Special Needs Forces

On the next day in the morning, Crow called Biel to the captain's room which used to be his room and now is not. And Biel came and expected Crow to lecture him about going on unpaid stupid missions such as looking for schizophrenia signal without consulting it with the captain and killing monsters on his own, but it turned out it was something else.

"Hello, if you called me here to yell at me that I went to captain my old crew without consulting you, I already know I did wrong and so on, but I think it was worth it and I won’t change my mind, so keep it short"

"I'm calling you here to say goodbye, Biel." Crow replied

"Oh shit, are they firing me?" Biel was terrified

"You have proved that you are not such a moron as the headquarters thought you were and the title of captain is given back to you, so congratulations, good job"

"Oh?" Not Ex-Captain anymore was surprised because that wasn’t what he expected.

"By finding a new monster, you raised your ranking to a higher position, all without the help of me or my people. Especially since half of my people died. ”explained Crow.

"This is probably the first full compliment on your part to me" said the Captain. "So you’re giving me back the command?" he asked.

"I'm going back to my position in Region 16. I'm not needed here anymore" Crow said and she went to get some of her stuff which wasn't much and she looked a little sad when she said it and Captain didn't quite know why but he felt a little bad for it. Crow took Lime and Region 16’s flying vehicle came to pick them up and Captain watched through the window as they flew away. Then Lukier came to the captain's room.

"Captain! I heard you are the captain again! " Lukier exclaimed delighted

"Yes." said Captain, who wasn’t as happy as Lukier and Lukier was confused because he was sure Captain wanted to be captain again.

"Did something happen?" Lukier asked

"I don't know, I thought regaining power would feel better"

"Come on, don't tell me you miss Crow who almost let a monster eat me"

"Not that I’d like her to captain us here instead of me, but she seemed sad as she left and I don't know why. And I don't know why she helped us at all."

"I don't know, she was acting like the story’s antagonist"

”The antagonist of this story is Anas, this ugly unwashed bastard. And we have to talk to Crow at the next meeting on the carrier because obviously everyone has questions to ask and things to say, and no one wants to speak straight, everyone puts their sentences so formally and neatly and I don't like that."

"Well, now that do you say that..." Said Lukier "There is also this situation with Tawny and to be honest I don't think the rankings were the reason why Crow decided not to report that we have a guy who bites people in our team."

"Yeah, it means we have to go talk to Crow normally, not officially, but now it's a bit too late to call a meeting and ask her to open up and talk about her problems."

”By the way, Crow isn't the only side quest we have to do, there’s also that place the monster mentioned. Are we going to go there?"

"Well, I guess" replied Captain and the conversation ended, so they stood there for a moment in silence and looked out the window in the captain's room because it was a very large window and there was a nice view.

But after a while, Lukier left because he was getting bored and went looking for people and found Frezja in the living room, who was rightfully yelling at Rigel and Tawny for the fact that Tawny infects people and it was very awkward to listen to so Lukier joined the yelling because yelling is better than listening to the yelling.

"What were you even thinking?" Frezja yelled and Lukier just came and stood next to her.

"Well, I wanted superpowers too, are you surprised?" Rigel tried to defend himself.

"Yes. This is an unidentified parasite or something that is being carried by the monster. Does this sound safe to you? "

"I didn't know it makes you bite people back then, sorry"

"Tawny, I don't know how he persuaded you to do it" said Lukier

"Good thing you’re here Lukier because my throat was starting to get sore" Frezja said

"I already told you he wouldn’t leave me alone, he followed me and said that he wants to impress girls with it." said Tawny who knew  it was a stupid decision and he regretted it and he said it earlier off camera, but as you can see it did not work because he was still being shouted at.

"It's sad you go to such extremes Rigel" said Lukier

"No one asked for your opinion Lukier, why are you even here at all?" answered Rigel and it was that moment in an argument where no one knew what to answer and there was silence

"Okay, maybe it's not the best idea to yell at each other" said Lukier and he also saw that Tawny and Rigel were fed up, especially Tawny because he didn't even have the strength to answer.

