I rose at 6:00, which was a bit too early for Adrianus, who simply rolled over and fell back to sleep, signaling that I could leave. I had a shower, and as a steaming water rolled gently over me, I realized I hadn't noticed a scratch I had been given by the roof tiles. I scrubbed it as much as I dared, making not to avoid it at all costs.

When I was finished, I got back and put on one of my black polyester shirts, which I partnered with black pants after checking the weather. I then added my red flats, which fitted me perfectly, which was a bit disconcerting. I then put on my trench coat, and finally added all 30 of my knives into the various hidden pockets, many of which I was still discovering when I arrived outside at 7:59, where all of the group were already waiting. We headed off towards town, not taking the cars or anything like that, we were spending as much time looking at the neighbourhood. The green gardens sparkled with the beautiful morning dew, the trees that spanned out over our heads gave great shade from what would be a scorching hot day, making me want to just stay here for a while, underneath a maple tree, letting the tree shield me from the rest of the world.

We slowly made our way closer and closer to the actual city, soon we had left suburbia behind and were entered the shopping district. We headed into the first store that the girls pointed at, which was a hairdresser store. I was sat down in front a mirror and was given a completely new look, which was beautiful if I looked at hair more carefully. We continued to wander through, stopping for various things, which I was glad was not just for me, with everyone getting something or other during our trip.

I was now carrying three bags full of clothes and other accessories, which everyone else had said I needed, well, the girls said so and the guys automatically joined in the cause.

By the end of the first hour I was so tired of trying on different clothes and buying them. The girls directed us to a food court, where we stole about 1,000 dollars and went back to shopping, even though there was almost nothing more to do, the girls seemed to have this idea drilled into their heads that they needed to shop more and more, no matter how many times I brought up the idea of leaving. By 12:00 I was not only tired, I was also bored. I had bought another set of shirts, day coordinated underwear and socks, I had bought more pants and shorts, and even had a black and red tuxedo in case I ever required one. I started to suggest moving out, or at least to the food, and Sling suddenly picked up on it, ushering us towards the food court, where we all sat down and ordered whatever we felt like, which wasn't a lot, but enough to make you feel tired.

When the meals came, Katana, Glaive, Loch and Rapier all flashed her smiles that almost made her faint. We got a freebie on lunch because of it, even if the girls were skeptical about the entire thing.

When we had finished lunch, the girls finally agreed that it was time to head home, and so navigated us out if the mall, and we all walked home, looking at the amazing trees that had seemed so peaceful this morning, being chopped at and thrown around the wind, which had picked up and was being carried all throughout town.

When we got home the first thing I did was take my stuff upstairs and pack away all of my clothes, which took a while to work out how it was all going to fit, but I ended up placing them in drawer level depending on where they sat on the body, so shirts when at the top, then jumpers, then underwear, then pants, then socks and lastly shoes, which had a nice and comfortable resting place.

After that I went upstairs and practiced against an ai dummy, which was surprisingly difficult, and the computer could take my moves, and so was able to form movements that would hit me with. I dealt with the first dummy, only for another one the turn up, expecting to be attacked, which I ended up doing, so quickly that the ai was unable to react fast enough, meaning that the next dummy fell to the ground, useless, and it was unable.

I continued with this for about an hour, until I changed to targets, getting ready to do ranged attacks, I felt an odd sense of calm, which was difficult for me to comprehend, as the last few times I've been calm, I have ended been attacked by someone or something, so I was scared by this new development.

Glaive came into my area and asked if I could help him with his throwing practice which did need help, as much as he could get, as he was way off anything that could be considered as throwing. Glaive said it was just from lack of skill, as he hadn't trained in three years, which most people would believe to be real, except me, I guessed that there was something more deep than just lack of practice, but I decided not to pry, meaning that it soon became awkward and Glaive saved me by letting me go back to my own training, where I did some martial arts and let everything I had out on the dummy.

