Another chapter I hold dear to my heart but this one is hilarious.

Year Two: Run For Your Life

Academy Field - 9:51 AM

Upper years warned them that the second year of Operations will have a bang. Literally and metaphorically. They were told that aside from the continued workouts, drills, and sets, they would start weaving in some field tests that officially start next year.

James shows up to class relatively on time, for him, and walks out onto the field. He takes out his AirPods and puts them in his pocket as he notices that there are more people than usual. He looks around and sees some people from his weight class and some he doesn't recognize. James knows that he doesn't go to class as often as he should but he's never seen half of these people in his life.

Is he in the right class? Wouldn't be the first time he's stumbled in the wrong class ... he sat through a physics lecture he wasn't even supposed to be in and ended up writing the pop quiz. Aced it, though.

James looks ahead and doesn't see his prof. Once he gets a closer look at her face, he sees that it's Professor or Agent or Trainer (he still doesn't know the correct title) Fishel from Weight Class A. She's his aviation teacher, not his physical instructor. Once that thought clicks, he knows that these strangers in the same training uniform as him.

Then, he sees familiar faces. Xavier, Angela, Merida, Brody, and Orchid. They're all going to kill him. Xavier's already glaring daggers at him. James waves with a scared smile as he scurries to hide behind the other people from his class who are double his size. He should've skipped. He should've stayed with Carrie Bradshaw.

Wait, this is university. He can just leave class.

James is about to turn on his heel and make a run for it but he almost crashes into Agent Fishel.

"Going somewhere?" She asks with a grin.

"Just going to ask you what we're doing today," James responds with a bright smile.

She doesn't buy his bullshit and she never does. She walks away from James and blows a whistle to get everyone's attention. "Alright, Weight Class B, listen up. Agent Sativa is absent so, as you can tell, you're merging with my group. Today, we'll be doing a training field-test often practiced in military schools. Basically, we'll be firing at you on this open field. Your bodies will be targets. We'll start with bean bags but, as you continue in Operations, they become tennis balls, paintball pellets, shocks that resemble bullets, etc. We'll start in five minutes so spread yourselves out and get ready to run."

James doesn't feel any more comfortable. Is running back to his dorm an option?

"It's hunting season!" Orchid exclaims excitedly.

James looks at her horrified. "Worst choice of words…"

He walks around a group of people, finding a new place to hide since he lost track of Xavier's location. He wasn't sharing childhood horror stories with Merida and Brody since he doesn't have any. He wasn't with Angela because she has suddenly gone rogue as well. Dear Thor, he will die. Is it too late to drop this course or is it mandatory?

"Hi."

James jumps at the sound of Angela's voice. He turns to face her and didn't think that she would talk to him. "Hi."

"How are you?" Her tone is civil but bitter at the same time. Very unlike her.

"I'm doing great."

"Should've stayed with Carrie, huh?"

James runs away. How has she read his mind? Has it been five minutes yet? Why hasn't the hunt started? He doesn't need any of this.

"Don't worry," Ashton says, stopping James. "I'll protect you."

James thinks he's already hallucinating. There's no way that Ashton, Xavier's roommate and newfound bro, will be on his side.

"What?" James asks.

"I know Angela wouldn't use me as a rebound," Ashton says.

James narrows his eyes. Not comforting but he'll take what he can get. "Thanks."

"You know, it's easier for a group of people to come together in their shared hatred for something, but they're always the weakest group."

James looks at his competition: a super-soldier spawn whose heart he broke, her twin brother who will break him, a hybrid of two assassins who only tolerates him because of shared history, the farm girl, and another newfound bro from down under. James glances at Ashton and thinks about how they're doomed.

"Relax, James," Xavier says, playfully wrapping his arm around him. He thought Xavier broke him already since the sudden embrace gave him whiplash. "Due to personal reasons, instead of using a fighting style, I will only bodyslam you."

James squirms out as Xavier laughs. "Agent Fishel, I feel attacked and he hasn't even done anything."

Agent Fishel doesn't even look up from her clipboard. "Pym, your range of motion isn't bad but Rogers already won."

James looks away. Not comforting. When Agent Fishel blows her whistle, they all start running to the sound of bean bags being fired at them. This drill is supposed to teach them to stay alert of projectiles and everyone around you. James has never needed a lesson more in his entire life.

"This looks easier in the movies!" Brody exclaims, laughing loudly as he catches a bean bag like a football.

"I could use these skills to protect myself on the street," James says as he picks up speed because he has a hunch Brody will launch that bean bag at his head.

"It'd be better for you to call the authorities," Ashton mutters.

James isn't offended at all.

Meanwhile, Xavier jogs through the field. He has no idea where James went and doesn't care. He didn't intend to beat him up because he would never do that. He knew that James was already terrified and that itself was a form of justice.

"What happened to you?" Xavier asks, stopping on the field when he sees Orchid lying on the ground.

"I got pelted right on my boob!" Orchid wails. "I think my right one is more flat than the left one!"

From behind Xavier, Angela and Merida gasp, immediately kneeling down to tend to her. Xavier looks at them strangely.

