FSE

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PREPARE FOR THE LONGEST AUTHORS NOTES OF YOUR LIFE. I ACTUALLY HAD TO CONDENSE THE INFORMATION INTO PARAGRAPHS.

Seems like I have to put one of these "I'm not badass" disclaimers at the start of every chapter lmao

Riddick does get to a bit of mischief with the GRA's computers in this chapter.

Wikihow and Google taught me how to hack very vaguely through a few searches and so I tried to make it sound as foreign as possible. Tried not to be all cliché either and even made fun of it when I did.

I can (barely) write HTML5 semantic and that's the closest I get to hacking.

I tried to put focus on Riddick covering his tracks more than anything, because that's what I'd do.

So if you're like the head of Anonymous or whatever that's my disclaimer, k?

I focused on Riddick in general this chapter, just because he got nothing after he dropped his "bomb" water balloon.

I gave him no focus and that's on me.

Riddick's one of my favorite characters and I find myself tossing out these carefully planned events in the timeline at random, given I have a prewritten chapter that was supposed to be chapter 19ish but now I'm looking at Alcatraz 2... And yeah, this is what I meant when I said Riddick was a pandering character. I edited in a bit on my bio page about that style of writing. He isn't entirely pandering, it's just a plot point I stuck in the pincushion at one point that might come in handy later. I mean he's pandering because I decided to make a plot point on a gay guy (which looking around, most appreciate I guess) and I myself am straight. It's not the same as "clickbait" because unless I spam tags there's nothing there and the content isn't falsely leading. (realization) do you know how many views I would get if I slapped a "coming out" tag on chapter 9 brb

Btw speaking of editing I will be editing previous chapters to cover the plot bumps, especially the ones with Lynx and Gynezis and Jinn's contradictory orders and motivations.

For instance, it's clearly revealed the main reason Lynx is going after Harper is to get to Tai, because it's honestly more secure attacking and drawing him away than infiltrating the house. I also had her talking about "pulling the wool over Gynezis' eyes" back in her introductory chapter, and it makes no sense, really. Lynx and Gynezis are inseparable because of their pupil/master relationship and there's not a plot point in which Lynx betrays him.

///

They'd been going for at least five minutes now, neither wanting to tell the other they submitted.

The jaguar had all but abandoned the bouncing of his feet, as well as the primate a few feet across the ring.

Same height, same weight, no advantages but the cunning and daring of the other and himself's reaction to it.

The jaguar went in for a strike but it was apprehended quickly by the monkey, and the feline found himself on the ground, his opponent setting up a lock...

His one free hand liberated the other with a fist meeting the primate's face, forcing off the agile beast.

Now at a greater range than the beginning, the two went back to their game of patience and circling.

No spectators to jeer cowardice or cheer on anyone this time.

Feeling obligated since his opponent initiated previously, the monkey rushed in and was kneed, forcing him back off.

The jaguar knew this was his weakness. Frustration, patience, short temper...

He couldn't stop a grin from forming on his radiantly colored fur, the lighter tan colored muzzle was uninterrupted by the splotches that disappeared below his cheeks.

A growl from the brown furred monkey and there was no knee quick enough to stop the unarticulated, unadulterated fury unleashed.

Battered and barely able to lift his hands up, let alone swat things away, the jaguar feinted off to the side only to find he was in the corner.

He'd yielded two times in a row already and he wasn't going to hear shit tomorrow... He was going to bring it back twice.

He was determined.

Pushing the primate off as soon as an opening was found, there was an interruption of air in the tepid and small sparring room, quick enough for the wind to scream around it, a kick connected with the primate's head, sending him back and 180.

Taking a moment and wiping the essence of work from his forehead with the back of his hand, jaguars were known for leg power and this jaguar was known among Brasilia Esquadrao for it.

There was a laugh from his opponent, and he offered a laugh for his opponent, real but out of the shared terrible conditions of exhaustion.

But this was voluntary...

Gritting his teeth, the jaguar suddenly snarled and lashed out, only to receive his own kick, this time to the gut, spearing his own self in what he'd once called the primate out for.

