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#AND THE CAMERA POINTS TOWARDS THE SKY AND YOU JUST HEAR THE LASERS FIRE
dzmoot · 2 years
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MOTO AND THE TOONS PART 2
Siobhan was still angry with her father for gambling at Las Orgo. Kruonch tried to brush off her onslaught of insults as he steered the Spaceslinger towards the purple planet in the distance. It looked as though the planet was getting bombarded by meteorites of some sort but upon getting closer, they realized that the atmosphere of Maxar XII was littered with colorful fireworks, going off like a thousand or so atomic bombs. Yam Yam stood towards the rear end of the sleigh to see the show, for it reminded him of the exploding light shows back at Pigpimples. He knew Zappy liked a good time as much as the next Tuun and he just had to be there!
Oh boy, oh boy!
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As the sleigh kissed the stratosphere of Maxar XII for the first time, Hampire read aloud the description of the planet from Igginsworth's book.
Millenia ago, the Wacky Worlds once consisted of 15 worlds all named after the overlord Maxarianu, Maxar for short. A catastrophic swarm of comets collided with 11 of the planets, breaking them into smaller pieces which became moons. Overtime, 3 planets were taken over by other beings like crabs, leprechauns and celestial worms who changed the names of the worlds, but Maxar still resided on Maxar XII, so the name stuck. In honor of all the fallen planets and their lifeforms, Maxar built an amusement park which became the hot spot for several alien species for years to come.
Kruonch parked the sleigh at a cliff overseeing the entire park, not too far from the sign which boldly said JANQULAND. Almost instantly, the Tuuns ran towards the rides, but he was quick to remind them of their mission.
Keep your eyes out for a set of blue ears poking out in the crowd. We can have fun after we find Zappy.
Siobhan scoffed.
Yeh, you're one to tell us not to have any fun considering you got us in a pickle at that casino!
Kruonch grabbed Siobhan by the arm, growing ever tired of his daughter's cockiness.
Listen to me, kitten! I made a mistake, okay! We all do. Now I don't want to hear anymore about it! You and Yam Yam go one way, Hampire and I will go another! I have a feeling he's here.
Hampire transformed into a bat to cover more ground as he soared over the park goers. He thought he caught a glimpse of Zappy at the deep fried wookiee cookie stand, but it was yet another alien doppleganger. Kruonch wasn't watching where he was going and accidentally bumped into a trio of alien clowns. They got even by giving Kruonch a pie which turned into a facehugger alien and leaped onto Kruonch's face. It took Hampire several minutes and about 25 spells to get it off!
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Siobhan and Yam Yam made their way to the Janquland Zoo. They saw several colorful critters from the Akkaran system such as the bushy bodied rainbow eared Brozarog, the furry primate Eechmib and the amphibious Prubloop, which was forced to wear a set of spectacles in order to see outside his native atmosphere.
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Siobhan wished that she had a camera to take pictures as Yam Yam pointed to the great Neowinger who soared over them like a glider. His wings gleamed as if they were on fire and lit up against the night sky just as bright as the fireworks. Now if only Siobhan and Yam Yam had known what Neowinger was truly like and what he just did to poor Moto.
Moto awoke to find himself in a cage. He tried furiously to break the bars with his many retractable arms including one with a buzzsaw, but his efforts were fruitless. He tried using his laser zapper, but the blasts just bounced around the four corners of the cage. He was stumped and in disbelief.
Betrayed was I! Even with Neowinger, I must get!
He looked over at the other creatures who were imprisoned in cages like him and wouldn't you know it, one of the prisoners was the cycloptic Samur-Eye Moto met a few hours earlier. Moto picked up a small stone that was in his cage and tossed it at SE's cage, getting his attention.
Mr. Eye sir! Bamboozled I've been! Get out of here must I!
Samur-Eye just snarled and returned to the temaki he was eating. His cantankerous nature was starting to make Moto a bit cantankerous himself!
Here now, look! You yourself told me leave I must and do so I'm determined too but first, discover the truth of this Janquland and it's inhabitants I must and Neowinger, send to the gates of hell if have to I will!
One of the tamers stepped forward and opened Moto's cage. He then grabbed Moto by the neck and banged his head against one of the metal bars, once again knocking him unconscious. Upon locking the cage, the tamer turned his attention to Samur-Eye who was pretending to be asleep. Upon opening up his cage, the tamer began tapping at SE's metal helmet. After about a minute of tapping, SE opened his eye and grabbed the tamer's hand, bending it back and breaking it like a twig. The tamer let out a bloodcurdling scream as SE leaped from his open cage and grabbed his swords which were mounded upon the wall. In a whirlwind, he ran his blades along the lock on Moto's cage, freeing him. Moto caught a glimpse of SE as he came to and he looked like a living breathing ceiling fan with his swords in motion.
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Soon, more tamers emerged to find the prisoners out and about and they prepared to take them down with electric batons, but a mighty pissed off Moto wasn't having any of it and summoned his favorite laser zapper from inside his saucer.
My little friend, say hello to!
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With all the tamers taken down, the duo was free to do whatever they desired. However, Moto was determined to discover the deal with Neowinger and why he was so adamant about people leaving the planet. He told Samur-Eye about many of the park's inhabitants being under some sort of mind control and SE confirmed this in a written message.
Janquland has been taken over by the Evil Brayne. He placed a hex over the grounds so all it's inhabitants would ride the rides nonstop, draining them of their energy. Once all their energy is depleted, the park goers travel to the great JanquWheel where they cease to exist entirely. I guess that Neowinger guy is the one who brings newbies to the planet and prevents anyone from leaving. That's why he turned on you.
When Moto asked why he never tried to stop this Evil Brayne, SE stated that he did try, but he was always apprehended. The only reason he wasn't put to death like so many before him is because Brayne saw what a popular sideshow performer he was. They weren't quite sure why Brayne was draining everyone of their energy, but they were going to find out why and stop him. As they made their way back to the park, they noticed some new faces having a grand old time on the spinning tea cups.
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Moto detected that their hearts weren't as tired as everybody else's and decided to get them to join their party.
Under a spell, you are being put under. Continue to ride the rides and stronger the spell will get. Help us stop Evil Brayne must you!
All the Tuuns looked as though pure lemon juice had just been injected into their veins. They had more sour looks of confusion than someone who devoured a sardine sandwich while blindfolded. Kruonch pushed everyone away, having had enough of getting embroiled in affairs that aren't their's to begin with. He looked back at Moto.
Scram, will ya!
As the Tuuns hurried away, Moto once again started reading hearts. He detected that all the Tuuns were good and wholesome and well meaning but felt an empty spot, a longing for something or better yet someone, a friend.
Here are you, I know why! Searching for a certain someone, a friend, to fill empty voids in your hearts, you are!
All of them turned around instantly and stared back at the tiny Moto. They had no idea how he was able to figure out their mission but now that he peaked their interest, they were willing to help him and defeat this so called Evil Brayne, whoever the hell he was! Could it be any worse than the likes of Kowratha or Scokz McGlicker? They all gathered at a booth that sold flavored shaved ice. Siobhan was quick to beg her father for a Choco-Limanut Ice which he gave into after her brief tantrum. They all enjoyed a sweet treat as Samur-Eye wrote down all he knew about Brayne and possibly how to destroy him on a few napkins. For some reason, the Tuuns couldn't read SE's handwriting so Hampire casted a spell to make the words more clearer.
Upon his death, Maxar gave the keys to the amusement park to his nephew Janqu, who quickly changed the name of the park from Maxarland to Janquland. Apparently, Maxar's pet brainsquid named Good Brayne wasn't too fond of this change and took Janqu's body hostage for an unknown reason, changing his name from Good to Evil Brayne. It's believed that the Janqu/Brayne hybrid dwells underneath the JanquWheel where the park goers go to die. It's said an ancient ritual is required to take down a brainsquid who has merged with a host. Many have tried before and perished.
When Yam Yam asked SE about the ritual, SE didn't know anything about it. They then decided to visit a nearby fortune teller, Cluclipton the Clairvoyant, a martian gypsy who wore a mask which translated his dialect to English. Still, he sounded like he just inhaled an entire helium tank. Everyone crammed themselves into his tent which smelled like a thousand year old cabbage soup. Hampire was most intrigued to watch Cluclipton, having taken up a brief divination class back home. The gypsy took a container full of a red substance and swirled it around his crystal ball with a wooden spoon. Then he stared into the orb and as the ball turned a misty blue, so did his eyes. Moto, SE and all the Tuuns stood entranced by the enchantments taking place and as Cluclipton stood in his trance, his voice turned from a high pitched squeak to a deep, raspy growl of a voice.
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You must perform the Ritual of the Scarlet Gem. The jewel atop of Janqu's head has been corrupted by the Evil Brayne. Staring at it will corrupt you! In the world of the Scarlet Gem, you will forget your mission entirely. You will be all alone in a part of your past, most likely a low point. Only through your inner strength and power will you be able to break free. Only then, the power of the Scarlet Gem will be diminished. It will not be easy, but you must persevere.
With those words, they all thanked the fortune teller as they made their way to the JanquWheel on the other side of the park. They saw the wheel of doom in the distance moving slowly and surely as the green face at the front of it seemingly cackled like a madman, a whack job in a loony bin. The lights of the ferris wheel flickered, going from vibrant blues and yellows to demonic reds. It was almost hard for them to stare at it knowing full well what it was used for. Siobhan brought up the idea of the ferris wheel in fact being Janqu, but her suspicions were dulled when the face started malfunctioning, spewing smoke from it's sides. It was nothing more than an animatronic.
Good riddance!
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But as they approached the wheel, they saw a familiar set of neon wings swoop over them. It was Neowinger, but he looked a lot less mesmerizing and much more terrifying. He landed right in front of them, looking like a fiery phoenix from hell rather than a butterfly bird hybrid!
Starting a rebellion, are we?
And the comrades prepared themselves for another battle. Moto summoned his favorite blasters and readied them like a cowboy in the west. Neowinger was ready with bells on as he prepared his laser breathing beak. With one deep inhale, he let out a stream of bright pink chaos and his wings shot out energy beams which hit them all like supernova soccer balls.
You will not be taking down Evil Brayne this evening! All of you will forever feed my master's growing form. Soon, he'll be able to use Janqu's body to travel to the afterworld and bring the great Maxarianu back to reclaim his mantle!
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To be concluded.....
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bringingglory · 3 years
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Me when Zelda started narrating in Chapter 5 in place of the old narrator, King Rhoam, after King Rhoam gets killed by Guardians so he can't narrate anymore because he's dead so Zelda starts narrating--
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kyotakumrau · 3 years
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2021.06.05 DIR EN GREY SOGAI at Tokyo Garden Theater
01 DOZING GREEN - acoustic version
-Intro-
02 絶縁体・Zetsuentai
03 空谷の跫音・Kuukoku no kyouon
.
04 人間の被る・Ningen wo kaburu
05 Devote My Life
06 CLEVER SLEAZOID
07 DIFFERENT SENSE
.
08 赫・Aka
09 Ranunculus
-inward scream-
10 谿壑の欲・Keigaku no yoku
11 The World of Mercy
12 朧・Oboro
13 かすみ・kasumi
ENCORE
en14 Followers
en15 OBSCURE
en16 落ちた事のある空・Ochita koto
en17 Sustain The Untruth
en18 激しさと・Hageshisa
my report under the cut ↓
Today felt so weird at first. Getting ready it felt like I was going to another screening event, it took some time for it to sink in that today it's going to be different, that it's going to be an actual live concert. That they will be playing on the stage.
Even already waiting in my seat it still didn't feel real.
The venue, Garden Theater, is amazing. I was on the 2nd floor balcony B, so quite on the left (shimote), but the view was amazing. I mean it was not close to the stage, but the round shaped audience and steep steps between rows were designed really well. And I was lucky to be at the end of the row so I had a higher barrier to grab when headbanging. I made a proper use of it!!!! 😆
Around 4:45ish many of the venue staff came to hold the black curtain hiding the stage firmly, not leaving any chances we could have a peek?😅 Anyway, the walls, ceiling and curtain were all black with white 疎外 projected on it.
People were still coming in a bit past 5,
The PA table was ready but still relaxed. I had a quick look at the leaflets left for us at our seats. We were all sat separated with an empty seat even if you got 2 tickets together.
Finally at 5:13 the lights went off and the curtained opened. We were greeted by the sound of acoustic guitar first... three band members sat on chairs, Kaoru, Toshiya on the left and Die on the right, Kyo was standing, Shinya in the back on drums. The lights were quite dim with gentle spotlights on the members.
Acoustic DOZING GREEN. It was sush a magical start! It set the mood for 'no singing or shouting' policy. I loved this take so much🖤
And it finally felt real. A real live performance😭❤️
Btw there were so many cameras they definitely have plans to release the footage from tonight's show somehow, we should all just pray they will include all songs🙏
...and speaking of cameras, Shinya had a small camera riding around his drum set, from afar it looked like a model train set😂
After the acoustic song the staff quickly picked up the chairs to take them off the stage and the band members changed the instruments for the rest of the set.
In the background the intro for SOGAI was playing. I can remember a figure with their arms raised towards the sun or sky like in a prayer (the figure appeared later in one more video but I can't remember which song) and that DIR EN GREY 疎外 appeared as letters made of ice.
Kaoru had his hair slicked back, wearing dark/black clothes. Toshiya had the jacket with gold elements. Shinya white shirt and pink hair. Die had a long red jacket with a black spiraly pattern.
Kyo had very light blond hair and wore make up including two larger dots on his forehead, and a gold chain. He wore a jacket in the beginning, with a white shirt underneath. At first I thought he had a scarf but later on the front of his shirt and his chest was all red with (fake) blood so I think it was blood from the start.
We clapped when 疎外・SOGAI appeared on the screen and as they were to start. There was movement in the audience from Zetsuentai, we could wave our hands, headbang and so on, but it was so different not being able to sing and shout... but Toshiya definitely was doing great with all the back vocals and shouts that were usually done by us...I don't remember hearing him so clearly until today😆
Kuukoku followed and we listened.
After a short break when the four standing band members waited turned came Ningen wo Kaburu and a change of mood. We did great staying quiet but still staying active during the song.
The clapping between songs was fierce and often!
And OMFG the start of Devote! I gasped when the screen showed a gold Tokyo Olympics logo! But then the footage started to show the logo melting, multitude of gold coins, running in a race giant gold babies (like a disturbing image of a baby that seems like an adult made of gold) who then started to march like an army and held firearms, fighting, terrorizing, and then coins again and the gold Olympics logo again and it kept changing. And "価値が欲しい/ 生きる価値が欲しい / 残酷なお前が・I want to have a worth / for my life to have a worth / cruel you" had us all raising our fists. It was a very powerful performance. And then they followed that with CLEVER SLEAZOID. The setlist tonight was 💯👌
One of the videos had various scenes of war and fighting, even the dates 1941, 42, 43 and 44 with some descriptions under them, but they showed so many conflicts it was more as if to show that humans just keep fighting same wars over and over again...
Starting from Aka the mood changed again, they continued on the route to grab, tear and stab our hearts... was it all this time without hearing Kyo live or was it all this time for Kyo not singing live with dir... the raw emotions delivered cut really deep. The inward scream was just crying at first, gasping for breath, then Kyo stood up holding the mics wire, the mic bumped loudly against the stage and the crate, then Kyo returned to the crate and crouched on the top while he continued to cry. Keigaku tonight was one of the darkest performances of the song I've heard. And Kyo changed the lyrics at least partially in the beginning, at first was something about a birth? (I want the footage from tonight so bad)
The World of Mercy was just... so miserable. So unhappy. And by this time I had no doubts about the red on Kyo's shirt.
For Oboro they used the footage from the pv in the back and red lasers on the stage as well. In the beginning there was only one set on Kyo, who stood with his arms raised as in wanting to grab the red lines. Two more red laser sets were added to the sides, one on Die and other on Kaoru and Toshiya. They looked like lava or fire at times, especially when catching on things. Oboro was amazing live, it's such a strong song to pull us from where the World of Mercy has left us a moment before.
Also, Kyo's stand was updated with Oboro theme: the stand itself is quite plain but there's a big bloody pregnant belly with legs bend at its sides under the crate... it looks quite grotesque, like being tucked under a staircase or ...under the tatami.
They closed the main set with Kasumi. It was so wonderful to have Oboro and Kasumi back to back.
And then we clapped and clapped and clapped until they came back.
We got very powerful encore as well. To me Followers was to help us pick up the heart pieces and put it back together. And then the other 4 songs were to pump us with the energy. The headbanging, the ...hand-scream-pumps! And they all kept asking for more! All four of them started to walk to the other sides of the stage, coming to the edge of the stage. Ochita is a mighty song, we can respond so much now, I can only imagine what it will become in the future!!
The energy got so overwhelming, the energy we couldn't shout out, I couldn't help but start crying as we were still headbanging and raising and waving our hands.
Before Hageshisa Kyo kept shouting 'last song! Last song!! LAST one' and hitting the mic on his chest. We went mad.
They couldn't throw anything like they used to, but I think they stayed a bit longer on the stage because of that. They all had a good look at the audience before they left, Kyo first, waving us goodbye as he jumped down from his stand. I kept clapping and the rest of band members left one by one, Shinya, Toshiya, Die and then Kaoru last. Kaoru took a pick from his stand and saluted us as he was leaving. But I was crying too much at this point to notice more.
It was incredible.
It was like noticing what was missing when your life gradually started to grow dull but it happened so slowly you haven't realized it was happening. That energy, just, woah.
And then they announced the autumn tour! The video showed a dirty, polluted river and a boat with people in safety suits on it. And then the title came up and dates.
Desperate. So accurate.
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gumnut-logic · 4 years
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Reactions (Bit 18a)
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Not as much as I would like, but it has begun :D
For @soniabigcheese cos it is her fault :D
-o-o-o-
As always, Thunderbird One arrived first on the scene. Virgil listened in as his brother defended their right to attend the emergency. John had looped in all their comms, including the Island so they all knew exactly what was happening.
Scott was polite, but firm.
“Colonel, we have the equipment and there are a thousand lives at stake. Can we at least put aside the political situation and save these people.” Barrett, the brand new commander of World Rescue was apparently the one in charge.
“Tracy, we have the situation in hand. You are barred from interfering.”
“Colonel, Thunderbird Two is inbound. She has the equipment to support the platform. At least let her assist!”
“We don’t need your assistance. Go home to your fancy little island.”
There was silence from Scott as Two approached and shifted to a hover beside her sister. Gordon was muttering under his breath. They were fortunate comms were set to only one way.
Virgil eyed the platform, raking it with Two’s sensors.
A flick of a switch. “Thunderbird One, be advised that the structural support of the runway is failing.” Several red exclamation icons flashed up on Virgil’s display. “It’s not going to last much longer.”
“Acknowledged, Thunderbird Two.” The frustration in his brother’s voice bent airwaves.
Another GDF flyer swooped in  from the other side the platform. Virgil’s eyes bugged out as he realised that this flyer, too, was going to attempt to land on the remains of the runway. Hadn’t they learnt from the first one??
He knew how much one of those craft weighed. He knew how fragile the structure was. His hand slammed down on comms. “GDF Flight Zero-Seven-Tango, abort landing! ABORT!”
Wheels touched down.
“NO!”
The runway crumpled. The flyer tipped as the structure failed, its engines in the wrong position for an effective lift.
Virgil didn’t hesitate. He fired Two’s rear thrusters and swooped in over the falling plane. Grapples were fired to the sound of yelling over comms and Two’s VTOL howled as she took the weight of the flyer.
-o-o-o-
“I’m not going to be able to hold her long. Zero-Seven-Tango, right your VTOL and engage lift.”
The pilot didn’t respond, but the flyer’s thrusters rotated into position and fired.
Virgil edged Two out of the huge craft’s new flight path as he disengaged grapple support. The GDF craft hovered up between the platform and Thunderbird Two.
Not a word was said.
It paused as if to stare at the Thunderbird before rising above it and taking up a position out of the immediate danger zone.
It sat there watching.
Virgil frowned at his instruments, but he didn’t have time to worry about whatever the hell they were doing. The collapse of the last portion of the runway had destabilised the platform further. It’s angle was skewed even more towards the ‘fall out of the sky’ ultimatum it was threatening.
Scott was yelling at someone.
Virgil tuned out the argument about their rights to save people and set about saving those people instead.
“Deploying airjacks.”
Two’s belly hatch opened and six of the hover devices flew out. Essentially emergency hoverjets, the airjacks were designed to attach to aircraft, or in this case, air platform and replace failing VTOL or other jets to keep a vehicle in the sky long enough for an evac.
If there was ever a situation in need of them, this was it.
Virgil directed each jack to a structurally safe point to lift. Unfortunately, they were only a temporary solution and there was a time limit, but hopefully it would be enough.
The whole platform groaned as the jacks took the overbalanced weight and held the craft in place. It was still listing, but it wasn’t going to tilt any further for some time.
“Colonel Barrett, quite frankly I don’t care for your opinion. Twice now your actions have endangered lives further. International Rescue has the tools and the experience to save these people. For the love of god, get over yourself.”
Barrett’s response was colourful, but at least it was distracted enough for  Thunderbird Two to assist without interference.
Virgil eyed his display. “Thunderbird Five, how goes the escape pod situation?”
“Promising. Eos is rewriting code to work around damaged networks. We will need someone on site to connect crucial systems.”
“FAB. We need to save the pilots of the two crashed planes first. Gordon and I will handle that. Let us know when you need that extra helping hand.” A pause. “And call the GDF and ask them to send in a few of their people carriers, just in case.” Why they weren’t already here was a mystery in itself.
“FAB.”
Scott wasn’t swearing, but his frustration was melting Virgil’s comms.
Time was a major factor here.
“Gordon, you’ve got the crippled flyer. I’ll grab the pilot from the first plane.”
His brother slipped out of his seat as Virgil shifted Two into position above the two disabled craft.
Virgil donned his exosuit. There was no doubt he was going to need it. The first plane was a crumpled mess.
Gordon lowered himself through Two’s front hatch while Virgil exited the same way as the jacks had earlier. Both had folded basket stretchers dangling beside them.
Virgil forced himself to focus despite the vitriol flying across comms. Barrett had apparently been supplanted by Wainwright herself. The woman’s screech of a voice grated on his nerves.
If only the world could hear the crap they were having to put up with just to do the right thing.
He was almost to the wreck when he caught a flicker out of the corner of his eye. He frowned as a holocam zipped into a hover beside him.
What the hell?
And then he realised that of the thousand people they were attempting to save, no doubt there would be a large party of press.
Here to document the launch of ‘World Rescue’.
Now looking for the next best thing - any and all dirt on International Rescue.
Virgil glared at the camera a moment before turning back to doing what he was here to do.
He ignored the annoyance and didn’t even really notice when it was joined by friends.
The plane that had caused this mess had slammed into the runway at an angle. It was one hell of a screwed up landing and Virgil had never seen the like. The cockpit had been almost completely sheared off, its safety capsule wrapping around the safety rail. It was this simple crumpling of metal that had saved the pilot when the plane’s fuel source had exploded, taking out the platform’s hoverjet below.
It was also the reason why the capsule hadn’t fallen with all the extra damage the GDF had managed to do. It was hooked to the railing and hanging there like a mangled pendulum.
Virgil interfaced with Two’s systems and lowered a magnetic grapple to secure the craft before boarding.
“Virg, I’ve got the two pilots from the flyer. One is uninjured, but the other has a bleeder. Securing in the medbay.”
“FAB, Gordon.” Virgil pried open the remains of the safety capsule with the combination of a claw and his laser. Unconscious and bloodied, the pilot was still strapped into her seat. A quick scan revealed a broken arm, head injury and multiple contusions. Remarkably little damage considering the mess made of her plane.
A holocam buzzed into his peripheral vision again. What?
A frustrated claw swiped the camera out of the air. A kick jammed it in a corner, lens to the fuselage.
Virgil busied himself manoeuvring the pilot into a basket stretcher.
“Pilot secured. Returning to Thunderbird Two.” 
He emerged from the damaged capsule into a flock of holocams.
What the hell?!
“Thunderbird Five, can we kill the publicity please.”
“FAB.”
The flock suddenly backed off to a more reasonable distance, but they didn’t go away. As Virgil drew himself and his rescuee up into the belly of Two, the swarm followed at a respectable distance.
“John, why are they still following me?”
“The world wants the truth, Virgil. Let’s give it to them.”
“So they can warp it again?”
“We’ll see.” 
At that tone, Virgil immediately grew suspicious. “What are you planning, Johnny?”
His brother’s voice was all innocence. “I’m just doing what needs to be done.” And the predictable grump. “And don’t call me Johnny.”
Virgil grunted across comms as he was swallowed by his ‘bird.
-o-o-o-
Next
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ohgoddard · 3 years
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Fist of Fire: Omega.1.8
I am above them all.
It is a strange feeling, being above someone. They look like ants, so far away. Yet I am not moving, just floating. I scan the crowds of the parade, full of people cheering and having candies thrown at them from the floats. Cramped streets, even tighter sidewalks filled to the brim with people in their summer gear. Some dressed as their favorite heroes that will be in the parade. The heat came in waves, but it didn't affect me. This high up, the air is always cool. Music was always present, among all the other cacophonous explosions of noise. The rumbling brass of the marching bands, the explosive drums of the floats, and the click-clacking of the boots of the veterans of the Power War barely eke out the cheering in the air. It has been so long since I have been among people in this way, in such big groups.
I wasn’t used to the noises again, the sounds of their voices and screaming. Of course, I heard their voices while I shut myself away. Yet, I ignored them. They were suffering at the hands of their chosen protectors, crying for help. Why would I help those who dare declare me a terrorist, a traitor?
