CHARACTER LIST:

IF YOU DO NOT SEE YOUR CHARACTER ON THIS LIST YOU MAY STILL HAVE YOUR OC ACCEPTED. SEE AUTHOR'S NOTE FOR MORE DETAILS.

Bold indicates Metahuman

Italics indicates Human

Bold and Italics indicate Alien

Ground Combat Element:

Lydia Anderson, 17

Wolfgang Lee, 20

Jacob Lyland, 24

Shaun Jameson, 19

Lyrick Saunders, 19

Murugon 'Muru' Gontalahad, 20

Logistics Combat Element:

Dr. Akihiko Minoto, 20

Regina 'Ginny' Pasternak, 18

Craig Stevens, 19

Command Element:

Colonel Donald White, 54

Major Victoria Greenway, 31

Captain Zephyr Yakota, 24

Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA

January 13, 2016 – 0900 hours

The click of black stiletto heels echoed off of the white brick wall as well as in Jacob Lyland's mind. Jacob resisted the urge to yawn as he followed the dark haired and dark skinned woman down the long mundane hallway. Jacob's green eyes scanned up and down the white bricks searching for something that made this government building interesting. So far he hadn't found anything that stood out. The building was dull and over all ordinary. It reminded him of his old high school or maybe a hospital.

"This is the Ground Combat's squad bay. Your barrack is down this hall." Major Victoria Greenway informed him as they took a sharp left turn and began to walk down a hallway that matched the last one almost perfectly except for the increased number of doors that were scattered across both sides of the hall. "You'll be rooming with Murugon Gontalahad." She continued on, spurting information that meant absolutely nothing to Jacob as he did not recognize the name Murugon Gontalahad at all. "Your photo ID that was issued to you when you first entered the building will work as a key to this entire place. Don't go anywhere without and always wear it in a place that can be easily seen."

Jacob's eyes narrowed so slightly that there was no way Victoria could have noticed it. "Of course." He nodded charmingly as he cocked his head slightly to the side.

If Victoria suspected anything about his attitude being false, then she didn't say so and simply stopped moving in front of the furthest most orange colored door. "Welcome to the Alpha Taskforce." Victoria smiled slightly at the twenty-four year old before swiping her own photo ID card and waiting for the green light to appear before pushing the heavy metal door open.

Jacob listened to the click of Victoria's heels as they became fainter the further down the hall she went as he surveyed the room in front of him. It wasn't large and if Jacob had gone to college he wagered that it was probably the size of an average college dorm room. There were two twin sized beds on both sides of the white walled room along with two oak nightstands. The floor was the same white tile floor that Jacob had seen throughout the entire government facility. Each nightstand had a lamp and Jacob also noted the two giant oak wardrobes that were pushed against the far wall of the room. Everything was uniformed, much like Jacob expected. Anything else from the military would be weird. Finally sitting on the bed the was pressed against the left wall was tall red haired boy. The boy looked up at the sound of Jacob's entry, his gold eyes striking straight into Jacob's mind and he found it hard to focus on anything else.

Jacob quickly regained his composure as he shook the image of his roommate's gold eyes from his mind and stuck out his hand quickly throwing on a causal smile. "Jacob Lyland, you must be Murugon."

Murugon rose from his bed slowly and regarded Jacob's hand with weariness. "Call me Muru." He grunted out, his eyes still narrow as he stared at Jacob's outstretched hand.

Jacob got the idea fairly easily and quickly retracted his hand yet his smile remained firmly in place. He turned from the younger man and swung his small black duffle bag onto the other unclaimed bed. He began to pull out the assortment of clothes that they had issued to him at the same time they had issued his ID. He noticed with slight annoyance that everything was green and matching and couldn't help but roll his eyes at how cliché it was. It reminded him of the military academy moves he use to watch when he was younger.

"What are you?" Muru grunted from behind Jacob and Jacob couldn't help but be slightly caught off guard with the question. He spun to see Muru staring at him with his arms crossed firmly against his chest as if Jacob was a puzzle that needed to be solved.

"I'm sorry?" Jacob asked, struggling to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. "I'm afraid I don't understand the question."

"Are you an alien? Meta-human?" Muru clarified, shifting his weight slightly but otherwise showing no signs of being uncomfortable with asking such an odd question.

"I'm a human." Jacob told Muru, and again he had to work to keep any hint of sarcasm out of his tone.

"Just a human?" Muru asked, honest confusion coloring his face this time as his arms dropped from their defensive position.

"Yes. You?" Jacob asked and although it was more to get back at Muru he was honestly curious as to what Muru was exactly.

"I'm from the planet Tenburr." Muru answered and Jacob nodded politely.

