Tilted Axis

Chapter:7

Gon POV

We watch in silence as Leorio and the short blonde with pigtails, who I assume is Nurse Bisky, carry away Wellsprin on a stretcher. They carefully go to the infirmary trying not to bump him around.

   "Alright lads!" Knuckle yells out. Clapping his hand together loudly to get our attention. "Whose up next? The current time to beat is 5 minuets!"

Nobody moves. I sit on the ground by the water table watching them. "C'mon now you wee babies! It's not that difficult!" I can tell he's starting to get furious. 

   He points a finger to me. "If he can do it in 5  I should expect at least the worst of you to beat it in 10!"

He about to continue when a new face appears. A large man with long white hair and well defined jawline. Knuckle turns white as a ghost upon noticing him. "HUNTER PLATOON! FALL IN!" He commands

    We all scurry into formation. "ATTEN HUT!" He shouts calling us to attention. "SALUTE YOUR COMMANDING OFFICER. LIEUTENANT COLONEL MOREL!" We keep facing forward and bring our arms up and salute in unison.

   The large man chuckles. "At ease Men." He says before turning to knuckle. "You are doing fine work with them but you seem to be missing a few Sergeant."

    "Yes sir. We had one injury and one of the men helped the nurse take him back. He should be returning shortly. If you don't mind me asking sir, why have you decided to grace us with your presence?"

   The man walks over to us seemingly ignoring Knuckle. "I merely wanted to inspect the platoon is all Sergeant. I could hear your shouting from halfway across the base." He stops and takes a long look at me.

   I remain still as a statue. Staring forward only. "Knuckle. What can you tell me about this one?" He asks him.

   "He is Gon Freecss. He's the hardest worker of the platoon. 18 years old like most in the other cadets." Knuckle informs him. Colonel Morel takes a long hard look at me. His face showing no emotion. "Sergeant. When you have finished training them send him to my office." He says turning away from me.

My heart jumps in fear. "Oh god no. Have I done something wrong?" I think anxiously. "Continue on Sergeant!" Morel says walking away. I see Leorio running back from the infirmary as fast as he can.

"Ok men." Knuckle says finally as Leorio joins formation. "As most of you must realize by now, that man is your our CO. Lieutenant Colonel Morel. He is in charge of Hunter Platoon. Would have been better for him to inspect everyone while you weren't filthy."

He rubs his eyes seemingly annoyed. "Permission to speak sir?" I pop up. "Granted." I step out of formation and to attention.

"Why haven't we met the Colonel till now? Given that it's been a week and you haven't even mentioned him." I ask.

   "Well cadet that's a fair question. The Colonel is simply a very busy man. He has several tasks around the base. As to why I've never mentioned him, it's more important to get you through your weeks of training first. What has me curious is why he is so interested in you." He replies raising an eyebrow. "Anything else?"

   "No sir!" I exclaim and fall back into formation.

   "Good. Now then. So with that out of the way, we have only had two cadets through the course so far. Fall out! When I call your name come to the start."

   He picks up a clip board and seemingly picks at random. "Paladiknight! You're up!" He says.

   Leorio groans and steps forward. He walks over to the start of the course. "Close your gob boy or I'll close it for ya!" Knuckle threatens.

One of the cadets behind me whispers to another. "Bet you a fiver he doesn't even finish." The first says. "You're on." The second replies.

I ignore them as knuckle orders Leorio to start. "Just don't break your arm like Wellsprin you lanky bastard." I say under my breath watching Leorio take off.
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   Leorio collapses just as I did at the end of the course gasping for air. Knuckle grunts. "Not bad Paladiknight. 8 minuets 26 seconds. Better than I expected ya to do." He says checking his stopwatch.

   Leorio weakly raises a fist to the air. "Cheers! Fock me that was difficult." He says gasping for breath.

  Knuckle rolls his eyes and calls for the next cadet to run the course and I go check on Leorio.

   "Blimey mate. Lookin a bit green there eh?" I ask him offering a hand up. "Ah stuff it gon. Not everyone can be a stamina freak like you." He says as I pull him up.

   "To be fair you had already used a fair bit running back. But look at the bright side. You made it through and you helped one of the others win a bet." I hand him a bottle of water. "Really now? How much?"

    "Five pounds. Not a bad bet mate. Maybe he'll give ya half." He takes a long drink before answering. "He'd be a real numpty if he didn't. I felt like the course was gonna kill me!"

I laugh and turn my attention back to the course in time to see the cadet running fall off the wall. Knuckle looks over to me. "Freecss! Paladiknight! You two are finished with the morning training. Hit the showers! After you are done get your uniforms straightened then go see the Colonel. You as well Paladiknight." He turns away and focuses back on the cadet.

    I swallow hard and stand at attention nudging Leorio to do the same. "Yes sir!" We exclaim before turning 180 and walking towards the barracks for fresh clothes. "Why in the bloody hell is he sending us to see the Colonel?" Leorio asks fearfully.

   "No idea. He wanted to me to come to the office but you, I'm not sure why." We walk in silence to the barracks and grab clean clothing before heading to the base facilities.

   "So tell me Gon. Since we aren't showering with the platoon this time, does it have to be a quick shower or can we enjoy it for once?" He asks me.

   "Guessing that Colonel Morel isn't the type of man you would want to keep waiting. Best keep it quick." I hear him swear under his breath and I smirk. "Cheer up. Could be worse. Could be in a war on the front lines. Not so much as bucket of clean water in sight."

   "Ugh don't put that in my mind you knob head. You know as well as I do how bad the trenches were to those men." He shudders. "Amputations, gangrene, mine fields and worse. Just think of that almost makes me regret my choice of the military."

   "Ah don't worry you cock. I doubt we will have to worry another war. The Jerries are still in shambles after the Great War." I remind him. "The Ottoman Empire even got dissolved after it."

    "Fair but who knows. That guy Germany has now. What's his name?" He stops to think for a moment. "Adolf something?"

    "Adolf Hitler?" I ask. "Yeah that's the guy. He's talking up a storm over there. I think he's up to something. It's just a matter of what." He finishes.

   I ponder at this. "The Führer is a very charismatic man. He did help Germany recover from a depression after The Great War." Leorio nods. "Germany has actually recovered significantly since he came to power at that. But he's a dictator that wants more. Wanting leads to more greed. Where his greed takes him. We will see. He's been making a lot of allies this year. Japan and Austria being two of them."

"Maybe." I open the door to the shower room and let him in. "We just have to wait and see. Maybe he just wants best for his people?"

(Authors note. Finally back to it! Hope this chapter lives up to the previous ones and is a good way to resume. Of course this story takes a bit longer because it requires more research. But that makes it more worthwhile. Let me know if you enjoyed it and leave your thoughts in the comments and have a lovely day!