Emily balanced the thin shaft of the silver-tipped arrow in between her index and middle fingers. She preferred the wooden arrows decorated with violet feathers she had at home but, of course, those weren't available. The ones Atlas gave her would suffice. She trained her eyes on the black cutouts a few yards away from her.

Exhaling, she released the arrow from her grasp. The sharp twang of the bow string resonated in her ear as the arrow sliced through the air.

The sound made her grimace. She'd been at The Acropolis for a few weeks now and her ears still weren't quite used to their newfound sensitivity. When she woke up from her own coma, every sound felt like it was coming through an amplifier. She could hear birds singing hundreds of feet away, chairs moving in other rooms, and slight movements in the air.

It made her want to rip her ears off and stuff them down a garbage disposal. Eventually the noise became too much for her because she let out a scream that shattered the window in her hospital room. Her mother did say she had been a powerful screamer when she was a baby, but she didn't know her voice was that strong. Apparently, it was a side effect of her body encountering the Primonium. Unlike the others, the stuff got into her body via her mouth. She was surprised she didn't choke to death.

To help with her heightened hearing, the Atlas engineers crafted her a pair of specialized hearing aids. Instead of making sounds louder, they lowered the volume. They were the only reason why she was still sane. As for a fix for her super sonic voice, they were still working on a solution for that.

''Nice shot,'' Stella said while balancing a silver bō staff on her bronzed shoulders.

''You being sarcastic or something?'' She sent a pointed look at the girl. After all, her aim had been a bit off.

''No, I'm not.'' Stella rolled her eyes. ''Why do you always think someone's trying to attack you?''

''Oh, I don't know. You and your friends did use to torment me for fun. It's kind of hard for me to believe you'd willingly compliment me.''

''I apologized for that so many times. Just let it go already.''

''You think a couple 'sorrys' is going to magically make me feel better? Your high school experience wasn't made a living hell by snobby rich kids who had nothing better to do.''

That seemed to stump her.

Emily kept her face forward and fired off another arrow. This time, it tore clean through paper the cut-out's head. The corner of her mouth curled into a slight frown. The shot was almost perfect.

Almost.

She could hear her father's shouts ringing through her head.

Perfection was his favorite word; it's what he always demanded from her. When she was a child, no matter the activity, he wanted her to be perfect at it. Archery, academics, piano, Jiu-Jitsu, etcetera. If she didn't meet his standards, he wouldn't speak to her for days—weeks even. While it allowed her to become proficient at multiple things, she never got to experience a normal childhood.

Her mother wasn't any better. She did nothing to protect her from her husband's authoritarian wrath. And after Emily's big secret was exposed, the woman practically disowned her.

She hated her parents. In fact, she pretty much hated everyone.

Except Ethan—her little brother. He was the only person in her life she tolerated.

A frown pulled at her lips. She missed him. While he was extremely annoying, he was the only good thing in her life. Had it not been for him, she wouldn't have even thought about going home. Plus, the rooms Director Shaw had her and her friends staying in were made it hard to think about going back.

''Are you ready to leave?'' Stella asked. ''The guys wanted to hang out in the common room.''

Emily launched another arrow into another target.

''Seriously? The silent treatment? Grow up, Emily.''

She sneered.

She heard Stella sigh in exasperation. ''Why do you have to be so difficult all the time? I'm trying to make things right, okay?''

Emily whipped around and glared at the girl. ''Look, I don't care what you're trying to do. We aren't friends and we never will be. I don't know if you feel sorry for me or whatever, but I don't need your pity.''

Stella shook her head. ''You know, you might be fooling everyone else with your tough-girl attitude, but I know the real you. I've always known the real you.''

''You don't know shit about me, Stella.''

''That's not true and you know it.''

The two of them stood just inches away from each other. Her heart fluttered. Fortunately, Stella couldn't see that. Instead, all the other girl saw was the anger burning in Emily's eyes while she seethed quietly.

Out of all the people she hated, Stella was at the top of her list. They'd been best friends once upon a time. But after the summer leading into their freshman year, everything changed.

Her cheeks reddened at the mere thought of it. She'd been stupid to think Stella was her friend. She trusted her with her deepest secret—her parents didn't even know. But then the girl turned on her and told everyone.

It was safe to say that had been the worst year of her life.

