Of Conclusions, Conspiracies, and Mariachis
Disclaimer: Same as before.
Paige fingered the small metal rectangle on the bedside table and let out a small yawn. Ted stirred next to her, but he didn't wake up. The last night was somewhat of a blur, but it was a feeling she remembered from her high school days, the feeling of waking up after a night of drinking, a hangover.
At least I know I'm dating a gentleman. Paige thought. Ted barely stirred, he was fast asleep, weeks of reconnaissance and planning and snatch and grabs, not to mention the late night meeting with the Incredibles and breaking up a fight between Lance and Pitor with their ever present dueling over Kitty had left him tired to the extreme.
Paige delicately fingered the outside of a bruise on his rib cage that he had sustained from taking a hit from Lance when he got between him and Pitor. Ted stirred but didn't wake up, Paige smiled and kissed his forehead. He made that sort of contented muttering type noise that she always liked to hear. Note to self do this more often.
She lay back down on the bed and fell back asleep. Twenty minutes later she awoke to the feel of a familiar furry snout and tongue on her face belonging to a very familiar Siberian Husky. "Eww, Klondike..." Paige groaned.
Ted sat up in bed, "He does that a lot. You can tell he likes you."
Paige turned towards Ted, "Well I've already got a boyfriend, I don't need any more kisses."
"Woo woo woo woo." Klondike wooed.
"Quiet you." Ted replied, "Off."
Klondike climbed off the bed and then put his forepaws on the bed, nudging Ted's forearm. He was looking eagerly with his blue eyed gaze at the two of them, as if to say, "Come on you guys, it's seven-thirty in the morning. We're burning daylight here..."
Ted glanced at his beside clock; Low Light wasn't due to take him to the helicopter sniping course until eleven. Klondike bent down on the floor; forepaws extended all the way, his rump in the air and his tail wagging mightily.
Ted climbed out of bed and went after his boots, socks, and trousers before sliding on a green YAMAS t-shirt. Paige climbed out of the bed too, having been tucked in wearing the clothes she wore the night before, she slid on her shoes and took a frisbee from Ted's dresser, with a Molson logo on it.
"Woo woo woo woo woo!"
"Klondike, calm down, we're going outside." Ted replied.
"He's a dynamo if I ever saw one." Paige quipped.
The two of them walked outside as Klondike ran around Paige and Ted, wooing excitedly every so often before Ted opened the back door and walked outside. Klondike followed Paige and Ted before Paige flung the Frisbee down the backyard.
After Klondike chased the Frisbee around a few times, and calmed down a little, Paige and Ted walked with him back into the house just as the sound of Pietro screaming like a little girl echoed through the halls.
"OW! OW! OW! WANDA! STOP! I DIDN'T MEAN TO FEED MR. STUPID TO KLONDIKE! NOT THE HEXING! NOT THE HEXING! MERCY! MERCY!" Pietro screamed.
Paige and Ted looked up to see Pietro wrapped in hexing energy, moving inexorably towards Trinity's bedroom.
"NO! NO! NOT TRINITY'S BEDROOM! IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY!" Pietro begged.
"Oh Pietro! You've come to play with us?" Trinity could be heard chanting.
"Come on girls," Brittany said, "Fire up the Speedy Sizzler..."
"OH NO! NOT THE SPEEDY SIZZLER!" Pietro shrieked like a school girl.
HISSSS! WHAP! BZZZZAAPPPP!
"AIEEEEEEEE!" Pietro screamed as several Amperes of current coursed through his body.
"Ted, you live in an insane asylum." Paige quipped.
"You're just now noticing this?" Ted replied with a cocked eyebrow.
"MOUNTAINEER! YOU ARE DEAD! YOU HEAR ME DEAD!" Lady Jaye shouted as she kicked down the front door.
"Now, Lady Jaye, calm down! What did Ted do?" Paige asked.
"It wasn't Ted, it was his insane pet!" Lady Jaye replied, "Don't give me that 'who me?' look you insane, bra stealing flea factory!"
"First of all, that was one incident. All the stolen personal items in Klondike's little alcove belonged to Scarlet and Cover Girl." Ted replied.
"Give that back, mutt!" Lady Jaye shouted as she was playing tug of war with Klondike for a very sexy aqua silk bra.
"That doesn't always work, Jaye." Ted replied, "After all, Klondike was built to pull sleds."
