FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

///

Riddick

Vervous, Norway

November 1st, 0900 hours

He didn't even notice the coffee practically torch the inside of his mouth, the hyena was too lost in Isaac's eyes.

The fox himself was telling some story about the last time he'd been in Vervous, Riddick was on some sort of strange high he got when he finally met another guy who liked guys.

He hoped.

Hard to find.

Risky to look for.

Not that Isaac expressly expressed liked guys, and neither did the hyena, but Riddick had dropped enough hints himself and the fox never opposed or anything.

Maybe he was getting into it too quick. No, of course he was. That was exactly what he was doing and he knew it.

But he was going to do it anyways.

Looking around the scenery had finally changed- apart from to pick up smokes Riddick had rarely left the house and he'd forgotten how beautiful Vervous was.

Most people weren't speaking Euro but some Scandinavian dialect, nativist. But most were used to tourism in Norway's capital, and had two languages under their belt.

Isaac had five- Riddick remembered everything he'd said over dinner last week.

He could pretend he'd just come here to analyze the fox further and mark him for what he was, but in all honesty that would just be depriving himself.

And Kyle didn't need to know, did he?

"Aye, thanks for coming with me. I don't see how you stay there all day, guy like me has to get out."

Isaac's voice was like scotch in his ears, burning and enticing, the pain he so loved...

Riddick pulled himself out of the depths again, since Marshall had been so busy he'd been getting high off whatever he could practically every night.

He had problems.

Most of his addictions had been cured when they shot him up with all those drugs on the HSS Perth. They took your problems and turned em' into bullets.

Xans.

Alcohol.

Adderol.

Plenty of other temptation in capsules, promise of a better world for just a moment, just a little piece of your soul to sell for each one...

He'd never go there again but there were plenty of other places...

Just thinking about it, yeah, he had a lot of fucking problems. But no one needed to know the old him.

And the hyena would never admit it.

"Yeah, once we get back from Thailand we should do this again?"

"We'll have to bring Jake or Alvin."

As much as Riddick would rather have Isaac all to himself-

"Can I ask you a question, Rid?"

They were getting back into the van, the fox driving.

If that coffee wasn't fucking spiked... Surely last night wasn't that bad...

He'd made it home ok...

Did he ever leave, though?

"Mmm...hmm..."

Oh, questions?

Lots of things in questions.

'Riddick, do you want to get married?'

Heh, of course-

Dammit, stop that...

"Of course..."

Isaac appeared uncomfortable for a moment.

Scratching behind one crimson ear, the fox looked out across the street at, what Riddick noticed, was a couple. Not gay or anything but a couple nonetheless.

He waited, not saying anything.

"Does Kyle... Hate me?"

"What? No!"

No as in the sense of that was the wrong fucking question-

Wait, what?

"I know you two are friends," since literally yesterday but Isaac had only been here for two days, "And he just... I dunno, seems to avoid me. And always watch me. We were sparring and he didn't even much talk to me."

"Well, that's just Kyle. He's a good guy, he just has to warm up to people."

Isaac released a harsh sigh.

"Right. I just... I feel like I'm doing something wrong, you know? I mean, we sparred and that was it but it seems like everyone has it in for me. Why, though?"

"I don't." Riddick said dumbly.

Isaac gave a nod, finally starting the van.

He had a point.

As much as Riddick didn't... Did... Didn't fucking like it...

Isaac.

Model soldier.

Experienced.

Was in a major operation.

Kyle.

Mercenary.

Jinn when he was 8-10 years old. Still ex-Jinn.

Stoic.

It made Riddick think about things, things he didn't particularly want to think about.

Traitors.

Jinn.

It almost snapped him out of the strange hangover he'd gotten between last night, the caffeine, and Isaac.

Reyna.

Proven rebellious.

Her priorities didn't set GRA first, much less her team.

They hated each other.

And...

Tai.

No experience.

From nowhere.

Clearly was lying about his training, everyone was just being polite to not prod.

...

