Apocalypse Rising, Part 2 by Fearless
Our heros rush inside, guns blazing. They are greated by something none of them had anticipated, nothing. The CWALers stand alone in an empty corridor. No one in sight.
Dorg: Maybe he didn’t hear us knock?
Legion007 walks to a control panel, he presses a few buttons and then gets the readout.
Legion007: He know we’re here, troops are on their way.
Dark Chrono: What’s the quickest route to the bridge?
Arcturus: No, for God’s sake DC, put your vengence aside for a momment. A lot of our friends are dead, there’s nothing we can do to change that now. We have to get to engineering and take that dman TMM offline. Then we go for Fearless.
Legion007: Engineering is only a few hundred meters down that corridor.
Shadow: Let’s go.
The CWALers, Darkangel and Dorg make their way down the corridor.
Darkangel: Damn CWAL, this is all your fault. You can’t keep your lunatics under lock and key.
Dorg: Tell me about it, I should never have gave them CARVs phone number.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few minutes later, and a few hundred meters away, our heros make their way into the Gantrithor engine room, there is no one there.
Arcturus: Shadow, Intruder, you find the TMM and bring it back here. The rest of us will try to bring the Gantrithors engines, shields and weapons offline.
Shadow and Intruder walk off looking for the TMM, Arcturus and Darkangel start trying to gain access to the computer system. Dark Chrono, blinded by anger, sits in a chair in the corner, with a blank look of hatred in his eyes.
Arcturus: Now, If I were Fearless, what would I make the password?
Arcturus notices Dark Chrono.
Arcturus: Don’t fall apart on me DC. We need you to be at a hundred percent.
Dark Chrono does not respond.
Darkangel: I have access to the main computer, but without the password I can’t affect any essential systems.
Arcturus: Keep trying. I’m working on the password.
Dorg: They must know where we are by now. We don’t have much time.
Arcturus returns his attention to Dark Chrono while typing.
Arcturus: You know if you really want to help take down Fearless the best help you can give is getting to the control panel and helping crack the password.
Dark Chrono, expressionless, looks at Arcturus. He rises from his chair, extends his psi-blades and heads for the door.
Arcturus: Wait DC, where are you going?
Dark Chrono: To pay back an old debt.
Arcturus: Wait, DC!
Dark Chrono leaves, Arcturus cannot follow, he’s to busy working on the code. Just then Intruder and Shadow return. Intruder carries a small device with him. He puts it down in front of Arcturus.
Intruder: Did someone order a TMM?
Dorg looks over.
Dorg: That’s it? This calculator is the infamous TMM?
Smoke: Sure is.
Dorg: How can you be so sure?
Intruder: It’s the only damn thing in this place that doesn’t say “Made on Aiur” on it.
Shadow: (Looking around) Where’s DC?
Arcturus: We’d better find out before he gets us all killed.
Legion007: Arc is right, we’ll never crack this code, let’s just get the hell out of here. The TMM is offline now, our fleet can finish the job. All we have to do is put some C-4 near the engine core.
Arcturus: Were are we going to find that C-4?
Legion007: Well I thought….
Arcturus: No you didn’t think. We have to find DC then get to the bridge.
Legion007: Arcturus blow up the damn ship!
Arcturus aproaches Legion007 and stands nose to nose with him.
Arcturus: You want to blow up the ship and run away. You coward.
Legion007: If we can signal the fleet….
Arcturus: (Shouting) There is no fleet! We were one of the last ships left. By now we’re probably well on our way to New York. Those ships are destroyed Legion. Everyone aboard them is dead. (Calming down) All of them, dead.
Arcturus turns away, as our heros stand in silence.
Legion007: Ok, it’s time to make Fearless pay.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Forty five minutes later, the CWALers, Dorg and Darkangel find themselves walking down yet another corridor.
Darkangel: We’ve been looking for almost an hour. Who’s the idiot that told us to take a right back there anyway.
Shadow: If you were cracking the code instead of playing “Jezzball” we wouldn’t be here in the first place.
They stop as they notice something foreign on the ground.
Smoke: Hey, what’s that?
Shadow walks over and picks it up, it’s a gum wrapper.
Shadow: Which one of you chews wrigley?
No one responds, but Dorg is cramming juicy fruit into his mouth.
Shadow: Arcturus you fool, you’ve had us walking in circles for an hour!
Arcturus: Relax, now we know the right way to go. The bridge shouldn’t be to far down this next corridor.
Legion007: That means DC’s probably already gotten there.
Darkangel: What do you think he’s up to if he did.
Arcturus: Well, I suppose he and Fearless are gathered around a campfire, throwing back a few bottles of Jack Daniels and catching up on old times.
Darkangel gives Arcturus a strange look.
Arcturus: Sarcasm. If DC’s been to the bridge he’s already ripped Fearless’ head off.
