《The Juveniles - Segment 2》Chapter 6 - The Mantle
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EXT. BAVARIA, GERMANY - NOVEMBER 21, 2019 - CLOUDY - 9:30 PM
According to the Wikipedia database, Bavaria is a landlocked federal state of Germany, occupying its southeastern corner. With an area of 70,550.19 square kilometres (27,239.58 sq mi) Bavaria is the largest German state by land area comprising roughly a fifth of the total land area of Germany. With 13 million inhabitants, it is Germany's second-most-populous state after North Rhine-Westphalia. Bavaria's main cities are Munich (its capital and largest city and also the third largest city in Germany), Nuremberg, and Augsburg.
The history of Bavaria includes its earliest settlement by Iron Age Celtic tribes, followed by the conquests of the Roman Empire in the 1st century BC, when the territory was incorporated into the provinces of Raetia and Noricum. It became a stem duchy in the 6th century AD following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. It was later incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire, became an independent kingdom, joined the Prussian-led German Empire in 1871 while retaining its title of kingdom, and finally became a state of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949.
The Duchy of Bavaria dates back to the year 555. In the 17th century AD, the Duke of Bavaria became a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire. The Kingdom of Bavaria existed from 1806 to 1918, when Bavaria became a republic. In 1946, the Free State of Bavaria reorganized itself on democratic lines after the Second World War.
However, in Bavaria lies a lone, abandoned residence that was purchased and used by the infamous Chancellor of Germany, the one who wreaked havoc all across Europe and the West, yet also hailed as a hero from his country and his fellow allies, but a worldwide threat and a megalomaniac. Despite his reputation, he died by his own hand, a cowardly death as well as his dreams of domination plummet down the abyss.
Year after year, war after war, the house lay in shambles, abandoned by its humble residents leaving sections of the house buried in dust, overgrown vines and hidden relics lost in time. Yet one day, a rich family managed to save it from the Allies' hands and restores it the way it looked it like before the war began, with some technological changes, such as cameras, smart appliances and many more general-purpose that makes life easier.
On a cloudy morning, a cab pulls over the renovated front gate with cobblestone walls built around the perimeters of the compound. At the distance, lies the residence, though in spite of the new restoration, there are no luxurious designs around to compliment the eyes like statues made out of shrubs or stones, no fountains, nothing. Just a straight path to a stairway that leads to the residence's first floor with intricate designs from the Baroque or Gothic era.
The passenger which is a young man, presumably in his early 30s, wearing a black suit-and-tie with a dark blue polo as his inner, a clean black fedora, and sleek black leather shoes. He turns to the driver, showing his pointy chin and boisterous smile. "Thank you for the ride, here, keep the change.", he takes out a couple of Euro dollars and gives it to the driver, to which he nods and receives it.
"You're welcome, Mr. Alburo!", the man close the passenger door and back away from the gate, and drives out of the compound. The passenger, now named as Alburo, brushes the dust off his suit and glances at the simple yet iconical home. He steps forwards at the front gate, looking around if anybody's there, however he hears a small twitch on his right. He sighs and looks at the camera, staring at him carefully, it's bright red dot turn on and off in a repeated loop.
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The suit merely tips his fedora with a witty smirk, and takes out his ID from his pocket, a logo of the Secret Intelligence Service, or most commonly known by the world as MI6, the foreign intelligence service of the government of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligence (HUMINT) in support of the UK's national security. The gate gradually opens up before like some magic entrance , while Alburo keeps his ID on one of his suits pockets.
On the wall, beneath the gate camera, lies a metal placard with hints of rust around it's edges etched a name: Berghof.
INT. EXT - ARCHED GALLERY
As Andrei finished walking up the stairs, an old, obese man with a thick gray beard around his chest, wearing a clean modernized version of the German WW2 officer uniform awaits him at the of the flight. His green eyes gaze at it him with animosity, hiding some kind of distrust to an agent. The agent takes off his fedora showing his unkempt hair, as a sign of respect and peace, accompanied by a gentle smile across his cheeks. "Where is he?".
The old man stretches his hand outwards to a corner a balcony, presuming the one he's going to meet is behind that wall. He turns the old man and nods accordingly, "Thank you."
Yet the old man still watches him with caution. His body stiffens up, just in case that agent will do anything hasty.
