Chapter 13: Some Not So Safe Training
When he rose at his normal time, his body felt heavy and unwieldy. Feral rumbled in annoyance at the loss of his former easy mobility. He rolled slowly to a sitting position and sat still as the world whirled for a moment.
His movement had awaken Aras who quickly moved to his side and sat up beside him. "Dizziness, my love?" He asked, as he rubbed his mate's back to increase blood flow.
"Yes," Feral sighed out. He was taking slow, deep inhalations, waiting for the world to stabilize. "I really hate this."
"I know, Ulysses. But look on the bright side, you only have two more months to go," Aras said, trying to cheer his mate up.
"Only...," Feral snorted derisively then changed the subject. "I think I'm okay now and aren't we due in the training area in forty-five minutes?"
"Yes, so if you're alright, I'll go get the shower going and order breakfast for us," Aras said, eyeing his mate carefully, waiting to see if Uly was really alright.
Feral merely grunted in response as he slowly got to his feet then sighed as everything remained steady. He made for the bathroom behind his mate's retreating back.
Thirty-five minutes later, both were dressed in sweats and t-shirts with tennis shoes and heading for the training floor.
Entering the nearly cavernous space, Feral quickly noted that nearly everything needed for fitness training for spies was in evidence. At the left side of the room was a glass wall where an Olympic size pool was located and where he could see underwater training with diving gear was in progress. In the large open area there was a huge obstacle course at the farthest end, close to paw was a weight area, workout mats, climbing wall, climbing ropes in the center of the floor, sword fighting, and different forms of hand to hand fighting. Martial arts, he learned, was taught in a closed room off this one for safety reasons as were the gun and archery ranges which were located in the bowels of the facility.
Each area had a squad of twenty trainees being coached by a skilled agent. After checking in with the training commander, an ex-marine named Brady, Aras guided Ulysses over to the obstacle course.
A squad of trainees were standing at parade rest...waiting. Feral cocked his head at Aras questioningly as they stopped at the group.
"Since you are used to handling squads and have a loud, commanding voice, it was decided you should put these young Kats through their paces," Aras said in a loud enough voice the squad could hear him then he leaned close to his mate and whispered softly, "and under no circumstances are you to move to 'help' any of them as would be your wont on the more 'lazy' of them. You will stay right here and bellow and not exert yourself at all. Got it?"
Feral grimaced as he turned his head to glare at his mate. "Got it!" He ground out in annoyance.
Undaunted by his mate's sour response, Aras gave him a warm smile and a light pat on the back before turning away to head for the hand to hand area where his own squad waited for him.
Giving a huff of air, his only sign of how frustrated he felt, Feral filled his lungs and bellowed.
"Alright, listen up! I want you to run through this obstacle course in under 5 minutes. No helping each other. This is a test of how fit you are. Go to the beginning of the course."
The squad had jumped at the sheer volume Feral was able to produce. When he'd finished giving orders they scrambled to the starting point of the course and waited.
"Go!" Feral roared.
Over the next five minutes, Feral's voice flayed and humiliated each and every one of the squad as they struggled through the course as fast as they could. The course was grueling and much more difficult than the one used by his own enforcers.
This course consisted of eleven events performed sequentially: low crawl under barrier, tire footwork, two-handed vault, 8ft horizontal shelf, horizontal bar navigation, hanging tire, balance beam, 8ft horizontal wall, 20ft horizontal ladder, 16ft vertical rope, and 350m sprint carrying a 6lb medicine ball for the first 120m plus it also had trainees dodge rubber bullets, blasts of water or air from hidden hoses, and gas grenades adding to its difficulty level.
He thought perhaps he should incorporate this one to replace the older established one of his city. The dangers of their city was far more than any other on the planet so perhaps this course could save the lives of more of his enforcers. He dragged his straying attention back to the task at paw when a tom clumsily fell from his climbing rope. He yelled at him to get moving.
Using a stop watch, Feral frowned as he noted the times as each trainee finished. Only three came in under three minutes, the rest took up to the five minute limit to complete the course. He scowled as he watched many of them throw up and/or wheeze trying to catch their breaths. A few had cramps in leg muscles and were sitting on the ground, faces grimacing as they rubbed out the pain.
"That was the sorriest performance I have ever seen. Looks like you dolts will have to go back to basics before running through this again," Feral snorted derisively. "Hit the showers."
Heads hanging down, the green recruits headed for the locker room while Feral got ready for the next arriving group.
The morning went fairly smoothly for the both of them. Aras was sweating from his class and using a towel to wipe his face as he approached his mate who was finishing with the last group before lunch.
"They are soo going to hate you, Uly," he chuckled. "You ready for some lunch?"
Feral's nose twitched at the scent of his mate's sweaty body. "Going to take a shower first?" He asked casually.
"Nah! Coming back to finish so why clean up twice. What? You don't like my spicy aroma?" Aras said teasingly when he noted his mate's grimace.
"It's enticing but out of place right now," Feral snorted in amusement. "Besides, I'm starving."
"I'm sure you are," Aras smirked. "Our kitten is growing fast and needs its calories."
Feral only rolled his eyes as they moved toward the exit. They rode the elevator up to the living quarters floor where a large cafeteria and mini-mall was located. After, an admittedly, very good lunch, Feral was ready to get back to work. Though he wasn't allowed to do more than yell at the trainees, at least he wasn't too bored.
