Location: Hereford, UK

Date: March 12, 2020

Emmanuelle was busy typing away on a keyboard as she took occasional glances up on the large monitor in front of her. She was busy setting up the simulation that the operatives would be using today. She paid no mind to the sound of the door opening behind her with a set of footsteps approaching until a cup of coffee was set down beside her. She turned a glance to see Gustave to her left, wearing a bulky blue white coat with blue patches on the outside and interior of the jacket. His head was messy and dark circles from long nights setting up the new sub unit within the team. Emmanuelle smiled and nodded her head as thanks and took a sip of the coffee. It was a bit too sweet for her liking, but said nothing about it as she finished typing the code. The Frenchwoman leaned back and swung around to face Gustave, who was taking a glance at the operators who were up for the simulation. A small look of distaste was clear as he took a look at the last operator–something Emmanuelle anticipated.

"Gus, please." she started, rising up from her chair; "Set this little issue aside."

"Little?" the doctor snapped his attention to her for a second before pointing at the screen; "Tell me why Olivier is here? Wolfguard was set up with the ideals of humanitarianism. I had specifically requested the operatives who could fit that from Harry. So why is he here?"

"It was a last minute inclusion by Harry, Gustave." Emmanuelle answered, rubbing her temples. The squabble between the GIGN doctor and the CBRN operative was migraine inducing ever since she had unfortunately found herself being constantly caught in the center of all their heated arguments. Gustave raised his hands up in defeat as he paced for a moment. "We can discuss this another time, right now we have a simulation to perform, Gustave."

"I will discuss this with Harry afterwards." he muttered under his breath. Calming down for a moment, he turned around to look at Emmanuelle; "Tell them to set up."

"Oui."


On the ground level of the simulation entrance were a set of operators all dawning a set of white and blue attire, with a large logo of the new Wolfguard unit. The operators were all doing last minute preparation and talking amongst themselves. While the unit was organized and filled with many veteran operatives within Rainbow over the years-those such as Gilles "Montagne" Toure, Sanaa "Nomad" El Maktoub and the aforementioned Olivier "Lion" Flament-there were a few new faces who had joined the organization as a response to the growing issues in the world like the developing fight in the country of Kastovia. Two of these new operatives were Mina "Thunderbird" Sky and Neon "Sens" Mutombo. Neon was busy bobbing their head along to music they had playing on their earbuds, quietly humming along to it. Her actions caught the attention of Olivier who had been beside them, finking with his EE-One-D. Seeing the new member in their own world as the faint sound of the music blasting in their earbuds earned a small chuckle from the Frenchman. He gently nudged them, snapping Neon from their personal concert. They turned their head to see Olivier.

"What's up?" Neon raised an eyebrow and asked as they removed one of their earbuds, pausing the music. Their accent was pretty thick making it obvious that English was not their first language as well as having a cheery tone. The last bit was something that caught Olivier a bit off guard but was a welcomed change from most of his interactions in Rainbow.

"You were in your own world for a moment. I thought that I should pull you back to Earth." the Frenchman joked with a small grin forming. A small laugh escaped Neon's lips as they put their earbuds away.

"Well, thank you for doing that…"

"Oliver." he offered a hand, with the Belgian gladly taking it and giving a firm handshake.

"Neon at your service, Olivier." They said in a playful manner, putting one leg over the other and shifting in their seat for a moment to face the taller Frenchman.

"You are new here, oui?" he asked. The person's actions caught his attention

"You would be right." she smiled. They motioned over towards Gilles, who was polishing up the clear visor of his helmet. "The big man there along with Madam Pichon came all the way from here to get me to come along–that was not something I would have expected."

"I have a long history with Gilles and Emmanuelle." Olivier smiled, nudging Gilles, who turned around to face the two. He nodded his head as a silent greeting and set his helmet aside, listening to their conversation. Neon rolled her eyes at the older GIGN's stoicism. "Eh, just stick by me and him and you will be alright, rookie."

"Alright, how close do you want me to stick to you?" Neon playfully asked. A smirk grew on their face seeing Olivier fluster a bit at the comment. Neon patted his back and laughed; "I am only playing with you, mon ami. You are too serious."

"Playing…right." Olivier repeated silently to himself and cleared his throat. "And yes I take my job seriously, we cannot risk anyone harmed."

