Story prologe/part 1 (untitled as of yet)
Prologue
June waited in the large common room, staring out the window, into the rain. There would be no stars or moon tonight; this would be a big disappointment for Lila, but Lila would probably fit it to suit her anyway. She was humming a sad but familiar song, she knew if anyone caught her humming it she would get questions and concerns like no tomorrow, but she couldn’t help the fact that despite everything she just loved the song. She was grateful that the place was empty though, but at the same time, the emptiness was what caused her to come down and start staring out the window in the first place because the place was not supposed to be empty. She drew in a worried breath, where was he?
She suddenly saw a figure staggering down the road and knew it was him immediately. She let out her breath is relief. As long as he was alright, that was all that mattered. He mounted the front steps and opened the door, coming inside.
“You’re still up angel?” he said upon seeing her, saying her pet name he always called her with a smile. She started to smile back when she saw red.
“Oh no! Your shoulder is hurt!” she cried in alarm.
He smiled. “No, it’s just a scratch. I’ll be fine, I just need some rest, and I knew if I came to you it wouldn’t need anything else.”
She lowered her hand to her heart, then upward again, and as he came over she put her hand out on his shoulder. “I was a little worried. You were much later than usual tonight.”
He sighed in annoyance. “I should’ve been home much earlier, but for some reason I couldn’t concentrate or something, because I kept writing the report all wrong. I had to fix it almost ten times! By the way, everyone will be back tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow, huh? And just as I was getting used to the place being so quiet,” June said sarcastically. Then she added sincerely, “Well, I’m glad they’ll be back soon. It’ll be nice to have everyone home, especially Dina.” June often missed her younger sister, but understood that due to the nature of Dina’s work she sometimes would be gone for months at a time, the longest so far being five months and one week.
“Don’t get ready to relax just yet. One reason we’ll all be back is because Harry wants us all there to discuss a big project. So we’ll be having dinner with him tomorrow night and he’ll go over the details.”
“I still think we should all do something during the day, since we’ll all be back together for the first time in a long time.” She smirked. “I bet Harry would like that. What with all of us getting along and being friendly and all.”
He sighed. “I don’t know. You know how I feel about Quinn.”
She nodded. “I know, Adam, I feel the same way sometimes. Will you try to be nice, for me?”
He gave a small smile of defeat. “For you, anything.” He kissed her gently. “But right now it’s time to sleep. We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”
June got up and lifted her hand from his shoulder to inspect it. It was scarred, but that would probably be gone by tomorrow. Adam wished her a goodnight and sweet dreams, and mounted the stairs to his bedroom.
June went into her room, and noticed the sky was clear. ‘That’s most definitely Lila’s work’, she thought to herself. Turing over, she soon fell asleep.
Chapter 1
June dreamed about her past.
For most people, her life itself was a dream comes true. She had been lucky enough to become a member of STAR (acronym for Supernatural Terrorist Activities Revealed), an organization that dealt with supernatural mysteries and of course to solve supernatural mysteries, you either needed to be a supernatural being or have supernatural powers. The screening and testing process was lengthy and sometimes a bit boring, but now a few elite stood in the graduation room to wait for the congratulatory speech and further instructions. June stood there, almost in disbelief, and her younger sister Dina stood beside her, trembling with excitement. Both together had decided to join the organization, although while June could see no reason Dina wouldn’t get in, she had doubts about herself, seeing as she was only a healer, but here they were. She looked over and saw Adam standing nearby. She had to smile, she was glad he made it, even though she had met him only a few days ago.
She had been walking down the road to sing her favorite song far away from Dina as she knew Dina would probably faint from shock should she hear her sister sing the song. But as she walked, a noisy disturbance met her ears.
She followed said disturbance and found herself in the middle of a clearing, where three older boys were picking on a younger one, who was down on the ground, being kicked by the older boys. She immediately ran out, her dirty blonde hair flying behind her. “Hey, leave him alone!”
They turned to her, and the tallest snickered. “Aww, look, a cute little girl came out to rescue you!” he taunted the boy he was bullying.
The smaller boy lifted his head from the ground to look at her. June saw black hair and eyes that looked black as well. His skin was darker than her fair skin and he looked heavily injured. Upon seeing his injuries June knew she could not back down. “You better leave him alone, or you’re going to have to deal with me!”
