The giant monster we found seems to have something they wish to tell our prisoner. Perfect. If the Resistance would only see us now. With our own army, our own monsters, our own allies. But they soon will. The pull of SailHaven is too strong for them. We must wait, and be careful. But the desert must also not be denied revenge. 

Resistance, it is not too late. You can join us, and Catastrophe will surely fail. 

@Marie

Of course I will come with you!  

Great, thanks!

~~~~

I look out of the ship window towards the woods in Northeastern Kyngdom where Rose's distress call was located. Soon after the call, because of the shortage of members, Sprocket and I hopped on a ship that was called to the battle site. Within minutes without any real goodbyes, we were in the air.

Sprocket's usual calmess looks disrupted. She's healed from her injuries well, well enough to go on this mission, but it doesn't say that she's completely recovered. I've cleaned up again. I recieved a fresher Resistance uniform with a black cloak and a gun, knife, sword, and of course, my fists. Dirt and blood isn't traced on my clothes. For once, only the weariness resting on my face hints that I've been fighting a battle. The only thing that keeps me distracted on this ship are my thoughts.

This ship begins to decrease in alititude, and finally touches down with a small thump. I exhale sharply and stand up, meeting side by side with Sprocket at the door. The pilot nods as the door hisses open and lands on the forest floor. We walk off, steadying our weapons. As soon as we reach the outside, I shudder. The air is chillier than I thought. But I suppose the forest is approaching late fall, so I shouldn't be that surprised. I nod at Sprocket and smile a bit at our matching bionic arms. Sprocket takes out the tracker that signals where the distress call was made, and we start walking.

"Poe Allen's sister, huh?" she asks, finally breaking the silence.

I nod. "Yes."

She nods back as we continue walking.

I look at her. "Sprocket, thank you for coming with me." She smiles, when I continue. "No really. This means a lot. Rose told me that Poe died trying to get the information she gave me to me." I bite my lip. "It's the least I could do for him."

There's a pause, and I look away. My eyes are beginning to water, and weakness isn't good right now. 

Sprocket stops. I stop with her. She puts her good hand on my shoulder, and lets out a sigh. "It isn't your fault. He trusted you enough with this mission, and you trust me. But don't think I'm telling you he's a thing of the past. Remember him. I just know what you're going through. If you need any help, I'll be right here."

I nod in thanks and we continue walking.

Suddenly the tracker beeps rapidly, and we jog to the cave when the tracker abruptly has a steady tone. Sprocket shuts it off and puts it away, making sure her gun is loaded. 

"Ready?" she asks.

I nod.

We carefully step into the cave with our small flashlights our only guide, besides each other. 

"Seems like a tunnel," I quietly say, my voice still echoing throughout the walls.

"Yeah," Sprocket breathes, pointing the flashlight around the walls. "Just rock."

But my nose catches a whiff of something, hinting there isn't just rock. I look towards Sprocket. "Do you smell that?"

Sprocket sniffs, and her eyes widen.

I nod. "Blood."

We continue walking until suddenly there's a sharp turn in the tunnel. We walk with the path of the walls, and soon find a wall blocking the rest of the tunnel off. A wall of warping metal. Ha. Magic?

Sprocket picks up a rock and throws it through the wall. With only a small pause, it clinks on the other side. I slowly put my hand through and feel swirling. I nod at her, and we both step through.

I feel like I'm in molasses for a split second before we reach air on the other side. I gasp quietly in relief. I hate the choking feeling of suffocation. It was never my strong suite when we were forced to endure it at the Academy. I remember one training session, they had us face off guards that were tall and burly. They had a pillow, the one weapon they could use. We had nothing. I faced off several of them and won, but the one time I lost was the cause of me never losing again. If I had not kicked the guard off, I would have died of suffocation. That had the be the closest time to me almost dying at the Academy.

