KGHT Volume 1
Chapter 4: Team APRT
"Cr-crescent...what?" Hikaru said confused.
"Yup," Travis smiles with confidence, "It's a name I made up on the spot for our pair attack."
Hikaru stares at her partner, even more puzzled than before but was also a bit antsy because she is finally going to do a team attack with him.
"But we...don't have...one."
"That's why we're going to make it up as we go in this fight." Travis says as he gives Hikaru a thumbs up.
Hikaru looks at Travis wide eyed in disbelief but her eyebrows were arched so that it looked like she was angry. Travis notices that look and jumps a little but then calms down when he remembers the talk they had earlier.
"Don't worry," Travis reassures her as he looks at their opponents, "Besides I guessing they didn't get a wink of sleep last night."
Travis studies the two in front of them, looking at every detail that could help in battle. The faunas girl had bloodshot eyes with bags under them and her movements were obviously sluggish. To keep herself awake, she rubbed her eyes with her sand streaked arm. Licking her dry lips to keep them moist because she obviously hasn't had a drink of water in sometime. It didn't help that she was a fish faunas and her teammate just destroyed the nearest water supply. The anchor she was armed with was an odd choice of weaponry so they had to watch out for any trick attack she might use.
Unlike the girl, her partner was difficult to read because of the mask he wore. The mask hid any expression that could help Travis so he had to rely on the movements. The gigantic blade that the mask guy was carrying was bigger than him and was one sided with a crimson red design on it as if it was on fire. The weapon relaxed on his back with both hands on the handle and with a sword like that, standing like he is, he was ready to end the fight in one hit. Travis also took note the scarred and burned up arms he had that made it look like he didn't have any skin and assumed that he either has some hardcore battle experience or a really bad skin condition. He was hoping it was the second one.
"Watch out for the mask guy," Travis told Hikaru, "He's the one who shot us and I don't like how the girl is armed with an anchor so be on your guard for anything unexpected."
Hikaru didn't say anything but nods her head.
"Good," Travis smiled, "and since Karina isn't here right now, Team KGHT ready?"
"Go!" The two teammates shouts in unison and charges a head.
"Incoming!" Travis warns Hikaru as Anarken begins to swing his blade.
The pair both evaded the attack but were separated by the sword. Their team attack had to wait for later as Anarken's strike left a large impact on the sand, splashing its grains onto Travis and Hikaru as if it were water. Travis, with his knife, continues his charge at his target, ignoring the sand that was pouring on him and slashed Anarken across the chest. However in the last second, Anarken protected himself with his aura and what would have been a fatal attack became a small cut.
"I guess you're my dance partner today," Travis said, "So do you lead or should I?"
"You talk too much," Anarken snarls as he picks up with sword again.
"That's a big sword," Travis replies as he looks at the looming weapon.
Before Travis could finish his quip Anarken slashes at him again. To avoid the attack, Travis sidesteps away and smiles.
"Are you compensating for something?" Travis finishes his quip.
Hikaru chuckled a bit at the comment but to her opponent, Riley, it was a cruel snicker. Riley stops the unusual laughter by clashing against with Hikaru's naginata with her anchor. They exchanged blows fiercely and neither of them back down. The anchor Riley swung was an unconventional weapon but the way she used it was impressive. She would exchange grips on the handle of the anchor to make use of its range of powerful motion. Although, Hikaru kept an eye out for that sort of thing because of Travis's warning and kept her distance. With her naginata, Oumagatoki, she was able to keep away from Riley, making sure that she doesn't charge at her like how Anarken did.
Riley was mostly on the defensive because she couldn't close the range between herself and Hikaru and if she tried it would mean dropping her guard. Hikaru's strikes would have all landed if it wasn't for Riley odd defensive style. Usually when someone defends they pull their weapon towards them, but instead Riley pulls herself to the anchor to block an attack. Her irregular fighting style matched her weapon however Hikaru wasn't amused. Hikaru then quickly activated her semblance and waves her hand over her the bladed end of her Oumagatoki, encasing it in a thin azure color coating with a slight buzzing noise coming from it.
