(Buckle in ladies and gentlemen, shit gets intense from the get-go, sort of)

It was a cool spring afternoon in the nation of Mandara, the clouds were covering up the sun and the crisp smell of incoming rain hung in the air.  Normally, people would start heading into their homes to avoid the potential storm, but when you are a military cadet training in your army's training grounds, you have to fight through the rain like it is an enemy on a battlefield.

Today, the newest recruits were getting a visit from the Supreme General of the Mandarian Army to check on their progress, and everyone was nervous and fidgety.

"Lisen up you pussies," the captain shouted at the cadets, they straightened to attention and he began pacing in front of them, "as you all know the General is coming today to inspect how you all have been training and will be deciding if you are ready to become full-fledged soldiers.  When he gets here I don't want to see any one of you clowns goofing around with your bunkmates or giggling like a butch of naughty schoolgirls, is that understood!"

"YES SIR!" the cadets shouted.

"Excellent, and one more thing, I don't care what your relationship is with the General, you will be graded the same as everyone else, understood."

The cadets all turned to one particular man, a man with large bluejay-like wings and a face that was a mixture of the Mandarian and Polish flag, his forest green eyes rolled as the captain was referring to him.

"Yes, Captain," he said simply.

The captain marched up to the winged man and got up in his face, though the shorter human had to stand on his tiptoes to do that, making the other cadets snicker quietly.

"I mean that Private Cadet Poldara, I better see you putting all your effort into this or so help me I will confine you to the stockade for a week!" he shouted

Poldara raised a brow, "are you sure you want to do that captain?"

"Are you questioning my orders, cadet!"

"No sir, but he might."

Poldara motioned behind the captain, who turned around and went pale when he saw the General standing there.

The captain straightened and saluted, "G-General Mandara Army, I-I was not expecting you here so soon, sir."

The cadets started snickering again and Poldara cracked a smug smile.  MA on his end was also snickering on the inside though he kept his expression professional, he motioned with his multi-colored wing for the captain to step aside so he could have the floor.

"Afternoon ladies and gentlemen," he said, the cadets saluted in unison and he saluted back before he continued, "today is the day that I will be reviewing what you have learned to see if you are ready to graduate to becoming official Mandarian soldiers.  I want you all to do your very best, if you make a mistake then you get right back up and keep going.  I don't want to see any slackers either, if you're not trying your hardest then you don't deserve to be in my army, do I make myself clear?"

"YES GENERAL!"

"Great, now get out there and show me what you're made of, for Mandara!"

"FOR MANDARA!!" the cadets cheered, then they left to get ready for their test, Poldara smiled at his uncle to tell him he won't be disappointed, MA nodded back.

The cadets' tests went on for a few hours, the storm long since passed and the ground was still slightly muddy, making the obstacle course twice as hard to go through.  MA was watching from a platform next to the courses so he could have a better vantage point, and he was pretty happy with what he saw.  Everyone was pushing themselves to their limits and beyond to impress their General so he would grant them official military ranks, he was impressed, but he was mostly focusing on his nephew.

Before the first test started, Poldara had some of his fellow cadets help him tie his wings to his back, it was to both make things fair for the wingless humans, and would keep them from bumping into and getting snagged on things.  With his wings safely out of the way, Poldara went through the many courses with flying colors, no pun intended.  The gun and grenade accuracy tests weren't even a challenge, bomb defusal and teammate rescue were done in record time, and he was in first place as he made the halfway mark in the final obstacle course.

As Poldara was nearing the end of the obstacle course, the air was suddenly ripped with a large explosion that shook the chests of anyone who heard it.  Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to the sound just as a giant cloud of smoke rose from where the aircraft hanger was.  Poldara turned to his uncle and saw him take off towards the smoke, so while the captain was busy keeping the cadets from panicking, the young country left his spot in the obstacle course, untied his wings, and flew off after MA.

Poldara saw his uncle hovering in the sky and stopped next to him, his eyes widened from what he saw.  The entire hanger was on fire, soldiers were running to and away from it as they were trying to put out the blaze and rescue people still trapped inside.  The two winged entities glanced at each other in confusion and shock, then they dove to the ground to figure out what was happening.

MA landed with his "Thunder Bird Thud" and ran to a soldier who was being treated for burns, "what in the name of Mandoria happened here?" he asked.

"General, one of the jets' gas lines broke while we were repairing it," the soldier explained, "it caught fire when we were welding and set off a chain reaction to the other jets, sir."

Poldara's eyes widened, one of his buddies was supposed to be working on a jet today, "was Randal Harisson in there when this happened?" he asked

"Yes he was, I think he's still in there." the soldier said.

