Chapter 4: Free the Favorites

A locked cage sat in the middle of the mess hall, surrounded by soldiers. Gwen, Noah, and Cody sat inside it. "It's my fault we got into this mess," Cody said.

"You can say that again! I explicitly mentioned this was a preliminary stage… a preliminary stage…" Noah responded.

"Well, does it matter?" Gwen asked, "The point is, we have no chance."

"Don't give up, guys," Cody said, "I'm sure help will arrive."

"Before our bodies and wills are broken beyond repair?" Noah asked.

"Calm down," Cody said. "Even if no one comes to save me… they'll come to save you two."

"I… I hope you're right," Gwen said, sadly.

Courtney's Resistance entered through the door. Courtney shouted, "Don't worry, guys! We'll save you!"

"What?" Noah asked incredulously.

"I told you so!" Cody said, smiling, "I knew they'd come! I knew they would!"

"If only there was some way to get into the cage," Courtney said.

After she said this, Duncan climbed in through the window. "Now, this just isn't right," he said, "I have to do something here."

"Duncan?" Courtney asked in surprise, but he didn't hear her. As Geoff and Alejandro tried to remove the enemies blocking her way, Courtney made her way to him. Once he was within earshot, she shouted again, "Duncan!"

Duncan smiled and asked, "What's up princess?"

Courtney responded impatiently, "You know very well what's up. Chris took over the world!

Duncan asked, "And what do you want me to do about it?"

"Help us to defeat him!" Courtney responded, getting angry.

"I hate to admit it," Duncan said, "But you're right. Okay, I'll be your power."

"Thanks, Duncan," Courtney replied.

Sadie whittled down a mysterious cabinet door, behind which she found three unusual containers. She didn't know how to get into them, but Duncan did. He opened each with ease, finding a spell book for fire spells, one for dark magic, and a small sword. He handed the last to Sadie for safekeeping. Katie and Sadie rushed over to help Geoff and Alejandro, who had gotten wounded badly enough that Bridgette and DJ were both busy.

Duncan, meanwhile, had more important business to attend to. He opened the cage. The three stumbled out, although they were completely unarmed. Duncan said to Gwen, "Hey, babe."

"Duncan!" Gwen shouted excitedly.

"Don't worry," Duncan responded, "From now on, we'll protect you."

Gwen responded, "Thanks…" and trailed off. Duncan handed her the dark magic book, for which she was grateful.

His attention turned to Noah. "Well, well, well…" he said.

Before he could continue, Noah interrupted him to say, "Just because you rescued me doesn't give you an excuse to act like yourself."

"I'll keep that in mind," Duncan said, "If you keep it in mind that you need to stop being a dork."

Noah said, unimpressed, "Four seconds. It's a new record." Duncan handed him the fire spell book, which he took for granted, mainly because Duncan had given it out. But Duncan didn't care so much, because shortly after, he noticed Cody glaring at him.

"I'm watching you," Cody said.

"What?" Duncan asked.

"Don't you dare go after Gwen!" Cody shouted.

"I'll go after Gwen if I want to," Duncan responded, and then, to add insult to injury, blatantly did not supply Cody with a weapon. Sadie gave him the small sword she had been holding onto, which pleased him greatly.

Soon, Gwen and Noah were fighting from behind Katie and Sadie. One soldier threw a javelin at Noah, which wounded him near the point of death. Fortunately, Bridgette was just behind to heal his wounds, and the act ended up in the soldier himself being critically injured, due to Noah's extremely impressive magic skill. He had literally no experience in the field of war, but figured magic out quickly anyway.

Cody decided to take the initiative and finish off the soldier who attacked Noah. This worked, but unfortunately, soon, he was surrounded by soldiers, who all attacked him. The only thing that kept him from dying was their horrible accuracy. Noah decided to return the favor and finish off one of them, but Gwen helped too this time. DJ picked up Cody and carried him to safety on his horse, at which point, he healed Cody.

Once only one—an intern in bulky armor—remained, he shouted, "Ack! I can't believe I came back here! They're approaching!" Courtney approached him. He said, "A lot has changed while I've been gone… a rebellion has popped up."

"Do not make me hurt you, because I will," Courtney said.

"Do your worst," the returning intern responded. Courtney obliged, by sending a ray of light at him. He moved away from Courtney and went to attack Duncan. He said to Duncan, "Stop! Don't you dare free the hostages!"

Duncan responded, "Come on, you tried to capture me too, but it didn't work."

"I'll kill you," shouted the returning intern.

"Good luck with that," Duncan said. It turned out to be an entirely pointless endeavor, as when the returning intern attacked Duncan, he did a back flip and dodged it. When Duncan counterattacked, however, the armor was not even slightly penetrated.

"You… you escaped! Aaaah!" the returning intern shouted, but it was too late. Noah sent a pair of flames at the intern, which did not kill him, but left him pretty well damaged. He walked away from there to attack an exposed Bridgette. "Why did I ever come back here? Why?" Bridgette took the blow. It was painful, but DJ was around to help her.

Cody decided to risk attacking him. It was a gambit to be sure. Cody knew that he couldn't defeat the man without all the help he could get. He damaged the intern slightly, and then the intern returned the favor by damaging him greatly. This was the motivation he needed. Acting like Geoff had always done, Cody swung his sword around and managed to land the fatal blow. "Am I being forced to repent?" he asked as he fell.

Courtney and Duncan led the others out of the mess hall and they regrouped in the Bass girls' cabin.

"Thank you for saving us," Gwen said, "I thought we were goners for sure."

"Don't mention it," Duncan responded. "You know, this has gotten pretty bad."

"Wow," Noah said, "That was definitely necessary to say. We totally didn't know that."

"Don't mind him." Cody said, "He's just cranky. We haven't had anything to eat in almost a week."

"Oh my gosh!" Bridgette shouted, "No wonder you look so sickly."

"Well, don't worry." DJ said, "I'll make you all a meal to remember."

"At this point, I'd happily eat a meal I'd like to forget…" Gwen said.

Author's Note: Goodies available in this chapter include unit descriptions (Duncan; Gwen; Noah; Cody), death quotes (Courtney, dead Duncan; Duncan, early; Gwen, other; Gwen, player; Noah, other; Noah, player; Cody, other; Cody, player), and alternate versions of the ending dialogue (Didn't get Duncan; someone other than Duncan died).