Vol 2 Ch 8(Kenneth)(B):Take Back

"Up and at the ready everyone!" Raymond, being louder than needed, shouted across the whole dropship. Everyone split off from the people they were talking with, including me, Nicholai, and Cally, to get into their actual groups.

"You all ready?" I asked everyone as we walked. The dropship had hatches at the bottom, three to be exact, one for each squad. Handles were put near the hatches, they were attached to the floor so we could grab onto them, which we did.

"Shouldn't I be saying that?" Lee grabbed onto the handle, Me, Sam, and Nicholai put on parachutes. The hatch for our squad opened up and a gust of wind started blowing in our faces. "Remember everyone! We counter-attack The Reunion while they're attacking the front walls! If Matt and his team do things correctly we shouldn't have to deal with heavy armor like tanks, Sam and I'll stay up on the mountains and provide covering fire, I'll be giving orders from there as well, Nicholai will support any wounded soldiers from the settlement and Kenneth will attempt to fix the turret systems. We all have jobs that fit us, does everyone understand?" Lee shouted over the wind.

"Yes Sir!" We all screamed into the air, getting looks from the Zelot Team. The light on our side of the ship turned green and Lee jumped off with a two-finger salute while screaming in the air

"Then let's do this!" The clouds soon covered him as Sam jumped, then Nicholai, then me.

PTS (Platoon version) Active

Raymond: Alright, we'll be part of the main defense team, Matt, do you remember what I told you?

Matt: Of course I do, why wouldn't I remember such a great power!

Raymond: Only use it if and only if you have that plasma shield, any other time will severely wound you

Matt: Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine

Lee: You better be listening

Matt: Hey it's not like I went without a parachute!

Lee:...

Sam: Lee?

Kenneth: I think Matt was joking but...

Matt: I was!

Lee: I...may have forgotten.

Kai: Greeeeat

Alice: Alright, it's no biggie

Lee: No biggie!? Alice I'm going who knows how fast, into the floor!

Alice: Yeah, I know, so listen, all you have to do is throw your sword somewhere, then move your right hand to the top left of you, and your right hand to the bottom right of you, then you'll teleport to your sword, and while you will keep the momentum, it should make things easier.

Lee: I would've preferred if you just told me how

The clouds soon cleared, and we were closer to the ground than we thought. I saw Lee summon his sword and throw it onto the edge of the mountain, doing the motion he warped and was grabbing onto the sword's handle, with the momentum he had he spun and ripped the sword out of the mountain, landing on the mountain.

Sam: Show-off.

Nicholai: If Lee can, does that mean we can too?

Alice: Of course! You all have edged weapons for a reason

Alice was right, with an exception for Raymond with a blunt mace, we all had edged blades for our weapons, even Nicholai. All of us, except for Sam and Matt, threw their weapons near the settlement and did the motion, warping to it.

Raymond: I expect good cover from you Lee

Lee: What? Sam is up here too you know

Raymond: I know, but I expect things from you.

Lee: Wha-

Matt: It's time to break them down!

Screaming into our heads, we saw Matt barreling towards the ground at who knows per hour with a giant bubble shield around him.

Lee: What the hell are you doing!

Matt: Taking out their weapons!

Right as Matt hit the ground a large shockwave knocked us off balance. As I tried to stand up I was immediately brought to the ground as I heard something crash behind us. When I looked I saw the barrel of a sci-fi-looking tank roll along the grass.

"Pay attention" Kai brought me to my feet "Everything in order" He looked at the others.

"Yeah, should be" Alice dusted herself off, although she only got mud on herself in the process "Goddamnit!"

"We've said it before, This place is down-pouring, getting mud on yourself is impossible to avoid"

(From this point on when something is written as
Lee: example
instead of the normal way, they are using PTS)

Sam: This is disgus- woah!

Kai: You all right?

Lee: Barley! A fucking tank crashed up here! The hell are you all doing!?

