Chapter Text
Soap was sat beside Ghost in the heli as usual while Gaz and Price sat across from them, the three conversing while Soap was uncharacteristically quiet. His knee bounced anxiously this could lead to a breakthrough for the team, for the mission at hand. It all depended on what was left in this warehouse, all they were following before was a bloody trail of wolf bodies and death. This was the closest thing they had to a lead in months, something more than the aftermath of torturous experiments. Pulled teeth, declawed, docked tails and cropped ears to see how each affected each shifters ability to survive, silver embedded under the skin to see the lasting effects on them. The ones not being tested on, presumably the weaker and younger Shifters they knew wouldn't survive the experiments were sold off to the highest bidder for physical labour and security. At least that's the idea the task force got from the paperwork that was left at each warehouse and the bodies left behind, every. Single. One. Weeks old and each body decomposed, too late to be able to do anything to help.
That's why Soap had insisted he went in through a separate entrance alone, there was still a possibility that a few hostiles were about as the warehouse had only been flagged as suspicious about a week prior and movement had only ceased two days before they had flown out, so if there was still people in there Price, Gaz and their team would be a distraction while Soap looked for possible information. Maybe they were moving quickly but the team was also getting desperate as the quantity of the bodies were increasing. The sooner they got in to find something, anything, the sooner they could get these fuckers leading the operation.
He doubted Price and Ghost could imagine the feeling of a pack bond being severed when a pack mate died, the sheer amount of sorrow and heartbreak. The sounds of wolves crying in the night because they feel like they're missing a part of themselves that they will never be able to get back. Soap and Gaz had seen it enough being in the military and had sat up with them each night while they mourned their brothers and sisters in arms. So to find out some humans were killing them without a second thought infuriated Soap.
What also infuriated him was that they were somehow forcing Shifters to stay Shifted, traces of the same chemical were found in every single body. All of the victims were either shifted or partially shifted, bones distorted in painful ways, skin stretched over bone that was broken to be re-formed but didn't have the chance because the body had given up with the stress as it tried to heal other wounds at the same time. They were forcing something that normally came naturally to thee point of murder.
"..oap" His eyes misted over the more he thought about it. "Soap." His canines dug into his lips as he chewed on it while in thought. Blood soon filled his mouth and tricked down his chin. "Johnny!" He felt a hand land on his shoulder, he was quick to stand. The hairs on the back of his neck raised subconsciously, his lips curled around his teeth in a snarl, his ears sitting flat against his head and tail raised. A deep growl erupted from his chest, keeping his defence up, not bothering to take note of who he was threatening.
Soap sniffed the air, only able to pick up the familiar scents of his pack. Looking around, he noticed that the heli had landed. Everyone else had stepped off of it, all that remained was him, Nikolai, who was waiting to take back off but also sat patiently and Gaz who stood a couple of feet away. His own tail sat loosely between his legs, his head pointing ever so slightly downwards to show his lack of aggression.
Soap exhaled, relaxing slightly and gathering his composure. "Sorry Gaz, dinnae ken what came over me, just bein' a right bampot." He sighed, gathering his bag and gun to catch up with the others.
Gaz followed him out, "you're alright mate, don't be daft. This whole mission has been a shit show, of course it's getting to us but I've got a good feeling about this one." Gaz grinned at him, tail wagging excitedly behind him. Gaz bumped shoulders with him, practically infecting him with his grin and wagging tail, acting like pups.
"You solid Soap?" Price asked as the two stepped off the ramp. The Captain held a small smile, hidden mostly by his moustache but the crease in his eyes got the point across, seemingly not needing any explanation. "Aye Captain, as a rock. Sorry for that, I wasnae in the room with you lot if you ken what I man." He explained meekly, tail swinging between his legs unconsciously and keeping his gaze down.
Suddenly he felt a hesitant hand on his arm, Soap looked up, baby blue eyes meeting warm brown. "None of that now Johnny, you're alright, happens to the best of us. Just... don't make a habit of it, I don't fancy fighting a wolf in a heli." Ghost chuckled softly. Soap couldn't stop the way his tail wagged so aggressively it borderline hurt.
