Ezekiel's POV:

"Keep up the pace! Don't slow down or else you all will do another lap again!!!", Chief Warrant Officer 5 Gary Douglas said while we kept on running around the training grounds.

It's been a year since the time we got out of that hell hole, after the nerve-wracking deal that I got with the president of this country. It was something that I can't imagine that I made a deal with him and I have to meet up for the signing of the contract for the deal that I made.

I signed a contract that we will be under strict supervision for 9 years under the military force, and we will be working altogether while we were still under as the contract stated. The president needs it for proof that the next president will sign the same contract again after the current president steps down from his term.

"Everyone keep up! We need to keep up and get this done already!", Michael said while trying to keep up with us who are ahead of them.

The other kids suddenly catch up with us which made me slow down after seeing Samantha slowing down since she is the youngest of us and the lowest stamina kid.

"Can you keep up, Samantha? Do you want to take a rest now?", I ask as she looks at me while keeping up her pace with the others as she shook her head.

"I can still keep up, big brother... I don't want... to get you... all mad at me... for being the weakest one...", she said in between her breathes as I lift her up and carries her in a princess carry.

"You might be the youngest, but your stamina is the lowest that might get you into another series of fits again", I said as she stops struggling while I carry her in my arms.

"Halt!!!"

Every one of us suddenly stops as the warrant officer walks up to where I'm standing with his scary face that didn't get me scared at all.

"What do you think you're doing, private?!", he shouted as I turn to look at him.

"Carrying her in my arms, sir", I said that made him tick since he hates it very well.

"Put her down and make her run for herself, private!", he shouted again but with an annoyed tone in his voice.

"Make her run again on her own? Then she will get another series of fits from exhaustion that will affect her own health, sir", I explained as I felt a strike from his baton hit my back that made me almost stumble to my feet.

"Are you talking back to your superior?!", he asks still shouting as he hits me again on my back with a much more force on his strike.

"What the hell are you doing, chief warrant officer Douglas?!!!"

We all turn to look for whoever the person is that made the warrant officer stop mid-way that made me sigh in relief as I saw mom walking towards us with 2nd Lt. Larson with her.

"Disciplining them, ma'am!", he said as he stands straight as mom stared at him closely as he avoids having eye contact with him.

"Didn't I tell you to read thoroughly their files about which of them needs to do from a slow pace to advance in a slow manner?!", Mom asks with a hint of anger in her voice that made the poor warrant officer to trembles in fear.

"But doing that will affect everyone's performance, ma'am", he answered as mom suddenly kicks him down to his knees which made everyone shock.

"Are you saying that to me when they are all children?! Do you want to get demoted from your rank, warrant officer?!", she said as the warrant officer quickly got up from his knees as he stand straight in front of her.

"No, ma'am!", he answers back as he stiffens his back.

"Then do what the doctors and other officials told you to do so, warrant officer", she said as she shift her gaze at us as they walks away.

"We will have a 30 mins break!", he said as he walks away from us.

"Finally! Some time to rest", Sherlly said as we all went down to our knees to catch up with our breath.

"But that doesn't change the fact that we will still be spending our next 3 years inside of this military base", Michael said as he sat down on the ground and leans back while his arms supported his back.

"At least that is better than that damn facility thou", Alexa said as she sat down beside me as she turns to look at me. "Do you want some help with where you got hit, Ezekiel?", she asks as I turn to look at her before I sat down beside her.

"Thanks but no thanks, I'm okay with it as long as he knew his own limits", I said as I grits my teeth off while trying to suppress the pain that I got from the strike of a baton.

"If it's not for the restriction they put on us, he would be already inside a coffin", Michael said which made me smirk at the thought of it.

"Let's endure this place until we earn our own spot for them to give us some respect", I said as I let out some deep breathing, Samantha hands me a bottle of water and I took it from her.

