Sorry about the wait, ENJOY!
Alex bit back a groan, they were approaching the last check point of the third day of the trek, they had been walking for seven hours and James was complaining. Three days ago they had been chucked out a plane over the Amazon. Due to the terrain and age of the basic training kids they had each group tailed with two army members. SAS to be precise.
The first day it had been two called Falcon and Hawk, both hyper and older versions of Eagle. Alex had looked at them all day, the other four not realising they were being followed, he had at first been wary, then realised they were SAS and their for their safety he had left them alone, once they had gotten over the shock of him being able to see them no matter what they did. Alex smiled as he remembered what had happened at their camp that evening,
The SAS were gathered in a corner every now and again glancing across at their group, the basic training kids were cooking their tea, or trying to. One group was missing, out of the shadows two SAS men emerged followed by two exhausted ten year olds, the five teens not doing basic applauded, they got two glares in response,
"It's not mocking, it's legit! We've been there too!" Rat called, the glares subsided and they went to join their friends, there was a thundering of feet and a body launched himself at Alex,
"SNAKE! I caught a Cub!" A hyper SAS man yelled,
"YES!" One SAS man punched the air, "I told you it was Cub!" He exclaimed then collected his bets, along with a few others.
"Cubby! You didn't tell me you were back!" Eagle exclaimed,
"Gee, I wonder why bird brain." Alex shot back, "Get off."
"Eagle get off." Snake pulled him off the teen then stood behind him arms crossed, Alex glanced across to see Wolf standing on the other side of his gathering with Ben next to him, Eagle still had his wrist and pulled him up,
"So, you know what comes next don't you?" Wolf commented, everyone was watching confused, Alex tried to sit back down but Snake caught him around the waist and kept him standing,
"So when say things like 'Giving Cub his medical is easier than this' its an insult." Hawk commented,
"Yes." Ben grinned at the other SAS man,
"You can come with us or we can use the... other method." Snake stated, Alex shuddered but didn't move,
"I'm fine." Alex snapped,
"That in itself proves you are not, if you were fine the comment would be sarcastic and wouldn't be anything like that because those words bring to attention the thought that you may not be." Snake stated then put and arm around his waist and dragged him into the tent.
"Well that was easier than normal." Eagle commented cheerfully.
"That was easier?" Lauren repeated,
"Yeah, first time they had to sit on him and drug him." Eagle grinned, "So are you Cub's new friends?"
"He's Alex here." Ben reminded his team mate, arguing was heard from the tent,
"There we go." Wolf grinned scaring the teens slightly, "How bad is he?"
"Not as bad as normal, but this is Alex we are talking about." Ben sighed, Wolf gave Ben a significant look and the spy nodded frowning.
"Cub. Arms up." Snake ordered,
"No." Alex glared, it wasn't a proper glare though,
"Alex. Please." Snake shut his eyes sighing, Alex relaxed slightly and Snake took advantage of that and grabbed the hem of his top and pulled it off,
"HEY!" Alex exclaimed,
"Should have done it yourself." Snake replied smugly. "Cub." He sighed again seeing the bruising on his torso. Alex stayed still while Snake poked and prodded, his eyes were shut so he couldn't see when the medic stopped moving, but he felt it.
"Cub." Snake's voice sounded estranged, Alex opened his eyes and saw the medics hands hovering over two twin bruises on his hips, they were strangely shaped bruises but where they had come from was obvious when you saw his back. The were thumb prints, the rest of the hands wrapping around his hips. The medic left for a second and Alex collapsed onto the bunk in the corner head in his hands, when Snake returned he had another with him, the bunk jostled as the other sat next to him, an arm slipped around the teens thin waist and a chin rested itself on the top of his head,
"Again?" Ben murmured,
"Almost." Alex's voice broke in the middle, slowly a single tear leaked out from under shut eyelids. Snake glanced at the pair anger almost bursting out of him at Ben's words, then left before anything else happened, he stalked into the surrounding woods.
