A Way In!

Strategy is a key point in all battles. However, putting together a good strategy when you are outnumbered 1000 to 1 is probably one of the most difficult things a human can do. It becomes even more difficult when you are marching into enemy territory. Michael, May, and Ash knew all about this even as they charged towards the Kishin's base. They didn't have a numbers advantage, they didn't have a territory advantage...the only advantage they possessed was the element of surprise and that wasn't going to last with them throughout the entire mission.

Ash took the front. He was the better close-ranged fighter with Xander's sharp blade. Melody followed closely behind, she was ready to strike out the instant either one of them saw a Kishin. With Shi's range even if the attack came from behind, Melody could easily send Shi flying out behind him and smashing into the attacker. Michael brought up the back, following the two of them closely. Without a weapon he needed to stay out of the way. When he did finally get May back they would be using a similar formation to escape, with the long range of the bow that was the best.

The sky was still dark due to the time. It was still early in the day. Hopefully the darkness of the sky would only help them blend in at this time. They hoped that at the very least. Small pathetic tricks like that would be their best...if not only option to get in and out of the Kishin's base alive.

Their mission was to simply rescue May everything else was just going to slow them down, get them in trouble, and make it harder. If they attacked any Kishins they would surely get into trouble. Attacking a Kishin would cause an uproar in the base if a body was found or if a Kishin didn't check in at a scheduled time. They would just have to get in and get out causing the least amount of a commotion possible.

They weren't worried about any higher ranking Kishins attacking them. Surely having to send the number one strongest Kishin out after a group of school kids would surely be a mockery that the Kishins wouldn't want. They would be sending smaller Kishins at them, Kishins they could beat. They would just have to beat those and keep on going, keep on trying to escape with May. That's what they were focusing on.

The first Kishin came into sight. Ash skidded to a halt and quickly dropped to the ground, Melody and Michael followed his example. Ash pointed the Kishin out. He was a larger Kishin then they were expecting, he had a huge belly and a hairy chest. He paced about the outside of the Kishin base's door, his head was focused strictly ahead of him as he moved about. His head never swerved or checked the sides, just what was right in front of him. Then he would suddenly turn around and walk in the other direction. He was moving very monotonously, like a machine. He had a simple program just pace around the door and keep people from entering. He never deviated from the simple program, he just kept pacing.

Taking him out would've been a two second job. However, they couldn't risk being discovered already. If they took him out then the Kishins would immediately notice that one of them was missing. Ash bent over and picked up a rock. He chucked it to the side. The Kishin's head pivoted to the side following the rock, he was about to run off after it, but shook his head. "Patrol this door and only this door," he said as he continued to move back and forth in front of the door. Ash cursed quietly. Vigrid led a tight ship. The Kishins were just supposed to simply follow their orders, nothing else.

"Let's just look for another way in, okay?" proposed Melody, both Ash and Michael agreed. Shi and Xander disagreed, but were outvoted so they kept quiet. They started to hike around the base. Whatever side they went to they spotted a Kishin patrolling. Every door, window, and air vent had a Kishin walking in front of it.

They sighed as they came back to where they started. They were all breathing heavily by now after the long run from their school to this base and then a complete run around the base. They were already starting to tire they couldn't keep this up to keep checking on each entrance every hour to see if there was an opening. Their plan was to be in and out, but it was starting to seem like just getting in was impossible.

"We could always try to distract them. Have one of us lure the guard away while the other two go in by themselves," offered Ash trying offer an new piece of strategy into the mix of the three of them.

"No," said Michael, "we don't even know if they would chase after us even if we did do that. For all we know they may just sound the alarm right then and there and then we'd have an entire base of Kishins looking out for us. We need slip past him and get the door open without alerting him." They shared another look up at the Kishin who was simply turning around and walking back and forth nothing more then his patrol on his mind.

"Maybe there's some way in from the top," stated Melody as she looked up towards the top of the base and at a billow of smoke that was coming out from it. Ash cringed at the thought of getting covered in soot. It was an interesting thought, if they could get to it there probably would be a way to use it to their advantage. Question is whether or not they could get to it.

They quickly began to run back around the base to find an opening to use to get to the roof. Ash ran slightly more sluggishly then the rest of them, he was in no mood to get up there and get covered in soot. Finally, they caught a break as they saw a small place with no guard. Michael ran up to their first, he formed a small platform with his hands. Next was Melody, who used the platform to jump up on top of the roof. A quick check proved what they thought, nobody was around. Ash was the next one to go up and to the top of the rook. Melody dropped Shi's yo-yo form down. Michael grabbed onto it. Ash and Melody then tugged and lifted the two of them up to the roof. They quickly headed over to the chimney and checked it. Melody put her hand out into the smoke and immediately recoiled.

