Mistwoven Healer

"This is ridiculous!" Akari exclaims, pacing back and forth across the living room like a caged tiger being taunted by its handler. In my opinion, her roar is even more intimidating than a tiger's — if also a lot cuter.

"How has that lunatic supplanted everyone else in the GDF power structure so quickly?!" Akari continues ranting while doing her absolute best to wear down the room's expensive rug. Violet power flickers with black lightning crackles and snaps around her, even in her rest state. The inky lightning is a discordant sight in the shimmering morning light shining in through the window — frighteningly, it seems to devour the light itself.

Despite this, though, I fully trust Akari to restrain herself as I step up to her and place a comforting hand on her shoulder. Even still, I smell ozone as I lay my hand on the soft fabric of her shirt.

"It'll be fine, Akari," I say lightly, keeping my voice soft in an attempt to calm the beast. "We've survived everything else; we can survive this, too."

Akari lets out a shaky breath, the anger on her face slowly dissipating under my touch. "I know," she says, turning and giving me a quick hug. "But… we've barely managed to survive one incursion zone a week without casualties. How in the stars are we going to do two?"

For a moment, I just stand there, breathing in Akari's familiar scent — the smell of ozone having joined the lavender of her shampoo. Then, I give her the best smile I can manage. "Together… we'll survive it together."

Akari returns my smile weakly. "Yeah…" she murmurs, before producing her phone from her inventory. Looking at it, she winces.

"Looks like Baylee is having a mental break, we'd better get going," she says, her smile turning a touch more genuine at the thought of the meticulous Baylee having her plans shredded. The poor girl is probably rushing around and trying to organize everything even as we speak.

None of us expected to be going into an incursion zone today, and getting Hayley ready in time is going to be an adventure. The mere thought gives me flashbacks of Audrey trying to prepare me for my own first incursion zone, and I grit my teeth at the knowledge that Hayley is going to be going through a similar trial by fire. Still, she wants to rank up, and if this new incursion schedule that Nightsong put out to the entire GDF holds true, we'll all be doing a lot of ranking up in the near future.

"Yeah," I agree with Akari. "Let me just go tell Dad what's going on really quick. He made me promise to tell him before I do anything dangerous, and this definitely counts."

"She's a complete fucking psycho!" Baylee is yelling as Akari and I slip into her apartment. Given the fact that we're all over here so often, she just gave us all a key so she won't have to get the door so often.

As we step into the living room, I see Baylee pacing in much the same manner Akari did, ranting at a shellshocked-looking Hayley.

"Is everything okay?" I ask, moving past the kitchen and over to the living room where Baylee and Hayley are.

Baylee whirls towards me, her eyes wide with anger and well-concealed fear. "Do you know what Nightsong did?" Baylee demands.

Akari moves up beside me, leaning against the wall as she watches the scene. "So far as I can tell," she says, "Nightsong has been doing quite a lot since she's arrived. Doubling the incursion zone missions for new sentinel teams, pulling blue sentinels like Calan back into combat, oh, and if the news is to be believed, she's currently painting the streets of Nagano red with Reaver blood."

Despite the mood of the room, I can help but note how Akari sounds rather pleased about that last part. And, while I don't like killing as a general rule, even I have to admit that monsters like the Reavers are better off in the ground. I just hope Nightsong is sparing victims like Candice was in her rampant killing spree. Some of those people need healing, not an execution.

"Not that," Baylee groans, running a hand through her hair. She must have been doing that a lot recently, too, as her hair looks a lot less immaculate than usual. "This has to do with Hayley, and I guess her addition to our team wasn't as permanent as we thought."

My eyes widen, and I suddenly realize why Hayley looks so shellshocked. "She's being moved to another team?!" I exclaim, anger washing through me in a wave.

On the couch, Hayley nods slowly. "I got an email this morning… I'm getting added to a team in your generation that doesn't have any combat experience — Team Greenthumb. They said it would be better to group us all together. They… they're still making us go to an incursion zone today. Just like you all."

"You've called Prof?" I ask Baylee, who nods instantly.

