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Adam couldn't keep the grin off his face as he looked over at Logan and once more said how much fun this is gonna be. Sitting back in his chair, he couldn't wait to see the looks on people's faces when he told them what was going on. He and Logan came up with this idea after Janet cleared him from the med bay with strict orders to take it easy. Everyone knew, if the situation happened again, Adam would have done the same thing. Rescuing the three brothers is the exact sort of thing that the UNIT stood for, and even though it literally almost killed him, he would do it again in a heart beat. Right on cue a knock came on the door, and then a ten man strike team came walking in, snapped to attention, and saluted Adam. "Sir! Strike Team 'Dragon's Fire' reporting as ordered Sir!"
Adam stood, returned the salute and said, "At ease." When the members of the strike team went into parade rest formation, Adam smiled at them. "First off, I want to tell you guys how proud I am at how well you handled yourselves during the last attack. Not only did you guys secure your objectives well before it was expected, but you also managed to pull more than one strike teams asses out of a big fire. I've read all the after action reports and almost every single one of them mention you guys in them in some way or another. That's the kind of thing I like to see in my teams."
"Thank you sir." The commander, Captain Tom Dustin, said in a very proud voice.
Adam smiled broadly at the entire team. "It's my pleasure Captain. You and your team have earned more than just my thanks and kind words." Adam sat behind his desk and didn't bother offering the strike team seats. He knew they would never take them. These guys were military to the core, he should know, he trained them.
"As you guys know, as of right now, there are two different divisions of teams in the UNIT, Strike teams, and Assault teams. The strike teams deal with the every day operations and the like, while the assault teams are called in for the big stuff. Currently, there are over two hundred and fifty strike teams, yet only two assault teams. The one that is commanded by Col. Amur Khan, and made up exclusively of Genesis Hybrid Cats. Then there is the team I command. Well, that's gonna change." Adam stood and pointed to a table off to the side that Logan was standing next to. On the table, there were ten green barrettes sitting in front of many different objects, all covered in a black sheet.
"Over there, you will find your new barrettes. As of this moment, Strike Team 'Dragon's Fire' is now, Assault Team 'Dragon's Fire'." Adam grinned as he saw the shocked looks on all ten faces that slowly turned to deep pride as they carefully walked over to the table. After pulling off the black barrettes that they were wearing, they each, almost reverently picked up the green ones and placed them perfectly on their heads.
When they all turned back towards Adam, he grinned and spoke, giving them their new orders. "From this point forward, you will get your orders directly from Donnie at the rapid response base, or from myself. All of you, will be undergoing some extra training in the near future; as well as update standing orders. These orders basically give you near full autonomy to do what you think is best in any situation. You have proven that you can work and think out side of the box and as such should not be as constrained as the others. You will also be given many 'black ops' that are not official and will test all of you to your limits, and then some. The assault teams are used for two things, either going in and doing a job totally unseen, or going in and making one hell of a mess."
Adam couldn't help but grin at the looks on their faces. He knew the next part was going to be even more fun. "As a matter of fact, you guys already have a mission I want you to prepare for. This will be a test, not only of what you guys can do, but also a test of our security."
Getting looks of confusion, Adam tapped a few things into the terminal in his desk, which brought up a picture on the display screen behind him. "Behind me, you will see the new Des Moines Division. I think it is time to test the security of their division, so here's what we're going to do." Adam motioned to Logan who pulled back the sheet that was on the table. "Over there, you will find a set of weapons for each of you, based on what you are currently using. The difference with these weapons is, they have been fully modified to only be able to fire a version of paint balls. These are lower velocity so they will not actually hurt anyone, other than possibly feeling like a slight bee sting when they hit, and that's only if they hit exposed flesh."
Adam gave them a few minutes to look over the weapons before gathering their attention back to him, and the view screen. "Behind me, you will see pictures of the core leadership team of the division. Your objective will be to capture or 'kill' them. Other than that, I will leave all the details up to you. Daileass will provide you will all the intel you will need to plan the op, all I ask is that it happen sometime tomorrow. You will have any and all resources available to you except having Daileass transport you directly into the houses that they are in. That would make it too easy. Other than that, you will have free reign. If you have any questions, now is the time to ask them. Of course, if you come up with anything later, you can always ask Daileass. If he can't answer your questions, he will contact me. So... do you have any questions now?"
