The small force tasked with finding June and Sherah marches through the portal. The portal closes moments after the last soldier exits.

Raphael walks ahead of the group and examines the area that he is now at. As he suspected earlier, the area is in it's winter time. There is a bitter chill on the wind and he can hear the frozen grass crunching underneath of his feet as he walks. Nearby, Raphael sees a frozen lake with a small abandoned hut on the opposite side from where he is standing.

The terrain that surrounds him is made primarily of what seems to be a combination of birch and pine trees. The trees have the white, ashen color of a birch tree, while also having birch branches with pine needles on their ends.

The sky above him looks like it's in the afternoon, judging by the position of the sun. What Raphael finds odd, however, is that the sun of this solar system isn't yellow like his own, but it is blue, painting the world in what seems like a blue shade.

After examining the local terrain, Raphael turns back to the soldiers that have followed him out onto the field. “Listen up, troops!” he orders to the soldiers “We have come here for one very important mission! If we fail this, then there's no way we can tell if we will win or lose this war! As you all have been told earlier, we will be splitting into two groups. One of these groups will be led by myself and Miyra, while the other will be led by Urt and Quib. Urt and Quib's group will check the eastern side of the island while my group heads to the west. If you have anything to report, report it to BOTH squads, not just your individual squad. Is that all understood?”

All of the soldier's give a salute and say “Yes, sir” in unison.

“Very good, now move out! We need to get a lead before the sun goes down.” says Raphael before motioning his hand toward the east direction.

“As you order, commander.” says Urt with a slight grudge in his tone. He turns his head back to his squad and says “Follow me, troops!” before marching east into the forest. The soldiers and Quib follow close behind, drawing their weapons as they move.

Once Urt's squad has disappeared into the forest, Raphael looks back at his group, his eye's serious and cold. “I don't believe that I need to tell any of you the urgency of this situation again, you should all have had it drilled into your heads as soon as Sherah went through the portal that we just passed through moments ago. She could be anywhere on this island, and there probably is another portal opening up soon for her to go through. We must get to her before she escapes!”

Raphael turns his head to Miyra. “Miyra, what are your thoughts on our next move?”

Miyra checks a pocket-sized thermal scanner. She looks up to the rest of the soldiers and Raphael moments later. “According to thermal readings, there is a large heat signature coming far from the west. A reading that big can only come from a mass congregation of troops and possibly a portal generator. Raphael, should we call Urt and tell him and his squad to head over there?”

“Not just yet, Miyra. We need to canvas as much of this island as we can before we jump to conclusions.” Raphael says back, and then looks away from the soldiers and over into the forest to the west. “We'll search the site of the heat signatures. If they are Demu or a hostile force, we'll hold back until Urt arrives. Once Urt's squad arrives at the rendezvous point, we'll draw up a battle plan and move in on the hostiles.”

Raphael starts to walk in the direction he is facing, and then stops after ten feet. “We're going be running most of the way, so let's roll!” After speaking his words, Raphael breaks off into a sprint into the deep brush of the woods.

As Raphael runs, he starts having this weird feeling that he is being watched. His head darts around side to side, attempting to see where these prying eyes are coming from. He sees a shadow in one of the trees, but then it flies away into the branches of a tree far out of sight.

Then Raphael remembers that he has felt this feeling before. “Oh shit...” he thinks “there's Demu in this forest.” Raphael increases his sprinting speed, nearly making him out-run the other soldiers.

Miyra, on the other hand, is able to keep right up with Raphael. “Raph!” she says in between pants. “Why are you running so fast!? Are you that worried about June!?”

“Yes! I am that worried about her, but that's not why I'm running! There's Demu in the forest, Miyra! Their watching us right now!”

Miyra sprints behind Raphael and grabs him by his shirt collar and stomps her feet deep into the ground, forcing Raphael to come to a complete stop. She let's go of Raphael's shirt and pulls her minigun up in front of her.

She spins around and fires her minigun in an arc into the surrounding woods. As she fires, a bullet from a UMA rifle hits a Demu watcher coming at her from above, catching it right between the eyes. Raphael quickly understands Miyra's tactic. Face them off here in the woods and fight a bloody swath through them to the heat signature.

