### **Chapter 6: The Nameless Recruit**
The Academy stood like a mountain of stone,
Where the weak are discarded and the weary must groan.
I traded my moon-thread for canvas and grit,
In the back of the barracks where the shadows would sit.
With a mask on my face and my hair hidden tight,
I entered the trials in the cold morning light.
I wasn't "The Jewel" or "The Star of the Nest,"
I was Cadet Number Zero, a ghost like the rest.
The Sergeant was brutal, a man made of scars,
Who spoke of the trenches and the cold, distant stars.
"The gravity here is a burden of lead!
If you cannot stand up, you are better off dead!"
My brothers were there, in the front of the line,
Their "Beast Strength" was surging, a power divine.
They didn't see Astra, so small and so thin,
As the grueling tests of the Army begin.
The first was the "Weight," a great pillar of iron,
To lift it required the heart of a lion.
The men were all straining, their muscles in knots,
As the sun beat down hard in the training-ground plots.
When it came to my turn, I didn't use bone,
I used Mental Strength that was purely my own.
I flowed like the water, I moved like the air,
And lifted the pillar while the soldiers did stare.
"A fluke!" cried the Sergeant. "A trick of the light!
Now enter the Pit for the hand-to-hand fight!"
I stepped in the mud where the combat was raw,
And there stood my brother—the youngest I saw.
Jax looked at the "boy" with a cocky young sneer,
He didn't see Astra, he didn't feel fear.
"Come at me, recruit! Show me what you can do!
I've got sister at home who is tougher than you!"
My heart gave a thud at the sound of my name,
But I focused my mind on the silver-blue flame.
He lunged with a strike that could shatter an oak,
But I vanished like shadows or whispers of smoke.
I used his own momentum, a twist and a slide,
And planted my palm on his arrogant side.
With a pulse of my energy, sharp and so deep,
I sent the great giant to the mud for a sleep.
The silence was heavy, the Academy still,
As Jax hit the ground by the force of my will.
He scrambled back up with a look of surprise,
Searching for "Zero" with wide, sweeping eyes.
But I'd slipped away through the dust and the rain,
Leaving them puzzled and pulsing with pain.
I returned to the Nest before sunset was red,
And waited for Jax by the side of his bed.
When he limped through the door, all covered in dirt,
I ran to his side, acting scared he was hurt.
"Oh Jax! Did a monster attack you today?"
I asked as I wiped all the mud-stains away.
He laughed with a wince, holding ribs that were sore,
"Just a ghost at the camp, but I'll find him once more."
He tucked me in tight, with a hand on my head,
While I smiled in the dark... for the life that I led.