Undercover

Discovery

    There I was, sitting on my bed on a summer night. Living life there was no tomorrow. Ah, who am I kidding? I am a very average person. Nothing exciting actually happens in my life. A bit of drama here and there with my friends and all that, but it isn't me you know? My name is Daniel, and I'm going into my freshman year when summer is over. Woohoo. So exciting. Yeah no I get it. You're waiting for something interesting to happen. Matter of fact I'm waiting myself. My mom shouts from downstairs. "Daniel! Come here!" Man, I just sat down. What can possibly be so important- I walk downstairs to see my mom dressed up to go outside. "Daniel, I just wanted to let you know I'm leaving okay? We ran out of drinking water." "Mom, it's like 10 at night already. It's dangerous out at night. Where's dad?" "He's working late tonight. Won't be here until morning." "Well in that case, let me go out. Walmart is like, a couple block walk." "I don't think that's a good idea-" "mom, if you can go outside at night, then I can easily do the same." She sighs. "Fine. Just don't do anything dumb." I smile. "Haha, I won't." I grab my jacket and open the door. Look back. "Need anything else?" "Would you mind getting some bananas?" "Fine, I'll be quick." I close the door behind me. Gosh, it's a breezy night. I begin my walk as I stare at the tall trees surrounding my neighborhood. I decide to put my jacket on because duh, who am I, Jack Frost? This is kinda odd, it's a bit too cold for a summer evening. I see a full moon beaming lightly on the tops of houses with low dimmed light inside. Told ya, Nothing ever happens.
    I make my way to the empty parking lot of my local Walmart, when I see something strange. Or someone. Oh, what the hell. I'm probably just seeing things. There are like, barely any lamp posts down this street. The sound of cars driving by echo in my ears as I make my way towards the doorway. A rushing noise darts right behind me. "Who's there?!" I yell as I spin around to see nothing. God, maybe I am hallucinating, but something doesn't seem right about tonight. More odd than usual. I enter the store. Grab a gallon of water and pay. But as soon as I take a couple steps outside to leave, I hear a noise. Instinctively, I turn around to see that it came from above me. "What the fuck?" I see a man, no a teenager on the legit top of a lamppost. The teenager, with what seems to be in like some sort of ninja getup looks down at me and locks eyes. Man, I couldn't even tell what he looked like. I run. Gallon in hand, I run as fast as i can back to my house. But nope, just as I thought I could get away, I hear the dude drop down to the ground, then I feel a sharp tiny stab in the back. "OW! The hell!?" My limbs become numb, then standing, my body moves toward the side of the Walmart. By the way, I couldn't see what the ninja looking dude was doing, I just felt it. But what I didn't fucking feel was my body in that moment. In retrospect, this dude threw something at me that pierced the back of my skin, and somehow the dude went all using the force on me. Like what kind of ballsack technology is this? Is nobody catching this on camera? The two of us get to the darkest part of the side of Walmart. I'm able to move again. I look at the teen. There's only one source of light which is the outside lamp which isn't much, but I could tell he was wearing all black and was Asian. I mean, it's instinct right? I sigh. "Dude, this is whack. What was all that? I was just trying to get some water." The dude takes his mask off. "Hey man, I'm sorry. But this is kind of complicated." "Come on. I know complicated. Trust me. Have you ever seen the drama my friends have-" He cuts me off, "way weirder than that child's play. I need to explain to you what happens in this part of business." My eyebrow raises. "Business? Hey, I'm no drug dealer-" "man just let me talk!" "Fine. But make it quick. I gotta get home."
    "My name is Read. And, I'm part of the WPA." I take out the thing that stabbed me in the back and looked at it. It's a silver ninja star. I put the star in my pocket and remarked. "You really threw a damn ninja star at me just to talk to you huh?" "Well it was the only way to keep you from running! Anyway, the WPA is the world protection agency. We are the most private organization in the world, and we take care of threats when or before they usually happen. Like, man, literally nobody knows about the organization besides the agents and the parents of agents." "Why?" I ask. "It's a protection agency. It shouldn't be private." Read crosses his arms. "We take care of threats people haven't even faced in real life at all. I'm talking huge technological advancements, supernatural abilities, paranormal activity. Sure we stop a couple robbers here and there, but we leave all that to the cops." "You've seen them ufo sightings, mythical creatures, and that one girl that flew on YouTube, all of that is real, bro if the government came out and said it, the public would ransack this country." I nod my head. "I see why this is a big deal. But it doesn't explain why or how you pulled me back here in the first place. Or why you told me all this. How do you know I won't tell anybody?" "Because you have an option. Follow me." I look down. "How do you know I can trust you?" Read puts his hand on my shoulder. "Look man, you're just going to have to on this one." I feel like I'm freaking imagining all this, advanced tech, a private protection agency? What? I text my mom. I told her that I decided to go to the far Walmart because they were out of water at the nearest one. I don't lie often. So this WPA crap better be worth it.
