The village's inn
The sun had just risen after a peaceful night, the whole inhabitants of the village began to stir in their beds as the sun rays entered through their bedrooms from the window's curtain. As they begin to get up, a certain shield hero and demi human are gonna be woken up at an alarming pace. To add on to the 'beautiful morning' about to befall the inn, the surrounding rooms are about to have an eventful wake up call.
"HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Caboose exclaimed after discovering the pink baby chick behind him.
The whole inn got woken up by the sudden scream, especially the Cardinal Hero and demi human companion. Naofumi wakes up with eyes wide and teeth clenched as he processes what the scream was. The bed next to him, Raphtalia sits up fast as her ears prop up and begin to twitch, having the same facial expression. They both look at each other, same question in mind.
'What did he do?!!' they both mentally screamed as Naofumi jumped from his bed and sprinted towards the door. Running down the hallway, he could see people sticking their heads from their rooms with looks of drowsy and alarmed expressions. As he passed through, he would tell them to go back into their rooms and to ignore the scream that had just woken up the whole inn.
'What did you do now Caboose? I swear to god, if he broke a bed or drawer, he isn't just gonna pay with debt, but with a restraint to keep him from touching anything else.' Noaufmi mentally told himself as he went down the stairs.
When he reached the lobby area, a few inn guests had made their way to the receptionist desk to ask about the sudden noise. Not wanting to get caught in the middle of it, Naofumi went around the small crowd and went straight towards Caboose's room. Not bothering to knock, he pulls the keys from last night and opens the door to the room.
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!!" Naofumi exclaimed, scanning the room in front of him at its current state.
He saw Freckles in the same place he saw him last night, everything was not damaged nor seemed to be touched, except the bed mattress and pillows from the other bed were on the floor now. As he took his attention to see a crouching Caboose, not noticing the hatched egg on the basket, the blue armored soldier slowly began to rise from his position and turn towards Naofumi. Once Caboose was facing him, Naofumi noticed the pink feathered chick in Caboose's hands as it began to chirp excitedly.
"Nufmo, look the filolial has finally hatched and it's lightish red as well." Caboose stated as he raised the filolial at eyes level and walked towards Naofumi. "Don't you think it's adorable?" he asked as the filolial flew to the top of his head and laid itself amongst his dark brown hair.
Naofumi looked at Caboose with wide eyes not expecting the filolial to have hatched the very next day after buying it from the slave owner. However, that was only part of what was going on through his head at the moment. 'He SCREAMED. At the TOP OF HIS GODDAMN LUNGS. JUST BECAUSE THE FILOLIAL WAS BORN?!!!' Naofumi internally screamed as his face turned into an enraged expression. The only next words that came out, would be described as the first time Church got after Caboose.
"Cabooose." Naofumi said with a rising temper.
"Yes Nanofu?" Caboose replied as the filolial got quiet.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!!" Naofumi exclaimed, not bothering about the surrounding villagers in the inn.
Caboose just stared at Naofumi with a smile as the pink feathered chick began to chirp as if it was laughing.
"Tucker did it." Caboose said
Outside of the village
After having Caboose apologize to all the guests of the inn for his 'accident' with the bed, the party headed out of the village and went into the forest to listen to Caboose's story. He left Freckles behind knowing he won't be needed for the day. When out of the village, Raphtalia asked Naofumi what happened in the inn, and Raphtalia being the person she is, forgave Caboose with a wholesome smile but had an irritated tone. But like Naofumi, she was surprised about the filolials hatching. At the moment, Caboose is carrying the pink feather chick on his shoulders as he talked to it. Both Naofumi and Raphtalia would look behind them each time he would mention something strange.
"Have you ever eaten a hamburger?" Caboose once asked it and the filolial responded with a chirp "Ahhh, I see. So what's it like to be a bird. You know since you can fly, lay eggs, poop whenever you want, and feed your children from your mouth?" he asked, which he got the same reply. "Oh ok. But you can talk right?"
"Ummm, Naofumi-same, are you sure it's alright to let Caboose hold the filolial. It's not that I don't trust him with it. I just don't think it's normal for a person to have a conversation with a newly born." Raphtalia stated in a low voice as she looked at Naofumi.
