Stefan stood beside Aimee as she ogled the glowing button – numbered 11 – on the elevator wall. She was trembling inside, but she knew, in her heart and mind, that she had to train. She forced herself to ignore her fatigue and lift her chin, and then the elevator doors parted.

Automatically, her body pressed her back against the elevator wall. Her thoughts were all negative, a blockade to her bravado.

"Come on, Aimee," Stefan gestured, waiting for her outside the doors. Leisurely, she neared him. "I wanna show you something," he stated. "You should see it before you start training in The Arena."

"What is it?" she queried.

"A choice."

She inhaled, "But we're already here."

Stefan read her confusion before gently holding her hand, taking her to the very end of the passage and past the Arena doors. Stefan brushed his fingers against the wall and it separated in two, like mechanical sliding doors, revealing a broad steel door with a keypad attached to it. He put in the code and pushed the oversized door handle down, and they walked in. Aimee froze. Her eyes darted around the enormous room that exposed to her, but she bypassed the interior decorating. All she saw were people, by the bucket load.

"Why am I here?" she asked, louder than intended. Slowly, nearly everyone eyed her.

A grin came upon Stefan's face, "They like you already," he joked, and then his attention moved to their peers. "Hey, everyone! Don't mind me or my companion; I'm just giving her a tour."

She glanced at him, surprised and amused by his word choice, considering that he had never called her his 'companion' before.

Everybody resumed whatever they were doing, while Aimee analysed her surroundings.

"This is the training room for the Ranked Division Agents."

Stefan cut his explanation short when he saw how she had been enveloped in what was around her. On her far left, there was a gigantic window of some sort, its glass so thick you could not see through it. Nearer to them was a seating area with long white couches, and enough of them to accommodate at least twenty people, but the seats looked brand new, as if everyone was too scared to sit on them. Squared in the centre of the couches was coffee table, also white, and on it was a manicured green shrub in a somewhat personable green pot. Straight ahead of Aimee and Stefan was a gym, where most of the room's population was lifting weights, or biking, or jogging uphill on the treadmills. Busied at the weights was a boy around her age, with an uneven haircut that hid his left eye. His eyes were pale blue. His skin was pale, too – as if he had not stood in sunlight a day in his life – both in contrast with his midnight black hair.

The boy put his weights down and approached Stefan.

"You should get your companion out of here," he said. He had an accent Aimee believed to be Siberian. "No offence, but she's a featherweight."

Aimee was not sure whether she was supposed to be offended, but she tried not to be.

"Hello, Dominick," Stefan smiled at him honestly.

So they're friends, thought Aimee. She wondered if Dominick was anything like Gavin, and then she remembered that she had not seen him since he ditched her outside Buckley's office – something she still wanted to punch him for.

Stefan introduced Aimee and Dominick to each another.

"Nice to meet you," he greeted. "I was joking, by the way. It's just... you look so fragile!" His deep voice made that sound more insulting than intended.

"Fragile? I'm goalkeeper for the Ulysses S. Lancers," she informed him.

"Who?"

Aimee sighed and decided to change the topic, "I'm sure I could beat you in one of these games," she said, glancing between the obstacles neatly spread throughout the room, all of which were GINM originals.

Dominick questioned her ability, "Oh yeah, which ones?" he asked.

There were things that looked like those exercise bikes at the gym, only encased in a pod, from which a helmet equipped with goggles hanged down. The agents using them seemed to be in a virtual reality. Then, there was a massive portable pool, like the one Aimee had seen in the Behind the Scenes clips of a Harry Potter movie. The agents wore accessories on their arms and ankles to weigh them to the underwater floor. She wondered if that glass had ever broken before. There were various other machines and gadgets sprawled across the floor, but none seemed familiar or even describable to her. It was like being in the mind of a very dangerous Roald Dahl.

"Uh..." she muttered.

"You wouldn't stand a chance in here," he answered, as though his point had now been affirmed.

Dominick momentarily returned to the weights. Five pairs of them, all differing in sizes, were stationed on a weight rack. The ones he lifted were extraordinarily heavy. He was more buff than Stefan; Aimee could tell since he had rolled up the sleeves of his jade coloured top, thus displaying his toned arms. He hoisted the weights and dropped them into Aimee's hands. They almost fell, but she miraculously managed to raise them to her chest.

"Dominick!" Stefan protested at his actions.

Dominick crossed his burly arms and watched Aimee press her lips together tightly, struggling. Stefan quickly pulled the weights from her.

"Thank you," she exhaled.

He dropped the weight between them, and glared at Dominick, but someone else, suddenly beside Dominick, grasped their attention, and Stefan's face lightened almost instantly. The girl had long and wavy auburn hair, constellations of freckles on her nose and cheeks, and a soft pink smile.

"Good afternoon, Stefan," she greeted in her cheery accent. "Who's this?"

"Hi," he smiled, his cheeks growing rosy as he could already foresee her upcoming reaction. "Valerie, this is... uhm... Aimee."

"This is Aimee?!" she beamed. "Oh my goodness, Stefan's told us so much about you!"

"All good, I hope?" pondered Aimee.

"Yes," she giggled. "Oh, you're even prettier in person!"

Stefan combed his fingers through his hair, "Well, my description of her was not an exaggeration," he smiled at Valerie, and then at Aimee.

