Chosen- Started.

Vega

When the beasts jumped out, I made a split-second decision to only use my powers sparingly. They would just tire me out quicker. Instead, I pulled out my two largest daggers and started slashing. The beasts' claws were long; I got in a few hits to the arms, but I couldn't reach any vital organs.

Then one of the spies, Stanley, ran past me. "Go for that one's left thigh, and that one's tail!" he shouted, pointing at each of the beasts. I gave him a quick wave, to let him know I'd heard.

When one of the beasts lunged at me, I dropped to the side and rolled out of the way, popping up behind it. I gave my dagger a quick magnetic charge, to draw out blood, and, with a yell, drove it into the beast's left thigh, like Stanley had instructed. With a quick twist, I pulled it out again, and jogged backward as the beast collapsed, its sickly rust-colored blood seeping out onto the floor. I didn't want to touch that stuff--it was probably toxic.

Then the second beast rammed into me, knocking me to the ground. I tucked my arms in and rolled out of the way, half expecting it to come down on top of me. As I came to a stop, I pulled out a dagger and looked up. The beast had jumped on top of Ree, and was trying to bash him with its tail. Then, out of nowhere, Leo flew in, his katana raised above his head. With one smooth slice, he lopped the beast's tail clean off, and it fell to the ground, Ree scrambling out of the way just in time.

Arcadia

I mostly defend myself, not feeling well enough to run up and fight like the others. I watch as Vega kills one and the quiet boy, Leo, swoops in and kills the other.

"Thank god," I breathe, sitting on the ground. I'm bleeding heavily, I can tell.

"Well done," a woman's voice says over speakers. "You have all proven yourselves greatly. That was your last test. Now there is simply the matter of healing those of you that are injured..."

The lights flicker on and there are groans from everyone as they adjust their eyes to the harsh light.

"You see those cabinets over there? They contain everything you'll need to heal those of you that are injured. But in order to get to what you want, you must first use your powers to get what's in the cabinet. And no cheating." With a small click, it was silent once more.

Ree

There was a horrible slicing sound, and the monster tottered, starting to fall. I rolled out of the way, my side screaming in protest. For a moment, I just sat there propped up on my elbows, trying to get past the pain - those thorns had been huge, and very much sharp. Then I noticed Leo on his knees not far from me. He looked exhausted. I dragged myself over to him.

"You did it," I said. "It's dead." I realized that he looked really strange - as if he'd run a few miles, instead of just lopping off a monster's tail. "Are you alright?"

"Well done," said a voice on the speakers. "You have all proven yourselves greatly. That was your last test. Now there is simply the matter of healing those of you that are injured." There was a flicker, and suddenly the room was flooded with light. I blinked, shielding my eyes for a moment. The voice then explained that there was stuff in the cabinets we'd need, but we had to use our powers.

For a moment, I waited for something to leap out at us when we didn't expect it, but apparently the voice had been telling the truth - nothing happened. I sighed in relief - and then cringed in pain - and slid to the ground. Now, as the adrenalin wore away, my side felt like it was on fire, and I realized that I was absolutely exhausted. There was blood trailing onto the floor - my blood. Not a good thing.

"Right," I said to myself - my voice was a little strained coming out. "Healing. Let's... let's do that." I somehow managed to climb to my feet, clutching at my side. There had been a little window in the door Vega had knocked down; I pulled it out, looking at one of the cabinets. It had a keyhole, and instantly I had an idea. I let the glass half-melt, and pushed it into the keyhole, letting it take the shape of the key. Then I turned it and there was a click.

"That one's unlocked," I announced, pulling the glass to swing the cabinet open. I couldn't see its contents from where I was. "Please tell me there are bandages in there."

Stanley/Par



Everything seems to abruptly speed up. The skinny boy (I'm pretty sure his name is Ree) gets attacked by a monster, and the wolf guy who I forgot was even there - they called him Leo, I believe - comes out of seemingly nowhere and slices the beast's tail clean off. To my immense satisfaction, it falls dead on the spot. Ha! Not a moment passes before I see Vega digging her knide into the thigh of the other animal. I give a sigh of relief as it collapses as well.

