The Major's Plan

Wesley blinked at the woman's words, and beyond that, the expression she wore seemed to be a little too excited for his liking. "What? What do you mean?" Wes asked, the young man not bothering to beat around the bush with what she was thinking.

"How much practice have you done with your Void Element?" she asked openly, not at all seeming to mind that they were out in the open. Of course, there wasn't anyone nearby, but all the same, it was still quite a bit strange for him to hear her speaking of this, when she'd been the first one to speak on it.

Wesley frowned, glancing at his allies. "I...I mean I've probably done a fair bit of it. We've been seeing pretty much nonstop action for awhile, now," he admitted. "I was able to use it on the Firebird... and on the Beast as well," he spoke, not getting into the Traitors.

Major Ellen nodded in response. "Honestly, that's better than I could have hoped for. You've already seen more combat than we would have expected by this time, so I need to ask you- do you trust your allies?"

There was a sudden flicker of uncertainty that moved through Wesley at that rather blunt question, and he glanced over his shoulder at the group that stood behind him.

Jay was his brother and he trusted the man with his life, and he knew the reverse was true as well. The two of them had lost everything years ago, and they had both lived for revenge. That was an obvious one.

Sasha was perhaps his best friend outside of his brother. The pair of them didn't always get along, but any time anyone threatened one of them, the other was there to back them up. Sasha could be a bitch sometimes, but that was who she was.

Evie and Theodore... he didn't know, right offhand. There were several factors at work for the both of them.

Theodore's opinion he trusted more than anyon else's on their crew. He was incredibly smart and while he took awhile to reach his conclusions, once he did, Wesley couldn't even remember a time when he'd been wrong. He was from beyond the Wall, but Wes couldn't hold that against Ted.

Evie was a little harder to place and pin down. She was an absolute wildcard at most things. She was smarter than she acted and (he was certain) more mature too. But she also didn't seem to really focus on much beyond her own pets (and Theodore of course).

But all in all, he had trusted them multiple times before to watch his back, and he wouldn't let that trust go to waste. "Yeah," he spoke, as he turned back around to face Major Ellen. "I do."

"Damn right you do," Sasha muttered under her breath, but loud enough that the rest of them heard it, and that seemed to embolden the lot of them with some strength following that hard inquisition from Major Ellen.

Evie had thrown her hands up in the air, grinning widely as she cheered something in a sing-song voice for Wesley, seemingly glad that she had been trusted as well with everyone else.

"I guess I have to then ask why," Wesley spoke, not really ending the early celebrations, but mostly just looking back at the older woman with an inquisitive look upon his face. "I don't imagine you're sending us to the front lines so early, are you?"

Major Ellen smirked at that, the siren beginning to roar again. "That's exactly what I'm going to do. Right now, what you're seeing- this is about normal. This is what we deal with on a weekly basis, sometimes with a longer reprieve." She gestured in the distance, where the occasional flash of light flickered.

"That over there? That's Vice. She's one of the few Tier Threes we have. The other two are actually out beyond the Wall, right now," the woman spoke, which caused Wesley's eyes to widen in surprise. They'd let two of their strongest just leave? That was... dangerous. On all counts.

"Wait, you sent out two of your Tier Threes, dude?" Jay asked, frowning as he folded his arms over his chest. "That's kinda... doesn't that leave us defenseless?" he asked, mostly just curious at the decision. He paused then, before giving a half-salute toward the woman.

The older woman shook her head. "It does, but they left some time ago and were expected to be back. Obviously, with Vice as our only remaining, we cannot send her out after them. But our current limitations are quite obvious, and we are continually losing ground to the Beasts in the form of the Wall. Little by little, it's losing its structural integrity."

Wesley exhaled slowly as he raised a hand up to his face in response, letting out a long, slow exhale. "You still haven't explained what you would like for us to do. And why this trust is so important," he continued, mostly just wanting to know what it was she was getting at.

