate the crowd seamlessly, flashing a charismatic smile there, saying a word here. They're supposed to be blending in, but in a room of stuffy rich people, Pearl does anything but. Even in some aquamarine dress and heels, it's not her type of vibe; many things aren't.
"Fox, update?" Lei Ling's voice smoothes over Pearl's ear, none of that crackle one usually gets from a typical earpiece thanks to Lei Ling's immense control of her powers.
"All these hoity toity women's perfumes smell the damn same." Her complaints are grumbled and annoyed. Unlike Lei Ling, Ami sounds exactly as one would expect from a call — crackly and filtered. There's the sound of rustling coats in the background. "How are we doing with the distraction?"
"Luna's killing it," Pearl affirms. She grabs water from a servant, a 'thank you' barely held back but encased in a nod. "She's talking to... I don't know, some man with starry eyes for her?"
Ami scoffs and Lei Ling hums in approval, their distinct timbres clashing with each other. Pearl watches Seolhee smile secretively over to her corner of the room, and winks back. The distraction can't talk to them unless she wants her cover blown, but she can damn well hear their chatter.
They're not much of a loud distraction tonight, Seolhee and Pearl. They're here mingling for three guys in particular, and none of them have left the room yet. Pearl has them all clocked, and can view them all from the slightest turn of her head. She leans casually against a table and covers the main entry-way in case any of them get tired of this party.
"Done with the second-last row of coats." Ami reports professionally after some dead chatter. "Air cleared?"
"Cleared," Lei Ling confirms.
Pearl sips her drink. "You can continue complaining if you want to, White Fox. I know you want to."
"No thanks."
Boring.
"Boring," Lei Ling echoes her sentiments exactly. "My end is too boring to complain about. Give us something interesting."
"Exactly, and same here. Aero makes a very good point."
Lei Ling smiles, or Pearl assumes she does. It sounds like she does, making Pearl smile too at the thought. "Glad you're always on my side, Pearl."
"Wouldn't be anywhere else."
Ami cuts into their nice moment. "Ha ha, very funny. I just found it, by the way." There's some more rustling and a muttered "oh fuc– ." Then, the line goes dead.
Seolhee and Pearl lock eyes. There's no hiding the look of utter panic thrown Pearl's way. Pearl straightens and speeds out, heels clicking, already talking into her mic. "I'm on Fox duty."
"Luna don't you dare move from your position," Lei Ling orders, already anticipating her silent protests. "We can't draw any more attention to our white tailed friend."
Somewhere there, Seolhee is mentally kicking herself and cursing her role in this whole debacle. Pearl can't be bothered to be worried about that, though, as she kicks her shoes off and dashes through corridors and corridors. They all know their parts and Ami specifically chose Pearl as back-up.
She's rounding on the hall with the coatroom when a blur of white fur streaks past her. She barely has time to pull up a shield of water from a nearby water fountain, blocking any attacks their way. The maneuver to slow down in one direction, turn, and skid to a start after Ami in Fox form isn't a pretty one. Pearl drops the water shield and lets it splash to the floor and trip their pursuers as payback for them having to see it.
"Found her." Pearl pants. "Fox form. Thing's in her mouth, I think. We're good… I think."
It's a safe bet Ami wouldn't be running otherwise. Stubborn fox would probably be still in the coatroom giving her life for some stupid artifact if it wasn't in her maw. Pearl's just glad that she's alive.
Running after her, Pearl fends off way too many bullets, pulling up arcs after arcs of water. Seriously, how mad did Ami leave them? The answer: pretty mad.
Ami throws herself one way into an open room and Pearl slams the door shut a second later. The secret agent is transforming in the blink of an eye, white hair billowing out of her head and covering up her furry ears. There's cuts nicking her arms. She holds the object in one hand and starts unlocking the windows with another.
"Aero, do you read me?" Ami says urgently. "I'm throwing up some shells. Take them up and suppress them when they explode. Like fireworks."
"Got it. I see your window."
Seolhee finally speaks over the earpiece. "I'm clear and moving out."
So many things are happening at once. Their door gets rammed by something heavy. Pearl tenses. She steals water from a flowerpot and the oxygen outside, clenching her fists. In her periphery, she watches Ami wind her arm up and throw small pellets in the air.
