File type: Text File (.txt) [Download]
-----------------------------------------
"So does that mean I get to pick someone to join my unit?" Shadow Gill asked.
"Well, these puppets have grown out of their empty phase. Their personalities have returned, and their memories have been locked away. So they're ready." Shadow Wil explained.
"But I get first pick, right?" Gill insisted.
"No, we're going to pick one at the same time. And the rest will go into general troops until they prove to us how useful they can be." Shadow Luke told him.
Gill winced a bit at Luke's arrival. They were on their way into the barracks when Wil and Drake brought in some new recruits.
"I was hoping to get some for my squads..." Gill muttered to himself.

The recruits were all lined up in neat little rows as the Shadow Group enters the room. Each member looks them over as Wil clears his throat.
"We will now choose one member each to join our respective personal squads. The rest will be put into general troops to receive basic training." he explained.
Each new recruit stood stock still, the air tense. Each member walks down the aisles, sometimes more than once, as they look each one of them over.
"I pick this guy!" Akira suddenly shouts out, arms out and hugging close the leg of a large turtle anthro.
A few heads turn as Akira proceeds to lead the turtle away before they resume their still, silent demeanors. Luke was different, though. Sometimes, he'd stare at one recruit, making them nervous. Then he would point at them, and ask for the opinion of his siblings. When they replied with indifference, that recruit is immediately shipped off to the basic training barracks.
"What would you do, if you were shipped off to basic training?" Gill asked one recruit.
"...I...Don't know. I would feel disappointed at first, I think. But I'd like to have the chance to show my worth."
Gill smiled wide as he takes his hand.
"I'm taking the panda."

---

"Ya know, being in my squad does mean you take basic training before you start bodyguarding me. But taking Lyle's experimentation for super powers is not part of the program."
The panda soldier could only groan in bed, body covered entirely in bandages. He looked like a mummy. Gill sat at his bedside with a bouquet of cut bamboo stalks to look like flowers.
"I-I know...I just didn't think my entire body would hurt like heck..." he muttered.
Gill simply sighs as he sits there and watches over him.
"When you're feeling better, I order you to stay in my room for a whole week so I can take personal care of you." he stated.
"I-I don't think that's possible, s-sir. Lyle said that once I've recovered, he'll examine me to see the results of the experiment..."
Gill sighed as he starts rubbing his face. "Fine..."

---

It took about a month when the tests finished, and Gill now had the panda sitting on a futon in his room, a banquet before him.
"I'm fine, sir, really. You don't have to care for my well-being."
Gill just smiles as he stuffs a large juicy steak into the panda's mouth.
"But I want to..." he whispers to him.
The panda sat there as he took the stuffing from Gill while he read out the reports from Lyle.
"Okay, so it says here that the experiments have resulted a change in your muscle structure. They're focusing more on density than mass for their overall strength, which is interesting...Are you gaining weight?"
The panda stops eating for a bit as he looks down. He's been steadily gaining some extra pounds recently, and it's really starting to show. Before, he had a very average build, like most of the other soldiers here. But now he's got a paunch, which he grabs with both hands and jiggles a bit. A blush appears on his face as he felt the ripples that radiated outwards to his chest and sides. Gill had a large smile as he looked at him after reading the rest of the report.
"Those muscles are capable of burning excess fat immediately into extra energy. I think I know what to do for your, heheheheh, training..." he says with a grin.