EXT. BALCONY
Alburo turns to a corner to find a young man. His hair is black with a clean cut, his attire is composed of a black long sleeve tux with white suspenders, black formal pants, and black leather shoes much like agent's. His dead black eyes gaze at the beauty of the Alps, fascinated by its formation, and the Alps, how it became the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, and stretch approximately 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, and Slovenia.
Yet what he can remember was how it was used for war. When the Nazis trained German ski troopers to travel down to Riva Ridge in Italy, and fought against the Allies, the young man feels bitter about the bloody memory. The young man turns his head halfway to the agent's direction, smelling the reeking scent of tobacco. "I thought I told you to stop smoking here.",
Alburo pause his hand, already lighting the cigar, yet he lights it anyway and huffs a puff of smoke away from the young man's direction. "Sorry, force of habit.", he looks at the Alps for a moment, smoking for a while before glancing at him. "We lost one."
He blows one last puff and throws the cigar from the balcony, and walk towards him, taking out his smartphone. The young man shifts his head to the Alburo's footage taken from one the Bishop's perspective, presumably a camera has been installed one of their robes. It shows how Alo was able to power up the bike using the crystal gauntlets, shock wall and the deafening scream, but also reveals Johan's perception and expertise in archery, with her bow, quiver and arrows, glitching out occassionally.
Then the footage rolls to another camera, this time it's Rhaka's. In the video, him and the Road Mashers clash against the remaining Roaring Dragons, and as the clash goes on, the same bright light from the Bishops appear thus blinding the leader, but that's when Kenji took the advantage and cripple him in the end, the force is enough to destroy the camera.
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Alburo pulls his phone away and keeps it in one of his pockets. "Apparently, the old man has formed his own shindig, full of superpowered children. Do you still think the others can pull this off?".
The young man looks down, taking out a small metal insignia of the old National Socialists, rubbing it with his thumb slowly. "There is a reason why I have a soft spot for groups like them. You know it, right?"
"Oppression. But with their histories tied to kill counts and savagery, you can't have soft spots for them. We're better than this. Our goal is to - "
" - find my father's killer, yes. But things have changed.", just as he spoke that phrase, the old man from the stairs, brings a folder and approaches the agent already raising an eyebrow in mild confusion. "We need to get through those juveniles first, otherwise, it'll be deja vu for us."
Alburo takes the folder from the old man, opens it and read the contents, the old man leaves the two, back to his station. But what's in the paper made the agent broadens his eyes and flinch from where he's standing, but smirk with something else in mind. "You want me to do this next? You're insane."
"And I always will be. They are more organized and determined than those three, so I contacted a good friend to help you out. I want the results next week, then we can unfold our plan there. And don't worry about the magician, I'll take care of the model.", the young man steps away from the balcony, giving him an earnest grin. He goes inside the house, through the kitchen.
He chuckles dismissively while closing the folder, inserting it between his suit and inner polo, "But what about the refugees?", the young man stops and think for a moment, and turns to Alburo.
"No witnesses, as always.", then leaves the agent alone with the view of the Alps.
INT. CLINIC - 10:30 AM
Alo lazily opens is eyes, gazing at a dirty ceiling. "Back here, huh?", he speaks in his head, recognizing the smell of plastic, the garbage outside, and the scent of blood though he can't tell whether its someone else's or his.
He takes another whiff of the surroundings for confirmation, then nods conceding that the blood is his, later smelling the stench of alcohol, but to him it's his favorite drink.
He looks around him, spotting the IV bag, shelves of medicine, empty stretchers or gurnies on his right. On the front is his outfit that used during the battle, and with the masks he got from the store, then turns to his left side, and much to his surprise, found Johan sleeping on her arms beside him (thankfully not on his other arm) At first, he's planning to prank her by tickling her sides with a shocking twist. But after the whole exhausting fight at the harbor, he couldn't do anything but stare long enough for her to twitch her eyebrows and later her eyes.
"Oh crap", Alo immediately close his eyes, not wanting any ramblings vomiting on him.
The geek stretches her arms before glancing at Alo, then narrows her eyes with suspicion. She creeps her face towards his, and as they grow close to each other, Alo's beating became faster and faster.
