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_ please note this chapter isn't exactly my best work, and has little to do with the theme of Alcatraz. It's a bit filler, and I would recommend you skip over it. First ever submission on this site! Hopefully this goes over better than Furaffinity where my custom thumbnail didn't even show and Wattpad where no one was interested._

I made the lore and whatnot for this story about a year ago then gave up on it, and then decided to pick it back up and revamp it.

Though this isn't the story I ever saw myself making public, I definitely think it's going to be one of my best.

Note: Syntax is weird and it's a personal form I've stuck with for a while. This was typed up in MS word and copypasted so I'm going to have to fix it up a bit

1-RECRUITMENT

///

I heard footsteps. Just a few seconds ago everything was completely silent.

A bottle being kicked across the alleyway.

I'd just finished putting my things back in my duffel bag, just woken up.

Sun stinging me, I waited for whoever it was to round the corner, praying to whoever that it wasn't...

Omar.

Cringing inside my head, his blackened form came into view, like me.

But more muscular and taller.

Popping his knuckles, two I hadn't seem coming out from the shadows beside him.

I couldn't find my voice.

To shout or plead, either way nothing was coming to me.

"Omar..."

"Tai."

He approached, his two flanking him. I'd seen them before, but I couldn't remember their names.

The brown furred mutt held up a piece of paper, names crossed out on it.

Mine was, that was a good thing. It meant I'd paid my dues.

There was one that wasn't.

"I just wanted to thank you for paying your dues, Tai. I get that you have no means of making money."

"Tha"-

"Besides stealing from others."

He crumpled the list and threw it aside and if it weren't paper, it would have surely busted a hole in the wall.

Omar slammed me into the wall, one hand around my throat, knowing he was free to do anything because I didn't have anyone behind me.

And I never had anyone behind me.

"I have a strong...Dislike for thieves, Tai."

He turned his head to the left and I saw the scarred eye socket where his right eye had been gouged out.

"Bring me the damn paper!" He barked.

The closest one ran and grabbed it, and Omar snatched it out of their hand as soon as they were in proximity.

Uncrumpling it, he shoved it in my face.

One name wasn't crossed out, nothing familiar.

"You stole from this kid, Tai, right?"

"I-I don't know! I don't know anyone I steal from"-

He slapped me."Stutter again."

One of his guys grinned, no clairvoyance required to know what was going to happen.

"I came by for his dues this morning. He said some white furred cat took it off him."

Leaning in close, his hand on my neck had almost been forgotten.

But now he was applying real pressure.

"There's only one white furred cat in Gibraltar, Tai."

He pulled a knife out of his pocket and my eyes widened. I was going to die here.

His serrated and rusted blade was already covered in blood.

"So after I stabbed him in the neck I came for you, Tai."

"Omar, please"-

He punched me in the gut with the hand that was around my neck, immediately getting it back to the original position and not hesitating to slam my head against the brick.

Out of air in two places.

"From now on, as long as you live in this part of Gibraltar, you're paying for you, and him."

Putting the knife on my cheek, just under my right eye, the blade looked sharper than ever.

I shook my head and he seemed to be contemplating how he wanted to hurt me.

Better than death-

White hot pain erupted in my arm as he slashed across it, letting me go, and I fell to my knees, tears coming to my eyes, blood pouring out of my wound.

Punching me in the face and walking away, I fell on my back and stayed there, my eyes closed in a wince.

It was all I could do.

///

"Tai..."

She was looking for my last name most likely. I'd been called to the principal's office a good bit of times but they never seemed to realize...

"Um, Tai. Please report to Mr. Albert's office." The absolute potato of an intercom took about 5 seconds to decipher so my teacher was hesitant.

I excused myself without consent, pushing in my chair behind me. I felt their eyes graze me, not wanting to settle on me.

Their parents taught them not to stare. Not at the homeless kid. It was hard enough having stark white fur so far South but sitting at the back of every class it was hard to get a good look at me.

The doorknob was not exactly chatoyant, and the rust textures made me wrinkle my nose just slightly.

