"The true heroes of World War II" ONL & GallifreyanOddy IC

OOC



Superheroes that you find in comics are not just mere fantasies, they are based on true people with great abilities. Some lived in secrecy and took their gifts with them to their graves, some stood up and used their powers for both right and wrong. More so than anything else in war, and now the greatest human conflict has started, where these people are needed more than ever. This is the story, of those who could be called true heroes with true gifts.

We start this tale of war, friendship and love, tragedy and total war, in the same land that the previous Great War had been stuck for 4 long years. Now it would a mere month for it all to happen in the favour of the Germans. We are in 1940, France is falling...


Dunkirk, May 26th, Northern France.



Above them, German planes flew down at them to drop bombs and fire their machine guns, killing and wounding everyone that stood in their way. It was no silence to be found, no peace or rest to be given, it was war everywhere you walked. In the distance, you could hear the unforgettable sound of fighting, firearms alongside artillery and tanks fighting a war never experienced by anyone before. Not for the French, certainly not for the British and of course not for private Adrian Whitestone.

Adrian Whitestone, 26 year old Englishman from outside London, was experiencing at first hand the shame of being on the fleeing side of a war. From the very moment they, him and his friends in the British Expeditionary Force, had stepped on French soil, they had been fighting a defensive war against the German attackers. But even Adrian, with little to non combat experience other than all the stories his father had told him, understood that the Germans was the better fighting force in this war. He felt ashamed, not only by this, but also the ignorance by his superiors; stuck in the Great War battle-theories about trench warfare. This wasn't like the Great War, this was a war that the Germans had mastered, all while the British and French were unable to do anything against their enemies.

Adrian sat on a chair, taken from a bombed café in the city of Dunkirk that was now the "home" of thousands of British and French soldiers. He was tired, tired of everything from the weather to the French soldiers that he couldn't understand what said. What he felt like doing most was just waking up from a nightmare, like this was too terrible to be true, though it wasn't. So what could he do? Nothing, except waiting. What were they waiting for? Well, either the orders of surrender to the German Wehrmacht, or the final orders of their evacuation from France and continental Europe.

As he sat on the chair, he held his rifle with his left hand and a bottle of French wine in his right, something he had found in the ruins. It was the only thing that kept him alive now. As he took small drinks from the wine, he looked at the different soldiers passing him. They were walking to the frontlines, where they were fighting a tough fight to keep the Germans at bay, and where many would never return alive. He felt lucky to not be one of them, but felt non the less sorry for those who walked.

Out of normal loneliness, he waved to a French soldier who sat on the other side of the street from him, and tried to get him to come over. He waved his bottle of wine, in hope of getting some company, even if he would have to listen to a Frenchman he didn't understand.

"Hey you, you on the other side there, come here! What's your name, friend? Your name. My name is Adrian, Adrian." Adrian said slowly to the French soldier, not knowing anything else that would work to get him to understand Adrian other than talking slowly and clearly.

She had only been in France for almost a year when the fighting started. Her stay had meant to be a short one but she had become fascinated with French culture during her stay. This caused her to linger in the city for longer than she had anticipated. Her mother would have said that fate made her stay. Cassandra Holloway had signed up for the French militia in order to help in any way she could. Just before enlisting, she cut her hair short enough that she could pass for a young boy rather than the woman she was. Passing for eighteen was easy enough but a few soldiers still looked at her odd at times. Cassandra called herself "Cas" and spoke in a lower tone than normal. Things had been going well for her so far. No one questioned her and she was glad for that.

Today she found herself sitting on the street watching others walk to the front line. She whispered a prayer for them but none would understand it. She had spoken in her mother's native tongue, a language Cassandra knew but rarely used. The sound of gunfire echoed in the streets. It never seemed to end. Some nights she found herself up all night wondering if anyone she had met in the last year was still alive or not. Others, she found herself comforted by the sound and it served as a lullaby for her. Cas wasn't sure if that should disturb her or not. War was something she had never seen before much less survived up until now. As the last of the soldiers passed, she looked across the street to see a man waving a bottle of wine in her direction. Her lips parted as her tongue licked her lips. It had been awhile since she had a drink of something other than water.

