The alarms from the simulation chamber were still echoing through the metal bones of the G.A.M.B.I.T. when Staff Sergeant Veldrak Sorn blew his whistle with enough force to vibrate teeth.
The simulation terminated mid-chaos. Grids flickered. Drones froze in midair. Terrain collapsed back into polished steel. Cadets lay in messy piles—panting, sweating, half-broken, half-conscious. The room smelled like ozone, fear, and disappointment.
Danny bent over, hands on knees, heat rolling off him in golden waves he worked desperately to suppress. He didn't trust himself yet—not with the power thrumming beneath his skin like a caged sun. If he let too much out, he might vaporize half the concourse just trying to cool down.
Swift stood with perfect posture, though even he was breathing harder than usual, silver scales still faintly marking his jaw and neck. His eyes tracked the last fading light of the simulation grid like he was analyzing every movement the training had demanded of him.
Jake lay face-down on the ground, wheezing like someone had replaced his lungs with dying bagpipes. A small puff of bronze smoke escaped his mouth every few seconds.
Shadeclaw perched atop a disabled drone, crouched low, claws still extended, panting with exhilaration rather than exhaustion. His fur was smoking, and he looked thrilled about it.
Jade shook out his arms, sparks of chi flicking from his knuckles like crackling shotgun shells losing their charge.
Mira wiped sweat from her forehead but otherwise stood calm, quiet, sharp-eyed—more controlled than anyone else in the room even though her heart was hammering.
Staff Sergeant Veldrak Sorn surveyed the carnage with a look that implied he was deeply offended by the continued survival of every cadet in the room.
He stomped forward, his footsteps thundering, cybernetics hissing.
"DISAPPOINTING," he growled.
Half the room flinched.
He lifted one enormous finger and pointed directly at Danny first.
"You. Sunshine. You're a walking cosmic fire hazard."
Danny blinked, startled. "I—I'm trying not to break anything."
"THAT'S THE PROBLEM!" Sorn roared so loudly Mira's ponytail blew backward. "Hold back and you're USELESS. Go all out and you're a CATASTROPHE. I need you somewhere in the middle!"
Danny swallowed, nodding quickly.
Sorn stomped past him to Swift.
"And YOU," he said, narrowing his eyes, "stop trying to lead the entire squad. You're not in charge until I SAY you're in charge."
Swift bowed his head respectfully. "Understood, Staff Sergeant."
"It was a good start," Sorn muttered, then caught himself. "DAMMIT, don't make me compliment you!"
He moved on.
"BRONZE BABY!"
Jake jolted upright like someone electrocuted him.
"SIR—YES—SIR—WHY AM I YELLING—SIR?!"
"STOP DYING!"
Jake collapsed again.
Shadeclaw received a long, thin, unimpressed stare.
"You're fast. You're lethal. You're creative." Sorn leaned in so close Shadeclaw could see his reflection in Sorn's cybernetic eye. "You are ALSO dramatic. Tone it down before I use you as a mop."
Shadeclaw nodded solemnly. "I will attempt less flair."
"Good. Flair kills."
Jade received his evaluation next.
"You punch things too much."
Jade blinked twice. "That's… literally my whole style."
"Yes." Sorn sniffed disdainfully. "And your style is stupid. Punch smarter."
Jade muttered, "I'll punch YOU smarter…"
Sorn snapped around instantly. "WHAT WAS THAT?"
"NOTHING, STAFF SERGEANT!"
"GOOD. Because if you ever talk back again, you'll be cleaning reactors with your toothbrush."
Finally, Sorn turned to Mira.
He stared.
She stared back, unblinking.
"…You scare me," he said at last.
Mira nodded politely.
"Keep it up," Sorn added, walking away.
The cadets had no idea whether that was praise or a warning.
Sorn stomped to the center of the concourse and blew his whistle again.
"GRAB WATER! FIVE MINUTES! THEN WE HIT THE MEATGRINDER!"
Jake let out a scream so hopeless it echoed.
The G.A.M.B.I.T.'s hydration dispensers issued water in cups that looked and tasted like recycled despair. Still, the cadets drank greedily.
Danny leaned against a wall, letting the metal cool his back. His heartbeat still wasn't normal. The training pushed him harder than the tournament ever had—not physically, but mentally. Control. Suppression. Precision. That was new. That was terrifying.
"You okay?" Mira asked beside him.
Danny nodded. "Just… adjusting."
"To what? The gravity spikes? The death drones? Shadeclaw doing backflips into explosions?"
He huffed a laugh. "To not using everything. It feels unnatural."
Mira took a sip.
"Then maybe the point of training is learning how to use everything without destroying the world."
Danny froze.
Because that was exactly what he feared.
Before he could respond, Shadeclaw dropped from a rafter above them, landing silently despite his large size.
"Death world begins again soon," he said.
Jake shrieked nearby. "WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS IN THE CEILING?!"
Shadeclaw blinked calmly. "It is where shadows belong."
Swift approached next—and walked with a strange, unsteady cadence. Not physically exhausted. No. His stance felt… shifting. Like something inside him was crawling beneath the surface.
Danny frowned. "Swift?"
Swift rubbed his chest. "My scales… they feel… loose."
Jade approached, handed Swift a cup of water, then whispered, "Bro, your neck is literally glowing."
Swift winced.
The silver markings on his jaw pulsed.
Mira stepped back. "You're reverting."
Swift exhaled through clenched teeth. "I've been in half-dragon state too long. My body is demanding equilibrium."
