"You think this is a good idea Wolf?"
Wolf turned his head to face Snake directly, who had asked the question and looked unsure. Torn.
"I think it's a crazy idea. But they're family in a way, and we're soldiers. Protecting people is our responsibility." The words had formed on his lips as he spoke, because in his head, he too was anxious and unsure.
The medic bit his bottom lip, a sign of indecision. "None of us are exactly kid people, except maybe Eagle. We're…different."
"So are they Snake, more so than us," Fox intercepted. For the past few hours, he'd been staring out of the window watching the storm clouds darken, the rainfall and far below, the sea diving and twisting.
Though before it had obviously never crossed their minds, the reason the weather was so unsettled was probably because of the God who controlled it. That certainly was a different way or perceiving the world.
"It's just a weird idea that," he lowered his voice so only his team could hear, "we're related to Gods. And so are they. And hundreds of people around the world."
"Definitely weird." Eagle agreed, making them all jump slightly, having been on their guard. They'd thought Eagle had fallen asleep. Seconds following the words, they heard a light snore, causing them all to laugh. It was moment like that that kept their minds in the real world, away from the wars and loss of their lives. It was hope.
BB
To say it had been a shock to J-unit when a giant burning (literally) red minivan parked beside their hut was a tad of an understatement. Jaguar, who had been half asleep during their half an hour break, had been roughly awakened by his teammates as they did wonderful guppy expressions, staring in horror out the window. "Ah! It's the apocalypse! Hide!" Ladybird cried, diving underneath his leaders bed.
Jaguar rolled his eyes as he picked himself up quickly, heading for the window.
"What the hell is that?" Bull exclaimed, allowing for Jag to see out the window. The once blinding light was fast fading. It had been like the sun had descended on them, but now all in its place was… a minivan?
The windows were tinted which made it near impossible for the unit to see who was inside, so they all piled out of the hut and ran to stand in front of it, making themselves first in a quickly gathering crowd of soldiers. Many were preparing to fight, bringing out the odd weapon they kept on them at all times. What was troubling was how this bright red minivan had just driven right into a highly secure Special Service Military camp unnoticed.
The soldiers could see movement inside the van, and it looked like there were more than a few people in the van, all rather small looking.
The drivers' door opened first. As soon as one orange sneaker hit the floor there were guns trained on him. The targets' eyes widened in surprise and he raised his arms up in surrender as he closed his door, but as soon as he faced them the soldiers saw that the young man was nothing more than amused by the opposition.
"Oh hey," he greeted, flashing a smile. Literally flashing.
"Who are you?" Jaguar asked, frowning.
"Names Apollo. But you can call me…" he paused, "No, no; call me Apollo." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his shorts and looked back warningly at the van before taking a few steps forward. This of course only made the soldiers more cautious.
"Take one more step and we have authorization to shoot. What are you doing here?" Another unit leader, Horse warned. Apollo seemed to deliberate for a second, pausing on the tip of his foot before deciding it was probably better not to move. The only reason the God could find was that the last thing he could be bothered to do as take a bullet, or several, out of him considering that his father had specifically told him not to attract attention to himself. Oops.
"Well…"
"Soldiers; withdraw!"
All soldiers instantly drew back their weapons and stood to attention as the Sergeant strolled through the center of the crowd, where his soldiers dived out of the way in their haste to not be under the sergeant's foot. Directly behind the Sergeant, K-unit walked in line, looking almost in awe at the man who claimed to be Apollo, much to the confusion of the rest of the camp.
"Your name?" he addressed Apollo from his place of only a meter from the God.
"Apollo."
His forehead creased into a frown as he looked over the trespasser before him, but he didn't look shocked, just a bit miffed.
"Sir, he broke into the camp undetected; he's a threat-"
"All soldiers report for scheduled duty." He ordered, not breaking eye contact with the intruder, maintaining eye contact to look in control in front of his soldiers, but knowing full well that Apollo had to deal with the likes of Zeus, so his stare meant little. But the soldiers didn't know that.
"But sir - " Horse argued, only to be interrupted.
"Mess duty for a week for anyone standing here in 30 seconds. Now go!" This time, there was no argument as the men scattered at a run in all directions, with the exception of K-unit.
"Cameron, hi." Apollo stepped forward and shook hands with the Sergeant, who smiled briefly and returned the shake.
"You guys know each other?" Fox asked incredulously.
"Heck yeah; Cameron's one of my favorite demigod children in the last 50 years; that drakon you slayed in 89? That was awesome kid!" Apollo grinned, a certain admiration in his eyes. "You can't tell any of my other kids, if you see them, you know …" he rubbed his hand sheepishly behind his neck nervously, and then glanced back at the van. Which was shaking.
"You still picked Lisa over me for that quest." The sergeant grumbled as they ran over to the shaking van. Apollo threw open the door and jumped back in surprise as a small figure flew out the bus, past him and into Wolf's shocked arms. There was a shocked moment of silence as the small, wide-eyed, curly haired boy grinned.
"Hi; I'm Leo."
