Chapter 4 – Between Earth and Oblivion
Noah went to talk to the leader of the Providence outpost, Captain Calan. He had to let him know that the camp was about to be under attack, as soon as possible. He tried to contact the Captain by sending him a message, but for some reason communications were down. That meant Noah had to find him himself.
First, Noah checked the Captain's quarters. It was a small building on the western side of the camp. Most of the time, Calan wasn't there – he could usually be found somewhere outside, giving orders to his soldiers. Still, it was the best place to start looking, but, as Noah expected, he wasn't there. The next best place to look, besides somewhere outside, would be the barracks. Even if the Captain wasn't there, someone inside might know where he was.
The two buildings that served as barracks were located a little bit south to the center of the camp. They had 24 bunk beds each – which was more than enough to house all the Agents in the outpost. Sometimes, other people showed around the camp that weren't Providence Agents, like Plumbers, the SACT, the Kids Next Door, Dexlabs Academy recruits etc. but they usually wouldn't stay at the camp overnight. Besides the Captain's quarters, the barracks were the only buildings in the camp. The other structures were the guard towers and the tents.
Noah rushed into the nearer one and looked around. There was only one Agent there, sleeping, who Noah didn't know by name. He quickly went into the second one. Several people were there – one Agent was sitting on the bottom bunk of one of the bunk beds, two were talking to each other and one was in a hammock that was hanging in the corner with his hands behind his head. Noah knew some of them – the one on the bed was Agent Thompson, they were together in the Providence boot camp, while the guy sleeping in the hammock was Doyle Blackwell – a bounty hunter on Providence payroll. The other two Agents had their masks on, so Noah couldn't recognize them. Captain, Calan, however, wasn't there. When Noah entered, Agent Thompson and the two masked agents looked at him.
"Has anyone seen Calan?" – Noah asked.
"It's Captain Calan to you, Nixon" – Doyle answered without opening his eyes. "Last time I saw him he was going to the southern gate to yell at Helzinger for slacking off, so he's already pissed. What'd you wanna tell him?" – he asked, but Noah ran off as soon as he heard "southern gate".
"Captain Calan! Sir!" – Noah shouted as soon as he approached the southern gate and saw Calan with another Agent, probably Helzinger. "What is it, soldier?" – Calan asked Noah.
"Agent List reports an enemy force amassing in the Firepits. Hundreds of monsters. According to her, we should prepare for an assault immediately."
Calan started thinking. Then he turned to Helzinger and said "Dismissed", who then left quickly, happy that he got off easy. "How did she get that intel?" – Calan asked Noah.
"She was on a mission to find Bobo. She discovered an underground cave system beneath the Firepits, which could possibly spread to other locations as well. There, Cindy found Fusion Courage's secret lair where she overheard their preparations for the attack."
"And where is she now?"
"She's at the medic's, passed out, sir. It looks like she was discovered and attacked, she barely made it to the camp alive."
"Understood." – Calan told Noah.
Calan was a tall, physically imposing man with blonde hair and a scar over his right eye. To anyone else, he was intimidating just to look at. To his Providence agents, he was their fearless leader who should be obeyed at all times, or else he'd make their lives a living hell. No one really wanted to disobey him though – under his leadership they have defended against assault after assault. Calan has been serving Providence for years, even during the Nanite Event, before the Fusion war. Shortly after the invasion began, he was tasked by White Knight to set up an outpost in the Darklands and keep it operating - something he was successful at for the past year.
He raised his voice and addressed the camp. "LISTEN UP! THERE'S BEEN A REPORT OF AN ENEMY FORCE AMASSING TO ATTACK THE OUTPOST. I WANT EVERY MAN WHO CAN STAND AND HOLD A GUN TO BE READY AND BE PREPARED. THIS CAMP HAS ENDURED SEVERAL ORGANIZED ATTACKS BY ENEMY FORCES. FUSE'S MINIONS THINK THEY CAN TAKE US! WE'VE PROVEN THEM WRONG EACH TIME. PROVE THEM WRONG ONCE AGAIN."
Then he started giving each Agent orders one by one.
"HELZINGER! SOUND THE ALARM! MORRISON! INFANTINO! MAN THE SENTRY TURRETS! YOU THREE, GET ON THE NORTHEN WALL!" – then he turned to Noah. "Nixon! Have you seen Blackwell?" – he asked.
"He was in the barr-" – Noah was about to say, but Doyle showed up himself, eating an apple.
