"I notice we're back here at the training grounds." Momo said as Azimuth lead her down the hallways of The Earthbound's base, "Dare I have hope?"
"If it's what I think you're hoping then probably." Azimuth sighed, "So...the last of the 'Planetary Stars' of the rebellion is..."
Opening the door to the familiar training room, Momo found an unfamiliar person talking rather braggadociously to a few rebels, some of which Momo recognized from their raid. The unfamiliar man was...not quite even arguing with his fellow rebels like those people were clearly trying to do civilly. Whatever they were trying to say were clearly only considered in so far that he can find some place to interrupt with his heavy handed views. Something that immediately disappointed Momo when considering what they were talking about.
"Malus..." Azimuth sighed, "I've come to introduce you to someone."
"Oh, I know." The annoying man said as he looked up from his 'conversation', "And I already know you. Momo wasn't it? How cute."
"Thanks." Momo said, the off hand compliment only putting her off more. The man, Malus, was clearly only interested in them in that he now had more people to foist his ideas upon, "What were you talking about?"
"About Roko actually." One of the other rebels answered, "We were trying to explain what we achieved at Fort M48 but-"
"You achieved nothing." Malus sneered, "You went to take back Fort M48 and we still don't have M48. That's as clear a failure as I can think of."
"Because Fort M48 was destroyed!" One of the other rebels protested.
"That doesn't matter. What matters is whenever or not we have M48 and we don't."
"Big talk for someone who wasn't there." Another rebel muttered.
"You best believe if I was there, we'd have taken M48 before Kajou even showed up. We'd have won sooner and perhaps not even lost the fort while we were at it."
"How so?" Momo crossed her arms.
"Isn't it obvious? You had your strongest fighters staying back and protecting a hole in the ground! If you had joined the assault then you'd have taken the fort much faster!" Malus laughed mockingly, "Honestly, what a garbage operation that was. Was this all Roko's idea? No wonder people still have their doubts about him."
"It's a sensible plan." Momo said, "Our retreat route is tremendously important. Roko knew we couldn't lose our only path back to Mulapin no matter what so we all stayed back to guard it."
"And look where that got you! The base is now destroyed and we wasted resources on a failed operation. You even got stonewalled by Kajou same as us. How did you preform any better than what we've been doing?"
"We succeeded!" One of the rebels interjected, "Or...we were very close to succeeding!"
"Close only counts for horseshoes." Malus sneered, "Face it, you just bet on the wrong plan. That hack, Roko, is as incompetent as they come. Should've blitz them instead of taking his sweet time letting Kajou walk towards us. There's no way I'm gonna follow a leader like that. No wonder the base blew up."
"That's just a hypothetical." Momo frowned, "You can't say for certain that they wouldn't have blown up M48 if we had taken it sooner."
"Nor can you say that them blowing up M48 was because they felt threatened. I don't know where that delusion came from but it sounds like cope to me."
"If it's so easy, then I invite you to join us on our next operation." Momo said, her patience wearing thin. And she already knew what he was going to say next.
"Ha! If it means following that weak looking friend of yours, I'll pass."
"I knew it." Azimuth sighed, "You know raw strength isn't everything right, Malus?"
"Weaklings have their uses, sure. I won't deny that." Azimuth sneered, "But that doesn't matter. The strong only listens to someone who is stronger than them. That is my rule."
"Then why have you been helping out the rebellion?" Momo asked.
"Call it charity work." Malus replied, "Everyone needs a hobby."
"And why are you still here?" Momo continued, "Surely if the strong follows the stronger then you'd be working for Sirius as a Planetary Star."
"That..." Malus' smile disappeared as Momo clearly seemed to hit upon a sensitive issue, "That's because I still owe that Kajou girl a lesson. She's gotten in my way so many times. And that Sirius guy...he's been a bit of a bastard too. So I'm here to take him down a notch."
"And yet you won't listen to a good leader even if they're not as strong as you?"
"I tried that for several generations of this rebellion already and it's always the same story." Malus said, his smile returning somewhat, "I followed them even though they were weaker than me and we've gotten nowhere. If anything, that proves my point. A good leader needs to be powerful. And I'm waiting for someone like that to actually step up."
"And you're not stepping up yourself because..."
"Because I couldn't give a damn about this rebellion or this city's people." Malus replied bluntly, "I just want to punch Kajou and Sirius in the face. One hit ko!"
"Well, I think I've heard enough." Momo sighed, "And I have an easy solution."
"Is that right, toots?" Malus smirked, "And what's that?"
"Fight me." Momo said with a foreboding smile on her face, "If I win, you have to listen to what I say."
"Bwahahahaha!" Malus laughed uproariously, "Don't think I don't know what you're thinking, girl! I've heard you think you're as strong as Kajou but you're nothing compared to me. If you want a spar, I can pencil in a quick one right now!"