"I agree with you Raphtalia, but I won't lie when I say I find it amusing that Caboose is talking as if it could understand him" Naofumi said with a grin as he looked back at the blue armor clad soldier.
"If you say so." Raphtalia replied as she looked back as well.
"You wanna fly? Why didn't you say so." Caboose said as he softly took a hold of the filolial and aimed it toward the sky.
"Nevermind, I change my mind." Naofumi said quickly as he rushed towards Caboose, Raphtalia following pursuit. "Caboose I think it's best if I take care of it now. You should find a spot for us to settle down where you can tell us about your story.' Naofumi suggested with a slight hint of nervousness as he held his hand out.
"Ok then. You'll have to fly another day, I promise." Caboose said as he gave the filolial to Naofumi and began to look around for a spot.
Both Naofumi and Raphtalia sighed in relief as they both looked at the filolial, they both noticed it was frowning at them. Their eyes widen with surprise and look between Caboose and the filolial. And only one thought came to mind.
'Did it know it was about to be launched into the sky?' they both thought to themselves 'And wanted to be thrown' they looked at each other with a questioning look.
"Hey guys. How about over there by the tree on that hill? It looks so comfortable and nice." Caboose asked.
"Sure." Naofumi said.
"Neat." Caboose replied as they all began to walk towards it as the filolial kept on frowning knowing it missed its opportunity to experience something fun.
At the top of the hill
It was 2:00 pm by the time they arrived at the top of the hill. The party gathered under the tree and took their position by the left side from the tree. They had their backs from the direction they came from.
"Hmmmm, where to start now?" Caboose asked himself as he looked at the tree's bushes as they moved with the wind.
As Caboose pondered where to start, Raphtalia took a seat on top of one of the tree's roots that came out from the ground while Naofumi laid down in front of Caboose waiting for him to start.
"You can always start with your name since a new member is with us." Naofumi said with a sarcastic tone.
"Alright then. Hello there, my name is Micheal J. Caboose and I am Blue Team's famous member." Caboose said remembering that Tucker would always say that he was famous in the team due to his 'kill' count.
'When will he learn about sarcasm?' Naofumi thought as he sat up to listen to Caboose's story.
"Well I wasn't always in the Blue Team, I was added to their list of people to be in Blood Gulch. I met Church, Tucker, and the Reds there. I remember it like it was yesterday, I just landed there and for a few seconds I called Church's girlfriend a cow." Caboose said as Naofumi tried his best to hold his laughter.
"After that, he gave me an important mission and he put me in charge of the flag. I had to wait til the Blue Captain arrived to check the flag. It went faster than I thought it would, the captain with red colored armor plating and asked for the flag. Then I got on the tank they delivered with me and met a very nice lady, her name was Sheila; however, the tank malfunctioned and shot Church. Definitely not my fault at all." Caboose said as Naofumi stared at him.
'I know he's stupid and all, but is he that dumb?' Naofumi thought to himself fearing the worst already.
"Sadly Sheila was blown up by an airstrike by the Reds, and Church came back as a ghost and warned us about his girlfriend coming to Blood Gulch because she would only cause trouble. And the first thing she did was use me as a target practice dummy." Caboose said
"Oh gosh, that must have been awful. Right Naofumi-sama?" Raphtalia said as she looked at Naofumi who was trying his best to hold in his laughter.
"Y-yeah. Awful." Naofumi said between giggles.
"She went to the Red's base to take back the flag, which failed successfully. The flag was returned to where it was but she got captured, so me, Tucker, and Church, who possessed a Red soldier, went in to save his girlfriend. But Church was shot in the head……..Tucker did it." Caboose said, remembering that it was 'Tucker' who shot Church. Both Raphtalia and Naofumi looked at each other knowing who it was. "After we rescued her, we found out that her name is Tex and she began to fix Sheila, but then she got killed and Sheila got blown up again. The red soldier had a really good arm."
'Well..that went well.' Naofumi mentally said as he began to imagine the situation.
"2 weeks pass by and a new person arrives in Blood Gulch. His name was Doc, well his name was too long to remember so we started to call him Doc, yet around the time he arrived the Reds started to attack and we gave him away as a hostage."
'Well..that's a nice way to greet someone, mine was worse though.' Naofumi thought as he compared situations.