The woman nodded, before she shifted, standing upright and stiff as a board as she had before, folding her arms behind her back. it was extremely reminiscent of when they had first arrived, which felt like forever ago, but in reality had only been a couple of days.

"Very well then. Soldiers, your orders are as follows." She made a gesture down to where a handful of Soldiers, fresh Tier Ones like themselves (although they had likely completed their training) were fighting with a Beast down below on the ground. It was far smaller than the four-legged one they'd dealt with yesterday morning, but was still clearly dangerous.

"You will assist the Soldiers down there to defeat and subdue the Beast. Soldier Wesley, you will use your Skill to drain as much of the framework from it as you can. You will then be tasked with moving onto another Beast within sight that your allies can defend you... and repeat this process."

Wes swallowed, shaking his head. "Wait- so you're just expecting me to go down there and use the Devour Elements Skill on them, one at a time?" he asked, just wanting to get some clarification here. "What if we get in over our head?"

"That's why I asked if you trusted your team. We will provide some support if we can, but it will be mostly up to you. You haven't had a chance to go over the lessons in the Camp yet, but a rule of thumb is that the larger the Beast, the stronger it is. As such, you'll want to target the small ones, and free up the Soldiers to better fight against the larger ones."

"I can't belive you're just throwing us right into the fire," Sasha hissed under her breath as she glared at Major Ellen. "We haven't had a chance to learn and use our Skills. It hasn't even been a week, and you're already casting us out down into the battlefield."

Jay winced at her sudden outburst, glancing at the older woman as if she were going to lash back and somehow punish the lot of them for Sasha's words. Instead, Major Ellen stood stock still, still in that military pose.

Steadily, the older woman's stiffness broke, just slightly. It was a very subtle change, but one enough that Wesley caught it as the Major looked past all of them to Sasha. "If there were another option, I would seize it. But the Beasts only grow more numerous, while our numbers slowly but steadily dwindle."

"I hate to rely on Wesley's Framework, like this, but we have no other choice at the moment. Desperate times have called for desperate measures. Your friend just happens to be the one key we have to potentially carve out a victory here."

Sasha's mouth opened, and then closed again, glaring away from the older woman as she set her hands on her hips, not able to bring herself to actually say anything else in response.

As she finished speaking, however, Major Ellen snapped back to her original posture and looked at their group, her eyes slightly narrowed. "You have your orders. Dismissed," the woman spoke, before she simply vanished from sight, likely to go back to her own battle that she was fighting, leaving the five of them up on the top of the Wall.

Wesley exhaled slowly, glancing back toward the others. "All right. We play this like we did the Beast from before. Don't stick around in one place too long. Jay and Woodhead are on main offense. Sasha, you use your Venomtouch where you can but otherwise stay on a defensive duty. Evie and Theodore, you two are on support."

"Shall we... do as we did... against the Traitors..?" Ted asked, as he gestured down below toward where the fights were still occurring. "If you... can..." Ted continued, looking over toward Evie.

"I sure can! I'll send everyone down! You got me, Wessy?" she demanded, pointing at Wesley, who nodded in response. "Okay! Here we go!" she called, and without even waiting for a response, went to work. She set a hand on Jay, sending him down below with only a startled yell.

Sasha lifted her hands in defense as Evie approached, grinning like a maniac. "Evie, wait, wai-" Sasha began, before simply vanishing from sight as well. Ted merely gestured, not at all hesitating as Evie sent him down to the fight below as well.

"We're good, boss!" Evie spoke, before she looked back at him, beaming a smile. "Thanks for trusting me and Teddy. That means a lot, you know?" she spoke, clearly pleased with the young man's words, then.

He nodded, setting a hand on her shoulder, before she too vanished from the wall and appeared down below. Wes took a step closer to the edge, seeing everyone working with the other Soldiers against the smaller Beast.

"All right. Here goes nothing," he spoke as he began to activate his Space Framework, and initiated the Teleport Skill, vanishing from sight, and entering into the fray himself.