Moving Forward

The Laws of Man and Common Sense

Foxy's POV

"Sean Green is in his second year of his residency," I explained to Kota. "Legally, he is not a doctor yet. He is not to perform more than first aide outside of the hospital training him without a licensed doctor directing him. This incident should have never happened and if he had obeyed orders, it would not have."

"How much trouble is he in?" Kota looked upset.

"A lot," I replied without hesitation, I was not going to lie to him. "This is not his first mistake and the way he is going, it will not be his last. Your team seems to think that we are trying to play games with you, make you look bad or we are trying to prevent you from graduating. You are wrong. This mission is not for a team of students, it is extremely dangerous. There is a serial killer at this school and he is picking off students. When we tell you to do something, it is for your own good and it is us trying to keep you alive."

"Did Luke and Victor join another team?"

I blew out a breath, knowing the answer would hurt him. "They have joined Raschel Ericson's team and are based in Boston."

"I thought that a bird could not be on an all dog team, that only a couple's team was allowed to be mixed."

"That is not true, it is only in the South Carolina chapter that it seems to be a rule and I know it is not one made by the High Council." This belief really upset me and I was going to remove every leader in this state for their biased attitude. "We have mixed teams all over the country and they work together well and before you ask, we do not use female members as bait. The members who started that practice will soon be in pieces once I get my hands on them and you had better believe my team will help me eradicate them."

"We were told that the Academy was a secret, that we could not even tell our families about it. That our team was our family and we were to let no one come between us, not even the Academy and now you are telling us something completely different. What are we supposed to believe?"

"While we do not encourage our members to tell everyone about the Academy, we do not request that you hide it from your family, especially the ones you have adopted. Common sense tells you that they need to know who to contact if they need help and cannot reach you." I sighed heavily, "I do not know where your rules came from, and all I can tell you is that they are not the ones the Academy chose. The more I learn about your team, the more I worry that someone has been grooming you from the start and that is not acceptable in any way, shape or form."

"Grooming? We aren't being sexually abused," he rushed at assure me.

"One is not always groomed for sexual purpose, in some cases children have been groomed to commit crimes for an adult and they practically worship the person who groomed them. In your team's case, I would say someone groomed all nine of you and that Luke and Victor somehow broke from the conditioning. I will look into it more once we have Ashley Waters completed."

"Why do you think we have been groomed," he asked, curious.

"Why have you never questioned the jobs you have done for the Academy?" I countered. "Do you really believe we take kids off the street and help them become criminals?"

"We are helping the good guys," he insisted.

"No, you are committing the same criminal acts as the bad guys. Acting the vigilante, this is illegal unless you are fighting the government for unfair treatment of the populace and serving their own interest instead of the people who elected them and even then you aren't allowed to break the laws that govern us." I corrected him and went on to site the constitution. "The Tenth Amendment, it reinforces the principle of by stating that the Federal Government possesses only those powers delegated to it by the states or the people through the Constitution. Meaning that our politicians only have the power we give them and it is up to us to remove them when they over step their position. Many of the rules of the Academy are based on the Constitution. You would be assigned a mission and you would never check to see if it is legitimate, you distrust those you should trust and trust the ones you should not. It amazes me that none of you have been arrested yet and have a mile long rap sheet."

Rolf Ericson's POV

"Well Fox, I would think that there are some kids more easily groomed than others. Some feel they deserved the abuse they received, some feel guilty for not stopping a loved one from sharing in the abuse. The last is mainly male, but there have been some cases that a female has felt the same. When the father is abusive, it is not unusual for the son to follow his example when intervention is not given. In many cases the boy is so desperate for a father figure, one who does not harm him that he will bond with the first male that is kind to him."

"I think, no, I know that someone has groomed the Blackbourne team." She informed me.

"Explain."

"One of the first things you taught us was to ask questions and to never do a job we have not confirmed is legitimate and legal. The Blackbourne Team does retrieval. Most of their jobs are illegal, they never confirm them, and they carry them out without a question. Only two have not suffered from some type of abuse from their father. Luke Taylor is now on Chel's team, but he was on the Blackbourne team with his younger brother. North, the younger Taylor brother, is in mandatory counseling. It was that or Sven would happily kill him. Dr. Sean Green is the other one and I honestly do not know why he is in the Academy. Luke was accepted because of his uncle, who is a member, Green has no such ties."

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