Cross Conviction

Sturm dug his fingers into the earth, breathing heavily as he wrestled against the erratic fluttering in his chest. After some time, the pressure subsided and he was finally able to push himself up to one knee.

"Close one, huh buddy?"

The young swordsman turned his head to see Max, still partially covered in a fragmented suit of calcified armor, limping toward him and clutching his lower torso.

"I... I didn't know you could take an explosion," Sturm managed to huff through gasping breaths.

Max began to chuckle but was quickly silenced by the pain radiating from his own injury. "Yeah, uh... neither did I."

Shocked at such uncertainty, Sturm winced and shook his head. "What? Why would you rush in like that without being sure your armor would hold?"

"Man, you were about to do it without any armor at all," Max protested, "Anyway, it paid off, right?"

Sturm exhaled sharply, turning his focus toward the statuesque Grizzler. "I suppose..."

Still held at bay by the possibility of the orange from making contact with his orifices, the sergeant stood completely still, save for some involuntary stress-induced twitching in his brow. Gustavo, confident in his position, was quick to take control of the situation. After all, Grizzler's surrender could be the first step in uncovering whatever conspiratorial plot had culminated in an attack on the academy.

"Before I start asking questions, let me make one thing absolutely clear," started Gustavo. "If you kill me, there is no way you survive this."

Grizzler raised a wet, glistening eyebrow to convey his skepticism. He was mindful not to risk opening his mouth to speak.

"I don't blame you for doubting me..." Gustavo continued, "But rest assured that Naranja knows what to do, whether I'm giving the orders or not. Phyllobates terribilis, the golden poison dart frog, is one of the most intelligent animals on the planet, and this one is well aware of its mission."

Glancing down into the creature's unblinking black pearls, Grizzler sought to challenge its intent. However, a quick and deliberate head-bob from the frog swiftly shattered the giant's disbelief. Visibly taken back, he tilted his head as far from the animal as his thick neck would allow.

"Now that we're on the same page, here's what I want to know," said Gustavo. "Who are you working for?"

Grizzler glared down at the boy through tense eyes but still did not dare open his mouth.

"Go ahead," Gustavo assured, "Nobody needs to die today. You can talk."

A slight smirk slipped across the sergeant's lips, despite his otherwise anxious expression. "Is that so?" he inquired. "Well, in that case, I guess I should tell you that I'm working for the Red Front."

"The Red Front?" Sturm repeated in surprise.

Max nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, that's right. That fake Sturm I took down said the same shit."

Eyes widening, Sturm turned to his friend, confused. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Oh, uh... yeah, I'll explain that later." Max huffed awkwardly.

Gustavo was momentarily silenced by the revelation. That academy staff could be guilty of orchestrating a Communist terror attack was unthinkable. In light of the lack of evidence to the contrary, however, Gustavo was forced to accept this admission at face value.

"Fine," Gustavo pressed on, "What was your objective here?"

Grizzler gave a slow, half-hearted shrug, careful not to elicit a response from the frog perched on his clavicle. "Isn't that part obvious? To kill you all."

"Well, you've hardly done an acceptable job!" Magnolia piped in. "Now where are the rest of the instructors?! Why haven't they come to help us?!"

Leaning his head forward slightly, the sergeant rumbled a slow, grim chortle.

"Was there something comedic about that question? Answer me!" Magnolia angrily insisted.

The giant let out a deep sigh before raising his head high. "The ones that weren't with us? Dead, probably."

Magnolia went pale. "With you...? So then... the captain?"

"That's right," Grizzler answered with a wicked grin, "One-eye is in on the revolution, princess."

"That's bullshit!" snapped Max, several meters beyond the sergeant. "Scharf hates the fuckin reds!"

"Really?" Grizzler replied, turning his head just enough to glimpse Max from the corner of his eye, "It didn't look that way when he blew Walpurgis's head off at the gate and snuffed out the infirmary wing."

Thrust deep into thought by the claim, Gustavo furrowed his brow. "Walpurgis... The Recovery Team's instructor, Sophia Pauritsch."

"Mrs. Pauritsch is dead?" Magnolia gasped.

