Within the hour of the call, Sunset was once again picked up by that mysterious driver and Dry Clean. She had to restrain herself from punching the insufferable incompetent. Instead, she resorted to grunts and general noises of annoyance. The poor guy had no choice but to accept it.

The drive there was uneventful. Sunset was too annoyed to even look outside the window and instead just glared at the seat in front of her. Maybe if she stared hard enough, it'd catch on fire. Ugh, but then that would cause another butt load of annoyances. Sunset groaned. These CIA guys are horrible.

"Well, we're back!" Dry raised his arms up in front of the CIA building.

"Shuddup. It's 1 AM. I am NOT in the mood." Sunset pushed past him and all but slammed the glass door open. She swore she heard a crack, but ignored it. With a furrowed brow, she stormed past the secretary and went straight to the elevator. She swiped the card she snatched on the way over and waited for the negative button to show. Two minutes later, she continued her warpath on the Floor. Agents and scientists alike all fell silent as they watched Sunset rush past them all.

She reached the double doors uninterrupted and quite literally kicked them down. Sunset picked up the past as she brushed past the doors hanging on their hinges and slid past the baffled employees. Up the stairs and straight into the Headmaster's office.

"Playback."

"Shimmer."

"Fuck you."

"What do you want?"

"...what do you mean?"

"I have another job for you. What do you want in exchange?"

Sunset took that moment to fully analyze the Headmaster. There were stress lines all over her aging face, stains that looked days old on her shirt, and there was a broken monitor in the corner. Her expression was also dead serious. Something happened within those few hours after the previous mission ended, and it wasn't pretty. Judging from that shirt, it's been a consistent problem.

"The Intel?" Sunset took a stab and from the Headmaster's wince, she was right on the money.

"What do you want?" She repeated, her voice even more grim.

"I want residency. ID, the whole shebang. I'm an illegal immigrant, right? I don't want to be."

"Done."

"Then let's get started."

The Headmaster blinked once, twice, then she cracked a weary smile. "Pleasure to be working with you again."

"We'll see if it's mutual." The two shook on it and the Headmaster immediately launched into exposition mode.

Apparently, almost immediately after the concert ended, the Headmaster dispatched a covert ops group to follow Money Bags and locate the disk that carried the Intel. They went dark after two hours into the mission. Not uncommon, so HQ didn't do anything. Merely watched, as is protocol. Two hours later, they sent out a recon specialist, trained specifically for these kinds of scenarios. Their kit comes with a built in camera in their night vision visor, so HQ had visuals. The moment the specialist crossed the gate into the estate of Money Bags, five turrets popped out of the ground, painted them with lasers, and soon the specialist was no more. The Headmaster had the tech crew work around the clock to see how that system worked. It turns out that through the intel, the turrets and any other technological armament, have CIA faces and information downloaded into their targeting matrix.

"Well...that's heavy." Sunset said after a moment's silence. The Headmaster nodded and sipped her chamomile tea. It seemed to have a considerable effect on her, as her shoulders visibly relaxed.

"Yeah." She took another sip before placing the cup on a counter. "What I want is to send you in, alongside Dry Clean and Stick Shift, and get that disk by any means necessary. While I do say that, I highly suggest you do not resort to killing. The paperwork and the government rebuttal is not worth it."

"One question."

"Shoot."

"Who's Stick Shift?"

"Your driver." Huh. So that's who the mysterious woman was.

"So that's it? Any means necessary?"

"Correct." The Headmaster leaned forward slightly. "If you want more compensation now that you understand the situation, I will find a way to arrange it."

"Just get me that residency. A legal one."

"I can do more than that and have you instated as an actual citizen."

"Fine." Sunset stretched for a moment before settling back in. "Another question."

"What is it?"

"This team? Just me, Dry, and Stick Shift. No one else?"

"No one else I can spare from CIA. Dry and Shift are not agents so they are not registered in the database. You are team leader, Agent Shimmer, whatever you decide, I'll allow. That also means any other team members you might decide to recruit."

"Alright. Final question. Why do you trust me so much?"

"I like you." The Headmaster grinned. Alongside her stress lines and dark circles, it looked downright terrifying. Sunset grinned in response. "That being said, if you ever betray us, I'll hunt you down personally."

"Sounds like we've got a deal."

The two gripped each other's hands with ferocious grins. To the poor employee who had happened to walk past that very moment fled in terror. He would then claim that it was like the room was on fire without actual flames.

***

"Alright. Playback decided that I'm the leader and you're my crew." Sunset said, completely exhausted after that mental battle earlier. The three of them were in a small side room, complete with two couches and a coffee table. There was even a small kitchenette in the corner. Very quaint. Dry was busy trying to make a sandwich while Stick Shift was lounging on the couch with a neutral expression. Sunset took the opportunity to glance over the mystery woman.

Her outfit had barely changed from the first time Sunset met her. A comfortable dark suit, complete with a tie. Slick shades that matched well her with her long jet-black hair. While her posture was completely lax, Sunset noticed a slight tension which meant she was ready for anything. Sunset liked that.

"Do you guys know what the job is?" Sunset tried her hand at small talk.

"No." The two replied in unison. Dry's 'no' was more muffled because he was talking around his sandwich. Shift's voice sounded very musical, touched with hardness. Sunset took note and continued to talk.

"Well, it turns the previous group botched it. We're the third attempt."

"Third?" Dry inhaled with shock before spluttering into a coughing fit. He pounded on his chest several times before finally hacking out a piece of lettuce.

"Yes. Third. However, Playback's placed me as team leader which means we're going to do it my way. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am!" Dry saluted. Shift merely nodded.

"Great! Now I'm going home to sleep. Shift, pick me up at 10. We'll talk over breakfast." And with that, Sunset walked out of the room and completely ignored the surprised spluttering of Dry. Stars help her, she will have her deserved rest.

Author's Note

I added the profanity tag because it just seemed like a too perfect moment to not have that 'F U'. There won't be much cursing following this...probably.