Disclaimer: see chapter one.
Jet looked about the room, managing to resist looking at any of the figures that seemed to multiply by the second, and finding Shadow amongst all his people, called her over to him.
Shadow was totally unlike her father, he thought, as she deftly walked around people, her long, tied-up hair swaying across her neck and shoulders. She could have been Earth military, except for the fact that she was born and raised on Atlantis, like most of the unrescued children were, and Atlantis had it's own military division.
She quickly walked over to him, weaving her way through the haphazardly placed containers, sitting children, and semi-frantic teenagers who were trying to regain some semblance of control, as though sensing that her presence was urgently required. She probably could, Jet contemplated, she does seem to have a knack for precisely that sort of thing.
As she stood in front of him, the top of her head barely reaching his shoulders, he proceeded to ask her a very important question.
"Shadow, could you please look on the floor behind me to my right? Tell me if you see anything."
She quirked an eyebrow, and a slight smile showing her amusement showed briefly on her face before she managed to cover her emotions.
"Except floor, Jet?" she asked, glee filling her voice.
"Except floor, smartass," he replied, lightly cuffing her up the back of her head.
She quickly glanced down, not really looking, and then raised her eyes towards Jet.
A second or so later, her mind actually processed what she had seen, and her eyes widened almost comically. Her whole head leant forwards this time, her eyes firmly affixed on the floor behind him.
She raised her head back up towards him, and told him, "I can see a figure lying on the floor made out of white mist."
She could see him! Granted, she wasn't seeing the exact same thing, but! He wasn't seeing things.
She was only seeing mist though, he thought to himself, and wondered why.
They stood silently for a few seconds, and then Shadow asked in her slightly accented voice if there was anything else she could do for Jet.
"Right, sorry. My mind got away from me. I need you to organise a search of the crates for bed sheets, food, and anything else you think we might need for tonight. The rest of the Dragon's and I will be going to the Pit and taking the stunned and wounded with us. We'll also be taking most of the little ones with us. If you need any help, pull rank."
Whilst a lot of the children, teenagers, and young adults wouldn't have become a member of any of the military factions of Earth for various reasons, such as would have graduated school at the age of ten and gone onto become one of the worlds foremost expert on (insert specialised degree here), or simply because they weren't born on Earth, they were a part of the Dragons, or were one in training. They basically had to be able to pass what would have been the qualifying exams into the United States Air Force Academy, and be able to do anything that their rank in the USAF would have done.
There were two parts to the whole process. If you were an off world child, you had the option of becoming a Komodo, (which was named after the Komodo dragon) when you were eleven years old. If you had been on sanctuary, ie wherever the Expedition team was based for less than three years, even if you were older than eleven, you could only join the Komodos. You had to spend a minimum of three months in each rank, although some people had spent up to two years in one rank for some reason or another.
If you were raised a Lantean however, when you were twelve, you could join the Dragons. You didn't have to join the Dragons however. When you were eleven, you could have joined the Komodos and decided to stay with it until you completed all your ranks. You had to spend a minimum of two years in each rank in the Dragons before you could be promoted. You could also remain in one rank for longer than two years, because what you did counted as well. The commander of the Dragons, however, had to at least have his wings. It didn't matter whether it was as a Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel, or higher.
At thirteen, there was also the choice of specialising in a certain aspect of everyday life, such as engineering, weaponry, or R & D. It changed your insignia slightly, which were the Air Force symbols, by adding small circular gems to different areas of your symbols. Certain gems symbolised different things, like how blue sapphires where for engineering, the darker shades stood for Terran engineering, while the lighter ones were for Atlantean engineering, for example.
The whole thing was set up like the Komodos were the non-commissioned officers, and the Dragons the commissioned ones. And considering an American Air Force officer had created it, that felt understandable.
As a Lieutenant in the Dragons, Shadow was fully qualified and within her rights to ask any of her fellow Lieutenants or any of the Komodos.
That was of course providing they weren't falling asleep standing up, Shadow thought to herself as she noticed Trip, a Specialist Dragon, and friend of hers, leaning against a wall behind Jet, eyes closed and breathing deep, even though there were at least three of the smaller children, being tended to for gaining small cuts, bawling their eyes out only a few metres away.
As Shadow nodded to Jet, and started to move off, he grabbed her arm and whispered, "Better be prepared for anything."
None of his people had been armed before they came through the gate, the Wraith attack having come as a complete surprise, and near enough everything had already been packed away.
He watched as her eyes moved to the figure on the floor, and his involuntarily followed.
Shadow nodded her head again, more sharply this time, and quickly strode over to Berenice, a Komodo, and Krystian, a recently promoted Captain in the Dragons.
Krystian, with his hair tied back, looked a lot like his father had. Although many of the children and teenagers had only seen Krystian's father with short hair, at his funeral however, they had seen a few pictures of him with long hair, and Krystian had grown out his hair so that he could tie it back in homage to his father.
