Chapter twenty two

"What do you mean?" Neah asked. "How many did we lose?" She scanned the area again. It looked like all of the metal vessel users, magi, and household members were present. So what was Muu talking about?

"More than half of the Fanalis Corps, magicians, and soldiers have been captured." Muu reported.

"Captured?" Sinbad echoed.

"Seriously?!" Neah exclaimed.

"How many of each are left?" Kouen asked.

"One hundred Fanalis, one hundred and fifty magicians, and seven hundred soldiers, including dungeon monsters."

Neah looked at her feet and added, "Yamraiha was captured too..."

"Why are they capturing everyone instead of killing them?" Sinbad asked.

"I'm not sure," Muu replied.

"Probably to power their weapons," Neah continued to look at her feet. Everyone was silent for a few moments before Neah recovered from her guilt and spoke up, "Alright. We need to get ourselves together." She walked over to the map and looked at it. It was already set up, with rocks in the corners holding it down and small pebbles on different points of the map. Neah had no idea where to start, "Uhm... What's the plan, Koumei?" She knew the prince was the master at battle strategies.

Koumei stood beside her and looked at the map, "Alright. We're going to split everyone into groups, so who do you want in yours, Neah?" He looked at the magi. "You and your group will be going straight for the Elites, while the rest of us hold the regular soldiers off."

"Do we have enough soldiers, Fanalis and magicians left to do that?" One of the Seven Seas Alliance members, Darius Leoxses- Spartos' father- asked.

"Yes. If we use our metal vessels as well, we should be fine," Koumei nodded.

"Ok..." Neah thought for a while. Who would be the best fighters to take? Obviously the strongest, but she didn't want to deprive the main forces of strong fighters. Taking another magi with her would be useful. Magi vs magi powered weapons? Sure. "Judar," Neah nodded her head to the magi.

Judar smirked, walking over to her, "Alright!"

"Yunan," Neah chose her second team member.

"Eh?" Judar frowned. "What can he do?"

"His magic will be good for support," Neah gave Judar an unamused look. "And he can get us out quickly if we need it." She searched the crowd for the magi, spotting him walking over, "You cool with that?"

"Sure, that's fine." Yunan nodded.

"Good," Neah continued to think. She wasn't going to take Aladdin or Scheherazade too, they needed them here. She scanned the crowd again, her eyes regretfully landing on Sinbad. Neah sighed, "C'mon, King Idiot."

Sinbad raised his eyebrows in surprise, but walked to stand beside her anyway. "Who else do you want?"

"That's it." Neah crossed her arms.

"Are you sure just the four of you will be alright?" Ja'far asked.

"Yeah, we'll be fine," Neah assured.

Ja'far looked to Sinbad for his thoughts and the king smiled reassuringly, "We should be enough. There's only three Elites."

"Ok then," Koumei spoke, "we believe the Elites are here," He pointed to a large blank square on the map surrounded by tall buildings; a park. "So you four will go around their main forces, that are here," He motioned to two street blocks just a few streets away from where they were. "You will go up this road here, and wrap around so you end up right behind them, giving you the advantage."

Neah nodded, "Simple enough. If we can find a car it will be even easier."

"A car?" Kouen questioned.

The magi held back a laugh, "Right. A car is a big metal box that transports people places quickly."

"Couldn't you just use a magic carpet?" Kouha raised an eyebrow.

"They don't use magic, remember? We forwarded our sciences 'cause we had nothing else to create things with."

"So where would you find one of these 'cars'?" Muu asked.

"Uhm..." Neah tried to look over the heads of everyone gathered. Unsurprisingly, she was far too short. "No idea. They were nice enough to evacuate the normal humans beforehand, so there might not be any. We'll look on the way."

"Well we better set off, then," Sinbad said, making sure he had everything he needed.

"Let's go," Excitement began boiling up inside Neah. Finally we get to kick some ass!

~

"Hey! Look, a car!" Neah exclaimed and ran over to a dark blue minivan. They had been walking for roughly ten minutes now.

"This is a car?" Judar looked it over.

"Yep!" Neah jiggled the drivers side door handle. It opened with a squeak.

"How do you work it?" Yunan asked, cautiously walking up.

"Well, I never had money for a driver's license, but I did get my permit." Neah climbed into the front seat, placing her staff in the passenger seat. Her head was just above the steering wheel. She quickly took in her surroundings before reaching under the wheel.

"What are you doing?" Sinbad asked, standing a few feet away.

"Trying to hotwire it..." Neah felt a few wires and pulled at them. Getting a decent grip on the wires, she tried getting them to spark, or something similar. A few minutes of struggling later, the car growled to life. Sinbad and the two magi jumped back in surprise, their weapons ready. Neah laughed, "Calm down, that's supposed to happen. Get in." The three watched the car cautiously. "Oh for fucks sake, Sinbad, get in on the other side. Yunan, Judar, backseat."

Sinbad walked around the car and pulled the passenger side open, awkwardly climbing in. Meanwhile, Judar struggled with the back sliding door. Neah began laughing again, "H-Hang on, I'll help," she got out and ushered the magi aside. Still laughing, she easily slid the door open.

"Shut up, brat." Judar hissed and climbed in.

"Hey, I'm older than you!" Neah began sobering, waving for Yunan to get in. The magi quietly climbed in.

"It's a bit weird that Judar is your grandparent, yet you're older than him," Sinbad commented, looking around the vehicle.

"Funny how time works, huh?" Neah agreed. "Alright, everyone buckle up. The seatbelt is beside your seat." She pulled hers on, then watched to make sure everyone else followed suit. Sinbad and Yunan struggled a bit, but managed to get theirs on. Judar had a bit more trouble, "Having a hard time, grampa?" Neah taunted.

"Shut the fuck up," Judar pulled harder on the belt, "why won't it work?!"

Neah rested her head on the steering wheel tiredly, "If you keep pulling it, it locks. Safety method."

Sinbad grew annoyed as well, "Judar, hurry up. We're in the middle if war here."

"Does this thing have GPS?" Neah wondered out loud as Sinbad and Judar began bickering. She touched the touchscreen on the dash where the radio was. The screen lit up and a country singers voice blaired loudly in the speakers. Neah rushed to the volume wheel as the three men yelped in surprise. "Stupid country music..." Neah breathed deeply and changed to another station. This time it was pop, "Okay, that's survivable..." She tapped on the screen until she got to the GPS option. She grabbed the map off of Sinbad and typed in the address.

A females voice spoke over the music, "Proceed straight. Turn left in two point five miles."

"What is that, Neah?" Yunan asked, leaning forward in his seat. Sinbad and Judar's arguing quieted down.

"The GPS... uh, don't ask what it stands for, I have no idea. It's like a map that talks to you," Neah said. She moved the car thing into drive and slowly pulled it off the side of the road.

"Turn left," The GPS spoke.

"Turning left," Neah nodded, turning the car.

"Stay on road for another three miles."

Neah peered over the steering wheel, trying to see where the gas meter was. The small red line was nearing E. "Damn, we're not going to get very far with this..." As if on cue, the engine started rumbling and the car slowed to a stop. "Dammit."

"Why'd we stop?" Judar leaned forward and looked around.

"Out of gas," Neah sighed. "Can't drive a car without gas. Looks like we're walking the rest of the way."

~