Our heros come upon a viewing port, Shadow and Dorg rush to it.
Dorg: Look, I can see land below.
Legion007: We must have made the west coast.
Smoke: I wish that was all.
The other CWALers and Darkangel hurry to the viewport. Below, through a thick layer of clouds, a building becomes visable.
Arcturus: The Empire State building. It’s gotta be 2,000 feet below.
Legion007: But it’s getting closer.
Intruder: We must be landing.
Arcturus: Or starting an attack run.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As our heros stare out the small viewport on the mammoth Gantrithor. The shrill cry of air raid sirens pierces the air of New York City. Then, through the clouds emerge dozens of wraiths and cruisers. They begin unleashing their furry indiscriminatly as thousands run for
cover. But then, the Gantrithor also emerges from the thick cloud cover. It blocks out the sun as day turns to night. There’s an unmistakable rat-a-tat-tat as scores of anti-aircraft guns and surface to air missiles light up the sky over the statue of liberty.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Inside the Gantrithor, the ship shakes, slightly.
Intruder: The flak from those AA guns most be bringing us down.
Legion007: Not likely, this ship is so advanced it’s like they’re firing spitballs.
Arcturus has turned his attention to something else.
Shadow: Arc, what is it?
Arcturus: The bridge, there it is.
Thirty meters down the corridor there’s a large door. The Protoss word for “Bridge” is clearly written on it. Arcturus cocks his gun.
Arcturus: Let’s go.
Cautiously, the CWALers, Dorg and Darkangel make their way to the door. Shadow puts his ear up to it.
Smoke: Hear anything?
Shadow: Nothing.
Intruder: I wonder if anyone is even inside.
Arcturus: I know one way to find out.
The CWALers all fit their fingers into the crack down the center of the door. Using their collective might, they force it open. More than just destiny awaited them on the other side. Our heros burst in, Mercutio and Yorick are quick to respond, they raise their weapons, but a voice comes from the darkness that surrounds the captains chair.
Mysterious Man: Yorick, Mercutio, stand down.
Obeying, Mercutio and Yorick return to their posts.
Mysterious Man: I have been expecting you.
Darkangel: How nice for you. You’re lucky DC didn’t find you first.
Mysterious Man: On the contrary, he did.
From the darkness, something rolls toward them. It comes to rest at Arcturus’ feet. It is Dark Chronos head.
Mysterious Man: With his anger affecting his judgement and coordination, he was no match. Rest assured, he died quickly. As will you.
Legion007: Our forces are still going to whoop your ass.
The Mysterious Man laughs.
Mysterious Man: I’m afraid not. You see, your fleet was destroyed in short order. Not to mention that pesky ship you used to board the Gantrithor.
Shadow: What did you do with Tybalt and Talruum!
Mysterious Man: Liquidated.
Shadow lunges at the darkness but Arcturus and Dorg hold him back. The Mysterious Man laughs again.
Mercutio: I enjoyed killing Tybalt, I did it with my bare hands, I snapped his spinal coluum in six places.
Mysterious Man: And now, even as we speak, New York City is crumbling before my might.
Intruder: The United States will never yield.
Mysterious Man: I sincerely hope that they do not. Once I have the TMM back online, not even their nuclear warheads will be able to breach the Gantrithors shields.
From the darkness emerges the Mysterious Mans hand. It motions to his minions.
Mysterious Man: Take the TMM from those fools, they don’t have the mental ability to grasp its power.
Six minions approach Darkangel, he hands the TMM over to Macduff. The Mysterious Man stands up, almost making his face visable.
Mysterious Man: Everyone you know and care about is dead, OEEP, CARV, COTS and CWAL are no more. You are their only survivors. Which of you, if any, have the courage to challenge me in battle?
Legion007: I do.
Arcturus: No wait, I’ll take this one Legion.
Mysterious Man: Excellent.
Arcturus moves infront of the wall sized viewscreen and readies himself. The Mysterious Man them moves into the light, making his face visable for all to see.
Dorg: Fearless.
Legion007: That’s not Fearless.
Mysterious Man: Very observant Legion.
Dorg: Dauntless.
Dauntless: Correct. Although Fearless and I do look awfully similar, we can be told apart.
Intruder: Where is Fearless?
Dauntless: Last I heard he was at the pentagon, meeting with the joint chiefs, trying to figure out just what the hell went wrong with my genetic makeup. That, and planning a nuclear counterattack so big, it will kill every living thing within a two hunred mile radius.
Smoke: How do you know this?
Dauntless: Twelve unidentifed contacts on radar, all from the west.
Arcturus: Nuclear missiles.
Dauntless: Yes, they’ll be here in a few minutes.
Legion007: They’ll obliterate New York City and us along with it.