Adam and Logan were quietly discussing everything that's happened over the last few days shortly after the newly made Assault Team left to make their plans, when a knock came on the door. "Enter!" Adam said loud enough to be heard, and stood up as the door opened.
Adam was very surprised at the two people who walked into his office. "Professor Don, Professor Mary! What a surprise! Please come in... sit down. Can I get you anything?"
The two Chimp hybrids smiled broadly while shaking Adam and Logan's hands, then sat down. "No thank you... we're actually here to talk shop." Don said while still smiling.
Adam nodded while sitting down in his chair. With out even thinking about it, he grabbed Logan and pulled him down to sit on his lap. Once the two teens were comfortable, Adam looked at the two. "Okay, so what can I do for you?"
"Well..." Mary started off, "LoLo told us that we should let you in on some of the more secret projects that we've been working on."
"LoLo?" Adam asked trying to figure out who she could mean.
"Oh! Silly me!" Mary said with a chuckle. "No one else knows him by that name. I was referring to Logan, the Wolverine Hybrid. In case you were not aware of it, we've adopted him as our son."
Adam stared at them in shock. He couldn't picture anyone being able to call the rabid Wolverine hybrid that almost took Khan out... LoLo! "Okay..."
Professor Don spoke up when the laughter died down. "Well, to be honest, I am not really sure what order to tell you these in, since I am not sure how much you will find to be good news and how much will give you more of a headache. I understand you already know about the 'rejects' from the project that were supposed to be killed, and we were able to save?"
"Well, yeah. I mean I haven't had a chance to really look at the reports, but I knew about the Racoons. I believe they were just sent to Des Moines to act as Personal Security."
Professor Don's eyebrows shoot up in surprise at that, and Adam couldn't help but chuckle, then get serious. "Yeah. I sent out a request for volunteers, as well as personality profiles for those that were going to be protected, and they volunteered."
"Hmmmm." Don said rubbing his chin. "Very interesting. I did not think they would have had the strength of personality yet to do such a thing. They must have seen something that really got them interested."
Adam just shrugged, not really knowing their reasoning. Don then pulled a data padd out of a pouch that he had strapped to his thigh, and tapped a few keys on it, before handing it to Adam. "Just to make sure you have a full listing of all the 'rejects' that were managed to be saved, it's pulled up on this list."
Adam nodded while taking it, then started to scroll through the list. A few times his eyebrows shot up in surprise. After almost two full minutes of reading, Adam's face got deathly pale. He looked up at Don, who had started chuckling. Neither Mary nor Logan could contain their laughter either as Adam started to stutter. "There's... there's... HOW many Ferrets?!?!? Please tell me this is wrong!"
Don burst out laughing while shaking his head no. Adam let his head fall sideways, so his forehead hit the desk, then he raised it a few inches and let it drop back down. He did this seven or eight times, each time his forehead hit the table he muttered "please God no..."
Adam looked up with horror on his face, jumped out of his chair, tossing Logan to the floor. Ran over and grabbed his ceremonial dagger off the stand in front of his armor and held it, point down, above his heart. Tears of frustration were pouring out of his wild eyes as he screamed, "I JUST CAN'T HANDLE IT ANYMORE!"
Logan had jumped up and rushed over to Adam, and just as Adam pulled the knife back to plunge it into his own heart, Logan grabbed his arm and screamed "WAIT! Adam.... It's not that bad!"
"NOT THAT BAD?!?!?!" Adam cried in stark terror. "How the hell can the world survive THAT MANY of those totally insane Shiney Loving FREAKS?!?!"
Logan stopped, still struggling to keep Adam from plunging the blade into his heart. "Well... Okay.. I guess it is bad. But... well but.. we can handle this!"
"HOW THE HELL DO YOU HANDLE THAT?!?!" Adam screeched.
"We... We.. I know... we send them to the Dragon Division!" Logan stuttered trying desperately to come up with something that would stop his lover from killing himself.
From the speakers in the room, Draco's voice could be heard. "Like bloody hell you are!"
Adam looked up, his face going back to serious as he calmly placed the dagger back on the stand. Taking Logan's hand he went back to his chair. He pulled Logan back down onto his lap, then looked at Don as if nothing had happened. "Okay. What else did you have to report?"
