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Adora woke up slowly, and, to her absolute horror, without a sound that would shatter the eardrums of an ordinary person ringing through her skull. AKA, the SS Horde Peacekeeper Cadets wake-up call. 

She glanced around at the other bunks in her room, where the other soldiers in training slept. But the room was empty.That is, for everyone except the only idiot who could sleep through a princess attack. Make that two idiots, Adora noted as she felt a familiar warmth and weight by her feet.

Adora kicked her blanket off and jumped out of bed, upsetting her best friend, who always slept curled up by her feet.  Catra yelled in shock, scrambled, clawing at the bed, but lost her grip. 

Adora giggled as she flailed and fell off the bed, making a thump when she hit the floor. 

"ADORA!!!" Catra yowled from the cold ground, a sheet over her head, "I SWEAR I WILL WIPE THAT FUCKING GRIN OFF YOUR FACE"  

Somehow, Adora thought, she always knows when i am making fun of her. Catra leapt to her feet and ripped the blanket from her head. Adora had, however, wisely already begun to flee the pissed cat. 

When Adora finally slowed down and looked behind her, Catra was nowhere to be seen. She breathed in relief and slowed her pace. 

After a few seconds more, Adora came to the entrance of the girls locker room. She opened the door, realizing only moments too late the fatal mistake she had made. Catra leapt at her and wrestled the girl to the floor. 

"Give up?" She rasped.

"Nah" 

Adora twisted and threw off Catra, quickly getting her in the same hold Adora had been trapped in. 

"How bout you do that instead." 

They stared at each other for a moment, then Catra broke the silence with a laugh. "You're such an idiot."

Adora helped her up, then went to change. Right before she closed the door behind her, she stuck her head back out and said; "MOUSE!!!" while pointing at the opposite wall. She shut the door behind her and grinned smugly as she heard Catra hiss and scramble, looking for the small creature. 

Eventually Catra shouted "NOT. COOL." and entered her own changing room. 

Seconds later Adora emerged in her uniform, but froze as she saw the alert on the notification board.

It was a picture of the gracious President Prime, smiling kindly, and the words "GRAND PRESIDENT GUARD TEST TODAY - - - 6:30am" written in bold letters

Adora, feeling panicked, asked; "Catra, what time is it?"

"Uh...around 6:30 probly, why wou-"

Catra's words were lost to Adora as she raced out of the room in a panic. Shadow Weaver would be livid!

Adora raced through the all-too-empty halls, eventually arriving at the testing arena, where everyone else was already lined up. 

Adora hastily joined her team, a lizard mutant named Rogelio, a speed mutant named Kyle, and a strength mutant named Lonnie. The empty spot next to her reserved for Catra. Adora grew angry at herself for leaving Catra behind, but she couldn't go back now. 

Every team was lined up in a predetermined position in front of the stage, where the supervisor of the SSHPC, Shadow Weaver, was finishing the morning speech.

"- and as Super Soldier Horde Peacekeeper Cadets, you young people shall today be tested for agility, strength, speed, cunning, and loyalty, to serve our esteemed President Prime. I have trained you from childhood for this one opportunity to be the elite personal guards of our gracious President Prime. Unlike normal Peacekeepers, you are mutants. Freaks. Unfit to be among humans. Other people would hunt you down, kill you, hurt you in ways you cannot imagine, but our amazing President Prime, upon learning that mutants were being born, decided that you would have a safer life if you were rescued from the citizens of the districts, who hate Mutants. And now, in return for saving your very lives, you shall compete for a chance to become the closest people to our glorious President. So, to supervise this Test, a great honor has been bestowed upon us introduce, the illustrious President Horde Prime!"

Adora was found by Shadow Weaver herself at age 4, and had been training constantly in the 11 years since then for this test. She was ready, with or without a mutation.

Shadow Weaver backed up and bowed in deference to a cloaked figure that glided up to the stage, and so did everyone in the whole massive room, some 100+ cadets, and the adult Peacekeepers tasked in guarding them.

 Catra, who really did have a talent for turning up at bad times, appeared next to Adora. Fully, upright, tail puffed out as she stared at Prime. Adora could see Shadow Weavers eyes narrowing, and her stomach flipped.

