Chapter 2- A strike where it hurts (part 2)

To Sage, each of the things Kyu had said was a revelation on a different level. Kyu and the two red-headed Elves were sisters? While he could see the family similarities clearly in Laniel and Titania, none of the two looked much like Kyu in any way.

Then it surprised him that the Riverelf really was that old. From her body type she absolutely looked like a child and even though Sage could see a higher age in the way she looked and acted, Sage did not expect her to be technically a mature woman.

And third, that Inu girl was special. In which way however, Sage could not yet tell. But he didn't buy into her human disguise, yet he didn’t dig deeper either just yet.

Laniel was the first to speak up again after Kyu had ended.

“So... what is he doing here?” she asked with a doubtful gesture towards Sage. “I thought this was a feminist group and no boys allowed.”

“Never said that...” Kyu said in the tone of a deeply convinced leader.

“Yes, you did...” Titania contradicted.

“Indeed.” Curel added from the background.

“N-No boys allowed.” Inu confirmed, perhaps to spite Kyu's pushy behaviour from earlier a little bit.. “Your words.”

“It’s the reason I can't use this for quality time with Uyilam”, Titania added.

Kyu looked around and blushed. Clearly she had not properly thought this through or even considered that the same rules that applied to the others might also apply to her. But being the charismatic, quick-witted silver-tongue that she was she quickly found a solution to this problem.

“I-it's just a temporary membership.” she said, growing more convinced of herself as she was talking. “An honorary one... Also, for today's mission we can use all help we can get.”

Quiet sighs went through the room, a sign of surrendering that the Elf girls gave their leader.

Titania leaned forwards: “Alright, what's your plan anyway?”

This was obviously what Kyu had waited for. With a huge gesture she slammed her palm onto the table and announced: “We will do what we always do. We fight the oppression!”

The enthusiasm seemed to stay within the borders of the reasonable in the sight of such a vague statement, yet Kyu didn't seem to mind the lack of enthusiasm in her friends.

“You all know that what I'm saying is correct. These damn Maranurr National Party Flatears have set up a camp by the road-bridge to the John-Bell-district. They are harassing our clan and the members of the other clans in our district, who have to go to the Elven Schools across the river.”, Kyu said.

Titania crossed her arms, seeming genuinely curious about this undertaking for the first time.

“Wait...” Laniel said. “You wanna attack the Nazis on the Cambridge Road? That's insane. The Gardyner chief went there to negotiate and was taken into custody. “

Kyu nodded firmly: “That's why we're not negotiating. They are not armed with guns and only harass women and teenagers, who can't defend themselves. And they are only five. So we can defeat them, if we have Sage on our side. I guess a flatear can defeat another flatear. After we beat them up sufficiently, we will escape by splitting up and we either take the Lynfalyl route or the sewer access in the Jamestown Passage.”

Laniel, Inu and Titania looked at each other as if they all knew exactly what these words meant, while Sage had nothing left but blinking confusedly.

“This...” Titania said slowly. “Sounds actually like a really great idea... but what makes you think we can outrun the humans or even the Police”

Kyu grinned widely: “Did you expect I hadn't planned this already? I had Curel prepare some gadgets for us...”

The was obviously the Riverelf’s moment to shine, as she raised from her working bench and held up six glass bottles who were seemingly filled with different layers of powder and metallic plates between them.

“These are my most recent smoke-bombs.”, that the grey-skinned woman. “I pulled the basic design from the internet but I improved it by making the firing mechanism more reliable and the bomb as a whole smaller.”

With a self-satisfied smirk she walked over to the table and placed the bottles in front of the girls. Each of them was held closed by screw-cap and the way Curel respectfully put the flasks on the table, one by one and slowly to not disturb it's contents, showed that these were anything but harmless toys.

Everyone, except for Sage leaned in curiously on the bottle. Instead he checked on their expressions when they picked their new, dangerous toys up. He could see now why all these girls were members of this so-called club, even though Kyu's way of going about it was clearly something one would need to get used to. They played around with explosives, caused trouble and did forbidden things, just like other teenagers. Just that their way of “doing forbidden things” was bumbeling dangerously close to some definitions of political terrorism.

“Okay, using these smoke-bombs is not 100% safe.” Curel started her lecture on advanced homemade explosives. “But if you handle them correctly and don't break them they shouldn't easily explode in your hands. If you want to make them explode though,you need to take off the cap and grab the bottle by the neck. Like this...”

