Anton's POV

When I was a baby until just before I was due to begin my OWCA training, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Sure, I wanted to be an OWCA agent, but…there was (and still is) the matter of my condition. I won't go into detail now but because of my condition, there was a high chance that I wouldn't be declared physically fit to begin OWCA training.

Sure enough, that is exactly what happened just hours ago. I can still picture Apollo's apologetic face as he told me that I can't be a field agent.

I've gone up to the roof to think about my options. I desperately don't want to be the first platypus in my family to not join OWCA. I know that my older sister Quinn only joined OWCA when she was about eight years old, but she's part of OWCA now. If I don't find some way that I can help OWCA, I will be the only platypus in my family to not be a secret agent. I can't have that.

Standing up, I head down the stairs and into the top floor of OWCA, where the two gyms are. I see my mother just coming out of the BT gym, so I pick up my pace and catch up with her. "Hi, Mom."

She turns. "Oh hello, Anton. I was just coming to find you, actually. Apollo told me the news. How are you feeling about it?"

I shrug and look down at the ground. "As well as can be expected after being told I can't do the one thing I want to do."

"It's okay, hon." Mom takes me into her arms and rocks me like she did when I was a baby. "We'll find some way for you to help OWCA."

"But how?" I ask miserably. "I can't be like my siblings. I can't become the fastest, the strongest, the stealthiest, or the agilest. They're all something and I'm nothing. Even Pip is training to be a full OWCA agent, and I'm stuck being nothing."

"Don't talk like that," Mom says, squeezing me a little tighter. "We'll find something for you. But even if we can't, you don't have to be part of OWCA for us to be proud of you."

"Yes I do," I argue. "Quinn told me you spent four years of her life hounding her into joining OWCA, even though she said specifically that she didn't want to."

Mom stiffens. "We made a mistake," she says slowly. "I know that now. Your father knows that now. That's why I'm telling you this: no matter what you choose to do, we'll be proud of you, I promise."

I pull away from my mother. "I'm sorry, Mom. But I just won't feel like I'm something unless I'm helping OWCA in some way."

Mom nods sadly. "I understand, Anton. If you need to talk to anyone, you can come to me or your father or any of your siblings. Quinn or Hermes may be the ones to talk to if you're concerned."

I nod. "Thank you," I say as Mom walks away.

"HEY ANTON!" bellows my twin sister's voice, causing me to yelp and jump a metre in the air. Upon landing, my foot twists and I fall over, hitting my hip hard. I grimace as I look at Pippa, who has appeared in the doorway of the gym. "Whatcha doin' down there?" she asks with a sly smile on her face.

"Getting up," I reply as I climb to my feet. "How's training going?"

"It's going mostly okay," Pippa says. "I mean, I've already annoyed the instructor and most of my class with my babbling, but that's to be expected."

Despite her words, she looks and sounds quite down. I squeeze my twin sister's shoulder. "You'll be great," I say encouragingly. "After all, it doesn't matter in a fight if you babble or not. If anything, babbling helps because it will either distract the enemy or enrage them. Either way, you get the upper hand."

Pippa blinks hopefully at me. "Really? You think so?"

"Distracting your enemy is one of the best things you can do in a fight," I tell my twin. "Sometimes, it can be better than all the special fighting moves in existence."

"Thanks, Anty."

I put on a smile as my sister races back into the BT gym, a smile that quickly vanishes. Anty. I wish she'd stop calling me that. It makes me feel weird.

I peer into the trainee gym and watch as my sister—her mouth moving so fast that it's almost a blur—floors a dog trainee in one-to-one combat. This makes me feel rather depressed because I can't do that myself, so I go over to the other gym to see if there's a punching bag free, and I see all four of my other siblings in there, training. I sigh deeply and head for the stairs. On my way, I see a door slightly ajar. It looks like it leads to a room that I haven't been in before, so I push the door fully open and peer in, and my eyes widen in wonder.

It's a library.

The room isn't very big. It's about twice the size of Major Monogram's office, but all four walls are lined with bookshelves, and on those bookshelves lie thousands and thousands of books, ceiling to floor. I can see some kind of categorising system in place: it seems that all the books are non-fiction, but they're sorted in terms of their subject, for example mathematics, engineering, history, geography, etc.

I pick one of the books off the shelf: Hacking101. I sit down in a rocking chair by the window and open up the book. The first page is full of complicated-looking formulae and graphics, all illustrated in some way. It looks very technical and complicated.

I understand it all.

I feel a smile come onto my face.

I may not be able to become the fastest, the strongest, the stealthiest, or the agilest, but I know there's something I can become: the smartest.