Klondike won the tug of war, because Lady Jaye didn't want to tear the bra in two. Klondike trotted up to Paige and dropped the bra at her feet, "Thanks but no thanks, Klondike, I have plenty of those."
Paige picked the bra up and handed it back to Lady Jaye. "Remind me next time we watch over Klondike to play fetch with a hand grenade." Lady Jaye replied.
"With or without the pin?" Ted replied.
"Without, of course." Lady Jaye replied with a wicked grin as she walked out of the house with her stolen bra in her right hand.
"Sibes are a merry, slightly mischievous breed." Ted replied.
"Slightly mischievous?" Roadblock began, "That's like saying Cobra Commander is only slightly devious."
"Mountaineer, your pet needs some serious obedience training." Low Light added.
"He's only a pup," Ted replied, "Give him some time."
"I could keep an eye on Klondike for today, since you guys seem somewhat preoccupied." Paige offered.
"Thanks, I think he needs to lie low for a while." Ted replied, handing Klondike's leash to Paige.
"I'M NOT LISTENING! I'M NOT LISTENING! TRA LA LA LA LA!" Lance shouted.
"Another Coyote problem?" Paige asked.
"I'm afraid so." Ted replied.
"Listen, I've gotta get to work." Paige replied, "I'll see you later, I love you."
"I'll see you later. I love you too, honey." Ted replied.
Paige orbed back to San Francisco as Lance walked around the room with his hands over his ears chanting, "Whose afraid of the Big Bad Wolf! Big Bad Wolf! Big Bad Wolf! Who's afraid of the big bad wolf, tra la la la la!"
"Is it a bad thing when Lance starts chanting Disney songs?" Emily asked Roadblock with a raised eyebrow.
"This happens often." Roadblock replied, as he opened a cabinet. The sound of a tea kettle whistling could be heard.
"Earl Grey or English Breakfast?" Emily asked.
"I think English Breakfast Tea might be in order." Roadblock said.
"Chamomile is more soothing." Emily replied.
"Chamomile it is then." Roadblock said.
"Guys," Cover Girl replied, "Have you seen the dryer anywhere?"
BOOM!
"ARH HA HA HA HAR!" The Pirates all chanted.
"Ye idiot you had the dryer cannon facing the wrong way!" Gibbs shouted.
A woman's shriek could be heard upstairs, "JACK SPARROW YOU ARE DEAD! YOU HEAR ME! DEAD!"
"You have no manner of luck at all, Jack." Gibbs replied.
"Oh shut up, mate, and save me." Jack shouted as he ran downstairs, pursued by a very irate Julie wearing nothing but a little white towel that covered her just above her chest to the middle of her thighs.
Julie was chasing Jack with a meat cleaver that she swung around, narrowly missing Sands as he walked into the kitchen. Sands flung up his hands to protect himself from the swinging meat cleaver.
"Hey watch it with that thing, lady; you could hurt someone. Namely me!" Sands shouted. One of Sands' flailing hands grabbed the knot of the towel on Julie's chest which spun around and around, leaving her wearing nothing save for the angry look on her face.
"Sands," Julie began, "Prepare to die…"
Julie leaped on him and started pummeling him, "AUGH! ABUSE OF THE HANDICAPPED! ABUSE OF THE HANDICAPPED!" Sands shouted.
"Can you make that Chamomile tea a double dose?" Roadblock replied.
"I think a shot of brandy might be the best thing for all this insanity." Emily replied.
"Lead the way." Roadblock replied.
"HELP ME! HELP ME!" Sands shouted, "DON'T JUST WALK AWAY!"
"Sands, I hate to say this but you brought this on yourself." Blind Master quipped.
"It's terrible bad luck to interfere with a man with a naked woman." Mr. Gibbs added.
"YOW! OW! NOT BELOW THE BELT!" Sands screamed.
"YEOW! Watch it with the time bombs Boom Boom!" Bobby shouted.
"I was aiming at the giant robotic pterodactyls that were diving at you!" Tabitha protested.
"Less talking! More dodging of lasers!" Jean shouted.
"Remind me to kill Forge for inventing the Sentinel Dactyls." Ray grumbled.
"Trust me, we'll all help." Scott replied, as he fired a laser blast at one of the pterodactyls. It absorbed the laser energy and sent it flying back towards Bobby, lighting his butt on fire.
"OWWWW!" Bobby shouted as he ran around the Danger Room screaming like a hyperactive five year old, "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!"