"Right here, Capt'n" – he said as he took a bite. "Special Agent Blackwell, reporting for duty" – he said with his mouth half-full and took another bite.
"Blackwell! Your job is not to stand around and eat! We're preparing for an assault! Get into the air and scout north. I want to know what kind of monsters are attacking and how many of them are there." – Calan ordered Doyle.
"Aye-aye, Cap!" – Doyle threw the apple away, did a salute, then flew up into the air with his jetpack. "Don't get your panties twisted" – he muttered when Calan and Noah were out of earshot.
"Nixon, you join Fortier at the guard tower. Keep a lookout" – Calan told Noah.
Noah ran up to the tower as Calan went to the communications dish. "Comms still down?" – he asked the technician, Fix. "Yes sir, we haven't been able to contact the SACT outpost at Huntor's Crest or the airship at Forsaken Valley. The Plumber base on the Precipice is out of the question. Everything is working perfectly on our end, so I'm guessing that something is wrong with the signal amplifier on Mandark's airship" – Fix explained.
"That means we can't count on backup. Dammit. We're on our own" – Calan said to himself.
"Of all the days to get attacked, why did it have to be the day when comms are down?" – asked Fix. "Well, it's obvious, I guess. This was intentional" – he answered his own question.
"Fuse wants us off his rock. Fat chance" – Calan said.
"Fix!" – they heard someone shout. "Oh, Captain Calan, you're here too. Good" – Alice approached them.
"What is it, Quickfeet?" – Calan asked.
"I just received a transmission from my cousin over at Forsaken Valley. You need to hear it" – and she played the transmission.
"...ice, it's...Shal...omething's wrong. Mandark's ...ip is gone and I can't comm... with it...munications might be dow...at your end too...ope you're hearing...and I hope…over there, Fuse is definitely up to something mal…"
The transmission did not fully reach the Firepits dish and a part of the audio was unhearable.
"So the airship really is gone. That explains why the comms are down. So we really are on our own tonight. Shit. Tonight might be the night we all die." - muttered Fix.
"You stay here and monitor any other incoming transmissions" - Calan told Fix, then went back to giving orders, while Alice went to the medic's tent to check up on Cindy.
"Still out?" - she asked Maison, the medic.
"Yeah, but she's stable. What she needs right now is rest, she'll come around soon, in a few hours." - Maison answered.
"She's probably gonna miss the whole battle. You know how she is, if she were conscious right now she'd jump into the front line, probably get herself killed too." – said Alice half-jokingly, but she knew that that was exactly what would happen, and that she herself would do the same in Cindy's place.
"Please don't say that. I'm already anxious about this battle. I... lived through one already. God knows I wish I hadn't" - Maison responded.
"Come on, May, don't be like that. You can't blame yourself for what happened at Hero's Hollow."
"I can and I will. It's bad enough I was one of the few that s-survived, I was the medic!" – Maison pointed to herself, her voice cracking and full of emotion. "I was responsible for their lives! And now I'll be rresponsible for this t-too!" - said Maison, as she started weeping.
"May, stop. Come on. You know it's the survivor's guilt talking, not you." - Alice said as she hugged Maison. "You did everything you could back there. And you're gonna do great today, too. You're the best damned medic on this forsaken rock." - Alice got up to leave.
"Before the battle begins, can you go see Fix and tell him I wanna talk to him before we all probably die?" - Maison asked. "It's just… He's the only one I can feel safe around towards. You're awesome, but, when I'm with you, I'm scared for your safety. With Fix, it all just fades away, you know?" Alice didn't really get what she meant, but she promised to tell Fix anyway.
"Of course, but you still need to be more optimistic" – she said as she left.
After leaving the medic's tent, Alice went back to the communications dish. Fix was still there, tinkering with the circuitry with technician goggles on.
"Maison needs to see you" - she told him.
"What? Oh yeah, sorry, no. I need to stay here, someone needs to be at the comms in case something important comes in. Calan's orders. You know." - he responded without even turning around or stopping his work.
"Your girlfriend needs you, Fix. She's stressed and she's worried and she needs you to be with her right now. I'll cover for you with the dish, just go talk to her." - Alice told him.
"Sorry, but, well, I'm trying to get a boost on this signal here. I'll talk to her after the battle is over" - he said with his face still sunk in the machine.
