I was originally going to release this chapter at 6000+ words. I feel like the last 5 pages or so were pretty rushed, so instead, I'm going to divide this chapter in half. I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 4: A Whirlwind of Emotions
That night was a whirlwind of emotions for Keirnan and the Twins. The Twins were both ecstatic, while Keirnan continued to harbor his worry. He was more comfortable based on their enthusiasm towards their mission, but still maintained his anxiety. After the Twins entered their room, he sat down in his lounge chair and reached under it. Deposited underneath the chair was a photo album that he had secretly kept. He took pictures of the Twins every chance he could, even though it was forbidden to take recreational photos. The only reason that Keirnan was allowed a camera was that he used it to take photos of patients in the clinic. Many times he snuck the camera out to capture every hint of the Twins' joy that he could. He opened the book and began reminiscing. One picture was them on their first birthday. Another photo was when Brett was taking apart a computer, and a photo that followed of him putting it back together. There was a photo of Brittni bandaging up a teddy bear that Keirnan smuggled from a field mission when he was a combat medic. Keirnan let a couple of tears fall out of his eyes. He wiped his eyes and continued looking through the album. The next set of pictures was of the Twins growing up. One had Brett pulling Brittni out of a toilet, one had Brett holding up a 3 eyed, 3 finned fish. Another had Brittni pinning another recruit in wrestling. He flipped through the album still letting tears fall out. The next set showed Brittni and Brett graduating from their respective training. Brittni from the HMA; (Horde Medical Auxiliaries), and Brett from the HEC; (Horde Engineering Corps). Keirnan smiled through his tears. He was so proud of them. At the end of the album, there was another photo, not in a photo pocket. This one had all three of them. Brittni and Brett were probably about 6 at the time. They were all holding hands. Keirnan started cry-laughing at this point. He put the picture back, closed the book and put it back under the chair. Keirnan stood up and walked to the bathroom. He began splashing water from the sink on his face, and then wiped it off. He looked at himself in the mirror and said to himself, almost as a self revelation:
"They'll be fine… They'll be fine." Keirnan took a deep breath. He then headed to his quarters and laid in bed. Meanwhile, the Twins were in their respective beds. Brittni was already under the covers while Brett sat on his bed, hands behind his head against the wall. Brett had a wide smile on his face.
"Man, it's about time they sent us out into the field. This is going to be amazing." Brett said with excitement, then added, boastfully, "we're going to be out in the field before Catra, Lonnie, and even Shadow Weaver's pet favorite, Adora." Brittni looked over at Brett and gave him a disappointed look. It was dark, but light enough for Brett to see.
"What's wrong?" asked Brett.
"Don't be mean about Adora." Brittni said with a glare and pursed lips. Brett's smile faded and he asked, confused,
"What? Are you serious?" Brittni's pursed lips formed into a grin and she started laughing. Brett laughed with her. Brittni then said,
"I know Shadow Weaver favors her, but I really like her. She's like, the most dedicated Horde soldier I've seen." Brett sarcastically replied,
"Pfft, until she has to get her perfect little hands dirty." Brittni cocked an eyebrow, and smiled,
"Is someone… Jealous?" Brittni asked facetiously. Brett scoffed and replied,
"Oh, please. Who's the one going on a mission in the next few days? Us! Aren't you excited?" Brittni's smile faded a bit, and she bit her lip. Brett noticed that really quick. He lifted his head from the wall, and looked straight at her. "Brittni, are you okay?" Brittni sighed and said,
"I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm totally excited to be out in the field. But… those horror stories we've heard about the Princesses. I mean, they do sound pretty scary." Brittni sat up and threw her legs over the bed, and continued, "I want to bring order to this planet. I want to be apart of the fight that stops the princesses."
"But you don't want to get hurt." Brett replied, almost reading her mind. Brittni didn't say anything for about a minute, then said, simply:
"...Yeah." Brett got off the bed, walked over to her bed, sat down and put his arm around her shoulders.
"I won't let you get hurt." A few tears fell from Brittni's eyes and she smiled. She wrapped her arms around her Twin and buried her face into his chest. Brett chuckled and then said,
"Hah, alright, alright. C'mon. The Princesses have powers, but so do we! We'll have plenty of intelligence on them, and we'll have a full strategy worked up. We'll be able to counter anything they got; especially with our new armor!" Brittni pulled her face away from her brother, and put her hands on his shoulders. Almost as if he said the magic word, her tears were gone and her eyes started shining,
"Oh, my gosh. Seriously, our new armors are SO cool!" She stifled an excited exclamation, and it came out sounding like, "mmmm!" Brett looked surprised, then chuckled a little.
