Guardians of the Rain!

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“Phew! Finally done!” Shane exclaimed as he sat down on the ground, his legs stretched out to the front with a slight bent at the knees. His arms were stretched out behind him, palms on the ground as he leant back, letting the warm morning sun beat down on his face. The white short-sleeved T-shirt that he was wearing was completely soaked with his sweat and water from the hose. For once, his schedule was quite free today, void of any urgent missions to take care of. His three special squads had all been dispatched to their respective missions, jobs that Shane trusted them to handle on their own without his presence. Scarecrow, King and Castle were three of the best Rune Knights he had personally trained, and he was absolutely clear on their abilities.

He was at the back of the headquarters, where the other Rune Knights parked their vehicles. Remembering how long it had been since he had washed his bike, the General had decided to bring it out for a wash today. While it was mundane, Shane had carried a lighthearted smile on his face as he wiped down the entire motorbike before washing away the stubborn dirt with water and soap, before wiping it dry. He had taken it slow, using about an hour, taking the time as a chance to relax and let his troubles go.

The few Rune Knights that were wandering around gave the man a salute every time they passed him. Shane would return the salute with one of his own as well as a grateful smile. Regardless of rank, he appreciated all of the hard work that his colleagues had done. Every single day, as long as they donned their Rune Knight uniform and came to work, fulfilling their jobs with responsibility, Shane would show them the respect and appreciation that they deserved. However, it was undeniable that he would show slight favoritism to the Knights of his own division, since he was fully aware of the jobs he was sending them on.

As he continued watching the sky and basking in the sun, Shane’s view was suddenly blotted out by the shadow of another Rune Knight.

“G-g-general Stern! Sir!” the young man shouted at the top of his lungs as he stood at attention, his boots clapping against each other as he stomped down on the ground loudly. His right arm was already at the side of his forehead, his entire body as straight as a spear. The only problem? His head was tilted upwards, looking up instead of at Shane who was sitting on the ground. The General let out a chuckle when he noticed the slight tremble in the young man’s legs. He was probably a new recruit.

With a sigh, Shane retracted his legs and planted his feet firmly into the ground as his left hand pushed against his left knee. Another push from the right arm that was supporting the weight of his upper body got him standing up, towering over the recruit. The man lightly rubbed his hands off to get the grit and dust from the ground off before placing them at his waist.

“At ease, Corporal,” Shane commanded when he noticed the silver band with the two black squares on the Rune Knight’s uniform. “And let’s hear what you got.”

“Yessir!” the Corporal shouted again at the top of his lungs as he lowered his right hand with gusto, slapping it against his thigh. The young man takes a very huge gulp of air before continuing. “General Stern, a request has come in from the Magic Council, specifically requesting for your involvement in the mission. This is the folder containing all the information you will need. It’s sealed.”

Shane had long noticed the sealed envelope that the corporal was carrying in his right hand and he extended his own right hand to retrieve it from the two-handed grip the corporal presented it with. The older Rune Knight then nodded and dismissed the still-trembling corporal, to which the younger Rune Knight quick-walked for a few paces before just outright bolting away into the building. Shane watched his departure with a raised eyebrow, amused.

“Am I that frightening?” Shane mused to himself as he broke the magic seal on the envelope. “Beaux’s probably popular with the kids.”

Pulling back the flap keeping the envelope closed, Shane peeked into the large A4-sized envelope before pulling out a folder. It was thin, maybe just a few pieces of paper within it. Before he opened up the folder, he turned around to his bike and with a snap of his fingers, the custom-made superbike disappeared in an array of horizontal strips of blue lights, as though glitching out of existence. When the vehicle had completely vanished within two seconds, Shane whistled at one of the Rune Knights walking past and instructed them to clean up the hose, pail and cloth.

The General then walked briskly back to his office while browsing through the sparse documents in the folder.

Fifteen minutes later, Shane walked back out of his office, the same folder from before in his left hand, gently tapping the side of his thigh with the folder as he walked towards another office. Earlier, he had gone over to the barracks to take a quick shower and changed into his uniform before returning to his office to grab the folder he had placed on the table.While the mission appeared simple enough, the Spec Ops General knew that there were some intricacies in it that would require the expertise of another division.

When he arrived in front of a closed door, Shane knocked thrice on the door with his knuckles before announcing himself.

“Generals G and J, it’s Shane. Are you girls in there? I need your assistance on something,” Shane said, before waiting patiently outside the door for an answer.

