Training Day

Everleason Police Department, August 2nd, 2006, 10:05 A.M.

Daniel Smith was just entering his office, about to sit at his desk when the mail man came with a grim look on his face. Daniel knew what was about to happen, he had experienced this before. On the second day of the month a letter arrives informing Dan that he is required to go to a mandatory FORMAL exercise day. There was a boot camp set up for this. Every police department had their own day for their officers, some of them share the same day, but never the same camp.

"Oh Paul." Dan said as Paul approached his desk to deposit Daniel's mail.

"Yes Dr Smith?" Paul replied.

"Did I get any mail from Draconias Myth?"

"Yes, sir."

"Did it get lost in the mail by any chance?" Daniel winked.

"You know, since you started getting those letters, I have started getting bad at my job. Just do not say anything, I do not want to get fired." Paul winked back.

"That is quite all right, Paul. The first letter was written so fancily that I was unable to read it. So, I do not mind if I do not see another. But next time you check my mail you should check first to see if I do have mail from him, and if you do not see a letter from him, you simply say you did not see one." Daniel winked again.

Paul smiled. "Looks like you're going to do the monthly exercises again." He said and deposited the mail on his desk.

"Damien already has his right?"

"I delivered to his office already, but he was not there."

"He must be using the bathroom. He may be young and naïve but at least you can set your clock by his actions. Always eating, drinking, and using the bathroom at the exact same times unless his schedule is disturbed by factors out of his control."

"Well, I have to go and give the letters to David and Lucy now." Paul spoke. He tipped his mailroom hat and off he went back into the hallway.

Daniel soon heard Damien's office's front door open and close. Daniel presented three fingers to an imaginary audience and counted down.

When Daniel lowered his last finger, Damien burst through the door that connected his office to Dan's office, he looked pale, and he fell to the floor.

"Daniel." Damien spoke in a crook voice. "Tell them to make a medical exception for me."

"What have you come down with today?" Daniel asked trying to hold his laughter as he knew very well that Damien was faking his illness.

"Chicken pocks." Damien stated. Quickly placing red spots on his face without Daniel noticing.

"Oh, dear!" Daniel noted with faux concern, he even put his hands on his side like he was surprised. "I guess you shouldn't go to the boot camp then."

"That is right. I think I should get back home." Damien was still speaking in an obviously fake sick voice.

"But who will take you home? Will you be calling a taxi?"

Damien shook his head, making it seem like it took so much effort to preform that action. "I'll get the ambulance to take me away from here."

"Damien. I know you are faking it."

"Am not." He coughed. "I am so very unwell. Having me stay here is torture. I could charge you with a felony if you do not let me go home."

Dan shook his head and got out of his chair. He pushed it over to where Damien was laying, and Daniel lifted Damien onto his chair.

"What are you doing Daniel?" Damien inquired.

"I am a father to three sons and one daughter. I know when a child is faking illness to get out of things they wish not to do, and right now, you are faking an illness because you do not like the FORMAL boot camp." Dan spoke.

"I am truly sick. Besides even if I was not, which is not true, I do not see the point in the boot camp anyway. Why do they need to prepare us for war? They will never draft us." Damien noted.

"Number 6 always says to be prepared for anything the world throws at you. That is why we get trained. You heard of entitled people and how they act. That is one reason that they train us, so we can deal with those people without injury to ourselves. They teach us self-defence for those situations. They are not preparing us for war, they are preparing us to be ready in case we find ourselves in danger and we will know what to do. That is the point of the monthly exercises." Daniel explained.

"I have heard it all before and I still don't get it."

Daniel wiped the faux spots and paleness straight off Damien's face. "Oh, look at that. You are cured. That is odd considering that my doctorate is in the field of quantum physics." Dan laughed.

Damien frowned. He would have to produce another plan. "Oh no! My chicken pocks are healed but now my legs are paralysed! You are a terrible doctor, Daniel."

Daniel slapped Damien's right leg.

"Ow!" Damien exclaimed. "What was that for?"

"Either you have phantom leg, or you are not paralysed. Like I said before. You are not getting out of this. It is mandatory." Dan retorted.

Damien stood up. "Alright I'll go, but I will take my own car."

"Your brother is using your car." Daniel spoke.

"I'll take a police car then."

"All by yourself?"

"Yes."

"No. You will go with me."

"What? Why?"

