Part 2 of Favor. You should note that this was done while I was supposed to be doing my Pre-Calculus, so appreciate that I love all you reviewers more than my math. BTW, that doesn't happen often. R&R and please read the important notice at the bottom before you leave! ~ SamayouTamashi

"What?" Falcon stuttered, getting himself propped up on his elbow and wincing as his weight shifted to press against his left ankle. "You're like eighteen!"

"Fifteen," he corrected for the hundredth time in his career, "but yes, I am undercover as Delta one for today."

Snake looked over at him curiously as he retrieved his throwing knives from Alex and Falcon. "How did you get here so fast? We were told six minutes, and you managed it in half."

"Heh," he ruffled a hand through his hair, some of the dark black dust coming off as he did. "To tell the truth, I've been here the whole time…just," he pointed at a window in the building across the street two blocks down, "working for the other side. The CIA and MI6 wanted some info on the new terrorist group," he hurriedly continued as Wolf swung his head around, "so-"

"MI6 sent you?" the unit leader assumed.

"Good guess, but no. I'm kinda on loan to the CIA right now for some assistance they gave me in Russia. MI6 sent Delta two as my backup."

At this, Eagle laughed. "On loan? They actually talk about their own agents that way?"

"Yeah, well it's not the worst part by far. So moving on with the story, I've been over there pretending to snipe at you and sorryboutthatheadshotWolf-"

"Hey!" The shot had grazed his head just enough to sting.

"-but once I realized it was you guys, I figured that with the information for the CIA already collected, I wouldn't need to hold up my cover. I rang up MI6, told them I was backing you up-to their immense irritation-and had Ben pulled in."

Falcon frowned. "Ben?"

"Fox," Wolf clarified for him. "Former SAS and the spot you are filling."

"Oh."

"And here I thought he had been promoted to a paper-pushing bureaucrat like the rest of them," Snake said.

Alex had to laugh. "Just don't tell him you said that, but he does wind up doing paperwork half the time anyway. Hates it, too."

"You get to work with him often then?"

"Of course. Senior field agents always work with the newbie until they're completely acclimated to the job."

A brief moment of awkward silence passed as Falcon stuttered over some kind of random words, having just realized that not only was the fifteen year-old in front of him working for MI6, but that he was also the highest ranked agent in the country.

"So how does Ben get along with that?" Eagle said with a grin for his former teammate's humorous situation.

He answered with a wry smile. "The real question should be how I can stand it. It's so difficult trying to go through his weapons training, work on languages with him and going through with missions all at the same time. At least he learns quicker than some of the others I've been stuck with."

Wolf just shook his head. "Senior field agent? That makes you fourth in the chain of command?"

"Third," he cheerfully amended, "with the highest clearance level they could pull out of their sleeves for me."

After puzzling it over, Snake groaned. "So if both Blunt and Jones are killed or retire, then you're in charge of the entire MI6 operation?"

"Yep."

"Oh god, that's horrifying to imagine."

"Ben agreed with you completely when he was informed, and I can imagine that it would be quite awkward for the Prime Minister to explain that to everyone."

"Wait, hold on a second," protested Falcon. "You're fifteen, so how the hell did MI6 even get around recruiting you?"

"Illegally."

"Yeah, but then…what?"

Alex sighed as he explained, "There are no documents anywhere that formalize my agreements and work with MI6. Until I turn eighteen, they have to use bribes and blackmail to have me do their work since I can't legally be paid for any services rendered. It's…confusing to say the least."

"No kidding."

"But back to the situation at hand," he pulled the Sig from an invisible pocket inside the caverns of his wrap, "I'd duck if I were you, Eagle." As the soldier dropped to the floor, he picked off the sniper he'd felt subconsciously as a tingle pricking the hairs on his neck. The Colt appeared just as mysteriously in his left hand. A couple shots were fired in his direction, hitting the wall behind him, only to be stopped as he returned the favor. While he was waiting for targets to aim for with the Colt, he was shooting instinctively with the Sig as he saw even the barest flickers of movement. Warily he continued searching for shadows until the silence and apparent absence of life within his range convinced him to put his firearms back at his side.

With all immediate threats neutralized, he moved into full battle mode. "Delta two is en route as of now and should be on location in another two minutes, give or take a little as I don't know the conditions. Until then, windows and vents need to be kept as far away as possible. Avoid," he shot twice at a flicker behind a curtain three blocks down, "wasting ammo unless the shots are fairly close-range. If you do need to shoot, aim for the head and backs of the thighs. Their bullet-proof armor only works where it can cover, and it goes around the neck on the lucky ones." Taking a breath, he shifted slightly away from the window on reflex. "I think that's it, but any questions?"

