“Big mistake,” The lead guy, who I guessed was Alistar, said.
He came right at me, swinging with punches and I slid between his feet, grabbing his ankle. He crashed down with an oof! I smiled and spiky hair guy growled at me and charged me, but Emily jumped in with a nice hard kick to his face.
I felt Alistar’s hands around my neck and He started to choke me. I gagged and kicked him in the family jewels and he went down. I gave a good hard stomp to his spine and he collapsed, temporarily paralyzed.
I felt a jarring blow to my back and swung my leg around and hit a big guy square in the nose and he started bleeding. He grimaced and reached for my arm and I grabbed his and twisted it around his back and paralyzed him like Alistar.
I saw Emily had successfully defeated spiky hair guy and we smiled and ran out of there as quickly as we could.
“What did you do to tick them off?” Emily asked while we ran.
“We did that,” I said. We ran back to the castle and shimmied up the tunnels.
“That was fun!” I exclaimed once we were back in my room.
“Yeah, but now we are their main targets,” Emily said.
“It was fun though,” I said and we crawled through the tunnels again.
“Are you worried?” Emily asked.
“About the war? Yes,” I said.
“I wish we could do more to help,” Emily shook her head.
“We have to be stable within our own country before we could even stand a chance against someone else,” I realized. Emily stared at me like I was crazy. Then she smiled at my realization.
“Well that’s pretty obvious,” She said. We ran out of my room and stumbled down the stairs.
“Where are we going now? It’s way past sunset!” Emily panted.
“You’ll see!” I rocketed past the stairs and into the secret bunker and Emily gasped. I slid down the hallway and crashed into the big meeting room where all eyes landed on me.
“Yes?” Emily’s father asked a bit irritated.
“I have a great idea!” I said.
“Yes darling?” My father said red in the face.
“How do you expect to defeat the forces that threaten us?” I asked.
“With brute force and undying courage,” General Harrisford answered.
“Wrong,” I said bluntly and they looked surprised. Though I was the princess, I was still a woman and I was not considered highly valued in my kingdom.
“We have to defeat our own problems before we can even start to tackle outside forces,” I said.
“We have considered that,” General Harrisford said snidely.
“But Emily and I have had head-on experience with gangs!” I said.
“What?” Both my father and Emily’s father bellowed. I cringed and realized my mistake.
“That’s a funny story, but we can talk later! We can find information about the gangs and shut them down!” I said.
“Absolutely not,” Sir Dubois said.
“We’ll have guard members everywhere!” I insisted.
“We will not risk the safety of the princess to do the job of any qualified guardsman!” Chancellor Wellington sniffed pretentiously.
“Go ahead with your plans, but the first bit of danger you get in, I’m shutting you down,” My father declared, shocking his council and me.
“Thank you,” I bowed and gave a smug look to everyone and left with my dignity.
“What’s your plan?” Emily whispered as we returned to my room.
“I didn’t think that far ahead,” I admitted.
“Of course not,” Emily sighed.
“Well, there is obviously more than one gang,” I said.
“They all hate each other, but which ones hate us?” Emily asked.
“Definitely whoever Alistar works with,” I said.
“No question about it,” She agreed.
“So, we need to figure out the gang with most power and bring them down. Then, hopefully others will step up, only to be defeated,” I said.
“How do you know this is guaranteed?” Emily asked.
“I don’t. I’m planning on a hunch,” I said.
“What’s Plan B?” Emily asked.
“I barely have a Plan A!” I said.
“Okay, where do we start?” She asked.
“Tomorrow we can gather as much intelligence as we can get, but we’ll need serious disguises,” I pondered.
“You must have an array of makeup artists at your disposal,” Emily said.
“In fact I do!” I said. We spent the rest of the night planning and scheming. We had everything planned for our first scouting.
We woke up and got our makeup done. I was transformed into a young woman from the Mountain Tribe and I donned my ceremonious clothing from the other day and Emily was turned into my young guide for around here.
“Ready?” I asked, resisting the urge to scratch off the itchy makeup.
“You know it,” She nodded and we left.
We walked the outskirts of town again and I looked for shady figures and we travelled down several alleys before we found a potential member.
“Two chicks beat the living crap out of them,” I heard the hushed whispers and I “accidentally” tripped and barreled into the speaker.
“Oh my goodness, I am so sorry! I just- I am so sorry,” I stumbled and stuttered. The guy had straw-colored hair and brown eyes. He looked startled and regained his composure.
“It’s quite alright little lady. Better be careful in these parts,” He said, chewing a piece of straw.
“I wish I knew them better,” I sighed dramatically.
“Well, how about I give you a deluxe tour,” He said, emphasizing the word ‘deluxe.’
My plan was set in action.
