Chosen- Started.

Arcadia

He makes me feel very shy, and I blush as I let go of his hand. I glanced up at him and see he is staring at me, making me go even redder. The others introduce themselves, but I don't pay much attention.

"So are we going to leave now or what?" somebody asks, pulling my head out of the clouds.

"You lead the way then," Ava responds.

"Fine by me."

I gaze at them, as they tell me their names. They can't even look at me; when I stare at them they just look away. Cowards. Just a bunch of cowards, I think. Why would they were chosen? Weren't they supposed to have some guts?

The cat is now some girl, who is appointed to lead us the way. They don't even seem to have the right for leadership..., but they probably know more than I do, so I don't have another option.

"What are we supposed to do now?" I ask, but suddenly, there is a loud voice all over the room:

"Great!" says the voice, apparently a woman. "You've managed to survive our tests, but now let's begin the real training... Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to work together to face 'The Slayer'!"

Many vents opened in the walls around and a lot of men with guns got out of them to face us. Easy crap, I thought, until a platform descended from the ceiling, with a huge robot, full of weapons, on it.

This is not a task for some cowards and a lone dude.

Stanley Durpar



It is the cat, apparently a spy as well, who comes up to me and introduces herself. When she returns to her human form, she is astoundingly beautiful: Small and delicate-looking, with wavy golden hair and a perfect face.

"I'm Arcadia," she says, walking right up to me and taking my hand. "You must be a spy too." She smiles at me, at me! I just stand there frozen like an idiot penguin or something. It suddenly seems that I can't move my mouth. Miss Arcadia blushes and turns away as someone says something or other - I'm not really paying attention anymore. And still I stand there, rooted to the spot.

Stop being weird, you. I think to myself, and I look around at everyone. There are three other guys, and three girls. Everyone looks as tired and ill as I feel. A blonde girl is saying something to another girl, who is holding her head in her hands. A thin boy is talking to the guy who shared a staring contest with me, but the staring-contest guy doesn't seem very interested in the conversation. The other guy smiles and says something that I don't hear. I don't remember that one before; he must have been that wolf that came in.

I rub my neck, wishing for a glass of water more than anything else in the world. It feels like I must still have about three tons of soot caught in my throat. I'd also rather talk to a scientist or something before spending any time with my new teammates. Perhaps one could tell me what we're supposed to be doing.

A flicker of movement catches my eye, and I turn to see a girl coming out of a door. That's odd; I didn't notice a door there before. Her gaze lights up when it finds our group. She starts walking towards us, and I walk up to meet her.

"Where did you come from?" I ask, looking past her. Whatever door she came out of is gone.

"Another room." She shrugs and glances around as if perhaps another person will randomly appear. "They really take this whole training thing seriously, don't they?"

I nod. "They tried to burn me alive."

"So can you control fire?" The girl tilts her head. "Water? Something like that?"

"No, nothing like that. I'm a spy, so all I can do is shift into a... A canid. I needed to figure out how to escape before I got crispified."

"I'm Allie," she says, sticking out a hand for me to shake. I oblige, "Stanley."

I turn back to everyone else. what exactly are we doing right now? I wonder. This whole situation, with all of us just lumped together, must be be for some lesson or other. The scientists or whoever want us to do something else, but what?

"Well, what do you think we're supposed to do now?" I voice to nobody in particular. "There must be another part to this training thing."

As if in answer, a woman's voice congratulates us on surviving and then warns us of "The real thing". Armed men rush out of vents in the wall. My eyes widen. How is a small fox supposed to fight anything, much less people with guns? And then a platform drops from the ceiling (there is no way a platform was there five minutes ago.) A huge, formless robot propped up on thick metal legs storms out. Weapons - I don't even want to guess what kind - sprout out of its top and sides.

A shiver runs down my back and I stare, mouth agape. What else can I do? Turn into a fox and sniff it?

