The training began before the twin suns even thought about rising.
Five AM sharp. Every day. No exceptions.
Team 9 learned quickly that Jango's stick had exceptional aim.
Week One: Foundation
Push-ups until their arms trembled. Squats until their legs burned. Planks until their cores screamed for mercy. Jango sat in his rocking chair, counting in that slow drawl, occasionally tapping the stick against someone's back if their form slipped.
"Ain't no fancy Resonance gonna save ya if yer body's weak as wet paper," he said, eyes tracking each of them independently. "Before ya channel power, ya gotta BUILD power."
Juli hit two hundred push-ups before collapsing. Kade managed one-fifty. Pam and Tessa tapped out at seventy and fifty respectively.
"Again," Jango drawled.
They ran laps around the property in the scorching heat. Miles and miles under the twin suns. Juli's legs were made for this, his kicks had built endurance most cadets couldn't dream of. He finished first, barely winded.
Kade crossed second, tail dragging in the dust, fury burning in his golden eyes. "This is merely temporary setback. My strength grows daily."
Pam navigated the terrain with her heightened senses, maintaining perfect pace.
Tessa collapsed twice but kept getting up.
"Good," Jango said. "Real good. Now do it again."
Week Two: Weapons and Labor
Pam's battleaxe drills became precise and devastating under Jango's guidance. He showed her angles, leverage points, how to use momentum instead of fighting it.
"Yer daddy taught ya to swing hard," Jango observed. "I'm teachin' ya to swing smart."
Pam's grip tightened on the handle. "You know my father?"
"Know of him. Kiel family's got a reputation in certain circles." Jango spat to the side. "Ol' military bloodline. Produce some of the finest tactical officers in ARMADA. Also produce some of the coldest sons of guns I ever did meet." His eyes fixed on her. "Yer daddy train ya hard, didn't he?"
"Yes."
"Mmm. Kiel method. Break 'em down young, build 'em up ruthless. Makes for effective soldiers." Jango's voice softened just slightly. "But it don't make for happy ones."
Pam said nothing, but her jaw clenched.
"Anyway, ya got the foundation. Now we refine it."
Tessa's plasma rifle accuracy improved dramatically. Jango set up targets at increasingly absurd distances and angles.
"Breathe 'tween the shots, girl. Let the rhythm find ya."
But weapons training was only half the day.
The other half was manual labor.
They hauled water from a well two miles away. Fixed the porch. Rebuilt a collapsed storage shed. Moved boulders from one side of the property to the other, then moved them back.
"Why are we relocating these rocks?!" Kade demanded, his philosophical tone cracking under frustration.
"'Cause I told ya to, kitty cat."
"That reasoning is insufficient!"
THWACK.
They even did exercises that looked like something from ancient training monasteries. Balancing on poles. Carrying water buckets on their shoulders while walking on narrow beams. Meditating under cold waterfalls that Jango somehow had running despite the desert.
"Y'all think I'm crazy," Jango said one evening, watching them shiver in the freezing water. "But every exercise got a purpose. Balance. Focus. Control. Can't master Resonance without masterin' yerself first."
Week Three: Resonance Theory
The meditation sessions were torture for Juli.
Sitting still. Breathing slowly. Listening to his own heartbeat.
"Resonance ain't just about power," Jango explained, walking between them as they sat cross-legged. "It's 'bout control AND chaos. Yer mind gotta be calm as still water. Yer body gotta be ready to explode like a supernova. Both at once. That's the trick."
Juli's eye twitched.
"Every livin' thing got a Key, a unique frequency. Masterin' it means findin' the balance. Too much control, ya become rigid. Too much chaos, ya burn out." Jango tapped his stick against the ground. "The best fighters? They dance on that edge. They know when to be still and when to let loose."
Pam absorbed every word, her silver eyes focused inward.
Kade's tail swished impatiently but he remained seated, trying to embody warrior discipline.
Tessa struggled not to fidget.
Juli looked like he was about to explode.
"Can we punch something now?"
