Setting: Adlon Kempinski Hotel – March 7, 2012
There was a knock outside Chuck and Sarah's hotel room around noon on the day of the concert. Sarah's cat-like reflexes responded to the knocking before the sleepy Chuck could even figure out what was going on. Sarah quickly grabbed her gun and cautiously walked towards the door, as she was not expecting a visitor 5,000 miles from home. As soon as she unbolted the lock, she swiftly swung the door open and pointed her gun at the 5'6 man standing below her.
The man could only scream, "Don't shoot!" This alarmed Chuck causing him to drag himself out of bed, hoping not to miss out on all the action.
"Sorry, Morgan. It's a bad habit of mine," Sarah apologized as she tucked her gun away.
"What is it? Can't this wait?" Chuck began to reason with Morgan, hoping to get a few more minutes of sleep in after he was rudely awakened.
"Chuck? Are you serious? It's noon already. You two better get ready. The concert starts at eight, and Mrs. B wants us there extra early to survey the area before the concert starts."
"Well, you know I'm always up for a good rock concert," Chuck said as he stretched out his arms. "Who's performing tonight anyway?"
"You wouldn't believe it if I told you so take a look for yourself," Morgan said as he handed over an envelope stuffed with five tickets inside.
Chuck gasped. He didn't want to believe what he was seeing. "There's no way. There has to be some sort of mix up."
Morgan knew it would appear impossible, but he knew what was going on. "I'm as confused as you are Chuck. How they got signed to a label amazes me too."
Sarah was lost and didn't understand what they were talking about so she snatched the envelope out of Chuck's hands and grabbed hold of a ticket. "We're doomed."
0o0o0
Setting: Backstage Wuhlheide Stadium –March 7, 2012
The lead singer was running around backstage looking for his keyboardist. "We're doomed. There's only fifteen minutes until the concert starts, and he's gone missing. This is our one shot to take the world by storm and he abandoned me," the lead singer thought.
He thought he had looked everywhere, until he heard a noise coming from within a storage closet. It sounded like the popping of a beer can followed by some serious chugging. The lead singer slammed the door open and screamed, "Jeffery! We're due on stage in fifteen minutes, and you're running off without me. We gotta stick together man."
"Don't worry, Lester. I'm only on my second dozen. The night's just getting started!"
Lester could not stay mad at Jeff for long. He was glad he had Jeff back to what would be considered "normal" by Lester's standards.
Lester walked into the storage closet, sank down to the floor, and banged his head against the wall in frustration. There was still a major problem Jeffster needed to address before they took the stage.
"Jeff, we still haven't even decided which song we will cover as our opening act. This is a disaster. Everyone knows the first song sets the tone for all future performances. We should have never left our jobs at the Buy More."
The intoxicated Jeff gradually came to his senses. He knew Lester didn't want to go back to Burbank, but he also needed to pick a song out, and soon.
"Don't worry, I got the perfect song dude. The days of the Buy More are behind us. We're going our separate ways with Burbank. We're worlds apart at this point and there's no turning back. I think I've made an excellent choice based on our journey to get here." Jeff leaned in and whispered the song he thought would be a good opening act.
Lester began to cheer up as he stood up and embraced Jeff in the storage closet. "That's perfect, Jeff. And no matter what happens out there, we will have each other… We will have Jeffster! Let's rock!"
The intimate moment shared in the storage closet between Jeff and Lester came to an abrupt end. Lutz walked up to the closet and asked, "What are you two doing?"
"It's not what it looks like…" Lester tried to explain.
"I'm not interested in what you two do in your spare time. For now, the crowd is as hyped as they will ever be. It's time for Jeffster to rock Germany!"
0o0o0
Setting: Concert at Wuhlheide Stadium – March 7, 2012
Morgan was stuck in the spy van yet again. Casey couldn't allow anything to happen to Morgan, for Alex's sake. Or at least Casey thought it was for Alex's sake. "Maybe I am becoming soft," Casey thought to himself.
"We've inspected the area and there are no signs of trouble yet," an upset Casey said into his mic. He had been waiting for far too long to get back out in the field.
Gertrude tried reassuring him saying, "Don't worry John. We'll find you some nice targets to shoot at. Where are Chuck and Sarah anyway? They should be here by now."
