Red

Red

Chapter 1: The Accident

Catherine Thorne was singing "Come Get it Bae" by Pharrell Williams with her brother Cody. They had just come from a Pharrell Williams and Siva Kaneswaren concert, so they were a little intoxicated. Catherine was less than her brother so she decided to drive. It was a typical snowy January night in Chicago, Illinois, the roads were extra slippery because it had just rained. Everything was going smoothly hardly any cars on the highway, it was pretty late at night. She got off their exit, they were now singing Siva's big hit, and suddenly there was nothing but a flash of light.

It took a few hours before someone saw the wreck and called the ambulance. A huge six-wheeler truck had ran right into them, it wasn't their fault, they had the right away. It seemed like everybody in town heard the news of two young locals getting in a car accident and came to the scene hoping it wasn't their children. Everybody were in their pajamas in shock at the wreck, the siblings car had been flipped over onto the side of the road. Catherine had forgotten to put her seatbelt on and flew out the window. Her beautiful corpse was sprawled out, neck and back twisted, eyes wide open. Her beautiful long blonde hair was the only living thing at the scene, getting wet by the thick white snow.

Chapter 2: Recruitment

Catherine Thorne was pronounced dead at 3:04 in the morning at County General Hospital, Chicago, Illinois. Her brother was pronounced brain dead, their mother didn't want to take him off the machines just yet because she believes he is a fighter. Just when everybody thought Catherine's life was over, it had just begun. Usually by now her body would be in the coroner examination room, but it wasn’t. Her body was taken to a top-secret facility, where someone was injecting a syringe into her limp arm.

It was finally morning; Catherine's body was somewhere unknown, a dark room lying on a bed. Suddenly she woke up taking a deep breath, scared and confused. She felt her body thinking how is this possible? How could she be alive right now, she died right? She was a little groggy and unaware of her surroundings. She slowly got up, she was still wearing her hospital gown which was stained with blood. She walked around looking for a light, she didn't find a light but found what felt like curtains. She opened them, her eyes burned as the sun was extremely bright, lighting up the entire room. There was not much to see outside that would help her figure out where she was. Just a brightly lit courtyard surrounded by a tall circular building, she had never seen anything like it.

She turned around to see where she was, it was a very plain room with no decorations or colored linens. Everything was beige or grey, and the floor was stainless steel so it was extremely cold. She saw bread and water on a desk and ran to it, she was extremely hungry and thirsty. She swallowed the bread without chewing using the water to wash it down slowly. She looked up and in front of her was not the girl she was used to seeing. Before she had long blonde straight hair, now she has long wavy bright red hair. She ran her fingers through her hair disgusted at what was standing before her. She didn't know what to do so she punched her fist through the mirror, and the entire thing shattered. She was bleeding and in pain, she began to cry because she was so confused at what was happening.

She went into the bathroom to wash the blood off, but her hand kept bleeding so she wrapped a towel around it. When she finished wrapping her injury and turned off the faucet she heard a knock on the door. She didn't know whether to jump out the window or answer the door, she looked at the window and saw that it was about a ten-foot drop. The person kept knocking on the door, she came to reality and knew the only way to know what happened to her was to open the door. She walked over to the door and opened it, before her was a scrawny beady-eyed boy. He had reddish-brown curly hair, small blue eyes, and a small smile.

"Hi, oh wow are you injured already?" He had a kind voice. "Well that's understandable." He looked at the bloody, broken mirror. "You should've seen what I did to my door, when I first woke up." When he first woke up, what was he talking about? Did he go through the same thing Catherine went through? Catherine was losing a lot of blood and the strange boy noticed. She began to feel woozy and dizzy losing her balance, the boy caught her before she fell. "Whoa there, let's get you to the clinic, huh?" Her hearing seemed to be a little impaired, the boy took hold of her and they started walking down the long, brightly lit hallway. Everybody stared at the beautiful new girl all curious to see who she was, everybody seemed to be wearing white or grey military inspired clothing. She got extremely confused as to where she was, who this boy was, and what happened to her?

"She's hurt already?" They made it to the clinic, Catherine losing more and more blood. Out came an average 30 something year old woman dressed in doctor whites.

"Yeah, well you remember how I reacted when I first woke up." The woman nodded, there was nothing special about her either. Pale complexion, curly brown hair to the shoulders, brown eyes covered by glasses, the only makeup she wore was bright red lipstick.

"Ok Catherine, I'll stitch you right up!" She went and grabbed a syringe, needle, and the thread they used to stitch up cuts.

"How do you know my name? Who are you people? Where am I?" She was flustered and in shock.

"Catherine I know things may seem very confusing right now. But we'll tell you everything you need to know after we fix you up!" The doctor replied calmly.

"No, get me out of here! I want to go home!" Catherine got up, losing more blood, she tried to run away. Two big guards came in and grabber her, they were gripping her tightly making her feel more pain. "Let go of me! I just want to go home!" She fought back using her arms with exert force making the guards fly up in the air. She was surprised at how much strength she had, before she had no upper body strength what so ever. The boy seemed surprised and a bit annoyed at the new power the girl had gotten. He called for more guards, four more beastly looking guards came barging in the clinic. They grabbed her by the arms and legs, so that Catherine wouldn't escape. The doctor came by with a sedative to put Catherine to sleep, she fell into a deep slumber repeating "I want to go home, just take me home."

Now in a different room Catherine slowly began to wake up, everything around her was gradually coming into place. She looked around and they were in a completely different room, it was pretty uninteresting, much like everything else in this strange building. It was a dark green room with padded walls, she tried getting up noticing that no one was there. She couldn’t get up because her arms and legs were tied up by a tight metal wrapping.

"GET ME OUT!" She yelled, struggling to escape. "GET ME OUT, PLEASE!" Suddenly the doctor from the clinic came in with a different man than the boy she met earlier. He was extremely handsome with dark blonde hair and compelling hazel eyes. He was extremely fit wearing a tight black short-sleeved shirt showing off his muscles.

"Catherine it's ok, we need you to calm down." The handsome man came towards her, she spit in his face. How could they ask her to calm down after everything that has happened? "Feisty one we have here!" He wiped off the excess spit with his hand.

"Catherine, please we need you to calm down. You don’t want me to sedate you again, do you?" The doctor from the clinic asked, finally she began to calm down.

"Where am I, who are you?"

"You are at a facility called Artemis. My name is Ben Lockhart, this is Dr. Wells, and the boy you met earlier is Henry Vincent." The well-groomed man replied.

"Why am I not dead?"

"Sweetheart what was the last thing you remember before waking up here?" Dr. Wells asked kindly.

"I remember singing in the car with my brother Cody." She began to have flashbacks of the accident. "We were on our way home from a Pharrell concert and a truck hit us." She saw the flash of light hitting their car. "Did I die, is Cody here?"

"You did die, your brother is not here because he is not dead. He is in a coma at County General Hospital in Chicago, Illinois." Ben told Catherine about how she died and they brought her back to life. They had to change the color of her hair because she needed a new disguise, she wasn't allowed to go back home. Not after everybody, who she knew, thought that she was dead.

"You said I was at a place called Artemis, what is that? And why did you bring me back to life, I'm nothing special." Artemis was a top-secret facility that Henry's dad came up with. He was a lab technician and lost Henry in an accident, he couldn’t bear to live without him. So he tried coming up with a cocktail that would bring him back to life, it worked, but something was different about him. Henry was much more intelligent and could do things only computer's could do. Henry's father figured there must've been something in the cocktail that changed him, so he made more just like it. He found people close to him that had died and used the medicine on them, they were reborn just like Henry and Catherine.

Soon after he found out what made the medicine enhanced the humans like this he came up with Artemis. He became obsessed and decided to make more people like Henry, but since he knew what made the Originals the way they were, he added different topicals to the cocktails. Soon his experiments showed different abilities; super speed, super strength, high martial arts skills, inhuman intelligence, and much more. Catherine began having flashbacks of the incident in the clinic where she had strength she didn’t think were ever possible.

"How you holding up Catherine?" Dr. Wells asked her as she was trying to process all of this information.

"It's all just a little bit unreal." Dr. Wells smiled.

"Henry's dad saw something in you, something special. That is why you are here." Ben continued.

"But why? What is it that you guys do here?"

"We are vigilantes Catherine." Catherine remembered reading stories like this in the paper, about rebel children stealing from the rich and giving it to the poor. They supposedly had special powers like the ones Ben listed. Soon this was beginning to be too much for Catherine.

"Maybe we should stop for today, I think she is getting tired." Dr. Wells suggested. Ben understood knowing that this was a lot of information for one day. So with a few guards they took Catherine back to her room.

