"Line up your bags along that wall, then fall in," Talon ordered. "Every two of you are now officially partners." They looked at him expectantly, with perfect faith that their sensei would know what to do. It was a little scary. He pulled himself together and managed to project a reassuring air of authority. "All right, starting today we're going to wipe the Alley Cats off the face of the earth." That got their attention.
    "Yes, sensei!" they shouted.
    "The police are on our side, my team is on our side. We will prevail!"
    "Yes, sensei!"
    "But we gotta be careful," he warned.
    "There's a line between confidence and overconfidence," one of the Boards consulted his Little Red Book of Phoenix Talon. "We'll learn it!"
    "Hai," he affirmed. "We need to plan. Can't just go off half-cocked. The first step is to find out where they are, 'cause we've always had problems with that. They apparently have better intel than we do. After that, we'll be going out in strike teams. Catching groups of them, snagging them, wearing them down. Eventually, unless Tybalt makes a mistake and totally exposes himself, it'll take a while to work up to him, but we will. And then I will deal with him."
    "Yes, sensei!"
    "From now on, if any of you see Tybalt in any situation, you are to get out of there immediately."
    "A lot of us have never seen him, sensei," a Blood Board pointed out.
    He gave them the police description. "Okay. For right now, continue training here at our facility." He turned them loose to work off their nervous energy.

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