December 23rd, 2022
SrA. Derrick J. Castellano
Air Force 125th Special Tactics Squad HQ
Portland, OR. USA
"Ow! Dammit!" Derrick withdrew his finger and shook his hand in the air, attempting to cool off the electric burn he had just received. He had been making some adjustments to his T.R.I.K. Projector when his finger grazed a loose wire and gave him a small shock. He was trying to work out it's kink once again and thought he had figured it out while doing a routine search and rescue in his Black Hawk helicopter earlier that day. The scanning instruments must have been damaged or dirty or something and he had gone to work on it immediately when he returned from his mission. The mission was a success and he was able to locate the missing children and return them to the safety of their parents. It was one of the things Derrick liked about his job. He was part of the United States Air Force in their Special Reconnaissance Division. He mainly did infiltration ops and assisted in search and rescue missions. He was also deployed to provide...you know, reconnaissance for mission control whenever he had to. That's where the device he was making adjustments to came into play. It was essential for Derrick's reconnaissance missions despite the annoying kink he still hadn't figured out how to fix. Derrick had seen active combat with a terrorist group called the "White Masks'' during his tenure with the Air Force. He'd gotten shot at a few times during a mission as he dragged his commanding officer away from enemy fire and onboard his helicopter. They had exfilled with their mission of gathering intel being successful. Derrick was commended for his bravery and resilience. Something he was not used to as people normally groaned or rolled their eyes in his presence. Not because he was a dick or anything, it was due to the fact that he rarely took anything too seriously. Derrick often used humor as either a defense mechanism or just to lighten the mood in the room as being in the armed forces isn't always a walk in the park. Derrick himself was about 5'10" and weighed about 190lbs. His hair was dark brown and kept short and he sported a five o'clock shadow. There was a pair of old sunglasses perched atop his head as he worked. His bare arms sported 2 full tattoo sleeves depicting old Norse runes. Translated, the runes said his name, his sister's name, his parents' names and the names of some Norse gods.
"Castellano," a voice said from behind him.
"That's my name, hold the applause." Derrick responded and turned to face his commanding officer, MSgt Nicholas Williamson. MSgt Williamson was a few inches taller than Derrick as well as a few years older. The guy was well built and had seen his fair share of combat. There was a scar across his right cheek that he got from a stray bullet many years ago. Williamson rolled his eyes at Derrick's comment but Derrick could tell that he was still amused. Derrick had that effect on people.
"2 things. One, your request to go home for Christmas has been granted. You may leave after you're done here,"
"Awesome! Thanks sir. My big sis will be home this year from...wherever she is nowadays. I know she was in Bolivia a few years back to assist some fireteam there," Derrick said, still trying to cool off his burned hand. He had deactivated his T.R.I.K. Projector so it wouldn't burn him anymore.
"Ah, yes. Speaking of your sister, someone is here to speak to you. He has an offer for you. I'll let him speak," Williamson said and stepped aside. A man walked into the room. He was about the same height as Derrick and just as well built and wearing a pair of black sunglasses. He had a pretty nice and well kept beard. Derrick pegged him as some guy from the Navy SEALs by the looks of his combat fatigues. Oh...this was what Williamson meant by "speaking of your sister." Williamson stepped out of the room as the Navy SEALs guy walked over to the empty chair beside Derrick. The man held out his hand and spoke.
"Senior Airman Castellano? Name's Craig Jenson but everyone calls me Blackbeard." Derrick shook his hand while the gears in his mind began to work.
"Hang on a sec...didn't you train my sister? Meghan?" Derrick asked.
"I did. Quite the high achiever your sister is Derrick. 4.0 GPA, multiple academic achievements, ambitions to become an Olympic swimmer before a car accident," Blackbeard said. Derrick nodded. Definitely sounded like Meghan Castellano.
