| Chapter 1 ~ Nicole's Secret |
| Now, Nicole had a secret. Well, if you could call it a secret. She was in training. Hard, rigorous, bone-breaking training. How she came to be involved with this? **Flashback** 2 years ago** She had been waiting there for her dad to pick her up. The sky had already grown dark, and Nicole rubbed her arms, which weren't so impressive, as she was only thirteen at the time. "Dad, where are you?!" she muttered under her breath. The night air was already colder than it was two minutes ago. She heard footsteps, and looked in that directon. A woman stood there. She was dressed casually, but held herself up with authority and pride. Silver-rimmed glasses framed her dark eyes and her gaze swept over Nicole. Nicole shuddered slightly. She felt like her very being and soul were being evaluated, as though it were a test. That woman was quite intimidating. :Are you called Nicole?" her voice cut through the still silence in the air. "I may be," replied the girl, sounding wary. "Are you, or not?" "Yes." "Good," she said briskly, "You are just the one for the job." "What job?" "I will explain My name is Iri Matsuka. I am a scientist, if you could call that my occupation. An experiment we are conducting is in full force as of now." "What does this have to do with me?" "I was just getting to that. See, you have been chosen as a candidate for this experiment. This "candidate" must have all the correct, preferred attributes, both physically and mentally. You are one of the five chosen. To you, it should be an honor considering you were picked out of almost all the people your age in the world. Also, part of this experiment requires you to train." Nicole nodded, just barely absorbing all this information. Iri Matsuka continued. "I myself will be conducting your training along with the needed assistance of others. It is mandatory that you attend you sessions whether forced, reluctant, or willing, you shall train. As soon as you are completely done with your training, the reason and your purpose for your hard work will be revealed to you. Your training could take anywhere from one to five years. It all depends on your own achievements. It starts two days from now. I will see you then." With that, the woman vanished, walking swiftly away out of Nicole's line of sight. **End Flashback** Nicole had trained for two years after that. Her training involved almost every type of martialy arts known to man, plus one that she herself was required to create, the use of most weapons, including firearms, and had excellent computer skills. She also had, as of now, inhuman speed and was almost twice as strong as her dad, who was pretty strong himself. Her main weapons were a naginata, a longbow, and twin dirks. She also used any type of sinper, and almost always carried at least one .45 with her, except for when she was in school, as she just relied on her martial arts skills instead. For example, it occurred during an almost perfectly normal day at her high school. A group of seniors for some who-knows-what-only-their-brains-will-ever-know reason, decided that they would pick on some of the sophomores in the hall one day during break. Well, it was more like harass-the-girls-who're-only-two-years-younger-than-us-to-make-them-see-which-men-are-the-greatest sort of picking on, if you know what I mean. So, Nicole and her four friends were standing there in a little group, talking about stuff... Not girly-girl stuff, and not ways to beat levels on video games either. Stuff like "OMG, I saw seagulls this morning!!!!" And, "Are you serious?! AHH!! The Apocalypse is coming!!!" Which, by the way, are perfect examples of Loraine and Rochelle on a typical, sorta normal day. anyhow, there were about five of the seniors, all pretty big with broad chests and huge shoulders, and all tall enough to appear intimidating. Of course, they were the five most popular football player jocks, who went out with the five prettiest and most popular (not in MY opinion) girls on the cheerleading team. Yep, those were the seniors, who for some dimwit reason, decided to harass Nicole and her pals that one day. Nicole saw them approaching long before and of her friends cause of her "sixth sense" sorta thing. She could feel as though something big was about to happen, and it wasn't hard to miss the older guys cause of the way they friggin well swaggered to catch the attention of everyone else around them, letting them know, that they were about to harass someone today. Everyone else present was probably thinking, 'Oh, gawd, they're at it again...' and when they finally figured out who were today's tatgets, 'Poor sophomores. They don't stand a chance.' Nicole nudged Loraine and muttered, "Kami, it's those stupid seniors again." Loraine glanced over, down the hall. Her fist tightened ever so slighty. Other than that, she showed no emotion or reaction to her friend's statement. One by one, The other three were alerted to the annoying "Threat" that eventually came closer and closer. "Hey, little girls!" one called, obviously the leader. The five girls ignored him, acting as though they didn't hear a thing. For some reason, that seemed to piss the guy off more than anything. "Hey!!" he nearly yelles, as he grabbed Nicole by the shoulder. The guy's four friends were now spread in a semicircle on ether side of their leader. Nicole slowly turned her head to look the senior straight in the eye. Her deathglare could pierce through almost anything. It sure went straight through the guy's nerves. He flinched slightly, trying not to let anyone see, but Nicole caught it. She smirked and said, "Oh, so the great Senior of the school can't stand a little glare from a sophomore?" she said, sarcasm evident in every single word. "Shut up!!!" he roared. Man, idiots like that sure get pissed easily. To the five friends, it was fun. "Make me." That did it. The guy backed up a few steps in to the semicircle of his group. So, by now, the five girls were standing looking coolly at the opposing threat. "We're gonna teach you and your pals a lesson, little girl," the leader snarled. "Oh, really? I think you'd best leave that to the teachers. They seem much more adept at producing things for us to learn than you," retorted Charlotte. Her other friends shook their heads in defeat. Just like Charlottle to have to infuriate the guy even more. He lunged. Nicole swiftly stepped in front of Charlotte. The senior, thinking he could kill two birds with one stone, moved even faster, fist at ready, aimed at Nicole's face. His rock-like fist was there, about to hit Nicole's face, when it was stopped completely, a centimeter away from giving her a not so pretty look for the rest of the year. The senior's eyes widened in astonishment. His fist lay there, embedded into the girl's plam. She had blocked it with one hand, and hardly moving a muscle. There was an audible gasp that arose fromthe corwd of people watching, expecting a marred face and another suspension. Nicole smirked again. Then she crushed his fist and brought the other one round his neck, so it looked like she was hugging him, but....her right foot was out and she flung him over her right hip before anyone could register what she had done. and just as wuickly, she had him in a lockdown position, his arm bent back behind his head, her knee on his armpit, applying pressure, lots of pressure. The poor guy almost fainted from the pain. About two seconds later, he did. To make matters worse, the snior's girlfriends arrived on the scene with her own cronies tagging along. she then proceeded to let out a very high-pitched, very out of tune, shriek that made Nicole and her friends wince. Then, "Hey, Wench!" Nicole turned her look on the girl. She was blonde, hands on her hips, clenched into fists. And, yep, you guessed it, she was one of those slutty brats. "Same to you. What do you want?" asked Nicole coldly. "Do you know who I am?!" "No, and frankly, I don't really care." "FYI, wench, I happen to be the captain of the cheerleading squad and that over there is my boyfriend you just nearly killed!" she hissed. "You know, if you want to join A-hole over htere on the floor, I suggest you keep right on talking. You two can be reunited together, on the FLOOR..." "Is that a threat?" "Yep. You bet it is. I've already suffered through enough crap for one day." "Got to hell!" "Already living in it." She scowled and stalked back to her boyfriend, cooing things in his ear, attempting to revive him. "Oh, and it won't work to kiss him either, if that's what you were hoping to do. He'll be out like a light for a couple more hours at the very least." The cheerleader glared and screamed. "I'll get you for this!" But she never said anything to Nicole again. She didn't get "revenge" either. Nicole's friends crowded around her asking why she had to go do that. They all knew she was capable of knocking someone out. She was a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. What they didn't know was that she was a black belt in almost eery single type of martial arts, and sure didn't use any of her Tae Kwon Do moves on that guy. But no one would ever know that. |