Why, thank you sir. I actually thought it wasn't bad myself.
Alright, alright, fine. Geesh.
If Zarth dies.... All hell brakes loose. I should do that just to tick you off...
Chapter 14: Time Strain
“Now what are we gonna do, Balto?!” Spawner practically yelled.
Balto-Boy was pacing back in forth, his hands waving in the air with agitation.
“I don’t know, I don’t know! Just let me think for a minute!”
The four Brawlers that sided with Illidon have been gathered in this conference room of theirs. It could be recognized as the same room where Abigor was once tortured with the bursts of fire. Except this time around, there wasn’t a Brawler strapped down to burn (though black burns on the floor and wall showed evidence of the last time). Another change in scenery: there weren’t any Blobs sitting around the room. And the doors to the room were locked shut from the Brawlers’ side.
“You told us no one was gonna die, Balto! What the fuck is the plan now?!” Spawner continued.
Balto-Boy hid his face in the palms of his hands.
“Be quiet!” Balto-Boy said in a loud whisper. “No one was gonna die when I planned this out.”
“Nothing here ever goes to plan,” McJesus told him, his arms crossed and his back propped against a pillar.
“Of all people, you should know that.”
“I wasn’t seeing you coming up with anything better,” snapped Balto-Boy as he raised his head.
“What am I going to tell the Civilians?” Nurse asked. “They were really scared when I told them what happened.”
“As far as Illidon knows, we don’t have any civilians here,” McJesus muttered. “I’d just focus on what to do about us.”
Balto-Boy stopped pacing in circles for a moment and headed to a nearby wall. He pressed his forehead to the wall and muttered to himself.
“Crap, oh crap, oh crap.... C’mon! Think!” In a flash, the guy turned to the others.
“Can we convince him to wait a bit longer?”
“I wouldn’t try it,” McJesus said coolly. “He seems pretty annoyed as it is. We might risk having him do it himself.”
“Wha-what if we fake their deaths?” Spawner stuttered. “That could work, right?!”
“Do you honestly think that we could fake more than 100 Brawlers’ deaths without Illidon or any of the Blobs noticing?” McJesus told him. Spawner looked back with an open mouth.
“Right,” said McJesus again. “Good luck with that.”
“Plus if we did that,” Nurse added, we’d have to get them all out of here!”
“Right,” Balto-Boy sighed. “And if we do that, then there’d be no reason for us siding with Illidon. We’d be right back where we started!”
Spawner was swinging his head around like an enraged giraffe as he stumbled for something else to say. Unable to, he rushed at Balto-Boy and picked him up by his shoulders to slam him against the wall.
“You’d better get us out of this,” Spawner spat. He then sparked up his arm menacingly. “Or I’ll freaking put you to sleep.”
“Enough of that!” Nurse yelped when she heard Spawner. Both her and McJesus walked over to pull Spawner away, and even held him back as he tried to claw away to Balto-Boy. Balto-Boy stared back solemnly and brushed away at his shoulders.
“Spawner, you need to relax,” Balto-Boy told Spawner. “You freaking out isn’t gonna help anything.”
McJesus and Nurse still held back Spawner.
“All of our friends are this close to death, and you’re telling me to fucking relax?! Fuck you!”
“Easy, Spawner, easy,” McJesus urged.
“Screw you too, McBastard!” Spawner spat at him.
McJesus finally decided he had enough. He jerked Spawner out of Nurse’s grip so only he held on to Spawner. When this happened, McJesus was quick to slam a set of knuckles into Spawner’s nose and watched him stumble trying to keep his balance. Nurse looked back in a bit of shock, while McJesus and Balto-Boy looked to him calmly. Nurse was quick to rush over and help Spawner to his feet as he rubbed the blood off of his face in disbelief.
“Are you okay now?” McJesus asked.
Spawner was looking to everyone, still a bit dazed as he rubbed away more blood. Soon he managed to regain his senses and looked to McJesus.
“Yeah... okay. I’m good.” He turned to Balto-Boy. “Sorry Balto.”
“Naw, I’m sorry,” Balto-Boy said. “But back to business. What do you guys think we should do?”
There was an awkward silence for a moment. The Brawlers looked to each other for answers. Everyone except for McJesus did, anyways.
“You know what I think we should do,” McJesus told the group.
