A/N: If your background isn't set like this already, I suggest everyone reading this on a phone to turn their background to It helps with the reading experience ^^ - Minna

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"Loosen your grip, you're squeezing the life out of your sniping gun," My voice, amplified by a microphone, informed the group before me whose hold kept slipping and sliding in and out of position because their palms were sweating. Everyone was practicing with an actual sniping rifle for today's exclusive lesson, normally they'd still have to go a long ways until the R.U. Head director would even allow them contact with such a big weapon.

"Anne," came a boy's voice from behind. I turned around to find Sammy trying to help a struggling Diana. He gave me a side-smile and motioned for me to come over. I came up to his group in a couple of long strides. Observing Diana, I detect she was struggling with steadying and accurately aiming her gun.

"I can't seem to hit my target," Diana told me in a defeated tone, a bit dazed at herself, "m'am."

My eyes traced the path her bullet would've gone based on how her gun was set up currently, and found that she, and surely a lot of other students to come, had made one big mistake that beginning snipers tend to make.

"You need to find your own position after setting up your gun," I began, taking the sniping gun from her, "That's the basics, Greenwood. You seem to lack a bit in that area." Ignoring her look of regret from last night, I presented myself as volunteer and called for Clarissa to blast the directions for a one-on-one visual demonstration.

"GATHER UP AND OBSERVE YOUR INSTRUCTOR," she declared, getting the students' attention immediately. This was what they signed up for, anyway.

I brought the weapon in a far range from the students, always taking in the precaution that sniping bullets could easily pierce a bullet-proof suit. It was probably safe not to trust their lives in my hands anyway. I wasn't an angel. They should be okay at the least, however. For training we used light bullets, not nearly as impactful or lethal as the ones I carried around for missions.

Inhaling slowly, I lowered my body and presumed Prone position.

"Prone," Clarissa started the briefing to today's lesson, "Your most accurate field position for 'sniping.' Observe that her legs are not newly pulled out chopsticks running parallel to each other. Her body takes up a Y position. This absorbs the recoil and gives her better accuracy when taking up a shot. The rifle is inline with her body to make that possible. What's one thing that catches your attention?"

"Adler," she pointed Sammy out.

Sammy observed me and replied, "She's calm. For handling such a big weapon and knowing the pressure should be weighing her and someone's fate down, she's surprisingly calm." He ends almost with a smirkingly proud tone, yet staying modest.

Bingo Sam-my-man.

"Precisely," Clarissa clapped loudly, "Why?"

"Cause she's not scared?" The kid I dealt with from before broke in, still salty about what happened.

"Because she's maintaining her breathing," Diana gave her answer, and the correct one at it.

Clarissa nodded, gesturing back to my form, "Her breathing heavily affects her shot. Everyone needs to find their own rhythm and-"

"What the hell..." Clarissa muttered for a moment before realizing the lockdown alarm of our headquarters was blaring through the intercoms all of a sudden. All the students quieted themselves down from inside the training area and glanced around at each other, brows furrowing in domino effect. Some had already taken up fighting stances while others had their hands hovering over the hand guns in their back pocket.

I felt the vibrations while still laying on the ground, and my breath hitched at the ancient sound I thought I'd never hear again. The room immediately transitioned to a sickening dark red as the alarm light was the only source of illumination for us.

"Lockdown," I dusted myself off with ease as I hopped up off the ground and turned to Clarissa with a frown plastered on my face, "But... why?"

My earpiece buzzed like an insect feeding on food and I had to clench my jaw together to withstand the amount of noise I was hearing both inside the training area and the little device placed securely inside my left ear.

"-$$:&;@2&1&!.'a!"

I cursed under my breath as Clarissa called order among the students, who were already at peace with the situation, or at least seemed like it.

The alarm seemed to be the sole cause of my deaf ears. Its menacing, pulsating, rhythmic buzz and blare screeches like a chicken giving birth, threatening to rip my sense of patience and self-control with every passing second I lived on from this moment.

"Children," I unconsciously let slip a hint of a growl to the kids, "Duck."

I ripped out my own hand gun and blasted a deafening shot at the alarm bell, shortly after hearing the shattering of glass shards that rained down and smashed against the ground. The kids had bullet-proof vests on and all of them understood how to avoid falling objects from prior basic training, they should be fine.

Did I mention it was pitch-black right now. The only sounds were of the faint alarm bells of other training classes closer to the R.U. building. We were the furthest from the headquarter's physical location. Clarissa and the students used their phones to turn on their flashlights temporarily. I met eyes with the confused kids, even Clarissa seemed to be concerned. Which she should. We've only ever had drills of lockdowns. An unannounced drill, was not a drill.

While everyone accessed the situation the best they could and waited for the instructors to start informing them on what to do next, I connected my earpiece to the intercom of the large room so that I could hear the orders assigned to me.

"Bullet 00, Agent W."

The intercom blared through the tense silence and made everyone, including myself, to hold their breaths. The group started whispering to each other in front of me upon hearing a nonexistent rule.

"There's no such thing," a short, pony-tailed girl said to her guy friend. The boy reverted to looking at me for answers.

"Bullet 00?" the kid I battled with earlier questioned out loud, "That's not even in the rulebook?"

"Anne, what's going on-"

"Sir, with all due respect," I spoke up and silenced the room, "I'm teaching a class."

"Report to the main floor, now."

I clenched my teeth and cracked my tired neck with a gradual head-tilt to the side, "Agent W... reporting for duty."

Sammy made eye contact with me as I checked my guns and loaded them with new bullets. I busied myself afterwards with supplying myself with a back-up gun just in case.

"I'm counting on you Clarissa," I said as I checked my primary handgun and placed it securely in my back pocket. The woman nodded at me and patted my shoulders in understanding.

Sammy reached out his hand and grabbed my forearm as I made a swift turn towards the door. When I turned and frowned at the boy, he still didn't let go and said, "You're... leaving again?"

"Yeah, bud," I quickly flashed him a side smile, "See you soon."

As I ran briskly away, the pounding rhythm that my ears picked up grew louder each second in my chest than on land. I fidgeted with my earpiece once I was well down the halls to connect to other agents. However, I could still hear Sammy's faint voice from back at the training area.

"Liar." he would say.

My chest tightened uncomfortably and I swallowed the lump that formed for a split second.

"Jay," I connected to my team leader's earpiece from wherever he was in the R.U., "What's going on? Who's here?" The blazing noise rang in the background like a school alarm eager to wake up its person.

There was a connection buzz and I took out my gun again just in case I ran into someone unwelcomed at the R.U. on my way to the main hall.

"We're figuring that out," Jay's voice came in short responses as he too was running errands and loading his gun, "But we know one thing."

"What is it?" I asked him as I turned on my heels and emerged into the main hall, where other agents were summoned and had come together. They all turned to acknowledge me in surprise, and then there was silence beyond silence, but everyone greeted each other briefly with nods. Jay responded shortly after with the answer to my pending question.

"They're looking for you."

A single shot rang through the headquarters.

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