Dauntless: New York yes, but I have other plans for the Gantrithor. Once I bring the TMM back online, a million nuclear missiles wouldn’t so much as scratch this vessel. You see CWALers, I don’t take chances, I am Dauntless. Compared to you, I am a God.
Arcturus: I don’t care if you’re the easter bunny. You killed Dark Chrono, I’ll make you pay.
Dauntless draws a knife from his belt.
Dauntless: Macduff, if any of the others intervene, kill them.
Macduff: With pleasure.
Smoke throws Arcturus a knife, catching it, Arcturus stares at Dauntless, and he stares right back. They circle eachother, until Arcturus strikes. With a quick motion, Dauntless moves out of the way.
Dauntless: Another futile maneouver by a futile organization.
Arcturus again gets ready. They circle some more, and again he stabs at Dauntless, missing him.
Dauntless: You can’t win.
Arcturus: We will see.
They circle eachother even more, as on the viewscreen behind them wraiths and cruisers lay waste to New York City. With a violent thrust, Arcturus stabs at Dauntless, again missing him. Dauntless takes the opportunity to grab Arcturus by the arm and flip him onto his back. Knocking his knife away, Dauntless kneels on Arcturus’ chest, he then raises his dagger high in the air.
Dauntless: Now, you die.
But before he can thrust down, the ship is jolted, sending everyone hurdling through the air. Dauntless is thrown and the TMM is laying on the ground.
Dauntless: (Shouting) What in the hell was that?
Banquo: We’re under attack.
Dauntless: By who?
There is a pause as Banquo squints at his insturments in disbelief.
Dauntless: I asked you a question!
Banquo: It looks like the Orca, but….
Dauntless: But what?
Banquo: There are thousands of them.
Dauntless: On screen.
The viewscreen activates to show seemingly infinate Orca-type crafts filling the sky.
Mercutio: One of the ships is hailing us.
Dauntless: Put it through.
Within seconds, the viewscreen shows Fjorxc and Tanya Adams.
Fjorxc: I bet you didn’t count on this did you Fearless?
Arcturus: Forks, it’s not Fearless, it’s Dauntless.
Fjorxc: All be damned. It doesn’t make a difference though, we’re still going to bring the Gantrithor down right over Wall Street.
Dauntless: Where did these ships come from?
Fjorxc: Somewhere DC bet you wouldn’t count on, WWMM.
Dauntless: WWMM?
Fjorxc: That stands for Operation Wont Wait Much More, they’re rebel group trying to get Westwoods newest games. Their leader is Gabrielle. Once I said CWAL was in trouble they wanted to lend all the help that they could.
Arcturus: Forks, almost everyone is dead.
Dauntless: Shutup Arcturus, when you get your own doomsday machine you can talk on the viewscreen all you want. But as long as you’re on my ship, you’ll wait your turn.
Fjorxc: Fron?
Arcturus shakes his head. A tear wells up in the corner of Fjorxcs eye.
Fjorxc: See you in hell Dauntless.
Dauntless: Shall we die together?
Fjorxc: I expected more from you than just empty threats.
Dauntless: Check your radar readout. About now you should see a dozen unidentified contacts coming in from the west.
Fjorxc looks down at his insturments.
Fjorxc: Those aren’t your ships.
Dauntless: Of course not. They’re American medium range nuclear missiles. Launched by Fearless no doubt. Within a few minutes this entire area will be little more than a graveyard for you and all your “Operation Whatever” buddies.
Fjorxc: You bastard.
Dauntless: However, there is another option. If you were to relent your attack long enough for me to bring my TMM back online, I may let some of you live.
There is a long pause, the tension can be cut with a knife. Arcturus, still on the ground, notices something in the corner, not far away. It’s the TMM, thrown there after Fjorxcs initial attack.
Fjorxc: How do I know this isn’t some trick?
Intruder: Trust me Forks, they’re real.
Mercutio: Thrity seconds until ground-zero.
Arcturus checks if anyone is watching, but no one is. He prepares to make a run for the hopefully functional TMM. He also notices an exposed bundle of live wires which are hanging from the ceiling, he has an idea.
Fjorxc: (Shouting) I demand you lower your shields and hand over the TMM!
Dauntless: You’re in no position to make demands, and in sixteen seconds you’ll understand why.
Mercutio: Fifteen seconds.
Dauntless: Time is running out Fork. Last chance.
Mercutio: Ten seconds remaining.
Fjorxc is sweating bullets, Dauntless appears calm and collected.
Mercutio: Five seconds until impact.
Arcturus knows that now is the time to make his move. He leaps for the TMM, grabbing it, he stumbles to his feet.
Arcturus: Anyone who wants to live, get over here!
The CWALers, Dorg and Darkangel bash Macduff over the head. They rush for Arcturus who is not far away.
Dauntless: Kill them.
Arcturus smiles.
Arcturus: Not today, yesterday maybe.
Mercutio: Impact.
