Chapter 14: Brutality
The only sound made was the clock ticking as Angela sat across the desk from the political leader Champio, who looked at her happy. Angela sat impatiently with her legs crossed as Champio tapped away at his laptop, making notes without saying a word.
Finally he spoke. "So, I have arranged my party so you will become a speechwriter, but it won't only be for me. However, I have a big speech to give at the Chamber of Dignitaries, and I want to give you the opportunity to write the speech for me. Basically, I'll give you an hour to write a speech assuring the Chamber that the lockdown is perfectly fine, and all measures are being taken to ensure that the people are safe from the radiation."
"So, when shall I start?" asked Angela.
"You will have your own office, with a map of this ship inside. You will be limited on where you can go, but that's really only the prisoner confinement and my rooms you'll be excluded from. The speech starts tomorrow morning at 6am, but you'll have to give it to me by 11:30pm, so I can ensure you haven't put anything that I don't like in it, and if you have I'll have time to change it."
"Agreed," Angela said. Champio his hand out.
"Welcome to the party."
It was getting close to 11:20pm when Angela finished typing up the "goodie-two-shoes" speech that was really full of lies. She was sitting in a small room with teal walls at a single brown desk. The room was pretty much bare, with a few paintings hung up, and some assorted items in the desk drawers.
It became obvious that someone had moved out of this office recently. Champio had kindly supplied coffee to Angela because he noticed she was tired. Angela realised that he was nicer than she thought when it came to close people, and she had a growing suspicion that Champio liked her.
The Lombax sipped her coffee as she sent the 10-page-long script from her laptop (which was supplied to her) to the main printer in the break room. It was taking a while for the speech to be sent, but the boredom was broken by a knock on the door.
"Come in!" exclaimed Angela. The brown door opened and Champio poked his head in.
"How's the speech coming along?" he asked, opening the door fully.
"I'm sending it to the printer right now," Angela said, and Champio smiled.
"Alright. When you've got it, staple it together and send it over to my office. I'm sure you know where it is." Angela looked slightly to the right of Champio over to the map that was posted there. "If anyone stops you in front of my door, just tell them that you want to give this speech to me, and they'll understand."
"Okay, thanks." Champio left in a jiffy, feeling as though something wasn't right with Angela. She was much quieter than when they last met. Angela stood up and walked through the open doorway, closing the door behind her as she went.
She remembered passing the main break room on her way to her office, and knew that it wasn't too far away from it. Angela walked left and passed three doors on the right in the empty hallway, and knew that the fourth one (that didn't have a door) was the break room.
Angela walked inside and immediately saw the printer across from her, printing out the first of her sheets. In the corners of her eyes, she noticed about three other people inside the room, but didn't care and strode towards the printer. As she reached out her arm to grab the top sheet, the back of a human body blocked her.
"Alright, so who's printing this out?" The voice was strangely familiar, and Angela's heart skipped a beat. The lady looked at the sheets, and began to turn around as she read them, revealing everything to Angela.
"Doris?" The human woman with wiry spectacles looked up, and smiled at the sight of the Lombax.
"Angela! I didn't know you worked for Champio!" Doris had the same blue tanktop and white silk shorts as when they met during their daily jogging the night of the lockdown.
"I didn't know you worked for Champio either!" exclaimed Angela, a little unimpressed.
"Hey, hey, cool it!" Doris said in her strange accent. "I'm trying to defeat Champio from inside."
"That's what I'm trying to do!"
"Yeah, but what happened? At first, you were on the news fighting Champio, but now you're on his side!"
"I was thinking about going inside, and I tried being connected to a wire while being recruited, but he revealed no secrets, so I have a different plan." The sheets of Angela's speech finished printing. "But, enough about me. How did you become part of this?"
"I suppose you should have this back." Doris gave the sheets of the speech she had taken over to Angela, and the Lombax began to sort them back in order. "Well, when the power was restored, I decided to go for a jog, but I was discovered by two of those stray guards, and so I surrendered."