"Yelling won’t help but I have no idea what we have to do with them," Frezja said, worried "Tawny is clearly dangerous to live with and now Rigel can become the same. On one hand, I don’t want them to kick our teammates out and get new ones, but on the other hand, if we don’t do something, it may turn out one day we’ll wake up dead bitten by one of them.” When Tawny heard it, it was obvious he was stressed out like a student who can’t improve his grade in the last 3 days of school, only in this situation it was even worse because it wasn’t a grade that was at stake but the life of his friends, and he wouldn’t want to unintentionally kill his friends.

"Didn't that monster say something about some place where infected half humans half monsters live?" Asked Lukier "In some circular waterfall visible from the highest peak"

"You mean you want to throw us into the forest with some monsters?" Rigel was offended

"It’s probably better than being chopped up in a lab so the scientists would have something to research" Tawny said, although it wasn't a sure-sounding sentence.

"I guess I prefer neither." said Rigel.

"I guess you don't choose what you prefer" Tawny answered, "especially since the safety of the team comes first, I don't want them to die, especially not because of me."

"Aww" said Lukier, and Frezja thought it was a pity no one came up with a better option to keep Tawny and Rigel in the team safely.

Then Captain came and asked what was going on and why he wasn’t invited to whatever it was, and Frezja explained to him that they decided that it was probably dangerous to keep a half monster and a quarter monster in the base when Tawny instinctively bit off someone's limb like some hungry hyena. Captain, however, came up with an alternative solution and ordered these two to become vegetarian so as not to be tempted to eat people who, for the record, consist of meat.

After 2 weeks of such diet, Rigel felt good because he liked veggies and he didn't complain but Tawny sometimes looked like he was about to pass out and it wasn’t good for him or the team. It may have been good for Frezja because it meant Tawny was in med bay more often and she had someone to talk to but it was still bad. The team finally decided to make the difficult decision to release him to that land for people like him where he wouldn’t be able to kill his teammates because the team would be far away. And it was a bit sad that it had to be that way.

Anyway, the whole team went to the ship and Captain was driving because Tawny was stressed out and didn't really want to go to the forest at all. They found the highest peak quickly because you can see it clearly because it’s the highest peak, and from it, just like the monster said, you could see a river down there with a round hole and water pouring into the ground and they decided that it was the circular waterfall. They flew up to the circular waterfall and didn’t see anyone or anything around because it was a total shithole.

"Well now, the monster lied to us" commented Rigel

"Maybe we have to fly inside" said Tanager

"No, the ship won't fit" Rigel began, and then Captain who was piloting the ship flew into the hole without warning and it was terrible like a rollercoaster in an amusement park, except the amusement park is safer than this. Rigel started to scream because he was afraid of rollercoasters, but Captain somehow maneuvered the ship so that they didn’t crash into the cave’s ceiling.

"This is why I hate it when you pilot, Captain!" Rigel shouted as he finished screaming.

"What? I didn't crash."

"I will miss Tawny as a pilot a lot" said Rigel

"He will be missed in general" Frezja said

"Stop talking about me as if I'm dead, I'm still here" said Tawny

They were flying through the underground cave tunnel now and it led into a very large underground forest and it had strange glowing flowers and overall the forest was very nice looking. Captain landed, and parked the ship behind some big rock.

"Wow, it's a really pretty place" commented Lukier, who liked how everything was glowing, "with such a view, maybe you won't feel so bad living here" he said to Tawny but it didn’t cheer him up even if the forest was nice.

Then everyone got out of the ship and Captain tried to cover the ship with some branch that did not hide the ship entirely, or even in half, and the team wondered what the hell he was doing.

"What are you doing, Captain?" Frezja asked

”Well, there is no monitoring in the forest, we have to hide the ship so no one breaks in. Except the branches don’t help. Tanager, stay in the ship and make sure no sinister demons come and steal my laptop from under my chair because I have a laptop under the chair "

"Okay Captain" said Tanager and walked over to Tawny to say goodbye for the last time 

"Tawny you have been my best friend for 4 weeks or even more and I wish you didn’t have to live here and I regret we couldn’t make friendship bracelets but I promise that when I finish guarding this vehicle and then we return without you to the base, I will do it and come back to visit you and maybe I'll bring you cake if I manage to bake a cake and if not then I’ll try again until I do "

"Thanks Tan, it was nice to know you" Tawny said and he felt sorry for Tanager because it was almost certainly a one-way trip and when they come back to base they won’t come here and visit him because not only do they have orders to do, but someone else could find this place if it was visited more often.

