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Chapter 13 - Midnight Skirmish

Miles slid off his bunk, as quietly as he could. He landed with a thump and looked over toward Jason. He was still asleep, as was Kane. Caspar, however, was gone. Miles checked in the bathroom to see if Caspar was there, but he knew before poking his head in that he wasn't. Caspar had gone outside, and Miles was going to find out what he was up to.

Miles quietly turned the doorknob and stepped out into the cool air of the night. He closed the door with the same care and let exhaled. Being silent was hard. The power of teleportation really was useful, assuming that was what Caspar had used to exit the cabin. Miles looked around, but didn't see Caspar anywhere. All the lights were out, and the whole place looked completely different with no light. Miles considered going back in the cabin for the night, but decided against it. Instead he moved toward the academy, his eyes fixated on an odd shape on its roof. Once closer, he realized the shape was of a person. Caspar. He was sitting on the academy roof, his head in his hands. Other than his steady breath, he wasn't moving a muscle. Miles wondered if he was asleep. But no. Caspar looked up, staring straight ahead into the trees for a moment, then looking back down. What was he doing? Miles considered calling to him, but that was a bad idea. He might wake someone, and Caspar looked like he didn't want to be disturbed by someone shouting at him.

Instead, Miles grabbed on to the windowsill and hiked himself up, setting his feet on the bottom of the window and placing his hands on rungs that jutted out from the middle of the building. He pulled himself up, climbing up like it was a rock-wall. He would find new places to grab, new places to set his feet. And he kept climbing until he was at the top. He didn't know what he would do when he got there, maybe nothing at all. But he found himself climbing nonetheless. A few seconds later, Miles pulled himself to the roof and sat down, breathing heavily.

"Blimey," remarked Caspar, who had heard Miles come up and looked over. "Quite the baboon you are."

"Ha," Miles replied.

"Do all that to sit in my lap up here?"

"Yeah, you wish," said Miles, which earned a laugh from Caspar.

"Almost beat my time, you did," Caspar said.

Miles raised his eyebrows. "You mean you climbed up here too? You didn't just teleport or whatever?"

"All the way up here?" Caspar shook his head. "Nah. I don't have that kind of control yet, mate. Might end up falling on me face."

Miles asked the question that had been on his mind, that had made him go looking for Caspar in the first place. "Why are you out here?"

Caspar adverted his eyes. "Oh, uh, nice view, ya know?"

"Yeah, but you didn't come out here last night."

"How do you know?"

"You really think I slept at all the first night here?"

Caspar gave in, a smile tugging at his lips. "Alright, Detective, I just came out here because the Doc should have been back hours ago, and he's not here yet."

"Lancaster's gone?" Miles asked.

"Yeah," replied Caspar. "He left several hours ago to pick up some new recruits. I just hope nothing went wrong."

Miles realized how much Caspar must care for Lancaster, and wondered what had happened between Lancaster, Caspar, and Dawn that had gotten them so close anyway. "Wait, why didn't you and Dawn go with him?"

"Should have, I suppose," said Caspar. "But with you, Necron almost had you and the Doc thought he needed some back up, this time was different. Not much threat."