This caught everyone’s attention. The other three Brawlers were staring intently to McJesus.
Nurse started off.
“What do you wa-”
But Balto-Boy interrupted her.
“We can’t do that, McJesus We still have Brawlers out there ”
“I don’t think we have much of a choice,” he answered.
“What’re you talking about?” Nurse asked.
Spawner apparently figured it out.
“He wants to release them all now.”
“What?” Nurse exclaimed. “I thought we needed everyone to fight Illidon!”
“We do,” Balto-Boy answered. “We all agreed to that I believe your exact words were ‘Everyone from Astro to Cuteseh needs to be here’, were they not?”
“I remember what I said before,” McJesus told them. “But we don’t have much more of a choice now. We don’t have time to find the others ourselves and I guarantee the Blobs have orders to kill Brawlers on sight now. We’re in a corner.”
“....Dag gone-it, that’s true,” Balto-Boy said aloud. “How many Brawlers are still out there?”
“Last we checked,” Nurse said. “Somewhere between 30 and 40. And that doesn’t include the squad we have or the Civilians.”
“Yeah!” Balto-Boy realized. “I bet the Civilians can help if we arm ‘em!”
“I don’t think the Civilians will be willing to take on someone like Illidon, though,” McJesus argued.
“I guess,” said Nurse. “I’ll ask them anyways. Can’t hurt, after all.”
“Are we seriously putting our lives in the hands of the Civilians? Seriously?!” Spawner yelped.
“Well... not entirely. We still got those prisoners and that squad,” Balto-Boy assured.
“But is this sure to work?” Spawner asked them all. “I want this to work!”
“We all do, Spawner,” McJesus agreed. “But I have to say this is just our best shot.”
“But I want a guarantee!” Spawner almost shouted. “We can’t get this far and lose!”
“Spawner...” Balto-Boy started off. “I never make guarantees.”
“This has to work How else will our lives get back to normal unless that thing is dead?!”
“It won’t,” McJesus told him. “That’s why we have to try our best with what we have.”
“Don’t tell me that!” Spawner said. “Why can’t you just tell me that we will win this? That we will kill Illidon?”
Balto-Boy’s head was suddenly locked on to Spawner.
“Guys, shut up.”
“Oh, don’t tell me to shut up!” Spawner almost yelled. “Boy, you annoyed me once before, and I’ll go off again!”
“Seriously,” Balto-Boy muttered out of his mouth’s corner. “Shut the hell up...”
McJesus eyes widened momentarily, then went back to normal.
“Yeah, shut up.”
“Don’t either of you tell me to shut up!” Spawner snapped. “I want that freaking lizard thing dead, and I know you do, too Why aren’t you freaked about-?”
Nurse nudged Spawner in the elbow.
“What?!” Spawner growled as he snapped towards Nurse. She nodded her head towards one of the doors that served as this room’s entrance. He looked over her shoulder to look where she was gesturing and was surprised when he saw the door opened. And he nearly wet himself when he saw a Biter looking right at them.
“Aw, shit...”
The Biter spun in a 180 and snarled as it ran away. Soon after, the Brawlers’ ears were beaten with the intense roar of an angered Illidon. McJesus and Balto-Boy were quick to jump to a control panel in the room.
“We got no choice now!” Balto-Boy shouted to them. “Nurse! Get to the Civilians! Spawner! Help the Brawlers! McJesus you release everyone and get on the intercom! I’ll radio in the squad when we’re ready! I’m gonna guard McJesus, then we’re coming to help you two!”
“You’d better keep your word, Balto!” Spawner called.
“None of us are actually on Illidon’s side, you know that ”
*****
Meanwhile, in the prison hall, Brawlers had come across that dreadful and now-familiar silence. It was another time where no one was talking to one another across the cells. But that silence was very quickly broken when some sort of booming growl echoed into all of their eardrums. Many of the Brawlers, almost synchronized, grabbed their heads and gritted their teeth in order to block out the thunderous noise. Fifteen seconds later, the noise stopped. The Brawlers waited for a little longer for aftershocks, but then were chatting amongst one another.
“Well, who got sand in that guy’s vagina?” Jay muttered.
“Seems pissed,” added Abigor.
“Gee, ya think?” Swordkill smirked.
“I bet we’re all about to die,” said Sir Emo with his depressing voice.
