Simon Ghost Riley 'Tough Love'

Mutilating Moves

"All set?"
Alejandro asks as we gather outside, waiting for his instructions. Price is standing beside him, already knowing what he wants us to do

"Training today will be different than usual. We'll be practicing medical measures, as well as scaling walls and other elevated obstacles"
Price states, his arms crossed in observation

"That's it?"
Gaz asks sarcastically

"No hermano. I'll be setting you up with Adira. I'm sure you'll enjoy the hand to hand combat"
Alejandro daringly remarks with a smile

Gaz's confident face quickly turns into a worried one when he realizes the last time we had hand to hand combat was when I first arrived on base, and Gaz was my partner to practice on... I'm sure we all remember the look on his face when I flipped him onto the ground with a twist of an arm

"No"
Gaz states, pointing his finger

"I would love to see that again"
Soap laughs, attempting to hide his smile with
his hand

"Me too"
Ghost reply's

I keep the smile off my face, even with the small laugh I would like to let out. Right now, need to focus on the mission

"What else Alejandro?"
I ask after letting out a sigh

"Fighting with weapons without firing them. Including but not limited to... knife throwing. I'll let Ghost show you the ropes on that one"
He nods to Ghost, who now seems agitated that he will show us his techniques

I have a feeling I know exactly how this day will go, and I'm not excited about it

"Alright, let's get started"
Price claps his hands together and walks with Alejandro to the equipment shed. I can hear the ruffling of objects that I'm not able to describe, that is until they bring them out

Price now has a bag on his back, it has guns, ropes, and other items sticking out of them. The decoy frags and smoke grenades are attached by a carabiner, hanging off the side

Alejandro is carrying a closed duffel bag. The weight of it makes his shoulder slouch down from holding the weight. It must be larger equipment. Something about training and going through more complex and difficult things gets me going

"Steamin' Jesus"
Soap says with a stressed, frozen expression

"Cheer up Lad"
I jokingly place my head over his shoulder, giving him a pat before I practically run towards Price and Alejandro.

Price and Alejandro drop their bags and unzip them, taking out all the contents and placing them on the ground

"So here's what's we're doing. We're going to head over to the training grounds in the back and practice clearing in the demo building. This means you'll be focusing on your footing, and how to properly line up. Soaps good at that, so if you for some reason you manage to fuck it up, he's you're guy"
Alejandro explains, motioning his hand to Soap

"And Gaz, don't think I forgot about putting you face to face with Adira"
He Jokes

"You gotta be fucking with me. I'm not doing that again"
Gaz says, his accent making his words words more prominent

"After that we'll head  off to the grounds next to that and work on blocking hits with demo guns, just Incase on of you get to distracted from getting you ass beat"
Price chimes in. Him practically making them seem like they're not as good as they are makes them more motivated, because they know damn well they already know what they're doing

"That's it?"
Ghost asks, leaning forward in question

"No Ghost, we'll be putting you with the  wolves hermano" Alejandro jokes "You'll enjoy it. On the bright side that we do happen to have today, you can practice your knife throwing with Adira first, and work on her demo clearing combat as if she came in alone to test how well she can take down a two hundred pound man"

"I like the sound of that"

"Don't get to cocky"
I respond and excitedly make my way to the back of the base. Alejandro shakes his head, laughing at my response paired with Ghosts annoyed expression

"Good luck brother"
Soap jokes, taping his shoulder as he follows behind me

"Yea that's my queue mate"
Gaz stands with an awkward expression on his face from watching the team slowly leave

"Let's ride"
Price says as him and Alejandro begins to pick up the items from showing us, and quickly places them into their bags

• • •

"I will not hesitate to pummel you to the ground Gaz. Do not test me"
I say sarcastically... well, somewhat. He takes a step back from me and I hear a small laugh that soap was holding in, the breathe hitting the inside of his mouth

"Soap, Ghost, Grab the weapons and start practicing the building clearing. Remember, Speed, Stealth,  Shoot. Well, demo shoot. There's no bullets so use your imagination"
Alejandro instructs as he arrives in front of us

Soap and Ghost quickly head into the wooden demo building and we make small talk with each other as we wait for him. Just a few minutes in, and we already hear bickering

"You fucking stepped on my foot you bastard"
Soap whispers loudly that we all seem to catch

"Not so stealthy if you ask me Captain"
I smile

"I have faith in you two at least. Keep in mind, it becomes important when training on room clearing. Remember to use your close quarter battle tactics"
Alejandro states as we wait for the two to come out the building

"I'm quite experienced with room clearing."

"Speaking of the devil, there they are"
Ghost and Soap come out of the building with slightly agitated looks as if they had a pathetic disagreement on something

"Adira, Ghost, you're up"
Price says

"Why not Gaz and her? I just went in"

"Like I said. You and Adira"

"Ghost go to the opposite side of the demo building. Try to use techniques to sneak up on Adira, and for the second round she will do the same to you"

"Steamin' Jesus. Good luck with that mat-"

"Shut up Soap fuckin hell"
Ghost interrupts his sentence in annoyance

I dismiss the bickering and walk into the building, Ghost going in the other end. We close the doors, making it pitch black. He's in another room, quiet... to quiet.

I can't hear him,

I can't see him,

But I sure as hell can fight him.