Sorry for my absence!! It was a bit hectic. I was busy job hunting, turning 20 and ending art contests on deviantart.
Anyways, I'ma pick up where I left off. Red has been rescued and Mona is suffering from blood loss, shock and exhaustion... she isn't doing so hot after two short but bloody battles. Dib and Maize may be working together, but for entirely different reasons. And Mona and Maize are about to go rescue Purple, who despite his predicament, is having a lot of fun with his jailer...
the title of this chapter stands for As Annoying As Possible.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Grorl was already being stretched to his breaking point. He was a MEDIC not a jailer or a slavedriver! It was an honor for Chi to consider him "worthy" enough to guard one of the Almighty Tallests, but this... was... ridiculous.
A cloth block bounced off the side of his head and he growled, baring his teeth and resisting the urge to get up and scream. Someone had thrown several children's toys from the smeetery for Purple to keep himself "occupied" with. So far, he'd only seen fit to occupy himself by throwing everything at Grorl.
"Heeellooooooo..."
Grorl ignored the purple-eyed tallest and dug around in his medic bag for something, ANYTHING to distract him. Heart scanner, brain scanner, bandages, syringes, bio-tape, nano-bots... nothing particularly entertaining.
His hands brushed up against his energy gun and a twisted smile disrupted his face. Perfect.
He pulled it out and checked the energy gauge on the little red bubble on the side; 3 bars out of 12. Not good.
WHY??
Growling again, he turned his back on Purple and felt something else bounce off one of his antennae. Grating his teeth now, he shifted his weight in his seat and began arranging and re-arranging his medical instruments on the gray table in front of him.
The entire building was drab and gray. Cement walls and ceilings, impenetrable bars on all the cells and uniform baren offices every few feet of cellblocks.
Syringes next to his heart scanner, bio scanner next to that, bio-tape meant for stitching open wounds next to it, then the dormant nano-bots for healing minor wounds... he felt another cloth block bounce off the back of his head.
"HEY!! What'cha doin'? Huh? huh? huh? huh? huh?"
"Rrrr... ignore him, Grorl, just... ignore him..." he muttered to himself. His butt itched; he scratched it absentmindedly.
"Hey!! What's the matter, your butt itchy? huh? huh? huh?"
Enough was enough.
He got to his feet and threw himself against the bars of Purple's cage, not really caring that this was a tallest and he could be executed for assault later on. He was on Chi's side, no matter how much he hated her.
Purple jumped. He hadn't been expecting to get a reaction as explosive as this.
Grorlw reached through the bars and caught the sleeves of his tallest's uniform and pulled him close. They were eye to eye now.
"ENOUGH!! I don't want to be here ANY more than you do, so just... STOP!" he screamed at him.
Purple flinched slightly at the onslaught of spittle and the deranged medic released him.
Grorl straightened his tunic out and swept one bare hand over his antennae. He sighed and regained his composure.
He expected Purple to be at least a little bit cowwed. But all he found his outburst worthy of saying was, "wow, you need to get a breath mint or something, you know? huh? huh?"
Grorl growled under his breath again and decided to put headphones on. Maybe some good Irken music would calm his frayed nerves.
They didn't have ears, persay, but the music was heard as sound through his antennae all the same.
He wasn't normally such an impatient, fiery-tempered person by nature. But Chi's choice of battles was getting worse and worse. Oh, if only she didn't have him by the squeedilyspooch... if it weren't for her imminent threat of blackmail, he'd be gone, back to fixing and reparing PAKs and bandaging normal Irken Elite soldiers rather than the grumpy, silent drones Chi employed.
As the music played, he found Purple's voice easier and easier to tune out. Even the occasional human child's cloth block bouncing off various parts of his body was easy to ignore.
SSSSSSSSSSS
Mona was running on autopilot. She was exhausted, both physically and mentally. Her belly had started bleeding again, even after the improvisions Benn, Doom and Gij had managed to inflict.
She stumbled as she buried the last body beneath the snow. With any luck, the wolves and other wild carnivores would take care of the rest and by summertime, the bones would be washed away.
Her work finally finished, she took a few steps towards the clearing that would lead back to Dib's little kiddie fort and stumbled again. She was lightheaded and dizzy, but otherwise she felt fine. She could beat this. Nothing mattered. Just get the other Elites out of hiding, beat that walking asparagus to a pulp and win back Earth. Not a problem.