"WAKEY-WAKEY, SLEEPYHEAD!", Johan yells at the top of her lungs plunges two of her fingers right in his nostrils, like two unseen powerful forces thrusting his poor nose in the darkness, followed by loud cackling.
He expected her to committ something embarrasing like falling over his chest, or getting flustered. Yet this moment reminded him not to expect anything from a pretty bookworm, with an obssession of handsome, talented and ripped British men because who knows what kind of strength she has. Geez, why don't they just exchange powers and see who's stronger?
"GAAAAAHHHHH! - OOF!", Alo loses his balance and falls off the stretcher and lands on the floor while Johan just death-stares at him, letting out a pitiful scoff. "Bloody creep."
Alo slowly gets up from the dirty floor, not minding his dried up blood, "Agh, how long was I out?".
Johan crosses her arms, still giving him a sardonic expression, "2 hours.", then takes out her Samsung-brand smartphone to really watch the time, "And 30 minutes."
Alo scratches at the back of his head, feeling woozy. However, he notices the clinic is empty and as far as his brain remembered there were 5 of them, including that weird hooded lady that literally stopped them in place but if she were a big threat, she would've wiped them off the road. "Where are the others?"
Johan picks her stuff from the ground like her equipment, "Kenji went back to get something, while King and our new friend are outside, guess who?", she delivers a playful smirk but Alo just ignored her. The archer opens the door that leads outside and bows like a gentleman, "After you. ~ "
EXT. CLINIC
Kenji gazes at the portal, seeing Hokkaido's green fields. " だから、これが私たちが別れを告げる場所だと思います。私たちの一団はまだ生きていると思いますか?(So I guess this is where we part ways. Do you think our gang will still live on?)"
King is distracted by swinging Rhaka's sign-axe around, claiming it for himself. "それはかなり馬鹿げた質問ですが、ただ言いましょう。 。 。(That's a rather stupid question, but let's just say . . .)," He stops swinging the axe and rests on his back, smirking at Kenji. "新しい管理下にあります。 。 。 (It is under new management . . . )".
The pair then hears distant voices on the other side, Kenji takes a closer look and lets out a tear in his eye with a relieved smile, finally seeing his parents again. After months He turns to his former leader and the chestnut haired lady, "あなたがた両方に感謝します。私はこれを決して忘れません。(Thank you both. I'll never forget this.)", he formally bows at them with farewell.
The seer bows lightly at Kenji, while King gives him a two-finger salute as they watch Kenji exits the portal, arriving from Tokyo to Hokkaido in just a instant. At the distance, Kenji sprints towards his parents, and immediately hugs them tightly. Kenji's parents embrace their son, crying with joy. Cassandra smirks beneath her hood, as she flicks her fingers, closing the portal in front of them.
Just as it closes however, Alo and Johan walk in front of them. "Kenji already went home?".
King nods and hangs his arms above his back with the sign-axe as a hanger, "Gave me a sweet memento, too. Love the grip even it's a traffic sign. Could use some repairs - ", he sniffs and flinch from the horrendous stench, " - Ugh, and some perfume!".
Alo approaches the lady, a bit weak but still regaining his strength. "So, Casssandra Lopez, I presume?". The lady lifts the sides of her robe and gracefully bows down with a smile.
"Fortune teller and adept sorceress, at your service.", then stands up. "Though, I believe there are some questions that need to be answered, starting with - ah! Yes, you!", then looks at Johan, who is raising her hand as if she's asking a professor where she is confused.
"Um, yeah, one question.", she points directly to a floating corpse behind her without looking with a straight expression. "Do these bodies reach to the moon, 'cause if so I wanna be naked Neil Armstrong with a giant megaphone, only - no blood or organs coming from my mouth, yeah?".
With that spoken, Alo tries to charge his gauntlets back so he can could shock Johan's brain enough to lose her stupid and absurd side, ONLY HE could do that! Cassandra tilts her face upwards to see the bodies still flying in their agonizing positions and mentally hits herself with a hammer for being dumb not enough to release them. She raises her hands and brings it down, waist-level instantly dropping them down, dead. "It was just your eyes, senorita. No need to look into it. As for why I'm here, I was sent by a rather weird old man to bring you all back to Washington."
Alo and Johan groans altogether and the latter rolls her eyes, "Richard.", "Dr. Stalker.", King doesn't understand those nickname yet he felt should've known them more by now.
