A/N- All right, finally finished a new chapter of this.  We have a brief little interlude at the beginning, and then we have the basic training begin for Paul and Diane.  Hopefully, in the next chapter, I'll have their first mission.

"How could you let them get away?!" Scorpia screamed, slamming her hands down on the desk.

"It couldn't be helped, Scorpia.  Dufrene was there." Manara said, half terrified.

"To Hell with Dufrene!  You were chasing them.  Why couldn't you have shot them?"

"I tried."

"You know I don't tolerate failure.  One more failure from you, and you won't live to regret it." She snarled.

"Yes, Scorpia." He said meekly.

"I want that boy eliminated.  He was never supposed to have lived this long.  That father of his could have told him anything about his research.  I want him dead!"

"It will be done."

"It had better be, or it will be your head.  I want you to contact our informant again.  I want to know when he goes on missions, where he goes, who goes with him.  Any weaknesses he might have.  Everything.  Think you can handle that?" she asked condescendingly.

"Yes, Scorpia."

"Good.  Now get out before I change my mind about killing you."  Manara hurried out of the room.

"Good help is so hard to find, isn't it, my pet?" she said, her pet snake coiling around her hand.

**************

"All right, you two pansies!" Raul barked at us.  "Listen up!"

            It was eight in the morning the next day.  Paul and I were standing with Raul in the Training Deck where we had met him.  They were wasting no time in starting our training.  Dufrene had sent people to my apartment, as well as Paul's, to bring back anything we couldn't live without.  Our rooms weren't that big, so we didn't bother bringing much.  Besides, most of my stuff was junk anyway, so I'd never miss it.   But now, Paul and I were about to begin our first training session with Raul.  Its eight in the morning, I thought, annoyed.  And he's yelling.  If I hadn't been so tired, I'd have hit him.

"The rules of engaging Astria agents are very simple.  Shoot first, shoot later, shoot some more, and if there's anyone left not shot, try asking a few questions."

            He handed each of us a gun.   Paul looked at it as though it were a potato.  He'd never even held a gun before.  Raul seemed to notice this too.

"Do you two know anything about firing one of these?" he asked, clearly believing the answer was no.  At that moment, I was so glad I'd been blowing my money for years on those arcade games.  I immediately turned and fired at all the targets, hitting each of them almost dead center.

"I know a bit." I said smugly.

"Okay then." he said, looking at me, impressed. "You both report to me for three hours of training a day.  Dufrene also has some training for you, if there's anything left of you when I'm done."

            He left the room after that, leaving us alone with the targets and plenty of ammunition.  Well, plenty for a normal person.  This is me we're talking about after all.

"So, what do you think about all this?" Paul asked as we began target practice.  Well, I was doing target practice.  Paul was just trying to get the gun to fire in the direction he wanted it to.  He was doing a good job of hitting the wall so far.  Which would have been good, except for the fact that he was aiming for the targets.

"What's to think about?  I get to be a secret agent.  What could be better?"

"We'll be risking our lives almost daily."

"You can get killed just walking down the street, Paul." I replied, loading my gun again. "I don't see what the big deal is."

"We might have to kill people." he continued.

"Kill or be killed." I said, firing again. "Law of the jungle."

"That's eat or be eaten."

"Big difference." I replied. "Better than working in a knife shop my whole life.  At least my life has a purpose now."

"Point taken." Paul conceded. "What do you think about your parents then?"

"Nothing." I replied, firing another shot.

"Nothing?"

"Is there an echo in here?  Yes, nothing."

"How can you say nothing?  They were your parents, even if they were Astria agents."

"Look, Paul, they didn't care about me, so why should I care about them?" I snapped. "They're dead, and gone, and I.  Don't.  Care.  Understand?"

"All right, all right." He replied. "So, how come you didn't tell me your real name was Janet?"

            One of these days, I'm just going to beat the Hell out of him, I thought. 

"Because I didn't know." I replied coolly.

"How couldn't you?" Obviously, Paul couldn't tell this wasn't a subject I wanted to discuss.  Sometimes I thought nothing short of a sledgehammer could get through to him.

"Because I was abandoned." I snapped angrily. "They left me on the doorstep of an orphanage in the middle of the night, with no letter or anything.  I wasn't even three yet, and they just abandoned me, okay?  Happy now?"

"Jeesh, sor-ry." Paul said.  I sighed softly and turned away.

"Sorry." I apologized, which was a rare thing for me to do.  "Its just...finding out they were Astria agents, and knowing how they just...dumped me."

"Hey, its ok." he said soothingly, placing his hand on my shoulder.  I turned to look at him, smiling slightly. "If it bothers you that much, I won't bring it up again.  Promise."