Normally, I would feel closed off from the real world when I'm practicing, but with Glaive so close, it was impossible to believe I was isolated, instead it kept on making me think about how close my friends are to me, and how I was willing to risk everything to protect them.

My blade found purchase in the dummy's neck and it slumped to the ground, dead, well as dead as an inanimate object could be. I stood there, taking a moment to realize that I had finished the training sequence. I turned and placed my knives down for a second to wash my face. Fortunately I had been wearing my old clothes, otherwise I would have ruined my clothes, but I had changed so I was simply just ruining already ruined clothes, which could help me when I needed a halloween costume, which was coming up next week and I had promised the others we would go trick or treating, and everyone wanted me to dress up as a ninja, but I had too much of that in real life, so I wasn't sure. I was thinking of an angel or a demon, but everyone else is pretty set on a knived ninja as a costume for me, which I guessed I was alright, but I still had problems with it mentally.

I was done with waiting for other people, I wanted to be able to walk in the light rather than the shadows, I wanted to be able to take my revenge on C.L.O.U.D. and most importantly, I wanted to be able to settle down and have a family. I didn't like anyone, but I knew that it wasn't something I should look into too much, as I would be enrolled in school soon, so I was going to have to deal with that on top of all of this other stuff that was going on around me. I just wished that I was at an age where I could pretend that I was out of school and happy, and not getting curious looks from people every time I walked past, which was impossible but I just wished it could happen. My life was a train wreck, people that try to tamper with it will die in the derailing that is inevitable and if anyone gets too close, they will just get burnt from the flames.

I was so busy lost in my own thoughts that when Glaive came in again I jumped out of my skin so much that I almost killed him, which wouldn't be hard, considering he was unarmed, apart from one glaive, which hung at his belt, too far away for him to react to one of my knives, even so, I didn't want to kill him, he was a great friend and an even better jester, although sometimes he has a hard time taking hints. I stared at him, waiting for him to say something, but he didn't seem to reply, all he did was stare at me. Finally he got that I was expecting him to talk and started to talk and act like a normal human being, or as normal as a trained assassin can be, especially one that had a weapon hanging from his belt.

"Ugh... you need to get changed, we are having a meeting in Voulge's room, so be there or be square, or in Voulge's words, be squares." The lame joke made me shiver on the inside, but I tried hard to not show it to him, he didn't seem to notice, so that was a plus.

"I will be down in just a second, tell Voulge to start without me." I said, changing into my button up shirt and pulling my trench coat over the top, before adding. "I need to finish getting changed mate, so don't worry about me, I'll be right behind you." After he had gone I changed into my new pants, before sprinting down the stairs after him. I reached the second floor and walked to the room with the white door knocker on it, the door was ajar so I walked inside, into the waiting room of heaven.

Everything was pure white. The carpet was white, the bed was white, the sheets were white, the duvet cover was patterned with off white covers. The book shelves were white, the walls were white. Eight white chairs were in various places of the room, all of them full. I sat down on the chair near the white bedside table, grabbing the rabbit and placing it on my lap, which it seemed to enjoy and rolled over expecting a scratch, which I felt obliged to give.

The others looked at me closely, I did not know why, but they were definitely expecting something to happen, what I had no idea, but I when in doubt, ask.

"Would someone explain to me why you are looking at me like I shot the queen? It's quite scary to be honest with you, and to put it frankly I do not want zombies for friends, so do spit it out." I was starting to sound like Voulge, strong, powerful, direct, threatening. The thought didn't scare me as much as what happened next.

Rapier hopped up and grabbed the folder, the folder I would rather see burn than remember the amount of trouble we got through to get our hands on it, when it could have just as easily gone back into the hands of C.L.O.U.D. I tried very hard not to comment on the fact that we shouldn't be doing this here, a bunker half a kilometre under the surface of the Earth sounds more appropriate for what it was. Rapier wouldn't have liked that for an idea.