“You gotta stop doing that, man,” Markus said back. “Gets annoying after a while.”
Zarth was about to comment again, when a buzz sounded from the ceiling. He looked up just in time to see a trap door open in his cell’s ceiling and drop his entire set of armor on top of him. As Zarth was muttering something from under his armor, Virus peered into the pile.
“Hey... my blasters are in there!” he said with realization.
“And I got my sword back!” shouted Swordkill.
“Hee hee... my pointy sticks are here...!” said Grey in a snear.
“Yeah, boy-eeee!” Jay gave as a response.
“What’s going on here?” Purplecat asked himself.
And to bring along more questions, everyone’s shackles beeped with a tiny red light. A rapid-fire succession of light later, and to everyone’s shock, the shackles fell off. Just fell to the floor. No one beat them open or anything. All of both hand and foot shackles just released their grip and let gravity do the rest. Brawlers were rubbing their ankles and wrists immediately afterwards, some giving off moans of relief.
“Now, really,” Purplecat continued. “What the hell???”
“Who cares?!” Markus let out. He let up an intimidating firey gauntlet. “We can get out!”
“Wouldn’t be too excited,” said Abigor as he stood up. “Might be a trick.”
“Won’t know till we KICK SOME BUTTOCKS!!!” shouted Jay as he raised up a giant sword in triumph.
Zarth had literally just now finished slapping on his armor.
“He’s got a point. So let’s get crazy!”
With confidence restored, Brawlers shouted to each other words of joy and cheeriness. All of the Brawlers, still concealed behind closed cell doors, then heard a click coming from the ceiling. This audible click brought everyone’s heads up to the noise in attentiveness.
“Brawlers! Attention Brawlers!” boomed McJesus’s voice shouted over a field of static. “The time to fight is now! Grab your weapons, because today is the day we kill Illidon!”
The Brawlers in prison doors were now conversing to one another, curious about what they heard McJesus saying. Regardless, the voice continued.
“We got as many Brawlers together under Illidon’s nose as we could! Now we’re forced, to-”
There was a crash along with McJesus’s voice. Soon after, the roar of a Pulper and a painful dog-like whine.
“Balto! Balto, get up!” shouted McJesus, unaware the intercom was still on.
“I’m good.... I’m-”
BAM! There was another loud fist smack and Balto-Boy yelping as he hit a wall. McJesus said the last as fast as he could.
“I’m gonna release the doors! Follow the arrows!”
The intercom clicked off. And just as McJesus promised, both prison cell doors and the large metal doors separating hallways slammed open. Brawlers were reluctant to step out. The only leaned out their heads and peered around the cells’ entrance, if anything at all. But as they were cautiously checking their surroundings, Virus spoke up.
“What did he mean by ‘follow the arrows’?”
“Huh?” said Zarth back to him.
“McJesus. He said ‘follow the arrows’. What does that mean?”
Zarth looked over just in time to see something small popping up from the small sections of wall between each cell. They were small patterns of lights, shaped seemingly by yellow Christmas lights. And sure enough, they were shaped as arrows.
“Most likely that,” replied Zarth again.
From the closest end of this hallway, a spiky-haired Brawler poked his head into the hall, a portal gun in hand.
“Hey! Let’s go, fellas!” MadGamer almost ordered them.
In a burst, MadGamer was smashed to the floor. What caused his sudden drop was an impatient Rageblood with a military rifle pouncing on MadGamer’s shoulders and leaping past. Brawlers watched in amazement as he sprinted by with a determined war cry.
“Ow, my nose...” muttered MadGamer, sounding like he was congested. He started to run after. “Gah, dang, sonunva mutta
rackin flackin...”
There was a pause as more Brawlers from the previous hall flew by and Brawlers from this hall were leaving. Zarth and Virus looked to each other with a sort of awkward stare.
“Welp!” Zarth said suddenly. “Good enough for me!” And he was gone with glowing hands and gleaming armor. Sigmund immediately shot over Virus’s two pairs of shoulders, bloting along in the air. Abigor lightly shoved Virus aside so that he could stomp his way to follow the lighted arrows.
Virus was still reluctant. He glanced at the Brawlers rushing by and those that had passed already. He looked around from walls to the floor, avoiding direct eye contact. But he soon sighed, picked up four alien-like handguns with his four hands and charged with them, straight to Illidon’s throne room.