Looking back at how I managed to do everything that seems to be difficult to anyone older than me, I was proud to know that I got through all of it and beat the crap out of those old geezers who look down on me. But seeing how those old geezers looking down on some of the children with me, it makes my blood boil in rage for being this weak and hopeless against them.

"I'll make sure we will gain a spot here for them to know that we're better than them", I said aloud as I tighten my grip on the water bottle that I'd been holding. "It's us against them now, and it won't be that hard to beat them up, right?", I said as I turn to look at Alexa and the rest of the children behind her as they grin wickedly in response.

"They look down on us, we will rise up in ranks before they could get ahead of us", Michael said as he suddenly started to laugh at the thought of it.

"Let's make them pay for looking down at us with how strong we get to approve to them that we're better than their soldiers that they're so proud of", Sherlly said as we got up and do our own way of how we do the drill of practice.

"I believe you will let me boss you out this time, Jackson. Or do you want to be one to receive a one-to-many debate with those old geezers that look down on us?", I said as I look at him gritting his teeth in frustration as I pat his shoulder. "You will be leading the other half of our group so we can produce a result of satisfaction to ourselves here. We will still be using the drill of training we had in the hell hole since the military training drill is for babies and not for people like us who are trained to be assassins of the night", I said as a grin formed on his lips like he wants to run wild.

"Hearing you said something like that really caught my attention more than the rage I had for your annoying guts. I'll make them bow down to us for those times they treated us like some lowly animals", he said as I walk past him as the others followed my lead.

"We are the Phantoms of the Night, we will be on top of these lowly beings", I said as I smirk at the thought of having them look up to us like someone they need to fear of.

We went through the training drills we knew before that good-for-nothing warrant officer came back to scold us again. Mom and the other lieutenants stop him from halting whatever we were doing to see how fast we move from one platform to another.

"Ezekiel! Jackson! Come forward!", Mom shouted as me and Jackson finished a course as we runs towards her as we stand straight in front of her. "That training drill you showed to us, is the same training drill you all got back in that place, right?", she asks as she shifts her gaze from me and Jackson while waiting for us to respond.

"We believe that these set of training drills are much more sufficient for us to do than what the standard military training drill do", Jackson said with confidence in his voice that made mom smirk instead.

"Our own training drill that totally covers every weakness we might show can cover it all up with the others. With this set of training drills, we can back each one of our weaknesses up without fail to execute every mission that is assigned to our group", I explained which made the other lieutenants murmurs to one another about it.

"These set of training drills are for assassination type of missions instead, my child", Mom said as she sounded like she was against it but her face didn't even match it up.

"Because we are trained to be assassins, not as soldiers who follow some set of standardized commands. Assassins follow free movements that it won't show any weakness or open spot that will lead to our deaths", Jackson pointed out that stunning them all up.

"We will follow these drills since it's the only training drills that we are all familiar with", I reason out as mom let out a sigh of defeat.

"Continue your training drills, you all need to be fully fit for the mission we will give next month. Dismiss!", she said as we run off back to our training.

*3 years later...

"For showing the highest contribution to every mission assigned to all of you, you all got the highest performance that any soldier can't come up with", the president said as he finishes putting some badge of recognition on each one of us. "The Phantom of the Night are entitled as Elite Soldiers that will serve this country despite their age."

People applauded and cheer for us but none of us were happy about it as we stand stern and unwavering, I can only say that we're still needing much more respect than this.

"We can still hunt down those refugees who work under that founder, right?", Alexa said without looking at anyone who possibly she referring to.

"We can still do that under the disguise of hackers from the underground society", Michael said as he looks at me while smiling innocently that doesn't match up really well with his intentions.

"We still need to be extra careful about our actions, since we're still under strict supervision until we will be released from it", I said as I turn to look at Jackson who is getting ahead of himself because of the attention we got right now.

Everything will be set in place once we are done being supervised as we can move freely without being questioned. Hunting them down will be our top priority of ours until we can be able to move freely and harness our skills to the top.