"That's correct. And seeing all you of are rather burned out. - ", she snaps her fingers, summoning a bright oval portal with bright clean purple outlines. At first, all they can see is pure void, but that said void gradually dissipates into the tiniest corners of the portal, revealing the Headquarters' Courtyard. " - why don't we go home, ¿si?", she smiles with confidence.
Seeing that place again, made Alo's vigilance shifts into alleviation, while Johan are appalled by the portal's sudden appearance, and at last seeing the courtyard so she can go back with her beloved super-computer.
EXT. HEADQUARTERS
As they hop out of the portal, King's went wide open, gazing the at the massive courtyard, the 4-story building and two others at the side. While he walks aimlessly, Angel revs its engine quietly, following him with the same movement speed as his.
Johan, however, lets her weight drop on the clean grass and spreading her arms and legs in bliss, "YES! CLEAN GREEN GRASS, OH HOW I MISSED YE!".
Cassandra raises an eyebrow, sketchy on her present actions. On the other hand, is the last to hop out of the portal and sees Johan playing with the dirt and Cassandra looking rather confused, asking herself did she get the right people.
"Don't worry.", Cassandra turns to Alo stretching his arms, then gives her a deadpan look, "She doesn't have rabies.", then heads inside the headquarters first. Cassandra shrugs her shoulders and leaves the nerd to continue her victory moment.
INT. LOBBY
Just as they enter, they are greeted by a bandanged Tatiana playing on her phone, leaning beside the elevator and watch as the ComBots are cleaning the floor. Hell, there signs that says "Caution: Wet Floor" which makes everything looks organized and proper. King obeys the signs and maintains his distance with the cute robots waving their brooms for hands as greetings.
Alo tilts his head, raising an eyebrow at Tatiana, "Woah, what happened to you? Did you fall down or something?".
Even he knows his little sister that doesn't pay attention all the time, his "big-brother" instincts kicked in and asked about her safety, which is sometimes since she's the only family he has.
Tatiana transfers her vision to her brother, and tilts her head left to right along with her eye slyly, "Sorta like that.", then she winks at Cassandra, to which the seer nods. "Richard needs you at the C.C, you guys need to take the stairs 'cause the elevator needs a little bit of repair.", she jerks her head to a brand-new doorway that leads to a flight of stairs. They can still smell the hardened cement and fresh coats of paint from here.
Before Alo could enter though, he hears a slip followed by a slam behind them. They all turn around to see Johan, rubbing the back of her head as the fellow ComBots help her out. Alo shakes his head and disappointment and heads inside the stairs, while Tatiana burst into laughter, and not because she got a Penta-Kill.
INT. CENTRAL COMMAND
Inside the Command Central, Richard paces back and forth behind the whiteboard, worrying about the team, biting the end of his nails as if watching an intense horror show. Then he hears the door open up, to see Alo and the team arrive, along with Cassandra, and a speechless King, looking at the organized and sophisticated server blocks, despite the numerous ComBots trying their best to save some of their fellow units from by the web wires between the chassis.
Richard sees them and breathes a sigh of relief, "You're alive! You all are! I was gonna send an entire platoon of ComBots to scour the entire city and - and - and - and I was going to - ", he is about to ramble on but his glance catches Tatiana and Johan, catch up via stairs.
The former did it without minding her steps and keeps playing on the phone and latter now having slight brain damage from accident on the ground floor, is so ditzy from the impact she starts to speak incoherently and tries to utter the Gettysburg Address. Richard's face slumps into perplexity, staring with bewilderment. " - What happened to her?".
Alo stares at Richard with his tired eyes and shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly, "She slipped. - ".
Johan perks her body straight up like an attentive soldier and showing her cross-eyed face, " - FOUR CUPS OF FRESH SEMEN AND TWO BOTTLES OF ROTTEN MUSTARD AGO! I HAVE A DREAM ~ A DREAM THAT ONE DAY! I WILL GIVE BIRTH TO A THOUSAND GENERATIONS THAT SHALL STAND AND SHOUT ALTOGETHER . . . THAT ONE DIRECTION IS DA - ".
Tatiana pins Johan down to a glass wall, while Cassandra closes her eyes and place her palms above Johan's head. "R e s t a u r a r. . . ", her hands start to glow bright purple and see if she can restore Johan's stupidity. The nerd stares at the ceiling dumbfounded and cross-eyed.
