"So can someone please tell me why you all decided that the day after I passed out from mana exhaustion and had to get resuscitated, it was a good idea to wake me up at five in the morning?!" I gripped as I stood in front of everyone in the Control car.
"Yer guess is as good as mine Starlight." Grandpa Seamus said with a yawned.
"I have concerns." Madilyn spoke up. I looked to Madilyn, and quirked a eyebrow. I already knew that she was the one that wanted the morning meeting but hearing say she had concerns gave me pause.
"What concerns?" I asked.
"About my Grandfather and the other Americans on the island." Madilyn replied. All eyes turned to her, including Anders and Reagan. "I think they are up to something."
"Understatement of the year…" Sin said with snort. This earned a chuckle from everyone else in the car. I expected Madilyn to shoot him a cold glare or roll her eyes, instead she looked away and fidgeted a bit. That reaction concerned me more than her stating the obvious.
"What do you know?" I asked, my tone letting everyone else know I was taking this seriously. Madilyn looked relieved then walked over to the navigation column.
"The number of American soldiers monitoring the forest and The King's Glaive has significantly dropped, especially in the last few hours. Almost like they are being pulled and sent somewhere else." Madilyn said.
"How do you know they the number of soldiers is decreasing?" Nate asked, the narrowing his eyes at her. Iris raised her hand meekly.
"That's on me. I asked her once Rainbow Sparkles and Mawt Huwl said they noticed less soldiers in the forest." Iris said.
"How exactly does that translate into something going on?" Louie asked then pointed to the spot on the map where Loki and I had our duel. "Maybe after seeing Chase's new evo destroy and entire mountain Beaufort gain a brain cell and decided to back off."
"My Grandfather is too hard headed to gain a brain cell. If anything he would double down on the path he was taking." Madilyn replied.
"She's right…" Reagan spoke up, drawing everyone's attention. "I was one of the bloated bastard's bodyguards for over a year. I've seen him double down on terrible decision multiple times and getting lucky every time but only because of the sheer number of people that died to make his plans succeed. If he's pulling a lot of surveillance on you then he has something else in the works."
"What would he do?" I asked looking between both Reagan and Madilyn.
"Normally I would say ambush you and try to assassinate you but…that plan doesn't really work against a guy who has a evo that can level a mountain." Reagan said.
"Withdrawing a bunch of troops suggest that plan…" Madilyn chimed in.
"There aren't enough Americans on the island to take on Iris and Sin let alone Chase." Astrid spoke up.
Grimm-Guard exclaimed.
"…I wonder if he knows he mouths what he says in his head when he talks to his evos?" Damon asked. I blinked then frowned at Damon.
"No I don't!" I barked.
"Yes you do." Iris, Jane, and Bo all said in unison.
"Bite me!" I counted then walked over to the navigation column and pointed to where the hotel was on the map. "The soldiers started heading back to the American's hotel a couple hours ago. There are only six in the forest around us right now. Bone-lasher says there were at over a dozen of them in the forest at one time."
"That's what Rainbow Sparkles told me. At least about the number of soldiers." Iris spoke up.
"Shouldn't a bunch of the soldiers watching us leaving be a good thing?" Louie asked.
"Unless they're planning something like Reagan and Madilyn said." Angie answered. I scratched my chin and tapped my foot and couple times then looked to Iris.
"What are your royal bodyguard senses telling you?" I asked. Iris frowned and shook her head.
"Something is off this morning. It's tense and I don't know why. I hate not knowing why." Iris replied.
"Then let's figure out why." I said. I channeled mana into my void pocket and pulled out a enchanted ring then tossed it Iris. "Iris take Reagan and Anders and the three of you capture a couple of the soldiers outside and borrow their faces. Once you do sneak into the hotel and find out all you can about this sudden withdrawal."
"Why us?" Anders asked, pointing to himself and Reagan.
"You two speak English and were former American soldiers. Plus you can't betray me without turning into mutated monsters." I replied. Anders looked down at the star shaped tattoo on his hand and frowned.
"Oh yeah…I forgot…" He groaned. Reagan slapped Anders on the back and shook his head.
"Man up Ned. We chose this path, no backing out now." Reagan said.
"Obviously. I just don't want to turn into a girl again. That was fucking weird." Anders said then instantly regretted it when Iris kicked him in his shins. "OW! SHIT!"
"Turning into a old man wasn't a cakewalk for me either!" Iris snapped.
"OLD! I'm barely thirty!" Anders exclaimed.
"That is old to a eighteen year old." Reagan said then snickered at Anders. Anders glared daggers at the former soldier.
"What are you snickering at? You're older than me!" Reagan snapped.
"Doesn't look it." Iris, Jane, Madilyn, and Astrid all said in unison.
Grandpa Seamus, Damon, Alberto, Haws, Nate, Louie and I all shared a look while Anders looked like he was about to blow a gasket. Whether from embarrassment or rage I couldn't tell yet. Reagan once again snickered at Anders which made the man huff.
"Well excuse me for looking like a mature adult!" Anders snapped.
"No…Old man Seamus looks like a mature adult. You look like a senior citizen." Bo chimed in.
"THE FUCK?!" Ander shrieked then pointed at my grandpa. "He has grey hairs! I don't! How does he look mature while I just look old?!"
