Out of the Forest

A bit of sunlight peered through the treetops. Andrew could finally see where he was going. He led the group further through the woods. He was almost sure they were close to the exit.

Andrew decided they should rest for a bit. They had been hiking all day and it was time for a break. He leaned up against a tree and started talking about the Squad's next move.

"I think, if we push hard enough, we can get out of this forest," Andrew predicted. "Once we get out, we'll go straight towards the mountains."

"However, there is still a pressing matter we must discuss, Andrew," Mary piped up. "Noah."

"Oh. Noah. I guess we'll have to ignore him for the time being. We have no leads on where he is at the moment."

Mary sighed. "And that construct. It helped us with those snarbolaxes. We gotta talk about that."

"Indeed," Andrew agreed. "We have no leads on Construct B1173D6, either. And it beats me why it would help us in the first place."

Mary let out another deep sigh. "I don't like not knowing things. Promise me, if you find anything interesting, tell me."

"Sure," Andrew said.

"Um, Andrew?" Greg asked.

"Yeah?"

"Thats...not a tree you're leaning on." Greg told Andrew.

Andrew turned around to discover he had not been leaning against a tree, rather a lumber. He pulled out his Leviathan and swung. The lumber didn't do anything. Andrew hit it again. The lumber fell on it's side. Andrew looked at the supposed threat. Its eyes were not glowing green, but instead there was no light at all. Andrew realized it wasn't turned on. He was confused. The gremlins never let an offline construct loose in the middle of nowhere.

Then again, they never let one help knights as well. Andrew guessed everything was changing because of the Gremlin War. On both sides.

"Its not on right now," Andrew explained. "It can't hurt us."

Greg calmed down a bit. "Well, anyway, shouldn't we be going now?"

"Sure," Andrew agreed. "Lets go."

They all got up and hurried forward. They walked for hours and hours before Andrew spotted a sliver of light in the distance.

"C'mon!" Andrew shouted.

He ran in the direction of the light, the others struggling to keep up with him. The sliver got bigger until ti was the size of a Tortodrone. Andrew took a great leap of faith as he passed through the gap in the trees and into the afternoon light. The rest of the Squad did the same.

They had finally exited the woods. Andrew could see the mountains in the far distance. He flashed a grin at the rest of the group.

An Audience

Seerus walked through the long corridor. A pair of huge doors stood at the end. When he arrived at the doors, Seerus pressed his hand up against a scanning machine. It analyzed his hand print and the doors swung open.

Seerus stepped through the tall archway into a large room. Light bulbs lit the throne room in intervals along the wall.

"Seerus," A voice spoke. "Why have you requested an audience with me?"

"Zoro has informed me of a group of knights planning to cut off our power sources," Seerus explained.

The figure sitting in the throne stopped to think for a moment. "How did Zoro figure this out?"

"He lead a group of Ghost Manes into Haven. They sneaked into Feron's room and read his plans. And finally, they left with a boom. The Ghost manes sent radioactive waves out from the elevators and caused an earthquake."

"Zoro has always been a clever fellow. That is why I inducted him to the Order," the mystery gremlin said. "But what are we to do about this band of knights? Hmm..."

"My King, we could send Zoro's group to deal with them," Seerus suggested.

The King smiled, "Good idea. Tell them they must be ready by tomorrow morning."

"And I want them captured, not killed. I bet we can get valuable information from them," he continued.

Seerus turned to walk away.

"Seerus, wait," the King shouted. "I want all the constructs brought back to the factory in case of an emergency. Feron wouldn't send unexperienced knights to take out our power. We need guards. We need constructs."

"Yes, King Tinkinzar." Seerus bowed then left the room.

He took several elevators up to the Construct Factory. Seerus searched for the engineer, Orion. Once he found him, he told Orion Tinkinzar's orders.

"All of them?!" Orion was shocked. "Every single construct?!"

"Yes. Don't question the King, or you'll be executed."

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir," Orion said.

Orion hurried to the rest of the engineers and told them the King's orders. Then he pulled several switches and typed in coordinates on a machine.

Seerus left the factory and went to Zoro's headquarters. When he arrived, he walked through several rooms until he got to Zoro's. Zoro was surprised to see Seerus. He was startled as the Warmaster walked into his room.