"Yeah, I remember that crash. You'll never believe this, I happened to be at a nearby cafe with some buddies when it happened. I was 14 or 15 at the time...yeah, that sounds right. Some douchebag, who apparently got his license out of a cereal box, t-boned my mom while she was driving Megs to swim practice. I heard the impact and went out to check and saw my mom yelling at the guy, who was drunk...at like 2pm. Meanwhile, I ran over to the car and saw Meghan still in there, crying and holding her broken arm. She saw me and I helped her out of the car. Calmed her down with jokes and general shenanigans as we went to the hospital," Derrick recounted. He had noticed Blackbeard chuckling at his cereal box comment. Good, this guy clearly had a sense of humor.
"Granted her Olympic career was over after that. She decided that she wanted to be like our dad and went to the Army. I did too to be honest," Derrick continued.
"Your father's Colonel Castellano right? Of the Marine Corps? He works as an instructor nowadays right?" Blackbeard asked.
"Yeah, although he's been talking about retiring. Guy's getting too old to yell at anyone but me," Derrick said and leaned back in the chair. "So, what made you seek me out...Wait...is Meghan ok?"
"She's fine. I'm pretty sure she saw you on TV earlier today with some of her teammates. You also provided some valuable information to our special ops team during a mission in Canada with some of our operators. I've been reading some of your after mission reports. Williamson said you dragged him to safety once at great risk to your own life," Blackbeard said, crossing his arms. Derrick thought that this guy would have made a great pirate back in the day. "You don't actually know what your sister and I have been a part of since 2017 have you?"
"Can't say I have. She told me that she does a lot of counterterrorism stuff but that's pretty much all I get outta her. The US is pretty secretive. I can't even tell my own dad everything I do and he's a Colonel. I just tell him that I fly 13000lb machines in the air at 200mph," Derrick responded. Blackbeard glanced at the device that Derrick was working on. Derrick saw him smirk in amusement before he continued speaking.
"We have been a part of an international counterterrorism organization called Rainbow. It encompasses many nations from Spain to Germany and everywhere in between. It was dormant for years after those Vegas attacks but was restarted to combat the White Masks. We've been doing so for almost 6 years now. The White Masks have no intention of stopping. I understand you have run into them a few times, correct?"
"Yeah," Derrick said, trying to hide the fact that he felt betrayed by his big sister. Blackbeard noticed.
"Meghan couldn't tell you Derrick. There are less than 100 people in Washington DC that know about this organization. I come to you with an offer. There is a gathering of multiple Rainbow Operators for a Tournament in February. I have been selected as one of the team Captains. I would like to recruit you to my team and, if you perform well, you may be recruited into Rainbow," Blackbeard said. Derrick thought about it for a moment. He liked his job as it was but then again, joining Rainbow might give him a chance to work alongside his sister.
"Done. But why recruit me rather than another one of those Rainbow guys?" Derrick asked.
"Myself and the field commander, a woman named Ash, have been watching you Derrick. You have potential as well as a sense of humor which is something a few of the operators could benefit from and Meghan has spoken highly of you. Might be good to have you on the team to show some of the other ops how well siblings can work together...could even help these Polish sisters get along better. Anyway, I've been keeping this plan on the down low. Only the Director of Rainbow, we call him Six, knows about my plan to recruit you. He's on board. I also have a German operator giving the same spiel to another new recruit. We use codenames. Your sister's codename is 'Valkyrie.' Do you have an idea for a codename? Perhaps something within the same kind of theme," Blackbead asked, stroking his...well, beard. It took Derrick a grand total of 30 seconds to come up with a codename. He picked up his T.R.I.K. projector, attached it to his arm and back and then powered it on. Derrick took out his phone, took a quick picture of Blackbeard and uploaded it to the device's AR/holographic computer on his arm. He entered a few commands and the advanced holographics switched on and the image completely covered Derrick's body. Blackbeard watched in awe as Derrick transformed into his clone...with one minor difference. See, that kink in the projector caused the image being imitated to have a slight difference from the original. In this case, the holographic Blackbeard's sunglasses were white but everything else was 100% the same. When Derrick used it most of the time, no one could tell the difference between the original and the imitation. The only thing it couldn't do was change Derrick's voice but he circumvented that with his variety of near perfect foreign accents he could speak in. He usually watched his target's mannerisms and studied their personality for a bit before imitating them. Derrick, as Blackbeard's clone, moved flawlessly, as if he was Blackbeard's twin with white sunglasses. Derrick saw Blackbeard begin to laugh.
