Frosted

Prologue.

Jump. Dodge. Shoot. Attack.

He kept replaying these words in his head as he got through the simulation attack. He had gone through countless obstacles, each more difficult than the last.

A man charged at him, unarmed but clearly strong in hand-to-hand combat. Muscles rippled across his body, and his bloodshot eyes could make any veteran cry for their mommy.

The boy fired at the surging giant. The bullets hit the giant's skin, but did little to stop him.

The boy sighed and pulled out his knife. It was a ten inch beauty, in which he could see his reflection as clear as a mirror. He always used this one, never the training knives that he was supposed to use.

The giant let out a roaring battle cry and pounced, intending to tear the kid apart. The seventeen-year-old swung his knife up, impaling the man. He twisted it inside the man's body and flung him aside.

The image of the body rippled and burst into a million pixels. Within seconds, it wasn't a man in front of him, but a metal robot. The machine bowed, and marched away.

The boy looked around, expecting another attack, but none came. All around him, the entire arena burst into pixels. Within a minute, he wasn't standing on soil, but on the metal floor of the training room.

"That's it?" he said, looking at the assessment centre.

The assessment master, Janet, spoke into the mic. "There's been a, erm,  thing."

"Malfunction?"

"No. The Chairman wants to see you."

Through the glass that seperated the arena and the assessment centre, he could see her speaking into an intercom. She hung up after some time and pressed a button that opened a glass door on the boy's right, allowing him to exit the arena.

He hurried towards the assessment centre, where Janet was frantically shoving coffee cups and sandwich wrappers into trashcans. She jumped when he entered. "Oh," she said when she turned around, "it's you. I thought you were the Chairman. Stop sneaking up on me, Ashton."

Ash grinned. "You taught me." He turned his attention to the message flashing on her computer. "Why does she want to see me?"

"I don't know," she said without even glancing up from the computer. "What did you do?"

"Nothing, I swear."

The intercom buzzed again and a man yelled. "Agent Fawn! Get Greywell up here now!"

"In a minute!" she shouted. "Don't vex me, Anderson!"

"NOW!"

She hung up and ushered Ash out the door. "Move, move, move. Can't keep her waiting."

***

They ran side by side, up many flights of stairs and arrived at the door of the Chairman's office. Ash knocked twice.

"Come in," the Chairman said.

Janet twisted the handle and stepped in, holding the door open for him. He wiped his sweaty palms on his training uniform, and stood in front of the older woman's desk. The room was dimly lit. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the change in lighting.

The woman had her chair turned to the other side, facing a big screen. The screen showed multiple pictures of a young girl, no more than fourteen years of age. There were pictures of a young child too, but Ash could tell that it was the same girl.

The photos were in chronological order, the older ones to the left. It was like an account of someone's life. He could see the young versions of her, and how she matured through the years. In the older ones, short jet black hair and black eyes adorned a round face. In the ones in the center of the screen, she wore black spectacles and her hair reached her shoulders. The pictures on the right showed her with spectacles off, and instead of black, her eyes shone a brilliant blue. Contact lenses, Ashton deduced.