"Let's get going boys, let Ghost set up his perch and let's meet up with the rest of the team. They're probably getting antsy." Soap bit back another apology at that.
-
The group made up of Gaz, Price, Ghost, Soap and 4 other soldiers hastily made their way to the location. It had been a 40 minute hike, the wooded surroundings making it difficult to find a safe landing spot for the heli forcing a 5km walk. Ghost split from the group around 900 metres from the warehouse to set up his sniper's perch, still shielded by the trees. The other 7 continued, slowing down significantly and walking closer to the ground towards the building.
It wasn’t very large by any means so it probably wouldn’t be too much of an issue getting in and out in record time. The quiet would be their friend though, if there was still people inside then they didn’t have to know they were coming.
As they reached as close as they could, Price signalled for them to stop. ”Soap, go round the left, there’s a door back there that should lead you straight to a stairwell. Take the upstairs while we cover down here, radio if you need help. Gaz and the rest of you follow me and make sure to deal with any stragglers that are still hanging around, preferably keep them alive but I know how unpredictable people like to be.” The Captain chuckled to himself, earning an amused huff from Gaz, Soap already making his way to his destination.
”You got my back L.T?” Soap asked, knowing the answer already. ”Of course Johnny, who else should I be watching?“ He heard his Lieutenant chuckle through the radio, the sound quality wasn’t great but why would it be? It’s not like they needed to communicate or anything. Soap would mention it once this whole mission is over with. "Keep it professional boys, we'll be back on base soon enough, then you two can do whatever you'd like behind closed doors." The muffled laugh from Gaz, muffling the noise in his sleeve, only added to the flustered silence from the Scot and the embarrassed grumbling from Ghost. Soap had a vivid image of the Captain's smug smile that he would do anything to be able to wipe off his face.
By the time he reached his entry point, his ears were turning and spinning like two little satellite dishes on his head, trying to pin point every noise he heard. "I have eyes on hostiles in the warehouse, there are at least 5 but there could be more that I do not have eyes on so be careful fellas. Keep an eye out for anyone else, Ghost, let us know if you see any change out here." Price was quick to inform, receiving different forms of acknowledgement from the team in return.
Soap got to the back door, waiting for the other team to make entry to lessen the chance of drawing attention to himself. He huffed in annoyance upon realising that it was locked. He could not open it discreetly. "I'm going tae have tae bash this door in, it's locked. Gonna assume it will raise an alarm with these guys." He muttered, relying mostly on his throat mic, not wanting to draw attention to himself. A good 10 seconds went by with no indication of being heard so he went to reach for his radio, to see if he had changed channels by mistake, no matter how unlikely that would be but he'd rather him make a stupid mistake than think of the worse. A wave of relief hit him when Gaz's voice came through the radio, "We'll make contact with the guys inside, that should give you cover to get in." Before Soap could reply, shouting erupted from the inside of the building, then gunshots followed. "There are 7 hostiles all shooting, nothing overwhelming though. We'll finish with these guys then see if we can find anything of interest down here." Price spoke, pausing every few seconds, Soap assumed to shoot back.
He wasted no time in shouldering the door, the third hit popped the door open but he must have hit it funny as his shoulder screamed in pain at him after, causing him to grunt briefly and adjust the strap on his tac vest.
His gun was raised, ready to take out any enemies if needed, though it seemed they had all gone out when Price, Gaz and the other 4 made their presence known to them. He half jogged upstairs, wanting to leave as soon as possible, the pain in his shoulder not letting up anytime soon.
The upstairs was only one room, a computer sat in the corner with a desk chair, papers strewn across the desk. He was quick to grab them, folding the pages and tucking them into a pocket on his vest. Soap pulled out a USB and stuck it into the computer, quick to transfer the information on the computer into the USB.
While the files transferred, hand still on his gun, he stood up and scanned the rest of the room with his eyes. Not seeing much else besides old food containers, half empty coffee mugs and empty cans of caffeinated drinks. Working like they acted, disgusting, without any care on how other people thought of it. And kinda mouldy.
