Shadow Slave

'Damnation!'

Sunny scrambled to his feet, hastily dismissing the Midnight Shard and grabbing his bow. On the screen of the communicator, Jet's face disappeared, replaced by an incoming message that named the section of the wall he and his cohort were supposed to go to.

'South...'

This time, they were meant to fight right above the main gates of the city, on the part of the defensive barrier that faced inland - and where the battle was going to be the fiercest. It seemed that Army Command was finally done holding the Irregulars in reserve.

Sunny glanced at the clock. It was just past the earliest time the members of his cohort could return from the Dream Realm, if they had chosen to sleep tonight.

'That's good.'

He dashed to the pilot's cabin of the Rhino and ran the vehicle through the startup procedure. The APC sluggishly came to life, making many sounds that were probably not a excellent sign.

As Sunny waited, he mentally went over each member of his cohort, thinking about what task he would assign them and whether their Flaws would be detrimental in this particular battle. The chances of that were low, but he still needed to check.

No one with an especially crippling Flaw would have made it through years of service, and soldiers were not required to disclose them - sharing something that personal and potentially dangerous could only be done voluntarily. There was nothing about the Flaws in the dossiers Sunny had read, but after spending months fighting side by side with his people, he deduced most of them.

The Flaws of the Irregulars were indeed not too dire, and most of his people were mature Awakened who had had at least a decade to learn how to deal with them. Quentin, for example, seemed to be unable to break a promise. Kim was naturally unassuming. Samara had a leisurely rate of soul essence regeneration. Belle had to work especially hard on his impulse control. Luster... well, that one was beautiful apparent.

Dorn's Flaw was the cruelest, but it would only become detrimental years from now. His body was slowly, but constantly growing... and would most likely collapse under its own weight one day, some time in the future.

Nothing that would play a role in today's battle, though.

'All good.'

much louder. The members of his

"Captain! Everyone's here!"

sent the Rhino forward. His driving skills were not really top-notch... or any good, really... but he could get the APC

ready. You all remember the

in the battle against the Devouring Cloud,

"Yes, sir!"

Sunny nodded.

rub Luster's lucky charm. Gods know we're going to need

laughter of his comrades, Luster crossed his

most deadly Nightmare Creatures in the region... you

survived meeting every

on controlling the massive

the streets of Falcon

inside. He could see a lot of frightened people still hurrying to reach their assigned dormitories, but mostly, there were only

his family had a room below ground... if not,

'Concentrate.'

park it

organized chaos - more so today than it had been before. A tense, anxious mood hung in

he could already hear the distant, low hum

"Look alive!"

to put on