Hello?  Sir Bison?  It's me, Agent Juli.  I'm so sorry to be bothering you, but I really need someone to talk to right now.  I just found out that I'm an artificial life form produced from Shadaloo's laboratories with all of my memories, thoughts, and personalities pre-programmed into me and it's been really disturbing to me and I think that if you'd start a nice counseling service for disturbed clones like me then that'd just be oh so gee-golly swell of you, oh yes it would!

"Juli?"  Serina's voice quickly snapped Juli out of her trance.  "I'd just like to thank you for coming along and deciding to help us by giving us some back-up here even though you didn't have to which is really really nice and nifty and just oh so gee-golly swell of you, oh yes it is!"

Juli sighed as Serina handed her a cookie as a gesture of thanks.

Someone kill me.  Please.

"Gee, you don't seem very happy."  Serina commented as she stood over the depressed brunette sitting down by the tree.  Serina glanced around looking for something to try to cheer Juli up with.  Her eyes quickly passed over the small house in the distant as well as the plains before stopping at Marzche playing at her laptop.  The fluffy-pink haired agent snapped her fingers.  "I know!  Minesweeper!  That always cheers me up!  Marzche!"

Juli slowly closed her own eyes.

Marzche, who's hair was dyed an interesting neon blue this time around, glanced over at Serina and Juli, snapped her laptop shut, walked over to the two, and re-opened it before looking at Serina again.

"Oh good!"  Serina beamed.  "Poor Agent Juli's really bored right now and could really go for a nice game of minesweeper."

"No I couldn't."  Juli whispered to herself.

Marzche wasn't paying attention to either of the two and was re-engrossed in her own game of minesweeper once again.  Serina stopped babbling once she noticed the minesweeper game going on.

She pointed to the screen.  "That one over there!  Mark it!"

Marzche smiled.  "No, that one's free.  See?"

Boom.

X_X

Marzche and Serina frowned.  Serina grabbed the laptop and restarted a new game.  "See, watch this!"

You have 308 mines left to go.

"No, not that one!"  Marzche exclaimed.  "To the left.  You won't be able to get a good time if you don't speed up."

"Hey, I'm trying!"  Serina yelled back.  "Quick!  There are four mines around this tile!  Which one's the fourth?"

"Eep!  Um... the upper right!"  Marzche quickly replied.

"NO!  Don't mark there!"  Juli interupted before Serina could click the square.  "It's the lower left!"

Serina marked the lower left and clicked the upper right, and everyone cringed, but no explosion came.

"Oooo!  I'll be able to beat my record this time!"  Serina happily beamed.  "Thanks!!"

"Ha, it was easy."  Juli replied.

"Um... you can't record your high score right now."  Marzche stated. "The Shadaloo network is currently down while the encryption systems are updated."

"It is?"  Serina dissappointingly replied.  "Aw drat.  Ah well, the game's still fun to play.  Wow, the upper left square was it.  I wouldn't have been able to figure that out."

"Well, there were four mines around it.  I managed to get the other three fast enough."  Marzche commented.

Juli stared at the two as she slowly started to think to herself.

That was really really stupid...

"It's all good because at least Agent Juli's cheered up now."  Serina said with a smile.  "Right, Juli?  Um... Juli?"

Juli wasn't paying attention, too deep in the sudden realization that she had in fact nearly completely forgotten about why she was depressed in the first place until she realized with Serina's high score comment that... minesweeper was an incredibly stupid and pointless game.  Every agent enjoyed minesweeper.  Despite its ludicrous simplicity and being severely outdated, it never even came close to NOT being the most popular computer game among all of the agents of Sir Bison.  In their spare time, they'd always be just trying to beat the latest record.  Trying to change that little scoreboard so that they'd be higher up on the charts despite how it was obvious that Sir Bison didn't give a damn about that incredibly dull and simplistic game. Why?

Because they were all programmed to love the same stupid thing.  No wait, they ARE the same stupid thing.  WE are... we are... always... simply mindless preprogrammed duplicates of each other, despite how different we may seem to be.

Juli slowly grabbed the computer from a surprised Marzche and closed it, then handed it back to her before sitting back down to mull some more.  "Just... leave me alone."

Serina and Marzche both stared at her before looking at each other, shrugging, and running away to meet with the other agent on the mission.  They pointed to the computer and the three were immediately arguing about which square would make the stupid explosion sound again.

Unable to bear the site of it anymore, Juli quickly turned away to gaze at the ground again.

What the hell am I?

Shadowloo special soldiers are specially trained and genetically enhanced for espionage, assassination, and sabotage.  Marzche, Serina, and Noelle, three of these special force solders, are on a brief recon mission for the science department of Shadaloo.

