Chapter 4: Monsters in the Middle
ONE WEEK LATER
Spy decided that everything was going much better than he could have ever hoped. Soldier hadn't gotten himself killed, and had in fact earned some small amount of respect from his peers, and Scout hadn't gotten himself killed either. That was really all he could have asked from the two men, and somehow they had managed to deliver.
So far, Soldier had been utterly crushing the foreign enemy that Japan was at war with, and because of this, even the emperor's advisors who didn't like him were starting to see his usefulness. Hell, Spy was starting to wonder if the emperor wasn't smarter than he looked, having recognized Jane's potential when even his own colleagues thought him a bumbling idiot. He was doing so well with the army, plans were to issue him a concubine as reward, an act that Spy found a bit revolting.
As for Scout, well…
As planned, the emperor had had him moved to a large industrial factory a few miles away from the palace. Among him were the best and brightest of Japan's Engineering Corps, working day and night to replicate Dell's machine. So far, thankfully, they had been unsuccessful, which gave Spy all the time he needed to negotiate.
Spy rematerialized in front of the emperor. By now, the emperor was a bit wise to his antics, and while he was startled, he wasn't exactly frightened. His eyes narrowed at Spy's sight. Spy could hear both of the emperor's guards spring into action, but the emperor held up a hand, and they became motionless once more.
"What do you want", the emperor asked.
"I want to make a deal", Spy said.
The emperor raised his eyebrow.
"You have almost everything you want", Spy told him. "Dominance over your enemies, and eternal life in your grasp."
"You want me to let your son go?"
Spy froze.
"I assumed he was your son, with the lengths you have gone to protect him."
"Well, we are mercenaries. If our team members die, we don't get paid. It's a concerted effort to keep everyone alive."
Not quite right, but close enough to be simple and make sense.
"I see. But you still want to negotiate for his release?"
"Yes."
"My generals are ruthless to Gaijin. Your other friend, who is helping me win my wars, is in far more danger than your so- colleague is. Would you not negotiate for his release as well?"
"He is in a vice that he tightened on his own. Maybe he will just have to find out the hard way that you aren't his friend."
"I see."
"So?"
"No."
Spy wasn't surprised. Undoubtedly, the emperor believed he held the advantage here, and that it was only a matter of time before Spy, Scout and even Soldier were no longer his problem. Sure, the portal was closed.
But he had never met the team.
"I just want you to know", Spy explained, "that this could have ended without bloodshed. I was willing to walk out of here and never be your problem again if you had just surrendered the boy to me. Over the rest of your very short life, you will come to regret this decision of yours."
The emperor smiled.
"Good day, then."
"Yes, good day."
With that, Spy vanished.
…
Soldier was excited to see his new surprise present. He had heard that it was a concubine! He wondered how many layers it would be.
It was about damn time that his men started showing him some real respect. He had practically won the war for them, and was basically working on crushing small pockets of resistance at this point. If only George Washington could see him now!
A sudden thought occurred to him. He had ordered that all of the prisoners be treated fairly. If he was gone, would that order hold up? Worse, still, if his current control was threated by a major rebellion, would he have to break this rule to send a message? Sun Tzu would undoubtedly look down upon such an act.
The solution he devised was brilliant; he wouldn't crush the resistance, his enemy would! They would recruit these Gaijin into militias, and have them garrison major control points while the army simply focused on fighting. It was brilliant! He had to write it down-
Oh, right. He couldn't write. He could read, of course, but no one had ever taught him how to write. He slumped back into his chair, defeated.
Right then, one of his underlings walked in, hauling in a woman in a kimono. Her hands had been shackled, as had her feet. His curiosity was peaked.
"My lord", the underling announced, "your concubine."
Now Soldier was confused. He examined the woman, noting her long, blonde hair and registering a defiant look in her eye behind the fresh makeup. He returned his gaze to his underling.
"That's not a cake."
"I'm… sorry, my lord?"
"A concubine is a many-layered cake! I thought you were bringing me a cake. Why have you brought me a woman?"
"What is… cake?"
"Forget it. Leave the woman."
The underling, confused, yelled at the woman, pushing her closer to the center of the room. He approached Jane, handing him the key to her shackles, and promptly leaving, closing the door behind him. Jane sighed, producing a cigar, and putting it in his mouth.
"What's your name, private", Jane Doe asked through his lips.
The woman stayed defiantly silent, staring daggers into him with her ice blue eyes.
"Then you're just going to be 'private' from now on", Jane informed her. "You got a light?"
The woman continued to glare at him.
"If you don't have a light, you can just say so."
"Traitor", the woman breathed.
Jane looked dumbfounded.
"What?"
"Traitor", she said more loudly.
"I'm no traitor", Jane roared, jumping from his seat. "I am a patriot! I am a true American! I AM A SOLDIER!"
"You are a traitor", the woman screamed back at him. "You never loved your people!"
"I AM my people!"
The woman seemed taken aback by this. She narrowed her eyes and said nothing more. Jane sat back down.
"Got a light?"
The woman didn't answer.
"Maybe I already asked that. Well, if you're going to be my concubine, then you're going to need a lighter… so you can light my cigars."