“Oh yeah?” the oldest boy said. He started walking towards her and the two others followed him. “Well, we can arrange for that. In fact, since you’re such a cute little girl, we’ll even give you a little treat.”
Just as he was within grabbing distance of her, there was a flash and suddenly all three boys were in nothing but their boxers. The bullied boy had gotten up and was holding out a sword, and their clothes were in shreds on the ground. “Unless you want your body to look like your clothes, leave right now.” The boys, startled and scared, did just as he asked, running without looking back.
The boy collapsed on the ground again. June slowly walked over to him. He lay there still for a moment and then said softly, “Kill me.”
“What?” June asked.
“You heard me. Just kill me. I’m almost done for anyway; you can even use my sword.” He loosened his grip and waited for her to take it. However, after several moments, he realized he was actually feeling a little stronger. He looked up to see the girls hand’s glowing blue over him. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m not going to kill you. I would like to be able to say at the end of my life that I’ve never killed anyone. Besides, it doesn’t fit my power. I’m a healer, now please hold still so I can finish.”
Instead of complying, he tried batting her away. “Stop! Don’t heal me! I want to die, not to be healed!” But seeing as he wasn’t strong enough, he couldn’t stop her, and soon she backed away. “Well, your worst injuries are completely better; you just have small scratches left. I would have healed those too, but you’re struggling too much.”
“I didn’t want to be helped.”
“I wasn’t going to just let you die.”
“Well, you should have.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m better off dead!” She said nothing, and so in her silence he continued. “All my life, after my parents died, I’ve been picked on, and whenever I got picked on, if I defended myself, I would be chased out. The people would become terrified of me, too much to even come near me sometimes. I’ve been chased out of every place I’ve been to. Finally, I heard about a place like this, that would accept freaks like me, but it was exactly the same when I came here. There isn’t a person in this world who can understand and tolerate, let alone like, me. There isn’t a place for me in this world, and I’m all alone anyway, so the only thing I can do is die.”
June was silent a moment, then started to speak. “No one is born in this world to be completely alone. And not all people are as bad as you describe them. I think your problem is you went to all the wrong places, or didn’t look hard enough for the right people. But you have a chance to start over right here right now.”
“Weren’t you listening? I just told you, here is like everywhere else!”
“Yes, but you weren’t looking for the right people.” She suddenly smiled. “Well, in this case, the right person has come to you! I’ll be your friend! My name is June. What’s your name?”
He looked at her with disdain. “Why would you want to be my friend?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because I’m a terrible person.”
“You are not.”
That made him angrier. “How can just say it like that? You have no idea what I am, what my life has been like! You know nothing about me!”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“That’s the only thing that does matter!”
“I don’t need to know anything else. I already know you’re not bad.”
“Prove it,” he said softly, turning away and closing his eyes to keep the tears back. But they snapped opened when he heard her soft voice.
“You helped me.”
He turned to her slowly, amazed. She looked at him steadily and continued. “You stayed back to make sure I was safe. If you were truly bad, or even just normal, you would’ve just run away. Nothing was keeping you here; I wasn’t even expecting you to stay here. I thought you would leave. But instead you stayed behind and helped me. You didn’t have to do that. That’s how I know you’re good.”
He could do nothing but sit there is silent shock. She broke into a smile again. “Like I was saying, my name is June. What’s your name?”
“Adam.”
“Well Adam, I’ll be your new friend, so let’s both work very hard for next few exams and get into STAR together!”
Now seeing her looking at him in the graduation room, he smiled and came over. He had also become friends with her sister Dina as well. “Congratulations for making it in,” he told the two girls.
“Thanks! And congratulations to you too!” June said.
“Isn’t this exciting?” Dina squeaked. “I was so nervous, but we all made it in! So did Derrick!”
June didn’t know Derrick very well; all she knew was that he was an elementalist with a preference for Ice. But Dina got to know him and was close to him. She saw him and let out a squeal of excitement, and dragged him over to them. “Derrick, this is my older sister, June and my friend Adam. June and Adam, my new friend Derrick!”
They exchanged greetings and congratulations all over again, and then a voice came on. The speech was made by an older man behind a curtain, and he told them at the end they had thirty minutes of free time before they needed to come back and get split into teams. The two boys split, and June and Dian started to head back to their rooms. “I still can’t believe I passed!” Dina cried still excited.
