Moonstrike 6: The Team Works

They were in a meeting room before the hour was up. The energy was palpable from her end of the table. Alex was all but bouncing in his seat and she wasn't much better.

When Alex gave a giddy little smile in her direction, Ji Min couldn't help but return it.

He didn't react. She blinked for a moment at how cold that felt.

Belatedly, she remembered the mask thing. Ji Min gave an awkward little 'yay" motion with her hands to make up for the lack of nonverbal communication.

"First time in a mission room." He said it quietly, but the handlers clearly heard them. Alejandro and the woman whose name Ji Min didn't actually know exchanged an indulgent glance.

'They're our team, too,' she realized for the first time. 'They're probably just as excited as we are.'

She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head slightly as she examined the two government agents. There had to be some sign that they were anticipating the launch.

Both of them were impeccable in their outfits and presentation. Alejandro had his hair slicked back today and there were no loose hairs that indicated he'd been touching it at all. His collar was starched.

His female colleague was just as well heeled. She had her hair up in a tight bun today and a sharp line of dark blue eyeliner made her face look sharp. She'd matched it to a blue suit dress.

Neither one of them was fidgeting, sweating, swaying, or raising their voices at all.

…Maybe they were just really good at hiding any nerves.

"I wonder if you can guess what this is about." Man, Ji Min really needed to learn her name. The agent gave them both a mild smile over the folders in her hands.

"A mission or a mock mission," Alex said eagerly. "That's right, isn't it?" When he leaned forward, he accidentally flexed. Ji Min’s eye caught on the poor seam of his short sleeved workout shirt as it struggled dearly to keep up with his bicep.

She gave him a side eye before she thought better of it. Still, teacher's pet behavior was kinda sad coming from an adult.

"That's right," came the easy praise. "We have information about a crime we want to be stopped." Her eyes flickered to Ji Min for just a moment, and- a crime, a criminal that they’d be trusted to work against, looking at her rather than Alex-

"Hammer is trying to sell that model of Jupiter," Ji Min blurted out in a sudden flash of intuition.

Everyone looked at her for a moment

Alex's brow furrowed. The other two didn't react at all other than taking a little too long to say anything.

"That's correct," said the female agent after a stilted silence. She cleared her throat. "The Planetarium has been very generous about the situation, but they really would prefer to retrieve their property. They seem to have located a buyer, and scheduled the transfer for next month."

"So we are interrupting the sale?" Alex gave Ji Min an uncertain smile before directing his question to his handler.

"You'll need to work together to find him and where the sale will be taking place," she confirmed.

Ji Min nodded. "New Platopolis," she said, meaning it as an agreement. This game was easy. Gene had told her that a few weeks ago.

Alejandro put down his pen. He didn't turn to look at her, but it sort of seemed like he wanted to.

"...It might be," the female agent said.

Alex let out a sigh. "It is, isn't it." He sounded resigned. "I guess you don't need me for information gathering this time."

Ji Min looked at him sideways. "Is that your thing?" She asked, genuinely curious.

His smile was a little pained. "I thought it was going to be part of my role."

Oh. She suppressed the urge to fidget. "You can do it next time," she said awkwardly, even though she didn't really want to work with him.

He laughed, clearly trying to be okay with things. "You've gotta tell me your source," he joked.

At least, she hoped it was a joke. Ji Min let out a pained little laugh.

'I can't tell the government that I'm Gene's mechanic. For a lot of reasons. I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to text villains.'

Maybe it hadn't been a joke. They were all still looking at her, waiting. She should probably talk less, she reflected.

For the first time, Ji Min felt a little uncomfortable about her obsession with Hammer. It wasn't that aberrant, was it?

"I'm just very interested in Hammer," she finally said. It sounded pathetic. Fuck, what do good people say? She took a wild stab at it.  "I want to bring him to justice."

Alejandro finally nodded. "Well, as you're certain, we can confirm that matches our intelligence." He stole a moment of eye contact with his coworker.

'They think I'm massively weird.'

“However, unless you have more detailed information, then this operation will require Alex’s information gathering,” cut in his handler with a glance at him. He gave her a wan smile in answer. “New Platopolis is a large city.”

Ji Min just nodded. She could probably wheedle some more information out of Gene, but not enough to find him. Not without making him suspicious, at least.