"But Champio took a liking to me, and found out that I was great at speechwriting. I've always said that we were great at speeches. Yeah, and so he employed me as his speechwriter. I was worried when he said he found another one, but I'm relieved it's you!"
"Typical that he took a liking to you," Angela replied. "I think he's just a womaniser."
"Dog," giggled Doris. "Anyway, I was just coming here to talk with someone about arrangements for another politician's speech. But now that's done, I'll be going to bed. Ta-ta." Doris walked out of the break room and disappeared.
Angela chuckled for a bit, and grabbed a stapler from a desk nearby, and joined the ten papers. Leaving the break room, she walked the opposite way she came in, down through a series of corridors until she reached Champio's office.
As she walked towards the door, she noticed two men carrying a sofa past her. She turned back to the door and was prepared to knock it when a short man in a tuxedo and spectacles blocked her. "Do you have any business with Lord Champio?"
"Lord?" asked Angela judgementally, but she then realised that wasn't a good idea. "Oh, I'm the new speechwriter. I have a speech to give to Champio."
"LORD Champio," corrected the short man. "And if that is all, you may pass." The short man wandered off, but Angela didn't bother to notice. She knocked on the door, and waited patiently until the door opened.
"Ahh, Angela," said Champio as the door opened fully. "Do you have your speech ready?" Angela nodded and handed him the sheets of paper. He looked through it quickly as he sat down at his desk. "This is good. Excellent work, Angela. I especially love the line 'Though it may seem like a tough time for the people of Silver City, they would be dying of radiation if it weren't for the lockdown'."
"Thank you," Angela answered. She watched keenly as Champio opened one of his drawers and placed the speech inside.
"I would be glad if you could be there in the audience when I give this speech," Champio said calmly. "This may be the key to overthrowing Gohol. But first, you must get some shuteye."
"About that…" Angela began.
"You're wondering where to sleep, aren't you? Not to worry, right now my men are moving a sofa into your office. But it isn't just a sofa, it's a sofa bed. I hope you'll be bright and bubbly in the morning."
"Thank you," said Angela, and she turned to go back through the door.
"Oh, and Angela." The Lombax turned around. "Welcome to the party." Angela smiled and closed the door behind her. When she came back to the office, she found that the sofa had indeed been moved inside. It was facing the desk, but when she pulled out the bed it didn't collide with it.
Yawning, Angela sat back in her office chair. Although she had been told to get some sleep, she had one more thing to do. Scowling, she began to type a second speech, one far more unpleasant than the one she had given Champio.
Morning rose, yet it was still dark inside the tunnel where Ratchet, Corrina and Kyra were currently sleeping. After leaping into the well, they found a narrow tunnel connected to it, leading to somewhere. However, since there was no way up, the group spent the night inside the tunnel, resting their tired bones.
Ratchet and Corrina unpleasantly stirred from their sleep as Kyra began to cry. Corrina began to pull down the sleeve of her tanktop, waking Ratchet up suddenly. "Could you please look away from this?" Ratchet realised that Corrina was going to breastfeed Kyra.
"I don't mind watching," Ratchet joked. Corrina looked over at Ratchet and gave him a playful slap. Ratchet laughed, and gave in to Corrina's demands. While Kyra stopped crying was being feed, Wormy began to try and communicate was Ratchet.
The Worm-droid made a few noises, and showed Ratchet a projection of an island, with a single hot spring on it. "Is that where we're going?" Wormy made a few affirmative noises.
"Okay, I've finished," stated Corrina, and Ratchet turned around, forgetting all about the island.
"Great. Shall we continue?" Corrina nodded and looked down the two paths they could journey down. However, they looked the same, so they had no way to know which way they came from. "Ummm, yeah…"
"Don't worry," said Ratchet, pointing to a red mark on the wall behind him. "Last night while you were sleeping, I borrowed your lipstick and made a mark that told me that whatever path we go down, the mark has to be on the left." He shuffled around until he was facing down one of the corridors, the wall with the mark on his left.
