Warning for animal abuse here, nothing graphic but definitely not pleasant.


Vermin

Another few weeks passed in the Academy. With daily doses of skimmer lessons and time in the air boosting his confidence, Aerrow started to climb his way back into both the teacher's and his peer's good graces. He began answering more questions with all the detail he knew, and questioning the questions when they weren't detailed enough. He even challenged the other cadets when differences of opinions arose, which happened often in a group as diverse and skilled as theirs.

His body started to adapt to the strict fitness regime. His wiry frame developed, with his muscles becoming larger and more toned. His already-calloused hands and feet became firmer and tougher. Any remaining baby fat was stripped back, exposing his strong cheekbones and jaw. The runs were still gruelling and the drills and obstacle courses were constantly being improved and made tougher, but he no longer fell behind. When he had to wash his uniform of mud and grime he was never the only one.

Aerrow was surprised when Damian called him a friend. "Of course we're friends dude, can't survive in this place without someone having your back." And even more so when he learnt Jael and Kipp thought along the same lines.

It was clear he wouldn't win over everyone though. Eva, a golden-skinned redhead from Tropica, loved to point out his mistakes and had a sharp temper and an even sharper tongue that often left Aerrow's ears burning in embarrassment. Ryder and Batesson laughed loudest at these encounters, but though they clearly admired Eva, their true loyalty lay elsewhere.

Cole was rarely overtly hostile, but he seemed to take great personal offense at Aerrow's gradual improvements. Strong and clever, he held the top position of the cadets and was swift to put another down to gain the upper hand, both in physical and intellectual sparring. Although Major Tom had instructed them to work together and act as one squadron, competition was a far greater motivator.

And it was one that Aerrow had never experienced before. Sure, he had faced conflict and danger and challenges against himself, but competition just for the sake of seeing how well you could do against someone else was an entirely new concept. It was something that required other people to be involved in, and between moving Terras almost constantly and working two jobs and being shyer than a chicken, Aerrow had never been much of a people person. Now, he found he loved the jokes and the friendly sparring and the banter, and the never ending competition.

Who was fastest to the showers to get the hot water? Who was last out of the hanger? Who finished assembling their weapons first?

"Who scrubbed the most boots for labour duty? Me!"

Damian threw down his toothbrush in victory and flexed his biceps. Aerrow wearily put his down too.

"Not sure I'd call that "winning" personally. Sounds a teeny tiny bit more like you got played." Kipp was lounging on his bunk, writing a letter home to Terra Blizarris. Damian looked at him with a raised eyebrow, opened a mouth to argue, and then dropped his mouth open to stare at Aerrow. Aerrow laughed and jumped up onto his top bunk to stretch out.

"Dude! So not cool!"

"Not my fault you're an easy target."

"I am not." Damian's huff made Kipp chuckle.

"A sucker for competition then." Aerrow conceded. "A pawn in a complicated chess game. A foolish –"

"Enough already!" The bunk shook as Damian sat down with a flounce. "I admit defeat."

"Rightly so." Aerrow said smugly.

"I still whoop your skinny ass in the ring."

Aerrow didn't reply, knowing the other boy was right. While his fighting was not nearly as pathetic as it had been before, and he was improving in the ring, he still hadn't won a fight yet. Aerrow knew Sensei was getting frustrated with him, but he just couldn't bring himself to compete in the ring. Every time he started to, all he could see was the blood and a face full of pain.

With a sigh Aerrow reluctantly swung his legs over and jumped back to the floor. As the technical "loser" of their competition, he had to take the cleaning supplies back across the barracks to the washer. Free time was a sparse luxury at the Academy, but with no-one to write home to and no money to spend, Aerrow's options were limited.

He suppressed a pang of hurt at the thought of his guardian alone out there in the Atmos on who only knows which terra. I wonder where she is now, Aerrow thought pensively. It had been months since he last saw Rosella, and it hadn't been a pleasant parting. At least she would live comfortably on their savings, with only one mouth to feed now.

