The car rumbled as it drove along. 

Well, no, the tires rumbled across the slight imperfections in the road. The car was the same one they usually drove, so its electric motor was almost silent. 

Just like its occupants, the car had also been disguised. A number of the body panels had been switched out, and the whole vehicle was painted a deep blue, like the bluest depths of the ocean. It had been given new wheels, too, this time with tires more suited to offroad surfaces. It was all very exciting.

The mysterious city wasn't connected to any streets or highways, after all. 

In the back seat of the car, a young girl with blonde hair and fox ears fidgeted with the blanket sitting on her lap. 

That girl… was not Kyle. After all, a crucial part of any disguise was a new name. Her mother had suggested “Kylie”, since it was similar to Kyle.

She had thought about it, when her mum had suggested it. She’d thought long and hard. In her mind, she’d run through her options. Considered Kylie… pondered Penny… assessed Annette, evaluated Emma… but none of them felt quite right.

She needed something perfect. She needed something that would fit her. That would fit her disguise, anyway. She needed the perfect name for this character that she would be, so that she wouldn’t be able to fall out of character.

Oh, right. Her mother had suggested Kylie. 

“Absolutely not,” she responded. One point three seven seconds had passed since her mother had asked the question.

That would have defeated the whole purpose of the disguise! What if someone from the rival agency was chasing the three of them, and followed them into the city? No way! Not worth the risk.

Better to fully commit to the disguise than to half-heartedly attempt it, right?

In the end, she’d settled on Jill, the name of the amazing super-cool spy lady with loud sports cars in those old spy films she used to watch. It was perfect. How could she break character when it matched reality so perfectly? Jill really was a spy, now, after all! Okay… well, maybe she wasn’t amazing and super cool. And maybe her car was actually a station wagon with an electric motor that made no noise. And maybe she didn’t actually even own the car. And maybe she couldn’t even drive. But still!

Meanwhile, one of the staff members had been so concerned at how dramatically different Jill’s disguise was that they’d offered her an alternative option. They were sure that the machine could undo her changes. If she chose that, she’d spend her time with a foster family, or an orphanage; somewhere interstate or overseas.

Of course, she turned the offer down instantly!

Part of it was that she didn’t want to be separated from her family, but more importantly, she had been given the chance of a lifetime to help with a spy mission, like the ones her parents were always doing. She wasn’t going to pass this up for anything in the world!

(Also, the ominous swarm of angry glowing bees in the machine was just a little bit intimidating.)

Jill was a little disappointed to learn how the machine really worked — after all, the glowing bees were too small and biological for her to observe and learn from. Why were the coolest gadgets at Envision always like this? That had happened before with some of the gadgets her parents had left around the house, too. Unfair. 

Anyway, she bounced back quickly from her disappointment, moving on with her family to the next step of their disguise.

The clothes she was wearing now were given to her by the costume department. Why it was called that when they primarily dealt with everyday clothes, she had no idea. 

Even so, the clothes were quite comfortable on her. They’d even done some hurried modifications to accommodate her tail. By the time she figured out how to slip said tail through the little cutout on the pants and buckle them up, an entire wardrobe had been prepared for both her and her also-tailed mother. At least her father had been easier.

A police siren suddenly blared from behind the car, causing Jill to jolt forward in surprise out of her reminiscing. Their great escape was being interrupted, and this was the true test. If they could deceive whoever was coming to investigate them, they’d be free to go.

Jill quivered in anticipation.

Her dad pulled the car over to the side of the road, gesturing for everyone to pull their hoods forward.

That was the method they came up with to hide both Jill’s and her mum’s new features. The two of them had folded their ears back, and tucked them inside the hood of a hoodie. It wasn’t exactly the most comfortable way to hide them, but it did the job until they were out of the city.

A man wearing a police uniform rapped against the driver’s side window. They’d been warned about this, that Monument would be after them. Intel suggested that they would set up checkpoints to stop passing travellers, or have people patrolling the roads leading out of the city.

Jill’s dad rolled down the window, calling jovially to the person outside.

“Anything wrong, officer?”

“Just need to ask you a few questions,” the man replied, lifting a piece of paper up to the window. “We’re searching for a group of wanted criminals, trying to catch them before they flee the city. Have you seen any of these people?”

Wanted criminals? Peering forward, Jill inspected the paper that the man was holding. On it was a remarkably detailed courtroom sketch-style drawing, depicting her undisguised family.

In that case, it was likely that this person wasn’t a real police officer, Jill surmised. Instead, they were probably hired by Monument and just pretending to be a cop. They were a Not-Police-Officer! That was illegal! Those dastardly Monument agents…

“Nah, never seen them in my life,” Jill’s father replied, shaking his head.

The man in the police uniform nodded, leaning down and stealing a glance in the back of the car. “Alrighty. It’s just standard procedure, we have to inspect any car with a couple and a kid. Mind if I just…”

He stared right in through the window. Jill took a shallow breath, trying to put on her best “I’m not the one you’re looking for” face for the cop.

“Yeah nah, pretty sure they have a son. You’re free to go.”

“Alright, thank you officer,” Jill’s dad said, nodding.

The ‘police officer’ nodded in return, strolling back to his car seeming none the wiser.

Jill and her family were silent as they started the car back up, pulling out onto the highway and continuing forward. The two in the front seats kept a watchful eye on the rear-view mirrors, while Jill spun around and peered out of the back window. After all, they were still on the same highway as the probably-fake policeman.

Soon enough though, the police car turned down one of the exit ramps. Presumably he was looping back to continue his patrol. The three of them stayed quiet, until… 

“I can’t believe we got away with that,” Jill’s mum said, bursting into laughter. 

Jill was almost bouncing with excitement. That Monument agent, he had stared directly at her face, and then at the sketch of how she used to look.

He had no idea.

Her disguise was perfect!

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Jill’s father interjected. “We just have to hope that he wasn’t going back to his car to call for backup or something. I doubt we’ll have to worry, but better to be safe than…”

Pushing a button on the car’s centre console, he studied the map that appeared on the screen for a few moments. 

“Actually, nevermind, we’re home free.” Shifting the car over a few lanes, he drove down the off-ramp and onto a smaller road.

Jill thought back to the photo she’d seen in the spy base, the satellite imagery of the mysterious city. She didn’t have the most perfect sense of direction, but she remembered the large highway nearby, and the road that snaked off closer to their destination.

It wasn’t too much further then. Just a bit more on that road, then some navigating offroad, and then they’d reach the city.

Jill squirmed a little in her seat. This was exactly the feeling she was hoping for once she was brought onto this mission. Leaving your old identity behind, travelling to somewhere unknown… It was the sort of thing she only ever saw on TV, and now she was living it!

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

Ah yes, the ol' classic "I'm not a girl, I'm just really good at pretending to be! uwu" Don't worry, though — it'll get worse before it gets better!

Also don't forget, there's a bunch more chapters already available on Lumina's Patreon if you'd like to support her and the story!

- Chiri Vulpes, She Who Cannot Eat Eggs But Sure Likes to Read About Them