Chapter 21
Bitter-Sweet Victory
(Subtitles Mandarin Chinese) "English" 'Thoughts'
SOUND EFFECTS
Disclaimer: I don't own Jimmy Neutron
"A soldier will fight long and hard for a piece of colored ribbon. An Enforcer will fight long and hard for the Hell of it." --Wendy Rodriguez, R-98
Operation: Intercept. It was a stupid name in Jimmy's opinion. But now wasn't the time nor the place for it. Right now, he was on an ICG-77/Laat Infiltrator-class gunship, seated near the opening of the ramp. Across from him sat Shaojia and to his right, Cindy. The others in the cabin were Libby, Sheen, Libby's brother T, Meiling (whom had taken about an hour to persuade Shaojia), and Tian with three N-12 soldiers and four W-12 soldiers from the 25th Ranger Batallion. The other children of N-12, the very young, the very scared, and the Carl were all back on Shaojia's ship Fury of the Gods waiting and preparing for their parents' safe arrival. That's all they could do anyways to keep their minds off of the dreaded other possibility.
The 14 other N-12 soldiers were divided onto two other gunships with the rest of the space in the ships made up by the W-12 soldiers. Along with the three N-12/W-12 ships, 15 other ships flew along with them, packed with some of W-12's best soldiers. The small wing of gunships, totalling 18 gunships total, carried at least 300 soldiers total in their crew compartments, a frightening amount for a flashstrike operation, but probably necessary as they approached the Yolkian capital, a large monument of the chicken-goddess of the Yolkian people, Poultra.
It had been over 5 hours since their briefing by Shaojia. Everyone knew what to do. Everyone knew what was at stake. Over 5,000 feet below, all around the innermost ring of the capital, W-12 forces were positioned, launching a mortar strike at the base of the Yolkian capital all the while keeping an eye on their rear flanks, wary of any Yolktar armies that may come at them from behind. They didn't have much to fear, though, if the Rebel Yolkian insurgents had done their job and introduced the Yolktar neutralizing agent into any facilities they could find.
The radio in the cockpit crackled to life. The pilot, the only girl he had ever seen in the W-12 Enforcer military, a 15-year-old named Mai (AKA Yellow Jacket), said into the cabin, "General, we've got contact from the ground. Want me to filter it through the speakers?"
"Negative, Sergeant," Shaojia said as he got up and walked over to the cockpit. He picked up the radio's handset. "This is Grand General Wang, who is this and what is your situation?" A pause. "Uh-huh..." Another pause. "If you're sure. What about- Oh, alright. Well, just get your way in from the bottom and we'll fight our way from the top. Look for the prisoners and if you find them, tell me. We'll take care of the crazy guys... Alright." He turned to the cabin. "That was the Rebel Yolkian leader, Oo'rock Lamaygoo."
"What'd he want?" Jimmy asked.
"He just wanted to tell us that some of his boys are a little bored, so he's sending at least 3,000 of 'em to storm the bottom floors of the capital building," Shaojia answered nonchalantly.
"Well, that's nice of him!" Tian said in mock-happiness. "So when are we supposed to get to the palace anyways? It's been a while since I've fired a gun that needed aiming and I wanna see if I've gone rusty."
"Relax, you'll probably get plenty of targets to practice on," Shaojia answered. "Let's go over the mission specs one more time."
He turned to a small, collapsable TV in the ceiling and brought it down where it hung on a small stand from overhead. He then looked over to Mai who nodded and said onto the cockpit radio. "All craft, this is Yellow Jacket. Prepare for a brief, in-flight movie." Shaojia waited a few seconds before loading a small data chip into the side of the TV. A green, 3D blueprint of the palace appeared on-screen. Everyone began to crowd around the screen to get a good look.
The palace was divided into 45 floors, most just decorative stairwell, quarters, press rooms, and lobby, but there were a few key places in the palace they had to hit. "Alright, listen up and listen good because this is the last time we'll have to go over this," Shaojia said into a small handset on the side of the TV screen. "For most of us, we will be inserting through here." He pointed with his finger to what was marked as the roof . A small mouse icon followed his finger as he moved it around. "From the roof, we will make our way down directly below to King Goobot's war room. If possible, we are going to try and capture any Yolkian political personnel. If not, we'll just execute them early. The Rebels won't mind. The same does not go for Goobot, though. If any of you see him, kill him on sight. He's too dangerous to be left alive."
"If Goobot is not there, then he will probably be here," he continued, pointing to the middle chicken head's beak at around the 40th floor. "This is where Rebel Yolkian intelligence tells us he usually gives his propoganda speeches. More than likely, that's where our other target might be, a preppy, bucked-tooth brat named Eustace Strych. Trust me, you'll recognize him right away. He's the only human there. Kill him, too." He then gestured to the area behind the eyes. "Rebel intel also says that somewhere around here, Goobot's quarters along with his brother's and other high-profile guests' are located. We need to scan this area especially. There might be some very valuable intel here."
He then moved his hand to the 4th Floor. Anatomically, where he indicated was near a chicken's rear and ovarian areas. "Now, anyone that knows their chicken anatomy can identify what this is. And if you don't, just don't worry about the specifics, but this is where the eggs in a real chiken are made, but in the gigantic monument building, this is the escape pod hatch. Recently installed after the start of the Yolkian Civil War less than a year ago, it is still under construction. Still, there has to be at least one functioning hatch. We cannot let either of our targets get away if they somehow escaped us from above and manage escape the planet from this escape hatch."
He then pointed at the 25th floor which was just a little bit below a chicken's breast level. "This is where Bravo Company will be inserting. Their job is to spread out everywhere, up and down, and search the rest of the entire building, room by room, and find anyone still hiding in the palace. They will also provide a wall for any escaping Yolkian kings and psychotic Englishmen."
He pointed at the ground floor. There was a large, decorative staircase leading up into the abdomen of the chicken statue, which was seated, meaning its bent knees created a type of architectural barrier surrounding the entrance into what appeared to be the chicken's lower abdomen. "This is where our friends the Rebels Yolkians will be inserting and trying to push through. They will go in through the front door and scan the entire area. From intel reports, there's supposed to be a basement level and that just might be where our hostages are located. They will find them and, if possible, exfiltrate them to one of our medical camps after notifying us of their status and location. Also, if possible, they will be sending at least half of their force up our way to help trap our kingpins."
"How will we know which Yolkians not to attack?" Cindy asked.
Shaojia plainly answered, "Our enemies have green armor with black shoulder pads. Our allies look like somone gave an Easter egg a commando color scheme. Trust me, you'll know which ones to shoot and which ones not to. Now, any other questions?" Everyone shook their head and no response came through the speakers of the TV. "Good. Yellow Jacket, what's our ETA?"
"10 minutes, sir," Mai answered. "Dropping altitude now."
He nodded and said into the hand set, "Alright, senior ranking personell aboard craft, break out the toys," before stowing away the TV set and reaching up at the matter generator above them. "Each of you will have the following weapons layout: an Enforcer M4 assault rifle, M9 standard-issue pistol, 4 frag grenades, and an American KA-BAR combat knife, for those special, close-encounters with a new friend." He passed out each piece of weaponry to the soldiers from the generators. However, as he was about to pass out the grenades to Sheen, he stopped.
"What?" Sheen said in protest. "Gimme' the grenades! I'll be careful!"
Everyone in the crew compartment shared a look. "You don't get any grenades," Shaojia said finally, causing everyone to nod and sigh in relief.
"What?! That's not fair! Look, you just pull the pin and toss it!" Sheen demonstrated by snatching one Libby's grenades and activated it. However, the trick to the grenades wasn't to pull the pin and toss it, but to pull the pin and toss the grenade.
Jimmy, who was closest to the hatch release, hit the red button, causing the entire cabin to be illuminated by a red light. The hatch slowly swung open and Shaojia threw the primed grenade out the small opening, not even bothering to wait for it to open all the way. The grenade flew out the hatch and detonated in the air, sending a small shockwave through the ship, but one barely noticeable over the rumble of the engine.
The hatch finished opening. They now had their first glimpse of the Yolkian capital city and the battle ensuing below between the now-halved Enforcer ground forces, who were all tightly packed within the tighter confines of the 1st Ring of the Yolkian capital, paired with gunships flying air support for them and the Yolkian security force, a sea of complete green with no Yolktars in sight. Jimmy simply stared, mouth agape, as the Enforcer force, maybe 450,000 soldiers, probably less, faced the Yolkian 'security' force.
