Nexus HWR 9.4 Storm Clouds:
Trekking over the dangerous terrain of Aebrith was a huge Scarab tank tailed by six smaller speeders and tanks rolling behind it. The sky opened up earlier that day releasing a monster of a storm down on the convoy. The Scarab lifted up its legs one at a time but each stride was longer than the other vehicles could reach in the same amount of time, so it was not moving at its top speed.
Standing on the front slant of the Scarab were Blue Beetle, Superboy, and Grif. The three were on guard duty and Grif looked to his right at the other two. "Ever wonder why we're here?"
"Why are we here?" Superboy started off stoically. "Is this all part of a bigger plan? What do the Gods ruling over this world want? Why did they entrap us here?"
"..." Grif stared at the muscular teen next to him blankly through his orange helmet's visor. "I meant on top of the Scarab," he said slowly, and Blue Beetle started cracking up. "It's raining and we could be keeping guard just as well from the nice warm cockpit."
Superboy stayed quiet for a few seconds. Grif spoke back up, "I mean, we could talk about Gods and stuff if you want-"
"Shut up Grif," Conner Kent muttered angrily. The more muscular figure tried hiding his embarrassment and continued, "As to why we're out here, we don't want another mistake like the other night."
"Yeah, that's on us. We said we'd have guards," Blue Beetle added.
"We did have guards," Grif said. "We just, didn't see anything." The other two glared at the only one of them who actually was on guard duty that night. Grif pointed his fingers at them, "It was the League of Assassins for crying out loud. If they don't want to be seen, they're not going to be seen. Especially not by me," he added, making sure they knew he was not pretending to be some sort of super soldier.
The two heroes grunted or sighed and looked back in front of the tank to keep watch. "Either way," Superboy stated, "we should be grateful they decided to stay with us."
"Yeah," Grif agreed. "I wouldn't want to mess with these guys. Hope our enemies feel the same way." The three of them nodded and fell silent, stuck standing guard in the torrential downpour around them.
The inside of the Scarab was even less chatty than outside. Everyone seemed to be in a bad mood, and it wasn't because of the rain. Well, it wasn't just because of the rain. "It just keeps on coming down," Natsu growled. The pink haired Mage leaned against a glass window on the side of the purple vehicle's main area. "Seems ironic," he mumbled to himself.
Juvia's gone and the first thing that happens is it starts to rain. Almost feels like she's still here, Natsu clenched his fists at his sides. He slammed a fist into the wall next to him. Why were we so useless? Why was I unable to do anything?! "Damn it," he growled under his breath.
Natsu glanced back over his shoulder regretfully. Even worse, I put the burden on Ben. The younger boy was sitting down across the room from Natsu with his head leaning back on the wall behind him. Ben was easily taking it the hardest out of any of them, and most of the group thought they knew why. He and Dash raced in trying to save their friends, and while Dash saved three of them, Ben could only save one of the two he tried to protect. He just, wasn't fast enough.
At least, everyone thought that was the reason Ben was so depressed. None of them knew the real reason. Even now, I could still save her. His right hand rubbed over the cube in his pocket. The Eliacube flooded him with warmth but it didn't make him feel any better. He took his hands out of his pockets and put them behind his head instead. Since he was leaning against the cold steel wall of the inside of the Scarab, his head was uncomfortable so he decided to use his hands as pillows. The kid was trying to sleep, but every time he closed his eyes he saw Juvia dying, again.
I failed. I wanted to keep everyone from dying this time. I messed up. Ben closed his eyes again and clenched them shut tightly. No one else, he thought. This time for sure. I won't let anyone else die! ... Though I said that last time too... Ben moaned and shook his head around, trying to clear his negative thoughts.
The speakers crackled above them and most people in the cabin looked up. "Hey guys, we're almost there. Pon-Gatso is just up ahead." Black Canary's voice faded but the speakers did not shut off, and she spoke up again in a lower tone after a few seconds, "I just received word that Terra Base was destroyed."
The inside of the Scarab filled with murmurs and worried whispers. Natsu turned to a shaking man on his left side and muttered, "What's Terra Base?"
The man in a red sweatshirt pulled his red baseball cap down over his eyes more. "It's the base we just came from."
Another man on the red-clothed guy's other side as Natsu leaned forward and put his head in his hands. This man was wearing a blue sweatshirt and a blue beanie and he bore some resemblance to the first man who spoke. "Our brother was back there," he murmured. "Wonder if he got out."
He sounded pessimistic and Natsu could see tears coming down the cheeks of the other guy in red who pulled his hat down to shadow his eyes. Natsu leaned back in his seat and frowned deeply, understanding why Gray was so pessimistic now. People are just dying left and right around here. They're not even surprised anymore.
"What happened?!" Someone shouted, tilting their head towards the hall to the cockpit.
No reply for a few moments. The tank kept bumping and vibrating as the Scarab charged across the landscape. Finally Canary's voice spoke up over the speaker's again, "The Emperor made his move. We may not be here to reinforce anymore."
With that she became silent. Natsu noticed a few grim looks after that though some people looked relieved. "What does she mean?" Natsu asked the guy in blue who was still leaning forward.
"If the base on our Southwest is gone, we're pretty much completely surrounded," the man in the blue beanie mumbled. "We're probably going to be evacuating this Sector completely."
"You're giving up?" Natsu asked.
"If we wait any longer, they might cut off our southern escape," the skinny guy wearing red muttered. "Then we'll be trapped, captured, and sold as slaves." Both of the Amori brothers looked devastated but almost like they were too tired to mourn.
"If I had stayed behind at Terra Base, it would not have fallen," a voice said on Natsu's right side. He and the other two on his left looked over at a man standing there in a yellow costume with a red stripe down the middle and a red cape on his back.
"It's not your fault Captain Hindsight," an Asian man holding a sniper rifle on the hero's other side as Natsu stated, trying to hold back a groan. "You don't even know how many Sith attacked-"
"If we had prepared ourselves for a defensive sooner, the others at Terra Base would still be alive." Captain Hindsight started walking away, apparently undisturbed by the shaking of the ship. "If only the walls were thicker..." His voice got quieter as he walked away and the others around Natsu sighed in annoyance.
"Does that guy ever shut up?" Natsu grumbled.
"He's a bastard," the man in red on his left stated harshly. "With the stupidest power, hindsight. He just goes on and on about what we could have done better, never using his super strength, or speed, or flight to actually help us fight."
"Is he stupid?" Natsu asked with a bead of sweat rolling down his face.
"No," the Korean guy with the sniper said, his voice actually sounding full of pity now. "I think it haunts him that he has perfect hindsight, because he knows exactly what he could have done to save the people he doesn't."
"But why doesn't he?" Natsu asked.
"Just stop with the questions already," the Amori brother in red snapped. "I'm trying to get some rest here."
