OMG it's been such a long time :( Oh well, I was quite busy with finals (suck), but now that it's summer, I think I'll be updating much more frequently. So like I was thinking, but do you guys think I should enter the watty's? I really want to, but this story is still in its beginning stages and I don't want to rush anything, but...idk. I'm still thinking on the idea, but I'm still undecided. Oh well, enough about me, I hope you like this chapter peeps:P

P.S. Criticism is always welcome, and the more you guys vote and comment, the faster I update ;)

When Lyla entered the house, her sister greeted her at the door by pulling her arm. "Lyla, Lyla, come look at this!" she said, motioning to the kitchen. She dragged Lyla over to the countertop, on which there was a disarray of pots and pans. The table was laden with various foods including dosas, fried rice, sambar, vendeka (okra) curry, and other curries all laid out, with a tray of jalebis at the end of the island in the middle of their kitchen. 

 Clearly, guests were going to be arriving shortly. Lyla knew her mother would never make the food on her own; it was always chapatis that were bought from the nearby bazaar and were heated up in the microwave. It was obvious that she had gone all out to impress these guests. 

"Divya, do you know who the guests are?" She shook her head and said, "No." Well, they would find out soon enough. Lyla looked at the clock. It read 3:57 p.m. She started to the stairs and called out over her shoulder, "Divya, you should finish your homework before the guests come because it'll be way too late for you to do it afterward." She then dashed up the stairs, eager to report back to base.

Using the phone given to her by Juhager's Assassin Organization, or JAO, she dialed the pin number that would connect her to her mentor, Sarah. 

 A prerecorded message called out, "Are you in a dire emergency and require outside aid?" 

"No." 

"Are you in need of more weapons? If so specify what type and your size corresponding to the weapon's measurement." 

"No." 

"Are you reporting back to base? If so, mention your instructor's name and pin." 

"Yes, mentor is Sarah Eve Onalee, and the pin code is 2852." 

A  mature, clear voice rang out, "I was wondering when you were going to make the call, but I didn't think it would be this soon. So Agent Scorzer, what have you found out?"

Lyla explained, "The Blackwells home operates like any other, except for the property's various cameras. The mother drives a 2009 Black Audi A7 with a black base coat and a metallic burgundy veneer on top. Grant Blackwell's closest friend is Evans, Evans Knight, who currently has various social media accounts in his name. He has a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, and Kik, but if you look at his Instagram account, there's a certain faint print that was left while importing onto the site. This lead me to find better hidden prints on the rest of his accounts except Facebook, but these looked like someone had tried removing, something that they had almost succeeded in.

"Clearly, he has connections in all of these tech giants, because there is no way that he could have removed the rest of these prints without any outside help. Unless he hacked into their system, which as of now, I have not checked. I need access to his accounts. I did, however, verify his Facebook account. He has no recent activity on that account, and all of his friends are family members which I also have yet to gather information on. However, it is clear that Evans has in fact been friends with Grant since at least 7th grade since there's a picture of them on his Facebook account. Grant is holding a 2nd place track-and-field trophy, and Evans is holding a discus and shot put trophies, both of which were first place. I will hack into Evans's accounts as soon as possible but for now, I'm going to stick with my original plan."

"Agent, while I see that you've done good work, it's clearly not enough, and I'll be expecting to hear much more by the coming Tuesday, September 8, which is a week from today. I want you to find out more about what occurs in their house at night since we have reason to believe that this is when Samuel Blackwell conducts certain business deals. If possible, try planting a bug in one of their rooms, try getting invited to their house, and encourage neighborly relations.

"We relocated you for a reason, Agent. Otherwise you could have just stayed at your previous location, and since it was a private school you would have had no trouble with any school districts. All you needed was to qualify for the program, which you undoubtedly would. I would like to know their entire schedule by the 8th, and a report covering every corner of their house. We know they have a basement and a small attic, but this is just observance from the outside. No doubt Blackwell has hidden rooms throughout the house, and I need you to find the weakest points of entry. Remember, while your task is to capture Grant Blackwell, the end goal is his father, Samuel. We also need information on what he's wearing, what material is it made out of, does he wear bullet proof coats, vests, etc."

"As of now we know you are not equipped with any arsenal other than your regular handgun, is this correct Agent?" "Yes ma'am." "I'm currently working on trying to get you some long- and short-range tranquilizers, but for now, your knives and gun should be enough. Agent, remember what I said. I want to hear that you've at least bugged or snuck into their house by this Tuesday. I need you to bug one of them, or one of their devices. I need you to earn their trust. Otherwise you will be deemed unfit for this assignment.

"Remember, you're not the only agent out here that wants this job. So you better shape up, because you only have two months to understand everything about this family and how they work, keep your cover at both school and your home, as well as kidnap Grant."

"I understand Agent Onalee. I've rehearsed my assignment, and I have a plan, but for right now we have to train. Would you like me to take up training with you, or should I-""With me, right now, in fact, I would like you to perform full body training, not video. I want to see you with your 11-inch, 6-inch, and 5-inch knives. Handgun training we will reserve until the month's end. There's an open field about 4.67 miles southeast of your current location. It's an abandoned cemetery and factory, and the people there hear eerie noises from there occasionally. That's where you will do your handgun training. Am I understood?"

Lyla cursed under her breath. Sarah had always been her harshest critique, and while it made her one of the best child assassins in the world, her manner of training was not the kindest. "Yes Agent Onalee." "Good, now I will go ahead and project myself into your room, and please move to your ready stance by then." "Yes Agent Onalee."