The original 5 million at the beginning of the war, widdled down slightly by the Rebel Yolkian forces before the Enforcer force arrived, along with the number destroyed by Rebel guerilla tactics after the Enforcers had cleared a major LZ around the entire capital by destroying the Loyalist Navy. On top of that, there was also the several hundreds of thousands lost during the fighting they had experienced for a few days before their withdrawl and replacement by the Yolktar hordes to consider. However, that still did not help what they now faced. There still had to be at least 3.5 million Yolkian soldiers, in their bright, royal green armor, attempting to charge out of their underground bunkers as the Enforcer artillery shells ripped apart their formations. At least that would keep them at bay and not overwhelming the Enforcer force.
He then spotted what appeared to be a large mass of shadow that snuck through the buildings of the city. As they crossed a lighted Yolkian crossway, he discovered they were Yolkians as well, but different. From so far above the ground, he couldn't make out the exact details, but he knew they were dressed in black, either black armor suits or black 'clothing' over their armor suits, he couldn't determine. But there were a lot of them, maybe in the ten thousands, possibly even in the hundreds of thousands, making their way towards the capital building, beginning to divide into tiny pairs before reforming into the giant mass as it slid its way past any massive groups of Yolkian soldiers while rolling over and wiping out the smaller ones, like a river swallowing up rocks in a current. And better, it was an all-out, all-enveloping charge that helped lessen the stress put on by Enforcer artillery.
Shaojia walked over to where Jimmy stood staring out the open hatch of the dropship. "This is it, Jimmy. All of our hard work is finally coming together. About a week after all of this is over, you'll find a few paychecks in the mail. Distribute them to whoever they're sent to. Enforcer payments. A sweet thing. It'll be enough to cover all of the damages."
"Damages?" Jimmy asked. "And what do you mean, paychecks? I'm still trying to figure this one out: what are the Enforcers? Are we soldiers, generals, special forces, secret agents, assassins? What are we?"
"The Enforcers..." Shaojia started as he took a glance over his shoulder, looking at his own men, the 4 W-12 soldiers in black combat armor, the oldest of the entire bunch only about 13 or 14. They all looked like a bunch of professional army commandos, essentially the equivalent of fun-sized Snickers except military-related. "The Enforcers are fighters of the gods. They say jump, we ask how high; they say kill, we ask who. That's all you need to know." He looked Jimmy straight in the eyes. "Who we kill and why we kill them doesn't matter. We kill them because we're told to and because we know that they are bad men. Trust me, by the end of all of this, we'll know exactly why the W-12 Enforcers are still here."
"Sir," Yellow Jacket called out from the cockpit, "We are hovering over Alpha LZ. All other craft are also in position."
Shaojia nodded. "Drop the plank."
"Roger wilco, sir," Yellow Jacket said before picking up the radio handset. "All birds, this is Yellow Jacket. Drop yer planks, I repeat, drop yer planks." She then looked back. "Well, looks like our planks are already open. Happy huntin', boys and girls! General, me and the others will proceed as planned after drop-off. The boys down there are in quite a Charlie-Foxtrot."
Shaojia nodded and waved the four commandos forward. Dressed in modern SWAT-esque uniforms, their only distinctive feature seperating them from looking like mini-SWAT would be the helmet, the same model of helmet Shaojia had worn for the earlier part of the fiasco they all found themselves in. With a T-shaped visor covering what the jet-black, all-encasing helmet did not, all of the commandos appeared identical, uniform, and in Jimmy's opinion, a little creepy. Over their one-piece tactical battle suit which they had switched out for in place of the far-too-heavy-for-the-occasion Chinese armor was a KEVLAR bulletproof vest. Looking over to Meiling, Shaojia, and Tian, he noticed that they wore the same outfit. He looked down at himself discreetly and at the inhabitants of the crew cabin as a whole. As a matter of fact, they were all dressed pretty much the same way. They were the same. They were soldiers. They were Enforcers.
The W-12 commandos walked along the ramp, the front-most two with a rope in their hand. Tossing the ropes over the ramp save for the end that they held in their hand, they attatched it to the overhang that was directly above the ramp. Then, they ran towards the edge of the ramp, grabbed a part of the rope, and jumped off, sliding down. After that pair had disappeared from view, the other two did the same, grabbing the rope and sliding down as well like the commandos they appeared to be.
Shaojia then looked over to the crew compartment, looked at Meiling, then at Jimmy, then nodded. "Jim, you can take it from here." He looked over to Meiling and motioned with his head to the ramp. With a slick, smooth motion, they put on their helmets. The sight was unnerving as the two charged the ramp, grabbed the ropes, and disappeared from sight. Tian followed shortly behind them.
There was silence in the compartment for a few seconds, save for the roar of the engines and the distant din of mortars. Then, "Cool!" Everyone looked at Sheen who donned his own battle helmet, grabbed his weapons, and charged the ramp by himself, not even bothering to grab the rope as he jumped out of the craft. Everyone, especially Libby, ran to see if the maniac had jumped to his doom. Unfortunately for the human gene pool, he didn't. He had simply landed on a large, tree-like plant, fell down a few branches, and landed on some alien bushes. Jimmy shook his head after he saw Sheen get up and give everyone a thumb's up. "I'm alright!"
Jimmy sighed then motioned for the others to begin doing the same. Unsurprisingly, T was up next, adolescent male machismo coursing through his veins as he ran down the ramp, grabbed one of the ropes, and began to slide down it. The other N-12 soldiers of no name followed. Libby looked down, turned to Cindy, and then hugged her. She then ran over to the ramp and slid down as well.
Seconds later, they had thrown him over and into the same water fountain Sheen had fallen into.
Jimmy looked over to Cindy as they walked towards the edge of the ramp. In her eyes, she saw an uncertain fear as she looked down at the 50 foot drop below. He moved his hand over to hers and lightly tapped it. She responded by smiling and grabbing his hand tightly.
Jimmy smiled back and looked directly into Cindy's eyes. "Cindy, before we go, I want you to know..." He averted his eyes. "Well, the thing is-"
She put a finger on his lips. "I know. I love you too." Their eyes locked as the sound of artillery shells were blocked out. The world around them was null as they stared at each other.
Pulling her into him, Jimmy had done something he had wanted to do to her for a long time. Pressing his lips against hers, they kissed for a few seconds that seemed like hours to them as parted for breath. "This wasn't our first, but let's not make this our last," Jimmy said. They seperated slightly before turning away and getting onto seperate ropes.
Back in the cockpit, Mai turned back around in her chair. Wiping a tear from her eyes, she muttered, "That was better than my soaps!" She then flicked off the safety for her bird's Hellfire missiles. "Back to work!"
Shaojia shook his head as he watched Sheen climb out of the water fountain at the top of the roof. The water was not like the green water that they found in water barrels around town, but more of an imperial crimson. The fountain itself was really an elongated oval that ran the length of the rooftop which represtented the chicken's head. The water fountain shot a steady stream of bright red water in an arc where it joined the other part of the fountain. Beneath the arc, a consistent system of spouts shot crimson liquid up as well, joining with the arc. The cycle was illuminated further by red lights directed at and around the arc. The entire figure itself resembled a chicken's crown.
The rooftop itself had several raised platforms on which there was a giant circle with a strange alien character in it. Judging from the lights surrounding the platforms and the numerity of them, it could be safely assumed they were a series of helipads of some sort for important personnel.
Beside him stood Meiling. Quanbei was supervising the troops as they made contact with the ground and positioned them around, trying to find as many entry points as possible into the war room below where many of Goobot's officials would be, possibly the entire cabinet if they were lucky.
Meiling looked up at him. "A-Shaojia-ge, thank you."
"For what?" Shaojia asked, though he had a pretty good idea what.
"For..." She paused. "For letting me come with you. I promise, I'll stay out of the way, but I'll-"
Shaojia held up his hand. "If I let you stay in the camps or forced you back onto the ships, I know you'll follow me anyways, somehow. Here, I can keep an eye on you and make sure you're safe. Those weapons I gave you are only going to be used if your life is in danger or if you're sure that you have a clean shot at our targets."
Meiling sighed and bowed her head. "Okay..."
Shaojia put a hand on her shoulder. "That, and I don't want you to miss out on the fireworks." He walked over to the edge of the rooftop, fenced by a waist-high gate. He waved his hand in emphasis to the battle raging below. Artillery shells burst in the air and on the ground, ripping everything in their wake to shreds. He pulled Meiling closer to him and the two stood and watched the artillery rip through Yolkian administrative buildings. "This'll be fun for the clean-up crew."
"Ahem." The two turned around to see Tian dragging a very wet Sheen over to them. "General, where do you want me to position this moron?"
Shaojia stroked his chin. "Hmm..." Looking over at Sheen, he waved him off dismissively. "Eh, give him his weapons and he'll be a homicidal nutcase, which is kinda what we need for this op. Just post him with one of the entry teams." At the edges of his peripheral vision, he saw Jimmy and Cindy approaching. "Good, you're here. Now we can get to work."