"We just walked through the turnstile, and are headed towards the arena," Chuck said.
As Chuck walked in, he immediately began flashing on agents. Not just a few agents, but hundreds. Chuck had not processed such a large amount of data, in almost two years. He fell to one knee, and could only muster one word. "Ouch."
"What's wrong, Chuck?" a concerned Sarah asked, helping Chuck from the ground.
"There's dozens - maybe even hundreds of ex-Fulcrum, Ring, and Volkoff operatives," Chuck painfully declared.
"Makes sense. Who in their right mind would want to come to a Jeffster concert?" Casey snickered.
"Were you able to flash on Brown?" Sarah asked.
"Not yet, but it looks like Lutz is out on the stage. Once he is done introducing Jeffster, he will probably make the drop," Chuck proclaimed. "Are you in position to follow Lutz, mom?" Chuck asked through his earpiece.
Mary confidently replied, "I'm ready Chuck."
Not a moment after Mary spoke, Lutz screamed out, "I now present to you, Jeffster!" Lutz walked off the stage, as Jeff and Lester took the stage and began to rock Berlin with their cover of Journey's "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)."
Jeffster certainly came out with their best performance to date. Jeff nailed the keyboard riff to start the song, and Lester was hitting all the notes. They we're coming out with a bang just as planned.
Backstage though, there was a different sort of bang going on. A gun clicked behind Mary. "I was expecting to find you here, Mary. Let's make this easy. Take out your earpiece."
Mary didn't oblige at first, but the loaded gun shoved further down her back. "Now!" demanded the gunman. Mary took out her earpiece, but before she handed it over, she spun around and landed a punch square on the gunman's nose.
"It's good to see you again Elliot," Mary sarcastically said as Brown's guards surrounded her and forced her to hand over the mic.
Brown rose back up to his feet wiping the blood away from his nose. "Tsk tsk. I must admit I expected more of a fight out of you, Mary. Now, you're all alone, and I'm finally going to get the ISIS device, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."
Lutz walked in to the room, but was confused by what he was seeing. "What are you doing with my personal assistant?" Lutz demanded to know.
"Personal assistant?" Brown laughed at the idea of Mary even leaving the CIA. "Try secret agent, trying to sabotage our deal. Speaking of which, do you have the device?"
"Yes, I do," Lutz confirmed. "But before I reveal to you where I hid it, I will need to see the money I was promised first."
"Of course," responded a reluctant Brown. Two of Brown's best agents brought four briefcases and laid them down on the table. "You see, I held up to my bargain. We agreed upon twenty million euros up front. You'll get the rest when I have the device in my possession."
"Follow me then. I hid the ISIS device in my personal room across the hall," Lutz said.
Lutz led Brown across the hallway to his private room. Brown's guards still holding Mary captive, followed closely behind.
Meanwhile, Chuck, Sarah, Casey, and Gertrude were struggling to locate Brown. "Mary, do you have a visual on either of the targets?" Sarah asked through her mic, but got no answer. "Since she's not responding, she must have found Brown. We'll need to quietly slip in backstage in order to see what's going on down there," Sarah yelled over the blasting music.
"Morgan, pull up some blue prints and find us a way to get down there," Casey demanded.
"I'm on it boss," Morgan replied. After a few minutes of typing away on the keyboard he finally found what he was looking for. "It looks like there is an entrance to get back stage towards the east side of the stadium. I'll need to override the security system in order to get you guys through."
Chuck, Sarah, Casey, and Gertrude rushed towards the east side of the stadium as Morgan frantically attempted to crack the system. Morgan began babbling to himself, as he usually did while alone in the van. "Stay in the van," Morgan mockingly said in his best Casey impersonation. "Oh, it's times like these I wish I still had the Intersect."
"What's the holdup Morgan?" Casey demanded to know as the team reached the entrance.
"Just a minute... There we go!" Morgan celebrated as he did a little victory dance in his seat. "The door is open, but you'll need to act fast. The stadium security will realize that there has been a breach in about five minutes when their system comes online again."
Chuck, Sarah, Casey, and Gertrude entered through the door, but did not know where to go to find both Mary and Elliot Brown. "They could be anywhere backstage. How are we going to find them and get out of here in five minutes?" Gertrude asked. At the same time Gertrude said this, a gunshot was fired four doors down the hallway.