"You might not get a chance! One of you might die!" - Alice objected. At first, Fix didn't seem to respond, but then he turned around, took the goggles of his eyes and headed towards the medic's tent.
Alice stayed at the dish. She checked her NanoCom again for any other incoming transmissions, but there was nothing. Soon, Fix came back.
"Well?" – she asked. Fix didn't respond and went back to working on the dish. Alice sighed and went towards the wall to get ready for the battle. She walked past Calan, who was still shouting orders. "Quickfeet! Get to the northern wall! Now!" - she heard.
"I was already on it, Cap, no need to shout!", but as Calan turned away, she decided to visit Maison again before the battle began.
Noah was on the sentry tower with Agent Fortier and DOC-27, a Dexbot. He was looking at the sky, which was getting darker and darker. "Don't think anyone's gonna get any sleep tonight" - he muttered to himself. "Yeah" - Fortier agreed, who was also looking at the horizon. "Except the dead men" - he added darkly.
"Guess you're right. Today has been glum since the afternoon, and the comms have been down ever since that deafening blast that came from the southern part of the island. Something really doesn't feel right. I'm getting really nervous. Like, you know when you're about to go into a calculus test knowing you haven't studied anything? You feel me, Fortier?"
"We're all going to die tonight. That's it. The sooner you accept it, Nixon, the sooner you'll stop being nervous."
"Come on, man. You can't possibly know that. For all we know, we're totally capable of kicking the monsters' butts." - said Noah. He wondered why was Fortier acting so glum. The last time they talked, Fortier was cocky, confident and snarky. A little bit arrogant too, though. Granted, that was a couple months ago, but what could have happened?
"Maybe. But what's the point? If not today, we're gonna get killed by something else some other day. Our days are numbered here, Nixon."
"What's wrong with you dude?" - Noas asked. "You - I remember you used to be a totally different person."
Fortier did not respond.
"Agent Fortier's change of attitude might be attributed to the death of his partner, Agent Nyquist, at the hands of Fusion Agent Six." - DOC-27, who has been silent this whole time, explained. Noah wanted to say "Shit, I didn't know, Fortier. Sorry for your partner." But before he got the chance to give his condolences, Fortier growled "Nobody asked you, robot" angrily.
The Dexbot didn't respond and Noah chose to remain silent. Then, he noticed something flying in the air. It looked like a person. "That must be Blackwell" - he said. Doyle's trajectory was chaotic.
"His jetpack's damaged" - Fortier said. "I'll tell Calan. You stay on the lookout." he said as he headed down. Noah didn't object, mostly, he was relieved to be away from Fortier.
Fortier found Captain Calan at the north-east corner of the camp, where he was yelling at Alvarez for some mistake he made. "Fortier! Report!" - the Captain turned to him after he was done with Alvarez.
"Captain Calan! Sir! Agent Nixon spotted Special Agent Blackwell flying towards the camp. His jetpack appears to be damaged."
"The idiot got his jetpack damaged? I'm not surprised. Follow me, we need to get to him" - they ran through the main gate. Doyle had already crashed outside nearby. Calan helped him up while Fortier helped get the remains of the destroyed jetpack off his back.
"They're moving quickly, they'll be here within 15 minutes. I counted several hundred of Lizard Kings and Queens, even more Miasma Hulks, and a hundred or so Freakosauruses Rex. There was also around a dozen Tar Titans and I saw some more in the back, but they shot me down when I tried to get closer." - Doyle recounted while Fortier and Calan helped him up and back to the camp.
"It looks like Fuse is hitting us with his best shot" - Agent Fortier remarked.
"Providence has faced worse threats than Fusion Courage, Fortier" - said Calan. "We can't afford to lose. Not when we're the ones standing between Earth and oblivion."
"I…" - mumbled Doyle, half unconscious - "I want a pay raise", but both of them ignored him.
After they got back inside, Calan instructed Fortier to take Doyle to the medic, then ran off to mobilize his agents.
"I'm fine" - Doyle told Fortier. "Just a scratch. Plus, the medic's gonna have her hands full real soon, anyway" - he added as he got back up, still holding his injured shoulder.
Fortier let him go without a word. He himself went back to the gate to help get it barricaded. Alice was there as well.
"How's Noah?" - she asked him.
"Still optimistic we're gonna survive" - Fortier responded.
Alice said "You and Maison should start a club" and left to see Noah.
"Yo! How's the weather up here?" - she asked him casually as she got up on the tower.
