Prism and The Red Wolves

A ball of blue plasma erupted out of the top of the surfaced speedsub as a mighty explosion rocked the Athean coast. Its shockwaves echoed up the coastline’s tall, black armored cliffs while the wind and rain continued to buffet the area. The explosion was soon felt within the underground interior of Getla Base, causing several rooms and hallways of the already-battered facility to cave-in.

The force of the blast even created a tsunami large and fast enough to cause the base’s automatic warning system to begin to blare. Several Etrysian boats in the area that had managed to stay afloat during the brutal storm prepared to be sunk by the wave that rapidly became two meters tall. The tsunami began to move several kilometers out in all directions.

Prism, however, was determined not to let his magic cause anymore widespread destruction to his allies.

He flew out of the hole that the reactor explosion created like a cork shot out of a bottle of champagne, soaring high above the fast-developing scene in the coastal waters. With his eyes glowing light blue, Prism pointed his arms straight down at the submarine that sat at the center of the tsunami. He saw the tall wave expanding like a ring around the ship. Overflowing with the power he'd absorbed on the ship, Prism directed a mighty spell down at the tsunami.

He brought up his arms slowly, causing the air in the region to suddenly become frigid. And with a snap of his fingers, Prism almost-instantly created a three-meter tall ring of ice that encircled the tsunami. With a diameter of two kilometers, the wall of ice was soon struck hard by the tsunami, stopping the large wave before it could harm Etrysian ships or Getla Base. The frozen barrier then shattered and faded away, keeping the massive displacement of water from severely damaging anything else.

Prism then flew down onto the outer walls of the base where he’d been earlier with his teammates. There he saw the border guns he'd disabled slowly mending themselves, like trees becoming taller while growing branches that reached up to the sky. The large gun emplacements were sealing up the round white domes that sheltered their fire control systems, while the once lengthy and formidable white barrels that pointed dramatically out of those domes began to regrow as well.

Prism smiled at the sight, marveling at the tenacity of the living weapons. He’d almost forgotten that he'd cleansed the border guns of the nanites that threatened to seize control of them, just before he'd shot himself up into the sky as pure electricity half-an-hour earlier. He stood victoriously in the falling rain, remembering that nothing was truly unsalvageable; even after all the mistakes he'd made that night. He closed his eyes and listened to the thunder echoing in the stormy skies above him. He could sense that the coast's natural balance of mana was nearly restored, and that the worst of the storm was behind them.

"Prism, report to the CCC!" Prism heard Deriges' second-in-command's gruff voice yell over the intercom speakers on the rooftop.

Prism, who's head was tilted reverently up at the sky, smiled and returned his attention to his mission. He used the intercom system within a guard booth to quickly brief his allies on what had happened on the speedsub. When Deriges urged him yet again to hurry back, Prism told him that he was on his way. He dried himself off using a simple spell that he cast with a small twirl of his right forefinger. Prism then used the roof's lift to quickly get to his destination deep within the base.

Despite all the damage it had suffered that night, most of the base's systems were functioning again thanks to Prism purging the base's bio-system of the supervirus. The bio-system had nearly fully recovered from the ordeal while Prism was on the speedsub, even after Prism had drunk deep of its energy for a second time to get there. He'd imbued the bio-system with a spell of enhanced regeneration before he'd left, bolstering its own innate healing abilities while saving Prism the effort of restoring its functionality all-at-once.

When Prism's lift brought him to the command level of the base, he saw many happy faces that congratulated him on his success. He saw cracks in the walls of the hall he walked down, and he sent forth wisps of green magic that repaired the damage. The soldiers that he passed by within the hallway looked upon him with awe and gratitude, making Prism smile widely at them. By the time he entered the CCC, he was in a state of jubilation that was clear to all.

Prism was quickly offered a chair by an officer near the door. He dared not sit down, however, because he knew that he would immediately fall asleep. The night's events had truly taken their toll.

"The triumphant hero! What a sight that was!" Deriges said loudly while a few soldiers glanced over at Prism with relieved eyes. "Their ship is sinking as I speak!"

Prism saw his teammates approach him from various areas around the large circular room. Jaik was the first to reach him, as he'd been standing impatiently near the door the moment the base had detected Prism's return. Prism could feel the warmth, joy, and affection emanating from the young man before Prism even saw him.