[983 words]
[Total WC: 983 / 14000]

It had been a quiet day for the newly heralded Generals, both of which would be napping in their office after a long morning's work of looking over all that boring stuff that adults did. Reading over repair work and projects, keeping track of a math's book amount of statistics to make their head spin, and about a box full of cat treats to get both through this hellish time. Grappa would be the first to awaken from her stupor early, who was now stretching in front of the window which overlooked the side fields of the Rune Knight headquarters. She turned to look at her sister, who was passed out on their desk from the night before. They had made a bit of a haste filled managerial decision and pulled an all night job for a super secret project that the both of them had been privy to not leak through the cracks of the chain of command. They kept their work secret enough to persuade any low ranks from investigating , but make the project innocent enough to keep from their superiors from finding out. A bit of a risky decision, but one that would pay off in the end.

Jellisha would have been continuing to sleep through the day, her pillow being compiled of a stack of papers of things that would probably not be as regarded as acceptable if some drool had not stained the pages. Her snow white hair would bunched up and sticking everywhere though Grappa's had been saved from such a fate from using her chair. Speaking of which, she rubbed the lower half of her back and would see about getting everything done before the meeting between the branches tonight. With a flick of the wrist, the magic pen sitting on her desk would be in her grasp fully and onward to signing the documents on her desk. She was about ten minutes into the job before Jellisha would managed to wake herself from her dream long enough to show a tired eye towards her sister. With a guttural moan and allowing the papers to slid her eye level back down after moving her head, she perked her head up at her sister.

"Good morning!~" Grappa said in her usual chipper tone. "I wanna go back to bed..." Jellisha mumbled and began to summon to will to sit up straight for this challenge set before her. Despite working just as long as she had, her sister looked absolutely pristine; as if she had not spent the remainder of last night with her head in between metal and magical gems which probably could explode in their face with enough pressure. She let out an exhausted grunt and waited for inevitable heat death of the universe to claim her, or until it was dinnertime, either result would be preferable. "How are you so...not tired?" Jellisha asked, picking her torso up after five minutes of the silence of a pen hitting paper while Grappa passed the time humming to herself. The question made her stop and ponder exactly why.

"I dunno. Maybe it was just the chair?" she asked. "Or it could be the seven energy drinks you chugged in the course of an hour to get the base in place." A beat came. That's right, Jellisha did recall how she saved them for that occasion...and got mad at Grappa for not wanting to taste anything sour. She was such a baby at times. The idea made the sassy general roll her eyes and go to get a drink that would restore her energy for the time. A serious beverage that all true peppy kids would use to get them through times of strife like this: strawberry milk. The upgrade to an office got them a nice miniature fridge which was packed with their favorite drinks and things. Her hand reached into the jungle of juice boxes and soda to pull out a pinkish white carton with the image of a cow on the front, painted a pink color to signify the flavor. She tore the top open and began to drink right when a knock came upon their door. The voice was familiar, yet sent the two into a panic.

It was General Stern.

He wanted to see them? Now?! Jellisha coughed, the recent development causing her to inhale a bit of milk out of surprise and would try to clear her throat while Grappa would hope over her desk to help. [color=#00ff00]"Give us a minute, please! Lots of, ah...paper! We gotta move stuff!" Her emerald eyes looked to the covering Jellisha, who looked as she normally did when getting out of bed in the morning: not presentable in any way. "Get your uniform smoothed out. I'll do your hair." Jellisha would grunt while her hair was combed and laid flat on her head while trying to dust the sleepies from her eyes and smoothing out any creases or folds in her uniform. It took a good thirty seconds or so of prettying up her sister until Grappa was completely satisfied and would walked to open the door for Shane. She wanted to put their best foot forward being the newly promoted girls around the Rune Knights, and not wanting to seem too much like kids.

When General Stern would come in, he'd see the two standing in front of their large, unorganized desk full of documents, folders, and blueprints. They each gave a salute, with Jellisha casually sipping on a strawberry milk carton while Grappa led the formalities. "It's great to see you again, General! What did you need help with?" Jellisha paused her drink to continue the question. "Do you need us for the meeting yet?"

[954 words]
[Total WC: 1,937 / 14,000]

A minute after his knock, the door was opened by one of the twins and Shane walked into the room. It was Grappa that had opened the door for him, the more matured one of the two. The other twin, Jellisha, was standing in front of their desk, with a mountain of documents of various sorts. They offered the man a salute to which he returned, and immediately slipped into his informal self. Jellisha was already doing just that, sipping on a milk carton while looking at Shane.

“I’m glad to see both of you girls as well,” Shane replied before being stunned by Jellisha’s question. “Wait, we have a meeting?”

Shane immediately fished his iLac from his pant pocket and looked at this calendar. A second later, Shane looked up from his iLac with a puzzled expression and said, “There’s nothing on the calendar though.”

