Kombat Kids - 35. We Can Rebuild Him..... We Can.....

As per standard procedure, an after action critique was held in the Cavern with both the Unit One's membership and the Marine Aggressor Force. While the Marines performed better than the first group, they still got their asses whipped, and they were reminded of the fact by the comments coming from the Unit One side of the isle. Comments such as;"Wuss, we kicked their fucking asses.” “Neener, Neener, Neener, and the always thoughtful, “Losers!!" These comments continued, causing the Marines to seriously consider using live ammo on the kids (just kidding) that is until the Gunny entered the Cavern. Hearing the comments from the boys and seeing the expressions on the Marines faces, the Gunny brought the verbal barrage to screeching halt by bellowing out;"Unit One, TEN-HUT!!" Almost as one, the assembled members of the Unit, popped to attention. The Gunnery Sergeant continued;"You will cease and desist from making any further derogatory comments aimed at the Marine Contingent, or I'll have each and every swinging dick of you out running JJ's for the next two months. DO YOU READ ME SQUADIE'S?"

The members answered in a loud and clear voice, a little high pitched maybe, but still loud and clear;"Aye, Aye Gunnery Sergeant!!"

Turning to the young Second Lieutenant in charge of the recon Team, the Gunny apologized;"LT, I'm really sorry my Squadie's got out of hand, I can promise you it won't happen again." Raising his voice and turning his head to look at the Squadies he asked;"Am I right Unit One?"

The reply was instantaneous, "Yes Master Gunnery Sergeant!!!"

The Gunny turned back to the Lieutenant;"Once again sir, I apologize for myself and the Unit."

The Lieutenant nodded his head coming almost to as rigid attention as the Unit One Squadies had and responded by saying;"Thank you Master Gunnery Sergeant!!!" although his response was in a much deeper voice.

The after Action De-briefing (no, no, no, they all kept there skiveys on) took over two hours to complete. At its completion, the Unit One boys were just as wrung out as the Marines, the Observers, especially the Gunny, gave them absolutely no slack. It seems the more exercises the boys participated in, the more nit picking occurred by the Observers and the Unit One adults. The consensus held by the boys, which wasn't far from the truth, was that the Observers had to look harder to catch them doing something wrong.

When the de-briefing was completed, the Marines and Unit One Squadies were sent to breakfast. Gunnery Sergeant Johansson called to the Gunny as he was leaving the Cavern;"Hey Gunny, hang on for a minute."

The Gunny stopped and waited for Gunny Johansson to catch up to him;"Hey Oly, how they hanging?"

Johansson shook his head in a negative manner before saying;"After what your kids just got finished doing to my 'Marine Professionals,' what do you think. I got to give my guys credit though; this time they at least made it to the front door. Thanks for jumping in their shit for going off on my guys, I could have done it, but coming from you it had more impact on both groups. Next time, let em spin up my guys a little longer before you clamp down on them, it does them good to have their failure rubbed in their faces by teenagers and kids whose nuts haven't even dropped yet, gives them an incentive to do better the next time they get to come out here."

The Gunny laughed;"Your guys made it to the vault last time, which was pretty damn good."

Oly nodded;"Yeah, but we both know a lot of the reason they were able to do it was because your boys morale was in the craper because of James being injured so bad."

The Gunny nodded his head in agreement;"You're right Oly, but I think they're coming out of their funk and are trying to do better, specifically for James, but also to help Matt keep going. Listen Oly, I'm going topside to grab a cup a coffee away from the boys, care to join me?"

Oly Johansson smiled and nodded his head in agreement and followed the Gunny up the ladder and into the kitchen. After the Gunny poured them each a cup of coffee, Oly dropped a bomb on the Gunny;"Stan, you remember Senior Chief Bailey from SEAL 4 don't you?" With a quizzical look on his face the Gunny nodded his head yes. Oly continued;"I ran into him when I hit the Staff NCO Club at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard the other day, we had a few beers and we started talking about training. To make a long story short, I mentioned the fact that we had a really fine training asset that we've been using for our Recon Teams. He asked about it and by the time I was finished telling him about the Unit, he didn't know whether to call me a liar or a braggart. After assuring him that what I just told him was the complete truth, he got really excited. He all but begged me to ask if he could run some of his people through the Unit Meat Grinder, seems the SEALS are as worried about the level of experience their people have in the field as we are. Anyway, I promised to ask you about letting him play too."

