A Soldier's Salute

Andrew woke up to a knight violently shaking his shoulder.

"Andrew, wake up! The rebels are attacking!" the knight hurriedly said.

"Wait what?"

"The rebels! They've coming to attack us!" the knight squealed.

"Oh man..." Andrew cursed.

He snatched his green Leviathan from its weapon rack. He didn't bother grabbing his shield. The rebels were already pouring into the camp. Andrew dashed out of his tent and prepared for battle. He ran to meet a coming enemy. Clumsy as he was, he tripped over a tree root and fell to the ground. He could hear his opponent chuckling softly.

"Ha, you are horrible in battle. I'll make this quick and easy."

He rolled out of the way just as a Barbarous Thorn Blade came down next to his head. Andrew hopped to his feet and looked at the enemy with a charming smile.

"Don't judge a book by its cover, my friend."

With that, Andrew drove his blade into the opposing knight's gut. He pulled his sword out of the body as it burned to a crisp. He looked around and saw that the knights were keeping the rebels at bay. So, he dashed back to the Medic Tent to check on Feron. He went in and was relieved to see Feron breathing. Feron was breathing very slowly, but he was breathing. Andrew asked a medic if the lieutenant was going to be alright.

The medic looked at Andrew with a grave frown. "Feron... has only a little bit left to live... Whatever cut that hole in his neck- we patched it up, but Feron is infected with a rare disease that comes only when juice from a Silkwing heart and curse from a vial are mixed."

Andrew punched the leg of the bed Feron was lying on. "NO! He can't die! He can't!"

"I'm sorry; I'll leave you two be," the medic said, leaving the tent.

Andrew stared outside the entrance, seeing knights defending the camp from no more than a few yards away from the medic tent. He turned back to look at Feron.

"Don't die, Feron. Don't die. You can make it. Don't die!" Andrew felt a tear slip out of his eye. "I can fix you, I can fix you!"

He grabbed as many health capsules as he could from a shelf nearby. He emptied the drug-filled capsules into Feron's mouth.

"Come on. Come on, Feron. Please."

Andrew looked back through the entrance of the tent.

"Andrew..." he heard Feron say.

He swerved around and rushed over to Feron.

"Yes what is it?!" Andrew couldn't control his sudden happiness.

"I can... barely talk... I don't have much time left..."

And his happiness disappeared.

Feron continued, "I might... I will die tonight. If- when I do... I want you to be... my successor as lieutenant."

"Feron, you won't die. You can't die!" Andrew felt a tear slip down his cheek.

"Alas, Andrew," Feron rasped. "All good things... come to an end someday. But some... bring about better things. You must become... the next lieutenant."

"Feron! No!" Andrew cried.

"Goodbye, friend," Feron smiled.

"NO!" Andrew screamed at the top of his lungs. "NOO!"

After all, Feron had basically been Andrew's step-father after Jeffrey Lern, his original father had died in the war. Andrew had reason to cry. After at least ten minutes, Andrew got a hold of himself.

"I'm sorry you're dead... I will find who killed you. And I will murder them," he growled. Andrew put his fingers on Feron's eyelids and shut them.

"Good luck out there, soldier. Wherever you're going..." he said to Feron's body.

Andrew snatched his sword from the ground. He thought for a second, then threw the almost 'magical' sword at the rocky ground. It broke into many pieces. The blade had made everything too easy. Andrew liked a challenge. He then turned around and grabbed Feron's Leviathan.

"I will avenge your death."

Then he ran outside of the tent to fight the rebels. The first one he saw was a lean one, wielding two Wild Hunting Blades. Andrew rushed towards the foe, grasping the handle of Feron's Leviathan.

As he got closer, he noticed it was a knight he remembered. Peter, his childhood friend. Peter and he had had many good times together. The once friend saw Andrew and dashed towards him, swords high.

Then Peter stopped in his tracks.

"Andrew?"

"Peter?"

"You're with them?"

"You're with them?"