The door bursts open. Pearl's immediately onto them, yelling and shouting the whole time. Somebody gets her on the solar plexus but she gets them on the crotch — a win-win. It's a whirlwind later when they hear the unmistakable boom of bombs going off high in the distance. Ami takes the distraction to grab Pearl by the wrist and jumps out the window. They're lucky they're on the ground floor.
Seolhee is waiting for them, scanning the skies for any sign of movement. The party is on the other side of the building and all the guards should be distracted with the bomb. Since when was a bomb part of their plans? Pearl does not remember that on the mission brief. But, then again, she didn't read the entire mission brief.
"Luna!" Pearl whispers and waves. "Aero, where's the getaway?"
"Working on it," Lei Ling wheezes. If one squints they can see a lone figure in the skies. "Sorry, give me a moment after exploding a couple of surprise bombs safely, would you?"
"Not enough time," Ami replies crisply. Seolhee pushes her and Ami covers a wince with a shrug.
"It should be in the same spot we discussed. I'll meet you there."
Ami slips the object into Seolhee's hands and starts off running. Pearl barely catches the mutters of Seolhee about wounds and patching people up before she's sprinting too. The sounds of their boots on land is the only thing to break up the night until they skid to a stop at the parking lot. Lei Ling's already there, as expected, leaning against a black sedan. She salutes lazily before getting into the driver's seat.
Pearl gladly takes the passenger's seat. In the backseat Seolhee immediately busies herself with grabbing Ami's wrist. Her left hand starts to glow with healing ice. "Since when did bombs come into the plan?" She demands.
Okay, so Pearl did remember correctly. There was no such thing as bombs in the mission brief.
"They were in the guard's pockets," Ami explains, "I had to take them before they exploded the coatroom." And themselves.
Seolhee lightly slaps Ami on a healed wrist, reprimands in Korean already falling from her mouth. Ami just leans back, eyes half-closed, fox ears twitching ever so slightly. This has since become their normal after-mission ritual, so Pearl pays them no mind.
The car rumbles on to their destination, Lei Ling asks for her glasses at one point and Pearl hands them over. The incomprehensible chatter behind them lowers into silence as the night drags on. Pearl risks taking a selfie of all four of them, Ami and Seolhee fast asleep, before taking another picture of the mountains they're passing for Lolo.
Lei Ling's shaking her head to herself. Their eyes meet in the rearview mirror, her startling blue is gray in the light. It's obvious that she's still thinking of their mission, of the calculations gone wrong and right, of the probabilities of the next one. It's what she does. Pearl knows what she's thinking because she has the same thoughts. As far as mission hitches go, this one was relatively minor. It can't be that long until their luck breaks.
They've only been a squad for a little while and Pearl has loved every second of it since Ami recruited her. Still, a voice inside her head warns her. That they aren't gonna get out safe and sound every single time. That something’s bound to go wrong eventually. She knows Lei Ling feels it too.
But, for now, Pearl is inclined to enjoy it while it lasts. She kicks back on her chair and ignores Lei Ling's protests, propping her feet up on the dashboard. For now, Pearl enjoys their little moment of victory.
Maybe they should wind the tape back. To their original meet-up and the subsequent team-ups afterward leading up to Ami Han, NIS Superhumans Branch Director, sitting in front of her with a business card. A once in a lifetime opportunity. Pearl's not too inclined on doing that, however, and more inclined on the sunlight streaming down her room and waking her up rather obnoxiously. She groans and smushes her face into a pillow. It's been a long trip back to Seoul.
Eventually, the blinding lights win. She drags herself out of bed and into the living room where the rest of the team are already up. Lei Ling fiddles with a spoon as she eats yogurt, Seolhee is fixing up a pot of coffee, and Ami is lazing on the couch. Per usual, Pearl is the latest of them all.
"Morning, Pearl." Seolhee smiles brightly. Lei Ling waves as Pearl settles next to Ami.
Ami murmurs the same sentiments as she swipes a calendar notification from her phone: hang out with Danbi. Pearl holds back a snicker, cute. She often wonders how no one catches the soft side of Ami until much, much later, her included.