"What are you doing, Idiot?" Adora whispered frantically, pulling Catra down and knocking her out of the weird trance. The cat attempted resistance, but Adora was too strong for her. She was going to get herself killed!

"I am not bowing to anybody!" Catra hissed, and yanked her arm out of Adora's grip. "Leave me alone!" 

Their argument was cut short when Shadow Weaver called out; "Let the testing begin! The first competitors shall be Team JK348, led by Cadet Adora!" Adora froze, then straightened her stance and lifted her chin, giving the Horde salute. "Bring your team into the Arena!" 

She led the team into the arena to begin the Test, marching into the doors lit up in the side of the large room that generally led to their training area.

The crowd of cadets cheered behind them, and took their last look at the five young cadets

- - - - 

"Eliminate the Queen, do not get killed by the Rebels" an automated voice announced as the doors sealed behind them. 

The Arena was built to imitate the arena that the Hunger Games were hosted in, it wasn't even close to as large, but the sky was the spitting image of the real sky, and there were sounds that you would hear outside. Trees rustled, squirrels chattered, mockingjays sang out, occasionally saying an understandable word then descending back into gibberish. 

Adora, Kyle, Rogelio, and Lottie fanned out to watch each other's backs, but Catra had disappeared. Typical. She always vanished at the beginning of each training exercise, to Titan knows where, but that didn't matter at the moment.

A Rebel leapt out of the trees, firing beams at Kyle. Kyle attempted a dash to escape but he ran facefirst into a tree and collapsed, out.

As the three advanced, more rebels appeared. Adora and Lottie shot the rebels with blasters, knocking them out easily, but Rogelio fumbled his gun and got hit. 

And then there were two.

Adora and Lottie advanced through the woods, systematically knocking out the rebels. Suddenly, A princess jumped out of the tree. The forest came alive, vines began to wrap around their legs and Lottie lost her gun. Adora's shooting hand and gun were bent backwards and the princess advanced, aiming a gun at Lottie. In the split second that it took the princess to aim Adora wrestled her left hand free and landed a lucky shot, knocking out the princess. The vines faded away, retreating back into the trees. 

Adora was uneasy. There were never any princesses in Arena training before, they had only used the program for one-on-one combat, where the princesss powers would be useless. 

Finally, Adora and Lottie made it to the Queen's circle, the most difficult obstacle, and sitting amidst the circle was the Queen.

It was a giant, spider-like robot with a a large body and several cannons. The Queen struck Lottie with its leg, and as the tile under Lottie turned from blue to red, she fell through the floor.

Only Adora was left facing it.

Adora attempted to summon her Mutation power, but came up empty, so instead decided to randomly shoot the Queen. 

After a few seconds, the tiles under the Queens spindly legs  turned red and Adorable had an idea, she kept forcing the bot backwards, further and further. Closer and closer to Lotties hole.

When the Queen was positioned right in front of it, Adora tamed the thing, pushing the Queen into the hole and winning the Test.

She turned to wave her gun at the camera and then mentally slapped herself, for she had forgotten three important things. 

The Queen had one leg out of the hole.

Adora was standing on a red tile.

Catra. 

In one swift motion, Adora twisted and left for solid ground, only to see Catra 'officially' killing the queen, and turn to nudge Adora into the hole.

Adora gripped the ledge, and tried to haul herself up. Catra leaned down towards her, smiling evilly.

"Catra. This is low, even for you." Adora spat,trying to pull herself up and dropping her gun in the process.

"Oh, Adora." Catra's voice was low "You know nothings too low for me"

Catra reached down and gripped her arm.

"Now get up here, idiot."

- - - - - - 

Adora and her team stood at attention in front of President Horde Prime. Adora had heard the phrase "sweating buckets" but never understood it until now. Her and Catra's future rested on this moment.

He slowly strode by, looking each of them in the eyes for several uncomfortable seconds. 

Then he said; "You may all leave now." The team turned and began to exit, Catra at the lead and Adora in the back, her head dropped as she realized they would not be chosen if he was dismissing them. Instead they would be ... rehabilitated. 

The glorious President Prime's voice rang out again, like steel."Wait... not Adora. Everyone else leave." 

Adora turned and bowed, until the renowned President Prime said; "Stand up. I am not here to chastise you. You are, even without a fully activated mutation, the best in your team. You are cunning and good with your weapon. You are going to receive special training and become a Force Captain. You ship out to Commander Hordak's training facility in the Capitol in the morning." His tone was matter of fact.

