Today was a Not-Terrible day. 

Another Not-Terrible day in a string of Not-Terrible days. 23, in fact — Kyle had been keeping track. 

And before that one terrible day, 24 days ago, had been another long string of about 35 Not-Terrible days. All in all, keeping track of them made him thankful for how Not-Terrible his life was. 

What was it that had broken this month-long streak? Oh, not all that much. Just an awkward interaction with one of his classmates. He knew in the long run that it wasn’t all that bad, and that people would forget about what he had said.

If they’d just given him time to explain why his costume choice was the way it was, he was sure they’d understand. And then they wouldn’t have looked at him weird for saying that he’d happily dress up as a girl for the school’s festival. After all, the whole point of a costume was so you could be someone else, and no one would recognise you, right?

But he hadn’t had time to explain it, and so he had felt bad about it. Now though, he was glad to be back in a streak of Not-Terrible days. 

Though the day itself wasn’t actually over. The school day was, however, and that was the important part. That was enough to add the day to the current streak. 

Even the weather was good — much better than Not-Terrible. The spring breeze rustled the trees above him as he strolled along. While the sun had been beaming down on him earlier, while he walked along the main road outside the school, he was now in the cool shade, courtesy of trees growing in people’s front yards. 

All in all, the temperature was perfect. 

Kyle halted under the branches of a large tree, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Since there weren’t too many cars here in the side streets, he could fully enjoy the sounds of the leaves rustling, and the warbling of birds making their nests up high. 

Mixed in with those noises, however, was a rushing of wind, and the sound of tires rolling along the road. A nearby car? No matter, it would pass by him soon enough, and he could return to making this day go from Not-Terrible to Pretty-Good. 

A sudden screech of tires dashed any chance of that. 

He opened his eyes, blinking at the bright sunlight that framed the source of this offending noise. 

A black station wagon with tinted windows had parked just alongside him. A very familiar station wagon, in fact, the one he often saw parked in the driveway at home. 

“Kyle, get in the car!” came the shout from inside this familiar vehicle. As the door opened, he caught a glimpse of his mother in the driver’s seat. 

Her hair was down. 

She never wore her hair down... Something must have happened. 

Kyle leapt inside the open door, slinging his school backpack in the footwell and pulling down the seatbelt as fast as he could. Something was clearly up, for him to be urgently picked up in the middle of the trip home like this.

Before he had even closed the door behind him, Kyle’s mother had already stomped down on the accelerator, the tires screeching a second time as it took off down the suburban road.

“Sorry about this, but we gotta move,” she said, throwing the car into a sharp corner that made it very difficult for Kyle to buckle his seat belt. “Your dad’s cover was blown.” 

Ah. 

That was definitely bad. Almost as bad as Kyle still not wearing his seat belt.

The gravity of the situation set in to Kyle’s mind. After all, his parents were spies. Having their cover blown was almost certainly definitely very very disastrously bad. Like, “could compromise the entire mission” or “could lose your life” bad.

Although… a small part of Kyle’s brain wandered off into the archives, where memories of all the spy movies he’d watched as a kid were stored. This was the point where it was mission critical, where — for example — Jill the amazing super-cool spy lady drove off in her loud, growling sports car. This is the part where it got exciting! His heart pounded in his chest.

And then immediately slowed back to a crawl as he realised the truth of the situation — the electric motor in this vehicle didn’t growl. Instead it was a nearly inaudible buzz inside the cabin.

This special spy car with its swapped electric motor wasn’t cinematic at all!

“He managed to escape, but we’ve been taken off our current mission,” Mum continued. “It’s too dangerous for us to continue working here, so we’ll likely have to relocate. Potentially pretty far, too, unless they want us to… no, the chances of that are pretty low. They wouldn’t spend that much money on us.” 

Relocation… Kyle would have to change schools, then. It wasn’t the first time he’d changed schools. When he was 9, his life had essentially been upended as he was whisked away to another state, far into the tropical north. A few years later it happened again, down south where the weather was much cooler.

Ah well, at least he wasn’t in the middle of any big group projects or anything. That way he wouldn’t be letting down his classmates. The only thing he’d miss, now, is that festival. Which was probably a good thing.

The tires screeched a third time as Kyleʼs mum spun the car sideways, before gunning it into a narrow road between two large buildings. At the end of the road was a small car park, where the car was thrown into a long slide, arcing until it was pointed towards a nondescript grey wall.