As they pulled out of the parking space the hyena began shivering, and Isaac noticed, giving him his jacket with an almost devilish smirk.

Putting it on, Riddick barely noticed what would have shot him up with dopamine earlier.

Was he on the wrong side?

Had Kyle been trying to stir up trouble...?

Rochelle, Jake, Alvin? They certainly had a number of oddities too...

Marshall, even.

But he's top secret... He was at Glasglow...

He's more GRA than anyone by that logic...

Was that a good thing? Or...

Riddick finally gave himself the sleep he was depraved the night previous, and if he remembered correctly, the night before that, leaning against the window and dozing off.

///

Jailyn

Burmese-Thai Border

January 15th, 0500 hours

"JACOBS IS DOWN, SOMEONE GET ON THAT FUCKING TURRET!"

Sergent's screams were cut short as he took a bullet to his throat, followed by one to the middle of his forehead.

GRA Iraq was going to overrun them within a minute and they had one turret that hadn't been destroyed.

Jailyn sat amidst death with her head in her hands.

She'd run out of bullets a few minutes ago.

...

Fuck it, she'd be 20 in a few days anyway.

Sprinting through the trench, the regulars running past her and attempting to drag their injured friends out of the way, she tore her mask off and left it behind.

She didn't look at the bodies for fear the mutilation of her strike team.

Climbing up the sharp incline in the trench wall, she covered as she got into the turret seat.

It was a metal wall with two guns poking out of it- one of the same models Jinn used outside their heavily guarded border fortresses.

But since they were designed to fit into walls and this was a trench, two sides were barren.

And one shot from a tank would blow them off the map...

Jailyn began to fire on any large groups she saw, green bolts of fire and heavy plasma rocketing out towards them and exploding in a magnificent display.

1. 9. 12. 20. 26.

She counted her toll, and the GRA soldiers began to shy back away from No Man's Land, back into their own trench.

Jinn began to rally once more, moving back to the edges of the trench and firing.

Jets overhead, their AA guns weren't doing much...

Her turret was built for infantry. Extending her arm around the side of the wall and hoping it didn't get blown off, a white blaze corkscrewed around the fox's fur and after about a second blasted like a laser into the sky, striking one of the screaming vehicles and sending it in a fireball to the earth.

Bullets flew past as she jerked the appendage back, catching sight of a bit of red stemming from her forearm but paying it no mind.

But it was only one jet.

The other 4 poured hellfire onto the trenches before they were finally shot down, only 1 making a return trip, heavily damaged.

As trench warfare went, GRA surged forth and braved the guns of Jinn.

Heavily armored BMF's (big motherfuckers, slang) as they called them, soldiers holding railguns in armor you'd only think to see in a tank's wet dream walked out.

Specially designed to walk a good bit into No Man's and push the assault.

The BMF hefted his railgun and charged it, firing at a large group of soldiers firing at the GRA streaming out of their trench behind shields.

The blast lit up the battlefield for a moment, blinding everyone. When the fox looked again they were all gone, the earth blackened.

At that point the cannon was doing nothing and firing it at the BMF was pointless as any sort of plasma would just get absorbed and go straight to his railgun...

As much as risking her arm getting ripped to shreds sounded appealing, there were several tanks coming up as well and she prized them over him.

Jailyn had been at this for a good 10 minutes, and she almost laughed to herself thinking about Specialist Patel yelling at her. High value Janus climbing up in a turret because no infantry would.

No one was shooting at her apart from panicked soldiers, they all knew how futile it was.

Those tanks, though...

She fired roughly as fast as them, the difference being there was at least 8 of them and 1 of her.

She took the first by surprise, the green explosion rocking the tank backwards and crushing those hiding behind it.

The second was a matter of luck, its barrel was in the process of rotating towards her...

A bullet hit next to her foot and Jailyn quickly jerked the turret back into straight position.

Tanks from the North, heavy assault from the Southeast.

She'd heard a few rumors about a Janus in trench warfare setting himself on fire and suicide bombing the tanks but she wasn't keen to try that...