"I didn't know that lasers don't work on those pterodactyls." Cyclops replied.
"What else is in this insane simulation?" Kitty asked.
"Blah! Boola! Boola!" the sound echoed loudly. An enormous robotic gorilla resembling Primeape from the Pokemon cartoon series came barreling over the nearest hill.
It crashed down the hill with fists bared and punched wildly. It crashed towards Kitty who froze her eyes wide as dinner plates. Colossus shoved Shadowcat out of the way just in time to be tackled by the Primeape.
Metal screeched against metal as the two titans tackled against each other before Primeape scored a solid punch, knocking out Colossus.
"Punch this!" Gambit shouted and hurled a burst of lethal cards at it.
"BLAH! BOOLA BOOLA!" The Primeape replied, if anything else the explosions seemed to make it angrier.
WHACK! It smashed a fist into Gambit's stomach.
"Oh no yah don't yah overgrown puff ball!" Rogue said, "Only ah get to beat up Swamp Rat!"
"BOOLA! BOOLA!"
"Forge! Turn these things off!" Kitty shouted as she dodged a missile fired from one of the Pterodactyls.
Forge's voice echoed over the Danger Room's PA system, "That's the thing. I didn't build them with off switches. However, I don't think they can leave the Danger Room."
CRASH! WHACK! Several Primeapes appeared seemingly from out of nowhere and began attacking the X-men.
Pitor was wrestling with two of them and slowly losing ground, one of the two Primeapes began pummeling away at him with his fists. CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! The sound of metal striking metal resounded through the air.
"Are you sure?" Kitty asked, as one of the Primeape's dented the wall of the Danger Room.
"Forge! What did you armor these things with?" Pitor shouted, "Those hits are starting to hurt."
"I think I made it out of used Sentinel armor combined with some scrap metal I found…" Forge replied.
"I think we'll turn your lab into scrap metal!" Jean replied as she dodged a stream of burning napalm fired from the beak of one of the attacking pterosaurs.
"Flamethrowers? You put flamethrowers into those Pterodactyls?" Scott shouted, "YOW! MY BUTT'S ON FIRE!"
CRASH! A Primeape smashed against the Danger Room wall.
"He can't crack the wall, can he?" Beast asked Forge in the control room.
"He shouldn't be able to." Forge replied, "The wall is solid adamantium."
"The kids seem to be having problems destroying them." Beast replied.
CRACK! A crack appeared in the wall.
"Where did you find that scrap heap, if I may ask, Forge?" Logan asked.
"Uhm, it's a funny story, you see…" Forge began.
"This," Logan replied, walking up to Forge and casually extending a claw to scratch his own scalp, "is going to be good."
"Where did you find them, Forge?" Beast asked.
"The scrap yard behind Shield HQ…" Forge replied, sweating.
"That scrap heap wouldn't happen to contain scrap adamantium, would it?" Logan replied.
"Uh-Er…" Forge began, "Y'know, I didn't quite check that."
CRASH! The Primeape smashed through the wall and into the Mansion. Out of the crack flew several flame throwing, missile firing, and dive bombing robotic pterodactyls as well.
"Can't leave the Danger Room, eh?" Wolverine said, "This is going to be good…"
"BLAH! BOOLAH BOOLAH!" The Primeape robot chanted as it chased Xavier down the hallway.
"AGH!" Xavier screamed, fleeing for his life at top speed on his wheelchair from the pursuing Primeape.
Logan jumped in front of the Primeape, "OK Bub, this is the last straw."
PUNCH! The Primeape knocked Logan out of the way with deceptive ease as it chased Xavier down the hallway.
Suddenly music began to echo from tiny speakers on the pterodactyl bodies. Hank recognized the sound as the 1812 Overture played by the San Francisco Orchestra. Every time it reached its peak salvoes of rockets and streams of flamethrower fuel would be fired.
Lockheed joined the pterodactyls flying in formation and as the orchestral beat reached it crescendo and percussion section he let out streams of fire, setting fire to items and the occasional student.
"MEOW!" Prometheus shrieked as the dactyls and Lockheed pursued him as one united formation.
Again the percussion session of the Overture sounded and the dactyls fired rockets and Lockheed sprayed fire at the cat. Prometheus ran blindly down the hall with singed fur, running from the pterodactyls and Lockheed.