We continued running to the front gates of the settlement with Raymond and Kai leading. When a bullet line flew in front of us we slid to a stop, Alice and Nicholai came forward summoning their dome-like shields to protect our front.

"Stay in the shield!" Alice called out as we continued running again, bullets ricocheted off the shield and eventually, they gave up, most likely realizing it was useless. We made it to the front gate and entered it seemed like the doors were already blasted open, Nicholai and Alice stayed behind and blocked the gate with their shields. We were greeted haphazardly with weapons drawn on us.

"Stand down soldiers! We're your support" Raymond walked past Kai and stood in the front, speaking with a condescending attitude.

"General Raymond!" One of the soldiers ran up to him, from his outfit and medals, he seemed to be some captain. "The Reunion came sooner than anticipated"

"We noticed" I heard running and looked behind me, I saw Nicholai crouch down as Matt jumped over her, landing behind her shield before he could get hit anymore.

"Let me see it" Nicholai froze her shield mid-air and went to tending Matt's gunshot wound.

"We've got two snipers watching over us, but that doesn't mean they can gun them all down, they're, for the most part trying to stay hidden, can't blame them after all, if they get spotted someone could mortar them.

"They got mortars?" I looked at Raymond.

"Well, technically yes, they can use their magic to propel explosives, or, as you saw with Matt, even be the explosives."

"Hold on, you sent Matt to be a suicide bomber!?" Nicholai shouted from her location.

"No...Like I said, as long as he does it with that shield thing around him, he'll be unharmed." Raymond spoke nonchalantly, acting as though Matt couldn't have died...or, moreso that he didn't care if he did.

"Well, I'm still here, so it's alright" Matt seemed relaxed, guess he has faith in that explosive shield of his.

"Eh...I... never mind" Nicholai sighed.

"Sir, will they charge soon?" One of the soldiers came from behind a sandbag barrier.

"I doubt it, considering the heavy blow their heavy weapons took...makes me wonder why they're using tanks instead of just attacking head on though" Raymond began patting himself down until he pulled a drive out, handing it to the captian "Insert this into your turret system" He then looked over at me "He'll repair them for you" The captain took the flash drive and looked at me, and what with what seemed like hesitation, walked over to me.

"You can repair machinery?" The captain asked me.

"Way more than just machines, I tinkered with stuff a lot as a kid" I crossed my arms "So where is it?"

"Right, follow me" The captain began walking through the settlement, and eventually we made it to a structure. "Just a sec" He pressed his hand against the door and a grid appeared, scanning over his arm. After it finished it flickered and then turned green, causing the door to open. "It's around the corner. Just go through that door" He pointed to the left where a door stood.

"Why don't you come with me?"

"That cautious huh? Good kid" He walked to the door and opened it. "Your suspicion is displaced though" I made sure he walked in first before I followed, I made sure the door stayed open. When I walked in I noticed many different servers, they seemed to all be labeled using some digital name tag that floated in the air. "It's right here" He knelt down next to one of the servers. "Just in this one" I knelt down beside him as he pulled out a keyboard. He began typing something down.

"What're you doing?" Guy was a fast typer, must've done this many times before.

"Just allowing for flash drives. we normally have it off incase of Reunion spies, but it's pointless to keep it up, eccpecially when there's an army right outside your door"

"Yet you trust me?"

"Raymond says your good, so I just assume you are, DTs don't just judge based on your age, we've all got different backgrounds after all."

"I see..." The captain put the flash drive into the server beside him, causing a bunch of code to appear on the screen.

"I hope you don't have to do anything"

"He said to repair stuff, not code it" As the code began running through the screen I began to notice something, errors appeared whenever it came to a category labeled 'charge' I assume that was the issue, yet, would I really know how to fix a magical futuristic turret? "Can you bring me to one of the turrets?"

"Sure, find the issue?"