Gunny laughed;"Just like them Goddamn squids, trying to poach on something we put together." The Gunny remained silent for a while and thought about Chief Bailey's request. "Did he say how they want to insert? The more I think about it, the more I like the Idea. The SEAL's are mean, low and nasty fuckers and they would really fuck with the boy's minds, maybe giving them a chance to see a different style of warfare than they've been getting from our guys. Let me talk it over with Matt, it's really his decision anyway, besides it would be fun to see how the boys do against them.”

That afternoon before the Unit was dismissed for the weekend, David Allyn and Justyn Tyme were brought before Matt for NJP. Matt had the current JAG team run a quick investigation of the situation and their findings tallied exactly with what the Gunny had already told him.

Matt was in the first deck TV lounge which had become the traditional location for the Unit's few and far between NJP's, the two boys standing in front of him at attention, after reciting the charges against both the boys, he asked;"Are these charges correct, and do either of you wish to make any comments before I render a decision?"

David looked at Matt and spoke first;"No Sir, that's what happened and I'm sorry I punched Justyn in the nose."

Justyn blushed deeply, but said nothing but;"Yessir, it was my fault."

Matt, already having decided upon their punishment stood there looking at them for a few moments before saying anything, making both of the boys more apprehensive about the outcome of the NJP. Matt looked at Justyn and began talking; “My first inclination was to kick you out of the Unit, but when I told the Gunny, he talked me out of it. He convinced me that you weren't being cruel, just incredibly ignorant and that with some counseling you would be able to understand exactly what you had done to David and why it was so wrong. Justyn Allen Tyme, are you ready to accept the decision of this NJP and comply with the requirements it places upon you?"

Justyn was sweating now, he was glad that he had a chance to stay with the unit, but was scared that what he had to do would be too much for him and that he'd fail. Straightening his posture a little, he answered;"Yessir, I'm ready to do whatever's necessary to say with the Unit."

Matt said;"Starting tomorrow morning, at 06:00, you will report to the Unit in full MarCam, with your LBE harness and two full canteens of water. You will have your pack with you and it will be loaded with forty pounds of material, you will then run the three-mile course. You will do this twice each day for five days, starting with the Tuesday morning run; an additional six pounds of weight will be added to your pack each morning of your run. At the completion of the five daily runs, you will write a 3,000- word report on the character interactions and mutual respect displayed by the characters of the story "Somerset Farm" by Jamie Haze. A CD containing the story will be given to you to read and make your report with. If I approve your report, you will read it to the assembled members of the Unit. Do you have any questions or comments on what is required of you?"

Justyn swayed slightly, but quickly regained control before saying;"No sir, I understand and will comply."

Matt turned to David and said;"When the situation was brought to my attention, I was inclined to let you off with a warning. I was advised that you had struck Squadie Tyme in the nose after you had, um, harrumph, rendered him ineffective, you are a Red Belt in Tai Kwon do, and could have injured Squadie Tyme more severely than he was. David Charles Allyn, are you ready to accept the decision of this NJP and comply with the requirements it places upon you?"

David replied;"Yessir, I'm ready."

Beginning at 06:00 tomorrow morning you will report to the Unit in full MarCam, with your LBE harness and two full canteens of water. You will have your pack with you and it will be loaded with forty pounds of material, you will then run the three-mile course. You will do this twice each day for three days, starting with the Tuesday morning run; an additional ten pounds of weight will be added to your pack each morning of your run. Do you have any questions or comments on what is required of you?"

David looked relieved;"No sir, I think your judgment is more than fair and I will comply."

Matt nodded his head and stated one more thing;"You two need to get your collective shit together, I understand that people at your age get excited and fail to think things through before you do something. This whole situation is an example of that happening, next time think things through before you do anything. Squadies Tyme and Allyn, you are dismissed.

The boys came to attention, the Gunny ordered, "Cover... Two. About face... Forward… Harch! The boys marched from the lounge and went down to the Cavern.

When the Gunny, Keener, George Babcock and Matt heard the door close, they all busted out laughing. Keener looked at Matt and spoke first;"I almost pissed myself when you came near to loosing it about David rendering Justyn ineffective."

Matt laughed;"You, how the fuck do you think I felt, did you see how red David's face got when I alluded to the part about him biting Justyn?"