King approaches Richard, curious about everything about it. "You're a hologram . . . and you're TALKING!", He takes a step back with a little bit of fear.
Already understood the raider's lack of knowledge after being trapped within a war-torn city, Richard nods contently, "Basically it's my DNA signature in the hologram system, i - i - it's a complicated thing. It'll all be revealed soon.", he pauses, then he forgets about the number one thing he always do; introductions.
He quickly takes out his hand, but instead does the same mistake and retracts back, nearly avoiding the embarrasing moment. "The name is Richard Goodman, sorry if the pixels bug you, but I believe we should've arrived more earlier to get you and dealing with the gang war in your city. Though I assume the situation has been solved?".
King and Alo swap glances on each other and back at the doctor. "Yeah, sort of. The survivors were able to survive thanks to them. But before Rhaka died, he spitted out some information about the new group that's trying to hunt me down; they wore uniforms, they supplied the Road Mashers with humvees which basically breaks their code on walking around the streets, they gathered all three gangs - two, now - AND they knew about the evacuation plan which only me, the gang and the refugees know about - oh shit.", his face falls in awe as he realizes something; anybody not within King's line of sight might've spread the information outside the gates.
Alo places his hand on King shoulder, and a few pats. "Hey, don't beat yourself up yet. Me and Fan-girl over there never really noticed it either." On the back ground Cassandra de-casts her restore spell on Johan, while Tatiana is leaning on Johan with her against hers so she can continue playing on her phone. The seer checks Johan for a moment, her eyes still remain cross-eyed "So in short, it's a pain in the ass for all of us. Not only this group managed to get all the gangs in one banner, but blew up Cassandra's small shop and killing several people around as well.".
Cassandra hears her shop being called small, and tilts her head to the boys. "Excuse me, but my shop was a very spacious and well-ventilated, for your information! Plus it costed me 1/4 of a million and several charges for murder!", then goes back to restoring Johan's brain.
"That still doesn't explain how you called us here.", Alo scratches the back of his head.
Richard went back to pacing, "While you all were at Tokyo, I was scanning the archives in the Headquarters system, and found something that may corellate to this new group. But you won't like it - ". Richard's countenance turns to a distressed one.
Suddenly, Johan blinks her eyes to normal and gets off Tatiana and Cassandra and snaps her head at the boys. "WHAT DID I MISS?!".
As Alo's little sister sits with a chair, leaning against the white board, the Juveniles gather around the table adjacent to Johan's supercomputer. All of the teens take a seat while a standing Richard is in front of them as he begins his findings. One of the monitors from the supercomputer speeds behind him and shows a picture of a white Caucasian male in his 40s with clean blonde hair.
"Paul Walsh. A veteran soldier. A businessman. And a former neo-Nazi. During the 1980s, Paul joined the NSM and was tasked to get information to leverage themselves from the United Nations. While on the search, he found one classified folder that tells about the Nazis harnessing cryotechnology. He also found a picture.",
He sidesteps to the right and shows a black-and-white picture of a rusty metal container connected to several pipes to who knows where, presumably generators since back in the day, experiments require butt tons of power to gain sufficient results. They also spot a small circular window in front of the pod, mainly to see if the test subject is stable, yet they're not sure if the subject inside that pod is a bunch of meat or something else.
Other than the pod, several men and women wearing lab coats with a left red-and-black armband wrapped around in the middle of their shoulders. Some of them are talking to each other, comparing notes on their clipboards, few are checking the status on the control panel that operates the pod and the others are maintaining the condition of the wires. But Johan moves her head closer to compare the size between the German scientists and the pod itself and a little bit odd.
"This is a cryo-pod? Looks like a mini-fridge.", Johan pushes her glasses upwards trying scale up different angles in the picture.
Richard glances at Johan, "It kind of looks like one. However, this pod wasn't built for any important figures. In fact, the only important they want to preserve is - "
" - their legacy.", Cassandra cuts him, her face freeze in shock. They all turn to the seer, with the same idea. "They're . . . They're using children.", her disdainful voice echoes around the room. Everything is filled with silence for a moment. Both of the Juveniles have their different negative expressions about the Nazis experimenting on children, and definitely because they have other intentions besides their people's lives.