"Prepare...yourself," Hikaru whispers monotone.
When Riley went in for the block, she began to notice the buzzing noise and soon saw the azure color blade but by then it was too late. Hikaru landed her attack on the anchor and Riley was knocked backwards. The naginata would have sliced through the anchor if Riley didn't jump back, lessening the blow.
"That's it," Riley snaps, revealing the endless fangs in her mouth, "I'm tired of being your punching bag!"
Riley then lifts up her anchor around her waist and transforms it into a harpoon gun. Her weapons new form was a gun Hikaru never seen before, because it was shaped like a minigun with harpoons but with limited ammunition, around eight maybe.
"Eat this!" Riley shouts as she fires one of the harpoons.
Hikaru was able to deflect it a tiny bit, avoiding her vitals but her right arm was another thing. The harpoon cutted through her arm, nothing too serious but it still bleed and hurt a lot. She winced at the cut a bit but was able to keep the pain in, showing her opponent that her recent injury isn't going to handicap her. Suddenly more harpoons darts towards Hikaru, turning the tables as she deflects and dodge the oncoming ammunition. Hikaru saw that the harpoon gun had only four more in it so she would have to stand her ground like she's doing now and push forward when Riley run out of harpoons to take her out of the fight.
Right behind Riley, Hikaru saw the fight between Travis and Anarken. Travis was trying to come in close with his knife and sheath in hand but Anarken slashes at him to interrupt the attack. Although, Travis's initial attacks were all a distraction because what Anarken didn't notice was the explosive cylinders hidden in the sand. Travis was laying them around the two from his sheath, where he stores most of the bombs, and drops them in Anarkens blind spots. Only Travis knew where each of the bombs were because his semblance helped him keep track of them.
"How long are you going to run!?" Anarken demanded to know.
"A little bit more longer," Travis said smiling as he secretly drops another explosive in the sand, "I really want to feel it in my glutes after this."
"Shut the fuck up!" Anarken yells.
"Don't get mad at me for talking," Travis smiles, "I'm just being polite and answering your question."
That retort infuriated Anarken even more as he swings his blade even faster and stronger than before. Travis has to be extra careful now because Anarken became unpredictable with his swings. One of the attacks he started to do was when he slashes at Travis but right after that slash, another comes out of nowhere. Anarken was able to do this by spinning around after the first step of the strike, doing a 360 slash in hopes of cleaving Travis in two. Travis, on the other hand, had to channel more of his aura into his semblance to make sure he could predict where the blade was going to attack. Although, Travis just finished setting up his explosives so he didn't have to worry about that anymore but now had to find the right time to use it.
"Your wide open!" Riley shouts at Hikaru, drawing her attention to her opponent as she lunges in with her anchor.
It was too late for Riley to avoid the strike so she would have to block but even putting a up guard would be too slow. So she has to endure the attack and hope she doesn't break a bone. Then out of nowhere, a pillar of rocks bursts from the sand and taking the blow for Hikaru as it gave her enough time to roll out of the way.
At the top of one of the farthest sand dunes, Karina was finally set up in the position she wanted. She was far enough from the battle where she couldn't be seen but still watch the fight to use her teleportation semblance with her arrows. Karina's gigantic dust crossbow, Rising, was pointed at the fight as she saw everything with its scope. Luckily, one of the first things she did with her sniping was protect Hikaru. Ending the fight then and there would have been easy for her to do, all she had to do was teleport an arrow near an enemy's head and they're dead.
Although, she wanted to know how they were here because, no one else should know about this mission other than them and the staff back at Shade Academy. Karina could also use any dust arrows to incapacitate the other team without killing but she had to save her dust for later in the journey. By the rate she was going, she would run out in a few days if not sooner. Thus she had to use regular arrows for now unless the situation became dire enough to use dust. Karina decided that they needed to capture them in order to get the information but wished she could have told her team that before they all split up. So the only role Karina's could play now was to provide cover fire for her teammates.
"What the was that?" Riley said puzzled, "Did you do something with it?"