"I think so" I stood up and left the server room, standing aside for the captain to finish up whatever he was doing. After that we left the structure, I could see everyone setting up defences, whether it was people planting plasma shields down or reloading magazines.

"Wonder why they don't just attack us now" The Captain spoke while we walked.

"They may be trying to get in more heavy armor since we bombed most of them"

"No, that isn't it" He sounded sure.

"How would you know?" I sounded skeptical, for all I know he himself was a Reunion spy.

"It's one of my powers, I guess you can say...no to describe it better. If someone says something, I can sometimes tell if it's right or wrong...so I guess just a detector of truth or not"

"Sounds useful" We walked up some stairs and began walking on the top of the settlement, we made sure we couldn't be seen. Soon we made it to the first turret, I don't know why, but it gave me this feeling like something was wrong...maybe I had some power relating to tech.

"It's all yours kid, I'll watch your back" The captain held a rifle, yet I didn't know what kind, someone else would be more the type to know. I sat down and opened up the panel, the wiring seemed fine...well, it was a mess, but the power was clearly working, there were some small boxes latching onto a bigger box. I pulled one out and a little spark could be seen, it seemed like the boxes belonged in there since there are holes specifically for it, although, maybe this was put here and was made to seem like it belongs. I decided to leave it be for now, tinkering with unknown things is recipe for disaster. I found something that was way out of place though, one of the wires that were more hidden in the back had a single purple stream in it which led to the bottom of the turret.

"Hey!" I called for the captain and he soon came over. "Was this always a thing?" I pointed to the wire, it took for the guy a while to respond, but eventually he did.

"I...don't think it was" In that response I summoned my spear and wedged it through the wires until I held it to the wire with the purple strand.

"Let's try cutting it then" Before I could hear any retaliation or agreement I nudged my spear up slightly as a flicker went out. I could see the other wires begin to glow orange, most likely symbolizing that the power was working again.

"Well, it was that simple huh?" I could hear the captain walk away behind me, but not too far, just enough to give me space. I wanted to see what else there was, or where the wire led. I leaned against the door used to close off the wiring and put my leg onto the open panel, attempting to stabilize myself. When I did I looked directly down, but I could see something climbing up the wire that used to have the purple strand.

"Hey Captain!" I called over for him again.

"should've just stayed over there" I could hear him as he walked. "Yeah?"

"Here" I shuffled over to the side of the panel, leaning on a pointed edge, it was a bit painful, but I wanted to show him. I pointed at the wire, and more importantly the blob that was climbing it.

"Heh, didn't know there were slimes in this dimension" The Captian raised his rifle through the panel and aimed at the blob, before he quickly raised it back down. "That would destroy the damned thing again..." Thankfully he noticed that, I didn't want to fix more stuff...well technically I destroyed this time around. The blob eventually got to our level, it had a purple tint to it, like it was glazed with it. It started to extend its mass, like something was trying to kick out of it, it was so small though, I didn't really think something could be inside. The color however interested me, purple...that was corruption, wasn't it? Then it hit me, that's because it was. I purposefully lost my balance and fell backward back onto the settlement's watchtowers, and the captain quickly crouched down, he must've realized it too. The slime jumped through the panel door, launching behind me. The other guards up here began to hear the commotion and looked at us.

"Shit! Corruptor!" One of the guards shouted and fired a shot at the blob, yet it only absorbed it.

"No you idiots! did you forget what I told you! The special rounds! Use them!" The captain shouted as he loaded a silver and pink bullet, it resembled Lee's hair in a way, hehe, he would've wanted those bullets. "You! pay attention!" The captain knocked me on the back before he fired a round at the blob, it looked hurt, yet it didn't die, it only leapt around, jumping from the railings, the floors, the thing was too sporadic to shoot. I let go of my spear with one hand and with the hand still grabbing on, I trusted my spear forward, causing it to impale the damn thing, but the middle of it only split open, as it then closed around my spear, and with beyond measurable speed began warping up my spear. One of the soldiers shot at it, causing it to stop before it reached me. I desummoned my spear yet it had already picked up speed, causing it to only fly through the air at me. I fell over from the surprise and knocked my head against the floor, but I resummoned my spear and held it in front of me, hoping to at least stop it for a second. Instead of it reaching however, it was shot by two bullets coming from the mountains. The slime stopped and it seemed like it was dissolving, that was until Nicholai walked up to it.

