C O Potter
Year Five
Chapter 37
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The eleven of them walked into the Secret Intelligence Service building and took seats in the atrium as they waited for Sean McMillian. They talked softly amongst themselves as they looked around to see if they would see a super spy, or an assassin, licensed to kill. Soon enough McMillian came and collected the lot of them, leading them to a conference room, to talk for a few minutes.
Addressing the six new members of their group, he asked. "Are you ready to go?"
This is what they had been training for since Christmas, and they all responded enthusiastically.
After a little more talking, he led them down and out the back of the building, to a couple of blacked out Ford vans, to take them to meet the unit, and run the obstacle course. Hermione and Ced rode in one van while Cici, Vic, and Harry rode in the other van. One couple and one single rode in each vehicle. This way they could communicate between the two vans easily. A long while later, the vans pulled up behind the same training facility they had used for Ced and his wives. The group got out of the vans and moved quickly into the gymnasium. Inside they found sergeants Shaw and Winkelmann with SGM Richardson.
"More children!" Richardson grumbled.
Winkelmann and Shaw barely nodded their heads in acknowledgement of Ced, Vic, and Cici.
"Well, let's get this circus, out to the confidence course and see if these kids can at least do that!" Richardson said sourly.
The other teens clustered around the happy threesome.
"Is he always this pleasant?" asked Angel softly.
"Only when he's in a good mood," Vic told her humorously.
The group followed Richardson and McMillian out the side doors of the building, as they made their way to the confidence course. The teens were relieved to see it was just like the one they had been training on every chance they got.
"I'll have sergeant Shaw show you how to do each of the different obstacles. Once he is finished, then you will be required to complete each of the obstacles and the 6.5 kilometres run back to the starting line here, in less than one hour! Are there any questions?" SGM Richardson asked them loudly.
"Do you want us to run the course in our dress clothes?" George asked curiously.
All of the girls were wearing dresses or skirts, and heels.
The pain on SGM Richardson's face, was evident for all to see at George's question. But the SGM couldn't deny the validity of his question. "No, son, I do not expect you kids to do the confidence course in your Sunday best. We will get you some uniforms to wear."
He looked around for Winkelmann, "Winkelmann, get these civilians some clothes!" he barked at him.
"Yes! SGM!" Winkelmann told him loudly.
"The lot of you! Follow me!" Winkelmann told them as he turned, to lead them to the quartermaster's office.
Thirty minutes later, they were in the guest quarters changing clothes.
Cici and Vic were with the other girls, "You can do real low-level magic to make things fit better, and put the spell on your bra because the bras they give you suck." Cici told them in a hushed voice.
Ced was with the guys telling them the same kind of things.
They all met with Shaw and Winkelmann in the squad bay when they had finished getting changed. With SGM Richardson not there yet, Winkelmann and Shaw got a chance to catch up with the three that they had worked with a couple of times. Shortly afterwards, Richardson came to collect them, and get them back over to the confidence course, to make sure none of them cheated.
With Winkelmann and Shaw at the top of the tower, Richardson blew his whistle and started his stopwatch. They were off to the races. With Ced, Cici, and Vic running the course with them the other teens felt they could beat their best times. They rappelled down the side of the tower in one long slide, they freed themselves of the harness, and then they turned and ran for the next obstacle. Thirty-six minutes later they were crossing the finish line. Much to the chagrin of the SGM.
"Humph," he grunted. "Follow me," he told them roughly. And he led them back into the training facility.
As the last of them finished walking into the training facility, they could see that six sets of mats had been placed on the floor, three on each side of the room.
"You will each be tested in unarmed combat! The six newcomers will each take a mat!" he commanded.
After they had spread out.
"I have six volunteers to test each of you!" he told them loudly. And six combat veterans walked into the training facility stripping off their outer shirts, so they were wearing just t-shirts. Each man squared off against one teen. "The rules are simple, whoever gets their opponent to submit first, wins."
At the sound of his whistle, the opponents started grappling with each other. The girls, trained by Cici and Vic used the techniques they had learned in fighting larger opponents. For the guys, they used similar methods, also. The girls each let their opponents get overconfident, and when the soldiers thought that they had the girls pinned, the girls were able to use what they had learned, and before the guys had it figured out, they were getting choked unconscious. The viciousness that Amber and Julia showed was worthy of Vic or Cici. They could even hear snarls of rage as the two girls choked the guys, mercilessly. Rose and Angel beat their opponents just after Amber and Julia rolled theirs off of them. Rose and Angel's opponents were next. Hermione was over checking on each of the soldier's health. Fred was the next to subdue his opponent using a different choke hold, while George was still exchanging bare-knuckle punches with his opponent. Then out of nowhere, George kicked the soldier in his knee, shattering it, and dropping the man to the mat, a hard kick to the face finished the task.
Cici and Vic rushed to the injured soldier to heal him as quickly as possible, while Hermione tended to George's wounds.
The sour look on SGM Richardson's face said it all. "The next task will be on knife fighting. You have fifteen minutes to get ready."
Each of the teens took a Vitamix potion, and it should start kicking in just before they would start their next test. After the teens took their mats, six fresh volunteers entered the room for the knife fighting test.
"The object of this test is to get your opponent to submit without killing them! You have fifteen minutes! Begin!" he commanded loudly.
George was in a foul mood and pumped up on Vitamix potion. He and his new opponent exchanged punches, kicks, jabs, and knife swings. George's opponent made a jab at him, and he caught the soldier's arm with his free hand and sliced him across his upper arm cutting him to the bone, rendering the arm useless, the knife fell to the mat. He raised his one good arm in surrender. Hermione rushed over to heal the soldier quickly. With a blood replenishing potion and a Vitamix, Harry helped the man to the sidelines to watch the others fight it out.
