In the facility where the Fire Lord
and Witch Doctor were conversing…
“What are you doing here?”
Fire Lord asked Drack and Cain, who had just entered their chamber, with his
and Witch Doctor’s cautious permission. They both had their gang members in
ready positions for and attack, just in case, but to not look like it. They
didn’t want Cain and Drack to be threatened pre-maturely.
“Yes,
what brings you two here?” Witch Doctor asked.
Drack
said, “I was hoping both of you would be here. We are here to confirm our
alliance with you two. Well, for Cain and I, anyway.”
“Exactly,”
Cain said. “We both received word from the Capitol that a gang of Hunters had
killed a platoon of Searchers. We wanted to make sure that you knew that, even
in this major event, we do not plan to take any actions against you or your
gangs. We’ve done our best to avoid conflicts of this sort.”
The
Witch Doctor asked, “What did the Leaders have to say about this incident?”
Drack
replied, “The Black Phantom was furious!”
As
Drack was speaking, The Fire Lord and Witch Doctor made a subtle signal for
their gangs to be at ease.
“He
and the other Leaders agreed to have the Searchers deviate from their typical
patrols to try and catch the culprits off guard. But, the Captain of the City
Guard and Searchers did not want us to attack just any Hunter we see. We have
been, and will continue to keep a war against all Hunters from happening as
best as we can.”
Fire
Lord then said, “Alright. Thank you both. We will also do our best to keep
Hunters, whether it be our gangs or neighboring gangs, from recklessly engaging
in quarrels with Searchers or City Guards. But, we can only do so much. As you
know, a lot of the other Hunters want to avoid being under the control of a
large governing body.”
Witch
Doctor also said, “I’m glad you came here to give us this report, and that we
could set up these parameters of our agreement. Thank you. If there is anything
else, let us know as soon as you can. We hope to be prepared for whatever
happens.”
“We’re
glad to help.” Cain said.
“But, we had better be on our way now,” Drack said. “We
have a lot of ground to cover today, thanks to those rogue Hunters. Farewell.”
Cain and Drack left the facility satisfied at how well
the meeting went.
“Well, back at it again.” Drack commented as he and Cain
stepped into their patrol vehicle. Then, they took off, nodding their heads in
a respectful manor towards the Hunters who were stationed outside the chamber.
--
Bang Bang Bang!
“What
is that?” Sheer thought. The sound was coming from the back door of The House.
The
Stray put in charge of the Radar monitoring pressed a button. A window popped
up on the computer monitor showing live feed from the camera at the back door.
There
was a collective ‘Gasp!’
“It…
its Jerin, Oran and Callibur!” Sheer said loudly.
“Let
them in!” Aleck said.
The
Stray pressed the unlock button.
Sheer
sprinted there and arrived at the door first. Opening it up, she found the
three to be very worn out. But, something appeared wrong with Callibur. Jerin
and Oran were holding him since he could barely walk.
Aleck,
after observing this said, “What can we do to help you guys?”
Jerein
responded, “Get him to a table so he can get worked on.”
Aleck
and Sheer quickly took the place of Oran and Jerin.
Cheering
could be heard from behind the group. The Alliance was very, very happy to see
their leader Jerin, the Hero, Callibur and one of their greatest hopes, Oran.
Sheer
insisted that Jerin and Oran get some rest, and that things would be fine.
Aleck assured to them that he would see how things went with Callibur. So,
after Jerin shared what happened with Aleck and Sheer, and informed them of the
injuries that Callibur had, he watched as Callibur was brought to a room to be
cared for. The operators decided to Callibur under while they performed repairs.
The main operator came out and told Jerin and Oran that Callibur would be fine,
they were relieved enough to head to their quarters to get some rest. Aleck
walked into Jerin’s room and chatted for a little bit. He left with, “Get some
rest, friend. You’ve done well!”
Aleck
emereged from the room to make an announcement. “Well, they are all doing okay.
Callibur is injured, so he will need some rest and repairs. Also, I think rest
is a little something all of us need right about now. So, let’s all call it a
day and get some rest too. Though, we will still need someone to take watch. We
mustn’t leave our guard down.”
There
was a general agreement, and a few Alliance members went to their posts for the
watch.
Eventually, after the two Strays and
Hero who braved their mission were rested enough, and Callibur got the
necessary repairs, they would tell the tale of their dangerous return.
Jerin
spoke first, “It began with us just finishing with the installation of the
radar dome. Once we began heading back here very cautiously, we were all
alarmed to see a missile heading our way.”
Oran
then said, “I saw it heading our way on the Square module, and turned around.
“Then,”
Callibur began, “the missile barely missed us. We got down justtttt in time to
feel the heat of it go right over our bodies and smash into the ground a few
yards from us. But, one giant chunk of rock was launched form the impact, and
crushed my leg.” He said this while pointing to his newly repaired leg. Fortunately,
the Alliance had the proper materials to give him some new armor plating.
