-Advance Wars 2
--Lash Factor
---Chapter 1: The Black Cannon
You know, as I was putting on the combat suit of a Black Hole soldier, I found out one thing. These guys really smell bad. I mean they stink, really, really stink. For a couple seconds I thought I was going to suffocate when I put the big helmet on and put the little mask on so no one could see my face. Course I've never had to steal a Blue Moon outfit and squeeze into that either. They might stink just as much as Black Hole soldiers do. It was just a thought.
The name is James Heckler, I'm part of Orange Star's most skilled unit in infiltration and espionage. My job is the vehicle expert. I can drive anything really. Anything that moves. Course we wouldn't be this good if we didn't have a good commander, like Sami to back us up. She had taught us everything when it came to securing areas and taking out enemy personnel. Not that we could take on the world or anything like that. But we were pretty damn good when stacked up to anyone else's troop divisions.
You could find me as the only guy with blond hair in our unit. And with sparkling green eyes, the other guys always joked that I should be on the cover of a magazine instead of in a soldier's uniform. What did they know? These Black Hole guys had crossed the line. They were going back where they came from. One way or another. That reminded me, this helmet really let my spiky hair remain spiky, unlike Orange Star's helmets which flattened it. A lot of head room was what I'm saying. That was kind of nice...
Once I had successfully commandeered a Black Hole uniform, the mission plan had me meeting up with the rest of my unit at the Black Cannon. We were ordered to take out the Black Cannon before Commander Andy arrived. He was the oddity of the Orange Star military. The guy could fix anything, but never really had the mentality for war. Yeah, ok, we all really didn't like the guy. But with all the new COs Black Hole had, I supposed we could use all the help we could get.
Upon seeing the huge combat suits Black Hole guys had to wear I was thinking no way could this be practical in war. It looked so awkward and clumsy. But now that I was wearing it as a disguise, I could see how useful it was. It had this target identifier so you could see enemies before they saw you. The suit was also mechanical making it so you could do all the usual maneuvers without using so much energy. These guys were unbelievable.
I could see the massive Black Cannon before I even got close to it. You could only imagine what kind of damage it could do when it started firing off rounds at oncoming enemies. Kind of a shame we weren't stealing it, but we were ordered to take it out, and that's what we were going to do. There wasn't a whole bunch of other Black Hole soldiers running around. This made it a bit more easier to get to the rendezvous point. No one asked any questions.
Finally I made it to the Black Cannon facility. It was bigger than intel described it. This thing was downright gargantuan. The barrel of the cannon itself was pointed up towards the sky as if ready to launch a volley or something. Alarms were going off in the distance as I looked to a nearby sign. It meant a field test. Maybe that's why I found a lone Black Hole soldier so far out. He was marking the target. Something they could compare damage to when they leveled it with a test fire.
Sneaking around to the back, I could see four other Black Hole soldiers standing around and talking via the radios inside the helmets. That way, the enemy didn't overhear anything you were shouting to your comrades. I tell you, someone put some serious R&D into this suit. The front of the cannon was like a loading depot or something. Plenty of huge crates lie around marked as Black Cannon Ammo.
Slowly I approached the four. There was no real easy way to tell if they were my other team members until I could see hear what they were saying. Finally one of them turned toward me and gave a hand signal we all knew well.
"Well, well, well. Pretty boy Heckler decided to show." I could hear Ruby call out.
"It was a long walk. The guy I jumped didn't have a truck." I told them honestly.
Ruby was team leader and was originally from Yellow Comet. She all ready had some serious training from her old CO Kanbei, and was a welcome addition to our unit. We called her Ruby because of her scarlet hair and her real name was Lon Mai and had been a part of Orange Star after the last fight against Sturm. From the looks of her suit, she had managed to get herself a guy who was part of a mechanized unit. A rocket launcher was seen on her backpack.
"Yeah yeah. Save it for the debriefing. Are our orders clear?" She asked.
"I think Palmer needs a refresher, cause he never does anything." Rick pointed out.
"Shut up." Palmer muttered.