Anyway, Tanager returned to the ship to keep an eye on it and the rest of the team went looking for any sign of life. Frezja and Lukier looked at the glowing plants and picked flowers, Frezja picked them as research samples and Lukier simply because they were pretty. Tawny, Rigel, and Captain walked ahead and nobody said anything because everyone was also looking at the pretty flowers. Suddenly, some halfblood girl jumped out of the bushes that didn’t glow and knocked Rigel to the ground like a wild animal and Captain instinctively grabbed her and threw her to the ground and they all aimed their weapons at her. Now it was clearly visible that she also had horns and a tail and stripes and claws like Tawny, only slightly different.

"Wow, that would’ve been be a little kinky if she wasn’t trying to kill me" Rigel said, getting up from the ground

"Why did you attack him?" asked Lukier, who wasn’t aiming a gun at the stranger because he was holding a large bouquet of flowers that he picked on the way.

”Why am I attacking? Why aren't you attacking them?" the stranger turned to Tawny.

"Um..." Tawny didn't know what to say but lowered his gun "Why would I attack them?"

”Those without Mother's blessing are the weak links who use firearms and tools to make up for their shortcomings in real combat. They go the easy way and are not honorable at all."

"Bless - wait, you mean the parasite- I mean uh.." Frezja wanted to ask if this forest’s dwellers were calling the infection a ‘blessing’, but realized it might be a bit offensive and did not want to end up as food for halfbloods.

”I mean the gift that the Queen Mother gave us to be stronger, more agile and overall better than our original forms. I see that you are marked too, so you should already know our system, which she also generously gave us "

"I feel like this is some kind of cult" Lukier whispered to Frezja

"I’ve noticed" Frezja whispered back

"What system is that?" Asked Rigel

”Better than the one on the surface. Instead of treating the sick and injured, it is better to cannibalize them so you get stronger. This is the highest form of natural selection, and it assures us that only the best individuals will survive to eventually return where we came from and spread our rules to people in all regions." Said the stranger and it was a bit awkward because they just found out about a cult that was going to take over the world and introduce barbarism as daily bread.

Tawny, you don’t have to live here if you don’t want to" Captain said in a sympathetic voice, but the stranger didn’t hear because he  was whispering "we’ll find some other solution" and then Frezja came up to them and said

"We’re kind of running out other solutions, I also don’t want to leave Tawny here but I think we could ask this stranger for some antidote"

"I don’t know if you caught that part but they’re trying to take over the world and I think it would be a good idea to check if their progress is at the stage of building houses out of shit and dirt or if they have any technology that should worry us" said Rigel, who suddenly spawned behind them. Then Captain walked over to the stranger.

"Hey so here’s the thing-"

"What do you want?"

"Do you have any halfblood town here?"

"We do but you’ll never find it"

"Take us there"

"Why would I bring some weak fragile suckers to our town?"

"Weak? Who's weak here? we're also halfbloods"

"Oh, seriously?"

”Sure, we're just fresh and we haven't grown horns and stuff yet. We met the Queen Mother earlier and had a nice chat, she gave us the gift and told us to come here"

"Queen Mother never invites fresh meat to join the family"

"Well, we are special. She actually said we’re the last of the round and there will be no new ones coming anymore besides us. We were told that we should come here and begin a revolution so we are the chosen ones, actually. Respect us." Captain came up with some improvisation on the spot and the whole team wished he didn’t because he most likely will get them into some shit. Rigel coughed loudly and gestured for Captain to shut his mouth but Captain did not shut his mouth.

"If what you say is true then fine," said the stranger, "I'll take you to the town, but first you have to get rid of all your weapons."

"What do you mean, all of them?" said Captain, "Do you know how much these cost? A lot, one over a hundred and five times one hundred is five hundred."

