Author Notes: Thanks to everyone who read and to the one who reviewed. :D Its much appreciated. This chapter is a bit longer and there's some action to wet your appetites for the upcoming stuff. :) Enjoy!


Study your enemies. Learn their weaknesses. Blend in. When the time is right…STRIKE.

Whisper's eyes snapped opened as the words echoed in her mind. She held her breath and squinted across the darkness at her bunkmate. But Merrow was still fast asleep, snoring quietly. The tight breath escaped as Whisper sat up carefully and a brief glance at the clock sitting on her nightstand told her it was still a little early.

She shakily put a hand to her face and concentrated on just breathing. Meditation had always been her escape, but the words always came back to her. They had been drilled into her for so long, beaten in with blood and pain.

"But I am not among enemies. I am among allies. I am not one of them anymore," she thought hard to herself. That personal mantra beat back the words in her head. Noiselessly, Whisper scooted out of her bed and decided to get dressed as it was only an hour before she had to get up anyway. Silent as a ghost, she pulled on a pair of black sweats and dark blue cross over top. A red neckerchief, carefully adjusted, finished off the attire.

Giving another glance at Merrow to make sure the other woman was still asleep, Whisper quietly padded out of their room. Once outside, she pondered on what to do next. Perhaps a visit to the gym to get herself warmed up before the physical exam. It was technically late for the Joes perhaps, Hawk had been somewhat generous in allowing the Europeans some time to try and adjust to the timezone change.

There were already a few Joes in the gym though the only one Whisper recognized was the one named Cover Girl. The said Joe was chatting with another woman with brunette hair and a generous bosom as they both ran on treadmills. There were two men over by the weights and judging by the tone and volume of their voices, were in a heated discussion with each other.

"Hey hey! You're one of the new Joes right?" Whisper's head swung around as a very large man approached her. He wore a vest that left his chest bare to show off the massive Marines tattoo on his chest. She nodded at him in answer and then pointed at her throat with a shake of her head. "Ah, a mute too huh?"

Whisper had working knowledge of ASL though she rarely used it and it showed in her somewhat jerky finger movements. "Yes, I apologize if my ASL is a little hard to understand. I don't use it very often back home." Her intelligence training told her to ignore warming up for now; perhaps learning about her teammates would be more beneficial. "I am Whisper."

The Marine smiled broadly. "Name's Gung Ho." He noted her curious glance to the other people in the room. "Oh well, lemme get you introduced to some of us! That's Cover Girl and Lady Jaye over there on the treadmills." The two women waved to Whisper, who returned the gesture, though with less enthusiasm. "The bickering married couple back there are Wetsuit and Leatherneck," Gung Ho continued with a jerk of his thumb. His comment earned him an in synced flipping off from the two men. "Ignore them, they always are like that."

Whisper carefully kept her expression blank as she took a seat on an empty bench as Cover Girl gave her a grin. "So Whisper, what branch of the military are you from?"

"Intelligence Corps." Whisper noted the look that Lady Jaye was giving her. "I'd rather not be called by our other nickname thank you." The other woman smirked, earning a confused look from Cover Girl and Gung Ho. "Also some work for MI6."

"It's a rather unflattering nickname for sure. I'll let the others figure it out." Lady Jaye gave a quiet chuckle as her treadmill slowed and she wiped her face with a towel. "But you're a spook huh?"

"I suppose that is one way of putting it," Whisper signed a little curtly. "Someone has to do the work." She glanced at the clock and noticed she had just enough time to make it to the infirmary for her physical checkup, guess walking here had taken her more time then she had thought. "I'm sorry but I have a schedule to keep. Perhaps we can do more introductions later?" She stopped herself from dodging when Gung Ho clapped a large hand on her shoulder.

"No problem cher! Plenty of talkin' for us and getting to know our fellers from across the pond!" Whisper gave a small internal sigh; she never did well with people who were as highly energized like this. Some nimble movement and she removed herself from Gung Ho's grip, a polite gesture later and she was already out of the gym.

She wanted to make sure that Merrow was up and headed back to their shared room. But she found the Navy woman just exiting as the door came into view. Merrow gave Whisper a jaunty wave as the intelligence agent caught up and they both headed in the direction of the infirmary.