Vancouver, 1994: "It's so rare we see each other these days." Ted remarked, as he took another pull of his Molson lager. Sitting across from him were his friends from the summer archaeology expeditions to Israel. Margot, a slim blonde woman; Derek, a tall brown haired young man; and Moki a short Bedouin all nodded.
"So how's Oxford been?" Derek asked.
"A real ass kicker. I really can't wait till I go to the field again. I'm sick of those teacup archaeologists." Ted replied.
"Israel's changing. I mean the Palestinians are getting antsy." Derek replied.
"Let's not forget So-damn-insane's Scud attacks, shall we." Moki replied.
"Can we talk about something else, please. I mean I had to deal with this sort of crap for two years when I was in the MAGAV." Margot replied.
"Ted, that sure was nice of your folks for helping Moki with that visa." Derek replied.
"Praise be Allah." Moki replied.
Derek took Margot's hand as they spoke and Moki noticed a slight pained look in Ted's eyes. Since his parents and he volunteered at the dig sites of the expedition every summer, he got to know Ted, Margot, and Derek quite well. It was obvious since they were teenagers that they competed for Margot's affections, but she ultimately chose Derek. Things were tense for a bit, but Ted, Margot and Derek had settled things.
"Para bailar la bamba..." The nearby juke-box sounded.
"Well, it's the perfect time for you three to repeat your feats in Haifa." Moki began.
"What?" Margot replied, laughing, "First of all, I wasn't drunk. These two were."
"Bullshit!" Ted replied, "I distinctly recall you had your share of Pink Ladies that night."
"Not to mention one or two Shirley Temples." Derek replied.
"Whose side are you on, honey..." Margot replied.
"Either way, Margot," Moki replied, "You were singing."
"That was so these two didn't look stupid." Margot replied.
"Liar!" Derek and Ted unanimously declared.
"Either way, your parents weren't happy when you three came back from Haifa drunk." Moki observed.
"Barkeep," Ted replied, "Another club soda for my friend."
Jerusalem, 1997: Derek walked through the hall of the morgue. He hoped it wasn't what he had feared, after hearing reports of that suicide bombing. The tired gray eyes of the coroner looked at Derek for a second before sliding back the sheet.
The dead face that stared back at him barely resembled his six months pregnant wife. Her face had a third degree burn on the left side of it. One eye was swollen shut from the blast, the other was open, and clearly showed Margot had lived for at least a few moments after the explosion.
"Oh God! Oh my God…" Derek replied.
Not one, but two lives had ended that day in Jerusalem, two lives of importance to Derek. He remembered Zane, their eighteen month old son saying "Mama?" multiple times whenever Derek walked in the door.
"Derek…" came the sound. Derek sat up in bed, and saw Margot standing before him. A wraith, looking exactly as she did on the cold metal slab where the doctors were conducting an autopsy.
"…Don't you want to hold your daughter?" Margot asked, handing him a bundle.
Derek opened the cloth bundle and saw in his arms a stillborn baby.
Derek sat up in bed, drenched in sweat. Two o'clock in the morning. No way in hell he was sleeping again. He scratched at his chin and could feel evidence of two months of beard growth. For most of the years since Margot died in Israel Derek devoted himself to teaching at University of California, Berkeley and trying to raise Zane.
He wasn't sleeping tonight for any reason. He climbed out of his bed, wearing nothing but his gray sweat pants and slid on his slippers before he walked out of the bedroom to his study. As he walked down the hall he opened Zane's door ajar and watched the nine year old's chest rise and fall.
At this age, the boy had some of Margot's delicate features, her blonde hair, and her slender build. He was all Derek had left of Margot. As he headed over to his office he sat at the computer, working on his latest paper, typing some more words on his latest research on the ancient cult of the Assassins, an Islamic sect that were the scourge of the Abbasid Caliphate and the Umayyad Caliphate until the Mongols put an end to their scheming and assassinations.
He couldn't concentrate after about twenty minutes. Too much of the Assassins ideology reminded him of the sort of killers that took away Margot and their unborn daughter. He padded downstairs and turned on the television.
"Dear friends, why should those Charles Xavier euphemistically calls 'gifted' enjoy things the rest of us cannot? Why should they enjoy the gift of almost invincibility while the rest of us deal with aging and death? What if they should turn on us? What if they decide that they are not willing to share the planet? Humanity must forget its differences and unite against the unholy mutant…" Reverend Stryker's voice intoned.
