Warslave

Chapter 1: Introductions

The Wolf

"Bloodlust-"

"I have a name."

It had pissed him off to no end, even when he had been a kid. Ever since they had started bonding, he and the others had started naming each other. Nothing elaborate, of course, but each of them had taken up the name of an animal, almost like a title.

"That is irrelevant to the mission."

The metallic voice coming from the speaker betrayed a hint of annoyance. It wasn't the first time one of their test subjects had pulled a stunt like this. They were awfully stubborn about this, which led to a lot of frustration with their handlers.

Of course, that was the goal of it all. They tried to erase every little bit of the identity that each of his kind had taken such great pains to build for themselves. If nothing else, he would annoy their tormentors into letting them use their names.

"Listen, I'm not the one that needs someone dead."

"If you disobey, punitive actions will be taken."

He raised his hands in a mocking surrender.

"Oh no, not pain! Listen, that might have worked when we were ten years old, but-"

A searing pain pierced his skull, stopping him for a moment. It was only a moment though, before he regained his composure.

"As I was saying, there comes a point at which pain doesn't really bother you anymore. Give me a knife, and I'll demonstrate it to you."

It remained silent for a while after he'd said that, leaving him free to survey the barren, metal room around him. A nice cage for transport, no way out and walls lined with runes to make sure he wouldn't use any of his powers to escape.

"Wolf, we're not giving you a weapon before you arrive at the target."

"Was that so hard?"

"Focus on the mission."

The Wolf shook his head, before answering.

"Yeah, I got it. Same as always. Drop off, kill everything in the designated area, get back in my cage. No witnesses, no survivors, no fuss."

"... You haven't read a single word in your briefing, have you?"

He shook his head again, looking at the camera under the speaker.

"I'm always doing the same shit anyways. What's the point of reading the words 'kill everything' over and over again?"

The speaker remained silent after that. He could still hear them on the other side of the metal walls of course, and couldn't help but smirk at the conversation he heard.

An exasperated sigh from a man, he labelled as man 1, followed by man 1 complaining.

"Do we have someone that knows how to deal with him?"

A woman answered, woman 1 in Wolf's mind. He'd never been creative with names, but it had always sufficed. There were a lot of numbers after all.

"George is prepping Pride for his part, and Pière is doing the same for Apathy."

Wolf couldn't quite help himself.

"You mean the Viper and the Bear. Is that so hard to remember?"

Man 1 groaned, and Wolf heard his fist hit the table.

"Where is Ashley?"

Another man, man 2, answered that question.

"On her way. We hope she arrives before everyone here loses their minds."