The girl immediately spun around to locate Emmy and Eduard. After a moment, she found them a fair distance past the hedgerow, tending to the badly beaten Whirlwind. Magnolia then cupped her hands around her mouth, preparing to cry out to the preoccupied knight candidates.

"Don't," said Gustavo, inferring his teammate's intentions from her body language. "They've got enough to worry about. It makes no difference right this second if their instructor is dead or not. They still have a job to do."

Grizzler suppressed a laugh. "Everyone in your country as cold as you, kid?"

The young candidate glanced back up at the giant, unfazed by the taunt. "You tell me. You live in my country too, right?"

"Right..." Grizzler exhaled with a sarcastic smirk.

The ground beneath the giant's feet suddenly began to bubble as it mixed into a roiling patch of mud. Under his own immense weight, the sergeant gradually began to sink into the dark, gurgling puddle. Within seconds, the rate of his descent had increased dramatically. Grizzler, however, didn't seem concerned in the slightest. To the contrary, a satisfied look came about him as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Intent on keeping away from the sinkhole, Gustavo took a few steps back and held out his arm for his tiny companion. "Come back, Naranja!"

The frog quickly obliged, leaping from Grizzler down to his handler's palm. By this point, the mud was well past the giant's knees.

"Hey, what is this shit, Sturm?!" cried Max in surprise, "You seeing this?!"

The young swordsman watched on with great curiosity. Was the titan employing some level of control over the earth as a means of escape? Such a possibility could not be discounted, as Grizzler had earlier exhibited an ability to generate tectonic activity. On the other hand, it was equally possible that this phenomenon was connected to the mud creatures that Sturm and his allies had encountered earlier. Certainly, this had to be something more than a mere coincidence.

"Well boys and girls..." Grizzler spoke up, "I guess this is where we say our goodbyes."

As the mud seeped toward Gustavo's feet, he cautiously took another step back. "What's that supposed to mean?" he inquired with suspicion.

Grizzler abruptly broke into bellowing laughter that seemed to shake the very ground beneath the young candidates. "It means I lost, kid."

The puddle rippled out wide enough to accommodate the grand width of the sergeant's broad shoulders. For the first time, Gustavo was looking down at the giant.

"Wait!" Gustavo exclaimed, "Where is Scharf now?!"

"You already know," Grizzler replied, now up to his neck in blackened, viscous mud. "He's waiting for you at the training fields. Don't keep him wait-"

With that, the sergeant's mouth finally sank beneath the puddle's surface, silencing him. But a few seconds later, he had disappeared entirely. After a brief moment of collective, quiet thought from the group, Max cautiously approached the puddle and gazed down into its rippling veneer. The patch was riddled with darkened swirls as if the mud was blended with thick oil. Unable to find even the slightest hint of their enemy, Max crouched down and leaned forward somewhat.

To the boy's terror, a massive, mud-coated arm erupted from the puddle and reached toward him. Narrowly avoiding its grasp, Max stumbled back onto his rear and pushed himself away from the muddy patch with his feet. He then looked up at the hand as it balled into a tight fist and raised its middle finger in a crass gesture. Soon Grizzler's limb was once against lost to the silty depths.

"Truly, you are a fool!" Magnolia scolded Max. "You never do learn, do you?"

Ignoring the girl's insults, Max crawled over to the pathway, grabbed a fragment of brick, and tossed it into the mud. "Fuck you, too!"

Witnessing his outburst, Magnolia scoffed. "Are you quite finished?"

By now, Eduard had made his way back to the group. He explained that Whirlwind's arm was badly broken and he was suffering from a fair amount of blood loss, but that aggressive young warrior was otherwise stable. Eduard further urged the Third Hunter Team to carry on their way to the training fields and that he and Emmy would join them as soon as they were able to move Whirlwind to safety and locate Dominic. Though hesitant to split the group, Gustavo reluctantly agreed to the proposition.

"Alright, your responsibility to your teammates comes first," said Gustavo, "I understand."

"We'll do our best to make it quick, but there's no telling what's still lurking out there," Eduard replied. "If we don't come back, send for help once you meet the others.

The others...

