Reaching Salvation: Post-Acer

"I think I can find the psychic. I mean I'm usually pretty good at sensing Flows, and my own brand of 'vision' might help out if I can maintain focus with everyone milling around on the battlefield... Kind of a big if," Tom muttered, scratching his head and thinking back to his previous fight where Tabaris had destroyed the ground itself.

"As for when we beat him... I guess you're right. I think I'll leave that to you, if that's possible. I'm not very good at taking people's lives," the blind man admitted sheepishly, embarrassment and a bit of guilt evident in his voice.

-----

"I'll never abandon you, Kira, no matter how tough this battle gets, we'll stick together, alright?" Luke promised solemnly, his facial expression a bit grim now that he knew nobody could see. He couldn't help but wonder if Nathan would help them out, though he immediately reprimanded himself for that attitude.

Sara yawned as she woke up, wincing from the pain in her arm, as she looked around her. Where was she again? She thought back, recalling the encounter with the Vine Demon, whose evil laugh haunted her dreams, who had trapped her in a prison made from her hellspawn plants, whose laughs also haunted her dreams, when a young man had shown up, and freed her, before bringing her here.

OOC: As you know, Sara's mind has a tendency to exaggerate certain details.

Heidi smiled softly at Tom, trying to comfort him more out of habit, since she knew he couldn't see it. She gently patted his arm, before leaning back and stretching a bit. "Yeah, I wouldn't expect y' t' do that anyway. S'cool, I got your back." She started stretching her legs, more out of needing to move around from nervousness than wanting to be prepared. "But if you c'n find the psychic, that'd be great. Y'know how bad I am at all the mindwhack Flow shit."

---

Kira nodded, biting her lip and hugging Luke a little tighter before letting go. "Yeah...I-I'll keep you safe..." she promised quietly, pulling at her jacket again. She really wanted to believe that they would be able to stick together, but what if they did get separated? They had before, when the Shima's group had come back, and Luke had been put into a coma. She could barely keep herself together before, when she had things to distract her, but what would it be like to just wait?

Sara frowned, before leaving the shelter, deciding to make her escape. She didn't fully trust the young man from before, and she trusted everyone else around even less.

"I got plenty experience with psychics. Hey, I don't think they'll be much worse than Shima was. He seemed to be pretty fucking pro with his Flow," Tom reassured himself, stretching his fingers and cracking his knuckles. He smiled when she patted his arm, giving her a thumbs up. "I appreciate the help though. Glad to have you with me."

------

"Thanks. We'll keep each other safe," Luke muttered, taking another look at the oncoming forces. He grimaced, bracing himself and heating up slightly with his Flow, as if to remind himself that it was still there. He wasn't too sure of their chances in the battle, and he guiltily considered trying to flee with Kira if everything went wrong and their situation was hopeless.

"Same on my end," Heidi grinned. It was funny, she felt more of a sense of teammates when it came to Tom and Eithne, than she did with her own team. She felt more of a will to protect Erika and Adeline than trust them to protect her. She knew Tom would have her back, and there wasn't a chance in hell that she would just leave him behind. "Shima was a fuckin' ass. Glad he's gone," she stated, shuddering a bit.

---

Kira rocked back on her heels, looking up at the sky. Maybe if she just didn't think about Lillian's army, they wouldn't be there. Fighting was just awful. Weren't these people part of tournaments, like they had been? Didn't they remember what it was like? Was it so wrong that they had rebelled and didn't want to fight? People who forced pain on others were awful. Of course, she supposed everyone had forced pain on someone at some point.

"...love you," Kira mumbled a bit nervously, biting her lip. Just in case something happened to her, or something happened to Luke, she didn't want to feel like all the happy feelings had to be abandoned just because bad things were happening.

"God damn, I fuckin' hated that guy. Though I did use to think that the other adults were better, and now I'm not so sure. Seems like everyone out there is a fuckin' asshole these days," Tom mused wryly, scratching the short beard that had grown since the last time he'd braved a shave. He didn't exactly trust himself with a blade around his face, so he tended only to cut his hair when it got very long.

-------

"I love you too," Luke replied simply, smiling warmly at Kira. It warmed him up a bit, hearing something like that when things were looking like they were going to go south. He hoped that everyone else had something like that to lift their spirits, so they wouldn't drown in gloom. They were all unlucky to be here, and none of them really deserved the lot that they had gotten.