Jimmy unslung the M4 from his back and checked the ammo clip. Ramming it home with a satisfying 'click', he nodded at Shaojia. "Let's finish this."
Eustace paced Goobot's central office over and over again. Enough times, and he'll probably be in a trench. "Great, this is just great!" he yelled as Goobot and all of his Cabinet members continued analyzing the data that practically overran all of the data screens in the "Neutron and his lackies are here! How did they get past Calamitous? Oh, wait, I know, they flew over him! Probably after they offed the little bastard, too! Those lucidious little wankers! They ruined everything!" Infuriated, he kicked over an egg-shaped chair. "Damn them!"
"Will you just shut up?" Goobot snapped as he glared at Eustace. "I realize that things have gone sour, but there's nothing we can do now. We'll just have to hope that my men can hold them off long enough to wipe them all out."
"Oh, they've done a real damn good job in the past too, haven't they?" Eustace retorted as his hand tightened its grip on the spare revolver that he now used after Neutron seized his prized Luger. "At this rate, it's a wonder that they're not on your roof this very second!"
Goobot glowered at Eustace in contempt. "Now look here, you ungrateful little monkey! How dare you speak to me this way in my own palace!" Drawing his Poultratos Blade, a scimitar-looking weapon that surged a fierce blue lightning, he gestured with it towards Eustace. "If you're so certain of our doom, maybe I can hurry it up for you!"
Eustace stepped away out of Goobot's attack range and leveled his revolver with Goobot's head. "Don't tempt me to waste what little rounds I have in this vulgar device," he seethed. The two megalomaniacs' eyes locked, an intense fire of hatred burning deep within in contempt for their situation, their enemies, and each other.
Before anyone could be killed, Goobot's Director of National Intelligence, Kolto Yoolk, came up to him with one of his aides. "Sire, do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Goobot said as he continued to glare at Eustace.
"That." Kolto gestured towards the ceiling. Everyone in the room began to listen closely. Then they heard it. The roar of powerful aircraft hovering not too far above the building and the stomping of boots as men got into position.
"They're here," Eustace and Goobot said in unison as their eyes met once more. They nodded and silentlly put their differences aside... for now.
"I highly recommend that all important personell evacuate," added Secretary of War Ooter Omlak.
"Come, Sire, we must hurry," Goobot's brother Prince Ooblar added.
Goobot gave the Yolkian equivalent of a nod and said, "Let's go, the escape pods are down this way."
As he and the rest of his Cabinet began to file out of the room with Eustace following them, guards from an adjacent second staircase began to file into the warroom, an experimental rifle-like weapon in their hands that was ready to be tested after a weapons research facility was able to say that it was functional before all further communications with it was lost.
"BREACH!" the commando leading the assault team Jimmy and Cindy had been assigned to yelled before blowing open the sliding doors. The ensuing explosions afterwards indicated the destruction of the Yolkian security behind it. "Go! Go! Go!" After the 4-man commando team in front of them entered the building, Jimmy and Cindy followed. After they entered, so did the other commando teams, all of which seemed to form a type of line waiting to infiltrate the building.
The second Jimmy's boot hit the floor of the war room, it seemed as if the world had frozen. His mind quickly assessed the situation. Somehow, the Yolkians had acquired rifles. And there were a lot of them. At least 18 Yolkian soldiers stood in a rigid line in front of each pair roof entrances, of which there were 4 leading to and from the helipads on the roof. The entrances were inbetween two staircases each, making 8 staircases leading out of the war room.
The sight caught the commandos off-guard long enough for it to turn into a Mexican Standoff. "Intruders, stand down," the presumed leader of the Yolkian security detatchment said as he held a rifle leveled with Jimmy's head as he did the same with his M4.
"Do as he says." Everyone turned around to see Shaojia with his rifle on the ground and his hands held high above his head. "We surrender."
Immediately, Tian was right behind him whispering angrily and incredulously. "What are you doing?!" Meiling was just staring at Shaojia with the same expression everyone else wore.
Jimmy was wondering about the same thing. "I think he's finally lost it," he whispered to Cindy. She nodded.
To Tian, Shaojia replied. "I'm keeping my men alive."
"You do know they're liable to shoot us anyways, right?" Tian growled back.
Shaojia stared blankly for the second, began to make calculations in his head, failed, drew diagrams in the air, then muttered, "Crap." He then reached for his pistol.
"FIRE!" the Yolkian commander yelled. Jimmy's world was soon engulfed in a bright light, a loud boom, and then nothing.
'Oh God, I'm dead, I'm dead, I can't believe I'm dead. I've come so far! I've admitted my feelings to Cindy, we were so close to freeing my parents! And that ringing won't stop! Wait, dead people don't hear ringing...' Jimmy's vision finally began to blur which was an improvement compared to complete and utter blindness. Then, it began to clear and he saw that there was a type of weird box/circle-shaped outline, charred, burnt, and slightly smoking.
"I love it when a plan comes together," Shaojia said as he attempted to holster his pistol while still slightly blind. It took him about 10 tries.
"I love it when you don't plan," Tian remarked as he rubbed his eyes to clear out his vision. "I'm usually left with my vision afterwards."
"How many figures am I holding up?" Shaojia said as he held up 3 fingers.
"3," Tian answered.
Shaojia patted him on the arm. "See, you're fine."
Tian shook his head as he leaned on a nearby wall as he continued to try and regain his sight. Meiling, who had hidden behind Shaojia for most of the ordeal and was thus less affected than everyone else. "What I kinda want to know is how you knew the rifles would explode."
Jimmy and Cindy had made their way over in the meanwhile, staggering slightly as their sight began to return, though not much. "I was kinda wondering the same thing," Jimmy muttered as he waved his hands in front of his eyes. "And I still can't see."
Shaojia just smirked as he walked across the outline of the burn scar on the ground. "Hey, just because I can't spell it doesn't mean I don't know how to sabotage."
Tian shook his head. "I still say you're a crazy bastard," he muttered darkly under his breath. "Damn well had the ever-loving crap scared out of me. Could've at least given us a heads-up."
"Alright, that's enough of that," Shaojia said as he tried to determine which direction the exit was. "Everyone get out of the way so the unblinded teams on the rooftop can come through." The soldiers did so, staggering out of the way of the exits so the commando teams that were still on the roof or were at least high enough on the staircase that they weren't blinded from the blast could come through. "Who's the senior-most non-blind guy around here?" he asked as the soldier's began to run out of room to file in.
One of the soldiers came up to Shaojia. "Sir, Major Mutsuryu Wataru, 5th Japanese Infantry Company C, Rangers Special Forces Batallion."
Shaojia nodded. "Alright, until the rest of us get our bearings back, you will lead the top-down assault from each pair of stairs. Do whatever you need to do, position your men wherever you need to, but hurry the Hell up, charge down those stairs, and remember your objectives. Don't stop 'till you are either hit a dead end, become completely and utterly lost, or have accomplished your mission."
The major saluted and motioned downwards. "Alright, let's go! Get into your platoons and get down those stairs. Blast anything and anyone you see! Watch your flanks! If there are anymore of those rifles, we need to stay the Hell away from them before they explode. Go! Go! Go!"
As the 5 platoons of Charlie Company began to filter through the room from the roof and traverse down the stairs, gunshots and explosions filled the ambience of the dormant war room. Finally, Shaojia's vision, along with everyone else's, began to settle down. "Okay," Shaojia said as he looked at the long lines of troops still trying to squeeze their way into the floor below, "Everyone get down there. Wait in line, do whatever, but the second your boots hit that floor, I want to hear nothing but gunfire from you, do you hear me?"
"Sir!" the Rangers cried in unison as they attempted to try and push their way through, a military company full of children bumping and pushing into another military company of children, the stairs becoming a type of pile-up as more child soldiers continued to come from the roof and flood the war room.
Jimmy watched the entire seen with a distant but slightly amused disposition. He felt entirely detatched from the entire situation as it was, it was so unbelieveable. It felt like only yesterday that he was a simple boy genius, arguing with his fiercest rival and secret crush over the most trivial matters, hanging out with his friends and drinking mocha ice slurps at the Candy Bar, and believing that his entire life could be destroyed or maintained by one single final.
Now, he was the leader and highest-ranking general of his entire universe, fighting in a war he had never even wanted to fight, the blood of an enemy staining his hands and soul, the probable love of his life standing beside him in life-saving armor and a rifle in her soft and delicate hands, and the sights and sounds of death, destruction, and combat forever seered into his brain for as long as he shall live.
He felt someone tap their hand against his and saw Cindy, his Cindy, point over to a giant, pool table-sized control conduit. It looked like a giant virtual football field or something similar. Regardless, it was big. And what was even more remarkable about it other than it's size was what it displayed.
