The next seventy-two hours weren't "days."They were an unbroken string of drills designed to break cadets into something useful — or break them completely.
Uriah slept in two-hour fragments.His Pokémon slept even less.
Morning: high-speed command testing.Midday: endurance drills while holding Pokéballs weighted with iron bands.Evening: mock containment breaches with real injury risk.
People quit.People cracked.One cadet fractured his shoulder after a Graveler used Rollout against a barricade he was supposed to reinforce.
No one pitied him.
The Corps didn't run on pity.
Uriah checked his Task Card after the third night.
Prime Mission: Growlithe Rescue → 15 points
Support Mission: Border Search → 8 points
Containment Assistance → 6 points
Training Efficiency Bonus → 2 points
Clean Execution commendation from Mara → 5 points
Total: 36 points.
That equaled 3600 Training Currency.
He didn't waste a coin. The Task Center's armory wasn't luxurious — it was a metal room with an exhausted clerk — but it had what mattered.
Purchases
TM: Swift for Vulpix — 500 TC
TM: Bite (custom Corps training disk) for Growlithe — 700 TC
TM: Charge Beam for Shinx — 800 TC
Nutrient Packs ×3 — 150 TC
Great Ball ×2 — 100 TC
Pokéball ×4 — 40 TC
Synthesis Berry Mix (health regeneration supplement) — 200 TC
Total Spent: 2490Remaining: 1110 TC
He didn't hesitate.If something wasn't making his team stronger, sharper, or harder to kill, it was irrelevant.
The new moves weren't plug-and-play.
The Corps never allowed anything easy.
Uriah drilled Vulpix relentlessly — not through blind repetition, but controlled pressure.
Cold tone. Calm eyes.Firm instruction.
But after each brutal cycle, he crouched down, brushing ash off her fur, letting her rest her head against his knee for exactly ten seconds — no more, no less.
Strict.Caring.Balanced.
Vulpix understood him more clearly than any human ever had.
Growlithe trained Bite with weighted jaw harnesses, pushing past pain with a stubbornness Uriah respected. He stayed close, adjusting straps, cooling the Pokémon's overheated muscles with careful cloth compressions.
Shinx struggled the most.Charge Beam required emotional composure, not aggression.Shinx's sparks kept scattering.
Uriah didn't yell.He never yelled.
He simply repeated, "Focus. Reset. Try again."
By nightfall, the beam was stable enough to use in combat.
Barely.
But "barely" meant alive.
The next morning during the joint-batch simulation, Uriah saw her for the first time.
Not from his batch.Not even from the one before.
She was from Year 3 — which meant she wasn't just experienced.She was battle-tested.
And she looked nothing like a normal cadet.
Her hair was pale gold — not the flashy kind, but the icy, washed-out tone soldiers got after months under stress lights.Her eyes were a clean, piercing blue, but nothing soft in them; they were scalpel-sharp, the kind that evaluated threats before faces.
Beautiful — obviously — but in a dangerous, untouchable way.
No perfume.No accessories.Just Corps gear, scuffed boots, and a Pokéball clipped in reverse-draw style — an experienced fighter's habit.
She wasn't trying to be impressive.She just was.
Her name tag read:
"Lyra Vale — Senior Cadet, Unit Omega."
She didn't acknowledge other cadets.Didn't smile.Didn't waste oxygen on anything unnecessary.
She glanced at Uriah once.Not up and down.No sizing-up theatrics.
It was a simple, efficient scan — recognizing another person who didn't break under pressure.
Then her gaze moved on.
Cold? Yes.Hostile? No.
It was the same temperament Uriah carried like a second spine.
The combined drill involved two simultaneous incidents:
Incident A: Internal Panic Break
A domesticated Rhydon went berserk at a construction site.Cause unknown.The Corps needed:
crowd control
suppression support
safe civilian evacuation
Incident B: Perimeter Wild Threat
An injured Fearow crossed the outskirts illegally, aggressive due to blood loss and confusion.Every perimeter breach was treated like potential Tide leakage.
The simulation evaluated decision speed.
Uriah didn't hesitate.He signed up for both.
So did Lyra.
Part 1 — The Rhydon Panic
The Rhydon had already smashed scaffolding and injured three workers by the time Uriah's squad arrived.
The simulation turned real fast.
Dust clouds.Steel beams collapsing.Screams.
Rhydon's horn glowed with a gathering Drill-run pattern.If it charged again, someone would die.
"Vulpix — Swift! Control the angle!" Uriah commanded.
The golden star arcs forced Rhydon to turn rather than drive forward in a straight lethal line.
Lyra moved beside him, silent and precise.Her partner — a Weavile, slender and blade-like — darted forward with impossibly clean footwork.
"Pressure point," she murmured.
Weavile struck at Rhydon's knee joints — not to damage, but to disrupt movement patterns.It froze the beast for two seconds.
Two seconds was gold.
"Shinx — Charge Beam!""Growlithe — Bite, jaw lock!"
Shinx's electricity overloaded Rhydon's nerves; Growlithe latched onto the tail base, forcing a shift of balance.
Lyra flicked her wrist."Weavile — restrain."
Ice shards formed a barrier wedge that pinned Rhydon long enough for emergency nets to deploy.
Containment complete.
A lesser cadet would've cheered.Neither Uriah nor Lyra wasted breath.
They moved immediately to Incident B.
Part 2 — Perimeter Blood Feathers
The Fearow wasn't just injured.It was rabid with panic, wings torn, beak cracked, bleeding heavily.
It wasn't aggressive by nature.Pain made it wild.
And wild meant dangerous.
It dive-bombed cadets without aiming.Two were knocked unconscious instantly.
Lyra reacted first — Weavile slashing an ice arc into its path to redirect instead of kill.
Uriah followed with a reverse command:
"Growlithe — Howl pattern C.Shinx — Charge Beam on my mark.Vulpix — prepare Ember thread."
Fearow looped erratically — losing height — going into a crash spiral.
Then the disaster hit.
One cadet from another squad misread the angle and froze directly in Fearow's falling path.
He wasn't one of Uriah's people.He wasn't even someone he knew.
But the girl — Lyra — was faster than the rest.
She lunged to push him aside—
—she slipped on loose gravel.
Her ankle twisted, instincts breaking form.
She was now directly under Fearow's descending talons.
Every cadet screamed something useless.
Except Uriah.
He didn't scream.He didn't hesitate.
"VULPIX — NOW!"
The Ember thread fired like a wire, striking Fearow's wing membrane in a perfect, tiny burn pattern — enough pain to force a directional twist.
"SHINX — FULL BEAM!"
The Charge Beam cracked into Fearow's beak mid-fall, knocking its trajectory sideways.
It crashed into a fence with a metallic shriek—barely a foot away from Lyra.
She sat up, panting, ankle bleeding through torn fabric.
Her Weavile was beside her instantly.She shoved it away.
First words she directed to Uriah:
"You reacted cleanly."Her voice was flat, but not cold.Measured.
She was evaluating him — not emotionally, but professionally.
Then softer, almost invisible under her breath:
"…and you saved my life."
Uriah simply nodded.
No theatrics.No false modesty.
"Anyone would've done the same."
That was a lie.But he didn't care about truth for social comfort.
She held his gaze for a moment longer — blue eyes clear, sharp, alive.
For the first time, something in her expression eased.Not warmth.Not friendliness.
But recognition.
A beginning. Nothing more.