But I do anyway. I am the only real hero.
Maybe a few of those poor souls in the crowd will see it after this. An example is always needed to show when something needs to be fixed. They were finally beginning to understand, but I went too far too quickly. The Capitol should have been much later. The establishment of a state was too ingrained in them. Removing it will take much more than just the butchering of the real traitors. It was supposed to be my real confrontation with Whirlwind. He was always on the President’s payroll, him and a few heroes at any given moment. He never showed, though. Instead, I fought nothing. The police never bothered to go in until I left. The so-called heroes in D.C did not even try to stop me. Not even a reserve guard. The networks always disregarded that fact though. It was always a focus on me, the killer and butcher. It was never that the police let me in, the heroes didn't fight me, the President flew away an hour before I showed up.
The parade isn't moving nearly as fast as I’d like it to. Whirlwind is at the end of it, along with this other speedster he’s taken under his wing the last few years. Doesn’t matter. I’ve waited this long. I can wait just a few more minutes. All I’ll need is one. Just like at D.C.
All it took was one minute.
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Thunder preceded my arrival to Washington. Nature was on my side, as it should be. I was the oncoming storm. This was the peak of me, my movement, my actions. Across the nation, people were questioning those who supposedly protected them. This would be my magnum opus to removing the leeches of society, toppling the decaying order. From the top-down, it would be reformed in my image. A safer image. A better one. People won’t have to see their father shot on the streets. But that was all in the future. For now, I had one goal in mind.
The President left an hour ago with an Air Force escort of multiple jets, running away with his tail in between his legs. He wasn’t my target anyway. If I had wanted him dead, he’d be dead. No, the only thing in my mind as I flew through the heavy, cold rain towards the Capitol building was a list. The white marble of the building looked grey under the overcast sky, and as I landed down onto the steps of the building, thunder struck. The entire mall was empty, the Smithsonian closed, Whitehouse silently evacuated. They knew I was coming, knew that their time was limited. Yet, curiously, when I arrived there was no one there. I could feel eyes watching me though. As I scanned the city, I counted the bodies that hid behind the walls of buildings. Shaking men in women in blue, weapons hastily drawn and pointed my way. So-called heroes, standing and facing me defiantly yet refusing to take a step. Citizens clamored around the barricades, trying to catch a glimpse of the great eradicator. The police and heroes weren’t there to stop me, or to keep me from leaving. They were there to make sure no one was stupid or suicidal enough to attempt.
It's all infected. This is the only thought I have in my mind as I ascend those marble steps. They’re all infected. Not a single good soul among them. Not a single good soul within a hundred miles of me. Misguided, led astray by those who trusted them. They thought themselves above those who would put them in power. But they were wrong. And they know they’re wrong now. As I approached the doors, I could hear the desperate banging on the locked doors. Doors locked for me. Hundreds of people, left behind so that another may save their neck. A sacrifice to me in vain attempts to stop greater bloodshed. I heard cries of terror, screaming, silent acceptance in the minds of those who understood what was going to happen.
I was not there for all of them, but they didn’t know that.
I kick the doors down into the Capitol and enter alone. My sopping wet footsteps echo an empty hall as I walk towards the chambers. Carved marble and granite floors, extravagant works of architecture. A palace in any other world. Fit for those who think they’re kings. The first step in a long revolution. I put force into every step I take towards the chambers. I let the ground shake and echo, becoming louder and louder. I hear their voices grow quiet, anticipating my arrival into their room. The House would be first. And it would be public. The cameras were no doubt rolling inside, people-watching in abject horror as I tore the door off from the wall and threw it across the room. Huddled in groups under their desks, hugging each other as if the other day they weren’t at each other's throats. Pathetic. The heat builds in my eyes as I calmly walk down the aisle. It almost seems random who I select, but I choose only the most egregious offenders. Those who have passed beyond the spot of return. I pick no side, only my own. Concentrated shots of a four thousand degrees laser make short work of traitors and an inconvenience for the janitor’s vacuum. They all scream, but none dare move. None dare look away. For they think that if they defy what is happening in any way, they too will turn to dust.
I say none, but one did try. While I am mowing down his colleagues, he attempts to run for the door, thinking I'm preoccupied. To the cameras, I don’t even move. All they see is a sudden mist of red and a smear on the once pristine white walls of the House Chambers.
After my work is done, those I deemed worthy of living still cowering in fear at my feet, I face the camera.
“People of the world, listen closely. I am the first and the last of your new masters. I am the great reset. I am the great leap forward. Everything begins and ends with me. I am everywhere, I am everyone. The world shaped me into what you see now.”
Using my speed, I dart around the world. I make it seem as if I am levitating over every major city. Every capitol. My face, my helmet is seen everywhere.
“I am the Alpha. I am on top. A new order comes from me, and me alone. Do not count on your heroes. Do not count on your villains. There is only one master. One ruler.”
Fires burn across the world, ships and cars crash, planes fall from the sky. I cause them all.
“I am the Omega.”
Escaped from a mental institution, assaulted by a man I could kill if only I had not held myself back. I would have ruled the world had they just listened to me. Yet, I was caught off guard and made a plea bargain. A streak of light and I was defenseless. Another day and it was all back, but by then I had made a plan. Which all leads back to where I am right now. I stand above a parade, waiting to enact revenge on the person who made me who I am. I should thank him, honestly. Without him, I would never have cared about the world. I would have never been born. But he still needs to die. The path to him has been bloody and unnecessary. Sure, many needed to die and were dead now. But it all meant nothing if it meant he still breathed. My failure at Washington will not be repeated. The world is infected, and I am the cure. He is the disease that awoke me. I am power defined, power controlled. There stands no one beside me, no one above. There is only below.
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And yet, here I am.
Wait. One person could have seen me. In that moment of realization, I chuckle. I was going to have to put down another upstart. A small bump in the road in my ambition. It would be a thrill, an easy warm-up for my strength. I inhale the sharp cold air. In the bright blue sky where I floated, I mentally chastised myself for not noticing sooner. That light shouldn’t have reflected and followed me the way it did on my way over. That heat was never that bad this high up. No, It had to come from another source. And as I turned to face it, I smiled.
The parade meanders, a large affair for a large city such as Boston. Yet, I feel something off. A speedster such as himself would never wait for the back. He basks in speed, he would never sit and stay on a float. He’d be here by now. There is no way he’d be late. Unless...
No... Unless he knows. But how? The hospital has not sent any news out, I have made sure of that. I had not sensed any signal leave that building, not even internal ones. No, there is no way he could have known. [i]Could I have been seen? Impossible, I flew in the stratosphere all the way here. No one could have seen me.
Bright white and red, streaks of gold, red hair. She was new. I have only barely heard of her if only through the stories Kiara’s father has told me. In her hands were two suns, harsh things to look at. Her feet were two fireballs, propelling her to stay level with me. Her look was fierce, streaks of flame dripping off her hands like molten iron. Her eyes glowed gold. Cute. A sharp scar across her face showed this wasn’t her first rodeo. It will be her last, however.
“Sunspot, is it? I will give you one chance to leave right now. You are clean. You have done nothing wrong. Your ambition is sacred, you have a life worth living. Live it somewhere else.”
She said nothing, though I could hear her heartbeat increase. I smirked under my mask.
“I only cleanse those who need cleansing. I am not here to butcher the masses. I am not here to terrorize. You are not part of my plan, they are not part of my plan. Do not become a part of it.”
Villains had their weaknesses. Heroes theirs. Everyone had their blind spots. I don’t. There is nothing better than me.
Still, she stood next to me, defiant. The sun started to glow a little brighter, which tickled something in my mind. “Omegaman, you are under arrest. Please surrender and come with me.”
Her voice, while confident in tone and steady, betrayed her uneasiness. Had it not been so cold up here, I would have no doubt seen her sweating. Her shakiness could be written off due to altitudes, but I knew better. She was scared. She had never faced someone like me.
“I don’t want to go to another funeral in Boston because of your mistakes.”
“Or what?” I finally faced her. She couldn’t have been older than 22, yet here she was trying to take me down.
“I have killed heroes ten times better than you. Thirty times more deserving. This is your last chance to leave, Sunspot.” I lower my head behind my arms as I put them up. She mirrored me, moving her arms into a boxing stance, her legs getting ready to propel her. This was inevitable, she wanted this to happen. Might as well make it fun for me, give her one more chance to leave.
She had managed to hurt me.
In a rage of fury, she roared and threw the sun at me. I opened my palm to catch it, laughing at her outrage. Yet when it reached my hand, I stopped laughing and started to scream.
What?! My hands and arms were red and black scorched marks, my brain a frenzy with synapses of pure pain.
Oh, this was going to be fun.
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storm-demon · 4 years
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Sorcerer of Winds, Vaati
Now known simply as the Storm Demon
The quest technically begins with mentions among villagers around hyrule of a powerful annual storm that ravages through Hyrule, along with rumors of some people spotting a beast at the eye of the storm. Following these tips you eventually find a blacksmith who’s become obsessed with finding the beast at the eye of the storm, he admits that he’s become too old to chase the beast any longer and offers you a chart he’s made of the storm’s path in his stead, this is where the quest officially begins.
The storm takes a long path around hyrule, the player could have technically run into it before accepting the quest, though it’s quite difficult to find and follow. with the quest accepted though a visual of the storm and its path is added to the map.
The player may want to chase the storm down on horseback as it can move quite fast, though it will slow down to a near halt once the player reaches the eye of the storm. On the way to the center of the storm the player will be confronted with powerful winds, pouring rain, fog, and lightning. The eye of the storm is recognizable as the rain and lighting will slow to a stop, and a large arena of visibility will open up between the fog. As the occasional lightning bolt lights up the outer clouds of the storm you catch glimpses of something, shadows of giant wings and claws. Once far enough into the eye of the storm a cutscene will play, link slowly walks forward and looks around the storm, shadows of the beast are seen again and the camera pans and a distorted roar is heard as the clouds begin to glow a deep red, lit up from the giant eye of the beast.
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The boss music begins as “Vaati The Storm Demon” comes up on the screen along with a health bar, starting the boss battle.
The arena where you fight Vaati will have a constant updraft, this may make it tempting to use the paraglider. You’ll want to be careful though, as once you’re in the air there will be a lot more gusts of wind ready to blow you all around the field.
Vaati himself will have a few main ways of attacking starting off; firing beams from his eye, swooping down at the player, and summoning clawed arms from dark portals on the ground. In order to damage him back you’ll need to shoot him in the eyes (the glowing eyes along his body all take damage but the one that takes the most is the eye in his throat that is revealed right before he fires a beam) and slashing his front eye with a weapon whenever the player manages to knock him out of the sky. This can be done by shooting his front eye at just the right moment when he swoops down at the player.
As the fight continues Vaati’s attacks will change up and become more aggressive. He will occasionally start spawning groups of his one eyed bats to swoop and fire small laser blasts at the player. As well once he reaches a certain health threshold he will ascend high into the storm to fire his beam attack at the player. At this point you won’t be able to dodge this attack, as well it will be a lot harder to deflect, you’ll likely have to paraglide up to him in order to counter his attack with an arrow. After this you can either fall back to the ground and continue the fight, or if you’re good at aiming yourself and your paraglider you can land on his back and hit a weak point with your weapon for huge amounts of damage.
Once the fight is done and Vaati is defeated another cutscene will play, link will watch the storm dissipate as Vaati flies away high into the sky. A small red gem shall fall to links feet as Vaati fades from view.
Going back to the village smith will be excited to hear that you not only found your way to the eye of the storm but also bested the beast at the center of it. He’ll then offer you a powerful weapon he’s made as a reward, along with an interesting bit of information.
“I had a feeling you’d beaten the beast, see I actually saw something... familiar, fly overhead earlier. Headed towards the frozen plains over yonder. I can’t follow it myself, but you... Well it’s up to you what you’d like to do now.”
That’s right, this quest’s not ever yet, following Smith’s instructions the player will come across a mysterious tall tower, seemingly leading above the clouds. This place would have been blocked off before by an impassable snowstorm. With some more curiosity the player will find a long yet manageable climb up the tower and to palace of winds. A few bits of gliding/platforming through the palace to the center and you will once again find Vaati, this time in human form, standing over a magical artifact.
Speaking to Vaati he will be shocked to see you there
“Wha- You? How did you get up here? Wait... That gem... Ah, it’s you, you certainly gave me a run for my money. I didn’t expect to ever see you again, certainly not like this. Hmm? Who am I? Oh it’s not important, you don’t know me but we have quite the history you and I. Well you may at least know me from our little... Exchange earlier. My pride’s taken enough of a hit over the years, I’ll admit you bested me quite well back there.”
“... Well? You expecting another fight? No, it wouldn’t be a good time for that, I’d have so much planning to do. Tell you what, how about I give you something as congratulations? Anything to get you out of my palace really.”
Vaati will then turn to a chest nearby and bring back a reward for you. You got the roc’s cape! This serves as an upgrade to the paraglider; allowing you a high jump at the cost of some stamina, reduced stamina cost when gliding, and more control when gliding through strong winds. It serves as a cosmetic change as well and can be equipped/de-equipped through the pause menu. It can also be dyed at the dye shop.
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Ok, I couldn’t sleep the other night so I took my first tongue-in-cheek stab at fan-fiction. Here’s how I want the Thirteenth Doctor’s regeneration to go down, and yes it is a rip-off of Avengers – Endgame:
She’s in Park Hill Flats with Graeme, Ryan & Yas but the Master has found a way to control Sheffield’s mutant spiders to burrow into the foundations of the building, causing it to collapse. 13 climbs out of the rubble but her companions are nowhere to be seen. The Master rides up to her on the back of a giant spider, dismounts and tells her that he’s going to force open the heart of her TARDIS and use the power of the time vortex to destroy the universe, and that she’s got no way of stopping him. Loads of villains’ ships appear in the sky like in ‘The Pandorica Opens’.
But then they hear the sound of TARDIS engines and a different TARDIS materialises a few meters away. The doors open, revealing three silhouettes at first obscured by the light of the console room. As they approach 13 sees that it’s 12, Nardole and a Cyber-converted Bill. At this point (I don’t even care) Portals by Alan Silvestri starts playing. Another TARDIS materialises, in a darker shade of blue. The doors open and Rose Tyler steps out, followed by Mickey, Martha, Donna, Jackie & Wilf. They part down the centre, revealing 10 striding forward.
Silurians start teleporting in, as well as Judoon from the Shadow Proclamation, basically anyone from ‘A Good Man Goes To War’. The Paternoster gang show and maybe Strax says something funny. Another TARDIS appears and out steps 11, Amy, Rory and River circa-‘Day Of The Moon’. An American diner lands awkwardly amid the rubble and Clara and Ashildr climb out. Kate Stewart and the Oswins show up with a bunch of UNIT troops and at the same time as Gwen Cooper arrives with whatever’s left of Torchwood. A final TARDIS appears, it’s 9’s! Out comes the ninth Doctor with another Rose and another Captain Jack.
“Wow that’s a lot of people” says Ryan gormlessly. “I reckon that should do it, don’t you Doc?” says Graeme. At the sound of a screech, everyone looks up to see the 8th Doctor flying in on the back of Ramsey the Vortisaur. 13 turns to Yas and explains to her what Vortisaurs are for ten minutes while everyone awkwardly waits for her to finish. When she’s done, the six Doctors that I, as millennial, actually care about line up facing the Master’s army, screwdrivers in hand. Twelve somehow produces his electric guitar and starts shredding the Doctor Who theme and then they all charge.
It’s brilliant! River’s zapping Silents, Graeme’s using his laser shoes to zap Kasaavin and Amy’s duel wielding a hand mirror and a sledge hammer to smash up Weeping Angels. Clara and 12 have a memory-loss themed reunion just like Star Lord & Gamora’s one in Endgame, only he doesn’t knee her in the crotch. 9s headbutts the Master because of course he does and both Cpt. Jacks keep making dirty jokes about there being two Roses, only no one’s actually listening.
When the battle takes a turn for the worse, they fall back to their TARDISs to protect the time vortex. They all start piloting around the battlefield, evading attack. Lady Christina (who’s also there) gets immediately arrested by UNIT so Graeme takes her flying bus and starts flying it round the battlefield along with Ryan & Yas. 11 ends up in 10’s TARDIS and starts flying it but Sontarans keep jetpacking on board. He uses his sonic to jam their guns while Donna, who’s still on board, whacks them in the back of the neck. A jolt makes her fall and nearly touch the Doctor’s severed hand from ‘The Christmas Invasion’. 11, knowing what happens if she touches it, snatches it away from her but that forces the metacrisis to happen anyway, this time with his own DNA. Another Sontaran jetpacks onboard and is about to shoot Donna but suddenly falls over with a clunk, revealing the metacrisis Doctor who just hit it on the back of the neck. Only this time, he’s half 10, half 11 – 10.5, if you will. 11 chucks him a prototype screwdriver that looks like 12’s one from series 10 and tells him to get to work. He dives out of the door, still naked, yelling “Geronimo!”
Series 4 Rose, who followed 10 into 11s TARDIS, goes on the intercom and tells them that the only way to defeat that many enemies is to do what she did in ‘The Parting Of The Ways’ – open the heart of the TARDIS before the Master can and use it to stop him. But no ordinary human is strong enough! “I can do it” says Bill, who’s much stronger since her Cyber-conversion. Still, she’s on 12’s TARDIS and the weakest console is onboard 9’s. “You’re not gonna like this, Bill” says 12, piloting his ship high into the air. “Big ears, you’ve got incoming!”, he shouts, then unceremoniously boots Cyber-Bill out of the door, sending her plummeting toward 9’s TARDIS. She nearly makes it but a Crillitane catches her first and they start tussling in the air. It drops her and she nearly plummets to her death but 8 catches her on the back of Ramsey and gives her a lift back up to 9s TARDIS.
The Master and Ashad (who’s alive again now) jet onboard 8’s TARDIS (which is there for some reason, I dunno, maybe he parked nearby). It’s manned by 10.5. The Master villainously shoots Ashad, activating the death particle, before jumping out of the front door. This kills 10.5 before he can regenerate (presumably, after all this 10 cuts his hand off and puts it back in the jar) and cripples the TARDIS’s flight systems which, as it’s the oldest iteration of the TARDIS in the battle, does the same to all of them. The six Doctors manage to land their ships in a hexagon, with the doors all pointing inwards, meaning enemies can only get in from above. Series 4 Captain Jack gets a big gun and mans the bottle neck, fighting off wave upon wave of enemies, getting killed sometimes but then resurrecting, each time letting in a few monsters who end up in the various TARDISs.
The Master gets through and ends up in 11’s TARDIS. 13 and her companions follow him but he runs deep inside the internal corridors, losing them. He finds a part of the TARDIS where time passes in reverse so that when he comes back into the console room he’s on board 8’s ship again which he then materialises inside 9’s. Bill tries to stop him but he threatens 9 with his shrink ray and forces her to use her strength to tear open the console and expose the time vortex. She does and he’s about to absorb its power but all of a sudden, the floor panel gives way and he falls down below. Camera pans down revealing Wilfred Mott, holding a regular screwdriver that he just used to loosen the floor panel. He gives everyone a little salute.
13 steps forward and absorbs the power of the Time Vortex. It’s even cooler than when Rose did it because she’s a Timelord. She rises up in the air like Captain Marvel and tells all the villains they have a chance to leave (earning an approving look from 10). Most of them do except the Daleks, obviously, so she melts their asses. Then she floats back down and returns the energy to the heart of the TARDIS, restoring its flight systems at the same time (except for 8’s, sorry). The 6 Doctors look down condescendingly at the Master like in that shot from the end of the first Avengers film. Only the Master hit his head falling down so he’s died (and pooped himself). He regenerates into… Missy! Which makes so much more sense for her character arc. “I’ll take her off your hands” says 12. Then they all go and get chips like in ‘The End Of The World’ and eat them outside Sheffield train station before the various Doctors and companions go their separate ways.
13 feels the regeneration coming, just like the last time she absorbed the time vortex. She and her friends go to Graeme’s house. She normally does this in the TARDIS but she’d rather be with the people she cares about. There’s no big speech, I reckon she just says “Laterzzz” and actually clarifies that it’s spelt with a z. She regenerates, leaving big scorch marks on the walls, setting fire to all Graeme’s furniture. The companions are freaking out. When it’s over the new Doctor slumps to the floor before getting to their knees to reveal… a handsome young Indian guy with floppy hair and a moustache!
INTRODUCING DEV PATEL AS THE DOCTOR
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justkending · 5 years
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Used to Be Overlooked. Chapter 22.
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Summary: Steve Rogers was walking down the streets of Brooklyn after finishing a mission. The goal was just to take some time to clear his mind along the city streets, but when he runs into a gorgeous young lady that looks extremely familiar… How can he go about moving on? Who is she? What does he know her from? Was that memory even from this decade?
Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader (Rosalyn Ember/ Y/N ?)
Word Count: 2500+
A/N: Sorry for the long wait! I had started on it a while ago, and never got around to finishing it. Here it is though, and I hope you enjoy!!!
Series Masterlist
Chapter 22:
“Uh, sir,” Edgar spoke up a little over 5 minutes into the transfusion. You were still knocked out cold basically, only awake enough to heard a few words here and there.
“What?” Garrison said harshly as he was laid back in the chair relaxed with his eyes closed.
“Security called. It looks like we’ve been breached,” Edgar said timidly.
Garrison opened one eye peeking over to his assistant. Frustration and annoyance clear in his face. 
“You’ve got to be kidding me. I have to do everything around here,” he huffed closing his eyes for a second before sitting up in his seat. 
“I’m sorry sir-”
“How much longer on the transfusion?”
“About 8 minutes,” Edgar said quickly calculating it all. 
“How long until we are swarmed?”
“I’m not sure. Security is doing the best they can, but it could be any minute considering-”
“Best they can? Best they can my ass. They might as well be sacks of potatoes guarding my door with the Avengers storming in,” Garrison huffed clicking things on the computer to see if he can quicken the process of the blood transfusion. He quickly changed the screen to the security footage seeing man after man being taken out from the sky, and others through the hallways. Captain America being one of the individuals doing the most harm. They were closing in and there wasn’t time to move. “Fuck. Of course every precaution we took was a bust. Why wouldn’t it be?” he groaned to himself. 
He turned over to you seeing you slumped on the table that was still at a diagonal and let out a long sigh. He turned back to Edgar with an eye that showed he had an idea and was switching to full boss mode.
“I have an plan.”
___
“Tony, what’s the update?” Steve yelled into his earpiece just as another person came around a corner, guns blazing, and quickly started throwing punches after. 
“Still not clear out here. Every time we think we have it clear, they pop up like ants,” Tony answered.
“It seems that they have reinforcements with other tactics, Captain. Different forms of guns that I haven't seen before are being used,” Vision cut in.
“I agree with Wonder boy,” Tony spoke up. “These are not any kinds of guns I’ve seen before, and I used to make them for a living.”
“What kind are we talking?” Steve grunted throwing another man away from him.
“Some weird form of energy is coming out. Almost like lasers. I feel like I’m in a Star Wars movie,” Tony laughed.
“I don’t-” Steve started.
“Don’t worry about it now. I’ll have Friday run a report. I got skimmed by one, and she can analyze the damage it did,” Tony briefed.
“Thanks Stark,” Steve said. 
“Rogers on your left!” Nat called in his ear from the security room. 
Quickly Steve pivoted in his spot catching Wanda take out a guy that was coming up behind him, and quickly making him fall hard and knock out instantly. The fight was still going. There was more men than they figured, and they weren’t letting up easy. 
“Barton? Romanoff? Any update on the room Y/N’s in?” Steve said catching his breath. 
“Still working on it. Looks like there are more cameras than shown. I need to hack into a few more frames before we find- Got it!” Clint shouted. “Room 241. Down the north hall. Take two rights, a left, and then it’s the fourth door on your right.”
“Thanks Barton,” Steve said turning and nodding to Wanda and Bucky to follow. 
“Looks like the shots they are firing with those guns are some form of stun guns. Small voltages, so it would take more to take someone like you out Cap, but us? It’ll feel like a really bad taser,” Tony cut in sharing his new information. “Now, I’m not saying you should volunteer to get hit, but if it happens let me know how it goes.”
Steve rolled his eyes at Tony’s bantered, but thanked him for the new information anyway. Just as they were taking the turn to the hallway where your room was, a new rush of guards appeared from almost every angle.
“Shit,” Bucky muttered turning to assess the new threat.
“Come on. Let’s go!” Steve said getting in stance for another fight. 
“No! We got it from here. You go get your girl!” Bucky said turning to his best friend.
“Not without-”
“Steve, go. We got this. We can handle a few dozen men,” Wanda said with a grin before turning and taking out a few.
“I’m not going to let you-”
“So help me God, Punk. Get your ass to that room before I kick it myself,” Bucky said through gritted teeth. “You’re girl needs you more than us right now.” 
Looking down that hall and back to the guards Wanda had started fighting on, Steve was hesitant. He saw that Bucky was right. 
“Don’t get killed,” Steve said running backwards and pointing at the two.
“Right back at you,” Bucky shouted before turning and knocking a guy out. “Get Y/N to safety! We got your back!”
Steve quickly turned and started sprinting to the door. Only a few new guards stepping in his way, but quickly taken down with his mindset on finding you.
As he approached the door and went to open it, he found it was bolted shout. He looked through a small window pane looking in seeing tons of equipment. It was a lab like you worked in. High tech and in use too. 
