During the summer, Theo and his family along with Hela visited a ton of historical places around the world. Theo even took his family to visit Mars and after some basic instructions let anyone who wanted to, fly a spaceship with a copilot. Jacob, Ben, Jonathan, Sara and Richard ended up having a lot of fun, but Jacob insisted he still preferred driving and racing cars more.
Just before his freshman year of high school started, Theo ended up going to Afghanistan to recruit another person who was stationed there. Well possibly two people depending on if they accepted or not. One was Frank Castle and the other was his best friend Billy Russo who were both currently serving in the USMC as part of a Force Recon unit.
Ezekiel stepped out of a portal into an abandoned building in the middle of an active war zone. The sound of fighting was all over the place and the sound of gunfire filled the air. As Ezekiel stepped out of the partly collapsed building he heard the very distinctive thump of a mortar before the sound of an AGL followed behind it. A few moments later explosions rang out as dust and debris filled the air all around him.
Ezekiel quickly disappeared from the area and reappeared on top of the tallest standing structure around. He took a few moments to find the battle line between the two forces before he headed for the American side. Ezekiel appeared behind some soldiers laying down cover fire behind a low wall and as one of them stopped to reload he called out, "Does any one know where Sergeant Castle is?"
One of the soldiers turned around to find Ezekiel, calmly standing up behind them. He wore a pair of khakis, a buttoned up long sleeve shirt with a checkered blue and white pattern covered by a bullet proof vest. His black hair was cut short while a pair of mirrored aviators rested on his nose. The soldier stared at the man who looked exactly like a typical CIA spook before a grenade flew over his head and his eyes widened in shock as he instantly yelled, "Grenade!"
Before the other members could even move, Ezekiel casually caught the grenade and instantly tossed it back towards the man who originally threw it. The rest of the soldiers turned around a moment later as the grenade went off and blew even more dust over the area. Ezekiel glanced back at the first soldier as he asked, "So do you know where sergeant Castle is?"
The man quickly shook his head but another member of his fire team pointed in a direction as he said, "The sergeant should be in that direction with the LT. Just look for a house surrounded by sandbag-"
Another thump from a mortar going off cut the man off before he added, "Or head towards the mortar fire."
Another grenade flew over their heads and they all watched as if in slow motion, Ezekiel caught the grenade and sent it back before he said, "You guys should find some better cover."
It looked like Ezekiel reached behind his back and pulled out a few grenades before he quickly tossed them towards a couple broken down houses. Moments later massive explosions destroyed the buildings from the exploding tags tied to kunai Ezekiel threw. As dust and debris filled the air Ezekiel yelled out, "Move to better cover while the enemy is distracted."
The soldiers paused for a few seconds before they realized the area around them was no longer being shot at. They quickly pulled back slightly to a better position as Ezekiel moved towards the mortar position. Ezekiel flicked past a few other fire teams spread out, acting as defensive line to prevent flanking. Within moments he arrived at what used to be a house but now looked like a fortified bunker.
Next to the bunker was another heavily fortified area surrounded by a blast wall twelve feet in height. Inside that area were three one hundred and twenty millimeter mortars that were taking turns firing rounds. Ezekiel passed by them and appeared at the door leading into the bunker, inside he found controlled chaos. The main radio operator was busy calling in an air strike ahead of their position as a frowning man looked over a map on the table and a handful of other people were trying to coordinate the squad leaders in the area.
Ezekiel glanced around and when he didn't see Castle he stepped close to the table as he asked, "I'm looking for sergeant Castle."
The man at the table glanced up about to say something but when he noticed how Ezekiel was dressed he paused for a moment before he said, "I have no idea how you got here, but if you're here for Castle you'll have to wait."
The man pointed at the map as he said, "You're here."
The man moved his finger to a different area as he said, "Castle and his spotter should be set up around this area. Along with a squad that's protecting them."
The man then moved to the area in between the two spots as he said, "And this area is currently crawling with hostiles."
Ezekiel nodded as he said, "Thanks for the information, I'll go find him."
"You can't just-" The man started to say before he glanced up and Ezekiel was gone.
The man frowned before he reached over and picked up a radio. He switched to a different frequency before he said, "Fox one, fox one, this is alpha one, do you copy?"
A voice replied after a few moments, "This is fox one, go ahead alpha one, over."
"Fox one, a CIA spook, just came by looking for sergeant Castle. Be advised they might be coming towards your location, over."
"Alpha one, we will be on the lookout, over."
"Fox one, roger. Alpha one, out."
As soon as the man placed down the radio Ezekiel said, "I'm looking for sergeant Castle, can you tell me where he is?"
The man whipped around to find Ezekiel, who smiled at the man before he glanced around the abandoned house they were in. The man took a moment to study Ezekiel before he pointed towards the stairs and said, "He's on the third floor in one of the bedrooms."
"Alright, thanks for the help." Ezekiel said before he headed towards the stairs.
The man glanced at the radio for a moment and debated whether to call in the spook arrived. After a moment he decided to forget it and went back to monitoring the radio instead. Ezekiel encountered a few other soldiers along the way, who stared at him in confusion as he calmly walked by. On the third floor he heard someone as they said, "Street three, the collapsed building, two hundred and ten yards-"
"Got it." A gruff voice replied before a shot rang out and the same voice said, "Target down."
Ezekiel walked into a basically empty room and found two people laying on the floor. In front of them about five feet away was a hole maybe a foot wide in the wall. As the man with a spotting scope called out another target, the sniper quickly took another shot and pulled back the bolt of his rifle to reload as he said, "Target down."