Walter Rick was my best friend on this unit and knew his guns. A weapons expert of sorts. He was pretty cocky and looked the part to. Messy brown hair and blue eyes to go with it. We knew him best because he always had this revolver as his backup weapon. Sometimes we wondered if it was because Blue Moon CO Grit had one, he would never tell us. But one thing was sure, he had an itchy trigger finger. Shoot first, and shoot more.
Now Cedric Palmer was as big as Olaf and as bald as an bowling ball. He was our communications expert and gadget guy. He spent his nights playing around with a computer trying to hack into Blue Moon Bureau of Investigations, sending them little messages how their security sucked and was asking for a virus attack. I think a visit from Commander Sami made him stop, but there was no telling when he would try again. As a hobby, he messed with chemicals.
"All right. Heckler and Rick are to head to the top level. Spy on the firing sequences and get a good idea how long it takes to fire the cannon incase this mission is aborted or otherwise. And Rick,"
"Yes boss?" Rick asked expectantly.
"No gunplay. This base is up to the armpits with soldiers who would love to stick your body full of bullets. All they need is an opportunity and a reason."
"Right it's done. Understood." He grumbled.
"Palmer, Victor. You're both with me. We've got to locate primary generators and set explosives."
Ah hell. I forgot William Victor again. This guy was so silent you swore he was mute. But he wasn't. He had this face that always made him look tired but focused at the same time. Maybe that was good, because he was our explosives expert. Victor was pretty unusual. Although he was only 35, he had this shimmering gray hair and pale blue eyes. I heard a rumor that some Black Hole chemical weapons made it into his system and messed him pretty good. Maybe that's why he never talked.
"All right people. We have a weapon to destroy, lets move out. We have five hours until Commander Andy shows up with the main forces." Ruby finished.
Silently we all entered the building heading our different ways. The large corridors with the eerie red lighting made it quite clear this was a Black Hole facility. Rick was leading the way since he was the guy I voted to memorize the layout of the Black Cannon so we wouldn't get lost and get people asking us what we thought we were doing.
"Hail fellow mindless Black Hole drones." Rick joked waving to some passing soldiers.
I thought I should have smacked him. But he didn't have the radio set to their channel. I could only shake my head. One day, we were going to get caught. I don't know if he thought he was that invincible, or thought Black Hole was that stupid.
"God Rick, why don't you just take off your helmet so everyone can see we're Orange Star?"
"Come on Heckler. They would be too shocked looking at your pretty boy face to pull an alarm." He teased me.
Finally we came across some stairs and made out way upwards in a spiral pattern to the Black Cannon control room. Holy frick, there must have been fifty monitors showing fifty different external cameras. The largest monitor showed where the cannon was presently facing while some generic crosshairs with wind readings and other crap showed what would disappear when it was fired off.
There was some soldiers all ready up there, but we just kept walking and soon blended into the massive computer equipment just waiting for someone to operate this thing. When someone did show up, oh man, they were Black Hole VIPs. Black Hole COs Flak and Lash talking amongst each other. They scared me really. She was a genius with the mind of a ten year old, while Flak was an earthquake in a can.
"Flak! Flakakakaaflaakakaflakakak!" Lash was yelling out. "The Black Cannon is all set to fire!"
"Thanks Lash." Flak laughed looking at the monitors.
He then paused and began to look over all the keyboards and computer screens. It didn't take a genius to see that he was getting confused over all the buttons and readouts.
"So uh... How do you fire this thing off again?"
Lash let out a groan and pushed him to the side while taking a seat at the controls. Flak moved back to where Lash had pushed him from and looked over her shoulder. Since the guy was as big as a house, Rick couldn't see a thing. So it was up to me to see how it worked.
"First you rotate the cannon tower to acquire a target..." Her voice trailed off as she turned around to see Flak's dumb look. "You spin the tower to find something to smash."
Her simplified version caused Flak to nod his head and she continued.
"You lock on..." The crosshairs were lining up on a nearby building. "Then you press the enter key."
Nothing happened. I was kind of disappointed. But then again, they should really be saving all that ammunition for something important to blow up. Soon Lash got up and Flak took her seat trying to repeat her motions. It was like a giant game of Simon says for him.