As he scanned over it all, he saw just out of the corner of the view you strapped to a metal table with your head hanging and your hair covering your face. You were still in the clothes he last saw you in, but without the jacket or the tank top. 
Anger bubbled in him and he took a few giant steps back before lifting his shield and running straight toward the door. A loud crash erupted as he efficiently busted down the metal double doors. He rolled out from where he fell and quickly got to his feet.
Where he would normally check the area before going further, his mind was only set on you. He rushed over to you and quickly lifted your head from it’s slumped position. 
“Y/N? Hey, Y/N/N. Come on now. Don’t do this,” he said brushing hair out of your face, and placing both hands on each of your cheeks to help steady your limp head. “Y/N, come on doll,” he coaxed hoping you would snap out of it. 
With the little energy you had, you slowly opened your eyes hearing the soft begging of a man. Through the blur, you noticed familiar piercing blue eyes staring you down. Your eyelids were heavy, but they opened and closed to try and deminish the blurriness. 
“St-Steve?” you mumbled not even sure if it got out.
“That’s it. It’s all right sweetheart. We’re going to get you out of here,” he said with a small smile before it fell looking around and down at your spot. “What the hell did they do to you?” he said scanning the wires, and cords attached to you. 
“Steve, you-you have to-” you gulped feeling the dryness in your throat. This was taking so much energy, but you had to warn him. “Get out. Go.” 
“Not without my girl,” he said with a sad smile brushing a thumb over your cheek. “We just need to get-”
“Steve!” you said looking behind him right where you were trying to warn him. The shout came out more in a normal voice compared to your mumble. 
Before he could fully turn around, a shot was taken. An outline of blue hit Steve, and he crumpled to the floor in pain. Grabbing at his abdomen that got hit while he turned, he grimaced through gritted his teeth. 
“Aw, Captain America,” Garrison’s voice came out from the dark in an evil tone. “So, you’re the guy that stole my girl?” 
He came out of the shadows, and Steve turned seeing the tall man. Steve was on the floor still not really fully able to get up after the shot of electricity that hit him hard. 
Garrison was holding a larger gun that was vibrating with energy. He turned it in his hand and examined it proudly. 
“Handy little thing, isn’t it? Made it myself,” he bragged. “Supposed to be used on bigger guys like you, but I’ll be honest. I thought you would be a lot bigger so this may take longer for you to come back from,” he said crouching to Steve’s level who was sending him daggers, but still not able to move. 
“So, Y/N? This is the guy that stole your heart?” He stood up walking to you who had finally got enough energy to hold up your own head. “Not impressed. You really downgraded,” he hummed pushing hair out of your face. You heard Steve grunt from the floor at the motion, and he slowly started to stand. “Oh, maybe you are a big guy. You recovered fast,” Garrison said in a cheeky manner. “At ease soldier. I didn’t call on you yet,” he smirked before shooting Steve once again making him fall hard and yell in pain. 
“Stop,” you groaned. 
“Stop what? Hurting him? Like you hurt me all those years?” Garrison said somehow turning this back to your relationship. 
“That’s not what happened Garrison-”
“Oh, the hell it’s not! You know what it felt like when you ran away? Huh?” he questioned, getting angrier with each word. “Like this,” he turned back to Steve who had made it to a kneeling position, and for a third time shot him in the stomach. 
Steve letting out another yell that made you ache for him. You wanted to take his place right then and there. 
“Garrison, don’t do this. You know this isn’t right. Look at everything,” you whispered a single tear making its way down your face. “This isn’t right.”
“You’re right. It was only going to be right with you by my side, but look what happened,” he said bitterly, and quickly walking back to you. “This is on you Y/N. All of it,” he said harshly grabbing your chin and making you meet his eye line. 
“Let her go!” Steve yelled once again trying to stand up. 
Garrison didn’t move and ignored him only holding you harder.  
“Now,” He turned to the computer and started administering the blue serum in you. It started flowing through your bloodstream in only milliseconds. “I found you. You’re mine again.” You could see the pain and possession overtake his eyes, and fear started creeping into you.
“Y/N-” Steve yelled now going to fully stand. 
“SIT DOWN!” Garrison yelled finally turning back to his competitor, but only to be stopped by the red wisp that were Wanda’s holding him steady. 
“Steve get her. I’ve got him,” Wanda instructed. 
“I’ve got him too.” Bucky said straight faced and walking toward Garrison, who was now stuck, with a look that could kill. 
You watched as they kept Garrison in place and closed your eyes in relief. 
“Y/N. Hey, stay with me,” Steve instructed limping over to you, and plucking the IV out of your arm as gently as possible cutting off the blue serum. “Y/N-”
“I’m ok. I’m ok,” you mumbled out feeling the amount of serum start to take over. Even if it was only in you for the little time right then, it was enough to knock you out again. “Steve-” and like that you were out cold. 
The last thing you remember was Steve unlatching the leather straps, and catching you carrying you bridal style as you went limp in his arms. 
_____ 
“Banner!” Steve yelled caring your body into the plane. Wanda and Bucky close behind with Garrison secured. Everyone else still in the field wrapping up loose ends, and capturing the last of the people on Garrisons team. “Banner!”
“Right here!” Banner shouted coming around a corner. “What happened?” he asked coming closer. 
“He injected something in her. I don’t know what,” Steve answered looking down at you scared that if he looked away you would disappear again. 
“Here, let’s get her on a bed,” Bruce instructed moving the group into the infirmary. 
“We’re going to put him in lock up. I’ll be right back,” Bucky called out walking with Wanda close, and Garrison in cuffs with a glare glued on his face. 
“Don’t take your eyes off the bastard. He’s going to pay for this,” Steve said his voice going cold as he stared at the enemy. “I’ll make sure of it.” 
They had a stare off until Steve turned to get you to help. He would handle the varmint later. All that mattered now was figuring out what was going on with you.
After placing you on the bed, Banner started drawing samples of blood, and running a few test. The nurses checked everything thing else, but Steve noticed the bruises on your cheeks and jaw from where he had grabbed you, and then the puncture wounds from the multiple needles he had injected you with. You should be healing shouldn’t you? Why weren’t you healing?
He called Tony and Sam telling them to go through the lab and grab the serum, and anything else that looked special. Banner and Stark could run test of those things later.
Banner came back in about 30 minutes later with papers in hand and his lab coat on. 
“What is it? What’s in her?” Steve said standing from the chair he hadn’t moved from to turn to Bruce. He placed a hand on yours not wanting to be far from you, and to also have a feeling of you to make sure you didn’t get away again. 
“Well, whatever was injected into her when you showed up wasn’t the first time,” Bruce said flipping through papers. “It looks like there is more in her blood than we suspected.”
“What do you mean?” Steve asked wanting the details.
“Well, from the looks of it, the serum that’s running through her is slowing her healing process. Immensely,” he paused coming closer and checking your vitals as he continued to talk. “Her white blood cells are still working faster than most, but not fast enough to clear a wound like normal.”
“How long will it last?”
“Not sure. Could be a few hours. A few days. All depends on how her body responds to it. We just started going over the serum Stark brought in, and I’m not sure how long it will take us to dissect it.”
Steve looked down to your still sleeping figure and squeezed your hand slightly. 
“How long ‘till she wakes up?”
“Probably an hour or so. Maybe a little longer.”
“Good. I’m going to interrogate the meat head that did this to her,” Steve grumbled picking up your hand kissing it, and gently putting it by your side again.
“Steve-”
“No. He has answers I need. He doesn’t get to do what he did to her, and walk away from it. Him sitting in that holding room is too nice for him,” Steve glared at Bruce as he walked to the door. 
“I understand, but just,” Bruce paused looking over at you and then back at Steve. “Don’t do anything too rash. I’m sure Y/N wants some answers too.”
Steve looked at you still seeing tension in you. He took a deep breath realizing he wasn’t the only one hurt from this. You deserved to talk to this ‘Garrison’ man too. So that means no beating him to a pulp before you can.
He let out a long deep breath before turning to Banner. 
“I got it.”
Chapter 23
Used to be Overlooked Tag:
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If I tagged you and you aren’t normally on my tag list, I thought you would enjoy the story. Fair warning, it is a slow burn so we will get to the bottom of the issue later, but the burn is what makes it soooooo sweet. I’m really excited for this series, and would love your feedback:) Thank you!
If you want removed let me know.
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thecarlosramos · 5 years
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Time Squad’s Adam & Eve Ep
...so back when we started, Dave and I wrote our Time Squad scripts like books. We quickly learned Final Draft once Michael Karnow was hired and set us straight. Here’s an ep that was never made. I believe I wanted Tommy Chong to play Adam but I remember Dave thinking he was too obvious a choice.
This is my thank you to all the TS fans <3
©️®️
In Dagada Da Vida
We open on the satellite where we see a montage of different rooms and corridors as the sound of a dollar bill being inserted and rejected from a candy machine is heard echoing through the ship. We then see Tuddrussel calmly entering a futuristic looking dollar into the candy machine’s money insertor as it once again spits it out. We see Tuddrussel’s reflection in the window as he licks his chops while eyeing a shrink-wrapped donut. We cut back to see him calmly step back off screen. We then hear the sound of a full run as Tuddrussel re enters with a scream as he tackles the machine. We cut back to a hallway as Larry and Otto come out of their rooms to the sounds of laser blasts and screaming. They both run and turn a corner to the sight of Tuddrussel standing over the smoldering candy machine triumphantly holding his laser gun as his chest heaves up and down.
“Oh, hey guys.” Tuddrussel says out of breath.
“Wha…what are you doing?” Otto asks.
“Just getting a donut.” Tuddrussel says as he reaches into the broken glass and pulls out a packaged donut. He then begins to unwrap it with all his strength, which then leads to him biting and clawing at the plastic cover. He then throws it down and blasts it with his phaser. We cut back to Larry and Otto as they shield their faces from the laser fire. Tuddrussel again is left standing in the charred hallway with his chest heaving.
“Hey, it’s gonna be alright.” Otto says as he slowly takes Tuddrussel’s hand while Larry cautiously removes his phaser from his other hand.
“Now, you didn’t need all that junk food after all. I’ll make you a nice healthy breakfast.” Larry says cautiously.
“Doesn’t that sound nice.” Otto says in a kindly tone.
“Stupid donut.” Tuddrussel says under his breath.
We then see Otto standing in the kitchen with Larry as he looks at Tuddrussel squeezing two stress-balls in his hands.
“Calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean, calm blue…” Tuddrussel chants quietly while swaying back and forth at the breakfast table.
“Larry, I’m a little worried about Tuddrussel. He’s seems a little…stressed lately.” Otto says as Larry wears a chef hat and cooks diligently.
“A little, ha! His blood pressure is through the roof. All he really needs is a good hot breakfast though. Go out and talk to him while I finish these ‘eggs ala bolognese’. Now shoo!” Larry says while pushing Otto into the dining room. Otto takes a seat next to Tuddrussel.
“Hi buddy, how ya feelin'?” Otto asks Tuddrussel.
“Pretty good, oh you mean…with the donut? Oh that was nothing! I was just a little hungry.” Tuddrussel says blowing off the entire incident.
“Oh, well that’s good ‘cause Larry’s making a great breakfast!” Otto says relieved. Just then Larry comes out of the kitchen carrying two covered silver platters and sets then down lovingly in front of Otto and Tuddrussel. Larry then lifts the lids off the trays revealing Tuddrussel and Otto’s expressions as Otto smiles and Tuddrussel goes from a happy face to a grimace as they look at a very fancy mixed assortment of food oddities.
“What’s this?” Tuddrussel says disgusted as he runs his fork through a runny egg in a piecrust.
“Why that’s ‘gruere preschutto quiche’ in a plumb sauce glaze! It was King Philip of the Vector quadrant’s favorite dish.” Larry says with a smile.
“Larry, what about this dish?” Otto asks while cautiously cutting into a fish plate.
“Oh that’s a pescado brochette with a warm potato galette in an onion fondue with a flying fish caviar cream. I hear it’s quite delicious.” Larry says attentively.
“Wow, this is good!” Otto says with a smile and a mouth full of fish.
“I’m not even going to ask.” Tuddrussel groans as he pushes away a plate of snails.
“Why that’s the ‘Cassolettes d'Escargot’! A lovely little dish I learned to make in culinary school in Brussels. Bon Apetit!” Larry says in a cheery voice. We see Otto chew happily as Tuddrussel slowly grabs the edge of the table in an angry fashion.
“This all looks…TERRIBLE!” Tuddrussel says in a rage as he flips the table over. Otto still chews and swallows what was in his mouth. Larry gasps. “I haven’t had a decent meal in months! Can’t a guy get a sandwich around here?” Tuddrussel continues. Larry looks on in shock when Otto comes to the rescue.
“What he means is…uh, he’s not used to eating such exquisite dishes.” Otto says trying to cover up Tuddrussel’s action.
“No, you were going to have me eat snails! I have been stuffing the mattress of this chair with food for months.” Tuddrussel says with a red face to Larry as he points to his chair that has a bushel of meals stuffed in it. Larry gasps as Tuddrussel continues his rant. “Bacon, eggs, toast! That’s a breakfast! All you make is foo foo soaked in…poo poo!” Tuddrussel screams as he begins to turn bright red while breathing heavily and sweating.
“You…are the worst cook…ever! Ow, now my arm’s gone numb!” Tuddrussel grabs his left arm as he weases out and collapses face first into all the food on the floor in an Inspector Clusaue manner.
“Well fine, I’m never cooking for you two again!” Larry says in a sassy tone while looking down at Tuddrussel on the ground. We cut to black and fade up in a blur from Tuddrussel’s POV to an up shot of Larry and Otto.
“Wake up Tuddrussel, are you okay?” Otto asks.
“Wha…what happened?” Tuddrussel grumbles.
“I think I’m going to have to zap him!” Larry says as his hands begin to glow with electricity. “Clear!” Larry says as Otto steps back and Larry shocks Tuddrussel’s chest.
“Aaaaagghhhh! What did you do that for!” Tuddrussel yells as we cut back to show him jump to his feet.
“Well according to my readings, you just passed out from nervous exhaustion. I was reviving you!” Larry says while he reads charts being faxed out of his chest.
“Sounds more like food poisoning to me.” Tuddrussel says in a sarcastic tone to Larry.
“Tuddrussel, it’s obvious you just need some time to relax, when’s your next vacation?” Otto asks.
“Vacation?” Tuddrussel asks.
“Back in the time Otto’s from employees were allowed a certain amount of time away from their jobs to relax and not work. It was believed that this made for a happier and more productive worker.” Larry informs Tuddrussel.
“Pfft! Well, la-dee-da! That may be fine for some tea-sippin’ pansy, but I’m a cop and we don’t need…” Tuddrussel starts in a cynical tone. Suddenly the ships alarm goes off and Tuddrussel startled by the noise clutches his left arm and falls downward off screen.
“Here we go again!” Larry says as he charges his hands and goes down off screen. We see a blue glow and hear Tuddrussel scream as Otto flinches at the sight of him getting fried. We cut to the ship’s computer as Larry walks up and starts typing coordinates into the keyboard. Tuddrussel and Otto walk up behind him as smoke trails off Tuddrussel’s body. The screen shows an image of a perfect naked couple with blonde hair and blue eyes covered in fig leafs. It reads under them, ‘Adam and Eve, Garden of Eden’.
“Wow, it looks like we’re going all the way back to the Garden of Eden to see Adam and Eve. They were responsible for ruining paradise when Eve ate the forbidden apple.” Otto says. All three begin to walk towards the time transporter.
“Garden? (shivering sound) Sounds awfully organic.” Larry says in an irritated tone.
“Tuddrussel, the Garden of Eden was a utopia. This mission might be just the thing you need.” Otto says enthusiastically.
“Well, It couldn’t be any worse than getting shocked twice by this walking cattle prod.” Tuddrussel says eyeing Larry.
“Hey, I saved your life.” Larry says offended. The three get into the time transporter and bam, they are blasted to the past. We cut to a blue sky as our three heroes blast on screen. The camera has all three in a medium shot close together.
“Paradise huh?” Tuddrussel says skeptically while looking around. We pull back to reveal the three of them sitting on a large zebra. It suddenly starts to kick and jump while yelping. Time Squad Patrol hold on for dear life. Tuddrussel Larry and Otto are then bucked off and fall hard onto the grass and the zebra runs off in a huff.
“Ugh, I’m allergic to large beasts.” Larry says cowardly.
“But you’re a robot, how can you have allergies?” Otto asks.
“I don’t know. I just do. Augh, a snake!” Larry screams while jumping into Tuddrussel’s arms. A devilish looking snake slithers bye Time Squad Patrol.  
“(Cough) I think…(Cough cough) I’m having another attack!” Tuddrussel says dropping Larry.
“No Tuddrussel, (Inhale, exhale) that’s just fresh air!” Otto says with a grin. Larry looks around cautiously and takes in a breath and immediately sneezes.
“WACHOO! Ohhh.” Groans Larry.
“(Inhale) Wow, this is kinda nice.” Tuddrussel says with a smile. We pan over the horizon and show paradise. From waterfalls to rolling green hills, the Garden of Eden is breath taking. As the music swells we cut back to Larry spraying an entire can of bug repellent at a butterfly as it falls to the earth.
“Well our mission seems obvious. We need to find Eve, get her to eat one of those forbidden apples and we can be on our way.” Larry says as he sprays the fallen butterfly a couple more times with the bug repellent. We then see some bushes rustle next to Time Squad Patrol. Tuddrussel immediately pulls out his phaser and aims in its direction.
“Who goes there!” Tuddrussel barks in a stern tone.
“Whoa, hold your fire man, we come in peace brother.” A shirtless man says as he rises up out of the bushes. He and the girl with him are hardly dressed wearing fig leaves and other natural covers. The two come out toward our heroes. They both look like flower children. The man has a beard and wild long hair while the woman has face paint and many flowers in her hair.
“Welcome to the Garden of Eden!” The man says. “My name’s Adam and this is Eve, my cosmic soul mate.” Adam says as he gestures to Eve.
“Peace.” Eve says holding two fingers up as she walks over to the gang and puts leis around each of their necks. Larry flinches as Eve gives him a peck on the cheek along with his lei.
“We were going to go on our daily swim in the enchanted lake. Come join us friends. It’ll be groovy.” Adam says walking towards the lake with Eve.
“C’mon Tuddrussel, a swim will do you good.” Otto says as he runs behind Adam and Eve. Tuddrussel follows as Larry is left standing.
“What about the mission?!” Larry yells as we hear an elephant roar in the distance and Larry follows the gang terrified. We then cross dissolve to the lake as Adam and Eve swim around and laugh carelessly. Larry and Tuddrussel stand at the lake’s edge.
“Wow, I haven’t been swimming in years.” Tuddrussel tells Larry.
“Look out dude!” Otto says running past Tuddrussel and Larry wearing only his underwear. (And no glasses) He cannonballs into the lake with a splash. “C’mon in guys, the water’s great. In fact, it’s perfect!” Otto says while treading water. We cut back as Larry is now standing alone. Tuddrussel runs bye him wearing only his mask, shorts and a belt as he jumps into the water almost splashing Larry.
“Last one in is a rotten egg! Woohoo!” Tuddrussel yells. Larry walks to the water’s edge and lightly dabs the tip of his metal foot into the water. We cut in close to see Larry’s metal instantly rust on contact. Larry jumps back in fright.
“Ugh! Rust!” Larry says in a high pitched voice as he scrambles backwards. We cut back to the lake as Tuddrussel and Otto ride dolphins through the water.
“C’mon Larry!” Otto yells in the distance. Larry grumbles. We cut back to Otto and Tuddrussel in the water.
“Man, this is great.” Tuddrussel proclaims.
“I agree, paradise is excellent!” Otto says as Adam splashes him in the face. We cut back to Larry’s point of view as Tuddrussel, Otto, Adam, and Eve  splash one another and laugh carelessly. Larry grumbles to himself. We cut to a series of activities between Adam and Eve and the gang. First we see all of them prancing through a flower patch. Everyone is happy except Larry who follows behind, sneezes and falls. Next we see all of them swinging on vines in the jungle. Each one goes from vine to vine in unison like Tarzan. Larry again is last slamming into a tree like George of the Jungle. Last we see the gang all petting a monkey. We pan over to Larry approaching at a sinister looking monkey to the side. He tries to pet it but as soon as his hand meets the monkey’s head it attacks him. Adam and Eve and the gang laugh at his misfortune. We cross dissolve to the woods as we see a light swarm of flies hover over a rustling bush. The sound of a zipper being pulled up is heard as Larry rises.
“There isn’t even a decent place to dump my oil. I’m already starting to chafe!” Larry says in an annoyed tone. We cut to Otto and Tuddrussel as they lay under a tree. Larry comes out of the woods spraying bug repellent everywhere.
“I just saw Adam and Eve singing ‘Kumbaya’ or something on the other side of the forest, let’s figure out a way to get Eve to eat that forbidden apple so that we can finish the mission, leave this filthy national park and get back home.” Larry says in a strict tone
“Leave? Are you out of your mind? This place is great!” Tuddrussel says.
“Yeah, and look how relaxed Tuddrussel is. Just watch…Hey Tuddrussel, what is Time Squad Patrol’s motto?” Otto asks.
“Uh, to protect…and uh, look out or something.” Tuddrussel says as he goes back to sleep.
“Y’see! Anyway, Adam and Eve are really nice. And tonight, we’re gonna trip out looking at the stars .” Otto says as he lies back down.
“Ugh, have you two gone mad?!” Larry protests. Suddenly Adam and Eve walk up to them holding hands.
“Hey, you guys wanna go prance through the flower garden again?” Eve asks.
“You bet!” Tuddrussel says as he leaps to his feet.
“Yahoo!” Otto agrees.
“Groovy.” Adam adds. They all skip away leaving Larry standing alone.
“Fine, I’ll do it without you.” Larry screams.
We then fade up on Larry picking an apple from the forbidden apple tree. Larry then runs off screen in a sinister fashion. We cut to Larry walking up to Eve as she, Otto, Tuddrussel and Adam play with a hackey sack on a hill.
“Hello Eve, you looked famished. Would you care for a bite of this apple?” Larry asks politely.
“No way, we’re not supposed to eat from the forbidden apple tree. And anyway, I’m a strict vegetarian, no fruit! Fruit kills the earth.” Eve says in a strict manner.
“No it doesn’t. Look.” Larry says as he opens his metal mouth and puts the apple in and we hear a sound like an apple being dropped into a bucket. “Mmmmm!” Larry says with a fake smile. He then removes the apple from his hollow chest by opening a lever door in his front and tries to hand it to Eve. “Now you try one!” Larry asks again.                                      
“No. Look man, your harshing my mellow.” Eve says authoritatively. Suddenly the hackey sack comes from off screen and nails Larry in the face. We cut to Tuddrussel standing off to the side.
“Yeah, don’t harsh her mellow. Larry!” Tuddrussel yells. Larry takes the apple and stomps off.
“You haven’t seen the last of me!” Larry says in a harsh tone.
“Man, what’s that dude’s problem?’ Adam asks Tuddrussel.
“Oh, he’s a robot.” Tuddrussel replies. We then cut to a montage of Larry offering Eve apples in different places around Eden. (It will be played as an homage to ‘Green Eggs and Ham’.) We first see the gang braiding each other’s hair as Larry presents the apple and a pair to Eve.
“Would you like an apple with a pair?” Larry asks.
“No!” Eve responds. We next see Eve and the gang dancing around a fire at night as Larry walks up with an apple as a bear stands beside him.
“Could you eat one with a bear? Larry asks.
“No!” Eve responds. We then see the gang playing frisbee.
“Would you like one in a park?” Larry asks.
“No!” Eve responds. We then see Eve and the gang meditating while sitting Indian-style on the ground at night as Larry walks up and whispers to her.
“Could you eat one in the dark?” Larry asks.
“No!” Eve whispers back. Next we see the gang sun bathing on a beach.
“Would you eat one near the sea?” Larry asks.
“No!” Eve responds. Finally we see the gang folk singing while sitting next to a tree as Larry’s head comes in upside down out of a tree’s leaves as he offers the apple.
“Could you eat one in a tree?” Larry asks.
“No!” Eve responds as Larry falls. “I do not like them with a pair, I would not eat one with a bear. I do not like them in the dark; I would not eat one in a park. I do not like them when I tan, I don’t like to eat apples man!” Eve protests loudly to Larry.
“Yeah, lay off!” Otto adds.
“Fine. I give up! If I never see any of you again it’ll be too soon!” Larry says storming off.
“Ah, who needs ya!” Tuddrussel yells. We hold a beat.
“Now who wants to go prance through the flower patch?” Adam asks.
“Well, we did that yesterday but…okay.” Tuddrussel says
“Groovy!” Adam says as the group skips away. We then show the gang prancing, swinging on the vine and swimming two more times as Tuddrussel and Otto seem to grow tired as Adam and Eve continue happily. We end on Tuddrussel and Otto standing exhausted in the flower patch. Also Tuddrussel has grown a beard and Otto’s hair is long. Adam and Eve skip up to them.
“What’s wrong? You guys aren’t prancing.” Adam asks.
“Uh, that’s all we’ve done for months.” Tuddrussel protests.
“Then we’ll just go swing on some vines!” Eve says.
“I’m gonna choke you with that vine!…oh sorry, I didn’t mean that.” Otto corrects himself.
“We’ll catch up with you two later.” Tuddrussel says through his teeth.
“Okay, groovy.” Adam says and the two skip off holding hands.
“If he says groovy one more time…Aaugh! I’m losing my mind. Everywhere I look is a tree or a flower. If I have to see one more rainbow I’m going to scratch my eyes out! Uh oh.” Tuddrussel says in a fit of paranoia as he grabs his left arm and falls over. Otto looks down at him.
