Waiting was agonizing, but since they all knew that it would be the first and last painful part of Mars' plan, which they had decided to call the Martian Plan(this name was quite ridiculous, thought Mars himself), they agreed to not go berserk.
So, according to the Martian Plan, they all stood by the windows of the old hotel room, with all the lights turned off(except a tiny bulb in the kitchen), and watched what was going on outside. Without any Raiders nor Rebels out on the streets fighting, the street was only dominated by the Military. There were now very few citizens roaming the streets, and most of them were getting arrested and captured immediately by the Military.
"Do you think all the civilians are in their houses, waiting like us?" Lyra inquired at one point in a whisper that still managed to sound like a mutter in Alex Mars' ears. "I bet. Though there were quite a lot of them who wanted to just escape their cities and countries, it's quite unlikely that he Military guards at their posts would have let them," By then, as he answered her question, he had noticed that Miles was shooting a questioning and real serious look in his direction, and since it was quite rare for the boy to do so, Mars excused himself and as if he had been waiting, Miles separated himself from the window and dragged Alex by the elbow to the furthest wall in the room.
"I have a few questions in mind," The boy said.
"I guessed it already," Mars answered.
"What the heck happened with you and Lyra's parents? I think me and Melanie missed out the whole scene today, protecting civilians, shooting enemies in the face with the paralyzers," 
"Some... bad things happened all at once," This was what Alex was able to come up with to say to Miles, for it still hurt to think back to the scene where Lyra's mother had told them to go.
"Ah..." Miles said before repeating. "Ah,"
"Uh-huh,"
"I got a wee bit curious when I saw Lyra's face darker than usual, man, she always doesn't talk much and is somber all the time, but today, she's even darker than usual. I'll ask you the details later, then," Miles reported his previous observation matter-of-factly, before whirling around to face Mars in the face, and eyes getting a bit less serious and now, a bit curious and amused.
"Just one more question, man,"
Alex didn't like the ominous feeling that came as Miles said the words.
"Do you like her?" Miles was now smirking a light smirk that stayed precariously on the right side of his lips and thus made his right eye get a few millimeters higher than the left.
Though Mars wanted to ask if the other boy was kidding with him, he didn't say it out loud, because: 1. It would make him look as if he was hiding or trying to hide something. 2. This was probably the only and last time to be able to laugh and amuse each other before his next steps in the Martian Plan would be dealt with.
"I'm not sure," He finally said, and Miles gave him a wrinkled frown. "I have never ever seen you confused and not sure, man. But at least, you didn't say that you abhor or just don't like her," "Why are you suddenly so grown-up and meddling in romance matters, Miles?" Mars finally muttered, a bit annoyed at how awkward and silly it felt to be talking about romance and girls right behind a group of belligerent Prodigies right during a major Revolution. However, he found Mile staring with huge, wide eyes at him in the dark after his question.
"You didn't know it?" Miles whispered hoarsely, his voice grating a bit, and his coughed, covering the sound up the best he could with his T-shirt. Some others over at the window looked back at them in surprise at the noise.
"Know what?" -being clueless was the only thing that Mars could do, for he really was clueless about what Miles was freaking surprised about.
"Melanie," Miles answered, voice still hoarse, and he broke off into a few more fits of coughs before sighing.
"Melanie what?" Mars was getting exasperated. Miles is a major Prodigy-he must know that consuming time unnecessarily was useless and the most annoying thing to other Prods-why isn't he adhering to that? Mars thought.
"You're so filled up to the brim with logic, small kid. She freaking liked you until a few days ago,"
Three parts of Miles' brilliant answer made Mars freeze, with individual reasons.
First, he was surprised at how Miles had used the same term and phrases like Lyra about him being excessively 'logical'.
Next, he was surprised, but not too much, at the fact that Melanie had been liking him. Well, looking back, he could see that Melanie had been a bit pretending and nervous near him from the second they had met, though.
And lastly, he was curious about why she had quit liking him until just a few days ago.
"What did I do a few days ago? Plus, in what shitty way did you find out that info?" He demanded, and Miles chuckled like a 56-year-old, until he remembered that he wasn't supposed to make any loud sounds in case the Military heard it, so he thumped his own back with his giant fist until he calmed down.
"Answer to the first question: you only showed signs of attraction to Lyra, and none for her. Answer to the second question: she just barked it and spilled the beans for me while you two were digging away the sand in the desert to find the passage to the sewer," he was now completely relaxed and was leaning against the dirty wall of the room. "-but I am not insisting your love for her, man. I am proud like a mom that you found your true love," Miles added in an unprecedented voice of his that made Mars want to get the bathroom and have some time for himself. He didn't know the reason why, but he just did.
"I haven't been able to figure out what the heck you two have been howling in laughter about, but it's time to go-the coast is clear, and there are only a few guards down the street," A voice from a few feet away interrupted them and they both looked up to see Lyra leaning against the same wall, arms and legs crossed.