THWACK.
Week Four: The Gap
It became undeniable during sparring sessions.
Juli had transformed.
His fight with Ragnar hadn't broken him. It had forged him into something sharper, faster, more lethal. Every punch carried intent. Every kick had precision. His battle instincts were borderline inhuman now.
He sparred with Kade and dominated. Not through raw power alone, but through reading every muscle twitch, every shift in weight, every telegraph in Kade's stance.
Kade crashed into the dust again, claws digging into the ground in frustration. "This cannot be! I train with equal dedication!"
"You telegraph your moves," Juli said, not even winded. "I can see your attacks before you throw them."
"Impossible! My technique is sound!"
"Your technique's fine. You're just predictable."
Kade's golden eyes burned with envy. The gap between them had widened instead of closed.
Pam stood watching, her transparent glasses reflecting the twin suns. She'd known Juli when he was scrawny, weak, pranking his way through basic classes. The Juli standing before her now moved like a weapon given human form.
How did that scrawny little rascal become this? she thought, something complicated stirring in her chest. Despite everything about her family, her bloodline, her brutal training since childhood, Juli had somehow surpassed her in raw combat ability.
Tessa watched with sparkling eyes. "So cool," she whispered, clutching her plasma rifle.
Even Jango observed Juli with something approaching respect. The boy trained like a man possessed. Standard drills weren't enough. At night, after everyone else collapsed into bed, Jango would wake to sounds outside.
He'd peek through his window to see Juli doing push-ups in the freezing desert night. Five hundred. A thousand. Until his arms gave out. Then he'd switch to kicks against a rock formation, bare-shined and bloody-knuckled.
Kid's got somethin' special, Jango thought, taking a sip of whiskey. Somethin' that can't be taught.
"Oi, cowboy!" Juli called out during a water break, mimicking Jango's drawl terribly. "Reckon we gonna learn some fancy shootin' next?"
Jango's eyes swiveled independently before fixing on Juli. The corner of his mouth twitched upward. "Boy, if I wanted me a parrot, I'd've gotten one from the Avian sector."
"Just tryin' to fit in, partner!"
"Yer accent's worse than a dying engine."
"Reckon I'll keep practicin', old timer!"
Jango chuckled, a sound like rocks grinding. The kid had guts. Annoying, but guts nonetheless.
Week Five: The Academic Wall
"Alright, greenhorns," Jango announced one morning, holding a datapad. "Time we talked 'bout the tournament structure."
Team 9 gathered on the porch, battered and sore but attentive.
"Three challenges total. First two are team-based. Last one's individual, but that's later." Jango's eyes narrowed. "First challenge is a comprehensive examination. Every subject related to ARMADA operations, galactic history, sector geography, weapon specifications, tactical theory, resonance fundamentals, mathematics, emergency protocols. All of it. Multiple choice, essays, formulas, the whole shebang."
"A written test?" Tessa asked nervously.
"Yep. And here's the kicker." Jango's gaze swept across them. "One team member fails, the WHOLE team gets eliminated. No second chances, no exceptions, nothin'."
Silence.
"The squads don't want no meatheads," Jango continued. "They want soldiers who can think AND fight. Brain and brawn, equal measures. Ya understand?"
Juli's face went pale.
Kade grinned. "Finally, a challenge where superior intellect prevails over brute strength."
"Don't get cocky, kitty cat. Ya ain't exactly a genius either."
The academic sessions were a disaster.
Pam excelled naturally, her blindness no hindrance with audio texts and her photographic memory.
Kade was surprisingly decent, especially with tactical scenarios and weapon specifications. His newfound formal speech patterns actually helped with technical terminology.
Tessa struggled but improved with dedicated study time.
Juli was a catastrophe.
"The Treaty of Cygnus was signed in what year?" Jango asked.
"Uh... twelve?"
"Twelve?"
"Twelve... hundred?"
"Boy, it was 2847 of the Unified Calendar. We covered this YESTERDAY."
"Numbers all look the same!"
