A Cub for the Devil

Alex sighed and leaned his head against the window of the blacked-out, bullet-proof car. He'd been in the vehicle for around an hour now, sitting in tense silence in the back while a uniformed guard drove steadily along. Changing the song on his iPod, Alex sighed, withholding a swell of sadness.

His life sucked.

After going to live with the Pleasures in America, Alex thought his life would become normal. He'd gone a full three months at school with Sabina before the CIA had come knocking, tailed by the FBI. They'd come bearing grave news, in two senses.

A threat had been issued against the Pleasures that they turn over Alex or be killed. The FBI had taken the family under their wing, issuing them a heavily-guarded safe-house to stay at. Alex himself had been shipped out of the country as to not further endanger the family. He couldn't live with it if they died because of him. He'd told Sabina they did well, that he loved her, but they couldn't be together any more. He wouldn't do that to her. So he'd left. MI6 had snatched him up the moment he'd touched down. Mrs Jones offered him a smile and told him he was going to Brecon Beacons.

"For protection," she'd said. Alex had nodded numbly. He knew who he needed to be protected from.

Scorpia.

The scattered board of criminal masterminds had scraped together a few remaining members with the sole purpose of making sure the bane of their existence ceased to be. That would be that, with its dropping funds, Scorpia would do everything in their power to make sure Alex Rider was killed. He'd even been told Dr Three was prepping up for a fun time before murdering him.

Alex sighed. His normal life was only a dream. An impossible fantasy. No one knew how he felt.

A few hours later though, standing in the Sergeants office, Alex reconsidered. Someone did seem to know how he felt.

"His code name is Devil," Sanders told him briefly. "He'll be with you and the others."

Clearly the man was more interested in Alex then telling him about the strange new boy in K-Unit. Subtly, Sanders shifted on his chair. Alex smirked.

"So…" the Sergeant said. "Alex Rider."

"That would be me," Alex said, flashing a grin.

"Fifteen."

"Correct."

"World-renowned spy."

"Yep."

"Saved the world on several occasions."

"I get the point, sir."

Sanders sighed and slumped back, looking over the boy. It seemed like yesterday he was yelling at Cub and threatening to bin him just because. Now look where the kid was. Number one target for Scorpia. Number one threat to criminals all over the world. Number one agent to the infamous MI6. Sitting in his office, making sassy comments.

"Good to have you back, Cub."

Alex nodded, grinning.

"Oh yeah. Good to be back."

Alex wished he had a camera to capture the look on Eagle's face when he opened to door.

Jaw hitting the ground, eyes bugging out and stiff as a board, the SAS man gaped at Alex for almost ten minutes before a rough and annoyed voice called out from inside.

"Shut the bloody door Eagle or I'll stuff you in a bag!"

"Nice to see your tempers cooled off, Wolf!" Alex called back, and a bang inside the cabin made him grin. Stumbling footsteps came closer to the door and Eagle was pulled off his feet as Wolf and Snake appeared.

"Cub!?" Snake yelped, grabbing the teen's shoulders. Wolf looked equally surprised.

"You're the other kid?!" He asked, his voice a bit higher than usual. Alex prodded his muscled chest.

"You know it, Wolfie," he replied. Then he frowned.

"Other kid?"

Silence washed over the three men in the doorway.

"Yeah, um…" Snake said awkwardly. Alex shook his head.

"Sarge told me about him, but I haven't gotten anything besides 'There's another kid training with you'."

He looked over the faces in the doorway, and was surprised to see respect in each man's eye. A new person suddenly joined the clogged doorway. It was another man.

"Um, I'm Jaguar," he said slowly. Even his eyes shone with the same emotion. Alex stepped back a bit.

"Is there something I should know?" He asked, thinking that if Wolf had respect for anyone, he should run and hide. Snake snapped out of it first.

"Well, yeah, there kind of is. But first, what the hell are you doing here?"

Alex was yanked inside the cabin and tossed onto his bed. He noticed another bed close to his.

Must be where Devil sleeps, he thought. The poor kid. Dragged into this. Although…

K-Unit clustered around him. Jaguar suddenly looked at Wolf.

"Hang on," he said. "Isn't this the same Cub you were ranting about when I got here? That kid who'd come to stay with you before?"

Wolf threw a backwards punch at the other man without even looking, his eyes never leaving Alex's face.

"You worked with Fox," he said suddenly. Alex nodded warily.

"Once, yeah," he said.

"What did you do?"

"Classified."

Wolf groaned and Snake rolled his eyes before Eagle suddenly jumped on top of Alex and smothered him in a hug.

"So many new friends!" He yelled. Alex didn't remember Eagle being quite so hyperactive. But being held by another person made his senses kick in and before anyone knew what had happened, Eagle was on the floor clutching his stomach and trying to breathe.

Jaguar stared from Alex to Eagle. Wolf and Snake picked up their jaws before starting to speak. But they were interrupted by a voice from the bed behind Alex.

"What a heart-felt reunion," it said. "The way you kicked Eagle to the floor brought tears to my eyes."

Alex spun around, and was met with a dark haired, pale faced youth who was wearing black army clothes and a grin. Before he could react, however, Wolf finally spoke.

"Devil, this is Cub."

The boy, Devil, nodded, still smiling eerily.

"I thought as much Wolf, when you called him that," he said, mocking the leader. Alex waited for Wolf to smack Devil to hell, but was surprised and frankly shocked to hear Wolf chuckle. Snake sniggered too and Jaguar snorted while Eagle moaned on the floor. Devil jumped off his bed and swept over to Alex. He held out his hand.