"As we have all agreed," he looked over at me guiltily, making me realize that I was the only person that didn't get a chance to vote, making me feel isolated from the rest of the group, which wasn't a good feeling when you are fugitives on the run and you rely on trust. "That we would be looking at this folder once we have settled down into our new lives here, which Voulge and I have decided is now." He started unwrapping the folders casing, revealing that there was multiple parts to the folder, I counted ten, which was odd, as if it were about us then it would only require nine parts.

Rapier took out the first part of the folder and read a loud. "Withheld inside this folder is information about The Storm, it has been kept in the archives for the reason that this vital information should never be read by anyone, not even myself. I have placed it within the most secure part of the archives, never to see the light of day again. Within are the secrets that not even The Storm know, they have nothing to go on, and if this safety is ever breached, C.L.O.U.D. itself will be forced to destroy The Storm in whatever way we are allowed to, please, read at your own peril. Signed, Espingarda." Everyone froze, we had hoped we had heard the last of that name, which had haunted us since we last saw our old home, or prison, whichever is most preferable to think about. We all sat in silence for half a minute, trying to make sense if what it could have meant, although it seemed to be pretty clear to me, don't touch this, touch this, you die, bye bye. My instant impulse was to go and bury it, but I knew no one else would go with that idea, so I kept my mouth shut while Rapier picked up the piece of paper that was at the top of the pile.

"Melody Libra, child of Queen Fornax and King Leon. Codename: Voulge, occupation: The Storm's leader." Voulge's face turned deathly pale, and she snatched the paper away from Rapier and continued reading the story herself.

"Diana Lazos, child of Queen Freya and King Centurion. Codename: Bec de Corbin, occupation: The Storm's most flexible." Raven took it off him before he could say anything more.

"Hemera Frey, child of Queen Isis and King Dracos. Codename: Guisarme, occupation: The Storm's problem solver." Guisarme was almost so quick that Rapier couldn't finish, but he did.

"Medea Clearwater, child of Queen Ariadne and King Gridon. Codename: Sling, occupation: The Storm's fast reaction task force." Sling just sat there, staring, not realizing that she needed to go up and collect the information about her that was so surprising for her, with a nudge from Katana, she walked up and collected the paper, before sitting back down to read her's, just like the other three.

"Horentensio La Dreen, child of King Draydon and Queen Io. Codename: Katana, occupation: weapons expert." Katana stood as calmly as he could and walked over to Rapier and took the paper, before returning and reading the sheet.

"Frederick Sanderson, child of King Louis and Queen Harley. Code name: Lochaber axe, occupation: defensive." Loch's lack of emotion had changed to becoming full of emotion and thought, cheeks flushed and sweat pouring down his face, making him look like a beetroot.

And then it was my turn.

"Braedon Astor, child of King Soul and Queen Angel. Codename: Knife, occupation: no special trait," I was the runt, I always knew, I took the paper and didn't bother taking the time to listen to the other's names, mostly because of my document but also because of the fact that I would never call them by their true names ever, I knew how much they meant to me, and I was not about to change their names just because someone told me too. So I dived right in.

'Knife is unique,' the paper read, 'he is unlike the others in the fact that he doesn't care about fame or glory, he simply wants to be friends, which he has managed to acquire in his time here. He has no real skills apart from targets, but he is such a valued member of this small group that it would be impossible to separate us now. He has too much influence into our guards for them to arrest him for anything. If the child were smart enough, he would have escaped, but really I believe he is biding his time before making the attack which, if done properly, may result in a large amount of riots inside our department and certainly on their floor, so keeping an eye on him at all times is vital for guard safety.'

As I read, I became more and more angry. 'His parentage is so strong that, if allied with the others, he will form a formidable enemy, as many will support his cause. His lack of caring about isolation would make him a genius in all settings, no matter who he is up against, whether it be C.L.O.U.D. or his friends. Braedon was given up to us by the king and queen, who both died two years after he was given to us, meaning that he legally, just like the rest of them, have rights to the thrones of the nine kingdoms which their parents once held.'

