alliancesjr | Secret War Chapter 1

Okay, so I continued it.

Secret War
Chapter 1

Relatively Well Met
---------------------------------

Jack paused at the top of the hill, and brought his hand up to shield the sunlight from his eyes. The sun – red, from what he could tell – was setting in the direction he needed to go, which made it hard to see. It was low enough on the horizon for the rays to get past the brim of his hat, and it was strong enough to sting his eyes.

There it was, just like the Ellimist had said; far below him, in a deep valley, were the tell-tale artificial lights of a city. And off on a cliff to the right, away from the city, there was an abandoned building.

That was where he needed to go. That was where he would meet his team-mates.

He hadn’t been told much about them – the Ellimist was definitely skilled in avoiding a pointed question or five – so he didn’t know what to expect. He knew that they were all human, and that they were warriors from alternate dimensions.

Jack smiled wearily. Years ago, he had no idea about alien planets and alternate realities. Now, they were so commonplace that he didn’t even blink when the Ellimist started his speech.

He supposed he should be worried about that.

Nah, too much of a hassle. Jack would leave the worrying to Daniel. He was so good at it.

Still, though, this Ellimist had taken him without warning – without asking – and dropped him into a combat situation. No explanation other than “It’s a game, a war-game”.

Some game. Playing with his life as if it was a toy. Sounded like something a System Lord would do.

Picking out a trail in the hillside towards the abandoned building, Jack set out again. Time to meet his companions, and find a way to win this game so that he could get home.

* * *

The door opened noisily; much louder than Jack had anticipated, and the metallic creak echoed throughout the empty building. The waning sunlight streaming through the open door was the only source of illumination in the place, and it revealed nothing but a long strip through the blackness.

There was no sign of his supposed teammates. That was not a good sign. He took a cautious step inside, reaching for the rifle that was hanging on its strap.

His hand got about halfway before a sharp metal blade pressed itself against the side of his neck.

“Let’s not do that,” said a smooth, dangerous female voice. “Guns upset me. And I don’t like being upset, do you?”

Jack kept absolutely still. “Ooookay. Not touching the gun.” He slowly raised his arms above his head, hands open. “Totally don’t want to upset you, whoever you are.”

The knife pressed harder. “Walk.”

Jack walked further inside the building, keeping his hands up. “This day just gets better and better. Can we at least get some light in here?”

Another voice rang out, this time to his left. “We’re working on it.” A male voice, young-ish to the sound of it. Come to think about it, the girl holding a knife to his throat sounded fairly young, too. American accents, and from the sound of it, southern California.

“While Xander searches for the light switch,” the female voice said, “we’ll play a little game. It’s called, ‘You tell me who you are and who sent you, and I won’t give you the last shave of your life.’ Sound good?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Jack O’Neill, Colonel, United States Air Force. I got pulled to this planet by some guy who called himself ‘the Ellimist’, whatever that means. Said I’d find people in this building.” His vision was adapting to the lack of light in the place, and he risked a glance towards his captor. “I guess he was right.”

“Ellimist, huh?” said the guy over to the left. “That’s the guy who dropped us here, too. I think he’s on the level, Buff.”

“You sure?” The knife disappeared.

“Yeah. Oh, hey, I think I found the controls for the lights!” There was a small click, and suddenly the lights came on.

Jack winced, and groaned. “Oh, come on! I’d just adjusted!”

He blinked a few times until he could see again, and took a look around. The girl was to his left – and she really was a girl, couldn’t be a day over 20. Behind her, standing at some sort of computer console, was a boy of about the same age, glancing around and looking pleased with himself.

Jack looked around the room; the building turned out to be some sort of abandoned factory/warehouse thing; there was an array of terminals along one wall, with a large screen above them, and a series of conveyor belts and other machinery at various parts on other walls.

He turned his attention back to the girl, who had a rather large knife in her hand, and was glaring at him. “Nice place you got here,” he quipped.

She smirked, and put the knife away. “Sorry, Colonel, it’s not ours. We’re just staying here until we can get home. Whenever that’s going to be.”

She made another quick scan of the room, and looked back at Jack. “I’m Buffy, this is Xander. I think we need to sit down and talk.”

* * *

Great, Marco thought. Just when you think things couldn’t get weirder, the Ellimist has to stick his cosmic wrench in the works.

Tobias seemed to be thinking the same thing. <Why us?> he asked.

Marco grumbled. <I don’t know. Usually he sends all of us.>

They flew on in silence, thinking about it. For what seemed like the millionth time, Marco cursed the Ellimist. He didn’t like being a pawn in some sort of cosmic game. Pawn, or knight, or rook. Even bishop.

Especially bishop.

Tobias gave a short screech which shook him out of his reverie. They were approaching fast on the warehouse that the Ellimist said would be there, that would serve as their base of operations. <Someone just went inside. Adult, male, looked like he was armed.>

Marco focused on the door to the warehouse – still far away, but his eyes could see every detail.

After a few minutes, a light came on, and they could see a bit inside. Not enough to see anyone else, though.

