Disclaimer: Wow, I'm actually using one of these. It's given that I don't have any ownership of Advance Wars or the characters of Final Fantasy... Duh. But the characters Glenn, Brad, Aldrea, Ashley, and Cecil, are used from "Bahamut & the Guardian Forces" by the permission of Gregory Stephen/nightdragon0. So you know, you should go read it, you would enjoy it.
-Advance Wars 2
--Project Black Portal
---Chapter 9: Four Reunited, One to Go
Jess pulled up to the gates of the Green Earth base and waited for them to open. The guards shuffled about, moving the gates manually until the truck could roll through. Aldrea watched as they drove across a parking lot full of tanks and then pulled up to what seemed to be the main building. A soldier from the back of the truck scrambled into the drivers side as Jess and Aldrea got out and headed for the front entrance. They soon found themselves running for the doors as rain still pounded the area.
Green clad soldiers overran the area inside, dragging supplies and reports around, and everyone of them were armed in some way; be it pistol or rifle. Aldrea soon turned toward Jess after giving the area a good looking over.
"Is this a hospital?" She seemed to realize.
"We evacuated all the patients before we took it over. Now we're using to recover from Hawke's assaults. Now, stay here for a second." Jess ordered.
Aldrea nodded and chose a place near the wall to stand as Jess plucked two soldiers passing by and began to talk with them. She vaguely motioned toward the girl who she had just brought in and soon pointed. The two soldiers nodded after a time and saluted as Jess walked off, they then approached Aldrea.
"Commander Jess wants you to come with us."
She could only nod while glancing at the assault rifles the two soldiers kept at the ready. When they began to move, they put Aldrea in between them and began to move down the halls, keeping clear of any doctors and nurses moving about. Casual glances into the rooms with open doors would reveal a room full of soldiers in hospital beds. They soon arrived at a meeting room. When they entered, Aldrea's face lit up upon seeing Glenn, Ashley, and Cecil sitting at one of the tables.
All of them stood up upon realizing Aldrea had just been brought in and soon began to call out to her.
"Aldrea!" Ashley gasped. "Are you ok?"
The soldiers watched as their escort moved to the table and sat down with the others. With a nod to the other, they closed the doors.
"Am I glad to see you guys!" She sighed.
"Same here. We've been all over the place searching for you." Glenn explained. "Do you know where Brad and Leviathan are?"
Aldrea became quiet and nodded.
"Yeah... I know where they are..."
-------------------------
Soldiers in the halls began to stop and salute and a certain man began to pass through. He was silver haired and displayed a driving expression upon his face. His dark blue uniform nearly represented his trade, and slightly resembled a flight suit of some sort. Eagle, the CO for the Green Earth air force, soon stepped into a patients room that had been stacked with radio systems and transceivers. Jess stood at one of the transmitters having just finished a call.
"What's this all about Red?" Eagle asked without wasting a second.
Jess narrowed her eyes and straightened up upon hearing his tone.
"We picked someone up while blowing up that bridge. But that was after she changed from a unicorn."
Eagle gave a sigh and crossed his arms.
"When we were trying to rescue Drake's sailors, three creatures flew in and began to help the evacuation of the ships. They changed into kids as well, believe me Red," Eagle stressed. "I don't doubt you. But we really don't have time to sit in awe about this. We have war to fight."
This caused Jess to raise an eyebrow. It was her instinct that told her something had happened while she was gone.
"What is Hawke doing now?"
"He's advancing, soon he'll try to take our major sources of production. If could only get my men in the air, we could push him back. But this god dammed storm... It never stops."
There was an extreme amount of frustration in Eagle's words and he soon turned away from Jess and gazed out the window at the pounding storm. Jess cleared her throat to regain her place in the conversation.
"I wanted to tell you about that. The girl we picked up said that Black Hole is using one of those creatures... her friend, to run this massive antenna array. The details are a little sketchy but... she says it's the cause of those massive tidal waves and the storm as well."
"Where is this girl?" Eagle demanded. "I want to talk to her."
Jess let out a small laugh and took a step forward.
"With all due respect, you aren't exactly a people person." She told him.
Eagle looked at her rather angrily but took a deep breath.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"You know what I'm talking about. Your anger tends to override your senses." Jess explained calmly. "If you want to talk to them, I think I should ask the questions."
"Ha, you wish."
And with that he left.
"Dammit Eagle." Jess muttered.
