Diffusion
~
As another long shadow eclipsed over Tyler's waiting figure, a cold shock blew through the hearts of all patrons both meek and fearless. It was then that each individual had within himself responded to a deep and respectful fear, for it was then that they saw Grey himself standing before them like a rocky mountain looming over a green Cornerian forest, only with a couple other mountains standing beside him. Grey made no delay in collecting a brief scan of all whom surrounded him, Tyler included. It was not long before he walked over to the open central dispensary, which housed a large circular counter filled with an assortment of strangely colored liquids, most probably not even legal.
The bar itself was more of a meeting place than anything else. Practically everyone hung around here to discuss events in the poorly lit room, and of course half of them would probably forget those conversations once they passed out on the floor. Here at the loudest place in Avaluuk stood the quiet, agent, waiting to make his eventual move.
It was the lupine's current objective to slowly admit himself into the warlord's business and ease into his influence in order to persuade him into aiding in the fight against Warlord Freeman. But before he approached the highly regarded general, he was instead invited by him to take a seat on a table with him.
"Hey… uh, Susi, right?" Grey said as he singled out the agent with a reassuring point.
Tyler's subtle movements acknowledged the name; he brought his muzzle down slightly and closed his eyes for a little more than a second.
"We don't… he's not here is he?" Grey started to swivel around in search for his competitor.
"You mean Mason?" Tyler asked, being directed to a certain seat by one of Grey's guards.
"Yeah, him… do you know where he is?"
"Probably back at his ship." Tyler commented.
"Oh, well I guess I have some time to talk with his new explosives specialist. Shame he hasn't put you to work yet." Grey joked. Tyler could feel the eerie sense of how much the mastiff already knew. "By the way, what was your friend doing all that time?"
"Wya- my friend had a little talk with him earlier."
"Ooh, I like vaguely mentioned conversations." Grey murmured. "Would you care to tell me what about? If it's… not too intrusive."
Tyler took a cautious breath before continuing. He would have to be clever and agile with his leverage, making sure he succeeded in being one of 'them.' "He… my friend spoke to him about another warlord, one who plans on… well, one who's done some horrible things and needs to be punished. The reason we came to Avaluuk is because we need support in our great effort, to eliminate a… a great danger, a danger we can't face on our own, and have failed to defeat in the past."
Grey casually nodded. "Well, I can see you're definitely going somewhere, but I fail to recognize where. Obviously, since you haven't named the mysterious assailant yet I can only assume you are either trying to manipulate me, or suspend me for some stupid reason. I don't have the patience for either of those Susi; tell me who you're talking about or go back to Mason and explain your miserable failure."
Tyler swallowed before uttering any further words. "I… he's Warlord Freeman."
In a single moment, the most influential Lylatian in the room was shaken to his core by the mere mentioning of that name. After a few seconds of examining himself and possible situations, Grey then stood up and yelled, "Alright, the fun's over, everybody out, now!"
Immediately, about twenty independently employed guests walked out of the bar, as well as a couple of recruits from Mason's side; none of them wished to be sucked into the black hole sure to follow. A multitude of defiant onlookers still lingered however; most of them were either confused or unafraid.
"If you're still here, you're either really brave or really stupid!" Grey's booming voice exclaimed.
Reluctantly, the rest of the crowd poured outside of the lounge, all of them knew that when one of the alpha's demanded something, it was best to just accept it and move along, nobody wanted to get caught in a confrontation with any of the leaders, because that also meant you were committing a hostility towards their pack as well. The same generally went for members, but by then it tended to be much more subjective as you moved down the scale.
And then, everything was quiet, something that had probably not been achieved in that watering hole for ages.
The bartender, one of the few people who actually had the right to walk up to the warlord's face did just that.
"What the hell is this all about?" The angry lizard spat out.
Grey rested his outstretched paw between him and the server. "Calm down, I need this to go right."
The bartender slowly but surely backed away.
"Now then, how about a little drink for our friend?"
Tyler knew some of that stuff on the shelf was probably powerful enough to make him check his ears for spiders, but it would also portray him to be someone accepting of Grey's hospitality, so how could he refuse?
Instead of allowing Tyler to choose for himself, Grey decided it would be best if he decided. "Give him something good, something from the dark side of Zoness." A devious smile found its way onto Grey's muzzle, which was balanced by the nervous, shifting look from the bartender.