Jaik grabbed Prism the moment he was within arm's reach and pulled him in for a tight hug. Jaik bent his back and buried his face in the crook of Prism's neck. Prism could feel the warm wetness of tears there, which made him wrap his slender fingers around the back of Jaik's neck and hold him tightly.

"Oh my, someone is quite happy to see you, Prism." Leanna said with a giggle as she and the rest of the team came upon Jaik and Prism intimately linked.

"Called it." Srell said with a smug smirk up at Lorias, who was standing beside him.

Lorias smiled knowingly with closed eyes and a smirk of his own.

"Come on, kids. Break it up. There's still a lot to do, and not a lot of time to do it." Ursun urged them in a heartfelt, fatherly tone while placing his heavy hands on Jaik and Prism's backs.

Jaik brought his face out of Prism's neck and quickly wiped the tears from his eyes. He cleared his throat and nodded respectfully up at Ursun like a soldier would nod to his superior. Prism still smiled brightly; heartened by the fact that he'd saved all of them.

"We got a bit worried when we lost contact with you." Jaik said softly.

"I'll get that restored now, if that's okay." Prism said while looking up at Ursun.

"Sure, but not here. That's an ability that I don't want to be widely known." Ursun said quietly.

"You look quite tired." Lorias stated as he looked deeply within Prism's brown eyes.

"I am. I've really pushed my body to its limits tonight." Prism said more honestly than he'd like.

"We have a few hours before sunrise. Deriges has set up his quarters for you to rest in. I suggest you make full use of it." Ursun said after placing both his hands on the chitinous brown shoulder pauldrons of Prism's Etrysian body armor.

Prism felt a genuine concern and an imminent worry in Ursun's thoughtful words. Prism looked around him and saw that everyone was still busy at work in the CCC, as if their enemies hadn't been utterly disabled.

"We're still expecting Vadam to launch a full-scale invasion force in the days to come. The storm and the quakes have bought us time; time that we'll use to repair the damage to the base and to prepare further." Leanna explained when she saw Prism become aware of their continuing situation.

"Just get some rest." Jaik said almost out of exacerbation. "You won't be any good to anyone if you collapse at a crucial moment."

"The storm-"

Prism stopped himself from telling them the truth, not wanting their worry to turn into panic again. He sighed while they looked at him expectantly. They were already sure that he had bad news to share.

"Spit it out." Srell said while being the first to be annoyed, as usual.

"The storm will subside soon. There'll be clear weather for the next few days, since the region's mana will have stabilized." Prism said more vaguely than his teammates would have liked.

"Define soon." Lorias asked.

"Sunrise." Prism stated definitively.

"That changes everything. I'll inform Deriges." Ursun said gravely. He turned to walk towards the center of the room, but then turned back towards Prism and said sternly, "Go get some sleep. That's an order."

Prism nodded diligently before Ursun left to speak with Deriges. Leanna, Lorias, and Srell told Prism not to worry before the three of them returned to their work in assisting the command officers within the room. Prism was left alone with Jaik, who waved his right arm towards the sliding metal doors behind Prism.

"Let's get you to bed." Jaik said with a good-natured glint in his eyes.

While the two of them walked out of the CCC, Prism asked Jaik about what had happened while he was on the speedsub, and why everyone seemed eager to keep him uninformed. Jaik quickly explained how Leanna and Remades had been able to show how badly damaged the ship was shortly after Prism had made it aboard. And with the sudden restoration of the base's functions, Deriges had been able to create a contingency plan that would involve scrambling the speedsub's electronic systems using an experimental weapon that the base itself had.

Jaik mentioned that Deriges was just about to fire the weapon when Prism destroyed the speedsub's lone surviving fusion reactor. Because the base had detected that the ship had been left largely powerless, Deriges decided not to use the weapon. The speedsub had taken on such catastrophic damage from the magically-boosted explosion that it had begun sinking rapidly the moment Prism flew off of it. Jaik then told Prism how they were preparing for large sections of the base to be flooded by the impending waves before Prism stopped the tsunami.