With Julia's opponent ready to deal a death blow to the girl on the mat in a defensive position, he drew back and started his swing, Julia moved inside of his swing arc and sliced the soldier up his right inner thigh causing him to stumble and fall. She quickly kicked the knife out of his reach, and he surrendered to her. Cici and Hermione rushed over to start healing the soldier's leg. Cici pulled another blood replenishing potion out, she lifted his head and helped him drink the potion. When Hermione was done treating his leg, Cici gave him a Vitamix potion to help him get his energy back. He rolled over and got to his feet on his own.
As Julia's opponent was walking to the sidelines, Rose had slid between her opponent's legs and cut him on both hamstring muscles as she passed through, causing him to land on top of her, she got her knife hand free and put the knife to his throat, he raised his hands in defeat. Vic was the first on the scene to levitate him off of Rose and start healing him while Hermione was treating Fred's opponent. Cici was the first on the scene for Amber's opponent that had been stabbed in the lung, and Angel's opponent was laying on top of her with her legs wrapped around his waist, an arm around his chest, and her knife to his throat. Ced went to help Rose's opponent to his feet and give him a Vitamix potion. Vic went over to check on Angel's opponent, he had just minor cuts and bruises. Vic healed both Angel and her opponent, she gave a Vitamix to the soldier before he went to the sidelines. Harry and Ced both helped Amber's opponent to his feet and down both a blood replenishing potion and a Vitamix.
All three tasks had been completed successfully, much to the irritation of SGM Richardson. "Congratulations. Shaw, introduce them to the rest of the unit." Was all he said as he turned and left the building in a sour mood.
"What a sourpuss," Fred mumbled.
Ced leaned closer to him. "He's the only one that's that way." He told him just above a whisper.
A few minutes later, Shaw came walking back in with a large group of soldiers. Winkelmann had the teens form a straight line, while Shaw had the soldiers come through in a single file to shake their hands.
"Oh, did you see that one?" Rose asked Angel. "He's cute!"
"Did you see that other one? He's cute too!" Angel told her, motioning with her head in the direction of the guy she liked.
McMillian pulled his group aside, "They want you to start training tonight." He told them.
"Will this be at the same base that we did our training at?" Ced asked him.
"Yes, we'll drive you over there in a few minutes. They still need an hour to get ready. Richardson wasn't expecting for the new people to pass all of the tests."
"He expected us to fail?" Amber asked amazed.
"Yes, don't read too much into it, he expects everybody to fail," McMillian told her.
Sean walked back over to Winkelmann, and they talked for a couple of minutes. Then he came back to the kids.
"I told Winkelmann that we were leaving and that he could meet you at the secure facility."
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At the secure facility, McMillian showed everyone around the base. He showed the newcomers to their barracks, the four girls would be sharing two rooms, the two boys would be sharing another room, while Ced and his wives would get the same room they had used before. The soldiers would get the entire floor above them. As the group of soldiers arrived, McMillian moved the kids inside the building to reduce their exposure to other people. He explained to them that even though everyone had signed the blood contract, it was just better to reduce the chances of someone talking to the wrong person.
Shaw and Winkelmann sent their guys upstairs to find a bed and get unpacked. As they filed past, nine of them dropped off a duffle bag in front of the teenagers.
"McMillian rushed you out of there so fast that we had to collect your duffle bags for you," Shaw told the kids. "I'm not sure whose is whose."
"Thank you." Each of the kids told him.
"We'll figure it out," Ced told him.
"Why don't you kids grab a duffle bag and head to your rooms. You can figure it out there." Harry told them.
As the kids headed for their rooms, Harry told Ced. "We're going to go home." The parents and the kids exchanged hugs, and then Hermione and Harry headed for the hidden room to apparate home.
Each of them hefted a duffle bag and headed for a room. As they started going through the duffle bags, it was pretty quickly that they discovered the sex that the bag was intended for. The piece of paper that had the intended owners name had been thrown aside as they dug in. Ced walked in and found Angel modelling either Fred's or George's boxers.
"This is your duffle." He told her handing her the piece of paper with her name on it.
"There's a name on them?" she asked in shock.
"Yeah, it was folded up in the side pocket with the window in it." He told her. He didn't see it at first. It was Cici that discovered the clear pocket.
Angel and Rose both laid their bags over to find the pocket.
"This one's Fred's," Angel said.
"This one's Amber's," Rose said as she started stuffing everything back into the bag.
After finding George modelling Vic's bra's, the group of friends got together and exchanged duffle bags.
"Remember, you have to put everything away by hand," Ced told them. "No magic!"
About a half hour later, Winkelmann knocked on Ced's door.
"Come in!" a female's voice told him.
He opened the door to find the kids finishing putting their stuff away. "Hey, let's go get some chow! It's lunchtime, and my guys are getting hungry." He told them.
"Okay, let me tell the others," Vic told him, as she put what she was holding down on the bed. "It's good seeing you again!"
"It's good seeing all of you too."
Vic left to tell Rose and Angel.
"Hi!" Cici said as she went to tell Julia and Amber.
"How's it going?" Ced shook his hand as he headed for George and Fred.
With the nine of them grouped behind Winkelmann, he led them to the squad bay to collect some more of his troops. They picked up the rest of them, and they formed a loose column of troops, four across, as they walked to the mess hall.
Ced, Cici, and Vic explained to the others that everyone that they would have contact with, had all signed a blood contract, but that did not give them permission to discuss details about their mission or who they were. "You can exchange pleasantries, you can talk about the weather, but you cannot talk about why we are here." The newcomers watched as the soldiers formed a single file line. They each picked up a plastic tray, they picked up a fork, knife, and a spoon. Then they would tell the man behind the counter with the glass on it what they wanted from the selection provided. He would then pass the plate to the next cook in line. When the plate was full, that cook would hand the plate to the soldier, and the next cook would start on a smaller plate for what was left to choose from. The desserts were on a rack at the end of the serving line. Then they would pick up the tray and either move to the drink stand or carry it to a table and return for a drink. With only thirty-six of them, it went quickly.