    I begin to walk with Read. He only looks a couple years older than me, so I try to find a good way to strike up a conversation. I take a second look at his getup. "Read, don't places have cameras that can see your every step? Like Walmart? The one you were at?" "See one thing about my job is, is that the suit I'm wearing cancels out all electronic recording devices. From phones to the Phonograph Cylinder, this suit can kinda do somewhat all." I take the ninja star out of my pocket and hand it to him. "I need to ask one more thing. How did you make me freeze like that? And how did you use the force on me? This technology is insane!" Read smiles and spins the ninja star on his index. "Whenever this ninja star sticks on to something, for example, you, the star releases an electromagnetic wave to the interior of what it hits. Whether it's wood, glass, or your bloodstream!" I give him a confused look. "How can you control it?" He shows me his hands. He's wearing gloves. But out of all the black on his body, he has silver highlights on the wrist and fingers. "These silver highlights control the electromagnetism of the ninja star." He stops walking for a second, stares at a nearby tree, and swiftly darts it on the trunk. I stare in awe. "Bro, that's insane!" Then just as I thought it was over, he snaps his fingers and the star comes right back onto the tips of his fingers. He continues walking. Jesus. I knew the government was hiding cool crap like this from us!
So, we reach a hotel. But not one of them crappy hotels, but the classy. The ones where rich people stay at. I wonder what we're doing here? As we get to the doors I leave my gallon of water outside on a bench, yeah. I bet you forgot about that huh? I follow Read into the empty hotel and we walk towards the front desk. He says, "WPA." The Clerk nods and gives him a key. We walk into the elevator and I ask. "Read, you said only Agents and the parents of agents know about this agency. What's with the front desk deal?" "Hotels are our assembly space. Its where agents all over the state or farther come to train, demonstrate, and learn new techniques with different people. Well, sometimes we do the occasional school, but hotels are the most covert." Read puts the key into a keyhole below all the buttons on the elevator. Huh, so that's what those are for. The elevator begins to descend. "Our assemblies are below surface. Once or twice every month, we have these to help agents train. Oh by the way we only do these at the classy hotels. They're the most entrusted. Coincidentally, we have an assembly tomorrow morning." Well that makes sense. Secret assemblies, Training sessions, only a bit more to add to the WPA crazy train.
    The elevator stops, and we enter a hallway. Looks like a normal hotel hallway. You know, I was imagining like an underground lair kinda deal. But whatever. We get to the only door in the hallway. Read stops. "Behind these doors, are going to be agents setting up for tomorrows assembly. You ready?" I nod my head. "Yeah, let's see it." Read opens the doors and I walk in behind him. Bro, the room is so fancy. It's like a huge ballroom. Scanning the area, I see three people. Two guys that seem to be my age, and are speaking to an adult man at the back of the room. Read stops halfway past the entrance and tells me. "Okay man, this is where we part ways. Maybe for now, or for a long time. I need you to speak to the man over there. His name is Park, and he'll kill me cause I haven't taken care of the Walmart mission. Wait, I never got your name." "I'm Daniel." We shake hands, and he leaves the room. I mean, if I don't know how to work this out on my own, I'm gonna have to learn right? I walk up to Park while he finishes up his conversation with the two guys my age. They finally finish then the two dudes walk away. Park turns to me. "Oh, good evening. My name is Park. I'm the assembly delegate." We shake hands. "Im Daniel." "I'm assuming you were brought here by an agent, and they told you all basic the information." I nod reluctantly. "Yeah, yes sir. But I was never told why I'm here in the first place. Or why Read told me all this." Park nods slowly. "Ahh, I see. Well let me explain a bit deeper. The policy is, is if you catch an agent during business, they are required to take them in for registration." "Registration for what exactly?" "Let me explain a bit more. People that see agents in action bring them in for assembly in hopes to recruit them." "What if I didn't want to come? I was kind of okay with all this. What if someone didn't think the same? What if they refused?" "We remove their memories. The WPA is in possession of powerful technology. We can do almost anything. Teleportation, Data scanning, all the like, so memory erasing is quite simple around here." Man, this is insane. "So long story short, you discover us, we tell you about the WPA, then we give you a two options." "And what are those options?" Park pulls out bronze ninja star on his left hand, and a flashlight on his right. "You either get your memory erased and forget all of this happened, or, you can become one of us." I stand, and think about my decision. Park smiles. "So Daniel, what will it be?" Wow! Just as I thought things couldn't get more boring.