"Find an extract the fighting data of the soul-power psychic, Rose!"
 

The long red-haired Agent Noelle continued to ponder about the orders she recieved.  "Are you SURE this is a recon-type mission?"

"If it were more important than just a recon mission, Sir Bison would have given it to us personally."  Marzche replied.

Noelle set down a first aid kit and then stood up again to look around.  "Why would a recon mission need so many agents?  I've never seen any mission that took more than two agents to complete."

"Well, Juli isn't supposed to be here but she was nice enough to come along because she had nothing else to do."  Serina happily replied, glancing over at a nearby tree where Juli was sitting in the shade with her head bowed downwards.  "Besides, the more the merrier!  There's safety in numbers."

"Agents aren't supposed to work well in large numbers.  It's difficult for stealth."  Noelle was unconvinced.  "I can't help but be a bit worried.  I only get called in on the dangerous missions when there's a chance of severe injury to anyone on the job or worse."

"Gee, that's a pretty good point."  Serina commented.  "You know you're in for it when they assign the high specialty medic agent to back you up... uh oh, um, I hope this isn't supposed to be a PAINFUL recon mission."

"And..."  The first-aid specialist agent paused for a bit.  "Can anyone tell me why we had to take one of Shadaloo's valued scientists along?"

Marzche's, Serina's, and Noelle's gazes turned to the female professor with the braided-hair behind them.

Doctor Janet frowned.  "When was it normal for Shadaloo agents to ask so many questions?"

"This is highly unorthodox."  Noelle muttered.  "Scientists aren't allowed on recon missions, especially ones assigned to agents.  It's too dangerous."

"Oh yea, that's right!"  Serina butted in.  "Sir Bison really would prefer that his expensive and rare scientists don't get involved in really dangerous missions because they're really dangerous and the scientist can't handle themselves nearly as well as agents can, plus they might get in the way and jeapordize the entire mission because if the mission were so fragile that only agents could handle them then it's not really good for a scientist to..."

Janet's lab coat flew over Serina's head and landed on top of her, quickly muffling out her speech.  The commotion had just been enough for Juli to look up and glance over at the scene, though she was too depressed to join Noelle and Marzche in their reaction.

Noelle and Marzche blinked.  "Whoa!"

"What?  What?  What's going on?"   Serina cried as she stumbled around, trying to get the lab coat off of her.  After tripping on a rock, Serina crashed to the ground.  She quickly threw the lab coat off and got up and stared at Janet.  "Eh?"

"I didn't know that a scientist was allowed to also be an agent."  Noelle muttered as she stared at Janet, who was now wearing the standard Shadaloo agent leotard that all of the other girls wore.

"It's my night job."  Janet sarcastically replied as she grabbed her lab coat from he floor and put it back on and glared at the three.  "I am perfectly capable of handling myself.  I might be a bit out of training, but this should be good enough to get you all to quiet down and get back to work on the mission."

No one was aware of Juli staring at Janet and that her skin turned a deathly pale.

I'm... a clone... of Janet?!?

Juli blinked.

Not her... please not her...

"Oh no!"  Noelle was at Juli's side in a split second.  "Agent Juli, are you all right?  You're so pale that you look like you've practically died!  I've never seen this condition before!"

"Agent Juli, is something wrong?"  Janet shot a glance at Juli right after Juli's skin tone returned to normal.

"Erm, it's nothing."  Juli quickly replied as Noelle blinked, wondering what the heck just happened.

Janet raised an eyebrow at the disturbed agent.  "I know why you're like this and why you've decided to come along on this recon mission, you now."

Oh gee, thanks, so you found out that I know and you can't even let me angst in peace before you decide to throw me out like the disposable doll that I am?

"Desire told me about this."  Janet continued.  "Listen, Agent Juli, I'm not here to play therapist for you just because your 'soul mate' has been gone for such a long time.  You're going to have to learn to deal with it and get back to business."

Juli raised an eyebrow at Janet's remark

My... soul mate?  Janet knows perfectly well that Juni's only supposed to be my 'soul mate' because we've been designed to be compatible with each other.  Because that's what the memory tape said.

The brunette then frowned.  "I never asked you for your help!"

"I never asked you for yours, either."  Janet snapped back.  "But I let you come along anyway because I've decided that you could use a distraction to get your mind off of your partner."

"Oh."  Juli paused for a moment before trying her best to sincerely replied.  "Well... thanks, then.  I'll... try to keep it up here."

Juli motioned to her forehead in reference, then stood up and walked off.

