17 Years Ago

April 2021

Boston, Massachusettes

If he was going to be completely honest, Alec Hooper wished his welcome home party could've been better. It's been four years since he left for the Navy and his mother never ceased to keep cooking for him. She cooked his favorite t-bone steak with a side of baked potatoes while topping it off with his favorite brand of beer. The 27-year-old redhead knew something was wrong. There was nothing wrong with the steak; his mother's cooking never ceased to amaze him and every bite of steak has a flavor that tastes better with each chew. The steak was absolutely delicious but it wasn't enough to distract him from finding something to be wrong. After a while, he finally figured out what was driving him crazy. He had been sitting in the backyard of his parent's house with his younger siblings and cousins present; what was wrong was staring at him in the face.

His father.

Alec nearly choked on a bite of his steak as he stared at his father with pieces of meat between his teeth like a wolf. It shouldn't have bothered him but his father's presence bothered him to a great degree. No matter how many bites of the juicy mouth-watering steak he ate, nothing could distract him from the hatred he had for his father.

Do you think I'll forgive you for what you've done? Alec questioned. Do you think I'll forgive you for all the pain you put me and my younger brothers and sisters through?

Alec finished the last of his beer as he gulped down another piece of steak.

His younger sister, Alexa, who was the second oldest of the five siblings, sat down near her brother with a beer in her hand.

"How have you been, big bro?" she asked. She took a sip of beer before brushing the reddish-brown bangs out of her eyes.

"How have you been, Alexa?" Alec kept his gaze focused intensely on his father talking to his aunts and uncles.

"I've been good," she said smugly, "I got a job as a teacher's assistant at Boston University and my girlfriend-"

"I meant with Dad," he corrected. "How have you been with Dad?"

"It's going great actually," she confessed, staring at her brothers in the eyes. She noticed the ferocity in his eyes and decided to speak her next words carefully. "Dad hasn't laid a single finger on us in years. He's been going to counseling and we've been talking. Mom is working on patching our family up back together."

Alec shook his head. "No matter what he does," he hissed, "no matter how many walls he rebuilds, I will never forgive him for the abuse he put me through."

Alexa sat up and put a hand on her brother's shoulder. "Alec, he is trying really hard to be a better father. All he's ever wanted when you shipped out was for you to come back home. Do you know how heartbroken he was when you didn't write back to him; he thought you were killed."

"I pictured every Taliban I shot as my father," Alec growled before taking another bite of steak. "I wish I really was shooting my Dad back in that hellhole dessert country."

"Don't say such mean things about your father!"

Alec looked at his sister. "How can you forgive him for everything he's done for us?"

"You thought that life here would stop after you went to war? News flash: Life goes on when you're gone."

"If I die, then Dad goes on, living without facing any repercussions for his actions."

Alexa looked to her father before facing her older brother. "Please, A-Bug..."

He turned to her after hearing his childhood nickname.

"Give Dad a chance."

Alec looked to his father before looking back at his sister and sighed with a hint of regret or rather, annoyance.

"I wish I was back in Afghanistan," he whispered under his breath. "I wish someone shot at me so I can picture my dad's face on them and kill them."

He continued to devour at his steak like a hungry wolf, showing the steak no mercy.

Frankfort, Kentucky

It was supposed to be a happy event. Tyler Alvarez had received a big bonus from the mechanic shop and he was cashing in every cent to make sure his four-year-old could have the best birthday party ever. Tyler was 23 when he left for the Navy and left his girlfriend pregnant. The first time he's seeing his son, he felt an instinctive urge to protect his offspring but there was something off. He knew that every father protected their child because their child was their most precious treasure in the world but the feeling in which he was protecting his son felt different, yet familiar.

During his time as a SEAL, he was assigned the job of protecting a political man by transporting him from one destination to the next. Whenever the VIP was in danger, his instincts would kick in and protect the man at all costs. This was the same feeling he had with his son. When he was sitting next to his girlfriend in the backyard, watching the kids break open the pinata, he suddenly felt the need to protect his son.

The dog was encircling his son, his mouth going for his son's knees.

That dog is trying to hurt my son, Tyler panicked in his mind. He jumped to his feet and looked around.

I have to protect my son.

He could not find his assault rifle around.

I always have my M4 carbine at my side and I never leave without it! Who stole my gun? It doesn't matter; I MUST protect my son.

He looks over to the outside counter where they left the cake. There was a chief's knife on the edge of the counter and without hesitating, he ran to pick it up.

He heard his son yelp and turned to see his son on the ground with the dog on top of him.

He rushed for the dog, pulling him off by the collar and he raised the chief's knife above his head and-

"NO!"

He was tackled to the ground.

Taliban protecting his dog? I'll kill him.

He punches the attacker off of him and climbs on top of him. He raises his knife to stab him when he-

"TYLER!"

He paused.

'Tyler?' But it's Petty Officer 1st Class Alvarez. No one calls me by my first name.

He could hear crying coming from behind.

No doubt those are soldiers in pain. I'll finish this guy off and tend to my wounded comrades.

"Daddy!"

The single word shattered his entire composure and he dropped the cake knife.

'Daddy'? But... I'm not...

