This chapter was a fighter, I can tell you that much.

          The two guards were stationed at the top of the stone wall that surrounded the base of Team Crafted, overlooking a rather bland plain with a forest starting up a little in the distance. They each held a tall spear in their right hand and wore a light chainmail shirt under a tunic that had the insignia of the Team Crafted alliance; A sword point down that had a small tree growing up around it, almost consuming it and blossoming with fruit.

          They were supposed to be stationed ten metres apart and stand to attention, but they had siddeled a few steps closer together and were talking, filling the rather boring sentry job with conversation. They weren't necessarily good friends but they knew of each other and after the usual pleasantries had passed ("How's the wife", "Crazy weather the other day"), they had moved on to slightly more interesting topics.

          "Did you hear about that village in the north, Trapper?" one asked, shifting his helmet a little so that it kept more of the sun out of his eyes. "Main street blasted to bits, the rumours said."

          "I'd tell you Leonard, if I were any more of a believer in legends, I'd be wetting my pants right now," Trapper said with a small chuckle, perhaps trying to mask the unease in his voice. "Whispering of men with red eyes and green eyes and living skeletons, stuff out of ghost stories I reckon."

          "Not to mention the tales of Herobrine that have started flying around again," Leonard added. "I've heard some new stories, and some of them are downright terrifying."

          Trapper shuddered and made a sign for warding off evil, earning a confused look from Leonard. "I thought you didn't believe in legends."

          "I don't really," Trapper said. "But with all the whispered disappearances, all the unexplained events, and then all these rumours of Herobrine and them suddenly pop up? It's probably just coincidence but I don't know man, it still gives me the creeps."

           "Yeah, I know what you mea- Captain's coming."

           Both of the men instantly took a small step apart from each other, faced forward and snapped to attention, making sure their spears were pointing straight up to the sky. The sound of steel boots clicking on the rough stone came closer as their Captain approached from somewhere behind them and came to a stop. Both men were tense as there was a moment of silence.

          "Trapper, I need you to run a message," the Captain said. Trapper looked over as he was addressed and saw that the Captain was holding out a sealed envelope for him. "Take it straight to General Seto, he should be in the alchemy building."

          "Yes sir," Trapper said, saluting and taking the envelope before running down the wall and taking the first set of stairs he came across down to the ground. Leaving his spear leaning against the wall, he took off through the base.

           As it was every day, the streets were full of citizens and recruits alike going about their business, with the air full of the chatter of the crowds, the ting ting of blacksmith hammers on hot steel, the call of shopkeepers advertising their wares and the smell of hot bread, fruits and vegetables.

          The training grounds were full of recruits armoured up in varying degrees, with wooden weapons in hand which they used to attack padded poles, the yelling voices of the Commanders and Captains becoming a nice backing track to the rhythmic twack of the weapons. Trapper turned to run alongside the grounds, coming into sight of the far corner where the more advanced recruits were training against each other, fully armoured to protect them from the hardwood swords.

          General Jerome was there, as would be expected, giving the recruits a hard time as they tried to defend against the axe he wielded. Behind them and to Trapper's right, the buildings gave way to a larger green section that went right up to the stone wall. Archers were lined up and firing, General Mitch watching them with his arms crossed over his chest.

          The alchemy building was set back a bit from the street and the training grounds, buried amongst various buildings, but its unique single-story design with dark wood and two windows on either side of the door meant that it was easy enough to locate. Trapper, now starting to run out of breath and hating the weight of his chainmail shirt, reached the door and barely managed to step out of the way as a tall woman wearing a short cloak came out of the building. They both said sorry at the same time (which was slightly awkward) and the woman walked off down the street while Trapper went inside the building.

          The inside was well lit as always, full of shelves that covered the walls and tables where books and pens and papers had been swept to the side to allow people to pour over more books, with sealed jars displayed neatly on shelves that had a border to them so that the jars wouldn't fall off, posters stuck up on the wall depicting different types of plants and the like. At the back of the room, round-bellied metal cauldrons hung over dark and lit fire pits, the latter with several people surrounding it, talking quietly over the sound of liquid bubbling.

          General Seto was standing at one of the tables, drawing on a poster of star constellations that he had just taken off the wall, given the large blank patch of wood behind him. General Jason stood beside him, pointing out details on the poster. Trapper waited a moment for his eyes to adjust (and take in the scene, because the alchemy building was one he didn't get it visit often, and he found it amazing) before approaching the two Generals.

