[The Worth Of It]
Just after the first day of that throw-down with Mickey and Vaas, both had not spoken to each other. But, that was needed to happen, for Vaas had now come down to the concluding end of his own plans going together wonderfully. The last thing he did in his shack was hidden something, in the depths of his stacking collection of useless DVD cases and film titles he couldn't remember watching or not.
After he hid the last item under the pile, he used his radio walkie-talkie to pick up Jackal's signal.
"Hey, man. I need to ask you a favor." Vaas spoke softly into the radio speaker, as if he were thinking hard on something on his mind.
"Yeah, yeah, sure." He heard Jackal's voice. He almost smiled a little. "What do you want?"
Vaas cleared his throat. "That grizzly bear territory not too far from my place... can you drive me down there?"
"Yeah, sure. No problem." Jackal responded back.
"Good." Vaas nodded his head to himself slowly. "Oh, and when you do, could you bring Lucipher and Ronnie with you?" He suddenly added in, most likely catching Jackal off, by surprise.
"Uh... yeah, sure, Vaas. Whatever." Jackal agreed, but obviously sounded unsure as he said yes.
"Good... I'll meet you soon." Vaas lastly said, before turning off his walkie-talkie, and set it right down on the table surface of his tattered-aged desk in his shack.
He was sitting silently, and very still, in the lone, wooden chair, for the longest time. Hands locked together gently, his left leg crossed over his right knee, and his eyes focusing abundantly hard on a giant poster map of his island. The spot he was staring at the most was the grizzly bear territory, that he marked repetitively with a simple, black marker, that was now unusable, but to the fact that Vaas crushed the tip of it down onto the located area on the map.
The only thing he was going was sitting there in the utmost silence, awaiting for his comrades to arrive.
After a whole ten minutes went by, Jackal and the others arrived in a small, armed vehicle. Vaas came outside from his shack, and was greeted by a giddy Ronnie and Lucipher. Vaas jumped into the passenger seat, while Jackal took the wheel, and started down the dirt road, towards the destination Vaas wanted to head out to.
During the short drive, Jackal couldn't help but glance over at Vaas once in a while. He noticed how Vaas' face looked extremely bruises, scraped and marked. He couldn't help but get the idea that Vaas was either mugged, or jumped by some Rakyat men earlier, and thought he either won, or lost. Whatever the result, Vaas still had the giant whelps on his face, decorating it with dark, ugly markings. Jackal even noticed that Vaas had a gash over the bridge of his nose, indicating that he was punched square in the nose perfectly by a lucky punch.
A few minutes of driving, and the four were finally at the grizzly bear territory entrance. Lucipher and Ronnie's eyes drew over to the large, manmade sign over the jungle path entrance that read "Do not enter. Grizzly bear territory. You'll fucking die." But didn't think so much of it to be a caution. More of a poke in the ribs.
Vaas and the other got out of the car, standing at the closed doors closely.
"Let me go in first." Vaas warned the others. "Just stay here for as long as you can."
Doing as Vaas warned them, they remained put at their spots, as they watched him make his way towards the territory entrance on his own. As they watched him go alone, they couldn't stop the nagging questions running through their minds, as to why Vaas wanted to go to the bear territory so much. If he wanted to cage a bear and use it as a defense mechanism, it would have to be more than one man alone to capture one. But, there was nothing else useful for a bear.
So, what was Vaas seriously wanting to do?
Standing right at the face of the opened entrance of the territory, Vaas stepped inside, and walked a few distances away from his only escape.
Once he was far enough inside, he stopped on his tracks, took out a gun from his hip holster, and ascended the gun barrel straight to the air, and shot three bullets.
He used a magnum revolver, so these three shots were extremely loud enough to deafen ear drums, and to echo out through the territory's invisible walls, and only exposed sky through the untrimmed trees blocking the partial view. The booming sounds of the bullets rung straight through the tree trunks, vibrating the ground under his feet, and alerting more than just his own ears to the sounds of shots being fired.
Outside by the car, Jackal, Lucipher and Ronnie heard the familiar, unwanted, alerting call of a mother grizzly bear's roar screaming out through the territory.