Natsu growled and spun to the man next to him, but seeing his tear-streaked face the Dragon Slayer stopped himself from yelling. He grumbled to himself for a few seconds and just got up on his feet. He walked away from the aggravating soldiers and over to a different section of the main area. A guy whose hair was in the shape of the number three took his seat as soon as he got up as there were not enough for everyone.
Natsu considered walking over to Ben, but the boy with his head leant back on his hands actually seemed like he might be sleeping. Natsu wondered if he had been getting much sleep the previous nights, he knew he wasn't. He looked around the cramped cabin some more for a different place to sit. Gray was up in the cockpit with Black Canary so no luck there. Kirito was standing in between two much larger guys, with no space next to him for Natsu to stand. Dash was sitting on the floor not far from Ben, looking bored now that his friend was asleep. Natsu thought about going over and talking to him, but thought better of it. He liked Dash, but the boy was still twelve years old and acted pretty childish most of the time. Around all these people he just met he didn't want to be seen spending his time playing with a little kid, No offense Dash, he thought with a shrug.
So Natsu turned the other way and looked back at Kairi who saw him turn her way and smiled back at him. He walked over, stepping around people who were sitting on the floor. "Hey Natsu," she said as he fell back and leaned against the wall next to her. "Are you excited for Pon-Gatso?"
He looked at her in surprise. He thought about Juvia for a second, then about what Kairi said after she was gone. She just does not get brought down by anything. "Not really," he replied, putting his hands behind his head and yawning. "Sounds like we're not going to be there long."
"Huh, why's that?" Kairi asked.
Natsu chuckled as he pretended like he figured it out on his own and repeated what the other soldiers said to him a minute ago. "You think they're going to retreat?" Kairi asked in surprise. "So you're going to run away?" She asked him, lifting her eyebrows.
The mage turned to her in surprise for a second. "Wha-what?" He asked, confused by the question.
"You're running away?" She questioned again. "Because the escape routes might be gone soon?" She added seeing if that was the reason why he was leaving.
"I'm not, they are," he snapped.
"Ohh?" Kairi asked, smiling at him playfully. "Then why did you say 'we' aren't going to be there for long?"
"What- I-" he saw Kairi trying to hold back giggles and he snapped, "This isn't funny."
"Sorry," she said with a smile that showed she wasn't. "I say we shouldn't run though." Natsu opened his eyes wide at her and she looked over towards a bulletproof glass window on the left side of the tank closest to them. Kairi continued, "I know Sora and Riku would stand and fight. So we should too."
Kairi held up a fist in front of her and smiled at it. I've always been behind you guys. This time I'm going to be fighting on my own. I can do it though, because the Keyblade chose me too! A bright light shimmered in her hand and she smiled at the sight of her pink Keyblade appearing. The hilt was curved like a circle around her hand with a single shaft in the center that connected with the long silver shaft going to the end of the weapon. The end of her Keyblade had two five-inch prongs spread about a foot apart and one two-inch prong in between them.
A woman sitting not far from them looked over and up in surprise. "What is that?" She asked. They looked at her and saw she was quite the beautiful woman, with a busty chest, long smooth blonde hair, she looked like she could be a model if it weren't for the twin scars going diagonally over her entire face making an X that crossed right over her nose. She was wearing a black bandanna around the top of her head, a black sash around her chest so that the skin over her entire stomach and arms was showing, and a pair of tight jeans.
"It's a Keyblade," Kairi said to the girl who looked around her age.
"What's it made out of?" the blonde girl asked, actually getting up to her feet to get a better look at it.
"Made of?" Kairi repeated and blinked a few times. She looked down at the weapon in her hand, and she shrugged, "I don't know."
"It looks pretty amazing," the other teenage girl stated. "May I have a look?"
Kairi giggled and said, "You can try."
The other woman was confused at why Kairi thought that was funny, and Natsu started smirking as well which only made it more confusing. Kairi turned her blade and grabbed the shaft so she could hand the other girl the hilt.
The girl with crossing scars over her face reached out and grabbed the pink weapon carefully. She looked at the circular pink hilt and admired the light red floral patterns that waved around it. As Kairi let go of the shaft however, the girl now holding the hilt jumped in surprise as the part in her hand vanished into thin air. It reappeared back in Kairi's right hand and she swung it back and forth before putting it up to rest on her shoulder, "Sorry," Kairi started, "the Keyblade chooses who gets to hold it."
"Huh," the other girl said, frowning as that did not seem very fair. "Where have I heard the name Keyblade before?" She mumbled under her breath.
"Yo," Natsu started, interrupting the blonde girl's train of thought. "You ever been to this Pon-Gatso?" He only thought about it recently, but he had no idea what type of place they were even going to.
"Once, about a year ago," the younger girl stated. She didn't elaborate any further and instead looked back at Kairi with a sudden excited look. "Wait! I have heard of the Keyblade before. Ed and I ran into this guy once..."
"What did he look like? Did you catch his name?" Kairi asked, getting really excited as well.
"Yeah," the other girl said, looking a little taken aback by Kairi's sudden interest. "We never got his name, but he wasn't someone we could forget about. I mean, there aren't very many mouse-men running about."
"The King!" Kairi exclaimed.
A dozen people looked over at her with nervous or scared looks, and Kairi said softly, "Sorry, not that King." She giggled to herself and then put her hands together in front of her waist and swung back and forth on the balls of her feet. "This is great. I can't wait to tell Riku, he's really close with King Mickey."
"Mickey huh?" the girl who said she met him muttered. "Mickey the mouse," she chuckled and shook her head. The teenage girl with long blonde hair held her right hand forward that had been at her side the whole time she talked, "Anyway, it was nice to meet you..."
"Kairi," the auburn haired girl replied, letting her Keyblade vanish and reaching forwards to shake the other girl's hand.
"Nice to meet you Kairi, I'm Winry, Winry Rockbell."
Kairi shook her hand, and her gaze snapped down to the girl's hand she was shaking. "Your hand is so cold," she said in surprise.
Winry chuckled darkly and she reached her left hand over towards her right elbow. She grabbed up near the top of her forearm, right in her own skin, and then started peeling forward like it was elastic. Natsu and Kairi both leaned back in surprise as underneath the skin Winry pulled back there were a bunch of steel bars and wires inside. "It's automail," she stated and after giving them a good look she slid her skin-sleeve back up to her elbow. "I made it myself."
"Really?" Natsu asked, surprised she could do that, especially if she only had one arm.
"Yep," the scar-faced girl replied, a smug expression on her face since he sounded impressed when he asked. "I'm the best automail mechanic this side of the Cataclysm." She pointed a thumb at herself using the right arm that looked so real it might as well be.
"Cool," Kairi said with a bright smile.