Just as those words leave Mercutios lips, Arcturus takes the TMM and touches the bundle of wires which have over 30,000 volts running through them. The charge activates the TMM just as the nuclear missile impacts sixty stories below. The TMM tears a whole in the
space-time continuum. And instantly, Arcturus, Dorg, Darkangel and the rest of the CWALers are gone.
Dauntless: Where the hell did they go?
A bright light fills the viewscreen, and then, the nuclear horizon lights up as the Orca with Fjorxc inside, the Gantrithor, all the attacking ships, 12 million people and New York City are wiped off the face of the earth. But not our heros, their journey has just begun.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Act Six: Second Chances.
Two days earlier. Wall Street, New York City. A typically busy rush hour. In the midst of this organized chaos, another chaos appears, CWALers. With a bright flash of light, that forces many onlookers to shield their eyes, over an intersection opens a tiny tear in the space-time continuum. From it, fall Darkangel, Arcturus, Dorg, Smoke, Intruder, Shadow and Legion007. Traffic at the intersection comes to a halt. The CWALers are dazed and confused.
Shadow: What happened?
Intruder: Where am I?
Darkangel: Is this heaven?
A bum waddles over to Darkangel.
Bum: Spare some change?
Darkangel: God, is that you? I’m so sorry for using angel in my name, it wasn’t my fault I swear. It was my damn mother, curse her to hell. Oops, I mean bless her soul. Please, please don’t send me to Satan, I have a mild complexion, I’ll burn easily.
Arcturus: Get a hold of yourself DA.
Darkangel: You’re in heaven to Arc? Where’s grampa?
Arcturus: We’re not in heaven. I used the high voltage running through that damaged cable to activate the TMM. It was a 50/50 gamble if we’d end up in the past or the future, so I took the risk.
The CWALers, OEEPer and CARVer walk from the center of the intersection as traffic resumes. Trying to keep a low profile, they walk into a nearby subway station.
Arcturus: The only question now is, how far back in time we traveled. It may have been an hour a month or a year, or more.
Shadow grabs a passer by by the arm.
Shadow: You, do the New York Mets suck this year?
Pedestrian: Sure do.
Shadow lets the man go.
Shadow: At least we know we have the right year.
Intruder: That proves nothing, the Mets suck every year.
While this has been going on, Dorg has picked up a newspaper.
Dorg: December 10th, two days before the nuclear blast that will decimate this city and most of New York State.
Darkangel: We have to warn OEEP, CWAL and tell the pentagon not to launch those nukes.
Legion007: Yeah right, we just stroll up to the front door and say “excuse me sir, but please don’t start armagedon on the 12th”. Not likely.
Arcturus: Legion’s right. We have to prevent that timeline from ever occuring without disrupting this one. That means no warning the government and no warning CWAL.
Intruder: But can I just make one phonecall? Just to remind myself to feed my goldfish, it died yesterday, I mean tommorrow, I mean…. Ah forget it, let the damn thing die, it never liked me anyway.
Legion007: So if we can’t, who DO we get to change the future?
Arcturus: I think I know someone who can help us. Although finding him may be tricky.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Twelve hours later, on a cliff overlooking a firing range in western Iraq, a genius is at work.
Man On The Cliff: (Whispering) Now hold still Saddam, and this wont hurt a bit.
The man lies on his stomach, shrouded in camoflauge, through a high powered scope, he takes aim at a well known dictator over 400 yards away. On his shoulder are a few crests, one says “United States”, another says “Ducks” and the third says “Fearless”. As his finger
begins to move on the trigger, a hand nudges his shoulder. The gun misfires, narrowly missing Saddam.
Fearless: Whoever did that is going to pay.
Fearless turns around and sees Arcturus standing behind him.
Arcturus: Long time no see Fearless.
Fearless: Arcturus! What the hell are you doing here?
Arcturus helps Fearless to his feet.
Fearless: The CIA is going to be pissed. If you hadn’t nudged me I’d have blown his brains out.
They walk over to some bushes where Fearless takes a camoflauge tarp off of an ATV. He puts down his gun and gets a out a canteen.
Fearless: What brings you to hells kitchen Arc?
Arcturus: Looking for you.
Fearless: I get a lot of that these days. So what can I do for you?
Arcturus: I have a problem, and you may be the only one on earth that can help me.
Fearless: I get a lot of that to.
Arcturus: CWAL needs your help.
Fearless puts the canteen away and gets on the ATV.
Fearless: I’ve done the whole CWAL thing, I can’t go back to that again.
Arcturus:I need someone dead, and you may be the only one who can get close enough to him.
Fearless: Who, the CEO of Blizzard? A member of PFBS maybe? I don’t work for CWAL anymore, I work for my country.
Fearless turns on the ignition on the ATV, he gets ready to speed away.
Arcturus: Dauntless. I need you to kill Dauntless.
