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QUICK NOTE: KYLE IS A TIMBER WOLF, NOT A HUSKY. SOFURRY WON'T REGISTER THE EDITS FOR SOME REASON.

Also sorry ik this is chapter 7 but I got confused and when I was making the thumbnail...Ugh.

If I publish this on Friday night I'm in an exceptionally good mood.

I fucking destroyed my Algebra end of course and feel like I made an 80-85+

Sounds ridiculous but that's quite literally a year's worth of weight off my shoulders. I had a D and pretty close to all A's in everything else.

Enough rambling! It's time to explain the obscure and confusing lore I'll be introducing in this chapter!

ANZU is Riddick's CTU unit. It stands for the Australian-New Zealand Union.

The lore for that area of the world is they've combined into a supercountry but I couldn't think of anything that made sense for a new country name.

It's kind of like the Scandinavian Union, Scandinavia was my original name for that but I wanted everything to be NEW.

ANZU itself is the name of the military. ANZU also handles counterterrorism in Australia and NZ without the use of a separate unit, just deploys the mainstream military.

They also rely on the draft, which is why Riddick is where he is. Half of Riddick's bad attitude is just because he hasn't seen his family or friends in a year now, or even spoken to them.

Kind of an odd cut to Tai's POV, you'll see what I mean, but I meant to start pushing that area back in ch. 5 and realized I never did.

Ch. 6 was not exactly a Tai-oriented chapter, so yeah.

///

CHAPTER 7-IMPULSE

"Surely you aren't going through with this..."

Harper took a deep breath and let it all out, the spined lizard in front of him probably smirking internally.

Pulling up his security requests there was nothing to worry about.

He was confident.

He had done this type of thing before.

"James, I highly advise you just postpone"-

"I haven't seen my children in two months, Opera. I'm not waiting any longer."

Seeing he wasn't going to be moved, she rubbed the sleepiness out of one eye.

"You and I both have been threatened several times personally. Have you ever been attacked? When was the last time I was?"

"...I have a bad feeling about this. Only advice."

The Shiba massaged his temples. Outside, they were probably still getting the graffiti off the back wall.

No one had seen until morning. No cameras back there.

Harper was getting tired of the discouragement, it had been this way all week.

"I was on the phone with Marshall earlier. His squadron's going to be with me."

"The whole flight?"

"Just to make sure nothing happens beforehand. I got other people for that."

Opera's nails rapped on his desk. Sometimes it was genuine, her concern, but he could never quite tell...

"You rely too heavily on that man. If his squad was armed with waterguns you'd take them over Brasilia Esquadro..."

"They were my second pick, if it makes you feel any better," they were his first but the altercation of a certain Lynx would remain forever unknown to him.

"And one of them is Janus."

That got Opera's attention.

A sigh. He forgot her stance on that particular matter.

"Just give the average soldier thermals, EMP's, corner periscopes, and you can have a squad full of them."

James folded his hands. "Oh, they can do much more than that." He himself had been one of the main developers of the Janus initiative and he was proud.

Of the future.

"You put all your eggs in one basket, James. I can wish you good luck and nothing more."

Opera walked out, closing the door behind her.

No matter how much she found James incompetent, she needed him alive.

Touching one of her earrings, she activated her mic.

"Caine. You know where to go. I'll see you next week."

If James wasn't going to listen, she would have to conform.

///

"Concentrate not only on my head, but me as a whole."

I nodded, exasperated already. This was the longest training session I'd had thus far, the others not surpassing ten minutes, but I was already in here for an hour.

If our first was the lesson in pain... What was this?

I began using my legs, kicking at her but as per usual, missing just about everything, maybe clipping the odd hand every once in a while.

Reyna was dead confident. I wasn't hitting her any time soon.

Once again, I wondered just what she was trying to sculpt me into... No way could I be eight years of Trojan training before Marshall's live mission...

I rushed forward with my kick and she sidestepped. Nothing was invincible, here in the ring.

No bullets to give you training wheels...

Frustration ate at me and I ignored it, not daring to meet the intense green eyes that would inflame me again.

Eventually she grew bored and extended- no, moved her leg and swept me off my feet.

Instead of pouncing on me as usual, she remained standing. I'd come to see the pounce as a sort of reward, it meant I was going to be shown my mistake and learn something new.

But nothing.

We went repetitiously for another ten minutes, and I felt like I was striking at the air.

Reyna was a figment of my imagination, and I was a madman.

She began to make the sweeps more painful, harsher.

Then they turned to punches. Kicks. Full force, nothing held back.

What transpired our first lesson was nothing compared to this hell...