"Blimey, I hope we don't get poked and prodded too much. Not a good way to start the day in my opinion." Whisper gave a small nod in agreement. "And good thing we're having grub after being tossed like flapjacks. I don't think I want to have a reputation as the lady who wasted good vittles by puking them up." Merrow grinned at the slightly perplexed look that Whisper shot her. "Now don't get yer knickers in a twist, I'm just kidding. Think the gents are up?"

Whisper shrugged, it was fine if the ladies got to go first for their examinations anyway. Once the two made it to the infirmary, they met more Joes. First was the soft spoken Doc, who Whisper immediately took a liking to. The other medic on duty was Lifeline who was dressed in an outfit that provoked a comment from Merrow.

"Really? Bright red? Are ye purposefully putting a target on yer ass?" Merrow dubiously looked Lifeline up and down. The man in question gave a small grin. With his glasses and floppy black hair, he honestly looked very non-threatening. He was also a tad on the short side, at about Whisper's height, though Merrow was shorter then him still.

"I want to be identified as a medic while out on the field." Whisper was now sharing Merrow's look as they both stared at him. "I'm a pacifist so I don't carry weapons. At least I have a slight chance of people choosing not to shoot at me?"

Whisper gave a small snort as Merrow's look deepened. *In my experience, medics tend to get shot at first.* Doc shook his head at Lifeline's small pout.

"Whisper, I'll be examining you. Lifeline can check you out Merrow." The dark skinned doctor made a gesture to indicate Whisper take one of the private bays. She did so at the last comment from Merrow about something concerning "right no needles or we're going to have problems" before Doc pulled the curtain shut.

The exam itself was exactly as Whisper expected, checking of heart rate and all the mundane things to make sure she was in top shape. She tensed though when Doc stared at her feet and the network of scars that laced over them. The scars were greatly faded with age, but their pattern made it obvious that there were deliberately made. He gave her a questioning look but she merely shook her head at him as she pulled her socks back on. She gave an internal sigh of relief when he chose not to comment and proclaimed her fit for duty as he leafed through her file.

"So do you have partial or complete voice loss?" Whisper held up two of her fingers in a pinching gesture. "Oh so you can speak a little, but I assume it's stressful on your vocal cords?" She nodded. "Well that shouldn't be a problem. One of our resident ninjas is a mute himself so a fair number of us know sign language." He caught her staring at him intensely. "Yes, I said ninja. In fact, we have four of them."

Whisper hid a scowl as she nodded again. She gave him a small bow of thanks as he swept the curtain back again just in time to see Merrow was complete with her exam as well.

"Excuse ye, my small size happens to be an asset to me. I'll let ye know right now that anyone that has tried to call me tiny or short regrets it!" Merrow huffed as Whisper's lip twitched. The fiery Irishwoman was starting to grow on her.

"Careful, if you were any smaller, the Royal Navy could use you as a mascot." Merrow scowled as Big Ben's voice floated through the door. The man in question appeared with a wide grin while Stone was behind him with a barely hidden amused expression.

"All the better to reach people's shins with." Merrow's scowl was still in place, but she had a playful light in her eyes as she shoved Big Ben in the stomach. "Blimey, yer built like a rock." She grinned at Stone when he raised an eyebrow at her. "You two should switch names." With a chuckle, she gently took Whisper's wrist and pulled the both of them out of the infirmary. At Whisper's questioning look, she shrugged. "Hey, he's easy on the eyes and he's got a sense of humor when he isn't trying to be all stoic and proper." Whisper dodged the elbow to the ribs from her. "Oh come on, you gotta admit those two blokes are pretty fine."

*Frat regs Merrow.* Whisper was already signing before she remembered that Merrow didn't understand BSL, but Merrow had narrowed her eyes at her.

"And don't ye use that frat regs nonsense on me. If ye haven't noticed, I don't think this entire unit is exactly on the straight line. Besides, nothing wrong with looking." She clapped Whisper on the shoulder when the taller women gave a slight sigh. "Now we just gotta wait for the blokes and then we get to see who we're getting into a proper tussle with."


