As the shelling pressed ahead in the active battlefield of the city, Alice could only be grateful that she wasn't in that mess. The last few weeks had been draining her of her energy like never before, making her of little use to fight with her friends. Away from Ryan and everyone that had been there for her since meeting them, and all she could do was help direct supplies to support them. What a pity did it truly feel like.
"Alice! We need you to hand off this shipment of ammunition for the northern flank." an incoming soldier was holding a piece of paper with their current needs. "Boxes 12, 97, and 83 should do."
"Okay, thanks." she sighed, as the woman slogged towards the large pile hidden within the woods by the highway.
Now, she knew this was due to the potential of ammo getting cooked and exploding due to direct fire from the enemy. That also meant that each section was separated by a couple of yards of each other and that each box would have to be sorted and lifted out before being dropped into a truck. If Alice had her energy, she would have just used her powers to move things around, but her body was not in the right state to do so. So by hand, she went.
"I fucking hate doing this shit." she cursed out to herself, mumbling so no one could hear her, as the wind began to pick up a nice breeze.
Just looking through the first section 0-20, Alice could see that the number 12 box was a large ammunition box. Several soldiers were always patrolling the area or assisting in pulling out equipment from the stockpile, as she already waved down two men.
"Thank you so much guys, put that for the northern truck." Alice yawned out, as the pair nodded without a word.
Moving towards the section numbered 60-100, it wasn't even a few steps that she managed to take until the ground began to shake about as if a miniature earthquake was there.
"What the world was that?" one of the soldiers cocked back his rifle in surprise, "Are we under attack?"
"Wait, oh no, the coast is clear!" an incoming soldier for the city came into the woods. "Hops returned."
"Ryan?" Alice stopped in her tracks, shocked to hear the name, "He's here?"
"Yeah, I'm back baby." a stocky figure came into view, his clothing ripped apart while being caked in dirt and blood, but kept a smile on his face.
"Oh my goodness!" she ran towards him as if nothing else mattered in the world.
"I'm doing fine, Ali-" Hops was quick to spill out, before she pressed her lips onto his and grabbed him tightly.
The soldiers in the vicinity could feel the compassion and love between the two, as it reminded them of home, and what they were fighting for. Fighting so their families could reunite again and let their legacy be the reason why the world changed.
"Are you hurt? You've been out for so long." Alice pulled back, as she noticed the blood on his cheek. "What's going on out there?"
"Nothing that you would want to see," Hops grabbed her hand, as she began attempting to rub the blood off, "But I need your help, it's about Jamal."
"Jamal?"
"He might be in danger, and the others know you're the only one capable of finding him in time. Can you do it?"
Alice took a step back when he spoke of those words, thinking about her current capabilities. Despite not being in combat for some time now, she knew that she didn't have the energy to use her Awakened form, and wasn't sure of how long it would take for her to find him in the state she was in.
"I don't know Ryan, I haven't been fee-, wait a second." Alice started to say, before something clicked. "I might have an idea!"
Hops was about to ask her what she meant, as he watched her unstrap her book that helped her utilize her energy and began flipping the pages. Whatever it was must have been important, because he had never seen such a passion come through her in a time like this.
"Here it is! This will do." she stopped about three-fourths of the way through the book, "Can you please hold onto my hand?"
"Why?" the man raised a brow in confusion.
"If you give me some of your energy, I could find Jamal and help you guys, and probably not be here anymore." she was excited to say until she reached that last part.
"Oh, of course, anything that helps." Hops wasted no time to grab her hand, with Alice starting the incantation.
As the words flowed off her tongue, Hops could feel a soft pulse moving through his arm and hand, with a bit of fatigue coming through as time progressed. I guess this thing was really working, the man had his utmost respect for such a task to work.
"That should be enough," Alice stopped after about twenty seconds, "I almost feel as good as new."
"Yeah, you're welcome." Hops kissed her cheek, as a soft glow came around Alice.
"Now, let's go see where our friend could possibly be."
.....
His bloodshot eyes could still feel the sting of the salt, as Jamal stared down the soldiers in his sight. For the last couple of minutes, they've stayed quiet and nonchalant, although their cautious eyes on him didn't falter. How was he alive, Jamal couldn't even figure out, as Hector moved in his direction holding something small and metallic in his hand.
"Since you won't talk to us Jamal, I've decided to have all the radios within Port-O-Bea and in the nearby area be able to hear you speak. I hope your family hears what you got to say," Jamal slowed down with those words, as Hector continued, "You know, Ula and Laken, we know a good bit about them. So go ahead and give them a greeting with a scream."
Almost instinctively, Jamal started to shake about in the cage, and despite a warning with the metal whip against the bars, he did not stop. Even in his broken state, the man still held that over everything else. It was commendable.
"Wow, who knew you still had that much fight in you." Hector turned to face the lead radio engineer, who gave him a thumbs up for the signal being able to reach that far. "Well, I thought it was going to be impossible, but that sea city will really hear what you gotta say. Your time to shine kid."
