Another side: Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Blake Brianna and Gren hurried through the forest, trying to get back to their base. They had found the remains of the scanner in a large crater, and realizing that replacing it was pointless now with a Trevelyan attack force in the woods, decided to fall back to the base and get their teammates, but Blake hoped they had already gotten away. Gren was the fastest out of all of them, and was tearing ahead of Blake and Brianna.

“Get back here bird!’ Blake shouted at Gren, but Gren wanted to hurry and get back to the base. He had wanted to search for Martin and the others, but Blake said that if they had any brains, they would have headed back to the base. If Blake wanted him to slow down, he could start by not calling him by that derogative term. He wasn’t’ even sure what a “bird” was. As Gren leapt over a bush, he realized to late that there was someone right in his path of flight. He collided with them, falling backwards into the bush, and whoever he ran into fell back onto the ground with a grunt. Expecting the worst, Gren leapt back up with his battle claws already materializing into his hands. He was just about to bring his right arm around in a cleaving strike when a second person cried out.

“Whoa! Watch it.” Maximus said, holding up his hands. Brittany was sprawled on the ground behind him from Gren’s collision with her.

“Sorry about that.” Gren said sheepishly, dematerializing his claws. He really hoped Blake hadn’t seen any of that. The last thing he wanted was an “I told you so.” from him. Apparently those sorts of moments sucked no matter what your species.

“Do you know how tough it is to get a stain of any kind out of these robes?” Brittany asked, trying to push herself up, pretending to dust off her robes.

“But I don’t see any stain.” Gren pointed out. Brittany had only landed in some moderately dry dirt.

“Don’t you sass me boy… I mean bird.” She retorted.

“Freeze!” Blake shouted as he and Brianna stepped into view, their guns pointed at Maximus.

“Seriously!” Maximus said, taking a step back with his hands up again. “It’s like you guys don’t even know me. Trevelyan doesn’t even have wizards.”

“Oh, sorry about that.” Blake sighed, lowering his gun as Brianna did the same.

“I don’t think a sorry would help if he had sliced me or you had shot me.” Maximus muttered.

“What are you two doing out here?” Brianna asked, although she already had a god idea as to what the answer was.

“An entire Trevelyan attack force showed up at the base and it was just me and Brittany fighting them off, so we had to abandon the base.” Maximus relayed.

“How’d you even get away? We only have the front door.” Blake asked, suspicion in his voice. From what Gren had seen of him, he wasn’t very trusting of anyone.

“Me and Brittany…”

“I did most of the work.” Brittany threw in.

“… Formed a corridor of ice from the entrance to the forest and ran through it. Their bullets only chipped away the ice, but the lasers cut right through it. Luckily, they only got our robes.” Maximus explained looking down at the singe marks on his robes. “We zapped a few more on our way through, and then we were out.”

“Where were Ladnar and the Incredible Captain Katie during all this?” Blake asked, obviously even more suspicious, something Gren didn’t think possible. Seconds before a Trevelyan attack hit the base itself, Ladnar had disappeared? Blake didn’t think Katie had the ability to even plan treason though. She was too loyal to good.

“We had gotten some readings from the other scanners about the attack force, and Ladnar went out to find you guys since we couldn’t reach you on the coms. We stayed behind to get all the data you wouldn’t want to fall into Trevelyan hands,”

“You could have at least kept it on a convenient flash drive, and had a big red button that would delete all the data.” Brittany complained.

“But on our way out though, we ran into the attack force, but you know everything past there.”

“How many?” Blake asked grimly.

“There were a little over twenty I think, but me and Brittany killed about six.” Max answered.

“What about the plan now?” Brianna asked. Everyone turned to Blake, looking for an answer. With their base taken, and two of their official teammates missing, things were looking bleak.

“It’s still on.” He answered, determination in his eyes.

“We planned to march through this forest back to Abraham city, and that’s what we still plan to do. You all have your weapons, so we really don’t need anything from the base. We might as well start marching. Trevelyan will be focused mainly on securing the base, and we can definitely evade detection in this forest.” Blake reasoned, making more adjustments to his rifle.

“But what about my master, Katie, and my friends?” Gren asked. He suddenly felt very alone around all these humans. “And what’s this march to Abraham? We didn’t talk about this in the briefing.”

“I don’t like discussing “all” the details of my plans to other people, but if your master is as smart as he acts, he’ll conclude that’s where we went. We have no vehicles, and Tremont is about five hours away by hovercraft, which we have two of stashed in Abraham. But if it makes you feel any better bird, I’ll try and radio it to them, or leave a cloud recording for them to find.”

“Cloud recording?” Gren asked.

“I just leave this,” Blake said, unclipping a small device from his ear mic. “Lying around somewhere, and when someone else wearing a compatible ear mic comes into its range, the recording will play back.”

“So it’s more of a ground message than a cloud one?”

“Let’s not get into a tech lesson.” Blake said, lodging the device into a small hole in a tree.

“Look, you can use your fancy technology if you want, but I’m going to find the others.” Gren said, feeling around in his pockets.

“Don’t be stupid. If Trevelyan gets you, you’re on your own.” Blake said, as if he knew Gren would get caught.

“Don’t worry.” Gren reassured, pulling something out of his pocket, and opening his hand. Inside it was a small seed.

“I’m good at not getting caught.”

Gren closed his eyes, concentrating on the seed in his hand. The downside of his control over plants is that it required a lot of concentration for it to work, but his fighting style normally didn’t lead to direct confrontation, giving him plenty of time to concentrate. Small vines began spreading from the seed, encircling his hand. Maximus was the first to notice the vines, and took a few steps back. Soon the vines reached Gren’s shoulder, and by that time everyone had given him a wide berth. The vines began branching off, some heading towards his other shoulder, others encircling his torso, and some even going towards his head. Leaves began sprouting from the vines themselves, covering all of Gren’s brown feathers. By the time the plant had stopped growing; Gren was almost indistinguishable from the trees and bushes behind him. This seed was from one of the creeper bushes in the forest, and Gren had made sure to bring several indigenous plant seeds with him. He looked himself over, making sure he was well camouflaged. Everyone’s mouth was hanging open at this, except for Blake, who was trying to appear unimpressed, and just barely passing.

“I want one of those.” Brittany said impressed by how authentic the camouflage was.

“Well, it looks like you have everything under control. You know where we’re going, so if you find the others, get them transport to Tremont.” Blake said, slinging his rifle over his shoulder. He began to march off, but turned back when no one was following. He coughed in annoyance, waiting for someone to start following. Brianna was first, followed by Maximus and Brittany. Martin felt betrayed, and he had hardly known these humans for a day. As the group walked away, Blake stopped and looked back over his shoulder.

“Good… Luck?” Blake said, but Gren was already gone, having vanished into the treetops.

"You may not like the Avos much, but they sure are cool." Maximus added, smiling to himself. Humans were still cooler in his opinion.