"Anyway - ", Richard clears his throat to break the heavy noiselessness.", - after the mission, Paul decided to quit as a member, and soon met me during his vacation. After being best friends, he shared me the information regarding the cryotechnology, and with my naiveness, ended up sharing about the crystal's involvement making him the only person that knows about us."
"You really trusted this guy?", King asks Richard if he knows a thing or two about trust, bitterly recalling the leaked evacuation plan before.
Richard glances at King and has a small gleam on his face, "Paul knew the sides between good and evil. But like us, he's just lost as we are, and he also knew that staying on one side for too long can have consequences. So yes, I did trust him. And he trusted me."
Then that gleam disappeared, "My duty just got in the way of his coming death."
He shows a picture of a dead family and a destroyed house in a middle of a forest along with FBI and the NHSP officers on the scene, investigating what might've caused this. "During the September 11 attacks, Paul and his family were dead on their living room. I immediately dragged their bodies out and went for Paul's evidence, but it was already on fire. I tried my best to put out the flames but the stove exploded. With no choice, I grabbed what's left of it and left the house without looking back. Soon after, I contacted the NHSP and the Fire Department."
Richard turns the screen off, "On that night, I hid the papers in one of the rooms and never dared to look into it. Until now.", he looks elsewhere to see something closing on them.
A GenBot wearing overralls arrives in the room and delivers a folder with lots of papers inside. Richard turns the bots and nods in thanks, to which the bot bleeps in turn and leaves to help the stairs construction.
The 4 teens open the folder only to be greeted by the smell of ash and worn-out papyrus. They look at the newspaper articles regarding the conspiracies between the Allies and the Axis, and birth certificates with majority of the personal infos are covered in redacted lines except for the basic ones like age, birthdates and names.
In spite of the threat looming around them, seeing them studying the evidence made him gleam, that with the right actions and the right people, nothing can stop them from -
"HITLER HAS A SON?!", Honestly he never thought Johan would yell from her seat, looking at the birth certificate after double-checking it. It could've been Alo or King that yelled, since teenage boys tend to have a temper. Johan turns to Richard slamming the birth certificate back on the table, "THIS IS BOLLOCKS!".
The room is in silence, Alo is widens his eyes but remain stoic. King blinks his eyes and curls his face into confusion. Cassandra just shrugs it off, knowing magic exists and anything bizarre, she just doesn't care about anything. "I was shocked too. But we can't jump into conclusions. We need to connect the dots before we know what's going on.", Richard assures the ranger that not everything can be true, unless proven or else there will be panic rousing about.
"Hold up, the group tried to hunt me and Wicked Witch of the West here - ", he jerks a thumb at the seer beside him, raising an eyebrow on Richard.
" - Cassandra - ", she corrects the raider in her seat.
" - Cassandra here and me, right? Then what about the others?", he repeats the name again with the same tone.
Alo, Johan and Cassandra look each other, pending for their own ideas that can answer the raider's surprisingly good question, Richard shifts his eyes to King, "We're working on it. Though I have devised two solutions.", he raises two his index and middle finger to emphasize, "Either we let Mrs. Lopez casts you into the locations of our volunteers. Or go all together as a team, but . . . ", then there is a pause, thinking about what he should say next.
" . . . this time, I won't be the one calling the shots." He shifts her attention to Tatiana, playing on her phone, nudges his head upwards once. Tatiana lets go off her less-dominant hand and throws Alo a little something, with her eyes still glue to the screen, then continues playing her game. Alo quickly catches it, and opens his palm widely, letting the other see, all of them with mixed reactions.
The item is rather odd, "What's . . . this?", he takes a closer look at the insignia, its clearly made out of a shiny chrome that resembles a 2-dimensional double terminated crystal with 8 points on it. His fingers rub against the smooth surface, wondering if this one has any use.
"That, my leader, is a key that leads to another area of the headquarters, one that is made for the next generation: your generation.", then glances to everyone. "But first, we must gather the rest of our team. - ".
" - WOoah, woah, woah, what do you mean 'leader'?", Alo quickly stops him right there, surrendering his hands up.
Richard quickly turn back to the brawler, slightly puzzled. "I mean that. Congrats, you're the new de-facto now. I know it's quite early, but - ", he shrugs his shoulders, " - circumstances change. By I mean circumstances I mean it's what we talked before."