Standing up, Cas dusted off her French issued uniform and strolled across the street. By this time the British soldier was talking, introducing himself to Cas in a slow voice. A smirk played on her lips but faded as she tilted her head and said something in French. After a moment, the smirk returned and she laughed softly. "Sorry about that Adrian. I just wanted to mess with you." She spoke with an accent that he had probably never heard before. That, along with her exotic appearance, was surely enough to make him question a few things. Adrian looked a bit brighter than the militia men she typically spoke to. "I'm Cas by the way." She held her hand out for him to shake. Her fingers were calloused and her hands rough. She had made sure to get them rough so no one would question why she had such soft and dainty hands. Now they were just rough and dainty.

"I do hope you were willing to share that wine Adrian and it wasn't just a ruse to call me over." Cas found it hard to keep her voice in that low tone as she spoke. It was nice to speak to someone who understood her mostly native tongue. Speaking French had been driving her insane lately. "Must be nice to speak to a Frenchman who understands you no?" She smiled at him and took a seat on the ground next to Adrian. The helmet she wore had been blocking most of Adrian's view of Cas. She slid the helmet from her head and ran her fingers through her short black hair. Looking up at Adrian, she smiled at him again. It was obvious she wasn't French. Her looks were probably exotic to most but she didn't see herself as being exotic, just different.

Adrian had prepared himself for a blabbering Frenchman talking to him to which he would just have to nod and pretend to understand, but he didn't have to. As the soldier spoke to him, he spoke nearly fluent English, and with an accent that resembled nothing like French or what he thought was French. He almost had problems replying to him, it was such a surprise to him, but he held himself together and smiled to the man. The man surely looked nothing like a Frenchman either, more like something between an Asian and an Hispanic. This made him conclude that the man, named Cas, possibly came from French Indochina, and had joined the war for his country. What bothered him the most, was the man's feminine looks, but he had other things to worry about than being with a man he didn't know where came from.

"Nice to meet you Cas, I've must have sounded like an idiot sitting here and talking to you like you were my grandmother. Sure, have a drink, it's on me." Adrian said to Cas, shaking his hand and handing him the wine bottle. It was by now half-empty, and it was not the first bottle Adrian had found nor drunk, and why shouldn't he have? As the two of them sat there, a British and French soldier tired from a battle that had lasted just a month, fighting an enemy they had failed to stop at every try, gunfire was still being heard in the distance. It was a reminder that they were far from being safe, but the wine helped calm their nerves.

Adrian looked back and forth at Cas as he drank the wine, before he decided that they could do better things than just drink. "I came here just two weeks ago, and so far me and my platoon has been on the run. Bloody Jerries...But how long have you been here? And, if you don't mind me asking, where are you from? I can see that you're not French, am I wrong if I say somewhere in Asia?" Adrian asked Cas, having run out of questions to ask as well. At this point of the battle, he was afraid of making friends that would die soon, but he was still lonely and wanted company.

Cas gladly took the wine from Adrian and took a decent gulp from the half-empty bottle. It took everything she had to not groan at the taste of the thick liquid as it coated her throat and stomach. Lucky for her, she had been in France long enough to learn how to hold her liquor well. She took another gulp before she held the bottle out for Adrian to take if he so chose to. "I've been here from the beginning my friend." She smirked as he tried to figure out where she was from. "Not Asia though most think that. I'm American my friend. Well, half American anyway. My father was an Englishman and my mother is a native, a so called savage." The smirk fell from her face and a look of anger replaced it. The look lasted mere seconds before she looked up at Adrian.

"Not what you were expecting hmm?" She asked as she ran her fingers over the top of the helmet that now sat in her lap. It, at one time, had been polished to perfection but it was now dirty. She frowned and wiped some of the dirt from it. Cassandra wondered what she looked like to Adrian. She knew some of her features were feminine like her small hands and high cheekbones. There was probably a feminine look to those blue eyes of her as well. Dirt smudged her cheeks and forehead though, adding a more masculine look to her than she would have if her face had been clean. "Why did you join up Adrian? Surely things cant be that bad back home." Cas wished she had gone back home when it had been time instead of staying. Yes, she had signed up to join the fighting but she had no idea she would be watching people she knew die in front of her. This was not at all what she had been expecting.