"It was the first thing we did," Baylee says, restarting her pacing. "He says he can't do anything. Ever since Nightsong took over, she's vastly limited his power — said that his training methods were too safe and that we needed to take risks if we were going to beat the Volcora."

"And there's nothing else we can do?" I question.

Hayley being on another team isn't the end of the world. However, I'd very much like her with us, where we can keep an eye on her. I've met the members of Team Greenthumb, and none of them are bad people, but they are already a group of five, and shoving Hayley into their team dynamic the morning before their first incursion sounds like a recipe for disaster. Hopefully, they'll have adequate supervision to go into an incursion in the first place, but still…

"Prof said that we can talk to Nightsong ourselves if we don't like it," Hayley murmurs, her head in her hands. "Somehow… I can't imagine that meeting going well."

"We have a few hours until that meeting, regardless," Baylee adds. "However… we need to make sure we prepare Hayley for the very real possibility that she will be going in with another team today."

I bite my lip, considering for a moment. "Does she have a mentor? Also, is her incursion zone sooner or later than ours?"

Baylee sighs, "Her assigned mentor is me, as apparently all the older sentinels are going to be too busy. Also, her incursion zone transport leaves at noon, and Nightsong gets back from Nagano at ten or eleven. We'll have to get a meeting with her and convince her to transfer Hayley to our team by then."

"We're doing what now?" Claire calls from the doorway, striding into the room with a manic grin and a vaguely annoyed-looking Haruto hot on her heels.

I turn to them, smiling and noting how common it is for the two of them to show up together. Interesting, I wonder if something's happening between them or if they've just been spending a lot of time together.

"We're about to start training Hayley how to fight so she doesn't die today. Then we're going to go argue with a homicidal dictator who also happens to be an A Rank sentinel," Akari calls in a dry tone.

Claire giggles, "Sounds like fun! When do we start?!"

As it turns out, we start in a training room. Because the GDF has those, so there was no need to kick the crap out of me in the backlot of Ratchet's shop, Audrey! Anyway… the training room is in the sentinel part of the building and is more or less a massive box of reinforced steel that smells strongly of the lemony cleaning solution the staff here use. Anything less and there would be a serious risk of even weaker sentinels blowing a hole out the side of the building.

Luckily, unlike my experience, Baylee has actually been teaching Hayley about the basics of combat with the volcora. Even having taken her down to a similar combat room to this one to have her try out her assault state, and to Ratchet's shop to buy some starting equipment. So, in short, she's already in a lot better shape than I was going into my first incursion.

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As such, our goal here today is to teach her some of the things that will help her with team dynamics, whether she ends up on our team or not.

"Alright," I say, taking Hayley by the arm as my team members begin to gather around us. "Today, you're going to be in an incursion zone, and while you've learned the basics of your powers and being a sentinel, you need to learn how to work with a team."

Hayley nods hesitantly, "Right… Baylee said that I'm a backline mage, so I'm supposed to be back by you and her?"

"Pretty much," Haruto says, shifting to the front of our group as an example — a moment later, Claire steps up beside him. "We call this the core of our team. Claire and I are your stable frontline; it's our job to stand between the volcora and our more vulnerable members. Those members are primarily Baylee and Serena, but sometimes it's just Baylee, as Serena likes to flit about the battle a lot. She and Akari are very mobile, so don't feel like you need to follow if they go wandering off."

"Essentially," Baylee adds, "if you're standing next to me, you're in a good spot."

Haruto nods, "Now, this formation works great against the rank and file of the volcora. They're mostly dumb beasts without much going for them other than raw strength and aggression. Still very dangerous, but we wouldn't be worried about a team wipe unless they are extremely high rank or are very plentiful."

Seeing where Haruto is going with this, I decide to chime in. "The ones you really need to watch out for are the volcora with exotic powers. These are the ones that don't fight in normal ways, and so they catch you off guard. I almost died in my first incursion to a volcora called a gazer that paralyzes and eventually kills anything that looks at it."

"Pretty much just watch out for the weird ones!" Claire adds happily. "See anything weird happening around you? It's probably some kind of awful monster causing it."

