Chapter Five; Oh the Life of a Trainee
Nikkitrina Feral

One Week Later
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	Nikki stumbled through the apartment door, and flopped down 
on the nearest seat, her gear falling from her paws.
	"I take it your instructor is a dick," Felina smiled as she 
stepped in from the kitchen, "It gets worse." 
	Nikki raised her head slowly to look at Felina, "The bastard 
made us run laps, he thinks he's a track coach or something, only 'his'
 objectives are to make everyone pass out," she panted, and took a 
second to catch her breath, "He tried to make everyone run the mile in 
seven minuets!  These fat guys kept getting fourteen, and it went down 
from there, we ran laps for five hours!"
	Felina couldn't help herself, "You got Haiden!" she burst out 
laughing.  
	Nikki raised an eyebrow, "How did you know? Did you get him?"
	"Hell no!  But everyone who has him spends half the day running
 laps, and the other half complaining!  Ha, ha!  I think you should 
drop and try rejoining with a different instructor."
	"No way.  I'm going to show that SOB.  I'll pass with perfect 
score, and when I get a rank above his, I'll bust him for good!" Nikki 
grinned with glee, despite her heaving chest.
	"Huh, good luck.  Anyone who had him in the past, never rose 
higher than Cadet.  Most of them got to be your average 'footie'," Felina 
explained.
	"What's a footie?" Nikki changed the subject.
	"That's an officer who does street patrols, or guard-for-rent 
for small businesses.  Extremely low pay, and you get kicked around a 
lot.  Hey, is Kris coming over again?" Felina asked heading for the 
kitchen.  Nikki got up and followed her.
	"No shit, he always comes over," Nikki grinned.
	"Yea, but does he have to spend the night," Felina argued.  
	Nikki grinned even wider, "What do you think?"
	"Just don't keep me up like you did last night," Felina 
complained.  
	Nikki looked confused, "We went to bed before you did last 
night."
	"Yea, but you didn't go to sleep."
	"How do you know that?!" Nikki asked.
	"Come on!  You two are noisy as hell!  It's impossible to 
sleep with that kinda noise!" Felina couldn't help but grin as Nikki 
turned pink.
	"Heh, I still don't know what you're talkin' about," Nikki lied.  
Suddenly, the visitor bell rang.
	"Speak of the shit head," Felina said as she went to get it.  
Nikki sat down in front of a cabinet and began searching.  A few 
seconds later, Felina re-entered the kitchen with Kris.
	"Hi Nikki," he grinned and sat down next to her on the 
floor, "Looking for supper?"
	"Yup."
	"How about we go out to eat?  It's only five thirty," he 
suggested.
	Nikki got up, "Kay."
	"So, how was your first day as a trainee?"
	"Fine."
	"Everything OK?" Kris put his paw on her shoulder.
	"Yup."
	"Her vocabulary got blasted down to three words after her 
run-in with Haiden," Felina suddenly commented from behind the 
television.  
	Nikki laughed.
	"They aren't even intelligent words," Felina finished.
	"You got Haiden!?  God Nikki!  He'll kill you!  All he does is 
make you run laps, and when the big test rolls around, the only thing 
you learned is how much weight you can actually loose.  Everyone 
fails," he gave Nikki a pure look of concern.
	"Don't worry.  I'm already a MechWarrior.  I know all of the 
basic rules, most of them are common sense.  You and Felina can teach 
me all you know, and as for Haiden, he's just another pawn in my little 
game for power," Nikki grinned evilly.
	"Muahahahahaha..." Felina burst out from behind the TV.  
	Kris turned around and looked at her, "Is 'she' OK?" he asked 
Nikki.
	"She's just rolling in her own ego, fed by my pitiful existence 
as I try to defeat the monster known as Haiden, and the thought that 
she already has," Nikki explained.
	"No," Felina said, still behind the TV, "I'm an Enforcer, and 
your not!"
	"Oh."
	"Let's go," Kris pulled on Nikki's paw, "There's a nice little 
place down the street.  We can eat there.  You wanna come Felina?" Kris 
turned towards the she-kat perched behind the TV.
	"When Wings goes off.  It's about a new prototype high-speed 
stealth helicopter," she explained.  Nikki looked up at the clock 
above the sink.
	"Five minutes, I'll change," Nikki walked down the hall and 
into her bedroom.  Kris took a barstool beside Felina and stared at 
the TV.
	"Huh, that's pretty cool."

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	Nikki changed, Wings went off, and the three kats headed 
towards the restaurant Kris had told them about.  It was getting dark 
around nine o'clock at that time of the season, so five o'clock looked 
like mid day.  The day shift was switching to the night shift, and 
Enforcer Headquarters was almost empty.  The three kats took their 
time weaving through the crowds of kats that covered the sidewalks.  
Suddenly, breaking the peace, a huge, and strange looking air craft 
streaked through the sky directly overhead.  Close behind it, followed 
three enforcer jets.  Just before the four crafts were out of sight, 
two of the three enforcer jets turned back, and the Commander's jet 
came into view.  Two missiles flew out of the remaining enforcer jet 
just as the strange craft setteled over the new enforcer building.  
The Commander caught up with the other jet just as the strange craft 
began to make its escape.  No one knows exactly what happened next, 
but the two pilots seemed to be fighting and the Commander's jet looked 
like it knocked the other out of the way.  Perhaps there was still 
some engine wash from the enemy jet and they couldn't re-gain control, 
or the collision caused some actual damage to the jet, but for some 
reason the pilots had to eject, and the uncontrolled jet crashed 
directly into the new Enforcer Headquarters building.  The Commander's 
jet was still in view, but the strange jet was gone.
	"Shit," Kris whispered.
	"We're going to have to call off out little outing aren't 
we?" Nikki groaned.  
	Kris shook his head.
	"No," Felina explained, "We had nothing to do with this, plus 
we are off duty.  We can worry about it when we go to work tomorrow."  
The three kats went on their way, the event playing through their 
minds over and over again.