          "C19 is over to the right a bit more, not that close to C54," Jason was saying, moving his finger to point to the spot he was indicating.

          "Are you sure?" Seto asked. "I'm pretty sure C19 is part of the Agrave Cluster over here, I don't think C7 is that close, I think it should be more up here."

          "Isn't there a third star in this area?" Jason asked, reaching over the table to grab a second smaller chat that also depicted the night sky. "I'm pretty sure the Riddler has a dimmer star somewhere..."

          "I swear that star was just a trick of the light, I don't understand why you keep insisting it's there."

          "I'm not kidding Seto, I saw-"

          Trapper cleared his throat. "Ahem, Generals?"

          The two of them stopped their star debate and looked up at him with almost the exact same expression on their face, except the similarities ended there. Whereas Seto wore his long purple cloak, General Jason had a light blue jumper and black pants, with short brown hair and blue eyes that made you instantly believe he was trustworthy, which he was. He had to be, considering that he was the person who led the diplomatic talks, although these had become increasingly rare over the past few months.

          "What's up?" Jason asked.

          Trapper jerked himself out of his thoughts. "Uh, I have a message for General Seto," he said, holding out the envelope his Captain had given him.

          General Seto took the envelope and opened it, scanning what was written while Jason looked over his shoulder. Trapped stood there awkwardly, looking around the room while trying not to fidget with his hands. He knew that everyone he saw here (and there were a good number of people) was either a fully fledged sorcerer or someone who was well on their way to being one, but they all looked pretty average. Even so, he didn't like the thought of dueling any of them.

          "Is that normal?" Jason suddenly asked, his voice quiet.

          Seto let out a low sigh. "No it is not." He rapidly folded the letter and put it away in his pocket. "I can't do this one alone, I'm gonna need some backup."

          "I'll go around the central district and round everyone up," Jason said, already backing towards the door.

          "I'll swing by the training grounds, meet in the common room in ten." Seto packed up his star chart as Jason left and then went to the door himself, pausing only to say "Marc, don't let anyone try anything they shouldn't." And then the door was closed and the two Generals were gone.

          Trapper stood where he was, patting his hands against his thighs. The apprentices in the room didn't may him any mind as they continued to pour over books or compare notes or making whatever they were brewing up in the cauldron.

          "I'll umm... get back to my post," he said to no one before nodding a little and leaving the alchemy building.

          As for Jason, he moved through the base at a light jog, keeping his eyes peeled for any of his fellow Generals. He guessed that Jerome, Mitch and probably Adam would be at the training ground, and Quentin was almost certainly at the hospital, which left only the whereabouts of Ian and Ty unknown.

          But this turned out to not be a problem as Jason passed the central square and found the two of them talking to a on-duty recruit. General Ian was slightly taller than average, standing confident and relaxed with his sunglasses on. Ty was next to him, hair styled so that it half-covered one of his eyes, wearing a white t-shirt with grey pants and a jacket similar to Jason's, but grey instead of blue.

          Jason quickly moved over to them. "Hey, sorry, gotta interrupt," he said, cutting off the conversation. "Ian, Ty, we've got a quick meeting we gotta do, now."

          "Ohhhkay," Ian said with a shrug. He turned back to the recruit. "We'll finish this conversation later, will you still be here this afternoon?"

          "I'll be doing squad training then sir, with Captain Red," the recruit said and after a few more quick words, the two Generals headed off with Jason.

          "I didn't think we had a meeting today," Ty said in a quiet voice as they walked fairly quickly up the main street, heading towards the hospital to pick up Quentin.

          "Seto got a message," Jason explained rather quickly. "Another magical attack at a village, this time by a little girl."

          "We weren't called the last few times Seto got a message like that," Ian said with a frown. "What's different this time?"

          Jason gave a sigh. "I should let Seto explain, he'll do it better than me and honestly, I didn't understand half of the letter. But he said he'll need help."

          "To what?" Ty asked. "Fight a little girl?"

          Jason could only shrug helplessly.

Okay! Now that we have general introductions out of the way and we're all up to date on everyone's basic personalities and where the world is at, we can move onto some REAL plot.

I have plans guys. Lots of plans...