"I mean…the man is over seventy…" Haws said while giving my grandpa Seamus side-eye. "Normally I would say black don't crack but that Irishman is whiter than a salt mine."
"I'm Scottish! Not a feckin Irishman!" Grandpa Seamus griped.
"There's a difference?" Jade, Bo, Sin, Indy, Jane, and Iris all asked in unison. Whether they were trying to be cute or it was a coincidence I wasn't sure.
"That's like sayin' all ye Africans look alike. That's darn tasteless that is!" Grandpa Seamus replied.
"Lets not go down this road for conversations today!" I exclaimed and clapped my hands together, gaining everyone's attention. "Iris, Reagan, Anders! Get going, those soldiers aren't going to knock out themselves!"
"You obviously haven't seen the recruitment standards of the Army in the last few years." Anders said snidely and received a slap on the back of the head from Reagan.
"Lets go you idiot!" Reagan said with a tired sigh.
"That fucking hurt!" Ander winced and rubbed the back of his head. Iris shot me an annoyed look and I reciprocated it with an apologetic one. She lead the two men to the next car, and presumably back to her car, where she had a stockpile of weapons she thought I didn't know about.
"While they are doing that what are the rest of us going to be doing?" Haws asked.
"Setting up the exhibition at the Sadamas center." I replied.
"What exhibition?" Jane asked. I smirked and crossed my arms.
"Well exhibition might be the wrong word for it…let's go with tournament." I said. "I had a revelation last night before I passed out from exhaustion. How can we get more people to come to see our evos? Set up a tournament where they earn a prize."
"A tournament!" Madilyn and Jane exclaimed. I nodded and smirked once again.
"How are we going to set up a tournament? We don't have any authorization from the local government for that!" Jane exclaimed.
"And after Bahamut destroyed that mountain last night I don't think the Shogun will be too keen on letting any evos of ours to run wild on the island." Bo pointed out.
"That's why it's not going to take place on the island…technically." I replied with a devilish smirk. Everyone shivered involuntarily then shared a look.
"I already don't like this…" Jane said.
"He's got that look again." Astrid said, looking towards Damon and Alberto.
"What are you up to Starlight?" Grandpa Seamus asked.
"Its one thing to see our evos being overpowered badasses when being commanded by an overpowered badass. It's another thing to have first hand experience and see why they are so powerful. My plan is to get as many soldiers and nobles as possible to have first hand experience fighting alongside our Shaped evos." I explained.
"I see…" Jane muttered thoughtfully. "…what's the prize?"
"A spell sigil card and a coupon for one free evo Shaping consultation." I replied.
"Sounds a little cheap for a prize." Louie said.
"That's only because you are a normie from America." Damon said with an oddly serious tone. "To splicers, finding a spell sigil card that doesn't belong on a college or a wealthy noble is a rarity in and of itself. Receiving one from a splicer that not only defeated the Paragon of spell craft but also the Paragon of splicing is worth it's weight in gold, even if the spell turns out to be useless."
"It would be worth a gamble to say the least." Astrid added.
"So basically we're using Chase's reputation?" Angie asked.
"For better or worse it's helping us." Jane said.
"I keep finding examples of the worse part whenever people see me in my uniform." Sin said then chuckled.
"Well don't sound too happy about it." Bo said snidely.
"We're going to be doing this while Iris and the soldier boys scoops around the American's hotel?" Angie asked.
"Yes. Astrid, Damon, Alberto, and Sin will be on high alert just in case. Jiggles and his squad will also be patrolling." I replied.
"I feel like we should have extra precautions just in case." Madilyn insisted.
"Grimm-Guard will be patrolling overhead, I have Bone-lasher, Fours, Empress, Mzazzi, and Bahamut with me. Not to mention every splicer in the company has at least one shaped evo." I replied.
"What about those of us that don't have evos?" Nate asked.
"Didn't seem like you needed one yesterday." Damon commented and earned a elbow to the gut from Astrid.
"The only one I really want outside of the King's Glaive is Haws and that's because he has the most report with the evos I've shaped. I'll have him equipped with a mana revolver as well as a manacite enchanted item just in case." I said.
"So you want the rest of us to stay on the train?" Angie asked. I nodded and then looked to Bo.
"That includes you Bo." I said sternly. Bo gasped and stomped his foot.
"Wait! Why?!" Bo exclaimed.
"Because Indy is your little shadow and if you want to go do something then he'll want to go do the same thing. And if you two go then KC will try and follow you!" I said pointing to Indy and KC respectively.
"I would not!" Indy exclaimed, sounding insulted. KC waved his little fist in the air while in his mother's arm.
"NOT! NOT!" KC exclaimed.
"Regardless you're all staying here! No kids are to step off this train!" I snapped.
"I'M NOT A KID!" Bo snapped.
"Then you can do your own laundry, cook your own food, pay rent…" Jade said casually while looking at her son with a pointed look. Bo shrunk a little bit at that then crossed his arms.
"Fine…I'm a child…" Bo admitted. I smirked then looked to Jade.
"We won't be setting up your stall today. I'd rather have you and Angie watching over the troublesome trio to make sure they don't escape." I said.
"Why are you talking like we're prisoners?" Indy asked.
"Cause we are!" Bo exclaimed.
"Oh for the love of Thor!" I groaned.