Rising to Fall

Chapter 2-3

"If anyone has any information on the creators of the denouncing slogans that are scattered over the Capital, come forward and you will be given a small reward of money. If we find that you have withheld information from the Squids on this matter, you will be convicted as an aider of the creators of the slogans. As you all know, the Sky Army is a dangerous Army that had tried to hurt the people of this land and the Squids will do everything in their power to keep the people of the Capital safe."

The message is sent out over the entire Capital the next day. Every single person hears it, no matter whether they are part of the wealthy or of the homeless. Andy even has a Squid warrior come into his shop to repeat the message when the men had gotten back from the forest. On the outside, Andy keeps a suitably blank face, but inside he is cheering. The Squids wouldn't be so pedantic about this message getting to everyone if they aren't afraid of the Sky Army.

Either that or they want to keep the lies that they had spun looking as real as possible, which is also a very big possibility. That lie has been working perfectly for the past 12 years, they don't want it to break now. But is the Sky Army going to go with the Squid's program? Ohhh no.

The Squids are effective. In just one day, they had managed to scrub off every single one of the slogans that the Sky Army had painted. And so, two nights later, the Sky Army paints twice as many rebellious claims in the poorer parts of the Capital. Andy feels a shiver of excitement run down his back every time he hears a mention of the Sky Army and the graffiti that the Squids are scrambling to scrub away.

From the snippets of conversations that he overhears, people are starting to question why there is all this fuss about the Sky Army. Everyone knows the name of course, but the details about the army are hidden and hard to find. It is like the Squids want the Army to be forgotten, and they had almost succeeded on that. Andy feels that it is time to step things up a notch.

"Alright, we're going to paint slogans in the centre of the Capital tonight," he says to his crew of men that night.

"Are you nuts?" David asks. "There will be dozens of squid patrols around."

"Only in the poorer parts," Adam corrects. "We just have to be more careful. If we paint slogans in the centre, everyone will see it. We can get some momentum going, cause chaos so that we can sneak out as many recruits as we can and warn any other recruits hiding in the Capital."

David shakes his head slowly. "It's a super risky plan Adam, but let's do it."

They suit up in black clothes and grab a spray can each. They are starting to run low on supplies as David can only smuggle so many out. They start splitting up into their pairs and creep out of the Sky Army caverns and up onto the streets of the Capital. Adam and Bluey slide from shadow to shadow, holding their cans close to their legs to hide the distinctive yellow colour of the metal. They reach the pristine streets of the centre of the Capital and duck into the cover of a house, surveying the streets laid out before them.

"I've never been here before," Bluey breathes, inching closer a little.

"It's not all that special," Adam replies. "Just stick close to me and don't get carried away."

The two sneak out onto the streets and pick out a wall of a building. The area is dark, but that suits them well as no one will see their work until the sun rises. They write the usual SKY ARMY LIVES and SQUIDS ARE LIARS on the walls of the houses. While Bluey picks out a spot for more graffiti, Adam looks for a spot that will be clearly visible to everyone. He finds it and writes SKY ARMY UNITE in large letters, being careful to underline the 'K', 'A' and 'NITE'.

"Kay's Anchor at night," a voice whispers from behind him.

Adam jumps and whips around and the black figure behind him puts its fingers to its lips.