Knight Parade Seventh Chapter the Foundation is Laid

Chapter Seven:

The Foundation is Laid

The next morning Tony wakes Mike very early, even before Grandma is up to start the breakfast meal. Let me tell you that is early.

Tony gently shakes Mike awake and whispers, "Come on boy, we got a lot of work to do. Grab your short sword and let's go."

Mike answers with a reluctant grunt and groggily dresses. The two make their way to the barns on the north end of the farm place. In the barn Grandpa has set up a scarecrow figure. Tony grabs his own short sword and says, "OK, now I will come in slowly with some basic attacks and you just parry them away."

Mike whips some more sleep from his eyes with his free hand and answers, "Gotcha Grandpa."

Tony moves in slow and wide from the right and Mike uses the flat of the blade to parry the attack as Tony had shown him in a previous training session. Tony continues with this style of attack. He regularly picks up the pace until he is almost at three-fourths speed and Mike is keeping up with him pretty well.

Tony, slightly winded and beginning to sweat, says proudly, "Well done boy, you're getting better with that thing. Now I will show you these basic attacks on the scarecrow and let you practice on that."

Mike feels a great sense of pride as he actually feels he is really learning. Of course he is scared crapless to try this for real but he is feeling much more confident.

Tony leads Mike over to the scarecrow and says, "OK, now remember the most important thing is to keep your feet. If you fall on your ass you're going to be dead. If you keep your feet wide and keep them moving you will be able to better defend and counterattack. Remember the three types of cuts you're making. The shoulder is the strongest but it's slow and people can move in on you if they dodge or parry. It can also throw you off balance. The elbow cut is midway, it is not as strong but quicker than from the shoulder. Finally, the wrist is very fast but also pretty weak. So you need to use your head all the time and pick which attack it best for each situation. Is your opponent a brute and you need to be fast? Or is your opponent weaker thank you and you can use your strength to your advantage. Also, remember where the neck arteries are, where the heart is, and where you can stab to get at the lungs or another major organ. The neck and heart will be pretty quick kills but if you cut into the abdomen the kill will be slower, they'll bleed out. So practice what I have shown you with all three cuts and mix it up. Keep your opponent off balance, just when they think they have you figured out change it up."

Mike and Tony practice until it's time for everyone to gather for breakfast and they head back to the house. Mike feels like he has already done a full days work but he feels good, powerful, dangerous. Knowing how to fight, and fight well, can be intoxicating, but also dangerous, especially if you get over confident.

Mike continues to work on what Tony teaches him whenever he has the chance. The last thing he wants is to be unprepared again. This thought nags at him like a bad in-law, it just will not leave. If he had been more prepared that night he saved Claire things may have gone better. This drives him like a hard whip over the back of a resistant mule. Mike feels he needs to he better, smarter, stronger, and faster. He has to protect Claire, his friends, and his family above anything else.

Mike knows he has to be at the raid with his friends and for his friends, and for Claire. But he is scared, not so much of getting hurt or getting caught, which does scares him. But what is worse is the fear of failure. What if this raid does not work and he isn't able to stand anymore. Not just physically but if he is killed or taken prisoner who else will do the job? Who else will stand against this thing, this blight that is descending on his home and his life.

The night of the raid cannot come quickly enough for Mike. He is able to sneak off the farm and into town with a little help from his Grandpa. Tony is reluctant for Mike to go but he sees what is in Mike's heart, a need, a drive to do something. To do what he thinks is right, not just for himself but more and more for others, those around him. Mike has Tony's blade at his side and traveling supplies in the horse's saddle bags. The day has been overcast and as Mike leaves in the late afternoon from the farm a light drizzle begins to fall. The kind of moisture you barely notice when you're out in it, but when you get back inside you realize you're drenched. As Mike rides to town the mist begins to coat his lengthening brown hair and start of a beard with a web of moisture.

