'God damn it… Couldn't they have called for us a little later when I at least finished my morning training…?' My mind supplied helpfully with my inner voice tinged in quite a bit of sarcasm while my feet carried me absentmindedly towards Shen's office.

Directly after breakfast I had been told by one of the many assistants to come to the instructor's office to discuss something of importance. Of course, I had immediately connected the dots with the conversation I had had with Rob the last evening and surmised this was why I had been called to Shen's office.

Rapping my knuckles against the wooden door leading to said office I was, after a few seconds of silence, told to enter and have a seat. I did enter though before taking a seat I took in the office around me with a steady gaze.

'Orderly…how fitting…' I couldn't help but think with a mental grimace. Shen was, after all, the personification of the world governments doctrine, or at least what I had perceived from the man so far. Obviously, a messy office did not fit said image so I was not all that surprised and yet couldn't help but be a little disappointed at the lack of character depth Shen showed, subconsciously or not.

After doing a round around the office my eyes came to rest on the humongous desk in the middle of the room. Behind it sat of course, Shen. Though who sat before the desk surprised me a little bit. It was Rob and another person I did not know. A woman.

Giving me a small smile, both Rob and the woman returned their eyes back towards Shen after taking in my person for a few seconds.

"Daz, good you are finally here. Have a seat." Shen said and I obliged, even though it irked me still to do what the man told me to. Maybe it was my inner rebellious man-child or simply the dislike for the moron at the head of this institution but I couldn't help but appreciate that small aspect of my character. Shen was, after all, a moron and it took a special kind of moron to actually like an obvious moron such as Shen.

Pulling back the chair next to Rob I sat down and, just like the two sitting next to me, let my eyes rest expectantly on Shen.

The man, after understanding he had all of our undivided attention, pulled out two pieces of paper and handed them over to both Rob and me.

Taking a look at the paper laying before me on the desk I flew over its contents and after understanding the gist of what was written on it grew a little suspicious of why we were here exactly.

Before I could ask though Shen began to explain what exactly this meeting was all about.

"The both of you have shown quite the promise in everything you have been confronted with so far and thus will be given an opportunity. An opportunity to learn, to serve justice and to help the world become a better place. Before I can tell you more you will need to sign this none-disclosure agreement. Take your time to read through it. Afterwards you will get all the information you want concerning this opportunity I told you about." Shen said with a steady voice while I mentally rolled my eyes.

This whole thing obviously was about some kind of secret taskforce or some such thing under the influence and jurisdiction of the World Government. Still, in a world such as Gaia, were strength was literally everything, an agreement such as this was the epitome of stupidity for anybody with half a brain. After all, who would stop me from spilling secrets I discovered if I was strong enough to defend myself from any threats made against me? Nobody, that's who.

'This shite is probably only pulled on us because we are children. Children at our age usually would even believe you when told that the moon was made from cheese, let alone the secrecy you were bound by signing nothing but a simple contract…' With those thoughts running through my mind, accompanied by inner voice sniggering at the stupidity of mankind, I took nearby pen and swiftly signed my name under the contract.

Rob followed suit and soon we were given another piece of paper, this time a pamphlet which caused my mind to still at the absurdness of the situation.

'A secret taskforce-…and they hand out pamphlets? What in the actual fuck…?' This truly was ridiculous. What comes next, an event like 'day of the open doors' or some such nonsense?

'Well, I should probably not rule it out yet. Who knows who is in charge of this thing…'though the furthering formation of my down spiralling opinion about the World Government was halted once Shen began to speak yet again, sweetening my day even further.

"The opportunity I was speaking of earlier is a program only the best of best are offered, after undergoing our screening of course, with the chance to grow into forces of nature to do good in the name of the World Government!

In said program you will nurture and train both your body and mind until they become the epitome of justice, able to perform miracles like walking on air, becoming tough as steel or transforming your fingers into pistols! And now you have been offered such a chance. Don't let it slip through your fingers…" Shen said with a passion only a lunatic could possess and anybody who's ever had the pleasure to talk with, for example, a religious lunatic knows how fucking creepy those guys can be, and I'm not ashamed to say that Shen sent an involuntary shiver down my spine.

"What kind of organisation will we be working with though? You said 'under the World Government's jurisdiction' but that is a rather broad term, don't you think? Are we going to join some secret organisation or some such?" I asked after a few seconds of silence in the wake of Shen's monologue.

"Indeed, you will. Cipher Pol is the general direction you will be trained towards, though were you will end up at has yet to be decided as you haven't undergone any kind of real training really. This orphanage is mainly used to assess and filter future trainees into different categories, like for example Cipher Pol." The woman answered this time, instead of Shen, her words flowing like honey through the room, which caused me to tense up slightly for some reason, more so than in the presence of Shen the moron.

"And what does Cipher Pol do exactly?" Rob asked this time before I had had the chance to.

"Mostly undercover missions. Those can range from infiltration, information gathering to plain and simple assassination of targets deemed dangerous by the World Government." The woman answered, her face displaying warmth and kindness while her eyes were the exact opposite. Cold, hard and calculating.

I was unnerved by her, I admit. She had something about her that screamed 'professional' but sadly not in the way I would have liked…

Nodding his head at her words Rob turned back around towards the desk and took the last piece of paper Shen handed to him, which would finalise his decision to join Cipher Pol.

Firming my mind, I did the same by writing my name on another piece of paper Shen handed to me and once I had given my signature I knew there was no going back now anymore.

I would become a Cipher Pol agent. There was no doubt about that any longer. The only question to me that remained though was: How long would I stay one?