"Out-fucking-standing!" he said.
"Call me….Loki," Derrick said.
December 24th, 2022 & December 25th, 2022
SrA. Derrick J. Castellano
Castellano Residence
Oceanside, CA. USA
Derrick crouched behind a tree near the driveway of his parents house with their dog, a golden retriever named Josie. Derrick had put Josie in a Halloween costume, the classic mutant spider. Josie didn't mind. She LOVED Derrick. Currently she was being a good girl and laying down near Derrick's feet. Any minute now his big sister would be arriving at their parent's house. He was going to scare the crap out of her and it was going to be HILARIOUS. Within minutes, he spotted Meghan drive up in her rental Dodge Durango and park in the driveway next to Derrick's Toyota Avalon. Josie had noticed Meghan and perked up. She looked at Derrick. The time was now.
"Go get her Josie, get Meghan," he whispered to her. Josie sprinted toward Meghan, her tail wagging happily. Derrick got the reaction he was hoping for. Meghan took one look at the mutant spider Josie and screamed rather loudly. Derrick doubled over with silent laughter. If there was one thing he liked more than saving innocent people, it was pulling pranks on his sister. He started to hear Meghan yell for their father before she suddenly stopped.
"Jesus Christ Derrick," she said angrily as Josie barked happily. "Where the hell are you?" Again, the stars aligned for Derrick. Meghan was currently facing away from him towards the house. He snuck up on her, mimed powering up a car battery and gave her a jumpstart right below her ribcage on either side of her. She jumped and turned.
"Hi big sis," Derrick said before giving her a hug. Meghan returned the hug. She might have to deal with Derrick's shenanigans quite often but Derrick knew that she loved him very much. Meghan was slightly shorter than he was with blonde hair. She had some muscle on her but she wasn't jacked. She also sported 2 full tattoo sleeves, her's looked more Viking like rather than Derrick's Norse runes.
"You're a jerk, you know that," Meghan told him. "You know I don't like spiders,"
"Why do you think I chose the mutant spider getup for Josie?" Derrick said and started to get Josie out of the costume. It was rather warm today. Around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. As soon as Derrick got the costume off of Josie, Josie went to Meghan's side and tried to get her ears scratched. Meghan did so.
"When'd you get here?" she asked.
"Last night," Derrick answered.
"Hey, I saw that you rescued those kids the other day on TV. You actually looked professional on camera for once," Meghan said and punched Derrick on the shoulder as they started walking toward their parents' house. Ah, so Blackbeard's assumption was correct. After rescuing the young kids, Derrick had answered a few questions for a reporter. He even kept the jokes to a minimum. He smiled to himself as the younger of the 2 kids had kept calling him "The Funny Man."
"You saw that? Did they get my good side?" Derrick asked as he pulled open the door for Meghan and Josie.
"One of my coworkers thought they did. You might remember her. You spent some time in Vancouver before, right? Remember someone named Tina Lin Tseng? Cause she definitely remembered you," Meghan asked. Derrick thought for a moment. He did. Derrick had given her and some other guy named Sébastien a ride once before along with some intel he had retrieved. That must have been the thing Blackbeard mentioned the other day. He also remembered that Tina's eyes were extremely pretty, as she wore a face mask, but he kept that information to himself.
"I do. I picked her and her teammate up somewhere in Canada and gave them a ride to some classified location after helping them grab some file. She sat next to me that whole ride too now that I think back on it. Is she part of your Rainbow team or whatever you call yourselves?" Derrick said before he could stop himself. Son of a bitch and pants. That last comment was a mistake. Meghan stopped in her tracks. Uh oh.
