Hello! Welcome to the first chapter of Traitor! I've been working a little bit on this story, I'm refining some things, and also working on a new chapter. Like I said before, I've gotten a few chapters done already, but after that updates will be VERY slow. So, please be patient. Thanks!
- Splak R.
Thirteen Years Later
It felt so long ago.
Andrew's introduction to Jett Kingdom turned his world upside down, but he's definitely gotten used to it now that he's been here long enough. Since he met Tammy and Jett, he's been adjusting to his new life quite nicely.
Andrew joined the Jett Kingdom rankings when he was sixteen. Jett tried to be his main trainer, but his teaching methods weren't the best. He would always go by the age-old saying, "Do it again."
Tried as he did, Andrew could never get control of his powers in the small, dreary training room lined with the same purple bricks that surrounded the entire building.
"Do it again."
Andrew threw three Aura Spheres at the training bag. He meant to just knock it back a little, but the bag flew off of the stand. Andrew grumbled to himself, he could taste the sweat from his training. He went to put the bag back on the stand.
"Do it again."
That phrase got more irritating as time went on. He was sure Jett had a reason for it, but it was getting to him regardless. Following his order, Andrew tried once more to control his move. The same three Aura Spheres were thrown, but no progress was shown. The poor bag got flung off the rusty stand again.
After his unproductive training with Jett, Andrew would secretly join Tammy and Seb in their training.
"Now, breathe in..."
Andrew and Seb took in the breezy air of the garden. The sky was a bright blue in their training session. Riddled with flowers of all colors, the garden danced with the wind.
"And out."
Exhaling felt like a sigh of relief, releasing the pent up air in their lungs. Both the Lucario and Blaziken's minds were at ease.
"And... go."
They both rushed to their punching bag, giving it one blow each. The slightly rusty chains went flying off of the steel stand, almost interrupting the peace that the flowers were experiencing by landing on the soft grass.
"See how much more powerful you are when you're calm? Thankfully you didn't get the flowers... or else I would have to hear from the noble gardener, Kreg."
Now at nineteen, Andrew has become a respected officer, a rank which takes only sixteen positions. After that is Second Lieutenant, First Lieutenant (Which Seb is now), Captain, then Noble.
Andrew liked his Officer position, being able to motivate everyone in his squad. He got about six members, which every Officer gets. They would always go on runs as part of their training routine.
On their run, they would always be surrounded by trees, and thankfully, they provided a lot of shade. The dry dirt path had been trekked by many, whether it be training or just simply walking along. The runs would always take place in the morning, when the sun was waking up, so the shade was welcome from the side.
"Officer Andrew? When's the end to this run?" One of the soldiers asked, obviously tired.
"We got about a mile left. This'll be good for you, stamina is key when you're fighting."
"Ugh... I don't think I'm gonna make it..." Another soldier complained.
Andrew slowed his pace a little bit, falling behind to said soldier. "I'll run with you then. Having others to run with makes it easier." Andrew was honestly really tired, but he couldn't tell them that, that would make this run ten times more unbearable.
"Why do you baby us, Andrew? We're not children, you know. We're literally soldiers."
"I don't want you to be strong because of me. I want you to be strong because you want to be better. Besides, if I just drill sergeant you guys around, you'll be mindless rodents."
That put the soldiers in thought. Man, can he do anything more to get them hyped?
"Oh, and if you guys finish better than yesterday, I'll let you out for lunch early."
The soldiers all ran past Andrew, towards the finish line. He broke into a fit of laughter.
"Guys! Wait up!" Andrew called as he broke into a sprint.
Seb watched the sun rise at the finish line. Out of the four groups of seven, none had come yet. It was still kind of early, coming up on early finish times. He had a timer in his claw, and a rock in his other claw. "Geez, I hope they start getting here soon. Captain Grayson usually rips into everyone who didn't get here first."
As he finished his thought, he saw a group of soldiers ravenously rushing toward the finish line. Seb recognized them as Andrew's group. "Wait. They usually don't come for a few more minutes! How are they coming so quickly?!" Seb got his timer ready. As they crossed the finish line, Andrew followed suit not far behind.
Seb addressed them, "Wow. That's the fastest time I've seen out of y'all, 13:32 for three miles. Take a drink, you deserve it."
The soldiers replied with cheers.
"Hey, Andrew."
"What's up, Seb?"
"How did you get them to be so fast?"
"I might've said I'll let them out early if we get a good time."
"Oof... you know Grayson's not gonna like that. But, you've got the fastest time for this month."
