Seamus
Thirty minutes earlier
"Fer the love of all that is holy where the feck is everyone!" I yelled at the top of my lungs as I rushed through the mana train. The blasted thing was emptier than a black widow's marital bed. Colossus trailed close behind me, snorting with each stride.
"How I know! I was with you!" Colossus snapped back.
I groaned as we entered the dining car and slowed to a light jog. The door to the control car was already open, which was suspicious ta say the least. Colossus and I shared a look then hurried over to it. I poked my head into the control car and of course the door leading to the outside of the train was open. I could hear voices coming from outside.
"Someone is talking!" Colossus whispered.
"I know tha' ya little terror!" I replied then crept into the control car until I was close enough to the door to hear what was being said.
"Iris and I will track them, you all stay here." Jane announced firmly.
"Not happening!" Nate and Louie both exclaimed.
"Our boys are out there. Mine is being held hostage again! I'm not going to sit here and wait for someone else to save him again!" Louie exclaimed.
"Guys be sensible here. What can you two do to help?" Iris asked.
"Crush bone with my bare hands." Nate said mater of factually. His voice was dark, guttural, and entirely paternal.
"The longer we sit around and debate about what we do, the further the boys get away from us." Angie said.
"Let's not forget about Reagan. I don't like him getting further into enemy plans without any back up." Anders said.
"Reagan hasn't been kidnapped!" Louie snapped.
"I know. I'm just saying! The kids take priority, I know!" Anders said.
"Louie, Nate, you two will head with Iris and I to get the boys. Anders, you head after Reagan. Make sure they soldiers with him don't kill him." Jane ordered.
"Fine! Let's just hurry up and get going!" Nate snapped.
"Rainbow Sparkles!" Iris called out. I poked my head out the door a little and saw Iris' Argonewt had simmered into visibility a few feet away from Nate and Jade, probably ordered there by Iris to keep the two from running off if they tried. "Do you know which way the boys went?"
"Towardssss the hillssss!" Rainbow Sparkles replied then pointed a claw towards the south.
"Come on!" Nate yelled then ran in the indicated direction. Louie followed after Nate and the two disappeared into the woods.
"Oh for the love of Isis!" Jane growled then ran after the two hot headed father's. Iris and Rainbow Sparkles followed close behind.
"Loud mouths did something stupid." Colossus commented.
"Aye…little KC got taken…" I said solemnly then turned and walked over to the door opposite of the open one I was eavesdropping from.
"Where you going?" Colossus asked. I looked over me shoulder at the little hog and frowned.
"Where ya think? I'm going ta rescue the young laddies." I opened the door and jumped out into the forest. Colossus quickly followed after me and the two of us rushed to the east for a bit so we didn't get noticed by the others already chasing after the boy then headed towards the mountains to the south.
I started to get a bad feeling when we headed southward. The further south we went, the worse that feeling got. After feeling this for more than fifteen minutes I learned why.
A loud boom rocked the whole forest, scaring the shite outta me and Colossus. So much so I didn't notice a root sticking up and ended up tripping over it. I tumbled arse over foot down a small hill before landing in a river. I quickly stood up and spat out water, my water slogged misery highlighted by the sound of my little Colossus snorting and grunting. The evo's equivalent of laughter.
"Fuck a duck!" I growled as I trudged through the river back to the banks. Colossus was rolling on the ground laughing but stopped immediately when I splashed him with water.
"HEY!" He snorted in righteous indignation.
"Hey yerself!" I snapped back then started wringing out my shirt. "Which way did that explosion come from?"
"That way." Colossus pointed one of his hooves towards the east where I could already see a smoke cloud rising in the distance.
"The Morgan be praised, I'm getting too old for this shite." I grumbled, mostly because of the sharp change of the direction.
"I thought you weren't even middle aged?" Colossus head quirked to the side and I could see a mischievous gleam in his eyes.
"I'm still almost eighty! Well…closer to seventy than eighty but I'm decades older than most of the laddies running around this island." I defended. Colossus snorted at that and turned towards the smoke cloud.
"We heading that way?" Colossus asked. I shook my head and looked down the length of the river.
"That was just a diversion. Probably Bo goin' overboard." I said.
"Yeah…he idolized the Star Shaper too much…" Colossus sighed.
"Bo might be reckless but he's not stupid. He wouldn't make a large explosion like tha if KC was present." I said then frowned and scratched my chin. "Plus Indy should be with 'em. That boy be hiding secrets."
"Well if anyone would know…" Colossus drawled. I frowned and shot Colossus a look. The little porker just snorted.
"Lets go!" I grumbled and ran across the river. Colossus followed suit and the two of us headed towards the south again.
Colossus and I hadn't even been running for a few minutes when I sensed something was wrong again. I skidded to a stop this time and jumped behind a tree for cover, grabbing Colossus by the scruff to get him to hide with me. Not three seconds later a small detachment of American soldiers came running through the brush heading towards the mountain to the south.
