Part Ranger: Chapter 4

“Maybe we should abort this, Jopher! I can’t stand thinking about putting my child in a situation like up there.” The woman was rubbing her bump. She was worrying.

“HONEY! If we abort now the government will take us, skin us alive and take the dead fetus to work their science experiments on him! Do you think that is better for us?” The man held her shoulders. The images of these events played through their heads.

The woman thought about this for a moment. “If our child dies before the war ends, you can just blame yourself for that!”

 

 

The next morning, Charles led me to the Arthromian squad room. Their door was locked and everyone was asleep. I left a note attached and went to the simulation room. My note said, “The Mind Soldiers challenge you to your battle request.”

I saw everyone there in the suits we were required to wear in there. “What are we going to do in here?” One of them asked.

I thought about this for a moment. None of them have been in here for any reason. They all stared at me, waiting for an answer. “How many of you can change your sense of vision based on how the gravity changes?” A couple of them stepped forward. “Then we’ll start with that!”

The gravity was turned off. We had everyone follow one another around the field jumping off walls. They all understood how the room was mapped out upside-down, the four different sides of sideways and upright.

Lunch came and we all went through our usual afternoon schedule. I was talking to Charles as we went back to the trainee room. “I don’t think I’ve seen them this serious about something normal.” My brain was still excited that they all agreed to challenge the Arthromians with me.

“If the Mind Soldiers have never been into the simulation room like that, there is still a lot more to teach them.” Charles was hunched over as we continued down the halls. He didn’t know how much they can learn in one day.

“You’ll help me then!” I grabbed around his back and leaned forward. “Think about it like this, you teach them what you know and you get the extra practice required for squad recruiting.”

“How will I learn anything good from this? They will need to get through the basics before you can get them into complex things.” I looked around the hallway.

“You can protect yourself better from their games if they try anything!” He sighed and left me for his room.

Matt came down the hallway. His uniform was cleaner and another officer was with him. I stood straight and clean until Matt began laughing. We talked for an hour until we reached the room.

When I entered, alone, the others were quiet and looked at the unknown person here. He looked much older than me and held a piece of paper in his hand. “WHO WROTE THIS? WHO CHALLENGED US?” The door shut behind me and he turned. “They understand the rules of battles better than a trainee like you. Did you write this?” He was up in my face. His glare trying to penetrate my natural defenses.

“Yeah I wrote it! Is there something wrong with a challenge?” He leaned down to be closer to my face.

“The Mind Soldiers aren’t a squad! They can’t challenge anyone to a battle at all!” I got on my tip-toes to get closer to him. He was frustrating me.

“THEN WHY ARE WE HERE? JUST TO BE TAKEN AWAY FROM OUR FAMILIES?” The room fell silent. The other boys looked away as my words came out.

“Mind Soldiers don’t have families, trainee. None of you can see that though because of how messed up you think.” The boy stormed off and threw a ball made out of my note at me. My one request came back and punched me in the face.

I walked over to my bed and threw myself down. The pillow pressed up against my face as I began crying. “What the hell is with him?” One boy said.

“Thinking he can just turn down a battle like that? He must be terrified.” Another boy said.

“Come here!” The white haired boy’s voice overpowered them. They all started whispering to each other while I continued sobbing. “RANGER!” I stopped and looked at them. “We’ll get that request through.” The lights went out and everyone went to sleep.

Today, we practiced with Charles the basics of how our weapons worked in battle. Matt got the device from an officer that brought people back from stopped time in the simulation room. He still doesn’t want me to talk to Charles about anything we do. Why?

Lunch came again and I sat with the other Mind Soldiers this time. Charles was getting along with the trainees now, so I’m backing off. The Arthromians were in the same hall as we were.

The boy from yesterday walked by. “We still request to challenge your squad in battle.” The white hair boy said. He had more of the authority that I had here. He said his name was… Darren!

“The Mind Soldiers still aren’t a squad. The officers won’t allow such a thing to happen anyways.” Darren stood up, slamming his hands against the table as he rose. “Consider it done!” He yelled.

“What?” The boy got jumpy at his response. He looked around, away from Darren. “The rules say-”

“The rules don’t apply to us! We barely exist here.” A couple of other Arthromians came up to the boy.