“Anyway, I’m here to see if you girls are interested in what I just received,” Shane spoke further after storing his iLac and pulling out a folder from the envelope in his left hand. He placed it gently atop the pile of documents while beckoning for Grappa to come nearer for a look. Once the documents were splayed out for them to view, Shane took a step back and began to briefly explain about what was expected of them.

“Apparently the Magic Council has a Magic Science division that’s been experimenting in the Forgotten Desert. The division has been running a project called Project Oasis that is aiming to make the Forgotten Desert less desert-like. A gigantic water lacrima has been placed inside the clouds above the desert to create rain. According to them, everything is going well but during a lightning storm, the lacrima was severely damaged. They just need us to give them a hand in protecting them while they are doing the repairs. I figured that since whatever they are doing seems to be closely linked to the Engineering Corps, you would be interested to join the mission. You girls can also take a look if whatever they are doing is okay,” Shane grinned when he finished explaining.

Giving the twins time to look over the documents that explained the project in detail, the schematics of the water lacrima as well as how it was fixed within the clouds and other various information, Shane took a look at his watch and then spoke up again.

“How about we meet in another thirty minutes at the hangar. I’ll get my airship prepared for the journey,” Shane offered before walking out of the room.

As he walked into the hangar, Shane walked up to the Rune Knights on duty and informed them of the twin Generals arrival.

“When you see Generals Sinclair-Ragnos, show them towards my airship. I will be waiting in the plane,” the General instructed and then walked towards the other end of the hangar. His Boltreaver airship was parked near the entrance on the left side of the building. Three engineers were making some minor repairs to the vessel when he approached. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes sir, we just did some minor calibrations to the wings. They were acting weird after it got hit by lightning the other day,” the lead engineer spoke up while the other two cleaned up after the repairs were done.

“Thanks, Crane,” Shane replied with a grateful smile and then climbed into the airship. The hold of the ship was large enough to house a small armory of weapons as well as a squad of ten men. The Rune Knight then made his way towards the cockpit and took his seat in the co-pilot’s seat. Already seated in the pilot’s seat was Hawk, the Spec Ops operative grinning back at Shane. His eyes were hidden behind tinted goggles.

“All set to depart, Cap,” the man announced.

“Good, we’ll be okay to leave once the Generals arrive.”

[651 words]
[Total WC: 2588 / 14000]

"There's...no meeting day?" Relief flooded both girls as they both would exhale far more calm than previously before. It seemed as if they had a scheduling mix up, assuming that a meeting had been planned for today when it was likely a week or so away. So at least there was always that safety net. Jellisha's milk carton would deplete its reserve in mere seconds, the girl quite thirsty after her little nap as the sounds of her sipping every last drop came from her direction. The crimson eyed twin would watched while Grappa pulled out her own fresh iLac as well. It was something that Serilda and Mythal had gotten them since the promotion to stay in contact in case something came up, though the twins only really used it for LacBook and maybe some other applications and games like Hungry Dragon or one of those pay to win mobile games. "I see. Yeah, we must have gotten the dates mixed up or something then. Sorry about that." Grappa responded, looking up from her phone just in time to see Shane pulling out a manilla envelope and waving it towards them. They each would listen to his proposition about the newest mission and stood beside him while they both would feel their eyes scanning over each and every last detail that would be inside for the trio to see. The mission looked fairly interesting considering that this was coming from the Magical Sciences office. And who would know about such things quicker than the heads of the Engineering Corps? Anyway the venture would consist of them playing guard duty while repairs were made to a giant lacrima in the sky, originally used to produce a more sustainable environment for a desert-like region before a severe thunderstorm knocked it out. Jellisha picked up pictures and blue prints of the lacrima while Grappa didn't even have to stop and think about whether or not they could even do such things with their schedule.

"Sounds pretty exciting!~ We can totally do it now that our afternoon's free." she looked to her sibling for her approval, who would nod in agreement. "Let's do it then. We need a good break from this boring office stuff anyway."

The plan was made: they would re-convene in half an hour in the hangar and depart immediately. With a salute off, the twins smiled up at the towering man. "We'll see you later. This is gunna be so cool flying in a ship this time. Usually we just do it ourselves." Captain Stern walked out as the two would begin to make preparations. Namely, getting out of their more pristine attire and getting into a uniform made for a more harsh and durable climate and environment. Of course, no general had completely scooted combat duty, and they were no exception. Sure, they had only been in like 5 combat scenarios, tops, but that was just a minor setback. Just another fight to add to their ever growing collection! Among the process of getting ready for the mission ahead, the girls would stop ahead by the workshop area and be greeted by the familiar faces. One in particular would be Jareth, a slender, dark haired individual who would greet the two was as much enthusiasm as an ill paid intern could.