The avarice at tagging Reyna turned to fear of the pain getting worse, but every time I struck her before the viper's own revenge, it seemed less so.

Even, the jackal's torpor never seemed to arise, only my own...

She began to grow bitter. Lose her patience.

When I grazed her hand the weariness of my own limbs caused immeasurable pain.

She didn't strike back for a full five minutes.

Teeth bared, the odd mixture of blood and spit flowing from my mouth, feral snarls, I looked just that.

A savage in a sadistic state.

Reyna was couth, unmoving, though the eyes flared up.

I began to aim for them, the rest of the world fading to me, only the dark green portals visible...

I wanted to drown in that green ocean until I could walk again.

Movements becoming mechanical, I felt as if my skin was frost and hot coals at the same.

She stood completely still.

My fist flew past her shoulder, the shock on my face combined with the abrupt horror at what was about to come next...

Part of me expected mercy.

When the wolf sees a rabbit, does it damn bad luck and let it go out of kindness?

A knee connecting with my ribs, blood flowed freely from my mouth, even worse when the same knee met my chin, and I felt the stuff of life spray from me as I gave an involuntary exhale, teeth and mouth, what had once been white bone and fur stained red.

I expected a sudden realization of what she'd done to me.

A hand to help me.

An offer to take me to the medbay.

Anything.

Human emotion. Human mercy.

Reyna stared down at me.

Austere, insensitive, callous.

My chest rose and fell at an unfixed rate, sometimes fast, sometimes slow.

"You are nothing."

I moved my eyes to her again, nothing else could.

"I could crush your life. Take it in my hand and make it beg me to stop."

Hatred flooded me and I tasted it, venom, pain, everything I'd known and more...

"But I will never stop until the unworthy are less than. I will never stop until their actuality is invalid. So I give them two choices, Tai."

I coughed and the floor was one bit more painted with Tai.

"And... What... Are those... Choices...?" My own voice terrified me, raspy, unfamiliar, filled with emotion I had never known before.

"Come strong. Or fall and don't get back up."

The jackal's footsteps echoed as she left me for the second time writhing on the ground, this time worse than before.

No, this wasn't a lesson in pain.

This was a lesson in hate.

Blood.

Fear.

...

And I think that was the moment I fell in love with Reyna.

///

Riddick had a towel and a water bottle as if he was going to the weight room.

This was more mental training but the feeling afterwards left you feeling as if you'd done a fatiguing workout...

He hadn't used the weight room much besides for the firing range.

Everyone called it different things and for the first week no one quite had the word for the swiss army knife of a room, the firing range, sparring area, punching bags, and weights all about in their different areas.

Alvin and Jake coined the weight room just as what they were using it for the most.

Oftentimes Riddick would be firing with maybe Alvin or Rochelle on the punching bags, and the jackal and the cat would come in...

And everything would get quiet.

You'd try to concentrate on your own task but eventually you'd be staring openmouthed.

It was like poetry in motion, the gracefulness and pompous nature of Reyna's fighting yet the effectiveness that capped it off...

It only made him envious.

The cat wasn't much, just a punching bag...

Everyone avoided talking about it around Reyna or Tai.

To Riddick it was abuse more than anything... But if anyone could straighten out Tai it was a Trojan.

One of his commanders back in ANZU was

Turning the corner into the kitchen hallway, Riddick suddenly tripped on something.

Diverting his muzzle before it was smashed in, he landed hard on the side of his face and winced getting up.

"What the h"-

It wasn't the doorframe.

Not a bag or something left lying around...

It was that fucking cat. Curled in the fetal position.

Recoiling at the epiphany, Riddick's eye twitched.

Tai looked terrible. He had a swollen purple bump on the outside of one eye, several bruises, a red ear, a scratch peeking up his collarbone...

"Tai? What the hell?!"

No response. It came to him the cat was...

Sleeping?

His mind told him it was unreasonable but Riddick studied Tai's side and it shallowly lifted.

He nudged Tai with his hand, then when the provocation won him nothing, harshly pushed Tai onto his back.

The cat's eyes snapped open, taking in his surroundings before anything.

He settled upon the hyena, his face addled.

"Riddick? Wha..."

"You were lying on the floor in a very... _inconvenient_position for me."

Tai stood up, wincing and stopping halfway as he did so. Riddick approached him.

"What did the jackal do to you this time?"

Helping him up, Tai winced again and rubbed the back of his head.

"Everything."

"You've been taking that, what, five days straight? Train with me or Rochelle or somebody, I'd be happy."

Tai began to walk on his own but tripped, catching himself on the kitchen counter, and Riddick caught him again.