"Alright I'll… try to find something." The bartender retreated to his nearby circular haven, frantically mixing this and that into some strange concoction. He then approached Tyler and Grey at the table and placed a drink down for each.
"So Susi, I think it's about time we discussed a little more about Mr. Doles." Grey confidently took a quick sip.
"Do you prefer to call him that?"Tyler queried.
"I prefer to call him by the name I used to call him…" By the looks of it, Grey was preparing for something quite hard for him. "I used to be one of Freeman's top commanders when he… started out." Tyler's ears perked. "Damn he was a genius… he knew how to get out of almost any situation, and how to get others to do the same." Grey took another long pause before continuing. "He had bigger plans than to control small mining facilities though; he wanted to cause something big to happen to Corneria itself. I didn't really like that idea too much so he kicked me out. He could've killed me if he wanted, but I think he respected me enough to let me live."
Tyler was excited. He had found the first step to tracking down Freeman, one of his old comrades, what luck!
"You used to work with him then, so you know how he operates."
"Of course I do, I was sometimes the operator." Grey took another sip from his green liquid. "We'd go on these missions not knowing whether we'd come out alive, but somehow, we pulled through now matter what obstacle fell in our way." He then stared into the distance, as if he was looking into something deeper than space itself, memories. "All the time, he'd come up to me and say 'I've got it, I've got it', I never really figured out what me meant, it was probably part of his insanity."
"Insanity?"
"Yeah, the guys a genius, but sometimes he can't even tell what's real and what's not."
Tyler stared down at the bright blue drink in front of him.
"You haven't even tried it yet, are you afraid?"
"No it's just." Tyler gurgled down a good bit of brightly colored liquid. It tasted kind of sweet and felt somewhat sparkly, it didn't carry the weight as if it were top shelf or anything, but Tyler could feel its prestige washing down his throat. "Nothing…"
"Anyways, Doles kicked me off because he thought I was going to overthrow him. He dropped off in an isolated station far off on the edge of the Lylat, there I managed to form my own group and eventually we came to Avaluuk when we heard they were abandoning it." He spread his arms in both directions. "And here we are."
"That's very interesting, Grey." Tyler admitted. "Is there anyone else on the station that used to work for him?"
Warlord Grey laughed, chocking up a little inside. "There may be, but few will admit it. If you worked for him but no longer are that probably means you were either a failed execution attempt or somehow managed to run away when he wasn't looking."
"So, what do you think?"
"About what?"
"About joining our coalition to fight Freeman." Tyler answered.
"It hardly sounds official, and I'll have to discuss it with Mason before I come to a decision…" Grey then snapped his forefinger and his thumb as he remembered. "Oh and there's one more little factoid I think you should know about at this moment. You may start to feel a little slow, you might even think things are progressively becoming quieter."
Tyler felt a small stir within his mind. It couldn't be that drink could it? It was too soon. His muscles loosened, they felt weak, almost non-existent. He began to look him franticly, and the lights slowly dimmed into small blurry particles drawing long lines in opposite directions.
"What did you… put in that?" Tyler nearly fell to the station's hard floor, but caught himself on the table. It was now a struggle to stay awake; if he was able to induce consciousness by some means he would no doubt have done it. Everything started to slow, just as Grey said it would. Tyler saw the warlord standing over him; his voice was now softer, muffled, and quieter.
"It's a specialty brew, a Zoness Dark I believe." He looked back at the bartender who immediately nodded in response. "If you feel tired, that's normal."
"What yu…" Tyler failed to put a sentence together. Everything looked and felt strange.
"Don't worry, Susi, just lie down and fall asleep." Grey neared him, slowly allowing Tyler's head to come in contact with the floor.
The lupine slowly loosened his struggle to stay awake. Up until know, Grey had been quite open, but now his intentions were closed off. Tyler figured it would be best to stop hurting himself and allow the sleep inducing sedative to take effect.
His eyes fluttered a little, and then the intervals grew shorter and shorter, before they finally relaxed and gave in to a heavy sleep.
That bastard.
~X~X~X~X~X~
Tyler's eyes burst back into the world of the conscious. His whole body felt cold and empty, he struggled to find his bearings in the complete dark he found himself to now be in.
