Speckled Dust and Dark Shadows

Ch 3

A/N: So here's a big reason why I haven't been updating lately...

USAF.

That's right. I'm an Airmen now. So updates are sure to be very very spotty.

The food on the Might Mo II wasn't bad at all. That said it was better than an MRE in the field. I was half way through a piece of chicken breast when I spotted Dust coming in, he was wearing his new clothes from the gift shop. I had to contain myself when he stumbled over the hatch lip. Most people did that on their first time so I didn't hold it over him. The boy looked like he was never in the middle of a gods forsaken battlefield a few hours ago. I flagged him down. He came over and sat down.

"So how's it?" I asked, after swallowing the bite I'd taken a few seconds before.

"This ship is very nice." he replied, "The sailors are all very strange though, a lot of what they say doesn't make sense to me."

"Really?"

He nodded, "One guy asked me if I wanted to go see a white sea bat below decks later on today."

I snorted a laugh and almost choked on the mashed potatoes I was eating.

"What's so funny?"

"Let's just say they pulled that shit on me a while back. You don't want to go see a white sea bat, Dust."

"Why not? Is it dangerous?"

"That depends. Ever been slapped in the ass with a cricket bat?"

"No."

"Then I'd advise you to save yourself the pain."

He looked at me funny, "Is this some kind of joke or something?"

I nodded, "It's an old sailor's joke. What they'd do is set up a box and tell you that inside is the white sea bat. When you bend over to look at it, that's where the bat comes in: CRACK! Right on the FNG's ass."

"Can't they get in trouble for that?"

"Are you kidding? They do it to everyone, any rank any service. No one does jack about it cause when you really break it down it ends up like this: these guys have been on this vessel for five to six months with no real place to go. It's all in good fun really."

"If you consider fun as violent."

I took a bite of my chicken again.

"So what's on the menu?" he asked.

"I got the chicken plate deal. Comes with potatoes and steamed veggies." I replied, "Not bad for a sailor's food. You want a plate?"

"Does it cost you anything?"

"Yea a little bit."

"Oh..."

I stood, "C'mon, dinner's on me."

"No no...I couldn't ask you to..."

"Nonsense. You just went through a battlefield with enemies shooting at you, fell out of a helicopter after it exploded and helped get me to the back up evac point. The least I can do is get you a hot meal."

I heard a low grumbling noise from opposite the table. Dust set a hand on his stomach, "Well...I am hungry..."

"Good, and because I'm a Chaos Mobian soldier, I get...privileges to put it lightly."

I took him back into the chow line and we stacked him up what amounted to about forty or fifty dollars in food. I paid with ten. Just about everyone in the military knew that when it came to a Chaos Mobian's need for food costs were...extreme. To put it simply, the carrier's entire kitchen I could probably go through in a month, not gain a pound and have enough energy to maybe last me ten deployments. Our eating costs were very high to the government but they waved it mostly because of how effective we were in combat. Plus what could I say, I wanted seconds and Dust looked like he hadn't eaten in a long time. I've seen a lot of fast eaters before but never one that seemed to literally inhale his food, and that's practically what he did. I finished my second plate and sat back in my chair.

"Not bad for ship food huh?" I asked.

Dust nodded, "I could get used to luxury like this."

I laughed and he gave me a look.

"What?" he said, "How is that funny?"

"Kid, this isn't a luxury, it's a way of life. This is one part of seven ways in the military lifestyle."

"Seven? You have more than one military? Why in the world would you need that many?"

"No, we have seven divisions...well really eight if you count DoD, but what you probably know of are only two parts: a Navy and an Army right?"

He nodded.

"We have an Army, a Navy, an Air Force, which is the most powerful Air Force on the planet mind you, a specialized group of soldiers that deploy with the Navy, called Marines, a specialized naval force that protects our shores and borders, called the Coast Guard, A group of local militia that serve in all branches that can be called up at anytime, the National Guard and then we have our back up guys which serve in all branches, the Reserves."

"Oh wow..."

"Yeah, the US has probably the greatest military force this planet has ever and will ever see. And you want to know something really cool?"

He nodded.

"That guy," (I pointed to a Petty Officer First Class who was sitting across from us) "And that guy," (I pointed at a Marine Corps Master Sergeant.) "That guy," (I motioned to a Navy Ensign.) "That guy" (I motioned to an Army Captain.) "And really any person on this ship in some kind of military dress, all want to be here."

"You aren't forced into it?"

I shook my head, "Now, sometimes life happens to people and they need us to help them either get started or pull themselves together, but for the most part everyone that is here wants to be here."

"That's really neat actually."

I nodded.

"So what do you do?"

"I'm normally an EOD tech,"

"EOD?"

"Explosive Ordnance Disposal. I find explosives and either disarm them or make them go 'boom' so that no one gets hurt. But I also do a lot of Special Forces work with the Rangers and whatever GUN has me do."

"Okay, you're using a lot of terms that I don't know."

"Right, sorry, you aren't from around here. Um...okay here's how I can explain it. I said earlier that there are seven branches of this military; well four of those branches have their own group of specialized personnel for special missions which we call Special Operations or 'SpecOps' for short. They are our Special Forces. The Army has the Rangers, Delta Force, Nightstalkers and the Green Berets. The Navy has their Sea Air and Land Commandos we call those guys SEALs Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewman or SWCC, those guys pulled us out of the fight with Robotnik's goons yesterday and a few EOD techs. The Marines have Force Recon and the Air Force have Para-rescue divers we call them PJ's and Forward Air Controllers. All of them have very specific skill sets and are very highly respected."

