Fireteam Mystic Chapter 5
A/N - Wow, another chapter already Vandal? Don't you have anything better to do? Lol, like I said in the last chapter, I will keep writing as much as I can while the plot bunny keeps going. Won't see another chapter for a few days as the next few days of work are going to be a nightmare for me.
RandynotSavage 2 and Gg Leroy - I swear both of you might be the same person. I do not plan on giving the non-magical Spartans any kind of pseudo magic, but they will possibly get a few magic enhanced items. Armor enchanted to be impervious to small arms fire and able to withstand more high powered shots, a few of the modern magical meds, maybe a few items I haven't really thought of just yet. The seven will be getting the Phoenix Variant Mjolnir Mark IV Armor. Whilst different from the standard Mark IV, the Phoenix Variant is made for a different set of mission parameters.
Zgogery - Lol I can see it now that you mention it! I have a few other ones created with the helmet but I am finding it annoying to get it to give me "space helmet with a phoenix motif". Prompt ends up making the whole armor have phoenix emblems somewhere (not that I mind too much).
Erozoth - I hope I can portray that like burnable, but if not at least I tried haha!
And Now It Begins
Reach Year 2517 - 2 Days before the start of the program
It was a long day. Harry had spent the majority of the day with his parents who had taken some time off from their hectic schedule. His parents had tried to explain to him that he would be going to a special school that would guide him to be the best version of himself. While he didn't understand it entirely, one thing for sure he understood is that he would not be seeing much of parents or the rest of his crazy extended family outside of his friends for a long time. That morning his mum had made his favorite breakfast of chocolate chip waffles with whipped cream, banana nut muffin and a healthy serving of bacon. Afterwards he and his dad went to a remote park to fly on their broomsticks, granted he still rode a toy broomstick, it was fun trying to race his dad from point to point. In the evening they had met up with the crazy extended family where everyone's emotions were on their face. Mrs. Weasley in particular was prone to small bouts of tears. Uncle Sirius and Uncle Remus had tried their best to keep cheerful faces plastered on but they would sometimes slip up and somber faces were witnessed by children. "Hey Drake, what's going with the adults?" Harry asked Draco.
"No idea Harry, my parents spent the day hovering over me. It was so weird!" he replied.
"My mum made me my favorite breakfast and da took me out to fly! We haven't been able to do that since we got here!"
"Mother and Father bought me a new chess set!" Ron said as he joined Harry and Draco.
The rest of the kids huddled up as they talked about the actions of their parents. They had come to the conclusion that their parents were sad that they were leaving for school. The gravity of the situation slowly grew on the children as they broke up their group and went to spend time with their parents more. The kids were definitely more perspective than most would give them credit for. They spent the rest of the night with their parents and the atmosphere was a bit more somber as it wore on, until there was a large explosion that erupted from the cake that Mrs. Weasley had baked. Everyone ended up being covered in chocolate cake, however it seemed that both Severus and James ended up in frilly pink unitards. "REMUS! SIRIUS!" they both yelled.
"I swear James, that wasn't us!" said Sirius as both he and Remus put their hands up, slowly backing away from the irate rivals.
"Black! I swear if you are lying, I will permanently transfigure you into a poodle and have you castrated!" said Severus.
"I swear on my honor as Marauder that I didn't do anything!" Sirius replied, retreating this time behind Dumbledore who was chuckling.
"It would seem Severus, Sirius, that you have been framed." Dumbledore remarked as he pointed over to Lily, Pandora and Alice. Even Molly had turned around, hiding her chuckle.
"LILY! MY LOVE! WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS! CANCEL THE CHARM!" yelled James, embarrassed that his son saw him in a pink frilly unitard.
"James. Honey. Why would I do that? The kids are loving it!" she replied.