"Pleased to meet you," he said, his black eyes staring into Alex's brown ones intensely. Alex felt like his mind was being read, but shrugged it off and grabbed Devil's hand. It was freezing to the touch and Alex forced himself not the yelp and pull away. Eventually, they let go. Devil looked over to Wolf.

"This is the famous Cub then," he said to no one in particular. Alex felt something shiver down his spine as the Unit nodded. Devil went to the door.

"We have testing starting soon, Cub," he said. "I think you have time to unpack before it starts. Wolf's the instructor, right?"

"Yeah," Wolf replied, still staring at Alex. Devil nodded and left. Silence reigned.

"Well, that was different," Alex mused. Snake shook his head, a small smile on his face.

"No kidding, Cub," he replied. "That kid's completely changed about four judgemental attitudes in less than fourteen hours. He's got Wolf wrapped around his finger."

Wolf snarled indignantly at that, but it was half-hearted. Realisation clicked.

"That's why you all seem so damn welcoming," Alex said. Then he grinned at Wolf. "Little Wolfie's learnt how to respect!"

Wolf cuffed Alex over the head, growling. Alex ducked and ran for the door.

"Testing!" He shouted back. "Don't be late, or I'll have to punish you!"

Snake's laughter rang out of the cabin and the sound of the door slamming behind the Unit as they left reached Alex's ears. As he ran though, he thought entirely of Devil.

Who was he?

Testing managed to answer only half of Alex's question: Devil was someone to fear.

He walked all over Wolf in hand-to-hand, broke the current record for the obstacle-course-from-hell, was a speed-demon by anyone's standards and had finished the 10km hike in half an hour. Alex suspected cheating at first, but saw no way for that to be possible. 10km is 10km, however you look at it.

Devil, on the other hand, was internally grinning. His shadow-travelling powers had gotten to the point they could rival Hades, and 10km had been nothing.

Next, it was Alex's turn.

He saw jaws drop as he ran through the assault course, and Alex ignored them as he moved. The man on stopwatch duty, Salamander, forgot to click to end the timer, so they took around five seconds off Alex's score. The men goggled at it for an age before Alex, standing beside Devil, demanded to see it.

"Ten minutes thirty-one seconds," he muttered. He checked the milliseconds. "Thirty-six."

The complete impossibility of it all sent Alex into a fit of laughter. Beside him, Devil checked the times, before bowing his head and chuckling as well.

They'd got the exact same time; right down to the milliseconds. Behind them, Jaguar was shaking his head, swearing the whole thing was rigged.

Alex and Devil high-fived each other, grins splitting their faces. Alex looked over his fellow teenage recruit. He recognised the hollowed look in the boy's eyes, hidden behind shields. Alex knew, because he had them too. Devil must have gone through something terrible.

You have no idea, Nico thought as Cub studied him. He knew that look; Percy always used to look at him like that, wondering-

Stop it! He commanded himself. That part of my life is over.

"So," Cub said. "Looks like we're sharing the record breaking title for the assault-course-from-hell."

Nico nodded in agreement. Then he remembered these people didn't know who he was, and he smiled slightly. He was determined to fit in this time. At Brecon Beacons, being weird was part of the normalcy.

"Yeah," Nico said. "But I'd like to see you beat my 10km time."

Cub snorted.

"No way, Devil. That time is inhuman."

Nico laughed and thought again that Cub had no idea. Cub put a hand on his shoulder and started pushing. Nico raised in eyebrow.

"We're moving off," Cub huffed. "Get your insanely fast butt over to hand-to-hand. You're coming to watch me beat up some soldiers."

"Whatever you say, Baby-Bear," Nico teased.

Cub stopped suddenly.

"What did you call me?" He asked, his voice falsely deep and rough. Nico found himself grinning, and turned down the smile a bit.

"I used a synonym. Baby-Bear. Cub. Same thing."

Cub growled and suddenly jumped on top of Nico, barrelling the two of them over. Nico caught a playful glint in Cub's eyes and felt his own filling with excitement from the thrill of the fight.

Cub rolled them over and over, before cuffing Nico upside the head. Nico responded with a shoving hit to the other boys shoulder, just enough to push him off. Cub swerved to avoid it and shot to his feet. His combat boot stood softly down on the bone just below Nico's throat, pinning him to the ground, his other foot on the dirt between the others legs. Nico bent his knees up, preparing to throw Cub off him.

"Wow, Devil. You went down fast!"

The rest of K-Unit had turned around to watch the two boys scuffle. Cub threw a grin over his shoulder. Nico suddenly surged upwards and Cub flew off him. With K-Unit frozen to one side watching, Nico sped over to where Cub was scrambling to his feet. Nico quickly pushed Cub's wrist back into the ground and held it there gently with his boot. His other hand caught Cub's other arm and he held onto it tightly. Nico lifted his head to look at K-Unit. Their jaws were open again, catching flies.

"I don't know why I'm surprised anymore," Snake muttered to himself. Wolf grunted agreement. Nico grinned widely at them before Cub suddenly moved under him. The slippery little agent had wormed his wrist out from under Nico's foot and shot out from between his legs, getting to his own feet. Boot raised to send a knocking blow to Nico's back, Cub grinned. Nico felt the edges of the fabric on his back and ducked, twisting under Cub's leg.

Stalemate.

Cub could easily catch him with a quick flick of his ankle. Nico could jab Cub's ribs or push him off balance. They both conceded their play fight at the same time, returning to normal stances. Behind them, someone whistled.

"I would honestly love to see a session when you two are actually going at each other," The Sergeant said from his doorway. "It would make for some very interesting training."

Really, thank you everyone! Sorry if Nico's a bit OOC, but it's a friendship story so that's how it goes. Please review and I'll update soon!