Raphael draws his twin pistols and begins firing randomly into the surrounding forest. He can hear the Demu watchers falling from the trees from fatal wounds and the rest scurrying off around the area. Knowing how watcher's act, Raphael understands that they are not retreating and that they are still close by, waiting for the next opening to strike.

By the time Raphael runs out of ammo in his pistols, the other UMA soldiers have caught up with him and Miyra. “Get in a circular formation! Me and Miyra will be on the inside! Form and advance!” Raphael yells back to the soldiers. The soldier's immediately understand and move into a circle formation around Raphael and Miyra. Raphael reloads his pistols and the group continues through the forest.

“Thank goodness for friendly fire ammo. If we didn't have those, this formation would make us completely useless!” says Miyra as she side-steps along with the other soldiers in the formation.

Raphael hears a rustling in the trees nearby, causing him to flinch over to the noise and fire three rounds from both of his pistols. He turns his head moments later over to Miyra as the formation passes by a tree. “Miyra, can your thermal scanner pick up any other signatures in this forest than just the large one you found earlier?”

Miyra shifts her minigun to her left hand and pulls out her thermal scanner. “Hold on a second, I'll give it a try...” Miyra turns on her thermal scanner. On the screen, she sees about twenty to thirty smaller heat signatures emanating in a circle around where they are heading next. She turns off her thermal scanner and shuffles it back into her pocket. “There's something going on ahead of us. I don't know what it is though....”

Raph looks ahead of the group in the direction that they are heading towards. Past a blockade of trees he can just barely make out the outlines of a camp. “There's a camp up ahead, the Demu are probably using it. Everyone, advance!”

The entire group goes from a slight strafe to a full sprint toward the camp in the matter of only a few seconds. Raphael and Miyra sprint ahead of the group and run straight into the outskirts of the camp. They raise their weapons and strafe the area for enemies.

After a few moments, Raphael and Miyra confirm that there are no hostiles. Raphael motions with his right hand, shuffling his gun to his right. Miyra understands his movements and slowly walks to the right of the camp, strafing her minigun back and forth as she goes.

As Miyra goes off to search the camp, the soldier's arrive. In a low voice, Raphael says “Spread out, search the camp for anything we can use.” and continues into the camp.

The camp is relatively small. There are about five tents in the area surrounding a campfire in the middle. The tents are pitched using obsidian rods, which is proof enough to Raphael that the Demu are on this island and are the ones who set up this campsite. The tents are made out of thick, tanned leather, most likely from some kind of butchered animal domestic to this island. The campfire has been hastily burnt out, which means that the campers must be close by.

Thinking back, Raphael does remember Miyra saying that there are heat signatures nearby. Raphael concludes that there must be watchers in the surrounding area. Raphael says “Hey” and points out to five soldiers, saying. “You, you, you, you, and you. You're all lookouts until we leave this camp.” The soldier's immediately affirm and go on lookout for enemies.

Raphael holsters his pistols and begins searching the camp. He yells over to Miyra, saying “Miyra, check that tent for clues!” while pointing to a tent to the right of the campsite. “Everyone else, search these tents!” he says before climbing into the left-most tent.

The inside of the tent is rancid. “Oh my goodness, it almost smells like a damn latrine in here....” he thinks before covering his nose and going through a tote to his left.

Inside the tote, he finds almost nothing of value. The tote is mostly filled with basic survival stuff. Food, water, a map of the island- “Wait, this shows a big structure to the west! Sherah must have gone there. It seems that Miyra's thermal scanner wasn't off base....” Raphael thinks, then speaking to himself moments later. “We've got to get a hold of Urt as soon as possible. Now we actually know where she's going!” Raphael places down the tote, keeping the map, and exits the tent.

He calls to Miyra once he has exited the tent. “Hey Miyra, we've got a lead!”

Miyra appears out of the tent that she was searching with a sour look on her face. “That's not the only thing we've got....” Raphael moves over to Miyra, who is holding a slip of paper written in a foreign language. “This letter is written in the Demu's script, but I brought along a decoder in case something like this happened. It says that this camp was prepared as a pathway, meant to lead someone through it to a larger objective. But that's not all! It also states that it was meant for a single person, the person in this picture!”

Miyra flips her hand behind the letter and grabs a photo from behind it. The picture is of a young, pink skinned girl who is in her early twenties. Despite having shorter hair, Raphael immediately identifies the woman.