"You won't need them anymore, nor your coin system." said the stranger, and then Captain thought for a moment.

"Okay, give me your weapons" he said to his teammates

"Captain, I hope you know what you’re doing" said Tawny, giving him his gun

"What are you even going to do with them?" Lukier asked

"THROW AWAY! Far, faaaar away. Come, help me throw the guns away Lukier ”and Lukier followed him “We'll be back soon” Captain shouted, running away.

”Okay, where are you actually going with all of this? And what the hell are you doing in general anyway?"  Lukier Finally asked when they were alone, still carrying his bouquet of glowing flowers.

"To leave the weapons in the ship, I don’t want to have the paycheck deducted again because some chick says they don't allow weapons. I won’t throw them on the grass.” said Captain.

”Oh that's good, I'll leave the flowers in the ship while we’re there. But what the hell are you doing still?"

”We have to get to their town and see if they’re able to take over the surface and if they have an antidote for Tawny and also I'm curious and want to go sightseeing. But don't be afraid I saw it on TV that if you improvise, you go on a cool adventure and nothing bad happens."

"Captain, you do realize there is a script on TV and in real life it might not work right?" Lukier asked.

"What do you mean? it’s working so far." Said Captain and then they reached the ship and Tanager almost shot them because he thought someone was breaking in, but he was glad that no one was breaking in. Captain and Lukier gave him weapons and flowers and ordered to keep an eye on them too and they returned to the stranger and the stranger went to take them to the halfblood town.

As they were walking through the forest, led by a strange infected girl, Rigel approached her and began to instinctively hit on her as he does to any female

”Actually, you never said your name. I'm Rigel by the way."

"Mari." Said the stranger

"Oh, it's a very nice name, I wouldn't expect your name to be that, but it's still pretty. And this forest is also pretty."

"Rigel" Tawny said louder in the back to remind Rigel to stop being horny on main especially for a cultist who can bite his face off at any moment and Rigel collected himself a bit.

"Umm, actually, if like, for example, some halfblood decided that they don’t want to have the gift from monst- uh- Mother anymore, I mean, pff, who wouldn't? But let's say someone like this exists, is there anything like an antidote or something that would turn them back to being a normal human? I mean a weak, fragile human?"

"Oh. Those who don't accept the gift from mother are cannibalized."

"So I assume that means there’s no cure for it"

"Medicine is for the weak, I told you" Mari was starting to be suspicious because Rigel was starting to sound unnatural and asking strange questions.

"I’m only testing you pff, who needs that anyway hah"

Then they reached the town of halbloods, and there were houses made of shit, or rather houses made of some hardened sandstone, and houses made of metal, and houses made of wood and other materials. The town was full of adult halfbloods and child halfbloods which meant they had their own civilization formed more or less. They all had bigger horns and spikes than Tawny, and the team hoped that didn't mean they were stronger than he was, but unfortunately for them they probably were. When Mari brought them, all the residents came closer to see what was going on. Then Mari started a speech.

"Listen everyone, Mother said it was time to start cleansing the surface and she sent us those chosen ones here to let us know!" The whole team was now stressed out because Captain really made them step in shit in a figurative sense. Everyone gathered started to rejoice because they probably couldn't wait to leave the hole.

"Ey, listen" Captain was trying to buy them some time "I think we need time, you know, prepare, plan the attack and so on..."

"Oh yeah, you haven't been transformed yet!" Mari exclaimed "In this state, you can have the bloodlust instinct and accidentally attack your allies!"

"Bloodlust huh?" Captain asked

"Well, newcomers may not know that when you get the gift from Mother, you may unconsciously have a killer instinct, but when you take your final form and grow horns and a tail, you start to control yourself again" Mari explained.

"So from what I understand, Tawny won't be a threat anymore," commented Frezja

"This one here?" Mari asked “He shouldn't have any uncontrollable impulses anymore but honestly he should want to, he looks like a weakling” Mari commented and it was true that Tawny looked weak compared to everyone else in town.

”Anyway, you should all participate in a ceremonial ritual that will accelerate your transformation and we won't have to waste any more time. I'll go and organize the arena, wait here” Mari said and left.