"How the fuck do you know about that?!" she whispered as their parents walked in the room. Derrick's mom worked as a researcher at a nearby biotech company and his dad was a Colonel in the Marine Corps so they had a pretty decent childhood. Meghan was the overachiever in school but Derrick managed to get good grades as well when he wasn't goofing off. Most of the time, he was at the nearby park sitting on a hill watching various aircrafts take off and land. Both parents greeted their children but Derrick noticed that Meghan had not let his previous comment go unnoticed. He had noticed her glaring at him rather fiercely the whole evening.
Christmas morning was rather quiet and peaceful at the Castellano residence. Derrick had received a new pair of Oakleys from Meghan as well as some other things he had asked for. Surprisingly, Derrick had not pulled any pranks on his family all day. He had gifted his mom a nice new necklace, his father some new golf shirts and Meghan some new tactical gear. It was around lunchtime Christmas Day where Meghan confronted Derrick about his comment from the previous day.
"Can I ask you something?" Meghan said as she sat down in a chair next to Derrick and Josie on the back deck.
"You just did, BUT since you are my sister, you may ask me something else," Derrick answered and scratched Josie's ears. He saw Meghan roll her eyes slightly but she ruined it by flashing a faint smile.
"For real though, how do you know about Rainbow?" she asked seriously. Derrick decided to drop the comedic approach as he remembered what Blackbeard had said about Rainbow's confidentiality. He also remembered that Blackbeard was recruiting him on the downlow for that Tournament...that Meghan was most likely going to be at. Outstanding. A surprise. He loved surprises.
"Craig Jensen stopped by the base in Portland before I left to come home. Remember him? Told me he was one of your trainers and we talked for a bit," Derrick said. He saw Meghan's expression change.
"I do remember Jensen. Hell Week isn't just a name little bro. It is hell…" she responded. Derrick had heard of the training required for the Navy SEALs and it was brutal. They go through 7 weeks of physical conditioning and Hell Week consists of 5 in a half days of continuous training. Each trainee sleeps about 4 hours PER WEEK and has to train for about 20 hrs a day. Not something Derrick wanted to do but Meghan was an overachiever so she signed up for the SEALs training regardless.
"He told me the sparknotes about where you've been since 2017. He didn't mention Rainbow or whatever it was called while speaking to me. I sorta overheard him talking on the phone later and heard the words 'Team Rainbow' so I figured that was what he meant. Oh and he also mentioned that you speak highly of me whenever the subject comes up. Thanks sis," Derrick said, quickly making up a fake story on the spot. Meghan seemed to have believed him as she looked pretty angry at his Jensen comment. Thankfully, Jensen had given Derrick his phone number before he left the base the other day. Derrick pulled out his phone to text Jensen telling him to play along to whatever Meghan was going to do later.
"I mean, you might be a clown but you always do the right thing. As for Jensen...I'll deal with that later. You on the other hand will NOT tell anyone else about that. Understand?" Meghan said. Derrick had just finished sending Jensen a message. It read "Lied about Rainbow for Operation: Surprise Megs in February. Play along. Say you saw me listening or something. She's pissed at you. My bad about that, I accidently let slip that I knew about Rainbow."
"You got it. My lips are sealed big sis," Derrick said. Meghan had not noticed Derrick as he texted Jensen. Fantastic.
"I do miss seeing you though," Meghan said, patting his shoulder.
"Heeeeere's the good news, there is a possibility that you might be seeing me more often," Derrick responded.
"Oh? You gonna elaborate?"
"Ssss ooh, that information is classified big sis. You'll find out soon enough,"
December 23rd, 2022
Oberstabsgefreiter (Cpl.) Lukas E. Weiss
BKA-ASE (German Federal Police - Missions Abroad and Special Operations)
Berlin, Berlin, Germany
"Weiss, do you have eyes on the hostages?" a voice crackled in Lukas's earpiece. Lukas himself was currently on a rooftop across the building under siege. He had his binoculars out and was scanning the windows for any signs of the hostage. Eventually he spotted the young girl and her mother bound and gagged in a room directly across from him and a story above.
