Line #51 Literature/AgentAngel


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/agent_1.png]]
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3	''Angels Unlimited'' is the title of a series of novels written for {{young adult}}s by Annie Dalton. The books are based around Melanie Beeby, who is killed in a traffic accident on the day after her thirteenth birthday. She then finds herself transported to Heaven. The Heaven of this universe is a lively and vibrant city, populated both by dead humans-turned-angels and Heaven-born beings known as pure angels. This city is also where the headquarters of the Agency are situated. The Agency is an elite group whose job is to counter the Opposition, informally known as the [=PODs=] or Powers Of Darkness - the polar opposite of the Agency.
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5	Upon arrival, Mel discovers that she is to be a trainee at the Angel Academy.
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7	Each book features time travel of some kind, where Mel is tasked by the Agency to unravel various celestial problems involving humans and the Opposition. As of July 1, 2008 there are twelve novels and three omnibus books. On May 5, 2005, the ''Angels Unlimited'' series was renamed the ''Agent Angel'' series, and new covers were released for each book. The series has also been published under the title ''Angel Academy'', with new covers.
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9	The books are as follows:
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11	''Winging It'' - Mel is knocked down by a car the day after her thirteenth birthday and has to adjust to a new "life" in Heaven as a student at the Angel Academy.
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13	''Losing The Plot'' - Mel and her friends end up in Elizabethan London, watching over three teenagers.
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15	''Flying High'' - Mel and her friends get mixed up in a time-travel scam involving an old enemy of Mel's, proving that there's more to him than she thought...
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17	''Calling The Shots'' - Mel is sent on her first guardian angel mission, looking after a 1920s American girl who's tuned into a toxic vibes wavelength.
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19	''Fogging Over'' - A study trip brings Mel and Lola to Victorian London - but cosmic outlaw-turned-returning angel Brice is coming along too, and Mel gets jealous of his relationship with Lola.
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21	''Fighting Fit'' - A mission in the Roman Empire under Emperor Nero's rule has Mel looking out for a young girl with a spiritual sense.
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23	''Making Waves'' - Brice, Lola and Mel enter the HALO awards, but when they wind up in seventeenth-century Jamaica and both Brice and Lola lose their memories and believe their cover stories, Mel has to keep the team together on her own.
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25	''Budding Star'' - After a panic attack on a mission, Mel considers quitting, but ends up on a mission in Limbo with Reuben, chasing the soul of a Japanese pop star.
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27	''Keeping It Real'' - After eighteenth months in Heaven, Mel has to go back to her old home and rescue her human friends from the powers of darkness.
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29	''Going For Gold'' - Mel's upgrade causes her to go off the rails and is brought face-to-face with her dark side.
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31	''Feeling The Vibes'' - Obi, Mel's favourite kindergartener, is a Bodhisattva and she, Reuben and Brice have to take him to present-day India and wait until the monks come for him, but matters are complicated when Obi starts freefalling through time.
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33	''Living The Dream'' - A Creation angel has told Mel that she plays a part in saving the world, but first, she volunteers to be the guardian angel of a troubled girl in care.
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35	!! Tropes associated with Agent Angel:
36	* ChainedToARailway: Rosa Bloom is tied to the train tracks whilst filming a movie--with her brother crouching just out of shot with knife, in case a train really does come.
37	* CoolBigSis: Although we don't see much of this side of Mel, every time we see her thinking or interacting with her half-sister Jade proves that she was this when she was alive. During her last night alive, Jade tells Mel in her sleep that she's "the best sister in the universe".
38	* DeadToBeginWith: Melanie is narrating from 'Heaven' about her adventures.
39	* DealWithTheDevil: Some humans who do the work of the PODS do it due to this, although they don't realize it. Notable examples include Mariko Hoshi from ''Budding Star'' who pushes her daughter into the spotlight too early, and Nick Ducket from ''Losing The Plot'' who almost tricks his best friend into being killed for treason.
40	* DisappearedDad: Mel’s father left and Molly’s father died in the Second World War. Mel admits in one book that her dad leaving made her fear being left alone forever.
41	* TheDitz: Mel used to think of herself as this, although she's actually not quite as ditzy as she thinks. When she feels unsure of what to do, she tends to pretend she's this.
42	--> "It comes in SO useful at times!"
43	* DreamingTheTruth: Mel sometimes has dreams about her family that are implied to be real visions of what they're doing on Earth. Some of the observations she makes in ''Keeping It Real'' are the same as the ones she dreams of. Her sister Jade mentions seeing Mel fighting evil as an angel in her dreams, even if some of the finer details aren't quite right.
44	* EvilCounterpart: Maia to Mel in ''Going For Gold''. Mel describes her as being "too pretty to be my double" but her twin in every other way, even down to fashion sense.
