The Hawaiian Special Forces

Chapter 7

Aoloa knocked softly on the berserks' door. Haunani opened it. "Yes?"

"Can I come in?"

She nodded slightly, stepping aside so he could see the four of them. Great, how do I bring this up delicately? "Okay, you all know what happened with the fish guy, right?" They nodded. "It struck me, how do you guys handle being so obviously not... human?"

Koa shrugged while Haukea and Haunani glanced at each other. Finally, Kawikani replied, "We just are what we are. How do you handle it?"

Huh? "What do you mean?"

Haukea raised her voice to respond. "You don't really think you look like a normal human, do you?"

"Well, basically."

"Yeah, not happening," Koa chimed in. "Dude, men have all kinds of different styles of facial hair, but spikes of fur sticking straight out ain't part of the package. Seriously, how do those things not poke you? And your girls have them to!"

"I guess I never really thought about it, to be honest," Aoloa admitted.

"At least we don't have to share toilets with you," Haunani stated. "I mean, your piss is rank!"

"You can smell that?"

She just tapped her nose in response. "Oh yeah, buddy. The pack downstairs thinks they have a monopoly on sniffing things out. They don't tell you guys when we go on tracking missions. Just like we don't know what the missions you guys go on by yourselves are about, normally."

Aoloa blinked at them in surprise. "Wait, I thought those were minor trash and bash missions."

Kawikani shook his head. "We're good at that, too, but if there's going to be risk, they prefer to send the entire team. The pack is good at sniffing things out, don't get me wrong, but getting them to keep their voices down? Impossible!"

Aoloa had to laugh at that. "I suppose so. So what does the pack do solo?" The glanced at each other a bit before shrugging in ignorance. "Guess I'll have to ask them, then. Fair enough." He strolled over to a mirror on the wall. "So it's really that obvious, huh?" he asked.

The face that looked back at him had noble whiskers protruding several inches from his face. Lightly brushing their tips with his hand, he could pick up the lightest touch. No idea how useful that is to me. His incisors barely peaked below his upper lip, which was straight. His nose was small with slightly slitted nostrils. His gold eyes had vertical slits.

Looking at his nails, he flexed them in and out of the tips of his fingers. Further down, his thighs were powerfully muscled, and his feet were longer and narrower than what he'd seen of normal humans. With a deep sigh, he nodded his head. "We're all freaks in here, aren't we?"

Kawikani nodded. "Defending the world from the monsters of the world. Would the world be better or worse if all humans were part animal? I don't know. We're a bunch of carnivores, and we fuss with each other just as much as the various nations."

"Who knew you were so philosophical?" Haukea teased.

"You did," the monster berserker said with a smirk.

"But how do you take it?" Aoloa asked again.

"We just channel our rage into useful purposes," Koa filled in. "You don't go on a mindless rampage over just anything, you know," to which they all laughed.

"Thanks, guys. I guess I needed that reality check."

Haunani gave him a gentle hug, his head just under her lower breasts. "No problem. We all need it from time to time."

Leaving, he returned to the colony and claimed a high perch for himself, evicting Hanale from it by force. From his perch, he watched the lithe forms of his fellow colonists below him. He watched the way the moved, while an overlay of TV shows played via his comms overlay.

It was the sports programming that truly got his attention. Humans were... ungainly. They did their best to move gracefully, but even the gymnasts couldn't compare. Granted, their marathoners were able to run far longer than any colonist would consider, but when he thought to the endurance of the pack, he suspected they'd put distance runners to shame without breaking a sweat.

None of them moved like a human. Whether it was the cast's jerky movements or the deceptive lethargy of the berserkers, none of them were... normal. We're all freaks. We couldn't pass as normal if we tried, and we'd be ostracized forever. In the end, we have no place we could call home but this.

His mind drifted to the camaraderie they felt, while his comms switched to various newscasts and crime shows. As annoying as the pack was, he could work with them without difficulty. They had different roles and fulfilled them well. In the end, he didn't mind working with them. They could even be... cute.

Humans, by contrast, were almost always in tension with each other. Was that part of the human condition, or would they be like that if allowed to merge with human society? I guess I'll never really know.

He mentally shrugged. I'm a warrior for the UPS military. Heck we're all military property. And to be honest, we're treated well. With that, he curled up and fell asleep to the droning of a stupid comedy.