"Okay, I…kinda…see," answered Corrina. "Let's just go already!" The Lombax grinned at her, and began to walk into the mysterious darkness.
"Wakey, wakey," spoke a soft voice. Angela Cross opened her eyes and was immediately faced with Champio, looking at down at her. "It's almost time for my speech, and I came to see if you had waked up."
"Guhhh…" she waned back as she was not good when it came to waking up. Champio chuckled quietly.
"Okay, the speech will be starting in about fifteen minutes. I'll go get my coffee, and then collect my speech from my desk. By the way, I had a read through it and I was VERY impressed. I'm going to have to keep my eye on you."
Angela sat up on the sofa bed in her office as the candidate for Galactic President left. She thought about the words he had spoken, and suddenly remembered. She needed to switch Champio's approved speech with one that could ruin him before he finished getting his coffee.
Angela shot up and frantically looked around, pounding her brain to remember where she had hidden the speech. I've got to calm down, calm down. Okay, just stay calm. Okay. Deep breath. Where did I put the speech? I printed it out last night, and discreetly took it back with me…and I put it under the sofa bed!
She pushed the sofa mattress back into the couch and found her unapproved speech lying safely underneath. It was an exact copy of the approved one, except for the fact that it had a much more extreme text. As Angela yanked it, the paper made a fluttering noise, and did the same as she bolted out of the room.
For the first half, she ran as fast as she could, but then realised that it would be too suspicious, and slowed her pace. She nonchalantly walked to the door of Champio's office, and slid through the doorway like a snake.
"Oh, sorry," Angela stammered. Champio was staring at her suspiciously. He was seated in his office, drinking his steaming brown coffee. "I must have walked into the wrong door." Champio raised his eyebrow, gazing at the bunch of paper she badly hid behind her back.
"My door has my name on it." Angela slowly turned her head towards the door.
"Champio's Office," she read out. "Oh…well…I-I-I can…ex-explain."
"Still sleepy?"
"YEAH! That's it. I need some coffee."
"Well, riddle me this…Angela," Champio said, his tone getting more fierce. "If this was the wrong door, then who were you actually seeing with that bulk of paper?"
"Oh, I was seeing Doris," Angela quickly lied. "You know Doris? She was a friend of mine back on Silver City, and I printed out an extra copy of your speech to show her. To compare our speechwriting."
"Right…" A few sweat drops began to appear on Angela's face. "You may go, then." Angela nodded and quickly ducked out, collapsing in a relieved heap beside the door. That was so close…what am I going to do now? Champio has the good speech, and he's going to present it any minute now.
The candidate for Galactic President, Champio, left his office, locking the door behind him. He gazed around instinctively, assuring himself that the Lombax he had hired was not watching. The corridors were a dull light blue, pathetically decorated with potted plants. Convinced that Angela Cross was no where near, he began to stride.
Looking behind his back every few seconds, the muscular man walked down the corridor, knowing where he needed to go. Eventually his wandering eyes fell upon the speech he had in his hands, and his mouth curved snidely.
"Ahh, Chalmers." Champio had noticed the short, bespectacled man in a neat suit, and called out his name. The buck-toothed rat turned to Champio's call, and smiled grievously. "Can you take this for a moment? I need to a coffee, I'm stressing a bit." Champio quickly looked around the empty corridor.
"Certainly," the shrinked voice answered, collecting the speech. "I will guard it with my life." Champio smiled and briskly walked off, rolling his eyes as he went. As soon as the leader disappeared, Chalmers noticed a female Lombax approaching him, wearing a leather jacket.
"Excuse me," she said. "Can I take a look at that speech? I wrote it, you see, and I'm afraid I might have forgotten to add a crucial sentence." Chalmers eyed her off viciously, and then decided that she could do no harm. He placed the speech in her furry hands, but kept watch of her.
"Thank you," Angela stated, twisting around so that her body, and the speech, were hidden by the brown coat. Discreetly, she pulled her fake speech out of her inside pocket and replaced it with the real one. "Okay, I didn't forget." She spun around and quickly handed the tiny tuxedo man her speech.
