Gracie was in shock.
Since coming to Nakama World, she had learned a lot. She had learned about Comrade classes, and how hard it was to get something strong to accept you, to bond with you. She had trained her Comrades' techniques for an hour and learned how slowly they increased in power, how tired it made her Comrades to train, had an idea of how many nights it would take for techniques to evolve, to become truly powerful.
And the kind of power being unleashed before her right now made her want to scream for so many reasons, she didn't know where to start. It was like fire and lightning and all the thunder of the world had come to life and were arguing at the dinner table, surging back and forth and around and around. It was like the ground was shaking (and indeed it was) while a hidden lake's worth of acid rained upwards against the falling ice of a blizzard formed in an instant of thought.
{What's happening? Who's doing what? Why is this... why is any of it...?}
{I don't even know what's going on!}
She also learned how hard it was to get a Comrade to understand exactly what it was you wanted of it, how to make command codes so that your Comrade would know what you wanted with just a single word.
But this... this was...
{They're not saying anything! Colin and Philip... they're just standing there! They're not saying anything AT ALL!!}
Once sentence. That's all each of them said. One sentence, and it was the same sentence to boot. She didn't hear what they said, but it was all they said, and hundreds and hundreds of creatures flooded the cavern. Hundreds upon hundreds of creatures Gracie had never seen, all of them towering in power, and all of them, all acted immediately without anyone telling them what to do.
On top of that, they started warping in their friends. {I didn't know they could do that! Comrades warping in more Comrades...?! How...?!}
Gracie wasn't the only one screaming. Men were screaming. Men in armor, with big guns were screaming. Guys who commanded dragons were screaming. Comrades of all kinds were screaming. The entire cavern was screaming. The very air was screaming.
But Colin and Philip were silent. They did not move. They did not speak. They just stood there, saying nothing, watching as doom itself fell upon the world.
Karodius was screaming. The Executor of Nakama World was screaming, eyes wide, face contorted in total panic. White flashed, and then he was gone, and all that stood where he had stood was a big white wolfcat looking very, very self-satisfied.
A heavy thud happened to the left. The big man in green armor had dropped his big gun and was clawing at his helmet. Lightning blasted down from above, and then he was gone. There in his place stood a large blue cat that crackled with electric power.
They came toward her, both the white wolfcat and the blue big cat. Through storm and fire and the chaos of the end of the world, they strode casually, taking their time, stepping forward in measured, unhurried paces.
Gracie darted a glance at Colin. Her brother was looking straight at her.
{These are his Comrades.} She knew it for sure. How she knew, she couldn't say, but she felt it deep in her bones. {These two are my brother's Comrades.}
Other white wolfcats swarmed around them, wiping out anything in their way. Blue electric cats were covering their rear. But those two, those two, Gracie knew, were Colin's.
They came right in front of her. Without slowing, or looking away, they came close enough to touch. She could smell snow and electric smoke. She could feel the pressure of their presence as they reached her cage. A whisker of the cat brushed her.
And they passed by.
{What...?}
Gracie stared. The white wolfcat and the blue stormcat passed right by. Close enough to touch, close enough to smell, Colin's Comrades came her way and passed her by.
And with a roar, the white wolfcat tore Alicia's cage apart to set her free.
{Alicia.} Gracie stared, numbly. {They came for Alicia.}
{And they completely ignored me.}
"Hey." Alicia stroked them, first the wolfcat, then the stormcat, and they nuzzled her affectionately. "Let's get out of here."
She went back to Colin with them on either side of her, escorting her and protecting her from storm and ice and fire, them and all their white wolfcat and blue stormcat friends. Colin himself didn't wait for her; with a black fox on one side and a gigantic owl on the other, he dashed forward to grab her by the hand and they ran onward together.
{Together. Mom is totally going to hear about this.}
Gracie thought that, and she tried to smirk, but for some reason, the smirk failed. Her legs gave way. She sank to the ground in that cage and cried and cried and cried as the world came crashing down all around her.