Shaw motioned for them to sit with him and Winkelmann at the largest table in the chow hall. And they still stared in amazement as Ced seated each of his wives. They didn't know for sure that Vic and Cici were his wives, but they had begun to suspect it from the first mission. They were just too well trained to ask. Need to know, kind of training.
"You girls need to remember that your hair can't touch the collar of your shirts." Winkelmann started to inform them.
"Like this?" Amber asked as she waved her hand and all of the lights in the chow hall flickered. "Oops! Sorry!" she said sheepishly.
"Yes, but you have to do it without magic," Shaw told her.
As they sat there eating, a couple of the other troops came over to join them for some light conversation. Then as they were just about finished. Winkelmann informed them that after lunch, they would have primary parachute training for the rest of the afternoon. The next morning, they would have free rappelling training. It would go this way until next week when they should get their five jumps in. After that, they would get their oxygen equipment training. With a successful high altitude jump, they would head out, for in-country training with the brooms, by the end of next week.
Rose eventually learned the name of the guy that she thought was cute, his name was Oscar Ozona. They started talking more and more, he would even sit at the table with them.
Angel learned that the guy she liked, they called him Davie Davis, even though his name was Daniel. It just kind of stuck he told her. She learned that he was the unit medic.
After almost two weeks of training and their high altitude jump under their belt, the group found themselves with a down day.
As the group of magicals were sitting on the sidelines watching the soldiers play an impromptu game of rugby, the boys were invited to join in and play for a while. The game got a little rough when a crack was heard, and a yelp of pain came from one of the soldiers.
Cici and Vic had to push their way through the circle of guys looking at the guy on the ground.
"Give me some room!" Vic said loudly in a commanding voice.
Cici turned and looked at the guys that had barely moved. "Back up! Give us some room!" she told them again in an authoritative voice.
Vic had started running a mid-level diagnostic on the man's arm and found where the break had occurred. Cici saw it and nodded as she ejected her wand and began healing the broken arm. Several minutes later the guy was flexing his arm and smiling.
"It's as good as new!" he said excitedly, "And there's no pain! Now which one of you buggers broke my arm?" he asked with a devilish grin on his face.
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At oh dark hundred the next morning, found them boarding the transport plane headed for a friendly country in Africa. The soldiers boarded the aircraft after the wizarding kids were driven on in the blacked-out vans. Shaw took Ced and his wives up to the front of the cargo hold to show him some crates that had arrived the night before. Ced broke the seal on the topmost container and opened it to find three large brooms, with four seats and a cargo compartment underneath. He found a piece of parchment stuck to the broom in the centre.
Dear son,
Here are nine new brooms that we had custom built while you were in training. These are modified Cleansweep MPB-4 HC brooms. The HC stands for Heavy Contractor. As you have probably noticed already these are larger than the brooms you and the girls used the first time. They all have the special modification that was done to the first brooms that you used. These also have the optional seats to make them that much more comfortable for you and your passengers. The under-broom storage is large enough to hold all of the equipment that they may bring with them.
Stay safe and Constant Vigilance!
Love,
Dad
Winkelmann came forward and looked the brooms over quickly. Then he told them that they needed to take their seats, the plane was getting ready for takeoff. They could check them out more in the air or when they got to their destination.
"How long is the flight?" Ced asked him as they walked to the other side of the vans.
"About fourteen hours or so is what I was told." He knew that Ced hated to fly and he wasn't one to rub it in.
Ced and his wives strapped themselves in and waited. As they sat there, they held hands and waited for the inevitable sensation of sliding sideways meaning that they were no longer in contact with the ground. With the earplugs in his ears, he checked on his friends, then he closed his eyes and willed himself to sleep. It was the way he had figured out how to make the time go faster. He woke up a few hours later with Cici and Vic kissing him awake.
"I wish that I could get woken up like that!" one of the soldiers said teasingly.
"Find yourself a good woman, and your wish just may come true, Johnson!" Cici told him sarcastically.
Johnson took the ribbing good-naturedly and smiled back at her.
Their brown box lunch consisted of a plain sandwich with condiments in little plastic bags, a bag of crisps, and a can of soda. They could get a plastic bottle of water if they wanted something else to drink.
After lunch, a trip to wait in line for the loo, Ced willed himself back to sleep. For dinner, the same routine happened. But instead of going back to sleep, he got the other teens to help him with the new brooms. He wanted the owner's manuals from the brooms so they could read them and make their time productive.
After a long day of flying, the lights in the cargo hold turned red, signifying that they would be landing soon. Shortly afterwards, the whirring and banging noises Ced associated with landing started to happen, another slip sideways and then the thump and the jerk of the plane hitting the ground, the roar of the engines as the plane slowed down to turn off the runway told him they were at their destination. Shaw and Winkelmann ushered the teens into the vans to wait for the loading ramp to open, they were in Africa. The loading ramp opened, the vans started, and they backed out into the African night. With the lights out, they drove into a hanger that had the lights turned off also.
An hour later found the teens doubled up carrying the shipping crates into their rooms for the night. Winkelmann helped Ced carry the fifth crate to his room.
"Are we running in the morning? Or are we moving to a more secretive base?" Ced asked once they had set the crate down.
"We're going to be moving to a more secure facility tomorrow before breakfast," Winkelmann told him.
"Okay, I'll inform the others."
"Okay, I'll see you in the morning."
"Thanks for the help."
"Night."
"Night."
Ced and his wives gathered the others into their room.