"Seerus! What brings you here?" Zoro asked.

"A group of knights are advancing on our Outpost. Tinkinzar wants you and your Ghost Manes to capture and bring them to the Outpost. He wants you ready by tomorrow morning. I plan on going to the Outpost soon, so once they're captured, bring the knights to me."

"Of course, Seerus. Of course," Zoro said.

Seerus left the room. Zoro went to go inform the other Ghost Manes of their plan.

Zoro is the Ghostmane of the Crimson Order. Hint Hint, Your App is in Zoro's Squad.

I just couldn't see how they would fit into the story.

Im still accepting apps though.

With the server down, im moving along on the next chapter.

Thought I forgot about this, aye?

Zoro's Squad

"Listen up, you slackers," Zoro shouted. "We have been ordered by the great king himself to capture a knight Squad sent by Feron. Capture, not kill. Do you hear me?"

"Yessir," a few voices mumbled.

"Good. Because should anyone of them die, the killer will die themself," Zoro continued.

Several gremlins gulped.

"Now get ready. We head out in an hour or so."

"An hour!? We don't have time to-"

Zoro stuck a knife up against the doubtful gremlin's neck. "You were saying?"

"I was saying, um... that's more than enough time. I'll be ready in 30 minutes."

"Perfect. Meet me by the outer landing when you're ready, you ungrateful idiots," Zoro ordered.

The group dispersed. Zoro headed towards his room. When he arrived, he sat down in a chair. Zoro thought for several moments. If his squad caught the knight squad, Seerus would live. Oh yes. Zoro had 'accidentally' forgotten to say that the knights were going to try to kill Seerus. What if the knights happened to 'escape?' Seerus would die, and Zoro might become closer to King Tinkinzar.

Zoro grinned. A plan was forming in his head. The future was clear in his mind. Despite how long it might take, eventually all gremlins would bow down to him. Zoro chuckled. The plan was fool-proof, and in this case, Zoro was dealing with fools.

"Shadowmaster Zoro," a gremlin called out, for Zoro, being the leader of the ghostmanes, was named the Shadowmaster.

Zoro was so involved with thinking of his plan he hadn't noticed his minion, as he liked to call them, walk in.

"Grimace. What seems to be the problem?"

Grimace was Zoro's favorite minion. Grimace was definitely the most heartless, so naturally, Zoro was very fond of him.

"Fleur. Its Fleur. He... had an incident," Grimace explained.

"Incident?" Zoro wondered.

"Fleur provoked a lumber, and... hes in the infirmary."

"Damnit, Fleur!" Zoro picked up a glass cup and smashed it into his desk. "Our ghostmane numbers are small enough, and now we're down another member!"

"Indeed," Grimace sulked.

"We might be heading out sooner than I thought. We don't want more of those idiots injuring themselves."

"Yes. They must like getting killed, 'cause if they keep this up, I'll shoot 'em down."

"Grimace. You and I... We're gonna go far," Zoro flashed a yellow grin at Grimace.

"Why thank you, Shadowmaster. I'll go get the others to the outer landing," Grimace smiled back.

Zoro nodded.

*^*^*

"C'mon, lets get moving!" Zoro shouted above the din.

The Squad heeded his words. They went in groups up the elevators. The final group was Zoro, Grimace, a gremlin named Phoryn, and Fleur. Fleur had insisted to the medics he was feeling better.

"So, Fleur. I hear you've been as dumb as a trojan today," Zoro commented.

"Er... about that... I didn't mean to annoy it, I was just examining the lumber's upper arm. Then, it hit me," Fleur said, pointing to a large purple mark on the left side of his face.

"Whatever you say, Fleur," Phoryn joined in.

"Shut up, Phoryn," Fleur said, annoyed.

"No you shut up!" Phoryn yelled. "Grimace, tell him to stop being so childish."

"No, tell him to stop starting unnecessary arguments!" Fleur growled.

Grimace ignored them both and just stared down at the floor. He was not going to get involved.

Then the elevator came out into open light. Brisk winds blew across the valley. The final group stepped off the elevator, with Fleur and Phoryn glaring at each other. Zoro ordered the group of twelve or so gremlins to cover the lift with snow, so no one could find the secret gremlin outpost.

Then the Squad scurried along a thin, winding path.

Zoro just smiled. His plan... had just begun.