"Never heard of it." Jacob commented casually as he stuck his hands in his gray slacks and he didn't miss the way Muru's hands tightened into fist by his sides. Jacob watched as Muru seemed to struggle with his anger for a second before regaining his composure.

Muru's fist untightened as he let out the air he didn't know he had been holding in his lungs. "If you're just a human, what are you doing here?" Muru asked as he raised a single eyebrow at Jacob. His comment aiming to offend the older man.

"Not everyone needs powers to be a hero." Jacob answered simply and Muru could tell that his comment hadn't bothered Jacob. "So you're twenty, huh?" Jacob commented pointing at Muru's ID badge which was pinned to his shirt that not only identified him by his name and as a part of taskforce alpha but also by his birthday. Muru's eyes narrowed for what felt like the fiftieth time as he nodded. "Only a year time you can drink then. Trust me things get a lot better once you're allowed to drink alcohol. Although I guess no one's going to be doing much drinking around here. They confiscated all my stuff when I got here."

Muru felt his defenses sliding around Jacob as he actually felt the corners of his mouth begin to twitch into what might have been a smile. "Guy who walked me around told me they didn't want us to have any outside contact during our training here."

"Eh, doesn't surprise me." Jacob answered honestly. "Government likes to be in control. They think letting us have things like the internet will make us suddenly change our minds about being here."

Muru nodded in agreement before the two adults fell into silence.

"Well this room is depressing. What do you say we go and see if we can find some more of our future teammates?" Jacob suggested when the silence was becoming too awkward to let continue on.

"Sure." Muru agreed and Jacob gestured for the taller red head to lead the way as he attempted to pin his name badge onto his jacket.

The two young adults exited the small barrack and allowed the metal door to slam shut behind them, the sound once again echoing off the halls almost as if mocking the silence. Muru adventured down the stark hallway farther away from their room and for a brief second he worried that he wouldn't be able to find his way back to the small space. He let the thought exit his mind as quickly as it entered and instead focused on navigating the white halls in front of him.

It didn't take long for the two newly introduced roommates to find themselves in front of a new darker color door with a sign on the left side of it that read 'Common Area'. "Let's see what's behind door number one shall we?" Jacob joked as he pulled off his ID card and swiped it causing the light to flash green. Muru's eyebrows drew together in confusion to the reference but chose not to comment. Muru pulled the heavy door open with ease and took a step inside looking around at the spacious yet still bare room with the same white walls and white tile floors.

The room had two blue couches and two matching armchairs with a couple of oak side tables littered around the room. On the wall furthest from the door was one large flat-screen television and all the furniture seemed to be centered around the television. Jacob did note with a hint of satisfaction that there was a large window on the left side of the room allowing for natural light to flood into the room and give a much more appealing look then the rest of the building that he had seen so far had.

Muru watched as a small figure jumped up at the sound of their arrival and spun to face them. Lydia Anderson, as her ID badge identified her, made her way over the couch and to the two taller recruits. "Uh, hi. I'm Lydia." She introduced herself and gave a small wave.

"Muru." Muru responded, and attempted not to sound as stand-offish as he felt.

"Jacob." Jacob smiled with his teeth politely at the petite girl, which encouraged the girl to smile back at him.

Lydia's blue eyes swept up the brunette and red-haired men in front of her and she suddenly felt a lot shorter then she had in a while. "I was just watching the news." Lydia explained, pointing to the TV behind her without really looking at it. "That seems to be the only thing that plays on this TV."

Lydia turned, her long brown hair swishing behind her, and began to head back towards the couch she was occupying before.

"Mind if we join you?" Jacob asked as he also headed towards the blue couch and took a seat next to Lydia.

"Um sure. I moved in like a week ago and you guys are the first people from the taskforce I've seen." Lydia informed the Muru and Jacob as she sat down on the couch and Jacob took a seat next to her. Muru opted for a more far away option by sitting in the armchair next to the couch. "I think everyone's supposed to be moving in today though. Colonel White said something about an orientation sort of thing this morning. In fact, they should be calling us down any minute." Lydia rambled as she glanced downwards at her government issued black bulky watch and Jacob sensed the young girl was nervous.

"Why'd you move in a week ago?" Muru asked tactlessly although the question didn't seem to bother Lydia.

"I'm seventeen and since I'm working for the government, they're legally required to give me some sort of education with like at least three hours of school a day." Lydia explained, looking a little annoyed at the idea. "I started classes like a week ago cause they're trying to get a head start on everything."

Jacob resisted the urge to laugh and managed to choke out the words, "That unfortunate," before clamping his mouth down tightly.

"It's not that bad," Lydia insisted and Jacob wondered if she was trying to convince them or herself. "I'm in my second semester of my senior year."

"What's been on the news?" Jacob asked as he nodded towards the muted TV which prompt Lydia to grabbed the remote from the side table on and unmute the TV allowing the room to fill with background noise.

