"Thalia!" As the shout was followed by a near-deafening boom, Thalia yelped and fell out of her bed, landing hard on her back on her bedroom floor. She groaned and looked up at the clock on her nightstand as another distant boom sounded. She'd been asleep for a grand total of thirty minutes. It was still dark out. She glared up at Venom.
     "Venom, what the hell?!" She shouted in understandable agitation.
     "The base is under attack!" Venom shouted, actually sounding alarmed. That's about when Thalia noticed that Venom had her bow in hand and a quiver full of her green-shafted arrows strapped to her back.
     The newcomer to the base stood up. "What do you mean, 'under attack'?" Thalia asked. Another boom sounded from somewhere within the base.
     "I mean that the Teuthidans are attacking, now come on, we need to get you some armor!" Without waiting for a response, Venom sprinted out of Thalia's quarters. Thalia sprinted after her as fast as she could. As she ran, recruits hurried past her, heading in all directions. Some carried wounded and most donned some amount of iron armor.
     She finally caught up with Venom and fell in step beside her as the two bolted down the chaotic hallway. "What the hell are Tooth-dan-things?" Thalia asked.
     "They're the opposing army to us. You probably know them better as squids; that's a derogatory term for them. They fight us, we fight back, shit goes down and no one's happy.
     "I thought they were beaten, like, in the olden times!" Thalia said.
     "They were, for a while." Venom explained. "But they came back during Commander Void's last years as head of the base before his apprentice, Sky, took his place."
     "But why are they doing this?" Thalia asked.
     "World domination, Kal." Venom gave her a sidelong glance. "Everybody wants to rule the world."
     "Great, another cliche story development. How original."
     Venom started to reply, but was abruptly cut off as a nearby explosion shook the floor beneath them and a familiar Dead Division Lieutenant was slammed into a back wall. He fell to the ground and landed on one knee. He looked up at the Teuthidan from where he knelt on the ground, and he looked pissed. "Kevin!" Thalia shouted. Kevin ignored her. She started to run to help him, but Venom held her back.
     "He can handle himself." She said, emotionless as always.
     Thalia froze and watched in awe as a Teuthidan leapt through the hole skillfully and flipped over Kevin like some gymnast, swinging its' sword down on the human. But before it could hit him, Kevin backflipped over it; pulling out his axe while he was in midair and slitting the Teuthidan's throat as he landed. The squid fell dead to the ground with a dull thud and remained motionless. Kevin stood up straight with a sigh and resheathed his axe. He looked over and Thalia and smirked at her dumbstruck expression, looking quite pleased wit himself.
     "How...?" Her voice trailed off.
Kevin walked over to the hole and glanced down at the ground twenty feet below – they were on the second floor of the base. He glanced at Thalia again. "I practice." He said simply. Then he turned and leapt through the hole. Thalia and Venom both ran to look through the hole to see Kevin leaping down the side of the base meter by meter using rails that stuck out from the side.
     Thalia watched as he jumped the last meter and rolled to break his fall, then got up and ran to aid one of the armored guards that was facing three Teuthidans alone.
     Suddenly, as the two had their attention locked on Kevin, three Teuthidans climbed up through the hole and one of them shot a bullet out of its blue-painted pistol. Thalia, not expecting the attack, wasn't prepared to move out of the way. Venom shoved her out of the way, and the bullet struck the wall behind them, creating a loud crash like the others Thalia had heard throughout the base.
     Thalia looked up at it incredulously. "DID THAT THING JUST-"
     "Get to the armory!" Venom interrupted as she stood up and nocked an arrow to the string of her bow. "I'll hold them off."
     "You can't take all three of them!" Thalia said incredulously. Venom gave her a look that said, 'Try me', and shot one of the Teuthidans Hawkeye-style without even looking at it. As it fell out of the air, it thrived in pain, and Thalia realized that Venom's arrows were coated with poison.