Professor Don stared at Adam while doing his impression of a fish, his mouth opening and closing, yet nothing coming out. Finally it was Mary that actually spoke up. "You mean you're not upset about that many ferrets?!"
"Not at all." Adam said seriously.
"Why not?" Don asked in a totally confused voice.
"That's easy. They're Hybrids... that means they're Khan's problem not mine" Adam deadpanned making Logan bust out in laughter.
"Well... since you took that one so well... this next topic should be a piece of cake." Don said as he took out another Data padd.
"I'm almost afraid to ask..." Adam said, and Professor Don just grinned at him.
Handing over the Padd, Don spoke in a serious voice. "As you know, General Adams took control of our father, Dr. Rosenthal roughly seven years ago. He used exposing all of us, if father didn't work for him. Almost immediately, we started working on something that would allow us to escape. What you have in your hands, is what we built just for that purpose."
Adam looked down at the Padd, and almost passed out. "What the fuck is that?"
Don smiled softly. "That was our escape plan. We call him the 'Goliath.' See, when we started out, we figured it would only be about 500 foot long, just big enough to hold all of us, and anyone else we might need. See, it was going to have normal rocket, bomb, and missile armaments, as well as a few machine guns. But then.. well, Professor Riley figured out how to make Ram Jet rounds. That called for a re-design, so that we could fit all twelve turrets on it. One on each eight corners, and four for the middle. But since the ammo developed was rather large, we made it a bit bigger to handle that."
Both Adam and Logan were just staring at the Chimp professor, trying to figure out what to say. "Well, we were almost done with the first redesign when Dr. Carter made a break through on his Particle Projection Cannons. So we had to add those. Of course, because of how much equipment needed to be built into it so it could hold the two large turrets that would be on both the top and the bottom, it called for another redesign."
Sighing heavily, trying not to smirk too much, Don continued to fill them in on the genesis of the 'Goliath'. "Well by this point, we knew we needed a different type of propulsion as the normal jet engines just would not be enough to keep this thing in the air. So, Dr. James reverse engineered Star Fleet's antigravity technology. Of course, this called for yet another re-design. During that re-design, it was realized that there was absolutely no way that we could power this thing with normal power plants. We were all trying to figure out what to do, when young little Taylor told us about something he was tinkering with."
Mary couldn't help but jump in at this point. "You have to realize... Taylor was only eight years old at that point, so many of the older Chimps didn't pay him much mind, but Don did. What Taylor was able to figure out and design, was something that many of us had been working on, but were never able to create... Micro Fusion Generators."
Adam sat back thoroughly impressed. "How.. how much does one of those things put out... and how big are they?"
"Well, they're just a bit bigger than your normal fifty-five gallon drum, and if hooked up to the power grid of a major city, like say, New York City. Well, if estimates are correct, it could power the entire city for almost five years; while still having a little bit left over."
"HOLY SHIT!" Adam exclaimed. "How many of those things do you have on this thing?"
"Well, there's one running the main systems, like life support, lights, computers, things like that. And, because we like to plan for the worst, there are two back ups for that one. Then there's one each for the particle projection cannons, with one each having a back up, so that makes seven. Then we have three running the Ram Jet turrets, with each one of them having a back up, so now we're up to thirteen. One and a back up to handle the rockets, missiles and bombs. Fifteen. Then we have eight running the anti-grav generators, and propulsion system, with four backing them up. And of course, five for the main gun, with two backups, So thirty four total.
"Main Gun?!" Adam asked, trying to forget how many of those generators they had on the ship.
"Oh yes. That one was actually my baby. See, we ran into a problem when we started on the final refit. We actually never thought about how to get it out from under the base Adams had us in. so I had to come up with something that could break us out. The Mass Drive system." Don was beaming with pride.
"I know I am going to regret this... What is a 'Mass Drive system'?" Adam asked while wincing, knowing he wasn't going to like this.
"Well, my specialty is magnetics, so I devised a way to take a large object and propel it at incredible speeds. The Mass Drive has twenty rounds on the Goliath. Each one has a two ton, very heavy and very dense, metal cone shaped head. Behind it, encased in a somewhat lighter metal, are several jet propelled smaller charges that are meant to spread out on impact and cause even more damage to the target. All in all, each shell is roughly five tons. The cool part was the fact that it fires each round at just under five times the speed of sound."
Adam did faint.
