24 Phase 20: Playing on the Farm

Colin opened his eyes in Nakama World and grinned. He was right where he Woke Up. So was Katrin.

The difference was, she had her back to him.

Slowly, he crept forward. Carefully, he raised both hands.

"HA!" Colin grabbed Katrin by the shoulders.

"EEK!" Katrin shrieked and jumped three feet into the air. Colin could have sworn that her hair actually stood straight there for a moment.

Colin nearly fell over laughing.

"YOU!" Katrin yelled, and pounced on him, punching him for all she was worth. Trying to fend off her blows, Colin tripped over a pitchfork and landed into one of Edward's haystacks.

A pair of Lynxmice ran out of the haystack when they crashed into it, and Shiro was onto them immediately. "Yip!"

"Rawrl!"

"Wark!"

Shiro Howled. Rall and Warc attacked. Lynxmice started running out of the haystack like it was on fire, and Colin's Comrades went about catching them.

"Shiro seems to think we scared the mice out on purpose." Katrin laughed.

"That's what we usually do, isn't it?" Colin asked.

Katrin pulled down a handful of hay into his face. He threw back two handfuls for the one she dropped on him.

Warc joined in, helping Colin with a Wing Gust that raised a whole curtain of hay into Katrin's face.

Four of Katrin's Comrades, three Rainducks and a Watergull, all replied with Wing Gusts of their own, returning Warc four times as much hay as she had blown at Katrin.

"Yip!" Shiro jumped in. Rall and Meek grabbed hay and started throwing.

Katrin's purple beaver and other Comrades grabbed hay and replied in kind.

In a minute, the whole place had hay flying in every direction, with barks, roars, squawks and laughter going on in the middle of the storm.

The door burst open and Farmer Edward crashed in. "What's…?!"

An especially large serving of hay landed right on his head.

***

For a moment there, everybody froze. Rall had two paws filled with hay, Shiro had his mouth open in mid-bark and his tail carrying more hay, Warc tried to freeze in mid-air and crashed into a pillar. Katrin's Comrades also froze all movement and stared rather nervously as hay dropped down from Farmer Edward's head.

"First thing in the night, and…" Farmer Edward scratched his head, sending more hay dropping to the ground. "Man, what a mess…"

Colin and Katrin looked around guiltily. The entire barn had hay thrown all over the place.

"You guys!" Farmer Edward roared, then dashed forward and grabbed the biggest load of hay that had yet been taken up tonight. He took it and threw it onto both of them so hard, they were nearby bowled over into the haystack again. "Aha!"

"Hey!" Katrin laughed, and grabbed more hay.

Shiro howled and in a moment, full battle recommenced.

***

Some time later, Colin, Katrin and Farmer Edward were sitting side by side with their Comrades all lying around them when Satrox returned with Chief Breeder Larissa.

"What happened?" Larissa blinked. "It looks like a war went on in here."

Colin glanced at Katrin and Edward, both of whom, like himself, still had hay sticking hanging onto them here and there. "Well… kinda."

Katrin giggled. Edward barked a laugh. "Yeah, and guess who won?"

"You did, I presume." Larissa said, but her lips twitched upwards as if she was fighting a smile.

Satrox chuckled. "Well, that's one way for your Comrades to gain experience."

Colin blinked. "Really?"

"Yeah." Satrox said. "Anyway, you seem to be taking a break, so why don't we talk about our plans before you go back to war?"

"I think the war's over." Edward sighed. "There's work to be done around the farm."

"Yeah." Katrin agreed. "We'll come clean up later. Right now, I better go check on the Sweetlilly sprouts."

"Right. Tomorrow, then." Colin grinned.

Katrin shot him a very mischievous smile and skipped away.

{She's going to trap the whole place. I just KNOW it.}

The crowd of Comrades dispersed. Colin glanced around, picked up Raiki, let Shiro climb back onto his shoulder, waited for Meek to scurry into his pocket, and walked to Satrox with Rall by his side. Warc settled down on Rall's back, as she often did.

Colin sighed, and brushed away the hay sticking to his clothes.

"We're going to follow Scarlet after the Duo Tournament tonight, and find where she keeps May. Once she leaves that place, the first chance we get, we'll rescue May." Satrox said simply. "She's most likely going to leave a few Comrades to guard May. We'll need to defeat them to get her out."

"Satrox…" Colin winced. "I've seen my Comrades' abilities and techniques. Shiro and Rall are the only ones suitable for a fight, and their techniques… well…"

"You haven't trained their techniques." Satrox figured. "And you need at least one more Comrade. A good fighter."

"I have Raiki, but…" Colin trailed off. He glanced at her.

Raiki sat still in his hands, eyes closed, not moving.

"Raiki's good." Satrox eyed the little blue kitten. "But I was thinking of something a bit different. Air support."

"A bird?" Colin blinked.

"That's right." Satrox said. "Warc is okay for a scout, but in a serious air-to-air fight, she'll be in huge trouble. You better leave her on the Farm, give her a break from Traveling and let her rest some more."

"Wark." Warc nodded agreeably.

"Meek's pregnant." Colin frowned. "Maybe I should leave her too."

"Maybe." Satrox paused. "But here's not a good place. She might get mistaken for a Wild."

"Oh. Yeah." Colin shook his head. "Never mind. I'll just keep her in my pocket."

"So…" Larissa stretched. "The reason why I'm here is…?"