The afternoon went by without incident until an hour before quitting time. Feral had been just chastising his next to last group when a freakish accident occurred. The dark tom's back was to the climbing wall that was to his right when he heard a whistling sound but before he could turn to track where it was coming from, three trainees took him to the floor as cries of warning and dismay filled the air.
One of the trainees had thrown himself under the huge tom while the other two had pulled him to the floor. Just where Feral had been standing, another trainee had fallen from the climbing wall when the ring holding his rope snapped free from the top of the wall. The rest of the squad with Feral had managed to keep the tom from hitting the floor too hard and being seriously injured.
"Ulysses!" A voice yelled in fear from across the room. Seconds later, Aras arrived in time to help lift his mate off the tom protecting him from the floor. The others helped the distraught agent to roll the dark tom onto his back and into his arms. Feral had passed out from the sudden fall and was just beginning to wake up.
"Oh love, are you alright?" Aras said urgently, as he looked his mate over. Ulysses still looked dazed so he turned to the trainees. "What the hell happened?" He demanded.
"I don't know sir. I was nearly to the top of the wall when the ring holding my rope pulled out completely. I tried to twist my body but there just wasn't time." The trainee from the wall explained, grateful he'd managed to escape serious injury himself.
"We heard a snap and everyone turned to see what it was. Jason, Thomas and I saw the body falling toward Commander Feral and threw ourselves at him to knock him out of the way. Thomas made sure to cushion your mate from harm, sir." One of the three trainees that had protected Feral said earnestly.
"Thank you for your quick thinking. His condition is so fragile right now..." Aras said worriedly as he looked down at Ulysses.
"Ohh, what the hell happened?" Feral groaned, placing his paws over his swelling belly and rubbing it.
"You nearly got clobbered by a falling trainee. Are you okay?" Aras asked again.
"Uh...I think so...belly hurts some..." the dark tom said still a bit dazed.
It concerned Aras that Ulysses was taking so long to recover. Frowning, he looked around and was relieved to see a medical team hurrying toward them. Two other instructors and Training Commander Brady had reached the area of the incident and were questioning the trainees again and studying the equipment.
"Hey, Brady!" Aras called out.
The tom looked over at him questioningly.
"I want to know exactly what happened with that equipment. Have our CSI crew take a look and tell them its priority." Aras told him.
Brady nodded his understanding, his face angry and grim, as he got on his cell phone while the medical crew gently and quickly loaded Feral on a stretcher despite his weak objections.
As the stretcher was being rolled toward the elevators, Feral still felt fuzzy and his belly was beginning to cramp, sending waves of pain up his spine. He groaned and twisted in discomfort. He was hazy on exactly what had happened. All he could remember was being tackled to the floor and having his belly compressed by the body of another beneath him. It had sent the kitten upward, compressing his lungs and cutting off his breath, knocking him out cold.
Coming to had taken far too long to his mind and this constant haziness and pain in his gut were not normal.
The ride up the elevator was swift then he was being rolled down a corridor, voices were calling out numbers and explaining what had happened as he was wheeled into a room and many paws were pulling at his clothes and asking him confusing questions.
He should be able to answer but his tongue felt like lead and all he could do was hiss in pain again. He remembered seeing and hearing Aras near but now he couldn't hear anything but a low roar in his ears as yet another agonizing pain ripped through him.
Aras was forced back from Ulysses by the medical team leaving him to watch, helplessly near the door as his mate was tended to. The dark tom was now actively writhing on the bed in pain and unable to answer any of the doctor's questions. Faces were grim and urgent around Ulysses as Dr. Snow quickly snapped out orders.
'How could such a freak accident happen in the first place?' Aras wondered. 'Because it wasn't an accident...that would have been just too convenient. My unknown nemesis is responsible...I'm certain of it,' Aras growled to himself.
News of the mishap flew through the complex like lightning. Two scientists in their lab heard the news and gave each other a knowing, worried look.
Quickly they searched through various reports, videos, security, etc...until...
"Ah hah!" Dandy crowed in grim satisfaction.
"What'd you find?" His partner asked coming to his side.
"Watch as I play back this portion of the security cam in the training room." Dandy instructed his friend.
"Blackout!" Garret said flatly.
"Right. Wanna bet our target is responsible?" Dandy said as his fingers continued to fly over his keyboard.
"No bet!" His friend snorted.
Suddenly a messenger burst in with a bag in his paw. "Orders from Agent Aras that these be given priority attention. This is what nearly caused Commander Feral and Trainee Ronson to be harmed." The messenger spit out quickly.
"Okay. We'll get right on it." Garret promised as he took the bag and made for another part of the lab.
Meanwhile Dandy continued to work at retrieving anything he could from the tampered security tape.
Director Saberforth received word of the incident as Feral was being rolled into the medical wing and demanded answers. Within minutes he was informed of what had occurred and what was being done to discover why it happened. He left orders that the parties involved get with him as soon as they had answers.
As he hung up from speaking to his pair in the lab, he sat back in his seat and frowned. 'Our traitor must be getting desperate,' he thought. 'Hopefully, we catch them before Feral comes to anymore harm...if he hasn't suffered too badly from this incident that is.'
He'd been told Feral was suffering early labor pains and that Dr. Snow was struggling to halt them since it was too early for the kitten to be born. Saberforth sighed worriedly. He offered up a prayer that the tom would pull through this crisis safely and since there was nothing else he could do about the affair, he returned to his heavy workload.