"I'm sorry, Andrew," Peter sighed.

"Sorry for what?" Andrew wondered.

"This."

Peter attacked Andrew, swinging his blades. He cut Andrew's arm and Andrew yelped in pain.

"Guess we're not buddies anymore," Andrew managed.

"Indeed."

"Well then, see ya!" Andrew said.

He swung at Peter with the Leviathan using his good hand and was happy to find it sliced Peter's leg. Peter took a few steps back and called for two of his knights. They ran over quickly and picked him up. Peter looked at Andrew while on their shoulders.

"We shall meet again, worthy adversary."

He then yelled, "Retreat!"

And the battling subsided as the rebels returned the way they had come. It was then that Andrew realized Peter was the leader of the rebels. It was then he realized this Civil War was going to be hard to win.

The Expert and the Idiot

Grimace stuffed his backpack full of necessary necessities. He swung the bag onto his back and stepped onto an elevator to go up to the surface. He stubbed his toe in the process, and a mouthful of curses followed. When the elevator reached the surface, Grimace started marching east. Haven was a long ways off, and he hoped he would find Melicules before he went the whole way.

*^*^*

Grimace whipped out his Argent Peacemaker and his Sentenza. He shot a coming wolver straight in the eye. As he walked by its body, he spit on it. Another wolver charged at the trained gremlin to avenge its kin's death. Grimace threw his Sentenza in the air, then caught it and shot it in the same second. The second wolver stretched its paws out on the ground, dead.

Grimace laughed and put his guns back on his belt.

"Melicules is traveling fast, I've been running nonstop for most of the day," he thought to himself.

Cradle's artificial sun burned down on his loosely covered back as Grimace trudged through the tall grasses of the long green field he had been walking on. He was paying a load of attention to the grasses, making sure no wolvers, or any creature, surprise-attacked him. But as much attention as he was paying, he was not paying enough. An alpha wolver stalked through the high grasses waiting for the right moment to pounce.

Grimace bent down for a minute to pick up his Sentenza, which had fallen out of his belt. Just as he was reattaching it to his belt, the alpha wolver attacked. It began ripping up Grimace's backpack, making the backpack's contents spill out all over the ground. Once done slashing the backpack open, the alpha wolver jumped in the air, waving its claws. It knocked Grimace down, then opened its mouth wide, showing its sharp jagged teeth.

Suddenly, a figure tackled the alpha wolver from behind.

Grimace rolled to the side and picked himself up. He turned to see who had pushed that alpha wolver off of him. Fleur tried to smash his Rocket Hammer into the alpha wolver, but he kept missing.

"That idiot is so clumsy," Grimace thought. He remembered the time Fleur had accidentally made a lumber punch its fist into himself.

Almost instantaneously, Fleur was pinned down by the alpha wolver. He turned to Grimace, who was now looking at him with great annoyance.

"A little help, buddy?" he asked with a worried grin.

Grimace shrugged and walked over to help. He walked behind the alpha wolver and raised his Sentenza. It barely had time to turn around before a blast of bullets came from the shadow gun. The alpha wolver rolled over, with several bullets in its back.

"So, Fleur. What the hell are you doing here?" Grimace growled.

Fleur picked himself up off the ground and wiped dirt from his cloak.

"Hehe, well, I heard you left to go to Haven and I decided to follow," Fleur explained hopefully.

Grimace clenched his shaking fists together so he wouldn't punch Fleur. "You idiot."

"I wonder how I predicted you would say that..." Fleur said, looking behind him to make sure no more wolvers were nearby.

"Shut up, Fleur. You know I will kill you if I need to," Grimace snapped.

"I'm fairly familiar with that fact," Fleur chuckled. "So, why are you going to Haven?"

"I have my reasons. Why'd you follow me?"

Fleur thought for a moment, then said, "I have my reasons."

"Go away," Grimace ordered.

"No," Fleur stated happily.

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

Grimace sighed and applied some sticky gel core to his backpack to stitch it up. He repacked it with his belongings and started walking forward again. Fleur dashed up beside him.