"No wonder they aren't trying to guard it," said Melody as she waved her hand around in the air trying to get to cool down, "there's a fire going on down there. No human could possibly go down there without first getting burnt to a crisp...any bright ideas on how to get in now?"

"I can't feel anything, remember?" stated Michael as he walked over to the chimney and stuck his entire arm down there. "And if I remember correctly, weapons wouldn't be able to feel anything either right?" He looked over at Shi. The dropped Shi's yo-yo down into the chimney and lowered him to the bottom. Shi looked around the chimney's base inspecting the bottom to see if any Kishins were around. None were. When Melody brought him back up, Michael went to work. Michael braced himself against the walls and slowly lowered himself down. Michael got down to the bottom and quickly stomped the fire out. Michael came out and waited for the smoke to clear out of the chimney and allow Melody and Ash to come down. Melody came down first, followed by Ash. Ash landed right into the soot covering himself in the thick black gunk. He was about to shout in fear, when Michael quickly leapt at him, knocking him down and covered his mouth with his hand.

They wasted a couple of minutes waiting for Ash to calm down and for Melody to clean him while Michael held him down and held his mouth shut. Finally when Ash was clean enough, Michael stepped back and took in the surrounding. They were in the kitchen. Ash busied himself with simply re-cleaning his body while Melody restored the fire. They didn't want any of the Kishins on the outside to notice that the fire suddenly went out and report it. Michael searched through the kitchen, collecting small knives and a frying pan for emergency situations, they were certainly better then a lamp.

The problem would be getting out of the kitchen now. Melody braced her ear against the door and tried to hear anything that could be going on out in the hall. She didn't hear anything. That didn't mean that no one was out in the hall. Even worse, the reality was just starting to set into their heads. They were trapped. If someone was coming they would be forced to take them down, the only way out was the garbage chute, the chimney, and the door. The door led to the hall, so if a Kishin was out there they would be screwed. There was no way they would be able to climb out of the chimney. The chute was their last bet and they could almost guarantee there would be a Kishin stuck with garbage duty.

"Well, we did infiltrate the base," said Michael as he leaned back against a wall and tried to think of their next move. "We should've guessed that moving ahead from here would be more troublesome. Now we are surrounded by them and we can't allow them to see us."

"Let's just take a break and try to regain our bearings," suggested Ash as he kept an open eye on the door. "It'll be awhile till the Kishins decided to come in and start preparing a meal. So, let's just rest and eat up. We can think a lot better once we are running at full again."

It would be a lie if either Michael or Melody said that they weren't hungry or tired. They decided that taking a little while to regain their energy wouldn't be the worst move they could make right now. They all lied back and began to rest. Each one of them had at least one eye on the door at all times though.

(-With Vigrid-)

He was sitting down in front of a large table with a map of Death City and its surrounding on it. He was continuously checking the recent reports from each Kishin. He was thinking about every single possible move that Lord Death could make and he was beating it. He had a wicked smile as he topped every move. He knew Lord Death just as well he knew himself. He had already witnessed every possible tactic or strategy that Lord Death could use and created a countermeasure. It should be his victory in a matter of days.

"LORD VIGRID! LORD VIGRID!" shouted a small stature Kishin as he rushed into the room. Vigrid didn't even bother to move, whatever the news was he had already created a battle plan for it. Nonetheless it could lead to a certain number of variations that needed to be taken into account. Vigrid waved his hand allowing the Kishin to continue, "I just received word that two of the Kishins we sent into the academy were defeated!" Vigrid shrugged, a couple of small fry sacrifices were expected. "We also have reasons to believe that we were infiltrated."

Vigrid curled his eyebrow at the thought. Lord Death only had two Death Scythes...one would have to stay back and at Lord Death's side at all times. Meaning that one of them had to come charging in here if they were trying to take Vigrid down. If that was true then that means Death City had only one Death Scythe and Lord Death in it...if Vigrid stayed back and handled the intruders by himself which shouldn't have been problem that means that the rest of the Kishins could swarm Death City, Lord Death wouldn't tire himself out by swatting a million flies when Vigrid could come crashing in and cause a victory. So it would be a couple hundred students versus a couple thousand Kishins. The odds were clearly in his favor. That was good news, right? No, there was no way Lord Death would do something so stupid. Vigrid bent over and looked at the map of Death City. This wasn't in his calculations.

Vigrid is starting to worry. But the group is in an incredibly tight spot.