Hikaru shakes her head no but gives her opponent a devious smile because she knew Karina was backing her up. Riley views that smile as a warning and from there, she pieces together the answer to her question.
"So it has to be Karina who did that," Riley guesses as she controls her breathing. She figured out it was her because only three members of KGHT was here and the only one was missing, their leader Karina.
"How did...you know?" Hikaru questions, keeping her Oumagatoki up ready to strike.
"You'll have to beat it out of me before I tell you anything," Riley said as her weapon morphs back into a anchor.
As Amazon skids across the sand, she uses her club as brakes and eventually stops.
"What the hell was that?" Amazon groaned coughing up some sand.
"My car!" Flamma yelled as he lifts her up and body slams her.
When he got up, Flamma was gasping for air. Running was not his strong point and sprinting in the sand made it twice as hard for him. In fact, even without his semblance, lifting her up was a big effort.
"Lo-lose some..." Flamma said as he took a deep breath, "goddamn weight."
Amazon lays on the sand again, looking up at the sky that she stared at minutes ago. She then looked at Flamma annoyed with a sigh.
"It's the failure," She groans as she got up, "Look I'm not interested in you and I already found a suitable husband far better than you."
"You mean Hikaru?" Flamma chuckles, "I'm way stronger than he'll ever be."
"Don't talk about by beloved like you know him!" Amazon shouts as she pounds her club on the floor and etches Hikaru's name in the back of her head. She never did get his name until now.
"I'm on his team dipshit, I know him more than you ever will."
"Then what kind of girl does he like?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know he hardly talks to anyone!"
Amazon looks at Flamma annoyed again and massages her eyes.
"You're a dumbass," Amazon spoke, "A complete dumbass."
"Don't call me a dumbass, fatass!" Flamma retorts.
"I'm not fat," Amazon shouts and points her biceps, "This is pure muscle you dumbass!"
"Bullshit!" Flamma argues, "That's all fucken blubber and you know it!"
Amazon then smashes her club to the sand again, shutting up Flamma before he could say anything else. Her slitted pupils glared at Flamma and as she raises her club, it transforms into a golden blade aimed at her enemy. A greyish aura slowly creeps around Amazon, engulfing her in a layer that forms into what looks like a tiger.
"You're going to take back those words or I'll rip your tongue out," Amazon threatened.
"Finally a fight," Flamma said as he punches his fist together. His Sol Invictus was in its Cetus form, fully spiked as he just activates his semblance for the battle and shouts, "Muda, Muda, Muda, Muda, Muda!"
The two clash fiercely, taking turns returning blows with each other persistently. Amazon was strong but Flamma was stronger and with his semblance, he tipped the fight into his favor. He uppercuts Amazon and readys himself to unload a barrage of punches until Amazon grabs onto his face. She then drives Flamma head onto the sand, almost knocking him out completely but all that attack did was stun him for a moment. However when he came to, Flamma sees Amazon sending down her sword at his face. In response, Flamma catches the sword with both of his hands a few inches away from his nose but survived the ordeal.
"That was too close!" Flamma says with relief and kicks Amazon in the face.
"Wh-why did you kick my face?" Amazon shouts as she cries, clutching her nose.
"Because you're trying to kill me!" Flamma yells back.
"I think my fuckin nose is broken," She said as her nose was bent a bit to the side, bleeding heavily from the cut that was also there.
"Well you deserve it for trying to kill me!"
Amazon stares at Flamma dead eyed as her grey aura begins to concentrate on her nose area. Then her nose suddenly moves back into place without her touching it, the cracking noise that it made reminded Flamma the time when his nose broke and took a few weeks to heal. However, Amazon's nose healed in a couple of seconds. Her recent cut also slowly closed shut before any more blood would seep through. Flamma sighs in annoyance as his enemy has some sort of healing ability.
"Thats one annoying semblance you have there," Flamma complained. He was wondering why t looked like she wasn't taking any damage but her ability explained it all.
"What?" Amazon said confused, "What's a semblance?"
"And you call me a dumbass," Flamma said as he swings a punch full of spikes at Amazon's side.
