"Who am I? I am one who saves the weak and crushes the strong. One with the strongest of arms to knock foes off their feet. One who carries the strongest of shields. I am… an ally of Justice!"
-Letty Whiterock
Chapter 1: They Start Them Young
Undisclosed Location
"Do you know the implications of this?"
"Maybe I do."
"You're trying to mandate the creation of an entirely new section! Does the Board even know about this?"
"What they don't know can't hurt them."
"Sir, isn't that considered treason?"
"If that's so, then the entire Board, every section chief, and every ONI employee down to the janitor deserves to be shot."
"Why do we even need a fourth section?"
"Fifth section. It's just called Section Four because somebody had the bright idea to screw up the count and name the Internal Affairs Division Section Zero."
"You didn't answer the question."
"Because I have found a need for there to be a small elite section that is entirely under my direction, have full oversight over the UNSC as a whole, and perform missions that don't necessarily fall into line with any of the other sections' duties. Besides, have you seen how the other three sections that the Board controls have turned out? The bastards have literally run them straight into the ground. I don't count Section Zero because I run it, but the personnel have little power to do anything except report what their coworkers are doing. Plus, I don't like the idea of Section Three getting a monopoly on covert operations, especially because Section Three is under Board control."
"But still, this seems a little drastic."
"It will all work out in the long run. I've already drafted up the operational manual and a roster for this section. I need you to perform the most important task."
"What will that be?"
"You're going to fill out the roster a do a bit of headhunting."
Los Angeles County Hospital, Los Angeles
Earth, Sol System
December 17, 2530
"Look who's here!" The nurse said giddily as she brought the newborn baby into Lisa Carlton Hubbard's hospital room.
"He's beautiful!" Lisa giggled as she took the baby and held it in her arms.
"He's ours." Johnathan Hubbard said as he held the baby's hands.
"What should we name him?"
"Well, I promised my old man I'd name the baby after him. Hell, he even included that fact in his will to make sure I wouldn't forget!"
"Then it's settled." Lisa tickled the baby's nose. "Your name is going to be Ryan from now on."
"Mrs. Hubbard?" A tall man wearing a doctor's coat and thick rimmed glasses entered the room. "A moment of your time?"
"Yes? Who are you?"
"I'm Doctor Willard, from Pediatrics. I'm afraid we've made a bit of a mistake."
"What?" Johnathan got up from his chair and glared at the doctor. "What kind of mistake?"
"It seems that due to a mixup in the computer tracking system, we've forgotten to put your son through a proper medical screening." Willard said simply, adjusting his glasses. "This will only take a few minutes."
Johnathan and Lisa looked nervously at each other. Lisa then reluctantly handed the sleeping Ryan to Doctor Willard.
"Thank you. I'll be back shortly." Doctor Willard exited the room with the baby in his arms. He then moved several doors down the hall and entered an empty examination room.
"Is that him?" A figure in the darkness asked, staying in the shadows of the dimly lit room.
"Y-yes." Doctor Willard stammered. "This is him."
"Good, just put him on the table then. This won't take long."
Doctor Willard gingerly placed Ryan on the examination table. The baby, somehow noticing something was wrong, began to gurgle and squeal in fear.
"Shhhh." The figure said soothingly as he pressed the chip injector onto Ryan's tiny arm. "This won't hurt a bit."
With a little puff of pressurized air, the nano tracker tag was inserted right beneath the baby's skin. Wherever his journeys took him, the Office of Naval Intelligence would know exactly where he went.
"Okay, we're finished here." The figure said as Willard took the baby back. "I hope I don't have to remind you that under UNSC law, you cannot utter any word or mention of this to anybody outside the room."
"Yes sir!" Doctor Willard nodded his head furiously, and with Ryan in hand, beat a hasty retreat out of the room.
"I don't even know why I even try to understand what the Director wants." The figure sighed and shook his head. He then gathered his things and exited the room, making sure to lock the door behind him.
San
Marino, California
June 11, 2542
"Hey mister." A young 12 year old boy with messy dirty-blonde hair stopped in front of a random pedestrian. "Wanna see a trick?"