Wow, these new guys are so much more laid back than the rest of these people. "Actually," Winry began, "I got sent to Pon-Gatso because I'm an automail mechanic. Seems the war with the Fire Nation's really got our guys and gals in a bind. They called me up from down south, but I stopped at Terra Base first to help out a few emergency patients over there." Her expression turned grim by the end of her statement. And how many of the patients I worked with were still at Terra Base when it got destroyed?
"So when people lose limbs, you give them new ones?" Kairi asked. Winry nodded and Kairi clapped her hands in front of her body, "That's amazing. I wish someone knew how to do that back in New Tokyo. There were so many crippled people after the Underworld attacked," Kairi shook her head as she thought about it.
"They don't have automail mechanics where you're from?" Winry asked in surprise. "This Awul place sounds dull," she said.
Natsu opened his mouth to argue, but Kairi just nodded with a small giggle. "Sure was," she said. Natsu gawked at the back of the redhead's head, and Kairi looked back at him with a small grin. He suddenly realized that Kairi didn't actually think so, she just did not want to get into any fights or arguments with her new friend. Kairi saw Natsu could tell what she was thinking and she turned back to Winry, "So, how far south were you before you came up here?"
"How far?" Winry asked, and she started scratching her chin. "I'd say... at least two thousand miles south. A few thousand east too. We're still on the far western side of Aebrith."
"How big is this place?" Natsu muttered to himself, as they had been traveling east for weeks now since they got off the Thousand Sunny in Dressrosa.
"Hey Winry," a voice called out, only the voice was coming from above and not from around them. They looked up at the ceiling where a speaker just turned on and called out the girl they were talking to's name. Black Canary continued, "Come up here, something's up with the Scarab's engine."
"Grrr," Winry growled as the speakers turned back off. "How many times do I have to tell them? I'm not a mechanic, I'm an automail mechanic. There's a difference!" She started walking off for the hall up to the cockpit, but she smirked over her shoulder back at the man standing behind Kairi, "Pon-Gatso's a nice city. I'm sure you'll like it."
Now it was Natsu's turn to growl as the blonde girl knew he wanted to know more about the city the entire time she was talking to Kairi. Kairi giggled at his frustrated reaction, and she tugged on his right arm a little. He turned to her and softened his gaze at her bright smile, "Why don't we go have a look for ourselves?" She asked.
He tilted his head to the side in confusion, but Kairi just started walking towards the wall on their left. Without breaking stride she tapped on a panel next to the wall and the purple door slid open. A huge gust of wind slammed in and rain moving almost horizontally because of how fast they were moving pelted her.
"Where are you going?" someone shouted at her, annoying a lot of people who lifted up their tired heads and then looked over in surprise at the open door that was making a loud buffeting noise as the wind pushed in.
"Just heading up for a little," Kairi yelled back at them over the wind. She lifted up one arm to put in front of her face, and then walked outside and started pushing forward to move up to the front of the tank.
She's going to fly right off! Natsu thought as he saw her feet sliding backwards on the purple steel. He jogged forward right as the door was closing behind Kairi, and he slid in between the closing doors. Instantly it became ten degrees colder which was pretty chilly considering the inside was already cold from when Kairi opened the door. He shivered and lifted up an arm to hold in front of his face, blocking out the pelting rain.
Kairi marched up the slanting side of the Scarab while people looked out the tinted windows on their side of the tank and watched her move. She slipped on the metal and a dozen people gasped, but another person walked up into the sight of the window and put an arm around her back, steadying her. The people who gasped sighed in relief and the others who were woken up decided to head back to sleep.
The two young people with different shades of red hair continued making their way up towards the top of the Scarab. The slanted pathway on the side of the tank led them right up on top of the front section of the Scarab, though still below the tall head sticking up above the cockpit. "Hello!" Kairi called out at the three men standing on top of the very front section.
Blue Beetle, Grif, and Superboy spun around to see two others standing up on the roof with them. Grif looked down at their feet and called out, "Where are your magnetic boots?!"
The wind picked up and Kairi and Natsu slid back a few feet, but they noticed that Grif was standing in the exact same place. The other two heroes with him were not moving either, though Superboy was doing it on his own strength, while Blue Beetle's blue-casing of armor kept him firmly planted to the ground with similar tech that was in Grif's boots.
"You guys should head back inside," Blue Beetle shouted at them. "It's not safe up here. We're moving way too fast and the wind shields can't even keep up."
Natsu just remembered how fast this Scarab could move and he turned his head left to look off the side of the vehicle. He almost lost his footing from the shock of watching the landscape around them literally blurring by him. "Whoa," he whispered, though no one heard him considering the pelting rain and buffeting wind.
"Sorry, we just wanted to see Pon-Gatso!" Kairi called out while cupping her mouth at the three guards. "Black Canary said it's coming up soon!"
"Yeah, it's already in sight," Conner Kent stated, his voice carrying to the other two as he was facing away from the wind.
"Really?!" Kairi and Natsu exclaimed at the same time. Natsu turned to the girl in surprise, but she started laughing at the fact that they shouted simultaneously. Despite the wind pushing her back, Kairi marched forward until she was right up in between Grif and the beetle guy. "Wow," she gasped. Staring straight ahead was the only way for everything not to be blurry, and the wind shields Blue Beetle mentioned seemed to work the most right where the guards were standing, which was probably why they were standing there. She was able to drop her arms and stare ahead without worrying about the wind, though some rain still hit her in the face, however softer than before with the decreased wind.
Natsu struggled his way forward as well and he lowered his arms feeling less resistance as he got up between Grif and Superboy. "So that's actually Pon-Gotso?" Grif said while looking to his right at Blue Beetle. "Really thought you were joking about that."
"What?!" Natsu exclaimed. "I thought- that girl Winry said it was a city!"
"It is," Superboy stated. "The city is inside, and on top, of Pon-Gotso. The tallest, widest tree in the world some say."
From their distance, the tree already looked massive, and they could not even see the bottom yet. The large purple head to the Scarab tank lit up green once, and Kairi and Natsu turned to look up at it. The glowing head piece blinked twice more, then paused a few seconds, before holding out a green light for five seconds then letting it drop out again.
"We need to use codes in case one of our ships gets taken by the enemy," Superboy stated out loud as he figured maybe the two newbies would be confused as to what that was for. The young man with broad shoulders wearing a tight black shirt looked like he was in a bad mood, and for good reason. He looked down at the symbol on the front of his chest, Superman. How could you die? How could you die on a world like this without even knowing what the biggest threat was?
The Scarab started to slow when they were still miles out from the tree. Miles out still meant that the group could not see the top of the tree however. It also meant that most of what they could see in front of them was tree trunk. The tree's base itself was the widest section of it, with huge roots that were not fully in the ground breaking off from the bottom of the trunk and imbedding into the ground all over. Two roots broke off in their direction but the Scarab was heading straight between them, and the tank kept running past and then underneath the huge roots.
