The next day early morning, Seth showed up at Major Jack’s office as Jacks had directed and then was bought to the track field. There was already a mixture of twenty of men and women assembled on the field performing stretches. They were all wearing plain white tees and army pants.

“Hey who’s the kid Jacks? Didn’t know it was take your kid to work day!”

“Yeah! You sure that’s your kid? Too good looking to be yours!”

“When are you going to join us here for the run Jacks? Thought you were going to be stuffed in the office all day!”

A bunch of questions and insults were thrown at Jacks as the assembled group all jeered at the arriving two. Jacks yelled “Shut up you bunch of clowns! Where’s Steward?” One of the men stretching walked up and offer greetings. He was tall and fit. He had large muscles to showed he worked out, but not overly large ones that would look disgusting.

“Let me introduce you to Captain Steward. He’s our residential training expert. He leads group exercises and you'll be joining his group in the morning from now on.”

“So this is the kid you were talking about? Thought there was one more?” Captain Steward asked.

“There is. He’s a bit of a troublemaker. Give him some time and he’ll be here eventually. Let the boys in It department have their fun. It’s been awhile since someone been so rebellious.”

Both men let out an evil chuckle as if they were sharing a personal secret.

“So Seth right? Like Jacks said I'm Captain Steward, but you don’t have to call me by my title. I don’t personally care for them and you’re not officially part of the Federation so it’s fine to call just by my name. Put em here,” Steward offered his right hand for a handshake.

Seth grasp the hand. It was a tight grip, but not enough to crush Seth's hand. Steward's hand was rough and callous, and he shook Seth’s hands enthusiastically.

“Good grip! Welcome to the group where we train everyday! You’ll be reporting to me every morning from now on. Any questions?”

“Yes, why am I joining your group?”

“Do you not want to get fit young man? Do you not see my amazing muscles? Do you not want bulging muscles the size of your head?”

“Ummm, no. I think it would look kind of disgusting.”

Steard nodded in agreement. “Yes muscle that large are mainly for show and are mostly useless. All joking aside, this is a good method to keep fit. A good mind resides in a good body. Our minds are sharpened thanks to the exercise. It’s a good habit to keep. That and the Federation make it mandatory for all officers to participate in training exercise like these. That way Federation officers are ready for combat at any time. Wouldn’t want them to be losing their senses would we?”

“Every officer participates?”

“Most do. Every one is on a rotation system due to deployment schedules. You’ll see a lot of the same faces here, but they won’t be here every day. All of it really depends on their schedule.”

“Are you included in that rotation system?”

“HA! No, I'm not. I’m responsible for keeping all these slackers moving and planning their training. Except for special missions, you can find me somewhere on the base. Alright let’s get moving before these guys think it a rest day.”

Seth joined the group as they set off at brisk pace. His legs still protested a bit from all the running done by the day before, but it was manageable. Nobody has said anything for the first ten minutes as everyone was controlling their own breathing. Seth was perfectly fine with the silence. He was a new member to the group and didn’t want to aggravate anyone.

That was when Captain Steward started chanting.

“1-2-3-4-WHAT THE HELL WE RUNNING FOR?”

A response came as soon as he finished from the rest of the running group.

“5-6-7-8-SO THAT WE CAN BUILD OUR CORES!”

“1-2-3-4-WHAT DO WE APPRECIATE?”

“5-6-7-8-ALL THE TIME WE GOT A DATE!”

Seth was not prepared for that answer and almost tripped when he heard the answer. The answer to him was so nonsensical that he choked when exhaling as he was running.

These chants were nothing new to the group it seems as every time a question came out from Captain Steward, an answer was already prepared. Sometimes the answer would be shouted out in unison or sometimes an individual would be the one who responded.

Soon Seth realized that some of these chants were made up of the spot.

“1-2-3-4-WHO'S THE STUPIDEST AMONGEST US ALL?

“5-6-7-8-JACKS THE IDIOT AMONGST US ALL!”

Was it fine to insult superiors like that?

After an hour of jogging, Steward called a halt and order them to change and get ready for the rest of their day. He stopped Seth and asked “How was the first day? You were able to keep up the whole time which is pretty good!”

“It was fine so far, but what with all the chanting?”

“Oh that. It’s a way to help build comradery amongst the group and improve relationships between soldiers. It’s also a way to help release some frustration that may be built up from everyday work. Everyone knows the shoutouts are nothing serious and a lot of it is good fun. It let out accumulated stress as we jog from our everyday life.”

“I see...”

“We’ll do the same thing tomorrow and I expect you to be answer a shout out along the way.”

“Wait a minute, why?”