"Something called a ceremonial ritual can’t be any good, I think we should get out of here, Captain" Rigel said quietly

"We can’t right now because we are in the middle of the town of devils and if we try to escape, they will catch up with us and bite us." the Captain said

"Especially since we left the weapons in the ship." said Lukier

"I don't know if the weapons would do anything, a gunshot wound in Tawny’s leg healed faster than a paper cut on a human" Frezja said "in short, we’re fucked"

"I told you Captain this improvisation wouldn’t work" Said Lukier a little pissed off because everything indicated that they would die and he didn't want to die, especially not in a cave like his two girlfriends earlier.

"We won’t die. We will simply waste time on this ritual and at the crucial moment we’ll start fighting them, I also saw it on TV "

"But we still don't have weapons!" said Lukier

"Then at the crucial moment we run away, gee"

And then Mari came and said the arena was ready and invited them to the ritual. When they got to the arena, some halfblood was waiting for them.

"Okay, which one of you wants to go first?" Mari asked

"Okay, forgive me for asking questions again, but what exactly is this ritual about?" Rigel asked, stressed.

”The one over there in the arena is Tauber, a guy who recently proved to be a weak loser. He will fight one of you for a chance to redeem himself in a barefoot duel without weapons and the loser dies "

"Great, what does the winner get?" Captain asked

"The winner can eat the loser's body to get nutrients that will accelerate your transformation or give you a skill point if you already have horns and a tail but you don't"

"But this is a bit unfair, I mean, you can see  he already completed the tutorial and has the basic items unlocked and we’re on level zero" said Rigel

"Well, you have to prove that you are worthy to live and conquer the world with us, these are the rules."

"Who wants to be meat first?" shouted Tauber, who apparently was starting to get bored standing in the arena.

"Let us think" said the Captain and turned to the team

"Captain, I don't like it at all, neither winning nor losing sounds good here" said Rigel

"It's not fair that this guy already has powers like Tawny and we're not even actually infected" said Frezja.

"Any plan, Captain? is this the moment to start running away?" Tawny asked

"I don't have a plan yet and we are still in the town of savages. Running now would be like being a laser pointer in a room full of cats"

"Actually, if this guy died, I could volunteer as an opponent for one of you" said Tawny

“What? are you totally crazy?" said Rigel

"I say we would pretend to fight and then we’d take any amount of time so that the rest could check out the escape routes"

"That’s a good plan, but this Tauber guy has to die first and I think this is the worst part of the idea" Said Lukier "too bad Tawny can't volunteer to kick his ass, he's probably more likely to succeed killing him th"

"I’ll go" said Captain

”But- are you sure Captain? I don't know if a captain should die first"

"I won't die, Crow trained me and I can kick ass even better than before and no Tauber will be an exception" said Captain and then he left the team behind and told Mari that he was going to the first fire and went down to the arena and the fight started.

Tauber attacked quickly but  Captain dodged and blocked his attacks and the team watched from an auditorium that was slightly higher than the arena itself. The team was concerned about the outcome of the fight, although Captain had been doing well so far. He got a bit beat up, but he also kicked Tauber's ass like he said he would. Finally, Captain dropkicked Tauber and Tauber fell over and the team thought it was over and Captain won, and Captain himself thought he won, but then Tauber got up and turned into stage 2 boss fight and started attacking with tentacles out of his hands and the whole team was surprised, especially Captain who was grabbed by the leg and thrown across the arena into some large haystack.

”What the hell was that? How does he do that, Tawny, can you do that too? " Rigel was asking questions because no one else could take their eyes off the fight that Captain was now losing.

"I don't know, I guess?" Tawny looked at his hand and tried to activate the tentacle attack and he succeeded, and that was kind of ew.

"Oh hell, a bit disgusting but also a bit hot, I hope I get one too" said Rigel

"If you survive at all" Tawny looked at him contemptuously because it was very inappropriate at the moment now that Captain was dying and the others would be next.

As for the Captain, he was already quite beat up by Tauber because with tentacles Tauber had a better range to attack. Captain tried to scream that this was cheating but no one listened to him. Then Lukier jumped down to the arena and threw himself at Tauber so that he wouldn't kill Captain and Tauber lost his balance and fell over.