Heidi chuckled a bit at Tom's musing, leaning back on her heels. "Took y' helluva long time t' 'figger that out, y' dumbass," she laughed, shaking her head. In this world, there weren't a lot of people you could trust, but for some reason Tom kept looking for the good in people. Not like Heidi thought that was a bad thing, but it was hard to find good when it wasn't there.

She paused in thought, staring thoughtfully at Tom's rather messy hairdo. "Y'know, if you just make a scary face or somethin', I bet half 'a Lillian's gang would go runnin'," she laughed. "When we get outta' this, remind me t' fix you up or something."

---

Kira's face lit up a little at Luke's reply. She giggled a bit embarrassedly, looking over at Luke, before quickly looking back up at the sky. Even if it was just for a little while, she didn't feel so terrified now, since there were happy things to think about.

"Oh no, you'll ruin my do," Tom chuckled, leaning back against a conveniently rock wall that he had just made. It was a nice distraction, talking to Heidi, before the battle, especially considering what had happened to Eithne earlier. Heidi was his best friend, and also the number one person he'd trust to have his back, beating Nathan, one of his few other friends. He'd never really fought with anyone else, considering how peaceable he had been in the tournament.

-------

"And that ain't ever gonna change," Luke smiled, turning back to face forward with a smile on his face. He needed the reassurance before the battle, considering how dodgy all of the business with Nathan had been earlier. Plus, he always seemed to be at his best when he had an emotional investment in a fight, like his power was fueled by his emotional state or something. He didn't know specifics, he just knew he'd have to put aside any fears about burning people if he was to survive the battle.

Heidi rolled her eyes, reaching up and just barely reaching the top of Tom's head to mess up his hair. "Too late!" she announced, laughing a little, leaning back on the wall as well and playing with her spear absentmindedly, watching as it changed shape. It was nice, hanging out with Tom. It felt like they hadn't done this in a while. Of course, they had picked a shit time to pretend to be regular people for once.

---

Kira blushed a little more, pulling at her ponytail and glancing back over at Luke. He was so nice, even though he should have been worried about what was to come. She exhaled a little, biting her lip, before leaning over and quickly kissing Luke. It was probably more comforting for her than Luke knew that there would always be someone there for her. That was probably her greatest fear, losing everyone she cared about because she made some stupid mistake.

"Noooooo," Tom cried without too much conviction, hands going protectively to his hair, which now resembled more of a rat's nest than anything. After a second, he decided on his return. "...Must have been a stretch, that."

-----

"What a lovely way to spend this time," Luke smiled after the kiss, feeling a lot more relaxed and calm than he had been just an hour or so ago.

"It's not my fault you're a fuckin' giant," Heidi shot back, folding her arms across her chest. She leaned back against the wall again, pouting rather childishly. Short jokes were quite the blow to her ego.

---

Kira smiled, blushing a bit as she stepped away again, looking away from Luke. "Yeah..." she agreed quietly. "I've been...thinking a bit. Maybe after this is over, we c-could go and travel a bit...? I've never really traveled a lot, but I think...I think it'd be fun..." she suggested, playing with her jacket anxiously.

Nathan looked around and clenched his fist. With a frown he stood up from his seating position and flicked his finger out, the ice transformed into a platform that took him up a few feet so he could see everyone. He did it slowly and noiselessly. With a grimace at what he saw he raised his hand and flexed it. In response to this seamless gesture an icicle formed in the air directly in front of everyone gathered's throat. Once he was sure he had their attention he caused the ice to melt and fall to the ground.

"Not one of you seems to be on edge. We're twenty five minutes away from a battle that could result in all of our deaths and not one of you is on edge." He called, his cold demeanor filtering through his words. His hood was pulled up and none of them could see his eyes "They've already killed Eithne. Surely that's a sign to all of you that not only are we out-numbered, we're outgunned and outclassed!"

He switched powers so that he was using both Empathy and Telepathy. He first played on the anger that they would feel towards the loss of a comrade. Getting them riled up would work wonders and then let him feed confidence into them. "But it doesn't matter, Lillian was part of a group of adults who went through many Acer Tournaments to find a worthy group. Two of which took places before our own. Shortly before our tournament began, the adults and Shima had a falling out and he started to form his own way of training people." He smirked at this. "This generation was special. We're better than the rest of them. The adults had certain conditions surrounding the tower, fast-forwarding our development and bringing out our potential. All because they were looking for their own replacements."