It's Sherah....

Raphael's eyes go wide as he realizes who the woman is. “Wait are you telling me that-” he says in exasperation before Miyra cuts him off.

“That's right, Raphael,” says Miyra in a low tone. “this possession isn't something random. Sherah being possessed is a major Demu plan that they've been attempting to accomplish for quite some time. They probably have an entire route planned out, and this planet is probably only the first part. If this plan is as serious as it should be for the Demu, then Sherah's possesser must be making it's way through the portals as fast as it can.... We have no more time to ponder our next move, we must get to that heat signature as soon as possible!”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Although Raphael does feel slight remorse for being a cause of Sherah being possessed, he doesn't allow it to weigh him down. He holds out the map that he had found moments ago to Miyra, pointing to the detailed structure to the west of their position. “Your thermal scanner wasn't off Miyra, but the heat signature isn't just a congregation of troops, it's an entire-”

Raphael's discovery is cut short as he hears a soldier screaming in pain to his left. He throws his head in the voice's direction and sees a Demu watcher plunging it's blade deep into a UMA soldier's helmet.

Before any of the other soldier's can react, more Demu watchers appear from the trees. They leap down on anyone nearby, pushing five other soldiers to the ground. Raphael reacts faster than everyone else, pulling out his pistols and firing in quick, one-round bursts at as many of the watchers he can get to in time. He hits three of them before they can even lay another hand on the soldiers, but he cannot fire at the other two fast enough to save the soldiers from the watcher's blades.

“Don't worry about them!” yells Miyra as she draws her greatsword. “They've got the nanobot treatment, they'll be fine!” Miyra dodges a flying watcher attack and quick thrusts her sword into the air, stabbing the watcher through it's abdomen and throwing it to the ground.

Raphael understands immediately. He senses a Demu in the nearby trees to his left and fires his left pistol into it, with a Demu dropping down moments later. He holsters his right pistol and draws his sword.

Right after he draws his sword, he hears a Demu coming up from behind him. He spins around and swings his sword horizontally, slashing the enclosing Demu in half between it's ribs. The Demu had swung an attack, but it's blade luckily flies to the right side of Raphael's head, missing him completely.

Raphael can hear bullets flying from all directions around the campsite, the soldiers are using the spray and pray tactic, which isn't very effective.

Another Demu rushes him from the center of the campsite, but he sees it in time and is able to spin around and kick it straight in the groin. After kicking it, he delivers a vicious headbutt, causing the Demu to fall back a few feet before Raphael puts his pistol to it's head and pulls the trigger.

The Demu drops down to the ground, dead with a bullet to the skull. Raphael looks down at his enemy for a second, but then looks up to see a figure off in the distance. The person is making weird hand gestures of some sort, almost as if it is trying to talk to him.

Suddenly, the surrounding forest is uprooted and sent flying into the nearby ocean. The force used to uproot the forest is so immense that it shakes the area like an earthquake.

Raphael gets up from his hunkered position and sees none other than Teruin where the tree line continues. She has both of her hands extended in opposite directions and is huffing uncontrollably. “What are ya waitin' for!?” she screams out at the bewildered crowd. “The trees are gone! Kill 'em!”

The entire group reacts simultaneously, taking up arms at exactly the same time and tearing through the few remaining watchers.

After slamming his sword down into the last remaining Demu, Raphael and Miyra walk over to Teruin, who has know recovered from her earlier incursion. “How did you know where to find us?” Raphael asks, hoping for a mystifying answer.

“I figured that you guys would go after the big fort lookin' thing once ya got here, so I decided to meet ya halfway there.” Teruin rubs the back of her head while smiling. “Sorry 'bout not bein' here on time. I started gettin' chased by some of them Demu bitches and had to lose my tail. Believe me, I got here as soon as I could!”

“Don't worry about it Teru', we're going to call Urt and Quib and then we're going to set off for that fort that you we're talking about.” Raphael says while laying a hand on Teruin's shoulder.

Teruin begins staring off into the distance as she attempts to comprehend Raphael's nickname for her, specifically why he would call her that given the amount of time they have known each other. Drawing an odd eye from Raphael and Miyra, Teruin realizes that she needs to say something. She shakes her head and speaks. “Uh Boss-man, ya should call up Ram-man and get ya soldiers together. We need to advance on that fort before Sherah gets away!”