I try to figure out what is going on. We are all probably flawed experiments, or we failed the previous tests in some way. Whatever the reason, they want to exterminate us and try out their new equipment at the same time. They're going to kill eight kids with one robot.

Ava

I can hear Dharius think calling us coward. “Excuse me!” I demand. “I am sorry that I do not think it is awesome to have headache all the time and almost get killed, but I do not deserved to be called a coward.” I say. He looks at me like I am crazy.

“ I don't know what you are talking about.” he says crossing his arms.

“ I am a mind reader and you better think twice about lying to me or your mind will not be yours. It will be mine.” I say.

“Ava calm down.” Vega says gripping my arms.

“Sorry I am just a little bit on edge.” I say.

A doctor appears out of no where. “That is one of the side effect of you power Ava. You will train privately until you are off edge. You would not want anyone getting hurt.” He says looking at Dharius. I walk with the man into a small room “We are going to put this in you arm to control you temper. You will be calm soon enough. We will give you these to carry around.” He sticks a needle in my arm and I feel faint. “Better?” He asks. I nod. “Stay in here for about 5 minutes and you can go back and train.” He leaves.

Five minutes later I walk into the training room and see people fighting and using there powers. Huge vent open and robots come out. I walk over to Vega. “Okay not a place if robots do not have minds.” I says she laughs.

“Got you covered.” she says.

Vega

"Got you covered," I say to Ava. As I step in front of her, I look over at that other kid, Dharius. How dare he call us cowards?! He had been with us for, what, all of two minutes? He had no right to call us anything until he'd seen what we could do.

As the robot descends out of the ceiling, I throw up a giant magnetic field. I'm tempted to protect everyone but Dharius, just to make him work, but I don't. The guards open fire, but their bullets just bounce back about halfway across the room, ricocheting off my invisible barrier.

"Guys," I say, turning to speak to the others. "I don't know if I can crush thing thing in one go. I haven't built up enough stamina yet. Ava, maybe you can make the guards shoot at that thing, or something?"

Ava

“Maybe you can make the guards shoot it.” Vega says.

“I can try.” I say shrugging my shoulders. I walk over to the guards. They look
very amused watching things trying to kill us.

“What?” one of them asks.

“You two are going to shoot it and make it stop.” I say. They fall under a trance and begin to walk over and shoot the robot. After a few rounds, the robot crashes on the floor.

When the robot is down, the guards fall out of the trance. “What are we doing over here?” one asks.

“Thank you so much for your help.”I say. I walk over to Vega. “So much for being a coward.” I say to her.

Alli

I watch the action unravel before me with an amused smile. The others seem to have no problem dealing with the situation - some sort of force (possible the same girl who was deflecting knives earlier) was stopping the robot and guns from damaging everyone, and one other girl who I heard being called Ava walked over to a couple of guards and convinced them to shoot the robot.

I laugh as the robot crashes to the floor. Then, just to stir things up, I light the thing on fire separating us from the guards. Out of all these weird abilities this psychokinesis has, fire control and phasing have got to bee my favourites. I put a little more power behind the flames and turn back towards the others.

I saunter over to Stanely who seems a little intimidated by the the fire. "Do you think this is a part of the test?" he asks, referring to the fire.

"Nah," I say reassuringly, "just me trying to give my fellows a bit of a hand."

"So you control fire?"

"A little more than that," I say. To demonstrate my point, I phase my hand and run it through his neck like a knife. Though, instead of any damage occurring, my hand just disappears through one end and appears out the other. Stanely seems rather take aback by this demonstration. "Well anyway, does anyone have any healing powers around here, 'cause I've got a bit of a scrape that needs cleaning up," I say gesturing to my side. He shakes his head so I start walking towards someone else.

Arcadia

Not having any real way to defend myself, I phase into a cat and mostly duck and dive the bullets before Vega projects a forcefield over us and Ava destroys the robot.

