Chapter 6

When the official took the hood off, I was perched in another interrogation room on the table. Again?! I thought. These interrogations were starting to get annoying. The door clicked open. A skittish-looking man with a lab coat on and blonde hair that stuck out in all directions walked" no, crept in. He had the mannerism of a small rodent. I thought if I made any sudden move or called, the guy would have bolted out of the room. He moseyed over to the official. Both of them talked in hushed tones, looking at me once or twice. I didn’t like the attention they gave me, so I hopped to the floor. Then I felt a weird sensation. My eyesight and hearing started to dull, and I grew taller. The official and the mouse-man were gawking. I looked down. I was back as a human! The only thing was that the official had to tie me up.

He asked what my powers were, which was kind of a no-brainer. I refused to tell him my age or birthday, and he didn’t really care. Then he asked me what the name I would go by would be, or my superhero name.

I recalled reading “Falconer’s Knot” when I was with Max. When I had finished, he randomly gave me a book with pictures of hawks in it. On the very back page showed a picture of the species I was stuck as. I was a little surprised that there were so many subspecies of peregrine falcon. One caught my eye. It was a subspecies of peregrine that lived in eastern Asia. Its breast made it look like it had just gotten into a fight; the pure white turned into red as you got closer to the head. I looked at the description. The bird’s scientific name was Falco peregrinus peregrinator.

I knew that had to be my name. So I replied to the official, “Peregrinator.”

After that, the timid mouse-man gave to official what seemed to be a small circuit board. The official handed it to me. “This will help control your powers,” he said. Then he untied me and showed me to my dorm. It wasn’t very far away from the interrogation room (which I took note of) and was identical to Max’s. A living room with a hide-a-bed and a vacant bookshelf greeted you when you first walked in the door. Off to the right was the bathroom and the left was the bedroom. A mini kitchen was by the door to the bedroom. The official handed me a schedule and left.

The schedule read:

Period 1- Language Arts 1 (5:00)

Period 2- Science 1 (6:00)

Period 3- Combat Tactics 101 (7:00)

Period 4- Math 1 (8:00)

Period 5- S.W.O.R.D. History (9:00)

Period 6- Free period (10:00)

Period 7- Training (10:30)

End training 12:30

It looked like a normal school schedule, except for the combat and training things. Boring. I didn’t like the fact that it started at 5 in the morning, but that meant I got the rest of the day off. Whatever. My dorm was pretty drab right then, so I gathered some materials to make it homey. I decided to use the bedroom as a workshop, so I ripped the carpet out and laid concrete down. Using some wood from a junkyard, I built a work table and a tool rack. After 2 weeks, the bedroom was completely transformed into a shop. Then I set to work making the most versatile and useful weapon I could ever think of. When I started my superhero career, it was the aspect that made me unique. I don’t think I will ever be able to replicate it.

Right after I finished the shop, I made my macesaber.

For a while, I pondered how I could make use of the mini circuit board the mouse-man gave me. At one point I got so frustrated I decided to wander around S.W.O.R.D. premises. At that time of day, heroes weren’t allowed to wander (which is pretty lame) so I tiptoed around in my softest shoes in the hopes I wouldn’t attract any attention. When I was about to make the journey back to my dorm, I heard footsteps. I darted to the nearest storage room just as an official rounded the corner.

The storage room seemed long since used. It was so dusty, I almost gave away my spot by sneezing. I began to hear voices outside, but the conversation wasn’t as inviting as the storage room was. I romped around a bit " after my eyes adjusted, I realized the storage room was quite roomy. The officials outside seemed to take a long time talking, so I opened a few boxes. Most of them just had old certificates and medals, but the last one I opened caught my eye. Inside were a pair of ammo pants, a pair of gloves, boots and a black hat. I don’t know what got into me, but I tried them all on. Coincidentally, they all fit. I remember bunching up my fists to test the gloves when a small claw came out of the boots. I almost gave myself away again (how long does it take for two officials to have a conversation?) jumping out of my skin in shock. After I recollected myself, I realized that feature was pretty awesome. While the officials still yakked on, I opened and closed my fists just to test the boots. The hat seemed to help me control my powers. Well, I thought, I can just give that stupid circuit board back to the mouse man. I don’t need it. I waited out the officials for a while longer, then snuck back to my dorm room with my new possessions.