"Okay." The man shrugged. "What's the trick?"
"That I can tell you the exact amount of dollars you have in your wallet within a dollar."
"No way."
"Let me ask you a couple of questions." Ryan grinned. "What's your job?"
"Banker."
"How many floors is your house?"
"Two."
"What's your favorite bird?"
"A swallow."
"Okay." Ryan took out a scrap of paper, scribbled something on it, folded it, and handed it to the man. "Don't open that just yet. Can you please count the money in your wallet?"
"Uh huh." The man opened his wallet and sifted through it. "Thirty two dollars."
"Okay, open the piece of paper."
The man opened the paper. "Thirty two dollars. Oh my god, that's amazing!"
"Isn't it?"
"Alright, break it up!" A pair of police officers arrived. "Damnit Ryan, we've told you already that street performing is illegal here!"
"Aw, but-"
"No buts this time." One of the policemen grabbed Ryan by the collar. You're coming with us.
Meanwhile, a man who was keeping an eye on the entire ordeal pulled up his collar and spoke into the microphone concealed in there.
"Control? I've found him."
Ten minutes later
"So what did he do this time?" Johnathan Hubbard sighed as he saw a pair of police officers escorting Ryan to the front door.
"We caught him doing street tricks again." The officer on the left said. "You do know that performing on the streets is against city code."
"All too well." Johnathan shook his head.
"We'll let you off with a warning, but even we have limits to our patients. The San Marino Police Department has better things to do than busting kids for doing tricks on the street."
"I'm sure you do." Johnathan said sarcastically. San Marino had never had a major crime for over four decades. The closest thing was when some thug tried to break into a home and ended up on the wrong end of a shotgun. Really, all the police in this town did was camp the school parking lots and wait for speeders to pass by.
"Well, we've got to be going then." The police officers turned around and returned to their car.
"Ryan, what am I going to do with you?" Johnathan sighed as he closed the front door. "When I told you to get a job, I didn't mean going out on the street and doing mere parlor tricks."
"They are not parlor tricks." Ryan pouted. "I don't see why you can't believe the fact that I can manipulate what people can think and do-"
"No more of that hocus pocus nonsense." Johnathan picked up a pile of letters and shuffled through them. "I've just received a letter today, and it looks like we're going to have another talk."
"Aw man…" Ryan rolled his eyes.
For sixteen years, Ryan had lived in this small town in the middle of a big city. Unlike the surrounding areas like Pasadena, San Gabriel, and Arcadia, San Marino has had a civic standard not to let large companies or franchises set up shop within city limits to limit crime. This standard was strictly enforced for over six hundred years, and didn't look like it would let up anytime soon. This meant that there was surprisingly little to do in the city unless one was willing and able to travel to one of the neighboring cities. Having an annoying younger sister and brother only compounded the problem. Thus, Ryan often liked to spend as much time outside as possible.
"I just got your school report card, and I am incredibly unsatisfied with your grades for the year." Johnathan said angrily waving around a letter that had the school seal printed on it. "Nothing above a C+. This wouldn't hurt as much if I didn't know that you could do better, and I do, and you can."
"Well, I just don't feel like it."
"That's the problem." Johnathan sighed. "I know you can remember the smallest details about things, solve riddles just skimming over them, and figure out complex math problems without breaking a sweat. Yet none of this talent seems to translate into good grades."
"Uh huh…" Ryan said, clearly not paying attention.
"Well, until you shape up, here's what I'll do." Johnathan grinned. "I'm locking you out of both your personal computer as well as the house network. In addition, you'll spend the rest of summer coming to work with me, so you can see how your old man does his job."
"What!?" Ryan cried. There was nothing more boring than building houses, except for maybe filing the paperwork required to get the permit to build one. "You can't do that!"
"Well, until you can prove to me that you are a responsible young man, I'll have to keep you on a very very short leash." Johnathan placed the stack of letters on a nearby table and made his way to the kitchen. "I'm gonna whip a batch of Power Juice. I expect you to at least drink a cup of it."
"Bleh." Ryan fought the urge to vomit. His dad's "Power Juice" was nothing more than a diabolical concoction of vegetables, yogurt, and juice all thrown into a blender and made to look as unappetizing as possible.
