To yellow 14: He's not exactly dense per se; he's nervous because of everything she went through in the fall.
To Guest: I actually haven't seen any of Season 4 yet. Rose did get sick with this after "Rite of Spring," but she got over it pretty quickly.
As he pulled into the parking lot by the picnic area where they had come with their class a couple months earlier, Dietrich was a little surprised by just how few parking spaces were available. Between the normal spring maintenance issues and the destruction wrought by the Bear fight, the nature reserve board had been overwhelmed with problems and arranged for a volunteer workday to clean up the park. And since the Heroes of Europe had contributed to the damage, they had contacted him through the Ladyblog to ask if the Teutonic Knight and Valkyrie could participate. When he had mentioned it to her on patrol, Valkyrie had jumped at the opportunity, and since they had witnessed that fight, a few of his classmates had decided to come, also. Heinrich had been planning to drive with them, but he'd called to cancel this morning because of a bad cough. Dietrich sighed heavily. The illness was spreading – Heinrich's family was now quarantined, along with four others from their class. And of the other heroes who had fought the Bear, only Socomem was not under quarantine, and he was needed in Portugal.
But even without the other heroes Dietrich wouldn't be alone here. And he had had one person in the car to keep him company for the last couple hours. Unfortunately, the number of people here might make it difficult to find a parking spot. With a frown Dietrich drove up and down the rows until he finally found a parking spot and pulled in.
"It looks like they found a lot of people to help out today," Greta observed from the front seat next to him, looking over the filled parking lot with a warm smile. "After everything that happened here, I'm glad."
Dietrich nodded, returning her smile. He still couldn't believe his luck with her. Even when the world seemed to be falling apart, his girlfriend could still find a silver lining. "I'm glad you decided to come out here with me," he told her, "even if we'll probably end up on different work teams."
Greta grinned and grabbed a bag before climbing out of the car. "Of course!" she told him, taking his hand and bouncing on her feet as they walked across the parking lot to the tent where the park workers were organizing the volunteers. "We were here when it happened; it only seems right to help fix it up." She looked around and spotted the bathroom building. Her hand brushed up his arm as she released his hand, moving in that direction. "I'll only be a few minutes," she announced. "Don't wait for me."
"Okay," he called after her. "If nothing else, I'll meet you at the car after everything's finished!"
Watching her walk away, Dietrich blinked and refocused himself. For as much as he would have loved to work alongside her today, he was grateful for her understanding. But he couldn't be distracted by thoughts of Greta; he had a job to do here. He sprinted the opposite direction into the woods and found cover behind several bushes. An earbud went into his ear. Then, pulling out his knife, he knelt and whispered, "Helfen, Wehren, Heilen." The brilliant white aura covered him, searing his eyes through his closed eyelids, and he arose the Teutonic Knight.
The ranger looked up as he strode briskly out of the woods, his sword back in its sheath at his side. "Welcome, Knight," the ranger greeted him, rising and holding out a hand. "I hope your partner will be joining us?"
"She is planning to," the Knight assured him, "though I haven't seen her yet. I'm sure she'll join us soon enough. But in the meantime, what do you expect from me?"
The ranger nodded. "I'm certain there will be people here who want to shake your hand and take your picture. We thought that people would appreciate seeing the Heroes of Berlin, the ones responsible for fighting off that monster," he explained. "Beyond that, just whatever you can do to help."
"That will be my pleasure," the Knight answered as a small group of preteens ran up to him for a picture. Under his helmet, he grinned, relaxing as they clustered around him and handed a phone to the ranger. He held his arms out, and the ranger took several photos. After watching his father and grandfather treat the Teutonic Knight mantle as a burden, after being ashamed to bear the Iron Cross on his chest, he finally felt acceptance from the people whom he had sworn to serve. He was actually making a difference, if children weren't afraid to take photos with him.
"Make sure they catch your good side!" an ethereal voice called. He glanced over to find Valkyrie watching him, her arms folded over her chest and a fond look on her face. "I'm just kidding; you don't have a bad side."
He rolled his eyes though she couldn't see it. If Greta heard Valkyrie talking like that… He straightened up. "Nice to see you, too."
"Shall we get to it?" she asked, raising an eyebrow under her mask. "The debris isn't going to clear itself, you know."
The boys jogged away, and as they went, the Knight thought he heard one of them cough, groaning in annoyance. His brows furrowed. It could be nothing… The boys sprinted over to a group of other kids surrounding one of the rangers, grabbing trash bags out of a box and spreading out to pick up trash and waste. The Knight nodded to Valkyrie, who lifted off into the air, flying toward the spot where the Bear had entered the clearing the first time, where a group of volunteers was attempting to clear the debris. With a wave of her hand, she blew most of the debris together into a pile. The volunteers looked up at her, and she waved.
The Knight turned away from her, toward the remains of the vine barrier that Bandruí had erected on the edge of the field. Most of it had already been removed, but several vines still remained, wound tightly together and resisting all efforts to pull them apart. Landing beside the two volunteers fighting their way through it with a pair of hedge clippers, the Knight focused on the fire rune still affixed to his sword's crossguard, superheating his blade. "Step back," he warned them, before slashing straight through the vines in a large X. The vines peeled aside, and the volunteers nodded their thanks as they pulled the vines up and shoved them into trash bags. The Knight kicked off into the sky and drifted closer to the forest, toward another group of volunteers.
