#a-squad

Charlie was aware that they’d probably have to ship out soon-it was a gut feeling. It was why she’d spent the past couple of days helping train three of the soon to be B-squad recruits. One in particular she was watching, though most would think her crazy.

She hadn’t run Bridge, Syd, or Sky through any walls yet, but she had run them ragged. “Take a break,” she ordered. “Meet back in-

“Hey Charlie, you stuck baby-sitting again?” The rest of her squad passed by and gave the three D-squad cadets a cool glance. “Bet they didn’t even last five minutes.”

“Well actually, it was ten for me, seven for Syd, and Sky-” Bridge started to say.

“Bridge!” Sky and Syd chorused.

“Sorry.” Bridge grinned sheepishly.

“They need some work, but they can keep up,” Charlie said of the three. “Mostly.”

“I don’t know why you even bother with a group of nobodies who aren’t even fit to shine our boots. You trying to get some brownie points with the commander or something?”

“Hey, at least we’re trying,” Sky said. “We’re just as good as you guys-I mean, our parents were all SPD.”

“Yeah, a bunch of nerds, and a guy so busy saving nobodies that he couldn’t even save his own skin-”

That remark might have sent one Sky Tate flying at the four A squad members and sent him six feet under were it not for the intervention of Charlie, who stepped between them. “We all have our own definitions of what a hero is,” she said. “Winning the tough battles is important. But so is what Tate’s father did. A wise man once said, ‘Greater love hath no man than he who lays down his life for his friends’. You four may not believe that, but I’m the leader and you’re obliged to listen. Now get the hell out of here unless you have some constructive criticism.”

“Whatever, traitor.” But they backed off anyway. Four against one were tough odds, but Charlie was-Charlie.

While they were backing off, Bridge read their auras. “Odd,” he said.

“What is it, Bridge?”

“Something seems off about their auras...something dark. But I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Ma’am,” Sky said. There was a hint of emotion in his eyes. “Thank you.”

“Your father was a hero and I’m sure he’d be proud of you,” Charlie said. She jerked her head in Bridge’s direction once she caught his remark. “Darker how?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never read them completely before-they usually don’t stick around long enough for me to do it.”

“I see. Tate, Drew, take a walk. Carson, come with me.”

When they were out of earshot, Charlie said, “We’re probably going to be shipped out soon to the Helix Nebula. There’s been a lot of activity building up there. You, Drew, and Tate show the most promise, so chances are that you may end up becoming rangers in our absence.”

Bridge blinked at the news, and then voiced the first question that came to his mind. “Why are you telling me?”

“You think differently than everyone else. You saw something in their auras that no one else would have noticed. They’ve always been full of themselves, but it’s been getting worse for some time now.” She shook her head. “I need you to do something for me.”

“Anything I can do to help, ma’am.” He saluted.

“Screw the salutes Carson, this is soldier to soldier,” she said. “I’m trusting you when ideally I should be going to the commander or Dr. Manx-but I don’t think they’ll entirely believe that things are as bad as I’m suspecting.”

“Do you think they’ve turned-”

“Don’t even say it, Carson. Listen, I have installed in my watch a time travel device. If something goes wrong, it should send me back moments after my squad leaves.”

Bridge blinked. “How did you-”

“Never mind that, Carson, there’s no time.” She motioned for his hand. “Hold out your hand.”

When he did, Charlie removed what appeared to be a small computer chip from one of her pockets and installed it in his watch in a matter of seconds. “That is another precaution of mine,” she explained.

“You’ll notice,” she went on, “when it activates by a flashing red light on your watch here. When it does, I need you to hit that button there, and my own watch will respond accordingly. I’ve looked into the ranger archives and managed to mimic the old teleportation technology used by the original rangers.”

“I thought that knowledge was partially lost.”

“Nothing is completely lost if you look in the right place, Carson,” she replied. “Not a word of this to anyone else until the time is right. I’m leaving it up to your judgment to know when. If anyone asks, just tell them I needed your help with something, and you’ll tell them about it when you can. Gotta go.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“One more thing, Carson. I noticed your necklace.” She nodded to his Star of David. “When we leave, say a prayer for me.”

Despite having a tentative alliance/agreement with Space Patrol Delta, an inter-planetary police force, no one asked the fae for assistance if they could help it. Occasionally there were various trade missions and other civil visits to the planet, but these were often few and far between. The only reason there was a tentative alliance at all was due to Maleficent’s adopted daughter Queen Aurora, who was both loved and respected-but then Aurora was a special kind of human. 

Any visitors to the planet, especially human ones, had to notify the fae well in advance. The one ship that had forgotten had almost been shot down, and it was a story still told among the fae with much amusement.

Even Emperor Grumm, despite being in the Helix Galaxy where the fae planet was located, left them alone, and that was due to the fact that the one time he’d tried to attack it, even with overwhelming numbers, he’d been repelled with such ferocity-a mixture of science and powerful, centuries-old magic that was far beyond anything he was capable of-and he was capable of a lot.

Charlotte ‘call me Charlie or I’ll punch you in the face’ Brown, however, wasn’t just anyone. After a vision received by Brooklyn Carson(told mostly to Charlie through clipped sentences and sign language), she’d headed straight to Commander Krueger himself-who’d dismissed it due to the desperation of the situation and his refusal to believe that the golden squad he relied on so much might be full of traitors. 

Borra picked up the call on the scrambled ‘emergency only’ signal used only by the fae, and scowled when he saw Charlie in her SPD uniform on the other side of it. “How in the hell did you get this signal? No one outside the planet it supposed to-”

“I got it from Queen Aurora because it’s a matter of life or death. You’re welcome to re-scramble the frequency when I hang up-in fact, I encourage it. Also, no one at SPD knows I’m calling except for Brooklyn Carson, and she has trouble talking about anything most days.”

