The Old Soldier

Disclaimer: Same as before…

AN: I realize some terms might be new to you guys, so I put a glossary at the end…

"He who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, may he bless the soldiers of Israel." -Prayer for the Soldiers of Israel.

Gaza, 1995: The convoy of four Israeli Sufa Jeeps and two large five ton trucks drove along the roadway. The MAGAV jeeps were escorting the IDF trucks to their new convoy. It was when they rounded a corner that the RPG exploded, striking one of the jeeps. For at least one young soldier in the convoy this was his first introduction to battle. As soon as the explosion hit the jeep, the convoy stopped and the soldiers, MAGAV and IDF alike, fanned out aiming their weapons in a three hundred and sixty degree arc, engaging hostile Palestinians as they appeared.

Ted Griffin, barely twenty-two years old and a new recruit to the MAGAV, ducked behind the jeep of his vehicle and fired his M16 at the Palestinian ambushers, seeing one of them crumple dead to the ground. He went to change out his empty magazine with fumbling, shaking fingers when he saw a Palestinian fighter about to shoot his AK47 at the medics. He had no idea that Ted was nearby, just outside his field of vision.

Ted grabbed one of his hand grenades, pulled the pin, and threw it at the Palestinian. It landed perfectly beneath him, right between his legs and exploded with a mighty flash, throwing its victim into the air.

"Assault through! Assault through!" came a shout.

The Israelis began to turn the assault on the ambushers, the few that still remained who hadn't fled or been killed. They charged towards them, half the force covering the advancing elements. A Palestinian raised an AK and was cut down by at least a dozen Israeli weapons fired simultaneously.

Almost as soon as it happened, the ambush ended. The soldiers evacuated the wounded, destroyed the wrecked jeep with a thermite grenade, and did a damage assessment. As he stood sentry duty, Ted got a first look at the youth he'd killed with a grenade. His right foot was blown away and his fingernails in the right hand were missing as he had spastically clawed at the ground in his last seconds of life, gouging little holes into the rocky soil. His right was little more than a bloody socket, his left was frozen open, a snapshot of terror and accusation.

Ted awoke with a start. There was no way in hell he was going back to sleep tonight. There was that very interesting rock formation on the hill behind Misfit Manor he had wanted to check out. He picked up his IMI Jericho 941F 9mm handgun and holster and strapped them in his concealed holster after he'd dressed and walked out the door.

He began to climb the hill and began to climb around the large boulders at its summit, moving laterally, losing himself in the challenge of traversing laterally along the rocks a few feet off the ground. Bouldering wasn't quite like climbing the 250 foot cliff a couple days prior, but it still had its challenges, such as moving laterally ten feet on a feature with very tiny foot and hand holds. It was as if climbing the rocks took away what plagued him in the night time.

"Nightmares?" Came a familiar voice from atop the large boulder. Ted scrambled up the boulder, hauling himself over the top.

"Gabriel," Ted replied, "How'd you guess?"

"Considering I've known you almost all of your life, I understand you pretty well…" Blind Master replied.

"… all too frequently you do." Ted replied.

"It's good to see you've returned." Blind Master said.

"A lot of my buddies are still out there, though." Ted replied.

"You'll be on operations soon enough." Blind Master replied.

"I hope so." Ted replied, "He who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, may He bless the soldiers of Israel."

"It's tough being here when your unit's out there, still fighting." Blind Master observed.

"YAMAS is one of the busiest Special Forces units in all of Israel." Ted replied, "There wasn't a day in Jerusalem or the Territories where we weren't running operations."

The sun was rising, slowly over the horizon. "What are you doing up?" Ted asked.

"It's peaceful out here in the early morning…" Blind Master began, and stood up from his cross legged seating position.

Ted reached for his pistol and turned the safety off. There was already a round chambered, from force of habit, he always chambered a round. This meant he slid back the slide and put a bullet into the chamber before putting the fifteen round magazine into the magazine well.

"I hear it too…" Blind Master said. From behind a small stand of brush they could hear movement, something roughly the size of a human.

"Must be a deer." Ted guessed.

"Sounded a bit small…" Blind Master argued.

"A fox or coyote perhaps…" Ted guessed.

"That smell certainly doesn't remind me of those animals." Blind Master said, "I have a feeling something is amiss."