45	** EvilCounterpartRace: The "Opposition", or as most students call them, the "PODS" (Powers Of Darkness). While angels live in heaven, the dark energy coming from the PODS comes from Hell, but both groups operate on the same basis, eg: pulling all divine persona from a 50-50 setup era.
46	* GenerationXerox: PlayedWith. Girl pirate Mariah Darcy from ''Making Waves'' is the granddaugher of Cat from ''Losing The Plot''. Mel instantly recognizes Cat's features and convinces herself that Mariah is OK because of that. [[spoiler: However, Mariah is only out for herself and Mel describes her as so empty, she's no longer quite human.]]
47	* GuardianAngel: Most missions have angels acting as this to one or a few humans, but Mel becomes officially this to Honesty Bloomfield in ''Calling The Shots'' and Cody Fortuna in ''Living The Dream''.
48	** She is invisible for most of the time in both scenarios, but speaks directly to the girls she guards:
49	*** After sending vibes does nothing for Honesty, Mel is given permission to materialise and her friendship gives Honesty the strength to disconnect herself from the PODS' vibes.
50	*** During a vision fast, the barriers dissolve and Mel tells Cody that she is the person who has to save the world. Cody also dreamed about her earlier, apparently not seeing her face but recognizing her as wearing colourful versions of her own clothes.
51	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Mel and Lola. The first time they meet, they already feel like they know each other, and later books constantly refer to them as soul mates, although they both have boyfriends by the end.
52	* IdentityAmnesia: Brice and Lola both get this in ''Making Waves'', forgetting they're angels, and believing who everyone else thinks they are, that they are. Brice believes he is the son of a wealthy plantation owner, while Lola believes she is an African slave. Mel briefly suffers from this too, but remembers early on that she is an angel and struggles to keep her team together.
53	** As a note, they do have some semblance of themselves. Brice and Lola still have romantic chemistry. Lola does feel some recognition towards Mel, but doesn't trust her instincts because she doesn't understand why a rich British girl would try to befriend her. She also admits to having what she thinks is a dream about Heaven when Mel describes it, but she's sure it's not real. Brice also admits to thinking he was born an outlaw and makes an attempt to get money to free as many slaves as possible, using the kind of criminal action that got him his reputation, even with good intentions.
54	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: The title of each novel starts with a word ending in "-ing".
55	* KidnappedByAnAlly: Mel is a victim of this. It has been speculated this was mainly for the benefit of older readers, considering ''who'' kidnapped her.
56	* TheNicknamer: Supposedly, Lola nicknames all her friends, although we only see examples of this with Mel ("Boo") and Reuben ("Sweetpea").
57	* {{Omniglot}}: All angels are this. Mel was quite surprised when she heard angels from various cultures speak English. Lola ''actually had to tell her'' that being an angel allowed her to speak every language that would ever exist. It comes in handy, given all the different countries and eras she goes to.
58	* OurAngelsAreDifferent: Very much so.
59	* RaisedByGrandparents: Lola’s gran raised her and her four brothers after her mother died.
60	* ReincarnationFriendship: A familial variant in ''Feeling The Vibes''. In the 1940s, Amir is killed in a massacre and his father sees the train coming in that was full of the dead. [[spoiler: When returning to the 21st century, Amir has been reborn as Ravi and runs into the reincarnation of his father in a Bollywood composer. There's instantly a connection between them, having found each other so many years later.]]
61	** As a note, Obi knew about this because of his own past lives. He tells Mel that he was often born to reincarnations of the same people. As well as being Amir's younger brother, he visits two other eras where he had the same father reincarnated.
62	* RunningOverThePlot: The series starts with Mel being hit by a car.
63	* ThemeTwinNaming: Flora and Ferdy Devere.
64	* TimeTravel: In the afterlife, Melanie travels to different eras in each book
65	* WhamEpisode: ''Living The Dream'' - Mel has to help a troubled girl find her destiny to save the world from destruction, while Reuben has gone missing after sending Mel a cryptic message, and [[spoiler: when he is found, he and Mel become a couple]]
66	* YouCanSeeMe: Mel is surprised to find that some people see and hear her. In "Keeping It Real", Sky hears her through headphones, and her sister Jade not only responds to Mel in her dreams, but sees her and Brice scaring off a hellhound, and even tells a cat that Mel goes to a big school in the clouds and fights demons with angel kung fu, which she's seen in her dreams (which is fairly close to the truth). Mel's friend Jax also absorbs information Mel gives her while she's asleep.
67	** ''Winging It'' has various moments where a toddler sees Lola, and a young fireman sees Mel and Lola later on, asking his friends to tell "those two pretty girls" to wait for him.
68	** Mel briefly gets a shock at the end of ''Calling The Shots'' when she watches a movie she was there for the filming of and actually appears in the heavenly copy, despite not being visible to humans at the time.
69	** In ''Fogging Over'', Minerva Temple can't see Mel's group, but she can hear them, and even tells Georgie that there are three angels standing behind her, which they are.

Context Literature / AgentAngel