"That Juli..."  Janet shook her head.  "Anyway, we have work to do.  Agent Marzche and Serina, because the network's down, we're going to have to do all data entry on the spot.  Our target won't be arriving back in a while so you have time to set up the equipment.  Agent Noelle, as always, you will be on standby until back-up is needed.  I imagine that the same would go for our depressed friend over there.  Now I have some private matters to attend to right now.  Make sure no one disturbs me."

Thud!

"Okay!  It's in position!"  Serina yelled into her mike, unaware of the pain in the ears that the recipient agent Marzche on the other side recieved.  "Whew, these things are heavy."

The peppy agent wiped her forehead after she hid the heavy computer device behind the bush in the garden, then glanced around and noticed Juli sitting down next to a bed of flowers.

"Oh!  Agent Juli!"  Serina exclaimed looking back to Juli as she lifted a box off the stereo.  "There you are!  Are you feeling better yet?"

"Serina, why do you exist?"  Juli asked as Serina put the box down.

Juni told me that she exists to serve Sir Bison.

"Why, I exist to serve Sir Bison, of course!"  Serina happily beamed.  "He's the niftiest!  Could I ask for anything more?"

Juli snatched a rose from the flower bed.  "Serina, what would you do if you found out that your life wasn't real?"

"Huh?  That's a strange question."  Serina commented.

If only she knew the truth.  Secretly too curious for my own damn good like always, I asked her about it once.

"If my life weren't real?"  Juni pondered for a moment.  "Well, I don't know why you'd ask me something like that.  My life is perfect.  I would probably have a hard time choosing between searching out my real life or staying with this one."

My life was perfect.

"I love my life!"  Serina happily exclaimed.  "It's like that pretty bed of flowers, so pretty!  So nifty and wonderful and I get to be the apple of Sir Bison's eye and working for just the most wonderful causes of complete goodness.... well, evil but in a good way.... well, maybe not but it doesn't really matter anyway and I don't know why but it's still really just swell."

"Pretty bed of flowers, huh?"  Juli handed Serina the rose.  "Things aren't always as they seem."

"Ooo, it's so pretty!"  Serina proudly held the rose, until she quickly dropped it.  "OW!!"

It could have continued to be perfect.  If I had never discovered it wasn't my life, then I would continue to have lived what I thought was my perfect life and not a false one, and that would thus have made it MY perfect life.  But I was too curious for my own good, and now there isn't going back.  This is my fault...

"It's beautiful to look at, isn't it?"  Juli remarked as Serina stared wide eyed at her thorn-pierced hand.  "But look at it too closely and you'll only get hurt.  I learned that the hard way."

"Erm, yea, I guess.  Sorry to hear that."  Not paying too much attention to Juli due to the dilema the rose produced, Serina covered her bleeding hand and quickly looked around.  "Noelle!!!"

She ran off to seek medical attention

Do I accept my life?  Do I accept the perfection?  But what if it was only perfect because I was made to think it was perfect?  What if it really wasn't perfect at all?  Because this might be a perfect life, but it isn't MY perfect life.  So where could my perfect life be?  What is it supposed to be, when I never had a life in the first place besides the one given to me?  The only way to find out would be to see what I would be like if the DOLL project had never taken place and I was never created.  But the obvious answer to that is that... I would never have existed.  And if I don't exist.

Juli picked up the rose that Serina dropped and stared at it.  She then closed her eyes and slowly crushed it, thorns piercing through her palm and all.

My perfect life does not exist.

Juli wanted to cry but a large crashing noise interrupted her train of thought.  The three other agents in the area quickly dashed over to find an angry Janet on the ground surrounded by a bunch of various knocked over statues and candles.  Juli, taking her time, caught up to them soon after.

Neolle grabbed her first-aid kit and knelt by Janet.  "Doctor... er, Agent... er, Doctor Agent Janet, are you all right?"

"That idiot!!"  Janet yelled, seemingly unaware of her surroundings.  "Paintings?!?  I can't believe him!"

All four of the other agents replied the same reply in unison.  "Huh?"

"Oh great, she knows about the doll project thanks to that fool."  Janet grumbled as she stood up.  "If she figures out who the original is..."

The doll project?  Did Janet figure out that Yamoto let it slip to someone who shouldn't have known?  The original... she wasn't talking like she herself was the original...

Janet glanced around at the other agents surprised, like she just came out of a trance.  "What... what are you doing here?  I thought I told you not to disturb me!"

"Huh?"  All four of them blinked before replying in unison again.  "Oh!  Sorry!"

The agents all quickly scattered, except Juli, who stayed behind, waiting to see what repercussions Janet had for her if she did just find out that Juli knew the truth.

