"Are you certain he is here?" A slim elven woman asks, water dripping down her white hair and black suit from the heavy rain. "I'm certain..." A tiefling replies, her voice stern. The military outfit being drenged as well. "This is where... Syl..." She swallows, almost like something was stuck in her throat. "Where Sylvester is buried. And if you can't track Zeus' equipment, he is here."
The constant stream of rain showed no sign of stopping. The elf sighs and steps forward, ready to go towards her target, but she got stopped by the tiefling having a tight grip on her shoulder. "Katniss... let me do the talking, okay?" The tiefling looks in her eyes. It was difficult to see if their eyes were wet from the rain or tears. "Zeus is... difficult to manage. He was before, and only Syl could manage him."
"And what makes you so sure you can handle him, Umbra?" Katniss replies back, not meant to be rude, but surely coming over that way. "I don't... or better said, I can't. Yet he is my squad member. We have both been through shit together, and I have always been a good friend with him and Syl! He doesn't need a stranger talking to him, okay?" Umbra lets go of her grip, quickly stroking over her suit to get the crinkles out. "Okay, fine. But if fail in pulling him to our side, I will step in or blame the fault on you! We need him, he can be a strong asset to all of our undercover operations. His PTSD is too big of a problem for military but with us h-"
"Shut it!" The tiefling replies loud with anger. "He isn't a pet dog, okay?! He is a wolf who CHOSE to work with the military. He should not be looked at as a little project. Or someone who can be claimed if he is not useful somewhere else!" She breathes out and calms down a bit. "The only reason why I am working with you is because I think this is the best for Zeus. He can't sit still, but without Sylvester he is not fit for the military, not now at least." They both stare at each other in silence for a couple of seconds before Katniss speaks up. "Lets get going, the rain is only getting worse..."
The pair ventured into the national cemetary. They walked around for a couple of minutes until they saw a large quadruped creature laying next to a gravestone, wings folded onto his side. The tree above the creature barely shielding them from the rain.
Katniss stops her stride, staring at Zeus. "He's bigger than I had thought..." She says with a surprised look. "Well, he's a hybrid. Part dragon, you know? A lightning one as well, usually pretty dangerous. I thought you'd've known that before you would recruit creatures."
"No no, I knew. But I never have seen one in person and I guess I have underestimated their size."
The chatter woke Zeus up, who immediately looks up with perked ears. His posture quickly changed as he noticed Umbra. "Go away..." he says softly.
"Zeus, buddy..." The tiefling responds, compassion in her tone. Yet the wolf couldn't take. "I SAID, GO AWAY!" A thunderous sound emerges from him as his wings flap open. The fur on his neck staning tall as he growls out loud.
Katniss quickly jumps back, startled from the aggressive stance of Zeus, yet Umbra had the opposite reaction. She clenches her claws and walks towards the growling wolf. "Shut your muzzle with those useless threats Zeus! It might work on strangers, but not on your squadmate!" Once close, she suddenly grabs the snout of the wolf. Reasoning with him is impossible in this state, so she had to take different measures.
Zeus starts to struggle against the grip, accidentally shocking the tiefling a couple of times from his pent up energy. Umbra decided to not wrestle him down and force calmness. She slowly and softly starts stroking his snout with a finger. At first, it had no effect. But over time Zeus struggled less against her grip, and he quickly calmed down more and more. Staring into the eyes of Umbra.
"I know you probably hate every other humanoid at the moment Zeus, but..." Tears roll out of her eyes, these ones not to be confused with the rain. As soon as Zeus saw the tears, he stopped struggling completely, allowing the tiefling to let go and scratch behind the wolf's ears. "But... I am here for you. As is every other squad member. We are all your family."
Within moments, Zeus breaks down. Tears rolling down his snout as he hugs the tiefling, who quickly takes him in her arms. "I know I know..." she replies, crying as well. "It's tough, losing someone this close. He has been everything for you ever since you were a pup... and I am so glad he found you and took you with us. And now, we will make sure his death is not in veign... we will get our revenge."
The two of them sat together in silence for a while as Katniss stood from appropiate distance. Pinking away a tear as well. It was never easy to see military soldiers grieving.