"Because if you're alone, who's to say you would not get into an 'accident.'"

Damien looked down at his feet. "Well, you got me Dan. I was planning to have a car accident. I would not be serious injured, but if they heard I crashed my car they would let me off the hook."

"Of course, it would not be a serious accident. You race on the racetracks in Tryismo on your days off. You crash all the time."

Damien walked out to Daniel's car with a lot of sadness on his face. He truly did not want to go. But he had to. Daniel followed him and kept an eye on him. Dan would not let him take any hot drinks or any hot food for the fear that Damien would 'spill' them on himself, giving himself burns and an excuse to get out of the situation.

Damien tried to bump into walls, pretended to be off balance. He spoke in tongues, and he pretended like he was drunk and even pretended to be high. But none of it worked. Daniel kept dragging him along.

Dan and Damien finally arrived at Daniel's cherry red car. Dan pushed him into the passenger seat and bound him with some tape so that he could not try anything funny. "Seriously, Dan." Damien spoke. "You know I can charge you with kidnapping."

"I think the Good Samaritan law would disagree with you on that." Dan replied.

"How so?" Damien inquired in a tone that made it sound as if he knew that Daniel's answer was going to get Daniel into trouble.

"You admitted you were going to be involved in a car accident. If that does not denote plans on self-harm, then I do not know what does. Prevention of self-harm situations is protected by Good Samaritan law."

Damien frowned with a huff. "When did you learn that?"

"Your other chaperones told me how you tend to act when it is time to go to boot camp and they told me what to do and what to say. I am not surprised that today I am taking you. The others were sick of you and said that since your office is next to mine that you are my problem now."

Damien rolled his eyes. "Ah. Of course, they told you that. But what if crimes occur today? We would not be able to do our job."

"Did you forget already? The last exercise was only just a month ago. When we go to the boot camp, they replace us with a skeleton crew until return. They will deal with anything that occurs during our stay at the boot camp."

"Oh, right. That must have slipped my mind."

Daniel sighed and began driving off, it was not long until all the other officers of the EPD followed behind him.

#

Baysworld Military camp, Baysworld, Cascoss, 11:00 A.M

Everyone was lined up in front of the commander's tent, all in neat rows and all wearing the same white tank tops and light brown pants. Daniel no longer had any of his tools. His tranquilliser dart gun, his cuffs, his gloves, his box of evidence bags, they were all gone. The only thing left was his badge which he wore on his belt like all the others in the area.

Daniel was still wearing a woolly monogrammed hat, but it was an illusion, his real hat lay, collecting dust, in a locker at the base's entry.

Commander Leopold Hugo marched down the pathway in front of the lines of officers and stopped and turned to face them directly in front of the entry of his personal tent. Leopold was a tall man. 35cm taller than Dan. He had short black hair and the cleanest commander's cap you had ever seen. He was clean shaven, and his lips were perfect, not cracked in the slightest. His eyes were a sharp green and his brows were immaculate. He was wearing a Rhombodian army uniform, and his badges all showed his rank. He did not have a Purple Heart badge. His chest was huge and his muscles huger, he had a six pack and a cigarette in his mouth that had not been lit. He held a can of creamy cherry soda and the tab had been pulled of and was now in the captain's pocket. He cleared his throat.

"Alright ladies! Time for roll call!" Leo shouted in a deep dark voice.

He called out the badge numbers of each officer in order of importance. "1376735!" He eventually shouted out, but Damien did not respond.

"1376735!" Leo shouted once more, yet still nothing.

"3754!" Leo announced.

Edwin approached Leopold from beside the tent, he was not required to line up due to his status as the captain of the EPD. William Storm, the lieutenant of the EPD was also wondering around, checking on supplies, he was out of line because of his rank as well.

"What seems to be the issue 221?" Edwin asked.

"Who is 1376735?" Leopold inquired.

"That would be Damien Thrifter, sir." Edwin replied.

"Who is his partner?"

"D…"

"Did I ask for a name?"

"No sir."

"When we are at this camp, what is rule number 1?"

"Only refer to each other by number unless inclined to refer to each other by name."

"Correct, maybe you'll make commander someday." He laughed. "Ok, that is the only joke I will tell today. Now, who is the partner of 1376735?"

"9797."

"9797!"

Dan moved forward. He was already in the front most line, so it did not take much for Leopold to spot him.

"I am 9797!" Dan exclaimed.

