The Grand Battle S2G1! [Round Six: Eddelin City]

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

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John had always felt out of place in the human camp. This was probably because he wasn't actually human.

His appearance was close enough that he had been able to pass his unusual hands off as a birth defect; this had bought him the sympathy of the human recruiters who had found him just after awakening. Well, one of them, rather. Cedric had been rather indifferent.

But Alex had been kind enough. He'd been a good friend to John, and had kept him safe from Hoss' (or rather Reinhardt's, in John's opinion) more unpleasant followers.

It had been all right, if not perfect. And then, he learned that Alex had awakened, and he was worried.

No, Alex, not Alex. This was probably going to get confusing.

Alex had been from the same battle as John. He'd know that John wasn't actually human. And he probably held enough of a grudge to call attention to it.

Luckily, Alex was sympathetic. He carefully kept John out of Alex's sight, and kept them together on scavenging missions. As a result, John stayed with Alex, and Alex simply assumed John was with the nonhumans.

It was even more fortunate that there was another John, so when somebody mentioned John, Alex assumed it was him. Alex, of course, knew the truth.

The story would be even more confusing to explain to someone who knew not only that John wasn't actually human, but that John technically wasn't either, even if his reasons for hiding it were very different.

Regardless, when Alex and John arrived back at the human base with their new guest, they found that John was already there (along with Cedric; Alex wasn't there at all) and he had quite a lot of new guests with him.

"Well, this is a surprise!" Alex and John's guest said. "Excuse me, I need to talk to my associates for a moment."

And then Reinhardt called John (no, John, not John) into his office. John watched and wondered what it was all about.

***

"Where is she?" Reinhardt shouted. "These strangers insist on meeting the Hand of Silver. And with that being out of the question, I need to contact her."

"She seems to have disabled her communicator," John replied. "If I were to guess, I'd say she's going on some ill-advised rescue mission for Girnham and doesn't want to be interrupted."

"And how exactly did she find out he had been captured? It certainly wasn't from me."

"That's hardly relevant now, is it? What's relevant is that you want me to find her. Or did you simply call me into your office to vent?"

Reinhardt took his helmet off specifically so that John could see him glaring.

"Find her. And bring her back here at once."

***

She was, as it happened, already occupied. Reinhardt would have opposed her plan, on the basis that any unawakened couldn't be trusted until they were proven human.

But her brother would have understood.

Unfortunately, at the moment she was preoccupied with the young man whose gloves were flying after her, and the young woman with a bladed trombone standing in her way.

The woman was rather surprised when her instrument was lifted out of her hands, and its sharp blades pointed towards her. She dodged as it floated towards her.

Then it started moving faster. Steven, in a panic, sent his gloves over to restrain the trombone as Elimine dove to the ground.

The musician was unharmed, but her attention had been diverted from her quarry. The robed figure had slipped past them.

Only to be blown back by a strong gust of wind.

Packston and an unfamiliar old man now stood in her way. Wonderful. More problems.

***

Meanwhile, at the Bearded Swordsman, Plan B was underway.

"I do not think this color suits him, dahling," Fiorella said to her grumpy assistant.

"What does it matter? He just needs to look like Konka Rar. Who I'm pretty sure had a black robe. Or at least that's what everyone thinks." Eureka moved the cloth into a suitable position before snipping off the loose bits.

"Um, are you sure this is a good idea?" asked the voice behind the skull mask. "I mean, I haven't exactly practiced on these stilts..."

"Relax!" a voice underneath him said. "We'll do all the walking, it'll be easy."

"Hush!" said another voice, a little to the right of the first. "Don't talk too much or we'll blow his cover!"

Gadget walked carefully - or rather, his stilts did - around the bar. He nearly tripped a few times, but Birch and Beech soon had the hang of things.

"Great. Now can I take this ridiculous getup off? We don't even know if we're going to need it yet."

"Oh, but you carry it so mahvelously, dahling! Although it could still stand to be a nice shade of purple..."