"Winkelmann just told me that we will be moving again early tomorrow, before breakfast."
"Why?" asked Fred.
"We will be moving to a more secure facility. I think that there is where we'll practice with the brooms and stuff like that."
"Where are we?" asked Amber.
"I don't know, and I didn't ask either." He told her gently.
"We want to give you what's in the last two crates that we brought in," Vic told them.
Cici started handing out the dragon scale body armour.
"This is the armour that Ced was wearing when he got shot," Cici told them. "It saved his life."
"Amber, why don't you go ahead and put yours on," Ced told her.
George helped her slip into her body armour, then she pulled the boots on, then the gloves, and lastly, she pulled on the balaclava.
"Wow! You can hardly see her!" Rose exclaimed.
"Wait until she speaks!" Vic told her excitedly.
"Fred, if you keep sneaking into Julia's bed at night, you're going to get all of us in trouble!" Amber told him.
Ced's head snapped around to look at Fred. Cici and Vic's heads snapped around to look at Julia.
"Are you on the potion?" Cici asked her directly.
"It's shite like that, that will cost us this mission!" Ced scolded him.
Fred didn't know who he was more afraid of, Ced or the voice that the suit gave Amber.
"We're not doing anything!" Fred told the group.
"Well, are you on the potion?" Vic asked Julia again.
"No! We're not there yet." She told them, embarrassed at all of the negative attention she was receiving. "We just sleep together. That's all."
Now the three of them were looking at Fred. "We just sleep together, it helps with her dreams." He told them, sorry that he had just revealed one of her secrets.
Now they were all looking at Julia again.
"Do you have bad dreams?" Vic asked her, kindly.
"Yes, they've come back." She looked up into her eyes.
"Do you want some help locking them away again?" Vic asked her.
"Could you please? I'm sorry to ask." Julia looked away, ashamed that she wasn't as strong as Vic or Cici.
"There's nothing to be ashamed of, we've all needed a little help from our friends," Vic told her. "Here, let's go to your room so we can have a little privacy." She told her as she led her to the door.
They sat on Julia's bunk, shoes off, legs crossed and Vic was holding her hands. Julia closed her eyes, then she could feel Vic moving around in her head. Julia gave her permission to lock away the bad memories behind a door. Julia pulled forward a memory that had haunted her for many years. It was the one where her father had traded her, with papers, in exchange for the relief of his gambling debts, it was the memory that made her feel like she was not worthy of being loved, that she was just a thing, like a galleon was a thing. Vic saw that she and Fred hadn't had sex yet, Fred wasn't even pushing for it, he was moving at her pace, and not trying to go faster. Vic let her know that she was happy for her and that she was glad that she and Fred had found each other. Then she pulled out of her mind.
The next morning, before sunrise, the unit moved to a more secure facility about ten kilometres from the air force base where they had landed. Winkelmann wanted the move to happen while it was still dark. They loaded the shipping crates into the back of one of the big military trucks the soldiers would be riding in, and the teens got into their vans. An hour of bumpy roads later, they were free of the vans. Shaw showed them to their tents, they decided that the shipping containers would be kept in Ced's tent because it was the largest. The teenagers had their own shower facilities, but they would have to share amongst themselves.
After a light breakfast, the teens pulled out the new brooms and took them for their first flight. They practised engaging the aerodynamic shield, disillusioning themselves, and in general getting used to a much larger and heavier broom. After lunch, they would start teaching the soldiers how to ride on a broom, then they would be giving the soldiers rides so they could get used to flying on the brooms. The next day, they started loading the brooms to capacity, three soldiers and all of their gear, so the teens could get used to flying them while they were fully loaded and heavy. All of the extra weight really affected the handling of the brooms. After that, they would need to practice flying them out of the back of the C-17 at altitude. They still had about a week of practice before they would be ready for the mission. The good thing was, at this remote camp, after their morning physical fitness training with the troops, the kids could practice duelling again. The base ran on generators that were turned on and off, and during the off times, the teens could use as much magic as they wanted. Most of the soldiers were duly impressed with the magical skills of the teenagers. Watching them conjure walls out of thin air and their opponents blowing them up as fast as they could be conjured. Watching how the kids would cast and move, never staying in the same place, throwing up decoys, always on the move, cast and move. On some of the mornings when the generators were running, some of the soldiers would spar with them in hand to hand combat. They were really impressed at how good the girls were at defending themselves. The girls for their part enjoyed having someone other than their usual sparring partners to practice against. The guys enjoyed having several larger opponents to practice against, also.
It was decided that the first practice flight out of the aircraft would be just the teens on the brooms so they could get used to the turbulence and the sensation of flying out of the back of the aircraft. Plus they would get a little practice on the timing of the aerodynamic shield. The second time they practised, it was with the troops and all of their gear on the brooms and flying in vics of three. The third practice, which was to be the high-altitude practice with the oxygen equipment, was scrubbed when they received updated intelligence that the terrorists were planning on moving the girls in the next couple of days.
The night before the mission, Ced pulled all of their friends into their tent. They all sat down and started practising their occlumency, they needed to relax, and a combination of occlumency and meditation helped them. After an hour of meditation, Ced pulled out the special wizarding long underwear. Cici explained to them that it was super slick, so if they had to fight in it that their opponents wouldn't be able to get a good grip on them. She also told them how it would keep them warm when they were at high altitudes like they would be tomorrow, and that it would help keep them cool when they were down on the ground and in the heat. They handed all of them the long underwear and their wizarding body armour for the next morning. Vic told them to put the body armour in their backpacks so they would have it in the aircraft.
"Relax, clear your minds and get some rest, 02:00 is going to come early," Ced told them. Now, he just had to practice what he was teaching them.