Dust nodded as I went on.

"Then there's my division. A Special Force of it's own kind. In addition to the humans practically owning the military, there's also a special division for Mobian called GUN, the Guardians of the United Nations. I'm one of the higher ranked GUN officers so I get a lot of pull with other guys in the military life."

"You're military sound much more complex than Giaus' army."

I shrugged, "I wouldn't call it more complex, just...specialized I guess you could say."

I spotted someone come in.

"Colonel Shadow," he said looking for me.

I waved, "Over here."

He came over, a Master Sergeant from the Air Force, "Your ride back home is here."

I stood, "C'mon Dust,"

The kid stood and followed me. On the deck of the Carrier was an Osprey VTOL. I hopped in the back, Dust was wary about it but got on and took a seat next to me. I noted the sheer volume of PJ's on this bird. Dust seemed intimidated by them, he clutched his sword tight. I motioned him to relax as the Osprey took back to the air.

"Are all these guys..." he started to whisper to me, well whisper as much as you could on a screaming plane.

I nodded, "All you guys are PJ's right?"

The Airmen nodded.

"Who's the senior here?"

I saw a Technical Sergeant raise his hand.

"Squad leader I'm guessing,"

"Element Leader actually." he replied.

"Same thing though right? You're in charge of these fine Airmen here?"

"Yes sir."

"My friend here wants to know what you guys do."

The Tech Sergeant nods, "It's simple really, we find our people, stitch them back together enough so they don't die on us then bring em home. WHY DO YOU DIE PJS?!"

And everyone except Dust and I responded, "That others might live!"

"That's something they do." I told the kid.

Needless to say Dust seemed...conflicted so I let off a little bit.

Well needless to say, Dust and I didn't arrive at Joint base McGuire until about 1800-1900 ish. I'd been stationed here for almost three years now and loved this place. New York, Massachusetts all of the best places to go to in the east US were right there.

"Oh wow..." Dust breathed once we'd gotten off of the Osprey and were making our way off of the flight line.

I led the way to the parking lot where we quickly boarded a bus that would take us home...at least it would take me home and Dust would just be a guest until we could get him home. I was really hoping for a call from Tails before I got back to the States...I guess hope was all I ever had anymore sometimes.

"So do you just drift around?" Dust asked me staring blankly out of the bus window.

"No. I live here." I responded. All of my gear was still packed up in the duffle I'd had on me, "My house isn't too far from the flight line so I wake up in the morning and sometimes just watch the Heavies take off."

"Heavies?"

"I'm using jargon again aren't I?" -I shook my head laughing a little bit- "Our cargo jets fly out of here. They bring supplies to our troops overseas and also around the States."

"Oh..."

"You alright kid?"

"I'm fine."

"You don't seem fine. Something on your mind?"

"It's just..." -he sighs and keeps his eyes on the building that pass by, barely illuminated by the buses front light.

"Hey, we'll get you back home okay?" -I patted his shoulder-

"That's what I'm worried about. What if there isn't a home for me to go back to? What if, even if I beat Giaus, we still lost the final battle?"

"Don't think of the 'what if' it's all you can do to hope that everything worked out."

Dust sighed saddened still. I patted his shoulder again, "It'll be alright Dust, you'll see."

When the bus finally rolled to a stop at the stop near my house, Dust and I departed. It was a short walk to my house just up the road. After I opened up the door I took note of the fact that the place was empty.

"You live alone?"

I sighed myself, "It wasn't always empty."

Dust didn't ask anymore and after I dropped off my stuff I showed him to a guest room. I then headed up to my own room. A king sized bed sat in the center...I'd order it for the two of us of course but she left me one day...I completely understood why also. GUN called me a lot. I couldn't be there always so I let her go, no fighting, no nonsense nothing. I did tell her she should probably go see the guy I made their godfather. With that thought out of my head I stripped out of my ACUs and flopped into bed.

I was woken up when I sense a spike in Chaos energy coming from Dust's room. Without hesitating I teleported down there. What I saw boggled my mind. Dust was floating there glowing bright white before his body tore in two. The two halves morphed and struck the ground leaving two beings on the floor. One was a black furred fox, dressed in clothing similar to Dust's minus the kid's hat. The other was dressed in a simple shirt and slacks. Both were unconscious. I didn't know what to do anymore so pardon me if all I did was stare until both woke up.

"Cassius!" the simply dressed on snapped slowly standing.

The one clad in black also stood I presumed he was Cassius, "It's pointless Jin, you can't beat me and you know it."

"Hey!" I snapped stepping between them, "None of that shit in my house, savy?!"

Both regarded me with strange looks.

"And who might you be, hedgehog? Are you a Moonblood sympathizer?" Cassius asked me, I watched him draw the sword he had on his back.

"Funny you should mention them. Dust said you didn't like them too much."

That took Cassuis for a loop, "And who is this Dust person you speak of?"

A thought occurred to me but it remained only such.

"Someone who once was both of you...but neither of you."

They looked at me like I was absolutely insane.

"You've lost you mind if you think I'd become one with that piece of trash over there." Jin snapped pointing to Cassius.

Cassius growled at him, "Should you anger me anymore I'll certainly kill where you stand."

That's when I took matters into my own hands, stopped time for a second to strike the napes of both of their necks and let it flow again. Both jarred forward and fell unconscious.

"Looks like I'm dealing with three beings...not just one."

This was about to get interesting.