Poldara felt his blood freeze, he then turned on his heels and bolted towards the flame-engulfed hanger.  Before he reached it, however, his wing was grabbed and he was yanked backward.

"Are you insane Poldara, you can't go in there, the flames are too big," MA shouted.

Poldara turned to tell his uncle to let go but stopped when he saw the fear in the militant's face.  To become a militant means you can't show fear, so MA was truly terrified of Poldara going into the inferno.  The young country almost listened to him, but a cry of pure agony came from inside the hanger and that sound made up his mind.

"He is my best friend, uncle," Poldara said, "and as a future militant I have to put other people's lives before my own, that is what you taught me isn't it?"

MA opened his mouth to protest, but Poldara tore himself from the militant's grip and ran into the inferno, MA tried to follow him but a few soldiers held him back.  With Poldara's silhouette engulfed by the flames, MA could only pray that his nephew would make it out alive.

"RANDAL!!! Randal where are you?!" Poldara screamed.  He weaved back and forth through the burning hanger looking for his friend, all the while dodging debris that was falling from the ceiling.  He had his goggles on to protect his eyes from the heat and smoke, unfortunately, that was all that was shielded from the flames; his lungs burned from the smoke, his skin was sweltering from the heat, and he could feel his feathers being singed off the longer he was in here, but he wouldn't leave until he found Randal.

"Randal (cough) please answer, where-(cough cough) where are you?!" he called out, though the lack of oxygen was making it harder to breathe and he didn't know how much longer he could. 

He was just about to give up hope when he heard a weak cough come from a pile of rubble. Poldara bolted to the rubble and started digging through it, the person trapped there wasn't Randal, but now Poldara was focused on getting them out.  He carefully dug them out and hosted them over his back like he did during his cadet test earlier, then he tried to retrace his steps to get out of there.

Poldara frantically searched for an exit, but he was so deep in the hanger that fire was blocking all his escape routes and he was quickly running out of energy.  He wasn't ready to die though, he kept pushing to make sure that he and the soldier he was carrying would live to see another day, in a final act of determination he spread his wings and used them to propel himself into the air to jump over a wall of fire.  When he landed, he spotted a way out and ran for it, neglecting to notice the fuel tanks nearby.

The two were blown back over the fire and landed next to a tank, the human landed a few feet from it while Poldara crashed back-first onto the treads.  He cried out in pain as he felt something crack in his back, and when he fell to the ground he was horrified to find that he couldn't feel his legs.

"No, no no no this can't be happening," he said, he tried to move but he couldn't feel anything from the waist down.

Unfortunately, the explosion from the fuel tanks had destabilized the hanger and it started to collapse, upon noticing this, Poldara vibrated his charred feathers to send his uncle a distress signal, then he tried to crawl towards the unconscious human to protect them from the falling debris.

He shouldn't have moved, because he crawled right into the path of a ten-ton support beam that landed on his legs.  His scream could have been heard by the whole base, the pain was so unbearable that he wanted to die right then and there to make it stop.  Despite the mind-numbing pain, Poldara kept vibrating his feathers, he knew that MA would follow the vibrations and find him and the soldier he tried to rescue.

His body started to feel cold, his vision was getting darker and he couldn't take a deep breath anymore.  Poldara knew he was going into shock and he tried desperately to fight it, because if he lost consciousness then he had practically no chance of surviving this. 

He eventually stopped vibrating his feathers, he just didn't have the energy to fight any longer, so he closed his eyes and prepared himself for the sweet release of death.

"POLDARA!!!"

The shout broke through the crackle of the flames like a gunshot, the young country cracked open his eyes and saw a blurry blue shape running towards him, it knelt beside him and he could make out two ocean blue eyes staring fearfully down at him.

"U-u-uncle?"  he wheezed, barely above a whisper.

"Don't speak bud, just stay still, I'm going to get you out of here," MA said, he tried to push the support beam off his nephew's legs, but he wasn't strong enough to move ten tons by himself.

"U-uncle ... I-I'm s-sorry ... I-I tried."

"Don't be sorry Blue-Jay, just hang in there, everything's going to be fine."

"T-t-tell dads I s-said ... s-sorry,"

"No, don't you talk like that, you WILL make it out of here, you will be the one who talks to your dads, I swear on my wings I won't let the guardians of the afterlife take you."

"I ... love ... you ... all."

"NO, no don't you dare close those eyes, stay with me buddy, STAY WITH ME DAMNIT!!!"

"..."

"P-Poldara?"

"..."

"Poldara?!"

"..."

"POLDARA!!!"