212 Managing the Base

Back at Green Base, Light and the others continued to build and grow the base. Everyone at the base quickly recognized Light as a leader, not through his strength but through his management abilities. He was completely unaware of what was happening at City M as the two hackers on the team (Ace and Xiao Ai) had gone with Aida.

Each day, Light would manage the base and it's day to day operations. He had quickly grown and restructured the base well. The others went out and trained like crazy, taking many Green Base residents along with them into the city. They would go in to collect supplies and gems to continue to get stronger. Even the residents could feel their determination and gritted their teeth and persevered through all the close calls. Yukio continually healed everyone to ensure there were no deaths but they would all return in messy states. Yukio also focused a lot of attention on healing Rose's body and helping her recover as much as possible.

Every night, he would sit on the rooftop of the building with the twins, Little White and Rose, and stare out into the distance towards City M. They would also very regularly check the website that Ace had set up in hopes of finding more information. Unfortunately, after Aida's singular update on reaching the safe house, there had been no other correspondence.

That night, Rin looked sourly towards City M. "Big bro, I still can't believe she just ditched us like that. I'm so angry!!"

Yukio was slightly calmer but also commented in a sad voice, "I hope big sis and little sis will be okay."

Hearing this, Rose, who had been holding Little White's hand, gripped tighter as her face paled. Her greatest fear was to lose her mother who saved her from the clutches of death and the awful reality she had been facing. The only thing that kept her together this entire time was the knowledge that she had a younger brother, Little White, to take care of.

Little White had been slowly learning more and more. Although he couldn't understand the situation, he did notice and feel the lack of presence of Aida and Xiao Ai. He was puzzled but not nearly as torn up. Perhaps his innocence and lack of awareness was a blessing in disguise.

Light could feel all the emotions running through each of the children. Truthfully, he was also feeling extremely stressed and devastated by Aida's actions but knew that he had to be their pillar now. Suppressing a sigh, he gave each of the children a warm hug and said in a light tone, "Don't be silly. Your big sister is the strongest of us all and your little sis is just as strong. Not even people with superpowers or a whole base could stop them! How could a bunch of powerless people possibly hurt them?"

Everyone thought for a second and then nodded in agreement. Their big sis was OP and their little sis was also OP. They should be fine after all. With this, their mood lightened quite a bit as they continued to stare into the distance.

Light silently gave a sigh of relief as he watched the emotions of the children stabilize, but his own mind still couldn't help but be concerned. At the back of his mind, he could still feel a slight intuition that something may have gone wrong at City M. 'I hope everything there is ok…' thought Light.

***

Artemis, Lucifer and the others who snuck into the wall base were slowly making their way towards Green Base. Their progress wasn't nearly as fast since they didn't have the same implicit understanding that Aida and the others had, and there was no Little White to scare away all the Enrageds.

The journey was arduous and the group began accruing injuries as well. It was only then that Lucifer realized just how much of Aida actually contributed to the team. Although she made it look simple and easy, she actually did a lot behind the scenes to make sure everyone on the team only had to take on what they could. She made their entire journey across half the country relatively chill and even enjoyable.

In contrast, without her around, everything was falling apart. They could even travel a few miles without getting bogged down by the masses. There were a number of times where the others felt like giving up, but their will to live was far too strong. They simply watched Lucifer and Artemis, who fought unceasingly, and persevered.

During their trip, aside from coordinating attacks, there wasn't much conversation. Lucifer was inwardly planning how to defend the base while Artemis kept reliving the scenes of when Aida was taken so as to find new details and indicators that could lead them to her captors or at the very least assure him that they wouldn't kill her. His greatest fear was that he could return to City M and find a cold body dumped onto the streets. He had seen this numerous times in the past when he lived in the slums. It never got easier and it never got less upsetting.

They also neglected to bring any communications system with themselves because of their great rush to escape. Lucifer inwardly kicked himself for not remaining sufficiently calm during the critical situation. Fortunately, they did have a map that could guide them towards Green Base. Because they were too weak, they had to avoid all cities and couldn't go in to acquire a cell phone or laptop.

Despite the multiple setbacks, they eventually reached Green Base after a full week of travel. As Green Base entered into their view, the grown men shed tears of relief. They had never been so thankful for seeing this wretched base they had previously wanted to escape.