While the adults were talking about the NJP and David and Justyn were heading to their rooms to recover emotionally from the NJP, Jap and Jacky Hoffman were discussing the relative merits of the types of braces each now were equipped with. Jap had just undergone the installation of his braces the previous week and was still not comfortable with them.

Jap was still having trouble speaking clearly with the new metalwork on his teeth;"Jeethus Quist, thetha thingths hurth like a bith."

Jacky chuckled at him, but didn't have a bit of sympathy for him after wearing them for close to six months. He was kind enough to offer Jap something to take away the pain;"Aww poor baby, come on over here and let me give you a shot of Doctor Jacky's White Root Injection, that'll make it all better."

Jap shot him the bird, but did move over to Jacky's bunk and gently grabbed on to his soft cock, which at first touch started to rapidly harden. Jacky leaned into his smaller lover and started to gently chew on Jap's earlobe, eliciting several tiny shivers from him. Both boys stood and removed their clothing, Jacky lay on his rack while Jap made sure the door was locked and then climbed on top of his much larger boyfriend. Jap sucked on Jacky's left nipple, feeling it harden under his softly searching lips and tongue. By this time, both boys were breathing deeply, their cocks, fully hard and dripping were pressed against each other. Jacky pulled Jap up and kissed him, forcing his tongue into his mouth and exploring every bit of it. The boys held the kiss for five minutes or so, becoming more and more passionate the longer the kiss held. Jap was ready for some of the Doctor Jacky's White Root Injection now, so he tried to break the kiss. The key word was try. However it happened, for whatever reason it happened, it didn't matter. Jacky and Jap's braces had become totally and irrevocably locked together. While the boys could still talk, it was next to impossible for them to form coherent words or sentences. Now, both the boys started to panic, Jap attempted to climb off of Jacky, but Jacky not wanting his braces ripped out of his mouth especially if the teeth came with them, brought that idea to a screeching halt by wrapping his arms around Jap and hugging him close. Jap settled down and started to think, and then using the sign language they had learned for conversing during operations, Jap laid out his idea. Jacky gave Jap the OK sign and hugged him tighter to his body as he struggled to stand up from the bed. Once he was on his feet he moved to the wall with the inter-building telephone attached to it. Jap punched in the number for the arms room, when Keener answered the phone Jap started punching the "1" button, beep, beep, beep ---- beeeep, beeeep, beeeep ---- beep, beep, beep, and then started over again.

Keener listened to the peeps and quickly understood that it was Morse code for S.O.S. and asked;"Do you need help?"

Jap punched the button again; beeeep, beep, beeeep, beeeep, Y ---- beep, E ---- beep, beep, beep S.

"Can you tell me where you're at?" Asked Keener.

Beep, beeeep, beep R---- beeeep, beeeep M ----beep, beep, beeeep, beeeep, beeeep 2 ---- beep, beep, beep, beep, beep 5.

"You're in room 25 in the Berthing Compartment?"

Jap punched the "1" button again. Beeeep, beep, beeeep, beeeep Y.

"Got it, I'm on the way." Keener said.

Before leaving the arms room, Keener got hold of Dr. Davidson in the dispensary and told him there was a problem in room 25 and asked him to meet him there.

Jap hung up the phone, reached down and unlocked the door and then motioned Jacky to lie back down on the bed, Jacky quickly agreed and moved quickly to the bed. The boys lay locked together by circumstance and their braces, and just knew they were going to be flipped so much shit about this, to top it all off Jap started to get hard again, which naturally caused Jacky to harden up.

Luckily before they were driven by mutual need to do something about their hard cocks, the door opened and Keener and Doctor Davidson walked in.

The two men stood there looking at the two naked boys, one lying on top of the other, Keener finally broke the silence by saying;"I shoulda known Jap would be involved in this." Keener's statement caused both boys to blush bright red... all over. Keener continued speaking;"Boy this better be good, what the hell kind of game are you two playing?"

Jap was almost glowing after Keener's question; he closed his eyes and pointed to their mouths. Doctor Davidson knelt down alongside of the bed and took a closer look, then started laughing. Both boys were ready to cry by this time, but just as Keener was about to ask Doctor Davidson what the problem was, the boys heard Phil Martin ask;"Hey Keener, what's going on?" Soon the hallway outside their door was filled with Squadies, all asking the same question;"What's going on?" The two lovers closed their eyes and tried to block out the voices, it didn't work.