"Lukier what the hell are you doing, you’re ruining my plan!" Captain shouted

"Shut up now, I’m saving your ass" shouted Lukier

Then some judge of the arena started shouting that it was cheating now because it was 2v1 and that Captain was disgraced now. Then the whole team also ran to the arena

"Do you have any better plan that I don’t know about?" Captain asked

"Nope. Pure improvisation ” said Frezja

"Get those unclean charlatans who don't respect the rules of Queen Mother!" the judge of the arena yelled and the whole village of savages started chasing them, and the team started running through the open door of the arena. The run was not going well for them because the halfbloods ran faster than them, Frezja was falling behind the most because she was the shortest and had short legs. Some halfblood caught up with her and grabbed her leg and made a cut on her leg as if he had cut it with a knife because he had very sharp claws. Tawny and Lukier came back for her and Tawny wounded the attacker the same way, only in the face instead, and Lukier helped Frezja up and escaped to some building that had open door. As the last of the crew entered through the door, Rigel and Captain blocked the door with a wardrobe and a chest and whatever else was in the building. By the way, this building was shitty, it looked like it was made of sand and was about to fall apart and only had one room, so it must have been a garage. Halfbloods couldn't break through the barricaded door but they scratched the building and the team could hear them slowly digging through the hard sand that this crap building was made of. Captain started pacing back and forth as if he was straining all his brain cells to come up with a quick plan to get out of this situation and the rest of the team was slowly losing hope.

”Jesus, we’ll die. We're practically dead. And we'll die in the worst possible way. ” Rigel panicked and was ignored by the rest.

"Can you walk?" Lukier asked Frezja and set her down on the ground.

"Not really, those damn things have cutthroat hands... no offense to Tawny" Frezja said and grabbed her leg. Tawny saw that Frezja’s wounded leg was hurting, so he bit his hand and dripped his blood on her wound because his blood was thick and had regeneration.

"What are you doing?"

"Lending you my regeneration, when the savages break through the wall, you will at least be able to run away instead of lying there like meat on a plate"

"That’s sweet of you but if it were under any other circumstances it would be super unhygienic and I'll probably get infected like Rigel did"

"Damn, now that you say it I would’ve loved to know it was possible to spread it that way because-" Rigel started.

"Don't finish this sentence Rigel" Tawny said embarrassed.

Then there was a moment of silence among the team because no one was saying anything but you could hear the sounds of banging and scratching on the building and the sounds  were becoming more and more clear and it didn't mean anything good.

"Actually, if we’re going to die..." Frezja began "I want to say that Tawny is a bit hot, it was inappropriate to say it in the base, but if we’re dying anyway I want you to know" Tawny didn’t have time to answer because Rigel answered for him 

"Really?! You too? Jesus, why does everyone love Tawny, he barely speaks and if he does it’s some depressing shit, why does nobody love me?"

"I thought you mentioned Frezja being at the bottom of your hot chicks list" said Tawny

"Uh I mean when she’s in her regular normal outfit it’s like 5/10, no offense, but in armor it raises to 8/10" Rigel explained.

"Okay, to be honest, I should probably be offended that you put me on some lists with such a low rating, but considering that the list is yours, I'm glad that I'm that low, at least I don't have to deal with your simping like everything else that has tits"

"You know what, now I'm offended" said Rigel

"Actually, if we’re telling our secrets now..." said Lukier, "then... Captain, do you remember how about two years ago I accidentally sexted you instead of my girlfriend and you responded? I just wanted to say your answer was better than hers but I didn’t tell you back then because it would’ve been a bit gay." The team was speechless and Captain didn't answer, Captain seemed to not hear them at all because he was walking in circles the whole time and was probably thinking.

“Since everyone is sharing their secrets, I guess I can tell you now that I killed both of Crow’s people by chewing through their arteries” Tawny said and then they all fell silent again.

"You know what, you somehow manage to ruin the moment of dying for us" Rigel said disgustedly after a moment.

"Captain?" Lukier poked Captain "Any comments? confessions? thoughts? you know, before we die?"