Then I started with my macesaber. I don’t exactly remember what I did, all I know is that I bought some mace and made adjustments. I was going to make a mini one for emergencies, but the whole thing exploded. So I stuck to the original. It’s a normal bottle of mace, until you press a button. Then it expands and turns into a lightsaber with a hilt. Pretty awesome. It comes more into use when your enemy underestimates it.

Training and classes was pretty normal. I learned how to do some useful tricks involving fighting and the like, but that was it. Then one day an official came up to me during training and waved me aside. “Come with me,” he said as we stepped into the hallway. I knew something was wrong. The official never paused to look back at me, and then he darted around a corner as if I didn’t notice. I frowned, and slowed my pace. The hairs on the back of my neck rose up when I entered the dimly lit room the official had supposedly gone into. It was about the size of a classroom, except it was vacant. The ceiling stretched up over me to about twenty or so feet. The official was nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly, I felt my boot catch something. I looked up just in time to dodge a small net falling to the ground above me. The lights flickered off, then all the way on, and I was surrounded by men in masks that covered their faces. They weren’t armed, but looked ready to punch my guts out. I could feel part of my falcon turning on. One man nodded subtly to the others, and to the normal human eye all men would have attacked at once. Before any of them could lay hands on me, I grew wings and power-flapped as far as I could away from their greedy paws. I could already tell which one was the weakest: he stumbled a little bit on the attack. I swooped down and attacked him first, with a potent kick to the mouth. His head snapped back abruptly, and he fell to the floor, out cold. I did similar parries to the others; one I picked straight up off the floor and threw aside while holding his neck, another I punched in the gut and uppercutted, and another threw some punches at me in vain and I grabbed him, put him in a headlock, and shoved him into the wall. After every man had gone down and was out, I dashed towards the door. But one more was waiting for me. He had a double-edged sword and mechanical wings. I pulled my mace out. He started to attack me, but then I pressed the button on the mace and countered his parries. The fight rose into the air. He pulled some creative jabs at me, but I ducked and dodged. Then I found an opening. I thrust my macesaber as hard as I could, then folded my wings so I dropped vertically. I landed on the floor with a hard thud, and jerked my head up. My saber had come out clean of the man’s gut, and I caught it before it hit the floor. There was a loud bam! and I stared over at the back wall. After my saber had gone completely through the man, he had exploded. Was he a robot? I picked something off my boot. It was a wire. So all of the men had been robots. Was this some sort of test?

A clap startled me, and I whipped around, macesaber ready. The official stood there, applauding me. “Well done,” he said. “You passed the test.”

I sighed and sheathed my macesaber (as in it turned back into a normal can of mace). The official escorted me out of the room. He took me back to the training room. “Your first mission is to find the villain Sayyaf. Track him down and place a trail on him. That’s all you have to do.” He handed me a file and left.

I sat out the rest of training, reading the case file.

Sayyaf:

Name: Lennon Aurelia

Known as: Sayyaf

Mutant abilities: None

Date of Birth: 16 January 1990

Genetic modification: None

Training: I.I.E.M. Standard Agent Training 10/10, I.I.E.M. Advanced Agent Training 12/15, Standard Fencing 10/10, Advanced Fencing 20/20, Mastery fencing 24/25

Intention: Evil

Brief Bio:

Sayyaf doesn’t have any powers, but before he joined I.I.E.M. he partook in hard-core schooling in fencing. He has a reputation for being recklessly destructive and has resulted in damaging millions of dollars in property, such as historical buildings in downtown Seattle and several national parks. Sayyaf works with other I.I.E.M. agents such as Hyena, Pink Lady, and Electricia. He and Agent 12 enrolled in the same fencing school but in battle Agent 12 has shown considerably more skill.

The file was interesting. It seemed to me Sayyaf was Agent 12’s nemesis (whoever Agent 12 was). I would probably only need his help if I was going to defeat him.

An idea sprouted in my head. I would need to make some more tools. If S.W.O.R.D. thought this was all I could do, they would have to wait and see once I aced this mission.

Author's Note

That weird scientist guy? He has nothing to do with the plot at all. I don't know why I added him.

Reviews

[Locke Redwyne (night sy..]

'walked " no, crept in'
in this spot did you mean 'walked- no, crept in' ?
'I romped around a bit " after my eyes adjusted'
are these random " on accident?
otherwise i like it :)

[Peregrinator7]

they were supposed to be dashes. stupid glitches

[Locke Redwyne (night sys)]

ah i see that makes more sense XD