Hey all! I wanted to offer a bit of background for my story Live and Let Die, so here it is! There will be mentions of the events in this story within the next chapter or two of LALD as well.

For those of you who are waiting on an update for LALD, first off, thank you, and second I apologize for the delay. July has been an exceptionally crappy month including my mom having emergency surgery and having to put my puppy down. I will update soon, though. You have my word.

Finally, the chapters in this story are short, but it is completely written, so I will be updating once or twice every day until completion.

I don't own Alex Rider or any recognizable characters.

Combat training. Survive-a-beating. Whump-a-thon. Abuse-your-neighbor day. Whatever you wanted to call it, it still remained the same. And there was only one place on earth that I could look forward to it. A place that could quite possibly be the seventh circle of hell. Brecon Beacons.

And here I was, back for round two.

I could hear Blunt's voice in my head now. "We're just sending you back for a week or two of training, Alex. K-Unit will be returning for the same length of time as well. It's really very convenient for everyone."

Right. Because we all got along so swimmingly last time.

"This will be, after all, a good opportunity for you to get to know your team better."

"T-Team?" I stuttered. I had a hard time even wrapping my head around that term.

"Mmhmm."Blunt straightened an absurdly neat pile of papers on his desk. He looked up when I didn't respond, taking in the horrified look on my face. "I suppose Mrs. Jones didn't tell you, did she?"

I numbly shook my head.

"As of 9 am Tuesday morning, K-Unit became your official backup unit. Mrs. Jones and I decided that it would be beneficial to have a team who knows both you and how you operate to assist in the field when it is needed. While they will be remaining on active SAS duty, you can expect to be seeing a lot more of them in the future.

And four days into the 'future', here I am, preparing to fight three of them. Three of K-Unit. At once. Oh, and let's not forget about SAS-turned MI6-turned SAS man over in the corner waiting to be tag-teamed in.

So, to recap, we have me: one Alex Rider, a fifteen year old lightweight with eleven years of martial arts training and one year in the field, against K-Unit: four, testosterone fueled men with a combined weight of 720 pounds, black-belts or higher in numerous fighting styles, plus an average of 3 years in the military prior to SAS selection and one year working as a highly advanced and synchronized black-ops team in the field.

Great.

"Now you know the rules, try to avoid head and groin shots." Fox was acting as impartial referee before it was his turn to switch in and take a few swings. "And if you do hit someone there, run like hell." He smirked at his own little joke and I rolled my eyes. Oh, wonderful; he's a comedian. "Cub, any time you need a break, you can tap out, alright?"

Eagle smirked. "If he can still move any of his limbs."

I gave Fox a terse nod (decidedly ignoring the quip from the stork-man) and rolled my neck, stretching the muscles.

My game plan was to run them down for as long as I could while avoiding grievous bodily harm. They may have been bigger and stronger than I was, but I was small and slippery. And maybe, just maybe, if I could frustrate them enough, one of them would make a mistake. I would count KOing one of the four while remaining mostly intact as a definite victory point for me.

"You ready for this, Cub?" I looked up from the blue floor mats to see a feral smile spreading across Wolf's face.

Bloody MI6.

I'd love to know what you think! Thanks for reading!