My First Chuck story!

Disclaimer: I haven't known Chuck long enough to own it.

The President of the United States sat at his desk, breathing a sigh of relief. For the past two hours everyone in the White House had been on tenderhooks with the potential possibility of an imminent start to World War 3. It appeared that some nutcases in California had found a way to hack into an old weapons satellite designed by a Japanese software guru named Morimoto and direct the weapons down toward the US. It had appeared the only way to avoid mass civilian casualties was to launch an ICBM at the satellite, but since those missiles were almost exclusively associated with intercontinental nuclear weapons, the launching of one would've caused a massive upheaval which would've had the potential to spark an international incident before they could calm the waters. Fortunately, it appeared an intelligence team in the area had been able to disarm the satellite at the last moment. When the President was convinced he could speak once more without vomiting up his heart, he turned to his chief of staff.

"Bob, I want a complete report on just how that team managed to head off this crisis."

Several hours later the President was back at his desk having attended to a number of events on his schedule, reading the report his chief of staff had handed him for the 3rd time as he hadn't been able to believe it the first 2.

"Let me get this straight. Morimoto hid the codes to his weapons satellite in the final victory screen of a supposedly unbeatable 1980s video game!?"

"Yes, sir."

"A team consisting of an NSA agent, a CIA agent, and a civilian cornered Morimoto trying to finish beating his game to get the codes and deactivate the satellite right before he was taken out by a bomb."

"Yes, Sir."

"Said civilian then proceeded to formulate a plan attempt to convince the former champion of this video game who is now a compulsive alcoholic and drug addict to beat the game in time."

"Yes, sir."

"He succeeded in persuading him, but the civilian fainted under the pressure, despite not knowing the stakes, so he took it upon himself to play the game, realized the game was linked to a mathematical pattern from a pop song, and used it to beat the game and get the codes to his partner who had infiltrated the terrorist compound at the last possible second."

"Yes, sir."

"For crying out loud, Bob, can't you say anything other than 'yes, sir' to this?! Am I the only one who finds this a little out there?"

"No, sir," his chief of staff replied, mouth twitching.

The President threw up his hands in exasperation at his chief of staff's antics, before looking back down at the report. "What's the deal with this civilian anyway? What's he doing on a team of covert agents?"

"Team information is in the next folder, sir."

The President picked up the report and read it cover to cover. This one he had to read 5 more times before he could grasp it. Finally he looked back up.

"Are you seriously telling me that a rogue CIA operative destroyed a computer containing thousands of classified secrets, but not before tricking someone he'd betrayed in college into downloading them into his brain!?"

"Yes, sir."

The President put his hands over his eyes. "I need an aspirin."

His chief of staff, having expected this, simply held out his hand, Advil nestled in his palm. The President glared but took the pill.

"Who is this guy?"

"His dossier is on the next page, sir."

The President took a moment to review it and closed the folder, his head bowed in thought. This man had not had an easy life. His mother had left when he was 9, and his father did the same a year later, leaving him and his sister to fend for themselves. He had managed to get himself a scholarship to Stanford, only to get kicked out in his senior year after being framed by his best friend for cheating on a test. Said best friend proceeded to have an affair with his girlfriend whom he was about to propose to. He'd been in a rut for the next 5 years, until his life had been spun clear out of control when the aforementioned and not very appropriately named best friend had downloaded a government computer into his brain, leaving him in a position of having 2 federal agencies barging into his life and putting him in danger repeatedly in order to use the secrets now contained in his skull.

But that wasn't all that got the President's attention. It was the attitude this man had taken. Here was a worker in an electronics store suddenly dragged kicking and screaming into the world of international espionage. He had no training, no preparation. His life was not allowed to continue unaffected. He had been forced to lie repeatedly to his family and friends. He was unable to pursue a relationship with a woman because one of the agents on his team had established a cover as his girlfriend. But instead of complaining bitterly or giving trouble, this man had gone out of his way to help. From what the President had read, this guy seemed to have an issue with following the directions of his handlers because he refused to sit idly by while others were in danger. He'd been shot at, beaten, threatened with torture, and he still came back for more. And now he had saved the entire country and potentially the entire world from becoming embroiled in a horrific war due to one man's madness.

"Bob, get me a call to Burbank, California. I want to speak with Chuck Bartowski."

Please let me know if I should continue!