"You been to the medbay?"

"No..."

"Damn it, Tai."

Riddick huffed. Medbay was just two rooms over, adjoined by the common area, but he had better things to do than go look at Tai.

The Gibraltar native probably shook off wounds or rubbed dirt in them.

Everyone got frustrated with him at times. Pretty much nothing Rochelle said registered.

Hell, she was a blatherskite to everyone...

And Aussies were just Eastern Brits...

Riddick kept away from the cat.

And the wolf.

And the retriever.

And...

...

Leaving Tai to sit down on the cot, he was about to leave when the phone rang.

It was one of two in the house, both with cords. The corded variant allowed for near perfect voice transmission as well as a picture on the adjoining terminal.

Riddick answered, pressing the button as if it were an intercom. "Riddick."

Marshall appeared onscreen, talking to someone for a moment.

"Just calling to inform you I'll be over shortly. I've brought a new squad member. You'll meet him soon enough."

Riddick's lips pursed. And he'd just figured out everyone else...

"His_name?"_

Marshall put a hand over his muzzle, shades sliding down just enough to expose his grayish green eyes. He was thinking, Riddick could tell.

"...He's of the more... Black ops variant. It's best I don't give much information. We'd never get let back into the Union. I asked to make a private call, I'm at the Finnish border station, crossing in from Russia."

The area behind Marshall looked like a police station, drab and empty.

"The Black ops variant"...

Riddick had bad experiences with mercenaries. Central Australia was full of the Russians, staking their claim in the south and looking for work with ANZU.

ANZU recruited from prisons, as well.

"Why is anyone like that on our team? Russians are mercenaries. They don't fight for us."

Marshall's glasses slid down his muzzle again, just after they'd been pushed back up.

"Kid, there's a lot of things you don't know."

Marshall craned his neck to the side as if Riddick were 3D and he could look around him.

"What's Tai doing?"

"Found him passed out in the hallway, nearly- well, did trip on him."

Marshall finally got his shades to stay, so Riddick couldn't see them widen.

"Is he hurt? Headaches? Stomachaches? Anything?"

"I'm alright... Just off center..." Tai apparently heard the conversation from across the room.

Marshall told Tai to go to a certain cabinet and Riddick watched as he sorted through several pill bottles until Marshall gave the ok.

He then took two capsules. One half was red, the other green. It looked metallic, and not the dull shell of the usual.

Observing him, Tai had to keep his eyes on everything for a full second or more, and ponder and debate over in his head.

Riddick's OCD twinged and he violently silenced it.

Often, Riddick did the same. Thinking, going quiet, not talking for full days unless spoken to sometimes.

Moments he'd snap out of the volitional trance, and realize he'd spent more time in his head than on earth.

Marshall and Tai were talking back and forth, Tai now beside Riddick at the terminal.

With a closer look Tai's bruises seemed to have faded drastically, and it caught Riddick off guard.

Different lighting. But then again the kitchen hallway was fairly dark...

Marshall wouldn't see Tai's wounds, the picture was nowhere near perfect as the audio, somewhat grainy even here.

Tai was wearing a hoodie, and with an impulse and a start Riddick realized it was his.

Must've gotten mixed in the wash...

Riddick and Tai were of more or less commensurate height, Tai being just an inch or two taller, but the cat was lighter and less muscular.

He hadn't taken his shirt off in training despite how hot or taxing everything felt. Riddick wagered his ribs would be showing...

The hoodie was probably more festooned than worn.

He smelled of petrichor and it struck Riddick as odd. From what he heard about Africa it was all tropics and desert...

Then again, all he heard about New Morocco was warlords and drugs.

He had a twinge of guilt for writing off Tai, and everyone else. The cat seemed unafflicted by whatever he had seen growing up.

Maybe he was traumatized.

///

The timber wolf's light gray hand was constantly moving, the pen flowing between his digits.

His right, of course.

He didn't want to do anything with knives. Marshall seemed coolheaded but the tension from discussing the Wolf Pack's previous leader hadn't faded through Finland.

Kyle had rested up before he was sent to the contact point in St. Petersburg, per advice from his superiors.

And he was confined by Dimitri.

He knew it was so much weight from the rat's shoulders, Simon's personal trainee gone.

Both of his issues dealt with and the Wolf Pack under his thumb.

...

It probably wouldn't help to tell Marshall he was given Simon's jacket after the ex-leader's death and was now wearing it.

Though the vehicle was heated well, the difference in the bullethole was just enough draft on his shirt to be tangible to the trained senses of the timber wolf.

