I glared at Maria as I sat in one of twenty seats in the otherwise empty room. Each of the other chairs had other Phantoms sitting in them. The chair on my right was empty, Sophia sat to my left. Other kids I recognized sat in their chairs silently looking at the leader of the Phantom Program. The woman stood in front of us patiently waiting for the last arrival, whoever would be sitting next to me on the other side, her hands were crossed across her chest and she stared us all down with her heterochromic eyes, one steel-gray and the other such a dark brown it was almost black. Suddenly, the door opened and we all watched as a boy with wavy black hair that had green highlights was forced inside by one of Maria's soldiers. I recognized him by sight but couldn't put a name to his face. Maria nodded at the soldier once, signaling that he had done his job and was dismissed, then pointed at the chair next to me.

"Xander, thanks for joining us, take a seat."
The boy sat down and glanced at me, his face flushed a bit and he turned away to stare straight ahead at Maria. I shrugged then looked at our boss as well. I knew exactly what we had all been called here for and I was already dreading it.

"There are new recruits coming in today, and as usual they will be sent to the pit to test their worth. You have all been selected to help us out, each of you will be paired off with a recruit and join them in the pit," she made eye contact with each of us, as if to gage how we were responding to this news, then gave a single nod, "the fights will start this evening, we'll be moving right into them from the induction ceremony. Xander, come with me, the rest of you... I'll see you tonight"

With that she turned and left the room. Xander hesitantly got up and followed Maria out the door, the rest of us went about our business. Most of the kids in the room left in small groups chatting quietly. After most people had left I got up and headed towards an exit that led towards the northern fence of the facility. I moved through the building as quickly and quietly as I could, not wanting to attract anyone's attention so that I could keep where I was going a secret. I passed a few people but none of them said anything, they just stared as I passed them then went on their way. Soon I was outside the main building and headed towards the fence that separated the facility from the forest that concealed us from the main roads nearby. I reached the fence and was about to start climbing when Sophia's voice spoke from the shadows beside the northern gatehouse.

"Aidan, I don't know where you go off to out there, but one of these times it's going to be someone other than me who finds you here and they're going to follow you so they can report you to Maria."

I looked over at the building and saw her leaning against it in the shade. She was staring at me and eating an apple like she'd been there all day. She was the only person here who could follow me without me knowing it, and clearly she had done so as I came this way, when she realized where I was headed she must have gone around me somehow and gotten here first.

"Then when that time comes I'll deal with it, until then... bye bye."

I turned away from her and started to climb the fence, quickly scaling it and jumping down on the other side. She came up to the fence and sighed, making me turn back to look at her.

"You're playing some dangerous games these days, Aidan... Maria is going to stop tolerating your bullshit soon."

I shrugged in response. She shook her head and walked back towards the facility, leaving me alone twenty feet from the forest. I turned away and ran into the trees. After I was far enough away from the facility I stopped running and made my way to the bunker. It took me about forty-five minutes to find the tree that I had marked which had the hidden hatch next to it. I grabbed the handle of the hatch and pulled it open with a lot of creaking of rusted metal on the door's part and groaning of exertion on mine. Once the ladder was visible I climbed down, pulling the hatch closed behind me. I reached the floor of the abandoned bunker and, as usual, pulled my lighter out and started lighting all the lanterns, slowly illuminating the area.

"First things first," I muttered to myself as I grabbed a lantern and walked to the farthest wall from the entrance.

The names slowly came into view as the light hit them. I gently traced my hand over the etchings and felt the groves that made up the letters. After a moment of feeling the etched names I grabbed the laser pen from the nearby counter and found some empty space on the wall. I set the lantern down where I would still get the light I needed but had both hands free. With that I started etching the first of several names I would be adding, then one by one etching each one until all seven were clearly visible in dim light shining on the wall.

Orion... Norm... Unknown Plutoan Mob Woman... Tobias Uriel... Alin Karver... Atticus Flemming... Natlea Santiago.

After adding the names I stepped back and returned the laser pen to the counter, then grabbed the lantern. I stared at the seven new additions for a moment then walked to the back left corner of the room, the corner where I had first started my ever-growing list of names of all the people I had killed, or in any way caused the deaths of. I touched the wall and traced over the first four names.

Alexandra Colt... Wayde Colt... Callam Colt... Niki Colt.

I closed my eyes and when I opened them I was back in my old family home... the night Chronos had come.