The three stare at Alo, waiting for his reaction. Alo is outright confused and shaken by the sudden promotion. Richard turns off the monitor, not letting any distractions out and stands right in front of the chosen brawler, "If you didn't notice, after you made your peace in Greece, you've been getting better and calmer with yourself. Sure, you still drink booze and a big couch potato, but seeing you brought King here safe and sound, plus your will to fight for the refugees' safety at the evac mission, made me think about the future of this organization; our organization. I was also in your shoes, but my time was spent sitting around, isolating myself from society when I should've done something though in my defense I was just one old man. However, with you at the helm, along with them, I know I can trust you will risk everything to do what's right.", he looks at the entire group, "Same goes for all of you. Deep inside, I know you all have that drive, the drive to redeem yourselves entirely, whether from your own actions or someone else's, in the end, we're all just a bunch of juvenile-minded vagrants trying to make things right."
Johan scoffs and smirks at the thought of that rather gratuitous speech, while Cassandra and King nod correspondingly, recalling their purpose agree themselves to join the group; to make things right in their lives, taking into account on both of them already accused with murder and destruction of property.
Alo stares at the insignia once again, debating against himself if he really did change and can take the mantle of being a figure everybody can look up to, or he's just lying to himself, thus everything he did was for nothing. Even if he got rid of Keith, there's this gaping hole in his heart, he doesn't know what it is, but its there and in order to fill it in, he needs to be brave enough to find it.
"Hey.", Alo gaze at his sister, giving him an encouraging smirk as she puts her phone in her jeans' pocket with the audio cue "VICTORY" hollered by the game's announcer before shutting down. "It's what they would've wanted.", and leaves the Central Command, heading downstairs to charge her phone. That alone, Alo confidently takes the chrome crystal insignia and keeps it in his pocket.
Instead of a surprised expression like every movie cliche/trope, Alo shrugs his shoulders with a tired smile, "Alright. I'll try my best. So where do we start? As far as I know, we're down to three.".
"Oh, I got this.", Richard snaps his fingers, turning on the monitor above them, and switching to a television channel.
The monitor shows different models going up the Grand Staircase inside the Dolby Theatre, located in Los Angeles, California, in LIVE television. Then a burst of shrieking and whistling as the last model makes her way inside the lobby, a young lady wearing a fiery dress with an hourglass body shape waltz in and captures the attention of everybody, including the models. The men lavished on her looks, and the ladies admire her body. And they all say the one name in common: Mary Grace. Alo keeps his stoic eyes as he observes their new recruit. "We're taking a supermodel? Isn't that gonna raise tons of red flags once we take her in?".
Richard nods, "Yep, last I saw her was in Hollywood, went for auditioning for being an actress, but she . . . wasn't cut out for it.", he nervously adjust his bow inner shirt.
Johan lazily places her elbow the table, letting her fist hold her cheek with the other frame tilting upwards from her ear. "But how do we know if this group is gonna gun for her and not the other two? Are they gonna capture her first and use her holes as their personal wanking toilet?", she narrows her eyes at the live footage of the preparations of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2019. "If I am the leader of that new group, the one thing I need to do is to make the public COMPLETELY BLIND, or make things seem like an accident and they're targeting popular icons like Miss Universe. Think about it, they were able to quell the rivalry of the gangs and have access to military equipment, if anything, they're more powerful and difficult to find in that kind of area . . . huh, I just answered myself.", and nods sagely.
Richard smiles and notices his hand is glitching out, slowly disappearing. "Oh dear . . .",
The Juveniles stare in shock as Richard's body slowly vanishes into pixels, Johan's expression fell into disarray, immediately jumps out to the supercomputer, trying to restore him but Richard raises his hand gently towards her, "NO! . . . It's fine. I just forgot to tell you that I had to reformat everything during that search, heh, - *GrAaAaHh* - To be honest, it's not that painful, being wiped from existence from your own browser history. But - @#%5# - I just . . . I just keep it cool, you feel me? *[email protected]#[email protected]^#$%@#^&^%*", he does a pair of finger guns and smiles at them one last time before finally accepting his fate, then he realizes something,
"1 - ", and then just like that, Richard "Dr. Stalker" Goodman has left them with a rather unsatisfying message.
