Hello, and welcome to another chapter of this ongoing story based on a popular Cartoon Network show. I do not own Regular Show or Cartoon Network in any way! Enough about that, on with the story!
Paul Blaylock had spent time early in the morning, locked in his house, preparing samples of Virus-J for transport to Eclipse. He would provide samples of the original pathogen, as well as one he had made some major genetic modifications to…
"It's sheer perfection…" he muttered while working, "…my precious Virus-JX." He picked up a culture tube of the purple fluid containing his creation, "No one will ever take you away from me! Ha ha ha ha!" he laughed very demonically. He would deliver Virus-J and Virus-JX samples to Eclipse for a major reward. His original offer of $25,000 for the original strain seemed fair, but they considered a larger amount of cash if he were to provide samples of an improved variation of the pathogen as well.
Of course, Aletheia was trying to ruin this operation. But, he managed to get around the issue…at least he hoped. He had organized his friends, and members of Eclipse to assist him in fighting off the A.T.L.A.S., so he could still have hope of achieving a high profit.
(XXXX)
Mordecai and the rest of the Alpha Team had been preparing all of their combat equipment if, by any given chance, Blaylock does not submit. They loaded their firearms, tested their radios, got into their full-body armor, and loaded equipment into the vehicles; armored trucks would set up a perimeter around the park, and several high-altitude tiltrotors would monitor activities, plus, they were armed, which would come in handy in the event Blaylock attempted to escape.
Mordecai, Mia, and the Alpha Team all got into an armored truck, while the rest of the squads assisting took other trucks. As they drove, Mia noticed Mordecai clenching his rifle nervously.
"You nervous?" Mia asked Mordecai.
Mordecai nodded (at least she thinks he nodded; it's hard to tell due to his helmet with a one-way visor), "A little." He replied.
"That's alright," said Mia, "I was scared on my first assignment, too."
Mordecai looked up at her, as he had been staring at the ground, "What happened?" he asked.
Mia paused before she spoke: "…I don't really remember." She said, "I recall falling off a three-story building while in a hail of bullets…woke up in the Aletheia Medical Ward three days later."
Mordecai gulped. Hopefully, all goes according to plan…
They arrived at the park, though they stopped far away from the nearest entrance. Probably, this was for establishing an effective perimeter. The back door of the vehicle opened, and Captain Perkins motioned his arm out of the truck.
"Alright, we need to move quickly!" said Captain Perkins, "We confirmed that Blaylock has entered the park at precisely 7:34 this morning; let's get in, arrest him, and be on our merry way!"
The Alpha Team then exited the vehicle. All of them looked identical because of their armor, helmets, and assault rifles. They began to walk towards the entrance to the park, when a police car blared it's siren behind them. It stopped in front of them, and the police officer rushed out of the car, drawing his pistol.
"Stop!" he yelled, "Drop the guns!"
The Alpha Team continued to move, as if the officer wasn't there. But, this only provoked the officer further.
"I SAID STOP!" the officer shouted, "I will shoot! STOP! Drop your weapons!" about three seconds after finishing, the cop fired at the Alpha Team.
Two Alpha Team members aimed their assault rifles, and fired, cutting down the officer with full-auto firepower. Mordecai, however, had not fired his weapon; he could not believe what he just saw. They had just killed a police officer! Was this how Aletheia worked!? Did they do their jobs while stopping anyone that interferes or threatens them!? But…Mordecai remember Captain Perkins saying that Aletheia holds more authority than the police. Was this because they had lots of money? Could they simply buy their way out of a lawsuit? If that is the case, then Aletheia is effectively above the law. In any case, what they're doing is going to save the lives of millions from viral warfare.
"Control," said Captain Perkins on his radio, "this is Perkins. Shots fired. Request reinforcements."
"Copy that," said a voice over the radio, "dispatching teams Bravo, Charlie, and Delta."
They then made it to the entrance to the park, just as familiar as Mordecai had remembered. So familiar that it swept him back in time. He was instantly met by old memories and reminiscences. But, it was suddenly interrupted…
*BANG*
*PING-PING-PING-PING*
*BOOM*
Instantly, gunfire and explosions came from somewhere ahead of them. The Alpha Team immediately took cover, and returned fire in the direction of the hostile artillery.
"I don't see them anywhere!" said an Alpha Team member.
"All tiltrotors," said Captain Perkins, "Code Zeta-4! Prepare to attack!"
"We gotcha, Captain," said a responding voice, "Wildfire, standing by."
And the same thing kept coming up from different voices:
"Unicorn, standing by."
"Redline, standing by."
"Cobra, standing by."
"Nova, standing by."