Natsu stared up in awe just like Kairi and even Grif who had never been there before. He looked a little to the left of the root they were currently going under, and he saw past it up about a half mile of the trunk until he saw something strange. The usually light brown wood was black in that section, and the closer the Dragon Slayer looked around that side of the tree pointed north, the more damaged he noticed it was. One of the giant roots sticking off in that direction was cut off, leaving a huge open chunk that must have been somewhat new because the bottom part of the root no longer attached to the tree was not even that rotten yet. The green grass they had been traveling over for some time now also changed drastically on the north side of the tree, becoming more of a desolate wasteland in that direction. The ground was gray and lifeless for miles until Natsu could see no farther because of the rain.
The tank was really slowing down now, and others started coming up to the top section of the Scarab. Ben awoke from a quick nap to Dash shaking his shoulders and telling him to 'come on.' He walked outside with the younger boy and realized it was dark, and it had stopped raining. When he looked up to see where the storm clouds went though, he became confused as it was not the sky he saw above him, but a roof. The kid looked left to see what was going on, but when he looked behind him he only became more confused to see what looked like thick strands of ceiling dropping down and shoving into the floor. There was a line of vehicles behind their Scarab going all the way out past the edge of the roof where it split off and dropped down to the grass. A few seconds later though, they were all out of the rain and Ben turned the other way to see where they were heading.
Ben and Dash started walking to the top of the ship where a lot of others were already gathered. The Korean man with a sniper over his back was talking and many people were listening to him, including Kairi and Natsu. The man's name turned out to be Jin, and he was explaining about the city of Pon-Gatso which he was in fact a resident of. As soon as they got close enough to hear him both boy's went wide-eyed as they discovered where they were. "...but most of the tree is not hollowed out. The builders made sure not to kill Pon so that the tree would continue to bear fruit. The tree is so tall though, that even though each floor can only be a hundred feet in diameter, there are literally thousands of floors. Those floors extend below the tree as well, into the deep basements and mines where robots continue to gather steel for weapons, armor, and vehicles."
At this point, Jin was mainly talking to Natsu who was standing right in front of him and nodding every time he finished a sentence. The Fire Dragon Slayer thought this tree was awesome, and as Jin went on, he turned ahead and stared off at a steel gate they were approaching that was opening up for them. He heard Jin continue, "There are airbases in the canopy, and on many of the wider branches. Most higher floors have an emergency exit which will normally lead out to a branch. The lower branches also contain many houses and small villages."
"There are separate villages inside the tree?" Ben asked in surprise.
Natsu turned to see the boy had woken up, and looked to be distracted by all this enough to have temporarily forgotten his problems. Jin looked down at Ben too and he nodded his head. "There are many types of people, and other creatures, who live in Pon-Gatso. Those from different worlds sometimes have different cultures that do not blend nicely. We work together for the most part, but there are problems."
"How many people live here?" Dash questioned.
Jin looked at the other boy now and he started frowning. Dash thought he said something wrong, but Jin turned away and looked at the open gate they were approaching fast. "At the city's peak, twenty million."
"Twenty million people in one tree?" Grif repeated sarcastically. "I'm sure living conditions must have been great."
"Pon is bigger than you give it credit for," Superboy stated right as the Scarab was entering through the open gateway. "Miles up until you reach the very top of the canopy, and over a mile down before you reach the bottom of the roots. It seems they could not burrow any farther as the ground that deep in Nexus is much too hard. Our toughest drills break at two miles."
"Two miles down?" Dash whispered in shock. He looked down at the top of the Scarab and could only imagine how far down that was. He heard a few gasps on his sides and looked back up, only to gasp himself. They were inside an enormous hangar with a curvy, natural roof, and a half mile in front of them was a giant wooden wall that he realized was the start of the solid trunk. There were doors in the base of the wall, opening and closing as people walked through them. The entire hangar was filled with artificial lights so the room was fully illuminated, revealing the lines upon lines of vehicles. There were so many of them, and they were all under repair.
"What happened?" Natsu muttered. He looked off to the right where another Scarab like theirs was missing its back two legs and half of the head section. It had one leg up and the other front leg bent back, and it looked like it was going to be a big project to fix, however only one person was standing on a ladder next to the bent back leg, holding a blowtorch up to it. Natsu looked around some more and saw there were more broken vehicles currently without anyone working on them than there were ones being worked on.
"This isn't right," a woman's voice said behind them. The others looked back and saw Black Canary standing a little higher up on the front of the Scarab, allowing her to see above the rest of their heads. "Where is everyone?"
"Did you see the north?" Superboy asked. Dinah shook her head and he continued, "The plains were Scorched."
"Scorched?" Natsu whispered to Gray who walked over on his left side. It didn't sound like such a strange word to him, but a few people gasped as Conner said it.
"Devoid of resources. Dead. A new wasteland," Gray muttered. He looked at Natsu and continued in a low tone, "This tree has some tough defenses, but if our resources get depleted, we can't do anything. I'm guessing the Fire Nation is trying to burn us out, not very surprising."
"At least the tree itself produces food, right?" Ben asked, having listened to the two of them's conversation. "So, even if-"
"There's not enough," Gray said with a shake of his head. "Millions of people can't survive on the resources of one tree, even a tree this big."
The Scarab came to a complete stop and the vehicles behind it finished entering the gate. The giant steel doors started to close again while the Scarab's four legs started bending beneath the vehicle to lower the top section to the ground. Black Canary had a bad feeling about this, but she called out, "Gather up your things, we're heading inside."
"Where?" Grif asked, turning and staring at the woman in black skeptically. "If you haven't noticed, we're already inside."
"To the top," Dinah explained. "We're here to reinforce the General's troops. He's in command here."
"I'm going to head to the hospital floor," Winry stated out of nowhere. Black Canary turned to the younger blonde woman in surprise, but Winry was already walking towards the back of the tank. "I know what I'm here for, I don't need new orders."
"Hehe," Kairi giggled, then turned and chased after her new friend. "Hold on Winry," she called out, and the other teenage girl was surprised to see Kairi stopping at her side and starting to walk at her pace. "Let's go together, I can heal people too. So even if I can't give them new limbs, I bet there are some people who could use my help."
"Oh, okay," Winry said, looking surprised for a second. They kept walking and she looked strangely at the girl next to her, "How do you heal them? Are you a doctor or-"
"Magic," Kairi replied.
"Ohh," Winry replied, smiling with a bead of sweat on the side of her face. "Of course," she added and laughed a few times. The two eighteen year old girls continued talking to each other and walked off the back of the Scarab.
"Hey Dash," Ben whispered down to his friend. Dash looked right and up a little at Ben who smirked at him. "Wanna go explore?"