Looking out the window, the bright Scandinavian Union capitol of Vervous had faded to the wilderness.

Kyle could see lights through the trees after a short while and realized they must be circling through the woods around the property, no straight road to get to it.

Naturally it was a fortress, unassuming. The most inconvenient of routes.

It wasn't the most overwhelming of feelings but more when one goes through a major change flowing through Kyle's consciousness.

GRA.

...

Sic semper tyrannis, he told himself.

The two wolves got out and walked to the main entrance. It was later on in the night and the sun had set an hour ago.

Somewhat disappointed, he expected a warmer climate and less snow, a rare exposure for him.

Then again, a wolf was better off in his habitat, particularly the one they grew up in.

The one they could fight best in.

Rare emotion, negative this time, surged through him.

A paintjob and the moving of furniture and this would be his old home.

He could still remember. Six years old.

Jinn's war on the Russian front was just coming to a close.

GRA was pushing them back, along with several mercenary groups, one of which he would call his own.

A stray mortar from a Jinn soldier.

All it took to turn his life in a different direction.

He gave no physical reaction but the emotions began to swell up in his heart, flooding his being.

They died down at his icy soul.

Marshall hit a button on the wall and gave the summons.

Within two minutes everyone was gathered, standing in a line, eyes moving about around him, inspecting him, either in disappointment or surprise.

They wouldn't lock with his.

His tail twitched ever slightly. He wished he had some of Marshall's shades on him. Hide his face and, from the brief angle he'd had of Marshall's glasses turning completely blue on the inside, have thermals...

"Where's Rochelle?"

Of course, unless they'd lost someone there were six in the base squadron.

A completely white furred mutt walked in, one thumb (and her eyes) on her phone.

"Reporting for duty"-

She looked up and took in Kyle, lowering her phone back into her pocket.

Grazing over them, every expression was of neutral curiosity.

Except for the hyena. His eyes narrowed sharply.

Hostile.

"This is your new squadmate, his name is Kyle. He's from St. Petersburg."

Slow realization passed through all but the hyena, who got it instantly, and the cat, who didn't get it at all.

"So he's a merc? You ever done a job for Jinn, Kyle?"

Marshall opened and closed his mouth.

"My group, the Wolf Pack, only works for GRA. We have been in a close relationship for years."

His accent seemed to infatuate them.

"Black ops... Huh, Marshall?"

Kyle glowered, surprised the hyena was quick to challenge authority.

Whatever Marshall had told them prior was of his own discretion. Finnish border patrol gave him some dirty looks waiting outside the door for Marshall.

"You gonna start sending us to go assassinate people? Awful quick before the first mission"-

"Riddick, enough!" It wasn't much of an exclamation than a sentence with a louder, commanding tone.

Riddick stopped. Kyle had no idea who pissed in his drink, but GRA didn't take lightly to mercenaries. Even the good kind.

Even when they helped them.

"_Speaking_of your first mission, if you've kept with the news, James Harper has come under threat by Jinn."

The cat mouthed the words "James Harper" as if it was a new phrase to him, staring off into space.

Kyle didn't look over at the hyena... Riddick again.

No reason to set him off. The impulse came with no warning.

Watch out for that one, then.

"Your squad is assigned to protect him as VIP. He's leaving for a flight this coming Friday. Train as much as possible. I will visit before the time comes. But now, I must leave you."

Marshall swiped his shades off his face, more for effect than anything. It had its due.

Kyle had often been told his eyes were intense. Ice blue, like a husky's. Except he was a gray furred timber wolf.

He could silence a room just by walking in but with that...

"As for you, Roland White... Control yourself. You got your way in GSS on my watch. For something you would have been kicked out for in any other branch of GRA. Watch your ass."

Riddick said nothing. He was the first to leave as soon as Marshall turned his back.

Handshakes, friendly talk, but all Kyle could pay attention to was Riddick... Roland White... walking away.

///

Wasn't quite sure what to call this one. Between ch 7 and ch 6 I had no clue whatsoever and "concurrency" fits but I already used that...

Sometimes it takes me a minute sometimes I have to just look up "badass words"

Chapter 8 will be along quickly! I wanted to extend this chapter and just continue but I figured I needed to get this one out tonight.

Tai and Reyna are a thing(ish)?

Riddick's being a dick

This isn't exactly your plot advancement phantoms, but I did jump around a lot.

Trying to get it through my head Kyle isn't a husky, I just see him as one so much. Trying to get the edits for last chapter in as well but this site is meh

Might be starting a new story come summer vacation or some time around it.

Stay frosty (get it cuz Kyle's last name)

...

I'll stop

Djynnerate