QK Agent Round 6: Boy Band Ninja Assassins, YA Adventure Comedy

Title: LETH5L: DEEP CUTS

Entry Nickname: Boy Band Ninja Assassins

Word Count: 80K

Genre: YA Adventure Comedy

Query:

When Derrick Dominick and the other members of the world’s biggest boy band, Leth5l (with a silent five), stumble into a coffee shop robbery in progress, they easily thwart the crooks with sick choreography. Just another Tuesday for a group of trained undercover agents working for the Special Intelligence Network for Global Espionage, Recon and Security.

Due to a misunderstanding with the barista—and certainly no fault of his own— Derrick ends up in the back of a cop car. Roughly six seconds after he exits the station, photos, videos, and internet rumors have spread like peanut butter. Consequently, Leth5l’s Manager/Handler sends two bloggers along on their next tour/mission to prove they’re just another boy band and Derrick’s not a criminal with a dimple.

The mission: assassinate the three leaders of a drug ring who’ve developed a drug that allows users to experience moments from their past, complete with all the feelings and emotions of the first time. To protect his cover, Derrick is forced to take the drug. He relives a moment from his early childhood, this time as a guy with seventeen years of foster home experiences under his belt. Turns out being abandoned by your biological mother stings just as much the second time around. Now he’s got three bad guys to take out, two nosy (and hot!) bloggers up in his business, and one mother of a mother issue to deal with before he makes an uncharacteristic mistake that might be lethal (minus the five).

At least his hair’s still on point.

First 250:

Five-part harmony is ridiculously hard in the morning. Especially before coffee. Yet, here we are W-IDK television station singing our asses off at six-freaking-thirty A.M. on “Wake Up, Whichever-City-We’re-In!”

They don’t pay me enough for this.

Actually, that’s not true. Two jobs, two salaries. I get paid loads. And what I don’t make in terms of cash, I make in fringe benefits, so I suppose I should turn off my brain and turn on my dimple—give the people what they want. Because giving the people what they want is always the best part of my day, even if it’s at an unholy hour.

Four paces outside the studio, Jay starts in on me, as usual. “Do you think that you could, for once, turn your thousand-watt smile down a bit? How are the rest of us supposed to compete? That make-up chick was under my spell until you Derricked her to death.”

I dive into the backseat of the SUV with Leth5l-standard blacked out windows. Can’t let fangirls or bad guys know our location. Though, I’d totally be down if some of the fangirls knew. “I wasn’t aware that my name is a verb now. Good to know. How, exactly, does one Derrick somebody?”

Dash slides in next to me, his untied tie flapping around his neck. “Don’t act like you don’t know.”

“I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

Maybe that’s a bit of a lie. Lying is one of the things I do best. Lying, and carrying lead vocals.