Eagle held a hand up like a schoolchild, bouncing up and down as Alex shrugged out of the heavy white wrap to reveal much more ninja-like attire. Instead of the traditional black, however, he had opted on snug fitting desert camouflage. Two separate grey belts wrapped around his hips, each fitted all the way around with 9mm rounds for hundreds of refills. The usual holster on his ankle was occupied by a new Glock 26 and strapped to his opposite leg was a long tactical combat knife, the latter recently used by the looks of the faint red sheen along the blade's tip.

"What is it?"

"Can you tell Fox to bring us some beers while he's at it, because we've been out here forever and it would be totally awesome to have one or two or a couple?"

Wolf pinched the top of his nose. Was it even possible for the guy to take anything seriously?

"I doubt it, but you never know," the spy slowly nodded, as if there were something he knew that K-Unit didn't-not that it would be unusual if he did. A set of three shots went off somewhere down the street, each immediately after the other. Alex tensed to fire but quickly relaxed after the final shot. "That's the signal." He left the way he came in, shouting back, "Go out the east entrance."

Snake and Wolf shared a look that spoke volumes, among them being, "Is he always like this?" and each hoisted one of Falcon's arms across their shoulders. He hissed at the flare of pain that ran through his ankle and up his spine, but managed to limp with them practically dragging him along. Eagle bounced happily after them, searching his deep pockets for more stun grenades as he covered their retreat with his Beretta.

While there was some difficulty involving Falcon in the stairwell, he survived-albeit painfully-to make it out the door Alex had directed them to.

Once there, the two spies waved at them from the roofless truck they had quite obviously stolen/hijacked/"borrowed" or whatever adjective the two were currently using to describe the illegal means by which they had come into possession of it.

Incredibly, it would also appear that Fox had managed to "find" a sub-machine gun, as evidenced by the Uzi lying conveniently next to him in the passenger seat.

"Hey! You guys look like you're enjoying the sun, but you know how us spies are with work and the like."

"Damn, your snarky comments have rubbed off on the padawan, Cub."

"Oh I was under the impression that it came with the package, but anything's possible with me."

Ben looked irked. "I'm still here, you know."

With a quick spin, Alex whipped around in shock to peer at his partner. "When did you get here?"

"Don't make me smack you."

"Only if you can catch me," he grinned back. The teenager turned back to K-Unit. "There should be enough room in the back for everyone, and Snake can sit up in front with Ben."

"Why me?" Snake demanded. "Falcon's the injured one."

"You would trust throwing knives over your gun, and I'm trusting everyone in the back to be able to shoot. Falcon's ankle won't prevent him from that."

"But…" He had a good point, the soldier admitted to himself. "All right, but if any of you gets hurt back there, don't come crying to me."

Fox clapped a hand on his shoulder when he hopped in the vacated passenger seat. "Alex has a perfect record so far. I doubt he'll let one little SAS unit ruin that."

"I get it, but I still get this wary feeling that something's not right here."

"The feeling's mutual, but I trust Alex to sort whatever it is out while I concentrate on driving us outta this hellhole."

From the back, the teen was the first to jump in. Wolf and Eagle were helping Falcon up as Alex was getting him the rest of the way. Suddenly his eyes went wide and he turned the safety off on the gun he'd never holstered. "Get down, now!" he screamed back at them, pulling Falcon in and pushing him to the ground.

It was only then that the bullets began to spray the ground, coming seemingly out of nowhere to send them scattering in all directions.

Ben and Snake had dropped down to the floor to protect themselves as the broken glass fell from the driver side window.

During a break in the fire, Alex rolled under the truck to come out on his partner's side. He crouched by the door and whispered to Ben, "Give me some cover," before sprinting to a far off point he had determined the shooter to be roughly located at.

"No, Alex!" he yelled back, before swearing under his breath and snatching the Uzi from where he'd stashed it. "Wolf, Eagle! Get your butts in the back this second before I leave you! Snake, switch me seats and watch for that glass."

Snake took over the driving as Ben clicked off the safety on his sub-machine gun and put the only surviving window out of its misery with the butt of the Uzi. "Follow him, but leave me a couple meters to work with."

Eagle had just scrambled into the back, landing haphazardly on top of Wolf before rolling off, when Snake took the truck from zero to sixty in seconds. Needless to say that Eagle let out a decidedly girly shriek as he gripped the sides of the back to hold on for dear life. Moments later however, he could be heard over the engine yelling, "Faster, faster!" At least he acclimates quickly, Wolf sighed.

