"Loreno, my man! How was it with Veronika?" asked a tough looking young man who seems to be in his early twenties. This man, who was chosen out of hundred others, was sent by Greek to be the candidate for the program.
His name is Eleutherios Afroudakis. Codenamed: 'Hunter'. He was dubbed El because of how most people struggled with his name. Beside him, is another young man, slightly taller than him. He has an air of elegance around him and every time he smiled, young ladies from all over the world would go crazy.
"Yeah, come on Loreno, tell us! We're dying to know," he said with a playful grin on his face. His voice was thick with English accent. Tobias Mitchell, candidates from England. Codenamed: 'Alpha'. He was chosen as the leader of the group. And it is not because he is from England, but because he has the ability, as well as the charm of being a leader.
"Oh, shut up, you two. You don't have to rub the salt into my wound!" the one who called Loreno finally replied. "I can't believe I got rejected… How can she reject someone whose handsomeness can't be matched?!"
"Whoa, dude. Stop with the narcissism already. You know that Tobias is better looking than you," El said, putting more salt on Loreno's broken heart and damaged mind. "Seriously, I think it is because of your narcissism that you were codenamed the 'Badger'."
"What?! You know that is not true! They say that I was codenamed after the small carnivorous animal, which suits me well. You were there when we were given our codename!!" Loreno retorted. Before Loreno would go on with explaining how great his codename is, Tobias decided to cut him off.
"Alright, that is enough. Jokes aside, this isn't why we've come to find you. The director is calling all the 'Codes' for a meeting later. Apparently, we will be having a fitness test. Come by the training hall in half an hour," he said in a serious tone. "By the way… is the rumour about you having your family jewel kicked by Veronika true?" he asked, still in a serious tone. But the mischievousness in his eye betrayed the tone he was using.
Tobias could see Loreno's eyes widened, before blood rushed to his face. And he knew it was time to bolt because despite how Loreno acts, he can be quite brutal sometimes.
At some other place, two young women is having a conversation to themselves. One of them, is none other than the Veronika that the young men were talking about earlier. Veronika Koshkina from Russia, codenamed: 'Lotus'. Like her codename, her beauty can induce men to become dreamy, and she was taught the art of seduction. But even so, she also trained in the art of self-defence. If to be compared to others, Veronika stood at the top in terms of self-defence skills.
The other young woman, Esther Fiedler is codenamed: 'Stardust'. She is the representatives from Germany. Both she, and Veronika are considered the only goddess in their group. They were happily chatting with each other when they heard Loreno's scream for Tobias to stop. Upon hearing the young Italian's voice, Veronika's expression turned sour. This did not escape Esther's gaze.
"So… Veronika, I heard Loreno asked you out," she said. "And rumours have it that you kicked him in the groin when he tried to kiss you, was that true?" she asked in a curious tone. It looks like everyone had heard the rumours.
"It served him right. He truly lived up to his codename. He is like a plague… why did he get chosen anyway?" Veronika was annoyed just remembering at the event just last night when Loreno asked her out.
"Well, I'm sure there is a reason. I mean… I was chosen because of my marksmanship. You were chosen because you excel in the art of seduction, as well as self-defence. El is chosen because his strength is unrivalled. Tobias, because he is the only person who can keep himself calm and keep us in check… Then there is Mr. Atsuhiko's son, Saki. His intelligence and knowledge is what makes him stay. Plus, he is the legendary Director Koizumi's descendant. All his legacy is taught to him. I think he is more knowledgeable compared to other scientists here and he is only what? 17? He is probably second only to his father. And then, there is his codename, 'Hope'. It's like he is our hope! He is also cute, and if I have to choose between the four of them, I would totally choose him!"
Veronika couldn't stop Esther from getting side tracked. It was clear that Esther has a crush on Saki, in fact, everyone knew about it including the guy himself. Once, Veronika confronted Saki about it. She wanted to know what he thought about her friend, and that if he feels the same, she was going to play cupid. Unfortunately, the reply she got was disappointing. And she didn't have the heart to tell her friend what she heard.
"Veronika, are you listening to me?" Esther's question snapped Veronika out of her thought.