"Yes, eyes on 2 hostages. 4th floor, west side. I also see a group of hostiles in there with them. Looks like the White Masks again. Bastards have a little girl held hostage," Lukas said into the earpiece. He was in an awfully uncomfortable position for someone of his size. Lukas was about 1.8 meters tall (about 6'2" in American measurement) and to call him ripped was an understatement. Lukas was JACKED. He had always been rather tall but he spent many hours in the gym before he had signed up with the BKA and continued to work out daily. So much so, that he had difficulty fitting into his combat fatigues camo pattern pants, shirt, vest, goggles and balaclava. His G36C rifle was on the ground next to him as he lay across the cold roof. He quickly felt for his sonic grenades and checked to see if he had accidentally primed any of them as he went to lay down. Nope. He was fine. He looked towards the front of the building to see the small GSG9 unit he was collaborating with for this task. Lukas's sister, Monika, was a prominent member of the GSG9 but she was not part of this op as she had some time off for the holidays. Lukas was also granted leave but was contacted by his colleague, codenamed Bandit, to assist on this op as he was good at calming down children with trauma. Apparently, this group of terrorists had attacked a German politician and her young daughter. Bandit and another GSG9 operator that Lukas knew, a man named Blitz, were in the lead.
"Affirmative. We will call you if we need back up. Keep us updated on movement," Bandit said before giving the signal to his team to move in.
"Don't understand why you told the big guy to be on lookout duty but whatever," Lukas told himself and went back to watching the 2 hostages. He felt angry at these so-called "White Masks" for attacking these people. The little girl looked like she was just over 4 years old and was staring at her mother for help. The girl's mother looked equally as terrified as she looked from her daughter to the White Masks. Lukas began to look up and down the street which thankfully was blocked off from the news crews by other members of the GSG9 and the BKA. Lukas had been thinking of his sister when he started to hear shouting and gunfire coming from his earpiece as well as the building. He turned his attention back toward the building. The hostage room was under fire. Multiple people shooting and yelling and people falling over either in their haste to find cover or because of the bullet wounds. One of the White Masks, a lieutenant by Lukas's guess, had grabbed the little girl and made his way out of the room and up a staircase.
"NO!" Lukas yelled and got up from his position on the roof. He grabbed his G36C and ran down the nearby fire escape. He jumped the last few feet, did a combat roll and sprinted toward the building. He had a bead on where that maniac was taking the terrified little girl and unhooked the rappel cable on his belt. With a mighty heave, he threw the cable up the side of the building where it had attached itself securely near the roof. Lukas started to scale the building as he spoke in his earpiece.
"Bandit or Blitz, status?"
"We got one but lost the little girl. Did you happen to see where they took her?" Bandit responded.
"Yes, near the roof. I believe he intends to kill her," Lukas said, adjusting his footing on the building.
"Fuck… Blitz, got any ideas?" Bandit said.
"Why don't you ask Spiderman over there?" Blitz responded. Lukas had just noticed that he had scaled the building up to the same level where Bandit and Blitz were currently standing. Blitz was pointing right at Lukas, who wasn't exactly inconspicuous due to his bulk.
"Weiss, if you get yourself killed, I'm never gonna hear the end of it from her,"
"I got it. Don't worry" Lukas responded and continued climbing the building. At the top window, he peaked through it and saw the little girl being held at gunpoint by 3 White Masks. The terrorists had their back to the window but the little girl had spotted Lukas. Lukas had noticed that she had somehow gotten her hands free and the White Masks didn't notice. Perfect. The little girl looked scared for a moment before Lukas pointed to the German flag on his arm. He even lifted his goggles to show her his blue eyes. That seemed to calm the little girl down. Lukas instructed the girl to cover her ears and get on the ground as he took out one of his sonic grenades that he developed with help from his father. He pushed and held the button on top for a few seconds until the light at the top turned blue. He used the butt of his rifle to smash the window and then threw the grenade inside. What could only be described as the screams of the damned came from the top floor. A piercing heavy metal scream reverberated through the air for several seconds and in those seconds, Lukas busted into the room through the completely shattered window and killed the White Masks with one bullet each as they clutched their ears in agony. The little girl was on the floor with her hands over her ears. She was crying and Lukas knelt down next to her. The girl noticed and screamed. She must be scared of his gun. Lukas took off his balaclava in an effort to seem like less of a scary man with a gun. Lukas looked like someone right out of the 1980s. Longer blonde hair, square jaw, clean shaven and piercing blue eyes. He used to keep his hair much longer but it wouldn't fit under the balaclava he wore.
