It Takes a Colonel

by Sandilynn Petersen

Inspired by Avirra's "A Year of Murdock," I hope to produce one chapter of under 1000 words each week for 52 weeks featuring our favorite A-team Colonel. The other guys may not be in all of these. The Colonel may be soloing on some of these adventures. But I hope they are enjoyable to read. Please read and review.

1. Chapter 1 Leaks

1. Leaks

A/N: I'm changing things up a bit. I hope you like this.

Disclaimer: I do not own The A Team movie or television series or any of the delightful characters found on The A Team.

The Army's version of SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) hadn't done it. Oh, it helped him survive the jungles of Korea and Nam but it didn't help here.

He even added Water Survival to his military training. But that hadn't done it either.

None of that prepared him for a small leak in a suit that made him resemble a big angry lizard.

And I'm supposed to stay down for how long? Five minutes?

During the first thirty seconds being submerged to a depth over his head, he had no indication there was a problem.

Piece of cake.

By the end of the first minute the water licked his ankles.

What the . . . ?

By the end of the second minute it had risen to his knees.

Three minutes passed and it was up to his hips.

Oh boy! Little problem here, guys.

At the four minute mark, he felt the hairs on his chest and underarms waving like seaweed in the surf. Ditto those on his legs.

I am not going to do a retake. I'll quit first.

So he did like all good monster movie actors do and tried to make sure the first take was the only one.

By the time the five minute mark was up, he had to keep his mouth shut or drink water.

Then he was sloshing through the still waters of the fake lagoon toward shore his arms up in a threatening pose.

As he went, he thought this must be what it feels like to be a steak in a marinade.

All around him, crew members applauded. The water drained out and back into the lagoon and he discovered the scale-sized hole in the right ankle of the suit.

"Cut! Cut!" Stanley, the quirky director who had aspirations of one day making a movie about alien killer yams, strode toward him, shaking his head.

"John, John, John."

Whenever he said the name in triplicate, Hannibal knew he was in trouble.

"How many times do I have to tell you to give a reptilian roar when your head comes up out of the water?"

Uh oh.

When he was finished with this next take, he was going to seriously hurt the guy who took one of the scales from the Aquamaniac outfit as a souvenir.