Whisper had to admit she had been a tiny bit surprised to find a fully functional dojo in the Pit. There were already some Joes milling about, probably waiting for the hand to hand class to begin. Though they had not officially started their duties here, it seemed that the class would serve to also allow the instructors to assess the skills of the new Joes. She was only glad she was wearing the pants she was, they somewhat hid the scars on her feet. Socks were not a good idea to wear on a mat unless you wanted to lose your footing.

Speaking of the instructors, she could only assume the three Joes standing in the middle of the dojo mat had to be them. One was a very fit woman with intense scarlet hair, but it was the other two that caught the foursome's gaze, particularly Whisper's.

One was dressed in all black, save for the silver shine of his visor. He presented an overall fearsome appearance. The other…well, he was dressed in what could only be described as stereotypical ninja attire, all in stark white. Wonderful…actual ninjas.

"Alright everyone listen up, as you can see looks like our new Joes are here. I want everyone to get an idea of how our new teammates fight so pay attention." The red haired woman looked at the Europeans. "My name is Scarlett. I'm one of the hand to hand trainers here. This is Snake Eyes," she indicted the one in all black who gave them a small wave. "The one in white is Storm Shadow." The man in question gave them a penetrating look.

"I dun like the look that white one is giving us," Merrow muttered to Whisper, "like a cat sizing up a batch of mice." Whisper nodded agreement but didn't take her eyes off Storm Shadow as Scarlett continued talking.

"Alright, so who wants to go first?" There was a pause as the four looked at each other and came to a decision without words. Big Ben raised his hand first. "SAS fighter right?

Big Ben gave a small grin as he stood up to head to the center of the mat to face Scarlett. Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow stood off to opposite sides where they could observe. "Well as our motto says, who dares wins." Whisper sat up a little straighter, she wanted to pay attention to everything that was to happen. But something told her this wasn't going to end well for her teammates.

Whisper was surprised she could learn so much in such a short amount of time. Short because the three people that went before her honestly were handily handed their asses to them by the Joe instructors. Big Ben had proven to be mostly a brawler which still didn't help him as Scarlett had thrown him to the mat several times before locking his arm into a submission hold that forced him to give up. Merrow was the same, though she had given Scarlett a bit of a run for her money with her quick footwork and almost got a few lock holds on the Joe. Scarlett ended up having to almost sit on the Irishwoman, who finally gave up amidst a quiet torrent of language.

Stone had surprised Whisper a bit. He was not a brawler and his form she had recognized as Savate mixed with some Krav Magna. He managed to last the longest against Scarlett, but he too as defeated when she swept his legs out of under him and he had chosen not to get back up with a comment that he knew he was outclassed. Now she was the only one left…and she was facing Storm Shadow.

She hid her dislike of the entire situation behind a set jaw and bowed to the white clad ninja, who was radiating just a bit too much smug confidence then she liked. A deep breathe through her nose and she shoved away all her emotions. She felt her heart settle into a steady beat and her focus sharpened. Storm Shadow had taken an offensive stance, no doubt waiting for her to make the first move.

But Whisper didn't. Instead she planted her feet slightly apart and lightly crossed her arms over her chest. Her chestnut eyes were hard as she stared down at Storm Shadow. There was some muttering from the other Joes when they noticed she still had not made an attack on him, and out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Scarlett and Snake Eyes share a glance. Storm Shadow looked confused, then impatient.

"What, are you afraid? I promise that I won't hurt you…too badly." His tone normally would have brought out a note of annoyance from Whisper, but she felt nothing. She didn't break her eye contact with him, causing him to actually sound impatient as he glared at her. "Hit me!"

Whisper finally shook her head. It looked like she would have to actively provoke him. Her ASL, though shaky, conveyed her flat tone. *I would have thought a ninja was supposed to take advantage of making the first move. Perhaps your reputation is sorely overclass-*

That did it; Storm Shadow sprang at her, too fast for anyone to see.

