In the former state of Ohio many factions fight to claim the land as their own. For one rebellious Wyld, she too battles internally in order to maintain some semblance of her previous life while struggling to adapt to what she had become. Can a negotiator from the Northwest do the impossible and peacefully resolve the conflicts on the battlefield and within this young Wyld's heart?

(This part shows the battle of Toledo from Scott's PoV. To see it in Ian's PoV read part 10A).

The Heart of it All
A Wild Universe Story
Part 10B
by AoifeM

We waited in a dark forest, looking down in the distance at our main goal: Toledo. It was late afternoon; we spent the vast majority of the day raiding and destroying their base near the Four Windmills, which most likely got their attention. My biggest fear was the not-so-subtle way we did it. Such total destruction could cause a bigger reaction than was necessary. An unknown disruption may provide reason to send troops to investigate. However if someone called in the attack, it might put Toledo on high alert, actually making our planned attack even harder than before.

We didn’t have a lot of time on our hands. Watching the motorcade of military being sent off to investigate, it would only be a matter of time before they call in and send word of the massacre. We had a small window of opportunity.

However, we couldn’t go in guns blazing. It nearly got us killed the last time; this time it would be suicide. We needed to be sure Ian and company had the go ahead. Luckily Faried has been keeping in close contact with his older brother, Sadiq, awaiting confirmation that they were ready on their end. The objective as I was told was to create a big enough distraction so that a small group of Laker troops would infiltrate the city and open the gate which separated the two borders. All we needed was the troop’s assistance.

And confirmation was about to come any time now.

Marcus turned to me, and wondered, “Are you scared?”

“It’s hard to be scared when you can’t die,” I replied rather bluntly

He gave a little chuckle. “There are a lot worse things to fear than death.”

“Thanks for the wakeup call,” I sarcastically quipped.

Suddenly I could hear the static coming from Faried’s walkie-talkie device. Yes, it’s primitive, what did you expect?

Hearing it react, Faried grabbed it from its holster and responded. “Yes, my brother. Are you ready?”

I couldn’t really catch it from here. I just hoped and prayed that Ian was successful.

“Very good,” he replied. “We shall do our best. Be swift, I know not how long we can last.”

Turning off his walkie-talkie, Faried relayed the good news. “They have the cooperation from the nearby Laker army. They’ve accepted the plan, and are heading south as we speak. We all are ready.”

“Looks like the moment of truth,” I commented. “Hey, don’t get yourself killed old man.”

With a wily grin on his face he loaded his gun and replied, “I’m not worried- I have God on my side.”

Turning to Grond I commanded, “Grond, time to make the Scottish jealous!”

He knew what I meant. With his immense strength he pulled two finely rooted oak trees from the ground below and threw them each over his shoulder. Getting on his trailer, the rest of us joined him, loading up our trucks and starting our engines. We had to make this count; none of our ammunition could be spared.

We moved out; the town was barely 2 miles ahead. They would be waiting. We were in plain sight. Closing in on the sentry towers, it was time to put Grond into good use. Driving the truck that hauled my giant companion, I rolled down my window, turned my head to him, and yelled, “Throw them Grond! Throw them!”

And with his immense strength he did, throwing the trees like they were javelins. Like a rocket they soared, absolutely scaring the tower’s inhabitants. Even the concrete enforced towers couldn’t hold from the unstoppable force of his throw, causing the both to collapse with little effort.

With nothing to impede us we sped into the town. We needed to get in as far as we can so we can draw as much attention to us as possible. With soldiers practically tailgating us we did our best to shoot down as many as we possibly could; there’s no reason to make this harder than needed.

We came to a stop right at the center of town, equidistant from the Command Center and all the major entrances. We huddled our cars up into a square like formation, taking up as much space as possible. The more room we had, the less likely we all die from clustered attacks such as explosions or tank fire.

Grond continued to cause chaos, this time unearthing a couple traffic light poles to use as I instructed. Many of those went to destroying tanks as they entered the general area, thus saving us some valuable ammunition.

And we need every bit of it. Fatima was right beside me, covering me whenever I needed to reload. She definitely has gotten better with her aim. I suppose there’s more incentive to learn such things when your life and freedom are on the line.

And finally I got to see Faried’s power up close. Apparently he can deal damage using a person’s shadow. He causes them to explode quite literally, creating craters one the ground and intense pain on the person whose shadow he messes with. The craters were helpful in damaging any vehicle which was unlucky to run over it.

Finally it seemed as if Mohammed’s barriers were put into good use. He shielded Fatima and me, and any bullet that was shot at us was deflected with no trouble. Seeing this as an advantage, we decided to make the fight much more up close and personal. Together we left our cover and charged straight towards the enemy. Fatima undid her hijab and revealed her blade like hair. With her resolve she began to flail her head wildly, ripping through the soldiers she encountered like a hot knife through butter. I couldn’t help but wonder what Mohammed thought about his little daughter now. For now on she wouldn’t be bossed around.

Meanwhile I too took advantage of my temporary barrier. Now obviously, being a woman made it a little more difficult for me to face an enemy of the male gender, but I could hold my own. Over the years I became pretty proficient in hand-to-hand combat. I had to be, seeing I had the skill to survive fatal attacks. When starting out I was rather weak at firing a gun. Furthermore the kickback I received shocked me. I used to have pretty stable wrists, but as a girl, it took a long time to adapt to my new form. In any event, to compensate I learned to melee, and it definitely had its advantages.

Sadly, holding on was a little difficult for Mohammed. Apparently continuous power makes it difficult for him to maintain such a thing.