"Just the Justice League. Apparently there was some huge alien attack in Star City." Lydia answered, her attention turning back to the television.

"Aliens, always attacking our planet. Right Muru?" Jacob asked, a slight twinkle in his eye as he teased the taller yet younger man.

Muru answered Jacob with a simple glare that pretty much said everything Muru was thinking. Jacob decided not to push his lucky with the twenty year old alien powerhouse and turned to also watch the TV.

"Are you sure the news is really the only thing that plays on this TV?" Muru asked bored with the same coverage of the Justice League as always seemed to be playing on the TV and doubt of Lydia's previous statement filling his voice.

Lydia tossed him the small black remote with the older recruit caught with ease. "Be my guess," the short brunette girl sarcastically remarked.

Muru hit the channel button and the screen flickered for a second before changing to a different news channel covering the same Justice League story as the last channel. He hit the button once more only for the same thing to occur. He tried two more times before growing frustrated and throwing the remote back at Lydia using much more force then she had used when she threw it to him.

Muru felt a flicker of guilt as the remote flew straight for Lydia's head and the girl put her hands up and turned her head away. However, inches before the remote went flying into Lydia's head it bounced off of an invisible force and landed softly back onto the couch next to Lydia.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to throw it that hard." Muru apologized, a remorseful frown placed firmly on his face and despite the apologetic tone of his voice his face still conveyed a state of frustration.

"It's fine. No harm, no foul." Lydia waved him off and she put her hands down and reached for the remote to turn off the TV.

"How'd you do that?" Jacob asked as Lydia pointed the remote towards the cable box and the TV screen faded to black.

"Meta-human. I can create force-fields." Lydia answered and Jacob couldn't tell if it was pride coloring her voice or something darker.

The click of the door opening behind them caused all Lydia, Jacob, and Muru to turn around as Victoria walked into the common room.

"Good you're all together." Victoria nodded as she noticed Lydia, Jacob, and Muru. "Colonel White and Captain Yakota are ready for you down at the Quarter Deck."

"Quarter Deck?" Muru parroted, confusion coloring his voice as his eyebrows raised.

Victoria rolled her eyes before turning sharply on her heel. "Just follow me." She commanded in a tired tone as if she had been dealing with people who didn't know anything all day. Which, to be fair, Lydia was sure she had been seeing as all the new recruits were moving in that day. Still it was only half past nine and the older woman seemed to be at her wits end.

Jacob was the first to follow Victoria and Muru and Lydia quickly fell in line behind them.

"Who's Colonel White?" Muru asked Lydia quietly, as if he didn't want to upset Victoria who was just out of earshot.

"He's the guy in charge of this entire thing. He handpicked all of us for this so he knows literally everything about us." Lydia began only to be interrupted by Jacob.

"Everything?" He asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Everything." Lydia confirmed while nodding her head. "I heard that this isn't the first taskforce he put together. The last one didn't work out or something. First mission was a complete fail and no one really knows what happened but the entire team just vanished. Which is apparently why he's so intense about this taskforce. He did all the background checks himself. Picked us based on specific skills that we had. Those aptitude test that we had to take when we applied were like psychological test to see if we could handle this kind of life." Lydia continued in a hushed tone. "I mean I guess that could all be speculation. I haven't seen Colonel White that much this week and the only time I did see him he just corrected something I was doing, like my posture or something, and then moved on. I never even got the chance to say a word to him."

"What about Captain Yakota?" Jacob asked as his mind raced with all the newly acquired information Lydia had just provided.

"I haven't met him yet. Heard from some of the Marines around base that he's from Japan." Lydia shrugged and Jacob nodded.

The three new Marine recruits followed Victoria into the small metal elevator that traveled down to the first floor before the silver doors sliding open.

Victoria led them to down a familiar white hallway until stopping in front of two double doors that were painted an army green. Jacob found that fact slightly ironic seeing as how they were technically working for the Marine Corps. Victoria slide her card and the doors beeped as Jacob heard the lock click. So far from what he'd seen, nothing in the entire building would open with an ID card. It made sense, but at the same time seemed a little bit like overkill. They were already on a secure base, which someone would have to have a military ID to get on, behind a large electric fence, which someone needed to code to get past, in a government run building that required photo ID badges to get into. Besides all that, the only people that were in the building were Marine Officers who ran it, or people with more than enough skill to take care of themselves.

Victoria pushed open one of the doors and Jacob, the gentleman he pretended to be, pushed open the other one and allowed Lydia and Muru to enter the room a head of them before releasing their hold on the door and allowing them to slam shut.