A light blue, 3D version of her mentor was projected into her room. Her brown hair was pulled into a messy braid along her shoulder, with gadgets strewn around the various belts across her slight shoulders and slim waist. She wore a thin cloth around her face, shielding it from preying eyes. Her pale skin was only visible at the ends of her fingertips, where the glove was cut off to reveal her scarred hands. In the palm of her right hand was a knife, ready for training.

Lyla had already assumed her ready stance with her 11-inch dagger in her right hand. Without a word of greeting, the holograph lunged towards her right thigh, but she quickly pivoted on her left foot and embedded the blade into the right side of the holograph. Her mentor's image flickered, but then returned. When she came back she went for her neck, but Lyla quickly jerked her head back and forced her blade towards Sarah's armpit. But while aiming for it, she was greeted by the site of another blade in Sarah's left hand, which quickly sliced through her arm.

"Agent, the other side will not fight as clean as you do; expect the unexpected." While Lyla was still perfectly alright, and her hand still perfectly attached to her right arm, she knew she should've foreseen that conspicuous move. Even while silently berating herself, she instantly lunged for her mentor's chest, more specifically her heart. However, she found herself blocked by yet another one of her mentor's knives. Sarah battled her one-handed, a single blade against the other, Lyla saw the trap.

As she had predicted, a small switchblade found itself in Sarah's left hand. While Sarah aimed for Lyla's right eye, Lyla instead bent her neck to the left, pivoted, and aimed straight below her mentor's ribs. She reached her target point, but Sarah had found her Achilles heel. Her knife hovered straight above Lyla's neck.

"Not bad Agent, but you won only half of our matches, which is not good enough. Yes, I went moderately hard on you, and yes, my specialty is knives, but that makes no difference when it comes to the field. Scorzer, you underestimate yourself. You must learn to use your size to your advantage. Knives are not meant for the power of your entire body. It is a quick, agile weapon that uses strategy, tactic. 

"You managed to catch yourself at the end there, but your mistake was that you acted out of emotion. That is a weakness you must eliminate when fighting. It is all about your strategy and skill." Sarah flipped her knife while Lyla watched it rotate in the space above her mentor's head until Sarah caught it once more. "Agent, what are your strengths?"

"'A good agent reveals their strengths through fighting, but an excellent agent has no weaknesses to hide, and therefore no strengths to reveal. They excel at everything they do,' if I remember you correctly," said Lyla. 

A grin broke out onto Sarah's face. "I'm glad to see you haven't forgotten our first lesson. Good. But agent, I would still like you to assess yourself right now. You are strong, and powerful, but you are short. Yes, you can overpower your opponent, but if they are taller than you then that will require double the effort - you must work on a much more energy efficient routine. Your muscle is much more useful in hand-to-hand combat, which if I remember you got full marks on, which is no mean feat. You can use your height to your advantage by training yourself to use more agile, sleek movements.

This is why I've been insisting on your knife training for the past couple of months. This will help you conserve your energy, which you have yet to master. You haven't reached your full potential yet, and I would like to see that happen. I feel like you enjoy arsenal training much more than your knife training, but you must be proficient in both.

"You are one of our most promising assassins Agent, but you lack in-" Sarah lunged at her one more time, but this time, Lyla was better prepared. She took her 5-inch and 6-inch daggers out and she parried Sarah's blow. In a flurry of knives, Lyla almost couldn't keep track of the number of blades Sarah had managed to pull out. The scrape of metal on metal started to build a rush if energy within Lyla, and slowly but surely she had backed Sarah into a corner.

Sarah had 6 blades in her hands: her swiss knife, 5-inch, 6-inch, 11-inch, and 12-inch daggers, as well as a sword built with agility in mind. Sarah toyed with her, smacking every open area with the flat part of her blade, as she expertly juggled them, even tossing them up then catching them in time to evade one of Lyla's attacks. Lyla fought furiously, blocking each of Sarah's blows with her daggers. Sarah immediately started issuing small, 2-inch arrows from her mouth, however she missed Lyla's face, as they instead caught on her hair, while she dodged a blow from a dagger that was in the air.

As Lyla swooped over the ground however, she saw her backpack on the floor. In one, swift movement, she had swung the backpack over her head, and threw it at her mentor's face, while issuing a blow to her neck as well. Sarah's weapons clattered as they dropped to the floor of her room and her image turned blurry and pixilated until she and her weapons had completely disappeared. The backpack was lying in a crumpled heap on the floor near opposite wall.

When she had picked up her phone from the desk in her room, she heard Sarah's voice saying, "You're getting better, but I touched you about 5 times with the flat of my blade, and each of those times is one time I could've, but didn't, kill you. You still have a lot to learn, but remember the two lessons we went over today. Expect the unexpected, and use yourself, as well as your surroundings to your advantage. Turn the tables. Change the ring you're fighting in. But make sure that at the end of the day, you are the one that comes out on top, and only you.

"That was a rather successful lesson, but you must keep practicing. I realize your last mission only tested your long range weaponry skills, but it is important that you understand the strategy behind swordplay. Agent, I have to attend to our trainees here at base, but practice, and remember the assignments I gave you due by the 8th. Have a good day Agent Scorzer."

Lyla checked the time, 6:03 p.m. As she got up and put her weapons away, she heard the doorbell ring, and the pit-pattering of little footsteps to go check who it is. Lyla dashed down the stairs to check who it was but before she could, Divya had already opened the door, and there, standing before her, was the entire Blackwell family.

Pictures: Sarah Eve Onalee, Sarah's Attire

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