“I miss TV.” Otto proclaims. We fade out. We then fade up on Larry sweeping the entrance to a cave marked with a scratch for every day he has spent in Eden. He is a bit rusted and ragged but still his pompous self.
“Larrrrrrry!” Otto is heard off in the distance.
“Where are you!” Tuddrussel yells in a panicked tone. Larry shakes his head in disgust. Suddenly Tuddrussel and Otto spot him and run up.
“Oh man, are we happy to see you buddy.” Tuddrussel says while grabbing Larry’s shoulders.
“We’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Otto adds.
“We need to finish this mission and get out of this nightmare world of relaxation and love and swinging on vines!” Tuddrussel pleads. Larry pauses for a beat then speaks.
“Well, well, well, I guess Larry wasn’t so dumb after all.” Larry starts.
“We never said you were dumb!” Otto protests.
“Yeah, I just said you were a terrible cook.” Tuddrussel says.
“Aha! The truth comes out. And now what do you think.” Larry asks.
“I’ll eat all the snails you want when we get home!” Tuddrussel pleads.
“Apology accepted.” Larry says as Tuddrussel kisses his hand.
“Look Larry, I’ve got a plan, but we’re gonna need your help.” Otto says. We fade out. We fade up on Adam and Eve as they stand around the forest. Eve’s stomach growls.
“Whoa, I’m like hungry man.” Eve says.
“You said it dude.” Adam agrees.
“Did somebody say, hungry?” Larry says from off screen as he comes in holding a large silver platter under a dome as Tuddrussel and Otto walk behind him. He sets it down in front of Adam and Eve.
“Wow, is all this for me?” Eve asks innocently.
“Think of it as my little way of saying, thank you.” Larry says raising the lid to reveal a beautifully exquisite looking pie dish.
“Crepe de Chafonne flambé! You see, where I come from we have this thing called cooking! It makes food taste good!” Larry says in a sharp manner as he looks at Tuddrussel. Tuddrussel rolls his eyes. Larry then lights the pie with a flame coming out of his finger as Adam and Eve ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh.’ Larry then blows it out. “Bon apetit!” Larry says with a smile.
“Wait, what’s this made of?” Eve says skeptically.
“Oh, just some things I found…around.” Larry says innocently. Adam and Eve look at each other, shrug and lick their lips devouring the entire plate as they begin to push each other away like rabid dogs.
“Get away, he said it was for me!” Eve proclaims to Adam.
“Stop being so greedy!” Adam yells as they finish the plate off.
“That was delicious!” Eve proclaims licking her fingers.
“That is the best thing I’ve ever eaten. What was it?” Adam asks.
“Oh, just a French recipe for…apple pie!” Larry says letting out a sinister laugh as lighting strikes behind him and dark clouds form.
“Apples? Adam you idiot, I told you it was a trick you dirty hippie!” Eve yells.
“Hippie? You’re the one that’s naked!” Adam says pointing at Eve.
“Shut up!” Eve screams. The two go into a light slapping match as rain falls and lightning strikes everywhere and the ground begins to crack bellowing with red light.
“Aw, look at them. All full of anger and rage. It’s beautiful.” Tuddrussel says with a sentimental smile.
“Let’s go home guys.” Otto says.
“I hate you Larry.” Tuddrussel says as he puts his arm around Larry.
“And I hate you Tuddrussel.” Larry says as he gets choked up and smiles. Larry types the coordinates into his arm and BAM! They’re gone.
THE END
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cordytriestowrite · 6 years
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Your Biggest Fan
Loki x Reader
Summary: If the only way you could get a job in journalism was by stalking The Avengers you would do it, you just wish it wasn't so hard to get your shot.
It took a few more outings where you would attempt to capture images of the god of thunder before you realized the coincidences surrounding those photos were actually purposeful sabotage. For the past month they followed the same formula: you would be sent out with the camera to a Thor sighting and while waiting for your shot you would inevitably spot the mysterious man in his black tailored suit then Thor would appear shortly after and therein lie the sabotage.
First it was your camera's battery, and while it was strange you had convinced yourself it was ultimately innocuous. You arrived back at the office and admitted your mistake, thinking you had earned the disapproval of your team rightfully. They bounced back though with five articles and two polls based on your poorly framed, slightly out of focus photographs. You were relieved despite the nagging thought in your head of how odd the whole thing was.
Then, the next time your camera went missing, it had somehow completely disappeared from the strap around your neck. When you went to lift the familiar weight of the device and grasped nothing but air the surge of panic you felt bypassed any desire to document Thor enjoying seven entire pizzas in the small corner pizza joint you had been tipped off on. The meal took the god all of three minutes to scarf down. Finding your camera took about half an hour. You didnt notice him in the moment, the same man from last time standing just inside the restaurant, half hidden in the shadow of the awning hung to shield the sun from their customer's eyes. It was on top of that very awning you spotted your camera and you recruited one of the restaurant workers to help you bring it down. You should have realized as you approached the office empty handed that something was up, but it took a few more times you shamefully admit.
Your boss was getting tired of your excuses and your team did not believe your claims that the stranger was somehow connected to your misfortune. How could your expect them to believe you though? You had no evidence of him at all. There had been no photographs, no name to research, and your description of him only received blank stares or raised eyebrows. Ultimately it was decided that you should take a break from fieldwork and stay in the office where the work you were being paid to do actually produced results.
You were just finishing your rough draft of Chick Flicks Black Widow Would Probably Watch and Why when the fight began. One moment you were mentally pulling your hair out at the stupidity of the article and the next you were cowering under your desk as a deep tremor shook the building from the foundation to the highest floor. When the quake ceased and you left your makeshift shelter you discovered the source of the upheaval. Right outside your building was some sort of vessel and shooting from its underbelly was what looked like a cartoonish red laser. The beam of energy, as silly as it looked, was causing real damage to the street below. Almost as if the entire staff reached the same realization at the same time, the thirty or so employees of The Thirst New York Division rushed in a panic to the elevator looking to escape to safety.
You however, could only see dollar signs as Iron Man flew into view from the top of your floors large windows, his sleek red and gold suit reflecting in the sun and almost blinding you with each movement of his arms and legs. This was your chance to get out of your crappy job and into something better, all you needed was pictures.
When the first attack on New York happened most everyone's sole motivation was survival. Droves of people fled the streets being terrorized by the threat for locations untouched, some even fleeing the city entirely. One college student, equipped with only his outdated DSLR endured the line of fire to capture the fight. His name became legendary in journalism, his prints ended up in museums and text books, and he was set for life with royalties and job offers. This could be your moment. This could be the fight that gets your name in the mouth of every major news outlet and your photos in magazines and your articles online. This time tomorrow you could be free of this bullshit job with its nonsense reporting and actually do something worth a damn. Where others saw danger you only saw opportunity.
The camera used for all reporting by your team, the same camera that had been disabled in multiple ways by your mischievous nuisance, was sitting atop Katy's desk where she had left it yesterday. Without any moral objection you snatched it up and tore down the stairs, surpassing a handful of coworkers still waiting for the elevator.
The eight flights from your office to the ground floor were traversed in such a rush you lost your footing about halfway down, causing your momentum to send you crashing into the wall of the stairwell. You barely felt the impact through the adrenaline coursing through your veins. You checked the camera for damage and set off once you determined there was none, not faulting your speed for any prospect of sure footing. You halted only when you had thrown open the door to the lobby and came upon the destruction.
An entire stretch of outer wall was gone, the walls adjacent were mostly rubble and only the far wall remained undamaged and continued to support the building as it had when you arrived to work that morning. The usual elderly, friendly building manager was missing from her desk that stood in the center of the lobby, though in her defence the desk was no longer in its place and, in fact, pieces of wood scattered about the tile floor were all that remained. Like a heavy boulder in the middle of a stream you stayed planted through the river of scared workers flooding out from the elevator and stairs. They continued to flow out and away from the battle, pushing and shoving and taking along with them anything that cut through their path.
You couldnt move with them, not now that you were down here, seeing and hearing and practically tasting destruction. Truly for the first time you were feeling terror. The next time you saw a spider you would not be able to say you were afraid of them, for the fear you felt right now surpassed any minor fright the eight legged creatures gave you. Haunted houses could never be described as horrifying, for you had now seen real blood splattered on the walls and pavement, not knowing how it got there or who it belonged to, or even if the bleeder was still alive.
The red and gold glimmer of the Iron Man suit brought you back to you senses, forcing your previously unseeing eyes to refocus on what drove you down here in the first place. You rushed forward toward the open air, stumbling up and over rubble and debris to make it beyond the building, one hand cradling the camera to your chest protectively. When your feet hit a patch of intact pavement you brought the viewfinder to your eye and began snapping.
The pictures would not be perfect but they would be plentiful. Iron Man and War Machine were high in the sky and moving faster than your camera could handle, but you captured their attempts to break through the flying vessel's tough exterior with whatever was equipped in the suits. Panning down to the ground, standing maybe half a mile from you just outside the energy beam pointed steadfast into the ground with the help of Hulk was Captain America and Black Widow. You zoomed in and out feverishly getting shots of all three of the heroes as well as individual close ups. You felt a surge of pride as your shutter closed midway through Captain America throwing his shield; in the viewfinder you had timed it right when he had the shield furthest back, allowing you to see the gleaming white center star and the length of his muscular arm.
In your fervor you did not detect the roll of thunder and flash of lightening until one struck so close you almost dropped the camera. You stumbled blindly backwards on instinct and scrambled up the rubble pile until you were under the cover of your building.
"He's here." You said to yourself with a smile, searching what you could see of the sky from under the crumbling roof.
It's not that Thor was your favorite avenger, far from it considering the strife you had endured trying to get his picture, but you had always been a fan, he was a god after all. You could see the lightening travel closer and closer, striking down from a centralized ball. You raised your camera excitedly. It was hard to capture lightening on film, but this time you would get the shots that evaded you before.
You pressed down frantically on your capture button, so much so that your pointer finger was sore, but you had finally gotten a solid photo of the god of thunder...and...was that?
It was him, the dark haired man who had handed you your camera battery, who you had seen smirking at you through your view finder just before the lens attachments fell off while attempting to document Thor jogging in the park. Despite the change from a well fitted, all-black suit to leathers of green and black paired with a flowing cape and golden horned helmet, you knew it was him. His long black curls and playful expression made it all very clear.
You felt fear, true and pure, for the second time that day when your mind made the connection between the man in the suit and the man, no, god joining the fight alongside The Avengers. You had been spotting Loki, the god of mischief, brother of Thor, and overall threat to humanity, for the last month and had been suspecting him to be the source your camera issues. Though it didn't make sense how he had done it before it certainly did now. You knew Loki was a sorcerer; a trickster. You also knew he had attempted to take over the world only a few years ago and had caused the death of thousands of people with no remorse. You swallowed past the constriction of your throat. He had been playing with you, teasing you for his own pleasure and amusement. What would happen when he got bored of pulling your pigtails and calling you names? Would he leave you alone? Would he kill you? You could feel your fear edge into a full on panic attack. You dropped the camera onto the debris next to you with shaking hands.
The creaking and cracking was quiet at first but the volume increased rapidly, too rapid for you to react. The fact that you were about to be crushed had barely entered your thoughts before the building collapsed, no longer able to rely on the one supporting wall. The toppling building provided just enough damage to the enemy to send it to the ground, sputtering out its last bits of life. The Avengers stood around it, taking in its damage and the wreckage of the surrounding areas, all except one unofficial member who currently cradled you in his arms only a few feet away from the falling glass and concrete.
You thought you were going to die but somehow you hadn't. You opened your eyes, they had been clenched so tightly shut that you saw spots for a moment and had to blink them away, but when you vision cleared you finally understood why you weren't dead. Loki's face was etched with concern, a genuine expression that jolted you out of your dazed state and back into an adrenaline induced panic. You clutched desperately to his leather clad arms and shoulders despite the relative security.
"Oh...oh m-my god." You began, stuttering on your words as you choked back sobs. You should hear Loki shushing you softly and felt his icy thumb graze across your cheek to collect your tears. You pulled away reflexively and he let you break out of his arms. You wrapped your own arms around yourself immediately missing the feeling of comfort.
"You're safe now. Though only a fool of a midgardian would be so close to the action and almost get herself killed." His voice was deep, just like it had been upon your first meeting. The timbre felt like a warm blanket for your ears, but the condescending tone and words did not wrap you in warmth, but ignite a heat in your belly even the ice of fear couldnt quell fast enough.
"I am not a fool." you huffed, finding strength in your voice again.
"Then, pray tell, what were you thinking?" His pitch raised slightly in his bewilderment.
Your eyes finally looked beyond him to where you once sat, suddenly realizing your camera was not at your side. It had been crushed along with any hope you had of moving on from The Thirst. You let out a self deprecating snort and shook your head. There was no way The Thirst would even continue to employ you when they found out about the camera, if they were even keeping the New York division at all after losing everything. You brought your attention back to Loki, eyes now hollow.
"My camera has been crushed and my office leveled. How will you continue to play with me now? Or will you just kill me?"
All concern and confusion fell from the god's face and was replaced by a hard, cold glare. Barely suppressed anger held his lips tight in a sneer. Without looking he reached down by his side, fingers trailing along one golden horn of his helmet before gripping it surely and thrusting it into the air. It turned over twice before it landed deftly back into his awaiting hand. All the while his eyes did not leave yours and you found yourself unable to do anything but take him in. He placed the helmet on his head and took a step back, and another, and with each step the hard line of his lips loosened into a roguish leer.
"I'm not done playing yet darling."
Tag list is open! @bluebriid @leftmewaitinginthecold13 @cyberbunny21 @kali-rambles @jungwencantdie @fuckthatfeeling
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lillaxtrigger · 5 years
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Faded land: Chapter 7
Escaping from the madness of the baseball battle arena, Clara treks her way back towards the resistance camp. The store in her sites, she finds columns of smoke erupting out from the store roof into the night sky. “Oh no.”
Within, the scientist couldn’t believe her eyes. The once hidden and safe haven was now in utter shambles of its former glory. Parts of the roof had fallen down upon the marble floor. Fires had engulfed the carpeting in an orange blaze. Stores shelves big and small had been destroyed, knocked over, and torn to shreds. “Oh no. No!” The worst of it were the countless bloody corpses that littered the market, some of which the scientist had recognized as the people that helped her assemble the stew the other day, others being the soldiers that brought her to this once peaceful camp for the escaping populous. Through the sounds of crackling flames, Clara’s voice echoes through the market: “Boss?...Boss!?...Barley!?” She dashes through the aisles, hoping to find anyone left among the burning wreckage.
Looking into the bosses office, she finds the workplace in just as worse shape as the rest of the store. Bullet hole decorated the small office walls and roof. The desk knocked over and split into pieces. Shelves and picture frames knocked down and broken. Out from the corner of her eye, the scientist spots her backpack that Barley had confiscated. Looking inside, she found nothing out of place, left completely intact. Everything she had was in it. Did they even peek in it? Her backpack back in her possession, she exits the office to look for any potential survivors elsewhere.
Coming to the back of the store, she came across the door of a storage room. Turning the handle proved it to be locked, so she opts to tackle the door down inside. After several tackles, the door breaks down, Clara falling with the broken door. The scientist look up and to be met with her boss and the remaining soldiers protecting what few people they have left, all aiming their firearms at Clara. “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Wait a minute! It’s just me! Put your guns down!” the scientist says as gets back. As the soldiers lower their weapons, Barely approaches her, saying: “Science wiz? You’re alive!” The boss lets out a sigh of relief, noting: “At least one good thing has happened today.” “What...What happened here!? How did the roof collapse!? Why is everything on fire!?” Barley turns back to her soldiers and the other survivors, some couldn’t help but cry. She looks back to the scientist with a grim tone, answering with a somber: “The lion guard. They stormed in and started tearing the place apart. Those bastards started taking the people we were sheltering and shot at anyone who dared to fight back. All of us barely managed to scrape away from their overwhelming numbers, forced to lock ourselves in the storage room with what little we could protect. They left nothing but destruction in their wake…” Clara looks down, wondering how the guard found the hideout in the first place. “But...It ain’t all bad. At least you and the squad made it back.” As soon as she mentions that, a quite hiss escapes the scientists mouth as she bites down on her finger. “Where are they? I want Carly to brief me on the whole mission.” Shaking in her boots, Clara didn’t want to tell the boss her teams grizzly fates, but knew she had virtually no choice. With a heavy swallow, the scientist readies to tell her the bad news. “B-...Barley…Thing is...You may wanna sit down for this...”
As whoever is left of the rebellion puts out the flames all over the store, Clara and Barley sit on the side of a knocked over shelf. The leader of the rebels looks upon the floor, having been told the fate of the rest of the squad. “Charles...Pace...Carly...can’t believe they’re all gone.” Seeing her boss in such a depression, she tries to scoot towards her, hoping to find someway to cheer her up. Clara stops when she hears her boss continue with: “I’m honestly surprised Charles lasted long as he did. Figured he’d get his head popped off on the first day. But, nope. He fought through to the end. Pace was kind of a loose cannon. Always getting into fight with others. Took us awhile to trust him with a gun. But if anyone I thought would make it with to the end with me, it’d be Carly. Her and I started the resistance together so we could make a change, hoping to one day stop Malcolms madness. But looking now. We were damn fools.” Clara rises from the knocked over shelf and stands in front of her boss, suggesting: “Hey, Hey! W-wait second. There still might be hope. We know where Malcolm’s at now. So lets just run in and kill him.”. “With what? We barely have anyone left. Our base is in ruin, most of my soldiers are dead. Betting anything, Malcolms base will be packed with guards. As of now, we don’t stand a chance in hell… What kind of rebel leader am I?” Watching her boss sink into such deep despair before her, Clara doesn’t know what else to say. She was right, with what they have left, they might not even scratch through the bases defense let alone make it to Malcolm. But while a dilemma like this impedes forceful methods, perhaps a more careful approach would work.
Right then and there, a voice pipes up with: “It ain’t over yet.” The two look over to find Hank, standing behind Clara as he stares down upon his boss. “You still got Daryl and I.” “...Thanks Hank, but I don’t think the four of us can take on Malcolms entire security squad.” “What if we help?” someone else asks. Looking to the side, they see some of the people that the rebels were protecting. “You guys. I can’t let any of you fight. You don’t even have any training.” Barley remarks. “What choice do you have?” “As long as we can hold a gun. It’s all the training we need.” “I’m thinking of making those guys pay for taking my husband.” “I wanna get them back for killing my sister!” “But, I’m right here.” “We may not have any army. But if we play our cards right, we might be able to end Malcolm reign by morning.” Daryl states. With a smile, their boss sighs with: “You bunch a bastards.”
The rebel leader rises from her seat, triumphantly declaring: “Alright, people! This our last stand. It’s time we take an all or nothing gambit against Malcolm. We need a plan that can get us straight to the bastard and put a bullet in his brain by lunch. Anybody got any idea?” The boss looks around at what’s left of her forces, wondering who might give her the plan to bring victory. “Um...I think I might have one.” Clara speaks up. “Whatcha got for us, science wiz?” Hank asks. “Well, over at the baseball stadium, they had some security measures set up. If this is the bosses headquarters, I assume they have more then just camera’s in place. But all that security has to be kept somewhere.” “I get it. We sneak in and get to the security room, giving us the perfect opportunity to get the drop on Malcolm.”. “Are you sure we can pull it off. We ain’t exactly a stealth unit.” the boss question. “To be honest. I have no idea if we’re gonna make it.” The bosses hearty laughter echoes through the aisles of the broken camp as she roughly pats the scientist on the back. “That settles it. Gather all the weapons you can everyone. We’re heading out.”
The morning sun begins to rise over the horizon; the twilight glow shining through the many decaying structures. One of which had a couple of guards out near its back door.
From behind one of the buildings, Barely looked around the corner towards a neighboring building to find a pair of lion guards near the back door. She turns back to her squad in waiting, questioning: “Listen up. This final mission will take everything we got. All our energy and focus has to be used to push through the compound. So before we go in, does anyone have to pee? Cause I don’t want us all to rush in and hear one of you has to take a piss.” The leader waits for any of her soldiers to pipe up, seeing them look at one another. “No?...Nobody? Alright, your lose. Hank, get snipen.” At her command, Hank looked from behind the corner, aiming his sniper rifles site at the head of one of the guards.
One of the guards lets out a yawn through his helmet, mentioning: “I am so tired. Over night watch really puts a strain on your eyes. Can’t wait to get to to bed and drift off to-” With a single bullet, the sniper manages to pierce through his helmets. “What the fu-” One more bullet is shot through the other guards skull before it was safe to move in. “Alright, let’s move people!” Barley commands. The squad runs for the back door and drags the bodies away from plain site, the shadows cast by the rising sun concealing their presence. As Daryl peeks behind the back door, Barely asks him: “So, coast clear?” The soldiers gives his boss the thumbs up, queuing them to quickly move in.
Inside, the halls of the facility shined off the reflective marble floor, the two way intersection in front of the sporting a sign showing an arrow pointing left with what looked to be a set of stairs. Two shadows slithered their way along the marble, warning the small army of the oncoming patrol. They swiftly dart towards the nearest room to hide from the passing grunts. As they hid from the patrol, Hank whispers to the scientist: “So, where do you think the security room might be?” “Well usually large facilities like this have their monitoring stations somewhere on the first floor. I’m sure if we search around, we might stumble into it.” “We might?” one of them questions. “Hey, I don’t know this places layout. Do I look like a floor planner to you?” “...Kind off?” After the guards depart from the area, the squad head through the hall in the opposite direction.
A little ways down, they take a glimpse of their first obstacle. A grid of lasers with red beams erupting from the walls and ceiling. The pattern of the lasers makes proceeding without tripping one mostly impossible. “Well, this is unexpected.” Clara pointed out. “What are they?” one of the soldiers asks while reaching for one of the lasers. “Don’t touch those! They’re laser alarms. Trip one and the whole place will know we’re here.” “Then how do we get past?” Barley asks. Clara looks to her squad and says: “Well. some of you are too bulky to slip through the grid. Need to find another way.” Looking around the corner, she spots a mirror in a wash room across the hall. “Wait here.” she tells them as before making her way towards the bathroom.
She sneaks inside and finds one of the stalls closed, presumably with someone inside. Carefully, Clara pries the mirror off the wall, trying not to draw attention from the henchman taking a piss. After successfully taking the mirror off, she hears the toilet flush, her queue to escape.
The scientist uses the reflective surface of the mirror to make an opening big enough to squeeze through. As the soldier squeeze their way past the grid, Barley complements the scientist with: “Nice work.”
Past the grid, they continue down the hall until they come across an open door. One of the soldiers peek inside, seeing a big machine sporting countless screens showing different rooms throughout the building, all being monitored by a few measly grunt. A small vent stood beside the panel, big enough for a person of small stature to crawl within. Turning back towards the squad, the soldier whispers: “I think I found the security room. But there’s a few guards inside.” “Shit. Can’t make it a shoot out. Gunshot’ll echo through the whole floor and we’ll be up to our necks in guard. Now what?” Hank wonders. “No worries. I gots this.” Daryl tells them. The soldier pulls out a grenade from his pocket, whispering: “Ta da!”. “Daryl. I like your enthusiasm, but I don’t think that’s what we need right now.” Barley remarks. “Nah nah. See, it’s a sleep grenade. It’ll just make’em take a quick nap. Watch.”
The soldier pulls the pin and gently rolls the grenade in the room. “Hold your breath.” Daryl warns. The grenade goes off, a cloud of gas spreads throughout the room. One guard smells the gas and asks the other: “You smell something?” “Yeah. What did you eat last night?” the other jokes. “It’s ain’t me you...damn...fool.” “Well then...where...can...” The gas becomes far too much to handle and sends them into a slumbering mess. Once the gas clears, the squad moves in and locks the door behind them.
“Great work. Now we just have to find where that bastard Malcolm is hiding. Everyone take a screens.” Barley orders. Clara peeks over to the sleeping guards, busy snoring their worries away. “Uh, what do we do about them?” she asks. “I’m on it.” one of the soldiers say with rope in their hands.
After tying and gagging both goons, all of them scan through every screen on the console in hopes of tracking down their man. One screen showed a guard patrolling through a hall. Another shows one guard taking a piss in one of the bathrooms. One of them showed a couple of them playing a game of hacky sack in front of some doors. One featured a view of the break room with a few guards talking and drinking coffee. Another showed another bathroom, this time with a guard staring at where the mirror was. One showed a regal looking bedroom. One more a sort of throne room. The rest showed empty hallways on various floors. “Anybody find him yet?” one of the soldiers ask. “No.” “Nope.” “Nothing.” “Nada.” “I think I see a couple guards making out.” ‘Nuhu.” Frustrated, the boss raffles her hair in a growl. “Where is he then? He’s gotta be somewhere in this damn building.”. “What if he’s not home?” Clara suggest. Almost everyone turns towards the scientist, the leader responding with a startling: “Huh?” “What if he’s not home yet? Last I saw him, he was at the baseball stadium. What if he’s still not back?”. “What could he even be doing?” Hank wonders. “I don’t know. The man is running an evil dictatorship, I’m sure he has a lot of stuff to do.”. “Oh shit.” Daryl cursed. “Wait, so none of you thought this might happen? No contingency plan at all? Most of the squad stays dumbfounded and silent, none of them barely able to muster an admittance of fucking up. “Why do people never plan anything through!?” “Would you believe its because of the low education value around here...and by low, I mean none.” Hank tries to retort. Barley claps her hands, going: “Okay team, new plan. We are getting the hell outta.”.