She reached into an empty compartment in the centre console, pulling out a radio attached to a coiling cable.

“The bird flies because it wants to,” Kyleʼs mum said into the radio, in an oddly measured voice. “But flightless birds are the ones to watch out for.”

Wow. That was… absolute nonsense. Maybe a secret code? Something to signify who they were so they could be let inside?

“Enter,” came the response from the radio, and a section of the wall in front of them lowered. Suspicions confirmed, then.

Kyle stared in endless curiosity at the building as the car slowly rolled inside. All of the gearing that moved the wall was visible from the interior, and once the car was fully into the building, the mechanisms whirred into life, and the wall raised up behind them. 

This would be his first time visiting the base of Envision, the agency where his parents worked. Despite the potentially perilous situation he was in, he couldn’t help but be curious.

The headlights of the car clicked on as the rising wall reached the top, blocking any outside light from shining in. Kyle’s mum eased the car forwards again, steering towards a ramp that spiralled down beneath the ground.

After a few circles that made Kyle’s head spin, the ramp eased out into a more open area, dimly lit with warm tones from the lights. It was… it was…!

A car park! Inside the car park, was another car park! (But this one was Envision’s car park.)

Kyle’s mum turned the car to the side, parking it next to another familiar car, an old silver sedan that had begun to rust.

His father’s car.

His father, who was leaning against the boot of the car, tapping his foot and gripping his sleeve.

This was really happening, then. As Kyle and his mother stepped out of the car, his father made haste towards them, running a shaky hand through his light brown hair.

“I’m sorry, Tara, I blew it, I—”

Kyle’s mother halted his father’s panickings, grabbing his shoulders and holding him at arm’s length. “Darrell, It’s okay. You survived, and you escaped without injury.”

“I… Yeah…” 

“It’ll be alright. Let’s go and talk to the handler.” Mum gestured for him to follow. “Leave your bag in the car, we’ll collect it after.” 

Kyle nodded, falling in stride behind his parents as he looked around the car park at all the other spy cars everywhere.

This was going to be so cool.

* * * * *

After a brief conversation with a guard at the entrance — something about birds again — the three of them stuffed themselves into a cramped elevator. Kyle couldn’t stop his mind from racing as they were brought up dozens of floors, up to the level where he was assuming his parents would be grilled about what went wrong. 

Had something gone wrong with the mission as a result of his father having his cover blown? Would they be… punished for it? Would they be able to keep working as spies? Kyle really hoped that they would. Otherwise he’d have less chances to be doing something cool like this.

The elevator doors opened, and the three of them were greeted by a man in a dark suit, gesturing for them to follow him down the corridor. 

At their destination, he ushered them inside a room where someone else was waiting. 

“Mr. N…” Kyle’s father mumbled, sounding like his worries from earlier had returned at full force. 

This was Mr. N? 

Kyle had heard his parents discussing another man at Envision, the one that was in charge of the two of them. Their “handler.” From what they’d said, he seemed to be fairly generous, assisting heavily during the times they’d had to move across the country. One time he’d even left a present for Kyle when his parents were called off on a week-long mission. 

Mr. N, on the other hand, being in charge of operations overall, was a level above their handler in authority. It wasn’t often that people were addressed directly by the higher-ups at the agency, Kyle had heard. And yet here they were, staring directly at this higher-up as he stood behind his desk. 

This was probably a little scary for his parents.

“Ah, Agent Tara and Agent Darrell, I’m glad you made it here safely.” 

“Sir,” the two of them replied, standing at attention. Seeing his parents acting so seriously, Kyle stiffened up until he was standing at attention too. 

“It’s good to see you’re unharmed, Darrell,” Mr. N continued, stepping towards the middle of the room. “Given the… extenuating circumstances you were under, evading capture is probably the best you could’ve done. It is regrettable, but understandable.” 

As Kyle’s father flinched at his boss’s words, Mr. N held a remote out towards the ceiling. Pressing one of the large buttons towards the top of the device, a hole opened up above them, and three monitors swung down on mechanical arms. 

“I doubt you were even aware of it at the time.” Mr. N pressed another button on the remote, and as Kyle was marvelling at the contraption that had sprung out of the ceiling, the three monitors flicked on. 

“This is…” Kyle’s dad whispered, his eyes wide open. 

