Locking eyes with Cleo, who nodded, glancing at Zether, who held his gaze, and then nodding to Atlanna and Zackery, Austin then looked at the Meadowers around him. They stood outside the Flat Shack, surrounded by concrete and rubble and a few scatters plants and some trees that was only enough to cover their location from the Northern Gate, but, seeing as it looked as if that was where their attackers had managed to enter the Meadows, Austin felt just a little bit less unsafe then he could've been in any other area in the Meadows. He looked to the crowd of Meadowers and laughed. He wasn't sure if he was finally succumbing to the stress or if the concept of him being a part of this attack was that ridiculous, but he laughed.
Seriously, he laughed. He was pretty sure it was out of anxiety, but it was still a good, long laugh.
When he finally managed to stopped, he looked at the anxious crowd and spoke. "It is true; I do possess an owl's crest - Same as Scarleteye, I hear, but I am not Scarleteye. I am me. And I am still new to this place, but it's the safest place in this hell of a maze; I don't want to destroy it. I want to save everyone here. I-I can't let anyone else die and I'm tired of hiding my true self because of something someone else did with the same crest as my own on their backs. Let me save our friends, let me lead you all, and I'll prove that I am not working for the enemy. All I need is your help and for all of us to fight just a bit longer; we can win this fight if we work together. I just know it. Are you with me?"
Murmurs spread amongst the crowd of adolescent youths. At some point, Zackery and Atlanna had made their way up to the front with Austin, and Austin held his breath as they spoke, anxious to hear what they'll say.
"Austin is not a traitor," Atlanna said, addressing the crowd. "I believe in him. He's saved most of us more than some of you even know in the short amount of time he's been here. Even despite his crest, he's a good person. He has my respect."
"Yes, and he's saved me in the Labyrinth," Zackery spoke. "Austin is trust worthy, too. He cares. I can advocate for him."
"As someone who's healed him enough time already after scouting the Labyrinth for a way to escape and getting hurt in the process," Cleo spoke. "I can also vouch for him." Zether nodded in agreement.
Austun looked at these four people in awe. They were the closest things he had to friends in this place - Them, and Aaron and Reya, maybe Stryker. He honestly had no idea what he'd do without them.
As the murmurs of nervous, unspoken distrust turned to mutters of less suspicious admirations, the Meadowers around Austin began to focus their conversations more on the task at hand. One even asked "How do we save everyone?"
Austin looked at the wide-open trapdoor to the Shed, where he saw crates full of pistols and bullets, bows, quivers of wooden arrows and stone and crossbows filled to the brim. Computer screens, that still lined the otherwise unbothered walls of the structure inside, even despite recently being a place holding his friends hostage, showed black as usual due to lack of proper power[Austin still had no idea what the computer screens were for]. A few rolls of string and some wooden spears with stone, sharp heads, were scattered around the floor down there and there were some knives and daggers on the floors inside. As Austin began to wonder why their hostages kept them hostage in an area where they'd be able to defend themselves with multiple different weapons, he made a mental note to think about it later as an idea came to his head and he smirked mischievously, and said "Well, we have everything we need right down there in the Flat Shack. Let's get armed and take our home back."
By the time Austin had Cleo's and Zether's okay to move, their Meadowers friends had armed themselves with knives and spears, a few had a bow with quivers of arrows in shakey hands; some had a pistol and others had a crossbow. While Austin wasn't too kind towards pistols, he grabbed a pistol in one hand for precaution and sheathed it to his hip, and continued to grab a crossbow with a quiver of arrows and a short knife.
When he made his way to the staircase, Austin turned and faced the other Meadowers. "Our friends need us," he said. "I won't fail them; will you?"
"No!" They all shook their heads and spoke in unison.
"Good," Austin grinned. "Then let's go save them. Let's go save them all." Turning, Austin opened the trapdoor of the Flat Shack and, with a thundering battle cry, he lead the Meadowers in the direction of battle, to save their home and their friends.