"Geez, I'm glad that's all it took. Besides, you're mostly there just to help the injured. Heh, that is if we do have any injured." Brittni maintained her smile, and then said,
"Well, thank you for making me feel better." Her face then got serious and she continued, "but, it's war. One side or the other gets hurt. I want as little bloodshed as possible." Brett nodded. Brittni smiled again and said,
"Alright, get off, we both need at least eight hours of sleep! So go to bed, now!" Brittni lightly shoved Brett, and turned over. Almost immediately, she fell asleep. Brett chuckled, walked over to his bed, laid down and said,
"G'night Brittni."
The next morning, like the previous night was a whirlwind of emotions. There was a lot of rushing around. Brittni got up at 5:00, even though they didn't have to report to Octavia until 7:00. Brett, meanwhile was laying in bed, one foot on the wall, one arm; covered in drool, over his face, and the other arm off the bed. On top of this glorious display, he snored. He definitely wasn't a morning beauty. Brittni went over to shake him awake.
"Brett! Today's the day!" Brett continued to sleep soundly. Brittni narrowed her eyes at him. She started shaking him. Nothing. She grabbed his shirt and shook him back and forth. Some of the drool flung against her. Thanks to her observation, she was able to dodge it just in time.
"Ugh, gross. Brett…!" She muttered. She let him drop back on the bed. He continued to snore. Hearing him snore was almost disturbing to hear. It sounded like a jet turbine that had a brick thrown into it. She groaned, rolled her eyes, and headed out to the kitchen. She decided to make French Toast. As she was putting the eggs on the bread she wondered to herself,
"What's a French, anyway? And what does it have to do with toast?" After she got done making breakfast, she put a couple pieces of french toast, and a glass of orange juice on a plate and headed to Keirnan's quarters. She opened the door to Keirnan's and turned the light on. Keirnan was still peacefully sleeping. Brittni took a deep breath, then shouted,
"KIERNAN! I BROUGHT YOU BREAKFAST!" Keirnan's scream that followed sounded something like a recent clinic patient that had to get three shots in the rear, simultaneously.
"What?! Who?! What?!" Keirnan sputtered at the invasion of his quarters. He looked up to see Brittni grinning brightly, her eyes closed, and one of her legs up. Keirnan rubbed his eyes, and muttered,
"Brittni, I love you, but it is way too early for-" He stopped and then added with more enthusiasm, "wait, is that French Toast?" She giggled and set the tray on Keirnan's lap. She was about to answer when the tumultuous sound of Brett barging into Keirnan's room caused her eyes to widen and her teeth to grit.
"Whoa! You made French Toast?!" Brett excitedly answered. He moved towards the bed and slid Brittni to the left.
"Wha- Hey!" Brittni tried to protest, her hands in the air. Brett reached for the toast until his hands were slapped by Brittni and Keirnan, simultaneously.
"Paws off!" Keirnan said, rather out of character. After all, you don't mess with a man's breakfast.
"Ouch! Fine, I'll get them from the kitchen." Brett said, rolling his eyes. He stepped out of the room towards the kitchen. Brittni gawked angrily at Brett as he exited and said,
"Oh! So you'll wake up for food, but not to me shaking you like an adrenaline shot abuser with Parkingson's disease! Ugh." She walked out of the room towards the kitchen and started bickering with Brett.
Keirnan chuckled and slowly tuned out the bickering that ensued as the Twins started fighting over the French toast. He was so grateful to the two of them. He began getting lost in his thoughts as he started reminiscing about the Twins growing up. He may not have technically been their father, but he was the closest thing to it. He sighed and smiled. Keirnan got out of the covers and sat up on the bed. He rubbed his eyes, and held his hands on his face for a minute.
"Okay." He thought to himself. "It's time to get serious." Keirnan officially accepted the reality that the Twins were going to be marching into battle. Instead of worrying or feeling sorry for himself, he decided that it was time to prepare them the most that he could before they headed out. He ate his breakfast, got dressed and walked out to the living space. The Twins were packing their essentials from a list they had received from a transmission. It wasn't too much, since the majority of their equipment would be issued, and even more would be in their armor. After all that had been happening, it was time to get serious. The Twins were finishing their breakfast after all the bickering had quieted down, and it was now 6:15. Keirnan walked over to the living room chair and motioned for the Twins to sit down as well. They all sat down and Keirnan said,
"Alright. Brett, Brittni. I was a combat medic a long while ago, so I'll give you the basics of what to expect in a combat scenario. I know you've both gone through combat training. Mission training is very similar, only they're going to go through specific objectives and run a hyper-realistic simulation that should be incredibly similar to what you'll face on your mission. They'll feed you all the intel you'll need, and make sure that you utilize your observation powers, accordingly. They'll issue you your gear, but you'll probably utilize Modulok's armor more than what's standard issue-" The Twins beamed up:
"Yeah! Our armor!" They ran out of the room, and Keirnan sat there, mouth agape at witnessing their speed. After a few minutes, both came back donning their armor, helmets on their sides. Keirnan was in awe at the Twins. That armor did look durable.