"What???" Don asked as he looked down at Adam. "Was it something I said. I mean, I didn't even get to the best part. The Goliath is almost the size of two Super Aircraft Carries back to back."
Gary Levox took a quick peek out at the crowd and chuckled. "I can't believe this place filled up in less than twenty minutes after Daileass made the announcement that we were gonna do a concert."
Joe Don laughed as he strapped his guitar on. "Yeah, and that was almost three hours ago."
Jay, not to be left out, peaked out as well and then said. "What surprises me the most is how well behaved they've been."
Laughter came from behind them and then a voice. "Oh come on Jay, I thought you knew our kids better than that." Joe said as he walked up, adjusting the guitar that was strapped across his shoulder. "After I told you guys what these kids have built, I'm surprised you even wonder." Joe was grinning so they knew he wasn't upset.
"Yeah well... it's one thing to hear about it, it's a completely different thing to actually see it. Anyways, you ready to go out there and face the monsters?" Jay smirked.
"Yup!" Joe grinned, then turned to Gary. "You sure you want to go through with this?"
Gary got very serious as he turned and faced Joe head on. "Yeah... I've been thinking about this, hard, since you said it could happen. I've never been more sure of anything before, or this scared."
Joe smiled as he clapped the man on the shoulder. "In that case you're doing the right thing. If you weren't scared, then I'd be worried." The three men nodded at Joe and then he grinned. "Now come on and lets get this over with."
Right on cue, Daileass lowered the lights in the auditorium, and the crowd went silent. All across the base, people were either watching the concert, or listening in over the radio. With a nod to everyone there, including the band that was transported in a few hours ago, Gary gave the signal to start. Right on cue, Joe, and the drummer started to play.
Almost all of the younger kids knew what the starting song was right away. Gary had picked a high energy, fast paced song that kids would know, the theme song from the movie Cars, 'Life is a Highway.'
Joe had been surprised when Joe Don asked him to play lead guitar for the first song, but as soon as the solo started he realized why. The entire audience went nuts seeing Joe, widely known as 'Daddy Joe', up there playing with the band.
Down in the very front, Joe saw Adam standing there with Logan beside him, big grins on their faces. No one that knew these two boys would ever doubt the love and devotion that they felt towards each other. Their adopted children danced in front of them, Tommy singing at the top of his lungs, while Elwyn and Ronnie just danced along. Demarco and Alesia were also dancing, although they were not really used to this type of music.
When the music from the first song died, the auditorium almost exploded in applause and screaming kids. Gary stepped forward and waited for people to calm down before he tried to talk.
"HELLO OUT THERE!" Gary cried out. Familiar with crowds, he didn't even bother trying to talk, letting them run wild for a few minutes until they were calm enough to hear him. "First off," he said at an almost normal pitch, letting the mic do the work of carrying his voice, "I'd like to thank you guys for coming here and letting us play a few songs for you."
Again, Gary was forced to pause as the room erupted in cheers. This time, he only let it run about thirty seconds before holding his hand up for quiet. "Secondly, I want you to all give a big hand to General Joseph Casey! Not only is he playing guitar with us tonight, but he was the one that was able to make this night so very special to many of us." Again, the room was filled with applause, somewhat muted since most of them didn't know what he meant.
Gary grinned when things quieted back down, scanning the crowd until he finally found the face he was looking for. Pointing down, Gary spoke lower, softer, knowing the mic would still leave it loud enough to hear. "Jack, why don't you come on up here?"
Gary couldn't help but laugh as the boy's smile flashed off his face, and he looked around. Finally, he pointed to himself and mouthed the word 'me?!'
"Yeah you! Come on up here!" Gary called out, and watched as all the kids around Jack started to push him forward. When the boy got to the edge of the stage, Gary leaned down and helped pull him up. When the boy was standing on the stage next to his idol, Gary wrapped his arm around him and smiled as the crowd once again started to applaud. When things quieted down, Gary started to talk to Jack, even though he kept his eyes focused on the crowd. "I doubt any of you know this, but it was this young man here who made us decide to throw this mini concert tonight. The strength that this young man has shown is nothing short of amazing. However, what I found to be even more amazing is he isn't alone here. When I look out into the crowd here, I see more people under the age of thirteen than I see over it. Before today, just based on your ages, I would have said no one here could make a difference in the world, but boy was I wrong!"