"Fuck." Jackal swore to himself, now hearing the increasing sounds of booming running throughout the jungle. Those stomping sounds were the exact noises of a charging grizzly bear wanting to attack. He knew them all too well. "Fuck! Fuck!"
Jackal's alarmed swearing caused the three men to start running over to the territory entrance of the place, and they caught a glimpse of Vaas merely standing there, before a giant black grizzly trampled him down with her large paws and claws.
The first thing they saw the bear do was latch its enormous, pearly whites down onto the lower jaw of Vaas' face, and tear it straight off. Blood spewed right out the ripped area of Vaas' newly torn face as he couldn't scream properly, without his lower jaw. He could only make panicking noises, as he thrashed underneath the bear's mighty weight.
The bear slammed its giant foot down onto Vaas' left-knee, snapping it right in half, after three more, powerful, agonizing stomps to his helpless leg.
Next, the bear latched its teeth down onto the bicep of Vaas' frigidity arm, and snapped his arm bone in half, being able to rip out the flesh into stretched out pieces of hanging skin. It ripped Vaas' arm off completely from the attached skin and muscle, and tossed it aside to save for later.
"Fuck!" Jackal screamed, pulling out his strapped machine gun from around his back. He barged into the territory and shouted, "Get the fuck away from him!" Before raining sharp bullets Hell onto the ferocious beast standing up on its two feet to let out another ear-piercing, spin-tingling roar of domination. The sharp bullets landed straight into the grizzly bears chest, making it go back down onto all four paws. Its left paw slammed down onto Vaas' chest, just close enough to crush it down.
"Vaas! Vaas!" Lucipher and Ronnie finally jumped in, also taking out their own sharp shooters to start gunning down the mother grizzly bear. "Go the fuck down!" Ronnie screamed, aiming straight for the grizzly bear's face. Lucipher shot multiple bullets right at the grizzly's legs, making it jump back with an overgrown snarl and growl, stepping back massively from Vaas' decreasing form.
The dozen shots to its face, and it finally went down without another budge.
All three went running to Vaas' aid, and were much more horrified by what they found of their pirate master.
[What Have You Done?]
"In this critical state, I'm surprised he's still breathing normally." Dynamite said, checking Vaas' pulse and breathing multiple times.
After the horrific ordeal, Jackal and the two youngsters took him straight to Dynamite, to try saving whatever was left of his deformed, salvageable remains.
With Eyes as his chemist, Dynamite had a new liquid shot of a blood stopper. It didn't stop blood entirely, but it slowed it down just enough to make the profuse bleeding stop from anywhere on the body, once the medicine were injected into the body itself. This also had massive side effects of slowing down Vaas' breathing, heart-beatings, and his process of thinking clearly, as he laid motionless on the metal bed in Dynamite's hidden base.
All the pirate lords were there, being called in to witness Vaas' withering, new form. Mickey arrived there as well, being shown the sights of Vaas she thought she'd never see him in, in years, or maybe in another life.
Vaas' mangled form made him look like... a true monster.
"Vaas' lower-jaw has been ripped right off of his face, and its unsalvageable to even reattach." Dynamite said, as he got out a sketch notebook to start illustrating something out. He made a quick sketch of Vaas' profile. He started drawing out his missing jaw.
Then, he flipped over to an empty page and started sketching out his entire body form.
"His right-arm has been bitten through, and is most likely unsalvageable to reattach as well. The bears most likely are eating it by now." Dynamite glanced at Vaas' swollen knee and leg. "His leg has been snapped in half, and the bone inside has been crushed, due to the bear's weight. I will have to amputate his entire leg, no question."
And finally, Dynamite stepped over to Vaas' comatose side to put a hand on his chest. "Hmm... seems as if the grizzly bear put some major effort into trying to crush Vaas' chest in, to kill him instantly. Luckily, his chest is still salvageable, but he'll have breathing problems for a long while now, until I can try pulling out his chest again. It pushed in too close to his organs at the moment."
The pirate lords heard every word, while Dynamite sketched out Vaas' body and face in his sketch book. They were all silent and completely awe-struck by what Vaas did to himself at the bear's territory. They were either still in deep confusion of what Vaas was thinking, or just unable to seriously put out any emotion of what they thought, considering that they were in utmost shock of his ordeal.