Only a few moments later, a body was thrown out the door. Chuck didn't want to see who the body belonged to. First his father lost his life because of the Intersect. There was no way he would allow his mother to die for the Intersect as well.
Casey approached the corpse and flipped the body over to reveal who had just been murdered. "It's Lutz," grunted Casey. Those words brought an immense amount of relief to Chuck. "If Lutz was just murdered in there, Brown must be in there too," Casey said.
The door was left slightly ajar from when the guards tossed the body outside the door. Chuck tiptoed towards the entrance, and saw Brown talking to his men.
"That Lutz thought he could get away with my money. Well he needed to learn a little business lesson," Brown explained to his men. "Now that I have possession of the ISIS device and my money back, there is no need in keeping you alive, Mary," added Brown as he walked across the room and began loading his gun.
Mary was tied up and defenseless. Chuck knew he had to act fast. "Only three minutes left, Chuck" chimed in Morgan. Without even thinking of a plan Chuck slammed open the door, before his team could even process what he was doing. Chuck immediately had a kung fu flash and began taking out Brown's guards with ease. Casey, Gertrude, and Sarah were not far behind as they joined in on the action.
It was obvious that Brown's men were outmatched by the Intersect and his team. Luckily for Brown, he was intelligent and a quick-thinker and could spontaneously come up with a plan. He grabbed Mary and held a gun to her head, as he backed up towards the door.
"I see you beat my guards, but you can't beat me, Chuck," Brown said as he slowly made his way towards the exit. "When you're emotions are compromised, the Intersect can't function properly. That is why I will be getting away, and uploading the Intersect, just like I should have thirty years ago." Chuck and his team just stared at Brown. They couldn't risk Brown pulling the trigger and killing Mary.
Brown pushed Mary forward into Chuck in a defensive move as he made a dash out of the room. Casey and Gertrude tried running him down, but it was too late. Brown was getting away.
"All units retreat to headquarters immediately. We have the ISIS device," Brown reported in his mic.
As the message spread to all of Brown's men, hundreds of people in the audience of the Jeffster concert got up and headed towards the exit. While these men were all planted there by Brown as protection, Jeff and Lester only viewed this as fans leaving the concert early due to a bad performance.
Lester and Jeff were confused. "We're rocking Berlin with our cover of Journey. Why would anyone leave the greatest show on earth?" thought Lester.
"Wait! Come back!" Lester shouted into his microphone. "Jeff, do something!"
"Remember when Lutz said women and men will adore us? Take off your shirt Lester! Do it!" Jeff screamed as they tried to seduce the crowd, but to no avail. The few people who were actually there to watch a concert also began to file towards the exits after witnessing Jeff and Lester take their shirts off.
"We blew it, Jeff. Our one shot to bring Jeffster to the top, and we blew it!" Lester cried out as a single tear fell down to the stage.
0o0o0
"You have thirty seconds to get out of there," Morgan reminded Chuck.
The bodies of the guards lay motionless on the floor as Chuck motioned his team to get out. They didn't want to be trapped backstage and be an easy target for Brown's men to return and ambush them. They made a mad dash for the door, hoping that the security would not be there to stop them. They reached the door with time to spare, but were surprised at what they saw. The whole stadium had emptied out by now, and only Jeff and Lester remained.
"Ouch. Looks like the morons couldn't last one song before scaring off the crowd," said Casey.
Chuck felt bad leaving his friends on stage with no one to turn to, but they could not risk blowing the entire operation. The team cautiously headed to the van, making sure they weren't being followed.
"How did it go?" Morgan asked as he started the van.
Chuck hung his head in defeat. "Brown has won. He got away with the ISIS device, and will be uploading the Intersect."
"Don't worry, Chuck, we'll stop him," Sarah promised Chuck.
"How will we even find him? He'll be halfway around the world by now," Chuck said.
"Don't worry about that. I slipped a tracking beacon into his pocket as he was holding me captive. We'll need to go back to castle to trace the signal."
The team drove back to the airport and got the earliest flight back home.
0o0o0
Setting: Carlos Schulman Medical Center, Chicago - March 8, 2012
Ellie and Devon were becoming accustomed to life in Chicago. They finally moved into their new house a little over a week ago, and today was their first day at their new job.