Or anyone that hadn't had the brutal training that Whisper herself had gone through since her earliest memory. She saw his arm come at her with a strike and instinct took over. She did a short hop to avoid the strike, and at the same time her right arm came up, then down in a powerful chop right on top of his forearm. She barely heard the shouts of surprise from some of the other Joes as she felt her opponent's arm vibrate from the force of her blow. But he was good; he recovered with a spinning kick even as his nerveless arm was pulled back.

Her other arm was already up and her wrist blocked the kick. Whisper's leg shifted forward, and she allowed the momentum of his kick to transition her block into a hold on his ankle as she swung him around her. Storm Shadow recovered yet again with a brief roll that brought him back onto his feet. His eyes were now lacking any of that mocking light he had held before; instead they were now hard and giving her a calculating look as he shook feeling back into the arm she had struck.

"YEA' WHISPER KICK HIS ARSE!" Merrow had one hand cupped around her mouth as she whooped. Big Ben and Stone were simply looking at her with a mixture of awe and surprise. Whisper was so focused on the fight forever that she barely noticed. Storm Shadow attacked again and Whisper made to counter.

But his attack was a feint. His arm pulled back as he closed the distance on her and she gave a small grunt of surprise when she felt him seize her by the arm to throw her. Whisper's hands came out through as she did a back handspring and slammed her feet to the mat, planting herself again. Her blood was roaring in her ears as her hands were brought up and her fingers curled into claws.

"That's enough!" At the sharp commend, Whisper immediately snapped out her trance. Her hands settled back at her sides as Storm Shadow also relaxed from his stance, his gaze never leaving her. She looked sideways at Scarlett, the one who shouted. The woman was giving her an odd look too. As for Snake Eyes…his visor hid his eyes but Whisper was sure he was also giving her an intense look. "I think we've seen enough…we'll divvy you all up into the appropriate classes." Scarlett gave another long glance at Whisper before making a gesture to dismiss the new Joes.


"LASSIE! What the hell was that? You've been holding out on us!" Merrow clapped a hand around Whisper's shoulder, nearly causing the intelligence agent to drop her tray. Stone shot a hand out to steady the tray and Whisper gave him a grateful look as they finally began picking out their breakfast. She gave a sigh as she loaded her tray with toast, scrambled eggs, and oatmeal. Merrow was still chattering when the four of them chose an empty table to sit out, Stone and Big Ben sitting opposite of the women. Out of the corner of her eyes, Whisper could see people staring and whispering, though mostly their gazes were on her. No doubt her little demonstration in hand to hand had already spread through the Pit like wildfire. "I mean the rest of us got tossed like bad salad, but you! You actually stood your own!" Merrow snapped her fingers. If only Scarlett had let the fight go on just a wee longer…"

Whisper suppressed a wince as she occupied herself with the oatmeal. *I would rather not have had the fight go on any longer.* Stone gave her a look that she couldn't read as he translated her, if she had to take a guess though, it was sympathetic.

She in turn didn't want to expand on her cryptic answer. It had been a very long time since she had been in a fight like that. That emptiness that she had felt along with the complete focus tinged with…it brought back some bad memories. Merrow seemed oblivious until Big Ben poked her in the forehead to detract her from her rambling and instead got her rambling at him instead. Whisper just let out a breath as she poured a little milk into her oatmeal and tucked in. She had barely gotten her first spoon in her mouth when a loud voice made her jump. This time is was she managed to keep a grip on her spoon.

"HEEEEY! So I heard you actually almost made Storm Shadow sweat!" Whisper whirled around in alarm to see Gung Ho sitting at the table behind her along with a few other Joes. One of them grumbled as he dug into his pocket to dig out a couple of bills and slap them into Gung Ho's hand. "I told you Ace that she was gunna be a tough one." Ace in turned rolled his eyes.

Whisper simply bunched up her shoulders and tried to make her profile as small as possible. She was wishing fervently now that she was sitting next to Big Ben. Damn it all, perhaps she shouldn't have done that in hand to hand. But the thought was instantly shoved aside; it was her obligation to allow her teammates to know her capabilities. So, she just gave a shrug instead, but didn't relax her shoulders as she tried to concentrate on breakfast. Another Joe suddenly plopped down in the empty seat next to Stone and clapped the man around the shoulder. This one was big with dark hair and eyes. The blue sleeves of his shirt were rolled up to reveal the anchor tattoo. If that wasn't enough to peg him as Navy, the sailor's hat on his head just sealed the deal.