-------------------------
In the meeting room, Aldrea, Glenn, Ashley, and Cecil had all done their share of explaining their stories. Eagle soon burst into the room with two soldiers and Jess following after him. The four went silent as he looked over all of them.
"Who was it again Red?" He asked after a time.
Jess stepped forward alongside Eagle but instead began talking to the others.
"This is Eagle, he's our hot headed air force commander. He wants to talk to you, Aldrea, about that base with the antenna array."
Aldrea fidgeted under Eagle's firm gaze once he realized who he was looking for. She eventually nodded her head though.
"What do you want to know?" She asked vaguely turning to her friends.
"Hey, I don't think you deserve to know." Glenn cut in. "Not after that welcoming you gave us after Bahamut and the others helped out saving your guys on those ships."
Eagle balled his fists and nearly turned his face into a snarl.
"We don't exactly see dragons and giant birds everyday! Those beasts could have been Black Hole bioweapons." He pointed out. "You haven't even seen what Lash can do with POW's..."
Now Ashley had cut in.
"That twisted little girl is the one who kidnapped us and brought us here in the first place. We don't like those guys any more than you do!"
Jess stepped forward and threw her hands into the air and waved everyone off before the argument could escalate any further.
"Alright, let's calm down. Especially you Eagle. We could have taken a lot more casualties if they decided not to help out."
Eagle simply grunted at this and crossed his arms. He began to stare at Aldrea for awhile, but then turned to Jess.
"Let's not forget, Black Hole is knocking at our door, and if you don't tell me where that facility is, you'll all be going back to Lash sooner than you think."
The room got quiet and a satisfied smile spread across Eagle's face.
"That's what I thought. I don't know how powerful those creatures of yours are. But you haven't seen the half of what Black Hole can do. So what's it going to be?"
"What will you do if you find the dish?" Cecil asked suddenly.
"Heh. He'll bomb it like he always does. Bomb it back to the stone age." Jess explained.
This cause a laugh to escape the aerial expert.
"It's more complicated than that, but that's the general strategy. It'll still be hell for my men flying out in this storm."
Aldrea stood up frantically and spread her arms in protest.
"You can't do that! Leviathan is in there! You'll bury him under a mound of steel! There has to be another way!"
For the first time they met him, there was a sentiment of regret on Eagle's face as he shook his head.
"It's never easy to choose between one life and one million lives. And that's the kind of scale we're dealing with."
Glenn pounded his fist on the table.
"Aldrea, don't tell him anything! We'll rescue Leviathan ourselves."
"Phoenix and I are with you." Aldrea agreed.
"Me too..." Cecil added.
The four of them stood up, ready to leave but quickly paused as the two soldiers soon raised their weapons. They gave a quick glance at their two commanders and then back at the others who had tried to leave.
"We'll break out of here if you don't let us go." Glenn warned.
"Fine. Go ahead an leave." Eagle waved a hand. "Black Hole will chew you up and spit you out. Luck doesn't last forever, especially not in this war."
"Eagle, don't do this." Jess urged. "Black Hole has done just as much damage to them as they have to us."
"What is it you want from me Red?" Eagle yelled. "It's Green Earth, or them! Who are you going to choose? Because the last time I checked, I wore this uniform to serve our country. Not a bunch of strangers."
This caused Jess to turn away in a frustrated manner as Eagle turned back to Glenn, Ashely, Aldrea, and Cecil.
"So all of you just leave." Eagle ordered. "But when we find that facility, I'll be about half an hour before we have it leveled to the ground. Enemy targets don't last long when my men are in the skies."
The two soldiers slowly lowered their weapons and watched as the four left through the door and began to hurry down the hallways. Jess shook her head and glared at Eagle angrily. But as long as she stared she didn't say a thing and eventually walked off leaving Eagle with the two soldiers.
"Give them five minutes," Eagle said after a time. "Then be sure to send a recon to follow them. I want to get a strike force off the ground the minute we find out it's coordinates."
"Yes sir!"
The two soldiers saluted and walked off to carry out their orders.
-------------------------
Leviathan moaned quietly as it seemed the machine drained him of his strength. Lash sat in a swivel chair while monitoring the weather anomalies the dish weapon had created. Her combat boots lie on the floor as she painted her toenails red and hummed a little song at the same time. Now that the facility was proved to have worked, several Black Hole officers scurried about and monitored equipment.
The room shook slightly as Flak stomped his way into the room. He was presently beating his knuckles together angrily and gnashing his teeth like there was a bad taste in his mouth. When he had entered the room, he approached Lash and let his arms drop to his side.
