Far Cry 5: The Collapse
Chapter 30: Call Out
The sun was getting close to setting on the county and Captain Foley was wrapping up things with the NEST team leadership. He didn't know how to feel about the news on the nature of nuclear weapons this cult had developed, but still hearing the numbers go from kilotons to triple digit megatons caused him to feel a baseline level of fear and desire to quickly storm out of the school and secure that third missile.
But he had served long enough to suppress such urges and now was politely 'hurry up and waiting' for the big wigs in DC to decide what to do as so often was the case. He looked around the converted gym and found Ramirez at work on the laptop he was issued organizing all the records that they had with the aid of Colonel Rook earlier that day pulled from the cult's bunkers.
"Got everything loaded Ramirez?" The Captain asked.
"Yes sir, two copies on two flash drives, the usual. I'm just looking through some of this footage... some of it is pretty brutal like 'worse than the usual shit we run into' brutal. This John Seed guy for example if he isn't beating, tattooing, or skinning people he's raping them." Ramirez grumbled.
Foley cocked an eyebrow. "The women?"
"Everyone. It seems like he got worse anytime after interrogating this one deputy. I think, it might be the woman who was with Roger." Ramirez said as he brought up a video showing John interrogating Hudson.
Foley growled. "So do we need to worry about this guy?" He asked.
"No, sir... get a load of this." the Sergeant said as he pulled up another video that now showed the unmistakeable bulky form of Rook restrained into a chair in the same room as Hudson and John.
"SAY IT YOU CULT WHORE! DO YOU SUBMIT TO 'THE COLLAPSE'?!" Roger roared over the speakers as he held John in his vice like grip.
"Holy... shit! I knew the Major was fucking strong but he crushed that guy's head like it was nothing!" Ramirez exclaimed as the video continued playing.
Foley was impressed as well but what happened next brought a small smile to him as he watched the woman kiss the Major the moment she was free.
"Well now we have proof that Major Rook is still even somewhat human." He said as his team mate rocked his head side to side before weighing in.
"She's easy on the eyes alright but between the time this video was taken and when we got here both she and the Major have... uh grown a bit." Ramirez finally said.
"Yeah I asked the Colonel about that earlier. This cult has this drug called 'Bliss' made from a local flower, apparently they used it as a base for what can be best described as a 'Super Solider' program though they call those that survive 'Saints'. The Major is the only one known to have survived the process. Most people that were exposed to anywhere near as much Bliss in the dose he received are either dead or might as well be given the brain damage." Foley said as he watched the video end with the two Deputy's leaving the interrogation room.
"Ok what about Deputy Hudson then? She's gained at least four inches compared to this video, I will admit I can see why Rook would be into that kind of girl though." The Sergeant chuckled.
"For a married man with a few kids you spend a lot of time looking at other women, you know that Ramirez?" Foley said as he looked at the multitude of other video files and word documents worth of cult reports on the computer screen.
"Hey I am only window shopping. You think I'm bad? My wife can't wait to talk my ear off about this guy or that guy when I get home. We both window shop and compare notes, it works for us." The younger man shrugged. "So what's the story with Hudson? Another one of these 'Saints'?"
"No more like high exposure over a longer amount of time with a high calorie diet to boot. At least that's the current educated guess. They would need some medical specialists to go over everything to even start guessing why what happened, happened in the first place. Most of the other locals are reporting losing fat and gaining muscle from the drug being in both the water and food. You've seen the Colonel running around like a man half his age supposedly because this drug is repairing his joints. Just more questions for the professionals after we figure out what we are going to do about the rest of this cult." Foley said flatly.
Ramirez sighed heavily. "Yeah I guess the brass hasn't come back to us on that matter."
"No. They haven't..." The Captain started to say when Dr. Niwa walked up towards them.
"Captain. Sergeant. I just wanted to let you know that we have been offered a meal at the local bar and grill by way of one of Grey's that works there. All of my people are either not interested or have already eaten but I wanted to ask if you or your men are interested." She said with a smile.
Both men knew though that she was just putting on a face for everyone else's sake. Word of the experimental nukes was gumming up the works in DC. You have those decision makers that thought that sending in more troops would force Joseph's hand and launch his remaining missile, of those men many had doubts that without knowing where that missile could be targeted at it would be an absolute guess as to where they needed to place any kind of anti ballistic missile systems which finding and deploying was a can of worms unto itself.
Foley suspected that both the Major and Colonel knew that this was a likely outcome but they had to both make the effort to give hope to the rest of the Resistance and there was always that chance that some brass in DC would actually move quickly on something.
"Yeah give me a few minutes and I'll see who's game." Ramirez offered as he extracted the flash drives from the computer and shut it off. He handed one drive off to his CO and tucked the other in one of the pouches on his plate carrier before leaving for the section of the gym set aside for the Delta team to bunk down in.
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In the main dock office at Drubman Marina Joey had somehow found herself loading AR and AK magazines with Grace, Jessica, and regretfully Adelaide at a folding table that the peggies had left setup. She suspected that it was Jessica's sacrifice to keep the blondes mind off of the death of her 'boytoy' and more importantly distract her from the work being done to further fortify the marina for the Resistance's use.
Of course Joey could have been fooled by Adelaide's consistent bemoaning of loosing her chopper after news that one of the Cougars that had been patrolling the conservatory blast zone near the remains of Nolan's Fly Shop had found the easily recognized remains of 'Tulip', Adelaide's beloved chopper that had been stolen by the cult and subsequently wrecked by the blast wave.
Eventually though the three women heard the last of the woes on the loss of 'Tulip' and had moved on Xander's sudden death.
"Those fucking peggies assholes, killing poor Xander. He wasn't the sharpest stick in the bunch true, but he was such a nice boy and that toned ass of his! God I'm going to miss grabbing that, oh and the goods up front! If there's one thing that is hard to find it's a man that has a dick bigger than his brain." She rambled on before finally sighing dramatically.
Joey was eying the pile of empty AR magazines to be filled and started picking up the pace if only to get away from Adelaide's bitching and ranting that much sooner. She noticed that across from her Jessica now was shoving rounds into her AK mags faster than she honestly thought possible but it was clear with the harshness of her movements she too was trying to get away from here. Beside her Grace was completely focused on her own allotment of magazines though her clearly clinched jaw showed her own stress levels were rising.
"Hey Hudson, sweetheart do you know if Roger is seeing anyone? He's gotten a hell of a lot bigger since I last saw him and I'm betting after all those years in the army he needs a woman in his life." Adelaide asked with a deceptively friendly smile.