...
The spirit of Port-O-Bea had never fallen throughout the years, from hardships and prosperous times, where its people were stronger than ever. Ula knew that to be a fact, as the radio she recently installed was buzzing with great success about how the war was moving.
"And of course, we have to remember, everything we do helps our cause, and a day to the fall of Youden's regime." the main host, Cindy Lovergreen commented, "Our city is always giving their all."
"That's right, and I got to say, we're holding up fairly well. With the Viligantes of Power, the Reserve Guard defenders are beginning to feel the strain and power that they hold," the co-host Rex Walters agreed upon, "Although I got to sa-, hold on, we're picking up a new signal from the city of Appleridge. Perhaps it's an important message for us to reach this far."
"Greetings to all that can hear, and especially the people of Port-O-Bea," a powerful voice took over, although it wasn't clearer than the original hosts themselves, "I'm Hector Nerca, you might know me as the Defense General for Youdenia."
As Ula was washing the dishes, those words made her stop abruptly. Defense General for Youdenia? What was someone of that stature doing on the radio like this or out of all places? Something wasn't adding up, and she knew it.
"Mama, are you alright?" Laken came into the kitchen rubbing his eyes, "I'm about to go play outside."
"Yes sweetie, everything's okay." she held her hand up to quiet him briefly and listened intensely.
"You see, I have a special guest I want to treat those city dwellers with and their army. For those still under the protection of Youdenia and the Reserve Guards, you will have nothing to fear. However, you probably know of the Port-O-Bea incursion, with these scum doing as they please with our land. We must show them that such actions won't be tolerated, so we luckily caught their main ringleader."
Main ringleader, Ula stared into space for a few moments, processing what that meant, before getting a good guess as to who could that be. No, he wasn't under their custody, he couldn't have been under their control.
"Some may know him as the most wanted man, others as a legend or myth, but to most, we know the man as Jamal Wrint. What do you have to say, sir?"
"Oh, my powers." Ula held the edge of the counter tightly, breathing heavily.
"Ma-"
"Laken, please go back to your room now." she didn't even look at her son.
"But-" Laken was about to start speaking again, before a loud crack came through the radio.
"Ah! Ugh!" the pair could hear Jamal's cry through the speaker, his voice distinguishable.
"Laken, I said go now!" Ula barked out in a ravaged tone, small threads of darkness seeping from her hands, "To your room!"
The boy didn't even answer back, as the whipping continued, and Ula was forced to listen. Even though she could have simply muted the radio, hearing the man she was with all these years getting hurt in such a manner was shocking enough for her to do nothing. She was at home with their kids, and hundreds of miles away was Jamal getting beat, and nothing that she could do.
"I'm so sorry. Jamal, I can't help you." the woman's grip began to loosen as tears began falling out of her eyes.
"Such a pity, for this is what the nation has to fear? A man that's so powerful, that only a little beating makes him a mute." Hector was laughing as if this was the greatest joke of all time, "Truly a moment. Your family, Ula and Laken, must be really proud of-"
"Hey." Jamal's voice came out after all the silence.
Ula turned her head towards the radio, as if she was speaking directly to her. Despite all that, he was able to still speak, although his voice was almost hard to hear from the damage he sustained.
"Huh?" Hector ruffled through the radio, probably moving close to hear.
"You won't-, won't be doing an-, any of that. And most importa-, importantly, fuck you, bitch."
His first words were that Ula straightened her head a bit back, shocked by language at first, but then thought otherwise. He was going through literal hell, and some cursing wasn't going to change her thoughts of him. She probably would have been saying the same if it was vice-versa.
"Excuse me?" Hector was a bit stunned, his voice signaling that.
"You're not doing shit to our city." Jamal's voice was a bit more consistent but was still hard for him to speak.
"We shall see. I hope those fingers can talk as much as you do."
.....
Alice's book was still glowing white, as Hops and many others were turned towards a nearby radio by the stockpiles. Apparently, Jamal was captured and things were not sounding good from what they were hearing. He didn't want to rush her, but Hops wanted Alice to hurry up before Jamal actually did died.
"First finger, let's do the thumb." Hector chuckled, as Jamal began to shout incoherently in worry.
That first snap quieted even those who were talking, as the most blood-curling scream many of them have ever heard ruptured the air. Yeah, from the looks of things, by the time they made it to Jamal, he was going to be a broken and unfixable husk of himself.
"Alice," Hops muttered, just as the book's shine faded.
"Found him. He's a couple of miles near the northeastern section of the city. I think I got enough energy to teleport us all to him." Alice took a deep breath, as the second snap alerted her of the situation. "Yeah, we gotta go now."
"Agreed, let's not wait any longer." Hops grabbed her hand, "Go to Leon and Brat first. We'll get the others on our way there."