"Come on buddy, you're stayin with me tonight. No more sleeping in the rain." Umbra stands up and already walks towards the elf who had been waiting, making sure Zeus moves away at his own pace.
The wolf stares down at the headstone as he gets up. "I'll avenge you, Syl... even if it's the last thing I do..." he speaks softly to himself before turning away, walking together with the pair.
Out of the cemetary the three of them hop into a van. In the light the contrast of the black and red fur from Zeus is more clear. He shakes some of the water out of his fur. "S-so... quite a weird first impression isn't it ma'm?" The wolf's expression changed, as if he was determined for something instead of letting sadness decides his fate.
"An elf in a business suit mostly means bad news, lay it on me. It's not like my life can get much worse..." The elven woman scrapes her throat, whiping away some water from her face with a towel. "My name is Katniss, and I am from the FBI, and I am here for an offer. We also partake in taking down Yuva, the terrorist group that killed Sylvester. Yet, we do it differently than the military." She opens a briefcase and lays down a couple of pictures showing guns, multiple people and specificaly one person. "We make sure that acces to resources for Yuva is difficult, reducing their fighting powers. And with you, we want to do an undercover mission to stop the flow of their weapons, targe-" Zeus rudely interupts Katniss whilst she is talking. "I'm in..." he replies without hearing any further details. Both the elf and tiefling look surprised at Zeus, Umbra quickly speaking up. "Zeus, we're not forcing you to do this. It is okay to take a hiatus, a break! Syl's death wasn't that long ago and nobody is expecting you to jump back into the game immediately!"
"I am well aware of that Umbra, I know I don't need to, but I have to! I can't sit still and accept what happened, they need to pay!" Zeus growls, this time to himself instead of a threat to somebody else.
Katniss grabs the pictures and stores them back in the briefcase. "We'll talk further tomorrow, today you two rest."
The ride was quiet in the van, Zeus laying down against Umbra, his eyes closed as She softly strokes his head. Once at the home of the tiefling, they both get out and clean themselves up, making sure to be warm before the night falls.
----
The next morning, both Umbra and Zeus stand in the FBI building, in a room completely sheltered off from the outside world. Katniss enters the room and quickly shuts the door behind her, under her arm an unmarked folder. She grabs a picture from the folder and lays it on the table. The same picture as before with 1 person. "Ricky Gebhardt, son of Rick Gebhardt. Rick illegally transports loads of weapons, their main customer being Yuva. The both of you will get into this organisation via Ricky. Befriending him, showing how useful you are to his father."
She places more pictures on the table, showing more family member and a school. "The way to do it? Umbra, you will be a new student joining the school with." The elf points towards Zeus "With her service dog. At least, that is what you'll look like. A new eager student with her service dog, whilst in reality you moved places with your guard dog to continue your business, transport of illegal substances."
"Listen, I am up to do anything, even playing as a 'service dog', but... how do you even see this working? It's not like this has any added value to the operation..."
"Actually, it does." Katniss smiles. "You see, Ricky is an animal lover. He studies creatures and knows all about them. For every other student, you can pass off as a winged dog or something like that, but he will for sure know you're a hybrid, hoping that he will provoke the both you in some sort of way. From there on forwards, it's all up to you two on how you want to play it, but our goal is finding the storage of their weapons. It doesn't necessarily need to be all of their stock, but `enough to get him locked away for a while. That way his connection with Yuva will halt to an end."
Zeus nods his head. "I see, this could potentially work. I understand your thoughts now." Umbra smiles and looks down at Zeus, noticing his determination to do something. And with both of them collaborating, she could keep a good eye on him. "I'm in... for Sylvester..." She says, patting the wolf on his head. "For Sylvester..." he replies, immediately after. The elf smiles, moving the pictures back into the classified folder. Her composure stayed professional, yet she was radiating happy energy. "I'll handle all the paperwork, tonight you're going to campus and tomorrow your first class starts."