Dash's eyes went wide, then he grinned and nodded quickly back at him. Ben grabbed his friend's arm and held him back while everyone else started walking for the back of the Scarab that was tilted down the most. The back wall of the main section of the tank was opening down into a ramp for the group to walk down, but Ben and Dash did not follow.
Kirito was looking around from the top section for a few more seconds before following after everyone else. As he turned to follow though, he saw a flash of green out the corners of his eyes. He turned his head, but no one was behind him. Wait, they're both still there. Oh, it's Clear Body, Kirito remembered the first alien Ben used against him when they fought a few months ago. Guess it can turn whoever Ben is touching invisible too.
"Don't get lost," Kirito said to the open air behind him. Ben and Dash looked ahead in surprise that Kirito could seemingly see them, but Ben remembered how the teen was able to hit him during their fight despite his invisibility. The ninja did not stay for long though, turning and following the rest of the group down the back of the Scarab.
"Let's go," Ben whispered. Dash turned and looked at the purple blob next to him who only he could see with Ben's gooey hand on his shoulder. The younger kid nodded and they ran to the front of the ship before jumping off.
It only took a few seconds for Black Canary to notice something was wrong. She was standing at the top of the ramp motioning for everyone to move down to the hangar floor, when the last person in the group started walking down. "Where are those boys?" She asked, stopping Kirito by grabbing his arm.
Natsu and Gray looked back as well, confused at what she was talking about. Gray dropped his jaw as Kirito smirked a little and shrugged his shoulders. Black Canary made for the inside of the ship, but Kirito grabbed her arm this time, "Don't. They're not here anymore."
"Where are they?" the blonde woman asked, trying very hard not to raise her voice.
"Don't know," Kirito replied, then let go of her arm and walked down the ramp. The two Fairy Tail mages were looking at him and he shrugged as he walked by, "Really. I don't know."
"Ughh," Gray groaned, putting a hand on his forehead and wiping it down his face. "Can you two at least stay with us until we get introduced to the General?"
Natsu grunted and nodded, though he was a little disappointed he didn't run off with Ben and Dash. He lifted his head and stared up at the lights on the bottom of the giant tree root stretching over his head. "This place is huge," he stated, still in awe at the biggest tree he had ever seen before. "How many people did you say lived here again?" He questioned, turning to Black Canary who was walking down the ramp with an aggravated expression on her face.
"I thought there were still ten million plus," she stated, though by the tone of her voice she no longer believed that number was accurate. "But telling from the number of mechanics," she started, "and the lack of a welcoming committee," she looked around and did not see anyone walking over to greet them. She finished, "I would say that number is much, much lower now."
"At least we still have it," Gray spoke up, putting a hand on the woman's shoulder. She turned to look in his eyes and he added, "It could be worse."
She nodded a few times and lost her grim look, "You're right. Okay, let's go people!" Dinah called around at the large group. The others from the vehicles behind their Scarab were walking over as well and joining in with the main group.
"Hey," a tall, buff man nudged Grif in the side as he walked over. The armored soldier stumbled forward then turned to the man looking at him with a big smile on his face. "Where's that kid? I never got to say thanks, I was knocked out when he showed up," the man explained.
"No clue," Grif replied with a shrug. He looked around and muttered, "Actually, where is Ben?"
"He ran off," Kirito stated casually from the orange-armored soldier's side. "Probably ransacking the kitchen or something," the ninja said with a small chuckle.
Grif and the buff man turned, and the six-foot tall guy with dark black skin and giant muscles all over his body opened his eyes in shock. "He shouldn't do that." The other two looked at him confused, but the bald black man wearing a tank top looked pretty nervous. "Hijikata-san does not tolerate theft in his tree."
"Who's that?" Grif asked.
"Hijikata Toushirou is the Captain of the Pon-Gatso police," Darkshine stated. The muscular man's muscles seemed to glisten as he stated in a low voice, "Don't get him angry or he'll kill you."
"Great, another crazy person," Grif said. He groaned and started walking away from the others after Black Canary who was leading them all towards the trunk.
"Is he strong?" Kirito asked the man next to him as they walked after the rest of the group. Superalloy Darkshine looked at the boy next to him who was staring up at the roof of the roots above them. Kirito was trying to sense ki's up higher in the tree, but on top of his inexperience, most people he'd met on this continent were wearing Power Blockers anyway so after a few seconds he sighed and gave up.
"The best swordsman north of Leam," Darkshine responded.
"We'll see about that," Kirito whispered under his breath and started grinning.
They all reached the trunk of Pon and a few of them became confused at the look of the tree in front of them. There were two doorways, both of which were on either side of where they walked straight towards. Canary did not want to hear any pointless questions though, and she lifted up a hand and pressed her hand into the wood a few yards to the right of an odd vertical crack in the tree.
The place she planted her hand pushed in a little, then slid to the side where there was a hand-print scanner behind it. As Dinah Drake put her hand on the scanner, the older of two invisible boys to her right whispered, "So that's how you get in."
The crack split apart revealing a wide elevator inside. It was ten by twelve feet, but as Black Canary looked behind her she saw over fifty people standing there. She sighed, "Alright, not everyone needs to come up. If you live here, go use another elevator and just go back to your rooms. My squad that just came from Terra," she continued, "stay here with the ship. Superboy, BB, with me," she added, showing not all of her group were staying behind. She looked around more and pointed out the man next to Kirito, "Darkshine, right? With us."
"Yes!" the man yelled, and flexed his arms above his head.
Although he seemed somewhat stupid to her, Canary heard from the rest of the convoy Ben saved that he was their strongest fighter. Apparently he held off the Chimera Ants all on his own for over five minutes while they called for reinforcements.
"We're coming too I suppose?" Gray brought up as the others Canary mentioned walked into the elevator.
"Of course," she replied, turning around and walking in with the rest.
Kirito and Natsu followed after Gray as he headed inside the elevator. The door closed behind them and the inside walls of the elevator surprised the ones who had not been there before. The entire elevator looked to be made of wood, though that could not be right as when they walked through the door, on the inside of the layers of wood there was a thick metal sheet. "Aesthetic appeal. Also, the Sadida people get really mad when the tree is desecrated, so in order to keep them appeased we try to make Pon as happy as can be."
"The tree, happy?" Natsu asked with a laugh.
"Don't let the Sadida hear you say that," Darkshine said in an ominous tone. He looked down at Natsu seriously, "They'll kill you."
Kirito suddenly sweatdropped and wondered if that Hijikata guy Darkshine mentioned was all he was cracked up to be if Darkshine was always this quick to say someone would kill them. Black Canary was typing something in a pad next to the door that looked to be the only piece of electronics in the room besides the lights on the ceiling.