'Keep your cool Joey, this is the same old game she has been playing for decades.' She told herself for the thousandth time in the last few seconds.
"Yes, Roger is already seeing someone. So I'm afraid that you'll have to look elsewhere for a replacement." She said coolly.
A look of legitimate shock crossed Adelaide's face. For all of her many faults and own personal ego there were two things in her life that were always true. First: No one tells her what to do. Second: No one stands between her and her dreams, in this case Roger.
'Oh fucking hell. Addie you giant fucking whore you are not seriously going to try and go after Roger standing right fucking beside me!' Jessica thought angrily as Adelaide continued.
"Ooooh really now?" The blonde woman said. "Now that is a bit of a shocker considering how shy and standoffish he was when he was just a boy. I thought I heard that he had only just come back so unless he brought a girl with him it has to be a local girl." She continued.
She sighed heavily and against her better judgment went on the offensive. "Yes Adelaide it is a local girl, that lucky girl being me. Now I would hope and ask that you would kindly cancel any plans on going after Roger."
Instantly she knew that going on the offensive likely was a mistake as it only managed to pour blood in the water and gave Adelaide reason to hone in on her as the smug look on her face made clear.
"You? Sweetheart what in God's good name do you think you have to offer to a walking God among men like Roger?" Adelaide huffed.
"Adelaide..." Jessica started saying but was cut off by the other woman.
"Jessica please, for once stop and think what is best for your son!" She said before turning back to Joey.
"Hudson be honest with yourself, why would a hunk of man like Roger go after the equivalent of little girl who probably hasn't felt the warmth of a man before? Boys only go after girls until they realize inevitably that they want a real woman that will see to their needs. I'm guessing if you fell for Roger then even as inept of a conversationalist he likely still is then your own bar must be damn near the ground for even him to able to pass it." Adelaide said leaning over the table.
Joey did her best to let the woman's words slide off her as she thought of a comeback. "Adelaide... you seriously have no idea what kind of man Roger is. You think he would waste time saying more than the bare minimum to someone like you whose little more than a walking talking waste of his time?" She barely managing to contain her rising anger.
Adelaide's laughter could only really be described as closer to a cackle than a laugh. "Oh sweet baby Jesus. Hudson sweetheart you've fallen for the oldest trick in the book, the good old 'I feel like I can open up to you' line. Hell honey I fell for that line back with Hurk Sr.! He paid big time in the end of course and I can't fault you if that is your long term plan with Roger but I think you are too much like your own mother to think that... pragmatically."
Joey tossed down her last loaded AR magazine on table and stood to leave glad to be done with both the task and soon Adelaide. "Fuck you Drubman. I know where I stand with Roger and I feel perfectly safe in saying that no matter what the fuck you try to get your claws in him you'll only manage to try his patience and believe me when I tell you this you irredeemable whore, if you do manage to harass him to the point that he runs out of patience you may very well get the same treatment that John got."
She turned to leave but only got a few steps before she turned around to deliver one last counterblow.
"Oh and Adelaide?" She said in her own mocking tone. "I can speak from experience when I say that you are right about one thing. Roger's dick is bigger than his brain, in fact considering just how big his brain is, his dick is big enough that if you even managed to get him to bed." She paused to punctuate her last statement that tiny bit more. "That he would gut even a overused and blown out whore like you like a fucking fish."
That last line finally slapped a shocked look across Adelaide's face as Joey walked out of the office and slammed the door behind her hard enough to crack the window pane that made up its upper half.
Grace was the next to get up now having finished her allotment of magazines to fill.
"She isn't lying that's for sure." She said over her shoulder as she too left.
When the door finally shut the old blonde woman was snapped out of her shocked state.
"That... that fucking little hussy! Thinking that she can talk back like that. I thought Rebecca raised her better..." She exclaimed before the sound of Jessica getting up and walking briskly towards the doorway caught her attention.
"Cat finally got your tongue Jessica? Witty back talk was always more your thing." She asked the greying redhead as the woman stopped and turned now letting her face the hard stare of the Rook matriarch.
"Witty back talk isn't what you need to hear right now." She growled. "So let me tell you point blank don't fuck with my son and Joey's relationship! Marcus and Earl held me back when you tried for years to get your claws in him so you could add his notch to your bed post, but I am not going to stay silent on this. Unlike you I actually care about my son's future enough to know that maybe for once in his life he can have as close to a normal relationship as possible."
Drubman smiled. "Already sounds like you doubt your son more than you doubted Marcus."
"Why do you fucking do it? Hell at your age the best you can hope to pick up is the bottom of the barrel weirdos and dumb asses like Xander." Jessica questioned.
"Fun, pleasure, and profit. All things that you hate to admit that you'll never experience, what being a boring old stick in the mud. So growl all you want, meanwhile I'm going to start thinking up of some new bedroom games that might tickle Roger's fancy." Adelaide shot back with a wide smirk.
"Careful Adelaide it's always the sticks in the mud that you happen to fall on." Jessica said with finality before she turned back towards the door.
'That's why you break off sticks before they become problems and you have been a problem for too long anyway.' Adelaide thought as she drew her pistol and the snapped the safety off.
Jessica froze when she heard the familiar sound of a 1911 safety being thrown. "So it's finally come to this. Can't say I'm surprised considering the state of things right now."
Adelaide smiled but didn't rise her gun from her side. "Peggie snipers are a thing and I doubt that the Sheriff will be able to do much of an exhaustive investigation. You really shouldn't have tried to ruin my fun again. No one friend, family, or foe gets in the way of me having a good time on my terms for long. Hurk Sr. strung me long enough to learn why it was such a bad idea to have exceptions to that rule."
She thumbed back the hammer as she raised the gun and Jessica spun and ducked low just as the first shot was fired as she also drew her Grach.
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The defenders and new residents of the marina had set to work to pull the remaining peggie boats ashore so they could be looked over in full to see if they were fit for repair and rebadgeing or just being turned into parts donors. It soon became clear though that while it took five men to pull a single boat ashore Roger could do it in a fraction of the time and effort much to the amusement and cheering from those watching.
"Ok guys the strong man show is over. Let's check these tubs out and see what we can do with them." He said as those gathered around him nodded with enthusiasm. He turned and looked back up at the surrounding marina and was in time to see Joey clearly storming out of the dock office and making for a bee line for the garage that Grace had found the dead cult war bear.
'Ok something's up and I have a sneaking suspicion at what it might be.' He thought.