Inside the double doors was a room that was much different from anything Muru had seen in his short stay at Camp Pendleton. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all a dark grey color that created a sort of soothing environment. There wasn't any furniture but in the middle of the room was a large circular arena type area that was a step higher than the rest of the floor.

"Welcome to the Quarter Deck Cadets." A tall man, who Lydia recognized as Colonel White, barked out. "Today, Captain Yakota will be your commanding officer as we get a feel of what you can do. I'll be back at the end of the day to see how miserably you all failed my expectations." Colonel White sneered before turning to march out of the room allowing Lydia to see another man, also in uniform, standing on the grey circular platform.

Captain Zephyr Yakota, as Lydia assumed he was, was a tall man with buzzed cut red hair and piercing blue eyes. He wore regular cammies instead of the Charlies that General White and Major Greenway wore.

"Hello Cadets." Zephyr formally greeted the six young adults in front of him. "This," he said as he held up a dark green sweatshirt that had the Marine Corps emblem printed on the top left as well as a pair of matching green sweatpants, "is your PT uniform. When I call your name please come to retrieve your uniform and use the facilities to the left and right of you to change into it. Please remember to switch your ID badge from the clothes you wear now to the clothes you change into." He commanded and then looked down at the roster he had placed on top of the cardboard box of uniforms.

"Anderson, Lydia." Lydia stepped forward and walked towards Zephyr and Victoria and took the shrink wrapped green uniform from the hands of Victoria before walking quickly to the locker room on the left of the room that read 'Women's'.

"Gontalahad, Murugon." Jacob watched as Muru walked towards Victoria and Zephyr and noticed for the first time the bronze-colored horns that shot out of the back of his head. Muru took the uniform before retreating to the right side of the room where the men's locker room was located.

"Jameson, Shaun." A tall red haired boy, who Jacob assumed was Shaun, stepped forward to receive his uniform. Jacob struggled to read his photo ID although he did manage to see the age nineteen flash at him as the blue eyed boy walked rather cheerfully to the locker room. The kid was obviously an alien if his oddly orange skin and green sclera of his eyes were anything to go by.

"Lee, Wolfgang." Jacob watch as possible the only person here who was shorter than him, besides Lydia who was incredibly shorter than everyone, stepped forward. Granted the black haired boy was only about an inch short than him, he was still shorter and that made Jacob feel somewhat happy.

"Lyland, Jacob." Zephyr called and Jacob received his uniform from Victoria in the same fashion as the rest of the Cadets did leaving only one boy in the large grey room.

Lyrik Saunders watched as the only other Cadet besides himself went to the locker room before hearing, "Saunders, Lyrik." Called from Zephyr. The blonde nineteen year old took his sweatpants and sweatshirt from Victoria, thanking her with a quick smile before heading towards the locker room with the rest of the boys.

"They're young." Victoria remarked as she watched the lanky boy retreat into the locker room.

"Lyland is the identical age that I am." Zephyr responded, not paying much attention to Victoria. "The only Cadet that is under the legal age of adulthood is Anderson. From the information that Colonel White has conveyed to me, they are all more than capable."

"I know Zephyr." Victoria said as she rolled her eyes. "I'm just saying that when I was that age I couldn't even think about doing something like this. Something so intense. I mean this is it for them. Their entire lives were mapped out the moment that they signed up for this."

Zephyr remained silent for a moment. "When you were their age I do not believe that you had the power they each possess."

Victoria sighed as she stared at the door the Cadets had disappeared into. "You're right about that Captain. Anyway," She turned to look at Zephyr, "If you need me just radio. I'm going to be dealing with the Logistics Combat Element."

Zephyr nodded and Victoria turned on her heel and left out the door she had enter in.

Lydia exited the women's locker room now cladded in the dark green sweatshirt and sweatpants as she carried the clothes she had been wearing in her hands. "Um, sir?" She asked causing Zephyr to spin to face her. "What should I do with my other clothes?"

"You may place them into this cardboard box and take them with you when you retire tonight." Zephyr answered as he pushed the box towards Lydia, who nodded and placed her clothes into the large box.

The two metahumans waited in silence as slowly but surely the five boy recruits filed out of the locker room each one placing his clothes into the box.

"I am going to put you into your squad formation." Zephyr informed the group once everyone had exited the locker room and lined up in front of the tall darker skinned man. "Anytime that we meet here and I have not yet instructed you as to what you are doing, you will stand in this squad formation. On training missions and during drills you will use this formation." Zephyr continued on, his voice calm despite the demanding words. "Jameson, Lyland, Murugon" Zephyr called out and Shaun, Jacob, and Muru walked to the positions Zephyr pointed to. The three of them made a sort of spread out triangle shape with Shaun on the left back corner, Muru on the right back corner and Jacob ahead of them slightly in the middle. "Lee, Anderson, Saunders." Sephyr said and then repeated the shape only this time with Wolfgang in the back left corner, Lyrik in the back right corner and Lydia as the middle point. Zephyr line up the second triangle shape behind the first and then stepped back as if to observe his work. "This is your squad position." He announced.