The elevator started shooting up fast. They noticed it, and could feel how fast it was going, but they barely lost their balance for a second. "Whoa," Natsu mumbled. "How long will it take to get to the top?"
"A minute or so," Black Canary replied.
As she said it though, the entire group felt the elevator slowing down already and then jolt to a sudden stop. "What's the big deal?" Blue Beetle asked in surprise. "Didn't you say the top?"
The doors slid open and a few of them thought maybe someone else had pressed the button and was also heading up. "I thought I locked it from outside interference," Canary muttered, and then became even more confused as there was no one on the other side of the door. A few seconds later, then door started closing, and then right before they were completely shut, a flash of red light shone from outside the cracks.
"What was that?" Superboy asked, his eyes narrowing.
"We have a breach!" Black Canary exclaimed.
"Wait!" Gray shouted, calming down the woman who was reaching for the communicator on her wrist. "Don't worry about it," he stated.
"Someone snuck in-" she began.
"It was Ben," Natsu said and started laughing at all of the Resistance fighters' panicked reactions. "He snuck on the elevator, and made it off right before his watch ran out of juice."
Outside of a floor far below the elevator that had started shooting up the tree again, Ben and Dash were panting with their hands on their knees. "That was close," Ben whispered, and the two of them looked at each other for a few seconds before laughing to shake off their nerves.
"Do you think they know it was us?" Dash asked.
"Nah, no way," Ben said confidently. "The door definitely closed before I changed back."
Dash opened his mouth to argue, as the insanely fast child knew exactly when Ben's watch flashed compared to the door fully closing, but he decided better of it and closed his mouth. He instead looked around the hallway they were in and around at the walls near them. There were two large white walls on either side of a five foot wide hallway that stretched a hundred feet long, and on either long white wall was a single door in the middle.
"What are these rooms?" Ben asked curiously while walking forward away from the wooden elevator doors.
"I don't know," Dash whispered. "Want me to run inside, get a look around, and come back out?"
"Umm," Ben hummed, wondering if that was a good idea or not.
Suddenly a ding rang out and both boys stared straight ahead down the hall where apparently the wooden wall on that side was another elevator. The wall slid apart and the boys stood there caught red-handed. Ben's Omnitrix was still in the red so there was nothing he could do to hide, and he and Dash just smiled sheepishly over at the elevator with five people in it.
No one seemed to notice them yet as they were pretty far down the hall, but as a single man walked out and said goodbye to the people in the closing elevator behind him, he spotted the kids. He looked over in surprise, and then Dash dropped his jaw as he recognized the man standing there. "Crap Ben," the kid whispered nervously. "I knocked this guy out back on the Scarab."
Jin was standing there with a sniper rifle on his shoulder, staring right back over at the boy who chopped his neck to knock him out a few days ago. He was a little nervous, but next to the young blond kid was the other boy who saved all their comrades in the Resistance. Finally his surprised look wiped from his face, and the Korean man smiled warmly at the boys. "I do not think you are supposed to be here," he said in a friendly tone, showing he did not really care about it.
"Heh heh," Ben chuckled, scratching the back of his head.
"I bet you two are pretty hungry," Jin said as he walked towards them. He stopped a few yards in front of them and motioned with his head to the right at the door next to him. "Why don't you come inside?"
"Wait," Dash began, shaking his head around a few times. "Is that your house?" He asked.
"Sure is," the older man replied. He placed his hand on the handle and held it there for a few seconds. The silver handle made a clicking noise, and Jin smiled as he twisted it and pushed the door in.
Before the door was even halfway open, a woman was running out the door shouting, "Jin-Soo shi!" She tackled her husband in a hug and he pulled her close over his shoulder.
"Hello, Sun," the man greeted in English. Normally he spoke Korean to his wife when they were in private, so Sun looked around and sure enough there were two children in the hallway with her husband. He released the hug seeing where she was looking and he motioned over at the boys, "This is Ben, and Dash. Boys, this is my wife, Sun," he looked back at her and gave her a smile despite her confused expression.
"Who are they?" Sun asked. The Korean women looked back and forth from the kids to her husband, and she started smiling after he said a few things to her quietly in Korean. "Hello boys," Sun said, flashing them a warm, motherly smile that put the two nervous boys at ease.
"Please, come in," Jin told them, and he and his wife walked inside first.
Dash looked at Ben nervously, but the older boy shrugged and moved to follow the nice couple inside. He walked into the white doorway and was surprised to see he entered a living room. On his right was only a half-wall from the outer hallway wall to the curved trunk on the other side of the room that was made of wood not yet painted white to match the rest of the room. Where the half-wall left a space revealed a kitchen where there was a pot of boiling water already on the burner, and Ben noticed there were no open flames on the stove.
The other way from the kitchen on the opposite side of the living room were three doors. The one in the middle was partially open and the boys could see a sink counter, meaning it was probably the bathroom. Another door was partially open showing a decent-sized room with a large bed in it, while the third door was closed. Jin was walking over to that door though, but before the kids could see him open it, Sun spoke up, "Jin says you boys are quite hungry. I was already making food, please, eat with us."
"Sure," Ben exclaimed. She smiled down at him even as his friend looked at him in nervous surprise.
"Ben," Dash whispered at him while Sun walked off to the kitchen. "We should go," the younger boy whispered.
"Hey," Ben snapped, looking at Dash with a frown. "Ever since Sanji left, it's been fruit and burned meat for every meal. Let's take them up on their offer. We probably won't be staying here very long anyway," he added, seeing as his friend still seemed nervous. He sighed, "I mean, if you don't want to eat, go ahead and don't."
Dash's eyes went wide and upon hearing that, his mind told his stomach to let him know this was not allowed, and Dash's stomach growled loudly. The boy looked a little sheepish but he smiled and said, "I mean, if Sun's already making it, it would be rude to say no. Right?"
"Right," Ben agreed.
"Papa!" a voice exclaimed behind the boys. They turned, but all they saw was the three partially open doorways on the other side of the room. The voice sounded like it belonged to a little girl, and a few seconds later Jin came walking back out of the mystery room holding a small girl on his left shoulder.
"You, have a daughter," Ben said, trying not to sound too surprised.
"Yes, this is Ji Yeon," Jin replied, bouncing his young daughter on his shoulder. She had long black hair like her mother, but her father's eyes. "Say hello to the heroes Ji Yeon," he told his daughter.
The little girl started waving to them and said in a cute voice, "Hi!"
Ben and Dash looked at each other. Heroes? Dash thought, as he had thought the man might have a grudge against him for knocking him out. Ben looked back first and said hi back to the five year old girl, and the mood of the room suddenly became much lighter toned. Sun brought out food, and Jin told his wife and child some new stories since he left. Ben and Dash were impressed by the stories as well, but when they started talking about their journey over Aebrith, the family was much more impressed than they were.