I looked up, everything was different, I now had the same idea on my mind as they no doubt had, there are thrones which we have rights to. We would be powerful enough to control most of the world with the land that these thrones hold the power of. The only place which doesn't have our power is Dres, the kingdom where C.L.O.U.D. is located.

The next thing I wondered was how did they formulate this plan? It would have taken weeks months years of planning to have this happen, which begs the question of why was there so little talk about us when we were still there, working harder and faster to complete our work than any school could ever hope to dream of doing, as it was physically impossible for any child to do the work. I wondered if this was because of the fact that no one else was born fighting with a silver knife in my hands. I was born to fight, and while others may think that it's harder than school, when you have been doing it for your entire life, school seems harder for you than weapon's training, which we did for eight hours a day, with extra curricular activities that simply expanded our weapon training even further, meaning that by the time we had to go assassinate people, we were completely ready for anything or anything that tried to get in our way.

My parents were dead, which I had worked out a long time ago, but what I hadn't known was that they were part of a royal family, we all were part of nine different families, all of them royal, all of them almost dead apart from the one representatives from each kingdom.

Whoever Soul and Angel were, they left me, for that I will never forgive them, I will find a way to remember them, maybe, but in no way does it mean that I will get over the betrayal that they gave me, leaving me to a secret service who used me to kill other people, who probably had children just like me, all orphaned now because of the fact that their parents were simply wanted dead by C.L.O.U.D.

Anger boiled up inside, I had lost everything, my life, my family, myself to these people, I would take my revenge, and when an assassin wants revenge, there is nothing in the world that is able to stop me. I quickly bottled up my feelings when I saw some people crying, which wasn't like any of our group at all, and kept it for later, when everyone else had the same ideas that I did, to take out C.L.O.U.D.

Raven started to hysterically laugh, looking like she was possessed or something along those lines. She was quickly comforted by Glaive, who walked over and hugged her tightly, letting her bury her head into his chest, still laughing uncontrollably. He patted the back of her head, turning her and leading her outside onto the second landing, slowly bringing her towards the public bathroom to wash her face.

Rapier sat there, emotionless, simply staring into the abyss of empty space. A car passed by underneath us, which normally would have stimulated some sort of reaction, but not today, maybe not ever again, for now we were just all too shocked to deal with it. We all looked into the space in front of us, not looking at each other, too scared of what we would see if we did.

Voulge readjusted her fake leg and hopped up, moving to look out the window, staring at nothing in particular, or maybe it was something I couldn't see, but judging from her body language, she was remembering a memory which must have just appeared to her. Voulge wasn't the sort of person to cry, and when she was on the verge of tears, she asked everyone to leave her, and closed the door and wept, there was so much stuff going on I had soon forgotten Voulge and was dealing with other important matters.

Raven, Sling and Guisarme went and chatted in Raven's room, I guess for a shoulder to cry on, so I let them go, even of I would have preferred it if they had stayed so we could all talk together, as us guys weren't going to start talking about it any time soon.

I went and sat with the guys, but our conversation was short-lived, none of us really wanted to talk, and we just sat, until Loch got the television working and we

Glaive went up to work on his throw, Katana and Rapier went off for sparring, Loch went to play with his iguana, which left me alone in the empty corridor. I walked back to my room and cuddled Adrianus, who comforted me in the way that only animals can. I stayed awake for barely another second before I was swept off into the deep recess of sleep, and had some strange dreams that night.

-

The next week was full of research, on top of getting ready for halloween, which everyone else was still certain they wanted to participate in, because they had good tricks and wanted good treats. The only thing that had changed about it was the costumes. Everyone now wanted to go as kings and queens from each of their respective kingdoms, which wasn't hard to find out, as it said on all of our sheets.

We had looked up what each of our kingdom's formal royalty dress code is and started making costumes accordingly.