Fearless turns off the engine and turns back slowly.
Fearless: What did you say?
Arcturus: Where is Dauntless now anyway?
Fearless: Indonesia, tending to the political situation.
Arcturus: I’m afraid not. Right now he’s in Langley, Virgina, stealing the Time Movement Matrix.
Fearless thinks that Arcturus is lying, trying to trick him back into working for CWAL.
Fearless: How do you know about the TMM? And why would he do that?
There is silence.
Fearless: Liar.
Fearless turns to get back on his ATV, but Arcturus speaks up.
Arcturus: In exactly one day, Dauntless will use the TMM to travel backwards in time 250 years. He’ll steal a dangerous carrier prototype from Aiur and return to earth. With him, a fleet of invincible ships. He’ll march the fleet over the Pacific killing hundreds of American pilots and all of CWAL and its allies in the process. Then his fleet will set course for New York City, where the United States, under your recommendation, will launch twelve medium range nuclear missiles against him, destroying New York City and its12 million civilian inhabitants.
Fearless laughs.
Fearless: What are you a fortune teller?
Arcturus pulls out the smashed TMM.
Arcturus: More like a historian, I was there.
Shocked, Fearless takes the TMM and examines it.
Arcturus: A few of us were able to activate the TMM at the moment of impact. The last thing we saw before we went backward two days in time was the flash of the nukes going off. We have no future to go back to, so we intend to change this one before it happens.
Fearless hands back the TMM and walks to the cliff edge, he looks out at the noon sun.
Fearless: Call me an idiot, but in some twisted way I think you’re telling the truth.
Arcturus: I has happened, it will happen again.
Fearless: Unless we do something.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That night, high over CWAL headquarters, a plane flies. In the darkness all that can be seen is the silouette of a man jumping. His pararchute opens, and after a brief journey downward, he comes to a soft landing not far from the flashing Starbucks sign. He draws his gun.
Fearless: I see someone finally bothered to tarpaper the roof.
Fearless spots an open window. He is quick to use a glass cutter to remove the paine of glass and silently crawl into the darkened room. The flickering Starbucks sign makes him able to catch breif glimpses of his surroundings.
Fearless: (Whispering) What room am I in?
As the sign flashes, Fearless sees something with writing on it, so he attempts to read. He is both horrified and alarmed by what he sees. He can make out the words “Titanic Collectors Set”.
Fearless: Titanic? But that would mean…. Oh no.
The last thing Fearless remembers is feeling a very heavy object whack him on the back of the head.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The lights are bright as Fearless tries to open his eyes, his head hurts like hell.
Fearless: Where am I?
Fearless turns on his side and opens his eyes to see his gun being pointed right in his face. Dragoneyes on the other end of it.
Fearless: (Coming around) DE, look I’m sorry about the break in, I guess I was so gung ho to complete my mission I forgot who lives in the penthouse.
Dragoneyes does not respond.
Fearless: DE, can you hear me?
Dragoneyes looks frustrated, she puts the gun down and grabs for a notepad on the table. Quickly, she scribbles something down and throws the paper at Fearless. He reads it.
Fearless: Well it’s about time someone took a stand about how many lines you get, it’s uncanny.
Dragoneyes raises the gun to Fearless’ face again.
Fearless: Sorry.
Dragoneyes lowers the gun, then she takes the notepad and jotes something else down. She gives it to Fearless and he reads it.
Fearless: I’m here because I have an urgent message for Dark Chrono. Maybe you could relay it for me.
Dragoneyes gives Fearless an “you’re an idiot” look.
Fearless: Oh yeah, forgot.
Suddenly, Dragoneyes lets out a series of hacking coughs.
Dragoneyes: My throught, ouch.
Fearless: Hey, you just talked!
Dragoneyes: (Clearing her throat) Oh well, I guess the author realized that this scene was going nowhere without me talking.
Fearless: I guess.
Dragoneyes: If you’re planning on coming back to CWAL there are some things that you should know.
Fearless: Such as?
Dragoneyes: Well for one, Players For a Better Starcraft is no more, they call themselves Circle Of The Shadows now.
Fearless: Fair enough.
Dragoneyes: OEEP is back.
Fearless: Interesting.
Dragoneyes: (Reluctantly) And ah…. Dorg has his own group and Gaval, Lion-O and Mz are all full fledged CWALers.
Fearless: There is no God!
Fearless falls on the floor and grabs his heart.
Dragoneyes: Relax Fearless, it’s no big deal. Get up off my floor.
Fearless: (Panting) Just give me a second, I haven’t gotten over that Dorg thing yet.
Fearless slowly recovers from the shock, then gets back up. He walks toward the door.
Fearless: Does DC still stay up late watching those Gilligans island reruns?
Dragoneyes: Of course.
Fearless: Good. I was nice seeing you again DE.
Fearless is about to leave.