'What happened? One minute I was… where was I, how did I get here? Why is it so dark?'In a groan, he stepped upwards from his lying down position, still unable to see anything around him. It was black, pitch black, there was no light to be seen anywhere. Was he dreaming?
"Hello? Anyone there?" He called into the void, but nothing returned.
'Something happened… with Grey. He offered me a drink and then…' Tyler's eyes grew wide in fear. "My kidney!" It was then that it hit him; maybe Alex was right to warn him, maybe the lupine had just followed the same fate as the poor bird. He clenched his abdomen, relieved to find that nothing had changed. 'phew…'
Ok, so nothing was missing from Tyler, except for…
"My gun!" He noticed, unable to find his weapon on him.
Immediately, he set to work, trying to find a way out of his little mess. He began by examining his surroundings.
"Oof!" He said when he came in contact with a smooth wall. Just as he was about to gather the rest of the dimensions, a bright light turned on in the center of the room, blinding him for a brief period before he could adjust. Now he could see where he was being held; it was a large, steel gray enclosure about six meters in all horizontal directions, and above him was a small walkway situated about twice as high as the lupine could hope to jump. There seemed to be no way out except for the door, but that was way up on the grated ledge.
Just then, Tyler heard a low bellow in the metal frame surrounding him; even though he could barely see anything in the dark room, one thing that seemed to be very different was a small boxed device stuck between two jutting protrusions which ran the length of the room.
"Grey? Mason? Wyatt?" The lupine paced around the room further. "Alex?"
Just then, a loud sound erupted within the closed off room, the sound of a voice. "Have a nice sleep Susi?" Tyler looked around before realizing the voice belonged to Grey, probably speaking on the other side of some one way mirror.
"I would've preferred a soft bed instead of the floor." Tyler answered. "Where am I? What the hell are you doing?"
"First, let me apologize, Susi. I realize it must feel awfully strange to be in your position, and it might even be a little scary. Just relax and listen to what I have to say."
Tyler's instinctual reaction was to reject a diplomatic approach, but he realized he might never have the chance to hold such power of Grey's judgment again. "Alright… go on."
"Before I join your cute little coalition, I need to see if my allies are as competent as they hold themselves. After all, I don't want to rush into things not knowing whether the guy behind me can handle himself under pressure."
Tyler looked around the room once more, trying to find the source of the sound. "Fair enough. But why kidnap me and take me here? Where am I? How long was I out?"
"You're at Avaluuk's experimental liquid manipulation chamber… well it used to be that before they ditched it, now it's just an extra storage room. You've been out for about two hours if I'm correct, and frankly… "Grey's words sort of froze, as if he was unable to make it out like his intentions were beneficial. "It sounds really bad when I say it, but you wouldn't have come here otherwise."
The small device at the end of the room began to beep, accompanied by a flashing red dot.
"Oh and there's one more thing I'd like to mention…" Grey continued. Judging by his recent 'by the way' addition at the bar, whatever came next couldn't be good. "That over there is an explosive device which I'm sure you know how to disarm." He said in a now disturbing tone. "After all you are an explosives specialist, correct? Perfect, then you'll have no problem eliminating this threat. If it does go off, it won't kill you, but it will symbolize the unity we have together against my old comrade." Grey began to back off from the speaker. "Good luck."
Tyler's heart pounded at the heavy sight of the nearby bomb. He had disarmed many like this one before, but it was different in that he worked with a team, a team armed with an assortment of advanced tools and gadgets, and now he had nothing but his wit and what little he could work with. But he and everyone else in Explosive Ordinance Disposal learned the important technique of disarming with minimal equipment; if he would ever need that training, it was now. He had to get it right the first time, no second chances.
He had never actually disarmed a live bomb by hand though; it had always been through the assistance of robots and advanced tools. But now, he had no choice for safety, in truth, he could minimize the explosive's effectiveness by placing it in a more optimal position and taking cover, but that wasn't an option since he had to disarm it, nothing else.
"Damn it…" He said to himself before getting on his knees and removing the thin metal cover on the box. Lifting it exposed a flat plateau of computer boards and other things Tyler absolutely no about what they did. Slowly but surely lifting the next panel opened another level of intricate parts. But he could rely on his senses, and by the strange scent of the bomb, he could tell how it worked.