Again the room exploded, and this time, Gary just let it go on. What even he didn't know, was that the people in the base were not the only ones watching this. All over the world, people were tuning in. Not huge amounts, as Daileass kept the viewing audience to select groups, but still, many, many people were watching. "I have only heard SOME of the tales of what you have accomplished, but I am starting to learn about what you all have had to overcome to get where you are now. Let me say this from the bottom of my heart..." before he could say anything else, Joe Don and Jay came up and stood next to him.
"Excuse me..." Gary said with a bit of a laugh at the look his band mates gave him. "I think I can speak for the three of us when I say that we are not only humbled to be in here, but would be honored if we could be Uncles to all of you. If ANY of you need ANYTHING... all you have to do is ask Daileass. He will know how to get a hold of us. No matter if it's day or night. No matter what it's about... we're here for all of you. Please, allow us to do this for you, and please do this for us."
Gary wiped a tear away from his eyes as he spoke next, struggling to keep his voice in check. "I know a lot of you are probably thinking 'why would three very successful musicians want to deal with us?' Well let me tell you why. When we started this band, we wanted to make a difference. Not really sure how, or what we could do, we tried to find songs that would have an impact on people, and maybe help them out. We donated a lot of our money and a lot of our time to different charities trying to lend the Rascal Flats name to help them out. We're proud of all of that... but before us..." he made a motion with his hands to indicate the entire group, "before us, I see a group of kids... KIDS... that have not only figured out how to help, but are doing it. That is something that we could only wish to have done." Gary paused for a moment, surprisingly, the room was dead quiet. "This next song is one of our most popular, but we've adapted it to fit you guys. We all truly hope that we got into words what we feel when we think of you guys. Normally, I'm not lost for words, but I really don't know what else to say, other than to sing the song for all of you and hope that you like it!"
Right on cue the music started up. Gary kept his arm around Jack the entire time he sang.
The room exploded and nothing that Gary did would get the kids to calm down after that song; so he did the only thing he could do. He went into another fast paced song, just to keep the energy level up. They ended up playing three more songs before they could even begin to slow things down.
The entire time that Gary and the band were playing, Jack stood right up there with them. He'd moved off to the side some, but the one time that he tried to go back into the audience, Gary stopped him with a hand on the shoulder and a shake of the head. Jack was in heaven. Nothing he dreamed of, could have beaten this one.
Finally, the last song came to an end and Gary was quick to hold up his hand to quiet everyone down. Once the entire room was silent, Gary walked up to Jack and squatted down in front of him. Gary ignored his live mic and spoke directly to Jack, "Enjoying yourself so far?"
Jack could only nod. This really was a dream come true for him, a dream come true and so much more. He was so excited he couldn't even talk. Gary went over and grabbed a stool from the side of the stage. He sat it down right in the middle of the stage close to the audience and sat Jack on it, facing the crowd. Gary moved around and knelt down in front of Jack, holding the boys eyes with his own. Gary's voice softened to almost a whisper, his mic faithfully carrying his voice outward. "I heard you on the radio earlier and we know what song you've been asking to play since you got here. All three of us cried, when we heard what song that was and what that song means to you." Jack's eyes immediately started to water, his lip started to tremble as he nodded his head. "Would you allow us to play that song? Would you allow us to sing that in tribute for your brother?"
ack launched himself into Gary's arms and started to cry. He hugged the boy close to himself as he stood back up and nodded to Jay, who started to play the keyboards. When Gary started to sing, everyone could hear a soft voice singing along with him. Other than the music, not a single sound was heard in the room.
The entire time he was singing, Gary held Jack. When the song ended, not a word was spoken in the entire room as Gary set Jack back on the stool. Looking into the boys eyes, Gary smiled sadly, knelt in front of the boy and used his thumb to wipe tears away. "It's gonna be okay Jack. I know your brother's watching down on you now, smiling at the fine young man you're turning out to be. But... I have a question I would like to ask you." Gary paused to make sure he had the boy's full attention. "I was talking to Daddy Joe earlier and he said that I could do what I wanted to, but only if you wanted it too..." Gary paused while muttering to himself. 'You're doing a great job here idiot!' He was trying to gather his courage and swallow the lump in his throat. He ran his hand through his hair then looked out at all the thousands of people who were looking at him, then back to little Jack in front of him. "I guess the best way to do this, is to just do it. Jack... would you allow me to adopt you? Would you be my son?"