"What the heck are you doing here?" His younger sister Alice asked as she entered the room.
"Uhhh, I live here?" Ryan shook his head. He looked to see where his brother Edward was, but couldn't find him. Not surprising. He almost never ventured out of his room unless he had to eat or relieve himself. Ryan decided he'd spend the rest of his miserable day holed up in his own room until he bumped into his mother.
"Oh, Ryan!" Lisa smiled. "I didn't know you were home already."
"Dad grounded me… again." Ryan grumbled.
"Now now, don't go grumbling like that." Lisa smiled and mussed Ryan's hair. "Your father is just worried about you. Do you really think he wants to make your life miserable?"
"Yes?"
"Of course not! Your father is just worried that you don't take school and work seriously, and that would get you in trouble. He knows you love to play computer games and show off your little mind tricks" Lisa smiled. "I'll talk to your father. Maybe I can get him to soften up a little."
"Thanks, Mom."
Next Day
The next day seemed to be like any other normal day, until the doorbell rang.
"Can somebody please get that?" Lisa yelled. "I can't reach the door right now!"
"Ryan, go get the door!" Alice yelled.
"You get the door!" Ryan retorted.
"You're the oldest, you get it!"
"ONE OF YOU JUST GO!"
Not wanting to incur the wrath of an angry mom, Ryan swiftly hurried downstairs and opened the door. He peeked out to see two men dressed in black suits standing outside.
"Excuse me." The man at the front smiled. "Are your parents home?"
Two Minutes Later
"So who are you again?" Lisa asked as she sat down on the living room couch opposite the visitors.
"I'm Collin Brown, a representative of Edgar Academy." He handed Johnathan and Lisa a business card. "It's a government-sponsored school that caters to children of exceptional talent. You could say that I'm kind of a headhunter for talent."
"What exactly does this have to do with us?" Johnathan asked.
"Well, when we look though the records," Brown shuffled through a pile of papers, "Your son Ryan seems to fit our school's acceptance criteria. Apparent skill in memory retention, logical reasoning, and critical thinking, yet poor grades in school. You see, Herbert Academy deals specifically with talented, yet troubled, youths. It's sort of our specialty, you see."
"Oh god, I knew it!" Lisa shrieked. "We were doing something wrong! We weren't raising him right!"
"Relax ma'am." Brown said coolly. "You did nothing wrong. There's no textbook way to deal with a boy like your son."
"Alright." Johnathan sighed. "So how much is this 'school' going to cost us?"
"Actually sir," Brown smiled, "we would be paying you."
"Where is this school?" Lisa asked."
"How much money are we talking about?" Johnathan asked at the same time.
Three Days Later
Ryan marveled at the large, black SUV that he was being driven around in. The amount of modern electronics, luxuries, and gadgets that was stuffed in inside the vehicle was mind boggling, and reminded Ryan heavily of those tricked out spy vehicles in movies. One thing was sure, the guys who bought this vehicle definitely weren't soccer moms. Ryan was also more than a bit excited to see what this academy was all about. From the information Brown had given him, the school was on the planet Reach. While just around the intergalactic corner from Earth, Reach would definitely be the farthest Ryan had ever traveled from Earth, as well as the first time he would ever be off planet.
"So Ryan." Brown craned his head back from the front seat. "I hear you've got a talent to control people's minds."
"Well, it's not so much mind control as it is figuring out how people think and manipulating them into doing what I want them to." Ryan shrugged. "I pretty much figured out that the average person really doesn't pay attention to what he or other people around him are doing, and I've figured out how to exploit that."
"It's very interesting." Brown smiled. "I've heard that you could make people willingly give you their valuables, no questions asked and pay for things with blank pieces of paper and get away with it."
"Well, kinda. Most people tend to be smart enough to figure out what happens once I take their stuff." Ryan scratched his head. "Got in trouble quite a lot before I figured that out."
"Right, well have uses for a talent like that." Brown smiled. "Just you wait and see."
"So when are leaving?"
"Soon enough." Brown turned his head so he was facing the front again. "We're picking up another candidate who happens to live close by."
