Becoming Agent Rider

Fitness and Skills Testing

"Cub, right?" The friendlier of the two units had moved over to where he was sitting.

"Yes," he answered, looking up at the muscular man and shifting slightly to a more defensible position. "Can I help you?"

"We're J-Unit, a part of the mobility troop. I'm Tiger, unit leader," the soldier introduced. "That's Otter, the medic. Bat, demolitions and weapons expert. Horse, communications expert," he finished up, pointing to each person.

"Might want to watch out for B-Unit," Otter piped up. "Lion's got a nasty streak when he feels threatened or humiliated. And I think you did both last night. His unit is a part of the boat troop. There's Zebra for their medic, Hawk for dems, and Squirrel for comms," he continued, discretely pointing out each member of B-Unit.

Alex nodded, relaxing slightly. "Thanks for the heads up."

"No problem," Tiger said. "You're a little young to be here. Most don't take that too well."

"What are you training for anyways, Cub?" Horse asked curiously.

"I don't think I'm supposed to tell you," Alex answered hesitantly.

"Did you really pickpocket matches from the sergeant on a training exercise?" Bat asked excitedly. The demolitions expert had been impatiently waiting for the opportunity to question the boy about the things that he was rumoured to have done. Horse looked at his teammate with an irritated expression, wanting to press the boy for answers that were more relevant to their current training.

"Yeah, he did! Saved us from spending the night in the cold! It was bloody brilliant!" Eagle exclaimed cheerfully as K-Unit finally joined them, startling J-Unit. Tiger and his team had been too focused on playing nice to notice anything else. Alex just mentally sighed. He had known K-Unit was in the mess hall, eavesdropping on the conversation, as soon as they had walked in.

"We were doing one of those point-to-point marches," Snake added quietly. "It had been raining hard all day and everything was wet and slippery. Didn't think Cub would make it. But he did. Kept to his allotted time pretty well too. And he was a few inches shorter than he is now. When he showed up, Wolf had been trying to get a fire started for the past ten minutes, without any luck. Cub just tossed the pack of matches to Wolf and went into his tent."