X - FORCE

Chapter 2 - I'm sorry, I'm going where?

"Congratulations Lieutenant Commander Olivia Moss." The General's single sentence caused an uproar.

"General! You can't be serious, Sir! You said it yourself, she doesn't have the presence of a leader at all!"

"Surely your joking, General! The other two were much better candidates!"

"Sir! You know as well as we do that if she takes on this responsibility and slips up-"

"ENOUGH!" General Alfred raised his voice before coughing. "I may be sitting in this hospital bed, but I am still the reigning General of this Army, and you'll do well to remember that. I've made my decision and it's final. This conversation is done. I'll talk to each team independently and this meeting will conclude. General Majors, you are dismissed. I'll speak to Thunder, Go, Delta and B in this order and then you are all free to go. Lieutenant Moss, I'd like for you to stay with me and take notes on what I have to say. You may find it useful to your new role. That's all."

The teams all filed out of the room to their separate waiting rooms, apart from Thunder Force and Olivia, who remained stationed in the room. Olivia moved to sit back in the chair next to the bed and took a notepad and pen off the bedside desk.

"Thunder Force. Our Most Elite Special Force team. You're all excelling in your roles, however, be mindful that you keep the capacity to grow. You've all nearly maxed out the skills for your roles but being flexible is a strength as well. Nathan Lalfon. You're an excellent leader, but you need to work out how to better communicate. While it's fine that your team can follow your every word and interpret what you mean, it makes it difficult for you to progress if you can't work well with others. Zak Woods. You're a great Captain, but you need to learn the paperwork. It's part of your job and if you don't learn it now, you won't be able to progress up the leader rolls. Magnus Grey. There's not much to say here. The only advice I can give you is that while no one can doubt your eyes, a scout is easily rendered useless without the basic weapons and combat training. It's the reason you study it as Cadets. Noah, I trust what I said to you earlier is sticking. The other five of you have similar issues you need to work on, but I have great faith that you will all get there." Alfred smiled at them, but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Dismissed." The team filled out after saluting and Alfred turned to look at Olivia.

"I thought I told you to write this stuff down." He huffed.

"I did. I was making notes as you spoke." She turned the notebook towards him and showed him her clear, concise notes that she had categorised neatly on the page. She had even noted observations that she had made herself.

"And you told me you weren't qualified." He quipped. "You'll need to keep an eye on them, I doubt they will take my advice on board. Thunder does things their own way and while I can't deny that it has worked for them, they are taking unnecessary risks. It's your job as the manager to allocate cases to them based on their strengths and weaknesses."

"You mean like jobs with long-range targets to ensure minimum exposer to the scout, who has outdated combat ability and next to no weapons expertise."

"Exactly." He smirked at her. Not qualified my ass.

Go Team was the next to stand before the General.

"Go-Team. First and foremost, I want you to know that your efforts don't go unnoticed. While many may not know, I am completely aware that you have been busy this past year picking up the slack from Thunder Force. I'm more than aware that their shunned cases often get shifted to you and I want to tell you how thankful I am. That being said, I am of the belief that you are more than capable of handling the extra workload. As our largest team, I also believe that you are deserving of the extra work. I know it can't be easy coming in and only working a couple of cases each. Speak up now if you are content though."

"Not at all, Sir! We are thankful for the extra opportunity to grow and work."

"I thought as much. Inigo Thrain. While I understand you face some difficulty due to your heritage, you are a natural-born leader and you have excelled in this position. I have also become aware of the fact that your Captain recently changed to Thunder Force, I'm sure between you, Yourself and Olivia will be able to come to a prompt decision for a replacement."

"Yes sir, I'm looking forward to the extra help. It's hard myself, as I think of each of my members as having equal capability."

"Ah, to have a Commander's Bias." Alfred chuckled. "Pasnol. Being a sniper isn't easy. I commend you on your ability. I will, however, offer you some advice. In a city setting, as a nymph, it can be hard to get in touch with your surroundings. Use what nature you do have available to you though: The wind. Kian Doyle. No one is doubting your ability to strategize and it's clear to me that your team trusts your plans without hesitation. Learn to plan for those variables and unexpected events though. This will come with experience and isn't really teachable, however, Olivia has experience in this field that I'm sure she wouldn't mind sharing with you." Olivia nodded. "Lenox Patel. –" "I already know. Organisation." "Your life will be so much easier if you would just learn some restraint." Alfred agreed, pointedly.

"Dismissed." The team saluted before leaving.

Force Delta was led in next, A gap where Olivia usually stood in the formation. Alfred frowned.

"I know that this will be a big adjustment for all of you, however, you will get through this. As you mostly function as a support team, your members are often dispersed so I believe the effect will be minimal."

"With all due respect, General, I'd like to add to that statement." Commander Ivy-Rose stood with her hand in salute as she glanced at Olivia before focusing back on the General.

"Of course." Alfred motioned for her to continue.

"While I agree that the effect may be minimal, I've discussed with my captain that this arrangement will be hard to adjust with leadership wise as the relationship between our members and Olivia is already strained. As such, we would like to request her transfer to another unit." A few of the members in the back smirked at Olivia.

"I will think it over and send you my decision as soon as it's been made." Alfred glanced at Olivia. The request had come as a surprise to him.

"I see a lot of room for growth in the team and I believe that the support experience is invaluable to all of your personal developments. On the other hand, you need to experience working as a team more often as well. I wish I could say more but we're nearly out of time, so you're dismissed."

"Thank you, General." The team Saluted before filing out.

"SO. What are your thoughts?" General Alfred turned to Olivia.

