Yes I should be working on the third chapter of ITATC. But…..I'm not. Because I have major writers block. So, I'm writing this. Not to mention its much more light hearted. Unlike ALL of my other stories. Anyway, I love Alex goes back to SAS and Alex's school goes to Brecon Beacons. So I decided to write my own with a bit of twist. Sorry if this has been done before, but I haven't read any so I couldn't have actually stolen anything.
Enjoy! (and pretty please review? More reviews=more inspiration to write=quick updates ;D)
Also this is non-beta'd and I stuck at proof-reading so if anyone wants to be my beta that would be awesome, if not then there made be some mistakes.
Everything started three years ago.
Three years ago his uncle died.
Three years ago he first stepped into that god-forsaken bank.
Three years ago it began.
At first he hated it. Absolutely despised it. But then when he was 15 and halfway through year ten he'd put his foot down. Enough was enough. Either they let him have a half decent chance of passing his GCSEs or he stops. Permanently.
Obviously it worked. He didn't hear anything for 8 months. A tutor also showed up at his house. 6 months later he had passed his final tests and was feeling pretty good about life.
Jack had left half a year ago. He'd explained the blackmail and he didn't want her to get hurt anymore. With one last assurance that he'd be safe Jack had left. He was self sufficient enough to get by especially now that they were paying him.
He was given two months of rest before being called and asked to come in. And for the first time he did so with a light heart. They'd explained the situation to him. Told him he'd be safer and get more training. He'd have a tutor. He didn't like the idea of having to leave his friends. But they'd assured him that he could send cards. Fake addresses of course. But there would be able to be contact.
Those 8 months of peace had given him time to reflect of his life and his choices.
So yeah. Three years ago everything started. But for once, he was happy.
Alex Rider's life was good.
Most of the time.
"God damn it, Eagle. Eagle! EAGLE!" Cub practically screamed. It seemed to work, the SAS operative known by the codename Eagle, unceremoniously flipped out of his bed and landed with a thud on the floor. He stood up quickly and looked around blearily.
"What? Cub? What's going on?" Just as the 17 year old was about to answer he noticed Eagle attire…or rather lack of it.
"Jesus Eagle put some pants on," Cub said averting his eyes. He got now why Wolf had sent him to wake up Eagle. He sighed angrily; sometimes it sucked being the youngest. Eagle looked down.
"Oh,"
"Pants Eagle. Now would be good," Eagle snapped out of his sleep-induced shock and scrambled for clothes.
"Ok I'm good," Cub turned back around.
"No you're late. Hurry up," Cub said heading for the door. Just as he leaved he tossed Eagle and muesli bar and an apple.
"You missed breakfast," Eagle caught the food and smiled. Cub could be a down right brat at times but now he was older. He just….fit in. The other units accepted him and K-Unit had taken him in as a little brother. Especially now that Fox was back.
K-Unit had been given a year of ground-duty. No overseas work unless there was a major emergency. So for the last six months they'd been going through further training in what was basically advanced basic. As well as doing some teaching with the newest recruits. That was when they'd met up with Cub again. It was clear that him and Fox were on good terms. And that, combined with Cub being older, started his true acceptance into SAS.
Cub had only been pulled out once and only for 10 days. But nevertheless it didn't sit well with the rest of K-Unit that he'd come back with one arm in a sling, 3 fractured ribs as well as sporting several impressive bruises and a broken nose. But Cub refused to talk about it. All he'd say was that considering the circumstances, he had been lucky. Fox had been visibly upset and it made the others wonder about how truly dangerous the boy's missions were.
Cub jogged to the firing range for their first teaching lesson of the day. Unlike Scorpia, SAS didn't teach instinctive shooting so Cub was the only one who did it. It was for this reason he loved when they were scheduled to teach firearms. He was let off. He couldn't teach how the SAS did so he was just allowed to practice. They were 15 minutes into the lesson when Eagle arrived. After a brief argument between him and Wolf the lesson continued. Cub wandered over after about 45 minutes. He needed a break from shooting, and the lessons were occasionally fun to watch. He leant against the wall for a while listening to Wolf and Fox lecture the new recruits about assembling and disassembling guns. It reminded Cub that his gun had felt a little weird while he was shooting, like it was about to jam. Probably dirt in the barrel. He pushed off the wall and walked over to the demonstration table. Snake glanced at him, what was Cub doing?
His arrival hadn't gone unnoticed by the recruits either. One in particular took an immediate dislike to the blonde.
"Who's the kid?" the recruit, Cougar, called out cutting off Wolf. He paled slightly as the Unit leader turned an impressive glare on him.
"Excuse me?" Wolf asked quietly. Cougar swallowed nervously.
"Who's the kid?" he asked again this time gesturing towards Cub, who was watching the exchange with slight interest. Wolf glanced back at Cub.
"That's Cub. He's in our unit," Wolf said matter-of-factly. Cougar frowned.
"If he actually is," the man made it clear he didn't believe it. "Why isn't he teaching then?" Just as Wolf was about to reply, Cub cut in.
"I didn't learn to shoot here,"
"Cub," Wolf started. The blonde held up a hand.
"When I was fourteen I learnt instinctive shooting. We don't have time to teach you all how to do that here. Not to mention it's incredible impractical in the types of situations you're going to find yourselves in," Cub told them calmly.
"If you make it that is," That last sentence was directed at Cougar. The teen's cool voice and piercing gaze shut the recruits up. Cub nodded to Wolf and grabbed a few cleaning tools and retreated to a bench behind K-Unit, far enough away not to be a distraction but close enough to hear most of what was going on. Cub spent the next few minutes disassembling, thoroughly cleaning and reassembling his gun. Satisfied with his handiwork Cub wandered back to the range and continued practising. He didn't even noticed when K-Unit and the recruits started watching his performance. After a last couple of rounds Cub stopped. He placed the gun down and pressed the button to draw in the targets. Cub picked up his targets from before he had cleaned the gun and compared them. Happy with the result, the blonde turned around. He stopped at the sight of the group of recruits staring at him incredulously. Cub bit back a smirk.