At one point, Jin opened his eyes wide and said, "You're the ones who took down Doflamingo?"
"Well, it was mainly Goku," Ben admitted.
"The Super Saiyan?!" both the man and his wife exclaimed. Ben told them their group were friends with him which only amazed the family more.
"Wow," Dash said, taking a break between bites. "It seems like everyone in the world knows who Goku is."
"Well of course," Sun said with a chuckle. "Without Son Goku, none of us would be here."
Ben nodded his head, "You got that right- wait what?" He shook his head a few times, "When did he save your lives?"
"We've never met him ourselves," Jin stated. "However, Son Goku is known to show up every once in while to save the day. I heard he was here in Aebrith around, five months ago I believe," the Korean man continued, scratching his chin as he did. "Where did I here that?"
"Five months?" Ben mumbled. He thought back that long, "That was probably before his wife died." And my Grandpa.
"That's terrible," Sun whispered, feeling sorry for the man so well known and loved throughout the world.
The boys nodded, but they started back up conversation about Awul now, and the family became very interested and listened in to their tales about the other side of the world they had never visited. The idea of a land without conflict seemed far-fetched to them considering the world they'd been living on, so both parents were doubtful when the boys said they completely solved Awul's problems. Ji Yeon seemed to love the idea though and clapped her hands when the older boys said they won against the evil Underworld.
The family and young boys ate a nice meal, the first one the kids had had in a long time. Ben and Dash wolfed down their food, and Dash asked where they got the fish from at one point. The woman, Sun, calmly replied that she got them from the lake on the Nawasagi Branch, to which Ben and Dash both dropped their jaws hearing there was a lake on the tree.
As Ben opened his mouth to ask what other cool places there were on the tree for him to visit, a knock sounded and they all turned towards the door. Jin stood up and wiped his mouth, "I wonder who-"
Crash! The door fell inwards and standing on the other side was a man with one leg planted on the ground and the other extending out in a kick. Ben and Dash jumped out of their seats, Sun reached for her daughter, but Jin just went wide-eyed and exclaimed, "Hijikata-san!"
Sun stopped reaching for her daughter and turned with a much more confused than scared look. The man in the doorway had a toothpick in his teeth as he was not allowed to smoke inside Pon but it felt good still having something there anyway. He had messy black hair and was wearing a black uniform with a star badge over his right chest pocket. Hijikata Toushirou looked around, and his eyes narrowed on two children standing next to the table and looking over at him nervously.
Jin-Soo Kwon, who are those children?" Toushirou reached down to his side and pulled out a long katana with one swoosh.
"Hold on," Jin began, holding an open palm up at the samurai police officer.
"Hey Ben," Dash whispered, and his mouth curled up in a smirk. Ben looked at the boy confusedly, but then grinned as well.
Sun saw the children's smirks, and she became panicked. She had just heard them tell all sorts of crazy stories about their adventures, and she thought they might be about to start a fight inside her house. As she opened her mouth to yell though, a green light flashed around Ben.
Jin spun around, and Toushirou charged forward. "Hold it!" The cop yelled.
A taller, lizard-like alien appeared in Ben's place. The black mask over its thinner, pointy head slid up and revealed a face of blue skin underneath. "Thank you for the meal," Ben said.
"It was great!" Dash exclaimed.
"Don't move," Toushirou stated in a cold voice. He had his sword held out right under XLR8's chin. Both Dash and Ben looked at the blade only inches from Ben's neck, and they started laughing. The man became confused for a second, then opened his eyes wide as the boys vanished. He followed a blue blur as it flew by his right side and he fully spun around to watch them run back into the hallway. Ji Yeon started clapping her hands and giggling, while both Jin and Sun struggled to hold back laughter at Hijikata's flustered facial expression. "Get back here!" Toushirou roared.
Pon-Gatso Basement Level 1 (B1), Infirmary.
"Oh my God," Winry whispered, putting her hands up in front of her mouth.
"Sure are a lot of injured people down here," Kairi stated. She looked around the basement floor which extended over a mile to her right and left, and even farther straight ahead of her away from the staircase they just came down. The terrible thing about the giant basement though, was that there were hundreds of patients, maybe even thousands. Rows of beds started from only ten feet in front of the stairs, to farther than the teenage girls could see.
There were dozens of doctors and nurses in white and blue scrubs rushing about between the rows of patients. Some of the patients were plugged into machines, most of them however were just lying down with bloody bandages or hard casts around different parts of their bodies.
Kairi started walking forward and she looked down to her left. There was a man there with a bandage around his head, but he was awake and his bed's back was leant up a little. She turned to him as she walked by his bed, and the man looked up at her with such a hopeless look that Kairi's smile wiped from her face. It was not his extensive facial burns that made her sad, but his expression that told her he did not believe there was any hope left in the world.
She bent over his bed as soon as she saw his eyes and she brought her face up close to his. "Don't give up," she ordered. The man was so surprised by this girl who just walked around his bed and put her face up near his that he leaned back in his bed and opened his burnt eyelids as much as he could. Kairi leaned away from him, and she lifted up her right hand. A pink handle appeared in her grip while Winry walked towards her back. The blonde girl stared in silent shock as Kairi whispered, "Cure," and a veil of green light shimmered down around the injured man.
I can use Cura, but it spends my Magic Power too quickly. There are too many people here... While Kairi was thinking about how she could efficiently go around healing everyone, starting with the most injured people first for now on, the man she healed was looking down at his hands in shock as burns faded from his skin. He reached over with a hand and pulled some bandages off where he was burnt the worst. There were bad scars in the area, but the pain was receding and he felt his strength returning.
"Feel better," Kairi said and tilted her head at the man while smiling wide. She spun around and started walking off again with her hands behind her back, twirling around her Keyblade aimlessly as she did.
"That was," Winry began, as she ran past the man getting out of his bed in shock, and right up behind Kairi. "Amazing," she finished.
"Thanks," Kairi said, giving the other girl a bright smile as well. "Can you call me if you see anyone in need of immediate help. I'm going to try and help them first," she said, though Winry was finding it hard to figure out if Kairi was being serious about this at all because of her smile. The blonde girl had never seen someone smiling so much around so many wounded people, it actually creeped her out a little. "Winry?" Kairi asked, wondering why the other girl had not responded and actually losing her smile for a second.
The lack of a smile shook Winry from her trance and she laughed nervously. "Huh? Oh, yeah! If I see anyone, I'll-"
"I need help over here!" a doctor three rows ahead of Kairi and a hundred feet to her right shouted. He was not shouting towards her as much as he was to another two people in scrubs farther down his own row. Winry never got to finish telling Kairi she would call her, because Kairi ran off all of a sudden.