Amazon takes the attack head on, causing Flamma to punch multiple hole in her. However, she then locks his arm in place and with barely any distance between them, Amazon swings her sword down at him. Flamma, in response, blocked her sword with his Sol Invictus halfway through the strike but the blade was already slicing into his shoulder. Together they were both in a stalemate, either one of them could end the fight their. Flamma, with his semblance, could punch a hole directly into her ribs and straight for her lung and heart but the second he does that would leave him open for Amazons blade and vice versa.
"Why did you attack my balls?" Flamma questions her while they're both trapped, still remembering the pain.
"My name is Amazon," She tells him out of nowhere, ignoring his question, "What's yours?"
"I already know your name you idiot," Flamma snaps, annoyed that she didn't answer his question, "You told that to my team and I when you crushed my balls!"
Amazon wasn't fazed from his anger and Flamma could tell that she wouldn't talk until he did.
"I'm Flamma," He answered her, "Now tell me why you attacked my balls."
"God, stop talking about you dick," Amazon said, "It was years ago so stop crying about it."
"It just happened yesterday!" Flamma yells and finally at his breaking point. He didn't care about the fight anymore, he just wanted to get revenge for what she did to him.
Then it happened, Amazon did it again and kicks Flammas balls as hard as she can. Flamma jumps from the pain and would have covered the damaged area if Amazon wasn't holding him up by his arms.
"You are a pervert," Amazon said, "Balls this, balls that, but since you won't stop talking about it here's your punishment."
She then repeatedly kicks his balls. Flamma never knew that this amount of pain was ever possible until now. Tears rolls down his eyes was he swears that he has to go through a second puberty to get his them back down. When she was done, Flamma didn't even have the strength cover his privates.
"Why?" He winces in a high pinch, "Why did you keep kicking me...in the dick?"
"It was fun," Amazon answers innocently.
"You...fatass...bitch," Flamma said as he faints in the fetal position.
Amazon shrugs off that insult because she was the winner of the fight and walks off with unknowing to her, her semblance healing the holes Flamma made. She then grabs Flamma by the ankle and drags him by to her teammates to show off her victory. Amazon did think about hitting him in the balls one or two more times just for fun but doesn't. Her drive to see her "beloved" Hikaru was now her main objective and the only thing that raced in her mind other than her victory.
Prowler wakes up eyes wide open by his dog Raider slobbering all over his face. Raider, in response, barks with glee as his master slowly sits up. He didn't know what knocked him out but assumes that it was one of the guys his team was fighting. Prowler watches the fighting from a safe distance and the first battle he saw was Anarken fighting a guy with bushy hair, hoping that bushy hair would win. He then draws his attention to Riley going against a pretty boy but knowing Riley, she had it covered. However, his face went sour as he witnesses Amazon finishing off her opponent. He didn't know what happened but he felt sorry for the guy.
"What do you think Raider?" Prowler asks his dog, "Should we help them out or try something out?"
Raider was panting besides him and replies with two barks.
"But you know Anarken," Prowler sighs, "He might want to fight us to."
Raider stares at his master, tilting his head slightly and rolls out his tongue.
"Your right," Prowler replies as he springs up and pets his dog, "I'll go in and try to stop them. We're all from Vacuo so I'm sure we can work something out, thanks Raider."
As Prowler runs towards the fight, Raider yawns and falls over to take a nap.
When Prowler arrives at the fight, he checks if he had enough shells in his gun to stop. Next, he focuses his semblance into his gun by loading it with electricity and points his gun upwards. He then unloads a round to get everyone's attention. Lightning fires out of the gun, crackling through the blue sky until it fades away. The sound was louder than Prowler expected but it did get everyone to stop fighting.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Anarken shouts.
"Yeah," Travis agrees, "we were just discussing if we should do the tango or waltz at the next Shade Dance."
"Shut up!" Anarken demands as he swings at Travis but he misses.
"You're right," Travis said smiling and does a pose, "we should do disco!"
Just imagining Anarken dancing made Prowler try to hold in his laugher but he had to stay on topic.