James looked over to the kids as they were on the ground laughing at the grown men's predicament. James looked over to Severus with a raised eyebrow that suggested that he was up to no good. Severus understood what James was planning and a smirk was plastered onto his face as they both yelled out "FOOD FIGHT!" James fired the first shot, grabbing lumps of cake and rifling it straight at Harry. Unfortunately Harry had ridiculous reflexes for a 6 year old and ducked. However the cake ended up on Ginny's face. Her face turned demonic and the adults would swear that that night her hair started swirling around, flailing around in anger. She grabbed the leftover mashed potatoes from the table and flung it back at James who dodged it, hitting her dad in the face. After it broke into a full on food brawl. Minerva and Dumbledore had whipped out their wands, shielding themselves from the flying food, however Dumbledore was a sneaky old git, as soon as Minerva had shielded herself from a hail of grapes and her back had turned, he conjured a 10 gallon bucket of ice cold water and dumped it on her. It would end up being the biggest mistake of his life as Minerva had turned around and quickly wrapped him up in purple ribbons. Obviously being the master of magic he was, he quickly dispelled only to find out that she had layered the spell as the ribbons quickly gave way to gaudy purple evening gown. He once again tried to dispel it, but Minerva had been quicker, locking in the transfiguration in place. The next week he had kept trying to change into his normal clothes but everytime it would be transfigured back into that evil gown. Even Riddle was never this cruel in his opinion later on.
The fight lasted a good hour and things started to die down as everyone left to their respective homes for a long rest. It was a night the kids would remember for years to come. The next day was the day the parents had dreaded as UNSC personnel had come to collect their kids. Harry's last words to his parents before he left were "Mum, Da, don't worry, we will make you proud."
It was like a dagger in the hearts of James and Lily. "We were already proud of you Harry." Lily cried out.
"Take care of your friends, be the best you can be Harry and we will always be proud of you son." said James.
Harry nodded as he was escorted out by the UNSC Marines. He would do what it takes to live up to his parents' hopes. He hoped that his friends were ready for whatever was coming.
Reach Spartan Facility Grounds
The 7 kids were collected from their respective homes and walked into their new home for the next several years. They walked in step as they met their instructor, Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez. "Move it! Move it! Move it! Get in line!" he barked out as soon as the group made it through the door. The kids were startled but immediately fell into a line.
Chief Mendez stood and stared at them. Most avoided his gaze but Harry returned his gaze with intensity. Judging from his body posture, Mendez saw that Harry was tensing up to protect his friends. "Kid's got guts or he's stupidly brave." he thought to himself.
A brief moment of silence occurred before he broke it. "I read your dossiers, Dr. Halsey says you 7 are wizards and witches huh? Well, while under my instruction, you are nothing. You are not special, you have no power here." he explained.
"While you are under my tender loving care, you will address me as Chief, Chief Mendez or Sir. You will respond with yes sir or no sir. Tomorrow you will be meeting your fellow recruits. You will not be using magic near them, you will not reveal to them your abilities unless it's a life or death situation, you will not ask them about their families as they have none, you will be respectful to everyone, you will address your superiors as Sir or Ma'am. AM I CLEAR!" he bellowed.
The kids hesitated a bit, not expecting their first day of school to be like this. "I SAID AM I CLEAR RECRUITS?!" he asked again.
"YES SIR!" they yelled back.
"Good. You will report to your bunks and prepare for the 1st day of lessons tomorrow. Lights out at 2100 hours and I expect you to be asleep a minute later. Dismissed." he said.
The kids quickly scrambled out of the room and hurried to their bunks. They had started to unpack as Neville spoke up, "Does anyone else feel like we were told that this was a school?"
The other kids quickly nodded, confused as to why they were here. "I overheard my parents say that we were selected to be part of a special program but that's it." said Luna.
"My parents said something about being soldiers when we were older and that we were being trained to be the best," said Hermione.
"My parents said something about a vision Dr. Halsey saw, it wasn't pretty." said Draco.
"So it seems something is coming and we were the best choices to fight against it?" questioned Ron. "Why, we're just kids!"
"We will be big sooner or later, Ron. I think they want us to be prepared for when the time comes." said Harry.
