Chapter Five - Cassie

Angel leads us out the door and down the hallway. We go back through the West Room and she pauses in the center of the room.

“This is one of the two leisure rooms,” Angel says looking around, “during your spare time feel free to use any of the amenities in here, there are limited computers though so please share them.”

I look around and see three people playing pool at one of the billiards tables. Angel gestures to Tricky and I, we follow Angel as she approaches them.

“Hey guys!” she exclaims, “These are some new recruits, meet Trevor and Cassandra!”

I look at each of them and recognize the third is Teo, he looks different out of his black combat gear, he wears a loose grey hoodie and old worn in jeans, his emerald eyes look less intense, brighter in a way.

The first of the three was a boy with blue eyes and dirty blonde hair parted down the middle. He gave an easy smile, cocking his head to the side his hair falling over his eye slightly.

“Hey, I’m Leo,” he said softly, “I’m sixteen and I have been here for about four years.”

He seems very nice and soft spoken, someone who unknowingly charms any girl he meets with ease.

Before I could say anything back the girl across the table pokes him with her pool stick.

“Stop trying to charm her you creep she just got here!” she exclaims loudly, “I am Melissa, you can call me Mel, I’m also sixteen, Leo is my mission partner.”

She is stunning, her eyes a dark shade of brown like liquid chocolate, match her skin. Her hair was in two long silvery blue french braids, you could clearly tell from the roots that her hair was originally black. She plays with her tongue playing with her lip piercing. Looking Cassie up and down.

“Mel stop it, you have a boyfriend,” Leo says staring daggers at her.

“All the more reason it’s okay for me to look,” she shrugs, the zipper on her sport jacket clinking.

Angel laughs and Leo rolls his eyes.

“What do you two specialize in?” Mel asks us both.

I look at Angel confused and Tricky answers bluntly from beside me.

“I am not quite sure what you mean by that, but I have been studying taekwondo, karate, and mixed martial arts all my life, so I would guess traditional hand to hand combat,” he shoves his hands in his jean pockets, “you can call me Tricky or Trev as well if you want, I’m seventeen.”

Mel and Leo look at eachother obviously impressed, Teo leans on his pool que a devious smirk forming on his lips. Then they all turn to look at me.

“I am Cassandra, I’m fourteen, and you can call me Cassie, I guess I specialize in weponized chemistry,” I say quietly, and add quickly to seem cool, “I can also make meth if you want meth.”

They all laugh, “Meth huh?” Teo asks smiling.

“Yeah, I can make pure methamphetamine,” I say blood rising to my cheeks, “I can also make anything from chemical weapons to medical supplies as long as I have the right material.”

They all look at me shocked.

“I mean I was brought in because I sold 70 hand made compact grenades to your weapons officer,” I want to stop talking but I don’t know how, “one of those grenades are powerful enough to level this building.”

They are all stunned into silence. They look at eachother and then Leo’s shock changes to realization.

“Guys she would be a perfect recruit for the prank wars!” he exclaims.

Before I can ask what that is Angel says, “we can talk about that later, we have to continue on with the tour,” Mel and Leo look at us pouting.

“See you guys later then,” Teo says picking up his pool que.

He shoots and Mel exclaims something about it not being her turn and we walk across the entry hall, into the East Room.

“Fun fact, you may think this room is named after the directions it faces, but it is actually named after a pair of mission partners,” she pauses, “who died during the night saving this school from an attack that could have decimated all the specialized weapons (SWs) in their sleep.”

I walk inside the East room and take a closer look at the books on one of the bookshelves. Mission archives.

“I’m guessing East and West were their code names?” I hear Tricky ask behind me.

“Yes, and death is an occupational hazard here, but it’s the fact that they saved everyone that they had the rooms named after them,” she says.

I pull down one of the books from a shelf and open it. Reading what was inside.

Name: Julius Driver

Code Name: Quicksilver

Mission date: October 4th

Location: Queentoya

Underground war zone placement. Mission goal is to decimate enemy forces and claim territory for Section Zero.

I continued reading the page and it went through detailed combat maneuvers and tactics that were used. At the bottom of the page was the outcome of the mission.