“Good idea, I'll call them right now!” Raphael gives Teruin a thumbs up and then moves his right hand to the communication device on his glasses. He allows the caller ID to go through, and then calls up Urt. A few more seconds pass before Urt's voice comes through the leg of Raphael's glasses. “Urt.” Raphael says bluntly.

“What is it, little one? Have you given up control of this mission to someone more suited for it yet?” says Urt in a serious tone.

“I'm going to ignore that statement.” Raphael says back to Urt “Now listen. Me and Miyra found Teruin. She's telling us that she traced Sherah to a fort on the other side of the island. We also found out that this entire situation has been planned out by the Demu, it's not random.”

“Little one, you obviously have a lot more to learn if you believe that possessions are done at random.” Urt says while swinging his arm in a motion for his soldiers to follow. “Possessions normally have a reason for happening. This Sherah must have been fighting the Demu possession for a long while, anyone in her position would have. None-the-less, we are on our way. Where is this fort located at?”

“It's on the other side of the island from where you're at, to the far west corner.” Raphael says as he swings his arm in the air to signal the soldiers to form up. “Please hurry. The longer we wait, the closer Sherah will get to Planet Demu. Over and out.” Raphael takes his fingers away from his communication device and looks at the soldiers surrounding him. “Alright everyone, let's move out!”

Raphael is about to rush into the western forest, but he suddenly hears someone in the crowd of soldiers calling out to him. He stops himself mid-turn and looks back into the group of soldiers. Past a few rows, he can see a single arm outstretched into the air holding a slip of paper.

The arm moves through the lines of soldiers until the person that it is attached to moves out of the line and appears in front of Raphael. “Guardian,” the soldier says while holding the slip of paper out to Raphael. “I found this in one of the tents after the attack. I think that you need to take a look at it.”

Raphael holds out his left hand and says “Give it here.” to the soldier. The soldier slips the paper into Raphael's hand and then moves back into the formation. Raphael unfolds the paper and sees a list of numbers and letters dotting the page, all of them connected by lines of arrows. “Hmm,” Raphael mutters “what is this?”

Miyra moves over to Raphael's side and examines the slip of paper that has been handed to him. She looks over the list of numbers. “Numbers, lists, letters beside the numbers...” Miyra thinks to herself, trying to decipher exactly what this parchment is. Her eyes light up as it dawns on her what this page is supposed to be. “A-ha! I know what this is! It's a portal map!”

Raphael thinks over what Miyra had said while looking over the parchment. He remembers back to the letter that Miyra had shown him earlier and is able to piece together certain letters in the letter with the letters on this parchment. “Wait a minute,” he says “this is Demu print. If this is a portal map, then maybe this is-”

“Hold that thought!” Miyra moves away from Raphael and pulls out a hand-held communication device. After going through the ID phase, she brings up Henry. “Yo Henry. I think that we just found a Demu portal map, and we think that it may be a charted course for Sherah to take to get behind enemy lines with June. We're not completely sure, though, so we're going to send a soldier back to you so you can look it over and make sure. If we're right about this, we might be able to jam the portals before Sherah gets through.... No, there's no reason for you to head down, it would take way too long to get you set up to head down and then go back anyway. If this is the portal map we hope it is, give it to Marinth and have him start trying to jam the portals, alright? Alright, cool. See ya later. Oh and tell Marinth to open the portal back up. Alright. Bye.”

Miyra points to three of the soldiers in the crowd. “You, you, and you. You're going to bring this portal map back to the portal that we used to get here, got it?” The soldier's salute her. “Good, now take the portal map and go as fast as you can!” Miyra rolls up the portal map and gives it to one of the soldiers before they go running off back to where they had come from.

“We have no more time to waste.” Raphael says after drawing his sword. “Teru', if you would lead the way?”

“Gladly Boss-man.” says Teruin before turning around and walking through the forest. Raphael places his longsword's tip onto the ground and grinds it behind him as he follows behind Teruin. The rest of the soldier's follow as well, with Miyra holding the rear. She strafes the area with her minigun, and after seeing no living hostiles, continues behind the team.

The team continues through the forest. The forest has become oddly quiet since the last fight, almost as if the remaining Demu have retreated back to the fortress Teruin is leading them to. Raphael rushes ahead of the troop to Teruin, who is doing a speed walk.