The unfortunate news that Jaik shared was that the Sguvan cyborg woman, who they believed to be one of the Queen's special agents, had indeed staged her death within the sticky webbing that they'd thought she was trapped in. At the cost of her unmodified right leg, she'd managed to escape when the storm rolled in. The torrential rain caused the webbing to dissolve just enough for her to wriggle out of it. They had no idea where she'd escaped to.

"And what happened to Rhonan?" Prism asked Jaik once they'd made it outside Deriges' quarters.

"We lost track of him after the explosion. He was on a small boat with your facsimile when it happened. But with how tough these freaks have been, I wouldn't be surprised if he managed to survive somehow, too." Jaik said angrily while he remembered Rhonan's thuggish behavior towards him.

When Prism entered the living room area of the quarters, he saw Jaik walk inside with him. Prism gave Jaik a diffident smile, which Jaik mirrored. Prism shook his head at the thoughts and feelings that Jaik was sharing with him, all of them bold and a bit enticing if Prism was being honest. Jaik walked around Prism to stand directly in front of him, blocking Prism’s path to the bedroom.

"Is there anything else you want to know?" Jaik asked flirtatiously.

"No, I think that's everything." Prism said as he watched Jaik eyeing him playfully. "Actually, what's going on with Theda's team? I only saw Remades in there."

"Oh, that's the other big mystery." Jaik said with an annoyed eye-roll. "Theda claims that she just sent them to retrieve the Sphingid from the rooftop. They did go to their ship, but they didn't fly it to a sheltered landing area on the base like where our ship is now." Jaik explained in a rather uninterested tone.

"Where did they go? Testa and Risa, I mean." Prism specified for whatever reason.

"They left the area completely, heading west. They're probably in the center of Athea by now." Jaik shrugged.

"Why would they go there?" Prism asked, fully intrigued.

"You tell me. Ursun kind of wants you to read Theda's mind and let us know." Jaik said with a chuckle.

"I can't...she's our ally." Prism said softly, though he was fishing for more details.

"The Roses are our competitors, not our friends. Our company tried to be good with them, but they just kept trying to one-up us all the time. They never treated us as equals, not really. They just see the Red Wolves as annoying upstarts treading on their territory."

Prism listened to Jaik's tirade and became more aware of his own severe sleepiness. Prism yawned after Jaik finished speaking, reminding Jaik of why they were in that warm, quiet room in the first place. Jaik put his strong hands on Prism's armored chest and back, and then walked him over to the darkened bedroom. There was a large round bed at its center with warm lighting that softly lit up at their entry. The bedroom was well-decorated just like the living area was, with several artifacts and mementos strewn about from Deriges' archaeological interests and from his long life of military service.

"We'll talk more when you wake up." Jaik said while helping Prism get undressed.

Prism nodded absent-mindedly while Jaik ran his long fingers along the seams of the living body suit that bonded to Prism's skin. Prism felt oddly at ease by Jaik's touch, and he drifted further onto the verge of unconsciousness. With a squeeze of two areas of the suit above Prism's armpits, the suit suddenly became slack against Prism's body. The back section of the suit opened up completely, allowing it to be pulled off of Prism's lean torso with ease. The upper suit hung limply down onto the floor while its lower section staid firmly on Prism’s waist and legs.

With a simple push of his right hand, Jaik lightly shoved Prism. Prism fell backwards onto the bed behind him, allowing Jaik to pull the pants portion of the living suit off of Prism's legs. Prism was left in only his grey briefs.

Seeing Prism's eyes flutter as the young-looking alien fought to stay awake made Jaik laugh softly to himself. Jaik looked lovingly down at his exhausted friend, whose brown skin seemed to glow in the softly-lit room. Like a caring brother, Jaik lifted Prism up and scooted him up on the bed so that Prism's legs weren't half on the floor. Jaik then picked up a blanket from a small table nearby and unfurled it into the air above Prism with a strong flick of Jaik's wrists. The blanket fell gently upon Prism, covering him in a comfort that finally made sleep impossible for Prism to fight off any longer. Jaik smiled when he heard one last deep huff come out of Prism's mouth before he was certain that Prism had dozed off.

"Sweet dreams."

Jaik spoke in a whisper before leaving Prism alone in the room. Four burly soldiers stood guard outside the quarters, in case the Sguvan cyborg or Rhonan made their way onto the base somehow. Jaik considered staying within the room to keep an eye on Prism himself, but he knew his medical skills were needed to treat those injured in the recent cave-ins.