“I found him.” one of the soldiers staring at the monitor announces. Everyone rushes back to the console, scanning through the countless screens. “Where?” “I don’t see him.” “He’s right there.” the one soldier mentions, pointing to a screen with Malcolm heading down a lone hallway. They back away from the console, Barley punching her palm as she retells: “Alright squad. We’re back in action. That bastard’s probably heading for his throne room on the top floor. Let’s move out.” Barley orders. “Wai-wait! What about this place? Someone’s gonna stumble in and know we’re here.” Clara questions. “You stay here and hold the fort. Turn off any kind of security that might get in our way.”. “Coast is clear boss.” one of her soldiers states while looking out the door. All of them head out, with Barley giving one more word before she leaves. “Good luck, science wiz. We’re countin on ya.”. As soon as they leave, Clara lets out a big sigh of frustration while pinching her nose.
Passing through the laser grid once more, the squad prepare to return the bathroom mirror where it came from to avoid suspicion. But it was already too late as two guards were already within, pondering where said mirror might have vanished. “What makes you think I know where the mirror went?” one of them goes. “Well it couldn’t have just pried itself off the wall. Someone had to have took it.” “I’ll bet its Barry again.” “I swear to god. If it is, I’m gonna bust open his kneecaps. This is the seventh time he’s taken the mirror from the bathrooms.” Both guards distracted, Barely and her squad take the moment to sneak by the doorway. One of them looks down to the mirror in their hands.
One of the guards looks behind the other and notices something. “Hey!” Approaching the doorway, the guard finds the mirror they had been looking for, propped on the side. “Here it is. Must have not seen it when we walked in.” “Why was it on the floor?” “Don’t know. Guess Barry must’ve heard me. I’ll let him slide.”
Peeking behind the corner, Hank sees a doorway with two guards on both sides, hearing one of them speak: “I just don’t get it. Why have us where this bulky armor if it can’t do shit against gunfire? Like, isn’t the whole point of wearing armor is for defense. These things are as hard as plastic!” “I know. The other day, I tripped over a rock and cracked my front plating. Had to go through the whole painful process of getting it fixed.” “I swear. I ‘m gonna march up there and tell Malcolm that he needs to give us better armor.” Something like what the Canadians use. Noe those look bad ass.” “You really wanna go and mouth off to Malcolm?” “...No.”.
Beyond the glass of the door, the soldier could make out a set of stairs. “Found a way up, but the stairs are guarded.” he whispers. “Alright Daryl. Chuck another grenade.” “What other grenade?” “What other grena- You mean you only had one!? Why!?” “I only found the one.” “Oh my god...” Barley peeks around the corner, wondering how she might be able to get past the duo of guards. She then looks back towards an open room and asks: “Anybody got a spare bullet shell?”.
“The better question is where he even get these things? Not really any place to make’em. Haven’t seen any kind of factory in the city or anything.” “You hear that?” “Hear what?” “Shh...”. Halting their discussion for just a moment, they hear the sound of a metal ting in the distance. “Sounds like a penny dropping.”. “Come on!”. Both of them start running towards the source of the noise. Turning the corner and passing by the seemingly empty room to find something rolling on the ground. “What is it?”. One of them picks up a single bullet shell, saying: “It’s just a bullet shell.” “That is weird.” As the guards were distracted, the rebel leader and her squad come out of the room and quietly rush for the stairwell. “Can’t believe you remember what a penny is.”
Back in the control room, Clara scanned through the console layout, the hundreds of buttons and switches under the monitors before her. “I wonder which one of these shuts off the laser grid?” With a blind guess, she taps one of the buttons, making a loud alarm suddenly blare out. She frantically mashes the same button again to make it stop. After taking relieved breathe, she hears the phone beside the console ring. Nervously, she answers the phone, responding in a fake male voice: “Hello?” “What happened!? What’s going on!?” “Eh. Do-don’t worry. My finger just slipped. Nothing to worry about. Sorry about that.” “Dammit! Don’t scare us like that! Thought there was an emergency or something.” The guy on the other end hangs up, leaving the scientist to worry about what pushing any of the other buttons might entail. “Guess the name of the game is trail and error. Hooray, my favorite...”
The small army ascends the stairwell, tiptoeing up each step so not to alert anyone coming down. “Hank, how many floors do you think we have to climb?” The boss asks. “Judging from the outside, I’d guess around 20.” “That’s just perfect.” Above them, the small army begins to hear voices descend down the staircase. “I’m telling you! After I killed the guy, his severed head started talking to me. It kept going on about the secrets of time travel. It was freaking me out!” They desperately look around, hoping for any means of escape nearby. “You been taking the acid again, haven’t you?” Spotting a lone door behind them, they rushed inside for cover. “Why do people keep saying that? I’ve been clean for about a…a week now.” “Just a week?”.
On the other side of the doorway, Barley sees a sign over by the door. “6th floor.” The boss gives out a quite growl, complaining: “That’s it. I’m not tiptoeing my way through 14 more floors of this shit.” “Boss. Quite. Someone might here us.” “What was that?” a guard asks. “Came from over here.”
Both guards rush in with their firearms pointing down the hall. The only thing they find out of the ordinary was one of the rooms on the side being open. “Was this door closed?” “Think somebody’s in there?” “Don’t know. Bet you a can of pears there is?” “Oh, you’re on.” One of them enters the darkened room, looking around to see if his friend might have been right. The other watches on as his partner investigates, finding him to be swept away in the darkness. “Skeeter?” Trying the light switch on the side, the henchman finds it to not to work, leaving the room in a thick layer of darkness. The goon soon walks inside the supply room, wondering where is friend might have disappeared to. “Skeeter. This isn’t funny. Quit hiding.” Turning the corner, he could make out what appeared to be his friend, lying motionless on the floor. “Skeeter?”. Turning his partner over showed him to have a knife in his stomach. A clear sign of danger lurking in the dark. He backs away towards the door, hoping to quickly escape and call reinforcements. From behind, he feels a sharp pain that digs into his back. Before he could let out screech of agony, something grabs his mouth and keeps any sound from escaping. Slightly tilting his gaze, the doomed henchman could make out Daryl, a sinister grin painted on the soldiers face. The guards urge to escape slowly drains along with his life, leaving the goon with only one thing left to do. Collapse. The rest of the squad comes out of hiding moments later. “That was a little too close for my liking.” one of the soldiers say. “There’s gotta be a faster way up this damn building. Maybe there’s an elevator around here.” Barley wonders. “What’s an elevator?” Daryl wonders.
A set of switches laid beside the neighboring buttons. She steers her finger towards one of them, trying her luck once again. “Maybe one of these?”. Flipping the switch, the lights to the room turn off. Flipping it again turns them back on. As she rapidly flips them back and forth, the scientist begins to grow quite impatient.
Around the corner, Daryl finds a metal doorway at the end of the hall. “Hey boss. Think I found something. It looks like a pair of metal doors.” Looking where her soldier was viewing, the boss told him: “Daryl. That’s an elevator.” “Oh, so that’s an elevator.” Ignoring her soldiers ignorance, she walks over to the elevator and notices the panel by the side. Taking a closer look, she finds the panel to have no buttons to speak off, simply sporting what looked to be the lens of a camera. She puts her face in front of of the camera and sees it scanning her eyes, the sudden scanning process making her jump back. The panel then speaks out. “Retina data not found.”. The echoing of the speaker was loud enough to catch the attention of some wayward grunts nearby. “What was that?” one of them questions. The soldiers rush away from the elevator and delve into a nearby office.
A couple of guards rush in moments later, one of them asking: “What’d you hear?” “I thought I heard the eye scan go off.” One of the guards takes off her helmet puts his face in front of the scanner. Once the camera finishes its analyzing, the speaker goes: “Retina data acquired.” The elevator then opens, the inside being completely empty. “Maybe its just a glitch?” the other guard said as his partner put her helmet back on. “How? It was just installed last month.” Both of them walk into the elevator, the other guard going: “Let’s just head up. Don’t wanna be late for the tournament.” One of them pushes something on the side of the inside before the doors close. Hank comes out from the office and says: “Oh, I get it. They use their eyes to open the elevator.” “Question is, how are we gonna open it? Doubt anyone would let us in.” Barley wonders. “What if we force a guard to open it?” they hear. All of them turn towards the other soldiers, Barley asking: “What?” “What if we find a lion guard and use his eyes to open up this elevator.” one of them suggests. “And how you think we go about doing that?” Hank asks.
Seeing them sneak through the halls from a cameras feed, Clara looks again to the buttons. Hoping one of them turns the defense systems off, she inches her finger towards one of them. Pushing it makes a wooden bat pop out from the side of the console. A little pinata lowers itself from the roof alongside a rain of confetti soon after. As a mini rendition of the Mexican hat dance plays on a music box, all Clara could really muster to do is stare in dumbfounded irritation.
Sneaking pasts a passing patrol, the squad sneaks towards a lone storage room, where a single guard was checking off an assortment of various canned goods with his clip board within. His whistling echoed passed the doorway, the squadron standing by for orders. When the boss gives the signal for one of the soldier to move in, a single soldier enters, delving behind a wall of cans. As she peeks behind the wall, she notices the cans in front of her, making an idea pop in the newfound soldiers head.
While assorting through the cans, the henchman hears the sound of metal rolling in the distance. Looking over, he finds one of the cans somehow rolled out of the room. Walking out, he picks up the can of corn, wondering how it found its way out of the room. As he was trying to think of why, he turns around, surprised to find the entire battalion, aiming their firearms at the lone guard. “One sound and we shoot.” Hank warns.
As the guards tied up behind Clara begin to awaken, they see her messing about with the control panel of the security system. “I am about done with this stupid thing.” they hear her complain. While they begin to slither towards the door, Clara tries one last time to turn off the laser grid. Flipping one of the switches, she sees the laser alarms in the one of the camera’s turn off. “Yes!” In her short moment of triumph, she notices something on one of the cameras showing the regal bedroom. Malcolm was walking inside, slowly seating himself on the end of his bed. “What is he...” What Clara witnesses next shocks the scientist to her very core. “Oh my god!” Such a bewildering discovering makes her fail to notice the two guards worming their way out the door. “I...I…I-I gotta warn Barley!” In her midst of escape, she stumbles on to the baseball bat on the floor. Clara looks at the blunt weapon, then back to the security panel that gave her so much trouble.
Sneaking their hostage to the elevator, Barely and her squad force him to uses his eyes to open the shaft. After scanning, the doors open. The guard is swept into the shaft as the rebels rush inside. “Hang on a second. I-I opened the elevator for you. Aren’t you supposed to let me go?” the guard stresses. “Care to give us a reason why?” Barley smirks as she puts her gun to the henchman's temple.
A slew of goons rush into the security control room, ready to fire on whoever infiltrated the building. Much to their shock, they find the security console destroyed. Screens cracked, metal bent in, buttons smashed, switches broken, the whole thing was destroyed from top to bottom with a bat sticking out from one of the screens. “What happened here!?” “Oh my god!” “It’s destroyed!” “Is anybody gonna whack this pinata?” All of them were far too distracted with the destruction of the console to notice the vent of the side had been broken into. Approaching the destroyed control panel, one guard wonders out loud: “Does it even still work?” The guard presses several buttons to see if any of them even function.
At the top floor, the sound of a small plastic ball being hit could be heard echoing out through the hallway. Within the break room, several guards were watching two more whacking a ping pong ball across a table. One of them misses hitting the ball as it shoots across, making the other guards cheers. “God dammit!” the loser shouts in his defeat. One of the spectators hands the winner a can of fruit cocktail, congratulating him with: “Nice going, Chuck. You win the ping pong tournament.” “Thanks. Hey, don’t worry Jake. Better luck next month.” Suddenly, the blaring sound of an alarm pierces through the chattering crowd. “Looks like we got us some intruders.” one of them remark. As they start heading out, the winner sets his prize down on the counter. “Nobody touch my friken fruit cocktail!” he shouts as he leaves with the others. One of them stops just before leaving the room and looks back at the can of mixed fruit.
Out from the elevator, the squad hears the alarm echoing throughout the fortress. “Whelp. Looks Like we’ve been found out. Guess its time for plan B.” the boss mention. “Does that involve going on a murderous frenzy for the throne room?” Hank asks. “Yep.” One guard came from behind the corner, point their fire arms, shout: “There over here! I found-” Almost immediately, he’s shot in the head, Barleys gun smoking from the passing bullet. “Oh, that feels so good.” Coming out of the shaft, they break the elevator controls and leave behind the corpse of the hostage they forced in with them.
Meanwhile, Clara making her way up through the air vents of the building, feeling the dusty metal of the shaft as she climbs. “Okay. So I just gotta reach Malcolm before Barley kills him...or vise versa. Glad I found the vent, but why is it so dusty in here?” The scientist coughs up a storm as said dust circulates around her. Looking down, she saw the dizzying heights under her, making her close her eyes. “...Don’t look down. Don’t look down. Don’t look down.” She instead focus her gaze upward to distract from her phobia of heights. “Just focus on what’s u-”.
Above, a spinning fan whirls its sharp blade in the midst of the vertical shaft. Clara knew if she tried to squeeze through, she would become nothing but a bloody paste. She would have to stop the blades from rotating if she had any chance of passing. Reaching into her bag, she thinks to herself: “Need something solid enough to stop those blades?’” The scientist pulls out a can of pears, thinking: “Nah, I actually really like pears.” She puts the can away and rummages through for something else. Pulling the compass out, she thinks: “Definitely need that.” She then pulls out the radioactive battery case. “Absolutely not.” Searching through her bag, she finally comes across something that might help. “Ah ha.”
Barley and the others shoot their way through the halls, laying down a storm of bullets on any goons that might be in their way. Passing through an intersection, a barrage of led scrap by a soldier in the front, making him back up. Hank peeks around and sees a small squad firing at them from around the corner. “I got this.” he tells his comrades. The sniper starts firing down the hall, taking shots of the guards skulls one by one. Its not until the last soldier that Hank gets hit himself. “Hank!” “Hey, finally hit something with this lousy-” the last henchmen mentions before Barley put a bullet in his brains.
After that confrontation, everyone turns their gaze to their shot sniper, the bullet hole on the side of his stomach gushing out blood. Hank coughs as he begins to lament: “Damn it. Was too careless right there...Ey Chief?” “Hank! Don’t worry. Well get you patch up and then-” Daryl tries to tell. “There’s no time. We’re so close. Reinforcements will be hear any minute. Just leave me behind.” “He’s right.” Barley confirms. The squad turns to their boss, hearing her say: “If we die here, then all this’ll be for nothing.” “But we can’t just leave him here, we gotta-” “That’s an order, Daryl!” The sudden bark by his boss makes the soldier silence himself. “There’s too much at stake. I’m sorry.” Everyone looks down, the thought of not helping their dying friend haunting their minds. “Let’s move out.” the boss commands. As the soldiers move on ahead, Barley looks down upon her trusted sniper one last time. “Hank...Thanks for everything.” The soldier salutes her commander and gives his final request. “Give him hell, boss.” With that, Barley starts to catch up with her squad, leaving the former sniper to his fate.
Clara stuffs a can of ravioli into the spinning fans to jam its rotation. The can halting the blades, the scientist quickly climbs through the fan. As she passed through the tight spot, she felt the vibration of the blades as they struggled to turn. Successfully passing through, she looks back with a triumphant smile. “Finally got rid of that last can of ravioli. Stomach couldn’t stand them anymore.” The immense pressure of the blades causes the can to burst, splattering ravioli and meat sauce all over the ventilation shaft, including on the scientist. “Ew. Just...Why?” The scientist lets out an exhausted sighs as she continues her climb up, thinking: “Hope they’re having a better time upstairs then I am.”
Breaking through a pair of double doors, the squad rush into the throne room. Large imposing statues stand tall along the walls of the chamber. On the other side, the dictator that has caused the so much trouble sitting upon his crimson throne with a sinister smile. The glow of the morning sun rises behind his throne. The golden emperor chuckles out loud towards his group of intruder. “Well done. Making it this far was quite the feet.” Malcolm compliments as he rises. The lumbering hulk walks towards the squad: “But this where you journey ends. You’ve fought well, my little rebellion. But now is the time you finally meet your-” One of the soldiers shoots Malcolm square in the face, making the emperor tumble to the ground.
Seeing their long time foe finally dead, Barley takes a long awaited sigh of relief. “It’s over…It’s finally over.” The rebel leader turns towards her squad, ordering: “Alright team, lets get outta here before were swarmed.” All of them were on their way out of the throne room, but come to a sudden halt when they hear the sound of shuffling behind them. Turning around, dread crawls through their bodies as they witness their thought to be dead adversary rise again. The emperor rubs the spot he got shot at, remarking with: “Okay, rude. Can at least let me finish first?” “How...How in the hell...” “As I was saying. You’re rebellion ends here. You’ve certainly been entertaining. But you were never any match for the might of the-” Again the emperor is shot at, making him once more fall to the marble floor. Just when they think he’s dead, he rises again, growling in a fit of anger: “Stop that! I’m trying to deliver my victory speech. Can’t you see you’re constant interruptions are make me-” Once more he is shot, only this time, he stumbles back instead of falling. “Oh to hell with it.” Malcolm remarks.
Ditching the thoughts of a grandiose speech, the golden hulk instead goes straight to the point. Barley's squad unleashes all the firepower they can upon the approaching emperor. Seeing none of the bullets even slow him down, the army tries to split away to avoid the oncoming dictator. Moving swiftly, Malcolm grabs one of the soldiers by the face, the wayward rookie struggling to break free from his majesty's grip. The others watch in horror as the golden giant crushes the soldiers head like a squeezing orange. With one of his foes destroyed, Malcolm gaze ventures towards the others. “You…You monster!” one of the soldier screams as she unloads what left in her gun towards him. As the bullets bounce of his golden armor, Malcolm flips in the air. Descending towards the soldier that shot him, he kicks through her chest. The soldiers body slams down along with the dictators foot, Barley and Daryl, horrified by the gruesome demonstration. “So...Anything else you people want to get off your chest? Come on...Don’t be shy.” Malcolm asks them. Daryl tries to shoot, but is left with no ammo to speak off. “No...Nothing?” In a desperate effort, the soldier charged towards the emperor with the blunt end of his gun. Malcolm catches his pathetic excuse for an attack and easily swipes the gun out from the helpless soldiers grip. “Is that really everything that left? Shame.” Seeing the giant crush his firearms with a single palm, Daryl starts to back way, hoping there was a speck of hope that he could somehow escape. Before the unarmed soldier could even attempt though, Malcolm grabs the poor guy and throws him out the window behind his throne. “Daryl!” Barley screams out. The boss watches as the last of her forces crashes through the glass and plummets down to the concrete ground below. “Mm...Normally I leave this kind of grunt work to my soldiers. But there’s always an amusing sense of satisfactions I get from doing it myself. Perhaps its from the overwhelming shock my enemies that draw across their faces.” the golden lord remarks. Turning to the rebel leader Malcolm sees the fury in her eyes over her murdered comrades. She pulls out a dagger, eager to plunge it deep within the lords insides. “So, close combat is the name of the game now?” With a devious smile, Malcolm punches the palm of his hand. “My favorite.”.
Climbing all the way up the long vertical shaft, Clara grasps the horizontal air duct and lifts herself up. In her heavy panting, she breaths: “I made it...Hooray...Oh god...” Crawling away from the vertical shaft, she heads for the nearest exit she could find.
Finding a way out, she wastes no time breaking through, quite literally kicking the vent out. Finally out of the dusty air ducts, she flops down to the marble floor below. Taking in a much needed dose of clean air, she pants outs loud: “Finally...out. I swear if this isn’t the final floor...I’m going to-” Interrupting her speech was the site of dead grunts littering the halls in a blood soaked mess. Hate to be the janitor around here. “Mmm...Why did I come up here again?...Oh right!” she remembers before sprinting down the red covered hallway.
Slamming his fist down towards Barley, the rebel leader rolls to the side before the punch could connect, cracking the marble floor below. She lunges at him, brandishing her dagger only for the king to knock her aside. Getting up, she sees Malcolm taking the charge towards her and starts doing the same. Once they were face to face, Malcolm readies to clap his hands in between Barley’s head. The boss ducks just before he could clasp her, the forceful pounding of the clap enough to echo through the chamber. Seeing the opportunity arise, she kicks at his leg as she passes by, tripping the giant, his weight shaking the entire room. With the dictator down, she tries to stab him in the back, only for the small blade to shatter on impact. “Come now.”. Malcolm grabs the her arm before she could reel it back. “If bullets can’t harm me. What made you think a dinky dagger would?” The emperor throws the leader into a wall, near one of the large imposing statues. After recovering, she scuttles behind the statue. “Now rebel leader. What makes you think hiding from me now would do any good? It certainly didn’t cut it for your base.” Barley tries to think of anything else she could do to try against the approaching golden monster. Nothing she thinks of would work, guess its time for the last resort. “One thing left.” she thinks. She delves into her breasts for her trump card.
The emperors approaches the statue, insisting with: “This has been a rather fun game. But eventually, all games must come to a close.” He looks behind the statue, expecting to find his foe. “Ah ha!...Huh.”. Looking behind the imposing statue of himself revealed...absolutely nothing. “Hm...Now where did you scuttle off to?”. Looking up, he finds his foe atop his tall statue. “Oh there you are. He he. Look at you, perch atop there. Like a kitten in a tree.  Its rather amusing and...” Looking closely, he notices something tightly gritted between her teeth. “What do have in your mouth? Show me.” The leader spits the something in question at Malcolm, the emperors catching it with his hand. “Charming.” he sarcastically replies. Opening his palm revealed a small metal pin. “What?”. Looking down past his hand, he realizes that a grenade was right beside his feet. “Oh...”. The explosive goes off. Barley takes cover from the flying fire and shrapnel. The blast breaks the statues base and makes it tumble down. Barley jumps off before the broken statue crashes to the ground. “Eat that...You son of a bitch.” she decrees, thinking the battle over. Her bravado is forced back in when she hears the king ring out with a hint of malice: “Oh I most certainly did.”. Out from the smoke stood Malcolm, his armor cracked and face scratched. “Now, allow me to be a good host, and serve you something return.”.
Clara runs through the hall, hoping to get to Barley in time. In her rush past a wayward corpse, she recognizes the cadaver, making her grind to a halt. She looks back and finds Hanks dead body. “Mmm...Hank...You made the best vegetable stew I’m ever tasted. Adios.” she fleetly morns. With that done, the scientist continues her sprint down the hall.
Barley evades Malcolms mighty swing, punching overhead and striking the earth. With an opportunity in site, the boss delivers a swift uppercut. As the king backs away, he notices that he can move his arm anymore. Due to the damage the golden lord sustained from the grenade earlier, Malcolm’s body begins to lightly shutter. The force of the hammering punch made his arm completely gives out. “No! Not now!” The site of her foe in such frustration makes her laugh. “What the matter Malcolm? Is this all you’re serving? Or is this guest to much for you to handle?”. “My body hasn’t given out yet. I can still choke the life out of you with the palm of my hand.” The king dashes forward, his arm out ready to grab Barley. She rolls to the side to avoid the kings grip and lunges back to kick the lords other arm. The emperor backs away, losing the last bit of control in his limb as it droops downward. “You were saying?”. “Dammit! Well, if my arms won’t work, then I shall simply stomp the life out of you.” The lord jumps high in the air, descending down towards the boss. Barley dodges out of the way, Malcolm crashing onto the floor with enough force to crack it. The kings looks about for his foe, finding every trace of her to have vanished. “Are we really doing this again?” the king questions. The golden emperor walks through his chamber, wondering where the rebel scum might have fled to now. From behind him, the other statue on the other side of the room began to shake. From behind it, Barley was pushing off the wall to tilt the imposing statue of off its base. By the time the king notices, its already too late. The statue crashes down upon its likeness, its impact shaking the chambers.
Landing upon the ground, Barley sees king crushed under the incredible weight of his own statue. She sits down as a relieved sight escapes her lunges. The sight gives the rebel leader an ironic sense of victory as she catches her breath. Was the battle really over?
Just when Barley was beginning to relax, Malcolm slowly arises, lifting the massive remains of his statue off his body with nothing but his legs. Barley gets right back, ready to tango once again. A rather odd site greets her vision as the king slowly tried to walk towards her. Malcolm was emitting sparks of electricity from his golden body. “You haven’t won yet. I’m still standing.” Malcolm declares, a slight metallic effect drowns over his voice. “As long as I have two working legs. I can still fight.”. And as if on queue, both the lords legs break, making Malcolm fall to the floor. “Dammit!”. Seeing him in this crippled state, Barley slowly approaches. As the downed lord struggles to get up, he hears Barley questioning him: “You feel that Malcolm? That the sadness you gave to so many others as you tore apart their families.”. The rebel leader picks up a wayward rock as she nears the king. “The helplessness you bestowed to the people as you forced them to obey your rule or starve to death.”. Over the broken kings, she lifts up the stone, declaring to him: “As the leader of the rebellion against your rule, your terror, your madness, allow me to end it all.”.
