5 The Squad Leader

The morning came, and I woke up from my drunken stupor. I painfully groaned and held my forehead - it felt like a hammer striking my head repeatedly. Memories from last night flashed by like a movie on replay; I vaguely remembered standing on top of a table before passing out. To be honest, I don't even want to remember what happened last night. I slapped my cheeks at the same time with both hands to get rid of the dizziness that I've been feeling.

I head towards a metallic drawer and opened it to grab my uniform. I managed to put on my uniform after a few minutes passed - dark green, tactical training pants stuffed into a pair of black combat boots. I wore a black t-shirt and tucked it into my pants. I then finished up the process by tightening my belt around my pants. I'm surprised Sergeant Orion hasn't barged in here yet. At this time, he would have broken down the door and scream at the top of his lungs to wake me up.

"So, this is the boy who defeated the Juggernaut?" A strange voice spoke within the darkness of the room. The man's steps echoed throughout the sleeping chamber where I first woke up.

I felt a chill run down my spine, and I immediately scanned across the room. My muscles tensed up as I got into my basic fighting stance. I slowly backed up towards the wall as the footsteps got closer; sweat dripped down my forehead.

"Who are-" I couldn't finish my sentence as a gut-wrenching punch landed on my stomach. A mix of spit and blood shot out from my mouth as I collapsed on the floor.

"Hey now," The man grinned. "That's no way to speak to you superior like that."

He chuckled nonchalantly as he launched a kick at me. I managed to fall back just before he struck me. I carefully examined the man that revealed himself from the darkness of the room. The man had hair as white as snow. The top of his hair was combed to the side while the rest was shaved. He had eyes like the flames of the sun with a hidden and mysterious gaze in them.

A large grin stretched across his face that was extremely irritating to look at. I didn't want to admit it, but the guy had a handsome face - this only made me more annoyed to look at him. He covered himself in black overalls which were a common theme in our military apparels.

"Let's begin the introductions, shall we." A metallic chain flew from his sleeves and wrapped itself around my body. "As formality goes, my name is Bounye Saratova, but you'll be calling me Leader."

Bounye yanked the chain and dragged me across the floor.

I struggled to free myself from his chains, "Let go of me, you son of a bitch!"

He spun me over his head while laughing hysterically, "It's a little rude to call your squad leader that, don't you think!"

Bounye let go of the chain, and I flew across the room and slammed into the wall. I crashed to the floor while my mind was disorientated from the intensity of the spin. It made my headache worse, and I vomited out last night's food. I slowly stood up and wiped the vomit near my mouth. A seething rage burst forth, and I rushed towards the man to give him a beatdown. As I got near him, I quickly jumped up in an attempt to knee him in the face. Bounye stepped to the side in a relaxed manner and narrowly dodged my attack. I landed on the ground and quickly spun around for a roundhouse kick.

"Heh, not bad for a weakling," Bounye smiled as he blocked my kick. He pushed me away with his index finger.

My anger reached a boiling point and charged towards him again, "Like you would know bitchface!"

I threw a flurry of punches towards his head and body to catch him off guard. However, this guy was like a snake - I can't even hit him at all. I tried sweeping his legs under him, but he easily flipped over me. I felt a powerful kick struck across my face, and I started spinning uncontrollably. Before I knew it, he chained me again, and I fell to the ground. Bounye fiercely pulled me towards him and elbowed my face. He struck me twice in the face with a straight and a right hook before grabbing my head and slammed me on the ground.

"You're quite the hot-tempered one!" The man lifted me up on his shoulders as I struggled to break free.

The man walked out of the chamber's door and head towards the wall that protected the fortress of Invictus. He glanced towards the top of the metallic wall before squatting down.

"Where are you taking me!"

"You'll know soon enough," He yawned.

"What do you- OH SHIT!"

The gust of wind fiercely blew at my face as the man leaped high into the air and landed on top of the wall. I felt my heart stopped working. I wanted to punch this asshole badly - just once, please! As I glanced around, I noticed the guards on watch duty stared at us before looking away to continue on with their duties.

"At least warn me or something!" I struggled to look at Bounye.

"No way, this is a lot funnier," Bounye walked towards the other side of the wall and stood near the edge. "Quite the view, isn't it?"

"Smog, dead trees, poisonous rivers - literal heaven, I must say," I rolled my eyes at him.

"Don't forget the mutated creatures that'll eat you." Bounye grinned.

"I don't even want to know about that..."

"Let's keep moving!" Bounye took one foot off the edge of the wall, and he slowly arched forward to the ground.

"Wait, wait, WAAAAIT!" I screamed. Tears formed around my eyes as we fell towards the ground.

Bounye did a front flip and safely landed on the ground - much to my dismay. He dropped me on the floor and released the chains around me. Through some hidden mechanism, the chains slithered back into his sleeves.

I groaned while rubbing my aching back, "I really want to strangle you..."

"Good luck with that," Bounye laughed. He grabbed his waist and did some back stretches while releasing some low moans.

"Baldy! Bion!" Tannen and Indra shouted as they ran towards me. However, following behind them was an unrecognizable man.

The man's eyes were the color of blood that went along with his short, red hair. Amongst the four of us, he was the tallest one, albeit, in my opinion, the ugliest out of all of us. However, he looks quite strong with a rather large physique of his. He reminds me of Sergeant Orion with that stern look on face as he glared at me. I couldn't read the man's name as the display screen on his chest was covered under his uniform. I think I remembered seeing him a couple of times throughout our training regimes, but he's usually obscure amongst the crowd.

I nodded at him, "Name's Bion."

"Hmph, Creed," He snorted.

My right eye twitched in response, "Got a problem there, big guy?"

"Your face bothers me."

"Not my fault that you're too ugly to recognize handsomeness," I stood up and walked near him face-to-face. I clenched my fists in preparation for a fight against him. I really want to yank the stick out of this guy's ass.

Creed shoved me away from him, "Your ass-breath makes me want to puke. Fuck off."

Before I had the chance to charge at Creed and beat his face black and blue, Indra held me back from doing so. What's this guy's problem anyway? I guess some people are just born assholes.

"Hey, how about we just talk it out like civilized men?" Indra tried to appease the situation.

"Fuck that!" Tannen pointed at Creed in rage. "Who the hell do you think you are, Jerk-off?"

Tannen placed his arms around my shoulders and continued, "The only person who can mess with Baldy is me, you got that gorilla-face?"

Creed rolled his eyes, "Whatever."

Loud clapping interrupted our quarrel, and we all turned our heads to the source of the noise. Bounye stopped clapping and glanced at each and every one of us. The sly smile still remained on his face ever since I was brought here.

Bounye ruffled his white hair and calmly walked between us, "Well that is quite the fiery introductions, boys."

Indra stepped forward and asked, "If I may, sir, why did you bring us here?"

Bounye raised an index finger up to his face, "Survival training!"

We all spoke in unison, "Survival training?"

Out of nowhere, a grey, convertible vehicle roared towards us. In an instant, dust clouds shot out behind the tires as it began to drift. The vehicle parked behind Bounye who stood unfazed by the scene. Upon closer look, it seemed that no one appeared to be behind the wheel.

For some reason, I have a bad feeling about this.