Dragoneyes: Wait, Fearless.
Fearless stops halfway out the door.
Dragoneyes: No hard feelings about when I called you a traitor and spat in your face?
Fearless thinks for a moment.
Fearless: See you around DE.
Fearless leaves.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few minutes later. MorpherX2 is sleeping peacefully. Fearless tip-toes up behind him. Once he is near, Fearless grabs him by the collar and throws him up against the wall. During this, Morpher awakes.
MorpherX2: What the?
Fearless is holding him against the wall, inches away from his face.
Fearless: Newbie. They gave my room to a newbie.
MorpherX2: Well…. I guess they did.
Fearless drops Morpher, then takes a look around his old room.
Fearless: How come you took down the Canadian flags?
MorpherX2: I’m not Canadian.
Fearless: That’s no excuse.
Fearless walks over to the computer on the desk.
Fearless: You threw out my signed copy of “Profiles in Courage” by JFK and replaced it with this?
Fearless holds up a book called “How to be a square CWALer, a guide for newbies”.
Fearless: Disgusting.
Fearless, angry, continues to search through the desk but stops as he notices the brand name on the computer itself.
Fearless: Oh no, you’re a Mac user? This has gone to far.
MorpherX2: Look, you left in a hurry, what was I supposed to do?
Fearless: Actually, I was hoping they’d turn this room in to some kind of shrine to me.
MorpherX2: Your ego is out of control.
Fearless: It’s not that far out actually, this whole floor could be turned into a temple and six days a week the local children would be invited to come and pray.
MorpherX2: Why would they come?
Fearless loads his gun.
Fearless: Trust me, they’d come.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The main room in CWAL headquarters.
Dark Chrono: (Singing) Now sit right back and you’ll hear a tale….
In the dark room, Fearless discreetly moves in on Dark Chrono who is wrapped up in watching TV.
Dark Chrono: (Singing) Gilligan, the Skipper to…. (He stops singing) Wow, Ginger sure is a stud.
Fearless walks over and sits across from Dark Chrono.
Fearless: “Stud” from the Xe’lnagian word “Studicious” meaning beautiful or good looking girl.
Dark Chrono: Only Fearless could know that kind of useless information.
Fearless: I try to keep up on my foreign languages, even Protossian.
Dark Chrono: I’ll be damned.
Dark Chrono stands up and shakes Fearless’ hand.
Dark Chrono: You must have come here for a reason. I’d like to know what that reason is.
Fearless: I’m here to stop you from making a terrible mistake.
Dark Chrono: If it’s ever trusting you, it’s too late, I’ve already made that mistake once. I don’t intend to make it again.
Fearless: Surely by now the real Lunatic has come forward and revealed the complicated deception.
Dark Chrono: There’s no way you could have known that the Lunatic you shot three months ago was a fake.
Fearless: I didn’t. Your not tearing me limb from limb the moment you saw me told me something was amiss. My guess was just lucky.
Dark Chrono: No one is that lucky.
Fearless: Right again. Someone has caught me up on the events of the last quarter year.
Dark Chrono: One of our CWALers?
Fearless: In a way I suppose, but in other ways he is not.
Dark Chrono: I shouldn’t have expected anything more than backward doubletalk from you.
Fearless: Agreed.
Fearless walks over to the TV, he wipes the top, revealing a thin layer of dust.
Fearless: You don’t dust often enough.
Dark Chrono: I’m still waiting.
Fearless: For the important information I have for you?
Dark Chrono: Or your violent death, whichever comes first.
Fearless sits back down.
Fearless: There’s someone I’d like you to meet. What he has to say may amaze you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two minutes later, outside CWAL headquarters. Dorg, Darkangel, Smoke, Legion007, Intruder and Arcturus wait in the bushes not far away.
Dorg: This sure brings back memories. When I was a kid, every clear night me and my friends would go out and hide in bushes and throw rotten eggs at cars. And there was always this one nerd who would ride by on his bicycle, we’d egg him real bad. Once his grandfather came to give us hell but we egged him to. Those were the days.
Shadow returns, coffees in hand.
Shadow: Bad news, I searched and searched but couldn’t find another starbucks anywhere.
Intruder: So what kind of coffee is this?
Shadow: Mcdonalds.
The CWALers all spit up their coffee.
Legion007: Jesus Shades, if you can’t do something right don’t do it at all.
Most of them are now pouring out their coffees.
Darkangel: Wait, are these the cups with the weak bottoms?
Smoke: Did I hear someone say “lawsuit”?
The CWALers all stop pouring and try to drink with an exposed hand underneath.
Shadow: These bushes give me the creeps. Ecer since I was a kid. I used to ride my bike by bushes like these and I’d always get rancid eggs thrown at me. Then one day my grandfather went to chase away who did it and he got hit in the face, he had a heart attack and died a day later.
