Now, at the center of Megapolis, there’s a bar called ‘The Pinktail’. In a hidden office located inside the bar, a woman was sitting down, drinking coffee. By her appearance, she looked like she was in her late twenties. She was wearing a tight-fitting blue dress, and she had a purple flower in her black hair. On her desk, there was a stack of files arranged in a neat order, along with a six-tier file organizer. As she looked at the number of files arranged in the file organizer, she sighed deeply. It seemed as though there was always a lot of work for her these days.

She picked up a blue folder labelled ‘recruitment’ in bold, red capital letters. Inside the folder, there were profiles, arranged in order of importance, with most important being at the top and least at the bottom.

After going through the first profile, she took a sip of coffee. ‘Bad temper, pride, lack of self control! It doesn’t seem like anything has changed at all! These new recruits are all trash!’ she thought, as she threw down the profile she had gone through. She picked up the phone and made a phone call. After yelling on the phone for a couple of minutes, she put the receiver down and went back to reading the profiles.

There was a knock on the door, and without waiting for her to answer, the person opened the door and let themselves in.

She grumbled, and was about to yell when a soft voice spoke, “Nightingale, long time no see.”

The owner of the voice was a middle-aged woman. She wore an elegant green dress with designs of a phoenix, and her hair was black with green extensions.

“Viola?” responded the woman, with a look of surprise on her face.

“I see you’re still busying yourself as always. How have you been?” replied Viola.

“I have been well. I wasn’t expecting you. What are you doing here?”

“Can’t I visit an old friend?”

“Not like this, no! You should’ve told me you’re coming, so I--”

“Oh nonsense! Don’t get yourself too worked up, I’m simply passing through.”

“A mission?”

“Yes, something quite interesting.”

“What is it?”

“You know I can’t tell you the details.”

Nightingale sighed. She complained, “Ever since I took over from Aliyah, all my friends have been treating me differently. First it was Rose, and then Cecilia, and now you!”

“How is Rose by the way? I haven’t seen her since her last mission”, asked Viola with a look of concern, while dodging Nightingale’s complaint.

“I haven’t been in touch with her for some time now. Please sit down, don’t continue to stand there”, replied Nightingale, as she motioned her friend to sit.

Viola sat down, and then looked at the stack of files arranged on her friend’s desk.

“I’m not disturbing, am I?”

“You’re asking now?” Nightingale giggled and then continued, “Don’t worry. It’s just some recruitment stuff. So what’s the reason you decided to ‘pass through’ this place?”

“Can’t I just come and see a friend?”

“You can, but the question is why now?”

“It seems you don’t know”, spoke Viola with a soft sigh.

“Wait, don’t tell me the rumors of your retirement are true?” asked Nightingale with disbelief.

“I guess nothing escapes your ears”, replied Viola with a slight giggle. She continued, “It’s been quite a long time now. After this mission, I’ll be going off the radar completely.”

“Will this be alright? Sky Haven has always been your home.”

“I guess it’s time I find another home. Unlike you, I’m no longer young and free. I need to experience other aspects of life.”

“I wouldn’t say free per se, but I get your point. So what will you do?”

“That’s classified”, laughed Viola. She then continued, “Don’t worry about this Nightingale. Just look after the young ones. Look after Rose, Clarissa and even the new recruits. Speaking of which, how is the recruitment process coming along?” As she asked this question, she reached over to touch the stack of files.

Nightingale reached over and obstructed her. She spoke, “The recruitment process has always been a nightmare. I’m sure you know protocol, Viola. I’m sorry but for this time, I can’t bend the rules for you.”

“I understand”, she said, standing up.

“You’re leaving?”

“I had just come to say hi. It seems I have overstayed my welcome.”

Nightingale sighed. “Come on Viola. What’s really wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong. Like I said, I had just come to say hie. It’s time I leave. Take care of yourself”, said Viola, as she hurriedly left.

