The Beginning

"Operatives Kat, Jay and Team Leader T report to head office."

The announcement blared down the corridors echoing off the dully painted walls and into the depths of the building. Ensuring that all present heard, understood and, most importantly, obeyed.

Kat landed lightly on the floor and stood up in one fluid motion. Padding over to the door she sheathed her sword and then exited the room, terminating the specialised training programme that had been running.

Jay sighed with regret and removed the connective wire from her forehead.

"Another time", she said to the computer, "I have work to do."

Standing up she exited her quarters to see what the leaders wanted this time.

T closed the field report that he had borrowed from the archives and was reading. Glancing down the corridor, first left then right, he marched decisively towards the Head Office, a faint aura of excitement surrounding him.

As Jay arrived at the door she noticed another girl standing there. Examining her peer closely Jay felt a slight sense of unease. The girl, judging from the training clothes she was wearing, was a trainee assassin...no, scratch that Jay thought to herself, this was an assassin. There on her shoulder were the discreet stripes that marked the assassins apart. She also had the calm, but deadly, aura that all of the assassins seemed to carry around with them, of course that could just be the way she was holding herself. The assassin was tall and slim and stood in a relaxed manner, but with every muscle ready to spring into action. Her wealth of hair was jet black and seemed to absorb the light from all around, this only served to make her face even paler than it really was and emphasised her features. It was a fairly common face, not too pretty, not too ugly, but something about it seemed to grab the attention and turn it into a work of art. Jay gave a start as she saw that the assassin had noticed the scrutiny she was receiving and was returning it in full measure.

Kat examined the girl by her side and wasn't impressed by what she saw. The girl was tall and slim, but made herself appear smaller by hunching her shoulders in an almost self-defensive posture. She wore leggings and a large baggy jumper, both black, which weren't the usual uniform. She must've been called from quarters Kat thought to herself. Examining the girl's face Kat noticed a small node at the top left of the girl's forehead, only one group of people had that kind of transplant and that was the tecchies. Moving her scrutiny onwards Kat saw that the girl, like herself, had a hidden quality inside that transformed her face from usual to beautiful. Brown eyes peered at her from under the girl's coppery brown hair and widened. Damn! Kat swore to herself hastily lowering her own eyes, damndamndamn! She'd forgotten what she had been born with and often had these harsh reminders.

Jay's heart was beating fast. The assassin wasn't human! No other explanation for those eyes. When Jay's eyes had met the assassin's she saw that, instead of usual pupils, the girl had cat's pupils narrowed into barely visible slashes in the harsh electric light from the ceiling. A faint blush on the other girl's cheeks told Jay that she'd seen her reaction and was, of all things, embarressed! Slowing her breathing Jay screwed up her courage and said "Shouldn't we be going in now?" The other girl nodded and silently pressed the button at the side of the door.

The door hummed open and T turned from his scrutiny of a muddy landscape painting to see the operatives who were to be in his team. An assassin and a tecchie he thought with approval. One moving with assurance and awareness of their environment, ready for the slightest threat, and the other creeping in silently behind making themselves as invisible as possible and the least threatening that they could.

"Ahhh ladies, do come in", the leader smiled, "I take it you're wondering why I've brought you here."

"Field mission", Kat stated bluntly while sliding into a chair, "No other reason for me, a tecchie and a team leader to be asked to head office."

Kat and Jay curiously examined T for they had seen the team leaders roaming about the base but had never had an opportunity to get up close. He was wearing a standard black uniform and held himself rigidly as if he was a robot awaiting his next command. They could both see he was fiercely dedicated to the organisation from the fervour in his face and the aura of excitement surrounding him betrayed the calm face he was trying to master. Kat and Jay could both tell that this would be his first field mission to. His hair was cut with the standard cut the organisation forced on their soldiers and his uniform was pristine with shining black boots. Great, Kat thought to herself, a regular solider boy. T turned his attention from the two, obviously inexperienced operatives and focussed on the leader.

"With all due repect, sir", he started, "What's this all about?"

Kat and Jay smirked at each other, united in their mockery of this perfect soldier.

"An excellent question T and one that I was just about to answer. You have all been waiting for your chance to take some action in the field and I am glad to tell you that you are now finally a member of a team."

Kat frowned slightly as Jay gasped and T showed a small smile, the only betrayal of his true emotions. This was crazy! She could tell that they were all inexperienced, not one of them had been out in the field before. This was doubly unusual for the team leader, they never reached that rank until they'd at least some experience of missions. The most this one had were the old field reports and the holographic training programmes the organisation gave them.

Jay's heart rate picked up for a second time that day. A field mission! Were the crazy?! She had been looking towards this day with dread. She wasn't a fighter, pressure of any kind almost killed her. There was no way she'd make a suitable team member.

"What's this about?", Kat asked, "Sir", she added sarcastically, prompted by a small frown from the leader.

"None of us have been in action before", she added leaning forwards in her chair, "Me and the tecchie are the only team members and we've got an inexperienced team leader who's closest brush with the field is old field reports from the archives. This doesn't make any sense."

T hissed in his breath angrily. How dare she undermine my authority?, he thought furiously to himself. Who did she think she was? Glancing at the leader he decided that he should take some disciplinary action before the leader decided that she had a point and disbanded the team. He walked behind her and slammed her back in her chair. Grabbing her arm in a vice like grip he twisted it up and behind her before leaning down to reprimand her...he never got that far. Kat twisted in her chair and swung her legs up, bringing them into connection with T's head. He instantly let go of her arm and she sprung up and into action before he could realise what was happening. Landing a few swift kicks on his body Kat pushed him into the wall. She then brought a knife into her hand as if from no where and flung it at T. The knife thudded into the wall a hair's breadth from his head and quivered visciously as if it was a wasp that had been trapped and longed for the freedom to fly and sting once more.

Before T could move Kat was by his side pinning his head to the wall by his hair and holding a knife to his throat, her fist clenched tightly around the hilt.

"I wouldn't do that again if I were you", she hissed at him, "I don't take kindly to being punished for the truth."

Releasing T she backed away from him into the centre of the room, her eyes afire with anger. It was then that T noticed her knife. He had thought that it was just an ordainary knife and that she had just been holding the hilt tightly because of anger, but now that she had moved away from him he saw that her fist was the hilt. The blade protruding from her passionately clenched fist was jagged and seemed to flicker in the air and somewhere beyond the normal realms of hearing T could detect what seemed like a faint humming. Kat unclenched her fist and the blade immediately disintegrated. Glaring at T she slunk back to her seat and sat down again.

"That's why I've summoned you here", the leader spoke into the silence, "You each have your own individual powers that set you apart from the average team member in the organisation. Kat you have your ability to see in the dark and your psychic knife. Jay you can "communicate" with computers, get them to do what you want by hardwiring yourself to them, and T you have telepathic and telekinetic abilities. I brought you together as a team, operative Kat, because you will be one of our most valuable and effective teams once you are trained."

All of them remained in silence as what the leader said gradually sank in Before any of them could voice their opinions the leader spoke once more. "You will report to the training facilities at 0800 hours where you will comence training as a team in field tactics. Good day."

To be continued