The Only Way Out

The New! Point of no Return

Chapter 1

Specialist Titanium stared at the incoming helicopter. It had been five years since the mark on her past that kept haunting her. The mark that never went away. It kept biting her in the ass.

But she was trying to carry on. She had a respectable career now-well, if not respectable, it was definately badass. She was Specialist Titanium- or "Agent 22". It was just an ID number-she was one of the first to join the project.

Nobody here knew her past-and Ty planned to keep it that way.

Her armor was a light steel blue color, and she almost never took off her helmet.

But today was an exception. New recruits had shown up- and you only need to show them your face once.

Her blonde hair was cut haphazardly, almost as if someone had taken a chainsaw to it. It was short and never tidy. Her eyes were grey, which were already piercing, but with her armor, nobody could stand to look her in the eye without trembling in fear. Well, unless they were a specialist like herself.

Her skin was a fair color, but years in the Special Tasks Actions Group: ELEMENT (or STAGE) and previous servitude in the military had taken it's toll on Ty. Her face was a massacre of scars, which were both intimidating and attractive. Three went over her right eye, one was diagonal from the right temple across the nose to her left jawline, a spiderweb of cuts were on her left cheek, and one gash made itself noticeable, across her forehead.

Titanium made herself look like she was paying attention when her partner, Specialist Xenon (Agent 54) moved to stand next to her.

***

Specialist Xenon had no interest in being here. He knew his partner Titanium didn't want to meet the new agents either, because more than most of them were going to fail the training anyway. Five or six would succeed out of the thirty that were there, and that was if they were lucky. Sometimes nobody passed, other times there was only one. His partner, Specialist Titanium, was part of a class where she was the last one standing.

Nobody at STAGE really understood why he was who he was-even Titanium didn't know the full story-and he wanted to keep it that way.

He had tan skin and light chocolate hair. His armor was a rusty orange color and black, but today he wasn't wearing it. He was wearing a black tank top and grey shorts that went to his knees. He had tattoos on the back of his neck and down his back, mostly stripes to hide scars from who he used to be.

Ty wasn't the only one with scars, either. Xee had one that streched across his nose and spider webbed on his cheeks. Usually he used makeup that STAGE provided to hide the scar. Unlike Titianium, he wasn't proud of it.

Agent 54 stood next to his partner, who was pretending to pay attention. He couldn't help but stare every time he saw her. He had been a part of STAGE before even her, and he could remember when she was recruited. It was his second year, and he was instructing for the first time. Then she walked in. It was before she had three scars over her eye and the one crossed across her face, and then she beat the shit out of all the initiates there-and challenged him.

He accepted, and that was more of a challenge. He hadn't fought with someone that talented in a while. He hadn't been beaten in a challenge in a while.

Needless to say, she passed training early, and became one of the most respected Specialists there.

Now it was Xee's seventh year. Ty's fifth. They were nearly inseperable, close friends, even though they knew nothing about each other's past.