"So," Dynamite spoke up again, after a long, awkward silence filled the room, that he needed to break. "This procedure is going to take me... and entire month." He calculated in his head. The results shocked the pirates even more. "Eyes will be my assistant for the operation. We're getting new shipment of prosthetic body-parts coming in soon, so the new equipment will be used for Vaas' entire procedure." Dynamite then looked at every dead in the eye. "I want absolutely no one bothering us during this entire month. Understand?" He said sharply.
The pirate lords nodded firmly, with the following, "Yes."
"Get out." He shooed them out of the base. "Get out. And, don't come back until the eighth of next month. Is that amply clear to you?"
[What Were You Thinking?]
It's all my fault. Mickey sobbed to herself quietly, hiding herself upon the rooftop of her shack.
The rooftop was old and worn-down by tropical weathers, but, still sturdy enough to hold her weight alone.
She wrapped her arms around her legs, hugging them close to her chest, while hiding her face on her knees. All she could think of was Vaas' state of well-being, when she last saw him in that base with Dynamite. I don't understand! Vaas, this isn't like you, at all! Mickey screamed in her head, rocking her body back and forth slightly, with her mind in pieces, trying hard to put it all back together.
Mickey was right about that. Vaas going out to kill himself in such a way was nothing like his dark personality. He would have likely shot himself in the head once more, if he felt so suicidal to end his own life. Going out into the arms of blood-thirsty grizzly bears was something unthinkable of himself to do.
"Mickey!" Inside the shack, Mickey's radio walkie-talkie was screaming out in statics and a familiar voice on the other line. "Mickey, answer this call, at once."
Mickey climbed down into her window and jumped inside her place. The radio walkie-talkie was sitting on her vanity. The voice on the other line was not Jason, though. She hadn't heard from him, since he went to go rescue Keith. Instead, it sounded like Dynamite.
"Hello?" Mickey picked up the walkie-talkie to respond, pressing down the call button.
"You need to go visit Vaas' shack." Dynamite immediately instructed, confusing Mickey. "He told me right now that you need to go to his place, right at this moment."
Mickey's eyes widened. "I-Is Vaas talking?!"
"No. He's only mobile in his good arm, so he's writing down instructions to follow on a notebook. Right now, he's writing that you should go to his place."
"I want to see him!" Mickey immediately declared, marching out of her shack. "Can't I see him?"
"Still a no, milady." Dynamite sounded annoyed on the other line. She could also hear the rapid scratching sounds of a pen scribbling down fast onto paper. Was that Vaas? "Just do what Vaas is instructing, and get to his shack. Once you get there, signal me back. We'll discuss more then."
Mickey, as her heart sunk to the decline of being able to speak to Vaas, did as what Dynamite said, and started off to Vaas' shack. It was five miles far from Mickey's place, but she didn't mind the walking she had to do. Just the thought of Vaas hiding something for her to find was something incredible, and out of his own character, even more.
After a long while of walking, Mickey approached Vaas' shack, seeing that it was left untouched from any pirates presence, or anyone else's.
Inside, the shack was dark, and clamored with endless stacks of DVD cases, weapons, magazines of celebrity stories or gossip, and a giant television set in the back. Beside the set, there was dozens of different DVD players, VHS players, CD players, video game consoles, and whatever else electronically connected to the television set.
Even with that, the intense smell of mothballs and joss sticks hit Mickey's nostrils with familiarity and Vaas' original musk.
The windows were shut tight with iron screwed into the walls, and it was pitch black. Whatever Vaas was hiding, it was the utmost importance to keep it sealed off.
Mickey took the radio walkie-talkie from her belt strap and signaled Dynamite once more.
"I'm here. What's the big deal, Dynamite?" Mickey asked, stepping inside the shack.
"From what Vaas is telling me... You must find something hidden underneath a pile of DVD cases. He says you might know which one he's talking about."
Mickey took a look-around the shack room, and spotted a familiar stack of DVD cases, out of the rest of the others clamoring the room.
This particular stack of film titles was his personal mother-load of all the horror and action films he collected for the past two years. Most of the film titles starred popular actors, such as Clint Eastwood, Anthony Hopkins, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and whoever else was an aspiring figure in the horror-and-action movie history stream.
"I've got a clue." Mickey softly said into the walkie-talkie speaker lastly, before strapping it back to her belt to start digging under the DVD collection.