Ah. “Isn’t he still with Colmer?” she said. She tried not to sound tense, but who knew if she succeeded. She didn’t want to encounter Gene again, not in a mask. He was a bad man to be on the opposite side of.

Alejandro nodded. “Yes, but we have reason to believe that Mr. Colmer will split from Hammer before you need to make a move.” He shuffled his papers and handed one over to Ji Min and Alex each.

“What’s that?” Alex asked, settling back into his chair. His grey eyes flicked up to Alejandro.

His handler cut in. “The details of that aren’t important for your purposes. But we trust the information that we have and it’s been verified.”

Alex nodded, but he looked a little dissatisfied. “Thùy, why are we doing this?” He waved a hand around in a little circle. “I’m happy, of course, but we haven’t really finished training. There’s already a team that the state could call on for this.”

Ji Min made a mental note of the name. Alex’s handler was Thùy. Good to know. Her social anxiety settled down a little bit.

Thùy smiled at him tolerantly. “You’re right. If we judged the situation to be beyond your skill level, we would assign other agents to it. However, Miss Strike has a vested interest and demonstrated capacity for dealing with Hammer.”

Ji Min was very still while she processed that new nickname.

‘It’s better than Miss Moon,’ she thought, stifling the obscene urge to cackle in this office.

“As a matter of courtesy, heroes are allowed to deal with their specific rivals whenever possible,” Thùy continued cheerfully.

‘And it probably feels inappropriate to her to skip any formal titles, since we haven’t really spoken.’

“I’m sure that we both appreciate that,” Alex said, looking at Ji Min out of the corner of his eye. She nodded. Sure. Fine. Whatever.

Wait. Ji Min dragged herself back to reality enough to realize that no, she was genuinely appreciative. They were being super cool by ensuring she could smash Hammer on the right side of the law.With funding. And probably with equipment more sophisticated than the hitting stick.

“Thank you,” she managed. She smiled even though they couldn’t see it.

Maybe she needed a different mask. It was hard to communicate without any of her face showing. If she wasn’t going to unmask for her coworkers, it was going to be hard to keep a good working relationship.

“The exchange is set for a month from now. It’s unlikely that the timeframe will be bumped up, since the buyer is out of the country.” Alex took control of the conversation again. “Relevant information is in your handouts. We’d like to arrange team training for the two of you, extending past the minimum training, in preparation for this operation.” His voice was steady and inoffensive.

Ji Min glanced at Alex. “That’s fine with me.” He wasn’t her first choice, but he wasn’t terrible. He was just kind of a dickhead guy. She could work with him.

“There’s nothing in my life more important,” Alex agreed enthusiastically, because he was kind of a loser.

Loser or not, Ji Min had agreed to spend time with him. So when the meeting finished up, she gave him the number of the same burner that Gene messaged her on. She didn’t see him much before he left from his basic training. She pushed through the remainder of her contracted minimum, hyperfocused on improvement.

On the second to last day, she was on her bed taking a practice test on international law when her phone buzzed. Ji Min reached for it with one hand without looking.

It took a moment to register that the message wasn’t from Ari, asking where they’d go to dinner when she got out. It wasn’t from Min Joon, confirming that she would be at his last high school hockey game. It wasn’t even another excited screed from Alex about the bomb disarming course he’d apparently managed to enroll in.

“Sorry about the delay, I ran into trouble with a hero. Are you still available?”

She’d mostly given up hope about the other thief contacting her.

Ji Min put down her book and sat up. She glanced over to confirm that her door was closed and locked.

“Yes”, she wrote back. She had an illicit thrill in her stomach. She was smiling unconsciously. “What’s the job?”

The reply was nearly instant. “I need to convince this guy that my civilian identity can’t possibly be the rogue he’s chasing. Can you use my identity and M.O. for a heist?”

Ooh, that was fun. Ji Min put a hand over her mouth. The design team must have lit up a previously undiscovered passion for dress-up in her subconscious. What was this other woman’s costume? Could Ji Min really pull off her M.O.?

“Tentatively down,” she wrote, because she didn’t want to overpromise. “We are going to have to meet for this.”

“I’m in New Platopolis and would need the operation to be there,” came the answer instantly. “But I can meet you anywhere to get started.”