Nathan stopped to let his words seek in and also to let his empathy flow continue to cover the entire group. "These people who they sent to hunt us we're meant to take orders from us. Even now our potentials can and will still skyrocket, in our village we have the only Blood Manipulator in the world today, we have the strongest Earth Manipulator that there ever will be, we have a guy who can negate any and all flow, the only guy to survive the rebound effect and the one guy with the most control over Energy Manipulation. We are the elite, which is why they are sending such a force against us today!"

With all of his concentration he pushed at the feeling of confidence that he was conveying to the group. There was a reason he had so much information, and that was because of his Silver tongue. Through Telepathy and now Empathy he could affect people's thoughts and emotions. "But it is for that very reason that we will overcome this. There are many other small villages out there like ours, and once we get through this - and I have faith that we will - people will rally to our cause, we can overcome Lillian's forces and finally achieve what we were hoping towards when we first joined the tournament."

"All of us can reach salvation!"

While hardly any of Paul's people reacted to the ice daggers, the Empathy and Telepathy, despite their limited mental training they had, still effected most of the group except Paul himself and the people in the walker. The people that were effected were calmed down by Paul, who muttered an exasperated curse. Leave it to Nathan to rile up a group of people with guns. He wished that they had had the sense to bring alone Flow vests, an ingenious invention created a month before Paul had left the group designed to protect the body and mind against specific attacks against Flow to a limited extent, but they had not.

Paul himself scoffed at the speech, shaking his head. No need t be on edge, cause nervousness only makes you sloppy. You need precise calmness and skill to execute orders correctly and quickly. He thought to himself. And if that really is Lilian's reason for attacking us, then she must be super bored considering none of use have been a consistent threat. Then Paul thought back to how Nathan had went around destroying towers similar to the one he and many of the people there had competed in five years ago.

"You clever son of a bitch," he chuckled to himself. He could only wonder how man towers Nathan had destroyed so far.

Heidi snarled when the ice dagger appeared at her throat, her spear forming in her hand. Even as it melted away, her frustration with Nathan hadn't entirely disappeared. He didn't make it much better by bringing up Eithne's death, that made her more sad than angry. She exhaled quietly, trying to relax again and calm herself down. What did Nathan mean, she was the only blood manipulator? She was the only one who had to deal with the bloodthirsty psychopath at the back of her head? Fucking peachy. Nathan's big speech didn't do much to motivate her, and actually turned a bit of her anger on him, but she didn't speak up. No need for Nathan to have some huge hissy fit because she was so negative. They needed Nathan on their side right now.

Kira's eyes widened at the ice dagger, and she quickly backed away from it, pulling Luke back as well. Listening to Nathan's speech, she bit her lip, pulling on her jacket again. She wasn't quite sure how they were the elite. After all, they could barely work as a team, let alone do it well. She'd lived by the village long enough to notice all the tension. Even the fact that Kira lived by the village and not in it was example of that. She swallowed nervously, looking down at the ground. Now wasn't a good time to feel negative or scared. She had to keep Luke and Nathan safe. She hadn't done a very good job of that back in the tournament, so Kira felt that now would be a better time than never to repay her debts to the two.

"Such a child," Tom muttered scornfully, unperturbed as the ice daggers appeared and promptly melted. Nathan always had had a taste for the extravagant, so it followed that he would love showing off in front of people. In that regard he was Tom's polar opposite. Heidi's too, Tom reckoned, as his friend had never struck him as the attention-seeking type. Oh well, he told himself, it took all types and if Nathan's antics resulted in raising everyone's spirits then more power to him. Tom would keep himself to the sidelines as he always tried to.

-----

Luke panicked slightly when the daggers appeared, flame shooting from his mouth to melt them prematurely, grateful to Kira for pulling him away. It was only afterwards that he realised it had been Nathan, and he (somewhat embarrassedly) straightened up again, coughing a bit. He listened to his old friend's speech with a healthy dose of skepticism, especially around the bit about the adults having special conditions surrounding the tower. That just didn't seem right to him, but Nathan might have known better.

