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Grey War

Chapter 7

- Joel Vulpine Miles-

As a Guardian Officer, your trained to be the best of the best, the elite. You know how to handle almost any situation. When someone is lost, you direct them. When a leader is needed, you fill the position. When someone is wounded, you rush in to save them. So, when Aria and Ray brought Joel this "John", with no memories. Joel decided to do what he knew he had to do.

Find someone who knew what to do...

He adjusted his shoulder strap that held his rifle. Good thing it wasn't loaded... The amount of people that were bumping into them as they made their way up to Central would have guaranteed a few accidental discharges... As he walked, it gently bounced against his hips with each step. He was used to that feeling by now. He cocked his head over his shoulder, Ray and Aria followed behind, with the Strange "John" they had found... He was much more muscular than Joel... By far. And a good four inches taller. Least to say... Joel was interested on how this would go.

He adjusted his glasses, motioning ahead of them to Central... John was still looking at it in awe up to Central.

"Quite a sight, isn't it?" Joel said, still leading the way through a sea of Guardians. All making their way up to Central as well. "Hu? ... Oh, yeah... It's really impressive..." John said a little hesitantly. Ray and Aria agreed. It was their second year here at Central. They had seen the sights before, but hell. It's always impressive no matter how many times you've seen it.

"Oh! Wait till you see it at night!" Aria said excitedly. Joel shrugged in agreement. "You don't see much like that in your entire life." Ray agreed. Joel turned back, continuing their path.

The walk up was decent... It wasn't exactly short, but they made good time despite the size of their little group, and the fact that they had to fight their way through the crowd. The overall walk took about fifteen minutes... They made it in about six.

The road split into two different sections. The road to the right was where the crowd was going. It lead to the main hall of Central, where new arriving Guardians would find out their dorm room numbers, and head off to their room that would serve them for the rest of the year... Their bags would be waiting for them in the rooms already... Joel knew this, because officers that arrived to Central early usually had to oversee that bags made it to the right dorms... "Right nightmare that was..." Joel muttered under his breath.

Joel guided him to the left though... This path did not lead to the main hall... But to the infirmary near the dorms. "Med bay?" Ray asked. "Yep." Joel replied. "You two head off to the main hall... I'll take our friend here the rest of the way." John stepped forwards from the crowd, and stood next to Joel. "Tell us what happens, OK?" Aria said, as she and Ray were slowly being herded away by the crowd. Joel raised his hand and gave a thumbs up.

Joel started to lead John away from the herding crowd, off to the Infirmary. As they made their way farther from the crowd, he finally got a chance to have a chance for a conversation with him.

"So, you really don't have any memories. Do you?" Joel said. "... Yes lieutenant." John said rather rigidly. Joel gave a minor frown to this... It seemed... Just a little strange to him. "You don't need to be like that, we're not military here... We could be..." He agreed to himself. "By the way... How did you know your name? I thought you didn't have any memories?" John seemed a little more at ease... "Oh... From this." He pulled a chain from around his neck. Joel held his hand out to see it. John took the necklace off, and handed it to him.

Now... Joel has been a Guardian for almost five years... He's been around the kingdom... And seen some interesting things... He could tell a few things from the simple slip of metal in his hand. One, his name was most likely John. Two, this necklace was defiantly kingdom military in origin. However... It raised more questions for Joel than it answered... Why only the first name? What was WA - 7 - 77 stand for? Why was he so curious about this?

He handed it back to John. "Military?" John replied. "I don't know..." Joel kept walking. "It looks like it all right." "I guess so." John said.

Joel couldn't place his finger on this guy... But... He seemed like a nice guy... Just... With a veil of mystery and unknown surrounding him. "Are you friends with Aria and Ray?" John asked after a few moments of silence. "Those two?" He thought back for a moment...

Usually, there are teams of Guardians that are formed... Usually for classes, training, or even combat... There was always someone that stood out as the commander of the little teams... Joel was for their little three man squad...

"Yeah. They are my friends." He said with a satisfied smile on his face. He adjusted his rifle again, slipping it into a more comfortable position.

"Look mate, we'll get this sorted out... I'm sure the doctors or nurses will know just what to do." He patted John on the shoulder... He had to reach up a little... He was a very large Sheppard...

