Author's Note: Ok, here's Chapter 2 redone! Not much changed here, same with Chapter 3, but Chapter 4 has a few more dialogue changes as a head's up. Enjoy!

Chapter 2

Front kick, back handspring, side swing, block. Repeat.

Axel found herself in her new quarters at the academy she had been sent to. She observed a few fighting vids she had managed to obtain, focusing intently on every move the soldiers on the computer screen made. Any free time she had, she would watch the same vids, memorizing the patterns. Soon, Axel found that she could now determine how the soldiers could have fought better, and also spotted the small slip-ups they made while in combat.

Axel didn't have much free time though, so she would stay up later than she was supposed to. This was her method of training herself more mentally than physically. The instructors and drill sergeants taught her plenty of physical things. She and the other recruits frequently went to sleep covered in mud, bruises, and occasional cuts.

Since there was an odd number of recruits in her squad, and there were two recruits per room, someone had to go without a roommate. Axel was the lucky cadet. She didn't mind not having a roommate, and personally enjoyed the peace and quiet. Besides, no roommate meant no one to get her in trouble for watching combat vids passed curfew.

Axel would never have admitted it to anyone, but she felt really...awkward and uneasy in this new place. She felt on edge, anxious, as if something bad was always about to happen. However, it never did, and she tried to ignore it most of the time. Despite that, she couldn't help but think about it as she went to bed late that night.

The next morning, Axel woke up at 0400, an hour earlier than she needed to be up. Today, she and her squad would be receiving their armor. That was one thing that differed from Corbulo. This was no regular military academy, but a school for Spartans. All of the recruits had the same muscles, build, and size of a Spartan IV. It was only a matter of training them.

Axel knew very well that they would have a very limited time to prepare for the day, so she made the decision to make the time. She combed her hair, brushed her teeth, etc. She took her time, knowing that if the others woke up on time, they would end up in a hurry and, in a panic, begin doing a horrible job of getting ready. By the time she was done, it was 0500.

As lights turned on and doors opened, sleepy recruits came shuffling sleepily out of their rooms. However, they looked nothing like recruits. Their hair was scruffy, their backs were bent, and they still had disgusting yellow crust and bags on their eyes. Then, of course, there was Axel, fully dressed and wide awake. Her uniform was straightened, her hair pulled back into a smooth ponytail. Her back was straight, as were her lips.

A few cadets looked at her and shook their heads with disapproval, others seemed confused as to how she had gotten ready so fast. Axel had expected this, and simply ignored it as she headed to the area where she and her squad would receive their spartan armor.

A few moments later, Axel found herself on a touchscreen computer. Her squad leader had instructed everyone to use the provided device to design what they wanted their armor to look like. Axel chose a Scout helmet, and just sort of randomly picked the rest of the suit parts. She chose Azule for her primary color and Cerise for her secondary color. Axel wasn't too much of a sparkle obsessed girly-girl, but she did enjoy pink and an occasional pinch of glitter. This was like her way of showing it.

After reviewing each part of the suit several times, Axel decided that she liked everything about it and pushed the "Finish" button. She touched and held a button on the screen and it went dark.

Axel turned around, pushing herself backward in the fancy white swivel seat she had been sitting in, jumping to her feet and leaving the room. Her next destination was the room where all the other spartans were fitted into their armor. As she walked through the halls, she figured 3D printers or whatever was used to make the suits were working frantically to complete the armor she had just designed. Axel couldn't help but feel fascinated by how advanced technology had become in the last five hundred years.

As soon as Axel entered the giant room, she felt a wave of astonishment crash over her. It was filled with large metal hoops, definitely the machines people used to put on their armor. She could even see some spartans in the middle of them here and there, gripping onto handles as the machine placed each set of armor onto their bodies. Axel could even see some of her own squad members getting their armor placed on.

After a moment, a short man with round glasses and black hair walked over to Axel, holding what looked to be a futuristic tablet.

"Please state your name," he said, never looking up from his tablet-thingy. Axel stared at him curiously.

"I'm Axel Taylors," she said smoothly. The nerdy-looking guy punched some things into his device and beckoned her to follow him. The two didn't walk far, maybe around ten yards. Soon, the pair came to a stop at one of the large hoops. The nerd nodded his head toward it, signaling her to step inside.

As Axel did so, she felt metal clamp on to her feet. Well, if she needed to run away for some reason, she'd be stuck like glue. She reached up to the handles on the side of her, and tried her best to copy what she had seen the other Spartans doing when she had entered. The nerd flicked the machine on from a panel next to it that Axel hadn't noticed before. She heard some buzzing, and heard a small amount of metal clanging together.

When she looked down, she saw that the metal clamps on her feet had begun to fold up into boots. Robotic arms reached onto her knees and placed knee pads, followed by a chestplate, shoulder pads, and a variety of other armor plating. Axel couldn't help but smile as she noticed they were blue and pink, just as she had requested. Finally, her Scout helmet was placed. She was impressed by her HUD display; it had radar in the bottom left and armor strength at the top.

Axel flexed her hand into a fist and back out again, trying to get used to wearing such heavy armor. She looked down at herself, deciding she really liked how it had turned out. The nerd pointed toward another room on the far side of the one she was in.

"Go over there, that's where you can choose your weapons," he said. Almost immediately he went right back to his tablet. Axel smiled, not caring that no one would see it through her helmet. She began walking toward the next room, listening to the stomps that she made as she walked in the heavy armor. "I feel like a robot!" she thought. She chuckled to herself slightly as she left the armory.