"I don't mean the work." Neon shook their head. They paused for a second as the intercom made a small sound, signaling for the operators to enter the simulation room. Neon got up from her seat, slinging her rifle around their shoulder and faced Olivier; "I mean you need to loosen up a bit–you are afraid of letting go of that tough guy attitude and it shows."

Olivier remained silent, which was all Neon needed to know they were right. They walked over and patted his shoulder; "I'll see you in the simulation room, Olivier."

With that, they were gone. Oliver let out a deep sigh as he sank in his seat for a moment thinking of the words they had told him. How easy it seemed that Neon was able to see through–their overall attitude to him. The Frenchman turned around to see the smug grin on Gilles' face. Oliver sat back up and scoffed.

"What is with that look?" he raised his tone a bit to make it seem like he was angry. Gilles however shook his head and chuckled as he got up from his chair, brandishing his prized riot shield. He gave one more look at Olivier and smiled.

"You, me and Neon will make a good team." he said, motioning him to follow–which Oliver did, grabbing his rifle and mumbling to himself.

"The simulation will be a hostage extraction in an abandoned facility." Gustave's voice spoke up over the speaker to the ground operatives. "Thunderbird and Nomad will both be on reconnaissance and exfil. Montagne, Sens…and Lion will go inside of the facility and extract the hostage."

Lion scoffed at the Wolfguard's leader's apparent reluctance to mention him. It was no secret there was bad blood between the two men–something that was known to no end by all the operatives in the unit. Sens however was taken back. 'This was something I need to ask later' was all that came to their mind. After a moment the group all placed on their VR gear as they waited for the simulation to begin. Emmanuelle typed some commands on the keyboard, giving a look at Gustave. The French doctor gave a thumbs up–signal that it was all good to go. With that, the French woman readied up the simulation. The five operators found themselves away from the large and empty room to a facility in the middle of nowhere. It was left to rot away as seen with the broken windows, faded and chipped off paint and many old containers and other items left covered in sand and other debris. Sens seeing the VR simulations for the first time was admittedly taken back and marveled at how real it appeared. The other four however began to make a move on what they were ordered earlier by Doc.

"Clocks ticking guys." Thunderbird said as she readied her rifle; "Nomad and I will hang near the exfil zone and provide cover when we can."

"Copy." Lion said as he fished out the large EE-One-D drone and set it down on the ground. He lifted his left arm up and pressed on the wrist device–in no time the drone came to life, the rotors began to whirr up and helped to get the drone airborne. Sens looked with some joy as they saw the drone fly high up in the air and position itself in the center of the area as a whole. Lion took note and smiled seeing the Belgian's child like joy. "Big Brother all set up."

"Stay safe in there." Nomad said as she and Thunderbird split off from the three. Montagne motioned to Lion and Sens as they made their way towards the facility. The large Frenchman extended his shield to cover him from head to toe as they entered the front door. Lion and Sens scanned the corners with their 417 rifles, no sign of the enemies yet. Montagne took some steps further in, towards a large hallway and in a split second was faced with a flurry of bullets. The terrorists were blind firing from the different doors and at the three operatives. Montagne stood his ground, applying more weight to hold back the bullets and be the cover the other two needed as they returned some shots back. Sens grabbed a small circular device that was on their chest and prepped it.

"This should help us out. Get ready mon amis." they said as they rolled it along the floor. As the wheel rolled, it dropped a set of small devices behind it. Once two of them were set down close to one another, a large light screen formed and was filled with a distorted image that was meant to resemble that of a smoke grenade. The wheel continued to roll out, with each hit on the wall making it rotate to the other direction in a zigzag pattern. The two men were a bit taken back from the new gadget they now had in their arsenal but Sens was quick to act by placing a telescopic lens over their left eye, which helped them see through the light projections and get some targets down. They began to move up, using their light walls as cover, casually humming to themselves the same song they were listening to earlier, they aimed and fired their pistol to great effect. Lion and Montagne pushed up via another angle as the two came across another set of terrorists who were not expecting the two.

Gustave and Emmanuelle looked on at the screens, the Wolfguard leader was impressed so far with the display the unit was performing in the simulation, mostly with the newest member being able to quickly adapt to their new team. The French-Algerian crossed his arms as he glanced over to see Montagne and Lion's view, seeing the two Frenchmen take out the terrorists like nothing. He pondered for a moment before he looked over at Emmanuelle.

