Flag's ship was bigger, cleaner, and Riddick still didn't like it. They'd gotten off the cockroach of a ship River had found and, with the rest of what Riddick had dubbed the Suicide Squad, boarded Flag's boat.

Joker had taken the cockroach boat; he and his men were planning on shadowing the squad in the hopes of picking up Harley when the whole thing was over. Or, knowing him, whenever he got an opening. Just as well, the man was crazy like a sack of cats, and a lot less personable than his girlfriend. Harley might be nuts but she still liked people, for the most part. Joker didn't seem to much like anyone, and when he heard River say she was a Reader… The green haired man's scent blazed curiosity and trepidation. Not a good mix, not in Riddick's opinion anyway.

Riddick couldn't blame him for not sticking with the Squad. The man hadn't come to fight a war, he'd come to find his girlfriend. Harley Quinn was a big bundle of crazy in a tiny bundle of pretty. And nothing Riddick wanted to get involved in.

The Squad had come to a general consensus that they'd pretend to buy whatever story Flag planned to feed them. There might even be some truth in it. No sense in them showing too much of their own hand and the knowledge they'd been entrusted with. So it'd been funny as hell when Flag started to give them all a speech, "Listen up! In your necks...Injection you got, it's a nanite explosive. It's the size of a rice grain but it's powerful as a hand grenade. You disobey me, you die. You try to escape, you die. You otherwise irritate or vex me, and guess what? You die."

Harley, for the fun of it apparently, held up her hand and interrupted, "I'm known to be quite vexing. I'm just forewarning you."

"Truism," River murmured in amusement and got a gamine grin from her old school mate. "Delights in playing with the mind. Provokes reactions with purpose." Riddick grinned at the byplay, though Flag seemed less than amused.

"Lady, shut up!" Flag had very little patience for their antics and River regarded him coldly as he continued, "This is the deal. You're going somewhere very bad... To do something that'll get you killed. But until that happens... You're my problem."

"So was that like a pep talk," Lawton tilted his head.

"Yeah," Flag dismissed him. Big mistake. "That was a pep talk."

"You might wanna work on your team motivation thing. Your pep talks are gǒu pì," The assassin informed him flatly. "Oughta talk to the Cap'n here, let him school you some. Study."

Mal regarded the Colonel with a faint air of distaste before he looked at the squad and the soldiers who were to augment their efforts. "Ain't gonna tell you this ain't dangerous, 'cause it's a flat out lie. Ain't gonna say everything'll be fine, 'cause that'd just be another lie."

Weiss sneered and Mal stared at him coolly, "I will say that I will do my best to get the mission accomplished and keep all of you alive during it. You know River, she's my Second, so if she tells you to do something it's as good as me sayin' it. Probably better, she's a helluva lot smarter'n I am really."

"Like a woman would know anything about combat," Weiss rolled his eyes and Riddick saw River meet Harley's gaze. From the expression on Harley's face and River's scent, the two of them were in completely agreement with what he was thinking. The same thing it seemed Mal had on his mind. Slipknot would be trouble. More than he was worth. But every gun would be useful, to a point.

"Don't expect you'll be convinced by words," Mal shrugged. "See her in action, you'll change your mind right quick. Gonna be a bit of a wait until we're close enough so let's all just settle in and enjoy the ride."

Flag had brought up a wave from Waller at that point, and the queen jiàn huò herself had taken over the pep talk, "Behold the voice of god."

Waller stared at all of them from the screen, "For those of you who don't know me officially... My name is Amanda Waller." Riddick couldn't stop the curl of his lip, manipulative jiān xié who lied like she breathed. "There's an active terrorist event in Mission City. I want you to enter the city, rescue HVT-1 and get them to safety."

Lawton shook his head as if confused, "I'm sorry. For those of us who don't speak good guy, what is HVT-1?"

"The only person that matters in the city," Waller explained coldly. "The one person you can't kill." Once that seemed clear she continued, "Complete the mission, you get time off your prison sentence. Fail the mission, you die. Anything happens to colonel Flag, I'll kill every single one of you." Dark eyes stared out at them, dull shark's eyes, "Remember, I'm watching. I see everything."

"There's your pep talk," Flag sneered at Lawton.

The assassin rolled his eyes, "Compared to your shit, she killed it." He turned and looked at Mal, Riddick and River, confirming to Riddick at least that the man was not stupid. Plainly comparing what River and Mal had told him of the mission and what Waller and Flag said. "So that's it? What, we some kind of suicide squad?"

River smirked slightly and winked as Flag rolled his eyes, "I'll notify your next of kin."

"Yeah, no, rather you stayed away from my kin altogether," Lawton shook his head and took a seat at the table. Riddick doubted Flag noticed but the assassin was thinking hard and using conversation to hide it.

River had brought a pack of cards, which was nice of her considering there was no point in her even playing. She'd chuckled when Lawton picked them up and offered to deal, "Kind to offer, but no point in her playing. Even before she was turned into a Reader, counted cards too well."