Mike takes his horse in a westward swoop around town so that he can monitor the kind of patrols that are out and how best to avoid them. But this night luck, or providence, however you look at it, is with him. He spots both the western and eastern patrols and is able to find the right hole to advance through and avoid them. The plan is to meet his friends at the abandoned theater about a half a mile from the strike point. Mike has to be very careful in navigating the town as there are double patrols of Homage guards tonight. Not to mention all the extra people out and about. The meeting tonight is mandatory, the whole town will be there and this raid, although not lethal in any way to the Homage group, will make it very evident that there is a faction that does not agree with the Homage policies. Someone is going to fight back.

Mike feels really good about avoiding detection by the patrols as he slips into the west side of town. As he moves the horse down a narrow street he becomes aware that someone else is there.

A cloaked figure says from the shadows in a screechy voice, "Well met Michael son of Larry, on our way to the town meeting I suspect."

These words shock the heck out of Mike. He whips the horse around and a man in a long burgundy cloak steps out of the shadows. Mike cannot clearly see the man's face with his hood pulled up but he looks no taller than himself and he has very dark eyes.

Sitting high in his saddle Mike tries to hide the fear in his face and asks in a loud voice, "Who the heck are you?"

Mike grips the hilt of his short sword ready for an attack. A feeling of repulsion waves over Mike, this man is bad news, real bad. The mere presence of this man almost makes Mike's skin crawl. "The stranger seems to be able to look right into me ", Mike thinks to himself.

The man continues to mover closer to Mike at a steady pace and says, "At ease, there will be no need for violence Michael. In this life you may call me Alexander and I mean you no harm."

The horse backs away as the stranger approaches with no direction from Mike. Mike asks wearily, "In this life huh, so reincarnation is it?"

Alexander finally stops advancing and chuckles to himself responding, "No, not exactly, there are other ways to feign death."

Mike is glad the man has stopped moving but has no good retort for this last bit of information. He asks, "Right, so what do you want with me?"

Even though Mike cannot see his face he knows that Alexander's expression has changed. Alexander responds sternly, "You are preparing to go down a path that you are not capable of handling right now. But I can help you, I know many things, many secrets and can train you the way you want to be trained."

Mike is taken off guard by this. Mike thinks to himself, " What the heck does this guy know, and better yet, how does he know it."

Mike tightens the grip on the reigns and asks sharply, "What the heck does that mean?"

Alexander answers smiling beneath his good, "You show much promise young man and you desire to do great things. I can teach you how to get there, I can make you great."

Mike tries to hide his fear with anger and yells and Alexander, "What do you know of me or my plans?"

Alexander knows he has accomplished his task of flustering the boy. He begins to nod and responds, "I know enough, I know you are a strong leader and your friends will follow you anywhere. I also know what plans you have."

Mike, now slightly intrigued, asks, "So whose side are you on then?"

Alexander, impressed with Mike's directness, answers, "I am on my own side but I can help you. I can make your path much easier."

Mike, now growing very tired of this lunatics ranting, says, "Right, well thanks for the offer but I think I can do well enough on my own."

Alexander smiles very smugly and nods, saying to Mike. "Just remember the offer is a standing one. You can come back here and call my name should you reconsider."

With that Alexander quickly turns, steps into the shadows and vanishes.

Mike is left with a very bad feeling. Mike thinks to himself, " Who the heck was that? He obviously has been following me and he knows too much, he could unravel us. But no time for that now I need to get moving ."

Mike is running just a little behind. His round about path to town and the run in with Alexander has cost him some time. By the time Mike reaches the old auditorium the rest of the group is already there, preparing for the night's events. Claire is the first to see Mike come in the door and she slowly walks over to him. She walks toward him neither fast nor slow, but definitely not quick enough for Mike. Coming in very close to him she looks deeply into his eyes. Now this excites Mike but yet throws him off. He is not sure how to react but decides to let her make the move. Claire moves right up to him almost nose to nose and for a moment, a very long moment as it seems to Mike, she looks deeply into him. She finally grabs his hands and kisses him very deeply. It is not aggressive like the first time she came to see him on the farm. But it is deeper and the two connect more. The kiss lasts a very long moment and then she withdraws and hugs him, grabs his hand, and the two walk toward the rest of the group.

