The elevator whirred further down, a slight rattle jostling it from side to side.

“This’ll be my first time through the machine,” Kyle’s mother said, her voice shaking just a little. “I’m… not sure what to expect.”

She had enthusiastically taken the job that Mr. N offered, as had Kyle’s father. And as for Kyle himself… the prospect of accompanying his parents on a spy mission and actually helping with their work sounded exciting. When Mr. N clarified that the offer was extended to him too, he accepted without a second thought.

And they’d be heading to a mysterious city, where the people looked like they had jumped straight out of a fantasy world. More than that, their technology looked fascinating too. Kyle’s mind wandered thinking about what interesting mechanisms and robotics could be made while they were all over there.

Back to the matter at hand, Kyle and his family still needed their new identities. And he had no idea what that would involve.

“Oh, it’s a treat,” a tall guy with scruffy brown hair said. “This baby is the result of months of researching a strange, ancient artefact from an unknown civilisation. The fact that it works at all is wild! Somehow it doesnʼt even make people uncomfortable.”

“Huh…” Kyle’s mother mumbled, uncrossing her arms.

“This time we’ve bundled in the footage from that city you guys are going to. I don’t imagine it’ll make much difference since it seems to already know what people should be disguised as, but…” the scruffy guy scratched his head. “This was what the strategists suggested, so we’re goin’ ahead with it.”

The elevator shuddered to a halt, the doors opening in front of them.

“C’mon, let’s go.”

The three of them followed their guide out into the dimly lit room.

“Take a moment to catch your breath if you need,” he said, gesturing towards the seating that lined the sides of the room. “Getting disguised this way is a big deal, so we’ll go when you’re ready.”

“Let’s get this over with.”

Both of Kyle’s parents stepped forward, their paths diverging to two separate doors labelled ‘Booth 01’ and ‘Booth 02’. The guide jumped forward, pressing the card on his lanyard to each of the doors, pushing them open afterwards.

Kyle took a deep breath. He still had no idea what taking on new identities — or getting “disguised” — really meant, but… he’d agreed to this, hadn’t he?

The scruffy guy spoke up, standing just next to a door labelled ‘Booth 03’. “You alright, kid?”

“Yeah, I’m just… trying to figure out what’s going to happen,” Kyle replied.

“Ah, right, you wouldn’t know about this, would you?” The door opened with a click as his scruffy guide swiped his card against the handle. “C’mon and have a look. I’m one of the technicians for the machine, so I’ll explain what it does.”

Following the guy, Kyle peered through the doorway.

At the centre of the room lay a large, tube-shaped machine, with two long rails sticking out of it. Attached to those rails was a cot not unlike one you’d find in a hospital.

“…An MRI?”

“No, not exactly,” the technician explained. “Well… nah, it kinda is, actually. It’s modelled after one — safest way to integrate it with the artefact.”

The scruffy technician stepped into the room, and Kyle followed close behind, shutting the door after himself. The artefact? That was incredibly non-descriptive of its functions.

“Honestly I’m not really sure how it works. We kinda only managed to make this by chance, and I still haven’t picked apart the artefact yet. Hard to do that when it’s… well… you’ll see…”

“Umm… okay…” Kyle said, for the first time sort of worried. He really preferred understanding how machines worked before they operated on him. Not that he’d ever been operated on like this before. He kept trying to look around the machine for any visible parts, but it was all sealed shut.

“I dunno… there’s so many mysteries with this disguise machine. Like… how does it know? You know? Well, besides the video we give it sometimes, anyway.” As he was talking, the technician smoothed out the thin sheet covering the bed, stepping back once it was neat. “Anyway, get ya’ gown on and we’ll start it up.”

Following his gaze, Kyle found a small changing room with a hospital gown hanging inside. Hopping into the room and closing the door, Kyle absentmindedly changed into the gown, his thoughts still focused on the mystery of the Not-MRI-Machine.

“Right, let’s get you set up.” The scruffy guy tapped the bed as Kyle re-emerged. “You all ready?”

Kyle nodded, climbing up onto the bed and laying on his back. Maybe being inside the machine was the best chance to study it. He’d have to pay very close attention.

As the bed slid inside, he peered up towards the inside of the opening. None of the scanning equipment was visible — maybe it was completely enclosed within the structure itself? He still didn’t know how exactly this machine was going to disguise him. He couldn’t imagine how it would work, so he decided that he’d just wait and see.

“Alright, stage one,” the scruffy guy said, his voice filtered through a tinny speaker above Kyle’s head.

A panel quickly slid down to the right, revealing a small compartment containing a screen. On that screen was the footage he’d seen earlier, showing the mysterious city.

“Stage two.”

Another panel slid down to his left, this time causing a strange, lime green light to illuminate the space. Kyle blinked several times, trying to make sure he was actually seeing what he thought he was seeing.

“Are those bees?!”

