Almara Island Training Battalion, 120th training battalion was its full name, but most only knew them as the academy. Dean was no exception, he was just a regular student like the others. Albeit he did stand out thanks to his military uniform.
The island itself was a mix of a military base and a regular civilian city. Some of the students from the 120th Training Battalion were no different than a regular academy student, to be entirely honest, even though some of them were training with the regular infantry with standard-issue military uniform like the one that Dean currently wore.
All of them were forming a line to that led to several desks with soldiers, probably his upperclassmen, sitting on it while giving away several forms. Dean walked away towards the direction of that line.
As he walked towards the line, one of the teenagers bumped into him. Del accidentally dropped the thing that he was carrying was a tablet or something. It smashed to the concrete floor. The sound of broken glass shattered the quietness.
'Damn, what a way to start academy.'
The boy just looked at his shattered tablet in quietness, then he looked at Dean, "Oy, kid, look where you are walking!" He shouted, but he forgot what Dean was carrying, both on the holster on his thigh and the straps on the side of his backpack.
"I apologize. I didn't see you, to be honest," Dean apologized to the person as he pulled his wallet out of his pocket. He was ready to compensate for that tablet. Dean might be an orphan, but thanks to salvaging the city ruin where he used to live, he managed to get a hefty amount of funds.
"That tablet is also expensive, you need to pay me back for it!" The boy shouted.
Dean knew that thing was expensive, but not really to the extend that it would make him broke. It was probably only cost around 400$ max. The material might be metal, but it didn't have any hologram screen or shits.
"Yes, sorry, but how much, if I may ask?" Dean wondered.
"2,000$. You need to pay me that much, so, when can you pay for it?"
Even a bloody darn idiot would know that piece of metallic scrap wouldn't cost that much. Why would it even cost that much in the first place? That thing wouldn't even run minesweeper in the first place, damn.
"2,000$? What kind of bullshit are you trying to pull me into?" Dean shouted back.
Dean then heard three footsteps coming from around him. All of them were coming from a direction. A bench where three students were sitting down just right before Dean crashed to the student who was holding the tablet.
"See, I'm a friend of some powerful people," he said, smugly.
Dean let out a large sigh. Even someone like Private First Class Adams would be able to defuse the situation rather easily without any show of force due to his rank, but Dean was alone right now and it seemed the upperclassmen on the desk were too occupied with the amount of students submitting the documents to them.
Then, the boy held Dean by the collar. Dean still thought the same thing, how braindead were these people not to notice what he had been carrying? Did even a Glock pistol and an M4-EC rifle don't ring a bell on their head?
"Listen here, you moron, unless you pay me 2,000$, I'll make sure your day won't be pretty," the boy lifted Dean's collar, but the heavy backpack managed to keep him down.
Dean wasn't exactly a pushover, especially when all-in-all, he had the whole upper hand in this situation. Dean pulled out the Glock pistol out of the holster and put it right on the belly of the student that threateaned him.
"Keep this up, and your tablet won't be the only thing that is shattered today." Dean pushed the pistol even harder to the boy's belly. "Now, would you kindly let me down, or would you rather have your innards shattered like that glass?" Del looked at the shattered glass on the ground.
The arrogant aura coming from the boy suddenly went away. He was sweating, and he gulped as he froze in place thanks to the fear of being killed by the junior that he intentionally bullied and extorted.
The three boys that were approaching Dean now stopped on their tracks, fearing for the life of their friend that was threateaned by Dean. Dean was just flat, not giving out any emotion. Just the default face that sometimes scared people.
In the middle of panic and chaos, Adams was walking towards the academy, still didn't have any idea what was going on there. Even though most of the new students had their attentions to Dean and the boy.
He was looking at his phone. To be exact, he was curious about the accident that involved Dean and the Menkaids. One of the pictures, there was Dean in handcuff for questioning, but he was released soon due to his reason of assaults was self-defense. Menkaid wasn't even popular in the first place, heck, they were hated. If Dean couldn't escape from that, it would be the surprise.
Then Adams put his phone back into his pocket only to see Mick and his monkeys doing their shenanigans to the new students, extort the rich kid and get a sum amount of cash from it. Adams knew that, and his friends were the victim of that. Don't give them their money, and Mick's friends would bring you to a dark alleyway between the library and the classroom to beat you out. The best thing to do, was to run.
Still, Mick couldn't help but to giggle. The idiots were messing with the wrong person. Instead of money, they got the end of a gun barrel. But that happiness would facade soon after Adams realized that the chance of Dean shooting Mick was quite large.
Adams pulled out his pistol from his holster and slowly walked towards the direction of the ruckus. He aimed his pistol at Dean, "ALRIGHT! THAT'S ENOUGH! MICK! DEAN! STAND DOWN! OR I'LL CALL THE MILITARY POLICE!" Adams shouted with a voice imitating a commander.
Mick let go of Dean's collar and Dean put his pistol away from Mick. The conflict ended and the line began to move again after the ruckus ended. Mick and his goons ran away while shouting, "REMEMBER THIS, DEAN! YOU'LL REGRET THIS!"
Dean walked towards the line, this time, with Adams walking right beside him. The tense situation ended shortly as Adams turned from the angry look to a strange giggle. He giggled, he couldn't help it. The bastards really got it coming.
"Damn, Dean, you are really nuts, aren't you?" Adams giggled, trying to keep his demeanor, but he couldn't.
"Well, that's self-defense." Del pulled out his Glock, pulled the magazine out, and showed it to Adams. "It's empty."
Adam stopped giggling and started laughing. Those people were really a ruckus because the students were only allowed to carry their rifle in the academy on the range, and nowhere else. However, with Dean, there was an exception since he was new.
"Well, it's not like I'm going to turn you in."
Dean then pulled the slide of the pistol backwards and a bullet came out of it. Dean put the bullet in his pocket. "But I probably forgot to completely clear it." Adams couldn't care about it. He was happy that the menaces got what was coming for them. Still, the last bullet didn't give too much confidence in him.
This kid. No This person was filled with rage, and Adams could feel it. He should keep an eye on him, Adams was not really a regular student. He was still a squad leader, and a squad leader would have much more responsibility than usual. He would ask his sergeant for more authority for surveillance, sooner or later.
Dean continued as the line moved forward. He eventually arrived at the desk alongside with Adams. The senior knew Adams of course. It seemed that Adams also held a much higher rank than those seniors.
"PFC Adams, nice to meet you here, solving problem, I see," the senior asked as she gave Dean the form for him to fill.
"Sarah, you don't have to be that formal, just call me Adams," Adams said.
"Hahaha, alright, Adams. Now, new student, what's your name?"
"Dean Barnett."
"Dean… Why does that name feel familiar?" Sarah gave Dean the form and Dean walked away.
"I think you must have mistaken me for someone else," Dean smiled as he walked away towards the testing area. Adams stayed with Sarah to help with the administration. Adams began to wonder though.
As they worked together in handling the students, Adams asked her, "Where did you hear that name, Sarah?"
"My father tells me someone with the same name as him. Why?"
"Where do you your father work?"
"A supply officer for UNPREDET."
"United Nation Preventive Detachment?"
United Nations Preventive Detachment, or UNPREDET, was a special peacekeeper mission created to secure an area that used to be occupied with Menkaid or attacked by them. Not really someone that you could see every day.
"Yup. Something wrong?"
"Nah, probably just my head." Adams continued helping Sarah as Dean walked even further towards the testing area.