As the BMF got close enough to her side she extended her arm and blasted him with another beam of white light, leaving blackened corpses of the soldiers around him and a gaping, flaming hole in his armor.

And chest for that matter.

Their explosives were tearing up the shields but the GRA was going to win this battle by sheer numbers, Thailand was going to be lost.

They were practically in Burma already. She'd already seen their battleships torn up in the gulf.

Extending her arm again, she was able to blindside one of the tanks and put a hole through it solidly.

The fox could do this for days, but no one else could...

She personally asked Singh for another two or three Janus, even the Jinnrai would do but no, of course not... They could be holding Thailand if it weren't for that son of a bitch...

As Jailyn blasted tanks coming out, there were still a practical fleet of them coming and Jinn's heavies were getting torn between tanks and infantry...

Raising her arm once more, the white flame spiraled...

And flickered out.

Almost like a lighter with no fuel.

She tried again- the same result.

Interference, a different signal.

Going back into cover she watched the GRA infantry push in further.

A migraine began to come over her and she clutched at her head again.

Suddenly pain racked through her mind and she cried out, falling to her knees on the turret platform, bullets screaming around her as they struck the metal.

With a gasp, she struggled to shut off her mind to this new threat, but here when even a fraction of their consciousness was installed...

The world froze, her face froze as well as if her mind had cracked.

Which it had.

A gray fox, about 13 years old, with striking yellowish eyes.

All she could see was the eyes...

With a scream Jailyn was engulfed in a silver flame, almost instantly disintegrated into blackened bones and then dust on the wind.

///

Tai

Void

As soon as it went out I jogged forward slightly out of impulse, the same you'd snap up if you woke suddenly from sleeping. But I was standing.

Breathing heavily, I put my hands on my knees and practically panted.

"15 minute one there, those can be really stressful."

"Wha? Where..."

I looked around and I was back in the void again.

"Did I fall asleep?"

"You were packing to go to Thailand but since you don't have much to pack you decided to nap."

I looked behind me to the gray fox standing there, those yellowish eyes leaving an imprint on me.

"Was that you, back there? You killed..."

"Yeah, it was me, albeit younger. I killed Jailyn DeLuca, one of the most powerful members of the Jinnrai. That was about 7 years ago, when we first took Thailand. It showcased a basic ability and gave a bit of a history lesson as to where you're headed, that's why I picked it."

I never really asked what the Jinnrai were, I just heard Jinn.

Janus, but with the enemy.

And the majority were imperfect clones with half their face missing, or none at all, or no arm, or missing...

Ugh, makes me sick.

That all comes later.

I hadn't been conscious who I was like I had with the other one, Markus or whatever.

But I still felt that terrible burning sensation.

And I still lived her life, albeit more clouded and irregular than Markus'.

I couldn't remember jack shit...

"She shot stuff from her arm, the fire thing that blew up the first guy I looked at?"

"Yeah, that's what I'm going to teach you. Much easier when you've kind of already done it."

I muttered a response, still confused as to the past 24 hours.

I'd fallen asleep so much lately that I missed the greater part of yesterday, and today, and Wednesday...

But as it came back to me, I remembered waking up, trying not to go back to sleep, Marshall's briefing, falling asleep, getting back up and packing a few clothes and now it was probably the morning or mid-day...

And I was asleep again.

"Why"-

"Are you falling asleep so much?"

Ariya shrugged.

"I'm in your head already, don't look so surprised. It has something to do with that message Ariya... The real Ariya sent you. It's bouncing around you, making the signal stronger until it finally breaks into your mind. And it's exhausting you trying to receive it."

For the upteenth time I pretended to understand.

"Now, hold out your arm like so."

I copied her, holding it out at an angle to where my right arm was horizontal, and facing towards my right away from me.

Copying her posture as well, she was using her left.

It came to me I was about to make a fucking laser come from my arm.

"You have to want it to happen. No, scratch that, you have to convince yourself you're going to die if you don't do it. Think of those tanks, the BMF."