June sighed. ‘Dina, of the two of us, you had the best chance. I mean, you’re a shape-shifter, and you have your sonic scream, of course you were going to make it. I figured I had little chance.”
“But you know they’re often looking for healers, it’s a rare kind! Anyway, we both passed, this is great!”
“Yeah. Listen, I’m going to go outside for a little air. I’ll be back soon.”
“Just don’t be late!” Dina cried, hurrying off to her room while June exited the building. She walked down to a linden tree on the road and sat down. It was always peaceful out here. She closed her eyes and began to sing, until she heard a voice.
“Wow, you sing so nicely.” June looked up to see a taller girl with long dark brown hair and brown eyes watching her. The girl turned red. “Sorry, I was just walking and heard you sing.”
June smiled. “No, thank you for the compliment. I come here often since it’s so quiet and peaceful here.”
“Really? I like this spot a lot too! I used to come here more but then I got so preoccupied in trying to pass I had no time, but since I graduated, I thought I’d come out here again.”
“You graduated too? That’s great, so did I! My name is June, and I’m a healer.”
“Well, I’m Rena, and I’m an elf. I specialize in defense, shields in particular.”
“Wow, that’s so cool, really?”
“Of course; here watch this!” she stretched out her arms and concentrated and soon the tree, June and Rena were covered by what looked like green covering. “I also can use these shields to attack, bouncing their own attacks back at them. It’s useful at least.”
The two girls continued to talk until the time came and they hurried back to the main hall to get their assignments.
In the main hall, a voice came on again and told them all to go to a certain room. One of the first ones called was June, and she went to an empty room, so with nothing else to do, she sat down and waited.
She didn’t wait too long, because soon Dina joined her. Adam followed, and then so did Rena, which June found to be a pleasant surprise. “I’m glad we’re on the same team! By the way, this is my friend Adam and my sister Dina. Guys, meet Rena!”
Rena smiled. “It’s nice to meet you. And I could tell you were sisters, you two look a lot alike.”
Immediately both began to protest. “We do not look alike!” Dina piped up.
June nodded. “The only thing we have in common is blonde hair. She has blue eyes, and mine are brown.”
Rena laughed as June continued to reiterate the difference between the sisters. Dina squeaked again in glee as she saw Derrick was also assigned to their team. However, the last three members called surprised both June and Dina, but while for Dina it was a good surprise, for June it was a not so good surprise.
Lila and Quinn walked into the room. Lila was a year older than June and Quinn was Dina’s age. Dina and Quinn were best friends, and had been since almost forever, or so it seemed to June. Quinn wasn’t a shape shifter like her sister, who could become any animal she pleased, but she could change her appearance entirely. Her true appearance was one of a chubby light brown haired girl with blue eyes, but she often made herself look slimmer and taller.
Lila was a weather forcer, but also a bit of an astrologist. She could change the weather, but also could predict the future in the stars and could call a meteor shower if she so pleased. She had dark brown hair and eyes. Lila and June had been best friends, but lately she had been so wrapped up in a boyfriend she hardly had any time for June. June didn’t blame the boyfriend; he seemed like a nice guy. It was just that nothing was the same between them anymore. Nonetheless, she stayed her friend, even with the air of discomfort she often felt.
Funny or ironically enough, her boyfriend Sean was the last to enter the room. Sean was an amazing computer hacker; he could literally plug himself into any system and go through it freely whatever it was. It made him great for finding out what he needed to know. He had holes all up one of his arms and could plug himself into many devices at the same time. He smiled seeing a team he knew pretty well, as he had known Lila and Quinn of course, and through those two Dian and June. June was still somewhat shocked. She knew that they were going to try to get into STAR, but what were the odds of them ending up on the same team? It defied every mathematical principle.
Soon two men entered the room. One was much older; he looked in his late thirties but still pretty good. His hair was light brown and not graying and his eyes were green. The second man was much younger, not much older than them (June herself was almost 18, since the minimal joining age is 16 and she was waiting for her sister, but she knew Lila was a year older). He had black hair and light brown eyes. The older one began to speak. “Welcome new STAR members. I am Harry P. Chaplin, the head of this branch and this will be your superior, Rich.”
“What can you do?” Dina asked curiously.
Rich didn’t say a word, but looked over at the chair in the corner, which suddenly jumped up and hovered in the air.”
“Oh! You’re telekinetic, that’s really amazing!” Dina cried. Rich smiled at the compliment but said nothing.