He looked over his shoulder to find the source of the voice and saw his four-year-old son looking at him with wide eyes and a terrified look on his face.

His mind returned to the right place and he was bombarded with emotions.

Tyler pushed himself off the man he was about to stab, his future brother-in-law, and looked over to the dog. It was looking at him and whimpering with concern. He saw the pinata on the ground and remembered where he was.

My son's birthday party... I'm at my son's birthday party.

He collapsed on his back and stared at the baby blue sky above him, feeling a lump of guilt growing in his heart.

I didn't mean to ruin my son's birthday.

The dog moved over to where he was laying down and started licking his face to comfort him.

I can't switch off even if I wanted to. On the battlefield, if I switched off for a single second, I would've been eaten alive by dogs.

On The Plane Ride to Istanbul

As Cassie and Derek were resting on one side of the plane, Tyler and Alec met up with each other and sat down together.

"What's up?" Alec questioned. "Us."

Tyler tilted his head.

"We're up in the air..." Alec hated having to explain the punchline of a joke.

Tyler finally got it. "Ha, nice one."

"One of many good jokes." Alec looked ahead and sighed. "It's been a while since we got to kill someone."

Tyler nodded, remembering the feeling of throwing that Turkish reporter out of the plane. "Yeah. It felt... at home."

Alec looked at him. "I'll bet. It's been years since we came back from Afghanistan and we still can't function like regular people."

Tyler nodded. "Like circles to rectangles."

Alec stuttered. "I-I, don't get that m-metaphor."

Tyler rolled his eyes. He hated having to explain metaphors.

"When I look at civilians, I see them as rectangular shapes. When I see soldiers, I see circular shapes. However, a soldier did not start out as a circle, he was broken down as one from a rectangle. When you cut a rectangle and make it a circle, it is like that person is being reshaped to fit a certain society, ie. a civilian becoming a soldier. However, when that soldier's society becomes no more, he is thrown back to the civilians and expected to be a civvy. Unfortunately, because you cannot undo cutting a circle and making it a rectangle, it can never function in a society of rectangles. You and I, we were rectangles cut into circles and we can never function the same as a rectangle." He looked Alec in the eyes and pulled him in by the back of his head until their noses were nearly touching. "We have been permanently cut into a circle; we no longer belong in that rectangle society." He lets go of Alec's red hair.

Alec replayed the metaphor in his head before looking over at Derek. "I'm glad Erica managed to find a way to reshape herself into a rectangle."

Tyler looked at Derek and immediately understood his meaning. "Yes," he nodded curtly, "Derek is our VIP and it is our job as SEALs to protect the VIP."

"For Erica."

Tyler nodded once more. "For Erica."

Present

"Hey, Lowell. It's us, your old pals, Overlord."

Tyler and Alec sprang to cover behind an oil drum, not their best idea, but it was all they got and the darkness of the warehouse gave them an edge. When they peeked over the oil drum, they saw soldiers in black with night-vision goggles scanning the room and looking for soldiers. He couldn't see Derek but he knew that one of the soldiers from the truck was talking to him given that he said his surname.

"Derek's in trouble," Tyler whispered to Alec, "we have to save him."

Alec nodded. "Roger." He pulled out a grenade.

"We can't risk hurdling grenades unless we know where Derek's location is."

Alec showed him the grenade.

He smiled in relief. "A flashbang."

"And they're wearing night-vision goggles." Alec chuckled. "It's going to be hell for them."

"Even so, we're still outnumbered."

Alec looked over at the oil drum and saw Derek near the large gate at the front. He sighed as he thought over the plan he came up in his head. All he could do was offer a distraction for Derek while he did all the work.

He pulled the pin to the flashbang and threw it.

Derek squeezed his eyes shut and covered his face with his forearms. The flash grenade went off with several bangs and the night-vision goggles soldiers screamed in pain and staggered blindly. Once he was sure he could open his eyes, Derek jumped to his feet and pushed the front gate open, and exposed the inside of the warehouse to the outside.

Gunfire from the hooded hostiles sprayed into the warehouse and shot two soldiers away.

Cassie took cover behind the jeep, which was picking up more bullets as the battle raged on. She had wasted a dozen or so hooded figures but they kept coming like a starfish amputating its limbs and growing new starfish altogether.

Hydra snakes would be a more accurate metaphor.

She looked over the jeep and saw several 6x6 trucks pull up, plowing through several pickup trucks from the hooded hostiles, and began disembarking soldiers from the back.

Cassie recognized the insignia on the soldiers' arms.

Overlord?

Cassie was grabbed from behind and hauled up into the air like a sack of potatoes. Before she could squeeze the trigger on her gun, she was thrown across the ground with the gun slipping from her grip. She landed on her side with the butt of the gun touching the heel of her sneakers. She reaches for the gun but it was kicked out of reach and she was kicked across the ground once more.

"Okay..." she groaned as she clutched her sides. "That really hurt." She picks herself up to her knees. Without looking, she said to her unseen enemy, "surrender to me now and I'll let you live." When she looked up, her eyes met the gaze of a hooded man with a sleeveless jacket displaying his muscular physique.

