The first thing they encountered was a Frenzied Common Lynxmouse.
"Next…" Zoe skipped it entirely, walking right past as if it didn't even exist.
"Zoe?!" Rita gasped. "Nine! Attack that Lynxmouse! Throw everything you've got at it!"
Rita, Colin remembered then, had a habit of naming her Comrades numbers. Nine was the Helibook. The thing attacked with slices of paper, of all things.
"Well, good luck, Rita." Satrox said, going after Zoe. The Lynxmouse took a snap at his feet, but he stepped aside and let the Helibook slap it around.
"Uh…" Colin and Henry exchanged glances.
"Wait for me." Henry went after Zoe and Satrox.
Foxtrot whistled and followed them.
"Hey!" Rita protested. "If I had my army…"
{Not good. If I go also, Rita's going to get left behind again.}
"Shiro." Colin whispered.
"Yip." Shiro said softly. He glanced at Kirin.
Kirin blasted the Frenzied Lynxmouse with triple Zaps. The Lynxmouse sat down, stunned and slightly blackened, smoke rising from its tail and ears.
Rita took out a small cube thing, pressed a button on it and left it in front of the defeated Lynxmouse. "Thanks, Colin. Don't touch it."
"Sure." Colin said. "Is that a beacon?"
"Yeah. Someone invented it just for this war. The volunteer crews will come pick up the Lynxmouse." Rita frowned, glancing at her watch. "It's about time I called my Comrades back to me. They'll take awhile to arrive, but they'll come."
"Where were you based?" Colin asked.
"Hot Springs." Rita answered. "I was at Sunshine, but it was destroyed, so I shifted it to Hot Springs. You know, the water there is great. You should come visit sometime. You haven't been there since Hot Sands was flooded, have you?"
Colin shivered. "I almost drowned that time. It's not a pleasant memory."
"Well, come by and change that. Henry's based there too. Quinny says we might set up a good hive there."
"Quinny?" Colin blinked.
"My Coordinator. She taught me about using bugs." Rita explained. "I can't control them like she does, because I don't have Command-type Queens, but once I do, I'll hive them in my plant Comrades and form a mobile base!"
"A mobile base?" Colin blinked. "You can do that?"
"With plant-types, yes." Rita said. "I'll have a walking tree-house! My bugs can build their hives and nests in the leaves. Imagine that! Home Base; five feet away!"
"Are you sure it's possible?" Colin asked.
"Quinny says she doesn't know, but it's worth trying."
Quinny, Colin guessed, was the girl sitting next to Abby in that Coordinators tent, the one with big glasses and long braids of black hair. The one who loved using bugs because they matured so fast.
"Sounds great." Colin said. "We better catch up with the others."
"Yeah." Rita said, dashing after them, but Rita being Rita, she still didn't stop talking. "Hey, Colin, are you planning to bring a wolfpack around? You've got a wolfcat and two wolves with you."
"That seems to be the best way to go." Colin agreed.
"But they're all on your big duckling." Rita said. "Isn't that so they can attack from the air? If that's what you want, shouldn't you go for birds or something?"
"I have to take care of Shiro and Raiki. Everything else is centered around that."
"Doesn't that mean going for cats instead of dogs?" Rita pointed out. "Raiki is a cat, isn't she?"
Colin frowned. "Maybe."
Rita poked him then, with a weird smile. "What about the other kind of Kat?"
"Huh?"
"Katrin. How are you and her doing?" Rita asked, with that mischievous smile.
"She's… well…" Colin thought about her condition. It seemed similar to what Comrades went through after transfer. "She's in recovery."
"Recovery? From what?"
He told her as they went after the others. Foxtrot was tangling with a Frenzied Arachnid on the right, Henry had surrounded a Frenzied Mandra on the left. The pair of them were almost back to back with all their Comrades in action.
Zoe and Satrox ignored those Frenzieds entirely.
{What are they doing…?} Colin shook his head. "Shiro."
"Yip." Shiro dashed off Kirin, Sonia and Junrei at his heels. "Yiyip!"
Kirin and Raiki headed left, Shiro and the wolves headed right. Rita scratched her head, not sure which one to help.
"You might want to let your Comrade rest." Colin suggested. "Let it recover its strength."
"Good idea." Rita said, observing Shiro and the wolves tear the Arachnid down from three sides. Foxtrot's squads of foxes pounced all over it and in moments more, he was leaving a beacon at the fallen Frenzied.
Henry took a while longer, even with Kirin and Raiki's help. Plants had more HP, it seemed, and Henry fought it defensively. Keeping his Lynxmice out of range from the Mandra's reach, his long-range attackers kept pounding the Mandra until at last, it lay still.