"What's wrong Flak? Did Hawke give you a good chewing out because of those Neotanks you lost?"
"Grrrrr... You better not say another word about that." Flak growled silently. " Or I'll break somethin' of yours that can't be fixed with nuts and bolts."
He paused for a time to stare at the ground and knocked his boots together for awhile nervously. Eventually he looked back up with a much calmer expression and took a deep breath.
"Ok Lash, what did you want to talk about?" He grunted at her.
"Are you done being mad?" She smiled sweetly.
Flak nodded slowly as if not all to convinced himself.
"Oh goodie! Now we can talk!" She exclaimed. "Alrighty then, this is what I want you to do."
Lash snapped her fingers beckoning to the nearest officer to her side. The alien officer handed her a paper which she then turned over to Flak. The paper almost disappeared in his broad hand as he snatched it away from Lash and gave it a look over. His mouth curved to express his confusion as he looked up from the paper.
"Hey! What's up with this? You got my guys positioned right out in the open. How you gonna ambush these freaks if they can see my guys a mile away?"
"Tee hee hee, what have I told you about thinking Flak? You should leave that department to others! Just answer this, did you put that device on all your troops like I asked?"
"Yeah yeah... Whatever the hell it does." He mumbled. "But it looks like a freaking hood ornament. Not a weapon!"
Lash put her boots back on after letting her toenails dry and stood up. There was the same device in question on her wrist and she slowly motioned to press it. Once she was sure Flak was watching, she pressed the button and slowly disappeared. Flak looked around for awhile trying to figure out what was going on and soon felt something kick his shin. He groaned in pain for a moment and yelled out angrily.
"What the hell you doin' Lash?"
He reached out and swiped the air around him only to feel nothing. There was an electrical zat behind him as he turned to see Lash standing with a big grin.
"That's what you get when you don't pay attention. I said they were cloaking devices a long time ago! A new toy we stole from another world. So why don't you stop asking questions and get ready! Toodles Flak!"
Flak muttered something while rubbing his shin one last time and stomped out with his teeth clenched. Lash let out a giggle and turned to Leviathan in the center of the room. She tapped on the glass causing him to lift an eye open.
"Hey Mr. Flippers! Don't worry! You won't be alone for long! You're friends will either come quietly, or come in itty bitty pieces! Tee hee hee!"
-End Chapter
--Next Chapter: Antenna Assault
-Advance Wars 2
--Project Black Portal
---Chapter 9: Four Reunited, One to Go
Jess pulled up to the gates of the Green Earth base and waited for them to open. The guards shuffled about, moving the gates manually until the truck could roll through. Aldrea watched as they drove across a parking lot full of tanks and then pulled up to what seemed to be the main building. A soldier from the back of the truck scrambled into the drivers side as Jess and Aldrea got out and headed for the front entrance. They soon found themselves running for the doors as rain still pounded the area.
Green clad soldiers overran the area inside, dragging supplies and reports around, and everyone of them were armed in some way; be it pistol or rifle. Aldrea soon turned toward Jess after giving the area a good looking over.
"Is this a hospital?" She seemed to realize.
"We evacuated all the patients before we took it over. Now we're using to recover from Hawke's assaults. Now, stay here for a second." Jess ordered.
Aldrea nodded and chose a place near the wall to stand as Jess plucked two soldiers passing by and began to talk with them. She vaguely motioned toward the girl who she had just brought in and soon pointed. The two soldiers nodded after a time and saluted as Jess walked off, they then approached Aldrea.
"Commander Jess wants you to come with us."
She could only nod while glancing at the assault rifles the two soldiers kept at the ready. When they began to move, they put Aldrea in between them and began to move down the halls, keeping clear of any doctors and nurses moving about. Casual glances into the rooms with open doors would reveal a room full of soldiers in hospital beds. They soon arrived at a meeting room. When they entered, Aldrea's face lit up upon seeing Glenn, Ashley, and Cecil sitting at one of the tables.
All of them stood up upon realizing Aldrea had just been brought in and soon began to call out to her.
"Aldrea!" Ashley gasped. "Are you ok?"
The soldiers watched as their escort moved to the table and sat down with the others. With a nod to the other, they closed the doors.
"Am I glad to see you guys!" She sighed.
"Same here. We've been all over the place searching for you." Glenn explained. "Do you know where Brad and Leviathan are?"
Aldrea became quiet and nodded.
"Yeah... I know where they are..."