"Uhhh..." Cassie gulped as the words were stolen from her mouth. "I promise to give you a lollipop when you surrender." She stood to her full height and put her guard up.

The hooded muscle socks Cassie in the stomach hard enough for her to jump off the ground and groan in pain.

Blake, Massey, shoot him! her mind screamed. She risked looking over to see Blake and Massey still engaged in shooting at the hooded men and Overlord in the three-way battle.

She nearly vomited her remains out but kept her insides where they belonged.

I had a delicious lunch today and I would hate for it to be upchucked before it's digested properly.

Cassie groaned as she slowly raised her hands up once more. "Okay, I'm not going easy anymore. I'm a black belt."

She assumes the crane stance.

The hooded muscle shook his head with a smile on his face. "Küçük kaltak." He advanced on her.

Cassie crane-kicks him in the groin. The hooded muscle barely flinches and grabs her foot before she could take it back.

Cassie jumps with her other foot and kicks him across the jaw. The hooded muscle stumbles back and lets go of Cassie's foot. Cassie kips up and ducks her head as the hooded muscle throws a fist at her.

Cassie punches him in the gut before striking him across the jaw. She jerks her head back as he goes for an uppercut. Cassie backs away from the advancing muscular man but flinched when a bullet whistled past her ear. The bullet caught her off guard for half a second but it was enough for the hooded muscle to kick her in the chest.

Cassie fell on her back and she crawled to a sitting position, not taking her eyes off the hooded muscle. "Can't we be friends?"

She rolls out the way in time as she was almost crushed by a piledriver move.

The Priest and Bethany ducked behind the jeep, covering their ears from the sound of gunfire. Blake and Massey continued to preoccupy themselves by shooting at the hoods and Overlord and the loud noise around them deafened them from hearing Cassie's engagement with the hooded muscle.

Bethany pointed at Cassie and cried for her uncle to do something. He saw Cassie's M4 carbine scattered across the ground but it was within the open and running for a gun in the open is a good way to paint a bullseye on the back of your skull in a three-way battle.

"Sir," he called to Blake. "Cassie is being attacked-"

His cries for help were cut off when Massey took a bullet to the skull and fell flat on his back.

A soldier in black, bearing the Overlord insignia, ambushed the four of them and ran around the jeep to hit Blake over the skull with the butt of his rifle. Once Blake was incapacitated, he charged for the Priest and tackled him to the ground.

Back in the warehouse, Derek was taking cover behind several crates and open firing on the Overlord soldiers from outside. He, Alec, and Tyler deal with the twelve Overlord soldiers from the trucks thanks to the hooded men taking several out. Just because the hooded men killed the Overlord soldiers in the warehouse didn't mean they were going to stop with them.

Derek ran for the front gate and pulled it open. He could feel a bullet whistle past his ear and hit the fuel tank to the 6x6 truck, causing gasoline to spill out. Alec and Tyler ran for the front gate and helped Derek close it. They pulled the gate closed just as Overlord soldiers began open firing and locked it up with chains they found in the corner of the warehouse.

"We have to get out of here," Derek panted.

"No shit, Sherlock," Alec deadpanned.

A loud noise caused the three men to jolt. A second truck arrived and drove smoothly in reverse through the hole the first 6x6 truck made earlier. Soldiers began dismounting from the back and opening firing at the three men.

Alec smiled as he held up his greatest weapon he picked up from a dead Overlord soldier.

"Say hello to my M249 SAW!"

He rapid-fired at the soldiers, squeezing the trigger without any sign of removing it. He refused to fire semi-automatically and sprayed the room with as many bullets as he can, hoping to cause as much damage as possible.

Derek and Tyler took cover near the wall and open fire on any soldiers that escaped the spray of bullets.

As Derek ran dry on the bullets in his assault rifle, he tried to reload before a shadow in the corner of his eye made him turn. He ducked his head as an Overlord soldier armed with an axe swung with the intent of beheading the young boy.

Derek backed away and ducked when the second strike came.

The axe thug growled in frustration as the only thing his axe hit was the wall and kept swinging.

"Is that the best you got?" Derek goated before ducking. "My grandmother can swing better than that." He ducked once more. "And she's dead!"

The axe soldier's last swing made contact but not with what he desired or anyone would desire.

The axe struck the cable leading to a junction box and caused a spark, sending electricity flowing through the screaming axe soldier as flames leaped out and covered the ground.

Derek jumped back before his foot got caught and felt his heart pound in his chest when he saw the fire follow a trail of gasoline leading to the truck with the leaking fuel tank. "Holy shit," he gasped breathlessly.

The truck would've exploded like a regular truck would - or wouldn't - but the small explosion sent gallons of gasoline spreading throughout the warehouse and igniting more flames.

"FIRE!"

A/N: A lot happened this chapter and they all left on a cliffhanger. In the beginning, we got to see some insight into Tyler and Alec's lives to give them more personality and depth while ending the chapter with Cassie is in a brawl with a muscular thug, the Priest and Bethany being ambushed by a lone Overlord soldier, and Derek, Tyler, and Alec are trapped inside a burning building. Cassie and Derek really should come with a health warning.