On the surface of the conduit, the Battle of Poultra's Crown played through live video in all its glory, miniature representations, live, moving, 3D representations in fact, acting out the entire battle. Jimmy watched as individual soldiers were replicated in holographic green code, the artillerymen all acting in uniform but unique ways, one team firing their cannon in a purely robotic and efficient style while another team, probably less experienced, kept fumbling with the dangerous projectiles as the battle ensued all around them.
"Those bastards," Shaojia muttered as he and Tian walked toward it. "So that's how they knew to ambush us, they saw us coming. They knew we were entering their air space, too."
Tian nodded. "Maybe we can use this to our advantage."
Jimmy nodded. "You're right. If they used it to track our troop movements, we can do the same to theirs. We can find the ETAs of the Yolktar forces, give the artillery firing coordinates, everything." He let out a rare, evil smile. "Looks like payback and irony like to come hand in hand."
"I'll say," Shaojia said. "Someone should stay back here, to monitor the troop movements. We've found good Yolkian tech, so we need to use it to our advantage. But who..." He looked around the room.
"I'll stay." Everyone turned to look at Meiling who was looking at the holoprojected battle.
Shaojia raised a subtle eyebrow. "I thought you said you wanted to come along."
Meiling smiled slightly. "I did, but I made you a promise that I know will be a little hard to keep. This way, it'll be easier. But you're gonna have to make a promise to me though," she said, whispering the last part so quietly, only Shaojia, who was standing directly in front of her at that point, towering over her by about 3 inches.
Shaojia put a hand on her shoulder to silence her. Slowly, his hand drifted under her chin and he lifted it up slightly so that it met his own eyes. He bent down and gave her short peck on the lips, oblivious and uncaring of the audience he had or the type of unprofessionalism he portrayed. Afterall, he knew that once this would be his last mission for the Enforcers for a long, long time. What's the worse they could do, kill him? Oh, right...
(A-Meiling-ai,) Shaojia started, staring deeply into her eyes. (For you, there are only two true certainties in life. One of those is death which so long as I live will never occur to you for a very long time. The other...) He paused, letting the silence soak in. (The other is me returning to you alive. And that I swear to you forever.)
"Shaojia," Meiling said before hugging him tightly. (I love you.)
(I know,) Shaojia said before turning to Tian. "Stay here. Protect her with your-"
Tian nodded and waved it off. "I know, I know; 'protect her with your life.'" Turning serious, he fixed his eyes on both Shaojia and Meiling. (I'll protect her as if she was my own sister.)
Shaojia smiled and put his hand on Tian's armored shoulder. (If all goes well,) he said, looking over to Meiling with a sly grin, (you better get used to calling her sister-in-law.)
Jimmy coughed slightly. The 3 Chinese turned to look at the 2 Americans. The sound of gunfire was growing weaker as the advancement party below continued to annihilate any and all resistance they encountered. "Uh, we should probably get going."
Shaojia nodded. "Right, let's go."
Eustace, Goobot, and Goobot's brother Ooblar ducked as they fled from the gunfire of the Enforcer soldiers. No older than Strych, these children had deadly aim with the assault weapons they carried. Eustace turned for a split-second to get off a round which managed to strike one of the pursuing soldiers in the visor of the helmet. He fell to the ground, dead. If anything, that just made the gunfire grow ten-fold.
They continued their flight down the spiraling staircase that symbolized the spine of a chicken, the only way to get to and from each level. Eustace paused again to fire at an Enforcer that had fired from above. The bullet struck the soldier square in the chest, knocking him off balance and over the railing where he hit the stairs in front of them with a sickening splat. Eustace slowed to pick up the fallen soldier's rifle and continued to run.
Their flight from the Enforcers had taken them down at least 4 floors. Goobot realized that their quarters were very close. "The plans!" Goobot yelled to Strych. "We need to get them!"
"Are you insane?!" Eustace yelled back as he paused to fire a few shots at the Enforcers above them. "We need to keep running!"
"The elevators are too far down," Goobot argued. "There's an emergency lift in my quarters. We can take them to the escape pods."
"Fine," Eustace conceeded, firing another couple of rounds from his captured asssault weapon at the Enforcers. "But this better be worth it!"
"Just shut up and follow!" Goobot yelled. Ooblar and Eustace began to follow before long, dark lines fell over the stairs and hung downwards. No sooner than the ropes hit the floor, several Enforcer commandos could be seen sliding down the rappel lines. "Run!" As the trio frantically tried to do so, Ooblar was struck several times in the back. "Ooblar!" The alien spun wildly as a bullet hit his hoverlift. Another burst of bullets crashed into the Yolkian prince's glass dome, taking out both eyes and piercing the brain.
"Come on!" Eustace yelled as he fired a spray of bullets at the pursuing Enforcers. "If we don't want to end up like him, we better hurry you bloody codger. I knew I shouldn't have teamed up with you!" He cringed when a bullet tore at his right ear, blood spraying everywhere as he screamed and began to run for Goobot's quarters, the alien following closely behind. Eustace paused momentarily to empty the rest of the rounds in his assault rifle, spraying them in a wild arc at the pursuing Enforcer troops before the clip ran dry and he threw away the weapon. The second the two entered the room, the doors closed, sealing shut.
Shaojia bent down to collect the dogtags of one of the Enforcers that had been unfortunate enough to have needed to reload in front of a Yolkian soldier. The Enforcer's neck had been broken by a swing from the electrostaff, but several bullets were returned to the Enforcer's assailant to avenge the fallen boy.
"Damn, I didn't think we'd lose anybody today," Shaojia muttered as Jimmy and Cindy walked up to him. He sighed as he deposited the dogtags. "Come on, we better run, Goobot and Strych probably have a decent lead already and I know you guys would love to get your hands on them." At this, he didn't look at both of them but rather pointedly at Jimmy who understood his meaning. He would have to be the one to pull the trigger to fully avenge so many Enforcer deaths.
"Let's go," Jimmy said as he watched the line of Enforcer soldiers rappel down the sides of the giant spiral staircase while others opted for going down the old fashioned way, their boots stomping on the steps of the stairway and making the entire structure creak nervously. "By the sounds of things, they won't have a lot of room to go."
With that, the 3 stepped around a Yolkian soldier's former armor and gooey corpse and double-timed it towards the staircase. The entire structure and the area surrounding it was pretty much surrounded by Yolkian shells, the majority of which were centralized around the staircase entrance itself, signifying that they did not want the Enforcers to get through.
Jimmy looked toward a nearby wall where several Yolkians, each in different suit-type armor patterns, were held at gunpoint by at least an entire platoon of Enforcer soldiers. Shaojia walked over to one of the soldiers who saluted. "Luitenant, what have we got here?"
"10 Yolkian Cabinet officials, sir," the luitenant answered. "4 of them are Secretaries of something."
Shaojia nodded. "Escort them to the roof top and don't let them out of your site. See if we can escort them away from here and to a POW camp somewhere. Find any Yolkian soldiers that've decided to surrender?" The soldier shook his head. "Well, if there are any that are smart enough to surrender, do the same thing, except wait until there are at least a lot of them." The soldier saluted and turned to his platoon and began to order them to move out with their prisoners.
"Well, at least we've held up our part of the bargain," Cindy commented as she watched the Yolkian officials go by, some staring nerviously at the ground while others glared angrily at everyone and everything.
Jimmy nodded and added, "Yeah, we've got their officials, now all we need now is their ex-king."
Shaojia led them over to the staircases. "Only thing is, the king's gonna have to be delivered to them in a body bag, er, shell carton... Whatever it is Yolkians use to hold their dead." As they were about to approach the stairs, a soldier with a major's insignia approached them.
"Sir, Major Chaoyue, Alpha Company," the major said. "My men have cornered the enemy commanders to what we believe to be the Yolkian king's quarters. However, when we breached the room, they were nowhere to be found. I've left only 5 men to search the room for a secret exit somewhere while I sent everyone else down to help secure the escape pods."
"Good job, major," Shaojia said as he made his way down the stairs, everyone else following. "Pass along the message. I want those escape pods secure and I want them secured good. Nothing leaves this building unless its in a body bag, understand?"
"Crystal, sir," the major said before double-timing down the stairs.
Jimmy sighed. "We need to check out the room. I have a... feeling that there's something in that room that we need. Or more accurately now, there was something in the room before Goobot and Strych took it."
Shaojia nodded. "I've been having the same feeling. Come on, we're in no real rush. My men will have the escape pods locked down. There's no way for them to get through unless the emergency exit just happens to take them directly to the escape pod room."
