Chapter 6: No "I" in "Team"
Emperor Gassuk stepped into the main room. Office workers were staring at the battered Gassuk as it stormed straight ahead. A couple of passer-bys would stop and ask about it only to have Gassuk cuss them away.
Gassuk swerved around pedestrians as he quickly walked its way around in a hallway on the multi-colored carpeting. Once it bumped into a worker, causing it to drop its papers, but Gassuk dismissed him with swears and left it fallen as Gassuk continued to storm away.
It finally opened a door decorated with the Empire's emblem and slammed the door behind it. On-lookers stared in confusion.
An official-looking virus cautiously opened the door to see Gassuk's office. The round carpet had a desk at the far side, again decorated with the Empire's emblem, with a large window behind it. Gassuk sat at its desk with its head in a hand, fingers massaging its eyebrows.
The newly-introduced virus spoke nervously.
"Uh, sir...?"
"Leave me alone," Gassuk spoke gravely, not looking up.
"Uh, sir? I was just coming to ask about your transfer from your temp-office to-"
Gassuk interupted when it shifted its gaze to the virus at the door. "I'm not leaving this planet until that Benedict is dead."
The nervous virus shifted through its papers.
"Um... right sir," it stammered as Gassuk looked on with anger. "And about this incident... they... the investigating team... uh..."
Gassuk slammed on its desk and stood to yell at its incompitent employee. "Either speak or get the hell out of my sight!"
The nervous virus jumped and stammered even more.
"The... the- the- the investigation branch is sure it's the Brotherhood, sir..."
Gassuk's tense posture lessened. "The Brotherhood...?"
"Um... it's... it's a terrorist group..."
Gassuk was getting angry again. "Why am I just now learning about them?"
"Uh... we... we haven't heard from them in a while and sort of figured... uh... it wasn't important..."
"Sure as fuck isn't the case now, is it?!"
The nervous virus stammered with a multitude of "uh" and shuffled its papers around in its hands. Gassuk grew angery again and picked up a paperweight to chuck it at the virus. It dented the wall and caused the nervous virus to jump and stare in fear.
"You know what?!" Gassuk yelled after throwing the object. "Just get out of here! I-I-I-I need to think..."
The virus still stared, but finally scuttled out of the office when it received a loud "GO!!!".
Gassuk looked at the closed door and slowly lowered into its chair. It leaned over to massage its temples.
*****
The damaged paddywagon was speeding on an empty plain. Literally empty. There were no buildings, no roads, no animal life, no plant life, no soil, nothing. All that scrolled out for miles was pure, undisturbed white. There weren't even bumps in the way of the paddywagon. The entire trip was a smooth, flat ride without any disturbances.
Inside, Grimpresence grew nervous. The stories of the Void still were trapped in her mind. She has been taught that the Void was the most dangerous place in the universe for almost five years through her young life.
The other people inside were sitting calmly as Grimpresence glanced from place to place nervously. AJ looked forward at the clean white from behind the wagon's broken windshield.
The paddywagon eventually slowed. Grimpresence was looking ahead in wonder as the others sat and looked forward. Eventually, the wagon came to a complete stop in front of a gap in the Void. It was a large pit that led to a deep canyon filled with stones and miniature mountains.
The paddywagon's engine died and it plopped to the ground, slightly knocking the passengers in the air. Immediately after the paddywagon came to a complete stop, Omniscott and Zugal pushed their respective doors open. The others followed, except for Grimpresence. She refused to leave her seat in the paddywagon.
Yarameh looked back and fought back a chuckle as he saw a petrified Grimpresence. Yarameh stepped back in the paddywagon and held out his hand to Grimpresence.
"Relax. Didn't we tell you it was safe?"
Grimpresence looked back. "I... I'd just prefer to stay here..."
AJ stepped out of her seat. In front of the paddywagon, she pulled a small box out of her pocket and pushed a white button on it. This activated some mechanics that brought a large cube out from below the ground right next to the canyon.
Grimpresence heard the noise outside and swore as she jumped under the paddywagon seats. Yarameh couldn't help but laugh.
"Oh, relax you wuss! Just come with me. I keep away those big bawd monstwers!" he said with a chuckle.
Grimpresence slowly emerged from the floor and looked angrily at Yarameh.
"Ha, ha. You're freaking hilarious..."
"Just c'mon!" Yarameh commanded. He didn't wait for an answer before pulling her out into the open by her arm.
Grimpresence tried to scramble back inside, but Yarameh held her back. Eventually, Grimpresence stopped moving around and Yarameh convinced her to stand at his side.
"...see? Nothing. Just pure white everywhere. Besides, you got that rifle, anyways."
Grimpresence walked with Yarameh to the large cube that recently emerged from the ground. She was shaking and still very nervous.
The emerged cube turned out to be an elevator lift of some kind. The wire door has slid open and everyone besides Yarameh and Grimpresence were inside waiting. Yarameh walked slowly with the terrified Grimpresence as he tried to bring her calmly into the elevator.