"In order to test your ability in combat, we will be having one on one close combat matches. Anderson and Jameson, you are the first to try." Zephyr said, pushing on from one topic to another so quickly that Lydia had trouble keeping up.

Zephyr gestured for the two to come up onto the grey platform with him and Shaun did so hesitantly. They walked up the step it took to join Zephyr as Shaun glanced nervously at Lydia. The small scrawny girl looked like a strong blow of wind would knock her over and Shaun worried that he might seriously injure the younger girl on the first day of training. Zephyr stepped down off the platform and to a grey podium that stood right next to it. He pressed a couple of buttons before a blue tinted energy field began to lower around the platform separating Shaun and Lydia from the other four recruits.

"I am lowering an energy field to ensure you both stay in the boundaries of the platform as well as to ease the effect of any potential harm that could be done to you by the fight. The energy field is designed to soften blows." Zephyr explained and oddly enough it didn't make Lydia feel any better about being trapped in what felt like a cage match of death.

"I do not think we have been introduced before, I am Shaun Jameson." Shaun said as he stuck his hand out to Lydia which he had seen many humans do when meeting one another.

"Lydia." Lydia said with a shake of Shaun's hand.

"Remember that the objective is to disable your opponent, not cause harm." Zephyr reminded and Shaun once again felt pre-mature guilt at the idea of slamming Lydia to the floor. "You may commence."

"I am sorry." Shaun muttered out before charging at Lydia, who's eyes widened slightly at Shaun attack before coming to her senses just in time to throw up a force field that intercepted Shaun's charge.

The force of Shaun's body hitting Lydia's force field was still enough to send Lydia backwards a couple of inches and make her drop her force field. Shaun regained his composer quicker than Lydia did and began to charge once more at her. Lydia made a high pitched squeaking noise before barely dodging Shaun's attack, crawling out of the way just before he got to her. She once again threw up a force field around herself as her mind raced with what she could possible do to go on the offense instead of the defense.

Shaun threw a green energy blast at Lydia's force field only to discover that it held up pretty well against it. He tried again, this time sending multiple green energy blasts in a row at Lydia only to have each one deflected by her force field.

Shaun flew up into the air and Lydia couldn't help but groan in exasperation. "You can fly? Seriously?!" She asked rhetorically as Shaun flung his body down at Lydia's force field, this time successfully shatter it causing him to be thrown across the platform. Lydia took the moment it took Shaun to recover to camouflage her body, successfully becoming invisible and blending in with her environment.

"Where did you go?" Shaun asked, but unlike Lydia's question he expected an answer. He stood dumbfounded in the middle of the platform spinning around in circles waiting for Lydia to appear.

Suddenly a force field slammed into Shaun's body causing him to go flying into the energy field before falling to the ground. He moaned as he got to his feet only to have yet another force field sent flying his way. Shaun, now ready for the force field, punch out in front of him causing the force field to shatter and he did it again with the force field that followed the first one. Deciding he didn't like how the tables had turned he quickly shot a beam of green energy around the platform and succeeded in hitting his target as Lydia cried out in pain once again becoming visible.

Shaun took advantage of Lydia's distracted state and once again charged at Lydia, this time succeeding in ramming into her and sending her flying against the energy field and then she fell to the ground hard. Shaun charged once more ready to ram into her again only to notice that Lydia had stopped moving.

"Lydia?' He asked, slowing his charge.

She groaned and closed her eyes tightly rubbing the temples of her head as she curled tighter into the fetal position she was in.

"Did you have to hit me so hard?" She asked with her eyes still closed.

"I am sorry." Shaun apologized remorsefully. He really hadn't meant to harm her.

Shaun watched as the blue-tinted energy field fell down and Zephyr stepped up onto the Platform with them. Lydia slowly opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times and Shaun moved quickly to help her stand up.

"Are you in need of medical attention Anderson?" Zephyr asked formally yet Lydia could hear the undertone of worry that was laced into his voice.

"No I'm fine." She answered as she allowed Shaun to haul her up to her feet and wrap an arm around her waist to help her off the platform.

"I am truly sorry Lydia. Sometime I forget that I'm not fully human and that humans don't have as sturdy of bodies as Tamaraneons do." Shaun apologized once again as he helped Lydia step down and Lydia resisted the urge to laugh as she guessed he wouldn't understand what she found funny.

"It's fine Shaun. The point of the match was to disable me. You were just doing what you were supposed to do." Lydia assured Shaun as she shook his hand off her waist. Shaun hovered nearby still worried about the potential damage he had done despite Lydia's promises that she was fine. He settled for just remaining nearby in case Lydia needed any help.