"Actually, I have a question," said Captain

“Yes?''

"If in rock paper... in this game where you play with rock paper and scissors, if there were metal and sand, what would win?"

"I didn’t expect such a question in the current situation, but um... I guess metal?"

"And this building we’re in is made of sand, right?"

”Made of hardened sand, it looks a bit like sand, but if halfbloods can destroy it with their bare hands, metal would probably win. What, you wanna give them a shovel? " Frezja asked

"Better" Captain smiled ominously and pulled out the communicator "Hey Tanager, how's it going, because we are being attacked by barbarians"

"Oh no, it's terrible Captain. And I am pretty good, I'm still keeping an eye on the ship, weapons and flowers, and I put them in the water so that they wouldn't wither."

"Well done Tan, now I have new orders for you"

”Yes, sir! what should I do?"

"Take the controls of the ship, you will have to fly to the city of halfbloods to save us"

"But Captain, I don’t have a license for ships"

“It's cool, you can use mine.” It didn't make sense, but this convinced Tanager

"Okay, so what should I do?"

"Press the red button to fire up and then it's almost like riding a bike with parts of a motorboat"

"Uhmmm"

"What? - Oh no.” Captain only now remembered that Tanager was colorblind. At this point, the halfbloods also started to break through the walls and Tawny and Rigel were taking parts of the barricade to be able to barricade new holes in the sand building.

"Captain, this building is not going to last long, we’re about to die either from halfbloods or the sand will collapse on us" said Lukier

"Tan, focus, it's the biggest button you can see, then it will turn on the screen with the radar, you’ll see some dots, fly into these dots, this is an order" and Captain disconnected

“Good thing Helios fixed the radar that shows the locations of our communicators" said Lukier

"It doesn't matter because in a few seconds we'll be dead" said Rigel, watching as more holes appeared in the walls.

The whole team, except for the Captain, was ready to die until they heard the whir of the ship's engine in the background and all the savages stopped smashing the building like zombies and looked at the source of the sound also like zombies. The team now had a spark of hope and Rigel peered through the hole in the wall and saw the ship rapidly approaching.

"ON THE GROUND" Rigel shouted and they all jumped off or fell over and the ship crashed into the sand building collapsing part of the ceiling on one side and that part of the ceiling fell on the savages who were now trapped in the sand. The ceiling didn’t collapse on the team because they were standing in a corner where walls weren’t scratched. They all boarded the ship and Tawny took the helm because Captain wouldn't be able to maneuver the ship from the ruins of the sand building.

"Hello team" Tanager greeted as everyone got in "Tawny, are you not staying with your new friends?" He asked

"Change of plans, I'm back with you guys" Tawny said in a hurry as he tried to start the ship but one of the engines on one wing was a bit broken.

"That's great because I missed you" replied Tanager

Then Tawny started the ship but was pulled to one side by the damage, he barely flew out of the building and they thought they were already saved, but some halfblood still jumped on their windshield and they got scared and then Tawny turned on the wipers and the attacker was thrown to the ground. From the rear window they could see that the furious crowd was still chasing them and the ship was barely flying and was about to crash, but they somehow managed to fly up the circular waterfall, just to hit the ground with a parabolic movement in some swamp on the edge of the river. Everyone was shocked that they were even alive.

"Um, those things that were said in the sand building… let’s forget they were ever said" said Lukier and everyone agreed it was a good idea. As the team cooled down, Captain called Melisanda to tell her about the next discovery in Region 13 and to call for some towing and repair of the ship that had suffered in this adventure. The announcement of this discovery forced revealing Tawny's situation to headquarters with a few changed details so that they wouldn’t find out about the killings or about the forgery of documents. Pro League Monster hunters were sent to secure the circular waterfall so that no cultist accidentally surfaced, and they didn’t use Tawny for research because they caught some other halfblood from the underground forest. Overall, Tawny was allowed to stay and work for the monster hunting unit legally even though he was infected, because research had confirmed that Tawny in his current state should no longer have any urges to kill and it’s safe to stay in the same room with him. Thirteen got another level up in the rankings and everything ended well.