I put myself in Jailyn's position. I'd never seen a tank prior, so I focused on the...

Big motherfucker.

They were the same ones I'd seen when Harper did that test on me back in Connecticut, dressed for hell. They ate bullets for breakfast, I couldn't use my plasma cannon against them...

She couldn't, I corrected myself.

I jumped as one of them was standing there about ten meters away from me, hefting his railgun...

He was here? In my head? That was a thing I could do?

This was my mind.

It was fake.

It was just a... simulation, or at least an imagination-

I screamed as a bolt of electricity impaled me, and fell onto my back as the volts ravaged my body, corpse jolting...

In no time at all I was back on my feet, for the millionth time panting, shellshocked, only a memory of the pain left but it was still enough to make me almost scream.

"A-Ariya!"

"You can't die in your head. At least, like that.'

"I... I..."

"You haven't been shot in a while, last sim you guys ran was a while back. You'll get over it."

Get over it?

I just fucking died and I was going to get over it?!

I put my head in my hands, walking around in circles a few times.

They didn't calm me, every rotation and movement made it worse.

I thought about the first time I'd ever seen someone die, as much as I didn't want to.

I was younger. Not that much younger, maybe 14 or 15.

This was the only time I'd stuck around long enough to watch.

I don't know why I did.

Somebody bigger and badder than Omar, I remember he was a doberman.

This guy could eat me for breakfast.

And he was a cannibal too.

Ripped out the guy's throat with his teeth after they got into a shouting match.

I just sat there and watched, in shock.

Looking at myself more than anything.

Passed out, got up, got out of there, and threw up a few times.

But what it left on me...

"Tai? You alright?"

"You're in my head, aren't you...? You're supposed to know..."

She shrugged.

I watched a silver flame spiral around her arm and stay there for a moment.

It was as if a tendril of pure essence had snaked around and caught fire, and I was mesmerized.

Without warning a flash of pure light blinded me, and I shielded my eyes with my arm futilely.

When the light dissipated I saw the BMF on the ground. He hadn't been there a moment earlier...

Whereas most would have been turned to dust and bones there was simply a hole in his armor.

A gaping one with gouts of flame pouring out, but it was a testament to his strength.

How quickly he'd killed me.

"It really isn't that hard. You just... Have to do it."

"Isn't there some easier method to learning this? That doesn't involve being shot?"

"Janus doesn't come with an instructional DVD. It's nigh on impossible for the Janus to convey. Marshall really can't help you but he has sort of a clue as to what he's talking about. And the GRA as a whole?"

She brought her arms up bent at either sides and then brought them back down, a gesture I still didn't understand. It was one Riddick did a lot.

"They just throw you in and expect you to learn. Learn what, exactly? They don't even know that. Just a few vague stats that don't hold up, what they tell you is bullshit. Trust me. The only reason I got this far is because I was recruited when I was 11."

I put my head in my hands and massaged my temples, a headache coming on even in here.

Maybe I was staying too long?

"You still have about 5 safe minutes."

Guess not- wait...

"Look, Ariya, I really appreciate this, but... I just have a lot on my mind right now, we should just do this some other time. I'm sure I'll be sleeping a lot on the magnatrain to Thailand."

She huffed.

"Alright, then. See you- Oh shit, look out!"

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a hulking black armored figure and dove to the side, closing my eyes instinctually but a loud bang and a flash lit my vision...

Landing on my side I curled into a ball, eyes shut...

My hands over my head, I didn't dare get up for fear I'd do something at the wrong time... I couldn't deal with this, the pain was horrifying and in the very last bastion, mind, was now being shared with a-

"Tai! You... You did it!"

Wha?

Shakily, I pulled myself back up.

"Look at him! Right through his fucking skull, way to go!"

Doing a 180, I looked at the next BMF.

This time he was completely headless and I could see and smell the burning of his fur and flesh inside the armor.

I felt sick.

Somehow it was worse that he was GRA, and we were on the same side...