Jack could only stare in shock at the man who was kneeling in front of him. "My... my dad? You wanna be my daddy?" Gary could only nod, not trusting his own voice right then. "YES!" Jack cried out as he launched himself into Gary's arms. The room erupted in cheers so loud it was literally heard three floors up in the medical wing.
After a few minutes of applause and hugs between Jack and Gary, Jay stepped forward wiping his own tears from his eyes. The room started to quiet when he raised his hand. Finally, Jay started to talk and when he did, no one could miss the emotion in his voice. "This afternoon, after we talked to a lot of different kids who live here. We had a long talk with Daileass, who brought Daddy Joe to us. While he would never get into details, he told us some of what has happened to the kids and adults that live here. Then Joe started to explain exactly who the UNIT is, not just what we've heard in the news, but who you all REALLY are. That was shocking enough, but then he told us about the Clan that you all are a part of, and we got shocked again. To hear, that a bunch of kids banded together to say 'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!, if you adults won't protect us and help us, we'll do it ourselves.' That is just nothing short of amazing."
While Jay was talking, Joe Don and Gary, with Jack glued to his side, walked over to stand next to him as he kept talking to the crowd. "When Joe was telling us about what Clan Short has done so far, we sat there in shock. But the one thing we were all thinking is... it's about time. It's about time that someone stood up to the evil in this world. It's about time that someone stood up and said to all the people in the world that are being abused that 'we will help you', that 'your not alone anymore' and most importantly that 'we CARE!'
With out missing a beat, Joe Don took over. "We've had dealings with a number of different organizations that say they will help the kids. That say they will get in there and stop the abuse that a lot of kids have to suffer through. Though every single one of them, while they may try and have the best intentions at heart... they really can't or won't do what it really takes. But not you guys!"
"We've heard story after story of you guys going in, not only to stop the abuse, but bringing the people who did it to justice!" He had to pause as the room exploded in cheers again. For a moment, the three of them actually worried not only about their ears, but also the voices of the kids, as in would any of them have any left!
When he could finally talk again over the roar, Joe Don tried his best to meet as many eyes as he could while he spoke. "We heard of one rescue that touched us more deeply than we could even express. We were never told who was there, or who was rescued, so there is no need to worry, but what we heard moved us more than any one thing we've heard since we got here. That's a trick, let me tell you." He paused to gather his thoughts, and all those near him heard a sob escape. Jay put a hand on his right shoulder, while Gary squeezed his left.
Nodding his thanks to his friends, Joe Don fought to continue. "I was about to ask all of you to imagine what it's like to grow up wondering when the next time someone was going to beat you, when the next time someone was going to make you do things you didn't want to, when the next time you might get something to eat would be. But then it hit me, hit me hard. Most of you don't have to imagine. You've lived it, your neighbor has lived it, your friends have lived it." He was fighting hard to keep control of his voice, and he was managing... barely.
"I can't even begin to imagine how it feels to wonder if anyone out there actually loves me. If anyone out there cares about me, other than what I can do for them. But that's what this kid wondered. Until the day came that he got rescued."
Gary took over knowing his friend couldn't keep going. "We've been to many military bases. We've been invited to watch numerous battle scenarios and even participate in a few war games. The team work, the skill, the... the sense that as a group we could do anything. It was incredible, unimaginable. No one who hasn't been there, hasn't done it themselves, could understand. The sensation of being not just yourself, but a cog in the vast machine of a unit. And not a faceless, unimportant part, but part of a whole that is greater than the self. Brothers in arms, a family born of purpose and training."
You can't find that in the civilian world," Gary shook his head. "It's simply impossible. There's no way for a bunch of kids to manage that, to understand it, to wield the power that comes from it. Or at least, that's what I would have said before today."
General Casey told us about a particular rescue and I might add, he said this wasn't the worst on file. Which, hell, it scares me; I can't imagine much worse. Anyway, he allowed us to watch the video of this rescue. The faces were blanked out, and the voices distorted, to protect the people involved, but what we saw was nothing short of amazing."
A Unit strike team. A team made up of kids from this base. A team where the oldest member was only sixteen years old and the youngest only twelve. Ten kids... and dammit... you are KIDS. You're kids that should be enjoying life. Out there playing stupid games with your friends... not busting in the door to some hell hole of a house with the precision and speed you'd expect in a team of seasoned SEAL's. Going room to room trying to find not only the bad guys, but also the single boy that was there. Kids shouldn't have to cut the lock off a door, break the door in and find a small boy chained to the bed naked, lying there in his own filth."