The lights come on, casting everyone's injuries into full view. Arcadia has blood running down her arm, the wolf guy is kneeling down, looking exhausted. Vega has scratches all over her. Ree looks like his side got splattered with an entire bottle of ketchup. Attitude-guy has blood on his shirt. It seems like I'm the only one not injured, ecxept perhaps for Ava. I feel guilty, but that thought is chased away when I am gripped by another cough attack. Great.

"Well done." The woman's voice echoes around the room. I struggle to hear it over my choking. "You have proven yourselves greatly. That was your last test. Now there is simply the matter of healing those of you that are injured.

"See those cabinets over there? They contain everything you'll need to heal those of you that are injured. However, in order to get what you want, you must first use your powers to get into the cabinet. No cheating!"

Everything goes quiet as we glance around. The cabinets are there, all right. This should be easy. I shift into a fox -I'm starting to like this version of me - and trot over to them, hopping up onto a table. Ree is already there, forming glass to make a keyand fit it through the cabinet lock. It works: Ree swings the door open with a triumphant grin. The scent of honey drifts towards me. Are there cough drops in there? I want some!

"Stanley!" Ree has to push me back when I try to jump into the cabinet. I'll just have to wait for him to get my cough drops for me, dang it. Frustrated, I slide off the table and sniff around. There must be some water around here.

A new smell comes from the corner of the room, making my stomach moan with hunger. It's warm, sugary, greasy, delicious... Food sounds nice right about now.

I shift into a human just long enough to shout "Arcadia! Leo! Come check this out." The turn into their respective animals and follow me. I notice that Arcadia is limping heavily, and Leo is panting.

"There's food in this wall somewhere," I say, only it comes out as "Yip yip yip." The two other spies stare at me blankly for a minute, until, catching the deliciousness as well, their heads turn in unison to the wall. Arcadia looks back at me, eye wide. She mews and swishes her tail. Well, I don't know what that means. Feeling even more frustrated now, I flatten my ears. Arcadia and Leo do the same; at least I know that we are all annoyed. There must be some way to communicate besides body language... Maybe telepathically? It's worth a try.

"Hello?" I think, for lack of anything better to say. I focus on the word, each individual letter, the way it would sound if I had said it out loud. We look awkwardly at eachother for a minute, then I hear a male voice in my head: "Hi." It is full of static and quiet, but it's a voice! My head pops and and my tail starts sweeping the ground. Arcadia's pupils get really small, and her whiskers start twitching like crazy. After another moment I hear, Me too. in her sweet voice.

"Okay," I think, spending time on each word yet still making a good number of mistakes. "We... Need... A... niff... noff... knife... open whale... wall." Leo does us the honor, changing back to a human before drawing out his knife and carefully slicing through the plaster in a neat square. When he pulls it out, I have to stop myself from leaping in then and there. There is food, actual food! Warm bread, cheese, deli meat, energy bars, and bananas, along with two dozen water bottles. A feast in a secret cabinet. Nice.

"Hey guys!" I return to my human form and shout out to everyone. "We found a ton of food!"

Arcadia

Stanley calls Leo and I over to him, and we shift into our animals. Walking on my bad arm hurts a lot, and I hobble slowly over.

"Yip yip yip," he says, looking at both of us.

I'm confused, until I sniff something delicious behind the wall. There's no mistaking it; there's some kind of food back there and it's making my mouth water.

"I smell it too," I try to say. All three of us irritated, our ears flatten as we try to think of how we can communicate. Stanley suddenly seems to focus really hard and I hear the faintest "Hello?" in my mind.

I freeze, feeling that it must be my imagination, but then I hear Leo's voice in my head respond with a soft, "Hi."