"Oh yeah, you're one a them genius types," Lawton had dealt the cards for the rest of the Squad, minus Riddick.

"As if you are not," River had eyed the other assassin with amusement and Riddick took a seat next to her, stretching an arm along the back of the bench and toying with a strand of her hair. "Geometry, physics, triangulation… so much math, all in your head, all in an instant as you determine trajectory and angles."

Riddick chuckled, "Oh, so that's the type he is." He leaned closer to River and inhaled her scent, amused, concerned, her brain going overtime, a bit of that burnt scent that meant she was getting uncomfortable.

"Type?" Waylon rumbled the question.

"Type of genius," Riddick shrugged and amused himself by wrapping his arm around River's shoulders and snugging her up against his side. She felt cooler, as if being in the Black chilled her and he frowned down at her, "You're way too cold."

"No excess body fat," Her answer was absent minded as she began to work on a datapad. "Could not afford wool clothing. Synth-leather must suffice." She glanced up at him, dark eyes and long lashes against porcelain pale skin. "He is warm though."

"Yeah, so stick close," Riddick grinned and looked at Deadshot who was waiting with the interminable patience of a sniper. "You're a math genius, angles, geometry, physics, it all comes naturally to you."

"What kind are you," Chato tilted his head. "She," He nodded towards River, "She said you were a genius."

"Never really been classified," Riddick shrugged. "Never had trouble learning anything, ever."

"Like her," River murmured. "No limits." She must have heard a question in someone's mind because she continued speaking, "Intelligence can't be measured. Given adequate time and resources, nothing that cannot be learned. Brilliant at flying, excels at spatial awareness regarding aerodynamics and warfare."

"Been in a few dogfights," Riddick agreed. "Flying…comes natural as breathing."

"So what's your specialty," Lawton looked at River as he dealt the cards. Harkness considered his hand while Harley giggled.

"She don't have one," The psychiatrist told him. "She can do anything. Helluva dancer, and gymnast, must make fighting her almost impossible."

She glanced at Riddick and he nodded with a pleased grin, "Most fun I've had with my clothes on that didn't involve killing someone who deserved it." River actually blushed at bit and he smiled at her wickedly, "Really hoping to see how much fun we can have clothes off." He murmured against her ear.

"She is curious about that as well," River admitted, still blushing.

"How come she don't talk straight," Harkness really had no sense of tact. It was obvious that more than half the soldiers in the room, along with Flag and the other sword wielding woman in the room, not to mention the rest of the squad were wondering the same thing. Harkness was the only one stupid enough to actually ask the question.

"She's a Reader," Her Captain sent the shaggy man a killing look. "Sometimes she talks like that because it's easier for her to keep things straight in her mind."

Riddick nodded his understanding, feeling her shoulders tense under his arm, "Can't be easy, so many people around." He commented, "Like me with too much sensory input." He was pretty sure Mal knew what her slip in pronouns meant.

"You gotta put that in plain folk talk," Lawton told him. "I think your girl there's the only one who got it."

A look around the room made the truth of that statement obvious. Reynolds understood, likely because of River, and it was possible Flag and the other woman, Katana, knew what he meant, not that they cared, but nobody else had a clue. "Sensory input, senses? As in you got five? Sight, sound, touch, taste, hearing?" He sighed in exasperation. He'd never liked explaining himself.

"Furyans are…" River's voice, slow and thoughtful, flowed through the air. "Exceptional. Vision in darkness, better hearing, better sense of smell, taste and touch…" She put cool fingertips on his forearm, "He can feel the rough tips of her fingers, knows to the millimeter where they are, what work she is accustomed to. To walk barefoot is to feel the vibrations of movement kilometers away, if there are none nearer to him."

"So everything's dialed up to ten," Reynolds got it and thankfully, translated it for the rest of them. "Guess you'd hear someone talking from the other end of the boat."

"Pretty much," He nodded his agreement. "I can hear heart rates, footsteps, smell when someone's adrenalin is up because of fear or lust."

"Damn," Lawton shook his head, "So we got four a ya'll meta-humans on the team?"

River shook her head, "Only three, she is not the same, not born this way." Her scent burned for a moment, and Riddick looked down at her in concern as her eyes flicked up to Reynolds.

"She's more like you," The Captain told Lawton. The assassin frowned over his cards for a moment and Reynolds shrugged. Riddick found himself liking River's Captain a bit more. If River wanted to tell everyone what had been done to her she would.

"Because one is astute enough to ask the question does not make one deserving of the answer," River murmured and looked up at Riddick. "Her difficulties are no one's business."

"Yeah, I got you," He agreed. She'd told him not long after they'd met, after she had a particularly bad episode traveling back to Serenity.

Author's Note: So a bit of progress… having a tougher time with this than I thought, I seem to go two steps forward and one back so I'm taking longer than I'd hoped.

Chinese Translations:

gǒu pì (bullshit)

jiàn huò (bitch)

jiān xié (crafty and evil / a treacherous villain)