''I know what I did to you was terrible and if I could take it back, I would,'' Stella continued. ''But, since I can't, I'm trying to make things right. Can't you just meet me halfway?''

Emily angrily wiped her eyes but didn't answer.

Stella sighed again. ''I'm leaving now. You know where we'll be.''

She nodded. The girl's footsteps faded away from her. Shortly after, she heard the door to the shooting range close. It echoed in her eardrums, causing her to grit her teeth. Even with her new hearing aids, the sounds were still to strong.

With her head throbbing from the noise and the emotions inside of her pounding on the walls of her mind, she released a hair-splitting scream. Ripples swam through the air. A glass case on the wall exploded into pieces, the shards raining onto the ground.

Her chest heaving, she shouldered the black blow in her and stomped out of the room.

#

Eventually, Emily grew bored of shooting arrows at defenseless targets by herself. She left the shooting range and went to her to room to shower and change clothes. Once she was done, she stood in the full-length mirror on the back of her door.

Multiple piercings protruded from her face. Each one of them was put into place just to anger her parents. She didn't even like them very much. But anything she could do to make them angry was a plus. Though, she did quite like her septum ring.

Apart from her piercings, she wasn't fond of her appearance. In her mind, she wasn't enough. She too pale and too skinny. Her face was boring and uninteresting, even with the piercings. She'd been a couple of months away from graduating high school and never kissed anyone before. In fact, she never even had a boyfriend.

Not that she ever wanted one, though.

Shaking her head, she moved away from the mirror and sat down on the edge of her bed.

Out of all the people she hated the most, she had herself at the top of her list.

She knew her faults, which only made it worse in her opinion. Despite always being alone, she didn't like being by herself. It gave her too much time to dwell. And mulling her own self-destructive thoughts wasn't a pleasant experience.

Ideally, she would've liked to have friends. But after what Stella did all those years ago, she couldn't trust anyone ever again. Sure, she had people she hung out with back at River Hill, but she didn't consider them to be true friends. No one knew her. Not really.

Part of her wanted to forgive Stella become friends again but she just couldn't bring herself to it. What she did broke her. Not only did she lose a friend, but she was ridiculed by everyone for something she couldn't control.

She wasn't ashamed of who she was. That wasn't the issue. But when everyone constantly had something to say or—worse—they pretended you didn't even exist, things got dark.

There were a few people who weren't like everyone else. And, luckily, Theo, Andre, and Oscar were a few of them. She just hoped they weren't faking it. She'd already gone through enough betrayal and embarrassment to last her a lifetime. Plus, having a few friends wouldn't have hurt. Especially now that her life had turned upside-down. If she was going to connect with anyone, they were the people to do it with.

Sighing, she got up from her bed and exited the room.

Within a few minutes of traveling through the halls, she arrived at the common room—the general meeting allocated for her and the others. It was a large room with multiple couches, a retractable television that usually hid inside the wall, a kitchen, and a few tables for games.

Everyone was sitting around the television watching the news. A few of the Atlas agents stood around as well, their expressions stoic as they watched the story being broadcasted across the screen.

With an arch eyebrow, she slowly entered the room.

''What's going on?''

''It's Kismet,'' Chase answered. A steely aura encased his ocean-blue irises as he sat with his arms crossed.

Her blood now felt like ice water.

A news reporter spoke about the terrorist organization while a few grainy images of the mercenaries flashed on the television. Apparently, they had been attacking factories owned by a bio-engineering company.

''The assailants were said to have made off with pieces of technology developed by the Nexxus Industries,'' the reporter said. ''Three months ago, these same people assaulted a Nexxus Industries vehicle somewhere in New York.''

An image of the factory from the view of a helicopter was being displayed on the high-definition screen.

The picture that came next made her skin crawl.

A young man with shaggy, black hair wearing a black tactical suit with blood red armor plates appeared on the screen. His head was turned to the side and a metal mask the color or blood covered the lower part of his face, masking most of his facial features. But Emily knew exactly who it was. She was sure everyone in the room did.

It was Apex.

Oscar flinched so hard he fell off the chair he'd been sitting on. Emily tore her eyes away from the screen, thankful for the small distraction. She saw a small flame sprout on top of Oscar's curly hair. His eyes widened as he cursed loudly while frantically trying to put the fire out.