Underneath the dozens of DVD cases and film titles, Mickey finally came across a hidden, metal box. The box was small, that looked as if it were unbreakable. There was a keyhole in the middle of the closed box's mouth, indicating that it would only open with a key, instead of a combination. The metal shined lightly in the dark, and it was cold from sitting in the shadows for too long.
Mickey brought back the radio walkie-talkie to her lips. "Dynamite, I found something interesting in a pile of DVD cases. Its a metal box, with a lock on it."
On Dynamite's end, Mickey could suddenly hear a commotion of something making loud noises of something struggling. "Vaas! Calm down, dammit!" Dynamite shouted at Vaas, with the sounds of what was Dynamite trying to restrain Vaas from falling out of the stretcher. "Eyes, give him another supine-shot. I'm still speaking to Mickey." After a moment of silence, Dynamite came back. "Vaas' next instructions are to retrieve a key to that box. He wrote that it should be hidden in his shack still. The only hint he gave me for its location is Western drama. I'm supposing a movie case, but he didn't specify on which one."
"Oh!" Mickey's mind clicked. "I know exactly which one he's talking about!"
Mickey went through the DVD case pile again, and eventually found a film title called "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly", starring Clint Eastwood. Out of all Clint Eastwood films, this particular one was Vaas' treasured favorite. Mostly because he thought Eastwood was a complete "badass" in this certain film.
Inside the case, the DVD was there, and so was a silver key.
"I found a silver key!" Mickey screeched into the radio walkie-talkie, most likely blowing out Dynamite's hearing.
"Oh-fucking-kay!" Dynamite shouted back. "Get to Vaas' convoy, nearby that strip joint. You remember the convoy, yeah? The one with a dozen television sets inside?" He asked, while a clicking, metallic sound was going on in the background. It sounded like scissors being used.
"Yeah, yeah. I remember." Mickey nodded her head.
"Good. Now, grab all the pirate lords and Vaas' crew to get them together at that convoy. Bring that box with you. Vaas says everything you need is in there."
[The Kingly Ploy]
The convoy was a giant metal room, full of pipes decorating the walls, and chain-linked fences. The interior reminded most of a small warehouse, actually.
As Dynamite described earlier, the metallic room was cluttered with dozens of television sets stacked everywhere. There was a tall stack of television sets sitting in the midst of the room, all portraying a giant screen all together. Smaller television sets were overhead as well, behind another chain-linked ceiling, that were being held up with iron chains. They were all running with static quietly humming in the room.
"What're we doing here?" Jackal looked around the convoy, not impressed with the dozen of television sets collected in one room.
"Vaas had something planned for us." Mickey answered, walking up to the stacks of television sets, with the metal box in her hands. "He said this box had everything we needed to use, while he was gone."
"Is it a present?!" Ronnie couldn't help but cheer, standing closely to Mickey's side to overlook the metal box.
"It's... something." Mickey didn't know what could be inside the box. But, at that moment, they were going to find out.
The convoy was not large enough for Vaas' pirate crew to fit indoors. Some piled into the convoy room, while some had to stand outside, and overhear everything through the booming speakers of the dozen-television sets.
Mickey reached into her pocket and brought out the silver key. She inserted the key into the box and unlocked it with a clicking sound. When the surface popped open, the pirate lords and pirates gathered right behind Mickey's back to look down at what was inside. They were clamored right behind her, like a pile of cubs stacking on top of each other, waiting for whatever to happen next.
Inside the box, there was a treasure trove of cassette tapes, VHS tapes and more folded-up papers inside. One particular tape sat on top of the rest, that read "One".
"Let's pop this one into the player." Mickey took the first VHS tape and walked over to the lone VHS player, on top of the stacked television sets. When she inserted the tape into the player, it processed it, and the screens immediately showed an image of Vaas' face.
"Surprise, surprise."
"Waiting, as I'm wanting to. Speaking, as I'm spoken to. Changing, to your point of view. Fading, as I follow you. A boyish notion, a fail emotion, these words are spoken, despite my love. A fool's devotion was set in motion. My eyes are open now!" ( - The Birthday Massacre).
More to come, in the nexty-next chapter. Derp-a-herp.