"So we can talk in private." Satrox said. "Larissa, we need Comrades."

"You know the rules. The only ones I can sell you for money are all in our catalogue." Larissa said.

"Actually, when I asked for your help, I was asking for your help." Satrox told her. "We need you to come with us and help us fight Scarlet's Comrades."

Larissa stared. Her eyes went wide and kept going wider.

"I thought you wanted me to help Raiki recover… or..." she gasped. "But… Scarlet's Comrades… Satrox, did you see the Tournament yesterday?"

"We were there." Satrox agreed.

"Quartz was my strongest!" Larissa said. "And from what I hear, Nettles was one of her weaker Comrades!"

"That's probably correct." Satrox agreed. "Scarlet used to be a pure fire-type specialist. We used to go after her with water-type Comrades. Because of that, she raised Nettles. Nettles is a plant-type, a red Comrade that is particularly strong against water-types. It was only a little thing last time I saw it."

"It's huge now." Colin said gloomily.

"Yes, and imagine how much stronger her {other} Comrades are compared to it." Larissa told him.

Colin shook his head. "Can't. I've never seen anything powerful enough to compare."

"Good point." Satrox agreed. "They're beyond your imagination."

"And mine, most likely." Larissa cut in. "Satrox, I can't deal with her. Not alone."

But Satrox grinned. "I was hoping you'd say that."

Colin didn't understand.

Larissa, though, seemed to. Her eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her head.

"Oh no. Satrox, that's too much!" she said. "Just me helping out one person is bad enough, but you're asking us to declare war here!"

"Nobody needs to know any of you were involved." Satrox said soothingly.

"We won't be able to hush up something like this!" Larissa protested.

"Uh…" Colin raised his hand. "What exactly are you talking about? Who's the others Larissa can call on?"

Satrox gave him a flat look.

"Colin, define 'Chief Breeder'."

Colin thought for a bit and realized it as he answered.

"The leader of the Breeders."

***

Colin eyed Larissa's badge as she left. It was purple.

What was it Katrin said about badges?

"Everyone starts at white, and then goes to yellow, green, blue, purple, red, brown, gray, and finally, black…" Colin remembered. Like Larissa, the Breeders at the Comrade Home all had Purple Badges. "Satrox… what does it take to get a Green Badge?"

Satrox thought about that. "Well, there's a few ways to get it, the easiest of which is at least 7 Comrades and a total of 100 levels between them."

"The easiest…?" Colin stared. "Hey, I just realized, you have a yellow badge, but you don't have three Comrades."

"3 Comrades and a total of 25 levels between them is the easiest way to get to yellow badge, not the only way." Satrox told him. "Any Comrade above level 40 will be enough on its own."

"If you only had one Comrade…" Colin paused. "What would it take for you to get Green?"

"It has to be level 90 or above."

Colin's eyes widened. "Then the Purple Badges…"

"Don't worry about that just yet. Focus on getting to green." Satrox said. "More importantly, train up your Comrades' techniques first."

Colin thought about that. "I need to use the Gym, then, don't I?"

"Well… you could…" Satrox frowned. "But it would be very crowded since there's a Tournament on. Also, I think it would be good experience for you to join the Duo Tournament… try battling other Dreamers for once."

"I'm not sure I'm ready for that." Colin admitted. "And with or without the crowd, the Gym seems to be my only option... unless you have a better idea?"

Satrox gave Colin a big, slow smile. "As a matter of fact, I do."

***

It was ten minutes later that Colin finally heard it all.

"Let me get this straight." Farmer Edward scratched his head. "You want Katrin and I to turn part of the farm into a training center for Colin?"

"For all three of you." Satrox said. "You'll be training your Comrades as well as his."

"Well…" Katrin glanced at her purple Beaver. "Just building the forts alone will train up Velvet's Woodcutter Bite until she learns Woodchopper Bite."

Colin winced as he turned to Satrox. "And that same Woodchopper Bite…"

"Is going to be what she'll be using against you." Satrox nodded. "That's the whole point. In each of these three games, you're competing with them, and two of these three are battle games."

"Satrox…" Colin groaned. "You know full well that I don't stand a chance in the first game."

"Building your forts?" Satrox asked mildly. "Why not?"

"Because Edward has a squad of Ants and Katrin has that purple beaver." Colin replied. "I don't have anything good at building stuff."

"You've got the best Command-type Comrade here." Satrox pointed out. "And a bear. Don't give up before you've tried."

Edward cleared his throat. "Just so we're clear on this, our battle zone is around the new pond. Leave the fields and buildings alone."

"Line logs up around the area in a circle." Satrox suggested. "Anyone crossing those logs is considered out of the game."

They did that first, then gathered again to confirm the rules.

"There will be three games. The first is building your forts; these will be placed all around the pond evenly." Satrox began. "The second game is to defend your forts. You can attack from your own forts at long range, or send your Comrades over directly. The third ignores any locations; just fight it out in the open, no need to defend anything. Any questions?"

Katrin raised her hand. "Where will our forts be located?"

Satrox grunted and projected a rough map of the area. He poked three spots. "Choose one."

They picked their spots.

Map image here:

https://imgur.com/011S6An

"Well, then…" Satrox said. "You all know what to do. I'm going to check on Larissa and the Breeders. Have fun!"

The three of them exchanged glances, and then although nobody actually said 'go', they all dashed off to build their forts.