One of a Million
By:Ajii
Disclaimer: I Don't own anything except my plot, don't rub it in.
A/N: Ok so I know I should be updating Flights and Frights, but I got a little stuck. And this idea has been on my mind for the past couple of days. Enjoy!
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The group of talons were training in a field, you had to work hard to take over the world. About 50 talons were lined up in ten rows of five, each one going through the motions that the captain shouted out from the front of the group, his eye scanning each one.
"Combination three," he barked at the group. They immediately snapped into the motions calling out as they went. "Lunge, parry, overhead swing, block!"
The groups ages ranged from teens as young as thirteen to men and women in their late thirties. Aside from their approximate ages there wasn't much to tell one apart from another.
They all had the same uniforms, the same helmets and goggles, and the same energy staffs. The only difference was a small number printed on the front of their uniforms, not that it mattered much to the small figure watching them through binoculars from a tree, standing a reasonable distance away.
She couldn't help wondering. Who were these people? What were there thoughts and feelings? What did they do in their time off? But most importantly, why did they join the cyclonians? Hundreds of questions swirled through her mind. She was determined to find some answers.
Shaking off her thoughts, she returned to taking notes of the talons. There was something going on. Apparently, one of the talons, about fourteen years old, overstepped his (or her) lunge, falling into the talon in front of him. That talon in turn lost his footing knocking over another one.
This started a domino effect until half of them were sprawled in the dust. All of them glaring at the one who started it all.
"Who caused this?" roared the captain. All the talons immediately pointed at the younger one. The captain stomped over to him and hauled the young talon up by his collar.
"The rest of you can finish up your training for the day with a five mile run," he yelled"
" As for you," here he peered at the talons number, " 1331, you can run the course. In under ten minutes, of course."
He dragged the unfortunate recruit to the start of a horridly awful looking obstacle course. The person watching the talons winced, she felt sore just looking at the thing.
The captain pulled out a stop watch, and shouted, "GO!"
The talon ran onto the muddy obstacle course sprinting as fast as he could.
About halfway through the course the young talon slipped in the mud right in front of a tangle of barbed wire that he was about to climb under. The wire caught the luckless talon on his cheek, leaving a deep gash.
Stunned, he sat on the muddy ground, and slowly reached up to the deep gash on his cheek. The furious captain stormed over to the talon and insisted that he start the course all over again.
This time he completed it without incident, then came to stand in front of the captain. "Now recruit, go join the rest of your group on the five mile run, then report for clean up duty in the mess hall."
The young talon managed to snap of a sharp salute before tiredly setting off on the long run, knowing all that waited for him at the end of it was clean up duty.
The watcher waited for the captain to leave before slowly climbing down from the tree. Looking up at the setting sun, she realized she had stayed longer then she meant to. The guys would be worried, and probably bombard her with never ending questions about where she had been.
Mounting her heliscooter Piper flew off toward the condor. Unaware of the weary young talon watching her while he stumbled through his run. The gash on his face stinging from the sweat.
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A/N: So did you like it, hate it, what? Next chapter up in a few days. Review!
Ok, about the title, I don't know if there really are a million talons or not, but this is my fic so I say there is.
Hint: Remember the young talon with the gash on her face.
See ya
-Ajii