The 99th Platoon –
The FlatFeet Saga
Act Three: Into the Lair
(A/N The most emotionally charged chapter and ending in Platoon history. Read on to find out why. See you when this is all over.)
Chapter 22: Till We Meet Again
Three shots.
Three dead Tediz. Their
bodies all fell to the floor in a loud thump as Red Storm stood
holding an M-9. His ice-blue eyes glanced around the now empty room
for any more signs of the Tediz. Seeing there was no more he turned
around and checked for anyone that was following him.
Several
bullets struck the wall as he started to peer out and pulled back in
quickly. Scowling to himself he signalled to Pyst behind him, that it
was his turn. The psychopathic Squirrel whipped out a rocket
launcher.
Carefully aiming the large weapon he fired in an arc in
which it bounced off the wall and when he heard the screams of pain
from the Tediz he knew his target was hit. Glancing out and seeing no
Tediz around he and RedStorm walked out.
CoolGuy leapt into
the throng, three Tediz leaping in front of him, singling him out
from the group.
"Holy crap!"
He started firing at them, but
they moved far too fast. He managed to hit one of them in the leg,
and then he blew its head off. The other two were close. He got out
his magnum and fired one bullet. The Tediz dodged and hit CoolGuy's
hand with his sword, making him let go of the gun.
There was a
blast of flame and a low hiss as the jinxed pyromaniac, Ajax
Fireborn, torched CoolGuy's assailants.
Sarge tried to
assess the battle. Since the arrival of the 99th the odds
had evened in favour of the Agency. The sirens and red flashing
lights continued to blaze. As he fired a shotgun round into a Tediz
throng, mutilating limbs and torsos, he could make out his men
helping out the struggling basic force of the Agency.
Ricy had
leapt high enough to sore directly down the corridor, and open up an
attack front from the southern side. Stealth and Dark were doing what
they did best, spurts of green and yellow liquid staining the walls
around them. Chael stood up the back, firing and reloading with rapid
pace, scoring headshots with each gunshot. WWW slipped in and out of
the Tediz line, posing as one of them, speaking Tediz to confuse the
grunts, whilst Blaze dashed to Sarge's side, delivering the news
that Twisted and Snickers were holding off the West wing, and Cartman
and Squeaky were making short work of the main entrance breach,
trying as fast as they could to seal it up.
Yet something nagged
Sarge in the back of his mind. Something wasn't right.
Something
had been forgotten.
"Hey, kid… Help me lift him up onto
this table…" Mon said, wheeling himself in front of an operating
table.
Speechless and his face blank, almost bored, Sergio
Pernandez dropped FlatFeet onto the operating table.
"Thanks."
"No
problem." He placed his hands in his pockets and stared around the
room.
Empty.
He could see Deja, recovering quietly in a chair.
He saw Mon start checking over the still, but breathing, FlatFeet.
He
gripped a pair of surgical scissors, tossing them lightly, playing
with them in an almost sadistic way.
"Hey those aren't toys…"
Mon began.
Sergio smiled.
"Ceasefire! Ceasefire!
Captain! Call your men off! Call them off!" a broad
shouldered and imposing Squirrel blared. The Platoon broke off their
assault. Sarge recognised the approaching figure at once.
Major
B.Addass.
"They asked for a ceasefire?" Sarge asked. The Major
nodded.
Sarge was suspicious.
"Dark, keep your sword out.
Chael get outta sight and ready to shoot from afar. RedStorm, Oreos,
flank the sides and block the way out when they come in…"
Two
Tediz, one of lower rank and one of higher entered. The higher ranked
one spoke. He spoke in jarbled Tediz. WWW acted as translator.
"We
have called a ceasefire..."
"We know that already..." the
Major interrupted. WWW continued translating.
"Because we
believe you are unaware of the complete danger of the Omega. The
Omega was a project gone wrong and sealed away so as to never be
activated. Unfortunately you blundering fools went ahead and released
it. It has come to our attention that you believe you have cured the
one infected. There is one thing we have discovered about the
Omega."
A pause.
"It is indestructible...At 'death' it
becomes frantic. It searches for a way out a way where it can spread
to safety...It is a survivor of the best degree."
!FLASH BACK!
Sergio Perandez
grabbed the freshly fallen FlatFeet from the stasis
tube.
Involuntarily FlatFeet's eyes snapped open. The hysterical
Sergio looked directly into FlatFeet's eyes.
FlatFeet's pupils
became thin slits whilst Sergio's grew wide as saucers.
Sergio
became calm. He rushed FlatFeet to Mon.
!FLASH BACK!
"The
Omega can survive for 30 seconds without a vessel...it can find even
the most unlikely methods to transmit itself to another body. Mainly
touch, or direct lines of eyesight..."
A heart beat of
silence...then...
"DOWN! THAT! SHAFT!" Sarge
roared.
Sarge prayed he wasn't too late.
The doors to C Lab
burst off their hinges.
Sarge fell to his knees...
Mon
lay still, metres from his wheel chair, two of the wheel's spoke
protruded from his chest, as if the collision had been
violent.
FlatFeet breathed weakly as his blood seeped slowly out
of the large slice down the side of his face...
The Professor's
dead body was sprawled onto the floor facing the ceiling, his face a
mess of bloody ribbons...
But the thing that forced Captain Rico 'Sarge' Rodriguez to his knees...
Dana 'Déjà
vu' Rodriguez was pinned to the ceiling spiked through her palms
and the souls of her feet in a mock crucifixion...Her head hung
limp.
There was a message scrawled in blood across the walls of C
Lab.
"Au revoir..."
Sarge trembled. He
shook, the bloody wrath building inside of him. His face was
contorted.
"Get...her...down..."
Dark's normally
sinister complexion was now as pale as a sheet. His breathing was
short and sharp.
His hand shaking violently, he brought Deja's
down.
A tear rolled down his cheek...
They all held their breath. Dark stammered the answer.
"S-S-She's...she's dead..."
Sarge could contain it no longer.
He
screamed before flinging himself onto the corpse and there and then
burst into tears...
One by one…the others followed…
A
red Panther convertible rolled down a highway, not too far from the
disguised transit authority building...
Sergio Perandez cruised
down the sun-flooded high way...
He was humming...
"Time...is
on my side..."
He laughed.
"Oh yes it is...Oh yes it
is!"
The car drove off into the blood red sunset...the
Omega's maniacal laughter trailing behind it…echoing…
Au revoir.
