Chapter 25: Quad Plan

The remaining Wilsons looked back to their defeated comrade with soft disappointment.

“I was aware that your EP granted you an overwhelming amount of natural strength,” one of them remarked, “but I had no idea you could use it for such barbaric means.”

“Barbaric?” Roosvelt chuckled. “No, no; that wasn’t barbaric at all.”

He lifted his trunk up high above his head.

“Now this…is barbaric!”

Roosevelt slammed his weapon down at one of the Wilsons. She safely stepped away from the attack, only to stumble forward as the trunk crashed into the ground besides her and shattered the earth underneath her feet. The clone tried to steady her feet, but not before Roosevelt lunged up ahead, grabbing hold of his stunned opponent and smashing her straight into the floor.

“Two down,” he cooed. “A dozen more to go…”

The Wilsons turned to face one another.

“Quad Plan?” a Wilson asked.

“Quad Plan!” they replied in unison.

Roosevelt watched on as the Wilsons gathered in three groups of four: the front two of each squad taking on defense stances, while the back two took more offensive postures.

“Deeelightful!” Roosevelt said with a grin, “This will make it far easier to hit you all at once!”

“Prepare to be thoroughly disappointed!” screamed the squadron directly in front of Roosevelt as they charged ahead.

Roosevelt tightened the grip around his weapon, then swung his tree trunk at the approaching group. As he swung, two of the quad members stepped directly into the attack while the remaining two pressed onto their backs, the combined strength of the group stopping Roosevelt’s swing.

“You see!” the group exclaimed. “This is the power of unity! And this…”

Roosevelt tilted his head to see the remaining two Wilson squads running at him from behind. Roosevelt pulled back his arms, but the Wilson’s in front of him refused to release their hold on his weapon.

“Buzz off!” he shouted, swatting his hand at the group, forcing them to back off and let go of his trunk.

“…is the power of 8 perfectly executed kicks!” the remaining Wilsons screamed as they collided into the square of Roosevelt’s back.

Roosevelt turned around and swung forth his weapon, but the Wilsons all leapt off his back, avoiding the attack. At the same time, the first group of clones leapt ahead themselves, kicking down into Roosevelt’s exposed back from behind.

“You see?” The Wilsons shouted as they leapt back to the ground. “My Quad Plan is without flaws! It is the epitome of my idealism; of my belief in the strength of unity and the capability of honed technique!”

Roosevelt gave a sharp snort.

“Your Quad Plan might be perfect in theory…” Roosevelt lifted up his trunk and started another tremendous swing, “…now let’s see how it holds in practice!”

The quad directly in front of Roosevelt raised their united guard exactly as they had done for Roosevelt’s previous attack. However, the group was entirely unprepared for the staggering amount of pressure Roosevelt added to his latest swing. The group maintained their ideal stance as long as they could, only to be scattered about as Roosevelt tore through their formation with his massive trunk.

The crowd roared with its approval, but Roosevelt maintained his stern expression.

“Don’t cheer for me yet!” he yelled as he continued swinging his weapon around.

With a sly grin, Roosevelt released the trunk from out of his hands, rocketing his weapon ahead into another unprepared squadron of Wilsons, knocking them across the ground like a set of bowling pins.

“Okay,” Roosevelt greeted the crowd with his signature toothy grin, “now you can cheer!”

The four remaining Wilson’s looked to their stricken comrades with disbelief.

“Im…impossible! Our Quad Plan has never failed us in any of our practice matches prior to this point!”

“That’s just it, Wilson.”

The Wilson’s turned to Roosevelt as he gave an utterly disappointed shake of his head.

“You seem to think that power and technique are the only thing that separates the of us…but that’s just not it…no, the real thing that separates us…is that you think a few cozy practice matches are all you need to prepare for this Revolutionary War…”

Roosevelt tilted his head to the sky.

“…while I actually know what it means to fight in a real war with everything on the line…”

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Quad Plan. This is the name of a Princeton program Woodrow Wilson fought hard for as head of the university. In theory this program would have organized the campus into various “quads,” but the plan was ultimately never implemented.