"Oh my god…" Angela mutters.

"This is brutal," Merida adds.

Orchid sees Xavier confusion and smiles. "Imagine getting pelted right there."

She points right at his crotch and Xavier immediately shrivels at the thought. He didn't have to, but he felt that. To protect them, he sees bean bags coming their way and uses himself as a shield. Orchid's suffered enough.

"Are you sure you don't want to castrate James?" Merida asks.

"Merida," Angela states in a scolding tone.

"What? I think we lost him on the field and it's not fair for him to escape like that."

"I get a free mastectomy and you're thinking of that?" Orchid asks, cradling herself on the grass.

"Yes. What were you thinking of?"

"The same thing. I was just surprised. Go get him."

Merida nods as she gets up and leaps over Orchid to find James. Angela and Xavier didn't stop her, but even if they did, she wouldn't listen. She looks in every direction, trying to find James and avoid bean bag gunfire. Merida runs in a zigzag pattern, watching different coloured bean bags land beside her. Once she has that path established, she focuses more on looking for James. It doesn't help that everyone's in the same outfit, everyone is running at top speed, and James looks the same as every fifth boy on the field.

When she turns her head, she spots someone in her peripheral vision. She stops running when someone almost collides with her. Idiot should've been looking. But when he fell to the ground, she trips over him. Merida curses at him as her hair flies over her head and covers her face. Then, she hears a familiar scream and her head perks up.

Merida looks up and sees James on the ground in front of her. She didn't trip over him. Even if she did, he would be behind her and not there. It's when he laughs that she puts the pieces together. He shrank and was hiding in her hair.

"Ah!" Merida yells. "I need to shower now!"

"Relax, I showered this morning and barely broke a sweat," James responds.

Merida furrows her brows and glares at him. "Run."

James scurries to his feet. "Yes, ma'am!"

James runs for a bit before leaping into a crowd of people, shrinking mid-somersault and flying through their legs as if he was weaving through tree trunks in a forest. Nobody noticed. They're looking at bean bags falling from the sky. Once on the other side of the crowd, he flies through the grass and grows back to his normal size once he's behind the bleachers.

He peeks over the seats and sees Agent Fishel taking notes on her clipboard, looking up occasionally. Knowing how much she loves him, he knows that she already noted his attendance and his mark for the day. He's good to go. Even if she didn't, he knows that him being out of her sight will make himself and his so-called acquired espionage skills look better.

James thinks that he could just fly back to the dorm but that's what his friends will think. He can't do that. Instead, he gets on his hands and knees and military crawls.

-o-

Edison Residence - 11:40 AM

James didn't think he would make it back to the dorm alive, let alone get here while military-crawling. His arms and legs didn't hurt. It must have been the adrenaline from desperately needing to escape that got him here because it definitely wasn't the training he didn't do last year. People he passed didn't even spare him a look. At first, he thought he was just that well camouflaged but, in reality, nobody cared. It benefits him more since that means nobody could say they saw him if someone asked.

James stops when he reaches his residence's main door. He looks up and groans since he'll have to stand up to slide his key. James stands up and opens the door. Before he closes it behind him, he turns around to see if he has to hold the door open (or slam it shut) and he sees Keith staring. He must've seen everything.

"Hi, Keith!" James exclaims, holding the door wider for him.

"What the hell were you doing?" Keith asks, heading inside.

James hesitates. "If anyone in a training uniform comes by for my head, tell them I'm hiding in Communications."

"I'm just grabbing my laptop charger from my dorm. I'm heading back out in a second."

James shrugs. "Same shit."

Daniel comes out of the elevator and already knows something bad will happen based on James just being here in a dirty training uniform. He never saw so much as a sweat stain on his uniforms because he rarely uses them.

"Did Xavier do that to you?" Daniel asks with a smile.

"Quit looking happy," James says. Some friends he has. "And no. I did this to myself."

"Wow," Keith states, unimpressed. "You're fucked up."

James ignores him.

"Nobody is after you," Daniel reassures.

"It's a war out there," James argues, whispering in case anyone is listening.

"Because you didn't tell us."

"Well, yeah, because I didn't know how to bring it up and neither did Angela, but I'm the one getting crap for it."

"Yeah."

"Makes sense." James presses the call button for the elevator. "Anyways, if anyone asks, I'm in Communications."

-o-

After he got his charger, Keith heads back out. He has a class to get to and this pitstop means he'll be five minutes early instead of fifteen. He should've charged his laptop overnight but accidentally fell asleep.

"Wait!"

Keith stops, holding the door open. He looks ahead and sees Angela Rogers jogging over.

"Hey," Angela greets, "did you see James crawling by?"

Keith hesitates. As much as he wants to rat out James and watch this unfold… "I don't know."

"Wait…" Angela mutters. Keith feels himself heat up because she might be onto his lies. Can she sniff out lies as sharks do to blood drops from their prey across the ocean? "You were with him at Concrete Beach before we broke up, weren't you?"

She's onto him. "I don't know."

Angela slowly nods. "It's a yes or no question."

Keith doesn't know if he responded because he made a run for it.