"Hey." Ben nudged him, their two SAS tails were now Ben and Snake, they had been swapped after the first day and had soon realised following them was pointless, as long as they didn't help and contribute they could walk with the group. Not that they needed help, Alex knew how to navigate as well as they did. "You OK?" The older spy checked,
"Just tired." Alex replied brushing off his concern, Snake cocked an eyebrow,
"You're tired after this?" The medic queried,
"No he's tired from lack of sleep, four months in a different country meaning he has to translate everything he wants to say back into English and all this with no break in between missions." Ben answered for Alex,
"I can give you-"
"NO!" Ben and Alex exclaimed cutting him off before he could say 'sleeping pills',
"They are a bad idea." Ben added, "Don't you remember Kazakhstan?" Snake winced,
"Sorry, I'd forgotten, I also assumed that was a one off." The medic apologised,
"It was, we haven't done it since, and besides I had already tried that, sorry I couldn't warn you." Ben grimaced,
"It's cool, all in the past now, we know for the future." Snake shrugged,
"Alex?" Lauren called curiously, they had overheard the conversation but the tree at the back may well have been speaking another language for all they understood from it.
"Yes?" Alex jogged across to them,
"How do you have that much energy?" James moaned,
"SAS training." Alex grinned at him, "What'd you need?"
"We're lost." Lauren admitted, Alex grinned as the two boys protested this, "We are and they won't accept it." She handed him the map, he glanced at it then glanced around the area, the floor dipped away to the north and they had just come up a large incline,
"We're here." Alex told them after examining the map,
"Told you so!" The two girls exclaimed as the boys pouted.
"Shall we stop the blame game and just walk?" Rat suggested grumpy, the two girls grinned at the two unhappy faces, after a few more minutes of mocking and teasing they finally started moving. Four hours later they were clapping as the ten recruits stripped off their blue shirts and tugged on clean grey ones.
"Alex," Lauren called, he looked across and saw four grinning faces, "As you wouldn't give us your file, we know you say it's classified," She stopped the protest before it had started, "Zara couldn't accurately know how good you were, so she thought you would go through the same process as the rest of us." Lauren handed him a clean grey top, Alex burst out laughing,
"And the grey one I have been wearing for the past six days?" Alex queried,
"You have now earnt it." Kerry grinned, Alex thought he'd please the cherubs and put it on, glad it was dark enough so no one could see his scars, he saw Lauren give him a curious glance though.
"Home kiddies!" Kazakov bellowed, a cheer went up causing a few of the SAS men to exchange amused, indulgent, smiles,
"So, what do you think of my kiddies SAS?" Kazakov demanded on the plane,
"We'll, we've only ever had one 'kiddie' at our camp and..." Lynx shrugged and gestured at K unit, "Most of those dealings went through them. But I can say, I see no aspiring Cub's."
"Cub's circumstances were... unique, I doubt they could ever be repeated." Ben commented,
"True, but to get so many children up to that standard, I admit, it's reasonably impressive." Lynx played the diplomat.
"Thank you. What were the circumstance around Cub?" He asked,
"Sorry, can't say." Snake cut in, "OSA." He explained,
"How old was he?" Kazakov wasn't giving up easily,
"When he first came he was 11 but," Eagles next words were covered by coughing, most of the other SAS men had just inhaled whatever they had been drinking or eating in shock,
"He was what?!" They exclaimed, almost as one.
"How old did he look?" Eagle snorted, there was a slight chuckle, everyone turned to face Alex,
"You do realise the last time this conversation occurred you did exactly the same as them, if I recall correctly Eagle tripped over his own feet and Wolf dropped his gun on his toe, Snake you just froze." Alex shrugged,
"Meanwhile Fox stood smugly in the corner the 'I knew before you' smile on his face." Wolf growled,
"Well I did!" Ben exclaimed,
"Also, the argument they are about to put forward to you Lynx, is exactly what I told them nearly three years ago, it's nice to know they actually listened." Alex cocked an eyebrow at his unit, they shifted uncomfortably, then resumed the 'how old is Cub' argument with the other SAS men, thankfully all the Cherubs were too fast asleep to hear the conversation, all apart from one. Lauren Adams had woken when the conversation had started, silently she resolved to find out all she could about Alex Rider before the mission was over, he seemed to be an enigma wrapped within a contradiction.
Please, Please, review!