"Who is she? If she's a recruit, I haven't met her."
    "She's not a recruit. Her name's Thalia."
    "Well if she's not a recruit, what is she?"
    "She's just a girl from Mistral. Lieutenant Venom and I found her lost in the woods late last night. We brought her back after she told us she had nowhere to stay and we were planning on taking her to see you this morning, but..."
   There was a sigh. "Well, one way or another I guess I am meeting her in the morning..."
    "I don't get it Commander. Why are you so concerned with her?"
    "Because, well, when the Teuthidans attacked, she almost sacrificed herself for Ty and I wanna know why."
    "Wait, that was her?! I'd heard that someone saved the General, but I didn't know it was Thalia."
    "It was. I was there. She shoved him out of the way. I mean, I don't know why. She doesn't even know who he is, and she almost died because of it. Do you know?"
   "Maybe it was an accident."
   "I don't think so... Well, on a lighter note, how was you mission to Archangel?"
   "Confusing. I went to the nearest town and did as I was told. And there was also this guy, a Sorcerer and he... Anyways, it was fun."
   "Did people buy your disguise?"
   "Everybody thought I was just a minstrel. General Provst did a better job than I'd thought."
   "I'm not surprised. But how did it go when they found out you didn't know how to play that old mandolin?"
   "I did anyway. I'm pretty sure they bought it. You'd be surprised by how much those people trust minstrels. I almost felt bad lying to them."
   "We're doing this for their protection. Anyway, what'd you find out?"
   "They're getting worried. People are going missing left and right with no explanation. I'd say it was squids, but-"
   "Teuthidans always let us know when they kidnap somebody."
   "Exactly."
   "So you're saying there's someone else behind this?"
   "Or something."
   There was another sigh. "We gotta find out who it is."
   "Or what."
   "I get it Lieutenant."
   "Right, sir. Sorry, sir."
   "...How's your sister doing?"
   "Kathy?"
   "No the other one."
   "I only have one sister, Commander."
   "I know that. I was being sarcastic."
   "Oh... Well, she's good. She and my mom are running a bakery back in my home village, and it's going well – Commander, she's getting up!
   "Huh? Oh!"
   Thalia let out a short sigh of pain as she sat up. She felt a hand on her back and looked up to see a man with short, slightly curly light brown hair and eyes hidden by a pair of old-looking sunglasses helping her sit up.
   She placed a hand on his wrist groggily. "You... You were there..."
   He nodded. "My name is Sky. You're Thalia, if I'm not mistaken." Thalia nodded, then groaned and placed her other hand on her forehead. "Do I have a hangover or something, 'cause my head kills..."
    "No, you just hit it really hard." Thalia looked up to see Kevin cross his arms. He no longer wore his cloak around his soldiers, and his hair seemed to stick up even more now that it wasn't soaked
    Sky looked up. "Kevin, why don't you go get something to eat? I'll give Thalia a tour."
    "Are you sure?" Kevin asked.
    Sky nodded. "I owe her that much."
    Thalia cocked her head to one side but didn't pursue the matter.
     "Alright." Kevin smiled at Thalia. "I'll see you around." He patted her shoulder and walked out of the Infirmary. Thalia watched him go. Before looking at Sky
     "Who exactly are you?"
     "Sky, I told you before."
     "Oh... Are you a doctor?"
     Sky smiled a little in amusement. "No. I'm the Commander."
    Thalia's eyes widened slightly. "Oh."
    Sky, the famed Commander of the base, looked into the back room as he laughed a little. "Hey Seto, d'you think Kal's ready to get up?"
    "Oh, for god's sake, Adam, give her a minute!" A voice said from the back room. "She just woke up from a concussion!"
    "I feel fine!" Thalia called. "I've just got a headache!"
    "Yeah, you've got the potions to thank for that..." A man Thalia assumed was Seto, and later who would know as Doctor Harvey Seto, walked into the room, sorting through a leather bag as he went. He had light brown hair covered by a purple and black hood, and gently brown eyes twinkling with miffed exhaustion expressed through agitation. He looked up again. "What's your name again?" He asked.
   "It's Thalia Kal." Thalia said.
   "Alright." He took a small satchel out of the bag and handed it to her. "Take the pink one now and the blue one tonight before you go to bed. After that, you'll be back to normal."
    "Yeah sure... You are a doctor, aren't you?" Thalia asked as she looked at the satchel skeptically. Magic had never been her favorite thing in the world.
    "The head doctor, actually." He said.
    "And a good one too." Sky said.
    Seto rolled his eyes. "Thanks Adam." He said. He walked over to Thalia. "You think you can get up?" Thalia nodded. "Here." He took her hand and helped her as she swung her legs off the side of the bed and stood up. She blinked hard as she felt a spike of dizziness, but she placed placed a hand on her forehead as she shook it off.
   "Alright... Good." He let go of her hand and let her stand on her own as he pulled a pink potion out of her satchel and handed it to her. "Now drink that and you're free to go." Thalia smiled.
   "Thanks doc."
   Seto nodded. "Just take it easy." He grabbed his bag and walked into the other room again. Thalia opened the potion and drank it as she'd been told. She grimaced, but swallowed.
    Sky smirked knowingly. "You okay?" Thalia nodded. "Then come on, I'll show you around."

"We built this base several hundred years ago so people like us could join together against the Teuthidans. Oh, and the Teuthidans are sort of an off-branch of... Well... Squid. A lot more violent and a lot tougher. And smarter, most of the time." Sky said as he and Thalia walked down the hall. Thalia noticed that as some of the recruits passed them, they stared at her, but she ignored them.
     "What d'you mean 'people like us'?" Thalia queried.