The four of them left a beacon by the Mandra and headed on after Zoe and Satrox. {Well. This isn't so bad. Colin surmised. I wonder what all that difficulty was.}
Henry noted it too. "How come this seems so easy?"
Rita shrugged. "I dunno. I was losing whole squads every time I fought a Frenzied before. Remember last night? The two of us lost half our forces taking down a single Mandra."
"Well this one must have been weaker, then." Henry decided. "Lots weaker."
Zoe and Satrox, it seemed, had paused and were looking back at them, waiting for them to catch up.
"What took you so long?" Satrox asked. "Weren't you supposed to come with us?"
"We stopped to help." Rita explained.
Satrox and Zoe exchanged glances.
"You tell him." Zoe said.
"Never mind." Satrox shook his head. "Is that a Frenzied Mantis?"
"Ooh… I wanna bond it!" Rita jumped. "But I can't, can I? It's already Frenzied."
"I'll take it down." Henry stepped forward.
"I'll help." Foxtrot added.
"Me too!" Rita followed them.
Colin opened his mouth, only to have Satrox clap his hand over it. "Mmmpfh?"
"Watch." Satrox said softly.
Colin frowned, but held back, observing.
Henry's Lynxmice attacked first. Green, yellow and red, they dashed in, struck at close range, then darted away as a second squad of Lynxmice followed up with long-range attacks.
Rita's helibook started attacking with paper, causing dozens of paper cuts.
Foxtrot's squad of direct-attack foxes charged in, led by his new Kitsune. Behind them, three green foxes combined their powers for a single Sonic Barrage.
Meanwhile, Henry's hit-and-run squad wheeled about and charged in for a second attack run.
Foxtrot's foxes surrounded the Mantis, and were biting from every side, jumping in and out to avoid getting hit.
Rita's helibook went on attacking wildly. One of Foxtrot's Sonic Barrage shots hit paper and exploded instead of hitting the Mantis.
Henry's hit-and-run squad dashed in, almost trampling one of Foxtrot's green foxes. They made their attacks and dashed away…
Only to crash headlong into Foxtrot's Kitsune while Henry's long-range attackers blasted Foxtrot's yellow fox in the tail. The Mantis, meanwhile, ripped Henry's fastest Lynxmouse back to base.
"Uhoh. They're getting tangled up." Colin winced.
Foxtrot's foxes kept lunging in and out from the left, but Henry's Lynxmice dashed away from the right, giving the Mantis room to escape Foxtrot's circle. The thing charged towards Henry's long-range attackers, and Foxtrot's Sonic Barrage crew tried to stop it, but Rita's Helibook somehow got in the way and got blasted instead.
"HEY!" Rita and Foxtrot yelled at the same time.
"Not good…" Colin turned to Satrox. "Shouldn't we help?"
"And get our Comrades tangled up with theirs also? Isn't it obvious, Colin? Helping them is going to make things worse. They haven't really figured out how to work together in the first place. Right now, we don't have time to practice coordination. They'll just have to deal with Frenzieds one on one. That's why we're leaving them the easier ones." Satrox nodded to his far left.
Colin turned that way and froze.
Scattered around the scene were five fallen Frenzieds, all already with beacons lit next to them. {Satrox didn't even stop. He just sent in his Comrades to take them down and went on walking.}
"They can't handle the serious Frenzieds yet. Letting them deal with the smaller ones is the best we can offer them right now." Satrox went on. "But as for you… you've got a good set of Comrades to help with serious stuff."
"What do you mean?" Colin blinked.
"It means your job is air support." Zoe told him.
{Air support…} Colin glanced at his four cubs all sitting on Kirin's back. {She can fly. They've all got long-range attacks, even Junrei.}
"I see." Colin said. "But there's not much left for me to do. Shiro will see to everything."
"That's the best part of all." Satrox agreed. "What you need to do is keep an eye out for surprise attacks. That's the worst thing that could happen to us."
"But I thought you brought Henry and Rita and Foxtrot so they'll help out in the fights!" Colin protested.
"The really big ones, maybe. Otherwise, they'll be more helpful keeping the smaller ones off our backs." Satrox sighed. "Rita! Get back to base and meet up with your Comrades!"
"Can't I just stay around here and watch?" Rita asked. "My swarms are already on the way!"
Satrox glanced at Colin, of all things.
"I'm already doing pretty much the same thing." Colin pointed out. "She can keep an eye out too."
"Fine."
Henry was calling more and more Lynxmice into battle. Foxtrot was pulling his foxes back and turned his attention to a Frenzied Rainduck coming in from the right.
In moments, they were again fighting back to back.
{I guess that's the best way, after all…}
Up ahead, something roared. A very loud, very angry roar.
"Now that sounds like something we should deal with." Satrox said.
Zoe was already running on ahead.