Unmasked

Chapter Four

When Nikki entered the building, she was a bit surprised at what she saw inside.

Nothing but white walls and flooring.

"So this is your "Hideout", huh?" Nikki raised a brow, unimpressed.

Tori smirked at Nikki. "C'mere." She pulled her arm to the corner of the building, clearly eager to show her something.

Cole walked towards the corner slowly, with a stern look on his face.

Tori snapped her fingers and in the corner of the floor, a door appeared.

Nikki widened her eyes. "Holy sh-"

Cole clamped his hand over Nikki's mouth. "Hush, we have a child here at the moment."

"I'm fourteen! A teenager, not a child!" Tori's eyes turned black, but faded back to normal almost immediately.

Tori sighed. "Anyway...." She opened the floor door. "Welcome..." She led them down a flight of stairs and showed Nikki the room below. "To the Hideout." She said, grinning with pride.

The Hideout was a huge room, even bigger than the one above, with so much stuff, it was hard for Nikki to comprehend.

In the back of the room, there was a comfy looking lounge to sit on a large couch and watch on a flat screen TV. On her left, Nikki saw a kitchen, with a fridge, an oven, a microwave, and a lot of cabinets and counters. Near the right side of the room, multiple bunk beds were set up close to each other, each looking pretty fancy in Nikki's eyes, but then again, she lived in an RV for fifteen years. In the corner of the room, a large blue mat was set, and there were things to fight with in that area. On the side of the mat, there was a large shelf filled with almost every type of weapon there was. Dummies and other supplies were set up next to the shelf. There was a small seperate room in the other corner, but there was a closed door hiding what could be inside. Everything seemed so modern and cool. Nikki couldn't believe her eyes.

"Holy..." She glanced at Tori. "...Crap."

Tori laughed. "Awesome, isn't it?"

Nikki slowly nodded and gulped. "Amazing."

"Ah, you're back." An unfamiliar voice spoke out from behind them.

Nikki, Cole, and Tori turned around and saw a tall boy who looked to be about seventeen. He had dark brown hair that was matted down to his head. His eyes seemed to be brown, though Nikki couldn't quite make out the exact color. He wore a dark blue hoodie with black jeans and white Nike's sneakers.

"Hello Nathan." Cole and Tori said together, Tori's greeting sounding more upbeat and happy.

"Hey." Nathan's eyes averted from them to Nikki. "Oh, and you got her?"

Tori nodded wildly. "Yep!"

"That's good. A new member to the team." Another voice said from behind Nathan. A girl appeared next to Nathan, and she looked to be about sixteen. She had long, dirty blonde hair, and deep brown chocolate eyes. She wore a white fuzzy sweater and black skinny jeans with black boots to match.

"Hi Gianna." Tori smiled.

"Hey kiddo." Gianna chuckled.

"I'm not a kid..." Tori glared.

"I suppose we should probably talk to Nikki about all this, huh?" Nathan blurted out obviously.

"Yeah. I would kinda like to know." Nikki crossed her arms.

"Well, let's just say you're special. One of us." Gianna said.

"One of you?" Nikki tilted her head.

"Long ago, there was one kingdom. It was a peaceful time. All the tribes were living together happily. The shadow tribe, the light tribe, the fire tribe, and the water tribe. Until one day, the shadow tribe turned on the other tribes. They attacked the others, in search for more power and authority. Eventually, they lost, and all of the tribes turned on each other, paranoid that the others would betray them. We're just a few of the many people left in those tribes." Tori explained. "I'm from the water tribe. And so is Nathan. He's kinda my step-brother."

Nathan nodded. "Gianna's in the light tribe, and Cole is in the shadow tribe."

"Woah... So you can like, control water, light, and shadows?" Nikki asked, puzzled.

"Yes." Cole spoke out. "But it is much more than merely 'controlling'" He said with a slight smirk. "Our genes are created to fit our tribe's behavior, attitude, and personality."

"What tribe do I come from?" Nikki impatiently blurted out.

"We don't exactly know," Gianna confessed, "but we discovered a strong essence of one of the tribes coming from where you lived. Your parents most likely died in the war there was between the tribes around fourteen years ago."

Nikki stared at Gianna in awe. "But my mother is alive. And my dad's in the army."

"Fake parents that were assigned to you after your real parents died. We all had 'em." Nathan informed her.

"No... No, my mom is my real mom! I know that!" Nikki protested.

"Sorry, hon, but she's not." Gianna frowned.

Nikki stared at the floor. "I can't believe that." She whispered.

"Hey, don't worry. You'll be with us from now on. Your mother probably knows that we have you. She agreed to take care of you when you were a baby until you were old enough to train." Nathan patted Nikki on the shoulder. "Now, we'd better start."

Nikki looked at Nathan. "Start what?"

Nathan grinned. "Training. Part 1."