Backing away, the monkey knew it was his turn to get in, and the jaguar braced his own counter, and if that didn't work, planned out what he would do next-

"Cortez! De la Rocha!"

The two looked in the open doorway, then back at each other as the big man walked in.

Tomas Vasquez was at least seven feet tall, and even if he wasn't he would make your heart jump when you saw him.

He was a panther, his muzzle and underneath dark grey, the black above just light enough to see the blacker spots.

Lio immediately gave his full attention, as was expected.

He was looking at a clipboard and tapping it with his thumb on the back.

"You two have three hours to get ready for Connecticut. James Harper asked for us."

He left, taking what adrenaline and sound was left in the room with him.

Lio raised his eyebrows at the primate, his bright green feline eyes showing even in the dim light of the sparring room.

"Best hit the showers..." The primate responded, hopping over the ropes and grabbing the back labeled Ross Cortez, gear in it only for weapons sparring, heading out past the way Tomas came.

"Wish they'd give us some advance notice at least." Lio grabbed his own bag and followed Ross down the bleached hallway, spotless in comparison to the gray room they'd just left.

"Three hours is fuckin' incredible, kid."

"We're both the same rank and age, quit calling me kid."

"Might as well be," the primate responded, "I got more experience on you, told you I been here since I was 12."

Lio stopped and his bag suddenly felt heavier.

"You weren't kidding?"

"No. But..." With a grin, Ross held his fingers up to his lips.

"But that isn't legal."

"GRA breaks its own laws a lot. My case is rare but... Not over in Asia, you know. Things aren't as tame there."

Brazil itself was tame, but Peru and Chile just a few doors down certainly weren't.

Brasilia Esquadrao has a bit of an AOE effect that vanished the further away it got from headquarters, the base being deep in the more uninhabited areas of Central Brazil for defense, but just close enough for civilian's protection.

Ross didn't say anything more, just kept the never-fading grin on his face as the two headed off.

Connecticut in three... Lio hadn't been out of South America ever.

Fresh on his promotion to Corporal along with Ross, their fireteams had once been their equals, but they gave the orders now.

Brasilia Esquadrao was large and larger than life in GRA units, and what had once been a global squadron of many had grown into a full battalion of underground soldiers that masqueraded as the broader Brazilian branch of the GRA military.

Even though the Brazilian branch of the GRA military had no clue they existed.

Lio hadn't been sent on many missions outside of minor drug busts and the occasional low stake hostage crisis, the more experienced members were chosen for this type of thing usually. One had to work their way up the chain.

"I'll grab some cigarettes from those hunters that come by the jungle."

"None for me, you know I don't like that stuff."

"But you're a nasty drunk."

Lio grinned and headed into the showers.

///

Baring his fangs against the pain, he saw red.

Staining his clothes as well, for that matter.

The Jinn operative stood there, questioning this time, why Riddick was still going at it.

He'd spent time here longer than any other day, 3 hours just battling this one at the max...

Riddick picked himself up, kurkiri quivering in his hand as he could barely move without falling apart.

He stared back at the operative, who was barely touched.

Reyna could have taken him easily, he told himself...

She really could have, and he was barely clinging on.

Even Riddick himself could trick his mind so easily, ANZU's brutal conditioning and the hyena's own hateful second nature a fuel and fire.

As he stumbled and fell to one knee, his kukiri scraped against the ground and propped him up, the metal on concrete sound making him wince, having already taken an openhanded strike to his right ear.

But that was good. He previously believed he'd been deafened.

To his disappointment, the operative was still just standing there.

With a growl, Riddick threw himself weakly but nimbly at the masked man, kukiri catching air but his body catching the man off guard.

The two fell to the ground, and Riddick's kukiri skittered off somewhere distant.

The operative's knife came up and Riddick was barely able to stop it, and the two rolled to the side, then reversed positions...

The serrated blade was only inches from his neck now, and it was hard enough to keep it from touching his muzzle.

It had just scraped his furred flesh with the point, and now blood was oozing out from the pressure...

The operative had two hands on the blade, one of his knees on Riddick's shoulder, the hyena's one available hand concentrated on the more obvious effort.

It wasn't going to be enough. If this was anyone but a Jinn operative he would have been dead already.

