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Panther’s recruits weren’t what you would call run-of-the-mill. They couldn’t be, not with the amount of effort that was put into recruiting them. Though perhaps recruiting wasn’t the right word to use.
None of the recruits were part of the organization willingly. They’d been swept off the streets, taken from their homes and the ones they loved, forced into a new life. Not that they remembered their old lives. Panther always made sure to eliminate anything that bound a recruit to their previous lives. Going so far as to wipe or alter certain memories, perform surgeries, or at worst, get rid of those holding a recruit back.
Panther never settled for anything less than the best. That, however, did not mean that they never made mistakes in their recruitment. If one of their recruits proved to be useless, Panther wouldn’t take the time to settle down and train them until they weren’t. They existed long enough to know that a foolish decision like that would not only cost them time, but also money and the chance to find a better recruit.
Unfit recruits barely lasted any more than two weeks if they were lucky. Panther had a system for training new recruits, especially recruits that weren’t appointed to a new ‘family’ yet. Physical exams were done every four days, while written exams were taken once a week. The examinations and trainings often went on for 6 months before it would be decided which family a recruit would be appointed to.
The system was great for working out the recruits that were not worthy of Panther’s time and effort as well as to find which family a recruit would fit in with best. The higher-ups would even say the system would perfect.
You, however, were proof that the system was not perfect. A recruit, always managing to pass the examinations, yet never excelling in anything. Not in any physical skills, nor in anything tested in the written examinations. The first month the team of examiners and graders chalked it up to the other recruits, thinking you simply happened to fall into a group of examinees that were all particularly skilled.
Yet, as two more weeks passed with more examinations, there was still no change in your results. Your scores never got worse, but they never got better either. Even changing the group of examinees didn’t show much difference. Though your scores would change slightly, you would always maintain an average score.
Your scores caused called for a difficult decision to be made, one the team’s opinion was divided in. A good portion of the team said you were unfit, while others said the scores weren’t low enough to be considered unfit. Panther had rarely had cases such as yours, so it was safe to say the team was kind of lost. However, the team not knowing to do with a certain recruit was the least of their worries. If they didn’t make a decision soon and the higher-ups found out about your scores, it wouldn’t be long before those higher-ups called for your elimination.
She couldn’t let that happen, as much as it might have been necessary. You were recruited for a reason and you had a lot of potential. Perhaps, the oddest thing of all, she found was how your scores always leveled out with the other examinees. They were never the lowest, yet never the highest.
Were you purposely fooling around during the examinations, only attempting to get a passing grade yet not doing your best? Perhaps the graders had made mistakes when grading your exams, but that was highly unlikely, not with the years of experience each had. If anything, it seemed as if you were blending in with your groups, constantly changing colors to match perfectly, a chameleon.
Dismissing her team and turning to leave the room herself, she couldn’t help but smile. You were not only proving to be troublesome, but also quite interesting. She would enjoy figuring out your secret.
After all, she knew best.
“Secrets can’t be kept forever”