“What else do we have to traverse before we reach the fort?” Raphael asks Teruin while walking beside her.

“Honestly, Boss-man, there ain't much else in between us and the fort. There is goin' to be a cliff lookin' over the fort, with a small forest surroundin' it.” says Teruin, speeding up ever so slowly.

Raphael thinks to himself for a second, formulating a quick and decisive plan as fast as he can. He speaks to Teruin again when he believes he has figured out a strong strategic approach to taking out the fort. “Alright, I think I know what to do. When Urt and Quib get here, we're all going to assault the fort in one massive attack.”

Raphael continues with his explanation “When we go in for the assault, we're all going to split up into five groups, each of them headed by one of us. Teruin, you're going to be specialist support and move in to help out throughout the fort whenever someone needs it. When we move into the fort, we're going to need you to rip away the entire forest around the fort and launch it into the ocean.”

“The rest of the soldiers that have come with us will go along with Miyra, Urt, and Quib and attack the front of the fort. While their fighting their way in, I'll move around the fort using my flight ability and go around to it's back. Once I'm there, I'll use my ability to phase through objects to get inside the fort. From there, I'm going to fight my way to the fort's portal room and see if I can find Sherah before she goes through it to her next destination.”

“That's why you're the Boss-man, ya always got the tactics!” says Teruin in a happy voice. She turns her head away from Raphael and looks in front of her. Through a slight break in the trees, the sun can be seen. “Ah, we're almost there, Boss-man!” Teruin and Raphael break through the tree line and stop as they come to a cliff edge.

They look down over the cliff line and see a two-story fort that stretches five hundred feet in width. The fort is made out of materials natural to this world, birch wood and stone, mostly. On the top of the fort is a large assortment of trees, most likely grown to disguise the fort's appearance from satellite coverage. Raphael, after examining this, ponders to himself “It seems like the Demu are trying to keep this site as covert as possible. They must have been keeping portal usage at a minimum in an attempt to keep it's detection away from the UMA. Also, they are using trees to block satellite coverage, further proving that this base is meant to be completely covert.”

As the rest of the squad breaks through the shrubbery of the forest, Teruin begins to speak. “I was attemptin' to get into the forest earlier, but it's fulled to the brim with them Demu bitches. Judgin' from the length of the forest and how valuable this fort is to them currently, I'd say that there should be tons o' Demu patrollin' it. It seems that your plan ain't that far off, Boss-man!”

“So Raphael,” asks Miyra after backing up onto the cliff top. “what's the plan from here? We're going to wait for Urt, right? That is unless you have a more complex plan, which I'm hoping you do.”

“That is correct, Miyra.” Raphael uses his hand to motion for his squad to get down. After everyone is crouching, he continues to speak. “Now listen,” he whispers to the squad “ Until they arrive, everyone stay down and form a perimeter. Don't spread out too far, since we need to be close together and attempt to be stealthy. Now spread out, and don't call out to anyone until Urt and Quib get here, but you can call out to the rest of the squad if the Demu are getting too close to our position.”

The UMA and JB member's nod to Raphael's current plan and shift away from him in different directions across the cliff top. Miyra, however, doesn't motion away and stays close to Raphael, him now crouching near the cliff's edge and looking toward the fort. “Raphael, just to let you know, we still have time. If they're doing what I think they're doing, they are probably drugging June to stop her from fighting back, which will probably take about another hour if she's still resisting.”

“I sure hope you're right, Miyra, I sure-freaking-do....” says Raphael in a dark tone while examining the base from a distance. With a sigh, he looks back toward Miyra. “June's a fighter, I already figured that out earlier, but I just hope that she has enough fight in her to buy us enough time to get to her, at least before Sherah takes off again....”

Miyra stays crouched on the cliff edge with Raphael, waiting out the time it will take for Urt's squad to arrive. Raphael calls in Urt over his communication device, giving him a rendezvous point for him and his squad to meet him at. Miyra, while still laying next to Raphael, fiddles with the grass she is crouched at, letting out a yawn every now and then.

Time passes slowly as the squad waits for their reinforcements. It takes Urt about twenty five minutes to arrive at the rendezvous point. After which, the squad is called together, and Raphael's plan is set into action....