Season 2: Chapter 8: Orange team

Chapter: Orange Flame

The early morning mist curled low through the Dwarven mist valley, the sky above still dim with blue-grey light. Oliver Woods stood outside the renovated stone hall, his coat fluttering slightly in the cold breeze. The newly formed Orange Team—the team he'd now been assigned to lead—stood in a loosely organized circle around him.

They were young. All of them.

Boys who looked barely out of adolescence. Men who had walked away from homes that never understood them. Some had hollow eyes like they hadn't slept in days. Some had old wounds—visible and not. Each carried a bag, a blanket, or just a hoodie and broken shoes.

Seventeen of them.

Oliver scanned the group with quiet observation. His white mask was off now, resting at his side. Fern stood near a tree behind him, arms folded, watching in silence.

"…So," Oliver began, unsure how to even begin a speech. "This is Orange Team. You all ended up here for different reasons. Some of you were invited. Some of you had nowhere else to go. And some of you probably still don't know why you said yes."

A few looked down at the ground. One of the boys kicked a pebble.

"That's fine. You don't need to have it all figured out," Oliver continued, voice even, low, but clear. "I don't have it figured out either. But I know what it feels like... to fall through the cracks."

One boy—a pale-skinned teen with silver studs in his eyebrows—looked up with faint curiosity.

Oliver reached into his coat and held up his Systematic Guide. "This thing says I'm a Traveler. Class: Outsider. Rank: Blue-Green hybrid. Pretty colors, but it doesn't tell you who I am."

He paused, locking eyes with the group.

"But we will define what the Orange Team means. Together."

One of the young men, dark-skinned with a yellow hoodie and scars up his arm, raised a hand hesitantly. "Are we… fighting something?"

Oliver shook his head. "Not yet. For now? We're building something."

He gestured behind him—toward the hills, toward the slowly forming outpost near the lake. "We're creating a place for people like us. The ones society ignores, misplaces, throws away. We'll work, train, and help set up the forward foundation."

"Foundation?" a taller guy muttered.

"Think of it like the roots before a storm," Fern finally added. "You want to stand tall, you plant your feet deep first."

The boys looked at each other. Some nodded. Some were still confused.

But something shifted.

A tiny spark of interest.

"Fern and I will train you. Yotel will visit and provide the tools. You'll be part of a citywide campaign by the end of the month," Oliver added, voice a bit firmer now. "We're going to change what it means to be 'unwanted.'"

Silence lingered.

Until the silver-studded boy finally stepped forward. "Do we get food?"

Oliver smirked slightly. "Yes."

"And maybe beds?" another one asked.

Fern sighed. "If you finish your work."

"…Deal," they murmured, almost in sync.

Oliver turned, waving for them to follow.

As the mist parted, the Orange Team began to walk behind him, toward a new chapter. They didn't look like much now.

But under the banner of forgotten youth, they might just become something powerful.

Not soldiers.

Not heroes.

But Travelers.

And that was more than enough.