"We'd best get back to the house." Ted agreed, the fact that the Blind Master seemed to have goose bumps all over his skin was a key that something was wrong. The fact that the ninja that he'd known since boyhood, a man who was almost always calm, centered, and composed seemed afraid was very disturbing.

The two men walked down the hill, feeling throughout the time that someone was watching them from the brush. They were unaware of the yellow, glowing eyes watching them from the bushes.

"Where were you?" Emily asked Ted as he walked into the house.

"Around. I had to take a walk to clear my mind." Ted replied, "And grab a quick climb to boot."

"You've got a lesson in five minutes. What are you going to teach the kids?" Emily asked.

"Greek mythology." Ted replied.

At Emily's quizzical stare, he replied, "It was my minor degree back when we were at Cambridge together."

"I know that, but you came up with a lesson plan in that short a time period?" Emily replied.

"I made it up when I was climbing." Ted shrugged.

"Where's the write up?" Emily asked.

"What write up?" Ted asked.

"You still never write things down, do you?" Emily replied.

"I've got a brain." Ted replied.

"Word of advice, dude." Roadblock said, taking a cup of coffee from the coffee maker, "And not to be rude. Around these kids, if you have a brain, it won't last long. Their capability for antics is very strong."

"They're just kids." Ted replied, "How bad can they be?"

The Canadian walked off towards the school building and Roadblock said, "Famous last words."

Ted walked into the school room and promptly descended into chaos. Xi was practicing disco moves in the far corner, Wanda was casually shoving Pietro's face into a nearby goldfish tank, and Blob was reading a psychology book and eating a peanut butter and liverwurst sandwich.

"Alright, who knew what today's assignment was?" Ted asked the class.

"It was Ovid's Met-Meta-something…" Blob said.

Pietro rolled his eyes, though he was soaked to the bone, the speedster was trying to regain some sort of dignity, "Metamorphosis, Blob."

"What's that?" Blob asked.

"It's when one thing is transformed into something else." Althea replied, "Right?"

"Exactly." Ted replied.

"You mean like when Kitty turns perfectly edible food into toxic substances that no one can identify?" Xi asked.

"Who's Kitty?" Ted asked.

"Lance's soon to be ex-girlfriend." Pietro quipped.

"Pietro, you're going to metamorphose into a corpse! DIE!" Lance shouted and dived after Pietro.

"Good word usage, Lance." Ted replied, "But there are other stories where people are transformed into more than corpses in Ovid."

"You need therapy Lance. Kitty is definitely an example of bad taste!" Pietro laughed as he ran around and around.

"I'll give you therapy! Death Therapy!" Lance shouted, chasing him around with a broken chair leg.

"People underwent some bizarre changes in the Metamorphosis." Ted continued as Lance and Pietro were fighting in the corner.

"Like the Arachne lady that got transformed into a spider?" Wanda said.

"Exactly." Ted replied.

"I wish someone would turn Pietro into something." Wanda said.

"I think Lance is turning him into a bloody pulp." Arcade quipped.

"Lance, Pietro, this is no time to engage in stereotypical masculine aggression." Fred said, in a psychiatrist's tone.

"Anyway," Ted continued, rolling his eyes as he and Fred attempted to separate Lance and Pietro, "Let's get back to the Metamorphosis."

"Can't we learn something cool?" Pietro whined.

"Your military tactics classes aren't this afternoon." Ted replied, "I believe I'm teaching you undercover tactics."

"Can we skip Ovid and learn that instead?" Pietro continued.

"Not until this afternoon." Ted continued.

"Aww…I wanna learn how to disguise myself…" Pietro said.

"Class," Ted replied, in a nearly exasperated tone, "Would it help if I made the lecture more interactive…"

"How so?" Wanda asked.

Ted fixed Pietro with a wicked gleam in his eyes, and tossed several rolls of duct tape into the audience.

"Uh oh" Pietro said, looking around the classroom as all of the Misfits came and surrounded him…

"I hope Ted's alright." Emily said, as she and Cover Girl headed for the classroom and opened the door.

What they found was Pietro being duct taped to the chalkboard by Ted and the rest of the class.

"Ted, you're supposed to be teaching the Metamorphosis!" Cover Girl shouted.

The Canadian turned around saying, "Oh I am. I'm just making the lesson more interactive."

"I'm glad the schoolroom's still standing. However, what does duct taping Pietro to the board have to do with the Metamorphosis?" Cover Girl asked.

