The days leading up to the mission were slow and arduous. Red found himself doing anything to distract from the upcoming events. Even though he wouldn't be involved, the simple fact of knowing that his part might fail weighed on him.
He spent a lot of his time training. After numerous days of engineering, it felt good to finally dig back into it. Zara was a great help, and Red could feel his shooting improve even from the little time he'd been training with her. He could now confidently hit the closer targets without fear of missing. That would change when he began moving, but it was a good start.
She also spent some time teaching him how to fight properly. It would be a long time coming before he knew how to actually fight someone, but at least he could now throw a proper punch. Zara hadn't spent a huge amount of the time in the fort though. She would help him occasionally before disappearing into the jungle. Red could tell she was ready for the mission to start already.
When the day arrived, he couldn't have been more anxious. Zara had taken the previous evening to show him and Vizim various secrets within the fort. They didn't expect any attacks from the enemy, but it was better to be prepared.
There were a few secret rooms that they could hide in if it came down to it. However, the most fascinating part of the entire fort was the massive shield that could be activated if need be. They wouldn't start it, but Zara said it covered the entire fort in a massive dome. That left both of them gawking like children.
The design was far more streamlined than Vizim's creation had been. It likely could take far stronger impacts without failing. Red still thought Vizim's was better. While this machine would likely overheat from a massive barrage, Vizim's would survive even if it shut down.
Red and Vizim saw Zara off early in the morning. The day's pulse could arrive at any time around noon, and she wanted to be in position. They had no idea what that meant, and she refused to elaborate. Still, watching her disappear into the foliage filled Red with a sense of worry. There was the pirate king out there somewhere, and he was the biggest threat to their plan at the moment.
"Do you think she'll be alright?" Vizim asked.
Red shrugged, "If she couldn't handle this, then the pirates would have already attempted to take this fort. So, I think she'll be fine. I just hope that our bombs go off as we planned."
"I don't see why they wouldn't."
"Me neither, but there is always the chance."
"Yeah," Vizim paused, "Are you planning on starting your shielding device while we're here?"
That really was the question, wasn't it? He had been contemplating it for a while now. With a finished design, he really just needed to throw together a prototype and see if it worked. Then he could make any necessary adjustments.
The problem was that he had far more important things to be worrying about at the moment. He'd been focused on bomb building and then on their mission. At the present, he wasn't sure he could even focus enough to work on it. That didn't mean he didn't want to. It just was, after so many years of working on this, he wanted it to be perfect. Red didn't want to work on it when he was worried about other things.
Eventually he said, "Potentially, but not until this is over at least. We don't really have a way of knowing how this will go now, do we?"
"So, have you come up with a name for it yet?"
"I think Red's Bubble Blip is a pretty…"
"Nope! Absolutely not!"
Red laughed at Vizim's look of horror, "I've got plenty of time to come up with a name. I can't even really worry about it until I have a prototype."
"Yeah. Well, I have some ideas for you if you need help."
"I will be naming this myself, thank you very much."
Red could feel some of his anxiety ebb away as they chatted. Eventually, the two of them split off in different directions. Vizim was working on something, although he refused to say what. As for himself, he continued his training. The bombs would go off at some random time, so there was no point in sitting around waiting. He needed a distraction.
Since he had begun training regularly, Red could already feel his mist levels rising. It wasn't noticeable at first, but the progress was definitely there. He wasn't sure when he would be able to summon his own mist blade and hoped that training like this would make it easier. He really didn't know anything about mist blade summoning and hoped to get some advice from Derrin and Zara when they had the time.
For now, he simply focused on the mist circulation as he watched the sun slowly rise. He wasn't going to do any training that would require him to use his mist. Not when he may need it. The way things had been going on the island so far…well, it was better not to leave himself dry.
With the sun reaching the peak in the sky, he got Vizim and the two of them waited for the inevitable showdown. The suspense was killing them, but with no other options, they tried to remain calm.
"What if the bombs don't go off?" Vizim asked worriedly.
"They will…and if they don't, well, they will," Red sniffed.
His attempt at sounding confident failed totally. It was hard to make someone else feel confident when you yourself didn't. Regardless, Red could feel his mist whirling inside him as if counting down the inevitable boom as well. He briefly wondered if they would even hear the bombs from across the island. They had made them massive, but that didn't necessarily mean the sound would travel this far.
Anxiety proved to be for nothing. A reverberating thwamp echoed across the island. Red practically jumped to his feet in excitement. The cannons were done for. He waited another moment, but the second set of explosions never reached his ears. Only one of their bombs had gone through. The bomb meant to split the pirates' attention never came.