"I'll take care of it" With a scalpal, Nicholai picked it up and put it into a canister.

Lee: You alright Ken?

Kenneth: I'd say so, thanks for the help you two

Sam: No worries, I guess loading those special rounds take a lot of time

I looked at the soldiers, and just like she said, they had only just finished loading, only the person who shot earlier had them in as well as the Captain, only he had just loaded one round.

"You all right?" One of the soldiers walked up to me with a hand out.

"Yeah" I grunted as I accepted his hand and he pulled me up. "Yeah, I'm alright" Nicholai walked behind me, and I could feel her hand moving my hair aside.

"Well, you're not bleeding, so I guess you're right" I heard her behind me, as she soon walked back in front, going back towards the stairs "If you feel off let me know."

"Are the turrets working again?" One of the soldiers made me remember why I was up here.

"They should be, makes me wonder why there was an extra wire in it though" I looked back at the turret and saw the power running through it, even the lights inside it turned on, allowing me to see the wires better.

"Must've been a traitor, we'll deal with them asap" The Captain peered over the ledge, looking down onto the Reunion. "Seems like they're almost ready to attack, they've got reinforcements." I joined the captain and looked over the edge, just like he said there were more of them, not just soldiers, but vehicles and a tank as well, it seems like what Matt did earlier only bought time, not resources.

GTS(To surrounding soldiers)

Raymond: The Reunion is going to begin their assault soon! Ready yourselves!

All(But Bravo and Cinter team): Yes Sir!

GTS Off

All the soldiers cheered.

Raymond: How's the turret Kenneth?

Kenneth: Finished, at least I think

Raymond: If that's the case! I'll tell everyone to give it their all!

"Hey, how do you turn the turret on?" I asked the captain

"We'll do it ourselves, go join your crew down there"

"Alright then" I walked over to the staircase, going down step by step. By the time I made it down, the side of the staircase was covered in sandbags, as in, when you get off the stairs and turn left, you're already in cover. I noticed Nicholai sitting with a medical bag. "Where's the blob?" I sat beside her, looking to make sure everything was in check.

"I had a few of the soldiers watch over it for me." She didn't have her weapons summoned, if anything she was moreso twidling with her thumbs.

"You don't have much to do huh?"

"Magic can instantly heal people, so my knowledge means nothing, I was only made a medic because I don't fight, not because I tried my hardest to learn. So yeah, even if people get injured" She raised her hand and acted like she just tapped something "I heal them like that, then it's back to nothing for me" She slouched against the bags. "Well, consider yourself lucky, even if you don't have anything to do, you can tinker with Dave."

"Well, maybe you can start testing on those corruptors you keep catching, you got about five of them now, more than enough to test." I could see her sit up, but instead of saying it was a stupid idea, she replied in a different way.

"I...that's a good idea actually, maybe we can find a way to cure Lee of that damn thing...what an idiot, almost getting himself killed to save some rookie."

"Yeah, I'm surprised he's held out this long without breaking"

"Yeah, well he's a trooper I'll give him that, a very stupid one, but one nonetheless."

"Always have to call someone stupid don't you?" Nicholai stopped twiddling her thumbs and sat up more.

"Well, it's just a force of habit."

"So you don't really mean it?"

"Sometimes, a lot of the time I do mean it."

"There is still that small amount though."

"Be quiet, you're starting to sound like the other two." I could see a smile on her face.

