War Games

War Games is the second part in the Loaded March series. It was uploaded to Archive of Our Own on August 22, 2011. This part consists of 36,863 words.
Read it here.
==Summary==
There's war games - the sort that nearly get members of Team Excalibur killed, where Arthur proves his men are better than anyone else, and the ones that involve power and politics.
And then there's War Games.
==Plot==
In which Uther is a jerk, Valiant is a jerk, and invisibility cloaks are real.
Uther tries to get Arthur to hire Merlin, Morgana is a stylish badass, Merlin builds a crackbox out of a handheld games console, and Excalibur rips Valiant's team new arseholes in the War Games. Also, the reward of R&R if (when) they win the War Games, where Arthur promises to buy Merlin coffee every morning. 
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This part begins with Merlin, Gwaine, Owain, and Perceval out on a to-kill call mission for some Americans. With Gwaine at the scopes, the mission is considered a done deal, walk-in-the-park mission -- except then the shit hits the fan.  A dust storm whips up. Gwaine's bullets stop before they hit the glass. Owain's bombs won't go off. Chaos erupts and there is magic, explosions, fireballs, and invisible forces. It is only through Merlin's magic and Arthur's contingency plans that they make it out alive.
Back at base, Uther has arrived with Morgana, Gwen, and his little soldiers, including the wanker Valiant. After Arthur has spoken to Merls (UST), Gwaine, Owain, and Percy, Team Excalibur is briefed on new technologies coming out of Pendragon Consulting and other weapon manufacturers. This is the technology that they will be against in the War Games commencing the next day where it will be Valiant's team versus Arthur's. If Arthur's team wins, Arthur will receive the same security clearance as Merlin and a two week R&R.
At the presentation of Pendragon Consulting's technology, Uther and Morgana take it upon themselves to scare Merlin shitless.
Because Merlin knows how much Arthur wants needs to win, he stays up all night and builds a crackbox out of a handheld game console. Merlin is exhausted on the chopper ride to the arena and begs for caffeine, which Leon then provides and then receives a kiss in return. (Arthur quietly dies and wishes Merlin were at least bi.) The War Games go as expected: Valiant's team cheats (sneaking trackers onto Excalibur's uniforms, using stolen Pendragon equipment like invisibility cloaks, etc) and Excalibur is awesome.
Merlin ends up cracking the Pendragon code, earning him coffee every morning of the R&R from Arthur.
After the Games are over, Arthur pines for Merlin some more and Morgana laughs at him because of it. Merlin and Arthur are debriefed on the situation with the Americans and told that with Arthur's new security clearance, the team would be going on higher-risk missions. We also get our first mention of the new world order. 
==Quotes==
Gwaine's expression clouded, and his brows pinched in the middle of his forehead. He turned to look at Merlin with a pleading look. "You didn't see that?" I saw your bullets pause in mid-air and drop off the hood of the Humvee, yeah. After that, I saw bullets kiss the windshield and not even make a scratch. By the way, high velocity armour piercers don't actually do anything but tickle when they hit a magic shield. "See what?" - Gwaine and Merlin 
"And get four of my best men suspended for PTSD, drug use, or psychotic breaks?" Arthur scowled. "Don't be an idiot." Merlin's brows twitched in a half-frown, and he raised his eyes to meet Arthur with the sort of pinch that hinted he was still processing what had been said, then, abruptly, he beamed with a smile that was wide and brilliant, his eyes bright and shining. It took Arthur's breath away, burned conscious thought out of his mind, and left him with a racing heart and lungs starved for air. - Arthur and Merlin 
"Meet our communication specialist. The one who'll crack the encryption. We'll be routing you this time."  - Arthur to Valiant
"My hero!" Merlin declared, and let Leon go. - Merlin after kissing Leon 
"Hold on," Merlin said, and went behind Arthur, wrapping his arms around him to work, trying very hard not to think about how nicely shaped Arthur was, how solid, how bloody fit, and finally, the damned tracker came off. He pulled away before Arthur wondered if the bulge poking him in the butt was Merlin's knife or something , and forced his head somewhere else, anywhere else, but at how lovely it had been to be pressed against Arthur for the second time in a day. - Merlin and Arthur
Sod the job interview -- Merlin didn't care about getting a position with Pendragon Consulting. He cared about making sure he didn't disappoint Arthur. He wanted to win the game for him. - Merlin
"Oh, let me play this game. I love this game," Morgana said, her tone gleeful. "Arthur hates Merlin because Merlin is exactly his type?" - Morgana to Arthur & Gwen
==Series Timeline==
Preceded By:	Followed By:
Radioman 	R&R
Category:Parts