"The usual, it's raining Doyles. How's Calan down there?"
"The usual, yelling at everyone. Don't you think he's being too hard on you guys?" - she asked Noah.
"The camp would be overrun within a day without him" - he responded.
Everyone was at their positions on walls, ready for the attackers. All of the defense turrets were manned. All of the Dexlabs security drones were activated. Almost every agent was at the perimeter, ready for the siege.
Everyone had their weapons drawn and armed. Alice put on her gauntlet weapon - she called it the Sonic Smacker. While everyone was waiting, night fell. The sky lost its shade of blue and got dark, but the Fireswamps were still illuminated, lit up by the jets of fire that rose up from the ground and the rivers of glowing lava and flaming tar that would flow over the ground. It doesn't get dark in the Fireswamps.
A sense of dread was looming over the camp as anxiety made its way into everyone's hearts.
Noah looked at the path leading towards the camp from the north.
"Shit. I can see them. It's about to begin. It's really about to begin now." - he saw the horde of the Fusion Monsters coming from the north. "THEY'RE COMING!" - he shouted for the whole camp to hear.
"I'll get down on the walls, you snipe them from up here" - Alice said as she summoned Nano Finn and jumped off the tower. "Good luck!" - she shouted as she descended. On her way down, she noticed Doyle limping towards the tower, carrying a rocket launcher. "Oh, lord." - she thought. "He's either gonna single-handedly win us the battle or doom us all". She landed on the ground and ran towards the wall.
Everyone on the wall could see the incoming horde now. The Tar Titans were coming in the front. There were 10 of them. "Ten Tar Titans?!" - Alice thought. "TEN?! Well, so much for defending the place".
Tar Titans looked like giant armored centipedes, and they just happened to be the toughest monsters in the Fireswamps due to their stone shell, which made them a perfect living shield for other monsters. It was usually extremely difficult to defeat one Tar Titan, so when the defendants saw ten of them moving towards the camp, everybody realized that Fuse wasn't fooling around today.
Each agent readied their weapons.
An unpleasant shudder ran down Noah's back. "It's just a calculus test" – he told himself firmly.
Everyone's heart was racing, awaiting the order to fire.
Doyle gripped his rocket launcher tighter.
A streak of sweat ran down Calan's forehead.
"FIRE" - he shouted.
Everyone started blasting at once. Blue, green, red lasers, bullets, molten plasma, concentrated heat, bombs, grenades, rockets and a remotely detonated exploding frisbee were all flying in the air. The horde was getting closer, but none of the Tar Titans were falling. Doyle fired from his Tactical Bio-Plasma cannon. "Right where it counts!" - he shouted as the rocket managed to destroy one of them. Unfortunately, it was taking a long time to recharge so Doyle started using his wrist guns. Alice was near Calan at the gate, blasting sonic attacks from her left palm while shooting at them from her Goalie Gun she was holding in her other arm. The nine remaining Tar Titans were coming ever closer, and everyone could see what seemed like a hundred Freakosauruses running behind them. The four defense turrets on the northern wall (Two by the gate and two by the corners) were blasting but their shots barely had an effect on the monsters.
Agent Alvarez, one of the Agents running the turrets, had an idea. "Morrison!" - he shouted to the guy manning the turret next to him. "We should focus our fire on one of them! Maybe that will take them down!"
Agent Morrison diverted his fire towards the one Alvarez was shooting at, but it still wasn't working. The Tar Titans were getting closer and closer. "Norton!" - Alvarez shouted to the Agent on his left, who was shooting at the monsters with a Rotation Rifle. "Norton! I need you to tell Thompson to fire at the one we're firing! It's the only way!"
Norton ran over along the wall to the turret in the north-west corner, which was being manned by Agent Thompson. Meanwhile, Agent Infantino, who was shooting from the north-east turret, noticed what the others were doing and also diverted the fire to the one Morrison and Alvarez were shooting at. It worked - the monster fell and dissolved into a blob of green goop. 8 left. They focused fire on another one. 7 remaining now. The line of fire could now reach the Creeposauruses Rex as well. Doyle's rocket launcher recharged, but this time he aimed for the Creeposauruses and took out 6 of them. Meanwhile, someone managed to make a miraculous throw - a grenade fell right into one of the Tar Titan's open mouth. Six left. Two more were taken down by the defense turrets. Four. Doyle was shooting with the wrist guns next to Noah, who was shooting with a Fuse Disruptor Rifle. Fortier ran out of all of his grenades. One more Tar Titan was taken down. Three.
