Trade Bob for the Blooms current owner

Going straight to the bank is your first thought. It's the fastest way to make sure you get the Bloom. The drive isn't far and you have the tools that would allow you to get in, grab it, and get out. But you stop, you need to think about this logically. Some times going with your gut is the way to go. Instinct can be a powerful guiding force and during your training you were told that more experienced operatives are able to intuit what to do, working on the fly and instinctively knowing the best path to take to get something done.

But those are, again, experienced operatives and you are most definitely not an experienced. Hell, this whole thing is basically one long training exercise. A sort of extended final exam or the Organization's version of a Master's thesis. You don't have the experience needed to trust your gut. Doing that got you into the trap that was Carma Hamilton and it's only through stopping and thinking things through that you were able to escape. Of course, your trainers had said, not all agents are able to go by instinct. Just as many take things slower, more measured. Each has their own strengths, their own way of doing things after all.

Whether you'll be able to go with your gut or not, you're certainly not in that position. You're in Bob Foxworth right now and you got there pretty much due to you panicking. It was a desperate gamble.

So why take the risk? The bank will be guarded, there will be cameras. This viper's nest is bad enough. You're still just a kid and you're stressed as is. Better to take a slower approach, something relatively safer. You turn back and re-enter the resort. You'll become one of the Van Lewens. There is still risk in becoming one of them to be sure but it's risks associated with keeping up the identity and making nobody the wiser. So far, however, you've been doing well not arousing suspicion in any of your guises if you do say so yourself so it's a lesser risk and one far less likely to put your back against the wall with no way out like going up to the bank as Bob could.

You take quick note of the information you committed to memory before leaving for the assignment. The Van Lewen are a family long involved in the financial sector, going back to the Gilded Age in the when Ambrose van Lewen founded a financial services company that would eventually go on to become Van Lewen Financial which owns the bank that Bob uses, VL Century; so called because when current Van Lewen patriarch, Marcus van Lewen, founded the bank it was 100 years to the day of Van Lewen Financial's founding.

Marcus van Lewen is a man with a bit of an aged handsomeness of 54. His immediate family members, the ones that are with him right now at the wedding, are his 46-year-old wife Clarissa, 20-year-old son (and heir) Daniel, and 14-year-old daughter Alexis. You will have to become one of those four.

You make your way to their room which your files told you was room 320, on the same floor as Bob's funny enough. It's locked, of course, but thankfully your training means that getting past an electronic lock, the type that a hotel would use, is quite easy. Inside the room you look for a place where you can hide out. There's a closet, open just a crack, and you make your way over to it. You remove the Bob suit tossing the suit and related clothing under the nearest bed before heading in to the closet and waiting.

It's about 15 minutes before you hear voices and the Van Lewens, all four of them, enter the room.

"I told you this was a waste of time, dear." the mature, cultured voice of Clarissa says as they step in. "Honestly the Vincents are in such dire financial straits that they give us their most important possession as collateral. You expected anything less than dysfunction?"

"I expected that, for once, even a family such as the Vincents would be able to show some sense of decorum." Marcus replies with a sigh.

"So what do we do now?" Asks Daniel. "We getting out of here or...?"

"I don't know." Marcus replies, "For the time being your mother and I will go back to the reception area, mingle a bit, try to assess the situation and smooth things over between the Vincents and Parrys. We'll be back in an hour or so."

"Good, gives me time to do a little looking around." Daniel replies in a pleased tone, "There was this really cute waitress down in the restaurant and..."

"Yes, that's very good son, just remember be back here in an hour." Marcus replies.

"What about you, honey?" Clarissa asks her daughter.

You watch Alexis give a bored shrug, "I guess I'll sit around here until you get back."

There's your target. You watch as Marcus and Clarissa leave. Then Daniel. The door closes and it's just you and Alexis alone in the room. You take the pen, making sure you grabbed it out of Bob's pocket before discarding his stuff under the bed, aim and fire. The girl immediately shrivels, deflates, and crumples to the ground. Gotcha!

You emerge from the closet and go over to the now deflated Alexis suit. You pick it up and hesitate for just a moment. So far you've been people around your own age or older. She's still close, just a few years younger. Still for a brief moment you pause but you quickly shake the hesitation and step in. Your legs become slimmer and shorter, but stronger as they adjust. Your hips a little wider and your ass and stomach more firm and small but perky breasts appear as you pull the suit up. Your arms thin out but like your legs gain a bit of muscle definition. Lastly your head and neck change and straight, brown hair that stops just short of your shoulders appears on your head.

"Whoa!" you state quietly as you catch sight of yourself. You flex an arm, run a hand over your breasts and stomach. Alexis' memories come pouring in. She goes to Saint Siena's Girls Academy, a private and very exclusive all-girls school for 18 year olds where she's among the top percentile of her class academically in addition to being a gifted clarinet player. More importantly for her, however, is that she's also a gifted soccer player. That explains the strong legs and arms, the girl keeps herself in shape.

She's equally girly and a tomboy and a bit of a daddy's girl. Though her brother is the heir to the Van Lewen fortune, Alexis' father dotes on her seeing her as someone who will take the family far once she's a bit older. For all intents and purposes she's a modern day princess and treated as such and though she's spoiled she's not quite as haughty as someone in her position could be. And that's when another memory hits you, one that tells you your luck has paid off.

The Scarlet Bloom.

It's at the bank nearby, that much is true. However Marcus never had any intention to give the Scarlet Bloom back. The Vincents will eventually get a Scarlet Bloom back, it will just be a forgery, however, like the one currently in Bob Foxworth's pocket. No Marcus' real reason for getting it was simple: it was a gift for Alexis. It is kept in a vault at the bank though a secret one under, and accessible from, the "real" vault where most valuables are stored. And as it was Alexis' gift, she can go and see it any time she pleases. Something she likes to do once or twice a week.

You've hit the jackpot you realize as you slip on Alexis' underwear. All of this time you went from adult to adult and in the end it was a kid, one not much younger than yourself, that held the key to getting the Bloom. You slip the sleeveless black dress on, put on the dark pumps, the long black gloves, the pearl necklace, and the white headband to push your hair back. A cute girl, you regard yourself in the mirror, one who will blossom into something as beautiful as the jewel you can waltz in and take.

Marcus and Clarissa return. So does Daniel with lipstick smeared on him. You pack your things, you're leaving. The Van Lewen estate is close by but you wonder... should you ask for a quick detour to the bank to look at "your" jewel? You assume that asking would be enough, Daddy would do anything for his Princess, but things have been thrown into chaos. Perhaps he might be on edge and waiting a day or so would be the better option.

(Author: rugal b.)