Ben was giving their driver directions as he leaned out the window. When Alex came into view, running as he tried getting the sniper into his own shooting range, he fired a full round directly into the sand five meters in front of the teen. Immediately, sand and dust came up to envelope him.

"What the hell was that?" Wolf demanded from the back, having not been able to hear as he gave the details of the plan to Snake.

"You can't run at a sniper without cover," he explained, yelling to be heard over the thrum of the engine. "Even as a moving target, that's suicide. So when ever he reappears, I shoot in front of Alex to give him the advantage. See," Ben pointed out to the now-empty expanse of desert. "Snake is going to keep us near the buildings where it's harder to get a good shot out."

From out of nowhere, Alex was suddenly visible again. Now that he had evidently found the target, he was taking shots with his Sig. With the sniper still holding his own fire, Ben released another burst of cover.

The sounds of fire stopped entirely from both sides as the dust took its time clearing. When it finally did, Alex had already taken the advantage and sprinted until the gleam of silver in the sun gave him a spot to aim for. He stopped to get off a clean shot and the invisible sniper took the same opportunity. Two shots resounded simultaneously, and none followed.

Ben rammed his door open and ran across the field, already knowing that Alex wouldn't miss the shot but worried that the sniper might have given him one in return. He skidded to a halt as he felt a hand grab his foot. "Help me get up," the teen asked from where he was sprawled, and his partner was happy to oblige him. Alex swayed lightly on his feet, holding one side of his head as Ben held him steady. "Ahh, I'm really dizzy, but I got 'im, Ben."

"Yeah, I know you did. Now let's see if Snake can take a look at you."

"Ben, 'm fine. He jus' got a lucky…luc…"

Seeing the thin line of blood that trickled out from beneath Alex's hand on his head, he ignored his stuttering and picked the teenager up in a bridal-style carry. Taking note in the back of his mind that he was much too light for his age and height, he carried him quickly back to the truck. "Snake, give me some help! Wolf, get the engine going and Eagle, make sure no one's on our tail."

Wolf switched spots with Snake, who got out to help Ben lift Alex into the back. "Is he-"

"He got a lucky shot off is all," Alex mumbled from where Snake propped him up.

"Lucky shot, nothing. You must've turned reflexively just as the bullet hit you. The lucky one was you, in this case. It scraped right past your temple, possibly giving you a minor concussion from the sudden force of impact." He turned to speak to Ben, "Don't let him fall asleep. It could make the concussion worse."

"I don' have a concuss…con…"

"Mmhmm. Obviously." Ben answered Snake, "I'll keep him up. Tell Wolf to go north of here for the base. We have a chopper waiting for us to get back and from there I'm going to need to contact MI6. Seeing as how this mission was completely unauthorized, it should be fun trying to convince them not to kill the two of us…well me at the very least."

"Unauthorized?" Wolf spoke up from the front, but keeping his eyes carefully on the road in front of him. "Didn't MI6 and the CIA send you guys here?"

Ben chuckled. "That's what he told you, was it? Sneaky little bastard." He shifted as Alex let his head fall comfortably against his partner's shoulder. "We heard you guys were being shipped into the area, and Alex had the brilliant idea to do some inside work in case you needed backup. However he's on loan to the CIA for the next two months, so through a couple loopholes and multiple accounts of blackmail-that even I have to be impressed by-he got the mission approved through them.

"MI6 wasn't so happy, however, about letting him into a war zone." He ruffled Alex's hair as he recalled the shocking conversation (a.k.a. yelling match) over the phone between the head of MI6 and his partner. "Somehow, he convinced Blunt to let me accompany him at a distance in case things went sour. I'm kind of praying that I'll even have a job by tomorrow morning. They'd never let Alex go, but I'm not nearly as important."

"He did all that for us?" Wolf asked softly. "Why?"

"I always repay my debts," Alex answered just as quietly, "especially the important ones."

A/N: Did you like it? Somehow, this story just came out as being shorter than Safehouse. I'll post a sequel the same way as I did for Safehouse, but I don't know how long it will take to get it posted.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This huge ice storm is coming through and knocking down power lines as it gets heavier. In the next three hours, all electricity will likely be down in my area, so both my twin (NightmareWorld) and I are shutting everything down before it reaches us. When the power comes back up, we'll begin posting again. We're putting this notice on our stories so that you wonderful people don't think we died or something.

Thanks so much for the reviews, and I'll have the sequel up ASAP! If you have any other ideas for me to write on, send me a PM and I'll look it over. Thanks again for understanding. ~ SamayouTamashi