Overhead
In the early morning of the day were two friends sparring in one of the training rooms.
"I swear it feels like no matter what I do you are just too hard to get. How do you do it Ya?"
On the ground stood, rather layed Shen not really injured but exhausted. His reflection of his sweat made him a knock-off flashlight, so bright that Ya had to throw his shirt over him.
"I feel like there are a lot of things, the main thing is that you have the same problem as Lin. Your attacks are very telegraphed, it's almost as if I was reading you like a book. The only reason that your attacks don't hit but Lin's does is because she makes up for that by just being fast, she is naturally gifted physically." Ya explained as she stretched out her legs.
Shen could only grumble that while he doesn't like Lin, borderline hates her. Her body is just above his naturally. Shen knowing this only pissed him off more.
"I hate complaining since it gets me not where but it's not fair, why does someone so, so inferating like Lin get to be gifted like that?" Shen said as he roughed up his hair.
Ya walked toward him and reached her hand out. "I understand how you feel but it is what it is, there is no changing what's fact."
"I know." Shen said as he accepted Ya's hand.
"Do you want to go for another round?" Ya asked as she got into her fighting stance ready to go.
Shen looked towards the clock and realized the time. "While I love the energy, use it for the run." Shen said as he pointed his thumb towards the clock.
Shen and Ya made their way to where their platoon normally starts their run. To neither of their surprises the other cadets and platoon leader were already outside early. The platoon leader saw them and walked towards them.
"Cadet Wang and Cadet Du glad you two are here. I doubt the situation has changed but have either of you seen Cadet Hermes?" The leader asked.
Neither Shen nor Ya answered which caused the platoon leader's expression to sour.
The leader pinched the bridge of his nose. "How am I not surprised? She always cuts it close."
With a minute left before we started the run a woman in uniform walked towards the group. Her hair being unkempt and bags under her eyes explained everything that was needed.
"I'm not even going to waste my breath on her." The platoon leader said as he walked to the front. "Ok everyone, time to run, remember to run with a group. Time starts now!"
The platoon were off to the races with Lin running slightly behind the leader, Ya and Shen were behind them with everyone else behind them, but not too far behind.
After the warmup run and breakfast Shen, Ya and Lin went towards the sparring room where they met the Sergeant.
"Wonder what we are doing this time?" Shen asked as he rubbed his legs. "Last time he just made us run, even made me keep with you two which I swear should have killed me."
"Seems like a you problem, just don't be slow." Lin said.
"Jump off a cliff." He replied.
Ya could only sigh as the daily back and forth starts, this time however it happened a little earlier than before.
As if the world understood that Ya didn't want to deal with them, the door opened to the person they were waiting for.
"Morning Cadets, today is going to be a special day for you all. As you know we are currently near a nomic city, one of the many upsides to Yan's use of nomantic boot camps. Opportunities everywhere, and today is that day." The Sergeant said as he sat down in his favorite chair.
"Sergeant, what opportunities are you talking about?" Ya asked.
The Sergeant got out of his chair. "Simple, since you three are the best we have currently within your platoon. You three will be assisting local authorities with any issues they may have, it could range from doing simple portals, or stopping a gang war. However you likely won't have to stop that, this isn't SIracusa."
"When will we depart Sergeant?" Shen asked.
"In 10 minutes, so go grab your stuff including some clothes and meet me at exit 4." The Sergeant said as he left the room.
The only thing Shen could do was fall to his knees as if the world was ending. His head was pressing into the ground as if he was trying to become one with the floor.
"I swear, I can't get away from this woman." Shen said before he started to mumble more words.
"I guess it's time to get ready, just don't be late 'Dog'." Lin said as she looked down on Shen before leaving.
The room was left in silence as the ticking clock was the thing confirming time was still moving. Shen was still on floor while Ya was standing over him with neutral eyes.
"I'll be back here in ten minutes, you'll be fine Shen. You still have me at least." Ya said before she left the room herself.