Ariya apparently didn't notice, telling me it was an amazing strength and display.

I'd done that to someone?

I didn't even have the sense to tell myself it wasn't real, not that it had ever much helped in the first place.

Absently backing away, she seemed to notice something was wrong and finally stopped.

"Tai?"

I gave no response.

This was inexcusable, I was a savage now just like them...

I'd damned myself... It was over, I'd practically killed myself-

"Tai, you need to calm down before"

And everything went black.

///

G201 Headquarters

November 1st, 2100 hours

A few moments later I opened my eyes to the familiarity of my own bedroom.

Not that I wasn't harrowed but the cold truth that it wasn't reality was shown here, and maybe I felt a little better about it.

I hadn't even felt this bad when I'd shot those men at the airport.

And I was terrified of the BMF's, especially in Harper's room and now... In my own head?

Maybe it was being killed in my own mind. Where else could I go?

I was supposed to have prophetic dreams too or whatever, surely this wasn't overlapping?

Now I couldn't even escape to my own-

A knock at my door.

At least my timing was impeccable.

"Tai? It's about 9:00, we're leaving in 30 stat. If you want to eat this is your last chance."

I recognized it as Riddick's however muffled, and got out of bed.

Leaving? To go-

Oh, right.

Opening the door, once more I felt my life was simply sequences one after the other, I'd been at this moment so many times.

We stared at each other for a moment, he was leaning away kind of like he was expecting to get slapped.

"Please don't yell at me again, it's just... We should leave soon if we're going to catch the magnatrain."

"Again?"

"Yeah, you yelled at Jake, then Kyle, then me, and now I'm here again"-

"No, I didn't..."

He gave me a puzzled look.

"I was there, Tai. You called me a peasant, you dick."

A peasant? That came up again?

"I was asleep..."

"In your sleep, then? Eh, doesn't matter. Get dressed, grab your shit, and go eat something. Gonna be a while before Thailand."

In my sleep, I'd yelled at him.

I think the only time I'd used the word peasant before was when I... Killed myself in that series of strange visions.

I put it out of mind.

He turned and walked away promptly, and I realized I hadn't been wearing anything but my boxers.

...

In front of the gay guy.

Fuck my life.

I got dressed, trying to put the dream... Janus vision... Whatever the hell it was out of mind.

It was at that point I came to realize I hated life.

Born to death.

Raised in death.

Here I was, free, but not really.

I was going to die soon anyways, what did it matter...

I grabbed my duffel bag, the only thing I'd packed. It had a few clothes and a combat knife in it, toothpaste and all the necessities.

Marshall told us not to bring any real gear; that all would be provided upon arrival.

I had woken up at least once to hear all that crap...

Ugh, but if my head didn't feel like it got hit with a mach truck...

No, rather a fucking train...

I hoped Ariya could show up and call off the message or whatever in Thailand, because it was practically denting my head trying to get in.

Outside the snow had stopped for the first time I'd been able to see; stopping on the ground for a moment.

I think I finally saw what I was looking for in the cold sand.

Leaving my room, I closed the door.

I was going on mission.

This might have been the last time.

///

I'd wolfed down 3 slices of pizza while everyone else was doing last-minute inventory.

It was Alvin's night to cook but since we were leaving we let it slide.

I would be meeting DeSanta again.

The second of many, many, times.

You never want to get too close to a snake.

It always goes bad.

Or worse.

I threw the paper plate into the trash and walked out to join everyone else.

Riddick and Kyle were talking in the corner...?

I thought they hated each other.

Little did I know the chemistry of half my team shifted over the one day I was practically out.

I looked in the medbay and Reyna was off on her own, typing something at the terminal.

I really wanted to speak to her. After the short and strange episode we'd simply shared a glance, a few mutters, and I'd left.

As per usual I had no idea what to say, I just wanted to hear her voice again.

Jake and Alvin were helping Rochelle load her stuff into the van, Marshall was speaking with Isaac...

I hadn't had much time to meet the fox. He was strange, I guess.