"Dammit, can you hurry the bloody Hell up!" Eustace whispered harshly as he and Goobot hid in the safety of the escape pod service hall, blocked off from the Enforcers by a single steel door that they had locked shut. Still, that did not ease Eustace's nerves while he held onto the folder that detailed some very important plans that they had intended to enact after Neutron's annihilation. It seems that such plans would have to be put on hold, though.
"Shut up, you ungrateful little brat. How dare you talk to a king such as I like that?!" Goobot snapped as he continued to enter activation codes into one of the escape pods. However, as it was dark due to the fact that Enforcer artillery bombing had knocked out partial power to the palace, he could not tell which pod he was entering the code into or what codes he's putting in for that matter.
Eustace gritted his teeth in frustration. "You know, I'd just love to shoot you inbetween the bloody eyes, you unbearable arse! And how dare you call me ungrateful?! What do I have to be grateful of?! Our enemies are in your home, ransacking and destroying the place, freeing our hostages, killing your men, and ruining my plans-"
"Your plans?" Goobot scoffed. "Those were my plans. Without Yolkian techonology, you could never even hope creating a weapon that powerful."
"Oh sure," Eustace mocked, "Yolkian technology. If Yolkian technology is so advanced, why can't you bloody idiots invent something as advanced as this simple revolver instead of playing with pointy rocks and sticks!" Leveling the revolver with Goobot's clearly visible brain, Eustace threatened him with an insane mirth in his sinister eyes, clouded by evil. "Perhaps I should give you a one-on-one example on how human technology is superior to Yolkian technology and why I don't need you around anymore."
Goobot glared at his former partner in crime. "Then how do you think you'd get out of this place without the access codes to the escape pods?" With that, he angrily slammed his fist onto the console. The light above the escape pod glowed green and the door opened, a flourescent red light filtering into the room.
Eustace smirked. "Thank you, old chap. I'll be sure to visit your grave site as soon as I can." He pulled back the hammer on the revolver. Goobot's eyes widened in fear before he saw a bright light.
Jimmy scanned the room with analytical eyes as Shaojia, Cindy, and the 5 soldiers left by the major continued to search Goobot's private quarters. They had passed by the shell of Goobot's brother, Prince Ooblar and were vaguely aware that Goobot's will may now be over the edge and that he is more dangerous now than ever. Not as dangerous as the clearly psychotic Eustace Strych, but dangerous nonetheless.
Goobot's quarter was immense. A giant, royal bed sat inbetween two large, oval windows that seemed to symbolize the eyes of the center head of the Poultra statue. Before the bed was an extravagent royal rug that covered a rather large part center of the room. Jimmy walked over to one of the windows and looked out.
"Whoa," was all he said as he watched the fighting below. From so high up, the combatants looked like tiny toys, dots of light peppering out form one part of the battleground that soon created slightly more massive explosives as they connected with Yolkian troops. It created a surreal, indescribable feeling as he continued to watch the fighting.
He then felt someone elbow him in the ribs. He looked over to see Shaojia looking at him impatiently. "Come on, no time for sight-seeing. Get back to work."
Jimmy nodded and walked over to Goobot's work bench. "There has got to be something around here," Jimmy muttered to himself as he ripped out some of Goobot's drawers, scanning through a messy stack of papers and holopads, overall finding nothing of value. "Any luck?"
"None," Shaojia reported as he began to pace on top of a seemingly royal Yolkian rug that bore a type of imperial Yolkian seal or symbol or something. He turned to the 5 soldiers. "Alright, go ahead and get back to the front, men. We can handle it from here." The soldiers saluted before half-walking half-jogging out the door and back to the battle downstairs.
Cindy scratched her chin as she too began to pace onto the Yolkian rug in the middle of the room. "Well, if there was every anything important in here, they probably took it and ran. But how? That major said that his men had the entire area sealed off and that they couldn't have gotten out any other way."
Jimmy rubbed his temples as he tried to think. "Come on, think Jimmy, think. There has to be some type of secret door or elevator or something that Eustace and Goobot used that we can use to get to them."
Shaojia scoffed. "Yeah right. This isn't some crappy detective novel where the good guys find some secret passage somewhere that's activated by someone saying, 'Open Sesame' or 'Abra Kadabra.'"
Jimmy shook his head but smiled bemusedly. "Yeah, you'r right." Walking over to the rug so that the could form a type of thinking circle, he said, "It definitely can't be something blunt either, like 'Password' or 'Activate Emergency Lift.'" At that very second, the rug underneath them began to glow a light green. A circular green halo began to form overhead on the roof before finally solidifying and casting a solid green force field around them. Slowly, the 'rug' began to descend before quickly picking up speed.
Shaojia rose his eyebrows as he checked his ammunition. "Well hot damn. I guess this is a crappy detective novel."
Eustace opened his eyes when he felt the bright light dissipate. "Come on, they have to be this way," came a familiarlly irritating voice, the voice of Jimmy Neutron. Eustace and Goobot locked eyes with each other before their eyes both fell onto the folder Eustace held. Then, they noticed the open escape pod. Their alliance already broken, they each went for their best shot, Goobot for the folder containing the plans, Eustace for the escape pod behind Goobot that was his only escape from what he has categorized as a God forsaken hellhole along with being a Genuine Clusterfuck.
Goobot slapped Eustace's revolver-holding hand to the side and away from him. The sudden movement caused Eustace to tense, resulting him in discharging the firearm into the hallway towards where Jimmy, Shaojia, and Cindy were just getting off. "Holy crap!" Shaojia yelled as he ducked under the .38 calibur revolver round. "There they are!" He brought his rifle up to bear while Jimmy and Cindy did the same.
Before the three could get off an executive salvo, Eustace shot again, this time hitting Shaojia square in the chest who, along with the others, had been exposed in the open hall and bright lighting cast by the elevator. Shaojia fell backwards with a thud and a groan. "Cindy, get him out of the hall!" Jimmy commanded as he returned fire with the assault rifle. While Cindy dragged the groaning Shaojia over to cover near the emergency lift, Eustace and Goobot both rushed into the small escape pod. Of course, both of them couldn't fit in there and even if they could, they wouldn't want to stay in the same space with the other for any elongated amount of time.
Though whey were busy fighting for space, they were still out of Jimmy's field of fire. Steeling himself for what he knew he had to do, he held the rifle up and began to walk cautiously towards the open escape pod. Eustace spotted Jimmy coming their way. He waited a little longer until Jimmy was about 4 feet away from them and shoved himself off of Goobot and hard against the wall opposite the escape pod. He fired twice at Jimmy in the dark, missing both times. Jimmy, on the other hand, didn't have to worry about a one-shot kill as he pulled the trigger in hopes of delivering a hot wave of deadly lead towards his opponent. At least, that was his plan which was foiled due to the CLACK sound of the ammo cartridge being empty. Not having time to reload, he reached for his pistol.
Eustace took that time to bum rush Jimmy, it still being too dark for him to accurately shoot at him. Tackling Jimmy to the ground, he ripped Jimmy's helmet off of him and began to punch Jimmy in the face, the pistol remaining in Jimmy's holster and the revolver sliding out of either combatant's reach. Meanwhile, Goobot emerged from the escape pod and eyed the file that Eustace had dropped a few inches away from himself before tackling Jimmy. He made his way toward it.
Jimmy finally managed to catch one of Eustace's fists and pull him into a punch of his own. While Eustace's punches were more of a side-slapping variety, Jimmy's cold-cocked haymaker knocked Eustace clean off of him. Jimmy rushed to his feet and grabbed Eustace by the shoulders and slammed him hard against one of the walls. He did this again on the other wall before punching Eustace in the gut, kneeing him in the stomach, and finally throwing him head first into another wall. Eustace backed away slowly from the wall, dazed, and turned around just in time to catch a punch in the gut from Jimmy that caused him to back into the wall.
Eustace slumped to the ground and rolled away weakly from Jimmy who was trying to catch his breath. Eustace then saw that nearby was his revolver. It was at this same time that Goobot had retrieved the file and was about to enter the escape pod. Eustace grabbed the revolver and jumped up, bracing himself to fire. The revolver lit up a partial section of the escape pod hall before the bullet tore at the repulsor systems of Goobot's suit, sending him flying to the far end of the corridor where he slammed harshly into a wall, disabling him for the time being. The file had fallen harmlessly to the ground before the escape pod.
In a mad dash, Eustace attempted to reach the file. He would've succeeded if it weren't for Jimmy who had tackled him from behind and knocked him forward. The two rolled onto their feet. Jimmy soon came face-to-face with the barrel of Eustace's revolver.
"Well, well, James old chap," Eustace said with a sickening glee, a deranged twinkle in his eyes. "Looks like we have quite a situation at hand."
Jimmy ignored Eustace and instead focused on the gun barrel pressed against his forehead. "Nice ear," Jimmy snapped, commenting on his advesary's ear injury in order to distract Eustace in even the least bit so that he could even hope to survive.