"So… What do you think?" Brittni asked, grinning with her eyes closed. Keirnan smiled and said,
"They're perfect." Keirnan then checked his watch. It was now 6:30. He continued, "okay, It's 6:30 right now, so you'll probably need to leave soon." The Twins nodded, then sat down on the couch. They all talked for a little while longer. About life, about the mission, and more importantly, how proud Keirnan was of them. At 6:40, a hoarse sounding, yet slightly feminine voice came over the intercom.
"Attention all troops assigned to the Elberon mission, report to Octavia in the Military Logistics Center in five. Do not keep me waiting." With that, the Twins went to say their goodbyes by embracing Keirnan. A three-way hug with two armored individuals was difficult, but was comforting all the same. The Twins pulled apart from the embrace. Keirnan gave a broken smile and said,
"Go. You definitely don't want to keep Octavia waiting." The Twins nodded and headed for the door. Brett spoke up,
"We'll be back, Keirnan. Don't you worry."
"I know you will." Keirnan said with confidence. The Twins smiled, and then walked out. Keirnan stood at the entrance as he watched the two march off to their first mission. He sighed hopefully and muttered to himself,
"Be safe."
The Twins armor, though lighter than typical Horde armor still had a deafening clank thanks to the acoustics of the hallway they were in. The fact that neither of them spoke, didn't make it any quieter. So many thoughts were running through their heads. What to expect, will they be safe, is Octavia really as bad as everyone says, are Princesses really that deadly? All these were the thoughts that could not be answered until they arrived at their location. That arrival would have to wait, however, as they were going to turn a corner, they nearly ran into Adora and Catra.
Catra and Adora were totally inseparable. Catra was some sort of a cat-human hybrid. She was mostly human looking, with distinctive feline features such as a tail. In addition, she had sharp teeth and claws on both hands and feet. Her skin was tan with darker tan stripes on her arms. She wore a dark-burgundy red sleeveless top with matching leggings that had rips to allow her legs more mobility. She wore no footwear as to allow her to utilize her feet claws. On her head was some kind of head piece shaped into an M. The headpiece protected the front of her head while allowing her bushy, long black hair to flow freely. Lastly, she had a pair of heterochromatic eyes; yellow on the left and turquoise on the right.
Adora on the other hand was a typical human girl. She had blonde hair tied in a ponytail, light skin, and blue eyes. She wore a unique Horde uniform. It consisted of a long white sleeve turtleneck that had the Horde symbol on the back. On top of the shirt was a quarter sleeved red jacket. She wore gray pants tucked into red and white boots. Adora and Catra were a year younger than the Twins, and as such, were still cadets. Adora got along with the Twins just fine, but Catra had some jealousy towards them.
"Oof! Hey, watch it!" Catra shrieked, jumping back on all fours. Adora and Brett laughed. Brittni, meanwhile, showed some concern,
"Oh! Sorry Catra. We didn't mean to scare you." Catra hissed, then brought herself to her two legs.
"You didn't scare me!" Catra choked out with agitation. She took a breath to maintain her composure, then folded her arms. "Why would I be scared of a couple of nerds?"
"Jealous that we can do better on a written exam than you without studying?" Brett sneered, facetiously. This made Catra hiss, brandish her claws and start trudging towards Brett. Adora held out her left arm to hold Catra back,
"Easy, Catra, you don't want Grizzlor on your case if we're late for training." Catra quietly growled. After a quick pause, Adora finally noticed the Twins' armor and commented on it.
"Whoa, where did you two get that… armor?" She admired it looking it up and down. Catra looked and noticed as well. For a second she was struck in amazement, but she quickly shook her head, and replaced amazement with a scowl. Brett spoke up and said,
"Modulok made the armor, we're going on a.. *ah hem*, special mission." Adora was awestruck. She gasped and asked,
"You're being sent to Elberon?!" The Twins grinned.
"Yes! We're finally going on a field mission!" Brittni said in her bubbly manner. Catra's eyes widened and her former scowl was now replaced with a stunned look. She said in an agitated manner,
"What! You two are going on a mission?! Our numbers are off the charts! Where's our mission?!"
"Well you are a year younger than us. Maybe next year." Brett said with a chuckle. He started walking away towards the Logistics Center. Catra huffed and said,
"Whatever, let's go, Adora, before Grizzlor has our tails. Er.. Well, you get it." She began walking towards the cadet training area. Adora spoke up,
"Alright, good luck on your mission, Brittni! Good seeing you." Adora then ran to catch up with Catra. Brittni smiled, waved goodbye, then ran to catch up with Brett. Not long after, they arrived at their location. It was now time for the toughest training the Twins have faced, yet.