He pressed his way out of the group of men gathered around him muttering an order to work on the boats and that he had something else to tend to. He had only managed to work his way up the stairs leading from the docks when he saw Grace march out of the dock office with a harder than average scowl across her face.
He pointed to where Joey had gone and Grace only nodded and turned to go in the opposite direction toward where the Resistance trucks where parked by the road. On her path he could see his father and the Sheriff walking and talking as well.
Satisfied that he and Joey wouldn't likely be immediately interrupted he double timed it back to the garage where he found Joey sitting on a crated up outboard motor across from the peggie war bear's corpse clearly deep in thought.
"If you want I'll leave you alone but I at least wanted to check in and make sure you were ok." He asked as innocently as he could.
Joey looked up at him in shock at his sudden presence but quickly avoided from making eye contact for too long. "Sorry Roger... just... shit." She stammered as she tried to find something to break the silence as he moved to sit beside her, the wood engine crate groaning under their combined weight.
He gently wrapped his arm around Joey and she naturally leaned into him. "I needed this after dealing with Adelaide." She said as her own arm wrapped around his back and pulled her deeper into him.
"Adelaide?" He said his voice turning harder with every passing second with his anger quickly following as his suspicion was confirmed.
"Yeah. The fucking bitch was already probing me about your relationship status after she had gotten past moaning about Xander. He's that guy that caught a round to the head when the peggies attacked in case you didn't know. So Drubman needles me a little more and I tell her you're with me now." Joey went on to explain.
"I'm guessing she wasn't pleased to hear that." He replied already feeling out what likely transpired.
"I even went so far as to politely ask her not to go after you. Didn't work of course and I should have known better than to directly challenge her like that, but anyway she proceeds to tear into me and question the idea that I even consider myself worthy of looking at you. Then there were all the 'You're just a little girl who fell for whatever sweet nothings from the first guy that looked at you.' and even questioning if I've never even been with a man before among the other comments she was using." She said now before adding one last bit.
"She even made the point of comparing me hooking up with you like how she did with Drubman Sr. you know get in, get married and maybe pop a kid or two out, then ream you out in divorce court. I know nothing she says is true but Goddamn is she good at planting self doubts."
Roger let go of Joey and rose to his feet. "Ok I'm not taking this shit." He said as he looked down at his girlfriend. "You are a thousand times the woman Adelaide could ever hope to be and unlike Dad I'm not going to be nearly as nice and polite about you having to endure this bullshit."
He stretched out his hand for her to take and pulled her to her feet and back into his arms. "You are the bar Joey. You are the woman I could never find a replacement in my heart for, only you fit that hole. I wasn't lying when I first said that and I'm not lying now. No matter what that old harlot does or says to me or you will change that. Now do you want to watch me talk and if needed pound some sense into Adelaide?"
"Hell yeah." She said finally flashing him a smile just as the sound of gun fire rang out.
.
Earl and Marcus had been going over the humanitarian aid list as they wondered the marina grounds letting the younger folks do the bulk of physical labor in the last hour or two of full daylight before the sun finally sunk behind the mountains.
Their conversation paused for a moment when Joey slammed the door to the dock office loud enough that the two men could hear the door window crack from even where they were standing.
"Ok something's got Joey ramped up something fierce." Earl said as Marcus nodded in cautious agreement before replying.
"I asked Jessica to try and distract Adelaide so we could fortify the marina without having to deal with Drubman's likely protests." Marcus said drawing a shocked look from the Sheriff.
"My God man... what did that cost you?" He asked.
"Nothing, but once this is over I am taking her on a two week vacation to wherever she wants to go. She understood why I asked her to do this but now I am getting the feeling something's going wrong. She must have asked Joey..." Marcus replied as they watched Grace now storm out of the office as well. "And Grace to join her and keep Addie's attention spread out instead of focused on her. Earl I think we might best served by making our way to the office now."
The lawman nodded as they started making their way toward the office. Grace passed by them clearly in as close to a 'huffed' state as either man had ever seen the sniper in, they also noticed Roger glance in their direction before jogging off likely towards where ever Joey had gone.
"Marcus, I think something's wrong..." He started to say when the sound of gun fire rang out from the office.
The two men rushed forward and he drew his revolver the moment he could clearly see Adelaide rapidly firing away with her 1911 in the direction of the doorway. He didn't bother to call out a warning, after all it wasn't like she could hear him most likely. He just lined up her upper chest in his sights and let loose a single 750 grain hyper compressed lead slug that clearly impacted Adelaide in the heart and punched a melon sized hole out her back ripping her spine apart.
Marcus roared in the office space with his own 1911 up and his eyes ablaze with rage, but it was for not as when he had opened the door it was in time to see the last moments of the bullet impact on Adelaide before she fell to the floor in a bloody heap.
He looked down where his wife laid breathing hard but otherwise unhurt.
"Jessica! Are you..." He started to say before she cut him off.
"I'm fine Marcus, the bitch just started mag dumping and I hit the floor before she could adjust. I figured she was about to run out right as I got my gun up." She said as she held a hand out for him to pull her up and into his arms.
Earl quickly followed by Grace came racing up guns at the ready when they came to the scene.
"I'm fine folks, I'm fine. I just finally pushed Adelaide too far and considering the... breakdown in law and order out here she figured that she could remove any opposition that got in her way of what she wanted." Jessica said as the sound of Roger and Joey vaulting through the same windows that the Judges had lept through at them earlier that very day announced their arrival.
"Mom! You ok?" Roger asked as he holstered his 1911 and rushed toward her.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm not used to being shot at but I'm not that easy to kill." Jessica joked.
Joey holstered her own sidearm and approached Drubman's body. She was starting to fight within herself about if she was the ultimate cause of what just happened when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't waste your pity on her Joey. I have been expecting something like this to happen for the last fifteen years, she never saw a man that she didn't want to go after and of course a envious snake like her only wanted what others had. Probably part of the reason why she never went after me, I was 'damaged goods' in her eyes." The Sheriff stated sagely.
She sighed quietly. "Honestly if she was willing to draw on Jessica she would have likely been willing to draw on me sooner rather than later. I wasn't planning on just sitting quietly on sidelines."
The Sheriff nodded as other men from the docks raced up asking about the gun fire and the story was passed around. Adelaide Drubman finally tried to murder Jessica Rook only to be killed by Sheriff Whitehorse as she was firing at Jessica.
Not surprisingly at all there were no tears and more than a few smiles around the marina at word of Adelaide's death such was the state of her reputation with the local population. Little care was given to the reaction to how Hurk Sr. would take this development but most believed that he would work tirelessly to reclaim all of her holdings that she had taken from him in the divorce.