“Oh, the anaesthetic should kick in pretty soon,” the technician’s tinny voice said.

Anaesthetic?!?!

With a loud puff, the centre of the machine filled with a thick grey fog.

* * * * *

Kyle awoke to the sensation of being lightly jostled. 

Was… was his bed moving? Kyle didn’t remember falling asleep in the car…  Was this another one of those dreams that had his bed floating down a river?

Wait… that buzzing sound. Bees! The Not-MRI-Machine! Kyle quickly started to sit up, looking back into the tube behind him to see the strange swarm of bees retreating back towards their lime green, crystalline hive.

Kyle had been disguised… by an ominous swarm of bees.

Well that was unfortunate. He’d been somewhat interested in seeing what kind of machine would be responsible for the disguise…

Rolling onto his side, he swung his legs off the bed, lowering his feet down to the ground. There was no one to greet him in the room, but he could hear faint voices just nearby.

Using his hands, he pushed himself off the high bed, immediately stumbling into a handrail.

“Woah,” he gasped, before closing his mouth. Was the room just echoey, or… no, his hearing was probably still a little dull from the anaesthetic.

At least, if his wobbly gait was anything to go by, he was still definitely feeling the effects. He inched his way down off the raised platform, out of the short alcove where the bed was and into the open room ahead.

If he’d been disguised… That meant he looked different now, right? He couldn’t yet tell if he felt different, but hopefully his grogginess would ease soon enough.

He glanced around the room, following the sound of the voices. His vision was still somewhat blurry, but he could make out three figures just nearby, two of them wearing hospital gowns.

That’d be his parents, then, along with their scruffy guide from earlier?

“You sure you’re alright?” The technician asked. “If that’s throwing ya’ off balance, I can get you a cane. One of the guys upstairs can get one properly fitted and everything.”

“No, I’ll… I’ll be alright,” Kyle’s mother replied, in the same tone of voice Kyle always heard when she insisted that she was fine, but was actually mildly panicking.

“Still, I know we fed the BRI Machine the video from the city, but I had no idea it could do that! I’ll have to do so much more research!”

What was going on? Did something go wrong with Mum’s disguise? Kyle blinked a few times, his vision finally clearing.

The technician turned to face Kyle, as did the two people in hospital gowns.

“Wow! I didn’t know it could do that either!”

Kyle stood in shock, staring at his parents.

For his father, aside from his hair — which was now much fuller, and a darker dusty brown colour — not much had changed. On closer inspection, a few of the wrinkles on his face did look a little different, just enough that at first glance he looked like someone different.

Kyle’s mother, on the other hand…

While Kyle still recognised her instantly, the differences were a bit more dramatic. Her hair had become this vibrant blonde colour, and was now much longer. Her eyes had changed colour too, to a much lighter almost-orange shade.

More importantly, though, there was something — or two things, really — that were very out of place.

On the top of her head were two fluffy, furry fox ears.

They wiggled from side to side as she leaned against a chair, her gait seeming just as wobbly as Kyle had felt earlier.

“I guess we know why Kyle was in there for so long,” she said, her eyes wide.

Wait, had something happened to him? Kyle pushed aside the surprise at his mother’s new… additions — ones that, interestingly, wouldn’t look out of place in the footage of the mysterious city — and stared down at himself. 

Unfortunately, most of his body was hidden under the hospital gown, so he couldn’t tell what they were referring to.

“There’s a mirror in here,” Kyle’s mum said, gesturing towards the side of the room. “I haven’t had a close up look at myself, so… let’s go together.”

She carefully stepped forward, her legs shaking a little. Kyle followed close behind, bracing himself against the wall so he didn’t fall.

The two of them stopped in front of the mirror, standing side by side.

This was… quite the disguise for him to have. On the one hand, this would definitely keep him safe from any agents chasing after him, since there was no way they would recognise him.

On the other hand…

The figure that stared back at him in the mirror had bright blonde hair reaching down to her waist, similar in colour to his mother. 

Also similar to Kyle’s mother, two fluffy fox ears twitched back and forth on top of her head, and a thick, furry fox tail peeked out from under her hospital gown.

All-in-all, it seemed like a really amazing disguise. No one would recognise Kyle at all, and he’d fit in perfectly in that strange city. He nodded to the girl in the mirror, smiling to himself as he pictured—

“Wait, why am I disguised as a girl?!”

 

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

They always said the bees were trans, they never said the bees trans'd!!!!

Okay that's it for Operation: Extraction! Just reminding y'all that a whole bunch more content is already written and up on Lumina's Patreon if you'd like to support her. It's alright if not though -- more chapters are coming next week! Hope y'all are excited for Operation: Infiltration! (You'll never guess what that series of chapters will be about. Here's a hint: it starts with "in" and ends with "filtration", and it doesn't have anything to do with water filtration.)

- Chiri Vulpes, the girlfriend guest star who likes to hear herself talk