She fell.
She tried to get up but was annoyed at her legs when her thigh muscles refused to cooperate.
"Come on..." she muttered. She was an Elite Commander. No longer human but not really truly Irken either. The control brain had given her this rank for a reason, and not because she was weak. She was not weak. She had made some mistakes, yes, but in her mind, betraying the human race had been a much needed improvement. The only thing she had to fix in this moment right now was to get her legs back in gear and keep walking.
The new clean uniform she wore was again bloodsoaked and filthy, wet and a little torn. She was freezing. It had taken her a little under two hours to finish her grisly job. A lot of the dead had had guts strewn hell-to-breakfast and more than a few were missing most major limbs. It had been more than a simple cleanup. The only evidence of the battle of Lake Michigan now were the many green and red bloodstains in the dirty snow and wasted machine parts from the hover runners.
From a distance, she heard voices. Her antennae perked up at a familiar voice. Maize. And Red. She was getting used to having extra apendages on her head now. She could move them independantly of one another and they were extra sensitive.
She called out and managed to get to her knees and hands. Her hands were long-since numb and were starting to go blue. She was freezing. If there was one thing the Irken uniforms were not was warm.
She heard an answering call and very soon Maize, Red, Benn, Doom, Dib and Gij burst into the clearing.
Maize and the other immediately went to her side but Red just stood there, stunned. She looked like she had been through a black hole and back out again just to go right through a supernova. Her hair was almost gone on one side of her head, singed by a laser weapon of some sort and her uniform was torn, bloody and sopping wet. In some places, dirt and mud had been ingrained into the fabric.
The others helped her to her feet and brought her nto one of the cabins on the edge of the frozen lake. The entire clearing was surrounded on mosrt sides by snow-covered pine trees. The smell of blood marred the otherwise pine-fresh crisp air.
Red followed them all into the long, low cabin and closed the door. It was far from Irken but all the same, kind of cozy. There was what looked like a fireplace against the far wall. A fireplace in a building made of wood... ludicrous. There were fur rugs on every inch of the floor and several chairs lay here and there. Everything was covered in a mile of filth. Dirt, dust, puddles of water from melted snow, probably dripped from tired boots.
Elite Pilot Benn picked up several chairs and wiped them off with a nearby rag so they could all sit. Mona looked relieved to sit someplace and the Elite medic, Gij immediately set upon her with bio-tape and bandages.
"Okay... we should stay here until Mona is well enough to go with Maize and get Purple free," Red began.
Benn raised his hand tentatively.
"Um, sir? If I might... we may not have to wait for the commander to get well again... I know where I can borrow a PAK, temporarily, you know... if she can utilize it for the time being, she should be fine," he suggested.
Red thought about it. War was not a time to be picky.
"Yeah, sure, whatever," he gave in.
Benn rushed out the door of the cabin and vanished from sight, presumably to go get a PAK for Mona. Where he would get it was anyone's guess.
Red kneeled down next to Mona and examined her wound closer; the edges were very red and infected-looking, and although it had stopped bleeding, it looked painful. He couldn't see the gray-red ropes of intestine he'd seen the last time her guts were hanging out. He also noticed that although horribly pale and stretched-looking, her skin had a deeper green tinge to it than before.
"Uh... sir? My tallest? Um, there's a rumor going around those of us in hiding that... well... you've fallen in love," said Gij timidly, as if afraid to make him angry.
Mona looked up at the medic with a pitying look.
"No... I fell in love with HIM... ow..." she grunted.
She was covering up for him so he wouldn't be executed. He felt a surge of affection quite unrelated to the fact that he had deactivated the hormone suppressors in his PAK.
"Oh... you could get in trouble for that..." muttered Gij.
"Mind your own business!" Mona snapped viciously.
Gij shut up, an annoyed look on his face.
Gij got back to work on Mona's ruined torso and everyone else was silent as they waited for Benn to get back.
SSSSSSSSSSSSS
Benn, meanwhile, was busy trying not to get shot or stuck on the wrong end of a prod stick.
So far, sneaking and diving behind buildings and the occasional snowbank had proved very effective, but Chi's blue-clad troops were everywhere. He was used to piloting SHIPS, not playing commando trooper... that was for the Elite soldiers. Every branch of the Elite was trained in basic fighting and weaponry tactics, but still... he'd rather fly.