Seolhee pads over, handing her a coffee mug she takes gratefully. She peers over Ami's shoulder. "Only a couple thousand?" Seolhee tuts. "It seems worth more than that."
Pearl cranes her neck to see that they're talking about the object they stole last night. Ami's scrolling through some black market websites. "Anything higher would make it cheap," she snorts. There's a lot of prices surrounding this magical macguffin.
More than a couple thousand? A million? Pearl gapes at the two. She's never seen so much money in her life, much less even talked about it casually. "Why are we even thinking about selling it?"
"We're not," Lei Ling volunteers. "We're just seeing the interest."
"That's a lot of interest."
"Several nations want it." Ami's lips curve. "But we got it."
Not for the first time, Pearl is really, really glad Ami isn't some sort of supervillain.
"Now the question is what to do with it," Lei Ling confirms. She hops onto the floor and puts her finished yogurt bowl in the sink along with the spoon before joining them. The couch cushions lower even more from the weight of her elbows.
"Hm." Pearl thinks about the sentiment. They represent different countries respectively, and all come from different backgrounds. Different interests. Extremely biased interests. "What are we thinking?"
"Destroying it," Lei Ling immediately replies. There's no hesitation.
Seolhee shrugs. "What's another highly powerful artifact on the list of highly powerful artifacts? Sell it to a museum or something, privatize it so it gets protected by money and even more money."
Pearl gapes. She silently adds Seolhee to the list of people she's glad who aren't villains. "Damn. We can't just throw it in some cave or something?"
Ami thinks for a moment. "Why not go all out? Destroy the inner workings so it never functions again, then sell it to some museum. A win-win. You get the historical significance and the guarantee it won't be used again."
"That could work, but what's broken can always be assembled again." Lei Ling points out. "If the idea remains it can always be recreated."
"I'll talk to Jimmy about it," Ami acknowledges. "We're only the retrieval team for this." There's a gleam in her eyes and a straightness to her fox ears; Pearl gets the uncanny feeling that she doesn't plan on being just the retrieval team for long.
Seolhee pats Ami's ears back down, rolling her eyes. Ami swats at her half-heartedly. "Don't get too excited."
"It's just business," Ami complains loudly.
Business or not, Pearl is hungry. She rises from the couch to make herself something to eat. The other elementals follow her there, leaving Ami on the couch.
"We were talking about code names before you woke up." Lei Ling mentions amiably. "What kind of name is Wave? It's literally just a noun."
"What kind of name is Aero?" Pearl shoots back. "All it is is, like, air in Latin or something."
"Greek," Lei Ling corrects with a small smile.
She flushes lightly. "Whatever!"
"Can't we just agree that both your code names are stupid?" Seolhee asks.
A note of warning enters Lei Ling's tone. "Seol, you literally attached snow to the end of your stage name. That's all you did."
"My fans did, technically."
Ami sighs dramatically from across the room. "Elementals." Before Seolhee can open her mouth, Ami looks over at the three of them with a deadpan expression. "I am aware that my code name is literally what I am." Lazily, she flicks her hand in the air. "All our names are stupid, I can't believe no one has noticed yet."
"Well I like my name," Pearl faux-grumbles, taking a seat at the island counter.
Lei Ling pats her fondly on the head. "That's all that matters, then."
And Pearl can't quite find it in herself to be mad after that. To be fair, she never really was. She smiles as Lei Ling floats her a yogurt with a flick of her wrists, watches as Seolhee brings a mug of coffee to Ami. It's a scene Pearl's still not used to, having been woken up by the sounds of the beach and Lolo for as long as she remembers. But she likes it.
Pearl likes Seolhee. She also likes Ami. There's no one else she would trade them for, and possibly no one else she would want to partner with. As ambitious as they are, as cutthroat as they can be, they always have her back.
Pearl likes Lei Ling too. Maybe a little too much. Can you blame her when the sunlight bounces off her shiny hair, turning it a dark sheen of blue? Or when she laughs, it sounds like the wind rushing over waves, or how her blue eyes darken into something like hunger when she's well... hungry? Pearl isn't good at descriptions, or being poetic in general, but she thinks, for Lei Ling, she can try to be.
Maybe she likes Lei Ling a little too much, but nobody has to know.
She still doesn’t know what exactly the object-slash-artifact they stole is.