Ced, Vic, and Cici lay in bed, naked to the waist, Ced had done a good job of clearing his mind, they discussed the performance of their friends. They all felt, they had all done a superior job in flying the brooms with the troops on them. It was a lot of extra weight that none of them was used to.
02:00 rolled around right early the next morning. Ced got up and put a t-shirt on before he headed to the loo. As he entered the restroom, he found Angel starting to exit one of the stalls.
"Sorry." He said tiredly.
"It's okay." She told him with a yawn.
Cici and Vic both heard the conversation Ced had with Angel, so they pulled one of Ced's t-shirts on before they left their tent.
"Morning Angel," Cici said as she entered the restroom.
As Ced exited the loo, Rose was entering. "Sorry," Rose said.
"Morning," Ced told her.
He found Vic brushing her teeth and got a good morning kiss from her. As Vic and Cici crossed paths, they exchanged their good morning kiss.
"Blimey!" George said. "That's the first time I've ever seen you two kiss!"
"What'd you want them to do? Shake hands?" Julia said from behind him.
"But. Well. No. It's just that." George said turning as red as his hair.
"Just what?"
"It's just that. Well, I've never. I don't know!" now his skin was changing shades of red from an embarrassed red to an angrier red.
"It's okay George, Vic and I do not have a sexual relationship like your imagination is wanting you to believe, it's a way for us to express our love and appreciation of each other," Cici told him.
At 02:30, the teenagers met the other troops in the common area. They loaded up the brooms into the big military truck, the vehicles all formed into a convoy and headed for the air force base by 03:00. An hour later they were pulling in behind the C-17, the two blacked out vans pulled into the cargo hold of the aircraft as the troops carried the crates into the cargo hold. When the loading ramp was closed, Winkelmann told the kids they could exit the two vans. The kids filed out of the vans and took their seats on the sides of the aircraft and buckled in for the flight. All the pilots had been waiting for was the loading ramp to be closed. As soon as they had the green light for the door, they released the brakes and accelerated to the taxiway. They performed their preflight checklist, pulled out on to the active runway and accelerated down the runway into the air. When they had the permission of the loadmaster, the teens got up and started to put on their wizarding dragon scale body armour. None of the troops, but Shaw and Winkelmann had ever seen the wizarding dragon scale body armour. Seeing nine visions of shimmering death walking towards the shipping crates, scared the troops plenty bad. They removed the brooms, and as Ced called out each friend's name to come and get their broom, the troops heard the closest thing to death speaking that they would ever hear. With all of the brooms handed out, they formed up to wait for the loadmaster to tell them to don their oxygen masks. The troops loaded their equipment and mounted the brooms. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl, if the team medic had taken their pulse he would have found it to be racing. At 13,500m they would need the oxygen to survive. The loadmaster waited for the signal from the pilots before he gave the signal to don their masks, the pilots started to decompress the plane once the loadmaster informed the pilots it was safe. One last check of the equipment and the loading ramp was lowered, it was loud before, but now the noise made talking all but impossible. This is why Ced and his wives were so crucial to McMillian and the success of this mission. They waited for several eternities before the jump light turned green, then it was like everything had happened in the blink of an eye. Ced, Rose, and George shot out of the back of the aircraft, just as the tips of the brooms cleared the end of the ramp, they activated the aerodynamic shield of their broom. The teens fought for control of their brooms in the turbulence of the aircraft and then they were free from it. The second group of brooms was out of the aircraft, Vic, Fred, and Amber fought for control of their brooms. Then it was Cici, Julia, and Angel shooting out of the back of the cargo plane. Ced told his wives to disillusion the brooms, he selected the correct heading, and they shot forward. The sun was just rising as they headed north towards the mountaintop in Nigeria where the terrorists were keeping the captured girls.
From the jumping off point, it was a thirty-minute flight to the terrorist camp. Ced had the brooms dropping like a rock, when the altimeter showed it was safe, they stripped off their oxygen equipment. When the troops saw their pilots removing their equipment, they followed suit, letting it fall to the ground below. Surprise was the cornerstone of this mission, so they shot forward as fast as they could urge the brooms to go. Twenty-five minutes after leaving the aeroplane they were circling the enemy's base, staying high enough to stay concealed but low enough to look for guards. The three bonded mates motioned for the others to stay in the air and wait, flying slowly around the base.
"Do you see them?" Ced thought to his wives.
"Yes, they're more awake than the other terrorists." Vic thought to them.
"I count eight guards on duty," Cici said.
"Shaw says that he saw two roving patrols." Vic thought.
"Winkelmann says that he saw two also." Ced thought to them.
"Shaw's ready to put his night vision goggles on. He wants me to land now!" Vic said.
"Winkelmann's ready too." Ced thought to them.
"Let's do this then." Cici thought.
The three of them landed and dropped off their troops. As soon as the troops were off the brooms, the three pilots shot back into the air and away from the area to keep from killing the night vision goggles.
The circling pilots kept an eye open for the chemlights, one green chemlight, two, three, six, ten, green chemlights. The soul-bonded threesome motioned for the others to land their troops at the designated spots around the enemy camp. They rejoined their troops to help find the girls and get them moved to safety. There were an estimated ninety girls and an unknown number of infants. As the designated teens waited for their passengers, the others started looking in the various tents around the base. There were plenty of screams as the girls woke up to the sight of death staring them in the eye and telling them to follow. They would lead the girls to the waiting brooms to take them to another hilltop across the border to be evacuated by helicopter to another military base.
Ced and Winkelmann were searching for the command tent. They were after laptops and computer disks. Winkelmann's silenced assault rifle would spit out death every now and then as they hurried for the tents in the middle of the compound.
"Three o'clock!" Ced whispered to Winkelmann.
He turned and phittt! phittt! And two terrorists went down.
Whiz whiz! As a hail of bullets flew in their direction.