Hell, he wouldn't even have gotten to the pin... No one else played with their food...

Gritting his teeth, it was getting too much, the blood covering his upper chest from the nicks the blade had gotten in on it equal to the lactic acid covering his entire body...

Sweat pouring down, Riddick couldn't take it.

It made him angry.

But there was no place for anger here.

Tossing back his head and giving a loud cry of frustration, he felt the dagger sink into his neck for the first full second, an agonizing feeling of something not used to being there, being there.

///

Riddick's chest heaved as he shot out of his simulation chair, all the way across the lane between the two rows, and into the next chair across from him.

One knee in the seat, the other on the ground, barely catching himself from eating headrest with his arms on the armrests.

He stayed there, the mental stress evaporating in a sensation you could feel as his brain returned to him.

He hated that feeling...

Turning around, he saw a shape against the blue light and realized at the light gray fur so easily blending in with the blue tint, he wasn't alone.

Kyle was in the chair at the end of his row, and being next to the entrance he might not have noticed the hyena.

Riddick observed the calm expression on his face.

He wished he could be that way.

He'd never apologized for going off on the timber wolf, but...

...

Riddick took a deep gulp of his water and put his face in his towel, walking out.

He ran one hand along the circuitry and wires and computers in rows like a library bookshelf, the cold and mist on his legs and feet driving him to go a bit quicker.

His mind wandered to where it didn't want to go, as per usual, this morning.

...

Why the fuck had he done that?

Involuntary sigh escaping him as he tried to catch it, he didn't much care that they knew.

It was either coming from his own mouth or his browsing history.

It was up to them how they dealt with it.

He'd run out of tears at sixteen, it was no big deal to him...

But was it?

With a small grin he realized his coming out was what put him in GSS...

The harassment back in ANZU.

He'd belted the poor fuck in front of everyone, even his superiors, mercilessly, until the fellow recruits would pull him off, because the superiors were too busy watching.

And among the superiors, the mysterious man from GRA that dropped by to look for anyone special because he'd been in the area.

His ticket.

Any other unit of GRA and he would have been...

Well, wherever they deemed to put him.

In ANZU, you could fight with your fellow cadets lawfully.

But you couldn't lose.

He didn't particularly want to belt Jake or Alvin, but he would let them know it was a sensitive subject.

Using his words.

Hopefully.

///

Already done his daily workout, Riddick's schedule had faded long ago.

Now it was between laying on his bed and falling asleep, it seemed.

In ANZU you'd have plenty free time after training unless you were actually going to do something. It was mainly sleep there, but then again there was hardly ever internet.

Riddick had been stationed not far from his hometown of Perth, but spent his later time on a battleship, the HMAS Perth, of all names.

He'd fought from it a few times, but never taken a hit, and no one he knew suffered casualties.

There was an ANZU base not far from Perth, and with West Australia being so open to East Asia, the Jinn attacks had gotten worse.

Especially in the sea. The pirates, navies of several Jinn nations clashing with the rest of the globe and putting up a damn good fight...

Maybe even winning.

Riddick recalled the nights the naval battles just out on the sea kept him up, his street being just on the coast with a view from his old bedroom's window.

So far away, he realized he felt more vulnerable here.

His family...

Friends...

He pictured Roxanne.

That feeling he hated came over him, and he punched the nearest-

Wall. Ouch...

Clutching his hand, he moved the fingers through the pain.

Nothing to get his anger under control here. No psychiatrists, no depressants...

He'd have to go back into Vervous and grab another pack of smokes. Gas station was just in the city off the road leading to the forest.

It was a three mile drive between there and the house, and he'd taken the van a few times a week just to get away.

He was eighteen and had been in his share of those variety bars in Perth, as the drinking age was so low.

Just a few in Vervous, being the large flashy place it was, he'd have to check them out.

Had to flash a fake ID with the smokes, though.

He reached for his laptop, still on and plugged to the charger as usual.

Out of curiosity he clicked on the programs he'd grabbed from the terminal downstairs, and wondered just how far his security access went.

He hadn't used his database at all, no reason for it.

Pulling it up, the loading time was next to none. He'd modded his personal laptop heavily, and the connection at a GSS granted house would naturally be exceptional.