Through the double doors, Clara bursts into the room in a frantic hurry, screaming out: “Wait!”. Both the king and the rebel leader look towards the scientist, Barley giving her a warming smile. “Science wiz? You’re just in time. I’m about to finally end this bastard and his reign of terror. Wanna watch me crack his skull open?” “That’s why I came up here. You can’t.”. Barleys smile instantly breaks, violently retorting with: “What!? Why not!? You forgot all the evil shit this guys done? All those people that died at the arena he ran? All those people at the rebellion camp he slaughtered? My soldiers!? Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t plaster this assholes corpse all over the room!” “Because...He has a horrible secret behind him.” “What?” Clara turns her gaze down to the broken lord, telling him: “Malcolm. I saw you. In your bedroom. You took off your armor and revealed who you really are.” The emperors face transforms to one of dread, the thought of his dark secret being found out causes him to fluster. “Y-you saw that!? That camera was supposed to be off around that time! Nobody is supposed to know about that! Nobody!” Barley stomps on the kings head, demanding: “Alright, spill it! What is she talk about that nobodies supposed to know!? Answer me!” “Malcolm. She might really kill you if you don’t show her.” Clara warns.
With no other options, Malcolm is forced to drop his ultimate facade. Barley feels Malcolms head loosen and backs up when his cracked armored plating starts to open up. White smoke erupt from the chest as it opens. From the golden body, a small figure arises from the white clouds. A delicate little boy, dressed in fancy attire stand before the rebel leader. Astonished, Barley drops the stone she was holding behind her. So many questions run through the bossed head, but she’s only able to make a select few come out. “What the hell is going on? Who’s the kid? Why did he come out of Malcolms body?” “I think that might be Malcolm. Am I right?” Clara guesses. “Yes. Seems all of you have forced me to reveal myself. Are you happy now?” Barley puts her hands over her head, rapidly shaking as she tries to process this massive bombshell. “I…I-I don’t...I don’t understand. Malcolm’s been some kid this whole time. The man responsible for killing dozens, if not hundreds of people and ruling the city under an iron heel is nothing but a child!?” “Excuse me? I’m no mere child I am a governing prodigy. I’ve provided jobs for the people thanks to the food supply drop offs and have been keeping Louisville running for about a year now. Before I came along, they were fighting like animals for even the tiniest scraps. But thanks to this robotic suit, I’ve forced this city into a working order again.” “But why did make a death arena then!? Why did you make people fight to the death!?” Barley questions. “To be honest. It was for thinning out the people. If I gave the supplies to everyone in the city, there wouldn’t be enough to go around. So I made an arena where I would force people into death matches, their prize being to fight another day. I get to thin out the population and make an entertaining death sport to keep them happy all at once. Two birds with one stone… But now...Now you’ve ruined it. Once people find that their king is just a powerless child, they won’t listen to me and my entire kingdom will burn. And it’s all your fault!”
As Barley tries to contemplate all she heard, a bunch of lion guard storm the room, their firearms aimed directly at the three. “Everyone, hands in the air!” “Looks like we found our intruders.” “Wait, who’s the kid with them?” Malcolm is thrust in a sweat at the threat of his secret being exposed. “I-” he tries to tell. “That’s Malcolm.” Clara quickly rats out. “You bitch!” Most of the guard looks confused, wondering of what what she said was true. “What’d she say?” “I think she said that kid was Malcolm.” “What!? No way! That kid?” “Can’t be. They have to be lying.” “Wait. Look at the ground.” On the ground, the robotic suit that Malcolm had been piloting had numerous joysticks, buttons and screens within its shell. “Malcolms insides are nothing but machines.” “Have we been really taking orders from a kid this whole time?” The former king was devastated, the thought of the empire he’s worked so hard to establish makes him falls to his knees as he hears the judgmental murmurs of his own guard. “No...No...It’s over.” In his moment of utter defeat, he witnesses Clara’s approach The scientist pulls out the picture with her and Arthur and presents it to the dethroned child. “Now that you’ve been defeated, I have a couple questions to ask. Have you seen this guys around? And if yes, can you tell me where he went?” she asks. “Why should I tell you anything? You ruined my empire, you stupid wench!”
For all the crap she’s had to put up with the past several days, after all the death and murder she witnessed, after all the fighting she’s been forced to participate in, all just to try and find where her friends might be. Nothing would keep her from finding him and the time sphere, the very reason she came to Louisville in the first place, not even this discomplacent child. Clara grabs Malcolm by the shirt collar and starts dragging him towards the broken window. Passing by her boss, Barley looks at the scientist, uttering: “Science wiz?”
The scientist holds Malcolm over the window, the child dangling by his shirt collar as he sees the morning sun rising in the distance. Panicked, the former king grasps Clara’s arm for dear life. “Listen to me very closely. I have traversed my way through a mutated forest. I’ve broke into a radioactive utopia for a car battery. I’ve seen more murders and carnage that could fill a graveyard twice over. I have had more guns pointed at me in the past month then I’ve had my entire life. And, I had put up with you and this whole city’s bullshit, just in the vain hope of finding my friend. And I am sick of it. Sick of just being dragged along all this madness just for a few measly answers. So as pissed as I am, I think it’d be smart of you not to act like a little brat with the threat of having a gruesome trip with you and the 20 story drop towards the cold pavement.” she suggests. “Hold up. Clara, are you really gonna threaten to murder a kid?” Barley questions. “What do you care? This “kid” wiped out your camp of survivors and murdered you’re entire battalion. Some of which were you’re closest friend. He’s not a kid, he’s a monster.” That reminder silences the rebel leader. Malcolm looks behind her and sees his guards standing by, watching as the scene plays out. “What are you all doing!? Don’t just stand there! Kill them!” Against his their kings orders, the guards simply continue to watching in apathy. “Why are you just standing their doing nothing?” “It’s just like you said. They’re not gonna listen to their king now that he’s been reduced to nothing but a sniveling child. Now start talking, before I make you into a bloody pancake.” Looking down upon the long drop below, he saw nothing but the hard concrete awaiting him. Not having much of a choice, he divulges the information he has. “Okay, okay. You win. I tell you what you wanna know.”.
“It all started the other day when the Canadian forces were making their drop off of supplies to the city. He came into town with a strange metal orb. I don’t know what inside that thing, but it was making my sensors go crazy. I needed it. I needed it badly. I went with my forces to try and take the orb, hoping it harness its power. But before we could reach him, the Canadians got to him first. I saw them take him and the orb away to the north.”
“That’s all I know, I swear. I have no clue where they might be taking him. Best guess is that they’re taking him over the border. Now just let me go, please!” With that, Clara throws Malcolm back inside. Upon landing back inside, the former emperor breaks down in a crying fit. The scientist walks past Barley, her asking: “Wh-where are you going?” “I’m getting outta here. Gonna go find my friend...Thanks for everything Barley.” Strutting past the lion guard, she starts to make her way out of the stronghold.
Once out, she take out her compass and find the direction north. As she makes her way through the city, Chaos begins to ensue in the streets. People running, screaming looting, and Clara simply walking past it like it was a Sunday stroll.
At the northern bridge, guards were quelling the rioting of the people who wanted out of the city. Clara sneaks past the unit and crosses through the bridge.
Heading back into the wastelands of nothingness, she leaves the once bustling city behind as smoke rises towards the sky and filters the shining sun.
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alexboehm55144 · 3 years
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Alex Final Wars 2: Dark Alex, Chapter 32 - Lone Human
Captain Boehm sat alone in the cargo bay of a large aircraft, flying high above the earth. The vehicle was so high that the captain needed a sealed tactical suit with a breathing apparatus, covering every inch of his pale skin. The only noise was the deafening aircraft engines and Alex's rhythmic breathing against the clear fog-resistant faceplate on his helmet.
"How are you doing, Alex?" JayJay asked through the radio from some other location.
"I'm ok. I checked everything. My suit is sealed, I have my weapon and ammo, my parachute looks good, and I checked to make sure the Fulton device looks like it's working. I'll get in there, grab the general, and get out."
"Alright, but you be careful, ok? Just make sure you get home."
"Of course, Jay. Hey, I have you waiting for me back at home, don't I?"
The wolf didn't say anything, but Alex could tell she was blushing. The voice of the pilot came through.
"Prepare for jump, 60 seconds."
"Listen, Jay, I gotta go. Take care. I'll see you later."
"Ok, I'll be waiting for you." The wolf said, then made a kissing sound.
"30 seconds." The pilot said.
The Heroes leader prepared himself, steadying his nerves. He grabbed hold of the metal handles on either side of the small cargo bay as the bay doors below opened up.
"10 seconds."
Alex could see the curved earth far below him. The sun reflecting off the sea, clouds blowing in the wind, and mighty mountain ranges.
"Jump!"
The captain let go of the metal handles and plunged down towards the planet. He was now truly alone in the border between sky and space. The earth slowly grew closer and closer, as Alex could hear air racing by him as he continued his descent. Below him was China's countryside, stretched out in all its glory, brimming with people, cities, and natural landscapes.
Using this moment of peace, the captain went over what intelligence had been gathered about the prison. There would be plenty of guards at the site, locks equipped with retinal scanners, and most likely a heavily geared up armed response team. But it was Nothing that couldn't be handled.
As he neared the ground, holographic numbers appeared on the glass faceplate of the helmet Alex was wearing.
"5..... 4...... 3...... 2...... 1......"
Rapidly blinking words flashed across his glass faceplate.
"DEPLOY! DEPLOY! DEPLOY!"
The captain fumbled for a second and then pulled the cord on his backpack, quickly slowing down as the parachute unfurled and decreased his velocity.
The ground came closer and closer, appearing dark expanse of forest, rock, dirt, and trees. He directed himself towards a small clearing in a group of trees and landed. The captain disconnected the parachute in a flash and started to bundle it up upon touching the ground. He tucked the parachute back into his kit in a position where it wouldn't hinder his movement or fighting. Alex didn't want to leave any evidence behind that someone might discover.
The Chinese prison would only be a short trek away, and the captain was ready. He carried a pistol and a semi-auto rifle, both silenced. Alex's eyes picked out a few lights ahead and a chainlink fence. He crept up to the metal structure and used a small laser cutting device to breach the wall before transitioning to the other side. His eyes continuously scanned for Chinese guards, taking note of their movements and positions.
Moving into the next area, the captain spotted some guards on patrol, and they would need to be taken down for him to pass. A canine sniper was positioned up in a tower, surveying the entire area. The captain took aim with his rifle and fired a single shot. The bullet cut through the air, striking the canine and putting him down for the count.
Moving ahead, Alex crept behind a pile of containers and gave a small whistle.
"Huh?"
A Chinese guard heard the noise and slowly moved to investigate. When he neared the containers, Alex jumped out and stabbed the soldier in the neck with his knife. The trooper tried to say something, but all that came out was a low gargle as the guard's body was pulled behind the containers.
Two more guards, both humans, were chatting nearby. After exchanging a couple of words, they parted ways and went in separate directions. Alex put them both down with highly accurate headshots from his rifle. One guard left, but he had his back burned and didn't notice what was happening. Before he could make a move, the captain had already silenced him with some SMG shots.
The captain pressed further ahead, entering the prison proper. A pair of security cameras protected the entrance, but they were quickly destroyed with gunfire. The captain tried the door, but it was locked. He moved to an electrical panel on the wall nearby, using brute strength to pull off the metal covering.
He messed around with the wires inside until a small buzzer went off, indicating the door was open. The captain reloaded his weapon and entered the prison. There was a security station directly inside. However, the trio of Chinese guards was busy looking at monitoring screens. Probably wondering why they had suddenly lost the signal from their security cameras outside.
The captain crouched down and slowly moved past the security station windows, going around to the door and opening it.
The guards inside froze, seeing an unknown agent standing there, pistol in hand. A panda guard tried to draw his gun. But before he could raise it to a firing position, captain Boehm had already shot him dead. His body slumped back against the wall and onto the floor.
The other two guards were sure to comply now, for fear of suffering the same fate.
The captain kept his gun trained on the two remaining guards. At the same time, he typed into a computer terminal in the security room, searching through the prisoners' list in the computer system.
While Alex was distracted momentarily, gazing at the computer screen. One of the guards, a tiger, started to move. Without even flinching, Alex aimed his pistol at his chest and squeezed back a little bit on the trigger. The weapon didn't go off, but the tiger got the message and returned to where he was previously.
The captain finally found his objective's name in the prisoner database. It was a foreign name, so it was easy to spot. Tom Jones, a human US general, captured by the PLA, and Alex was here to rescue him. He was located in cell 20. Keeping his gun trained on the guards, Alex backed out of the security station and pointed down the hallway. The guards complied and moved deeper into the prison, soon coming upon a metal door with a retinal lock.
Alex pointed to the lock, and one of the guards, a pig, moved towards it. She opened her eye and allowed the device to scan her. The metal door hummed and opened.
With their usefulness fulfilled, the captain hit both guards on the head with his pistol. Knocking them out before stealing their keys. He advanced into the prison proper, looking at the numbers in the cell doors until he found cell 20. He unlocked the small metal slot in the door and called inside.
"General Jones?"
The human inside instantly got up and went over to the door upon hearing someone with an American accent.
"Yes? Who are you?"
"I'm Captain Alex Boehm. I'm here to rescue you."
The captain passed his pistol to the general through the metal slot used to give out food trays.
"I'm going to open all the cells, that should start a riot and give us cover to escape."
"Ok, be quick now."
The captain left the general's cell and moved towards the prison watchtower, sticking to the shadows and avoiding the guards' eyes. Alex slowly moved up into the tower itself and gunned down both guards inside before they could make a move.
He then moved over to the control panel used to open the cell doors and opened up all of them. He also opened every security door in the prison, which would make escape easier.
Mammals of all sizes moved out into the prison hallways as the captain headed back to the general's cell. A few prisoners gave Alex weird looks as he passed by. But they noticed the American flag on his shoulder and recognized that he was not one of their wardens.
General Jones had already moved out of his cell into the hallway, pistol in his hands. He was a somewhat older man, his face being aged, but his hair and mustache had not turned gray yet. Alex knew all that meant was that he was experienced and could handle himself in combat. His uniform was also redder in color than the other inmates' orange uniforms, indicating he was a high-security prisoner.
"General?"
"Captain?"
"I have an escape plan. We need to get back outside, and then we'll extract via Fulton."
Suddenly, alarm bells rang out, indicating someone had clued in about what was going on inside the prison.
"Guess we better move."
The pair began moving through the prison, weapons at the ready. Many inmates followed close behind, some armed with makeshift weapons, but most had just their claws.
The mob of mammals came upon a single wolf guard with his back turned, facing off against 5 inmates. The inmates had him outnumbered and surrounded, but the guard was armed with a pistol. His aim was rapidly snapping from one inmate to the next. One of the prisoners tried to tackle the guard, but he was quickly gunned down.
Captain Boehm drew his knife and crept up behind the guard before driving the blade deep into his back and putting him down. A cheer erupted from the assembled inmates as one spit on the guard's body, and the American general picked up the discarded pistol, along with some more ammo from the guard. Tucking both items into his clothing.
As the group kept moving forward, through a large holding area and towards a pair of doors, a team of mammals in riot gear suddenly burst through the exit and began to advance. They were dressed head to toe in body armor and carried batons and shields.
Battle cries and howls broke out as both sides surged towards each other. Captain Boehm and General Jones engaged, managing to take down 2 riot troopers. Still, other soldiers blocked the gunfire with their shields.
A wolf trooper ran at the captain, baton in the air, ready to strike down. But Alex grabbed the wolf's wrist and prevented him from striking before breaking the wrist. The wolf screamed, but the captain punched him in the face, breaking the plastic faceplate and knocking the wolf out.
Another riot trooper charged, but Alex dodged the attack, got behind the enemy, and put some rounds in her.
Elsewhere, the general had gotten his hands on one of the guard's buttons and was currently wielding the weapon in his left hand, with one of his pistol in the right.
He gunned down and whacked many guards, all the while the riot troopers and inmates fought around him.
"Boehm! I need ammo!" The general said, tossing Alex the pistol given to him earlier.
The captain caught the pistol and tucked it back in his holster.
"SMG!" The captain yelled, throwing the general his P90 SMG. Both Americans were now armed with a primary weapon and a sidearm.
A riot trooper attacked, forcing the captain to pause what he was saying for a moment to parry the blow and return the hit the soldier with the butt of his rifle.
"AMMO!" Alex threw the general a pouch of ammo and continued to engage the Chinese riot troopers.
Then, through the crowd emerged a large water Buffalo riot guard, repeatedly tapping his baton against the inside of his hoof. Markings on his uniform indicated that he was a commander.
"I'll handle this." Captain Boehm said, moving towards the Buffalo. The guard swung downward, forcing Alex to sidestep the strike. The Buffalo attacked again, forcing Alex to jump as the heavy baton passed under him.
With a brief window, Boehm landed a few shots on the Buffalo. Not enough to kill him, but doing damage. The commander countered and swung with his arm, hitting Alex and sending the human flying backward.
"Ok... ow..." the captain said, getting back on his feet and checking over his body. "Nothing's broken. Let's try that again."
The captain put his rifle on his back and drew his pistol before charging towards the Buffalo.
The guard commander swung, but Alex dodged the attack and jumped up onto the Buffalo's arm. As he ran up the arm, the guard tried to grab the smaller human. But Alex jumped off the arm onto the wall, leaped off the wall, and landed behind the Buffalo's head on the guard's back.
Before the commander could react, Alex shot the Buffalo's hand, causing him to drop the baton. The commander yelled and tried to grab the human, who hunkered down to avoid the strikes.
Boehm tore off the guard's helmet and held onto the Buffalo's horns, hitting the commander's face with his pistol. Using the horns and his sidearm as an extremely rudimentary control scheme, Alex pushed on the horns and forced the Buffalo forward towards a squad of riot troopers. Upon reaching the group, Alex once again bashed the commander's face with his pistol. This caused the Buffalo to flail about widely and slam the ground, knocking down some of the smaller riot guards with his immense strength. Alex directed the Buffalo to another group of guards and made the commander slam into them as well, sending the guards flying backward.
There was no longer any use for the commander. The way was clear of hostiles. The captain leaped off the Buffalo's back and lined up his shot while still in the air. He pulled the trigger, and a group of bullets hit the rear of the commander's head, killing him.
Another cheer erupted from the inmates, and the crowd made haste to the exit doors.
"You can sure as hell fight." General Jones said.
"So can you."
The 2 Americans and the inmates reached the exit. The prisoners immediately started running to get as far away from the prison as they could.
"This way," Alex said, him and the general leaving the inmates and heading towards a construction site.
"Looks like we're clear." General Jones said, scanning the area with his weapon at the ready.
"Ok, put this on," Alex said, taking out a harness and putting it on the general.
Suddenly gunfire erupted nearby, and the pair of Americans readied their weapons.
"Armed response team." The general said.
"Take cover."
The pair ducked behind parts of a concrete foundation in the construction site.
A group of 5 Chinese soldiers in full combat gear entered the area—their rifles at the ready.
2 soldiers were gunned down by Alex and Jones before they could get to cover. The remaining trio returned fire, forcing the Americans to take cover.
Jones lined up a headshot on one Chinese trooper and pulled the trigger.
Captain Boehm targeted a soldier moving from cover to cover and sprayed him with bullets.
The last soldier was outnumbered and swiftly eliminated.
"We're clear." The general said, checking twice to make sure there was no one else in the vicinity.
"More will be here soon. We need to get out of here."
Captain Boehm clipped his own harness to the generals and attached a small device to the pair. He activated the device, and the hiss of pressurized air could be heard. A white balloon inflated, growing bigger and bigger as it climbed into the sky.
The balloon was connected to the 2 Americans by a tough cord. The cable itself blinked with lights as if it was bioluminescent. This was the Fulton device, and it would get them out of Chinese territory.
A plane's engines' dull roar could be heard as a disguised cargo plane above spotted the glowing balloon and cord and started to line up with them.
On the ground, Jones and Alex heard the footsteps of more approaching Chinese soldiers. The metal components of their combat gear jingled as they moved.
The two Americans were stuck in 1 spot, weapons at the ready, as the plane grew closer and closer.
The Chinese troops entered the construction site, but before anyone could fire, the plane snagged the balloon and cord, pulling Alex and Jones into the air. The Chinese troops could only watch astonished as their targets disappeared into the night sky.
American airmen inside the cargo plane pulled Alex and Jones inside the aircraft before closing the cargo hatch.
Captain Boehm took off his helmet and ran a hand through his brown hair.
General Jones offered his own hand for the captain to shake.
"It was an honor to fight by your side." The general said. "I owe you my life for getting me out of there. Thank you."
Alex returned the favor and shook the general's hand.
"The honor was all mine. And with you free, we'll make some serious headway against the Chinese."
00000000
I hope everyone is enjoying this story! Please don't forget to give feedback! I am going back to college soon, so I don't know when the next update will be. But it is my new year's resolution to finish this story this year, and I am committed to do so! So stay tuned!
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marblesarelost · 6 years
Text
Change Your Mind, Change Your Life
                                                   Chapter One
“Uh, guys?”  Iron Man squawked over the comm, and Hawkeye cursed under his breath as he loosed another arrow, drawing a new one from his quiver and getting a bead on another of the robotic birds.  “We’ve got a serious problem.”
“Robot birds that blow up aren’t enough of a problem, Tony?”  Natasha asked, kicking one into the air, away from the plate glass windows of the street.  
“Yeah.  Apparently not,” Iron Man replied.  “Somebody needs to get Strange, now, FRIDAY, call Stephen Strange, he’s in my --“  The roar interrupted him, and Hawkeye looked up to see now a shimmering dragon approaching from the west.
“HOLY SHIT!”
“Language,” ‘Tasha said acerbically over the comm.  “I see it. What is that thing?”
“Robot dragon,” Iron Man updated her.  “Looks to be about the size of a -- oh now that’s just -- what --“  Confusion filled Iron Man’s voice.  “The hell?”
“What is it, Tony? What’s going on?”  Hawkeye asked.
“Doom.  Doom’s…Doom’s here.  And he’s drawing the dragon away from us,” Tony said, disbelief joining the confusion.  “No giant proclamation, no DOOM IS THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN SAVE YOU NOW, no bullshit, he’s just…doing it.”
“What are the chances that he sent the damn thing and it’s a PR stunt?”  Hawkeye muttered; he had no love for Doctor Doom.
“Yeah, no, I don’t think -- aaaand right on cue, there’s Richards.  Have you guys got the Pidgeottos under control, ‘cause this could turn ugly,” Iron Man asked.
“Falcon’s on his way, right?”
“ETA thirty seconds,” Sam chirped over the comm.  “That thing is huge as fuck, y’all.  Maybe a thousand yards from head to tail, and it’s shooting laser beams at Doom, too.”
“Of course it is,” Tony added.  “And there’s Richards trying to wrap around it, that’ll end well, guys, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m gonna go help Doom out.”
“Go, we got this,” Natasha said curtly, and Hawkeye turned his attention completely back to the issue at hand, namely, shooting birdies from the sky before they could detonate.
“Why did you do this?” Tony could hear Reed screaming from a few hundred yards away.  “This is insanity, Victor, why --“
“Hey, Stretch,” Tony called as he flew up, firing repulsors at the dragon; it was made of a metal he had never seen before, and he was well versed in metallurgy.  “Where’s the rest of the Fearsome Foursome?”  Richards’ head turned, slamming towards Tony from his hovercraft.
“Defending the Baxter Building.  This is obviously a feint of some kind,” Reed snapped.  
“Yeah, no, we’ve been fighting birds made of this same alloy in the city proper for the last two hours,” Tony snapped.  “Jaws here only showed up when this came into view, and he was already fighting it, trying to hold it off.  So where the hell have you been the last two hours?”  
“The birds are a minor inconvenience,” Reed said, and Tony lost his cool completely.
“They’re rigged to blow if they get within two feet of the ground, asshat,” he shouted.  “I don’t even want to think about what this would do if it got too close to the surface!”  Exasperated, he flew to where Dr. Doom levitated, drawing the dragon towards himself with some kind of purple laser.  “No wonder you hate him so much,” Tony sighed.  “You got a plan, Doom?”
“I do,” was the reply, and Tony’s head jerked up at the difference in Doom’s speech patterns; usually it would be “Doom does indeed, peasant,” or some shit like that.  “I would like to get just a little closer, Iron Man, to ensure that I am correct about the genesis of this creation.  Do you think you can hold its attention for a few moments?”  Doom cut his eyes toward Tony.  “And try to keep Richards from killing us all?”
“I can do the first, no problem, chrome dome, but the second, that’s an issue.  He’s a dick.”  
“He has ever been so,” Doom sighed.  “Sixty seconds is all I ask.”
“Yeah.  Yeah, hey Auntie Anne, leave Doom alone while he checks this out,” Tony shouted as Reed came closer.  
“It’s obviously a trap, Tony --“
“Just on the off chance he’s playing straight, okay?  One full minute.  Go, Vic, I got your back.”
“Thank you, Iron Man,” Doom replied, inclining his head just a fraction before flying --
“HOLY CHRIST!”
-- straight between the dragon’s jaws as Tony fired his hand repulsors at full blast at the beast, backing away, away, farther and farther out to sea, drawing the dragon out with him, Richards speechless, his hovercraft directly in the way of --
“Get out of the way, dumbass, Jesus!”  Just in the nick of time, the hovercraft zoomed away from the dragon’s wing before it connected, and Doom flew back out of the dragon’s mouth, coming back toward Tony.
“It is an artificial construct created by a madman from another dimension,” he reported. “Someone who calls himself Kang the Conqueror.”  
“Oh joy,” Tony sighed. “Ideas?”
“Oh, yes,” Doom nodded. “I propose to return the package to its sender.”  He made some sort of motion with his hands, muttering under his breath, and a giant fire rimmed circle appeared, about half a mile away.  “A moment, now.”  Sure enough, a few seconds later, the dragon began to fade, becoming translucent, then transparent, finally shimmering away.
“Iron Man, report,” Cap’s voice came over the comm.  “All the birds have disappeared.”