"They're coming!" I heard one of the soldiers scream into the air as an explosion, that sounded like a 20-tons of TNT going off. It clearly wasn't that though, or we'd be dead. Nicholai stood up, and I followed, putting the blunt end of my spear to the floor and waited.

"Well, I got a job to do, go kick some ass Ken!" Unlike her, she saluted as she ran off, using the smoke from the explosion earlier as cover.

Kai: Lee, Sam, They're going to advance soon, we've got some people in the settlement trying to evac, can we have one help with the defense and one with the evac?

There was no response.

Alice: Sam? Lee?

Once again, none

Matt: The hell happened?

Cypher: They shot off a round earlier, two actually, to help Kenneth, they may have already found their position

Kai: Fuck! Alright

I heard someone sprinting over to my area while I leaned against the sandbag, ready for them to advance. Soon the footsteps stopped and I felt something on my shoulder, a hand.

"Ken" I heard Kai's voice "I don't wanna use PTS as the others need to listen for the advance, so I'll just do it this way" I turned around to face him. "How about me and you go look for the two of them. They have things settled here, and you've done your job." I pondered for a bit, then I started to take note of something. I'm not really a fighter so I don't really think I could contribute to the fight.

"Yeah, let's go look for them" Kai patted my shoulder.

"Atta boy, let's go search the area Lee and Sam were at before" Kai summoned his weapon and threw it over the settlement's walls, warping over it. I followed shortly after.

"Why didn't we just do this instead of the gate?" I asked, as I think it would've been better than the possibility of getting shot.

"We can warp out but not in of the settlement, you know, since The Reunion were DTs once, so they can warp too."

"Ahh, that makes sense" We continued running, the only thing we could hear were warcries and yelling.

Soon we made it to where Lee and Sam were before, the only thing that laid there was a pad with four indents. Not even their weapons were there.

"So either they were knocked out, or they ran, otherwise their weapons would be here." Kai raised his hand slightly forward and the pad disappeared. "I'll give them this back later." I looked around, yet, it was just forest.

"Out of all the places..."I mumbled to myself, why couldn't this area be more clear, the tapping of the rain on my goggles didn't help either and they were only on my head. It felt uneasy, the tapping of the rain on my goggles and the floor, even on us, the fighting that was going on just down the mountain sounded distant, and just the cold air itself, breezing through Kai and I.

"Am I the only one who feels like they're being watched?" I looked back towards Kai, seeing that he was looking at me.

"No, I don't really feel anything, not to sound edgy, I just don't" The rain that gathered in my goggles started to drip out, I took them off my head and shook it around, getting all the rain out, I put it in my pocket after that.

"Burn your nerves too much during robotics class or something?" A part of me kinda forgot he used to be our teacher...besides for me and Nicholai...and I think Sam, our hair colors changed...I wonder what Kai's hair looks like now, he's been wearing a hat all this time. I thought, but remembered that Lee and Sam are still MIA. I took a step towards the forest, looking for anything, footprints, bullet casings, any type of mark that shows where they went. "I've got it covered" I walked beside me, I saw him raise his hand slightly, just so it reached his hip, he faced his palm to the sky, causing some orb to appear, it had a white-ish pink tint, just like Lee.

"Tracking magic? Why not do Sam, she probably left more of a pa-

"Lee's easier, at least for me it is" I didn't quite understand what he meant. He crushed the orb in his hand, causing these floating strings to appear, as they floated in the air, they started stretching out, creating a path. "Well, let's get following it shall we?"

"Right!" We both went into a run, following the now fastly expanding strings, I noticed when I looked behind me that the strings behind us would vanish as we went past it, I assume it was a way of preservation.

After running in silence, trying to catch our breaths every now and again, we came to a stop. with only what looked like a tear in the air right in front of us.

"Guess the road ends here."

"Not exactly" Kai took out a knife and held it up to the tear. "Tracking magic doesn't just follow this dimension."