"You guys done then?" He asked Wolf. The older man nodded.
"Yeah, we're handing them off to Sergeant Robinson," Wolf gave the recruits directions and they started filing out. As they were Cougar paused by Cub. The men watched warily, confrontations between the youngest member of their group and recruits never ended well. And recruits weren't all that easy to find.
"Hey, I…er…just wanted to apologise for before. I don't always think before I speak," Cub was a little surprised, it hadn't been what he was expecting at all. Recovering quickly he clapped Cougar on the shoulder.
"No hard feelings, you aren't the first and you sure as hell won't be the last. Don't stress it," Cougar let out and obviously sigh of relief and then ran after the rest of his group. Cub turned the wolf and the others.
"Not what I was expecting," Fox laughed and nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, normally your meetings with recruits involvement a lot more," Fox paused, as if searching for the right word.
"Violence," Cub looked insulted.
"It's not always my fault," Wolf rolled his eyes.
"Come on. We have that meeting with the sergeant remember?" he said walking off. Eagle was confused.
"Meeting?" he asked hurrying after their leader. "What meeting?"
"The one we were told about while you were snoring in bed," Cub was only just fast enough to duck the hand Eagle swiped at his head.
"I do not snore," Snake and Fox exchanged glances, not this again. Cub seemed to be thinking along the same lines.
"You know what? Forget about it Eagle. You definitely don't snore," Eagle was too distracted by his 'victory' over Cub to catch the sarcasm in his words. The men chatted until the reached the Sergeants office. Wolf sharply knocked on the wood door twice.
"Come in," a gruff voice called out. The four men, and one teen, entered silently and stood at attention.
"At ease, gentlemen," Sarg was sitting behind a desk that was practically covered with files. Catching the looks of astonishment on K-Unit's faces, he sighed.
"Yes this is with why you're here," He stated, answering the question all of them wanted to ask. Cub couldn't help but glance at the files, each one with a name on the top.
Leo Ryans
Brandon Fuller
Samuel Thomas
Robert Wigan
Ross Simpson
Cub frowned. He knew those names. He continued scanning. Eventually his eyes hit one name and he felt physically sick.
Thomas Harris
What the hell was going on? Now he recognised the names, they were all boys from his old school. Ignoring regulation and throwing all the rules out the window Cub glared at The Sergeant.
"What the fuck is this?" The rest of K-Unit looked at him like he was crazy.
"What are you thinking Cub?" Wolf hissed. Sarg sighed.
"No in this instance I understand Cub's…. evident dislike for the situation," Fox was the only one who truly noticed how pissed the teen was. Having worked with Cub for longer and in closer situations, he'd gotten good at reading the minuscule signs of anger, grief, happiness and annoyance the blonde showed.
"Despite countless recommendations for the program to go ahead, the government is trialling a self-defence and semi-work experience program to be run in schools. A select trial group of 24 school boys has been picked and they are being send here," The look of disgust of Wolf's face was impressive.
"Schoolchildren. Here," Wolf was lost for words after that.
"Yes, it's some ridiculous plan to raise the levels of recruits going into the military," Cub scoffed.
"What an excellent plan. You do realise that these kids," Cub leant on the desk, pointing at the files. "They're from my old school. They know me," Sarg sighed.
"I'm afraid there's nothing I can do, I raised the issue countless times. Apparently Blunt is more confident in your change of appearance and lying skills than any of us," Cub pushed himself off the desk and span around, eyes flashing. Surprisingly Eagle was the one thinking about the situation.
"When do they arrive?" Sarg raised his eyebrows and steeled himself from the inevitable outburst coming.
"Two days," Cub stopped his pacing and froze. Two days. He shook his head and stormed out. Sarg sighed. He gathered up the files and handed them to Wolf.
"Tell Cub that he won't be punished for his outburst, but I won't be lenient next time. Dismissed," Wolf nodded wordlessly and headed out the others following.
Not a word was said until they reached the hut. Wolf immediately starting going through files. After a minute Eagle and Snake started helped him. Fox just sighed angrily at Cub's absence; he ran a hand through his hair.
"I'm gonna go find him before he does something stupid,"
Finding Cub was easy, the boy had a habit of dealing with motional things physically. Fox found him running the assault course. He sat and waited at the end. Within a few minutes Cub turned up, panting for breath. He took one look at Fox and turned to start jogging to the start again. Fox sighed and got to his feet, running after Cub. Pretty soon he had caught up with the younger man.
"Why are you beaten up about this? They're not going to recognise you. We'll dye your hair if we have to," Cub stopped abruptly.
"That's why I'm so beaten up about this Ben. I don't want to lie to my friends anymore. I already am and that's bad enough," They stood in silence for a while, Ben understanding Alex's issue with the whole thing and Alex struggling to control himself.
"Tom will know,"
"What?"
"Tom will know it's me, he knew about…everything MI6, you guys, everything. He'll know it's me," Ben was shocked.
"Jesus Alex,"
"I know, I shouldn't have told him. But it wasn't exactly easy. MI6 was using me, and I didn't get anything no support, no downtime, no pay. I needed someone," Ben swore quietly.
"No wonder you went off at them. We gotta go back, talk with Wolf and the others. We've only got two days to prepare," Cub nodded sullenly and they started walking back to the hut.
"And think about it Cub, there's gonna be kids you weren't…fond of, shall we say, and they're here for a month," a shadow of a smile passed over Cub's face.
"And the lake is awfully cold this time of year,"