I phase back, watching the guards continue to struggle to break through the forcefield without getting burned from the fire.

I see a couple scalpels on the other side of the room and I run over and snatch them. I run back and aim, ready to throw when a voice comes on over the speakers.

"If you physically harm or kill any of the guards, it will result in serious punishment," a woman's voice says calmly but sternly.

"How are we supposed to pass our training then?" I ask, dropping the knives.

"I don't think I can hold my shield much longer guys," Vega says threw gritted teeth.

Leo

I smile when he robots come down. I leaned down till I was on all fours. I phased into my wolf form and howled. I glared at the robots, and snarled. When the shield faded, I would attack. I just had to wait.

Stanley Durpar


One of the girls - Vega, I heard someone call her - casts this magnetic field over everyone. We're all instantly encased in a bubble of safety, protected from the bullets and the robot. She says something to another girl, Ava, who yells something to the guards. Looking confused, the guards turn and shoot at the robot until it emits a piercing groan and falls to the ground. I blink in shock; that was fast. To add insult to injury Allie comes out of nowhere and shoots fire out of her hand, setting the giant machine ablaze. I shrink back as I have seen enough fire for one die.

Allie flounces over, giving me a didja-see-that grin.

"So, you control fire," I guess.

"A little more than that," she says and proceeds to reach up to smack me in the neck. Her hand glides through my flesh like some kind of ghost, going right through me. I don't like it; it's the creepiest thing I've ever seen. Even creepier than scientists attempting to kill us.

"Do you have wound-healing powers?" Allie motions to her side. "I got a bit of a scrape."

I shake my head. "Not unless foxes come with first-aid kits."

Shrugging, she walks off. I stand there with my jaw set, feeling rather frustrated. Why did they make some of us "Spies"? What could we do as animals? Nothing that I can think of... I look over at Vega: she's starting to look strained. Trying to think, I run my hand over the tiny, soft hairs on my head. There must be something for the spies to do.

When I shift into the fox, everything becomes overwhelming again. The lights are so bright, so intense. The noise is deafening. The bullets, the hum of the magnetic field, the shouts of the others, and the crackling of the burning robot are so loud they make my ears ring. My body stiffens and for a moment I want nothing more than to run away and curl up under something. Instead I creep out of the bubble, making sure to keep it between me and the guns so that I am still protected. I force myself to focus away from all the distractions, trying to find something, anything useful.

I hear a voice: "If you physically harm or kill any of the guards, it will result in serious punishment."

Okay, that must mean there another thing to do. A small seed of hope is planted in my... Well, wherever seeds of hope go. My soul, I guess. Blocking out the din and the clouds of scent, I keep exploring.

I stop. Was I imagining it? The tiny breath of air, like the one I felt when I was in the fire room? Sticking my newfound whiskers out, I turn my head towards the blank wall. I can feel just the slightest, tiniest tickle and follow the sensation to the floor. There is a crack, a tiny sliver creeping across the tile. Sweet, fresh air is flowing out of it. Yes!

Returning to the magnetic field before I switch back to a human, I race to Vega. She looks exhausted, her face white and drops of sweat beading on her forhead.

"Vega," I say urgently. "I think there's a way we can get out. Is there a way you can move the bubble over to this spot I found? I think we're supposed to use it as an escape."

Vega doesn't answer, so I can only guess whether she heard me. She turns and whispers something to Ava, who turns and stares at me. I start backing up, hoping they will follow. Ava says something to Vega. The magnet-girl starts walking, still facing the guns and keeping the bubble up. Please let this work, I pray as we slowly inch the bubble towards the tiny crack in the ground that, at least of what I see, is our only chance.

Vega

I grit my teeth and will myself to hold onto my magnetic field as I follow the spy's directions. I can only imagine what those little red dots will be doing after this is over--but none of that will matter unless we can get out of this mess. The spy is pointing at a little crack in the wall. I step slowly toward it, focusing on keeping the field intact.