"Perfect." Momo placed her hands on her hips, "Let's begin then."
"Alright then." Malus said, lifting his feet off the table as he stood up, "Let's see what you got little girl."
"No. Malus. Don't." Azimuth protested in a monotone voice, clearly not trying to stop either of them. If anything, her and the rebels Malus had been arguing with were trying to hide sneaky grins.
"That's enough from the peanut gallery." Malus cracked his knuckles in anticipation, "I'll show you what real power looks like!"
In short time, Momo and Malus had taken opposite sides of the training room and were ready to face each other.
"You take the first swing, Malus." Momo replied with a deceptively smug smile, "I think you've gotten tired of talking by now and want to take some action."
"I love it when a girl knows how to treat a man." Malus stretched his bulging muscles, just casually showing off his physique, "Then I'll take it easy on you. And and end this quick."
Malus drew his sword, which was more like a scimitar, and charged at Momo recklessly. Momo raised her hands in a bit of a stance. And before Malus knew it, the world had flipped upside down. He was behind Momo and flying away from her back until he slammed into a couple of empty crates, destroying them with his sheer weight. He wasn't really hurt but he was very VERY befuddled.
"And there we have it." Momo dusted off her hands with barely any effort exerted, "Now you listen to me."
"Like...like hell I will!" Malus cried, recovering from his shock enough to pull himself out of the wreck he made, scowling so angrily that he might bust a vein in his head, "You think one toss can beat me?!"
"I mean, if you want to lose more dignity, then we can continue." Momo shrugged, "But I think we've demonstrated the gulf between us quite well already."
"She hasn't even drawn her sword you know!" One of the rebels called mockingly.
Malus' eyes widened when this was pointed out to him, out of surprise and in rage. He looked at his own scimitar in his hands, the 'gulf' now fully processing in his mind. Whatever conclusion he must be making in his head clearly wasn't making him any happier.
"This isn't over!" Malus shouted as he stumbled onto his feet, "Don't think you've won! Once I recover from this headache, I'll show you my real power! You won't be able to handle me then!"
And then quickly ran off, not looking anyone in the face as he escaped.
"Roko beat someone even with a headache." Momo smirked.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH..." Momo collapsed onto the meeting room table, physically fine but emotionally tired, "That was a mess..."
"I warned you." Azimuth said as she poured them some tea, "Our 'Planetary Stars' is no match for even one of the real thing."
"If this is the best the rebellion's got to offer, I don't know if we can win this..." Momo moaned.
"Hey, talk like that's only going to make me more worried." Azimuth said, placing Momo's cup of tea in front of her before taking a seat across from her.
"Still, I've noticed something." Momo said, picking up her cup, "All those people were men. Are there no powerful women in this organization?"
"I mean, I won't say there aren't..." Azimuth sighed, "But our female members mostly do background work. A lot of us still fight but mostly when we don't have enough male soldiers."
"Are there really no notable female fighters?"
"I mean, girls don't really get the same opportunities as men in this organization." Azimuth shrugged, "Men do the fighting and women do...pretty much everything else. That's how it is in other countries too I hear."
"Hmmm..." Momo thought for a moment, "That is what I hear from other countries too. The school I go to is an all girls school that teaches us magic while a different school teaches men combat."
"You see?"
"But still, there has to be more people like me and Kajou out there." Momo insisted.
"If they do, they probably come from your country." Azimuth shrugged, "You're from Momokami right? I hear anybody can learn how to fight there and strength is all that matters. Ah, I mean that in a positive way."
"I got it." Momo laughed, "My country does seem to be pretty equal opportunity I guess. The idea that anybody can fight and get strong is taught to children from a very young age."
"You see?"
"But STILL..." Momo continued to insist, "There have to be SOME notable women! I mean...you're the leader after all!"
"I'm the leader because of my organizational skills." Azimuth shook her head, "That's the kind of leader everybody wanted in this new peaceful rebellion."
"But you wanted to fight! You wanted to start up the rebellion again!"
"I didn't want us to lose our purpose. Whatever I was chosen to do, it didn't sit right with me. But I couldn't do anything. That's why I came to you."
"Ah man..." Momo placed her head on the table again, "I guess we need to start from square one then."
"I mean, there's still options." Azimuth smiled, "What about Roko? What does he think?"
"I don't actually know where he went." Momo said, picking her head up again, "Roko just does things on his own sometimes."
"Oh? How self driven of him."
"That's one way of putting it." Momo shrugged.
At that moment, the door to the meeting room opened and Roko walked in, a few folders of paperwork under his arm, "Ah good. You're all here. I have some reports to give you."
"Speak of the devil." Momo grinned as Roko walked over and tossed the folders onto the table before ploping tiredly onto a seat with a sigh, "So? What have you been working on, Roko?"
"First of all, here." Roko picked up one of the folders and handed it to Azimuth.