He was given the login screen, which was nothing fancy, just a few security mechanisms.

Old habit gnawed at him just looking at them and he wrinkled his muzzle.

No, he'd get in trouble.

...

Did he really just fucking say that?

Riddick's right hand twitched involuntarily, perhaps to remind him it was still in play, perhaps to ask him not to do what he was about to do.

Flexing his damaged fingers, it didn't help he'd just punched the wall.

Looking around a bit, as he'd expected but still much to his displeasure, he only had the odd article and history lessons on years old operations, and even some headcam replays.

Only the last part would ever come in use.

Scrolling about, they'd at least doctored up this part, the blue and white of GRA in a uniform yet fluid design at the bottom of the page.

Typing up his teammate's names, the custom template made the searchbar follow him from the top of the page.

No autocomplete, of course.

After running through every name he had on them, nothing at all.

He didn't even have access to their personal dossiers.

He could have just gone and asked them menial questions but that would be annoying and tedious.

Besides, he wondered, as he caught sight of the recommended articles section at the bottom, some of them blacked out with the thumbnail displaying "classified", his mouth opening in shock...

They didn't have to know his prodigy.

Exiting out and logging in with his separate account, one of the many proxies that paranoia and Roger's teachings instilled in him and his system...

He had his exploit. It was moronic of GRA to leave their closed folders out on the table and expect no one to grab them.

Then again, the individual GRA Database program copies were nigh impossible to get. From what he heard they were either built in...

Or you grabbed them from a GRA CPU, like he did.

He had about ten minutes, he estimated as he opened up his emulator, before someone found out someone that was there wasn't supposed to be.

In five he'd started, looking at someone else's keystrokes. While it gave him no location, as long as it wasn't someone looking around the database just downstairs he was fine with it.

Usernames were uniform, and the password came next. It was a string of numbers and letters that was entered at expeditive speeds, suggesting it was someone who knew it back and forth and used it a lot.

He couldn't recognize the OS, which might have been a good thing, if the thought of accidentally hacking Marshall's shades still didn't scare the crap out of him.

Getting in with their login, Riddick relinquished control of their machine, and immediately found himself with...

Well, opening the code, 89% access to the database.

Score, indeed.

Before anything he threw open the backdoor, a small grin forming as he remembered his brother looking over his shoulder and making the cliché nerdy phrases, the laughter that occurred afterwards.

It faded as realization hit him.

He should have figured something to look up.

He had nothing to do here and someone was going to notice two people with the same identity were on at the same time...

The original reason he'd even opened the program in the _first_under his legitimate account was just to see how much they'd give him.

What to search...

Trojan files?

Secret weapons?

Atom bombs?

People?

Places?

Headquart-

People.

Furiously typing in the timber wolf's name, the pain in his right hand almost forgotten.

"Kyle, Kyle, Kyle..."

Scrolling through results until he found the light gray fur and icy eyes he couldn't meet, he clicked and speedread through it.

"St. Petersburg, 19, Wolfpack, Black ops..."

He found himself listing aloud things as if Roger was still over his shoulder, still cracking jokes.

Like he could still laugh.

There was nothing on the wolf he hadn't already known-

No, his notes section was a bit hefty...

"Six years of age, parents killed in mortar strike..." Riddick didn't say anything afterwards.

What he read next made him sit uncomfortable and that feeling of curiosity you knew wasn't going to get you anywhere but put backwards was clawing.

Closing down Kyle's page, for the first time in Riddick's life he felt he'd violated someone.

It was obviously withheld for a reason, and from what he'd seen of Kyle, the timber wolf would probably disclose it in his casual, brick wall tone if it came up.

But still, it wasn't Riddick's to know.

Knowing hesitation had cost him precious time, he-

A window popped up and instinctually like a rabbit fleeing from the predator he cold rebooted his laptop, gritting his teeth.

Footsteps. Not now, damn it-

"Riddick? Can we, uh, speak?"

That accent.

That accent, more like.

Tai stood in the doorway awkwardly. Riddick picked out why he was here but not what he wanted to accomplish.