With our barrier wearing off Fatima cried, “We need to go back!” I nodded and made my way back behind cover.

It was looking good for us. We were able to stave off the oncoming enemies. However, our good fortune ended as a giant motorcade arrived from our six, catching us by surprise.

“It’s the troops that were sent to the Windmills!” Marcus yelled as he started to pick a couple soldiers from their side.

“Looks like they were called back a little early,” I guessed. “This won’t be easy.”

We had soldiers attacking us from two sides now. Our shelter was looking more and more compromised. Grond did the best he could eliminating the vehicles that came our way, but even if he could shrug off bullets he has limits as well, and the pain was obviously getting to him.
Using what powers we could we tried to outlast them as much as we could. Faried continued to deal damage to the soldiers with his shadow flares, and Fatima and I continued to amass many kills as well, alternating between firing our guns and attacking up close depending on when Mohammed’s power was recharged.

Of course we were sitting ducks when one of the Confederate soldiers nicked Mohammed’s shoulder as a bullet passed right through it. The loss of concentration dispelled our barrier and we quickly had to take cover. I did my best to pull the enemy’s fire toward me as Fatima headed to safety. Drawing my gun I shot the soldier’s who dared to even target her. I sustained a couple gunshot wounds as I stumbled back to safety. Luckily I made it, and Fatima didn’t sustained injury.

“Are you alright?” She asked, obviously concerned.

Watching the bullets slowly emerge from my healing body, I grimaced and replied, “Ugh…yeah.”

Of course Faried seemed to be panicky as he ran to his wounded father. “Father!” He cried, holding him up as his strength began to leave him.

“I…am okay,” Mohammed struggled to say. “I’ll be alright. Keep fighting, you can’t waste time like this.”

With a nod he left him with parting words. “Hang in there, father.”

Perhaps he could hang in there. The rest of us, however, were an entirely different story. Our bullets were running out, and we no longer had any protection going melee. Likewise strain was creeping in. Overusing powers can wear a Wyld out in a hurry, similar to what happened to me while fighting at the Four Windmills. Some are lucky, like Fatima, whose hair is a part of her, and doesn’t need to rest or recharge. But those like Faried, who actually does use a form of “magic” to create his attacks, can wear him out rather quickly. Grond was incapacitated. We were running out of time. I hope that Ian can save us.

The sun was setting. I was amazed how much effort my troops were giving. I was proud of each and one of them. I was quickly losing hope. Maybe the fighting on their end was just as intense. Either way, I was glad they stuck it out with me, even if they never knew, that the man they truly idolized was with them till the very end; as a woman, a woman whose best days of living was being a part of the guys one last time.

I closed my eyes. If there was anything I could do, I could sacrifice myself one last time, giving my troops slightly more time in hopes that maybe our two teams can reunite. I loaded my final clip. I was ready.

When I raised my head however, I saw my glimmer of hope. Behind those troops were a cavalry of vehicles, each donning the Lake State insignia. The Confederates were so focused in fighting us I don’t believe any of them realized what was coming from behind. Immediately I ducked as the Laker Army fired upon the hapless soldiers, the bullets sprayed all over as they easily shifted the odds to our favor.

Assisting our new reinforcements it didn’t take much time at all to finish them off. The battle was over, and we hastily reunited with our friends from the other unit.

Seeing Ian climbing out of a Humvee my emotions got the better of me. With untold glee I jumped on him, hugging him in a deep embrace. God I was so happy to see him…

It only took me a minute to realize how bad this looked. Seeing my leg rise as I held him was all the hint I needed. I immediately jumped off, cursing myself for even feeling like that.
Blushing uncontrollably, I did my best to calm myself. I diverted my attention to the task at hand. “So…um,” I struggled to blurt out, “How’s things on your end?”

Seeing that he was feeling a little uncomfortable himself, he answered, “Looks like everything is working as planned. Their base is being bombarded, and Silverwisp’s troops are taking the power plant as we speak. Shouldn’t be too long until we cut the power.”

“…Silverwisp?” I said, wondering who he was talking about. He pointed behind him and floating there was a Sprite like Wyld, giving me a little wave.

“I feel kinda awkward,” Silverwisp began, “I mean, you guys seem to be all lovey-dovey with the hugs and stuff…”

“We aren’t a couple!” I snapped. I mean, seriously why did you hafta go out and say that? I already felt embarrassed to begin with!

“Oh!” Silverwisp exclaimed, “That makes me feel a little better! Hehe!”

All of a sudden a soldier came up to debrief us. “Ms. Silverwisp! Ma’am!”

“Yes?” she asked. It was pretty weird and uncharacteristic seeing her act all serious. Something tells me it was rather difficult for her to behave like that.

“We have successfully cut the power from the enemy’s base. The command center has been bombarded and destroyed. Their soldiers are disorganized; many have escaped or gone into hiding.”

“So I take it we won?” She eagerly queried.

“It seems to be the case, ma’am,” the soldier responded.

“All we need to do is some house cleaning then!” She exclaimed. “Alright, go scout about for some stragglers. Try to keep them alive if possible!”

Dismissed, the soldier headed back to join his troops and relay her orders. Ian and I smiled. We won. Toledo was ours.

I let out a deep breath, relieved of our victory, and yet proud of my accomplishments. “I can’t believe it,” I said. “We finally have a place to call home. This is so overwhelming.”

“Well, you better believe it,” he replied, obviously anxious to claim our spoils. “Maybe we should check out the command center. Or at least what’s left of it.”

Nodding in agreement, we hitched a ride in Silverwisp’s vehicle, and headed to our new home. The battle was over, but I fear that the war was far from over.