Chapter 14: The Meet Up
Garret was getting very restless. He had been inside the Osborne house since early morning, but he still had not seen Jack come into the house.
"That's it," he grumbled. "I'm not going to just sit here and wait any longer. Every minute they are not in our grasp means another minute they can use to figure out that we're here."
F-102 got up from the leather recliner he had been sitting in. "Are we going to search for him?" he asked.
"Yes, he will not be hard to find in a place like Elko." Garret's phone rang. He answered it and spoke into it.
"Speake B-102, was the mission a success?"
"Yes," B-102 replied. "However, one of them, Cool Ace was supposedly at his estate for the day, but we have Little Kippy and Lily Sparklesmirk."
"Excellent. We have Domino Spence held captive in our helicopter. How long before you reach Elko?"
"About half an hour, I would say," B-102 said. "The VP is with us, as well as D and E-102."
"What about C-102?"
"He was killed. Someone caught us by suprise. He or she ran before we could see who it was."
Another 102 cog had been destroyed. Garret would have to make note that they needed a better defence mechanism.
"I will see you when you arrive. We are continueing our search for Jack Greene. His name is now Zach Osborne, apperantly the one who defeated A-102. Keep an eye out for him."
And with that, he hung up. Garret and F-102 left the small house and headed towards the town.
* * *
B-102's log: Entry 4
We arrived in the small town of Elko around 3 PM. We landed in a large clearing in the woods so we would not draw attention to ourselves, because I'm sure toons wouldn't be too thrilled to see the VP roll out of a helicopter.
"We must go to Cog Nation, which is located under this town," VP said. "I am sure my fellow cog bosses will be waiting for us there."
We made our way into town and tried to keep from being seen. We stayed behind large buildings and bushes. We eventually came to a sewer lid which had a DO NOT ENTER sign over it.
VP sighed. "Damn officials. Looks like they found it."
I looked at him in suprise. "You mean this is the entrance? No offence sir, but how are you going to get down there?"
"There is another entrance made especialy for cog bosses. Go, I will catch up with you later." VP started rolling back towards the woods. The other 102 cogs had to be careful, as they were carrying Lily and Kippy with them. I lifted the lid, which turned out to be suprisingly light. D and E-102 jumped down into Cog Nation. I followed. What I saw absoulutely suprised me. The place was huge. It was filled with cogs of every kind, even skelecogs and v2.0 cogs. At the center of Cog Nation rested a huge generator, which must have powered all of the machines, as there were a very large number of them.
"Big, isn't it?" VP said. He had emerged from a giant door, the cog boss entrance. "This is the heart of the cog organization. This is where Zita was created." He pointed to the huge generator. "Believe it or not gentlemen, that generator powers every single Cog HQ in this world. That is why it is down here, where toons wouldn't be able to find it."
I was shocked. Just one generator could power Cog Nation AND all of the other HQs? I guess Garret must have been one of the smartest toons in the world to have created something this big.
VP looked in the direction of another huge door. "Come. We must get to the confrence room. The other cog bosses shall meet us there."
VP starting rolling himself towards the room. I followed close behind.
* * *
It had been about a good twenty minutes since they had left. It was probably safe to emerge. Ace opened the trunk and climed out of the helicopter. His eyes had to get used to the light, as he had been in total darkness for hours. He started walking towards town. He had to find Lily and Kippy. He also had to find Jack. He had to do what his dream had told him to do, he just knew it.
* * *
Milton had looked just about everywhere in town, but he couldn't find Zach. He had tried his house twice, but nobody had been home. He heaved a big sigh and decided to just go home. He was about to, when a multicolored dog came running up to him, gasping for breath.
"Hey," he said. "Have you seen a tall, maroon cat and a short, dark brown cat?"
"Um, no sorry," Milton said. He wanted this guy to leave him alone.
"Well," he said. "Have you seen a kid named Jack Greene?"
Milton's eyes lit up. This must have been one of Zach's old friends from his past life.
"Yeah," Milton said. "I have, he goes to my school now. Are you one of his friends?"
"Yep," he said. "My name's Cool Ace, I kinda came here without even thinking."
"Wait, you're one of the ones that got attacked by that Mr. Hollywood."
Ace's reply was cut off by the purple dog, Mark running up tp Milton.
"Master Milton I presume?" he said.
"Yeah," Milton replied. "Look, I told you I don't know where Jack is."
"I know," he said. "Zach Osborne is with me. He is safe, but I need you to come with me." He looked at Ace. "And you, Cool Ace."
* * *
Zach decided to read over his journal out of boredem. He zipped open his back pack and started rummaging through his notebooks and textbooks for it. He could not find it. Now realizing what might have happened, he poured his books out onto the floor. There was no journal. That's it, he thought. I'm freaking screwed. He sat up against the wall and started to go over possibilities. He could have left it in his room back at home. Impossible, he had written in it at school that morning. It had probably dropped out of his backpack. Someone had probably picked it up, as that is what he would've done. He heard the door open, and Mark walked in, along with Milton. And Ace? Mark stared at the mess of books on the ground. Milton zipped open his back pack.
"He was probably looking for this," Milton said, taking Zach's journal from it.
Zach stood up and Milton handed it to him. "Did you..?"
"Yeah," he said, acting pretty guilty. "I'm sorry Zach, I couldn't help it."
Zach sighed. "It's alright. They're already here anyway."
"Hold up," Ace said. "What's going on Jack? Why do they keep calling you Zach?"
Mark sat down on one of the hotel beds. "Allow me to explain."
* * *
Domino felt himself being yanked out of the helicopter. Te next thing he knew, he was staring into F-102's lifeless eyes. The Chairman was standing to the left of him.
"Come on," The Chairman ordered. "We've got a meeting to go to."
They started leading Domino into the town of Elko.