"Name the twelve Constellation Squads in order of formation."
"Uh, Taurus, Scorpio, uh... Big Dipper?"
"BIG DIPPER AIN'T EVEN A CONSTELLATION SQUAD! It ain't even a real constellation, ya fool!"
Kade couldn't contain himself. "Behold the mighty warrior, defeated by basic knowledge! Perhaps you should kick the textbook into submission!"
"I'll kick YOU into submission!"
"Your threats lack intellectual foundation!"
"Your FACE lacks intellectual foundation!"
Pam pinched the bridge of her nose. "Juli, we need to talk."
That evening, she pulled him aside. Her silver eyes, unseeing but somehow piercing, fixed in his direction. "You're not giving up."
"I'm trying, Pam! My brain just doesn't work like..."
"I don't care." Her voice was firm but not unkind. "You went toe-to-toe with a five-hundred-million-credit bounty. You survived. You pushed yourself harder than anyone I've ever seen. If you can do that, you can learn basic history and math."
"But..."
"I'm going to tutor you. Every night. We're going to drill this into your skull until it sticks." She grabbed his collar. "I didn't watch you nearly die just so you'd fail a written test. Got it?"
Juli blinked. Then grinned. "Yes ma'am."
Jango watched the dynamic unfold with amusement. The blonde idiot was a savant in combat but helpless with books. The balance was almost funny.
"Don't stress too much, boy," Jango told Juli one evening. "Yer trainin' so far? Been real impressive. Ya keep improvin' at this rate, and if we can get yer brain workin' even half as good as yer fists, ya might just steal the whole show."
Juli's eyes lit up. "Really?"
"Don't let it go to yer head now."
Kade overheard and scowled. "What about my performance? Have I not demonstrated superior tactical acumen?"
"You're doin' fine, kitty cat. But this blonde fool's got somethin' extra. Don't know what it is, but it's there."
Kade's tail lashed in frustration, his earlier philosophical composure cracking. "This is unacceptable!"
Pam watched Juli from across the room, a small smile on her face. She remembered the scrawny rascal who could barely do twenty push-ups, who played with action figures during class, who seemed destined to wash out.
Now look at him.
Night Training
The desert night was freezing. The twin suns had vanished hours ago, leaving only stars and cold wind.
Juli sat cross-legged on a flat rock, shirtless, his breath visible in the frigid air. His body had changed over the weeks. Leaner. Harder. Scars from the Ragnar fight still visible but fading.
He closed his eyes.
Breathed.
Found his center.
Control and chaos. Still water and supernova.
His Key hummed beneath his skin, that unique frequency Jango kept talking about. He'd felt it before, in moments of desperation, but never like this. Never with intent.
Slowly, deliberately, a red aura began to emanate from his body. Faint at first, then growing stronger. It flickered like flame, warm despite the cold, casting crimson light across the rocks.
In his mind's eye, in that space where meditation took him, he saw figures.
Far in the distance, almost impossible to make out, stood a man with red hair. The hero. The one who saved him. Still so far away it hurt to see.
Closer, but still distant, Ragnar. The Blue Butcher. Golden eyes staring back at him with that same respect from their fight. A reminder that their story wasn't finished.
Closer still, Ruskovitz. The Unit Head who appeared like a ghost, who saw something in Juli worth nurturing.
Jango stood nearer, stick in hand, that amused glint in his eye.
Vela, even closer, her yellow eyes watching him with that rare motherly pride.
Then, right behind him, Team 9. Kade with his competitive fire. Pam with her steady presence. Tessa with her shy determination.
Juli's eyes remained closed, but his signature grin spread across his face.
Guess I'm not fighting alone anymore.
The red aura intensified, steady and controlled, chaos and stillness dancing together.
Somewhere in the darkness, Jango watched from his porch, soda in hand.
"Kid's gonna be somethin' special," he muttered. "Real special."
The stars burned overhead.
The desert wind howled.
And Julian Weiper sat in perfect meditation, his Resonance finally beginning to awaken.