The day goes by quickly as Zeus and Umbra talk strategy in the tiefling's home. How to act, codewords, covering most of the basic situation which may occur during the mission, both of them working serious on the project. Before leaving towards the school, they prepare the car and stuff with help of Katniss. Leaving everything behind which could point towards their actual life, and dressing up as the undercover pair. Umbra kneels down to Zeus and clicks on a 'Service animal' harness around his body, combined with a new dog collar. The wolf looks down at the tag which reads 'Scratch'. He looks up with a tilted head. "Are you bloody serious? 'Scratch'?!" Umbra laughs as she reads the name, her hand scratching Zeus behind his ear. "Ooh come on Zeus, it fits you! You do love the occasional scratch!" He responds with an annoyed growl, staring straight in her eyes. "I electrocuted Sylvester countless of times when he tried to give me the name 'Zappy'. Don't make me use the same tactic on you!" The tiefling just laughs in response, continuing the scratch for a couple more seconds. "Calm down buddy, it's only temporary. Plus, we don't have time to create a new tag, so, you're stuck with it!" she stands up, grabbing their luggage. "Plus, if you complain about it more, I will tell all the students that want to pet you that you just looooveeee being scratched which is why that is your name!" Zeus turned around to look at her, still a tilted head. He growls loud, yet stops his complaining. Together, they jump into the car and depart for school.
----
The light of dawn wakes up both of them in their living quarters, ready to live their undercover lives as students. They quickly repeated their story to each other to make sure they are on the same line, and quickly after, enter their first class. Many eyes of fellow students laid eyes upon the pair, chatter spread quickly, yet Umbra kept her head high. Sitting down in a chair with Zeus laying down next to her. He immediately scans the entire room, getting familiar with all their faces, unfortunately their target not being amongst them.
The following days were slow moving, too slow for Zeus. He wanted to create some kind of contact with Ricky, yet Umbra held him back. Insisting to have the target make contact with them.
2 weeks later during a class, Ricky walks up to Umbra. He hesitated for a second before speaking up. "H-hey there! Sorry to bother you but, I would like to ask a question about our shared class of biology!" Umbra looks at the young guy, smiling as he approached her. "Hi there, yes please please, go ahead!" She made sure to stand as open and invitingly as possible. This moment had to be played perfectly.
"I'm actually struggling quite a bit with animal anatomy, and I wonder if you could help me, maybe after class one day or-" Umbra suddenly interrupts the human. "So what, just because I have a dog you think I know more of this subject than other people?"
Ricky grins, looking a bit more devilish now. He looks around to check if somebody is listening in before leaning forwards and whispering. "Because of your hybrid, Caroline." mentioning her undercover name for more intimidation. Zeus growls at him as he got closer to the tiefling. "I am more interested in the anatomy of a dragon than a dog. Yet school can't fund those possibilities. But here, you have." He looks down at the tag. "Scratch, a part of this creature. And I myself, do have some funds... so... next week, you let me investigate Scratch for a little while and I will pay you handsomely... sounds like a deal?"
Umbra couldn't believe her ears. This mission sounded easier than imagined, too easy actually. Yet if they could split up at their home, one for distraction and the other to search the storage, this could work. And the quicker, the better right. Umbra looks around once again before nodding. "You have a deal. Let me know where and when.
----
A week later, the day arrives. In a car they drive towards the location and meet Ricky on a farm. He smiles brightly as they step out of the car. "Perfect perfect! Right on time!" He walks over, and basically yanks the leash away from Umbra and turns around. "Don't do anything crazy, or he will attack out of self defence."
Once outside of vision, Umbra runs around the farm in search of anything that could lead to a big storage. There were no other cars currently present, so a more perfect opportunity did not exist.
Inside one of the stalls, Zeus looks and smells around to see if anything was here. And he quickly smelled gunpowder, not around the stalls, but on the human. Within seconds he pounces at him, electrocuting him on the ground. Ricky screams out loud from the pain, alerting Umbra. She comes running into the building and quickly jumps on top of Ricky, cuffing his hands. "What the hell happened Scratch?!" she yells back. "He has a gun on his body, and I wasn't going to risk being alone with him. Either he was genuinely interested, or he was onto us an planning to kill me." The tiefling finally looked at Zeus, seeing the fear in his eyes. He was scared, the gunpowder alone triggered this reaction for him. "Hey hey, it's okay. We didn't succeed this time but, we will learn from these mistakes and get them next time okay? I understand that you want to avenge Syl as quickly as possible but... it needs time... you got this, bud."