Stimulant from the unfortunate book selection, probably, from what Riddick had seen Tai's nose buried in half the time it was a bunch of trashy romance. His own bookshelf was photography crap, though.

Tai was probably trying to be a friend in that awkward yet endearing way he did that told you someone wasn't looking through a screen and pretending.

Tai was basic chick #1 comforting basic chick #2 in his mind, most likely. Because you could apply it to comforting someone who was coming out. Because of course this was about Riddick's expose. What Tai knew of friendship was from the books.

And normal social interaction. He reasoned that-

Riddick shut his sarcastic and cynical side up, having already paused too long.

"Sure."

No undertone this time, just a pat of the bed and a dubious closing of the laptop Riddick hoped wasn't being tracked.

Tai looked over at the screen just before it did, the unhidden and unexaggerated foreigner disappointment of choked curiosity showing as he saw it was blank.

If Tai could go two seconds without reminding everyone he wasn't normal Riddick would turn straight.

"Are you... Comfortable, talking about your love life?"

No, sarcastic Riddick had been right. All hope was lost.

"Sure."

Riddick leaned back on his bed, arms folding behind his head, massaging his fur as the fingers clasped.

"I just want you to know, we're friends. No matter who you're into."

But what if I was into you? Sarcastic Riddick joked internally.

No, Riddick had given up straight crushes years ago.

Around the same time he'd run out of tears.

"And I get it, why you shut off from everyone. You don't want attraction on straight guys."

Sarcastic Riddick had nothing to say this time and the feeling of being pulled back to earth by another razor intellect hit Riddick like it usually did.

A mach truck over your head.

The amount of times he'd glazed over Tai reminded the many shades of Riddick he wasn't a god figure.

His ego popped like a balloon, as well.

"But, you know," Tai hesitated, not looking to his right at the splayed out hyena still pretending he was invincible and didn't care, but at the open doorway.

"Hurting yourself is the worst thing you can do here."

He was probably quoting from one of those sappy romances now, just as he'd thought earlier.

Trying his ass off to be a good friend, to fit.

Riddick barely knew him.

Sarcastic Riddick already had his gun, but browsed his caliber.

"Like you're an expert. You don't know me. Or anything about that topic."

"And you don't know me," the cat fired back to his surprise, now meeting the hyena's eyes.

The unnatural gold on the malevolent gray.

"I... I'll confide in you I've had feelings for Reyna for some time now"-

Riddick's ears perked up and his mouth shot open, hurling loud strings of insults at the jackal and questionings of the cat, sitting back up and shouting.

"...No idea what inspired that, but she's given you nothing but bruises, no reason to feel like that around her!"

It was Tai's turn to fall back on the bed and clasp his hands behind his head, and he did.

He didn't look at Riddick, instead the hyena continued his visage of staring at the cat in odd fascination and Tai stared dreamily at the ceiling fan.

"Attraction's odd. I expect you know that better than anyone."

"I thought you said you didn't have time for girls?"

Tai gave a shrug. "Had time for crushes, that's for sure."

And developing a deep rooted psychologic persona. Riddick shelled himself up a bit more.

He contemplated settling down in the position from earlier, and shakily did, taking Tai's comfortability for truth and not just a specific yet interminable scene from that damn propaganda on his shelf.

It came to Riddick it was probably intentional that the books that were about social interaction had found their way there.

To his miscalculation and extrication alike, Tai didn't gulp or shift or do anything that made him seem uncomfortable in the slightest.

Riddick hoped he wasn't getting the wrong idea, either.

"Between her and Rochelle's flightiness, I'd say you need to go clubbing with me in Vervous and meet some people."

Tai raised his eyebrows in a comical gesture Riddick almost laughed at.

"Hard to slow down, you know, not look around every corner."

Riddick nodded, though he couldn't relate. He didn't want to ask Tai about his home. It never seemed to make the cat anxious, just that there was no depth and only the trancelike state of bad memories.

"Must suck, going through an adjustment like that."

"I don't understand...?"

"What?"

"The expression you used."

A rare grin playing at Riddick's face, what would have been at one point raging annoyance was replaced by humour and friendship.

///

"I see you've fallen in close with the hyena."

We were in the middle of sparring and the dialogue in those periods were rare.

