Sergeant Hartman's Story

Chapter 2: Private Terra

I got in the truck and headed to Park Place to check out the strange house.

When I arrived, it at least looked normal. It looked like a normal ranch, for a family. And when I walked inside, I was confused. It was still normal looking! Nothing had changed.

But when I went downstairs, I saw that a chair had been flipped over in the middle of the room!

I walked up to it and examined it. What had happened here? I thought I was on my own until someone walked down the stairs and appeared in front of me. It was the kid Chief Hopper had mentioned!

"Excuse me, what are you doing?" He asked.

I had to think up of something on the fly, like a "Ur Mom" joke, so I said,

"For your information, I'm doing your mom!"

He didn't look impressed. All he said was,

"Well, I mean, that's nice, but... What are you doing to the chair?"

Well, as always, I had to inform him.

"Someone has just flipped over this chair... Who did it?"

"Xehanort."

That confused me.

"Xehanort, what kind of name is that?" I asked.

"A name that somebody would name themselves."

Well, that didn't make any sense, but I went with it.

"Interesting. Who are you?"

"I am Terra."

"Terra, Terra. What, of Arabia?"

Now that was a joke I'd used on Private Pyle. It had worked well, except with Terra, he only said,

"No."

So I used the second part.

"That name sounds like royalty, are you royalty?"

And he said no to that too!

"I don't like the name Terra, only sailors are called Terra!" I yelled.

"How would you know that?"

Well, he'd stumped me there. The only reply I could come up with, was,

"Because I know. I am Gunnery Seargant Hartman, a seargant from the Vietnam War."

I thought it was a good time to introduce myself, so I continued.

"I trained Private Pyle. And he always messed up! He had a jelly doughnut in his footlocker!"

Terra looked pretty confused, so I asked him the question that started this whole thing.

"Why did Xehanort flip over this chair?"

It took him a while to say,

"I dunno, cause he just felt like flipping over something."

That was it. I'd had enough of the stupid answers. I yelled real loud.

"Always the answer!"

After that, I got under control, and continued my interrogation.

"If anything, I need to know... What do you do around here?"

"I live here. This is my house."

Well, I knew that.

"I mean, what's your job? How did you interact with Xehanort?"

"Well, I was, goin around, being a cool person, when, you know, he came around, and tried to get me, and steal my teleporting powers."

Wait... Teleporting powers? That caught me off guard! But I thought that he was teleported, not that he was able to teleport! I had to see for myself.

"You have teleporting powers?"

"Yes."

"Show me."

And to my surprise, he teleported behind me!

"I know what is what, but I don't know what is what." I said to myself.

"Ugh, what am I getting myself into?"

Even after that, I had to know more.

"What happened with him?" I asked.

"Well, I killed him by making him eat a taco from Taco Bell."

What? You know what, forget it.

"So he likes that?" I asked.

Terra nodded.

Well, that was all I needed. I was going to report this straight back to the Phoenix.

"I shouldn't expect this house, uh, I mean INSPECT this house, any further! I am going to leave. And you best not follow me... Private Terra!"

I just thought of that. That name suited him. I was going to call him that from then on.

"I'm not a Private, uh..."

I interrupted him, as I did my other privates.

"The first and last words out of your filthy sewers will be sir!"

"Sir yes sir?"

That was ok for now. I had trouble opening the door when exiting, but I got it.

"See ya, Private Terra!" I called.

"Uh, bye!"

Nope. That wasn't going to cut it.

I made him say "Sir, see ya, sir", and I got in my truck and left to go back to the Phoenix.

There was lots to report today.

727 words.