Improvisation

Lara ran her hand over her face and finally got up.

She, Armin, Mikasa, Jean, Connie, and Sasha had their ODM gears attached around Eren's Titan's neck, watching the trail of destruction the Colossal Titan left around them.

Burning houses and buildings were flying everywhere, as if they were meteors from space.

"It seems that Bertholdt doesn't know our location..." said Mikasa.

"Yeah..." replied Armin, anxious. "He's trying to spread burning debris to turn Shiganshina into a sea of flames..."

Connie and Sasha were still asking Armin to give them any orders. But, he was completely scared.

"I cannot do this..." he thought, anguished. "Lara... You made a mistake... I'm not ready for this responsibility yet..."

Armin looked back and saw that his Leader was already on her feet, wide-eyed at the Colossal Titan. Crestfallen, he walked towards her.

"Lara..." he said, almost in a whisper, "Forgive me..."

She looked at him deeply. Her chin was trembling.

"What...?" Lara was also almost whispering. "What are you saying, Armin?"

He just shook his head negatively, with an expression of extreme pain.

"I... I can't do this... I can't lead anyone... Please, forgive me..."

Armin then looked back to his other friends.

"Jean..." he called, looking very tired. "Jean! Can you... Take my place? I... I just have no idea what we should do... I put ourselves in this condition because I misinterpreted Bertholdt... You'll be a better Officer than me!"

Everyone looked at Armin in bewilderment, including Lara. Jean looked to his Squad Leader, seeking help. Automatically, everyone also turned to her.

Lara closed her eyes and took a deep breath, covering her face.

After a long pause, she finally said:

"Exceptionally now, no one is a Leader, no one is an Officer, and no one is a subordinate. At this moment, we're equal. Now, I want all of you to give your opinion of what we should do. I'll obey your orders myself, if necessary. We're all facing the same situation and we need all the help we can get. So..." Lara felt a strength grow inside her chest and raised a determined look, "Let's get to work!"

"Yes..." she thought. "That's what my mother would want me to do!"

"Jean!" exclaimed Lara. Now, her voice tone had changed to something more confident. "You're very good at reading situations. Please, if you have any plans in mind, let us know!"

He widened his eyes at Lara. Slowly, he looked around.

"The river!" he exclaimed. "Let's move to the river that crosses the city! Let's all get aboard Eren's Titan and conserve our gas!"

Jean sought Lara's eyes for approval and she nodded with an encouraging smile. They walked a little, always trying to stay hidden from the Colossal Titan, behind the houses.

"Eren," began Jean, in a low tone, "We wanna get Bertholdt's attention at the right time, so do not let him see you for now."

Jean then looked at Armin and Lara.

"You two..." he said. "Yes, I'm good at reading situations, but I have no idea how we can get out of this… We're still counting on you both to come out with a plan."

Lara and Armin looked at each other, with worried expressions. Despite being a little more confident, she still felt a great fear in her heart.

It was a pathetic situation. A bunch of teenagers having to face a literally Colossal monster, where his only goal was to exterminate them all, without even giving a plausible reason for it.

For a brief moment, Lara wondered if her parents had also really made the right choice in placing her as Squad Leader.

Everyone then looked at the Colossal Titan. He was approaching the Wall.

"Eren!" exclaimed Jean. "Get his attention! Don't let Bertholdt get any closer to the Wall!"

Eren then screamed so loudly, that the ground shook around him. For a moment, Bertholdt looked back.

"He noticed!" said Jean.

However, Bertholdt looked ahead again and continued to walk toward the Wall.

"He ignored us?!" exclaimed Lara.

"What a bastard!" said Jean.

"Hey!" shouted Connie. "What are we gonna do?! If he keeps advancing--"

"I know that!" Jean cut it short, stressed out.

Armin still looked worriedly from Jean to Lara.

Jean also looked at her. He still felt very insecure about giving orders in the presence of his Leader, even though she gave them complete freedom to do so.

"Jean!" exclaimed Lara, squeezing his shoulder. "Go ahead! Tell us what we gotta do!"

He gritted his teeth and then looked at Eren.

"Make this damn creature stop moving his legs!"

Everyone held tight to Eren, who started to run quickly towards the Colossal Titan.

"But still!" shouted Connie, along their path. "How are we gonna defeat him?!"

"The hot steam he emits makes our approach useless, right?!" added Sasha, worried.

Indeed, the Colossal Titan had a terrible weapon. He had the ability to release such a hot steam, it burned everything around. However, it consumed a lot of his energy.

"You think I don't know that?!" asked Jean, still stressed out. "But we've got no choice but to try! We've gotta figure out his weakness!"

"I'll attack him!" said Mikasa, looking at Bertholdt, who was now very close to them. "You guys distract him. Prepare your Thunder Spears!"

"Armin," called Lara, approaching him and squeezing his shoulder, "I need you to stay behind and observe him! There has to be a way we can defeat him."

