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The three of the Bad Batchers had had a rather long (pun interned) growth spurt. Well, all expect poor little Hunter!
The kid remaining as short as they came. Shorter than the regs his age.
A squirt, a shorty, that short kid, small, whatever the synonym for it was causing a slur they could come up with. And those were just his brothers calling Hunter with varied names. The regs though, seemed to have a whole wider plethora of funny quips to shout out after the enhanced 99 clone boy.
And some of them were quite mean too!
Well, Hunter wasn’t having it! Nope, Hunter, was so done!
Sometimes though, crying about it in private but more often times fighting back. Hard.
The boy getting in all kinds of trouble because of being, well different. Short. Only to be ending up in detention after school. As even Hunter trying to stretch his body in the gym didn’t help. Some of the other kids having fooled Hunter into believing it would help him grow of he stretched enough on a few of the machines.
Well Hunter had had it for the teasing and the fooling him into being able to grow by whatever means the other kids would suggest.
Not that his brothers were as bad as that as they still cared for Hunter. Very much so. But the other kids were not as kind to the special clone. Guess it wasn’t as much fun being different as it was led to be believed.
And so, Hunter had gone to Nala Se. Demanding some kind of treatment to make him grow taller from the Kaminoan scientist having made Hunter and his team different in the first place.
“But Mistress Se, I need something for this… I’m so short!” The whine present there, but yeah, short from stomping his feet, Hunter was adamant in getting some miracle treatment for his short comings. (Yeah, loads of puns here!)
”CT-9901, there is nothing wrong with your height. It is by design as you have other traits compensating for you not being as tall and dangly as your other two brothers.”
Yes, Hunter was well aware of his other traits, they all had different ones. Hence a team of special clones, but…
“But but but… Mistress Se… they all tease me, cause I’m so small!”
“They will stop, I am sure of it. Once they see you in full action.”
Hunter bit his lip, ready to do a full on crying session if needed. He was that desperate!
“No CT-9901. There is nothing I can do to change that. You are perfect and this stage will pass and the others will see how great you are.”
Hunter blinked once twice, not really buying to what Nala Se was selling.
But Hunter was tough and he could handle a few insults. Right? Or do a whole lot of crying and punching back.
But then again, Hunter could sneak into places others couldn’t. And for that he was quite popular. Getting stuff from hidden cupboards to share…
Years later, Hunter finally understood how special he really was. It wasn’t about the height, but how skilled he really was, as a leader, a trooper and a member of his team. Later, even a father figure and height, had nothing to do with that.