3 OW
Disclaimer: I do NOT own W.I.T.C.H. or Nikita.
Hay Lin was sweating. She couldn't seem to focus on the computer screen in front of her. She looked back for like the millionth time that day and saw her glaring at her again. Did this girl ever stop? To Hay Lin, it seemed like this girl would never forgive her. She turned back to her computer screen and took a deep breath. She'll have to forgive you sometime, the raven haired girl thought to herself. I mean it was just an accident... She turned back around to still see Jaden glaring at her.
Hay Lin gulped. She was actually kind of scared, which by the way was really saying something considering the fact that she fought giant snake humanoids, psycho power-hungry princes, and malformed green-brownish monsters on a daily basis. She was just really scared because of the look Jaden had given her when she was about to pound her face in. Her look was pure rage, anger, and a little bloodthirsty, too. It was like she had no problem with giving a kid a black-eye for accidently spilling some water on her.
"I'm sorry," a voice behind her said. "Is your computer screen behind you? Maybe we should turn your whole chair around."
Hay Lin swiftly turned around to see a man with blue gray eyes and shaggy light brown hair. Birkhoff, the computer tech teacher. "Uhhhhhh, what?" she asked nervously.
Birkhoff rubbed his forehead like he was getting a migraine from her ignorance. "Listen, kid," he said. "Just work on your own computer, 'kay?" Hay Lin nodded as Birkoff walked back to the front of the class and shouted, "Penetrate the system! C'mon guys!"
Hay Lin looked back to her computer to see weird boxes and stuff. None of this really made any sense to her. She glanced over to Taranee who was sitting to her left. Taranee was smiling and typing furiously on the keyboard. She actually looked like she was having fun. Hay Lin looked back to her own screen to now see numbers and letters floating around. She already had no idea what to do and adding in the extra numbers and letters was not exactly helping. She grimaced. She was going to fail this class if she didn't do something. I'll just keep typing in stuff and hope that something works, she thought, typing random buttons on the keyboard.
"Okay, kiddies, 30 seconds left," Birkhoff bellowed out. "C'mon, penetrate the system. Penetrate!"
Hay Lin typed faster. She was starting to sweat even more now. What the heck does penetrate even mean? She thought wondered.
"Ten seconds left before they dump you," Birkhoff called out, warning everybody that they were running out of time. "Five, four, three, two, one!" The computers beeped and '00:1K001' appeared on every screen in red. "Fail," he said, raising his arms. He glanced down at his handheld device and raised an eyebrow. He looked over to Alex, then Hay Lin, then Irma, then Cornelia, and then Will. "Alex, Will, Irma, Cornelia, and Hay Lin, you guys never launched your export... Why?"
Alex was the first to reply. "I don't know. This hacker stuff is really... Complicated."
"Actually, it's not. It's simple. Because you see, I do all of the hacker stuff. I write the export." Birkhoff pointed to the giant screen up on the wall that showed what was on their computers. "I even make it look like a video game, so your tween minds can understand it," he shouted. Alex snickered. "You think that's funny?" Birkhoff said in a stern tone.
"Must be the drugs, sir," Jaden answered. Hay Lin frowned. Drugs? She asked to herself. Who does drugs?
Alex turned to look behind her at Jaden disapprovingly as Jaden continued. "You know how it is with junkies."
"I thought our files were secret," Alex said, glaring at Jaden. They don't really seem like friend friends, Hay Lin thought. More like rivals.
Thom turned to Birkhoff. "Failure's on me, sir. Alex was having trouble finding the shell code." He coughed a little. "I gave her the wrong one."
"You shouldn't be giving it in the first place," Jaden snapped.
"Wait, what's an export?" Hay Lin questioned, raising her hand like she was in math class.
Birkhoff sighed. "You know what? This is pathetic. Get out of here, all of you," he said pointing towards the door with his thumb. "Pushy. Get out, all of ya!" He exclaimed, getting louder. "Up and out of your seats! Let's go!" He pointed at Alex, Will, Irma, Hay Lin, and Cornelia, who were all getting out of their seats. "Not you five. You stay." He pointed at other people, still pointing his thumb at the door. "You two get out of here. Right foot in front of the left one. You can handle that, right?"
And that's when Michael walked into the room. "Hay Lin," he stated. "Amanda is ready to see you."
"Amanda?" Hay Lin inquired, knitting her eyebrows together in confusion. "Who's that?"
"You'll see."
Amanda smiled as she stared at one of the newest recruits. Hay Lin, she thought. That's what her name is. I think I remember reading something in her file about air. She watched as Hay Lin looked at one of her dresses on a mannequin. It was long beautiful silver dress with a mid-thigh high slit on the left side.
"That dress is just your size, you know," Amanda stated, startling Hay Lin, who quickly turned around to face her. "It's a perfect fit for you, and I know that you would look just darling in it."
"Oh, I, um," Hay Lin started nervously, looking down. "Uh, thanks..."
"Amanda," Amanda finished, flipping her long wavy rusty brown hair. "I've heard a lot about you, Hay Lin."
Hay Lin looked up surprised. "You know my name?" she asked.
"Of course," Amanda answered, moving closer to Hay Lin. "I'm sort of like your... Counselor."
"They have counselors here?"
"Yes. Some people... Struggle with the transition, so that's why I'm here."
"Oh," Hay Lin said. She stuck out a hand for Amanda to shake. "It's nice to meet you, Amanda."