"Oh I also got my pinkie cut off that day. Wanna see?" Caboose stated as he began to reach for his foot."
"NOPE. You can continue with your story, Caboose. No one wants to see your foot without a pinkie." Naofumi replied as he held both his hands towards Caboose motioning for him to stop.
"You sure?" Caboose asked.
"Yes, I am sure." Naofumi replied.
The filolial however seemed to flutter its wings with excitement. Raphtalia just looked down at it with a surprised expression. She looked at Naofumi quickly, and took a hold of the pink feathered chick to keep Caboose from noticing. She looked back up to notice Naofumi nodding.
"Alright then, once the Reds left, we asked Church if he could leave the body of the soldier he possessed for they could fix the tank-" Caboose continued, as he noticed that both Raphtalia and Naofumi seemed confused." Ohh right, I forgot to mention before Tex finished fixing the tank, Church left to possess a soldier to warn the Reds that she was coming to destroy them with Sheila, and he kept the body when things came to an end. In the end, it turned out to be a robot." he said as Naofumi and Raphalia had a face of understanding. "Moving on, when he left the body, they took off running towards the Red base, which me and Tucker cut him off before he reached. We were gonna take him back to base, but we couldn't understand him because he was talking in Spanish, yet he seemed convinced when he blew up the Red's jeep as it came at us with killing intent." Caboose stated as Naofumi looked at Caboose with a look of disbelief.
'Spanish? What type of idiots build a robot that talks in Spanish? Everyone knows that language is dead. Right?' Naofumi thought deeply, not understanding why someone would do in the first place.
"We took him back to base and asked him to rebuild back Sheila, and he did and they both fell in love-" Caboose said.
"Awww." Raphtalia said.
"and I got jealous." Caboose finished.
"Oh." Raphtalia said
"Wait hold up, you're telling me you fell in love with a tank named "Sheila" and got jealous that she preferred a robot over you?" Naofumi asked, completely dumbfounded.
"Yeah." Caboose answered
"You may continue." Naofumi replied as he went into deep thought as to what other things Caboose had done before arriving in Melromarc.
"After that one of them Red soldiers came to our territories saying something about it not being the store, so me and Tucker captured him and took him inside the base where he told us his name is Donut." Naofumi snorted to hear his name. "He was a very nice and sweet person, not to say a very colorful person about how things should be decorated, but sadly we had to let him go since the Red's wanted to make an exchange for Donut. The Reds created 2 more robots, one for Church and one for Tex for some reason. Everything was going well-" Caboose said.
'Wait for it' Naofumi thought.
", but then the robot that we took in got in between the robots that were supposed to be the exchange, and we started to shout out bang, bang, boom."
'There it- wait what?' Naofumi questioned as he heard Caboose mention about the shouting,
"I think one shouted " I have a boner for murder." Caboose stated.
Naofumi lost it, he was rolling on the ground laughing out loud. A few tears were seen coming out of his eyes as he kept on laughing. Raphtalia found the scene heart warming. It wasn't often that the Shield Hero would spend his time having a good time, he would either show no emotion or just not bother to smile much, yet even though she didn't understand what Caboose said, all she could see is Naofumi rolling on the grass laughing as if it was his first time experiencing something joyful in the world. All she did was smile at Naofumi's antics.
"Oh god, never thought I would laugh like that. Especially like that, you may continue Caboose with your story." Naofumi said as he got himself under control.
"Ok then, as I was saying, things got out of hand. Then all of a sudden a rocket came flying and exploded on Tucker. He went to sleep for quite some time, and then we started shooting at each other. Apparently, it was Doc that shot Tucker, but turns out that it was a man named O'malley."
"Wait, it's still Doc though right?" Naofumi asked.
"Well yes, but actually no." Caboose replied.
'Have I heard that somewhere before?' Naofumi asked himself.
"You see when Tex got blown up, she had this A.I., which means Artificial Intelligence, named O'malley and it made her get really mad and scary. It jumped into me for quite some time without me realizing it, which would explain the times when Tucker would mention how I would try to kill him in his sleep." Caboose stated, as he got a 'what' from Naofumi. "Around some time that passed by, O'malley jumped into Doc and infected him. So as O'malley came into the whole situation, he took the robot with him into a portal in Red base, so the Red's stopped firing at us and asked if we could talk it out." Caboose said.