Miles smirked his strange smirk once more, struck Mars' shoulder with an agonizing bam before leaving Mars and Lyra to themselves and galloping to the window, finally excited that there was going to be some action. Though all the others were now a bit elated and had started to check if they had all of their Martian weapons and provisions and were getting ready to leave the hotel room, Mars stayed beside the wall with Lyrea staring at him, curious.
"First of all, I didn't 'howl in laughter'-Miles did. Second, please stop turning up right in front of our snouts so silently-you always tend to freak the hell out of myself in surprise, Lyra," He grumbled, digging his hands into his pockets. Lyra pulled out her hand. "I know. but we can talk about it a bit later-you aren't going to use your laser gun during the speech, huh?"
Good girl-at least she doesn't embarrass me to the bone, Mars thought as he handed over his gun and gripped his paralyzer and after the Ryan Marvick had given him and headed for the other Raiders to finally carry out the next and most important part of the Martian Plan.

They all walked down the steep stairs in single file, eyes flickering here and there and individuals using their different and various abilities to feel any sense of danger. Mars was using his ears to sense any footsteps(his Muters were Unmuted now), Lyra was looking at everything in sight and calculating numbers, Thomas and Melanie were flicking up and down the stairs in advance of all the others with their fact agility, a minor woman was touching everything in sight and muttering some unintelligible string of words and observations, and another minor man was sniffing around like a dog as he descended down the stairs. 
To a normal fella, or a Military soldier, it would have been quite a sight.
Since no one had raised to alarm that some danger was hiding right beside or above their heads, they made it to the door. Lewis prodded and Alex and the sniffing man(Dogman, Alex had decided to dub) to the front of the Prod-parade. While Dogman sniffed all around the door, Mars pressed an ear to the dirty door and listened.
Though he had only meant to hear if there were any patrolling Military right in front of the door, he inevitably heard other things: a baby crying, her dad trying to muffle her cries, a boy swearing, endless pacing from somewhere above, a classic-violin Concerto no.4 of Amadeus Mozart, Mars recognized-playing too loudly.
"No danger, huh?" Dogman asked him.
"No danger," He answered, a bit shook up by how the civilians who had managed to not be jailed were coping in their own homes.
As they opened the door and carefully stepped outside, he felt that the next part of the Martian Plan wasn't going to be so cheerful nor lucky.

They crept down the narrow street to the main road, and since no one was making any sound at all, no one called at each other to quiet down. Alex felt as if he was a rat, sneaking down the street to some source of food with his faithful other rat comrades.
They finally reached the end and since he was at the front of the line, peeked over the corner of the street and found a lone guard standing along a wall, eyes sweeping here and there like a searchlight beneath his flat, steel military helmet. Mars found the guy as the perfect way to carry out the next phase of his plan-the man was a bit shorter than him, with a single gun in hand, and probably a knife in his belt or pocket, but it didn't matter, for it would take him some time to pull it out. Glad that he had found a target and solution so quickly, Mars turned back to the crowd of silent Prods and with the most creative sign languages he could muster, 'told' them about the man. Instantly, Lewis came forward and handed him over a tiny piece of a chip. As Lewis stuck the thing inside his ear, in the inside, Alex was smirking. This would go perfectly with my Muter, he thought. Then, however, as an afterthought, he added. Or, Lewis had designed it to be like that.
Anyway, he felt one last squeeze of the shoulder from a small hand that must have been Lyra's, nodded at the air in front of him, before making his legs push his frame over the bend in the road-
-and into sight.
He made up a fake situation to tell the soldier as he stumbled forward, out of control with his limbs-or pretending to be, to be precise. He instantly decided to be a stupid teen who had gotten crazy from the quarantine in his home after the main part of the Revolution had ended in failure, and had drained every drip and drop of wine and beer into himself from the stress. And now, the teen had just simply gotten too drunk and slipped out onto the streets, suddenly belligerent.
Though he didn't like to be pretending to be drunk, he deemed it a special experience for him to test his old acting skills after months of pushing it away.
He stumbled closer to the upright, search-light-eyed private, and limped on his now-healing leg dramatically. But the soldier didn't see him yet.
Fuck, how much more do I have to continue this stupid play for this Military private kid? he was wondering when the private looked up.
Their eyes met a split second after Mars remembered to make his eyes also look drowsy and drunken.
His heart did a funny act: it thumped loud at first before relaxing just a second later, trying to convince his brain that Military privates were easy to handle and were stupid, since when he had been a private himself, he had been also easy to handle and stupid.
And he was right.
The private's eyes widened and he stumbled from the wall to the center of the narrow street-Perfect to use some of my old martial arts in this narrow place, Mars thought as he pretended to trip over his own foot and lean on the wall, head rolling a bit, eyes rolling even more, and legs rolling the most.
He also remembered to put a silly, ol' smile on his face, and this was actually the easiest thing to do, since the terrified look in the privates' eyes were simply hilarious.
The soldier shook himself out of his surprise, terror, and trance, and remembered the protocol he had learned at the Military-he walked forward stiffly before lifting his face to stare at Mars from beneath the shadow of his helmet.
Then, he said in a robotic-but-still-trembling voice.