"Anderson, your tendency to defend rather than attack leaves you at a constant state of vulnerability. You will never disable an appoint if you do not attack. Jameson, you need to strategize your attack. As of current you are charging into it and this can cause you to become predictable." Zephyr critiqued and Lydia and Shaun both silently nodded.

"Gontalahad, Saunders." Zephyr called out and the two hesitantly stepped up onto the platform.

Muru looked Lyrik up and down as he Zephyr stepped off in order to raise the energy field. Lyrik may have had the advantage in height standing what looked like half a foot taller than Muru, but Muru definitely had the advantage in body mass. Even though the twenty-year old was built leanly, he had a much more muscular build then the lengthy teen in front of him. Nineteen year old Lyrik didn't look like he was going to be a challenge for Muru. There was a moment of silence as Muru simply stared into the slit pupils of Lyriks green and blue eyes.

"You may commence." Zephyr said and Muru smirked as he cracked his head side to side as well as cracked him knuckles.

Lyrik raised an eyebrow at the display but otherwise didn't say anything as he spread his feet apart. As Lyrik blinked, Muru was suddenly in front of him and his left fist easily met the right side of Lyrik's face causing the younger alien to stumble backwards. Muru moved at an inhumane speed once again and Lyrik found himself going on the defensive. He ducked the blow aimed for his head this time and rolled out of the way as he contemplated what his next move should be. He watched as Muru continued with his same attack plan and Lyrik continued to dodge the punches that were aimed for his head with relative ease.

Muru began to grow frustrated as his attempted assault on Lyrik continued. His hands balled into fist and he felt his face become hot and his breathing uneven. "Stand still!" Muru commanded and Lyrik gave him a puzzled look before shrugging.

"Alright." Lyrik agreed and stopped moving, confusing Muru as well as the other recruits on the opposite side of the blue energy field.

Before Muru could get a sense of what was going on, Lyrik's body began to morph, his legs stretching long and his chest growing thicker. A steely cover seemed to suddenly cover Lyrik's changing form and the six-foot-six teen turned into a nine-foot monster in a matter of seconds.

"Oh that is so weird." Lydia muttered under her breathe and a look crossed between confusion and disarray come upon her face.

"Says the girl who can turn invisible." Jacob responded and Lydia casted her eyes down at the ground as he did have a point.

Muru stood dumb-struck for only a couple of seconds before shaking off the confusion in favor of once again using super speed to charge at Lyrik, who was now several feet taller than him.

Muru crashed into Lyrik's stomach, stumbling backwards and looking unharmed but annoyed none the less. Lyrik looked as impassive as he had been before and simply stared down at the red haired alien.

Blue energy suddenly shot out of Lyrik's eyes crashing into Muru's chest and sending him flying back into the blue tinted energy field.

Muru groaned as the blue energy field disappeared from top to bottom. Muru's face grew dark as he watched the field dissolve. "I wasn't done." He said sourly as he turned to Zephyr.

"I believe you were." Zephry replied without glancing at the younger man. Lyrik's body melted back into his original form and he bent down to offer his hand to Muru. Muru's face turned even more vengeful if possible as he ignored the outstretched hand of his comrade in favor of standing up on his own.

As Muru sulked off the platform and Lyrik followed him silently Zephyr called out, "Lee, Lyland."

Jacob sighed internally as he approached the grey platform. Jacob stared impassively at the twenty year old in front of him and couldn't help but think of what a waste of time it was to have these matches. He was unsure if Captain Yakota was trying to separate the weak from the strong or if he was trying to just pit the six of them against each other in hopes of aspiring rivalries. Either way, based on the looks Muru was sending at Lyrik Jacob assumed that the Captain had succeeded.

"You may commence." Zephyr nodded at them as the same blue tinted energy field was raised.

Immediately smoke filled the small arena like space and Jacob coughed, unable to see more than a couple of inches in front of him. Wolfgang pushed the smoke he had just created out of his way as he searched for Jacob and realized that maybe he should have figured out where the older man was standing before he released the smoke.

Deciding not the dwell on the past, Wolfgang waved his arms out and across his body causing all the smoke to go to the left and right side of him. He glanced side to side searching for Jacob before noticing he could not see the human anywhere. A pit of uncertainty began to grow in Walfgang's stomach as he slammed his hands back together in front of his face, deciding he didn't enjoy the feeling of vulnerability he was getting from not being able to see Jacob.