Seeing how easily the Tar Titans were being taken down, the fighters' morale started increasing. Soon, all of the remaining Tar Titans were taken down and most of the Agents felt a slight sigh of relief, but their celebration proved to be premature as the horde of Freakosauruses Rex had almost reached the wall behind the Titans' cover.
The Freakosaurus Rex resembled a dinosaur, only instead of flesh and bone it was made out of Fusion Matter and chunks of volcanic rocks. Not only did they attack with a deadly set of teeth and claws, they could also spew fire, like actual dragons. So more than 50 of them were not to be taken lightly. When they finally reached the wall, all of them ran into it headfirst. The wall shook with a CLANG. Several Agents couldn't keep their balance and fell down. Some fell off the wall into the camp, but a couple got knocked over to the Freakosaurus' side where teeth, claws and fire awaited them. Alice, who was standing right next to Agent Jackson as he fell over, witnessed his grim demise. "I almost fell off" - she said in her mind. "It could have been me" - she repeated silently over and over again, but instead of backing down and trying to get to a safer location, it made her want to kill even more of them.
Unfortunately, she, along with everyone else on the wall, had to back down, as the Creepasaurouses started breathing fire at the shooters on the walls. The north-eastern defensive turret, manned by Agent Infantino, went up in flames, with Infantino still in it. The others realized that they were next and quickly got out. It was impossible to fire from the northern wall now, so Captain Calan commanded everyone to get off the northern wall. He sent several Agents on the side walls, who would get a clearer shot there, while others were ordered to stay behind the walls and blindly throw grenades and other explosives over the wall. Most, however, were ordered up to the sentry towers. There were three sentry towers towards the northern side in the camp - one in the middle, and two slightly behind it on its east and west. Noah, Doyle and DOC-27 were in the center one, who were soon joined by Alice, Peggy Danger, Agent Anderson and surprisingly, a Plumber.
"So what's a Plumber doing in the Fireswamps?" - Doyle asked while shooting. "I thought you guys' turf was the Precipice?"
"What, so that means we're not allowed in here?" - said the Plumber, whose name was Donnie. "If you didn't want my help defending the camp, you could have just said so, I would have gotten to the airship by now."
"No you wouldn't've" - Alice said, while aiming for a crowd of Miasma Hulks that were approaching the walls. "The airship's gone. I got a message from my cousin over at Forsaken."
"So first the ship, now this camp. This must be Fuse's endgame" - Donnie muttered.
Meanwhile, Noah asked Peggy - "Where's Calan?"
"He stayed on the ground to give everyone orders" - she answered. "But I don't think anyone's gonna be able to hear him over the blasts" - she added after a pause.
While everyone was busy thinning out the horde of the Creeposauruses and Freakosauruses, a mass of Miasma Hulks approached the wall. They weren't as resilient or tough as the Creeposauruses, but their strength was in numbers. It was hard to count, but it looked like there were around 500 of them outside the camp walls.
The Creeposauruses were almost gone and several fighters dared to get back on the walls, but they were greeted by numerous fireballs thrown at them. Nobody wanted to get up on the walls, except Fix, who was short and surprisingly quick. He sneaked up on the wall in the north-east corner while dodging fireballs and got to the destroyed turret. Agent Infantino's burned corpse was still sitting in it. Fix tried to not look at her while opening up a panel behind a turret. He took the battery out and got off the wall. After some tinkering, he ran straight to Calan and handed him the modified battery.
"This" - explained Fix, as he shoved it into Calan's free hand - "Is a grenade that will destroy anything within a 15 feet radius" and ran back to his post, shooting at the Hulks from the north-western sentry tower.
The grenade worked as Fix promised and even better - it destroyed 25 Miasma Hulks who were in its radius. Calan couldn't see the result, however, as he was throwing explosives blindly over the wall along with everyone else, so he only hoped it took out a lot of them. It would have made sense for Calan to get on one of the towers, but he wanted to get up on the northern wall as quickly as possible to secure it.
The Miasma Hulks changed their tactic - some of the fireball throwers went in close and leaned upon the wall, while others climbed on their backs. More and more Hulks were helping others up and some of them started to make their way over the walls.