Gathering up the supplies and making an impolite gesture at the obnoxiously smug look on Damian's face, Aerrow left the crystal lit bunker into the dark evening. The hum of a skimmer on patrol made him look up and he waved at Jael as she passed by overhead. Night patrols had been added into their rota now that the new cadets were deemed competent enough to fly unsupervised. The threat of Cyclonians attacking this far into Atmosian territory was considered foolish by a select few, but after hearing war stories from the Master Tactician, who had the scars to prove each story, Aerrow was glad they were mandatory. Like labour duty, they were also a useful punishment for cadets who overstepped their boundaries and pushed the Master's tolerance too far.

Aerrow chuckled at the memory of Damian and himself re-enacting the Rex Guardian's battle of Beartooth Peak while balancing on the high bar. He still couldn't remember what they were supposed to have been doing up there, but he thought their mock battle improved their balancing skills far more than any drill would have. Except for when Damian had slipped and landed on a most sensitive area. His girlish shriek had reduced the class to laughter and not impressed Mistress Meredith one jot. Her pointed face had pulled into a sharp frown as she scolded them for improper behaviour and assigned them three hours of extra labour duty cleaning boots.

Aerrow supposed this was meant to prevent recurrences of "improper behaviour", but he rather doubted it was going to work on him.

He took the fastest route to the washer which led him by the kitchen. Dinner was finished a few hours ago but banging and shouting could still be heard as the cooks tidied up for the night. As Aerrow drew closer he realised there was a lot more shouting than was probably needed for cleaning up. He hesitated by the closed doorway, wondering if he should see what the problem was.

Before he could decide, the kitchen door flew open and a heavy metal pot came flying at his head. Aerrow dropped to the ground with a startled yell. He caught a brief flash of blue fur before it disappeared into a nearby bush and the closing darkness of the night.

An angry voice made Aerrow look up at a large woman in a messy apron. The chef had her hands on her hips and was yelling obscenities at the rustling bush. She finished with a growl and looked down at Aerrow, who hadn't dared move from his position on the floor.

"Damn rodents, think they can steal from my kitchen." Aerrow picked himself up and heaved the pot into her hands. It was half the size of him, but she tucked it effortlessly under one arm. "Good dodge."

"Learning fast here." Aerrow replied as he gathered the cleaning supplies back together. "What was that thing?"

"Eh? Just some hungry vermin, looking for an easy meal. Well you won't find one here!" She yelled suddenly into the darkness. "I don't know and I don't care what you are, you won't start taking my stock!"

Aerrow started walking away but stopped as she called out to him.

"Cadet, if you spot that little blighter again, be sure to catch it and hand it in. Bound to be some meat on it we can put to good use."

The chef went back into the kitchen and Aerrow continued on his way, trying not to think of what he might have been eating unaware so far.


The next morning the cadets gathered in the hanger for flight training. Aerrow was walking towards his skimmer when he saw movement in the seat. Surprised, he stopped and watched as a small blue creature popped its head up and began sniffing at the controls. It couldn't have been much bigger than his two hands together and had long ears like a rabbit that were the same length as its entire body and tail. It moved cautiously like a wild dog, sniffing and pawing at the machine with small monkey-like hands.

Unsure what to do, Aerrow just watched the creature scramble all over his ride, disappearing from sight behind it only to pop up in a different place a second later. It seemed curious, making quiet sounds to itself as it prodded and poked.

A loud noise from one of the other cadets startled the creature and it looked up to see Aerrow a few metres away. It froze and stared back at him with big eyes.

"Oi!" Cole's sudden shout sent the creature scarpering away towards the door. Cole moved to chase it but Aerrow jumped in front of him without thinking.

"Leave it be." He pushed Cole back and sent him stumbling.

Cole laughed at him and then scowled. "What? Are you some animal lover now? That thing's been messing around with the skimmers."

"It's just an animal, it can't do any harm."