"All right, I'm glad you didn't try anything otherwise Lord Champio would be very cross." Angela briskly walked off, weirded out by the "teacher's pet". "Why do people always do that?" Chalmers asked himself. Unbeknownst to the two of them, Champio watched through the keyhole of a door, laughing as Angela walked off…with a blank pile of papers. After the Lombax had disappeared, he opened the door and went back to meet with Chalmers. "Thanks for holding that for me."
"No problem, but didn't you say you were getting a coffee?" the man squeaked. Champio snatched the fake speech away.
"Coffee machine was broken. Mum's the word, gotta go!" Chalmers was left dumbfounded as Champio ran off. As soon as the tall figure had made it around the corner, he slowed his pace, and dropped Angela's fake speech in a nearby trash can, feeling the good speech under his armour.
A Lombax in a brown leather jacket emerged from the shadows after Champio had gone, and began to scramble through the trash can. It was easy to find the speech, although a bit of discarded relish had made its way onto it. The speech was starting in two minutes, and Champio was still in possession of his winning speech.
"One step ahead of each other," she declared, and she left the corridor mysteriously.
Doris sat down next to Angela in one of the high spectator seats in the Circle of Politicians. They had been teleported to this place on Endako from Champio's ship. One giant circular dome, with the extra important politicians seated on the ground, and the others in chairs around that could float into the middle of the Circle when called upon. The two friends were on one of three spectator levels, nearest to the ceiling. Since they were so high, they had viewscreens all around, showing the view on the bottom level from floating cameras.
At the moment, many politicians were floating around the room in their chairs, passing confidential notes to their colleagues. At any time now, the Speaker would step up to his throne, the biggest chair in the building, and announce that beginning of the meeting. It was now that Angela began her plan.
"Excuse me, I'm going to go to the bathroom. Don't worry if I miss the start of the speech." Doris silently nodded, and Angela disappeared from the chamber, not surprisingly as there were over a thousand people in there currently. There was applause as Champio entered the Circle and sat down proudly in his luxurious seat, however nobody seemed to notice Gohol enter.
Gohol was an average height man, his body covered mostly with a furry, beige cloak. His plump stomach was still exposed, however, and his long extremely light green hair blended with the robe. He had a stern expression on his face, probably because of the Champio clause.
"ORDER!" bellowed the Speaker, an extremely fat man who could barely walk. The floating politicians scattered frantically and the chatter stopped immediately, telling Angela that many of the politicians were fearing the Speaker. His grey curls and thick glasses followed him as he collapsed inside the throne, panting momentarily.
"Alright, then," he announced. "This meeting may be the deciding point of the future of Bogon. Of who will become the next Galactic President. Will Gohol kept his presidency, or will the young and vibrant Champio snatch it away? Let this meeting begin."
A single manhole cover slid open, and a Lombax crawled out, followed by his Markazian girlfriend. Corrina struggled climbing out of the sewer with Kyra in her arms, but Ratchet helped her and was rewarded with a quick kiss. Wormy rolled up the side of the ladder leading out onto the surface, and was the last to make it out.
Ratchet heard the waves of the ocean, coloured orange by the sky, and realised that they were indeed on an island. However, Silver City wasn't too far away, and the apartment building was clear in sight. "Just like in the projection…" muttered Ratchet, however he noticed that there was no hot spring.
Wormy made a few noises, and started to roll away, slowed down by the friction of the sand. Ratchet expected the island to be tiny, but in fact, it was so big and so full of trees that the other side was hidden. "Maybe it's on the other side."
Corrina noticed Wormy wandering once again, and found that Kyra was reached her arms out towards him, as if she was trying to follow him. The Markazian put her child down, and they watched as she crawled behind Wormy, following his every move.
"Ah well, time to follow the Yellow Brick Road."
"That makes no sense," Corrina replied.
"I know, can we just go?"