The constant stream of rain showed no sign of stopping. The elf sighs and steps forward, ready to go towards her target, but she got stopped by the tiefling having a tight grip on her shoulder. "Katniss... let me do the talking, okay?" The tiefling looks in her eyes. It was difficult to see if their eyes were wet from the rain or tears. "Zeus is... difficult to manage. He was before, and only Syl could manage him."
"And what makes you so sure you can handle him, Umbra?" Katniss replies back, not meant to be rude, but surely coming over that way. "I don't... or better said, I can't. Yet he is my squad member. We have both been through shit together, and I have always been a good friend with him and Syl! He doesn't need a stranger talking to him, okay?" Umbra lets go of her grip, quickly stroking over her suit to get the crinkles out. "Okay, fine. But if fail in pulling him to our side, I will step in or blame the fault on you! We need him, he can be a strong asset to all of our undercover operations. His PTSD is too big of a problem for military but with us h-"
"Shut it!" The tiefling replies loud with anger. "He isn't a pet dog, okay?! He is a wolf who CHOSE to work with the military. He should not be looked at as a little project. Or someone who can be claimed if he is not useful somewhere else!" She breathes out and calms down a bit. "The only reason why I am working with you is because I think this is the best for Zeus. He can't sit still, but without Sylvester he is not fit for the military, not now at least." They both stare at each other in silence for a couple of seconds before Katniss speaks up. "Lets get going, the rain is only getting worse..."
The pair ventured into the national cemetary. They walked around for a couple of minutes until they saw a large quadruped creature laying next to a gravestone, wings folded onto his side. The tree above the creature barely shielding them from the rain.
Katniss stops her stride, staring at Zeus. "He's bigger than I had thought..." She says with a surprised look. "Well, he's a hybrid. Part dragon, you know? A lightning one as well, usually pretty dangerous. I thought you'd've known that before you would recruit creatures."
"No no, I knew. But I never have seen one in person and I guess I have underestimated their size."
The chatter woke Zeus up, who immediately looks up with perked ears. His posture quickly changed as he noticed Umbra. "Go away..." he says softly.
"Zeus, buddy..." The tiefling responds, compassion in her tone. Yet the wolf couldn't take. "I SAID, GO AWAY!" A thunderous sound emerges from him as his wings flap open. The fur on his neck staning tall as he growls out loud.
Katniss quickly jumps back, startled from the aggressive stance of Zeus, yet Umbra had the opposite reaction. She clenches her claws and walks towards the growling wolf. "Shut your muzzle with those useless threats Zeus! It might work on strangers, but not on your squadmate!" Once close, she suddenly grabs the snout of the wolf. Reasoning with him is impossible in this state, so she had to take different measures.
Zeus starts to struggle against the grip, accidentally shocking the tiefling a couple of times from his pent up energy. Umbra decided to not wrestle him down and force calmness. She slowly and softly starts stroking his snout with a finger. At first, it had no effect. But over time Zeus struggled less against her grip, and he quickly calmed down more and more. Staring into the eyes of Umbra.
"I know you probably hate every other humanoid at the moment Zeus, but..." Tears roll out of her eyes, these ones not to be confused with the rain. As soon as Zeus saw the tears, he stopped struggling completely, allowing the tiefling to let go and scratch behind the wolf's ears. "But... I am here for you. As is every other squad member. We are all your family."
Within moments, Zeus breaks down. Tears rolling down his snout as he hugs the tiefling, who quickly takes him in her arms. "I know I know..." she replies, crying as well. "It's tough, losing someone this close. He has been everything for you ever since you were a pup... and I am so glad he found you and took you with us. And now, we will make sure his death is not in veign... we will get our revenge."
The two of them sat together in silence for a while as Katniss stood from appropiate distance. Pinking away a tear as well. It was never easy to see military soldiers grieving.
"Come on buddy, you're stayin with me tonight. No more sleeping in the rain." Umbra stands up and already walks towards the elf who had been waiting, making sure Zeus moves away at his own pace.