Ezekiel quietly watched the two work like a well oiled machine for a few minutes before someone took a shot at them. It completely missed and hit the outside wall, but as a few more shots slammed into the building the spotter said, "Let's reposition again."
The sniper grunted in response and as the both started to get up they noticed Ezekiel quietly watching them. The sniper smoothly chambered another round and whipped his gun towards Ezekiel as he asked, "Who the fuck are you?!?"
"Someone with a job offer for you, sergeant Castle."
Frank frowned before he lowered his weapon and quickly started to grab his ammo pouches as he said, "If you didn't notice, I'm busy at the moment."
Ezekiel nodded as he asked, "Oh, I noticed… Should I take care of this mess so we can talk?"
Frank laughed for a moment, it was rough and not filled with mirth at all before he said, "Sure… And get me some beer and a pizza while you're at it."
"I don't carry beer… But this should work." Ezekiel said before an ice chest and a couple pizza boxes appeared in his hands before he placed them in front of Frank and the stunned spotter.
Ezekiel waved at them before he said, "You guys can go eat, I'll be back in a bit."
Frank glanced down at the ice chest and pizza boxes for a moment before he noticed Ezekiel was already gone. His spotter also glanced at the stuff Ezekiel left before gunfire on the side of the building made them move. They left the ice chest and pizza boxes alone, more concerned about getting to a new spot to snipe from. A couple minutes later when they were set up, the spotter called out, "At the gas station… What the fuck?!?"
Frank adjusted slightly and found what caught his spotter's attention. They could both see Ezekiel, over three hundred yards away standing in the middle of a blow up gas station building. On the ground around him were a bunch of people, whether they were killed or not neither man could tell. But a moment later Ezekiel disappeared from their view and a moment later they caught sight of him fifty yards away next to a few more people on the ground.
Frank and his spotter watched in stunned silence for a few minutes while Ezekiel basically teleported around and took out people without effort. Within minutes the marines noticed the enemy forces were no longer shooting as much and by fifteen minutes it was almost completely quiet. The marines stopped shooting too and cautiously waited as they reorganized and checked on each fire team.
Ezekiel calmly reappeared in the new room Frank and his spotter took over before he said in a disappointed tone, "You guys didn't eat any of the pizza?"
"We had a job to do." Frank said in an annoyed tone before he sat up and asked, "Did you kill all of them?"
"Most of them. I kept their leaders alive though and dropped them off with your commander… Have time to talk now?"
"We can talk after the all-" Frank started to say before he was cut off as someone said over his squad radio, "The LT said to pull back to the fire base, pack up your shit and gather downstairs in five minutes."
"We're pulling back, if you wanna talk follow us back to base." Frank said and he cleared his rifle and slung it over his shoulder.
Ezekiel shrugged and went back to the other room to store his pizza and ice chest away before he pulled out his phone and texted an order to someone. He got a reply within moments and quickly put his phone away before he joined Frank and his spotter in another room grabbing their gear. Once they were downstairs the squad leader had each fire team spread out in a formation and would cover each other as they moved from building to building.
Once they arrived back at the base, they found out that the commander had already sent out teams to check the area. It was quickly confirmed that all hostiles in the area were either dead or captured. After they were back, the commander called for Frank to come to the bunker and Ezekiel followed along. When the commander saw Ezekiel behind Frank his eyes lit up as he said, "I was hoping you would be with him."
"Do you need something from me?"
The commander walked closer to Ezekiel and stuck his hand out as he said, "I have no idea how you did it, but I wanted to thank you for helping me and my men out. Your timely intervention helped save lives and I heard from a couple people you even saved them from grenades."
Ezekiel shook the man's hand as he said, "I was already in the area, so I decided to lend a hand… Speaking of, do you mind if I borrow sergeant Castle and Russo for a bit?"
"Sure, you can use that room over there if you want and I'll find Russo for you too." The commander said as he pointed towards a door.
Ezekiel nodded and said, "Thanks."
Once they were inside the room, Ezekiel pulled back out the pizza boxes and ice chest before he said, "Let's dig in while we wait."
Frank glanced at the pizza boxes that clearly read 'Joe's NYC We're #1 for a reason.' before he asked, "How old is that pizza?"
Ezekiel opened the box and that tore a sealing tag in half as he said, "Maybe a month old, I think… It could be older, I don't mark the boxes."
Frank frowned as he saw heat waves radiating off the pizza and a delicious smell filled the air before he asked, "How the hell is that a month old?"
Ezekiel grabbed a slice and said, "I seal them with a special tag that keeps them completely fresh."
As Ezekiel happily started to eat his first slice Frank studied him for a few moments before he asked, "What do you want with me and Billy?"
"Eat, we can talk after he gets here." Ezekiel said as he waved towards the pizza.
Frank reluctantly gave in and grabbed a slice after Ezekiel started on his second slice. As he took his first bite the door opened up and in walked Billy Russo who paused before he asked, "Where the hell did you get fresh pizza from?"
After Billy arrived, Ezekiel let both of them eat before he explained why he came. He basically wanted to recruit both of them to join his PMC company. He laid out all the benefits that came with it along with the pay before he gave them each a card with his phone number. He left them alone in the room to finish their pizza as he came out and handed the commander a couple boxes of pizza before he asked, "I placed a large order for about a hundred pizzas. It should be done in an hour or so… You think that will feed all your men or should I order more?"
"You did what?"