Tears would likely be absent during the reclamation.
.
The sun now set behind the mountains, painting the evening sky in a dazzling array of reds, pinks, and orange tones with ever growing streaks of darker purples and blues. It was under such a beautiful display that the gathered Resistance members lined up for their evening dinner rations.
It had become habit since Fall's End had become the main hub for the Resistance for most people to take their meals elsewhere as the Spread Eagle couldn't hope to hold everyone but between Casey and several cooking stations setup at the local garage the people could at least get their food quickly enough and eat in the relative peace of where ever they were bunking down in. This centralization made it easy for Jerome to speak to the bulk of the population once he had the Dearborn's arrive in town with a flatbed cart attached to one of their tractors so as to give him a raised platform to speak from.
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Please lend me your ears!" He called out and sure enough he could see more and more people waiting in line for their meals looking to him.
"Please listen to me! I come to you tonight to urge you all to see reason. To look at what you have become and what you have become accepting of. I speak of the horrible acts of two days ago when Roger Rook murdered in cold blood so many defenseless children!" He said the last line drawing increasingly hard looks from the crowd.
"These were children! Though they maybe part of the cult they did not raise arms against us, these children are at worst misguided and have been lead astray by the lies and deceit of Joseph Seed and his family. They did not have to die. More so they didn't have to be brutalized so ruthlessly by Roger's acts." He continued as the crowd began to close in on the trailer to hear him better.
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Kim, Nick, and little Carmina sat at their usual both finishing their dinner when Nick noticed the crowd outside shifting away from the bar toward something else. He gently spread apart the window blinds as he saw Jerome up on a trailer speaking to the crowd. Off to the side were the Dearborn boys and their father all armed with various AR's and lever guns who given their place looking out over the crowd were clearly involved with whatever the Pastor was doing.
"Kim... stay here I'm going to see what Jerome is going on about." He said seriously as he got up out of the booth. He stopped and looked at his own rifle and stalled for a moment trying to decide if he would need it or not but eventually grabbed it and slung it across his back.
"Nick please be careful and don't start anything!" Kim pleaded as she watched her husband leave the bar. Mary May looked at the exchange before turning to one of the volunteers that helped her distribute meals during the rushes.
"I'll be back, just hold down the fort as best you can." She halfheartedly said now increasingly wary of what was going on outside. As she walked outside Boomer as always followed at her side taking on some of the same wariness of his mistress.
She and Boomer slowly pushed through the crowd her right hand slowly coming to rest on her 1911 on her hip.
Nearby Nick did much the same though he resisted to do more than tightly grip his rifle sling as he closed in on the Pastor.
.
Also nearby the three Delta Force soldiers and lone doctor pulled up to see the scene unfolding.
"Captain I don't like the looks of this." Martin said as he made sure that his rifle was ready and the safety was on.
Foley had to agree with Martin, a man speaking to a crowd with a handful of armed him flanking him. As they drew closer and he could hear some of what the man who he could now tell was a reverend or pastor of some sort was saying against the Major.
"Oh shit... Ramirez make sure if anything goes down you get Dr. Niwa to safety, don't worry about us you just get her back to the school." He said quietly turning to his man.
Ramirez nodded. "Yes sir. Should we call the Major?" He asked hopefully.
The Captain had to fight the urge to call this in but this was a local issue involving so far only local players, them getting involved was at best a calculated risk. That said calling in the Major might help mitigate that risk. He weighed everything for another moment before answering.
"Damn it... no but we will sit back and observe, if it looks like this guy gets these people to turn against the Major we call it in. I hope he still has friends around here though." He said finally.
.
"For too long we have accepted that we must tolerate being brutal to our enemies. Impaling their bodies along our roads and outside our outposts like barbarians! It was acts like these that have led us to cheer at the butchering of the innocent. But as far gone as we are we can still turn away and stop indulging in our wrath, to do that we must stop Roger Rook and remove him from any form of decision making within the Resistance. However let me be clear, I do not mean to harm him for he has indeed freed us from the cult and taken back much of our home and lands, but he has most certainly ran unchecked and unchallenged for too long. For that he must be stopped." Jerome finished his oration as he looked over the crowd trying to get a read on them.
There was a lot of uncomfortable shifting around as the people were forced to search their souls and face what they had done.
'They might just come around. We might just return...' Jerome thought before he felt a hard blow to the back of his head so great that he fell off the trailer and landing in a heap on the ground to the sounds of loud gasping from the crowd. He hadn't even had a chance to recover and readjust his glasses before he heard another much smaller impact in front of him and felt the distinct points of a spiked AR muzzle brake be pressed against his head.
The Pastor looked up along the rifle pointing at him and could only lay there in shock at just who had hit him.
"Miss Curie? What?" He struggled to ask as the denim and plaid clad woman with an angry pair of dark green eyes bored into seemingly his very soul.
"Math question. How many of our children have to die before a peggie child can be killed?" The small stature woman shouted loud enough for the whole crowd to hear her clearly.
"What?" He stammered again as she jabbed her rifle into his head again.
"How many... of our children... have to die... before a peggie child... can be killed?" She said slowly making every word as clear as possible. "It should be a simple question for you Pastor." She added with venom dripping from how she said his title.
He looked at the Dearborn boys and their father who was clearly shocked at the little school teacher's actions and was signaling for his boys to lower their weapons back down. He knew then that he wouldn't have much help from them against the little brunette staring him down now.
"W-well of c-course none of our..." He tried to say but even those few words sent her into a full rage.
"THEY DID DIE THOUGH! 1,934 CHILDREN DIED! Entire generations died!" She screamed. "Yet that isn't enough to warrant us striking back. Taking from the cult what they took from us and then some. Our children had futures, they had dreams, and all of that was cut short! What did the peggie children have? They only had 'The Father'. Yet you once more value their lives over our own children's lives."
"They could change! They could be lead back from 'The Father's' lies!" He said his voice peaking more than he would have liked as it gave away his desperation.
"And what about in the mean time?!" A man's voice came from the crowd soon revealed to be Nick as he stepped forward. "Those peggie kids might grow out of believing in the cult but until they do what will they do to our remaining children?"
The pilot's words caused a murmur to wash across the crowd as he continued and looked at Jerome.