“Yeah.  Yeah, Doom just…Doom just got rid of the dragon, too. We’re clear out here, Cap.”
“Great.  We’re going back to the Tower for debrief.  Meet us there.”
“Yep, just a sec.” Tony left his comm open as he waited for Doom to close the portal again.  “So what brought you here, anyway?”
“I noted the disruption in the space-time continuum,” Doom said, but he wasn’t looking at Tony. “Move!”  He dove toward Iron Man, driving both of them down toward the sea, as the Fantastic Four hovercraft hurtled toward the space they had been in. “Sorry, he’s --“
“No, he’s being a serious dick,” Tony agreed.  “Why don’t you come back to the tower, we’ll have burritos?  It’s Hawkeye’s turn to pick the after-fight food, he always chooses burritos.”
“I…appreciate the invitation, Iron Man, but I’m afraid I must decline.  Thank you for your assistance.”  Doom straightened, hesitated, then held out his hand.  “Mr. Stark.”
“Um.  Yeah.”  Tony gingerly accepted the handshake, and once they were no longer touching, Doom teleported away.  “Huh.”
“Why did you let him get away?”  Richards shouted.  “He’s going to the Baxter Building now, I know it!”
“Yeah, I don’t think so, Stretch,” Tony said quietly.  “I really don’t.”  With that, Tony flew off, turning his comm private, just between him and Cap. “Cap.  You heard that?”
“I did,” came the answer. “What exactly happened?”
“Richards tried to run us down, he would have gone through me to get to Doom, if Doom hadn’t seen him,” Tony sighed.  “I’ll be home in two, just…”
“Just what, Tony?” Steve asked, Steve, not Cap. There was a difference in the tone of his voice, it was gentler, certainly warmer.
“Just something is up with Doom.  Definitely something different.  He shook hands, Steve.  He offered, and he shook hands.  And he said thank you.  Doom -- you know, he doesn’t do that.”
“No.  No, he usually doesn’t.”  Steve’s end of the line went quiet.  “Maybe…maybe we should look into what’s going on lately in Latveria.  You know Putin’s all about recreating the Soviet Union, maybe he’s looking for allies in case things go bad.”
“That’s a possibility, and it’s a good idea,” Tony agreed as he landed on the roof, the suit falling away from him, picked up efficiently by one of the ‘bots.  “FRIDAY, download the video and audio of today, especially the last few minutes with Dr. Doom, analyze his voice and body language, get back to me with the results ASAP, okay?”
“Yes, Mr. Stark,” the AI agreed.
“I want you to play the video on my mark in the conference room.  It’s important; I want the rest of the team to know just how helpful Reed was.”
“He certainly seemed so willing,” FRIDAY agreed, sarcasm lacing her voice.  She was coming along nicely, he thought; she might not ever pass the Turing test, but then again…then again, she might.  She just might.  Tony grabbed a smoothie from the fridge in the communal kitchen, and headed to the conference room, entering with a smile that hid his current contemplation, nodding to Pepper beside the door.
“Will that be all, Mr. Stark?”  She asked, a tiny smile lighting her face, to be met by his own, a bit smugly.
“That will be all, Miss Potts.”  He lingered in the doorway, letting her surreptitiously run her fingernails over his back as she walked away, running shivers up his spine.  Promises for later.  Taking his seat, he propped his feet on the conference table, grinned wildly up at Steve, who was shaking his head with a small smile of his own. “Cap.”
“Tony.  Okay.  Let’s go over what worked, what didn’t, and what we can learn.”  For about ten minutes, Captain America and the Black Widow went over the footage FRIDAY had pulled from surveillance cameras, pointing out holes in their strategies, flaws in their systems, and the team discussed how to do a better job next time.  However, they all kept cutting their eyes to Tony, obviously curious about the run-in he’d had with Doom and Richards, and eventually, Cap nodded to him.  “Iron Man.  You were with the dragon at the end -- God, that sounds weird,” Cap chuckled, shaking his head.  “Fill us in.”
“Sure thing. FRIDAY?”  Immediately, the screen filled with the silvery dragon, and Doom before it, blasting it and obviously trying to draw it away from New York. “So this is what I flew into. Note the weird purple laser things, if you will, that Doom’s using.  They’re obviously keeping the dragon’s attention, but they’re not really like any lasers I’ve seen.  Guys?”
“Eldritch magics,” Scarlet Witch said, her eyes narrowing as she watched.  “Von Doom is known for wielding such things.”  She frowned as the scene unfolded before them.  “He isn’t…this is…”
“Why isn’t he being as belligerent and DOOM-y as usual?”  Hawkeye asked, leaning forward over the table.  “He’s almost…I wouldn’t say he’s being friendly, because I don’t think he knows how to be friendly, but…”
“Casual.  He’s being casual,” Tony agreed.  “He’s not doing the whole FEAR DOOM thing.  He’s…guys, I was there.  He was trying to be helpful.”
“Yeah, but Doom, you know? He’s not being an -- oh, Christ, here’s the asshat,” Clint sighed as Richards came into view again.  His fists clenched on the table as Richards spoke dismissively of the explosive birds.  “That utter bastard!  He didn’t care!  He didn’t --“
“No.”  Tony agreed, his voice and expression flat.  “He didn’t.  FRIDAY, what are the current civilian casualty numbers?”
“Eight dead, 46 injured, financial damage estimated so far as less than ten million, sir.”
“Do me a solid, send all four members of the Fantastic Four a private email detailing those numbers, and attach the video where Reed says the birds are a minor inconvenience,” Tony ordered.  “And ask Pepper to implement Plan Hippocrates for the injured, and offer Hades to the survivors of the dead.”
“Yes, sir.”  The Avengers watched the rest of the footage silently until Doom dove toward Tony, the camera in his mask capturing the bright blue F4 on the hovercraft speeding within a foot above the two as they descended, then righted themselves.  That drew a whole new round of shouts of “dickmunch!”  “Asshole!”  “Fuckface!” Captain America, Tony, and Natasha were the only three who remained silent, watching the film carefully.
“FRIDAY, rewind five seconds, replay at half speed,” Natasha ordered, and the film replayed as she watched, her arms crossing over her chest, green eyes sparking in anger as she did so.  “Play on at normal speed,” she ordered afterward.  They watched as Doom offered his hand, as Tony shook it, then Doom’s disappearance and Richards’ accusation.
“Thoughts?”  Captain America asked after the clip was done.
“Richards did not even attempt to pull the hovercraft over Iron Man.  He did not call out a warning.  He was willing, in that instant, to drive right through Tony in order to perhaps do…something…to Doom,” Natasha said, her words clipped and precise, her eyes cold. “Perhaps he was trusting in the armor, in the warning system, but it was foolish and impulsive.”
“And dangerous,” Steve added, frowning.    
“Sir, I have finished the analysis you asked for,” FRIDAY offered.  “According to my calculations, there is a 94.6 percent probability that Dr. Doom was indeed attempting to be, if not friendly, at least not unfriendly. At no time does his posture, respiration, or heartbeat indicate a threat toward you or even Mr. Richards.”
“Thanks, FRIDAY.  Tell you what, look up any recent news stories -- let’s say within the last six months -- about Latveria, would you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Download them to my personal terminals.  Okay,” he said, turning back to the rest of the Avengers.  “So.  Thoughts after hearing that?”
“Let’s…I don’t know…” Steve began.  “Let’s look at it this way.  It appears that maybe, just maybe, Doom showed up to help without an ulterior motive.”
“He had every right to unload on Richards after what he tried to do,” Tony said, crossing his arms over his chest.  “And he didn’t.”
“No.  He didn’t.  But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be cautious, Tony.  Let’s put it this way; for now, unless he is actively trying to kill us or anyone else, we’ll treat him as a non-belligerent neutral.  Best I can do, until we get more information,” Cap offered, and Natasha nodded.
“It is for the best at this point.  He did one good thing.  One unselfish act does not mean a change of heart, no matter how one might wish it,” she said slowly.  “We wait and observe.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Tony sighed, running a hand through his hair.  “Okay.  Wait and observe.”
“Why --“ Hawkeye began, and Tony cut him off.
“He’s a genius, he’s extremely powerful in his own right, and I’ve just…I’ve got a feeling.”  Tony shrugged, looking down at his crossed arms. “It doesn’t hurt that he built himself a suit, you know?”
“No, cool, I get you,” Hawkeye shrugged.  “I get you. Okay.  So no aiming at Doom unless he aims at me first, got it.”
“Pass it on?”  Wanda asked, and Steve nodded.
“Yes.  Call Xavier’s school, if they want details, tell them to call me.”  Steve’s chin lifted just a bit into what almost every Avenger liked to call his “Captain America” face.  “I’ll explain if necessary.”
“Great.  Can we have burritos now?”  Sam asked, and everyone laughed.
“Dismissed,” Steve grinned. “Burritos sound really good right now.”
“You guys go on, I want to start a scan on the armor I wore today, be right there,” Tony promised as the Avengers rose to leave the room.  He took the elevator to his workshop, waited a few beats just to make sure no one had followed him.  “FRIDAY?”
“Yes, sir?”  The AI answered.
“Send the footage of our debrief to my terminal here.”  He tapped out a quick email to the Latverian embassy in New York, requesting that they forward it to “the Lord Protector of Latveria.”  Once done, he attached the video, and added a personal touch.  “I want to give you a chance.  I’m trying.  Don’t let me down, okay?”  He clicked send, and breathed a little easier as he left the workshop again, heading up for burritos and camaraderie. 
“Short stack!”  Tony called the next day as he entered Jane’s labs. “Come with me.  Foster, I’m stealing your R2 unit.”
“Beep-fuck-boop-you, Tony,” Darcy Lewis countered, looking up from the notes she was transcribing into English from Janese.  
“Even better, you’re Darcy-Wan Kenobi, and you’re my only hope.  Come on.”  He waved fingers at her, and she sighed, standing and grabbing her bag.
“Janey?  You okay?”
“Yeah,” came the distant answer from behind one of Jane’s machines.  “Yeah.  You’re going with Tony.  I ate about an hour ago, right?”
“Uh…yeah, about an hour and a half ago.  I’m sure this won’t take too long.  This won’t take too long, will it, Tone Loc?”
“No, Salt, it won’t,” he grinned.  “What? I already have a Pepa.”
“And I would never dream of attempting to take her place, because she is a saint and a goddess among women,” Darcy said, following him out of the lab and down the hall to the elevator.  Tony nodded.
“You have no idea how much I agree with that statement, Darce.”  They entered the elevator, and Tony pressed a button to a few floors below, still within the Avengers block.  “So. Your degree is in poli sci, right?”
“Yeah,” Darcy agreed. “I’m working on my thesis for my master’s.”
“Awesome.  But you get politics.”  He cut a very serious look at her, and she nodded, her eyebrows drawing together.
“Well…yeah.  I minored in history?”
“Great, that’s fabulous, because you may need both.  I have a proposition for you, well, Pepper will explain it better, I think, maybe, but --“ he paused, then nodded to himself, stepping to the far side of the elevator.  “Do me a solid, don’t freak out, okay?  FRIDAY, halt the elevator, engage prime privacy mode, code HORNDOG.” Immediately, the elevator stopped, a second set of doors engaging over the first, and Darcy’s breath caught. “Listen,” Tony began.  “That’s just a code word, it’s a joke, really.  Here’s the thing.  You know we were called out yesterday?”
“Yeah,” Darcy agreed. “Robot birds and then the dragon thing, it was on the news.”
“Great.  Did you see who else was after the dragon thing?”
“No…” she dragged out the word.  “Who?”
“Victor Von Doom.”
“Doctor DOOM?  Was he --“
“No.  He was helping us.  And I kind of get the feeling maybe he doesn’t want to be quite such a dick anymore.  I asked FRIDAY to give me a heads up on news out of Latveria, you know, political stuff and whatnot, and apparently there’s a lot.  A LOT, lot.  And I don’t get it all, but you.”  Tony pointed at her.  “You do. Or at least, I think you will.”
“Okay,” Darcy nodded. “You need me to go through the data and extrapolate what his intentions are?”
“Brilliant.  You’re fucking brilliant, Short Stack, that’s it exactly.  So Pepper and I talked about it this morning, and she’s going to go over all the paperwork, she’s actually waiting in your new office --“
“I get an office?”
“You get an office. With your own coffee machine.  And a paycheck.  A fairly decent paycheck.  Because when we talked about it, Pepper said, well, I’ll let her tell you what she said.  Long story short though, the Avengers Initiative and Stark Enterprises need an in-house political analyst, and guess what, you’ve got the clearance and you’ve got the background, you’re it.”  Darcy’s jaw dropped, and Tony chuckled.  “Looks like you’re in.”
“Uh, yeah!”  Darcy agreed, then sobered.  “But who’ll help Jane?”
“Oh, honey, we have minions! We have lots of minions.  Minions who are drooling over the chance to maybe be able to work with Janey.  No problem there, okay?  She’ll have her choice of assistants, I promise.”  Tony looked up at the ceiling.  “Friday.  You may disengage prime privacy mode and set us going again.”  The inner elevator doors unlocked, and the elevator began to move again.
“They have to make sure she eats.  She’s…” Darcy bit her lip.  “She gets caught up, you know?  And sleep. You don’t know how many sets of notes I’ve had to save after she fell asleep and knocked cold coffee onto them.”
“I get that,” Tony said, nodding.  “I had a Rhodey and a Pepper, Jane had you.  We’ll find her somebody, Darce.”
“Pinky swear?”  Darcy held out her left hand, pinky extended, and Tony linked his right pinky with it solemnly.
“Pinky swear.  I’ll go back up and talk to her in a minute.  But I --“ the door opened, and he led her out into the hall, past several doors to where Pepper Potts stood smiling in a chic white dress with emerald green trim.  “Pepper!  Love of my life!  Chatelaine of my tower!”  
“Tony, you just saw me an hour ago,” Pepper said, shaking her head softly, though she accepted and returned his hug.  “Hi, Darcy. Did Tony get you up to date?”
“Somewhat,” Darcy said as she approached.  “He said you’d fill in the details.”
“Of course.  What’s next on your agenda, Mr. Stark?”  Pepper asked, eyebrows rising.
“I…have to go talk to Foster and explain what’s up, and get her to set up interviews for her new science minions?”  Tony offered, and Pepper nodded.
“Correct.  And at four o’clock, you have a conference call with Zachary Belman and Paul Franklin, and you will be on that call, Tony.  You will.”
“Right.  Yes.  I promise.” He shook his head no with every word.
“You will.  And then we’ll order pizza from Val’s downstairs and watch Heavy Metal.”
“Oh.  Well.  If that’s on the agenda, absolutely.  It’s…” he glanced at his watch.  “It’s two. I have plenty of time.”
“Your office, Tony.  I want you in your office at three forty-five,” Pepper said.  “Not the workshop.  Your office.”
“Right.  Okay.”  He pecked her cheek, clapped Darcy on the shoulder.  “Have fun, Artoo, you get to sign lots of stuff now.”
“Sure,” Darcy agreed. “And Tony?  Thanks.”
“No problem, squirt,” he offered breezily, passing by her on his way back to the elevator.  “See you in a couple hours, Pep.”  Pepper shook her head, her delicate gold earrings swaying as she did so, looking after him fondly.
“So, let’s go into your office, Darcy,” she offered, opening the door.  The office wasn’t really that big, a standard room in the Tower.  A desk faced the door, with two chairs before it, a computer, a coffeemaker on a small cabinet to the left with a ten gallon water cooler beside it.  Pepper closed the door behind them, and took a seat in one of the chairs before the desk, Darcy joining her there instead of behind the desk.  Not yet.  Not yet. “There’s a communal kitchen on this floor as well; this is the Avengers’ legal advisory floor, everyone here has a clearance level or two below yours, but then, yours is special.”  Pepper’s smile grew a little wider.  “He’s right, I do have quite a few forms for you to fill out.  There’s a scanner there,” she pointed.  “If you’ll just scan the documents in and email them to HR, we’ll get everything taken care of.”  Pepper half-frowned then.  “How…have you been getting paid, working for Jane?”
“Yeah.  She pays me out of the grants and whatnot,” Darcy said, nodding.  “I mean, Tony pays for all of her stuff, right, but she still applies for grants and stuff from the government and NASA and whatnot and pays me out of those; she says it’s to make sure they don’t forget her name and what she’s discovered.”
“As if they could,” Pepper said, her smile returning.  “I’m glad. I was concerned when I found you weren’t already on the payroll.”
“Thanks.  Yeah, I live here, in Jane’s extra bedroom, to save some money.  It’s expensive to live in New York, and it just gets worse every day,” Darcy sighed. “But.  Can you fill me in a little more on what exactly you guys are looking for from me?”
“Absolutely,” Pepper nodded, setting the file folder down on the desk and facing Darcy.  “Your first long-term assignment is to look through the files already in your Avengers Initiative email, I set that up for you, the password’s written on a Post-It underneath your mouse pad, feel free to change it but let me know what it is, just in case.  You’re to read through them and draw what conclusions you can, write a report, and send it to me.  FRIDAY will sift through the news for you and update you on any new stories regarding that assignment.  Your short-term assignments will be kind of on-call, as it were; if the Avengers have to leave the country for threats on foreign soil, we’ll need to know how friendly or unfriendly those countries are to the Avengers specifically, and to the U.S. in general.  I don’t know how much notice you’ll get for those short-term assignments, to be honest, and you will be awakened in the middle of the night to give opinions and advice.”
“Okay,” Darcy agreed. “I guess that’s why I get the personal coffeemaker.”  Pepper chuckled.
“And a mini-fridge and microwave,” she agreed.  “We’re going to expand the political team in a week or two, but you’ll be the head of it, mainly because you will almost assuredly have the highest clearance.  Do you have any experience heading a team?”
“I can do it.  Can’t be any harder than herding scientists,” Darcy shrugged.
“I’m going to keep it at your level, bachelor’s degrees going on for master’s, and your team will consult with others who have doctorates in political science if you feel out of your depth or you want to get a second opinion.  Can you get me a list of who you’d feel comfortable collaborating with or consulting with?”
“Yes.  Absolutely, let me make a note of that,” Darcy nodded, taking her phone from her purse and opening her notepad app.  “There we go.  With an alarm….you’ll have that by the end of the day tomorrow.”
“Great.  Well, I guess I’ll let you get to it.  And…” Pepper looked a little…uncomfortable.  “If necessary, I can make arrangements with Giada’s downstairs for an expense account?  For business wear.”  
“I…no.  No, I have…I dress like this for the lab, it’s safer,” Darcy said quickly, looking down at her jeans and blouse.  “Sparks and stuff, you know.”
“I do,” Pepper nodded. “But the offer’s there, if you need it.”
“No.  No, I’ve got business wear, Ms. Potts, I’ll dress for success from now on, no problem.”  Pepper nodded briskly, tapping the folder on the desk as she stood, and Darcy stood a second later.  “Thank you. For the job and…and everything.”
“It’s my pleasure to work with you, Darcy.  Welcome, officially, to the team.”  The two women shook hands, and Pepper left the office.  Carefully, Darcy closed the office door behind her.  Her office door.  Her office.  She had an office.  And she would be using her degree, actually using her so-called “soft science” to help her friends, to help Thor and Clint and Sam and Tony and ‘Tasha.  She walked around her desk, looking out over New York in the fall afternoon, and nodded to herself.  “You got this, Darcy.  You got this.”  She made coffee, finding the three bags with a note -- “Didn’t know what roast/brand you preferred, tell Friday and it will be delivered, PP.”  Then she sat down at her desk, her desk, she had her own desk, in her own office, and started filling out the paperwork.
@subsilvernight
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satyr-syd · 6 years
Text
Massive beams of light cut through the midnight sky, flashing against a towering office building. The roar of sirens drowning out the commotion of the crowd, gathered around the base of the building like suds in a drain. Police weave in and out of the crowd, trying and failing to control them. Media agents swarm around the building like bees, trying to get closer to where Best Jeanist leads a team of the prefecture’s best heroes. He carefully dictates his plan for infiltration, and the heroes feel his words weigh heavily on their shoulders, knowing the lives of civilians are on the line. Somewhere, deep in the building, a group of villains waits patiently. Will the ransom be paid? Or will there be a fight tonight? The moon smiles down knowingly, an omnipotent spectator to hostage crisis.
At least, that’s how Aoyama imagines it. Looking around at the darkened walls surrounding him, ears straining to hear the cheers of the crowd, he sighs dramatically. There’s no flashing of cameras, no awe-struck crowd, no villain attacks here at the southern exit. Nothing exciting at all. Just dark concrete blocks and darkened windows and an unforgiving midnight chill.
Boom!
“This is bullshit!”
Alas, he was stuck on watch duty with Class 2-A’s very own Bakugou Katsuki, who seemed much more furious than the situation called for.
read here on ao3 or keep reading
“Why the fuck am I stuck here while fucking Kirishima and the rest of those idiots get a piece of the action?” Bakugou roars, throwing another fist against the wall. “Jeanist knows what I’m capable of, why’d that old fart put me on watch dog duty?”
Aoyama smirks, stroking his chin. “Hmm, jealous of your friends~?”
Bakugou whips toward him, mouth curved in a furious snarl. Aoyama fights the urge to jump back.
“They’re not my friends!” he shouts. “I don’t need fucking friends!”
This is far from the first time Bakugou has insisted he doesn't have friends. Aoyama doesn’t believe him. It was impossible to miss how Kirishima, Kaminari, Sero, and Ashido followed Bakugou around like puppies. Not to mention, most of the class would follow him into battle without hesitation, himself included. (Perhaps he might hesitate a little bit...this was, after all, Bakugou Katsuki.)
If Aoyama were the jealous type, he’d be dripping with envy for what Bakugou had. But Aoyama isn’t the jealous type, of course. Such uncouth tendencies were inappropriate for a gentleman.
Aoyama rubs his chin, continuing to observe Bakugou from a safe distance as he punches the wall again and again, murmuring curses at Best Jeanist.
Bakugou said he didn’t “need” friends. Aoyama understands that sentiment. After all, when everyone in Class 1-A formed their cliques, Aoyama was perfectly fine without one. He tells himself often that all he needs is himself, since he’s perfect, after all.
Friends might be nice, though. He had a lot of friends in middle school, back when everyone had admired his quirk. After coming to U.A....everything was different. All of his classmates had amazingly cool quirks, and they knew how to use them, too. His own quirk didn’t seem so cool in comparison...even though he knew this was untrue! After all, his quirk was the most sparkly.
The problem was no one liked sparkly quirks anymore.
Oh well. There was no accounting for bad taste.  
“I don’t think your friends would like it if they heard you say that,” Aoyama notes.
Bakugou whips around. “What the fuck did you s - ”
Click.
They spin towards the door. Without a single creak, it slowly swings open, revealing a villain standing in the doorway, a hostage in front of them. The villain, a tall woman with a long chin and long, bone white hair, presses her palm against the hostage’s neck. A piece of bone protrudes from her palm and grazes the tip of his throat. A bead of blood slides down his neck.
“If either of you move a hair, I’ll slash this man’s throat wide open,” the villain says. “Hands up. Slowly.”
Raising his hands - slowly - Aoyama recalls the information Best Jeanist’s side kicks had gathered about the group of villains that had infiltrating the office building. One of them was an escaped convict who could shoot arrows of bone out of her palm. Villain name: Artemis. This must be her.  
Aoyama struggles not to start shaking. It was indeed true he wanted to be part of the spotlight, but alas, he still gets frightened when facing villains.
He looks into the eyes of the hostage. The man is sweating very ungracefully, his eyes full of fear. With the villain’s palm at his neck, there’s not much he can do. He may be afraid, but this man was even more afraid. Aoyama has to do something, he has to stall, or fight, or something - he can't let another person be kidnapped because he was too afraid.
He hears a huff of breath from beside him. Bakugou is practically fuming at the ears. Aoyama knows he’s itching for a fight, a fight he could probably win. But even Bakugou knows he can’t put the hostage’s life at risk. He’s just waiting for the right opportunity.
Aoyama can give him that opportunity.
As the villain creeps out the door, hostage held firm, Aoyama waits for her to cross paths with his palm.
Now.
Aoyama fires a laser from his palm. It hits the villain’s hand instantly.
“Youch!” Her hand recoils in pain, giving Bakugou the initiative to attack.
BOOM! A cloud of smoke erupts around them, concealing them from the villain. Aoyama makes a note to thank the support department for the new upgrades to his costume that allow him to shoot lasers from his palms as well as his knees.
Under the cover of the smokescreen, Aoyama points his palm toward the sky and fires -
Pain erupts in his right shoulder. Aoyama keels over. Merde. Firing his laser has given away his position, making him the perfect target for Artemis.
His left hand reaches up for his shoulder and wrapsaround a thin beam of bone. The slightest tug sends a ripple of fiery pain down his arm, and his hand recoils. It comes away bloody.
Aoyama grits and his teeth and hefts himself to his feet, determined to ignore the pain. Did the others see his signal before it was cut short? His laser had only flashed for an instant, nearly impossible for anyone to see. It wouldn't be enough to pinpoint their location.
He can fire again, and risk giving away his position, or he can join the fight.
Dark figures dart in and out of the smoke, which grows thinner by the moment. He hears a yell to the left of him, followed by an explosion.
“Shit - there’s another one!” comes Bakugou’s shout. Eyes tearing up from the smoke, he blinks rapidly. Two - no, three - figures battle just a few feet away from him. Another boom, and a low voice cries out in pain.
Aoyama gulps. Even the villain had friends, it seemed.
Counting on Bakugou to hold them off a little longer, Aoyama searches blindly through the smoke until he finds the hostage. The man is frozen in fear, glossy eyes trained on Bakugou’s fight.