"Yeah, I was regretting saying it, but they were getting really tired."
"Haha! So you made them more tired?"
Andrew replied with a shove.
"At least they get some rest now."
Captain Grayson strutted in, seeing Andrew's squad resting.
"Why are y'all just laying around? Stretch! Do something useful, dammit!" The Salamence barked.
"Captain, they got the fastest time this month," Seb chimed in.
"Really? Them? Lemme see that timer."
Grayson snatched the timer from Seb's claws.
"13:32? Bull. I don't believe it. Andrew's group is never that fast."
"Sir, I saw it with my own eyes."
"Sigh... fine. At least they made good time. I'm gonna yell at the others to get it in gear."
With that, the Salamence stomped down the track, soon running into Officer Sydney's group.
"LOOK OVER THERE! THEY ALREADY BEAT YOU! YOU'RE USUALLY THE FASTEST!"
The Zoroark Officer came running with her squad to the finish line.
"15:18. Nice job, as always." Seb dropped his rock.
"Huff... at least you're nice about it." Sydney said.
"Grayson always finds ways to make everyone feel at their worst."
"Yeah, it's the opposite of what any of us do. We make this platoon good and he takes all the credit."
"Good thing Grayson isn't with us right now," Andrew chimed in.
"Yeah, I honestly don't know how much more I can take from him, hearing his babbling all the time."
Tracey's squad came next, with a time of 16:49.
"Trace! Nice job!" Sydney complimented.
"My time yesterday was faster..." The Espeon replied.
"Maybe Grayson was getting to her back there." Seb thought.
"LET'S GO! HUP TWO HUP TWO HUP TWO! ARE YOU SERIOUSLY FALLING BEHIND, DAMIAN?! C'MON!"
"Speak of the devil..." Seb whispered to himself.
"Seb! What time did they get?" Grayson shouted as the last group crossed the finish line.
"Uh... 18:32, sir."
"18:32? That's over 6 minutes a mile. Which is ABOVE OUR STANDARD."
"Sigh... Let's go on to the obstacle course." Grayson directed them. The course itself was kind of rusty, with monkey bars, a wall climb, and a crawl under barbed wire. They went on with training, of course with Grayson yelling at them all the time. Seb tried to soften the blows a bit, but the Second Lieutenant Dante, an Alakazam, wasn't helping. He was doing exactly the same thing as Grayson.
"C'mon, guys. Just a bit further." Andrew said. His squad was doing good because of their long rest, but that only took them so far.
"Come on, Tracey, you're an officer! DO BETTER!" Grayson was now screaming at Tracey.
Her face didn't show any sign of emotion. She looked like wasn't taking Grayson's shouting very well.
"SEVEN SOLDIERS HAVE FINISHED BEFORE YOU! WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO STEP IT UP?!"
Seb came over and tried to calm Grayson down a bit, to no avail of course.
"Seb, this is something that needs to be addressed right now!"
Grayson continued, "WHY ARE YOU SO SLOW?! C'MON. TELL M- WHOA!"
The Salamence was thrown into the air. Everybody stared at Tracey, and she was using her psychic powers as a rebellious stunt. Everyone was scared about how Grayson would react. They could taste the dread in their mouths, and they could feel the coarse rust on their hands. As Grayson was thrown back onto the ground, everyone heard a sickening crack and a blood-curling scream as he landed on his wing.
"...I'm done. You guys do officer training after this. Someone clearly needs it," Grayson stormed off after that, not being able to fly.
Dante came, "Tracey, you and your squad go directly to Officer Training. You will get a time of an hour on this course."
Tracey just scoffed at the Alakazam. The Espeon and her squad went to the training ground.
"Please finish, everyone. If Jett sees an hour on our board, he shouldn't have to see another bad time," Seb addressed everyone.
Everyone listened, because they knew how powerful Jett was.
"I didn't know Tracey was that fed up with the Captain," One of Andrew's soldiers said.
"I know. He can be irritating, but I didn't know someone could break because of him," Andrew added.
Another soldier chimed in, "It's crazy! One night I saw Grayson in the bar, and he was chilled out! I have no idea what he does before our training sessions, but man does it get him grumpy!"
He practically shouted that whole phrase, so everyone told him to shush.
"Ok! That's everyone. Thankfully we didn't get a time over 20 minutes besides the hour. So let's move on to Officer Training," Seb led the group to the battleground.