"Carbonite, standing by."
Mia took the same shelter as Mordecai, firing at the attackers with her shotgun. "Damn! Anything goes first time, am I right?" she said.
Mordecai shrugged, "I guess so. Keep firing!" he yelled, opening fire with his assault rifle (fortunately, the shots were not loud to them, thanks to the noise-cancelling headphones in their helmets). More and more sirens starting blaring in the distance; the police and S.W.A.T. were on their way.
"Wait, everyone look closely," said Captain Perkins over the radios, "do you see the markings on their armor? It's Eclipse!"
"Are you saying Blaylock was onto us the whole time!?" an Alpha Team agent said.
There was a pause. "…I believe so." Said Captain Perkins.
So, if Paul found out about the attack…he might escape with the virus samples!
(XXXX)
Only minutes before gunfire, Margaret, Eileen, and Paul were on their way over to the house to make arrangements to visit the Aletheia Corporation complex, once they were able to locate it. On the way there, Paul was carrying a small, metal briefcase with him.
"Whatcha got, Paul?" Eileen asked.
Paul tugged at his shirt collar nervously, "…It's…uh…my lunch." He stuttered.
"Your lunch?" Margaret asked.
Paul nodded, "Yes; I just like to keep my sandwiches hot." He said, quickly.
Margaret looked suspicious, but neither her nor Eileen further questioned him about the case, which, unbeknownst to either of the girls, contained a .45 caliber handgun samples of Virus-J and Virus-JX. As they were about to reach the house, a loud bang went off somewhere; it was like a cannon.
"What the hell was that!?" Margaret asked after the noise's echo died down. More and more bangs of a slightly lower volume started going off. A few seconds later, Benson out of the house, with a frightened Pops embracing him tightly.
"Get off me!" said Benson.
"But I'm scared!" said Pops.
"Everything's gonna be alright, Pops." Said Benson in a reassuring tone. He marched down the steps to the other three, "What's going on!?" he yelled.
"We don't know!" said Eileen, "We should probably get inside!"
All of them rushed into the house, where they found Rigby staring out the window in amazement, "Awesome!" he yelled, "This is like Call of Duty, or Metal Gear!"
"Are you insane!?" Benson yelled, "We're in danger!"
Just then, Muscle Man, Starla, High-Five Ghost, Skips, and Thomas all rushed inside, panting heavily.
"Yo, dudes and dude-ettes!" said Muscle Man, "There's some crazy shit goin' on out there!" he pointed his thumb in the direction of the explosions.
"Oh, really!?" said Thomas, "Yeah, of course, really hard to notice."
"Enough!" said Benson, "We need to stop this! We're going to go see what these assholes are doing, and get them to stop!"
"Are you insane!?" said High-Five Ghost, "Those sound like guns! Even though I can't die twice, I'm not letting any of you get hurt!"
"No!" Benson retaliated, "We show them who's in charge here! I don't care if they have guns or an atom bomb, just get them to stop!"
More and more did the rest of the group debate, whilst Paul snuck upstairs with the case…
(XXXX)
The Alpha Team continued to uphold defense against Eclipse, taking no harm from even the bullets that struck them. Their armor is, after all, state-of-the-art; the best that the Aletheia Corporation can afford. To Mordecai, the bullets felt like Rigby trying to punch him whenever they played "punchies", a game that now seemed so childish to him.
"This is Perkins," said Captain Perkins over the radio, "we have confirmation that 20% of the property has been secured. All tiltrotors, lower in altitude, and deactivate cloaking panels."
"Roger." Came voices over the radio again and again. After few more minutes of fighting and moving further into the park, several tiltrotor aircrafts started to come out of the sky and out of thin air from what it looked like; they were reverting from an invisible state.
"Use infrared targeting systems," came Captain Perkins' voice on the radios, "prepare 20mm miniguns. Take out hostile parties."
"Copy that." Came a pilot's voice. The tiltrotors started to face towards the Eclipse mercenaries, who started shooting at the aircrafts, and fire at the crafts with rocket launchers. The aircrafts avoided destruction by firing missiles at the propelled grenades, and took out many of the enemies with the miniguns mounted beneath the cockpits.
Suddenly, Mordecai felt a bullet hit his armor from behind. Unharmed, he turned around to see many police and S.W.A.T. officers firing at the Alpha Team and the tiltrotors. The Alpha Team started to fire back, easily taking them out with armor-piercing bullets, when another voice came over the radio.
"Alpha Team, this is Captain Schaeffer of the Bravo Team," said a feminine voice, "we will hold off the police; get to Blaylock as fast as you can!"
"Understood," came Captain Perkins' voice, "let's move!"