Pete, smiling with pride for his friend, states the inappropriate as usual, "Well heck yeah, you two just keep going and we'll watch, I got some Vaseline somewhere around here."

Mike turning red with embarrassment says, "Go frig yourself man."

Pete laughs still rather pleased with his whit and retorts, "Only if I can join both of you, oh heck yeah."

Mike drops his head and slowly shakes it saying, "Friging-a Pete."

Justin walks over to Mike rolling his eyes at Pete and says, "Good to see ya man, I knew you'd show up, what took so long?"

Mike runs his fingers through his brown hair remember the encounter with Alexander and answers, "Just had to maneuver around the patrols, they've really picked up. I also ran into some guy. Somehow he knew me and also seemed to know what we were planning tonight."

A silence falls over the group as each stops what they are doing and look at Mike waiting for some explanation.

Justin breaks the silence asking, "What the heck do you mean, who was this guy?"

Mike answers, "I don't know man, never seen him before. He had a cloak on and I really couldn't get a good look at his face."

Justin continues his questioning growing more worried with each word, "What did he say exactly Mikey."

"Well he didn't say exactly that he knew what we were doing but he said that he knew I was up to something tonight. He said something about how I am not prepared for it." Mike says sharing Justin's worry.

Tim interjects, "He could just be crapting around, you know trying to spook us."

Mike responds biting his top lip in frustration, "I don't know man, he seemed pretty confident."

Alex breaks in asking, "Maybe we should postpone this thing. What if they are waiting for us?"

Justin puts up both hands and says trying to calm everyone, "Now we all know this crap is dangerous and remember there is never a good time to be a vigilante. I think we need to stay on task but we just need to be careful."

Claire jumps in agreeing with Justin, "Yeah I think that's right. We need to take this opportunity. Doing this is always going to be dangerous and we will always meet resistance. What is important is how we handle that resistance."

Justin is happy to get support from Claire. The two seldom agreed on anything and he smiles at her in approval as she smiles back at him. Justin adds, "Alright boys, and lady, if anyone still wants out now is the time. No one will think bad of anyone if they walk out but once you're in, you're in for good."

Everyone looks around but no one moves or says a thing.

Justin finally breaks the silence and says with pride in his friends, "Alright, well this is how this is going to work. We break into teams of two, we need one team to monitor the meeting to see what's going on that'll be Nick and Claire. Tim and I will run the actually attack and set the fires. Mike and Alex will go with us and watch the point and warn us if there are any problems. Finally, Pete and Paul will watch the base and assist anyone who needs it, should someone get injured or need help or shelter."

Pete says grudgingly, "I don't like being out of the action but that'll work man, that'll work.

Nick cuts in unable to resist the opening, "Dude that'll be the closest you've ever been to action."

Pete says, frustrated that he set himself up so bad, "Frig off!"

Justin interjects trying to bring order back to this courtroom, "Alright boys, and lady."

Claire says smiling, "Thanks."

Justin instructs everyone, "Get loose and get suited up, we need to ride. Claire, Nick try and look something like a couple so as not to raise too much attention at the meeting. Get going, you need to have some sort of head start and be careful not to be seen until you're a couple of blocks from the meeting."

Mike pulls Claire close to him and kisses her quickly saying, "Be careful alright, I like what's going on with us and I really don't want it to stop here."

Claire smiles and says reassuringly, "Don't worry, it'll take more than these frigers to keep me from you." They kiss one last time and Claire and Nick take off for the meeting.

After they leave Justin walks up to Mike and says, "You're lucky dude, she really has it bad for you."

Mike smiles and answers, "I know bro and I have it bad for her too."

Justin smacks Mike on the back in congratulations and says almost in a reluctant tone, "Yeah I know, but other things to do now, let's frigin' role, frigin' roll bro."

Mike turns to join the rest of the boys getting ready and answers, "Yeah we off."