Danny realized what was happening seconds before Swift doubled over.
"Swift! Breathe!"
Swift's breath came out in a plume of silvery steam.
Jake panicked. "OH NO OH NO HE'S GOING FULL DRAGON WE'RE DEAD—"
"No," Danny said, gripping Swift's shoulder. "He's stabilizing."
Because Danny knew something the others didn't. He could FEEL what Swift was going through, in the resonance of creation and dragon instinct. Swift had pushed himself too hard in the tournament, then again in training. His body wanted to reset.
Swift gasped.
Light burst from under his skin.
Silver.
Blinding.
Not flames—energy. A silvery aura that rippled outward, sending papers fluttering across the hall and making Jade's hair stand up.
Swift let out a roar—not a draconic one, but the last edge of it fading into something unmistakably human.
And then he straightened.
The scales vanished.
The claws retracted.
The silver aura dissolved into calm light.
Swift stood there—fully human form restored—lean, muscled, silver-haired, eyes still glowing faintly but no longer reptilian.
Danny exhaled. "You did it."
Swift blinked, stunned. He touched his face, his arms, his human skin.
"I… haven't been fully human in months."
Shadeclaw leaned in. "You look weaker."
Swift glared. "I FEEL lighter."
Jade whistled. "Not bad. You look like a model for a space cologne."
Jake nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, you look like the guy in ads who tells me to buy shirts I can't afford."
Swift rolled his eyes but couldn't hide the relieved smile tugging at his lips.
Then Sorn's voice shattered the moment like a sledgehammer through glass.
"BREAK TIME IS OVER! GET IN THE MEATGRINDER!"
Jake screamed again.
They entered the Meatgrinder Chamber—a rotating death cylinder full of shifting platforms, swinging beams, hydraulic pistons, randomly-placed fans, laser grids, and padded dummies that absolutely did not feel padded when they punched back.
Danny inhaled.
Gravity shifted sideways.
Shadeclaw sprinted up a wall instantly.
Mira ducked under a piston with elegant precision.
Jake was sucked into a wind tunnel and deposited into a foam pit.
Swift, still adjusting to his human form, misjudged a step and slid across a shifting tile before catching himself.
Danny tried to stay near him.
Jade cracked a dummy in half with a chi blast.
"STOP BREAKING EQUIPMENT!" Sorn roared.
"I CAN'T HELP IT, IT BREAKS EASY!"
"It BREAKS EASY because you hit like a collapsing star, you moron!"
Mira dodged a swinging beam with a cartwheel that looked effortless.
Shadeclaw leapt between three rotating blades, tail flicking with smug pride.
Jake tried to breathe fire to defend himself… but only coughed out a spark.
He fell backward and hit the floor.
"I'm dying," he groaned.
"You're not dying," Danny said, grabbing him under the arms.
"I'm emotionally dying."
"Different."
It took fifteen minutes to cross the chamber.
Sorn clicked his stopwatch.
"You six finished faster than the others," he said. "Still pathetic. But less pathetic."
Jake fist-pumped weakly. "Victory…"
After food—barely edible nutrient bars—and ten minutes to breathe, the cadets were marched into a massive lecture hall for Buddy History and Ethics.
The instructor, PROFESSOR ORBIT-9, descended from the ceiling like a judgmental chandelier.
He had seven holographic faces and one real one.
He began speaking in all eight voices at once.
Danny immediately regretted everything.
The lecture covered:
The founding of the Buddies
Multiversal law
Dimensional stability
Intervention protocols
The Cycle of Creation and Destruction
Danny's heart tightened at that part.
Jake raised his hand. "Is there gonna be a test?"
Orbit-9 vaporized Jake's desk.
Jake screamed.
"Yes," Orbit-9 answered.
Swift took notes with smooth discipline.
Mira wrote even more.
Jade fell asleep an hour in.
Shadeclaw tried to meditate but was scolded for "displaying predatory behavior."
Orbit-9 continued lecturing for three straight hours.
Jake cried twice.
Evening sparring was worse.
Danny fought Swift first—Swift now fully human, but no less deadly.
Swift's speed was unnerving… but Danny's raw power forced him to adapt quickly.
Danny held back too much.
Sorn screamed at him. Danny forced himself to push harder.
Swift grinned as he dodged a blow. "There you are."
Shadeclaw and Jade fought next—chi bursts versus shadow claws, sparks and smoke everywhere.
Mira demolished Jake in eight seconds.
Jake didn't even know how he ended up on the ground.
Sorn groaned into his hands.
By the time the lights dimmed for ship dusk, the six cadets could barely walk.
They trudged down the hall toward their barracks, bruised, exhausted, and aching.
Jake mumbled, "Only… forty-nine months left…"
Shadeclaw corrected him. "Forty-nine months, twenty-nine days, eighteen hours."
Jake whimpered.
Swift stretched his arms, marveling once more at his human form. "This will take getting used to."
"It suits you," Mira said gently.
Swift blinked—caught off guard—but smiled.
Danny looked at them all—his friends, his pack, his team.
He'd faced monsters, warriors, kings.
But this… this training… might actually kill him.
And he wasn't afraid.
He was excited.
"Tomorrow," Danny said softly, "we do it all again."
They nodded.
They didn't collapse into bed.
They fell.
Lights dimmed.
The G.A.M.B.I.T. hummed.
And somewhere, far away, Bones felt the six little lights pushing themselves—growing, sharpening.
Preparing.