Hatikva
Disclaimer: Same as before…BTW type in the title of this chapter into Google to find sound files of this wonderfully haunting piece.
"Kol od balevav p'nimah
Nefesh Yehudi homiyah
Ulfa'atey mizrach kadimah
Ayin l'tzion tzofiyah
Od lo avdah tikvatenu
Hatikvah bat shnot alpayim
L'hiyot am chofshi b'artzenu -
Eretz Tzion v'Yerushalayim." – Hatikva, National Anthem of Israel
(Translation):
"As long as deep in the heart,
The soul of a Jew yearns,
And forward to the East
To Zion, an eye looks
Our hope will not be lost,
The hope of two thousand years,
To be a free nation in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem."
Hal Maitland went into his room after the battle. He was still clad in his dusty, olive green Israeli issued fatigues. He silently extracted an old wooden rosary, its beads and crucifix careworn from years of use. After every engagement he fought in he prayed both for himself and his unit and for the souls of the men he killed.
"Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done…" Hal began.
There was a knock on the frame of his door just then and Hal looked up to see Julie standing in the doorway arch, "Hey, Roadblock just called a meeting in fifteen minutes and he wants everyone down there now."
Hal tucked his rosary into one of his olive cargo pockets. In the decade since he had sworn his oath at the fortress of Masada he had gained many memories he did not want. Even beforehand dreams had filled his mind of fighting the Roman legionaries overlooking the Dead Sea.
Julie's statement broke him out of his reverie, "How does a Canadian Catholic wind up fighting for a Jewish country?"
"When that country's been like a second home for you since you were nine years old, its trials and travails grow on you." Hal replied.
Her training as an intelligence officer told Julie this certainly wasn't the only reason the Canadian had spent ten years fighting in the Middle East. It also told her there was no way she was going to pry this information out of him so soon.
"How did you wind up in Israel?" Julie asked as they walked into the den and sat down on one of the couches.
"My parents are archaeologists who have a specialty in Mediterranean societies so I lived with them at their various dig sites ranging from Spain to Syria. Israel however was the country that grew on me because mom and dad were with the same team of archaeologists every year." Hal replied, his face taking a wistful air as he transported himself away to fantasyland of memories, "We excavated sites throughout the Holy Land during the summers when Mom and Dad worked for this non-denominational and international archaeological group. My three closest friends, Moky, Margot, and Derek were with two families of American archaeologists."
"Every summer for eleven years we would see each other face to face, keeping in touch by letters and the phone during the rest of the year. They lived in Michigan we lived in Nova Scotia. I started going native in Israel when I was a teenager." Hal replied.
"You guys can get to know each other some other time." Low Light said, "Roadblock's changed the meeting location, we're going to the lab where the strange guy's gonna brief Lifeline and Airtight about those creatures we were fighting. Atkins, get in the jeep, you have about half an hour to prepare to brief the senior staff on what these things are."
"You certainly have seen a lot of fighting over the years." Lifeline remarked as a now shirtless Filby sat on the examination table. On his lean, muscled frame Filby carried the scars of puncture marks, claw scratches and what appeared to be the scarring of a deeper cut made by a sword. The X-rays of Filby's body revealed the same story; the bones seemed to have been knit back together from fractures.
"To drive the evil ones from my world, I endured my share of hardships." Filby said.
Airtight held up the gas crossbow, "Who makes these things?"
Filby hesitated momentarily, "I did. I created, bought, or modified all the weapons you see before you."
Despite their friendliness, they could not know of the existence of the Knights of the Holy Order. As Cardinal Jinette said, "We do not exist."
If he compromised the organization, if he told them he might compromise mankind's only hope against the forces of evil. Filby couldn't do that, he would simply tell them the cover story he invented if pressed for further detail. It was just then that the blonde woman in the nurse's uniform and the other woman wearing a light blue blouse and a dark blue, knee length skirt walked in.
Lifeline said, "Filbert Maitland, this is my wife, Bree, and Captain Atkins, our intelligence officer."
Secretly Julie was relieved that she was sent ahead of the Misfits to prepare the briefing. It wasn't that she hated mutants; it was just that they really unnerved her. They had abilities that were well beyond the comprehension of human beings. If they decided to use their powers against human beings…
Julie didn't want to think about that particular scenario. She had seen the footage of the destruction wreaked by Juggernaut when he had been freed. She had read the reports, many of them centered around the area of Bayville, but also spread throughout the world. There were mutants with all sorts of bizarre abilities, including ones that could mess with her mind if they so chose…
Focus, Julie, remember the task at hand. Julie chided herself. Remember General Eddington's orders…
"What is with Captain Atkins?" Althea asked Hal as they drove down the road towards the laboratory complex.
"What about her." Hal replied, "I've only just met her."
"She seems kinda standoffish, like she's afraid of us." Althea replied, "I don't trust her. I mean there are people at the Pentagon that have wanted to either ice the Misfits and the Joes. How do we know Eddington didn't plant her here?"
