"Brasil isn't going to quite make it...he looks malnourished" Princess said, staring at the boys

"hmm..well sometimes it's not about whose best...it's about whose hungrier...quite literally.." Cut throat said, eyeing the Brasilian boy staring up in fear at his Nigerian counterpart who was clearly older and physically better developed in comparison.

"What was he in for?" K.O. asked joining in on the conversation, Skinner looked down on his pad going through the papers

"Eduardo dos Santos – aged 16 he's got a long list of charges...mainly looks like theft, disorderly conduct, petty crimes..." Skinner said briefing through Eduardo's profile

"huh. Wonder why he got selected for C40.." K.O. asked amused

"Robbery you say? Maybe he has real quick fingers.." Cut throat replied

"Well well...we shall soon find out.." Princess replied.

The lights all went out at once, only the light of the monitors in the basement were beaming, and then suddenly the lights in the center of the basement went up, where all the boys were paired up, they stared up at the new light.

Then there was a mechanical type of sound from somewhere in the ground, the dark flooring of the basement opened up in the corner and a small table was rising up. It suddenly came to a stop , with the light illuminating on it, the contents of the table were clearly visible. The table was armed with numerous types of weapons. From knives, to bats, to other more sophisticated looking armour.

"You have 20 seconds to make your way to the table, grab something and come back to your original position...and from there, you must do whatever it takes to disarm your opponent ...you have 40 seconds to do that. If none of you have disarmed the other, you both fail and are automatically disqualified. If one of you has disarmed the other, then the one who was disarmed is automatically disqualified. There are no rules. We don't care how you do it, as long as you do it...Pay attention to the clock on the wall opposite you, it will show you the countdown..." Skinner pointed to a huge clock mounted onto the wall that read 60:00 in big red LED.

"May the best man win..." Cut throat said, while nodding to Skinner.

Suddenly a loud buzz sound shrilled in the basement, and the timer on the clock suddenly started counting down.

The boys stared at each other for a fraction of second, before all of them started running to the table.

Cut throat watched with anticipation, from his experience he knew that this preliminary round wasn't about strength. In fact there was no standard to how a C40 should look, they could come in all shapes and sizes, and they could be pretty young as well.

He watched in curiosity at the Brasilian against the Nigerian....that was the most mismatched pairing of all. The Nigerian boy had gone for a big bat, he was swinging it around at the small Brasilian, but from his view it was difficult to see whether the Brasilian kid had anything in his hands at all, he just kept ducking the swings of the Nigerian.

"What's the kid doing?" K.O. asked staring at the pair "it looks like he didn't take any weapon?"

"hmmm..." cut throat said, trying to verify

He turned to look at the American versus the Russian, they seemed to be the most well matched pair. More or less same age group , same build, it was hard to call this one out...

"What was the American in for?" He asked Skinner, Skinner turned down to look at his notes again "James Smith.....Gang related activities..."

"And the Russian?"

"Mikael Petrov....looks like he's linked to the drug cartel.."

"So basically they are the perfect match for each other.." K.O. said, looking at them

With only 40 seconds left to go, it was clear there was desperation starting to loam around the young boys. To Cut Throat's surprise the young Brasilian had opted not to get a weapon, he was focused on ducking the Nigerien's bat, and he was pleasantly surprised to note how quick the little guy was.

"Check the Korean and the Jap..." K.O. distracted Cut throat from his match, he turned to focus on the Korean match. His eyes lit up, he understood what K.O. had meant, now this was a pair that had what you could call that IT factor, both of them were slim built, not that tall either, but they were really fighting as though their life depended on it.

"Beautiful isn't it?" k.o. said in awe. For sure there was blood being spilt on both sides, but it was clear that these two had something which the C40 not only sought after ....the C40 spent painstaking time to develop. They had warrior traits in them, which clearly set them apart from the rest.

"Well...it's not surprising, both Japanese and Korean societies historically are both warrior societies....so to speak it is literally in their blood" Princess added on, making small notes in his pad, as he watched the match with mild interest.

Cut throat turned his attention again onto the most mismatched pair, with only 10 seconds to go, it was hard to see how Brasil was ever going to disarm his opponent and of course Nigeria didn't have to do much since Brasil opted for no weapon at all...However just as Cut throat was turning his attention elsewhere, he saw for a fraction of a second from the corner of his eyes a small unique movement.

Swiftly and suddenly the small Brasilian kid swung himself across the Nigerian counterpart till he was on his back, taking both Cut throat and K.O. surprise, and with what seemed the most gentle pressure he easily flicked the bat away from the Nigerian guy, just as the buzzer slammed down.

"STOOOOOOOOOPPP !" Skinner shouted out loud. And suddenly yet again there was pin drop silence.

"Most of you ....as expected have not been able to complete the task at hand...I will call out your name...and you will step forward..." Skinner said. Cut throat looked at the young guys, most of them looked around scared...in realization that they may have just lost their only last chance.

"Philippines and Colombia...it is safe to say...neither one of you disarmed your opponent..you have been disqualified.."