"You? 3754, this is 9797?" Leo inquired with some confusion.

"That's right, you were not the commander for Daniel's previous visits to this camp." Edwin stated. He then realised his mistake and hung his head in shame.

"9797, I hate to be the first to inform you of this, but the handholding provided by commander Thelma Ghost will not be provided by me, do you understand?" Leo asked.

"I do, but why do you bring that up?" Daniel replied.

"Because we here do not wear hats, except for me. So why are you wearing yours? All doing training today have to be bare headed."

"Sir, this hat is only an illusion. It has no chance of slowing me down today."

Leo's lips twitched as if he was trying to hold in a laugh. "I see. Was that 345's idea?"

"Yes, commander Ghost said I could have an illusion version of my hat upon my head."

Leo nodded. "Very well then. I shall allow it for today only, but the next time you see me, you get whoever created that illusion for you to cancel it when you see me."

"Actually, sir, the one who created the illusion was me, I used a crystal, sir."

Leopold nodded. "So, your partner is 1376735?"

"I believe that is true sir, but such a long string of numbers is not easy to recall, but if you said his name, I'd be able to confirm it."

"Damien Thrifter."

"Yes, he is the one I share a wall with."

"Is he here today? He did not respond when his number was called."

"Yes sir. I drove him here myself, I taped him up so he could not escape."

"Yes. Commander Ghost warned me about him. I saw the man you mentioned. 5559!"

William came from the storeroom and approached the commander. "Yes 221?"

"Please bring 1376735 to me." Leopold announced.

William nodded and dragged Damien from his position in the third row to the commander. Damien was kicking and screaming and yelling assault.

Damien was plopped down in front of the commander and Damien looked up with puppy dog eyes.

"1376735!" Leo announced.

"Yes?" Damien said with a lump in his throat.

"Do you like your job?"

Damien nodded.

"Then show me you do."

"How?"

"By not trying to get yourself dismissed from boot camp. 345 was too lenient on you, but I will not make the same mistake she did. You see that tent?" Leopold gestured toward a big green tent over at the corner of the base, it had a big red glowing cross above its entrance. "That is the medical tent, if I see your ass in there and Doctor Andrew determines that your injuries are self-inflicted, I will make sure that you are reduced to working in SAP (Shop Associates Program) for the rest of your FORMAL career, do you want to go back to retail?"

"No, sir."

"Then I expect you to be on your best behaviour! Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir! Sorry, sir."

"Drop and give me twenty, and then start following the training schedule. Where is 9798?"

Lucinda Star, a tall brunette woman, who on an average day would have been wearing something more stylish than a tank top and brown pants with a black belt, approached the commander. Usually, her breasts were bigger, but she used her ability to shrink them down. Lucinda has one of the more powerful abilities on the force, her power is 'Crystal Swap,' with her power she can change the power of any power crystal she touches except for PCCs of course. She swapped out a teleportation crystal with a size adjustment crystal so that her breasts would not get in the way of her training.

"Yes, sir?" Lucy spoke. Her voice was dark but still feminine.

"Do you have all the training schedules?" Leopold inquired.

"I do sir!" Lucy announced.

"Okay. Make sure 1376735 here does all his push ups and give him his schedule when he is down. As for the rest of you, if you do not recall what to do, you must head to the resting quarters and your schedules will be on the beds with the numbers on your badges. I will see you at 11:30 for the first few exercises! Right now, I am going to smoke this 'dragon's tongue' cigarette. 3754, please come with me."

Leo headed in the direction of the medical tent. Edwin Orange followed behind him. "Is there something wrong 221?"

"What are the stats on Daniel Smith?" Leo inquired.

"9797? Every month he does the requisite five hundred push ups and 250 pull ups, and he always gets through the obstacle course in less than five minutes. He also managed to solve the faux murder we set up before we even get him to the crime scene during his last visit."

"A good man, is he?"

"He certainly is."

Leopold nodded. "I am surprised that someone his age manages all of that. Thank you for your time, return to your duties." Leo lit his cigarette as he passed by the medical tent.

"221, do you think it is a clever idea to smoke a dragon's tongue cigarette so close to Lee Andrew's workspace?"

"The tent is closed so he cannot smell it." Leo added.

Edwin nodded and left. Leo smoked his cigarette and drank his drink. He noticed that the medical tent's pin was in place, but he paid it no mind.