Squad Crux
Unity HQ was the largest and most impressive building in the subdivision. It was located at the very back of the area and towered over everything in front of it. The Unity Commander's office was on the seventh floor while the rest of the building dealt with the day-to-day operations that the program required. The new unit was meeting on the third floor and consisted of the fifteen trainers that had completed the required seven years of preparation. When Bryant, Alex, and Ed had arrived there were only a few people there, so they decided to kill the time by throwing Alex's football around.
"Alex, go long!" Ed shouted.
He threw the ball across the room and she easily caught it. For a moment, Bryant wondered if they were disturbing the other trainers who were already there and the ones who were arriving. The room was spacious enough to where all three groups had their own sections. The Heaven trainers were all seated to the far right while the Abyss trainers were slouched against the far left area of the room. That gave the Earth trainers the entire middle section.
"Alright, Bry!" Alex yelled. "Catch!"
She threw the ball and Bryant staggered back in an attempt to catch it. However, he stopped when he hit his back against what felt like a brick wall. He whirled around to see a large and muscular man in sunglasses. His head was shaved which only highlighted his bushy reddish-brown eyebrows even more. The man held up the football as he looked down at the teenager who had just bumped into him.
"Coach V!" Bryant started. "I-"
"I don't want to hear it Macallister," the coach interrupted. "Just give me an apology and ten pushups."
"Fine," Bryant sighed. "I'm sorry I bumped into you."
Coach V arched an eyebrow. "I don't care about you bumping into me. I'm angry at the fact that you missed that perfectly good pass. You know I taught you better than that!" He glanced over at Alex. "Excellent throw, Brandt!"
"Thanks, Coach!" Alex shouted back before grinning at Bryant.
"Saaaa! Saaaaan!"
"It's not funny, Sandslash..." Bryant grumbled as he went down to the floor to do his pushups. Sandslash did not cease laughter until his trainer had finished and made his way over to Alex and Ed.
"Alright!" Coach V called out as he retrieved some papers out of his gym bag. "Everyone, take your seats. I'm going to go over some stuff with you and then you'll be assigned to your squads."
This was the moment that everyone had been waiting for. Bryant could see that Ed had started breathing heavily and there was no doubt how nervous he was. Alex tried to comfort him, but it did not seem to be helping much. Bryant turned his attention to the other two Earth trainers. Laura Greenland was a mutual friend of Bryant, Alex, and Ed and seemed to be completely calm. The other trainer was Nea Parry and the only thing that Bryant really knew about her was that her brother, Dillon, was a new Heaven trainer. He wondered if they would end up on the same team.
"As you know," the coach continued. "The Unity program is about helping those in need. It is also about learning how to work with others. In your initial training, you learned how to work with people similar to you. Now, you'll learn how to work with those who are different than you are. You'll live with them, bond with them, and go on missions with them. Speaking of missions, the more you go on, the more rewards you'll get. Every time that you successfully complete a mission, you will earn credits. How many credits you receive depend on the type of mission and how well you completed it. Get enough credits and you are eligible to move up from Fire rank to Ice rank and then eventually to Lightning rank like yours truly. I know most of you already know all this, but I'm required to go over it. Anyway, let's get this show on the road..."
He went over to the computer and scanned the paper that was in his hand. Bryant watched in anticipation as the names began to appear on the screen. Once the computer was finished scanning, everyone turned their attention to the names that had come up.
Squad Corvus: Dillon Parry – Ed Gaffer – Ryder Flynn
Squad Crux: Lydia Brown – Bryant Macallister – Darena Fordos
Squad Lynx: Glenn Morrow – Alex Brandt – Jude Lancaster
Squad Octans: Blake Memoria – Nea Parry – Mason Acceller
Squad Vela: Ariella Walker – Laura Greenland – Hana Huang
"I don't want to hear any complaints," Coach V stated before anyone could even utter a word. "Get with your squad members, chat for a bit, and then head up to the commander's office to receive further instructions."
Alex's Heaven partner was the first to approach the group. Glenn was a friendly looking young man with dark blue eyes and dirty blonde hair styled into a faux hawk. Bryant could remember playing sports with him on a few occasions.
"Looks like we're teammates, Alex," he said with a smile. "Shall we meet with our Abyss partner?"
"Why not?" she replied. "Wait a sec...isn't our Abyss partner the guy who likes fire?"
"Yeah..." Glenn said as he averted his gaze. "He's the one..."
"Good luck..." Bryant and Ed said in unison.
Alex simply shrugged her shoulders and followed Glenn over to meet their third partner. Almost immediately, Bryant and Ed were approached by a brown-haired young man with forest green eyes and tanned skin. He glanced at Bryant dismissively before turning his attention to Ed.
"Dillon, right?" Ed asked.
"Right," the young man finished. "And your name is Ed, correct? I think our Abyss team member is the guy with the Umbreon. Let's go introduce ourselves."
Ed looked over at Bryant who have him a reassuring smile. He reluctantly followed Dillon over to the Abyss section and Bryant decided that he would seek out his partners instead of waiting for them to come to him. He motioned Sandslash to follow him and the two made their way over to where the Heaven trainers had been sitting.