"Do we really need to fight them?" Prowler asks as he was playing peacemaker.
"Fuck yeah we should," Anarken snaps.
"Look, why don't we ask them for the package?" Prowler says, trying to be reasonable, "We're all from Shade Academy so why don't we work something out without this needless fighting."
"You guys are from Shade too?" Travis replies surprisingly, "I was just spitballing about the dance earlier but now we can totally do our disco routine!"
"I'm going to kill this guy!" Anarken shouts under his mask and raises his sword, ready to swing at Travis but was stopped by Riley getting in his way.
"Prowler has a point," Riley tells Anarken, licking her lips, "We could make some sort of arrangement so that we can all be happy. We don't want another mess to fix, do we Anarken?"
"No, we don't" Anarken growls, tightening his grip before he lets go of his weapon, letting it land flat on the ground. "You know If anything happens I'll be stepping in."
"That's good," Riley sighs in relief and points a few feet away, "Now please go over there and wait for a while."
Anarken glances at back at Travis, staring him down as he walks away and crossing his arms.
"Now he shouldn't get in our way," Riley speaks aloud.
"He's surprisingly...obedient." Travis says nervously and gives a awkward chuckle.
"Unfortunately that's our hot headed leader," Prowler sighs and puts his weapon away to introduce himself with Riley doing the same.
However, Hikaru wasn't so friendly and didn't trust either of them with her naginata still by her side ready to strike.
"Hikaru you can calm down," Travis reassures his teammate and points at his hears. He didn't hear any heartbeat spikes from either of them or anything else that might indicate that they're lying. "Trust me when I say that they're not going to fight us anymore."
Hikaru glares at Travis but then puts away her weapon, splitting it into three pieces and slips them under her sleeves.
"Thank you," Travis grins then hand gestures out a phone. "And if you don't mind, can you call Karina over here?"
Hikaru nods her head slightly and takes out her scroll to text Karina.
"I see your guys have your own hothead." Prowler says cautiously.
Hikaru didn't respond as her mind began to wonder after she sent the message. Thinking about how she could get closer to Travis when this is done.
"Don't worry," Travis jokes, turning off his semblance, "I'm fairly certain that Hikaru won't bite."
"Then you have to watchout about Anarken over there," Riley says, "He's teeth got so bad that they had to replace it all with concrete."
Travis glaces at Anarken and says, "Didn't know that was possible but I'm bet he has a bright smile."
"He doesn't." Prowler says bluntly.
"What up with the mask though?" Travis ask. "It looks kind of creepy."
Prowler looks at Riley, trying to get an answer but she instead claps her hands together.
"Well should we get down to business?" Riley said.
"Husband Hikaru!" Amazon calls out in the distance, bringing everyone's attention to her. When Amazons eyes catches Hikaru not to far away, she lets go of Flammas leg and charges at her beloved.
Hikaru sees the oncoming tiger faunas, sighing and mouths out the word fuck. Amazon's intentions were easily noticeable to her and to everyone else and Hikaru didn't want to die from strangulation by hugging or kissing. As Amazon springs at Hikaru to give her a hug, Hikaru holds out her hands in front of Amazon's eyesight. Then as she felt her forehead, Hikaru leapfrogged over her and pushes Amazon into the sand below, making her faceplant.
"That's my husband!" Amazon muffles out proudly in the sand.
"Hey are you still alive?" Travis asks Flamma still on the ground, jabbing his finger at his friend's body as if he were a toy.
"No," He replies back weakly.
"Oh good, I guess I now inherit the Puma and renaming it the Warthog."
"Over my dead body," Flamma jerks up but winces in pain for a bit.
"Dang it," Travis snaps his fingers and lends a hand up to Flamma. "You alright though? I haven't seen you in that much pain since yesterday…"
Then the gears in Travis's head begin to click together as he realizes who Amazon was.
"Groin?" He questions.
"Groin." Flamma shakes his head.
"Pain?"
"Too much...Tell Hikaru to watch out. She's delusional about him."
"Too late." Travis answers back as he watches Amazon throwing herself to Hikara again.