Most explosives had their entire detonation structure composed internally, but if they were made poorly and with cheap materials, chances were the fool who made it would fall victim to Corneria's EOD teams sooner or later. This one had external features, meaning that if he tried, he could smell where the explosive was stored even if he couldn't see it.
'Alright O'Donnell, calm down. First I need to… know what goes where.'
He shifted the wires to the side, not wanting to rush into anything before he knew who made the device. The manufacturing code should have been on the right side, next to where the actual chemicals involved in the explosive were.
'Scratched out… someone wanted to pretend it was theirs.'
Next, Tyler turned to find any sign of the bomb's condition, how much time it had left, where this was connected and why. Whoever made this bomb had cobbled it together from other spare parts, it wasn't the same as it was fresh from the factory, and instead it had been manipulated in order to fit the shape of its new container. If it was a direct model, disarming it without tools would've been impossible, but with this change in its structure, at least Tyler had a chance. He noticed that the explosives were separated by the trigger through a small enclosure sitting between them; when the time came to go off, the filter between them would fill with sparks as well as other chemicals, causing a dangerous reaction as they mixed together which would ignite the whole thing.
'Alright now, separate, integrate, and ameliorate.'
Tyler grabbed the metal panel which he had previously set aside; he then wedged it between the ignition and the bomb itself. Once this was done, he had to somehow disarm the trigger before he continued to one of the wires. Of course, normal procedure would require him to insulate it with a fitting before moving on. Now that they were separated, he had to remove the ignition, but since he couldn't do that, he had to do it the hard way.
At this point, the smartest thing to do would be to freeze the main charge and then remove it, but if he was willing to test it out, a liquid would cause a similar effect on the micro-fission detonator.
'Where am I going to get a liquid- no no…' Tyler shook his head as he tried to keep his curious sight away from his pants. 'That would be… no that's too dangerous.'
Tyler neared the ignition with his muzzle, hovering mere inches above it. He spat into it until it was comfortably surrounded with liquid. Grabbing the panel next to it, he tightened its connection to the charge, now; he was ready to disengage it. His eyes closed but returned the open position upon realizing he needed to carefully remove the main charge. He pushed the metal panel against the block of ammunition, and using the leverage, moved it up and away from the ignition. He would be able to slowly continue the operation, but his paws weren't stable enough to allow it.
'I've got to stop shaking… I can't continue with them moving like this…'
The device of course was designed to recognize this effort and immediately go off once it realized that the charge was being removed. However, when the sparks flooded the lower section of the box, Tyler's… discharge was able to keep it from reaching the part where his hand had just jammed the other part of the device. The lupine jerked when he saw a flash on the ignition but was relieved when he found out that his plan had worked. Propping up the explosive charge on the top of the box and against the panel, he continued to disarm the rest.
It was through sloppy connections and basic principles of bomb making that allowed Tyler to do this. The rest was easy; all he had to was cover the main ignition with one of his fingerless gloves before quickly cutting some of the wires out with one of his claws. Once the wires were removed, Tyler proceeded to take apart the rest of the device, placing their functions on opposite ends of the room.
Once everything was separated, Tyler let out a great cheer. "Whooo! Take that!" He pointed with an acute ferocity to the dismantled bomb. "You think you can take me down huh? Think again!"
His ears stood up as he heard a quick cracking noise above him on the walkway. "Good job, congratulations, slow clap…" Grey said as he approached Tyler on a newly formed collection of stairs flowing under him. "I've been meaning to find something to do with that bomb for a long time now… I guess it's not that effective now." He said, looking over to the individual parts strewn across the room.
"Thanks for making me feel like I was gonna die." Tyler commented.
"You're welcome. It proves to me that you're competent enough to know what you're doing, Susi, I'd be glad to aid someone as skilled as you in taking down the one who left me." Grey extended a paw outwards towards Susi, as a gesture of mutual agreement. Not wanting to refuse, Tyler took what he could get.
"You know, Mason's going to be really mad when he figures out about this."
"Yeah, but he won't be because he won't figure out, right?"
"About what?"
"Exactly." Grey murmured with a tinge of humor. Everything seemed to be flowing along nicely until the two were interrupted by a newcomer.
"Grey?" Both Tyler and the mastiff looked up to see a small vixen standing in doorway, an unexpected sight to say the least. "What are you doing here? And who's this?" She asked, pointing to Tyler. "I thought you said you wouldn't have any more secret discussions."