"Okay…" Hayley says, her eyes downcast. "But what do we do when that happens? It sounds like if something catches you off guard, you're just done?"

"Not necessarily," Haruto says. "However, that is the main reason we want you with us and not with a team of complete newbies. Stronger sentinels have more powers and thus more defensive tools to work with — even our assault state shields are stronger. That means that it's far more likely that one of us will be able to counteract the powers of a stranger volcora. Also, we have Serena to put us back together if we get hurt, which isn't a benefit you'll have on Team Greenthumb. That's why we had you get some magical medical supplies."

"Right, because those supplies will only work if I use them?" Hayley asks.

I nod, "Yep, magical medical supplies work best if the person who purchased and thus earned them uses them on someone else. They also work decently if someone uses them on the person who purchased them. They do work if I buy them and directly give them to you, but only for a short time before the effectiveness starts getting to the point where it just isn't worth it."

Hayley pauses, as if considering this, but Baylee jumps in before she can ask any more questions.

"Assorted advice aside," she says, "we've only got a short time before our meeting with Nightsong and then deployment — either with us or with Team Greenthumb. In that time, we're going to teach you how to stand in a team and how to move around on a battlefield. The trick is all about keeping the core of your team together and positioning yourself around it."

For about another hour, we walk Hayley through the various formations that our team uses as well as how we shift formations in a fight. Due to the fact that a lot of Baylee's strategies are derived from those standardly taught to sentinel teams, this practice will be helpful no matter whose team Hayley ends up with.

Despite this, I can't help but feel nervous as the time to go and meet with Nightsong quickly approaches. Prof and Baylee already set up the meeting, but it's hard to imagine any meeting with Nightsong being pleasant.

Still, we would all feel a lot more comfortable if Hayley could come with us on this deployment. As a team, we've already seen a lot of disasters and managed to survive them — mostly through blind luck, but still. I can't imagine that being a sixth on an untested team would be safer than being a sixth with us. Not to mention that Baylee determined that her dominion art and mine would combo together extremely nicely, and I'm excited to see it in action.

None of us dare shift into our assault states during our training with Hayley, nor do we allow her to do so. A measure, though hopefully unnecessary, to ensure mana toxicity is kept extremely low. We've all seen how bad things can get, and racing against that particular clock again is something none of us wants to do.

And so, we're all fresh and ready to fight when we leave for our meeting with Nightsong. Not that it'll do us any good…

Nightsong, as it turns out, didn't requisition Karma's office as I expected. Despite all the powers the A Rank council seems to hold over the GDF, they can't just sweep in and demote a general like that. Even if she can seemingly do just about everything else.

No, we find Nightsong in a conference room in the upper levels of the GDF. This one isn't quite as bland as the one she previously teleported me to, having nice décor and a view of the city far below.

Nightsong, as seems to be her usual, sits with her booted feet kicked up on the table. As I watch, she produces various different weapons from her inventory — mostly knives, swords, and other bladed implements. Each one she produces is either stained or dripping with blood… red human blood that fills the room with its metallic scent.

With each bloody weapon, likely the ones she used to carry out her slaughter in Nagano, Nightsong wipes it down with a rag that never seems to get bloody itself before letting the weapon vanish into her inventory and producing another one.

"Don't just stand there," Nightsong says, not looking up from her grizzly work. "Come and take a seat."

Standing in the entrance of the conference room, we all exchange glances. As is our near-unconscious reaction to threats, Haruto and Claire step forward in front of me and Baylee, with Akari taking up a rear-guard position — good for breaking off with me when I need to move away from the core for whatever reason. Hayley… well, Hayley just looks shellshocked and doesn't move at all until Haruto gently moves her behind him.

After none of us move to take a seat, Nightsong lets out a long-suffering sigh. "Or don't…" she murmurs before looking up. "What can I help you with?" she asks, holding a massive glaive casually in one hand that drips blood down onto the thoroughly ruined table.