Shen took a deep breath and positioned himself up right. He wasn't worried about being late considering the barracks aren't that far and he is a fast packer. As Shen stayed there and looked at one of the lights in the ceiling.
As he stared at the light the world around him momentarily faded as a familiar scene appeared in his mind. All annoyances, anger, and feelings of doubt left his mind and spirit as his reason for joining the army was stronger than any feelings he may be experiencing. He stood up and left the room with the headache he had slowly going away.
After ten minutes Lin, Shen and Ya found themselves in Exit 4 with the general looking at his watch.
"Are you three ready?"
The Sergeant asked as he looked at the three cadets with similar sized luggage.
"Yes Sir." Both Ya and Shen said simultaneously.
Lin on the other hand simply gave a thumbs up.
"Good, now get in the car. I'll see you when everything is finished." He said as he started to walk away.
"Wait Sergeant, are you not coming with us?" Shen asked.
"Hell no!." He shouted. "I have more important things to do, so enough with the questions and start moving." He said as he continued to walk away.
The three put their luggage inside the vehicle and got into one of the eight seats available. Their driver was in military uniform. Ya and Shen sat in the middle seats each having a window to look out of while Lin took the passenger seat. After seeing that everyone was settled in the driver checked to see if everything was working and drove off.
The Ark
"I wish you all luck on your assignment from Sergeant D, stay safe." The driver said as he drove off. After an uneventful drive the trio found themselves in front of the local police station. The three were out of place compared to the civilians walking around them and the handful of police officers they saw.
"Let's go, you two." Ya said as she entered the building.
The two didn't say anything as they followed behind her. The inside of the station wasn't anything remarkable. It had a white interior with various pieces of furniture giving dull but needed touches of color. The three found themselves in front of the main counter with a woman standing behind the desk.
"What can I do for you three?" She asked.
Lin narrowed her eyes. "Aren't the military uniforms enough clues?" She asked as sarcasm was oozing from voice.
It was slight but the woman's fist clenched for a moment before returning to normal.
"Ignore her, she has her head in the clouds. We are here because for a joint military assignment, we were told to look for the police captain." Shen said to the woman
"May I ask which police captain you are talking about exactly? We have multiple here." She explained.
Shen's eyes slightly widened as he reached into the deepest parts of his mind for the name he was supposed to remember, however after what felt like centuries for Shen he came up with one answer.
"I have zero clue." He said.
"You truly are a failure of a person." Lin said.
"I swear I will-"
Ya stepped forward ignoring the now common interaction between the two, she looked towards the woman behind the desk.
"We are here looking for captain Zhen." Ya said.
The woman typed on the computer in front of her and after a few moments her face brightened up. "Ah, yes you do have an appointment. Just take this hall all the way down and to your right." She said as she pointed in the general directions.
"Thank you and sorry for these two." Ya said.
After some problem management from Ya the trio found themselves in the captain's office, the three were sultatiung to the ursus man sitting in a chair in front of the main desk. He was an older fellow as seen with various cuts along his bare arms, and gray hair.
"Ah so you three are the cadets that are helping us. Pleasure to meet you, I'm captain Zhen but most people just called me 'CZ'."
"Hello Captain Zhen." Both Shen and Ya said in unison.
"Hello CZ." Lin said.
"I see two straights and one flex." Zhen said as he got up from the chair. "Well it's time to see if you three are worth the time of day here. I will have you three stand on the perimeter of a soon to be crime scene. Follow me." He said as he left the room.
The three soon found themselves in a police vehicle with Zhen driving. Shen had sweat forming on his forehead, gladly the somewhat dark interior of the car is keeping the extent of it hidden. Ya and Lin appeared unbothered by the situation as they kept their weapons close to them. After a few minutes the flashing of red and blue lights got closer.