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	Felina was right.  The next day, when Nikki was walking down 
the MechSquad HQ hallway to get to her new office, gossip about the 
previous day's events reverberated off of the walls like they had a 
life of their own.  According to the gossip chain, the two kats were 
Lt. Furlong, a pilot, and his partner, Lt. Clawson.  A few hours after 
the crash, the two could be seen and heard arguing with the Commander.  
In the end, they walked away red in the faces, and about 3 million in 
debt.  Nikki wasn't sure if these 'facts' were really true, but the 
frequency in which she heard them made her commit them to memory.  
Finally she reached her newly painted office door, and stepped inside.  
It wasn't small, but it was just small enough to get cluttered easily 
if someone let it.  The desk, with its expensive looking chair took up 
most of the space.  The rest of the room was taken up with filing 
cabinets, so a person could just walk in and stand there.  The only 
really good feature in the room was the wall window, behind the desk, 
facing the practice field.  It was completed with a balcony and lounge 
chair.  Nikki took a comfy seat at the desk, and picked up the first 
envelope in her 'In' box.  She opened it up and read,

Commander,

	To efficiently recruit units, we must choose from which group 
of kats we will be accepting applications.  We have divided the 
possible groups into three, but if you already have one in mind, that 
is not mentioned, please note it.  The groups are as follows:  Any 
legal citizen above the age of 18, any citizen with law enforcement 
background of any kind in the previous or present years,  and any 
government trained law enforcement official...

	Nikki didn't read any farther, she just circled the last 
choice, stuffed it back in the envelope, and wrote 'Return To Sender' 
in big bold letters with her marker.
	"One down," she paused and counted the remaining envelopes, 
"Three to go. Huh, this is pretty easy so far, and I was told the paper 
work would calm down as the year progressed."  She giggled to herself 
as she leaned back as far as she could in her chair, popped her feet on 
the desk and sighed, "Maybe I should take a little break..."

	The end of her shift came quickly, and after arriving at 
Enforcer HQ, she plodded unhurriedly through the halls to training.  
Her duffel bag trailed behind her, creating a kind of 'whoosh' sound as 
it scraped along the tile.  She glanced at her watch, about five 
minutes late, but she didn't care.  She had it in cushy with the 
Commander, and since he was going to be watching this 'session', Haiden 
couldn't tear into her, at all.  
	She laughed, "Step one of my evilly fiendish plan is coming to 
light, die Haiden, die. Hehehe, this is so much fun."  Finally she 
reached the designated training room, it looked a bit like an oversized 
high school gym, and she plopped down in her spot in role call.  Haiden 
didn't know she was 'Commander' Nikkitrina, and she couldn't wait to 
give him her 'excuse'.  She pretended to pant as he came over.
	"Nikkitrina!" the fat, tan, tom-kat bellowed, "Just why are you 
so damned late little missy!?"
	"Well, I was," she panted a bit, to add effect, "Tying up some 
things at the office,...and I guess they took longer... than I 
expected..."
	"Office for what?  Slackers R' Us?"
	"No, sir.  You see, I'm the..."
	Commander Feral suddenly jumped up, "Chief executive for a 
computer manufacturer on the other side of town.  She is allowed to be 
a little late."
	Nikki leaned around the kat next to her to look at him, by his 
expression, she decided to leave it at that.  But not for long. 

	After training, Nikki hurriedly followed the Commander to his 
office. 
	"And what the hell was that bull-shit of a lie for?" she 
demanded after he shut the door.
	"The MechSquad is a very secretive government installation.  
No one but the selected are allowed to know about it.  The Mechs we 
manufacture are still very top secret, which makes it amazing how you 
knew about it, by the way.  I know that you aren't who you say you are, 
but it's just a gut instinct, I have no solid proof, and frankly, even 
if I did, I wouldn't do anything.  I respect you, you are very 
intellegent, and even if you aren't, you are enough so to make everyone 
think you are.  I really don't know who you are, and where you came 
from, let alone why you came here and what your goals are, but I still 
trust you.  You have to keep this a secret until all of the bugs are 
worked out.  We won't be hiring any troops till they are.  The most the 
media knows, is the name of the squad, and that we're working directly 
with the military."  Nikki raised an eyebrow, then suddenly relaxed.  
	"Kay, no prob.  Should have told me that a bit sooner though.  
If you weren't there, Haiden'd be spilling all of the beans on any 
kat's pants."  The Commander laughed a bit.  Nikki excused herself and 
left through the front doors of HQ, turned left and headed home.  She 
re-ran info through her mind,
	"Right, don't tell anyone, I can't keep hidden forever, but I 
can hack a system with the best of them."

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