"Ten o'clock!" Ced said louder.
Phittt, phittt, phittt, click. Winkelmann changed magazines on the fly.
"It's getting dangerous out here!" Vic thought to them.
"Getting dangerous? It's been dangerous! These guys better hurry it up, or they're going to lose their night vision goggles!" Cici yelled through the link.
"Can the guys step up the pace? Vic and Cici are getting ready to cut loose with some magic really quick here!" Ced told Winkelmann.
"Alpha leader to alpha team. Hurry it up, or there's not going to be anything left!"
Ced could hear various radio replies.
"How are we doing on evacuees?" Winkelmann asked.
"Eighteen so far."
They had been making their way to the biggest, nicest tent in the hopes that it would be the headquarters tent for the terrorists. It turned out to be a lucky guess. Winkelmann used a snake cam to look under the side of the tent, he counted four terrorists with their guns at the ready.
With all of the screaming, the sun was rising, and they were losing the element of surprise. There was an estimated terrorist count of thirty terrorists.
"Go help with the evacuation. My guys will finish with the mop up. It's getting too light for night vision goggles anyway." Winkelmann told Ced as he lifted his goggles.
Ced nodded to him as he headed off for the nearest tent, wand at the ready.
"Let Winkelmann pass the word to his guys to turn off their night vision goggles, and we are free to use magic," Ced told Vic and Cici.
Not even thirty seconds later Ced heard two different explosions from where he would have guessed Cici and Vic to be. He checked the tent cautiously before he entered the tent fully, there were six girls in the tent with six infants. As soon as they saw him, they started to scream.
"If you want to live, come with me." The scary nightmare of a voice told them. As the girls started to get up and grab their children, he told them. "Put some shoes on."
They quickly slipped on some rags that used to be shoes.
"Come with me." He told them as he led the way to the evacuation point. Ced kept his eyes open and his head on a swivel, trying to look everywhere at once to protect the girls. When he reached the evacuation point, he saw one other broom there loading up. They needed more brooms. He summoned his broom to him. When it arrived, he mounted his broom.
Vic told three other girls that had been waiting. "Get on the broom, hold on to it tightly, and hold your child tightly also." After the three girls got on, she checked them and then said, "You're clear to go."
Ced lifted off gently and accelerated smoothly to the landing point ten minutes away. He landed and lowered the broom to help them get off easier. As soon as they were off of the broom, he launched himself as fast as the broom would go, to get another load of hostages. Flying back to the terrorist camp, Ced could see others flying towards him. It was turning out to be a steady stream of brooms coming and going as quickly as they could. With all nine brooms in the air, they were hauling twenty-seven hostages at a time, plus their children.
When Ced got back to load up more hostages, he saw Shaw looking stressed, not in a panic, but definitely worried. He got off his broom.
"Get back on your little broom and fly, punk." One of the soldiers told him.
Just as Ced called to Shaw, the soldier grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around. As Ced was spinning around, Shaw was spinning around to see who had called him. Ced spun around and grabbed the soldier by the throat, he put his foot behind him and tripped him to the ground. Then the sound of death told the soldier, "Don't you ever touch me again!"
"What's going on!" Shaw yelled at them.
"I was coming to see what it is that you needed when this soldier told me to 'get back on my broom and fly, punk.' When I ignored him, he grabbed me by my shoulder and was spinning me around. I guess you saw the rest." Ced told Shaw.
"Yes, I did, and I will deal with him back at camp. The medic needs Cici or Vic. Ozona has been shot and is bleeding badly."
"Take me to him, and I will let Vic and Cici know."
They took off at just short of a run.
"Thanks, Ced. With that body armour, it's hard to tell you all apart."
"They're both on the way."
Once there, the medic was applying pressure to keep the young soldier from bleeding out. Ced ejected his wand and ran a higher level diagnostic spell to find the bleeding. He had been shot multiple times. Ced started with the worst of the gunshot wounds. He removed the bullet, then he healed the injury, he did this again to the second wound. At this point, the two girls showed up.
"He's going to need a lot of blood replenishing potions." He told them.
Vic slid her pack off and pulled out a vial. She helped him swallow the potion.
"He got shot five times. He's lucky to be alive." The medic told them.
Cici had removed another two bullets and healed the wounds, while Vic got the last bullet out. Ozona didn't seem to be responding to the healing. Cici ran a high-level diagnostic spell over him, one of the bullets had broken a rib, and it was pressed up against his heart. She healed the broken rib, and his heart rate and blood pressure started to climb.
Vic gave him two more blood replenishing potions and a Vitamix potion to help him gain some energy. She conjured a stretcher for under the soldier, to keep him off of the ground. "He should be better by the time we're done with the evacuees." Then she looked at Shaw, "When are the helicopters going to start taking the hostages from the landing area?"
"They should have been there waiting for you!" he exclaimed. "Let me ask Winkelmann." He walked some ways off to use the radio. When he came back to the group of teens, "He's checking on it."
"Okay, we'll keep transporting people over there. We've been here too long for my comfort," Ced told him. "I'll transfigure my broom to have a red cross on it so you can find me easier."
After about four more trips, Shaw and Winkelmann pulled Ced aside. "The air force is saying that they never got the message the operation got moved up. They're saying that it will be about four hours before they can get the first helo there for pick up."
"What do you want to do? It almost seems like they would have been better off over here than where they are!" Ced replied.
"Can you and your crew fly some food and water over to them? We'll gather the food and water, so all you have to do is fly it over to them, then I'll leave half a dozen men to stand guard also." Winkelmann told Ced.