“Alright I'll see you tomorrow. Report to Jacks when you are ready. Bye!” said Steward and he walked towards the direction of the changing room.

Seth sighed and walked in the other direction as his locker room as he had left his change of clothes in Jacks’s office.

…

Jacks was working on his computer when Seth entered his office. He ask “Take a seat. How was the morning jog?”

“Not as bad as yesterday.” replied Seth.

“Yesterday was meant to examine you guys. You won’t be doing that sort of test for a while. Right speaking of that, your results are in. They were already finished when you guys collapsed, but I figured you’ll all be too tired to listen.”

Seth perked up his ears. He couldn’t help but be curious on where he stood in the Federation testing.

“There’s no doubt you guys are level 2 Awaken, albeit low level on the spectrum.”

“I see....” Seth wasn’t surprised, but hearing it confirmed what he thought. For some reason he as if he failed. Perhaps it because people always aim to be on the higher level, and he just happened to get one of the lowest?

“What, disappointed?” Jacks saw through Seth immediately. “Don’t be. This was merely an energy reading exam, and don’t forget Awaken classifications are based off destructive abilities. As long as you’re an Awaken you could have run those 50 laps with no problem. Being an Awaken strengthen your body automatically.”

That was news to Seth. “Is that true? I never heard of that before.”

“Yea, it is an unsaid fact among Awaken. Don’t want normal people to feel any more depressed than they already are. If you actually used your ki, you could have run a lot longer. I did say to use your abilities didn’t I?”

Seth could only meekly laugh at the comment. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, he forgot to during the run. As he was running, he became so focus on pushing his body he forgot he could have used his chi.

“Whatever, doesn’t make much of a difference. As long as you run certain number laps, you’re confirmed as a Awaken.”

“Can’t normal people run that long?”

“They can, but it takes a long time to train for that. Age is automatically factored in. Anyways enough about that . I’ll inform Kong on his results when he shows up. Have you ever driven a car before?”

“No?”

“How about using a gun?”

“No?”

The questions came out of the blue. Seth had plans to take driving lesson eventually, but he never put much thought into it. He was reaching the age where he could learnt o drive soon.

Jacks got up and walked to a bookshelf. “Hmm. Here take this then. Good thing I got a copy of these lying around. I figured they might be needed one day.” He offered two books to Seth.

One was titled Driving 101. The other was titled Using guns for dummies. Seth didn’t know how to feel when he was casually handed a book about lethal murder weapons.

“Read them when you get the chance. By the way have you eaten yet? Go get some food into you while you still can. I plan to bring you toward the R&D department later, they need some help.”

“Got it.”

***

2 ham sandwiches later

Jacks led Seth to a familiar hallway that Seth had seen the day before. This time, he allowed him into a room when he had previously kept Kong and him out of. The room was fill with machines that Seth had never seen before. Half broken contraptions laid on a table along with various tools. Shelves filled with parts with labels took over the wall. It was a mess. How anything could be found in this chaos, one would never know. If Seth kept his room this way, his mom would beat him all the way to next week.

There were a few people working and Jacks led Seth to one of them. It was a red hair lady tinkering away with a scout bot. She wore glasses and had freckles. Even when they were right next to her, she was still busy working on the bot.

“Hey! Hey! HEY! “It was the final shout from Jacks that got her attention. She slowly turned her head towards Jacks

“So it’s you Jacks. When are you going to return the scout bot. I’m not finish with the modifications yet.” The voice was the same one that Jacks had ran away from yesterday.

“Oh right that. Its in my office, and I’ll return it soon.”

“That’s what you said last time! And the time before that! The last time you returned something I had to rebuild it back from scrap!”

“Oh right those..... I have them lying around somewhere. Enough about me. I’m here to introduce someone who can help you.”

“Help?” The red hair lady finally noticed Seth.

“Seth meet Carol Revine. She a scientist and engineer here in the Research and Development department. She’s great at fixing and modifying things. If you need something fixed, go to her. Carol meet Seth. He was the one in the video.”

Video?

Carol’s eyes became huge and stare at the boy. Seth felt as if he was being stared at by a predator.

“Oh that one! I have so many questions! How do you channel chi into your sword? What kind of materials was it made of? Where did you acquire it? How were you able hit Slipstream? Can you do that again with different weapons? How good are you with a gun? How long did you have that sword? How did you determine the best length for the sword? Did you use any awaken abilities in the spar? “

Carol was firring questions like a machine gun and it didn’t seem like she was going to stop any time soon. Seth looked at Jacks for help and his response was to only shrug helplessly.

Seth was beginning to see why Jacks avoided this department in particular.