How It All Began

by SadCaptainPanda

As he sat in the Skyranger, he pondered how he had come to be here. It seemed like only yesterday that he was living a quiet life in Ottawa, occasionally going out and shooting the breeze with his friends, some of whom now sat beside him. His name is Tora Wong, and this is his story.

"Fuck the aliens, man!" "Yeah, fuck 'em!" "You said it, man!" The raucous cries of surly teenagers echoed through the quiet street. The moon, bright in the sky, combined with the street lights to brighten the night. Tora's dark eyes looked over his friends. There was Adrienne Colston, Jordan Hardacre, Zachary Kennet, Kristen Soler, and Sierra Glidden.

Adrienne was the shortest of the group, red hair, green eyes, pale skinned and freckled. Next was Sierra, slightly taller, blonde, blue eyed, and light skinned. Jordan, a more heavyset guy, short brown hair, blue eyes, and the best beard a 17 year old could hope for. Kristen, tall, lanky, blonde hair and hazel eyed. Tora was the second tallest, brown eyes, lightly tanned skin and a bald, shaved head. Zach stood above them all, light skin, styled longer brown hair, blue eyes.

They were close friends, or at least as close as teenagers get to one another. Close enough to share their distaste for the aliens ruling over them. One would hardly see them anymore, but one look at the streetlamps with their scanners or the ADVENT forces and it was clear; they had been conquered.

As they walked down the suburban streets, they spoke about school, about the aliens, about life.

"If I had been there when the aliens invaded the first time, I would have kicked their asses so hard they'd never dream of coming back!" Jordan shouted. Tora rolled his eyes, but it was Zach who spoke up. "Yeah right, if you had been around when they invaded the first time, you'd have shit your pants the first time you saw one!" The group laughed, the mood high as the night was drawing to a close. The good natured teasing was just how they showed their affection for each other.

One by one, Kristen, Sierra, Adrienne, Zach, and Jordan were all walked to their respective houses. Once Jordan was inside, Tora sighed. He knew they had been too vocal about their distaste for the aliens, but with his friends by his back, he felt that he could take on the world. Now that he was walking alone, he had time to think. Think about school, work, about day to day life, and about the celebration that was happening in 6 months.

It was going to be the 20th anniversary of the aliens' conquest. The ADVENT forces were cracking down on security everywhere. There had been numerous raids on civilians who were suspected of being 'terrorists'. Tora snorted. What's so bad about wanting your freedom? He knew that there was a big celebration planned on the actual date, but didn't know what that would entail.

He thought about XCOM, the heroic resistance fighters. When the aliens had first invaded, the XCOM project was trying to stop them. Unfortunately, they failed after an attack on their base had resulted in their commander being taken prisoner. Tora lamented the fact that he wouldn't be able to join them. They had been all but destroyed in the years that followed. Their few 'terrorist attacks' were few and far between, showing a distinct lack of soldiers trying to fight the good fight.

"Well, we can't all be heroes, I suppose," Tora said to the night sky.

"Why not?"

Tora spun around to see a man, short dark hair, stubble along his jaw, and a strange look in his eye.

"Who are you?" "I'm someone who needs some help."

Tora looked confused. "What could I possibly help with?" His mind leaped to wild conclusions: that he was being mugged, that the man could be injured, that the man could be XCOM! He snorted. Yeah right. He's XCOM, and I'm a flying monkey.

The man extended an arm. "The name's John." Tora grasped his hand and shook it. "I came into town to try to meet up with some old friends. Do you know the way to Soma Crescent?"

Tora nodded. "Yeah, I, uh, I live there." "Would you mind showing me the way? I seem to have gotten lost. You were the first person I saw, so I figured I'd ask for help."

"Uh, yeah, sure. Why not?" Tora replied. He mentally kicked himself. What if this guy wants to rob me? What if he's a burglar? What if he's a killer? Oh, shit, did I just agree to lead some random guy to my street? His feet started moving towards home. John followed him. They walked in silence for a few minutes.

"What's your name, kid?"

Tora was startled. His brain had been going into overdrive since his stupid decision and he hadn't been expecting this stranger to start up a conversation. "Uh, my names Tora." John smiled. "Tora, eh? Interesting name." "Thanks?"

The pair returned to silence as they continued along. They approached Soma Crescent and Tora turned to John. "Well, this is Soma. I guess I might see you around, if you're staying with your friends?" John nodded. "That's the plan. To be fair, they don't actually know I'm coming, so who knows." Tora shrugged. "What can you do, eh? Anyways, have a good night, John." "You too, Tora."

Tora started walking again. John was trailing behind him, looking at the numbers on all the houses as he passed them. Tora walked quickly, pleased to be getting away from this stranger. John had a different air about him, on top of being an older guy. Tora didn't know what it was, but there was something off about him. He rounded the corner, turning his head to make sure that John wasn't right behind him, and saw the man staring intently at the number at a house several houses down. Tora shook his head to get this guy out of his head as he walked in the front door of his house.

"Mom, dad, I'm home!"

"Glad to hear it, Tora, dinner's in the fridge if you're hungry. We're headed up to bed, alright? Don't stay up too late, it's a school night."

"Alright, mother, I won't." Tora replied sarcastically.

Then a knock came at the door.