Yarameh and Grimpresence were the last ones inside. The stood in front of the others and looked towards the door. AJ hed up the small box again and pressed a second button, this one red and below the first. On the press, the paddywagon started to sink down into the ground with the sound of more mechanical joints, sqeaking and crunching, as they brought the paddywagon below ground. After the paddywagon was half-way out of sight, the elevator door shut and the newly-formed team dropped into the ground as well.
A dark room laid below ground. The sole light came from a shaft inside the wall, which was buring brightly from the upper half of the shaft. There was a humming as something started to lower from the lighted shaft. The humming grew louder and louder and the light came closer and closer to the ground.
A large block clicked to the floor and the light was brought with it. Inside the block were eight people, looking through the elevator's gated door.
The door clicked and slid in half to each side of the elevator. The passengers walked inside. AJ walked in towards the back and slapped her hand to a wall. A small click sounded and the room flickered from dark to bright.
The room was fairly large. It was mostly one room, but there were doorways that led to smaller rooms. It wasn't decorated brightly (mostly shades of grey with a dirt floor), but there was a very large, square logo with a red-and-yellow background, a black wolf head with aggresive, white eyes on it.
Across sides of the rooms were green army cots that had one of the longer ends pressed against the wall. Each one was spread evenly across the free space on three of the room's walls.
In one corner of the room, there was a computer. The large screen lit up brightly and showed maps of Mylok. In the bar at the bottom, there were news articles minimized to clear the screen. The only news story overlapping the map image was the announcement of the execution.
Grimpresence stepped inside and stopped to look on in wonder. Blue did something similar, only he looked with a happy smile. The others passed him and spread out across the room.
McJunior stepped in the center and flung his arms out to the air.
"Welcome to the Brotherhood of the Wolf HQ!"
Yarameh was walking by and swatted at McJunior with his hand.
"Geesh, McJunior. You and your cheesy lines..."
"Oh, you're just jealous of my awesome presentation skills."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night..."
Blue ran around in excitement and scanned the eniter headquarters. He looked around a corner to see a hallway, which held the tattered paddywagon at the end. He looked back at the large room and was obviously bustling with excitement.
"You guys made all this?!" Blue asked loudly.
"Well, yeah," Omniscott answered.
"What? You thought we lived in a cave?" Zugal continued.
"No," Blue replied. "I didn't think anyone had anything this elaborate!"
"What?" AJ said. "It's a dirt floor with cement walls and cots..."
"It's freaking huge!" Blue yelled. "Plus you got the elevator and everything..."
"Apparently, some of the original Brawlers built it during the infection," Omniscott explained. "We basically used it as a home base."
"Brawlers built this?" Blue wondered aloud. "Why wouldn't they use it...?"
"I've always thought the mechanical soldiers got to them first," Scondie answered.
"But wouldn't they have used it for the Empire, instead?" Yarameh questioned.
Scondie looked a little embarrased. "Yeah... I guess so."
"I don't think the zombies could've made it down here, either," Yarameh continued. "Something screwy must've happened..."
"Wait, wait, wait..." Grimpresence interupted. "Infection? Zombies? What's that about???"
Omniscott moved to a cabinet at the side of the wall. He opened up and lifted a stack of folded papers with a soft grunt. The others watched as he brought the papers to Grimpresence and dropped them in front of her feet.
"Start reading."
Grimpresence lifted the top paper and looked at the main story. It had an oddly-angled picture of a brown, fur-covered figure with a fox-like head while wearing a suit. The headline read "President Speaks on Possible Outbreak". Grimpresence read the article intently. The second outline in the pile read "Outbreak-Drink Connection?".
The rest of the group was spread across the room and rested in silence. Blue finally interupted the quiet.
"So... what now?"
"Well, we won't be safe in Mylok for a while, that's for sure," Omniscott answered.
"We're not gonna just sit here like bumps on a log, are we?!" Blue asked. "We need to get out there! Get the truth spread! Bust some heads if we need to!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Zugal said, pushing her hands to Blue. "We can't go out and do that! We're gonna get ourselves killed!"
"But, what about the Empire?" Blue asked. "I'm ready to get them back!"
"You laid low in Mylok, did you not?" Omniscott mentioned.
"Well, yeah. But that's because I thought I was by myself this whole time! Now we got a team! You guys have no idea how strong you are. We can do it!"
"You have any idea how dangerous that city would be, now?" Scoldie yelped.
"Aw, we can handle it. I'll even help you guys-"
"We just risked our asses to help you," Omniscott sternly answered. "We aren't gonna go out there just to get you killed."
"So, then go without me!"
Grimpresence had finished reading the first article. She picked up the second paper to read. The third paper had a headline that said "Outbreak Worsens, Control Lessened".
"I don't think we're gonna risk that, either," McJunior answered back.
Blue sighed and slapped his hand to his face.
A figure opened a door in the back of the room loudly. He started to scream at the others.
"Hey! Which of you pricks is out-yelling my music?" The figure had brownish-red hair and was wearing headphones that cupped over his ears, which wasn't keeping the sound of Red Jumpsuit Apparatus inside the headset (which was plugged into an iPod strapped to the figure's jeans.