Justin says loudly for all to hear, "Bring it in boys, let's go over the plan."

He pulls out a very rudimentary map of the storage building and surrounding area.

Justin instructs, "Now take these masks." The masks are pretty basic, thin, black fabric. They are a cross between the Lone Ranger mask and a ski mask that ties off in the back.

Justin continues sharply, "Keep them on, we need to remain incognito and hopefully the masks instills a certain amount of fear in people. Tim and I will take the west route and Mike, you and Alex go to the east. Make sure you position yourselves with a clear view of the back west entrance to the storage shed. When Tim and I see you in place we will make our way to the building. Now we know that they are keeping some fire arms in there. It is has been defended with two patrols but I think they will just have one patrol there or maybe none at all because of the town meeting. If there is a patrol we will have to take them out, quietly, before we go in. Once in, we're going to just start a fire around the largest pile of arms and ammo we can find. Nothing fancy here, just burn and run."

Mike nods and says fairly proud of Justin's tactical planning, "That'll work, just be careful alright."

Justin and Tim take off and Mike and Alex have just a minute to wait and prepare to go. Mike picks out another short sword form their armory collection. He prefers to use two blades, it gives him more options in battle. He also finds a boot strap dagger he ties off before they leave. Mike and Alex say their farewells to Pete and Paul and head out into the drizzily night.

As they walk they wrap their cloaks around them tightly to protect them from the continuing drizzle. Mike says quietly, "I got a bad feeling man, you doing alright?"

Alex answers under his breath, "Yeah man, I do not feel good about this either, not good at all."

The two move out quickly from the back of the theater, taking a-round about path. They try and keep out of sight as much as possible. But there is not much need for such precautions as almost all of the Homage guards are at the meeting. There are maybe a couple of patrols out for the whole town. These guards are more worried about the immediate area around the meeting than this end of town. When Mike and Alex arrive at the designated place they notice that there is a single guard at the back door which does not seem right to Mike. " Why leave just one guard out tonight, with no backup," Mike asks himself. Mike has never seen just one of the Homage guards, they always come in at least twos or more. The guard has his black cloak pulled tight to his body to hold off the cold and light drizzle. He is a young man with sandy brown hair and a strong jaw and it is hard for Mike to look at him. Mike doesn't have anything against this guy, never met him before, but he stands for something Mike is trying to fight. He is part of a larger evil that must be repressed.

Something really does not seem right and Mike tries to wave off Tim and Justin. But he is too late they are already on their way to the door. It seems to Mike that Tim and Justin are going to take the direct approach and just take this guy out. The guard is taken back by Tim and Justin's initial charge and he moves a couple of steps to the right of the door.

"Boy this is going to be frigin' easy", Tim and Justin think to themselves as they charge into battle overconfidently. The guard steadies himself for the attack and Justin goes in on the guard's right and Tim on the left. Just as they raise their swords for the attack the door of the warehouse flies open catching Justin square in the face and knocking him on his ass. This of course also surprises Tim who slows up just as he is about to swing on the first guard. The first guard parries Tim's attack and counterattacks which Tim weakly parries. The second guard draws his weapon as he comes out the backdoor and also bears down on Tim.

Mike and Alex are frozen for a split second in disbelief, " How the frig did this go so wrong so fast," Mike thinks. Mike reacts faster than Alex and pulls both short swords and charges in to help his friends. Alex gets the idea and follows closely in behind Mike. The first guard pushes the attack on Tim and swings hard on Tim's left. Tim blocks and the guard uses this to move in next to Tim and knees him hard in the stomach, forcing Tim to keel over in pain. The second guard swings on Tim's exposed back, Tim tries to move but cannot get completely out of the way and takes a nice slice to his right shoulder. Tim drops to the ground and tries to roll out of the way but just as the two guards begin move in on him they notice Mike and Alex, and prepare themselves for the charge.