We had 2 vans, everyone packed light but since we were 9 in number (not counting the drivers) I guess we'd be split down the middle.

This time I'd be sure to get a good look at Vervous at night.

///

Vervous Magnatrain Station

2200 hours

I woke up leaning against Kyle's shoulder and he nudged me awake.

When I didn't move he promptly got out of the van and I fell unceremoniously into his seat.

Grumbling something I didn't myself understand, I got out and followed the group sheepishly into Vervous' train station.

Casting a look back outside as the vans drove off, I didn't get much a glimpse of the lights before Riddick ushered me towards the train.

Riddick?

He had his arm around my shoulders, looking at my face as if I was under inspection.

"Tai, I gotta tell you about some shit, alright?"

I gave a weak nod, I felt sick.

"If you're up for it, of course. It's kinda heavy."

We got in the train and I sat down between Kyle and the hyena.

Rubbing my eyes, the magnatrain didn't have very many people in it.

I was on the brink of falling asleep again.

I had to make it stop somehow. If Ariya was with DeSanta like last time and Janus bullshit didn't happen again I could get her to call it off.

Message.

What could be so important? Ariya (the fake one), stressed it was dumb to try and send something like that.

Fake Ariya... Real Ariya...

It's reoccurring that things are getting pretty complicated at this point.

I apologize. It's simply how it was.

It gets worse.

...

Sorry.

"Riddick, you had something to tell?"

I didn't mean to but I said it kind of loud, and there was only whispers from my teammates, the only others in the traincar.

Riddick gave a solid look at Kyle, then Isaac.

"Later."

I gave a nod.

And then I fell back the fuck asleep.

///

Lynx

Unknown Location, SE Asia

I staggered into the night and out of the building I'd just set on fire, clutching at my stab wounds.

They weren't deep but they hurt like a bitch, and I could bleed out if I wasn't lucky.

On top of that it was raining.

Looking around the apartment complex was ablaze, abandoned otherwise I wouldn't have set it so.

I do have a consciousness. Just not much of one.

I was in a sort of courtyard, four other apartment buildings around me.

All were a drab tan, broken windows and slight ledges where balconies had fallen in mortar strikes.

I'd have to go through one of the buildings to get out. Even if the square around me wasn't one apartment complex they were close together enough to burn, not to mention the vines and tall grass.

And I didn't want to be in the middle of it.

This place was war torn and I reckoned if I looked around enough I'd get attack by scavengers.

I was around the Jinn line, if not on it.

Meaning if I crossed, even into Jinn's territory, I would get shot at.

I'd be better going into GRA's, they had civilians near their borders whereas we'd cleared them all out.

If I took off the mask I guess I could go as...

Someone who got wounded.

I hated doing that but in a war-torn zone no one really cared what you looked like, there were people without arms and legs.

Slums and war-torn zones.

My childhood.

Might have said earlier but my body count was overwhelmingly Jinn soldiers.

One of those moments when I realized all I had was Gynezis and a few others out there that wouldn't kill me on sight.

Everyone else out there, in the cruel world-

Gynezis.

I patted down my trench for my phone.

It was a secondary means of communication, the primary being my bracer. But now it was Katia's.

With luck it burned and whatever data I was keeping was gone with it.

But I knew the Red Phantom doesn't let things like that slip away.

There wasn't any point in looking for tails behind me.

Katia was done playing with me for now, otherwise I wouldn't have escaped.

Ajax was probably waiting for me to get away from Katia, figuring where I'd go.

I'd go the opposite.

No, because he's know I'd go there and then he'd go there.

Then the expected route.

No, he'd...

...

Fuck.

It's so great, for all your experience, giving your entire life to being an assassin when there's always going to be 10 people out there that could kick your ass without trying...

And you just always happen to run into those people.

"Gyn speaking."

"Can you pinpoint my location quickly?"

"One second..."

I heard in the background piano playing and furious keyboard typing.

"According to my personal satellite... You're at the Thai-Burmese border. Right on the Jinn line."