A dozen or so police vehicles were parked in a semi circle shape creating a perimeter with police officers stationed close to the entrance of the building. All of them in similar black outfits with a badge and a baton. While there were injuries present on many of the officers nothing was too major. A police officer approached Captain Zhen and the cadets got out of the car.
"Good day sir, we apprehended the suspects. We are moving them out of the building right now."
As if on cue six people in cuffs were being escorted out the building by officers. If the officers looked as if they left a petty scuffle, the criminals looked as if they left a fight. Bruises were clear on their faces and arms along with very clear eye bags.
"Good work you guys, seems a raise is in order soon." Zhen said.
That alone raised the expressions of the officers because more money never hurts.
"Get those criminals and anyone else into the van." Zhen ordered as he turned his attention back to Lin and the others. "I was hoping that you guys would have seen some action to get a better understanding of the extremes of combat, but the less danger the better."
Zhen walked over to one of the police detectives. "Detective, debrief us on what happened before I arrived."
"No problem captain." The detective said as he opened the folder he was carrying. "Good news is that these thugs are from the drug smuggling ring we've been dealing with for the past few months"
"But?" Zhen said.
"But these thugs from the quick investigation and evidence we found didn't point them to being super high up in the organization, at best they have a connection with someone else. At worst they were normal thugs that were used as sellers." He said.
"That's rather unfortunate, I wonder who is spearheading this smuggling scheme, which areas are the most affected by the drugs?"
"That would be the i-"
Before the detective could finish his sentence a high pitched ringing assaulted everyone's ears. Large amounts of dust was kicked up blocking everyone's vision to different extents.
"... an explosion!"
"We ha.. Officer…. wn!"
" Where .. thugs!"
No one was able to hear what the other was saying fully but everyone understood what happened.
An explosion went off. Zhen looked around through the smoke and he saw three things of high importance. He saw three of the criminal run back inside the building, the three cadets were mostly fine with no major injuries, lastly some scraps pierce his legs making it difficult for him to move his leg.
"Why do I open my mouth sometimes?" He said as he moved towards the three cadets.
"I'll explain everything later, just get inside that building and chase the three that ran inside. Now!" He shouted to make sure they heard him.
None wasted a second as they ran into the building.
"Let's see what you three can do in this extreme." Zhen said before limping his way to the other officers so he could provide reinforcements.
'Finally something interesting.'
This passed through Lin's head as she and the other two ran into the building. They weren't too far behind, turning left and right throughout the halls.
"They can't be too far ahead, but we need to kick it if we are going to catch them." Shen shouted as he increased his speed which only closed the gap between him and Lin slightly.
However once they turned a corner they were greeted with the worst thing they could encounter. They found themselves in the basement, the place was a mess. Tables, blood, corpses and various substances were scattered along the area. At the end of it all lies a steel door with blood of people popa dotted on its surface.
"They must have gone out that door, it could either lead to the outside or deeper underground." Ya said.
"Doesn't matter where it leads, if we stand around too much then we could very well lose to the criminals." Shen said
"While that is true we still have some arrested still, after all only three out of the many we saw escaped." Ya explained. "Our backs aren't against the way."
As Shen and Ya moved towards the door while going over their options they failed to realize that their narcissist teammate wasn't moving.
Lin was dealing with a sudden headache. Her vision was getting worse by the moment as the blood of the room assaulted her nose, unnoticed by her was her spear getting hotter by the second.
"Lin, hurry and get your head out of the clouds. We are chasing them, we already wasted a minute talking." Shen said as he pointed to Ya using her ice arts on the door making it brittle.
Hearing Shen's voice snapped her out of her daze.
"Shut up Shen." Lin said as she walked closer to the door and punched it causing the door to shatter to pieces.
The other knew Lin was strong much to Shen's dismay but didn't expect for her to break the way easily even if Ya was weakening the wall. The two didn't even get to say anything before Lin started running deeper into the dimly lit cave the criminal ran into, the other two followed suit as they went deeper into their first chase.