No one in the hallway, just me and the lockers.

Putting my hands into my pockets, the sudden self-consciousness I'd been plagued with my entire life started scolding me about my appearance; a tank top, ripped jeans, and tennis shoes I'd found in a gutter.

I shoved it away. This halcyon moment was rare. I liked silence.

Walking to Albert's office, I rapped once on the door. What had I done this time?

They probably thought I was some drug dealer, the cameras around here were worse than the loudspeakers.

Looking back down the hallway, I realized I didn't even have to be here.

They didn't take attendance in Gibraltar. They wouldn't notice me gone. No locks on those doors, just prayers and wishful thinking.

I could walk out right now, but I felt that there was less of an anchor and more of a whisper to stay.

Albert opened the door, and shadowed me instantly.

I was above average in terms of height but Albert was above above average.

7'0 at the very least, Al could break up fights by being in proximity. He was a black bear, naturally tall. Uncommon in Gibraltar but hey, so were white furred cats.

His office was littered with crossword puzzles and Sudoku but being a cruciverbalist was the least intimidating thing about him. He could pick out patterns and just such, a student up to no good.

"Come on in, Tai."

He knew my name, but I guessed that if anyone else had come to the door he would have also thought they were Tai.

Sitting behind his desk and directing me to a seat across from him, he gave that middle-aged huff as he took his seat.

Folding his hands, two fingers touching his lips, he gave a two second look at me.

Tapping his fingers together and with no hint of sarcasm, "Tai, you may be the most remarkable thing that has happened here at South End Academy."

...What? I'm sorry...?

"How is that?" Hearing my own voice brought that self-conscious Tai back to the forefront of my mind but I shoved him off again.

He reached into his desk and pulled out... A letter.

In Gibraltar, more specifically South End Academy, a letter was your lifeline.

A letter meant you'd been accepted.

Hopefully.

Swallowing hard, I craned over it, the seal unfamiliar, and the language as well for a second before I switched to European Common.

It was in a very elaborate cursive but not uniform, handwritten.

School address, Gibraltar, New Morrocco, Mr. Albert.

"Tai, do your recognize this crest?"

"No, sir." There was a sticker on the back, a shield-shaped design with a black bird of some sort and a yellow background. Underneath it were the letters GYFT.

It meant nothing to me, but then I realized maybe it was something big.

If you didn't recognize wherever you'd been accepted to it meant it was far away from Gibraltar and probably ten times better than the poor and low budget special forces we had here.

"This is the crest of GYFT, a Counter Terrorism Unit in Germany. They want you, Tai."

"...Why? I'm not even from there." It wasn't mean to sound ungrateful or anything less than overwhelmed but I felt like this was a cruel joke I'd been slammed into.

Why me? My performance levels in the test range- where you learned to shoot guns...

Oh, I never mentioned. South End Academy teaches young adults aspiring for military, or counter terrorism, or maybe just those looking to learn how to protect themselves.

Me, I was just there because they fed you.

Those classes, while they weren't mandatory, were a one in a million chance I would get out of Gibraltar. And I would take those chances when I got them.

But I was poor performance wise, maybe ok if at all.

I was...

I was Tai and nothing more.

"A man named Marshall came by and said they'd detected some patterns last year in our simulation exams. I think he was looking for something you had."

My eye twitched. "Mr. Albert, with all due respect, I honestly don't understand. I've always had below average scores especially in those simulations."

He shrugged. "Tai, even if you are overwhelmed right now, take this and run with it."

Take it and run?

Opening the envelope he pulled out a form he'd already filled out mostly. "Sign here and here," he said, handing me a pen.

I shakily signed, unlettered handwriting the best I could do. This was too... unrealistic.

"I've arranged transportation along with a GRA representative, and a magna train at 8 tomorrow."

"...That's... Great, Mr. Albert." What else could I say?

"Alright, then. You won't have to come to school tomorrow, just..." He noticed my arm, blood leaking through the bandage.

