Favor is the sequel to Safehouse. This isn't completed yet, so I have only a vague idea of the amount of parts to this story. Favor might take a little longer to complete than its predecessor, but I should have the full story within at least two weeks. As always, R&R! ~ SamayouTamashi

For the third time that night, Wolf growled into the mic embedded in his watch's wristband, "Where is Alpha team's backup?" but the message got across that he was implying, "Give me some f***ing backup!"

The reply crackled back, "Gamma team is not responding to our calls. Repeat, Gamma is not responding."

Even though the answer had not changed during the half hour since he had last called in, he still fumed angrily. He aimed and fired three more shots one after another at the enemy before responding. "Then bring in a new unit. I need someone to cover us, dammit! We can't move in our current condition."

Static filled his ears before a short answer. "Affirmative. You have new backup on the way." The voice was calm, but underneath was surprise and confusion as if he hadn't expected to be answering that way. "Delta will be replacing Gamma, but wh-?"

Another voice interrupted the speaker's. "Delta is already on site," said a distinctly feminine-sounding tone. "Half of Delta is already on standby and the other half is en route. Contact in six minutes."

"I need the radio code for Delta," Wolf started to say, asking for the numbers that would allow him to speak with the new half of his team.

"Denied," the woman stated unemotionally. She must be one of the office sorts, he thought. They were pros at imitating robots. Rumors were always flying around that they really were robots speaking in place of the people to make them sound so disconnected.

"Then how am I supposed to communi-"

The woman continued speaking without any evidence of having heard him. "Delta is acting on its own and they have no radios to communicate with. When Delta two arrives, they will contact you, not vice-versa. Do you copy?"

"But I need-"

"Do you copy?"

"...Yeah, I copy."

"Very well." The irritatingly calm voice replied. "Over and out."

Wolf flicked the channel off, back in his fully pissed mode. He took a deep breath and turned to the rest of the unit. For now, they were bunkered down in an abandoned and bullet-riddled apartment with a perfect view of the rest of the town for sniping.

"So? Where's Gamma? When are they getting here?" Eagle spouted eagerly, bouncing on his toes from a mix of adrenaline and the natural energy of a five-year old. It was a dangerous concoction that should be avoided in anyone old enough to drink. There were strict rules in K-Unit about what Eagle could and couldn't have; both alcohol and sugar in any form were banned. Violators were congratulated on surviving if they got out of the room alive.

"They aren't."

Eagle and Snake slumped back in their seats. Falcon had been shot twice, above and below his left ankle, on their way into the small and mostly-abandoned town. K- and T-Unit were responsible for taking the town back from a growing terrorist group responsible for a half-dozen bombings so far. Their entrance hadn't gone over well, but they had thought themselves lucky with only one temporarily down. If T-Unit, or Gamma as they were supposed to be referring to them as, was MIA, they were likely beyond help. Dead, or worse.

"But we do have backup on the way, right?" Snake spoke up, from re-wrapping his teammate's mangled ankle.

"Yeah," his face twisted into a grimace, "I think."

"You think?"

"Something weird was going on over at command base. A different speaker took over the conversation, saying that Delta would be sent in as backup," a shot rang through the room and Wolf returned fire. "But," he put in a new cartridge, and no other shots were heard, "she said we couldn't communicate with them 'cause they have no radios."

"That's insanity at its limits," Snake argued.

Eagle nodded, backing him up. "You don't send out a unit without some method of communication! There are at least six rules about that. How else are we supposed to speak with them?"

Falcon spoke up quietly, battling the drugs Snake had shot him full of to keep him from noticing the pain. "What if Delta wasn't an SAS unit?"

With a snort, Eagle shook his head, "What kind of organization would the government support if they didn't have a way to contact their teams?"

Snake's head came up quickly. "MI6."

Silence encompassed the unit's borrowed apartment. "MI5 too. You can't send spies out with direct links to command," Falcon said, voicing what everyone had been thinking.

"It has to be MI6, though," Wolf responded. "MI5 wouldn't send their teams as backup for SAS. They typically only have basic skills in firearms and wouldn't be put out in the open field."

Being aptly named, Falcon heard a nearly silent click and shouted at K-Unit, "Down!"

The team ducked, and another round tore above their heads. Eagle, nearest to the balcony, was on his elbows firing back as soon as the imminent danger passed. "How many you hearing?" he directed at Falcon.

Everyone fell quiet as their teammate got up on his elbow to listen, his ears perking up and sharp eyes trying to make out shapes behind the curtains. "At least...five. They're primarily to the left," he pointed, "of that bar thingy right there."