"We don't. And even if she is," Hal replied, "She is a teammate of ours, we'll treat her like we treat anyone else and…"
"Is not!"
"Is too!"
"Take that back!"
"Make me!" came the shout from the back seat.
"Lance, Pietro, what could you two possibly be arguing about now?" Hal replied as he turned around
"Face it Lance, it isn't going to last." Pietro said, "Kitty just loves to string you along and you…"
"DIE!" Lance shouted, and began to roll his eyes into his head. The earth shook violently, as did the jeep.
"Avalanche! Stop this nonsense this instant!" Hal shouted, "That's better. Wait until we've stopped driving to kill one another."
"I don't need my powers to deal with this prissy little lunatic." Lance replied.
"The pot's calling the kettle black! Who writes those stuuupid little love poems for Kitty?" Pietro replied.
"Now now you two, let's find our calm centers and relax…" Fred said, in his best Psychiatrist-Fred voice, "Breathe in and out. Yes Lance, you're doing nicely."
Lance's face was turning red and he was just about hyperventilating with fury at the cutting remarks Pietro had just fired downrange at him.
"Keep up the nice breathing exercises Lance." Fred said, in the same, silky smooth tone everyone associated with Psychiatrist Fred, "Now about Captain Atkins, she's the real victim here."
"How so?" Hal asked.
"Well for one she seems very tense whenever she meets us." Fred replied, calmly.
"Fred, that's no different than anyone else you big oaf, everybody, tenses up when they meet us." Pietro began.
"Not General Hawk, or General Whithalf, or Low Light, or Shipwreck or…" Fred began ticking examples off his fingers.
"I meant everybody outside of this base, dingbat." Pietro replied.
"Anyway," Fred began, "Before I was so rudely interrupted I wanted to say that Captain Atkins seems to suffer from Mutaphobia."
"What?" Hal asked.
"It's a form of Xenophobia but relates to mutants. It's a psychiatric disorder where otherwise normal people become phobic in the presence of mutants." Fred replied.
"So even if this Eddington fellow I've been briefed about planted Captain Atkins in our midst, he obviously knows about her phobia and is using that to his advantage." Hal replied.
"So what's the verdict?" Althea asked.
"I can't speak for the other adults, but I can say, treat her like any othermember of the GI Joe team." Hal replied. Just then his cell phone went off and he dug into his pocket and picked it up. After a few minutes of listening he said, "I'm sorry guys, but it seems like Trinity's got a hold of Beach Head again and Shipwreck's trying to fix the damage."
"You were saying..." Althea quipped.
"So can she be helped?" Hawk said as he walked along with Psyche-Out.
"Difficult to say." Psyche Out replied, "It's a bit early in the therapy, but it is indeed the case, she does sufer from Mutaphobia, but it's milder than most."
"What do you mean milder?" Hawk asked.
"Her fear is manifested by cold sweats, occasional claustrophobia, and nervous tension." Psyche Out began, "She can be helped by immersion therapy."
"You mean keeping her with the team?" Hawk said.
"Yes, she'll grow used to them in time, maybe even bond with them." Psyche Out replied, "And with regular counseling she should be fine."
"And what about Eddington practically shoving her down my throat? It can't be a coincidence. She could be…" Hawk began.
"A mole, yes sir." Psyche Out replied, "Personally I suggest feed her false information like you would to any spy. Perhaps she'll eventually bond with the Misfits and I'll be able to help her."
Calm down, they aren't going to harm you. Julie thought. Outwardly she exuded the calm and grace generations of growing up among the high society of the East Coast would bring, inwardly her heart was beating like a snare drum with a spastic drummer. Think of the babies, they're kinda cute. Just stop sweating so much…
"The creatures killed by Lieutenant Maitland are known as the Heartless." Julie began, "Our mysterious visitor gave us that name and mentioned something about a fellow named Ansem. We still don't have any information on him at this time."
As Julie made the report she felt her nervousness fade away. Work seemed to help ease the fear. Remember, focus on the babies, they're kind of cute…Julie thought. "But when Blind Master showed up earlier and spoke to our newcomer, he learned that the Heartless and the mysterious beasts he and another ninja clan known as The Brotherhood of Life have been fighting for centuries are one and the same."
Julie had been running through a power point presentation as she spoke, showing pictures of the dissected Heartless, various drawings and the like. "Any questions?" Julie asked.
"Yes, where's our new visitor going to stay?" Low Light asked.
"At the house, of course." Shipwreck replied.
"The house is already a bit crowded with Maitland and Atkins." Low Light remarked. "Where is he going to sleep?"
"He's gonna have to have a roomie of course." Shipwreck said, "And I guess Hal's room will do."
"Wait a minute?" Hal asked "Why me?"
"You're the new guy, and I think Hawk might object if we roomed Filby with Captain Atkins." Low Light replied.