Why would she have to put the blame on me?  That idiot let it slip... it wasn't my fault at all, was it?  If Bremare didn't tell me about the doll project in the first place and if he realized what he REALLY was supposed to do with my memory tape, then I would have never sought out the truth.  The truth who's existance was better off being left unknown.

"Why the heck are you still here?"  Janet glared at Juli.  "If you're wondering what that was about, it's just about a foolish operative of Shadaloo in Asia who talked way more than he should have.  Get going!  I need to set everything up again."

Asia?  Yamoto was safe for the moment.  But that didn't change anything.  Still, Juli did feel a bit of relief for the dumb doctor, though she couldn't identify why since it was his fault that she realized that her heaven was actually her hell.  But before Juli could begin to leave, a knocked-down transceiver among Janet's assortment of wierd stuff began beeping.  Janet quickly picked it up and turned it on.

"Um, Janet?"  Serina's voice came from over the microphone.  "Someone's coming!  I thought you said that no one would come for a while!  This is like, really bad and stuff.  We're not set up yet!  What are we supposed to do?"

Janet gritted her teeth as she angrily whispered back into the walkie-talkie.  "Stall!  Tell Agent Marzche and Noelle to get the rest of the equipment set up!  Agent Juli, go give Serina a hand.  She might need it."

"....."  Juli didn't respond and went to aid Serina without protest.

Juli found Serina being confronted by a young man in his late teens.  He stood with an air of authority, which almost reminded Juli of...

Sir Bison?

"Um, who are you?"  The boy glared at the two girls who were blocking his way to the house.

"Hi there!"  Serina, apparently the master of improvision, already knew what to say.  "We're here from the Girl Scout's wonderful organization of pure bliss and happiness to offer you the finest girl scout cookies in the whole wide world yes indeedy and you'll most certainly..."

Juli figured that she'd rather be a clone of Janet than of Serina, any day of the week.

"...enjoy our wonderful extremely nifty brand of cookies and milk and if you could just take the time to sample some I'm sure you'll love them because they're the greatest!"  Serina concluded.

"Er... I can see that."  The boy stared at Serina and Juli, apparently taking more note of their bodysuit uniforms than their cookies and milk.  Well, actually, he was taking note of those too, but not the type of cookies and milk that Serina was trying to sell.  "I didn't know that girl scouts... erm, revamped their marketting strategy so much... er, yea."

His eyes were rather wide as he stared at the two supposed 'girl-scouts.'

"Would you like to buy some?"  Serina continued with a smile.  "They're really scrumptious."

"Yea, I can see that too..."  The newcomer slowly commented.  Whoever he was, Juli knew he wasn't the target since they were after a woman named Rose.  A woman who obviously was important enough to Janet to make her come here personally and even bring along the medic agent to make sure things went smoothly.

A woman who's named after a flower... that Janet wants for her perfume.

"Hmm..."  Juli pondered to herself as Serina continued to go over the wonders of cookies and milk with the newcomer, her clothes being more convincing than her words.  Juli finally broke in.  "Excuse me, young man, but we were here to... sell our cookies to a lady named Rose.  Who exactly are you?"

Inwardly, Juli sighed.  There was some awkward innuendo in what she just said.  Not that it mattered anyway.  Nothing really mattered anymore.

"Gregory Matheson.  I'm Miss Rose's... apprentice."  For reasons unknown, it took him quite the long pause before he could muster up the ability to say his profession.  "I have some things to do right now at Miss Rose's if you don't mind."

"Oh, Rose isn't here right now else we would have happily sold her our milk and cookies!"  Serina happily replied, her statement having even more innuendo than Juli's.

"I know."  Gregory somewhat angrily replied back, by now quite annoyed with the two girl scouts despite their impressive assets of milk and cookies.

A little beeping noise went off.  Serina quickly grabbed out her mike and screamed into it.  "HELLO!?"

"AAAAAH!!  Do you know how hard it is to fix up your own eardrums when they're bleeding?!?"  Noelle's scream could be heard in the distance.

"SORRY!"  Serina yelled behind herself before going back to listening as the beeping noise went off again.  Serina listened for a few moments while nodding then looked at Agent Juli and smiled.  "They're finished!"

Gregory stared at the two girls.  "Who's finished?"

The fluffy pink-haired girl scout quickly glanced back at him, having forgotten that he was there.  Fortunately, her answer came just as quickly.  "Our scout leader!  Um... it's time for us to get going.  But I do hope you'll consider our offer later."

"Your offer of milk and cookies?"