"Marie, look!" Sprocket whispers.

I look around the rock that we are taking shelter behind, and see two figures and a smaller one that is being strangled by an octopus thing.

"It's Onomatopoeia and Arcade," I reply back. 

She laughs silently and we inch our way around the rock.

"Two against two," she says quietly. "Seems pretty even."

"I'll take Ononmonaiam-ugh, O, and you take A?" I ask.

She nods. "Deal."

Suddenly Sprocket's foot brushes against a rock. It barely made a sound, but O and A whip around and swish their arms in a weird motion. But that weird motion caused our guns to fly away ten feet. They draw their swords and it almost looks like they're glaring at us.

"Sorry for spoiling your plans," I say, drawing my Elven sword. Sprocket draws her SailHaven made one.

"Do these guys ever smile, you think?" Sprocket asks.

I shrug. "Nah. Which makes me wonder...do they look like automotans to you?"

Sprocket laughs before lunging at A. O looks at them and then looks back at me.

I smirk.

"Let's dance." 

Gared! You're back, you're back you're back you're back!! And, um, so are Omnipononi and Archa. Karune is probably crazy enough to join them, if they meet. Also, is it true that Poe died getting info to Marie? I don't want that ship to sink...

Hey Marie, is it OK if Kristjan is with us? That was my plan, so I'm going to RP with him here.

I square off to Archa, with Kristjan leveling his seax besides me. It feels rather nostalgic, and if we weren't about to fight for our lives I would delve back into the memories.

"Just like old times, huh?" I say quitely to Kristjan.

He turns his head and smiles.

"Yeah."

Our reminiscence is cut short by Archa lunging. They move at me first, and I parry their swipe easily. Kristjan jumps in beside me, and swipes at Archa's abdomen. They dodge with surprising speed, drawing another knife to deal with the two of us.

The deadly dance continues, I on the offensive and Kristjan on the defensive. Archa looks like they are wavering, at I quickly press my advantage.

I hear Kristjan's yell just as I am jabbing at an open spot. I swing my arm outward away from Arch and twirl, dropping just in time to avoid an oozing tentacle. I scream as the movement jars my collarbone, the pain flaring up my neck and through my shoulder.

I feel Kristjan grab my arm and drag me back towards the cave wall.

The octopus monster looks at us, then slowly starts to advance.

This just got more interesting. 

I hear muted voices say my name and I open my eyes. My eyesight is blurry, and all I can see is a fuzzy figure above me.

"My ears are burning," I mumble groggily. "Who's talking about me?"

"She's awake," the person says, and as I blink they come into clarity.

It's Marie, and her face is twisted with unspoken pain. My limited vision shows that we are in a transport ship, the same one we came in on.

"What happened?" I mutter, wincing as I sit up.

"Omnipononi and Archa were a bit too much for us," Kristjan says as he walks up from the cockpit.  He smiles slightly, then turns to a emergency bag and pulls out some bandages.

"Not them," Marie scoffs. "That thrice-cursed octopus thing."

She reaches out and grabs the bandages offered by Kristjan, bending down to tend to her leg.

"So," Kristjan says, sitting down on one of the seats. "What now?"

"I say we continue on to SailHaven," Marie says.

"Me too," I add. "I think we might as well finish what we came for."

"How many times do I have to tell you that's a bad idea?!" Kristjan says angrily. "You guys are in no condition to go and fight something else. We need to go back to the base and wait until you're healed."

"We understand your concern, Kristjan," Marie replies. "But this mission needs to be done soon. Every second we wait to heal is a second we could be getting it done."

"I agree," I say. "We should just get it done."

Kristjan stands up and throws his hands in the air.

"Fine! But don't blame me if we all die because you guys are too injured."

He stalks back into the cockpit, leaving Marie and I alone.

"Your boyfriend has anger issues, doesn't he?" Marie says, breaking the silence.

"Not my boyfriend," I correct. "Friend."

I settle back against the wall with a sigh.

"But yes," I say as I close my eyes. "He does." 

top

Hey Marie, I think you might have to post next because I don't know what to do when we reach SailHaven.