"I don't want my daughter to have to ever meet a living breathing peggie! I want her to hear the stories of how neighbor helped neighbor, how we took up arms to defend what is ours, what is our way of life! And I want her to grow up hearing how her Godfather and Godmother drove Kim and I through all kinds of hell to reach the clinic so she could be born!" He said to a increasing number of nods and brief cheers from the crowd.
A handful of trucks pulled up nearby but no one paid them any mind as someone else stepped out from the crowd.
"Goddamn it Jerome... you didn't learn from the last time you pulled this kind of stunt or have you forgotten?" Mary May said as she now stood near him with Boomer softly growling at the Pastor as he laid on the ground.
"You made the same kind of big speech you're doing here about how taking in a 'defector' was all good and Christian like. That we should extend 'The hand of mercy' to this poor lost soul, just like you are claiming here and now." The blonde bartender continued. "But and if you already know please feel free to remind us!" She said turning briefly to the gathered crowd before turning back. "What happened? That poor lost little peggie turned out to be a murderer, an assassin and proceeded to try and kill me, Marcus Rook, Casey, and Dmitri! Only Boomer here managed to over power him at the right moment to save me and a second time to finally end the son of a bitch!"
"Woof Woof!" Boomer barked happily hearing the tale of his greatest moment and getting a head scratch once more for his bravery.
"But... but..." Jerome struggled to find the right words to counter her points but he had long since realized that at least as far as Jude was concerned he had made a terrible misjudgment in measuring the man's character and it had cost them nearly the lives of those in the Spread Eagle that day and more damning the communication device Marcus had pulled from that rogue spy. He would be lying to himself if he didn't say that he had had several long sleepless nights there after thinking about how many lives might have been saved if they had been able to be more proactive in calling for help.
Maybe even it would have possibly saved the lives of the children he was speaking about now. Just admitting that was more than a bit uncomfortable for him.
Mary May angrily drew her sidearm and pointed it at Jerome's head. "Considering just how far you are willing to go to worry over the lives of the peggies even in the face of everything everyone here as suffered through I think its becoming increasingly clear that you are a peggie yourself in all but name."
Jerome could only stare down at the nearly half inch wide barrel that was so close to his face that even in the dim light of the street lamps and light coming from the Spread Eagle he could make out the rifling cuts in the bore. Never in his life would he think he would be in this position let alone with sweet and kind Mary May on the trigger.
Mary May started to tighten on the trigger when a massive hand enveloped her own and a thumb now rested between the hammer and firing pin of her gun.
"Mary May... please don't do this." Roger asked softly sounding sad and pleading.
The blonde turned and looked at the giant beside her in shock. "But Roger! H-he... he's..." She tried to speak but couldn't get the words out.
"He is our friend Mary May. Our much beloved and kindhearted to a fault Pastor. I know you are angry at him for what I figure he was trying to do but you have to remember why he was driven to do this." He said as she moved to holster her gun and he let her do so. Once she was taken care of he looked to Miss Curie the teacher turned Resistance fighter whose screwed her eyes shut in resignation as she gently slung her rifle on her back.
Roger now looked at Jerome who was as expected shaking from the sheer amount of adrenaline he had in his system that had only begun to bleed off now that he wasn't on the brink of being executed. Assured that the Pastor wouldn't be moving anytime soon Roger with nary a grunt of effort swung himself on to the trailer so that the entire crowd could see him.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Friends, Americans, countrymen, lend me your ears!" He called out with a smile as he failed to resist taking the chance to have his own Shakespearean moment. "I would like to to layout before you the logic behind my actions so that everyone understands why I did what I did."
He could see now Joey, his parents, Grace, and the Sheriff press through the crowd with Captain Foley and his group coming up behind them. Around him the Dearborn men slung their weapons glad now that it seemed that they were no longer aligned against the local hero.
"From the very start of this war I have worked to take advantage of whatever weaknesses I could find within the cult both in terms of their militant acts and within their own mindset or culture. That meant showing them that their 'Father' couldn't save them from a painful and terrifying death no matter how strong their faith was." He paused when a voice cut through the crowd.
"He is not wrong! Many nights in the early days of the war were filled with members tallying up who had died and where their bodies were mounted. Many that had to drive between outposts would do everything possible to change their routes not just to avoid our own patrols and strong points but to also avoid having to see the mounted and picked apart bodies of men and women that they only saw the day before." Dmitri said stepping forward through the crowd toward the trailer.
"When I was still being held by John I could hear the whispers of cult members killing themselves instead of having to suffer at the hands of the Resistance or worse 'The Collapse'." Joey added while gesturing to Roger.
"Capping off our first campaign against the cult as we liberated Holland Valley was my commercial featuring John, whose ego couldn't ultimately handle the pressure I had placed on him." He continued as Joey grinned and fought to keep herself from giggling.
"All of this was to take advantage of the cult's own beliefs. To make me their 'Great Satan', to make you all in the eyes of the cult the Army of Hell itself. So every time they leave their outposts they are not just fighting 'sinners' but Hell itself! When we then marched on Faith's territory it wasn't long before they too were gripped in fear and they then started turning on themselves and those with the means began to find relief where ever they could. Forbidden alcohol, the cults own Bliss, and many of their own home brewed variants of Bliss. These are the cracks that formed from our work to break the cult not just by force of arms but through taking their own mental weakness and ruthlessly exploiting it!" Roger continued as more of those in the crowd smiled as they remembered their own part in the fight against Faith.
"That brings me to my actions of now two days ago and how our friend Pastor Jerome is correct in his words against in many but not all ways. Mary May given you and Casey's roll in keeping us fed you have the most accurate count of how many citizens and fighters we have, so if you would please tell us what is that number." He asked the bartender who until now stood off to the side clearly still fighting her own emotions on both her own actions and Roger's actions.
"Oh... uh... 1,279 between both Holland Valley and the Henbane regions. From what Minkler has told me we used to have about 21,537 total population throughout the county just FYI." She said as the crowd suddenly murmured amongst themselves. They had know that they had lost a lot of people to the cult but hear a solid number was something else entirely.
"Oh mother of God..." Dr. Niwa whispered in shock as even Foley was visibly shocked at the number.
"That's less than 10% of the population remaining..." The Captain heard Martin say to no one in particular.
Roger continued. "1,279 souls crammed into a handful of buildings and outposts throughout the parts of the county we control. We have enough food stored, harvested, and uh... forcibly donated from the cult to feed us all with careful but still reasonably generous rations." He stopped to bask in the laugh he got from the crowd before diving back in.