"Here's your bed right over here." Hal said to Filby, "It's closer to the window than mine is."
As Filby walked into the room of the man who introduced himself as Harold, but preferred to be called Hal, he noticed the room seemed to be that of a person who had just moved in. He could recognized areas of the Palestinian desert, an area that Hal had said was a place called Israel.
"So you were in the Israelite army?" Filby asked Hal, as the latter hung up a picture of eight men ranging in age from twenty-two to forty carrying strange looking rifles and wearing the same olive green uniform that Hal wore.
"It's the Israeli army, and yes I was." Hal replied, "For three years and I served in the MAGAV or Border Guard's, undercover Counter Terrorist unit, called YAMAS, for seven years. We dress like Arabs and infiltrate Palestinian terrorist cells to kill or capture their leaders."
"Arab terrorists? Israel is a nation?" Filby replied, "It is a confusing world."
"It can be, and I live in it." Hal replied, "Those are my team mates from YAMAS."
"And these people?" Filby asked, indicating a framed photograph beside Hal's bed. The fellow with the short black hair and wearing jeans, a gray t-shirt and a desert tan jacket was obviously a younger Hal perhaps seventeen years old. The other three people were a girl of seventeen years with short blonde hair and brown eyes and a slim figure, a brown haired boy wearing a green sweater, brown vest, and brown trousers of sixteen years of age, and a smaller boy, of Hispanic origins with brown skin and black hair wearing a Metts baseball cap.
"That's me as a kid." Hal replied, "And the others are Margot, Derek and Moky. They're childhood friends of mine."
There was a certain melancholy in Hal's voice that Filby was able to detect as someone who had suffered loss. He could detect a kindred spirit in Hal, a fellow who had been fighting for ten years against a shadowy foe.
"HELP!!!!" came the shout, "NO! Not the lightning rod! Not the lightning rod!"
"What's going on?" Filby said, grabbing his shotgun and chambering a shell.
"Oh dear, it sounds like Trinity has got a hold of Pietro." Hal replied as he headed out into the hallway.
"Trinity? Pietro?" Filby said, "Can you slow down, my friend, I'm still trying to learn everyone's names."
"Pietro was the kid with the silver hair…" Hal began.
"And the attention span of a hyperactive preschooler." Julie snapped as she walked into the hallway in her silk pajamas.
"Somebody's in a mood." Hal remarked.
"Aren't you?" Julie replied, "These kids are maniacs!"
"So are kids anywhere else!" Hal protested, "At my old dig site we used to drive the adults crazy all the time. I remember one incident where Moky accidentally set the tent with the Fourth of July firecrackers on fire."
"HELP! SAVE ME! WAAAGGHHH!!!" Pietro screamed.
"What's going on here? What kind of madhouse is this? What did I just get myself into?" Julie said, visibly upset.
"Lets just say that Pietro was sticking his nose where it didn't belong, namely in my journal," Wanda said, "He got his just deserts."
ZZAAAP! "Huh, what's cooking?" Pietro said, "MEEEEEE! YEOUCH!!!!!!"
"I rest my case." Julie said, folding her arms across her chest.
"Kids will be kids." Hal replied, "Besides, at the dig site…"
"Will you stop the dig site stories!!!" Julie and Filby both snapped at Hal, "You've been telling them since you've known me!"
"And you've been telling them since you drove me back here!" Filby said, "I do like history, but did the lot of you lads at the dig site have to cause that camel stampede through the desert!?"
"Will you guys stop arguing out there and save me…?" Pietro screamed, "NO! Not the feather tickler! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! NO!!!! ARRAGGGHHHHH!!! Agh! Agh! Agh!"
Shipwreck came staggering out of his room saying, "Trinity, you can torture Pietro tomorrow morning, can you just let this house get some sleep!?"
Shipwreck entered the Triplet's room wearing only his sweatpants and a wife beater t-shirt. He cut Pietro, who was wearing the torn up remnants of his uniform and a pair of boxer shorts with red rocket ships on them.
"The horror! The horror!" Pietro moaned. Just then he heard the click of a camera shutter.
"Hey Quickie!" Lance said, "It looks like your rocket ship underpants aren't so lucky after all! Ha ha ha!"
Pietro said, "Give those negatives to me Lance…"
"No way!" Lance said, "These will be great for blackmail later on…"
"Oh no you don't!" Pietro shouted.
"I wonder how Tabby will like this picture of you in your wucky widdle wocket ship underpants…" Lance said.
"Oh no you don't!" Pietro snarled, and tackled him, "DIE!"
The two boys brawled through the hall as the babies woke and bawled. Julie turned towards Shipwreck with more than a little worry etched into her face, "Is this normal?"
"I'm afraid so. Drink anyone?" Shipwreck said.
"Count me in." Filby said.
"Me too." Hal replied.
"Count me out." Julie replied as she walked into her room and slammed the door.
TBC