Just as he was about to turn back around to check on the progress of the file transfer, something caught his eye. In the far corner, shrouded in shadows, a human would probably miss it, though his eyes were made to be able to see in the night so it didn't make to much of a difference for Soap, a couple of vials sat on a side table.
The vials were the same as the sort that hospitals used to store medicine before being extracted by a syringe. The vials held a semi clear liquid, it was a deep yellow, almost luminescent. The only comparison he could think of was glow stick liquid. There were three vials, all full of the same liquid. Behind them sat a syringe, filled with the same liquid.
Soap felt almost giddy, "Jackpot" He let out a small chuckle after. He couldn't help the way his tail wagged excitedly at his findings. He had to stop himself from radioing in the news, he could still hear the shouting from down the stairs and didn't want to throw them off. He carefully put the vials in the same pocket as the papers, hopefully helping to protect the fragile containers, and pocketed the syringe as it still had its cap on.
He quickly turned back to the computer, happily taking the USB and pocketing that too, deciding to go downstairs to help the others.
His shoulder twinged in pain as soon as he raised his gun again, the added weight putting strain on it. He soon reached the bottom of the stairs and turned the corner bracing himself to check a side room for enemies that had decided to hide in a room he wasn't aware was there. A room non of them knew was there, which would explain why it was taking the others so long to finish with the hostiles, his ears swivelled wildly trying to hear for anyone in the room, which he realised was useless as all he could hear was guns shooting. Sniffing the air didn't help either as all he could smell was blood and mould.
Soap barely got a step into the room before he was tackled to the floor, the guys face being so close to Soap's gave him a really good look. The guy was older, definitely in his fifties, he hair was thin and receding. Soap took note of the way his breath stank as he snarled, if it wasn't for the clear lack of ears, Soap would've thought he was a shifter with the way the older man, probably a doctor of sorts considering the lab coat, had his lip curled over his yellowing teeth.
Before the Sergeant could shoot the guy, he refused to call him a doctor, the guy stuck a needle into Soaps thigh, his annoyingly, unprotected thigh. He let out an, admittedly embarrassingly loud whine. He could feel the viscous liquid pump into his blood stream, spreading through his body, his shoulder screamed as it dug into the hard floor, further aggravating the bruise that was most definitely blooming.
As quickly as possible, he shot the not-doctor doctor and gained his bearing, pushing the corpse off of him. Soap didn't stand up, he stayed crouched on one knee, taking deep breath. His head felt like it was full of cotton, he couldn't think properly. He tried his best to be able to hear what was happening but all he could hear was the same deafening sounds of gunshots, not yet calming down. Back up must have showed up for the hostiles.
He could feel the familiar way his bones started to shift, the fact he hadn't consciously wanted to change. The normal comfort and welcoming feeling that normally accompanied the transformation was absent instead it just caused his injured shoulder to protest. His vision started to white out as the unfamiliar pain that came with the transformation became almost unbearable. With his last clear thought, he slid his tac vest off that held all the intel that he'd come across. Best not make this a wasted mission.
-
Price shot from behind the cover of some cabinets, 7 men soon doubled as there was a room on the ground floor that they were not made aware of. Why would any mission go simply? Why would they get all the correct information? That would be too easy for them. Price swears he will start gaining grey hairs more rapidly than having basically two dogs that have the ability to speak and a man with the emotional vulnerability of a fucking walnut on his task force.
Much to Price's rage he had lost one of his soldiers, still young, still in his early twenties, in this gun fight. He could hear Gaz's quiet whines of sadness that had been consistent since he watched the young man's body crumple to the ground but he knew that Gaz knew that these things happen in this line of work.
Price must've gotten distracted in his train of thought as before he knew it, the gun fire had stopped. He looked over to Gaz, had he shot the last guy? Though Gaz looked just as confused, he was in the middle of reloading his gun at the same time as Price. Almost on cue, the other three recruits let out either gasps or even a shout in shock, indicating that it wasn't them either.
