Mako and Iris quickly caught up with Commander Sable, who was going to one of the debriefing rooms.
The military base they were in was one of their base of operations which meant that there was everything inside the base that the military might need, including machinery, weapons, standby soldiers, active soldiers, debriefing rooms, living quarters, etc.
The walk was a quiet one where nobody exchanged a single word or rather couldn't as both Mako and Iris could feel the oppressive aura still contained inside his body, waiting to be unleashed on one wrong move.
Iris had just recovered from her whole endeavor on the island, and Mako was still not 100% as he just woke up yesterday, so neither one of them wanted to feel Commander Sable's wrath or as he liked to call it "testing" so soon again.
The three of them walked through a couple of corridors with the passing military personnel all saluting the commander as he walked past them, and at last, they reached the very end of the labyrinth of corridors and entered the room which was labeled "Debriefing Room 6".
As soon as Mako and Iris entered they stopped right in their tracks as Commander Sable had turned around and was now staring at them with a mischievous grin.
"We are far away from Anderson's range, he won't know anything that happens in this corner of the room, so now where were we...?" Commander Sable said while grinning sadistically.
Iris was far weaker in terms of mentality than Mako and she was the first to cave in as she started to tremble and collapsed onto her knees even though the Commander hadn't done anything yet.
Mako was still a bit strong-minded and didn't immediately react and instead kept his emotions locked within himself, and displayed a rather poor poker face, but it was still enough to get the message across that he wasn't falling for it so easily.
Seeing Mako's tenacity, the Commander finally broke character as he started laughing at them.
"Ha Ha Ha! I didn't want to admit it in front of Anderson, but he definitely did not disappoint me this time!" The commander stated as he turned back and took a seat around a table which was the only piece of furniture in the room.
"Huh...? What?" Iris said still shocked by the constant change in character and emotions which was making her heart ache so much that she thought she might just die on the first day.
Mako leaned down and gave a hand to Iris to help her up on her feet again, but Commander Sable snapped just as he did so.
"Stop!" He shouted making Mako pause completely in his tracks.
"Pick yourself up, cadet! Prove yourself to be equal to your companion over here! If you can't do that, you don't deserve to be in this room!" The commander stated.
He looked at Iris with a dangerous stare, sending all kinds of fear signals inside Iris' brain. She just couldn't understand what kind of teacher this commander was. His speech and attitude were all over the place with him switching out his emotions as if he was flipping pages.
The teachers she had while she was receiving training from the sponsor were all very kind to her and never treated her in a way that made her uncomfortable, so this was a completely new experience for her, unlike Mako who was used to this behavior as everyone regularly treated him like this in his daily life, so it wasn't something new.
Iris' legs were still trembling as the commander stared at her with a piercing gaze showing no mercy, and making her even more uncomfortable and afraid. She tried to pick herself up, but her arms and legs just wouldn't obey her as they were under the influence of fear from the man sitting in front of them.
'Come on! Come on!' Iris shouted in her thoughts as he tried her best to stand but her legs just wouldn't listen to her and she remained on the floor.
"That's disappointing... I guess you got lucky and stayed with the strongest people to secure your spot on this special task force. You can fool Anderson, but you can't fool me! If you can't stand in the next 30 seconds, consider your letter of approval into the military school revoked!" The commander said without a hint of remorse or mercy.
Mako looked down at Iris with worry and pity as he wanted to help her out or encourage her, but he was completely helpless because somehow he knew that if he even moved a single muscle out of line, it wouldn't end well for him.
All he could do was to observe Iris struggle as veins started to pop on her forehead from the amount of concentration she was under to force herself up and overcome the trauma her body had just faced and was so afraid of.
'NO! I didn't make it this far just because of Mako! He was a good friend that helped us out when we were most desperate and I admit we would have been disqualified if we didn't run into him in the cave that day, but still... we carried out our own weight and more. Seeing Mako and his friend's strength triggered something in me that wanted me to become just as strong as them.' Iris thought back to the events during the recruitment test while the commander had already started counting down.
'I can't let it end like this! I got so much stronger in such a short amount of time! I can't turn back now! I have to make it! I AM STRONG!' Iris shouted in her thoughts as she suddenly started to regain some control over her legs again.
"11... 10... 9..." The commander continued his countdown.I think you should take a look at
"I promised Jackie, I would never give up!" Iris shouted out loud with anger and determination as she finally broke free from the trance her legs were in and regained full control over them, allowing her to stand up straight just as the commander counted down to zero.
Iris breathed heavily as just overcoming her fear of failing and being weak had taken a huge toll on her mental health.
*Clap!* *Clap!*
The commander clapped slowly as he applauded Iris' strength and capabilities.
"Congratulations... You two have passed all of my tests." Commander Sable said in a genuine tone for the first time.
"Almost all of the cadets I have been asked to train, have never made it through all of my tests. You lot are defiantly something else, and I am honored to become your mentor." Commander Sable added keeping his genuine and truthful tone in check.
Seeing the legitimate emotions reflect from Commander Sable's eyes, Mako knew that the commander was indeed done testing them and had accepted them.
Mako quickly bowed down in Infront of Commander Sable showing his respect and appreciation, followed closed by Iris who did exactly the same.
"Now! Names and abilities! Go!" The commander ordered returning back to his high-pitched authoritative tone.
Mako and Iris quickly raised their heads from their bow and after processing the order in a second, they stated their names and abilities out loud.
"Mako Grey, abilities are Fire, Lightning, and Energy Manipulation," Mako stated.
"Iris Jade Cooper, abilities are Heal and Water," Iris stated.
"Hmm... Energy Manipulation... and Heal... definitely rare and interesting abilities," The commander stated as he went into his own train of thought, making Iris and Mako stand in front of him awkwardly, waiting for further instructions.
After a few moments of thinking, the commander snapped back into reality and addressed Mako and Iris who were patiently waiting for him.
The commander instructed them to go to the room next door that had a one-way viewing glass window. This way people from the inside could only see 4 regular walls, but from the other side, people could clearly see what was going on in the room.
Commander Sable stated that he must also test all the remaining cadets who had passed the recruitment test to see their capabilities too, and it would spoil all the fun for him if they were in the room.
Mako and Iris instantly understood and quickly moved to the other room, a brightly lit room with white marble walls, unlike the debriefing room, which was dark and gloomy.
Minutes later the door to the debriefing room opened and six more cadets entered the room and stood in front of Commander Sable completely unaware of what was about to happen to them.
******************
Minutes later, all six of them were on the ground huffing and panting as they just finished barely surviving all the pressure that Commander Sable had exerted on them.
Even though Mako and Iris had gone through the same thing, they understood why the commander enjoyed this so much as it was really fun seeing all of them struggle hard when nothing was happening around them, but at the same time, they were also showing sympathy and worry for their friends who were struggling.
At the end of it all, Commander Sable introduced himself to the group of six cadets and stated that their recruitment into the special task force was complete.
Out of the six, the solo boy that looked like a gangster performed the best, followed closely by Bill, Erin, Natasha, Haruto, and Leon.
Commander Sable then proceeded with ordering them to introduce themselves while signaling Mako and Iris to come back inside the room to start debriefing about the things to come.
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