Chapter 3: Training

It had been three days; just 72 hours since I got into a car accident, died and was brought back to life. It took me a while before I came to grips with what was going on in my life. I wouldn't be able to go to a White Sox game with my brother every weekend or make banana pancakes with my mother on Sunday mornings. I was no longer in contact with them; I was no longer Catherine Thorne, now I am a red head with unimaginable powers that I didn't think existed. I was recruited into a program called Artemis, a place where people like me, steal from the rich and give to the poor. Not only are they a Robin Hood of sorts, but they also put the bad guys away. I guess you could call us modern day super-hero's, yeah like Superman and Batman only stronger and more intelligent.

Since Ben told me everything I needed to know about Artemis, I would start my training today. Henry would show me the ropes and introduce me to some people, I needed to know everything before I can get out there and put the bad guys behind bars. Henry was an interesting guy; shy, reserved, but very smart. He reminded me of my friend John they looked similar and were both extremely intelligent. John was probably looking at Ivy League School's right now like Harvard, Yale, even Oxford. Stop it Catherine, you'll make yourself crazy if you continue to think about them. I put on my training gear; I looked like Katniss Everdeen, you know from Hunger Games trilogy. The only thing different about us was that I had red hair, it was so weird having red hair. Suddenly the door knocked and it frightened me, as much as I felt like jumping out of that window I knew that wouldn't do anything.

"You're up!" There was Henry bright-eyed and ready for the day.

"You said 6 a.m. right?"

"Yes and look at you, wearing some normal clothes for a change!" I guess this outfit was normal compared to my hospital gown. "Alright so I'm just going to show you around and introduce you to some people!" We walked around the building, it was very large, very high-tech and there seemed to be a lot of important people walking around. "This is the computer room; that is where people like me help people like you get in and out of an operation safe and sound. Think of it like Watch Tower in Smallville." I guess I wasn't the only one who compared things to pop culture. We continued walking, there was a lot of ground to cover. There was a research center where scientists kept coming up with new cocktails to make more super-human beings. A cafeteria where only crap healthy food was served and a library. "And this is where you will be spending most of your time as a new inductee, the gym!"

I looked around it was fully equipped with ellipticals, treadmills, weights, martial arts equipment, track and swimming pool. There was also a scenario-training room where we would practice our operation's with any scenario imaginable. Everyone around me seemed like they knew what they were doing, fast-paced and extremely strong, as if this was everyday life for them. Suddenly a beautiful girl came out kick boxing her trainer, she was dripping in sweat but didn't look tired. She had long jet black liquid hair in a single braid so that it wouldn't get in her way. She passed us not even realizing we were there, accidentally kicking Henry in the nose.

"Ow, Margaret god dammit!" She immediately stopped and went to help Henry.

"Oh my god Henry! I am so sorry, are you ok?" He lifted up his head trying to stop the bed, the trainer handed him a towel.

"Yeah I'm fine Maggie, at least you didn't get the new girl." She turned around, she was probably the most beautiful human being I have ever seen.

"Hi! I'm Margaret, Margaret Locke!" We shook each other's hands, I was still in shock at how stunning she was. She was like a Victoria Secret model with perfect glowing skin, a long elegant neck, and long legs.

"Hi, I'm Catherine Thorne!"

"It's nice to meet you, Catherine you are in good hands here with Henry!" She patted his back and started walking away. "Nice hair by the way!"

"Who was that?" I asked just as she walked out of the room.

"Margaret Locke, she's been here for about three years. Fast learner though acts like one of the Originals; one of our best, has quick martial arts skills and her beauty helps to deceive people." I could tell he was saying that out of admiration. We continued our tour around the training room and suddenly time stopped. Everyone turned to see a god-like creature come out of the sauna room, he looked like he had just come down from Mt. Olympus. Steam making his intense body glisten in the light, he had large arms, and a hard-rock six-pack. He was very tall, probably about 6"5', had piercing ocean blue eyes, and curly brown hair. Everyone was in awe at this boy, including me, and that's when I knew he was going to be trouble. "Hello? Catherine." I totally forgot that Henry was talking, he noticed who I was staring at. Suddenly I got all giddy and flustered as he walked over here.

"Hey Henry! What happened to your nose? Did you walk into a glass wall again?"

"Ha ha ha. That only happened once, I actually got kicked in the nose by Margaret."

"Henry you shouldn’t have told me that, getting hit by a girl is worse than walking into a wall." He turned to me, he could totally tell that I was staring at him. Stop staring at him Catherine, you are making a fool out of yourself. "Who is this?"

"This is a newbie, Catherine Thorne meet Max Richards one of our Originals." I was totally mystified by him, he was so captivating it was hard to keep my eyes off of him.

"Is she ok?" I was in a trance.

"Yeah, she's just a little bit in shock right now. She punched a hole in her mirror, when she first woke up."

"Ah super-strength!" Henry nodded. "Well it's nice to meet you Catherine, we might be doing a lot of jobs together!" With that the god left, but I still watched him as he walked out of here.

"Hello! Catherine!" He snapped his fingers, I finally came back to reality. "I know he's hot and all but he's someone to watch out for."

"What do you mean?"

"Let's just say he's not boyfriend material." Maybe I wasn’t looking for a boyfriend.

It had now been a couple of weeks and I was starting to get used to being this redheaded superhero. I was mostly doing training everything from weight-lifting, martial arts, and running. I had to get used to my powers before I can get out and do some real work. I was learning fast though passing all of my tests and making an impression. So far what I excelled at was being stealthy, but I guess I was always like that. My mom had always told me that I walked like a mouse, she never heard me coming up from behind her. I was getting to know Henry, Margaret, and Max, they were very close friends being Originals and all. I surprisingly had a lot in common with Margaret, back home I would probably hate her, but here she was my closest friend. As for Max well, we were definitely both attracted to each other, flirting whenever we got the chance, it was just a matter of who was going to make the first move.

It was Battle Friday; every Friday everyone would be put into pairs, pitted against each other. We would get a scenario and try to find something, whether it be treasure or a person. This Friday I had been pitted against Max, who always won his challenges. Our challenge was to go through many courses like light beams, hologram guards, and crawling in a tight space. Of course we made it to the last bit of our challenge at the same time and we could both see the little girl being held at gun point, all fake of course. I began to run to try to get ahead of him but he grabbed me, we started fighting using our martial arts skills. It was back and forth like cat and mouse, we didn’t know it but everybody was watching waiting to see if anyone would beat the undefeated beast.

This fight went on for hours neither of us seemed to be letting up and people were still intrigued, even Henry's father was watching. Henry's father who never came out of his office. There had to be a weakness to Max, an Achilles heel, as I was in a choke-hold the only weakness I could think of was me.

"Wait your killing me!" I yelled, my voice breaking. From the glass wall Henry stood up worrying about me, Ben looked curious. I began to cough hoping Max would let go, Dr. Wells was worried about me losing consciousness and motioned to lift up the walls. But just as she did Henry's dad told her to wait, I felt Max loosening his grip. So I escaped from his hold underneath his arms, turning his arm all the way around until I heard a crack. He was in pain.

"I thought you were dying!" I completely ignored him and went to the "child," which was just a bunch of pillows tied up in ropes.

"First rule of training, never let your guard down!" He looked stunned. "Wasn't that you who taught me that?" Suddenly the glass wall came up and everybody was cheering for me. Margaret and Henry were in amazement that Max was finally defeated.

"So Max what does it feel like to finally lose to a girl?" Margaret asked as Dr. Wells was tending to his injuries. He got frustrated and left, for a split second I felt bad for him, but that went away as I kept getting praised.

"Ben, I think she's ready." Henry's father said in the background patting Ben's back.

It was late at night, there was going to be a party in the auditorium as there always was on Battle Days. I got dressed in my tightly fitted mini red dress, Margaret came knocking on my door.

"Wow you look hot!" That was funny coming from her considering she was always the hottest girl at the party. Tonight was no different as she was wearing a sheer mini black dress extenuating her curves. Henry came right up from behind her wearing dark green jeans, a vest to match, and red bow tie.

"You girls ready to go?" I closed my door answering that question, before realizing that Max wasn't here.

"Where's Max?"

"I don’t think he's coming, probably butt-hurt that he lost to a girl." I felt really bad.

"Hey I forgot my purse, I'm going to go run back and get it."

"You sure?" Margaret asked.

"Yeah I'll meet you at the auditorium." They shrugged their shoulders and continued walking towards the auditorium. I went to my room pretending to open my door to get my purse, watched them leave to where they turned the next corner. I went in the opposite direction to where Max's room was, people continued to applaud me for my win today. I finally reached his room and knocked on his door madly. He wasn’t answering, luckily Lucy came out from next door. "Hey Lucy, do you know where Max is?"

"Yeah he's at the clinic, getting another injection. You hurt his arm pretty bad." I felt guilty.

"Ok thanks." I started running to the clinic, using my super-speed. I made it just in time, he was just putting his shirt back on about to leave. I knew he heard me whoosh in, he turned around disappointed.

"What are you doing here? Here to relish in all your glory?"

"No, I was actually concerned for you!" I walked up closer to him. "If you read my mind you would know that." Another power Max had was mind-reading. At first he seemed to hate it because he couldn’t control it and read everybody's thoughts.

