Forewords

Last time on Mann Of Conspiracy: the eponymous villain is revealed to be Gray Mann, having cybernetic implants installed onto him following his defeat in the story's prologue. Gray then sends in Christian Brutal Sniper to take out the REDs, FREDs and Final Combatants. The mercenaries prevail and beats the Sniper Freak in a Freak Fortress battle.

That concludes the plot summarization up to this point.

Also, this chapter won't have much combat in it. So don't expect any big-bada-booms in it.


Chapter 11: The Cannibal Was Right

Time: 1400 Hour; 3rd of July, 2015.

Location: Command Center, Gravel Outpost.

"This is worse than I thought!" Soldier announced to his teammates angrily. "Turns out the NEWs' boss was Gray Mann, and he planned for all this to happen since we beat the crap out of him and his robot army 50 years ago!"

Nobody present spoke a word, even Scout and Fem-Scout. The REDs, FREDs and Final Combatants knew letting the WW2 veteran finish his rant is a better idea than interrupting him at any given moment.

Soldier's rant went on for quite a while before he cooled down. "Christian Brutal Sniper had managed to shut his trap for the entire duration of the torture session, so we've hit yet another dead end."

Still, nobody said a word.

"If anyone have a suggestion or two, spit it out." The WW2 veteran tries to break the silence without unintentionally intimidating his teammates. "The only skull I'll be cracking is that Sniper Freak currently locked in our basement, and only if he doesn't tell me what I need to know."

It was Rocket who spoke up. "If he won't tell you what you need to know, then let him tell you what he wants you to know."

Soldier thought of that suggestion for a while, then...

"Reverse psychology. That might work..."

...

Location: Basement, Gravel Outpost.

Christian Brutal Sniper was tied up on the same chair that Painis Cupcake was tied to days ago. Only unlike the cannibal Soldier Freak, the black-clad Sniper Freak is also duct taped to that chair in such a way that he resembled a mummy with his head being the only exposed part of him. Said chair is also welded to the floor board which has since been replaced with a metallic one. The same hole that Christian broke Painis out of is not only boarded up, but covered with electrified barb wires too, with the barb wires extending all over the walls and floors of the room.

And it seems that both Engineer and Fem-Engineer still doubt the effectiveness of such an anti-jailbreak measure. Christian had overheard one of the two Texans mentioning, "We're gonna need a bigger gear to move up." shortly after they've finished setting up the cell.

Having spent almost an entire hour in the makeshift prison with no way to break himself out, Christian Brutal Sniper just stared straight at the direction of the entrance, saying "Bloody whackjob..."

Christian then notices that a single person is approaching him from the entrance. That person is Soldier.

"I ain't going to tell you anything you want to know, mate!" The Sniper Freak taunted despite his current predicament.

Soldier seemingly respond to the taunt by throwing a punch at Christian's face, but the punch stopped short of Christian's nose before Soldier retracted his hand.

"I know that, maggot." The WW2 veteran told the Sniper Freak. "So tell me what you want me to know..."

Christian scoffed. He had to admit, he did not see that coming. Its not very often an interrogator wants his prisoner to tell the former what the latter wants him to know.

"I'm waiting..." Soldier said. "If you have something to spit out, do it now."

Christian recalls the predicament Painis Cupcake found himself into after his defeat at the hands of the REDs: the cannibal Soldier Freak cannot show his face in front of the Mann Of Conspiracy anymore. The Sniper Freak knew that he's now in a similar situation as his friend.

Christian figured, since the end result is the same for him anyway, he might as well comply to this human's interrogation.

"I suppose you and your friends just learned that my employer, the Mann Of Conspiracy is actually Gray Mann himself. Am I right, mate?"

Soldier nodded. "Right on the spot, you numbskull. Now, go on..."

Christian continued his speech. "What I want you to know is that Gray Mann is not the same person you put down 50 years ago. Okay, maybe he's still the same in terms of being a hypocrite, but he's changed a lot since then. For starters: building a team of almost entirely original mercenaries instead of making robotic rip-offs of you and your buddies."

"Bull's eye..." Soldier thought. This is getting smoothly...for now.

Christian continued. "Secondly, that wanker plans very far ahead with his plans. Why else would he give himself the alias 'Mann Of Conspiracy?"

Soldier became silent and completely motionless now. It was about half a minute before the WW2 veteran snapped out of it. "So that means we're still being played by him as you speak?"