"What happened there?" He leaned in to touch it and I flinched away, the tenderness and sensitivity already flaring up just thinking about it.

"I fell." Getting up out of the chair, before any more questions could be asked, he let me go and closing the door behind me, I left South End for the last time.

GYFT was an appropriate name. Because it was the best and most painful gift I would ever receive.

///

I'd been to the station maybe once in my life. No real reason to go there, not like I could afford a ticket.

Until now.

I'd put on a jacket, it was supposed to be cold in Germany this time of year.

I hadn't done my research on very much, I just knew if it was Europe and North it was going to be colder than New Morocco.

My train was just about to arrive, according to the clock. I knew European Common well, it was kind of the universal language, but my native was Arabic.

I could hardly read in the former and the latter was of no use outside where I was now. Standing there, watching the magnatrain come in, I felt safer than anything before.

Closer to God, if I had to put it any other way. Sounds dramatic, I know, but that was exactly how I felt.

Handing a clerk my ticket (it came with the acceptance letter) she nodded and motioned me forward towards the entrance.

Nothing could harm me now. It was the closest to invincible I'd ever been.

Yet I had a premonition that-

No.

I caught him in the corner of my eye.

He'd followed me.

No fucking way.

It was someone else.

A brown mutt with a missing right eye? I think not.

Yelling at myself for not moving, he was drawing closer and getting faster. I moved towards the door, walking at the fastest speed I could do without running.

Damn it, Tai...

As I reached the doorframe he pulled me by my jacket into a concrete support pillar.

It was over. Telling him about what he was going to deny me if my train got missed...

Would only make him deny me until my train was missed.

"Dues, Tai."

Looking at me, my jacket, my duffel bag, he knew what it was in a few seconds.

"You trying to run from me Tai?"

"No, I was just taking the train to school."

"No train runs near there."

"My legs hurt today."

"So give yourself a longer walk from the train station across town? I think fucking not."

I shook my head. "Omar, I swear"-

"Why does that train say Scandinavian Union, Tai?"

I could feel my inner Riddick (you haven't met him quite yet) complaining inwardly about him saying 'Tai' after every damn sentence.

That was my spark.

He didn't have his knife right now.

Slamming my fist into his face, Omar was taken aback but only for a second before he returned fire.

Hitting me with a wicked right hook, heads began to turn and I was now conscious I'd made a mistake.

He was pummeling me back into the support pillar, and I blocked to the best of my ability, when my arms began to ache to the extent I'd rather get punched in the face I ducked away.

A cry.

Omar fell to his knees, holding his bloody hand. That fucking imbicile punched the stone pillar trying to hit me.

Looking up at me he realized he was in an uncompromising position.

Slamming my knee into his head, he whipped back and blood spurted from his nose.

I did it again and he was going to fall.

Grabbing him by the mangy fur near his ears, I once more slammed my fist into him.

And again.

And again.

And...

Omar didn't move and if he died I still don't know to this day.

Getting on my train just before the door closed, writing this, I realize that no one would help a bloodied thug with a concussion lying in the subway.

Out of all the people I've killed, confirmed, even those I'd known... I never felt so bad and so angry at my victim at the same time.

No one on the train stared at the homeless cat with the stark white fur.

Only grazed me.

Bent over, hands over my lower face, eyes deeply shaded, I collected myself.

I picked up the pieces of Tai.

Looking out the window, Tai was leaving the station, and with good luck he was never coming back.

///

Hope you liked my first chapter! I have a lot planned for this story and this is actually the third revision (first wasn't ever split into chapters and had no definitive end/beginning, second was just too confusing and I had all the GYFT and GRA and other acronyms I myself couldn't remember.) I have a lot planned and I left out a third of this chapter because I felt like this was a good place to put down the pen (keyboard?) for the day and... Well, pick up the pieces of Djynnerate. Lots of new characters coming in soon, I mentioned Riddick but Tai's team is going through revisions into this third version. Like I said thanks for reading, it means a lot!

-Djynnerate