She wrapped her small, grey hands around the upper half of the bottle, so her hand was covering a layer of white powder at the top end of the bottle.

“Next you need to wait 5-10 seconds until you feel this part getting extremely hot. Then you need to throw it quickly. As soon as the glass bottle is broken, the reaction will start and cover an area of 3-8 meters with smoke within a minute. With all 6 of these babies we can transform their entire camp into a smoke-signal for the entire city to see.”

“Sounds easy enough...” Laniel said and picked one of the bottles up with an exited glimmer in her turquoise eyes. Curel quickly pulled the bottle from her hands and placed it back on the table with a strict look in her onyx-coloured eyes.

“Here are some rules. Do not open the cap unless you want to throw it. You can stop the reaction from happening by closing the cap again, but I would not recommend it, as the risk of explosion is high and the smoke-bomb will not work anymore. Do NOT throw it between your feet like a Ninja, as glass splinters will cut through your legs. You can use this as a throwing weapon, but remember that this wound is a 1st degree armed assault and since we’re Elves, we’ll serve a life sentence for it. Then, do not purposefully inhale the smoke. It's not poisonous, but inhaling large quantities of it will lead to asphyxiation. Understood?”

She looked around like a teacher who had just finished a safety lecture on chemistry. As everyone nodded she turned to Sage.

“You too?”

Sage only now realized how neck-deep he was stuck in this, but he also was aware that it would be harder to get out then just playing along for now. He nodded quickly and tried to hide his uncomfortability with the situation.

“One more tactical tip...” Curel added. “Only throw them when you are trying to escape. If you throw these to attack the Nazis, you'll have to walk into the smoke, fight and get out again with your orientation intact. None of us can do this.”

“Alright, alright,” Laniel sighed, clearly bored by all these safety rules. With a gesture of her hand Curel finally allowed the girls to pick up and examine the bombs. Kyu actually took two of them and looked appreciative through the transparent glass.

“Excellent work, Curel. I don't know what we'd do without you.” she said and handed one of the bottles to Sage. Nervously he looked over the mixture inside and placed it in one of the wide pockets of his robe.

“Can... anyone maybe explain me what all of this is about?” Sage asked.

Everyone turned to Sage, as if they had forgotten that he was there and a slight smile hushed over Curel’s weirdly wide cheeks, revealing the sharp teeth of a predator.

“Of course she didn't explain you a thing, eh?” she said with a patient tone. “Well, given that you probably don't know much about the whole situation, allow me to give you a brief rundown. The Maranurr National Party is supporting Anti-Clan laws in this country, which would effectively allow the government to throw Elves into jail that live together in groups. Everyone knows this is ridiculous, but these thugs are trying to push for the laws by making us look like dangerous thugs and gangs. In other words: They assault and harass Elfish children and women until someone fights back and then they frame us for being ‘violent, mafia-like structures’.”

Sage thought of what he heard right now and then gave Kyu a puzzled look.

“Wait...” he said slowly. “Doesn't that mean we're doing exactly what they want us to do?”

Kyu crossed her arms resiliently: “Yes, we do. That's why we have to hit them hard enough that they do not come back. We're not gonna let them harass our kin any longer. How long until they determine that verbally abusing and threatening our family isn't enough, so they beat a child into hospital to provoke a backlash. All of this has happened before and we will not let it happen.”

Sage looked around, to see if this line of thought resonated with the rest of the group and apparently, it was ideologically consistent in that regard. While he was checking on the other members in the room he noticed Kyu eyeing him curiously and slowly it began to dawn upon him. This was a test.

Kyu didn't just bring him here to increase her manpower, she did it to test if he would take their side, the side of the Elves that was, or not. And Kyu clearly seemed like the kind of person who dealt in absolutes.

Who was not with her, was with the Humans.

This was the way political radicals like her thought.

And Sage really did not want to be with the humans, not only because of the backlash he would receive from Kyu and her clan for it, but because he genuinely felt like the Elves were right for fighting back. Also, it wasn't like he had anything better to do with his time then helping a gang of elven kids. Even though he recognized the dangers and flaws of Kyu's thought, he sympathized with her.

He nodded: “Alright, I'll help you.”

A faint smile crept onto Kyu’s face.

“Alright! Then there is no time to waste.”, she called, while clapping one hand against the bottle she was holding, making its internals shake a bit and giving Curel sweat on her forehead. “Let's put these sweeties to a good use.”