Grizzler had suggested that the instructors not acting in collaboration with the supposed Communist plot had already been eliminated. More so, the Recovery Team's leader was among to be among the dead. Though Gustavo wished to inform Eduard of this information, he bit his tongue. The situation was grim as it was. Disheartening those who could very well be some of the academy's few remaining combatants would be counterintuitive. Knowing of Pauritsch's fate wouldn't change anything for Eduard and Emmy, regardless. Ultimately, Gustavo resolved that, after dealing with whatever awaited his team at the training fields, he and the others would further assist the Recovery Team if necessary. 

Gustavo reassured Eduard with a nod and, at once, the latter was off. The Third Hunter Team was now alone, and alone they would face whatever enemies were waiting ahead. Though winded, Sturm made his way over to the others and rested on the broken grip of his scimitar.

"Sturm... Max..." sighed Gustavo, his voice heavy with tension, "There's something you need to know..."

"That degenerate Scharf is a Communist traitor," Magnolia interjected callously.

Frowning in disbelief, Sturm looked down at his scuffed and dirty jackboots. "There has to be some kind of mistake," he answered quietly.

"Don't be ridiculous, turkey," snapped Magnolia, "You heard the words right from that giant oaf's mouth; the cripple is a Communist."

"He could have been lying," Sturm proposed, his tone more urgent.

Max was quick to agree with the swordsman's perspective. "Yeah, since when do we believe the bad guys?"

With a defeated sigh, Magnolia gestured toward Gustavo. "Very well, if that isn't enough to convince you, ask our dear friend here how quick the captain was to abandon us earlier."

"Is that true?" Sturm inquired, looking somewhat distraught.

Gustavo mulled his response for a moment before finally answering, "Yes, it's true. He passed right by Grizzler without any trouble after insulting Magnolia."

Sturm turned to Max, expecting his friend to offer similar resistance, just as he had before. This time, however, Max said nothing. The look on his face made it clear that he knew more than he had initially expressed.

"Do you believe this, Max?" Sturm pressed on.

After an uncomfortable pause, Max took a deep breath and began to speak of his earlier encounter with the shapeshifter. "Scharf showed up while Emmy and I were fighting a guy who looked like Sturm. He said he couldn't help us because he didn't have his guns, or whatever..."

This revelation caused Magnolia's face to light up. "Yes, he said the same thing to us before he walked right up to that wretched beast of a man as if they were allies."

Looking for any possible reason that his teammates could be mistaken, Sturm latched to the recounting of the enemy who had taken his appearance. "Max, you said that there was someone who looked like me. Is it possible that the person you all saw wasn't the captain?"

Max crossed his arms and thought over the suggestion. "Well... I guess it's not impossible, but there were other guys in the hallway too and they turned back to normal when I beat up the imposter..."

"Other guys?" Magnolia chimed in, "Just what does that mean? Quit spouting foolishness."

"No," Gustavo spoke up, "I think I understand. Look." The boy then turned and pointed toward the hedgerow that had earlier been engulfed in flames. "These are the bushes that burst into flames earlier... but they're completely unburned."

"What are you saying?" Magnolia inquired.

"Don't you remember? Right after the fire went out, Scharf said that 'Max must have won'," Gustavo explained, "That leads me to believe that, between the flames and the disguises, Max fought some type of illusionist."

Magnolia tilted her head, her eyes conveying harsh skepticism toward her ally's conclusion. "Are you suggesting that the captain was one such illusion?"

Shaking his head solemnly, Gustavo elaborated further. "Unfortunately, no. It means that we all saw the same Captain Scharf and that he didn't disappear with the other illusions when Max defeated the conjurer."

"Oh, I see..." Magnolia mused as she placed a finger to her lips. "Well then, turkey, I hope that explanation is sufficient. The captain is our enemy and you'll have to dispatch him posthaste."

"What do you-"

Before Sturm could mount a proper protest, Magnolia immediately began to shout over him. "My word, what has gotten into you?! You've always been about nothing but business, and now you're sentimental?! Our job is to destroy the Reich's enemies, is it not?!"

Clenching his jaw, Sturm turned away and surveyed the ravaged area of the academy's front entrance. Just two days prior, Scharf had made a point to accompany him at the infirmary. While the encounter was brief, the young swordsman could feel that his captain harbored a genuine concern for his wellbeing. What's more, his own father had served alongside Scharf during the Great War. 

Sturm would not be made to believe that such a man could be capable of this apparent betrayal.