Colin had just finished a Tame-a-crab job for the island's Comrade Home and wondering how long those two girls on the beach would stand there looking at him and whispering when he spotted Satrox appear in the event square.
{He's back! Uhoh… does that mean he died…?}
Satrox, like Colin, had set this island as his starting location. Appearing like that, with upset Comrades and looking all sickly… there was only one explanation for it.
{Wait… ALL his Comrades look sick? They all died?! And since when did he have more than one?!}
"Satrox!" Colin ran to them. "Are you all right?"
Satrox grimaced. "I just died. What do you think?"
"Oh. Yeah." Colin sat down beside him. "How's it going?"
"The war? Not too good." Satrox replied. "Geoffrey's dead. Sandy was blown up. I've no idea who's commanding the forces at Granath Town. It's probably worse at Riverside unless Zoe got the Forest Princess to help, and I won't even begin to guess what's going on at Sunshine Town."
Colin didn't know who those people were, but the point was made. They were having a hard time.
"All this, for one boy and one girl." Satrox had to ask. "Why are they after you, anyway?"
"Well…" Colin trailed off. "I don't know. It could be…"
Satrox waited expectantly.
"They said they were after the eight who started that night." Colin said slowly. "But… they might just be after me."
"And what," Satrox asked, "Did you do?"
"I don't know." Colin said again. "And this matter, I really can't remember. It's not like the issue with Katrin at all. This was a few hours of my life just gone from my memory."
Satrox stared. "You better start from the beginning, Colin. Tell me what this has to do with you and Katrin."
"Katrin? Nothing. That was something else I did and forgot. She had to remind me." Colin took a deep breath. "But as for the Green Men… there was once a time when I disappeared from the Dreamworld called Garden World. Just… vanished, for a few hours. And I can't remember what happened."
Satrox stared. "That sounds like Henry. And Rita."
"That sounds exactly like them." Colin agreed, miserably. "So maybe whatever they did to me the first time, they want me back for more… or something."
Satrox frowned. "That doesn't make sense. If they already got you once, why would they want to nab you again? Who knows, Colin, the moment they recognize you, they might just let you go without bothering with you any more."
"Or they might do something even worse than before." Colin said slowly.
"True." Satrox subsided. "We don't know who they want or why, and that's the worst part of it. All we know is that they're willing to siege towns and burn farms, even so far as to wage war on us, just to capture the pair of you."
"Are they making demands?" Colin asked.
"Not that I've heard of, but it's possible that they did." Satrox said. He groaned, holding his stomach. "I hate dying."
"Sorry." Colin said.
"Not your fault. I got careless." Satrox sat back. "They were after eight of you, and captured five. All five were released with gifts in apology… as well as their memories of their capture wiped. The last three are you, Katrin, and one more. You think it's you because you've had a memory wipe before and they're the only ones we know of who can and would do that. I think it's not you because of the same reason."
"You think it's Katrin?" Colin frowned. "What did she do?"
"Either her or… who's the eighth?" Satrox asked.
"Phillip. I don't even know if he Dreams on Nakama World any more. I haven't seen him since the night we started."
"That's a rather common name." Satrox put a hand to his head. "It's as popular as 'Henry', and you know how that is."
"Yeah. There were four guys named Henry in Hot Sands village alone." Colin remembered. "There could be just as many Phillips."
"All the same, I'll try to track him." Satrox grimaced. "Just as soon as we're done with the war."
"What's going on?" Colin asked.
"Nothing much. We're hitting the Green Men from every side, but as you can see, we're not doing too well." Satrox frowned. "How did they get this much firepower here? Why are they allowed to do that? Were they even allowed? I can't imagine the Empire or Dreamworlds Admin letting them do something like this. Aren't these Green Men afraid of the consequences?"
"They're nuts." Colin summarized.
"Or desperate." Satrox closed his eyes. "Whatever it is they want, they're willing to risk the wrath of the Empire."
"You sound like they're not part of the Empire." Colin frowned.
"They're… well…" Satrox paused.
Colin's head snapped up. "You know who they are!"
Satrox grunted. "Yeah."
"Well?!" Colin demanded. "Who are they?"
Satrox scratched his head. "They're… a mix between a religion and an ecology organization. I heard rumors of them being fanatical, but never expected anything like this."
"What's 'ecology'?"
"Um… the state of the environment. Basically they like to take care of nature."
"Fanatics… ecology… religion…" Colin stared. "You're kidding. The Cult of Gaia?!"
Satrox nodded slowly. "It took a bit of checking, but I'm sure of it. It's them."