"Everything alright in there?" Ghost asked through the radio, not having heard anything for a minute too long. The sudden noise forced Price to blink in surprise and carefully start to look over the table. He heard it before he saw anything, a wet crunch followed by another crunch as something chewed.
He made eye contact with Gaz when the sound reached their ears. Price looked over the cabinets, pausing in slight panic upon seeing a wolf, tearing through the last guy that was shooting at them. The fur pattern was instantly recognisable, it was brown all over, the face was significantly darker though, it's back and tail was also darker, almost black, giving it the illusion of having a natural Mohawk matching his human form.
Soap, it was Soap. Hopefully he had left the intel he had found somewhere safe before he transformed, Price, Gaz and the 3 other recruits stood up slowly, relieved that the gun fight was finally over. The five watched the too large wolf as it chowed down, okay, it was a bit over kill, the guy was clearly already dead…. But so what, it’s never a good idea to take a big wolf’s food.
Price reached for his radio, “Yep, we’re all good. Soap finished them off for us, we’re just taking a quick breather before we head our way up to you.” He informed Ghost, getting a quick, “confirmed.” Probably getting ready to pack away his perch, ready to leave as soon as the others were.
He turned back around, gathering his bearings and taking a deep breath. Looking over to Gaz, he could see the man doing the same His tail swept across the floor gently, riding out the adrenaline rush, his brown fur getting dirt and dust caught in it. "You three, keep watch outside, I don't think they called for backup but I'd rather not tempt fate. Us three will see if we can find any more information they may have left down here, they were pretty keen on getting us out so I imagine they had something they didn't want us to find."
Gaz stood on unsteady legs, crouching in the same position always made his legs numb. There was a reason he wasn't a sniper and it wasn't because he had a bad aim. It took him a second to shake out the pins and needles, ready to hunt through stacks and filing cabinets of paperwork to find any intel that could be of use. How riveting.
He watched Price stand up straight, adjusting his stupid bucket cap and dusting himself off. Gaz was 99.9% sure that Price wore that hat because he knew that everyone else hated it. He let out a huff of amusement at the thought of it, Price sent a tired smile his way while standing up as well.
Gaz looked back over to Soap, watching him hungrily tear apart skin and muscle and his tail wag as soon as he reached the soft tissue that made up the enemies intestines. While it wasn't necessarily something too abnormal for either of them to eat the occasional hostile, normally to erase their tracks and not raise immediate panic in enemy territory. Or the one time they couldn't get exfil for more than a week they had to hunt down patrol that strayed too far from the base they were tasked to watch, they caused some legends about that one particular German forest. They were desperate times though, they didn't enjoy it, let alone wag their tails like a couple of puppies watching their father bring home a fresh hunt.
"You alright there 'Tav? Come on, we need to finish searching down here." Gaz laughed, loud and somewhat anxious. He took a step forward, wanting to greet his friend but stopped when a deep rumbling growl filled the room, deep gold eyes glared at Gaz while flicking back to Price to see if he had moved, a warning. Gaz took slow steps forward, hands up to show his lack of a weapon.
"Gaz, what are you doing?" Price asked with poorly disguised worry. Gaz couldn't open his mouth to reply before a snarl interrupted, Soap eyes never left Gaz even when he stopped moving, moving to stand over his hunt protectively. The golden eyes, ones that were normally an icy blue, seemed to look straight through Gaz, no recognition of seeing his best friend. Soaps ears were flat against his head and eyes squinted slightly in suspicion. Seeing no further movements, Soap dug back into his meal.
Price looked Soap over, to note any possible reason for his change in behaviour. He noticed the way almost no pressure was put on his front, right limb, clearly causing at least some discomfort. Besides that though, he looked fit as a fiddle besides the noticeable eye colour change, that was his next theory, his change in behaviour was most likely related. "He's resource guarding. He's never done that before, not even when we got stuck in Germany for a week." Price wasn't sure if Gaz was talking to him or not but decided to respond anyway. "Could it be PTSD?" He asked, taking an incredibly slow step forward, trying not to alert the other. "Maybe, I can't say for certain but he does look injured. Maybe it triggered a memory?" The two continued to whisper different possibilities for a few minutes.
