"And then..."

"He gets like this," Lucia said as she shook her head. "You can ignore him."

"I heard that."

"We can all hear you and your weird fantasies." Matt laughed anyway and then shrugged at their group's fourth member. "This is just how it is."

"It's fine," Noel said. He wasn't sure how he'd gotten assigned to this little unit, but he didn't mind. He'd made SOLDIER, after all, and things like eccentric comrades and uneventful night watches at warehouses whose contents he didn't want to ask about were probably going to be common for awhile.

Things were pretty peaceful.

He...

"Look sharp." Glenn's voice cut through Noel's thoughts, and a split-second later he saw the same shadows they all did. He reached for his sword at the same time and with the same speed that they all reached for their weapons.

Whatever was in the warehouse, whatever needed four SOLDIERs watching it, Noel wasn't going to ask. He didn't need to know. But someone knew, and that was a problem.

That was a problem he could do something about.

This was what he'd trained for, after all.

Together, they ran.

Together, they eliminated the threat.

"Getting back to..."