Why should mutants be immune from explosions? Or diseases or other things that can kill us ordinary humans? Why should they be spared grief? The same grief I felt every night since Margot was killed. Why didn't she have powers like being able to survive a blast? It's so damn unfair…Derek thought.
"So brother humans, come join us at our gatherings, all are welcome for solidarity is the protection of the human race…" Stryker continued.
I wonder where they gather? Derek thought.
"So, are your followers ready in Orlando?" Syndrome asked Stryker.
"Yes. They are ready and waiting for Congressman Shale's participation in the Mutant Rights Rally." Stryker replied.
"What of the attacks of the Misfits on your San Francisco operation?" COBRA Commander asked, "The last I heard is that several local cell leaders were killed or captured by the Misfits."
"My San Francisco operation is weakened, yes, but it will serve as a distraction for the Misfits and G.I. Joe for our attack on Congressman Shale. His remarkable abilities might be of some use for your Dr. Mindbender's experiments, as will those of the other mutants who will be attending this rally." Stryker replied.
"An interesting proposition, but it seems you and your thugs have failed to take one thing into account. Congressman Shale is solid as a rock, and I do mean literally." COBRA Commander replied, smugly, "So I don't see how you're going to carry out this operation."
"Don't you think I took that into account." Stryker said, "Unlike you, I plan operations that are successful."
"I carry out successful operations too!" COBRA Commander bristled.
"Name one?" Stryker sniped.
"Well there was the time we tried…" COBRA Commander replied.
"No that one failed." Destro quipped.
"Whose side are you on?" COBRA Commander replied.
"Why your side of course, but I am merely pointing out the truth." Destro replied, "COBRA does not have the highest success rate of operations of any terrorist organization."
"Hence why you are number 150 among the world's worst terrorists." Stryker replied, "And just what are you doing for this operation."
"Take that back!" COBRA Commander replied.
"Make me." Stryker replied.
"Gentlemen…" Syndrome began.
"I'll do worse than that!" COBRA Commander replied.
"I'm really frightened," Stryker replied, "I'm being threatened by terrorism's most incompetent nimrod. The only thing less frightening than you is a juvenile delinquent."
"Why you – !" COBRA Commander hissed and jumped across the table and tackled Stryker.
Styker struck back, but almost as soon as his fist landed both he and COBRA Commander found themselves suspended in midair. Aimed at them was Syndrome's index finger. Neither man could even twitch a muscle.
"Gentlemen." Syndrome replied, "Cooperating is the only way we are going to defeat G.I. Joe and the Misfits. Now, petty differences aside, I think General Eddington has some very interesting gadgets that are useful in blunting mutant powers…"
After Syndrome released them, Stryker said, "I'm listening…"
"Now, Barillo," Syndrome asked, "How is the Mexico operation coming along."
"Very well. The Range Vipers and Desert Scorpions of COBRA have been a most helpful supplement to my forces." Armando Barillo replied.
Klondike slipped through the door open ajar, looking for some soft, comfortable spot to lie down. He climbed onto the bed and burrowed under the strange earth the humans called 'blankets'. The female human in the bed stirred slightly.
"Leo?" Piper muttered sleepily. Klondike burrowed his snout into Piper's hair.
"You are so cute when you're begging for cuddle time." Piper remarked. Klondike licked the back of Piper's neck.
Klondike nuzzled and licked the back of her neck and Piper leaned back with a contented sigh and a girlish laugh, "Leo, stop it, you're going to give Wyatt and Chris a baby brother or sister before we know it if you keep this up."
Leo walked through the door as Piper spoke. "Who are you talking to, Piper?"
Piper's eyes were still closed, "I'm talking to you, silly…"
"Piper. I was in the bathroom earlier, I just came in." Leo said, "Who's in the bed with you?"
"What? That's ridiculous I thought that you…" Piper said, sitting up and opening her eyes before turning around.
Klondike sat up in the bed panting before he licked Piper's face. "KLONDIKE? WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?" Piper snapped.
"Woo woo woo woo woo woo woo." Klondike wooed.
"SHOO! SHOO! SHOO!" Piper shouted as she chased Klondike out of the room.
Klondike slinked off the bed, running out of the bedroom and dragging the covers behind him. "HEY COME BACK HERE WITH THOSE!" Piper shouted as she barreled out the door, tripped over a pair of slippers near the doorway, and then hit the floor.
"Woo woo woo woo woo!"
"Piper, it's after midnight…" Phoebe groaned as she came out of her room, irritated.