Aoyama grabs his arm and hauls him to his feet. “Run to the front of the building. They’ll help you,” he says.
After a moment, the light seems to come back to the hostage’s eyes, and he makes a run for the front. Bien, at least the hostage is -
An elbow slams into his back, knocking him to the ground. He yelps as the arrow is pushed deeper into his arm. He nearly blacks out from the pain.
Not a second passes when he’s yanked up off the ground by his arm, bringing him face to face with Artemis’s friend.
“Nice going, kid,” says the man. Burns scald the side of his face. Bakugou must have got to him, but it hadn’t been enough to slow him down. “You’ll have to be our hostage now.”
The smoke is completely clear now. He dangles from the man’s grip, arm crying out in pain. Or maybe that’s just him crying.
A few feet away, he sees Artemis slamming Bakugou against the wall, his arms twisted uncomfortably behind him so his palms face his back. He’s covered in blood - it runs down his arms like sleeves, dying the orange highlights of his costume red. There’s a bone sticking out of his side.
Artemis pushes forward, so his cheek scrapes the wall. “Don’t even think about moving,” she hisses into his ear.
The villain drops him, and Aoyama hits the floor. His stomach surges and his vision swims, but he forces himself up anyway. Have to...call for...help...
A kick to his side nearly knocks him over. “Get on your knees, and raise your hands up.”
Aoyama grins, and slowly raises his hands.
Artemis whips around, eyes wide. “No - put his hands down!” she demands. Before Aoyama can fire his palm lasers, the other villain yanks his hands down and restrains them behind his back.
Artemis snarls at him. “I’m not falling for that one twice.”
Aoyama smiles. “Of course not, madame.”
Artemis narrows her eyes in suspicion, and Aoyama seizes his chance. He tilts his hips up and fires his navel laser, temporarily blinding her. Artemis blinks. Bakugou takes advantage of her surprise to slip out of her grip. He flips her over and reverses their positions.
“Bet you thought...you got the best of me...bitch,” Bakugou grumbles as he pushes her against the wall, her cheek scraping against the concrete. Her side is decorated in burns, her mess of white hair spotted with red.
The other villain lunges toward him. Aoyama points his laser at the ground and launches himself a few feet away. Arm shaking, Aoyama raises his left hand into the sky and fires a final call for help. Neon purple light clears a path through the night sky, touching the stars.
He’s safe, now. The others will see his signal, and they’ll come and save them, like they always do.  
His leg gives out from underneath him as the villain tackles him to the ground. His head smacks against the ground with a crack. The villain looms over him, horrid breath leaking out of his grin. Aoyama squeezes his eyes shut and braces his arms over his head, prepared for the worst, when the the world erupts in a fiery explosion. The villain flies off of him. He’s knocked straight into a brick wall and passes out.
There, to his left, stands Bakugou. Behind him lies Artemis in a heap of blood and ash. He lowers his hand, chest heaving, blood still gushing from the bone sticking out of his stomach. Dark smears outline his sweat-shining face. A fire shines in his eyes. He looks like a hero.
Aoyama picks himself up, using the wall for support to make his way over to Bakugou. The other heroes will be here soon. A good thing, too, because they're at their limit.  
Bakugou pants heavily, his gaze not entirely focused.
“Nice job, Baku - ”
Bakugou slumps to the ground, and passes out cold.
Merde. His wounds must have been too much for him.
Something stirs behind him. Aoyama whips around. Artemis rises up, bloody and burned from her fight with Bakugou, but somehow still conscious.
“I knew I got the best of you, child,” she says, pointing her palm at Bakugou.
Aoyama raises a shaking hand toward Artemis. His stomach threatens to blow, but Aoyama doesn’t care if he throws up now.
The moment the bone leaves her palm, a blur of red flies on top of Bakugou. Artemis’ arrow glances off of Kirishima harmlessly.
He watches as a troupe of heros runs into the back alley, quickly subduing Artemis. His friends finally here to help, Aoyama allows himself to keel over, puking his guts out in peace with the knowledge that his friends had the situation under control.
When Bakugou’s squad comes to visit him in the hospital, Aoyama isn’t surprised.
“What are you fucks doing here?” Bakugou barks.
“We’re just so happy to see you’re okay!” Ashido shouts.
“I was so scared when I saw you lying on the ground there,” Kirishima says.
“Yeah, he saved your life by jumping in front of you dude!” Sero yells.
Aoyama watches from his bed across the room as they dote on him, showering him in tears and teasing him mercilessly. Red-faced Bakugou tries to get them to back down and leave, but his efforts are in vain. Actually, Aoyama doesn’t think he’s trying that hard at all. His red cheeks aren’t from exasperation, but from embarrassment. Maybe even happiness. Though he’s not positive that Bakugou’s familiar with the feeling.
It’s curious. Bakugou so adamantly refused he had friends, yet that’s exactly how their classmates treated him - like a friend. They’re like secret friends, friends Bakugou didn’t even know he had.
“Hey. Twinkly pants.”
So lost in his own thoughts, Aoyama nearly missed when Bakugou addressed him.
When he looks over, Bakugou nods. Just nods - a gentleman’s thank you.
Aoyama grins and salutes him with a wink. He glances at Bakugou’s squad, who chatter over one of the gifts beside Bakugou’s bed. He raises an eyebrow. “Not your friends?” he asks.
Bakugou rolls his eyes, but there’s no venom behind it. Aoyama giggles, knowing his point had been made.
Bakugou’s squad captures his attention again, and they go back to laughing and doting, leaving Aoyama to sit silently in his bed.
In middle school, he would have had a crowd surrounding him, praising him for his bravery and asking after his health. Now he's alone, like he has been since he started at U.A.
Would his middle school friends have come to him in his time of need, though? The moment he shined his laser into the sky, he knew he was safe, because he knew his classmates would come after him. He’d never have trusted his friends in middle school to have his back. He trusted class 1-A instinctively. They’d saved him and Bakugou, just like he knew they would.
But that was when he was in danger. Now it was over, and they probably had their own matters to attend to. That was it, of course. They were colleagues, and colleagues were meant to keep professional relationships. Not that he needed anyone to visit him anyway, a gentleman needs only himself -
“AOYAMAAAAA!”
In an instant, three figure run up to his side and someone throws their arms around his neck, bringing him into a crushing hug. He squeaks in pain and they let go. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” Uraraka says. There, standing on either side of her, are Tsuyu, Tokoyami, and Ojiro.
Warmth blooms in Aoyama’s chest, and it’s not from pain.
“Oh my god, we were so scared when we heard the news!” Uraraka practically shouts. “That was incredible what you did with Bakugou, but that was so dangerous! You handled it really well but I’m sorry you still got hurt.”
“What she means to say is we’re glad you’re okay,” Tsuyu says.
Aoyama smiles. “Thank you, ladies. And gentlemen.”
“So what even happened? Aizawa-sensei wouldn’t give us all the details,” Ojiro asks.
He considers brushing off his request to maintain his aura of mysteriousness, but Aoyama is an excellent storyteller and it’d be a shame to put his talents to waste. He jumps into the tale of his daring fight, and they listen with wide eyes as he describes the terrifying villain Artemis and her face off against Bakugou. He has to admit, the attention is nice.
“It’s lucky Kirishima and the others were there,” Tsuyu says. “You’re lucky to have strong friends like them.”
It hits him like a bitter gulp of tea. Friend. She said friend. Did the others consider them friends? He hadn’t realized. Maybe, just like Bakugou, Aoyama has secret friends, too.
“Most certainly,” Aoyama says, looking from Bakugou’s bed to his own, each surrounded by friends. “I am very lucky, indeed.”
ao3 | based on this hc | more like this
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chaos-makes-themuse · 4 years
Text
Storm x Fem! Oc
Scream
The mission was simple. Get into the Hydra base, get the information and anything else she could, and then get out to the small gorge near the base, where she would be picked up by one of the Avengers, probably Thor or Tony.
Costia repeated that to herself over and over again as she shut the door of the Hydra laboratory behind her. The com in her ear was silent, as she expected. She had volunteered to go on the mission while the rest of the Avengers went to meet up with the X-Men, their new apparent allies. Costia has volunteered for the mission mainly because she hates social interaction, especially with new people. They tended to be scared of her as soon as they saw her.
The door behind her shut, and the lights were already on. She had hacked into their systems, pretending to be someone from higher up in the Hydra chain of command, and called in a bomb threat. The rush to get out was obvious. Papers and folder were strewn across the floor and desks. Folders and documents were left opened and unlocked on computer screens, and chemicals were left bubbling in test tubes and bottles above open flames.
She smirked as she pulled the flash drive out of the small storage bracelet on her wrist attached to her black outfit. She walked over to the first computer and plugged it into the drive port and downloaded all the information from that computer into it.
She hurried up with the rest of the computers in the lab, knowing she had limited time before Hydra figures out that the bomb threat was fake and someone had infiltrated the base, and when that happened, they would come back in guns blazing. And Costia didn’t want to be there when that happened.
She was at the last computer when something happened. As she was downloading information into the drive, there was a small beep from the desk next to her. Sparing a glance next to her, she saw a metal box with a small red circle in the center with a keyhole in it. She turned her attention back to the computer and downloaded the last of the information before giving her full attention to the box. When she inspected it further, she saw it was closed on all of the edges except for the red circle, and there was no visible key in sight.
Her curiosity got the best of her, but she told herself that she was supposed to get anything she could. Stepping forward, she pressed her finger to the box, and almost instantly, the entire thing was coated in ice. Smirking, she snapped her fingers, and the ice cracked, breaking the entire box with it, revealing what was on the inside.
A small vanilla folder fell out of the box. It was filled with paper, and there were post it notes peeking out of the corners and sides. Her fingers skimmed over the cover before she flipped it open.
She wasn’t fully expecting what was on the inside. The papers were just pictures, but not pictures at the same time. They had obviously been taken with cameras, but there were no images, just blobs of black and white and grey. It almost seemed like pieces of a puzzle, but she quickly shut that thought down when she saw the other papers. None of them seemed to go together of fit with one another in any way shape or form.
“What the hell?” She muttered to herself. All she could think of was why Hydra would have this, especially under such protection.
Confused, she flipped the cover back over, and looked for any writing other then the post it notes, which she would look at when she got back to the Compound. But on the front of the folder, was one word.
Peculiars.
She gasped as something inside her seemed to snap. The word was so familiar, like she had heard it a million times. Costia blinked as images flashed before her eyes. They were fast, too fast for her to comprehend at that exact moment, but she managed to see a city, and a little girl with a crown on her head, and a boy in a suit.
When she blinked again, she saw the lab. Confused, she shook off what she had just seen. She put the flash drive back into her storage bracelet, and unzipped her jacket, placing the folder in between her shirt and it, then zipped it back up again. She took one last look around the lab, looking to see if she had missed anything important.
That was when she heard it. A crackling like static in her ear, and what resembled some sort of words could be heard.
Her finger went up to the com and pressed it.
“Tony? Is that you?” She asked into the com. Right after she said it, it went silent.
She scoffed at herself. “Of course it’s not Tony, he’s with the rest, meeting the X-Men.” She told herself. She shook it off as some kind of interference from a radio broadcast she had accidentally picked up.
Nodding to herself, she began to walk out of the room. That was when she heard something else.
“Costia? Costia if you can hear me, I need you to respond.” A man said.
Costia whipped around, only to be met with nothing. But she had heard the man, a man with a British accent.
She pulled her gun out of holster on her thigh and held it up in front of her, ready for anything.
“Costia, you don’t need to raise your gun. I’m not really there. My name is Charles Xavier.” The man said.
Oh, shit.
She placed her gun back in its holster, and looked around. “I know who you are.” She said. “You’re with the rest of the Avengers right now.” Then she thought of something. “How can you see me?”
“I’m using Cerebro, but that isn’t important right now. You need to get out of there. Tony tried to reach you through the com, but the signal has been jammed.” He paused for a moment, and when he spoke again, his voice was urgent, and he was yelling. “Costia get out of there! Hydra knows you’re there, it’s a trap!”
Just as he said it, the wall next to her exploded. She wa thrown back into the wall by the force, and her head collided with the stone, sending waves of pain though her skull.
“Costia, run!” It was Wanda now.
Without another thought, she pushed herself up and ran.
She could feel her heart beating in her chest. She didn’t know where she was going, but she could hear the Hydra soldiers running behind her. But she was fast, much faster then they were, but they knew the base better then she did.
She turned a corner and ran faster. Up ahead, a sign on the top of the wall caught her eye, rapidly getting closer as she ran. She was able to catch the words “Roof Access” before she skidded time a stop and turned down the hallway the sign was pointing to, and then she ran again, faster this time.
Up ahead at the end of the hallway was a ladder. I’m seconds, she reached it and her hands wrapped around the first rung. Then she started to climb. She climbed up it almost as fast as she ran, and by the time she reached the top, she could hear the Hydra soldiers at the end of the hallway, yelling in German. She pushed up on the door, climbing out and onto the roof.
As soon as her feet made contact with the roof’s ground, she slammed the door down. There was no lock, so she formed a huge block of ice on top of it. As soon as she did, there was pounding from the underside of it.
“Shit.” She muttered. She could feel blood trickling down the back of her neck, and it began to run down the front of her face. She quickly wiped it away, and her finger came back stained with the red substance.
She looked around, looking for an escape route. The only thing on all sides of her were woods, and Hydra no doubt had soldiers stationed everywhere on the ground, ready to kill her as soon as she was in their line of sight. But on one side, was the gore. There was no ground on that side, as Hydra had set up their base on the edge of the cliff.
“Costia, I’m two minutes out. Stay where you are.” Tony’s voice suddenly broke through her coms.
“Ok. Ok.” She said. She blinked, and suddenly everything was blurry. She swayed don her feet slightly, a little disoriented. But when she blinked again, it was back to normal.
From behind her, she could hear the pounding stop, replaced by the sound of machinery. She blinked, and an image flashed before her. It was underneath the door, in the hallway, where some kind of weapon was being set up. Another image flashed before her eyes, this time it was the weapon itself in some kind of testing chamber. A soldier pressed the button, and a red hot beam shot out of it, obliterating the targets and leaving nothing but ash behind.
She blinked, and the images were gone.
“Tony, I’m not gonna last for two minutes. They’ve got some kind of laser that shoots red hot beams. And you know how I am with heat.”
She heard Tony curse, and she could barely hear the sound of his repulsors boosting up. “Ok, just stay where you are. I’m thirty seconds out. Just stay there.”
She could hear the weapon charging up, getting ready to fire, and her gaze was brought back to the gore. An idea formed in her head.
“Costia, I would highly advise against what you’re thinking.” Charles said.
“What? What is she thinking?” Tony said.
Then Wanda’s voice broke through. “No, she can do it. She doesnt have much choice, but she’s done more dangerous things then this and lived.”
She heard the weapon fire. The beam shot up into the sky, like a deadly spotlight.
“What the fuck is that?!” Tony yelled.
“Out of time, Tony! Pick me up on the far side of the gorge.” Costia yelled. She began running towards the edge of the roof. With every second, she built up speed.
Tony seemed to figure out what she was doing. “Costia, no don’t-“
She jumped. Below her all she could see was the bottom of the gorge. She flattened out her body so she was parallel to the floor and her stomach was towards the ground. It only slowed her fall a little. She reached back and pulled two knives out of her boots, as long as her forearm.
As she got closer and closer to the ground, she drifted closer and closer to the wall of the gorge. Once she was close enough, sh shoved the knives into the cliff. She screamed as the force tore at her arms. She heard something crack ash she desperately held onto the handles of the blades. They skidded down inside the rock. It slowed her fall just enough that she didn’t die when she hit the ground. It just hurt like a bitch.
She hit the ground so hard that she heard and felt at least three of her ribs crack. She screamed and her hands flew to her stomach, but even that hurt.
Suddenly, a bullet pierced the gorge wall a foot from her face. She looked up at the opposite edge, and saw a line of Hydra soldiers aiming their guns at her.
“Fuck.” She muttered. She stood up as quickly as she could without injuring herself even more and picked up her knives, shoving one into her boot and keeping one in her arm that she could actually lift, while the other arm hung limply at her side, most likely broken or dislocated. Another soldier shot at her, and she lifted her knife just in time to deflect the bullet.
She started running away as fast as she could, only making it a couple of yards before the pain became to much and she threw her sled behind a rock formation, trying to find shelter from the bullets.
“Tony, where the hell are you?!” She yelled. A bullet hit the rock next to her, skimming her cheek and drawing a thin line of blood. But compared to her other pain, it was nothing.
“I’m right here.” Tony said. She looked up, and only saw a blur of red and gold in front of her.
“Shit, Tony. Everything’s going dark.” She said. She couldn’t hear him yelling at her to stay awake before the darkness took over her and she passed out.
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thefoodwiththedood · 7 years
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OC Fact: In a recent game, Rek rolled so well on a lie check that he convinced a security guard to let him and Korrtak into a crime scene to perform a "wookie atonement ritual," which included, among other things, the guard turning the cameras away, leaving the door open, and closing his eyes.
Tell me a fact about your oc and I will respond with a semi-related fact about mine
Duuude, that’s awesome! Rek’s such a shyster, I love it :D
Hes and Russ did something similar—though to be fair, their success was mostly due to dumb luck and Imperial incompetence, rather than any cunning on their part.
(This is likely gonna be a long story, so buckle up and click that “read more” link to check it out! I’d recommend checking out Russoc’s origin story here first, though, cuz I’ll call back to that a lot in this.
On one fateful Empire Day in 17 BBY, Hes Chaddic (barely 17 years old at the time), and Russoc Dhaalgondt (35 years old, and a rebel for only one week of that) were hanging out in Montellian Serat, watching the Imps parade their arsenal through the city streets. The Angels’ leader at the time, Jussalc’sai’Truertos, had told the entire band of rebels not to try anything at the parade—”too much risk”, as he’d put it. Hes was never one for just sitting around, especially as a rowdy teenager, but begrudgingly she and Russ agreed to lay low. So, for that afternoon, the two just sat on a rooftop and watched the bucketheads meander past them.
It wasn’t how Hes had wanted it to go, though: she’d hoped she and Russ would get to rough up the Imps a bit, just to make ‘em look like the idiots they are. She thought that was just what Russ needed to help him cheer up—ever since he joined the Angels, he’d been a total sad sack. Sure, he pulled his weight and everything, but rather than laugh and have fun like the other Angels, he just seemed to wanna sit alone and be sad. It was so weird to Hes—she remembered him being so happy and kindhearted when she first met him at his veggie stand, but now he just seemed so…lifeless. Probably ‘cause the Imps took his horns, Hes thought to herself—yeah, that was definitely it. So of course fighting them would help—revenge always helps, after all!
And so, Hes would set about to get her new friend his revenge. Halfway through the parade, the horns blaring “Glory of the Empire” were interrupted by Hes gasping loudly, and the sudden force of her hand on his shoulder shook Russ from his moping. She pointed off to a stage at the end of one street, where several wanted posters of criminals (namely ones of fellow Devaron’s Angels) were displayed, with a bounty set under each of them. What had Hes so excited was the leftmost poster—her own wanted poster, displaying a bounty comparably higher than anyone else’s. Russ failed to see the humor in this, but he could tell Hes was excited, so he smiled and halfheartedly congratulated her.
Hes smiled proudly, but then stopped as an idea began to formulate in her mind. She went silent as she thought it out, but in a moment she was smiling again, this time with an almost malicious look in her eyes. Russ looked quizzically at her for a moment, but before he could even ask what was up, Hes started to relay her plan: She would be giving herself up to the Imperials. Russ did a double take as she said it, and without hesitation he replied, “You’ve lost your mind!”. Hes wasn’t deterred, though, and she continued to share her idea.
Her plan went as follows: Russ would drag her to the nearest trooper he could find, where he’d say he “caught one of the rebels”. The trooper would of course turn away to take Russ to collect his reward, at which point the both of them would rush him and, if necessary, take him out permanently. Then, Russ would put on the trooper’s armor (his lack of horns would make it so the helmet would fit perfectly), and “escort” Hes back to the nearest Imperial stronghold for “questioning”. Once there, the two of them would just plant thermal detonators everywhere they could, steal as much as they could carry, and escape on whatever ship they could find—and bam! Angels: 1, Empire: 0!
While Russ admitted he liked the idea in theory, he worried how it would work in practice—Hes was a terrible actor, for one, not to mention all the ways they could get killed once they made it inside the stronghold. “Besides,” Russ even said, “Truertos told us it’s not worth the risk”. Hes immediately shot back that Truertos was an idiot, and that it would totally, 100%, without-a-doubt work. Her goading got her nowhere at first, but then she said something about it being revenge for what they took from him—immediately, Russ was on board.
And so, they put the plan into motion—and it went about as well as you’d guess. Russ played his part well enough, but Hes almost got them caught every time she was forced to act like a prisoner: there was a lot of the “Oh, woe is me, I’ve been nabbed by the authorities!” and “Curse you, you Imperial scum! You haven’t seen the last of me!” type of postulating from her. Yet, miraculously, they made it into the Imperial stronghold, and from there they got to work. First, they raided the weapon’s depot and put every remote thermal detonator they had on everything of value. Next, they took all the food, guns, and ammo they could hold in their four combined hands. And somehow, by a combination of not-so-careful sneaking and the mere fact that the Imps were more focused on Empire Day than guarding the facility, they made it to the hangar to make their escape.
Problem was, there was hardly a usable ship in the whole room. All the TIEs were out at the parade, all the shuttles were on lockdown, and there was no way they were gonna try to get their whole haul out on speeder bike. Their only barely viable option was one shitty clone wars-era ship in the back of the room—an old Nubian Freefall-class bomber, which was obviously only being used for spare parts. Russ and Hes debated for a moment about finding something different (as well as how stupid the plan was, according to Russ), but before they could think of a better option, blaster fire and trooper jargon started coming from the corridor behind them. Suddenly, the Freefall looked like a gift from the heavens.
The two quickly hopped on board, dropping all their loot in the cargo hold the second they walked in. Without taking a moment to decide who should go where, Hes ran to the cockpit, while Russ ran to the rear gunner seat. As he got settled in, however, Russ called out to Hes on the internal com: “Hey, Chaddic? You know how to fly this thing, right?” Confidently as ever, Hes called back, “Nope! Not a kriffin’ clue!” Before Russ could protest or suggest he fly, the engines roared to life and the ship took to the sky.
At first, it looked like they were home free—and then the engines started to stall. Instantly the bomber tumbled from the sky, nosediving right towards the parade. Hes began to flip switches and pull levers wildly, and miraculously, the ship’s engines started again just before they hit the ground. Of course, they then had a new problem—the literal army of Imperial forces marching towards them. A barrage of crimson lasers began raining on the ship, leaving literal bulletholes in the fuselage, and just as Hes got the shields working she called back to Russ: “Yo, Dhaaldgondt! Hit the switch on those detonators and start firin’ back, will ya?”
Just then, Russ remembered he was in the gunner’s seat. He pressed the button on the remote detonator he was carrying and began firing back with everything the ship still had, sending troops flying and vehicles exploding as the stronghold explode into a massive orange-and-black fireball. As he watched the carnage erupt before his eyes, Russ felt something awaken in him. He remembered the faces of the flametroopers torching his home—his family burning alive before him. He remembered the fury he felt as he killed them all—the sadness and anger, all rolled together. Now, he was dishing that back out, to all the white-clad sons ‘a bitches who’d taken everything from him—and it felt good.
On Hes’ end of the internal com, she began to hear Russ laughing maniacally, shouting a string of obscenities at the Empire as a whole. Confused, she looked on the ship’s rear camera, only to see a massive plume of smoke and fire where the Imperial arsenal had once stood. Holy shit, she thought, this guy’s goin’ nuts! She worried about him for a second as she flew, but then she realized—this is exactly what she wanted. As bloodthirsty as his fun was, Russ was having fun—whatever bundle of emotions he was feeling now, sadness sure wasn’t one of ‘em. Hes smiled to herself proudly as she flew out over the jungle, leaving the Empire Day parade in smoldering shambles behind them.
Eventually, Hes and Russ made it back to the Angels’ base, where they were promptly scolded by Truertos. He calmed down a bit when they showed off their haul, of course, but he made sure to let them know he was still mad. Neither of them cared, though—they’d made Empire Day into a victory for the rebels, and they had a blast doin’ it. The two then decided to sit together on the nose of the Freefall—Hes was thinking of calling it the “Lady Lucy”, though she wasn’t certain yet—and watch the sunset, laughing heartily at their hard-won victory.
As they sat, Russ suddenly went quiet before turning to Hes. “Thanks, kid…” he said, “For helpin’ me have some fun,”
Hes laughed. “No problem, man, thanks for goin’ along with my shitty plan,” she, too, went quiet for a moment before speaking again. “If you don’t mind me askin’, Russ…what had you so down in the first place?”
With a heavy sigh, Russ decided to tell her his story. He told her about Zolovau, about his daughters, about their farm…about how it was all taken by the Empire. And all because he couldn’t pay his stupid debts—he lost everything, just because his vegetables weren’t selling well. As Hes listened, she almost started crying, because she knew exactly how that felt. She didn’t feel ready to tell Russ she used to be a Jedi yet, but she did say this: “I know what it feels like to have everything taken away…I’m so sorry, man,”
Russ laughed. “Y’know…maybe it isn’t all bad,” he said, smiling just a little, “I’ve lost what I can never replace, but…I have the feeling I’ve found something new, too,”
Hes smiled back, chuckling ever so slightly. “Me too, big guy…me too.”
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