Grey looked as if he was weakened right there. "Uh… this is, Susi…" He turned to Tyler as the woman descended the stairs. "He's… uh… he's an explosives technician."
"Explosive technician?" The vixen repeated in surprise. "Grey, why would you need one of those?"
"I- I don't honey… Mason does."
'He he… honey…'
"Why would Mason need-" The woman stopped as her eyes fell on Tyler. "nevermind." The vixen turned and began to walk away through a newly opened door. "Please don't tell me you'll be up all night talking to Mason's… associates, you won't have time for Me."
"We're in space, it's always night and I always have time for you my love..." Grey pleaded in a pseudo-romantic manner.
"Then prove it!" The vixen said as she stumbled off in surprising audacity.
"Damn it…" Grey turned to Tyler, knowing he had little time. "Alright Susi, you're free to go, you'll find your gun in a chest on your right when you leave, not a word to Mason, understand?" He demanded.
"Don't worry, I'll only tell him you said yes." Tyler said with a smile.
"Thanks Susi, I really don't want to strain our relationship, the last thing we need is more fighting each other." Grey jolted in surprise when the vixen yelled out to him once more.
"She's your mate?" Tyler asked, leaning towards the open door.
"Yeah… I know it's not a common thing for us types, we tend to be seen as loners, but I couldn't resist, you know?"
"No…"
"No?"
"No…"
"Hmmm…" Grey slowly nodded. "Well… alright Susi, I've gotta go…"
"Have fun!" Tyler yelled, before slapping himself in the face over how stupid that sounded.
After a few moments of quick examination and a minor scanning of his surroundings, Tyler retreated from the bottom part of Avaluuk.
~X~X~X~X~X~
The lupine gently advanced inside the medium sized accommodating room. He was sure this was the one which Mason had given him and Agent Rotte. The door closed behind him, locking automatically. The room itself was unnaturally shaped for sleeping quarters, most likely due to the fact that it had been converted from a small research lab into a two-guest cabin.
Agent Rotte stepped out of a door on the side of the room. "Tyler, where the hell have you been?" He asked, throwing a towel to the side and thankfully having something behind it.
"Tyler?" The lupine repeated. "Who's Tyler?"
"That's you're middle name, right?" Agent Rotte said with a smirk.
"I guess it is now."
"So, are you going to answer my question? You disappeared from the radar for two hours and what?"
"I got him."
"You… got him?"
"Grey… I think I managed to convince him to join our cause."
"Well that's great! How did you do it?"
"Turns out he used to be one of Freeman's commanders, he'll be valuable in combating him because he knows his strengths and weaknesses."
"You learned that all one the first day?" Agent Rotte wondered. "Bravo… I think we might be doing too good. But that still doesn't answer the question of where were you."
"I was… I don't exactly know, but he wanted to test out my skills to see if I was competent enough."
"Oh, and how did he test you?"
"I'm an explosives technician, think about it."
The black and brown canine nodded before retreating to a nearby desk, which was the only piece of furniture in the room except for a couple beds and a drawer to store clothing. "Looks like I brought the right Cornerian for the job." He said, picking up a list of contingency plans.
Tyler yawned. His eyes started to feel tired and strained. "I think I'm gonna hit the sack." He said, stretching his arms outward.
"Fine by me, if you plan on taking a shower, remember that the station has this thing with water, so you've gotta be in and out by three minutes."
"Noted." Tyler returned as he figured now would be a good time to relax. He had been stressed out quite a bit recently and needed to sit back and take pride in what he had done. "You know Wyatt, I think this might whole operation might be a little easier than we're making it out to be."
"I hope you're right."
A few minutes of bedtime preparations aside, Tyler eventually sank into his bed; even though he had already slept before, it did more harm to him than good.
He wondered what Walter was doing, what everyone was doing without him. With him gone, Walter's responsibility was jacked up in response. What he needed now was to find his cohort as he slowly slipped into the deep and strange world of his mind. He would need to traverse a cold and harsh landscape to reunite with the one he could call his friend.
~X~X~X~X~X~
Author's Notes: Hey guys, I know I took a kind of different approach on this chapter, how does it work? Did I do it well? Any response is welcomed as long as it doesn't curse the ground I walk on.