"Now according to the records pulled from Joseph Seed's own computer there were 2,500 children along side another 300 or so teachers and assistants. 2,800 cultists. 2,800 more mouths to suddenly feed, to suddenly house, and secure. 2,800 cultists to have to watch over lest they breakout when we least expect it while we take the fight to Jacob and ultimately Joseph. Needless to say our infrastructure isn't big enough to take such a blow. Now let me be the first to tell you that though they maybe children it only takes one or two with a firearm to change our fortunes. Just a few days ago I laid in the Hope County Jail's medical ward staring down a firing squad of four of Faith's Chosen, when Ed and Jessie Whitehorse bravely saved my life giving me the chance to find my legs and push back her last ditch assault on the Jail. If two of our own children could find the courage fight then there is no reason why a peggie child, filled with faith in 'The Father' would stand idly by while surrounded by sinners." The crowd once more gasped at the news that they had come so close to loosing their main spear point against the cult and then to hear that it was the Sheriff's own grandchildren who had saved them from such a loss.
"They would endeavor to do what they believe that their prophet would ask of them and to fight back, to escape and bring back news of what is going on, to kill a key member of our group just as we saw with Jude in his attempt on Mary May Fairgrave, to destroy our supplies, or to simply cause whatever chaos they could before they were stopped." He paused to let his points sink in.
He felt a little bad bringing back the memory of that day but it was needed example of what happened the last time they trusted the cult.
Jerome had gotten the adrenaline out of his system but he remained on the ground looking up at Roger on the stage lest by trying to move from that spot he would once more draw the anger of the crowd that Roger had managed to soothe. But it meant that he could only sit there like a disobedient school boy having everything he had done in the last school year laid out before him and explained in painful detail why he was wrong. One thing he couldn't figure out yet was what Roger had said in the beginning.
'How am I right yet wrong at the same time?' He wondered as he once more focused on Roger's speech.
"It is not just for these immediate concerns that I weighed my actions upon. There is the aftermath of choosing to spare the cultists, Miss Curie I believe?" He said gesturing to the teacher. "Do you believe that it is likely that due to the inevitable red tape and uniqueness of our situation that you wouldn't find yourself having to teach a classroom that is nearly if not completely full of former cultist children?" He asked.
"It's a not a unrealistic scenario. Especially considering... how many students we have lost already. The state or federal authorities would likely just see the chance to continue the children's education and help start them on the path of normalization." She said clearly.
He nodded and focused on Nick. "Nick I would assume that you wouldn't want Carmina to be bullied for years for being the daughter of one of most prominent fighters in the Resistance, correct?"
"Of course!" The pilot replayed.
"There is a real danger that lasts well beyond however much longer this war will last. These children of the cult would not immediately disappear and in a worst case scenario they could very well remain here in Hope County well into adulthood. These children will face untold challenges growing up both by their own faults and the fact that no matter what we all think, we would treat them with a far greater level of base hostility then we would anyone else. They very well could grow up wishing for the days of 'The Father' and from that a few peggies or even just one..." He said with increasing seriousness.
"Could comeback here to Hope County and do one of two things: first they could decide to take vengeance upon those who worked to end their 'happy time' with the cult, or second and arguably worse... they could come back and restart the cult. We might think that is impossible but we would be dealing with a cultist who just like a disease that has grown resistance to the antibiotic treatment, they will look at the histories and see the mistakes that 'The Father' and his people made and work to correct those mistakes. Like focusing more attention at the start of the war on eliminating key enemies of the cult before they can organize and lead others."
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In the crowd the Sheriff felt a shiver run up his spine. What if his prediction that the cult would kill him before starting anything came to pass? What if they had finished corrupting the department? Who would be left to take the fight to the cult's teeth?
They were thoughts that were only surpassed by the idea of his grandson and granddaughter having to live with cult kids blaming them for saving Roger and killing Feeney. It would be the ultimate shame considering everything else they had gone through to not protect them from that fate.
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"Now you know fully why I decided to not just kill the cult's children but to also broadcast it to all on repeat. By doing so I solve our immediate logistic concerns, prevent future social and logistical concerns, strike another massive psychological blow against the cult's morale, and as we have seen help draw the outside worlds attention. Those are the reasons why what Pastor Jerome has been saying is wrong. Now I will tell you all why he is right." The giant lawman said to the shock of everyone there.
"What the hell?" Someone from the crowd called out bringing a slight smile to his face.
"We must remember who our good Pastor is. For he is a man of God and as he has spoken and encouraged for years for us to be kindhearted, to forgive others, and to extend the hand of mercy among a great many other concepts. Nine times out of ten he is right to push us including me to be the better person and if we weren't so limited on resources then I would have far less reason to not work more to spare the children's lives even in the face of our own losses, as disgusting as it might be it would be the morally proper choice." He said his gaze passing over Miss Curie and seeing that brief flame of hate come back this time directed at him for even suggesting that the cult's children had any right to live even under better circumstances before she reconsidered her stance.
"Killing a single child is something to not take lightly let alone the wholesale butchering that I masterminded. It is something that I am fully prepared and ready to take responsibility for, and Jerome is the reminder that we should be better. For that he can not be faulted for questioning my actions and he should be praised for being brave enough to stand before you all and voice his beliefs, it is as much as some of us may wish otherwise his God given 1st amendment right as an American citizen to do so. I would go so far as to say it is his duty to question when he sees something wrong." That last statement got the crowd muttering amongst themselves as the mass of people suddenly understood what he had meant at the beginning of his speech.
"As I said nine times out of ten what Pastor Jerome has said is correct. But we must not forget that sooner or later there comes a time... an extraordinary moment in our lives when we must knowingly set aside our traditional morals, take off our chains, and remove our limiters so that we may fully embrace our humanity! That we may fully face and fight off a given threat to our lives, our children's lives, and even our very way of life. The cult's actions before the war have shown not only that they are more than willing to take advantage of our limitations when it suits them but they in fact have built their entire operation on the expectation that we wouldn't change our ways. It is this ability to change between these two states is why we have managed to do such mental damage to the cult as it is something that they don't have an answer prepared for." He said as he prepared to wrapped up his own speech with one last cautionary statement.
"However we must still remember that as effective and powerful we become when we choose to be human that once the threat is gone we must have the strength of will to put the locks back on and hope we never in our lifetimes have to unlock them again and what Pastor Jerome is if nothing else, a clear reminder that we must be willing to reign ourselves back and let go of that power." He then turned fully to look down at Jerome.