Wars back home, at least between warring tribes, were fought with tomahawks and arrows. Guns were a completely different story. She looked around as she listened to anything Adrian might be saying. Her fingers were now tugging on a loose thread in her uniform rather than touching her helmet. She had moved the helmet to the ground beside her. "How much longer do you think France will last?" Both surely knew the answer but she wanted to hear it from someone else. Surely she wasn't the only one who thought all of this was a lost cause.

Once again, Cas took Adrian by complete surprise. He was not Asian at all, he was a Native-American, even half English. He hadn't seen anyone like that for all of his life, and he'd seen most people from all around the British Empire, stretching from Canada, South Africa and British colonial soldiers from Africa and India. He grabbed the wine bottle and took another drink of it, calming his stomach as yet another bomb fell down in Dunkirk. Cas also told him that he had been in the war from the very beginning, much like Adrian. Adrian tried to give him a smile.

"No, didn't expect that at all. But hey, if I'd be right about that, then we would have had other American soldiers fighting over here. But yes, strange to see a man like yourself here in Europe." Adrian said to Cas, but turned silent when he looked into Cas's eyes. They were a pair of deep, blue eyes that Adrian would think could belong to a beautiful woman. But it couldn't be true, how could a woman manage to slip into an uniform? And when he thought about it, a lot of soldiers were not older than 18, and they could tend to look younger and more feminine like that others. But as he kept on thinking, his mind also bringing up the fact that there were other people out there with un-human abilities like him, then could it be possible that this Cas was someone else?

Adrian's mindflowing ceased when Cas once again caught his attention, this time asking him of when Adrian joined up and afterwards how long he think France would last. At the first question, Adrian didn't hesitate to answer.
"Joined right after Hitler marched on Poland. My father fought in the trenches from 1914 to the very end, and so I felt it was my duty to do the same."
The second question was more of a sensitive question he didn't like thinking about, all though he knew too well that sooner or later it would be over. Taking the remaining of the wine and drinking it all up, Adrian turned to Cas and looked him straight into his face, his own face not showing any signs of jokes.

"Long enough I hope. Long enough for us to regroup and mount an effective counter-attack on the Germans. Long enough to buy us valuable time for the troops out in the French Empire and the British Commonwealth to arrive and join the fight here in Europe. You know as well as me that if we don't hold the Germans back, then France will fall within a week or two, and afterwards England will be Hitler's next victim. And if England falls, then all hope is lost."

Adrian threw the wine bottle at the house on the other side of the street, watching the bottle break into pieces of glass and fall to the ground. He stood up, picking up his rifle again and turned to Cas. He felt sorry for him, being so far away from his homeland on the other side of the sea. But he couldn't stop the thoughts of why a Native American would have travelled to Europe, not when most of the world knew that there was a war.
"Thanks for the talk, Cas. Beats having to be out there and fight Jerry head-on when you don't have anything to beat him with. Come on, we should get deeper into the city, towards the docks. I hear that we are beginning to evacuate from France soon. I'm sure that then we'll be parted, but I wish you the best of luck out there, we'll all need it." Adrian said to Cas, holding out his hand for him to shake it. It was a gesture of parting and not meeting again later. Since Cas was in the French army, and Adrian in the British, they would surely not meet each other during this war. Adrian hoped he was wrong, it was something about Cas that he liked.

Meanwhile above them, a German dive-bomber had dropped its bombs which would land in the same street as Adrian and Cas. Adrian had no idea of this, Cas(sandra) would perhaps do just that and save both of their lives.

Cas listened to Adrian without speaking. She watched him down the rest of the bottle before he answered her questions. She knew the last one was sensitive for any who were in this war. Her brow furrowed a bit when he mentioned them starting evacuation. It made sense though. There was really nothing here left to defend. She heard the bottle shatter into pieces but didn't dare look over at the scattered glass. Cas stood, dusted off her uniform, and shook hands with Adrian again. "Oh we'll meet again Adrian. I'll make sure of that." She smiled at him. The smile was too soft to be a masculine smile but at this point, she didn't care. Cassandra had made a friend in a war where friends weren't supposed to be made.