"So uh, how many other kids have you picked up?"
"Sorry, can't tell you that. It's school policy."
"That's no fun."
"Story of my life." Brown said jokingly. The car then pulled to a stop and Brown opened the door. "Excuse me for a minute."
"Hey, wait a minute, this is South Pass!" Ryan said indignantly.
"Got a problem with that?" Brown closed the door and made his way to the house they had stopped in front of.
"South Pass" was local slang for South Pasadena, long considered to be San Marino's natural rival city for reasons nobody could seem to remember. Ryan looked out the window to see Brown leading out a girl who seemed to be the same exact age as he was. What caught his eye however was her flame-red hair and eyes. If those weren't artificial, Ryan suspected that her parents may have opted for some pre-birth gene manipulation. Not a very common operation for sure, and not at all a very popular one either. From the way she walked and carried her luggage, Ryan could tell that she definitely wasn't your average dainty little princess. He then realized that he was staring and quickly looked away, slightly embarrassed.
"Ryan, this is Shannon Clark." Brown motioned to the girl. "Shannon, this is Ryan Hubbard."
"Hey there." Shannon gave a sloppy grin and held her hand out.
"Hey." Ryan shook Shannon's hand out of courtesy, and winced when he realized just how powerful her grip was.
"I think you'll like her." Brown said as the vehicle began moving again. "She was suspended twice for beating up fellow students unconscious, expelled from a school for striking a school staff member, and countless infractions for engaging in, starting, and ending fights."
"They were all asking for it." Shannon pouted. "Not my fault they tried to pick a fight with me. I'm the strongest, after all."
Never before had Ryan looked upon a girl with such admiration and fear at the same time.
"This is going to be an interesting year." Brown grinned.
Edgar Academy, Reach
September 20, 2542
"Welcome, everybody, to Edgar Academy!" Brown said cheerfully to the auditorium of students. There were roughly a hundred hopefuls in the room, though it was pretty much a guarantee that eighty percent of them would wash out and be delegated to "lower class" departments than the one they were being specifically trained to serve in, and that was if some of them didn't leave outright. "I'm glad to see you all here, and I believe it is time to inform you about Edgar Academy's true goals."
The audience suddenly began mumbling anxiously. Something definitely wasn't right here.
"I'm afraid me and my staff weren't entirely truthful to you and your parents. You see, instead of just teaching you, Edgar Academy is a program funded the Office of Naval Intelligence to scout out for new recruits." That was the truth. It wasn't the whole truth, but it was a truth nonetheless. "On the completion of your stay here, you will be expected to accept employment to the Office of Naval Intelligence or an affiliated department. Now that you have been informed, you have the choice of staying or leaving. If you leave, we will think nothing less of you and we will make the proper arrangements. So, are there any takers?"
Brown scanned the room and smiled as nobody stood up or raised their hands. He had specifically scouted out for candidates that were sure to want to stay on the program, or at least find staying a better alternative to going back home.
He couldn't be more right. Ryan really had no reason to go back home, and had no intention to. Besides, he found the prospect of working in one of the most mysterious and feared government agencies this side of the galaxy incredibly tempting. Ryan then looked over at Shannon and noticed an odd glint in her eyes. Ryan suspected that Shannon couldn't be more happy to be able to train for an agency that very likely killed lots of people in very secret ways.
"Well, then, let's not waste any more time." Brown smiled and motioned for the staff lining the aisles to step forward. "We will start off by organizing you all into pairs: a Handler and Operator. Handlers will be managing Operator's actions and missions while Operators actually perform the tasks the Handlers set forth. However, this doesn't mean you'll get vastly different training, since in this line of work, a Handler is expected to be able to fulfill the duties of an Operator and vice versa. We've already gone through the trouble of assigning you partners, so just take a look at the note the staff hands you. Please, and I must stress this, do not let anybody know who your partner is. This does not seem important now, but trust me, it will be."
Ryan took the note and glanced down on it and paled considerably. There, on the note, typed in uniform ink lettering was a single name:
Shannon Meriwhether Clark
"Well this is going to be interesting." Ryan sighed to himself.