Fire at a Distance

Chapter 2

I walked into the new sector and was immediately greeted by the head of the dorm directory. "Last dorm." He said in a stern tone. He already knew who I was that couldn't be good, could it?

I shook off my anger and replied, Thank you, sir."

He smiled, but it wasn't kind. "You won't be thanking me later, good luck. You're going to need it with that sorry bunch. The only thing keeping them in this sector is their scores. Besides it'll take someone with more experience and discipline to straighten them out. Yet they have a third measure ranking coming in to do the job of a true CAPTAIN."

I bit the side of my cheek to fight off a smart remark, "We'll see about that, sir." I brushed past him and smiled to myself. He'll learn.

All the happiness of the victory was striped away the moment I stepped foot into the dorm room. All six of the team members below me were there, not including Sam. Equipment, clothing, and even papers were strewn out everywhere. All the members, but one were lying on their beds lazily. The one boy was occupied, rushing around to clean everything he saw out of place.

I sighed and caught their attention. "Well I thought we could start on a good note, but by the looks of this room, I do not see that happening. Only one of you are concerned enough to clean it up, what is your name?"

"Gabriel Smith, Captain." He said softly.

"Now before I criticize your performance anymore, you will all address me as Fox. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Fox!" They all said in unison as they jumped from their beds.

"Well, Gabriel Smith, due to the condition of the room, it looks like you are going to be the only one sleeping in a bed tonight. Now I do not like having to be like this and I know you do not want me to be a drill-sergeant, so I recommend you doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done. Lets get moving, we don't have all day. If this room is not spotless in the next three hours , you're going to have a very long night."

Instantly they all started to clean and I motioned for Gabriel to come over.

"Yes, sir? I mean Fox." He said quickly, glancing at his cleaning comrades. This boy was a true agent.

I smiled to lighten the mood, "Don't sweat it. Now do you prefer to be called Gabriel?"

He hesitated, "I would like to be called Mouse... If that's okay."

I laughed, "Of course it's okay. Lighten up, I'm not always like that."

He smiled, "If you don't mind, I would like to assist my fellow team members." Yup true agent alright.

"Yes, go ahead."

He nodded and scurried off. Just as he did, Sam walked into the room. "Oh my gosh..." She gasped as she dropped her box on an empty bed. "I thought that he was just being crude." She said pointing to the hall. I knew exactly who she meant, the dorm director.

I walked to the back of the room and sat the box down on the last bed. Slowly I started to pull thing out and putting them in place. Every now and then I would check their progress on the room. Three hours later I was surprised to find everything in tip top shape, all the clothes were folded and put into the chests at the end of the beds. Even the papers were now filed away neatly in alphabetical order.

"I'm impressed," I said with a grin. "Now do you see how much better it looks in here? We can finally walk around without the fear of some strange creature biting at your ankles." They all tried to hide their grin and forced back a laugh.

They looked around the room to examine their own work. Sam joined the group, "I think we should get to know each other since we are going to be working together for a while."

A tall, well built boy with short brown hair stepped forward, "My name is Kevin Hawkins, but you can call me Hawk."

"I'm Rachel Hans, but I prefer Raven." She was average sized and had long black hair pulled back into a bun.

There was a pattern starting and I had a feeling I wasn't the only one who saw it.

My Name is Logan Marx, But please do call me Rain." A thin and strong built girl said. Her brown hair was cut to shoulder lenght and curled naturally at the edges.

A tall, lanky boy grinned, "The name's Jordan Ross, they call me Twitch around here. And this here is Micheal Hans, but we call 'em Mick. He doesn't talk much." He pointed at medium built boy with sandy brown hair cut short.

"My name is What? My name is..."

"JACOB!" They all yelled at him.

The small, skinny boy had his red hair spiked to perfection. "Yes, my name is Jacob, Jacob RANDAL!" He yelled in their faces. "I'm your man for anything technological, they call me BRAIN!"

We all stopped and turned to the door as the dorm director barged in. "Alpha squad 197 your room evaluation starts now.." He looked up from his clipboard startled by the pristine condition of the room.

"What was that you said about needing luck?" I asked him holding back my cocky grin.

He just spun around on his heels and darted out of the room, real quick. I said he would learn. WE all just busted out laughing, cracking jokes and getting to know each other better. I could tell already that this was a well rounded group.