-------------------------
Soldiers in the halls began to stop and salute and a certain man began to pass through. He was silver haired and displayed a driving expression upon his face. His dark blue uniform nearly represented his trade, and slightly resembled a flight suit of some sort. Eagle, the CO for the Green Earth air force, soon stepped into a patients room that had been stacked with radio systems and transceivers. Jess stood at one of the transmitters having just finished a call.
"What's this all about Red?" Eagle asked without wasting a second.
Jess narrowed her eyes and straightened up upon hearing his tone.
"We picked someone up while blowing up that bridge. But that was after she changed from a unicorn."
Eagle gave a sigh and crossed his arms.
"When we were trying to rescue Drake's sailors, three creatures flew in and began to help the evacuation of the ships. They changed into kids as well, believe me Red," Eagle stressed. "I don't doubt you. But we really don't have time to sit in awe about this. We have war to fight."
This caused Jess to raise an eyebrow. It was her instinct that told her something had happened while she was gone.
"What is Hawke doing now?"
"He's advancing, soon he'll try to take our major sources of production. If could only get my men in the air, we could push him back. But this god dammed storm... It never stops."
There was an extreme amount of frustration in Eagle's words and he soon turned away from Jess and gazed out the window at the pounding storm. Jess cleared her throat to regain her place in the conversation.
"I wanted to tell you about that. The girl we picked up said that Black Hole is using one of those creatures... her friend, to run this massive antenna array. The details are a little sketchy but... she says it's the cause of those massive tidal waves and the storm as well."
"Where is this girl?" Eagle demanded. "I want to talk to her."
Jess let out a small laugh and took a step forward.
"With all due respect, you aren't exactly a people person." She told him.
Eagle looked at her rather angrily but took a deep breath.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"You know what I'm talking about. Your anger tends to override your senses." Jess explained calmly. "If you want to talk to them, I think I should ask the questions."
"Ha, you wish."
And with that he left.
"Dammit Eagle." Jess muttered.
-------------------------
In the meeting room, Aldrea, Glenn, Ashley, and Cecil had all done their share of explaining their stories. Eagle soon burst into the room with two soldiers and Jess following after him. The four went silent as he looked over all of them.
"Who was it again Red?" He asked after a time.
Jess stepped forward alongside Eagle but instead began talking to the others.
"This is Eagle, he's our hot headed air force commander. He wants to talk to you, Aldrea, about that base with the antenna array."
Aldrea fidgeted under Eagle's firm gaze once he realized who he was looking for. She eventually nodded her head though.
"What do you want to know?" She asked vaguely turning to her friends.
"Hey, I don't think you deserve to know." Glenn cut in. "Not after that welcoming you gave us after Bahamut and the others helped out saving your guys on those ships."
Eagle balled his fists and nearly turned his face into a snarl.
"We don't exactly see dragons and giant birds everyday! Those beasts could have been Black Hole bioweapons." He pointed out. "You haven't even seen what Lash can do with POW's..."
Now Ashley had cut in.
"That twisted little girl is the one who kidnapped us and brought us here in the first place. We don't like those guys any more than you do!"
Jess stepped forward and threw her hands into the air and waved everyone off before the argument could escalate any further.
"Alright, let's calm down. Especially you Eagle. We could have taken a lot more casualties if they decided not to help out."
Eagle simply grunted at this and crossed his arms. He began to stare at Aldrea for awhile, but then turned to Jess.
"Let's not forget, Black Hole is knocking at our door, and if you don't tell me where that facility is, you'll all be going back to Lash sooner than you think."
The room got quiet and a satisfied smile spread across Eagle's face.
"That's what I thought. I don't know how powerful those creatures of yours are. But you haven't seen the half of what Black Hole can do. So what's it going to be?"
"What will you do if you find the dish?" Cecil asked suddenly.
"Heh. He'll bomb it like he always does. Bomb it back to the stone age." Jess explained.
This cause a laugh to escape the aerial expert.
"It's more complicated than that, but that's the general strategy. It'll still be hell for my men flying out in this storm."
Aldrea stood up frantically and spread her arms in protest.
"You can't do that! Leviathan is in there! You'll bury him under a mound of steel! There has to be another way!"
For the first time they met him, there was a sentiment of regret on Eagle's face as he shook his head.
"It's never easy to choose between one life and one million lives. And that's the kind of scale we're dealing with."
Glenn pounded his fist on the table.
"Aldrea, don't tell him anything! We'll rescue Leviathan ourselves."