"Thanks." I said, with a small smile.

"Besides," he said, grinning. "If I piss you off, I'll never figure out how to reload this thing."

"Come on." I laughed, leading him towards the ammunition. "I'll show you how."

***********

            The next morning, at the God awful hour of six, we were gathered in the Situation room once again.  Sprok was going to be filling us in on the disease that Astria was using for their bioweapon.  Paul, being the annoying morning person he was, was wide awake.  I was slouched over in my chair, half asleep.  Sprok walked in, carrying the lava lamp from his office.  Dufrene was right behind him.  Paul nudged me back into consciousness as Dufrene sat down.  Sprok set his lava lamp on the table and turned to the computer panel, bringing up information on one of the monitors.  Some sciencey looking stuff appeared on the monitors and Sprok turned back to us.

"Please take a seat, and allow me to explain the effects of Amadoria Syndrome." Sprok said, apparently not noticing we were already sitting down.

            One of the monitors showed what looked like a DNA strand.  I couldn't be sure.  Science had never been my strong point in school.  Come to think of it, school had never been my strong point in school.  Sprok motioned to it as he began speaking.

"Amadoria Syndrome is caused by the presence of a dangerous protein in the blood of the victim." he began. "This protein is called pneumonelectramicroscoposiliconvasculardeoxycardionitrousconiosynthetic acid, or P.E.M.S.V.D.C.N.C.S.A. for short."

            Paul and I exchanged a glance, both of us wondering how in the Hell he had managed to pronounce something like that.

"Now, as some of you know, the heart contains four chambers, with specialized valves separating the chambers.  Similar versions of these valves are also found in your veins."  Sprok continued.  One of the monitors showed a computer generated model of these valves he was talking about. "Both types serve to prevent backflow of the blood.  As you may have guessed from the name, the foreign protein eats away at these valves, allowing at first a small amount of blood to flow backwards, and eventually total reversal of blood flow."

"Does this guy speak English?" I muttered to Paul.  He just shrugged.

"If this protein is so dangerous, why doesn't the body's immune system counteract the effects, or at least debilitate the protein?" Dufrene asked, though I had the sense he was only asking this question for our benefit.

"God, there's two of them." I muttered under my breath.

"Well, the protein seems to act as a bull in a china shop." Sprok explained. "It disguises itself as a normal protein to prevent its destruction."

"How is that like a bull in a china shop?" Paul asked, as confused as I was by that analogy.

"The bull might be wearing a mask..." Sprok said, as though this should have been obvious.  There was a moment of confused silence, and Sprok glanced at his lava lamp.

"Very good question, Geoffrey." Sprok said, apparently speaking to the lamp. "There are three stages of symptoms.  The first is caused by the beginning of the backflow of the blood, and is characterized by low blood pressure, shivering, paleness, and dizziness.  The second is caused by an overreaction of the medulla oblongata to these effects, causing rapid heartbeat, sweating, hyperventilation, weakness, and rapid blinking.  The third stage, some would say the most painful stage, begins when the heart explodes and th-"

"EXPLODES?!" Paul and I cried in unison.

"Yes, it creates a two foot blast radius of blood." Sprok said, making a circle about that size with his hands. "It's actually very beautiful if it isn't happening to you."

"Isn't there an antidote or something?" Paul asked.

"We're not sure actually.  We think your father may have at least been on the verge of a treatment.  Over the years, we've developed only a little in the way of treating this, certainly nothing that could help victims of the bioweapon." he explained. "However, whether he knew more than we did or not, we'll never know.  He could have known more than Astria about the disease for all we know.  But he sealed everything in his computer files before he died, with more security than even you can get through, Paul.  Astria, however, would do anything to get their hands on the password to those files, including mur-"

            Sprok was interrupted by the door opening.  A lab assistant stepped inside, looking slightly frantic.

"Dr. Spock!" he said.

"That's SPROK." he said impatiently. "S-P-R-O-K!"

"Sorry..." the assistant said meekly. "Sprok, you're needed in surgery.  The Delta team had an injury on their reconnaissance mission."

"Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not an-.....oh....." he trailed off.  He looked at the rest of us. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I must be going."

"But you're not done telling us about the disease." Dufrene said.

"Elyk, I find that my patients don't have much patience, and so if my patients think that I have too much patience, I'll find that I won't have many patients at all.  So have patience."  Sprok left with the lab assistant before we had a chance to figure that one out.  Dufrene looked a bit dumbfounded.

"Fifteen years I've known that guy, and he never ceases to amaze me." Dufrene sighed, sitting back in his chair.

"What a strange person." Paul commented.