Eustace was not amused, however, and retorted, "Yes, I believe it was one of your people's doing, or at least that of your ally's people. You were always an amusing character, old chap, but I have things to do, places to be, countries to conquer." He cocked back the hammer of the revolver. "Goodbye, Jimmy. I'll see you in Hell." Jimmy squeezed his eyes shut for the inevitable pull of the trigger and the loud silence that would accompany it.
"JIMMY!" Cindy cried as she came around the corner just in time to see Eustace prepare to pull the trigger.
Jimmy's eyes opened and shifted towards Cindy one last time before Eustace pulled the trigger.
CLICK
Jimmy's eyebrows furrowed. 'Click?' he thought. 'Guns don't go 'click' they go 'bang!' He soon realized that the gun had been empty. Eustace had come across the same realization and dropped the revolver, opting instead for picking up the file and running into the esacpe pod. Eustace punched in a random destination into the command console as the escape pod door began to close behind him.
Jimmy snapped into action before the escape pod's doors closed shut. Putting his arm through the door, he must have activated an emergency stop and release function on the door mechanism as the ooor proceeded to reopen, allowing Jimmy to throw Eustace out of the escape pod by the collar. The file remained in the escape pod
Eustace recovered quickly from the throw and pounced on Jimmy, pinning him against the wall before headbutting once, then twice. Jimmy felt the warmth of his blood slide down his chin as he ducked to avoid the third headbutt which caused Eustace to pound Yolkian steel. Eustace recoiled slightly and before he could recover, he was met with Jimmy's hook to the face.
The Englishman staggered backwards before hitting the wall. Jimmy swung a mighty uppercut into Eustace's gut, causing him to double-over. Eustace counterattacked with a cheap shot to the ribs followed by a left hook across the face. Jimmy spun slightly and lightly hit the wall before bouncing back to nail Eustace flat in the face, fracturing his nose in several places, blood flowing down his nose as well.
The two backed away from each other before Eustace charged Jimmy once again. Shoulder charging him into the wall, Eustace began to punch Jimmy in the ribs in rapid succession. Jimmy tensed himself, trying to absorb the punches long enough so that he could find an opening. He gave up and swung a random hook at Eustace's face. The hook connected and sent the boy sideways. Jimmy couldn't even catch his breath before Eustace was on him again, swinging long, tired hooks straight at Jimmy who was able to dodge most of them, a few catching him in the ribs a few times. Finally, Jimmy jabbed Eustace in the chest followed by an uppercut to the chin. BOth combatants spaced themselves from each other.
Jimmy then remembered the pistol still in the holster by his hip. The second he reached for it, Eustace realized the trouble he was in and tackled Jimmy into the wall. The pistol clattered to the floor between them. Both fighters jumped for the pistol, grappling with it as even as they tried to stand, each pushing the pistol towards one another in hopes of blowing the other's brains out.
Out of Jimmy's peripheral vision during the tussel, he saw Cindy with her own pistol out, trying to adjust her aim so that she got a good, clean shot at Eustace, but the way the fight was going, that wasn't going to be easy. Next to her, he was glad to see Shaojia standing there, alive, shaken but alive. He was doing the same thing Cindy was, attempting to try and find a way where he could get a clear shot to kill Eustace that wouldn't end up killing Jimmy instead.
Soon, Eustace was able to push the gun towards Jimmy. Jimmy attempted to resist but Eustace countered by turning it towards Cindy. Jimmy's eyes widened in alarm as he struggled with every muscle in his being to will the gun away, but the angle was just too much for him. "Cindy, get out of the way!" Eustace had pushed the pistol far enough so that it could aim at Cindy. Eustace pulled the trigger, but Jimmy had pushed the gun back towards Eustace at the last second and the bullet high and hit a point over Cindy's head.
Jimmy then snapped back to his one-on-one fight with his enemy when Eustace pushed the pistol roughly towards Jimmy. He retaliated by spinning with the thrust and slamming Eustace's arm and the pistol hard against the wall. Unforunately, that caused the gun to discharge. Shaojia fell backwards again as the bullet connected with his chest, the KEVLAR bulletproof vest saving him, but the dual gunshots were still too much for one day. He fell with a surprised, 'Gah!' Cindy went to assist him, much to Jimmy's relief. Now both of them were out of their field of fire, perhaps a bit too late for Shaojia, but at least he had a bulletproof vest.
Jimmy swung his elbow back behind him and connected with Eustace's mouth. When Eustace's hold on the pistol still did not yield, Jimmy forced his full body weight onto the arm and swung his elbow out again, this time connecting with Eustace's temple. Eustace recoiled, his hold on the pistol loosened so that it fell on the ground, discharging another shot that richocheted harmlessly at a wall. He backed up slightly before tripping over his own two feet in front of the escape pod.
Again, their adrenaline levels spiked as they recognized their most dire objectives. Jimmy grabbed the pistol off of the ground as Eustace began to limp into the escape pod. Jimmy limped over to the escape pod in return. He grabbed the pistol tightly as he tried to bring up, but felt that he couldn't bring it up all the way and he didn't try to as the escape pod doors began to hiss, signifying they were about to close. Time was running out.
Jimmy fired.
Eustace arched his back and cried in pain as the bullet tore into his lower spine just above his tailbone. Eustace slumped forward and his head smacked with a thud against the escape pod's control console. The door snapped shut. A low rumble was felt through the floor as the escape pod's thrusters started. In seconds, the escape pod had launched out of its dock and straight towards space at such an alarming speed that it ripped through the fabric of space and entered the net of interstellar space travel, off to some unknown destination.
Hoping that the escape pod was heading towards some star that would assist in Eustace's instant cremation, Jimmy slumped against the wall, blood flowing down his chin, a smoking pistol held firmly in his hand, and he fell unconscious.
"Jimmy!" Cindy cried as she left Shaojia's side to join Jimmy's. She had watched the whole fist fight in all its gore and had kept her distance from it unless Jimmy needed help. Now, since it was over, Jimmy really needed help. She threw her helmet away and ran towards him. When she arrived at his side, blood was still flowing freely from his nose and a black eye was visible on his right eye. Accompanied with the burn scar he had recieved a couple of nights ago, Jimmy looked like a genuine soldier, complete with battle disfigurements and all.
"Damn, that's one Hell of a shiner," Shaojia commented as he walked over to where Jimmy and Cindy were. Jimmy slowly began to come to and saw Shaojia pat down his KEVLAR. "Ah, I love this thing. Keeps me alive longer."
Jimmy chuckled slightly and commented, "Yeah, two shots in the chest would kill a normal person."
Shaojia chuckled back. "Well, it turns out that Enforcers ain't normal people."
Jimmy looked over at the vacant escape pod tube. "He got away, didn't he?"
Shaojia and Cindy both looked at the empty tube. "No, didn't you hit him before it launched?"
Jimmy furrowed his eyebrows before nodding. "I think. I remembered that I pulled the trigger, it hit him in the lower back, and then his head hit the launch button."
Shaojia nodded in satisfaction. "Eh, maybe you severed his spine. If you didn't, he'll die anyways from blood loss. Good job." He looked over at the explosion stain from where Goobot had ended up meeting his demise. Ironically enough, it was a bullet from his own ally that sent the Yolkian king careening into the wall at an incredible speed so that he could not survive the ensuing blast. Bits of goo littered the crash site. "A really good job." Shaojia lent Jimmy a hand. "Can you walk?"
Jimmy groaned as he tried to get up, ending up having to use Shaojia's hand to pull himself up. He cringed as he tried to walk. "A little," he replied weakly.
Shaojia shook his head. "Take your time and get your ass down the stairs. I'm gonna go ahead and see if I can get everything under control, if it isn't already. Good job back there, Jimmy. Your parents oughtta be proud." With that, Shaojia turned to exit the escape pod hall through the doorway that led out to the main palace. In the brief moment that the door opened for him, fierce gunfire, explosions, and yelling could be heard as the epic battle raged throughout the palace and its grounds. Then, silence as the door closed behind him.
The soft whir of the escape pods' controls and mechanisms were the only sounds in the hall. Jimmy took a deep breath as he leaned against the wall. "Come on," he said, "we better get going."
Cindy smiled knowingly. She looked at Jimmy's face. All of the injuries on his face, the bleeding nose, the black eye, the burn scar, all of them showed an inner age several times greater than his actual age. The weariness on his face cancelled out the youthfulness his face still slightly possessed. All in all, Cindy was split; half of her was thrilled about this new personality and the bolder decisions that it may cause Jimmy to make about their relationship and his revised future in general while the other half of her was filled with fear and disappointment that a part of Jimmy, an innocent, kind part of him, had been lost forever.