"Welcome back, Generals. We've re-calibrated your gauntlets and they're ready for the next phase of testing. Our data indicates-" Jareth found himself cut off by Jellisha, who was holding up a single finger as if to shush him in a bossy yet caring way. Even ice queen had standards, after all. Change of plans! We've just come across the best test yet, so we'll be taking them from here." The boy watched as the two youths walked towards their storage and bounded after them, his neck craned down and adjusting his walking speed in order to maintain the walking speed they were going. "We haven't even ironed out all of those kinks yet. There's still a chance that could just cut off the blood flow to your arm entirely. I urge you to at least think this through..." His reply came in the form of Jellisha taking the two gauntlets from atop the desk. A dark purple color, they were designed to much like any kind of elbow length glove, save for the obvious screen and electronics hooked up to a central monitor where their iLacs would be placed. The gauntlets were removed from their case by Jellisha, who handed the right one to Grappa while she took the left one for herself. Grappa placed her phone inside and felt the gauntlet squeeze, forming around her arm to fit to her size. Offering a flex for the worried Jareth, she would smile nonchalantly, as she was known to do much to the chagrin of her unit.

"It'll be fine, trust us! You should take the day off though. We keep hearing reports of you spending all night in here working on our stuff. If you dont..." Jellisha grinned mischievously and finished her twin's sentence. "We'll just have to find room in the budget to make a bed we can strap you into! And Luna's already pretty mad because of GOLIATH. Speaking of which, is he good to go?" Jareth mumbled to himself and would answer a second later. "He's ready to go. Just like how you designed it: Press the CALL button and your coordinates will be sent to his system. I trust you know how the rest goes? They both nodded. "Press button, make things go boom. Whoever said Engineering was hard? Thanks, Jareth! Take it easy and we'll get you some numbers out in the field." Jellisha walked out with a single wave and ran out of the door while Grappa spun around and waved goodbye to the young apprentice. "Bye bye! Remember, if we hear you've been working while we're gone, it'll be mandatory!~" One that note, both girls would hurry out towards the airship hangar.

Once arriving, Grappa and Jellisha would be greeted by the man sent by Captain Stern to show them towards the airship. The pairs of feet would walk towards the active helipad, climbing inside after greeting Shane and their pilot. Maybe he would notice those neat terminals on both girls' arms or maybe not. He likely had better things to do than baby sit two Exceed-as-Humans who regularly got themselves almost burnt, shocked, or crushed on a daily basis.

"Ready for liftoff, Captain!"

[1,084 words]
[Total WC: 3,021 / 14,000]

Shane stood in the middle of the airship’s bay, with his arms stretched above his head and gripping onto the many bars crisscrossing the ceiling of the plane, looking at the entrance while waiting for the twins to arrive. He had already heard the sounds of conversation from outside, and he recognized the twins’ voice. He had heard much about the twins as Generals of the Engineering Corps. Like the rest of the higher-ups in the Rune Knights, they were equally eccentric. But beneath all that, the members of the Engineering Corps loved their Generals which Shane hoped was the case for his Special Ops.

When the two of them finally boarded the plane, Shane gave them a wide smile. The first thing he had noticed about the two of them were the large terminals that they wore on their arms, like an extremely oversized wrist watch, if watches covered entire arms. The devices piqued his interest but that could wait. He would have plenty of time to ask them about it on their way to the Forgotten Desert anyway.

“Feel free to sit anywhere you want, Generals. Please put on the straps as well, it will keep you secure during the flight,” Shane instructed as he gave them a live demonstration in a seat directly in front of them, before unbuckling it later and moving to the cockpit. Knocking the bottom of his fist on the metal wall separating the cockpit and the bay, Shane had signalled for Crane to lift off.

Another knock from the other side of the wall returned his signal, and seconds later, mechanical whirring came from the back of the plane as the bay door lifted into a closed position, shutting out all natural light. The lights on the ceilings flickered to life, a dim green light that was more suited for the team to adapt their eyes before they carried out any night operations. Shane moved towards the switch box and flipped a few switches, turning off the lights before they came back on with a warm orange light that slowly increased in brightness until it became white.

When he was finally done, Shane moved over to the row of seats opposite the two Exceed Generals and strapped himself in.

“So, are there any upgrades that you think my plane should have?” Shane grinned as he looked at them.


“I’ve also been wanting to ask about that watch thingy on your arms. What do they do?” Shane asked with a quizzical look as he pointed at their arms.

[425 words]
[TWC: 3446 / 14000]