"It's ok, little one. I got the bad guys. I am your friend. My name is Lukas. Who are you?"
"Cor...Corinna," the girl responded. Lukas had just realized that someone was yelling into his earpiece and he held up his finger to Corinna.
"Jesus Christ Weiss what the fuck was that?! Do you have the girl?" Bandit was yelling.
"Yes, she's secure. Tangos down. I'll meet you downstairs," he responded before turning back to Corinna. "Come on, let's get you to your mom." Lukas put his balaclava back on and Corinna allowed Lukas to pick her up. As Lukas carried her, Corinna began to tell him what happened in a shaky voice but mainly cried.
"It's ok, the good guys won. Santa's gonna reward you because you were so brave. I'll put in a good word for you," Lukas told her. Corrina stopped crying, smiled and then began to tell him all about her Christmas plans with her family. Lukas carried her downstairs to her sobbing mother who ran over to him, grabbed Corinna and began thanking him profusely. The other GSG9 operators in Bandit's team also commended Lukas for saving Corinna.
"I don't know whether to yell at you or not Weiss. The hell was that play?" Bandit said to Lukas.
"You know me, I don't like when innocents are threatened," Lukas responded. He could tell by Bandit's eyes that he was remembering the same past event that he currently was. The concert where he had single handedly saved many fans before getting captured and nearly killed.
"Right, anyway. Good work. Have a nice Christmas. I hear you got time off to see your family right?" Bandit said. Lukas nodded before he noticed that Blitz seemed like he was wrestling with something internally. Bandit also noticed, looked at Lukas again and then at a point over his shoulder. Bandit's eyes widened.
"Make it quick Kotz, they aren't going to keep her back for long. There's no way she didn't just see what Lukas pulled," Bandit said before walking away. Lukas started to turn to look behind him before Blitz spoke and pulled him towards the dispersing crowd.
"You probably aren't aware of this but Bandit, Jäger, myself and your sister are part of an international counterterrorism unit called Rainbow. My American colleague is recruiting members for his team for an upcoming tournament in Greece in February. I think you are just the man we are looking for for our squad. That tactic that you displayed was daring but effective. Here's my cell number, we can talk more later. You have company. I will keep it on the downlow as we want to keep the plan a surprise to the spectators. Only he, myself and Rainbow's director know. Think about it," Blitz said very fast before Lukas heard a female voice shout something from behind him. He turned to see none other than his sister making his way towards him. Under his mask, Lukas smiled. Of course she couldn't stay away from a threat like this even on her days off.
"Oberstabsgefreiter ," she said. Lukas saw that she was wearing blue jeans and a zip up sweatshirt. Her hair was kept short as per usual with some bangs dangling in her face. Lukas noticed the lack of his actual name being used which was common.
"Ma'am," he answered. "Can I help you?"
"Yes, you can accompany me to my parent's house so I can yell at you for that stunt I just watched you pull," Lukas went to retort but saw that she was smiling. Lukas grinned to himself as he "escorted" her away from the scene.
