"What do you mean, "a new way of life," you're just trying to crown yourself king of the multiverse!" Michael spat, furiously, as he tried to get his hands free.
"No, Michael, I'm trying to carry out what your mother died for. If you could just understand-"
"I understand what you're doing, it's NOT GOOD! And to think mother died for this. I think she deserved what was coming, if that were the truth."
"Michael! We're only trying to help!" Amber protested, thinking it would faze her furious brother.
"Help YOURSELVES! You're not carrying out this plan. If I have to stop it myself-"
A painful, adrenaline and rage produced punch from his father shut Michael up relatively quickly.
"You be quiet! You aren't going anywhere, or I'll kill you mysel-" Then he stopped and realized what he just did. "...oh my… Michael-"
Michael looked back up at the two in front of him, his blood boiling.
"Mother died for an unjust cause. And you expect me to. What a waste of life."
And then Amber jerked awake, breathing heavily.
The base lights were turned off, all the agents were asleep. Amber shook her head.
It's just a dream- just a dream. Michael's gone- he's gone. Don't do this again. Remember the breathing drills, breathe in- out- in- out….
Every time Amber tried going back to sleep, that same dream played out. So she didn't sleep. Instead, she went to the lounge and made herself a nice little midnight snack. THEN she fell asleep, on the counter.
Footsteps traveled down the hall, but no visible person made them. A glowing silhouette of a short-ish figure snuck up behind Amber, then grabbed the cup of water she'd fallen asleep beside. It sat still for a second, before dumping the cup's contents onto her face, waking her up instantly. As she woke up, the figure sat the cup on the counter, sideways.
"What the hell?!" Amber cried, "Can I get any sleep?! Why does everything torture me, I just want some damn shut eye, is that all I can ask?!"
"Not while I'm around." A hollow voice growled, from behind her.
Luigi walked in, rubbing his eyes.
"Amber, what the heck are you doing- OH MY GOD!"
The figure vanished before Luigi could do anything.
Luigi ran over to Amber.
"What are you doing out here?"
"Trying to lull myself to freaking sleep. But not even my conscience wants me to sleep." Amber complained.
"I- uhh… I'd hate to frighten you, but that isn't your conscience, that is a ghost." Luigi corrected, "You're being followed by a ghost."
"I don't believe in ghosts."
"I've been assaulted by ghosts countless times. I know what a ghost looks like. THAT, was a ghost. But it's following you…?" Luigi questioned.
"Why would it follow ME, I didn't do anything!"
Luigi shrugged.
"Are you sure? This one doesn't seem very upset with your actions."
Amber scoffed.
"It's probably hostile. Can ghosts give people nightmares?"
Luigi shook his head.
"No. Unless it's somebody's ghost, in which it can do probably countless things. I've seen that too, dead people's ghosts can alter reality if they really wanted to. But only to an extent… but that's only from MY universe!"
"Then it isn't Michael. I'd at least like to THINK it was Michael, but nope. It's probably some Gamma lackey I accidentally got killed."
"No, but if it appears again." Luigi reached for his bag, pulling out a green flashlight. "Hit the sucker with this."
"What's that?"
"A very powerful strobe light that freezes ghosts caught in its path. Just don't blind yourself with it." Luigi yawned, "And… don't let the nightmares get to you. It's only an illusion, none of it is real. It's all just an illusion, do-"
"Okay, I get it."
"Okay… I'm gonna go back to sleep… are you sure you'll be fine?" Luigi asked again, precautiously.
"I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me, I'll be fine." Amber sighed, before watching Luigi walk off.
...is it really all an illusion…?
Amber sighed and went off to sleep again.
Wonder where Simon is…
Meanwhile…
"Hey." Said Travis, pausing to take a long sip of tea, "What happened to the MVPs? No army just disappears so suddenly like that- what was the reason?"
3 gave Travis a weird glance.
"What?"
"I'm asking you why the MVPs disbanded. A freaking army doesn't just disband without something happening." Travis repeated.