'So this O'malley is an A.I., but why does he come out as an ultimate ability in his skills? It's not like he is part of him right? It's impossible, there is no way that Caboose has this A.I. in him. Right?' Naofumi thought with a concerned look, which went unnoticed by Caboose and Raphtalia.
"Both sides agreed to bring back the robot, whose name is actually Lopez, and take down O'malley/Doc. Before we went through the portal, we went in pairs.The maroon soldier, Simmons, went in first then the orange soldier, Grif, and Church, who got a body to use went in together. After them, me and the red soldier, Sarge, went in last, but instead of meeting them on the other side, we were all separated from each other. Me and Sarge were sent into a creek where Reds and Blues wore pants during nap time, which is very weird. I mean, who sleeps with their pants on?" Caboose asked as he looked at Raphtalia and Naofumi, both looking very confused with his question. The filolial; however, chirped with a tone of agreement taking both Naofumi and Raphtalia by surprise, as Caboose began to nod with agreement.
"Right. Very weird. So we checked if they were asleep, but turns out they were about to wake up when a trumpet begins to play in the distance. They all wake up and go running back into their bases. After that they go out again and begin to kill themselves. Once they finished killing each other, both me and Sarge got inside their bases and took their flags to convince them the next time they tried to kill each other, but it failed and they were back to killing each other." Caboose stated.
'Well that went terrific, what happened next, they joined the fray?'Naofumi asked himself.
"I don't know why but the last thing I remember was that I was getting really mad about kittens with spikes then I see myself in some sort of janitor's closet with Simmons and Sarge. The red soldier kept on telling me how I went on this killing frenzy." Caboose said, answering Naofumi's question as he got terrified, looked at him, imagining what Caboose could have done to the soldiers of the creek.
"After that, Simmons created some sort of button to lead us to Church and Grif. He handed it to me as he started to work on the portal to take us to them, so I pushed the button. But both Sarge and Simmons kept on looking at me and said that I just caused a major problem." Caboose stated as both Naofumi and Raphtalia looked at each other wondering what's gonna happen next. "Once we stepped through the portal, Simmons left to look for Grif and Church while me and Sarge waited outside of the ice base to wait for Tucker, Donut, and the other robot to come through. A few minutes passed by before they arrived, and Tucker was covered in black ashes again. Apparently, the robot that came with them was Tex." Caboose said, confusing both Naofumi and Raphtalia.
'Is she a ghost as well?' They both thought to themselves.
"Once the whole gang was together, we all went after O'malley and Lopez, we could have taken them, but O'malley had turned on Lopez's weather machine, keeping us at bay without us getting close to them. That was til then Simmons had an excellent plan. And that was to bring in the soldiers from the creek me and Sarge were at. They began to attack O'malley while everyone else gathered around Church for some reason. I did hear things about a bomb being built inside him for some reason though. Don't know why there was a bomb inside him?" Caboose questioned, still pondering why a bomb was built inside a robot.
'I can think up of a few reasons to do that.' Naofumi stated to himself.
"As they were trying to 'fix' him, someone shot at Tucker, who was trying to blow Church up to keep the bomb from going off." Caboose said making Naofumi do a doubletake.
"Wait, blow him up? Wouldn't have set the bomb off either way?" Naofumi asked, not believing what he just heard.
"Well I didn't build the bomb, so probably to keep the bomb from going off, you'll need to blow it up first before it blew up." Caboose answered, just making Naofumi more confused, but let it slide.
"You may continue." Naofumi said he did not understand the logic of the Reds and Blues.
"As you wish, after getting shot, the bomb went off either way, and we were sent into the future. The place was all desert like and burned down." Caboose continued, confusing Naofumi even more.
'I don't that's how time traveling works, but what do I know? It's not like a man could give birth.' Naofumi told himself, not knowing that it did happen.
"Tucker being the last one to wake up from the explosion's impact, Simmons made a script to explain to Tucker about how we ended up in the future, which ended horribly because Donut kept on getting off script. After that, we found a warthog in a ditch. Sarge went straight to fixing it once we got it out of the ditch then we turned on the radio that had received a recording from Tex that said she found O'malley in an abandoned beach outpost not too far away. So we all did our best to fit in the Warthog, and took off in a few minutes after hearing the recording." Caboose continued as he took a seat on the grass in front of Naofumi and laid his back against the tree, which began to creak due to his weight.