"Forget it!" He was stuck. "This is too complicated! Just give me a division of tanks any day!"
Lash shook her head and tugged him out of the seat. Then turned toward me. Oh hell... She pointed to me and I just kind of stood there. Maybe I could act like I didn't know what she was motioning to. Then Flak turned around and stomped his foot on the ground.
"Hey worm! Get over here!" He barked at me.
Slowly I moved over toward the console and felt Flak shove me down into the seat. I couldn't believe it. I was at the controls of a Black Hole super weapon. Lash took my hands and repeated the process this time targeting a big tree.
"...so now one of your lackeys knows how to do it. Just make him fire off the weapon when I leave."
"Why can't you do it?" Flak asked angrily. "He doesn't know how to do it! He's just a grunt!"
I was insulted. I could fly a bomber if I had to. This thing was like an oversized videogame. I could level the whole mountain in front of us if it was loaded and ready to go.
"He can do it!" Lash told him. "Besides, I have to go meet with Hawke to see what my next orders are. Tootles!"
"You can't leave." Flak demanded. "What if the Black Cannon gets broke? Who's gonna fix it?"
She looked slightly annoyed and then nodded giving in to Flak's whining. They began to walk off downstairs as Lash was talking about Black Cannon maintenance. As if Flak would understand. Flak is kind of guy you send if you want something broken, you know, a demolition dynamo. Hardly the kind of guy you would ask to fix something. So now I was stuck sitting at this console, if I get up and try to move... Well, I could say I'm going to the bathroom.
I stood up slowly and began to head for the stairs. But then I could hear one of the Black Hole soldiers call out to me. Rick had begun to leave too and he was stopped as well.
"Where are you going?" He asked me.
"I have a question concerning the operation of the Black Cannon for Mistress Lash." I lied calmly.
"And what about you?" He asked Rick while on the subject.
Rick just kind of paused and then raised his gun and shot the soldier through and through. I moved to shoot the other soldier in the corner and looked to Rick angrily.
"What the hell are you doing?" I hissed at him angrily.
"He was gonna sound the alarm!" Rick defended himself.
"You could have just told him you were going to the bathroom!" I yelled.
"How do you know these guys even need to go to the bathroom? Maybe they're aliens who don't take a crap."
It was only a matter of time before someone discovered two bodies in the control room and this whole facility was going to be locked down. I radioed to Ruby while we took off.
"Ruby, Ruby. Rick couldn't keep his finger steady. Our mission is running on borrowed time."
She gave a frustrated sigh. This wasn't the first time something like this came up during one of our sensitive operations.
"Ok. We're finishing up down here. What's you're status? Wounded?"
"No, but we've discovered it takes about a minute or two to aim the cannon and fire. No word on how long it takes for reloading."
"All right, everyone get to the evacuation point. This mission is completed."
"Roger." I replied and turned back toward Rick who hadn't said a thing.
That stupid... Man, if he was just a little bit more creative, we could have avoided this messy situation. It took seconds before we were outside and scrambling through the trees toward a nearby train track. On the other side of the tracks would be a small clearing where our pickup would be. But as we neared the tracks, we soon found a train in our way. A Black Hole train. The sleek silver train was like a black wall to us.
None of us said a thing as we tried to find a way around it. In both directions it was too far to run, so our next plan was to go through it. We spotted an open door heading into one of the train cars and decided we could pass through that way. Fitting in-between the cars was impossible because of these bulky Black Hole combat suits. More bad news, before we could climb up it. Flak and Lash exited the train car and spotted us.
"Hey, what are you two worms doing here?" He demanded eyeing us suspiciously.
Rick stepped forward and I thought he was going to shoot them both.
"We have intruders Lord Flak! Two in the control room!" He explained.
Well, that was a pretty good excuse, but Lash stepped forward with an angry scowl.
"Hey! That's not proper procedure! Your supposed to sound an alarm!" Lash soon realized who we were. "Flak! They're a bunch of fakes! Let's get em'!"
