The next morning, the team woke up early, gearing up for the coming battle. Once they were ready, Crimson briefed them.

"To keep anyone from having to handle too much, we're only giving out the key details of the plan." He explained. "The facility's grown in the last year, some kind of large extension, and we have no intel on what's going on inside there. I'll be trying to find a backdoor in this extension. Reed, your job is to fly up to the roof of the building, disable what systems you can, and find a way inside from there. Melanie, one of the airships will drop you and a few other stealth-inclined members in the woods, you'll all have different targets, but with the same goal in mind. Sneak in, find as much dirt as you can, and see what damage you can do from the inside. Nina, you're going to be part of the main assault. Storm the front door, make as big a ruckus as you can, wreak havoc. It'll give the rest of us cover to complete our missions."

Reed paused. "What about Lizzie?"

"She's..." Crimson stopped himself. "She has her own task to handle."

"Crimson, she's my sister." Reed insisted.

"I know." He stated. "But we have to keep this compartmentalized...Reed, we don't know what we're up against, and we need everyone focused. We're going to be getting status reports and giving new orders, we need to think about the mission here. If you ditch your job because you're worried about Lizzie, then everything could go south."

"So I just have to trust you?" Reed asked, looking Crimson in the eye.

Crimson looked back. "Yes."

Reed nodded. "Alright..."

"There's one more thing." Crimson stated. "We've got some specialized equipment to work with here, including access to rare dusts. Make good use of it."

The team perked up with excitement at that. With nothing else to say, Crimson chuckled and stepped out.

Reed immediately went to look at the equipment. He found a capsule that could be fired from his gun to set up a connection between his scroll and the computer of whatever it stuck to. As Crimson had said, he also saw some rare and expensive dust types, being sure to take a few as spare ammo. Once he was ready, he went to join the rest of the group. Seeing Lizzie, he worked his way over to her.

"Hey...be safe out there, alright?" He said.

Lizzie nodded. "You too."

Reed then went to Nina. "Are you sure you're alright being here again?"

"I'm not." Nina said. "There's nothing okay about being here at all...but that's why we have to do this."

"I know." Reed pulled her into a hug. "Give 'em hell."

"A frozen one." Nina said, a little more stern than usual.

Finally, Reed went over to Crimson. "Whatever you've got planned here...it's going to work, right?"

Crimson grinned. "The best laid schemes of mice and men...it's not the plan we're counting on, it's being able to react when something goes wrong. I know I was pretty strict about the mission, but that's about keeping your head clear. If things do go south...trust your instincts, alright?"

"When did you become a tactician?" Reed joked.

"Got tired of improv, thought I'd actually have some idea what I'm doing this time." Crimson replied. "Good luck out there, Reed."

Reed nodded. "You too."