Chapter Text
Agent Scarlett rubbed the identification card with her thumb for what must have been the thousandth time, glancing anxiously over her shoulders every second or so.
"C'mon. C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!"
Footsteps. Closer. Ever so closer. Whoever it was, they knew how to run. They echoed through the hallways like gunshots that couldn't wait until the gun itself would be fired in just a moment. Not fully formed, or deadly, but shocking enough to become both.
"Agent Red-"
"Damn it," Scarlett said, turning to face the woman in turquoise. "You are well aware that applies to all of us? Aren't you Turtle."
"Yeah well, I never really cared."
"Ugh! You're impossible!"
"And you're hard to work with Scar!"
"Again with the freaking nicknames, seriously?"
"I just… Look, I brought my info, you brought yours. We have to find the mole. Before both founders die… For good this time."
-
50 Years Ago
Becker stared at her ceiling from her twin bed, the slant in her roof making her long for a room that didn't feel like she was being raised in a barn.
It happened, she ruined another relationship. Again.
She still half felt the ice water falling down her instantaneously drowned face. It made her want to scream, or break something, or punch a wall, or- Prove Kennedy right. She couldn’t be a functioning human, just an existing one.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. It wasn’t how anything in her life should’ve been going.
She had good grades, and brains, and capabilities, yet there was always the same feeling in everything, like it would crash and burn at any moment. If she ruined it first, it wouldn’t.
Nothing she built would crash down around her if she was the one pushing it over.
Maybe she should just… Give up on having any sort of friends or loved ones. It wasn’t ever really working out for her. Seriously, what was she gonna do? Magically-
She sat up in shock, a flash of light shone from the corner of her room, as if by some Angel’s miracle. A girl stepped out, wearing a teal shirt and turquoise skort, and black sneaker shoes.
And she looked a bit like Hailey.
"Becker Denoga?"
"How do you know my name?"
"Well, you are kind of a big deal-"
"To who? Bounty hunters?"
The girl stared. "...No? You're a big deal where I come from." Becker glanced the girl over, then looked back behind her at what she guessed was a portal. "And where's that? A galaxy far, far, away?"
The girl snorted. "No, of course not. I come from, the future." Becker frowned. "The future? How far in the future?"
"Fifty years!"
"You expect me to believe the world makes it that long?"
"Uh… Yes?"
"Huh… You're my imagination."
"I'm really not."
"Prove it."
"Look, I don't really have time for-"
"I don't believe or trust you."
"Look, in five seconds there will be something you can now see called a time glitch."
"Yeah? And what's a-"
And suddenly, without warning, Becker felt the sickening drop from a height she never knew was possible to achieve. Like the world's worst Rollercoaster.
She looked around in a panic and now found fear, all around her the city was burning. Blue fire… God what did that mean?
Suddenly, the smoke spread. Becker could feel ash in her lungs, as the black smoke rose like bodies from the dead. Her breathing ragged, it all just suddenly… Stopped.
She was back in her room, darkness gone.
"Look, Becker, there's something you need to do."
"What? What did you just do? What do you want?"
"Stop global warming."
Becker stared, it was almost laughable. "You want a thirteen year old to stop global warming? How?"
"By kissing Hailey Banks."
-
"Ugh! Seriously Beta? Again?"
"Yes? You keep avoiding this list item and it only gets worse!"
"I just… Scott…"
Beta glared at her from his little screen. "Beta! Seriously! I… Kissing him… I don't know if I…"
"Want to?"
"No! No. No, of course not, I definitely want to kiss him, totally! Just… Not in the foreseeable future."
"I'm not buying it Hailey. Neither would anyone else."
"You know what? Fine. I'll kiss him, tonight."
"Need any help with this endeavor?"
"No, I don't! I'm gonna prove you wrong Beta, and you're gonna be amazed!"
-
Becker watched Hailey Banks set up what she guessed to be her version of a quote, "Romantic dinner".
Electronic candles floating in plastic bowls of water, ribbons hanging from the trees, the works.
If she had to guess, based on her copy of the list, she was trying out #143… Kiss Becker's brother. The whole thing left a sour taste in Becker’s mouth.
Did Hailey like Scott? It was weird, to Becker it had always been obvious since she got with Kennedy that there was a crush. But it always seemed a little like Hailey was constantly having to convince herself there was anything really there.
“Then why would she wanna kiss me?” Becker wondered. Turtle, the girl from earlier, had said Hailey had a list of things she had to do, or else the world would end. And that it was vital kissing Becker be added and completed.
Which, Becker had to admit, sounded more than a little creepy coming from a 18 year old girl about two young teenagers.
She just had to wait, maybe Hailey would try to kiss her on her own, maybe everything would work out.
Because if there was one thing Becker never wanted to do, it was to use people. And she definitely never wanted to use Hailey.
Ugh… Maybe she should just call Bonesaw… He might at least have some idea what to do.
-
"Hailey!" Scott shouted a little too loudly as he entered the shared backyard, "What's all this? When you said dinner and a movie I thought you meant the usual pizza and bad reruns."
"Well…" Hailey fiddled with her skirt, "There was actually something I wanted to talk to you about. If that's alright and all I mean!"
"Yeah, of course! Why wouldn't it be?"
"I don't know, I just… Look, Scott, remember how I said I wanted to kiss that guy from Botany Camp?"
"S-"
"Yeah, him! Anyway, I just… He wasn't from the guy Botany Camp, the person I want to kiss… He's actually standing in front of me."
Scott looked behind him, momentarily confused, before the realization must have donned on him.
"Oh… Oh! Hailey? You want to kiss, me?"
She nodded, suddenly feeling nervous for all the wrong reasons. "Yeah… It's kinda for the list. And also… I really like you, Scott."
"I… I guess I feel the same way."
"Really?"
"So then… May I kiss you?"
"Yeah, you may."
She grinned, and leaned in, and… They kissed. And it should have been magical. There was lights in the water, and they were home alone, and the almost summer air was drifting through the trees. Everything lined up for the most romantic encounter ever.
But there was a pit in her stomach.
She should be floating away with joy, but she couldn't, something, some awful feeling was keeping her tethered to the ground.
"Scott- I uh… I need to go."