Valerie continued, and glanced past her own shoulder at a boy who looked just like her, "Finn, come quick, Stefan's here! You won't believe who he brought with him!"

This Finn stepped towards them and blew his below-shoulder-length hair away from his right eye, one partial of an emerald green pair. The hair fell back quickly. He simply laughed at the strands.

Aimee whispered into Stefan's ear, "Are they twins?"

"Yup," he winked, "Valerie and Finn, the Mullingar twins," he rhymed it like a jingle. "But Finn spends a lot of time with a hair iron."

She nudged his arm playfully, "Stop it."

"It's true!" he chuckled.

So GINM was more Global than she had thought.

Finn held his left hand out to her. "Aimee Griffiths, hmm?" he guessed.

At first, she assumed that he was left-handed, but then she realised he was simply aware of her cast. She found herself blushing at the kind consideration as she shook his hand.

"The one and only," Aimee replied to his guess.

"Wow," he glimpsed from her to Stefan. "Well done, friend. She's definitely a keeper."

Aimee bashfully withdrew her hand, and tucked a few unruly loose hairs behind her ear.

"I agree with you there," uttered Stefan, before Finn flung his arm over his shoulder.

"So, are we going to get some training done today?" he eagerly inquired.

Stefan usually helped the twins train when he could, but he had to decline that time.

"Not today, sorry. I have to train with Aimee in The Arena."

"Well, since you're both here, I think she could get a few experience points first," remarked Valerie.

"We could help her practise here in the Ranking Room," Finn agreed.

Aimee thought solely to herself, compiling a decision, and then she spoke aloud. "I think that's a great idea. I have to train here sooner or later anyway, right?" she asked Stefan.

"This is your choice."

"Then I'd like to try all my options," she nodded simply.

Finn grinned, "Well, then we'd best get you ready."

Before Aimee could figure out what he meant by that, he and Valerie took her to the storeroom in the back wall. Through the door, and on every inch of the room's walls, were shelves upon shelves of tidily folded clothing, paired with brunette boots. Valerie motioned further into the room and retrieved an ensemble.

"I think we're the same size," she told Aimee.

Valerie handed her the folded rigout and lightly pushed her into the closet. She shut the door between them, leaving Aimee to dress herself in the smell of fabric, cheese and dust. Aimee pulled her clothes to her chest as she let out a sudden sneeze, before stepping out of her old garbs and into her new ones. Valerie was right about their sizes; the clothes were a good fit.

Aimee walked out of the closet, wearing GINM's real uniform: solid brunette waterproof boots, thick white leggings, and a jade coloured top beneath a white waistcoat. Stefan had on that look he reserved only for her.

Valerie circled around her, "Hey, it looks good on you!"

"It really does," commented Finn. "Right, Dominick?" he nudged him gently with his elbow. Dominick nodded calmly.

"Thanks, I'm just glad it's comfier than I thought it would be," she said modestly.

"Come here," gestured Stefan. Slowly, she approached, and he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her on her forehead. "You look gorgeous."

"Thanks, you monkey," she said, with a charming smile.

"Monkey?" he repeated in a laugh.

"The Monkey Wall," uttered Dominick, his arms still crossed on his virile pectorals.

"What?" she queried.

Finn explained, "Dom and I thought your first bit of training should be to climb that wall over there."

He pointed to that big, opaque window on the far side of the room. The window, with glass so thick that it prevented anyone from looking through it, was actually a wall.

"Okay," Aimee put on her determined face.

"I'll be lifting weights, if you don't mind," uttered Dominick. "And even if you do... Good luck, Aimee."

"You and your recluse tendencies," Valerie said with an undertone of annoyance.

Aimee noticed her rolling her eyes at him, and she figured that he always uninvolved himself. Was it because she was a 'new recruit'? Or maybe, and she was hoping against this, he was just full of himself – pumping iron, day in and day out, until his body became strong as iron itself. He fled to his weights while the others guided Aimee to The Monkey Wall, which was much taller up close. She glimpsed at the opaque, enormous wall that she was to climb.

"How do we climb this thing?" she said, feeling a tinge of regret all of a sudden.

"Wait for it," Finn said expectantly, as he walked closer to the obstruction.

There was a low groan residing in the walls, as it slowly developed. Handles and rungs swelled from the surface of the wall, spread apart like a scatterplot. Aimee let out a nervous whimper, and then trailed Finn, and the others followed behind her.

Finn pointed upward, "You just have to climb to the top and then come down again. Easy."

"Finn..." his sister murmured; she knew that it was not easy.

Valerie quickly offered to climb with Aimee, otherwise Stefan would have gone with her, but he appreciated her cordiality. He watched them strap on their climbing gear. Valerie secured her gear first – she had had much practice, despite her relatively short time at GINM.

Valerie and her brother were considered new additions to GINM. They were part of the special division for anyone under training age, which was twenty and up. The division was named the Ranked Division (RD) to differentiate them from the official GINM agents, who were not ranked. It was challenging for young people, such as Valerie and Finn, to be fully accepted into GINM as agents, to train, but they had showed up at GINM's door, like many others had, and they took them in. No questions asked. As the good guys, that was what GINM did: they took in orphans and stray souls, and trained some to become secret agents.

Aimee would become an RDA. All she had to do was complete her training. Step one was climbing the wall.