Warning: Rated for language, violence and references to adult behavior.
The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.
Aelita, Jeremie and his father stood in front of a large building downtown. It was an old building, hundreds of years old. At the entrance stood two menu dressed in blue uniforms and wearing white hats, just as Mr. Thompson had the night of the attack. Above the doorway waived the flag of the United States of America.
"Here we are now, let's go inside," his father said.
Inside, there was another Marine sitting at a small reception table. They walked up to him and his father said he was looking for Master Gunnery Sargent Thompson, that they had an appointment.
The weeks leading up to this visit were a trial for Jeremie. Even though his physical wounds healed very quickly, the mental and emotional wounds were still open.
He still blamed himself for not being able to do anything to help the girls that night. In his mind, he knew his father was right, that there wasn't anything he could have done, but there was a small voice deep within Jeremie crying I could have at least tried!
In some ways, Aelita was even worse. Since the attack, she was afraid to be around anyone other than Jeremie, Sissi or Odd. The first time Ulrich Stern came up to her after the attack, she screamed and was five steps away before she realized what she did. When Jeremie was around, she would not leave his side. She would always touch him, or hold his hand, like he would disappear if she didn't.
The school psychologist was talking to both Aelita and Jeremie, almost on a daily basis, but so far hadn't been of any help.
Jeremie had also spent the time talking with his father. It seemed like they talked round and round the problem, Jeremie telling his father about his guilt, his father telling him there was nothing Jeremie could have done, Jeremie replying I could have at least tried.
Finally, Mr. Belpois made a decision. And this day, he, Jeremie, and Aelita had come to the United States Embassy in search of an answer.
A Marine took the group to an elevator, which took them a few floors up in the building. They were then led down a long hallway to an office. On the one of double doors was a nameplate, MGySgt. Thompson. The soldier opened the door and led them in.
"People here to see Master Guns, ma'am," he told the civilian receptionist. He then nodded to the group and took his leave.
"The Master Gunnery Sargent is in conference at the moment," she told Jeremie's father, "I'll let him know that you are here. It shouldn't take too long."
Jeremie and Aelita had settled into waiting chairs as Mr. Belpois dealt with the secretary. Aelita just sat looking at Jeremie, her hand on his arm. Jeremie sat and looked around the office.
The reception area was probably more ornate that Principal Delmas' office back at school. The millwork around the walls looked like the original French work, carefully restored to brilliance. There were fine paintings on the walls, as well as photographs, one being a photograph of the current American President.
The receptionist's phone rang, and she answered it. After talking with the person on the other end, she hung up and stood up.
"Master Gunnery Sargent Thompson will see you now," she said, escorting them to the door of Mr. Thompson's office.
As she opened the door, Mr. Thompson was walking around his desk to greet his visitors.
"Mike! Good to see you again! And how are you, Jeremie? Ms. Hopper, good to meet you again," he said, shaking each of their hands. Aelita did not shrink or back away from Mr. Thompson when he took her hand.
"C'mon in and sit. We can at least be comfortable while we chew the fat."
They were led, not to the desk, but over to a set of couches. Mr. Thompson showed Jeremie and Aelita seats on one couch, Mr. Belpois another, then took a seat for himself.
Jeremie didn't notice it until they sat down, but there were three other people in the room. Two he recognized at the two Marines, Sanka and Gomer. The other one was probably the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, other than Aelita.
She was about as tall as Sanka and Gomer were. She had the reddest hair he had ever seen, and it didn't look like it came out of a bottle. She was what he had heard called 'stacked,' meaning that she wasn't a straight up-and-down beanpole shape, nor was she dumpy or frumpy. She looked perfectly proportioned , almost like she stepped out of one of the paintings in the next room. She, like Mr. Thompson and the other two men, was wearing a uniform.
"You all know Cpl. Coffy and Cpl. Pyle. And this is Gunnery Sargent Ann Grace. She's my right hand man 'round here."
They all nodded in greeting, then Mr. Thompson continued, "Jeremie, Aelita, do you know why you are here?"
"We were hoping you could tell us that. Dad believes that you can help us somehow," Jeremie replied. Aelita just nodded in agreement.