"Just one hug husband!" Amazon cries everytime she gets up every time, "I swear."
Hikaru didn't fall for it as she could swear that she can smell the bullshit spue out of Amazon's words.
"Amazon!" Riley yells and Amazon freezes, "Stop bothering him and sit down before I...You know what I'll do."
Next, to Travis and his teammates surprise, Amazon listens to Riley like how Anarken did. Although, unlike Anarken, Amazon was covering her cat ears and was shaking a bit.
"Are you sure you're not the leader?" Travis asks.
"It looks like it doesn't it." Riley answers, "But Anarken is and I don't know why he was picked to be honest."
"Especially since the stunt he pulled at the beginning of the year," Prowler adds on, "He was the one who nearly destroyed the student dorms."
"That was an fuckin accident!" Anarken yells at Prowler from afar and rushes towards him.
"That was you!?" Flamma said shocked, still clenching his sack as he stands.
"And that's just the tip of the iceberg." Prowler said before Anarken tackles him down and traps him in a armlock.
"Aren't you going to stop that?" Travis asks Riley.
"No need," Riley answers like this was ordinary as she licks her lips, "This how they settle their problems."
"Raider!" Prowler calls out as struggles to get free.
Soon Raider hops onto Anarken and chomps his arm, gnawing at the flesh as if it was a dog toy.
"Is that the same dog that pissed on my car?" Flamma points out as Anarken get up and release Prowler from his hold.
Next Anarken prys Raider off of his arm and holds him by the fur in front of his face. He tries to stare the dog down but, it didn't matter because the dog was panting happily as if this was a game. Then Raider barks in his face as if it signals Anarken to put him down, which he follows.
"And that how it goes." Riley states and laughs off, "They fight and Raider stops them."
Travis shakes his head in response as if he understood anything that just happened. Although, he did notice that Anarken didn't have any kind of bite marks on his arm. Travis could tell that Anarkens semblance was some kind of shielding ability and take note of it. That's when Hikaru tugs Travis's sleeve and signals him that she was about to whisper to him.
"Those two kind of look like the people at Simple Wok," Hikaru whispers softly about Anarken and Riley.
"What are you telling him husband?" Amazon yells out.
Hikaru didn't even flinch as she was called out and ignores the headache that was a few feet away from her.
"Amazon, do you want another restraining order put on you?" Riley asks bluntly.
"I still have no idea what that is." Amazon says as an excuse but then zips up her mouth.
Travis figured that Hikaru disregard Amazon but what she said was correct, they were the same people from the restaurant.
"Why have you guys been following us?" Travis asks, getting straight to the point. "You've been on our tail since we left Vacuo."
"We want the fucken package you guys are dumbass." Anarken answers with a snarky remark, surprising Travis as he wasn't expecting him to speak.
"But I'm not...that dumb," Travis sighs, acting like that insult hurt.
"But why?" Flamma questions as well, finally standing up straight.
"I can answer that!" Prowler volunteers, shooting his hand in the air, "It's because our team is basically the biggest trouble makers back at Shade, the bottom of the barrel of students you can say. Anarken, as you can tell, is a foul mouth brute who dragged out team's credibility down the toilet. Amazon didn't help as she harasses every boy she takes interest in. The last one was Brawnz Ni and he was the one who filed the restraining order on her, your friend there is just her next victim. Then there's me, the devilishly handsome and worst them all put together-"
"All you did was go on your computer," Amazon pouts, cutting off Prowler.
"I hacked into the private files of the principle," Prowler corrects his teammate. "How do you think we found out about them and their mission?"
That's one question down, Travis thinks and then asks, "What about Riley? What did she do?"
"Oh her," Prowler says, being careful with his words, "She...let's just say that-"
Before he could finish his sentence, Prowler could feel a ominous aura seeping out of Riley.
"She did absolutely nothing wrong!" Prowler shout, "and I will shut up now."
