The Changed

Max

Prologue

The old man was quietly relaxing in his leather chair and looked around his large office. He had a wall of floor to ceiling windows as he looked over the city skyline. The large office didn't need a lamp, but he had one as furniture. Either way, his office was always brightly lit. He had a couple of motivational posters to help throw off other business men that came to visit. His desk was complete with a laptop that he had connected to a desktop mouse. He set it that way incase there was an emergency and he needed to leave everything else. Man, he thought, it's great to be the boss. The man's only problem was the crinkling of his suit. And the thing he chose not to think about... the last piece he needed.

His thoughts were interrupted by a unique series of knocks. The man's assistant. Each member of his team was given a different knock. If they were incapable of remembering the knock, they didn't work for him. The old man reached under his desk and pressed a button. It was followed by a soft click as the door unlocked. "Come in," he said, his voice stern.

His assistant walked in, nervously. She had brown hair pulled back in a low ponytail. The glasses she wore hid her matching brown eyes. "Sir, we found one. The candidate, we have a video file sent to your computer."

"Thank you Lucy. You may leave now."

"Yes, Sir." she replied in a quiet voice. Lucy left and shut her boss's door behind her. The old man pushed the button under his desk again and waited for the soft click as the door relocked. The man turned the leather chair, slightly, to face his computer screen. He grabbed his mouse and moved it a little bit to wake it from 'sleep' mode. Immediately the computer monitor lit up, showing the desktop. He clicked on an icon, showing two gears, one bigger than the other. When the window opened he saw a black screen with four gray words:

Open File?

[Y/N]

When the man tapped a simple 'Y' on his keyboard, a new window opened, a video. The old man guessed he was watching from a dojo security camera. Before the video played, he saw four guys, all black belts. He assumed that the candidate was the one single-handedly going to take out the other three guys, mainly because the other three seemed to be trying to corner the candidate. Which was especially intriguing consider that the video file was only about six seconds.

Then the video started. Without hesitation, the candidate instantly jumped at the guy in the middle, the feat first. The man knew he was out cold. When the candidate got up, the other two guys turned around and looked at the candidate, dumbfounded. Scared, they both got into the same defensive stance. One leg was out in front of them, bent, the other was behind them. The man thought he saw the candidate smile right before he ran at the guy on the left. Using the guy's outward leg as a step, the candidate bounced off the leg, his own knee outward. The knee connected with the guy's chin knocking him out cold.

But before he fell downward, the candidate pushed off the unconscious guy's shoulder with his foot, changing his direction toward the last guy. He had tried to block the fist the candidate threw at him, but he was too slow.

The man smiled to himself as the video ended. Finally, he had found his final piece.

Chapter 1

Training. Training was one of the few pleasures Max got living in the London orphanage. No one would come near Max, except for his best friend Nina. She was the only one that stuck by him, no matter what.

Max was looking up at the night sky when he heard a knock on the door. His room was on the second floor, an edge of the roof from the first floor stuck right outside his window. The night sky helped since he was the only one in the school without any roommates. Max got into his room via the open window and wasn't knowing what to expect.