Elie decided his place was the classroom, not the battlefield. He chose to stay behind with the rest of the AMU students, to help support them. He'll be looking after the Biker's sister as well. As for Jane and Kimiko, they both signed on with the AMU's forces, as a medic and fighter, respectively.
Tony arranged our transportation. One of his former clients was a teacher at a school, and managed to procure him a fucking school bus. I don't know what exactly he did for her, but apparently a lot of students would have died without his actions. He brushed it off, saying he was just doing his job.
Terrence and I made a couple modifications to it. I gave it its own mobile hotspot with some damn good range, as there are bloggers among us. And Terrence... did something to the engine. I'm not sure what exactly, but he promised me it won't explode...
I had a talk with Kai as well.
"You gonna be ready for this?" I asked.
"I think so," Kai replied. "So, what's the plan, exactly?"
I chuckled.
"The hell makes you think I've got one of those?" I asked.
Kai seemed a little shocked at that answer. I let out another soft laugh, before taking on my serious position. Legs at shoulder width, both hands planted on my cane in front of me. I closed my eyes for a second, taking a deep breathe as I did, and exhaled as I opened them again, making eye contact.
"The AMU has their own plan," I said. "We go in providing them support. Malkator is on their side. I may not trust them entirely, but I trust him. He leaked the time and place to me because he trusts me back. Furthermore, he can predict future events, at least to some degree. He knows we need to be there. So we'll be there."
Kai nodded.
"This is war," I went on. "You can't plan for war. Not easily, anyway. You need to take what you know about every side involved, and make the best of it. I know the AMU pretty well. They're the lesser of each evil, as far as I can see. They're the ones out to stop the forest for good, and they have the best odds of succeeding, so we back them up. And if they fail..."
I drew the sword from my cane out a couple inches, gazing at the Newborn infused steel.
"We go with my backup plan," I said. "And hope it works..."
I re-sheathed the blade, and continued.
"As for the enemy, we've got the White Comet, Kraken, and the Green Men," I said. "Kraken is well equipped, and has a few Demi-Gods in their ranks, but has proven to be incompetent. We exploit the incompetent part as best we can. We don't know much about White Comet, but they're human as far as we know. We have a bunch of Demi-Gods with us, giving us an edge. And if we're wrong, and they end up being stronger than we expect, we adapt to it. If either of those forces get in our way, we take them out quickly. As for the Green Men..."
"Those are the weird plant monsters from the forest, right?" Kai asked. "They're gonna be a bigger threat, aren't they?"
I nodded.
"They're strong, fast, and instinctive," I said. "At least, that's what I've gathered from everyone else who've encountered them. If we come across any of them, focus on staying alive first, and getting them dead second."
"Okay," Kai said.
At that time, my phone started ringing. Agent Touckshriek. Perfect...
"'scuse me," I said. "I'd better take this."
I answered the call.
"Hello, Rachel," I said.
"What?" She asked, taken aback. "When did you...?"
"Tony," I answered bluntly.
I heard her sigh from the other end.
"Of course...," she replied. "So... are you seriously going to go through with this?"
"Of course," I said.
"I see," she said, a little nervously. "Did you receive the package?"
"Armed and ready to go," I said.
"Good," she replied. "Do me a favor."
"What would that be?" I asked.
"Don't get yourself killed," she said.
"No promises," I said. "But I'll try."
She stayed silent for a minute, before telling me to give them hell. Then she hung up.
"What was that about?" Kai asked.
"Every good backup plan deserves a backup plan of its own," I said, vaguely. "Anyway, Kallaway tells me your training is going well."
"Yeah," Kai said. "Even Tony thinks I've made a lot of progress."
"Good," I said.
Then without warning, I teleported behind him and tripped him with the hook of my cane. He fell properly, rolling into a crouch and turning back to me as my cane came down on him, colliding with his bracer, which he had already brought up to defend himself. He drew the bokken Tony gave him and swung up, but I had already teleported again, back to his other side. I put all my weight on my good leg, gripped my cane in both hands, and swung at him from the side. He spun around, planted his weight firmly, and deflected the attack. I brought the cane down one last time, clashing with his bokken. But this time, I put some weight on my bad leg, while triggering my red form as I did. As the pain rippled through my leg, a surge of strength went through my body, adding to the force of my blow. Kai was able to hold the full force of my attack back with his own weapon, and stood his ground. I smiled a bit, and relaxed my stance.
"Excellent," I said, backing off.
I turned away, and got my thoughts in order. I had been meaning to bring something up for a while now, but hadn't been sure how to go about it.
"You know," I said, glancing over my shoulder. "I recently had an internship open up..."
"Huh?" Kai asked.
"Just something to think about...," I said. "Anyway..."
I stepped away, picking up the crutch I had been using as a temporary replacement for my cane.
"You or Royce should hold onto this," I said. "Just ion case somebody gets hurt enough to need it."
"Good idea," Kai said, taking it from me. "Always good to have a backup plan, right?"
"Right," I confirmed.
Not long after that, we met up with the others. Kallaway was getting off the phone with someone I couldn't identify, Lance was prepping some weapons, the Biker and Phantasm were enchanging judging looks at each other, Sera was having a chat with Royce and Paris, and Tony as his crew were loading up some things onto the bus.
"We don't have much time," I said. "Everyone get things sorted, then we gotta move."
I went to talk to Kallaway, while everyone else stated wrapping up their preparations. I think I saw Lance approach Kai about something. I don't know.
"Sup?" Kallaway asked me.
"Oh, you know," I said. "Pre-war stress. Was that someone important?"
"Dyson," Kallaway said. "Trying to get some advice from him. Not much luck. Ben's being cryptic as all hell too."
"Makes sense," I said. "When you know things about the future, who have be careful what you tell to who."
"I know," he said. "Speaking of... I've tried looking into the future a bit. I can't make a lot of sense of it... but I saw Tyler. And... you."
"What did you see?" I asked.
"You were fighting," he said. "And you were both..."
He was scared. I could see it in his face.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"You were both... actively trying to kill each other," Kallaway said. "It was as though... you'd given up on him."
I rested a hand on Kallaway's shoulder.
"I haven't," I said. "And I won't. I'm going to bring him back."
"And what if that changes?" Kallaway asked.
"You can't believe everything the visions show you," I said. "Sometimes you just have to believe things will work out."
He sighed.
"I trust you," he said. "I really do. But I'm still worried."
"It'll be fine," I said. "Besides. When you know something about the future, that gives you the opportunity to change it."
"I hope you're right," he said.
Yeah, I thought to myself. I hope so too...
"Let's get going, all right," I said. "We'll pull this off, somehow."
Kallaway nodded.
And with that, we got going.
Tyler... I'm coming for you. I will get through to you. Somehow...
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