Mike arrives first and has momentum on his side. He goes in after the first guard who blocks Mike's attack but Mike spins and comes in with his left blade, piercing the guard in the side forcing him to back off. The next guard comes in on Mike who is unable to block any attack. Mike tries to dodge but takes a shot to the left shoulder forcing him to back off to try and buy time to defend himself. Alex then comes in fast and the second guard has just enough time to parry Alex's attack and then push him off balance. Tim has also recovered now. Renewed with the site of his friends he moves in to help Alex.

Then, as if planned perfectly, a third Homage guard rushes out from around the corner completely surprising Alex and this guard drives his sword hard into Alex's back.

Alex falls to the ground with blood starting to trickle out of his mouth. Mike does not have enough time to react as he sees Alex fall. With Mike's attention focused on Alex the second guard comes in for an attack on Mike. This forces Mike to spin just quick enough to meet this guard's attack as he almost takes a sword to the face. Mike tries to dodge the attack but the guard digs his blade into Mike's left shoulder. The guard drives his sword hard through Mike's leather armor and into the fleshy part of the shoulder. Mike drops his left blade from the pain.

But Mike comes back quick with his right blade and slashes deep into his opponent's left arm. Mike digs all the way to the bone, darn near severing the guard's arm.

This guard howls in pain dropping his sword. Mike quickly moves in for the kill shot but in doing so presses his luck too far and overextends himself.

The guard comes in under Mike's attack and punches him hard in the nose busting it and spraying blood all over. The blow knocks Mike back almost on his ass. By this time Justin too has recovered and comes in hard with his sword and simply overwhelms the first Homage guard. With a hard swipe to the guard's neck Justin almost takes his head off and killing the guard instantly. Tim, filled with frustration and rage, simply changes and pummels the last guard to the ground and then slits his throat, bleeding him out. Mike and Justin move quickly to help Alex who isn't moving. He is just bleeding out on the ground. Mike grabs him and props him up.

Mike says sharply shaking Alex, "Alex, buddy, come on man, get up dude."

Mike checks for a pulse, it is there but barely. Mike takes off his own cloak and cuts it with his sword taking half of it and putting it over Alex's wound. He uses the other strip to tie it off around his waist to put pressure on it. Now Mike isn't really sure if this will work but it does seem like a good idea for now. Tim brings the horses over and Mike helps him get Alex on one of them.

Tim says urgently trying to get on the horse, "Come on Mike we need to get Alex back to the hideout."

Mike looks sternly at Tim and grabs his shoulder to stop him from getting on the horse. Mike answers, "No I need to get him back to the hideout. You and Justin need to finish this, everything we just did here will NOT be for nothing. Finish it quick, be careful and get back."

Mike does not wait for a response as he quickly mounts the horse and takes off as fast as he can push the horse with Alex on it.

Justin puts his hand on Tim's shoulder to steady him. Tim has begun to cry and Justin knows he will have to push his friend just a little harder.

Justin says in a soft voice, "Come on man, lets get this done."

Tim has to stop for a minute. He is just too stunned by what has just happened in the last moments. The situation lays heavy on Tim's heart and he really can't process it all, but something happens to Tim in this moment, a kind of clarity in the fog. It's like when you're driving at night in the fog and you go up on a hill just enough to get over the fog. For a moment you can see the moon and the stars and you swear it's the clearest you've ever seen in your life. Tim knows his place now, he will not let anything happen to his boys again, not ever.

Justin starts to shake Tim to try and get him moving and says, "Dude we need to mother frigin' roll, come on,"

Tim shakes his head, exhales slowly and answers, "Yeah man."

Tim is still bleeding and it hurts like heck but he goes on. The two bust in the door, no time to mess with locks. They run in quickly and split up to find as many weapons and anything else to burn as they can. They pile up almost one hundred guns and even more ammo. Throwing some wood and any miscellaneous paper they can find in the middle of the storage area they light the pile and take off as fast as they can. Mike had told them where he and Alex left their horses and Justin and Tim have little trouble finding them. They quickly take off and no one else comes by and there are no more witnesses. That they know of that is.