Chapter 3

Get, Get, Getting Along – Eric and team: Earpiece

Warnings: Bickering, slight self-esteem issues, mentions of boy/boy relations. References to Eric/Wes and Angela/Joel.

The rawest and un-beta'd-est. The mistakes are mine. All mine.

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Eric pressed his back against the brick wall, flattening himself against the building behind him until he was as unobtrusive as possible. In the dark it didn't make much of a difference, but Eric wasn't one to slack on protocol just because he had some natural cover. He held a fist up, signaling for his squad to halt, then moved towards the edge of the building.

He didn't see much when he ducked around the corner for a quick look, but he saw enough. Or at least, enough of a lack.

With one hand keeping his rifle trained in front of him, he used the other to activate the mouth mike of his earpiece. "Charlie team is in position. All units, what is your-?"

"Took you long enough."

Eric ground his teeth together, forcing himself to take in a slow breath. "Delta team," he said quietly. "This is an active training exercise, not a weekend stroll. Treat it as such."

"Sorry dog face," Taylor replied blithely. "Your glaring lack of humor overwhelmed standard battle etiquette for a moment there; it was just so damn impressive."

"This how you did things in the Air Force, Earhardt?" Eric rolled his eyes. "Or are we just privileged tonight?"

"Think of it as a special gift to you Army runts," the former yellow ranger shot back. "As in, I am awake at three in the morning, so you get to deal with my particular brand of-"

"Can't handle a few late nights?"

"Can't handle a little attitude?"

"Carter, whose idea was it to put them on the same team?" A quiet voice - distinctly belonging to the one and only Adam - asked. It was a resigned question, and one Eric did not particularly appreciate.

"I'm pretty sure it was Wes'," Carter replied. He sounded as equally resigned, the traitor.

"Should have picked Joel," Eric muttered. "But no, I thought I had chosen the lesser of two evils."

"As a member of Joel's team, I can confidently say that you did," Carter assured. Probably imagined himself as helpful. "I'm surprised they considered him conscious enough for piloting, considering how much he complains about not sleeping."

"New baby in the house will do that to you," Adam acknowledged. "He probably saw the chance to test out experimental aircrafts as a godsend."

"Don't tell that to Angela."

"Can we focus?" Eric snapped.

"I suppose that would depend on your definition of focusing," Taylor quipped. He could hear the damn smirk in her voice. "If by 'focus', you mean gossip like a bunch of prepubescent-"

"I mean focus in the traditional sense of 'get your shit together; we have an objective to reach'." Eric should have known better than to volunteer for this crap. Sure, it had sounded good on paper, but since when did anything ever execute as well as the utopian strategy planned for it?

"Inspiring words," Adam noted dryly. He sounded amused too, the ass.

Eric was taking back the foot massager he had bought the man for Christmas. There was no appreciation here at all.

"What can you expect from a two-bit grunt?" Taylor asked. "Besides, we all know Wes doesn't keep him around for his eloquence."

"Taylor." There was a hint of warning to Carter's words, but Eric didn't heed it, didn't pay attention to it- or to Taylor- at all.

"Charlie team is in position," the Quantum ranger repeated, swallowing around a sudden lump in his throat. The streets were clear in front of them, but who knew how long that would last for. "What's the word on defense, Bravo? Have you seen any movement?"

There was a heavy sigh. "Meyers-" Taylor began.

"Bravo team," Eric repeated, keeping his voice light. Free. Un-tense. He wasn't tense. So it wasn't hard to keep it from not being that way. It was completely natural. "What is your status?"

"No sign of enemy movement," Adam reported. "All squad members answered the last check in."

"Good," Eric replied, nodding. "That means they haven't determined where our main base is. We need to strike before we lose our lead."

"Meyers-" Taylor tried again.

"Eric," Carter added.

Despite however well Eric thought he knew the Lightspeed ranger, Carter always surprised him for when he decided to give people space, and when he decided it was time to talk.

"What?" Eric snapped. They had things to do. Time wasn't going to be on their side forever, and Eric wasn't throwing this training exercise over something as stupid as hurt feelings. Taylor didn't even have a point, they all knew that.

"I'm sorry," Taylor said. "That was out of line. Even for-"

Adam started hacking, a few rough coughs that sounded suspiciously like 'not now'.

