We walked up to Pixis and Shadis right as they finished talking to Erwin. "I'll get a team together," I heard Erwin say as he was walking away and instantly my ears perked up.
"A team? Are you planning on going on a mission?" I asked quickly before realizing I was interrupting. "Sorry," I mumbled.
"It's okay. Actually, you two would be perfect," Erwin said, locking eyes with us. "It's a small mission, but we need to be fast. We were planning on going tomorrow night. I figure we just need a small group for this one, but we should ask a few more people to join since the three of us might be a little too small. Well, that is if you want in?" Erwin asked.
I looked at Levi who gave me a nod, "Always."
"Alright, let's go to my room so I can fill you in and we'll decide how many people we will need and who should come." We followed him to his room and sat down on the spare mattress as he sat on his own.
"Alright, so what's the mission?" Levi asked.
"Auruo got in touch with another group of exiles. Some of theirs have been captured and they are planning to move them to the correctional camps tomorrow night. We were planning on intercepting and freeing them."
"Do we know how many guards?" I asked wondering how prepared we should be.
"Not exactly. The only details we know are that the ones captured were two red badges and a green. I'm not expecting too many guards for this, however, we don't have enough information about it to be sure."
"What do you mean?" Levi asked.
"Well, we don't know if those three are the only ones they are planning on moving. So depending on that information we could be looking at 5 guards or 50," Erwin sighed.
"So what's the plan?" I asked.
Erwin just shrugged. "We get a strong team together and hope for the best?" he suggested.
"What," I said looking at him like he was a complete idiot. "What more should I expect from the man that got caught three separate times," I mumbled with an exasperated sigh.
"He also escaped three separate times," Levi whispered back to me.
"Well if you have a better idea then I'm all ears," Erwin shrugged.
"Alright, then listen up," I said leaning forward. "I think we should start with a small team with enough people to handle a few extra guards. However, if we are looking at more guards than we can fight rather than just wishing for the best I think we should have a backup team on standby. With your power, it will be easy to call in reinforcements." I explained and Erwin looked at me rather impressed.
"Well, I'll be damned, I should tell Pixis to run battle strategies by you more often. Maybe then I'll stop getting caught," he laughed.
"So who are you thinking about for the teams?" Levi asked, looking at me.
"Hmmm," I paused taking a moment to think about it, "well starting with team A. We need someone who can survey the situation and give us intel without tipping off the guards that somethings going on. So probably Armin. He can then relay the information easily and let us know if we need the backup squad.
"Perfect," Erwin said, writing Armin's name down.
"I think us four could make it alone for team A. As for team B. I think we should have Hanji in case any of us or the other exiled get injured."
"Done," Erwin said, writing her name down.
"Jean and Marco should be there too."
"Okay explain why?" Erwin asked.
"Well if there are too many the Jean can help us level the field by creating steam and making it harder for them to see. Marco could help incapacitate the guards by freezing them in place. With them together we could even have Marco cause a leak and have the floor filled with water so that Jean could send an electrical charge through it. Nothing too bad just enough to knock them unconscious."
"Hmmm, I like it," Erwin said writing their names down.
"I think we should have enough manpower with that. It's best to keep the teams as small as possible, less of a likelihood that anyone will get caught."
"I'm officially making you mission leader. I'll go grab Pixis and Shadis and have them meet you at your room in 10 minutes. It was your idea you get everyone else together and we will fill them all in on the plan." He said and we all stood up and headed out of his room. He went back to Pixis as Levi and I tracked down everyone else.
I felt Levi's hand bump against mine and I smiled before lacing our fingers together. He gave my hand a light squeeze as we walked over to where Jean and Marco's room is. I knocked on the wall and waited a moment for an answer. When there was none I moved the curtain to see if they were even in there. I opened it to see them making out. God, I couldn't even tell them to get a room because technically they did.
"Hey Marco and dickwad," I said letting them know I was there.
"Fuck off Jaeger we're busy," Jean said before leaning back in to kiss Marco.
I just gave him a shrug as I turned and headed to leave. "Fine, guess you don't want to be a part of the mission."
"Wait mission?" Jean practically jumped up to grab my arm so I wouldn't leave.
"No it's fine I'll find someone else," I said with a shrug giving Levi a smile as I turned my back to Jean.
"No hey come on Eren," he said trying to play nice now.
"I thought you were busy," I asked.
"Our schedule just freed up," he said looking frantically between Marco and me. Marco was just trying not to laugh as I harassed his boyfriend.
"Well if you insist," I shrugged, "meet me in our room in 10 minutes while I gather the others," I said before turning to leave.