“For now, I’ll take you to the housing facility for this branch. Men will sleep on the second floor, women on the first. Once we get there, I will assign you your positions, and we will begin tomorrow morning with your first assignments.”
They left the building and were led a little up the road to a large mansion-like house. June was amazed at the huge house, she had never seen a place so big, let alone lived in one. She continued to stare at the house in awe even as she followed the others in.
Right next to the door on her left was a kitchen and on her right was huge living room. Harry was explaining the rest of the rooms in the house. “There is a dining room on the other side of the kitchen, and down the hall at the end are five bedrooms. June, Dina, Lila, Quinn, Rena, I’ll leave it up to you five to determine your own room assignments. There are two bathrooms on the other side of the living room; I hope you can work out some acceptable schedule to use them without fighting. Upstairs, at the end of the house there are four more bedrooms, Rich’s is on the end on the right, so Adam, Derrick, and Sean, you can choose the others between yourselves. On the far right there is a training room, a laundry room is on the far left. Next to that is a conference room, where you will receive all your future assignments. There are also two bathrooms in the middle; once again I hope there will be no problems concerning when they are used. Now, let us head up to the conference room: we must discuss you positions and your first assignment.”
They followed their new boss up the stairs and walked into the room on their left. There was a large table and several chairs. In one corner was a desk with papers all over it (and for what it looked like, filed directly below it as well). One the far wall from the table there was a large projection screen. They all took seats at the table, and Harry turned to the younger man. “Well now, why don’t you tell them about their positions, Rich?”
Rich looked at each of them and smiled. “Certainly. I’ll start by telling you the different positions and which I’m in. There are three main positions, and a fourth position I will get to later. The three main positions are soldiers, the one’s who are out in the field doing the fighting, intelligence, the ones who find out information and intersect messages and break codes, and spies, the most dangerous job because it entails going directly into the enemy base and lines and getting direct information, while telling us about it and trying not to get caught at the same time. You already know I’m a telekinetic, but another ability of mine couldn’t be shown there. I can speak in all the tongues of the earth, including those of animals. For these reasons, I fit well in all three positions. Having telekinetic abilities makes me a soldier already, and possessing the abilities to speak all languages makes me a good intelligence and a good spy. For the most part, I will be acting as your lead soldier, helping with strategizing and planning as well as fighting out on the battlegrounds. I will also be a back up intelligence, but I will only work as a spy if it is absolutely necessary or if you do not posses the experience for that kind of assignment. Now for each of your positions, Sean, I will start with you. Your hacking abilities made you ideal for intelligence, but sadly it will only be you in this position. However, I have no doubts you will do fine, and if a particular job arises that may require more man power, I will be backing you up, but leaving you as the leader in that position. Quinn, you posses appearance changing abilities, and that makes you ideal as a spy, seeing as you could always assume a different look. Adam, as a swordsman, you’re best suited to be a soldier, in the offensive area. The same goes for both you Derrick, and you, Lila, being an elementalist and a weather forcer. Rena, you will also be a soldier, but since your abilities give you an advantage in defense, that will be your area as a soldier. Dina, you will have a bit of a dual- job. You can transform into any animal, and you also can use an attack, or just attack as that animal. This makes you good for a soldier, but since it can also help you escape any situation, it makes you suitable for a spy as well.” He eyes finally turned to June last. “June, I saved yours for last since it belongs in a fourth category. Most teams don’t have this position, and it’s called clean-up. Most teams try not to let their teammates die, but it is a fact of life. Once they are dead though, there is the matter of either replacing them or going on without them. However, this can be depressing and this is often a team breaker. The last team I was with broke up for such a reason. So I would like to avoid the possibility of breaking up altogether. That’s why I most definitely wanted you on the team. As a healer, you can work off the battlefield, healing injuries once it’s over, or even on the battlefield, if the fights are heated and injuries are serious. This way, we can avoid losing team members. Most people don’t even regard clean-up, but I believe they- and you- are an important part of any team.”
June had to smile at that. She liked Rich already. He was very warm and friendly, and did his best to make everyone feel included, even her. Any worries she had about this team, about her abilities, about what she could and could not do faded away entirely.
Harry clapped him on the back with a smile. “What an orator we have here! He said it much better than I ever could have. I’ve got such a good feeling about this team! I think we’re really going to get a lot done. Well, now that that the first business is out of the way, let me brief you on your first assignment.”