     Her eyes widened as the point was made and she nodded as she looked back at Venom. "Good luck."
     "Yeah." Venom nocked another arrow to her bowstring in a blur of movement as Thalia sprinted off down the hall.
     When she reached the end, she realized that she had no clue where the armory was. She stopped and turned to ask Venom, but the girl was no longer there. She sighed and tried to stop one of the passing recruits. "Um... Excuse me?" She asked. The recruit either didn't hear her or chose not to. She tried again with a different recruit. "Do you know where..." Her voice trailed off as he kept going without paying any attention to her whatsoever.
     She growled and continued to run down the hall. She would just have to find it on her own. She glanced behind her as she ran to see if she could see Venom, but as she did, she felt herself ram into someone. Both fell hard to the ground. She shook her head and looked up to see a boy glare at her as he stood up.
      He had messy hair the color of rust mostly hidden by his iron helmet, and bright blue, shining eyes. Thalia froze as she looked into them, and she was, for some unexplainable reason, unable to look away.
     "Watch where you're going, kid!" He snapped.
     He started to keep going again, but Thalia blinked back to reality and stopped him. "Wait! Wait, I'm sorry!" He kept going, obviously pissed. She sighed. If forcing someone to the ground was what it took to get someone's attention in the military, then so be it. She let out a battle cry and leapt on top of him from behind. He let out a shout of alarm and fell to the ground, not expecting her attack. Thalia sat on him and held his arm tightly around his back, rendering him unable to move. "Do you know where the armory is?" She demanded.
     "You're a Teuthidan spy, aren't you?" The boy asked, his voice low with suspicion.
     "No, I'm just new here and nobody's willing to give me directions! Now tell me where the armory is so I can help defend this stupid place!" Thalia said.
     "I don't believe you!" The boy said. "I may be an idiot but I am certainly not going to fall for that!"
     "You're an idiot for falling for a trick that doesn't god damn exist!" Thalia groaned impatiently. "What's it gonna take to get some god damn directions around here?!"
     "Say 'Oberon'."
     "Huh?"
     "The name 'Oberon,' just say it."
     "Oberon?" Thalia enunciated in confusion. "I don't see how-"
     "Keep going down the hall, take a left at the nearest intersection, and go in the second door on your right." The boy interrupted.
     Thalia blinked in surprise at his sudden willingness to be helpful, then she nodded. She had started to understand that odd things were normal in this place and it was easier not to question them. "Thank you." She let him go and stood up. Without another word, she ran down the hallway. The boy stood up and watched, a bit mystified by her strange way of getting attention, as she turned the corner. Another recruit smirked and smacked him on the back of the head as she passed by. "Get a move on, Keyes, now's not the time to daydream!"
     The boy snapped back to reality and rubbed the back of his head as he continued to move. "Yeah, yeah, I got it..." He muttered, not noticing the small smile playing across his lips.
     Thalia entered the second door on the left of the hallway just as she was told and had to stop for a moment at what she saw. There were rows upon rows of sets of armor and weapons. She quickly pulled on a simply chest plate and helm, ignoring the rest of the armor, before running out of the armory again.
     She sprinted down the hallway until she came to the stairwell, where she stopped short. Ah. Stairs... Her old enemy.
     She began to think, and realized that she had two options. Run down the stairs, or...
     She smirked.
     At the very bottom of the stairwell, an unsuspecting recruit nearly jumped out of his skin in surprise as Thalia slid down the banister of the stairwell at high speeds and landed solidly on two feet. She looked back at him and nodded respectfully before running through the doorway and into the hallway. As she ran, she retraced her steps from earlier and found the front door. Upon running outside, she stopped and took in the scene.
     It was still thundering and rain poured out of the sky in sheets, making it hard to see. Maybe that's why the Teuthidans had chosen that night to strike. Being water-lovers, the rain must have come as an excuse for them to attack.