"Even so, didn't you and Raymond say, that if you never went into the dimension, or haven't heard of it, you'd just go to some random one?"

"Right, but this tracking magic can let me see a vision into the dimension, allowing me to do this" He slashed down onto the tear, causing some ripple to open. "I'll go first, I'll let you know if it's safe" Kai jumped through the ripple, and then a second past...then a few more...then more, until.

Umm
Recipients: Kai, Kenneth

Hey, I checked to make sure but...this is just
New Min...it's the same dimension
-Kai

I jumped through the ripple, and just like he said, I had a view down onto New Min, yet something seemed off, like it wasn't the one I knew, it was more destroyed.

"It seems off doesn't it?" I noticed Kai sitting on the edge of the mountain, he had some weird glowing rectangle in front of him. "Want a look? There's something you should see" I knelt down with one knee beside him. He moved the rectangle thing near my eyes. "It works like a zoom-in function, binoculars if you will" I grabbed onto it and moved it to my eyes, I looked around and almost immediately I noticed something near the entrance. Lee, Sam, Kyle, Kayla...Matt...Nicholai.....me....all those people stood at the entrance. "Aren't you standing right beside me?" Kai asked "Or do you have some cloning magic or tech I'm not aware of?"

"No, I don't" The guards seemed to be arguing with them.

"We're in the wrong time, let's go back" With another strike he opened another portal, this one had the strings leading into it. "That's better" He leapt through, but before I did, I took another look down the mountain...A different timeline huh? I wonder how this one ended for ours to appear...hold on...no, that'd be too confusing even for me to think about. I went through the ripple and appeared on the next side. "Oh, well, guess there's no need for a message" I saw Kai writing.

"Oh! My bad, I wasn't thinking"

"You're lucky, that decision may have killed you in any other scenario"

"I get that"

"Good" The area was a lot darker, but we were still outside, rain was still pouring, and we were still on a mountain. "Looks the same, but it's a different dimension" He set a mat on the dirt and sat on it.

"What're you doing?" I looked down at him, not in a 'you're trash' way, but in a literal sense.

"I took a quick look at the platoon hud, Lee and Sam are awake and there" He pointed off the mountain, where I saw a compound...why was everything in the distance of a mountain...Kai also said the wrong time...not a different dimension earlier... "The rain is going to get heavier, and it's going to be a lot darker than it is typically, we should go later in the day" He made a hole in the center and went back to the trees, ripping branches or small logs off.

"So we just wait here?"

"hmhm" He snapped his fingers, causing fire to light up on his index finger, with his left-hand, the one with no fire, he summoned a little paddle on a board and slammed it beside the logs, blocking the rain from hitting them. He held his flaming finger near the logs...nothing...nothing...still nothing. I summoned my spear and held the blunt end at Kai.

"Here" I used the blunt end of my spear and quickly nudged Kai's finger closer to the logs, and just like I thought it lit up, the rain wasn't hitting it and the fire burned bright. Kai nudged my spear away and looked at me.

"What the hell!"

"Well, I thought since you use fire, you're fire resistant."

"T...that is true. No you're right, I was being an idiot to fear it. Still" He gave me a condescending stare, either that or it was a death stare...it still put a shiver down my spine. "don't ever pull that again" He spoke quietly like always, but his voice was enough to instill a disciplined attitude.

"O-of course." I sat on the other side of the fire, it was kinda weird, with the paddle right above it, looked stupid too.

I looked down at the compound below and in the distance. It made me feel uneasy, regardless, I rested my spear on my legs and began cleaning it, all the oil on it could make it flamabl-...I stopped cleaning when I thought that, instead I smeared the oil all over the blade of my spear. I didn't know why it hadn't dried yet, but then I recalled the fact that our weapons won't change or break and all that since it's our souls in a way, so maybe it also doesn't get dirty, and that's why it didn't dry.

Me and Kai rested, waiting...waiting...waiting until there was even a chance to go save them, if they were even there.