Later that morning, Aaron stepped up to a plywood shelf nestled in the corner of a storage room on the bottom floor of the temple. A dim fluorescent light flickered above. 

Aaron grabbed a metallic maroon boot off the shelf and studied it with pleasure. He puffed his cheeks and blew several particles of dust out of the hollow cavity in the bottom of the piece of footwear. Then, with a satisfied nod, he crossed over to the middle of the room and placed the boot on the ground beside its twin. 

"You finished loading those wrist rockets yet, Sila?" he called over his shoulder as he snatched a thick metal bow from where it sat in the corner. He pulled at the bowstring appraisingly and nodded a second later. 

"I'm almost done." Sila replied from across the room, where it held two gauntlets matching the boots in color. 

"Awesome." Aaron answered. He retrieved a quiver of arrows and placed them on the ground beside the bow and the boots. 

Aaron looked up when the moth-eaten closet door creaked open. Wendy stepped out in black skin-tight leggings and a long-sleeved top of the same material. His eyes swept up and down her body, and he grinned appreciatively at her figure, small and feminine, but also solid and muscular. 

Wendy padded across the concrete floor in her bare feet and stepped over to the maroon boots. She wiggled them on, one foot at a time. 

After Wendy had donned the boots, Aaron darted over to the wall and retrieved six more pieces. He knelt before her and opened up a pair of hinged greaves, shaped to fit her legs perfectly. With a click, the locking mechanism fastened the armor around her calves, and Aaron moved to do the same on the other leg. 

Next, he attached the cuisses over her thighs, and then moved back down to buckle knee-plates over the other pieces with leather straps. He used similar bands to fasten faulds around her hips and a breastplate to her body. As he worked, he mused to himself how Wendy had once stubbornly opposed his helping her get into the armor, but now offered no resistance whatsoever. 

After clipping all the required pieces onto her arms, Aaron grabbed her helmet. They locked eyes as she tied her blonde hair into a ponytail and he rotated the protective-wear to face correctly. Then he slipped it over her head, staring into her icy blue eyes until they disappeared behind the red faceplate. 

With a playful smirk, he grabbed the back of her head and planted a kiss on the spot her lips lay beneath the helmet. He pulled back afterward and smiled. 

"Bloody coward." she said, tugging it right back off and dropping it to the floor. She stood on her tiptoes and pulled his head down to her lips. 

Aaron's eyes widened when he felt their lips connect. After a second, he wrapped one arm around her body and cupped the other behind her head. The kiss wasn't long, but his heart beat several dozen times during its duration. He could swear he saw fireworks. 

After Wendy pulled back, Aaron coughed into the crook of his elbow. "Well...that was...unexpected." 

Wendy sent a rare smile his way. "You deserve a surprise every now and again." 

"Aww, how sweet. You rock, love." 

"You're not half bad yourself." she replied, flashing her teeth one last time before pulling the helmet back over her face. 

"Beautiful first kiss." Sila commented. 

Aaron chuckled. "I agree, buddy. I agree." 

******************** 

Brant tossed a rectangular box into the trunk of one of the armored cars. He shoved the compartment closed and stepped back while brushing his hands together. With a deep breath, his eyes climbed into the sky to witness the Stingray vanishing into the clouds above. He sighed as he realized Hannah went with it. 

He snapped back to attention and hopped into one of the back seats of the vehicle, buckling in beside Ace. The man in the black jacket nodded at him and lit another cigarette, this one the first of a new package. As smoke spread out, Brant appreciated the car's open top allowing the breeze to sweep the air-constricting fumes away. 

Brant glanced forward and noticed Keira sitting in the passenger seat, her feet propped up on the dashboard. She held a gaming device in her hands and mashed its buttons with her face scrunched up in concentration. Its scarlet hue didn't appear original, Brant realized, so he quickly concluded Aaron had painted over the first finish. As Wendy had said, he couldn't let a bloody good thing be. 

Track's feet crunched on the gravel outside as he marched over to the driver's seat from behind. He swung the door open and hopped in, shutting it again with a force that made the car quake. He glanced at the device in Keira's hands and raised an eyebrow before minding his own business and draping his seatbelt over his shoulder. 

"Everybody's fastened in?" he asked as he checked his mirrors. 

After the other three occupants voiced affirmation, he turned the ignition and cruised onto the dirt road. He picked up speed after the four cars following behind had successfully made their way onto the roadway. Track continually accelerated as they remained traveling straight, and when the wind whipping through the cabin grew too strong, he pressed a button. Metal plates slid from the back of the vehicle and closed up the passenger space with a tight seal. 