"No."

Grimace dropped his face into his hand. This was gonna be a long walk.

I may not do it in War, but in the final book of the trilogy, I plan to write ahead a couple of chapters so you, my readers, do not have to wait as long for a new chapter to come out.

Heroism

Andrew was sharpening Feron's Leviathan with a stone he had found when he saw someone limping into the camp. The unknown individual looked to be a little shorter than Andrew. His dark black hair was drenched from the rain that had come the night before. His callused hands reached for his poverty strucken stomach.

It had been almost a week since the attack on the Order's Camp. Maybe this was one of the wounded. Andrew grabbed a coil of bandages from a table nearby and ran over to the injured knight.

The beaten knight struggled to look up at Andrew, but wasted all his energy in doing so. He fell to the ground, his hands grasping for support from the air. Andrew dashed towards the wounded soldier and slung him over his back. He then hurried back to the Medic Tent.

"I need some help with this guy!" he called to a young medic standing at a desk, writing things on a piece of paper. The medic turned around and watched as Andrew placed the knight on a bed in the tent. Then the medic stepped forward and pulled up the knight's shirt, revealing a badly bruised chest. He felt the knight's ribs and found that one of them was broken.

"He looks like he's been lying somewhere for a couple of days," the medic said, pointing to a splotch of mud on the knight's face.

"He probably has," Andrew agreed.

The medic shook his head. "Not good... not good..."

"Are you gonna be able to help him?"

"Maybe... But it's gonna take an energy blast," the medic explained.

"Alright," Andrew said.

The medic grabbed two rectangular instruments and placed them on the injured knight's chest. He hooked up some cords to the back of the instruments and rotated a notch on a big box on the desk he had been working on earlier. The instruments started to glow with a faint bluish color. The medic pressed a button on the box and the tent lit up blue.

Zap!

The knight jumped a bit, and he started breathing slowly. The medic pressed the button again and yet again the tent flashed bright blue.

Zap!

The knight's breathing returned to normal and he sat up, but quickly lay back down after he heard a crack in his rib.

"Don't sit up, you'll just hurt yourself," the medic said. "You've got a broken rib."

The knight rubbed his ribcage. "W-where am I?" he asked.

"You're in the Order Camp, soldier." Andrew answered. "What were you doing out there alone?"

"I... I was..." the knight looked almost pained to say it. "I was the leader of the rebels before... before my second-in-command turned his back on me..."

"What?" Andrew asked, surprised.

"He, Peter was his name, betrayed me and beat me..." the knight explained. "I couldn't move for several days; I ached so much. Just... today I felt a bit stronger... strong enough to get to the camp. Clearly, I wasn't..."

"Peter was his name..." Andrew repeated. He thought of the other things the knight had said. "That explains how starved you look."

"Speak-... speaking of which... can I get something to eat?" the knight wondered.

"Sure, one sec."

Andrew left the room and quickly returned, holding a plate with a piece of cooked wolver meat on it.

"Here," he offered the plate to the old leader of the rebels.

He took it gratefully and forked a piece of the meat into his mouth, savoring every second of it.

"Thanks."

The medic turned from his desk. "Andrew, I'm going to put our guest here to sleep so I can work on his rib."

Andrew saluted. "I understand." Just as he was about to leave the room, he turned around and said, "By the way, I never caught your name."

The wounded knight replied, "Jason. I'm Jason."

"I'm Andrew. See ya around, Jason," Andrew grinned with another salute.

*^*^*

"Hey Andrew!" Ozlo called to him as he walked out of the Medic Tent.

"Hi Ozlo," Andrew responded.

"I need to talk to you," Ozlo continued.

Ozlo then lead Andrew to his personal tent. Once they both arrived in the tent, Ozlo turned to meet Andrew. "I hear you saved a stray knight's life."

"Wow. News travels fast... Anyway, I didn't save his life. it was the medic that was in the Medic Tent at the time that did."