"I hope I can. What I want to do right now is have a private chat with you, Jeremie. I'd also like Aelita to speak with Gunny Grace for a while, if that would be alright."
Aelita got a panicked look on her face, "could I just stay here with..."
GySgt. Grace spoke up, "you don't have to worry, Aelita. Nothing is going to happen to either you or Jeremie. Right now you are probably in the safest place on earth."
"There's also someone else who wants to see you," Mr. Thompson then said, "Miss Wilkerson has been after me all week about seeing you two. Damned if I know how she found out, but she won't stop harassing me until she has. So you can go visit her after you're done with Gunny Grace, Aelita."
Aelita's eyes brightened at the prospect of seeing Jeanie again, "okay then, let's go."
Ms. Grace said, "good, and just so you'll have a familiar and friendly, if not ugly, face in the room with you, Cpl. Pyle will be joining us, if that would be okay."
Aelita nodded her assent. Then she, GySgt. Grace and Cpl. Pyle left the room.
Mr. Belpois then said, "I think I can leave you two alone for a while. Tay, give me a call when you're wrapped up here. If you and your men are off duty then, I'll buy the first round."
"It's a deal, Mike."
With that, Mr. Belpois got up, mussed Jeremie's hair, and left. Jeremie was now alone with MGySgt. Thompson and Cpl. Coffy.
Sanka walked over and sat down with them. MGySgt. Thompson spoke first.
"Your father has been telling me about the last couple of weeks. Somehow, he tells me, you've got the wild notion in your head that you could have done something in that alley that night."
"I guess we'll never know, now," Jeremie replied.
"Tell me, son, what could you have done?"
"I don't know, something!"
"Cpl. Coffy, what were you thinking when you walked down that alley?" Thompson asked Sanka.
"Well first, Gomer looked down the alley and saw these ass... I mean gang members stomping on the kid," Coffy said, nodding at Jeremie, "well, you know how we are, Master Guns, we went in and took a look. Then one of the ba... persons started mouthing off at us. Then I saw Miss Wilkerson at the end of the alley in a bad way. I nodded at Gomer, and we jumped."
"What made you think you could take this gang on?" Mr. Thompson asked next.
"Well, they were all bunched up. You know, if you want to take on a couple of unknown assailants, you need to spread out a bit, to make it harder for them to take two guys out at once. These guys didn't, and we were on them like stink on shit, uh, pardon my language, son."
"And what about the two that held the girls?"
"Aw, Master Gunny, they were idiots! The way they were standing, even Major Everett could have hit them, meaning no disrespect to the Major."
"Jeremie, did you notice any difference between your answer and Cpl. Coffy's, aside from the colorful adjectives?"
"Yes, sir," Jeremie replied, "he knew what he was going to do when he went in."
"Well, that's not entirely true," Sanka began, but MGySgt. Thompson stopped him.
"No, Sanka, he's right. Jeremie said he should have done 'something.' You assessed the situation, matched it up with the training and experience that you had, then executed it."
"Jeremie, there was truly nothing you could have done that night. You didn't have the knowledge within you to do anything. Now, there's nothing wrong with that, but it's the truth nonetheless."
"What I want to know is, Jeremie, do you want to change that?"
Jeremie looked at the two men for a moment.
"Yes sir, I do."
"Alright, here's the deal. I'll help you out. Marines are some of the finest hand-to-hand fighters in the world, and we've been turning young men with less knowledge and skill than you have into men like Cpl. Coffy and Cpl. Pyle for years. Now, it will be hard, maybe harder than anything you've ever been through, but if you're willing to gut it out, I think you'll find what you're looking for."
"What about Aelita, sir," Jeremie then asked.
"Gunny Grace is basically making the same offer to her. Though, in her case, I think it's more so she can protect you, rather than protecting herself," Thompson replied.
"What do I need to do, then, sir?"
"First off, stop calling me 'sir,' I happen to work for a living. It's 'Master Gunnery Sargent,' 'Master Guns' or 'Master Gunny' from here on out."