"Easy," Ted replied, "I'm defining the metamorphosis using a demonstration dummy. Class, the duct tape is in lieu of an actual cocoon. A caterpillar, in this case represented by Pietro enters the cocoon and transforms into a butterfly. In Pietro's case, the cocoon should turn him into a better behaved student."

"It seems you've got a handle on the class." Cover Girl said, "That's a good thing."

"Yes, it's not that hard." Ted replied, "It's like in Gaza, where you arrest the instigator of the riot and everything calms down. In Israel we learn how to handle chaos."

"Huh? What's this?" Ted asked. In his right hand was a small teddy bear in camouflaged fatigues with polished black boots. The way that Cover Girl paled and backed off, you would have thought he was carrying twenty kilograms of Semetex (AN: Czechoslovakian explosive, it takes a complete moron to accidentally detonate it).

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HOLDING SERGEANT SNUFFLES!" came a shout, "I'M GONNA KILL YOU ALL! BANZAI!"

CRASH! Beach Head came flying through the drywall and collided solidly with Ted, flipping him end over end over the teacher's desk.

Later that night: "Do you think Ted will be alright?" Cover Girl asked.

"Psyche Out just released him from the infirmary an hour ago. He was lucky Beach Head didn't maim him to death." Shipwreck replied.

"Where is he then?" asked Low Light, "We're supposed to have a meeting tonight."

"He's probably outside somewhere." Blind Master replied.

"Emily, you know Ted from the old days, is he always like this?" Low Light asked.

"Unfortunately, yes." Emily replied, "He has a habit of disappearing whenever he gets the chance."

"Where would he go?" Shipwreck asked.

"He's probably climbing the rocks out by the back yard." Blind Master replied. That was when they heard the report of several gunshots.

Ted was climbing the rocks again when he heard the sound of muttering directly behind him. He followed its source to see a teenager, about eighteen years old.

"I can't believe she did that…" Lance grumbled.

"Did what?" Ted replied.

Lance jumped about a foot at the voice behind him. He turned to see the new instructor, the swarthy Canadian guy wearing jeans, hiking boots, and an olive green t-shirt with some kind of foreign writing on it.

"I just heard from Trinity, you know what I mean…" Lance said.

"You mean those three maniac girls that love experimenting on people?" Ted asked.

"Yes, but that's not what I mean." Lance replied, he just didn't care who he vented to right now. Spirit was off gathering medicinal plants in the desert, the others kept making stupid wisecracks which he wasn't in the mood to hear, and the adults were nowhere to be found.

"I can't believe Pitor's going on a date with her tonight." Lance groaned.

"Your rival for Kitty's affection, I imagine." Ted replied.

"Yes." Lance replied.

"One date doesn't necessarily mean Armageddon." Ted replied, "I remember that rash action in this arena can lead one halfway across the world."

Before Lance could inquire a strange looking creature leaped out from behind the rocks. It was shorter than either of them, its skin dark as night, its hands ending in claws, its yellow eyes glowing menacingly. Ted pulled his pistol out and turned the safety off as more of the creatures began to appear, about five in all. They paused momentarily, and then charged.

"Get back to the house!" Ted shouted, and began to shoot at the first of the attackers, hitting it with four 9mm rounds to the chest, neck, and face.

Lance sent a tremor that knocked the other four off their feet or unbalanced them. Taking advantage of their disorientation Ted shot the two nearest creatures with two rounds to the face apiece at eight meters away. Two more remained and as they stood, Ted plastered them with rounds and then dropped the almost empty clip and slammed his second magazine in. Both Lance and Ted scrambled madly down the hill as fast as they could go…

TBC (Up next, an investigation into the new foe and a crossover with some very familiar heroes from literature and film.)

Glossary:

Intifada – Literally the "uprising" against Israeli occupying forces in the Territories.

MAGAV – Border Police, the 'green' police. They operate on the borders of Palestinian settlements and in fact there are some areas where 'blue' or regular police officers cannot go without MAGAV escort. MAGAV is the muscle of the Israeli police. Many Ethiopian immigrants and Druses serve in the MAGAV.

MAGAVnick – Slang for MAGAV personnel.

Mistaravim – Hebrew for becoming an Arab.

YAMAS – The Hebrew acronym for Mistaravim Unit. YAMAS is the MAGAV's undercover counterterrorist unit.