She was sure her confidence in their meeting again may seem odd to Adrian. Cassandra wasn't all she seemed to be. First off, she was female. Second of all, she had a special ability. Most would think that Pathfinding would be a horribly boring ability to have. See, the young female could find any person in the world anytime she wanted. She would know exactly where they were just by thinking about them. Cas loved her ability. It would help her keep track of Adrian through the war. She said a silent Native American prayer that his soft red light would never go out. That would mean the worst and she would hate to lose a friend. Just as the two were about to walk deeper into the city, a flash of bright blue flashed in Cassandra's mind. A dive bomber. It was too close.

"Oh god." She mumbled as she grabbed Adrian and suddenly started running, dragging him along with her. "Run Adrian! RUN!" She screamed at him. The familiar whistle of a falling bomb could soon be heard. She ran harder, still dragging Adrian with her if he hadn't started running on his own yet. She had to get him out of there. There was no way she was losing someone this way. The two ran hard and fast but the bomb fell faster. Cassandra suddenly turned and headed for a nearby building. It was still standing and should provide enough cover to protect them both from the blast. Too bad neither of them was fast enough. The bomb hit the ground where they had been sitting not moments earlier and exploded. She screamed but didn't hear it. Her ears were ringing as she was thrown forward from the force of the blast. Cas hit the ground hard. She was surprised it hadn't knocked her out! Looking around, she tried to see where Adrian had landed. "Adrian!" He was nearby and his light was still burning bright in her mind. He was nearby but there was too much dust in the air for her to see him.

One moment they were saying their goodbyes to each other and shaking hands, the next one they ran from what could only be a bomb from a Stuka dive-bomber. Cas had somehow noticed the bomb before the sound of the falling bomb could be heard, and had effectively given them just enough distance from the blast for them to survive the impact. As it hit the street just to explode, Adrian was thrown to the ground by the blast His ears ringing like no tomorrow and sight blurry, he tried to get back on his feet. The only thoughts that went through his head, was if Cas had been hit. If so, he would have lost a friend that he had just gained, not something that he would wish upon anyone else.

Eventually he got back up on his two feet, and proceeded to check if he still had everything on him. Arms, two. Legs, two. Head with ears and eyes, all of them. Fingers, all of them as well. He was okay, he was alive and well! And Cas had saved him, something that Adrian would owe him for the rest of his live. He started to turn around to find him, and was met by a pile of dust and smoke that flew up in the air after the impact. Where they had stood merely moments earlier, a crater proved the true powers of aircrafts. It all to much reminded him how England could turn out if the Germans started to once again bomb England after the Great War.

Adrian soon found Cas again, and dragged him out of the smoking street to somewhere safer. French, Belgian and British troops alike were running towards the centre of town, and that was where Adrian would take Cas as well. It had begun, the evacuation of Dunkirk could begin!

The image of Cas' smile, so soft and kind, still stuck onto his mind. Adrian was starting to think, and think more and more about it, even though just had met. Could Cas be something more than just what he told he was? If Adrian was so special, and the clues were to be found from Cas, then maybe...

But Adrian ceased to think those thoughts, looking straight into Cas' face, ensuring he was okay. "Are you okay, Cas? Do you feel any pain, doesn't look you got hit by shrapnel, lucky bastard. Come on, we've got to get on the move, I think the Germans are coming closer and closer!" Adrian said to Cas, as the sound of gunfire and bombs got closer and closer.

She had been trying to get up when arms wrapped around her and dragged her to her feet. As her eyes opened, she saw it was Adrian who had gotten her out of the street and was leading her away from the sight, towards the center of town. Cas looked at her friend as he asked her if she was okay. "I'm fine and you're right. We need to get going." There was so much blue in her mind. They were getting too close for comfort. By now the shock had worn off and she was able to move more on her own. Even so, she kept close to Adrian as they made their way towards the evacuation point. She knew once they were out of here they might be separated for a time. While Cas wasn't happy about this, it would give her time to make up a story as to why she was in France in the first place and how she had managed to join the war when she wasn't a native. The female winced a bit as they continued on. She hadn't been hit by any shrapnel but she had twisted her ankle somehow. It hurt rather badly but not enough for her to complain or slow down.