"I for one, welcome our limey friends to our shores. And Storm Shadow needs someone else who can knock him down a peg…YEOWCH," the sailor yelped as Stone seized one of his fingers and bent it enough to make the other man unwrap his arm.

"Right, mind not doing that chap? I don't want to waste good toast," Stone said nonchalantly as he released the Joe's finger. "Where I come from, we do proper introductions before we try to get chummy."

Dusty had slid into the free seat next to Whisper and he had enough sense to notice her discomfort to wink at her.

"Nice going Shipwreck. You realize that Storm Shadow is going to find out you said that and probably drill you in to the mat in the next hand to hand class." Shipwreck immediately looked around him for the white ninja, but saw no sign of him. Dusty snickered as the sailor gave him a dirty look. "Hey just a fair warning."

"Yeah yeah, but dang I didn't know that the limeys actually came in pretty nice loo-" Whisper's mood dropped further and she did NOT want to deal with this. Before Shipwreck could finish his sentence, she fixed her gaze on him. She narrowed her right eye and her lips set in a hard line. Her icy glare stopped Shipwreck cold. He sputtered something that was unintelligible before he tried to make as much as graceful an exit as he could, trying very hard not to make eye contact with Whisper. Only until he had retreated to a table on the other side of the mess hall did she relax her glare.

Merrow snorted. "Ye have to teach me how to glare like that." Whisper gave a tiny snort. "Oh, trade secret eh?"

Big Ben looked down at his tray and shook his head as he changed the subject. "Wot I would give for a proper nosh…" Merrow made a face at him as she glared at her milk.

"It's a shame that the milk in this country is so bland and dead, but if you look hard, you can find good milk." Merrow snickered at the look Dusty was shooting her before she noted that Whisper still had not relaxed her shoulders. "Oiy Whisper, relax before ye get stuck like that." She got a flat look in return. "Oh don't give me that, not good posture is wot ye've got there."

Whisper merely shook her head and once again started on her breakfast. This was proving to be trying.


"Now this I am familiar with," Big Ben grinned as he carefully cocked the rifle that lay in his lap. The SAS fighter looked over the weapon with practiced eyes and hands. Whisper could hear him through the racks of weapons in the quartermaster's storage as she hunted around for her personal case. She made an exasperated huff when she found it, buried under a pile of other crates. She poked her head around the rack.

Merrow chuckled at Big Ben as she also went over the rifle that she was holding. "I just like ye more and more tommy, a big man who likes big guns." She laughed louder as Big Ben gave her an incredulous look. "Something the matter?"

Big Ben narrowed his eyes at her, but there humorous light in his eyes as he shook his head at her. Whisper cleared her throat to catch their attention. *Sorry to interrupt, but could someone help me? Some blighter buried my case underneath a bunch of crates and I'm not strong enough to move them.* She gave another low growl as Big Ben and Stone stood up to come over where she was. In short order, they had managed to shift the crates enough so that she could slide the silvery case out. The case itself was about half as long as she was tall.

"Shipped your own shinies did ye?" Whisper gave Merrow another flat look as she unlatched the case's lid and opened it. "…wait a tick, is that a BLOODY SWORD?"

Whisper hid her grin as she did indeed pull out a sword, a Jian sword to be exact. Unlike the ones that perhaps most people were familiar with, this weapon was not made for showmanship. As she drew it from its black leather sheath; the narrow blade gleamed in the fluorescent light of the room and was free of any decorations. The hilt was also bound in black leather and the pommel had the one sole decoration, a Chinese character stamped on both sides. Along with the sword were throwing knives that were neatly packed into both a thigh and wrist holders.

Big Ben gave an appreciative whistle. "Remind me to be glad that you're on our side lass." Whisper gave him a twitch of her lips as she repacked everything after making sure they had survived their trip unscathed. This had cheered her mood considerably.