Jane took a lighter from his pocket, and tossed it to the woman. She caught it in her hands, examining it in bewilderment.
"Stick that in your pocket and hold onto it until I need it."
Jane gave her an evil grin.
"If you're sticking with me, private, we'll be sharing plenty of victory cigars."
…
The people were worse than the place. They were encased in heavy metal suits, hooked into long thick ropes dangling from the ceiling. They all looked like overweight, oversized toddlers, and none of them would speak to him outside of pointing to the plans he had provided and shouting something in Japanese. He didn't understand them, so how could he respond?
He hadn't seen Spy, but so far they were coming along much faster than the team had initially predicted. As it turns out, they had plenty of copper, and were mostly using sheets and wires of it to bring the machine to life. So far, it seemed like it was working.
Scout watched in abstract horror as he realized that they were well and truly screwed.
…
His new holding enclosure was a little bit larger, but he still only had a bucket to shit in. This time, he had been shown more of the jail in question, and he was certain that he was the only one here. Throwing a rock at the wall to keep himself occupied, he tried as hard as he could to not reflect too hard, so that he didn't lose his mind.
Spy materialized in front of his cell. Scout sighed.
"What", Spy asked incredulously.
"We are screwed, man", Scout informed him.
"Why is that", Spy asked.
"It's been a week and they're halfway done with the machine", Scout relayed.
Spy thought for a moment.
Finally, he said, "That's not good."
"Duh", Scout monotoned, throwing his rock at the wall.
"Or at least it would be, if they had Australium."
Scout looked up at Spy, annoyed.
"You don't get it, man."
"What don't I get?"
"These guys are smart", Scout explained. "They've got half of the machine finished in a week, man. A week. They'll figure out the Australium problem."
"And by then we'll be long gone", Spy informed him.
Scout looked him in the eye.
"Did you see what they were doing to people", Scout asked.
Spy cocked his head, confused.
"People like Boudica, that's going to be the standard for the whole world, and now we've given them the means to live forever. We did that, man."
"Scout, who cares? It's a parallel universe, it's not like it matters what happens here."
"But they're still people, man!"
"But they aren't our people, Scout. Just wait for Dell, then we'll go home and you'll never have to think about this again."
Scout gave Spy a look of… sadness? With a mixture of disgust. He turned away from Spy, continuing to throw his rock at the wall. Spy looked down at him, confused. Then, he vanished from sight.
…
Engineer strode into Pyro's room, tape measure in hand. Pyro was nowhere to be seen, giving Dell pause. On Pyro's desk, a journal, covered in flowers, rainbows and sleeping kittens sat out in the open, asking for it. Out of curiosity, Dell pulled his greasy glove off of his right hand, and flipped the book open with his newly upgraded gunslinger.
Immediately, he was accosted by a hand-drawn image of a monstrous, corpse-like creature with pale, drawn skin, long claws, and red on its sharp-toothed mouth being engulfed in flames. At its feet lay a few desiccated corpses, all with sad face stickers covering their heads. It looked like someone with a sad face sticker, who was standing away from the monster, had shot it with a flare gun. The one with the flare gun had gashes drawn into its chest, and a jagged line drawn across the sticker.
Underneath that was a paragraph of rambling text. Something about "one who consumes manflesh", but most interesting was that it was labeled, "The Night It All Began".
Dell flipped until he opened the page to the nearest date, a few days ago. A picture of Pyro, with a smiley face over its head, with a jagged scar across it. It was standing over what appeared to be Scout, with a frowny face sticker over his head. It looked like Pyro was in a protective stance, pointing its flame thrower away from Scout, defending him from some unknown assailant. Underneath it was some text.
Where had he gone? I asked, and they told me he was in a parallel universe. I've met things that should not be of this world. Better than any of them, I know the dangers of worlds beyond worlds. I have seen the monsters in the middle conjured by the evil of all evils. Though I fight with cross on neck and purifying flame in my gun, I am stumbled. The boy is beautiful. Beautiful like how I used to be. He must not be sullied like I was.
Dell flipped the book closed, staring at the kittens and rainbows again. Not much shook him in his life, but he was pretty shook by what he had just read. He had thought of Pyro as being unable to communicate entirely, and that had mostly helped him sleep at night knowing he had to share a base with that psycho.
He turned to leave, only to see a shadow in the doorframe. Of course it was Pyro. And Pyro had an axe.
The firebug slowly approached Dell, the tip of its axe sparking as it dragged against the ground. Pyro said nothing as it continued its advance. Dell began backing up, holding up his hands. There was no use trying to deny what the Pyro had just seen. The next best thing would be to try his best to reason with it.
"Pyro", Dell said quietly, "don't do this."
Pyro mumbled something unintelligible and produced a silver cross.
"Pyro", Dell said, a little louder this time, "what are you doing?"
Pyro mumbled something else and held up the cross.
"We're gonna find him", Dell said. "We're gonna go get him back."
Pyro began mumbling for a long period of time, occasionally looking back at the cross it was holding. Then it lowered its cross, turned around, and left its room. As it disappeared around the corner, Dell dropped to his knees, giving a long sigh.
Dell decided he could make measurements of Pyro later.