Chapta 11 is Ouuuut.

Phoryn's Escape

"I found the knights. They're on the eastern border of Mount Zanahut. They captured me. Help?" Phoryn whispered into a small device strapped to his arm.

Phoryn paused, listening.

"Ok, I'm ready. You can come now. The knights are sleeping."

A couple of hours passed. Phoryn could now see a small group of gremlins slowly inching their way towards the camp. Once they got there, they separated, forming a circle around the squad.

"Phoryn, that you?" a large gremlin questioned.

"Yes," Phoryn answered. "Now get this rope off me."

The gremlin bent down and untied Phoryn.

"Unnnghhhh..." Damien groaned.

"Quick, lets get out of here!" a gremlin yelped.

"Whaaa?" Damien said, getting up. He saw the group of gremlins. "Guys! Wake up!"

"Huh?" Andrew asked. "Whoa!"

The others had similar reactions. Damien reached for his Gran Faust, but it was too late. The gremlins were already upon them, razor blades tearing up their armor.

"Stop," a metallic voice boomed.

Andrew looked up. It was Construct B1173D6!

It hopped around, knocking gremlins off the weary adventurers. The gremlins hurriedly got up and scurried away. Almost as fast as they left, Construct B1173D6 did.

"Why is that construct so secretive? It won't even let us thank it," Mary said.

"I don't know. But what I do know is it has saved our lives more than once," Andrew answered. "We're gonna find it, but for now, we have a mission."

They all agreed.

"We've had enough sleep, lets get moving."

The Squad marched right past Mount Zanahut. They marched right up into the bitter cold. Several Frostifurs attacked them, but there was nothing they couldn't handle. As long as they didn't walk into a pack of them, the Squad was fine.

Andrew was stressed. He had so many things to worry about. Noah, Construct B1173D6, the gremlins, and most importantly, his mission.

But Andrew had a strong heart. He was ready for whatever could possibly be thrown at him.

Lol, Luguiru posted on my thread. Im honored.

I would make it link the posts, but I don't know how to do that. ;D

Alright. I was planning to update the chapters and fix all of the grammatical errors. Ill just do that too.

Two Down, Five to Go.

"Agh!" Jane shouted.

The Squad had been attacked by a particularly large pack of Frostifurs. An Alpha Frostifur had mauled Jane almost immediately after they first came into view.

Andrew drew his Leviathan. He didn't want anyone to die. He ran straight into the battlefield, striking down Frostifurs that came close to him. Andrew's intention was to get to Jane, who seemed hurt.

"Don't worry Jane, I'm coming for you!" Andrew shouted.

It was almost as if the Alpha Frostifur understood him. It turned into a frenzy, continuously ripping Jane apart. Once Andrew had gotten in attacking distance, it whipped around to face him. The icy wolver charged.

"Not today!" Andrew yelled. He drove his Leviathan right through the Frostifur's mouth.

Then he ran over to Jane.

Or at least... what was left of her.

"NO!" Andrew screamed at the top of his lungs. He zoomed around the area, maliciously slicing the wolvers in half.

Before long, all the Frostifurs lay on the ground, mangled.

Andrew stabbed his sword into the ground.

"Everyone alright?" he asked the remaining Squad members.

Mary, Damien, Greg, and Fred were all amazed by Andrew's skill in battle. They nodded.

Then Andrew walked over to Jane's lifeless almost-whole body. "Jane? Jane? Speak to me." Jane's leg had been ripped off, and so had her right arm. But still Andrew could hear a small struggling breath.

"Jane! Talk! Please, talk," he pleaded.

And then he was answered, "Andrew..." a small strangled voice responded. "I've served... my purpose... and now... now... I can join my husband."

"Jane? Jane? Jane?!"

It was no use. Jane was dead.

The Squad dug a hole in the ground, wrapped Jane's body in rags, and laid her in the hole. As they were filling the hole back up with dirt, Andrew couldn't help but feeling guilty. A Squad member had died, who knew how many more were to die in the days to come?

Andrew picked up a slab of stone, and carved Jane in the rock with his sword.

Then the Squad gathered their supplies and left the grave. Andrew turned back one last time. Jane hadn't died in vain. They would defeat Seerus. They would win the war. For her sake and the sake of many others who had died.