Chapter 6: The Damn Prodigy

Benton

Weeks had passed since the class had begun training, and the work never stopped, every afternoon we would train hard for the battle that accumulated every 3 days. Our group was relatively successful in terms of battles won, our current record was 7 wins and 4 losses, the leaders had been working hard as well helping the Captain run the battles and giving another insight into the battles in order to help with strategy to win, on the battles we lost we never really lost hard, come to think of it almost all the matches were close everyone had their strengths and weaknesses but we were all about the same skill level overall.

I however have been sustaining the most consistently positive record as a player for all the most recent matches, topping the team’s stats with a clear lead. And what this has resulted in is the Captain always wanting me to be a leader, even though they know that that’s not my interest, I wanted to be a loyal Soldier that is good at what he does, but due to my dedicated performance everyone expects more of me, the squad hates me for it however, they don’t like someone of the same training level, outperforming them. But it didn’t matter to me though because at this point, the leaders liked me and that’s all that matters, John took a particular liking to me, not only due to my performance, but also due to us having a surprising amount in common even with our drastically different personalities, this made us best friends outside of classes and battle training, and powerful allies during battle.

Commander Jenkins

I sat in my office of the battle school and wondered what I would do with John, the boy was getting too cocky and he was no longer following orders from me due to a stupid moral compass, I saved him from prison, a lifelong debt, even though he did me some big favours it doesn’t make us square, I needed someone new, I obviously made a mistake with John and I needed someone more willing to obey rather be too ambitious. I went over a whole bunch of student files, watched hours upon hours of footage before landing on Benton Leaney, a quick study and someone who aces every test that’s put in front of him. He would be my new employee.

John

I walked with Benton after maths class, we were deciding weather to go lunch early or not, it wouldn’t matter though as I saw someone who at this point, I was very fed up with, it was the commander and he was looking quite smug for his normally unemotional stature he walked up and addressed Benton first “first things first, I’d like to congratulate you on your performance, very impressive for someone of your age, how would you feel about becoming part of my personal detail?” I instantly went to warn Benton when he shushed me with his index finger, he then slipped me a piece of paper, it was an order for the leaders meeting that was starting in 5 minutes, I had to leave. “we will talk about this later Commander.” I said in firmly as a warning as I proceeded to walk off towards the room that was on the note. I can’t believe what he was doing, he couldn’t use me anymore so now he was trying to use my closest friend. I wouldn’t let him I would kill the bastard if I had too.

Emily

I had just finished lunch when I see Benton storm in the eating area, he was obviously looking for someone, he then looked at me, it was confusing as it seemed I was the one he was looking for, he then sped over to me scrambling a chair in order to take a seat in order to talk to me. “Hey, I just had an odd conversation with Commander Jenkins.” I was confused, to my knowledge he didn’t have much stake in the school other than managing higher ranking students, I didn’t know what he was doing with new students such as us. “What about?” he then handed me a form, it was a Job offer for his personal detail, dealing with all the nitty gritty stuff. Finding out what’s going on with specific students and such, “Oh that great, good job.” I didn’t have a whole lot to say, “but what was weird is how John reacted, he was very worried about it all, he said something weird.” He was out of his mind confused “What did he say?” he was still wrapping his head around It all “We will talk about this later Commander, but he didn’t say it normally, he sounded threatening and in a warning kind of way.” I was pretty sure I knew what was going on, “He used to work for the Commander, he Is probably just upset that you are working for someone he hates, I don’t blame him though, the Commander is a bit of a douche.” Benton looked worried, seemed as if his trusted was more based in his friend than authority. “Why does John even hate him?” if I was being honest, I knew exactly why, but I did make a promise. “I don’t even know, maybe something he made him do?” Benton remained conflicted “I don’t know if I want to take it, I mean if John doesn’t even trust him, I don’t know if I can either.” He got up piece of paper still in hand. “Thanks for the help.” He looked at me with a smile, by the seems of it he had made up his mind.