Rashen couldn't breathe,he couldn't struggle,he couldn't do much of anything. He could feel the cold grip of death,it wouldn't be long now before it's finally over,he closed his eyes. Suddenly he felt instant relief on his neck and the sensation of air being forced into his nostrils. He opened his eyes but couldn't see anything,he could hear muffled voices. His senses were only just returning to him when he heard someone call his name,
"Rashen! Rashen are you okay?" It was Macy.
"Is he dead?" Asked Gayle, his voice sounding strained.
"I can't tell. I can't see a thing in here." Macy replied.
Rashen took a sharp breath and sparked a flame from his hand to provide light,
"Rashen?"
"Macy? Gayle? You're....you're here."
"Yeah cuz where else would we wanna be eh Rashikins?!" Gayle said,his voice still strained.
Rashen's head had been on Macy's lap and she had been trying to revive him by forcing air into his lungs. He slowly sat up,his flame still dancing weakly on his palm. Macy gave him a worried look while Gayle had his fists deep in the ground, his face reddening from stress. Rashen rested his head on the walls of wherever they were,he used his other hand to get a feel of the place,he realized that it was an earth shield made by Gayle,but he knew that a basic construct wouldn't make Gayle struggle like he was.
"I don't know...how much I can hold this." Gayle said sweating bullets. It finally dawned on Rashen,
"Madam Rosaline." He said,
"Well it's good that we finally know her name, Gayle and I just referred as 'Crazy Vine Bitch" Macy said in annoyance,not looking at Rashen in worry but now glaring at him and he could tell why,they were in this situation because of him,
"Macy. Gayle....I'm sorry I-"
"CAN WE SAVE THIS FOR LATER!!!" Gayle bellowed,
"Gayle's right. We need to get out of here and stop Crazy vine bitch before she kills us first."
"I don't know if we can stop her." Rashen said frustrated, "She's too strong...I promised Almyrah I would beat her but she's... she's just too strong." He laughed weakly.
Macy looked at him not in annoyance but now in amusement. She placed her hand on his shoulder,
"Rashen I don't think any of us could beat this Rosaline woman on our own...that's why we need to work as a team." She said,
"We were supposed to work as a team." He said quietly, looking down. Macy knew exactly what he was talking about,
"GUYS I CAN'T HOLD THIS CONSTRUCT MUCH LONGER HER VINES ARE GOING TO BREAK THROUGH ANY SECOND NOW!!!"
"Rashen can you still fight?" Macy asked with a tone of urgency in her voice,
"Yeah...I can." Rashen replied
"Then we'll fight her together. We'll beat her together,as a team...as Imperial Soldiers." She said. Rashen looked up to her and gave a weak smile,
"As a team." He repeated.
"GUYS-" But before Gayle could finish the walls of the construct crumbled to the pressure of Madam Rosaline's vines.
A few minutes back while Rashen was in the middle of a dialogue with Madam Rosaline, there was complete chaos in the compound. The Grittshore Watch had indeed infiltrated the compound as well but they were having issues rounding up the workers. Most of them ran away while some tried to fight back against the Watch. The situation was so chaotic and the workers unresponsive, that Garle had to result to knocking some of the more difficult people out. Most people don't tend to notice that Garle was far too big and physically imposing for his age, he had no issues knocking a fully grown man out in one hit.
"Sir!" A member of the Watch called out to him, "We've rounded up all the children in the compound."
"Good. I presume Hanabi aided in rounding them up with other members of the Watch?" Asked Garle,
"She did sir,why do you ask?"
"We need as many hand on deck to round up the workers here. Get the other members,leave the children to Hanabi."
"Leave them to Hanabi? Are you sure sir?"
Garle knocked out another panicking worker who was foolish enough to try to attack him. "I think you'll find that Hanabi is more than capable of taking care of herself. Please do as I say."
The Watcher simply nodded and ran off.
Garle heard a commotion coming from the metal factory close by and wasted no time dashing towards the factory. On his arrival he saw some Watchers trying to apprehend the workers there but it wasn't going too well. The metal tamers sent rods flying dangerously fast towards the Watchers and had them on the run. One of the Watchers,a young woman, tripped and fell over, the metal tamers closed in on her,
"We don't know what's going on here but we're not going to prison." One of them yelled. One of them sent a rod,red hot as it had just been heated flying towards her. Before she or any of them could react Garle, seemingly from out of nowhere caught the rod mid air and grunted in pain. The workers could only stare in awe as he walked towards the Watcher on the floor with the rod still in hand. He knelt down towards her,
"Are you okay?" He asked. She shook her head as tears fell from her eyes,
"I'm sorry Head Watcher...I couldn't help at all...I'm utterly useless."
"Don't say that. It is perfectly okay to run away in the face of danger. That does not make you useless, it makes you human." He said giving her a warm smile.
"Thank you Head Watcher but...but your hand." Garle simply laughed,
"This is nothing." He said as he helped her up with his other arm, "You're a tamer I believe? Forgive me for my fleeting memory."
"Yes sir I'm a rubber tamer. I had this small and thick rubber ball made that I control, it's supposed to hit with enough force to knock a human out but... I'm only at skill rank A so I'm not that good at using it and I lost it in the chaos." She said,her face red with embarrassment.
"Then we'll find it together after this whole ordeal is over." He said to her reassuringly. "Now you should join the other Watchers while I handle these ruffians." She nodded and ran off. Garle heard a scream,one of the metal tamers did not take too kindly to being called a ruffian. He charged towards Garle and the others followed.
The situation out in the compound had calmed down as the Grittshore Watch had apprehended most of the workers. There were no casualties and only a few were injured. Garle, after finally dealing with the metal tamers directed some members of the Watch to bind them. He headed towards Hanabi who stood with the children at the very end of the compound. The children all stared at Hanabi in awe and it wasn't hard to see why.
"Any of them dead?" Garle asked casually,
"No all the children are accounted for." She replied curtly,
"I was referring to the them." Garle said point at the number of men that laid faced down on the ground.
"If they were dead there'd be blood." She replied curtly.
"Fair enough. Any updates so far?"
"It hasn't been too long since Macy and Gayle arrived here so they should be joining Rashen in his efforts to capture this Madam Rosaline." Hanabi replied.
"Will they be alright sir? The cadets?" Lekan asked. Garle gave him a reassuring smile,
"I'm sure they'll be fine." He said
Just then,the building Rashen and the others were in collapsed as large vines burst through from the ground.