The battle could have gone better. At least one member of every team was missing, injured, or even dead on the rare case. Commander Sky was in intensive care, unconscious.
    "The type of wood that the staff's made of is toxic. I don't think anybody ever expected anybody to get stabbed with it though." Seto explained.
    "But why would they make something out of poison wood?" Genesis asked. "For vampires?"
    "No, not that. Because the wood is extremely sturdy. Very hard to snap. Took a broadsword straight on for it to finally go."
    "Okay, well, if it's poisoned then how to we make it go away?" Asked Jade, who was only there because she and Felladere were the ones who brought Sky to the Infirmary.
    Seto was quiet a moment, staring down at the broken staff in his hand.
    Genesis blinked. "...Doctor?"
    Seto hesitated a moment longer before he shook his head. "I wish I could find out, but I have other patients I have to attend to more immediately." He looked at Fells. "I know you're autopsy, but can you identify the poison and do some research on it?"
    Genesis nodded. "Yes sir, I can try."
    Seto looked at Jade. "You and your Valkyrie friend report to General Ellis and get some orders, just start working. Got it?"
    "Yes sir." Jade nodded.
    "Good." Seto said. "Now go on, get going."
    All three young adults left and moved into the corridor outside of the Infirmary, out of the way of the many patients. "Is he gonna be okay?" Jade asked Genesis.
    "Seto? Yeah, he's done this before. Sky though... He's in bad condition. I dunno if he'll make it. Not if I can find this poison and the antidote speedy quick and also actually get the antidote. I'd give him a ten percent chance of survival right now."
    Jade winced. "Oh man..."
    "And to top that off, his apprentice, the Kal girl, she's missing right now. So we might be a little screwed right now." Genesis said.
    "Then I would suggest you get to work on discovering the antidote, Genesis Li."
    Genesis snorted. "That's the first thing you've said that actually makes sense to me."
    Jade smiled a little half-heartedly. "Well, we'll leave you to focus. Good luck, Gen."
    "Thanks." Genesis said, putting a hand in the pocket of his grey cardigan, holding the other up in a wave as he turned away. "I'll need it." And with that, he disappeared back into the Infirmary.
    Jade heaved a deep breath before taking Fells's wrist and pulling him along the corridor, towards the Commander's office. When they got there, they saw General Ellis wasn't there and it took nearly ten minutes to track him down to his place on the second floor, where he was directing a group of Star Cadets who were attempting to lift a wooden beam that had fallen. "General?"
    Ty looked up as she spoke. "Yeah? What's up, I'm kinda busy and mildly freaking out just a little." His voice was quick and slightly hire than usual; Jade couldn't blame him for his nervousness. A lot of pressure had been put on him when Sky was injured.
    "Doctor Seto told Fells and I to come to you to give us work." Jade said. "What should we do?"
    "Oh, um..." Ty looked around before his only visible eye fell on the Cadets struggling with the beam. "Here, help them lift this for a start."
    Fells nodded and walked over to the beam while Jade remained by Ty. "Sir? I have a question."
    "What is it?"
    "Why are you in Command all by yourself? Shouldn't Sky's apprentice be helping you?"
    "Skylord Vaerin Kal is missing right now, so I'm on my own, unfortunately."
    "Is it possible she deserted?"
    Ty snorted. "No, trust me when I say she didn't. She's probably unconscious, captured, or worst case dead. I really hope that last one isn't true though, for Sky's sake. And the whole base for that matter. He'll go ape if he has to find another apprentice."
    Jade nodded and opened her mouth to ask another question when a loud wooden creak shook the air. Jade and Ty looked to the sound to see Felladere holding the heavy beam, roughly the weight of a medium-sized tree, all by himself as the Cadets looked on in mild shock.
    The onlookers watched in silence as Fells spoke to Ty. "Where would you like me to place this?"
    "Uh..." Ty looked around. "Let's... Let's put it back in the ceiling."
    Fells nodded and flapped his big, powerful wings, a small gust of wind moving down the corridor as he flew up to the rafters. As the humans stared up at him, one of the Cadets turned her attention to Jade. "You lucky bitch."

Genesis picked up tweezers from the table as he sat down on the stool by the lab table. The Lab itself was virtually empty as most of the scientists were out helping to clean up the damage done to the base. There were only two Cadets in the lab with Genesis, one sweeping glass off the floor, the other measuring the window to order a replacement.
    Genesis used the tweezers to pick up a tiny splinter of the wood of the staff. He put it onto a small clear slide before sliding under a microscope. When he adjusted the lens, he could see rectangular brown cells, some partially black, which wasn't usual. His expression grew confused and he increased the magnification. He was given no answer he would accept until he magnification to the second most powerful setting. There, he saw tiny, tiny black things actually moving around on the brown cells, like a swarm of flies on a cow. Genesis sat back from the microscope, humming.
    After thinking for a few minutes with his arms crossed, he reached over to a neighboring table and grabbed the laptop, bringing it over to his table. Going to the search bar, he typed in, black things on cell.
    Nothing useful came up. Genesis pondered some more.
    Bacteriophage in plant cells
    He browsed through the file options, but still found nothing about the tree virus.
    Then he typed, tree cell parasites.
    Immediately there an archive file called, Poisoned Wood, What Fun. Genesis decided it looked promising and he clicked on it. He scanned the information he found.