Once again, the gravity of the situation settles in as they scurry around preparing their bunkroom. " Hey, is it weird that we have separate rooms from the other kids?" asked Draco.
"A little to be honest. Chief Mendez did say that the kids will not know about magic. Maybe it was to prevent accidental slip ups from happening?" said Neville.
The rest of the group nodded in understanding. The rest of the day was uneventful until the afternoon when Chief Mendez showed up and gathered them for a lesson from Professor Dumbledore. Granted it was more magical theory, the kids enjoyed having a little bit of normalcy for the next few hours before they were escorted to suppertime in the evening they settled in as the lights went out and were quickly asleep.
The next morning they awoke to a start as a marine barged into their room, waking them up. "Time to get up, recruits!" he yelled.
The kids scrambled to get ready but they had not prepared to be awoken so early in the morning and showed up a few minutes late. Needless to say, Chief Mendez was less than impressed. They filed into the assembly room along with the other recruits, who had looked like they had just been woken up from a deep deep sleep. "Well seeing that your fellow recruits decided to be late…everyone will be enjoying a light warm up exercise. 100 push ups, 100 sit ups and a half mile run sounds like a good start. Last recruit to finish will go without lunch!" barked out Mendez. The cold stares of the other kids could be felt by the 7 late comers.
"Did I say just stand there! GO!" yelled out Mendez as Marines in PT gear hustled the children out, yelling out words of "encouragement" as they started their morning warm up.
The non-magical kids fared pretty well considering, but not having been use to much physical activities the magical kids struggled. Luna in particular was nearly the last to finish but Neville had slowed down to get behind her as he pushed her forward during their run. Mendez was impressed but the rules were rules. "Recruit Neville, you are dead last!" he yelled out.
Neville nodded, understanding that he would be going without lunch. After the rest of the morning exercise the 82 spartan candidates were taken to a lecture hall where they were greeted by Deja. After a brief introduction to their years-long courses they began with history. Deja lectured the future super soldiers of the UNSC on the Battle of Thermopylae, where a contingent of 300 spartans led a motley crew of other Greek-city States to hold off potentially hundreds of thousands of Persian invaders for 3 days. After this lesson, they were led to another training exercise, this time an obstacle course. Chief Mendez had split up everyone into different teams, Ron, Hermione, and Neville met fellow recruits Linda and Fred. Harry, Luna, Ginny and Draco met a tall boy named John. John was a bit reserved with only a brief hello given to the group. "This is an obstacle course recruits, your goal is to ring this bell over here" he said as he pointed out a silver bell hanging from a stand. The last team to finish will not be eating dinner tonight." he explained.
Not wanting to force Neville to skip another meal, Hermione quickly understood the point of this exercise and explained it to her team. "Did anyone else catch that we had to finish as a team?" she other kids shook their heads but quickly understood that not only did they have to finish before everyone else, they had to do so together.
The starting gun went off as Harry's team got off to a fast start, they were nearly half way through when Draco and Ginny started to wane. Harry double-backed to make sure his friends were okay, it seemed that Draco had sprained his ankle jumping down from the net rigging portion and Ginny slowed down to help him. Luna had also decided to wait on her friends but noted that John had nearly reached the end. It took them a few minutes to get Draco caught up but by then it was already too late. John had finished first and he looked proud of his accomplishment but slightly annoyed that his team couldn't keep up with him. Chief Mendez decided to make an example of the group. "Well well, what do we have here! Late arrivals from this morning once again being a disappointment." he said as John looked a bit smug, but was quickly knocked out of his smugness by Chief Mendez.
"And you, your teammate got hurt but you decided to carry on like it was nothing, that they only slowed you down. Well guess what? The five of you will not be eating tonight AND on top of that, another 100 push ups from all 5 of you! You will finish all 100 at the pace of your slowest member," he reprimanded as he looked at Draco, who only gave him a hard stare back.