As the soldiers started to gather food, water, clothing, and supplies, Ced and his crew finished transporting the last of the hostages. Vic and Cici took the medic over to where they had taken the hostages to start healing the sick and injured. There were so many young children and infants. Thankfully, all of the hostages spoke French and a little English so the medic was able to help with the triage. As Vic and Cici healed the girls and their children, they learned that they had been taken in the night from a few different villages. The terrorists had come in and taken all of the girls over the age of four and force-marched them to a base not far from their homes. All of the children had been born in captivity without the help of a nurse or a doctor. Some of the other girls had died from the complications of childbirth, others had died after they had repeatedly been raped, and gotten infections that weren't treated. "The weak will die, and only the strong will survive!" is what the leader of the terrorists had told them on several occasions, mostly when one of the girls would die. The terrorists would just dig a hole and throw the dead girl's body in it without any kind of ceremony.
Cici and Vic would take turns healing the girls and their children. The children would require less magic to repair most times, but sometimes the girls would have two children.
When most of the girls would come into the tent, that they had conjured, they would say things like, "I don't want to die now!"
Vic or Cici would tell them, "Today is not your day. Lie down here so I can heal you." They would hear the voice of death say.
"NO! Don't take my baby!" the young girls would cry out.
"Today is not your child's day to die. Let me heal your child." And they would reluctantly hand their child to one of the girls dressed in shimmering death.
They learned that she was a girl who was only thirteen and had two young children under the age of three.
The oldest girl was now eighteen years old, she had been taken on her fifteenth birthday. She didn't have any children, she told them that she had lost the first child and even though they kept raping her she never got pregnant again. They asked her if she would ever want to have children again, and she told them yes but from a man of her choosing. When they asked her how she was able to survive what they had done to her, she told them that when they would come, and it was always more than one, she would turn her mind off and go someplace else in her mind. If she came back and they were still doing those things to her body, then she would just leave again until they were done with her body. Vic was able to heal the girl's reproductive system and told her that from now on she would be able to have children and to be careful.
"How much more careful could I be? I was in my bed asleep when they came and took me!"
.
When they heard the sounds of the helicopters approaching, hours later, Shaw had the two other soldiers get on the broom with Ced so they could leave without being seen. As soon as the guys were on the broom, Ced disillusioned the broom, and they left as fast as Ced could get the broom to go. Less than an hour later they were landing at their camp.
Ced looked at his watch, and it was still early, "I'm going to get a shower, and I'll see you at the chow hall for some food." He told Shaw.
"Winkelmann's going to want to do a post-mission debriefing this morning also," Shaw told him.
"Okay, we'll all be there!" he said to him.
The post-mission debriefing went well. For such a large mission, surprisingly little went wrong. The only conflict was when Emerson got mouthy with Ced and Ced was willing to let it be. Winkelmann told them that they were scheduled to fly out the day after tomorrow.
"I think that we would be willing to take the guys that want to go, out and see if we can see any of the animals," Ced told Winkelmann. "We could do it tomorrow, and that would be a good way to kill a few hours."
All of the guys looked at Winkelmann, "Could we do that Sarge?" one of them asked.
"How many of you would be interested in taking a sightseeing flight over the Savanna?" Winkelmann asked in a loud voice.
Over half of the guys were interested in going on a sightseeing adventure. It turns out, Shaw and Winkelmann were interested in going sightseeing too.
"If we pack some MREs we could make a day trip out of it," Shaw suggested. "With as fast as the brooms will fly it would be about an hour to the largest national park to see the elephants."
"Get with Ced and his crew and get it planned out, so we don't get lost," Winkelmann told him.
"Little wizard is sucking up to the sergeants again I see," Emerson said as he hit Ced with his shoulder, leaving the tent.
Ced looked at Shaw and Winkelmann, they just looked back at him with a 'what are you going to do about it look.'
Ced turned around and addressed Emerson's back. "You got a problem with me, Emerson?" Ced challenged him.
"No, I don't have a problem with the sergeants' little pet."
"Seems to me that you do."
"What are you going to do about it? Cast a spell on me and make me fall in love with you? Like you did with those two whores of yours?"
"If you've got a problem with me, let's take it outside."
"Why? So, you can run away?"
"No, I was thinking so everybody could watch me kick your arse once and for all."
"Big talk for a little punk."
"Let's go! Or are you afraid that I'm going to embarrass you in front of the other guys?"
"I'm not afraid of you or anybody else!"
"Well, stop talking and start walking! Coward!"
"Don't you call me a coward! I'll kick your arse!"
"Well, let's go outside and get this over with! I'm waitin' on you!"
Emerson wouldn't move. He wouldn't open the door and go outside, in the open to fight Ced.
"All talk and no action," Ced said harshly as he turned his back on him to walk back over to Shaw and Winkelmann.
That's when Emerson made his move. Ced had about three steps before Emerson was on him and hit him in the kidney. When Ced's back arched, Emerson grabbed him in a chokehold. Ced stomped down with his combat boot as hard as he could, breaking the arch of Emerson's foot. He let go and hobbled away a bit. Ced healed his kidney some, so it didn't hurt as bad, then he took the fight to Emerson. Emerson did a good job of blocking most of Ced blows, but he still landed a good kick to his ribs, and they all heard them crack. Emerson got a couple of good body blows in on Ced, but Ced swept his knees out from under him, and Emerson went down hard. Ced backed up so Emerson could get back up on his broken foot and bad knee. Ced started to dance around him, landing several hard jabs to his kidneys, a couple of more hits to his cracked ribs to make sure that they were fully broken. Emerson did his best to keep moving to always face Ced, but Ced was much faster than the handicapped Emerson. Ced started to focus on his face, hitting Emerson in between the big slow punches that he would throw desperately wanting to beat the little punk that was dancing nimbly around him. Ced was able to land a couple of solid blows to Emerson's left eye causing it to swell shut. All Emerson had left were big, slow, wide, punches that hit nothing but air. Ced dropped and spun around sweeping Emerson's feet out from underneath him again, causing him to land hard on his back. Ced got up and dropped down on his torso, driving his elbow deep into Emerson's midsection forcing all of the air out of his lungs. Ced got up and straddled Emerson's chest and hit him with a powerful right hook, he put all of his back muscles into the swing so that he would knock Emerson out. Emerson's head snapped to the side and his one good eye closed. Ced got off of him and stood up.
