An Old Comrade
July 10, 2007
Fort Worth, Texas
The Basterdz have made their way to Texas on their journey throughout the Sun Belt of the United States. In Texas, they are hunting down Jimmy McGarfield who is supporting the Villains through his family fortune. Using his family's oil company, he gives the profits made to the Villains as a slush fund.
"How can that little bastard be stupid to think he can hide from us?" Patton asks as they make their way to Dallas in a pickup truck so as not to seem suspicious.
"You know these oil tycoon types. It's pride and ego that makes them feel untouchable. Money makes 'em feel powerful. But power doesn't come from money, it comes from winning hearts and minds." Maurice explains.
"Don't be too certain of that. You gotta remember, this is Texas. In Texas, everything's bigger, especially money. If there's one thing that talks, it's money." Chad argues.
"Well that's not gonna matter after tomorrow. Once we light those oil fields the fuck up, bye bye money maker." Patton comments.
"Yeah… still need a plan beyond light it the fuck up there, Patton." Chad says.
"Well I still think there's two options, both of which are gonna require sneaking onto the rigs." Maurice says. "Option A is time bombs on the rigs, Option B would be an oil trail from one of the tanks and igniting those."
"I think there should be an Option C." Patton says. "Out the time bombs on the tanks. That way we don't create a massive mess and risk getting blown up with the rest of the field."
"I agree with Patton's idea. Less of a danger for ourselves. Let's just… hold up." Chad stops the truck as he notices something on the road. As the truck gets closer, they notice a young man standing in the street with a broken down pickup and getting horses back in the trailer.
"Excuse me, can I get a hand here? Damn truck died out on me. My horses got loose when the trailer got unhitched." The young man explains.
"You need a jump?" Chad asks.
"I'd appreciate that a lot. I have jumper cables in the bed, so I don't need to borrow yours." He replies.
"Alright I'll pull my truck up in front of yours. You two get the horses back on the trailer." Chad says.
"You got it." Maurice says as he and Patton hop out to calm the horses and get them back in the trailer.
"Say um… Pat. Does that guy seem familiar to you?" Maurice asks.
"What you mean… oh shit. No way." Patton chuckles as he realizes that the man that Chad is helping jump start his truck is their former Supreme Leader, Numbuh 100. "I figured he'd have joined the TND."
"Many Supreme Leaders prefer to retire and live their lives as normal, but I never knew what happened to HIM." Maurice explains.
"Guess he took up ranching." Patton says as he and Maurice get the horses back in the trailer.
"Alright we got the horses back in, how's the truck?" Maurice asks.
"Moment of truth." Chad says as he turns the key and the truck starts up.
"Alright, excellent, thank you fellas. Oh um forgot to introduce myself, my name is Beau Matthews." The former leader says.
"My name's Chad Dickson." He then pointed to his comrades. "That's Maurice Phayton, and Patton Drilovsky."
"Well it's not to meet you fellas. Hey when this truck is good to go, I wanna invite you fellas to dinner." Beau offers.
"Really? Thank you, that means a lot to us." Chad says.
"Well it's the least I could do." Beau says before seeing their license plate. "Virginia? What brings you guys out this way?"
"Doing a tour of American South for the summer. We tour a different part of the country every year. We did Alaska and the Northern Border last year." Patton says as an alibi.
"Picked a hell of a time to do a tour of the South." He comments.
"I was born in Fort Lauderdale and spent five years in Baton Rouge. Heat is not alien to me." Maurice says.
"That's a fair point. Well here's the address to the ranch, I'll meet you fellas there." Beau says as he hands them the directions.
"Thanks." Chad says as he and the other two get in the truck and make their way to the ranch.
"Chad… you know that-"
"I know who he is, Pat." Chad interrupts.
That night, Beau gets them all settled. He decides to make them all dinner and offer them a place to stay for the night.
"Porterhouse. Now THIS is Southern hospitality." Patton comments.
"You fellas deserve it. You helped me out in a big way today. It's a pain being here alone for a week, while taking care of this ranch." Beau says.
"What do you mean?" Chad asks.
"My folks are on their anniversary cruise in the Gulf. My brother is in the hospital for a couple days because of an incident with a horse. And my sister is at college studying art at Berkeley with all the other super liberals of California." Beau explains.
"Sucks you're here alone man." Chad says.
"Eh, I don't mind it sometimes. It's only gonna be another day or so anyway." Beau says.
Beau gets them their plates of food and they all sit down to dinner. After Beau says grace and they turn in the radio, the news talks about an oil tycoon looking to buy the Astrodome.
"Can you believe that? Man walks to take down a part of my childhood. I loved going to those games when I was little." Beau comments.
"What about when you got older?" Patton asks.
"I won't lie, from when I was like seven til I was about thirteen, it's a total blur. Memory is vague, but it was good from what I can remember." Beau responds, not noticing that his three guests are giving each other knowing glances.
"Interesting. Now who is this oil tycoon you mentioned?" Maurice asks.
"It's a family thing I guess. They've sucked all the oil out of these towns and now I guess they're giving political support to some militant group… at least that's what the media's saying." Beau answers with slight skepticism.
"Well I do think people need to check their sources before they start shooting their mouths off, but I wouldn't be if this was 100% true." Chad says, knowing it is all true.
"Well I tell ya what, I wouldn't feel bad if some crazy bastard lit that oil on fire. Maybe it'd teach him a lesson in loss and another in poverty." Beau says.
"Maybe it'll happen sooner than later. With all the craziness going on in the world, some crazy son of a bitch may just do that." Chad says.
"Here's hoping." Patton chimes in.
After dinner, they all help clean up the place before they all head to bed.
"You're sure it's no trouble?" Chad asks.
"Course not, besides most hotels in the area ain't gonna have any vacancies or managers in at this hour anyway." Beau explains. "You fellas are welcome to spend the night and have breakfast in the morning before you take off tomorrow."
"Well thanks, Beau. Have a good night." Beau says before heading to bed.
Seeing Patton asleep, Chad goes to Maurice's room to talk.
"You awake, Maurice?" Chad asks.
"Yeah I'm awake, what's on your mind?" Maurice asks.
"What a day. What a crazy fuckin' day." Chad laughs as he sits on the bed next to Maurice. "Who'd have thought we'd run into HIM during all this insanity.?"
"I see it as a good omen. Even a man with no memories of us and doesn't know about the war knows what a cluster fuck it can be, especially with McGarfield around." Maurice says.
"Good omen or not, we gotta keep our head in the game for tomorrow when he hit that fat fuck where it hurts." Chad says.
"Well hopefully when the money flow stops, we can stop fighting the adults soon enough and focus on Galactic. And hopefully then we can END this fucking war. It's been going on long enough. Attrition is not the way to go with this." Maurice says.
"I agree." Chad yawns. "Alright I'm gonna head to bed, we eat breakfast and then we go bright and early."
"Alright, sleep well." Maurice says.
As Chad drifts off to sleep, he is uneasy about how the next day will unfold, but is optimistic that it will go in the favor of them to help the Kids Next Door finally win the war.
End of the chapter. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as well as what I had written for Numbuh 100. I've read enough stories with him as The Steve, but I wanted to do my own thing with him. The next chapter is going to be the Basterdz fighting in the oil fields. Until that is posted, enjoy reading this.