Jimmy noticed her looking at him and asked softly, "What is it?"
Cindy swallowed a lump in her throat as she looked back at his face. An ageless windom showed in it coupled with a forever youthful expression of calm serenity from knowing that their enemies were now out of the picture. Now, all the had to do was release their parents from the dungeons. She then shook her head and laid her head on Jimmy's chest. "Nothing, nothing at all."
Jimmy smiled externally as he held Cindy tightly to him. Internally, however, his mind was ablaze with angry shouts at the pain caused by him hugging Cindy so tightly to his battered chest. "Come on, I can't wait to tell our parents."
Shaojia yawned as he stepped over several Yolkian soldier shells, or rather, what was left of them. During the firefight in the escape pod hall, it seems as if his men that had inserted on the 25th Floor had done a very good job sweeping up the Yolkian soldiers and guards around the area. Only occasionally did he see a W-12 body lying on the ground. Other than that, the walk down the stairs of the Yolkian was mundane and boring.
He paused slightly to look down the side of the flight of stairs as soldiers rushed past him. His soldiers had formed an effective barrier guarding the palace against entry from the Yolkian Loyalists whilst letting the Rebels, all in black armor and apparel with black streaks across their domes under their eyes. In essence, they literally looked like commandos.
He shook his head as he continued to go down the stairs. The fighting was now centralized in the vast lobby of the Yolkian palace, probably where Goobot would occasionally hold his parties, press conferences, and the like. Shaojia was pleased to see that there were no human bodies on the floor of the lobby, meaning overall casualty counts were at a record low for the current war.
He reached the ground floor soon and was greeted by Major Chaoyue from Company A. "Major, where the Hell were your men? I told you to secure the escape pods."
The major bowed his head and apologized. "Sorry, sir, but we couldn't find it. I think our ally's intelligence was a little faulty on that detail."
Shaojia rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "What else is new?" he muttered. Then he said, "Give me a sitrep; how many casualties on our side and how's the battle going?"
"It's going very well, sir," Major Chaoyue replied. "So far, we've counted only 5 wounded and 15 dead, and considering the fact that this is a war and we're in a palace filled with enemies, that's pretty good."
Shaojia arched his eyebrows in inner delight. That was very good. "And what about the hostages? Have you found them?"
Chaoyue simply replied, "The Yolks beat us to it. Rebels are on their way down to the basement with one of my demo squads and three escort squads to help free the prisoners." He pointed to a hidden staircase hidden behind one of the pillars leading into the building. A squad of soldiers guarded the entrance as others fired around them, trying to keep the Loyalists at bay and letting the Rebels through to do whatever it was they wanted to do. Subtle explosions rocked the palace as mortars hit the ground."
Shaojia nodded. "Very good. Keep me posted, Major. Oh, and have our Rebel friends tell the Loyalists that Goobot and Strych have been taken care of."
Chaoyue bowed and saluted. "Will do, sir."
Sighing, Shaojia walked over to the edge of the water fountain in middle of the lobby were several Yolkian shells and shell fragments lay around scattered about. He sat on the edge and watched the battle when he spotted all members of the N-12 Enforcer Legion.lined up, firing randomly at some Yolkian soldiers that were close enough. He then spotted out of the edge of his peripheral vision Jimmy and Cindy going down the stairs, Jimmy walking a little bit easier since he had a little bit of rest.
Shaojia then looked over to the N-12 troops. One of them, Nick, noticed Jimmy coming down the stairs, limping. "Hey, there he is!" he yelled and the entire force walked/ran towards their commanders. "Dang, General, you look worse than Ike did when Butch catapulted him off of the see-saw."
Butch scratched his head and retorted, "Hey, that only happened once!" He then smirked. "It was funny, too."
Jimmy shook his head and smiled. "Looks like things are getting back to normal." He then looked into the crowd and saw Sheen, T, and Libby making their way to the front. "Hey, looks like we're all here, huh?"
Sheen nodded with a stupid grin on his face. "Yep! Libby said that we should probably wait for you guys before we go down to see our parents."
Libby smiled and walked over to hug Cindy. "I'm glad you're alright. What happened? Did Jimmy kill them?"
Jimmy shook his head. "I was only able to shoot Eustace in the back before his escape pod shot off and Eustace was the one that killed Goobot."
"Eustace killed Goobot?" Libby asked incredulously. By now, the entire N-12 force was focused on Jimmy and had made a small circle around him.
Jimmy nodded. He was about to speak when Shaojia walked toward him and gestured toward the hidden staircase Major Chaoyue had pointed out to him. The squad of soldiers had stepped to the side and several Rebel Yolkians came up followed by a long line of Yolkian soldiers, their hands in the air, their electrostaffs absent. After them, two squads of W-12 Enforcers held them up at gunpoint. Following them, a frightening line of slim, starving, and dehydrated humans came out followed by the last Enforcer squad bringing up the rear.
"Mom?! Dad?!" This was the more-or-less universal cry of all of the N-12 soldiers as they rushed over to their parents and embraced them while the other single adults like Sam, Principal Willoughby, and Ms. Fowl just walked around in a daze before plopping down, tired, hungry, and confused. Jimmy looked around for his parents and found his parents, Hugh and Judy Neutron, lying down on the ground in a frightened and confused daze as gunfire continued on and explosions rocked the ground.
He approached them softly, unsure of how they'd react to seeing him. His face was badly disfigured, bruises and dried, crusted up blood all over along with the burn scar on his right eye. He no longer looked like the boy they had once raised. A part of him feared that they wouldn't recognize him.
Luckily for him, though, they did. "Jim-Jam?" his father muttered as he looked up slightly from the ground and propped himself up on his elbows. "Hey, Sugar-Plum, it's Jimmy!"
His mom groaned lightly and looked up, leaning on her husband for support. "J-Jimmy?" she muttered weakly as she tried to stay conscious. "Jimmy..." she then exhaled in relief. "My boy... My baby..."
Jimmy smiled, feeling the slight prickling of tears at the corners of his eyes as he approached his parents and fell to his knees between them, grabbing them in a tight embrace. "I missed you guys."
"We missed you, too, Jimmy," Judy replied softly as she stroked Jimmy's greasy and coarse hair. "What's going on? Why do you look like a soldier and why do I hear guns and explosions?"
"I'll explain to you later, Mom," Jimmy said as he looked over to Shaojia. "Hey, do you have any-"
Shaojia tossed a canteen and 4 packs of crackers. "Standard kit, always fresh and restocked in every commando uniform."
Jimmy nodded and gave the crackers and canteen to his parents. "Thanks. You think we can call in an Infiltrator? We need to get everyone back to the ships for treatment."
"Shouldn't be too hard," Shaojia commented as he looked outside.
Jimmy followd his gaze. The skies were clear and a white flag was being flown from the central plaza. Jimmy stood up slightly and walked forward a bit to get a better look. The central plaza was about 50 yards away from the palace. In it, a large mass of Yolkian soldiers were hovering in place, hands raised, and what appeared to be a Yolkian general raising the white flag.
His eyebrows arched in shock and surprise. He looked over at Shaojia. "We won?"
Shaojia nodded and held out his hand. "Congrats, Jimmy, you've got a 1-0 war streak going on there."
Jimmy smiled as he looked back at his parents. "Looks like things do turn out good in the end afterall, huh?"
Jimmy sat on an infirmary bed between his parents' beds. Next to him, Cindy sat as well, her eyes puffy and red, her face pressed hard into Jimmy's chest. It seemed as if not everyone could afford a happy ending. While most people had all of their parents returned to them alive, it seemed that Cindy's mother was the only one that couldn't take Yolkian imprisonment.
The infirmary was a rather depressing sight. All around the infirmary wounded child soldiers lay in hospital beds as mechanical doctors checked up on them now and again. Their squad and platoonmates had visited before but had long gone to bed after several arduous hours and days of constant war.
The rest of the infirmary was filled with the adults the Yolkians had imprisoned, all of them on IVs, feeding tubes, and the other necessary equpiment needed to make sure the adults had all of their nutrients and health back after so many days of starvation. Along with the adults were the children. Like a regular hospital during the rush hours of visiting time, each patient had at least one child attending to them who were all very tired and were asleep. Not far from them, Libby and T were sleeping next to their parents' bunks while Sheen was sitting in a chair and slept with his head on his father's shoulder.
It was around 1 AM, or oh-1-hundred in military speak. Several hours prior, the Enforcers had all packed their bags and gone back onto the ships, the fallen W-12 soldiers picked up and returned to their loved ones in the Imperial City back in the realm of the Enforcers. They had left the Yolkians to sign their own damn treaties and settle the rest of their messes. They just agreed to never mess with Earth again and as far as Jimmy was concerned, that was good enough for him.