"I don't read my friend's thoughts. If I did, I would've known what you were going to do in the Battle." There was so much tension in the room you could cut it with a knife. We were inches away from each other.

"If you read my mind, you would know… You would know how I feel about you!" I had to make the first move, or else this wasn’t going to get anywhere. So with all my might I kissed him, I kissed him and boy did it feel good. We parted our lips and stared into each other's eyes for a good few seconds until he kissed me back. We couldn't keep our hands off each other, he lifted me up onto the hospital bed and spread my legs apart. We were really going to do this, we were going to have sex in a hospital room. I honestly didn’t care where we were doing it, all I wanted to do was rip his clothes off.

Chapter 4: The Jeremy Stone Project

It had been about a month since my battle with Max and since our encounter on the hospital bed, I have had many dreams about that night. It’s been difficult to not be able to tell anyone. Back home I probably would've told my mom right away, but I know people would judge me right away for sleeping with Max. Many people say that Max was one of the Originals that went wrong, all though no one has told me exactly why. Since our little slip he has kept his distance and has been hanging out less and less with Henry, Margaret, and I. I don't really know why, because it seems like any time we were alone together things would get hot and heavy. We couldn't keep each other's hands off one another, so I have no idea why he is so distant with us. I'm not the only person who has noticed his distance, Henry and Margaret has picked it up as well. They would always ask me if Max would be hanging out with us, and I always had to lie. I could tell that Henry knew I was hiding something, Margaret thinks he is just under one of his bad spells and he'll be back to normal soon.

Since that night I have been trying to distract myself from my Max problems and have been training constantly. People still talk about me defeating Max and I know it pisses him off, and sometimes I feel sorry for him. I've been working a lot with Ben and have finally been able to train in the scenario room, something tells me that I am going on a project soon. Ben has been pushing me to do unimaginable things, tests that even Originals could not pass. He hasn’t seen anyone learn to control their abilities so fast, not since Max. He tells me I am ready, but ready for what exactly, I was still confused as to why I was even here.

"You are doing great Catherine! I think you are ready!" He tells me after I beat him almost to death, we were kickboxing something that I enjoyed.

"Ready for what?"

"I can't tell you yet, it is not my place to tell. But before we take you to the office you need to go to the clinic to get some injections." The office, I have only heard whispers and rumors about that place. It was supposedly where people like Max, Margaret, and Henry meet up with Henry's dad to talk about upcoming projects. The projects were top secret so no one really knew exactly what they were until they were called to the office to complete one themselves. I always asked those three what they did when they were gone for hours, sometimes days at a time, but they never said anything. "See you in a couple of hours." We were both extremely sweaty and out of breath so I'd figure I would take a shower before going to the clinic and going to the office. I walked into my room and saw an outfit laid out for me on my bed, it had a note on it.

Dear Mrs. Thorne,

I have heard so much about you and I am thrilled to met you. You are learning your abilities faster than anyone I have ever met and I was impressed with you in your battle with Max. I knew you were something special from the get go and now it is time to put your strength to the test. Please meet me at The Office after your injections, wear this to the meeting. Once again I am very excited to meet you.

Yours Truly,

Who was V, was it Henry's father? Was I finally going to meet the man who established Artemis? Was I finally going to get some answers? I put the note down and looked at the outfit, it was a sleek leather number. Perfectly tailored tight fitting pants, a grey and black tank top, and a really cool black leather jacket. This was an outfit you would never see me where outside of here, I could definitely see Margaret wearing something like this. I took a shower and put the outfit on, looking in the mirror I had seen the girl who changed dramatically in just a little over a month. I definitely was not the shy, artistic, girl from the suburbs of Chicago I once was.

Before my meeting at The Office I had to get some injections, I don't know what for, but apparently it was protocol. But walking into the hospital room felt strange, bringing back intense memories of that night with Max. Before sitting down on the hospital bed where I lost my virginity I noticed the usual syringes and Petri dishes and the awful smell of rubbing alcohol. But there was something different, I looked closely at the suture table and right there was a video cassette tape. There were many thoughts running through my head, was it a montage of my training modules or was it something else… Dr. Wells came in bright-eyed and gleaming with exuberance.

"Good afternoon Catherine! Today is a very exciting day for you isn't it!" I haven't seen Dr. Wells since the battle, did she know about what happened between Max and I? "These injections only mean one thing! You are going to The Office today aren't you, how do you feel?"

"I'm a little nervous." I kept staring at the cassette tape. "I've heard a lot of rumors about The Office, but I still don't know what all the fuss is about."

"Being invited to The Office is a privilege that only a few of our brightest pupils get to step foot in."

"Yes I understand. I'm just a little skeptical about why I am here exactly, why I was chosen to be brought back to life."

"I know it is a little confusing but everything will be answered and you will soon find out why you are here." She applied some rubbing alcohol on my right arm. "So have you talked to Max lately?" Oh god she knows, keep it together Catherine.

"Um every once and a while. He's been kind of distant since the Battle." She picked up the syringe, I turned away, I hated needles.

"You'll feel a little pinch." The needle broke into my skin, it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. "Don't worry about Max, he goes through these spells often. He is a regular patient of mine."

"What does that mean?"

"You don't know?" She paused now moving onto my left arm for another injection. "When Max came here, he was one of the first. Henry's father was still trying to make the perfect cocktail and his experiment with Max went a little haywire." I still didn't understand. "I know it's difficult to understand. Let's just put it this way, whatever Max feels, is ten times more intense than the average person." She injected the needle in my arm, that one hurt.

"Ow."

"Sorry. That one's always the worse."

"It's ok. So what you are saying is that Max can't control his emotions."

"Yeah kind of." She rolled across in her chair to the TV, grabbing the cassette tape and putting it in the video player. It was Max, he was much younger looking. He was sitting in the cafeteria talking to Henry, I could tell he was getting egged on about something. Suddenly his face turned red, he threw his chair on the ground and knocked Henry over. Everybody looked stunned including Henry. Then there was another clip of him in watching a girl talking to some guy, he got really jealous and punched the guy in the face. Then I saw him with Margaret, it looked like she was breaking up with him. He got angry and accidently pushed her to the ground, he looked guilty and ran.

"Why are you showing all of this to me?" I had a slight feeling I knew why, she raised her eyebrows because she knew I was lying. She fast forwarded the video, and it was the night of our sexual encounter. She paused it just before he was going to rip my dress off.

"I think you and I both know why am I showing this to you." She crossed her arms. "Max is one of my patients, I watch his every move to make sure he doesn't go off the deep end. You are one of my favorites here and I don’t want you to get hurt."

"What makes you think I'll get hurt?"

"When he loves someone, they are the entire world to him. If he sees you talking to another boy he sees it as you cheating on him. He could end up hurting someone, or even you."

"I don't think he'll hurt me."

"Really?" She once again pressed the fast forward button. She pressed play to me talking and laughing with Ben, to me it just looked like he made a joke and I laughed. I saw Max in the corner looking extremely jealous, a few minutes later he was making out with Georgina Chapman in the locker room. I couldn’t look at this. "You need to stop whatever you have with Max. For both of your sakes." She turned off the television and sent me off to The Office. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't go into the meeting with a sad face. So I tried extremely hard to show no emotion, I saw Ben standing out in front of a room, in a part of the Artemis Center where I have never been to. He looked very happy to see me, I tried to keep a straight face.

"He's ready for you!" I walked into The Office, there was nothing special about it. Tinted windows, a normal glass desk with a picture of Henry and a beautiful woman. There were also a few folders on the desk as well as a few paper weights. There was a big screen TV just above the desk hanging on the wall. On the walls there were many awards; like fastest completed project, most valuable team player, and most battle wins. Many of them were won by of course Max and a few other Originals. The only thing interesting about this office were the large windows surrounding the wall making the room seem bright and homey. Ben led me to the big black chair in front of the glass desk. The guards and Ben left the room leaving me alone to wait for Henry's father.

I heard a door open behind me and there he was Henry's father, he was much more handsome than I thought he would be. He was very tall about 6"4', a well fit body, perfectly jelled blonde hair, and bright blue eyes. He looked nothing like his son, but looking at the picture of Henry and what seemed to be his mom, Henry got most of his looks from her. If I could compare Henry's father to anything it would be an ancient Viking. He didn't introduce himself right away and went straight to his desk and picked up one of the files. From what I could tell it was a file on me, I couldn't tell if he was impressed or not, he was a very difficult man to read.

"Catherine Thorne. Your resume is impressive; passing all of your tests, some that even our best can't pass, and not to mention beating our undefeated champ in battle. You have only been here for just a little under two months." He continued to read, he had a slight European accent. I didn't know whether to say anything or not, so I just sat there. "So can you tell me how you defeated Max?" I really didn’t want to talk about Max right now, I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes.

"Ah hem." I coughed trying to hold back the tears. "Well it was simple I found his weakness."