The sound of gunfire was still loud in her ears. They needed to move faster but there were so many of them now. They had to be close to getting out of this place. Cas looked over at Adrian. "I have a feeling we're about to get separated from one another." There was a sad look on her dirty face. "I'll come and find you though." She smiled a bit. "I never forget a face." Or a colour and his bright red just about overshadowded the blue of the Germans in her mind. A few men nearby where yelling at her in French. She turned and yelled back at them, sounding highly irritated and not very happy. "They want me to join them and leave you. I told them to shut up and go on without me." It wasn't like she couldn't protect herself if need be. Cassandra winced as she put a little too much weight on her ankle. This wasn't good. No one could exam her. The risk of her true gender being discovered was too high. She knew that some thievery would be happening as soon as they were safe.

Adrian noticed Cas' flinching when he put weight on his foot, though from what he could see it wasn't bleeding. He wasn't a medic, but he understood it as Cas had twisted his ankle, which was not good in this kind of situation either. Adrian helped Cas all the way through town and out to the docks where he thought the ships would pick them up. As where masses of other troops from several nations, even some Scottish brigadiers wearing the famous kilt, and Polish troops that now fought for a country occupied by the Germans and the Soviet Union at the same time.

He continued to talk with Cas as they made their way through the streets of Dunkirk, and couldn't help smiling and feeling happy from the fact that Cas didn't want them to get separated. He couldn't explain it, but he didn't mind. "Haha, look's like you actually know a true Frenchman when you see them, and curse them straight to the face! Nah, just fooling around with you, but I'll do my part to find you once we are back in England. Hell, I'll buy you a beer or two if I have both my arms to drink with." Adrian said to Cas, laughing in a situation that seemed just grimmer and grimmer. What else could he do, start to cry because the Germans were dropping bombs on them?

No, Adrian did his best to help Cas find a place to sit, and afterwards sat down with him and inspecting his leg carefully. "Doesn't look too bad, I think it's just twisted. Once we get on a boat, I'll get someone to look at it. If not, then I'll have to do it myself. My father actually taught me a few things from when he was in the trenches, and I guess they haven't changed the procedures that much since then." Adrian kept going, looking down at Cas' leg. As he inspected it, he couldn't help but notice that, once again, Cas' figure was resembling more and more of a feminine body, but frankly, Adrian cared little for that and more about the twisted ankle. That, or the fact that the Germans most likely would attack the city in full force in a couple of days.

"Don't you worry Cas, I'll keep you out of danger for now. Hell, I owe you that, that and my life."

And as they kept talking, the first of many ships started appearing on the horizon. In not too long, these ships would take part in one of the greatest military evacuations in modern history, which would save thousands upon thousands of Allied soldier's lives. And soon, many of these men (and women) would find themselves in England.

Cas nearly protested when Adrian went to look at her ankle. Oh this was not good. She knew men's legs and ankles were typically a bit thicker than a woman's. She watched with wide, blue eyes as Adrian looked over her ankle. "Oh don't worry about it. I'll be fine. It wouldn't be the first time I've twisted that damn ankle." A small smile broke out on her face. "I'm going to keep you to that drink Adrian. My mother used to tell me that Englishmen always kept their word. I hope that's true." Cassandra did look at him like he was crazy when he said he was going to keep her out of danger. Why would he do that? Sure, she had saved him from a bomb but that didn't make him indebted to her. At least it didn't in her book. She was doing what anyone would have done. Then again, she wasn't just anyone was she?

They continued talking as the ships appeared on the horizon. Cas told Adrian about her home and her people. She was amazed at how he listened. Soon the ships were there and the soldiers were evacuated to England. Cassandra spent the trip resting as much as she could while also worrying about Adrian. Surely he hadn't figured out she wasn't exactly male yet. A few of the soldiers that had been around her on the trip were starting to suspect things but lucky for her, they were soon off the ship and in England. This had been her next stop on her trip around Europe though this wasn't exactly how she had wanted her trip to go. Cas was lost as she wandered around. At some point she had lost Adrian physically but his red aura burned bright in her mind. Part of her wanted to find him but surely that would pique his curiosity. After all, how was she supposed to find him in all of this?