Training Grounds
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Emil was near the end of the line of cadets waiting to take the ODM gear aptitude test watching his fellow cadets intently as he slowly moved up in the line. There were few that, with some luck and immense effort seemed to be able to pull it off, and then there were even more that seemed to have no hope at all, falling flat on their faces as they were hoisted into the air. The resounding clunks of skulls meeting the dirt was far more prevalent than that of the cheers of fellow cadets when someone barely managed to scrape by, and as Emil neared the front of the line many of the cadets ahead of him were taking on anxious looks as they eyed the machines with fear and their fellow cadets who ahd already passed with what Emil could only imagine was jealousy directed toward their already being done.
He had watched in awe as one of the cadets seemed to remain motionless once hoisted up, barely swaying back and forth as remained suspended in the air.
"Amazing..." Emil said aloud as he watched from the back of the group. The boy was let down and unhooked before being swamped by a few of the other cadets waiting in line on how he managed to do so well. Emil couldn't help but smile as the boy seemed to make an escape from the rabid group of cadets into the safety of the larger core group of the cadets.
He moved his attention back to the line, which had moved up quite quickly since he started paying attention to the other cadets test. Now next in line Emil stood nervously, shifting his feet as he watched the cadet in front of him being slowly lifted into the air before reeling forward. Emil couldn't help but to close his eyes as the boy smashed his face into the hard ground below him with a sickening thud. The brief moment over, Emil opened his eyes to watch as a few of the other Instructors rushed over to the seemingly unconscious boy and unhooked him from the harness. They pulled him away from the machine, leaving a bright trail of crimson as they did, before Emil was called forward,
"Alright let's see what the our very own criminal Midget can do! Burton get the fuck up there!" called Schulz as he waved Emil toward the closest machine.
Silently Emil jogged to the machine, raising his arms for the two cadets that were working it to hook his harness up,
'Oh this is going to suck.' Emil thought as he gave a thumbs up to the cadet on the crank. Emil closed his eyes, listening to each tick of the crank and trying not to focus too hard on the new found tightness of the harness as it was pulled taught while he anxiously waited to meet the ground. A few moments passed of the constant clicking of the crank before it stopped.
"Is something wrong? The crank not working?" Emil asked as he opened his eyes,
"What's the ho--" he stopped his words as he looked below him, the ground now firmly out of reach.
"NO FUCKING WAY MIDGET!" yelled Schulz as he approached the machine at a brisk pace,
"Here I thought we'd only have one cadet that barely broke a sweat doing this but I guess we've got two now! Just how in the world are you so goddamn good at this!?".
Emil still couldn't figure out what exactly was going on as he hung in the air, the motion of the winch the only thing that had him barely swinging in place. But then it struck him, he'd spent most of his teenage years running from angry people, sure they had good reason to be angry, but angry nonetheless. The boys at the orphanage had taught him how to run from angry people. Through crowds, down alleys, and most importantly
across rooftops. He thought for a moment as he blocked out the yelling coming from Schulz on all the times he had leaped off of buildings, from rooftop to rooftop, and found himself falling unexpectedly. The sensation he was experiencing now wasn't all that different, familiar even.
"I guess being a criminal pays off Sir!" Emil yelled in response to Schulz question.
With his answer given Schulz motioned to the recruits at the machine to let him down, the feeling of being lowered now much more noticeable to Emil with his eyes open. He hit the ground with his feet and immediately undid the hooks on his belt before starting to walk for the cadet group. Much like the boy before him had been unexpectedly bombarded by nervous cadets, Emil found himself in the same position. He waved away the questions and smiled, simply stating that it was luck he did so well as he walked toward the main group, leaving the disheartened cadets behind.
Following the ODM aptitude test the group of cadets, regardless of whether or not they actually passed the test, were ushered to a training field where they were quickly run through the basics of hand-to-hand combat and the essentials of a take-down. Any good feelings that Emil had had left over from the ODM test were instantly wiped away as he watched the moves, 'There's no way I can manage these.' he thought as he looked at the cadets around him, many of the larger than him.
They were paired off with similarly sized cadets and sent to work. His partner was a red head, slightly taller than himself and by the looks of it probably stronger.
'Great.' he thought as they were given the okay to begin by the instructors.
The girl he was paired off with, Mora, gave him a smile to which Emil returned a warm smile and raised a hand in a friendly wave,
"Hi, I'm Emi--" his words cut short as the girl burst into action. She rushed directly at him, seemingly ready to punch.
'Fuck.' Emil thought as he tried to back away from the girl to place distance between himself and her fist, but it was too late. Emil braced for the punch but was surprised to find himself instead experiencing something he was rather used to, he was falling sideways on his right side for the ground.
He lowered his right arm parallel to the ground and reached his left hand out for the ground as it came up to meet him, as his hand connected with it Emil pushed hard at the ground and rolled back over himself as quickly as he could, finishing the roll on his feet and rising.
"Alright then." Emil said with a small smile as he angled himself to the girl and shaking his leg out where hers had met it.
Watching Mora closely he decided to play defense and instead react to the girl, as she obviously had no problem going on offense.
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