Mission Status: Completed

Fatalities: 4 Specialized Weapons

I gasped softly as I read the names and saw Julius’s name among the fatalities.

“Oh, Julius,” Angel said softly over my shoulder.

I jumped, slamming the book shut, a puff of dust shooting off the book.

“You knew him?” I ask softly, setting the book back on the shelf.

“Sure I did,” she said smiling, “he was in his last year when I was brought here. He was the class clown,” she smiled softly.

I look past her shoulder to see Tricky making small talk with another boy who looked the same age as him.

“Actually that was his final mission before he aged out,” she states sadly, “his partner and twin sister Maria was there when he died too. She was going to move in with her boyfriend when that happened. She passed a couple days later, of heartbreak.”

I look at the massive shelf of mission archives.

“Not all of the stories end like that though,” she follows my line of sight, “some of my best missions are in these books. We archive them because a lot of team leaders and strategists will look through them and plan missions using them.”

Angel gestures toward a pair of people talking in hushed voices by the fire writing stuff in note books and scanning through another massive brown book.

“Tricky! Come on we are moving on, you can talk to your new friend later!” Angel yells across the room, earning some disapproving glances.

He waves at the boy and saunters over.

“Last stop,” she pauses dramatically, “the training room,” she smirks and turns, her wavy black hair catching the light as she walked out of the room.

We walk out of the room and into the main entrance. I follow Angel, holding Tricky’s sleeve as she walks between the staircases and opens up the massive double doors.

I walk through the doors into a massive room the size of a gymnasium. The sounds of skin hitting leather and thump of bodies hitting the floor envelop me as I look around. I see people sparring with eachother in rings, and others training on punching bags.

I look up at Tricky and his eyes were bright and he was jumping from one foot to the other in anticipation. Angel looks behind her and smirks deviously at Tricky.

She leads us to the center of the gym where there is a massive boxing ring with an screen hanging above it.

On the screen read two names, with a jagged line separating them. Fox vs Smith. Beside the ring in a high up chair is a bored looking lady with greying roots yelling at the boys. I couldn’t make out what she was saying through her thick accent.

Angel looks at Tricky, “you fight right Tricky?”

He laughs, “I wouldn’t be good at protecting Cassie if I didn’t,” he stares at the boys fighting, “the ginger’s going to win.”

Angel looks up at Tricky, one eyebrow raised, “Fox? You do realize he is losing right?” She looks back at the pair fighting, “My money is on Smith, Fox doesn’t even seem to know what he’s doing, his stance is all wrong.”

“$20 on Fox,” Tricky states holding his hand out to Angel.

“I raise you, $50 that Smith’s going to win,” Angel says holding her hand out.

“Deal,” Tricky smiles coyly grabbing Angel’s hand.

The bulky boy, Smith, swings a punch which the ginger swiftly blocks. The punch almost hits him in the forearm, Fox moves so fast my eyes couldn’t keep up with him. Smith obviously expected the swing to make contact, and when it didn’t it propelled his weight too far forward.

Before Smith could recover, Fox took his chance and ducked low as if going for his legs. Smith widened his stance to stabilize his balance and smirked bringing his elbow down to Fox’s head. Suddenly, Fox leaned back narrowly missing Smith’s elbow and jabbed Smith in the throat. Smith recoiled clutching his throat, gasping for air.

Fox took that moment to swiftly move behind Smith and kick his knees, causing Smith to fall. With a swift elbow to the side of the head, Smith was out cold.

I looked over and saw Angel’s jaw drop.

She looked over at Tricky, “H-how did you?”

“I saw it in his stance, when you said his stance was off, that stance is actually a very specific wide stance that allows the attacker to drop down and avoid attacks much more easily than a traditional fighting stance,” Tricky pauses for a minute a look flashing through his eyes, “it has been a long time since I have seen that stance, it is only taught at two very secluded dojo’s, you also owe me $50.”

Angel grunts and turns, “there is one more place I want to show you,” she quickly leaves the training room, Tricky and I on her heel.

“I have to meet that kid,” Tricky mutters to himself.

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