With the sound of the wind gone, the only noise inside the car was the beeps from Keira's game, along with the vigorous clicking of her buttons. Brant squinted at the screen and frowned. For a pixelated game, the deaths seemed quite graphic and gory. 

"Keira, can you take your feet off the dash, please?" Track asked, his voice both polite and firm. 

The brunette rolled her eyes and slid them down. She slid her seat back, constricting Ace's leg room behind her. He seemed not to care in the slightest. As his smoke filled the cabin, his complaining rights diminished. 

Track finally slid the windows open a crack to allow some fresh air in. "What's the GPS say about our arrival time?" he asked Keira. 

She glanced down at the screen between their seats. "Four hours, just about, depending on which road we take through the Pril Da Te Pheap Mountains." 

Ace frowned. "I thought they were called the Divy Parvat." 

Keira smirked. "Depends who you ask." 

Track coughed. "Well, could you put that game down, please? I need you to keep an eye on the map, and keep me on the straightest, least congested roads whenever possible. I don't wanna have to slow down too much." 

With an exaggerated pout, she put the device down in her lap and focused her gaze on the GPS. "Make a right here, and you can go straight for a good ten miles." 

Track nodded and spun the wheel to comply. In similar fashion, the two navigated the vehicle for the next few hours. 

******************** 

Four hours after they had set out from the Kemarian temple, the five Innutukian armored cars crept along a narrow pass between two cliff faces. To the vehicles' left, a seven foot high cliff stood between them and a higher elevation, and to the right waited a steeper drop. From inside the vehicle, the bottom of the gorge could not be seen. 

The space between the rocky wall and the cliff edge grew increasingly narrow in certain places, and the moistness of the terrain made the situation seem all the more precarious. Occasionally, the tires would run over a slick bush and start to slide. Brant's knuckles whitened as he clutched his door handle. He retained an equally tight hold on his breath. 

Keira's voice broke the tense silence. "We're here." 

Track nodded and slowed the vehicle to a halt. Once he had, he flung his seatbelt off and emerged from the vehicle, followed by Brant. Ace and Keira hesitated before clambering over to the left side to exit. 

"I can't be exactly sure we got the precise location." Track said, looking particularly at Brant. "But I hear you can see far better than the average man." 

"I can." Brant replied with a nod. "Let me take a look." 

He took several cautious steps closer to the edge of the cliff. Brant's breath caught in his throat as he peered down at the steep drop, almost a mile to the bottom. He positioned a tree between himself and the edge, just in case. 

Brant swept his gaze across the muddy terrain at the bottom of the gorge. He only saw thick, dripping vegetation at first, and an occasional simian creature scurrying about here and there. Then his mouth dropped open, and his hand moved to cover the gaping hole in his face. Hordes of Alcontean soldiers he couldn't even begin to attach numbers to filled the space. Thousands more filed down from a steep path on the opposite side of the gorge. 

Brant stumbled back in shock. He said not a word, but his comrades only needed to witness his reaction to understand. Ace reached back inside the vehicle and snatched up his machine gun. Track unholstered a pistol. 

"How...how many?" Keira asked with wide eyes. 

Brant shook his head. "No idea. Maybe...maybe we should go back now." 

Track's lips tightened. "We can't. Stay strong, Brant." 

"I can't just act like that's not the most intimidating thing I've ever seen!" Brant snapped, his chest heaving up and down. "I've never seen that many soldiers in one spot, ever, and the fact they're not allies makes it all the worse!" 

Ace sighed. "We're being covert, bud. I get you, but just take a breath and know you'll be fine. Because you will be." 

Brant closed his eyes, nodded, and sucked in a mouthful of air. While the air sat in his lungs between breaths, he heard leaves crunch above his head. His eyes snapped open. He looked up. He released all the air in one gasp when he spotted a second horde of Alcontean soldiers lining the edge of the drop above him. 

Their general smirked and crossed his arms. "Are you looking for something?"

******************** 

A/N: 😱 - If that emoji represents how you feel right now, don't call me a prophet; it's just that I feel the same way! That was a whole lotta soldiers already, and there's more who caught them? If you're not screaming, then somebody needs to check your pulse! 😆

(Anyways, if you liked the chapter, you know the drill. Vote and comment, please and thank you. 😂 ) 

Now, who expected the Alconteans' "big plan" to be this big? 

And let's not forget the first half of the chapter, Aarendy's first kiss! Any thoughts on that? 

Finally, a random question. If you took the number of programs you have open and multiply it by your age, what number would you get? That's how much money you have now. 

(I have 2 open currently, and I'm 19, so I get 38 bucks. Decent, but nothing to write home about. 😂) 

Well, I hope you have an awesome day! Stay amazing, and I hope to see you in tomorrow's update.