Up ahead was the jail Tallest Purple was being held in. He couldn't get the tallest out on his own... but the thing he was looking for was in there.
He decided to chance it and made a mad dash for the door, hoping against hope that no one would see him.
No one did.
He slipped inside, quiet as a shadow, and immediately spotted it. Chi's creepy medic was watching over Purple and it had become quick knowledge that he liked PAKs.
Right away, he saw a large duffel-type bag. He unzipped it and hoped the medic wouldn't round the corner and catch him.
Sweet monkey livers... the bag was FILLED with not just extra medical equipment but layer upon layer of PAK parts. Wires, cords, plugs, switches, vials of various hormone supression fluids, metal outer shells, inner plastic bubbles to protect the insides, spare mechanical spider leg attachements, a couple jet packs and, best of all, the basic necessities of life support systems.
Wow... Chi's medic really was a criminal... some of these PAK parts were definitely impossible to find anywhere except the blackmarket trade... he didn't hesitate.
He pulled a spare bag out of his own PAK and began piling things in, metal shells, plastic, spider legs, life support... all the necessities of a normal PAK.
He heard footsteps hurrying his way and zipping both bags up, he got the hell out of there.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Just when they were wondering where on Earth Benn was, he came bursting in, his sides heaving, out of breath and panting. He wordlessly handed the bag to Red and he opened it. PAK parts... all they needed and more.
He quickly laid everything out on one of the tables and began assembling parts, helped by Benn, Gij and Doom. Dib and Maize stood by and watched and Mona just sat there, unaware of what installing a PAK meant.
Red threaded two thin steel cables through small holes in the flat side of an outer shell and hooked them into the brain of all PAKs- a small impenetrable bubble with stuffs unknown inside. It was artificial intelligence and life support for the PAK itself.
It took them about ten minutes to put everything together. The end result was a normal-looking PAK with dark blue dots instead of the standard pink. Red had thought it appropriate, considering the color of the rest of her uniform.
He advised the others to help her stand and warned her to brace herself. She already had two holes in her body; he was about to make two more.
In pretense of trying to line it up with her spinal cord, he leaned in and whispered in her ear.
"I'm sorry for this... it's gonna hurt."
Without warning her, he jammed the PAK against her backbone. Immediately, the pronged cables he'd intalled shot out and dug themselves into her flesh, penetrating muscle, fat and tissue to connect with her spinal cord.
She cried out and fell over, catching herself on her hands and knees.
The blue dots on the PAK flashed and a mechanical voice said, "SCANNING VITAL FINCTIONS."
As they all watched, the PAK began healing what was wrong with her. The wounds in her belly and back started to close up and any scratches she had disappeared, healed from within by microscopic nanobots.
Slowly, she got back to her feet. She certainly looked healthier and she no longer looked so tired or shocked.
"So now I really am one step closer to being Irken, aren't I?" she asked.
Silently, he nodded.
"So... how do I use this thing?" she asked, looking over her own shoulder at the unfamiliar PAK.
Red shrugged.
"You just... WANT to. Think about it. That PAK is an extension of your own body. Think of it as... a fifth limb," said Maize, smiling at her mother.
Mona managed a small smile back and appeared to think a moment. Seconds later, four mechanical spider legs shot out of her new PAK and lifted her into the air.
Eyes wide, she looked shocked.
"This... is actually pretty cool," she said, lowering herself.
She retracted the spider legs and tried a force field. It worked flawlessly.
"More like a swiss army knife," she corrected Maize, smiling. The novelties of the mechanical saprophite seemed to have cheered her up considerably.
"Hey... could I fly?" she asked slyly.
In reply, Gij activated her jet pack and hovered three feet off the floor. Mona soon followed suit and a grin broke out across her face. She was making a very pretty Irken commander, not yet permanently scarred like the rest of them.
She made her way back to the floor and looked at Maize, whos head only came up to the top of her boots. Maize smiled and gave her a thumbs-up. Mona nodded, understanding.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get Purple and kick Chi's skinny ass!"
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Not much happened here except a more indepth look at Benn (at first intended to be a cameo) and Grorl. Mona got a pAK. PLEASE REVIEW!