Keener closed the door after telling the Squadies to move on, and then helped the doctor separate the two boys, even with both the adults working together; it still took them twenty minutes to break them apart. As soon as they were no longer attached at the lips, the boys immediately pulled their trousers on to cover their nakedness.

The boys thanked the men for helping them; the doctor told them to be more careful in the future and left. Keener stood there looking at the boys, chuckling, he then added insult to injury by saying;"You guys are lucky, just think what would have happened if you weren't circumcised and one of you got your braces tangled up in the other’s foreskin, ooooo buddy, talk about pain."

The boys clamped their thighs together and cringed. So ended what was to become the definition of a true "Lip Lock," at least for the members of the Unit.

During the following week, the boys made their twice-daily runs, Matt as had become the custom, ran with them. What surprised everyone Matt included; was when the Gunny, Keener and George joined them. Their reasoning was the same as Matt's; they hadn't been there for the boys and felt the need to acknowledge the fact. The six men and boys completed each run together. Thursday morning the men were surprised to see the red Vet belonging to David's parents pulling into the parking lot. David climbed out and walked up to Matt, saluted and reported, "Sir, Squadie Allyn reporting for EMI."

Matt looked at him and asked, "What's going on David? Your last run was yesterday."

David still at attention with his father standing behind him, gave a little shrug and said;"Sir, I just thought it was only fair that I do the same five days as Justyn, I mean Squadie Tyme, we both fucked up and I don't want him to go through this alone."

Matt nodded his head, recognizing that whatever had happened between the two boy's, David still had feelings for Justyn. Matt nodded again, "OK Squadie, go get your pack and put sixty pounds in it, we'll wait for you."

As David was entering the house on his way to locker room, Mitch was leaving for his appointment with Doctor Allyn. Before leaving with the Doctor, he gave his father a hug and a kiss on the cheek, said good by to the other Marines and Matt, then crutched his way over to the Doctor's Vet.

Two days before on Tuesday, Doctor Allyn and Mitch were working on a new semi-powered prosthesis, which seemed to be very promising. The problem with the "leg" was that it had a voracious appetite for power and rapidly drained the storage cells they were using. When Mitch wasn't working with Doctor Allyn, he used his crutches in place of an adjustable fixed prosthesis, the artificial leg was nothing but a modern "peg leg' differing from the ones used by people in the Eighteenth Century only by the materials used for its construction. It was clumsy and uncomfortable to wear and use, so he stuck with his crutches. In early July, the doctor had a breakthrough in the power supply for his system. NASA had developed a fuel cell that promised more power and a longer "in use" life. The first one he was able to obtain was a complete disappointment, once connected to the system; it lasted less than 15 minutes. The doctor contacted his supplier, a minor sub-division of a company that supplied electrical and electronic parts and equipment to several of the major NASA contractors. After reading them the part number and serial number for the fuel cell, and relating the problem, the person at the company told him he would get back to him as soon as possible. That was Tuesday morning, by Wednesday afternoon, Doctor Allyn was ready to call them again and see if he couldn't light a fire under their ass to get things moving. Just as he was getting ready to send a rocket their way the phone rang;"Robotics, this is Doctor Allyn." He then listened for close to ten minutes and then thanked the caller and hung-up. Doctor Allyn very seldom cursed; this was one of those times. After using just about every expletive he had ever heard he was able to calm down, it seems the company's quality control organization really screwed the pooch on this one, they had allowed a staggering 27.5% of the fuel cells that had failed their final acceptance test to be put into their inventory. The company's representative apologized profusely and promised that a replacement fuel cell would be in his hands by 10:00 AM the next morning; the company rep also thanked him for bringing the problem to their attention so that they could recall all of the other cells that had been shipped to other organizations.

Thursday morning the new fuel cell along with two others the company sent to him free of charge were delivered by a private courier service out of Salt Lake City where the company was located. Later that day, the doctor helped Mitch attach the prosthesis, after which he installed one of the new fuel cells. When the system was activated, it only took about 30 seconds to boot up. Both the Doctor and Mitch noticed the trembling the leg exhibited. The Doctor removed the cover from the cable connector on the 'leg' and attached a cable to the leg's computer, after calling up a troubleshooting program; his computer displayed a system diagnostic screen. Studying the screen for a few moments he spoke to Mitch;"There's a problem with the negative feed back loop, I must have set the settings too high, it should only take me a few minutes to lower the settings." Doctor Allyn typed for several minutes and then asked Mitch;"How's that Mitch, how does it feel, any more vibration?"