"Very modest... the medic wouldn't have even been able to help him if he hadn't gotten to him. You saw the injured knight and you brought him to the medic," Ozlo said. "You're very heroic, did you know that, Andrew?"

"Well... I wouldn't say-"

Ozlo chuckled. "No matter. But there is another thing I wanted to do. Feron's wishes were for you to be the next lieutenant, to take his place. How about we fulfill his wishes?"

Andrew stood still in shock for a moment then replied, "I... I don't know what to say..."

"Then don't say a thing. Just stand there and look pretty," Ozlo said with a laugh as he pinned a special crest to Andrew's Azure Guardian Armor.

Andrew looked Ozlo in the eye. "Thank you."

"You deserve it, Lieutenant Andrew." Ozlo saluted.

Andrew saluted back with a wide smile.

Ok, I changed it.

Mender Down

Fleur skipped happily around Grimace. Grimace rolled his eyes. Fleur had been doing this all day, and it wasn't helping their search for Melicules at all.

"Stop being so childish!" Grimace barked.

"Stop being so mature!" Fleur retorted.

Grimace was almost at his breaking point. "Just shut up, and move."

"Just shut up and move." Fleur imitated.

Grimace whipped out his Sentenza and, in a matter of seconds, had Fleur pinned to the ground with a gun to his head.

"You are going to be quiet and listen. And you are going to like it," Grimace demanded.

"Er yeah dude, for sure. Um- uh- sorry," Fleur said with a whimper.

From there, they walked in silence. The duo encountered several wolvers and other creatures of the like, but dispatched of them without a word. They hiked for days, searching for Melicules. They went up hills, and over wide plains. They were at the top of a particularly tall hill when Grimace noticed a small cart on the road below.

He ordered Fleur to stay put and stealthily sneaked down the side of the hill. Closer, Grimace saw the cart was filled with medical supplies. And the one pulling it was no other than Melicules.

He ripped his Sentenza from his belt and aimed it at one of the rubber wheels of the cart. He pulled the trigger and a purple bullet zoomed towards the target. Grimace smiled when he saw the bullet hit the wheel dead-on. Melicules didn't notice. Grimace aimed his gun yet again and shot the other wheel on the same side of the cart.

The cart tipped over, spilling all its contents on the earthen path. Melicules turned around almost instantaneously to behold his damaged cart. He scowled and threw his Wrench Wand on the ground. Grimace grinned evilly and hurried back up to Fleur.

"Good job down there," Fleur stated.

"Well let's get the job done. Follow my lead."

Grimace holstered his weapon and together, Fleur and he dashed down the hill to Melicules and his broken cart. The gremlin mender was inspecting the cart, trying to find out what happened.

"Hail, Melicules!" Grimace called.

"Ghostmanes? What are you two here for?" Melicules wondered.

"King Tink sent us to be bodyguards for you on your journey," Fleur said, winking at Grimace.

"Ah, I see. I suppose Ghostmanes would serve as good bodyguards, what with their combat skills," Melicules agreed. "Mind giving me a hand with this cart? I don't know what happened... One second the cart was in great shape, the other, two wheels were broken."

Melicules knelt down to look around the wheels. Grimace pulled his gun out slowly, ripped off its silencer, and aimed it at the back of Melicules' head.

"Well that's funny... There's a Sentenza bullet on the ground here... But all the knights are under the surface..." Melicules said. "I don't understand..."

He turned around to behold the barrel of a gun in his face.

Grimace cackled. "So long, ya filthy animal."

The gunshot rang out for all to hear. Melicules leaned backwards on the cart, a bullet hole in his forehead. Crimson red blood streaked down his face, flowing from the wound. Grimace holstered his Sentenza yet again and looked at Melicules' body.

"You shouldn't have taken this job," he laughed.

With that, Grimace continued walking down the road. Fleur stared at the body for a bit, then followed.

"You feel no guilt?" Fleur asked.

"None. Now we have a certain Whispering Venom to slaughter," Grimace replied.