"Yes!"  Serina exclaimed.  "Bye now!  :) "

She quickly ran off.  Juli stayed behind a little longer to look at the boy, before leaving to join the other agents but fast found that she didn't know where the other agents were, having lost sight of the pink-haired agent that used to be with her.  After some wandering around, she managed to come across Janet and her odd altar full of random miscellany instead.

Juli stared at Janet, who seemed to have gone back into her trance.

Scientist, agent, and metaphysics expert.  Who would have ever thought.  Oh, and her damn stupid language of the birds.  Thanks a lot, Janet, for being a moron and letting your own two subservient agents spy on you so easily, you idiot.

While slowly coming to the belief that somehow maybe this was Janet's fault instead, both for underestimating that no one could translate her bird language and because she was probably one of the main initiators of the doll project, Juli decided to observe Janet while the doctor turned-agent didn't notice she was there.  Besides, she was obviously up to something.

Janet held up a piece of paper and slowly it began to glow as she mumbled some chants about souls and some other random stuff which Juli couldn't make out.  The renaissance agent then went over to check on her crystal ball, whereupon a look of shock, anger, and surprise came upon her face upon seeing its contents.  She quickly grabbed it and held it up to her eyes.

"No, you idiot..."  Janet whispered into the crystal ball, apparently fully aware but not caring that the people within the vision in it couldn't hear it.  "She's useless to us, dead!  Your stupid original painting is priceless!!!  STOP!!!!"

Juli raised an eyebrow as Janet quickly closed her eyes and continued to hold onto the crystal ball, apparently heavily concentrating.  Her shout attracted the other three agents in the area, who were quickly by her side.

"Doctor Janet!"  Noelle exclaimed.  "What's wrong?"

The crystal ball shattered and Janet's eyes were still closed.  She slowly kneeled to the ground.  "I... missed... Rose... she got away..."

"Who got away?"  Serina piped.  "Our target?"

Noelle quickly caught Janet as she fell back.  The medic put her hand to Janet's head then stared at her in shock.  Her hand began to glow for a while, but nothing happened.  "What is this?  The doctor has developed a terrible fever, but I can't identify it and I can't cure it!"

"I'm all right..."  Janet slowly opened her eyes, then tried to get back up but fell back into Noelle's arms.  She silently cursed.

Noelle helped her get back up.  "Doctor Janet, I must insist... no, I demand that you withdraw from the mission.  This is ludicrous and we must get you back to headquarters immediately.  We'll leave Agent Marzche, Serina, and Juli to handle this.  Serina and Marzche can handle the data entry while Agent Juli provides back-up."

"No!"  The sick psychic wannabe protested.  "The mission is of the utmost importance.  She's coming back... she'll be here.  I have to..."

"You're not going to be able to accomplish anything like this!"  Noelle pleaded.

Janet looked at the other three agents then back at Noelle, before sighing.  "Yes, you're right.  But you'll have to stay here.  Agent Marzche will escort me back to headquarters.  It's possible that Juli and Serina might need your medical services much more than I will."

Juli and Serina blinked.  That didn't sound very good.

"Agent Marzche, take Docter Janet back to the truck."  Noelle commanded.  "We'll handle the rest of the mission here."

"Whatever."  Marzche simply shrugged as she handed Serina her laptop to use for data entry, then helped Janet get back to the transport.

"Oh, things went wrong before the real mission even started!"  After they were gone, Noelle stopped bothering to try to keep a calm front.  She frantically looked around.  "This is supposed to be a recon mission but we've broken almost every standard procedure in the book!  Now without Janet to take charge, I don't know what I'm supposed to do.  I've always been on stand-by.  I've... never taken charge before."

"Agent Juli's a good leader, I guess."  Serina commented.  "She bossed Marzche and I around a whole bunch and she bosses around her partner all the time."

"Oh!  You're right!"  Noelle responded.  She walked up to Juli, and gave the request with a hint of desperation in her eyes.  "Agent Juli?  I don't have much experience with leadership roles.  Could you please handle it for this mission?"

During all this time, Juli was pondering about Janet and her stupid metaphysical doll projects and roses and bird languages.  It had in fact come to her attention that this wasn't Bremare's fault.  This was Janet's fault!  She's the one that didn't give Bremare adequate information to conceal the doll program from Juli.  She's the one who's stupid bird language wasn't enough to conceal the true meaning behind her conversation.  And she seemed to be the one in charge of the doll project in the first place.

Knowing this, there was only one logical thing Juli could do when Noelle and Serina came and offered to let her lead the mission.

"Why of course, I accept.  But on one condition."  Juli replied to Noelle's request with a smile then snatched Serina's microphone from her and snapped it in half.  "We do this MY way."