Rick raised his gun, but since he was so close to Flak, it was easy for the big brute to tear his gun away from his suit. The next thing I knew, I could hear a crack as Flak had uppercut Rick's helmet and shattered the glass. I raised my gun to fire, but Lash had all ready drawn a pistol and fired it nailing me in the shoulder and knocking the weapon from my hands. Flak grinned at us maniacally.
"Tee hee hee. Tag! You're it!" Lash giggled.
"Wait till I get my hands on you! I'll smash you good!" He declared.
Rick had managed to crawl away from Flak and was all ready tearing off the suit ready to dive between the train cars. He had some help from him who had knocked his helmet loose and he was free of his Black Hole suit in a flash revealing his Orange Star uniform. I still had to undo my helmet and I was running too. I could spot Rick get tagged in the shoulder by Lash's pistol, but he had made it. Now it was my turn after I had thrown my helmet loose and shed my bulky suit.
I had begun to dart in-between the train cars when I felt Flak's powerful hands grab a hold of me. Mentally I cried out in agony. I was so close. I could feel him rip me away from the train car, but no. Rick's hand shot out and managed to grab my own. Now there was some human tug of war between Flak and Rick. Needless to say, Flak was winning.
"Rick! Get the hell out of here!" I yelled at him.
"Oh no! I got you into this mess! And I'll get you out!" He vowed. "I'm really sorry!"
"You're crazy! We're both going to get caught! You have to get back to base! Tell them about the cannon!"
Then he let go. Actually, he probably lost his grip and Flak's strength ripped me away from him. All I knew is that , I was tumbling across the ground rolling over and over again. I stood up and felt a bullet hit me in the leg. Lash stood there grinning at me like she had found a new toy or something. I was stumbling around with my wounded leg and I tried to head toward the train. But Flak popped up right in front of me and let me have it with a one-two punch.
I had never felt someone hit me with the strength Flak had. Thinking back on it, I had probably slid across the ground a good five feet. Cause I could see the Black Cannon looming over me. Then Flak's humongous shadow and his boot being raised into the air. When it came down, I knew, I would never be the same. Never would Black Hole ever let me be the soldier I once was.
-To be continued...
--Concluded in Chapter 2: Special Treatment
--Lash Factor
---Chapter 1: The Black Cannon
You know, as I was putting on the combat suit of a Black Hole soldier, I found out one thing. These guys really smell bad. I mean they stink, really, really stink. For a couple seconds I thought I was going to suffocate when I put the big helmet on and put the little mask on so no one could see my face. Course I've never had to steal a Blue Moon outfit and squeeze into that either. They might stink just as much as Black Hole soldiers do. It was just a thought.
The name is James Heckler, I'm part of Orange Star's most skilled unit in infiltration and espionage. My job is the vehicle expert. I can drive anything really. Anything that moves. Course we wouldn't be this good if we didn't have a good commander, like Sami to back us up. She had taught us everything when it came to securing areas and taking out enemy personnel. Not that we could take on the world or anything like that. But we were pretty damn good when stacked up to anyone else's troop divisions.
You could find me as the only guy with blond hair in our unit. And with sparkling green eyes, the other guys always joked that I should be on the cover of a magazine instead of in a soldier's uniform. What did they know? These Black Hole guys had crossed the line. They were going back where they came from. One way or another. That reminded me, this helmet really let my spiky hair remain spiky, unlike Orange Star's helmets which flattened it. A lot of head room was what I'm saying. That was kind of nice...
Once I had successfully commandeered a Black Hole uniform, the mission plan had me meeting up with the rest of my unit at the Black Cannon. We were ordered to take out the Black Cannon before Commander Andy arrived. He was the oddity of the Orange Star military. The guy could fix anything, but never really had the mentality for war. Yeah, ok, we all really didn't like the guy. But with all the new COs Black Hole had, I supposed we could use all the help we could get.
Upon seeing the huge combat suits Black Hole guys had to wear I was thinking no way could this be practical in war. It looked so awkward and clumsy. But now that I was wearing it as a disguise, I could see how useful it was. It had this target identifier so you could see enemies before they saw you. The suit was also mechanical making it so you could do all the usual maneuvers without using so much energy. These guys were unbelievable.