"ID card?" his voice was that of a person who wasn't even 20, though still older than him, Mars noticed, and felt pity for him.
"The United States of America used to teach grammar, sir," He drawled in the most drunkest voice possible.
The private raised a single eyebrow, confused.
"-but seems as if the Allied Statocracy of America doesn't teach grammar now-what kind of sentence were your words, sir?"
The boy's eyes now grey tiny into slits like a snake's, before growing in annoyance and fury.
"Give me your ID card-this is your last chance," "Last chance before what?" Mars said, and it kind of as starting to annoy him that he would have to talk with the private for so long to only extract a tiny piece of information he wanted.
"-before arresting you," The private said, and now, his hand on the gun tightened.
I have to shorten this conversation-this boy is simply too stupid to fear or deem me a trick, Alex Mars thought as he forced his lips to laugh a strange and mental laugh.
"Well, by the way, private, have you ever seen this?" He said, now pulling out the Martian laser gun. He wouldn't kill with it, so now, the gun was just to stunt and surprise the private.
And it worked.
The private's eyes winded further, intrigued by the thing. "Where did you get that-" He was saying and leaning in to examine the thing when Mars jumped into action-
-and he had to admit it: he felt cool and nice as he did it.
He lashed out with his fine leg at the groin of the private and oofing audibly, the private fell forward, before erecting himself and reaching for his knife. Mars, at that second, however, pinned down the hand with the gun and when the private was about to scream at the top of his lungs, he clamped his hand over the guy's mouth and felt his hand's sanitation be threatened as the guy's moisture inside the mouth and saliva got on his palm that was turned to face the mouth.
Now, he gave the private one last kick on the gut and that stopped the scream of the guy. Now, he looked with frightened eyes at Mars, who shook his body up and against the wall.
"Don't forget I have a gun, private," Mars said, and he saw a spark of recognition hop into the irises of the man's eyes. "Yeah, you're correct. Your generals must have strictly gotten you to memorize the face of the two revolutionaries-I am the Alex Mars," the private's eyes shuddered in fear. "I need information, private. Where are all the soldiers assembled now?"
Mars didn't remove his hand from the private's mouth until the look in the boy's eyes switched from 'fear' and 'urge to scream on the top of my lungs' to a franker and 'scared out of my wits' mode.
"They're all convened," He gasped when his mouth was free. "Where?" Mars asked. "The... the local military base," The guy panted out.
Now, Mars got up, the muscles in his face finally relaxed at last and relieved that they wouldn't have to act like a drunken bastard again.
"You can tell the generals-Fawkes and Hale-that I'm officially back into the country," Alex Mars said over his shoulder as he walked away from the soldier, who was now flat on the ground, still panting and now, cradling his broken hand with the gun.
And as he did, Mars felt ecstatic.

"That was a hell of an act and fight, Alex!" he heard Miles whisper/whoop into his ear through the tiny microphone. "Glad you were entertained, Miles," he answered back before reaching the bend once more and getting into the crowd of his Prod friends once more. There was a low wave of complements and pats before they remembered that they were on serious business now and resumed being serious.
"You know where the local military base is, huh?" Lyra asked from right beside him.
Wiping his unsanitized hand that was used to block the private's mouth, he answered. "Of course. I memorized the way the very first day I got there. Let's just get ourselves a car-it's going to take an hour, at least,"

They ended up finding an old caravan that was parked near a pile of dirty garbage. Though it didn't shine at all(and who expected it to, after all?), nor reeked of garbage, it still worked with a low enough grumble, and that was all that mattered to them. They climbed aboard after cracking a window open. Miles got in the driver's seat and Melanie got beside him, while the other three Prods climbed on behind them-and the rest of the Prods climbed onto the back of the caravan, with the bed, showering booth, and table. 
"I always wanted to have such a babe, man. And I never thought that I'd get to drive it one day on Revolution Day as a true Prod with all my friends," Miles said proudly as he pushed the car to life and with smoothness, though he had just said that it was his first time driving such a big and long car, backed out of the garbage pile and onto the main road. And before any patrolling guard could spot or hear its loud grumble in the vicinity and shout at them to stop, he sped the thing down the road.
During the next few minutes, Alex commanded where to go to get to the local Military base to Miles and watched the passing scenes through his window, each feature getting familiar and familiar. And as he got nearer to the base, he started to dwell and bring back up some memories from there...
Meeting and getting the same room with Andrew. Having fears for the Prod-like but normal boy. Training. Saving Andrew from James. getting 'promoted'. Watching the jailed and convicted become slaves or killed. Watching Andrew disappear. Watching him die... Getting thrown into jail. Getting expatriated.
Though he still didn't want to confront Andrew's place of death nor the other negative memories, Mars still knew that he had to go to the base-one last time.
And this time, he wasn't going to act nor persecute any others.
-He was going to pay back Andrew and everyone and last of the people of the United States of America and bring back the old country from ruins to make the Allied Statocracy of America be moved over.
And this time, he wouldn't fail-
-nor quit.
Never.