"This is not a request, Mrs. Colt... Mr. Colt. Your children have all been selected by your government to be part of the first group in a new era of spies. My organization has been tasked with training them for their new lives."

"Maria Kaplan... unlike most of your victims, we know exactly who you are, and exactly what your 'organization' is," I heard my mom state from the other side of the wall I was hiding behind as she and my dad blocked the doorway.

It was quiet for a few seconds as I sat on the stairs trying to hear everything that was going on.
"Then you know that it's best for you and your kids if you just let me do what I need to."

"No. Leave our home now."

Instead of a response I heard a soft pop and suddenly my parents both fell backwards. My mom stared up at me as blood began to flow from a hole in her stomach. I instantly yelped in shock. Tears fell from her eyes as she mouthed one word to me as she paled.

"Run."

With tears falling from my eyes I ran up the stairs and slammed my little sister's bedroom door open, waking her up. I grabbed her arm and dragged her out of bed then did the same with my brother, my sister's twin. I then dragged them crying and scared to our parents room where I knew there was a fire escape just outside the window.

"Come back here you little brats!"

I slammed the bedroom door shut behind us and locked it, then with a lot of effort and help from my siblings pushed our parents dresser against the door as well.

"A-A-Aidan what's g-going on?" My brother asked through his tears.

"Where are mommy and daddy?" My sister asked at the same time.

Without responding to either question I grabbed one of my dad's weights and tossed it as hard as I could at the window. The glass shattered and I dragged my siblings through the opening, onto the fire escape, and down the stairs leading to the alleyway. I heard shouting above us as people tried to get into our parents room. We made it to the alleyway and as we were about to exit onto the street a black SUV with pitch black windows appeared in front of us. A scary looking woman opened the back door and jumped out holding a pistol in front of her. She had pale white skin, dark brown hair that went down to her waste, and the strangest eyes I had ever seen, the right eye was steel-gray and the left eye was almost black. She pointed the gun at me as I kept my siblings behind me, with me between the gun and them.

"How sweet, you thought you could get away didn't you?"

The voice was the one of the woman who had shot my parents.

"G-go away." I said as bravely as I could.

"I don't think so, Aidan," the woman responded as she stepped closer to us while I pushed my siblings back and tried to keep distance between us and the woman, "I need you... all three of you."

Suddenly there were three huge, muscular men behind us. Two of them grabbed my siblings and one grabbed me. We struggled, we screamed, we cried, but no matter what we did we couldn't fight against them. We were all thrown into the SUV and the woman with the gun got in next to us. The three men opened the trunk and climbed in. The driver sped off instantly, headed to wherever we were being taken.

I snapped back to reality as I heard the radio I had down here tuned into the frequency that Chronos used to communicate crackle to life and Maria's voice came through it.

"The new arrivals are almost here, the buses are on their way up the road now, make sure to let them in," she ordered through the radio, "also I need someone to find out where the hell Aidan Colt disappeared to again."

"The busses will be let in ma'am, no worries," a different voice responded, "as for Colt, I saw him earlier walking around but don't know where he went... sorry. I'll send out a couple guards to search the facility."

"Good. When the busses arrive direct them to auditorium two, that's where we have everything set up."

"Will do ma'am."

I made sure I had all my things, touched the names of my family members one last time, then headed for the ladder and climbed up. Once I was out of the bunker I closed and hid the hatch then ran for the facility. Soon I was back at the fence, climbing over quickly and carefully. I could hear several vehicles approaching down the main road and instantly knew the busses carrying Maria's new 'recruits' were almost here. I headed towards auditorium two so I could be there for the induction. Soon I reached the room and found the seats fairly packed already. Everyone who had been in the meeting with Maria earlier was here, along with many Chronos soldiers, several other Phantoms who hadn't been in the meeting, and all the instructors. I saw an empty seat between a sickly looking Xander and an indifferent Sophia so I went and sat between them.

"Welcome back, rebel," Sophia muttered as she raised her eyebrows at me, "where is it that you run off to all the time anyway?"

"Nowhere I want to talk about."

She sighed and turned her attention back to the front of the room where Maria and a long line of Chronos soldiers were awaiting our new arrivals. Soon we heard a commotion outside the doorway, the door swung open and a soldier entered holding a young boy with nearly buzzcut, dirty blond hair and bright green eyes in a headlock. The soldier had a bloody nose.

"Little fucker tried to make a run for it," the soldier fumed as he went to the stage and forced the kid to stand in front of the soldier at the left side of the line, "headbutted me and made a run for it, wasn't expecting me to be able to tackle him I guess."