"You said it." I added. "Bull in a china shop?  What is he on and where can I get some?"

*********

            As Paul and I came to find out, these people had no concept of weather.  They made us do training session in rain or shine.  No matter what the temperature.  We found this out after about two weeks of training.  Raul and Dufrene had us out in the pouring rain, doing push-ups.  I was actually doing pretty well.  Throwing knives for years had given me pretty good arm strength.  But still, we'd been doing them so long Arnold Schwarzenegger would have collapsed.  Paul was much worse off.  That's what you get for being a computer geek.  Thankfully, he hadn't started complaining yet.

"Keep going." Raul barked at us.

"Its pouring, can't we go in yet?" Paul muttered.  Spoke too soon, I thought bitterly.

"Is that complaining I'm hearing?" Dufrene asked, walking towards us.

"Nice going, Paul." I hissed.

"How are they doing?" Dufrene asked Raul casually.

"Pathetic." Raul replied. "We've only been out here three hours and already they're complaining."

"Hmm." Dufrene said, staring down at us.  He seemed to be considering something. "Give them another hour, then let then do some running."

"Nyeh." I groaned, collapsing into the mud.

"Di, you okay?" Paul asked, as Dufrene and Raul continued talking to each other.

"Why?  Do I look like I am?"

"Cut the chit chat!" Raul barked at us. "Back to push up, let's go.  And as soon as you finish this, you get to do some running."

"I'm going to die." Paul muttered under his breath.

"Yes, you will.  Because if you don't stop complaining, I'm going to kill you." I told him.

********

            I had never been so glad to be indoors.  Nor had I ever been so tired.  Because of Paul's complaining, we'd gotten to run for almost three hours.  We had barely been able to make it back into the complex.  We hadn't eaten all day, so we'd somehow managed to get down to the galley.

"I am so glad I can't feel my legs right now, because they'd probably be killing me if I could." I moaned, leaning against the doorway.

"This makes army boot camp seem like summer camp." Paul said, sinking into a chair. "Ah, it feels so good to sit down.  You should too, Di."

"Oh my God."

"What?"

"I thought I was sitting down." I said, stumbling over to the table.  I sank into the chair and let my head drop onto the table.

"Just think.  We get to do this again tomorrow." Paul pointed out.

"Nnng."

"I'm starving, but I don't think I can get up to get food.  Do you?" he asked, waiting for an answer. "Di?  Diane?"

            But I had already fallen asleep.

"Someone has the right idea." Paul chuckled, shutting off the light as he left.

**************************************************************

"Diane." Paul said, shaking my shoulder. "Di, wake up."

"Go away."

"Dufrene wants us for a meeting." he replied, forcing me to sit up.

"No.  Just let me die here." I moaned.

"Come on, get up." he said, making me stand up.  I was still in the chair I had fallen asleep in the previous night.

"You obviously don't understand how this works." I said. "You leave, I sleep.  Not very difficult to understand."

            Nevertheless, I ended up following Paul to the Situation Room.  We had hardly sat down when Dufrene appeared.

"All right." he began, bringing something up on his computer. "You get to meet the enemy today."

"What do you mean?" Paul asked.  One of the monitors was now showing a young blond woman wearing sunglasses and a trench coat.  The picture wasn't the best quality in the world, but you were at least able to make out what she looked like.

"This is Scorpia." Dufrene began. "She's the Head of Astria.  This is one of the few pictures we've ever been able to get of her.  She mostly stays within the Astria main complex, wherever the Hell that is."

"She doesn't look very dangerous." Paul commented.  I had to admit, he was right.  She was thin, not too tall from the looks of the photo.  Typical cheerleader type actually.

"Oh, she's dangerous all right.  Scorpia is ruthless." Dufrene replied. "Even to her own agents.  She'll use any force necessary to get what she wants."

"So, what?" I asked. "She just decided she wanted to take over the world, so she started this Astria group to build a bioweapon?"

"Oh, no." Dufrene replied. "She didn't found Astria.  She took it over."

            Another monitor now showed an older man with graying hair.

"This is the original founder of Astria, Donovan.  He founded Astria to secretly infiltrate governments, and sell secrets to the highest bidders." he continued. "Scorpia had other ideas though.  She was his second in command at the time.  She killed him, and took over, immediately starting work on her idea for a bioweapon."

"Someone is in dire need of therapy." I commented.

"Scorpia trains her agents to be as ruthless as she is.  But she knows we'd like nothing more than to take her out.  Hence why she's rarely ever in public." Dufrene explained.

"Smart girl." I commented. "Sounds like a bitch, but she's smart."

"That about sums everything about her up." Dufrene said with a half smile.