I could see the massive Black Cannon before I even got close to it. You could only imagine what kind of damage it could do when it started firing off rounds at oncoming enemies. Kind of a shame we weren't stealing it, but we were ordered to take it out, and that's what we were going to do. There wasn't a whole bunch of other Black Hole soldiers running around. This made it a bit more easier to get to the rendezvous point. No one asked any questions.
Finally I made it to the Black Cannon facility. It was bigger than intel described it. This thing was downright gargantuan. The barrel of the cannon itself was pointed up towards the sky as if ready to launch a volley or something. Alarms were going off in the distance as I looked to a nearby sign. It meant a field test. Maybe that's why I found a lone Black Hole soldier so far out. He was marking the target. Something they could compare damage to when they leveled it with a test fire.
Sneaking around to the back, I could see four other Black Hole soldiers standing around and talking via the radios inside the helmets. That way, the enemy didn't overhear anything you were shouting to your comrades. I tell you, someone put some serious R&D into this suit. The front of the cannon was like a loading depot or something. Plenty of huge crates lie around marked as Black Cannon Ammo.
Slowly I approached the four. There was no real easy way to tell if they were my other team members until I could see hear what they were saying. Finally one of them turned toward me and gave a hand signal we all knew well.
"Well, well, well. Pretty boy Heckler decided to show." I could hear Ruby call out.
"It was a long walk. The guy I jumped didn't have a truck." I told them honestly.
Ruby was team leader and was originally from Yellow Comet. She all ready had some serious training from her old CO Kanbei, and was a welcome addition to our unit. We called her Ruby because of her scarlet hair and her real name was Lon Mai and had been a part of Orange Star after the last fight against Sturm. From the looks of her suit, she had managed to get herself a guy who was part of a mechanized unit. A rocket launcher was seen on her backpack.
"Yeah yeah. Save it for the debriefing. Are our orders clear?" She asked.
"I think Palmer needs a refresher, cause he never does anything." Rick pointed out.
"Shut up." Palmer muttered.
Walter Rick was my best friend on this unit and knew his guns. A weapons expert of sorts. He was pretty cocky and looked the part to. Messy brown hair and blue eyes to go with it. We knew him best because he always had this revolver as his backup weapon. Sometimes we wondered if it was because Blue Moon CO Grit had one, he would never tell us. But one thing was sure, he had an itchy trigger finger. Shoot first, and shoot more.
Now Cedric Palmer was as big as Olaf and as bald as an bowling ball. He was our communications expert and gadget guy. He spent his nights playing around with a computer trying to hack into Blue Moon Bureau of Investigations, sending them little messages how their security sucked and was asking for a virus attack. I think a visit from Commander Sami made him stop, but there was no telling when he would try again. As a hobby, he messed with chemicals.
"All right. Heckler and Rick are to head to the top level. Spy on the firing sequences and get a good idea how long it takes to fire the cannon incase this mission is aborted or otherwise. And Rick,"
"Yes boss?" Rick asked expectantly.
"No gunplay. This base is up to the armpits with soldiers who would love to stick your body full of bullets. All they need is an opportunity and a reason."
"Right it's done. Understood." He grumbled.
"Palmer, Victor. You're both with me. We've got to locate primary generators and set explosives."
Ah hell. I forgot William Victor again. This guy was so silent you swore he was mute. But he wasn't. He had this face that always made him look tired but focused at the same time. Maybe that was good, because he was our explosives expert. Victor was pretty unusual. Although he was only 35, he had this shimmering gray hair and pale blue eyes. I heard a rumor that some Black Hole chemical weapons made it into his system and messed him pretty good. Maybe that's why he never talked.
"All right people. We have a weapon to destroy, lets move out. We have five hours until Commander Andy shows up with the main forces." Ruby finished.
Silently we all entered the building heading our different ways. The large corridors with the eerie red lighting made it quite clear this was a Black Hole facility. Rick was leading the way since he was the guy I voted to memorize the layout of the Black Cannon so we wouldn't get lost and get people asking us what we thought we were doing.
"Hail fellow mindless Black Hole drones." Rick joked waving to some passing soldiers.