Shadow was talking to Berenice and Krystian, and pointed to Jet. Krystian's head followed the finger, and seeing Jet nod, proceeded to follow the orders Shadow gave him.
Krystian really did look a lot like his father, as the picture of Krystian's father in his early days of the expedition flashed across Jet's mind, a small smirk flashing across Jet's lips.
His face paled, and his lips lost the smirk. A lot like his father. His head glanced sharply towards the floor.
Oh. My. God.
This was not happening.
The three of them, (Shadow, Berenice, and Krystian) quickly searched through the closest crates, and finding the flack vests, put one each on. P90's were swiftly removed from another crate, one handed to both Berenice and Krystian. A thigh holster quickly followed for all three, and each received a zat'nik'tel to put in it.
The two, following orders given to them by Shadow (through Jet), walked off towards one of the side corridors so that they could accompany the group going to the Pit, one at point, the other at flank.
The pair stood on either side of the exit, waiting for the group they were going to guard. Neither of the two could possibly have seen, but they had both stood in the exact same place as two of the soldiers that only he, (and now Shadow) could see. He'd had to restrain himself severely from chuckling as the soldiers had joined forward, shuddering tremendously, and using their hands to rub their arms as though they were cold.
Waiting…oh right!
Jet started calling for the children who were going to the Pit towards him. They came in two's or three's and stood in a semi-circle around him. Daemon healed up the last wound on a small girl, packed everything he had used back into the container, and left it on top of an unopened crate near Shadow.
Jet watched as he began to make his way towards Hex, who was standing by Micky, waiting for Daemon's help to move him. Along the way, he passed by the still sleeping Trip, who after falling sideways slightly, was now leaning against a tall crate.
He watched Daemon look at Trip, then start to rub his finger across the base of her nose, a place where near enough everyone knew she was ticklish. Jet watched as she started to giggle in her sleep, then raise a hand up to rub her nose, as Daemon suddenly pulled his hand away, and then when Daemon began to tickle her nose again, he watched as bam! Her hand flung out and she hit Daemon in the nose,
At Daemon's sudden cry, she woke up, and seeing Daemon in front of her, clutching his nose, she immediately knew what had happened. She began expressing her utmost apologies, but Daemon just waved her off, saying it was his fault, as he began to walk towards Hex and the still unconscious Micky.
As Trip began following him, no doubt to keep apologising, Jet decided to nip this one in the bud, and called her over to him, and told her that they were going to the Pit to sleep, and that she was especially coming, because she was the only one who had fallen asleep since they'd gotten here.
After asking her how long she had been awake without sleep, she replied that it had only been two and a half days, but that she'd been running off of coffee for most of that. He just replied that it was typical of her family to run off of stimulants in times of desperate measures. She replied immediately, saying that at least she hadn't gone for 'the heavy stuff'.
He took that as the end of the conversation, and looking around, noticed which of the Komodos were more awake than the others. He then told Byron, Romolo, and Rhea, who looked a hell of a lot more awake than anyone else in the room that they were to help Shadow.
He noticed that Shadow had grabbed a little one from the back of his group and had placed a bunch of linen into his hands, Trin and Tyeena, who were some of the oldest off worlders, and who currently looked more awake than some of the others in the party, namely himself, had each been given a relatively small box full of something, he didn't know what.
Jet then began to notice that Hex and Daemon were now closer to the exit, and were holding Micky between them, in some sort of converted armchair hold. Marcus was easily carrying Cas, his twin sister, and her long red hair having come free of the bobble that had held it back was now draped over Marcus' arm.
Someone had thoughtfully moved Z closer to the exit, and she was starting to mumble slightly, waking from the stunner's effects.
Everyone he'd called for was now in front of him, waiting for him to start. He briefly told them of the plan, and they were ready to go.
He felt like a shepherd guiding his flock to safety and salvation, or maybe he was the Pied Piper leading the rats to their doom. Either way, he disliked the feeling, and the foreboding heaviness that accompanied it.
He moved over to Z, scooped her into his arms, and then shifted her about a bit so that he could comfortably carry her. Her arm flung itself off of her body and hung down, and one of the smaller children, he couldn't see who it was, only that they had brown hair, carefully placed it back upon her body.
Jet mumbled a thank you to the child who had done that for him, as it would have been extremely uncomfortable for him, to carry her with her hand hitting his legs, knees, and potentially other parts of his anatomy.
Krystian took point by Jet, and they started walking off to the Pit.
He could hear faint echoes of Shadow ordering others about now, and all suddenly heard a crate lid as it crashed thunderously to the floor.
The figures that now seemed to constantly be around him, (jumping out from the middle of a child or crate, or who seemed to press themselves against the wall as they got further down the hall, but gasped in shock as the children walked through them), were not far from his mind.