Mitch answered almost immediately;"No Doc, it seems just fine to me, you want me to try and walk on it now?"

Doctor Allyn nodded, "Yes Mitch, give me a bit to shut my system down and exit the control program and I'll disconnect you."

After Mitch was disconnected he slowly stood up and took a single step forward. Glancing at the Doctor who nodded his head in encouragement, Mitch started to walk slowly around the room. Mitch seemed to have a miss-step several times during his stroll but when asked by the doctor, Mitch said that he thought it was his fault and not the leg's. After walking around the room for twenty minutes, the doctor had him sit down and then hooked the leg backup to his computer. When the diagnostic screen appeared Mitch was surprised to hear the doctor give out a low whistle, it was so unlike him, he must really be impressed by something on the screen.

The Doctor looked at Mitch and asked;" You want to wear that home tonight and all day tomorrow?"

Mitch looked surprised, happy and a little nervous. He asked the doctor;"Do you really think its ready, I mean this is the first time we've actually made one of these work, what happens if the system crashes?"

The doctor then went through how to re-boot the system and told him that if it did crash more than a couple of times that they'd go to Plan ‘B.’

Mitch looked at the Doctor with a nervous expression on his face before asking;"Plan 'B’, you never said anything about a Plan 'B' Doc."

The doctor laughed;"The reason I never mentioned Plan 'B' before, is that I just made it up. If you have too many problems, I'll come to wherever you are and see if I can't fix it in the field. If that doesn't work, we'll remove it and put you back on crutches till we figure it out. How's that sound to you, I mean we have to do a field test on it sometime, why not now?"

Mitch agreed, still looking a little worried but determined to make his end of the project work. After he called the Unit, his father came by Doctor Allyn's home to pick him up. Mitch was leaning against a tree holding his crutches waiting for his father, when he saw the Mini-Van coming down the street he pushed off the tree and walked to curb, carrying his crutches. The look on his father’s face was priceless when he saw Mitch walking over to the curb. Mitch opened the sliding back door and set his crutches on the floor of the van, closed the door than got into the front seat before saying;"Hey dad, whatcha think, pretty neat huh?"

"Wow," he exclaimed, "I couldn't believe it when I saw you walking to the curb, it looked like you had two good legs, I mean if I didn't know you were using a prosthesis I wouldn't have known."

Mitch smiled, "Yeah I know, the Doc just received a new fuel cell and this is a field test, I gotta see him again tomorrow so he can figure out what the power consumption is over a twenty four hour period. The cell is supposed to be good for 96 hours of continuous use, but he wants to make sure the ’leg’ doesn't draw it down quicker than advertised." Father and son talked about the ‘leg’ and what this would mean for James' recovery, if he ever regained consciousness. When they arrived at the Bateman house, Matt, the Gunny and Keener were out front waiting for Justyn and David to arrive. When Mitch got out of the van, he got the same looks from the marines that his dad had given him.

Matt had a quizzical look on his face, "Where's David, I thought he'd catch a ride with you when you came back?"

Mitch scrunched up his face and said;"Sorry about that, Doctor Allyn asked me to tell you he'd be here when he was supposed to, his mom took him to the Mall to pick up a new pair of shoes and she'll drop him off when they're done."

As Mitch was telling Matt about David, two cars drove up the access road and stopped in the parking lot, four people emerged from the vehicles. David and his mother from the red two-year-old Corvette and Justyn and his mother from an older model Jeep CJ7. The four walked over to the Marines and Matt, the two boys saluted and David reported;"Squadies Allyn and Tyme reporting as ordered sir."

Matt returned the salutes and turned to the two parents;"Good afternoon Mrs. Allyn, Mrs. Tyme, it's nice to see you again."

After the pleasantries were completed, Matt turned to the Squadies and asked;"You ready to run?" Both were and they all started to put on their packs.

Just before they were ready to start their run Mitch asked;"Hey Matt can I make the run with you this afternoon, I need to see if I can keep up with my new 'leg'?"

Matt looked a little dubious but agreed, the seven boy's and men headed out on the evening run, Mitch having no problem keeping up with the others.