Taylor sighed. "Alright, look. I know you guys think I'm a piloting master for all things air-related - as well you should - but sometimes trying out these experimental aircrafts that Chen and Stewart and your whole little brain quorum thinks up kind of…stresses me out. I wasn't really paying attention to what I was saying."

"So it was only a matter of time before you said something stupid," Adam added, part-chide, part-reprimand, all wise-guy-who-sneaks-his-knowledge-up-on-you-in-silence-because-ninja.

It was always the quiet ones.

Taylor let out a disgruntled noise. "Yeah, yeah. It was stupid. Your blondee totally loves you for more than just your glorious biceps."

"Do you think they're as good as Shane's?" Adam asked jokingly, his voice full of mirth.

"Do not mention Shane's biceps," Eric muttered, interrupting the possible requests of clarification from Carter and Taylor. "That's just asking for trouble."

"Trouble, in this instance, comes in the form of a devoted boyfriend who is very descriptive about his boyfriends…assets," Adam explained.

"Assets?" Taylor asked. "Or just his ass-"

"You know what? I'm just moving in," Eric decided. He could hear Taylor and her two probes flying around above them. She would keep an eye out for offensive forces. "Angela, are you still online?"

"Monitoring all channels for possible complications," the tech's voice replied dryly, sounding amused. That answered the question as to whether she was awake or not. "What can I do for you Charlie team?"

"If you could just lose the audio from the past five minutes for the official training report, I'd really appreciate it."

Wes didn't need to know about any…altercations over the comm.; that was more between a captain and his team, anyway.

"You're in luck Charlie team," Angela replied. "It would seem that those audio files have been corrupted."

Eric smiled, all teeth. "I knew there was a reason I liked you best, Angie."

"Don't push your luck Meyers," Angela chided. It was somewhat hindered by the obvious warmth in her tone. "Now, go and finish your mission."

"Mission, she calls it," Taylor griped as soon as the tech left the channel. "Really, we're considering a game of Capture the Flag a mission, now?"

"It's a mission when Wes is leading the other team," Eric replied. "Now let's move out. I bet anything he put TJ on defense, that means there'll be at least four different decoy flags."

"How do you think Ryan's doing?" Adam asked as Eric moved his team into position, motioning for his squad of Silver Guardians to follow him around the corner, deeper into enemy territory.

"If he's anything like me, he's just keeping his head above water," Carter replied, humor clear in his voice.

"Oh, ha-freakin'-HAH, stoic man," Taylor grumbled. "You know you love us."

"Our biceps, at least," Adam offered in his usual wicked amusement.

"Shut up," Taylor ordered distractedly. "I'm gonna try and do a barrel roll."

"Wing nuts," Eric grumbled. "They have the attention span of a gnat."

"I heard that Meyers," Taylor scoffed. "And after I pull off this awesome barrel roll, I'm gonna find Joel and lead him straight to your ass."

"Here's to multi-agency cooperation," Carter said quietly, a smile in his voice.

"And civilian consultation," Adam added.

"You guys are too mushy," Taylor complained. "Why do I hang out with you again?"

"You act like we had a choice in the matter." They hadn't, as far as Eric knew.

He really should have picked Joel.

"Heard that too asshole," Taylor said triumphantly. "That's it; I'm playing tag with Joel. That seems like a way more rewarding pastime right now."

"Let us know who wins," Adam called with a laugh.

Eric rolled his eyes, allowing the chatter to wash over him, and moved forward. The faster they captured the flag, the faster he could lord his victory over Wes and get back into bed with him, sleeping as one should at this god forsaken hour of the morning.

"Hey," Taylor called, snapping Eric out of his reverie. "You still with us dog face?"

"Yeah, yeah," Eric muttered, pressing onward. "I'm with you."

Whether he liked it or not.

But honestly, he liked it. He really, really did.

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Endnotes:

I imagine this as a joint training exercise between Bio Labs-Lightspeed Rescue-The Space team, with a few civilian consultants thrown in by way of Adam, Taylor, and Joel. This is sort of how I picture the build up to all the Earth-bound agencies that created ranger teams merging together into one entity. For now though, they're separate, with a lot of liaisons and joint missions.

And of course, thanks to iamastory for their review. As always, I am much obliged :D

Until next time :)