December 24th, 2022
Oberstabsgefreiter (Cpl.) Lukas E. Weiss
Weiss Residence
Leipzig, Saxony, Germany
Monika spent the good part of the previous night and Christmas Eve fussing over Lukas and his tactics. She was very much relieved when she saw Lukas exit the building with the little girl in his arms. Lukas was used to this. Monika had been like this with him for as long as he could remember. Despite his large frame and bulk, Lukas was actually the youngest of 4 children. He had 2 older sisters (including Monika) and an older brother. His oldest siblings were twins and they pretty much spent all their time together and Monika had gravitated toward Lukas when he was growing up. There was a 10 year difference between Lukas and his twin siblings and a 5 year difference between him and Monika. His mother tells him that Monika was the most excited to see him when he was born as she had spent 5 years being the little sister. Growing up, she and Lukas pretty much spent every moment together. She taught him all sorts of things when he was a kid from math, to science, to history and even English. Lukas had been able to speak German and English ever since he was around 10. Lukas's first love however, was music. His parents often told him that when he was a baby (whenever Monika was at school) he would often sit in front of the radio and just quietly listen to whatever was playing. More often than not, his mother found him sleeping on the floor in the same room with the teddy bear Monika gave to him on his first birthday. He still possessed that bear and he kept it locked away in a closet in his apartment for safe keeping. Lukas's parents encouraged him to achieve high marks in school which he did but he found a love in performing music as well. He became a hardcore heavy metal guy after Monika had given him an Iron Maiden CD that released on the date he was born but a few years earlier. Lukas had earned his fair share of music awards throughout his academic career and his parents kept them on display in their home. He had even gained the nickname of "Amp" when he was in school because he often played loudly and enthusiastically. He had gone to Berklee School of Music in the United States and had been part of a successful 80s-00s rock cover band for a few years before returning to Germany. He then worked as an assistant manager in a music store before he had decided to join the BKA after surviving the aforementioned terrorist attack at a concert where he had saved quite a lot of people. Bandit and Monika had been present at this event as well. Monika was hesitant to this decision (she was obsessed over his safety even though he was currently 33 years old) and eventually accepted it. She had worked alongside him a few times and was astonished at his skills. Lukas had the tendency to be reckless whenever someone he cared about was threatened like one time where he witnessed Monika get sucker punched by a terrorist and Lukas retaliated by grabbing the guy by the neck and chucking him through the first floor window. The replacement window had come out of his paycheck that week.
"So lemme get this straight, you were the one holding the little girl on TV the other day?" his brother asked him on Christmas Eve in the evening. The entire Weiss family was gathered in the living room talking, drinking and enjoying each other's company. Lukas had finally met his other sister's boyfriend he had kept hearing about for the last few months. He was very nice and remembered him from his days in the music store. Lukas recalled selling him some old school metal album that he ended up enjoying.
"Yes. You also happen to see a short woman in jeans and a purple sweatshirt talking to the same guy?" Lukas asked, making a glance toward Monika. She had heard him and rolled her eyes.
"Had to make sure my baby brother was OK, didn't I?" Monika answered. Lukas scowled. He was the biggest dude in the room for Christ's sake! But still, he couldn't change the fact that he was born last.
"So Luke, where's your girlfriend?" his other sister suddenly asked. Figures. She always did this to him whenever she got a new boyfriend.
"Let's see, the last one I had a shot with was that one girl from Boston back in college but OH NO, she didn't want me for my brains, just my looks," Lukas retorted slyly, turning his head in Monika's direction. It was Monika's turn to scowl. He grinned back at her. He knew she was only looking out for him at the time. Soon enough, Lukas's mom walked over and handed him a guitar.
"Come on honey, you know what time it is," she told him. Lukas smiled to himself as he started to tune the guitar. Pretty much every year, he played a variety of songs and his family joined in on the singing, regardless of how drunk they were. Lukas may be in the BKA nowadays but he still kept up with his guitar playing skills. He could play a good amount of instruments but he favored the guitar. Together, the group sang a variety of songs over the final few hours of Christmas Eve before they all went to sleep. The entire night, Lukas had not forgotten about what Blitz had told him and was even messaging him the last 2 days. Lukas had obtained more information about this supposed Tournament. It was to be held in Greece and Blitz's colleague's plan was to introduce some new blood onto the team. The colleague, named Blackbeard, had successfully recruited a US Air Force Operator named Derrick Castellano and the team just needed Lukas as their fifth. Blitz had also mentioned that it would allow Lukas to spend more time with Monika if he was to be recruited to Rainbow following the Tournament. With that happy thought in mind, Lukas told Blitz that he would accept the offer and placed his phone on the nightstand. He couldn't wait to surprise Monika at this Tournament in a few months.
After Mission Report:
Castellano, Derrick J. and Weiss, Lukas E. recruited for Team Blackbeard