"Hey guys! Are we ready to head out soon?" One of the recruits came back in, speaking loudly to be heard. The air instantly grew thick with tension, the soldier didn't seem to notice the way the other two stopped talking and eyed Soap warily as he started to growl again his ears flat against his skull. As the recruit made his way around the room curiously only pausing momentarily to stare at the half eaten corpse and its attacker. The silence that followed was almost deafening besides for the, to be honest, terrifying growls.
"Richards, step away slowly. Sargent Mactavish is not feeling himself right." Price's voice whispered loud enough to be heard, he did not want to have two soldiers KIA today. Before any action was made, Soap started to tread quickly towards the younger man with an angry snarl. In what seemed like ill thought out panic, Richards pointed his gun towards the wolf.
"Richards! What do you think you're doing, stand down. Just step away slowly and you should be fine." Price now spoke sternly, not wanting either one of the soldiers to be injured. Soap mostly, but shhh, he didn't have favourites. The captain smiled in relief as Richards lowered his gun with a nod of acknowledgement. Gaz watched as Soap stopped moving as well, sniffing the air carefully. His eyes almost softened looking at the young recruit, seeing the terror on his face, Gaz watched with something akin to guilt as the wolves large head whipped back, in a way that seemed like he just remembered something, he made his back towards their downed soldier, blood still leaking sluggishly out of the body.
Soaps eyes flashed briefly with recognition, he nudged the corpse gently with his snout. With the lack of response he laid down besides the body and gently laid his head on the others chest, whining at not being able to hear a heart beat. Gaz was confident in thinking that Soap was very close to the recruit and had even requested specifically for him to be on this mission. According to Soap he had a lot of promise, a decent shot and very quick on his feet. Gaz supposes that grief breached all mindsets, making it all that much sadder.
Gaz and Price, who must've been thinking something similar, didn't notice the way Richards made his way towards Soap again, not until he was less than a foot away. "It's okay sir, if it helps, he didn't suffer." Before the recruit could say anything else, the wolf, made of 90% muscle was on top of him. Growling and snarling inches from his face. His eyes glowed that same golden colour as before. Richards trembled beneath the towering wolf, who had him pinned down.
"Gaz, do something!" Price was quick to shout, but Gaz had beaten him to it. With only a tear of clothing to indicate a man stood there previously, a wolf, a slightly lighter brown than Soap and slightly smaller, raced towards the two. Gaz snarled as he tackled Soap off of Richards, letting the man scramble away and out the door to join the other two recruits.
"Guys, you are taking too long, I'm gonna start making my way down to you." Ghost said through the radio, his tone clipped, clearly annoyed at waiting so long. Price stayed silent for a moment, watching his two Sargent's at each other's throat. Gaz did have the advantage due to Soaps injured front leg but it was clear that he also was not trying to actively hurt him too majorly. "Yeah, come down here. Something is up with Soap, he just attacked one of the recruits. We might need a hand."
Soap had gotten a couple of lucky bites on Gaz, he was aware of the blood oozing from a bite on his back leg and on his side where Soap had clawed him. Gaz was trying his best not to hurt the other, he just needed to be a distraction until either A. Soap wore himself out. Or B. He came to his senses. Neither of which seemed to be occurring anytime soon. Another bite, this time to his front left leg, left him whining loudly in pain as Soap refused to let go.
Gaz's only option was to bite back, quickly locking his jaws onto the side of his neck, he tugged wildly, desperately but not biting down too hard, just hard enough to get the message across. Until soon Soap let go and stepped back, at first Gaz was relieved, maybe he had realised what he was doing, or at least got bored with him. It took him a moment to regain his composure, his whole body was screaming in pain, every bite burned and it didn't help where a bullet had grazed his shoulder from earlier as well.