I thought I should have smacked him. But he didn't have the radio set to their channel. I could only shake my head. One day, we were going to get caught. I don't know if he thought he was that invincible, or thought Black Hole was that stupid.
"God Rick, why don't you just take off your helmet so everyone can see we're Orange Star?"
"Come on Heckler. They would be too shocked looking at your pretty boy face to pull an alarm." He teased me.
Finally we came across some stairs and made out way upwards in a spiral pattern to the Black Cannon control room. Holy frick, there must have been fifty monitors showing fifty different external cameras. The largest monitor showed where the cannon was presently facing while some generic crosshairs with wind readings and other crap showed what would disappear when it was fired off.
There was some soldiers all ready up there, but we just kept walking and soon blended into the massive computer equipment just waiting for someone to operate this thing. When someone did show up, oh man, they were Black Hole VIPs. Black Hole COs Flak and Lash talking amongst each other. They scared me really. She was a genius with the mind of a ten year old, while Flak was an earthquake in a can.
"Flak! Flakakakaaflaakakaflakakak!" Lash was yelling out. "The Black Cannon is all set to fire!"
"Thanks Lash." Flak laughed looking at the monitors.
He then paused and began to look over all the keyboards and computer screens. It didn't take a genius to see that he was getting confused over all the buttons and readouts.
"So uh... How do you fire this thing off again?"
Lash let out a groan and pushed him to the side while taking a seat at the controls. Flak moved back to where Lash had pushed him from and looked over her shoulder. Since the guy was as big as a house, Rick couldn't see a thing. So it was up to me to see how it worked.
"First you rotate the cannon tower to acquire a target..." Her voice trailed off as she turned around to see Flak's dumb look. "You spin the tower to find something to smash."
Her simplified version caused Flak to nod his head and she continued.
"You lock on..." The crosshairs were lining up on a nearby building. "Then you press the enter key."
Nothing happened. I was kind of disappointed. But then again, they should really be saving all that ammunition for something important to blow up. Soon Lash got up and Flak took her seat trying to repeat her motions. It was like a giant game of Simon says for him.
"Forget it!" He was stuck. "This is too complicated! Just give me a division of tanks any day!"
Lash shook her head and tugged him out of the seat. Then turned toward me. Oh hell... She pointed to me and I just kind of stood there. Maybe I could act like I didn't know what she was motioning to. Then Flak turned around and stomped his foot on the ground.
"Hey worm! Get over here!" He barked at me.
Slowly I moved over toward the console and felt Flak shove me down into the seat. I couldn't believe it. I was at the controls of a Black Hole super weapon. Lash took my hands and repeated the process this time targeting a big tree.
"...so now one of your lackeys knows how to do it. Just make him fire off the weapon when I leave."
"Why can't you do it?" Flak asked angrily. "He doesn't know how to do it! He's just a grunt!"
I was insulted. I could fly a bomber if I had to. This thing was like an oversized videogame. I could level the whole mountain in front of us if it was loaded and ready to go.
"He can do it!" Lash told him. "Besides, I have to go meet with Hawke to see what my next orders are. Tootles!"
"You can't leave." Flak demanded. "What if the Black Cannon gets broke? Who's gonna fix it?"
She looked slightly annoyed and then nodded giving in to Flak's whining. They began to walk off downstairs as Lash was talking about Black Cannon maintenance. As if Flak would understand. Flak is kind of guy you send if you want something broken, you know, a demolition dynamo. Hardly the kind of guy you would ask to fix something. So now I was stuck sitting at this console, if I get up and try to move... Well, I could say I'm going to the bathroom.
I stood up slowly and began to head for the stairs. But then I could hear one of the Black Hole soldiers call out to me. Rick had begun to leave too and he was stopped as well.
"Where are you going?" He asked me.
"I have a question concerning the operation of the Black Cannon for Mistress Lash." I lied calmly.
"And what about you?" He asked Rick while on the subject.
Rick just kind of paused and then raised his gun and shot the soldier through and through. I moved to shoot the other soldier in the corner and looked to Rick angrily.
"What the hell are you doing?" I hissed at him angrily.
"He was gonna sound the alarm!" Rick defended himself.