In a maneuver that almost seems practiced, Haruto and Claire shift to either side to allow for Baylee to walk between them, her demeanor and appearance once more immaculate. "Ma'am, our friend Hayley became a sentinel by bonding to one of the soul gems before they were stolen. As there aren't enough such people to make a full sentinel generation or even a complete team, they have been added to existing teams from the previous generation as sixth members.

"We had requested that Hayley be added to our team due to our prior experience with each other, and this request was seemingly approved. However, recently we've learned that she has instead been transferred to Team Greenthumb for their first deployment. We have come to request that Hayley be moved back to Team Picnic and made into a full and official member of our roster."

Nightsong laughs, making her glaive vanish into her inventory as a set of wicked-looking knives takes its place. Each and every one seems to have a different set of inscriptions. "Very formal and polite given what I did to one of your members, Miss Whitlock. Don't you want to yell at me? Scream at the unfairness of how I harmed your little blue sentinel? Attack me even?"

Baylee's eye twitches, but she doesn't otherwise react, "Yelling and fighting would be completely unprofessional," Baylee says, her voice calm and unchanged. "To harm another sentinel who is just trying to do her duty would be childish, Ma'am."

I give a slight wince at the jab. There's no way Nightsong will miss the fact that, by hurting me, she would be considered childish by Baylee's statement.

However, Nightsong shows no sign of offense. Instead, she sits up straight and allows her knives to clatter to the table. "Very well, Miss Whitlock. To business, then. Why should I bother entertaining your request? You are a D Rank team, and your missions will be commensurate with that power level. An E Rank sentinel would be more of a hindrance than a help until several incursions have passed. At best, she's a handicap and at worst, she'll be a corpse."

At this, a small twinge of a smile tugs at Baylee's lips, and I know why. In combat, it's very likely that Nightsong would trounce any of us, even discounting her overwhelming power advantage. But politics, manipulation, and wordcraft are what Baylee grew up around. It's part of why we were confident enough to come to this meeting in the first place.

"Perhaps with another sentinel, you would be correct," Baylee begins. "However, as Hayley's mentor, I have personally worked with her on our team's strategies for days now. My entire team already knows her and has proven able to work with her. She will synergize well with us, and certainly you'll agree that she'll be safer with us than with a team of strangers."

Nightsong pauses, watching Baylee for a long moment with keen intelligence behind her eyes. Finally, she speaks up once more.

"You seem to be under a misconception, Miss Whitlock. I don't need a reason to transfer your friend. I can just ignore your argument and transfer her because I feel like it," she says, leaning back in her chair. "However, I feel the need to prove to you that I'm not the monster you seem to think. Believe it or not, I do actually care for the health of my sentinels, even your team members."

Finally, Baylee's calm, placid expression breaks as the first signs of anger begin to shift into her expression. "Forgive me if I don't believe that, Ma'am. Upon first meeting her, you kidnapped, intimidated, and then intentionally harmed one of my team members. So far, you've done nothing to convince me you aren't the blood-thirsty tyrant you seem."

"Then perhaps this will help," Nightsong says, twining her hands behind her head. "Your friend will be transferred back to your team and will participate in your upcoming incursion as a member of Team Picnic. Also, to your injured team member," Nightsong glances my way, "I extend my apologies. It wasn't her to whom I was displaying my ire."

Oddly, at this, Nightsong glances to a spot above and slightly behind me. She gives the spot a knowing look before returning her gaze to Baylee.

Almost as one, my teammates and I also turn to look at the seemingly random spot behind me, but I can't make out anything there. If anything, the bit of paint on the wall might be a little brighter, but I could just be imagining it.

"Thank you for your apologies and for the official addition of our friend to our team," Baylee says diplomatically, although her tone is troubled. "I'm certain you have a lot of work to get back to."

Nightsong nods, her eyes flicking up to the point on the wall one final time before she meets Baylee's eyes with a stern expression. Baylee returns the slightest of nods in return before turning and striding for the door.

As soon as we're all outside, Claire turns to Baylee, looking creeped out. "Okay, you need to explain what in the stars that was!" she exclaims, looking around at the empty air suspiciously.

"Later," Baylee says, striding purposefully down the hall. "We have an incursion to prepare for. Let's get moving, everyone!"