1
Once again, the whole room went dead silent, the 4 slowly stare at the same spot where he disappeared and shifting towards each other, thinking about what the hell should they do now.
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Glitched! Uplift Arc
[Winner of the April 22 Royal Road Writathon Challenge] In 2202 the System reached Earth. Thankfully it had learnt from previous uplifts and implemented an introductory arc to acclimatise the new participants rather than chucking them in the deep end. The previous practice of just dumping unsuspecting beings into a System designed for the growth of the multiverse had led to catastrophic and sub-optimal results. The return on investment was abysmal. That old trope was so over-cooked - after nearly extinguishing itself through negative returns new policy was required. That was 356 trillion local years back. Now over 5600 successful uplifts had joined the ranks of the multiverse. But the System was always learning, always growing. Still there were glitches. Mostly minor. Mere irritants really. Sometimes even they were catalysts, triggering a fresh expansion. Soon the System would understand why. Our Earth was 7912th. - Ascend - Battle - Challenge - Dominate - Expand - Gro... - Glor... - Where’s the eff word? - Glitch... File corrupted. ---END SYN---
8 226Before They Came (Magical Apocalypse)
Our way of life it ended faster than we ever thought possible. It didn't happen with a nuclear war, an asteroid, or a damn ice age. It ended because of another war, far away from us. The Ripples from that war changed the fabric of everything. If only we had known that it was just the beginning. Btw, the beginning chapters are short, but get longer as the story goes on. Thank you for your time and your patience. CLARIFIER: The MC struggles with himself. He has human flaws including IGNORANCE. The MC starts the story out drunk, which has a major impact on the story in the beginning and way beyond. The story takes time to unfold, please be patient. This story does not shy away from the darker elements of life.
8 217Siva
Fantasy and Magic meets Science and Technology. In this epic story of brotherly love, friendship, struggle, and conspiracy, come join in on an adventure that will take you on the journey behind the legend of one of the most beloved stories ever told! THE VIOLENT QUEST BEGINS!Rex is a talented young adult, prodigy, genius, and a charismatic young leader. His world is what you'd call peaceful until an accident changed his and his baby brother's life forever. Without money, in a body torn apart by the tragic accident, to save his brother in a coma, Rex jumps out of the frying pan and goes straight to the fire as the deal with a devil brought him into a world of war and tragedy, where people go looking for adventures but come out as warriors battling monsters and greedy foes. This is a story of triumph, adventure, trust, and deception in the Virtual World called Terroa, as seen from the eyes who created the legend behind the greatest villain ever known —The Destroyer.
8 254Scourge of the System
Noah wakes up in a new world, a reality filled with levels and stat boxes, oh an constantly murderous fauna and flora He must find a way to survive
8 164Soul Tear(Undergoing Revisions/rewrite)
Merryn, an Elvin, is a determined spirit adapt struggling to complete her mission to bring the Omega Tome back home when the god trapped inside is freed causing a city's destruction. She races forward into the ancient world of Galama pursued by the kingdoms last guard seeking vengeance. The people she meets, become tangled into the guard's desire for revenge forcing her to choose between saving them or her people. She must uncover the truth behind the god's secret and how it affects the world. (The city has a name but ha, it turns out it's the nameof film compan (arrg) so I'm going to try again later and will update the new name when this is fixed.)
8 137How About Heresy?
Jeffrey's a guy who's most certainly a heretic but likes to believe he's not. Like we all do. Though, being a villain, there are many do gooders that'd like to exchange a strong word— or rather fisticuffs with him. Doing the deeds of villains, he places his own strange lens of justice over it, all the while, being an absolute fool. How will Jeffrey fare against the might of the good? —————————— "You tryin' ta shill me heresy?" "Ye- I mean yesn't," That's absurd why would I shill heresy? I'm not a heretic godsdamnit! In a realm of heretics and apostles alike, what to do? Well, I'm not sure of that myself. Though I have a feeling joining a cult may not be the best action... "No way. Are we being clapped by the power of friendship?" "Indeed we are," Shite. NOTE: - Don't expect an overpowered main character, nor a weak character. Strength isn't a plot point. - This is mainly a comedy, so it ain't as dark as you think it'd be despite the numerous mentions of cultists, heretics and murder... - There isn't going to be any face slapping scenes.
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