He soon got back to his feet though, trying to pin point where the larger wolf had sulked off too. His eyes widened as he saw Soap stalk slowly and silently towards Price, who was talking into the radio, probably informing Ghost of the situation. Quickly Gaz stumbled forward, as fast he could with his minor injuries. Just as Soap was about to jump, Gaz intercepted. He jumped on top of Soap, ignoring the way his limbs screamed in protest. He pushed a paw down onto the others right shoulder, earning a pained yelp, good, a weak spot. It made Gaz feel ill at the thought but it had to be done, purposely hurting a teammate. He bit down harshly on the back of his neck too, to hopefully minimise any attempt to fight back.
Almost instantly all fight left Soaps body, his ears pinned back on his head and tail tucked between his legs in submission. It broke Kyle's heart a bit but he didn't want to risk letting go.
Quickly enough, Ghost bursts in, his gun at the ready only to lower it upon seeing the situation. His eyes darted to Price first, who stood stock still, panic still in his eyes from what just occurred a foot away from him.
Next was Gaz, his form shook as he held the giant wolf down. Ghost couldn't quite tell if the shaking was because of the adrenaline or the clear amount of pain he should be in. His eyes were scared and full of guilt, just looking forward blankly, probably re-playing the whole scenario in his head. Ghost new that was something he liked to do after missions, to see where he went wrong and needed to improve. They'd talk to him about it later.
Soap was last, his beautiful blue eyes looked around in a panic, he wasn't sure on what was happening, letting out an occasional whine. He looked from the floor to the ceiling to the windows, to Price, his eyes lingered there and finally, to Ghost. Ghost could tell he was scared, confused and probably hurting somewhere. At that moment Ghost knew the next few days were gonna be long ones. He quickly pulled out a muzzle specially made for Soap, Gaz also had one with his measurements. Legally they had to take them on each mission the boys were on for some reason, Ghost supposed scenarios like this. Soap whined at seeing it but didn't further fight it. "Sorry Johnny, but your gonna have to keep that on until we get this figured out." As soon as it was securely strapped on, Gaz let go and made his way to be able to look Soap in the eye. He practically collapsed in relief at seeing the friendly blue over the cold and unfeeling gold. He happily nuzzled against Soap, only to stop when he flinched back with a whine. Gaz wasn't offended, he knew it was not aimed at him but it still hurt to think that his friend didn't think he deserved such kindness. That was Gaz's last thought before he promptly passed out, a mixture of blood loss, exhaustion and the end of an adrenaline rush adding to the sheer amounts of pain he was in.
Price carefully picked Gaz up, hauling him over his shoulder, "You done good pup, you can rest." He whispered with kindness. He watched as Soap realised his surroundings again, at least he wasn't going to try and kill them again, hopefully. As Ghost was pulling out a leash, that was more of just a rope, that they had to carry around for similar reasons to the muzzles, Soap dashed out of the room. Price heard Ghost growl and mutter something under his breath along the lines of, 'stupid mutt.' They both followed him out of the room and into a side room that was unaccounted for, both Price and Ghost exchanged a look before entering. Inside wasn't a lot, a table and a few chairs. Oh, and the corpse of a doctor on the floor, great. Price's eyes landed on Soap about a meter away, pawing at a tactical vest that was clearly his. Ghost picked it up, going through the pockets, finding the paperwork and glancing over it. It was pretty standard stuff, some more of the same things they had found previously. Until Soap nodded at the vest again, clearly knowing something they did not. Ghosts hand fished out the vials as well as the syringe, both Ghosts and Price's eyes lit up looking back down at Soap, who still held that sad, guilt ridden look. Ghost knelt down to be on his partners level, "You done good pup. I'm proud." Ghost scratched the top of the other's head, earning a happy thump of a tail.
"I'm sorry, but have to leash you now. Just because of what happened to make sure you aren't a possible threat to anyone else." Ghost attached the lead to the muzzle by design but just knelt there, not look away, just keeping eye contact with a sad look in his eyes. "I'm sorry to break this up but I'm an old man and Gaz is not light, can we move pleas. That earned a hearty chuckle from Ghost and an amused huff from Soap as they turned back around to leave.