"Good," Anarken barks and lets out a deep breath, stepping into the conversation, "I'm just saying this once and once only so listen up. Because of my recent stupid stunt, we're all on the brink of expulsion. The principle just has to finalize it and we'll all be kicked out. But if we do your guys mission for you, the principle might be impressed enough to forget about the whole thing."
"So are you doing all of this to fix your team name or yours?" Travis says as he believes that he solved all of the questions he was going ask.
"What did you do?" Flamma asks before Anarken could do anything.
"He destroyed some rich guy's home," Riley said, "His name was Zekrom, Zenom...or something like that and his house was a mansion."
Suddenly, Travis feels Hikaru pulling on his shirt again however, when he looks at her he could tell she didn't do it on purpose. She was shivering quiet vigorously and the face she had was one he was way to familiar of, it was a face of fear. Something clearly terrified Hikaru he didn't know what or how to help her.
Hikaru's heart beat was pumping faster than ever as it was the only thing that was keeping her sane at the moment. She uses the beats as a focal point to keep her together but that didn't help much as it became the only thing she hears. Her breathing became rapid as a light sweat begins to races down her forehead. Quick glimpses for her past flash through her eyes, making her want to run away until Travis massages her hand, bringing her back to the present. She didn't even realize that she was holding on to him until now.
"Hikaru," Travis gently said, "Are you alright?"
"Y-yes," She hesitantly replies, taking away her hand, "Just...tired."
Travis didn't need his semblance to tell that Hikaru was lying. He's never really had a real talk with Hikaru until this morning but the way she was acting wasn't normal for her.
"What happened to my husband?!" Amazon yells out and almost lunges at the two before Riley intervenes.
"Is something wrong with him?" Prowler asks.
"Yeah," Travis lies, "Hikaru's just a bit tired."
"You sure?"
"I mean we did miss breakfast because of guys."
"Sorry about that." Riley replies, scratching the back of her head. Next, she nudges Anarken to get him to say something but just grumps and he ignores it.
"Don't sweat about it." Travis laughs it off, "You all actually might have saved our lives. Karina was making her pancakes."
"Those pieces of cardboard?" Flamma jerks back, "I'd rather be kicked in the balls again rather than taking a bite of her so called 'food'."
Travis chuckles a bit from the comment, thinking about the first time they all tasted the monstrosity that is Karina's pancakes. Back then, he swore that he and everyone else who tried them died that day. At the corner of his eye for a split second, Travis was able to see Hikaru with a half grin that quickly disappeared. It seemed that she found that comment funny and as getting a hold of herself again. Seeing her like this somehow cheered Travis a bit since he found Hikaru's calm demeanor rather soothing.
"I'm sure they're not that bad," Prowler speaks, going with the flow.
"Trust me," Flamma snaps his head, "They are literally pieces of cardboard."
"Hell I'd eat it." Anarken comments, "Foods food."
"Her pancakes are not food." Flamma warns him, "They are a weapon of mass destruction that can take out any Grimm. Usually if she ever heard me say any of this she would-"
Suddenly Hikaru knocks Flamma down by kicking the back of his knees. Flamma was about to get up and shout at Hikaru for what she did until she shushes him. After shushing Flamma, Hikaru points at Karina coming towards them fast.
"Guys!" Karina calls out, sprinting with all her strength over the sand dunes.
"I didn't say anything!" Flamma yells out to cover his tracks and thanks Hikaru for stopping him.
"We have a big problem," Karina tells the group when she arrives.
"Whats going on?" Travis questions.
"Travis use your semblance and look northeast about a mile away," Karina orders as she tries to catch her breath, "Tell me that not what I think it is."
Travis didn't know what was going on but he listened to his leader's demands and activates his semblance. Karina wouldn't be this alert unless it was a real big problem and from what he saw, it was. When he looks out into the distance, he saw multiple army trucks coming towards them. There was around ten in all but what really stuck out was that the White Fang emblem was spray painted red onto all of them.
"It's the White Fang," Travis answers.
"Damn it," Karina says biting her lip, "I hate being right about this kind of stuff."
"What do you mean White Fang?" Riley asks, almost demanding to know.
"Is there going to be a fight?" Anarken jerks up, grinning under her mask, "Can we join in if you are?"