"No mortars going overhead, I don't hear guns, what's happening?"

"Check the date."

I looked at my phone's screen.

November 2nd, now. 3 hours past midnight.

Burmese-Thai Border

0300 hours

"What's significant to the date?"

"Armistice. I sent you stuff about that on your bracer but you'd have been captured by then. DeSanta's meeting with the president of Thailand, and also a few local Jinn leaders. I plan on being there. The public doesn't know, we just got word yesterday."

"Convenient she took me to Thailand, then."

Katia had done it deliberately.

Silence passed between us.

"Your sister scares the shit outta me."

"...Same here, worse when I thought she was dead. Anyways, we meeting up?"

"I'm thinking so, but I gotta work around everyone else. Singh's gonna be here too."

"Hate that guy."

Singh's was the only faction directly standing in our way. Vietnamese was his main area but he'd gained influence in other places too, snaking into Gynezis' West China.

Communist.

Child soldiers.

We leaked a bit of information to someone in his inner circle that we knew was a spy on him, and got him practically ruined a few weeks back after DeSanta exposed him.

Singh had personally hired assassins to kill Gynezis on a few occasions.

We weren't far from GRA politics, that really isn't all that cutthroat compared to some of the shit they pull...

He couldn't trace it back to us but Singh jumped to conclusions a lot.

And he could pull something dumb at this cease fire.

"And, not that it matters much, but our guy is here."

DeSanta must have picked G201 to guard her. Probably a good move, likely nothing bad would happen but if it did you wanted someone solid behind you.

"Ah. I'll watch out for him."

"Please do, I might nuke a few countries if we lose him..."

He wasn't bullshitting.

Katia had placed me at this specific location for a reason.

Probably just playing into another one of her sick games before inevitable death.

That's what my life was, just a sick game.

DeSanta had her chess.

I had my game.

And Gyn?

I still didn't know, even after all these years, what the man who raised me was after.

My man in the chair.

My boss.

The only one I'd take orders from.

I never questioned him, I was programmed not to.

I'd stay in Thailand for a while, watch out for Tai.

Heh. Thailand and Tai.

I constricted the phone in my grip to crush it but found great difficulty considering it pulled a few muscles that just got shanked up.

All in all the chair I was tied to fell down a staircase.

This was after a little torture sesh.

And then I got stabbed.

Running is easy, even the Red Phantom can't keep up with me.

Setting things on fire is even easier.

But the moment put a question I'd been meaning to ask.

"Gynezis? You still there?"

Sounds of chewing gum neared the reciever.

"Mmm?"

I looked at a bit of spraypaint on a wall nearby, illuminated by the fire.

The Jinn eye, red.

I'd thought it was blood; that would have been no rare sight.

But it took up the entire wall of the building next to the one I'd just left.

I was nearer the GRA side most likely.

At least we still had resistance.

"When do I tell Tai about..."

"What? Go on."

I hesitated.

It was a touchy subject, Gynezis had brutally murdered one of our afflicts in front of me over it once.

"Who he really is?"

A sigh, instant.

"We tell him when he comes to Jinn, kid. Already been over this."

"You seem sure he's just going to come over without a fight."

"We gave him the pills, he has about another year on him. We have time."

"I'm just saying, he might trust us more if I tell him who his father is"-

"Lynx."

His tone dropped and I was reminded of my endurance training.

Ten years old.

Volts coursing through me, waterlogging, hot irons...

"If you say one word to him about that... We're going to lose this fucking war."

"...Copy."

"And I want to be the one to tell him. In person. And no, not there. Not in Thailand. Now get lost."

...

Clutching my still-bleeding stab wounds, I crushed my phone and threw it into the fire, walking into the shadow.

///

You know how I always talk about dropping plot points that take forever to happen

Prime example lmao

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnyway the SEEDS OF DOUBT are planted in G201...

Is there a traitor?

Is it Isaac?

Is it a plot to plant mistrust by Kyle?

Is Riddick high?

Probably

Stay frosty

Djynn