Jacob stood rather lazily behind Wolfgang surrounded by smoke as he quickly did the mental calculations as to what velocity Wolfgang would have to be going if he rammed into the energy field to knock himself down ensuring Jacob never really did anything. Double checking the number he had come up with before nodding to himself Jacob quietly stepped away from Wolfgang around the arena until he was the furthest he could get away from Wolfgang. Carefully he scuffed his shoe on the ground, making it loud enough for Wolfgang to hear but quiet enough to sound like he was being sneaky.

Wolfgang turned at the sound of the scuffing of a show and flew up into the air, speeding towards the noise source. As Wolfgang pushed away the last bit of smoke he realized, too late, that he wasn't heading towards Jacob, but instead he was speeding towards the blue energy field and at the rate he was going there was no way he could stop it.

Wolfgang braced himself for impact as he pushed his arms out in front of him and rammed into the energy field wall, bouncing off of it and to the ground.

The blue energy field lowered one last time and the rest of the recruits finally saw Wolfgang crumpled on the floor and Jacob standing still with a single scratch.

Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA

January 13, 2016 – 1100 hours

Ginny Pasternak shifted her weight anxiously as she bit the inside of her cheek. The eighteen year old girl stood in the middle of a cold white room. Lined against all four walls were rows of computers unlike any she had ever seen before. They were black, thin, and sleek. Ginny would guess that all the computers were top of the line brand-new high tech pieces of technology.

Ginny glanced to the right side of her before quickly glancing back and continuing to stare at the door. Her brief glance allowed her to once again study the two other people in the room with her. The one directly next to her, who Ginny was fairly certain had earlier introduced himself as Akihiko Minoto, was a tall man with matching blue hair and blue eyes. The other boy who was on the other side of Akihiko was only a year older than Ginny and was a couple of inches taller than Akihiko. Craig Stevens, who Ginny had also been introduced to earlier, stood tall as he also stared at the door and Ginny detected the vast amounts of kindness in his blue eyes.

Finally, the heavy metal door clicked as it unlocked and a woman, maybe in her late twenties or early thirties entered the room. The dark skinned woman wore her hair back in a tight bun and was dressed in a tan uniform of some sort that Ginny identified as her Charlies.

"Good afternoon Cadets. I'm Major Greenway. I will for the most part be your instructor while you're here at Camp Pendleton. You have all been chosen for the Logistic Element of the Alpha Taskforce." Victoria informed the small group of people in front of her. "On some days you will be training with Captain Yakota on the Quarter Deck but for the most part you will be with me. This is the computer lab. We will meet here every day at 1000 hours with the exception of weekend."

Victoria walked briskly from her spot in front of the three young adults to stand at one of the computers.

"Cadet Akihiko Minoto, this is your workstation." Victoria called out looking at the list she held in her hands.

"Cadet Regina Pasternak, this will be your workstation." Victoria told the young girl and Ginny moved to stand behind the large computer.

"Cadet Craig Stevens, this is your work station." Victoria called to the last boy, and only metahuman of the group.

The three cadets took their seat behind their computers and suddenly the computer flickered from a black screen to a colorful one. A familiar hum of the computers booting up filled the room and Ginny cringed at the sound noise.

"The computers use facial recognition technology in order to log you into the computer. This is as secure as the computers get. The program is still a little faulty so as a backup you can use your nine digit ID number that was issued to you this morning as an alternative way to get into the computer." Victoria explained further and suddenly Craig felt uncomfortable with the fact that this computer was smart enough to recognize his face.

"Today we're going to start learning Java. I realize that you may already know this language but regardless we are all going to start from the beginning and take it step by step." Victoria droned on and all Akihiko could focus on his how the tan colored skirt was tight around Victoria's body.

Victoria pulled out three pairs of large headphones that were sitting in a cardboard box besides her.

"Your goal," She informed them as she handed out the black headphones, "is to finish lessons one, two, and three before 1200 hours."

Akihiko resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he felt like he was back in school inside of a part of a highly classified military taskforce. He picked up I headphones that had been handed to him by Victoria and plugged the small metal part into the headphone jack at the base of the computer. He placed the headphones over his ears before double clicking the small folder that read 'Java Lesson One'. As a robotically cheerful voice began to drone on over the headphones Akihiko bit back a moan. This was going to be a long hour.

Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA

January 13 – 1200 hours

Wolfgang picked up his white tray and thanked the older lady at the end of the chow hall line for his food. He walked to the small white plastic table that the rest of his squad was occupying and took a seat next to Lydia and across from Lyrik. Next to Lydia sat Shaun and across from Shaun sat Muru with Jacob sitting across from Lydia.

The six cadets ate in silence, everyone pretending to be extra interested in their food so that they wouldn't have to make awkward conversation with each other.

"Mind if we sit here with you guys?" A voice asked Wolfgang and Wolfgang turned to see three people standing uncomfortably as they awaited his answer.