"Yeah!" Amazon agrees, "I want to show my husband what I'm made of!"
"You all might as well be, a group of the White Fang are coming our way after all," Karina tells the other team, "And hi, I'm Karina by the way."
"They know who you are," Flamma informs her, "They've been following us since we left Shade Academy and we don't need their help with fighting the White Fang. We've fought and won against them before, what makes this so different?"
"Maybe it's the fact that the ones we fought against were small groups full of people who just joined them," Travis replies to Flamma's questions, "and also that they're bringing a tank into battle."
"A tank?" Prowler snaps, "Wait we don't even know if they're coming here. For all we know they could be just passing by."
"Do you want to take any chance and just stay here like a dumbass then," Riley tells off Prowler and turns to Karina, "Look we can help you with fight them off and after that, we can talk about the your guy's mission later."
"They know about the mission too." Karina says astonished that they knew.
"It's a long story that can wait," Riley exclaims as she arms herself with her anchor and wipes the sweat off of her forehead.
"Finally a fight!" Anarken crackles and kicks up his shield, transforming it into a buster sword.
"What's the plan?" Travis asks Karina, reloading his Bakunawa with more explosives.
Hikaru was besides him doing the same but was taking frequent looks at Travis as he worked on his weapon. Maybe this time they can do a team move together, she thought.
"Flamma you go with the buff chick to load all of our stuff in the Puma back at the cave," Karina orders, "Pack Team...what's your team name?"
"Team APRT," Anarken answers and cross his arms. Personally he didn't like the team name that was given to them but it was there name.
"Thank you," Karina replies, thinking how Team APRT (apricot) was a strange name for them.
"Why do I have to go with her/him?" Flamma and Amazon argues simultaneously.
"Because you won't let anyone else drive your car," Karina answers them both, "And I need someone strong enough to handle her if she does something."
"Well I am pretty strong," Flamma boasts and poses.
"Of course you are," Travis tags in, inflating Flamma's ego even more, "You're the heart and soul of the team and because of that, you are given the most importants job."
"I will do it!" Flamma exclaims full of pride and flexes.
"I want to stay with my husband!" Amazon fights back. "He has to see all of the cool stuff I can do!"
Hikaru was shaking her head as the words leaves Amazon's mouth.
"Just do as Karina says!" Anarken orders Amazon, "You can harass Hikaru later but right now we fight!"
"Fine," Amazon pouts, "But I better get a hug from him for doing this."
Hikaru still shakes her head as Amazon speaks.
As Flamma and Amazon drives off in the Puma to pack all of their stuff, Karina tells the rest of the people their of her plan. First, she informs them that they will split into two teams to handle the group of enemies. One group will be the bait to meet the White Fang if they come here. The second will be back up to bust out the first group if things goes south. Next, if those event did happen, in order to escape they'll have to destroy all of their trucks somehow. Lastly, when Flamma and Amazon come back, they'll all stuff themselves in the car to leave immediately.
"I call being the bait then!" Anarken tells the rest, bashing his shield on the sand as he was playing tribal war beat. "I want to be in the center of the action when shit goes down."
"No," Karina disputes, "If they are attacking us then they probably know who we are. However, they don't a thing about you guys so they won't be expecting an ambush from you at all. I'll give you guys a signal to attack"
"Sounds like a plan," Riley replies, covering Anarkens mouth and drags him off before he could talk back. Prowler was about to say something before Riley calls him over to wake up his dog and follow her.
"You have no idea what the signal is going to be do you." Travis whispers.
"Nope."
"Well we might die," Travis says cheerfully as he stretches for the possible fight, "Are you ready for this Hikaru?"
"Not...sure," Hikaru hesitantly responds but was still deadpanned with her expression, "Can we...trust them?"
"Hopefully," Karina answers, "But you need to learn to be more trustworthy Hikaru."
"It's a process, I mean she just opened up to me." Travis comments before he looks over at the bombs he didn't use in his fight against Anarken and smirks. Maybe he can use them for the signal Karina was talking about.