The two heroes continued working steadily through the afternoon, only taking a brief break for lunch. In the afternoon, the Knight found himself working to lop off damaged limbs on trees along the path the Bear had blazed through the forest while being pursued by the heroes. Hovering halfway up the tree, he cut a broken branch off of one especially ragged-looking tree before slathering sealer over the stump to keep insects out. Further along the path, Valkyrie was helping another group to collect all the burnt undergrowth along the edge of the forest, close to the river. The Knight floated down to land, stretching his shoulders. He handed an armful of branches to the ranger and twisted his head to either side to work the tension out of his neck.
"Thank you for your help," the ranger told him. "I can't begin to guess how long this would probably have taken if you and Valkyrie hadn't come to help."
"Happy to be of service," the Knight assured him, clapping him on the shoulder. "After all, as a friend told me earlier, we were here for the fight, so we should be here for the recovery!"
"It wasn't necessary for that reason," he replied, "but it is nonetheless appreciated." The ranger started in the direction of the parking area to deposit the branches but froze in place as the ground began to shake around them. He looked around frantically, searching for the cause of the seismic activity. The trees around them swayed back and forth, their branches rustling despite the lack of wind. The ragged tree next to them creaked and groaned. A hairline seam appeared along the trunk and expanded as, with a crash, the tree fell over, directly at the ranger.
Without hesitating, the Knight dove forward, putting himself between the falling tree and the ranger, and raised one arm over his head. "Wehren!" he bellowed. A white shield formed above his arm just before the tree slammed into it, driving his boots down into the earth. The tree started to tilt over him as a fulcrum, and the Knight straightened his arm, pushing the trunk to the side. It fell to the ground next to the Knight and ranger with a crash. The ranger stared at the Knight, his face white as a sheet. The ground shook again. "Get to the clearing!" the Knight ordered, drawing his sword and pointing in that direction.
"I–I will!"
The Knight turned back toward the river, his eyes wide in shock. He had experienced this exact phenomenon before – when the Bear first appeared. What could it mean? Volunteers rushed past him, panic across their faces. "Greta…" he whispered, his heart pounding in his chest. If this was the Bear again – or something worse – she would be in danger! He needed to protect her! The Knight immediately turned toward the spot where the Bear had first emerged along the Elbe and broke into a sprint before springing into the air with a shout of "Helfen!" As the magic caught him, he pushed higher, holding his sword in front of himself to cut through the air. Flying straight through the forest, heedless of the branches around him, trying to catch on his armor, his jaw set in concentration. He could see the ground below him starting to shake even worse the closer he came to the river. Beneath him, volunteers sprinted in all directions, most running back toward the picnic area, and the parking lot beyond. And ahead, looking through the edge of the forest, between the trees and the river, he could see the enormous head of the Bear, larger than before, forcing its way out of the ground in almost the exact same location where it had previously emerged.
Valkyrie hovered directly above it, her arms pointing straight down at its head, her hair whipping around her face in the stiff wind gusting about her. More and more wind she poured down at the Bear, pushing its fur back against its scalp, peeling up its eyelids and forcing its cheeks back. The Bear bellowed its displeasure, only for the sound to be forced back into its throat. But she couldn't keep it up forever. The Knight could see tension in Valkyrie's shoulders, even as the wind around her started to die down. Finally her arms slumped at her sides and the wind died down to nothing. The Bear swiped at her with one of its paws, pulling itself out of the hole with its claws, as Valkyrie started drifting lower in the air.
"Wehren!" bellowed the Knight. A white shield manifested directly above the Bear, and the Knight pressed the shield down against its head. The Bear scrabbled against the smooth metallic surface, a screeching wail that rattled the Knight's teeth. He held his breath, watching anxiously, but the shield held. The Knight swooped down and grabbed Valkyrie by the arm, a couple meters above the shield.
"Thanks," she gasped, breathing slowly and deeply, shaking her head.
He nodded but winced as the Bear slammed a paw against the shield, which bent under the assault. Activating his earbud, he called Pegasus. "We need some help here!" he reported urgently.
"I apologize," a robotic voice answered him. "Pegasus is not here at the moment; the Heroes are extremely busy right now. What is happening?"
"That Bear is back!" the Knight retorted, grimacing as the Bear pulled out enormous chunks of the earth around the chasm, scratching huge gouts in the metal and forcing its way out from beneath the shield.
"Unfortunately, there is very little I can do now," the robot apologized. "I wish I could, but I do not have Pegasus' power."
"So what the hell are we supposed to do!?" demanded the Knight, finally dismissing his shield. The Bear pulled itself out of the hole, and the Knight swung his sword around, sending a wave of flame at its head. The Bear bellowed, fixed its gaze on the Knight, and charged. Pushing Valkyrie away from him, the Knight leapt into the air as the Bear swiped at him with its claws extended, each claw almost as long as the Knight's sword.
"Do what you can," Turing instructed him. "That is all we can ask of you."
"Easier said than done," the Knight grunted, dropping almost to the ground to avoid the Bear's claws. Valkyrie swung around and threw a blast of wind at the Bear, which shrugged it off and lumbered away from them into the woods.
The Knight and Valkyrie turned to look at each other, Valkyrie looking as scared as the Teutonic Knight felt. "It's back."