June waited in the large common room, staring out the window, into the rain. There would be no stars or moon tonight; this would be a big disappointment for Lila, but Lila would probably fit it to suit her anyway. She was humming a sad but familiar song, she knew if anyone caught her humming it she would get questions and concerns like no tomorrow, but she couldn’t help the fact that despite everything she just loved the song. She was grateful that the place was empty though, but at the same time, the emptiness was what caused her to come down and start staring out the window in the first place because the place was not supposed to be empty. She drew in a worried breath, where was he?
She suddenly saw a figure staggering down the road and knew it was him immediately. She let out her breath is relief. As long as he was alright, that was all that mattered. He mounted the front steps and opened the door, coming inside.
“You’re still up angel?” he said upon seeing her, saying her pet name he always called her with a smile. She started to smile back when she saw red.
“Oh no! Your shoulder is hurt!” she cried in alarm.
He smiled. “No, it’s just a scratch. I’ll be fine, I just need some rest, and I knew if I came to you it wouldn’t need anything else.”
She lowered her hand to her heart, then upward again, and as he came over she put her hand out on his shoulder. “I was a little worried. You were much later than usual tonight.”
He sighed in annoyance. “I should’ve been home much earlier, but for some reason I couldn’t concentrate or something, because I kept writing the report all wrong. I had to fix it almost ten times! By the way, everyone will be back tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow, huh? And just as I was getting used to the place being so quiet,” June said sarcastically. Then she added sincerely, “Well, I’m glad they’ll be back soon. It’ll be nice to have everyone home, especially Dina.” June often missed her younger sister, but understood that due to the nature of Dina’s work she sometimes would be gone for months at a time, the longest so far being five months and one week.
“Don’t get ready to relax just yet. One reason we’ll all be back is because Harry wants us all there to discuss a big project. So we’ll be having dinner with him tomorrow night and he’ll go over the details.”
“I still think we should all do something during the day, since we’ll all be back together for the first time in a long time.” She smirked. “I bet Harry would like that. What with all of us getting along and being friendly and all.”
He sighed. “I don’t know. You know how I feel about Quinn.”
She nodded. “I know, Adam, I feel the same way sometimes. Will you try to be nice, for me?”
He gave a small smile of defeat. “For you, anything.” He kissed her gently. “But right now it’s time to sleep. We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”
June got up and lifted her hand from his shoulder to inspect it. It was scarred, but that would probably be gone by tomorrow. Adam wished her a goodnight and sweet dreams, and mounted the stairs to his bedroom.
June went into her room, and noticed the sky was clear. ‘That’s most definitely Lila’s work’, she thought to herself. Turing over, she soon fell asleep.
Chapter 1
June dreamed about her past.
For most people, her life itself was a dream comes true. She had been lucky enough to become a member of STAR (acronym for Supernatural Terrorist Activities Revealed), an organization that dealt with supernatural mysteries and of course to solve supernatural mysteries, you either needed to be a supernatural being or have supernatural powers. The screening and testing process was lengthy and sometimes a bit boring, but now a few elite stood in the graduation room to wait for the congratulatory speech and further instructions. June stood there, almost in disbelief, and her younger sister Dina stood beside her, trembling with excitement. Both together had decided to join the organization, although while June could see no reason Dina wouldn’t get in, she had doubts about herself, seeing as she was only a healer, but here they were. She looked over and saw Adam standing nearby. She had to smile, she was glad he made it, even though she had met him only a few days ago.
She had been walking down the road to sing her favorite song far away from Dina as she knew Dina would probably faint from shock should she hear her sister sing the song. But as she walked, a noisy disturbance met her ears.
She followed said disturbance and found herself in the middle of a clearing, where three older boys were picking on a younger one, who was down on the ground, being kicked by the older boys. She immediately ran out, her dirty blonde hair flying behind her. “Hey, leave him alone!”
They turned to her, and the tallest snickered. “Aww, look, a cute little girl came out to rescue you!” he taunted the boy he was bullying.
The smaller boy lifted his head from the ground to look at her. June saw black hair and eyes that looked black as well. His skin was darker than her fair skin and he looked heavily injured. Upon seeing his injuries June knew she could not back down. “You better leave him alone, or you’re going to have to deal with me!”