"PAIGE! COME OUT HERE! NOW!" Piper shouted, ignoring Phoebe.
"Piper, calm down," Leo said, "It's sort of funny looking back on it."
"Where's the demon?" Paige groaned sleepily as she came out of her bedroom.
"Why is Klondike in the house?" Piper asked.
"Ted asked me to keep an eye on Klondike." Paige replied, "And the other Joes and Misfits were busy with other things."
"And now a gray furred, wooing menace more destructive than any demon is now on the loose in this house!" Piper snapped.
"Woo woo woo woo woo…"
"Piper, calm down, he's a dog, not a demon." Phoebe said, crouching down beside Klondike and scratching the Siberian Husky behind the ears.
Klondike licked Phoebe's hand and put his right paw into Phoebe's open left hand as he sat down. Phoebe felt that jolt that always came with premonitions of any kind.
The dogs were kept in wire cages in a concrete silo of some kind, the only light filtering in through the occasional window. The mother lay, weak from being bred every cycle on one side, her pups nursing.
Two farmers and a COBRA Snow Viper stood outside the cages, "We need more sled dogs." The Viper said, and left.
"We have to keep breeding." The puppymiller said.
"Yeah, but some of our breeding stock are no good." The other said, indicating the exhausted female Siberian Husky, her once beautiful red and white coat matted and stinky.
"This is her last litter." The first replied, and reached for a revolver in his pocket.
The man took the rope and bodily lifted the exhausted female husky out of the cage and took her outside into the deep woods. There was a whine, a loud crack, and then an eerie silence. The cage top was still slightly open. The puppy crawled up through the open cage top and ran with wild abandon away from the hateful place…
"Oh you poor thing…" Phoebe began. Klondike affectionately licked Phoebe's face.
"Woo woo…" Klondike continued.
"What is going on?" Fideo asked.
"What are these things?" Lorenzo replied, as he blasted another Heartless with two .45 caliber rounds.
The creature was about four and a half feet tall, all black with glowing yellow eyes, with no facial expression and claws. It lay with two big holes blown through its torso.
"I don't know." El Mariachi replied, as he surveyed the damage of the roadside cantina. He brushed aside a strand of sheet metal with his right foot, "But perhaps they were once human…"
Lying half buried under the rubble was a human, or something that was once human. It's right eye was brown, but the other was a dimly glowing orb of yellow. What looked like antennae were sticking out of the man's forehead like ghastly black spikes.
"Where did these things come from?" Fideo asked.
Mariachi narrowed his eyes, "Perhaps the Cartels? Remnants of General Marquez's faction (1)? Who knows?"
"Mariachi…" Lorenzo said, holding a portable radio near his ear, "Come listen to this."
"Panic has gripped the countryside with sightings of strange creatures. The creatures' activity has been primarily nocturnal. Residents of Culiacan are advised to remain indoors after dusk until dawn due to the nocturnal habits of these strange creatures." The radio announcer intoned, "Furthermore reports of violence from unidentified gunmen in Culiacan…"
"Unidentified my ass." Fideo replied, "It's the Cartels acting up again and they know it."
"The Cartels have deep pockets, Fideo." Mariachi remarked.
"Do you think that they're plotting another coup?" Lorenzo asked.
"Wait a minute, isn't this the Los Cazadores Catina?" Fideo asked.
"The hangout that the Alcazar Cartel practically owns? Almost no non-Alcazar people hang out there." Lorenzo began.
"And Alcazar Cartel muscled in on Barillo's operation after the Marquez coup went ass upward." Fideo continued.
"So they are not the best of friends." Mariachi replied, picking up on Fideo's train of thought, "If the rumors of the Barillo Cartel regrouping around some new leader and these strange things attacked an Alcazar Cartel hangout…"
"So these strange things are working for whoever's running the Barillo Cartel?" Lorenzo replied.
"Yes." Mariachi replied.
"And this means that the Barillo Cartel is rising again with these strange creatures backing them up, attacking the Alcazar Cartel." Fideo replied.
"I think it's bigger than that." Lorenzo replied, "If the Barillo Cartel is going after Barillo's rivals, who says they stop there?"
"Perhaps another coup is in the working." Mariachi replied, "We need answers…"
"Not to mention more ammo." Lorenzo replied.
END - Next in the sereis is the EPCOT Incident.
(1) The General who tried a coup d'etat against El Presidente del Mexico in the movie Once Upon A Time in Mexico.