While the Miasma Hulks were pressing the northern wall, almost every Agent on the southern walls abandoned their post to help out on the other side. This was a grave mistake, however, as a mass of Stone Drakes was approaching from the south. The four defense turrets on the south were firing all they could, but without anyone backing them up, they weren't able to take all of them down. Only when the Drakes approached the wall more Agents joined the fight in the southern camp on the island. Despite being spread thin, the defendants managed to fight off the Miasma Hulks - since they couldn't get up on the walls, there were lots of them on the ground, and whenever a Hulk, trying to climb over, showed its ugly head, it was greeted by shots from all directions. The Miasma Hulk horde was getting thinner and thinner, and more people could join the fight against the Stone Drakes at the southern wall.
Maison was not in her tent anymore, she was running around the battlefield, tending to the wounded by bandaging their burns and applying medication, as well as using a Heal Nano. Burns were never uncommon in the Fireswamps, so she was always prepared. Since the monsters attacking the north wall were almost defeated, that's where she headed - there would probably be a lot of wounded soldiers left there who couldn't keep fighting and it would be easier to help them without the incoming monsters breaking her concentration. She was constantly looking around, hoping to see Fix somewhere, and her heart skipped a beat every time she thought she saw someone who looked like him, but the actual Fix was nowhere to be found. Where was he? - Maison thought. Why wasn't he with her? He couldn't have been killed, could he? Was Fix another person she failed after so many others? Maison knew that he could be at the southern wall, but she couldn't keep her mind off of the fact that there was a chance Fix was already dead. She looked around in desperation again. Fix still wasn't anywhere to be seen. Maison did, however, did see Alice near the front gate, who was limping towards the southern wall.
"Alice! What are you doing?" - Maison quickly ran up to her.
"What does it look like? I'm going... to take down... the Drakes!" - Alice answered.
"Yeah, with a burned leg?"
"It's not like I need both legs to fire with a gun. I got this. Help someone else" - Alice wanted to leave, but Maison didn't let her.
"Come on, sit down. Let me patch you up. I can't lose you too, Alice. I just can't."
Alice looked at Maison while she was bandaging her leg. She thought, what could have happened to drive this person to a state of terror like this? And she felt helpless that she couldn't make Maison's pain any easier. The only person who could do that was probably Fix, but he was acting weird for some reason. Come to think of it, Fix always felt distant regarding Maison.
Speaking of him, Maison asked Alice: "Hey, have you seen Fix since the battle began?"
"I think I saw him with Calan earlier. He must have headed off to the south wall or one of the towers."
Alice thought about how Maison's dependence on Fix is unhealthy, but it might still be the only thing that keeps her going.
Meanwhile, Noah and Doyle were still on the tower, along with DOC-27. Since the walls were available again, the rest of the fighters got off the towers, except Plumber Donnie. He stayed on the tower.
Doyle gave the Tactical Bio-Plasma Cannon to Noah. "It's hard on my injured shoulder, you have it. But don't you miss!"
Noah didn't disappoint, his shot took out several more Miasma Hulks. Nice aim, dude" - Plumber Donnie complimented him.
"What, they don't teach you that at the Plumber Academy?" - Noah asked, glad that he was getting a chance to show off.
"Nah. I mean, they do, but I was better at alien diplomacy than all this combat stuff" - Donnie answered. It was true - Donnie kept missing the mark.
"You kids should see what Van Rook put me through when he took me on as an apprentice. Now that was heavy teaching." - said Doyle cockily.
"Did he teach you how to fly too? Cause I saw the way you crashed earlier, Blackwell. My trig teacher could do a better landing." - Noah said with a smirk. Doyle didn't answer.
The Miasma Hulks were almost all taken down, and Noah couldn't see anything coming up ahead. Could this be it? Was this Fuse's best? Did they really survive their last stand? No, this couldn't have been all. There are other places around the camp Fuse could attack. Hell, the monsters could be trying to get them into a false sense of security. Whatever it was, he thought it'd be best to tell Calan the enemy force from the north was defeated. He was about to start climbing down, but then he saw Agent Chavez at the tower to his right doing the same thing, so he assumed that he didn't have to do it himself. He got back up to Doyle, DOC n Donnie and saw Doyle sitting on the floor, leaning against the banister. He was using the damaged jetpack as a head cushion, which could NOT have been comfortable. Noah wanted to say how Doyle shouldn't let his guard down but remembered that he was injured and decided not to bother him. Instead, he started talking to Donnie, comparing Plumbers and Providence. Maybe the night would end peacefully after all.
End of Chapter 4.