"He's such an asshole sometimes," I heard him mumbled under his breath.
"On second thought maybe we can do this without you. Marco, you're still welcome though."
"Wait shit, no, babe help me out," he turned to Marco desperately.
"But I thought you were busy," Marco said, giving him a teasing smile.
"Don't you start," he groaned.
"If you play nice then you can come," I said before turning to leave.
"I will."
"No, he won't. He's cursing you out in his head," Levi whispered to me as we walked away.
I know, I don't need a mind reader to tell me that. I thought as I looked around for Armin.
I knocked on the wall outside of his room. When there was no answer I moved the curtain and poked my head in. Nope, not here. I turned to walk away only to hear Armin laughing. I looked at Levi who was smiling. I just shook my head and turned back around walking into Armin's room.
"I could have sworn he would have been in here," I said with a flat tone playing along.
I felt a pair of hands on my shoulder as Armin appeared right before my eyes, "Gottcha!" he said happily.
"You're right you really scared me good," I said putting a hand over my chest and taking a deep breath trying to fake it.
"You're a horrible actor," Armin rolled his eyes before plopping down on his bed. "So what did you need?"
He's going to be the hardest to convince. How am I going to word this? I thought of Levi giving him a glance. He just gave me a shrug back. Very helpful, I rolled my eyes.
"Well, we want you to come on a mission with us," I said just straight out.
"What," Armin said, shooting up to his feet, "I don't know about this guys, you know how I get under pressure. It's hard for me to use my powers and I might mess up or I might ruin the whole mission. What if I get us all captured. What if-,"
"I'm going to stop you there," I said placing a hand on his shoulder. "I trust you with my life Armin, I know you can do this. Besides this mission will be easy, I'll explain everything once I get everyone together okay?" I said and I could tell that Armin was still a little worried about it all.
"You don't have to worry, you won't be involved in any fighting or anything like that," Levi said reading my mind of where I was going next, "and if you want we can do a test run of your part so it will be easier when you actually have to do it."
"Okay," Armin said, taking a deep breath. "As long as I'm not fighting, and yes I think the test run will help," he said, taking another deep breath calming himself down. I put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a smile.
"I believe in you. That's why I put your name down for this mission," I said and he looked genuinely surprised.
"You volunteered me?"
"Yup." I watched a little smile appear on his face.
"In that case, I won't let you down!" He said happily.
I nodded and we all headed out of the room. He headed to Levi and mine while we left to go track down Hanji. We headed towards her room to start. We knocked on the wall and were told to come in.
We moved the curtain and stepped in to see Eld sitting there next to her.
"I'll be with you in just a second," she said before placing a hand on Eld's shoulder. She paused for a moment before letting out a depressive sigh.
"The damage is permanent isn't it?" We heard Eld asked and instantly I felt my stomach drop.
"Afraid so," she mumbled, "I was afraid of this."
"It's fine," Eld shrugged, "Besides I already know sign language so if it comes to that then at least I'm prepared."
"Well let's hope it doesn't come to that," she said and he nodded before standing up to leave. He patted Levi and me on the shoulder and gave us a smile before walking past us.
"Wait, you can't fix his vocal cords?" I asked running up to her after he left. I mean we all had a feeling it would lead to this. I'm just glad most of us took sign language lessons from him before it got to this point.
"About as much as I can fix your rheumatoid arthritis," she shook her head. "Power backlash isn't something I can just fix Eren. It's serious," she let out a depressed sigh "I just wish we knew more about this sort of thing sooner."
"Well we've never really had to use our powers this much until now," Levi said sitting down next to her, "so there's no way we could have known."
"You're right," she took a deep breath before perking back up, "anyway is there something I can help you with?"
"Actually we need you to come to our room, we've got a mission we need to fill you in on," I said and Hanji stood up instantly.
"About time I get to see some action, I swear I hardly ever get called on missions."
"Which is a real shame since your powers are very useful when it comes to missions," I said and Hanji's eyes widened with joy.
"That's what I've been saying!"
We headed back to our room and saw everyone already gathered there. I had everyone take a seat before I started filling them in. After Pixis and Shadis listened to my idea the checked with everyone to make sure that they wanted to participate. When we were all in agreement he okayed it and told us to run a practice drill in the morning.
"Alright everyone, head to bed sounds like you've got a big day tomorrow," Pixis said dismissing everyone. Before Pixis left he asked Levi and me if we were doing the rounds tonight again or if we needed him to take care of it.
"We've got it," I said and he nodded.
"Let me know if you change your mind. If not then check in with me last," he said before leaving.