“I sensed Theda onboard, along with some other familiar characters.” Prism said to his allies, who were standing around him.

  “The same speedsub crew you stopped during the Battle of Getla Base?” Ursun asked Prism. Prism closed his eyes and nodded.

  “The Queen doesn’t ordinarily reward failure.” Cril said as he watched Leanna and Utcao go over the data shown on their smart-visors that they’d gathered on the passing airship.

  “Perhaps those Destructors didn’t fail in their mission.” Lorias said. He echoed a sentiment that he’d shared shortly after the battle, a sentiment that hadn’t been shared by many within Pack Command.

  “If sowing discord was all that they were after, then yes, they most definitely succeeded.” Leanna said. She felt slightly ill as the events of that battle replayed in alarming detail within her genetically-enhanced Xypno brain.

  “That’s all they do. About the only thing they’re good at is causing suffering,” said Kitra before she spit on the ground beside her.

  “You’re telling me…” Wadaw said to Kitra. She looked pained when he pointed at his mask and added, “They almost left me without a face”

  “Whatever.” Ruz crossed his arms and said loudly. “Why the hell is the Queen giving those Destructor thugs tech like that? They’re fucking slaver scum!”

  Qisyit held herself and sighed. "That bitch is deranged. Anyone that thinks “her royal highness” is sane, logical, or predictable is an idiot.”

  “That ship seems like a knee-jerk reaction to Prism being here.“ Cril pointed at the shirtless, barefoot elementeitan.

  “Yeah! She sent a freaking space-bending plasma beast at us while we were on the river!” Srell complained. His nasally voice made his exclamation grate on half the group’s ears.

  “We saw.” Cril said with a chuckle. “Why she doesn’t just kill every Conjunction leader with a machine like that is beyond me.”

  “Did you find out anything useful about the ship?” Speet said quietly to Utcao, his team’s analyst.

  “My instruments couldn’t even make sense of that craft.” Utcao said. He tapped the side of his visor over and over again, shifting through different chaotic visual representations of the airship data.

  “Mine either,” said Leanna a bit more angrily than Utcao had sounded. “That airship has some sort of modulating electromagnetic field that shields it from our scans.”

  “That’s what Prism is for.” Srell smirked over at his alien ally. Prism stared blankly back at him, causing Srell’s smirk to turn into a nervous frown. Prism's brain felt like mush in his head but he'd had enough brain-power to analyze the flying speedsub with his magic.

  “That ship is full of weird machines that I don’t recognize. Maybe the two of you can make sense of them,” said Prism before flicking his forefinger at Leanna’s visor, then at Utcao. A small orb of blue light flew out at them and then was absorbed by their visors. A stream of detailed visual and electromagnetic data appeared before the two analysts’ eyes.

  “Fuck…” Utcao said in disbelief while he started poring over the data.

  “Our people are pretty rattled. It’s rare to see an airship of that size this deep within Sguvi.” Wadaw said.

  Prism felt the fear surging through the crowd. Most of the guerillas understood that an airship of that size couldhave destroyed all of them simply by increasing the power and frequency of the pressure waves its engines emitted. “They're like ants trying to fight an elephant." Prism thought. He wanted to tell everyone that he'd protect them; he wanted to shout out to the True Twins within the park. "I can't make promises like that," he told himself. He couldn't even be sure that his magical fog would stop the strange weapons that the airship surely had.

  "We'll deal with that thing when the time comes," Mela said to Prism. He felt as if she'd read his private thoughts somehow, especially when he saw the determined look that she gave him. "Now we focus on our next steps."

  Mela waved over to a group of older guerillas standing on a hill dozens of meters away at the edge of her vision. They waved back to Mela and then told the crowd blocking their path to let them through. The group of five were soon standing within the open circle that the gathered guerillas had made for RED-1, RED-2, Qisyit, Mela, Kitra, and Wadaw.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  "Everyone, these are some of the Gospel's elders," said Mela to the RED teams. "They're the closest things to leaders that the Gospel has."

  "You may think of us as organizers." The elder with the most wrinkles on her face said. The woman winked her glassy eye at Prism.

  "Good to see you again." Ursun leaned over and shook the hand of one of the elderly men. The elder’s body was built and his handshake was strong.

  “Yes, it is good. We are glad to have you and your Wolves on our side,” replied the sturdy elder.

  “And what side would that be, old man?” Wadaw said cheekily.

  “The side of divine righteousness, of course!” The man shouted with a fervor that shook the anxiety from the surrounding crowd.

  “The side of the Gospel Truth!” Another one of the elders shouted like a preacher at the pulpit. The words were echoed by the crowd until they’d been said by nearly everyone in the valley’s park.

  Wadaw chuckled and said, “Good to hear.” He rubbed Kitra on her back and whispered, “The old folks seem ready to bash some heretical heads, too,” into her ear. She choked back a laugh.

  “Elders, Wadaw and his mercenaries have much to share with you.” Mela said. Her soft voice oozed with deference.

  “We would hear them,” said the female elder who’d first spoken. “I’m most curious about the “magic” that is currently protecting us from our enemies.”

  The next few hours were spent retelling the last several day’s events to the old guerrillas. It gave RED-2 the opportunity to tell RED-1 about their parallel adventure, and vice-versa. Wadaw corroborated the more fantastical-sounding elements of their stories with a lightheartedness that contrasted with Mela's reservedness around the elders. She shouted “Wadaw!” when she thought he’d said something too salacious or irreverent. The elders simply waved off her reactions, preferring the man who treated them like equals.

  “I’ll ask again; will you help us storm Zazi, Prism?”