"I already know what you're gonna ask me, Gus." the Frenchwoman said as she continued to type on the keyboard; "You want to make it more challenging for them."

"Hm. How did you know I was going to ask that?" Doc chuckled, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Because you wanna push everyone–also because you want to see Olivier get shot at least one time in this."

Gustave scoffed at the last comment, even if she did in fact have some merit in her claim. Emmanuelle rolled her eyes as she began to type in the larger threat into the simulation. Doc reached for the microphone to speak to the operators.

"Wolfguard, come in." he spoke up; "The hostage is on the second floor. You window is closing to extract him."

"Lion here. We're almost there…" Lion responded as he was busy choking out one of the terrorists to knock him out cold with Montagne providing cover. The older man looked on to the knocked out and dead bodies that Sens had left clearing the area out. Lion looked over and was likewise impressed by the new member's efficiency. "Sens knows how to hit hard." he looked over to Montagne, who smiled and nodded his head in agreement as Sens kicked a person off them, letting out an exhausted sigh. They turned around to see Lion and Montagne looking back and seeing their display. Sens simply replied with a shrug and a small grin.

"You two were taking too long." they simply answered with. Once again they moved forward together with Montagne taking the lead.

"You all remember the parameters." Doc spoke up once again; "Lion, remember to contact Nomad and Thunderbird on your way out."

"I know. Secure the VIP, rendezvous with the rest of Wolfguard, get home in time for dinner." Lion rolled his eyes; "I'll remember to get you some flowers too if that makes you happy."

Doc scoffed at that joke while Emmanuelle held her laughter back as they reached a large portion of the room where there was an elevator to the second floor. An orange light began to blink meaning it was coming down. The three stopped seeing the light.

"Line it up." Sens told Montagne as he extended his shield back down, the elevator let out an audible ding. "We have company."

The metal doors opened to reveal a man cladded in a full set of ballistic armor, with a matching black helmet and a skull painted face plate. In the terrorists hands was a large minigun. The man let out a psychotic laugh as the large weapon's barrel began to spool and send a flurry of bullets. Montagne swore under his breath as he once again stood his ground firmly, with some more struggle than before with the flurry of 5.56 coming into contact with his shield. Sens was already preparing their gadget, they turned around to Lion. In silence, the two were able to read one another's plan, with a quick nod they sprung it into action. Sens rolled for a nearby metal support beam and tossed the wheel to form the light projection, it bounced along some other beams, making a triangle shaped shield. The terrorist glanced at the light display before him, but continued firing in the general range in hopes of catching one of the Rainbow operatives by surprise. Lion moved right of Montagne as pressed the button for his EE-One-D to send in a loud wave of vibrations, pinging the minigunner as he stumbled from the vibrations. Sens moved left, pistol at the ready. Lion was the first of the two to reach the enemy, he did not have enough time to raise up his rifle before the terrorist swerved his aim at the Frenchman. Some of the bullets whizzed too close–forcing Lion to hide behind cover. The minigunner smirked under their mask as they began to approach Lion, keeping the fire down as he did. To his surprise, Sens lept from the light wall, pistol aimed right at his head. With one squeeze of the trigger, down went the threat. Right between the small slit where the man's eyes were. Sens let out a small grunt as they hit the ground, quickly getting back up and dusting themselves off, they walked over to Lion.

"Still alright?" they asked. Lion stayed silent as he analyzed what had happened, the image of Sesn leaping out in a rather foolish plan to save him. Simulation or not the look of determination in the Belgian's face as they did it was more than real. Lion blinked a few times before nodding his head.

"O-Oui. I'm fine." he stammered a bit; "Thank you."

"Ah." they waved a hand and playfully patted Lion's shoulder. "We are a team, mon ami. You would do the same for me…probably not as dumb as me though."

Montagne walked over to the two, pausing a moment seeing the two interacting with each other. Another small smile grew on the old man's face, he reached the two. "Let's move you two. We can save the flirting for later."

With the mention of flirting, it left the pair a bit flustered as they mumbled in agreement and sheepishly walked to the elevator. Montagne smirked at their reaction. Before he joined them, he knelt down and pulled the helmet off the dead terrorist–it was a good way of intimidation for the remaining enemies left.