The rest of the day had been spent with Stone and Whisper giving an impromptu BSL and ASL lesson to Big Ben and Merrow in the rec room. Whisper was not surprised to learn that Stone knew ASL as well. The man seemed to like pulling secrets out bit by bit. They also swapped a few stories, where of course, Stone and Whisper gave them the "it's classified" excuse for telling the others so little.

Whisper had only given that she was originally from China before immigrating to England. She had started her military career as young as possible had garnered her skills from there. She didn't give any more than that.

Stone had rubbed the back of his neck before he admitted he had originally served in the Paras before he transferred to the intelligence agency he had worked for before joining the Joes. Merrow grinned when she gave the story of how she had held her breath longer than any other cadet in her class and also had set a small swim record despite being weighed down. Also the time she had made her sergeant clamp his jaw shut when she was able to perform a water rescue with a man twice her size.

Big Ben had surprised them all when he told them of how he had qualified for the SAS. Whisper knew that one of the tests the potentials were put through was the Long Drag. Thirty miles of forced march over marshland and hilly country while carrying sixty pounds of gear. The participants were given only twenty hours to complete the whole thing; it was the ultimate test of endurance and landmark navigation.

To learn that Big Ben not only completed it in twelve hours, but had also taken the time to have a light supper and then volunteered to go back out to look for lost recruits? Yes, that had been impressive even by Whisper's standards.

Merrow had given him an appreciative look after punching him in the shoulder before the thing she had been trying to learn reminded her to look down. She clapped a hand over her eyes and squinted through her fingers at the flash cards laid out before her. "Ugh, one finger sign looks like the other." She glared at Stone when he chuckled. "Dun give me that, I'll figure it out!"

Stone in turn flicked up a card with the BSL sign for the letter H. "Then wot is this one my dear Merrow?" She squinted hard at the card in his hand and then deliberately looked him in the eye.

"That's the letter H." She grinned widely as Stone clapped her on the shoulder and gave her a shake of congratulations. "See I told ye!"

Whisper gave her a thumbs up. She was glad that at least her group would be able to understand her. So far she was still unsure amidst the company of people who had strange accents and a certain lack of sanity.

"So what do you make of the Joes so far," Big Ben questioned quietly as he helped to clean up the cards. He glanced around the rec room, luckily it was so noisy with all the off duty Joes starting to gather up that it was a low chance that they would be overheard. They got some glances, but it seemed the Joes had decided to leave them be for now.

"Right balmy lot they are. At least things around here aren't going to be boring anytime soon." Merrow shrugged her shoulders and stretched her arms over her head. "I'm not looking forward to PT tomorrow morning. Wot's her name…Covergirl? Told me to prepare to get dirty."

Whisper's ears perked. She enjoyed a physical challenge so perhaps she did not hold the same ideas of PT like others did. It was just another thing that seemed to isolate her from others she noted with resigned logic.

The group decided to turn in early; being sleep deprived would not help them in the morning. Merrow threw Big Ben for another loop when she gave him a peck on the cheek. He had sputtered a little bit before Stone had taken him by the arm and steered him swiftly away. The women could hear the SAS fighter whispering something fiercely to Stone that had prompted the taller man to laugh at him.

"He makes it too easy. Besides, have yet to hear him to tell me ta stop," Merrow snickered as the two made their way back to their room. Whisper rolled her eyes slightly in return. "Aw don't give me that. Ye need to learn how to relax missy."

*Somehow I think our ideas of relaxing are very different from each other.* Whisper signed slowly for Merrow's benefit as the Irishwoman stuck her tongue out at her as she punched in the code for their room. Merrow threw herself onto the bed as both began to dress for sleep. Whisper noted that Merrow was giving her scarred feet that curious look but Merrow tactfully chose not to comment and instead gave Whisper a playful grin.

"Psh, you never know. Anyway, ready for a real day tomorrow?" Whisper gave a noncommittal shrug as she quickly rolled herself up into her blankets. The misgivings she had had from the morning slowly faded away as she forced herself to sleep. If she had taken another moment look at Merrow, she might have seen the look of concern that passed over the woman's face before Merrow too rolled over.