Eagle, by far the best shooter in the group, followed Falcon's aim and aimed for the area around the three blurred shadows he could sort-of see. Cries of anguish followed his five shots, but he let out two more just to be on the safe side. "Any more?" Falcon listened carefully, but shook his head.

"But how could MI6 so conveniently have a team located within this area?" Eagle said as he switched gears. "We're in the middle of nowhere**!"

"It's 'cause they're all ninjas, didn't you know that?" Falcon laughed weakly.

"True, Fox was all into the dark clothes and sneaking around before he joined," Wolf said, rolling his eyes at the sudden change of topic. It was like the two were kindergarteners pretending to be soldiers.

Snake whispered loudly to Eagle, "And if you checked his belt, he was hiding his shurikens right beside his cell phone.

Everyone who had known Fox laughed at the thought of him sneaking around in the shadows, swords on his back and looking distinctly Japanese. Even Falcon had to cough back a snort. Former SAS men just don't go well with the image of ninjas.

The first to calm down, Snake asked the unit leader, "When is Delta going to make contact? If he doesn't get that ankle fixed up soon, Falcon won't be able to walk right for a long time."

"Six minutes when I talked to command, so somewhere around three or four now."

"No, that's not going to be good enough," Eagle said, suddenly back in serious-mode. "Listen." The cough of a silencer was evident in the quiet.

"Yeah, but who's being shot at?" Falcon brought up. "I don't think that's a terrorist."

True to his word, the terrorist cell seemed to be retaliating at a shooter they couldn't see. Loud shouting in Arabic could be heard from across the street before another cough sent them scrambling for cover.

"Then, who's doing the shooting? Delta still has a good three minutes till they're coming," Wolf said calmly. "A third party, possibly?"

"Possibly, but then wouldn't they be shooting at both of us?" Snake answered.

"Wait," he hushed everyone and after a moment said, "The shooting stopped." The rapid fire of a gun punctuated his sentence. "Or he's decided that the silencer is useless," he finished lamely.

Snake asked quietly, "Do we try to move, or wait for Delta?"

"We wait," he firmly decided. "If Delta's backed by MI6, they'll manage to get here." K-Unit was silent as they determined where the shooting was. "Falcon?"

"It's a single shooter," he said. "Multiple firearms, but none of them are large caliber. Moving fast, but I can't hear any footsteps. And," Falcon paused and slowly tried to sit up while mentally figuring the trajectory, "I think he's moving this way."

Eagle face-palmed himself. "Do we just have the worst luck or does someone really really hate us. Honestly!"

"Shh! I think he's within hearing range now."

Wolf and Eagle were crouched to either side of the balcony, WaltherP99 and Baretta*** up and fingers ready to press the triggers at a moment's notice. Snake pulled his own gun from its holster, but in his right hand were a pair of throwing knives. While the Walther would shoot faster, he had more faith in his aim with the knives. Falcon trained his sights on the door as he propped himself up on one elbow and avoided moving his injured foot.

Yet it was still sudden, despite their best efforts, when a tall Arab in a dusty white wrap leapt on to the ledge of the balcony, swinging his foot to knock Eagle's gun from his hand and somehow stole the ammo clip from Wolf's. With a flick of his wrist, Snake neatly threw the pair of knives at his head. While they didn't miss, neither did they hit. The Arab swept a hand up to catch them, sending one at Falcon's gun to knock it from his hand.

Then he held up his hands in surrender.

K-Unit blinked. "I'm sorry, but are you surrendering?" Eagle asked, shell-shocked after the incredible display of ninja-ness.

"It would look like that, wouldn't it?" They were all back on-guard against some sudden trick, but the Arab coughed to cover up a burst of laughter. "Loosen up, seriously!" He lowered his hands and took down the hood covering his face. Wolf was about to thwack himself in the head for his stupidity at not realizing that he was speaking in perfect English, despite the Arabic accent.

"Delta one, reporting in," said a grinning Alex Rider.

A/N: Hope you liked part one! It's a little short, admittedly, but I needed to cut it off somewhere to start on part two. This seemed like an ideal place. The next part will definitely be longer. Also, check out my profile to answer my poll.

*Falcon was introduced in the epilogue of Safehouse, and I decided that I liked my OC enough to let him continue into Favor.

**No, the middle of nowhere is where I live. Seriously. Everyone out here agrees. If it were up to me, the sign welcoming you to our 'town' would say "Welcome to Nowhere. Population: Not sure, we have to find them first."

***The guns haven't changed since Safehouse, except Falcon's, since he was never mentioned. Another side note, but Snake also has the basic P99. They're standard issue, so most units are equipped with them.

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