"Medic!" Shaw yelled.
A couple of moments later Davis came running into the command tent with his medical pack.
"What happened?" he said loudly as he looked down at Emerson.
"He tripped. Right guys?" Winkelmann said.
"Well, I'm going to need a stretcher and a couple of guys to carry him to the medical tent. Then he'll probably need to go to the hospital at the base until he's cleared to fly. That could be a month." Davis told Winkelmann.
"You heard the man! Somebody go and get the stretcher!" Winkelmann said authoritatively.
.
Early the next morning, just after sunrise, it was nine very excited teenagers that were helping the soldiers load up MREs and water in the storage compartments of the brooms. Davis had taken Emerson to the base hospital the afternoon before and after checking him in returned to their secure facility. Shaw was riding with Ced and reading the map for him. Just after they lifted off, all of the teens disillusioned themselves and their passengers. Ced pointed his broom in the direction that Shaw had indicated and they shot forward. With the aerodynamic shield in place, the ride wasn't half bad, it was definitely better than trying to drive it. An hour later, they were flying into the national park. They kept their altitude high enough not to draw any attention to the ripples in the sky. When they spotted their first elephants, they flew around the herd slowly, not wanting to spook them. Shaw got Ced to land about a hundred meters away from the herd so the guys could take some pictures.
Back in the sky, the group of flyers went looking for more watering holes to see the most animal life they could. It was amazing to see the different species of animals all drinking from the same watering holes. As the group flew around slowly, they were able to spot lions and cheetahs. They could see the gazelles being very cautious as they left the watering hole to go eat their breakfast. They headed up into the hills to see if they could see any of the different gorilla species that Cameroon played host to. They found a spot to stop and look around. After an early lunch, the group headed south towards another of the national parks, this one had been devastated by poachers that had killed almost half of the elephants that lived in the park in a single year, all for the ivory trade. As they were flying, Winkelmann got Cici to slow down and tell the others to slow down also. He had seen some black rhinoceroses down below them. Cici led the group in a large circle so they all could look at the rhinoceroses. Large, powerful beasts that the poachers would hunt, just for the horn on their noses. With the coast clear, the group landed so the guys could take some more pictures. While the guys were taking pictures, Ced opened his peanut butter and his crackers to eat them. He squeezed some of the peanut butter from the MRE on to the large cracker and took a bite. It almost glued his mouth shut! He was looking for a canteen or a bottle of water to help wash it down.
Shaw caught him trying to eat the peanut butter and crackers, "What are you doing?" Shaw asked him innocently.
Ced held up the peanut butter and the crackers.
"That stuff will glue your mouth shut!"
Ced nodded at him vigorously.
"Have you found any water yet?"
Ced shook his head 'no.'
Shaw looked in one of the other brooms and found a bottle of water for him.
Ced took a big drink of water, "Thank you! It tastes good, but you need some water to wash it down with!"
.
That night after dinner, all of the teens put their brooms in the shipping crates to carry on to the aeroplane. They packed all of their stuff except what they would need in the morning. After packing, all of the teens drifted back to Ced's tent where they sat and chatted for a while. It had been an exciting and adventurous trip for all of them.
At way too early the next morning, Ced's eyes opened up, "Mi Amor, Mon Amour, it's time to get up!" Ced told the two most beautiful women in the whole world.
"Just five more minutes." Came the tired responses, as they rolled off of him. As soon as he was out of the way, the two wives scooted close together so they could snuggle each other for a few more minutes.
It was a tired bleary-eyed Ced that walked into the shower tent wearing just his boxer-briefs.
"Geez, Ced, put some clothes on!" a tired Angel told him as he walked past her.
"Oh! Sorry!" a tired bleary-eyed, embarrassed, Ced told her, as they passed each other.
As Ced exited the stall, he ran into Rose. "Geez, Ced, put some clothes on!" Rose told him in faux annoyance.
"Sorry," Ced told her. As she slipped into another stall.
As he rounded the corner, Julia was coming from the other direction. "Geez, Ced, put some clothes on!" he just almost missed the smirk on her face.
Then he could hear his wives laughing at him in his thoughts. "Geez Ced, put some clothes on!"
"Oh, ha-ha!" he thought back to them.
Cici was leaning up against the dividing wall of the shower tent. She shoved off of the wall and gave him his good morning kiss, as she continued on her way to one of the toilets. He found Vic brushing her teeth and she gave him a kiss after she had rinsed her mouth out.
"Geez mate, put some clothes on!" Fred and George said together as they entered the shower tent.
"Yeah, yeah, I know!" Ced told them, the joke was getting a little thin.
As he exited the shower tent, he ran into Amber who was leaning against the light pole in the middle of the tents. "Hey, sailor, want some company?" she said in her best seductive voice. Just before she burst out laughing.
Ced started to laugh too, there wasn't anything else he could do, "Alright! I'll put some clothes on!" he said loud enough for them to hear.
Amber went on inside the shower tent to do her business. She told the others what she had done to him, and they all started laughing again.
After all of them had their clothes on, they met up in the largest tent to carry all of the shipping crates out to the common area of the camp. As the generators died, the teens levitated the containers into the back of one of the large military trucks. Then they climbed into the two blacked out vans for the bumpy ride to the air force base for the trip home.
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A/N:
Revised 03.10.2018
And again 01.05.2019