Amanda shook the young girl's hand. "Same here." She paused. "That's a nice bracelet you've got there," she said, indicating the thick silver bracelet on Hay Lin's arm. Sure she knew exactly what the bracelet did, but she wanted Hay Lin to tell her. She wanted her to open up to her. About her past and her powers.
"Uh, yeah, it's there to prevent my pow-" Hay Lin shut up as her eyes widened. She had almost given up her secret... Even if Michael knew about it, that didn't mean that everyone else had to, too.
"Your what?" Amanda questioned, playing dumb. "What were you going to say?"
"Um, nothing," Hay Lin answered with a shifty smile. "It's nothing, seriously."
"Weren't you going to say powers?" Amanda inquired with a creepy grin.
Hay Lin twirled her ebony ponytails as she nervously replied, "Powers? What about powers? Because there're no powers here."
Amanda looked Hay Lin in the eyes. "We know about your powers, Hay Lin. Or should I say wielder of air?"
Hay Lin immediately stopped playing with her hair and stated at the green-eyed woman in shock. "How did you know?"
"Listen, we want to help you with your powers," Amanda responded, ignoring Hay Lin's question. "We want to help you use your powers to help your country."
"If really want to help us with our powers, then why don't you take these bracelets off of us? It would be a lot easier to help with our powers if we could actually use them."
"Perhaps you are right... But we can't because you might blow this place up... Or at least that's what Percy is worried about."
"Who's Percy?"
"He's the director of Division. He's the one that calls all of the shots."
"Listen, what if I promised that we wouldn't destroy this place?" Hay Lin asked. "Would you let us have our powers then?" Amanda could tell by just looking at her that Hay Lin was not one to break her promises. I really need their trust, Amanda thought. If they are to help me accomplish my goals... Maybe giving them their powers back would be beneficial. Besides, Percy wouldn't even mind, especially if he thought that Michael was the one who did it.
"Okay, if you promise not to destroy Division, I'll give you the key to unlock those bracelets," Amanda said, walking over to her dresser and opening one of the drawers.
Hay Lin's eyes lit up as Amanda pulled a small silver key out of the drawer. "Really? That would be great!"
"So do we have a deal?" Amanda asked, holding onto the key with an iron grip.
"We so have a deal! Thanks, Amanda! You're the best!" Hay Lin beamed as Amanda handed her the key to unlock their powers. She stuffed it in her jacket pocket and walked out of the room, leaving a creepily happy Amanda.
Amanda smiled to herself. And I hope you remember that, she thought. Because I really am the best. Especially at getting what I want.
"So did you guys hear?" Irma said after she ran into the exercise room.
"What?" Will asked curiously. The girls were running on treadmills, but they had stopped when Irma came into the room.
"Are you talking about the fight?" Cornelia questioned, wiping her forehead from the sweat that had accumulated there.
"What fight?" Hay Lin inquired, knitting her eyebrows together in puzzlement.
"The fight between Alex and Jaden in the computer lab," Irma answered. "I heard that they're both on probation because of it."
"I guess they aren't as close of friends as I thought," Taranee stated, pushing her glasses back into the bridge of her nose.
"Yeah, seriously," Will said. "So how were your guys' visits with Amanda?"
"Good and you know what? After seeing her, I do feel a bit better about being here," Cornelia replied.
"Same here," Taranee agreed. "I don't know what it is about her, but she makes you feel more welcome and valuable."
"Yeah, and guess what I got from her," Hay Lin said smiling. "Go on, guess."
"A pepperoni pizza?" Irma guessed. She rubbed her stomach. "Because I could totally go for something that's not cafeteria food."
"Nope, it's not a pizza," Hay Lin stated with a huge grin. She pulled out a key from her pocket and held it out like it was a trophy. "I've got the key to our powers!"
"Shhhhhh, Hay Lin!" Taranee responded. "Don't scream that out loud! And put the key away before someone sees it," Taranee scolded, eyeing the guards around the exercise room.
"Wow, I thought you guys would be happier about this," Hay Lin said, putting the key back into her pocket.
"We are," Will reassured her. "We're just shocked, that's all."
"I mean why would Amanda give us the key just like that?" Cornelia asked, snapping her fingers when she said 'that'. "There's got to be some kind of catch."
"Oh yeah, there is," Hay Lin replied. "She said that we can't blow up Division."
"That's all?" Will questioned, raising an eyebrow. "There has to be more to it."
"Nope, that's it," Hay Lin responded. "Isn't she nice?"
Irma shrugged. "Yeah, she's cool, and I guess that this is good news. I mean like they always say: don't look a gift horse in the ear."
"Mouth," Taranee corrected.
"What?" Irma inquired puzzled.
"It's don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Not ear," Taranee said.
"Oh," Irma said a little embarrassed that she got it wrong.
"So should we unlock our powers now?" Cornelia questioned, wanting to be able to move earth again.
"No," Will answered. "We should wait until we get back to our room, so no one will be able to see us."
"Good idea, Will," Hay Lin complimented. "We should wait, but until then -" She gasped suddenly in the middle of her sentence. "What is he doing here?"
"Who?" Irma inquired. "Have you gone crazy, Hay Hay?"
"Him," Hay Lin said with a flabbergasted expression, pointing to someone who was coming out of Ops. The girls all looked at where she was pointing and gasped.
"Why is he here?" Taranee asked, rubbing her eyes to make sure she wasn't just seeing things. For over there was definitely someone they would never expect to be here in a million years. It was their old computer teacher from Sheffield Institute named Raphael Sylla.
Thanks to The meteorologist 1991 for reviewing and Favoriting and Following this story! Also, thanks for reading!