"You could have just told him you were going to the bathroom!" I yelled.
"How do you know these guys even need to go to the bathroom? Maybe they're aliens who don't take a crap."
It was only a matter of time before someone discovered two bodies in the control room and this whole facility was going to be locked down. I radioed to Ruby while we took off.
"Ruby, Ruby. Rick couldn't keep his finger steady. Our mission is running on borrowed time."
She gave a frustrated sigh. This wasn't the first time something like this came up during one of our sensitive operations.
"Ok. We're finishing up down here. What's you're status? Wounded?"
"No, but we've discovered it takes about a minute or two to aim the cannon and fire. No word on how long it takes for reloading."
"All right, everyone get to the evacuation point. This mission is completed."
"Roger." I replied and turned back toward Rick who hadn't said a thing.
That stupid... Man, if he was just a little bit more creative, we could have avoided this messy situation. It took seconds before we were outside and scrambling through the trees toward a nearby train track. On the other side of the tracks would be a small clearing where our pickup would be. But as we neared the tracks, we soon found a train in our way. A Black Hole train. The sleek silver train was like a black wall to us.
None of us said a thing as we tried to find a way around it. In both directions it was too far to run, so our next plan was to go through it. We spotted an open door heading into one of the train cars and decided we could pass through that way. Fitting in-between the cars was impossible because of these bulky Black Hole combat suits. More bad news, before we could climb up it. Flak and Lash exited the train car and spotted us.
"Hey, what are you two worms doing here?" He demanded eyeing us suspiciously.
Rick stepped forward and I thought he was going to shoot them both.
"We have intruders Lord Flak! Two in the control room!" He explained.
Well, that was a pretty good excuse, but Lash stepped forward with an angry scowl.
"Hey! That's not proper procedure! Your supposed to sound an alarm!" Lash soon realized who we were. "Flak! They're a bunch of fakes! Let's get em'!"
Rick raised his gun, but since he was so close to Flak, it was easy for the big brute to tear his gun away from his suit. The next thing I knew, I could hear a crack as Flak had uppercut Rick's helmet and shattered the glass. I raised my gun to fire, but Lash had all ready drawn a pistol and fired it nailing me in the shoulder and knocking the weapon from my hands. Flak grinned at us maniacally.
"Tee hee hee. Tag! You're it!" Lash giggled.
"Wait till I get my hands on you! I'll smash you good!" He declared.
Rick had managed to crawl away from Flak and was all ready tearing off the suit ready to dive between the train cars. He had some help from him who had knocked his helmet loose and he was free of his Black Hole suit in a flash revealing his Orange Star uniform. I still had to undo my helmet and I was running too. I could spot Rick get tagged in the shoulder by Lash's pistol, but he had made it. Now it was my turn after I had thrown my helmet loose and shed my bulky suit.
I had begun to dart in-between the train cars when I felt Flak's powerful hands grab a hold of me. Mentally I cried out in agony. I was so close. I could feel him rip me away from the train car, but no. Rick's hand shot out and managed to grab my own. Now there was some human tug of war between Flak and Rick. Needless to say, Flak was winning.
"Rick! Get the hell out of here!" I yelled at him.
"Oh no! I got you into this mess! And I'll get you out!" He vowed. "I'm really sorry!"
"You're crazy! We're both going to get caught! You have to get back to base! Tell them about the cannon!"
Then he let go. Actually, he probably lost his grip and Flak's strength ripped me away from him. All I knew is that , I was tumbling across the ground rolling over and over again. I stood up and felt a bullet hit me in the leg. Lash stood there grinning at me like she had found a new toy or something. I was stumbling around with my wounded leg and I tried to head toward the train. But Flak popped up right in front of me and let me have it with a one-two punch.
I had never felt someone hit me with the strength Flak had. Thinking back on it, I had probably slid across the ground a good five feet. Cause I could see the Black Cannon looming over me. Then Flak's humongous shadow and his boot being raised into the air. When it came down, I knew, I would never be the same. Never would Black Hole ever let me be the soldier I once was.
-To be continued...
--Concluded in Chapter 2: Special Treatment