"Do you mind telling me what that was?" It was me… but I couldn't tell him that.

"It was killing me…" He wanted me to elaborate. "When he was choking me, I was losing air and I could feel myself about to faint. He had been choking me for a good two minutes, and he knew that I was going to lose consciousness soon." I cleared my throat. "I knew if I told him I was dying he would loosen his grip, I knew he wouldn’t kill me. So I told him I was dying and felt him loosen his grip." My eyes were watering, keep it together Catherine. "So that's when I made my move." He seemed disappointed.

"But how did you know for sure he wasn’t going to kill you?" Because he loved me…

"He had the upper hand, if he wanted to kill me he could've snapped my neck the second he grabbed me from behind." He put the file down.

"So Catherine, do you know why you are here?" I'd figure he was talking about why I was here in his office.

"I'd figure because I have shown enough to impress you." He smiled showing off his perfectly flossed white teeth.

"No, not why you are here in my office. Why you are here, at Artemis?" He crossed his fingers and laid his chin on his hands looking at me intently.

"To be completely honest, no." He got up from his seat and turned on the television, it was my file on the big screen. Only it was an old school photo of me, one that was taken my freshman year of high school. I had blonde hair and Harry Potter reading glasses, bad acne, and a non-existent smile. To the side of the photo seemed to be my age, where I was from, my parents and brother's names, and my school records.

"Catherine Thorne age 17 from Chicago, Illinois. Average looking girl and straight A's at school, hobbies include photography and finger painting." He was making me seem like I wasn't an important person. "To the average person this girl is nothing special; shy, smart, and not confident about herself. Always second to her brother the star baseball player." Looking at the picture of my brother made me even more depressed, it didn't help that Henry's father was making me feel less of myself.

"If I am such a boring, non-existent person than why am I here?" I was getting angry and he didn't like that. He clicked the remote showing what I looked like now and my records from Artemis.

"Catherine Thorne now; strong, speedy, more intelligent than before, confident, and sexy." He grinned. "You are here Catherine Thorne because we saw something in that sorry version of yourself that nobody else saw. We gave you a second chance in life to become the person you were meant to be." I was getting upset about his arrogance, no wonder Henry didn’t like him. He clicked the remote now showing a file of a handsome powerful looking man. "This is Jeremy Stone, 23 years old, one of the richest men of the top one percent under 25 years old. He owns Stone Corporations, a company trying to make gasoline one of the leading fuels for cars again." I didn’t understand why he was showing me this.

"What does he have to do with me?"

"Patience, Catherine is a virtue." He continued to grin. "He is coming up with a secret plan that is going to drive all of the small businesses in America out of the picture. We want you to stop him." He flipped to a picture of his office. He continued to talk about how Jeremy Stone had this plan that could change the future of mankind forever. He wanted me to steal this plan away from him, to stop him. So this is the reason why I was here, it really was to steal from the rich and give to the poor. I was a modern day Robin Hood, a superhero, suddenly pieces to the puzzle were finally coming together. "Do you understand now? Mrs. Thorne." I nodded. "Good, Ben will give you more details on your assignment later today." Just before I was about to leave he continued to say something. "Oh and another thing Mrs. Thorne, you get to choose one person to go on this project with you." He paused. "I would choose wisely Mrs. Thorne." Was that a warning not to choose Max? I left the room in complete shock and disappointment of what just happened. Mr. V wasn’t at all who he was cracked up to be, he was arrogant, cocky, and rude. The only thing I was excited for about this assignment was that I would finally be able to get the hell out of this prison.

Before I could go out on my operation Ben needed to give me the guidelines. We went to the computer lab where Henry gave me all the details about how I would successfully acquire the blueprints. He showed me the scenario, giving me all the important particulars about the office including security and bumps that I might encounter. After that we would put it to the test, for the next week I practiced my mission. I hadn't chosen my partner yet, I knew that it was probably going to be Margaret, but people still kept coming up to me telling me why they were the best partner for this job. It was the day of the mission and still I didn't know what to do, I knew that bringing Margaret would be the best choice, but I also knew that choosing Max would get the job done fast. I haven't spoken to Max since my injections and he knew that I was keeping my distance from him, but didn't know why. Just as I was done taking my shower I heard a knock on my door, so I wrapped a towel around my body and hair. I opened the door and it was Max.

"Hey Catherine!" He seemed so happy to see me, but I was pissed off at him.

"What are you doing here?" That wasn't the response he was hoping to get.

"Well I heard you were still contemplating on who you were going to bring your first mission."

"And…"

"Well I was hoping that you would choose me?"

"Why should I choose you. You have been on plenty of missions, maybe I should give someone else a chance." He could tell I was upset about something.

"Are you upset at me?"

"Yes Max I am upset at you." He still didn't seem to understand what I was talking about. "All this time I was wondering why you were so distant with me after what happened. I didn't want to believe what everybody else was saying, and it turned out to be true."

"What are you talking about?"

"What do you think I am talking about… Georgina!" I finally came out with it.

"That happened way before we slept with each other." He lied, not the answer I was looking for.

"Really because the video Dr. Wells showed me would say different." I paused trying not to raise my voice, so that others walking down the hallway wouldn't hear us. "It showed that it only happened a few weeks after…"

"Look I'm sorry Catherine, it's just…"

"It's just what Max… It's just that you still don't know how to control your emotions, you thought there was something going on between Ben and I, which there wasn’t, and you got jealous." He had nothing to say. "I think it's best if we stopped whatever it is that we were doing." That hurt to say because the truth was is that I was in love with Max. If he didn't lie to me, I probably would've given him a second chance. I couldn't look into his eyes anymore and ran out of my room. I thought about where I should go; I couldn't go to Henry, I couldn't go to Ben, so I thought of the one person who I knew would understand. I knocked on her door and she came out right away. I was crying and couldn't say anything so I just fell into Margaret's eyes and she consoled me.

"The Mission"

I told Margaret everything, from the night of the Battle to my fight with Max just now. She completely understood because she had gone through something similar with Max. She told me everything was going to be fine, Max is just going through one of his spells and he would be back to normal in about a month. But from now on I should stay away from him, give him some space, and he will realize what he did wrong. It made me feel a little better, but the crazy thing was is that I wasn't mad at Max. Shouldn't I be angry with him for how he treated me, he took the one innocent thing I had left and threw it out the window by cheating. I know that he can't control his emotions, but that shouldn't be an excuse right? Why do I feel sorry for him and not pissed at him.

"Your probably wondering why you feel sorry for him and not angry at him, right?" How did she know that. "The same thing happened to me, and when he shoved Henry. It's cause we know he doesn't mean it, when he's in these spells he's not himself. It's the injections…" That's exactly right, we know that he is not himself, so we feel sorry for him. "Hey but I think that's enough Max talk for now. I think I should show you something before the mission tomorrow!" She grabbed my hand and took me to the floor where The Office was at. "Ok but before I show you this place I need you to close your eyes." I closed my eyes and she touched my shoulders leading me into another room. "Ok are your eyes closed?"

"Yes, they are…"

"You sure."

"Yes I am absolutely positive Margaret, where did you take me?" She positioned me in a perfect spot.

"Ok now you can open your eyes." I opened my eyes and we were standing in a very large closet filled with the most beautiful costumes. I was amazed, they were all well made and not cheesy like Cat Women's all black leather suit. They were convenient and made you look good. "Welcome to The Closet." I felt the costumes and they all felt like liquid silk, smooth and comfortable.

"Wow this place is amazing."

"Every superhero needs a good costume right! So look around, take your pick."

"I can choose whatever I want?" She nodded in excitement. I walked around there were so many that I wanted to try. I picked out a few and showed them to Margaret, but none of them seemed to be the right fit. There was one hiding in the corner that I saw, it was like it was calling me. Almost like when Harry Potter was picking out his first wand in Diagon Alley. It was a simple black leather skirt, paired with a black and red tank top. The shirt was leather, tightly fitted, with two black stripes running underneath my arms wrapping around the back and a stripe of red running down the middle. I choose black leather boots and a black laced mask as my accessories.

Margaret chose to wear a tight leather black dress, she was playing the vixen to distract Mr. Stone while I was stealing the blueprints. We walked down the hallways making everybody stop in their tracks. This was the one time since I have been here where I felt in total control of who I was. We went over the operation one more time with Ben and Henry and now we were ready. My first mission as an Artemis Vigilante was finally coming to surface.

I was now crawling silently in the air ducts at Stone Corporations, I didn't know what city we were in because we were blindfolded. But I didn't care, my sole thought was getting those blueprints. Margaret was somewhere in the floor below me distracting Mr. Stone. I kept crawling in the tight dusty space, until I was told to drop down. I was above a hallway and heard an elevator ding, I saw through the vents Margaret making out with the ever so handsome Jeremy Stone. I stopped for a second to see how she was doing, she seemed to be enjoying kissing the enemy. They were knocking each other into the walls, breathing heavily, and groping each other, at one point Margaret rubbed her leg all the way up to his crotch. I totally forgot that I had stopped moving.