“Fine! You can have your battle with us.” He slammed his tray of food onto a table behind him. “YOU HEAR THAT? THE MIND SOLDIERS PLAN TO CHALLENGE OUR REQUEST!” You could hear cheering coming from all over the hall. Quickly, this seemed like a bad idea. “You better not regret saying that mind losers. Or else you can’t go back to being invisible around here.” Darren sat back down and ate with the rest of us.

An officer came into the room. The lights were about to go out and everyone was tired. He stood in front of the door that closed. “I’ve heard from another officer that you challenged the Arthromian squad to their request. Are you all THAT STUPID?” I thought he was going to explode. There wasn’t a reason for him to though. Battles were normal for other squads to fight in.

“Does anyone want to explain why you did this?” He held up the piece of paper I left yesterday. How did he get his hands on it though?

He scanned the room for someone with his answer. He started walking towards the back with the paper crushed inside his fist. When the officer reached me, he stopped. “Do you have anything to say about this, trainee?” He leaned forward, closer to my face. Fear wasn’t tolerated from this guy. “I was the one who challenged them. There isn’t a point to being here if all we do is sit around, sir.” I answered.

The officer gazed into my eyes. “Are you saying that YOU are willing to take the role as a commander and fight against our strongest squad here?” I nodded and the strangest thing happened. He started to laugh.

“You really have guts there, don’tcha kid. Alright, I’ll help you out. Don’t expect my training exercises to be like the ones trainees go through! We need to get you boys into the best of the best if you want to have a chance at winning.” He went out and the lights went off.

We woke up at our normal time and saw the officer in the simulation room. Matt’s famous disguise body was standing next to him. The first thing we did was a mock battle to see what everyone was capable of.

The officer had us spend all morning, 600 to 1100, on intense training. I sweated so much that it was decided I took a shower. That may have been a bad idea at this time.

A group of boys, probably all around 12, came in and surrounded me. They each began to shove me around their small circle. I was the only Mind Soldier there so no one could help me, not even Matt. “Stop getting your dumb mind germs all over my hands!” one of them said.

“Try and read my mind now!” another provoked.

“I bet you don’t even think like them!” a third one teased. They kept calling me a fake. I wanted to rage and run them away from me, but I couldn’t. I was naked and defenseless against them.

“The fact you are doing this in a group just tells me one thing.” I spoke up. They all stopped.

“Oh yeah? And what does this tell you?” The group leader stepped forward. The other two back away a few steps.

“That you couldn’t beat a naked boy by yourself if you tried.” Now he began to remove his uniform. His physique looked a bit over average for a normal pre-teen male, but just right for a child soldier.

“Okay then! Let’s see who is stronger now.” We both had no clothes on. Judging by the size of his body, he was stronger. I also don’t usually get into fist fights with people.

“I hope you know what I can do.”  I taunted. He got angry and tried to punch me. Thankfully I learned how tor read a person’s body during these moments. “Too slow! Too slow!” I chuckled.

There was something different about him. Every time he tried to punch me, I could see his penis and sagging testicles swing back and forth rapidly. “Doesn’t it hurt?” I asked.

“What do you mean trainee? Somehow missing your face?”

“No. I mean how your dick swings at bullet speed whenever you move.” The other boys looked as he punched again to make me “keep quiet.” We could hear them snickering.

“What’s so funny?” He punched again and looked to see.

“That isn’t normal, man! You might have some horrible disease or something.” The two began laughing more and louder. The boy’s face got red and he ran out. They followed, but brought his uniform with them. “That’s how you can solve a problem without violence.” I dried off and headed back to the room.

Darren was waiting for me inside. “Shouldn’t you be in a uniform? You can’t be naked with a towel around your waist.” I smiled and walked to my bed. We were the only ones in the room. “Do you not care who looks at you like that?”

I turned towards him. “Why do you care so much? It’s not like it is your body being shown around.” He balled his fists.

“Because then the officers might not let a girl into our squad if they had the ability to be a Mind Soldier!” I looked down at myself and back at him.

“Considering a boy from the Arthromians just ran down the hallway completely naked, I’m sure a towel is fine.” I went back and changed into my uniform.

They showed us how soldiers back home acted normally around mixed genders. It was like they were the same if they were on the same team. Gender didn’t matter to soldiers like those.