"When we arrived there, Tex filled us in about what was happening within the beach outpost, and told us how we were gonna defeat O'malley. While we made our way there, she built a boom to blow up the outpost taking O'malley down as well." Caboose said, looking towards Raphtalia as it seemed she was gonna ask a question. "Yes, what is it Rephtely?" Caboose asked
"If she built the bomb, why didn't she just take it in there herself rather than waiting for you all to get there." She asked
"She said it was too heavy for her." Caboose answered.
"Ohhh ok." Raphtalia replied as she acknowledged what Caboose said.
"Yeah, it was heavy for Sarge to, but I was able to lift it easily. After that, once we were able to form a plan, I was paired up with Sarge and Donut to go by the outpost from the left, Simmons, Grif, and Tucker were put together as a diversion group to keep the enemies trained on them instead of us. Tex stayed back as a way to cover us with fire. Doesn't sound too comfortable, but I have been through worse. Anyways before we reached the outpost, someone spotted us and began to shoot at us as we took cover on top of a building. Sarge ordered me to go ahead and enter the outpost as he began to form a plan to keep me safe." Caboose said not knowing Sarge's true intention at the time. " I was able to enter the place, but couldn't find the location to put the bomb in, and I was starting to get tired of holding it. But in the end I was able to find the 'X' Tex mentioned to put the bomb at, and as I was able to leave the place, I found someone very mean." Caboose stated.
"O'malley?" Naofumi asked.
"Meaner." Caboose replied.
"You found someone meaner than the person you were going after?" Raphatlia asked.
"Yes. It was Church. And he was meaner than ever." Caboose replied.
'Why am I surprised?' Naofumi thought to himself a disappointed look.
"He was asking if I was there and if I could hear him, so I would reply back. But it was like he wasn't even listening to me at all and kept on asking the same question. It was until Grif pressed a button, and Church began to say how I was some supposed 'apocalypse bringer' and would destroy the building with everyone in it. And by coincident, everything he kept saying not to do, happened. It was like he wanted it to happen. So we all began to panic, Grif tried to chew through a wall, Donut kept on yelling about how we were gonna die, and everything wasn't fine til Church showed up out of nowhere and kept the bomb from blowing up and opened the doors to the outside."
'Wooow, it's like everything was set up to fail miserably, like how are these people even alive, if they are. So far everything I have heard is just so bizarre and dumb. Christ even an anime wouldn't get that messed up. I think even that show 'JoJo's Bizarre Adventure' can compare to the things these people have gone through. And I have a feeling we aren't even close to the ending of Caboose's story yet.' Naofumi thought to himself.
"Once we were out of the building, the Red's went to their Warthog while me, Tucker, and Tex heard Church's story about how he went back to the past to fix everything instead just to not fix anything. Also how Tucker found this really cool sword that went. WHOOSH. WOOSH WOOSH WOOSH STAB." Caboose said as he proceeded to make sword sounds causing Raphatlia to giggle at his attempts to mimic a sword. "Apparently, from what Church heard the computer tell him from the past, the sword belonged to a group of people that believed the person who wielded it would bring a mass of destruction and death. Before we were able to discuss any further, we got attacked by an army of Lopezes that attacked very slowly for some reason. Tex said she was gonna flank them, but someone else did it for her because she told us that it wasn't her who took them down. Church went back inside to check on the computer and came back as a ghost later." Caboose said.
"Something attacked him? The Reds?" Naofumi asked.
"Nope, it was actually an alien that came to the outpost because it found out that Tucker took the sword from the hole he found it from, so it came in search for the person who is the wielder of the sword." Caboose said.
"How were you able to understand what the alien was saying. It's not like it understood what you were saying right?"Naofumi said
"Well, actually it did understand us but we couldn't understand it, so we asked Andy to translate for us." Caboose stated, confusing both Naofumi and Raphtalia.
"Who is this Andy you're talking about?" Raphtalia asked.
"Oh Andy, he was the bomb that Tex built." Caboose replied.