"Catherine, you ok? Why did you stop?" Henry yelled into my ear piece. He was back in the computer room at Artemis corporation, only able to see dots moving in the air vents, those dots were Margaret, Mr. Stone, and I.

"Yeah I'm ok. Margaret seems to be doing just fine herself also." I was hoping she would hear me, she had an ear piece also. I continued to crawl.

"Ok so you are coming to a two way street, you want to turn left." He said while chuckling at the comment I just made. I made a left turn.

"Am I getting close?" I whispered.

"Yeah you are almost there."

"Good, because I am getting a little claustrophobic." I continued crawling straight and saw a mouse running right past me. "AHH!"

"What, what's the matter? Catherine?"

"Great why'd there have to be mice, anything but mice. Spiders sure I can deal with spiders, but mice!"

"Catherine, the one who beat Max, is afraid of mice." Ben joked, I didn't respond and continued walking.

"Ok Catherine you are almost there just a few feet more and you should be over his room." Henry explained, I crawled for a few more feet and saw his room underneath me."Cat, so there are two guards. One on the deck and one in front of Mr. Stone's bedroom. Do you see them?" Henry asked.

"Yes I see them."

"So we're going to need you to sneak up from behind the guard in front of his room. There should be an opening where you can turn and come in from his bedroom." I saw the opening, crawled to it and quietly dropped down to the bedroom. "Alright everything seems to be safe, you can silently open the door and tranquilize the guard." So I did as I was told, but heard a creak behind me. That only meant that there was another guard somewhere, so I turned around and kicked him in the side. He was really strong, but not as strong as me, I finally got his arms tied up behind him and tranquilized him. I hid him in the closet, the other guard outside the door heard the noise and came inside to check what was going on. Everything seemed to look normal, so he closed the door. Just as he did that I was standing right next to him and stuck the needle in his neck. Then the guard from the deck saw me and came inside to fight me. He was no match for me, I only had two tranquilizers knowing that there was only going to be two guards. So I grabbed a paper weight from Mr. Stone's desk and hit him in the head with it, he passed out.

"Catherine are you ok? You need to hurry up, they are coming inside." I heard the door begin to unlock so I put my super speed into high gear hiding the guards behind the long kitchen bar. I sped back to the desk to look for the files, they weren't there.

"There not on the desk, shouldn’t they be on the desk." The door flew open, Margaret saw me at the corner of her eye and flipped Jeremy over so that he wouldn’t see me. I dropped down to the floor, underneath the desk thankfully there was a little space where I could crouch down and hide. It didn’t help much because Jeremy brought Maggie over to the desk, they were moaning and he was beginning to unzip her dress.

"Wow this place is great, you must be a powerful man."

"I guess you could say that."

"But you know what would be better. If we moved on over to your bedroom." He seemed to like that idea, so he picked her up and moved her into the bedroom.

"Ok Cat, so there seems to be a safe in the closet by the kitchen. We think the blue prints should be in there."

"What is the pass code?" I whispered, I heard laughter in the bedroom.

"Henry is picking it up right now." Ben assured me.

"Ok, so it's 3-21-69. His mother's birthday." I put in the pass code and there in front of me where the blue prints and something else more intriguing.

"Wait, you do have condoms right?" Margaret asked as he was about to fully unzip her dress and his pants. He got up and before she knew it he was going into the living room. "SHIT!" She whispered. I heard the door open and needed to get out of there fast. He saw me, stunned to see me holding the blueprints and a separate set of files.

"Hey what the hell!" He yelled rushing over to me.

"CATHERINE get out there NOW!" Ben yelled in my ear. I climbed up the window sill and jumped, but he grabbed my necklace just before I jumped. Margaret came from behind him knocking his head with a pot. The handsome billionaire fainted and Margaret jumped from the window just seconds behind me. There was a car just in time to get away.

"Did you get it?"

"Yes." I touched my chest knowing that I probably just made a huge mistake. We were then blindfolded and drove off through the unknown city headed back home.

Margaret and I were back at the Artemis Center, I thought we would be welcomed with open arms and a lot of congratulations. This was not the case, we were sent back to The Office with our blindfolds just coming off as we sat down in front of Mr. V's desk. The only thing I thought about was the fact that Jeremy had my necklace now, the necklace that had my name on the back and a small portrait of my family and I. I'd felt so stupid because Ben even warned me about not wearing jewelry during the mission because something like this could happen. All I thought was how upset Mr. V was going to be at me, he was probably so disappointed in me and was just going to kill me right there on the spot. Suddenly Henry and Ben came walking in from the door to the left of me and seconds after that Mr. V came in. He looked really upset, he threw a file down on his table.

"Why do you think you are here Catherine?" I didn't know how to answer.

"Because we successfully got the blueprints and something else that might help us?" Mr. V slammed his fist hard on the glass table, shocking both Margaret and I.

"Is your name Catherine, Margaret?" She shook her head. "So Catherine would you like to tell me why you are here and not out partying with your floor-mates?" I shook my head even though I had a pretty good guess as to why we were here. He clicked on the television screen and there you could see Margaret and I jumping from Jeremy's window. "Do you see what I see?" I saw it but no one else seemed to see it. "No, let's go slower then." He rewound the video in slow motion, now everyone could see Jeremy grabbing my necklace just before he was hit in the back of his head. "Does everybody see it now?" I looked over at Ben who bent his head down in disappointment.

"It's her first mission dad!"

"Did I tell you to speak Henry?" He interrupted.

"No, but I'm just saying she didn't know better."

"Rex, please take my son out of here!" Rex was a giant Asian man dressed in all black, like a sumo-wrestler turned body guard. He grabbed Henry by the shoulder and took him out of the room.

"You know I should just kill you for the mistake that you did!" Mr. V said just as they left the room.

"Mr. V come on, she got the blueprints… and something else!" Ben exclaimed, he was talking about the files that I thought were interesting. They seemed interesting to me because they had the Artemis logo on the front and I always thought we were a top-secret corporation.

"I know." He shot a cold look at Ben. "But the thing is, those files you grabbed were leads on us. There have been some major corporations that we have been after who has figured us out because of mistakes like yours." He looked straight at me. "Luckily we have been able to destroy them and no one has found out about us yet. But now that Jeremy has your necklace… I have to make the decision to either kill him or you." Ben looked furious and Margaret shocked.

"You can't kill her!"

"But I am not going to do that, because you are one of the best pupils I have seen in a long while." I was a little bit happy to hear him say that. "But if you ever make a mistake like this again, I will make damn sure that you will not see the light of day ever again! Understood!" I shook my head. "Now please get out of my sight!" Margaret and I left the room as fast as we could, not saying a word. "Ben, please stay behind!" Mr. V ordered just before Ben was about to leave The Office.

"Wow I have never seen my father so upset like that." Henry said as he plotted down on my bed, Margaret and I just looked at each other both completely annoyed. "I mean he is a scary man, but that was something on a whole other level!"

"Henry!"

"What?" Margaret gave him a look as if to change the subject, someone knocked on my door. It was Lucy.

"Hey so you are back from your mission! You guys going to the party?"

"Hell yes!" Henry answered.

"It seems like Henry is going, but I don’t think we are. Catherine and I are both really tired."

"Oh but you can’t miss the party, this one is supposed to be huge. It's a celebration of Cat's first mission and all, Max planned out the whole thing." I was shocked, we were all shocked.

"He did?" I asked.

"Yeah, he felt really bad about the whole Georgina mishap and really wanted to try to make it up to you."

"Oh well we have to go now!" Henry replied.

"Wait you know about the Georgina thing?" I thought Dr. Wells, Margaret, Max, and I were the only people who knew about it.

"Yeah well Kyle overheard your conversation with Dr. Wells and kind of told everybody after you went on your mission. But it's pretty much all forgotten about now, you should totally come to the party." I really hated Lucy's perkiness, but maybe going to a party was the best thing for me right now. I think some alcohol could get my mind off of the terrible mistake that I just made.

"You don't have to go Cat, I'll tell Max what happened." Lucy looked at us confused.

"No I think I'll go, I could use a drink!"

"Oh yay I'm so excited!" Lucy gave me a giant hug. Lucy was one of those people who tried to be friends with the "cool" people. But everyone thought she was annoying because of her perkiness, but she was not to be messed around with. She came into Artemis about six months before I did and got the powers of mind manipulation and cyber control.

"Yay I'm excited too!" Henry clapped his hands hugging Lucy. Another thing Lucy was known for was getting really drunk at parties and sleeping with whoever she was into that night. It seemed like Henry was trying to make that him. Margaret and I changed into our party clothes and headed to the auditorium. As I walked into the auditorium, wearing a black and white tribal print dress, everybody went up to me congratulating me on my first mission. Even though we had our problems the one person who I wanted to talk to was Max, and there he was quietly in the background staring at me.