A
young Stray asked, “How did you escape?”
Oran
responded with, “As soon as we realized we were all still alive, I began
thinking of a rout of escape. If Searcher procedures were still the same, they
would be closing in on the blast zone soon. We had little time to get through.
Fortunately for us, the rubble that was blown up also threw a lot of dust into
the air, giving us more cover. But, still, not much time remained. We then
realized Callibur was injured greatly. So, Jerin and I had to lift him off the
ground. We moved as fast as we could. Callibur used his good leg to help move
us faster. The smoke and dust was clearing fast. I was afraid we would be
spotted.”
“So,”
Jerin said, “as we were only a few yards from the blast zone, a massive wave of
heat hit our backs. The missile, we came to find out, was an incendiary round,
a projectile that also releases an additional wave of fire. The shock of it
nearly knocked us on our faces. The flames continued blazing, giving us a
little more time to escape. Deathly black smoke rose from the flames.”
Callibur
then said, “If we had left a moment too late, that could have been us in those
flames… Wow.”
“It
really is crazy.” Oran said. “Thankfully, Jerin had the idea to head to a
building nearby to get out of sight. So, we got in as fast as we could. We had
to make it through the whole city, avoiding Villains. Fortunately for us, there
weren’t any Searchers on patrol. My guess is the group of Searchers trying to
kill us had been assigned to that area.”
Callibur
then concluded with, “After our long trek, we arrived to the back door of the
House. We didn’t have our Square unit, so it would have been hard to track us.
It was destroyed in the blaze.”
“Thank
goodness you all are okay!” Sheer said.
“I’d
have to say the same!” Aleck also said.
The
Alliance held a small applause.
Sheer
and Aleck looked at the two Strays and Hero, smiled, and clapped along.
Sheer
then walked up and embraced Jerin. Aleck stepped up to Oran and hugged him
along with Callibur, bringing the three close, in a brotherly embrace.
For
the first time in a while, Oran felt real comfort.
--
Back at the
Villain Researcher’s Laboratory…
Darkon
read off the list from his electronic tablet. “Cameras?”
“Check!”
a researcher said.
“Hero
in place?”
“Check!”
“Decim8r
in place?”
“Check!”
“Very
good, then. Let us begin the simulation.”
The
giant tube where Nex was held opened, revealing the virtual biome to him. The
electronic hand cuffs were remotely released from his hands, and fell to the
ground. Clink!
The
tube and cuffs disappeared and Nex was awakened. He looked around, wondering
what was going one. Where he was. All he remembered was seeing a massive
Villain, likely the dreaded Anak staring at him through the small barred window
of his cell, then being shocked and knocked out from electricity coming from
the cell walls. Now it appeared he was in a vast landscape. It looked like he
was outside the Castle. Houses were left in piles of rubble. Nothing lively
seemed to be around. It was as if he was on the outskirts of the Capitol City.
He looked to his left and his right. Nothing. Then, when he looked down, he saw
his weapon. He cautiously picked it up. It was the very blaster he had during
the Villain Breakout. He cocked the blaster. It was fully loaded. He started
walking around, confused and still slightly dazed. He stopped, closed his eyes
and shook his head, clearing his mind, opened them again. He continued looking
around and behind him, wondering what was going on.
The
Villain Leaders and Researchers along with Anak watched the clueless Hero.
Darkon
smiled a wicked grin.
The
Leaders were intrigued, wanting to know when the action would hit. The camera
view switched to where Project Weapon was, hiding inside a destroyed house,
awaiting instructions.
Darkon
called the Leaders over a microphone he had. “What do you wish for Decim8r to
do?”
The
Leaders took a few moments to respond.
Von
Nebula suggested, “How about we have it kill the sorry Hero?”
“Or,”
Black Phantom said, “We could have the machine capture, injure, but not kill
the Hero?”
“I
have an idea,” Voltix said. “How about we give all the Heroes a live feed of
what’s going on in the Test Chamber right now.”
“I
like that one,” Von Nebula said.
“As
do I.” Black Phantom replied.
“Very
well. We’ll decide as we watch the carnage. We won’t have him killed just yet,”
Voltix said.
“Have
him captured, for now, don’t kill the Hero yet. Make the Weapon have some fun
with it first. We plan to give the Heroes in detainment a live feed of the
whole thing.”
“It
shall be done.” Darkon said in response. He soon gave the orders to Decim8r.
Stormer
heard something in his cell. The TV was coming down. Strange. Then he saw his
comrade Nex on the monitor, all alone. All the rest of the Team Alpha Heroes
saw their partner on their own screen as well, wondering what this was all
about.
To
Be Continued in Part 5