"What is there to say? If they are going to be unable to work with me, despite the dynamic remaining unchanged, then there is no reason for me to stay in the unit."

"I am going to transfer you, I had planned to anyway. However, just get used to your new role first. I'll have your assignment sent over later. However, Olivia. I'm not going to be here for much longer. Whoever I put you in with, try to make a family out of it. I mean that too. I don't want to go into my grave thinking I've left you alone when I know full well a family is what you crave." Alfred waved his hand at her.

The voices of several people, as well as loud laughter, could be heard from down the hall. Alfred sighed.

"These lot have so much potential and skill, but they are so unmotivated I want to unalive them some days." Olivia choked back a shocked laugh. "You can say that to them, Alfred." She chuckled. "Unfortunately, it seems that these days that's too much of a threat." He grimaced.

The door flung open, and B Force crashed through the opening.

"..." Olivia gaped at them. Potential and Skill Alfred said but she was having a hard time seeing that right off the bat. However, there was something about the Commander, Ainsley Hill, that intrigued her. Alfred elbowed her shoulder.

"You're drooling" He whispered into her ear before chuckling. Olivia turned beet red and put her hands over her face. Grumbling to herself.

"Seems you're quite interesting." Alfred mused at the team.

Ainsley watched the pair with a sense of curiosity. There was something more here than just General and Lieutenant. They seemed to know each other well. The small girl sitting next to Alfred had what seemed to be waist-length, brunette hair. It was hard to tell because of the braids and twisting she'd done to it. The shoulder-length ponytail sticking out the back of the twisted bun was obviously made more for convenience and practicality while still looking quite feminine. She was most likely petite based on her slender wrists and ankles, but the oversized jumper made it hard to tell exactly. Ainsley was becoming frustrated looking at her. She gave nothing away and everything aside from the blatantly obvious was a guess at best.

Alfred spared one last glance at Olivia before sighing and turning to face B-Force.

"Right. You need to light a fire under your asses. You have immense potential, and your skills are comparable to that of Thunder Force, but you lack the motivation and attention span to actually pull off even looking like a team. Coupling that with your defiant streak and your lack of etiquette and manners, and anyone else would be surprised that you hadn't already been dismissed off the force. Even I find it hard to believe that you have a 97% success rate and complete as many cases as you do. I understand you have a lot of free time, due to the conflict between you and the previous force manager, however, While Olivia has exceptional qualities for the role, the reason she stood out to me more than the others was the fact that she has the patience and the will power to actually tolerate your tomfoolery to an extent that she will be able to maintain a fair judgement when it comes to your workload as well as your training. You need to work with her though. Not against her!"

"So, you've hired her to babysit us is what you mean." Christian Wells, Captain of the B-Force Unit, seemed explicitly against working with her.

"No, she was hired to manage you. And Every Other Unit in X Force. However, I have just now decided to grant you special treatment seeing as though you have jumped to the conclusion anyway. Olivia, now that you've found yourself with so much free time, I've decided that you'll work as the B Force manager and scheduler in place of your little vacation." Olivia's mouth fell open before she could even think. Christian looked like he wanted to murder her right there on the spot.

"You know they are going to test my temper, but you want me to spend MORE time with them?? Are you crazy?? What if I-"

"Olivia. This is for your benefit too. Just remember what I taught you and why you wanted to be here." His tone left no room for further objections, so she closed her mouth and went back to her notes. Ainsley had been watching her as she had listened to the news. He watched as she paled, and as her eyebrows furrowed and watched her as she sat down and picked at the skin around her fingernails. Ainsley concluded that it had nothing to do with them at all. This small girl was deathly afraid of something. From the sounds of it, it was losing her temper, but he struggled to see what such a small girl could accomplish, angry or not. She was on Force Delta, so she was definitely human. He decided not to dwell on it any further.

Olivia continued with her notes as Alfred continued to scold and warn the team. She noticed the small girl in the front, she couldn't have been more than 7 or 8. However, she looked pale and nauseous. Poor thing must be nervous. She smiled to herself. The unit left after being dismissed, but Olivia noted the way the child pulled on Ainsley's jeans.

Ainsley felt the tug on his jeans and turned to look at the girl before holding her hand out of the room. When they got back to their waiting area, Ainsley bent down to face the small girl.

"What's up, Miris?"

"That lady was on Force Delta, right?"

"Yeah."

"So that means she's a human, like you?" The child looked deep in thought, her cat eyes far away as she thought hard.

"Yeah, she is. Why do you ask?"

"Cause just for a second, when she looked really mad, I thought I saw something behind her, and I could smell something rotting but it wasn't there at the end so maybe I'm just tired." The small girl concluded Her cat-like sense of smell definitely gave her a unique perspective on things.

"Maybe, we will have to wait to find out. Anyway, we need to get back to base for dinner, let's go." As they exit their room, Thunder Force and Force Delta were all in the hall. 

"Well, well. I can't believe you even bothered to show." Someone laughed. 

"Of course, they did. Even a dog knows where its food comes from." Commander Nathan smirked at the odd unit. Everyone burst into laughter.

"Alright, that's enough." Snapped Olivia. "Get back to your bases for dinner and debriefs."

The teams grumbled as they dispersed. Olivia took the chance to properly analyse and assess the members of the B-Force Unit. She eyed each member individually and made mental notes on each. This was once one of the Original X Force teams, The Beta unit, and it became a refuge for outcast members with loads of skill and potential but after the founding members retired, its reputation started to decline when the newer members started to struggle under the pressure of not fitting into the Force as a cohesive unit.

"What are you looking at?!"