"The Discovery"

A very powerful looking man wearing a simple suit and trench coat came walking madly through a loud garage where people were making new car models. He held a newspaper in his hand and looked very annoyed. He was older, probably in his late sixties, with long brown and silver hair, and a peppered beard, wrinkles all over his face. He put his arms out as he came up to a guy wearing a simple car mechanics robe, the nametag said Mike. He was much younger probably in his late 20s and very fit and attractive

"Mike! Where is my son?"

"What?" Mike yelled, it was very loud where they were.

"My son!" The older man pointed to the newspaper; which had a picture of Jeremy, the headline "Young Billionaire Bachelor Gets Blueprints Stolen By Vigilantes."

"He's in the office, with Rosita!" He looked upset and headed to the elevator. The elevator dinged and the older man was now on the top floor of Stone Corporations. He looked annoyed as he was standing in front of his son who was getting a blow job by a beautiful Russian model.

"Oh hey pops! Beautiful day isn't it?" The Russian model turned around wiping her mouth.

"Can you tell your lady friend to please give us some privacy?"

"Oh it's ok, anything you say to me you can say to Rosita!"

"Good afternoon Mr. Stone." Rosita said in her sexy Russian accent.

"Excuse me Rosita I don’t mean to be rude, but can you leave my son and I alone please?" She went into Jeremy's bedroom.

"So what is so important that got my father to hop on a private jet all the way from Monaco to come visit his son?" He slams the newspaper on Jeremy's desk, as his son zips up his pants. "Damn, that is a great picture of me!"

"Why are you taking so lightly about this son? They stole the blueprints for the Rose Project!"

"Dad don’t worry I got it covered!" He walked over to the kitchen offering some coffee to his father, and walked over to his safe.

"What do you mean you have it covered? Those were our only copies, this project could give us millions and it just kills me that you aren't taking this seriously!" Jeremy opened his safe and took out a long velvet box which contained a necklace. He walked over to the desk and showed it to his father. "What is this, a late birthday present?"

"No, father. That is our answer to everything! Open it!" Jeremy's father opened the necklace which had a small heart with a picture of a good looking family.

"What am I looking at?"

"That my father was on the vigilantes neck, I grabbed it just before she jumped to the ground." He grabbed the remote from his couch and turned on his TV, which had a picture of a blonde, four-eyed, teenage girl. "Her name is Catherine Thorne! 17 years old, straight A student from Huntington High." His old father still looked confused. "I traced her name and found something very interesting." He clicked the remote and now the computer showed a picture of her birth and death certificate. "She died no less than three months ago." His father's eyes widened yet still didn’t know what this all meant. "Remember when we were robbed about three years ago by a vigilante like this one? Well I think they might have something in common. I've been researching this corporation called Artemis and I've always come to a dead end, but I think I am closing in…" He paused making sure his father was still paying attention. "But I think the only way to find out if I am right is if I go see her family. They live here in Chicago, not too far away." Suddenly Mr. Stone's phone rang, he answered it completely ignoring his sons hypothesis.

"Alright I'll be there soon… I have to go, someone hacked into our facility in Ibiza. Find whatever you can about this girl and Artemis, if you don't I will demote you from the corporation!" Jeremy looked stunned and upset at his father, but he knew that this was the only reaction he was going to get. With that his father left via helicopter on the rooftop without even saying goodbye or good work to his son. Jeremy packed everything he had on Catherine Thorne in a briefcase and left the office building.

He was now standing in a quiet suburb of Chicago, Illinois, it was a quaint little place, perfect to grow up in. The house was the best looking house in the suburb with freshly mowed lawns, bright colorful flowers surrounding the porch, and a swinging bench situated on the wrap-around porch. It was made from marble stone and had two huge windows, you could see the kitchen and living room through the window. Jeremy was extremely nervous because he had no idea what was going to happen and he did not want to be demoted from the corporation he built from the ground up. He tightened his tie and wiped any excess dirt from his perfectly tailored suit, and rang the doorbell. He stood there for a good two minutes until finally a young twenty year old male with long hair and a scar on his forehead near his left ear answered the door.

"Hello, who are you?"

"Hi, my name is Jeremy Stone and I was wondering is this the Thorne residence?" He looked really confused.

"Yes, I mean I know who you are but what are you doing here?"

"Well I was wondering if your sister Catherine is here? I had a little run in with her a couple of nights ago."

"That's impossible because my sister is dead." Jeremy knew he was in the right place. A beautiful forty something year old woman came to the front door concerned for her son. She had beautiful blonde hair and emerald green eyes, she was wearing a cream colored jump suit.

"Son who is it?"

"It's Jeremy Stone, he says he has had a run in with Catherine." They both looked at Jeremy like he was crazy, he probably was.

"The Morning After"

I woke up in an unfamiliar room startled from another bad dream; everything was around me, my heart was pounding, and I was drenched in sweat. As soon as I sat up my head started beating like a drum, all of these were symptoms of drinking too much alcohol but were enhanced from my dream. I had a dream of my mission only it had gone worse than it did before, I looked around to see where I was.

"Shit!" I whispered under my breath, because to the right of me was the ever so handsome Max lightly snoring away. I took off my blanket quietly noticing I was in my lingerie, I really hope that I didn’t sleep with Max. I honestly don't remember much of last night except for the failure of my mission. The last thing I remember well without spots was talking to Max about the mission, drinking horrible tasting whiskey. I tried getting out of bed in the hopes of not waking Max up. I put on my jeans and shirt keeping an eye on him, then just as I grabbed my shoes he said something.

"Where are you going?" He sat up rubbing his eyes.

"I was just going to my room."

"Without saying goodbye?" I didn't want to chit chat so I just asked him what I really wanted to know.

"Did we…"

"Did we what, sleep together?" I nodded shyly, even though I shouldn’t be that shy around Max. But really I was more scared and disappointed than shy. "No, we didn’t sleep together. You got really drunk and I took you here to talk, you slept on my shoulder and I slept shortly after."

"Then why am I in my lingerie?"

"I'd figure you wanted to be more comfortable than wearing a dress, so I took it off as well as your shoes. But then I forgot you didn't have clothes here." I should be mad at him for taking my clothes off, but I think I was too sick to be mad. Suddenly everything went blurred and I almost fainted, but he came right up to me and caught my fall. "Whoa, you alright there?"

"I guess I drank to my limit last night." He walked me over to the bed.

"You had a reason to."

"Did we talk to each other all night?" He nodded his head. "What about?"

"Well you were extremely upset and worried about the 'mistake' you made during the mission and continued to babble about how much you hated being here, wishing you were dead." He walked over to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee and started making breakfast.

"I did?" He nodded again.

"Yeah, but it's alright it was nice that you finally trusted me again. I didn't understand why, considering we were in a fight." He came back sitting at my side.

"In actuality you were the one person who I wanted to talk to after the meeting with Mr. V. I couldn't stand being with Margaret anymore because she kept telling me that everything was going to be alright, Henry didn't seem to care, and I just had a feeling Ben was going to be disappointed in me." I stared into his eyes, we were inches away from each other. "With you I knew you would be completely honest with me and not judge me."

"We all make mistakes Catherine, well except for me…" We both laughed. "You just have to learn to let it go and not bring you down." I leaned in to kiss him, but someone banged on his door just as we were about to make contact. It was Henry, the last person I wanted to see.

"Max there you are! Mr. V wants to see you." He saw me sitting on Max's bed. I could feel my face getting red only because he was probably thinking exactly what I was thinking when I woke up. "Oh Catherine, there you are also! Well this makes my job easier, he also wants to speak to you." I thought everything was good, that everything was cleared up, but obviously that wasn’t the case. Why would he want us both? Oh god could he have watched the tapes that Dr. Wells showed me? We all walked to The Office, I was still in the same dress as last night and felt like I was taking the walk of shame. It seemed like everybody was staring at Max and I, which was nothing new, except these eyes were more judging than anything. We sat at the chairs which I seemed to be sitting in a lot lately, Margaret and Ben came in from a kickboxing lesson. We all stared at each other wondering what this was possibly all about.

Chapter 6: The Rose Project

Mrs. Thorne looked stunned and incomprehensive at Jeremy Stone, how could any of this be true? She was there at the hospital when her daughter was pronounced dead in the emergency room. She was there when they buried her body six feet under the ground, she just couldn't believe that any of this could be true. Her son Cody who was in the accident with her sister looked as if he had seen a ghost. He didn’t remember much, but from everything he has heard it was impossible for Catherine to be alive.

"This is bullshit!"

"Cody!"

"No mother, how could you believe this guy? My sister is dead, I was there when it happened. I may not remember everything but it is impossible for her to be alive!"

"If it is so impossible then why did the DNA on this necklace match Catherine's so perfectly?" Mrs. Thorne looked at her son, he was at his boiling point.

"It just can’t be her!" He yelled, he got up and ran to his room.