Adora gaped at him. "M-Me? A Force Captain? Oh wow that's amazing! I'll go tell the team! We won't disappoint you, esteemed President Prime."

"No. Only you. Say you goodbyes." He began to leave, but Adora panicked. She ran forwards and grabbed his cloak. 

He turned around with such a look of rage that Adora knew she was going to die. She should never have disrespected him so. Oddly, the expression quickly faded and he covered it up with a menacing smile. "What exactly are you doing?"

"I-I only wanted to say that I... am worried about my team."

"Do not worry. They will be disposed of."

"If I may, sir. I can only do this with them beside me. Otherwise... I will have to stay."

The expression of pure murderous rage returned as President Horde Prime roared in anger. "YOU DARE DEFY ME?!" He grabbed her by her upper arm, and lifted her. He swung his other hand and punched her in the stomach. He dropped her. Adora crumpled, her breath heaving. Tears.Stu g the corners of her eyes, but she composed herself.

"No sir! I just wanted to .. to make things clearer" Adora trembled in fear.

His face regained its former expressionless state, and Adora braced for the worst, "very well. They may join you. Now leave my sight!"  

Adora hastily bowed and backed out of the room.

- - - - - -

She strode down the hallway, shaking from his outburst. She had made a stupid, stupid mistake. Provoking the President like that! She was but a Mutant! Not even human! She wasn't even worthy of being in his presen- 

Adora's thoughts were cut short when a weight dropped onto her shoulders from the ceiling. 

She cried out and covered her face, expecting pain.

"Adora? Are you okay?" Catra was perched on Adora's back where she had landed after jumping from the rafters.

"Ye-yeah. I'm fine." 

Cara jumped off her back and helped Adora to her feet.

"What happened in there? I heard shouting. Did he hurt you??" Catra bared her claws and teeth. "I will end him if-"

"No, nothing bad happened. I-in fact, we were promoted! The entire team! I am gonna be Force Captain, and we will leave for Commander Hordak's facility tomorrow morning."

"Are you kidding? That's wonderful! That's ... that's the best news I have ever heard I my life! We will finally see some action! Adora?" Catra's face suddenly grew serious. Her eyes grew wide and she was silent for a moment. "I wanna blow something up."

Adora laughed, but it sounded strained. She winced, hoping Catra wouldn't notice.

Carts noticed.

 "Are you sure you are okay?"

"Yes. Totally sure. The most sure."

Cares nodded, unconvinced. "I know what will cheer you up."

- - - - - - time skip - - - - 

They sped through alleyways, after having stolen the speeder and snuck away from the secure training compound. Along the fringes of district 2'were mazes and mazes of alleys and back roads so small that the word path fit them better than road.

Adora held onto the speeder for dear life as Catra drove like a madwoman, which she may have been.

"WHY THE FUCK ARE WE DOING THIS?" Adora shrieked

"CUZ ITS FUN!!" 

"WE'RE GONNA RUN OUT OF FUEL!!" 

"WELL, THATS A PROBLEM FOR FUTURE CATRA AND ADORA."

"Hey, let me drive!" 

"Nope. I came up with the idea, I drive." 

"Catra! Look out!"

"I am not falling fo-"

Catra  was cut off when she crashed into the side of a wall. 

Sirens began ringing as the sound of the commotion brought attention from the people in the nearby streets.

As several peacekeepers began searching for the source of the noise, Catra frantically searched for Adora in the speeder wreckage and piles of garbage "Adora!" Panic edged her voice "Come on! Let's go, we need to leave now! Adora? I'm sorry! 

Five peacekeepers marched into the alley, momentarily taken aback by the SSHP cadet, and elite Peacekeeper speeder crashed into the wall. 

"Madam, come with us, now." They grabbed Catra.

Catra shrieked and  writhed in their grip, until one jabbed her with a needle and she fainted.

They dragged her away.

- - - - - -

Meanwhile, Adora was buried under the wreckage, unable to move, or speak. 

She reached out to Catra, to reassure her, to help her... but everything went black.

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How's the length? Should it be longer? Shorter? And I have a pretty bad update schedule so the next chapter should be up within the next week or so.