<So what do we do?> asked Marco.

Tobias was silent, thinking. Marco knew he wasn’t a leader; they usually left it up to Jake to make the decisions.

The Ellimist hadn’t brought Jake along. For some reason, he had only chosen the two of them for this “mission”. Instead, he had chosen people from alternate realities, or something along those lines.

If you asked Marco, the Ellimist was a few solar systems short of a galaxy.

<I say we circle around a couple times and get the lay of the land,> Tobias replied, after a minute. <That way, if we try to get in contact with these people and it goes sour, we can have a bit of an advantage.>

They caught an updraft and gained altitude, preparing to make a long circle around the warehouse.

* * *

Halfway around the warehouse, they found him.

Marco and Tobias passed over a small cliff, behind which a man was crouched, tinkering with what looked like a suit of armor. A highly advanced suit of armor.

Tobias looked over at Marco, who was still tucked neatly in his flank. <Think he’s one of ours?>

<Only one way to find out,> came the reply. <Besides, I’m coming up close on my time.>

Tobias turned his focus back on the man beneath them, who seemed to have noticed the hawk and the osprey circling above him. <Let’s land. You go behind those rocks, while I talk to him.>

Tobias sighed inwardly. <Do you have a problem with that?>

<Well, not as such, but do you remember the last time you talked to a telepathic bird?>

Tobias didn’t grace that with a response.

<You know what I meant,> Marco grumbled.

<Yes, and I also remember the last time you made first contact with someone else. How many times did you get shot?>

<You made your point, bird-boy. Go, tell him to take us to his leader.> Marco dropped from formation and headed for a large rock outcropping to demorph behind.

Which left Tobias alone. He noticed that the man’s eyes never left him as he flew down and landed on a ledge.

They stared at each other for a while, neither of them moving. The man gave up first, though, and scratched at his stubble. “I don’t recall ever seeing Earth birds on a planet that wasn’t Earth,” he said, after a while. “Except for the caged kind, and you don’t look like you’d take well to a cage.”

<You’d be right,> Tobias replied.

The man blinked, and dropped his hand to a rather large pistol at his side. “Okay, who are you, and why are you here?”

“Jim Raynor, Marshal. Formerly of the Terran Confederacy.” The suspicious tone didn’t leave his voice, but his hand moved away from the gun. “Ellimist, huh?”

<That’s the one.> Tobias cocked his head to the side. <Where are you from, Marshal Raynor?>

“Call me Jim.” Raynor turned back and started fiddling with the armor again. “I’m from Earth, originally, but I moved to Mar Sara when I was still young. Stuff happened, and I ended up here.”

<Marco and I are from Earth,> Tobias said, looking back at the outcropping that Marco was emerging from. <He and I, well...>

“Are birds.”

Marco came over and sat down next to Tobias. “Well, from time to time. Tobias here got hold of a Bette Midler album, and now can’t resist feeling the wind beneath his wings.”

“Bring it.”

Raynor looked back and forth between the two of them, and sighed. “You know, I’m beginning to hope that this is a big hallucination of Sarah’s. A teenager and a talking bird are supposed to help me in a big intergalactic contest?”

“Hey,” Marco said, “I’m almost 20. Teenager, indeed.”

“You’re still a kid.”

“Listen to me, Jim,” Marco said, slipping one of his rare serious modes, “I’ve probably seen as much death and destruction as you have. I’ve had friends die in a war that we barely survived. I’ve lost more than most ‘kids’ my age, and I’ve fought to save what little I had left. So I’d rather you didn’t go into the whole ‘Poor innocent Marco, too young to be caught up in all this’ routine, because I’ve had it with adults thinking they know everything.”

They stared at each other, sizing each other up.

Raynor cracked a smile. “Kid, I like you already.”

“Good,” Marco replied. “More people should.”

“Bite me, feather-brain.”

Raynor stood up, and lifted the suit of armor up on his shoulder. “Hey, Marco. Mind giving me a hand with this? There looks to be a building about half a klick north of here.”

Marco took the other side of the armor over his shoulder, and winced. “Good thing we’re not too far,” he said.

Tobias took to the skies and led the way. <There’s at least one more person inside, so we’ll be able to sit and compare notes on our counterparts. Knowing the Ellimist, we’ll need all the knowledge we can get to take them down.>

Marco grinned. “Well, that leaves me out! Where’s the way home?”

Not for the first time, Tobias wished Rachel was there. At least she had a chance of shutting him up.

* * *

High up on a rocky ledge, a man followed the trio. He didn’t know where he was, or how he got there – despite what the glowing Ellimist man had told him – but he knew that he had to follow the soldier, the shape-changer, and the talking bird.

The two men spoke in English. He cursed himself for always falling asleep in English classes, but he understood the talking bird just fine. It spoke inside his head, which was strange, but he had gotten used to strange things long ago.

He was most interested in the shape-changer, though. He was able to watch as the change had taken place, from bird to man, and he stood there in shock. There was no water involved!

Saotome Ranma would find out how that was possible, if that was the last thing he did.