The Infiltrators had dropped down and allowed for everyone to begin to board. Several extras were dispatched for the adults and the other wounded along with one for the dead Enforcers. Shaojia had told him that as soon as they left Yolkian atmosphere, a clean-up crew will be sent from Enforcer Central High Command (ECHC) to help stablize the Yolkian government and get the aliens used to positive human interaction.
A similar clean-up crew was being sent in to help prepare the damaged Retroville for the return of its inhabitants, their role specifically being to get rid of any bodies, clean up all shells, and fix any war damages along with convince government agencies about a few key details on whatever happened. Long story short, as far as anyone was concerned, the Enforcers did not tell them the truth about mankind and the importance of the Enforcer, they did not tell them to mark Retroville as a high-priority city during times of crisis, they did not tell them to reconstruct the military base near Retroville and inforum several divisions of the Army that they were now a part of the N-12 Enforcer Legion, headed by a 12-year old boy, they did not tell the government to tell the press to tell the public that the bright lights, explosions, and falling debris from space were a result of two asteriods collding with one another, and the Enforcers most certainly did not exist at all whatsoever. Knowing the US government, such a cover-up shouldn't have been too difficult to pull.
Jimmy was now basically a second president, so said Shaojia when he had explained the occurences too him. He had an unspoken power over the President of the United States, a good percentage of the Army was now part of the N-12 Enforcer Legion, and that the paychecks would be ready for everyone in 1 work week.
Jimmy looked down at Cindy and stroked her golden blonde hair gently. "Cindy?" he said softly.
"Mmm..." she muttered, pressing her face harder into his chest. He cringed slightly but hugged her tighter.
"If you want," he said, "you can live with me and my family. You can get to know my folks, and we'll be together."
Cindy said nothing. Slowly, though, she positioned herself from being beside Jimmy to being on top of Jimmy's lap, hugging his neck, and pressing only the side of her face into the red T-shirt he had changed back into. "Jimmy?" she whispered, so quietly that he had barely heard her.
"Yeah?" Jimmy whispered back as he continued to stroke her blonde hair lovingly.
"I love you."
"I know."
Shaojia sat in the meeting room of the Fury of the Gods while the other 15 generals and admirals of W-12 filled the seats. It was early morning, around oh-6-hundred. Beside him was Quanbei and Meiling, who still looked sleepy but trying respectfully to be awake. They no longer wore the Chinese armor of the commando suits. Now, they appeared like diplomats, politicians, leaders. Meiling, looking sleepy but trying respectfully to be awake.
Before him, an official parchment with several Chinese characters already scrawled on it. Shaojia picked up the calligraphy pen and continued to write as the others watched on. Minutes passed until he was finished. Then, he picked it up and read it.
(As an Enforcer, I have fought hard for my universe and for the safety of all under Heaven. I have led the armies of my realm into battle and have come out victorious with the help of my fellow generals and admirals, my colonels and captains, my major and luitenants, my sergeants and my corporals, and my endlessly devoted privates. I have fought along side them, with them, and for them, and for their families and their loved ones.)
(I have received an order from our lord, the Jade Emperor Himself, that I am to retire temporarily so that I can end the death and destruction that is still happening in our home. As you all know, China has fallen into desperate struggle which claimed the lives of both my mother and father, emperor and empress of the Chang Dynasty which usurped the Qing quickly after they usurped the Ming. Politician after politician has tried to keep the Chang intact, but so far no one has lived long enough to even get a blessing from the gods, thus they do not have Heaven's Mandate.)
(I have been ordered to return to our home and take back the throne. I will then seek to rejoin China under a fair and just dynasty, the likes of which the rulers of the Old Ming would be jealous of. I seek to reunite the kingdoms of Northern and Southern Chang, Tang, and Ming under the single banner of the Shen Dynasty, in tribute to our lords and in message that through me, the gods will exhibit their will. I shall rule as they have intended. I shall rule as their vassle to the peoples of W-12. However, in times of extreme crisis, I will be pulled back into the field to take place before being exiled once again afterwards.)
He pulled Meiling closer to him. (I also seek to have a more normal life, to be with the woman of my dreams and to raise my children with her, but all in due time. For once, we don't know something that the gods also don't know. Trouble is coming, and none of us know what. A black cloud is hanging over our heads as we speak, growing in power as time goes on. We may not even live long enough to see these dark events fall into place. So, the gods have granted me my wish, that along with reuniting China, I am to live as a normal being an extend the lineage of our universe's chosen protector.)
(In my place, I appoint General Tsung Wulong of the Southern Chang and the Family Tsung as de facto Grand General until I have accomplished this new mission. So now, I, Wang Shaojia of the Northern Chang and the Family Wang, son of the Emperor Taiquan and the Empress Lan, step down temporarily as Grand General of W-12 until the reunification of China has been successful and I have born 3 children.)
There was applause as Shaojia stamped the Imperial Seal onto the document. It was now official. As of now, he was no longer an Enforcer.
Quanbei now stood up. He spoke with the same tone as Shaojia and held another piece of parchment. (By Blood Oath, I am bound to my friend and brother Wang Shaojia. I also seek to retire from Enforcer service to assist him in his unification of the Chinese Kingdoms. This Era of Resurrected Kingdoms has cost many a life and ruined many a household. It is because of this war that so many children such as us find ourselves fighting alongside adults, wielding nuclear arms and machine guns.)
(So, with no further ado, I, Tian Quanbei of the Northern Chang and the Family Tian, hereby retire as well to join my Blood Brother in the fields of combat in our homeland.)
Tian's speech was also met with applause as he stamped the parchment with his personal seal. Shaojia cleared his throat. "We'll give the troops the news in about a month." He saluted. "Dismissed." They saluted back and all but Tian filtered out of the room. Shaojia turned to Tian. "That was a gutsy move, Quanbei, stepping down, too. I don't exactly trust Tsung, you know."
"I know," his oath brother told him. Tian looked at Meiling whom had fallen back to sleep against Shaojia's chest. "But I have a wife you know, and I want to be with her too. She's planning on resigning in a little while, too, like a lot of Enforcers. Time to make some room for the younger soldiers. Besides, Tsung's still under the gods' authority. They don't like him, they'll can his ass and give someone else the job."
Shaojia smiled slightly as he looked at Meiling. "Hey, do me a favor and turn on that screen. Give me a visual from our forward camera." Tian did as he was asked and turned on the camera. There, Earth, in all her splendid glory, shone bright in the light of the sun. The debris from the space battle days before had been cleared by the clean-up crew and the crews were probably cleaning up Retroville by now. "You know, I really am going to miss this."
Tian scoffed. "Yeah, me too. What do you think you'll miss the most? Nearly getting your head chopped off, nearly getting burned alive, getting shot in the chest twice, getting filled with bullets and surviving, nearly getting killed by mutants, nearly getting nuked, nearly getting-"
Shaojia chuckled wryly. "Alright, I get it." He continued to watch the screen as his ship glided through space slowly. Then, out of the edge of the screen, a small ball of burning light streaked across the screen, entering Earth's atmosphere, and appeared to make contact somewhere in Asia. "The Hell was that?"
Tian shrugged. "Eh, probably an asteroid."
Shaojia shook his head. "Probably, but I seriouly doubt it."
The Afterthought:
Author: Well, there you go, people! The last chapter of Military Science!
Jimmy: What do you mean 'the last chapter'?! What's gonna happen to me and Cindy? What was the asteroid thingy?! How will life be after the war?!?!
Shaojia: Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?! (Is playing that old ass computer game) Damn you, you red-haied bitch! Come on, I know you're here somewhere! A-ha! 'Land of the Rising Sun,' eh? Tian, nuke France!
Quanbei: Brother, you're either deranged or stupid. I think the game meant Japan.
Shaojia: Nope! It definitely meant Antartica.
Quanbei: Wait, just a second ago, you said to nuke-
Shaojia: (Falling down from the sky with a nuke underneath him, riding it like a horse) Yee-haw!
Author: Cheney! (Cheney shoots warning shot in the air. A 747 falls down and lands on him.) Ahem, no. All of you are wrong! For that, none of you will be starring in Rush Hour 4, or Military Science II.
Cindy: There's a sequel?!
Author: Dammit! Well, so much for the surprise. Somebody take the poll on my profile and review. Somebody get me a sandwich! If anyone needs me, I'll be in my trailer.
(Walks off a cliff)
Author: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! This is totally going to delay the series of one-shots that explains some things addressed beforeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
(Author go SPLAT)
Cindy: Well, that's our show, folks. It's been a fun ride while its lasted. In the next 'chapter,' we'll have a list of all of our faithful reviewers who have given us so much support since this story has started. Thanks everyone!