That was convenient. Ji Min pursed her lips as she thought it over. “Put me in a nice hotel there, and we can talk. From Tuesday?”

She got an instant confirmation. “I’ll send you the reservation information tonight.“

Wow. Ji Min let her phone fall and grinned up at the ceiling.

Everything was working out. She was almost done with hero training and going to get a fat salary. She was going to get to arrest Hammer in a month. No one had said anything about her getting involved in that boat theft last month, which was great, because it meant that definitely no one had connected her to the jewel theft the same week. And now? Now she had a possible industry friend and a very well-paid job.

Oh. That reminded her. Ji Min took a quick look at her calendar. There was actually going to be a really big industry event next week, in New Platopolis. She hadn’t been certain that she’d attend, but it made sense to go now.

She could network, maybe sell off some contraband, maybe find some cool equipment.

Ji Min huffed happily and pushed her study materials aside to give a big, satisfied stretch. “I can finish this after a break,” she decided. “I’m going to look at the presentation and guest speakers.” She readjusted her position until she was comfortably propped up on her pillows with one leg crossed, ankle over the knee of the other foot in a mild stretch. She hummed a little to herself as she looked up the schedule.

Her eyebrows shot up. “The Dark Lord is giving a presentation about modernizing?” Ji Min murmured to herself. She let out a snort. “Which one?” She scrolled past that. Something about lasers (absolutely not), a lecture about tax responsibilities regarding illegal profit, (that one was important, she didn’t want to go to jail for tax evasion), and vendors.

“Oh.” Ji Min let out a pleased sound. “That’s someone I know.” She made a mental note to stop and say hello to the event planning firm. Wait. She squinted at it. Harmes made partner? Good for them.

Without thinking much about it, she dug out her real phone and opened up a message to Barry. “You made Harmes a partner??? NICE.”

She opened her hand and let the phone fall to the bedspread. It buzzed while still in the air.

Ji Min blinked. That was odd timing. It couldn’t be Barry, could it? She grabbed the phone again and squinted at the screen.

“You’re coming to the conference?”

It was. She let out a surprised huff of laughter. He sent another message before she could respond.

“I have a job for you. 20k, up front.”

20k? For what? Did he need something stolen?

Ji Min let out an actual laugh now. It rang out loud in the abandoned dormitory. “What is the job?” she wrote back, grinning at her phone. Barry was so goddamn dramatic.

“Harmes’ car.” Barry wrote back. After a moment, he sent a red angry face, a trash can, and an explosion.

Ji Min took a moment to parse that. “You want me to assassinate your junior partner’s car?” she confirmed.

“It’s an embarrassment,” he said. It somehow came across as defensive even in text. “I’ll give you money to pass on for replacing it with something that doesn’t make me die on the inside. I need you to also write a letter from the insurance company explaining that it’s not repairable.”

“These people are such freaks,” Ji Min said appreciatively to her empty room. She didn’t write back, instead dropping the phone again. She’d see Barry at the conference. Neat. She’d be getting paid for being there.

So, that was her schedule set. This week she would finish training, go to Min Joon’s big game with Ari and not fight with their parents, if they even managed to show up. She’d have a video call with Alex after his bomb disarming practical, if he didn’t get blown up, and then she’d take the high speed rail to New Platopolis and splash around in the deep, fun waters of villainy and profit.

“Huh,” Ji Min said, realizing something. “I bet some of those lectures are going to be applicable to heroism as well, even if it’s just to keep on trend with what the wicked are doing. Maybe Alex would like to attend.” She bit her lower lip and thought about it.

He didn’t know anything about her contacts. He was newer to the subculture of heroism and villainy that she was- if she acted like it wasn’t a big deal for her to know about a villain conference, he wouldn’t know that it was actually very hard to infiltrate this kind of thing.

Without thinking too much about it, she opened up her phone and asked him to schedule a call. Then she went back to the conference information listing and started taking notes on lecture topics, vendors, and speakers.

It could be a team bonding thing. Sure, she’d have to ditch him before she actually met with any contacts, but so what. It couldn’t be hard. He was an earnest computer nerd. He was going to get lost in the crowd, gawping at the photowall honoring the crimes of the year or something.

It was going to be good, she decided. She was going to make this team-up work.