Although it had taken a few days for Rhinestone to get used to his new form, he knew that The Palm Glades as a whole couldn't afford to halt for long. They were gradually recovering from the snowstorm, yes – although they still had to be careful about their prey supplies until spring came – but there were other things to worry about as well. Namely, the large raid on The Typhoon that was coming up. Rhinestone still felt rather uneasy about the whole thing, but he knew that they couldn't back out now. After all, the group as a whole had already gone to Tanglewood territory in order to hunt, and the serval had a feeling that Stryker didn't take too kindly to broken deals. That didn't mean that the group as a whole couldn't plan ahead, however. They somewhat knew about The Typhoon's territory from what had been told to them by the Wanderers, as well as Rosemary. They could use that to their advantage, and Rhine fully intended to do so. Not only so that they could assist with the raid, but also so that they'd have an escape plan in case things went sideways – which Rhinestone expected, at this point. Stryker was so incredibly haughty that it was inevitable that he would fall, whether it was sooner or later.

Either way, some planning needed to be done. So, after a morning hunting patrol that turned out moderately successful, Rhinestone quickly ate a plump mouse for lunch, and then made his way in front of his den. He didn't hop on top of the meeting rock, seeing as that wasn't needed this time – this wouldn't be an official meeting. Instead, it would be more of a brainstorming session. Shaking out his newly thick pelt, the lanky blue feline called out, "Anyone who'd like to be involved in some battle planning, please gather around me!" As several familiar faces began to approach, Rhine explained, his short tail coming to rest at his side, "I want us to plan out a bit ahead of time, so that we're prepared for when the Coalition's messenger gets here. As well as if things go wrong... we'll need a backup plan." He had something in mind, but he decided to wait for everyone to settle before he continued on.

Truth be told, Rhinestone had never really thrived in battle either. He had always had more of a focus on hunting and other tasks that helped out the clan as a whole, to keep them going so that they were able to fight on. That didn't mean that he was useless in a fight, however. He had trained just as hard as everyone else, and he was undeniably stubborn about some things, including coming out on top against enemies. While he didn't really want to seriously hurt anyone within The Typhoon, he also didn't want them to get severely injured by this deal, which meant they needed to be careful.

As his short tail came to rest against his side, the blue serval tapped a thoughtful paw against his chin before speaking, "Well... we know that they have at least a few hybrids, considering we had Lovekit's visit, as well as meeting their leader. None of them seemed to particularly excel in the water, though. And I'd rather we not get anywhere near Lovekit and his siblings. We're doing this to fulfill a deal, not hurt children." He wasn't about to let them cross that line, no matter what the Coalition wanted. Glancing down briefly, the leader then muttered, "Although... I do imagine that they would use the waters to their advantage. We can turn that on them. After all, Vaas has those water elementals. He might be able to use those to drag them to shore if they try to escape." He already hated the sound of this, considering The Typhoon had done nothing to them, but they couldn't just break the deal now. They'd have a chance to later, hopefully.

Rhine knew well of Vaas's old connections to The Typhoon. In fact, those connections had served them well several times in the past, making it so that the group could continue to thrive even before the tiger had stepped up as their medic. That was part of the reason why Rhinestone was so hesitant about this whole plan. He didn't want to betray the trust of a group that had helped them before, not to mention the group that young Lovekit had belonged to. However, he also found it difficult to rationalize betraying the Coalition. After all, the other group was large and growing larger by the day, and Stryker had kept up his part of the deal. Despite this, the serval found that every word in the Coalition's favor died on his tongue, unable to spring forth. Deep down inside, the leader knew that he didn't want to help Stryker. Didn't trust the lion, and didn't care for his way of going about things, not at all.

After a moment of thoughtful hesitation, Rhine before nodding in the direction of both Number Nine and Vaas. He muttered, tone lowering – his eyes would have surely darkened, if they had the ability to grow any more black, "I don't like this either, Vaas. Truthfully, I don't want to attack The Typhoon. They've done nothing to earn our ire, beyond being on Stryker's bad side. I don't trust Stryker, either. I know that the moment he thinks that he's in control, he'll turn on us next. But... he still has numbers. If we turn on him now, he could crush us, even with our own large memberbase. At least if we work alongside him temporarily, we can make it look like he's made an ally of us..." He shifted a little, paws sliding together as he once again tried to think of what their next move would be. Shaking his head from side to side, he eventually spoke, "I do believe that contacting Alithís is a good idea, but I also have something else to say. What if we just... don't fight? We go out onto the battlefield, make a show of things, but don't actually try to hurt any Typhooners. That way, we don't end up hurting a group that doesn't deserve it, and we get Stryker to think we're on his side. That way, once he's on top of the world, we'll be close enough to plunge the blade into his back. Without their leader, I get the feeling that the Coalition will scatter." They didn't exactly seem like much of a courageous group. They mostly seemed to consist of cowards, all following the leader that was seemingly the strongest in the Beyond.