The battleground was surrounded by the pale purple bricks that encompassed the entire facility. On the dirt, there were lines drawn to show battlefields. There were about 5 white battlefields on the powdery dirt. The sky was glistening down on everyone, the sun now radiating its light from a higher vantage point, along with a few clouds that gathered to see it.
Over in the corner, Tracey was bawling her eyes out silently. Sydney saw that and made her way over to her, trying her best to comfort her. "Go ahead and warm up, guys. I'll be a few minutes," Sydney said.
"Hey, I know you didn't mean to do any of that."
"But I did it anyway! I'll probably get killed for it! I've seen what Captain Grayson can do... I'm scared..."
Tracey was shaking at this point.
"I know... we all want Grayson gone. He doesn't know what we know about this program. It survives on motivation, and without that, we can't do anything. Sigh... He was instantly hired as a Captain because of his military experience. He didn't have to suffer through the ranks like the rest of us."
"Sniff... I still hate him. I don't regret what I did, I just fear of the consequences that come with it..."
"It's gonna be okay, Trace. You're gonna be fine."
Andrew got into a fighting stance. "Alright guys. It's training time. Use your conscience, and come at me with everything you've got."
"Alright. Here we come!" One soldier said.
Another jabbed him, "Don't say we're coming, he'll expect us now!"
Andrew saw them charge. The anticipation was building in his throat. Andrew fired an Aura Sphere. The impact threw 2 of them off their feet. The rest charged with a slash. Andrew jumped to dodge, and readied a Bone Rush. One soldier jumped with him. Andrew clashed and flurried with the soldier, leaving marks on both parties. Andrew won the clash with a bruise, and landed on the ground.
The other 2 still remained. Both of them slashed at Andrew, which caused his Bone Rush to go out. He panicked for a slight second, and got socked in the cheek. Andrew bounced back with a double Force Palm, and it was over.
"Phew... you guys are getting better everyday. You managed to land a couple great hits. Progress!" Andrew praised them.
"You're too strong, Andrew!"
"I gotta be, not only to give y'all a challenge, but to protect the ones I hold dear."
"How can you be so strong yet so cheesy?"
Andrew just gave them a smile and a laugh. "You guys ready for another round?"
"So Tracey threw him on the ground?" Tammy said.
"That's basically what happened. After that we did Officer Training because Grayson was mad. That's where the bruise came from," Andrew finished his story.
"Oh! So that's why Grayson had a broken wing... and also why he was fuming."
Andrew, Tammy and Seb were sitting at a table for lunch. It was kind of crowded, with other squads having let out for lunch as well. The tables were a polished dark wood, with seats built in. They had an adjustable radius so that quadruped Pokémon could sit comfortably.
"Yeah. I honestly liked seeing it happen, but man, was he mad. I almost felt bad for him. Almost." Seb said.
"I think the only one who cared was Dante," Andrew replied.
"That asshole? Sounds about right. Let me tell you, worst coworker ever."
"He's that bad?" Tammy supressed a chuckle.
"He's a real suck-up, so he acts like Grayson to get brownie points."
"Sheesh. And I thought Flamingo was a bad coworker..." Andrew said.
"You mean the Officer in your platoon?" Tammy asked.
"Yeah, that one. I don't mind him when he's not being a clown."
Seb broke into laughter with that comparison.
"It's funny because he actually looks like a clown!"
All three burst into laughter. They caught a whiff of their own food, which reminded them they still needed to eat. So, they ended the conversation and dug in.
Jett was looking out of a window in his office, which basically took an entire third of the top floor. It had a very sleek look, with almost everything in there being made of polished steel or glass. His desk was massive as well, with a bunch of papers neatly organized with a computer monitor. The rest of the office was a personal training room. The Mega Lucario had just finished training in it, so he could keep his strength. He heard a knock on the door, and a Druddigon Captain came in.
"Do you have the score reports?" Jett asked.
"Yeah. Right here, sir," the Captain said.
"Let's see... Good... Eh... Decent..."
He squinted at the paper he was looking at. "An hour for a stupid course? What's gotten into Tracey?"
"Oh did you not hear, Jett?"
"What happened?"
"Tracey threw Captain Grayson with her psychic powers and broke his wing. It looks pretty bad."
"Sigh... I always knew Grayson's methods would consume him one day. Still, I gotta do something about Tracey. What she did is far worse than Grayson's gross incompetence."
"Is there anything in particular you need for your punishment?"
"No... I'm gonna take her for a walk in the park." Jett slipped a malicious grin onto his face.