They got to where the dorms were... It was a several story building, with an additional few stories on the top, right side of the building. Those were the officers rooms... Just a little past the dorms, Joel pointed to John a large medical cross on a building just a little ways ahead of the dorms. "The West Med Center." He guided John over to it. "There are two others on the North, and East sides." They walked up to it... It had a smell of unnatural freshness about it, that more over made it smell worse than it should. "Bloody hate that smell..." Joel said, scrunching up his muzzle and nose.

Opening the door, Joel got a nice blast of the sickening freshness that the med bays all had through them. Gagging a little, he walked in with John following behind. There was a little waiting area with a few chairs, and a desk with a bell and a sheet of paper with the a place for a name, and injury. Joel was happy to see, that it was blank. "First on the list mate." He said, signing the list...

Name. "John?" Injury: "Memory lose." Joel figured that would be sufficient for the records... John wandered around looking at the chairs, finding nothing interesting... Joel tapped the bell a few times. There was some footsteps from down the hall. A female tiger with long black hair rounded the corner. "Who's hurt?"

Joel gestured over his shoulder to John, who was now sitting quietly in a chair behind him. "I figured you would know what to do." Joel said hopefully. The nurse walked out from behind the desk and opened the door that lead back to the examination rooms. "Right this way lieutenant."

Joel and John walked through the door, and followed her to the first examination room.

"Let me go get the doctor." The nurse said, leaving them in the room. A moment later a short grey wolf, with mid-length hair entered the room wearing a long white lab coat. "Morning." He said with a smile, "First day back, and there are already injuries?" The doctor gave a little chuckle.

"Morning Doctor." Joel replied. "And not really an injury..."

"What seems to be the plight then?" He asked, not letting Joel finish his sentence. "You see -" Joel was interrupted again, this time, by the tiger nurse, who brought in the little form sheet that Joel had written on, a few moments ago.

"John?" He asked questioningly. Joel looked to John, who nodded. "Yes sir."

"Memory loss..." The doctor said under his breath.

"Well John, My name is Dr. Samuel. Let me see what I can do to help you, have a seat." He pointed to the examination chair. John looked down at the examination chair, it was a padded blue color, with a light over head. "Umm... Is it OK if I stand?" He asked a little wearily.

Joel caught a glimpse of his face. He looked fairly weary, or worried. "Something wrong mate?" Joel asked him. "I... No, it's nothing." John began to sit down slowly... He looked rather uncomfortable with sitting in the chair.

"We don't want you to feel pressured or uncomfortable." The doctor said. "You stay here for a moment... I'll just need to talk to your friend Lieutenant Miles here for a moment." John nodded, Dr. Samuel and Joel left the room.

Dr. Samuel lead Joel into another examination room a few doors down.

"Alright lieutenant - " He began. "Just Joel is fine." He interrupted. "Fine then, Joel... So, your friend there, John, has no memory?"

"Apparently... " He replied. "We only know his name by a military I.D tag."

"Military I.D tag?" Dr. Samuel asked. "By the looks of it, yeah. Same style, but it only has his first name... Nothing else. Save some weird letter an' number combo." Joel said.

The doctor thought about this for a moment. "You know anything else?"

"Nothing else to my knowledge..." Joel said. "Aria Grand, and Ray Harper were the first two find him... They might also know something."

"Noted." The doctor replied. "Well, if it's amnesia, there isn't much I can do medically... The only thing we could do is try to jog his memory, and if that doesn't work..." he trailed off. "I can do some basic tests... Physical, cognitive..." said, trailing off once again.

"Look, least to say. We should tell the head master." Joel stated.

"Oh, most defiantly. I'll let him know strait away." Dr. Samuel agreed.

Joel turned back, to try and get a look out the window to the walkway up from the station to Central, where the crowd was thinning as most had seemed to have made their way up inside the great hall to get their dorm numbers... Soon, the crowd would be making its way closer to here, near the dorms.

"Bollocks..." Joel muttered. "Look, do whatever you can do, I've got to run and regulate the crowd... Keep John here, I'll be right back, or Aria and Ray might be... Just keep him here for a little."

"Sure..." Dr. Samuel said, "See you lieutenant." With that, Dr. Samuel returned to the room where John was waiting. Joel walked past it, and out to the waiting room. As he walked by, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Cocking his head as he walked, he looked at the source of the movement. A little security camera. Nothing to worry about. He left the med bay, and began to move to a trot, heading to the Great hall.

"Why am I so curious about him?" Joel asked himself...

"And why does it feel like I've missed something..."