The Alpha Team immediately made their way to the house at a breakneck pace, shooting any remaining Eclipse mercenaries. When they got to the house, they found two people trying to sneak out.
"Stop!" an Alpha Team agent yelled at them.
When Mordecai got a clear look, he saw that it was Pops, Muscle Man, and High-Five Ghost, who they didn't see at first.
Pops put his hands in the air, "I submit! Just please don't bring me any harm!" he pleaded.
Muscle Man, however, had a different mood: "Yo, ladies, if you want me, come get me!" and he pulled off his shirt and started showing off martial arts with weird noises: "Hee-yah! Hoo! Ha! Woo! Huh!"
The Alpha Team agents looked at each other, and then aimed their rifles at Muscle Man, who ran off screaming. "Stop! Get on the ground!" two agents yelled, chasing him. Another agent brought Pops' hands down, and put him in handcuffs. He caught High-Five Ghost in some kind of beam from a device on his wrist.
"This is agent Justin," he said on his radio, "we have detainees. Lock in on this current location." He looked at the remaining team, "Go; there's no time to waste!"
The rest of the team continued up the steps and into the house, where they found Skips with a crossbow, and Benson with nunchucks, "GET OUT OF MY PARK!" Benson yelled, swinging his nunchucks at an agent, who reacted by catching them, grabbing Benson, and throwing him against the wall. He rushed over and handcuffed him. "No! Let me go! You won't get away with this!" he yelled, struggling to get out of the cuffs.
"Not after you've answered some questions back at the base." Said the agent, before dragging Benson away, who kept arguing and struggling.
Skips, Thomas, and Starla appeared upstairs, pushing a big bookcase down the stairs to crush the remaining team members; fortunately, it missed. Some more agents rushed up the stairs, catching Thomas and Starla, who tried to escape. Skips, however, knew he wouldn't win, and held his hands behind his back, which an agent cuffed.
Mordecai, Captain Perkins, and another agent proceeded to check the rooms.
(XXXX)
Paul, in the meantime, was busy preparing the samples for transport by making adjustments to the environment within the culture tubes. His phone rang, and he answered it to the number of the Eclipse director.
"Hello, director." Said Paul.
"Blaylock, time's running short!" came the director's voice, "We need the samples to proceed with operation D.E.M.O.N., and we're about to miss our deadline!"
"Don't worry; no one will steal Virus-JX. I've got everything perfectly planned; I guarantee that our bioweapon will infect Fresco within three day!"
"Just finish this! If you mess this up, you're done!" said the director, furiously.
"Alright, I'll have the samples delivered!" he said, hanging up afterwards. Suddenly, the door to the room burst open. Paul picked up his gun and grabbed the case. "So, you've come." He said to the A.T.L.A.S. agents while holding his gun at them.
"Blaylock," said Captain Perkins, "we're here to collect the Virus-J and Virus-JX samples."
"I'm not going to hand over my life's work! My legacy!" he said, dragging the case backwards on the table. He accidentally knocked over a pencil cup, and the third agent standing next to Mordecai opened fire on Paul with his full-auto rifle due to the sound of the cup falling.
"Stop!" yelled Captain Perkins, "You might hit the samples!" he rushed over, and picked up the case sitting next to Paul, who was lying in a pool of his own blood, "We got them, let's move out!" said Captain Perkins.
As they left the room, Mordecai looked back at the dying Paul. Serves you right, crush-stealing bastard. He thought, putting another bullet in his leg. He immediately left afterwards.
Margaret and Eileen came out of their hiding place in the attic, and found Paul.
"Paul!" Eileen yelled in horror at the sight of his lost blood.
Margaret rushed over, "Oh my God, Paul!" she yelled, looking at his injuries. She started crying, "Don't worry, sweetie, I'll take care of that bullet wound!" she said, rushing with Eileen downstairs to find a medicine kit.
Paul, however, kept a syringe of Virus-JX in his pocket, just in case Aletheia took the samples. "…My creation…will save…me…" he said out loud, unsealing the syringe. He plunged the hollow needle into his chest, and injected the virus into himself. He lay gasping for a few seconds, before he opened his once brown eyes, which now had hyperdilated pupils and acute bloodshot, due to the gene change caused by the virus.
When Margaret and Eileen made it back to treat Paul, they found him gone…
Things are definitely going from worse to worst. This could put not only the park staff's lives in danger, but the A.T.L.A.S. as well! This is undoubtedly the longest chapter in the story so far, which explains why it took so long to write; I had trouble coming up with ideas. I was, what you could call…a slacker. Anyway, tune in soon for another chapter! Keep holding on…
