The 99th
Platoon – The FlatFeet Saga
Act Two: Operation FlatFeet
(A/N Woah. Been a while. Sorry about the lull, but I definitely needed a break.
I had responsibilities and certain situations to deal with. However, I once again
find myself desiring to tap into a creative stream, hopefully forcing out
whatever's giving me writer's block. I apologize for the lack of 'meat' in the
last chapter. It was one of those transitional pieces in the mission, where
there isn't a lot of solid material to work with. Enough chitchat. Let's get
down to work.)
Chapter 10: Lost and Found
Deja's earpiece cackled. Ajax picked it up.
*Deja?* It was CoolGuy. Twisted could be heard in the background.
"No, it's Ajax. Deja's taking a break. What's up?"
*We have the package and are on the road home. Should be there in a few hours*
"Roger that CoolGuy. I'll pass the message on."
Dark lead Ricy and Mon through the forest. The noon sun shone through the
leaf-green canopy, dying everything in a pale green light. The Hunter sniffed
the air and his brow furrowed. He looked towards Mon who leaned his head
sideways.
"What is it?" Ricy asked. "Is it FlatFeet?" They kept their voices to soft,
rushed, whispers. Dark shook his head.
"If it was him there'd be more noise." The Panther's whiskers twitched
nervously, sensing his surroundings. Some…thing…familiar was around here,
somewhere… A rustle came from the bushes behind them. Ricy drew his custom
firearm as Dark's sword slid silently out of its sheath. The rustling continued
as a dark brown figure leapt out of the bushes.
"What're you doing in our forest?!" the Tediz near-shrieked. Ricy
snorted and relaxed.
"Holy…" Mon muttered, "Triple W! What the hell?"
Indeed, it was Thomas "WWW" Warclat, looking worse for wear than the last time
the Platoon had seen him before the Disbanding. Rips were visible in his
stretchy cloth-like skin, tiny rips caused by the thorns on bushes, rips that
had obviously been sown back together by hand. His face was covered in mud, and
a bunch of matted leaves and mud was all that concealed his…dignity.
"Damn boy!" Ricy gagged, "you stink!"
"So this is where you disappeared to," Dark added, smirking.
"WWW? What happened to you?" Mon asked. WWW looked madly over his shoulder.
"Never mind that now…you must come with us… Yes! Follow us, they must! Come!
Come quickly!" WWW vanished into the bushes. The others quickly followed.
They had been climbing the mountain for hours, and yet they were still far from
the top. They had reached a particularly sheer cliff-face that could not be
circled. It was the fastest way to the mountain village at the top. They had no
choice but to scale the stone precipice.
Professional Special Ops.
Agent 00-Oreos wiped a bead of sweat off of his forehead. Chewing loudly
on a piece of gum he hammered a support spike into the mountain's rocky
crevices. He dug his spiked shoes into the mountainside. He threaded another
cord through…
*KHA! KHA!*
With an ear-splitting cry an angry buzzard flew directly onto his backpack.
Oreos flung his arm around him in defence. The rope swayed under their combined
weight. With a loud screech the buzzard soared skywards. But Oreos' rope would
not stop shaking. He looked up, frantic.
The rope had been gnawed away by friction...it began splitting into tiny,
broken threads, threads that would not hold his weight. He swore as he reached
for the top of the cliff, so near, yet so far…
His fingers grabbed the dusty edge as the rope snapped, snaking away below him.
"Oreos!" Chael cried.
"I'm okay! I'm okay!" Oreos replied.
Squeaky F. Acore gazed on anxiously, 40 feet below. A vein was visible
throbbing against Oreos' exposed arm.
"Hold on soldier!" Pyst, the closest to Oreos, began climbing the cliff as fast
as he could, but he was too far behind. Oreos tried raising his other arm, but
found his first grip giving way.
"Don't move!" Squeaky yelled, "It's crumbling!"
"I-I can't hold on much longer!" Fragments of stone and dirt fell away from
beneath Oreos' paw.
"Yes you can! Hang on tight! I'm coming!" Pyst grunted with effort.
"Can't…" Oreos whispered. The pull of gravity was far too much. He
slowly closed his eyes.
"Oreos!" Chael yelled, "No!"
Oreos let go.
"Come come! We've a home we do! Yes! Deep in a cave in the forest…it is safe
there…the monster…the monster in the woods…won't…can't…find you… No, no he
mustn't! We mustn't!" WWW raved. The others followed him into a dank and dark
hole built mainly out of brambles and other pieces of driftwood. Scattered
pieces of machinery lay on the ground, covered by blueprints and papers with
detailed number readouts, written in binary and hexadecimal. It was obvious
that out here, away from civilization, WWW had lost his mind. He rummaged
through what appeared to be his personal belongings.
"We're lucky we found you!" he said.
"WWW, you've got to come with us…we'll help you…"
"No…not yet! We must find it first…"
"What?"
"The box…that tells us where the monster is…"
"Monster? You mean FlatFeet?" Mon said excitedly, "Do you know where he is?"
"Yes! Yes we do!"
He produced what looked like a homemade radio. He feverously turned it on and
fiddled with the dials until he was, apparently, satisfied. The others leaned
close to listen.
*We have just received word from a small forest hut's radio that this
monster, that calls FlatFeet, is on rampage towards the forest town. This radio
report confirms it…*
The radio crackled as the station switched to the transmission they had
received. A Squirrel's voice came over the radio, in between bursts of static,
clearly panicked.