"Oh, shut up, Nick!" Scoldie yelled back.
The figure lifted up one of the earphone cups, at which the music blared. "What?"
Omniscott angrily marched to Nick and pulled the earphone plug out of the iPod. He was up close to Nick's face and whispered sternly.
"That was us. What of it?"
"You guys are getting annoying..." Nick told him.
Omniscott walked back to his spot near Blue and waved Nick off.
"Too bad. Blue says we gotta get back to Mylok."
"Blue?" Nick wondered. "You sons of bitches actually got him out of there?!"
"Excuse me," Blue interupted. "But who's this asshat?"
"Eh... don't mind him," AJ answered. "That's just Nick's normal asshole mood."
"Mehehehe....You're hilarious, bitch," Nick replied.
AJ looked back to Blue and pointed behind her at Nick with her thumb. "See what I mean?"
Grimpresence was momentarily distracted by the intrusion, but was back to reading about how Brawl City's new drink may have sparked the outbreak of a mysterious virus.
Blue shook his head. "Anyways, back to matters at hand: We gotta get the word out there!"
"You don't know what you're messing with," Omniscott told him.
"The hell I don't! I've been watching those guys for nearly fifteen years. I think I know how they work."
"They'd be ready for us, anyways," McJunior said. "They all saw us, they know to look for us, I'm pretty sure Gassuk got a good look at Omni, and I have no idea if they saw where the wagon went or not..."
Grimpresence threw the paper with the first paper off to the side. She grabbed the next paper on top. The paper below that had a headline that read "Assassination Attempt on President".
"Well, we're not gonna get anywhere talking about this," Blue told them. Blue lowerd his chin into the forefinger and thumb of one of his hands.
"I don't think we should be gettin' anywhere!" Omniscott said to the concentrating Blue.
"And I'm pretty sure none of us are looking to die anytime soon," Scoldie added. "We need to wait-"
Blue snapped his fingers suddenly. "I've got it!" said Blue. "That computer gets Internet, right?"
Omniscott, Scoldie, and AJ looked at each other.
"Of course," AJ answered. "Why?"
Blue ran to the computer and minimized the picture of the map of Mylok. He used the mouse to open an Internet browser. He turned to look at the others as he stood over the computer table.
"Is there a popular conspiracy theorist or something in Mylok?"
The group was still in a bit of confusion. Nick looked on sternly and Grimpresence still had her nose in the current newspaper.
"Uh, yeah," McJunior answered. "There's some conspiracy group page on there. Last I checked, it's still down on the bar."
Blue used the mouse to click on each of the six tabs at the bottom of the computer screen. Eventually, he brought up a page to the screen. It had an odd logo in the top corner with a banner next to it that said "The Will of the Virus'".
"This is perfect!" Blue yelped as he scrolled through the page. He clicked on a button that took him to a contact page. There was an address in Mylok.
"Ha-ha!" Blue yelled as he slammed his fist on the table. "Fantastic!"
He turned to look at the others.
"Can you guys spare one of those papers?" he said while pointing to the pile of newspapers.
"I guess so..." Omniscott told him. "What for?"
"Grab one. I've got an idea," Blue told them. "Some of you are gonna have to go with me."
"And just where are you off to in such a damn rush?" Nick asked.
"I know how we can get us some weapons."
****
The hallway was crowded with the working viruses again. They wouldn't dare go into Gassuk's temporary office. Eventually, Gassuk was the one to peak out of its door.
"Hey! Whoever's in charge of military transportation, get in here!"
The door slammed behind Gassuk again. The viruses looked at the door again and scrambled to find the one Gassuk has asked for.
Eventually, another official virus stepped into Gassuk's office. This one had a dark green suit and tie with pins on its shoulders and right lapel.
"You, uh, wanted to see me, sir?"
Gassuk was standing over his desk, hands extended and lifting it torso above the paper-infested workspace.
"You're in charge of military transportation, then?"
The new virus nodded. "Yes sir. General Mazatook, at your service!"
Gassuk looked up and clapped its hands together.
"Great! At least something is going right today! I need to organize something, here."
"An... an invasion, sir?"
"Of sorts, yeah. It's more of a search operation."
"May I ask who, sir?"
"I was going to have to tell you, anyways. Let's cut to the chase: I wanna find this 'Brotherhood' I've heard about."
"Sir?"
"Did I studder? I want to find the Brotherhood. I know they pulled this little heist off."
"Um. Any idea as to where to start?"
"Oh, yeah. I need you to search the Void."
Mazatook eyes widened and wore a bit of shock. "Uh, sir??? Did I hear that cor-"
"Yes, yes, you did. I don't care, I want you all to go in there, anyways."
"But... but sir, the creatures there would attack, and-"
"That's why I need a full-scale, all-out, 100% assault."
"But the Void-"
"Forget that!" Gassuk yelped as it waved two of its arms across its chest. "Look, all that stuff is sort of... exaggerated. You guys will be fine."
"Um... understood, sir. Now when do you wish for it to start?"
Gassuk pointed at the floor. "Right now."