It was taxing on me to say things back, best to conserve my breath, and knowing Reyna, banter was probably a tactic used just for that.

"We're just friends, if that's what you're wondering."

She gave me an odd look, and I was regretting saying what I did as my breath was out of pace now.

"Well, I assumed that. I just remarked you two were friends."

She wasn't in the room back there, naturally she wouldn't have known about him...

For some reason, maybe not too off, I wanted to say something kind of biting to her.

I'd never hurt her in any way before, except maybe for going with Riddick not even too long ago.

She didn't seem like someone to let pride get in the way of anything, though.

I remembered Riddick's insults of Trojan, and hers on ANZU.

I wondered if they held truth...?

"Is there a problem with that?"

It wasn't much to dissolved the condensed mixed emotions I had about her, but it was a step and I felt relieved having done it.

There were no sides.

There were, but I didn't want to acknowledge it.

Jake and Reyna.

Riddick and Reyna.

She'd already gone back and forth with two of my squadmates.

In that instant, I began to question legitimacy, and if it really was just ignorance.

And narcissism.

And-

"I simply observed the hyena's behavior. It's obvious he is homosexual."

My eye twitched and whatever doubt I had in the jackal broke away.

"Just from his behavior?"

"He looks at Jake and Alvin in a way."

"In a way?"

She blushed visibly and I couldn't help but smile.

I honestly felt I'd accomplished quite a lot today by doing that, just getting a basic emotion from her.

I almost forgot the fight and stumbled towards her, tripping on my own feet.

Staggering over, I raised my hand in anticipation of the blows, but two strong arms came around my shoulders and caught me instead.

Slowly lowering them, one of my eyes was closed in a wince and even knowing there wasn't harm to come, I opened it slower and lifted my head slowly as well.

We were eye to eye now.

No, she was looking up slightly at me and my stature was something, at least, I had on her in that moment.

I tried not to look at her eyes for my own good. I'd drowned a bit too much lately.

She wasn't moving, just holding me there.

Staring at me intently.

I didn't know what she wanted, and reluctantly I returned the stare.

Being so close to her, the feelings came back, the ones I hadn't repressed at all, not an attempt, because I didn't know how.

The ultimatum hit me hard.

If she could tell Riddick just by watching him...

What about me?

I prayed my awkward greenness was enough to cloak me.

And she was still holding me there.

I couldn't break from it even if I wanted to...

...

And I was staring into her eyes again.

She saw this and moved to the side a bit.

I followed.

Another side.

Once more.

"Why is it you have a morbid fascination with my eyes?"

Pent up tension shed and then came back in an instant.

"I..."

Expectantly, the jackal looked into mine, as if to figure out why it was so addictive...

...

No one would ever understand.

"Well?"

I forgot she still wanted her answer.

"Does it offend? Because I really didn't mean to"-

"No, Tai. It's just... Odd."

"...Sorry."

"Don't be."

I moved in her arms but I was still rooted.

She was staring into mine now.

My heart sank and I imagined her as lost as I was.

Drowning of your own accord.

I consciously tried to pull away but I couldn't.

Maybe it was involuntary drowning.

After all, who in their right mind would throw themselves into the fray?

...

Why did I join GSS?

Reyna came back to reality and let me go. I almost fell backwards.

She opened her mouth to speak but then closed it, and looked away.

"You have the next few days off. Rest up before the mission."

I watched her walk out through the back exit, just to avoid me.

To avoid me?

I didn't know what just passed but it hurt me deeply, and I wanted to dig a hole outside and bury myself.

"Reyna!"

It wasn't a shout but just enough to get her attention.

She turned around...

She looked harrowed.

I didn't know what to say.

To apologize?

Confess?

What was there in substance to do either?

I stood there for a moment.

She would give me time.

"W-why..."

I hated myself in that instant, stuttering and anxiety something I would never get past.

"On the first day I got here, you were already here... Why didn't you make yourself known?"

My brain was on autopilot and grabbed at random one of the many questions I had for her.

She didn't look me in the eyes for the first time ever while she spoke to me.

"Observance. Refrain from showing oneself until you have judged the strength of another, much less their allegiance to yourself."