"Sorry for my son's behavior. He has had a very difficult time dealing with my daughter's death. We all have, so I would appreciate if you could just leave us alone." Mrs. Thorne led Jeremy to the front door, but before she closed it he had one last thing to say.

"Mrs. Thorne I know what I am saying sounds absolutely crazy and coming from a guy like me it may be even crazier. But I went through the same thing you went through, losing someone so close to you is the most difficult thing in the world. But if I knew that there was even a possibility that they could be alive, I would do anything in my power to try and find them." Tears were welling up in her eyes and she had nothing to say anymore, so she closed the door right in his face.

I have seen Mr. V three times in the past two weeks, that is more than anyone who has ever been here longer than me. Many people were wondering why I was getting such special treatment, going to The Office multiple times. I would be too considering I have only been here for a couple of months and there are people who have been here for years who haven't even gone on their first mission. I was chosen to be a part of a huge project and screwed it up royally, so when I would be called to The Office it wasn't for a good thing. The past couple of weeks have been very hectic at Artemis, somehow Jeremy Stone found out about our corporation. What many people don't know is that it was my fault, it was my necklace that he found. Mr. V, Dr. Wells, and Ben have been trying to come up with a plan so that we wouldn't be driven out of business. Mr. V believed that if Jeremy Stone came to our facility he would take all of us and use us for research, treating us like lab rats. So the only reason I was called into his office was to figure out how we were going to handle things if that were to happen.

I have been extremely stressed out and needed some alone time, so I went to the yoga room late at night. Usually everybody was always there during the day to relax their mind and muscles. But I wanted to be alone so that I didn't have to talk to anyone, I needed peace and quiet. I used my identification card to swipe in. The yoga room was very bright and open, even at nighttime where no light would beam through the window it was still bright. There was a statue of the Buddha right front and center, he was surrounded by a flowing waterfall and jungle flowers. Just by the lockers there was a sound system, you could pick and choose a theme you wanted to be in. For instance you could be in the ocean hearing the crashing of waves, sea lions and whales calling to their mates. Not only could you hear everything the ocean had to offer but you could see it, you could smell the salty, briny sea.

I wanted to be in the jungle, the Amazon rainforest to be exact, a place that I always wanted to visit. Everything around me was a deep green and brown color, tall trees surrounding the walls. Immediately the room got very humid and hot, almost like the steam room. I heard and saw birds I didn't know the names to, various monkeys, and coyotes. I smelled fresh coffee plants and flowers. I sat in the middle of the yoga room, closing my eyes, breathing deeply. I was drenched in sweat but it felt so good, I was thinking of nothing.

I heard a sound that I shouldn’t have been able to here, it was the door opening. I didn’t make a move as the person sat right next to me. I opened my eyes and turned around, it was Max, he was extremely handsome. I didn’t know what it was but he was more beautiful than ever. Since I have been extremely busy I haven’t been able to see him that often. I honestly wanted to jump right on top of him and have sex with him, but I knew that was probably a bad idea.

"What are you doing here?"

"Maggie told me you would be here. I thought this would be the only place where we could talk?"

"What do you want to talk about?"

"It's been a while since we've talked last, I just wanted to see how you were doing." I loved it when he was sweaty, his perfectly sculptured muscles glistened in the light. His eyes shined bright like the misty blue sky.

"I'm fine."

"You can't be fine, I've heard from Henry that Mr. V has been extremely tough on you."

"He has a right to, I screwed up. I have no idea why I am even still alive." He looked concerned for me. I don't know why he is, I told him it was best that we should keep our distance from each other. But every time I am around him I can't control myself, it seemed like the heat made me extra horny.

"You shouldn't say that, you know you belong here. He obviously sees something great in you, just like Henry sees it, and Maggie…" He paused. "I see it too." I knew something was about to happen and in any other normal situation I would stop it. His lips touched mine and we kissed like it was the first time. I didn’t want it to stop, he grabbed my hair and pulled me down to the floor. I stared at him thinking that I should stop now, because if I didn’t I knew we would have sex. I continued to kiss him, he rubbed his hand on my breast and groped my butt. I took his shirt off and stared at his well groomed body. He flipped me over, I unbelted his pants and pulled them down, he took my yoga pants off. This time for some reason was way different than the first, it was more passionate and forceful. I don’t know if it was because we both wanted it and knew that we had done it before or if it was because we were both really horny. I didn’t care that we were doing it in a place where people could come barge in this room at any moment. Nothing else mattered as he came into me.

It was now morning, it was more bright than it was last night and I couldn’t believe what I just did. Max and I were in the middle of our room, only our bottoms covered by his shirt and jeans. I was laying next to him running my hand through his hair, waiting for him to wake up. He finally woke up and smiled at me, this was probably the happiest moment of my life and nothing could stop me now.

"Good morning." He said as he kissed me on the lips.

"Good morning."

"How long have you been up?"

"Not that long." He rubbed my back, we just continued to stare at each other. Suddenly someone swiped in the room and there wasn't enough time to cover ourselves. It was the last person who I wanted it to be, it was Ben.

"Catherine?" He was shocked, he should have a right to be considering I was probably the last person he would think to have sex with Max. My relationship with Ben was an interesting one. He reminded me of my brother, he was very protective of me but we got along extremely well. We had a lot in common and if I wasn't madly in love with Max I would probably be with Ben. The only problem was, is that trainers couldn’t be with inductees it was embedded in the Artemis law. "Put your clothes on, Mr. V wants to see you. I'll wait outside." He was definitely disappointed and I was embarrassed. I put my clothes on just after Max, he left the room first. I walked outside as Ben guarded the door, just as I was about to say something he began to walk ahead of me. He was clearly upset.

"Ben, Ben… Ben? Why are you walking so fast, please talk to me!" Before he could answer we were stopped. A group of about ten extremely tall and muscular men came marching through the hallways. They looked like body builders wearing military clothing, they reminded me so much of the men in the army. I knew how the men in the army should look like because for a while my brother wanted to join the army. He hung out with a lot of guys from the military; they were nothing special, grotesque, disrespectful towards woman, and cocky. I looked over at Ben and he looked just as stunned as I was. Who could these people be, they were definitely not a part of Artemis. We watched them walk past us until they turned a corner, they were headed towards The Office. Ben continued to walk in the opposite direction, he was a few feet ahead of me before I noticed. "Ben can you please just say something, where are you taking me?"

"I'm taking you to the clinic."

"The clinic, why?"

"Why do you think?" There were only two reasons why people would ever to the clinic; either people were injured or they needed injections. I wasn't injured so I was obviously getting injections, but why? Was I going on another mission? I thought I was off missions for a while.

"Can we please talk about what just happened?" He didn’t answer and just continued to walk. We finally reached the clinic and what only took three minutes seemed like hours.

"She's here Dr. Wells, I'll wait outside when you are finished." I went inside the suture room noticing Henry and Margaret. "Henry, Margaret, you are getting injections as well?" Henry buttoned his last button on his blue cotton short-sleeve shirt.

"Yeah our trainers brought us here after our sessions. Where did you just come from? Ben was wondering where you were, he was worried that you missed training." Margaret asked.

"I was in the yoga room." Dr. Wells came in, she looked really angry.

"Alright you two can leave now." With that Henry and Margaret left noticing Dr. Wells' abruptness. She cleaned my shoulder and gave me the first shot which didn't hurt at all. Then she cleaned my other arm and stabbed the needle right in my shoulder.

"Ow! What the hell?"

"Didn't I tell you that Max was one of my patients? That I watch him all the time?"

"Yes, what does that have to do with anything?"

"You can't be serious can you? Do you want me to show you your little encounter with him last night?" I shook my head. "I honestly thought you were smarter than that Catherine."

"What? You and Ben are being absolutely ridiculous today. Everybody should know by now that I am in love with Max."

"Well Ben didn't." I was confused as to why Ben would be so angry. He couldn't possibly have the same feelings that I had for him. He was such a rock, he never showed any emotions towards anyone, especially me. Even if he did like me nothing could ever possibly happen between us. Even he knew that.

"What does Ben have to do with anything?" Dr. Wells crossed her arms and stared me down. She looked at me like I was being absolutely ridiculous.

"Why don't you ask him yourself." I walked outside so confused with what happened. I stood in front of Ben waiting for him to put the blindfolds on me. For some reason Mr. V didn't trust anyone and even though I went on a mission, I still couldn't know where The Office was located.

Ben walked me into The Office, taking the blindfolds off of me. Mr. V was sitting at his desk with his right leg on top of his left, elbows on his thighs, and head resting on his crossed hands. He was listening intently to someone sitting in front of him surrounded by the army men. All of this seemed so strange, I didn’t know how to handle everything. Mr. V looked straight at me, suddenly the mystery man stood up and he wasn't so mysterious anymore. It was Jeremy Stone, he seemed to recognize me and just as he left the room with his guards Margaret came in The Office with Henry, blindfolded. Jeremy recognized her right away but didn't seem to be sketched out. Once the last guard left the room, Henry and Maggie's trainers took their blindfolds off.