The wolf stares down at the headstone as he gets up. "I'll avenge you, Syl... even if it's the last thing I do..." he speaks softly to himself before turning away, walking together with the pair.
Out of the cemetary the three of them hop into a van. In the light the contrast of the black and red fur from Zeus is more clear. He shakes some of the water out of his fur. "S-so... quite a weird first impression isn't it ma'm?" The wolf's expression changed, as if he was determined for something instead of letting sadness decides his fate.
"An elf in a business suit mostly means bad news, lay it on me. It's not like my life can get much worse..." The elven woman scrapes her throat, whiping away some water from her face with a towel. "My name is Katniss, and I am from the FBI, and I am here for an offer. We also partake in taking down Yuva, the terrorist group that killed Sylvester. Yet, we do it differently than the military." She opens a briefcase and lays down a couple of pictures showing guns, multiple people and specificaly one person. "We make sure that acces to resources for Yuva is difficult, reducing their fighting powers. And with you, we want to do an undercover mission to stop the flow of their weapons, targe-" Zeus rudely interupts Katniss whilst she is talking. "I'm in..." he replies without hearing any further details. Both the elf and tiefling look surprised at Zeus, Umbra quickly speaking up. "Zeus, we're not forcing you to do this. It is okay to take a hiatus, a break! Syl's death wasn't that long ago and nobody is expecting you to jump back into the game immediately!"
"I am well aware of that Umbra, I know I don't need to, but I have to! I can't sit still and accept what happened, they need to pay!" Zeus growls, this time to himself instead of a threat to somebody else.
Katniss grabs the pictures and stores them back in the briefcase. "We'll talk further tomorrow, today you two rest."
The ride was quiet in the van, Zeus laying down against Umbra, his eyes closed as She softly strokes his head. Once at the home of the tiefling, they both get out and clean themselves up, making sure to be warm before the night falls.
----
The next morning, both Umbra and Zeus stand in the FBI building, in a room completely sheltered off from the outside world. Katniss enters the room and quickly shuts the door behind her, under her arm an unmarked folder. She grabs a picture from the folder and lays it on the table. The same picture as before with 1 person. "Ricky Gebhardt, son of Rick Gebhardt. Rick illegally transports loads of weapons, their main customer being Yuva. The both of you will get into this organisation via Ricky. Befriending him, showing how useful you are to his father."
She places more pictures on the table, showing more family member and a school. "The way to do it? Umbra, you will be a new student joining the school with." The elf points towards Zeus "With her service dog. At least, that is what you'll look like. A new eager student with her service dog, whilst in reality you moved places with your guard dog to continue your business, transport of illegal substances."
"Listen, I am up to do anything, even playing as a 'service dog', but... how do you even see this working? It's not like this has any added value to the operation..."
"Actually, it does." Katniss smiles. "You see, Ricky is an animal lover. He studies creatures and knows all about them. For every other student, you can pass off as a winged dog or something like that, but he will for sure know you're a hybrid, hoping that he will provoke the both you in some sort of way. From there on forwards, it's all up to you two on how you want to play it, but our goal is finding the storage of their weapons. It doesn't necessarily need to be all of their stock, but `enough to get him locked away for a while. That way his connection with Yuva will halt to an end."
Zeus nods his head. "I see, this could potentially work. I understand your thoughts now." Umbra smiles and looks down at Zeus, noticing his determination to do something. And with both of them collaborating, she could keep a good eye on him. "I'm in... for Sylvester..." She says, patting the wolf on his head. "For Sylvester..." he replies, immediately after. The elf smiles, moving the pictures back into the classified folder. Her composure stayed professional, yet she was radiating happy energy. "I'll handle all the paperwork, tonight you're going to campus and tomorrow your first class starts."