This seemed odd since they were heading away from the explosion and not running towards it, if for no other reason than to check it out. What's more the direction they came from suggested that they'd came from the forest's western entrance. The soldiers didn't notice Colossus or I hiding behind the tree and quickly disappeared into the forest.
"Where are they going?" Colossus asked.
"That's the question ain't it? We'll have ta figure that out another time. KC and the other lads are what's more important." I replied, setting Colossus back down.
"Yeah…" Colossus agreed then froze suddenly and started sniffing the air. "…I smell the kids!"
"Which way?" I asked. Colossus took off and I quickly ran after him.
He stopped after a short dash at the edge of a cliff overlooking a nearly overturned tree. Sheltered under the roots of the enormous white willow tree, I saw Indy, Bo, and KC with some evo I hadn't seen before, restraining Reagan with tentacles.
"Thank the gods they're safe…" I breathed. Colossus huffed and sat down near the edge.
"And they have that captive with them."
"Aye…for the face changin' shite storm."
Down below the strange evo took hold of KC with a tentacle and then ran off in the direction the mana train would be, dragging the captive behind it. This made me frown as I eyed Indy and Bo who'd stayed behind. We were too far away to hear what they were saying but Indy's body language and the ease at which he held one of Starlight's crystal genesis daggers spoke volumes.
"They're going ta go kill something." I said to nobody in particular.
"Those soldiers we passed?" Colossus offered, not even remotely surprised by my declaration. I shook my head.
"They were coming from the wrong direction. They were just crossing through the forest, they haven't crossed paths with the lads." I replied.
"You going to let them?" Colossus asked.
My frown deepened and I felt conflicted. As a parent and a adult I knew I should. No child should be forced to take a life, especially ones as young as them. However I have had suspicions about Indy for a while now. I knew he had been raised by assassins but figured by the way he carried himself so innocently that he hadn't been corrupted. The way he looked now said otherwise.
"Aye. We'll let then do as they wish. Bo has Gadget an' Midnight with 'im. It would take a horde of normie soldiers to take 'em out." I replied.
"What are we going to do?" Colossus asked. I turned and looked back towards the direction the soldiers that passed us went.
"We're going ta do a little spyin'."
Reagan
"Fuck…we're pretty high up…" I muttered as I looked down the side of the mountain path I was marching on with the detachment of American soldiers.
After defecting to Chase's side I thought my days of marching with soldiers were over. I had even dared to think that my days of having to deal with Cross were over. Still regardless of how I felt about the man personally, I had to admit that man was a great lieutenant. He'd kept everyone marching at a brisket pace, in a tight formation that left little room for exposure and at a pace that was easy to keep up with but brisk enough to cover a lot of ground.
I was towards the middle of the formation, a few rows behind Cross. Which was a blessing since I didn't have to field my expressions. Though it was strange, At first it was just Cross and I making our way towards the mountain but as we went more soldiers started joining until we had a platoon worth of soldiers following us.
"We're almost there!" Cross suddenly announced to the platoon. We were near the top of the mountain path, and hearing Cross's proclamation made several soldiers let out little cheers of relief.
A loud explosion rang out in the distance. I saw a flash of flames out of the corner of my eye and jerked my head in time to see smoke billowing up from the white weeping willow forest. Everyone came to a stand still and looked towards the explosions directionm
"The fuck! An attack?" One of the soldiers nearby exclaimed.
"That's where that crystal cursed bastard's base is, isn't it?"
"Should we be concerned?"
My eyes glanced to Cross, due to his position as one of Beaufort's personal guard I knew he would have more details about the American's operations. Cross had a concerned scowl on his face and looked to be conflicted about his next course of action.
"Sir? Orders?" A soldier near Cross asked. Cross scowl deepened.
"A detachment of soldiers was supposed to be heading to a staging area through that forest. The explosion could be from my that crystal cursed bastard's evos catching them." Cross said, his face taunt with a grimace.
"We have to go save them then!" A soldier exclaimed, backed up with cheers of from other soldiers.
"We can't!" Cross growled, silencing everyone with shock. "By the time we made it down the mountain and over to the forest where they explosion originated the fight might very well be over. Or we could be walking into an ambush, we have no way of knowing if any soldiers even are in that area right now."
Hearing all of Cross' reasons, no objections were raised. Instead I saw dozens of faces biting their tongues and awaiting Cross's order to keep moving. When it came they all drudged on, each casting a glance over at the smoke raising in the air.
Cross was a member of the Border guard and a experienced one at that. In order to reach the rank of lieutenant he wouldn't have been a stranger to being forced to leave comrades behind in order to complete a mission.
When we reached the top of the mountain I was surprised to see a village at the top. It looked abandoned and rather old but a village hidden in the mountains none the less.
There was a brief moment of silence that made me nervous. For the last half hour I've had a nagging feeling that something was wrong.
'We'll have it handled soon?' I frowned, something about her tone made me not believe that.
I informed her, temporarily pushing my prior thoughts to the side.