“Unfortunately, our opposition was two steps ahead of us this time, and we had no idea.” Mr. N folded his arms. “We didn’t lose anything at least, thanks to your quick thinking, but the situation could’ve easily turned sour. Especially considering…” 

With another press of the button, the image on the screen changed. And while Kyle had been full of curiosity staring into the gap in the ceiling, the new footage being displayed caught his attention. 

“Wait, this is my school!” 

“Thatʼs right, kid. You had a few near-misses of your own.” Mr. N fast-forwarded the footage until it showed the end of the morning rush, through a camera in the hallway by some classrooms. 

Lagging behind the pack of students filing into the classroom was Kyle, his arms full with a folder and a heavy textbook. He staggered along, constantly shifting his grip on his belongings as he hurried towards the classroom. 

Kyle’s face went a little red as he watched the video. He remembered when this happened, just a few days ago. That incident had almost stopped that day from being Not-Terrible. 

In the footage, as Kyle veered into the open door to a classroom, his folder tumbled out of his hands, and papers spilled along the floor. 

At the same time, however, two men with short, dark hair and casual clothes entered the corridor. They rushed along, peering into each of the classrooms through the high up window on the door. 

Kyle spotted a glimpse of himself crouching down to pick up his belongings, before one of his classmates pushed the sliding door shut. And as the men reached his classroom, they peered through the window, shook their heads, and moved on. 

“Without question, they were looking for you,” Mr. N said, pausing the footage. “Quite frankly, it’s a miracle that they never found you.”

This came as quite a shock to Kyle; he had no idea that he had pursuers of his own. 

“The fact that they would go so far as to search for your child,” Mr. N continued, turning towards Kyle’s dad. “It gives me reason to believe that our opposition may have known about the two of you far earlier than we had anticipated. That… mistake of yours may have been an unavoidable trap that they had set.”

Kyle’s parents both lowered their heads, silent at Mr. N’s words. Meanwhile, Kyle was internally panicking, combing through as much of his memory as he could. Had he been the one to compromise the mission? He’d never had agents sent after him before. 

“Unfortunately, given the circumstances, I am required to take you off this assignment,” Mr. N stated, slowly turning his back on Kyle’s family.

He paused for a moment, taking an audibly deep breath. 

“Incidentally… a rather intriguing report has recently come in from some of our field agents… a report that warrants further investigation.”

Still holding the remote, Mr. N held his hand up, pushing one of the buttons with a flourish. Motors whirred into life as the monitors that hung from the ceiling were brought back up into their resting place. 

At the same time, a large panel on the wall began to move, getting further inset into the wall before sliding away. In its place, a large television slid down until it was perfectly flush with the space where the panel had been.

Kyle had a moment to wonder, wasn’t this all a bit excessive? They were already looking at footage on screens, and now a different, larger one had been brought out.

“Now, I believe you two are familiar with the layout of the state, correct?” Mr. N waited for a nod from Kyle’s parents before he continued. “Good. Now… Here is recent satellite imagery of the state, stitched together from a few different photos.”

With another small flourish, Mr. N pressed another button on the remote, and an image appeared on the television.

As he had said, the picture on the screen was a satellite photo of the state. With the clear sky, you could easily see the capital city, along with the main highways snaking through the suburbs and off to the smaller towns. While Kyle hadn’t been living in the state for all that long, he’d spent long enough studying the map to know roughly where his family lived.

So then why, towards the upper left corner of the map, far away from the capital and disconnected from any main roads, was there another city?

“I’m guessing you can see what’s wrong with this picture,” Mr. N stated. “These images are from just three days ago. If we go back to earlier imagery…” 

At the press of a button, the screen switched to another satellite image, this time with that city missing. 

“The city is gone!” Kyle exclaimed.

“Ahem. Within the past five days, an entire city has mysteriously appeared in our state.” Mr. N switched the image back with his remote, using it to gesture towards the mysterious city that was now helpfully outlined with a red circle, along with about twelve arrows pointing towards it. “Of course, it goes without saying that we canʼt just leave this city alone, not before Monument attempts to get a foothold there.” 

A strange city that appeared out of nowhere… the concept was odd enough that it pulled Kyle away from his current thoughts, which were fixated on figuring out where all these screens were hidden behind the walls, and how the machinery for revealing them worked.