"Uh, sure. Of course." Wolfgang answered and the three took seats next to Wolfgang and Lyrik.

"Wolfgang." Wolfgang introduced himself and the teen who had asked if they could sit there nodded.

"Craig." He informed the group. "This is Akihiko," He continued and pointed towards the man with blue hair and blue eyes who was sitting next to him, "and this is Ginny." He said as he gestured to the blonde haired and grey eyed girl who sat next to Lyrik.

"I'm Lyrik."

"Jacob."

"Lydia."

"My name is Shaun."

Each of the cadets took turns introducing themselves until finally there was only Muru left, who didn't say anything but instead just continued his assault on mashed potatoes in front of him.

"That's Muru," Lydia said, deciding to introduce the alien. "Don't mind him," She added in a hushed whisper so Muru couldn't hear her, "He's just all sulky cause Lyrik beat him in hand to hand combat earlier."

Craig nodded before studying his tray that was in front of him. "So you guys must be the Ground Combat Element, right?" Craig asked before scooping a spoonful of peas and pilling the food into his mouth.

"Yeah. Are you three the Logistics Element?" Jacob asked, although he already knew the answer based on the ID badges of the three newcomers.

"Yeah." Craig answered and the conversation seemed to stop there.

"So Lydia," Akihiko started, drawing out the 'so' and Lydia resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the flirtatious tone, "Got a boyfriend?" He asked and Lydia actually did roll her eyes.

"No." She answered, resisting the urge to lie just to get the obviously flirting man off her case.

"Want one?" He asked with a wiggle of his eyebrows and Lydia simply raised an eyebrow in response before turning back to her food.

"I think that's a no." Jacob answered for the younger girl as he teased the twenty-year old man.

"For now." Akihiko allowed and decided that maybe he'd stop flirting until he knew everyone better.

The rest of the meal was eaten in silence, which was fine with Ginny who was starting to feel agitated by all the noise. She resisted the urge to fidget in her seat as she forced herself to socially interact with the people so would be spending the next who knows how many months or even years with. She tried to stop her mind from wondering to the idea of home but couldn't stop it from entering her mind. She blinked back tears as she forced another bite of food into her mouth and tried to listen to whatever the rest of the cadets were talking about, however mundane it may have been.

AN: Just to further explain the premise of this story as well as what element the different characters have been placed in: the basic idea of this story is that a small group of people with special skills have been brought together by the government in order to create a sort of secret 'army' that can neutralize threats but are essentially controlled by the government. Since the government is in charge of the taskforce, it's run sort of like the military, more specifically the Marine Corps. The makeup of the taskforce is structured like a basic Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), which is comprised of four different elements: Ground Combat, Logistic Combat, Aviation Combat, and Command. For the sake of this story working with superheroes I chose to cut out the Aviation Combat Element and just kind of combined it into the Ground Element Combat.

Ground Combat Element – The largest of the Elements, this Element is the 'men on the ground'. They are the ones in the front lines who operations include offensive, defensive, humanitarian, reconnaissance, and security. They are high trained physically and mentally.

Logistic Combat Element – Much smaller than the Ground Combat Element, this Element provides support for the MEU behind the scenes. They are responsible for intelligence and counter-intelligence of foreign affairs. They work essentially as the 'tech support' of the MEU.

Command Element – The smallest of the MEU Elements, this Element entails the 'higher-ups' who are in charge of the MEU and the different decisions they make. The handle public affairs along with commanding the MEU.

There is a Colonel who is in charge of the entire MEU then a Lieutenant Colonel in charge of each Element. Obviously Colonel White is in charge of this story's MEU and the two Lieutenant Colonels in charge of the Ground Combat Element and the Logistics Element will come in later (that is if they come in at all.)

Now, disclaimer time. I do not own Teen Titans. I do not own the characters in this story with the expectation of Colonel White. I do not own the cover image. Finally, I do not own the Marine Corps. Therefore, any information about the Marines and how they operate in this fiction is based on: information I got from my Dad who served in the Marines for thirty something years, information I got from my brother who is currently serving in the Marines overseas, information I got from the internet or just information that I picked up from being a military brat. This information could be totally off and I am not claiming that this is how the Marines actually work because I am sure it's not.

Final Note: This is still an open SYOC! While I will not be accepting any more submissions for the taskforce, I will be accepting anti-hero applications and the form can be found on my profile.

Thank you so much for reading this first chapter! I apologize if your character was not selected. I have over thirty applications and promised myself I'd cap the amount of characters I'd accept at eight and at this point I have collected eleven, so I'm well over what I wanted. Everyone's characters were so awesome and I wish I could use them all but I know I can't without jeopardizing the quality of this story. However, if you character was not accepted please feel free to reapply with them as anti-heroes.

Please review!

Grace