"Second off, I'll need a phone number so that I can reach you. We will have to coordinate our schedules to get together, and one of us may not always be able to make it."
"Another thing I'll have to do is talk to your principal. He needs to know that we're not a bunch of perverts coming around making trouble for his kids. And I may also want to use some of your school's facilities in our program. Also, I will be making sure that your classwork does not suffer because of our little sessions. If I feel that my help is adversely affecting your grades, we're done, full stop, period."
"One last thing. Your father tells me that you aren't the most physically active person in the world. You spend an inordinate amount of time on your computer. That will definitely have to change, at least in the short term. I've also heard that you have a tendency to stay up all night, and don't get much in the way of rest. That will change. You are hurting yourself and potentially others doing that. Lack of rest probably got more people killed than enemy action. Fortunately, what I have in mind should automatically solve that little problem."
"Anytime you want to quit, all you have to do is tell me, and we're done, is that understood?"
"Yes, Master Guns," Jeremie replied.
"Good," MGySgt. Thompson replied. He took a quick look at his watch and said, "now I think that there are some ladies waiting for us to join them. We had best not disappoint them. Cpl. Coffy, dismissed."
"Aye-aye, Master Guns," Coffy said, and left.
Master Gunnery Sargent Thompson was right, Jeremie thought later on, staying up all night was out of the question. After the first session, Jeremie ached in places he never knew could ache. Not that the Master Guns was hard or brutal on Aelita and him, but he put them through a workout that Jim Moralés, their PE teacher, had never done.
It started out simply enough. At their first session, MGySgt. Thompson and GySgt. Grace took Aelita and Jeremie for a walk. They met outside of their dorm building and started walking, striking up a conversation as they did.
They all walked about the campus, talking about this and that. Then they got to the track and MGySgt. Thompson started jogging, all the while talking. Jeremie of course started jogging too, just to keep up his end of the conversation. Every now and then, Thompson would speed up a little bit, and Jeremie would speed up too. When Thompson was going too fast for Jeremie to keep up, he slowed down. All the while, he talked.
Quickly, Jeremie got too winded to keep his end of the conversation up. MGySgt. Thompson then slowed to a walk, and they walked silently for a ways. Jeremie would then catch his breath, and the Master Guns would start talking again. And they would walk and talk around the track. Then they were jogging again.
Aelita and GySgt. Grace were doing the same thing. Jeremie noticed Aelita talking with the woman, even laughing sometimes. Then, they too would start jogging, all the time keeping the conversation going.
They finished their session in front of the dorm building where they started. Jeremie and Aelita were both soaked in sweat, even though it was autumn. The Master Guns and Gunny Grace looked like they did when they arrived.
"Well kids, I think that'll do it for today. If it's okay with you, we'll meet again in a couple of days. I want to work you two up slowly before we start getting into the hard stuff."
With that, they left.
After that first few days, the activity got a little harder. They ran more and walked less. Master Gunnery Sargent Thompson didn't quite slow down as often as he did on the first day.
And Jeremie wasn't quite as exhausted or sore as the first day.
Soon after that, their instructors changed their focus. GySgt. Grace said that now they had a feel for the kids' stamina, and had gotten them a little conditioned, they could actually start some basic self-defense.
What MGySgt. Thompson and GySgt. Grace started teaching were what they called "the basics," how to block a blow, how to punch, and most importantly, how to get away. MGySgt. Thompson put it this way, "ninety-nine times out of one hundred your best bet is to get the Hell Out Of Dodge. You don't have anything to prove to a punk on the street."
"Then why learn anything else?" Aelita asked.
"Because of that one time in one hundred that you can't run and have to stand your ground," GySgt. Grace replied.
Both Jeremie and Aelita were tripped, punched, oh so carefully, and kicked. But in return, they got to punch, kick and trip right back. As Jeremie learned, he started feeling just a little more confident than he had.
Another thing he noticed was that Aelita wasn't clinging to him as much as she was before they started this. She also didn't seem as fearful, like she wasn't waiting for the bogey men to jump out of the shadows and take her.
Another thing he noticed. He liked snuggling with her in the park after they were done.