Polaris

The next week passed in a blur. The team running the experiments on Polaris had to carry her back to her room every day after the torturous tests ended. However, by the end of seven days, Polaris's system had automatically adjusted to this new stress, and she was able to stagger back to her room by herself.

On the dawn of the eighth day, when morning light struggled into her room once more, Polaris withdrew into her bundle of blankets, trembling. Had they been lying when they told her she would only be tested for a week? She buried her head beneath the sheets, squeezing her eyes shut.

The door opened. Polaris tried not to hyperventilate.

"Polaris," came a voice from right next to the bed. It sounded very slightly familiar, but it was much brasher than Dr. Kelley's voice. Must be one of the team, Polaris thought. She remained quivering under the sheets.

"Get up or more tests."

"No! No no no no no I'll get up!" Polaris squeaked. She leaped out of bed immediately, stumbling a bit when her bare feet hit the floor. Brushing her hair out of her face with one hand, she raised her eyes to the figure in front of her, presumably the owner of the voice.

Violet eyes under a tousled mess of platinum hair, cut short at the chin. A lithe figure, very slightly shorter than Polaris, but much more muscular, under the black tights and spandex shirt. Strength seemed to emanate from all over this person; their eyes were slightly narrowed, raking over Polaris's own face, and she felt the urge to shrink back from this calculating glare. She stood tall, however. "What's your name?"

They offered no response, pushing past her to exit the room. "Come on."

Polaris sighed and followed. This person walked along the white hallways soundlessly, in stark contrast to the noise of Polaris's feet slapping on the tile floor. She registered that she was wearing no footwear and this would probably end badly...whatever they were doing.

"Hey," she said, "we're not doing more tests, are we?"

The figure in front of her shook their head.

"Okay, good," Polaris said, exhaling a sigh of relief. "Wait, is this gonna be more painful than tests?"

"Depends."

"On what?"

"You'll see."

Polaris huffed and scurried forward to walk alongside this person. "You don't talk much, do you?"

"Never thought you'd notice."

Polaris furrowed her brows. "Did you just call me stupid? I'll have you know--"

"You're not stupid, just annoying!" the person spat, coming to a halt. Their voice rang out through the empty halls. They flipped their blonde hair out of their eyes and sighed. Quietly: "My name is Cade. Now shut. Up."

Cade resumed the walk as if nothing had happened, and Polaris decided not to push it. After a few minutes of walking in silence, Cade pushed open a heavy metal door and waved Polaris inside. The four walls of the room were each covered in a blue mat, and so was the floor. Polaris tripped on the edge of the mat as they entered.

Cade sighed. "I can't believe I was assigned to such an idiot."

"You just said I'm not stupid!"

"I retract my earlier statement."

Polaris groaned. "Can you at least tell me why I'm here?"

Cade cleared their throat. "Fine. They ran tests on you and somehow found you suitable for the Rebel Task Force. The Rebel Alliance is becoming a problem, and we are the assassins, the secret agents, that deal with them.

"The rest of the CIA focuses on the actual war; we keep the Rebels in line. We're the field agents, mainly. Some other division does the tech," Cade said, gesturing to another room. "But we do receive training in all areas. So once the others arrive, we'll begin--I think. Because they weren't prepared for the Rebels, we're sort of an impromptu force, going through training alongside our actual tasks."

"Okay," Polaris said. "Sounds good."

"When they come in, don't talk to me," Cade told her. "Actually, in general, don't talk to me."

"Um. Okay."

"Glad we've reached an agreement about that." Cade brought out black sneakers and a pair of black socks for Polaris. "Put these on."

Other black-clothed agents filed in, one by one, soon after that. They were all young, around Polaris and Cade's age, at their physical and mental prime. None of them paid Polaris any mind; instead, they began stretching and warming up around the room. Polaris stayed standing in the corner of the room, not wanting to disrupt them. She noticed, however, that although some of them chatted quietly while doing their stretches, Cade remained silent throughout the exercises.

Finally, the instructor walked in. Polaris's breath caught in her vents when she recognized the swinging blond ponytail, the click-clack of heels on the tile floor. Kelley.