Voulge's costume was quite natural, as her kingdom was extremely nature loving and hippie like, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Her costume was a long, white flowing dress which appeared at first glance to be made of flowers and leaves, but when looked at closer, revealed itself to simply be linen. Her crown that sat atop her head had similarities to the Roman laurel wreath, but had holly leaves with mandragora flowers woven through it. Her feet where flats made from banana leaves, which were hardy and durable and made for an excellent and inexpensive shoe that was easy enough to make and lasted a long time.

Rapier's costume was much more regal, and he looked all the part a king, or at least a prince. He wore a royal blue military like uniform with a following cloak and the insignia of the royal family on the front, which was lovely. He wore straight black pants, which were perfect contrast to the black shoes that he wore to accompany it. He wore a gold crown, decorated with the most beautiful sapphires I had ever seen, and after pickpocketing powerful people, I had seen a lot of gems, such as sapphires, so I knew what I was saying.

Raven's costume was beautiful, too say the least. The dress that she wore was purple, but on it were designs of ravens and crows which seemed to fly across the dress as the material moved. Her shoes were black, but had small purple wings attached to the heels. Her crown was made of amethyst, and was made in such a way that light could pass through it, which is probably why the kingdom was theological, believing that their rulers were the gods placed into mortal beings, and so would therefore follow them to the ends of the Earth.

Glaive followed a fashion not too dissimilar to that of Rapier's costume. His lime green outfit was different to Rapier's not just by colour. It was parted at the top, where a lime undershirt could be seen protruding from the top, as well as there being gold edges to all of the clothing. His crown was similar to the pharaoh's crown of Egypt, but had a theme of white and green, not white and red. His black shoes were a good change from the green of his pants, which were decorated with patterns of vipers and cobras and other venomous snakes.

Sling was dressed up elegantly. Unlike the other girls, she had blue eyeshadow on her face, with gold touches to the rim of her hair, where her silver crown rested, which was decorated with the moon. Her dress had so many folds in it that it made the onlooker dizzy from trying to follow the lines of the dress, which were virtually nonexistent. Her shoes were dainty, which was ironic for person that stood in them, with small cloud designs on them, which seemed to drift aimlessly over them, the shoes becoming impossible to properly work out where they ended, as they had no hard lines.

Katana's clothing was different in every way. His kingdom was apparently mostly desert, so he wore a really thin orange buttoned shirt, with a golden snake that coiled itself to for a crown, which looked amazing on Katana. His pants were red sand coloured, with sand clouds on them. He wore roman sandals, which went extremely well with the rest of his costume. Fortunately he was doing this in spring, otherwise he would have frozen from how paper thin the material was, which was almost see through, though not quite, and definitely not awfully noticeable.

Guisarme wore a dress which looked like it was made out of bees, the tiny black and yellow lines that covered it matched the agricultural kingdom that she was entitled to perfectly. The lines were all at different levels, adding to the visual effect. Her crown was a daisy chain, which appeared to have been cast in gold and given as a crown to the royal family, which wasn't all bad. Her shoes were beautiful sculpted to fit her feet, as apparently all females in the family had the same foot size. They were bright yellow with white laces.

Loch wore a dark green shirt with not all that much design that went into it back in the day, but for a militaristic kingdom, I wasn't all that surprised about that. His crown was ivy that coated the top of his head in a dome of ivy. His pants didn't have all that much excitement in them, but his shoes were amazing. They looked like plain shoes, but you really had no idea about them until you saw them in action, where blades would appear at the simple press of the button, which for Loch wasn't hard at all.

My own costume was quite interesting. The shoes were scarlet red, but along the side of the sole, I had placed gemstones in them, making them look bright. My pants were red, but also embroidered with the design of a tiger on the side, which was roaring at an unknown foe, but from the look of it, the tiger didn't have much idea anyway. My crown was a carved garnet circle with gold intrusions through it, ending up making the crown my face better than originally hoped for. My shirt was a black buttoned shirt, but it had a crimson cloak with the symbol of my house, the stallion on it, which was simply just the apparel of the royal family.