That's it. Telepathy. I focus and I manage to simply say, "Me too."

Stanley tells us slowly that we need to cut open the wall to get the food, and Leo complies, shifting into a human to slice it open.

"Hey guys! We found a ton of food!" Stanley shouts, turning human as well.

Still a cat, I drag away a protein bar and banana, before shifting into a human again to get out of everyone's way. I begin to peel my banana and notice how difficult and painful it is with an injured arm.

"Hey Stanley, can you look in the cabinet please and tell me what first aid things they have?" I ask him as he joins me on the ground.

"Sure," he smiles, making me blush. It doesn't take him long to find bandages and a soothing salve that he begins to put on my scratches.

"Thank you," I sigh in relief.

Leo

Finding out about telepathy helped. Stanley motioned to the wall, so I cut it open after shifting. Food flooded out of the all.

"Hey guys! We found a ton of food!" Stanley shouts, turning human as well.

"Yes, food," I say as well.

Dharius

Ava helps me to release the beast from the breastplate I got in the other room. I get confused, there's a lot of noise and movement, and Stanley tells me something about the creatures' weak point. The only thing I get to watch is the lonely guy slicing one of the beast's tail. More noise. And then the confusion finally disappears.

Both beasts fall to the ground, dead. That wolf-dude, Leo, got some good skills. There's a lot of light and I can't see much. A female voice announces something about healing and using our powers to get what we need. Healing? Pff. I'm very hungry, though. Last time I ate was the day before the surgery that scientists made to me.

The spies look at each other, like if they were communicating. Then Leo transforms back to a human and uses a knife to slice up and make an opening in the wall. The scent gets into my nose delightingly. Food.

"Hey guys! We found a ton of food!" the fox-guy shouts. Leo answers and I don't hesitate on pushing them to get to the food.

"Get outta my way" I say, and start eating everything I can see.

Alli
I stand back and watch the fight play out in front of me, wary of my still injured side which has started really throbbing again. The two beasts seem almost un-killable until Leo and Vega swooped in and managed to take them down. I then listen as a woman announces that our tests are finished, now all we need to do is unlock the cabinets and tend to our injuries.

Ree, the guy who can control glass uses his powers to unlock one of the cabinets, revealing a stash healing supplies. A couple of the spies then head over to a wall. One of them draws a knife and cuts open the wall, revealing a cache of foodstuffs. I jog over and grab a couple of slices of bread, an energy bar, and a bottles of water. I take a big gulp out of the water bottle and then start eating one of the deliciously warm slices of bread.

I head over to the cabinets, still enjoying the food. I approach the medical cabinet and find a tube of clearly labelled burn salve. I squeeze a generous dollop onto my hand and gingerly touch a smear to my side. I cringe as pain shoots up my side. I try again, gritting my teeth as I spread the salve over the burn. Slowly, the pain starts to fade away, leaving only a cooling tingle behind. I sigh in relief.

I lean back against one of the cabinets without a keyhole and instantly pull back as cold radiates up my spine. I feel through my other senses and finally notice the ice mechanism holding the door closed. I vibrate the ice molecules and heat them, melting the ice. I step back as water spills from under the door. I give the door a tap and smile as it slips open. I then proceed to bang my head against the open door as a wall of thick, hard rock is revealed.

I feel the rock through my senses and find that it's a good five inches thick and formed in such away that it has no weak points. "Guys!" I call out. "There's another cabinet here and I might need a bit of help getting in to it!"

Ree

No one answered, so I staggered over to the cabinet to see what was in it myself. I could hardly walk - I realized with alarm I'd already lost a lot of blood - but I got there and was nearly knocked over by Stanley, who tried to leap in the way. I shoved him aside, my entire being focused on getting into that cabinet. There was a box of band-aids - very funny - and then a large roll of bandages, which I grabbed like my life depended on it, which I guess it did. There was also a disinfecting ointment, which I was less eager to use, but I figured I had to. I hoped those barbs hadn't been poisoned, too.