---

"Eat! Eat! Eat!" Gill cheered on.
"Gill, I said I'm willing to compromise. But this is not what I agreed on." Luke muttered.
Several other soldiers in the gym were staring as a rather fat panda in workout clothes was doing push-ups, with a cake right under where his face would be. His limbs look soft and plump, his ass was starting to stretch out the seat of his pants, and they could see his belly and moobs wobble as he exercised.
"Don't worry, he packs on weight really easily now! And all of this strength training will mean his muscles will rarely ever need to burn any fat off for emergencies!" Gill told his brother.
"That's not what I have a problem with." Luke muttered, paw to his face.
A few soldiers begin to gossip as Luke talks about the panda's growing lazy attitude, and how Gill was influencing him to be lazier and to eat more over working harder and training. Gill, on the other hand, talked about the panda's growing appetite, and how he insists that it was an effect of his superpower, and he was just helping fuel him up.
"Isn't that the guy who didn't attend that one mission at the bay?" a soldier said.
"Buuurrp! I'm done."
Gill smiled wide and began giving him belly rubs as the panda licked up the bits of icing off his face, while Luke could only sigh as he looked at the few crumbs of cake left on the floor. He'd stopped exercising the moment his treat was devoured, and Gill was already promising another huge beef bowl for him later.
"Can't I just have the beef bowls in my room instead?" he asked.
"Nope. We have to make sure your, ahem, muscles are sufficiently strong all on their own, so it won't eat up all of this lovely blubber..." Gill said, squeezing the panda's fat belly in his hands.
The other soldiers didn't pay much mind for long. They were growing accustomed to Gill's treatment of this specific guy.

---

"I can't believe it. Your muscles are no larger than an amateur bodybuilder's, yet..." Lyle muttered.
Gill just grinned wide as the panda lowered the emperor-sized bed he was holding up above his head. He had grown larger, fatter, and a good deal rounder since his last exam, which couldn't have been more than a couple months ago. Now he looked like he was way over 300 kg of panda blubber.
"I mean, you gotta hand it to Gill, he knows how to make the most tantalizing treats and rewards." Wil said with a laugh.
"Three strength tests so far, and only a few ounces of fat seems to have been burned off by his muscles..." Lyle muttered, looking over the computer displays.
"Hey, are we done yet? I wanna have my mid-afternoon meal now." the panda called out.
The Shadow Group dismisses him, and he starts off back to the cafeteria, even though it was only a little over an hour since his last visit. He loved the brisket that Gill makes, and he's making it the daily special today! It's one of the reasons one of the seats in the cafeteria ended up with two large dents in it. As he sits down, dozens of soldiers all talked to each other about the heavyset panda, a few newbies asking each other for more info about him. But the panda didn't mind. He just gathers all of his favorites to eat.
"Sorry, Bambruiser. We're all out of muffins." Gill told him.
"Whaaaaat!? But the blueberry and peach ones are my favorites! Also, what did you call me, sir?"
"Bambruiser! I've been trying to come up for a name for ya, big guy. I think it's cool, so I'm gonna run it by the others, and if it's good enough, it'll be approved! And if not, I'll just keep calling ya that anyway." Gill said with a chuckle.
Bambruiser smiled and chuckled a little himself. He sits down at his usual spot and sighs as he starts cleaning off the pork bone ramen and double-beef burgers first.
"Hi. I heard you crying out about muffins?"
Bambruiser looks to see a deer soldier sit down beside him. A large buck with big antlers, by the looks of it.
"Oh, hahah, was I that loud? Whoops." Bambruiser said with a blush.
"I can give you half of mine." he said, holding up his fruit-filled muffin.
"Aww, gee, thanks. I'm serial number P4ND4-209443." Bambruiser said.
"Good to meet you. I'm serial number D33L-377428. I hear you're an experiment too. I'm in Shadow Dracus's squad. He calls me Fireheart."
Bambruiser was about to ask, when Fireheart lifts up a marshmallow to his antlers, which glow red as small flames start dancing on the branches. It only lasts for a few seconds before it stops, and the buck tosses a warm gooey marshmallow into his mouth.
"...Cooooool..." Bambruiser said.
"I get that a lot. Anyway, let's work hard together." Fireheart said, offering his hand to shake.
Bambruiser smiles and takes it, the pair shaking hands.
"Heheh...Um, I prefer a sedentary lifestyle, though, but...I guess when the need comes." Bambruiser added.
"That's fine. I'm assuming your power has to do with your current build, so I guess a sedentary lifestyle isn't exactly a bad choice for you."
Bambruiser and Fireheart chuckle together lightheartedly as they enjoy their time together.