We all worked tirelessly on our costumes, which ended up looking so closely to that of the royal family that we had to keep kicking ourselves trying to comprehend what was going to happen, no doubt there was going to be plenty of treats that are going to be shared around when we had finished for night, which was going to be a while, judging by how much time space we had in our lolly bags, which resembled pumpkins and ghosts and other supernatural entities, but had enough space to fill the world's lollies inside and still have enough room for more.

When the night finally came it took ten excruciatingly long minutes for everyone to get ready to go out. But we all did in the end and headed out, we all past many groups of children who seemed to have smiles on faces and chocolate marks on their faces, which was funny as their parents facial expression could only be imagined at a time this, when you are with friends, roaming the streets to try and grab some food off random strangers, most of them just happy for us to be there, provided we don't take too much lollies and spoil the fun for the other little children. We ended up with so much food we ditched the trick or treat scene and walked to the park, where we all sat in a circle and just chatted. There wasn't all that much to talk about, it is like asking an olympic runner if they can run, a dumb question indeed, but we still tried, making small talk and keeping everyone happy while we pigged out on lollies. This was the only time we were allowed to freely eat sweets, making it a really special thing to do and definitely something to do in the future, if there was going to be a future, which we were still unsure about it all.

When we had almost run out of snacks, we started to make our way back up the hill to the mansion. We walked at a really nice pace, being able to talk about whatever we wanted, within reason, as no one really needed to know everyone else's life stories, which we have all been through as well, so all of us hardly cared about what was required in everyone else's lives and focused on what was required in our's. You may call us heartless, but really in the world of life or death, you don't get around and survive by being caring and selfless, no, to survive, you kill or be killed, which is a fair point when you are being hunted every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every month of every year. It was only matter of before they found us, and if they were closing in as we speak. They are growing in number, and someday there too many of them for anyone to defend against, no one will be able to stop them on their own, that's where the thrones come in.

The nine seats of power which we all control is the most powerful union in the world, it happened once before and there was nothing that was able to defeat them, as they had few enemies, and so nine armies were able to fight one, it was slaughter, the sheet size of nine armies is too great, too strong, too powerful to contain in children, but children are what we all start out as, and after being trained since before I could remember, I beleaguered that the nine of us would be perfect for the job, there was nothing we couldn't do together, I never felt alone when we were together, I always seemed to able to draw strength from the others, but at the same time they were able to draw strength from me when they needed it, and I was happy to give it to them.

From here on in for us, it was an uphill fight to gain control and destroy C.L.O.U.D. once and for all, no more children, no more spying, no more espionage, and most importantly, no more killing. This was our prime goal, for peace, we didn't want to have to deal with a war, nor did we want any fight at all, because that brought us down to their level, the lowest of the low, a place where if you want to get back up, think again, it's better to stay low. We spent a long time working out what was going to happen and who was going to do what, but finally, after heavy debate, diplomacy and arguing, we all agreed on what we had to do, and nothing was going to stop us from completing our mission.

Everyone had so many ideas that once you got them talking about something, they were almost to shut up, to the point where I almost wanted to stab Katana, who with no care for anyone else, rambled on and on and on, making it almost impossible to do anything but listen to him, but once he knew you were listening, he would become pleased and would therefore continue with the conversation, despite everyone's best efforts to try and stop him. When he needed to use the toilet, we were finally given a bit of a break, which meant that we all could relax into the rest of the evening with scary movies, sweets, popcorn, you name it, we had it. The movie marathon lasted about six hours, before we were told we needed to go to sleep by Voulge, who was always the sensible one, and so therefore plodded upstairs, where Adrianus had pre warmed my bed and was now at the foot of the bed, where he alway was. I pulled his blanket over him and got changed, I cleaned my teeth and I settled into bed, thinking what sort of things tomorrow was going to bring everyone, especially Voulge, who was going to be tested the most in the next few days.