I snapped back to reality as I heard the radio I had down here tuned into the frequency that Chronos used to communicate crackle to life and Maria’s voice came through it.

“The new arrivals are almost here, the buses are on their way up the road now, make sure to let them in,” she ordered through the radio, “also I need someone to find out where the hell Aidan Colt disappeared to again.”

“The busses will be let in ma’am, no worries,” a different voice responded, “as for Colt, I saw him earlier walking around but don’t know where he went… sorry. I’ll send out a couple guards to search the facility.”

“Good. When the busses arrive direct them to auditorium two, that’s where we have everything set up.”

“Will do ma’am.”

I made sure I had all my things, touched the names of my family members one last time, then headed for the ladder and climbed up. Once I was out of the bunker I closed and hid the hatch then ran for the facility. Soon I was back at the fence, climbing over quickly and carefully. I could hear several vehicles approaching down the main road and instantly knew the busses carrying Maria’s new ‘recruits’ were almost here. I headed towards auditorium two so I could be there for the induction. Soon I reached the room and found the seats fairly packed already. Everyone who had been in the meeting with Maria earlier was here, along with many Chronos soldiers, several other Phantoms who hadn’t been in the meeting, and all the instructors. I saw an empty seat between a sickly looking Xander and an indifferent Sophia so I went and sat between them.

“Welcome back, rebel,” Sophia muttered as she raised her eyebrows at me, “where is it that you run off to all the time anyway?”

“Nowhere I want to talk about.”

She sighed and turned her attention back to the front of the room where Maria and a long line of Chronos soldiers were awaiting our new arrivals. Soon we heard a commotion outside the doorway, the door swung open and a soldier entered holding a young boy with nearly buzzcut, dirty blond hair and bright green eyes in a headlock. The soldier had a bloody nose.

“Little fucker tried to make a run for it,” the soldier fumed as he went to the stage and forced the kid to stand in front of the soldier at the left side of the line, “headbutted me and made a run for it, wasn’t expecting me to be able to tackle him I guess.”

The soldier glared at the young boy who I could tell was just putting up a brave front, his eyes told a different story, he was absolutely terrified. I recognized that feeling, I’d stood on the same stage with an identical look ten years ago.

“Maria is either going to love… or absolutely hate that kid,” Sophia muttered as she followed my gaze towards the boy, “as long as he survives the pits that is.”

“Shut up, Soph.”

“I’m only speaking the truth… I know he reminds you of you.”

“Just drop it… I don’t want to talk about this.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her glance over at me with a slight frown on her face. She stared for a moment before turning her attention to the line of kids entering the auditorium.

There were more than I expected there to be, at least three dozen, they all looked to be in their late preteen or early teen years. The youngest was a short asian boy who looked maybe seven or eight… around the same age I was when I stood there. After the kids were all lined up I counted a total of thirty-three, each one had a soldier directly behind them with a gun leveled at their backs. They all looked terrified, but who wouldn’t be standing on a stage in a nearly full auditorium with someone holding a gun only a few inches from your back. Maria paced in front of them, walking from end to end of the line of kids, staring each of them down for a short time before moving on.

“Well boys and girls,” she started as she stood in the middle in front of them with each kid staring at her fearfully, “welcome to Chronos… and welcome to Project Phantom.”

She paused and raised her arms to her sides in a gesture of welcome, the same gesture you see every fictional supervillain that has ever existed make at one point or another before they try to kill the hero.

“I know that you’re all wondering ‘why me’ so that’s what I’m here to explain, among other things, before we jump right into the process. Let’s start with that question I’m certain is bouncing around in your minds… the why. Well, my people spent countless hours scouring the known universe for kids who we could collect and train into the next generation of Phantoms, and that’s how you all ended up in this line. You were chosen, whether because you would be easy to take or because you would never be missed by anyone if you disappeared or any number of other circumstances that led my spies to believe you’d be worth our time and our effort. Now that you’re here, you’ll be broken and… let's say… reformed, into loyal members of Chronos and of the Phantom Corps. To start out, we have to erase who you were… and who you were going to become. I’ve already taken the liberty of making the Solar Republic believe you have met tragic ends. Your families, if you had them, are either gone or believe, as the Solar Republic does, that you’re never coming back because you met a horrible and tragic fate. You no longer belong to the universe… you belong to me. Now we have to… physically erase you... in a way.”

As she finished her speech one of the high level members of Chronos, someone who worked as Maria’s number two that I unfortunately didn’t know by name, appeared from backstage with a large device that I recognized and cringed as I remembered the fiery pain in my hands.

“This is a… lovely little device… that my engineering and science divisions made for Chronos. It will completely erase your finger and palm prints so that you can never be identified by them again. Prepare yourself… it might burn a little.”

Every one of the kids were visibly trembling in fear. A few were crying, though I couldn’t hear their sobs from where I sat. Maria’s number two walked the machine in front of the first kid who had been brought into the room with Maria following closely behind him.

“Let’s start with you since you wanted to be ‘oh-so-brave’ earlier.”

Maria turned the device on and the slot in the front opened up. The soldier behind the boy set his weapon on the ground behind him and grabbed his wrists, forcing his hands into the opening. As soon as they were inside the slot closed. A second later the screams of pain started. I cringed as I listened to the screaming and wailing of the poor kid as I clenched my hands into fists.

“I… I can almost feel it all over again,” Xander muttered to my left as he rubbed his hands together.

“Yeah… me too.”

I glanced over at him and saw that his hands were shaking as he stared down at them in his lap.

“I think we all can… and I don’t think we’ll ever NOT be able to,” Sophia agreed.

I looked back towards the stage and watched as the first boy’s hands were removed from the device, he collapsed onto his knees crying in pain as he stared down at his now completely smooth hands. Maria, her assistant, and the device moved to the next kid in line and the process was the same. I started tuning the screams and wails of pain out as they continued all the way down the line of kids. Once they had finished erasing all of the prints Maria’s assistant took the device back the way he had come and disappeared backstage once more. Maria waited for all of the kids to compose themselves as she stood in front of them with her arms crossed, after what felt like forever the crying stopped and the kids were all looking at the woman in horror.

“Now for the first day of the rest of your lives to begin,” Maria said after glancing at each of the kids, “starting now you aren’t friends... you aren’t family. You’re enemies, fighting each other, and some of my current Phantoms, to see who makes the cut, and who gets... thrown out.”