     There were several dozen Azurians running about, shooting cannons and arrows at the base and attacking recruits all about. They were scattered, each working alone or in tiny groups. The recruits, on the other hand, seemed to work as one. They must have all been trained to work in teams, because they seemed to know how to do it very well.
     The village surrounding the base had been close to ignored by the Teuthidans. Apparently, all the black-eyes creatures wanted was the base. And they wanted it bad. At least the civilians were safe.
     Thalia jumped as an arrow struck the ground right next to her, abruptly blowing up her train of thought and sending it flying off the tracks. She looked up at the squid just as it shot another at her. She yelped and rolled out of the way.
     She reached to her side and prepared to grab the hilt of her sword – but she grabbed only air. Her eyes widened and she looked down at her side to see only an empty sheath.
She had forgotten a god damn sword.
     She gasped and once again dodged out of the way of an arrow. Thalia's mind raced. She saw four options. Her first option was to cower there on the ground and wait for death, but that didn't seem like the ideal way to die. She could run and grab a sword, but she'd most likely be killed before she could get to the stairwell. She could call for help, but everyone was busy and no one would make it to her in time. The way she saw it, she only had one option that gave her any chance at all at survival.
    Something like between two and three seconds had passed in the time she had been considering her options.
     Thalia darted forward and leapt from the top stair, grabbing one of the Azurian's feet. She pulled it to the ground, but she herself landed hard on the stairs. She was pretty sure she heard something pop in her left ankle, but ignored it. She scrambled to her feet and ran behind the squid as it stumbled back and spun around again angrily. It looked around for her furiously, but couldn't see her anywhere. "Come out, little one, or I'll have to tell Lady Xandra about you!" It growled.
     Thalia, although taken by surprise at the creature's ability to speak, ignored it and made her move. She leapt up on its back and clung to it tightly. The big humanoid immediately began to writhe around again like a bull in a rodeo, but Thalia clung to its back for dear life. She felt her grip loosening and knew that if she were bucked off, she could break her neck from the force and die right there. She looked around for another option and saw that the squid was growing close to the wall of the base. She smirked.
     She shifted her weight as hard and as fast as she could to the left and dropped to the ground. She landed in a bush at the base of the wall, scratching up her exposed skin a bit, but she wasn't hurt too badly. The Teuthidan, on the other hand, flew head-on into the wall and knocked itself unconscious, falling to the ground about a meter away from Thalia. She sighed relief and stood up, brushing stray leaves off of her as she looked around her. The number of squids on the battlefield had thinned greatly, but the battle wasn't over just yet.
     She was about to head back inside, when a shout pierced the air near her.
     "Ty, look out!"
     She spun around to see a man quite a few years older than her, turning to face a Teuthidan that was preparing to fire her gun with a half broken sword in his hands. He had dark eyes and brown hair covering one of them. He wore no armor – maybe he was new too. Nearby, a man that wore sunglasses and had a helmet covering most of his messy brown hair was running to his aid, but as the Teuthidan but her finger on the trigger, Thalia knew he wouldn't get there in time.
     Once again, Thalia's mind whirred with thought. This man had no armor. If that fireball hit him, he'd be dead in an instant.
     But she did have armor.
     She acted on instinct. She sprinted forward and shoved the man out of the way. He toppled to the ground a few feet away – out of the shot radius. The man that had been running stopped and stood there in surprise.
     Thalia had underestimated the force of the squid's bullet. She'd thought it would deflect off her armor or something.
     But it struck her hard as the bang shot through the air. It felt like a bull ramming into her chest, or being in a bad airship crash like her father had described. It hit her with such force that she flew back a couple feet and slammed hard into the wall of the base, ramming her head hard into the cobblestone surface.
     The world spun around her as she slid down the wall and fell to the ground in a heap. The last thing she noticed was the feeling of rain pounding on her skin and the dim sound of thunder piercing the night air with clanging of metal on metal. Then everything went dark.