"They died." 3 replied, bluntly. "Your old friend detonated the MVP base and killed everyone but 32 people, which isn't even an eighth of the MVPs there before the blast."
"One Gamma mission, we accidentally left Billy inside of an exploding cave. Turns out, he actually lived buried under several tons of rubble for three days. He was MAD when we came back to dig out his corpse and found him alive." Travis paused to chuckle, "That was his first mission."
"What did you do, before the MVPs interjected, anyway?" 3 asked, curiously.
"Stole stuff. Like, DUMB stuff. I don't know why it gave Omega satisfaction to steal the spire off of Peach's castle, to which the dissatisfaction probably led Omega to pick a fight with MVPs and we began to mess with MVP bases."
"So…. he began a war… because he was BORED?"
"Yup." Travis sighed, "Nearly died doing something dumb because my superior was bored and picked a fight. Seemed like my dream job, at the time."
"Wow. It's really surreal to hear your side. I thought you were just plain old insane, no thoughts, kinda guy."
Travis smirked, a little.
"No, no, I had… thoughts. Just not like yours. I mean that in… several ways."
Travis made a confused squint, promptly.
"Definitely not like yours."
That's…
3 gave Travis a smirk.
"What are you alluding to there, buddy?"
"...never mind." Travis turned and moved a little from 3 for a second. He sipped his tea again and startled a little when he noticed 3 right beside him again.
"So, how'd you REALLY escape the void?" 3 asked, trying to change the current vibe.
"Uhh… I just learned to teleport, literally. Just initiate the jump, run really fast, make sure there aren't any distractions and… you're in a new place. It took me three years to learn that."
"You literally just teleported. Like, nothing extravagant?"
Travis shook his head.
"Nope. Just blinked, ran, and vanished. You were expecting me to go on some dumb quest to learn the sacred PSI Teleport, I literally just had a fever and then realized I could teleport."
"I mean, I at least went on a short walk to go learn something new from the person that invented it… you just learned it from a fever!"
"Yup. Hurt like hell too." Travis squinted again. "And I also learned some… other tricks. Like telepathy… which is self explanatory. All I really need is eye contact… want me to use it on you?"
"No-"
"Too bad, I did that as soon as we saw each other."
3 recoiled, nervously.
"Wh-what?"
"Oh, it's not much, I can see that you're the… inattentive type. Even though I doubt that I needed telepathy to weed THAT one out." He smirked. "Well… you DID take the time to think about how you're wearing that sweater I said I thought was cute. That you don't ever wear other than the single case that I show up."
Travis looked back to 3, who had the sweater tied around her waist.
"O-OH, this sweater! I do wear it in other places! I wore it to-"
"That surprise birthday party. That was mine." Travis interjected.
"No, that was MY party!" 3 protested.
"You scheduled the party and got high halfway through. Something you're hiding from me?"
3 squinted.
"I would NEVER keep secrets. Nope."
Travis laughed.
"You scheduled that same party a whole week in advance and you said you had a funeral to attend to, which was lying AND keeping secrets."
"Okay, what's your point?!"
Travis opened his mouth to speak, then stopped.
"I forgot what we were talking about. What was I saying?"
"N-nothing."
"...must not have been important. Also," Travis began, in a quieter tone, "that sweater looks cute on you. Especially when you wear it like that."
"R-really?" 3 quickly corrected herself, "I- I mean, I knew that, I always look good."
"Sure you do." Travis faked.
"You mean that, right? Like, you aren't playing with me?"
Travis glanced off to his side, then back to 3.
"Nope."
"Oh, okay then."
As Travis turned to leave, he glanced back and flashed a smile.
"See you around."
A few minutes later…
Travis literally skipped home that night.
I didn't even have to do anything, she just trusts me!
He kicked open his apartment door.
And what's this about continuing MVP work?
He swung open the closet and pulled out his old Gamma gear.
I'll have to get in on this!
