Author's Note: A "manakete" is a human-like being who can transform into a dragon at will using a stone.
Chapter 7: River Base
Three soldiers were taking a fourth to a man in armor. "Sir," one of them said, "We saw this guy looking for our river base."
"I… Honest! You gotta believe me! I didn't intend to stumble on your river base at all," the captive said, clearly frightened. Quickly, he flashed a charming smile and asked, "Why don't I sing you a song?"
"Oh, well, I love music," the man in the armor said.
"Well, I can't sing without my guitar," he said.
"Very well," the man in armor said, "Put him down, boys, and give him his guitar."
"But sir…" one of them objected.
"Put him down," he ordered again. They obliged, after which he quickly ran away without looking back. The two soldiers looked at each other.
"I can't believe this," the man in the armor said. He was an intern, who could not seem to hold onto his captives, and was considered clumsy for this reason. "Well, send out the manakete."
"But sir, she…" one of the soldiers said.
"I don't care! Send her out anyway!" the intern exclaimed. "And be quick about it."
Running fast, the captive ran into Courtney's Alliance. Courtney saw him. "Trent?" she asked. "Trent!"
"Courtney!" he shouted, "And look who else is here… listen, I think I may have unintentionally gotten Chris's entire army after me! They think I'm a spy or something."
"Chris's Army is here?" Courtney asked. "Oh no… I'm so glad we found you when we did."
"I am too, honestly," Trent said. "Power in numbers and all that." Suddenly, a violet dragon appeared from the east. "Ack! A dragon! I didn't take into account this…"
"Wait a minute…" Cody said, "That dragon looks familiar… but I can't put my finger on it…"
The group quickly broke into two groups. One was led by Courtney, and contained Alejandro, Geoff, and Bridgette. Another was led by Duncan, and contained Katie, Sadie, and DJ. Noah attempted to straddle the line between the two groups, sending gusts at anyone who attacked the healers. By this point, Noah had become a target somewhat undesirable for most of the enemies, so he feared them attacking him very little.
Cody stayed behind briefly to talk to Trent, before heading off to the dragon. He said, "So, my rival in love is back."
Trent responded smugly, "Oh, come off it. You let me win."
"That's right I did," Cody said, "But that was before."
Trent bluntly commented, "I seriously don't think Gwen likes you now."
"You'll see," Cody said hopefully. Then he started heading for the dragon alone, which Noah would not have. Cody's swordplay was getting better, but it was still far from perfect, and Cody still needed some improvements in his resilience before he could fight swashes of enemies alone.
Gwen wanted to join Duncan's group, after briefly stopping to talk to Trent as well. "Trent!" she shouted.
"I've missed you, Gwen," he said kindly.
"This battle's getting pretty intense. I never thought that I'd resort to teaming up with Courtney," Gwen said.
"Well now that I'm here, I promise I'll protect you," Trent said. Gwen changed her mind about joining Duncan's group and decided to follow Trent, so they could help Noah make sure Cody didn't get himself killed.
Cody was really close to the dragon, but he was afraid to approach it. He was terrified when the dragon walked towards him until she transformed back into a human. Then he was only mildly freaked out. "Cody!" she shouted.
"Ack! Sierra!" he responded in surprise.
"Don't worry, Cody! I'm going to protect you from these bad guys," she said.
Cody was confused. "But… aren't you one of them?" he asked.
"I was," she admitted, "But I'd rather side with Cody against Chris than the other way around."
"I suppose I should consider myself lucky…" Cody said.
Noah, Gwen, and Trent were satisfied when Cody did not in fact get attacked by the dragon, but instead was able to get her to defect. She quickly turned to cinder all of the enemies surrounding her, but decided it would probably be a better idea to save her transformation stone for later use, and didn't attack any disposable enemy without provocation for the rest of the battle.
Duncan's group had pretty much cleared away the entire southeast area, so DJ headed upwards to help Cody, who had gotten fairly battered. Afterwards, the thirteen joined up, and headed for the clumsy intern. Courtney got an attack in after he said, "I wonder if it was my fault that Chris took over the world."
"It probably wasn't," Courtney said truthfully.
"I probably can't even beat you in battle," he said humbly.
"Good analysis there," Courtney said. The truth is, neither "won" because the fight was inconclusive. Taking full advantage of Duncan's small swords, the clumsy intern attacked him.
"You remind me of someone…" Duncan said.
"It's not me you're thinking of," the clumsy intern said, "It's Tyler."
"Oh, yeah," Duncan said, "What have you done with the others?"
"You can find them later once you fight me!" the clumsy intern shouted. The most uneventful battle ensued: Duncan barely did any damage either time he hit, and the clumsy intern didn't even come close to striking him.
Sierra decided to try attacking him. "I thought you were on my side," he whined.
"I changed my mind," Sierra said, "I can do that. I'm a girl."
"Very well," the clumsy intern said, "Then I'll show you no mercy." He tried to stab her, but missed by a few centimeters. She burned him so hard that if he attacked Duncan again he would die.
Then, Trent decided to attack him. "You know I'll kill you right?" the clumsy intern said.
"With my luck, you'll have to misaim to get me," Trent said cryptically.
"Glad we're on the same page," the clumsy intern answered. He hit Trent with enough force to leave him with only a small amount of energy. Trent was able to counter, and his blow was enough to kill the clumsy intern. He said as he fell, "Oh no…"
"Okay, let's get out of here!" Courtney shouted, and they all fled back to the Bass Girls' Cabin. Once there, she asked Trent, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he answered. "But I'm so lucky you guys got there when you did. I thought I was hamburger for sure."
"No problem," Courtney said, "We were actually looking for all of you."
"All of us?" Trent asked, "Well, I don't think you'll have much by the river… I actually got caught when I was heading for the mountains."
"The mountains?" Courtney asked.
"That's where Harold and Tyler are now, finding sanctuary," Trent said, "That's where I was attempting to go."
"Harold and Tyler?" Courtney asked, "They're safe?"
"Or so I would assume," Trent said, "But I don't know for sure yet. Last I checked they were finding sanctuary in the mountains, but well, I know how well that worked for me."
"Great, this group already has upwards of three dorks. We really need two more?" Duncan asked.
"Duncan, this group already had one dumb jerk, why did we need a second one?" Noah retorted.
"You don't have the right to just jump into conversations whenever you like just to insult me," Duncan said, offended.
"Cough…hypocrite…cough," Noah responded.
"Stop fighting!" Gwen shouted, "More people is more people! We're going to find Harold and Tyler!"
"Gwen's right…ugh…" Courtney said. "We need to. If we want any chance."
"And what about you, Sierra?" Cody asked, "Are you going to stick with us?"
"Only if you want me to, Cody," Sierra said smiling.
"I know you well enough to know that isn't true, but fair enough. We can all benefit from your… secret magical ability to turn into a dragon you never told me about."
"I didn't?" Sierra asked. She grinned. "Whoopsie."
"I'm just glad I didn't have to find out the hard way," Cody said.
Author's Note: Goodies for this chapter include unit descriptions (Trent; Sierra), death quotes (Trent, Sierra, enemy; Sierra, player), alternate battle dialogue (Attack Sierra with Cody, attack Sierra with someone other than Cody), alternate versions of the ending dialogue (Trent died; didn't get Sierra; Noah, Gwen or Duncan weren't in the party), Courtney and Geoff's Support (Level C) and Katie and Sadie's Support (Level B).