It burned as I rubbed my side with the stuff, but I held my breath and managed, and then started to slowly peel my shirt away. I sucked in a sharp breath - it tried to stick, and it hurt, but I got it off after a few seconds. It looked like someone had fired a machine gun all down my side, except the wounds weren't as deep. Gritting my teeth, I started to wrap the bandage around myself.

"Hey guys! We found a ton of food!" Stanley called. I looked up.

"Get out of my way," the one guy whose name I still didn't know growled, and proceeded to begin devouring everything. I was really beginning to dislike this person.

"Hey, save some for me!" I called weakly, not even a quarter of the way done wrapping myself. "I need that more."

Ava

I roll my eyes hard at Dharius and grab some food. “Save some for me.” I hear Ree call. I grab some food and take it over to him. I grab the the bandages and begin to wipe his wounds. He tilts his head.

“You look like you could use some help.” I say.

“ I was doing just fine.” He says stuffing the food in his face.

“Well you would not have gotten any food.” I say. I tightly wrap the bandages and he grits his teeth. “Sorry.” I say.

“Thanks.” he says. “How did you manage to not get hurt?” he asks.

“Good question. Looks like there is enough pain to go around, don't you think?” I ask. He nods and continues to eat.

Stanley




After (barely) controlling myself until Arcadia and Leo got food, I grab two water bottles, ingredients for a roast beef sandwich, a banana, and an energy bar. Yum. I bolt the first bottle down. It feel so good to finally have something to drink.

No sooner have I begun to prepare a sandwich than attitude guy darts in out of nowhere and starts snatching food up like he's starving to death. Wow. Manners, yessiree. I already have all my food. The way he's eating, I can only hope that he can spare some for everone else. I gather up my food on a paper plate and walk over to sit next to Arcadia. She looks up at me briefly before struggling to open her protein bar. She winces with pain and tenderly rubs her bloody arm. I feel bad once again for not having any injuries.

"Stanley," she asks right as I take a missive bite of my sandwich. "Would you mind getting me some first aid stuff for my arm?"

"Sure!" I attempt to smile but my mouth is full so it doesn't work out all that great. Her face turns red and she looks away - probably trying not to laugh at me. Fail. I haul myself to me feet and head over to where the medicine cabinet is. Ree is sitting on the ground in front of it; he has stripped off his shirt and is now dressing some nasty-looking wounds in his side.

"Man, are you okay?" I try to look at him and pick out medical supplies at the same time.

"Yeah," he says weakly, wrapping another layer of gauze around his waist. I turn to where Ava, Vega, and Allie have managed to get past attitude-guy.

"You want me to get you something to eat too?" The poor fellow looks as starved as he does beaten up.

"That would be awesome," he sighs, looking grateful. I stand up to see Ava heading over with two plates. Well, that takes care of that. I take the medical stuffs back over to my own food. And Miss Arcadia, of course.

When I return to my own plate, Arcadia is still working on her protein bar. I kneel down next to her and start rubbing the antisceptic on her gash. My ears go hot; It makes me rather uncomfortable to be rubbing her arm. I sure wish one of the girls would come push me out of the way.

As if on cue, Vega come up and shoos me away. "I can handle this, Stanley."

I back off and start shovelling in food, grateful to be relieved of the awkwardness. Kind of.
"Guys!" Allie calls suddenly, leaning against a rock wall. Wow. I'm pretty sure that wasn't there a minute ago. Allie raps it with her knuckles. "There's a cabinet in here, but I need help getting into it.
I stand up, pushing the last half of the banana into my mouth. Unsure of what I can do to help but curious all the same, I brush the breadcrumbs off my shirt and stroll over.

"The rock is five inches thick and I can't find any weaknesses," Allie explains. "But there's something inside."

"Huh." I guzzle some more water, trying to think. "Can't you go through stuff?"

"I don't think I can handle this thick," she replies, frowning at the rock. "Does anyone have exploding skills?"