Immediately, Kelley's commanding presence draped a curtain of silence over the room. Everyone straightened up and settled into one line in front of her. Polaris realized that she should be there as well and hurried forward, trying to walk quietly. She joined one end of the line, next to a girl with dark skin and black hair pulled taut into a bun.

"We have a new member," Kelley said, motioning to Polaris. The line shifted so that all eyes were on her, and Polaris blinked uncomfortably. "Polaris. She's inexperienced, but I assure you, she will be up to par with the rest of the task force by the end of the week." Kelley's gaze swooped over the rest of the agents. "Am I correct?"

"Yes, ma'am," a chorus of voices said in unison.

"Good. I believe we had a case exercise planned for today. Is everyone warmed up?"

Another chorus of "yes" rang through the room.

"Alright. Cade, take care of Polaris today." Cade scowled but nodded. "Everyone else, these are your teams: Janna and Alex; Lance and Matthew..."

As Kelley assigned people to their teams, Polaris fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. What was a "case exercise"? Would they be competing against other teams? She didn't know if she was up to this. Actually, she didn't know why she was on this task force at all--Cade obviously already thought she was incompetent.

Lost in thought, she didn't notice the rest of the trainees moving around her. Cade shook her arm. "Polaris. Let's start." Cade was holding a piece of paper in their hands. "The instructions."

Polaris took the paper and read through the instructions for the case exercise. Apparently, it was something like a simulation of an actual mission invading the Rebel base. The entire building had been closed to the rest of the officials working there, just for today's endeavor. They were to find various clues all over the building in order to find the Rebels' military files.

"The 'clues' can be anything," Cade told her. "Explicit instructions that have been hidden. Evidence, like fingerprints or blood. Even people. Treat this like a real mission, and there's no way we can fail."

Polaris scanned through the rest of the paper. "We have until midnight to complete the exercise. Are we competing against the other teams?"

"Yes, case exercises are always competitions," Cade replied. "And I've always come in first." They jabbed a finger into Polaris's chest, raising their violet eyes to glare into Polaris's grey ones. "You'd better not change that."

Polaris gulped and nodded. Kelley's voice rang out: "Gather any weapons and supplies that you'll need, then meet me back here within five minutes."

Cade was already sprinting outside, and after a moment's hesitation, Polaris ran after them. They dashed to the weapons storage room together; Cade tossed a hand pistol at Polaris, who caught it after letting out a little scream. Cade rolled their eyes. "It's unloaded, Sherlock. Have you ever heard of ammo?"

Still trembling slightly, Polaris flipped open the magazine on the gun and inserted the bullets that Cade gave her. "I-isn't there a safety?"

"The switch right there--yeah. Can you handle the ammo?"

"Uhh..."

"Can you wear this belt to keep the ammo safe for us so that I can carry more stuff? Or are you gonna drop everything?" Cade snarled.

Something in Polaris snapped. She tore the belt out of Cade's hands, tightening it around her own hips. "Who do we shoot?" she asked.

Cade clasped what looked like a watch over Polaris's wrist. "Anyone who gets in our way. These are old-fashioned rounds; they won't injure anyone wearing an EM shield." They tapped something on the bracelet, and a shield of energy thrummed to life around Polaris's body. "But this will detect the angle of the bullet, and if it would normally be fatal, then you're out of the exercise. EM shields are ridiculously inconvenient on the field."

"That's why you're not wearing one?" Polaris asked.

Cade nodded. "I was shot one time. Never happened again, and the person who shot me isn't around anymore." A smirk curved around the edge of Cade's lips. "Everyone here wants to kill me, but they don't have the guts to pull the trigger."

A chill went up Polaris's spine, but she refused to be intimidated by her partner any longer. "Two guns, Cade. You saw my results, yeah? I can handle it."

Cade looked at her for a long moment before tossing another pistol her way. Polaris caught it in her left hand, her grip sure and steady. "Let's win this."

***

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter <3 the next chapter will have some action in it! I'm looking forward to posting it ;) please vote, comment, and follow, as always!

• Next chapter will be posted on 5/30/2017 •