"Y-You don't want me to go along?!" he asked, astonished, staring deeply at her.

Lara moved closer to Armin, giving him a sad smile.

"Not yet... I don't want the brain of our team to suffer any damage," she said, in a tone that only Armin could hear.

He blushed a lot, eyes wide.

"Besides..." added Lara, "I'm still sure you'll help us with a good plan." She winked at him.

For a moment, Armin couldn't speak, he just stared at her, astonished.

Then, without meaning to, he gave her a silly little smile.

"S-Sure... Right... T-Thank you!"

Eren was already very close to Bertholdt, almost reaching his legs.

"Now!" exclaimed Jean. "Scatter!"

Flying with their ODM gears, each went to their positions.

Eren started pushing one of the Colossal Titan's legs, very hard.

"He's shoving him!" exclaimed Sasha, perplexed.

"Go, Eren!" shouted Connie, excited. "Take that freak down!"

"Heave!" exclaimed Lara, hopping nervously like Hange.

However, Bertholdt did something unexpected.

With Eren clinging to his leg, he was swung and thrown far away by the Colossal Titan. The kick was so strong, that Eren ended up on top of the Wall, passed out.

Everyone gaped. What now?!

"EREN!!!" shouted Mikasa, desperate.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Wall, as Erwin and Levi talked under the threat of the Beast's hail of boulders, they suddenly looked up, startled by this new noise they have heard.

"Hey!" exclaimed Levi, looking up. "Is that Eren over there?!"

Erwin couldn't believe his eyes.

"He got himself flung on top of the Wall?!" asked Levi.

Back at Lara's Squad, everyone was perplexed by that sudden event. Mikasa had an expression of pure terror on her face.

"Eren's not moving..." she said, her voice shaky.

"Mikasa!" exclaimed Lara. "I'm sure he's alive!"

"Let's focus on the monster that's still trying to kill us!" said Jean. He then lowered the tone of his voice, as if talking to himself, "I think it was a bad idea... We shouldn't run to him without a plan..."

Jean looked at his friends, who were watching Eren atop the Wall, completely stunned.

"What we need..." he continued, worried, "Is to find a way to change the game... Otherwise, this mission, our lives, and the future of humanity will be over!"

Jean then turned to Lara.

"Are we gonna sit around waiting to be killed?! Let's go on the attack!"

"Bertholdt still doesn't know about our Thunder Spears yet! We can use them!" exclaimed Lara.

"Right!" replied Jean. "Let the four of us shoot some to distract him! This way, Mikasa will have a chance to attack!"

Everyone looked at Mikasa, who nodded.

Then, Lara, Jean, Connie, and Sasha flew towards the Colossal Titan until they were face to face, their ODM gears attached to his red muscles.

It was a terrifying sight. The Colossal Titan, a completely skinless monster, glared at them as they hovered in the air in front of him.

"Hey, moron!" shouted Jean. "I'll poke out your stupid eyes!"

"YOU HUGE IDIOT!" shouted Connie, very loudly.

"You massive pervert lord!" also shouted Sasha, speaking in her accent.

"Did you think you could mess with our Squad?!" exclaimed Lara, making a face at him, "YOU THOUGHT WRONG, LOSER!"

Then, Mikasa majestically flew behind the Colossal Titan and shot two Thunder Spears towards his nape.

However, something happened. With absurd intensity, Bertholdt began to release his infernal steam in all directions, reaching them.

They covered their faces to avoid being burned and, at the same time, Mikasa's Thunder Spears detached themselves from the Colossal Titan's nape, ending up exploding right next to her. Shards flew everywhere.

The intensity of Bertholdt's steam was so strong, that their ODM gears detached, throwing them in all directions.

From the top of a roof, Armin watched that scene, completely stunned.

"GUYS!!!" he shouted.

"This is not good at all!" thought Armin. "His hot steam even knocked away the Thunder Spears!"

Fortunately, Lara, Jean, Connie, and Sasha managed to land safely on some rooftops. Connie coughed a lot.

"Damn it!" he said, choking. "The steam burned my throat!"

Lara was leaning on her knees, panting. Her eyes were burning a lot.

Mikasa landed beside Armin, cringing herself.

"Are you okay?!" he asked, very worried.

"I'm fine..." she replied, with difficulty. "A bit of shrapnel from the Thunder Spears got me. Did you find something out?"

Armin took a step back, his eyes wide.

"Did you..." continued Mikasa, crestfallen, "Did you manage to come up with a counterattack plan?"

Armin looked around him, until he finally met Lara's eyes. He saw that she was panting and red from the steam burn. Lara was also looking at him, her chest rising and falling in weariness.

Her eyes asked the same question Mikasa did.

"Not... Yet..." answered Armin, in a whisper, as he stared at Lara.

Then, a great rumble was heard. It was the walls of houses being destroyed by something very strong. Everyone looked in the direction of that noise.

They couldn't believe their eyes.

It was Reiner.

The Armored Titan was heading towards them.