At that point, it didn’t take long before I gathered a small crowd in my home gym, and the five stooges—temporary title, of course—came in looking concerned about what I called them out here for.

It didn’t come as much of a surprise but their fifth man—I mean, their fifth woman was surnamed Williams, but she surprised me with the puffy curly afro she was hiding under her helmet when she took it off.

‘Looking closely, we’re all around the same age too, except for Brownie and Hooper, they’re probably older than me… Maybe not, we’ll see.’

She had the same African-American persuasion as Royo from the surface but her gray eyes—almost the same color as Artem’s—told me she was mixed blood just like me and a few others.

In any case, I shooed the crowd away because this group had enough of getting reprimanded with an audience. They seemed to have appreciated the thought but I then introduced myself like I would with any other group—especially around the same age as I am. Explore stories on

“‘Sup?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

I pretended to call Captain Davis on my radio, “Yo, Captain Davis, these five-man group protecting Ella’s not flying well with me, can I send them back—”

Lee instantly cut in, “W-What’s up, sir?”

I put down my radio and smiled, “Alright, Lee, you’re in charge of this group now—”

Tennyson, the most regular looking one cut in, “S-Sir, with all due respect, I’m leading—”

“Doesn’t look like it, no?”

“That’s… I was just being respectful of authority—”

“You say that but you let Brownie do his shit to me and Lee to speak for all of you? Where’s the leadership in that?”

“That’s—”

Lee cut in, “Sir, with all due respect, Tennyson’s the best one to lead but please understand that— as much as we’d hate to admit, we’re all pretty… pretty surprised about… you know, how this place is a-and all we could do is be on high alert. It’s overwhelming, to say the least, and we apologize for our actions…”

I turned to Tennyson, “See that?”

“Sir?”

“Can you do better than that? Better yet— I’m sorry, you and your group say you lead this team but tell me how because I can’t seem to see the reason why. You could’ve been the same as me before because I hate being the spokesperson, even now—sometimes, but it’s just something that I have to do.

But yeah, prove to me why you’re voted the leader of this group or else I’ll strip it off and give it to someone I can talk to.”

Tennyson looked down for a moment, making a slight gesture with his lips before turning back to me, “Sir, I’ve just been recently promoted to Sergeant—”

I waved him off, “I don’t care about ranks, even I don’t have an official one. So what? You’re Sergeant, they’re Corporals, Lance Corporals, or Private First Class— god forbid, a Private—”

Brownie cut in again, “What’s wrong with being a Private?! I’m promoted to Private First Class too, but—”

“Hold up Brownie, hold old are ya?”

“Haah? I’m twenty-two—”

“No fucking shot, you look like you’re pushing thirty!”

“HAAAAH?!”

I immediately facepalmed, “I get it now… the Admiral duped me again…”

Tennyson said, “Duped you?”

“Haaa… I’m expecting a Death Squad, you know? I guess it’s fine… No one would be able to touch Ella here anyways… especially when I’m here—”

Brownie cut in, “What makes you say that?!”

“Bitch— Judo’s the worst of my skillset and I threw you like a fucking bag of marshmallows. You can’t even do your job, much less, look like you’re doing it properly.”

“YOU—”

“Look, wearing full combat gear looks intimidating and it’ll scare off the dregs, sure, but you’re going at it the wrong way. Pop Quiz: Where’s the Chinook?”

Brownie answered, “Above the indoor gun range—”

“How far’s that from my compound?”

“Umm—”

“How many houses in between and how many people, soldiers, checkpoints, steps, drones, cameras, and guns you’d have to go through before you can “escape”? Hmm? Can you even get past the catwalk and my huge-ass gate with Ella struggling from your grasp? Can you even outgun my people? Can you shoot kids? Trust me, they’ll shoot you.

I trained them, they just don’t look like it.”

Everyone didn’t know how to react to that not-so-obvious lie.

‘Or is it?’

“That’s…”

I chuckled, “That’s not even the most important thing you missed. All that posturing is just gonna get you all hated by my people, or if you’re in another place, get you killed. So first off, I’d like it if you wear casual clothes and conceal carry then apologize to my people and Ella right after.

I’m sorry I’m this rough on you because I thought you were the real deal but I guess I’d lump you in with my trainees/cadets— Hmm… What if we do that, huh?”

Lee replied, “Do what?”

I smiled from ear to ear, “Hell Week.”

‘Maybe even Hell Month… Eheheh…’

“W-What’s that?”

“Something I just made up from saying I’d lump you in with JP and Marvin’s group so yeah… Basically, we’d lump you in the same group without any official rank and the top-scoring bitch-ass is gonna be the Baron.”

“Baron?”

“It’s something the military does here for the cadets and you’ll participate in it. And trust me, you’re gonna hate me, Tatiana, Oscar, Johnny, and everyone else that’d be putting you through hell. I guess I’ll make the Deweys join in as well but I’m expecting a lot from you five. We’ll start— no, I won’t tell you when we’ll start but when we do, you’ll definitely know it.

Complaints we’ll receive will just grant you more punishments, ya dig?”

With that said, I eventually dismissed the five—surprised I didn’t give them a beating—and they did come back wearing casual clothes and slightly concealing their sidearms, apologizing to everyone and hovering around Ella less and less.

But yeah, Rin came back looking for me:

“I’m sorry, but we still have more we’d need to take of…”