"Wh-what ! What does that mean ! ...where are you..." Ricky started yelling as the guards dressed in black started handcuffing him, he started moving violently, when suddenly there was a small buzz noise and Ricky fell onto the floor yelping in pain gripping his ankle where there was a bracelet attached

"Like I had said earlier....this was your last chance at ...retribution...no one wants you...your country certainly doesn't want you ...and neither do we..." Cut throat said quietly to the young guy on the floor. The guards put a black pillow case around him and the Colombian, taking them both away through the same way they came.

"ladies, can we please just get on with it huh? " Princess said, impatiently tapping his heels onto the floor as he put a line through the table on his pad which read Philippines vs Colombia

Skinner rolled his eyes "Egypt vs France...both out" he said, as the guards came again to collect the pair, this time there was less resistance. Princess again scratched through a row on his pad

"South Africa, Netherlands, Germany, Namibia, ...all out" Skinner said, as the guards dragged these young men out of the basement,

"Korea vs. Japan...Please step forward.." Skinner said again, the two young boys stepped forward with gashes and cuts all across their face. "it is evident that neither one of you was successful in disarming the other..." They both looked down in anticipation...Skinner turned to look at Cut Throat "However...we did like what we saw...you have both made it past this preliminary round to the C40.." Cut Throat replied.

"un huh...oh I too Lhoveed what I saw...honey boo boo.." princess replied winking at the two of them.

"USA vs. Russia...clearly USA was the winner here, sorry to say Mikael Petrov but you have been disqualified" Skinner finished, as the Russian was dragged off by the guards

"India vs. Pakistan...it was a close match...but unfortunately not close enough for you Pakistan...you have been disqualified...and for you Vikram Patel..congratulations..you made it to the C40 preliminary round .." Vikram stared up in surprise at Skinner as though he may have heard wrong, whereas his counterpart started to shudder as the black pillowcase was placed upon his face.

"Last but not least...Brasil vs. Nigeria...it's obvious...who disarmed who...sorry Nigeria..you have been eliminated..." Skinner said as the little Brasilian boy stared up in surprise with wonder and awe written all over his face. Most of the guards had left with the eliminated boys, and it was just a small group left. "So what does this mean...?" Eduardo asked cautiously "What is the C40.."

"That is really an excellent question young man.." Cut throat said walking around the basement

"Think of C40...as your new family...the family that is going to help you focus your aggression into leadership...think of C40 as your retribution...you were on a path to becoming a very dangerous and bad person in civilian life.....that's actually one of the reasons you are here...but C40 is going to be the place that is going to be able to channel this aggression...and change it into a powerful resource that you can use to get past the hardships of your previous life...as of today...young man...you are about to see a whole new different side to the world..." Cut Throat ended.

"But that's it for today folks...tomorrow you will be born again..." K.O. said looking at his watch,

Cut Throat turned to look at Princess "I trust you will be taking our new recruits back with you.."

"I sure will boss.." Princess replied.

Cut throat, K.O. and Skinner made their way back into the larger than life elevator, "How is our C40 at Royal High doing? Hope he's managing to blend in well into the Environment..?" Skinner asked , K.O. smiled "he sure is blending in well...hidden in plain sight..no one suspects a thing..."

Cut throat turned to look at K.O. "Speaking of suspecting things...how is your lovely guest doing...hope she didn't see anything..?" he asked diplomatically. K.O. turned his phone and scrolled through smiling as he did, he turned the screen to show it to Cut Throat and Skinner "Sleeping beauty.." He said, there on the screen showed Leila in her room with the TV on, but she was fast asleep

"Err...wait...you have girls here ..?" Skinner asked in shock

"Correction.... I have A girl here.." K.O. said

"are you crazy? C40 has the most dangerous young boys on the planet here...and you have...that...just one floor up?!" Skinner asked

"Well...technically its 4 floors up..." K.O. finished, Skinner rolled his eyes turning to look at Cut Throat

" Are you aware of this ?" he asked, Cut Throat stared at his hands in the gloves "I sure am...trust me I've tried.."

"And what would happen to her if one of our recruits run lose and err... bumpsinto her ...these are hardened criminals might I add?!" Skinner asked exasperated.

"Well then I'll consider myself lucky that I have the most dangerous C40 right by my side then..." K.O. said beaming up at Cut throat.

Skinner rolled his eyes once again "This isn't a good idea...."

"You have camera's in her room....?" Cut throat asked frowning

"Why..Are you jealous?" K.O. reverted back cheekily. Can't say that I'm not, Cut throat thought to himself.

"So what you're a peeping tom ...is that it?" Skinner asked smiling at K.O.,

"it's not like that...." K.O. replied defensively

"Uh huh ...sure it isn't"

"I just have to check up on her from time to time...You can't say it doesn't come in handy.." K.O. said, shaking his phone in front of them.

And for the first time since the becoming of Cut Throat.....cut throat was lost in thought...she was a distraction...and although Xavier Johnston the school boy could afford to have distractions, Cut throat...was very dangerous man....he very much couldn't handle distractions such as her...

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