    Upon arriving at the Darklander forest, we were captured like we were enemies. Luckily, I was able to tell them we were actually there visitors they were expecting and they let us go. Turner was angry, but he didn't do anything stupid to compromise us. All four of us had to share a room; not because there was a shortage of space, but because during the night we spent in the cell, we heard some really scary noises and Commander Void thought it safest we stay together.
    I wasn't complaining, but the boys were. Turner and Harry had to share one of the beds while I took the other. Those two woke up hugging each other really tight; I wasn't surprised. Turner and Harry are really close, Void slept in the chair. Harry fell asleep as quickly as always along with Void, although the older man took longer. Turner and I talked for awhile before we finally went to bed too. We weren't woken by the noises, although Void said there definitely were some. Maybe they woke him up, I don't know, but I never asked.
     The next day, we went to the Darklander leader to start asking questions about a treaty. It was going well until the Darklander military leader came in. When he learned what we were doing, he was outraged. He argued with the leader, and when the leader wouldn't listen, he argued with us. We still didn't want to give up negotiations and I still to this day wish that we had just left. To ensure that we wouldn't want to make peace with the Darklanders, the military leader took out his sword and stabbed poor Harry with it.
    There was absolute chaos. We left immediately and went back to the base. It was a week's journey home and during that time, Harry passed out and never woke up. He was in a cold sweat a lot, sometimes it was clear he was having a nightmare, but no matter what we did, he wouldn't wake up. Turner stayed by his side all the time. He and Harry were the two Dual Legioneer apprentices of the current two leaders, Tony Daryl and Mike Black. They were almost always together, so Turner was naturally the one to take care of him until we got back to the base.
    A piece of the strange thin sword broke off and stuck in Harry's stomach. Something in it was poisoning him. No matter what Remi did, he couldn't find the poison on the sword, and in the end, Harry died. Poor Turner was crushed. Colonel Daryl never got another apprentice to replace Harry either, and Turner didn't seem to mind.
   We could never locate the poison, but whatever it was, it was potent as hell. Poor Harry... God rest his soul...

Log entry date: April 4th, 1986
Author: Cadet Griffin, Amanda
Mission Members: Commander Void, Lawrence
Vaerin Rochelle, Turner
Vaerin West, Harry
Cadet Griffin, Amanda
Mission Status: Failed

Genesis sat back as he stared at the screen in silence for a few moments. He wasn't sure if he was thinking over what he had read, or if he was giving a moment of silence to Harry West, who had died to eventually give some information which could save Sky's life.
    He got up as he closed his laptop before he hung up his lab coat and left the Lab for the library. When he arrived, the library was about empty aside from the two librarians, three nowadays since Sky had created a third shift to give the librarians more off-time, who were picking up books and replacing them on their allotted shelves. The two nearest the door looked up at him.
    "Oh hey." One of them, a blond boy said, shifting his books into one arm and taking off his reading glasses. "Sorry we're so disorganized. Explosive issues... I don't supposed to come for a book, have you?"
    "Actually, I have." Genesis said, putting his hands in his pockets.
    The two librarians exchanged glances. "I'll handle it." The blond boy offered to his coworker. Said librarian simply nodded and took the other boy's books from him to do for him.
    The blond boy walked to Genesis, shaking his hand. "Hi there, I'm Charlie. That over there's Moon-Moon and you can't see her but we have a third librarian, Julia. She's cool, she's a Baccan."
    "Yes, I know, I'm in here a lot." Genesis smiled.
    "Ahhh." Charlie said. "Yeah, sorry about that. You get three faces to know and we've got a whole base full. I'm working on it though. So why are you in here looking for a book while everybody else is doing repairs? I'm sure you got a good reason."
    "A great one actually, I'm the one who was told to identify the poison that's infecting our great and powerful Commander."
    Charlie's demeanor changed to one of surprise and maybe a little excitement. "Oh!" He said, shifting his weight. "Well I feel kinda important now. What book are you looking for?"
    "One on exotic kinds of trees. Preferably pertaining to Darklanders."
    "Darklanders... Okay, sure, I got ya. Follow!" Charlie made a gesture before leading Genesis through the slightly disarrayed library back to the culture section. "Trees, trees..." Charlie murmured, looking through the books on the shelf of the 'D' section. "It's good for your heart..."
    A few seconds passed before he made a slight noise of triumph and pulled a book off the shelf. He held it out to Genesis and pulled off a second book as well.
    "Gregory Wilson's Encyclopedia of Dendrology and Poisons in General. These two should do the trick, but if you need more information, just come back and I'll hook you up."
    Genesis smiled, nodding. "Thank you, I'll do that."
    "No problem, bro. I better go help Moony. See ya!" He turned and ran off back through the library. Genesis observed the covers of the two books he'd been given a moment before he went and sat down at the table. He then opened Poisons in General and promptly began to read.