"Phoenix and I are with you." Aldrea agreed.
"Me too..." Cecil added.
The four of them stood up, ready to leave but quickly paused as the two soldiers soon raised their weapons. They gave a quick glance at their two commanders and then back at the others who had tried to leave.
"We'll break out of here if you don't let us go." Glenn warned.
"Fine. Go ahead an leave." Eagle waved a hand. "Black Hole will chew you up and spit you out. Luck doesn't last forever, especially not in this war."
"Eagle, don't do this." Jess urged. "Black Hole has done just as much damage to them as they have to us."
"What is it you want from me Red?" Eagle yelled. "It's Green Earth, or them! Who are you going to choose? Because the last time I checked, I wore this uniform to serve our country. Not a bunch of strangers."
This caused Jess to turn away in a frustrated manner as Eagle turned back to Glenn, Ashely, Aldrea, and Cecil.
"So all of you just leave." Eagle ordered. "But when we find that facility, I'll be about half an hour before we have it leveled to the ground. Enemy targets don't last long when my men are in the skies."
The two soldiers slowly lowered their weapons and watched as the four left through the door and began to hurry down the hallways. Jess shook her head and glared at Eagle angrily. But as long as she stared she didn't say a thing and eventually walked off leaving Eagle with the two soldiers.
"Give them five minutes," Eagle said after a time. "Then be sure to send a recon to follow them. I want to get a strike force off the ground the minute we find out it's coordinates."
"Yes sir!"
The two soldiers saluted and walked off to carry out their orders.
-------------------------
Leviathan moaned quietly as it seemed the machine drained him of his strength. Lash sat in a swivel chair while monitoring the weather anomalies the dish weapon had created. Her combat boots lie on the floor as she painted her toenails red and hummed a little song at the same time. Now that the facility was proved to have worked, several Black Hole officers scurried about and monitored equipment.
The room shook slightly as Flak stomped his way into the room. He was presently beating his knuckles together angrily and gnashing his teeth like there was a bad taste in his mouth. When he had entered the room, he approached Lash and let his arms drop to his side.
"What's wrong Flak? Did Hawke give you a good chewing out because of those Neotanks you lost?"
"Grrrrr... You better not say another word about that." Flak growled silently. " Or I'll break somethin' of yours that can't be fixed with nuts and bolts."
He paused for a time to stare at the ground and knocked his boots together for awhile nervously. Eventually he looked back up with a much calmer expression and took a deep breath.
"Ok Lash, what did you want to talk about?" He grunted at her.
"Are you done being mad?" She smiled sweetly.
Flak nodded slowly as if not all to convinced himself.
"Oh goodie! Now we can talk!" She exclaimed. "Alrighty then, this is what I want you to do."
Lash snapped her fingers beckoning to the nearest officer to her side. The alien officer handed her a paper which she then turned over to Flak. The paper almost disappeared in his broad hand as he snatched it away from Lash and gave it a look over. His mouth curved to express his confusion as he looked up from the paper.
"Hey! What's up with this? You got my guys positioned right out in the open. How you gonna ambush these freaks if they can see my guys a mile away?"
"Tee hee hee, what have I told you about thinking Flak? You should leave that department to others! Just answer this, did you put that device on all your troops like I asked?"
"Yeah yeah... Whatever the hell it does." He mumbled. "But it looks like a freaking hood ornament. Not a weapon!"
Lash put her boots back on after letting her toenails dry and stood up. There was the same device in question on her wrist and she slowly motioned to press it. Once she was sure Flak was watching, she pressed the button and slowly disappeared. Flak looked around for awhile trying to figure out what was going on and soon felt something kick his shin. He groaned in pain for a moment and yelled out angrily.
"What the hell you doin' Lash?"
He reached out and swiped the air around him only to feel nothing. There was an electrical zat behind him as he turned to see Lash standing with a big grin.
"That's what you get when you don't pay attention. I said they were cloaking devices a long time ago! A new toy we stole from another world. So why don't you stop asking questions and get ready! Toodles Flak!"
Flak muttered something while rubbing his shin one last time and stomped out with his teeth clenched. Lash let out a giggle and turned to Leviathan in the center of the room. She tapped on the glass causing him to lift an eye open.
"Hey Mr. Flippers! Don't worry! You won't be alone for long! You're friends will either come quietly, or come in itty bitty pieces! Tee hee hee!"
-End Chapter
--Next Chapter: Antenna Assault