“Oh yeah?” the oldest boy said. He started walking towards her and the two others followed him. “Well, we can arrange for that. In fact, since you’re such a cute little girl, we’ll even give you a little treat.”
Just as he was within grabbing distance of her, there was a flash and suddenly all three boys were in nothing but their boxers. The bullied boy had gotten up and was holding out a sword, and their clothes were in shreds on the ground. “Unless you want your body to look like your clothes, leave right now.” The boys, startled and scared, did just as he asked, running without looking back.
The boy collapsed on the ground again. June slowly walked over to him. He lay there still for a moment and then said softly, “Kill me.”
“What?” June asked.
“You heard me. Just kill me. I’m almost done for anyway; you can even use my sword.” He loosened his grip and waited for her to take it. However, after several moments, he realized he was actually feeling a little stronger. He looked up to see the girls hand’s glowing blue over him. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m not going to kill you. I would like to be able to say at the end of my life that I’ve never killed anyone. Besides, it doesn’t fit my power. I’m a healer, now please hold still so I can finish.”
Instead of complying, he tried batting her away. “Stop! Don’t heal me! I want to die, not to be healed!” But seeing as he wasn’t strong enough, he couldn’t stop her, and soon she backed away. “Well, your worst injuries are completely better; you just have small scratches left. I would have healed those too, but you’re struggling too much.”
“I didn’t want to be helped.”
“I wasn’t going to just let you die.”
“Well, you should have.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m better off dead!” She said nothing, and so in her silence he continued. “All my life, after my parents died, I’ve been picked on, and whenever I got picked on, if I defended myself, I would be chased out. The people would become terrified of me, too much to even come near me sometimes. I’ve been chased out of every place I’ve been to. Finally, I heard about a place like this, that would accept freaks like me, but it was exactly the same when I came here. There isn’t a person in this world who can understand and tolerate, let alone like, me. There isn’t a place for me in this world, and I’m all alone anyway, so the only thing I can do is die.”
June was silent a moment, then started to speak. “No one is born in this world to be completely alone. And not all people are as bad as you describe them. I think your problem is you went to all the wrong places, or didn’t look hard enough for the right people. But you have a chance to start over right here right now.”
“Weren’t you listening? I just told you, here is like everywhere else!”
“Yes, but you weren’t looking for the right people.” She suddenly smiled. “Well, in this case, the right person has come to you! I’ll be your friend! My name is June. What’s your name?”
He looked at her with disdain. “Why would you want to be my friend?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because I’m a terrible person.”
“You are not.”
That made him angrier. “How can just say it like that? You have no idea what I am, what my life has been like! You know nothing about me!”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“That’s the only thing that does matter!”
“I don’t need to know anything else. I already know you’re not bad.”
“Prove it,” he said softly, turning away and closing his eyes to keep the tears back. But they snapped opened when he heard her soft voice.
“You helped me.”
He turned to her slowly, amazed. She looked at him steadily and continued. “You stayed back to make sure I was safe. If you were truly bad, or even just normal, you would’ve just run away. Nothing was keeping you here; I wasn’t even expecting you to stay here. I thought you would leave. But instead you stayed behind and helped me. You didn’t have to do that. That’s how I know you’re good.”
He could do nothing but sit there is silent shock. She broke into a smile again. “Like I was saying, my name is June. What’s your name?”
“Adam.”
“Well Adam, I’ll be your new friend, so let’s both work very hard for next few exams and get into STAR together!”
Now seeing her looking at him in the graduation room, he smiled and came over. He had also become friends with her sister Dina as well. “Congratulations for making it in,” he told the two girls.
“Thanks! And congratulations to you too!” June said.
“Isn’t this exciting?” Dina squeaked. “I was so nervous, but we all made it in! So did Derrick!”
June didn’t know Derrick very well; all she knew was that he was an elementalist with a preference for Ice. But Dina got to know him and was close to him. She saw him and let out a squeal of excitement, and dragged him over to them. “Derrick, this is my older sister, June and my friend Adam. June and Adam, my new friend Derrick!”
They exchanged greetings and congratulations all over again, and then a voice came on. The speech was made by an older man behind a curtain, and he told them at the end they had thirty minutes of free time before they needed to come back and get split into teams. The two boys split, and June and Dian started to head back to their rooms. “I still can’t believe I passed!” Dina cried still excited.
June sighed. ‘Dina, of the two of us, you had the best chance. I mean, you’re a shape-shifter, and you have your sonic scream, of course you were going to make it. I figured I had little chance.”