The day goes by quickly as Zeus and Umbra talk strategy in the tiefling's home. How to act, codewords, covering most of the basic situation which may occur during the mission, both of them working serious on the project. Before leaving towards the school, they prepare the car and stuff with help of Katniss. Leaving everything behind which could point towards their actual life, and dressing up as the undercover pair. Umbra kneels down to Zeus and clicks on a 'Service animal' harness around his body, combined with a new dog collar. The wolf looks down at the tag which reads 'Scratch'. He looks up with a tilted head. "Are you bloody serious? 'Scratch'?!" Umbra laughs as she reads the name, her hand scratching Zeus behind his ear. "Ooh come on Zeus, it fits you! You do love the occasional scratch!" He responds with an annoyed growl, staring straight in her eyes. "I electrocuted Sylvester countless of times when he tried to give me the name 'Zappy'. Don't make me use the same tactic on you!" The tiefling just laughs in response, continuing the scratch for a couple more seconds. "Calm down buddy, it's only temporary. Plus, we don't have time to create a new tag, so, you're stuck with it!" she stands up, grabbing their luggage. "Plus, if you complain about it more, I will tell all the students that want to pet you that you just looooveeee being scratched which is why that is your name!" Zeus turned around to look at her, still a tilted head. He growls loud, yet stops his complaining. Together, they jump into the car and depart for school.
----
The light of dawn wakes up both of them in their living quarters, ready to live their undercover lives as students. They quickly repeated their story to each other to make sure they are on the same line, and quickly after, enter their first class. Many eyes of fellow students laid eyes upon the pair, chatter spread quickly, yet Umbra kept her head high. Sitting down in a chair with Zeus laying down next to her. He immediately scans the entire room, getting familiar with all their faces, unfortunately their target not being amongst them.
The following days were slow moving, too slow for Zeus. He wanted to create some kind of contact with Ricky, yet Umbra held him back. Insisting to have the target make contact with them.
2 weeks later during a class, Ricky walks up to Umbra. He hesitated for a second before speaking up. "H-hey there! Sorry to bother you but, I would like to ask a question about our shared class of biology!" Umbra looks at the young guy, smiling as he approached her. "Hi there, yes please please, go ahead!" She made sure to stand as open and invitingly as possible. This moment had to be played perfectly.
"I'm actually struggling quite a bit with animal anatomy, and I wonder if you could help me, maybe after class one day or-" Umbra suddenly interrupts the human. "So what, just because I have a dog you think I know more of this subject than other people?"
Ricky grins, looking a bit more devilish now. He looks around to check if somebody is listening in before leaning forwards and whispering. "Because of your hybrid, Caroline." mentioning her undercover name for more intimidation. Zeus growls at him as he got closer to the tiefling. "I am more interested in the anatomy of a dragon than a dog. Yet school can't fund those possibilities. But here, you have." He looks down at the tag. "Scratch, a part of this creature. And I myself, do have some funds... so... next week, you let me investigate Scratch for a little while and I will pay you handsomely... sounds like a deal?"
Umbra couldn't believe her ears. This mission sounded easier than imagined, too easy actually. Yet if they could split up at their home, one for distraction and the other to search the storage, this could work. And the quicker, the better right. Umbra looks around once again before nodding. "You have a deal. Let me know where and when.
----
A week later, the day arrives. In a car they drive towards the location and meet Ricky on a farm. He smiles brightly as they step out of the car. "Perfect perfect! Right on time!" He walks over, and basically yanks the leash away from Umbra and turns around. "Don't do anything crazy, or he will attack out of self defence."
Once outside of vision, Umbra runs around the farm in search of anything that could lead to a big storage. There were no other cars currently present, so a more perfect opportunity did not exist.
Inside one of the stalls, Zeus looks and smells around to see if anything was here. And he quickly smelled gunpowder, not around the stalls, but on the human. Within seconds he pounces at him, electrocuting him on the ground. Ricky screams out loud from the pain, alerting Umbra. She comes running into the building and quickly jumps on top of Ricky, cuffing his hands. "What the hell happened Scratch?!" she yells back. "He has a gun on his body, and I wasn't going to risk being alone with him. Either he was genuinely interested, or he was onto us an planning to kill me." The tiefling finally looked at Zeus, seeing the fear in his eyes. He was scared, the gunpowder alone triggered this reaction for him. "Hey hey, it's okay. We didn't succeed this time but, we will learn from these mistakes and get them next time okay? I understand that you want to avenge Syl as quickly as possible but... it needs time... you got this, bud."