"I don't think so." I rub my hands over the smooth greyness. "Maybe there's a bomb on the weapon's table and we can blow this up."

Allie looks at me like I'm stupid. I imagine large chunks of rock flying in all directions. Okay, bad idea.

Arcadia

Stanley runs off and Vega picks up where he left off.

"That beast scratched you badly," she murmurs.

I nod, distracted. I look over and see Stanley and Allie talking about how to open the stone vault. He's so cute, I can't help but smile. I look back over at Vega and her eyebrow is raised suspiciously.

"You like him don't you?" she whispers, smiling widely at me.

I pretend to be flabbergasted. "Wha- no! Of course not! How could you ask-"

"Don't lie. You're secret is safe with me," she winked. "I think he likes you too."

I stared back at her, a little shocked that she could tell mixed with giddiness at the idea that he might return the feelings.

"Really?" I stammer out.

"Totally."

Vega

"Really?" Arcadia stammered, seemingly perplexed by the idea.

"Totally," I assured her. "He's totally into you. Did you see how awkward he was with that antiseptic?"

After pressing a piece of gauze over the cut, I grabbed an Ace bandage and started wrapping Arcadia's arm. "You should talk to him," I suggested. "He seems kind of shy. I don't know him too well, but I'm guessing that you'll probably have to go to him. He was turning bright red when he was working on your arm."

I finished up the bandage, pulled at it to make sure it wasn't too tight, and secured it with a few clips. "There you go," I said, patting Arcadia's shoulder. "That should work for now. Just try not to make it worse." I smiled at her, and then got up to get more food. Now that my nausea was gone, I was really hungry. I grabbed a protein bar and scarfed it in a couple bites, and then went and got another one.

Arcadia

I chew on my protein bar, thinking. What if he does like me? Would it be able to go anywhere? I know we're going on some mission; would that make a relationship impossible? And what if he didn't actually like me and I made myself look stupid?

I finish my protein bar and walk over to the small cluster of people discussing the stone cabinet.

"Could we maybe get a sword and chip away at it?" someone asks.

"Do you realize how long that would take? Idiot," Dharius mutters. "I think we should just leave it here. They can't have anything great in there."

"No, they wouldn't keep it like this if they didn't want us to try to open it," I say.

"Alright then, smart one," he says, standing over me. "Why don't you figure out a way to open it?"

"I-I can't," I stammer. "I don't have any real powers. I'm just a spy."

"Then why don't you shut up while the rest of us try to actually figure it out, okay?" he barks at me.

"I'm sorry I just-"

"No, just shut up, you can't do anything anyways!"

Tears well up in my eyes and I start to cry when I hear someone yell back at Dharius.

Ree

"You look like you could use some help," Ava said as she finished wiping my side.

"I was doing just fine," I lied. I felt bad now, making her help me instead of taking care of herself - she had to be tired.

"Well, you wouldn't have gotten any food," she pointed out. That was a fair point. I was about to say something, but she wrapped a bandage particularly tight and I gritted my teeth, trying not to groan in pain. "Sorry."

"Thanks," I said, instead of some choice words that had come to mind. "How did you manage not to get hurt?"

"Good question. Looks like there is enough pain to go around, don't you think?" I nodded; that was true enough. Abruptly I discovered that my plate was half-empty. Had I really been eating that fast?

There was a commotion going on by the stone wall everyone was trying to get to. The still-nameless guy was shouting at Arcadia - she looked like she was about to cry. So he was a jerk as well as a pig. Yep, I officially didn't like him.

"Hey, why don't you leave her alone?" I shouted at him, sitting up. It hurt, but I ignored it and continued. "It's not like you've actually done anything, either, except throwing your weight around, so why don't you lay off everyone else and try helping for a change?"

Spoiler

Yes, I'm pretty much looking for trouble there.

On an entirely different note: Taylor, what do you think about a romance between Ree and Ava?