"Yes..." The Sniper Freak answers. "I don't know who else he has in mind, but I do know that Gray's going to send more of my friends at you..."

Hearing that, Soldier ended the interrogation on the spot, and turned his back on Christian as he walked out of the basement half-running.

...

Location: The Bridge, NEW Team's Carrier Airship.

It was almost completely silent in the Bridge of the Carrier Airship.

Gray Mann was all alone, watching the recorded footage of the Freak Fortress game between the RED Mercenaries and Christian Brutal Sniper. Needless to say, the Mann Of Conspiracy was less than pleased, and the NEWs know that, which is why the almost-original mercenaries have evacuated themselves from their boss's vicinity.

But not entirely evacuated.

In the corridor just outside the Bridge, Recon had a directional microphone pointed at the currently closed bulkhead that led to the Bridge. The South Korean along with his multi-national teammates (excluding the North Korean Striker who seems to have excused himself to his quarters) were a tiny bit curious as to what their boss might plan to do next.

"I don't know, people... But blimey, was the captain really pissed..." Sailor gave his opinion on the directional microphone indicating that Gray Mann has suddenly gone into a ranting spree (with the digital undertone of his voice making it that much creeper).

Arsonist shook his head in response to the same thing.

"So, who dares to go in there and try to calm the boss down?" Alchemist asked everyone present.

The NEWs all gave the Irish magician the look. Alchemist wonder why he was given such a look before Mage blew him across the room with a Reflective Spell.

"No one is going in there, jarhead." Mage told Alchemist afterwards. "Not until he calms down."

With that settled, the NEWs nodded to each other in acknowledgement, and continued listening in to Gray's ranting spree from behind the closed bulkhead.

...

Location: Command Center, Gravel Outpost.

By the time Soldier got back to the Command Center, over half of the Mercenaries have excused themselves elsewhere. The only people left other than the WW2 veteran are Fem-Soldier and Rocket. Although his teammates' attendance is not his primary concern at the moment.

"It worked, alright..." Soldier told Rocket. "I've managed to make him spill out what I needed."

"So, what have you learned?" Rocket asked.

"That Sniper Freak said that Gray Mann is a lot smarter than he was 50 years ago." Soldier relayed to his Chinese friend. "He spent all those times planning on the best way to kick our collective asses, and still is right now. And as established with Engie's previous findings on the NEW Team, Gray was the one who orchestrated half of every conspiracy fuel to have ever happened in the past 50 years, including the missing plane that was never found."

"So that means to defeat Gray for good, we're gonna have to outsmart him and the NEW numbskulls, right?" Fem-Soldier cuts in. "I guess that cannibal, Painis Cupcake was right when he said you have no idea what you are getting yourself into..."

"Yes." Soldier replies. "But he has half a century worth of headstart with him, not to mention having a team that have already beaten the crap out of every single one of us." He then turns toward Rocket. "Sun Tzu was the master of the art of war. What will he suggest if he was here today?"

"If Sun Tzu was here today..." Rocket thought of the answer to that question for a while...

..."A while" in this case seemed like five whole minutes...

...Before the Chinese mercenary has an idea bulb popping up in his mind.

"If Sun Tzu was here today, he would tell us to make Gray Mann think he's winning, and have him let his guard down before we go show him and his dogs what we are capable of."

"Yes!" Soldier and Fem-Soldier both cheered, before the former pulled a Shotgun from out of nowhere and fired a blank from it.

"Taking down the enemy's leader is the ideal, but capturing his lieutenant first can make it potentially easier." Rocket added.

Soldier became serious upon hearing that additional part. "And the lieutenant in this case is someone I have personal businesses with..."

The WW2 veteran cocked his Shotgun once.

"...And his name... is Park Joseon - The Striker..."


Afterwords

Here, we learned that Gray Mann, the titular Mann Of Conspiracy has much more being planned for Mann Co and the REDs. What else does he have up his sleeves? And will Soldier settle his personal vendetta against Striker?

The missing plane that was mentioned near the end of this chapter, as well as a few chapters ago... I think we all know which plane we were referring to...

Like I said, no combat scenes in this chapter. Man, the Writer's Block is getting bigger and heavier as time goes by...

Which reminds me... I should probably take a shot or two at updating Meet The NEW Team and/or NEW Team's Loadout. Those are shorter and much easier to work with...

No Shout-outs in this chapter.

That is all... "Punchline goin' up..."