"Say that to my crystal converter!" He gestured to a sorry pile of metal by his skimmer. "It's vermin."

"It's too late now anyway."

"Yes, it is." Major Tom's booming voice separated the two boys and he frowned down at them both. "You should have caught it. There's been a whole host of complaints of these creatures stealing food and belongings, messing with machines, and generally causing trouble. We've put a reward out for their extermination."

"But Sir–"

"That's the end of it." His stern voice left no room for argument. "You will all spend this lesson dismantling your rides and checking them for faults. Be sure to re-assemble them correctly by the end or you'll be starting again from scratch in your leisure time."


Aerrow walked away from the lesson with grease up to his elbows and a foul mood. Nobody's skimmers had been faulty, except for Cole's dismantled crystal converter. He even felt like his skimmer had just been through a check-up and returned to him in better working condition, despite it being an animal that had inspected it.

"Let it go man." Damian was walking just behind Aerrow, his long legs easily keeping pace with Aerrow's impatient strides. "If the Commander wants them gone there's nothing you can do."

"He can't just order us to kill a living, breathing creature."

"Well, he can, and he has. It's just a pest."

"It's intelligent. How else could it have dismantled that converter?"

"Err, brute strength?"

"It was tiny!"

"Okay, okay!" Damian held up his hands in surrender. "But there's still nothing you can do."

Aerrow gave a sigh. "I know, but I don't like it."

Damian put a hand on Aerrow's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I don't like it much either, but we've got to follow orders."

Aerrow shrugged the hand off his shoulder and sighed even harder.

"Although," Damian continued, "We can only act if we actually see it." He gave a wink. "If I turn away when it may or may not be in front of me, who's to say what I could or could not have done about it."

Aerrow laughed unwillingly. "Okay, you make a good case." He stopped and smiled. "Thanks Damian."

"No stress." He gave Aerrow the thumbs up and they continued walking. "No-one does loopholes like me."

"Actually, you remind me of a friend back home." Aerrow used the term home loosely, thinking of the place he had been happiest in all of their wanderings.

"A friend? He-who-stutters actually has friends?" Aerrow aimed a punch at Damian's shoulder which he dodged just in time, laughing.

"Just the one."

"Ah dude, don't go all sad sack on me now. I know you're an annoying little bugger whose big head is rapidly outgrowing his skinny little legs, but you're alright really."

"Are we attacking his youth or his poor social skills today?" Kipp bounded off of Damian's shoulders as he caught up with them.

"My crippling social anxiety." Aerrow put in.

"Definitely not, you're way too cocky for that to work anymore. Keep your fluffy red head down in class and you can go back to loner status." He ruffled Aerrow's mop of hair before he could duck out of the way.

"It'll never happen. He's tasted the joy that is our friendship. How could he possibly give that up now?"

"Keep on and you'll be tasting my boot soon."

They bantered all the way to the next class, and Aerrow felt much better despite the scolding they got from Master Tactician for being too chatty during his crystal fuelled replication of some ancient battle.

He was in much better spirits by the end of class and had almost forgotten about the tiny blue creature causing so much havoc in the Academy as they left the room. As they came out into the open ground however, he was forcibly reminded.

High pitched squeaks of terror were coming from within a tight knot of people. Cole, Ryder and Batesson were kicking viciously at the small thing, laughing all the while. The squeaks were suddenly cut off with a loud cracking noise.

Aerrow exclaimed and made to jump forwards, but Kipp and Damian each caught an arm and pulled him back.

Batesson bent down and picked up the completely limp scruff of blue fur in one massive hand. The creature underneath was barely discernible, covered all over in dark red blood.

Cole turned to the trio and gave a cold sneer. Then he walked across the street to a barrack when Major Tom was just emerging. He nodded at the three and ushered them inside, taking the dead animal with them.

Aerrow pulled his arms free, quietly surprised at the force they had been using to hold him. He shook his head and glowered at the closed barrack door.

He wouldn't touch the stew today.