“But you know they’re often looking for healers, it’s a rare kind! Anyway, we both passed, this is great!”
“Yeah. Listen, I’m going to go outside for a little air. I’ll be back soon.”
“Just don’t be late!” Dina cried, hurrying off to her room while June exited the building. She walked down to a linden tree on the road and sat down. It was always peaceful out here. She closed her eyes and began to sing, until she heard a voice.
“Wow, you sing so nicely.” June looked up to see a taller girl with long dark brown hair and brown eyes watching her. The girl turned red. “Sorry, I was just walking and heard you sing.”
June smiled. “No, thank you for the compliment. I come here often since it’s so quiet and peaceful here.”
“Really? I like this spot a lot too! I used to come here more but then I got so preoccupied in trying to pass I had no time, but since I graduated, I thought I’d come out here again.”
“You graduated too? That’s great, so did I! My name is June, and I’m a healer.”
“Well, I’m Rena, and I’m an elf. I specialize in defense, shields in particular.”
“Wow, that’s so cool, really?”
“Of course; here watch this!” she stretched out her arms and concentrated and soon the tree, June and Rena were covered by what looked like green covering. “I also can use these shields to attack, bouncing their own attacks back at them. It’s useful at least.”
The two girls continued to talk until the time came and they hurried back to the main hall to get their assignments.
In the main hall, a voice came on again and told them all to go to a certain room. One of the first ones called was June, and she went to an empty room, so with nothing else to do, she sat down and waited.
She didn’t wait too long, because soon Dina joined her. Adam followed, and then so did Rena, which June found to be a pleasant surprise. “I’m glad we’re on the same team! By the way, this is my friend Adam and my sister Dina. Guys, meet Rena!”
Rena smiled. “It’s nice to meet you. And I could tell you were sisters, you two look a lot alike.”
Immediately both began to protest. “We do not look alike!” Dina piped up.
June nodded. “The only thing we have in common is blonde hair. She has blue eyes, and mine are brown.”
Rena laughed as June continued to reiterate the difference between the sisters. Dina squeaked again in glee as she saw Derrick was also assigned to their team. However, the last three members called surprised both June and Dina, but while for Dina it was a good surprise, for June it was a not so good surprise.
Lila and Quinn walked into the room. Lila was a year older than June and Quinn was Dina’s age. Dina and Quinn were best friends, and had been since almost forever, or so it seemed to June. Quinn wasn’t a shape shifter like her sister, who could become any animal she pleased, but she could change her appearance entirely. Her true appearance was one of a chubby light brown haired girl with blue eyes, but she often made herself look slimmer and taller.
Lila was a weather forcer, but also a bit of an astrologist. She could change the weather, but also could predict the future in the stars and could call a meteor shower if she so pleased. She had dark brown hair and eyes. Lila and June had been best friends, but lately she had been so wrapped up in a boyfriend she hardly had any time for June. June didn’t blame the boyfriend; he seemed like a nice guy. It was just that nothing was the same between them anymore. Nonetheless, she stayed her friend, even with the air of discomfort she often felt.
Funny or ironically enough, her boyfriend Sean was the last to enter the room. Sean was an amazing computer hacker; he could literally plug himself into any system and go through it freely whatever it was. It made him great for finding out what he needed to know. He had holes all up one of his arms and could plug himself into many devices at the same time. He smiled seeing a team he knew pretty well, as he had known Lila and Quinn of course, and through those two Dian and June. June was still somewhat shocked. She knew that they were going to try to get into STAR, but what were the odds of them ending up on the same team? It defied every mathematical principle.
Soon two men entered the room. One was much older; he looked in his late thirties but still pretty good. His hair was light brown and not graying and his eyes were green. The second man was much younger, not much older than them (June herself was almost 18, since the minimal joining age is 16 and she was waiting for her sister, but she knew Lila was a year older). He had black hair and light brown eyes. The older one began to speak. “Welcome new STAR members. I am Harry P. Chaplin, the head of this branch and this will be your superior, Rich.”
“What can you do?” Dina asked curiously.
Rich didn’t say a word, but looked over at the chair in the corner, which suddenly jumped up and hovered in the air.”
“Oh! You’re telekinetic, that’s really amazing!” Dina cried. Rich smiled at the compliment but said nothing.