As I inch closer, the others shuffling along behind me, my arms start shaking. My face feels cold and clammy, and my arms are tensed so tightly that I can barely move them. I summon the last of my energy to keep the magnetic field charged. I can feel myself heating up, my skin tingling as the iron in my blood reacted to the field. Outside, the burning remains of the robot started to contort, dragged into the air by the magnetic charge. We were almost there! Closer...just a little bit closer...

“ I am a mind reader and you better think twice about lying to me or your mind will not be yours. It will be mine.” she says. I try to hide my chuckle. So not all of them are cowards. I think we're gonna have some problems with that chick.

When the robot drops from the ceiling, I already begin to plan our strategy. My strategy. I run to the giant machine to distract it; the robot shoots me with some kind of machine gun and I fall to the ground. Before it hits me again, my wound heals and I run to keep it distracted.

Another girl activates a bubble around us -a shield, apparently- which protects us from the bullets. Then, the mind-reader yells something and suddenly all guards attack 'The Slayer'. The robot just falls to the ground when suddenly someone sets it on fire. I can't speak, nor think anything coherent. Fast, very fast.

"You're not that bad, after all." I murmur.

The fox guy -Stanley, I think- says some words to the girl who saved us from the guards. And then something weird happens. The girl's face gets extremely white, and I can see her limbs shaking in an odd way, somewhat scary. What the hell are you doing?

But then I notice something: Vega -I think that's her name- is trying to help us escape. I got a bad feeling; weren't we supposed to follow the scientists' orders? If they used a little army and a huge robot to test us, I can't think what they could do if we disobey them... Nice.

"This is gonna be fun." I say, with a short laugh.

Arcadia

I follow Stanley to the hole, squeezing my way through.

"It's a bit of a tight fit," I gasp.

When I come out on the other side, the room is very dark, almost pitch black. The others slide through the hole one by one after me, feeling on the walls to find their way. Vega is the last one through, and I gently help her through the opening.

"Thanks," she gasps, falling to her knees.

I phase into a cat, and I can see everything. There are weapons along one wall and on two tables. Knives, small handguns, short swords, bows. I run over and grab a delicate katana. I fenced for several years, and I considered myself to be an excellent swordsman.

I phased back into a human, stumbling around in the dark a bit. "Guys, there are weapons over there, on the table. I think there's another test coming."

Ree

I squeezed my way through the hole, sucking in my stomach to fit better. Finally, we were through, and I breathed. Well, I was completely useless there. I'd make up for it in the next test, I promised myself.

"Guys, there are weapons over there, on the table," Arcadia said from somewhere in the pitch black. "I think there's another test coming."

I walked towards her voice and bumped into a table. Feeling along it, my fingers touched something wooden. I started to lift it, and realized that it felt a lot longer than I'd expected - was it a quarterstaff? I felt it stop as it hit something.

"Watch it," someone snarled. It sounded like that weird scary guy.

"Sorry," I murmured. I backed away from the table so others could feel around, eventually hitting a wall, and began to run my fingers along the staff, trying to picture it in my head. It felt like a thick, long walking stick, but it had some weight to it. I'd learned to twirl things from my sister - she was in the color guard at her school - and I thought I could do some damage with it.

"Hey, who was it that lit the fire?" I asked - it had been hard to tell with all the confusion. "I can't see anything in here."

Ava

I squeeze through the hole easier than most of them. I am smaller than all of them. The room is dark and I can not see anything. I walk behind Ree and try to listen to his foot steps. When he stops, I almost run into him, but I don't. I stand beside him and feel around on the table. I feel something shape cut my arm. “Crap.” I say. I can feel the blood trickle down my hand.

“Are you okay?” Ree asks.

“Yeah. Just a stupid knife.” I say. I pick it up and slam the blade into the table. No one else should get cut. I feel around again and pick up a gun. That's what I was looking for. What are they waiting for? We is the point of this?