"What's this?" Azimuth frowned as she took the folder and opened it.
"I got the deed for Fort M83."
"YOU WHAT?!" Azimuth cried as she quickly shuffled through the papers.
"Damn, did you just buy a guard's base to replace M48?" Momo grinned.
"Not at all." Roko sighed, "M83 is a fort but it's on the Mulapin side, close to the wall, Minchir. It was meant for guards but since the Mulapin guards have dwindled to only a handful, it's been abandoned for a while. Acquiring it still required quite a bit of negotiation but I managed to get the deed in the end."
"Nice!" Momo clapped enthusiastically, "Now those making fun of your operation can't say we entirely failed anymore!"
"Well, I won't pretend I hadn't heard those points said before." Roko sighed, "But this base acquisition began before even our first meeting for our raid. Ideally we'd have a full link between both sides using both these bases but even if M48 was destroyed, we can use M83 to sneak into the Muldingirmus side once in a while."
"Sounds riskier but at least it's still an option." Momo agreed, "We'll need to get into Muldingirmus in order to actually directly attack Sirius' forces."
"I can't believe you actually did this." Azimuth said, still stunned, "We tried before and we couldn't get the owner to hand it over to us."
"Took some work." Roko nodded, "Offered some business advice and connections to help bolster the quality of the owner's grocery stall. Expect a new grocery store to pop up sometime soon."
"Many have tried opening a grocery store before." Azimuth replied, "But too many citizens can't actually afford them. When they see they aren't making enough profit, they raise prices in order to try and squeeze more money out of us until nothing is affordable and the business collapses in on itself."
"If that happens, it'll be none of my business." Roko shrugged, "We still have the base now. But I did recommend they run their store more like a charity than a proper store."
"You think that'll be enough?"
"Like I said, it's no longer my business." Roko said, "Quite literally. Anyway, onto our next point of discussion."
"Yeah?"
"I've been trying to source some new weapons and armor for our rebellion." Roko said, picking up a different folder from the table.
"What's wrong with the ones we have now?" Azimuth frowned.
"Nothing, if we're going on a hunt." Roko replied, "But for a war, we need some higher quality pieces. I estimated that if could just source a better set of armor, our survival rate will go up, especially against Kajou."
"Against Kajou?" Azimuth frowned, "How did you figure that out?"
"Well for one, I finally read through all the historical records." Roko replied, "Kajou has never really shown her true strength against you. At most you've experienced a few sword techniques and sometimes armament magic. Never the two at the same time. She's been taking it easy on you. If she wanted to destroy this rebellion then she could have quite easily. The fact that she hasn't probably means Sirius doesn't see us as a real threat and only ordered her to defend Muldingirmus. In which case, if she continues to not use both her swordstyle and magic in tandem, an armor upgrade could actually defend against her quite well."
"I don't know..." Azimuth frowned, "I think Kajou has holding back more than you even realize."
"Perhaps but that doesn't mean I'm not aware." Roko replied.
"How...how do you...just how?"
"Roko, you scanned Kajou didn't you?" Momo grinned.
"That I did." Roko nodded, "I'm working on a plan to counter her right now. No details but I am building it with you fighting her alone in mind."
"Oh hell yes!" Momo slammed her fist onto the table repeatedly in excitement, "I can't wait to hear what you have to counter her!"
"It still won't be easy." Roko added, "Fair warning, you might have to use amp."
"Is it time?!" Momo gasped, "Is it finally time for you to authorize the use of THAT spell for me?!"
"I ain't authorizing anything." Roko scowled, "I'm just recommending you use it against her."
"Oh, I gotta put some more training in now!" Momo was grinning from ear to ear, "I've got to actually start understanding this spell!"
"What's amp?" Azimuth asked.
"It's our trump card!" Momo puffed out her chest proudly, "It's a special spell that Roko invented!"
"It's just reinforcement magic." Roko replied, "I'm more concerned with the armor."
"What's the problem? I thought you had all these...business connections to call on." Azimuth shrugged.
"I know a few suppliers. Like general supplies. Not arms dealers." Roko sighed, "I'm not particularly picky about what kind of armor and weapons I use."
"But you care about the armor and weapons WE use?"
"Do you want me to not care?"
"No, thanks for your all your work."
"It doesn't help that there are basically no blacksmiths in this impoverished side of the Mulapin. There are blacksmiths in nearby cities but they're not quite willing to take a side in this war by arming some rebels. That's not even considering that much of the surrounding cities already have connections with Sirius as fellow merchants."
"Sirius' pockets run deep." Azimuth shrugged, "We've known that for years. What are you going to do about it?"
"That depends. Does the black market exist here?"
"BLACK MARKE- Do you even understand what you're asking?!"
"Nope. Not at all."
"Then what are you planning to do?!"
"Call in some help probably..." Roko grumbled.