Gary knew he had tears flowing down his eyes, but he didn't care. Had he been able to see, he would have known that there weren't many dry eyes in the room. "Kids shouldn't have to deal with things like that. Things that I couldn't even imagine coming out of some sick horror film. I mean everything I told you so far is bad enough, but it doesn't compare... at least it doesn't to me, to what happened next. This team of kids, cut the chains that held the boy to the bed, and one of the team members scooped the boy up, not caring that the boy was dirty and smelled. This team member held him close, and kept telling him that it was over... that he was safe." Silence. There was only silence in the room as Gary paused to collect his thoughts, and swallow the lump that had formed in his throat.
"Once the little boy had calmed down, the team member started to put him down so he could walk on his own two feet. The boy cried out, begging not to be left alone, begging the team member not to let him go. They found out later that the boy had been beat so severely that he'd lost his sight." He paused for a very brief moment as he once again saw in his minds eye what happened next. "The words that team member said, were so simple, yet so profound that they inspired us to write a song. The words that were spoken were this... 'I won't let go.'
Jay moved back to his keyboards, as Joe Don strapped his guitar back on. "When we decided we were going to write this song, we tried our best to get into the mind set of a UNIT member... of a Clan Short member. The question we asked ourselves was simple. 'What would you all say to an abused kid? What would you say to a kid struggling to survive day to day?' The answer was simple. The strike team member already said it. 'I won't let go.'"
But you know, those four simple words can mean so much. Can mean so many different things. That is what we tried to capture here. The song is for you, but we do have a request... if you would all Honor us so... We would like it if you, the Clan will accept it, we would like to offer this song to be the message you send to all the kids out there who have lost hope. To all the kids that don't know where to turn, or who to ask for help from. I can only pray that we actually were able to put the emotions we felt from what we saw into this simple song."
Jay started to play the keyboards, and as soon as the opening notes were going, the room fell to complete darkness with just a single spot light to illuminate the three members of Rascal Flatts. None of the other band members were playing, there was only Jay on the keyboards, Joe Don playing his acoustic guitar, and Gary singing.
By this point there wasn't a single dry eye in the room, or anywhere else where it was being watched. The raw emotions that were being brought out in the song was something that not many have seen before. The amazing voice of Gary Levox was able to pull emotions out of even the hardest heart.
This second time the refrain was sung, many of the kids in the audience joined in, and the sound of over two thousand kids singing, was something so powerful that no one could have watched with out breaking down. But it was more then just heart wrenching... it also served as a warning to those that would hurt kids. The Clan... not just the members here, but the entire Clan, would not ever stand by while someone was being hurt.
Gary tried to fight it, but he couldn't. His voice faltered, and died out. But that didn't stop the song. It had grown a life of it's own. Every person in the room brought their voice up to sing the next part. To sing it to the world, but mostly to sing it to the kids that they would be helping. But what struck Gary the most, as he was looking out over the audience, was the fact that they were singing to each other as well. THAT right there is when he realized.... truly realized that this was not just a group of people who came together to help... this was a family. And when one of their family members would need it, they would be there to tell them...'I won't let you go!'
With more emotion than Gary had ever put into a song before, he closed this one out with everything he had, and then some. These kids gave everything they were, everything they could ever be, everyday of their lives to help others. He couldn't.... wouldn't do any less as he honored them in his own way.
This wasn't an easy chapter to edit. I managed though, through the tears. A very powerful and emotional chapter in so many ways. So please forgive me if I missed something through the tears. Just feel the power and emotions all throughout this entire chapter. I love the way you have Rascal Flatts portrayed. Thank you Roland.
Now, how many ferrets are there?
Lady Cynaira
Again, Roland has done it. He has managed to tug at our heart strings. How lucky is Jack. I am sure we have not heard the last of Jack or Rascal Flatts. I agree with Cynaira on all points. It was a hard chapter to edit. So many emotions and so many things going on. Now, what is going to happen with the new Assault Team? What has Adam dreamed up now? I guess we will just have to wait and see.
Just your friendly neighborhood editing puppy!
Boxerdude