"Pastor... I do believe that one reason why you are experiencing such a disconnect between you and your flock is because I don't think you yourself fully understand why they act as they do. Why they have embraced their humanity. You yourself only suffered directly at the hands of the cult for a few hours before I came and liberated the town at the start of the war, while many others suffered for many long days." He turned to look at Ramirez.
"Master Sergeant! Can I assume you have a copy of the cult's records on a flash drive by now?" He asked.
The operator was shocked to be spoken to so suddenly but answered quickly. "Yes sir I do."
"If I may have that flash drive please? I suspect Captain Foley has the back up on him and I will have my father supply you with a replacement drive for your own usage." He then asked.
Ramirez glanced at his CO and got the go ahead nod before stepping forward as he dug through the pouch on his carrier and fished the small black drive out.
"Give it to the Pastor please." He instructed as the shocked holy man numbly took the drive and cradled it carefully in his hands.
"Jerome I am going to advise that you look through the records and footage on that drive and see what your flock has been put through with your own eyes and ears." He all but commanded before look back at the crowd. "Ok folks I do believe most of you haven't gotten dinner yet so I suggest that you return to taking care of that. Also in case if it isn't perfectly clear I will not tolerate any hostility towards Pastor Jerome, if I hear of any such acts and I will hear then I will go after whoever dares to commit them. Am I understood?!" He ordered the last sentence being snapped off with a harshness that would have made his drill instructors in Boot Camp proud.
The crowd was for a brief moment filled with nodding heads before the group turned back towards the Spread Eagle and the promise of a hot meal.
Roger effortlessly stepped off of the trailer and walked over to Mary May who looked almost as shocked and lost as she was the day that she had been rescued from the cult. He embraced her warmly. "Mary May, Casey is going to need your help at the bar. If you need someone to talk to you know where to find me, also I don't blame you for what you almost did tonight. I want to make that perfectly clear."
She didn't say anything save for a wordless nod as she turned and waved for Miss Curie to join her as they joined the crowds as well. He then turned back to Jerome who still knelt on the ground staring listlessly at the flash drive in his hands.
He offered the man his hand and when it was taken he pulled him up and embraced him as a friend would.
"Please Jerome don't waste this second chance. I don't think I can talk them down a second time from killing you and I don't want to see you dead. Please do this." He whispered to the other man before letting him go and watching as he turned and started the seemingly long walk back to his church through the darkness of the night.
"Goddamn Roger you laid it on thick." Grace said as she and everyone else approached.
He could only shrug his massive armored shoulders. "I meant everything I said and besides everything I already said the last thing we need to be doing is killing our own people. I rather leave such internal policing to the cult, not the Resistance."
"Well son you aren't wrong, and I got to admit that really was one hell of a speech." Said the Sheriff as the group of fighters and the Delta men started walking towards the bar. After all they too had yet to eat.
.
Soon enough they found themselves in their usual places in the Spread Eagle. Mary May was putting on a strong face but to him and Joey she was clearly still shaken with how close she had come to killing Jerome.
He looked over at the table where the two Sergeants and Dr. Niwa were chatting away quite happily as the events of tonight had largely been a matter between locals and not them. Nearby Captain Foley was eating and chatting with Grace in a strange turn of events but he figured that Foley was taking the chance to catch up with the sniper and likely to better figure out if there were any other local situations that he would need to know about.
And if he could also shoot the breeze with another veteran solider then all the better.
The next hour passed and the crowds thinned then faded completely as the night drug on. Joey busied herself with helping Mary May with the clean up leaving Roger to continue sitting at the bar nursing his soda as his mind wondered.
It wasn't to last as his father left his table and took a seat beside his son.
"I have to apologize Roger. I said I would keep an eye on Jerome and I completely dropped the ball on that." Marcus said as he drank from his beer bottle.
"Dad it's ok. I will admit that I'm surprised Jerome would try something like this at all, I mean sure after the war I expected him to willingly go to the feds and inform them of everything I have done but to actually get the local population to turn against me? That takes some serious brass balls." He said.
His father nodded in agreement. "I can't deny that at all. You probably missed it but the whole Dearborn family came by and apologized for going along with Jerome's plan. I told them that you wouldn't hold it against them..."
"I don't and I wouldn't." He interjected.
"Good. Now that is out of the way I have to let you know what Dr. Niwa found with the nukes and at least pass along what little has come back from DC since she informed them." Marcus said.
His attention was now peaked as he had been looking forward to any updates since they were back at the marina.
"Dr. Niwa and her folks took apart one of the warheads in Rachel's bunker. Turns out they aren't the W87 Mod 1's we originally thought they were, they are too long and narrow so instead they are something far more powerful and experimental." His father said grimly.
He picked up on his father's emphasis of the term 'experimental' which didn't fill him with any joy either. "So are we looking at a increased payload per a missile?" He asked.
"Oh we are in more ways than one. We are going from 475 kilotons maximum yield to what the NEST team has estimated based off of the cult's notes and what work they could do themselves when their software refused to believe their numbers were even possible of an estimated yield of a 150 megatons." Marcus said as Roger choked on his drink and started a brief coughing fit.
"Please..." He tried to say between coughs "Please tell me you aren't serious!"
"I am serious and it gets worse. The smaller warheads are easier to pack along with some other work the cult did but instead of the normal three warheads on your normal Minuteman-III's we are looking at twelve MIRV's per a missile." The elder Rook continued.
Roger honestly had to stop thinking to wrap his head around what he had just heard. Twelve MIRV's each one a 150 megatons of region ruining nuclear power far in excess to anything that any of the other nuclear club members had put on to a single missile.
"1,800 megatons per a missile... how?" He started to ask when his father answered the expected question.
"Apparently the cult's scientists decided that since they had God and 'The Father' on their side along with a blank check on R&D they decided that building a regular thermonuclear warhead was to easy so they broke out the history book of ideas that 'work on paper but no one wanted to fund or deal with the politicians to actually fully develop'. They used some exotic 'nuclear isomer' materials to build what's called a 'Pure Fusion Warhead'. I think they used a combination of Thorium and Tantalum in some sort of rotating 'gamma ray gun' that when turned it sets off the fusion reaction in the Deuterium and Tritium fusion material. Mind you I'm a commando and gunsmith so all of this is getting beyond my knowledge. Now one thing that might work in our favor is that so much of this stuff is theoretical and not tested in the real world but of course given the stakes we have to assume their new designs will work." Marcus said as he drained his beer.
"I have read some of this kind of stuff but Goddamn they must have had reach deep in order to actually develop it on their own. I take it the other shoe is how DC is handling all this?" He offered.