It brought her back for a moment, and she looked at me briefly, still with that shocked and confused look on her face, then turned and left.

I watched her go, fade off into the dark hallway leading into the underground server room.

Just to avoid me.

Whatever she'd seen no one else had.

I wondered if I was the only one lost in the Trojan's eyes.

And if that was madness.

And if it was the only reason I was affectionate for her.

///

I'd had just enough time between now and yesterday to get to Connecticut, and I supposed Tai and his team would be arriving tomorrow.

Stowing away always felt better than getting something legitimately, to me.

Felt like I'd accomplished something.

Not that I could get something legitimately anymore.

GRA didn't have me on their public wanted lists for now, but I'm sure that would change if Ajax didn't take me out soon.

Just thinking about him made my head ache.

He was supposed to be dead. I killed him myself.

Ajax always did find a way to get back up.

No matter how hard you beat the shit out of him.

I'd began to question if he was Janus but he was around 30 now. We'd trained together but he was always my senior by a good bit.

And if he was Janus, it would be us going after him.

Checking my map on my wrist bracer once I was out of view, the glow lit up the alleyway, nighttime encasing all.

Airport was a few miles West, I would stake out for a while. Had to take a magnatrain, then a boat up a canal to get here.

If Ajax was still around my job was about to get a lot more complicated.

I wasn't sure how he found out I was in Norway either, and GRA having some sort of tracking device on me was unlikely.

And terrifying.

I climbed up the side of the building, alleyway obscuring me, and pulled myself onto the ledge, doing a handstand over it to get on.

Might as well show off if they were watching.

I heard thunder in the distance and looked back to see it was storming a few miles away, no rain though.

Staking out and waiting wasn't a strongpoint, but there was a little under 48 hours until the flight and I couldn't afford to get impatient now.

Pulling up my bracer again, I missed the touchscreen and pressed the video memory button, and before I could exit out, Tai was on my screen, firing at someone before they were there again.

My finger hovered, and then I set it down and watched.

Enviously.

He didn't need any equipment to do that, he was Janus.

He should be in Jinn...

We had ten out of the twenty known afflicted on our side already, some forcefully.

5 were neutral and in comas brought on by their own condition, about to die. No reason to touch them.

GRA had Tai and 4 others, one of which Gynezis had personally put in a coma.

I'd asked him when I was hiding underneath the magnatrain (the rails connected on either side) and the kid that got blown up on his monitor was one of them.

He'd probably ask me to retrieve him at some point.

Staring intently at Tai, maybe I'd underestimated him.

He could make my fucking head explode if he really wanted to.

Nothing was scarier than a Janus afflicted who didn't know how to control their powers.

A shaky hand finding its way to my mask, I knew firsthand.

** ///**

I myself am still working out the extent of the Janus ESP powers, and while I want to make them insanely powerful they aren't exactly meant to be metahumans or anything.

Sorry I have Riddick and "Sarcastic Riddick" debate ethics and psychology a lot, haha

If I lost you around there, it's Riddick's expectation of Tai being fake and trying his hardest to cling to familiarity in a foreign land using the interaction the romance books on his shelf taught him.

However Tai's foreign and innocent nature contradicts that because he genuinely is comfortable with being around someone gay.

It's also Riddick realizing the cliché is simply fact of life and natural, which I find myself realizing a lot.

Fun fact Rochelle was originally meant to be like Riddick, but less of what he is and more of a female Tai, of sorts.

I think I decided on the jokester route accidentally after I introduced her and Riddick, and for some reason I completely forgot her character because I never got to her parts.

A song came on my playlist that I was listening to that I'd picked out as her theme way back when I first started writing Alcatraz's "pilot" and I realized "oh, guess what I fucked up on."

Rochelle really is a waste of a character and I actually might completely start anew with these edits I'm putting in, and revamp her.

Lio's last name is a bit of a reference to RATM btw. I'm not much into thrash (my favorite song is the Hills-Weeknd) and I wouldn't say I have bad or good taste just a lot of taste lmao

But before you go JOIN MY DISCORD (link in my bio page at the very top few lines). Text chat only. We can talk about anything but right now it's an overflow of memes