As the hours passed by, the storm indeed grew less and less intense. The Etrysian ships that defended the coast both near the base and dozens of kilometers away from it managed to survive the night's chaos. Several of their crew had been lost to the vicious waves that had appeared suddenly after the storm began. With the sinking of Vitenza's speedsub, investigatory submarine crews were dispatched to search its wreckage. Though many bodies were found in its vicinity, there were too few of them for Deriges to be satisfied. It was clear to him that Vitenza had escaped somehow with nearly half of her crew, no doubt in a smaller stealth vessel.

Deriges mobilized his men to repair as much of the damaged base as they could, while the border guns regenerated enough to be useful in the coming battle. RED-1 checked that the Titian was battle-ready before they took turns resting for two hours each. Theda and Remades continued to assist the officers of the CCC while remaining tight-lipped about where the rest of Thorns Team Trias had gone.

***

By the time the first rays of sunlight appeared over the Athean Sea, Etrysia's forces felt ready for whatever the day would bring. Shortly thereafter, alarms began blaring all throughout the coast.

"The First, Third, and Fourth Divisions of the Vadamite Air Fleet have launched and are headed our way. We estimate that they'll be in range of our border guns in one hour." Deriges' second-in-command reported loudly to all within the CCC.

"Inform Hypergeneral Aksos. Tell the Getla Fleet to assemble in formation and prepare for naval combat." Deriges ordered.

"Should we wake up Prism?" Ursun asked while standing at Deriges' side.

"No, let him sleep for as long as possible. I assume he works best with a full eight hours like the rest of us?" Deriges asked jovially.

"Seems like he needs more than that." Ursun chuckled and said, eliciting an equally-loud chuckle from the base commander.

"You're in for a real treat. We'll be deploying a secret weapon of our own this time around." Deriges said to Ursun with a wink.

"They're already operational?" Theda, who was standing beside Ursun, asked with a high degree of incredulity that Ursun expected from her.

Before Deriges could respond, the screens within the Command and Control Center flickered to show Hypergeneral Aksos' strong, hawk-like face. His short pink hair was being blown by the wind while he stood outside on a busy tarmac. Planes could be seen being loaded in the background of his visual feed.

"Clear skies, just like our alien friend predicted. The Vadamites wasted no time at all." Aksos said in his loud, deep voice.

"You're flying out now?" Deriges asked with a bit of apprehension that he hid poorly.

"There are indications that some of the Vadamite ships have been modified with Kingdom technology. The Queen is truly ramping things up for whatever reason, and the escalation must be met with full force. We're throwing everything we've got at them this time."

The hypergeneral was ardent in his explanation, which was enough to satisfy Deriges. Aksos had proven himself time and time again on the battlefield, and had kept the Destructors as well as the Vadamites at bay for over a decade. When he spoke with zeal, his words carried the weight of truth.

"We're fully ready to support you in any way we can." Deriges said in manner that Ursun and his team hadn't witnessed from him before.

After briefing Hypergeneral Aksos on the capabilities of his base and the extent of their repairs, Deriges received his orders from Aksos solemnly. Gone was the jolly demeanor that Deriges had sported during the night. In its place was a hard-nosed base commander who barked out orders strictly and without delay. The entire mood within the CCC shifted to one of pure efficiency, brought on by Deriges' sudden change in personality.

"All mercenaries need to leave the CCC for the next portion of our briefing. They can be let back in after we're done."

The hypergeneral's words alarmed Ursun and his team, though Theda seemed almost unfazed. Ursun noticed that Aksos hadn't even acknowledged his younger cousin Theda, which he had done during their teleconference the previous day. Sensing a danger in the air, Ursun quickly mobilized his team after they'd been escorted out of the CCC.

"We need to get to Prism." He ordered his team once they met in a command briefing room away from the watchful eyes of Theda, Remades, and the Etrysian soldiers.

"Do you think they'll hand him over to the Vadamites?" Leanna asked quietly.

Ursun chuckled before pacing around for a moment. One he'd collected his thoughts, he looked at his team, crossed his arms, and sighed.

"I think that they plan on keeping him for themselves." Ursun said with a concerned shake of his head.