Borra stopped raging when Aurora’s name was mentioned, but still looked suspicious. He folded his arms, still scowling. “Talk.”

“You’re aware that Grumm’s forces are in your galaxy, I presume,” Charlie began. When Borra nodded, she continued. “A Squad is going to be deployed here soon. Grumm is attacking other planets and outposts there with a vengeance, and there’s no one left to send. Five D squad cadets are to be promoted to ranger status upon our immediate deployment in a few hours,so as not to leave Earth unprotected.”

Borra processed all this information, and then snorted. “Don’t tell me you’re asking us for.....reinforcements.”

“Sort of,” Charlie admitted. When Borra snorted again, she said, “Hear me out. There’s a young woman named Brooklyn Carson that works for SPD. She and her brother Bridge are empathetic in their own way. Between them, they can read auras, sense emotions, and occasionally read minds and predict the future. Anyway, about an hour ago, Brooklyn had a vision about our mission-a dire one. It came out in clipped sentences and sign language, but I understood what she meant. Unfortunately, the commander refuses to believe it, even though she’s never been wrong. “

“So what was this vision of hers?” Borra was curious-he didn’t know humans had such powers..”You’re obviously desperate if you’re calling us.” He smirked.

“That, and you’re the baddest motherfuckers in the room,” Charlie replied airly. “Basically, somehow the rest of my squad members have somehow joined Grumm. Apparently our squad is to land on Gamma 5 at some point, and when we do, they’re going to kill the civilians. It’s going to be a slaughter and even if I manage to draw their fire away, people are still going to die.”

That got Borra’s attention, and he straightened up to his full height. His face twisted in rage, though it wasn’t directed at Charlie. “You’re sure?”

“She’s never been wrong. Sometimes the emotions she feels are so intense that she can only talk in clipped sentences or sign language, but she’s never wrong. And yet the damn fool commander refuses to believe it-maybe because he’s come to rely on my squad so much that he thinks none of us can do any wrong. And Brooklyn just works in the lab and acts as a counselor to the rest of us sometimes, but that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be taken as seriously as anyone defending the planet.”

Borra nodded his agreement. He was quiet for a moment, then asked, “What do you want us to do?”

“You’re much closer to Gamma 5 than I am now. All I’m asking is for your people to head to Gamma 5, either in secret or under the guise of trading-however you want to do it-and be ready to protect the civilians when the time comes.”

“What about you?” He studied her face curiously-whoever this human was, she was awfully determined. She wanted to protect the innocent, and that he could admire, he supposed.

Charlie shook her head. “I don’t care what happens to me, as long as civilians don’t die. I’ll go down in a blaze of glory yelling ‘yippee ki yay motherfucker,’ and you can damn well bet I’ll take at least a couple of those traitorous rat bastards with me.”

That made Borra laugh-something he hadn’t expected to do. He grinned, and thought that there was something in her that reminded him of himself. Finally he said, “We accept your request.”

“Thank you. I don’t know how I’ll pay you back for that, but I”ll think of something if I survive. If I don’t, by the way, can you have someone visit my parents in Hill Valley, California, and tell them I love them and that I died protecting people. Also, if this kind of works out, maybe someone can tell the commander ‘you’re welcome’ and he almost got a bunch of people killed and he ought to be ashamed of himself.” 

Borra sombered at this and shook his head. “You won’t die. You have too much spirit for that.” She wouldn’t if he could help it, anyway.

“I hope not,” Charlie replied. “Before I go, I’m sending over the full files on myself and my team so you can study them thoroughly before the shit hits the fan. Thanks again.”

A few days passed, and Charlie and her team landed on Gamma 5 as planned. Charlie was praying Brooklyn would be wrong, but she had a feeling she wasn’t. She also wondered if the fae would show. It wasn’t a lack of trust that made her doubt; rather, it was the knowledge that the fae had a great mistrust of outsiders and humans in particular due to harm done to them over the centuries. Charlie wouldn’t blame them at all for staying home.

Unfortunately for Charlie, Brooklyn was right. She heard the click of a weapon, and spun around to find two of her four teammates pointing their weapons at her. There was another click, and Charlie figured they’d aimed to surround her and take her out first.

Fingers reached for the trigger, but before any could be pulled, four blurs swept down from the sky and pulled them off their feet. Some sort of magic blasted their weapons out of their hands.The fae were here.

All four were then subsequently dropped from a great height, but thanks to their protective armor, were rattled but mostly unscathed. One stumbled for one of the fallen weapons, and Charlie blasted him with a weapon of her own. “Not so fast, motherfucker! You’re under arrest!”

A fight ensued. Charlie wasn’t sure how many had come to her aid.It ought to have been enough to end the battle quickly, but even without their weapons, Charlie’s teammates had superior armor and were skilled fighters.

At one point Charlie found herself below the fay who she’d communicated with, and she grinned up at him. “You take the high road and I’ll take the low road?”

Above her, Borra cackled and divebombed another rogue teammate, grabbing them and sending them crashing through a rock.

“Shaken but not stirred,” Charlie drawled, earning herself another cackle from Borra.

In the end, thanks to Borra and the other fae, Charlie was able to arrest her rogue teammates and instantly send their containment cards to high command. She found out that Grumm’s other forces had tried to attack the city as well, but another team of fae had easily repelled them.

She’d been offered an escort back to Earth, but she’d requested instead to spend some time on their planet. Charlie needed to clear her head and calm down after all this, and if she went back to Earth now, she’d likely give the commander an earful.

Surprisingly, Borra and the other fae agreed to this. Charlie recommended a non-human friend of hers from High Command to debrief her and question anyone else, and they agreed to that as well.