*kkssssssshhh...Anyone? There's a ksssshhhhhhhh...onster, help, he's killed
Bill kkkssssshhhhh ****, it's FlatFeeksssh, tell my wife I loved her big brea- kkkssssssssssssshhhh*
The announcer came on again.
*We'd like to tell our audience that the unfortunate man loved his wife's
big breakfasts, yes that's it, breakfasts. The police have sent a large SWAT
team down to intercept FlatFeet, but this radio signal confirms their failure*
*ksssh HQ, we have a 10-kssh4 here, repeat, a 10-kssh4 here ksssssh*
The announcer piped up again.
*Now, I've talked with the police, and there are only two transmissions that
end with a 4, 10-44, which means 'We are raping our spouses' or 10-64, which
means 'Send the army, this thing's too strong'. They confirm it to be 10-64, so
the army have been sent to the nearby forest settlements with all their
personnel ordered to shoot on sight. That's all for the Flatfeet rampage…*
"Well then," Dark said mirthlessly, "Let's get moving."
A dark grey paw shot out from the cliff's edge and grabbed Oreos by his collar.
Quickly Oreos was dragged back onto solid ground.
"You can thank me later." The voice was husky and came from deep within the
diaphragm. Oreos smirked.
"About bloody time."
"Oreos!" the others called, "Who is it?"
A mature and well-defined, semi-bearded face peered cautiously over the edge.
"Sarge!" they yelled. He smiled back.
"Get your asses up here…pronto!"
Within moments all four soldiers had gathered around Sarge, each firing off a
volley of questions. Sarge held up a hand for silence.
"CoolGuy and Twisted came and found me…brought me to my senses."
"Where are they now?" Pyst asked.
"Heading to the town where FlatFeet's heading."
"They found him?" Chael asked. Sarge nodded.
"He's in the woods. We've gotta move. Fast."
"How're we gonna do that?" Squeaky asked. Sarge smiled again.
"I found…a ride…" He whistled and a jet-black helicopter soared above them.
S.G.S. was painted in bold white letters.
Samuel Graham Snickers – former light artillery expert and chopper pilot for
the 99th Platoon.
The chopper was soon hovering overhead. They climbed up the rope ladder, one by
one, into Snicker's chopper. Pyst was last. Suddenly he heard a noise behind
him. He spun round to come face to face with a giant grizzly bear.
The
grizzly bit Pyst in the leg, Pyst bit the grizzly in the paw.
"YOU WANNA FIGHT!?! BRING IT!"
Pyst and the grizzly rolled around fighting on the mountainside. They rolled
off a cliff.
"OH CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!" Pyst yelled.
-In the helicopter-
"Nice to see you guys again," Snickers said, speaking into his helmet mike. The
other 99ers held their thumbs up.
Good to see you too.
"Where's Pyst?" he asked. Sarge looked round, his expression one of surprise,
followed by realisation, followed by anger, followed by exasperation.
"Hey guys, check it out! That grizzly is climbing the cliff!" Squeaky pointed.
Sarge, Oreos, Chael, Squeaky and Snickers turned and looked out the window. The
grizzly was climbing the mountain at a fast pace.
"Wow! I don't think I ever seen a grizzly climb so fast!" Oreos yelled over the
roar of the rotor blades.
"Why would a bear climb a cliff so fast and recklessly anyway?" Chael asked.
Suddenly Pyst came into view, chasing the bear up the cliff.
"Well that would explain it."
"Where you going bear!?! You wanna start a fight but won't finish it?! COME
HERE LITTLE MAN!!!" Pyst crowed, cackling like a madman.
The grizzly bear jumped, landing on Pyst.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHH!! ****, it's biting me! The ***** is biting me!! Get it off!
****!"
"Should we help him?" Squeaky asked. He turned to see Chael taping the whole
episode on his video.
"Nah. This week's World's Funniest Home Videos prize is $5000!"
The bear bit Pyst in the leg. Pyst bit the bear in the neck.
The bear slashed Pyst across the torso. Pyst punched the bear in the teeth.
The bear swatted Pyst on the head.
"YOW! Hey look! An eagle!"
He pointed behind the bear. The bear turned round.
Pyst kicked the bear in the groin.
The bear fell to the ground groaning and holding his crotch.
"I win!"
The bear suddenly rose to its feet, upper cutting Pyst in the…
"ARRRG! OW! RIGHT IN THE MOMMY-DADDY BUTTON!"
"That 5 grand is mine!" Chael laughed.
"Give me that loud speaker!" Sarge turned the megaphone on. "PYST! LEAVE THAT
BEAR ALONE AND GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!"
"Aw hell! You got lucky bear!" Pyst groaned. He climbed up the rope ladder.
Pyst stared daggers at Chael.
"I want that tape Chael!" he growled.
"What tape?"
"Don't pretend you don't know! If I see that tape on America's funniest I'm
gonna rip you a new arse"
"Seriously, I don't have any tape... Holy ****, the bear's up again and wants
another round!" Chael said, pointing behind Pyst. Pyst turned and Chael fired
one of his tranquilliser rounds. Pyst was out like a light.
The others couldn't help but chuckle.
"Hey Snickers?" Chael asked, "Can you fly us by a mailbox or something? I need
to send this tape…"
"Roger that…" he laughed.