Tora stared at the door in shock, his mind immediately jumping to the craziest possible conclusions. It's John! He's here to kill and rob us! Oh crap, why'd I agree to bring him here?!

"Who could that be at this hour?" Tora's father wondered. He walked up to the door and started to open it.

"Dad! Don't open the door!" Tora called. "Why not?" "Some guy asked me if I knew where Soma was, so I may have agreed to lead him to it, and I thought he was kind of a weird person and-"

"Tora. I'm sure it'll be fine," his father said, opening the door. Standing on the front step, indeed, was the individual Tora knew as John. Tora tensed up as John broke into a smile, nodding at each of his parents. "Michael. Olivia." Tora saw his father tense up a bit as well. "Bradford. What are you doing here?" "I came to see you two. Been too long, hasn't it?" "Depends on your definition of 'too long', I suppose."

"Can I come in?" Bradford asked.

"Yeah, come on in," Michael said. Bradford entered the house, and upon seeing Tora, a look of shock appeared on his face. "Hey, Tora! We meet again," he said.

"Yup. I guess we do." Tora replied. "What brings you to my house?"

"Like I said earlier, visiting some old friends. I worked with your parents, way back in the day."

"Way back is right," Michael said, Olivia nodding behind him.

"Look, Michael, Olivia. You two know I wouldn't come to you if it wasn't absolutely necessary. But we're low on people, what with everything happening. You've been watching the news, I expect."

"Of course, and we would help, but in case you didn't notice, we're a lot older than we were back then. We're not up to the same tasks that we were back then," Olivia said. "I don't know how much help we could be. Besides, we have Tora to think about."

"I understand that, Olivia, but we need people. You could even help train the new recruits! Maybe teach them a thing or two about how we did things back in the old days!" Bradford said.

"Hold on," Tora interjected, confused by all the vague talk. "Exactly what do you do, Bradford?"

Bradford looked at Michael, who sighed. "Tora, you know how your mother and I used to be military, right?" Tora nodded. He heard stories about back in the day, before the aliens were here. "Well, the truth is that we weren't just military. We were also part of a special project, a team of individuals who had a big responsibility."

"Dad, I'm seventeen, not five. Just spit it out, I don't need all the excessive pontificating." Tora said.

"Your mother and I were a part of the group known as the XCOM project. Bradford was a central officer who managed everything in our main base. He reported directly to the Commander. Your mother and I were soldiers in that group."

Tora's eyes widened. "You guys were XCOM?!"

Olivia looked at her husband before reluctantly speaking. "Yes, Tora. It was a long time ago, though, and once the attack was made on our main base, we lost out Commander, and we went into hiding. We lived a pretty good life, and we assumed that everyone who was in the main base had died."

Bradford let out a dry laugh. "They tried their best, but mostly they were there for the Commander. Once they had him, they cleared out pretty quickly. Vahlen, Shen, myself. We all made it out. You'd think we'd be juicy targets for those alien bastards, but they only wanted to take out the Commander."

"Well, we're glad you made it out alive," Olivia said. "But as we said, we have a life here. We have a son, who I don't want mixed up in this! We're in a worse position now than we were during the invasion. I won't-"

"Can I join you?"

"What?" Three voices replied in unison, all bearing the same shocked tone.

"Can. I. Join. You?" Tora repeated. Bradford looked uneasily at his parents. "It would seem that the boy wants to be a freedom fighter."

"Absolutely not, Tora. I forbid it." His mother said sharply.

"You did this, why can't I?" Tora sputtered. "Because it's too dangerous! You haven't been trained! I don't want you to die to those things!" Michael exclaimed. Bradford cleared his throat. Three pairs of eyes swiveled to face him.

"Look, if we take him on, you guys don't really have much of a reason not to come with us. You could keep an eye on your boy, you could train him yourselves, you could help humanity again. Please. We need you two." Bradford smiled. "Maybe even the three of you."

Michael looked at Olivia. There seemed to be an understanding that passed between them. "Alright. How long do we have?"

Bradford's smile widened. "We can leave as soon as you guys are packed." "Wait! I have some friends who would be willing to come along! Can we take them on too?"

Bradford looked uneasily at Tora's parents. "I don't know. They'd have to leave their families to come fight a war. There is no guarantee of victory, and a strong possibility of defeat."

"Can I try to convince them to come?" Tora pleaded. "I know they'd be a good help."

Bradford sighed. "Fine. But if they are coming, they need to be here by 5 AM tomorrow morning. Can they do that?"

Tora nodded, pulling out his phone and immediately starting to text his friends, running upstairs to pack.

Going to fight the aliens. Want in? Tora typed quickly, sending it to his friends. One by one, replies came in.

Fr: Jordan – HELL YEAH!

Fr: Zach – I'm in.

Fr: Adrienne – I guess so.

Fr: Sierra – Let's do it!

Fr: Kristen – If everyone else is doing this, might as well, right?

Tora grinned, typing out his reply.

Meet at my house. 5 AM sharp, tomorrow morning. DON'T BE LATE.

Tora smiled. It seemed like yesterday that they had all arrived at his house. That they drove out to the airport. That they had taken the Skyranger to the Avenger. That they went through training. And now, sitting on the Skyranger with Jordan, Zach, and Adrienne, Tora thought to himself with a smile:

There's nowhere else I'd rather be.