"Looks like the Wolfguard team made it to the hostage." Emmanuelle reported as she swerved in her chair, a small but smug grin formed on her face. "Maybe having Olivier in the unit wasn't that bad of an idea in the end. Hm?"

Gustave's silence only made it all the more amusing to the Frenchwoman as he stayed staring at the screen, a bit astonished at the events that had unfolded.

"Sens was reckless in their choice to do that." was all he could think of saying. "Same with Lion…he should not have opened himself up like that–a risk to himself and the others."

Emmanuelle scoffed and shook her head as the simulation came to an end. She rose up from her chair and stretched, letting out a yawn as she did. She made her way to the door before stopping to look at the Wolfguard leader. "Honestly, Gus. Even you know that the three of them make a good team. So you need to put your issues aside for once and realize how valuable he is on the team."

"That was awesome!" Neon said as they removed the VR headset. They practically jumped from joy as they gave a round of high fives to everyone. "Do we do this all the time?"

"Every now and again." Mina chuckled seeing the younger Belgian's eagerness. "Was boring for me and Sanaa–had to be on exfil duty."

"Speak for yourself." Neon chuckled; "You should have seen Ollie, Gilles and I in there. It was such a rush, I didn't know you guys had this type of tech."

Everyone let out a small laughter and look of amusement at the new members' child-like behavior as they were excited. Olivier meanwhile was more focused on the fact Neon had called him by Ollie rather than by his name. He found it rather pleasant and a much needed change of pace. He looked to see the Belgian walk over to him, their hand raised up–he looked at them confused for a second.

"What? Going to just leave me hanging here, Ollie?" they chuckled as they motioned with their raised hand. Olivier finally pieced together they wanted another high five. 'I'm an idiot…' he thought to himself as he tried to give the high five, it was then that Neon moved their hand away.

"Ooop, too slow mon ami." They laughed. Olivier rolled his eyes but could not help but have a dumb grin on his face. Neon composed themselves; "Ok, ok, ok. For real this time."

"You sure?" Olivier raised an eyebrow and smiled, playing along with them.

"Oui, oui. I am serious this time." they said as they lifted up their hand for a high five. Olivier moved his hand towards Neon's before moving it aside to have them miss.

"Ach, too slow this time." he laughed.

"Hey no fair." they pouted; "Only I can do that to you, Ollie."

"Funny, I don't remember hearing that." he smirked. It earned him a playful punch to his side by the shorter Belgian, a smile still on their face.

"Maybe next time I'll let a big guy get you in these sims." they smirked, putting their headphones back on and played some music. They began to make their way out before turning around to him "See you around, oui?"

"Oui." he nodded his head and smiled; "Next time I'll make a playlist so you can listen to some good music."

"Ha! You probably are someone who listens to old timey crap."

"I'm not Baker." He let out a hearty laugh. "I'll have you know that I listen to metal."

"A metal head? My god, even worse." they playfully scoffed; "You need some more EDM in your life–something I will happily give you next time."

Olivier rolled his eyes and waved goodbye, a big smile on his face–one he had not had in a long time. Something about the way Neon and him clicked, it all felt familiar in a way. The Frenchman shrugged the thought to the back of his mind as he packed the rest of his gear and made his way to wash up. Gustave watched the entire ordeal play out before him on the camera, he sat down on a chair. It was a different side of Olivier that he had not seen. Not the bitter and rude CBRN specialist who focused on the mission over life he knew all those years ago. This was not the same man who chose to have an 'I don't care' attitude that earned him a strong punch in the jaw by Mike, the one who was rather secluded and content listening to music and reading a magazine or who has been a thorn in some of their colleagues' sides for the longest time. Gustave pondered for a moment, perhaps Emmanuelle was right–however the memory of seeing his friends and colleagues caskets being lowered in their graves. Apologizing personally to the widows and children without a mother or father. Gustave let out a deep sigh as he looked up at the ceiling. For now, he chose to let Oliver stay in Wolfguard…perhaps Neon was the person who could help him change.

A/N: Howdy doody! New season dropped and I honestly came to enjoy Sens a lot that I decided to write a small story within that brings them and Wolfguard into OA. Possible tease to the future? Duh XD. Anyway I return to work on chapter 18 for Operation Armistice. This is Ghost going dark!