“For now, I’ll take you to the housing facility for this branch. Men will sleep on the second floor, women on the first. Once we get there, I will assign you your positions, and we will begin tomorrow morning with your first assignments.”
They left the building and were led a little up the road to a large mansion-like house. June was amazed at the huge house, she had never seen a place so big, let alone lived in one. She continued to stare at the house in awe even as she followed the others in.
Right next to the door on her left was a kitchen and on her right was huge living room. Harry was explaining the rest of the rooms in the house. “There is a dining room on the other side of the kitchen, and down the hall at the end are five bedrooms. June, Dina, Lila, Quinn, Rena, I’ll leave it up to you five to determine your own room assignments. There are two bathrooms on the other side of the living room; I hope you can work out some acceptable schedule to use them without fighting. Upstairs, at the end of the house there are four more bedrooms, Rich’s is on the end on the right, so Adam, Derrick, and Sean, you can choose the others between yourselves. On the far right there is a training room, a laundry room is on the far left. Next to that is a conference room, where you will receive all your future assignments. There are also two bathrooms in the middle; once again I hope there will be no problems concerning when they are used. Now, let us head up to the conference room: we must discuss you positions and your first assignment.”
They followed their new boss up the stairs and walked into the room on their left. There was a large table and several chairs. In one corner was a desk with papers all over it (and for what it looked like, filed directly below it as well). One the far wall from the table there was a large projection screen. They all took seats at the table, and Harry turned to the younger man. “Well now, why don’t you tell them about their positions, Rich?”
Rich looked at each of them and smiled. “Certainly. I’ll start by telling you the different positions and which I’m in. There are three main positions, and a fourth position I will get to later. The three main positions are soldiers, the one’s who are out in the field doing the fighting, intelligence, the ones who find out information and intersect messages and break codes, and spies, the most dangerous job because it entails going directly into the enemy base and lines and getting direct information, while telling us about it and trying not to get caught at the same time. You already know I’m a telekinetic, but another ability of mine couldn’t be shown there. I can speak in all the tongues of the earth, including those of animals. For these reasons, I fit well in all three positions. Having telekinetic abilities makes me a soldier already, and possessing the abilities to speak all languages makes me a good intelligence and a good spy. For the most part, I will be acting as your lead soldier, helping with strategizing and planning as well as fighting out on the battlegrounds. I will also be a back up intelligence, but I will only work as a spy if it is absolutely necessary or if you do not posses the experience for that kind of assignment. Now for each of your positions, Sean, I will start with you. Your hacking abilities made you ideal for intelligence, but sadly it will only be you in this position. However, I have no doubts you will do fine, and if a particular job arises that may require more man power, I will be backing you up, but leaving you as the leader in that position. Quinn, you posses appearance changing abilities, and that makes you ideal as a spy, seeing as you could always assume a different look. Adam, as a swordsman, you’re best suited to be a soldier, in the offensive area. The same goes for both you Derrick, and you, Lila, being an elementalist and a weather forcer. Rena, you will also be a soldier, but since your abilities give you an advantage in defense, that will be your area as a soldier. Dina, you will have a bit of a dual- job. You can transform into any animal, and you also can use an attack, or just attack as that animal. This makes you good for a soldier, but since it can also help you escape any situation, it makes you suitable for a spy as well.” He eyes finally turned to June last. “June, I saved yours for last since it belongs in a fourth category. Most teams don’t have this position, and it’s called clean-up. Most teams try not to let their teammates die, but it is a fact of life. Once they are dead though, there is the matter of either replacing them or going on without them. However, this can be depressing and this is often a team breaker. The last team I was with broke up for such a reason. So I would like to avoid the possibility of breaking up altogether. That’s why I most definitely wanted you on the team. As a healer, you can work off the battlefield, healing injuries once it’s over, or even on the battlefield, if the fights are heated and injuries are serious. This way, we can avoid losing team members. Most people don’t even regard clean-up, but I believe they- and you- are an important part of any team.”
June had to smile at that. She liked Rich already. He was very warm and friendly, and did his best to make everyone feel included, even her. Any worries she had about this team, about her abilities, about what she could and could not do faded away entirely.
Harry clapped him on the back with a smile. “What an orator we have here! He said it much better than I ever could have. I’ve got such a good feeling about this team! I think we’re really going to get a lot done. Well, now that that the first business is out of the way, let me brief you on your first assignment.”