Marcus nodded as he started laying everything out. "Well so far they are still debating between themselves, some want to rush out some anti-ballistic missile units out here but doing so right now means pulling them from places that we don't want to leave uncovered. Not to mention the potential collateral should they shoot this missile down over the county though that's something they are honestly less worried about. A few people are seriously asking for a chance to negotiate with Joseph but thankfully our 'No Fly Zone' status is making those people look increasingly stupid. Same goes with the few people pushing for a preemptive strike against the silo as they want to try and destroy a bunker that was specifically designed to resist that sort of attack."
Roger groaned softly. "I'm going to guess that regardless of what happens sooner or later they are going to order us to stop 'aggravating' the cult until they make a decision so we don't push them to launch. We can't do that, hell if we hadn't had the Delta boys dropping in on us we would be marching against Jacob right now."
Marcus nodded as he stared down into his empty beer bottle in thought as Roger did much the same though looking around the bar.
Dr. Niwa had now moved from talking with Ramirez and Martin to talking with his mother. Foley and Grace were still talking and even laughing sometimes which was shocking to hear from either of them. Joey and Mary May were chatting softly as they cleaned the last of the bar's glassware a few feet away from where he and his father sat.
Everything around him was more or less peaceful so his gaze moved to the familiar decorations until he followed one of the LED string lights that Mary May used as additional decoration and lighting along the beams in the ceiling until he came across a splice in one string that branched off to power two other shorter strings.
He slowly got out of his seat completely entranced by the mass of electrical tape that became clearer as he approached which splice led where on the other strings of lights.
"Yeah that's left over from Jude eating the mag Dmitri dumped into him and one of the bullets I think overpenetrated and destroyed the tri-tap and plugs so I had to jury rig it to keep the lights on." Mary May called out from behind the bar.
Roger turned to his father who had looked at him following Mary May's comment with a evil grin on his face as he pointed at the splice. "Old school Cold War..."
His father instantly caught the same evil smile his son wore. "Wire tap. That's how we can at least slow down any attempts to launch the missile! We tap the wiring running from the central command bunker..."
"And Jacob's silo. We can disconnect and maybe even password lock the launch controls just like we did in Rachel's silo!" He bounced back with increasing excitement.
"At this point in the war there is a chance that Jacob doesn't have the people with the technical knowledge to circumvent the launch controls if they can't get the computer to talk with either the on board flight or target computers! In either case they would have to realize that they can't access the launch controls in the first place!" Marcus said with a grin.
Roger turned serious for a moment. "What about us? Do we have anyone that could tap the lines and even do something this advanced? Then where do we do the tapping?"
Marcus's mad smile continued. "You forget that this is the sort of thing the Grey Squad was formed to do back in the Cold War. Now where do we do it? I have a rough idea but I will have to get with Minkler to check the county records, any cables they would have had to lay or run would have to be reported to them lest the local utilities happen to run across it or worse breach it!"
"And those records would include the maintenance access points. If we quietly remove the cult's ability to launch their only missile they won't change their strategy thus lowering the chance they they would try to manually detonate the nukes as part of a last stand. We also keep the brass in DC more or less content." He finished his own smile returning.
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"You know, I know the Major well enough to be afraid of him when he smiles. But two Rook's smiling..." Foley said as he watched the brainstorming session come to a fruitful end.
"God help us all, the Rook's had an idea and now all of creation shakes in fear of what they will bring about." Grace finished saying.
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After clarifying the idea with everyone else they all felt a increasing confidence that they now had a plan of action that could work if some refinement. Jessica however reigned her boys in telling them to finish planning their next moves after breakfast the next morning so that they were fresh and didn't miss something important.
Foley and his people while they couldn't attack the cult would stand ready to offer whatever additional support they could and Foley promised to start pushing a bit harder to get the go ahead to join the fight.
Soon after the bar emptied leaving Mary May, Joey, and Roger lugging themselves up the stairs to the upper floor. When the couple got to the spare bedroom door Mary May stopped them just short of entering.
"Roger... thank you for what you did tonight. I-I don't know if I could really live with myself if I had... executed Jerome." She said nervously.
He smiled and embraced his friend. "Mary May you were caught between a rock and hard place. You are a loyal friend and Jerome threatened that and you also had already seen far too close what happened the last time he started being naïve in the middle of this war. Even you have limits and Jerome was all too willing to cross them and force you to ask yourself 'what do you value?' and since the only family you have left is Boomer here..."
"Boof." The gun dog quietly said on hearing his name.
"You had to instead place stock in your friends and community. Trust me I know how hard it is to pull away from killing a problematic person. I was tempted to do it to Jerome beforehand until I realized that isn't the solution I want hence why I worked so hard to save his stupid ass from his own problem this time." He finished.
Mary May was on the brink of tears and she hugged Joey thanking both of them again for their support before she headed off for her apartment.
Inside the privacy of their shared room Roger took off the armor and his shirts before he sat down to just take stock of everything. Joey saw this and moved to stand before the giant and envelope him in her own hug.
"Roger how do you do it? How do you hold back from just brute forcing your way through these sorts of things? I mean I don't think if it was up to me I would have allowed Jerome to live." She asked.
"Remember when we were teenagers and would watch Justice League on Cartoon Network?" He asked softly.
"Of course... I copied Wonder Woman's outfit for Halloween after it first aired." She said looking down at the top of his head and taking a free hand to rub his head gently.
"When Superman was responding to Darkseid near the end of one episode he has this 'World of Cardboard' speech. And I quote: 'That man won't quit as long as he can still draw a breath. None of my teammates will. Me? I've got a different problem. I feel like I live in a world made of cardboard, always taking constant care not to break something, to break someone. Never allowing myself to lose control even for a moment, or someone could die. But you can take it, can't you, big man? What we have here is a rare opportunity for me to cut loose and show you just how powerful I really am.' End quote." He rattled off as naturally as if he were stating his own name.
"I memorized that speech from that cartoon because in that moment I saw myself as Superman. I have to be careful, have to be thoughtful, have to be moral where ever I can be without comprising what is important to me. One day I hope to meet my own Darkseid where I can safely let go and see what I can do but until then I will save who I can and I will endeavor to do the right thing not the easy thing." He said now looking up at the woman he loved.
"Also I want to make sure that I'll be the type of guy that's worthy of being with you." He ended with grin.
The what was in his opinion at least was a cheesy romance line got her to giggle and smile before capturing him in a slow and sensual kiss.
"I think you are doing a good job at that part." She whispered as she broke before going right back for more.