“Now,” Mr. N continued, “we’ve sent a few agents to do cursory reconnaissance, and just yesterday their report arrived at my office, along with some footage taken from the city streets.”

The satellite imagery shrunk into the upper left corner of the screen, and the footage in question began to play in the empty space.

At a glance, the video looked like it could’ve been from any city in the world. As Kyle and his parents looked closer, however, a few odd differences stood out to them.

For one, the cars in this city (cars that Kyle didn’t recognise) shared the streets with some other… contraptions. The camera shook as a large chariot passed by, pulled along by what looked like a giant wheel, with two long pipes connecting it to the main body of the carriage. 

Another vehicle passed by shortly behind the carriage, a vintage-looking car that bore a striking similarity to some vintage cars that Kyle had seen before. 

Although none of those vintage cars had shared the same strange green glow this car had, shining from the gaps in the bonnet.

The second thing that stood out to Kyle and his family, something that Kyle had almost missed as he’d been focused on the cars, were the people.

Again, at a cursory glance, the people of the city looked like just anyone that you could find out and about. While the camera footage was a little grainy, the people on the other side of the street looked perfectly normal, just like anyone else.

The camera turned to face someone who had just passed behind the shot, and lingered on their retreating figure for a few moments. On this person’s head, sprouting out of the back and curling around the side, were numerous feathers.

A headdress? Was it a costume of some kind? It almost looked like a crown, or a strange headband that they were wearing. At least, that was the theory Kyle had, until he spotted the short tail of feathers peeking just out from this person’s coat.

Two more people passed by the camera. While one of them seemed like a normal human, two spiked horns were visible on the other person’s head, along with a thin, scaly tail trailing behind them. 

“As you can see, this city is… irregular. We’re not sure what technology this city might have, or what knowledge its citizens hold. As a result, the strategists have decided that we need a foothold within the city, a base of operations from within which to investigate. That is where you three come into play.”

As Mr. N spoke, Kyle continued watching the footage. Maybe that person he’d seen earlier wasn’t wearing a costume, since now there were similar sorts of ‘Stepped Right Out of a Fantasy’ people going past. People with varying amounts of horns, furry or feathered ears, horns, tails, so on and so forth.

So the city wasn’t one from Earth, then. Kyle was surprised at how easily he jumped to that conclusion, despite how wild it sounded. But if the footage was real, then… it couldn’t really be anything else.

As he pondered the further implications of a city that wasn’t from Earth suddenly appearing on Earth, something strange caught Kyle’s eye, hidden away in the corner of the shot. Just outside of a building across the road was a short girl, standing stock still… her ruby red eyes staring piercingly into the camera.

“You see,” Mr. N went on, pausing the video, “just a few hours ago we intercepted communications from Monument’s messaging system. They sent out a directive for their agents to search for a number of people. One Darrell, Tara, and Kyle Turner.”

He turned to directly face the three of them.

“The Envision strategists have analysed the signal that this directive originated from. The message has likely reached every Monument agent in the city, and will soon spread further. It’s not safe for you to stay in this city, not… as you are right now.”

Two knocks resounded on the door behind them. A slight smile crept onto Mr. N’s face, and he cleared his throat.

“We need a team of competent agents to settle into the city. To figure out why it appeared out of nowhere, and just what the city might contain. We need people who will… fit in, shall we say… and you three need some new identities. So… how would you like a new assignment?”

 

The following note was attached to this file by Agent C.V.:

I had absolutely so much fun when Lumina and I were theorising this story!! It's set in the same multiverse as my story Extra Credit for an Eldritch Horror, which made it even more fun. And then seeing the story actually get written, and polished, and now uploaded to Scribble is even more exciting. I can't wait to see what all of you think!!!!! Especially with some of the stuff coming later, once the protagonist is.... on assignment ;)

I think this story is going to end up being pretty long -- most likely longer than Dissonant by a wide margin -- based on the number of threads and Lumina's future plans. Luckily all the way up to chapter 7 is already posted to Lumina's Patreon, and you can check that out early for only like $3 I think??? Afaik Patreon is going to stay ahead by like a month, too, at least, so it's going to be worth it imo. (Hehehe, there's no way Lumina would plug her Patreon this hard. >:) This is what happens when you give me the mic!

- Chiri Vulpes, Lumina's girlfriend who loves her and who's going to push the publish button without giving her a chance to get cold feet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!