''We have received reports that this man is involved with the terrorist organization known as Kismet,'' the reporter continued. ''If anyone has any information on these terrorists and their whereabouts, please contact the police as soon as possible. Now onto Scott Altenburg with the weather— ''

Chase grabbed the remote from the couch and turned the television off.

''I guess you didn't want to see the weather for today,'' Theo mumbled. Everyone in the room glared at him. Except for Oscar.

He had started laughing at what Theo said but immediately stopped after everyone directed their scathing looks toward him. ''What? I thought it was funny.''

Emily rolled her eyes.

''This isn't a joke, guys'' Chase said. A tiny muscle in his check flexed as he gripped the remote in his hand. If he squeezed any harder, Emily feared the device would explode. ''I'm not sure if you guys forgot but these are the same people who tried kidnapping us.''

''I remember,'' Andre said. Emily almost forgot the guy was in the room. For such a big guy, he was great at flying under the radar.

Stella placed her hand on Chase's arm. ''No one said it was a joke, Chase.'' He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by Director Shaw, who had just entered the room.

''I assume you've all seen what just happened, so I'll skip the recap,'' the man said.

''We've got to do something about them,'' Chase said. ''He's planning something. He never told us what but I'm positive it's nothing good.''

''We're aware,'' Director Shaw replied. ''I've got my men searching day and night for them. Considering they've been hitting different Nexxus Industry labs and factories, we have a pretty clear idea of where they might go next. Once we're alerted of a threat, we'll be right on top of them.''

Chase shook his head at the man. ''No offense, but what makes you think your regular soldiers will be able to stop them? I mean, they've got a teleporting ninja on their side. They might even have more superpowered people on their team.''

Emily nodded. ''He's right.'' Chase shot her a glance of appreciation.

She shared his sentiments. Those Kismet guys were bad news and needed to be taken care of quickly. They'd been roaming free for as long they had been without getting captured. She wasn't sure what made Director Shaw think he'd be able to stop them this time.

''As I said my men are working on it,'' Stephen countered while pinching the bridge of his nose. ''Listen, these things take time. We've been building our database on them. At this moment, the only confirmed Primes in their camp are Apex and Kane himself.''

Emily had a feeling that their files weren't complete.

''I think you should let us help,'' Chase said. He stood up from his seat, his chest puffed out slightly like he was some sort of superhero. ''I mean, we've got powers too. Why not fight fire with fire?''

''That only makes more fire, Chase,'' Stella said.

Stephen arched an eyebrow at the blond. ''You expect me to throw you out into the field without any kind of mission training? You all can't even control your abilities yet. I'm not even sure if you all can fight.''

''Then train us,'' Chase shot back. ''You can train us to do something with these abilities. Then we can go do something about Kismet.''

Theo shook his head, his hair moving wildly against his face. ''I-I don't think that's a good idea.'' His grey-brown eyes bounced around, his voice quivering slightly.

''I'm with Theo on this one. I mean, these are trained killers,'' Stella added. ''We're just a few teenagers who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Who says we're cut out to become fighters?''

Emily glared at her. ''Speak for yourself.''

Director Shaw sliced his hand through the air, effectively ending the conversation. ''Look, the answer is no. I'm sorry but I can't risk throwing out children into battle. Do you know how bad that would look for us? There's also a very high chance that you could die. We're responsible for you now and I can't let that happen.''

The group of teenagers fell silent.

''I appreciate your willingness to help, honestly, but it's just not a good idea,'' the man continued. ''We've got it under control.''

Emily had something to say regarding that but figured it was smarter to keep her lips shut.

''It's getting late. I suggest everyone head to bed or their designated positions for the night.''

Turning on his heel, Director Shaw walked down the hallway outside. The sound of his dress shoes clicking against the tile echoed in Emily's ears.

All the agents began doing as they were told and started to leave the room as well. Moments later, only Emily and the others remained. They sat amongst each other in an awkward silence, no one quite knowing what to say.

Theo zipped away from the couch and into the kitchen area. He returned to his seat a second later, a whoosh of air blowing his hair around his head like a halo. An opened soda can was present in his hand. The sound of the refrigerator door closing sounded a second after.

''Well,'' he said before taking a long sip from the can. ''I think that went pretty well.''

He really didn't need any more caffeine

Everyone glared at him, causing him to look at them with confusion written across his hyper, ferret-like features.

''What'd I do?''