‘Well, that was awkward. What was that all about?’ thought Nightingale, after Viola left. ‘Time to go back to work. This recruitment process is a waste of time! I have told the grand elder time and time again, that the best way to recruit people was to target kids, not these grown ups! I guess Sky Haven has fallen under hard times.’ She sighed.

Opening another profile, she sipped another cup of coffee, which was getting cold. As she looked at the profile, she was a bit distracted, so she didn’t pay much attention to it. In her mind, she was still trying to process what had just happened with Viola. They had been friends for some time now. Was it that some part of her had changed? Or was it because of her position as High Assassin?

She pulled herself from her daze, and forced herself to concentrate on the profile in her hands. After taking another sip, she started by reading the name ‘Arthur Firn’, which sounded not just funny, but familiar as well.

Nightingale scratched her head, as she tried to recall where she had heard this name before. She decided to give up thinking, and continued looking at the qualities of this Arthur character. The best qualities about the character were speed, strength and resourcefulness. The person’s only non-redeeming quality was lack of awareness of their surroundings.

As she read this, she scoffed in her heart. ‘How does one become an assassin if they aren’t aware of their surroundings? This person won’t even last a minute without getting killed!’

She took another sip of coffee, and then moved over to the next section, which had crystal clear images of the potential recruit.

Pffft!

As she saw the image, she almost cried out, as she spat all the coffee out. She went through the images, and after confirming what she had seen, she shouted, “Blue Rose, I’m going to kill you!”

**********

Ryan woke up with a splitting headache. Last he remembered, he was in a room and then … ‘Damn it! Sleeping gas? Can’t they be more considerate? This is a bit different from what Rose said.’ He focused, as he tried to discover his surroundings. The darkness didn’t help at all. He took out his phone, only to realize there was no signal.

‘No GPS huh? Oh well, this part she hit the mark. Now I need to fin--’ before he finished with this thought, his train was crashed as he bumped into someone, rather, someone bumped into him.

“Hey! Watch it!” came an annoyed voice. The owner of the voice proceeded to light the flashlight of their phone and pointed it at Ryan. After seeing Ryan’s face, the person yelled, “You again?! Last time I didn’t manage to teach you a lesson, but with no one to stop me, I’m going to --”

“You’re going to what?” asked a female voice, coming from behind the person. The person immediately fell silent before the female voice continued, “We need to find our way out. There’s no GPS so we cannot tell where we are currently. No one knows if there are any wild animals in this forest. Therefore, we need to work together, not against each other!”

‘If this was a speech competition, she would have won an award’, thought Ryan, and then he proceeded to chuckle.

“What’s so funny?” asked the male person who had antagonized Ryan earlier.

Ryan thought he was trying to score points with the female, so he ignored him, much to the annoyance of the male person.

“ENOUGH!” yelled the female, causing the guy to back off. She continued, “As for you, what’s with your attitude? Think you can survive alone?”

“Thank you for the concern, but I can do just fine on my own. Good luck on your quest though”, responded Ryan, walking away. The girl frowned, which wasn’t visible in the darkness.

“Don’t waste your strength on him! We have to find the other two”, said the guy, as he turned to walk in the opposite direction.

Ryan walked for some time, without thinking about where he was going. He had walked away on impulse, thinking he was being cool. Now he regretted that decision, well, part of it. He stopped moving, and then turned on the flashlight on his phone. ‘Now, according to Rose, there should be a clue for the real mission. Those idiots will probably walk around looking for a way out, while missing the real purpose of this … eh … mission.’ he thought.

There was a sudden flash of inspiration. Well, technically, someone flashed a light in his direction, causing him to have a eureka moment. He walked back to the direction he had left from, and as he arrived at the place he was, he realized the others had left. With a slight grin, he walked towards one of the trees and after analyzing it under the light of his phone, he pulled out a scroll from what a hole put in the tree. The scroll was tied together by a red ribbon.