"Please sit you three!" Mr. V didn't look so happy.

"Was that Jeremy Stone?" We all sat at our chairs. "What was he doing here? I didn't know people knew about this place."

"He didn't, not until he acquired your necklace." I felt a hint of disappointment as he said that.

"What was he doing here? How did he find us?" Henry asked curious as I was.

"He wants to work with us, usually I would be opposed to this but he had a very tempting proposal." No one spoke as Mr. V continued. "Jeremy Stone's father has this plan called the Rose Project only nothing is going to be blossoming like a beautiful flower from this plan." He poured some water for us and whiskey for himself. "This plan he is trying to induct will change mankind forever." He didn’t really explain what the project was, except that it would destroy every natural system on Earth making Earth an industrial giant. Jeremy doesn't want this to happen because it would be in his name. He offered to work with us because he knew all about us just from my necklace. He realized the masked girl was me and that I was a species of another planet, so he wants to work with us to stop his father. Mr. V explained the plan to us, we were basically going to sneak around and figure out what his father's project was going to entail. He wanted us to find a stopping point, so the next couple of weeks we were going to train and research. We were released, but Mr. V still wanted to talk to me. "Catherine please stay, I need to speak with you." Ben looked skeptical at Mr. V but left us alone.

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing is the matter? How do you feel about all of this?"

"I think it's a little strange, especially since an outsider has never walked these halls before."

"The Stone's have been on our tails for the past couple of years I knew they were going to drop in eventually. I just didn’t think Jeremy would ever want to work with us because we have been stealing from him for years now."

"So is there anything else you wanted to tell me?"

"Yes, Jeremy seems to be infatuated with you for some reason." Great someone else who finds me interesting. Back home I never got this much attention from boys, ever. "I want you to work with him closely. Find out what he really wants, get the gritty details."

"Don't you think Margaret would be better at that, than me?"

"Possibly, but he isn't interested in Margaret." With that he let me go, it didn't really leave me with anything so I just went on with it. I went back to the room and called Max's room, I really wanted to talk to him. He didn’t pick up.

Chapter 7: The Shot Heard Around the World

"A Good Day for Love to Die"

The past couple of weeks I have been training for The Rose Mission with Henry, Ben, and Margaret. There was a lot to cover so I haven't had time to talk to Max, but it was ok because he was training for a different mission as well. Things between Ben and I have been extremely awkward and tense from our last encounter. We haven't really talked about what he ran into and I honestly didn’t want to be the first one to bring it up. I just got back from a scenario training session and needed to take a shower. I saw a note just at the side of my door, it was from Max.

Dear Cat,

I know it has been a while since we last spoke, but I wanted you to know what happened in the yoga room meant a lot to me. I wanted to tell you that it might be a while before you next see me as I am going on a level black mission. As you know if I pass level black I will become a trainer which is something I have been looking forward to become for a long time. But what you also might know is that these missions are extremely dangerous, so I just thought I should tell you that I love you. I loved you from the first time we met and I will love you until the day I die.

Love,

Max Richards.

As I was reading this letter I couldn't believe what Max was telling me. He told me he loved me, but I didn’t know if that was because he could possibly be dead at any moment or that those were his real feelings. All I could do was hope that he passed level black and that he would return safe and sound. I had just gotten out of the shower and changed into my pajamas, today had been a long day of training and I just wanted to relax. So I opened up a book, The Great Gatsby, we only had a small selection of books and this was the only one that I would want to read more than once. It was very difficult to concentrate on this book because all I could think about was Max. I put my book down to figure out who I would want to talk to about this, there was a long list but no one was the perfect fit.

I could talk to Maggie, but she doesn’t really understand why I am still with Max after he hurt me. There was Henry but he honestly doesn't have any clue about Max and I or anything that's been going on the past couple of months. He is so infatuated with Maggie and trying to figure out why Jeremy Stone wanted our help. Lucy was an option but she would probably just be sitting on her bed painting her nails and thinking about the next boy she wanted to hook up with. So the last person I could think of was Ben, the only thing about Ben was that we haven't really talked since my encounter with Max. So basically there was really no one to talk to, it was best if I just slept it off.

"Level Black"

My name is Max Richards, I am one of the originals at Artemis and I am now training to become an official trainer. This has been my dream ever since I was reborn into a new person. I have super human strength, crazy martial arts skills, and super speed. I'm basically a modern day Superman only much better looking and never will you ever see me in blue tights and a red cape. The only thing about me is that being an original my creator was still mixing up the perfect cocktail and added some substances that shouldn't be together. Making me have heightened emotions, meaning I am a very emotional guy filled with rage, sadness, and love times 100.

Love, a feeling that I never thought I would ever have. Sure there have been plenty of girls who I have been with, but there is only one girl who I ever thought about saying those three words that every girl wants to hear. Her name is Catherine Thorne, she is our newest recruit and has even beaten me in battle which has never happened ever before. She is the most beautiful girl I have ever met, we have had amazing sex on multiple occasions and every time is different with her. Growing more passionate each time, but that doesn’t mean I haven't screwed things up before. With my crazy uncontrollable emotions I got extremely jealous because I thought she had feelings for her trainer, Ben. I ended up sleeping with Georgina without even thinking of how it would affect Catherine and I regretted it ever since, but we eventually worked through it.

Catherine is the one girl I could see myself having a future with, if that were even possible because of our occupation of sorts. I told her I loved her, but in a letter because I am at a Level Black Training facility. Being here means that I am a part of the elite of the Artemis subjects and I have finally proven to Mr. V that I can be a trainer. If I pass I can be what Ben is to Catherine, I can go on all the missions I want knowing where they are, and I can have time away from this hell hole as a new person. The only problem is, that this training is designed to test you at your worst and not a lot of us have made it out alive. So, I wrote a letter to Catherine explaining all of that because I didn't have the confidence to tell her in person that I might die.

So far I have completed all of my training at exceedingly high levels, there was just one more test. All of these modules have tested me at my worst fears; from almost being attacked by a clan of wolves, to falling to my depths in the deepest part of the ocean. I couldn't imagine what was going to come next, all I could think about was that if I pass this last level I would be with Catherine again.

"The Snow"

I was running through the snow with my hands black and frost bitten, my snot turning to ice every time it dripped to surface. I absolutely hated the snow and knew Artemis was testing me. I feared snow because that is where I died the first time. I was on a backpacking trip in Alaska with my buddies during the coldest time of year, we went ice fishing and I fell through thin ice not able to come back to surface since the water froze instantly. This test was reminding me of that dreadful moment in my life making it hard to complete the task, because I kept having flashbacks of not being able to breathe. The only thing getting me through was thinking about Catherine and how much better my life was going to get. Suddenly I was at a crossroads, I didn’t know what to do because I always had difficulty making the right decision. I went right because Catherine was right-handed. The only thing ahead of me was a long road of cars speeding through, then suddenly a loud bang.

"He's Back"

It has been weeks since I last heard from Max, I was beginning to get worried asking everybody who I knew where he could possibly be. No one would say anything because everything has been all about The Rose Project. Jeremy has been here multiple times going over the situation with Mr. V and I. I headed back to my room after a long day of going over the details over and over again. Just as I got out of the shower I heard a knock on the door, the last thing I wanted to do was speak to anyone. It was Ben, of course, our relationship has been weary since our last encounter I couldn’t begin to think about what he wanted to talk about.

"You should come to the clinic right away!" That was all he said. He led me to the clinic and I saw Max's unconscious body lying there breathless and limp on the surgical table. He was hooked up to many wires, blood everywhere. I couldn’t believe what I was watching, and before I could run in there to be at his side Dr. Wells closed the blinds. I didn’t know what to think, all I could do was be hopeful that Dr. Wells was going to do her job and save his life. She was in there for a long time, I had been pacing back and forth for about an hour trying to block the noises coming from that room. Suddenly there was nothing, Dr. Wells came out of the room looking very disappointed. Everything around me moved in slow motion, I couldn't even hear her as she said the worst words a girl could hear. That the man you loved was dead. Henry and Margaret were in the room, Maggie sobbed as Dr. Wells explained what happened, Henry just stared blankly at her, Ben just looked at me.

"Where the hell was he!" I turned around pounding my fist in Ben's chest. "Where was he!" Once again no one was answering. "This isn't supposed to happen!" I turned around in circles grabbing my forehead feeling dizzy and nauseas. "He can't be dead!" With that I used my super speed and ran to the only person who I think would be able to answer my questions. There was a lone cabin past the barrier and that was where I thought Mr. V lived. I made it past the guards without them even noticing. I pounded on the cabin furiously hoping somebody, somebody would just answer me. Finally Mr. V appeared looking very down and just as sad I was feeling. He moved out of the way for me to come inside. As much as I wanted to know the answer to why this happened, I wasn't sure if I would like result.

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