"Today is the first day of the rest of our lives," Devon said as they walked up to the Carlos Schulman Medical Center. "Are you ready, Ellie?"
Ellie paused taking in the moment. "I'm ready," she said as they swiped their I.D. badges and headed to the front desk. They were greeted by a rather friendly receptionist.
"Hello, I'm Dr. Devon Woodcomb, and this is my wife, Dr. Eleanor Woodcomb." Devon reached out and shook the receptionist's hand.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Devon and Eleanor," returned the receptionist.
"Please, call me Ellie."
"Alright, Devon and Ellie, we have a briefing scheduled for our new employees. You can head in to the conference room. It's right down the hall, the second door to the left."
Devon and Ellie thanked the receptionist and headed to the conference room. When they opened the door to the conference room they were not met with the same warm greeting. Instead, they were only acknowledged with silence from an unidentified person sitting in a rather large chair, with the back of it facing towards Ellie and Awesome. Ellie and Devon didn't know what to do, or what to say, so they began to introduce themselves again.
"Hello we're..." Devon began to say, but was cut off by the mysterious woman.
The chair swung around so that Devon and Ellie could see who it was. "Hold the introductions. I know exactly who you are Mr. and Mrs. Woodcomb."
"General Beckman?" Ellie gasped. "What are you doing here?"
"Please, take a seat," General Beckman instructed. "This is a full fledged government research and development institute. We brought you here because we are in the middle of a war. As much as it pains me to admit this, the fate of our the world rests on the shoulders of the Bartowski family."
Ellie and Devon's jaws dropped simultaneously. Ellie was promised a research job, and Devon was told he would be the head of the cardiac division. They were not expecting to come to Chicago to work for the United States government. Everything was moving so quickly it was difficult to fully grasp the importance of what was going on.
"There was a secret initiative started over thirty years ago, called Project ISIS," Beckman said as she slid a folder across the table. "This file has all of the information you will need to know about the project. Only three people knew of the project for the past three decades, but over the past few months, we brought five additional agents into the project. While they are busy retrieving the device, we need you to do two things for us: restart the Intersect Project by correcting the malfunctions in our current program, and also lead our research and development team on the ISIS project. Good luck."
Beckman stood from the table and headed out of the conference room. She took the time out of her busy schedule to personally brief Ellie and Devon because she understood the magnitude of the situation, but she still had several other things to attend to.
"General Beckman, wait!" Ellie called out.
"What is it, Ellie? I have a date… I mean a meeting to attend to in an hour," Beckman said.
"Why us? What does the ISIS Project have to do with the Bartowski family?" Ellie had many more questions, but these were the first two that she could think of, and the most important to her.
"Trust me, there are many reasons why we chose you, and several ways this is connected to your family. But I think you will be able to find out through your own research. Have a good day."
Beckman walked out of the door and was headed to her "meeting." While she would never admit it to anyone, she was not actual going on a business trip. She was going out to meet an old friend of hers, Roan Montgomery.
Devon and Ellie sat in silence taking in what just happened. They were stunned and didn't know what to do.
Devon broke the silence by asking, "Well, are you ready to get started on our first mish, Hot Mamma?"
"Sure thing, Six Pack," Ellie replied.
0o0o0
Author's Note - I don't know how many people remember Lutz, but he was in the very last episode of Chuck, played by Alexander von Roon. He was the record executive who took Jeffster out of the Buy More and brought them to Germany.
Hopefully it wasn't to obvious that it was a Jeffster concert. A die hard fan that knew who Lutz was, and realized that the concert was in Germany may have pieced the mystery together back in chapter two, but I hope you enjoyed the little twist I added. What good is a Chuck story without some Jeffster? And I also chose Separate Worlds as the song, mainly because it just sounds like a Jeffster song that they could rock out to, but also because it describes their broken hearts. They miss the Buy More, but they found true love in their new occupation as musicians.
I've been working on this story basically ever since season five ended, and I always planned in my head for Captain Awesome and Ellie to move to Chicago to work for the government in a secret facility. That was the other "Big Surprise" in this chapter besides the Jeffster concert.
Hopefully your enjoying this story so far. I'm planning on releasing a new chapter once, maybe twice a week. I'm looking forward to the reviews. Any tips that can help improve my writing or story are appreciated!