  One of the elders looked expectantly at Prism, who’d been quite quiet while his allies spoke to them. Prism looked up from the ground and stared at the man. The elder felt like the alien was looking right through him. The other two dozen people gathered around the old man watched Prism like crows staring down at meat lying on a hot street. Their hungry eyes craved Prism’s favorable reply, but Prism gave none at all.

  “You look unwell,” said a female elder to Prism. Her deep-set frown brought Prism out of his stupefaction.

  "I...I'll do...what is...necessary..." Prism said as he looked to his left away from the others. His eyes looked askance and his bottom lip quivered. He looks like he was about to begin sobbing.

  "What on ?ba!?" The muscular elder shouted in anger.

  Leanna rushed over to Prism's left side at the same time Ursun rushed over to his right. They wrapped their arms around him to prop him up, worried that he was about to collapse. Leanna rubbed Prism's back and looked up at Ursun, who stared back down at her while he held Prism's shoulders.

  "What's wrong?" Ursun shared telepathically to Prism.

  "Is the mana here too much for you?" Leanna shared right after Ursun did.

  Prism lowered his head like he was passing out. The group that was watching him murmured their concerns to one another as panic began to creep into their minds. They quieted themselves when they saw Prism reach up to place a hand on Leanna's shoulder pauldron and his other hand on Ursun's armored elbow.

  "I need to sleep...this mana is too thick...sleep will...make my body a bit more used to it..." Prism strained to share with his team, Wadaw, and RED-2.

  "Then sleep!" Ruz shared as he rolled his eyes and huffed aloud.

  "Don't shout through the link. It's hard enough for him to maintain it as it is." Leanna shared, directing her intention at Ruz.

  "I'll keep the others busy. They're getting suspicious by the lack of talking..." Wadaw shared with RED-1 and RED-2 before he started talking to the Elders about what they were witnessing.

  "You mentioned being afraid of going to sleep earlier, that there was something in your dreams," Ursun shared to Prism while letting the others in the link hear him.

  "A nightmare is causing this? Ridiculous." Cril shared.

  "Keep the link clear if you don't have anything constructive to share." Lorias shared. The murderous frigidity of his message chilled any further dissent from RED-2.

  "Magical Boy, you need your sleep; we know that better than anyone. We'll keep you safe while you get some rest." Srell shared, his psychic voice like that of a protective older brother.

  Prism saw Wadaw be pushed out of the way by Ruz and RED-2 begin to argue with the elders, though he couldn't make out what they were saying. Mela caught Wadaw before he fell to the ground, the scene unfolding in slow-motion to Prism's distorted awareness. Kitra started pointing her finger angrily at Ruz's team while a stream of expletives rapidly formed on her lips. Qisyit threw her hands up and made her way back to the mysterious domes that RED-4 was still working on.

  Prism then saw the looks of concern on his own team's faces and felt their desires emanating through their telepathic link. They all truly wanted him healthy, and not just for the mission's success. At the moment, he was a wounded Red Wolf who needed the support of his Pack.

  "Okay..." Prism shared. His voice was faint as he felt himself succumbing to his exhaustion. "I'll need to bring two of you into my dreams with me."

  "We'll need to be put to sleep then, right?" Srell was the first to ask.

  "Yes...It'll be a deep sleep, too." Prism shared.

  "I'll go." Ursun shared. He squeezed Prism's shoulder to reassure the alien that everything would be okay.

  "Me too." Leanna and Srell shared at the same time.

  "Thanks guys..." Prism shared. A tear rolled down his cheek.

  "Srell, you'll stay awake with Lorias. Leanna and I will join Prism in...his dreams," shared Ursun. It was the strangest mission he'd ever described, let alone gone on.

  "Yes, sir." Srell nodded and shared to Ursun.

  Ursun picked up Prism out of Leanna's embrace and carried the half-naked alien towards the elders with Leanna following close behind him. Ruz, who was standing in between the mercenary commander and the elders, looked up at Ursun with a tough expression. The two overly-muscled men stared at each other for a few seconds.

  "Quit the pissing match. We don't have time for you egotistical Conjunction heathens to waste." Kitra shouted at the two men.

  Ruz chuckled at her and slowly stepped out of Ursun's way. Some of the elders laughed at Kitra's outburst as they too glanced up at Ursun. "The three of us are going to need a secure place to sleep for the next ten or so hours," Ursun said to them. He held up Prism a bit higher in his arms and made a nod backwards at Leanna.

  "Uhh, you are welcome to use our tent over there." A female elder replied in an unsteady tone. She pointed her right hand over at a large green tent on the hill the elders had been standing on earlier. "But is this really the best time to be sleeping?" She tilted her head and added.

  "We don't really have a choice. His alien physiology demands it." Leanna explained to the elder.

  "Will the fog continue to protect us?" Mela asked. She still cradled Wadaw in her arms as she stood beside Kitra.

  "Yes..." Prism whispered.

  "He still hasn't agreed to our request for support," said the muscular elder as he grabbed Ursun's wrist. Ursun glared down at the man, but the elder didn't let go. "There is more at stake here than this being's restfulness. Many of us haven't slept in days," the elder said sternly.

  "This is about more than his sleep. Whatever is stalking Prism in his dreams could be a bigger threat to our world than Gusa or the Queen." Ursun said, stating an assumption of his that was sure to disturb and distract the elder.

  The male elder's eyes and mouth slowly opened in horror. He let go of Ursun before looking back at his peers to see if they'd heard what Ursun had said. Byu the time the elders started talking amongst themselves, Ursun, Prism, and Leanna were already on their way through the crowd.

  "Safe travels." Wadaw shared to the trio as Prism cast a spell of somnolence on them.