"Remember that we need to be polite," Bryant told his companion. "I...I..."
It was utterly impossible for him to finish his sentence with Lydia Brown smiling directly at him. Bryant always thought she was pretty, but had never really paid much attention to her. She had a short, heart-shaped face and blonde hair that she styled into romantic curls. Her bangs were cut thick straight across her forehead making her already large blue eyes look even larger. Lydia was a good deal shorter than he was which only became more apparent the closer he got to her.
"Hi, Bryant!" she greeted politely. "I know it's going to be great being on a squad with you."
"Yeah, same here," Bryant managed to reply. He gazed down and saw that she had a Pokémon nestled in her arms. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a Dedenne. The small mouse stared at Bryant in confusion and then looked up at his trainer.
"Dedenne, this is one of our new partners," Lydia told him. "His name is Bryant."
"Hey there, little guy," Bryant greeted.
Dedenne paid Bryant no further attention. He hopped out of his trainer's arms and boldly approached Sandslash. The smaller Pokémon sized him up as Bryant watched the scene unfold. For his part, Sandslash appeared to be utterly confused.
"Please don't go making any trouble," Lydia said to Dedenne as she scooped him up. "Bryant and Sandslash are our teammates."
Bryant suddenly ran a hand through his dark brown hair, something he often did when he was trying to remember something. He quickly realized that they had yet to meet up with their Abyss partner. Unlike with Lydia, Bryant hardly knew anything about Darena Fordos. He had seen her a few times over the years, but they had no reason to ever associate until today. The other teams had already started leaving and Bryant tried to remember what the Abyss girl even looked like. The only thing he could remember was that she had bright red hair and something else that had to do with her eyes.
"Coach V!" Bryant called out. "What's the deal? Where's our partner?"
"Late," the coach replied. "Head on to the commander's office and I'll send her up there when she shows up."
"Understood," Bryant said.
He recalled Sandslash to his poké ball and Lydia did the same with Dedenne. The two of them made their way towards the door and Bryant only barely managed to avoid it being suddenly swung open on his face. She was almost as tall as he was. He saw the long, bright red hair, lightly tanned skin, and a blue-green right eye. The girl turned to look at Bryant and the moment he saw the eyepatch covering her left eye, he instantly recognized her.
"Nice jacket, Brian," she told him, obviously not caring about the fact that she had almost broken his nose when she had entered. "Looks good on you."
"Bryant," he corrected. "But thanks for the compliment, Darena. Um, cool...poncho? That's a poncho you're wearing, right?"
"You two can exchange fashion tips later," Coach V barked. "Get your butts to the commander's office."
"Whatever you say, Coach," Darena replied coolly.
Bryant frowned. He knew that had he been late, he would have had to do at least thirty pushups. He was almost always held to a higher standard than everyone else because of his last name and as unfair as it was, there was little he could do about it short of carving out his own identity which he intended to do. The new squad left the room and entered one of the elevators at the end of the hall.
"Why were you late anyway?" Bryant asked curiously as he pressed the button and the metal doors shut behind them.
"I took a nap," Darena told him, never losing her lax grin as she removed her poncho. "And then I woke up and ate a lemon. So yeah, I was off doing some pretty important things. Not that it's any of your business, jock boy."
"Well..." Lydia added. "It's nice to meet you regardless. I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun working together."
Darena turned to the shorter girl and sniffed. "Um, sweetie, who are you?"
"You know," Bryant started as he resisted the urge to slap his forehead. "If you would have made it to HQ on time, we probably could have all been properly introduced."
She ignored him and waited for Lydia to answer her question. Bryant stared at the redhead, trying to think what to make of her. Darena had not exactly made a good first impression and he wondered if it was his own bias that was clouding his judgment or if it was just her personality in general that was setting him off. She seemed to intimidate Lydia a bit, but Bryant found her more irritating than scary. Still, he knew it would be best not to antagonize her anymore for the team's sake.
"I'm Lydia Brown," Lydia told Darena in a kind voice. "I'm the Heaven trainer on this squad."
"That much I could pretty much tell," Darena remarked.
Bryant actually had to agree with her on that. The three of them did look like the standard for their classifications with Lydia in her pretty, pale blue dress, Darena in her short, black tank top and gray shorts, and Bryant in his brown t-shirt and green army jacket. Furthermore, they even acted like standard Heaven, Earth, and Abyss trainers, but Bryant figured that was because it was the first time they were truly in the same vicinity for longer than a few minutes. He knew that there would be more sides to his two new teammates. After all, he, Alex, and Ed were all Earth trainers, but were still three completely different people.
"We're finally here," he said as the metal doors opened. The three of them stepped out of the elevator. "Time to go see the commander..."
A/N: And it looks like we have our squads. Off to a bit of a rocky start for Squad Crux at least, but who knows what could happen. Next chapter, we're going to start exploring more P. so it'll likely be longer than this one and we'll also start seeing more of the other squads in the coming chapters. But anyway, as always, thanks for reading!
Until next time!