He still couldn't help but feel a little bit more confident after the small bit of praise directed towards him, exacerbated greatly by Nathan mental powers working on him. He didn't actually feel confident yet, especially not looking at the onrushing army, but Nathan's speech hadn't hurt. Not him, anyway.

"Oh yeah, Nathan interrupted before I could answer: I'd love to go travelling. I've wanted to for a while, but I didn't want to go if I was leaving you for my own company," Luke told Kira quietly, leaning over so she could hear over the rest of the villagers. He felt at home living with Kira, it was true, but there had always been a certain thrill about exploring that he had loved.

Heidi snorted at Tom's scolding, only able to agree with him. Nathan was such a little kid sometimes, but she had to appreciate his efforts. With such a hopeless situation, it would take guts to get up there and talk about how they were going to win.

Kira smiled over at Luke, grabbing his hand. It was nice of him to think about her, though she wished sometimes he would be a little more selfish. She reached over, grabbing Luke's hand and smiling softly. She didn't really understand why he was so nice to her, and why he was almost never selfish... She smiled a bit when Nathan complimented Luke, knowing that would boost his confidence a little.

Nathan looked over at everyone gathered and opened his mouth again. Before he could speak however his attention was grabbed by a burst of flow and then by an arrow embedding itself into the ground about ten feet in front of where he was stood. With a flick of the mental switch he managed to adjust his vision to see that Lillian's army had already set up a makeshift camp and appeared to be waiting.

After making his way over to the arrow he found a note attached to the shaft and quickly unraveled it. "You have five minutes to surrender," he read aloud, "or we remove this settlement from existence." He screwed the piece of paper up and looked forward at army of close to four hundred soldiers, some of them barely older than fifteen and he scowled.

"Everyone get to your place, Tom wait for my signal to separate their forces, Jack get the mist up and Joey it would be really good if Percival was ready to show his face." Nathan called.

"Five minutes? More like three if you ask me," Zackary muttered under his breath.

"They're really going for the Zerg rush approach," Tom muttered, sensing the Flows of the army opposite them as he took up his position. "Some of these are younger than I was in the tournament. Tell me about arrows, please, I can't see them."

"He's ready whenever." Joey said, before changing to Percival. "Just tell me when and where you'll need me." He said to Nathan, a determined look on his face. There was no way he'd allow Lillian's forces to win without tearing it from his cold dead hands.

---

OOC: Since I'm not a fan of big battles like these, I leave Percy under the control of either Poker, or Uri, to be used when he is needed or when he'd be useful, under the condition he doesn't die, or sustain any fatal or crippling wounds.

They're actually using arrows... Paul deadpanned in his mind. Suddenly things actually did seem like they were in the stone age. If they had any ideas of a direct charge, he had no doubt that it wouldn't be hard to gun them down with the machine guns alone. The walker itself would be the most intimidating thing they had.

Heidi shifted uneasily, rocking back on her heels. This all just seemed so...odd. Why couldn't Lillian leave them alone? Was it revenge? Or was she just hellbent on world domination? It all seemed pointless. She formed her spear in her hand, grinding her teeth a bit in frustration. "Here goes nothin'," she sighed.

Tom vanished into the ground, feeling no need to present himself as adore t target for everyone. He reappeared alongside Paul and his troops.

"If they just run at us, I can move the ground back like a treadmill so they can't go anywhere, and you gun them down. Sounds good? If they start using Flows at that stage Percival will stop them. I'm assuming by then it won't matter if they can run away," he pitched his idea to Paul, his voice raised to be audible over the sounds of battle.

For his part, he had a shield over his head to protect him from projectiles, while his mind got to work, scanning the opposing army for the particularly strong Flows and hoping that he could seek out the psychic in their ranks.

Paul's men began scattering to fortified positions and foxholes they had dug, a bunker with a machine gun near the front. Snipers sat at long range, hunkered down in grass patches and rocky outlets. The walker marched back, out of the line of fire for the would be first volley of whatever Lillian's army threw at them, it's turret positioned ready to fire.
"Sounds like a plan," Paul replied, "But I doubt it'll be that simple. We've got the foxholes near the front, but the real fighting will take place just before them, I think."
He ran a hand through his hair. "Need a sidearm? If Percy throws up the anti-flow zone, things will get tricky."