The soldier glared at the young boy who I could tell was just putting up a brave front, his eyes told a different story, he was absolutely terrified. I recognized that feeling, I'd stood on the same stage with an identical look ten years ago.

"Maria is either going to love... or absolutely hate that kid," Sophia muttered as she followed my gaze towards the boy, "as long as he survives the pits that is."

"Shut up, Soph."

"I'm only speaking the truth... I know he reminds you of you."

"Just drop it... I don't want to talk about this."
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her glance over at me with a slight frown on her face. She stared for a moment before turning her attention to the line of kids entering the auditorium.

There were more than I expected there to be, at least three dozen, they all looked to be in their late preteen or early teen years. The youngest was a short asian boy who looked maybe seven or eight... around the same age I was when I stood there. After the kids were all lined up I counted a total of thirty-three, each one had a soldier directly behind them with a gun leveled at their backs. They all looked terrified, but who wouldn't be standing on a stage in a nearly full auditorium with someone holding a gun only a few inches from your back. Maria paced in front of them, walking from end to end of the line of kids, staring each of them down for a short time before moving on.

"Well boys and girls," she started as she stood in the middle in front of them with each kid staring at her fearfully, "welcome to Chronos... and welcome to Project Phantom."

She paused and raised her arms to her sides in a gesture of welcome, the same gesture you see every fictional supervillain that has ever existed make at one point or another before they try to kill the hero.

"I know that you're all wondering 'why me' so that's what I'm here to explain, among other things, before we jump right into the process. Let's start with that question I'm certain is bouncing around in your minds... the why. Well, my people spent countless hours scouring the known universe for kids who we could collect and train into the next generation of Phantoms, and that's how you all ended up in this line. You were chosen, whether because you would be easy to take or because you would never be missed by anyone if you disappeared or any number of other circumstances that led my spies to believe you'd be worth our time and our effort. Now that you're here, you'll be broken and... let's say... reformed, into loyal members of Chronos and of the Phantom Corps. To start out, we have to erase who you were... and who you were going to become. I've already taken the liberty of making the Solar Republic believe you have met tragic ends. Your families, if you had them, are either gone or believe, as the Solar Republic does, that you're never coming back because you met a horrible and tragic fate. You no longer belong to the universe... you belong to me. Now we have to... physically erase you... in a way."

As she finished her speech one of the high level members of Chronos, someone who worked as Maria's number two that I unfortunately didn't know by name, appeared from backstage with a large device that I recognized and cringed as I remembered the fiery pain in my hands.

"This is a... lovely little device... that my engineering and science divisions made for Chronos. It will completely erase your finger and palm prints so that you can never be identified by them again. Prepare yourself... it might burn a little."

Every one of the kids were visibly trembling in fear. A few were crying, though I couldn't hear their sobs from where I sat. Maria's number two walked the machine in front of the first kid who had been brought into the room with Maria following closely behind him.

"Let's start with you since you wanted to be 'oh-so-brave' earlier."

Maria turned the device on and the slot in the front opened up. The soldier behind the boy set his weapon on the ground behind him and grabbed his wrists, forcing his hands into the opening. As soon as they were inside the slot closed. A second later the screams of pain started. I cringed as I listened to the screaming and wailing of the poor kid as I clenched my hands into fists.

"I... I can almost feel it all over again," Xander muttered to my left as he rubbed his hands together.

"Yeah... me too."

I glanced over at him and saw that his hands were shaking as he stared down at them in his lap.

"I think we all can... and I don't think we'll ever NOT be able to," Sophia agreed.

I looked back towards the stage and watched as the first boy's hands were removed from the device, he collapsed onto his knees crying in pain as he stared down at his now completely smooth hands. Maria, her assistant, and the device moved to the next kid in line and the process was the same. I started tuning the screams and wails of pain out as they continued all the way down the line of kids. Once they had finished erasing all of the prints Maria's assistant took the device back the way he had come and disappeared backstage once more. Maria waited for all of the kids to compose themselves as she stood in front of them with her arms crossed, after what felt like forever the crying stopped and the kids were all looking at the woman in horror.

"Now it's time for the first day of the rest of your lives to begin," Maria said after glancing at each of the kids, "starting now you aren't friends... you aren't family. You're enemies, fighting each other, and some of my current Phantoms, to see who makes the cut, and who gets... thrown out."