"The rest of you are dismissed for dinner. You five may begin now, and remember lights out at 2100 hours." he said as he instructed the marines in PT gear to watch over the kids, to prevent them from cheating.
Harry was rather annoyed at this point. Outside of the interesting lesson from Deja today, he and his friends had a miserable first day, showing up late and being dead last in the obstacle course. He stared at John who had ditched him. Oddly enough, John showed some remorse as he helped tie a quick splint on Draco's ankle, good enough to finish their 100 push ups. "I'm sorry," was all he said to Draco.
Draco nodded in acceptance of the apology but it looked like Harry wanted to chew John out for ditching them, but decided to hold his tongue in fear of getting more punishment. He was Lily's son afterall and could have quite the temper if pushed far enough. Leaving his friends and now his team behind was something Harry would never do.
As they had finished their 100 push ups they hurried back to the bunkhouse as they parted ways with John. The others were already in bed and nearly asleep by the time they had arrived. They decided to forgo a shower and quickly let the day's weariness take them to sleep.
The next morning was the same, they were woken up at 0400 for morning muster, this time the 7 were more prepared, and made it on time. It was another morning of exercise and lessons and in the early afternoon they were faced with a new obstacle course but with the same objective. Chief Mendez quickly assigned them to the same groups as yesterday. Draco's ankle was mildly better today thanks to his magical genes and was able to move around more freely. However this time John took charge, making sure that he was right behind his team, pushing them to climb, crawl and run faster. This time as a team they rang the bell together, not quite finishing first like they had hoped but together nonetheless. John didn't speak to them outside of the obstacle course, but his actions spoke volumes in Harry's opinion. That evening after dinner John noticed that those same seven kids that were late the other night were escorted somewhere else. He had assumed that they were being kicked out due to the rough last few days but the next morning was surprised to see them standing there, looking a little worse for wear but eyes radiating a fire he had never seen before.
The previous night was eye opening for the magical kids to say the least. Harry had expressed his concern regarding the "school" to Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall. It had taken a lot of luck and persuasion by the kids before Dumbledore sighed and relented. "I understand your concerns, truly, but let me say this. The fires you go through today will only temper and harden your soul for the nightmares to come." he said.
"What do you mean by that Professor?" asked Ginny.
"I am sure you have overheard your parents one way or another so allow me to explain why you are here," he replied.
He goes into explaining the visions of Dr. Halsey, the fate of the wizarding world back in their timeline, Dr. Halsey's relationship to the Malfoy family, and why their parents were okay willing to let them participate in this program. Draco was the most surprised by the familial relationship but like the rest of his friends the concept of time travel was difficult to grasp. However, to their magical knowledge they knew that visions like what Dr. Halsey had always meant something more. While they had not fully accepted this explanation it was for the best for the time being to just go with it. All they knew though was that they would defend their families and each other, no matter what they had to give up. And so they would begin to approach their training with maximum effort, soaking up lesson after lesson. Later on, they would look back at this experience and realize who woefully unprepared they truly were.
A/N - Another Chapter out and done. Be warned, I will not be writing about every aspect of their training and lesson, but I will be going over significant milestones. Next chapter will be the survival mission 2 years later and my take on how Harry and co will deal with the extra mission parameters. John will always be Master Chief and the de facto leader of the Spartan IIs. While Harry has shown to be a leader he is slightly more focused on his own team/friends. Anyone ever play Lord of the Rings :The Third Age on Playstation 2? I want to shape my story like that where Harry and friends take on missions parallel to Master Chief and other canon events.. So like when Chief and Blue team (don't recall if it was blue team that was assigned) are first assigned out to capture Colonel Robert Watts. I have them planned to be assigned to nearby weapons to interrogate an arms dealer that had been supplying Watts with stolen UNSC vehicles and weapons. Well that's enough spoilers lol, I hope everyone has a good week and I hope to send out another chapter by the end of the week. As always reviews are greatly appreciated and I will respond to anyone I can. Thanks for reading everyone!