"Why would they…" Colin trailed off.
"That's {my} question." Satrox reminded him. "There's no record of them doing anything like this before. Something's up, and it's serious."
"But why us?!" Colin protested. "What does any of it have to do with kidnapping kids?!"
Satrox gave him a flat stare.
{Oh. Right. That's exactly what he was asking ME.}
"I should get back to the battle." Satrox groaned. "And you should keep as far away from those guys as possible.
"For now, just stay put."
***
Katrin was letting her Comrades play on the deck of the ship when another ruckus ensued. {Pirates again? What do they want, another chicken sandwich?!} Her eyes narrowed. {This time, I'm getting mad.}
But it wasn't pirates. The moment the first gunshot sounded, Katrin knew who it was. {The Green Men?! How did they…!}
Of course. They had flying saucers. They knew her name. They could simply check the port registry and find out which ship she was on, and then fly over to nab her.
"T-t-there!" the ship's captain was pointing directly at her. "J-just leave us alone!"
{Thanks a lot…} Katrin wasn't really surprised, though. She hadn't lifted a finger to help them when the pirates attacked. They were probably mad at her for that.
Her Comrades growled. They gathered around her. The Green Men, four of them in armor and with guns, took aim.
"What do you want with me?" Katrin asked them, trying to keep her voice steady.
"You're coming with us." One of them answered. With those helmets on, Katrin couldn't tell which.
"And if I refuse?" Katrin asked.
They started firing. Katrin's Comrades charged and vanished as the red shots took them down shortly.
{Capture… or…}
The gleam of the waves came back to mind.
Katrin didn't hesitate. She jumped overboard and entered the waters of the deep ocean with a splash.
Her Comrades jumped in after her, surrounding her with bubbles and fur. The Green Men went on shooting.
{I have to go down… deeper…} Katrin struggled.
White light.
{Too late. I just died.}
Next thing she knew, she was sitting at Port Frichi with a terrible headache, her stomach on the verge of throwing up, and all her Comrades looking seriously upset.
"She's HERE!" voices shouted.
Katrin looked up dizzily in time to see three Green Men pounce on her.
Velvet bit one on the leg. Katrin's other Comrades all fought, and they were in really bad moods.
The Green Men fired back, not just with red bolts, but with sprays that froze her Comrades in ice. Katrin was aware of fighting going on all over the Port itself, and it seemed the Green Men were winning.
{Run… I have to… run…}
She got up and tried, but this soon after dying, her legs didn't work right. She fell almost on her face, barely able to catch herself and roll over. {Ugh… I feel…}
Her Comrades were vanishing and reappearing at the port only to get killed and reappear again. This Port had been set as their starting location, but there was no safety here. {What happens to Comrades if they die over and over again…?!}
She soon found out when her Rainducks suddenly went on a rampage. Katrin's eyes widened, even as she tried to get her legs to move. {Since when were they this fierce, this strong?! They seemed to have recovered completely!}
Her moles also seemed to be bigger than before. Their eyes glowed red as they charged headlong, tearing through duracrete to attack the Green Men. Katrin's two Arachnids, Weaver and Spinner, both started spraying webbing wildly, at a shocking pace.
{I had no idea they could fight like that!} Katrin was in awe. {But…}
One of the moles leapt onto a nearby fishing boat and tore it up. The boat started sinking, and it lunged to another boat. One of the Rainducks attacked a pile of cargo crates. Two more blasted indiscriminately at a tangle of wrestling Green Men and dock workers.
{What are they doing?! They're attacking friends as well as enemies…it's like they've gone berserk!}
"Attack… the Green Men!" Katrin gave a general order.
Some of her Comrades replied, the really sick ones, anyway. The powerfully mad ones continued their rampage.
{Why…? Why aren't they listening to me?} Katrin's stomach heaved. She threw up over the side of the Port.
Then she saw her badge. {What…? I'm back to Green?! But I made it to Blue last night! Why…? How…?!}
More and more of her Comrades were going mad as they kept dying. Katrin's sheep were charging in three different directions. One of them charged right over the docks and into the sea itself. Mandra and Cactopus, her two plant-type Comrades, were fighting each other, and killing Spray, her watergull, who was caught in between them. The next time Spray appeared on the docks, she had red eyes too, and showered scalding hot water all over the area.
{Ow! That's hot!} Katrin clenched her teeth and tried to crawl further when another shot from a Green Man hit her.
White light.
{UGH!} If she thought she'd been sickly before, this was terrible. Her head felt like it was splitting open and she was throwing up even before the white light fully faded.