"Ok I think that's enough story time for today, the sun is gonna settle soon. Why not return to the village, get something to eat, and go back to the inn to turn in for the day?" Naofumi stated, having heard enough from Caboose's story. However, he had a feeling they weren't even close to the end of Caboose's story. What they just heard was the tip of the iceberg to the everlasting bizarre life Caboose had.
"Alright then, I am feeling a bit hungry. We could continue our storytelling tomorrow." Caboose said as he got up from his position and took a look at the filolial. "Seems like I'm not the only one hunrgy. Seems like our feathered companion is hungry as well."
Naofumi took a look at the baby chick, and was surprised to see that it was motioning its right wing towards it's open mouth. He looked at Raphtalia who was smiling at him.
"Seems like she is teaching herself how to communicate to others." Raphtalia said.
"Alright then let's head back towards the village's diner. What do you suppose we feed it?" Naofumi asked as he began to walk down the hill from the direction they came from.
"How about bread crumbs? It did hatch barely this morning, so why not start with something light." Caboose suggested as he followed behind Naofumi, Raphtalia following them behind them as she held onto the filolial.
"Alright then, I'll feed it while you guys eat. By the ways, how much left of your story do we need left?" Naofumi asked as he looked at Caboose.
"Well I still haven't talked about the Great Journey, the events that transpired in Blood Gulch, after Blood Gulch, Project Freelancer, and Chorus, the same place I was in before I came into this world." Caboose answered his question by remembering what happened before arriving at Melromarc.
"So still a long way I guess. I think for tomorrow, we'll pack our things and camp out here for the night just to be able to finish your story then we'll come back to the village and help with repairs. That sounds alright with you Caboose?" Naofumi said.
"Sounds like a plan." Caboose replied with a thumbs up.
"What about you Raphtalia, you alright with that?" Naofumi asked as he looked towards their other companion.
"I'll go with whatever you want Naofumi-sama." Raphtalia said, getting a nod from him.
"Alright then, before going to sleep we'll pack and next thing in the morning we'll checkout and back to that hill we were at. Got it?" Naofumi stated towards both of them.
"You got it." they both answered back, getting exciting chirps from the filolial.
They continued their walk back towards the village as the sun began to lower on the other side of the great vast plains. Once they arrived, the sun had just begun to set over the horizon. They went towards the diner, but before sitting down, Raphtalia brought a pillow for Caboose to us as a seat, wanting to avoid what happened the previous day. As they ordered, Naofumi asked for extra bread to feed the filolial with.
After finishing their meals, they paid for the dinner and left the diner. Once they got to the hotel, Naofumi and Raphtalia left Caboose with the filolial to pack their things for tomorrow's morning. Before leaving, Naofumi left the keys with Caboose, so he could open the door to his room. Taking the filolia with him, they made their way towards the room and went inside. Caboose turned to see where he left Freckles in the morning before heading out. Freckles was left on top of the bed he 'slept' on last night.
"Hey Freckles. How was your day?" Caboose asked.
"It was alright, Captain Caboose. How was yours?" Freckles replied.
"It was magnificent, I was telling Nanafu and Raphtolio my experiences back in Blood Gulch. I'll bring you with me tomorrow so you could hear my story." Caboose said as he laid down the filolial on top of a pillow next to Freckles.
"For tonight the filolial will sleep with you. Is that ok with you Freckles?' Caboose asked.
"Affirmative, Captain Caboose." Freckles acknowledged, as the filolial began to nuzzle into the pillow before drifting off to sleep.
"Alright then, goodnight, sleep well, sweet dreams, and don't let the bedbugs bite." Caboose said as he pulled the bed mattress from its position and put it down on the floor.
"You as well, Captain Caboose." Freckles said before he drifted off to 'sleep'.
Caboose took off his helmet and put it on the deck next to the basket the filolial hatched from. Once he laid down on the mattress, he pulled the bedsheets to his chest and slowly began to drift off to sleep, murmuring about the days to come. However, over the quiet night that fell over the village, one being was still awake overlooking the place. The being wasn't human, animal, nor alien. The being itself would consider itself 'godlike', but didn't come close to the powers of an actual god.
"Foolish human, you don't know what kind of trouble you're in, nor the problems you're gonna create not just for your companions, but for groups in other dimensions." the being said as it began to laugh quietly and disappeared into the night sky of Melromarc.
To be continued