With the MVP squad…
Amber glanced toward 3, as she entered the lounge.
"What are you doing up at this time?" 3 asked.
"Trying to get my life together." Amber replied, lethargically, "Even though it's still falling to pieces."
"Well, what's wrong?"
"A lot. Especially in the-"
A loud crash stopped both of them.
As they investigated, both of their mouths dropped.
"Travis?!" Both of them cried, incredulously.
"Owww…" Travis groaned, as he stood from the pile of MVP gear, "Not the vest! Now it smells like rust and sweat!"
Amber reached for the nearest blunt object, a wrench, and held it up.
"You have FIVE SECONDS to explain what the heck you're doing here before I concuss you like I did that one time!"
Travis's attention quickly switched to Amber.
"Woah, woah, calm down for a second, okay? I was just following Aria here,"
Amber looked around.
"Who?"
Travis pointed to 3.
Amber's eyes went wide.
"Wait, THAT was your name?"
"No." 3 replied, bluntly.
"It's a long story," Travis sighed, "but I'm following your friend here,"
"You led him here?" Amber turned to 3.
"No. How'd you even get here?"
Travis smiled.
"I told you, I initiated the jump and I ran. Simple as that! You were thinking about your MVP task while I was around you, remember? And I read that!"
3 smiled, nervously.
"S-so you DID find something…"
Amber pinned Travis to the wall.
"Explain. Why are you here?!"
"Listen, I don't have anything to do anymore. If I go back to serial killing, a single thing gets to the media and SHE will find me!" He pointed to 3, who waved back. "So what do I do with my life, right? Well, you guys have something to do, so I want in!"
Amber began to laugh.
"YOU? After lying and cheating and killing for all those years?"
"Yup."
Amber sighed.
"Do you even know what we're doing?"
"Yup."
Amber turned to 3, who just shrugged, then turned back to Travis.
"Fine. We're gonna be looking for some sorta drive thingy and… and…" Amber yawned. "I'm going to sleep."
"So… do I just, like, chill out here?" Travis yelled, ultimately ending up ignored. "O...okay then…"
Amber stopped walking when a weird thought entered her head.
He teleported… he tore through the multiverse to get somewhere… like that one signal… was he the one who killed Michael?
Amber shook her head.
I don't see a killer in those eyes anymore. He has to be telling the truth.
The disant beep of the cardiogram lulled Amber to sleep.
In the "morning…"
Amber and 3 left to grab something to eat, while L and Brittany stayed behind to monitor Alph. Travis just left.
Another loud crash made Luigi nearly choke on his drink.
"What was THAT?" Luigi mumbled to himself, before slowly moving toward the portal room.
Loud stomping echoed down the hallway, which led Luigi to proceed with caution. Luigi hid around the nearest corner and listened.
A gloved hand grasped Luigi's neck.
Luigi, in retaliation, kicked the person away, causing them to lose their grip and stumble back.
Luigi pointed a gun at them.
"How'd YOU get here?!" He gasped.
Marco stood a few feet from Luigi.
"Listen, I'm not here to cause a whole war. But I'm not leaving without that blue-haired twerp."
"You mean Alph? Sorry, but he's with us, if you're worried." Luigi reassured, whilst also keeping his finger on the trigger.
"He's never going to wake up if I don't help him." Marco sighed.
"How'd you know he was still asleep…?"
Marco squinted.
"Because…" She paused, clearly stumped.
"You mean to tell me you have NO reason to be here…?"
Marco squinted at Luigi.
"I can't explain my complications without losing you in the first sentence."
"Then you're going home empty-handed."
"Don't make me do this." Marco sighed.
Neither of them moved.
"Fine," Marco began, maliciously, "I'll have to do this the hard way."
oh nooooooooooo
so, lol, there's an apparition in the building. It haunts that building now. Is it Alpha? Well... we'll find out.
Travis continues to get involved. Is it safe to say he can be trusted?
Find out next time, on DRAGON BALL Z- Er... The MVPs: Season 3!