"Uh… Sorry. What was it again?" she asked back.
"I said, did you also receive a message about the fitness test later?" she showed Veronika the message she received.
"Ah yes, I have. Should we go there now? Maybe we can warm up earlier and get ourselves prepared," she said, to which Esther agreed.
In the field where the fitness test is about to take place, a group of scientists are setting up the hurdles and other stuff needed for the test. The one hurdle that stood out the most is the huge, and tall imposing wall which they need to scale up using ropes only. And among the group of scientist, is a young man who seems to be getting warmed up. This young man is precisely the eye candy of Esther, Saki Koizumi. He stretched his muscles without any disruption, until one of the researcher called him out.
"Saki, are you properly warmed up? Do you think you can lend a hand for a while?" asked the middle-aged scientist. Saki turned to him and gave him a small smile.
"Of course, father. You don't have to ask," he quickly replied. "What do I need to do?" he asked as he walked towards where his father is. His father simply pointed to one of the machines, one with a guilty looking scientist is standing beside and Saki immediately knows what to do. He booted the machine up and started to type out the over-ride code, which only he and his father knows. Once the machine is up and running, he ran a few tests to make sure it can run without any error. And once that's done, he sent the data to his father. After that, he went back to what he was doing before. As he walked past the guilty looking scientist from earlier, he was stopped.
"Thank you, Saki. You just saved us hours of work…"
"Don't mention it. Just don't mess up again," he said in an indifferent tone before continuing to warm up. Because of the indifference tone he used, the scientist's expression turned sour and he left Saki alone with a cold 'humph'. Saki just watched him with a confused look, not sure if he did something wrong.
"What's with him…?" he shrugged and decided to just forget about it. It was then that Tobias came to join him, but Loreno and El was nowhere to be seen. "Hello, Toby. Did you manage to lose Loreno?" Saki asked playfully.
"Ah, you must have heard him. Yes, I managed to get him off my tail, I do hope by the time he's here, he would have cooled down by then," Tobias replied. "But thanks to him, my warm-up exercise has just been cut by half," he continued as he began his exercise. Not long after Tobias arrived, the two ladies of the group arrived.
Esther immediately tried to strike up a conversation with Saki, and Tobias, left them alone to talk with Veronika, much to Saki's dismay. It was no secret that Esther have a feeling for Saki, but he was unable to return that feeling. Regardless, he have to stay polite in order to keep their current relationship. They can't lose what they have now or else it may jeopardize their teamwork. They have trained for a good ten years for this, and it has been about 16 years since they first know each other… though Saki was only a toddler then. He doesn't really remember much until he was four, but he knows Tobias was the one who always keeps him company. He also heard that the man also changed his diapers once.
"Saki, are you alright?" Esther asked him when she noticed that Saki wasn't paying attention to what she was saying.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I was just thinking, it's nice to have what we have right now. There is no way I'm going to change any of this," he said with a smile. If anyone else were to hear it, they would have noticed the underlying meaning behind his sentence. But alas, Esther seemed to have missed it.
"I know, but I don't think it's that bad to want something more, right?" she said, sporting a smile of her own. "You know, maybe both of us can have something more between-"
"There you are Tobias!" came Loreno's voice cutting Esther's confession short.
"Oh boy… here comes trouble," Saki's face is full of amusement. He saw El behind Loreno who was marching towards Tobias. He silently watched as Loreno confronted Tobias, while Tobias kept on adding fuel to the fire with that mischievous grin on his face. The both would have continued if it weren't for the director coming.
"I'm sorry that I'm late. Are all the 'Codes' here?" he asked as he wiped his forehead with his handkerchief. It seemed that he rushed himself to come here.
"Here, sir," Tobias answered him. All trace of playfulness disappeared and was replaced with seriousness. This is the reason why Tobias is the leader of the group, he will always be the one to act professional first.
"Good, good… now then, shall we start the test? The test will be dexterous so prepare yourself. I also want to test your teamwork later on, so please, do well. You are our only hope," the director said, and the only thing that ran inside the mind of the six candidates were: "Wow, no pressure at all, huh?"