     Sky smiled and glanced at her sidelong. "People who like protecting others rather than sitting around and waiting for the world to save itself. Even though not everybody knows about us, we're the ones keeping them alive." He looked ahead again. "But if we're ever wiped out, there'll be nothing standing in the way of the fall of this world's golden age."
     Thalia didn't respond.
     Sky hesitated a moment before looking at her and speaking again. "Tell me; what's the last thing you remember?" He asked.
     "Uhm..." Thalia thought for a moment. "It's all kinda foggy." She replied. "I remember shoving that guy out of the way of that bullet."
     "Do you know who 'that guy' was?" Sky asked. Thalia shook her head. Sky appeared amused. "Well that guy is known as General Deadlox by the recruits. He's my right hand man and my best friend. And he's the leader of the Dead Division."
     Thalia's eyes widened. "Oh, just that."
     Sky laughed. "Yeah, 'oh' is right. But trust me, he's fine and he's dying to meet you." Thalia opened her mouth to reply, then shut it again. Sky smirked and looked ahead. "You displayed admirable courage and some nice tactical cleverness. You saw that you had armor and he didn't, yeah?"
     Thalia nodded, awestruck that someone understood her methods of thinking. "Exactly!" She said.
     Sky nodded back. "You think like I do." He said. "You see options, consider them all in a split second, and choose the best one. In that moment, there were two. Let him die, or risk your life." He smiled. "To be completely honest, I'm glad you chose the latter."
     Thalia smiled. "Me too." Although her aching head said otherwise.
     "You're an excellent fighter." He said. "However; you're still a rookie, like my old man would say. You're young and inexperienced. Here, you could learn to hone these senses and master them like I did. It took teamwork, fieldwork, and cooperation, but it was all worth it." He smiled. "Anyway, while we're still on the subject of battle tactics, here's the training room." He opened the door on the right side of the hall and stepped inside. Thalia followed and took in the scene in awe.
     It was a massive room, probably fifty meters long and at least that much high. In the very center of the room was a large pool of water, with all types of parkour around it. Jumping parkour, ladder parkour, sprint-jump parkour, even ender-jumping. As Thalia watched one of the recruits missed a jump and fell. It was at least a twenty-foot drop, but he fell in the water with a loud splash. He crawled out of the water, shook off some of the water, and started over.
     On the back left corner of the room was a rock climbing wall. It was just as tall as the room itself, and it didn't look like any of the recruits climbing it were wearing harnesses. On the back right was a track ring, with red pavement and a whole lot of footprints. On the front right of the room was a sparring area. There were many different, ten foot by ten foot sections cut off within it, where recruits were lashing at each with wooden swords to practice.
     On the front left of the room was a long distance training area. There were targets for throwing knives, throwing axes, archery, throwing spears, and more. Anything you could think of, it was there; Thalia reckoned that, if she were to look hard enough, she would find one for projectile frying pans among the vast array of ranges.
     As Thalia stared at all the areas in the training hall in awe, Sky waved at somebody. "Yo, Ty! I got somebody you'll wanna see!"
     "What's up?" Thalia looked up as a vaguely familiar man approached. He looked surprised to see Thalia. "Hey, I know you! You're the girl that from the other day."
     Thalia nodded. "Are you okay?" She asked.
     Ty stared at her, looking surprised in a way that made it seem like he wasn't used to being surprised. He exchanged a quick glance with Sky. Then he smirked. "You were right, Adam, she does think like you." He looked at Thalia again. "Yeah, I'm fine. You?"
     Thalia nodded. "I got a bad headache, but yeah."
     Ty nodded once. "Well, it's good to know that we have recruits like you."
     "Oh, no." Thalia said, shaking her head. "I'm not a recruit! Actually, that reminds me, I gotta go home."
     "What?" Sky asked. "Are you sure? You just got here, after all."
     "Yeah, I gotta go home to take care of my brother. I left my cousin in charge while I left, but then I got lost. I'll be lucky if he didn't burn down the house."
     Sky nodded. "I understand." He said. He smiled grimly. "Then good luck, kid."
    Thalia nodded. "Thanks, Commander." She said. "But I really gotta go."

"It's a shame you won't stick around, Thalia." Venom said on the steps of the mighty base, shrouded in a humid fog after the heave rainfall the night before. "Besides Kevin, you're one of the only people I get along with around here."
     "I'd love to stay. I can relate to everyone so easily here, but I have a prior responsibility and can't back out on it. I wish I could stay, but I have to take care of Toby." Thalia said. "He's my responsibility since my dad's away."
     "What kind of a dad leaves his sixteen year old daughter and his ten year old son alone for three months?" Venom huffed agitatedly.
     "Venom, chill." Kevin said nonchalantly.
     Thalia rolled her eyes.
     Venom smiled grimly and gave Thalia a quick hug, then held her at arm's length. "Take care of yourself, you hear?" She asked.
     Thalia smiled grimly and nodded. "I promise I'll visit sometime. And maybe I could bring Toby to meet you guys."
     Kevin grinned. "D'you think I coud teach him to parkour?"
     Venom facepalmed. Thalia rolled her eyes. "Yes, Kevin, you can teach my ten year old brother how to do master parkour." She said sarcastically. Kevin grinned.
     "I'm holding you to that." He said.
     Thalia smiled sadly and looked from one of her friends to the other. "I'm gonna miss you guys. And someday, I'll visit." She smiled grimly. "But for now, this is goodbye." She raised a hand in farewell before turning and walking down the path towards the woods.
     Venom and Kevin watched her go for a moment, then both headed back inside.
     The three really hadn't known each other for very long – but they would come to know each other much better than they ever thought; and it would happen in very unique ways...