Darkangel: Dorg didn’t you say….
Dorg nudges Darkangel.
Dorg: DA, exney on the eggthrowingpe.
Arcturus: How long has Fearless been gone?
Legion007: About an hour.
Intruder: DE probably decapited him.
Arcturus: Or DC, I hope he still isn’t bitter about that double agent thing, or we could all be up the creak without a Jolt to use as a floatation device.
Out of the front door of CWAL headquarters, Dark Chrono and Fearless walk out.
Arcturus: Shhh…. (Whispering) Quiet down, here they come.
Fearless looks around. And then yells.
Fearless: (Yelling) Arc. Get out here.
Legion007: (Whispering) My name isn’t Arc, it least not any more. I think he wants you.
Arcturus gets out of the bushes and walks toward Dark Chrono and Fearless.
Dark Chrono: (Sarcastic tone) Wow, it’s Arcturus. I haven’t been so underwhelmed since I wrapped up my own stuff and mailed it to myself as a christmas present.
Arcturus: Your head looks awfully more attached than it did the last time I saw you DC.
Dark Chrono: You look like you’ve been through hell, Arc. And you’d be wise to stay away from trouble makers like Fearless. You’re starting to talk in backward riddles like he often does.
Arcturus: There’ll be plenty of time for that later, but right now we have a world to save.
Dark Chrono: Case and point.
Fearless: Is there somewhere that we can all talk privately? There are many things we need to discuss.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the depths of the CWAL headquarters basement, Arcturus layed it all down for Dark Chrono. The Gantrithor, the TMM, Dauntless, the history of things to come.
Dark Chrono: Damn, I’d better wear a turtle neck tommorow.
Arcturus: The last thing we saw was the nuclear blast encompass New York City.
There is a pause.
Dark Chrono: I remember that day 250 years ago. The stars were out in full force, not unlike tonight.
Fearless: The future must be changed.
Dark Chrono: We are, things are changing as we speak. There’s no way I’ll order the attack now.
Arcturus: Unacceptable.
Fearless: Resistance or not, Dauntless will still liquidate New York City.
Dark Chrono: How can you be so sure?
Fearless: I would.
Dark Chrono: Then what do you two propose? We lie down and let him win?
Fearless and Arcturus look at eachother.
Arcturus: No, but we may have to sell our soul to the devil.
Dark Chrono: Jolt tells me he doesn’t offer a good exchange rate nowadays.
Fearless: He was speaking figuratively.
Dark Chrono leans forward.
Dark Chrono: You’ve peaked my interest. What does this involve?
Arcturus: Courage, guile, and one hell of a lot of ships.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Act Seven: The Art of Brinksmanship.
Not long after, at Operation Wont Wait Much More headquarters.
Gabrielle: Out of the question. Helping CWAL again is out of the question.
Many WWMMers are around a large conference table and Fjorxc stands before them, flight helmet in hand.
Fjorxc: I’m pleading with you, we need all the ships you can spare. I don’t take my flight helmet off for just anyone you know. When I met the pope he asked me to take it off, I said no. And when he asked me again, I got ticked off and shot him. It’s a good thing they made fifty clones of him at birth, or I might have had to become the pope.
The WWMMers look at eachother.
Tanya Adams: Get out of our headquarters.
Fjorxc, with his head down, turns to walk away.
SuperMook: Wait Forks.
Fjorxc truns back to them, the other WWMMers look at SuperMook.
SuperMook: Maybe we SHOULD help him.
Invitedguest: Why, what have they done for us?
SuperMook: Remember that time at the ballpark, when we helped CWAL defeat those Flensers and Nazi soldiers?
Dragonnose: Yes, I still have the scars from their bayonets.
SuperMook: Ok, bad example. But remember that time at the Millenium Dome when we fought of those….. Ok, bad example. (Considers for a momment) Ok, forget I said anything, see ya Forks.
Fjorxc lowers his head again and starts to walk away.
Reflection: (Energized) No wait!
Gabrielle: What is it now?
Reflection: If it wasn’t for CWAL, we wouldn’t have Mikey Weitz!
The WWMMers think for a momment.
Gabrielle: (Hesitantly) Ok Forks, you seem to have convinced some of our more gullible members, we’ll help you. How many ships do you need?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A smile comes over Dauntless’ face. On his massive viewscreen, just on the edge of the horizon, something is looming. The California coast. Then he looks a bit confused.
Dauntless: Mercutio, do we have any contacts on the sensors?
Mercutio: (Checking) No sir, there’s nothing between here and the California coast.
Dauntless: Strange, I had expected some CWAL resistance. I was looking forward to exterminating that pesky band of do-gooders. But, I suppose that will have to wait for another day. Hold your course, the fruits of our destiny are now well within our grasp.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A mere nine miles infront of Dauntless’ fleet, a cloaked fleet waits.