Her Flying Squirrels had gone mad by now, as well as the yellow beaver. The two-tailed blue squirrel with yellow circles around the eyes was suddenly turning an ugly green. It ran around screaming and thorny vines were shooting out of the duracrete everywhere it passed.
Velvet, Streak, Sunset the pink flying squirrel, and Nutcracker, the brown squirrel she'd saved from Monkey-boy and Donkey-boy, were the last of her Comrades not gone crazy. They were shaking uncontrollably, and Streak was writhing on the floor, but they had not suddenly become more powerful and out of control.
Katrin threw up again, and suddenly noticed that her badge had changed colors once more.
{Now I'm back to Yellow…}
This was a nightmare.
Katrin dragged herself over to a pile of crates, taking what shelter she could behind them, throwing up non-stop for her efforts. She wished she could have brought at least one of her Comrades with her, but she was simply too weak.
{One of my remaining Comrades, anyway. I think I know what just happened.}
{When they keep dying like that, Comrades turn Frenzied. Except for those four, all the others have Abandoned me.}
{THAT's why I'm back to a Yellow Badge.}
Katrin groaned, as much from her dizziness and pain as from the realization. {There goes the farm…}
But the Farm, come to think of it, was already gone.
Brilliant yellow light erupted on the other side of the crates. A shockwave ripped through the crates and threw Katrin two feet farther down the Port.
Her ears rang. All she could see were red after-images. She threw up again, not knowing where she was or what was happening any more.
{This is a total nightmare. I wanna Wake Up.}
She tried. Nothing happened. {I'm still too sleepy in the real world. My body is used to waking up at certain hours, always after dawn. What time is it now… 3 a.m.? Four?}
Katrin couldn't see her hand in front of her face, much less check her watch.
The sounds of battle still surrounded her around Port Frichi, but Katrin was done trying to escape or save herself. She just curled up where she was, hoping she still had some cover somehow, and wished the night would end.
A terrible roar suddenly sounded, a scream that sounded slightly human but was way too loud. Then lots of other screams and yells, definitely human, filled the air just before terribly loud sounds of explosions and things getting smashed up drowned it out.
Katrin couldn't see what happened, but she could guess. {I think a particularly strong and big Comrade just went Frenzied. It's destroying everything.}
{Well… at least I don't feel anyone grabbing me. I think those Green Men already died or something.}
{Why, oh why did I make this stupid Port my starting location?!}
But she'd had other things on her mind at the time.
{I was an idiot… too bothered with Colin to think straight.}
{Abby offered to get me and bring me somewhere safe. Why didn't I take that offer? I was so stupid, so sure that I was safe. 'Don't worry', I said! I'm such an idiot. It's my own arrogance that got me into this.}
Then she felt it. Someone was there.
"H… help…" Katrin struggled.
{Wait! What if it's the Green Men?!!}
But no. Something felt… different. Safe. Whoever was there, it was a friend.
"You're in bad shape." The voice was that of a young boy. At first, Katrin thought it was Colin, but it sounded different. He sounded more serious, more angry and didn't have that uncertainty or blurness that Colin normally had. "If I move you now, you'll get worse. I'll stand guard until you recover."
"But…"
"The Green Men are gone." He told her. "And that monster there is moving away from us. You'll be fine. If I see a single Green Man anywhere near right now…"
His voice was tight, but Katrin heard the threat in his tone clearly. "T-thanks…"
"Stay still." A soft cloth wiped her mouth and her face. Two furry shapes were pressed into her arms. "Are these two yours?"
{Two…!} Katrin almost cried. {I lost almost all of them.}
She felt hands moving over her last two Comrades. Someone was petting them, soothing them, doing for them what she could not do herself.
She tried to move. A gloved hand held her back. "Lie still. You'll be all right."
She laid still for what seemed like days until the dizziness faded, and the red after-image, but she kept her eyes closed.
{I don't want to open my eyes. I don't want to see what I look like, throwing up all over like that… I don't want to see what Comrades I'm left with and find out who left me… I don't want to see how badly this town was destroyed because they came looking for me…}
"It's been half an hour. I think we can move you someplace safer."
She didn't reply, and was dragged somewhere. She heard a door open and felt the cool shade of a roof overhead. She was propped up against what felt like a couch, and had cushions slipped under her head.
"Rest here. You'll be all right." He said again.
Katrin opened her eyes then, just to take a look at the boy who helped her out, but all she saw was the brightness of the sunlight outside and a dim outline before the door shut behind him.
"Wait!" Katrin called. "What's your name?!"
But there was no answer.
He was gone.