The girl with long auburn hair leapt up in the air, and she did a front flip before gliding forward over the beds of a few dozen shocked men and women. People leaned up from their beds and looked over at the girl who was falling with style. She glided all the way to the doctor who originally shouted and she made it there before his fellow doctors. As she arrived, she saw some other doctor shouting a quarter mile away and the body of the person next to him was seizing.
Kairi did not even slow down as she flew over the first patient. "Cure!" She called out, waving her Keyblade beneath her and then continuing to glide forward for another ten feet before landing, and immediately jumping back up twenty feet in the air before starting to glide again into the distance.
The wounded man plugged into life support suddenly stopped shaking, and the heartbeat monitor that was beeping way too fast slowed back down to a normal speed. The other two doctors arrived and looked down wondering what the first doctor was shouting about, but that man turned and stared after the girl who just showered his patient with green healing light. "Who the Hell is that?" the doctor muttered.
"Cure! Cure," Kairi swung her Keyblade and pointed at as many badly injured people as she could. "Ah ha, ahh, haa, ah, Cura!" Kairi swung her Keyblade again and used all of her remaining magical strength on one woman whose body was entirely wrapped in bandages. She watched as the woman's heart rate monitor stopped beeping so erratically, and smiled right before her shaky legs came out from under her.
Kairi fell to her knees and bowed her head, panting over and over again. I'm not used to this. It's like Metropolis all over again, only I don't have Sora or Riku to help me. Kairi dropped her Keyblade and put both hands down on the ground in front of her. That's right, they aren't here. So it's all up to me! She looked up with a more determined expression, and she smiled as she back up got to her feet. She rose up her right hand and her Keyblade shimmered to life in her grasp again.
"Sora always told me if I wanted to regain my Magical Power quickly, I needed to fight using my Keyblade," she hummed to herself and started swinging the Keyblade around in the air in front of her. After a few seconds she came to a stop and mumbled, "That doesn't feel like it's working. I can feel my strength coming back, but no faster than it normally does. Maybe, I need to actually be hitting something to power up!"
Kairi looked around and then frowned with a puzzled look, "Only, what is there to hit in a room full of injured people?"
Canopy, Pon-Gatso
"This is the top of a tree?" Natsu mumbled, trying to hold back his awe as he looked around. They left the top of the trunk that looked noticeably thinner than the base, and all around them now was the color green. Huge leaves bigger than houses made it near impossible to see around them. All they could really see was a branch leading away from the trunk's elevator.
Black Canary led the way across the branch and the group followed behind her. Kirito, Gray, Natsu, Blue Beetle, Superboy, and Darkshine followed her a hundred yards before they hit a fork in the path. The branch split out in two directions. To the right and farther forward, some of the leaves were cleared out from smaller branches extending off the path. Where those leaves were missing, were buildings. Most buildings were made of material other than wood, surprising the men from Awul.
"How'd they get all that steel up here?" Kirito questioned, looking at Canary's back. They were several miles above the ground so it seemed pretty difficult to him.
"It's not as hard as you'd think," Dinah began without looking behind her. She continued walking along the wood of the massive tree's branches, all the while explaining the sights they were taking in around them.
Only the two who spent most of their time on Awul were surprised by all of this. They were looking around with awed expressions at the miraculous feats of architecture all around them. These people used leaves as structural foundations for schools, they took a twig (a thirty meter thick twig) and transformed it into a blacksmithing shop, they even morphed a twisting branch pointing up into the sky into a marvelous staircase that ended with a giant fortress-looking building at the top.
"Whoaaa," Natsu uttered. He lifted his gaze farther and farther up the huge wooden staircase before the black building at the top. As they started walking towards it, Black Canary explained that the black material they saw up there was some of their strongest steel that they use to reinforce evacuation vehicles, high-risk buildings that would likely be targeted, and even body armor for those lucky enough to receive it.
"Hah, armor," Natsu scoffed. The Dragon Slayer smirked as he received a look from the Blue Beetle guy in his suit of blue armor. Who needs armor when you could have scales?! The pink haired man smirked even more thinking about his own strength, and he darted his eyes to Superboy intending to pick a fight. The guy with broader shoulders was not even looking his way though, he just kept walking straight ahead like he had an important date to get to.
Their group trekked up the sloping branch to the large fortress made of black steel. Black Canary led them right up to the doors and she said a few words to the two guards standing outside that made them move to the sides. Once they were out of the way she stepped forward and pushed the double doors in front of her inwards. Natsu followed behind her and he heard the guard he passed on the left mutter into a walkie talkie, "They're here." He turned from the guard and looked inside the building, opening his eyes wider at the sight of the magnificent hall inside that looked a lot better than the reinforced outside. Most everything was made out of wood, even the walls which must have had an inner coating before being reinforced for attacks.
Across the giant hall they just entered, full of long tables for the first half, and a huge empty area after that, was a group of people standing around one single table on a more elevated section of the room. Halfway across the room the floor lifted up a few meters, and Kirito figured that if the building was built on a slanting branch that they needed to rise the floor as to not cut too far into Pon. Black Canary did not stop after opening the doors and the group followed her towards the higher section of the room.
The people around the table in the far back of the hall looked towards the front entrance. A few of them walked around the table but the man on the exact opposite side of the table just put his right hand down on the table and swung his legs over it to get to the other side. The other four who were around him walked in front of him as they headed across the elevated area, and they stopped halfway across it. They watched as Dinah's group headed up the eight steps to their section of the floor, and then a woman with long black hair all the way on the right of the four called out, "Hold it. Who are those three with you? They are not registered Resistance fighters."
Black Canary stopped where she was and her comrades all looked back at the three new people behind them. "Couldn't have called ahead?" Gray muttered up to the woman.
"They're allies. They saved Darkshine's convoy," she explained and motioned to the dark-skinned bodybuilder who nodded his head in confirmation.
"In that case, welcome!" a voice shouted from behind the four people facing off against Black Canary's group. The person pushed his way between the two men standing in the middle despite their protests, and he took a step towards the bigger group. "I'm the General of this outpost," the man began. He had his hair up in a bun above his head and the butt of a rifle was sticking out over his shoulder. His wore a blue gi and he had a white belt around his waist. And he was only a teenager, surprising the three from Awul who expected someone a little older.
The young man stopped and smirked at them, "The name's General Sokka, nice to meet you."
A/N Sokka?! Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading and let me know what you think in a review, along with predictions of future chapters! Next chapter we meet some new characters and a there will be a flashback, maybe... Here's a quick list of new characters:
Gintama: Hijikata Toushirou
Avatar the Last Airbender: Sokka
One Punch Man: Superalloy Darkshine
LOST: Jin, Sun, Ji Yeon
Wakfu: Sadida
-1 percent battery left on my laptop so no review responses today. Sorry :(, but thanks again everyone for reading, favoriting, following, and reviewing! 'Till next time!