"Wolf." The unit leader growled, glaring at the still smiling boy in his arms. He maintained the glare as he dropped the boy to the floor, ignoring the "hey!" from the skinny kid.
The unit stood in stunned silence whilst the Sergeant rolled his eyes and muttered, "Young demigods," with a familiar distaste. The other demi-gods piled out at Apollo's insistence of them 'getting out his sports car,' much to the bafflement of K-unit, but it soon became clear when he changed it into a hot red Maserati spyder.
One demigod stepped forward with confidence and planted herself right in front of the unit and the sergeant. She had electric blue eyes, freckled skin and long jet-black hair.
"I'm Thalia Grace, Daughter of Zeus." Her voice was loud and confidant, and K-unit were a little too scared to not listen. She turned around to point to the other demigods. "The blonde is Annabeth Chase, she's a daughter of Athena and really smart but if you say otherwise she'll gut you." Fox gulped; this was what children of Athena were normally like? Annabeth's grey eyes were sharp and never seemed to miss a thing as she analyzed everything around her.
"That's Leo Valdez, the one your buddy just dropped, and he's a son of Hephaestus, so watch your metal … and your wallets." The wide grin seemed to glow.
"The one with the really green eyes is my cousin Percy Jackson; he's a son of Poseidon so he can do water stuff. He also enjoys pi-" Apollo coughed, sending her a warning look like he had experienced her whining before.
"The pretty one," she ignored the 'hey!' "Is Piper McLean, she's a daughter of Aphrodite but beauty is the least of her worries; she never misses a target. And the last one's my cousin Nico Di Angelo. His dad's Hades, you know God of the Underworld so he's kind of dark but he's cute." She ruffled his messy black hair fondly, much to his annoyance.
"Hi…" Wolf said weekly, intimidated by her confident aura. His unit muffled laughs at his slight blush. He coughed; "My name's Wolf, Leader of K-unit…and Grandson of Ares."
He pointed to Eagle, "that tall idiot with the blue eyes is Eagle and he's a Grandson of Hermes, and also our weapon specialist and sharpshooter."
He moved onto Snake; "That's K-unit's medic, Snake, and he's a Grandson of Apollo," everyone's eyes flicked to Apollo and then back to the medic, who was trying his best to not be even slightly offended by the fact that Apollo had not addressed him.
"And that's Fox. He's our communication and languages specialist, and Grandson of Athena." He waved, seeing that Annabeth was watching him carefully.
There was a pause as the groups has a stare off, before Eagle broke it; "I thought there were supposed to be 7?"
Somewhere in Wales
In Wales, unsurprisingly, it was raining. The sun had set not two hours before and yet it was close to, if not, below zero degrees outside. Eerily, the stars and even the moon were hidden behind the storm clouds, giving a pitch-black darkness, as there were no settlements for miles. On the thin, isolated country roads, not a single street lamp was in sight.
The sleek, black BMW x1 tore through the winding country roads as rain lashed at the windows, stronger than the force of the desperate wind screen wipers that were fighting it. Mud and water sprayed in every direction as the car effortlessly rode through every mound, dip and pothole. The bumpy landscape was treacherous, yet the suspension blanketed the feelings for the cars inhabitants.
Behind tinted windows, there was a tension thick enough to be visible to the eye. There were 5 people in the car, 4 men and a boy. The men were all wearing black suits and ties, but discreet bulges on their upper body suggested they were also wearing bulletproof vests. In the center seat of the black row, a small figure slept, thin body leaning on the agent beside him. The men's employers had thought it best to drug the 7 year old to sleep for the long and possibly distressing journey. A mop of honey blonde hair curtained his eyelids, but one agent was watching him like a hawk to catch every movement the child made.
"Jones, he's stirring," the man said. The man, sitting in shotgun that replied was probably Jones.
"Shit. We've still got 40 minutes till arrival. Blunt said they' given him enough!" he growled.
"Well, he didn't," the other backseat agent snapped.
"Shut it Stevens, I can freaking see that! Emerson, can you go any faster?" he addressed the driver, who was greatly concentrating on the road before him as they sped at well over 100 miles per hour.
"Technically, but in these conditions it could be treacherous."
Jones nodded, turning back to the original speaker, "Clark; status update?"
"Eyelids fluttering, body movement and twitching of hand and fingers. I say we've got 5 minutes max." Jones frowned.
Agent George Stevens sat silently as he stared furiously at the hi-tech screen before his eyes. It was a radar designed by Smithers that would pick up any unknown attackers. So far, nothing had occurred.
That was, until now.
"Emerson, drive as fast as you can; we're being chased by a moving object and it's approaching at a speed well over 150mph."
The car inched forward, but Emerson was waiting for the permission of the assigned team leader. "Let me see!" Jones shouted, grabbing and yanking the tablet away. It only took him seconds to conclude: "Emerson, drive. Now!"
Then, a roar shook the car, stunning the agents into silence and causing the 7 year old to cry out, brown eyes wide open. He clung to Clark, Emerson grimacing in satisfaction as the speed hit 250mph. The driver was more than proud of this modified BMW.
"Shh Alex, it's okay."