Dark Nexus: Less than ten miles now, we are directly in the Gantrithors flight path.
Arcturus: Can they see through our cloak?
Dark Nexus: No, we’ll be safe as long as we keep still. Otherwise, they may detect the wakes from our engines.
Arcturus: Ready docking clamps, signal the fleet to go to yellow alert.
On the bridge, Dark Nexus, Arcturus, Darkangel, Dorg, Smoke, Intruder, Legion007, Shadow, Whyte, Fearless and Dark Chrono wait. One of the aft doors open, and Fron walks onto the bridge, with someone behind him.
Fron: Arc, I’d like you to meet someone.
Arcturus, who had been wrapped up in the events on the viewscreen, looks over.
Fron: Arcturus, meet Arcturus.
Another, slighly less battered Arcturus come out from behind Fron.
Fron: He’s you, two days in the past.
The two Arcturus’ walk up to eachother and look eachother over.
Arcturus: I’d always though that I was better looking than this.
Arcturus: Diddo.
Dark Chrono: Does this mean we now have two Arcturus’ for good?
Whyte: No, in theory, once the TMM in this timeline is destroyed, Arcturus, as well as the other dopplegangers, will fade into oblivion.
Arcturus: Thrilling.
Whyte: That’s in theory of course. In actuality, they may be able to continue on in this reality, unaffected, or it may create a tear in the space-time continuum so big, reality as we know it may cease to exist. I don’t know how the TMM works exactly, and there are a
million variables, the only way to truly know is to try it and see what happens.
Dorg: All these technical terms are giving me a migrane. “TMM”, “Space-time continuum”, “Million”.
Dark Chrono: Quiet, everyone quiet.
The bridge goes quiet.
Dark Chrono: Dauntless’ fleet is less than half a mile away now, signal the fleet.
Dark Nexus: What should I tell them?
Dark Chrono: Battle stations.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aboard the Gantrithor, all appears to be going as planned. Dauntless paces.
Dauntless: Something is not right, we should have met some resistance by now.
Dauntless continues to pace.
Dauntless: Shut down the engines. Signal the fleet to do the same.
Macduff: Pardon me?
Dauntless: You heard the order, do as I say.
The crew frantically scramble to shut down the engines and signal the rest of the fleet to do so.
Macduff: All ships reporting all stop sir.
Dauntless stops pacing and sits down in the captains chair.
Dauntless: Yorick, do we have any contacts on the sensors?
Yorick: Nothing sir.
Dauntless: Just as it should be.
Banquo: Sir, we have we stopped?
Dauntless: Because, my dear Banquo, we are being led into a trap.
Banquo: What kind of trap?
Dauntless stares at the blank viewscreen.
Dauntless: That is what I am trying to ascertain.
Macduff: Then what do we do know?
Dauntless: We wait.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aboard the lead CWAL ship.
Dark Nexus: Something’s wrong, he stopped the entire fleet.
Dark Chrono: What is our range to the target?
Whyte: Less than two hundred meters. We’ll have to be at least one hundred meters closer before we can attack.
Dark Nexus: Has he detected us?
Whyte checks his insturments.
Whyte: I don’t think so.
The bridge again goes quiet. Dark Chrono stands up.
Arcturus: Who will blink first.
Dark Chrono: I will. Uncloak the fleet, we must attack.
Dark Nexus: No wait! We can’t just decloak and start a firefight, you heard what Arcturus said about the last time we tried this, the entire fleet was obliterated, without so much as a scratch to the Gantrithor. We have to bring the TMM offline before the battle begins.
Dark Chrono: (Yelling) The fleet has stopped, we have no other options!
Dark Nexus: (Yelling) Then we have to find other options!
Dark Chrono: If we don’t attack, he may turn around or readjust his course, then we’ll have missed our chance.
Dark Nexus: Granted, but attacking now would be signing our death warrants. We’ve made the mistake of prematurely attacking his fleet before, let’s not be so stupid as to do it again.
Dark Chrono: (Yelling) I know that ship better than anyone, we will follow my orders!
Dark Nexus: If that’s how it’s going to be, so be it. If you want to commit suicide, go right ahead, but those of us who want a fighting chance are getting in a transport and boarding that ship.
Dark Nexus walks off the bridge. Silence follows. Whyte is quick to follow Dark Nexus, soon after Dorg, Shadow and Legion007.
Dark Chrono: Anyone else thinking of joining them?
Intruder leaves, and after a moment Darkangel, followed by Smoke. Only the two Arcturus’, Fron, and Fearless remain. Arcturus leaves.
Arcturus: Let’s go Arc.
Both Arcturus’ leave and so does Fearless. Fron walks to the door and looks at Dark Chrono.
Fron: See you around DC.
Fron leaves. Dark Chrono is now alone on an empty bridge.
Next: Apocalypse Rising, Part 3